at about 4am i was on the couch downstairs to escape the boy’s snoring. it was to be the last time i would be asleep all day. i knew i was asleep because i was dreaming that i was sitting at my computer, and i heard the baby cry, and the boy brought the baby to me to be fed, and by “brought” i mean that he held her hand and walked her over, because evidently dream baby could walk. real life baby though, cannot, and so i sleepclimbed the stairs to the bedroom, where she actually was having a bit of a grumble. the boy optimistically thought he’d be able to put her back to sleep and sent me back downstairs, where for an hour and a half i lay awake listening to her emit sporadic beeping noises, just like that smoke alarm whose battery is running low. then at 5.40, when the boy decided that he’d had enough, child was unceremoniusly plonked back in the cot, and the boy appeared downstairs with a frown and a blanket. oh, unhappy baby! so. back upstairs, fed the child, who seemed to go back to sleep up until the point she was put back in her cot, when she decided to be awake for the day. it was 6am, there were birds chirping, fair enough. so. back downstairs, where the next two hours were spent entertaining the baby, washing the dishes and baking a batch of ginger ale scones. before i knew it it was time to put the baby back to bed and get dressed for yoga.

yoga makes it all better.

and so do instant noodles! it was all i could fathom “cooking” tonight following a post-yoga afternoon of a couple of not-quite naps inbetween laundry and the baby and dishes and the baby and the internet and the baby. the alternative was an old christmas pudding and cream — i would only have felt a little bit guilty, and it would have been tasty i’m sure.

but in the end the noodles won. i resisted the temptation to follow the instructions on the pack —
“place the rice vermicelli, soup base and seasoning oil into a bowl. pour in 400cc of boiling water. cover up the bowl for 3 minutes. and now soft and appetizing rice vermicelli is ready for serving.” — yum. and instead put a pot on the stove. it only extends the cooking time to ten minutes, to add such things as pork dumplings, pumpkin, chinese broccoli, lotus root, bamboo shoots and a sprinkle of japanese chili pepper, and makes it a bowl of nourishment and comfort.

my preferred brand is a relic of my childhood: chu qian yi ding. tonight i had the artificial beef flavoured rice vermicelli, but look at all the flavours the normal wheat noodles come in. it’s rather amazing what comes out of a little silver foil packet.

and maybe there is room for pudding and cream after all.