Nine Divine Nights

Navaratri (Nava-nine, ratri-night) is a Hindu festival that invokes the feminine aspect of God in the form of Shakti. The nine nights are divided into three sets where the first set is dedicated to Durga, then Lakshmi and then Saraswati.  The 10th day is celebrated as Vijayadasmi where homage is paid to the Guru as he/she brings the student from darkness to enlightened state.

Durga is known to be the remover of obstacles. As you can see in this image, she rides a lion and is seen vanquishing the demon Mahishasuramardini, which symbolises ignorance or obstacles.   

 Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth is also the consort of Vishnu and is prayed to for prosperity. She sits on a lotus and rides a swan.

Last but not least is the Goddess of Knowledge or Saraswati. She plays a lute and is clad in white. Her chosen means of transport is the peacock and holds a book and rosary. She is also a patron of music and the arts.

As I was growing up, Navarathri was the one thing I looked forward to every year because it was during this time that I'd be able to perform in temples all over Kuala Lumpur. Ramli took this opportunity to allow his younger students to get over their stage fright and get used to preparing ourselves for performances, you know, make up and costume, etc.

My favourite night would have to be Vijayadasmi in Sutra. This is the one time that all the students and teachers come together, pray to become better dancers and give respect to our teacher that has made us the dancers and people we are today. Even till today, I'd stand in awe of Sivarajah Natarajan or the dancing Siva statue and meditate on his benign face illuminated with oil lamps that burn brightly representing our passion for our art.

Happy Navaratri everyone!

My Lourdes Experience...

For the longest time whenever someone asked me what religion I was I'd say, Roman Catholic, and complete the sentence with "a bad one..." Be it Catholic guilt whatsoever, but I was always told that if you didn't go to church every Sunday, you were indeed, a bad Catholic.

Now that I am older and more comfortable in my own skin, I omit the bad Catholic part. Because, what really is a bad Catholic? I highly doubt that not attending mass regularly immediately puts you on the "bad" list. I think that if you were a bad Catholic, it would probably mean you were a bad person on the whole regardless of what religion you are.

I have always been curious about religious rituals that many of my friends from different religious backgrounds practice and I am proud to say that I have tried every practice at least once. Be it fasting the entire month of Ramadan, to abstaining from meat during the Navaratri week and even walking from Lebuh Ampang all the way to Batu Caves carrying a Pal Kudam (milk pot).

Being born into a Catholic family, I must confess that I have never embraced my inherent religion until now. Maybe because I've married a Catholic man and if/when we have kids I'd like to raise them with the same values that my parents instilled in me. I love attending mass with my family because as cliched as it sounds, a family that prays together stays together.

Which brings me to write this post about my experience in Lourdes. People say that if you are meant to visit Our Lady of Lourdes, you will somehow find yourself heading towards the beautiful town. I've also heard so much about the miracles that happen there and once again, I was curious.

Be it a temple or a sacred tree, I've always found myself to be rather sensitive to feeling the energy of a particular place. There have been a few instances when I am performing in a temple or ashram in India and I am reduced to tears just because of the powerful vibrations present. So for a change, I wanted to visit a Catholic pilgrimage site just because I have never done so in my life and during this year's Lent I made a vow to abstain from meat the entire 40 days for the first time. So I felt like I did enough penance to permit me to visit these holy grounds. (Notice the Catholic guilt again?)   

I planned the trip so that I'd be able to spend my birthday in Lourdes. I particularly wanted to start the day with the famous bath in their pools because what better way can you celebrate your birthday? So we made our way from Bordeaux by train and arrived on the 22nd of August. 

After checking into a very basic Hotel Marial we immediately headed to the sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes (this is where I had a Eureka moment and realised that Notre Dame means "Our Lady"). Not being a part of any Church group, it was a little confusing at first but we managed to find out exactly where the Grotto was, the pools to dip in, the different churches, chapels and basilicas were. 

As we passed the area where the pools were, hubby was very lucky to have been pulled into the line and managed to have a dip on the very first day in Lourdes. I, on the other hand, was not so lucky. The women's line into the area was closed as they had a very long queue of ladies waiting to go in. So I waited, and waited and waited some more for hubby to be done and during that time I remember very clearly what I was feeling. First, I am embarrassed to admit that I felt angry. I was angry because I really wanted to dip in the pool and I felt I deserved to be at least allowed in to wait in line because I have come all the way only to be told that the pools were full. My anger then faded and I told myself that everyone here had the same intention. As I was cooling off, a teenage girl stood next to me and spoke on her handphone saying "Yea, I just did the water thingy...yea...it was ok." That sent me back to my angry place, which faded soon enough and morphed into disappointment. As hubby emerged from the pools I couldn't mask my disappointment. But he said, "Don't worry bee. You just weren't meant to do it today. Didn't you say you wanted to do the bath on your birthday?" So with that hope in my heart, I felt better and decided to look forward to my dip tomorrow. 

We then headed to do the Stations of the Cross something I have only done once in my life many, many, many years ago. I decided to focus my energies on a very dear friend's 8 year old cousin who is suffering from Leukemia. (Another reason, I felt my visit to Lourdes was apt, because he was diagnosed shortly before I left to France) So I completed the 14 Stations of the Cross and felt completely rejuvenated. 

As you enter the grounds, you will find these boards with the "Our Father" in  every language.

Luckily I did a bit of research before heading to Lourdes because I found out that at 9pm there would be a Torchlight Marian Procession. My knowledge of this procession was that it was going to be beautiful and everyone would be holding a candle. But after seeing what the entire procession was about, beautiful was an understatement. My breath was taken away when I saw hundreds of thousands of people holding candles and via a PA system, we were all led through the rosary in every different language. 

Lourdes, known for about 67 miracle healings, is visited by many sick people. Once here, they are either placed in wheel chairs or hospital beds and attended to by volunteers. As you can see in the photograph above and below, they are placed at the front of the Marian Procession. 

After the procession, we rushed to the Grotto, which was the cave where St. Bernadette saw the apparitions of Mother Mary. This was also where she discovered the spring, from which miracles have occurred by bathing or drinking the water from it. As I exited the grotto, I glanced at the famous Lady of Lourdes statue and was reduced to tears. I then just sat on the floor and stared at Our Lady and an overwhelming sense of compassion washed right over me. I asked her to forgive me and to bless everyone I knew with strength to overcome any obstacles that may come their way. I especially asked her to watch over the little 8 year old boy, struck with an agressive disease.

The next day, I woke up bright and early and rushed over to join the line to the pools at 8am knowing very well that it opened at 9am. When I got there, the line was already very, very long. At 9am, the gates opened but little did I realise was that there were 2 sections of the gates and only the first section managed to go in. Being stuck in the second section, my line did not budge. In the mornings, many of the pools are reserved for the sick, so they are wheeled in from the Accueils and hospitals across the river bank. After the sick were attended to, the second part of the gate opened again and allowed more people into the waiting area. Excited that my line began to move, I was hopeful. However, they closed the barrier and mere 5 people in front of me and we were told that these barriers would open again at 12.30pm and we would be able to enter the waiting area at 2pm.

At about 11.30am, I was ready to get out of the line and just forget about the entire bath, I mean come on, it had been 3 hours already, it had rained, I was wet and cold. If I was alone, I probably would have given up. But hubby was there with me and said I had come all the way here and waited for more than 3 hours, so what difference would another hour make? So all in all, I waited for over 6 hours to get my birthday present. I know for a fact that this was indeed a test as to how much I wanted to do this. After leaving the bath, the calmness and serenity I felt within was worth all the hours spent in that line. 

Saint Bernadette pray for us...

Lady of Lourdes watch over us...

Undi Lah!

I'd like to share with you Pete Teo's latest socio-political project Undi Lah. Undi means vote and lah is a Malaysia slang word we use whenever we end a sentence.

The words are true, this country is ours no matter what other people say. If we live in it, we should care about who runs it and the only way we can show that we care is by voting. 

It only takes 3 simple steps to become a registered voter. 

Click here! 

Undi lah! Jangan diam diam...

(Vote lah! Don't keep quiet...)

Hasty Tastings

Please forgive me for my plain laziness. It's been really hard to get back into the momentum of writing again. There's still a pile of clean laundry eagerly waiting to be folded, I have knick knacks strewn all over the dining table and the stove has been untouched. Almost feeling like a useless housewife, I went for my usual Monday dance class last week hoping to release some endorphins.

Both the ballet and Odissi classes clearly did that. Not realising that that night was the Mooncake Festival/ Lantern/ Full Moon night, Ramli was in high spirits as he reminded me that it was an auspicious night. How lucky was I that this lucky night fell on a Monday? I got to dance Pallavan under the stars and my insides got all tingly again. God, I've missed dancing so much.

So I shall continue to ride this lucky wave and start blogging properly!

Last year, hubby and I took a trip to India to attend a very close friend's wedding. Her wedding started the ball rolling! I was fortunate to also celebrate my birthday surrounded by people I hold dear to my heart. This year, I was also lucky and managed to simultaneously celebrate my birthday during our honeymoon.

As I mentioned, the first place we headed to on the very day we arrived was Bordeaux. I've always wanted to visit a vineyard and pluck grapes right off the vines and eat it, learn how wine is made (remember how in black and white movies there are always women stepping on grapes in a huge wooden tub?), bottled, and most importantly drunk! We began our tasting journey with a visit to the Wine Museum. Here were learnt that the people behind the marketing strategy of these Burgundy wines were indeed the Irish.

We learned the history of why this area was called the Port de la Lune (Port of the Moon) and also got to play with different apparatus that help cork a bottle. This visit was indeed useful for the wine tour we had the next day. A lot of the information we read about the day before all came screaming back when our animated guide, Axel, repeated the history of Bordeaux wines, how it's made, how the terroir (soil) makes its taste so unique and what makes a good wine.

We decided to go with the Chateau D'Arsac visit rather than the Sauterrne tour because the Sauterrne tour only had white wine tastings, we were also told that these wines are very sweet. So we went for the next available thing which was the chateau of winemaker, Phillippe Raoux.

I'm so glad we got to go on this tour because it was intimate (max. 6 persons) and we got to see some modern art. Look at how abstract the sculptures are...the house has a crooked iron rod sticking out of it for heaven's sake! Every art piece has a small story to tell, I leave it to you to find out what the stories are by visiting the Chateau for yourself...

As you can tell, the soil that the grapes grow on is rather gravelly, so what happens is that sunlight reflects off the gravel onto the grapes, which gives you smaller but sweeter fruits. The leaves are also pruned by hand so that the grapes can be fully exposed to the sun (different part of france, different climate, different pruning methods as well, different soil, different tasting grapes, different tasting wines). Experienced sommeliers can tell how good the wine will be that year from just tasting the grapes off the vine.

So what happens is that the grapes are plucked off the vines and crushed and de-stemmed to make grape juice, the juice is then filled into these large, open (to let the carbon dioxide out) metal vats and remain here for some time to ferment. It's then transferred to another sealed vat where the yeast and sugar is added and the mixture is given more time to ferment. Only after these steps will the wine be put into toasted oak barrels and allowed to mature into full fledged wine.

Chateau D'Arsac also invites guest sommeliers to come over and create special wines to add to their winemaker's collection. Most of the time, juice from different grapes are added, the percentage of the mixture is determined by the sommelier. 

Margaux is one out of 4 estates to be achieve premier cru (1st growth) status in Bordeaux.

Art, art, everywhere!

The tour comes with yummy lunch!

The most interesting thing we did on the tour was a test to determine our "wine sign". We were made to do 6 blind tastings (red & white) and rate how much we like the wine with a remote control. We were also asked about the kind of smells we like and also whether we prefer sweet of savoury food. At the end of the test, our results were tabulated and based on our score we were given our wine sign. Each tasting we did involved looking at the colour and clarity of the wine, determining the alcohol content of the wine, smelling the wine and of course tasting the wine. I ended up with the muscular sign, which meant that I like wines with high alcoholic content and strong after taste. 

 Amsterdam

I must say that if you ever get a chance to visit Amsterdam, you must do the Heineken experience. Filled with quirky pop art deco and interactive experiences I couldn't help but click away. These poster cards you see us posing in were so fun to do! You pull out different slides with different backgrounds, there were boxes you could stand on and click!

4 simple ingredients make 1 awesome beer.
Water, Barley, Hops & Heineken A Team.

 Remember these few things when you are served a Heineken beer:

1) There should be a good head of foam because this keeps your beer cool and delays it from getting flat.

2) If you are served with a clean beer glass, you will see rings of foam around the glass. The number of rings are the number of sips you've taken from your glass.

3) Hold your glass to the light and peek at the layer of foam from the bottom. See those tiny bubbles? That shows you how much fizz the beer has!

Last but not least, don't go to your beer, let the beer come to you. This ensures that you are drinking the beer and not the foam (which is the most bitter part). The longer you have the foam in your beer, the longer your beer stays fresh!

Not to mention these ultra cool seats that show old Heineken ads dating way back to 1945!
Warning! Long wait...

I Heart Heineken!

Champagne

We spent our last few days of our trip in Paris and made a quick dash to Reims. Hubby wanted to go to Epernay, which housed Moet & Chandon but we didn't have enough time. Reims was just as wonderful a place to visit anyway. A little town with many Champagne houses and cafes was such a refreshing change to Paris's subway. Being a Friday, Veuve Cliquot was full so we made our way to Tattinger first. It was a very informative tour and I learned how Champagne was made.

Champagne, used to be known as the Devil's Wine, is made by a combination of 3 types of grapes. I initially thought that only green grapes were used for making champagne but I learned that pinot noir grapes are also used. What gives the wine the colour is in actual fact their skin. On a separate note, Rose wines are white wines mixed with a small percentage of red wine. So the three grapes that are used for Champagne are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The percentage of grapes that makes a champagne really depends on the quality of the grapes in that particular harvest. In order not to damage the grapes or stain the grape juice, the grapes are all picked by hand and the grape juice is made at the vineyard itself because travelling with all those grapes is not the best thing to do if you want your juice colourless.

The grape juice is then placed in different vats based on the type of grape and the cru (estate) it comes from. Like the red wine they are left to ferment in the vat and sugar and yeast is only added when they are bottled. The yeast is removed by a process called disgorgement, where the liquid is frozen at the neck of the bottle (that's what the riddling rack is for, so the yeast sediment collects at the neck), the bottle is opened, the ice block containing the yeast sediment pops out from the pressure in the bottle and then the bottle is topped up with more wine and sugar for the final fermentation process. The amount of sugar added will result in brut (dry), sec (sweet), demi sec (moderately sweet), which is displayed on the label.

At Mumm & Co, oak barrels were used before but this was expensive to make and maintain, as it had to cleaned to ensure that no other flavours would taint the purity of champagne, plus the oak flavour from the barrel is not necessary for champagne so they moved onto ceramic vats, tiled on the inside and eventually to steel vats.

These are the tiled ceramic vats, which I sat in just because I could!

These are the steel vats that are used currently. But champagne makers like Krug, still use oak barrels till today.

 The Tattinger cellars were beautiful because they used to be used by the monks from the St. Nicaise Church, which has now been destroyed.You'd find random staircases that lead up to nowhere, and statues as well.

Even till today, bottles are riddled by hand because some bottles can't fit into the machines. I was told that an experienced riddler can do over 20,000-30,000 bottles a day!

See the yeast sediment at the bottom of the bottle?

At the end of the Mumm & Co tour, we were given 2 tastings each of the different types of champagne they had. We started off with the normal cordon rouge brut (back in the day, actual red ribbons were tied around the bottles), moved on to a 2002 vintage (Mumm only creates a vintage champagne if the harvest is good that particular year), then a grand cru and ended with the brut rose. I must say, I enjoyed the grand cru the most because of its oaky finish and it was very smooth to drink. Grand cru means that the grapes that were used to make the champagne came from a vineyard renowned for its wine production.

A grand cru bottle has a brown ribbon around it.

As you'd drink a glass of wine, drinking champagne requires the same techniques. See (colour, clarity and of course, bubbles!), smell and drink. I also found out that only Champagne comes from Champagne, so that is an accreditation in itself. There really isn't a bad champagne I was told, it all depends on what tickles your taste buds.

Phew! That was a long post, so there you have it. All the tastings summarised in one post.

To many more posts to come!

Chin, chin!