Now we are one*

Bak choy rose

* See note below

A year ago today, I started this blog... reluctantly.

My colleagues Hungry Caterpillar, Veggie Chick and I had been producing our Don't Call Me Chef cookery column in print for close to a year when HC thought that the next step should be writing individual blogs as an extension to the monthly newspaper feature.


As I said, I was reluctant. I wondered what I could say in it or if anyone would even be interested in what I ate or cooked. I didn't want to be someone who made her private cookery/eating journal public; if I was going to say something, I hoped it would be informative and meaningful to someone other than myself. Coming up with the focus of the blog took some time. But finally I decided, since I prepared my own lunch almost every day, and ate in the office canteen by myself with a book ­­– usually food-related ­­– perhaps I could write about that. And that was how I introduced myself in my first post.

But even as I got used to blogging, I didn't know where I was really headed. And looking over the older stuff now, there seems to be so many random posts without any substance as well as some real dingers. That was posting just for the sake of it ­­– what I had told myself initially to stay clear of.

Through the year, the design of this blog has changed and so has the focus ­­– from putting thoughts down in readable form however disorganised they are, to making an effort to document something worth remembering for the future.

And now I've come to realise what this space means to me.

The process of documenting food through photography is fun, from the styling (and sometimes, there is hardly any!) to the time when I click and then download the pictures to the computer to see my handiwork. There's often a lot of groaning at how bad the pictures are, but most of the time, there's that one shot that I am satisfied with and which drives me to do better next time.

As a blogger, I'm glad I signed up as a Daring Baker. Although I am often tardy and do the challenges at the last minute, it has been a wonderful experience. Even for a geeky loner like me, it's been nice to be part of a community just as fond of baking as I am.

As with many food bloggers, this is my cooking journal and recipe keeper. I still go to the archives for help with cooking and when that piece of paper I wrote a recipe down on goes missing.

What I like most about writing this blog is that it pushes me to "study" food. Sometimes I cook and eat to fill my belly (and for pleasure!), and sometimes, it's more than that. Food ­­– a fascinating subject. It's about life.

* The title of this post is a play on the title of a favourite poem of mine when I was little. I don't know where I'll be in six years, and what will happen to The Thymes, but right now, I am happy to write it.

Now We Are Six

By A. A. Milne

When I was One,

I had just begun.

When I was Two,

I was nearly new.

When I was Three

I was hardly me.

When I was Four,

I was not much more.

When I was Five,

I was just alive.

But now I am Six,

I'm as clever as clever,

So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.