From the Oven Grill to the Table - Japanese Yakitori Style

 OK, spare the charcoals & the grime! Just use modern conveniences, the electric oven grill.



Bacon wrap of asparagus and golden mushrooms - all-time favourite!

 Chicken breast meat, brushed on Japanese BBQ sauce midway through grilling. Viola! Chicken yakitori ~ BBQ skewered chicken with a bit of ceat.

Oh, lovely! Chicken gizzards & squids dressed with Japanese BBQ sauce.

Think we missed the authentic experience of squeezing inside a tent under the bridge in Tokyo, where they made the yummiest & tastiest yakitori. And the BBQ smoke & smell was a delight in the cold wintry weather. Ah! I miss Japan.

In eternal memory of my little Angel

If we had a chance to know each other, we would have fallen in love completely with each other. I have no doubts about it. Today, you are remembered fondly as my little Angel. Because God gave you a pair of wings & you took off - into Heaven, for eternity.

Destined to meet Chloe

When Chloe was newborn... 

Now Chloe is 6 months, 7.3 kg, fully breastfed, just started on solids ~ rice cereals & avocado. 

Temperament: gentle, affectionate, particularly adores her brother, Ethan. He doesn't have to lift a finger to make her smile or laugh. (All others have to work harder)

Isn't Chloe amazing? Granted I know nothing about babies & their diet, I am totally liking the fact that she eats avocado! That's so exotic & healthy! And she reserves her smile/laughter for the other cutest little person on earth, exuberant Ethan. Such a sweet mei-mei! Awwwwwww!

(Thanks to mummy Joanne who furnished the above information to Godma Chin)

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Reflections of friendships & being with people whom I love

It dawned upon me some time back that I would like to start writing more about my friends. Last couple of months, I had fleeting but very impactful thoughts about my friends. 'I am surrounded by people who love & care about me, more than I realize'. 'I am blessed that my colleagues are not just that, they are my friends.' A fuzzy warm feeling would flow into my heart at such thoughts.

So I am starting my little project of putting on record the warmth of friendships that I am so privileged to enjoy. 

And I have to dig into this little note that was first posted on my Facebook. I have to tell you about a very very dear friend, Karen.

Reflections of friendships & being with people whom I love

(first posted on my Facebook, Wednesday 24, Sept 2008, 11.12 am)

Just two days back, one of my very best friends rejoined my organisation and we became colleagues again! I can't help but remember so vividly the sighs I let out and the silent ones I endured when she announced she wanted to teach elsewhere about a year and half ago. 

Well, life is unpredictable indeed. Today, she is again sitting right in my room, behind me this time, instead of adjacent to me. A year and a half is not a terribly long time but it is enough for shifts in thinking, habits and a different aspect of one's personality to come into the foreground. I am referring both to myself and others. Moreover, if one should experience a major life event, like in this instance of my friend, the birth of her first son, one can see a different identity shaped, a new role taken on.

But admist personal life changes and numerous experiences that I and others may have (like one other I love is preggie and imagining to hide it, still one other laments that her son is growing more 'adult-wise'), friends who mean something to you in your heart never really change. Yes, they never really change. They are still those real, genuine people who show you their best and their 'not-so-good', if not worst (and you feel secure and accepted just being yourself to them). 

They are friends I love.

------------------------------------  End of note -------------------------------------------

This is the picture of my very best friend, Karen & her son, Aidan. At this point as I write, she is very pregnant with No.2, a baby boy & guess what, she has agreed I can be Godma to her No.2. 

I am over the moon! I am soon to be promoted from friend to family, wow!

Karen is the friend who tells me to hang in there, whenever I meet a roadblock in my life journey. 

She shared this song with me recently. My eyes got wet as I hummed the tune in my head, not just because of the song but touched by the love she carried in her heart for me.

I Know Who Holds Tomorrow

I don’t know about tomorrow,
I just live from day to day.

I don’t borrow from it’s sunshine,

For it’s skies may turn to gray.

I don’t worry o’er the future,

For I know what Jesus said,

And today I’ll walk beside Him,

For He knows what is ahead.

Many things about tomorrow,

I don’t seem to understand;

But I know Who holds tomorrow,

And I know Who holds my hand.

Ev’ry step is getting brighter,

As the golden stairs I climb;

Ev’ry burden’s getting lighter;

Ev’ry cloud is silver lined.

There the sun is always shining,

There no tear will dim the eyes,

At the ending of the rainbow,

Where the mountains touch the sky.

Many things about tomorrow,

I don’t seem to understand;

But I know Who holds tomorrow,

And I know Who holds my hand.

I don’t know about tomorrow,

It may bring me poverty;

But the One Who feeds the sparrow,

Is the One Who stands by me.

And the path that be my portion,

May be through the flame or flood,

But His presence goes before me,

And I’m covered with His blood.

Many things about tomorrow,

I don’t seem to understand;

But I know Who holds tomorrow,

And I know Who holds my hand