MORE RANDOM MEMORIES - for the autobiography one day

Maya Plisetskaya - My parents brought me to see her perform in Seattle. She did "The Dying Swan," The applause was so loud and so many curtain calls that she did it a second time! I saw that. A highlight of my life.

Mama's Tips - My mother taught me to eat hot soup from the outer edges while it cools.

Copyright 2010, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

WONDERING & WANDERING

To suss out what is worth the time and effort, that takes some work. 

I am looking forward to chatting with Dr Teik Aun Wong - I need to figure out what to call him publicly - but always good chats whenever we connect. He has a concept: "Wondering and Wandering." Just change the vowel.

Cultural Differences: that's a topic of real interest. What makes Americans uniquely such-and-so? In what ways am I an American? What values, principles, ideas about the world do I harbor? What shapes my perspective?

Conversations about Travel and More...It's easier somehow to talk about it than to write. 

Copyright 2010, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

GRAVE MARKERS - remembering Nantucket, Mema and Papa

I watch a lot of Asian TV shows - I'm a huge K-drama rom com fan and indulge myself in long, luxurious binges. Right now I am watching The Journalist with the wonderful "Doctor X" Ryoko Yonekura. As in so many Asian dramas, often time scenes are set in graveyards or mausoleums. The characters often talk directly to the deceased as if they were alive.

It hit me that there is nowhere on earth where I can find my immediate ancestors. In Honolulu, under gnarled trees and neighboring Kawaiahao Church built by my great-great-great grandfather and the Hawaiian Christian Community of the 19th century, there is a graveyard of missionary descendants which includes some of the earlier generations of my family, the Binghams. It costs these days too much perhaps for me to buried there, It's a cool, peaceful place and many of the markers are fading with time. I liked it there.

But I would like somewhere, somewhen, someone to mark that I once lived. Do we all just come and go?

I wish that there were a grave marker for my Daddy - Herr Doktor Professor V(W)alter A Fairservis Y(J) unior as I once saw on an envelope sent to him from Germany.  "Our Father who art upstairs" as I often thought of him while he was writing something, perhaps his next book, way up in the attic. 

I wish that I could stand in front of a grave marker for Grandmother Nana Edith Yeager, the unknown Grandfather Walter Fairservis the 1st. Some place to think about and remember Aunt Louise Yeager. I think my father told me that when our Nana was being carried down the stairs to go to the hospital, I was the last one to speak to her. When her ashes came, my father said, he went up the mountain behind our house at 234 Mountain Road and let the wind take them off around the world.

I wish that there was some place that memorialized Papa, my grandfather, Charles Moseley Sutherland. Maybe it is the statue of Duke Kawanamoku, the famous surfer, that Papa swam with when he was a young and beautiful man spending his teens with family in Hawaii when his father died.

I am glad when I think of it that there is a place for Mema, Beth Benton Sutherland. She has a rock.

When I was 17 or 18, I think, just graduated from high school with an open summer, I had a very strong internal message that it was important that I go up to Nantucket island. My sister Elf and I made our way there; stopping off first on Martha's Vineyard to visit a friend, Charlie Cooley. It was the summer that "Jaws" came out and I remember standing by the sea, terrified. For years, I was afraid of sharks.

We went on - the 3 of us - to Nantucket. Our grandparents had purchased an island vacation cottage back in the early 50's - Toad Hall, they called it. Papa who was so skilled in carpentry and art built an artful studio with a skylight above their bed. Set in a hollow below sea level, the winds passed above the cottage snapping the American flag that each morning Papa would hoist up and each evening, we would solemnly pull down and fold into a tricorn.

Charlie's family had a car on the island. It was big and plush with automatic seat adjustments and deep cushiony seats. As I remember it was maroon. On a typical gray Nantucket summer day with a light mist in the air, he came to pick us up for a ride - Mema and Papa, Elf and I, and Charlie driving. 

We drove up to 'Sconset. If I were Scots, I would probably call it "a wee hamlet." Lovely cottages there, covered in flowers. Behind the general store, there is a little path down to the beach. We parked and walked down to listen to the waves crashing.

And Mema said, "When I die, I want to die on Nantucket in the fall."

I don't know why that still echoes in my head half a century later but there it is.

And so Elf and I went home to Connecticut after about 2 weeks visiting the grandparents on Nantucket. And sure enough, the call came that Mema had had a heart attack under the skylights there in the Studio. In the fall, on Nantucket, like she wanted.

Each summer, she would wield heavy tools and cut paths through the brambles that surrounded the hollow. There is a large rock somewhere in that jungle and she would clear around it. I was told by someone that her ashes were scattered there.

There is a tree planted on the land of what was our home for 30 plus years. My sisters and mother thought that our father was like an oak - I think it is an oak. With friends gathered for a memorial about a month after he died - July 12, 1994 - we scattered ashes around that tree.

And later, my youngest sister snuck ashes in her suitcase  into Egypt. Mama and I went to the Fort at Hierakonpolis, probably the oldest brick structure in the world, perhaps it was a corral for cattle - who knows? And there where archaeologists dug up the bones of early Egyptians, we laid my father to rest, scattering handfuls of ashes in the Egyptian desert wind.

I believe in the power and rightness of cremation. When my mother was thinking about how to dress my father's body, I knew he would be best in the white galabea gown that he wore to give his last lecture. The topic: Zoroastrianism. Perhaps that religion best envisions the never-ending battle between good and evil and a benevolent power in the universe that embraces even the lost souls. Perhaps the precepts of that religion best embody all the good things about the flawed and difficult genius that was our father. 

Fire burns away all impurities and what remains - the ashes - scatter in the winds. But still I wish there were some marker, some gravestone, for the people I have loved, some place where I could go in my mind to speak with them. 

I built a little altar with a few special things I have with me, carried in the depths of a suitcase in my peripatetic life. I look at it and think, "Yes, there are people that I have loved in my life. And yes, they loved me, too."

Also sprach Zarathustra.

Copyright 2023, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST - Auntie Pearl Sutherland

Lately, little flashes appear in my brain of things past.

Today, it was of my "Auntie Pearl." My grandfather's eldest sibling, I only met her a few times. But I remember so clearly the time she visited my family when we lived in Seattle, Washington.

Our house was on a bluff overlooking a wonderful view of Lake Washington. At times, Mount Rainier would appear above clouds at one end of the lake; Mount Baker at the other. 

The house too was quite wonderful. It had a very large livingroom with big picture windows looking out at a forest, The ceiling was high and beamed with huge dark wooden beams. I remember them swaying in the great earthquake that shook the Northwest one day - but that's another story.

What I wanted to remember was about Pearl.

The house was Spanish-influenced in its design. That meant the diningroom and kitchen were both tiled. The tiles were hard. My sister ran through the house one day, tripped and fell and knocked out her front teeth on that hard floor.

And the day that Auntie Pearl came bustlling in, full of bright smiles and warm hugs, I remember. As she stepped into the kitchen, her elbow hit a large glass jar of pickles. The jar crashed to the floor spreading glass and pickle juice from one end to the other.

What I remember, what I cherish about the memory, was that Auntie Pearl, gray-haired and aging, then promptly stripped off her dress and in her slip and bra began to clean the floor.

That's who I want to be as the years begin to creep up on me. I think I knew it then and that may be why the image has stayed with me all these years. A woman who meets any challenge with a practical solution and a cheerful attitude.

Copyright 2023, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

RANDOM BLOGS - WHAT 'THEY SAY"

"THEY SAY" - whoever "they" may be - if you want to be a writer, then you need to write SOMETHING every day. Actually I heard that advice again on a YouTube video interview with Seth Godin who does indeed write every day. https://seths.blog/ One of the world's best marketing advisors, he bills himself not as a marketer but as an author. It's the freedom to write, to generate ideas and pour them forth into the world that he - and I in my much more humble way - both seem to relish.

It's been quite a long time since I posted anything here on the Blogspot but I think I will try to do more for the exercise. I have been writing posts almost every day on behalf of the Cat Beach Cats (www.instagram.com/catbeachsanctuary). For the cats, I keep trying to come to grips with the language of persuasion. Fundraising lingo - the words that touch the heart and open the purses. Cat Beach Sanctuary needs and deserves full funding. Using social media, I have hope to bring in those dollars.

In the meantime, "THEY SAY" that the best way to stay young is to continue your curiousity and your creativity even as the years pass by.

Exercise the mind even as the body ages. Obsessing about the need for funding for the cat shelter or the years ahead when I will be considered too old to work does not seem to be the best forms of exercise. They are too much like beating my head against a wall - definition of insanity. Yes, devote some time and thought to those considerations. But I think that I do not ever want to become frozen in my attitudes or perceptions. Instead, I am trying to stay open to random input.

Copyright 2023, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

SAVE THE PLANET

For some years now I have had a recurring thought: save the planet by using plastic.

So much plastic is in the sea now that it is predicted that within this century there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

I read about a young guy who had figured out how to collect the micro bits of plastic. Ocean Cleanup has a floating barrier that is towed between ships to collect plastic. There are other ideas out there for how to clean the plastic from the oceans.

My idea is that the plastic collected could be shipped north or south to the Arctic or Antarctica or to places like Greenland where the glaciers are melting.

Why is the ice melting? Beyond the factors of air pollution and rising temperatures globally, there is the issue that the sun's rays are reaching earth and not getting bounced back.

Most plastic is reflective. The key to preserving ice - as shown by scientists who coated a frozen pond with glass bubbles - is to reflect the sun's rays. I am not sure from the articles why these experts on materials chose glass. Plastic could do that.

The idea originally came to me after reading concerning articles about the "ozone hole." Ozone protects the planet from the sun's rays but there are places, especially in the Antarctic, where it thins. More sun gets in, the air temperature rises, the snow and ice melts. The reflectivity of the snow and ice lessens and so more melts.

But coat the snow and ice with plastic and what would happen?

Take the plastic from all over the world's oceans. All those cargo ships out there on the sea could be enlisted to collect and move the plastic towards the poles. 

Increase the reflectivity at the poles and reduce the amount of sun's rays reaching the polar regions.

It is kind of an apocalyptic thought to imagine the polar ice coated in vast sheets of plastic. As is the idea shared by Native American elders that the planet is now being spider webbed with cement. The roads, the buildings, the parking lots and playgrounds covered in cement are sealing the planet in the oddest way. Humans in cities rarely if ever actually walk on the real ground.

So yes, there would be all kinds of engineering issues to address - and financial, political, social as well. In my own backyard, I covered plants and plant beds with plastic sheets to keep them warm on the bitter cold days. So maybe sheets of plastic are not the answer. But microplastics - those tiny bits that break up in the ocean and are killing marine life - they would have air spaces between them. That could help to balance temperatures.

I am not sure why this image keeps returning to my mind. I have no power to implement it or even much ability to share the idea. But it does offer me some hope that all the terrors of climate change and plastic pollution and so much more could be alleviated if we could do something positive about it all. 

If the planet is in trouble - which it is - then we have a responsibility to do something or at least to dream about possible solutions.

What is the Ozone Hole? The ozone hole is not technically a “hole” where no ozone is present, but is actually a region of exceptionally depleted ozone in the stratosphere over the Antarctic that happens at the beginning of Southern Hemisphere spring (August–October).Feb 14, 2566 BE

Ozone hole facts - NASA Ozone Watch

How do we collect plastics in the ocean?

Collecting plastic from the oceans

Ocean Cleanup's system consists of a large floating net-like barrier three meters deep that forms a large U shape which is slowly towed by two ships. The natural flow caused by the movement directs plastic to the central retention zone.Oct 13, 2565 BE

How Do We Clean Up All That Ocean Plastic?

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-control-of-nature/a-heat-shield-for-the-most-important-ice-on-earth

CNN — The world's oceans are polluted by a “plastic smog” made up of an estimated 171 trillion plastic particles that if gathered would weigh around 2.3 million tons, according to a new study.Mar 8, 2566 BE

Ocean plastic pollution reaches 'unprecedented' levels - CNN

Copyright 2023, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

DEAR STUDENTS - teaching in Thailand today, remembering Vassar College classes

Dear Students, 

The term has ended and by now, you will probably have received your marks for my classes. I always say this at the start of a new term but it's easy to forget, especially if you received a less than stellar grade.

What is an F? 0

F stands for Failure but there is always a reason. How you handled the issue can make the difference between losing the money / time / effort you put in for the class or avoiding failure altogether. 

If you did not turn in your assignments or show up for the midterm or final exams, then what other grade can you expect? Why did that happen is more interesting. If you were ill, had an issue in your family, found that you hated studying or simply could not stand the teacher -  and you just disappeared and did not handle the problem, then you may deserve that F. 

What could you have done differently? Simply communicate with the teacher or talk to another teacher or an administrator. If you had done that, so much could have changed. Most teachers are kind souls and will negotiate. Most administrators will help you to figure out how to avoid failure with incompletes or withdrawals or other solutions. 

No teacher wants to see their students fail!

What is a D? 1

A "D" for darn it. Detrimental, even deletorius and damaging. At least to your gradepoint average. D's mean you maybe sometimes came to class but if you did make it, you sat in the back of the classroom and slept. You did not turn in all the assignments but maybe you showed up and did okay on the exams enough to squeak by. Or maybe you missed an assignment or exam and never bothered to ask the teacher for a chance to retake it or make it up somehow. Or maybe you never really were interested in the topic or the class. Head down on your desk, you let it all go by. Too bad.

What is a C? 2

C could be a lot of things but let's say "copaceptic" or "cooperative" or simply COOL. You are really doing OKAY in the class. In most universities across the planet, C is what is expected from students. C means you are doing just fine!

You do the work, you seem to pay attention most of the time. C means you are right in the middle - your work is the expected average. You are clearly above the D's and F's but maybe a bit below the B's and A's on your classwork.

Theoretically, statistically, the C - 75% is typically the average mean grade for the set of the whole class. If body language is a good way of telling how you are relating to a class, you are there in the chair but maybe doodling in your notebook as the minutes of the class tick by. But you're cool!

What is a B? 3

Bright, blessed, beneficial, befitting...B means your work is GOOD! When the teacher looks at you, they see someone who looks back. There is connection, communication, committment. Diligent, dutiful, you do all of your assignments really well! A "B" in a course, the world over, means you should be congratulated! You did it! You did more than was expected of the average student. You did GOOD (well).

What is an A? 4

I couldn't find any synonyms for "EXCELLENT" that start with the letter A. In nursery school, "A is for Apple." The "A" student might be "the apple of my eye" to a caring teacher. The "A" student leans forward - attentive, focused, participating. They may not look back at the teacher the way the Good B's do because they are too intent on the experience and creating something amazing out of it. 

Ardent, accomplished, astounding, awe-inspiring, just plain AWESOME. The "A" student surprises with work that is excellent and exceptional. An "A" is usually or should be reserved only for work that is truly exciting.

=================

My understanding of how grades really work dates back to one particular incident (and the accumulated wisdom of 18 years as a student and more than 45 as a teacher). In my junior year of college at one of the best schools in the US if not the world - Vassar College - I took a Shakespeare course. I adored every word of Shakespeare then and now but I was terrified of the teacher. And I thought I was going to fail the course.

Wearing a New York City Ballet t-shirt and a smug smile, Mr W would stand behind an elevated podium and point at those of us who stared up at him in awe. "What was Shakespeare saying here, Miss Fairservis?" he would ask in an affected RP accent, almost sarcastically. 

Many of us in that class of 25 had fought for the privilege to get into it. I sat for several days on a bench outside the registrars' office and finally did get off the waiting list and into the class.

The Shakespeare Class was a revelation. His lectures were brilliant; his use of the "Socratic Method" also brilliant but terrifying. For written assignments, we had 3 essays to do over the term. He had us compare Parts 1 and 2 of "Henry IV." There was a takehome midterm predicting what would happen in a play from an opening monologue (of course, I have forgotten which one). My predictions made sense though I had not read the play. And then I vividly recall working on 3rd assignment, a paper about "Romeo and Juliet." 

At the time, I was also taking another wonderful class called "The Epic in Translation" with a professor who had the classic studious school marm look, graying hair and round glasses, a delightful character. The epics were Homer's "Odyssey" and the "Iliad." We met on a Monday afternoon in a seminar room with comfy seats and couches and drank wine! How Greek or perhaps even more, how Roman! How many teachers today would bring wine to class?

The Epics course introduced me to Alfred Bates Lord's work, "The Singers of Tales," and the idea that storytellers through the ages found patterns and phrases to build upon to aid memorization and to structure their stories. "The wine dark sea" - that was Homer.

For many years, I had been fascinated by the concepts of Ritual Theatre. "The Golden Bough" - James George Frazier so excited me but also intimidated. Even more exciting and shorter was Theodor H. Gaster's "Thespis." It stuck in my young head - that there is a Seasonal Pattern that underscores rituals and is an essential structure for theatre or rather "theatrical productions."

So I lit into "Romeo and Juliet" to dig up all the seasonal references. Tybalt, "Prince of Cats," is hot tempered. Juliet is the sun and Romeo is the moon or at least the one who comes at night; the day / night cycle is essential to the structure of the play. Verona is in the midst of a very hot summer (presumably the London audience would be watching in the outdoor theatres in the summer months).

All the seasons - spring, summer, fall, winter - are there in the play. It's been many years since I studied it but I recall so clearly being swept into the energy of that process of discovery. Detective work really.

The problem was that doing all that archaeology was taking so long. There were only a certain number of pages that we were allowed to present - I think 5. And my paper was already 20 plus pages long. 

Bear in mind, too, that these were the days of typewriting on oilskin paper. My kind roommate allowed me to use hers. How wonderful that typewriters with a back key to correct errors had been invented.

Anyway, that wonderful brilliant Shakespearean scholar refused to accept my paper. But he did promise to read it over the Christmas holidays.

I thought I was going to fail the course and was ready to drop out. I was so frightened to go back into that classroom for a second term and have Mr W point at me. (By that time, I imagined his face rigid in a supercilious snarl).

So - what to do? I made an appointment with the Dean of the Students to get approval to drop the course.

Mr. Johnson was then dean. I remember he smiled at me. And he asked me if I loved Shakespeare. And if I had ever failed a course before. I don't really remember the exact magic or turn of phrase he used but I walked out of his office determined to "face the music" and go back for the second semester. Because I loved Shakespeare.

Here's the clever kicker. Mr W made the first semester grade PROVISIONAL. In other words, your grade for both semesters would be determined by how well you did the second term. The second semester grade would be what was recorded forever on your college transcript.

And so I went back to class in January's snows. And everything changed for the better.

King Arthur had the right idea with the Round Table. Our class had moved from a very formal and large hall with rigid seats in ruler-straight rows to a far smaller room where we were seated encircling a table. Now we could face each other and hear each other. Mr W came off his pedestal and now sat with us as an equal, though still clearly the king of the class.

Other students must have been as intimidated as was I in that first term. For the second term, the class had dropped from 25 to just 10 students. Which was wonderful!

Best of all, we had moved past the problematic comedies and histories to the tragedies. For the next few months, we reveled in the worlds of Lear, Hamlet, Othello and the Scottish play. Those were the finest hours of my college days.

The last play we studied was fittingly Shakespeare's last, "The Tempest." This was a play I already knew intimately from playing Ariel in a high school production. And so "where the bee sucks, there suck I" - I "sucked up" to use the modern phrase - and had the most wonderful time reprising my role and performing for the class final project.

The tagline to this story, of course, is that where I thought I had failed, instead I got the unattainable "A" which you can still see on my transcript from those memorable college days.

The Golden Bough : a study of magic and religion

Thespis: Ritual Myth & Drama in the Ancient Near East

Copyright 2023TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

THINKING ABOUT "What do they eat?"

Living as an "expat" in Asia, every day has its adventure. Every day there's something new. Even though for months I have been holed up in an apartment. It's post-pandemic but now I get to experience what others did of near-total isolation. My pandemic experience was frightening but I never worried about running out of food or companionship because even the little groceries were nearby and open.

We are all watching the tragedy playing out in Ukraine. I have never been near a war - never hope to be. I have none of the daring genes of reporters and soldiers who risk their lives to tell and live the stories. But I have been deeply moved by thoughts of people isolated by war - trapped in subways or basements of their homes, trying to survive the chaos.

The London blitz - the many examples of man's inhumanity to man - the bombings in Afghanistan, the tearing apart of Sudan today when the entire diplomatic community had to be evacuated by special forces. 

And it all comes close to me when I think, "What do they eat?"

What I think about most, of course, is what is most relevant to me. I have been living for the last 10 months on a pretty remote university campus. There are none of the accustomed services: no taxis, no grab. No Food Panda or any other delivery. The campus itself is - most of the time - the quietest place I can recall living. 

My cupboard is getting bare. Just a few things left in the fridge. I need to get a hold of my friend who drives to take me shopping.

And I think about what I truly need. What can I get by on for another day or two or three? I have 1 egg, a can of tunafish. Plenty of instant coffee and teas. A few packs of instant soups. Some bread left.

I do have condiments - con-dementia! Ketchup, soy sauce (2 flavors), salt, pepper. 

I think about the homeless on the streets of New York, LA, or in Honolulu where I met "them" often in the Salvation Army and hanging outside the 7-11s. Instead of giving money when begged, I bought food and drink for those that asked for support. A ham sandwich and a can of coffee, maybe some chips on the side. Those few I may have helped for another day did seem grateful.

So what do we need "when all is said and done?" Like the meals I put together from forays to fresh markets, groceries and convenience stores, I crave variety. I like tasting something new. Though here in Thailand, it's usually spicy.

My mouth may say yes, but my stomach and intestines say no. No chilis, please.

There are staples that I find myself returning to every time - eggs, milk, bread, coffee. Maybe a few veggies for a salad or an onion or cauliflower or broccoli soup. I have become a pretty good soup maker. Maybe some fresh or frozen fruit - the beauty of living in the tropics.

What do you eat? What meal plan would you design for an astronaut or submarine soldiers? How about months at sea? Or "Surprise, surprise!" someone caught up in a disaster, natural or manmade?

What do they eat? What do they NEED to eat?

Copyright 2023, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

FUNNY HOW THINGS COME IN THREES

There was an amber moon tonight. Something unusual. I rode my 3-wheeler after dark thru lampless sections of the road to 7-11 and it caught my eye. Not your usual ethereal moon but a deep orange that seemed almost malevolent. 

On my way out, I met a spotted cat. I have been missing cats so much. This cat came to me and rubbed against my leg. I have been missing that sense of need that gives me so much purpose. I have been missing the many many times I prowled the animal food aisle in search of bargains. So I bought a bag of cat food and plastic bowls to serve it in. 

On my return, there were 2 spotted cats - twins maybe? Funny how things come in threes.

Copyright 2010, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST - FOOD

What have been your favorite meals in your life? What do you remember?

Thanksgiving turkeys with stuffing. Jano's creamed onions - only once or twice a year. 

 Auntie Monna's "ambrosia" - fruit cocktail and marshmallows.

Christmas hams. Jenny's marzipan. Marilyn's quiches - and Elf's.

Mama Jano's lentils and ham soups at 1 am on the 1st day of the New Year - the culmination of New Year's Parties

Mema Grandma's clam chowder with clams she dug herself

Nantucket blueberries in pancakes with berries we children picked, wearing tin cans on strings around our necks.

Strawberry chablis soup on a steamy hot night in New York City at a jazz bar.

Daddy's Soul of Arabia soup - featured in Yankee Magazine - apricots and so much more.

Tapas at a Spanish bar with an extraordinary olive oil like no other - sitting outdoors in a cafe in Bangkok.

Lobster with Carol Sorgenfrei at the restaurant under a New York bridge - Queensboro maybe.

The best cheesecake in the world - JUNIOR's in Brooklyn when I lived walking distance from there and to BAM

My first glass of wine in a restaurant after ballet studies at La Crepe with Daddy and others from the AMNH - the crepes were good too!

The biggest buffet lunch ever at a hotel on the North Shore of Oahu when we lived (loved and were happy) in Honolulu - my ex biting into a cream-cheese filled crepe and sighing. Meanwhile, surfers were scaling huge waves just outside the window. Did that brunch several times!

Delaney's in Manhattan - an amazing steak as reward for driving across the US with Daddy from Seattle to New York

Most recently, Thai seafood with Mr Pom and Indian curries with Ajarn Steven.

I am sure there are others that may come to mind.

What tastes do you remember?

Copyright 2010, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

What did you eat for dinner? I am so curious. My mother is 95 years old. She has been allergic to many foods - especially nightshades - and has been careful about what she eats. I know what she doesn't eat - tomatoes, eggplant (one of my favorites!), potatoes. I think she is mostly off glutens as well, except for the occasional cake baked and decorated by my amazing baker / acupuncturist / jane-of-all-things handy / artist sister. 

So what to eat? Tonight I looked up onions, potatoes and eggs as that's what I had in the house. And found the "how to" for a frittata. So that's what's I'm eating now. Microwaved frittata.

I guess my eating habits can now be classified as "flexitarian." I am trying to avoid eating mammals though the craving for a chain-manufactured beef burger can be irresistible. And I occasionally mistake pork dumplings for shrimp bao. Chicken and seafood of various kinds - and a lotta veggies.

What do you eat? I see so many people exerting control over their diets - to the point of near madness. 

Copyright 2010, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

COOKING TIPS & TRICKS

So many little tricks to good cooking. What did your mother teach you? Your grandmother? Your dad, uncle or grandpa? Who fed you?

Some tricks I've picked up over the years. There used to be a TV tips show (trying to remember the name - not Hints from Heloise but like that).

TO KEEP SODA FROM GOING STALE - Just simply turn the bottle on its end before putting it back in the fridge. The deflated bottle will inflate and stay that way until the next time you want a drink.

VEGETABLES - Below ground "root" veggies should be started in cold water, then brought to the boil. Below ground examples: potatoes, sweet potatoes, 

• Beets. Carrots. Radishes.Rutabaga.Turnips.

https://www.healthcastle.com/root-vegetables-are-full-of-good-carbs/

But above ground veg is to be dropped into boiling water, then when the water reaches boiling again, it can be reduced to simmer. That's true for pasta too.

Above ground: peas, beans, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower.

Will add more as I think of them.

MICROWAVING  Almost everything can be cooked in a microwave; there are even recipes for cakes and cupcakes. The main thing is ONLY use plastic or ceramic dishes, NEVER anything with metal.

Copyright 2010, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

REMINISCENCES OF ENGLISH TEACHINGS PAST - CHINA

Copyright 2010, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

I have been teaching for a long time, maybe 50 years off and on. When I came to Asia in 2005, I had never taught English as a Second Language before. I was plunged into teaching adult Chinese engineers and medical professionals. But from the very first class, I realized I really did know how to do the job.

China at that time had amazing internet access to the world (not so much anymore I am told). Having almost no resources in the steel-and-iron factory city where I was stationed, I had no choice but to search the internet for how to teach English for beginners.

There was urgency and importance to the teaching of English. The doctors and nurses in the local hospital were providing Western medical treatments to the best of their abilities. Annually, American doctors from Florida would come over to share the latest in cardiac care. There needed to be correct understanding from both sides. Patients' lives were at stake.

The engineers worked in the dangerous setting of the steel mill. The equipment was provided by the German company, Siemanns. Germans would come to China to instruct the Chinese engineers in the use of the machinery = and both sides would communicate in English. Again, there was a real necessity for precise comprehension on both sides. We would hear periodically of factory workers at the steel mill dying in accidents. Workers' lives were at stake.

For me, it was sink-or-swim. I felt so blessed to have good internet access and to discover the world of English language resources available then. It took every bit of my past teaching experiences in the US and Japan and of my years of theatre work to try to figure out how to teach English in the Gobi Desert of northern China's Inner Mongolia.

I learned a lot! But I realized I did not have the full skill set. 

So on the day after the biggest sandstorm in 20 years hit, I knew I could not continue to stay in Baotou. I knew that I needed more training in TEFL - Teaching English as a Foreign Language. So I went online and found an American-run school in the gorgeous city of Suzhou not far from Shanghai where a few months later I went to do a full diploma. But that's another story...

Copyright 2010, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

THE END OF A MARRIAGE

A short story inspired by watching the Korean Drama "World of the Married" 

How can I convey to you that knowingness, that sense of unreality, at the moment of the end of what I thought was "our marriage" but was really just "my marriage" which I lost?

It was midnight and I was standing in a telephone booth in the middle of an open square surrounded by low wooden houses - in Kyoto, Japan.

I called my husband in New York. We both lived and worked at a university there and stayed in the faculty wing of a student dormitory. 

I was studying Japanese dance in Kyoto that summer - so totally foreign to my years of Western dance but so surprisingly comfortable to me. People I met that summer would say things like, "Welcome back! I think we met in a past life." Dressed in full makeup, wig and $14,000 kimono for the final recital after weeks of sweaty work, a professional male performer looked at me in shock. He said, "Except for the blue eyes, you are Japanese."

And the man who was my husband told me that night over all-too-memorable long distance call that a graduate student --  a lovely blonde girl whose big breasts I had envied, a young woman who had been cleaning our apartment for us and had been inspired to arrange all the books by size on the shelves - so not the kind of brain that I understood - this woman had moved into our apartment. She would share the rent. And unspoken but later confirmed, she would share what had been "our" bed.

And the wave of knowingness came up. I knew with deep certainty that it was the moment of the end of the marriage. And at that very moment, I heard the sound of bells. Through the square came a parade of maybe 25 children. It was midnight - why were children out at that hour? They held up a box on poles on their shoulders. Inside I understood was a god who was being transported from one shrine to another. 

A god passed by me...or passed me by.

Like me, I thought then. Transported from who I was - or at least who I thought I was - to an entirely new set of circumstances. 

I stood in the phone booth caught between the two worlds: the American life I had known in New York and the strange world that I barely knew but loved in Japan. I did not and could not understand either one. 

I did not know where in the world I would ever fit. Or where I would ever find home again.

--- April 3, 2023 remembering a day in November, probably in 1992.

FOOD IN DISGUISE and other Random Ideas for Blogs and Books

COOKERY IN DISGUISE - Towards Clean Meat

Cooking, cook, cookery - disguised, masked, hidden

Some years ago, I was in Bangkok on a Buddhist holiday and was invited to a meal for perhaps a thousand people - to be prepared by the temple's monks.

"Oo! Chinese style pork?" I exclaimed as a monk presented a large platter of red and gray slices that clearly were the pork I was familiar with in China. "No, it's tofu!"

And this happened again and again throughout the meal from appetizers to desserts. "What's that?" "It's tofu."

Years before that, I was doing tourist shows on the island of Guam. We had "The World's Only Micronesian Dance Company" consisting of 13 Palauan students from the University of Guam, 5 sisters from the Philippines, and Miss Tahiti 1975.

The Palauans invited us to a holiday dinner at their new community center. Adorned with star charts and interesting symbols, the architecture first impressed - then came the food.

A long long table (maybe 15 regular tables pressed together) lined the sides of the room. Ladies in long muumuus kept bringing out more items wrapped in plastic or aluminum foil. We were each handed plates and urged to make our way down the buffet line.

Crinkly aluminum foil opened to meats, potatoes, mystery vegetables. "What's that?""It's taro." And this? "Yes, that's taro too."

I think I'm going to research this idea of "food in disguise" further.  Many items can be substituted for other things in recipes. How to make things vegetarian or vegan? How to bake a cake or fry a pancake or make almost anything when the familiar basic ingredients are not available? 

Really - it's how to be adventurous and wise at the same time.

Copyright 2010, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

A K-DRAMA ADDICTION: CATS VS DOGS

I have a new addiction: Korean K-Dramas on Netflix. An idea for a show: CATS VS DOGS. Working in and around an animal shelter has all the intensity and daily drama that a good K-Drama producer could want. Comedy, Tragedy, and Romance. Medical mysteries to solve. Personal struggles. The ups and downs of working with a team. Disappointments and Triumphs.

CATS V DOGS A crusty old cat lady versus a sincere and sympathetic dogs veterinarian. She shows him how cats can be lovable. He teaches her to be more trusting. Pasts revealed. Medical cases solved. Funds raised. Romance blossoms. Setting: a fishing village on a beautiful beach surrounded by jungle. Almost true to my life except I have not yet met the veterinarian of my dreams.

They must have amazing acting schools in Korea. And wonderful directors and writers for the shows. The shows have typical formulas depending on type - but the formulas get reworked in various settings. And they all have elements underscoring the contemporary clashes between conservative traditions and the values emerging in 2022.

Startup was so exciting for insights into the business world and 21st century technology.

Forecasting Love and Weather is a lovely May-December romance between an older woman boss and a brilliant young male forecaster while delving into the world of meterology.

Have been binge-watching Good Doctor - Korean and The Good Doctor - American. Both center on an autistic but savant character who comes up with answers to medical mysteries and genius solutions. Doctor Romantic is another I loved, especially the 1st season characters. I like the focus on the characters and dynamics of the members of the teams that surround the central characters.

One Spring Day has an adorable couple - a strong female lead and her sisters and the humble but beautiful man she is drawn to. She is a librarian; he is a pharmacist. Simple settings - the library, the pharmacy, their homes apartments. And much time spent in cars, restaurants and walks in parks. He plays basketball. She deals with a boyfriend she is bored with. He has a gorgeous little son. The same settings repeat in so many of the K-dramas. But this one has such naturalistic acting that it seems impossible that they are repeating scripted lines. It feels so real.

Crash Landing on You pairs a South Korean woman with a North Korean man in such an intense romance that the real life actors fell in love and recently had a lavish wedding. 

All time best so far - HOMETOWN CHA CHA CHA. The polls agree. Setting: a seaside fishing village. Characters: A big city woman dentist who starts her own clinic. The town's chief who is both big chief and bottle washer. Many delightful characters - townspeople and visiting TV crew. Romance: 5 stars. The series tracks the growth of the relationship between the dentist and the chief = at first very distrustful through growing trust and admiration with setbacks as past scars are revealed until a very very happy ending! The "chemistry" between the leading actors, the richness of characterizations, and the beauty of the place - all alluring. 

High production values for all the K-Dramas impress me too. 

But the real key to my addiction is the "comedy of manners" that seems to underscore all the series. Sometimes openly expressed in the various levels of bowing to each other - no nod or a small nod means superior disapproves of inferior. Female characters often are the leaders in the fight against older confining traditions - and the dramas underline how the world is changing. No longer is marriage a requirement - heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious scenes of older generations trying to demand preservation of traditions and misunderstanding the younger ones in their quests for self-determination. 

American TV and movies in comparison have so much gratuitous senseless violence, abusive language and harshness. Caring as a theme seems to have been lost. To me, the cracks in the veneer came with the debut of The Simpsons. People laughed and we got "Trumped." Like taking the lid off a trash can, the garbage in American culture was revealed in the so-called Trump years. It's still there but maybe slowly it can be cleaned up. Otherwise I despair for American culture. 

I know that there are still many Americans on the more liberal side - people who care about the environment, the climate disasters, the horrors of factory farms and the corporate takeovers of the global economy. I know there are people who care about the land, the sea, the animals, and the fates of people all over the planet. 

But the left is under siege from the right - those who assert their rights to litter, to drive fast, to not to wear masks, vaccinate, or clean up their acts. The ones who do not care, who think that freedom means they don't have to be considerate of other people - they worry me greatly. May the ones who do care survive and thrive!

In the meantime, I find life in Asia and as depicted on Korean TV series much more enjoyable. People in Asia - or at least on TV - do consider others. They do care. And that gives me some hope.

Copyright 2022, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

Honey Bear's Legacy - the beautiful Cat Beach Sanctuary in Penang, Malaysia

Copyright 2010, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

RIP Miss Honey Bear - you are missed. 

Thank you for the years of Love we shared.

Happy Spring 2022!

It's been more than a decade since I "blogged" regularly when living on Langkawi island in Malaysia. After several delightful years there, I took 8 cats on the ferry boat and moved to Penang island. Ten plus years of my life have been devoted to caring for cats and creating the Cat Beach Sanctuary. In 2022 I am back in Thailand and looking forward to returning to teaching - but in touch with Cat Beach every day. 

It is because of a cat I named Honey Bear that my life took such a dramatic turn - and I joined the ranks of the "Crazy Cat Ladies." She recently passed away in my house in Batu Ferringhi, Penang, Malaysia - and like so many pluses and minuses these past two years of the pandemic have wrought, I could only watch her passing over the internet.

Please read her story here and please consider joining me in supporting Cat Beach.

Please read and share the story of Honey Bear's Legacy - the beautiful beachside No-Kill Non-profit home for cats - Cat Beach Sanctuary. Let's help Cat Beach help cats!
https://mailchi.mp/066ebace11fe/honey-bears-legacy

#savethekitties #feedthekitties #rescuecats #catbeach #catbeachpenang #catbeachsanctuary #pantaikucing #kucing #cat #catlovers #lovecats #penangstrays #langkawi #penang #malaysia #malaysiacats #lovecats #catshelter

Awakening to the sounds of birds and the sea

Waking Up at The Ocean Residence, Langkawi Island, Malaysia

What is it like to wake up at The Ocean Residence? 

Sometimes it’s the sounds of birds that wake me or the morning sunlight streaming in through a crack in the curtain. Other times, if there’s an onshore wind, I might hear the roll and toss of the tide coming or going from the shore.

Occasionally, I hear voices – the friendly chatter of Langkawi’s fishermen as they prepare their nets for the day or launch their small boats. If I wake early enough to catch the dawn sun rising over the oh-so-green islands across the way, it’s so quiet and still that I can hear the waves lapping gently…

I head back to the kitchen, grateful that the housekeepers have provided all that I need for a good strong morning cuppa. With laptop or tablet in one hand and my coffee cup in the other, I head out to the veranda to enjoy the dawning of a new day in this extraordinary place.

  

Surely this has to be one of the world’s most beautiful morning scenes. What’s it like? It’s magical!

Everyone needs a little romance in their lives. For me, life on Langkawi island off the northern Malaysia / Thailand border was a romantic sojourn - in many ways, a retreat from the world. I lived several lovely places on the island over a period of 3 years or so but the last - and certainly not least! - was at my client's, Paul Penders, property. I had an amazing room on the 2nd floor of "The Container House," an exceptional building constructed from 17 shipping containers. My room was lined with red brick and closely resembled friends' apartments where I've stayed in New York City! Since I left, that room has been refurbished with a kitchen added -- and I'll hope to go back and visit again one day. It was the ultimate 'getaway.'

Visit the new website and blog for The Ocean Residence Langkawi at www.theoceanresidence.com
See also my Facebook Page "Island Lifestyles"
Copyright 2013, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

A Year of Blogs in One!

Quiet here on my home blog for months but more to come...

I've been writing at least 8 per month for Paul Penders International -- a natural organic beauty products company. See www.paulpenders.com/ppblog.

See also my CV with blogs, videos, and more at www.teviotfairservis.wordpress.com

For the fun of it! Please visit my Island Lifestyles website and blog at www.islandlifestyle.weebly.com



Copyright 2010, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)

Langkawi Life

Thanks for stopping by! Writing a lot these days -- and realized I missed posting in February entirely!

Cats-cats-cats are dominating my life these days. I was given two kittens last June -- Pebbles and BammBamm. Since moving to Cenang beach, a stray has moved in whose name has gravitated from the simple "Gray Kitty" to "Grady." Now I'm feeding about 10 strays. And my friend who has Pebbles and BammBamm's black tuxedoed brother, Lucky, has left him with me while she's away. So that's 4 indoor cats and at least 8 outdoors cats. And me -- trying to keep the peace...

Will be uploading my "Langkawi Life" essays soon but in the meantime, go straight to the Langkawi Gazette to read the monthly column which started in Sept 2011:

www.langkawi-gazette.com

See also my guest blogs on www.paulpenders.com -- the natural cosmetics company

Am also writing Lesson Plans for an ESP (English for Special Purposes) course for Ally Int'l in Brazil, continuing to work on two e-books due to be done asap, and the ongoing project of a biography of my amazing father, Dr. Walter A. Fairservis, Jr. (see the Facebook memorial page about him).

More soon. I promise!

Copyright 2012, TF (teviothome@gmail.com)