Mi Jiu - traditional rice wine

Last week my mum made some rice wine. It was lovely to see her working at it, I couldn't help much (more like it was "get your clumsy hands away from my stuff boy! tsk!" in a loving kinda way actually). My grandmother made it once every month. The Hakka (or Khek) dialect group like to make their own and the women expecially drink lots of it. It nourishes the body and builds the lost 'chi' women have to endure with multiple child birth... it's an ancient china thing, y'know bearing 10 over children.

I watched in amazement and listened intently to my mum telling me stories about how the hakka made rice wine. She didn't have clay urns like it was supposed to, or else i'd have a really really traditional looking set of shots haha.

Did you know, during the course of making rice wine, one's mind should be focused and to not speak ill of anything or anyone, or else it will destroy the taste of the wine?



It's been about 10 days now, I can smell the sweet fermentation. I'm excited!

boy will i miss all my mum when i'm back in Sydney...

Eulogy for the dearly departed

I am leaving on the 7th February. It's an evening flight, taking off at 7.50pm. It's a one-way ticket. I'm not coming back for at least the next 18 months. I'll be gone a long time.

Some people didn't believe me when I said my first six months in Sydney was crazy lonely. It was, I just make it a point not to enshrine unhappy experiances on my blog so that they last forever.

My summer in singapore is ending. I can't help to think what have I done this summer. There was joy in reuniting with everything... then everything got complicated. My parents, my brothers, my band, my army mates, my school mates...

ok just deleted a whole paragraph of the very things i swore never to put down.

I can't wait to see when I'll pop from all this repression. It'll be exciting.

Patronize me

Saint Malum, the patron saint of broken goods.

in his creation, dpdagger says:

"Have you ever been abused physically or mentally by your family or loved ones? Do you have terrible luck in your relationships? Lack the social skills to meet new people? Are you awkward and strange, or have trouble fitting in with "society?" Well finally there is a saint that caters to your needs. Saint Malum, patron saint of damaged goods. With her loving guidance you will be flushing your prozac down the toilet and dancing a jig, perhaps not in that order."

May she give me strength and courage.


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