Do we have to change our lives for you?

Those of you that know Deb and I, know that we have gone through quite a few big changes in our lives. We have gotten married, we moved in together, we moved countries, and one day, we would like to have children together.

We still appreciate our lives together as just the two of us too much to get started on that bit right now, but it seems that over the past month, we have been looking into those waters, dipping our toes, so that we start to get an idea of how cold that water can be.

On the opposite block, the corner store is a Petco, kind of like a Petbarn for you folks back home, but of course larger, as everything in America is. They sponsor "The Animal Project" an organisation run by one dedicated lady (at last count having 20+ cats in her home), its volunteers and family of fosterers. Fosterers of which now we are a part of.

Deb has always loved kittens and cats, and I've never been completely averse to the idea of having a pet, so naturally with the shelter operating so close by, it was inevitable. With our future situation in this country still highly contentious, we looked into fostering to give us the experience of owning a cat, and giving a poor homeless cat a home. So one Saturday we signed up to foster, and Sunday morning, we were hastily putting together a home for him.

 This is where you'll sleep.

This is your bathroom.

And later that afternoon, a cat had moved in.

Do you mind?

His name is Zeke, and here is the story of how he came to be with the animal shelter. The operator of the Animal Project, Carol, had a black cat, Clarence, and one day while she was at work, her neighbour called to tell her that he had escaped and was sitting outside the apartment. This kind neighbour had a key to her home, and offered to turn up late to work so that they could help bring the cat back in before going to work.

This happened while she quickly returned to make sure everything was OK, but lo and behold upon returning home, she had a strange black cat in attendance. This cat was not her Clarence, he was someone else.

Can I stay with you?

While she looked around for the owner, she had this strange cat neutered, because it's terribly irresponsible to let a male cat wander the street fathering kittens who may never be able to fend for themselves in the city. This is the reason why shelters exist. Also male cats pee everywhere and have a terrible smell, just like real bachelors, so this must have been no small hell for Carol herself.

Not too long after this cat came into her accidental adoption, she eventually found the owner, who was the superintendant of a nearby apartment block. So Carol of course, wanted to return this cat to its owner.

When she found him he was initially receptive, until she mentioned the fact that she had him neutered, the responsible course of action, and indicated that she would like to be reimbursed, as this is something he should have done all along, as its owner.

The story goes that he looked into his wallet, saw that it was empty, and offered to go downstairs into the basement of the apartment to get some cash for her. He had not returned for some time, so Carol went looking for him, all the while with this cat in tow. She looked in as he stood behind the screen door, evidently having been playing cards with his buddies, smoke filling the air, when he bluntly told her, "Just keep him." and turned her away.

 If I hide here, maybe they'll let me stay.

This is the sad story of Zeke, our cat, it'll always be sad not because of any conjecture over the environment he was raised, but because of how he was let go. While you can argue some people take their pets too seriously, evidently here, some people don't take them seriously enough.

The proceeding weeks were tumultuous, we've had him for just over a month now, Deb and I constantly seeing a foreshadowing of things to come when we eventually decide to raise children. It's been a struggle mainly because he's still young, and full of energy. With Deb at work, and me still waiting for paperwork, Zeke spends most of his days at home with me, and aside from taking my online courses and cleaning up after him, looking after the house, I don't really spend much time nurturing him, or being the companion he probably would appreciate.  Those of you that know me best know that I'm not a very affectionate person at the best of times, so giving my affection to an animal no less, is a notion I have even less understanding of. Couple that to my natural anxiety, and we have a formula for lots of nights with little sleep, and chasing the cat around the house keeping him off of the surfaces where we eat.

Somewhere out there...

Is this what raising children will be like? I joke that it's like raising a teenager, because we don't know what he's thinking, don't know whether or not he's happy with us, and just can't tell what he wants. One day he'll threaten to move out because we don't understand him. But what do you do when your cat doesn't listen to you? You project your hopes onto them, hoping they'll be good upstanding members of society, thinking that their misbehaving is in some way your fault because of how you try to teach them or discipline them.

You win this round, power cord.

I've been struggling with this blog post because I've been unsure with which direction to approach it, but I had a bit of an epiphany one night when we were having particular trouble with him, we were both losing sleep because he wouldn't stop jumping up on the counter, on the bed, on the kitchen table, it was really starting to frustrate. So one final time we brought him down, cornered him, and I asked him, "do we have to change our lives for you?"

Here I was, talking to our cat, realising, yes, we have to change our lives for him. For everything new that comes into our lives, we adapt, and change, otherwise we never truly accomodate them. Otherwise they never become a part of our lives.

A part of our lives, get it? Ah you're no fun...

I now wake up every day before 7, because this is when our cat wakes up, this is when he starts trying to jump on the bed, this is when we see little footprints around the bathroom basin, and find hair all over the kitchen counter, especially if last night's dinner was particularly tempting, or just because.

 

I hereby proclaim this to be, the kingdom of Zeke. Bow down to me!

Which makes me wonder, (or realise) if this is how much trouble we're having with a cat, how much fun children will be...

We're going to play proud parents now and show you this photo reel of cute photos.

 

Vain? Me? I don't know the meaning of the word...

 Wait... I can explain...

 I just see this as a challenge...

Do you mind... pt. 2.

 

Here's a photo of him spending time with someone else for a change...

This is great, every time the mailman comes, I get a new house!

Peek-a-boo!

If you asked him, paper or plastic...

Work, work, work, pounce, pounce, pounce.

 

 

After a hard day's work.

 

This is here as proof that I don't hate him... 

P.S. From today, 1st June, we have officially adopted him.

Our first year together

I can't believe it's been a year since that most special day that Deb and I were married. In that year we've moved house, moved to another country, and moved again. To celebrate we booked a table for two at a modern french restaurant called Tocqueville on the recommendation of the concierge at our apartment. Walking in, we were sweetly greeted with a "happy anniversary!" by the lady that showed us to our table. It was a cozy little restaurant, dimly lit and with decor that was very stylish, with what looked to be upper level seating too, but it was a sunday night so it was quiet. If you followed that link, we were off to the right in the curve of a small J shaped booth.

All the menu items were very enticing, and there were at least 3 or 4 appetisers and entrees each that we wanted to try, eventually after much discussion we made up our minds and ordered.

Meyer lemon marinated tartare and sashimi of japanese red snapper, with green apple, hearts of palm, american sturgeon caviar, chamomile and meyer lemon soy broth

As the waiter had asked us whether or not we were sharing, they very kindly split each dish for us to save us fighting over our share of the plate. The tartare was delicious, and the caviar was decadent indeed. The lemon dressing was a little too sour for my taste, however the apple's tartness was softer so it was a refreshing complement.

Seared diver sea scallops with foie gras, with wild mushrooms, braised artichoke and cider vinegar gastrique

Deb chose the scallops with foie gras. The scallops were expertly cooked, seared for a crispy crunch on the surface, but the inside so tender and melty, with no fishiness. To describe the foie gras as melty on the other hand would be an understatement. They were like the piece of pork fat on some delicious BBQ Pork that you know you shouldn't eat, but did anyway, and felt so guilty about afterwards, but without regret.

Dry-aged prime sirloin of beef and braised beef cheek duo with confit potatos, roasted royale trumpet mushroom, steamed spinach puree and red wine jus

My steak on the other hand was a bit more of a mixed experience. Don't get me wrong, it was good. But the few preceding steaks I had were heavily seasoned, although well cooked. So I wasn't expecting something that was just well-cooked. This was the good part though, as that is always how I've enjoyed my steaks, I prefer the flavour of the meat to shine instead of all the seasoning. The beef cheek on the other hand was a return to American form being overly seasoned, although once again, cooked very well, with the meat just melting in your mouth. The confit potatos were much more lightly flavoured, matched well with the roasted musrhoom that was juicy and crisp, they were a good companion to the much stronger flavours of the beef.

After a meal like that we could just squeeze in dessert. We made our order and waited patiently. Then came a surprise,

 Complements of the Chef, Dark Chocolate Bon Bon

We thought this was very, well, thoughtful. A very simple touch on their behalf easily helping to make it a special night. It was a rich mud cake with a crispy almost wafer like base, paired with an espresso ice cream. A mouthful of both together made it one of those desserts that you wish would never run out.

Now, not so sure if we can fit in all the dessert...

Then came the blood orange, with "why didn't I think of that" cheesecake, which was what we ordered. The cheesecake was fluffy and sweet, but living in Manhattan we are absolutely spoiled for choice when it comes to cheesecake, so it was hard for it to stand out. The blood orange sorbet seems impossible to mess up. If the place wasn't so decorous we could have easily found ourselves banging the tables with knife and spoon for more. We were also surprised with another complement of petit fours for our enjoyment, unfortunately we weren't paying too much attention as to what was on the plate. We were still in awe of all the rest of the dessert. If I'm not mistaken they were a madeleine-like short bread, hazelnut fudge dark chocolate-thing, a chocolate crackle, and a green, sweet, citrussy- "I don't know exactly what flavor that is"- macaroon. As you can see it was hard to take it all in, as we were already so spoiled with dessert.

And with that came the end of the meal, here's to another year filled with ups and downs, the ride of our lives.

If it's worth doing, you do it yourself

It's funny that we come all the way over to the other side of the world for me to post about our home life, but it can't be dining out and fancy food all the time. That's how you get spoiled. Anyone that knows Deb and I well, know that we appreciate the notion of doing things ourselves. Deb likes replicating the food we like to can get outside in the home kitchen, so this post will be dedicated to these creations.

Bonus Round: Something I cooked

 The simple things

I have fond memories of weekend lunches at home with mum and dad, and this is something mum would often make. It's just a simple normal day food, but it's satisfying in ways fancy foods often aren't. Now that I've grown up I'll have to make it for myself, and I did. The soup is just chicken stock and a little pepper. This is about the standard of my cookery so I'll get to the main courses now.

Steak? Really?

Yes, really! We both love our steak, and when you go out to have steak, firstly it's expensive, and secondly you're always at the mercy of the chef. Go to a nice steak place you say, and then problem number one compounds. Learning to cook a simple steak is easy. Cooking a steak well is the hard part, but as long as you don't forget about it while it's on the stovetop, you can't really go too far wrong. Obviously if you buy the cheapest meat you can find it will not taste nice, if you over-season, if you over-cook, these are all things to avoid when cooking steak. To truly have a steak that's done to your taste, you just have to do it yourself.

Look ma, I can pickle!

Here's something that I can claim to have helped with. When you get takeaway from Hill Country BBQ here, they serve your drinks in genuine pickling jars (which we later found at a dollar shop on 33rd st.), but hey, why not put them to use. We both like our Japanese food and we like the pickled radish appetiser, and thanks to Jeanne, we had Adam Liaw's cookbook "Two Asian Kitchens" that she gave us as a housewarming gift back in Australia. So we had a recipe. Unfortunately we messed up the proportions a little, it's what happens when you deviate from the recipe, they ended up being quite salty, so it looks like we need some practice. We did eventually try again, and they came out too sour, but this was with the correct proportions. We haven't tried again but when we do, we'll know to dial back the vinegar.

 Here's a classic

To anyone that knows Chinese food at all, they know Hainan Chicken. Authentic, chinese food is difficult to find in Manhattan, because all the chinese establishments have been here far too long to remain true to their roots. It's just a matter of fact, and because of that it's been difficult to find this around here. So Deb resolved to cook it herself. She cheated a little and just used two thighs instead of a whole chicken. Unfortunately she forgot to adjust the cooking time accordingly, so it came out a little overcooked. The ginger/scallion/shallot was delicious though. Overall the tastes were all there, the execution just needs a little work.

The rice had won the battle, but we eventually won the war

If you equate my taste in food to home style, you can see clearly that Deb's taste lies towards Cafe style (this only makes sense in Hong Kong chinese context). Baked Pork Chop Rice is another dish that she craves once in a while, and even though you can find this in Hong Kong style cafes here, this was a personal Everest of hers. Unfortunately it was missing Worcestershire sauce because she thought it could do without it. As a result it was missing an extra layer of flavour. Another one to try again, such a big pot lasted us for ages though.

The pièce de résistance

Through this tumultuous journey, I bring you to the peak. BBQ Pork. There's a huge variance in the quality of BBQ Pork that you get in Chinese Butchers these days, so the only way to guarantee quality is to make it yourself. If you remember the Chinese New Year post this is the second time that Deb has made a BBQ Pork thing. This one was a resounding success, with the skin crackly and fragrant, and enough of the seasoning having found it's way into the meat. It goes without saying, it was devoured very quickly.

Plated up for you less barbarous folk out there

So that's it, a short recount of the more special foods on Deb's repertoire, as you can see it sits clearly on the asian end of the spectrum, but hey, you do (cook) what you love (to eat). It's been a very tasty journey if I do say so myself, now excuse me as I get a snack. I've made myself quite hungry...

Fire up the stove again will you? Deb?

Sakura, Sakura

After coming to New York smack bang in the middle of winter multiple times in a row, and it always seems to be the coldest when we do, we finally made it to a Spring. Being Spring in New York, you get the blooming of, of all things, cherry blossoms. We all know cherry blossoms to be endemically Japanese, but there are actually a lot of them in New York. A 1 minute history lesson, in 1912, Cherry Trees were planted in New York as a sign of friendship between the Japanese and the United States. You can be sure if that hadn't happened, it wouldn't have happened again until a long time after World War II.

As with the temporal nature of cherry blossoms, there had been a week of nice weather so we made the trek to Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.

Are we there yet?

The cherry blossoms are planted at to two specific areas in the garden, so you get to enjoy the rest of the gardens before arriving at the main event. Botanic Garden must mean something different here, as it's use lies somewhere in between our botanic gardens at home, with exhibits and displays, along with a picnic area, outdoor space, kind of like how people use Bicentennial Park.

 Darn, they've spotted me!

Can't remember what this was called, but it reminds me of a petrified beast of folklore.

Just enjoying the day

This area overlooks a large portion of the park, lots of benches for people to just sit and soak up the sunlight.

Cranford Rose Garden, and the Cherry Esplanade off to the left.

 It's probably the least crowded this far away...

This is the first Cherry Blossom that we came across, and you can see it was very popular. They weren't all blooming, but because of their transient nature, it would be hard to catch all of them blooming at the same time.

Minus the two of us, but a lot more general public

You can see here what I mean about the Public Park feel rather than a Botanic Garden.

I'm ready for my closeup

This photo was not really intentional, more a case of timing.

And now, for the closeup. (See what I did there?)

A different breed.

Clearly juxtaposed here is a different, paler species of Cherry Blossom, next to a completely different breed of Japanese tree that isn't in bloom.

I had no idea they grew to this scale.

A more vibrant hue.

So that was pretty much the Cherry Esplanade. You then walk through the Cherry Walk (unfortunately not many were in bloom) and the Celebrity Path. 

 First steps on the Celebrity Path

This path is paved with a lot of lesser celebrities that you would probably recognise if you grew up in America, we didn't recognise many of the names. So for the regular tourist, the Hollywood Walk of Fame is probably more relevant.

Here Deb meets Barry Manilow, if he was a ceramic paver...

And this brings you to the imaginatively named "Japanese Hill and Pond Garden". Can you guess what they had there? Why, cherry blossoms of course, and obviously a Hill and a Pond that are probably more stylistically Japanese rather than they are authentic.

 Would you like me to take your picture?

A friendly photographer kindly offered to take a photo of us in front of the Hill and Pond.

Here's one without us in the way

The big crowd of people is a line for the small viewing "platform" centre of frame.

Mind your own business, pal.

There was lots of wildlife in this pond, turtles, ducks;

And of course Koi Carp

 We eventually muscled our way into the pavilion

The little pavilion was very authentic, and would make a nice place to sit and sunbake, read a book. As long as there isn't a crowd.

 Some cherry blossoms that were very weeping willow-like

Deb capitalises on wrestling the camera away from me

I told you there were a lot of turtles...

A waterfall leading to the pond

A Tolkien dream, dreamed to reality?

So after the Hill and Pond Garden there aren't many more cherry blossoms to see, thus you go on and explore the rest of the park. Above you can see Daffodil Hill, which was just before Magnolia Plaza.

The smell of magnolia hanging in the air

As you can see here, the magnolias were in full bloom.

A magnolia flower in detail

A paler species of magnolia

Right next to the Magnolia Plaza was the Lily Pool Terrace, unfortunately it wasn't the season for Lilies. That being late spring to early summer, so we resolved to come back on one of the free days later in the year.

Lilies not being in bloom didn't stop people

There were still goldfish!

The next display we went to see was across on the other side of the park. The park is deceptively compact, I guess I can't say you'd expect anything else in the middle of Brooklyn, but a short stroll away, and fording a stream;

 Hi ho, hi ho...

We actually found some victims of Hurricane Sandy, with an apologetic plaque sitting in front of them. You can only imagine the almighty crash when these giant trees were felled by the winds.

 This is to commemorate...

  A little trail of seedlings sprouting

We eventually found our way to The Herb Garden, you are greeted by a little plaque telling you where the various plants and herbs originate. We found it funny, well, because;

See that, Australia produces nothing...

Below you see some plants that remind us of Jewish Menorahs; (Menorae?)

And here you can see a sillius touristae

A glimpse of the Children's Garden over on the west side of the botanical gardens.

Alice in Garden-land?

And with that, our journey through the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens is finished. Hope you had as much fun as we did! It's hard to imagine we could have picked a better day, as could be argued by all the people that we found there.

Alright missy, time to go home!

Bonus Round:

While we were off looking at flowers and such, Lego man was busy planting some of his own. It's not that I miss work, but having fixed only these things for the past two years, I guess I'm just doing what I know.