Not Something You’d Usually Say

“Hurry up! Your dinner’s getting warm!”

I yelled to my husband, after preparing a batch of zaru soba (cold buckwheat noodles) last night.

Happiness is an Oven

I bought a small electric oven yesterday to replace a built-in wall oven that stopped functioning a decade ago.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I don’t really cook. I do, however, love to bake.  I used to bake regularly – breads, cakes, biscuits, pies – nothing was too time consuming or difficult. If something caught my fancy at the supermarket or bakery, I’ll find/create a recipe to bake it at home. By the time I was 14, I had perfected my own torte recipe.

About 10 years ago, my oven stopped working. I got someone over to fix it but after a few weeks, the oven died again. I got someone else to fix it but he said it was beyond repair. From then on, I’ve wanted to get the oven replaced but never took the initiative. Weeks became months and months became years and years became a whole decade and baking became a distant memory, something I used to do.

The topic of ovens came back recently when after mentioning to a friend that I’d bake a oatmeal cookie RIGHT NOW, if only I had an oven, she burst into of hysterical laughter and said something like “yeah, like you would do such a thing”. I asked her what she meant by that and she said that I don’t come across as someone who’d attempt to fry an egg, much less bake, and besides if I really loved baking, I would’ve just got an oven instead of dreaming about it. I tried to convince her that I do indeed bake (she wasn’t convinced) but she was right about one thing – there’s no reason for me not to get something that would make me happy.

I finally decided to get an oven yesterday. I have to admit I was a bit nervous about oven-shopping, or rather with the prospect of jumping back into something I used to enjoy. Will I still be in love with it? What if I’ve lost my baking mojo? What if the real reason why I did not replace my oven earlier was because I didn’t really care about baking anymore?

I made two batches of oatmeal cookies within half an hour of getting my oven yesterday. Today I’m making chocolate chip cookies. And yes, I’m very happy :)

Happiness is All Around You

The scene: a tiny, badly-ventilated kitchen.

Daughter was chopping onions causing her eyes to tear. Mum was deveining prawns. One of the cats, the small, vocal one, started mewing loudly, demanding her share.

The other cat, the crazy, fat one, chased by his imaginary stalker, ran into the kitchen, toppling his bowl of cat food and water over with a loud shplockssshh! startling the daughter, causing her to jab her arm with the dull part of the knife she’s holding. The ruckus shocked the previously meowing little kitty so much she clawed her way up Mum’s leg.

The floor was a mess, daughter’s arm in pain and Mum had a frightened kitty hooked to her back.

Mother and daughter looked at each other…

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And laughed at the commotion.

My life hasn’t always been fun and laughter but ever since I’ve made the commitment to live my life positively, I have been been blessed with many moments of happiness in simple, everyday events. The way I feel have also rubbed off to the ones closest to me (maybe not to the cats) proving that happiness does multiply when you are in the company of positive people.