Saturday, April 15, 2006
A Week Condensed
March 12 2005
Tired but happy. Tired but happy. This is the predominant emotion of the week. It has been a hectic week with Tuesday seeing a great lifting of spirits. It was such an enormous pleasure to rediscover my obicularis oris and other "smiling" muscles. (Tells you how great my anatomy of the face is.) I think a large factor for this change in mood was due to human company.
Had dinner with TW and CL on Tuesday night, after which we embarked on the Great Baking Adventure. This began with procurement of choice ingredients. First attempt being Partick Safeway but it had closed by the time we arrived. So we headed for the trusty 24 hr Tesco in Springburn and emerged 45 mins later with our loot. Started baking our banana and walnut cake at 11.30pm and stuck it in the oven 30 mins later with high hopes. An hour later, burnt banana walnut biscuit emerged from the oven. In order to ease our disappointment, we wolfed down the unburnt morsels of that one. Fed up with the lack of success and anxious to get it right as I had volunteered to make a cake for TW's birthday, I suggested making a second attempt. Round two began almost at 1am and ended at 2.30am. What came out of it was dubbed "elastic banana rock cake". Resigned that my cake was bewitched, I went to bed.Wednesday was bak kut teh day with TW and CL again. It was nice spicy soup for dinner and the pillow for dessert. =)
TW's birthday fell on Thursday. S had offered (and I had very gladly accepted; my waist size having personally benefited from her baking) to come over to help with the cake. She suggested making Tiramisu. So after meeting O, K and N at Tinderbox for coffee, I headed to Somerfield to buy this thing called Mascapone Cheese. I say "this thing" coz I had absolutely not the slightest inkling what that was before I bought it. On a sidenote, the meeting in Tinderbox was great. Both N and O used to be in my Secondary School German class and to meet up so coincidentally after all this time... we could only sit and marvel at how small our world actually is.
Anyhow, back to the Tiramisu. We were supposed to start baking it at 6 plus as the final product had to be delivered to K's flat by 8pm. Very unfortunately, S got held up and so she left me hopping from one foot to the other while trying to look for Tiramisu recipes online. If you are a visual person, think of a cat on hot bricks. (and you'd better be thinking of a sleek tabby cat and not a pudgy cheshire one). And at the point where I almost gave up looking and resigned myself to the fact that I might have to make the stupid ol' banana cake or materialise at the party with a Peckhams, S called, said she was on the way and gave me instructions on how to begin. And it would interest you to know that all this was happening in TW's presence, giving me no choice but to tell so many lies I almost ended up looking like Pinochio's cousin. But I'm sure it would please you to know that S at long last arrived, produced the Peckhams cake with me hovering about making futile but nonetheless sincere attempts to help, and saved me from the terrible, mortifying Peckhams fate.
Today (well more like Friday) was a day of sorts. I kid you not when I tell you that we were running a circus in the geriatric ward. Lost, Mrs X was shuffling up and down the corridors and upon seeing me, she requested I take her to her bed. Also lost (but valiantly trying to hide it) as to who this patient was and what room she'd come from, Hilda looked around for assistance but none was available. So Hilda led Mrs X up and down the corridors,with confused Mrs X all the while asking "Is this my bed? Or is this one mine?" and Hilda could do nothing but give her the most beguiling "I am clueless" smile. Talk about the blind leading the blind. =)
The second episode of the day was a rather educational one. Did you happen to know that fruit can copulate? Well, good for you if you did, coz I didn't till I met Mrs Y. "Mrs Y, I am now going to name you 3 objects, after which I would like you to repeat them after me-- Apple, Table, Penny. Can you name them please.""They are all f***ing fruit," she says."I see" was all I could muster as I contemplated this very foreign idea of fruits copulating.
I guess things-- good, bad and interesting all come in streaks. The third patient I spoke to seemed rather with-it till I asked him what the date today was."The date, the date, the date, what is the f***ing date." he hollered repeatedly as he thwacked the bed along with the rhythm of the sentence.I made the grave mistake of asking him what the month was."The month, the month, the month, what is the f***ing month!" The tune had not only changed its lyrics but had also increased in decibel.Startled by the sheer volume from a man so frail, I bid a hasty retreat from the ward. But even from the outside I could still hear his hollers bouncing off the walls. I had obviously opened a Pandora's box and now didn't know how to shut it. Worse still, even through the glass partition, I could feel the other patients glaring accusatorily at me for unleashing something I had no control over."Oh God, will he ever stop?" I thought desperately. As there was nothing I could do, I simply waited till I couldn't bear it any longer before turning and walking guiltily away from the echoes of his refrain.
Tired but happy. Tired but happy. This is the predominant emotion of the week. It has been a hectic week with Tuesday seeing a great lifting of spirits. It was such an enormous pleasure to rediscover my obicularis oris and other "smiling" muscles. (Tells you how great my anatomy of the face is.) I think a large factor for this change in mood was due to human company.
Had dinner with TW and CL on Tuesday night, after which we embarked on the Great Baking Adventure. This began with procurement of choice ingredients. First attempt being Partick Safeway but it had closed by the time we arrived. So we headed for the trusty 24 hr Tesco in Springburn and emerged 45 mins later with our loot. Started baking our banana and walnut cake at 11.30pm and stuck it in the oven 30 mins later with high hopes. An hour later, burnt banana walnut biscuit emerged from the oven. In order to ease our disappointment, we wolfed down the unburnt morsels of that one. Fed up with the lack of success and anxious to get it right as I had volunteered to make a cake for TW's birthday, I suggested making a second attempt. Round two began almost at 1am and ended at 2.30am. What came out of it was dubbed "elastic banana rock cake". Resigned that my cake was bewitched, I went to bed.Wednesday was bak kut teh day with TW and CL again. It was nice spicy soup for dinner and the pillow for dessert. =)
TW's birthday fell on Thursday. S had offered (and I had very gladly accepted; my waist size having personally benefited from her baking) to come over to help with the cake. She suggested making Tiramisu. So after meeting O, K and N at Tinderbox for coffee, I headed to Somerfield to buy this thing called Mascapone Cheese. I say "this thing" coz I had absolutely not the slightest inkling what that was before I bought it. On a sidenote, the meeting in Tinderbox was great. Both N and O used to be in my Secondary School German class and to meet up so coincidentally after all this time... we could only sit and marvel at how small our world actually is.
Anyhow, back to the Tiramisu. We were supposed to start baking it at 6 plus as the final product had to be delivered to K's flat by 8pm. Very unfortunately, S got held up and so she left me hopping from one foot to the other while trying to look for Tiramisu recipes online. If you are a visual person, think of a cat on hot bricks. (and you'd better be thinking of a sleek tabby cat and not a pudgy cheshire one). And at the point where I almost gave up looking and resigned myself to the fact that I might have to make the stupid ol' banana cake or materialise at the party with a Peckhams, S called, said she was on the way and gave me instructions on how to begin. And it would interest you to know that all this was happening in TW's presence, giving me no choice but to tell so many lies I almost ended up looking like Pinochio's cousin. But I'm sure it would please you to know that S at long last arrived, produced the Peckhams cake with me hovering about making futile but nonetheless sincere attempts to help, and saved me from the terrible, mortifying Peckhams fate.
Today (well more like Friday) was a day of sorts. I kid you not when I tell you that we were running a circus in the geriatric ward. Lost, Mrs X was shuffling up and down the corridors and upon seeing me, she requested I take her to her bed. Also lost (but valiantly trying to hide it) as to who this patient was and what room she'd come from, Hilda looked around for assistance but none was available. So Hilda led Mrs X up and down the corridors,with confused Mrs X all the while asking "Is this my bed? Or is this one mine?" and Hilda could do nothing but give her the most beguiling "I am clueless" smile. Talk about the blind leading the blind. =)
The second episode of the day was a rather educational one. Did you happen to know that fruit can copulate? Well, good for you if you did, coz I didn't till I met Mrs Y. "Mrs Y, I am now going to name you 3 objects, after which I would like you to repeat them after me-- Apple, Table, Penny. Can you name them please.""They are all f***ing fruit," she says."I see" was all I could muster as I contemplated this very foreign idea of fruits copulating.
I guess things-- good, bad and interesting all come in streaks. The third patient I spoke to seemed rather with-it till I asked him what the date today was."The date, the date, the date, what is the f***ing date." he hollered repeatedly as he thwacked the bed along with the rhythm of the sentence.I made the grave mistake of asking him what the month was."The month, the month, the month, what is the f***ing month!" The tune had not only changed its lyrics but had also increased in decibel.Startled by the sheer volume from a man so frail, I bid a hasty retreat from the ward. But even from the outside I could still hear his hollers bouncing off the walls. I had obviously opened a Pandora's box and now didn't know how to shut it. Worse still, even through the glass partition, I could feel the other patients glaring accusatorily at me for unleashing something I had no control over."Oh God, will he ever stop?" I thought desperately. As there was nothing I could do, I simply waited till I couldn't bear it any longer before turning and walking guiltily away from the echoes of his refrain.
# posted by H : 3:28 AM
