Belly button biscuits

Goong-Goong (maternal grandfather in Teochew) used to have a little grocery shop. It sold everything, from rice to spices buckets to Chinese fans. When anttyk and I were kids, our mum used to visit Goong-Goong very regularly. I remember the permeating smell of onions, the dust, the noise people of haggling, being told off by the fat lady for sticking my fingers into the spice bowls and the sound of coins being dropped into the holed drawer.

anttyk and I spoke no Teochew, and Goong-Goong only spoke Teochew. Language barrier however never stop Goong-Goong from showing us that he cared for us. Everytime we arrive at his shop, he nods towards the enormous glass jars of biscuits on display, expressively inviting us to help ourselves. Unsurprisingly, I always make a beeline to one particular jar.

My favourite biscuit was (and still is) the belly button biscuit, which we call “tou chee peng” in Cantonese.

I have no idea what biscuits anttyk liked, as I tend to… erm… lose focus on everything around me when I am accessing the foods I love. Hmmm… this may be one childhood trait I never lost.

Goong-Goong passed away a little more than 19 years ago. I miss seeing him nod towards the biscuit jars for me.

Published writer

The BBC itself publised Muks’ words the other day… 

They said “migrants and students from outside the EU are to be charged an extra £50 for UK visas to support communities (police costs) struggling to cope with migration. Is this extra charge fair?”

Muks said…

See! Muks is a published writer. Heh.

Long haul to London

My normal commute to work will never be the same again. My train has stopped serving Moorgate permanently, so I have to try to find a new route to work. The obvious starting point, of course, is to use the Transport for London Journeyplanner, the multimillion £ search engine created to simplify travelling in London.

I searched by “From home to work”, to arrive at work by 9am at the quickest journey time possible. The top result was…

Memento

Do not read on. Whatever you do, do not click the “read more” clicky bit.

An upgrade

Denty felt sorry for my Rainbow Bosemani and Red Cherry Shrimps and has therefore encouraged me to improve their living standards.

 

This is my AquaEl Brillux 60 planted aquaria, filled with the plants of a South East Asian biotope (Java fern, Java moss, Christmas moss, Borneo driftwood…). There is something poetic about keeping a two cubic feet of my first home in my favourite corner in my current home.

The Red Cherry Shrimps turned bright red (signs of happiness) as soon as they hit the tank.

Who needs a television when they have a planted aquaria to gaze at?

Spring vegetables

I have been very busy the last few weekends, preparing for spring. Yesterday was the official first day of spring. The weather has been lovely and it does make me very happy.

One of my projects is my vegetable garden…

Exciting times

Well, there are a lot going on in the Muks and Denty household lately. I really need to take photos of these new exciting stuff so that I can blog about them.

Growl! When is the weekend coming?

Tomatato

Tomatoes and potatoes are members of the same plant family. Some genius noticed that both types of plants look alike and grow together in the same space. The result was a potato graft producing plump potatoes while the tomato graft growing luscious tomatoes!

Where can I get me some of that?

Spoilt

I described Stinky’s behaviour to a rabbit expert today. It is official. She pronounced him “a very spoilt bunny”.

Surely following us around, getting underfoot, marauding the bedrooms, thumping for attention and etc are not the signs of a spoilt bunny!

And oh, I spoke to the rabbit expert because we are trying to give him a little girlie to warm his feet in his dotage. He will be eight in five months…