Finally and literally got to the root of the problem as to why our 6-year old calathea plant was feeling the blues; her soil was water-logged (what looked like clumpy clay was mixed in her soil mix) and her roots had started to rot.
So we spent the better part of the afternoon splitting her in two, repotting two other indoor plants that I got as gifts as well as an olive tree that I got for myself as a New Year gift.
Finish that novel
Do (and finish) all those art ideas that have been living in your head
Read 100 books before June 2024
Write a letter, send a card
Complete your Top 10 list of stuff to bake
Be a bit more gracious
Change up your ‘style’
Be more organised
Be a bit more prudent with your money
Go somewhere that is NOT a tourist destination
Going through some of my stationery, I found an old Moleskine journal that was gifted to me (along with a Lamy pen) for Christmas 2019. The last entry was May of 2020- a time in which most of my entries were on this blog.
It wouldn’t hurt to resume using it.
Dear Diary,
1. I love the kids and I’m glad that when I don’t feel a 100% (just tired really and bloated from all the food the last couple of days), I can step away. As a parent, I probably can’t. I guess I would have to watch Aquaman all by myself now.
2. Some writer said, to make a resolution about something bigger than yourself. That the great wide world wouldn’t really care if you lose weight, or work out, or work harder, or quit drinking or smoking. The world may not care, but I do, so FUCK YOU.
3. How about asking the people and the entities who actually do have the power and the influence to fast-track things instead?? Ask Israel, Palestine, the Russians and the Ukrainians and the billionaires to sort things out and stop fucking the rest of us.
4. Ugh, now I need a drink (the only time I ever consume alcohol is over the holidays) but where to get mint?? I feel like doing a couple of mojitos.
5. A neighbour and co-worker dropped off some mint for me- bless you Angelique.
6. Suddenly, friends who’ve been actively messaging you all year are suddenly quiet when the holidays come.
7. Speaking of people you know, how brave are you to admit that if you never hear from some of them again, it really wouldn’t matter?
9. How many more stuff can you buy?? You can never have enough shoes, or clothes but at some point, you need to say, I should stop buying now.
10. Prosperity bowls are all the rage but they’re so complicated! I’d rather put the effort at work which should hopefully give me prosperity!
11. I’m superstitious about superstitions; what if it doesn’t work? Or worse, what if it brings you the opposite? I’ll just take my chances.
12. Or I’ll continue praying to God.
Actually, I’m fine. Still some last-minute Christmas crap you have to deal with and it doesn’t matter if you’ve planned and organised everything down to the last detail.
And I had to go to the city to pick something up on the hottest - a balmy 33 degrees - day of the year. Aren’t we lucky?? Didn't break into a sweat walking up and down Queen Street, probably the most chilled, unhectic city street in the world. Yes- haters can have New York or Paris or Rome and I hope you fucking get mugged.
Ruth is arriving tonight so in addition to our favourite store-bought sticky-date pudding, I thought why not fill the house with the smell of freshly-baked chocolate-chip cookies?
Didn’t add nuts or dried fruit this time, and it turned out to be your classic, chewy, burnt buttery version. And I used milk chocolate which I’ve honestly always favoured over dark chocolate which also amped up the sweetness factor.
Took all of 30 minutes for 20, 60 gram cookies (thanks to having a mixer which has seriously made the work flow easier and faster).
Ingredients:
210 g butter browned
200g dark brown sugar
100g white sugar
2 eggs
Vanilla
330g all purpose flour
3.4 tspoon baking powder and baking soda
300g chocolate your choice
Method:
- Make brown butter and let cool
- Once cool, mix with sugars and whisk. Add eggs and vanilla
- Add your sifted dry ingredients
- Add chocolate
- Bake in batches for about 12 minutes
I didn’t have time to marinate the pork belly a bit longer and frozen lemon-grass is a hit and miss. I don’t think the one I got from the Asian store had any flavour at all.
But the pork was flavourful - it could’ve been steamed a bit longer - and 95% of the skin became crackling which is good enough.
The pork was about a kilo and if it was any bigger, it wouldn’t have fit in the air-fryer.
Got the recipe here:
In the Philippines, we don’t bother with place settings; there’s so much food that there’s no space for stuff you can’t eat.
In New Zealand, a typical Christmas table has ham, bread and some sides and a cake and that’s it. So there’s room to fluff up the table which I’m happy to attempt to do- because why not?
There’s something calming and soothing in this domestic exercise that I once dismissed as being too feminine and unnecessary. But as I’ve become older, I’ve realised that I actually have the freedom to rethink what’s necessary and what’s not in my life - and funny enough, I’ve stopped making a distinction. I just do it, and it’s fun. It brings joy. It keeps me sane. There’s just so much goddamned ugliness in the world that a little bit of beauty when you sit down to eat a piece of ham on white bread (!!!) does make a difference..(Imelda Marcos was right about how she described beauty - look up the quote!).
New plates, glassware and cake stand from Kmart; table-runner and mats from Stevens; Kiwiana coasters of native birds by Creative & Brave; cutlery from Momento and Villeroy and Boch.
Why wait, when you can start now?
Don’t wait, just do it. For someone who has been wearing Nike for decades, I wasn’t really smart enough to believe that the slogan actually works.
Stick to what you’re really, really good at and perfect it.
Words have power; use them responsibly.
Words have consequences; be careful with them.
It’s okay to be selfish rather than come off as insincere.
Edit, edit, edit. You don’t need to buy that fourth tiny block of $40 cheese just because you saw it in a movie.
It sucks, but opt for dental care over YSL.
Read more, stream less.
Cook more but eat less.
Your creativity is boundless; just let go…
We joke that the reason why this generation is fucked up is because of chicken nuggets. The conspiracy theory is that the chicken where nuggets come from are so full of hormones and other secret drugs that it’s to blame for young people’s anxiety, depression, eczema etc. It has to be right?? And not really because their grand-parents (yup, look past us GenXers!) fucked up the world as we know it today!
I only bought a bag of Tegel nuggets because it was half-price, I was needing some protein pick-me-up and it cooks in all of 10 minutes in the air-fryer.
Too much of a good thing
I put my Wonky Box subscription on hold because it wasn’t long before I was drowning in a glut of vegetables. Thanks to TikTok, I saw a good way of preparing cauliflower. By boiling it first, you cut down the cooking process when you either roast or grill it. But don’t overcook it and make sure that it’s absolutely dry when you take the next step. I literally drowned it in olive oil and melted butter before putting it in the oven. Serve it like I do with my special sauce (mayo, mustard and hot sauce) and bagel seasoning.
Didn’t realise how simple it is to make fudge. I love fudge; I don’t have a sweet tooth but when I do crave for something sweet, I go for a packet of fudge because it’s like the supernova of sweet things - all that sugary sweetness concentrated in a bar no bigger than your thumb. This is peanut-butter fudge, recipe from the NY Times.
We’re Christmas-cake connoisseurs.
This year, we ordered a total of four kilos of the stuff from our favourite supplier. Every now and then, Berta supplies us with exotics; last year, it was Jamaican black-cake, and this year, a more traditional one albeit boozed up with 75 year old bourbon whisky.
Most of my life has been really about living for the moment and not worrying (or planning) about tomorrow. I’m fortunate to have people in my life who have reminded me at crucial moments, that I needed to plan and get some important things done.
Citizenship wasn’t really one of them. There’s intrinsically not much difference between a permanent resident and a citizen, and as someone who sees travel as more of an obligation, I had the requisite valid visas anyway (the US, Australia) if I needed to travel.
But one day I just thought, fuck it.
So here we are.
I had about $6 worth of carrots and apples that are about to go off so I decided to put them into a cake that costs five times as much - so much for trying to be frugal 😂.
I had to Google carrot and apple cake and this one seemed promising; however I couldn’t find the specific Whittaker’s flavour in the recipe so I got what was available at the dairy which was a Fijian Ginger and Kerikeri Mandarin dark chocolate bar.
Baking notes:
By the 50th minute, the top was dark and a skewer inserted into the middle came out clean, but when I was trying to cut the cake across so I could put some frosting in between, the middle was very soft. Either my oven was too hot and the cake needed more time, or I should’ve waited until it was completely cool and firmed up.
With only a cup and a half of sugar in it, it wasn’t too sweet, but I feel that it needed a bit more sweetness.
The trick is, while something is mixing or cooking, clean up whatever you can
The only appliance you’ll ever need is the food processor
I had a consult today with my GP.
The horror stories you normally hear about the health-care system in New Zealand isn’t about insurance (the NZ government pays for health-care services) or lawsuits, but about a lack of doctors and long waiting lists. So you try (and pray) your damn hardest not to get sick, and that if you did, knock on wood that it’s just the common cold.
I went for a different matter - I’m fine by the way - and I was surprised that there was an immediate opening. My current doctor is old, like senior citizen old, just like my previous GP who I think, got sick on the job and was now probably and definitely retired (I hope) and enjoying sunny Brighton (in England) where he’s originally from. But old doctors are the best. They have a relaxed and cheerful demeanour even when they’re desperately trying to find you a good systolic reading using a manual blood pressure monitor.
Jaqueline - my current GP - is a tall and statuesque lady who occasionally lapses into citing current studies that she’s read about, or diagramming on paper, the relationship between enzymes and bodily organs. She also patiently listens to my attempt at self-diagnoses and neither contradicts nor reproaches me (I wasn’t wrong anyway, just saying).
She saw me at 9:50 when our appointment was at 9:30 and we wrapped up at 10:45, but I didn’t complain; the whole session was worth the $50 it cost (in New Zealand, this is relatively very high).
For dinner, I thought, why not a salad? And no - it had nothing to do with my doctor’s appointment - I was still having flashbacks of that salad I had at Brewd Hawt, and the realisation that we have been doing our dressings wrong.
I didn't have iceberg lettuce - and it’s really the ideal type of lettuce for this - but use whatever you have because the point is, you need to eat those goddamned salad leaves before they go off. I had curly lettuce which I washed, dried and roughly chopped up. For the dressing, it was mayo, hot sauce, mustard and miso with some EVOO.
Drizzled that over the lettuce, did a generous sprinkling of that bagel seasoning and just because I was feeling extra, grated some parmigiana reggiano on top. YUM.
PS: my cholesterol levels were amazing the doctor said and the figure did make me gasp (a 2.2). To think that for the last 6 months, I’ve been eating butter as if it were cheese. See? There are some small miracles there…
So we took a break from eating modestly. I don’t think one can call it a diet, when you’ve been doing it for years. No breakfast except about four espressos, an office cookie at morning tea, a light lunch if I was working out later in the day, and for dinner, a protein shake after that aforementioned work-out.
But there’s a ton of work lately, so we thought, why not? Live a little and eat a little bit more than usual.
Thursday’s chicken tenders from Charcoalchicken which is just 10 minutes away at our local Woolworth’s. Generously sized and cooked in fresh oil, it’s perfect with their perfectly made Kabas rice.
Friday’s Mochi. Just starting to discover how versatile glutinous rice flour is and the possibilities are endless. But did a repeat of Hawaiian Butter Mochi because it’s the easiest one to do.
Saturday’s chicken at Brew’d Hawt. Auckland is in the golden-era of chicken; there are chicken places everywhere you look. But it’s a small market, and sadly, when saturation sets in and everyone is like, ‘fuck this, I’ll just go back to KFC’, where will your chicken-joint end up? Which is a shame, because every single chicken-place we’ve been to is good. Ironically, the star dish isn’t always the chicken (which in spite of its batter or glaze or whatever, somehow needs a tad more seasoning) and at Brew’d Hawt, the iceberg-lettuce wedges and the fried pickles were stellar.
Sunday’s Katsubi. You pick from three sizes- and I always pick Large which means salad/rice and three meat options- and they try to cram all these into a paper bowl. You also pick your sauce (I always go for Garlic Aioli and Miso Sesame). It looks intimidatingly huge when you dump everything into a plate at home for easier eating, but since opting out of having rice and just the vegetables, you don’t feel as full. Perfect as a pre-workout food.
To avoid laundry lines across your $120US James Pearse shirts - or any shirt for that matter- you need to peg it as far on the sides of the shirt as you can.
When cooking adobo, don’t cover it when you’ve just put vinegar; you need to allow it to evaporate.
Same goes when using wine for such dishes as bourguignon.
Even supposedly good things like huge, fat heirloom tomatoes when eaten in excess, can be bad.
Same goes for ethical shrimp (very, very bad).
Simplify your Christmas menu; YOU’RE THE ONLY ONE who’s going to eat that $200, 15 gram tin of Caviar Beluga Pur sel
You can never, ever have enough shoes
You can sleep/nap for like 15 min and be refreshed.
1.Why are the leaves of my calathea curling up and dying?? (soil is not dry nor waterlogged, humidity is okay..)
2. Why do I always end up with so much waste and so many dishes to clean up after?
3. Why does the New Zealand still doesn’t have a formal government?? Oh wait, I know the answer to this one - because IDIOTS VOTED FOR IDIOTS (Luxon, Peters and Seymour).
4. Why is Trump still relevant?? Oh wait, I know the answer to this one - because IDIOTS STILL SUPPORT THE IDIOTS!
5. Why are Israel and Palestine fighting each other?? (I’m tired of caring).
6. Why do I feel that I’m still 32 (my best year)??.
Five weeks before Christmas! And I’m excited because it’s the only real break from work that I’ll get.
Gave myself a pre-Christmas present - a new (Kitchen Aid) mixer - and the challenge of baking my own favourite cakes (Black Forest, Sans Rival).
Ahhh, 2023 done; the year of personal injuries. We may not look it, but we are sadly falling apart.
Should finish that novel I started to the bitter end.
Should get a head-start on my 2024 New Year’s resolution list (when you’re older, you have to start earlier than everyone else).
I think I’ve mentioned before that Saturday is my only true ‘free day’; so it’s all about me and about relaxing a little bit. Catch up on reading, streaming and a nice lazy dinner (and snacks = a tub of ice-cream).
I have two Nobel Prize literature winners in my queue but there are days when I simply like my reading to be just entertainment (like watching a Netflix show) and Yarros’ book on dragons and their magic-channeling riders does the trick. I just skip all the romantic parts which I find just laughable (the image I used here is a random one I just picked from the internet).
I was about to put my Apple TV + account on hiatus after finishing the second seasons of Foundation and Invasion (streaming prices have gone up haven’t you notice?) when this comes along. Can’t really resist a monster (or two, three?).
I have two weeks worth of food in the freezer, but I decided to give cooking a rest. It was a choice between this or Dominos.
I have to admit that I had my ‘gluten intolerant’ moment. With bread/wheat as the culprit, I imagined that I was bloated and crampy. We have to blame social media for that hysteria which thankfully, got clarified by the experts but not before spawning a whole new restaurant menu sub-set that never fails to make you roll your eyes.
And now I’m back to my processed-food moment so bread rarely ever makes it to our pantry.
But facetiousness aside, I’ve never been a big bread-eater anyway. I don’t know if it’s changed but growing up in the Philippines, the quality of the bread wasn’t as good (and so were the cakes), and if it was there, I ate some but I wouldn’t even give it a second thought if it disappeared from the face of the earth.
I could count with the fingers of both my hands, the number of dishes where bread was necessary: 1) beef stew (which was one of our dad’s signature dishes); 2) pansit sotanghon (you made a pansit sandwich and used the thinnest, softest white bread); 3) spaghetti (before garlic bread became commercially available, we made our own slathered with Star margarine and dosed up with Italian seasoning); 4) Christmas ham (with cold slices of salty Majestic ham, mayo and tomatoes).
I had my usual grocery delivery yesterday and sourdough was on sale so I thought, why not?
The slices are too big for a conventional toaster so toasting is done on a pan with olive oil and butter. Two fried eggs, one sliced tomato and a whole lot of seasoning and breakfast is done (coz I need the energy).
Costco is full of great and useless things. It’s also a fantasy world where inflation doesn’t exist and those huge bags of Lay’s potato chips that you bought are actually made of air and have zero calories.
But sometimes you do need a reprieve from everything that’s happening even if it’s just a couple of hours.
When I was in college, my cousins teased me for having oily skin and I’ve been trying to turn that around ever since. But as it turns out after an analysis at a dermatologist’s clinic, my skin was actually very dehydrated, and it only looked oily from the outside from all the stuff I put on it.
So I started drinking more - even if I hate the taste of water - just for that.
And lately, I’ve discovered oils and how I could get away with slathering it on and people describing it as a glow. I’ve started off with Sunday Riley and Emma Lewisham but after several expensive bottles, you’d think, let me find some cheaper ones and as it turns out, there is a whole universe of oils.
This one is local (Miabelle) and they also have body oils which I want to try out; not particularly happy with normal drugstore/supermarket body lotions like Aveeno and Jergens.
I was the child who felt slightly giddy on Sunday because the next day was Monday.
As an adult, I’m still the same because I technically only have one true free day on the weekend which is Saturday; I wake up any time I like (but never really beyond 10am), eat anything I like and mostly ignore everything that my watch and my phone spit out.
The world (outside of New Zealand at least) could burn and I’ll be blissfully unaware eating fried chicken or watching some show with chips and a pottle of ice cream.
But Sunday is all about getting a head-start on life - yours.
Laundry
Sorting of clothes (and what to wear the following week which is dictated by event and weather)
Vacuuming
Changing fresh sheets
Lunches and meal prep
Exercise
Face (face masque)
Clearing out office email; scheduling responses to be all sent at 8am Monday
A good dinner
I was trying to, as idiots are fond of saying lately, ‘manifest’ an imaginary sickness today, but it didn’t manifest. Perhaps, you can only manifest positive things. So I soldiered on; woke up at 6am even though I was working from home, showered but didn’t wash my face (I just splashed very cold water on it and slathered on a light day cream). I figured that if I had put on it hundreds of dollars worth of products just barely eight hours ago, I shouldn’t wash it off just yet.
It was raining and all I could see across the water was a blank, white wall of nothing. But at least I wasn’t feeling bleh like I did this whole week. It’s hard to pin down, this blehness. Work was fine (it was actually great because the pace was brisk just the way I prefer it). The cat was fine (she had a wound on her paw from a dawn fight that was caught by the security cameras). Her insurance said they had lifted an important exclusion which was injuries sustained from a fight. It saved us $450- FOUR FIFTY which is half the mortgage payment I put in every fortnight.
(My)life was okay (skipped reading the news today) according to my own standards, and that’s fine. That’s valid.
Did a survey from Vote Compass which is a tool developed by political scientists to help you explore how your views align with those of the country’s political parties and it turns out, I actually didn’t know a lot. I cared a lot, but I didn’t know anything about fiscal policies, the impact of them on social services, housing issues, justice and the court system or education. I had a lot of I-Don’t-Know and neutral answers.
All I was really from how I pictured it, was a middle-aged man spending his disposable income on shoes, facial oils and grass-fed beef. I must emphasise though that I care, I really do, deep inside. And you know what? That’s fine. That’s valid.
Happy FriYay!