Oh Mr Porter!

Oh Mr Porter is a Will Hay film from 1937. I have seen this film quite a few times and enjoyed it every time. I also invariable find new things to laugh about as it is easy to miss jokes while you are busy laughing over one. I do have this movie on DVD but since all my films are still packed in boxes I found it online. I was in need of a laugh after been dizzy over the last few weeks.

There are other interesting trivia about this film too. This film is also included in a blog as one of the 100 favourite films. This gives some information about the movie as well. As per usual I am not trying to give a synopsis of the film but just my perception of it.

Mr Porter is the brother in law of a senior railway official and so has been given a job in the railway. He is so hapless that he has been moved to all sorts of jobs and yet again he has messed up. However, his sister insists that he be promoted and not fired. So a job of station master (a promotion indeed!) is found at a small place called Buggleskelly in Ireland. He is blessed with 2 equally wretched helpers who have little interest in running this station where no train stops and the station looks derelict. Mr Porter maybe hapless but he certainly is keep and dedicated railway worker as he does all he can to get the station on the railway map again.

To this end he starts an excursion train which is hired by the Buggleskelly Wednesday football team. However the train leaves the station but does not make it even past the next signal junction. The hunt for the train is the second half of the story. It is funny how despite all things always seem to work out for Mr Porter! He certainly puts Buggleskelly on the map…. and not just the railway one. The speech is fast and the accents do sometimes make it hard to catch (especially when you are laughing) the wordplay which is excellent. The visual comedy is also aplenty and with almost every action taken by Mr Porter. The fast train ride through stations reminds me every time of the other train fun from one of the St. Trinians movies. The three way phone conversation between Mr Porter, the man at the signal junction and the boss of the railways is hilarious. The windmill scene where Mr Porter and his associates are trying to escape had me in stitches. Oh I can go on for a lot longer than the time of the film to identify every thing that makes me giggle non-stop. But it will be better if you find the jokes for yourself.

So here is the link to see Oh Mr Porter – enjoy!

South by Java Head by Alistair MacLean

I do not think I ever bought this book when I was younger. I do not have any recollection about reading this book. It is a lengthy novel when compared to the others written by Alistair MacLean. It is set during the time before the Japanese invasion on Australia when Singapore fell to the Japanese forces. There is a rag tag group of people – a few nurses, some injured soldiers, a retired officer, a Muslim cleric, an elderly lady and a young child are all seeking a boat to flee the city. Apparently it is vital that the retired officer finds a boat to Australia as he has important papers showing the plans of invasion into Australia. This knowledge would be immensely useful to the forces protecting Australia.

The slave boat they choose is manned by people less than honourable and the passengers are left to die when the boat is on fire. In the hurricane weather they fortunately get seen by a ship transporting oil. The subsequent rescue and the attack by the Japanese fighters are detailed even though this part of the story moves fast. The ship takes a hit on one of the oil tanks and sinks with the survivors taking to a life boat and the crew of the slave boat on another as no one trusts them. The boat drifts along the current with hardly any wind and the run to reach Java is agonising.

The details of the weather, the ship and boat and the hardships that the people face with illness, lack of food and water are vivid and often too much to take it. The child becomes the focus of hope and keeping his safe becomes important. Strange, how that it is always easier to focus on that small child rather than wider picture of saving all. It is something to do with the mind not being able to process enormous issues as well as a single issue.

There is an ambush on the way and even the boat is lost. The help from locals eventually also comes with a price for them. I am not sure if I can believe all the adversity they overcome. The superhero persona of a couple of the main characters, even though I do strongly believe that extreme stress bring out the best on people and that adrenalin take over to achieve superhuman feats. The injury of individuals gets the heroism started but it truly blossoms when the brave nurse, the young child and the injured ship’s captain are taken hostage.

The level of violence in this book is indeed much more that other books I have read so far. Combined with the length of the book I actually took a long time to read this novel. The end when it came was satisfactory but abrupt. The heroism in the couple of chapters is awesome and you want a slow letting down from that adrenalin high of reading this ending. But any lover of Alistair MacLean novels should not omit reading this as the art of the writer is displayed in the keep eye of detail of the situation and the times.

Khichadi – complete food in one pot and Potato Sabji

Khichadi is a very Indian recipe that has slightly different approaches in different states. Generally, a combination of rice, lentils and spices plus optional vegetables are basic to khichadi recipe as suggested by khichadi.com.

Most families have their own variation of the ingredients. As a child I remember a fairly bland recipe with just half rice, half lentil (moong dal), some salt and turmeric all cooked in water in the ratio of 4 cups of water to one cup of lentil + rice. Once cooked it was served hot with some ghee in it. Mostly I remember eating it with yoghurt and a potato and tomato vegetable with lots of gravy (a very soupy affair). Most often this was the diet when I was ill and so it has not become a favourite dish of mine. However, I have made some changes and find it a little more likeable now. My family like to eat this just by itself or with potato and tomato sabji (curry).

For 2 people –

Take half a cup (an average size mug) of rice and half a cup of moog dal ( having the husk on the dal improves the fibre content of the dish).

To this one cup of mixture add 4 cups of water. This will make the mixture a good mash when cooked. If you wish to have some bite to the grain then add just 3 and half cups of water.

Finely chop 2 small chillies, 2 cloves of garlic, and a half inch piece of ginger and add to the pot. These ingredients can be changed to suit your taste.

Add salt to taste and half a teaspoon of turmeric powder. Stir the pot, cover and bring the water to boil. Once it begins to boil turn the gas down to the lowest flame and leave to cook until al water disappears. There is no need to stir the pot while the khichadi is cooking.

Serve it hot with a spoon full of ghee or butter.

For the potato sabji –

Finely chop 1 medium size onion, 2 – 3 cloves of garlic and half inch of ginger piece.

In a pan heat 1 table spoon of oil (olive or vegetable or peanut oil) add half teaspoon of mustard seeds, 2 small dried red chillies, 2 cloves, small cinnamon stick piece and a bay leaf. When the mustard seeds start popping add the chopped onion and garlic.

While the onion is gently sautéing finely chop 2 large tomatoes or use half a tin of chopped tomatoes. Once the onions start to brown add the tomatoes. Now add salt to taste, half a teaspoon of red chilli powder, quarter teaspoon of turmeric powder, 1 tea spoon of cumin powder and 3 teaspoons of coriander powder. Stir the spices in and cook until the oil comes back to the surface. This indicates that spices have been cooked.

To this now you can add 2 – 3 medium sized potatoes that have been cubed small. Add water to cover the potatoes. Cover the pan and bring to boil. The turn the gas to medium heat and cook till potatoes soften. The lid can be left off to evaporate excess water if you do not wish to have a lot of gravy. If you wish to thicken the gravy just mash up some potato pieces. Add fresh coriander leaves before serving.

The indobase website gives a similar recipe but with a mixture of moong and masoor dal and added potatoes.

Here are some youtube recipes of making different types of khichadis –

Moong dal khichadi

Punjabi khichadi

Mix vegetable khichadi

Masaledar khichadi

Schoolies and Toolies

Last week I heard these two new words…

Last week was the end of the school year and those students finishing school have a party.. much like the disco or ball at a ‘graduation’ party. Here in Australia it seems to be mixed up with the spring break approach of the USA. All the young people gather at the beach and have a week long party. Most say it’s time to spend with friends, make new friends, drink, dance and hang out. All these are ‘schoolies’. The police are on the lookout for any disturbances. This schoolie week makes the news every day.

Now when this party gets gate crashed by those who are older and obviously not a school leaver, intent on having some fun and maybe even cause some ruckus things can be bad. These non-school leavers are called ‘toolies’. They are supposedly bent on causing problems via drugs or drink and take advantage of young folks. Police are on the lookout for toolies who can spoil the fun for the young people. The news during the week had the police chief of a Gold Coast talking about the toolies and schoolies…… Whatever next to make evening news?

When can I be Me?

I was reflecting on life while waiting for my head to stop revolving or should I say stop the earth revolving around me. I was thinking how I have always behaved well and in accordance with the people and situations I find myself in. As a child my behaviour was strictly in accordance to the rules of my parents. They were fairly strict and so there was little room to be naughty. My foray into disobedience was limited to glowering behind my mother’s back! Also I used to love to read story books (I was an avid reader of fiction and still am) especially past the bed time with a torch under the covers. I was only ‘Me’ in my imaginary world, where I could go where and when I wanted. A major transgression was not sitting down to do my homework when told to. Life was pretty simple and rules were annoying but life went on. Little did I know that this compliance to what was expected would be the lesson that was most important in keeping others happy. My real problem was keeping a handle on my temper which was short and hot and unfortunately hard to not display.

Then I learnt o hold my temper as well and became a very outwardly compliant person. Being an army cadet teaches you that no one really gives a damn about your temper or your feeling even for that matter. Again the behaviour that was acceptable to others, even pleasing them was reinforced. My needs or wants were secondary to what others perceived. While I have always believed that one should not be bothered about what others think, I was indoctrinated by the society to do what others dictated. Again I seem to have escaped into my fantasy world when I wanted to be ‘Me’. Spending time by myself, listening to music or reading were the avenues to being myself and work out coping strategies as I did not wish to displease parents, family, friends, teachers, patients, and so on and so on. To some extent this compliant behaviour also taught me patience and a much more even temper as this is extremely important in the work environment and a caring profession.

But where is the outlet to be ‘me’? When can I not have to hang on to my temper or be naughty, giggle and have fun? However this demeanour was very useful when I moved countries. Learning to live and work in a different country is generally very stressful and having learnt to use a cool head and logic helped me to cope well. I also chose to work in a very fast paced and stressful environment of operating theatres and in particular cardio thoracic surgery. There is no room for a flighty, ditzy or frivolous person in this environment. I then moved to teaching and moved even further away into being a serious individual. The fun loving and comic in me only came out to ‘play’ during holidays. I began to take on responsibility for others such as my family and feeling I had to be there for all and help them solve their problems. SO where was the ‘me’? Did I change so much?

When the social networking began on the internet I managed to find old friends from college and school and the comments they made stopped me short. They all remembered me as fun loving and jovial and cheeky girl who laughed a lot. They were surprised to see how serious I had become. The change to this person who took everything very seriously had been slow but total. During this time I had got married and got a whole new family to whom I had to adjust and were yet more people I have to work to please. Going to a new family and learning to be a part of it is also about tailoring behaviour to others. I got on famously with my father in law as I think he had a fun loving and naughty side and so encouraged me to be myself with him. My husband has always encouraged me to have fun and be myself but there is still an expectation that I will be ‘sensible’ and do the chores and say the right thing and do the right things. But if I am to be myself I am bound to occasionally lapse from this good behaviour. The only personal indulgence in the last two decades have been that of losing my temper occasionally when at home and generally only in front of my husband. Then I got ill and developed a chronic illness which only has symptomatic treatment. This has also had an impact on my emotional wellbeing. The pain and immobility along with stress from family issues led me down the depression path and I spent most days bursting into tears and being miserable. As the symptoms were slowly brought to some semblance of tolerance I started having time and energy to reflect on who I am and what does being ‘me’ mean.

I have had to rebuild my confidence in dealing with everyone. This recovery started with having to confront my doctors and ask for information to make choices with regards to the treatments. Then we moved countries to start afresh in a warmer climate and slower pace of life. While I dealt with my visa issues and managed slowly de-cluttering the home for the move most of the other things that needed to be done were carried out by my husband. I had begun to get stronger and was physically more capable of doing light chores by the time we moved. Now at least the old ladies with zimmer frame did not overtake me and disappear into the horizon. I could manage to stir my cooking pot without my wrist hurting for the rest of the week. I began to talk to more people specially friends and family over the internet and re-establishing old relationship. I guess I was making peace with people I cared about and started reminiscing about the fun times and recapturing my lighter side.

I am certainly better than I was. I have starting enjoying life and revelling in what I can do rather than despairing over what I cannot. I have now stopped working and started spending time on finding myself and indulging myself in pursuits of creative activities. The need for a sense of humour is vital when one is chronically ill. Still have to work on dealing with strangers and tradespeople. I have been told I do not need to give them explanations and have to get work done with minimal discussion. I tend to have these long conversations and the innate sense of giving explanations is to be blamed for this. But then I think that is me… I do want people to understand what I am on about. I have asked my husband to let me know what is expected from me. This is was very helpful when I was recovering both my physical and emotional health. But I think what has happened over this time the readjusting to differing roles has caused some level of insecurity maybe in both of us.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel as I think I am on the mend for recently I have started saying I want to be me and I do not wish to be told what to do and how to behave. This is after a long time of seeking guidance about how to react. I want to be the ‘me’ I used to be. I know I cannot go back to the exact state but I can certainly temper my seriousness with a big injection of fun and laughter. I am well on the way as I have been called the resident comedienne of my facebook group for UCTD. From being a nurse and one who was always on the ball needed all the information and knowledge re any disease I have gone to wanting only the broad information about my own illness. I can live happily without knowing every little detail and wanting to discuss every minor symptoms and all I want to do is talk less about my health. This with the family and friends is a little hard as if you say you are ok they assume that you are healthy where as I mean I can tolerate and cope today with my issues. If I enumerate all the day’s symptoms I sound like a whingey person which I am not.

So to put it into perspective, I have moved on the illness – wellness continuum from the princess who found the pea under the 20 mattresses painful and inability to hold my own head up with muscle wasting and excruciating pain to one who can walk a mile, and cook at least once a day. The major highlight of my recovery was being able to sweep my home! Stirring the cooking pot was no longer akin to sawing your hands off. Seeing humour through the haze of pain has allowed me to cope and to bring back that childlike enthusiasm and fun for life. Slowly but surely I am allowing myself to be ‘Me’.