Dinner Parties

Now that work has finally come to an end, I've still been busy, albeit in a different way. Like always, my days in a week fill up with plans before Monday even begins, with errands to run for Sweden, ministry-related responsibilities, family dinners & coffee runs with friends (hence the picture of the terrible latte art above from Pies & Coffee). If it's not something, it's another. One thing I've found time to do though, is to host a bunch of dinner parties...!

The amount of work that goes into hosting dinner parties is tremendous, no doubt, but I enjoy every part of it. I love recipe-brainstorming the night before & grocery shopping in the morning, walking through empty aisles & fussing over the right cooking wine or freaking out over the fact that white plums aren't in season any more. I love the hours of preparation in the afternoon, & the kitchen becoming more & more of a frenzy as 7 o'clock draws near, when people start to stream in with drinks & dessert offerings & their beautiful cacophony of voices. I love it all. But why?

A big part of it definitely has to do with the fact that I simply love food & enjoy cooking, & it's undeniable that the feeling one gets from seeing other people enjoy the food you've cooked is great. & there's always that talk about the base human instinct to constantly feed people etc. At the end of the day though, it always boils down to the company. Great food & all its trimmings are well & good, but it always comes down to the people that embody the heart & soul of all dinner parties. It doesn't matter who comes: a close friend, an aunt, a whole horde of youths, or even a ragtag assortment of the above, & it really also doesn't matter if the food is fancy or not. I like the fact that lives can be shared over simple or elaborate fare, over a bowl of homemade pesto or over tender filet mignon with red wine dressing. It's the spirited debate at the antipasti course & the deep conversation over coffee & cake that all of us really enjoy. It's why I truly love dinner parties ;)



Now if only the dishes could magically wash themselves.






P.S. For helpful tips & recipes on how to host lovely dinner parties for any occasion, any of these books are brilliant:

1. How to Feed Your Friends with Relish by Joanna Weinberg - Incredibly practical & no nonsense.
2. Cucina of Le Marche by Fabio Trabocchi - Reinventing Italian cooking while keeping it simple.
3. The Vintage Tea Party Book by Angel Adoree - I love this book. Besides recipes, of course, it contains instructions on how to host the perfect tea/dinner party, from DIY decorations to sporting the right hairstyles. The recipes are slightly fancy & sometimes take a ridiculous amount of work, but if you've got all day, why not?

& just for good measure,

4. Where Shall We Go For Dinner? by Tamasin Day-Lewis - Currently reading & enjoying tremendously.

Un café

THE FACTORY 

22 Lim Tua Tow Road 

Singapore 547772

Spartan & quaint & best of all, hidden. Perfect for ice-cream in summer, or coffee on rainy days. 

Let the sun beat

STRAWBERRIES

by Edwin Morgan

'There were never strawberries
like the ones we had
that sultry afternoon
sitting on the step
of the open french window
facing each other
your knees held in mine
the blue plates in our laps
the strawberries glistening
in the hot sunlight
we dipped them in sugar
looking at each other
not hurrying the feast
for one to come
the empty plates
laid on the stone together
with the two forks crossed
and I bent towards you
sweet in that air
in my arms
abandoned like a child
from your eager mouth
the taste of strawberries
in my memory
lean back again
let me love you

let the sun beat
on our forgetfulness
one hour of all
the heat intense
and summer lightning
on the Kilpatrick hills

let the storm wash the plates' 





__________________________________________________________



Old photo, new poem, same feelings. 

Currently Reading (4)

1. Les Misérables Volume 1 by Victor Hugo 

'The Paris of 1862 is a city which France has for its suburbs... a maelstrom in which everything is lost; & everything disappears in this whirlpool of the world as in the whirlpool of the sea.'

500 pages of fainting women, the French Revolution & Paris' failed sewage system of the 19th century... Only took two months to read. Only. It's undoubtedly a classic of our time, of course, & I'm glad I finally trawled through the French epic novel but it's going to be a while before I pick up volume 2.

2. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

'No matter how dreary & gray our homes are, we people of flesh & blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.'

Delightful. A classic, albeit in a different way. Anyway, there was a sore need for children's literature after two months of reading Hugo ;)

3. The Cider House Rules by John Irving

'What is hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered most to us wind up in parentheses.' 

I read John Irving's A Widow for One Year sometime in 2012 & swore of his novels forever. A Widow for One Year was an absolute nightmare with its sparse story lines, tiresome characters & unbearably long-winded writing style & I swore I would never put myself through 600 pages of something like that again except that one day whilst youtube surfing, I saw the movie trailer of The Cider House Rules & with an inward groan, decided to give it a go. No regrets at all. While there isn't much of a plot in this novel, the settings are rich & powerful, the events, visceral, & the characters are strong enough to drive the story forward. Irving's writing in The Cider House Rules is also inarguably excellent, with its plot starting slow but swelling like a wave while also tackling sensitive issues without exaggeration or hyperbole, making it believable to readers. Enjoyed it immensely.

4. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

'Listen, Robert, going to another country doesn't make any difference. I've tried all that. You can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another. There's nothing to that.'

The first novel Hemingway ever wrote, & a personal favourite. In The Sun Also Rises, the cityscape of Paris & the violent throes of Spanish bull-fighting are merely embellishments to the main attractions, which are the spirited, but lonely characters & the quick dialogue exchanged between them. There's really nobody who writes witty banter & captures the restless spirit of the Lost Generation better than early Hemingway.

5. By Grand Central Station I Sat Down & Wept by Elizabeth Smart

'Under the redwood tree my grave was laid, & I beguiled my true love to lie down. The stream of our kiss put a waterway around the world, where love like a refugee sailed in the last ship. My hair made a shroud & kept the coyotes at bay while we wrote our cyphers with anatomy. The winds boomed triumph, our spines seemed overburdened, & our bones groaned like old trees, but a smile like a cobweb was fastened across the mouth of the cave of fate.' 

I love love love this book. It's an obvious re-read: the slim volume of prose-poetry is criss-crossed with lines & heavily-marked with circles, the margins filled with ink & exclamation points, simply because this book is so full of beautiful phrases that every line stands out in its own way to me.  Prose-poetry is still a relatively new field of literature to me but even as I explore more of this genre, I am constantly pulled back to this one because of its brilliance. Lovely.

6. Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald

'...as if borne on the dreamy revolution of a slow merry-go-round.'

More literature from the Jazz age. Schizophrenic, quick & grand, & nothing short of the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald.




_________________________________________________________


It's been kind of a slow 2013, reading wise. I've been savouring every chance I get to do some reading, but it's hardly ever enough.Need to set aside whole days for this! Besides work & late-night coffee/ice-cream sessions & random trips to IKEA, nothing much has been happening. Still, I can't help but feel that a full two weeks of sleep would do me some good. So far I'm holding it together, if only by God's grace!

Loads of exciting things are coming up but as far as tonight goes, I'm too tired to type them all out ;) I'll just have to update this space as the events unfold. For now, au revoir!





Other book lists from other times
(1)
(2)
(3)

Glorious Ruins.

It's been a while & I reckon it's time for a regular, good old-fashioned update on what's been happening... I've always been a big list-maker, so here's how life has been in the past couple of weeks in five parts:



1. Old friends, food, drink & live music.  


Five more weeks till Sweden & I'm treasuring every moment I have with the people here before I leave. Lunches at Marche & dinners at Saveur, watching the Goodfellas at Timbre with Tiara & Kieran whilst getting drowsy from the multiple LIITs & of course, the inevitable late-night suppers. Have also been spending a lot of time at the movies (Great Expectations, Now You See Me, World War Z & hell, even that monsters university animation), which is great except that I keep falling asleep halfway. It's been lovely, nonetheless.

2. Church Camp 2013: Serpong, Indonesia.


Wow. I can honestly say that this has been the best church camp I have ever gone for in the sixteen (yes, sixteen!) years of being an NLCCian. This year we had a combined camp with one of our sister churches in Serpong, a small township outside Jakarta. Church camp is always refreshing & something I look forward to every two years but there was just something special about this years' camp, a combination of certain events & the relationships built with people that made it different & perhaps even ground-breaking.

The highlights:

Churros from a shop called Churreria. We went after these deep-fried treats & their range of chocolate dips like rabid dogs, rushing to the mega mall (right next to our hotel) every night after service to get some. In all honesty, they weren't that fantastic, but somehow sharing these warm, sugary snacks with a bunch of people whose company you genuinely enjoy made them taste so much better.

We also patronized a very hipster cafe called d'journal (or 'DJ ournal' by most of us, coined by Schist) that served pretty good cafe lattes & an assortment of teas every single day. Great hangout spot & plus, they didn't kick us out till 2am.

Had the privilege to be a part of the craziest team in church camp, proudly named 'LIGHTLY SALTED', an eclectic mix of odds & ends: teenagers, little kids & a bunch of parents. It's amazing how we managed to do the wacky night item & the cheer, thanks to our leaders (Alex & Bea) & frankly, because of how creative the parents were. Always ended up in stitches at the end of each rehearsal & enjoyed every moment together. What an awesome bunch of people!

This was the other youth team lead by Pat & Megan (my cool roomie since 2012 lol) that was so amazing, both in their cheer & name & wacky night item. Pity we didn't get to spend much time together though.

Another amazing part of church camp was the worship. I remember just feeling so overwhelmed & partially frustrated before camp at the thought of doing/leading worship for four services, worrying about practice times & music sheets & the biggest headache of all, setlists. Oh, dreaded setlists. It didn't help that my throat felt as raw as sandpaper &that I could barely string a sentence together without a hacking cough. Really could not see how church camp could be enjoyable with so much to do, but God really came through in a time of desperation & weariness & did something so powerful through us in the praise & worship sessions. It seems surreal to talk about it now, about how everything just came together & about how people abandoned themselves fully to worship despite the crackling sound system & power failures. & this was regardless of whether it was a full band or just a guitar & two voices leading. It just showed me how much God could move when we fully relied on Him! I'm beginning to understand what people mean when they say that excellence in worship comes not solely from our skills but from the trust that each musician had in each other, & the trust that a worship leader has on his or her team & vice versa. I just have to say that I'm part of an amazing, amazing team.

It's a crazy rant, I know! It was just cool to see the church, particularly our youth group, be so deep in worship night after night. Not caring about what another person was doing, not caring about how he or she looked like to another. It was as if a dam had broken, as if a wall had come down. What a privilege it was, to be a part of it all.

Besides worship & all the team stuff, we didn't do much else except hang out at DJ-ournal or each others' rooms, talking late into the night. The last night, after megs & I invited a bunch of meandering youth to our room, word unexpectedly got around that everyone was gathering at 1106 & by 1am, there were about twenty people squished in our tiny hotel room. It was a little insane, how we managed to order room service & play bridge & the classic 'animal' game despite how exhausted everyone was... Great great fun though.

Though it was mad tiring with all the music rehearsals & team rehearsals & planning for a birthday surprise (Happy birthday Anthea & Beatrice! Love you both.) while also attempting to squeeze in time with my family, I had a real blast. Church camp has just barely passed but I'm already eager for youth camp 2014 & what new things it'll bring!



3. Work.

After deliberating on work opportunities for a while, I ended up helping out at Oops Asia again this summer. It's always a privilege & joy to go back because everyone feels like family & we always have a good time together, whether if it's at a ministry event or jamming spontaneously in the studio or just laughing over something during lunch.

Particularly excited for our new media videos that we're currently experimenting with & shooting. I love little artsy ventures like these where it allows our team to get creative & create something uniquely 'ours'.

(P.S. what I wore to work sometime last week. Love the chill office vibe, something I often take for granted!)




4. Rest.

There isn't much time for this at all, but when there's an hour or so to spare, I love delving deep into old comforts: poetry, song-writing or best of all, afternoon naps. Can't wait for the couple of weeks just before I leave where I can have tons more of this!

Also, having tea in my lovely, new, firetruck-red tea set! Back story: Last tuesday after a gruelling day of work & before young adults lifenet, I met Andry alone for a quick talk at the coffeeshop because he said he had something 'urgent' to discuss with me. After the talk (which had made me slightly anxious the preceding days but turned out to be about nothing much at all), we walked over to church in time for lifenet to start. But when andry opened the door to the main sanctuary, I got a whole lot of poppers & noise & a rousing 'SURPRISE' thrown at me by a combination of youth & young adults...! What a crazy surprise. Turns out that lifenet was but a farce & that Jenn & Jordan etc had been planning a surprise 21st birthday party for me for a while. The rationale was that I would be in Sweden during my actual birthday & they couldn't celebrate it with me, but it was still totally absurd because my birthday wasn't for another six months. Still, it was really, really sweet (until Circle of Death happened... HAHA). I received a tea set & a double set of TWG teas from everyone, which shows how well they know me ;) I can't believe how fortunate I am to have such thoughtful & amazing friends, & I'm grateful for them everyday.

So thank you all, it was incredible.



5. Sunsets & stuff

Photos taken during our nature trip to chek jawa last Friday, which I had to wake up at 550am for. I surprised myself & a lot of other people simply by getting up at all & staggering out of the house. Interesting trip & good fellowship & took some nice photos, but it's going to take much more than this the next time I wake up before dawn.

That's about it for now. It's currently 6am & I've spent the past two & a half hours just putting this together... somehow, it just felt important to do so. I could go on, but it would be mad to continue & so ends the longest post ever.

Will write again soon, but for now, good night!