This time I have a SOLID excuse for not being able to blog for the last few days. The usual excuses of being busy and being busy and being busy which make people quirk their eyebrows and think "oh really?" will not be used this time. Neither will I complain about the weather or the pollen allergy or the impact of watching Skyfall. I have a SOLID-er excuse!
Our wireless betrayed us. Do you hear me? No wireless at home!!!
Our wireless betrayed us. Do you hear me? No wireless at home!!!
My regular end of the day routine of sitting on the sofa in the living room and dumping my brains on my blog got messed up totally. The evening mood in the house substantially deteriorated after Arno went to sleep. It consisted of A-senior watching TV (nothing much changed there!) and his wife grumbling about how the wireless does not work and more importantly how HE was not doing ENOUGH to get it fixed!
So yesterday, sacrificing weekend TV, the man put on his "enough is enough" looks and got the wireless fixed which restored the smile on his wife's lips. I agree that his unhappiness without the wireless was not so verbal as mine. But his happiness when the wireless was restored was crystal clear from his questions.."it is working on the first floor?" "do you have full signal in the attic?", "take the ipad and check the signal in the kitchen" ..He himself moved around the remotest corners of the house checking the signal and returning to the living room with a satisfied grin that said "All for you my dear"!
The relief in the household was refreshing. Even my 8-yr-old looked up from his toys and said, "O Thank God, You Tube works!" . Poor God! getting thanked for all the wrong reasons!
Anyway, to cut the long story short, we all realized how much of our lives are now taken over by these machines. No machine, no smiles!
The other day I also had a "pleasantly surprised" (read "embarassed") moment with my son. It was his first presentation at school. First exposure to Microsoft Powerpoint. The class teacher asked them to choose any topic. No surprises there, Arno chose "Ferrari". (Between you and me, for a moment I did feel that he is taking it too lightly! Offcourse I did not expect him to talk on global warming or world population or the economic crisis but still....FERRARI??Seriously??)
Anyway the deal made was that first he was going to make a 5-slide presentation TOTALLY on his own. After that Mummy would look over his shoulder and share some "tips" to make it better! The excited boy got busy for two evenings and on the third day, I sat with him to have a look.
The first impression was WOW!
The second impression was that the spellings needed serious correction.
The third impression was...
Okok....Impressed Mom asked him to correct the spellings one by one.
When he was done with three spelling corrections, I said with the I-am-the-mother-I-know-it-all-looks,
"Arno, why dont you SAVE? Look, here is the save button. Click on this from time to time , otherwise you might lose your work...then it is a waste of time...it feels so bad...you have to be careful"
Arno let me finish my whole knowledge base on "saving" and then said,
"Mama, why dont you do a SAVE AS? That will allow you to put a name and a place to this file"
Thank God , He gave me enough strength to make a proud face and say,
"Oh, how wonderful ! you already know about SAVE AS!!
In a confused state of pride-cum-surprise-cum-embarrassment, the happy mother proceeded towards the kitchen.
Arno shouted.."Mama, you promised Indian Pancakes".
Indian Pancakes - very easy and hit brunch recipe at my place
Pancakes are an integral part of dutch cuisine. Arno loved them.
.......Till he tasted the Indian ones.
;-)
I used:
So yesterday, sacrificing weekend TV, the man put on his "enough is enough" looks and got the wireless fixed which restored the smile on his wife's lips. I agree that his unhappiness without the wireless was not so verbal as mine. But his happiness when the wireless was restored was crystal clear from his questions.."it is working on the first floor?" "do you have full signal in the attic?", "take the ipad and check the signal in the kitchen" ..He himself moved around the remotest corners of the house checking the signal and returning to the living room with a satisfied grin that said "All for you my dear"!
The relief in the household was refreshing. Even my 8-yr-old looked up from his toys and said, "O Thank God, You Tube works!" . Poor God! getting thanked for all the wrong reasons!
Anyway, to cut the long story short, we all realized how much of our lives are now taken over by these machines. No machine, no smiles!
 |
| Thank you God for creating such beautiful things and thank you Man for inventing the camera to capture it! |
The other day I also had a "pleasantly surprised" (read "embarassed") moment with my son. It was his first presentation at school. First exposure to Microsoft Powerpoint. The class teacher asked them to choose any topic. No surprises there, Arno chose "Ferrari". (Between you and me, for a moment I did feel that he is taking it too lightly! Offcourse I did not expect him to talk on global warming or world population or the economic crisis but still....FERRARI??Seriously??)
Anyway the deal made was that first he was going to make a 5-slide presentation TOTALLY on his own. After that Mummy would look over his shoulder and share some "tips" to make it better! The excited boy got busy for two evenings and on the third day, I sat with him to have a look.
The first impression was WOW!
The second impression was that the spellings needed serious correction.
The third impression was...
Okok....Impressed Mom asked him to correct the spellings one by one.
When he was done with three spelling corrections, I said with the I-am-the-mother-I-know-it-all-looks,
"Arno, why dont you SAVE? Look, here is the save button. Click on this from time to time , otherwise you might lose your work...then it is a waste of time...it feels so bad...you have to be careful"
Arno let me finish my whole knowledge base on "saving" and then said,
"Mama, why dont you do a SAVE AS? That will allow you to put a name and a place to this file"
Thank God , He gave me enough strength to make a proud face and say,
"Oh, how wonderful ! you already know about SAVE AS!!
In a confused state of pride-cum-surprise-cum-embarrassment, the happy mother proceeded towards the kitchen.
Arno shouted.."Mama, you promised Indian Pancakes".
Indian Pancakes - very easy and hit brunch recipe at my place
Pancakes are an integral part of dutch cuisine. Arno loved them.
.......Till he tasted the Indian ones.
;-)
I used:
- All purpose flour: 1/2 cup
- Eggs: 3
- Rice flour: 1/2 cup
- Onions: 1/2 cup (chopped)
- Tomato: 1 (chopped)
- Green chilli: acc to taste (chopped)
- Ginger: 1 tsp (chopped)
- Fresh coriander: chopped
- Black pepper
- Salt
- In a bowl mix all ingredients and make a batter.
- The consistency should not be too thick .
- In a non stick pan, heat 1 tsp of oil.
- Spread the batter ( like an omelette) on the pan.
- Cook till light brown and a bit crispy.
- Enjoy with sauce or kasundi.
 |
| The batter |
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| Indian Pancake |
