Since I haven’t written one of these posts for a while, there’s plenty to catch up on.

First, up top are some new-to-us eateries. The first two are from Fugetsu, a Japanese okonomiyaki chain with its first US branch in Santa Clara. Okonomiyaki is a kind of savoury pancake full of vegetables and some meat. We had a pork and cheese one. As well as one with mentai noodles (Pollock roe).

We also did have a nice Christmas Day dinner with ham and all the side dishes and a homemade Black Forest Yule log, complete with meringue mushrooms and matcha shortbread Christmas trees.

We were in Santa Cruz for a few days before Christmas, staying at a house near West Cliff Drive. We had lots of walks by the sea and this is the Natural Bridges park at sunset.

Currently…

Reading:

Watching:

The new season of Terrace House

Listening:

Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi

Eating:

Meyer lemon yoghurt cake

Drinking:

Coffee

Last week:

I read:

The Girl From the Other Side Vol 2 – Nagabe

Nancy – Olivia Jaimes

I posted:

Library Loot (January 1 to 7)

How I read in 2019 (with pie charts!)

 

Happy Monday to you! I hope you are doing great and ready for this week ahead. Have you done all your Christmas shopping yet?

Over the weekend, the kids and I were busy making gingerbread cookies to give to friends.

 

We did also have to spend ample time Pokemon hunting as it was Community Day which meant lots of rarer Pokemon spawning all over. Someone’s been decorating trees in the park!

Also, we had Korean food and seafood. Didn’t take good photos of the seafood as it was dark but it was delicious!

 

 

 

Currently…

 

Reading:

I Want To Eat Your Pancreas – Yoru Sumino

Don’t worry, it’s not horror. Instead it’s manga about a teenager with a terminal illness, and the friendship she has with this introverted boy in her class.

The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern

 

 

Watching:

 

Listening:

Still listening to Oliver Sacks’ On the Move!

 

Eating:

Toast

Drinking:

Tea with milk

Cooking:

Shepherd’s pie

Noodles

 

Last week:

I read:

Ask Again, Yes – Mary Beth Keane

It took me a long while to get into this book. And it’s quite a long book at 390 pages. But in the end I really liked it.

Bowlaway – Elizabeth McCracken 

Sadly, Did Not Finish.

This started out interesting enough, with a woman found unconscious in a cemetery. It definitely sounded like my kind of read, something a bit whimsical and quirky.
But I started to lose interest in it about a quarter through. I didn’t want to give it up so fast, maybe I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind for it. So I moved on to something else (a faster paced, fun read) and then came back to this one. I gave it another try but in the end, decided I did not care enough to find out what happened to any of the characters in the book. It didn’t work for me, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t for you. There’s some great writing in here.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown – Talia Hibbert

This book was exactly what I needed. I was struggling with Bowlaway (see above) and this proved a fun refreshing book to read. I guess perhaps it was after reading this that I thought, why am I struggling with Bowlaway? If it’s a book that I’m not interested in finishing, I shouldn’t try finishing it, no matter what top book lists it’s on!

I posted:

Christmas cookies #WeekendCooking

The Made It All edition #amonthoffaves

#amonthoffaves awesome TV and audiobooks

Library Loot (December 11 to 17)

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

A not-so typical Sunday #amonthoffaves

 

 

 

 

Happy Monday!

Wow is this month just zooming by or what. I guess the late arrival of Thanksgiving has really thrown me off.

I don’t quite feel ready for Christmas yet. How about you?

We did put up our Christmas tree already and I’ve bought some gifts but not everything yet.

 

Here’s some stuff we did last week…

 

 

We went to an all-you-can-eatKorean BBQ.

 I’ve been making cookies. Matcha shortbread and a Chinese-style walnut cookie.

Our Christmas tree and decorations are up! And I made this Christmas pudding amigurumi to go along with it.

Currently…

 

Reading:

The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova

 

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

 

Watching:

Sugar Rush Christmas and The Mandalorian!

 

Listening:

On the Move by Oliver Sacks

 

Eating:

Raisin bread for breakfast

 

Drinking:

Tea with milk. I recently found a three-box of Tetley tea at Costco and decided to try it. Luckily for me, it’s quite strong!

Cooking:

 

Last week:

I read:

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations – Mira Jacob (5*)

An excellent read! I hope to write a proper post about this one!

Mouthful of Birds – Samantha Schweblin (3*)

I was very confused…

Gods of Jade and Shadow -Silvia Moreno-Garcia (4*)
I really enjoyed this one. I liked the setting of Mexico in the Jazz Age and the fascinating Mayan gods that I’ve not known much about.

I posted:

 

Underrated books that need more buzz #amonthoffaves

Library Loot (December 4 to 10)

Popular books worth the hype (or maybe not) #amonthoffaves

 

 

 

 

Happy Monday!

The kids are back in school after a week-long break.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! As usual, we did our Thanksgiving hotpot!

 

 

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we headed down Highway 1 to Big Sur and Cambria, then to Ventura! You can read my post about this here. But if you know me by now (via the blog that is), you can probably guess that there’s a lot of eating involved. And so, don’t read the post when hungry!

 

 

Shrimp and loofah dumplings

We cooked laksa at home. Yum!

 

 

 A recent finished project. This is the Around Town Cardigan using Touch of Alpaca yarn in Blush and Purple Aster.

 

Currently…

 

Reading:

The Light Brigade – Kameron Hurley

I’m really enjoying this SF read that has humans at war with Martians.

 

 

Watching:

 

Sugar Rush Christmas. Fun!

Listening:

On the Move – Oliver Sacks

Eating:

Hot dog bun from Kee Wah Bakery

Drinking:

Black tea with milk

Cooking:

Shepherd’s pie maybe. We had laksa last night which was yummy!

 

Last week:

I read:

 

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Really enjoyed this story in which a young girl is sent by the Mayan god of death on a journey.

The Chain – Adrian McKinty

An interesting plot that starts with a girl being kidnapped and her mother made to kidnap someone else’s child in order to have her daughter released (and the chain going). The writing is nothing to shout about, the first part of the story quite thrilling, but the second part, not so much.

 

 

I posted:

Library Loot (November 27 to December 3)

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

 

 

 

 

The kids’ school is on minimum days this week for parent-teacher conferences so I’ll have to think up ways to keep them occupied! Thankfully it is still warm enough in the afternoons to go swimming (also the pool is heated).

It was Chimchar Community Day on Saturday! In case you haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, it’s a Pokemon Go thing, every month they have one specific Pokemon that spawns everywhere. We then spend those three hours at our city’s main park catching Pokemon. Lots of people hang out there too so it’s fun to see all these different people, young and old, and playing together.

 

We hadn’t eaten Korean food for a while so it was off to get some bulgogi, dumplings, spicy tofu soup, and seafood pancake. Also all that banchan.

 Mango snow from a French-style bakery chain from Korea (not Paris Baguette)

 

 

 

 

Currently…

 

Reading:

 

Here And Now And Then – Mike Chen

 

 

Watching:

The Mandalorian on Disney+

I kinda like this series so far!

Listening:

Nothing at the moment. I do have a few holds on audiobooks though so maybe soon!

 

Eating:

Homemade scone

Drinking:

Tea

 

Last week:

I read:

 

The Testaments – Margaret Atwood (I have so many thoughts. Will actually put them in a post soon!)
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory – Caitlin Doughty

I posted:

Library Loot (November 13 to 19)

Royal Holiday made me do it #WeekendCooking

 

 

 

So I forgot to actually update the post with things that did happen. And then I forgot that I had scheduled the post to be posted at 7am as I always do. And I forgot that it was indeed a school holiday and I wouldn’t be up at the usual 6am and checking my phone. Instead it was a leisurely breakfast of leftovers from our Sunday breakfast out at a local diner. It wasn’t the usual rush-rush-rush to get kids ready and eating breakfast and getting them to get their bags ready and lunch ready and out the door by 8.

What I’m trying to say is, OOPS.

And so here’s some stuff we did last week!

 

At the kids’ favourite playground, the 6yo decided to take advantage of the lack of kids (it was before 9 on a Saturday) and “meditate” on top of the sabercat. He cracks me up.

 

 

An article about ramen eateries in the Bay Area had us all longing for ramen. It was also a suitably chilly day and so ramen it was! This ramen has the usual chashu pork and onsen egg as well as butter clams and prawns. My kids love clams and so I only got to eat one.

It’s been feeling a lot more autumn-ish this past week!

 

Back at our local xiaolongbao place. Not as delicate and perfect as Din Tai Fung but hey there’s no ridiculous queue and it’s so much cheaper!

Currently…

 

Reading:

 

 

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory – Caitlin Doughty

Here And Now and Then – Mike Chen

Watching:

The Great Festive Baking Show (Netflix)

This is where they bring back past GBBO contestants for a fun Christmassy special!

Listening:

Nothing at the moment. Just finished Ariel Levy’s The Rules do not Apply

 

Eating:

Pancakes and French toast

Drinking:

Coffee

Cooking:

Last night I made a cabbage and sausage Mac and cheese. It was delicious!

Last week:

I read:

Royal Holiday – Jasmine Guillory
The Avant Guards vol 1 – Carly Usdin
A Breath of Snow and Ashes – Diane Gabaldon
Rules do not apply – Ariel Levy

I posted:

Library Loot (November 6 to 12)