October 31, 2010

Stratford to Picaddily for Dim Sum - from Cyberspace to London

Friends like Sarina are rare. And we have been friends since school time. Sarina's sisters taught Judy and I in school and Sarina's brothers were our school mates although Sarina herself went to a different school. We sort of grew up together in Sibu under the big Methodist umbrella. Our common ground was the church and perhaps music.

I have not seen Sarina since 1970 when I left for KL. A few years later she left for London. And then I moved to Miri and she went back to Sibu once every few years. Somehow our paths never crossed.....

She found my blog last year and guessed I could be the owner of the blog....A few questions later she indeed found me.....And we connected in Cyberspace. Now it is food and good memories which bring us together in London!!. So Judy and I met up with Sarina (who will soon retire from her nursing days) at Piccadilly Circus.

It was a normal London day - YES!! Rainy and wet and cold...and the roads were so damp and every one was out shivering and carrying their umbrellas!! You can't leave home without your brolly in London ....

And we also included my son-in-law's brother Ah Soon who is working in London....

It was nice to be warm in the Chinese restaurant....and somehow getting reunited was such heart warming occasion. We wished we had more time to swap stories and share the laughter!!

Thanks Sarina! Thanks Ah Soon for braving the rain to drop in on us....he had to cross the 30 year gap....and chatter.









The Stratford Tube Station is very modern and all set for the Olympics. I saw lots of people in their wheel chairs feeling very comfortable travelling to the station...and even getting into private vehicles which were waiting for them at the station. And as you see in the photo it is modern and very clean. It is not always like this for all the stations.







We were happy to meet up with Sarina Mamora after so many years! We were in Sunday School and her mum taught us many things including some traditional dancing. And of course her dad Rev Mamora was a very good preacher conversant in both English and Bahasa Indonesia.


We had dim sum in Chinatown...kai lan...faboulous fresh crunchy and tasty.

This is duck which melts in the mouth. All chefs are from Hong Kong..may be second generation!




Trolleys like these pass us by very often.


This is yam puff...excellent.


And the light as feather prawn dumplings with its transparent swallow skin.

This is a true extended family from Malaysia




Parting was just for a moment...because we are definitely going to meet up again in Sarawak!!

October 30, 2010

A London Back Garden


I think my friends back home in Malaysia would be happy to know that in a very small corner in London is this pretty garden tended by a couple of friends who are very busy working people who have night duties to do. But some time in the week they would have time to do a bit of gardening in the little space they have.

They have a small three storeyed terrace house in a peaceful residential area in London. It is quite near the Olympic stadium.

A water feature in the garden which is not easy to maintain.



What a lovely bird.



Morning glory.



Apples.



Scouting and Compost Making in London

This is a beautiful place. And so near to the new London Olympic Stadium....


When Kevin and Margaret first bought (about 14 years ago) the place they were impressed by the quietness and the Scouts' Meeting or Club house just opposite. Their son became a scout (but of course) as Kevin himself was a keen scout in his youth!!

Now Matthew after a happy life as a scout is  a college student and about to set foot in the adult world!!

The cubs and the scouts continue to greet their familiar and friendly neighbour Kevin.....


Scouts Plaque.






Rhubarb.....Huge leaves but not edible. You only eat the root.


Pumpkin....lovely really.

Vehicle for the Scouts and Cubs


Compost making....this is a wonderful idea....

The parents come in droves to send and pick up their boys at this place and you can see how happy the parents and children are!!

The gardening project is simply brilliant! And in just a small plot in London the project is really thriving. In Spring...flowers will grow in their brilliant colours...white and gold have been selected.

Be Prepared!! It still jolts my heart when I read or see this. Once a Guide always a Guide. Once a Scout always a Scout....

Dedicated to all my cousins and friends  who were scouts before....sweet memories...


October 29, 2010

Fresh and Free Blackberries

Fresh blackberries free for you to pick!! And eat of course...you will end up with black lips and tongue.

The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by any of several species in the Rubus genus of the Rosaceae family. The fruit is not a true berry; botanically it is termed an aggregate fruit. The plants typically have biennial canes and perennial roots. Blackberries and raspberries are also called caneberries or brambles. It is a widespread, and well known group of over 375 species, many of which are closely related apomictic microspecies native throughout the temperate northern hemisphere and South America.

The flowers are produced in late spring and early summer on short racemes on the tips of the flowering laterals. Each flower is about 2-3 cm in diameter with five white or pale pink petals. The newly developed primocane fruiting produces flowers and fruits on the new growth.

In botanical terminology, the fruit is not a berry, but an aggregate fruit of numerous drupelets ripening to black or dark purple.

Mothers and their children often have a good day out in the woods to pick blackgerries and later make jam or jelly. Sometimes a family can make up to 40 bottles of jam in a good year. They can trade them in a farm market day if they like to. The soft fruit is popular for use in desserts, jams, seedless jellies and sometimes wine. It is often mixed with apples for pies and crumbles. It is similar activity to our meedin plucking in the early morning. Meedin is often a good plant to grow along our fences if we care a lot about their beauty and at the same time benefits as a free natural food for our humble table. For more 2000 years according to some studies mankind has been eating blackberries ...a gift from nature!!










Blackberries are found growing on hedgerows all over England and especially in the Isle of Wight. The picture bove show blackberries growing on a fence thus making a good land divide.

October 28, 2010

Interesting Tree from our childhood books : Horse Chestnut

When we were kids our English class teacher and the music teacher as well taught us the song "Under the spreading chestnut tree". We sang and hummed the tune in the old days...and later try to remember all the actions what went with the song!!


Finding chestnuts in the Isle of Wight reminded me of those happy days and happy children....and of course the happy classroom atmosphere...learning was so good in those days...and our teachers were our heroes.... Here are the lyrics to jot your memory...

Under the spreading chestnut tree,
Where I knelt upon my knee,
We were as happy as could be,
Under the spreading chestnut tree.


Verse 2:
Under the spreading chestnut ____,
(Replace 'tree' with action:
Place arms close to side, bent upward
from the elbow, hands spread, with palms up)

Where I knelt upon my knee,
We were as happy as could be,
Under the spreading chestnut ____.
(Replace 'tree' with action as above)


Verse 3:
Under the spreading chest___ _____
(Replace 'nut' and 'tree' with actions:
For 'nut', pat head with hands.
For 'tree', do action as above)

Where I knelt upon my knee,
We were as happy as could be,
Under the spreading chest___ _____
(Replace 'nut' and 'tree' with actions as above.)


Verse 4:
Under the spreading ________ _____
(Replace 'chest', 'nut' and 'tree' with actions:
For 'chest', tap chest with both hands.
For 'nut' and 'tree', do actions as above.)

Where I knelt upon my knee,
We were as happy as could be,
Under the spreading ________ _____
(Replace 'chest', 'nut' and 'tree' with actions as above.)


Verse 5:
Under the _________ ________ _____
(Replace 'spreading', 'chest', 'nut' and 'tree'
with actions: For 'spreading', spread arms wide.
For 'chest', 'nut' and 'tree', do actions as above.)

Where I knelt upon my knee,
We were as happy as could be,
Under the _________ ________ _____
(Replace 'spreading', 'chest', 'nut' and 'tree'
with actions as above.)


Verse 6:
Under the _________ ________ _____
(Replace 'spreading', 'chest', 'nut' and 'tree'
with actions as above.)

Where I knelt upon my knee,
(Replace 'knee' with action: strike knee with hand)

We were as happy as could be,
Under the _________ ________ _____
(Replace 'spreading', 'chest', 'nut' and 'tree'
with actions as above.)


The soft dry ground covered with the shells of the horse chestnuts....animals and birds would have picked most of the chestnuts by early morning. (Chestnuts cost a bit in Beijing - especially in winter when stalls selling chestnuts can be found all over the street corners of the Chinese capital.)



The fruit covered with its protective skin of soft thorns.













October 27, 2010

Cornwall's Hedgerows

From Rev Tomlinson's kitchen window in St. Dominick....we can see miles and miles of nice Cornwall scenery.. in a distance hedgerows look pretty...and they really form good boundaries.


A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and tree species, planted and trained in such a way as to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area. Hedges used to separate a road from adjoining fields or one field from another, and of sufficient age to incorporate larger trees, are known as hedgerows. It is also a simple form of topiary.



Took this photo from the car while going down a hill......so the pole is a bit slanted...good idea of what a hedgerow is...see those dividers on the road sides....centuries old they are!! I like the contrast - brown and green fields on each side of the road...

The development of hedges over the centuries is preserved in their structure. The first hedges enclosed land for cereal crops during the Neolithic Age (4000–6000 years ago). Prehistoric farms were of about 5 to 10 hectares (12 to 25 acres), with fields about 0.1 hectares (0.25 acres) for hand cultivation. Some hedges date from the Bronze and Iron Ages, 2000–4000 years ago, when traditional pattern of landscape became established. Others were built during the Medieval field rationalisations; more originated in the industrial boom of the 18th and 19th centuries, when heaths and uplands were enclosed.

Many hedgerows separating fields from lanes in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Low Countries are estimated to have been in existence for more than seven hundred years, originating in the medieval period. The root word of 'hedge' is much older: it appears in the Old English language, in German (Hecke), and Dutch (haag) to mean 'enclosure', as in the name of the Dutch city The Hague, or more formally 's Gravenhage, meaning The Count's hedge. Charles the Bald is recorded as complaining in 864, at a time when most official fortifications were constructed of wooden palisades, that some unauthorized men were constructing haies et fertés – tightly interwoven hedges of hawthorns.

My trip to Cornwall gave me another chance to look at hedges again. Cornwall is rich in historic hedges, with over three-quarters of the hedges remaining today being anciently established. There is even a Cornish Hedge Research and Education Group (CHREG) which is the main body promoting the understanding of Cornish hedges in Cornwall. It is currently a partner in a trans-European project to share the knowledge of traditional skills in hedge and drystone buildings.

A hedgerow may consist of a single species or several, typically mixed at random. In most newly planted British hedgerows, at least 60 percent of the shrubs are hawthorn, blackthorn, and (in the southwest) hazel, alone or in combination. The first two are particularly effective barriers to livestock. Other shrubs and trees used include holly, beech, oak, ash, and willow; the last three can become very tall.


Mrs. Frederick Mawar

Do you like to get connected ? Today in the digital age it is much easier. In olden days as a student I had to queue up to make phone calls home (after we had a house phone). Otherwise we had to write letters trot to the post office and mail the letters. That was the slow slow life style then. Today we use terms like flash back...fast forward...click and see....even dialing seems to be a slow word.

Yesterday Flor and I arranged to visit a friend of mine from 1974.

Here's the story.

All of us in these photos are connected in one way or another.

I was newly married and teaching in a government school in a small town of Limbang in 1974.

One of the best times during the week was to visit the established families and households in the government quarters near St. Edmund Primary School . Another favourite past time was a sit in a nice coffee shop and wait for the kuihs to arrive...just in time for the civil servants to enjoy their "happy hours". In those days those were the happy hours...not jug of beers or dangdut girls.

And one of the most important families of the day was the Mawar family. Mrs. Mawar is very perceptive and gentle. She has several young children in those days and the youngest was about 9 years old - Jacqueline. Christabel was slightly older. Gregory was already quite a young man by then.

I would always remember the bag of buah kedundong she sent to me when she heard that I was expecting. I ate only those fruits for three days as I could eat nothing else. I could not tolerate the smell of frying onions. And when my husband played Ringo Starr's music...I got more sick. To this day I would associate Ringo's music with bad pregnancies.

Buah Kedungdung is a saviour and a balm to me whenever I am sick until today. I really remember Mrs. Mawar for that. And it has been almost 36 years since we were together in Limbang.

Gulang - or Mrs. Howell is Mrs. Mawar's niece. The daughter of her sister.
Gulang and I have known each other fairly well well over the years since our children went to St. Columba's Secondary School together. We met as parents and at times at social gatherings in Miri. But I never thought that she is Mrs. Mawar's niece!!


Mr and Mrs. Mawar have indeed brought up a fine family. The children are very proper and hold good jobs and help improve social development amongst the Ibans and the public. Gregory Mawar is a good writer and has put a lot of traditional knowledge on paper. Jacqueline keeps traditional Iban music and culturre alive through her active service in DAM and other organisations. Amazing children indeed!!

florence Enau is the Headmistress of my children's kindergarten. Well it seems I have known her forever here in Miri. She is someone we can always depend upon. She definitely has a broad shoulder to cry on.

florence is Mrs. Wawar's sister-in-law. Or rather Florence was married to the late brother of Mrs. Mawar.

I exclaimed to Jacqueline and Christabell that we did not have the chance to take photos in 1974 to remember our good times together. Today we have handphones and digital cameras to snap moments of good memories!! Their father Frederick was a civil servant and they were transferred out of Limbang. Frederick worked in many places and finally retired in Saratok. However there was one occasion in 1980's when Christobell and her father came to stay with us in Sibu...after she finished her Form Five. And then like every one else we were busy raising children and "cari makan". We heard that Mr. Mawar was not well. We had news from time to time through some relatives.

And now these "kids" are in their late forties!! How time flies.

By God's grace Mrs. Mawar came all the way from Betong this week to be with the family. And I have just come back from overseas to grab this opportunity to meet up with her. It has been 36 years!!

Indeed it is a small world....but it takes the culmination of 36 years to get this group photo taken...in 1974 I did not have a camera to take photos....we depended on one family - William Ting's family to take studio photos and school photos.

Today...William Ting is still a friend...and someone I can call upon to take photos....Again...once more....

We are still connected today .....Ties that bind us cannot be broken as the hymn goes.

October 26, 2010

The Garlic Farm (part two) - Lunch at the Cafe

Written on 29th Sept 2010.

We got up early and excited to do the whole island today!!

It was a different kind of waking up - cool quiet air outside and flowers below our windows. The glass on the widows was icy cold. Outside the hotel wooden door was a chill which tingled the skin. But nevertheless I went for a lovely autumny English morning walk to wake up the soul.

A splendid afternoon was a hot lunch at the Garlic Farm Cafe. Perhaps not many Asians are googoo ga ga about garlic which is so much part of our diet. But to find a whole farm dedicated to GARLIC and a whole CAFE offering special menus with GARLIC chutneys and relishes....37 Vampire chutneys? Well that was quite unique. And all four of us being garlic lovers we were led to an outside table first. The kind waiter promised us an "inside" table aSAP. But we had a good waiting time - watching some hens getting near us and enjoying the cool farm air. Even the rain had a special welcome touch !!

The cafe was full so we were placed on the patio with a promise of a table inside when it was available. The waiters were really busy and a few of them were new. But we were happy customers from overseas. Kevin and Margaret are Londoners who are not "difficult" customers. Above all Kevin was a good "teacher of all things English...I mean all English Food!!" We really appreciate that. No tour guide I have come across can do better.
In less than 10 minutes we were seated in the main dining area with 1950's music in the air and quiet conversations all around. Waiters and waitresses were busy and couldn't keep eye contact long enough!!  The diners were almost elbow to elbow and tables very close but politely distant enough to each other. 


A bowl of tomato soup served with lovely farm fresh bread and lots of butter!! The table has a lovely jar of fresh flowers.



Our huge lunch plate - good club sandwich with lots of salad on the side. Butter and chutney come in lovely little bowls. Note the huge slice of cheese on the left!!



A beautiful plate of salmon with great garnishing and farm bread of fantastic texture.


Just nice and tender fish with a large slice of lemon and side salad makes a wonderful lunch.



Lovely chutney.



Fresh garden salad from the farm.

 Chili Con Carne - excellent and full bodied tomato taste.

Yes there is even Garlic Ice Cream for you if you are keen to explore new tastes!!

Coffee was lovely.


The cashier was chatty  but the full house did get into his head a little.
 Any way it was a lovely afternoon and the place was warm and spirited!!
 Excellent business idea of the family which has been running the farm for more than 30 years. Any one visiting the Isle of Wight should make a few hours  or even a half day stop here. And especially those who have come half way round the world.

Compliments to the chef!!

Soh Mien on First Day of Lunar New Year

 Today 10.2.2024 is the first day of the New Lunar Year of the Dragon. Yes I have cooked the chicken and made the soh mien. Happy New Year!!...