Green peace of mind

I was quite upset since last week when the beautiful shady trees and lush bushes around my office area were uprooted to make way for supposedly new MRT works. My partners and I were tempted to chain ourselves to the trees to protest against this horrible destruction. If I had my way, I'd become a full-time activist or politician to have my voice heard. Egged on by another similiar-thinking fellow whose letter got published in Today newspaper, I wrote in to bitch about it and whoopee, mine appeared on the following day! This was not the first time I had written to the forum - in fact the last time, NEA responded to my letter in ST when I championed the merits of using less plastic bags and going green in Spore 2 years ago.

My friends said why I bothered at all when the relevant authorities had already made up their minds. But I totally disagreed and felt that we can all make an impact with action, instead of keeping silent. Caring about something and doing something about it are two totally different things. Si, we might not be able to reverse the situation but at least we could put pressure on them regarding future works in progress and inspire others that they are not alone in this. Yesterday during italian class, my English classmate K told me she read my letter and cheered me for my effort. I walked a little more sprightly after that.

Also on Friday evening, I found myself at a wine dinner seated with a local journalist, the Australian vineyard's GM and a Canadian brewmaster (who thought I was 20 yrs old) among other guests. They were short of patting me on the shoulder when I told them about the letter as we were discussing about organic wines. The dinner lasted more than 4 hours as we quaffed down 6 courses and 8 wines. Our VIP table had 2 extra mystery wines where we did a blind tasting and had to guess their varietal and vintage. I was honestly a little shacked and rusty but at least I got the styles right.

Me: Yes, definitely an Old World. Bordeaux maybe? (Correct!)
Me: Hmm, its quite young. 2002 maybe? (Wrong - 1998)

Sunday was pasta day, all the more cos I was suffering from extreme PMS and a pimple popped up overnight on my chin. Che cazzo. Here's my recipe of the month to chase away the blues:

Organic spaghetti with prawns, arugula and cherry tomatoes

Ingredients
Organic spaghetti (enough for 1)
2tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves (chopped)
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes (halved)
1 small whole chilli
5 whole prawns
5 basil leaves (chopped)
A handful of arugula leaves
Salt & pepper to taste

Method:
1. Boil pasta for 6mins in salted water.
2. Fry garlic in oil till fragrant, then add cherry tomatoes and chilli and fry for 1min.
3. Add prawns, basil, salt and pepper. Fry for 3-4 mins till cooked (remove chilli).
4. Add spaghetti and mix well. Remove from heat and toss in arugula. Serve! :)