The best.

If we know each other in real life, I’ve probably told you about Anson Mills’ oatmeal. More likely, I shoved a pouch or two into your arms and insisted you make some yourself. Like the dekopon (which are now in Whole Foods and Eataly, marketed as Sumo mandarines) and really good sushi, once you have this stuff, you can’t go back. Nothing else is worth having.

They’re quick-cooking oats, and the Anson Mills people have worked out detailed instructions for the best results: tender, creamy, yet still retaining a little bite.

The butter, brown sugar, and salt are non-negotiable for me — I can’t believe I went most of my life without putting butter in my oatmeal! (For my parents, if we weren’t microwaving packets of Quaker apple-and-cinnamon-flavored instant in the microwave, the only real garnish options to consider were sugar and raisins.)

(Which reminds me of my friend Lillian’s story about how, when she was growing up, her family made oatmeal congee-style: savory, topped with pork floss and pickles. At some point, she stayed over at a friend’s house, and they were having oatmeal, and she was looking around for the pork but then was horrified and disgusted to see them putting cream and maple syrup in their oatmeal. I love that story.)

When it was time to hand over Keena’s leash to the nurse who was checking Keena in, Keena sat down so quickly and stubbornly refused to move in the direction with the nurse.  She did sit perfectly even the nurse said so.  It was nice for me that Keena wanted to stay with me and did not go with someone very easily that she does not know.  But after three quick yet gentle tugs on her leash from the nurse, Keena went through the door to the back rooms of the hospital.  The surgery was a success.  Keena is the first female dog I have had to spay.  Winnie #1 (Aussie)  for some unknown reason never came into heat. (All three female siblings of her litter, experienced the same.)  And Winnie #2 (Husky) had been spayed prior to being adopted.  I explain that Keena is the first dog for me to have spayed because I was not aware that girl dogs do not need to wear a collar or cone after the surgery to keep from licking their sutures.  My vet shared with me that to save money on a collar or cone, I needed to bring in a toddler’s tshirt to be worn or wrapped around Keena’s midsection to keep the suture area clean and dry.  Well, it was a cost saver, but I am not convinced that I like the look. (see photo below)

Once I returned home from dropping off Keena at the vet’s office, the Huskies remained very quiet the rest of the day and after Keena’s return late in the afternoon.  Both each gave her a good sniffing over –smelling the hospital scents on Keena’s skin and then turning away from her.  It is a quiet night in the house right now.  Keena will have several more days of quiet and low activity per doctor’s orders.  This will be my challenge the rest of the week to keep her in that state of mind and body which is opposite of her true nature.

The night before trying to get some rest in Winnie’s bed.

A little shaky and uncertain as to why she is in the car before even eating breakfast!

Trying to get comfortable after her taking the first sedative.

At last some shut eye.

All is calm tonight.

Well,” said Pooh, ”what I like best,” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called. ~A.A. Milne

Anticipation..?!? or what do u think..???

I big chopped in September last year. I think it was the 14^th or something like that. For the next 4 months I did absolutely nothing helpful to my hair. In fact, it’s a shock I’m not battling heat damage, protein deficiency and goodness knows what else. Although I half suspect that if indeed my hair was damaged from the abuse I wouldn’t be able to tell.

Before the BC I had braids on for 8 months. Yes. You read that right. It would be hilarious if my hair didn’t suffer for my laziness. I’ve always had hair that grows really fast so I used to feel smug because I didn’t really take care of it and it would still grow long. And by long I mean a bit below shoulder length – which all black people know is about as long as our hair grows…or so we’ve convinced ourselves.

That’s my brother and I. It’s the only photo I could find that had a close up on the nastiness that was my braids…but I rocked it!

That thinking was so ridiculously flawed for several reasons but mainly because even though my hair did grow during the periods it was in braids it was weak and horribly damaged. As a result the second I removed the braids it would start falling off like I had some terminal disease.

As I said, the first 4 months were a total mess of blowouts on extremely high heat, dry combing my hair and never ever detangling. Natural hair people this is going to shock you but I rarely ever conditioned it. Deep conditioning what??! I had no idea what that was. My hair was not growing and I was beginning to get frustrated. I looked like a criminal on death row most days with knotted strands of hair dangling from the tangled mess on my head.

If I had to guess I’d say this is was in November. You cannot begin to imagine the tangles up in that fro’. Also I have a thing about pointing at myself in photos. Weird but there’s little about me that’s not weird

After watching several youtube videos and reading a couple of blogs I went out and bought a big container of 100% extra virgin organic coconut oil. It set me back £16 and the only coherent thought I had as I paid for the oil was that if this thing didn’t work someone was going to get hurt! In a way I wanted it not to work because then I wouldn’t have to buy it again…but it worked. And Lord! How it worked! The first time I finger detangled I used it and my hair had not felt so good since I was a little girl with a ‘Winnie Mandela fro’.

Considering that was only in January, I’m still pretty new at this. There is so much I do not know, partly because I am a chronic skim reader.

There’s a Part 3 coming up soon. It will be about my current hair regimen and the products that I’m using.

We met everybody outside the ESPN Wide World of Sports.

I’m blending in with the Run Disney banner! That’s how committed I am!

The expo was huge! We picked up our race bibs and race kits and I bought a “I did it!” t-shirt. It was lime green with Donald Duck on it and a map of the race route on the back. I also finally invested in an iPod armband (I know right?!). Dan and I bought personalized frames for our medals (they would send us a duplicate medal to put in the frame, we’d supply our own photos and they would provide a duplicate race bib as well as a customized section that had our names, First Half Marathon and our finishing time). I also saw and held the medal for the first time. It was beautiful. With all of this, I knew I had to finish the half no matter what.

Check out how huge this expo was. They also had free pictures that you could take sponsored by HP so we took a few.

After the expo we went back to the hotel and relaxed. There was some sunshine so we lay by the pool, which wasn’t busy since it was still pretty cold (now around 14 c). Thinking about the -15c weather at home, I went for a swim. We also felt that we had to enjoy the pool at least once. The hot tub was also awesome.

We basically had the pool area to ourselves.

That night we were going to go to a dinner theatre for Sue’s birthday, but Sue wasn’t feeling well so they ordered Chinese instead. We decided to go to Carraba’s since it was close to our hotel.

Dinner at Carrabba’s. I had the mezzo luna I think it was called. om nom nom

The next day we checked out of our hotel room. We were spending the last two nights at the Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter in Disney World. Anna had done some research and apparently this was a close to the start line and to all of the parks (by bus). After checking into the hotel we hopped onto the Disney World Express (or whatever the bus is called) and headed to The Magic Kingdom.

We took this picture outside of the sign at the front entrance to The Magic Kingdom.

I can’t even tell you how excited we were to be there. Dan and I had both gone to Disney World when we were 13 (not together since we didn’t know each other then). It was really great to be back and this time experience it in a different way (my family doesn’t do rides so I didn’t go on very many rides the last time I was here). The sun was also out and it was much warmer than it had been in the last few days.

We took these pictures with Cinderella’s Castle. I was pretending we were headed down the yellow brick road. When we ran the half we would be running right here!

Dan and I emulating Mickey and Minnie.

Kristen and I in the stocks. haha.

Cindrella’s castle

After riding some rides (Haunted Mansion etc.) and dancing in a parade it was time for lunch. We had a special character lunch with the animals of the 100 acre wood at the Crystal Palace.

Fact: Eeyore was my favourite when I was a baby. My parents bought me a stuffed eeyore because they thought he was a dog (I was born in the year of the dog).

Kristen and I with Winnie the Pooh. They were all really friendly.

Anna and Eddie told us that this meal was very important because it was going to help fuel us for the half marathon the next day. We watched everything that Eddie ate and tried to stuff ourselves as much as possible.

Here are my plates of food. I eventually gave up on trying to put too much thought into what I ate and just went for what looked delicious. om nom nom

We went on more rides after lunch including Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Pirates of the Caribbean! I also made everybody line up for the Dumbo ride because I had always wanted to go on it and had never been.

Us on the Dumbo ride. It was everything I had ever dreamed of and more.

While we were in line, Kristen went and bought mouse ears. We had seen sparkly Minnie Mouse ears all over the park and hadn’t been able to find them. She had asked someone and they said they got them at a store near the front entrance.

Success! Matching mouse ears!

After this, we headed to MGM Studios (or Hollywood Studios as it’s called now) and saw the Indiana Jones show. This was my favourite show the last time I was here and after going to Disney, my dad even bought me all three movies on vhs! (Now I have all four movies on dvd, obviously)

We met up with Anna and Eddie and had a quick dinner before heading over to see the Fantasmic show.

Dinner (and my last real meal before the half marathon) – Beef angus burger with fries. om nom nom

Fantasmic was awesome! I also saw this show when I was 13 and it was still as amazing as before. Mickey was awesome!

After Fantasmic we had enough time for one last ride, so we headed over to Star Tours. It was really entertaining (Dan and I are big Star Wars fans) and there was barely any line.

Dan liked this hat but didn’t buy it (didn’t see much use out of it).

And that was it. We went back to the hotel, nervous and excited for the next day. In a few short hours we’d be running our first half marathon (first for me, Dan and Kristen anyway). Was it really the happiest race on earth? Find out in part 4!

Utility wall organiser

I just think my life would be so much more complete if I had this wall storage. My keys would stop getting lost, my pens would never be underneath my bed, and for once my window seal would not be cluttered with sticky notes that have lists of ‘to dos’ that I never got round to doing.

At £208 I’m just going to have to keep lusting after it unless…

• When people destroy perfectly good shoes/clothes by putting studs or sequins on them. I don’t know when and why that trend came into fashion but it is truly the bane of my existence. Yes Aldo, I am looking at you.

• Those trainer heels. Why? Really why? Yes they are comfortable but that’s what normal trainers are for. At this point I am sure you can tell that my fashion sense is a few seasons off the current trend.
• When they give us our essays back and the feedback has more typos than the entire year’s essays combined. Dear lecturer/tutor, a university degree is expensive stuff. The least I expect is perfect grammar from the person molding my mind.
• When I am standing in a queue or line (depending on which part of the atlantic you come from) waiting to pay and the person in front of me waits until they are at the till before rummaging through their bag to look for change. Don’t think muttering an apology and smiling at me will make me not judge you. I may or may not be guilty of this myself.

There is no excuse on earth for not getting your money out before hand when all you are buying is gum.

• When a show is supposed to come on the same day, every week and I’ve planned my entire life around this and then one week it doesn’t show up and google has no explanation. People seriously?! I nearly had a panic attack. 
• Waking up in the morning, looking at my hair and realizing I could easily pass for a criminal and I have a grand total of 10 minutes to sort that ‘ish out. That my friends, is one of the universes most cruel, cruel jokes. 10 minutes to sort a natural hair disaster? Funny.

Tell me you haven’t had one of those morning melt downs when you realise yesterday’s perfect twist out is today’s hot tangled frizzball mess!

• In an economics lecture when we’ve been using i as the sign for interest rate the whole lecture and then 15 minutes to the end, the lecturer says, ‘lets use R instead’. Ok, you do not change economic notations as you please, especially when we’ve used R for reserves the entire time. That’s how we got into an economic crisis in the first place. Not. Cool.

Are there any annoying things that make you stop in your tracks and go “But why?”.

It is also a Very Special Day because on this day last year Jiggs became our Forever Dog in his Forever Home with his Forever Girlfriend Winnie!

Yay Jiggie!

Winnie, Winnie che mi scrive in bacheca e scatena l’inferno. Lei è così dolce, è zucchero caldo. E’ come l’amore che ti avvolge e non va, quel profumo resta. Mi parla di carezze, pensa che io stia male fisicamente. Ed è vero; ho un tumore. Pensa che io dovrei meritarmi una Donna con la D maiuscola. Pensa che Freja non mi ami, che sia un apparire e un godere.  Non è così, vorrei farglielo capire. Freja non è quella che si mostra, è fragile, è dolce, è ninfomane. Non è  colpa sua se parla di sesso con chiunque, è una cosa che fa parte del suo carattere di cui, effettivamente, non mi ero proprio reso conto. Poi è uscita con uno, non voglio sapere chi sia, cosa c’ha fatto, che è successo, non lo voglio sapere. Per me il sesso e l’amore son due cose separate. Vuoi scopare a destra e a manca? Fallo, Freja, sei libera. Lo accetto, che altro devo fare? Non ne ho idea. Quello STAMP mi ha disgustato. Lo schifo. Ho avuto lo stomaco chiuso per ore. Ho dovuto prendere l’auto e sparire, sfondare sull’accelleratore e correre a  290 kmh. avrò preso tre multe come minimo, e non so con quali soldi pagarle. Non avevo niente, non sapevo neanche dove stavo. Però vedevo bene New York, una specie di dirupo tipo film. Tipo un pessimo film. Chi ha scritto le parti di questi attori è un malato. Non ho pianto, ho fumato. Ho fumato tanto e parlavo con Jayden, cercavo di capire perchè anche lui l’avesse fatto. Non capivo. Ma il vero problema è che io li amo, tutti e tre.
Jayden, Freja e tu, Luke.
Non ce la faccio, vi voglio. E ieri ci siamo visti, io lo so che non avevo perso la ragione che tu stavi lì, bello e bastardo come sempre a sorridere con quel tuo ghigno cattivo e malsano. Eri bellissimo con i tuoi capelli biondi spettinati, il trucco agl’occhi, le labbra martoriate dai morsi, gli occhi verdi crudeli e la tua voce bellissima. Come fanno a scambiarci? Siamo così diversi, tu sei così … infernale.
Avrei voluto chiederti tante cose, e non l’ho fatto. Avrei voluto baciarti, non l’ho fatto. Avrei voluto che mi portassi via con te, non l’hai fatto.

Come apre bocca, dice una porcata. E’ più vogliosa di una lurida cagna in calore.
Sposami.
DIMMI SE MI AMI OPPURE NO. DIMMELO. ADESSO. ORA.

Non è così, non è una cagna in calore, non con me. Mi basta che non lo sia con me, mi basta questo. Non sono malato, sono una persona normale, mi piacciono le cose semplici e naturali. Sono per i baci che fanno arrossire, sono per le strette di mano quando meno te lo aspetti, sono per l’amore naturale che fai senza ragioni, senza pretese, senza idee. Lei non è così, lo so, mi va bene uguale, il sesso lo accantono. Non l’accontenterò mai.

Sposarti. Non posso, questo è certo. E non so neanche se lo voglio. Andare al matrimonio di Thom e Ocean sarà doloroso. Io non potrò mai avere niente del genere. La felicità, cos’è? Lo so cosa è, e anche bene, ed è per questo che non riesco più ad accontentarmi. La carriera, avevo buttato tutto su quella, ma.. qua è uno schifo. Sto morendo lentamente dentro, tu lo sai. Spero che trovi al più presto un sostituto a me, io non posso darle molto quasi niente di quello che vorrebbe.

SI, CAZZO, SI. Non volevo diglielo che lo amo. No, proprio non volevo. Non ora che conto i giorni all’operazione, sarà ancora più difficile. Per me, per lui. Ha due personalità, Jayden e Fate. E Fate sarebbe mio figlio, lo sapevo che non sarei stato un buon padre. Mi piacerebbe fare come dice Fate: Occuparmi di Jayden, ma non posso. Ha Joey, e ha Ezkiel. Per loro non è due persone, è una sola quella che si trovano davanti agl’occhi. Ed è quella che si riflette. Io … non posso rovinare altre persone.

Non so che fare, sto impazzendo. Sto studiando per capire che prova mio fratello, ma è difficile poterlo salvare. Che devo fare con Freja? La amo, non la voglio lasciare, lei non ce la farebbe, ne sono certo. E con Jay? Non voglio fargli altro male.

E non ho ancora detto a nessuno del tumore, altro capitolo.

This was about 4 days before I ‘went natural’. The reason my hair looks like it’s got some serious body is the 1.5 years of growth on it.

My sister thinks I am off to start a natural hair cult. But that presupposes that I know everything about natural hair when up until 2 weeks ago I had no idea what my hair type was. And to be honest I’m still not sure. 4B? C? What?! Porosity is a completely new concept to me. I had never had the phrase ‘hair regimen’ uttered before I found the blog ‘heyfranhey’ (Susan told me about her: she knows a ton more than I do about this stuff!).

Last September, I woke up one morning in a really good mood and decided to cut off the relaxed ends of my hair. I was curious about what my natural hair looked like. Luckily I hadn’t relaxed my hair in about a year so it wasn’t a ‘Big Chop’. It was more like a severe trim. Anyway, I had no intentions of learning how to take care of my hair. The idea was to see how I looked with a fro’ then slap those braids back on for another 8 months.

February this year: so 6 months natural. I didn’t know we were going to start a natural hair blog so I don’t think I have any photo’s of the first few months but I will check just in case.

I tell this to some people and they think it’s weird, but the day I cut my hair, looked into the mirror and saw this girl rocking a seriously cool fro’ something changed. It’s not because of the hair but what it represents. I’d discovered a part of myself that I had forgotten over the last 12 years and I simply was not ready to hide that girl away under a mass of extensions.

As useless as New Years resolutions are, one of mine, inspired by Susan, is to grow my hair. So this blog will be a way of sharing our discoveries as we learn more about our hair, how to grow it and how to nourish it. And no Kui (my sister), we are not starting a natural hair cult!

Stick around for part 2 if you’re interested in reading about the disaster that was the first four months of my ‘natural hair life’.

This is the soup of my childhood.

To make it, you need pork bones, which are surprisingly hard to find sometimes, even at adventurous hipster butcher shops and other fancy grocers that cater to that same clientele (types like me). I pretty much never see them at my local Whole Paycheck, but there they were this week, and on sale! (Like my mom, I love pork bones, and I love a good sale.) Neck bones are best, but the shank and assorted bits in this package suited my purposes just fine.

You put the bones in a pot with cold water to cover and bring to a boil, then discard all the liquid and fill again with cold water to an inch or so above the bones. Bring back to a boil (and here you could discard and refill again, as Mom prefers, but I haven’t reached that level of maturity yet), then lower heat to simmer and allow to cook for about 5, 5.5 hours. If I start this late at night, I might cook it partway, cool it overnight on the stove, and then start it up again in the morning. Skim every hour. (If you’re like me, you might chuck in the bones from the pan-roasted pork chops you had for dinner.)

Once the stock has reached a milkier, more substantial appearance, you can remove most of the bones. Feel free to leave any that are still holding onto some meat. Cut up some daikon and carrots into large chunks and add to the pot. The daikon is not optional — there’s something about it that fits the pork broth just so, enhancing and balancing it in all the right ways. I added tomatoes too, because that’s what Mom usually does (though I felt really guilty about buying tomatoes in March), and shiitakes, because I had some and they seemed a reasonable complement (but turn out to be not really necessary, fyi). That all cooks for about 20 to 25 minutes, until the daikon is translucent and soft.

Salt, pepper — especially white pepper — and done.

Note: This soup tastes best from a Chinese soup spoon.

Winnie and I went to watch Kendall coach his baseball team to a victory! It was really windy and Winnie isn’t a big fan of strangers apparently (this is a new development), so we ended up watching the game from our car.

After the game, we were going to meet up at the field house then go grab a bite to eat. When I was getting ready to head up there, my phone rang and Kendall told me someone accidentally backed into his car coming out of the parking lot. (The kid who backed into him had a big ol’ truck – which wasn’t even scratched.)

Needless to say, we ended up just coming home and spent the rest of the evening and a good portion of today on the phone with insurance, body shops, and car rental places. Luckily everyone we’ve had to deal with has been really nice and helpful. Let’s just hope everything gets fixed 100% with no problems!

We still made it over to the gym this morning for day 2 of lifting. (I’m still sore from day 1!) We also walked the dogs over (and then I walked them back) to/from the car rental place. Buddy was pooped. His little legs don’t like long distances.

Finally, I have a new recipe to share. I got it from cleananddelicious.com. She has some really great recipes over there, so I suggest you go check them out sometime!

Buffalo Cauliflower (I adapted it ever so slightly from here.)

Ingredients:
1 head cauliflower, washed and cut into medium-small florets
1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. chili pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. wing sauce (I used Louisiana Wing Sauce, but Frank’s is good too!)

Directions:
01. Pre-heat oven to 425
02. Toss cauliflower with olive oil. Toss cauliflower with salt, paprika, chili powder, and garlic powder.
03. Spread cauliflower on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.
04. Toss with wing sauce.
05. Spread cauliflower on baking sheet and BROIL for 3 minutes (to get it crisper!)
06. Enjoy!

I divided it into about 4 servings (60 calories per serving).

I ate it alongside some chicken sausage for lunch today. Nom nom nom… I then followed up my healthy day by eating my weight in mini Twix bars and Reeses’s eggs.

• Ponder of the day: Why are the Easter egg shaped Reese’s better than regular Reeses’s? Or is it just me? (Kendall says it’s the higher peanut butter to chocolate ratio, but I don’t know…)

Today is bath day for Winnie and Keena.  Nicoya’s bath was yesterday and this time it was the most difficult for him.  He has never liked water on him of any kind but especially bath/shower water.  With his senior age and arthritis flare ups, getting up the high steps and into the boxed-in tiled tub was in no way a pleasant experience for him or for me—he actually allowed me to pick him up!  And that hasn’t been since he was a puppy.  He was shaking the whole rapid-fire bath time of 25 minutes.  Luckily the sun has been warming up into the high 70′s so he was able to dry his coat while snoozing on the patio.  His coat is more white/gray than red after this winter’s shed.

All of us went on a really good hike over the weekend.  We had to drive to a trail the Huskies hadn’t been on in over a year and it was a first for Keena.  She was just crazy happy to be walking with the Huskies and thought she should be the leader.  All her training was no where in sight as she put her mind to just being in front of Nicoya.  From now on she will walk with me separately from Nicoya, Winnie and I on our walks.  This will make us all happy and obedient.

After the hike. Winnie walked while also attempting to keep Keena far enough apart from her and her constant nipping at her legs.

Photo updates from today’s baths.  Fortunately, towards the end of the bath, a 4.5 month old Australian Shepherd walked in for his bath.  He looked really small compared to Keena.  His owners said Keena looked really big.  At last, someone not asking if Keena was a “mini Aussie”.

The beginning. Keena is a bit nervous about being in this BIG tub. This is her first bath not at home.

Too much water–the first shake.

Another big dog walked in the store and caught her interest.

The end. Almost dry.

The perfect ending. Napping after her spa day just like Bear. Compare to his photo at top of the blog.  Keena doesn’t quite have Bear’s smile after her bath.

Mickey & Friends, Helly Kitty, Winnie the Pooh, Rilakumma, Pandora, Candy Pop, Pink dot, Dalmatian.

10 pieces per box ~ S$15

* Postage not included.

Singapore Registered Mail : S$2.20

Singapore Normal Mail : S$1.50

* Please opt for registered postage to ensure that your parcel is trackable.
We would like to give a gentle reminder that we are not liable for lost mail should you opt for normal postage.  All instocks would be mailed out within 24 hours of payment.

For ordering, please email to : instaxluv@gmail.com