Monday, March 9, 2009

......

This morning, I woke up with absolutely nothing to say.

It does not happen too often so I'm trying to understand this unusual and complicated phenomenon...

  • I weighed myself and what I saw did not please me but I will not panic or anything. I think that my scale at home is not accurate.
  • I took my thyroid meds and I am waiting to be able to have breakfast and take my Folic Acid tablet.
  • I called Hadhoud to remind him of our appointment tomorrow with the gyneco.
  • I still don't have any morning sickness.
  • I can't remember what I dreamt last night.
  • And that's it it seems...

Yesterday, I went to Géant in the evening to buy some groceries for today.

Last Tuesday, I started worrying on my own after receiving the first Newsletter from BabyCenter.com. It contained all the information related to Week 4, including all the pre-natal tests completed to check for genetic or chromosomal anomalies with a special focus on down syndrome.

Of course, I couldn't stop thinking about all that stuff, and although I decided to try and not focus on them and wait for my first pre-natal appointment with the gyneco; I couldn't unread what I had already read or erase the words from my memory.

People who know me well will tell you I am kind of superstitious... even borderline stupid sometimes. I know, I know, I am a university educated young woman who reads, watches TV , surfs the Internet all day and night long and is exposed to information in general. So I should get a grip and stop acting like a Middle-Ages ignorant! But I can't.

After reading about all these stuff, I thought, well any pregnant woman in her fourth week would have received the same Newsletter and although it were my "clicks" that directed me to one page, one test and one disease after the next, anyone could have followed the same online path because anyone would worry and would want to read more about these things; after all that's why these particular terms were links and not just plain words.

Yesterday, as I was shopping at Géant, I see a little girl running around and shouting (happily it seems) for her mommy. She was in front of me and I could see her dad standing at my left, calling her but she wouldn't listen. She was just playing around, jumping up and down, calling her mommy (who didn't seem around which is why her dad was calling her to follow him in the other direction). She must have been 7 or so, but I felt her body language and attitude did not match that age. I don't know why, I just felt there was something wrong so to speak. And then, she turned around and I looked at her face. Honestly, she was the sweetest thing with her little red eye glasses and genuine smile as she ran back to her dad. She had down syndrome.

I know it's silly.
And it doesn't mean a thing.


Turned out I had a lot to say this morning.
How completely naive of me to think I could ever shut up!

Well, I'll see how this day goes because I need to change my state of mind...
Will keep you posted.

♫♪♪♫♫♪♪♫♫♪♪♫♫♪♪♫

Just had lunch... A very yummy (and faaaaat) lunch to be precise.

Yesterday I got some tender steaks with pepper all around the pieces. I decided to prepare mine in a creative way :-)

So I seasoned it with my amazing sea salts seasonings that I discovered at Spinney's; "The convenient 4-in-1 essential seasonings for everyday use" :-)

My magic touch :-)
  1. Cheese and Onion
    Salt, Sugar, Mustard, Cheese Powder, Onion Powder, Anti-caking, HYM, MSG


  2. Seaweed Sea Salt
    Coarse Sea Salt, Coriander, Mustard Seeds, Seaweed


  3. Sundried Tomato and Garlic (my favorite as you can see; it's almost empty)
    Salt, Sundried Tomatoes, Garlic, Anti-caking Agent


  4. Mediterranean
    Salt, Garlic, Majoram, Oreganum, Sundried Olives, Thyme (of course), Lemon Zest


    Just noticed the other still un-opened seasoning set on the bottom row; didn't mean to have it in the frame, but this goes to show just how much I love this seasoning, right? :-)
So going back to my juicy steak!

I heated the pan first, on maximum heat (I love my Tefal, it tells me when it's warm) ; then I lowered the heat to the medium and placed the huge piece of steak in the middle. Yuuum!! I seasoned on both sides (always making sure I use Tongs to turn it so that I don't pierce the meat, and dry it from inside). Then, I poured just a drop of oil on both sides as well and waited for the whole thing to start cooking. Halfway through, I poured Crème Fraîche and a pinch of Ketchup :-P (love ketchup with meat, sue me)... Then, I waited some more and 10 minutes before I removed the meat, I placed a cube of Kiri cheese on top of the steak :-) Yuuuum (bis); then I prepared the plate with another cube of Kiri and a small ball of butter waiting for the steak to sit on them :-) By that time, the Crème Fraîche had well-cooked with the pepper and seasoning and it had thickened.


OK, I know, it doesn't look that yummy, but trust me, the smell (and later I can vouch for the taste) was indeed yummy! Noticed the Kiri on top? :-) That was magical in the mouth!! :-)

Finally, I placed the steak on that bed of Kiri-Butter and ... ate!


Delicious!!

Yeah, OK, you know what, forget about the pix, they really suck and the food looks horrible! But trust me. It was sooooooo good! :-)

Anyway, I'm a very deep person :-P (and modest too :-P) who believes that beauty does not lie in a nice exterior. It's what's inside that matters. Honestly, how many times have you been to weddings or parties where the food looked so damn perfect and mouth-watering and then once you have a taste you really wonder where the flavor went?

Ya. So, my steak. Very flavory ;-)

Now, I think I'm going to go check my closet... Last night I discovered I don't have any more room for my clothes which incidentally were fine before. Yes. You guessed. I kept taking things out and messing the whole closet-system and now it looks like I need an entirely new room (yes I said room) just for my garments!! I'm such a girl!! :-P

So I have some cleaning up to do... And come to think of it, some dishwashing too...

Oh God! I think I'm gonna faint! :-P

See you later! ;-)

♫♪♪♫♫♪♪♫♫♪♪♫♫♪♪♫

Keeping my cravings tradition alive...
No, no, let me stop you right there: we didn't go to the movies.

Instead, I watched a DVD :-)

Decided to finally have a look at Bosta, the Lebanese movie. I had high expectations considering the previews and feedback that was buzzing around the movie when it first played in theaters. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed.

Yes, there was an amazing cast (which is why I feel even more disappointed, for them rather than at them); and yes, the overall idea of the film seemed exciting: a new, young and modern Dabke (the traditional Lebanese dance) that reflects the new, young and modern generation of Lebanon.

However, the execution lacked depth and even the script was not interesting... Really too bad.

The movie tries to tackle any and all the Lebanese social issues like religion, intersectarian love relationships/marriage(?), homosexuality, social expectations of what a good "future/job" is to parents/family/society Vs what the dreams and needs of the young people, sex (of course, it seems to be a must these days), the importance of marriage especially for women (and lack thereof being viewed as something weird and even sad), a little touch of the war and destruction (which also seems to be a must in Lebanese movies these days) and the ghosts that haunt the ones who survived, the meaning of culture and heritage and conflicts between generations and how they define these meanings, etc.

Unfortunately, none of these topics were tackled in depth. The movie feels like a long list of interests the screenwriter (who is also the director and producer) cares for and wishes to express very quickly and in this one, short 115 minutes. It's really too bad. Had he focused on one main concern and maybe two or three side stories, the film would have been more powerful and would have carried a stronger message (I feel).

I loved Caramel because of the characters. We got to know them. Understand them. Their dreams, their hopes, their fears. Bosta had similar characters from afar (people with deep issues) but we didn't get to really know any of them. They remain far away, two-dimensional and borderline superficial.

Anyway, always good to watch non-mainstream :-)

♫♪♪♫♫♪♪♫♫♪♪♫♫♪♪♫

Went on our first walk around the lake today :-)

Hadhoud and I decided that we should exercise every evening now and we discovered there is a lake only 5 minutes away from our home (!!!) at The Greens. Somehow we never had to pass near it and we never noticed it!

So we walked (at a fairly high pace) around it twice before returning home. It was a nice 40 minutes during which we didn't stop talking :-) and it's always a pleasure going out of the building... ON FOOT! We passed by our car and didn't even look at it :-P

Overall, the day started on a wrong note but I'm quite happy tonight :-) I think I'll be able to sleep with a smile on my face.

Plus a friend of mine called me today after she read this morning's post and she was so sweet and supportive!! It always feels good to know there are people who actually care about what's happening to you. Well, I know I have plenty of those, but it's the unexpected ones that make your day, and indeed, it was unexpected for me to find out she checked my Blog :-)

Sweet dreams! ;-)

No comments:

Post a Comment