Quiet time

Snowing out, sounds of plows on the roads.  The walk home from the bus was straight out of a Christmas card.  Made this egg nog. Waiting for the laundry.  Christmas in a new city.  Thinking of old friends and acquaintances; I wonder where they are now and what they're doing, and if they remember me at all.  Ave Maria on the radio.  I want to call people, but don't know if I will have the words.  Another year almost over.

Holiday baking

We spent the weekend baking. I made some banana bread, and Nate helped make ANZAC bikkies and sugar cookies. He'll probably deny it, but I think Nate had a great time decorating the sugar cookies.  Patty made up little packages which Nate, Snoopy and I took round to the neighbours.


The first 36 mince-meat tarts are all gone, maybe I'll get around to baking some more tomorrow morning.

Tree trimming

Walking away from Christmas

Patty went out with her brother yesterday evening to go get our Christmas tree.  They'd just left when it started to snow, quite heavily.  A little later we had an 8 foot Christmas tree in our living room, and a very excited Nate, who could not wait to decorate it.


We very quickly realized though, that there is quite a big difference between the number of lights you need for a 6 foot tree, compared to an 8 foot tree.  Since we have only ever been able to fit a 6 foot tree in our old place in Vancouver, we only had enough lights for a 6 foot tree.  After several failed attempts at trying to stretch the lights to cover the tree, it was pretty clear that we needed to get more lights if we wanted to trim the tree that evening.


By this time, Nate was getting quite frantic about being unable to start the tree decorating.  It was still snowing and blowing like crazy outside and neither one of us really relished the thought of having to venture out for lights in that weather. We tried to convince Nate to wait till the next day to trim the tree, but he was having none of it.  Increasingly distraught  at the prospect of having to wait another day, he bowed his head and wandered away, announcing "I'm walking away from Christmas!"


I found him sitting on the floor of Patty's office, in the dark.  A few minutes later, I was getting snow blasted in the face as I walked to Walmart to get some lights.


Nate got to trim his tree before going to bed.

The boiler is back

Peter dropped off the boiler on Thursday afternoon. Beautiful welding job, looks better than new. You wouldn't even know that there had been big gaping holes in it.

Today I spent a few hours putting it all back together. It took some doing, working in such a tight space, but I eventually got it all hooked up and plugged the Lyra in and powered her up. The pump came on, and I watched the welds carefully as the boiler filled. Everything was looking good.

And then I noticed the water pooling beneath the machine. There was another leak, and I eventually traced it to a busted pipe leading from the boiler to the group head.

So, still no espresso. I will have to take the Lyra apart again. And this time I will have to take the group out as well. From what I could see, it looks like this isn't the only rupture in the pipe. I guess I should have checked the rest of the machine while I was getting the boiler repaired. Lesson learnt.

I was only gone for a day...

Natal day in Halifax, a celebration of the birth of the Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. I worked a full shift at the Goat today, the first time in awhile since I've been on my feet for nine hours straight. My feet are killing me!

I left home while everyone was still asleep, and when I got back I was greeted by Nate running down the hallway yelling 'Dada!'. He was talking up a storm, about what he was doing, and what he'd been up to during the day.

'We went to Sobey's because we didn't have any baking soda. Then we came home and we made chocolate cookies.'

'Did you go to work dad? Were you on the bus? How did you come home?'

We had supper out on the deck, it's Nate's favourite thing now, having supper outside. I realize I was only gone for a day, but he seemed so much older to me when I got home.

For the past week or so, I've been leaving his bedside light on after reading him his bedtime story. He wanted to "read" his book one night after I read it to him, so I told him he had to turn off his light after he was done and go to bed. I said I would check in on him later. He's been good to his word so far, and every time I've gone up to check, his light has been off and he's been asleep.

Now, after I read him his bedtime story, he tells me:

'I'm going to read my book, and I'll turn off the light when I'm done. You can check on me at 4.30 (he still doesn't know how to tell time and makes a new one up every time).'

It's a good job I'm back to my half days shift tomorrow, who know how much more growing he'll be doing while I'm gone!

Vancouver through the window of a taxicab

Shot from a taxicab as we made our way from The Cascade Room on Main Street, to our hotel downtown. I don't know why I never did this sooner.

More food from Singapore

This is some of the food we had at my friend Lun Cheak's home. I wish I could have eaten more, but sadly I stuffed myself at lunch that day. Honestly, there is just so much good food in Singapore, it's almost impossible to eat it all! This becomes especially difficult to do when you are only in town for a short visit.

I think all of the foods here are Indonesian in origin, but they are very popular in Malaysia and Singapore as well. When I was in junior college (grades 11 and 12), my lunch usually consisted of rice, rendang, begedil and sambal goreng (green beans and tempeh fried in chili sambal). This is my comfort food, and I'm getting hungry just writing about it!

Sayur Lodeh (Coconut vegetable stew)

Begedil (Fried potato cakes)

Beef Rendang

I think I'm starting to appreciate how some of my readers have felt about the previous food postings!

A reunion

Myself, and my friends from high school. That's Gary on the far left in the black T-shirt, and Lun Cheak in the middle in the blue T-shirt. When I was still working in Singapore, the three of us would meet up in the evening and spend hours at the beach, drinking coffee and talking. Some of the best talks I've ever had happened on those evenings chats.

The posse has gotten somewhat bigger in the last few years. We all had dinner together one evening with our families, and it was nice to see the kids get along and play. And we got to the beach for one more late night chat before I left Singapore. It's nice to know that even after so long, some things just never change. It was just like old times, only this time we got to talk about our kids as well.

Nate's goodbye

I am writing this now, before I forget it.

When we left Singapore, we were seen off by my parents and my brother Kevin. Poor people, they had to wake up at 3am to make sure we got to the airport on time. After going through security and customs, we turned around to wave goodbye to my family through the glass. I was carrying Nate over my left shoulder, and he kept on waving as we walked towards the gate.

Then he said:

'Goodbye Kevin! I'll see you later. I'll be back soon.'

There was of course no way Kevin was going to hear it, and it was probably just as well. It was said in such a sincere voice it would have broken his heart. It damned near broke mine, and I just barely held it together as we approached our gate.

Back home

Well, we are back in Halifax. Back in our new home, and slowly coming to grips with regular life again. We spent our first night home sans Snoopy, which was a little odd. The bed seemed altogether too big, and I missed the comfort of that familiar warm furry body next to my leg. It's funny, but both Patty and I woke up the next morning feeling like something wasn't right. But we are all back together again now. It feels good. Now if someone would just take care of all the stuff that needs to get done around here! Groceries to get, laundry to be done, bags that need unpacking, grass that wants mowing... the list goes on. Good thing we had a vacation, although I feel I need another one to get over the long journey back.

For those of you who are wondering about the rest of our vacation, never fear! There is still lots to tell from our time in Singapore and our short stay in Vancouver. Lots more photos, and lots and lots more food. I'll try and get around to them soon, I promise.

Some of the things we've been up to

Yes, that is Nate feeding an Aldabra giant tortoise at the Singapore Zoo. We spent about half a day there on Tuesday, and got to see all sorts of animals including bats and snakes, which made Nate very happy. I don't think he was so sure about the giant tortoises, but I thought they were lovely. Their keeper told me that they will actually seek out human contact, and enjoyed being scratched on the neck or patted on the head. Somehow I never really thought of tortoises as social/affectionate types. Who knew?

This morning we took Nate to the beach, something we've been promising him for quite a few days now. It's just been too hot the last few days and no one has felt much like being at the beach under the sun. To that end, we left first thing this morning when it was only 29 degrees! I think Nate has a love hate relationship with water. He never seems very sure of it when he gets up close and personal with it. It takes him awhile to warm up to the idea of getting wet. He always excited to go to the pool, but usually spends the first 10 minutes or so just sitting on the first step with his ankles in the water. It was the same at the beach this morning, but he eventually settled in and really enjoyed himself.

As for food, we are working our way through it. My brother brought curry puffs over on Monday, a deep fried pastry filled with chicken and potato curry. Patty and I used to make these when I first moved to Vancouver, but it has been quite awhile since we've made any. Eating them here though might just change that. They really are very good, and I wish there was an equivalent back in Canada.

Finally, some nasi lemak. Rice cooked in coconut cream and usually served with a small fried fish, egg, chili sauce and a slice of cucumber. I remember it as breakfast food, but this is Singapore and you can pretty much eat it any time of day you like. When I was a kid, there were always boys cycling around our neighbourhood with packets of nasi lemak in baskets attached to their bikes. You only had to walk down the driveway and hail one of them to get a great meal.

The first entry for 2009

I had intended to write a summary of the year past, a review of the highs and lows of 2008, for my first entry for 2009. As I sat down to gather my thoughts, it became obvious to me that I had far more lows than highs. This has probably more to do with my make-up than the year that was 2008. Nevertheless, I became overwhelmed by it all and gave up, despaired by the task at hand and the state of the world.

It got me thinking about why we wish people a happy new year. Are we just so relieved to have got through another year that this is cause for celebration? Or is it a misguided or naïve hope that the changing of a number on the calendar will bring better things with it? I wonder if people on the Gaza Strip were wishing each other a happy new year?

Time will roll on, and most of us will do what we can to hang on for the ride. There will always be things happening around us that are beyond our sphere of influence. But maybe it's enough to do what we can to make things better in that sphere. Perhaps if there were more of these small spheres of good everywhere, they'd eventually overlap and become bigger. I realize I may be sounding naïve here, and uncharacteristically optimistic. Who knows, things could just get better!

Happy new year!