Bev is the Smart One, who finally leaves her artistic ambitions in chalk dust (and her humor-impaired husband in the arms—and legs—of his nubile protégée) to become a schoolteacher. Clare is the Pretty One, who married well and seems to be living a designer version of the suburban dream. Joey is the Wild One, struggling to stay clean and sober now that she’s used up her fifteen minutes of fame as a one-hit-wonder rock star.
They love each other but mix like oil, water, and hundred-proof gin . . . a combination that threatens to combust over family tensions, suspected infidelities, a devastating accident, a stunning confession, and the sudden reappearance of their handsome, now all-grown-up former neighbor, Kenny Waxman, who’s back in town making his mark as a TV comedy writer.
It seems they’ll never understand where their differences begin and their own destructive tendencies end. Then it happens: the sisters discover a decades-old body stuffed inside an industrial drum and begin a bold, heartbreaking, and sometimes hilarious journey that will either bring them together . . . or tear them apart for good.
A very simple dish which I usually whip up for lunch, this dry curry pairs potatoes with ajwain or carom seeds.
Used quite widely across the Indian subcontinent, ajwain is said to counter gas in the stomach. Many communities have traditional recipes of ajwain water when you have an upset stomach and for this reason I like to pair it with potatoes because these tuber vegetables can give you a bad case of stomach bloating.
This is a very easy recipe and from start to finish took me less than 30 minutes, including cutting the potatoes. Eat it with rice and some dal or with any Indian flatbread. It is also yummy paid with a chutney and filled in bread as a sandwich.
Ajwaini Aloo
Ingredients;
4 medium sized potatoes
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp ajwain seeds
1/8 tsp asafoetida
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp amchur powder
Salt to taste
Method
Wash and scrub the potatoes well. If the skin is fairly thin, you need not peel it, otherwise peel the skin. Make thick slices and then sticks of the slices. Now make small and thin squares of the potatoes. Cut as thin as you like. The smaller the potato piece, the faster it will cook.
Heat the oil in a pan and when warm, add the cumin seeds and stir for a couple of seconds. Then add the ajwain and stir for a couple of seconds.
Now add the dry spice powders – asafoetida, turmeric powder and red chilli powder and stir. Add the amchur powder and salt and give it a good stir. Make sure the flame is low to medium so that you don’t burn the spices.
Next add the chopped potatoes and cook covered, stirring occasionally. Check for seasoning once the potatoes are cooked. I like to make this dish a little crisp, but if you don’t like it crisp, you can remove it from the flame once it is cooked.
In the year 1780, Harriet Westerman, the willful mistress of a country manor in Sussex, finds a dead man on her grounds with a ring bearing the crest of Thornleigh Hall in his pocket.
Not one to be bound by convention or to shy away from adventure, she recruits a reclusive local anatomist named Gabriel Crowther to help her find the murderer, and historical suspense’s newest investigative duo is born.
For years, Mrs. Westerman has sensed the menace of neighboring Thornleigh Hall, seat of the Earl of Sussex. It is the home of a once- great family that has been reduced to an ailing invalid, his whorish wife, and his alcoholic second son, a man haunted by his years spent as a redcoat in the Revolutionary War. The same day, Alexander Adams is slain by an unknown killer in his London music shop, leaving his children orphaned.
His death will lead back to Sussex, and to an explosive secret that has already destroyed one family and threatens many others.
Yesterday Mother’s Day was celebrated across most of the world, including Singapore. Given what is currently happening worldwide, you may or may not have been able to celebrate it with your own mother since many countries worldwide are still under a lockdown. But this day is not just to celebrate a mother, it can also be used to celebrate maternal bonds and this can be any woman who has had a strong influence in your life.
Today, what we celebrate as Mother’s Day began in the United States, at the initiative of Anna Jarvis in the early 20th century. In 1908, Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. But she had begun campaigning for the day to be recognised since 1905 when her mother Ann Reeves Jarivis passed away. Ann Jarvis had been a peace activist who cared for wounded soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War, and created Mother’s Day Work Clubs to address public health issues. So Anna Jarvis wanted to honor her mother by continuing the work she started and to set aside a day to honor all mothers because she believed a mother is “the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world”.
In 1908, the U.S. Congress rejected a proposal to make Mother’s Day an official holiday, but because of Anna Jarvis’s efforts, by 1911 all the US states observed the holiday, with some of them officially recognizing Mother’s Day as a local holiday. In 1914, the then US President, Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation designating Mother’s Day, held on the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honor mothers. By the 1920s, the day had become quite commercialised with Hallmark and other companies selling Mother’s Day cards and gifts. Jarvis became resentful with this development and believed that these companies had misinterpreted and exploited her idea of the day and that the day should emphasise on the sentiment and not on profit. As a result, she started to organise boycotts of Mother’s Day, and threatened to issue lawsuits against the companies involved. She believed that people should appreciate and honor their mothers through handwritten letters expressing their love and gratitude, instead of buying gifts and pre-made cards. She protested at a candy makers’ convention in Philadelphia in 1923, and again at a meeting of American War Mothers in 1925. By this time, carnations had become associated with Mother’s Day, and the selling of carnations by the American War Mothers to raise money angered Jarvis, who was arrested for disturbing the peace.
Even though today Mother’s Day is celebrated as a result of Anna Jarvis’ efforts, there have been many traditional celebrations of mothers and motherhood that have existed throughout the world over thousands of years, such as the Greek cult to Cybele, Rhea the Great Mother of the Gods, the Roman festival of Hilaria. And even today, in some countries, Mother’s Day is still synonymous with these older traditions.
The ancient Greeks used to celebrate their annual spring festival to honor Rhea, wife of Cronus and the mother of many deities of Greek mythology. Ancient Romans also celebrated a spring festival by the name of Hilaria in honor of Cybele, a mother goddess, some 250 years before Christ was born.
The ancient Egyptians held an annual festival to honor Isis, one of the most popular and enduring goddesses of ancient Egypt who represented the ideal mother and wife and was the patroness of nature and magic. According to ancient Egyptian mythology, Isis was the wife of Osiris, who was also her brother. When Osiris was murdered by their envious brother Set, Isis gathered Osiris’s body parts that had been scattered around Egypt and used them to impregnate herself. She then gave birth to Horus, who avenged his father’s death and killed Set, becoming the first ruler of Egypt. As a result, Isis was regarded as the mother of all pharaohs and became symbolic of motherhood, and an annual festival was held in her honor.
In the United Kingdom, Mother’s Day is linked to Easter and is typically falls on the fourth Sunday during the period of Lent and is called Mothering Sunday. This day is celebrated to honour mothers and maternal figures and an occasion for children to honour and give presents to their hardworking mums. Originally linked to religion, this day has now lost most of its connections to the church and is mainly a family day. In the past, domestic servants were given the day off to return to their hometown and worship with their families. On their way home, these youths would pick wild flowers to place in the church – or give to their mums.
So what have you done to celebrate this day for your mum? And if you have children, have they done something special for you?
Singapore is about six weeks into the circuit breaker and the government is now looking to start easing up on our lockdown starting next week. Some businesses will re-open, but our new normal will be to wear face masks outside our homes and social distancing enforced when outside. Students, especially those from graduating cohorts like those taking their national exams like the PSLE, O levels and A levels will be called back to schools in small groups for face-to-face lessons, but I understand if the students don’t want to come back to school, they will not be penalised.
Our new positive case totals have crossed the 22,000 mark with a majority of cases coming from workers residing in dormitories. With over 3 million workers in Singapore, I expect this to not reduce anytime soon, but I am hoping and praying that the healthcare frontliners are able to catch and contain positive cases and so things go back to a semblance of normalcy for everyone.
In other news, our helper of seven years has decided that since she is not really needed at our home, she will be moving on to help another family. We are sending her off with our blessings as I have been telling her that we don’t really need help now since the children are grown up now. This is a good time for her to move on so that both GG & BB start to do more household chores. As it stands now, they do the bare minimum and I don’t want a situation where, if they go out of Singapore to either study or work, they are one of those you see ridiculed on social media about having no concept of what constitutes household chores. So once things start to get better, she will move on to her new home and hopefully, we will still meet her during the days she is off from work or during any special celebrations. If she is still in Singapore, I definitely want her to be part of any celebrations in our family.
Healthwise, I just had a scare – I had some bloodwork done last week and my white blood cells were more than it is normal. After probing me, my primary care physican decided to have new blood taken, so she can get another reading. Apparently when you are sick, the white blood cells increase, but I am as healthy as I can be and if this second reading is also high, there is a chance that I may have to be tested to check if everything is ok with me. So I am keeping fingers crossed for the reports to be better this time around and this is also a wake-up call for me to start taking more self-care. I have been quite lax about my diet and exercise this last month or so and this is my wake-up call to start treating myself well.
Well, that’s all from me this week. Stay home, stay safe and let’s all work together so things go back to business as usual as soon as possible!
Memories and Such 