On a different note...

Political stuff:

I've been so preoccupied with the political developments in the country that I haven't been able to blog about anything besides the sad things we are witnessing everyday since the coup on 7 February. I reiterate my firm belief that the democratically elected government of President Nasheed was overthrown by force through a plot between the opposition coalition and mutinous factions of the police and defense force who had been misled by corrupt officials and merchants and their thugs, and that this is utterly wrong, and that we need an election to let the people decide what they want. Ok, deep breath.

Well last night's rally in support of President Nasheed also saw a huge crowd throbbing with passion and emotion. I was most amused thinking of ballot papers. I remember the ballot paper in 2008 bearing the name Anni in brackets next to Nasheed's full name. What with all the names associated with Dr. Waheed, the Elections Commissioner will have a hard time coming up with one for the ballot paper. What's he better known as now...'fili waheed', 'baaghee waheed', 'maskaashi waheed', 'latiburi waheed', 'puppet waheed'... I've heard so many names on different occasions, I'm losing track of his titles...Poor guy. The people who pushed him into this are enjoying their 'victory' while he is made a scapegoat to bear the brunt of the people's wrath and be the butt of every joke. Also heard the new AG is busy issuing news releases promoting her twitter account, MNDF is busy denying they took bribes (and this is news why? Will they come and say they they did in fact take a load of cash and sell out their loyalty? duh), Police are busy trying not to look ridiculous in their uniforms because they have managed to lose the respect and dignity associated with the institution entirely... Sigh...

Anyway that is all the ranting I will be doing today about political stuff. I need a break for my sanity's sake. Let's move on to pleasant things. Today's supposedly the day of lovers, so where's the love people? I personally am not a fan of valentines day, since I find the crass commercialization of 'love' distasteful and superficial. That aside, I hope people are getting loved up and cuddled, superficial reasons or not, to make up for all the hate and negativity and violence in this society today. I decided to do something special for my honey by fixing him a hearty lunch. Here's what I did:

Recipe: Prawn Red Curry and Vegetable Saffron Rice

- For the rice, I just added about half a teaspoon of saffron to 4 small cups of rice, and about 200g of frozen peas, corn and carrots. I also like to add a handful of raisins and cashews. Cook rice the normal way.
- For prawn red curry, heat a tablespoonful of olive oil and add half a medium sized chopped onion and about two cloves of chopped garlic to the heated oil.
- Add a few curry leaves, pepper, and Trident Red Curry Paste. [This is vital, and its a very tasty curry paste, thank you Trident! :)]
- Add in the prawns [I bought cooked prawns from Seagull Store - 300g packet, I cooked about half]
- Coat the mixture with the prawns and stirfry for a couple of minutes.
- Add in about 300ml coconut milk and let it boil. Add few basil leaves. Also add salt to taste [husband found my curry lacking salt, since I try to minimize salt in everything... did not turn out to be a good idea today]
- Stir in veggies of your choice. Today I chose one chopped capsicum, a quarter of medium yellow bellpepper diced, same with red bellpepper, one medium tomato, handful of chopped green olives...basically I just try to sneak in as many as I can get a hold of. - To finish it off add in about 1/4 cup chopped coriander. Its easy!
- Take some time off from the turmoil and madness, and enjoy the meal with your loved ones. I feel that without a break now and then we'd all be deranged and running around like headless chicken. Losing rationality and sensibility never does anyone any good. Deep breath.