(261) Liquid gold

I saw a program on Astro about the Italian economy. In the program they touched on the test marketing of extra virgin olive oil in Beijing.

I had a neighbor in Silver City whose cousin's year end bonus in 2000 was a cool million dollars. Of course the lady concerned lives in a mansion in a gated and guarded area with tight security. Of interest to me, the wealthy lady only uses olive oil in her kitchen. She bought different grade oil for different purposes: extra virgin for salads and ordinary olive oil for light frying.

After listening to that, I actually went to the supermarket and checked on the prices of those bottles. What I found out was that none of the different brands of liquid gold was less than two times the price of the normal cooking oil I use. And I want to point out that I am using mid range vegetable based oil. At the end I did buy one small bottle to find out why folks would pay so much for it. Among the many purposes I used it for, it was quite good as salad oil and in cooking pasta sauce. That was the last time you find olive oil in my kitchen. It is not because I don't like it, I simply feel that in order to pay for that as a daily staple, I am not willing to trim my budget to fit it in.

(255) Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts

 I find this book interesting as it dealt with unwritten codes among friends in the USA. Quite a bit of it reminded me of confidences exchanged in the dorm rooms in the middle of the night. It is certainly easier to tell your friends the difficult to talk about things if it is in the wee hours and there is dimmed lighting and preferably if there is someone asleep and the remaining two whispering in a dark corner.

Yes, I heard about the first kiss, first French kiss, the petting and necking in the back seat ... According to this book, girls tell. They expect each other to, and they themselves disclose.  Well, in my home town, things are different. I used to have a group of close friends, after being abroad for college, I was no longer that close with most of them but one. When I unexpectedly returned from America, everyone has moved on. One got married and had two children. Another was engaged and actually went on a pre-nup trip to Europe. (Well, they have registered legally as man and wife but had not gone through the Chinese ceremonies) Another two were dating seriously with the men in their lives. The rest were busy with jobs and dating around. I actually found myself a whole new set of friends and acquaintances to do things with. I must have missed out on the hot dates and the hot news of the old set because I was away. But, one incident stood out: our advertising consultant managed to grill an errant friend and found out why she chose to go work in Papua.

Now, this errant friend has always been close mouth and kept her own counsel. She has a stubborn streak and would refuse to tell if she so decides. However, she did not count on our media research friend's skills developed by countless consumer research projects funded by international companies. There our advertising consultant small talked and asked more than  sixty seemingly unrelated questions. Those questions were of two types, random ones and the related ones. By being relax and answering those questions, the end result is telling. Even if some answers were lies, our consultant could sieve them out and ask from completely different angles.

So, the consultant taxed her brain cells and came to one conclusion: our dear friend was heart broken with her hot boy friend in Borneo. While the relationship was going well, she must have slept with him (that was her first, we were certain) thinking she would eventually marry him. But she must have found out something pretty bad about him and she wanted out. Just a simple break up would not do, seemed like he was not willing to let her go and she resorted to being transferred to Papua, of all places! I'll end on a happy note, she is the proud mother of one son with a Thai husband. Of course her son is like sixteen years younger than mine as she took her time to select her lucky man and then she has some difficulty conceiving in her late thirties.

(254) Himalaya by Michael Palin

I happen to have an elder brother who continually buys and reads travel books and then generously passes them to me.

This is one book which describes places that I wish I could go. But of course I have not the financial means to travel to such far off the beaten track countries. Even if I have a sudden windfall that solves the money angle, I do not have the necessary mobility to tackle mountain paths.

It was a happy few days that I spent living my armchair traveling through Palin's eyes. I particularly want to visit Bhutan, the country with clear, clean air that is still made up of many acres of virgin temperate forest.

One day I might just go and visit a few friends who live in Kunming and add on a side trip to Lijiang. With really cheap fare offered by Air Asia, dreams do come true!

(253) To hear God

The other day Elizabeth was lamenting that she could not hear God. Since Michael went for YWAM (Youth With A Mission) and was trained daily in his Discipleship Training Course to wait for God's still small voice, she made one of those rare hand phone calls to pick his brain. But for someone who has yet to hear that voice, even what he said was too stupendous.

The summer after my college graduation, I was living in a small town working in a small outfit. Every Friday night a very kind couple would pick me up for what they called home fellowship. I distinctly remember one testimony (story about one's walk with God) of a quiet and serious old man. He was deliberating over an important decision in his life as a young believer and was losing much sleep over it. One co-worker told him to seek God - meaning read the bible and ask God to speak to him. At that time, my fellowship group member was a young man feeling rather foolish when he proceeded to carry out the act of seeking God. He knelt down and asked God to speak to him concerning his problem with scripture verses. Then he thanked God and got up to sit at the study desk to read the next portion of scripture from his reading list. Lo and behold, one verse lit up and jumped at him. He could not believe his own eyes and actually went to wash his face. After a five minute break, he went back to the same line: the very same verse jumped out at him again. Then he knew that was God's answer to his problem. He thanked God aloud and went on to apply that verse to his problem. For indeed God hears and he answers his children.

A week later I was asking God what should I do : to continue in the same town or go on to a nearby University town? To work or to go to summer school? The answer came that very night, I was reading some page in the Old Testament. Three words jumped at me and was blinking: Return to Samaria. At that point I did not know where Samaria was or even who the Samaritans were. But the meaning was clear: God wanted me to return to my home country. I remember telling God that since seven years old I meant to find a way to go to America and stay on there. Although I wanted very much to be obedient to him, but would he change my heart. That He did, He changed my heart within three days: overruling a decision that I held in my heart for seventeen years. More than that, I still have three months to seek for employment, an additional visa extension of six months to be applied for. On top of all that, my host couple generously offered me a scholarship to do my Masters degree. At the very same time, an eligible pilot in the Arm Forces was courting me with my host family's permission. Despite all that, I did return home. Yes, my earthly father told me in no uncertain terms that I was stupid to return at that time. He said I could have negotiated with God and gotten my second degree first. Moreover, he said that to be married to a US pilot would mean I could travel with him to many bases around the world. But I suppose what he said was true, yet to obey is better than sacrifice. And what human could see is so very limited. To God, He transcends time and space. Thirty odd years later, it is proven that God had my well being in His mind when He asked me to return. I may not have a second degree today, neither have I traveled as much as I could have wished for; yet I am content with who I am today.