Author Archives: memoriesandsuch

Poem: There’s Something about a Baby

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I love watching baby videos, I mean who doesn’t right. A few months back, I caught this documentary series on Netflix called Babies that explores the science that shows how infants discover life during their very first year. It was so fascinating, but what I realised that I was I kept smiling everytime I saw the babies onscreen. By the time I had finished this series, I knew I had to write this poem.

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There’s Something about a Baby

There’s something about a baby
That brings a smile to the face
That pure laugh, that sense of glee
They quickly find a spot in your heart’s special place

Like an angel sent from above
They’re sent to fill your heart with love
To hold and to rock and cuddle and hug tight
To smother with kisses, day and night

There’s something about a baby
That brings forth all of your protective instincts
You want to keep them wrapped up and cozy
Safe from all of the world’s harm within the heart’s precincts

They fill your hearts and home with love and joy
So much so you wonder how you survived before them
Whether it’s a baby girl or baby boy
Their very existence becomes an ode, a poem

There’s something about a baby
That makes you want to guide, cherish and make them grow
Warm and huggable, soft and cuddly
To show them everything that you know

Babies are love, babies are a lovable bundle
Babies are our present, babies are our future
They are sent to us from above, they are our angels
Babies are what makes us who we are

In My Hands Today…

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Silent Sisters – Joanne Lee

A deadly secret…A horrifying discovery…

For over 20 years, Joanne Lee’s mother kept the remains of not one, but three newborn babies hidden in a bin in her wardrobe.

She had buried a fourth baby in newspaper and rags in St Helens Cemetery.

For the first time since exposing her mother’s crimes, Joanne breaks her silence over her family’s horrific ordeal and her fight for justice for the siblings she never knew.

Growing up in chaotic circumstances on Merseyside, Joanne suffered at the hands of a violent boyfriend and controlling relatives, as her mother lapsed into a downward spiral of drinking and casual sex following the break-up of her marriage. But the consequences of her mother’s messy lifestyle turned out to be far worse than Joanne could ever have imagined.

She already knew about the baby buried in a shallow makeshift grave next to the family plot. But when Joanne came across a red plastic bin in her mother’s wardrobe in 2009, she realised that the family home held an even more sinister secret.

In Silent Sisters, the daughter who was falsely accused of murdering her own baby sister will tell her full story for the first time, detailing her struggle to understand her mother, to piece together the truth and to give the four babies the proper burial they deserve.

Recipes: Bean Sprout Stir Fry

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Common in our part of the world, mung bean sprouts are grown by sprouting mung beans and are extensively cultivated and consumed in East and Southeast Asia. I make this recipe quite often for S and the children and it’s a very healthy and easy recipe. Today, however, I am going to share the not healthy version of it. I’ll give the healthy version at the end.

Bean Sprout Stir Fry

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups sprouted moong beans
  • 1 large carrot
  • 1 large potato
  • 1 medium sized sweet potato (optional)
  • 1 tbsp garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • Sunflower oil to deep fry
  • 1 large onion, sliced finely
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • A dash of lemon juice (optional)

Method:

  • Peel the carrots, potato and sweet potato if using and chop them into thinnish sticks of about 1 inch length.
  • In a large pan, heat the oil and when the oil becomes hot enough, deep fry the carrot, potato and sweet potato sticks until they turn crisp. Remove and keep aside.
  • In another pan, heat the 1 tbsp oil and when the oil warms up, add the garlic paste and stir.
  • Add the onions and saute till the onions turn translucent.
  • Add the salt and pepper to taste
  • Now add the fried vegetables and stir well
  • When the vegetables and the onions are mixed well, add the bean sprouts and toss well. Let it cook for a few minutes and be careful not to overcook the bean sprouts.
  • Check for seasoning, switch off the gas and drizzle some lemon juice if using.
  • Serve hot.

To make the healthy version, you only need to use carrots and green bell peppers, not potatoes, they will take too long to cook. After the onions become translucent, add in the carrot and bell pepper sticks and saute on a medium to high flame until the vegetables get cooked. Add the salt and pepper and then the bean sprouts. Continue sauteing on a medium to high flame for a few more minutes until the vegetables and the bean sprouts are cooked. Serve hot.

In My Hands Today…

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The Taste of Empire: How Britain’s Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World – Lizzie Collingham

In The Taste of Empire, acclaimed historian Lizzie Collingham tells the story of how the British Empire’s quest for food shaped the modern world.

Told through twenty meals over the course of 450 years, from the Far East to the New World, Collingham explains how Africans taught Americans how to grow rice, how the East India Company turned opium into tea, and how Americans became the best-fed people in the world.

In The Taste of Empire, Collingham masterfully shows that only by examining the history of Great Britain’s global food system, from sixteenth-century Newfoundland fisheries to our present-day eating habits, can we fully understand our capitalist economy and its role in making our modern diets.

International Civil Aviation Day

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Like most toddlers, BB was fascinated by planes, but unlike most boys, this fascination has carried on as he grew up and has propelled him to his area of study and where he is today. But today, with the airline industry in shambles due to the ongoing pandemic, I wonder if he will continue in this field or will make a pivot, but that’s a topic for another day. So, when I heard about this day devoted to civil aviation, I knew I had to find out more.

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Tomorrow is the International Civil Aviation Day which has been celebrated on 07 December each year since 1994 by the International Civil Aviation Organisation or ICAO. The ICAO is an autonomous UN Body accountable for keeping up with the safety standards of international aviation. The date was chosen because December 07 1994 was the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Convention on International Civil Aviation. The Convention on International Civil Aviation, also known more popularly as the Chicago Convention, was signed by delegates from 54 countries. This defining international agreement has since permitted the global civil aviation system to develop peacefully and in a manner benefitting all peoples and nations of the world. The purpose of the day is to recognise the importance of aviation, especially international air travel, to the social and economic development of the world and the day is intended is to help generate and reinforce worldwide awareness of the importance of international civil aviation to the social and economic development of countries, and of the unique role of ICAO in helping countries to cooperate and realise a global rapid transit network at the service of all mankind. The importance of aviation as an engine of global connectivity has never been more relevant to look to international flight as a fundamental enabler of global peace and prosperity.

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Seventy-five years after ICAO’s foundation, the International Civil Aviation network carries over four billion passengers annually. The global Air Transport sector supports 65.5 million jobs and USD 2.7 trillion in global economic activity, with over 10 million women and men working within the industry to ensure 120,000 flights and 12 million passengers a day are carried safely to their destinations. The wider supply chain, flow-on impacts and jobs in tourism made possible by air transport show that at least 65.5 million jobs and 3.6 per cent of global economic activity are supported by the aviation industry according to research by the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG).

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Civil aviation, which includes all non-military aviation, both private and commercial plays a key role in human affairs. It lets us discover our world’s wondrous geographic and cultural diversity, enables us to learn about and benefit from each other and connects societies through global travel and trade, advancing access to food, education and healthcare. Today COVID-19 has severed international connections by air, cut off businesses from clients, kept tourists from destinations and disproportionately affected the vulnerable, it has also disrupted the operations and finances of airlines and airports worldwide, threatening their capacity to assure the global supply of medicines, vaccines, humanitarian aid and other vital goods. Aviation is also an energy-guzzling industry with emissions from the industry accounting for more than 2% of the global total, ranking it in the top ten emitters, so this time can be spent in thinking of ways to make the industry greener.

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Every five years, coinciding with ICAO anniversaries, the ICAO council establishes a special anniversary theme for International Civil Aviation Day. Between these anniversary years, Council representatives select a single theme for the full four-year intervening period. The theme until 2023 is Advancing Innovation for Global Aviation Development. Aviation is an important engine of our world and will be playing a critical role in lifting the world to recovery from COVID-19. It connects us and allows us to meet family and friends and also broaden our horizons and our minds. To everyone in this industry, especially in these trying times, here’s hoping that times change for the better and the skies are once again filled with planes transporting people and goods across the seas and land.