World Water Day and a walk down the CHIJ memory lane, Singapore

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Watercolour of CHIJ Katong Convent.
The Infant Jesus (IJ) schools were founded in heritage by the Minim Friars or the Order of Minims, that was in turn founded by St. Francis of Paola (1416-1506). The Order is still active in France, Germany and Spain.
Text and Photo © Samantha Lim, JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2013

The 350th Anniversary of CHIJ
The 16th of March 2013 marks the 350th Anniversary of the Congregation of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ), and CHIJ Katong Convent, where I spent my days as a student between the age six to sixteen.

Today CHIJ celebrated this anniversary in conjunction with the United Nations World Water Day with an early morning Walk for Water event, that took teachers and students from CHIJMES near Raffles City to the Marina Barrage. Continue reading “World Water Day and a walk down the CHIJ memory lane, Singapore” →

The Cordero | Cordeiro affinity to islands

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Do You Sleep?
Text and Photo © A Neikter Nilsson, JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2013

Judging from the numerous books launched by Eurasian authors on their heritage and family history, it seems that the Eurasian community in Singapore has a general strong interest in research on genealogy, which in itself makes for interesting study due to a mixture of cultures, ethnicities and even traditions in cuisine.

The Portuguese with their sense of inherent adventure, had close ties to the East India trades already in the early 1600s. It is probably these factors in combination that landed the Cordero / Cordeiro family in East Asia in the first place. The genealogy of the Cordeiros can be traced from the highlands of Andalusia in Spain during the Medieval times, to the autonomous archipelago of the Azores of Portugal (ca. 1600ff), right through to Macau (ca. 1800ff) and then to Singapore during the early 1900s. To that extent, one could argue that the Cordeiros have flown flags of many colours, the most prominent (for the older generations of the family) being the vibrant colours of Portugal.
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Valentine’s Medley 2013

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To the sounds of Rhiannon,
in an emerald green qipao / cheongsam, St. Valentine’s Day 2013, Sweden.
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson, CM Cordeiro 2013

This year, the girls thought it a wonderful idea to triple celebrate in Sweden, ushering in the Year of the Snake whilst at the same time, celebrating St. Valentine’s Day that which is also my birthday. I couldn’t myself have thought of any better than this.
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J.A. Wheeler’s one particle, the eve of 2013

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Through the looking glass.
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro 2013

One of my favourite lectures of 2012 comes from the field of quantum physics, entitled The End of Space and Time?, delivered by Robbert Dijkgraaf on 20 March 2012 at Gresham College in the United Kingdom. Dijkgraaf was President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), and is currently Director and Leon Levy Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.

Amongst numerous interesting theories of quantum physics presented by Dijkgraaf, it was this lecture that pointed me in the direction of the works of J. A. Wheeler, where a fascinating read for me was a chapter entitled “Law without Law” (Wheeler 1983). I thought the suggestion given by Wheeler in the mid-1900s on why electrons had identical charges and mass – due to that they were in fact a single particle that goes up in time and comes down again in a flux – was most interesting since this idea captured in essence, the non-linearity of the concept of time (see article by Alasdair Wilkins on why the single electron universe does not hold on experimental grounds).

Wheeler’s proposition focused on a radical point about particle physics, in which the directional flow of time is immaterial and in fact, completely reversible, much in my view like Gödel’s rotating universe (Barrow 2011). He also pointed out that each electron traces a unique path through spacetime, in its own world line. By use of metaphor, I could perhaps liken Wheeler’s one particle thought to how each individual traces their own world line path through spacetime, creating realities and shaping destinies as it were. It is this too that most of us would also tend to contemplate at year end via New Year’s resolutions or when faced with life’s important events / challenges, to sit down and re-evaluate, re-contextualize life vision and goals.

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A Walden moment

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My Walden moment, of “home-cosmography”.
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro 2012

It’s just a few days before Christmas, the Christmas weekend in fact upcoming. It is also that time of year when my mailbox gets filled with greetings alike from friends and relatives, many of whom send out a year-end summary of activities gone by as a tradition of keeping in touch – I delight in reading all narratives on how everyone is getting on in their lives no matter how large or small those changes are, from the feeling of accomplishment from a job well done at school / work to moving into that dream home of theirs and starting a family. Many updates also contain New Year’s resolutions, of goal setting for that constant strive to improve on life, on themselves, lending insight into what motivates each and every individual around us.

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Dining across cultures and the Chinese mid-autumn festival, in Sweden

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In celebration of the autumn equinox in Chinese tradition in Sweden, mooncakes. In the background, crème caramel.
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro 2012

This weekend marked the mid-autumn festival celebrated most notably by the Chinese and Vietnamese cultures in Asia, in conjunction with the autumnal equinox and autumn harvests. Associated with the full moon, what makes part of this festival fun is the varieties of mooncake available as culinary adventure.

I read and viewed with interest, CNN’s story on the modern Mooncake by Ramy Inocencio, where I couldn’t help but notice how the three featured modern mooncakes were in themselves, a result of a fusion of culinary cultures, from using sweet white wine with custard to incorporating salty Itailan parma ham with sweetened nuts in another version of the hand moulded mooncakes.

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Light in the Scandinavian summer

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A breezy summer staple in Scandinavia – sill and grädde with a sprig of chive.
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro 2012

In the course of research, when speaking with people from different backgrounds on working across cultures, a common theme that arises is mismatched holiday times between Scandinavia and Asia.

Scandinavia doesn’t quite understand the Chinese New Year and spring celebrations in Asia for example, where in China, huge migrations of population can take place between cities and rural regions, and likewise Asia doesn’t quite understand summer holidays in Scandinavia, where a similar trend in migration occurs, except in Scandinavia, the movement would be towards the coastal regions, the waterways and fjords where plenty have their sailing boats. The logistics of mismatched holidays where Asia seems to run full steam during the summer months in Scandinavia could be potentially disastrous if you’re running a production line or seeing to that a delivery order is to be on time. In the automobile industry, July is the designated month for factory plant maintenance when the plant is shut down.

But as noted, it is only when you are there on location that you understand the local situation and thus view things in a different perspective, and where what once were problems and challenges now seem ‘natural’.

Whole grain bread, toasted with olive oil to get that perfect croûton base to sill and grädde.

When in Scandinavia, it becomes easy to follow the reasoning behind these long summer vacations, where most things go with the lightest of practical touches if need be. The very pragmatic reason behind being that true warm weather (July being the warmest month in the northern hemisphere) only comes in these short summer months, and if you wanted to get any enjoyment out of being outdoors for example, then these months would be it!

As deliveries of all kinds are put on hold, a priority shift takes place and the luxury of summer is to put time into spending on your own or with family, allocated to activities everything outside of what you’d classify as ‘work’.

A simple personal luxury – fresh light meals, no cooking needed – which leaves plenty of time to indulge in good reads, books unrelated to my research (a task difficult to accomplish) set aside since last summer or two, to indulge in the pleasures of the mind.

Winter’s Sunday brunch along the Swedish west coast

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Swedish west coast winter in February 2012

February scene, Swedish west coast.
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro 2012

February is usually the month in which visitors to Scandinavia get to witness the Nordic winter in its full regalia of climate beguile, the whipping winds and cold pelting rain that now turn to delicate snow crystals upon falling down, blankett the entire landscape in crisp white, turning the dull grey of the surrounding in just a few hours, to a scene that is breathtakingly beautiful, even if at the same time being unforgivingly, impractically and cruelly cold.
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Dulce de Leche thoughts in the stillness of the first week of 2012

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490 Dulce de Leche 048

A dulche de leche breakfast with homemade rye bread.
Text and Photo © JE Nilsson and CM Cordeiro 2012

The first day of the New Year is usually known as ’Pizza Day’ in Sweden, only because people here have partied too much, too fast, too hard the previous night that ordering pizza to the home, or simply settling down in a restaurant for one seems to put into command everything else that is not, for the moment. It’s worry free. Continue reading “Dulce de Leche thoughts in the stillness of the first week of 2012” →