Best of 2011 Reading List

Being doing a lot of reading last year, and would like to share some of my fave reads, some of which I came across by chance. I used to love reading when I was a kid, and I could still remember Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, BFG, Ramona the Pest (I read all the Ramona series during my Primary school days and I love them all and wish I am Ramona sometimes during then...haha), the Pigman by Paul Zindel, How to eat fried worms, Alice in a rapture, sort of (all the Alice series, I practically grew up with Alice in my teens), Flowers for Algernon, etc. Even though it had been more than 10 years since I last read them, these stories still left a deep impression in my mind till now. A good book is like brain food to me.

Firstly, top of the list is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It had even been made into a major motion picture. This is a story about the plight of black people working as help for their white employers during the early civil right years of Martin Luther King. Blacks were racially discriminated in the society. They were not allowed to go to the same school, hospital, library and even use the same bathrooms as white people. The story centered around Abileen, a black woman who had lost her son, and working as help to a white lady, Miss Leefolt and her family. Abileen's best friend, Mimi was fired by her white employer, the mean Miss Hilly who falsely accused her of stealing. They were helped by Miss Skeeter who wrote their experiences as help into a book so that the world would know about their plight. Only when people started to realize what actually happened, will things start improving, however this was considered a dangerous move during then as there were many people opposed to the civil right movements. Overall, I was deeply absorbed into the story as the characters were very well portrayed and seemed to come alive. It is a book that is hard to put down once you started.

There are no second place after that as I enjoyed reading all the rest of the stories and its hard to rank which are my fave. I came across The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davis and its sequel, The Lemonade Crime, by chance while browsing on kindle store looking for something interesting. After reading the first chapter, I was hooked and ended up buying it and its sequel. The story is about a pair of siblings, Evan and his younger sister, Jessie who ended up competing to see who made the most money selling lemonade during the hot summer vacation days. It was a very enjoyable and easy to read story with a good story plot which centered around sibling relationships and honesty. In The Lemonade Crime, the story continues where it ended in the first book on the whereabouts of the missing money. Evan and Jessie finally worked out their differences and worked together to nab the thief who stole all their lemonade money. Although they knew who it was, they dun have the evidence. The second book gave a juvenile insight into the workings of the judicial system as the children decided to hold their own court hearing to convict the thief. Overall, a good and easy story, which was surprisingly not boring to me at all.

Somehow, this book reminded me of Charlie and the chocolate factory. Gil Goodson was a normal happy boy until one day, his father, an employee of Golly Toy and Game Company was wrongly accused of embezzlement. Disgraced and penniless, Gil lost his friends and was bullied at school. However, his chance came when the Toy company decided to hold a huge event, the Gollywhopper Games where the winner will get a huge prize money, which is what his family needed. After many grueling rounds of wits and skills, Gil and a few kids managed to get into the final round. The event was held in the Toy factory and each child was allowed one guardian with them. Sounds familiar, rite. The Toy factory was an amazing huge place with mazes with weird gadgets and strange environments, just like the chocolate factory isnt it?? Anyway, there were many interesting puzzles in the story and overall, it was fast paced and very exciting to read. I wont be surprised if this book was made into a movie.

A very informative and darkly intense historical story about a young girl called Mattie Cook who lived in Philadelphia with her mother and grandfather, managing a coffee house during 1793. If I had not read this book, I would never know that Philadelphia was once the capital of US during the times of George Washington, and that was actually an epidemic called Yellow fever that killed thousands of people. During the summer of 1793, people started falling ill mysteriously with fever, convulsions, becoming hysteric and vomiting blood. The victims usually died within 2 days and all of them had yellow coloured eyes, and thus the name-Yellow Fever. The story gave us an insight into the horrors of an epidemic, with corpses laying on the streets, and the stench of rot and death everywhere in a time where people do not have the medical and scientific knowledge to know how to deal with it. During those times, people boiled their clothings and bedsheets as a way to disinfect them, letting blood as a way to remove the sickness inside them, etc...all of which proved ineffective. For Mattie and her family, it was like her life had suddenly turned into a horror story as she watched her mother and grandfather became sick. She, herself was also affected by the Yellow Fever but she managed to survive and became immune. Soon, the town she lived became a ghost town and she struggled to survive the epidemic all alone with hardly anything to eat. The epidemic ended when winter came. Its causes was unknown during those times but now we know it was actually caused by mosquitoes. Kindda strange to me coz I dinoe malaria or dengue fever can cause yellow eyes.

Maybe becoz I couldnt get enough of Laurie Halse Anderson's historical story, I decided to look for more books written by her and came across this. Chains, was a story set in the times of the Revolutionary War in the 18th century. The story centered around a girl called Isabel and her sister, Ruth, who were sold as slaves to a rich cruel couple, the Locktons. She was often beaten and starved and her only friend was a black slave boy called Curzon who need her help to spy on the Locktons, who were loyalist to the British. At first, she was reluctant, but when her sister was sold off, she decided to fight for her freedom and to get her back by spying for the patriots (who were fighting against the British ) as they promised her freedom if she did that. My heart goes out to Isabel when she was branded with a hot iron as punishment for running away and when the Patriots turned their back on her in the end. The story gave me an insight on the horrible injustice of slavery and the importance of freedom, something which many took for granted nowadays. Overall, a thought provoking story, with a tight and intense plot which I cant stop reading once I started. Definitely one of my most faves read.

This is definitely a interesting book with lots of strange photographs. The story is about a boy called Jacob who grew up listening to wild unbelievable stories told by his grandfather about his childhood days. His grandfather, who was a Jew during WW2, was sent away by his family to live in a far but safe place in Wales. It was a home for refugee children, run by Miss Peregrine. All the children had some strange powers, like a girl who can float, an invisible boy, a girl who can control plants, etc. At first, Jacob was fascinated by his grandfather's stories but as he grew up, he began to doubt whether they were true. However, when his grandfather was suddenly killed by a monster which only he can see, he started to wonder whether all there was some truth in those stories. He decided to go to Wales, to verify for himself and this began his adventures as he stumbled onto a time loop which brought him back to the 1940s. Turned out this is actually a fantasy story, instead of mystery/murder. I find the story interesting but bit too long towards the end. 

I enjoyed a good ghost story every now and then. Wait Till Helen Comes, was the first ghost story I read by Mary Downing Hahn. Her ghost stories are always linked to some historical events, so it was more of a historical/horror stories. It was very good and scary, but not those mindless resident evil type of scary. Time For Andrew was the second book I read from MDH and it was just as good.The story is about 2 boys from 2 different times, who swapped places with each other accidentally. As a result, one of the boy from the past managed to escape death due to modern medicine. Overall, an interesting book that keeps me turning the page till the end to find out what happened in the end and a perfectly safe ghost story to read at night without getting bad dreams.

This is a sequel to Holes, one of my most fave books. If you have never read Holes, pls go and read it coz its an excellent excellent book. Anyway, in this sequel, Armpit has been released from Camp Green Lake and is adjusting gradually to the outside world when he was approached by his former cell mate, to sell some fake concert tickets to make a quick buck. The underlying message in this story was that people make mistakes and they get judged by others for that. It is possible to get back the trust from people and have a better life but in small gradual steps. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and wish there are more sequels to Holes.

Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech was a heart warming story about 2 orphan siblings, Dallas and Florida who grew up in an orphanage. They had given up hope of ever finding a good foster home due to their many bad experiences with them. One day, they were adopted by an eccentric but kind couple living in beautiful countryside area called Ruby Holler. Overall, a very nice, warm story, kindda reminds me of Hansel and Greta, in this case, the evil witch was the greedy owner of the orphanage. Think I finish reading the book in 1 night, as its hard to put it down once I started.

My last Hebrew lesson and farewell gift

Yesterday was my last Hebrew lesson. I had mixed feelings about it coz on one hand, I am glad I survived the 20 lessons but on the other hand, I have one less activity in this boring place. Wednesday just wont be the same anymore. It will just be any other day of the week now. Sighz....

This was where we had our Hebrew lessons, in Nava's kitchen. Her kitchen was very big, almost the size of a HDB's living room. 

Close-up pic. Nava, our Hebrew teacher was very patient with us and she is a very nice lady. The one standing on the extreme left is our top student, Weizhong. Thinking back, it seems like such memorable times learning and struggling with the language in this kitchen with everyone.

 I decided to make a patchwork kitchen mitt as a farewell gift for her. Back view of the mitt.

Front view of the mitt. I used 4 different fabrics to make this and embroidered the word "toda"  in Hebrew on the right, which means thanks. Then I decorated it with ribbon, lace, ponpons and finished it off with the pink biased tape at the bottom. 80% of it was sewn by hand.

Interior lining of the mitt. The bottom layer was made using 2 pieces of fabrics and 2 pieces of cotton padding so that it will be cushy enough.

I'm glad to see she is happy when she received it and that it was what she needed coz she had recently gotten a new microwave oven and the kitchen mitt will come in very handy. For the guys' side, they made a card for her. I forgot to take a pic of that coz Weizhong drawn a very nice pic of Nava inside the card. Really looks a lot like her.

She gave us each a handwritten card in Hebrew wishing us all the best and we ended our last lesson with a song. It was a very simple song sang by children living in the kibbutz.

After that, we treated her to dinner at Giraffe. Actually, this is the first time we had a meal together. 

 

And thus, this concludes the end of our Hebrew lesson. No more Hebrew homework~yeah! :)

Family outing at Ramat Gan

Yesterday was shabbath and we decided to take Poochi to Ramat Gan. It was a huge park about 10 mins drive from my house and it was a very nice huge place with a big pond and many people BBQing, having picnics, walking their dogs and exercising.

 Hubby with Poochi near the pond. Silly pooch was scared of going near water.

 Saw this family of duckies swimming in the pond. Mama duck and Papa duck were teaching the little duckies how to swim. Can hear the adult ducks barking orders at the little ones, so cute!

 Feel so tempted to touch the little duckies, but they all swim away whenever someone approached.

 Also spotted this beautiful pair of swans swimming in the pond, one black swan and one white swan, wondered if they were a pair?

 Kids throwing small pieces of bread into the pond for the duckies.

 The weather was cool and nice for a outdoor walk.

 Guess Poochi was very happy. We even met another couple walking a pug and a German Shepherd. Their pug was so tiny compared to mine. So far, I havent seen another pug that is bigger than Poochi yet. Think I might have the biggest pug....

 Spotted this mandarin duck standing near the edge of the pond, deep in thought....

 Surprised to see a train passed by suddenly.

We even saw a guy galloping on a horse but he was too fast for me to take any pics.

 Another pair of mandarin ducks swimming near the pond. Next time, I must remember to bring some bread to feed the ducks! The smell of BBQ was in the air, makes me hungry smelling it. Luckily, I brought some bananas and we sat near the pond eating it.

Think Poochi had a good workout session today coz when he reached home, he slept immediately after eating his dinner and spent most of the night lazing on his bed, too tired to come out to the living room to 'kaypo' us as usual. Guess we now have a new place to hang out every shabbath. Next weekend, we will bring the BBQ pit or a picnic basket here and just spent time enjoying the scenery and the nice weather together with Poochi :) Cant wait for next weekend!

Ah Teck's Birthday

Happy Birthday, Ah Teck!

Our dear Ah Teck turned 33 this year. Hope he can get a gf soon! I tried making a chocolate birthday cake for the occasion. Turned out to be ok, although it doesnt look very beautiful....haha

It was a double layered chocolate cake with whipped cream and cut strawberries in the middle layer and coated on the outside with chocolate fudge and crushed almonds. The cake turned out to be smaller than expected due to an unfortunate accident where I spilled half the cake mixture onto the floor just before I put it into the oven to bake...Arghh....Luckily, I still have the other half of the cake mixture still in another container.
The chocolate cake turned out to be quite soft and moist compared to my first attempt, which tasted more like chocolate brownie instead.

After singing happy birthday and cutting the cake, we had dinner at IDI, famous for their grilled fish. However, since hubby and I had grilled fish last week at IDI already, we decided to try something different, the seafood paella.

Regretted ordering this coz the crab meat were mushy like mashed potatoes and the seafood were very overcooked. There were no rice in it at all, guess they replaced it with potatoes. Conclusion, the only seafood worth eating at IDI was the whole fish!

Beit Thailandi restaurant

Decided to try out this restaurant in Tel Aviv after reading some very good reviews about it. It had came in first in the last 2 consecutive years as the best Asian food restaurant in Tel Aviv and also, I missed eating Thai food.

 The English name was called Thai House. We only managed to get the 6pm reservation instead of 7pm coz its fully booked. We arrived at 5.50pm but there were already a few people around, so I guess we were not the only early eater. Most people in Israel eat dinner very late at about 8-9pm.

 Hubby looking at the menu, the variety was less than Thai Express (which is still my fave )

 For starter, we ordered the fried spring rolls, v nice and crispy. The fillings were pipping hot and tender. However, I wish it was bigger. Cost about $3-4 SGD per piece.

 For the other starter, we ordered this spicy glass noodles with shrimps. The glass noodles turned out to be some translucent kway chup, but taste quite nice and chewy with a spicy sour taste.

 The tom yum soup turned out to be huge with lotsa seafood. Taste not bad though not as spicy as the tom yum soup of Thai Express.

 The next dish was super spicy. It was sliced pork grilled and cooked with lotsa chilli and spice, served with some glutinous rice and raw veggies. We just couldnt finished eating this coz it was too spicy for us. Guess our tolerance for spicy food had dropped after staying too long here.

 Dessert was this bobo chacha ice with coconut milk, strawberries, honeydew and cane sugar. Yummy and just nice to cool our swollen lips.
Overall, the food was not bad and service was excellent coz when we were leaving the restaurant, it started to rain very heavily. The owner immediately ushered us back in and told us to wait inside till the rain got smaller. He led us to another table and ordered some hot tea for us, free of charge while we waited for the rain to subside. How nice! Dun think I can find such good service in SG. We will definitely be going back for sure.

After that, to work out the food, we went shopping. I finally get the chance to go to the Forever21 store and ended up buying 5 pieces of clothing. The price was comparable to SG and was considered cheap in Israel. The place was 2 storey high and the clothes display were quite messy, typical of F21. Think by far, the best and neatest F21 store I ever visited was in Florida Mall.

Project Clover Leaf

I decided to try to grow some clover leaf hoping for some good luck for this year. Got this kit when I was in the States and havent got the chance to use it for the past 2 years.

It comes with a small pellet of soil, a packet of seeds and a booklet. I'm supposed to soak the soil pellet in water for 24 hrs before I can plant the seeds in it.

After 2-3 days, something did popped out of the soil. Yeah~ its nice being able to grow something. Hope it will turn into a four leaf clover!

Be happy

There is a Chinese sayings "zhi chu chang le" which means be content with what you have and you will be happy.
Count your blessings everyday and give thanks for being able to walk, breathe freely, see and hear the world while others may be crippled, blind or disabled.
Be grateful for the abundance of food available such that I never have to starved while people dies of hunger in this world everyday.
Be grateful for the plentiful of clothes to chose from and a warm cozy house to live in while others are homeless and sleeping out in the harsh cold weather in their thread bared clothes, with their newspapers and cardboards, falling preys to thieves and suffering from cold through the night.
Be glad to know my loved ones are well and with me, instead of missing or gone forever.

Life can be such a pain sometimes, so let's not further indulge in self misery.

Shalom 2012~

Goodbye to 2011, which had been a year marked with many dramatic events, like the Japan triple disaster, the closing of my beloved Borders all over the world, the GE and Presidential election which I had sorely missed out on the chance of voting in SG, the Arab spring which sparked off much political unstability in my neighboring countries around here, becoming an aunt to my newborn nephew, and my life here in Israel.
I'm glad 2011 is over and happy for the arrival of 2012 which means, I will be back home this year! Looking forward to getting my life back again, meeting up with my gal pals, eating the local food and just enjoy the freedom of being able to go anywhere in SG using just public transport instead of depending on someone to drive me around.
Last night, to celebrate the New Year, we went to the guys' place for potluck dinner. I made my usual fried bee hoon and chocolate dessert.

 The guys made curry chicken, fried calamari with chilli crab sauce, salad, focaccia bread and WQ brought black pepper chicken. The whole table was filled with food and we eat till we almost burst! haha~ :)

It was a small gathering, just the 6 of us altogether. WH is not around as he went back home for a month. The guys are very happy. We drank 3 bottles of wine altogether.
After that, we watched a chinese movie that WQ downloaded, quite nice and very funny. No wonder its review was good. We managed to stay until midnite where we did the countdown together. Overall, its a quiet New Year's Eve here and there were no countdown shows or event here in Israel as people here do not celebrate it. In SG, the ships will blared their horns at the stroke of midnite to mark the coming of a new year and there were countdown parties and televised shows where people can countdown together, sighz...sure miss the happening atmosphere which is so unlike here. Hubby and the guys still have to go to work on 1st Jan as its not a public holiday here.

I remembered my New Year's resolutions last year was to lose some weight. Guess it did happened afterall. Doesnt take much effort to lose weight here since there arent much food here to tempt me. As for this year, I resolve to be less nocturnal, continue to blog and to accomplish more sewing projects.

 My last project of 2011 was this patchwork Xmas sock. Front view of sock

Backview of sock

Interior lining of sock.

Good news for me is that Forever21 has finally opened its first store here in Israel at Tel Aviv! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InVnqMDlJyI&noredirect=1
Yeah~! :) Looking forward to visit it next weekend.