michelle's coffee breaks: 2007

Monday, December 17, 2007

Santa Claus!

Right now, I’m sitting next to Adrian. He is focused wanting to finish up his work for the night, while me, just stepped out from the shower thinking about something really strange.

Santa Claus.
Who is Santa Claus.

I was actually thinking to myself, who is Santa Claus. Believe it or not, having gone through quite a NUMBER of Christmases and growing up always wanting be know where santa came from, I just can’t believe at this point in my life, I still don’t know who is Santa Claus.

Without much thought, I dived into the internet and googgled Santa Claus. Typically, the 1st result that appeared came from wikipedia.

Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, or simply "Santa" is a fictional folklore figure who, in Western cultures, is presented as bringing gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day or on his feast day, December 6.

The popular North American form Santa Claus is derived from the Dutch Sinterklaas, which in turn is a contracted form of Sint Nicolaas (Saint Nicholas). However, the Dutch Sinterklaas is depicted as being very different from Santa Claus in many ways.

Also, I found out that the outfit Santa Claus wears comes in many colors depending on which country. The most common depiction (red with white cuffs, collar, and black leather belt) became the more popular image in the United States in the 19th century due to the significant influence of Thomas Nast.

Thomas Nast's depiction of Santa Claus

Thomas Nast was a famous German-American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist in the 19th century and is considered to be the father of American political cartooning. He drew A classic version of Santa Claus1863 for Harper's Weekly. Before then, most depictions of Santa Claus showed a tall, thin man. Nast drew him as the bearded, plump man known today.

In the mid-20th Century, and artist Haddon Sundblom came up with a series of Coca-Cola advertisements featuring a Santa Claus which was round and jovial, closely depicted by Thomas Nast.

Haddon Sundblom's depiction of Santa Claus is the Coca Cola Advertisements

Many legends and miracles are attributed to Santa Claus:

When he was an infant, his mother only nursed him on Wednesdays and Fridays; he fasted the remaining days.
He halted a storm at sea in order to save three drowning sailors.
During his lifetime, he adored children and often threw gifts anonymously into the windows of their homes.
His father left him a fortune which he used to help poor children.
He grabbed the sword of an executioner to save the life of a political prisoner.
He brought back to life several children who had been killed.

Present day, you can find quite a number of legends, related to Santa.

Throughout many countries in Europe, St. Nicholas/Santa distributes gifts to the children on DEC-5, the eve of his feast day. In some countries, the gifts come at another time during Advent or on Christmas eve.
In Germany, Weinachtsmann (Christmas man) is a helper of the Christkind (Christ Child)
In France, Père Noël distributes the gifts.
In Russia, under the influence of communism, St. Nicolas evolved into the secular Father Frost. He distributes toys to children on New Year's Eve.
In England, Father Christmas delivers the presents. He is shown with holly, ivy or mistletoe.
In Scandinavian countries, the ancient Pagan Yule goat has transmuted into Joulupukki - similar to the American Santa.
In North America, Santa Claus rules, thanks to a certain brand of soda.
According to Roman Catholic church, his body is said to have not decomposed. In his shrine in Bari, Italy, it is believed by many pilgrims to exude a sweet smelling odor which cures medical disorders and illnesses.

Right now, I'm left with a retiring smile because at least part of my naive and innocent growing up year believing that there is a Santa is not at all a fairy tale. He is just Saint Nicholas!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

THE POEM

I've read this poem a couple a times and never really thought it meant anything to me. Of late, I've been really caught up with work and sometimes forget totally about the meaning of existence and the creator of it.

I am truly humbled and often feel much more secure to know that He is close to me.
Now I'd like to share this poem with you and hopefully it'll speak to you soon.

---

I knelt to pray but not for long, I had too much to do.
I had to hurry and get to work for bills would soon be due.
So I knelt and said a hurried prayer,
And jumped up off my knees
My Christian duty was now done
My soul could rest at ease.
All day long I had no time
To spread a word of cheer.
No time to speak of Christ to friends,
They'd laugh at me I'd fear.
No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry,
No time to give to souls in need
But at last the time, the time to die.
I went before the Lord,
I came, I stood with downcast eyes.
For in his hands God held a book; It was the book of life.
God looked into his book and said "Your name I cannot find.
I once was going to write it down... but never found the time"

Sunday, October 21, 2007

pralines?

A couple of minutes ago, Adrian and I were just chilling when I took out a box of Max Brenners chocolates Andrea brought for us from Sydney.

This box of chocolate comes with a little menu/catalogue where it labels the type of chocolates in the box.

I chose the "Dark Chocolate Praline with Cornflakes" and Adrian picked the "Praline with Dark Chocolate".

Then he asked, "Hunn, What is praline?"

I thought for a second "I think it's high class chocolates."

He paused and said "o-kay".

For the next 30 seconds, I sat still and I came over to the check what a praline actually means.

Praline is a family of confections made from nuts and sugar syrup. (Source: wikipedia)

As originally invented in France at the Chateau Vaux-le Vicomte by the cook of the 19th century sugar industrialist, Praslin. Pralines were whole almonds individually coated in caramelized sugar, as opposed to dark nougat, where a sheet of caramelized sugar covers many nuts. The powder made by grinding up such sugar-coated nuts is called 'pralin' or 'praliné' in French, and is an ingredient in many cakes and pastries.

In most other countries the word 'praline' is used to mean this powder, or even a paste, often used to fill chocolates, hence its use by synecdoche in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium to refer to filled chocolates in general. In the United Kingdom, the term can refer either to praline (the filling for chocolates) or, less commonly, to the original whole-nut pralines.

After reading this, pralines are not exactly high-class chocolates. There are chocolates which have softer/caramelized texture inside and are covered with another layer of chocolate.

Hehe, I will need to explain this to my confused husband.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Carls jr.

Lately, I had strange cravings for jap food. And knowing my cravings, it's best to get my stomach to Genki Sushi for cheap assortments of standard japanese food. Tonight in particular, we left for dinner pretty late, about 9pm. When reached Genki Sushi in One Utama, it was already closing for the day.

We found out from my sister that Carls Jr. is in town and it was just a couple of steps away from Genki sushi. So we've decided to give it a try. Afterall, I've missed it the last time when we were in Singapore.

Having the go through the menu was quite difficult as most of them looked similar except the burgers with mushrooms. For your information, if you've not heard of Carls Jr, it's another one of those American fastfood chains serving huge portion of burgers.

I opted for the Portobello mushroom burger while Adrian had the Western Bacon Cheeseburger. When we've finally made our order, the lady over at the counter asked if we would like to upgrade our fries to crisscut fries, onion rings or chilli fries. We asked how much is it to upgrade, she said RM3.00. Therefore we thought it was quite a good deal to pay 3 bucks to get chilli fries. GREAT! The total came up to close to 50 bucks for 2 sets of meal. *GREAT-EER* When checked why, the chilli fries cost about 7 bucks to upgrade. What a great way to get us to upgrade. GEE!

Anyways, we didn't make any fuss out of it hoping the serving of chilli fries would be good. When our meal arrived, we were pretty pleased to find that our wrapped burgers were in generous sizes: means to my standard - HUGE. However, to my horror, when I open up the burger wrapper, all I saw 2 huge hamburger buns with a tiny charbroiled beef patty. The patty looked 3 times smaller than what we saw in the menu and the yeah, the buns looked exactly the size - HUGE!

Oh well, without a word, we took our dinner “ quietly"

The verdict - The burgers were alright. Perhaps a 5.5/10. Yes, we were completely stuffed after finishing our meals, but that did not feel good at all. We felt we've stuffed ourselves crazy with more burger buns than any thing else. The chilli fries weren't that good either. Possibly a 5/10. As for the drink, Coke what can go wrong Coke.

The meal was nothing a shout about. Possibly it's because it;s halal here and the Asian fed cows here are just sad. To sum up, I won't mind trying Carls Jr. in America or even in Singapore. However, I don't think I will step into Carls Jr here in Malaysia again.