absolutwillie

Author: absolutwillie

  • tickle me this

    when do we outgrow tickles?
    i don’t think i know of one adult who will admit to loving being tickled – while i know many who tickle. thank Heaven for children who love being tickled – or we’d be surrounded by sad people clasping their hands under their armpits!

    what brings this on? well, my kids at kindergarten – of course! they love being tickled. in fact, in learning games – they actively seek out the booby traps that involve getting tickled! even being picked up (a stern favorite) takes a second place to being tickled. and boy is it fun!

    you see, i’m a tickler. even as a university student – i loved tickling my sister until she threatened to wet herself. (having a beard helped a lot to continue the madness after she’d managed to grab my hands.)

    and yes, i will admit that i love being tickled! (my Mom used to give the best tickles – though we would guard and protest oh so wholeheartedly ;0) )

    now that i think about it, i suspect our enjoyment of being tickled is dependent on our trust in the tickler. it is, after all, a fairly intimate exercise – both physically and emotionally. obviously you have to allow someone to get real close to you for them to tickle you *duh*
    but it’s the emotional intimacy that intrigues me. based on recent observations of my students (and fond memories of home); to truly enjoy a good tickle, you have to surrender to it completely. you have to give in and relinquish control for a few seconds. be in the moment – and enjoy with reckless abandon!

    maybe that is part of the reason why i love tickling – to experience such complete openness and unconditional trust is a rare thing in modern societies. a very, very beautiful thing to be sure. it’s a touch of heaven for the soul.

    maybe our response to tickling can be seen as a measure of o our openness to being loved unreservedly?

    Posted by ShoZu

  • speak softly of love

    different people express their affections differently. (in fact, there are lectures doing the rounds on “love languages”, i am told.)

    some verbalize, some communicate through touch and some express their feelings through gifts. even others, as i’ve come to realize, cook ;0)

    there are dozens of variants, i’m sure.

    i, myself, am a gift giver and touch-lover (who’s learning to verbalize better). i thank my parents for raising us (me and my beloved sister) in a house filled with “i love yous”, hugs, kisses and tickles!

    >>home is definitely where i learned what love is!!

    i find that knowing my love language, helps me to perceive and appreciate those of others. especially here, where i’m immersed in a whole new culture. knowing that there are differences in how we love – and that this is okay – is a key to happiness, i think.

    realizing that the apple of my eye also expresses his affection through food, for example, has saved me from countless unnecessary tears of frustration.

    we all need to hear: “i love you” every once in a while.
    but are we listening in all the right places?

    Posted by ShoZu

  • dilemma

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv8Kz1ipRnM&hl=en&fs=1&w=425&h=350]

  • recipe: Danbin

    Frank J asked, and i thought i’d share what i observed from Peter’s culinary crafts.

    danbin are basically savory omelet-pancakes.

    you will need:
    ready-made crepes (i’m sure Woollies has these)
    one egg per intended danbin
    shredded tuna
    grated white cheese
    method:
    in a hot pan, crack one egg and place a crepe on top almost right away. (looks like a short-cut to an omelet),
    flip when the egg has settled (is that how you’d say it?),
    spoon some tuna in a line down the middle of the crepe,
    add grated cheese,
    fold the crepe into itself (one end over the other),
    cut into bite-size rolls and
    add pepper to taste.
    serve hot ;0)
    the important thing is that the crepe has to stay soft.
    it should NOT turn into a semi-burnt burrito mimic… as mine still do.

  • love is a midnight snack

    … and i mean that literally :0)

    growing up, i often heard people say: “the road to a mans heart, is through his stomach”. romantically speaking, of course. “directly through the ribcage with a sharp object” only started doing the rounds in my student days. (but that’s not what this post is about.)

    what inspired the little filing clerk in my head to unearth that jewel of a saying, was this:

    Peter spontaneously decided to make me some tuna & cheese danbin for breakfast tomorrow morning (i get up hours before he does),

    and he made two extra portions for us to have right away :0P

    he isn’t one for talking a whole lot about the mushy, emotional stuff – but very few things say “i love you” to me, like a meal specially made for you… after midnight.

    am i or am i not the luckiest man alive?
    you bet your bottom dollar i am!

  • previously unmentionables: chicken feet

    yup – chicken feet.
    good to eat…
    rich in collagen.
    after posting the *note to remind me to write about some of the food i’ve encountered recently, Peter came home with 4 of the following packets:

    now i don’t have a problem with eating chicken feet. in fact, i’ve actually had chicken feet (processed beyond recognition) before – so i’m not altogether unfamiliar with their taste and texture. and it’s not that i’m squeamish or anything… but actually holding one of these little morsels in your hand is a lot different than picking at translucent squares of cooked skin in a fusion restaurant.
    so how do you eat one of these?
    same way you eat an elephant, i suppose: bit by bit.
    start by picking out the toenails – them be nasty little pointy bits of hardness you really don’t need crunching around your molars.
    now, just open wide and bite!
    if you remember that toes are nothing more than small bones neatly lined up for function – you should be fine. the rest is all skin and tendons – which is actually quite tasty, to be honest. the little red flecks of chillies help to give it some… erm… kick?
    and for all the doubters out there – here’s what remained of my first serving:

    i’ll be having seconds with Peter when he gets back from work.

  • toying with templates

    just in case you drop in to see… erm… who knows what: DON’T PANIC!

    i really am experimenting this time – it’s a phase… it’ll pass.
    pretty soon, my blog will have a brand new face (that works).

  • shout out

    to the smelly “700” driver of the black mercedes benz that nearly ran us over at Rei Fon market:
    if you’d hurt Peter – i would have had no problem fracturing each of our extremities with my bare hands, before watching you choke on your own tongue.

    if you want to drive like an idiot – go do it off a cliff!

  • quotable quote

    Every new day is the beginning of the rest of your life.
    On each day you can make new choices on how to live it.
    –George J. Waggoner

  • eish

    yesterday’s post was a functional cop-out. you see, i had had a very testing day – and what could’ve transpired through a heart-felt post… would’ve been nasty. desert storm-ish even. in the manner of: “ooh, my foot itches – let me blast off my entire leg with a pipe-bomb or two”.

    i do that sometimes…
    figuratively, of course.

    the source of my discontent, however, managed to worm into my head space again today. and if it wasn’t for Peter – i’d most probably be spewing all sorts of bile right now.

    you see, my unsuspecting knight in shining armor brought me something from the chicken bbq-lady close to his parents’ place. decadently oily and seriously delicious, the chicken skin and (brace yourself) chicken asses-on-a-stick* lifted my mood completely! nothing like a good, greasy treat to put a smile on my dial *lol* and not only does he treat me to random snacks of the most forbidden variety – he also listens patiently as i rant away and calls me his poor little bunny.

    laughing is such great medicine!

    all at once i’m reminded how trivial the annoyance at school really is – and how blessed i am to have Peter in my life. i mean really, who wouldn’t be?

    now if you’ll excuse me – he’s singing in the shower and i have nothing more to say ;0)

    *remind me to write something about oriental foods sometime – you wont believe how good some of the “previously unmentionables” are!