Some people handle situations...

...some situations handle people.

Recently my staff had a huge personal problem and took a few days off to settle it. Normally my stance towards issues like this is that work and personal issues are two separate entities and should never mix, but in real life that's not always possible. Days turned to weeks and to say that we weren't affected at all would be a lie. Yes, we were short-handed at the office, but more importantly concerned for her. We've all worked together for so long that we know each other quite well. To cut a long story short, she initially decided to 'settle' her problem by avoiding it and thought it will go away by itself, but we know that this can sometimes make it worse and it did. Thankfully she came to her senses much later on, put her foot down and with a couple of police reports lodged, things are heading in the right direction.

You know what they say, that challenges can either make or break you, and I'm glad that it was not the latter. I got to talk to her after that and I can sense the determination and courage in her, qualities that were lacking before. A couple of things I learn from this -

1) Never whine about what a deep mess you're in. Focus your energy instead of solving that mess. I won't go so far to say be thankful for challenges, but you'll definitely be better off one way or another after having gone through it.
2) If something calls for urgent action, ignoring it won't do you any favors. You will still have to face it later on, together with all the additional problems caused by your inaction.
3) It's important to have people you can count on for help and support. No man is a pulau.

I hope I'll remember all this when I'm going through a rough patch.

Hate Broccoli?

I know I used to. These days I've made peace with it, eating it for its benefits rather than for its taste. But there's way to get around that bitterness and what you do is overcook the damn thing.

There's this article that I enjoyed reading and I must admit I wouldn't have a clue what it was going on about if I'd read it 4 months earlier. After my son's delivery, the confinement lady (CL) prepared all our meals. We purposely went and bought a rice cooker (yes we didn't have one before that) that allowed for steaming. CL would cook the rice and to save time, (and tend to the baby and other chores) she set the rice to cook with the vegetables in the above compartment to steam. Many things have been said about not overcooking vegetables and the decreasing nutrient contents with prolonged cooking, but I guess that was the last thing on CL's mind.

The results were surprising. The vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, snow peas) became soft, sweet and pleasantly disintegrated without much chewing. Broccoli? Sweet? You'd better believe it. So what happened here?

"It's true that when vegetables, especially cruciferous vegetables, are cooked, the damage to the plant's tissue brings about reactions between compounds that are usually kept separate," he said—hence the sulfuric aroma. But, he emphasized, if you continue to cook these foods, "at a certain point the aroma will dissipate, and you'll end up with the flavor compounds left in the plant, including its sugars—especially if it's cooked and served in a way that the sugars aren't poured out with the cooking water."                                                     -from 'The Soft Approach' article

So here's a tip when cooking for picky eaters who hate greens, overcook it! It is a fact that the anti-cancer properties of broccoli is highest when raw (yucks!) or lightly cooked, but I think it's a better compromise this way, eating diminished nutrients vs none at all.

Nyan

I would have preferred a propaganda sticker with a dog instead, but come on, Chairman Meow? Genius!

Peek-a-boo!

Somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd month of life, Cyrus started blabbering and using his voice to express a wide range of emotions. His first word wasn't mama or papa but Earl (highly disputed by my wife who claims he was saying uggh instead. I beg to differ...). The one event that made us drop everything and stare at him was when we realized he was laughing. Oh yes he'd smile before this, and try to laugh, but always without the accompanying audio.

Why are babies amused by peek-a-boo? And we tried peek-a-boo-ing with two people hiding behind the blanket instead but he wasn't amused at all. Then we returned to just one peek-a-boo-er and he resumed laughing like normal. Remind me to check the rules regarding multiple peek-a-boo-ers/peek-a-boo-ees.