Dear John

Find that familiar? Well, it is how we usually start our letters, especially to someone we care or love. And today, I find myself endeared to the movie I have just watched - Dear John.

It is a simple love story about a soldier who falls in love with a college student whom he got to know by rescuing her bag that had fallen into the ocean. He is a man who does not reveal much about himself, but love changes all. She is a woman who is unafraid to love, to reach out to autistic people. In two weeks, they found love but only to be torn apart by their own commitments, John had to return to the army and Savannah, back to college. Their love is continued by the numerous letters written to one another, through the letters, Savannah learns more about John and his autistic father and the reason why John's father fell in love with collecting coins.

John have to decide between re-enlisting for the army or staying behind with Savannah after the September 11 attacks. Torn between his sense of duty and love of his life, he makes the decision of re-enlisting after Savannah encourages him to do what he thinks is right. As the days passed by, John lives only to read Savannah's letters, gaining strength and hope from them. But loneliness pushed Savannah towards Tim, a man with an autistic child, Alan, whom Savannah had known for a long time. She finally writes a 'Dear John Letter', John receives the letter not knowing who the third party was. Feeling disheartened and frustrated, he burned all the letters from Savannah which were once his source of hope and life. During a mission, John was shot twice and the last person he thought of was his father which he had never been able to connect with. But upon reading the letter that he wrote to his father at his deathbed, they were able to understand and reach out to one another one last time.

John finally finds out who Savannah married, and instead of hating them. He donated the money he got out of selling his father's coin collection to them anonymously, enabling Tim who had cancer to spend his last months with Savannah and his son.

The movie had a simple plot but the chemistry between the two main characters are amazing, it brings you into their world, feeling their joy when they fell in love, the heartache of parting, their happiness of seeing one another again at the very end and feelings behind "I will see you soon...". It is one great love story...

A REAL WOMAN

A REAL woman
eats

her burger

AND 

drinks

her milkshake

without fear.

 Chang Karen

rudeness comes in many forms

Today has been a great day... no... today was a great day till i met this friend of mine, she went to THE same church as I did when I was in junior college, just for a few months and now, we are colleagues, we rarely saw one another at work but today, as I was walking out of a shopping center in Los Angeles with another colleague, I thought I saw someone I knew, so I gave a second glance. You know when you see someone you know, you give a nod or a smile, simply a gesture to acknowledge one another, as I was about to do that, she stared at me, cold as stone, so I was surprised when she called out to me.

No hi, no how are you, no how have you been. 'Do you know J is back for good?' she asked. I just nod my head and said yeah, then this caucasian guy friend of hers just butt in. 'She's tall,' he murmured while giving me a 'I hate you' look. 'Hi,' I said and rolled my eyes. In my head, I was murmuring back: 'Yes, I am tall and you are short... very short and you have bad breath too.' All right, that is mean but why should I bother giving someone a little respect when he doesn't bother to do so to anyone else. My friend look at him and shrugged her shoulders as if I was the one in the wrong for being who I am.

As I walked away, she took a long glance at me, sweeping her eyes from my head... to toes, as if she would find flowers growing out of my head, knives protruding out of my body or maybe a mermaid's tail instead of my feet. 'Did you see how she looked at you just now?' my friend gasped in surprise, not believing at the kind of rudeness I have just endured. I sighed and told her that there was no point getting angry over such people. Just because she was in some furry and fudgy coat, out with some short and pudgy caucasian guy, she think she is at the top of the world and looking down at the rest of us. I personally think her rudeness was worse than any words that could have been said and for that, she doesn't deserve her name - Lily.

kids are not meant to be used... but to be loved...

currently watching the maury show, it is a show which involves real lives, real situations, real babies, real drama... lotsa of drama. these real people are usually fighting over the fact of who fathered the child, thus the maury show 'helps' these families to find out the truth, and of course, one get to see all the fighting, arguing, bitching...etc on live tv. it is sad to see children being disregarded in such ways...

don't these people know that children are not meant to be objects, objects used to keep boyfriends from breaking up with them, husbands from straying... children are meant to be loved, meant to be brought into this world to bring joy and happiness into their parents' and siblings' lives. it is so sad to see girls trying to get pregnant in order to have their boyfriends to marry them or to see men denying their actions and their responsibilities. i do have friends that does such things, but who am i to judge them, people are propelled by emotions and sometimes it is hard to be logical i guess. but for whatever reasons, babies and children should never be used...

back to the show, i kind of like the host of the show, he did give some great advice and prove to be a fair judge with both sides and i was impressed when he told a man who had fathered a few kids with a few different women that he should 'put a cap on' since every child that comes takes away a part of his love for the rest, i was cheering for the host inside my head when he said that!

so... back to the show...!

comfort food of the day - spaghetti alla carbonara

what is comfort food? what kind of food is considered comfort food? well, the content of comfort food changes with each and every person.  have you ever felt depressed or disappointed, and nothing seems to make you feel better... unknowingly, you find yourself tuck in bed with a pint of your favorite ice cream and each mouthful melts away the pain, that is one kind of comfort food. in general, comfort food are food that makes you feel good, food that lightens you up, food that makes you happier and such.

personally, my range of comfort food is beyond numbers! and for the day, spaghetti carbonara hits every single spot, i was feeling lazy... all i wanted to do was savor a big plate of creamy spaghetti and the carbonara that i managed to whip up was simple yet so good... =)

 

the crispy bacon bits complemented the creamy yolk sauce perfectly, every strand of spaghetti was coated with the rich sauce leaving no room for mistake, each mouthful burst with flavor which leaves me longing for the next... this recipe is definitely in my 'keep' list!

nigella's spaghetti alla carbonara (serves 1-2)

250g spaghetti

150g pancetta (i used normal bacon)

1 teaspoons olive oil

25g grated parmesan

2 eggs

2 tablespoons double cream

dash of black pepper

freshly grated nutmeg (if available)

1. Boil spaghetti in a pot of water with salt till al dente. Make sure to keep some of the pasta water before draining, just in case you need to thin the sauce or such.

2. Pan-fry bacon in olive oil till crispy. If preferred, white wine or vermouth can be added for flavor. (I removed most of the oil after the bacon turned crispy as the oil tends to make the pasta too salty.

3. In a bowl, mix the eggs, parmesan, cream and pepper. Toss the drained pasta with the bacon bits and remove the pan from the heat. Make sure the pan is not too hot, add the egg and cheese mixture, swiftly toss and mix. Add a little of the pasta water to lubricate if necessary, grate nutmeg over pasta for the extra oomph!

another one of my comfort food - potatoes! this dish is just simply numerous layers of thinly-sliced potatoes with dashes of sea salt and black pepper, finishing with a touch of cheddar cheese.

and all time favorite - tiramisu. it is a dessert that takes away all my worries and brings happiness back!

a failed attempt at making pudding but nevertheless, i will keep trying since i love the taste of of it and of course, it falls into my category of comfort food too *chuckles*

a simple but yet... so... so good snack, dried beef or prosciutto with mozzarella cheese on a slice of baguette, finish with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil... trust me, it is good!

london Os

i... i thought i would be typing away like a professional secretary when i managed to hook up the internet as i had loads of things that i was thinking of blogging down... but that was twelve hours ago and my mind is practically empty now after staring at my change board for the past three hours trying to look for swaps that could give me the weekends that i needed without damaging my pocket too much and i hope my efforts do pay off!

oh... i do remember feeling good this morning, it was great to be in london and i was kind of happy to be going around on my own, i missed being here but i miss home too. what's wrong with me, i used to love being abroad, used to love my freedom, but something has changed... i still love traveling and that is a fact that will never change, but i want different things in life now and what i wanted a couple of years ago seems to be so unimportant now... ahhh...

oh... and one of my colleague wants to introduce me to his god-brother because i perfectly fit his requirements. Re-qui-re-ments... nice... it feels like i am some employee going for an interview.

oh... and while i was on the tube, i was surrounded by a group of non-english-speaking people, they were talking and talking, getting louder and louder each minute, when you don't understand a language, everything sounds gibberish, babberish and zibberish. it was like siting in a nest with thousands of birds chirping in your ears! all right, i was slightly irritated and terribly glad that i had to get off the next stop. =)

oh... i bought a lovely dress, thinking i should wear it to my best friend's wedding, hahhaa, but her wedding is not till next year! and as usual, the careless me forgot to check the receipt and i was charged twenty-five pounds more... pounds not dollars... so i have to wake up earlier tomorrow morning to get that settled... thanks to myself.

and that comes to an end of my ohs, time to crawl back in bed and hopefully, a smooth ride to lalaland...

Words that were never said

Have you ever left a conversation or a phone call or even after texting a SMS that you should have said something, feeling that tiny tinge regret of not expressing your opinion or letting someone know something at that moment in time. It happens to me all the time! And I always felt the urge after to turn back, call or text again to finish what I wanted to say, but for some reason, I never let that happen. That feeling is just so 'aaaaarrr', it is as if the words or feelings got stuck somewhere in your system and when they finally make it to the tip of your tongue, it was too late, the conversation or call has ended or the SMS has been sent. So that leave them crawling back, wandering around your throat, not knowing what to do since they simply refused to just vanish into the thin air.

I was texting a friend yesterday while enjoying the movie - You've Got Mail. I... cannot explain my love for old movies just like this one, they are simply magical, watching these movies bring back so much memories! For example, the way of connecting to the internet ten years ago, the dialing of the line with the 'beeeeeeep' sound whenever Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks logged onto the internet brings smile to my face, remembering that was how I did it so many years ago! Oh yes... that friend, so I was texting and I wanted to share, or maybe just to let him know that I was watching You've Got Mail, it was just a though of wanting to let him know more and such but in the end, all I managed to text was: '=) all righty, I will try my best!' I know... it's pathetic, the thought of sharing the never got across in any way. Maybe I was cowardly, or maybe it would seem 'too much' to share so I back off. With so much words that were never said, I am always feeling tinges of regret here and there, so I am wishing one day, these regrets would see the world... that would be nice =)

"Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?" ~ Kathleen Kelly (You've Got Mail)

I do... =)