1 tbsp cumin seeds – soaked in hot water then drained
1 tbsp coriander powder
Half a tspn tumeric powder
1 non-msg stock cube (beef or chicken)
1 potato, peeled and cubed
1 carrot, peeled and cube
A bag of macaroni or pasta
1 piece of chicken breast
Spring onions (chopped)
Water
Salt to taste
Instructions
Blend onions, garlic, ginger, cumin seeds and coriander powder. Set aside
Heat up a pot with 2 tbsp of olive oil
Fry up blended ingredients. As the aroma rises, add in the turmeric powder and stock cube. Fry till it turns a little bit golden brown
Add in carrot and potato. Let it stand for 10 minutes
Add some water. Put in the chicken and bring it to boil.
Put on simmer for half hour, make sure the vegetables are cooked. Add in spring onions
Separately, boil macaroni or pasta till al dente. Set aside
When the soup is ready, pour some of the soup to a bowl of macaroni and serve
Or if you are making a batch to freeze for the kids, add in the macaroni into the soup. Mix well for one or two minutes. Then pour the portions into small containers, cool and freeze
Bringing a child who is barely 5 years old to a parent’s workplace is hardly an everyday occurrence or a common encounter here in Bangkok; especially not when the parent is a taxi-driver.
So, imagine my surprise when I realized that there was a young child on the front seat of the cab, sitting next to the taxi driver just 10 seconds after I got into the cab; not strap-up and let loose as the father drove on to send me to my destination.
The first thing that came to my mind was not the fact that there was a child in the taxi, but the fact that he wasn’t buckled up as he should and was allowed free-range in a moving car. In my 15 minutes ride to get to my client’s place, the barely 5-year-old boy was standing, doing acrobats in the front seat, tried to sit on his father’s lap and changed his seating positions at least 20 times.
Did his father say anything? Well, kind of. He just told the boy to sit down repeatedly while I sat in the back worrying if god forbid! I would witness a child flying out of the window screen! In my heart, I could only hope that the child would not be accompanying him for too long while he was on duty.
Perhaps my western ways of parenting got the better of me and surely, not strapping a child to the car seat is not a big deal. After all, I have seen parents, who, with a newborn on one hand (I am not kidding!) and a steering wheel on the other, managed to steer the car effortlessly as she dropped off her oldest kid to school. That must have been such amazing driving skills to have!
On that note, I have also seen kids being allowed to run around in a moving car while an adult is driving like it is the most normal thing to do. The same goes for carrying a really young child with one arm as one of the parents ride a bike in the busy roads of Bangkok.
I am pretty sure these folks are all very proud of their excellent driving skills and how skillful they are with their ability to maneuver their vehicles accordingly and that no harm would ever come to them as they are the safest drivers they know.
The thing is, no matter what excellent driving or riding skills one has, there is no compromise to a child’s safety. Or yours. Even as a passenger, I find it distracting if a child gets restless while strapped in the car seat, let alone if you are doing the driving and allowing the child a free-range.
I have, time and again declared that I am extremely paranoid when it comes to safety, and when it comes to that, I’d rather have the kids kicking and screaming while being strapped to their car seats, rather than appease them and let them loose.
I snapped a couple of pictures while seating in the back-seat and all the boy wanted was,to engage with me.
The weather hasn’t been too kind in the last few days. Rain was pouring down in bucket loads every morning, flooding some of the sois nearby.
Shot from a friend’s FB Posting (credit: Stef.Bz)Shot @ Soi Nana (credit:Stef.Bz)
With Silver Bullet away for the 2nd straight working week, I had no choice but to walk the rain for several mornings in a row with Spud. By the time I dropped Spud off, I was soaking wet and, by the time I walked myself to the office, I’ll be looking like a drowned rat even though I had my brolly with me.
These past 2 weeks haven’t really been the most stress-free time. With work piling up on my plate and the added pressures of being short-staffed as well as having to attend a 2-day compulsory company workshop (scheduled on a Friday AND half a Saturday!) which I cannot get out of, plus the fact that I have been completely on my own to prep-up the kids every morning and then stressing myself out to get home in time to put the kids to bed as Silver Bullet is not around; and then prepping up again for the next day so the kids won’t starve or go naked AND trying to do some work after the kids are in bed…I feel like I was about to go mad.
I feel like a complete wreck by the end of the day and, the rain not letting up means that traffic is just not going anywhere. That means, travelling time is greatly increased by a hundred-fold. Just another set of inconvenience I don’t need.
So yeah, it has been a little bit of a challenge to cope with everything on my own for two straight weeks now. And while I am aware that Silver Bullet is in no way at fault for having to go on a business trip, I can’t help but feel pretty wretched trying to sort everything out by myself, and at times feeling that I just don’t feel appreciated enough. I guess a common sentiment every mother would feel every now and then.
The only consolation is that the kids have been kind to me these 2 weeks. With the exception of just ONE morning when Spud pushed a little and I lost it, (My bad, really. It really wasn’t so bad, but I screamed at her because I was exhausted. I could really have handled the situation better), the rest of the days, so far, have been a breeze. In fact, they have been so very well-behaved that I have been completely awed.
Suddenly, they seemed like THE model kids. There have been no temper tantrums, they are happy, Spud has been listening really well and getting the both of them ready in the morning has been a relatively easy task, with breakfast over and done with within 15 or 20 minutes! Amazeballs!
That being said, I probably have just jinxed everything, with the next major meltdown lurking round the corner soon-ish.
I might have been feeling exhausted, high-strung and even downright resentful throughout the entire week, but seeing the energy, vigour and smiles on the faces of my children reminded me that there’s something to be grateful about.
And whilst the thought of having to walk a few kilometers in the pouring rain with a 3-year old toddler is really daunting and something I truly dread in the next few days, Spud on the other hand doesn’t seem to mind it too much. In fact, she loves the walk-in-the-rain experience, welcomes it and becomes pretty excited that she gets to wear her 20-baht raincoat.
Rain or no rain, sometimes, looking from a 3-year old perspective does help turn things around. I should try to always remember that.
