The Cat in the Hat Comes Back

Dr. Seuss exhibit at the QVB Building across the street from my office.

The Power of Now

Someone posted this on their FB wall yesterday.  It was a good reminder.

Eckhart Tolle has his bestselling book entitled The Power of Now which stressed the importance of living in the present.   Jacques Philippe said in his book Interior Freedom says "It is a mistake to add the burden of the past to the weight of the present, it's a still worse mistake to burden the present with the future."  And that hearts anxious about tomorrow can't be open to the grace of the present moment.  

And of course, we know that St. Matthew wrote, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

So may we all be present in the present.

Day to Relax

I'm on leave today!

MacGyver and I are celebrating our anniversary.

Apparently, it's National Relaxation Day.  I can live with that.

Tree of Life

I was crossing the street to get to the office this morning

and what do I see?

This Nudie Coconut Water truck.

When I got to the other side of the street,

I pulled out my phone

and took a shot of the truck.

Why?

Because it reminded me of my mom.

(Hi Mom, I miss you!)

One of the earliest things I learned from her about coconuts

is that coconuts are the TREE OF LIFE.
(And we all know that mothers know best, right?)

So if I ever felt like having some buko juice, 

at least I know it is locally available.

Morning Ritual

I often see this lady in church when I go to mass in the morning.  I think she is homeless.  She carries around two big bags and several smaller ones, and she is always wearing the same clothes.  

This morning, I left the house a little earlier than normal and I caught sight of her at Wynyard Park.

She may not have much, but the little she has she shares.  

She was busy feeding the birds with a loaf of bread. 

God bless her.

Look, Up in the Sky

MyGirl and I walked to the mall to get the things we needed for cooking and baking yesterday.  It was a beautiful day.  It was nice and sunny and the sky was beautiful.  (The sky is always beautiful.)

I was so confident about the weather behaving that not only did I leave the laundry out to dry, but I also left a container of "five minutes a day dough" on a bench outside to rise.  On a normal day in the home country, I would simply leave dough on the kitchen counter and it would rise beautifully every time (granting I didn't kill the yeast with water that was too hot).  Here Down Under, I feel that room temperature is not always as cooperative to rising dough so I have resorted to placing dough in the oven which I bring up to about 80 to 90 degrees then turn off.  However, yesterday, in spite it being the middle of winter, it was a nice warm day and I felt the outside temperature would be nice enough to get my dough rising.

True enough.  When MyGirl and I got back from our walk, the dough was all the way up to the cover of the container and ready to go.

Beautiful, beautiful day.

Let us thank the Lord for everyday is beautiful.  And when look up in the sky, there does not need to be a bird or a plane (or Superman), the sky is more than enough.

When Life Gives You Lemons

When life gives you lemons ... make lemon meringue pie!

That's exactly what MyGirl and I did today ... with two of the three lemons we had left from a bag of lemons I got on discount several weeks ago.

I say "MyGirl and I" but the truth is, MyGirl did most of the work mainly because she was the one who wanted to make the lemon meringue pie.  I just wanted to put the lemons to good use.  If I had my way, I would make lemon squares because they are easy to make.  Of course I know that whenever I make lemon squares, I end up eating most of it because the rest of the family don't like the 'tang' as much as I do.  So when MyGirl suggested lemon meringue pie, I was all for it.

I think the lemon meringue pie idea came from having caught an episode of The Great Australian Bake Off a couple of weeks back where their technical challenge was to make a lemon meringue pie.  Out of curiosity (and because there were some left over lemons), I had searched up the recipe and emailed it to MyGirl back in July.  

Here we were in August and the lemons were still on the counter.  So those lemons just had to made into something ... anything!

I pulled out my cookbook and we checked whether we had all the needed ingredients.  

(Can you tell there was a lemon pie recipe in this cookbook?)

I discovered we didn't have enough biscuits to make a crumb crust, so I decided to make a flaky pastry pie crust from scratch instead.  When the dough had rested in the refrigerator for about half an hour, I called MyGirl to get started with the pie (since I had to work on getting lunch ready).

She rolled out the dough and transferred it onto the pie plate. I put the crust in the oven to bake while she prepared the filling.  After she made the filling, she did the meringue.  

I swear I can leave her in the kitchen and she can whip up desserts on her own.  When I asked her if she had added the sugar to the beaten egg whites slowly, she replied, "Mom,  I KNOW how to make a meringue!"  (Indeed she does.)

Truly this pie was MyGirl's creation.  She even got the thumbs up from her oldest brother.  Now THAT says a lot about how good the pie was.   (On my part, I knew the crust was good because RD refused to let me have a bite off the crust which he has saved for last.)

Recipe : Magic Lemon Pie

1           14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c     lemon juice
1 t         grated lemon zest
2           eggs, separated
1          8- or 9-inch crumb or baked pastry pie shell
1/4 t     cream of tartar
1/4 c     sugar

Preheat oven to 325 deg.
In a mixing bowl, combine condensed milk, lemon juice, lemon zest and egg yolks.
Stir until mixture thickens.
Pour into chilled crumb crust or cooled pastry shell.
Combine egg whites and cream of tartar in a medium bowl.
Beat until almost stiff enough to hold a peak.
Add sugar gradually, beating until stiff and glossy, but not dry.
Pile lightly onto pie filling.
Bake in pre-heated oven for 25 to 28 minutes or until meringue is lightly browned.
Cool and serve.

This recipe was adapted from another cookbook where it called for 3T butter and 2T shortening (and using a food processor and resting time of an hour). Since Crisco is not an off-the-shelf item here and I don't own a food processor, I made do with what we had available.   

Recipe : Flaky Pastry Pie Crust (for a 9" pie crust)

1 c     all purpose flour
1/4 t   salt
1/4 c  softened butter
3-4 T cold water

In large bowl, combine flour and salt
Use pastry cutter (or two knives) to cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse sand
Add water a tablespoon at a time until the dough holds together
Form into a disk and cover with plastic wrap
Let rest in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
Blind bake at 375F for 20 to 25 minutes.
(Increase baking time to 35 to 40 minutes if baking with filling.)

Double Deck Buses

Double deck buses are here!

There are five buses going from the Hills District to the City and back.

During the first few days of the introduction of theses buses, there was even a DOUBLE DECK AMBASSADOR assisting the people,handing out flyers, and taking surveys. He had a special vest that had his title on the back.

My bus buddy and I caught one of these special buses going home one day. Of course we stayed on the second level. While waiting for the bus to leave the city, I told him about the special ambassador.  He thought I was pulling his leg.  Then this guy (with his double deck ambassador vest) came upstairs to tell the people along the aisle that there was NO STANDING on the aisles of the top deck of the bus.

There are several surveillance cameras on the buses.  They are directed at various places on the second level.  There is a small TV display on the first level for these cameras so that riders can tell whether there are seats on the second level.  There is one on the second level as well, I guess that is for the riders' viewing pleasure.

Viewing pleasure indeed because on one of the days that my bus buddy and I caught the double deck bus, we noted that the camera on the back of the bus was facing downwards towards someone's cleavage.  On that day, instead of the screen display showing four different angles of the bus, it was showing the various camera shots one after another.  So the lady's cleavage was in full screen (every four screens).  Thankfully, on the last stop before leaving the city, someone sat beside her so the camera was now focused on the man's partially bald head.

The next day, when I passed by the main bus terminal near our place, I mentioned this camera faux pas to the bus official who was there.  He asked for the bus number so that he could identify the bus but I could only tell him what time the bus left the city.   When I got to the office, I sent my bus buddy an IM telling him that I had reported the camera incident.  His reply, "Party pooper!"

GI got to ride on one of the double deck buses when he went to uni.  He was quite excited about it (not) that he took a photo and posted it on FB.  

Here is the photo.

  Yes, as you can see GI was on the first level.

Hhmmm... this is what the such photos should look like.
Taken from the top deck of the double deck bus.

This is the sign taken from the other side of the road.

It's the one beside the stop sign.