Away we go

This is a small budget movie about a couple suddenly found they have no accomplishment in their middle 30s when they are about to have a baby. So they decided to travel around States and Canada to meet their friends & family to see where would be the best place for them to move to, for the baby and for themselves as well.

So they started the journey of flying & driving. They find out all their friends have their own problems to deal with no matter their family looks either happy, weird or miserable. Finally in the end, Verona (the girl in the couple) faced the memories of her past away mother that she's been trying to avoid since she was 20. And they found their way 'home'.

The story is written by Dave Eggers & Vendela Vida. Dave is also the writer of the screenplay of the movie 'Where the wild things are'. I love that movie, too.

To compare with the movie, what I like even better is the soundtracks by Alexi Murdoch. His song shows peace, sorrow and most importantly slight happiness and hope. My favourite one is 'All my days', the main theme of the movie. Here is the lyrics & link to the music to share with you. Hope this will bring a delightful feeling for your day as it does to me all the time. Enjoy~

Music on Youtube

All My Days lyrics by Alexi Murdoch

Well I have been searching all of my days
All of my days
Many a road, you know
I?ve been walking on
All of my days
And I?ve been trying to find
What?s been in my mind
As the days keep turning into night

Well I have been quietly standing in the shade
All of my days
Watch the sky breaking on the promise that we made
All of this rain
And I?ve been trying to find
What?s been in my mind
As the days keep turning into night

Well many a night I found myself with no friends standing near
All of my days
I cried aloud
I shook my hands
What am I doing here
All of these days
For I look around me
And my eyes confound me
And it?s just too bright
As the days keep turning into night

Now I see clearly
It?s you I?m looking for
All of my days
Soon I?ll smile
I know I?ll feel this loneliness no more
All of my days
For I look around me
And it seems He found me
And it?s coming into sight
As the days keep turning into night
As the days keep turning into night
And even breathing feels all right
Yes, even breathing feels all right
Now even breathing feels all right
It?s even breathing
Feels all right

My First 2-handfull Wild Raspberries

The other weekend we went for a walk with coca in the bushes behind the house. All the wild berries are hanging on in green. Then the next weekend, the first thing we arrived the house was to check if the berries are ready.

After repeating this for weeks, finally last Saturday I got two hand full wild raspberries! Coca wasn't too impressive with the berries. He just wanted to keep going and then come home to jump into the pond in the back yard and be a happy stinky wet dog.

Dinner time we had raspberry salad and hamburger outside. It was a sunny but windy da

y. So there was no bugs either in the bushes or back yard. The table and cabinet we were

working on were almost done. We had a great meal and hard-working Saturday.

As usual, good ideas should be written down

before you forget about it :)

Raspberry salad

Lotus, Brocoli, Mushroom, Wild Raspberry, Rasin, Peanut and Almond

Amount needs to be measured and written later

Suggest to change the Almond/ Peanut to be walnut will be better

Salad dressing would be better with olive oil/lemon juice or red wine vinegar/ salt...flavor

Berry-Banana bread

When I noticed the over ripen banana forgotten on the top of fridge,

I know it's time to bake a banana bread. :)

After practice with the recipe found online couple times, I was playing a little bit with the possible ingredients and found this one is great match of the flavours and textures.

As usual, good recipes should be written down in order to have a better chance to make it successfully again.

Ingredients you should have:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup butter or margarine (melted in room temperature in adavance)

1 cup white sugar (you can use 3/4 cup if you prefer less sweetness)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs (medium size)

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 table spoons Yogurt (Berries flavour one is preferred)

3 small/medium size banana

1/4 Dried or Fresh berries (Blueberry & Raspberry are recommended)

Tools you should have:

Measuring cups/ spoons of course

Spoon or beater for mixing stuff up

A big size bowl

A medium size bowl to mash banana in

Baking container (23cm long rectangular shape)

Step:

-Add Butter/Sugar/Salt in the big size bowl and mix it well

-Add Eggs/Vanilla/Yogurt then beat more

-Add filtered Flour/Baking Soda/Baking Powder. Separate it to 3 times and once in a small amount and beat at the same time

-Mash Banana in another bowl then add it into the batter in the big size bowl

-Mix it well then add berries by hand to make sure it spreads average in the batter

-spray or wipe some oil or butter inside of the baking container

-Pour the batter into the baking container until the container is 80-85% full

-Place the container in the center of preheated 300F oven for 1 hour

-When the surface color reaches what you want, insert a toothpick or small wooden skewer to the center of bread and pull it out. If the toothpick stayed cleaned and dried then it's done!

-Let it cool down at least 45mins before cut

I like to check my bread every 30 mins just to make sure everything is ok. One time the banana I used was too big and the batter is way too much for my container. So the batter was like over-pured beer. It ended up cause a little bit fire frame in the bottom of the oven cuz of the burned batter....etc. Anyways, just be careful cuz shit happens...

Last time I actually baked it longer than 1 hour cuz I like the edge and surface to be a little more brown and it tasted delicious!!

Enjoy~

Toy story

Every piece of toy means a lot to a kid. I didn't have many toys when I grew up. Dad worked really hard at that time and Mom was busy, too. Besides teaching junior highs in school, she has three daughters at home waiting to be educated. :)

Every Christmas Day, we will get one toy from the Santa Claus. On birthday, we sometimes will get toys from Mom & Dad, too. But the Santa Claus one is always the most special one cuz it'd be exactly what I prayed for the night before!

I don't remember all the magic gifts but I remember the joy and surprise every year till I was 12.

One year, I saw a music box doll in the department store but it's out of budget. He smiles at me and plays beautiful tunes lightly. I looked at him for a long time. But I didn't ask for it.

Although it's what I'm dying to get for but I know it's too much for Santa to get. The next morning, I opened the box expecting the gift I prayed for last night would show up. Then I saw the doll standing in the box smiling at me. After that night, I let him to play the light tune every night before I fall in sleep.

Almost 20 years later, I still have him in my room in Taiwan and he still plays the same light tune gently, peacefully... Although his smile is gone from the time, it's still in my mind as well as all the other Christmas magics we had.

Good night, Charlie. It's another beautiful night here. Hope the night you have there is shinny with stars, too.

Portrait

人生有時會遇到一些人...讓你想停下腳步去看看自己在對方眼中是什麼模樣的人...
Sometimes in our life, we meet somebody who lets you want to stop and see what you're like in their eyes.

Things can go wrong...

Things don't always go well. Sometimes they look wrong and ridiculous.

But thinking too much or pushing too hard is not always the only or the best solution.

In a life this long, we all need to learn to let go eventually or sometimes just to trust others.

We all had bad experiences so it's not an excuse and we all had personalities.

Step back.

And you will see a bigger picture... Like using a prime lens...

Remember...

Herb。Life

認識我的人都知道我有多熱愛九層塔~

離開台灣後，住過深圳、墨西哥都跟這他沒緣。雖然也有人有取得的方法，但對於吃的我一直很隨緣，東奔西走，總得適應當地的大環境...

這次在Provigo超市，讓我遇到了.... :)

我們在看Fresh basil plant的時候，我看到旁邊一個寫Basilic-Thai' (法文)

泰國的羅勒? 手搓一片聞了一下... 就是九層塔的味道耶~

當場手舞足蹈的"旁"了一盆給哈你聞... "就是這個! 就是這個! Taiwan Basil!"

然後用史瑞克裡面pussinboots的眼睛望著他說 "可以買嗎?"

...結果想當然而~ e_<

不過還是有不同啦~ 台灣的葉片比較大，可是這節骨眼，誰管這個啊！

於是，我們家現在活著的生物除了我哈你和Coca還多了兩盆植物囉～ ^^

希望每一隻都健康啊~