These are a few of my favourite Christmas things

Sunday night - baking and singing

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens 
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens 
Brown paper packages tied up with strings 
These are a few of my favorite things.  

On Sunday night, we watched The Sound of Music.

The Sound of Music is my favourite musical of all time so I did not need the lyrics onscreen, but it was fun nonetheless. Singing along to My Favourite Things while whirring away with the hand mixer as we got the Christmas cakes going made me reflect on my favourite Christmas things.

Favourite Christmas movie
If you want the snarky version of this, as I am a snarky kind of girl, then I will say Bad Santa. But if you want warm and fuzzy, then it is hands down Love Actually. They need to show that on tv every Christmas Eve, or people need to just own it on DVD for the same purpose.

Favourite Christmas memory 
I would have to go back to childhood for this, but I loved Christmas as a child. Waking up on Christmas morning to a house that was filled with the smell of fresh bread and ham and cakes, and eager to open the presents under the tree was always my favourite part of the day. Helping mummy make the cakes was always a highlight as well and to this day, I am still the designated baker for the holidays, with my skills honed over the years in the warm kitchen.

Favourite Christmas food
Christmas is anti-diet. From the Christmas breakfast, to the huge family gatherings defined by mounds of food, to the desserts and treats, food is at the centre of it all. My one Christmas away from home was a disaster, because besides being at death’s door (okay – a slight exaggeration), the lunch of brussel sprouts and beef did not win me over.

Pastelles - a Christmas staple in Trinidad and Tobago
Photo credit: Caribbeanpot

Typically, at home, our Christmas lunch consists of veggie rice, with fresh salad, potato salad, some type of casserole – usually a Shepherd’s pie, pastelles, baked pork, stewed pork, turkey, ham and stewed pigeon peas. Not to mention, the drinks and the sweets. Good God! Just typing that made me unfasten my pants. Sharing it all with family makes the weight gain acceptable.


Favourite Christmas song
Being a shower/car pop star, I love singing Christmas songs, and it is hard to choose just one so I will choose two. O Holy Night is my favourite carol, while Lennox Gray's Around my Christmas Tree/Laughing Children - a local classic - was always my favourite Christmas song as a child. It came on in a store this weekend and I sang the entire thing without a care for who was listening, reliving my girlhood Christmases, practising that song in school for Christmas parties and class concerts. Hearing actual Christmas music during a season that is beaten down by the immense anticipation for Carnival warmed my icy heart.


What am I most looking forward to this Christmas as a cynical adult?

• Spending time with the family, particularly the littlest members - my niece and nephew
• Getting rest - lots of sleep ahead
• Seeing The Hobbit on Boxing Day
• Finish reading my latest book
• Visiting friends
• Eating (in moderation??)

Merry Christmas everyone. Be safe. Be well. Be blessed.

Read more »

I have been naughty, but Santa can kick rocks

If you have read this blog long enough, you would already know I love December only because it is my birthday month. Christmas is not my most fave time of the year. It has gotten better in recent times with the fun of being an aunt - Christmas is now about making the little ones happy, hearing their giggles and creating memories for them to cherish. I don't get gifts. I cannot tell you the last time I have gotten a present. And that's okay. The independent streak in me is not worried about that because I usually treat myself, not just at Christmas but all year-round.

Santa has forsaken me and so I have stopped aiming to be nice during the year. I am a permanent fixture on Fatso's Naughty List it seems.

But if I had to ask for a present, it would be...

The Nespresso Citiz for the frothy hot drink lover in me

or...

The ever sexy Keurig.

You had to have seen this coming, right? And make sure you add a year's supply of the capsules as well.I cannot just drink hot water.

Also, I have found that a fitness tracker is really good motivation. I hate getting up at 5 in the morning on a Saturday and Sunday to workout but some days, I take my phone with me, set a target and I really am a bit more amped to get it over with. Since I love all things Samsung, and already use S-Health during my outdoor workouts, you can get me this...

And the slimmer, caffeinated me would love to walk the streets with something new from Mr Kors, like this...

Hamilton Saffiano Leather Tote from Michael Michael Kors

That's about it really. I need new clothes as well but who has that kinda time for a blog about the stuff I want?

Read more »

This is what Detox looks like

Every year after the holidays, I do a 2-week detox. Every year it sucks. This year it seems to suck even more. This year I took my usual detox - no dairy, no meat/chicken, no alcohol, no coffee - to another level and eliminated all things flour. Ugh. I am almost at the end of Week 1. Surviving, with the occasional cold sweat in the middle of the night while dreaming of honey BBQ chicken or Aioli's pork loin or a glass of wine. The work days are hardest especially with no coffee. But it has not been completely bad. I have been having a lot of good stuff.

Breakfast in the last week was quinoa egg scramble - quinoa with roasted red peppers, tomatoes, spinach, scrambled with eggs, salt and black pepper, and then topped with fresh spinach. Pretty nice.

Very delicious. Pretty awesome breakfast I must say

During the day, lots of wheatgrass, lots of water, lots of green tea.

Really nice...

It's not coffee though

Snack of choice - watermelon. This is a daily thing, even when not detoxing. I love watermelon. Like...seriously. I also snacked on cucumbers.

My Independence Square fruit guy always has my melon wrapped and waiting every morning

Tonight, I was REALLY craving burgers, even though I very rarely eat burgers, but the meat craving was real. Not yielding to temptation, I instead made spicy quinoa and lentil burgers. They are MEGA good!! What's in these? Lentils, seasoned with salt, black pepper, stir fried garlic, onions, celery, parsley, pimento, chilli peppers, tomatoes, quinoa, tomato pesto, one egg, olive oil. No breadcrumbs.

Just before they went into the oven. No breadcrumbs in these.
Used a mould to get them in shape.

After all the Christmas food and drink, I felt so ill, and after one week of this suicide mission detox, I feel a whole lot better. One week down, one more to go!

Read more »

The Thing about Christmas...

The thing about Christmas is that it really is for kids. I have found myself being less grouchy now that my nephew is at an age where he is aware of the holiday and can be fully engaged in it. He is such a bubbly, energetic child and he defrosts aunty's chilly heart with his cuteness.

So yes, I was in the mall this weekend, doing Christmas shopping. We had a nice aunty/nephew day yesterday and I will actually be wrapping gifts tonight. Do you know how long it has been since I wrapped a present? I would normally just buy a gift bag and stuff whatever the object of desire was in that. Or just take the victims to choose their gift and let them take it once paid for. Yes. I have come a long way! Lol

The thing about Christmas is that a lot of my fellow marketers like to pigeonhole it as a time for couples, and this works, so the singles usually feel like junk - grumpy in other cases. I am over that now that I am cuter and wiser, but it is a very real malaise for many.

The thing about Christmas is that we have made it a retail monster when it should be about the people. I don't expect presents and hardly ever ask for or get any. I like that it coaxes my relatives from around the world to come home so I can get excited about seeing them and spending time with them. That is the part that negates all the hard work of my fellow marketers. The warm love and rambunction of family is priceless. 

The thing about Christmas is that it is a 5-day weekend for me. Well, 5.5 day weekend. That is the best gift of them all.

Merry Christmas to my 2.5 readers and your loved ones. Give thanks and be happy. That is what it is all about.

Read more »

The Day Before December

December approacheth...

I cannot believe we are closing in on the end of 2012 already. With the last day of November coming to a close, and with bad memories thanks to JC Penney and their crap service, I look towards December with a mixture of hope and intense dread.

December is my birthday month, to start, and who does not like their birthday? Sure, there will be the nosy relatives who will remind me that I am one year older and still unmarried and childless, and that irritates me to no end. Still, it's my birthday so I always aim to make it a happy time, always grateful for making it to another year when so many people have not.

There are all these Christmas events I find myself having to go to - like children's parties (shoot me now) and hob nobbing events, which require dresses and self-restraint at all levels. Thankfully dresses are out of the way this time around but the events are still there and I will try my darndest to avoid half, if not all of them.

Christmas. Ugh. Even in searching for a Google image for December,all the images were of Santa, or some reindeer or an elf or some shit. I am trying to be a good soldier with the Christmas thing. I actually looked at...wait for it...Christmas trees today. I feel like I owe it to my nephew to make Christmas bright and happy, especially as my brother will not be home for Christmas. So I saw this little tree -a few feet high - and considered buying it and some decorations so we could have some fun putting that together and make some memories. I will get the tree next weekend when I go back.

But Christmas can be annoying and it can also be very lonely and it's a big MEH for me. I don't look forward to it. It's one of those holidays that seems to isolate single people, or people without kids. It's just another day for me and until such time as that changes, these day before December posts will be pretty much in this tone and with these sentiments.

Santa can go bite himself!

Read more »

Drunken Chicken Master: Hosting and Toasting

Cooking with red wine

Well, I had my usual get together of friends yesterday and the lime* was great. Tiring, but great. I love entertaining but Lord, it can be exhausting especially when the catering team is a team of one – moi. On paper, it was nothing too hard – a couple casseroles, some rice, salad, chicken – but of course you want stuff to taste good. Lol. Luckily, it seems like everyone enjoyed themselves and more importantly, enjoyed my cooking (as it should be!).

I tried a new chicken dish yesterday - chicken in a red wine and mushroom sauce, which I was so happy with in the end. Woot woot! The keys to success?

- A good red wine. Most people think if you buy a cheap wine then it is good just for cooking. I think if that crap is not good enough to drink, then it won’t be good enough for your food either. I was trying hell hard to open the cheaper, albeit still perfectly good and drinkable bottle of merlot but my supposedly universal wine opener was not cooperating on the wider mouth of this ridiculous bottle, time was upon me and I needed to grab a shower, and I thus had to use my good shiraz-cabernet. In the end, it worked!

- Don’t drink the wine while cooking.  You don’t want to pass out and have the chicken or the sauce burn do you? Luckily for me, it was red wine and not white, so the urge to pour myself a glass while the apron was still on was not strong. The chicken, the sauce – all survived to make a good and lasting impression.

I was really pleased with my chicken and with everything else in fact. But believe me, the next time I will either not be hosting, or will be making sandwiches. It is not something one can do every day unless there is the added incentive of being paid to do it, à la professional caterer.

I had maybe one drink too many yesterday and I always end up mixing, cause I must have wine and I MUST have a cocktail (or 4) so after the dishes were done, I crashed like a stone on the bed. But all in all it was a good lime. Looking forward to my roti lime tomorrow and not just because I am the curry master. I love Christmas holidays and all but if I have to eat another piece of ham, I may stab myself.


*Lime – (according to Urban Dictionary)
Of Caribbean origin; often heard from a Trini. Closest American translation is "hanging out," but it can be used to describe a party, a planned or unplanned social gathering, or just some people sitting around, killing time together. It's a Trini's favourite pastime.

Read more »

Merry Christmas!!!

My personalised Christmas card this year.
One of them anyway...

Well, it's almost here and thus almost over. I am sitting here wrestling with the decision on whether I should actually get on a bus and try this Christmas shopping thing again after Wednesday's disaster. I am never usually a fan of Christmas Eve shopping - all the people, the crowds. But especially since I live with someone whose idea of Christmas is a pot of pelau - a pot of pelau that is usually not very good I might add - I really am inclined to finish Christmas food shopping at least. Even though we will probably not spend the day at home and thus I will be served a proper Christmas meal, Boxing Day will not see me eating pelau either. It is also a brilliant day today - as brilliant as it can get here. It is not grey, not snowing, I see something that looks vaguely like the sun, so I am going to go out in it, if even for a little while.

I will be going to church tomorrow though. I have not gone to church in years but with the options rather limited here for Christmas enjoyment, I have decided to go worship, listen to carols and hope that God forgives me for being such a brat. It puts a whole new spin on the day though - it means I cannot sleep in late, it means my planned outfit may need a bit of revising, but it means I will be around others and hopefully feel Christmassy. Ha. Long shot.

I am glad though that the snow did not delay my Christmas cards to my parents. My cute and specially selected cards got to the recipients yesterday, so yaaay. Sure they are just cards, but they were sent with lots of love, and I know they will be appreciated and at least they will have me near the top of mind and not forget about me. lol.

I have also been doing my Santa duties with my neighbours out shopping and dropping hot cash in a mall somewhere, while I sit at home - and being the only available resident in my part of the street, all the bigger deliveries are being nicely left with me for them to collect. Oh joy. I have been spying on where they have been shopping - Body Shop, Amazon, nothing totally exciting.

Not sure about the Boxing Day sales here either. I love a sale but being a student does not make sales as sexy as they should be. Additionally, the wonderful tube workers have planned their millionth strike of 2010 for that day so transport will be a nightmare - between the 1million+ women trying to get to Harrod's and Westfield, and the 2million+ men trying to get to the Boxing Day football matches, I am not sure I want to be part of the public transport hamster mash. I will lust from a distance, with the click of my mouse...hopefully.

Sadly I have also finished off the top tray of the chocolate marshmallows. They are just so good I could not resist. I am less inclined to get another carton today but at the rate I am going, I may need it.
Really gonna try and get some work done today but I have failed all week. I am thinking of voicing my concerns about the timing of these exams so this tragedy does not befall next year's cohort. I mean, trying to study over the holidays? Really? It's not easy. I have done zero. It's crunch time now.

In any event, Merry Christmas to the 2.5 readers out there and hope you have a great Christmas Day with your families.

Read more »

Christmas - Just not meant to be

Chocolate, whipped marshmallowy bliss.
Coming to a couch near you!

This morning I woke up and decided to end my self-imposed exile from the world and go out into town to do some "shopping". Note the quotation marks. This is not shopping as I am used to. This is student shopping - bargain shopping, window shopping, lust shopping. So anyway, I pull on my trusty winter gear, loaded up my MP3 player with Christmas songs to keep me smiling and to hopefully get me into some kinda spirit, and stepped out into the Tundra that is London and hopped on a red bus to the mall.

It was not as nauseating as I thought it would be. Trinis really do it much worse, but then it is still a few days away, right? Right? It's Saturday, right?

I did the essentials first - needed some tights to finish off the Christmas Day outfit, needed some batteries, some juice. One thing I really needed and try as I might I could not locate them - chocolate covered marshmallows. It is not Christmas without marshmallows and I went into Thornton's, Sainsbury's, TK Maxx, BHS - to no avail.

Heaven!!!

It looked bleak and the depression deepened. Then I went into good ole Poundland and there, on the bargain shelves of my bargain store, were boxes and boxes of Cadbury Chocolate Mallows. I pounced on a carton and shoved it into my basket with the gleam of victory in my eye. The world was right again. I also got some mini marshmallows for Christmas Eve hot chocolate, when I will hopefully be watching Love Actually while sitting in fluffy socks on the couch.

But the day went downhill after the small marshmallow triumph. I am not sure whether it was the anxiety from not being able to buy this awesome red, white and black sweater dress (just made for a Trini!!!), the lack of the financial catalyst to walk around in the mall, the throng of people or the obvious, a missed meal - but I started to feel rather ill, the familiar faint feeling I get ever so often when I do not eat breakfast and then prolong lunch, and compound both by shopping. lol. But with my body giving me the tell-tale signs that trouble was around the corner, I decided after cashing out at Sainsbury's that I would have to get the cousin's present another day, and I headed to McDonald's to get a soda and fries to hold me over til I got home.

Needless to say, there are more strollers per square kilometre in London than there are pubs and as I walked in Mickey D's, I was assaulted by dozens of bawling babies and strollers in front of the counter. I was feeling okay so the kids were not annoying me yet but in no time at all, my blood sugar went from A to Z and everyone was annoying me and my hands were clammy, I was getting the shakes, and my head was spinning. The girl who FINALLY got to me (the world's slowest cashier ever) took zonks to fill my order. I watched, as though in slow motion, as she filled my cup with the Sprite I desperately needed to prevent an embarassing fainting episode in the middle of frickin' London. I almost did not believe it was me when I heard the voice say "Excuse me, princess. Would you speed it up, please...seriously!" I was feeling the life draining out of me and I just needed sugar. This girl was taking her frickin time to scoop some ice, to bag some fries. By the time she put the Sprite down before me, I did not even want the straw. I just grabbed it, threw off the lid and devoured the sugary mess because I was literally 10 seconds away from fainting.

And that was the end of all shopping today. I sat eating greasy fries and drinking nasty soda trying to undo the damage done by poor eating over the past few days, and the subsequent low blood sugar. But I am still glad I got out the house for a few hours. Going to have some lunch, though it is probably closer to dinner and then a choccie marshmallow and maybe a glass of something squeezed out from a grape. Then a nap, and hopefully, some studying. Santa has done me no favours as usual, so a night with the books is in order.

Read more »

When exactly is Christmas??

Photo courtesy Caribbean Pot.
My camera's battery needs recharging

I had resolved not to blog when I don't feel chipper and for the past few days I have not been. I spent each day in bed, feeling horrible, sleeping a lot and just not embracing the world, except via online streaming and Sky. Not much has changed today, but I have exams looming and so I need to open the books and get into a productive, non-moping frame of mind.

I did manage to use the few days to catch up on emails, Grey's Anatomy (the best show ever!!), Desperate Housewives, Bridget Jones (both movies, but nothing beats the first. She is so me it is scary!) and cooking. I had been wanting a meal of curried chicken since my birthday and so with the supplies I picked up in Sainsbury's on Friday (smart girl to pick up stuff after class on Friday, so I do not have to leave the house until after Christmas), I turned a pot yesterday, making the house all warm and spicy smelling. It was a highlight.

I also tried finding a centre at which I could volunteer and kill the "sad" bug but seems London is not only filled with lonely people, but filled with lonely people with the same idea and the woman told me that they did not need any more volunteers. Imagine that. So that leaves the books. Oh joy. lol.

My mother has started the holiday madness at home, and when I spoke to her via Skype on Sunday, she was covered in paint from the house painting and flower pot painting. She is a trip, lemme tell ya. It is a very Trini phenomenon - this topsy-turvying of the house for Christmas. It is part of what makes it so special for so many people. It's a renewal of sorts and a sadistic way of families bonding. lol. Honestly, I do not miss that part. I hate housework. But I do miss the cooking and the baking and the Christmas parties and dinners and seeing friends and family. Nothing is happening here. I had brought pastelles with me, and dried sorrel, so I can have a taste of home that way. If I feel like it, I may bake a cake, but I don't feel like it actually. Not sure what I am doing on the day. I am not even sure what day it is (checking calendar in head...too much effort, so stop). I have zero spirit. Zero.

But I do have curry and clean laundry after a very productive Monday so that is a blessing. I also have Inception, which is also a great thing and I will save that for a free moment. Until then, wish me luck with the textbooks. God knows I will need it.

Read more »

My Favourite Christmas Movies

So my friends know that Christmas ranks right up there with Valentine's as one of the worst days of the year for me. lol. God...it used to be a lovely time for me. I loved Christmas. My mum would be up all hours of the night baking and I would get new pyjamas and new curtains for my room. One year she got me Smurf curtains - awesome. We would stay up late waiting for Daddy who would do his traditional Christmas Eve parangin' (visiting friends and loading up on free drinks and eats) with his friends. Christmas morning we would open our presents - my brother and I - and we would have breakfast and then head over to my grandmother's house. The 11 million cousins and aunts and uncles would all be there and us kids would show off our presents and eat cake and the adults would drink rum and whiskey and give us sips of this warm goodness (my mum, not my dad...I think he is in denial that I even drink even at my age...lol).

Then the cousins moved to the US. The Christmas Day celebrations got smaller. My grandmother got sick. It was no longer fun for me. It was depressing. I have never recovered from this loss. I think saying I hate Christmas is a bit much, because I do enjoy what the season means in terms of family and loved ones, but the other crap I can do without. The aimless and nonsensical spending. The lovebirds canoodling in public. The screaming kids in the town centres. Oh God...the screaming kids. The housework. My mother is anal with the housework. Needless to say I have dodged that bullet this year. I doubt my cousin is going to be changing curtains. I may probably bake here, and I have brought my pastelles in advance but I can honestly say I will miss being home for Christmas, just for the family factor. It's my nephew's first Christmas and my cousin will be home and my mum will miss me and vice versa. Yeah, I will be spending my first Christmas ever away from my family. Not to mention, it will be my first Christmas ever studying. WTF! In any event, one thing I do love about the dratted holiday are the movies and these are the movies I always always watch every year while downing the Bailey's and the Hennessy.

1. The Ultimate. Christmas is not Christmas without this one. I love Hugh Grant and his floppy haired sexiness. I love Bill Nighy. I love Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, but not Keira Knightley. I don't like her. I love the entire cast (except Keira Knightley). I love this movie (but not Keira Knightley...as good as she was in Pride and Prejudice as well, she really spoiled the whole thing for me). Love, Actually is a classic by now. Ahh yes, is there anyone out there who does not love Love, Actually? Give me some wine, some chocolates and a Kleenex and I am good to go.

2.My hero. Grinch has some stiff competition here. Watch out buddy. I am on your heels.

3.My other hero.  I never miss the first half hour. The f@!* stick scene and the I am Not Gay scene - classic. Classic. Billy Bob, I salute you. He's like the dirty old man living alone on the corner, isn't he? Frightful but delightful!

4. Cuddly soft and cute enough to save himself from the pot. Trinis love a good bowl of deer. Rudolph, I love you and your red nose. So you're safe my friend.

5. And though it is not a Christmas movie per se, it opened every Christmas Day for 3 years and on the last year I actually left the house, much to my mother's horror that I would dare leave the house on CHRISTMAS DAY, to go sit in a cinema to see it as soon as it opened. She was not impressed. But I was. It was great. One of my favourite movie trilogies ever.

Once my movies are on, I will be okay. I think.

I could not resist...

Read more »