Not so hidden passion

Sometimes if I am eating alone at home, to save time, I have my meals at the small wall-side table in my kitchen next to the window, instead of in the dining hall. From my kitchen window, there is a condominium next to my house. I can see the lifts along the corridors.

It was during those eat-alone sessions, quite a few times, I happened to see a couple at the corridor. The guy looked like a tall man with dark features, while the girl was fair with long hair. I could not see them clearly of course. The couple would chit chat there for a long time, hug, touch and cuddle with each other, and of course, often accompanied by a few long and short kisses. However they did not do anything further than that. :P

I am not saying they are doing anything wrong but I am quite surprised and wonder why they would do it in full view of everyone who is staying opposite.  And a bigger question mark is.... I am befuddled why they did not do whatever they were doing inside the comfort of their own apartment, and why outside along the corridor next to the lifts. More kick??   

Makan, anyone?

Some dishes I cooked recently, as I did not have much time to try out new dishes. Actually I need not be the cook but sometimes I do it for the fun of it and to de-stress.

My usual Sweet & Sour Fried Eggs which is child-friendly. My niece likes it. After the eggs were fried individually, I prepared the sauce with a combination of pasta sauce, char siew sauce, vinegar, ketchup and sugar. Stir fried chopped onions and garlic in hot cooking oil till fragrant and added the mixed sweet sour sauce and lastly threw in some cherry tomatoes. Then pour the sauce onto the fried eggs. Very appetising.

I called this dish Chicken In Char Kway Teow Sauce. I happened to have some char kway teow sauce and pork lard which was meant for char kway teow of course. So I used it for a chicken dish. Cutting chicken fillet into cubes, I also added green capsicum, some roasted nuts and sesame seeds, and chopped spring onions as garnish. It was a slightly sweet-savoury dish and it reminded me a little of the taste of Kung Pao Chicken.

This is another chicken dish, called Chicken in Teriyaki Sauce. I simply stir fried chicken cubes in teriyaki sauce with some radish or gourd (I do not know the name) that is normally used for soups. Kids loved it. Unfortunately because of my temp vegetarian diet,  I did not know how my chicken dishes tasted.

I tried this dish - Black Bean Okra (Lady's Fingers) - courtesy of Kim Ong.  It was an easy dish using Lee Kum Kee's black bean sauce, although my method was slightly different from Kim's. I chopped some garlic and onions and stir fried them in hot oil before adding in the cut lady's fingers to stir fry a little. Added a little water and the black bean sauce and left to simmer for a while till the lady's fingers are soft yet still retaining a little crunch. Quite nice but must be mindful not to add too much sauce, otherwise it might be too salty.

One of my favourite veggies again - Kang Kong in Fermented Beancurd Cubes. I stir-fried the kang kong using the fermented beancurd cubes (which we usually eat as a condiment with plain porridge). With a little water the cubes were dissolved and I liked the taste of the  fermented beancurd paste (or pickled tofu) with the crunchy veggies. In Teochew it is called "hoo joo".

Typical vegetarian dish of Braised Tau Kwa, Tau Pok (Fried Beancurd and Fried beancurd Skin) and Mock Intestines. Wonderful with plain white rice and the braised gravy.

Why I hardly cry

I hardly cry. Basically I am one who will not reveal much emotions whether I am happy or sad. I hardly cry for joy and I hardly cry when I am down or facing any personal problems. Even when I am angry, I do not cry out of exasperation (the most I may just write out my frustrations here or somewhere else). I would only shed tears over 2 things.

1. When I am very touched.

Perhaps saying it in mandarin is better, which means when I am very 感动. When I look into the eyes of someone familiar or special to me, and I know that person is feeling sad, it will touch me so much that my eyes maybe brimming with tears as I empathise with that person. Or when that special person is crying tears of joy, I would be so touched that I will shed tears of happiness for that person. Earlier on, when a special friend got married, I saw the 感动 and joy in her tears, I was trying to hold back tears too because I was too happy for her. I am touched when I hear beautiful lyrics in songs, when I read something written by someone special, or even a touching dialogue or script on TV/movie. You must be thinking, then I surely cry alot because there are tons of beautiful songs out there, and there are plenty of touching shows. Wrong. It must be songs /words that relate to me in a special way, be it a memory of someone, or of a past event. Or whatever that evokes a nostalgic reminiscence of something which reminds me of a piece of the past, be it sad or happy. In another instance, when I meet a special guru or lama, and he makes me cry even without breathing a word, I think that is compassion arising and I shed tears of joy (because of having found my master which has the affinity and some connection with me in past lives). Therefore, only a few people have touched me so much that they can make me cry. So I hardly have the chance to cry. 

2. Saying good bye 

I do not like saying good bye. Who does, anyway? But I am weird in the sense that, I do not like saying good bye at all, like if a close friend is flying off somewhere indefinitely, or when it is a close colleague's last day, or when a close loved one is leaving the country for good. Even though I know we may meet again, I still do not wish to bid farewell.  If a dear one is flying off, I will usually give some excuse of not sending that person off at the airport. Or if a close friend cum colleague is leaving, I will go MIA or take urgent leave just so to avoid that moment we have to say "good-bye". Or when someone who matters alot to me leaves, I will not say good bye, even though I know that may be the last time we see each other ever again. Yeah, I guess I am weird in that sense. I just do not like good-byes, which will make me cry. So because I avoid such moments, I hardly get to cry (even though it may be pouring in my heart).

So, I hardly cry. Haha, but I do have a jelly heart. I will only cry because of some special people and special circumstances.

Full-blast anxiety and weird times

Attended another blissful puja over the weekend. I was half-hearted in going at first because I was coughing and it would not be nice if I kept coughing during the puja. My throat was extremely itchy. Nonetheless I decided to go ahead,  making sure I cleared my nose and phlegm and drank enough water before the puja. It was a wonder that throughout the 2 and a half hours of puja, I did not had a single outburst of coughing. It felt like I was healed already.

Chatted with a friend on MSN last night, and my friend was complaining to me about some elderly people posting self portraits of themselves all over the internet and their blogs. It is pretty common and perfectly fine for fashionista youngsters or bloggers nowadays to dress up, with make up and take shots of themselves all over their blogs as they look pretty. But to see an older person say in their late 40s or 50s or 60s do it, is somehow weird and vain. We cannot help but notice the "imperfections", maybe a crooked mouth, one eye big one eye small, fake this and that, and the little wrinkles all over the face etc...  it just seems weird. It gives an impression of someone who is a 自恋狂, very self-absorbed. I do take self-shots too but I do not post them all over the internet, and definitely not in my blog. Even if I do post on some online albums, I will set privacy settings for access, and not free for all to view (only selectively to a few). So to see elderly people post their full-blown photos everywhere, is really.... hard to stomach at times.

Anyway my cough was better, although I still took whatever medicine I had left. Drank a lot of water. Of course still felt drowsy after the medicine. So needed lots of sleep. Last 2 nights I had dreams again.

In the first dream, it seemed that I was getting ready for a flight somewhere. A few hours before departure, I became panicky as I searched for my air ticket. I could not find my air ticket after searching my bag and luggages. I even rampaged my whole house and was very anxious. Then I forgot where I had left my passport, and another round of frantic search began. I tried to re-confirm the time of the flight again to see how much time I had left. To my horror, It was actually 5.15pm when I thought it was supposed to be 7.15pm! And when I looked at the time after a futile search for the air ticket and passport, it was already 5.00pm and I was still at home! I was so frustrated that I gave up, as I knew I would surely miss my flight. Aiyoh, the dream was full of anxiety and it felt lousy. It was so different from the me in real life, as I would never be late for a flight, or never had to find important stuff like air tickets or passport at the last minute.

In the second dream the next night, it seemed somewhat related to the first dream! I was supposed to get on a flight to Dubai with stop-over in Bangkok first for a few days. I had booked my own ticket as well as for an aunt and a cousin. Then just the day before our flight, I realised to my horror, I had actually booked the tickets with just a Singapore-Dubai one way straight. I was supposed to have booked the tickets Singapore-Bangkok first. I was in my Grandma's old attap house, and the whole house was very messy, filled with mountains and mountains of clothes on the floor. I was supposed to search for something, a telephone number or something which I had apparently left in the pocket of a shirt, which was supposedly among the mountains and mountains of clothes!  Then it suddenly occurred to me, oh I was right, it should have been just the Singapore-Dubai tickets, and we were supposed to change it to Singapore-Bangkok WHEN we have reached Bangkok (weird, right??). And just when I thought everything was ok, then I suddenly realised, no I should have just booked for my cousin's flight as Singapore-Bangkok because she was not going to Dubai!!! Adoi! Then things got panicky again, when I had to change the ticket again! My goodness, both dreams were so full of anxiety. I hope that they do not represent my current state of mind.  

Inside that colonial house

Last night, while still nursing my stuck nose and my throat, which has turned from pain to itchiness (coughing), I had a dream. I dreamt that I was in a huge colonial house. It was quite empty inside the big house (it was the size of a few auditoriums) with high ceiling, and I was on the second floor. There were not much furniture. I saw a few people, some I knew, some I did not.

I saw some ex-colleagues and another friend P. We were moving office into this colonial house, I think. Everyone was setting up some office equipment and their own work space. We were chatting where to put the tables, chairs and some other stuff.

Then halfway, some people came. They were 3 ladies who looked like in their 50s (one of them whom I knew) and they were very talkative. They wanted to rent our place or a room and to borrow some of our stuff. I was made to liaise with them. They were quite talkative and insistent on what they wanted, while I was silent in the dream, just listening to them without talking. I think I was not too happy with them, especially the lady whom I knew. After chasing them off, I told P I did not like them. By then, I was not in a very good mood. To pacify me, P made me sit and watch a film which was being projected on the wall (very old school type of projector). In the dream, I think I was also not feeling well. So I laid down on the floor as I watched the film, while the others kept coming to talk to me. I just ignored them. I wanted to rest. P was beside me. P also tried to talk to me to explain something to me. But I could not hear anything.  I was too drowsy and felt sleepy, I remember P was touching my forehead (to see if I had a fever) and then "sayang" me to sleep like a baby. I think I was already half asleep half conscious.

Haha, weird dream again. Everything was so surreal. Dreaming I was sick when I was actually sick in real life. LOL! 

Is Singapore part of China????

For the last time, America, get this straight. We, the citizens of Singapore are from Singapore. City is Singapore. Country also Singapore. Although we are only but a tiny red dot in South East Asia, we do not belong to China or Japan (the other big red dot) or any other big Chinese country you know. We are an independent country.

From Twitter, @izreloaded tweeted that "Paris Hilton is in Singapore for F1. She's hyped because she's never been to China before. LOL". http://bit.ly/17SIhu

Miss Paris, can I ask if you are from France?  And please enjoy your stay here in Singapore. Remember you still have not been to China yet.  (By the way, she has already deleted her tweet).

Then @celestially tweeted "Did you notice something's wrong with the 'HELLO china' message on the coach website?  http://bit.ly/DwlFq

On the website of Coach, at the bottom, number 5 box, it announced the opening of its store in Singapore but with the heading 'Hello China!'. Hello, Coach, didn't your marketing folks get their location right?? Do you know exactly where you opened your stores?

Did China hijacked Singapore or what??? Is Singapore spelt as "XinJiaPo" a city from China?? Singapore may have increasingly many PRCs coming here to work, that does not make Singapore part of China! Singapore is made up of different nationalities - Chinese, Malays, Indians, Eurasians etc.. - multi-racial, multilingual, multi-whatever. BUT WE ARE NOT FROM CHINA. Eventhough our ancestors might have been immigrants from China, that does not make our country Singapore part of China!!

This is a CHINA flag

This is a SINGAPORE flag.

Do they look like they are the same to you, besides both having 5 stars? My ex ex Prime Minister was Mr Lee Kuan Yew, and not Deng Xiao Ping! 

Now I am ready for the F1 race. ***RRRRRROOOOOAAAAARRRRR!!!!****

Slept the day away

Hohoho... even before I start taking multi-vits, I have fallen sick (beginning to think that wanting to take multi-vits is a jinx.....haha).  Must be due to the hot weather. Last night my throat was a little painful. I self-medicate (as I did not want it to get worse) with my usual medicine of anti-biotics, flu pills and cough syrup. The medicine made me extremely drowsy that I could not wake up this morning. Only managed to get up in the late morning, took some porridge and medicine, and then became drowsy again. Slept the whole afternoon away. Got up for dinner feeling better but had fever. Wondered should I have seen doctor tonight. Thought it would not help as I could not take fever medicine even if  I see the doctor.  I am allergic to all fever medicine, including paracetamol and panadol, and a long list of other medicines.  Decided to continue taking my flu medicine and anti-biotics. Took dinner, bathed, watch a little TV and felt better already! Now typing this post..... anticipate I will be drowsy again in half an hour when the medicine takes effect. Going to sip my powerful aloe vera..... and crash in bed.

Leave you with this song.....  相信 by Soda Green 蘇打綠 (since they are in Singapore) and 我相信 I will feel better tomorrow !

My quotable tweets

If you know me, you will know that I love to read quotable quotes by famous people. Sometimes I will RT (repeat tweet) them in Twitter. And at times I also like to write my own quotes as well, when I am inspired/ pissed/ despondent. Twitter makes it possible now that whenever I am in urgent need to write something, or get something off my chest, I can tweet about it immediately. Below are some of my very own humble little quotes/ tweets/ ramblings. They may not be in perfect English, as the words came out on the spur of the moment.

Even if memories fail, we can't erase the past. Even if we recall the past, they are but memories.

People can misunderstand you, avoid you, resent you, hate you, but you have given your all. There is nothing wrong in giving from the bottom of your heart.

How to tell someone that "it will not last"? Just like the Great One tried to tell us, "it will not last".


Joy is sighting pink lotus flowers growing in abundance reminiscent of the heavenly mandala of the great ones
 

Having a kind heart comes from action and empathy for others, and not from empty words and promises

The crisp cool morning air embraces your soul and body and mind


It feels like christmas today in this melting pot, with a tinge of wintry air


Go for the passion, not the money. Otherwise, it's soul-less


Spoken words and action should always be consistent. Otherwise it's contrived rather than convincing.

Without doubt, go with your heart. When in doubt, feel with ur heart. Better treat your heart with care because it's yours, not someone else's

Take off your coloured lens. See things in their natural light. Are you biased?

When one only hears himself and put himself on the pedestal, it's not surreal, it's unreal because others are not in the picture

Happiness is when the huge mountain of a zit on the nose erupts  like a beautiful volcano and becomes flattened land within 24 hours  :D

Of camel, elephant and horse

I was somewhere near Mustafa in Little India. Was very hungry, didn't have breakfast. Desperately looking for lunch, and I thought it should not be a problem looking for vegetarian food in Little India. Saw an aircon place and walked straight in (weather extremely hot) and did not even know the name. Looked like an indian fast food restaurant, something like Komalas.

Momentarily stuck at the ordering counter because there were simply too many items on the menu and I was straining my eyes to understand what was what. There were many types of naan and rice sets and even burgers and fries. And so many types of drinks. There were northern indian sets and southern indian sets. There was even a vegetarian burger. Almost ordered that but felt like having naan.

So I ordered a Butter Naan Set. I asked if the gravy was vegetarian, they said yes. Good! I also ordered the Mango Lassi, their yogurt drink, which I like. Collected my order from another counter. They gave me 2 pieces of butter naan, which looked oily (because of the butter) but it really was not oily at all. There were 3 types of gravy and some raw cut onions with lime. The gravy was nice and not spicy at all, one of them tasted more of soft tofu pieces, the other was soft mixed vegetables, and the last was a darkish gravy. Sorry don't know what were the names of the dishes. If I am a full time vegetarian, I think I would have preferred to be an Indian. Because there are so many variations of vegetarian dishes they have created as many Indians are full-time or partial vegetarians. Also, I truly believe that in one of my past lives, I was definitely an Indian.   

I have always loved naan, because it tasted chewy and substantial and felt less oily than roti prata. But 2 pieces were always an overkill. Ideally one and a half of naan would be the perfect portion for me. Luckily I had the raw onions, making the whole meal less "jelak". Loved all 3 types of gravy. And the Mango Lassi was appetising. Then as I was eating, I noticed the signage across one side of a wall of the restaurant, was talking about Vegetarianism. Hmm, it was only then it occurred to me, it might be a vegetarian restaurant! Felt so sheepish and silly that I was asking the service staff earlier on if this and that was vegetarian. So malu (Malay for embarrassed).

When I walked out of the restaurant, I turned around to see the name - Ananda Bhavan VEGETARIAN Restaurant!  Blur me. I will be back again.

By the way, written on the signage inside the restaurant :

The Stamina of a Camel
The Strength of an Elephant
And the Beauty of a Horse
Are all sustained on a Vegetarian Diet.
Vegetarianism - a Healthier Food Choice.

So nicely put and reassuring, I like. :P

And in order to ensure I am fully healthy, I thought I'd better start taking multi-vits and calcium for the bones. This is not the first time I am taking all these tablets. Have always wanted to start but every time whenever I attempted to previously, I always stopped half-way because it was either too heaty or I fell sick or I forgot to take regularly. This time, I am determined I should finish the course. I found and bought the cheapest ones because I didn't want to spend too much money (in case I "tak jalan" again). And I managed to find a multi-vits which are called VegiCaps Soft Capsules - suitable for vegetarians. And the tablets for the bones are also Organic Vegetarian Calcium.  I didn't know there are vegetarian multi-vits too .... so malu again... haha!   

Bright eyed girl

Mom found some photos of niece when she was a baby, and we oohh and aahh over the chubby curly hair girl again.

This is my favourite photo of the lot. She was really a bubbly, happy, smiley girl with hardly any temper or tantrum.

She was a breeze to take care of, she was always chuckling when you talked to her. And she slept like a log that no one could wake her up till she had her beauty sleep, no matter how much we shook her, tickled or disturbed or rocked her.

She was chubby and fair, and during her first 5 years, strangers always found it hard to resist a pinch or two on the cheeks. Many thought she was of mixed blood.

This is Mom's favourite photo of her. Niece with her curly mane.

The day after 20092009

My parents had not taken a ride on the Singapore Flyer yet.  After all the online buzz these few days about people going on the Flyer, I thought why not bring them for a ride, since it was a long weekend. Morever, the Singapore Flyer was having some promotions this month, and also my parents enjoyed senior citizens' rates, and OCBC cards had 20% discount too.

Thought today was going to be very hot. But shortly after lunch time, when we got on our capsule, the weather was splendidly fine, not much sun, not going to rain yet.  Can see the old folks were a little excited prior the ride. Probably they have heard so much about the Flyer but had never thought they were going to be up there (after the unfortunate Flyer fiasco last year). We were lucky to have the capsule all to ourselves. I saw the other capsules were filled with people. Hmm... yes!! I felt excited for them even though this was my second time on the Flyer (the other time was I brought my cousin from Thailand who was here for a visit). 

As soon as the ride started, the camwhoring began. I snapped so many photos of the old couple, making them pose here and there, haha!! My father himself was busy shooting from his mobile. I even managed to use the self-timer to take a couple of shots for the 3 of us. Even took them with the future IR mock up behind.

But they had time to sit, to take in and to enjoy the beautiful skyline 360 degrees. This my poor attempt of a pananomic shot, raw cut and paste. :P 

They were talking about the new IR. Mom asked why we need to pay $100 entrance fee to the new casino next time. She was "concerned" and I knew why. She is a jackpot fanatic recently as she always win a little playing jackpot. Her most recent win was US$200 just 2 weeks ago. LOL!

This was my favourite shot of the oldies, macam in a space ship. Haha! Later I was surprised they did not object to buying the souvenir photos the Flyer people took for us. The oldies chose 4 photos (the size of a credit card) of the 3 of us in 4 different backgrounds. I am going to scan the 4 small photos, and then I am going to let each of us keep one, and the last one to be made into a fridge magnet. Then I save money, no need buy magnet from Singapore Flyer. Ingenious, hor?  :D

The ticket as souvenir or fridge magnet too. I like the concept and strategy the people at Singapore Flyer is adapting. The marketing, the aggressive promotions, dine-in-capsule packages, tour packages, restaurants and shops to complement, you know, the whole works, so that it is "a moving experience at every turn". But somehow, I still feel something is amiss.  

Ok, need to complain a little now. We had our lunch at the Singapore Flyer before our ride, and we decided on Madam Lin, which looked something a little higher class than a foodcourt, but cheaper than the other expensive restaurants. There was fast-food Popeyes next door.

Madam Lin sells mostly local chinese food. Father chose the Beef Brisket rice ($5.90). Mom chose the Soy Sauce Chicken Rice ($4.90). The portions were quite small and they tasted quite normal. Now when it came to my turn to order, for the first time in one month being a temp vegetarian, I did not know what to eat! Every item was with meat or fish. Nothing for vegetarians. Not even a salad. I ended with no choice but to order the "Mixed Vegetables" (that was a side dish) and I ordered a small bowl of plain rice which was $1.00!!! I was shocked that the mixed veggies came as-is, just plain steamed, with no sauce, nothing. Not even stir-fried, nothing. It was so bland, even worse than hospital food!! And I had to pay $3.50 for this! I might as well eat plain rice with some black soya sauce!!! I was terribly disappointed with Madam Lin and food. I left, feeling  hungry still. Singapore Flyer should review their choice of tenants and the quality of food they serve, if they want to attract more visitors.

They are back!

Yesterday evening, went to a puja in DPL, after a hiatus of a few months. Many of the lamas were back in India during the last few months, hence there was no program. Although I have attended pujas and teachings in other familiar places, I still felt very comfortable being back at DPL. After last night's puja, as usual, I was exhausted and had a very good sleep. I am glad the weekly prayer sessions are back. Yay! Why attend pujas? For Tibetan Buddhists, attending pujas are akin to Christians or Catholics attending church service. It is also good to attend teachings as well. This time, DPL is conducting a series of special pujas similar to those they had conducted in 2003 during the SARS period. This time, was of course to counter the H1N1 epidemic as well as all our other obstacles.  

The word "puja" means "to please" in which prayers are offered to the Gurus, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to request their blessings and invoke their help. The idea of "pleasing" the Buddhas is for our own benefit, not for theirs. We need merit, or positive energy for our enlightened potential to grow and become perfect, and one of the best ways to do that is to make beautiful offerings and prayers to the Three Jewels. Pujas are performed to avert and clear our obstacles. The puja ends with the dedication of merits to the enlightenment of all beings.

According to Jamie from DPL, after the previous week's 400 offerings obstacles-removing puja, a participant approached the staff after the puja to relate his encounter. In the middle of the puja, his girlfriend, who was beside him, saw an image of a woman with a bloody disposition, coming out of his body. The man, in fact, did not feel anything amiss at all. Terrified, the couple consulted the lama afterwards. The lama assured them that it was a good thing, and they did further divination for him, to check what further prayers were required to be done for him in order he could be cured of any possible demonic possession or any other obstacles as soon as possible.

Thus, I believe in the potency of attending pujas regularly. 

The Look of Love

I like the feel of this song on a cool lazy Saturday midnight, kinda sexy, kinda lomantic.

To all my Muslim friends...

If only....

One of the most high-profile local celebrity couple in Mediacorp, Fann Wong and Christopher Lee, are having their traditional Chinese wedding on 29/09/09. Hence the TV station has produced a few parts of a wedding documentry for them leading to the big day.

Last night I saw the 1st part on TV where they were interviewed. One of the most touching moment was when Fann mentioned that Chris gave her a wonderful surprise visit by not just flying to Prague where she was filming a movie, but he also brought her parents along to see her as well.

When asked why he wanted Fann's parents to tag along with him, he said that since they are Fann's parents, they are also his parents. They too missed Fann. He felt that since the parents are still able, he should bring them travelling whenever possible. Chris mentioned he could not bring his own mother for travels, as her movements are restricted. His father has passed away a few months ago.  He was brimming with tears at that moment. It was touching how thoughtful he was towards Fann's parents. Maybe that was how he won her heart.

Anyway I agree and do feel strongly about bringing parents for tours when they are still alive and kicking. Often in most of my travel plans, I will include and bring my parents with me. Or sometimes I tag along with them whenever they feel like travelling.  I know many of my peers and younger friends may squirm and be embarrassed at the thought of having their parents with them during travels. And even more so when they get attached or married. It is no more travelling with parents, but rather with their girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse instead.  The main reason I always prioritise my trips with parents, is so that they may see more of the world when they are still alive. Old folks just love the thrill of travelling to any foreign land. Travelling with friends can wait till later, even though I know it may be more fun with friends.  Travelling with parents, I am usually more stressed as I need to look out for their safety, make sure they keep their money properly, make sure we give them a hand when climbing a mountain, make sure their luggage lock is working etc etc..., and yes, I am also the porter.  But still, I am glad that 75% of my travels, my parents were with me. By doing this, I believe and hope that I will have no regrets next time.

An ex-colleague, M, told me that many years ago, her father was diagnosed with advance stage of cancer. It was only then that she realised her siblings and herself had not been on even one single overseas holiday trip with their father. They planned a tour for her father and mother. During the trip, the father's condition worsened and they had to cut short their holiday to fly back. On the flight back, her father was already semi-conscious. After they landed in Singapore, her father was rushed to the hospital from the airport and passed away a few hours later. M's only sad and comforting thought was, she had fulfilled her father's wish.

"If only. Those two words must be the saddest words in the world." - Mercedes Lackey

Oh sorry for the sad tale. My heartiest congrats to Fann and Chris!!!

Why I made my own pizza

It all started when I bought a pizza from the supermarket one of the days.

After baking it in the oven, it turned out to be quite dry and horrible. It was supposed to be mushroom pizza but the mushroom pieces were so sparse I hardly tasted mushroom! And the crust was hard, worse than cookies. I had to eat it together with some BBQ potato chips, otherwise, I would not be able to finish my dinner. After that unfortunate dinner, pushed to the limit, I decided to make my own pizza for the family!!!  I was also inspired by Karen Cheng's home-made pizza.

I decided to make 2 types: Hawaiian Pizza and Vegetarian Pizza. Cut some Ham into pieces, added some leftover bacon. Forgot to take photo of the pineapple cubes and the wheat Pita bread (which I used as the pizza base).  I bought both Mozarella Cheese and Cheddar Cheese. Got the pasta sauce which was creamy tomato and mozarella flavour. I mixed the sauce with cheddar cheese, added some italian herbs and a pinch of salt. Hmm... I forgot to add some olive oil.

These are all the veggies I wanted to have for pizza - mushrooms, green capsicum, cherry tomatoes, and avocado (which I love!). Oh, I chopped some onions as well.

Then the fun began. Laying the ingredients. Applying the pasta sauce on the pita bread, then added all the ingredients for both types of pizza, and final touch topped it with mozarella cheese. They looked promising, eh? I am pretty greedy generous, so my toppings are always ALOT. I like a juicy pizza!

After heating the oven to 365 degrees, I let the pizzas baked for 10 minutes. Here is the Hawaiian Pizza. A pity all my Hawaiian Pizza photos were all blur! I did not know how good it tasted because I was not taking meat. But the family said it was quite nice, especially the kids love Hawaiian Pizza. All together I made 8 small pan-size pizzas, and each of us ate at least one pizza and slightly more.

Next my Vegetarian Pizza. It was very juicy alright, with the cherry tomatoes, mushroom, avocado and capsicum!  I loved it so much, that I would never buy frozen pizzas from the supermarket ever again. From now on, it will be me making my own pizzas! But I will never make my own pizza base lah, where got time?? Next time I am going to try using Naan as the base.

Made a special combination pizza for Mom - a mix of the Hawaiian and Vegetarian. Anyway, everyone shared the 2 types of pizzas. By the way, the pita bread was in its natural brown colour, ok, and not because it was burnt. :D

Last shot of my juicy pizza - a close up. It is such a breeze to make pizzas, as you can throw in whatever ingredients you fancy (or whatever you have in the fridge) onto the pizza. Just make sure you have the pizza base or bread on standby. No need to make the kitchen all dirty and oily with our wok-frying dishes. Pizzas are baked in the oven, so fuss-free and fast that it can replaces the instant noodles for now.

Oh, have you seen this pizza before? Someone actually used popular fast food as pizza toppings - a McDonalds Pizza!!

Randomly

I just "unfollow" someone who is my follower in Twitter. I think he is a nice, relatively known person in his own right, but he has the habit of blasting tons of tweets early in the morning, late afternoon and after midnight. There were so many of his tweets that my entire Twitter screen was filled with mainly his tweets ALL the time. I think he really "communicate" or reply to almost everyone in his list (when they may not be talking to him). He even says "good morning" to ALL the people individually every morning, and that can make up a few tweets at one time! It was so irritating that it kind of tested my patience for the past few days, so much so I nicknamed him the "Diarrhoea Tweeter". Well, now is diarhoea no more, as I just clicked "unfollow". So, if you like to tweet, just make sure you spread it out in a good pace and time, and not anyhow shoot a few dozens at one time!!! That is a definite turn-off in Tweet-land!

Talking about turn-off, I bumped into Miss Leopard Prince yesterday. I was impressed with my keen sense of recognising people from afar. And that is, I sighted her at another floor higher than me from the escalator. Ahem. Well, she was quite pretty and normal, and looked similar to her in the ...er... video interview. So tempted to approach her and interview her.....  :)

Ok, anyway, let's talk about food. I was at City Hall area, so I decided to have the tempura veggies for lunch from Tenya, a stall in the foodcourt of Raffles City Shopping Centre.

Sort of craving for tempura. So I chose from the wide variety of veggies I could eat. There were brinjal, big mushroom, young corn, carrot and enoki mushroom. I think I ordered too many pieces, heh! I couldn't finish the big bowl of sticky rice which was topped with the tempura crisps and yummy sauce. I only missed my scallop tempura.

Was at somewhere special last week, someone bought me lunch. Had Bimbimbap with a big pot of yummy tofu kimchi soup. Not that the food was that over the top, just that it was a weird place to be having korean food. Heh.. shall blog about this another time.

How does my Sambal Kang Kong look? One of the days, I made this dish to go with rice and other dishes at home. I did not use prawn paste with the sambal chilli, and I think it still tasted quite shiok. I love Kang Kong!

That's all for now. Erm... having writer's block. Will be back shortly.

Do I know me?

Was having a conversation with sis. She says she sees me as a smart and capable person who should not have any problem finding a very good job. She says, at least she feels I am 10 times more smarter than her etc etc..... Well, although I do not think that I am stupid, or that my sis is stupid, I always feel that she lacks a little self confidence, that's all. She is a thorough, detailed person who can produce lots of creative work, just that she needs help from me vetting some English at times. But really, thought her English is ok, and not that atrocious.  As for me, I see myself in having full confidence in certain things and totally no confidence in other things. Sometimes, I see myself not being in the ideal job that I want, or rather, the opportunities presented to me were not what I expected, or the lack of it in most cases. What is the ideal job to me anyway?

An ideal job to anyone should be one that pays damn well, one where the boss thinks highly of me and gives me plenty of opportunities to progress further up the corporate ladder, one where I enjoy plenty of privileges and benefits (eg. travelling), one where I can develop my creative ideas and management experience, and one that can motivates me continuously with a passion. These conditions are what most of us want for an ideal job. But often, what we get is a different combination of all these factors. You get a high pay, but you do not like the scope of the job. You get a low pay, but you enjoy the wonderful team spirit and friendship of your colleagues. You get plenty of opportunities to prove yourself on the job yet have to battle lots of politics along the way. You get the drift. Reality is, we cannot have best of all worlds.

My sis holds me in high esteem, I think, and has always feel I can find the best of jobs and opportunities with my prestigious certificate, and based on my PR skills, she feels that I should be able to have the best of all worlds. Of course this, I beg to differ. To me, an MBA is just a piece of paper, and I am not at that prestigious social standing as compared to the smooth-talking high flyers. Nor am I more successful in earning bigger bucks than some with only "O" levels or "A" levels.

On the other hand, I also learn that some friends' perception of me also differ. Throughout my school days, with my small group of close friends, I have always been the "blur one" to them (they nicknamed me "ah mong").  My friends, being very quick witted and smart, and more noisy than me, have always taken the lead in being very vocal about everything, anything under the sky. Hence, I for one, would end up being the quiet one (the one with not much opinion), so it appears that my friends tend to be more dominating and protective of me. For example, I let them decide where to go, what to eat etc... Looking back, I do admit at times, it makes me feel like I am being treated like a kid. During my happy-go-lucky moments, I do not mind and enjoy the pampering, you know, go with the flow. During my irritable moments, I would think "You think I'm so stupid, is it?" Once, a friend asked me to do her a favour in getting a number of legal tasks done and said hopefully I could settle everything for her in 7 days. Without knowing the know-how, it would have been a tough call. But I did what she wanted within 4 days, and she sms me "wow, you actually completed the thingy!" That sort of set me thinking.... "you mean, you expected me not to be able to complete it in the first place?" or do my friends think that such important stuff are beyond me? Hmm. To me, it was a simple case of whether I want to do it or not. And not a case of not being able to. That is a lot of difference.

So yet again, I learn that our own perceptions and others' are often contrastingly different. I guess what we need to do in order to improve ourselves is understanding more of ourselves through the eyes of others as well as understanding and accepting ourselves at the same time. Other people may not have the correct opinion of us, how they see us is totally different from how we see ourselves. And they may not necessarily be accurate in their "assessment" of us. As the saying goes, only we understand ourselves, only I understand myself. Or do I? I may have misinterpreted my friends' opinion of me, or maybe I just cannot accept it. As for myself, I understand myself well, but maybe I just cannot accept it too. I guess in some ways, my sis is right. It is about whether I want to go and do something about whatever I am searching for, and not because I am too stupid to do so. Well, of course sis may not know all the problems I face, so it is easier said than done. But I get the picture.

And today, miraculously I received a piece of advise from someone. One, is to have an even better understanding towards myself and others. Second, is to be able to sacrifice myself in order to achieve what I want. Actually these 2 points I know are my weaknesses at times. By actually hearing this advise from someone sort of confirms my weaknesses. So I have to accept them and to move on.   :)

"Accept what comes to you totally and completely so that you can appreciate it, learn from it, and then let it go." - Deepak Chopra

Fish cake?

The Mooncake Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival is coming. Usually, instead of mooncakes, I actually prefer the "piglet" biscuits that are selling at the same time. I love these chewy piglets biscuits since I was a child. My mom would buy these piglets wrapped in colourful little baskets for me and sis.  As mom did not usually buy us that many piglets, maybe one or two each year, we really appreciated the treat. We looked forward to eating the piglets every year. So these piglets reminded me of my childhood years.

I like these piglets also because they are not as sweet as mooncakes which have red bean paste on the inside. Piglets are just plain chewy biscuits, and they are cheap too, priced between $0.50 to $1.00 each, depending on the size. A moon cake costs at least 10 times more than a piglet biscuit. Now we can afford to buy as many of these piglets as we like to eat.

The other day in Whampoa, I chanced upon these biscuits in the form of a fish. The texture of the biscuits was the same as those of the piglets. What caught my eyes were how they described the biscuits. They were labelled "Fish Cake". Hmm.... to us, fish cake meant something else.  Anyway, I bought a few of the fishes and they were quite nice - chewy and not too dry - just the way I like it. I might pop by to buy some more soon. They are selling in a bakery shop next to Whampoa Hawker Centre. Well, you can just look out for this sign "Fish Cake".