21 Dec 2013 –  Has Come a Long Way…

Thanks May for sharing this interesting link. Proud of my birth country, this little Red Dot which has come a long way since independence in 1965!

http://e360.yale.edu/feature/singapore_takes_the_lead_in_green_building_in_asia/2720/

Believe this or not, But SIN has also made the below list…

http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20131217-living-in-the-worlds-healthiest-cities

Wed: at Little India to get some pants sewn. Colourful and vibrant at Tekka Market which I always enjoyed shopping and eating there, and still do. Aileen, thank you for gift and lunch at City Hall Food Court, safe journeys to you and your family and Happy Holidays to all in H&H too.

SIN production movie: Your Business is Everybody’s Business***easy and light entertainment on a very wet afternoon where the Minister of Toilets! and her officers need to get to the bottom of a toilet hygiene problem that has resulted food poisoning.

Got back to the apt to discover that I have lost my keys, first time ever…!!! What is happening this year??? Thank goodness Sue has a set, so slept peacefully without any lock-smith but double bolted the inside bolts on the door!

Thu: went back to the movie theatre at Filmgarde Bugis Illuma and thank goodness, the keys were at the ‘Lost & Found’. Appreciations to whoever who found them and delivered to the management.

Architectural Heritage House awarded nearly 10yrs ago and this house never fails to amaze me! It is like walking into a museum except that this is someone’s home. Could just sit quietly and focus the eyes at the artworks on the wall and that will bring back memories of London/UK holidays from 1980s! How delightful to be treated to a delicious lunch today and then be lavished with gifts. Thank you.

Fri: helped Henry to move into Sengkang New Town/盛港新镇, a relatively young satellite residential town located the NE. Originally a fishing village, the area is presently undergoing rapid development under the ambition of the HDB. Quite amazing to see the development, one of the 3 areas connected to the MRT by LRT.

Have learnt that SIN helps to provide a roof over your head if you are homeless provided you make the effort to pay S$50 a month and of course with much restrictions. Quite impressed by this tiny Red Dot in many ways and happy to be a Singaporean. Again this is relative as usually just here for the winter months!!

Sat: pre-Christmas family lunch buffet at Aqua Marine @ Marina Mandarin***Appreciations to Clement for hosting and including me. Nice to get a family group pix but missing bro Steven!

17 Dec 2013 – More Shopping & Online Greetings to do…

Orchard Rd and Changi Airport T2 2013 Christmas lights and decorations.

These postings about Christmas are dedicated to L&M’s uncle Nils who taught me with great enthusiasm how to say all these Christmas related foods and objects in Norwegian 45yrs ago, and still remember them very well today! Nils must have been a good teacher!!

Til Nils, 1968 juleminner fra Amy

The miniature village of tiny julengler/angels, juledukker/dolls, juletre/trees, etc collected since 1968 are in place on the piano.

Christmas trees are on the piano and kitchen/dinning table. No real trees or candles. The glass tree with green balls is the latest, thanks to Audrey. The one with 24 pockets, hand-sewn by me (completed in the mid 1990s) is used as an advent calendar and still trying to learn the word thank you in 24 languages. Getting there soon 🙂

A lovely paper mobile from Olai and some local twigs and seeds sprayed painted with the Christmas colours are from 2012.

The two hand-painted plated are set on the table. The silver plate (a gift for my 30th bday from family Hustad and family Stenseth) usually filled with greeting cards but not so nowadays as we do online greetings to save the trees. Still sent out a couple to the generation who are not computer savvy or do not even own a computer.

Yes I bother with all these decorations but not with the food when the family is not around. Need to decorate for any festival even if it is just a tiny thing. It is important to keep the good memories and also nice to make it special from the mundane of daily routines!

Our daily lives are so mundane, we get taken over by what is immediately in front of  us and we don’t see beyond that – Benedict  Cumberbatch

16 Dec 2013 – In Norway

Dec is the darkest time of the year in this winter wonderland. During the Christmas period many of the food traditions come to the fore and Scandinavian hospitality expands. Have been fortunate to celebrate many Christmases in Norway with wonderful Norwegian families and got to taste the traditional dishes from various families.

1968: 1st Christmas in Tromsø/Norway when rakfisk was introduced, fish dish made from trout or sometimes char, salted and fermented for two to three months, or even up to a year, then eaten without cooking. The smell is so distinct that they have to be stored in the garage, but the taste is heavenly. Best with flatbread, onions and sour cream.

Since 1968, have celebrated Christmas in Norway until 1984. Previous posting about cookies so this one will be on some of the savoury Christmas dishes. Starting with the more traditional ones:

1. Lutefisk: one of my least favourite dish. L&M’s great-grandmother made it yearly and have tasted it once and that was enough! It is made from aged stockfish (air-dried whitefish) or dried/salted whitefish (klippfisk) and lye (lut). It is gelatinous in texture, and has an extremely strong, pungent odour. Its name literally means ‘lye fish’.

2. Ribbe: similar to the Chinese roast pork and when roasting it, the kitchen smells delightfully delicious and is warm with all the cooking. Thank goodness the air out is usually cold and refreshing to open the kitchen windows. Sometimes the head of the pig with an apple in its mouth will be displayed on the table with this dish!

3. Ellen’s Medisterkaker: this is very special and really yummy. She mixes reindeer meat hunt from her own family mountain terrain. Reindeer steak is a bit on the gamey side for me but these meat balls are out of this world and the broth is a die die must try. Drank so much of that broth even Ellen remembers that she was nearly out of broth one year 🙂

4. Rype/Grouse: this is Kari’s tradition and they hunt for it in Rypefjord, Finmark/Northern Norway. Only she can prepare this dish to make it taste out of this world. Thank you Kari, will always remember this feast fit for the King!

5. Balcalhau: is the Portuguese word for cod and—in a culinary context—dried and salted cod. Ingrid serves this dish, another yummy fish dish serve during Christmas and Easter.  There are some restaurants that serve this year round. Had it Sep 2012 when touring Norway with Peggy and Kenson.

There are many other dishes which different families will have their own traditions. The other dishes will be smoked and salted meats, pickled herrings, variety of breads and beverages, both sodas and beers  made especially for Christmas.

And the last Christmas celebrations in Norway with L&M, their grandparents and aunt was 1991, en route back to the US after following the USS Missouri around the world on a good-will journey.

With the 2 postings of some of the tradition Norwegian Christmas foods to wish everyone velkommen til bords/welcome to the table!

Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift – Mary Oliver

15 Dec 2013 – What in the world is going on…

http://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/snow-in-cairo-for-the-first-time-in-112-years/story-fnh81ifq-1226783021497

Sat: shootings in Queen Subway Station Toronto/Canada and another one is CO/USA

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/queen-subway-shooting-leaves-man-in-life-threatening-condition-1.2463956

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/13/us/colorado-school-shooting/

A weekend on catching up with rest and sleep and enough of these kind of sad news, to some tasteful uplifting memories!

Sun: thank you May for sending this pix of Olai with his first peperkaker/gingerbread baking at his great-grandmother’s. Good memories of Norwegian Christmas preparations to remember.

The only pix of pepperkaker baking in Norway found was from 1978 where Linn and her aunt Cathrine were busy with a rolling-pin which is probably the same one Olai just used 🙂

The usual 8 traditional Norwegian I used to bake and every family will have their own favourites…

1. Berliner kranser: eggs, flour, sugar and butter. Oven for baking

2. Fattigman/poorman (check the ingredients and you will be poor after shopping for eggs and brandy!) : my favourite Norwegian Christmas cookie, egg yolks, cream, icing sugar and brandy fried in oil.

3. Goro: eggs, sugar cream, butter, flour and brandy. Need a goro iron for this.

4. Krumkaker: cream, sugar and flour. Again another iron and this one can be shaped 2 ways, one like our CNY love letters and the other in a cone-shape so one can fill it with cream or jams etc

5. Pepperkaker: gingerbread with various receipts, a must but not my favourite where taste is concerned. Good for all kinds of shapes to decorate with, especially for the gingerbread house.

6. Rosettbakkels: eggs, sugar, flour and water. Fried in oil and need an iron

7. Sandkaker: butter, sugar, egg yolks, flour and chopped almonds. Good plain or with various fillings.

8. Kransekaker: coarse ground almonds, icing sugar and egg whites; an all time occasion and favourite cake/cookies.  One can decorate it to what the occasion calls for. Still have the rings if anyone in SIN wants to attempt baking it.

13 Dec 2013 – Festival of Lights

St. Lucia’s Day: festival of lights is celebrated in Norway, Sweden and the Swedish-speaking areas of Finland on 13Dec in honour of St. Lucia. One of the earliest Christian martyrs, St. Lucia was killed by the Romans in AD 304 because of her religious beliefs.

In Scandinavian countries each town elects its own St. Lucia. The festival begins with a procession led by the St. Lucia designee, who is followed by young girls dressed in white and wearing lighted wreaths on their heads singing traditional songs. The festival marks the beginning of the Christmas season…

This year no candles for the Holiday Season. Thank you for lunches and dinners with sis, sis-in-law and nieces throughout the week. To complete Christmas mailing,  shopping and movie catch up week:

3 Peas In A Pod***SIN made movie filmed in Australia is a rather unusual film that will make viewers re-examine their views on romance and love. 3 university students studying in Australia (Penny from SIN, Perry from Taiwan and Peter from Korea) are good friends whose lives are intertwined with one another’s. Just before they graduate, the 3 friends decide to go on a road trip. Little do they know, this farewell holiday is a trip that would change their lives forever.

Diana***about the last two years of the life of Diana, Princess of Wales. The biopic focuses on her relationships with heart surgeon Dr Hasnat Khan and Dodi Fayed. How sad for anyone who is so beautiful and seem to have everything but peace of mind and happiness!

Don Jon***Jon Martello objectified everything in his life, his apartment, his car, his family, his church, and, of course, women.  Yet even the finest flings don’t compare to the transcendent bliss he achieves alone in front of the computer watching porn. Dissatisfied, he embarks on a journey to find a more gratifying sex life, but ends up learning larger lessons of life and love thru’ relationships with two very different women.

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light – Aristotle  Onassis

9 Dec 2013 – Wet in Chinatown

This is NOT the kind of news anyone wish to deal with on a Monday morning!

http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/little-india-riot/story/singapore-police-control-riot-little-india-20131209

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25294918

Mon: those who know me also know that I shy away from political and religious issues. But what just happened in SIN triggered a part of me that will not let me shy away from. Am both saddened about the situation in Little India and perturbed also at people who do not act in peace. But all easily said as the situation is more complex. C’est la vie mais la vie a sa douce côté trop…

‘Whatever events may have sparked the rioting, there is no excuse for such violent, destructive, and criminal behaviour –  Lee Hsien Loong SIN PM

‘Intolerable, wanton violence. It is not the Singapore way – Ng Joo Hee

Not only not the SIN way, violence should NEVER be the way anywhere!

Those who wish to visit or live in SIN should live by the SIN laws and if not, just get out, or change it for the better in peaceful and constructive methods. And those who create trouble should be deported. SIN has come a long way working hard to make this a clean and safe society.

Sun: Mario sent me a message that he will be late for our lunch appointment but was not online and thus did not receive the message. Imagine the relief seeing him after 1.30hrs wait and was just so glad that there was no need to file for any missing person. Learnt that for SIN, only after 40hrs one can then file for a missing person report, but for non-SIN, one can do so within the hour! Getting more paranoid after all that has happened in 2013 so far…

Tourist guiding Mario thru’ Chinatown and explaining that it is not easy for SIN pop of 80% of the Chinese race to keep this cosmopolitan society balance!! Was impressed the he was game for trying frog legs, rawfish salad and even durians. Such a fantastic tourist to show SIN and its foods to.  The wet rainy weather did not dampen his positive spirits. Thank you for his sunshine. He can be my guest anytime 🙂

Even managed to have a drink at The Dubliners Irish Pub located conveniently by the bus-stop where no. 36 heads direct to the airport 🙂 🙂

Safe and sound journeys back to Ireland until we meet again, stay safe and healthy.

7 Dec 2013 – If only I am Superwoman!

Thu: amazing how every one decides to travel to SIN around the same time! After seeing AmyCA off, bro Lawrence called to say that he will be arriving the next day. Started the day bright and early on the bus and view from the corridor at the National Dental Care. At cousin Ken for dentist appointment and the bad news is that one of the crowned tooth is infected and needs to be extracted and then implant! Ouch in every way, was told that the final bill will amount to S$5,000+

Good to catch up with Leonard, my computer guru for breakfast in Chinatown where the preparations for the Horse year galloping in even before Christmas! Off to the airport (more horse!) to pick up Lawrence.

Lunched at Paradise Inn***/Changi Airport T1 quite decent food and good soup. Thanks to Leonard for lunch. Lawrence and I took a short and quick trip to pay respects to our parents at Mandi Crematorium.

The day ended at Les&Ivy for a hot-pot dinner. Kat&Greg and Devon are in town, good to catch up with Les&Ivy’s whole family. Was just adding up the numbers our branch ie my siblings and their families (green, orange and purple generation) and we are total of 66, probably the largest branch for the green generation!

Fri: news of Mandela passing. This man spent 27yrs in prison for something he believed in and lived to see the changes he so hoped for! RIP Nelson Mandela! You were an inspiration to us all.

Met with Mario who is on his way back to Ireland after his month’s stay in Australia. A trip to Tiong Bahru Market and the Botanic Gardens. Not a good day for the body. Had to stay and rest in the library while Mario went strolling about the gardens. Splitting headache and fever. Apologies, Mario unable to show you around in the afternoon. Need to rest for a day before I collapse.

Sat: our bodies hold all of the information we need to function at our best, but too often we ignore their messages and plow ahead with what our minds tell us ignoring what our bodies are saying. So now to rest rest and more rest. Coughing and no appetite, just as well… need to lose weight 🙂

Your body is a sophisticated, intelligent machine, but too often we fail to understand them because we don’t value them as highly as we should –

5 Dec 2013 – Second Cousins

Sun: thus starts this first Sunday of Advent on 1 Dec. Dank je wel/thank you in Dutch to nephew Clement for letting me watched movies at his lovely bachelor-pad and thank you to 4th sis-in-law Poh Kit, nieces Judy & Daisy and grand-nephew Darryl for dinner company and shopping at Ikea

Tue: welcome cousin Amy back for her second visit in wet rainy SIN. Wed morning nasi lemak breakfast and some shopping in the MP area before heading to the museums for the afternoon.

Quite coincidentally, Amy is my name sake, same generation but nearer to Linn’s age and she also married and divorced a Norwegian!! So we will be referred to AmyCA and me as AmySG when both of us are in the same picture.

Thank you Joy LAM-THIO for a delicious dinner with the yummy Roasted Almond Chicken as their signature dish at Shang Palace****/ShangriLa Hotel. The last time I saw Joy was in the 1950s and for AmyCA, this is their first meeting. Later in the evening, managed to connect the dots. Joy’s father was my father’s first cousin, ie Joy’s and AmyCA’s grandfather was my grandfather’s brother.

Joy’s father uncle LAM YatChong was from the first wife and he passed on in 1951 before she was born. AmyCA’s father uncle LAM YatMeng is from the second wife. Met up with him and his family for the first time a few years ago during their SE Asia visit and again in Oct during my CA visit.

Pix of grandfather LAM SongKee, grand uncle LAM JieChiew and their families in the 1930s

Wed: great to catch up with AmyCA. Delighted to re-connect with a long-lost cousin Joy and she certainly lives up to her name, a joy to be in her company. Safe journeys to both who will be travelling in different directions, one back home to CA via HKG and the other to Canada for her Christmas holidays.

Special Dec dates:

14 Happy Bdays Ingrid HUSTAD & LAM Cheng Chwab

16 Happy Bday Andy LAM

23 Happy Bday Minos LAM

24 Happy 14th Anniversary Patricia LAM & Albert CHUA

25 Merry Christmas

27 Happy Bday Lisa XIAO

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves – Buddha

The end of Nov 2013

Fri: Happy Birthday to eldest grandson John W, the only one of my grandchildren born in SIN 7yrs ago! Pix with L&M of his first wedding party! when niece PatLynn got married to David.

This Salvatore Ferragamo at Paragon Shopping Centre is ready for the Black Friday Deals! I for one will not stand in line waiting to get into any shop!! Would rather do without.

Lisa comment on FB, ‘Jus passing bystander right aunty Amy Lam? Or it’s ur YOLO moment? Lol’. My answer, just a passer-by and was amazed that people would stand in line to get into the shop! My first thought was that I do not even own anything from this brand until I remembered this, and NO I did not buy it, tkx to Linn 🙂

The halls in Paragon are all ready and decked this year which seem to be leaning on the angelic theme. Am a fan of tiny angels and have a host with the biggest no bigger than 2”/5cm in height. Will get my Christmas village out sometime soon, but first the advent calendar 🙂 🙂

Thank you Hong Sze for lunch at the Tanglin Club. Nice to be updated with our latest happenings and joining the dots! Have known HS for 6 decades. Our parents were good friends and glad that we have managed to continue with our friendship, following the tradition of our parents. Both HS & KK were my first male play-mates who are not in the family. Quite amazing to think that my parents allowed me to slumber at their homes when we were kids 🙂 🙂 🙂

Sat: Peggy hosted a popiah party for 1962 class-mates from CHIJ. Dessert of local cakes and fruits by me! Sitting from left: Lynne who lives in Oxford/UK,  Rebecca, Sylvia, Juliana, Evelyn; standing from left: Janet (Peggy’s sister) me, Peggy, Penny, Shirley, Lydia and Pat. Except for Juliana and Janet, have known the others since 1962. Appreciations to Peggy for a heart-warming cheerful afternoon on this grey rainy day.

28 Nov 2013 – Happy Thanksgiving