I wrote a series of letters to Mom. I’ve got no idea if she ever read them, she never referred to the contents much, if at all. She never wrote a reply, I’m hoping that if she didn’t read them, she’ll be reading them now as I’m reposting here… because I just can’t delete them, and it’s too painful to keep them private. Mom’s in a better place now; I think of her often. Old age is a mean bitch.
Her last few years on this earth were not in keeping with our wishes (hers or mine) but given Covid, it probably worked out for the best. The angels of the NHS that looked after during her final months when I couldn’t visit her were angels.
Thank you, all of you, some of whose names I can’t even remember because of the emotional turmoil of the times. For my shortcomings, I’m truly sorry.
Personal Letters
Hi, Mom!
Hope you are feeling okay. The weather here is pleasantly cool, and we’re getting a lot of free air-conditioning courtesy of the northerly winds. Of course, this is just the prelude to much cooler temperatures and rain in December. I know it’s coming, I just hope it’s not yet!
Ruth contacted me to say she had a lovely time in Ullapool. She came back with favorable impressions of the place you’re staying, too. She also told me that you were suffering chest pains these days. I know you mentioned it to me last time, but it seems to be getting more severe.
Don’t be reluctant to tell your doctor how uncomfortable you feel. She should be able to prescribe something to help. You do know that you’re often unwilling to consult a doctor until it’s quite serious. I don’t recommend you should delay in sharing your discomfort. Really!
Meanwhile in other news, looks like the next exhibition is moving ahead, albeit slowly. I’m working on some advertising materials to garner some sponsorship. All the profits from the exhibition will go to help a charity in southern Taiwan, where the priest has been working with disadvantaged and disabled members of the community for a very, very long time. Of course, most of the money will come from the tombola and the sale of photographs. I hope that we can sell as much as possible. I’ll include a couple of new possibilities for my selection.
The fall season is much cooler, so Christine has been buying flowers to plant in her garden. It’s becoming quite colorful again. The summer heat isn’t so kind to many flowers or vegetable growing, never mind working in the veg. garden. She recently grew the cutest little bananas/plantains… they looked like mini-bananas but had a much fruitier aroma, some like a lemon.
I always find Taiwan’s selection of fruit so varied, not just in the range of fruits available, and the year-round nature of fruit here, but also in the flavors. For example, the bananas have a wide range of flavors/textures here; much wider than the standard UK supermarket varieties. There is also a huge range of sizes available in the marketplace.
The other thing that’s weird: colors. We always think of limes as predominantly green, and lemons as yellow. Oranges are, of course, orange. In Taiwan, not necessarily so: I’ve eaten green oranges, green lemons, and yellow limes! Even certain varietals of tomato here come in green. Since access to the WTO about ten years ago, we’ve begun to see more international varieties come into the market. But some imported vegetables are enormously expensive even now.
At school, I seem to be cooking a lot more for the staff dinners. Fortunately, I haven’t poisoned anyone yet. Yesterday’s dinner was Lasagne. I actually cheated: Carrefour the French supermarket here often stocks a lot of their own products from France. Last week, I was able to buy both lasagne AND bechamel sauce. So I made tomato/carrot soup on Monday; followed by bolognese (with pork and beef) using the base soup; finally, the remaining bolognese I added to the other ingredients. Cooked in a slow cooker. Of course, the pasta was overdone and a tad soft, but the flavors were pretty good.
The slow cooker is a miracle device, you can literally just throw all the ingredients in and ignore it for 3~4 hours. I broke the last one from overuse; I think the new one will end up the same way. The only issue I have with the model I bought is that the device is too powerful. It cooks much faster than a traditional UK slow cooker, so what should take 3~4 hours actually cooks in about 1 ~ 1.5 hours. Like I said, yesterday’s pasta was way overdone. The only real problem with a slow cooker is that it’s just soups and stews. It’s hard to have much variety in the style!
My cooking even extended to a class effort to make cookies from available ingredients. The only thing we couldn’t buy were chocolate chips. But the kids were quite happy hammering chocolate bars into crumbs. We then combined all the ingredients into cookies. Shaping was done with spoons. The recipe was essentially sugar, flour, and butter. So not exactly the healthiest snack. But they made some 30 cookies from the batch! I like to try baking with the kids at school, I think they enjoy the hands-on nature of cooking. Few parents allow them anywhere near a kitchen, never mind an oven!
So that’s it. I will include a couple of shots for you. Still no idea if they come out nicely on paper, but they look good on the computer screen.
Lots of love
Kenneth