C12H22O11 SUGAR

As a pastrychef, sugar is your best friend.
Without a doubt we are successful because of our primary ingredient which adds the colour, flavour and sweetness to all that we do.
We use it daily in nearly everything we make in one form or another, sweetener, caramlisation of baked goods, caramels, sauces, candies, decorations and showpieces.

Depending on where you're cooking you either use a lot of it or a little.
Something I never thought possible until I journeyed to Asia and found that the favoured dishes are those with very little sugar and sweetness, this differs to my years in the Middle East where sugar would be the coating to many of the traditional sweets in form of syrups, while sweet dishes stood pride of place for my years in North America as well.

Glucose , Fructose, Sucrose, Lactose,  Maltose or call it plain old sugar
Like our jobs as pastrychef, sugar is complex. It is not just a single ingredient but should be viewed as an ingredient with a million possibilities.

When I first started in Pastry I was fortunate to attend Ewald Notter's original school in Josefstrasse in Zurich and was amazed at how a professional could take sugar from crystal sugar and could form it into the most complex sculptures my young eyes has ever seen.
Sugar was and is just one of hundreds of amazing ingredients we get the pleasure of playing with as pastry chefs.
As a youngster I chose chocolate above all others to specialise in and enjoyed decades doing so, still do.
Recently though our Executive Chef reminded the team NOT TO FORGET THAT AS CHEFS that work was one thing, but that reminding ourselves of old skills and pushing ourselves for new ones - was a key to not only us breaking boundaries in the future, but also to invigorating our team.

As chefs we need to push our selves and our ingredients to new levels to make sure our guests receive the best and nicest dishes we can create and our team needs to be taught skills we may have passed up for new ones, because the basics are from where all creation begins.

And so, we started with sugar, a basic sweetener that can be formed into numerous other potentials in food , for sauces and for decoration and adding fantasy to our creations.  It's been fun and I thought Id share the experimentation we have done.
From Opaline and crystallised sugar discs to balloons of sugar to domes for encasing your desserts, we have all been spell bound by the possibilities this incredible ingredient can be utilised for.

Ill keep adding to the blog as we push sugar further, but in the mean time we are moving forward to other ingredients in an effort to both remind ourselves of skills and techniques we have not done for some time, to newer techniques we need to learn or have been too busy to practice.
Pastry is an evolution of skills, techniques and self improvement. Thankfully we have the support from above to do so.

Until next time, Enjoy and thanks for stopping by.
It honours me that so many countries do, and am humbled when I see so many people stopping by to read and view the blog from as far as Russia, South Korea, South Africa, Philippines, Ukraine, India, France, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Canada and the USA to name just the most prominent of viewers. Thank you all and hope you keep coming back for more.

OPALINE
A mixture of Glucose, Fondant and sugar. Cooked and cooled and then crushed and seived into shapes or through chablons or stencils and cooked again until clear to create amazing forms for decoration.

Gorgeous feathers of opaline to create Invisible decorations- a touch of understated class and finish.

 CRYSTALLISED SUGAR DISCS
A syrup of 1000g sugar and 400g water brought to the boil and cooled. poured into shaped forms and seeded with fresh sugar crystals, left 24-48 hours depending on your kitchen environment,  the sugar crystallises to form a firm "skin" this can be removed and dried to create a thin gorgeous finish for cakes or desserts.

 THE SUGAR DOME
A technique we have all seen but probably rarely tried. Successfor this remains with the quality of your plastic wrap. We used between 16-18 layers of plastic firm over a mixer bowl, poured just 50g of sugar and then pressed down a cake ring which creates the sugar dome by pushing the air up the centre of the ring. A gorgeous decoration for any cake. I believe the original was created by Cordon Bleu lecturer Jean-François Deguignet and I give full credit to its creator, I'm merely a student learning by others techniques on this one.

THE SUGAR BALOON

Created by ALINEA chef Grant Achatz , again we are merely the students learning the techniques of others and do not attest to creating anything here, other than a mess in our own kitchen attempting success. This is a beautiful creation from sugar, and a testament to the diversity of sugar, a mere crystal of sweetness being blown into a floating work of art.

Chef's Secretary - the office is now closed.

Chefs are a tough bunch, but there are things that reduce even us to tears.
The loss of a mother, the loss of a friend and the loss of someone who is both friend and mother, confidant and team member.

Today April 25th 4.30pm the Philippines lost someone who was such to many, Marichu Salindong , who had bravely battled cancer for too long, and finally relented to the battle.

Marichu was a strong woman. She had to be.
As Chef's Secretary for 25 years she had seen so many egos come and go. Too many.
Some she liked, some she stood and others she just had to work beside and with.
She was an amazing woman.
Even though I was an expat and newbie to the Manila Peninsula Hotel in 2014 she supported me, told me the tricks to things and helped me when the tricks did not work in my favor.
Sharing an office with one Chef was not easy, but Marichu shared an office with several of us. Tensions at times ran high.
She calmed us, gave us sweets, shared a laugh and turned our moods back in the right direction so that we could go back out and run the domains where were hired to run.

For a long time I never knew Marichu had suffered Breast Cancer before I joined the company. Why would I. She never spoke about it, she had won that battle. When I found out I apologised for some of the tough days I had ranted about. She said," a lot of chefs have sat in those chairs and said the same things, they come - they go and yet Im still here."
She had an unbelievable strength, and her attitude made me realise how replaceable we as chefs, especially Expats truly are.
She was right, we come, we go and while we leave a mark, we eventually are replaced and forgotten about.
Some staff such as her, stay the course and see it all.
She had a Powerpoint presentation which made me laugh, a collection of all the Executive Chefs who had sat in the big chair. We came to talk about the Executive Chefs chair as though it was the same one on Game of Thrones, eventually they all "move on or lose their heads". In my two years we saw five Execs sit in the same chair. Some moved on, some we missed when they departed or just disappeared, some lost their heads and others we wished had.

The one thing I truly took away from working with Marichu was her ability to laugh it all away. Some chefs are just not nice people to work with and yet she could forget their nastiness and words, attitudes and egos and she could still have a great laugh with the next person through the door to the office.
In a message I received from her at Christmas she stated exactly as I felt about her and my own mother, "Remember our morning laughter 😊 bad tempers 😞 and later laughter again, I make you smile Aaron and you too always enlighten my day. I will never forget you".

Laughter is what makes the world go around and the ability to laugh between tough times is key to life.
Marichu and I could always find something to have great laugh about, even about ourselves, and that was what made working in a tough kitchen possible. She made working in a tough kitchen possible.

Since she left work, I did not see her again, we only chatted occasionally on Messenger. Something I feel bad about, but which she understood.
We had discussed in person my loss of my own mother and the depression I faced after that. Seeing Marichu - someone so strong in resolve, debilitated by Cancer yet again - made me cry just seeing some of her photos. Seeing her in person would have been very tough and not something she needed to face.
Chefs have ego's and are a tough breed- we have to be to survive what we go through- but we are just weakened little boys when our close friends are hurting and we can do nothing to help. I wish I could cook up a recipe to help her, but all my training let me down.

Today she has gone to a better place, one without pain and one where there are fewer Executive Chefs I hope to make her days tough.

I miss her daily laughs as much as I miss those of my own mother.
Every kitchen should have a woman as strong as Marichu Salindong, sitting in the Chef's Office.
She made the tough times bareable.
Today the office is closed, the secretaries chair is empty and many people in the Philippines and around the world lost an amazing friend.
Some days remain with you forever.
This is one of them.

Great article from APPY BISTRO (www.appybistro.com) and Parul Khanna. Very appreciative.

Patisserie Perfectionist: Chef Aaron Maree

BY APPY BISTRO ON FEBRUARY 26, 2016 • ( LEAVE A COMMENT )

 

 

 

 

 

 

21 Votes

It is quite natural to have sweet cravings and it one of the most satisfying feeling for our taste buds to enjoy great desserts but do you ever wonder the person who has created such an alluring dessert for us? A lot of people may not think about it but still there are many who do. Being a chef is not an easy task and being a pastry chef has its own challenges too. To become a pastry chef of highest repute, a lot of hard work and dedication is needed as pastry making or designing a dessert is an art to master. Today we would like to present one such master pastry chef who has perfect understanding of pastry elements and is an ultimate in patisserie perfection.

Meet Chef Aaron Maree, highly successful & highly talented International Pastry chef and a Dessert consultant, highly famous author of more than 15 cookbooks including the world famous cookbook “Arabian Dreams” on modern middle eastern desserts, which won him awards in Paris and with it, he could change the face of Middle Eastern Desserts globally. A vivid traveler & a great teacher.

Apart from that Chef Aaron has won many more awards & accolades, like he has been a “Fellow of the World Master Chefs Society”, has been proud recipient of Culinary Order of Merit, had been awarded Young Queenslander of the Year 1990 by QLD, Australia and Young Achiever Awards 1991 by Channel Nine – Australia apart from receiving an Advance Australia Award for Service to the Food Industry in year 1996. He also happens to be the Youngest TAFE Lecturer in Australia.

Aaron Maree, hails from Australia, highly educated from various prestigious culinary institutes across Australia, France, Switzerland & USA. His professional career started from England where he worked under pastry chef Brian Baker and took him back to Australia again as a lecturer. After teaching for 3 years, he went to New Zealand to work with Death by Chocolate Worldwide. After 7 years, this great chef returned to Australia one more time to be a chocolate consultant with Cadbury Schweppess.

There after he got a great opportunity and he started his full time pastry chef work when he joined Movenpick Restaurants of Switzerland, Canada as a Patissier. After this he started his own patisserie in Canada by the name Dip me in Chocolate which he winded up & sold later, moving on to take another opportunity with Holland America Line Cruise Ships, Seattle USA and managed the entire pastry operations with his team for various cruises, days at length.

With his excellent pastry knowledge & great experience, Chef Aaron got a great opportunity & a very challenging task to work at Al Rawdha Palace, Kingdom of Bahrain as an Executive Patissier catering to the Royalty & highest dignitaries of the Bahrain, which he handled very well for 7 years, after that he did pastry consultancy jobs with some Boutique hotels and private businesses in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain and Los Angeles, USA.

This incredibly talented chef was judged & chosen to be one of the top 5 Pastry chefs of the Middle East for 2012 and rated as one of the Top 5 Food Guru’s of The Middle East. Currently with his vast experience & unparalleled expertise, he is handling the entire pastry operations at Peninsula Manila Hotel, Makati City, Manila with his team of 25 people.

We interviewed chef Aaron and would like to share the same with our viewers as it gives an insight into this great chef’s mind and his pastry passion:

Q: When did you decide to be a pastry chef?

A: I was 13 when I decided cooking was the career I wanted to work. I eventually found a job and was granted a beginner’s role of dishwashing and making garlic bread on the weekends. Weekends eventually lasted weeks and then i was given basic work such as buffet and salad mise-en-place to do. When i turned 14 the kitchen i was working in employed a Danish pastry chef and what he was doing with pastry I found amazing. I requested to work with him and began an apprenticeship in pastry that same year. 

4 years later I would be in London working for Gary Rhodes at the Castle Hotel, Taunton, later I worked at Hambleton Hall under another famed name Chef Brian Baker before returning to Australia at age 20.

Upon returning to Australia I was fortunate enough to find a publishing company interested in publishing a book concept I had and it was received well worldwide and the publishing house offered me a future whereby I published a total of 14 books. My last book with them was published in 2001.

Q: What has been the most rewarding moment in your career so far?

A: Meeting and working with some of the greatest chefs in the world is definitely a major plus of my career. I have been privileged in my career to travel a lot as well seeing 87 countries. But by far the biggest reward was receiving two awards in Paris for the last cookbook I wrote, ARABIAN DREAMS. It was a personal feat of writing, editing and photography and a pet project I wanted to thank the industry that had been so good to me for three decades. When it was praised and awarded it felt great.

To be honest though the entire career has been rewarding. More so than most could dream. I have published 16 books over my career, I have worked as a chocolate consultant to one of the largest chocolate companies, I have worked in franchising on a global level, i have had the ability to travel, have worked for a King and Queen and numerous world leaders, major brands of hotels and been corporate Pastry chef for some major companies. Its a ever changing career and it has been very rewarding all round.

Q: What has been the toughest thing you have done in your line of work?

A: Standing on your feet for thirty years and doing the hours. Its a tough job physically. Thankfully the amazing food we have created among the many teams I have worked with has been rewarding enough.

Q: What advise would you like to give to the new pastry chefs starting out in this field?

A: Do not come into the industry based on watching anything on television. It is a tough job and paid college courses do not prepare you for the level of stress, hours, and expectations of the brigade that you will encounter. I’m not sure that if I started today that even I would last the same thirty-three years I have worked in the industry. I’m very happy to be where I am in my career with the work and skills behind me now, rather than in-front of me.

It is though a fantastic career and allows you to work in so many countries and in more areas than virtually any other job, ships, restaurants, hotels, resorts, islands, stand alone businesses and eventually your own business, and always surrounded by amazing cakes and pastries.

Chef Aaron Maree is true pastry genius, he has earned a name & a great place for himself in the Patisserie world with his hard work, sincere dedication, absolute passion and un-parallel & unmatched patisserie skills and above all, for sharing his pastry knowledge with the world through his books. He is truly a great inspiration to all the new pastry chefs trying to make a place for themselves in the pastry world.

Cheers Chef Aaron Maree!

Post by: Parul Khanna / Appy Bistro

Picture courtesy: Aaron Maree

Love is ?

I wrote these words a few years ago now, under another guise and during a different stage in my life.
But the words are still relevant and worthy of a Valentines post.
With the world today, Feb 14th 2016 supposedly back in a Cold War, with tensions running high in numerous countries and fighting continuing in others, with politicians more interested in bickering with each other to win votes than actually solving problems today, with new diseases being found and old ones not yet cured, the words "I Love You" should perhaps be spoken more often to more people and we might find peace in areas we never thought possible, and loved ones might not leave us so soon, or at least not with out knowing how we feel about them.

Love Is ?                                                 

The only successful relationship I ever had, was with food. 

And even then I cheated.

February is about love. Albeit the mass market variety.  

St Valentines Day fills me with angst on so many levels. 

Some people find my theory on love quite bizarre, yet I find it even stranger that we must mark love with its own special day. Surely if love is a spontaneous and all encompassing emotion, it should be celebrated on a daily basis, not just by the marking of a particular day to express our feelings for another.

Perhaps it is a reflection of modern life, that we are just too busy to show emotion, take time out of our all too important daily tasks to remind those special in our lives that they are dear and loved to us? Perhaps if people stopped taking selfies, they might have time for others.

What exactly does St Valentines celebrate anyway? 

The secret unrequited love of a couple never met? 

A burning passion one can never achieve, or is it truly the celebration of a couple who have found true and ever lasting love?

I’m just not sure what kind of love I have felt in my life nor wether I’m worthy of the cards I receive. Does more than one card from different people make me a bad person or just lucky? 

Is it bad to send more Valentines cards than I do at Christmas? 

We do not all believe in Christmas but surely we do all believe in love! And to spread the feeling of love is a far better cause.

True love, unrequited love, pure love, never-ending love, unconditional love, undying love, puppy love, familial love, platonic love or a love that transcends time. When did something so simple, become so mind bogglingly complicated?

Some people seem to find love easy, some find it immensely difficult and others like me, find it perplexing.

I once worked as part of a small team. We were like the four Musketeers; just better looking!  

Our quartet consisted of a youthful Mr. Twenty something, two thirty something’s and myself at forty.(remember I wrote this a few years back)

We were a very stereo typical group of chefs. One in four marriages end in divorce and the elder of the two thirty some-things fit that bill.

The younger thirty something had been in one relationship all his life and was happily married, having found his true love early on.

Mr Twenty something, a young radical with spiky un-brushed hair full of “product” , styling mousse and texture putty was a good looking kid who found the game of love easy, yet the saying of the words immensely difficult.

To round out the quartet there was myself. Forty, single and typical of our star sign Aries.

Aries people have life tough. 

We are by birth, lovers and playboys. Read any astrological page and they tell you we are players of the game; lovers who act compulsively. It’s not our fault. The stars simply align themselves every time we pass a person of the opposite sex. 

A cosmic wave fills me, there and then with love!

It is not a game. It’s very serious. For me, love expresses how I feel. Right then! Right there! I can walk down the street and fall in love every ten feet.

It sounds like fun, but you have no idea. 

A simple task of shopping can take hours and I’ll return home with a hundred new phone numbers.

My therapist says this stems, not only from my star sign, but my size. 

I have and always will be a little on the big side. Since childhood I have known the taunts one can receive for being different. I do not necessarily stand out like a sore thumb, more like a pumpkin on a tomato vine. To say it simply, I felt sometimes un-loved as a child. I know what power this simple word can hold.

Saying “I LOVE YOU” , means far more to hear, than it does to say.

Mr Twenty something , even in a relationship with a person for whom he has “feelings”, finds the word difficult to verbalise. 

His is a set of principals and beliefs I respect from an age gone by, whilst Mr Divorcee never wants to hear or say the words again for fear of the financial ramifications.

But to make others feel loved even for a second, is an amazing experience to share. 

As Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote,” Tis better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all”.

Perhaps if the world could relate to these three little words, like I do, we would have far less wars and unrest. 

We all deserve to be loved and to find love, even if for a fleeting moment whilst shopping.

For me, just to hear the words, to read them, to write them or to type them to another, fills my day with joy.

Imagine seven billion people feeling the way I do. 

It would be like the sixties all over again! Would that be so bad?

Happy Valentines Day and may love find you all where ever you are and what ever your situation.

Sam and Ralph; a lesson in age and understanding.

I am constantly reminded of my age by one of the darlings of my team. She loves bristling my nerves by reminders of things I know that few others around me do. Music, historical events and cartoons among them.

Whilst I am aging, I'm not that old yet, and to be truthful, I feel sorry to the millennials who do not have the internal memory platform from whence our older minds run and draw our knowledge.
It's one thing to be able to look things up on the web, Google it or Shazam a sound, and pretend to be smart, it's something else to be able to draw upon events throughout your life in an instance and have real time data to support your age, remember the lyrics of a song you have not heard in a decade, pick an historic date out of mid-air or to recollect a significant event like it were yesterday.

I may be aging and some things take time to recall, but recall I can.

My father was a historical nut on all things World War II to the point that it drove my mother furious. But I learnt through reading his newspapers and magazines depths of knowledge few can research online if they did for a week at a time.

Not everyone needs World War II knowledge every waking hour of every day though. It's just one of those things that nice to be able to know about. Faces, important dates and historical places help when watching the daily world news also.

Of things I appreciate about age though, are the cartoons.
Back then (I will not admit the years), watching Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd fight it out, it was funny, harmless and filled in the afternoons between returning from school and venturing back outside to play with the others in the street.
Wiley E .Coyote and the Roadrunner, Daffy Duck and Yosemite Sam, Sylvester chasing Tweety and Tom and Jerry. All much about the same, good versus bad.
But the cartoon that truly strikes me daily, even today as being very close to home is Sam and Ralph.
I can relate to it and see the interaction at many workplaces.

Good Morning Sam, Good Morning Ralph.

For those too young to have enjoyed Sam and Ralph cartoons by Looney Tunes let me fill you in.
Made by Looney Tunes, Merry Melodies, the context of the series is built around the idea that both Ralph ( a wolf) and Sam ( a sheepdog watching over his flock of sheep) are just doing their jobs. Most of the cartoons begin at the beginning of the workday, in which they both arrive at a sheep-grazing meadow, exchange pleasant chitchat, and punch into the same time clock. Work having officially begun, Ralph repeatedly tries very hard to abduct the helpless sheep and invariably fails, either through his own ineptitude or the minimal efforts of Sam, who always brutally punishes Ralph for the attempt.

It is the start of the cartoons that makes me laugh the most.
The two characters are essentially normal people outside of work.
But at the beginning of each day they punch into the same clock and then begin working against each other. But before doing that, they always chat nicely, "Good morning Sam, hey Good Morning Ralph", the two characters smile, sign in and then the battle begins until the end of the workday.
They shake hands, clock out and go off home together.

The stupidity of the cartoon was funny when I was a child.
It still is, but sadly this is visible across numerous workplaces in every country on every continent still today.
Normal people arrive, change, exchange pleasantries and then go off to do battle, in their varying senior positions.
In large buildings and properties seeing your colleagues is sometimes not a question, today the battles are electronic and of an email nature. Some colleagues you may not actually see all day again until the day is done, meeting up again in the locker room, ignoring the unpleasantness of emails traded between each other during the past ten hours and then off home they go , waving and smiling to each other that they will see each other tomorrow.

Humans are a complex and funny bunch. But sometimes the humor is not that funny at all.

Recent events in Paris and seemingly continuing around the globe on a monthly basis would suggest to me that we simply do not learn from history.
We repeat the same stupidity toward each other every single day, month, year and decade.
Sometimes we forget or the fighting slows for a time, but eventually it rears its ugly head once again and having learnt nothing from the losses of the past we continue in our same stupid manner.

I've raised the subject of the Sam and Ralph  cartoons a few times to others, but I'm the only one that seems to have ever watched them.
With age comes wisdom and with that wisdom it is our duty to impart the knowledge learnt so as to try and make better the future for a different generation.

We should be nicer to each other. We should not allow ethnical and religious divides to divide us as people at all.
Sure it can divide our thinking and beliefs, our decisions and our ways of life, but why can we not all live together despite our differences in peace and harmony?
Why does one jackal feel it must impose its visciousness upon others just to try and make it feel like it is the king of the woods?

Perhaps it is as simple as beginning with pleasantries at work, and in the locker room, that are true and heart felt and carrying those with us throughout the day and then extending that to our daily lives. being nice to one another could spread globally.

Of a religious nature there is the saying, "treat others as you would have them treat you".
An eye for an eye just makes two blind people, not a better seeing world

And that's really the point; we have to forgive the lesser people and move forward to a future for humanity that has forgiveness and understanding in it's heart and mind, only then peace will reign around the world.
Perhaps these people are angry and horrid themselves because of their own inadequacies, there poor upbringing, their lack of self-worth, their bad lot in life, perhaps they just have no joy at home, childless, no pets to relieve their frustrations or fill their hearts with love, or perhaps they are just lonely.

Ours is to not to judge, not to lower ourselves to the depths of their misery but to see the world for the amazing lot that we, the happy people, have in ours.
For some people, Oscar Wilde's words ring so true, "where there is no love, there is no understanding!"

Sam the sheep dog, was protecting his sheep, but he never smiled or did much. At the opposite side of the coin was Ralph the wolf who was animated in character as well as in emotions, worked hard and fast and yet never won.
Instead of battling together, perhaps they both could have tried to understand each others position a little better and let the other alone.
Perhaps Sam's life away from the sheep was a complex miserable life, perhaps Ralph the Wolf could have found another food source.

What it comes down to is "understanding!"
Understanding each other.
Understanding the root cause and understanding each others position, and then working from there to understand the bigger picture, the past, present and future and working toward a better future for us all.

Understanding has become as alien to us as the cartoons of my youth, both lost to a crazy world of political correctness.

Attending managerial level leadership classes and motivational speakers, one rarely hears the words, "Understand". It seems we are scared to try and understand each other any more- it's too personal and therefore bad from a legal perspective to suggest we understand or try to understand one another.
Instead we head to work and battle for supremacy or simply to survive another work day beneath them.

What I have learnt from history and from being the age that I am, is this.
Those that battle for supremacy usually come undone if not sooner, then later.
Karma really can be a bitch.

Those who battle to survive, usually win and do so deservingly.
Better yet, those who strive to understand, can truly change the world.

In the words of RICHARD DAWKINS,(writer 1941-)

"I think the world's always a better place if people are filled with understanding."

Good Night Ralph, Good Night Sam.

The Agony of TEETH - (not the movie)

If your eyes are the windows to your soul, then what are your teeth;  the barricades to the fun factory.

I have been blessed with great teeth all my life, much in part due to the fluoride in the water in Never Never Land where we grew up, giving us strong healthy teeth, or so my parents said.

Braces were for those with severe dental issues only, too bulky, too sore and too expensive for our teeth back in the seventies Today I see every second person with braces, even those with nice teeth.

Teeth have never been my problem, despite three decades living in the world of sugar, I was trained like a rodent on a wheel to brush twice if not three times a day and although I perhaps have brushed in the wrong direction, my teeth have actually caused me little issue for many decades.

A slip of laziness perhaps in the thirties caused two fillings but they where righted by a dentist supposedly worthy of his credentials.
Seems he held too much trust in my inexperienced eyes and should never have been trusted with my perfect teeth.
The man gave me two fillings and until recently that was enough.
It lasted me all of 5 years.
I some how thought they lasted a life time, but a sore tooth a few weeks back had me worry. A quick trip to the dentist stated that the tooth below the filling was not in good shape due to it being a bad filling.

Part of me wanted to find the old dentist and sue his practice for malpractice.
I was given the option to consider removing said painful tooth or having a root canal.
Both scared the hell out of me.

48 hours later, the issue became more serious as I ate a salad taco.
Soft food- hard bite, took liberties with half a tooth and a lump of silver big enough to make an ingot, falling out in front of me as I tried to chew.
Dinner was done.
Nice taco it was too.

Thankfully a 9 day vacation was to ensue- supposedly taken in Vietnam but actually spent in the dentist chair.
Except not just one dentists chair, but several.
Seems not one dentist actually does the entire job these days.
One looks at your teeth, one cleans them, one repairs, one removes and one cuts and kills.
On day one I visited the "Looker".
He huffed and puffed and did little except to give me two options, remove or drill. In the end he could do neither and so gave me a welcome letter to doctor number two- "the Removalist".

Dentist number two - "Removalist", confirmed the two options.
Remove the whole tooth or root canal.
Which she proceeded to discuss with me while my face was packed full of cotton wool and anesthetic.

Removal meant a small denture - Im way too young and could never be bothered.
Thankfully the tooth in question is a molar  so it will never ruin the smile, but it is not allowed to stay an empty space because over years it can cause other issues with other teeth, both top and bottom.
I tried to reason with the "Removalist" that  if I were to be killed a day or two from now by theoretically being struck by a car , then what would it matter.
Why drill and spend days in pain and several thousand dollars on a new tooth if life was to soon end anyway. Remove it and let me go along my shortened voyage.
The "Removalist", and her two cohorts did not understand the entire conversation, nor why I was going to be hit by a car, even if only theoretical.
I guess few patients discuss such issues and just hand over cash willingly.
In the end I shut up, because I could not feel my tongue any longer.

She took out the remaining filling, removed the cause of the issue, the "junk" below and drilled only to advise me that the tooth that broke had broken far below the gum line and to do anything further I needed to visit doctor number three- "Doctor Cut and Kill".

You know its serious when you have to visit the dentist in a hospital and be all but "put out to it" as they do their business. Yes indeed this was "Doctor Cut and Kill"- cutting the gum down to the jaw line actually.
By the third syringe full of anesthesia she was describing that it took less medicine to blow dart a rhino, yet I still felt pain!
By syringe number four I was floating and talking to my mother again, who was sitting beside me by now, scowling at my ineptitude at brushing properly.

For the first time ever, I am glad my mother has passed away, for she would have given me absolute hell for having a bad tooth. She loved my teeth and was proud that I had a great smile. She would also have given me hell for having walked the best part of the way home after, floating like an angel high as hell on drugs.
Not that I remember why- I was a little drugged to the teeth literally, but at the time, walking on the expressway seemed quicker than hailing a cab, it was after all around 6pm- traffic was slow that night due to some idiot walking on the Expressway?? Go figure.!
Eventually a good samaritan stopped and bundled me off home, my ice pack strapped to my face unable to talk due to a lazy tongue and half a face that felt missing.
Dribbling and laughing like a crazed hyena its a wonder they did not take me to the asylum instead of to home.
How I remembered my address is beyond me also.
Even when sobre and undrugged it's usually a struggle.

When I woke up I found a pocket full of pills courtesy of the hospital or the good samaritan Im not sure? And a note about what to take and when.
Three pain killers every four hours.
All 24 tablets disappeared in 24 hours.
On day two I realized the note had a side two-  which stated drugs not to be taken with alcohol.
Half bottle of Hennesey had already been added to the cost of the procedure and I had little option as all the pain killers had gone on the evening of day one, second half of Hennesy used to numb the pain on day two and bottle itself used to numb the pain on day three by angry wife who found said empty bottle and realized our trip to Vietnam had set sail without us.

So now a week later stitches have ben removed from gum and jaw (not yet from wife and bottle) and a return to root canal work is scheduled for tomorrow. More drugs, hopefully another discussion with mum, and more cash emitted from bank account for sure.

So far several thousand dollars has gone in pain meds, dentist fees, taxis and Hennesy Cognac - but cheaper I guess than the vacation I had planned for us to Vietnam these past nine days.
I could never have eaten my way around the Vietnam that I adore and the crisp bread would have indelibly killed the tooth had it not already fallen out.
The saga does not end tomorrow though, so stay tuned. Even after part two of the root canal tomorrow morning, I have to visit yet another sadist for more pain in 6 weeks time - good luck with that schedule - mid Christmas rush at the hotel.

In reality my teeth have had a blessed life, and thankfully this is the first tooth I have ever had a problem with, so if you are young- always brush your teeth several times a day and never think its a wasted exercise, because decades from now you will thank me for saving you the pain and the cost - and the embarrassment of knowing that you dribbled on an expressway.

Anyway, enough- this Rhino has to get his shots in 6 hours.
Bed time it is.
But if you ever want to take the subject of teeth further, watch an incredible film called "TEETH" (2007) Stars: Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Josh Pais ...
Some great friends of mine (Sean and Paul) watched it in 2007 after glowing remarks from myself and still have not forgiven me for the loss of two hours of their lives, but its a fun flick if you have time to kill,  or a face strapped with an ice pack.
Till next time.
bye

if you don't like the movie, please do not blame me, I just watched it, I did not make it. :)

THE FIVE YEAR PLAN

A friend wrote to me today and ended the note with a quote that I adore and which awoke the writing slumber I have been within;

“The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium”- Norbert Platt


I'm not old in the conventional terms.
I'm old in the fact that I have, with the thanks of God, great parents and a little luck, been able to travel and do a lot of things.
If I were judged based on the average, I would indeed be a centenarian, at least.
If the average Joe publishes one book in a lifetime, then 16 must put my age limit in the high nineties, and so on, countries travelled, average 20; I'm up to 86, cities worked in, death defying feats tackled , bucket lists achieved!! Yup....Im just compiling my second bucket list having with great luck and grace, completely ticked the boxes on my first.

So Im old, in metaphorical terms.
And with age comes certain perspectives.
Take for instance a recent question by a peer; "so what is your 5 year plan?"

Seriously. Do we still do those!!
I had a five year plan when I was 18, it included writing a book ! I did that, wrote 5 within 5 years and travelled the world twice, once on a book tour meeting celebrities far beyond my age group and salary level.

In my mid twenties I had a five year plan, it included emigrating to another country. I did that, spent ten years in Canada, and continued to travel the world thanks to luck, publishing, and a career that allows you to work anywhere.

In my thirties my third five year plan was to become a Corporate Pastrychef, to lead a great team and to open a business. Ticked those boxes.

Late thirties, five year plan and early forties- five year plan were equally exciting and all equally fulfilled.

I'm now mid-forties. And as I said, in metaphorical terms Im old.
Im' so old and have enjoyed so much good fortune that I'm a little sick of hearing about five year plans.
'Peer' asking the question has probably never met anyone else like me before and that's unfortunate for me.
I just could not answer truthfully. You see management just don't get it..
My answer - 'the truth' - is that within the next five years I want to slow down, I want to stay put, I want to relish the moment ...... for five years at least.
This does not in anyway mean Im' old and slowing down, or that I have lost the edge of my career. Instead it means that I found a groove and want to work magic within it for a while.
Things take time here, and the first two years have had their rewards, ups and downs but it has taken so long to achieve what we set out to do, if I spent five years here, I still won't have achieved the requirements in my mind at the usual pace I like to work at.
If I did I would upset a lot of people.

I write like the wind. a thought comes to mind while walking through the park on the way home, a leaf falls on the ground, a car screech, a word whispered, all lead to hours in front of the computer writing pages for an intended novel.
Which novel I have no idea, there are countless dozens of started concepts.  And thats another reason for the wanted slow down. Not to give up, but to move forward at a pace where I can complete what has been begun on so many levels.

Passion is still within me for food like never before. So much I want to cook, but I get less and less time due to the stupidity of necessity. Ordering, menus, costings, appraisals, hirings, interviews, meetings and work in general all sap the time away from the chef within. I'm hungrier now for good food, than anytime in the last ten years.

So the answer is, I don't have a five year plan.
I don't need one.
Im happy where I am and I just want to be left alone to do great things, preferably with the support of others to allow me to do it. I'm content, but not complacent ! There is a huge difference.
Not really an answer one can give to just anybody.
Most people asking such questions are looking for inspiring words, like "I want to be a leader", "I want to be promoted", "I want to be here or there".
Me no.
I'm happy where I am. My wife and family are happy here too.

Who needs a five year plan.
My mother used to say, she did not need a five year plan because she may not be here in five years to see it come to fruition and therefore she would be judged to have failed at it.
I miss my mothers wisdom, and like her, after a number of successful five year plans I don't want anymore either.
I've achieved more than most and am happy to continue doing so, but without time stipulations these days.
If I live another five years then so be it.
I would hope that within that or a close time frame I have achieved another published title, in fiction or non-fiction. and I would hope that I had published a book under both my most successful guises one for each genre would make me even happier.

Metaphorically I am old.
With that does not come complacency but contentment.
I don't need to to achieve at the rate of knots anymore, I'm happy to achieve at any rate.
Death also does not scare me anymore , the end is nigh, now, then or sometime and I welcome it when it comes, even if its tomorrow.
It does not mean that I'm morbid, but so be it.
It's got to come sometime and better for me it can come while I relish the idea.
Bucket list is complete and while I am working on a second at the behest of friends, it is exactly that.
A secondary bucket list.
What filled the first was the heart felt desires that would see me sent to the grave in happiness. With it completed, I am filling time with the rest, not completing dying destinycal desires.
I have lived a great life and while no where near giving up, I just don't need to plan for a future like so many others.
I'm a simple guy. Im surrounded by those who love me and bring joy into my life. I have been blessed with great memories and have also lost many people who meant so much.

I'm a strong believer in the words of Jay-Z on this subject, "Whatever deity may guide my life, dear Lord don't let me die tonight. But if I shall before I wake, I'm only happy to accept my fate."

My five year plan, truth be told, is to wake up every morning, breathe in and out and continue to do what I do, the best way I know how.
If that makes others happy, great, if not, fine.
That's life.
See you in five years time I guess, to see if I have been successful.
Plan on that.