I'm 44!

I have a stash of preserved liver sausages and lupcheong from Hong Kong's Ser Wong Fun (蛇王芬), and decided to do a pot of mixed rice with it for dinner on Day 8 of the lunar new year, the eve of my birthday. I haven't actually cooked in a claypot since I moved into this home. The induction hobs don't allow a donabe to be used on it. What a shame. The rice is so tasty, but utterly unhealthy. Hahaha. I tried to keep it as healthy as I could, with pumpkin. I didn't bother with mushrooms. Blanched some greens to go with the meal. Mmmmmm. #ImpieCooks2022

I cook this claypot rice thing all the time, but I definitely will do it during the lunar new year period. Call it nostalgia, and my way of remembering my grandfather who used to cook this so well. For a few years now, I haven't bothered to buy a small gold piece on Day 4 of the lunar new year the way my grandfather did. I don't need to accumulate this much gold.   

A Størmer number, 44 is a pedestrian age. I feel like it's 'waiting', like the year is waiting to see how I shape the rest of the decade before I hit 50. All right then. I'm on my way to being half a century old. I know that when I look back, I will have no regrets. I have used this God-given life to serve my community, to reach out to people I love, and I'm happy with what I do. To those I've done wrong to (nothing criminal and nothing heinous), I don't think doing amends is a solution. I've done penance and come to terms with it. 

When the insurance renewal reminders come in, it's a broad poke that it's my birthday month and I'm getting older, and hence I'm in the higher risk group for...... potentially incurring high medical costs. LOL Such is the reality of aging huh. I dutifully paid everything due and went about life.