L'usine

I need a quiet, kind-of-private place to unwind (me-time), where M and I can have a date, or to have bonding time with my kids.  My friend G introduced me to L'usine.  Bless him.

I super-love the place. It's really cool. It's part cafe, part boutique. Love the cupcakes, too.

The boutique at the back is a lifestyle concept store.  Clothes, shoes, belts, accessories are nicely displayed. They got Moleskine notebooks, Aiaiai (the Danish brand) headphones, lomography cameras, some Vietnamese knick-knacks.  

Cupcakes are VND 50k apiece,
a cup of coffee or tea from 45-65k 

They've put on Christmas decor early!

Brownies - my favorite

I've gone there a number of times,  typically on a Saturday afternoon. I have a sweet tooth,  and always orders hot chocolate and brownies (I love brownies!) or a chocolate cupcake (S'more or choco coco).  Comfort food in a comfort place.

Just the Breather I Needed

A new job, in a new country, in a new company is truly a challenging experience.  I felt exhausted at one point.  It was the end of 2010 and we have been in Vietnam for six months. 

Having spent most of my time working (till late at night almost every day, and weekends too),  not one day of leave,  I felt I needed a break and some truly quality family time.  The Tet holidays was the perfect opportunity to take a breather.  

Vietnam is a long, S-shaped country, one side is one long beach facing the South China Sea.  My family loves the beach.  So off we went to Ho Tram Beach Resort in Vung Tau, a province down south of Ho Chi Minh City - a 3 hour drive.  The beach itself was not great,  the sand is fine but not Boracay-white,  the waves were quite strong (dangerous for swimming),  no opportunity at all for snorkeling.  

  

 

But it was a lovely place.  Strolling on the beach, especially in the morning, never fails to quiet my spirit.  I shut-out work mentally to truly "be" with my family - we watched the fishermen, explored the place especially the garden where vegetables were being grown, chatted about everything and nothing while munching on some snacks.

 It was just the respite I needed. We had a fantastic time and I came home recharged.

An Italian Kiss

I truly love an Italian kiss.


Baci is kisses in English,          
and a Bacio is a kiss.  

M, my husband, used to give me Perugina Baci chocolates when he was courting me. I love them! Much more than Hershey's Kisses. Each Bacio is a chunky dollop of luscious chocolate with hazelnut filling inside. Super yummy! A simple pleasure I love to indulge in, during movie time at home,  or while watching past episodes of How I Met Your Mother.

What makes it more special is - each Bacio has a love note inside (in different languages).

This is my favorite from the box we recently opened :

Love me when I deserve it least, as that is when I need it most.

Maybe those kilig notes helped M win me over,  no?

Bickering Boys

My son D, a tween, always gets into an argument with his little brother C.  Those who have boys  know that it's a rare scenario for one party to give in. In our language, we say walang nagpapatalo. 

At times, I allow them to sort it out themselves.  Sometimes, I have to step in with a "Guys, stop it!" and/or  "I will ground both of you!".  But that won't really help in the long-run, would it?

A few days back, while preparing breakfast, the bickering started like this.

C :  "Mommy, Kuya stepped on my hand on the sofa."

D :   "I did not! I was just reading!"

C :   "Yes, you did!"
D :   "I did not!"

It was a beautiful, sunny Saturday and my mood was still quite pleasant. I found myself saying :

"D, I know you would not do something like that. But sometimes, we do things that hurt somebody, without intending to. Do you think you could have stepped on C's hand while you were shifting your seating position.?"  (I can't believe how patient I was! I didn't sound like me at all!)  He nodded.

I continued, "You are the kuya (older brother), you have to take the action to end the argument. If you don't, what do you think will happen?"

D : "We'll just continue arguing till both of us get really mad."

Me again :  "Exactly!  If you think you are at fault, simply apologize, and say you did not mean it."

He did. C hugged his kuya and softly said "Ok".

This afternoon, I heard them again arguing. Surprise, surprise! I heard D say he is sorry, and C accepted the apologies. End of argument.

I don't kid myself into thinking they'd live together peacefully and happily ever after. For a day or two, at least, there's peace. Maybe Israel and Palestine can try this :)

A Green Sunday

A green environment requires effort from all of us to reduce waste, and also segregate them to help improve garbage-handling. Most Asian countries have very poor waste-handling facilities. We all should pitch in - after all, it will be our kids who will be living in and inheriting this earth.

I have been bringing my own shopping bags long before it was fashionable. Segregating waste takes little effort, anyone can do it. Composting is something we also try to do at home.

Last week, I got my kids to help out in composting. It was my maid's day-off, so we cooked and cleaned-up together.  Here are a few of the stuff we did to make our part of the world a little greener.

My daughter H helped cook the rice; on a small pail, she collected the rice washing. On this, we also washed the eggshells I used for the breakfast omelette. It boosted up the nutritional value that the plants got when we used this to water them.   

Using a shovel,  we dug a shallow pit on the backyard.  Into it went peelings from the oranges and mangoes from breakfast, and the tomatoes and bottle gourd from lunch.  In two weeks, those will turn to soil. 

See the papaya plant? It just started growing. And the plant at the bottom (with smooth leaves) is a jackfruit. The other plants are peace lilies we've planted a few months back, and they're thriving.

We have been composting since we moved to this house,  the soil around has become quite fertile.  We've seen tomato plants, bell pepper plants just sprung out because the seeds love our soil. It's hard to explain the little joy I feel seeing plants thriving around the house,  seeing something come to life.  

Mini-muffins for School Bake Sale

My daughter H had to bring baked goodies to school. She is a member of the student council, and they'd raise funds thru the bake sale. In the past, I've seen some parents send store-bought packaged cookies. I'm so tempted to do just that!

But H prefers to do it "honorably", the old-fashioned way -- bake the goodies ourselves. I admired her willingness to sacrifice time and effort to do this. I must admit I prefer to just laze at home this weekend. My better self argued this is another opportunity for some bonding time, and reinforce those positive values.

So, what do we have in stock? A pack of Betty Crocker dark chocolate cake mix. The rest of the ingredients are stuff we readily have in the pantry - water, eggs and vegetable oil. Great!

With her brother D helping out, we got the batter prepared in no time (following the box directions). I mixed in a few tablespoons of Van Houten pure soluble cocoa, and mini-chocolate chips for extra chocolate goodness. (I always think most kids are like me -- can't resist chocolates and almost everything else that has it). We will just make mini-muffins - quicker to bake, and no extra preparation needed to have smaller pieces ready for selling.

I helped her put the batter into the baking pans -- a test of patience for me because she was doing it soo slowly, trying to make it perfect, even stopping a couple of times to take phone calls from a friend.  Not easy to raise a teen,  but H is, in my biased view, a model teen :)

At 180 degrees C, the small muffins only took 10 minutes to bake. After cooling them, H packed the goodies and put them in the fridge. I reserved a few pieces for myself, of course.

see the mini choco-chips?

Simple and Healthy Fruit Salad

My son D hates cream,  he hates the taste.  It was a surprise to me then when, a couple of weeks back, he asked "Mom,  can we make fruit salad again?"  The one with the cream?!  He enthusiastically nodded with a big grin on his face. 

I wasn't able to make some then;  these past couple of weeks,  someone in the family got seriously sick,  and I was too tired to do anything in the kitchen. That sickness in the family served us a wake up call for us to eat healthier.

With an hour to spare and knowing I have all the ingredients in the pantry, I prepared fruit salad for tonight's dessert,  and made it healthier  -  instead of cream, I used strawberry yogurt.  Here's my simple recipe.

   2 big cans of mixed fruits  

   2 packs of strawberry yogurt

   3 tbsp of condensed milk
   1/4 c grated cheddar cheese

what I had in stock

Strain the mixed fruits for half an hour.  In a big bowl, mix the yogurt,  cheese and condensed milk together; add more condensed milk if a sweeter salad is preferred.  With a wooden spoon, mix in the mixed fruits and refrigerate. 

I added mango slices before serving; everyone in the family love mangoes and they are in season right now.  We love nata de coco in our fruit salad,  but I can't find good nata de coco in the supermarkets here in Ho Chi Minh City.  Nevertheless,  this was wiped out in no time.

Back to Blogging

I started blogging in early 2008, we were still living in Malaysia at the time. Since then, I've had two different jobs,  and moved to a different country twice. With a big household, I could not find the time to sustain it. 

Funny that challenges at work made me think of blogging again. Truly Arlene is born as a way for me to spend me-time. Sharing my life journey, the challenges and joys at work and at home, helps me focus on the big picture, and feel that I'm an essential part of a bigger world.  Plus a way to keep in touch with friends, and meet new ones.