Sydney Stories - Week 57

Hello,

Hope you had a good week.

This weekend went to drop Nandhitha in her Tamil class and was hoping to catch up on some shopping. The school principal came up and requested me to "take a class" since one of the teachers was missing in action. Thankfully I was given the "pre-kg" group - Nandhitha's class. Nandhitha was the first to get excited and shouted - "Daddy you are not teacher. Why are you here?". What should I say - it was an interesting 2 hours. The syllabus I had to cover as அ and ஆ (the As of Tamil), words starting with them and an alphabet rhyme. It was a bit embarrassing to begin with having forgotten how to write அ.  Stretching this for 2 hours, yes it was an experience. Made the kids write the letters in many ways on the board. Luckily one of the kids mom was also sitting in the class who gave some tips, finally ended the class with நிலா நிலா ஓடி வா. :-)  In between I had to do ஆயா work as well taking kids to the loo.

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While shopping in the local Woolies (Aussie for Woolworths) noticed an interesting operation. At regular intervals the cashiers bundle up the cash and coins in a "bullet" and send it up a tube / chute up. I guess there should be a gajaana (treasury) somewhere inside where they get deposited. Seems like secure way of transferring and collecting the cash.

This weekend made Pad Kee Mao - flat white noodles with basil leaves (and chicken of course). Figured out the trick not to kolanjufy the fresh rice noodles. The tip was out there on the net of course. A lesson not to be repeated - way too much noodles than what the kadai could take (inspite of that being a fairly wide one). Made 2 versions - one not too spicy for overall consumption and another with a Thai spicy rating of 3 *. The 2nd version which I made with lesser noodles and more spices came out pretty well. Marinating the chicken slices with soya sauce, fish sauce and ginger garlic paste (with a bit of corn flour for binding) gave a good effect as well.

At work a senior client executive had flown down from the US of A and was addressing the gathering here in Sydney. I think he did not realize that I was an external "vendor" sitting in the mix. He went on and on ranting on us vendors how we take them for a ride and how he intends to put a stop to it. Felt a bit awkward since I was the only "vendor" guy in that group. Oh well, at least now I know his plans.

That's all folks.

Have A Great Week!!

Chetty