Mountains of merits

I went to ABC (Amitabha Buddhist Centre) today for the Guru Puja with 100,000 tsog offerings. It was supposed to last the entire day, broken into 2 sessions - morning and afternoon. I did not register beforehand as it was an unplanned visit. I felt like going in the last minute, so I turned up for the afternoon session at 1.30pm which lasted till almost 6pm. There were many people who were there since morning, the 2nd floor where the main hall was, were full, so was the 3rd floor. The ground floor was opened to accommodate more people who turned up like me. I managed to sneak into the 3rd floor eventually.

The special feature of this group practise is that all participants have the exciting opportunity to contribute to the accumulation of 100,000 tsog offerings. We were supposed to recite a condensed tsog offering prayer hundreds of times. They say, if there are 200 in a group, each person will recite the verses 500 times. The compounded feat that you will complete as a group is the accumulation of 100,000 tsog offerings. And since it is a merit multiplying day, we could dedicate heaps of merits to our family, friends and to our own karmic account. I am sure there were more than 200 people today, hence the number of offerings should be much more than 100,000.

Khen Rinpoche Lama Lhundrup presided over the puja. The altar was laden with heaps of offerings. Although at first, I was not familiar with the verses but repeating them, they became music to the ears and it was rather rhythmic after that. I recalled that, even though we do not remember our past lives, but in this life if we were to meet the Buddha/Dharma, somehow we know that the seed of this connection was already planted since many eons of lifetimes ago.

On the right was part of the Tsog offerings verses which we recited, and I quote this ......

"Sky-goers and Dharma protectors, six types of beings who have been our mother,

And guests of the higher and lower assemblies.

By taking this, please let fall a great rain of inexhaustible blessings, attainments and holy Dharma,

And accomplish all activities.

May the hallucinated appearance of the suffering guests of compassion be purified......."

I was not surprised that in the midst of prayers, we were indeed bestowed with showers of blessings of light rain. The Buddhas must be pleased with offerings. I'm glad I went today on this auspicious day and came away accummulating mountains of merits.

Merit multiplying day!

Today marks the 15th day of Saka Dawa. This is the most auspicious day and has special significance for Buddhists especially Tibetan Buddhists as all 3 stages of his life - birth, enlightenment and passing into nirvana are witnessed in this period known as Saka Dawa.

During this period we believe that if we perform good and virtuous acts, they will multiply by 100 million times. Therefore this day it is good to offer prayers and give alms to the poor and make donations. We should not kill any living being, not steal and not lie and not eat meat. It is good to go temple for prayers. Devotees can light lamps, candles and incense sticks before Buddha.

It is a nice coincidence that today is Mediacorp's charity show "True Hearts 公益献爱心" at 7pm on Channel 8. This charity show is raising funds in aid of more than 360,000 children, families, elderly and people with disabilities. Help to build a life of dignity and hope for them.

Here's your chance to do a good deed by donating to them or any temples or charitable organisations. May you be blessed and happy always!

"You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” - Buddha

Pot calling the kettle black

We had a second round of birthday celebration for Grandma's birthday within our own family. Sis had missed the earlier celebration because she had something urgent and unfortunate that cropped up the last minute. So she wanted to make it up to Grandma by buying her lunch on her actual day instead.

We went Crystal Jade Kitchen because Grandma usually prefers Chinese food. Besides my family, my 2 nine-year-old twin cousins also joined us, making that 10 of us in 1 table.

Crystal Jade had some double deals like the above, buy two items for a lower price. So Sis ordered 2 sets of the double deals to go with white rice (Grandma must eat rice and veggies) and also called lots of dim sum. From clockwise, it was the roasted duck in curry sauce, scallops served in the shells, prawns in wine and egg white, char siew buns, spinach in eggs and century eggs (it looked gooey but it tasted real good), sea cucumber with chinese mushrooms and lettuce.

I did not take photos of the dim sum because I was busy managing the 3 rowdy boys who could not sit still. The bill came up to about $180+. I thought it was rather expensive even though there were 10 of us, but considering 4 of them are kids who only ate fried rice and some xiao long bao, that leaves 6 of us adults accounting for most of the items (if minus the kids' portions, that meant each adult's share was $30!!). Expensive! Thanks to Sis for the treat! Had hard time cajoling kids to eat more other than fried rice. They learnt how to eat xiao long bao and they loved it (biting the wanton skin, sucking the soup and then munching the meat), so we ended ordering 4 steamers of xiao long bao! However, I think the kids were happiest when they later had McDonalds ice cream cones and new toys. See their monkey faces.

Few days ago when we were at Grandma's high tea, a cousin of mine (in his 20s) asked me where was Sis (because she was absent). I knew he would ask. I said she had a business appointment something urgent that cropped up (of course I could not say the actual unfortunate reason). This insensitive bloke did not relent and kept asking "why, why, why she is not here?" at least a few times eventhough I kept telling him the reason. Almost wanted to give him a tight slap but I kept quiet.

I knew what he was thinking. Last year at Grandma's birthday dinner, one of our other cousin (whom we were not that close with - that's another story) did not turned up and my this cousin was also behaving the same, complaining and grumbling and saying "what could be more important than Grandma's birthday?" even though that cousin's parents were sitted just next to his table. I wondered could they have heard him. At that time, I had to tell him in exasperation, to "leave it".

So this time, he did it again. But since it was about Sis, I could not "leave it" sitting down (hence this posting). Thought it was rather unfair to Sis. If anyone had to criticise her, my this insensitive cousin should be the last one to do so.

First of all, he has no respect for his eldest cousins (Sis and me) who are way older than him, and we both doted him dearly like a brother. At times he did not "give face" to even his parents and aunts too. I have not chided him for his other actions. Who is he to question us. Even Grandma was understanding and did not say anything. If he really wanted to know the real reason, he could have called Sis and ask or he could have asked me in a more private moment and not in front of everyone. This is what I call absent EQ. So its it is true that those born in the year of the rooster are stubborn and always like to argue till they win. Well, I treat it as just empty vessels making the most noise.

Secondly, I think Sis dotes and loves Grandma much much more than any of our younger cousins because she spent 6 years of her life under Grandma's care. She stayed with Grandma and they have a special and close relationship. She felt very bad not being able to attend that day, that was why she made it up. She visits Grandma often in normal times. We bring Grandma with us in our holidays abroad. Once, Sis bought a wooden prayer cabinet for Grandma (which was eye level), because she could not bear Grandma climbing high up everyday to put the joss sticks as the existing prayer board was elevated high near ceiling.

I think we need to have a conscience in whatever we do. As long as we ourselves know how much we love Grandma, it is enough and there is no need to prove to anyone and even more so only during her once-a-year birthday. We should do it THROUGHOUT the year and not just on her birthday or on mothers' day. In daily life, we are so smart and quick in pointing fingers at others. I should have asked my cousin (in front of everyone).... "so what gift did you give Grandma? any ang pow?"... but I kept quiet. I see this incident as a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Prawny breakfast

Sometime last week, early one morning, while I was still in bed, someone knocked the door. It was my 2nd aunt. It was a surprise visit. She was on her way to work and she passed by and bought breakfast for us. Wow so touched.

She bought prawn noodles with ribs from the famous one in Geylang Lorong 1 which is called Jalan Sultan Prawn Noodles. This stall is one of the 3 most famous prawn noodles from the same family. The other two are Beach Road Prawn Mee in East Coast Road and Joo Chiat Prawn Noodle.

Even though it was take-away, the noodles were still hot. The soup was packed separately and as usual, had the oomph. So thick and full of flavour. The prawns were very fresh and crunchy. Only the ribs were a little dry. I really loved the soup alot and they gave us one big bowl of it.

I am so happy that now I can zoom in with detail on my photos. This one taken by my Nokia N82 was so sharp and clear. Hope it kicked up an appetite for you too.

Armenian legacy

I passed by the Armenian Church in Hill Street and went in to take a look. I have been passing by this church for so many years but never once occur to me to step inside. It is a national monument. Armenian Church is owned by the Armenian Apostolic Church of St Gregory the Illuminator Trust (what a mouthful).

It is the oldest Christian church in Singapore built in 1835. As the number of Armenian families was growing in the early 1830s due to business prospects in Southeast Asia, a place of worship was deemed necessary. The completed church was consecrated on 26th March 1836 as it was the anniversary of St. Gregory, the first monk of the Armenian Church, to whom it was dedicated.
I was attracted to the quaint architecture and the serene green surrounding. Small and elegant, the interior of the church is a complete circle. Built of Palladian architecture, this church was the masterpiece of G.D Coleman. Now, the interior looked a little run down but the wooden benches had interesting designs and the floor laid with red carpet. The entire building was in white.

Although there were tombstones in the grounds, there were no burial plots under them. They were the tombstones of some famous personalities like Agens Joaquim and Catchik Moses. The former was the person after whom our national flower, the Vanda Miss Joaquim is named and the latter started The Straits Times.

Outside, the tropical setting was tranquil. It was like a garden with statues of Jesus Christ around, some with the Cross. It might looked a little scary at night as it was dark but during the daytime, the entire place was a pleasing sight and neatly kept. We should preserve this monument forever.

Inle

After a meeting, I met a friend who bought me lunch. We were at City Hall and was passing by Peninsula Plaza when we decided to try Myanmar food in Inle Myanmar Restaurant. I am more familiar with Thai food, and I think I have never tasted authentic Myanmar cuisine before. So it was a good opportunity to try and a refreshing change from the usual western/chinese/japanese fanfare.
For a simple and small restaurant moderate in decor, the menu was quite impressive. It was thick and laminated and even have pictures and introduction of Myanmar, some of its cuisines and language. They have rice set lunches that only cost $6.50 each and comes with rice, one main dish, soup as well as a drink. Noodles alone there were almost 20 types of noodles cooked in different ways, like Seafood Glass Noodles, Fried Kway Teow and Vermicelli and lots of others with Myanmar names. Was so tempted to try their famous traditional noodle dish called Mo Hin Ga served with thick fish soup and thin rice noodles. There were also many rice dishes to choose from, salads and ala carte dishes.

In the end, I chose the Butter Rice with Myanmar Pork Curry. For an additional side, I ordered the Crispy Pennywort Fritters and Tofu. You could call a bigger portion which also include crispy gourd fritters and onion fritters. Wow, all sounded so foreign to me.

The butter rice was like plain rice, I thought, not as fragrant as I imagined as it was supposed to be Butter Rice. The Myanmar Curry Pork was a dry curry dish with lean pork. It was not as tender, maybe because it was lean meat. However the taste was good, only wished the food was warmer.

The crispy pennywort turned out to be a good surprise. It was a type of green vegetables deep fried, like tempura veggies in Myanmar style. It was really good as Pennywort has a little herbal flavour (it is NOT mint, because I don't like mint). The crispy tofu was just tofu mashed into triangular shapes. You must dip all these with the sweet sour spicy sauce which was quite unique. I also tried their traditional Myanmar drink Saykalama, which was actually bird nest drink with pink jelly cubes.

Incidentally, Inle is named after Inle the fishing village floating over a beautiful lake in the hilly 'Shan' state of Myanmar, which is often described as the Venice of Asia.

Inle Myanmar restaurant is located at the basement of Peninsula Plaza and there is another bigger branch in Marina Square. I would go back with the family next time, so that I could order more unfamiliar dishes to try. There were so many dishes that you would be spoilt for choice. Kyay-su (thank you)!

"Pls tell me"

I just sold one handphone online. When I contacted the winning bidder via sms to arrange collection, he asked me tons of questions.

Me: Hi thanks for the purchase. When can we meet up for the transaction?

Bidder: Can you tell me the warranty details?

Me: Warranty covered till June 2010. Are you able to meet tomorrow?

Bidder: Can you tell me about the memory size?

Me: 2GB

Bidder: Is it your own mobile or are you working in a handphone shop? Pls tell me.

Me: Own mobile.

Bidder: Is it Singtel set? Any reason for selling this. Pls tell me.

Me: Yes Singtel. Service provider nothing to do with phone, right? I changed new handphone that's all. And nothing wrong with this hp.

Bidder: One final question. When did you purchase this?

Me: One year ago but did not use much as it is a second and backup phone. And I always buy extended warranty which is why it is till June 2010. And I not charging you the $70 I paid. U should have ask me these questions before you bid.

Bidder: *** No reply ***

Me: When are you able to meet up?

Bidder: *** No reply ***

Me: Please kindly reply as you have won the bid. It's usual basic courtesy n online auction etiquette. If you wish to collect hp then confirm appt. If not interested after winning the bid, then I need to proceed with my action. Thanks.

Bidder (after a long while): I will confirm with you tomorrow.

Me: Ok sure. Let me know tomorrow. Thanks for reply.

Aaarrrggghhhh, I hate this type of buyer. I have been dealing with online auctions (buying and selling) for a number of years and this is the first time I come across a "problematic" buyer. And he is from one particular race. I am not racist but generally speaking, people from this particular race tend to behave like this - fussy, "chao kuan", "yim chim", ask lots of questions before buying and sometimes even telling people off, AND yet don't buy in the end.

My thoughts:

1. First of all, based on online auction etiquette, when you have won a bid, you should at least initiate the first contact and arrange appointment for collection. I started the initial contact instead.

2. Ask as many questions you want BEFORE bidding, and not AFTER.

3. Ask questions to information which was not specific or not clear in my online posting. In this case, I thought I have already been very clear and detailed in my description.

4. Don't behave like I am going to rip you off with a phoney product. I have taken extra precious care for all my phones since Day One - screen protector, use casing, or pouch, buy extended warranty, original accessories all intact - absolutely no scratches and no nonsense.

5. Once you have won the bid, means YOU HAVE WON THE BID. And not... you have to think and reconsider and to confirm again! Where is the integrity? Don't waste my time having to deal with you when you have intention to change your mind (after winning the bid), when I could have given the opportunity to other more genuine and sincere buyers.

6. I consider it an insult to keep doubting my products when I have been in this business for so long and I have been rated and given 100% positive feedback from all my buyers and sellers.

Usually most buyers or sellers I meet (99%) are quite wonderful beings, cooperative, kind, polite, any queries were long answered and clarified. And usually I would not have been so harsh in my words even if the buyer was having second thoughts, but he really tested and wore my patience thin with too many questions and no sincerity. Or if he had phrased his words in a nicer way, then I would not be so pissed. Haha, bazi clash? I shall wait and see what will be his reply tomorrow before I decide what action I am going to take.

To tell the truth, even before I contacted him, when I saw his name and he was from that race, I already had a feeling I may be in for a hard time. And I was right, yet again. (>_<)

It could only be......

This is Heineken's new TV commercial. I love it.

Nephew saw this inside GIANT supermarket. He sure starts young .....

I'm lovin' it

One fine morning, the kids decided to pay old McDonalds a visit.

As usual, McDonalds was so happy to see people.
Since it was still early, about 8am, there was barely any soul in the house yet.

The kids beaming at the warm hospitality of old McDonalds and of course his Big Breakfast. They had their hands (and mouth) full, gobbling down the enticing spread and a big glass of Milo without ice.

The Big Breakfast was in fact huge - the sausage mcmuffin was so juicy. The egg and scrambled eggs looked so picturistic sprinkled with pepper. The sausage in the mcmuffin was not burnt, it went very well with the melted cheese and mcmuffin.

The savoury hash brown was a must-have, and dipping it with the sweet chilli sauce was so yummy. For the sweet tooth, you could apply jam on your mcmuffin bread. The Hotcakes also made a special appearance besides the Huge Breakfast. To the kids, it was probably the highlight of the whole meal ......

... especially after adding the sinful butter and delish honey syrup on top. *evil laugh*

Nephew: "I'm lovin' it !!!"

My lovers

I am a crazy handphone fan. I love to play with handphones, explore their looks, sizes, functionalities and special features, and any "X" factors. I compared phones online and hands-on to examine their specs. I do not know some of the complicated technical terms they use for the phone features but I do know what I like, and what I don't.

For the past 15 months I have played with these below handphones. I am not that rich that I could afford many new handphones to play with, in order to satisfy my insatiable desires. Some of these are second-hand phones which I got for a steal. Maybe I am lucky. Usually, I would be able to find a phone (new or old) for a very good deal and then resell it off again, and make a small profit. Those that I happen to like, will be with me for a longer time. That is why my turnover of phones is quite high. Sony Ericsson W890i. I love this stylish black beauty who is slim, pretty and small. It has a 3.2M camera even though it does not have flash, I have taken plenty of pretty photos with this phone in broad daylight. Its weakness is you can't take photos in too dark a surrounding. And one thing is, it does not have WLAN, which is a pity as I usually check emails and surf on my handphone. I still keep this as my backup phone due to sentimental reasons. I consider it my "secret lover". Hehe.

Nokia E71. This is another great phone I would highly recommend. It has 95% of what I wanted. Its special feature is its QWERTY keyboard and WLAN, plus it is a good looker which has a very sturdy yet slim steel body. It has a 3.2M camera but unfortunately, as I have tried so many Nokia phones before, their output is usually quite disappointing (even though they have an editing tool), it is not as sharp and natural as my W890. In the end, I sold it off for a good profit. Was finding it a tad too heavy as I usually carry my phone in my hand all the time. Also, as I have the white version, the side white rubber seal for the USB slot is becoming rather dirty even though the rest of the white steel body is sexy. Its successor E63 is lighter in weight but it is thicker and only 2.0M camera and comes in the red and blue versions which I do not like. E71 is a prim and proper, stylish and beautiful looking partner but blame it on my straying eye.

LG KF750 Secret. This is a relatively new model. Again it has everything I am looking for. 5M camera, WLAN, music player, slim, black classy body which has touchscreen as well as push buttons on its slider. It has a clear sound system. Then again the photos that came out were not as bright as Sony Ericsson and being touchscreen, I had helluva difficult time taking self portraits. The main reason I had to let it go was I am really not used to touchscreen. Even though I had the same problem with the earlier LG Viewty which I owned briefly, I did not learn my lesson. Touchscreen maybe stylo mylo by now, but I still question the speed compared to using the keypad. Somehow, I still find it lag a little, and would usually be even more lag when the machine gets older. So I had to let it go, sold it off for a reasonable profit. I swear I would not buy LG ever again. Besides it does not have a good resale value after some time. We had a love-hate relationship.

Sony Ericsson G900. Because of my good experience with W890i, I bought this second hand red stunner due to its wealth of functions. Again what I wanted was good sharp pictures, WLAN, music player and it has both keypad and partial touchscreen as well as a stylus. Plus it was really light in weight at 99g. It may not look like a beauty being so squarish and the sides has a rough white line as part of the design which is not that attractive. I was very disappointed with its lacklustre performance because it hanged or just blank out and once it even turned very hot when it was ringing. Also the speed of toggling between different functions were really too slow for me. So again sold it off for a tiny profit. It was a short affair, a one-night stand really.

Nokia N82. This is my current lover. I am ashamed it took me such a long time to discover this black beauty. This model is at least a year old which I bought second hand recently. I have never explore any of the Nokia N series before in the past simply because the models look so bulky and heavy. Their big sizes put me off.

What is so special about N82 then? Besides all the powerful features such as WLAN, accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate, music player, its light weight at 119g, up to 16GB memory card storage, N-gage games etc etc.. What blown me away has got to be the camera. Why? At 5 megapixel, it uses Carl Zeiss optics, and the SPECIAL unique feature is the XENON Flash. So far, Nokia has only 2 models using Xenon Flash (N82 and 6220) while Sony Ericsson are C905 and K800, and Samsung has G800. The rest of all other handphones use LED Flash, which is not as strong or powerful.

The demand for Xenon flash came about because consumers like me sometimes take night shots and so far ALL the earlier handphones could not perform at night. It isn’t about megapixels anymore as you don’t blow up photos taken from phones to poster prints. Night photos were more important to me, and thus, Xenon flash. I am very impressed having tried some shots at night, and its lens.

The photo on the left was taken in a pitch dark room. The right photo captured the sharp and clear details of the hair. You have seen the photos in my earlier postings, those close-ups were taken with my N82.

And for normal daytime photos, needless to say, they were such a delight that I need not edit or brighten the photo anymore.

Those new high-end handphones like Nokia N96 uses LED flash and E75 has only 3.2M. Samsung Omnia and Pixon are supposed to be good in photos but then they are touchscreen. Sony Ericsson C905 has 8M camera and xenon flash but is quite heavy still. Apple IPhone is supposedly the best with dozens of features but it is pathetic with only 2megapixel!

I am so impressed and so in love with my Nokia N82 at the moment. I have read wonderful reviews on this old model and I probably won't change another handphone so soon ... unless a new model comes out with 12 megapixel, uses Xenon Flash, WLAN, loads of memory space, quality music player, applications-laden, QWERTY keyboard cum keypad etc etc... and hopefully one day I can do without a digital camera anymore.

I think I have found true love in this worthy partner of substance as we've got chemistry. And I think I have grown up. I don't go for looks anymore. :D

You may like to find out which other earlier phones I have used in my earlier posting.

Eye candy

Some snapshots I took yesterday in Far East Square with my handphone.

Niece smiling and strolling on the nice zig-zag tiles.

A pair of lovers?
A close-up of the kids' Iced Horlicks Dinosaur.
Nice shophouse facade all in vibrant colours.
The traditional exterior of a Chinese restaurant.
Inside Starbucks.
You could even count how many strands of curly eyelashes nephew has.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

My Grandma celebrated her 84th birthday yesterday. Her actual day is lunar 15th of the 5th month, I think. So every years there is no fix date to celebrate her birthday as we do not know her English birthdate (her IC states just the year 1925). We went for hi tea at Zhou's Kitchen in Far East Square. It was ala carte buffet, so you could order as much as you could eat. We had reserved 3 tables as there were almost 30 of us.

Grandma was spotting a new hairdo, a straighter hair instead of the usual permed hair. Her whole mob of hair was all white. I feel she looked better and better than she did 20 years ago. For someone her age, she was energetic and alert, she looked younger than before. This had to be due to her half-day vegetarian diet everyday for the past 20-30 years. Plus she goes for her brisk morning walk daily without fail and she goes downstairs a few times a day, to the supermarket, wet market or to meet her neighbours.

I wish her excellent health for many more years to come!