Flying Home

Since my family and friends are probably the only people subscribed to this blog, perhaps this is a suitable avenue for me to update my new adventures. :)

After a happy Chinese New Year holiday at my hometown Singapore, it’s time to fly home… to where my hubby and gynae wait for me.

By the way I have this little web application that shows little notes about how far the foetus comes along has the days pass.

It’s like an automatic count down. Cute ya! Right now it says “Our baby is ¼ inch, heart begins to beat. Eyes, ears, mouth and limb buds visible. Our baby is 5 weeks & 6 days along. 239 days to go!” So cute!

Flying is tiring
Ok, back to the topic of flying home. Wow, I didn’t know actually how physically taxing flying is on the body. It seems as if you are resting on the plane for 24 hrs (Yes, it was a 24 hr flight including transit), but it actually drains your energy. I had plenty of rest, plenty of water and juices, plenty of leg exercise this time. Didn’t watch as much inflight entertainment as I used to.

Observations of Children
Seated beside me was a blonde German mother with her two children, a beautiful 2 year old blonde girl, and a 5 year old blonde boy. They boarded during my flight transit at Frankfurt, and spent 12.5 hours with me to New York. I didn’t interact much with them, just smiled and asked their names. I was more interested in observing them. Well the two year old had to be buckled in with her mother, and after half an hour she started protesting. The air stewardess arrived just in time with “Bubbles” the powerpuff girl soft toy which distracted her. The boy was amazingly well behaved. Just seated, and buckled in his seat waiting for take off. The two year old cries and screams occasionally throughout the flight, but most of the time she remains in her area, playing with the seat buckle (figuring out how to snap open and shut the seat buckle took up most of her time) or sleeping. The five year old boy was pretty much quiet and well behaved throughout the flight. What a good big brother! Eats, sleeps (kicks me when he sleeps because there’s not enough room for him to lie stretched out…lol), watches ‘Beauty and the Beast’ on the LCD, talks in a calm and moderate voice, is able to respond to the air stewardess when she asks if he wants orange juice. So from my observations, 5 year olds can travel on long distance flights pretty well.

Many seats away from me, there’s an Asian toddler somewhere that gets restless more than the 2 year old German toddler seated near me. His/her wails woke me up from my sleep a number of times. Lol

For the sake of my little one

If you’ve travelled to America since 9/11, you would know that airport security has become stricter. And in recent months, they have further tightened security with these X-ray machines. I am supposed to walk through the scanners twice. But for the sake of my little one, I asked the officer “May I not be scanned? I’m pregnant”.

Both times in Singapore and at Frankfurt, the airport staff gave me no problems, and was very polite to me. It was “Step this way, Ma’am” and a physical pat down. They took more precaution and much more time checking me, making sure I didn’t carry anything threatening, but I didn’t mind as they were polite and kind.

There isn’t any solid evidence that these airport scanners would harm fetuses. But for the sake of my little ball of cells with a tiny heartbeat, I shall just protect him. It relaxes my heart and mind to do so too.

At JFK Airport, a female staff I approached was very warm and helpful when I told her that I was pregnant and needed help to lift my luggage off the conveyer belt. She lifted two 25kg bags from the belt, and wheeled them past customs, all the way out to my husband. I was pleasantly surprised as I only expected her to lift them off the belt for me, but she went an extra mile. Thanks JFK-lady. <3>

Our car got smashed!

Here's what happened last thursday. There was a tornado that blew through my neighbourhood for a few minutes.



And so here's what happened to my car. I took this yesterday, so the huge branches were already removed by then.

I was indoors during the freak weather, and my husband was at work. Praise God, we were both safe. :-)



Take care everyone. Love.

How are brussel sprouts grown?

Ever since I had to prepare meals regularly for hubby, I learnt so much more about food. Shopping for groceries is sometimes an adventure because I would come across stuff I never expected to learn.

Here's an example: This is a picture of a brussel sprout I took with my camera.

And here is a picture of a cabbage I found off the internet from healthandayurveda.com
They both look so similar, don't they? Size would be an obvious difference - the cabbage is relatively bigger. But are brussel sprouts "babies" that can eventually grown into cabbages?

I wondered because the word "sprout" reminds me of "bean sprouts", meaning a baby plant. So it could be possible that the brussel sprouts are actually "cabbage sprouts"? lol

Even the di-section (cut into half from the middle) of the cabbage looks exactly like the di-section of a brussel sprout, as you can see from the picture below. And that is because according to wikipedia, they both come from the same cruciferous family of vegetables:

Image from howstuffworks.com

But do brussel sprouts take root directly from the ground like the cabbage?

... ...

...

Nope!

Here's what I bought from the supermarket recently, look at what it says:

Yes, Brussel Sprouts grow from a Stalk! Not individually from the ground like the cabbage! Can you believe it? lol I love being surprised!

Here's a picture of a brussel sprout plant from biologie.uni-hamburg.de

Haha, now that you know the answer, it is time to enjoy some photographs from us!

The brussel sprout stalk is a little longer than the length of our torsos.

Here's the size of it, placed beside the Wall Street Journal papers.

Without flash:

As you can see, the leaves are cut away from the leaf-stem, making it easier to transport.

But it would be the simplest to transport it without the brussel sprouts still attached to the bulky stalk right? That is why we often seen brussel sprouts in supermarkets already detached and packed into a container or a bag.

The reason why they sold an entire stalk (for US$4.99, which is cheap considering that it has so many sprouts on one stalk) is probably because brussel sprouts are fairly popular in the fall, for the Thanksgiving holiday. The brussel sprouts also taste best after experiencing the first frost of Fall. Those that are grown in temperatures that are too warm or in prolonged cold are said to taste quite bitter in comparison.

All I need to do before cooking it (boil it in soup or roast it in the oven) is to pluck the sprouts off the stem with my fingers. :-)

The round buds of the brussel sprouts grown from the corner in between the stalk and the leaf-stem. I thought of this imagery: If the Stalk is likened to a Torso, and the stem is the arm, then the brussel sprouts would be growing out of the "armpits" of the plant. Hee hee!

Perhaps without the leaf-stem, you can see where the brussel sprouts grown from better:

Tada! We have taken all the brussel sprouts to cook! The stalk is now empty. ^_^

Have a good fall season. <3