April 13, 2007: Pets, food, me

I bet you'll never guess what the topic of this blog is. There are three main topics:

1. my pets
2. food
3. me

I bet you're astounded! So, without further ado, here is Ms Dodo in her winter jacket. It was kind of cool for a few evenings so I put it on her at night.

It's muddy and disgusting out the front because it rained for weeks and weeks and weeks. Thankfully the last three days have been warm and sunny (yippee!). More rain for the coming week, though. Rats.
This next photo is Little One sniffing Sprout's bum. A most unsanitary and just plain GROSS activity, however it seems to be what cats and dogs do. (And three-quarters of Dodo in this photo, too!)

Our final pet photo of the day is of my five cats enjoying their breakfast. Yum, cat cookies! Crunchy, fishy, yucky, stinky little brown bites. Yech. (And peeling paint under the window...story of my life in this house. Oh, but you can see just a bit of the new floor. Nice, eh?)

And onto the much happier topic of people food. This was my lunch on Friday, followed by Angela's lunch:

We ate with Tilman, Daiyu's husband, who had just come back from another press conference. Tilman is a journalist for the GIO. The Taiwanese ultramarathon runner, Kevin Lin (林義傑) was being interviewed. He is ultra-amazing. He ran across the Sahara desert with two other men. Shall I type that again? He ran across the Sahara desert with two other men. They finished in March. 7500 km. 111 days. AMAZING! So he had to tell us all about the press conference and this man, Lin. Tilman had to go home and walk his dogs before going back to work so then Ang and I got into some real chit-chatting. Ang left and I waited for Daiyu to stop being busy as I was to teach her how to make scones that afternoon. It turned out that it wasn't just Daiyu, but one of her very good friends (who has a teahouse) and good friend's daughter. And a couple of staff who wanted to watch, too. Man, I hate being on display like this. If I am teaching someone I know, it's fine. Or, if I am hired to teach, that's ok. But when I got there the woman was all gushing over me--and I couldn't remember her. In fact, I helped her to translate her menu into English as a favour for Daiyu. She was way OTT: "It's so great that you know how to make scones, I just think you are so amazing, you're just wonderful [blahblahblah]" Hey, it is great to be appreciated, but it's like someone gushing about being able to make a toasted cheese sandwich, or a coffee: it's not that hard. I know that this is just the Taiwanese way of showing thanks and appreciation and normally it's not a problem. I think I just got an OD of publicity on Thursday and didn't want any more people watching my every move!! Grrrrr!!
I would so NOT survive as a public person. I love being an anonymous 'voice' on a CD or on the airwaves.
Ok, bitching aside, it actually was fine. I told myself to stop being such a 'princess' and get on with it. I have made scones 8,000 times before, (at least!), using my standard recipe. My scone recipe has NO SUGAR. When the pastry chef tried a bite he had the same look on his face that I had the first time I tried (evil) sweet popcorn: it just isn't right!! I explained that these scones are best eaten with lots of jam, masses of whipped cream (Yes, yes, I heard you: you're asking about clotted cream. In Taiwan? Hahahahahahahahahahaha...gasp...so, where was I?) They are even better if you have on a straw hat with flowers, a large pot of piping hot tea, milk for the tea, your best friend and at least three hours. Well, we did without the hats (and flowers), best friends and some of the time. Everyone enjoyed at least one (and the pastry chef had two...with jam and cream.) Half of this batch had raisins, half had 'real' parmesan cheese added to them. I thought the cheesy ones were too salty--shouldn't have added any salt to the dough mixture. We made another batch, following a recipe kindly suggested by Treesparrow. This one had an egg, some milk and sugar in it. I liked the texture of these ones very much. As they already had a little sugar in them they could be enjoyed plain. The others prefered the first batch (the cream and jam gets 'em everytime.) Anyway...just wanted to explain what I wanted the scone recipes for. Oh, and no photos as my hands were covered in dough most of the time.
And now onto my last photo of the day and my newest hobby: I made all of these bracelets! The silvery one with purple beads I totally made: I put the metal loops together to make the chain (like making chain mail.) Cool, eh? I bought a few magazines, some tools and too many beads (greedy Amanda). It's fun to play with beads! And then I get to wear them and brag to all my friends.

Did I get it all? Pets, yup; food, uh-huh; me, oh yeah. Ok, that's it friendy, catch ya later!

March 28, 2007: Thoroughly Thursday

My day today:  I didn’t have any work! Yea! :o) Briefly:
Walked the dogs.
Coffee with Constance in the garden:  first sunny morning for ages.
Mower to vet:  Mower is now MOLAR-LESS. Friends, if you have a cat, keep on top of that tartar! Buy special cat toothpaste and use it!
Went to Constance’s and made a barrier out of old wood for the door, thus preventing Dodo from wiggling back inside the house.
Went to Lourdes: made Chocolate Chip Cookies. Between batches (tiny oven, nine cookies at a time) I cut out squares of fabric to make a ‘samples’ folder. Thus the guys can choose which fabrics they want to use which I will then bring the next week--saves me from bringing all my fabrics up to Lourdes for eight months. Of course, I had to bring a third of it to Lourdes in order to cut sample squares out. I’ve been meaning to do it at home for weeks and haven’t yet: quilts must be finished by November 1^st” tempus fugit, and all that. One guy was folding ‘ghost money’ to burn on ‘Ching Ming Jie’ (Tomb Sweeping Day) which falls on April 5^th this year (I will hopefully do a blog about Tomb Sweeping Day early next week). He was folding the paper into little shoes, similar to Dutch clogs (‘sabots’?) I thought they were pretty neat!

Here’s a photo of cookies from today in a cookie jar that was given to Lourdes by my friend, Jerri. Jerri will be returning to the States at the beginning of May and has kindly donated a bunch of stuff to Lourdes, including a sewing machine (Yes!), a yogurt maker (Yes!) and an ice cream maker (Yes!) We love Jerri!!

Dinner at home (mmm, leftovers!) Dodo is officially installed in her outdoor dog house and not too thrilled about the change in accommodation. She spent a fair bit of this evening alternately whining pathetically and giving short, sharp barks in order to remind me that I had forgotten to let her in. Dodo is the dog who pees anywhere and everywhere. Dodo is not suited to live indoors!
Up to Simon and Constance’s for a glass of wine. I introduced Sophie (8) to the pleasure of the monster drawing game, you know: Each person draws a head on their paper then folds the paper so only the neck is showing. You trade papers and draw a body, folding again so only the bottom of the waist is showing, etc. She thought it is a fabulous game! We watched two episodes of ‘Sean the Sheep’, a claymation show. It is utterly charming and quite amusing. Similar to ‘Wallace and Gromet’ without the dry humor.
It’s 10:23 and time for bed. I have a cloth-back copy of ‘The Man in Brown’ (from the orphan’s book sale) to begin before I turn out the lights. It’s a copy from 1946 and has that musky, old book smell. Happy Amanda!

March 21, 2007: A, B + C at Lourdes, Dodo's new house

Wow, I’m tired. Early to bed for me! I taped tests this morning with Steve then went to ‘City Super’, a supermarket that sells many foreign goods to get some ingredients for Lourdes. Chocolate cake had been requested and as I didn’t find an interesting (and easy) recipe I decided to go for a cake mix. Off to Lourdes where I enjoyed leftover curry for lunch (YUM!). My fellow volunteer, Gino, was late, so I hung out with the guys. One of them, A, told me that he thinks his partner may have contracted AIDS as they did not always practice safe sex. I asked if his partner had been to see a doctor. No, A answered, as he doesn’t have health insurance. Health insurance is super cheap in Taiwan, around NT600 a month. (Currency converter.) So I said that A’s partner should go register. Well, it turns out that A’s partner has a warrant out for his arrest (I didn’t ask why) and so is worried that if he registers for health insurance he will get arrested. Tricky, eh. So then I suggested that A’s partner just go and pay the full fee (still really, really cheap by world standards) to get tested but use a false name and address when he registers at the doctor’s office. Naturally neither A nor A’s partner have any money. And the last thing: if A’s partner does get tested and is HIV positive, he has said that he will kill himself. And possibly A as well, I’m not sure on that point. What a cheerful conversation.
As I was listening to A’s tale of woe, B popped over to the smoking balcony (A was smoking, not me!!) B had a huge, happy smile on his face and said, ‘I think I’m falling in love!’ I saw a photo of his love-interest and he’s cute (so’s B, he’s one of my favorite guys at Lourdes.)
At 2:00 Gino still hadn’t showed up so we made the cake. I also had a bag of strawberries that my neighbour had given me, so I sliced them into a bowl to be served with the cake. One of the lovely social workers, Sophie, came to chat as I was slicing strawberries. I ranted a bit about one of the guys, C, who has succeeded in irritating me beyond belief since his first day. He alternates between sulky little girl, screechy teenage girl trying to impress and just plain stupid. Any three of these personalities (regardless of gender) irritate the crap out me but to find all three together in C: Grrrr. About three years ago I talked with Sister T about C, her response was terrific: We all know C has a serious lack of interpersonal skills and if we had more resources we’d do intensive counseling with him. Unfortunately, as a charity, our resources are very limited. But if C ever bothers you too much, just leave. Let us know in the office that you’re leaving and then go. It’s not that he consciously tries to irritate me, it happens totally naturally! I have never taken her up on her offer, but it is good to know that I can leave if I want to. I played ‘Big 2’ with some of the guys (including C) which was fun.
After letting the cake cool I cut it into squares and served it with cut up strawberries. Their reactions were very interesting: everyone ate the cake (some people had seconds and thirds!) but they didn’t rave about it. They ALWAYS rave about everything. Conclusion: after a year of making cakes, pies, cookies and biscuits by scratch using the best ingredients I can find, a cake-mix cake did not thrill them! The folks at Lourdes now have more discriminating taste buds! :o)
I went for a massage at 4:30 which lasted about 45 minutes. At the end I fell asleep and slept like the dead until 5:45! When I came out my masseuse told me it was Friday already. Ha, ha, funny lady. :o) It felt really, really good.
Home, fed the beasties, ate the last portion of chicken curry (YUM!) with a Hoegaarten (YUM!) Walked the dogs, got wood shavings, checked out Constance’s latest wood work project and congratulated Sophie on her MASSIVE trophy from abacus class. I put Dodo’s dog house together and put her outside for the night. She is NOT a happy camper. She scratched at the door, whined and barked fro 20 minutes before giving up (for now.) It’s about 20 C out and fairly clear, a good first night out in her new accommodation.
Well. I feel better now. It’s 9:30 so I’ll upload this, check out your blog and then drift off in the arms of Morpheus.

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February 4, 2007: Home and humour

Here's the fireplace and sofa where I was doing my 'lady of leisure' impression. To the left of the photo you can just make out the outline of Xiao Man Tou ('little steamed bun', a most inappropriate name for my biggest, fattest cat.) In front and to the left of the fire is Dodo, curled up on a quilt. (And yes, my walls are striped in red and orange. There are also pink and yellow stripes a little further down.)
I visited Kitty early Sunday evening. He has become very mellow in the last little while. We had a full-on love and purring session which we both enjoyed.
Then I went over to Jane's. I joined Andy, Simon and Charlie who were finished dinner and hanging out. We admired the 5 pairs of flip-flops that Charlie and Jane had bought. Yes, 5 pairs. You see, they were on sale AND they are going to Kenya next week AND summer is coming. The 'Reef' flip flops were nice but it was hard to get really excited about them...
Today I recorded a workbook in the morning and 5 shows for Enjoy. I got the giggles pretty bad a couple of times, we were all feeling a little silly. It was fun. Then I went to the dentist to have my crown fitted. That was less fun. If all goes well he'll glue it in forever next Monday.
Gosh, what a dull blog. I'll leave you with a bit of humor:
"These terrorism warning pictures are taken from a US government website. The fun thing is that these pictures are so ambiguous they could mean anything! Here are a few interpretations."

Apparently, these images are considered 'sensitive material' and thus I am not able to copy them onto my blog. It's a pity because they are extremely funny. So here is something I copied from someone else's blog a few weeks back however I didn't note down who it was. (Bowzer, was it you?) Please let me know so I can credit your fabulous wit!

If you remember the original Hollywood Squares and its comics, this may bring a tear to your eyes. These great questions and answers are from the days when " Hollywood Squares" game show responses were spontaneous and clever -- not scripted. Peter Marshall was the host asking the questions.

Q. Do female frogs croak?
A. Paul Lynde: If you hold their little heads under water long enough.

Q. If you're going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be?
A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.

Q. True or False, a pea can last as long as 5,000 years.
A. George Gobel: Boy, it sure seems that way sometimes.

Q. You've been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?
A. Don Knotts: That's what's been keeping me awake.

Q Which of your five senses tends to diminish as you get older?
A. Charley Weaver: My sense of decency.

Q. What are "Do It," "I Can Help," and "I Can't Get Enough"?
A. George Gobel: I don't know, but it's coming from the next apartment

Q. As you grow older, do you tend to gesture more or less with your hands while talking?
A. Rose Marie: You ask me one more growing old question Peter, and I'll give you a gesture you'll never forget.

Q. Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?
A. Paul Lynde: Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.

Q. Charley, you've just decided to grow strawberries. Are you going to get any during the first year?
A. Charley Weaver: Of course not, I'm too busy growing strawberries.

Q. When you pat a dog on its head he will wag his tail. What will a goose do?
A. Paul Lynde: Make him bark?

Q. If you were pregnant for two years, what would you give birth to?
A. Paul Lynde: Whatever it is, it would never be afraid of the dark.

Q. According to Ann Landers, is there anything wrong with getting into the habit of kissing a lot of people?
A. Charley Weaver: It got me out of the army.

Q. Back in the old days, when Great Grandpa put horseradish on his head, what was he trying to do?
A. George Gobel: Get it in his mouth.

Q. When a couple have a baby, who is responsible for its sex?
A. Charley Weaver: I'll lend him the car, the rest is up to him.

Q. Jackie Gleason recently revealed that he firmly believes in them and has actually seen them on at least two occasions. What are they?
A. Charley Weaver: His feet.

Q. According to Ann Landers, what are two things you should never do in bed?
A. Paul Lynde: Point and laugh.

Repost, January 1, 2007

Hello and I apologise. Once again, my internet connection is having fits. I am using Sophie's computer at the moment which is ok but not ideal. It's off to Chong Hua Telecom (again!) to get my line fixed (again!) Rats.
To everyone who has sent me a kind message and/or invitation: I will answer you as soon as my internet coneection is up and going again. But I do want to say, Mr Meowzers, that I thoroughly enjoyed your two comments! It's not often a cat can empathise with a dog.
Here's a photo of a lovely butterfly from a recent walk. Notice the hearts at the bottom of the wing?



I've all but finished the second living room cabinet. Next urgent project is a gate at the bottom of the stairs. Not only does Dodo leak pee from time to time (she's an old dog and refuses to do her Kiegal exercises.) She has recently decided that the landing between the second and third floors is an excellent place to poo. Oh, yeah, that's nice. Not. So, she will be restricted to the first floor (mostly tiled) and the garden. Yech.
Homemade soup for lunch, leek and potato -- yum!