Piri Piri Portuguese

                                                         Click on photo for a larger view                                                                            

A friend of a friend recommends the chicken dishes at Piri Piri. Several times I pass by the restaurant in Siam Paragon but refrain from getting in because I read "flaming hot" and I'm no fan of hot, spicy food. But one weekend after church I wandered around looking for something to eat. There's an advantage when you're not that hungry while restaurant-hunting. You get to vary the restaurants you go to. I was curious and didn't want to miss what Piri-piri is famous for: flaming hot chicken.

No smoke came off my ears and nostrils - a discovery that tells me it's OK to go back. I love how fresh the lettuce and capsicum strips are. The menu presentation is charming, and that's great in my books. There's a little story in it which makes up for leisure reading while waiting for your order. So I learned Piri Piri is Portuguese / Mediterranean cuisine. There are small pictures of ancient sea vessels around the menu which remind me of the Portuguese explorer Magellan. And yes, this was a yummy brunch experience.

There are two Piri-Piri restaurants in Thailand, both are in Bangkok:

Emporium, 5th Floor
622, Soi 24 Sukhumvit Rd, Klong Toei Nua, Wattana 10110

Piri Piri Siam Paragon, Ground Floor
991/1 Rama 1 Rd Pathumwan 10330

Business Hours: 10.00 - 21.00 every day
Price Range: 200 - 1,000 Bht / 6 - 33 USD

ABC Wednesday

Mozart hates glasses

Shoes? He shuns them. Sunglasses? He doesn't like them either. I am sadly accepting the obvious: my fur son does not share my fashion sense. The one shot of him grudgingly wearing a dark pair once was not even to shield his eyes from harmful rays during walks. He agreed to have them on his head, sitting on the coffee table. Yes, like a crown. I thought only cats were aristocratic by nature. Sometimes I wonder if he needs corrective glasses instead after his right eye was injured by an irate neighbor, which is another story.

Mozart should watch Arlo.

Centered, sane and grateful - a review

How wonderful it would be if that's the case for everyone all time! But as we live in an imperfect world we can only take life one day at a time. If CEOs are people trying to hold their sanity for obvious reasons, moms are no different. Whether they are working outside the home, homeschooling, moms are usually in the center of many important things.

This Gabby Moms October product is about staying sane and centered in a sea of mothering responsibilities. Gratitude is crucial. You have to learn it. As if it's not enough that you have managed to stay centered and sane, you have to be grateful as well.

That's right grateful. I heard that too. Vividly.  When author Lorrie Flem started talking about gratitude I wondered what version of the virtue could I have exercised in the aftermath of divorce; in the face of a harrowing diagnosis - coordinating with specialists and therapists, not to mention dragging the son between two countries thrice before he could even say 'airplane' and being reduced to a humiliated mess over petrifying tantrums at airports and malls. Hang on. After having to do all that alone I'm supposed to flash a smile of gratitude across my battered face? This woman must be kidding.

Well, she wasn't. Actually she went on giving tips and practical ideas on growing gratitude. My fury and curiosity blended well on the admonition to read the Word. As I listened to the audio, I realized anew that my ordeal did not kill me. That I am able to do all this without a single cent of support from the ex, yes, that is some reason to be thankful despite the troubles. But more importantly being in one piece for a son badly in need of a parent woke me up to a clearer understanding on the importance of gratitude. There's quite a lot of sense in gratitude as a way to a centered and sane life. You will find out how and why in this new audio series which will be available on November 1st. A wealth of related info abound on the author's site Eternal Encouragement Magazine. Try a visit and be blessed.

***         

This Gabby Moms product was provided to me free in exchange for my unbiased review.

Arlo needs glasses

Fortunately Arlo's story is one of love, concern and creativity, unlike Missy's. Animal lovers would nod on Arlo needs glasses by Barney Saltzberg. Families with dogs might be interested too.

It's not just the story I am interested in.  Arlo Needs Glasses is an interactive picture book. What children do not like names on pages that appear in equivalent of lights with letters that are outlined in different hues? They get to pull a tab and be part of the activities in the story.

An eye chart in the doctor's office is shown on this book. Letters blur with the pull of a tab giving readers the idea of what the lead character might be seeing. It would even be more interesting to be able to detect words, which reviews of this book, suggest are hidden in the eye chart.

Saltzberg spells out "phoropter," he uses the Broadway-marquee lettering, as if children are picking up a party favor when they look through the accordion-style fancy-dancy binoculars. At the very bottom, in tiny letters, a prognosis awaits: "Arlo (the dog) needs glasses."

True to being interctive, a trio of glasses in slipcases mounted on the page are provided for kids to try on Arlo. I wonder which among choices of Movie Star, Superhero and Mad Scientist spectacles will my kids, or yours want to try on themselves.

The book provides awareness of eye problem solutions for children. It tells young minds things to expect at the optometrist's office. Like Saltzberg's Beautiful Oops!, Arlo Needs Glasses is a book about solving problems with humor all the way. It seems everything one would expect in an interactive picture story are packed in this book.

Photo credit and more info at Workman 

This blog is not affiliated with Workman. This post is for sharing purposes only.

International Book Week

In this post: Booking Through Thursday and Thursday Thirteen

Quick–what are you reading right now? Would you recommend it? What’s it about?

Pocket Finance by The Economist Books. Does it count? It's one of thousands of finance books out there; a "guide that outlines the complexities of financial concepts and practice through essays and alphabetized terms."

If you are in higher education, Southeast Asia region- finance, accounting, management sort of stuff, you might fancy it for side reading. Come to my nook and we'll discuss it over tea. Coffee if you like or martini. It's just that at work there's talk of gearing up subject content for business undergrads; things like the AEC (Asian Economic Community), etceterati. This is back-up just in case.

Thursday Thirteen: International Book Week


There's a bit of fun going on around FB in honor of international book week. Bookworms are invited to grab the closest book to them, turn to page 52, and post the 5th sentence as their status. I'm tweaking it for T13 today. Here are thirteen shortened 5th sentences from books littering my bed right now -

1 Capital adequacy. Pocket Finance, The Economist Books
2 I dare say the Colonel will leave her all his fortune. Emma, Jane Austen
3 People always thought he had been to Oxford or Cambridge. Eating People is Wrong, Malcolm Bradbury

4 She'd learned capital optimisation promiscuously. The Lazarus Vault, Tom Harper
5 They recite together the Veni creator spiritus. Ladies in Waiting, Anne Somerset
6 But the beastie vanished into the chestnut wood. Wuthering Bites, Sarah Gray
7 The objective is to have the clubface make contact with the ball slightly. Golf, Bernard Gallacher

8 Provencale style also inspired Sunday's choices. The Heart Garden, Sunday Reed
9 Choose a stockpot large enough. Postcards from Kitchens Abroad, Diane Holuigue
10 Kolniyatcsh message will drown any that may be uttered. And Even Now, Max Beerbohm

11 Her face was thin and fierce. Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer
12 Robert nodded in agreement. Taste-Berry Tales, Bettie B. Youngs
13 Women in the cells at the other end tell Malachy he's gorgeous. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt

~ Happy Book Week to all book worms ~

Managing My Minutes: do I really need to? - a review

They are only minutes and we have big things that require days, months or forever to do, so do we spend hours discussing the minutes or do we just play it by ear?

Managing My Minutes: Do I Really Need To? shows why and how the minutes matter. It is when the work is great that there's a need to pay attention to little details. In a sea of chores moms or anyone managing a home may hope the children or loved ones in the household will cooperate so things are done quickly. But that may not be always the case. You wonder why the Jones children behave better, their obedience systematic. Is there a secret trick for that?

Author Lorrie Flem points you to a law in the natural world that serves as a guide to help you understand what you might be getting wrong. It's not magic, nor a 'get-rich' formula but an 'app' you can actually make use of. This e-book works around a concept most of us deal with whatever social roles we play - schedule. Now I usually treat schedule as routine, but as this book differentiated the two words, I am seeing how will my 'puzzle pieces' fit together nicely.

A recent change in my professional timetable cleared my weekday mornings. I am free Monday to Friday from dawn til midday you would reasonably think I am well on my way to chapter II of my dissertation. Quite the opposite. Being Miss Busy Doing Nothing is alarming. A section of this e-book addresses my predicament and enables me to confirm where I stand on managing my minutes.

You'll be delighted at how ancient terms bear similarities to business / political references so familiar today. I was. With real life scenario used to analyze the foundation of getting scheduling right, it was then easy for me to nail the thesis of the book, which also provides an assurance that paying attention to the little minutes is worth it in the long run. As a sucker for value of time and effort, the idea works well with me. Find out more of what I'm talking about by reading the book. Details are here. You may want to have a look at the author's site - Eternal Encouragement for related info.

*****

Thanks to Jen of The Happy Little Homemaker for the product photo.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Bookstore bits

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="144"] Bookshop Window (Photo credit: garryknight)[/caption]

On the daydreams department: Inkwood Books, an "indie bookstore in a cozy old Hyde Park bungalow" is for sale. My dream is alive with more than just black and white as I buy the book bungalow in a page-turn.

The rich becomes richer: had the U.S. State Department not withdrawn a $16.5 million contract to provide Kindle Touches for its overseas language education program, that would have been the case with Amazon . The reconsideration now gives all vendors opportunities to respond to the Department's requirements for mobile learning. Yay to sharing the pie.

A positive state of bookstore affairs: Oblong Books & Music (New York) renovates. Here's wishing them traffic flow increase. Politics and Prose (Washington, D.C.) changes their store layout. A toast to events that draw larger audiences. Builders Booksource (California) re-sizes to a cozier space. May they have continued relief from high rental costs. Book Rack Bookstore (Massachusetts) has a changeover focusing on aesthetics. Patrons find it fantastic, they report.

I find all this especially good to muse about after singing a bookshop dirge earlier.

Home in the Burrow

If you had to choose to live within a novel, which would it be?

That was a question I answered in a book party some time ago. I delightedly went, 'without much ado Harry Potter's Hogwarts! What a place to explore! I'd like to transfigure arrogant Malfoy into a cross-eyed cockroach. *kidding* And when I feel like cutting Snape's class I'll hang out at Hagrid's hut. Then during summers head to The Burrow. As Ron Weasley says, "it's not much, but it's home."

The kiddo loves Harry Potter. He watches the first two installments over and over hiding behind the door and saying, "I don't like this..." each time. Then he watches it again, runs to the door again, the ceremony goes on :) For fun I thought of listing our

Thirteen favorite places in Harry Potter:

1. Hogwarts the moving staircases and all the magic learning!
2. The Burrow 'dilapidated and standing only by magic' ah!... wonderful
3. Hogsmeade Village appeals to the country girl in me
3. Madam Puddifoot's is where we will have high tea
4. Diagon Alley shop til I drop
5. Shell Cottage a newly-weds' home must be sweet and lovely
6. Weasley's Wizard Wheezes I want their anti-acne cream
7. Honeyduke's Sweetshop for my sweet tooth
8. The Leaky Cauldron when one day in Diagon Alley is not enough
9. The Three Broomsticks running a pub and living above it
10. Scrivenshaft's Quill Supplies good old writing paraphernalia
11. Magical Menagerie offers advice on animal care and health
12. Florean Fortescue's who doesn't want choco-raspberry with chopped nuts?
13. Flourish & Blotts books of course

Have you got a favorite place in Harry Potter or any literary place really? It's fun to imagine yourself in them sometimes.

~ Photo Credit: The Pensieve. I claim no ownership. ~

A heavenly library has a book fountain

[caption id="attachment_13522" align="alignleft" width="259"] Bookshelf Wallpaper by Young & Battaglia[/caption]

When books die do they go to heaven? I like to think they do. Earlier I lamented the gradual departure of bookshops here and there. It is  bittersweet to succumb to book depression. Then something came up which made me think that in a traditional book lover's space this would be perfect - "a heavenly library." Or at least the look of it. Young & Battaglia is the creative genius behind this bookshelf wallpaper idea showcased by Design Year Book.

"White books on white shelves." How peaceful is that! And to me it is quite a comfort to see reminders of traditional books like this if they have to be driven off our lives by e-readers. On a fashionista note, it looks like an intelligent sort of background for a photoshoot with a dark-clad reading model, does it not?

Let's go to Budapest. Just a 5-second show that may stretch your fascination to five minutes or more: [youtube width="250" height="200"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QS4mp5RV5M[/youtube] If you have encountered these bookish delights earlier somewhere, well, it was fun sharing them again with you in my nook.

Lace and Expectations

"Lace is a thing like hope. It is beauty; it is grace.
It was never meant to destroy so many lives."

Lace also usually associates well with tenderness, delicateness.  But how does it end up destroying lives? Author Iris Anthony weaves a story of "fleeting beauty, mad obsession and ephemeral hope." Ruins of Lace is for historical fiction fans, and is going to be published on October 1st 2012. More info here.


[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="150"] Charles Dickens' great-great-great-grandchildren, Rob Charles Dickens, and Rachel Dickens Green, lay flowers at the grave during a ceremony at Westminster Abbey to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of the English novelist on February 7, 2012 in London, England. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)[/caption]

Remember Pip, the orphan who rose to wealth, and got affected by the improvement of his circumstances? If you think you have seen Pip somewhere in the news last week, I don't blame you. The novel was written long before our grandparents' parents existed. But don't we all mind a good story about being humbled after a stint with arrogance? Published in 1860 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens depicts life in Victorian England.

If you like old English masterpieces, chances are you did not miss the 1998 film adaptation of this book. A 2012 version is just around the corner, and is packed with a stellar cast - Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Robbie Coltrane, along with a couple of promising newcomers. Mike Newell directs.

Canada will be first to watch it in September. New Zealand, Ireland and the UK will follow in November; Germany in December and Russia - January 2013. Check the trailer -