bringing forth

Me and sis were walking toward the bus interchange when we got waylaid by some wares on display. The stickers caught our attention.

We were looking at the Winnie the Pooh ones when all of a sudden, her eyes drifted to this rather cute goldfish-like fish. We did not recognise the cartoon but my sis being her, was excited at the possibility of uncovering an array of deep sea-themed creatures.

We opened up the booklet... and were confronted by many cute creatures with rather stunned expressions on their faces.

Both of us: Ooooh...
Pause
Sis: They all look shocked. Cheh not photogenic at all!

Poor stickers! It is not their fault the poses were not the most flattering.

Ooooh, its Dong Ji, or tang yuan festival, also known as the Chinese's Winter Solstice. We do not have winter in Singapore (but we do have thunderstorms) so honestly speaking, I never knew the significance of this rather-mini festival. It took me over ten years to draw the links between the sweet dumpling dessert and 'Dong' (or winter in Mandarin).

Apparently eating those round darlings is supposed to signify that we have aged one year and are moving on to the next (but of course, in more poetic terms). I know I am 23 soon, but I harbour no desire to consume 22 of them in one sitting.

Despite being one day late, my sis and I had a whale of a time hand-making the balls. There was white dough and pink dough, a bowl of water to make the dough more pliable, and finally a bowl of orange coloured sugary stuff.

It turned out to be quite an ordeal. My first few balls turned out terribly wrong. The sugary stuffing spilled out and stained the pink/white dough. My sis and I joked that upon boiling the lot, the water will turn orange because of our lack of skill.

She then gamely proceeded to make star-shaped ones. So it no longer becomes tang yuan (literally translated to soup rounds/circles) but tang xing (soup stars). As you can see, the Lu sisters are taking this revered Chinese festival very seriously.

But so it happens that we did not add enough orange sugar filling. Even though we diligently made two trays of soup shapes (9 stars, 22 rounds/circles), my mum is reluctant to finish up the second tray, complaining that there is too much dough.

So we ended with a table of mess, flour-caked fingers, a thoroughly enjoyable time rolling out our darlings, and four bowls of tang yuan/xing.

Ps. the stars actually kept their shape! They didn't morph to become like their distant roundish cousins!

Lord I know You are able.
Lord I believe You are able.
Lord grant me the faith to hope in You who are always able.

In the name of Jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour, Amen!

A funny extract from a book which is part of this installation project at the NAC office I work in. It is about the Dutch. How timely! Since my proposed Honours thesis next year is going to be about the Dutch. Never too late to get a whiff of fjords, Calvinism and erm... what else's Dutch?

'The colonial expanse of the Dutch empire stretched far across the blue yonder. They founded New York; they traded in African slaves; they liberated Malaka from the Portuguese. Spices and trade from their colonies were a major source of income. Their reputation as shrewd traders was cemented by the British statesman, George Canning who said:

"In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch is offering too little and asking too much."

The multiple pejoratives that the word "Dutch" were invented in the seventeenth century by the English in their struggle for economic supremacy, such as:

Dutch courage is the kind that comes out of a brandy bottle.
Dutch treat is an invitation to a dinner you have to pay for.
Dutch auction is an auction where the asking price begins high and goes down.
A Dutch nightingale is a croaking frog.

And many more which have fallen into disuse. I am sure the Dutch coined as many inventive insults, but since English is the default language, we will not speak or hear of those.'

Hahahahaha so funny! I like this guy's humour. And upon reading this slender book, I also found out that tulips came from a Turkish word for turban. Wow! I love it when people talk about words, play on words and misappropriate words. Sometimes you get rather lame puns in the Life! section of Singapore's English daily. Sometimes a friend gets all witty on you and you wish that this would happen a bit more frequently.

[Extract taken from Mr & Mrs K. by Alan Oei, 2006, project for the National Arts Council of Singapore]