Fifty Shades of Boredom

Yes that is was me. 

Once upon a time, the universe was filled with wonder. Then came humans who managed to invent Boredom. One and a half years of CB, CCB, HA, HAHA has taught me that I am but a human being. 

Tick Tick Tick Tick, the hands of the clock goes round and round... It is end of September. 

Social Gathering

When your idea of meeting up with friends materialized as Soon Kueh masterclass with Mimi or Mooncake Making Session with MIL, you know you are clearly in the realm of auntiehood.

When time becomes a long and mundane stretch, they throw in a festival. A perfect excuse and chance to break the monotony and bake your own mooncake. Hours go by amidst the happy chatter and they actually look and taste good! We need more festivals. 

Once in a blue moon, and this woman does not follow any routine, mimi makes soon kueh. Best in Singapore and some say JB, nobody can argue this fact. When she suddenly says ok, let's do this two weeks later, the masses dutifully apply for leave and at 9am sharp, arrive at my house. 

My mum. Her life is even more eventful than mine. When I want to meet her, I gatecrash her social gatherings, if not I cannot get a slot in. That busy woman. 

Sourdough

Take the leap. Despite being a miserable baker, I plunge into baking sourdough from scratch (starter from Lily). Life is really not that complicated. Magic happens when you mix flour and water together. 

This strange starter thing. Feed water and flour and it will raise to three times the volume in two hours. Watching it is exactly the same feeling as watching paint dry. My life is interesting again. 

I finally know why this is called an artisan bread. There is no hard and fast rules and you have to know your starter, dough and oven intimately. I love it, taste great even when I forget to add salt 50% of the time! It helps a lot that Ken and my FIL savor it so something to do on the weekends. Not chasing the big bubbles but the aesthetic whore in me cannot let go of how ugly my bread looks.  Time to invest in a brand new oven, bread stone, banneton, razor blade… and many many more wholegrain flour, cheese, jam, nuts, seeds etc…

Food for the Soul

I try, I really do. Ken reads when he cannot sleep. Five pages in and he is in slumber land. I read for pleasure. This stack has been beside my bed for months. One chapter in and I rotate to another book... I now know why Megan sighs and say she has nothing to do when she has 16 untouched library books on her shelves. 

Opium is not addictive enough. Bourdain's humor has waned on me. The book on myself is too thick. I am, I admit, I am distracted... by...

Him

Isn’t this the most mesmerizing face in the history of mankind… I binge watch Flower of Evil twice, late into the nights. 

Yes, my figure is pear shaped, my patchy face dehydrated and eyes swollen from crying too much watching his shows. But who cares since I am not going into office. This is the few benefits of HAHA. 

Still, I drag myself out of bed daily, walk that extra mile to hit 10,000 steps, plank the extra 10 seconds just because I cannot, simply cannot present this drum of a rotund body, flabby arms and bouncy thighs to him. Imagine we pass each other by on the streets one day. We may just become fast friends when our eyes meet. 

This scene is so vivid in my mind. Except that the visuals of him and me (urghh)… so wrong. Step up on the exercise YY. Chance favors the prepared mind, face and body. 

M&M??? Oh, they are well and alive. 

My Queen of Lego does it again. This girl is excellent in visualizing 3D forms. This time on the theme of Tokyo Olympics 2020.

Tokyo Olympics is actually more interesting than what I thought...

 In the spectator stand, social distancing happens to mark the iconic golden age of Covid. 

Pole Vault is the most breath taking event we watched. OMG this young talented Armand Duplantis makes vertical accent looks like a piece of cake! 

The absolute best commentary of 2020 Tokyo Olympics must be for the men's hurdles. This crazy year of record breaking... 

Diving

Table Tennis

In hindsight, maybe the Olympics is the best thing that happens. We absolutely need it. To see the strength, spirit and hope in these athletics giving their very best. Of course, juxtaposed with the ugliness of politics and media portrayal of the event.. We live in an ugly ugly era.

Oh yah, this project needs special mention. 

Mr Morg keeps asking me for rose and mint to make perfume (!!??). Not spending money on flowers when one can pick lots of fallen ones in Bishan Park.

This is a perfect example of ill-conceived projects when the heart is not in it. Morgan says we need alcohol to soak the flowers, I recall Patrick Suskind infusing the scent with oil. Anyway, not a lot of choices here since olive oil is the only thing I have, so we wash, peel, soak and wait. So exciting right?

Lesson number one: Plan

Lesson number two: Pick flowers that have a scent in the first place. Now I cannot tell if the perfume project is successful or not because after a week, I whiff and whiff and can only smell nature…. and olive oil.

No perfume, but we live happily ever after... (in fifty shades of boredom)

The End.