What About Now by Bon Jovi

Yes, Jon, now this one is much more your style than your past, like, two albums. At least. I’m sorry, but Lost Highway (2008) just whooshed right pass me. The Circle (2009) had one or two strong songs in it, but the rest were just so trying. So trying to fit in into this generation. Trying to hard. But why are you trying to fit in when you were such a magnificent trailblazer to begin with?

And that is why How About Now is refreshing. Not prefect. Not quite living up the glory days of Crossroads (1994) or These Days (1995). But oh, such a nice, nice effort. It is absolutely delicious to hear all those guitar solos back. And more soulful lyrics. The deeper kind. The kind that, well, you’ve gotta be a tad weathered to be able to understand and appreciate. The metaphoric kind. Weaved between rock and roll.

Favourite songs on this album: Because we can (Track 1), What about now (Track 3), Pictures of you (Track 4), Amen (Track 5), What’s left of me (Track 7), Thick as thieves (Track 9), beautiful world (Track 10) and Every road leads home to you (Track 16). As you can see, I found this album very listenable overall. But oh, I practically broke my repeat buttons on Pictures of you (Track 4). Love it.

If this is an upward slope Bon Jovi is taking, I say keep it up!

Moon Landing by James Blunt

To me, is is so awesome to find that JB has found a balance between his deliciously depressing songs and more hopeful and uplifting tones. It is my opinion that he has found a good balance of both worlds in this album.

Favourite songs: When I find love again (Track 2), Face the sun (Track 3), Bonfire heart (Track 5), Heart to heart (Track 6), Miss America (Track 7), Sun on Sunday (Track 9). See? Mix of his signature sad songs and happy stuff. I highly recommend looking up JB’s piano versions of Face the sun, Miss America and Sun on Sunday. As for the other songs, I enjoyed the track versions and acoustic renditions equally.

Well okay, there is actually something that bugs me. That CD cover. Creepy. A floating head by any other name is still a floating head.

The hundred year old many who climbed out the window and disappeared - A novel by Jonas Jonasson

I absolutely love love love this book! I laughed with every turn of the page and read and re-read so many parts over and over again because the writing is simply genius. And this is completely unexpected because I picked up this book by sheer randomness at the bookstore.

The story is just about that very title. A hundred year old man climbed out the window. And he has disappeared. Clearly, the story is about where he went and all the people who went looking for him. It is hilarious. It is intelligent. And what fascinated me the most about this book is how it weaves so cleverly with true historic events and figures.

I love how the book is written so simply. The expressions are seeping with dry and dark humour, especially the re-characterisation of the historic figures. Oh, and the parts where he blows things up were described so colourfully! Alright, that is the only spoiler you get. Things get blown up in this book. It is pretty exciting.

Finding books like this one is a real joy. Incredibly writing. Amazing storyline. Definitely among the bests books I have ever read!

My first one pot pasta experiment

So here is my contribution to the one-pot-pasta foodie trend that is going around right now. In this first experiment, we have tomatoes, french beans, red onions, chicken, pepper, chilli flakes. and spaghetti. Clearly, it is one of those days when I simply clear out the fridge. Of course. Added water, cover the pot, turn the heat on high and here we go.

Tada! And here is the after photo. I really like the soup that this combination creates. The tomato - which I usually don't like eating in any solid form anyway - disintegrates into the soup. The french beans lends a surprisingly fresh flavour to the soup as well. All in all, I would call this experiment a huge success and definitely warrants more tests with different combinations.

Growing Brazillian Spinach

This Brazillian Spinach is one of the earliest plants I started my backyard garden with. Of course back then, it was just a tiny little thing with eight leaves in a small polybag. The baby Brazillian Spinach was generously donated to me by SS, an inspiring urban farmer herself in our neighbourhood.

Less than two months later, I am reaping the harvest of this plant for personal consumption on a weekly basis! This plant is a good seven months now, and is super generous with its yield. 

What can I say, this is hands down, one of the easiest vegetable to grow. Just make sure to keep her watered and she will continue to thrive. 

Yes, she is quite the drinker. It was really dry about a month ago, and she can't go two days of no water before starting to wither. I pretty much panicked when I saw her and watered her immediately and you know what? It took her five minutes (tops) to bounce back into freshness!

Her biggest foe has been mealy bugs. My remedy is a home made formula of neem oil, washing detergent and water. Need to spray her pretty often tho. But this is because her leaves are close to the soil.

Brazillian Spinach is highly recommended for any beginner to urban farming. Easy to grow, lives in a pot and goes well in soups, noodles and stir fry. There is just so much joy to this plant!