And now for something completely different.

I'm willing to bet that most of you won't have a clue who Apache Indian is. To begin with, he's not Native American, he's the other kind of Indian, you know the ones who eat spicy stuff, and have funny accents, and are either IT experts or doctors.

Or in this case, reggae singers.

Yes, I know. The thought of an Indian reggae singer is a little strange.

But nonetheless, he is. And he has had a couple hits like this and this. Well, they were big hits in Trinidad at any rate. Tash, I am SURE you remember boogieing to these at Coconuts or Base or Life ;-)

Last night hubby, being a huge dancehall and reggae fan (another reason he married a Caribbean chick, Moi) came across something very very different from Apache.

And it really struck something in me. If you liked Shanti / Ashtangi by Madonna, you will probably like this too.


And there's your Friday Entertainment from me :)

Peace and love

I haven't come up with anything of my own today, but I did find this to share.

Enjoy!

Because YOU make my day :)

My fantastically fabulous friends Nan and Tash, whom some of you know, are all about sharing the love. They gave me this:



I sat here, drinking water from the angel's sippy cup because I am too lazy / tired to go get my own, and thought about the bloggy folks that make my day too.

Then I had to go season some chicken for dinner, kiss a boo boo, play with Mr. Elephant, research a new stroller online because the one I bought is total crud, dance the Angel down for her nap.

Sidenote 1: The Quinny Zapp is an overpriced and oversized umbrella stroller. Don't be fooled. Don't waste your money. Anyone wanna buy a almost-never-used one?

Sidenote 2: I 'm kinda jealous of ye who can just put your babies down and they go to sleep. I love dancing / swinging / rocking her to sleep, but sometimes my back... she is getting heavy. Its just a phase.

But back to the important stuff: You, You and YOU!! I give this award to You.

Because YOU make my day :) Everybody that spends their precious time reading my brain-farts. You make me feel special and loved. And you help me feel less lonely. And you make me laugh. And you inspire me. And you help me to challenge myself. And you let me be me.

And I am grateful grateful grateful.

So thank you for coming to see me. And thank you for sharing with me.

You totally make my day, everyday :)

Who makes your day? Pass it on and let them know.

A tale of 2 mamas

My mom and I had a fairly typical relationship growing up. She, the experienced older woman, would tell me what to do, and I, the all-knowing teenager, would do the opposite. She was generally right. I generally got caught. And the times I didn't get caught, I think she and my dad just pretended... or ignored.

Things didn't change much when I entered my 20's. I was still all-knowing, and desperate to be out from under her wings. She was still being my mom.

Needless to say, there were some, ahem, differences of opinion, in our household.

But then I moved away. And got engaged. And got married. And got pregnant. And had a baby.

The day I came home from the hospital, she helped me get undressed, much like she did when I was a baby. Walking was difficult, as it can be after some 7+ pounds of small human explodes from your lady bits. So she walked for me. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, laundry, grocery shopping in a place that doesn't label anything in English, walking the baby... everything that needed to be done. So that I could sleep, and heal.

I don't know how I would have gotten through it without her and kept my sanity intact.

Needless to say, our relationship has changed.

I don't know if all mother-daughter relationships go through a change after the daughter herself becomes a mom. But I don't see how it can't. All of a sudden you become aware of a whole new perspective. And you begin to understand. And you are sorry for things that you said or did.

Today is my mom's birthday :) Her only wish was to hold her grand-daughter again. I wish she could have too, so I could go pee take the pictures I forgot to take when we were home in July. But we made do with the webcam. Its not perfect, but its all we have for now.

Happy Birthday Mom!! Wish you were here.

Brilliance, genius and excessive boasting

You will have to forgive me for this, but I just HAD to.

The angel is the smartest baby ever ever ever on the planet. I'm her mama, so I get to say that.

You get to say it about your babies too, of course.

But this is my blog.

So I shall say it again. She is the smartest, most genius, excessively gifted with extreme intelligence blah blah blah...

She learnt to say Milk! Well, sign, not actually say out loud. She's only 9 months. but still. I have been showing her the sign for milk when we nurse for about 3 weeks now, and today she started doing it too.

And then the heavens opened and angelic voices with a pretty beam of sunlight came down.

In case you give a hoot, the sign for milk is a fist that you open and close like you're milking a cow. Or so it looks to me.

And that's my story for today.

I got pissed off cuz hubby doesn't have boobs

And we wonder why they say women are impossible to please????

Not that I really want him to have boobs per se. I don't think that look would particularly suit him.

It was more of me wishing I could remove mine, just for a little while, and maybe give them to someone else, albeit temporarily.

I wish that for one night, just one night, I could sleep, all night long, without them being sucked on, tweaked, kicked, grabbed, squeezed... a jillion times.

Sigh.

Mmmmmmmmmm, shrimp

If you love shrimp even half as much as I do, then this recipe is for you. Super easy, super quick (like 10 minutes), SUPER YUM. And you can make it as spicy as you want. Being half-indian, I like to feel steam coming outta me ears, and hubby likes it hot too... that's why he married me, of course.

You're gonna need:
4 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves of garlic cuz vampires will come if you don't use garlic and you may not have a wooden stake handy.
1 tbsp crushed ginger. This really is not a lot of ginger, and the supermarket makes you buy this HUGE root, so you end up with lots left over. So unless you use ginger regularly, you will have to make this again.. several times... to use your ginger and not waste it. Because there are starving children in Africa.
2 lbs of big shrimp, cleaned. They say this should feed 8, but hubby and I ate it all by ourselves. I bought the frozen shrimp with the tails still attached cuz I like to suck them.
1/3 cup finely chopped chive that I can't think of anything to say about.
1 cup tomato sauce, ditto
2 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce, or wha-ch-ch-ch-ch sauce as we call it
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp rum. I used red, cuz I hate white rum. No true trini drinks white rum. Royal Oak or 1919 is the best. Pour another glass for yourself as well.
Coke or Diet coke
Ice
1 tsp Monosodium glutamate (msg). I didn't use this. I hear its really bad for you, and have no idea how to translate it into Estonian anyway.
Black pepper
1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsps of water
Hot pepper. They say that this is optional. But it isn't really. I can't imagine this without pepper.

Now you gotta:
Mix the rum in the glass with the coke and ice, but not too strong cuz you will be playing with knives and fire. Take a drink. Think about the beach.
Heat the oil in a pot or wok if you have fancy chinese cooking stuff. I used a pot.
Stir fry the garlic and ginger for a few seconds; add the shrimp and cook on a high heat for 3-4 minutes until they turn pink.
Add chive, tomato sauce, wha-ch-ch-ch-ch sauce, salt, sugar, 2 tbsps of rum, msg if you want, pepper and cornflour.
Cook until the sauce thickens (about 5 minutes).
Relax and finish your rum and coke.

You can serve it with rice. I like Jasmine rice and Basmati rice, but I guess any other rice will be fine too.

Enjoy!



By the way, the recipe is called Chow Har Lok as per the Trini Naps cookbook.