先祝福您及全家人新春佳節愉快，願2008鼠年帶給你平安發財！
為了拯救一根樹枝及節省我自己的荷包，希望您不會界意我以這封EMAIL代替了聖誕賀卡。
2007年對我來說咻‧‧‧一聲就飛過去了。好像印象最深刻的就是在台灣渡假的那5個星期，其他的47個禮拜都過的好模糊。那個假期不讓人難忘？是嗎？在台灣的那5個星期是今年的高潮！在家住了3個禮拜，這3個禮拜對爸爸、如芯及棣仁和我來說非常的珍貴。爸爸的眼睛看不清楚了，所以索性更可以抱抱兒孫。住家裡的另外一個好處就是我不必煮飯，唯一只有為爸爸慶祝生日的那天下廚一次煮西餐請親朋好友。因為在家的時間長，所以我心情很放鬆，帶小孩去了很多地方，見了一些朋友。就怪自己沒有計劃好，不然會有更多時間機會會見更多的朋友。很多地方都喚起了我美好的童年回憶所以很值得帶小孩去。我覺得世界上沒有任何一個地方像故鄉一樣的美好。
如芯明年1月就要3歲了而棣仁已經14個月大，可想像今年是我非常忙碌的一年。我辭去易利信的工作現在是全職媽媽，在家帶小孩真的非常的快樂但是我發現自己以前從來沒有那麼認真辛苦工作過！直到我有如芯以前從來沒有想到我會那麼的有母愛，愛小孩愛到無法用字形容‧‧‧比“好”要多十倍巴！甚至讓我去修兒童保育的課程，今年九月開始至目前為止有學了相關兒童發展及行為管理的課程，非常喜歡也受用。非常期待明年的新課程。
如芯是一個非常聰敏、可愛及愛護弟弟的小女生，她總是愛和弟弟玩、喜歡抱抱親親他。她現在鐘愛粉紅色，睡覺一定要抱著她粉紅色的小熊睡。粉紅色狂熱症有時候也帶來麻煩‧‧‧比如說當她的粉紅色的衣服及襪子都在洗時‧‧。她的中文很好，溝通大致都沒有問題。她的英文很不錯，當她學新的中文單字時，她常會問我“這個ＤＡＤＤＹ怎麼說？”，她有時甚至自己翻譯，但不是每次都對。她鬧過好笑的有“ＭＯＭＭＹ妳看！黑色的小朋友”、 “ＭＯＭＭＹ妳要完﹝玩﹞蛋嗎？”、剪指甲的時候問她“ＤＡＤＤＹ怎麼說食指”她說“ＬＩＯＮ”。最近發生最好笑的是她很無辜的指著我小姑的大胸部說“ＢＩＧ ＭＩＬＫ”！雙語有很多好處，有的時候她重複說了幾次我還是聽不清楚的單字我就會問她“ＤＡＤＤＹ怎麼說呢？”，我就明白她說甚麼了。
棣仁已經不是ＢＡＢＹ了，嗚呼‧‧‧我的ＢＡＢＹ已經變成小男孩了。他很喜歡自己玩，更喜歡追著姊姊玩。他還不會走路但是爬的倒是很快，他很貼心，總是喜歡抱抱親親我們。但破壞性也很強，他還不會說話，老是發出一些可愛的聲音。最厲害的是他超越的溝通技巧，現在他只要用一指神功加上“ㄜˊ” 就可以表達無盡。他覺得自己很厲害的時候他就會給自己掌聲鼓勵一下。書上說再過５年等他６歲之後，他就會比較不黏我轉移到黏ＰＡＤＤＹ了，然後他就會向老爸學一些五四三的，他老爸所謂當一個男子漢大丈夫應懂的技能：對電視大呼小叫﹝看球賽時﹞、對自己全然不懂得運動批評的有聲有色、如何打不到高爾夫球等等！
報告完畢，期待你的的回音也期待2008再相會！
Happy Holidays to you and your family and we wish you all a very peaceful & prosperous new year (Year of the rat).
I am just trying to save a branch of a trees as well as my own pocket so I am sending this Seasons Greeting email instead of Christmas cards.
For me, 2007 has really flown by! All I can barely remember was we went back to Taiwan for five weeks holiday back in April and the rest of the 47 weeks are kind of just….zoom!!! I guess those 5 weeks were the highlight of the year (I think most holidays are!) – we stayed at home for 3 weeks so we spent load of time with my father and it was so precious for Roisin and Dylan to get to know their grandfather as well as for him to spent time with us. He can’t see very well anymore so it was great for him to be able to hug them and hold them. The other great thing was that I didn’t need to cook. Only on one occasion did I do any cooking and that was for my father’s birthday where I invited our friends and relatives over for some western food. Because we had so much time over there I found I was very relaxed and saw a lot of places and faces, although I could’ve met more friends if I had been more organised. Loads of places we visited have brought back some lovely memories of my childhood which I think it’s nice to show Roisin too. I completely agree with the phrases - home sweet home and there is no place like home.
Roisin will be three in January and Dylan is 14 months old. It certainly has been a very busy year for me because of them. I have left Ericsson and now am a full time mum. I am really enjoying being home with Roisin and Dylan and having said that – I never worked as hard as this before! I never thought I would be so motherly…until I have my first baby. There is no word to adequately describe it; perhaps 10 times “Wonderful” will do! I love children so much that I have decided to go further with this – I started some childcare courses back in Sept and really enjoyed them so far. I have learnt so much about child development and behaviour. I really look forward to the new modules that I will be doing in the future years.
Roisin is a very clever, loving and cute little girl. She loves her little brother and she plays with, hugs and kisses him all the time. She loves her pink bear and she can’t sleep without it and she loves pink stuff and owns loads of them. This pink fever has caused some problems at times, i.e. when the pink tops or socks are all in the wash. Her Chinese is very good now and she can have conversations and all. Her English is not bad either. Often when she learns a new word in Chinese she will ask “how does daddy say this”. She will even do translations for us, although not always very successful. For example, not so long ago in Wexford, one evening her little innocent finger pointed to my sister in law’s boobs and she said “Big Milk” (in Chinese the same word is used for “milk” and “boobs”). I am sure you are all aware of there are some advantages for being bilingual even for adults, such as improving intellectual & language skills (easier to learn a 3rd language), enhancing mental development, strengthen creativity, exercising the brain much more which can combat against some age-related cognitive decline etc. I found that, best of all, I can communicate even better with Roisin. You know the way, at age 3, a child can be picking up new words everyday so she could easily mix up words and sometimes it’s hard to understand what exactly she is trying to tell me. So if it does not make a whole lot of sense in Chinese I just ask her the same thing - “how does daddy say this” and she can tell me in English.
Dylan is not a baby anymore (sob…my baby is a toddler now), he loves to play on his own for a little while and he follows Roisin wherever she goes. He is not walking yet he can crawl really fast! He is a very sweet little boy, he likes hugs and kisses and outright destruction of everything he can lay his hands on. He doesn’t have any words yet but he can make lots of fun and cute noises. The best communication skill he has at the moment is to point at something and say “arh” and he gets most of things he wants! He claps hands when he’s delighted with himself. I am glad to learn from a book called raising boys that I will have 5 more years to enjoy him before he attaches to Paddy. He will then learn important male skills such as shouting at the TV, the art of making critical comments on sports he has absolutely no understanding of, and how not to hit a golf ball.
That’s it for this year. Hope to hear from / see you all sometime soon in 2008.
Thursday, 27 December 2007
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
Differences
Having been living in Ireland for so long, I thought I should sit back and look back how much I have changed and how my life has changed over the last 7 years.
There are loads of similarity between home and here but the differences are grater I think. Definitely worth to put some thoughts in this. Perhaps I should start taking note of these things as I always wanted to do – it’s meaningful as its part of my life and its fun too. Where should I start is the big question. You know the way there are always so many ideas and snapshots pop in and out of your memory and brain every so often while you are either driving, washing dishes, having a shower or went out for walk, somehow trigger by a song on the radio or whatever – whenever you don’t have a pen in your hand and wrote down the things you want to write down. That really is my pet hate.
Well, I guess these things will come again eventually but at the moment they are just stored under a big pile of to do lists and unread magazines or current affairs in my not very sophisticated little brain. Don’t you worry, I will dig ye all out nice and slowly. I never thought that I would have so much space and time for myself as a mother of two and a wife of a very kind husband. Perhaps I have come to the right place to live? Perhaps 我祖上有積德? Who knows, one thing I know for sure is that I am happy and will try to continuing feeling the same for the rest of my life.
There are loads of similarity between home and here but the differences are grater I think. Definitely worth to put some thoughts in this. Perhaps I should start taking note of these things as I always wanted to do – it’s meaningful as its part of my life and its fun too. Where should I start is the big question. You know the way there are always so many ideas and snapshots pop in and out of your memory and brain every so often while you are either driving, washing dishes, having a shower or went out for walk, somehow trigger by a song on the radio or whatever – whenever you don’t have a pen in your hand and wrote down the things you want to write down. That really is my pet hate.
Well, I guess these things will come again eventually but at the moment they are just stored under a big pile of to do lists and unread magazines or current affairs in my not very sophisticated little brain. Don’t you worry, I will dig ye all out nice and slowly. I never thought that I would have so much space and time for myself as a mother of two and a wife of a very kind husband. Perhaps I have come to the right place to live? Perhaps 我祖上有積德? Who knows, one thing I know for sure is that I am happy and will try to continuing feeling the same for the rest of my life.
There’s no place like home – Taiwan
Hector Ó hEochagáin (an feamous Irish speaking TV presenter) did a great job introducing Taiwan in his travel programme on TG4. Here is something different I want to share with you about this beautiful Island, formally called Ilha Formosa, that lies off the southeastern coast of mainland Asia, across the Taiwan Straits from Mainland China.
If you ask me what do I miss most about home, I would say food mostly rather then my family and friends! Food is so different but delicious back home so when it comes to home sickness, the easy solution for me is to make some Taiwanese cuisine myself to cure it. I always have a long list of things to buy and bring back from home and 99% of them are either my favourite food or the cooking ingredients that I can’t get in Dublin like preserved mustard leaves, rice wine, dried bamboo, dried tofu …etc. You probably think I am mad but these things sure taste better than they sound.
There are a few places that are always on my “must visit” list every time when I go home. These include the restaurant that only sells dumplings and nothing else, the Shabu-Shabu (DIY hotpot), the Tepanyaki and the food courts in the shopping centre. The night market is the place I would probably go more then once for the distinctly Taiwanese snacks such as stinky tofu, BBQ squid on skewer, Oyster pancake, salty deep fried chicken, the Chinese herbal medicine ribs, mixed seafood soup, steam bun, tea eggs, savoury pancakes and etc. And of course I must include my parents home in the list – nothing beats home cuisine.
I am not working for the Taiwan Tourism Board but I must say Taiwan is a fantastic holiday destination if you ever want to fly that far to South East Asia. Taipei is the capital and is only few hours away from most European’s main popular holiday destinations such as Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur so definitely worth a stop over. Taiwan is known not only for its famous IT industry but also its towering mountains. It is home to the highest mountain in Northeast Asia – YuShan, the height of which is nearly 4000 meters above the sea level. What might have caught your eyes and heart is Taipei. It is a busy, 24 hour, city that never sleeps. The night life is amazing, with 24 hour Karaoke boxes, bowling alleys, bookstores, cafes, convenience stores, shopping centre and cinemas etc. I have to mention the night markets again where you can get pretty much everything you need for the price of half the normal shops. It also is a place where you can try out your bargaining skills.
Having been living in Ireland for 7 years, I think the most common question people always ask is “was it a culture shock when you first arrived in Ireland?”, “not as much of a shock as you would get if you visit Taiwan” is my default answer! You can find a lot of information and facts about Taiwan in the lonelyplanet or the internet so I am not going to copy and paste. I just want to mention a few things that I found where there’s a great difference between the two countries – culture wise.
Festival
Taiwan has ghost festival to fete the departed spirits of our ancestors in the underworld. We would invite all the ghosts and dead out on the 15th of the 7th lunar month and offer them loads of meat, fruit and wine to make peace with them. We would burn the “underworld” money for them to spend. In Ireland, you have Halloween. The difference is there are hundred of uninvited kids that dress up badly and knock on your door asking for food and sweets. I always wonder what they would do if I say “trick please”! Ireland has its world famous St. Patrick’s festival which will attract hundreds of thousands people all over the world watch the very sad parade and it’s so sad that they have to get very drunk and forget about it the very next day. No one can really explain to me why and what this festival is about but I know one thing for sure – it’s to do with the St Patrick who got rid of all the snakes out of this Island. We have a festival and it has something to do with the snake too. The festival is a commemoration of the patriotic scholar, poet, and statesman Cyu Yuan. But I personally like the fairy tale story about this festival. A snake fairy come down to earth to visit as a white snake. A man saw the snake but didn’t kill it. The snake fairy was so happy that she became a woman and married the man to thank him for saving her life.
Wedding
Irish would spend a fortune and more then 12 hours entertaining their wedding guests. The clever Taiwanese would make a fortune by getting married and the ceremony/celebration last no more then 4 hours. This is because the traditional wedding gift is a red envelope containing cash, so the bride and groom get quite a lot of money rather than 50 crystal bowls. For the wedding day itself it is important to pick a lucky date and time slot to get married. This is based on the lunar calendar and a combination of birthdays of both bride and groom. The wedding ceremony normally takes place at the groom’s house; everyone will then head to the restaurant for a banquet or a marquee banquet outside the house. Before the wedding the groom’s party has to go to the bride’s house to pick up the bride and take her back to his own house within the time frame set before for the short ceremony. For the ceremony itself, tea is served, rings are exchanged, and the ghosts of the ancestors are informed of the marriage by lighting incense and saying some prayers. After that it’s off to the banquet.
People
Taiwanese people are often straight talking. They will let you know straight away that you have a bad haircut or when you have gained a few pounds or even when you have funny shirts on you! Irish people do need to talk straight sometimes especially when women go shopping for clothes – they do need an honest opinion “that dress makes your bum look big” rather then “you look grand”!
If you ask me what do I miss most about home, I would say food mostly rather then my family and friends! Food is so different but delicious back home so when it comes to home sickness, the easy solution for me is to make some Taiwanese cuisine myself to cure it. I always have a long list of things to buy and bring back from home and 99% of them are either my favourite food or the cooking ingredients that I can’t get in Dublin like preserved mustard leaves, rice wine, dried bamboo, dried tofu …etc. You probably think I am mad but these things sure taste better than they sound.
There are a few places that are always on my “must visit” list every time when I go home. These include the restaurant that only sells dumplings and nothing else, the Shabu-Shabu (DIY hotpot), the Tepanyaki and the food courts in the shopping centre. The night market is the place I would probably go more then once for the distinctly Taiwanese snacks such as stinky tofu, BBQ squid on skewer, Oyster pancake, salty deep fried chicken, the Chinese herbal medicine ribs, mixed seafood soup, steam bun, tea eggs, savoury pancakes and etc. And of course I must include my parents home in the list – nothing beats home cuisine.
I am not working for the Taiwan Tourism Board but I must say Taiwan is a fantastic holiday destination if you ever want to fly that far to South East Asia. Taipei is the capital and is only few hours away from most European’s main popular holiday destinations such as Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur so definitely worth a stop over. Taiwan is known not only for its famous IT industry but also its towering mountains. It is home to the highest mountain in Northeast Asia – YuShan, the height of which is nearly 4000 meters above the sea level. What might have caught your eyes and heart is Taipei. It is a busy, 24 hour, city that never sleeps. The night life is amazing, with 24 hour Karaoke boxes, bowling alleys, bookstores, cafes, convenience stores, shopping centre and cinemas etc. I have to mention the night markets again where you can get pretty much everything you need for the price of half the normal shops. It also is a place where you can try out your bargaining skills.
Having been living in Ireland for 7 years, I think the most common question people always ask is “was it a culture shock when you first arrived in Ireland?”, “not as much of a shock as you would get if you visit Taiwan” is my default answer! You can find a lot of information and facts about Taiwan in the lonelyplanet or the internet so I am not going to copy and paste. I just want to mention a few things that I found where there’s a great difference between the two countries – culture wise.
Festival
Taiwan has ghost festival to fete the departed spirits of our ancestors in the underworld. We would invite all the ghosts and dead out on the 15th of the 7th lunar month and offer them loads of meat, fruit and wine to make peace with them. We would burn the “underworld” money for them to spend. In Ireland, you have Halloween. The difference is there are hundred of uninvited kids that dress up badly and knock on your door asking for food and sweets. I always wonder what they would do if I say “trick please”! Ireland has its world famous St. Patrick’s festival which will attract hundreds of thousands people all over the world watch the very sad parade and it’s so sad that they have to get very drunk and forget about it the very next day. No one can really explain to me why and what this festival is about but I know one thing for sure – it’s to do with the St Patrick who got rid of all the snakes out of this Island. We have a festival and it has something to do with the snake too. The festival is a commemoration of the patriotic scholar, poet, and statesman Cyu Yuan. But I personally like the fairy tale story about this festival. A snake fairy come down to earth to visit as a white snake. A man saw the snake but didn’t kill it. The snake fairy was so happy that she became a woman and married the man to thank him for saving her life.
Wedding
Irish would spend a fortune and more then 12 hours entertaining their wedding guests. The clever Taiwanese would make a fortune by getting married and the ceremony/celebration last no more then 4 hours. This is because the traditional wedding gift is a red envelope containing cash, so the bride and groom get quite a lot of money rather than 50 crystal bowls. For the wedding day itself it is important to pick a lucky date and time slot to get married. This is based on the lunar calendar and a combination of birthdays of both bride and groom. The wedding ceremony normally takes place at the groom’s house; everyone will then head to the restaurant for a banquet or a marquee banquet outside the house. Before the wedding the groom’s party has to go to the bride’s house to pick up the bride and take her back to his own house within the time frame set before for the short ceremony. For the ceremony itself, tea is served, rings are exchanged, and the ghosts of the ancestors are informed of the marriage by lighting incense and saying some prayers. After that it’s off to the banquet.
People
Taiwanese people are often straight talking. They will let you know straight away that you have a bad haircut or when you have gained a few pounds or even when you have funny shirts on you! Irish people do need to talk straight sometimes especially when women go shopping for clothes – they do need an honest opinion “that dress makes your bum look big” rather then “you look grand”!
Gift Voucher
My brother’s birthday is coming up…what I can get him for his birthday. I thought I would like to get him something different this time just to show that I still have a bit of creativity! I don’t want to get him T-shirts or toiletry stuff like I used to buy for him anymore. Those things could just end up sitting at a corner of a shelf somewhere!
After two days of brain storming – got an idea, Ding!! Why not get him a gift voucher for a romantic dinner for two at a beautiful and expensive restaurant in town! Delighted for myself to be able to come up with this idea so turn on the computer and went straight to Google TW.
Search…餐廳禮券 got no luck….Search…飯店禮券 got no luck either….Search…..高雄市那裡吃最好, thought might get some clues……nope! Not a hope! Keep searching…..and willing to comprise for something less so perhaps a gift voucher for some nice shop will do….Search for….購物禮券….nope! Ok, maybe just 禮券 will do I thought….NO! Ok, try if there’s any company sell ideas online…..so I searched…生日禮物點子, no found nothing…. Almost give up and thinking maybe just sends him a card and be damn with. Last try, search for 線上購物…. found a lot of crap website selling IT, PC or crap gift stuff….nothing decent for a man or anywhere close to what I am looking for.
At last, I tried 網購 and finally found one company does leisure and restaurant sort of stuff on the 5th page! Problem solved….I got him a gift voucher for a dinner for two at a 5 star hotel and 2 movie tickets. What a treat I thought!! What I really want to say is why the clever Taiwanese who owns restaurants and hotels don’t have this sort of services on their websites? It’s not difficult; it’s possible but why not? Started to wonder is it the dishonesty that causing the high cost to print the anti-thief voucher?
After two days of brain storming – got an idea, Ding!! Why not get him a gift voucher for a romantic dinner for two at a beautiful and expensive restaurant in town! Delighted for myself to be able to come up with this idea so turn on the computer and went straight to Google TW.
Search…餐廳禮券 got no luck….Search…飯店禮券 got no luck either….Search…..高雄市那裡吃最好, thought might get some clues……nope! Not a hope! Keep searching…..and willing to comprise for something less so perhaps a gift voucher for some nice shop will do….Search for….購物禮券….nope! Ok, maybe just 禮券 will do I thought….NO! Ok, try if there’s any company sell ideas online…..so I searched…生日禮物點子, no found nothing…. Almost give up and thinking maybe just sends him a card and be damn with. Last try, search for 線上購物…. found a lot of crap website selling IT, PC or crap gift stuff….nothing decent for a man or anywhere close to what I am looking for.
At last, I tried 網購 and finally found one company does leisure and restaurant sort of stuff on the 5th page! Problem solved….I got him a gift voucher for a dinner for two at a 5 star hotel and 2 movie tickets. What a treat I thought!! What I really want to say is why the clever Taiwanese who owns restaurants and hotels don’t have this sort of services on their websites? It’s not difficult; it’s possible but why not? Started to wonder is it the dishonesty that causing the high cost to print the anti-thief voucher?
在愛爾蘭包粽子過端午！
端午節快到了，想吃粽子又買不到的海外華人‧‧‧自己DIY巴！！！！
ZhongZi - a glutinous rice dumpling stuffed with ingredients such as pork, dried shitake mushrooms, dried shrimps, bamboo shoots etc wrapped in bamboo leaves - It is meant to honor the patriotic scholar and statesman Cyu Yuan poet at the Dragon Boat Festival on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month
(Makes 10 ZhongZi
1. 20 sheets of bamboo leaves
2. 10 cotton strings
3. 1000 g glutinous rice
4. 200 g pork steak
5. 50 g dried shitake mushroom
6. 30 g dried shrimps
7. 10 red shallot
8. 1 tin of bamboo shoots
9. 100 g dried radish
10. 100 g dried tofu
11. 1 cup sun flower oil
12. 1 cup soy sauce
13. Salt and ground white pepper for seasoning
Preparation:
Soak the rice over night. Wash, rinse and keep them in a colander
Soak the bamboo leaves flat in warm water over night.
Rinse and leave them flat
Soak the dried shitake mushrooms and dried shrimps in boiling water for 30 minutes. Wash, rinse and pat dry with the kitchen paper
Peal the red shallot (mind your eyes) Put the soaked shitake mushrooms, shrimps and red shallots in a food processor for few seconds or until finely chopped. Put aside in a bowl.
Finely chop the bamboo shoots and dried tofu
Chop the pork into small cubes
Cooking:
Heat the oil in a big non-stick wok for 2 minutes, stir in the shitake mushrooms, shrimps and red shallots and fry for 5 minutes or until the shallots turn golden
Stir in the pork cubes and fry for 10 minutes or until it’s cooked
Stir in the bamboo shoots, chopped dried radish and dried tofu and fry for another 5 minutes
Put in the soy sauce and seasoning with salt and ground white pepper to the taste you like (you can put in some chili sauce if you like it spicy)
Stir fry for another few minutes and the stuffing is ready to use.
Wrapping:
Put 2 bamboo leaves together in opposite direction one on top the other, hold the leaves and fold it round in the middle and make a funnel till both ends are laid over each other in one direction.
Put about 1/20 of rice and 1/10 of stuffing on top of it, then cover the stuffing by another 1/20 of the rice.
Fold the leaves up to seal the open side of the funnel and tie the bundle with the string.
Make sure that the bundle is tied neither too tight nor too loose. This helps make sure that the ingredients are well cooked and won’t fall out.
Put the wrapped ZhungZi in a steamer (or rice cooker) and stream for 2 hours.
(alternately, you can put the ZhungZi in a pot and cover up with water and cook for 2 hours)
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