Pickles n' Tickles by JJ

BEFORE we left for Africa, we were bombarded with crime alerts from concerned friends and family. In fact, safety was the only thing that got mentioned when we announced our dream holiday plans to them. By the time we left, we were quite bothered by all those alerts. And then, we landed in Johannesburg.  We took a cab and went out that very night when I realised what I was doing: I was looking at every person on the street and judging them indiscriminately. And I was very ashamed of myself for that. That night, I changed my tarnished mindset about the whole safety issue. Would I go out alone on foot or even in a car to some places in my own country? No! Why, I don't even have the peace of mind to walk in some areas during the day in Bangsar (Kuala Lumpur)! Crime risks are anywhere and everywhere, we just have to be street smart. I could have been pick-pocketed in Paris or robbed at gunpoint in New York too. When I was able to release that mindset, I saw the people ...

OF all my travels, I had the best one last week in South Africa. Africa is officially my favourite continent in the world and I vow to travel parts of it in the years to come. Our trip began with a brief stay at Johannesberg for the night before we were whisked off to Northeast where we stayed three, wonderful nights at a game lodge. It has always been my dream to experience an African safari so the main agenda of this trip was the Kruger National Park.  What can I say. It has been the most interesting few days of my life among the lives I've only used to read about, watch in documentaries and imagine in my head. Over the days, I've had a frog half the size of my pinky jump out of my hair, suffered various insect bites on my face, avoided bee stings (although I've been stung half a dozen times before), walked about after dark to my room so fearful thinking that I may be in the way of the hippos in the lake outside my room and watched a man shiver right next to me due to ...

IT'S like a scene from a horror movie outside. The weather department did warn us of the storm but at this intensity, it's something I've never experienced before. At 65kmph, the wind is howling angry. The air is thick with dust that I can't see my neighbour's house. I could taste sand particles in my mouth and nose when I was at the balcony earlier. Why, I'm on the sofa now and still get a strange smell in the air.  Times like this, I really don't mind a thunderstorm instead. Visibility is off, the roads are equally messed up, it's not safe to be out and there're flood possibilities. But at least, during and after a thunderstorm, the air is clean and everything looks new and hopeful again. I walked into the bathroom and ran my finger along the bathtub. There is already a layer of dust. The hub had just washed it earlier. I could see a coat of grey matter on the brown TV cabinet from where I am now. This is just in the city, inside of an almost so...

And it's April.  In four days, my mom turns 59. We celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary on the 5th and on the next day, the husband inches closer to 40. At this phase in life, time is something I have plenty of yet I'm losing it at a pace I cannot justify.   Today, I'm missing my mom and dad pretty bad. I don't think I've spent much time being with them even when I was with them. There was always school or they were working. But we lived together, ate dinner at the table every day and spent Sunday evenings as a family.  I measured time by school year and every year seemed like a lot of time then. It felt like I owned forever. It felt like the dame old tree was old while I bounced in eternal youth. It felt like I was going to school my whole life and eating dinner together at home.  But the years never missed a minute and still caught up with me: it was time to leave home. My parents wished me well and sent me off with pride. I wasn't living with the...

OILS and I go a long way. My mom used a lot of oil on me, growing up. As a teenager, baby oil was my go-to daily face moisturiser. I didn't know then what I know now about synthetic oils but it worked for me. In my early 20s, I fell in love with pure essential oils. I was introduced to the world of Culpeper during work. Then, I was gifted a 50ml bottle of jojoba base oil with two precious bottles of 10ml rose and geranium essentials oils courtesy of Culpeper. I was set for life and I've never looked back ever since.  Over the years, I have depended on and dwelled solely in beauty oils. Recently, I've started learning about healing through essential oils. It's been a huge eye-opener for me. Essential oils are just not skin deep, they're simply so much more than that. The potent substances extracted through steam distillation from various shrubs, flowers, roots, skin and seeds could have incredible healing powers when used with sensitivity, respect and knowledge....

I baked a cake for a friend's birthday party today. More than the baking, I enjoyed icing this cake. It's a simple vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. The idea for decoration comes from a cake Chef Lorraine Pascale made. It's a white cake with little flowers constructed from raspberries and almond flakes. So pretty and whimsical, just the kind of cake that'd make me happy if it was presented to me on my birthday.  I had so much fun decorating and re-decorating the cake while munching on berries, almonds and cream. I used red berries for raspberries as I found them to be more delicate for the flower effect. Red on white is one of my all time favourite combinations and not just at Christmas.  The final look. Whimsical.  White and Red  I started off with a scale-like design along the side. Since I had some extra buttercream, I decided to continue a row on the top too. With the space left on the face, I constructed a few flowers. When done, I stood ba...

FLIPPING through some food sites, I came across an interesting recipe for an alcoholic beverage. The writer calls it the Milk of Amnesia. At first, I thought I had read it wrong but there it was again. Milk of Amnesia. The article soon broke into a series of pictures of how it's done. Fresh milk is used with sugar, vodka, oranges and lemon. The combination is left to ferment for 10 days after which it's filtered and ready to go. So, the pictures went from a milky, gross concoction of floating citrus to an end product of something that represented a clear, golden liquid much like a fine icewine. Elegant and sophisticated. I was curious and drawn to it.  Lab coat on and ready to experiment. That night, I cut some oranges and a lemon, threw them into a jar and dumped in sugar, milk and when it came to the vodka, I realised I didn't have any. I went through my little closet bar a few times but all I had were bottles of various vile-flavoured vodka, not the ordinary ...