A Good Tired

• I have had a very pleasant day.  First of all, it was a day off for Greg so he walked to the market with me for some dairy items, fruit, vegetables, and eggs.  He bought me flowers when I wasn’t looking and he carried nearly all of the bags.  It isn’t easy to carry bags full of everything from potatoes and pineapple to milk and cheese.  We had pleasant conversation while weaving through the alleys and lanes.  It wasn’t even all about major life decisions that our oldest children are making.

• When we were home, I took some time to correct advanced algebra, assign history and literature work, and clean the kitchen.  Then I left to meet my friend, Irene, to explore the fabric market once more.  I was a bit early to the meeting place at the MRT station, so got to venture into the underground book mall.  I didn’t see a single English book, but it was still fun.  I browsed enough to find several ‘how to’ sections and those types of books have good pictures no matter what language they are in.  Also, I am always considering what sorts of Chinese books I might invest in that will spur us all to try to read a little Chinese besides the text books.  I hope to go back to that book area sometime.

• Irene had never been to the fabric market before, so it was fun to show her around in a sort of half lost manner, since I am still learning my way around.  But since she speaks Mandarin and enjoys exploring, it worked out well.  I definitely have my bearings around there much more now.  We even navigated to the very small alleys with buttons and zippers.  I now have the perfect buttons to finish Heidi’s silk blouse.

• Amongst these shops Irene found a small mom and pop type kitchenware store.  The set up was so simple that it looked like they could easily load it all up in a small U-Haul truck and move with a moments notice.  No money was being wasted on store atmosphere or decorating the walls.  Here she introduced me to two new cleaning tools.  She said she only knew of them because someone else had told her about them.

• Mom, you especially will appreciate the first one.  It is a net bag that fits inside the metal catch basket that the sinks have since no one seems to have disposals.

• This will make it much easier to take care of.  Look below for a picture of the net before it is put in:

• And here is the full package:

• I was skeptical about the next thing, having previously heard my share of stories about amazing sponges and cleaning supplies.  And its nothing special to look at either:

• It resembles fine styrofoam, not giving any indication of superior strength or abrasive ability.  However, with just a reasonable amount of elbow grease it was able to remove cooked on grease stains from my wok that my other scouring pads hadn’t made noticeable progress on.  I may have to stock up on some of these to bring home!  Total cost for these two fun things:  $2 (United States).

• On the way back to the MRT station, a certain food shop caught Irene’s eye and I found myself being spontaneously invited to try some Chinese desserts.  Her sons had told her of this place.  Here is the link to the shop we ate at:

Meet Fresh

• In the middle upper right of the page you will find a bowl with magically changing contents.  At one point it shows one of the dishes we tried, which was a sweetened white barley mix  with some red beans in the center.  There is a choice of having some things hot or cold and we tried that one cold.  It was okay, but I think I would like it better warm.

• The other dish isn’t shown, but I think it was nicer to look at than any on the advertisement.  It was warm.  The ingredients were silky smooth tofu, lotus seeds, and a lightly sweetened golden liquid.  The tofu was laying as artistically curved slices of delicate pudding in the syrup.  The lotus seeds were soaked enough to make them easy to chew and permeated with the liquid, but still with a little bit of meaty crunch.  I don’t remember the prices, since I was being treated, but was told it was very reasonable.  In case you are wondering, there was not any chocolate on the exclusively dessert menu.

• After I rode the MRT home, I stopped by a certain tote bag shop that I really like, swung by Carrefour (Walmart like, but smaller) for kleenex, and continued my walk home to find dinner nearly ready.  Greg had prepared a pork and fresh pineapple stir fry.  It also had fresh bean sprouts and pea pods in it.  I did clean the kitchen.

• After helping Jesse with some Chinese studies, I walked to pick up the girls from soccer practice while Greg put my new bell on my bike.  I plan to ride again in the morning.  The bell is very convenient for warning people when passing, making a fun and gentle old-fashioned ring.  I think I might have fun again tomorrow.