Radical Optimism

June 6th, 2008

What a strange time it is. For me, at least.

Although I keep checking in with other people, and it seems that everyone has a particular set of neuroses floating around in their heads these days: I’ll say to a friend: “You know, I’m totally weirded out about the price of oil, people starving, global warming, [...]

For My Greatest Teacher

April 12th, 2008

It’s been a big week.

My mother died on Thursday.

I don’t know how to write that sentence without dropping it on your foot like a brick. Not that you knew my mother, but no matter how you slice it, mothers are a big deal, and death is pretty huge itself. In fact, of all [...]

At Sea

April 8th, 2008

Life is funny. I’m on a cruise in the Caribbean right now. Yeah, like azure waters, warm ocean spray, lovely, happy cruisers, and I’m a mess. Well, not exactly a mess, but the waves this ship keeps riding feel like wet, rolling metaphors. My mother is thousands of miles away, in [...]

Hictic

March 13th, 2008

Dear Bloguee,

I’ve hesitated to blog lately because some serious poop has hit the fan of my life; my mother, diagnosed with malignant melanoma four years ago, is experiencing a recurrence.  I’m in London right now, where she lives, cooking my butt off for her.

It is, as my friends in South Africa would say, “hectic”–only they [...]

Hallelujah

March 2nd, 2008

My whole life, I’ve been a total mess. Some blame it on having had a maid growing up, but my sister was picked up after too, and she’s neat as a pin. Some consider it laziness on my part, and yet I can exhibit profound un-laziness in may other aspects of my life. [...]

Get Out The Umbrella

February 19th, 2008

They say when it rains, it pours.  In this last week, I was felled by a sinus infection (life simply sucks when lived through a throbbing skullful of snot), my blog got hacked (thanks “Seabat” or whoever you really are–GET A LIFE!), my precious, precious cat died (see photo below) and I heard some very [...]

Just Keep Cooking

January 18th, 2008

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  I know.  I haven’t blogged lately.  BECAUSE I’VE BEEN COOKING!!! Like, almost every day, dude!  I’ve also been gearing up for the online cooking classes starting next week by looking through recipes and re-reading Michio Kushi’s The Book of Macrobiotics, just to make sure I know what the heck I’m talking about.

But [...]

The Shopping Channel

January 9th, 2008

I was on the Canadian Shopping Channel this week. THE. SHOPPING. CHANNEL. I might as well have been transported to Neptune in terms of the planet-hopping involved. Think whizzing, whirring TV studio that basically never stops, from 6 a.m. to midnight–every day. Lights, camera, ACTION! Think jewellery and colon cleanses [...]

That Macro Feeling

January 3rd, 2008

When Howard and I were private chefs, we would always be on the lookout for our clients experiencing “the macro feeling”. It’s difficult to explain if you’ve never felt it, but I remember one guy saying “I’m used to going to work and pounding the desk” as he made the aggressive gesture on an imaginary [...]

Boomerangs

December 23rd, 2007

BEWARE: LONG BLOG AHEAD

First of all, I want to say THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU to everyone who has posted blog-encouragement to me in the last week or so. Every message has been sucked on like a candy and throughly digested by my soul. Thank you. It really helps. If you feel moved to keep it [...]