Jocey talking to Grandma and Granddad

Here is another little video for you.

Lauren trying on her Mary Outfit

I have been trying out our new video camera. Here is our first effort.

Click this link.

Who ate all the pies?

Most people who know me probably realise that I am almost fanatical about my food.  I always try to explain that this is part of my cultural heritage, that it is an inherently Cantonese thing (to the point that the standard greeting between Cantonese friends tends to involve asking if they’ve eaten yet, or similar) but the truth of it is that I’m probably just plain obsessed.

However, it can’t just be any old food.  It’s got to tickle the taste buds, be interesting and preferably with some provenance.  I love nose to tail eating, am passionate about seasonal, local produce and proper animal welfare but am not a vegetarian.  Giving the animals we eat as food a decent quality of life should be a matter of course but I certainly don’t see why I should stop eating them as long as I do what I can to ensure that I buy responsibly and respect where the food comes from.

I love making things from scratch and very rarely buy anything pre-cooked or ready-made.  I just don’t like not knowing what’s in my food or where it comes from.  And more often that not, if you have a careful look at the label on the back (if you can make out the tiny writing) you’ll discover all sorts of E-numbers  lurking, as well as surprising (and disturbing) quantities of fat, salt and sugar.

However, recently I bought a small ready made pie from our local Waitrose (I love Waitrose).  Maybe there is some truth that in a recession people seek comfort food (though the food in that article is definitely not my kind of food!).  I thought it might be a good lunch for us at the weekend.

The pie I bought was the Chicken of Aragon Pie from Pieminister, an award winning Bristol company who insist on using the best and freshest ingredients for their hand made pies.  Obviously, I checked the small print at the back.  No e-numbers, no odd ingredients or preservatives and free range chicken in the pie.  Ticked all the boxes so far; what about the taste?

I cannot praise it enough.  It was an absolutely heavenly pie with crisp, light pastry and a succulent, tasty filling.  Not only were the chicken chunks tasty, but I could actually taste the vegetables as well.

I definitely could have eaten the whole one to myself; shame I had to share it with Jase.  I think he was thinking the exact same thing…

I am going to buy two more this weekend.  For those not fortunate enough to live across the road from Waitrose, they are also selling these in Tesco and Sainsbury’s.  Roll on comfort food!

Opera for Pre-school Children?

If you had told me before I had the children that a really good idea for children’s TV would be a series of short 25 minute operas or operettas, I would have laughed.  What a bizarre idea; surely it wouldn’t work!

Ok, I was wrong.

My children have just discovered The Wonder Pets, a cartoon where most of the dialogue is sung – in essence a 25 minute operetta.  They are completely hooked.  Jocelyn in particular adores the Wonder Pets.  All this week, she has been singing the phrase “What’s going to work?” after which I get a chorus of “Teamwork!” from both children.  They have also just about figured the words to the theme song.

 

It might even start to challenge the joint untouchable supremacy of Dora and Diego…

As with the best children’s TV, the plots are cleverly written and there is always something there for the adults as well.  I can’t complain; they love to sing along.  And from Dora and Diego, they have learnt about all kinds of animals (nursery were very surprised when, aged 2, Lauren correctly identified a picture of a humpback whale!) and know a surprising number of Spanish words.

Speaking of which, they have also recently started watching Kai-Lan, a cartoon which is all about the adventures of a little Chinese girl who speaks both English and Mandarin Chinese.  I’m really pleased that they have picked up some words (and so have I – I don’t speak any Mandarin, only Cantonese Chinese) and are learning a bit about their heritage. 

Some of these characters provide great role models; Daddy Pig from the Peppa Pig is Jase’s hero!

Sunday Cooking Marathon

Every Sunday, I spend several hours cooking.  Some weeks I spend two to three hours and other weeks it is more like five or six hours, depending on the number of meals I am making in advance and their complexity.  I try to have all the meals for the working week cooked and also to prepare all our lunches for the week in advance.

There are many reasons behind this but the main one is to save time and money.  It is often between 6pm and 6:30pm before we get home on a weekday (often I am even later than this) and the girls are tired.  They want to be fed immediately, bathed and put to bed otherwise tempers start to fray (and we get tantrums).  There is only really time to do a bit of reheating, rather than cooking from scratch.

Additionally, buying ready made stuff is neither satisfying to the palate nor to the wallet.  Despite our jobs, money is still tight (costs of living in London, childcare for two children 5 days a week balanced with being low down on our respective pay scales) and we still scrimp and save at every opportunity.  Besides, I come from a family where no matter how busy my parents were, there was a proper meal for the entire family to sit down to in the evening.  A very Chinese tradition.

Thus the need for the cooking marathon.  Last week, I hadn’t had the time to make our lunches and spent about £25 on some rather limp and bland sandwiches.  Ouch!

Today, I prepared a fantastic beer braised beef casserole, some herb and chilli marinaded lamb cutlets (which were wolfed down by the whole family – not a scrap left) and a beef and vegetable pasta in a tomato and mascarpone sauce.  At some point this week, I still have to roast the five spice pork shoulder (a firm family favourite – it has the most amazing crackling if you have good quality meat and get the temperatures right) and steam my organic chicken (another family favourite – steamed white chicken with a spring onion garnish).  I’ll probably do that on Tuesday.  Thus most of my weekend seems to fly by without much opportunity for real rest; however, it’s always good to know that we’ll eat well during the week without putting in too much more effort.

Today, Lauren drew me a picture.  She was really proud of it and I was thrilled to receive it.

It’s of the house she’d like to live in.  She explained to me that it was a big house, with enough bedrooms for all of us to have one each (I guess that it’s a four bedroom house then!) and a playroom in the centre (the round window) for the girls.  I asked her what was happening outside; she explained that on the left was a playground next to the house.  In the playground was (from left to right) Jocey, Lauren and Daddy.  On the right was Mummy’s garden.

“Where’s Mummy then?” I asked, slightly puzzled.  She pointed at the pink window on the ground floor.  “Mummy, you’re in the kitchen cooking,” she replied proudly.

Go figure!

Party, Party, Party!

The party season is well underway and over the last month or so, the girls have had a very active social life going to all their friend’s parties.  They seem to have had great fun in the process.  We’re busy most weekends as a result!

The first party of the season was attended by Jocelyn – she was invited to her best friend's Georgia’s birthday party.  One evening in October, I happened to ask Jocey (the first time I had asked – at the time I asked I wasn’t even sure that she would be able to answer the question) who her friends were.  Her response (and she says this every time now!) was “Err…Lucas…Georgia…Georgia…Lauren…”.  Georgia is obviously of such importance that she gets mentioned more than once!

Georgia’s brave Mummy and Daddy invited lots of little toddlers to their house for a painting party.  It was a lovely party, very well run and the children enjoyed it immensely.  Jocey wasn’t at all shy and was in playing with the other children in no time.

Here is my beautiful girl painting her masterpiece.  I was really surprised by her use of colours and her bold brush strokes.  At home previously, her drawings have been mainly scribbles with pencils.  Maybe she enjoys painting more than drawing!

Once she had finished that canvas, she moved on to do another painting at the easel.  She liked using the bigger brushes in particular.

Before this, I had never considered that she might be artistic.  I had always assumed that Lauren (who has always liked drawing and painting and is now very good at it) was the artistic one.

Here’s one of little Georgia (with the bunches), about to blow out her candles.  Every time I see her, she is asking for Jocey – how lovely!

That weekend was also Daddy’s birthday on the Sunday.  Grandma and Granddad came down from York to help us celebrate.  We recently discovered a lovely children’s playground by the river in St Margarets (which is in a great position because we walk down to the river, feed the ducks, walk across the bridge and then to the park) so we took the grandparents there to show them.

Lauren and Jocey love the pirate boat in the playground.

We ended up playing a game of chase where I became a scary crocodile and they were in the relative safety of their boat (unless they decided they wanted to go for a “swim” / run off the boat!).  They thought it was hilarious and there was a great deal of laughing and high pitched squealing.

Both Jocey and Lauren tired themselves out running madly about but clearly loved it.

I think both girls were sad to leave the playground when we decided it was time to go back to Richmond for some lunch.  We stopped at Wagamama’s for some noodles, which everyone enjoyed.

Once back at home, preparations were being made for Daddy’s birthday celebration.  Lauren had helped me make the cake and loved the opportunity to decorate it with chocolate sprinkles – her favourite!  I don’t think Daddy objected either, to be honest.  Mummy brought it out to the table for all to see, where a certain little girl was already waiting in anticipation…

Lauren was patiently waiting for me to cut the cake.  Her T-shirt says it all, in case there was ever any doubt.

It is possible that Daddy was also getting a little impatient and wanted some cake too!

Here’s the family at the celebration and after the presents were opened.

I particularly love this photo of Jocey with her Grandma.

Here is Mummy and Lauren having a cuddle.  We all had a lovely time that weekend.

Lauren has been to a string of parties.  Here she is at her friend Lorenzo’s party, the following weekend.  She is sitting next to Scarlett and opposite Lorenzo and the “other” Lauren in her nursery class, Lauren Williams.

These pictures are from the same boy’s party this time last year.  I can’t believe it’s only been a year and how much they’ve all grown in that time!  In the picture below, Lauren is sitting next to the lad who was her best friend at the time, Cameron.  Cameron has subsequently left the nursery but Lauren still talks about him from time to time.

This was Lorenzo last year with his Mummy, Natalia.

Despite being a year older, Lauren is still painfully shy at these parties.  I’m not sure why this is (she’s always been like that when she encounters new situations).  She knows most of the children at these parties really well as she goes to nursery with them but somehow is still scared by the unfamiliar setting.  It is strange to see her like this when I know she is confident and happy at nursery.

That weekend, she also went to her friend Sophie’s party.  She was quite tired by the time the party came around so took a long time before she would leave my side and join in with the other children.  Sophie came over straight away to say hello when we arrived – she and Lauren were good friends at nursery.  Sadly, she is not at the nursery any more either.  Most of Lauren’s friends from the last year at nursery have either left for school or gone to other childcare arrangements.

I got into quite a surprising conversation whilst at the party.

I got talking with Lauren William’s Mummy, who was also there and discovered that she was Australian from Sydney.  Naturally, we started talking about our time previously in Sydney in 2002 and are upcoming plans to return.  Bizarrely, it emerged in conversation that she used to work in the same company as Jase did in Sydney, and for the same team but on a different floor!  And of course, we both had daughters in 2005 that we decided to call Lauren.  She told me that they are also thinking of returning to Sydney at some point, but cannot in the next year or so due to her husband’s work commitments.

What a bizarre thing!

Last weekend, Lauren went to Leah’s party.  She looked really beautiful in her Princess outfit and her Princess crown.  She loved flouncing about in her long dress!  Here is a picture of all the children at Leah’s Pirates and Princesses party, after Leah’s Daddy bravely rounded up all the children and got them to stand still long enough to take a photo!  Herding cats did spring to mind at one point, but his perseverance paid off.

Lauren is standing next to Oliver, who is in her class, and Georgia who is Oliver’s little sister and Jocey’s best friend.  Next to them is Leah, who looked lovely in her Princess outfit.  Next to her is Anna Maria, a boy whom I didn’t know, Scarlett and Sophie (who had the previous party) in the red and yellow dress.  Lauren and Leah are good friends at nursery and often play together, along with Lauren’s friend Lila.

I could see from the party that the other girls were full of confidence and mixed and played easily together, even though they were seeing each other out of context.  Lauren, as always, was terribly shy and took a while to get involved in the play.  Perhaps some of the other children see each other outside of nursery on play dates so were more comfortable with each other to begin with.  Perhaps that is the disadvantage of being a full-time working mum.

Despite all this, she did seem to be happy when she left each of the parties and did seemed to have enjoyed herself.  I am sure she will get used to all of this in time!  My little shy Lauren!

Glorious Devon for our Jocelyn!

I confess that it has been two months since I last blogged. Life has been so crazy that we haven’t had time to stop – the weeks have just hurtled by. It is a shame as so much has been happening but I am hoping that I’ll be able to recall most things. I think that ultimately I do enjoy keeping a diary – I did as a child – and perhaps this blog is an extension of that. Shared memories have always been really important to my family; thus we are a family who love to tell stories and laugh over photographs of past adventures.

At present, we are well into the party season and almost every weekend has seen some celebration for the girls or their friends.

This is mainly an account of the time up to our holiday in Devon, where we celebrated Jocelyn’s second birthday.

August

The weekend before the nasty outbreak of E. coli at farms in Surrey, we went to one such farm (but not any of the ones involved in the outbreak) because we’d been promising the girls we’d go see some farm animals for weeks. So on the last Bank Holiday weekend in August, we set out for Bockett’s Farm.

It was a Saturday lunchtime but as we got within a mile of the farm, we encountered a nasty road traffic accident on the road. As we drove past the scene at low speed, I could see that there was only one paramedic on scene who had just arrived moments before. I asked Jase to pull over so that I could see if he needed any help.

An hour and a half later and after trying to save the injured man along with five paramedics and the air ambulance doctor and paramedic, we were finally done at scene and leaving the Police to start their investigation. It had been unexpected and stressful but I was glad that I was able to help in some way. Unfortunately, I was then in no fit state to go on to the Farm as I needed a change of clothes, so we headed back home.

The next morning, we tried the journey again, this time with no unexpected diversions. The road looked so different without the debris from the crash – almost as if it had never happened. I found that quite odd somehow.

However, once we’d arrived all thoughts of the previous day were forgotten and we had a wonderful time at the farm.

Here are Lauren and Jocey looking at the small animals in the hutch. Lauren was quite nervous, even of the small animals. Jocelyn, as usual, wasn’t scared of anything.

After looking at the rabbits, guinea pigs, sheep, goats and cows in the shed, we went outside to have a ride on the tractor around the farm.

It was all very well organised. There were plenty of hand washing facilities (and of course I made sure their hands were clean after they had touched the animals) and the place looked generally clean. It was all a lot of fun and the animals looked happy and content.

After a good lunch, we headed to the children’s playground area for the girls to run around and play. They especially liked the huge sandpit, complete with play house and sand toys!

Of course, Jocey loved the slide and had many goes before she could be persuaded to try something else.

Lauren spotted the bouncy pillow and the shoes immediately came off and she was on it bounce to her heart’s content!

Despite being quite a cold and overcast day they had a fantastic time and loved seeing the animals.

September

September brought a much needed holiday. Neither of us had actually had a proper summer holiday (our break in July was used to move house to Richmond). Work had been pretty busy for both of us and we were looking forward to going away.

I had found a lovely self catering cottage on the internet in North Devon which could accommodate all of us (as both sets of parents and Aunty Madge were coming too) and since I’d always wanted to go to the West Country, I thought it would be ideal.

It was in the most beautiful setting in North Devon; quiet, peaceful and so green. The cottage was located just outside a small town called Bideford, only accessible via a very narrow (and sometimes hair-raising) country lane.

It was everything we could have hoped for – not just picturesque but obviously a well loved family home. Our whole family loved it – the girls ran round the house for the first two hours exploring every nook and cranny of their “holiday house”.

Every evening, we had wonderful family meals in the farmhouse kitchen. I even got to grips with the challenge of cooking on an AGA (not my favourite beast – I love the instant control and intense heat that only a gas hob can provide). Catering for seven adults and two children was no small challenge, but actually one I enjoyed whilst on holiday.

On the first Sunday after our arrival in Devon, it was Jocelyn’s second birthday. She has yet to have a birthday celebration at home – last year, we were in Chicago for her first birthday!

Here is a picture of my baby girl just a few days old in September 2007.

This is her last year in Chicago on her first birthday.

I can barely believe how quickly she has grown into a little girl. Here she is on her second birthday in Devon. She is just about to blow out the candles on the carrot cake that I had baked for her that morning. I found the recipe in an old WI cookbook at the cottage dating back to the 1950’s. It was a fantastic recipe – I have used it a number of times since!

Jocelyn is turning into such a bright, vivacious girl – full of smiles and laughter!

She is so different from Lauren in personality but somehow they complement each other perfectly. We love our girls so much; they have brought so much joy into our lives. We are lucky and grateful that they also love each other very much.

Whilst in Devon, we visited some of the local attractions and sights. We had a day on another farm, called The Big Sheep, which was enormous fun. We had a day meeting the lovely farm animals, including feeding the lambs.

Lauren was a bit scared because the lambs were pretty boisterous but Jocey wasn’t fazed. She even went to stroke the lambs afterwards, and seemed to like that. Rigorous hand washing followed, of course. I was very impressed by the levels of hygiene in the place – there were signs everywhere reminding people to wash their hands and their children’s hands after any contact with the animals and it was generally very clean.

We loved watching the sheep dogs and also enjoyed the horse whispering demonstration. The girls also loved playing in the huge indoor soft play area.

They played happily in this area for at least an hour and a half before we could tear them away for some lunch.

Here’s Lauren, Jocey and Mummy coming down the big slide with Daddy looking on from the top.

Whilst in Devon, we visited a number of the local attractions. On a wet Monday morning, we drove into Cornwall to the Eden Project. Set in an old quarry, I found it to be surprisingly beautiful.

It was architecturally amazing – a perfect blend of sculpture with an industrial undertone and nature in all its glory. The planting was lush and felt natural; you would not have guessed that it’s only about 10 years old.

The girls did enjoy looking around the domes, especially the rainforest one (even though the heat was quite oppressive). Lauren especially liked the cocoa tree (when she found out that’s where chocolate came from!) and the banana tree with real bananas growing on it. I learned something too – I didn’t realise that pineapples grew on squat bushes; I had always assumed they grew on trees. Perhaps that was the fault of all those inaccurate Del Monte adverts when I was a child!

Both sets of parents enjoyed it too. We all agreed that it had been a lovely outing and well worth seeing. I thought that it was educational with a strong conservational message without being boring. I especially liked the cafe, where all the vegetable produce was grown on site by the Eden Project team.

Being real foodies, we decided that no trip to Devon and Cornwall would be complete without a trip to Padstow, home to chef Rick Stein. I planned to try some seafood there (being a port) even if it wasn’t going to be at his restaurant. Besides, I could always drool at the menu in the window.

It was a glorious day but I was shocked that on a Thursday after the schools had gone back from the summer break that the place was absolutely jam packed with tourists. Despite this, we did eventually find a restaurant called Pescadou which served us a wonderful seafood lunch at a reasonable price. My fish was cooked to perfection. I didn’t get to enjoy it for very long though, as Jocey was in a bad mood and had to be taken for a walk along the harbour before she calmed down.

A chocolate ice cream got her back to her normal cheery self very quickly after that!

Lauren, of course had one too.

In the afternoon, we drove back towards North Devon and stopped to take in the sights at Tintagel. Being a fan of the Arthurian Legends since childhood, I achieved a lifetime ambition to see Tintagel.

It is set in the most amazing place; you walk down a very steep path which takes you down a narrow valley and out towards an isolated headland, buffeted by the sea.

To clarify, the ruins that you see are mainly from a castle built in the Middle Ages. However, out on the headland, archaeologists uncovered ruins dating from a 5th or 6th century fort, the correct timeframe for the legends of Arthur. We loved it; the atmosphere and the sheer wild nature of it.

We had unexpectedly glorious weather for the entire week so much of it was spent on the beach. The girls loved this; they spent the whole time running around and building sandcastles. It was fantastic to see them so happy and so free – a far cry from London.

We found two beaches that we particularly loved; one at Instow, which was very sheltered and family friendly and one at Woolacombe, which was huge, very clean and had excellent facilities.

Here’s Lauren and Jocey on the beach at Instow building sandcastles.

Here’s a later masterpiece getting the “Jocey treatment”.

The girls are clearly having fun!

This is Mummy’s attempt at sand sculpture – a sea turtle. Pretty basic but drew many admirers from people passing by on the beach!

Our day at Woolacombe was also fun filled. The girls had a wonderful time doing a dance around their sandcastle – perhaps to bring out the sun?

What better way to celebrate the joys of the beach than for the whole family to enjoy a lunch of fish and chips in the sunshine? I had some fresh whelks as well…yummy!!

It was a fantastic day out, as you can see by everyone’s relaxed smiles.

We attempted some family photos but unfortunately the girls were too tired by then. This was the only one we managed to get successfully!

We loved Devon and we loved our holiday there. The week was over far too quickly (as always with holidays). We were truly sad to be heading back to the concrete jungle of London. The quieter pace was something I definitely continue to yearn for, and maybe we’ll find soon. I would definitely like to go back some day.

The rest of our holiday photos can be seen here.