The world in color and contrast

Sunday, February 5, 2023

Friends come over tea along with possibly the nicest 2-yr old ever.

Monday

I finish the paint chips project with a second coat of ModPodge. It's textured and some of the rectangles slipped while being coated the first time. (You can't see under the white M-P application, though it dries clear.) Too bad: everything was initially glued down with perfectly matched corners. As usual, it's not what I thought it might become ... but okay. When I squint I see a cityscape between two parks of trees.

I have a few hours of school in the morning after a walk and studying. The latest kids' book is about fishing with a dad.

The book brings back fond memories of Saturdays spent fishing with my grandpa. His little aluminum boat would scoot across the strong currents of the Fraser River. He could bring a fishing rod for each grandchild so I was on his "child-to-go" list. I went for 2 years or so in my early teens. My younger brother took over and went with Grandpa for years after.

What interested me on the gravel bars where we fished were the rocks, the shoreline - shape of waves, color of the water, the freezing temperature, and little critters  burrowing between. Grandpa used to shush us if we were scaring the fish away by being noisy or tramping around too much.

I didn't care. It was nice outside, rain or shine. If it rained, Grandpa made a warm fire with any log that washed ashore from a logging barge. The First Nations fishermen who stopped by to chat knew him as Old Bill. (His name was William.) He would hum with glottal buzzing, which I also did as a kid (vibrate the epiglottis; sounds like a motor turning over with pitch and speed variations.)

Today I write the shopping list for Wednesday's movie night. W sends the invitation out before 11:00 a.m. Within minutes, it's full with a waiting list.

Lunch is amazing. Friends send over a Lontong special for the 15th day after the Lunar New Year. The combination of traditional Chinese and Indonesian dishes is beautifully packaged. W's favorite is the rendang but he and I like it all.

I'm working my way through a painting inspired by the rainy season. I have no idea of what it will become. I'm a boring painter with few themes beyond the feelings I get from nature.

A friend's sister drops by for an afternoon of tea, pumpkin pie, and cookies. IbuA's baking is always a hit.

Tuesday

Another 2 hours of language school - whew. We shop for movie night groceries before heading home for lunch. Mid-afternoon is a hybrid team meeting, complete with tea and cookies. (Going through those cookies, 5 days in a row this week, counting tomorrow.) 

We are thankful for IbuA and IbuS who faithfully keep house and kitchen in order! They've gone home by the time the team meeting ends. I do dishes and put things away - the kitchen has to be spotless for the cooking marathon tomorrow.

Many helpers are live-in, on call 24-7 but paid half of our "expat helper" wages. Most are lucky to get a day or two off a month. Our help works an 8-3 day and live nearby with their families. As you can imagine, we get many inquiries from helpers between jobs, wanting to work for European or N American foreigners.

Wednesday - Movie Night coming up

I'm usually cooking by 6:00 a.m. Hmm. Not in the mood to start early today. W and I take the dogs for a leisurely walk around the neighborhood. Before we leave, we light the gas burner under 4-gallons of water for spaghetti. Hopefully it's boiling when we return. 

The property with the big wall is being leveled to pour foundations for a house.

 I love watching construction. Four samples of facing rock are mortared to the 8' high wall.

Yay, the water is boiling when we get home. I cook three kilograms (almost 7lbs) of noodles, drain them, and douse them in olive oil. I also cook a vat of spaghetti sauce to be reheated and added just before serving. The frozen meats line up on the counter to thaw. 

Today I'll cook 4 bags (of 50) sausages, 8 bags (of 20) chicken wings, and 8 bags (of 25) bakso. There will be 5 lbs of baby potatoes and three sauces besides the tomato-based one for spaghetti: black pepper, white (cheesy) and coconut-curry.

As each dish finishes, it's covered by towels to stay warm. The spaghetti broth is reused. Bakso is a flour-and-beef "meat-ball", normally eaten in soup. We find bakso flavorless compared to beef meatballs, Canadian style. So I doctor them - boiled for 20 minutes, soaked in sauce for an hour, and then baked for 22 minutes in the air-fryer. Here's the first step in a 24"-deep pot. I'm thankful that we invested in commercial pots when we came.

4 trays of sausages, one after the other, go into the air fryer while the meatballs boil. Friends often ask if they can help prep movie night. Sadly no. There's so much going on at once that I can't afford to lose track of timers, pots, stoves, and ovens. Sauces, meats, veggies, pasta ... it happens in a current of motion. As soon as a pot is free, in goes the next dish.

4 trays of chicken wings are next into the air-fryer. When an entree finishes cooking, its Silpat tray liners are soaked in the broth. The sauces dissolve into a rich and delicious soup base from beef, chicken, and spinach water. Then I wash the the silicone liners to get ready for the new item.

Between, I cook 7 packs of spinach, drain them, and stir in homemade cheese sauce. Last into the air fryer are the softened meatballs, dredged in black pepper sauce.

Meanwhile the guys set up the spaces, cued by pictures of previous events. W tests the technology. Tonight will be fun: we're watching Groundhog Day. The next post will have the question that will kick off the discussion.

We walk to Kalpa Tree, a restaurant we haven't visited for ages. W poses by our neighbor's flaming hedge. I'm astonished each time we walk past it.

There are 2 tables of customers. 

Today the food is exceptional. 

Both of us order Japanese dishes, reasonably priced ($5/$7) and tasty.

There's another restaurant going up between NaraPark and Kalpa Tree. Can you spot the bricklayers, squatting on bamboo trellises as they put beautiful trim on the building?

I like the new steel gate at the neighbor's, too. My imagination flares with the wonderful flowering vines that it could support.

It's already late afternoon. There's just enough time for a nap before company comes. zzz

Read more:

* The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse—who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways. Jeremiah 17:9-10

*So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:26-29

*So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

Moravian Prayer: Holy Teacher, you test our minds and search our hearts for the good we can offer the world. Help us grow that good, never surrender to evil or sloth, and endeavor to love you with all of our hearts, our souls, and our minds. Amen.