It's gonna have to be laterrrr

 Hello Possums (yes I'm really picking the Ozzie lingo!)

This was supposed to be a quick apology for my late upload of the next book .... big breath... however I have been busy.. oh yes, apart from the terribly thrilling hermit like days of contemplating my navel, counting the wrinkles on my face and wondering if anyone was going to put two and two together with all the goings on in the world, I house sat for my friend Meow Meow, who has a menagerie of animals that need feeding,  look nothing spooky, just a few chooks, ducks , guinea pig and doggo.

Chooks laid an egg for me!

We also had a bit of an emergency at home (no I did not call the ambos out of sheer desperation to see the hunky driver... puhleeseee... I go to the firestation for that! .. KIDDING!!! OMG.. people, I'm not that bad... yet) 

I'm thinking really hard

So I was having a bit of a rest ala "gone with the wind" (what! you haven't seen that classic.. what has the world come to !) anyway, I was lolling around on my chaise lounge when I hear BB yell out for me, sounded a bit dire, so I hustled out to the back and all I saw were two outstretched arms , and BB saying "take the phone, just take the phone ",  I'm like " uh.. okkkk". BB says "it's the vet, I can't talk to them  now" and dashes off to the back yard .  I gingerly take the phone and say " hello?"  long story short, its the local vet, she's giving me the name and address of the emergency vet's and instructions on the colour of the dog's gums...  right.

  So I dash back out to BB who is now cradling the doggo in her lap and I relay the address and then it hits me, we don't have a car because of all days today the car was being SERVICED!  So I say hang on, I 'll go see if the neighbours are around.  I slowly panted to the neighbours on the right (I'm operating on one lung ok, i get breathless fast!). "Hello!  Hello!"  no one is a round, right so then I duck to the left and I see our neighbour though his window, and tap on it say " hi, I'm your neighbour two houses down could you please give us a ride to emergency vets as dog is choking and we have't got the car today!".  Our neighbour Brody bless him says, "yup let me finish up and I'll be right over.

I hobble back to our house (i was wearing my mankiest sweats , you know the kind, with the elastic all gone and some holes in it but boy are the comfy.... uh huh) anyway I get to BB, tell her Brody will be here in a bit, carry the doggo out and I'l be there in a jiffy as I gotta go get some pants on ( listen, murphys law and all that be damned, I was  gonna wear a. proper pair of jeans and not embarrass BB and my daughter .. nuff said). so Brody arirves, BB grabs a towel off the line, we dash into his car,  I totally forgot his lead and as we screech to a stop outside the emergency Vets,  I have to leg it again inside( I must have lost at least 1 kilo yo) relayed to the vet nurse , "have a reactive doggo, barely breathing, choking on summink, forgot his lead, can you sort it out?!! " blink blink   ... 

"Yes of course" says competent nurse and organises for doggo to go through the back way.  They get all the Vets on call and have a con fab.  BB by this time is on the blower to Lan to relay the news, and of course the CAR has to be picked up!   We do a tag team, after reassurances that it will be a while before doggo is taken to O.R.,  I stay behind at emergency, BB races of to get the car before closing time  and Lan is 10 mins away from emergency.   

 Vet comes out to give me the news , and explains the procedure, the object is stuck stuck.  First she gives me the good news, ok ok we can deal with this , it's fairly straight forward, then she hits me with the 10% chance if it goes wrong... my eyes go round like saucers, flash backs of when that eejeet doctor was talking to me ....no he was patronising me with the Radiation treatment and then got  right into the after effects and the possibility of heart failure, breast cancer, lung infection... and I remember saying to the eejeet Radiologist Doc, "man you're really not selling this to me" ,... I digress, so I say "I've go to get Lan's approval a as it's her dog and she's ten mins away, then the Vet hits me with the price, my eyes teared up, uh.. it came to the same amount of my two day stay at the emergency hospital! .. 

Anyway, Lani arrived within 10 mins of the Vet con fab with me, she agreed to the procedure, and then BB and her had to pay deposits as Vets had to get that first before anything was done.  Yes policy. ahem

4 hours later, BB and Lan go pick up the doggo, who's getting anxiety from hanging around the hospital and groggy from anaesthesia, and show me the pics of what was stuck down his gullet.... poor thing. 

Doggo is all good now!  

So yes it was all a bit chaotic  for a few days but we're back to me binging on K-dramas.    I'm halfway with getting the next batch of books done,  thank you for reading my blog and watching my videos!

Love

Dx

My Reading of Zog by Julia Donaldson

Did you know there are or were 3 dragons in my family?  Ha Ha! well almost not the fire breathing, flying and roaring kind, though my mother was close! heh hehe, bless her she's probably trying to torch me from above! 

Yes according to Chinese astrology, My mother is a dragon, my son is a dragon and I'm a dragon too (you can all keep yer sarky comments thank you) It is said that two dragons cause conflict so it's lucky to have a third one (I swear I didn't pick the date for my son just so it could be peaceful in the family!). and if you have more than one dragon tattoo, they say do not dot the eyes or there will be clashes... uh I believe spiritually, one never knows, with the high amount of anxiety these days, you don't need two dragon tattoos to go from zero to total panic mode... I digress

Anyway I love these books, it's such a refreshing segue away from the old  tales of being saved by a man thingy.  Really good for kids to believe they can  be what they want to be, be it a doctor or a dragon... (I don't identify as a dragon I believe.. I identify as "mummmmmm". or "Omaaaaa". or "Oi"..

Right e o, that's my little bit bloggity blog for the fortnight, will see you soon.  Till then

ROOOOWWWAAARRRRR!

Dx
 

Where does Thursday Go by Janeen Brian

I know most of us say "where has the day gone?"  or where has the "week gone?"  Time seems to fly, and then some.  My son Chris and I were having a chat and grumbling about the younguns  quoting "time is just a construct! , (he's one to talk he's a millennial!) but really we're beginning to think it is! 

 

How lovely to think you can look for a certain day, do you remember as a child 10 minutes felt like foever?!!  It's enough time for just a deep breath nowadays!

I'll keep reading these Children's books as I feel more children could use some tales with imagination with all the harshness today's reality brings.  Also it's a way for me to reach out to my grandson , something he can watch over and over whenever. 

I do hope we continue to have authors of children's books, that writing does not die out and that the pen is mightier than the sword. 

Have a great week all

Dx 

Oh Dear what can the matter be? by P Crumble (yum ,he he)

You hardly hear that sentence anymore do you?  It's more for the "older' folk"... yikes, I'm swiftly following into the ranks of the silver haired brigade!  Not that I'm complaining, hey I'm still alive and kicking and that is all that counts.

I was a tad disgruntled, as I had wanted to post a different story, but like the slow wearing down of the incumbent two brain cells pinging around in my head, I had forgotten to add the pictures from the book!  Look you all can leave the early onset dementia comments out thank yew!

As it is , with all the tragic news going on in the world , this felt like a light hearted way of lifting the moment,  I do hope you've gathered your kiddies, or grand kiddies and watch the vid with them, such precious moments no?

Anyway, I must be off, if you have any suggestions for other books, drop me a line!

have a lovely weekend! and Happy Mothers Day!

Dx

Guess How Much I love you by Sam McBratney

 

This book has so many memories, the most important one is that it was given to my daughter "Ni" (as her brother calls her) by my close and very dear friend who's since passed on.  Everytime I look at it I see her cheeky grin, and the quips she made when she passed the stuffed toy that came with the book. 

It's hard to believe this book is over 3 decades old (written in 1994), and that iconic " I love you to the moon and back" can be seen etched on everything from keychains, tee shirts and even tattoos !

I hope you derive as much enjoyment from it as my kids (and I) did .  Happy Reading

Dx

Soba Noodle Salad

Heya Peeps, been busy working on my vids as well as the gift box shop on FB , you can have a peep at it herehttps://www.facebook.com/Truly-Gifted-105624802145227 Hope you enjoy my youtube video, it's an ongoing passion, and a journey I hope you will come onboard for! have a lovely week ahead Dx

Call me the Mad Hatter

Whichever club I spinned in, Ron was always supportive (@ Duddels in HKG)

"Hey Ron, great to see you " I say to one of my oldest and best friends as I fling my arms around him for a big hug.  "I gotta go to the loo" I add hastily, "Huh?" he says.  "I gotta go to the loo...now!.., I was waiting till you came out of the gates as I didn't want to miss your arrival! "  We were at the air port, I had come to pick him up.. with a full bladder.. of course.  I had invited him to attend my eldest son's wedding, who else would be my right hand man.  I mean  I've known him from when I was 19, Ron was my best man at my wedding, he was the first to know when I was pregnant, who was my roomie when things got tough, and my rock who whisked the kids and myself away for a month when my husband died and is certainly considered a family member. (I won't tell you all terrible things I did to him that included nail polish and toothpicks....)

We catch up in the car on the drive back from the airport,  it's been 3 years since we've seen each other, so much to say, in one hour.  Of course I intersperse my sentences with colourful adjectives to the drivers who are cutting me up on the high way, he cracks up and says " Daphne, you have to chill out", huh  that's rich coming from Mr potty mouth number one when "HE" drives in Hong Kong or Thailand.!

Our last vaccy in Phuket with Sue whom he introduced to me when I lived in BKK 

My youngest son Ayden is at home, waiting eagerly for Ron, they have a bro/dude relationship, which is good, they can commence with the secret "guy talk" as I have to then jet off to sort out yet another chore before the wedding.  When I get home, my daughter eventually arrives from school, gives Ron hugs and a load of sass (while he chuckles, amused as his little Lani is now all gown up) ... what can I say, she's 17 and is flexing her muscles.  It proves to be a hilarious evening, Ayden who's got a whole head full of light brown tight curly hair has had it cut for the wedding , I looked at him  and said to Ron  " Bobby Brown, ain't no body humpin around, he's got a flat top!"  .. which triggers off a youtube playback of our old songs!  Everything came out from  mc hammer, sugarhill gang, George clinton, bobby brown's my perogative, cameo to  Whitney Huston , the kids gave up somewhere around SNAP when Ron and I were singing loudly to "I got the Power" !  

We had two more days to D day, dresses had arrived (yes yes, I buy my dresses online nowadays, no time or inclination to swim around the mall with thousands of folk) but the kids needed dress shoes. Ok for the average Malaysian it's not a problem, but I have a 16 year old kid who was hitting 6F 1 with size 11 feet and a daughter who also had problems getting shoes her size.   Thankfully we managed to find some decent shoes and shirts within the allotted time (hey we were on a tight schedule) , then it was dash straight to Lisa's house who had to exchange some stuff with me for the wedding trays called "Dulang", that she had created, then back home.   I was already exhausted, but I am woman,  so I rolled on.

The "Dulang" that included the traditional gift of "tepak sireh" arranged by www.oxoloco.com )

The Wedding Reception Day arrives, and pandemonium breaks out,  Ron and I pick up the 350 jars of pickled ginger I made for my sons door gifts  from my sister in law's house, who had been kind enough to help me make them and also to keep them refrigerated ( had no more space in mine!).  We then zoomed to pick up the stressed out groom, then straight to the wedding venue to pass them the door gifts and also double check seating arrangements.

 I told Ron it was time for tea once we were done, he looked at me like I was mad, he said " we'll be going to the wedding in a few hours"  I said " believe me, by the time they start the dinner you'll be fainting of hunger, eat now, live later."  Once every one had eaten, I jetted off to the beauty centre, just my luck all the hairdressers were busy, at least my nails were done, then back home to turn on the curling iron whilst I got ready, err excuse me, whilst the ENTIRE family got ready, shouts of "have you got any perfume I can borrow", "mooommmmmmm where is my tie",  "Moooommm are you done yet?", "does this go with the dress?". "where is my speech??" .. and in between the crazy there are texts and calls coming in from everyone.  An asinine text has me hitting the roof,  Ron starts  bundling me into the car before I have a full blown 'daphasode'! "comon Daphne, it's go time, SMILE SMILE SMILE "

Kids said FREESTYLE IT MUM! 

I must say it was a surreal moment seeing my son and his bride enter the venue, watching them as a unit go around and talk to guests.  My lovely daughter took over the baton and did a speech, it was succinct, to the point and full of love.  My brothers and their wives rallied around me, "well he's now hers Daph, ...wait till you become a grandma" ..(luckily they were holding me because for some strange reason I was choking )

My Son Christopher and his bride Irena

I look at my son,  flashes of memories, Chris as a baby, his happy little face when he used to wake up, first time he took a french fry from me and sucked on it as he had no teeth,  the first time he laid his head on my chest and stared into my eyes, the little Halloween costumes I sewed for him, his teenage mutant ninja turtle collection, his love for lego, his drawings, his singing, begging me to go see Linkin Park, playing spaceman in the school play to the sounds of David Bowie's Major Tom,  skateboarding with his buddies, his first girlfriend, his first heartbreak, leaving for the UK and now getting married.   The circle of life.  Powerful stuff.

I'm driving Ron back to the airport, this time he's using adjectives  which may I say are a RAINBOW in colour compared to mine, at the drivers that are all over the road, I laugh and say "now you understand!".    As the saying goes, you can't choose your relatives but you can certainly choose your friends, and I'm blessed to be surrounded with so many who love and support me.   Cheers to the bride and groom and their blessed future together.

Change of Plan

In a jam again waiting to go to de Hoss Pee Tal

It's funny how sometimes life drops many little surprises into your lap.  Some good, some bad and some you kinda of scratch your head at.  So many cliches come to mind, "life never goes as you planned it"  " it's Murphy's law" "karma is a bitch"  and on it goes.

One thing I do know is that you should always be able to move laterally when a plan you've made doesn't come together due to extenuating circumstances.  I admit, I'm a stickler for plans.   I like knowing  exact dates, times, places, so much so that yeah I'm a bit of a control freak (well if you time every line for every frame that you've storyboarded for your own TV show.... ) however one of my life lessons is to learn to readjust fast ( I'm not good at that, I tend to grind a bit first before going into first gear) and go with the flow. (bobbing along on a lilo as the stream meanders to who knows where comes to mind) And that's exactly what I had to do with the Exhibition we had planned for the 13th May.

For some reason I decided to call Lisa early two days before the Scandelabra Showcase we were hosting.   Knowing artists the way I do, I knew there was some form of panic going on, the hint being we had only been communicating via e mail and texts.  She picked up the call and all I heard was a very bunged up, muffled " I'll call you back, I'm at the clinic , I can't breathe".  Yoikes!!  panic mode , and we're on Def con 3.  Eventually she texts me to say she's been admitted to hospital, hooked on to the oxygen machine and is undergoing tests.  Now here's the clincher, she's asking me if I'm OK as we text each other.  Errr hello, I'm fine, not in hospital, not hooked up to a machine,  stop asking about me, what can I do for you Darth Vader (is what she claims she sounds like at the moment)

Ms Darth Von Vader-ham

As diplomatically as I can, I ask her what she'd like to do regarding the exhibition, it's a bit sketchy because her results haven't come in.  She has a lung infection  compounded on top of her asthma and allergies and it's unclear how long she's going to be in the hospital , let alone convalesce for.  So we agree to push the Exhibition back another two weeks. I set another date on the event invitation and sent out apologies to the invitees.

In production we call it contingency dates, in real life you call it sods law.   I do recall when my husband had just passed away, a  "former" friend who had given me a ticket to a show/dinner, decided that as I was grieving,  I'd not be going, naturally.    She wanted the ticket back (to give to someone else....), but didn't have the balls to ask for it,  so she sent another friend to get the ticket back.  I call it bad taste, other people would call it practical.   There are some things you let go when another person is in a world of pain, loss, illness, hospitalisation, etc   and uh tact does come into play big time.

Anyway, Lisa's finally out of hospital, but not out of the woods yet.    I'm not sure how's she's going to be in a weeks time, so I will be ready to change dates in case she's still unwell.  Yeah, I think I'm finally learning to move from plan a to plan b without too much internal grumbling and swearing.  All I can say is in the bigger scheme of things what's more important, a friends health or her work?  I've figured it out, have you.

Friends, where would you be without them x

Thank you again for reading my blog and subscribing, I appreciate it so much , have a gorgeous week ahead and if you feel like dropping me a line it's daphnenasir@gmail.com
Toodles!

Just a little Spice bebeh

Let me tell you a little story, no it's not a terribly long one, just a little one, promise...  it's about food, oooo my favourite topic!  Ok ok quick background, I grew up in  and around Hong Kong, as my step dad was a Chef in the hotel industry, and because of this we moved around a lot.  I learned to eat all sorts of strange and wonderful types of food.  So once in a while I get a bit nostalgic and want some of the more exotic stuff that I enjoyed in the Orient, and one of those little mouthwatering morsels are century eggs with pickled ginger,

in case you've not seen it, here's a pic.  Now I know it looks like a 'goth egg!', but it's actually quite delicious.

Also known as preserved egg,

They are made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime and rice hulls for several weeks to several months.

As an hors d'oeuvre, the Cantonese wrap chunks of this egg in pickled ginger

Finding the century eggs here in Kuala Lumpur is easy enough.  Most supermarkets sell them as well as the wet market, but finding the pickled ginger... well that's how this journey begins!  Talk about a needle in a haystack.  I searched most the main stores for pickled ginger, and couldn't find any.  I was really stumped, we use pickled ginger for a lot of our food, well this one in particular : 

Pickled ginger otherwise known as Sushi Gari

Off I went to the Japanese grocers.  They did have some kind of pink ginger pickle but I couldn't read the ingredients (obviously I can't  read and write Japanese! but I can curse, long story,  but that's beside the point!). 

I mentioned this to my girlfriend, well when I say mentioned what I really meant was to grumble and moan about the lack of pickled ginger.  My galpal said, "Daph, most people either buy from a friend or make it at home".  Well talk about a light bulb moment!   I decided to make a batch for myself. 

First, I researched the best type of pickling ingredients and started off with normal ginger root. When you pickle old ginger root its very yellow and is pretty hot! yawsaahh, old ginger root, ...fail.  Next, I wanted a crunch but a light delicate ginger heat, so I  tried fresh young root ginger, it turned out pink!

Fresh younger ginger from the markets

Then I tested it on my friends and family, hey that's what they're for!,  and the feedback was good, so much so that my little Faerie Lisa suggested I retail it along with my signature chilli sauce I make which includes these ingredients :

Fire Engine Red Chillies

Garlic bursting with flavour

Taking my own advise, I've started a small home business retailing these  home made condiments, yes I've got a label too thanks to OXOLOCO. It was an exciting process, including sourcing all the materials!

Many thanks to OXOLOCO for designing my label.

I've now rolled out my first batch of both and taking orders! Both condiments contain no colouring or preservatives, the ginger naturally turns blush pink in the pickling marinade.  You can pop your orders on e mail,  that's, daphnenasir@gmail.com or pm me on Facebook!

My ©Cha Cha Chili Sauce ready to be labelled

©Tickled Pink Ginger anyone? 

I can't wait for my labels to be ready, they're in print as we speak.  It feels very satisfying because whatever the outcome, this venture fulfills two things, a creative outlet that allows me to utilise my home again as a workspace, and to make good quality products that everyone can enjoy.

Cheers and have a lovely week ahead!