Pandan, a very useful plant.

Pandan leaves are called HIONG CHO, fragant leaves to the Chinese. We use it in our sweet dessert soups like Mung bean soup, red bean soup, Bobo-chacha. It is also pounded and the juice squeezed to make cakes. 
The most famous would be cooking Hainan Chicken rice. Among the Ngonyas, it is a must plant to grow in the garden. It also gives a pale green dye for cakes.
Mother planted two species. The smaller, but more fragant for cooking, and the bigger leaves for wrapping the CHUNG,(Zhung Zi) Chinese rice dumplings eaten at Dragon Boat festival.
My Sri Lankan friend put it in their curry.
In my gardening allotment, I had the smaller species. I don't use it because the water engineer doesn't like the smell. People come and help themselves. Some don't even ask me for them. One friend admitted that she had been taking my pandan leaves because mine is very fragrant.
My Singapore friend says  " We have mosquito bites almost 

every day. Since placing pandan leaves in our home, I have 

only been bitten by mosquitoes twice during these months. 

" Eastcoastlife..

Taxi drivers in Singapore put them in the taxis to prevent

cockroaches.
***My Mum used her mortar and pestle a lot. I don't and left mine in Singapore.***

Goodbye Karen

Today, my brother Charles,
buried Karen, his wife of 38 years.

What can I say to him?
What I say to his 3 daughters?

Karen loved colours,
They tell me

I think of the Monarch Butterfly,
Karen would love the butterfly.

Charles would like this song,
"Butterfly, my butterfly, wait for me don't fly away.".

Karen, like the Monarch Butterfly,
has flown away to a better place, no pain, no tears.

But for you Charles,Katie, Sarah, and Emily.
It's OK to cry, yes, tonight you cry.
And I cry with you.

Goodbye Karen

Karen Edith Chan went to the Lord.

My sister in law, Karen Edith Chan, a sands mum many times, died on Saturday from complications. She had Celiac Disease.

What is Celiac Disease?

Celiac disease, also known as gluten intolerance, is a genetic 

disorder that affects at least 1 in 133  Americans. Symptoms 

of celiac disease can range from the classic features, such as diarrhea, weight loss, and malnutrition, to latent  symptoms such as isolated nutrient deficiencies but no gastrointestinal symptoms. 

The disease mostly affects people of European 

(especially Northern European) descent, but recent studies

 show that it also affects Hispanic, Black and Asian 

populations as well. Those affected suffer damage to the villi 

(shortening and villous flattening) in the lamina propria and 

crypt regions of their intestines when they eat specific food-

grain antigens (toxic amino acid sequences) that are found in

 wheat, rye, and barley. Oats  have traditionally been 

considered to be toxic to celiacs, but recent scientific studies 

have shown otherwise. This research is ongoing, however, and

 it may be too early to draw solid conclusions.

http://www.celiac.com/

» R

More thoughts of Karen

In Borneo, we were quite used to see these little lizards or geckos. They dart across the ceiling upside down to catch insects. Some times when we clean our cupboards, we find miniature eggs that looked exactly like hen eggs except they were very small. An adult gecko can grow up to six inches.

They make this gec gec sound, and perhaps this is why it is called a gecko. We didn't worry about them except the dropping really stank. Sometimes, they fought, and left their tails behind. To the environmentalists, read no further, my brothers used to used slingshots and rubber bands to shoot at the geckos. Mum would tell them off, the geckos were harmless and ate the nasty creepy crawlies like mosquitoes.

When my New Zealand Sister-in-law Karen went to live in Sarawak, she was terrified of these "ceiling baby snakes." We thought it was funny. The house was left vacant for a few years, and the geckos had grown very big.

This photo is not exactly a Marco photo, the gecko was sitting very quiet in the corner of the room minding it's own business. I was below trying to be unobtrusive as possible. It didn't stay long enough to take a good photo.
15th July 2013
When my two "Americans" kids were here last June, they were betting with each other, I think US$10  each if they could catch one.  The lizards would dart around and disappear.  After they left, then you can see so many of them resting on full sight. Sharlene took photos of them and email to them. Arlene freaks out if she sees one. 

Margaret 

Thinking of Karen

My Sis in Law, Karen ( Big bro Charles' wife) died last night. I am missing her already.

We are not exactly excited about Sam's pumpkin plant because we don't eat pumpkin. Many friends don't understand why.

You see, Mum and Dad grew up as kids and teenagers during the Second World War when the Japanese plundered Borneo. Import of rice and other food ceased, and the poor people depended on root vegetables and pumpkins to survive. Dad said they ate so much of the boiled thing without any salt or oil. They were so scared of them. Hence, they never served it to us.

When I was in primary school, Dad would drive us pass a small river where there were barges laden with pumpkins. Dad told me that the pumpkins were for pigs. This "Pumpkins were for pigs" were so ingrained in me that though I am past half a century, I would still not touch pumpkin.

The funniest anecdote in the family would be when Mum and Dad went to Christchurch, New Zealand to visit my Kiwi sister in law for the first time. For the Kiwis, a roast leg of lamb if often accompanied by roast kumara and pumpkin. That is supposedly one of the best dish you can serve. Mum and Dad did not eat the pumpkin wondering why Karen served them such a lowly vegetable. Karen thought she didn't cook well. Years later, when I came to NZ, I cleared this misunderstanding.

Hydrangea and Grandpa

Hydrangea/ 紫陽花/ 繡球花

Hydrangea is pronounced as Hydringea which is why if you google searched, you will not find an entry for Hydringea.

紫陽花/ 繡球花

Hydrangeas is part of me. When I was a kid in Tropical Borneo, I lived with my Grandpa who left China in his 20s. He told us fairy tales the same way as western children read in books. He spoke of the hydrangea flower which is known as the embroidery ball flower. In this fairy tale love story, when a girl comes of age, she would stand in her balcony and throw her embroidered ball to the young men waiting down in the garden. The young man who catches the ball wins her hand. I joked with Grandpa, what if an ugly fat man catches up, Grandpa laughed, he said, "Why do you have to ruin an aged old story?"

This plant reminds me of my late Grandfather who told me that in China, it is known an embroidered flower ball, "SIAW CHOW FA".  繡球花 In Chinese movies, a girl will throw her flower ball to a group of admirers, the lucky chap who catches the ball will wed her. Woe to her, if a nasty obnoxious man catches the ball.

It is fictitious, because it never happens this way. There were match making sessions.

http://printsofjapan.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/hydrangeas-%E7%B4%AB%E9%99%BD%E8%8A%B1-ajisai-in-japanese-art-and-elsewhere-or-i-was-looking-for-fluff/

紫陽花

The 17th c. woodcut print was designed by Ding Liangxian (Ch. 丁亮先). Not much, if anything,  is known about this artist, but the curatorial notes are interesting on the subject of hydrangeas in Chinese art. They state that in China it was called the “embroidered ball” flower and adds that just such a ball was thrown by an unmarried woman into a crowd of men. The one who caught it became her husband. It also notes that an embroidered ball is often seen under the paw of a male Fu or guardian dog. Fu here means Buddha (佛) – hence the Lion of Buddha.

I was lucky to live in houses that have hydrangea hedges. In the first house, the hedge was at the main road at Mt Eden Road, I used to cut them and take it to church during my turn to do the flowers. Often, little old women would stop their cars and help themselves with branches of flowers. I didn't have the heart to shout at them. After all, God gave me those flowers. In fact, later I learnt that they were doing me a favour. Hydrangea likes to be pruned and the next season, they would grow better.

At this present house, I pruned it only once. That is why the flowers are not so beautiful. A friend said that if I leave tin cans at the roots, the rust would change it colour to a dark red hue. I thought of "Hawaii" where James Michener had written about this either for the pineapple gardens or sugar cane farms. It's been so long ago. I have forgotten.

Then when I told this to my florist friend, W. he says it is better with the pale coloured ones. So I stopped putting cans. It blew my mind when I saw the completely white ones at my friend M.'s kitchen. It could be used as bridal bouquet. May be next time, I should pour beach instead. LOL

My books in libraries.

One of the happiest thing for a writer is not when he/she 

writes her book, or sells her first book. It is having it 

available for everyone to borrow it from the library.

Praise God that my two books will be in circulation in Borneo 

where I was Born and In New Zealand where I now live. It's 

like I am now a bonafide writer.

"Diary of a Bereaved Mother " Non fiction, self help, bereavement, infancy death, Christian faith.

http://annkitsuetchin.blogspot.co.nz/2011/02/who-is-ann-kit-suet-chin.html  
Third Edition, June 2012,  306 pages, NZ$35,

"From China To Borneo" categories:Life Stories 

(Biographies, Autobiographies, Family Histories, Memoirs)

First edition, February, 2013

My book was featured in the Aucklander.

http://annkitsuetchin.blogspot.co.nz/2011/05/diary-of-bereaved-mother-news-exposure.html Link no longer available, but on http://annkitsuetchin.blogspot.co.nz/2011/06/diary-of-bereaved-mother-newspaper.html

I appeared in Television 1 Down Under program. It's ok to cry http://tvnz.co.nz/asia-downunder/s2011-e31-video-4453514

http://www.youtube.com/asiadownunder#p/c/C9FEF73B56807B22/3/IZk9w-uywAs

I spoke in the Baptist Women's Annual Convention, North Island Chapter.

http://annkitsuetchin.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/foreverinmyh

eartexhibition.html  My book was exhibited  at the Peacock 

Art Gallery, Upton Country, Dorset, Park England.

Available in New Zealand at: Women's Bookshop, University Bookshop, Auckland, Church of Christ Bookshop

Online orders: Wheeler books,Fishpond.co.nz ,academybooks.co.nz/product/For Overseas order: www.abebooks.co.uk,  Bookworks <info@bookworksnz.co.nz>

or email:annkschin@yahoo.com

Cherimoya

 My friend Maureen gave me this Cherimoya from her garden.

It has a shape of a heart, just the right thing for my friend Cheryl.

Whenever I talk of the durians of Borneo and South East Asian, the inevitable question is the smell, and I tell them about my ruined nose and how I can't smell.  Then I tell them they will like the White Man's durian or the sour sop.

My fruit vendor tells me that these are cherimoya. They come from South America. At first I mistook them for a soursop that grows in Sarawak. I notice the skin is different. The cherimoya has big scales like skin. The sour sop has small spikes.

I didn't buy it despite my vendor's assurance that it is delicious. I don't like sour sop. It is unlikely that I will like cherimoya. Give me a real durian any time. LOL

The fruit is oval, often slightly oblique, 10-20 cm long and 7-10 cm diameter, with a smooth or slightly tuberculated skin. The fruit flesh is white, and has numerous seeds embedded in it. Mark Twain called the cherimoya "the most delicious fruit known to men."

The Ang Mo aka White mna's durian's reputation has propelled itself high up, people say it cures cancer. Touch wood I don't have to eat it. My Grandpa and Dad grew so much of it that I am sick and tired of it. My sister Elizabeth says the same too.

ABC Wednesday: Letter Y for Yao Ming, Dr Sun Yat Sen and Yang Liwei

      

The most famous Chinese in the contemporary world must be 

Yao Ming. He  is a retired Chinese professional basketball 

player 

who last played for the Houston Rockets of the National 

Basketball Association (NBA). At the time of his final season, 

he was the tallest active player in the NBA, at 2.29 m (7 ft 6 in).^[1]

Dr Sun Yat Sen, the Father of modern China. Sun Yat-sen 

University, informally called Zhongshan University 

(simplified Chinese: 中山大学; traditional Chinese: 中山大學;

 pinyin:Zhōngshān Dàxué), has a main campus in 

Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and a secondary one in 

Zhuhai. The University is named after the man who founded 

it in 1924 - Sun Yat-sen, Dr Sun was grandpa's favourite 

personality. In his living room, facing the front door, he had a 

big photo of Dr. Sun.

I spent last evening with young people like Yulia to learn

Chinese and we learned Famous Chinese personalities.

My grandpa would have been very proud of me when I 

shared my knowledge of Dr Sun Yat Seng. Speaking in 

Mandarin was quite scary when you don't have the vocab.

I went on to speak on 2 characters who could be friends, 

and I chose Li Na the Tennis French Open Champion and the

first Chinese astronaut.  









Yang Liwei being launched aboard Shenzhou 5, becoming 

the first man sent into space by the Chinese space 

program

Finally, I chose Bruce Li in a guessing game.

CLN会员论坛这个星期的题目-有名华人

with Yulia Kosaurova.

Chinese Language Network (中文俱乐部)

Like

http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.co.nz



Photos: courtesy wiki, Lilian and CLN

Chinese Language Network (中文俱乐部) and me.

My great Grand Father, and my grand parents left a little village in Kwang Ning to Borneo. My Dad was born there so was I. We were under the British Colony where the teaching of Chinese wasn't important. I neglected my Chinese lessons, and this is one of my greatest regrets. As a Chinese, I do not know how to speak proper Chinese or read Chinese or write Chinese. 

Now I have the opportunity,  I have joined the Chinese Language Network (中文俱乐部).

One of the happiest thing for a writer is not when he/she 

writes her book, or sells her first book. It is having it 

available for everyone to borrow it from the library.

Praise God that my two books will be in circulation.