Homegrown tomatoes

The husband has a little bit of a farmer in him and planted some tomato plants late last year in the garden plot and have they gone nuts!

If you can't see the numbers on the scale, that's 896 grams worth of tomatoes. This is actually our second haul. The first one weighed a little more and prior to that, we had been picking one or two early ripers every few days.

Growing up in the city, growing your own food has never been something I had any particular interest in. Food was food and it didn't really matter whether it was store bought or homegrown. That has all changed, after tasting these red, juicy, sweet parcels of delight that burst forth with goodness on the first bite. I never knew tomatoes could taste so good.

And it's been a really satisfactory journey, seeing a plant grow to give fruit. It's cost effective (these tomatoes cost us about $1/kg as opposed to $5/kg) but knowing that we're trying to be self-sufficient, that we're kinder to the environment by buying (or in this case, eating) local and that some of our food's coming to us chemical-free is probably what motivates us. Oh, and of course, the great taste.

The best part about gardening with the husband is that he does all the dirty work. I have no qualms getting my hands dirty, but there is no way on earth that I will ever put my fingers where there is a chance that it might come into contact with something crawly and slimy. Needless to say, I'm on plant watering duties - and it's oh-so-fun! Every time I water our babies, as we call them, I just want to call out, "drink up, babies, drink!"

It's definitely not possible for us to become completely self-sufficient, but growing a little bit of fruit and vegetables in tiny pots on a ledge and a little, narrow garden plot is at least making a little bit of a difference. And the rewards taste so sweet!

A Life Worth Living

In line with my previous post about positivity, the start of a new year and my renewed commitment to blog more regularly, I've decided to give this site a bit of a refresh and a rename.

Aussie Adventures (this site's previous name) came about in 2005 after I learned that I was going to move to Australia for work. It was about keeping a log of the new experiences in a new country.

The purpose of this blog really does remain the same - it's about documenting the special moments in my life - but I feel that the message has gotten lost over the years and a name like "Aussie Adventures" didn't really help.

I want to capture the positive, the inspiring and the awesome. I want to talk about what should drive us, what can sustain us and what has made us smile. Not everything will be about the good and the great of course, because life doesn't work that way, but within the context of a life worth living, I hope everything will somehow still make sense.

And so, I bring you . . .

What makes stories go viral?

Being in the publishing business, I'm always interested to know what draws people in to reading a story—and better yet, to share it.

This article in the New Yorker however, not only provided some insight, I believe it issued a challenge as well: a challenge to make the world a more positive place, because that is really what people want.

So what makes stories go viral? In a nutshell:

. . . two features predictably determined an article’s success: how positive its message was and how much it excited its reader.

To a certain extent, I'm not surprised. Who doesn't like to share good news? We are surrounded enough by negativity that positive messages evoke some sort of reaction in us that makes us want to help someone else feel better. We love to be inspired and we love to laugh. It's why human interest, triumph-over-tragedy stories in lifestyle magazines are so popular. It may also be why, over the past years, I've deliberately turned off Facebook notifications from friends who have a tendency to take on a "woe is me, everyone is out to get me, I am so angry with the world" attitude in their posts.

Of course, there are a few other additional factors to what makes stories go viral, such as:

• something that makes people feel that they’re not only smart but in the know
• we share what we’re thinking about—and we think about the things we can remember, so things like lists are awesome
• "People love stories. The more you see your story as part of a broader narrative, the better"

But I want to go back to the positivity thing again and ponder why we love great, uplifting stories, but somehow are unable or unwilling to produce more of it.

I believe that a lot of what we see, read and immerse ourselves in can have an impact on our perspective on the world. So if we immerse ourselves in negative thoughts, negative behaviour, negative narratives, we tend to see the world as a nasty, horrible place filled with terrible people who are only out to hurt and harm us.

It's no wonder the Bible advises, "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things" (Philippians 4:8).

But we are not only responsible for our own mental wellbeing with what we read, we are just as responsible for other people's mental wellbeing with what we produce. And we are all content producers in one way or another, even if it's just a 140-character Twitter post.

Want to make the world a better place? Think, be, write positive.

Anna Gare: The best food is made at home

It's always exciting to see your work in print, no matter how long you've been in the business of writing.

I can't quite remember when exactly i interviewed Anna Gare, The Great Australian Bake Off co-host and judge of Junior Masterchef Australia. It was just before I took time off to get married, so it would have been mid-September some time. The article was scheduled to appear in the January-February issue of Signs of the Times and today, the magazine arrived.

Cover article, yeah!

We did a phone interview, as Anna was on the way from Sydney to Canberra to promote her new cookbook. (And for those wondering, she was being driven, so wasn't being a road hazard or anything.)

I don't think I'll forget the first few minutes of our phone conversation. She was warm, pleasant and gave me the impression that she had all the time in the world to chat. Such was her level of thoughtfulness and courtesy that it wasn't until I actually asked if it was a good time to start the interview that she tells me, "Actually, my ride just arrived, so would it be alright if you called me back in ten minutes?"

Anyway, I call back in ten minutes and she sounded cheerful and lovely, and the interview went without a hitch. It was a really pleasant interview. She seemed so open and honest, had such a ready laugh and you could hear the passion that she has for cooking and food. And her philosophy was simple—fresh, unprocessed products are the best for you, and good, healthy food don't have to take hours to prepare.

You can read more about her thoughts here.

Wedding bolero

After a long hiatus thanks to a nonsense business of getting married, it is perhaps somewhat fitting that my first post back is wedding-related.

Thanks to a defective gene which causes moments of insanity and an intense love for anything handmade, the then husband-to-be and I decided that it would be a great idea to pretty much create everything for the wedding with our bare hands.

Long story short, it was incredibly fun, we enjoyed every moment of it, but needless to say, it was rather time-consuming and stress-inducing at times. However, if we had to do it all over again, we wouldn't change a thing. And perhaps you will read more about the various wedding creations in posts to come. But I'm not promising anything. I love creating but am terrible at keeping records.

But this is a post about my latest completed knitting project and I will learn to focus. With a wedding planned in spring on the beach, I had an inkling that I would need something to keep me warm after the sun had set and from the cool sea breeze.

I will admit that I actually considered purchasing a ready-made bolero initially (I was making everything else including yes, my wedding dress, and had a dissertation to contend with, so time management dictated that a bolero that I would probably only wear for a short time in the evening be relegated less important in the "to make" list) but after a few days of inability to find anything I liked, I decided the best way to get what I want is to make it myself.

So I found something that closely resembled what I wanted with an incredibly easy pattern and modified it to become the bolero of my dreams. (For those interested, I essentially added a frill edging using this pattern.)
 
In the end, with everything else going on, it still took me four months to complete. It was finished on an extremely warm day, less than a month before the big day, which led me to declare, "I don't know why I made this, I don't think I'll need it at all."

Famous last words.

We had rain, hail and crazy strong winds that day. At 11 degrees, it was one of the coldest day in October history. Without my merino-blend bolero, I would most probably have lost an arm from hypothermia. But this knitted bolero, made from yarn given to me by a friend, kept me really warm and toasty that day. I hadn't planned to wear the bolero for the wedding photos, but it was so cold that day, nothing was going to make me give it up.

Getting married!

In case anybody is wondering why it's all quiet on the Aussie Adventures front, it's because I'm getting married!

Normal services will resume after I'm hitched. Hopefully.

Which day to worship? (CQ Bible Study)

Published in CQ Bible Study, January - March lessons.

pdf available.

And if you're interested, my (almost) complete writing portfolio can be found here.   

Have a Cow-y Christmas

Published in Signs of the Times, December 2012.

pdf available.

And if you're interested, my (almost) complete writing portfolio can be found here.    

Joining the Fight (CQ Bible Study)

Published in CQ Bible Study, October - December lessons.

pdf available.

And if you're interested, my (almost) complete writing portfolio can be found here.   

Vitamins Explained From A to K

Published in Signs of the Times, October 2012.

pdf available.

And if you're interested, my (almost) complete writing portfolio can be found here.  

What About Me?

Published in Signs of the Times, August 2012.

pdf available.

And if you're interested, my (almost) complete writing portfolio can be found here. 

Kookey Bird Mobile

I learned how to crochet! I still feel like I'm using my feet to crochet and I'm completely reliant on YouTube for every single different stitch I have to use in a pattern, but I learned how to crochet! And I made birds! After years of rapid knitting and knowing how to read most knitting patterns, it's kind of a weird feeling learning a new craft again. It's like I've regressed or something.

But these little birdies are probably the easiest little project one can start off with when learning how to crochet, without feeling too discouraged.

Friends are expecting a little one in August and had expressed interest in a crocheted bird mobile, so what better gift than something they want?

Made five little birds using scrap yarn - it took me all evening to make the first one, but once I got the hang of it (did you see what I did there?), I made three in the same time it took me to make the first.

I got the twigs/branches down the back of my apartment for the true rustic handmade look and attached the birds using normal cotton thread.
 
D helped with sawing the twigs to length and constructing the whole mobile. I would have just tied birds to twigs and called it done, but he even went to the effort of finding the centre of balance of each twig, so when hung up, everything balances and twirls oh so nicely and mesmerisingly. Genius, that boy.

Rainbow cake

Thanks for the pic Jeanelle :)

It was a friend's birthday party on Saturday and I had offered to bake a cake. Said friend doesn't have a particular love for rainbows. Neither is he a strong supporter of gay pride. I really just used his birthday as an excuse to bake a rainbow cake, something I had badly wanted to do in a while.

Most of the rainbow cake recipes I found online had recommended using gel food colouring instead of liquid, as the colours supposedly turn out more vibrant. Unfortunately, I had no idea where to get gel food colouring and so stuck with good ole' Queens liquid food colouring.

However, I had read somewhere that the trick to maintaining a vibrant colour was to add vinegar, which I obeyed, and hoped for the best.

 

I'm not sure if the amount of food colouring I used constituted "a lot" - half a teaspoon each of food colouring and white vinegar for each layer. However, it had the desired effect and the colours never lost their vibrancy.

 

I had to do some alchemy to get purple and orange, but thanks to D's wonderful mathematical skills, that wasn't too hard.

Purple: three parts red, one part blue

Orange: one part red, two parts yellow

I used a simple white cake recipe for the batter and just separated them evenly by six before I added the food colouring. What I did wrong however, was to put them in the oven for the same time indicated in the recipe. With each individual colour being such thin layers, I could have left them in for about half the time and ended up with a cake that would have been more moist.

However, it wasn't a problem that sweet icing couldn't cure!

Canadian Gloves

So the only thing Canadian about this is the fact that I made them in preparation for my trip to Canada about four months ago. I've only ever made fingerless gloves before, so this was a bit of new challenge for me. To make it even more difficult, I actually decided to come up with my own design.

In all honesty though, it really wasn't that had to knit up - took me about a month, which included being distracted by other things and really only spending an average of 15-20 minutes a day. So don't let what I've said put you off. This is really a quick and easy knit.

What wasn't quick was the fact that it took me much longer to decipher all my notes and write up the pattern. But I finally did it, so you can knit a pair for yourself too!

If you would like to download the pattern, you can do so at my MelT Creations website or from Ravelry.

Ah! What am I supposed to do next?!

Plight of a Refugee

Published in Signs of the Times, June 2012.

pdf available.

And if you're interested, my (almost) complete writing portfolio can be found here.

Marriage

The saga of needing a better editor than myself continues . . .

I came up with three different coverlines for an upcoming issue of my magazine. Independently, they were (I think) interesting and worked well with what we try to achieve with every magazine.

When placed together on the cover however, they ended up reading either:

"Marriage: Better Than Ever, An Olympic Effort"

or

"Marriage: Better Than Ever, How Long, O Lord"

I wonder if it's a Freudian slip.

Don't hate me

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I have always been thin. On top of that, over the last few months, my weight has gradually declined, through no real effort on my part. I’ll admit that I do lead a fairly active lifestyle and have never had the inclination to snack. But with an extremely healthy appetite and a weakness for ice creams and cakes, my net calorie intake should still far outweigh (pardon the pun) the energy burned.

Yet, my jeans and skirts are feeling loose around my waist, and the digits on the scales continue to decrease (not by leaps and bounds, mind you). Disappointingly however, my bra size has also dropped. For the scientifically inclined, my BMI tells me I’m underweight, in both the Australian and Asian variations.

If you’re honest, you hate me right now. Don’t lie. I know you do.

Well, you can stop hating me because while I may be thin, I am not healthy. The health risks of being underweight include infertility, osteoporosis and a weakened immune system. And seriously, when you start losing weight without trying, it should be more cause for alarm than celebration.

But you want to know a secret?

While part of me is concerned, there is another side of me that’s kind of pleased. I am, after all, skinny. And at the rate I’m going, I’m probably going to drop down to a size 8 in no time. Imagine how I’ll look in a bikini in summer! In today’s society, it practically means I’m beautiful, right?

What an indictment on society that we have become so blinded by being thin, we forget it poses as much of a danger to our health as being overweight does.

People don’t tell me I’m too skinny (except my mum. But Asian mothers always want their children to look well fed). After not seeing me for a few weeks, they will instead exclaim, “You’ve lost weight!” as if I’ve just returned from successfully reaching the summit of Mount Everest.

As opposed to someone who is overweight, friends will enviously tell me how they wish they had my body shape. It’s not as if they have to furtively avoid the word “fat”, after all.

I’m showered with compliments because I’m thin (read: underweight), and the plethora of weight loss ads I’m bombarded with subconsciously tell me that I’m alright.

My current weight loss may be a symptom of something seriously bad, but unlike say, finding a lump in my breast which would send me rushing for a biopsy, I’m actually enjoying how “good” I look.

What an indictment on myself that I would prefer to be underweight, than risk gaining weight and looking “fat”.

As women, we get so caught up with society’s perception of beauty, we sometimes fail to recognise potential pitfalls. We need to start loving and respecting our bodies more, instead of trying to fit into the size zero ideal that Hollywood espouses.

And as for me, don’t worry, I’m making a doctor’s appointment this afternoon.

Volunteer for your Health

Published in Signs of the Times, May 2012.

pdf available.

And if you're interested, my (almost) complete writing portfolio can be found here.

Dislocation diary: Day 38

I think for this first time, I'm actually confident that my arm is going to get back to normal.

It's almost entirely fully functioning now and for the most part, is pain-free and hassle free.

The only thing is that it's still not completely straight or can be completely bent, but I reckon there's only about a 3 degrees gap to bridge. It really is that close to being completely healed. It still hurts when I try to straighten or bend it completely, but only around the actual elbow hinge area. I do that a few times, just to stretch out the muscle and then give it a break.

Strength is back, but I still try to go easy on it. Sometimes, I do feel the strain and that's when I really ease back.

I am really eager for it to be completely healed, but at least I'll be almost fully functioning for our upcoming trek around east Canada and NYC!

Orange cowl

I started work on this way back in July last year, and only finished it a month before I left for Canada. Ironically, it's probably one of the easiest and mindless kind of pattern I've done in a while and could probably have been finished in a few days.

 
Uni started not too long after I cast on, but it wasn't only because I was juggling two subjects last semester. Ashamed to say the main reason was just sheer laziness - I took forever to buy a new ball of yarn after running out.

But, I finished it just before I left for Canada and boy has it been a treat! The 100% certified organic Australian merino wool it's made in makes it feel so incredibly cosy, warm and soft against my neck. I usually wear it only doubled-up, but when it gets really cold and windy, I triple it and it makes an incredibly difference. 

The wool makes it warm, but the merino part means it's not scratchy and I could wear it all day, which comes in rather helpful when you're out all day in a snow-covered environment!

Really like the fact that it's a cowl, so no loose scarf ends, which makes it so easy to handle and wear. Unfortunately, the design on the edging can't really be seen, largely because the cowl prefers to curl into itself. It doesn't affect the warmness, it just doesn't show the beautiful long horizontal lines it has.

Pattern here.