Chop Chop!

I have a new toy.

Last week I finally took a bold step and bought a good, sharp knife. After almost 16 years of matrimony and making dinners with my Wiltshire Staysharp (apparently not) knife I bought a Global G-55 chefs knife. And I now wonder how I didn't go totally insane in the kitchen before now?? Or maybe I have and everyone is too polite to tell me! Anyway, I cannot believe how much of a difference it makes having the right tool for the job.

To top off the joy of my new purchase, my friend Stephanie (who is a chef by trade) came over and gave Fi and I a private knife skills lesson. You should have heard the squeals of delight emanating from my kitchen. Noone would have guessed that what was going on in there was onion chopping.....and carrot julienning.....and orange segmenting. The carrots and oranges were consumed as we went, the onions were saved and caramelised for Sunday's BBQ.

I have been practicing at any opportunity since. Yesterday I made a divine apple tart using my finely sliced apples (who needs a mandolin when you have a G-55??) and the Careme pastry that I was overjoyed to find in the freezer section at Taste on Saturday.

Does it sound like I have been watching a little too much Masterchef?

PS Oh, and my first attempt at creme patisserie for the tart was tasty, but not quite to Matt Preston's standands I fear - will have to do some more practice. Shame!

Turn down the volume, PLEASE

The kids have been on school holidays for 2 weeks. It has been busy. And noisy. The thing that has stood out most to me is the noise.

Silence is not something that can be achieved in Hong Kong, given the myriad of machines necessary to maintain a comfortable indoor living environment - dehumidifiers, air purifiers, air conditioners...... Not to mention the background soundtrack of jackhammers, crowd noise, traffic and car horns. Quietness, which is different than silence, is achievable here. Sometimes.

I have come to appreciate quietness in my middle age. When I walk the tracks of HK I do not want to listen to music on my ipod. I want to listen to the quietness. I do not often have music playing in the house because I prefer the ambience of quietness. I press the mute button on the remote whenever the program I am watching goes to an ad break. There are times when music is very good (like when I'm on the stationary bike in the gym), but more and more I'm liking the quiet.

My children don't seem to understand the concept of "inside voices". Ethan, especially, has one volume - LOUD - and no volume control anywhere to be found. I find this auditory assault quite exhausting at times.

Enter the introduction of "quiet time". While Mum and Dad have been visiting we have introduced a mandatory daily 30 minute period of solitude and quietness. Activities can be pursued, but they must be quiet and done on ones own. I like it, Matt likes it and the girls have come to like it, but Ethan DOES NOT LIKE IT! Not one little bit! He obviously needs more practice....

I want to go home

There's not really much more to add. I just want to go home. It's an underlying feeling that I have most of the time, but today it is at the surface.

We got to go home. Twice. The last time, just for a few months, it was wonderful. Until it all went horribly wrong.

So here we are again.

Don't get me wrong. Here is not a bad place. It is safe and interesting and generally good. But it is not there.

And I kind of feel like a Disney heroine about to break into some kind of song that beseaches "WHEN?". When can I go home with home not being a place of angst and turmoil and pain?

I am a brave girl. I think I have earned the right to say that. But every now and then I feel a crack.

Now I'm 36 I'm as clever as clever...

I have had another birthday.

I celebrated this occasion with a) Matt, my kids, blueberry pancakes and coffee;

and b) Matt, friends, mud cake and champagne.

Both were fantastic. I am very blessed.

In the same week I went on a dinner date and a breakfast date with my husband. So much time for uninterrupted conversation bliss!

I also finally got back to the physio so I can start getting my hips straightened up again. There, I experienced accupuncture for the first time (I think my physio is probably the only person I would allow to do this. She is very knowledgable and good at what she does, unlike previous physiotherapists I have seen).

So, what's not to love about being 36?

It has been a week of pancakes, dates, champagne, realignment and love!

Think I'll be 36 now forever and ever....

Soup

Since winter hit the shores of Hong Kong I have made a lot of chicken and veg soup.

At this point I must pause for just a moment to hail the greatness of my slow cooker. I was converted to slow cooking in the middle of summer last year - a most unlikely time. Tess leant me her slow cooker for a trial run, and while it was working away on cooking a delicious Malay beef curry, Matt was in Australia with instructions to purchase a wonder machine of our very own. It arrived all shiny and pretty and has been hard at work since. It has a removable cooking pan that can go from cooktop to oven (if your oven is big enough, my HK sized oven is 1 cm too narrow!) to slow cooker. It is brilliant. Really.

So, back to the soup. I have just made another batch for tonights dinner. The weather outside is of the same description. There are so many things I love about this rustic soup! One is that I can always get at least two dinners and a lunch out of one batch. Another is that I can cut up any old vegetables in whatever shape or size I feel like, toss in the stock, some herbs, a pack of wonderful lentily soup mix and the whole chicken breasts - no prep required. This, for me, is the biggest bonus of the soup. The whole breasts go in and I don't have to do anything to them in this precooked state, I just have to chop them up a few hours later when they're all cooked through. Hurrah! Preparing raw chicken is probably about on par for me with cleaning the toilet. Thank you, slow cooker. Now all I need is a toilet cleaner....

Why do weekends have to end?

I know that some weekends really should end - the disastrous, running around madly, mess from one end of the house to the other, whiney kid, whiney Mummy kind of weekends. But this weekend could have done with going on for another couple of days.

This weekend was wonderful.

To start with, our girls turned 7 on Friday. The day entailed getting up early for before school presents and skype chat with Mia and Grandad, followed by "a" and "s" shaped cookies with friends at school, an after school pizza and movie party with 12 friends and a "Littlest Pet Shop" birthday cake. The party was so relaxing that by the time it was over Matt and I happily watched the girls play with their new toys until 9pm before finally scooting them and Ethan off to bed. And do you know what they both said to me before smiling off to sleep? "This was the best birthday ever" - and once again, they were right.

The weekend continued to be great and I decided that having let them turn 7 after all (believe me, I tried to stop it, but nothing doing!) was not such a bad thing. Saturday morning was easy and slow with blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast. A little of bit of homework was done. I was still in my dressing gown by lunchtime (leftover pizza!). See? I told you it was slow. After lunch I finally got dressed and we headed out for Ethan to go to a birthday party and the girls to enjoy some time with Sela and Carys, scooting on their podium. Always love the time we spend with that family.

Since we were out in Pokfulam anyway, we decided to drop in on Saturday night mini-rugby training at Sandy Bay with a few families we are friends with. Asha & Shae joined in. There we stood, in the cold, on a wide open field, with the hills in front of us and the sea behind us and trees around us, watching our 7 year old girls play sport.....and all of a sudden we felt very Australian. It felt so good. It felt like we could breathe. So, the girls have decided to sign up for the rest of the season - Asha can't wait to get her "costume". Girls - it's all about the costume!

Sunday morning church and then home for tuna and lettuce sandwiches - the only type of sanwiches the kids currently like. After which it was time for the family to trudge up to Bowen Road and give the girls' new birthday scooters a workout. We were up there for a good couple of hours having fun and enjoying the view, the green, the quiet.

I love my little family and I relish the memories of this lovely weekend, which I wish could've lasted just a little bit longer...

A Beautiful Night

Our friend Gail was married today. Everything was beautiful. The bride, of course, and the church. Ray's face as he watched his bride approach. Their vows.

My girls, who were in the wedding party, dancing and giggling and marvelling at the reception.

Love blanketed all of this wedding. The body of Christ was in action to bring about a seamless celebration - from finding shoes for the flower girls, to arranging beautiful flowers for the church, to providing food for the rehearsal dinner, to writing a song for the bride and groom.....and the list goes on. It was a privilege to witness.