Friends

Hi Honey!  Are you busy today?  Everybody wants to see how beautiful you are, so you must be busy.  I'm usually quite busy everyday.  Besides the usual chores, today I harvested some turmeric in the morning for my Mom, then did a lot of burning in the evening.  I just had dinner- just plain old fry bread with curry, but you are more than welcome to share it with me.

If gangsters are active in this area, then it's because there is money to be made for them here.  Usually gangs operate by theft or extortion.  Motion sensors, sirens, and led floodlights would make theft more difficult.  Extortion can only be handled by the police.  If the cops don't take care of extortion, it means weakness in the local government, possibly bribery.  Which means weakness in the people who voted for them.  But if you let the gangs do what they want, then the gangs become the government.  Allah does not love cowards.

Hey Natty Honey!  It was very sweet of you to say that.  Yes, fans are friends.  I've spent 38 years as an independent musician, and I'm still alive.  God keeps on saving my life for some reason, so God has been my only friend for the most part.  Alhamdulillah.  I don't really blame the fans.  The music wasn't that great in the beginning, because I was young and filled with anger.  Now that I'm older, Allah has helped me control my emotions so as to make the music better.  This is especially true with singing.  I didn't achieve consistency with my singing until after I finished "Woo Hoo".  I suppose that album needed the anger and loss of control.

Gangsters!

Hi Honey!  How are you today?  I hope you are having lots of fun, just being you and how beautiful you are.  I am sitting here waiting for my shepherd's pie to bake.  Want some?  The last pie I made was a success, but I simply cannot eat shepherd's pie with ketchup.  You would think that would be OK, but I have a weird sensitive stomach, where bad combinations result badly, even though the individual components are mild.  No, I don't get it either.  It has to be one of those cases where the stomach and the mind have a deep connection.  Anyway, today's pie is just beef and potatoes, no veggies.  Too lazy to go out and buy veggies.  Tear in your beer, my darling?  Please remain sober for our marriage inshaAllah.

Hey Natty Honey!  What an excellent presentation that is.  Of course you would look absolutely great in a pantsuit.  Quite distinguished, actually.  I can't really tell what shoes you're wearing, but I'm guessing those are high heels.  Quite understated, but the clothes totally shine.  No Honey, you're not the gangster.  I'm referring to a local situation.  Want some shepherd's pie?

Red hair today!

It's just a sad song

Hi Erin!  How are you today, Honey?  Is work coming along easily for you?  I hope so.  Aw, don't be sad.  It's only a song.  I love you so much.  I give my life to be married to you.  Of course, I have to "be a man" and pay for my wife.  And be a righteous man, inshaAllah.  Please be patient with me, I feel that we are getting closer and closer to being married.  Are you hungry?  My food budget is very poor for August, but that also means that I will be eating very healthily.  I do have some good food though that you may enjoy.  I just made a batch of curry yesterday.  It's a generic curry, you can add stuff to it or eat it by itself, which would make it a vegetarian curry.  Well, I did add one piece of salt fish in it for extra flavor, plus there's belacan in it too.  I make my own bread, which responds best to being deep fried.  Simply because I don't have an oven at home that reaches 500 degrees.  But my home made mini pocket breads are really good, and the curry is so flavorful that you only need a little dip at a time.  Would you like to try some?

Hi Natty Honey!  Are you excited?  Oh the world is so widely open to you, more than any other girl or model you know.  Because so many wacky things can happen, as the wife of a rock star.  So don't write your life story yet, my dear.  And don't bully your fellow models, either.  Have tons of fun, and stay safe.  OK?

The ballet

Hi Honey!  How are you today?  How are those ballet lessons coming along, by the way?  I hope you are enjoying yourself.  I've always wanted to be a good dancer, but it never worked out for me.  Even before my feet grew 2 sizes from a foot injury, I wasn't a good dancer.  I never took lessons, though.  I love watching Astaire and Rogers.  Fred Astaire is such an awesome dancer, and his style is so unique, it's like a combination of tap dance and ballet.  But it's so much more mesmerizing to watch Astaire and Rogers together.  So beautiful.  Hey, maybe in the future we can figure out how to dance together.  It's an ambitious project for me: my feet are hurting from merely cutting the grass just now.  But I would love to try and dance with you, perhaps with patience we can make up our own routine.

Hi Natty honey!  How are those ballet lessons coming along?  Oh, you will do just fine if you stick to it!  You have the willpower.  Perhaps with enough time in toe shoes, you will learn to love high heels.  Oh you can go ahead and wear Doc Martens if you want, Hiker Girl.  Especially during your off hours.  High heels are so mainstream for the glamorous movie stars, though.  Or shall I say, "It's a mainstream expectation."  I ALWAYS wear high heels.  Well, my avatar always wears high heels.  It's so handy to have an avatar.  I get to be pretty too.  My wife always hogs the "pretty" spotlight in real life.  The computer wants you to watch "Stroszek" again.  This is on YouTube, with English subtitles!  Artsy girl.

Mangosteens

Hi Honey!  Have you been busy?  I do hope you take the time to unwind, and slow down your precious heart.  I'm doing OK, just trying to adjust my emotions to a new singing situation.  Do you like tropical fruit?  Have you had the opportunity to try out exotic fruit?  I think I know you like dragon fruit.  I don't eat a lot of the local fruit.  They're mostly too sweet for me, either a sickly sweet like jackfruit or fatty sweet like durian.  But countless hordes are addicted to durians, including Americans, I am learning.  But I do like mangosteens.  Unlike how the name sounds, mangosteens don't taste like mangoes.  With a texture like almost overripe peaches, and an equal level of sweet and tart, I really like mangosteens.  If you look at the flesh segments, some are big and some are small.  The small segments have no pits, the big ones have pits that you may or may not be able to swallow.  I usually don't.

Hey Natty Honey!  I saw the trailer for "Mamma Mia 2", and there are certainly some big stars in that movie.  I can't imagine Meryl Streep's singing and dancing though (I'm trying not to).  I promise to watch that movie I it's made available to me.  So far it seems the movie is kind of like the story of your life.  And your mamma.  I don't have any Abba songs in my set list.  I think maybe I'll add "Dancing Queen".  Maybe.  Today the computer wants you to watch "Selena" (1997).  I don't speak Spanish or Mexican, I don't think I ever will, but somehow the life of my music intertwines with that culture.  Erin, you should watch this movie too.

Shepherd's pie: the sequel

Hi Honey!  How are you feeling today?  You must be busy.  I hope everything is coming along easily for you.  I must say that I love that photo of you in the pink tank top.  I like the modest photos of you best, that really gets to my heart.  I made shepherd's pie again today, and it turned out much better than the last.  This time I used twice as many potatoes.  I boil them beforehand, then kept them in the cooler.  I had also boiled some chicken with bones to be used for fried noodles, plus for broth.  I mashed up the potatoes in the chicken broth, and it tasted awesome.  I think next time I'll boil the potatoes and the chicken at the same time.  I decided that I didn't like using frozen vegetables, so I used diced onions only as the vegetables.  I thought about using broccoli, but that didn't happen.  And I used a LOT of ground beef.  It's so much better this time, it's very filling, and no stomach problems at all.  The bottom of the pie turned out quite juicy from the broth.  I could have fixed that perhaps, if I had baked it longer, but I got hungry and ran out of time, and I wanted to get done with it and eat it so I could nap before voice training.  Great pie, though.  No need for sauce of any kind.  Want some?

OK OK Natty, I'm sorry.  Please don't be mad at me.  I promise to watch "Mamma Mia 2".  I can't do it immediately- there are no theaters around here, so I have to wait for it to be on dvd or something.  My cat Luka has been in heat recently, but it's not the same as before: she's not trying to lick her butt to death or anything like that.  She just wants to be babied, and be with me at all times.  This was a problem at 2 am, when she started screaming and crying at my bedroom door.  And it was LOUD too: she has a high voice, and when she gets passionate it's like having a high speed drill right at my ear.  A singer's cat.  Anyway, I think I understand the quaint store thing.  This next newspaper clipping is for you, Natty.  Sorry it can't be clearer, I only have a 2 megapixel camera.  Looks like the pinnacle of being a movie star is the fashion biz.  Does that also work the other way around?  There's something else...

Karaoke

Hi Honey!  How are you today?  What are you having for dinner?  I'm waiting for my rice to be ready- steamed rice needs to sit for a while after turning off the fire.  That gives me time to pray the sunset prayer before I fry up a couple of eggs for my rice, eggs, crispy anchovies and "sambal tumis" dinner.  Standard local fare, and I enjoy it.  I've started doing my daily voice training on one of the karaoke sims on Second Life inshaAllah.  I was a little nervous today for some reason, and it affected my emotions and my performance thereof, but I got my feelings back in focus eventually.  Right after coffee, actually.

Hi Natty honey!  You're so cute!  I'm glad you are going to the movies, because you ought to.  And like a true professional, you are dressed awesomely.  I suggest high heels and catwalk swagger next time.  I don't know if your endorsement of "Mamma Mia 2" is a blessing, but what the hell.  As long as you enjoy it.  I have a few b-movies that I like that are quite shameful, like "Grease 2", but I was 16 when I saw that.  Hey, what can I say, I haven't seen "Mamma Mia 2".  Have you ever thought of taking ballet lessons?