Gibran : On Children

Christmas Day. One cannot help but think of children on Christmas Day.

We think of the child Jesus asleep in the manger. We think of our own children and the children of our family and friends. We think of the children on the streets who have no homes and possibly no gifts. We remember ourselves as children and recall the Christmases of our past.

For today, as a child myself, I remember my parents.

Mother had a poem taped inside one of her cabinets. She has had it for as long as I can remember. Reading this poem as a child is different from reading this poem as a parent. I should go and tape this poem on my own cabinet.

Merry Christmas.

ON CHILDREN

by Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,

and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies,

so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Animal Voiceovers

GI knows how much I love to laugh. He often relays jokes he gets off the internet and we have a good laugh.

Today, he sent ME (moi) a FaceBook message which said, "HI MOM WATCH THIS VIDEO."

Hope you have a good laugh, too.

No Mixer? No Problem!

The electric hand mixer Mindy gave me as a present many years ago conked out as I was about to take my mandatory leave. (Talk about lousy timing.) I haven't purchased a replacement because I am still hoping against hope that it is something MacGyver can fix. Since he hadn't found the time to troubleshoot the mixer, my baking adventures came to a halt.

No cookies? No cake? No goodies?

NO WAY!

I decided that I just HAD to bake something ... anything!

MyGirl and I flipped through cookbooks and food magazines and recipes. We finally decided that in spite our handicap, we could still manage this cheesecake recipe.

JELLY CHEESECAKE

Base:

250 g Nice biscuits, crushed

150 g butter, melted

Filling:

110 g cream cheese

3/4 c sugar

1 x 375 ml can evaporated milk

1 x 85 g packet lemon jelly crystals

1 c boiling water

1 T lemon juice

Topping (optional):

whipped cream

grated lemon zest

Preheat oven 150 C. Grease 20 cm springform pan,

Mix biscuit crumbs with melted butter. Press into prepared tin.

Cook in oven 10 minutes. Then put in refrigerator to cool.

Beat cream cheese and sugar until combined.

In separate bowl, beat milk until very thick.

Add cream cheese into milk and beat in.

Dissolve jelly in hot water and allow to cool.

When cold, add lemon juice to jelly.

Then add jelly to cream cheese mixture and stir well.

Pour on top of biscuit base then refrigerate to set.

Decorate with whipped cream and lemon zest.

MyGirl and I made a special trip to the grocery to make sure we had all the ingredients we needed.

We couldn't find lemon jelly crystals so we settled for lime jelly crystals and lime juice for our cheesecake.

We told ourselves that we would simply had to make do. We knew that

the longer we delayed our cheesecake adventure, the higher the risk that our ingredients got consumed.

Take the biscuits, for instance. Earlier on I had purchased a pack of Nice biscuits for this recipe. However, since we didn't have the jelly crystals, we couldn't make the cheesecake yet. One day, the kids raided the pantry and snacked on the biscuits. Before I knew it, the whole pack was gone. (They said it reminded them of the butter coconut cookies from back home.)

Yesterday evening, after dinner, while MacGyver and RD played chess (and GI shot at bad guys on his PC), MyGirl and I got our hands dirty in the kitchen. I knew that the cheesecake required setting in the refrigerator so while MyGirl worked on the jelly cheesecake while I made an orange cake which we could eat for dessert.

Here is a picture of MyGirl with her creation before we divided it into ten.

Gotta Present

RD was asked by his teacher to discuss the present positive features and possible improvements for the the Year 7 Science Program. He prepared the Powerpoint slides and his speech all on his own.

On Tuesday 30 November 2010, RD presented this to members of the faculty at his High School.

This afternoon, when he arrived home from school, he proudly announced that he received a small token of appreciation for his presentation (and that the teachers were still talking about how impressed they were at his presentation).

Here is 'Serious RD.'

This is the RD the faculty watched yesterday,

the one that made his teacher proud.

Here is the 'Funny RD.'

This is the RD we have watched grow up,

the one that makes his parents proud.

(Like the title? Present as a verb or present as a noun?)

Honey Roasted Cashews

I had chicken wings marinated in hoisin sauce ready waiting to be cooked for dinner. Since these would be going into the oven, I wanted to bake something else while the oven was on. The hand blender I got from Mindy conked out on me the other day, so cookies and the like were out of the question. I decided to try yet another recipe for honey roasted nuts.

You see I am still trying to replicate the honey roasted macadamia nuts they sell commercially. I haven't quite figured out the recipe. (Any suggestions, Mother?)

This is the version of the one I tried tonight. It still did not replicate the commercially sold honey roasted nuts, but it is a winner. It was sweet and salty, and kind of addictive. Needless to say, it was calorie-laden.

HONEY ROASTED CASHEW NUTS

NUTS:

4 c salted cashews

CARAMEL:

1/2 c sugar

1/4 c honey

1/4 c butter

SPICE MIXTURE:

2 T sugar

2 t ground cinnamon

1 t salt

1 t paprika

1/4 t white pepper

Heat oven to 350ºC.

Line baking pan with aluminum foil.

Place nuts in a even layer on prepared pan.

Roast for 5 minutes.

Transfer to a bowl.

Combine caramel ingredients in a saucepan to make syrup.

Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring occasionally.

Once boiling, do not stir. Boil for 5 minutes.

While syrup is cooking, combine ingredients for spice mixture.

Pour hot syrup over nuts. Stir well.

Sprinkle with spice mixture and stir well.

Transfer to baking sheet and separate with fork.

Allow to cool completely. Store in air-tight container.

(Notes : Original recipe used 1 cup each of almonds, pecans, unsalted cashews and macadamia nuts. Since I was using salted cashews, I reduced the salt from 1 1/2 t to 1 t, and roasted for 5 minutes instead of original 12 to 15 minutes. The original recipe called for 1 t ground cloves and 1/2 t pepper. There are no ground cloves in the above recipe simply because that spice is not something I have in the kitchen. I reduced the amount of pepper because the kids don't particularly like too much pepper in their food. I assumed it was white pepper but I guess black pepper would have worked just as well. )

We'll Weather the Weather

This image comes from GI who has this to say about the weather for the coming days, "Rain, Sun, Rain, Sun. MAKE UP YOUR MIND.

I guess I just have to remind him that we live in Australia now. GI, if you must know ...

Whether the weather be fine

Whether the weather be not

Whether the weather be cold

Whether the weather be hot

We'll weather the weather

Whatever the weather

Whether we like it or not

Union Jack Through the Years

When GI was still a baby, we got some singlets (sandos) for him. These particular singlets grew with him. I think he was wearing some of them until age two or three until we decided to set them aside. These singlets eventually got passed on to RD. Of course by then, these were kind of stretched and thinned out from all the washing and wearing.

When he was about 3 or 4 years old, he got a brand new singlet with the Union Jack on it. It was too big for him at the time but he liked wearing it nonetheless. It was so big that it went below his knees up to his shin and oftentimes one side of the top would drop off his shoulder.

By the time he was nine, the shirt was just the right size for him. Check out this picture taken in March 2003. GI is wearing the singlet in question. (Notice how bright the colors are.)

The year is now 2010 and the singlet has not yet been retired. This picture was taken last week when the weather turned warm and GI wore his Union Jack singlet, now faded and 'slightly' stretched.

I wanted to have him pose with a frisbee but he refused. I think I should have asked him to stand up so everyone can see how big he is now. You would have seen his belly button if he were standing up.

When I see GI in this shirt, I can still imagine my little angel in his oversized singlet going down the stairs the first time he wore the shirt.

Love Macadamias

When we were younger, Father would bring home macadamia nuts from his trips abroad. They were always special treats.

Often, they would come in those distinctive blue cans.

Sometimes, they would be covered with chocolate.
( Oh, yeah! )

I always thought that macadamia nuts only came from Hawaii. How great is it to find out that the macadamia nut is the only plant food native to Australia that is produced and exported in any significant quantity?

No wonder when someone was heading back for the Philippines, Father's only request for pasalubong (present) was macadamia nuts. We were told that he was partial to the dry roasted and salted ones. No problem.... or so I thought. Lo and behold, there were plain ones and there were honey roasted ones, but I couldn't find salted ones.

I found ONE bag of salted macadamia nuts among all the bags of nuts on the display in one of the grocery stores I visited. Naturally I got that so that I had something to send home. I wish I had found more but unfortunately there was none to be found. I could not find any in the many grocery stores I passed by.

I was really hoping to send more macadamia nuts for Father (and Mother and Z) to enjoy so I got them a pack each of plain ones and honey roasted. I hope they liked them. I love the honey roasted ones ... but that is me and my sweet tooth.

I got an extra bag of the plain ones to experiment whether I could honey roast the nuts myself.

Ahhh ... the well laid plans of mice and men ...

... the result of my experiment was not quite comparable to the real thing.

a. I didn't get a nice crunchy coating on the nuts

b. some of the nuts got toasted, instead of just roasted

c. they just didn't taste the same

However, on the positive side, macadamia nuts ARE macadamia nuts. Plus sprinkling them with a mixture of powdered sugar and ground cinnamon AFTER they've been roasted with honey certainly makes them value added nuts.

So in spite the fact that the ones I made paled in comparison to the honey roasted ones they sell in the market and in the stores, they were gobbled up in an instant.

Smile!

SMILE!!!

Special people in your life

whether near or far

will always warm your heart

will always make you smile.

Two for the Price of One

MacGyver got us some squid from the big Asian store at Blacktown.

To our surprise, there was more than just squid in the bag.

We just had the calamares for dinner, not the fish.

Defiance

I chanced upon the movie Defiance at the library. I was glad I picked it up.

Impressive as it may seem that the movie boasted the latest James Bond star Daniel Craig and that it was from the director of Blood Diamond and The Last Samurai, these were not what led me to borrow this movie. What piqued my curiosity was the fact that the movie was based on a true story about World War II that I had not previously known.

It was about the Bielski brothers, Tuvia, Zus and Asael, who fled to the forest after both their parents were killed in 1941 during the Second World War. They were joined by other Jews from their Polish town wanting to escape from the Germans. In the forest, they formed a resistance group to protect themselves with Tuvia as their leader. They tried to have some semblance of normalcy by setting themselves up as a village with everyone assigned tasks as more and more people joined them. Their number grew to reach over 1,000.

It is mentioned that the Bielskis never sought recognition for what they did but that the number of the descendants they saved are in the tens of thousands.

Amazing, really.

Shrek Rewards

MyGirl holds the distinction of being the first in her class to get all 3 "Shrek Rewards".

It all started when her teacher Mrs. Em went away for a few days and then came back with a huge Shrek plush toy. Mrs. Em devised a rewards program wherein Shrek was the incentive. If a child was noticeably good for the day, Shrek was 'awarded' to that child for the day.

A few weeks later, Mrs. Em went away another time and came back with Puss in Boots and Donkey. Apparently, while Mrs. Em was on leave, she had seen the other stuffed characters on sale for $40. Much as she wanted to get Puss and Donkey, she had found them too expensive. She kept going back to the store and found the price going from $40 to $30 to $20. When the store brought the price down to $15, Mrs. Em decided to get both of them.

Whereas Shrek was for general things,

like not talking, getting work done,

and just being a good student,

Donkey was for putting one's hand up all the time

and Puss was for helping someone.

MyGirl got Donkey first, then Puss, then Shrek twice.

(Keep up the good work, MyGirl.)

New Saint : Mary of the Cross

In Rome today, Pope Benedict XVI will canonise Mary MacKillop and she will become the first Australian-born saint.

Taken from the 26 Sept 2010 weekly newsletter of St. Bernadette's Parish Community.

Mary Helen MacKillop was born in Fitzroy, Victoria on 15 January 1842. When baptised six weeks later, she received the names Maria Ellen. Her father, Alexander, was educated in Rome for the Catholic priesthood but, at the age of 29, left just before his ordination. He decided to migrate to Australia and arrived in Sydney in 1838. Her mother, Flora MacDonald, left Scotland and arrived in Melbourne in 1840.

They were married in Melbourne on 14 July 1840 and eventually Mary was born, followed by another seven children: Margaret (Maggie) 1843-1872, John 1845-1867, Annie 184801929, Lexie (Alexandrina) 1850-1882, 1850-1882, Donald 1853-1925, Alick who died only 11 months old and Peter 1857-1878. Donald would later become a Jesuit priest and work among the aborigines in the Northern Territory and Lexie became a nun.

Mary, the eldest of their children, was educated at private schools and by her father. She received her First Holy Communion on 15 August 1850 at the unusually early age of 9. In February 1851, Alexander MacKillop left his family behind after having mortgaged the farm and their livelihood and made a trip to Scotland lasting some 17 months. Throughout his life he was a loving father and husband but never able to make a success of his farm. He was even worse as a politician or at any kind of job. During most of the times the family had to survive on the small wages the children were able to bring home.

MacKillop started work at the age of 14 as a clerk in Melbourne and later as a teacher in Portland. To provide for her needy family she took a job as governess in 1860 at her aunt and uncle's place at Penola in South Australia. She was to look after their children and teach them. Already set on helping the poor whenever possible, she included the other farm children on the Cameron estate as well.

This brought her into contact with Father Julian Tenison Woods, who had been the parish priest in the south east since his ordination to the priesthood in 1857 after completing his studies at Sevenhill.

Woods had been very concerned about the lack of education, and particularly Catholic education, in South Australia. When he started his school he was soon appointed director of education and became the founder, with Mary, of the Sisters of St Joseph who would teach in his schools.

MacKillop stayed for two years with the Camerons of Penola before accepting a job teaching the Cameron children of Portland, Victoria. Later she taught at the Portland school and, after opening her own boarding school, 'Bay View House Seminary for Young Ladies', now Bayview College, in 1864, was joined by the rest of her family. While teaching at Portland, Father Woods invited MacKillop and her sisters Annie and Lexie to come to Penola and open a Catholic school there. In 1866, a school was opened in a stable and, after renovations by their brother, the MacKillops started teaching more than fifty children. In the same year, at age 25, she adopted the religious name Sister Mary of the Cross.

In 1867, MacKillop became the first sister and mother superior of the newly formed order of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and moved to the new convent in Grote Street, Adelaide. There, they founded a new school at the request of Bishop Laurence Sheil. Dedicated to the education of the children of the poor, it was the first religious order to be founded by an Australian. The rules written up by Father Woods and MacKillop for the sisters to live by were: An emphasis on poverty, a dependence on divine providence, no ownership of personal belongings and faith that God would provide and the sisters would go wherever they were needed. The rules were approved by Bishop Sheil. By the end of 1867, ten other sisters had joined the Josephites.

In an attempt to provide education to all the poor, particularly in country areas, a school was opened at Yankalilla in October 1867. By the end of 1869, more than 70 Sisters were educating children at 21 schools in Adelaide and the country. MacKillop and her Josephites were also involved with an orphanage; neglected children; girls in danger; the aged poor; a reformatory (in Johnstown near Kapunda); a home for the aged and incurably ill. Generally, the Sisters were prepared to follow farmers, railway workers and miners into the isolated outback and live as they lived. They shared the same hardships whilst educating their children.

In 1871, they also established a school in Burra. During this eventful year, MacKillop was excommunicated by Bishop Sheil, who was against most of the things she had fought for, on the grounds that "she had incited the sisters to disobedience and defiance". The rule of life MacKillop had adopted when she founded the Josephites was a source of tension between the order and the church hierarchy. Bishop Sheil did not approve of the sisters' way of life, while MacKillop believed that she was following a call from God. As director of education, Father Tenison Woods came into conflict with other members of the clergy over educational practices, adding to the tension between the Josephites and the bishop.

In September 1871, the day after a meeting with Father Charles Horan, Sheil excommunicated MacKillop for insubordination and attempted to disband the sisters. Shortly before his death, Sheil instructed Fr Hughes, on 23 February 1872, to lift the censure on MacKillop. He met her on his way to Willunga and absolved her in the Morphett Vale church. Later, an Episcopal Commission completely exonerated her. Father John.

Spring Forward, Fall Back

We are now officially on Daylight Savings Time. At 2am yesterday morning, some states in Australia, including New South Wales (where we are), Victoria, the Australia Capital Territory (ACT), South Australia and Tasmania adjusted clocks by an hour. (Apparently, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not have daylight saving.)

We have just "lost" one hour and are now three hours ahead of the Philippines.

Perhaps all the talk about DST got to me. I woke up this morning and remembered that I just had a DST nightmare. In my dream, I had been in a place where the clocks had not been adjusted so by the time I realized what time it really was, I was late for work. I dashed out to get to the office. I sent a message to my boss to say that I would be late. I can't remember the details, all I remember is that the bus ride seemed to be taking forever and that I was running late.

I woke up before my alarm went off but since it is Labour Day today, I decided to catch extra z's.

Tomorrow when I report to work, I am 110% certain that the clock at the office will have the right time. It has been one hour ahead since Fall, when DST ended. Finally, it has caught up to real time.

Is There Enough Time?

There never seems to be enough time.

There is not enough time for the things other people want you to do.

There is not even enough time for the things you want to do.

However, there is always enough time for what God wants you to do.

Make the best out of your 24 hours.

FWD : Planting Rice

(I found this simply amazing.) This looks like ordinary Japanese people, planting ordinary rice in an ordinary rice paddy. But as you scroll down, a picture emerges as the rice grows. Farmers creating the huge displays use no ink or dye. Instead, different color rice plants have been precisely and strategically arranged and grown in the paddy fields. As summer progresses and the plants shoot up, the detailed artwork begins to emerge. A Sengoku warrior on horseback has been created from hundreds of thousands of rice plants. The colors are created by using different varieties. This photo was taken in Inakadate, Japan. Napoleon on horseback can be seen from the skies. This was created by precision planting and months of planning by villagers and farmers located in Inkadate, Japan. Fictional warrior Naoe Kanetsugu and his wife, Osen, whose lives are featured on the television series Tenchijin, appear in fields in the town of Yonezawa in the Yamagata prefecture of Japan. This year, various artwork has popped up in other rice-farming areas of Japan, including designs of deer dancers. Smaller works of crop art can be seen in other rice-farming areas of Japan such as this image of Doraemon and deer dancers The farmers create the murals by planting little purple and yellow-leafed Kodaimai rice along with their local green-leafed Tsugaru, a Roman variety, to create the colored patterns in the time between planting and harvesting in September. The murals in Inakadate cover 15,000 square meters of paddy fields. From ground level, the designs are invisible, and viewers have to climb the mock castle tower of the village office to get a glimpse of the work. Closer to the image, the careful placement of the thousands of rice plants in the paddy fields can be seen. Rice-paddy art was started there in 1993 as a local revitalization project, an idea that grew from meetings of the village committees. The different varieties of rice plants grow alongside each other to create the masterpieces. In the first nine years, the village office workers and local farmers grew a simple design of Mount Iwaki every year. But their ideas grew more complicated and attracted more attention. In 2005, agreements between landowners allowed the creation of enormous rice paddy art. A year later, organizers used computers to precisely plot planting of the four differently colored rice varieties that bring the images to life.

Old Habits Die Hard

The priest at mass today told an interesting story as part of his homily.

Essentially, he relayed the story of an old priest who walked through the forest with some young seminarians.

The old priest asked one of them to pull out a young oak sapling. Easily the seminarian was able to pull the sapling with one hand. Then the old priest pointed to another oak sapling and asked him to pull that one out. The second one was a little bigger than the first. The seminarian was able to extract the tree but he needed two hands to do so. The old priest then asked the seminarian to pull out a third tree, one which was much bigger than the first two. The seminarian could not pull it out on his own however with the help of some of his fellow seminarians, he was able to extract the oak. Finally, the old priest pointed to a huge oak tree. He asked the seminarian to extract the tree. This time, even with the help of his fellow seminarians, he was unable to make the tree budge.

The old priest then said that it was the same with bad habits. It is easier to get rid of bad habits if we nip them in the bud. Once bad habits have been with us for a long time and have taken root, it is harder to change.

Penguin Movement

For his Music assessment, RD had to compose a short melody that represents an animal (choices were monkey, mouse, hippopotamus or penguin). He had to consider note values, pitch and tone colour/instrument. It had to be at least 4 bars long and it was to be notated correctly.

RD chose a penguin.

When he'd finished entering his composition in NoteWorthy, he passed on the headphones to me and let me listen to it. It was cute.

Right after he played it, he said, "Wait, wait."

He proceeded to highlight the notes in the middle and changed them from eighth notes to quarter notes. Then he let me listen to the revised composition.

"Which is better? This one or the first one?" he asked.

Arrggghhh, I thought. This reminds me of the part in my visits to the ophthalmologist that I dislike, the part where I have to choose where the letters are clearer -- green one or red one, this one ... flip... or this one... flip. I don't mind it when the difference is clear but sometimes I honestly can't tell. The image is clearer but the letters are smaller. Arrggghhh!!!

Thankfully, it was easy to decide between the two penguin compositions. The quarter note version had more character. "I like the second one better, RD."

Video coming soon

Not Your Ordinary Music Box

I didn't realize that music boxes could have these many notes. It's simply amazing!

Music boxes have always fascinated me.

I have collected a number over the years.

The first music box I remember was a brown jewelry box with a ballerina inside. To wind the music box, one had to use the key located in the back of the box. When wound, the music would play when the jewelry box was opened. The ballerina would stand up and turn as the music played. We lost the key to the music box at a certain point in time and had to use a bobby pin to wind the movement. Over the years, the music box got over-wound, the ballerina got lost and only the jewelry box remained.

Then someone gave me two music box movements, my first Hurdy Gurdy pieces. I would take them out of the box and put them on my brown table. (The music resonates better when the Hurdy Gurdy is played over a wood surface.) I would turn the crank and listen to the music play. I would watch as the teeth of the steel comb would make a sound as they hit one or more of the pins found in the rotating cylinder. I could choose the speed at which the music played by controlling the crank.

Mother would sometimes get me music boxes or music box movements from the San Francisco Music Box Company whenever they find themselves in that side of the States. My siblings have also kept a look out for music boxes and music box movements for me over the years.

Though I love my music box collection, I am partial to the ones that play Pachelbel's Canon in D and the theme from Somewhere in Time (Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini).

However, I must admit that the music box I wish I could listen to more often is the one that plays Silent Night. Check it out here.

Symphony of Bells

It is the first day of September. If we were in Manila, I am sure there would have been Christmas carols playing on the radio or possibly Christmas decor out on display some place.

As for me, I am reminded of my perpetual desire to own a Mr. Christmas Symphony of Bells music box.

I remember that blasted BPI ATM at the Greenhills Shopping mall that wouldn't dispense P1,200 so that I could buy the Disney Christmas bells which played Christmas carols. Not only did it not dispense my cash, it debited my account and it took two weeks for me to retrieve the money. (You know how long it takes to do recon.) Then by the time I got the cash, the Christmas bells were gone.

I figure if I can't have the Symphony of Bells, I could still enjoy its music.

You are Mine

15 August 2010.

Today is supposed to be a special day.

Odds and ends of thoughts race through my mind today.

A former officemate of mine passed away a couple of weeks ago.

She had been diagnosed with cancer last year before we left for Australia.

This song is playing in my head today.

Can I request for this to be played during my funeral mass?

YOU ARE MINE

by David Haas

I will come to you in the silence
I will lift you from all your fear
You will hear My voice
I claim you as My choice
Be still, and know I am near

I am hope for all who are hopeless
I am eyes for all who long to see
In the shadows of the night,
I will be your light
Come and rest in Me

Chorus
Do not be afraid, I am with you
I have called you each by name
Come and follow Me
I will bring you home
I love you and you are mine

I am strength for all the despairing
Healing for the ones who dwell in shame
All the blind will see, the lame will all run free
And all will know My name

Chorus
Do not be afraid, I am with you
I have called you each by name
Come and follow Me
I will bring you home
I love you and you are mine

I am the Word that leads all to freedom
I am the peace the world cannot give
I will call your name, embracing all your pain
Stand up, now, walk, and live

Chorus
Do not be afraid, I am with you
I have called you each by name
Come and follow Me
I will bring you home
I love you and you are mine

/*

For Whom the Bell Tolls

When we were young, carefree and unattached (as Mother likes to put it, describing the time when we were all unmarried and living together under one roof), we would ring the bell which hung on my study room table.

The bell itself was essentially just a bell. OK, there was some slight sentimental value to the bell because it was the giveaway at our JS Prom when I was a junior. But that was many, many years and one boyfriend ago.

Going back to ringing the bell. The bell would be rung to gather family members around the altar located in the study room, above Mindy's table, so that we could pray the family rosary together.

As the years passed, sadly this tradition ceased to continue. Father and Mother continue to pray their rosary at night but possibly because Cebu Avenue is practically an empty nest, ringing the bell is no longer part of the routine. People are welcome to join the rosary if they are around but there is no audible call to the occasion.

At our place in Makati, we used to have a bell, too. However, the purpose of the bell was different and it almost always got its job done. The bell was used to get people, mainly the children, to come downstairs for meals or for vitamins. We figured it was better than shouting each child's name to call for eating time.

I liked that bell. I wish I had packed it in our shipping box. It definitely knew how to serve its purpose. Of course any old bell would do if you really thought about it and were not very picky. (And yes, the old fashioned way of going up the stairs and calling the person would also work.) But I suppose I like to keep little bits and pieces of our past life alive. So when I saw a small bell on sale, I picked it up and bought it.

It isn't as fancy as our old 'eating time' bell and cannot be hung like my HS memento. In fact it is just one of those bells that look like something you'd find in school or something the ice cream man (mamang sorbetero) would be using. But I'm pleased with it because it has a nice ring to it and it gets the job done.

The other day, as the rice got cooked and the food was being placed on the table, I told RD to ring the bell.

"Why, Mom," he asked, "we're all here."

"It's to let people know that they should go to the dinner table already. You know how SOME people are," I said purposely, looking at GI as I said it.

RD dutifully rang the bell and it took GI ages to leave his computer and join the rest at table.

See what I mean?

So Full, Eh?

I thought that souffles were difficult to make but apparently they are not THAT hard to do. Since I was home for the day to make up for the half-day I spent at work last 02 August, I decided to try one of the recipes I had copied from a magazine.

When I mentioned at the dinner table that the souffle baking time was only 15-20 minutes, RD said, "That's not too bad. We can even make it on a weekday. Hey, it IS a weekday!"

I can't help but smile when I remember RD saying, "I don't think I can finish all this!" (only to show me his empty ramekin).

I do realize that I should be making savory, rather than sweet, souffles so these could be dinner rather than dessert. Maybe next time.

Hot Chocolate Souffle

(serves 6)

60 g butter

1/2 c (75 g) plain flour

300 ml milk

150 g dark chocolate melted

4 eggs, separated

2 t vanilla extract

1/2 c (110g) caster sugar

icing sugar, to dust

thickened cream, to serve

Preheat oven to 200ºC

Grease six 1-cup ramekins

Place on baking tray

Melt butter in saucepan on low heat

Stir in flour and cook 1 minute

Remove from heat and mix in milk

Return to medium heat, stir until sauce boils

Stir in chocolate and vanilla

Remove from heat

Cool slightly

Beat in egg yolks one at a time

Transfer to large bowl

Set aside to cool

Beat egg whites in large bowl until soft peaks

Gradually beat in sugar until stiff peaks form

Fold into chocolate mixture

(I ended up folding the chocolate into the beaten eggwhites)

Spoon into ramekins.

Bake 15 - 20 minutes until souffles rise

Dust with icing sugar

Serve with cream

Can you tell how happy MyGirl is with our souffle?

Unfortunately you can't appreciate what the souffle looks like

with all the whipped cream we put on top of it.

Amazing Clock

It is a bank holiday today so ... I had to go to work. (?!!)

You see, I was able to stay home the past few public holidays (Easter Monday - 5 April; Anzac Day holiday - 26 April; Queen's birthday - 14 June) so today was my turn to go to office. Previously, my other officemates had to 'man the shop.'

Fortunately, we are only supposed to report for half a day and they are not very strict about what time you arrive, as long as you are able to complete the work to be done. So although I was at Sydney before 9am, I decided to hang around the Queen Victoria Building and enjoy the sights and sounds there.

I waited for the Royal Clock to strike 9. I was hoping to see the moving display but unfortunately there wasn't any. (I still hope to catch it another time.)

As you can see in the picture above, it is exactly 9:00 am,

Monday the 2nd of the month.

Check out the ship located about on the lower left side of the photo below the number 31.

The ship is the clock's "second hand" and it takes a minute for it to go around the clock.

It is now 9:01 am. The ship has moved after a couple of seconds.

It is now between the numbers 2 and 3.

In spite the 'no show' of the clock display, I still feel that the visit to QVB was worth it.

I was able to see the dioramas around the clock. I was able to hear the bells ring nine times. I was able to see the discs around the clock rotate slowly. But most of all, I was able to see the ship that 'sailed' around the clock and completed its rotation in one minute's time.

Below are the first five of the fifteen dioramas. I have yet to find the other ten.

1/15 -- Aborigines before White settlement.

2/15 -- Captain Cook's landing 1770

3/15 -- Second Fleet Landing 1790

4/15 -- Crossing of the Blue Mountains 1813

5/15 -- The Taking of the Children