Going to the Fair!

On Monday, we went to the Minnesota State Fair. It's that big, 

slightly crazy annual end-of-summer tradition in which (among 

other things) almost all the food is served on a stick. In scale, 

it's a cross between Chatuchak Market and a National Stadium 

soccer match. It has animal barns with live births, butter sculptures, 

live radio broadcasts, concerts, amusement rides, and exhibits 

of all kinds. It's something every visitor must go to once (and 

every resident annually, I understand). Our party on Monday 

was  a combination of both. Here we begin with a ride in the 

free shuttle bus - almost as much fun for the kids as the fair itself.

The fair is all about the food, of course. It is interesting to see 

what new on-a-stick concoctions are added each year - casserole 

on a stick, scotch eggs on a stick, mocha on a stick... anything from 

ingenious to simply trying-too-hard. No fishballs-with-chilli-sauce 

on a stick yet, though. Pity.

Our party, however, stuck to the more traditional fair fare:

cotton candy

mini-donuts (fried, not baked, thankfully)

deep-fried cheese curds

and a foot-long corn dog, alias pronto pup

In my earlier fair-going days before the kids were born, 

Dave and I leisurely visited all manner of exhibits. This 

was from our 2002 trip - look: nailpolish! As I said, 

this was before the kids were born.

Visiting the fair with the kids meant new rules:

rides were now more important than cows.

Quick intermission for sun protection

Some experiential learning - farmers for a day.

It was hard work with all that playing and eating, 

so we took breaks every now and then

and at sunset, almost 6 hours later, we left the crowds (and what 

crowds!) behind and set off home.

Nature Ramble

Last weekend we went to Blackhawk Park, which is about

a five minutes' drive from where we live, for a nature ramble.

Armed with strollers and camera, we set out.

Initially, all was calm and organized and we enjoyed

discovering new and exciting bits of nature.

and then Jenna decided she wanted to walk,

which quickly ended in a fall. So we all took an

early break for some TLC and a Band-aid.

Undaunted of course, Jenna continued on foot,

with some involuntary assistance at first

and then wandered off till she was ahead of everyone

and had to be rescued by Emily

Order went downhill from that point, with everyone abandoning

their strollers for other modes of transportation.

Even Kate, who earlier was content to sit and enjoy the ride

now wanted to see everything from a higher vantage point.

Eventually only I was left on my lonely trek across the plains

as everyone else resumed urban activities at the playground

before all adjourning to Culvers for supper.

Photo of the Day

Jenna. Markers. 2 minutes when our backs were turned.

Photo of the Day

Mum and Kate taking a break during a nature ramble.

A Delayed Confinement

Warning: Contains bizarre facts and foreign words!

In traditional Chinese culture, a new mother spends the first month 

after the birth of her child in what is known as a "confinement period". 

Believed to be exceedingly weak after the ordeal of birth, the 

hapless woman is literally confined to her home and made to rest, 

her only duty being perhaps to feed the newborn. The advantages 

of this are obvious: she gets to avoid household chores for a whole 

month! The downside, though, is the new mother's hygiene (or lack 

thereof) since baths and showers are forbidden, to protect her weak 

constitution from the dangerous temperature fluctuations arising from 

contact with water. And no shopping, for fabric or otherwise.

Thankfully, our family does not see the sense in this particular 

charming aspect of our culture and has continued to take at least 

two showers a day, even in the dead of winter. And when each of 

my three children were born, household chores, cooking, laundry 

and everything else in that genre continued at the same 

breakneck pace as before. 

Having mum and dad here four months after Kate was born feels 

oddly like I'm in a confinement period - but only the good parts. 

For one, two other pairs of hands reach for Kate when she needs 

to be played with. For another, two other pairs of hands load and 

unload the dishwasher, washer and dryer each day. 

And best of all, I get to eat the comfort food of home - 

made by mum and QC-ed by dad.

This is what was on our kitchen counter at lunchtime today - 

- all the fixings for rojak! Minus the santan flower, but some things 

cannot be had for love or money in this part of the world 

so we happily did without.

And bubbling merrily away in the crockpot was pulot hitam 

(black rice) . With santan! But without the pandan leaf or the 

gula melaka - sadly forgot to buy. Here's another tragedy: 

the bag of rice had been sitting in the pantry for months; 

I didn't have the time to make it and had to wait till mum 

and dad got here to finally make it for me.

Ah, glorious food. Non-Chinese, of course. I was always partial 

to non-Chinese food - I mean, why eat Chinese food when you 

can have Malay, Indian, Peranakan, Indonesian, Thai?

Sometime next week we are going to make sambal belaccan. 

Rest assured that we will try to contain the smell - we want our 

neighbors to still be our friends when mum and dad have gone home.

After that colorful meal and naps for the kids (who ate sandwiches 

for lunch, incidentally), we headed out to a park.

A happy day! 

And with a little child-care juggling, we all 

took a total of 9 showers/baths today.