Grubbs n Critters

January 26, 2011

My Sister’s Keeper

Category: Books

So I am about a few years late.

The only reason I bought this book was because of the rave I heard about the author. I just had to find out for myself what the rave was all about, and so decided to pick up this very title out of sheer randomness on one of my book-shopping spree a long while back. (I also heard that the author tend to go for heart-breaking and gut-wrenching content)

I must have had this book for at least a good 3 years by now, but somehow have never been compelled to read it. I would inevitably wound up fishing for other books instead.

It has obviously been collecting dust on the shelf for quite some time, and since Spud came along, I hardly ever had time to do any reading at all. That is, until last week when I had a small window of opportunity to read while on a flight to upcountry on a work-trip for a day.

The book was a pretty easy read, with a story of a young girl who was conceived and genetically engineered to save her sister’s life. Her mother is hell-bent on not losing her sick child; her father is struggling to do ‘the right thing”, her brother is quite the rebel in the family, while this young girl is trying to define her being within the family and her “outside” life.

I did think the book was average initially. For a while I did not think the book was as poignant as other readers made it out to be. The gut-wrenching sadness I have heard about eluded me as I was reading the book…until I got towards the end. Without giving too much away, I must say that the ending came as a shocking surprise.

So unexpected the ending was, that when I started reading those sentences in the book towards the end, I actually had to pause, put the book down and take in a deep breath just to take in all the moment which happened in a split second. As soon as my eyes glazed over those words, I had this huge lump in my throat. Tears rolled down my eyes soon after

[I kind of feel cheated though…I mean, I was cruise-reading for several days, a few sections at a time; all the time thinking there’s nothing so sad or powerful in the way it was being written, and then BAM! I crumbled just like that]

I guess I would not understand the big hullabaloo behind this book had I not been a parent myself (probably the reason why I put off reading the book for so long).

I know that this book is made into a movie. However, I don’t think I’m going to watch it as, apart from the fact that I don’t really like Cameron Dias, I somehow think that movies tend to always bring great injustice to the content of the book.

*Image from Google Images

Why mothers kiss their babies

Category: Baby Milestones

I stumbled upon this (of what I thought as an interesting) article by sheer randomness. It was nicely written, and I didn’t see the need to try to re-write it as my own:

“There’s a natural, instinctual phenomenon among, not just humans, but all mammals to kiss or lick their babies faces. This seems normal, right? After all, we love our babies! But all mammals? Do they really understand the societal connection between loving someone and slobbering all over them? Maybe, but the fact is, they do this, they have the instinct to do this, because they make milk.

You probably know that breast milk contains antibodies. You probably also know that it can contain antibodies tailored to germs the baby is exposed to because the mother makes antibodies against germs she’s been exposed to, and since moms and babies spend so much time together, these are typically the same germs their babies are exposed to. But what happens if your baby is exposed to germs you haven’t been? These germs, if they’re going to make your baby sick, would be entering through the mouth or nose. So the rational thing to do, of course, is to ingest a sampling of the germs on your baby’s face so your body can start to make antibodies to those germs! Or maybe it doesn’t seem that rational, which is why the instinct is there. So all you have to think is “Awww, you’re so cute. I’m gonna kiss your cute little nose!” Betcha didn’t know that kiss could be protecting your child from illness!”

Source: Live Journal

Well,as it turned out, I didn’t know either!

Egg tart

Category: Food

KFC Thailand has recently launched their version of egg tarts.

Who would have thought that KFC would go for such a thing. I mean, fried chicken and tarts are like 2 worlds apart and egg tarts would be the last thing I associate KFC with! But lo and behold! There they go producing egg-tarts in massive numbers, selling them at 25 baht per piece. Could it be a chicken and egg situation? We live in a funny little tartlet world.

To be fair, they taste pretty yummy, and in my opinion, taste quite similar to the Portuguese Egg Tarts I used to be crazy about.

It is of no surprise that these egg tarts are now in my repertoire of must have food. At this stage, I just can’t have enough of them. They are so heavenly and check out the top; all crusted out ala Crème Brûlée.