“𝗛𝗲 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲; 𝗜 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲.” -𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯 3:30

These are St. John the Baptist’s prophetic words that I am taking inspiration from in my post today. This week leading and up to the Holy Week, I will not be posting #mycoffeecupreflections. I am humbly giving way to other online reflections that are better and more relevant to the holy season of Lent. I find the following sites very helpful in doing daily meditations:

https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/reflections/lent

https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/lent.../72794

I am sure you can find more. Let us journey together, embrace the cross of Christ and renew ourselves in Him. And as the popular song goes:

𝐿𝑒𝑡 𝑢𝑠 𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝐻𝑖𝑠 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒

𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑛

𝑆𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑘𝑒𝑑

𝐴𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒

𝐹𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑'𝑠 𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑠

𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐻𝑖𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑢𝑝 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑣𝑒

𝑊𝑎𝑙𝑘 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑝, 𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑒, 𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑑

𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑, 𝑇𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝐻𝑖𝑠 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒

See you again on Easter Sunday.

Cheers! #MyCafeNotes

Two days ago, my daughter Nikkei received an email she wrote to herself 5 years ago using an app where you set the time when to receive every letter you wrote. In it were her thoughts about her life then as a student, her outlook into the future and many useless products of her 18-year old imagination. She started with a greeting, "Annyeong!" That was the year she started with her Korean transformation. Ain’t that cool?

Actually, this is one of the reasons why I write daily reflections. This’ll serve as the chronicle of my life that I can look back on 5 or 55 years from now. Memories that one twisted-minded like me would normally do not remember. Stuff that my grandchildren’s grandchildren may read about if the English we write and speak now would still exist by then. They will have stories to tell their kindergarten classmates about their not so great great-great grandfather’s recorded mistakes and how he managed to rise and fall again from them. And wrote and laughed about them, too.

I’ve also kept a copy of most of the letters I wrote when I was still working in Saudi. Some hilarious, others hilarious. I might write about some of them in this platform. If I don’t forget.

Cheers! #MyCafeNotes

If you’re the man of the house, male or female, I’m sure you’ve heard of WD40. Yep, the best 20th century invention spray that lubricates and loosens rusted bolts and solves a million+1 problems.

Andre was cook-in-charge fixing Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup for lunch yesterday. He was doing the latter part when a loud "OH MAH GASH!" was heard coming from the kitchen. I rushed to check what went wrong. As soon as I got into the heat of the matter, it was clear to me what transpired seeing him carefully scoop the battery-operated pepper mill out of the boiling soup. It apparently slipped out of his hands while seasoning. I immediately removed the batteries, washed off the soup with running water, dried it a bit and sprayed a good amount of WD40. Before dinner, I towel-dried the gadget and installed back the batteries to check if it still works.

Ladies and gentlemen, angels and saints -ja, it verks!

WD40 may just be what the world needs to end this pandemic. Never stay home without it.

And oh, the soup? It was electrifying!

Cheers! #MyCafeNotes

I made hummus from scratch. No, I didn’t plant and harvest sesame seeds, chick peas, grapes, olives and garlic. I harvested them from the supermarket. I prepared the tahini myself, opened the can of chick peas, crushed garlic cloves and processed the whole thing. But along the way, I miscalculated the recipe amount of lemon and garlic. Instead of the usual 1 clove, I put 2 and instead of 1 lemon, I used 2. The end product: much, much better! Ha! Perfect with fresh carrot and cucumber sticks. And spread on sourdough toasts, I am salivating already. My vegetarian family and neighbors loved it.

Many good inventions were products of accidents and odd science. My hmmm hummus, it’s one of them.

Don’t be afraid to make experiments and fail because a failure according to established standards may prove to be the next big thing.

Cheers! #MyCafeNotes

I cheated. You don’t have to tell my wife or my kids because they already know. They were with me. We all cheated. I broke my lent sacrifice of eating vegan -nothing that had eyes, nothing that had a mother. I ate 𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙖 (spanner crab) cooked in sweet-spicy sauce in the tradition of Makasutra Gluttons Bay in Singapore. I had good reasons for eating. Ask me, "What?"

One: Our host told us that the persons who fished them out of the deep, dark waters risked their lives so other people may eat and enjoy. It was an appropriate response to eat to honor their sacrifice.

Two: I was hungry.

Three: I haven’t eaten this big a 𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙖 ever in my life before. Ever! I only had to eat half and history will be made.

Four: I was very hungry.

Five: I was reminded of the time in Singapore with my family when I was still living as a normal carnivore. Nothing bad reminiscing while employing the taste buds, eh?

Six: See no.4. Add another very in the middle of the sentence.

So there. I confess. May you not find in your hearts to judge me in my weakness. Don’t we all fall sometimes? I’ve only just vegan.

Cheers! #MyCafeNotes

Yesterday, I had a face-to-face meeting with a client for an important project. My first in many months. The office is a medium-rise building with the first few storeys used for parking. And parking is the heart of this reflection.

Yesterday I found out the they’ve switched the entrance and the exit points of the building without anyone informing me. I drove thru the exit to enter. I did hear a guard shouting "HOY!!!" but I ignored it because HOY isn’t my name. When I got to the exit barrier, a few more guards were there signaling to me like it was the end of the world. One even muttered something that cannot be written here although I wasn’t able to hear it anyways because my windows were shut -haha!

As I drove back to where I entered, I saw the biggest sign only the biggest idiot will miss: EXIT ONLY. Ya, I missed it because I was so dang sure it was the entry. I’ve learned that many of the things that I have gotten accustomed to have changed due to the pandemic or to the global warming or to the alignment of the asteroids in heaven.

I will be more observant. Next time.

Cheers! #MyCafeNotes

The shower in our ground floor T&B hasn’t been used in years. I remember the last time I tried, water kept squirting in all directions through its valve. A few days ago, I thought of replacing the valve which has been sealed with all sorts including Teflon and rubber tapes. Removing it is a major production that requires the outdoor valve in the main pipe line to be closed. So no water for the meantime.

Bringing the sample valve with me, I went to every hardware and Home Depot store within 5kms radius of our toilet. Nada. The valve isn’t of today’s standard anymore. After spending an entire morning and half-a-tank of gas, I went back home conceding to a future of chipping off a big chunk of the bathroom wall to replace the entire valve assembly.

So replace the old valve I did and re-opened the main valve forgetting the rubber sealants that I initially removed. To my surprise, there was no leak! And the shower worked! Right there and then, I showered with all my clothes on in celebration. Miracle in toilet no.1.

Not everything rendered useless before may not necessarily remain useless forever. Including old ideas. And human brains.

Cheers! #MyCafeNotes