Are you a 甲?

Another random surprising discovery. We know that in life reading, there are 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches.  

10 Heavenly Stems 天干 

12 Earthly Branches 地支  

Each individual has our own unique ba zi, which is made up of 4 heavenly stems and 4 earthly branches, a combination from the above. That's why it's called ba zi (八字). Below is a sample of a ba zi of a person.

The Day Stem represents ourselves, our own personality.  Ok here's my surprise. I just discovered that there are a total of 5 persons (FIVE!!!) whom I got to know in 2008 whose Day Stem is 甲 (Jia Wood). 

For the fact that in my circle of family and friends, I rarely come across 甲 Day Stem persons, so  to actually get to know 5 total strangers with this Day Stem within a few months  is a little too coincidental and surprising. Morever, I usually do not get to befriend too many strangers who become acquaintances in such a short span of time. 

From what I read from the internet.... "a Jia Wood person appears to be straight forward, stubborn and inflexible like a tree growing slowly and surely straight upward to reach the sunlight while the root is firmly rooted on the ground growing downwards to reach for water and nourishment in the earth. Therefore, Jia Wood people have strong will power. In the face of adversity they will not give up easily. They are also people who will develop and plan their action carefully moving toward their goal".

I do not know the impact of these 甲 persons on my own bazi chart. I am not too sure yet, but I do know that  I detest one of them alot. Another 2 made me rather uncomfortable and stressful. I need answers.

Well, this was just a little discovery and observation I had.

It's a small world after all

Oh my god.... this is just an abrupt post, because I just found 2 random not-so-close friends in Facebook.  Well, it started from I befriending a Dharma friend in one of the Buddhist centres, and so far I only met her once and only one time. I do not know her well.  I only remembered her name. And we were both waiting to see our guru in February.

Then I found her in Facebook when we joined the same FB group a couple of weeks ago.  Just a few moments ago, I was just browsing FB and saw her photos, and had a shock.  First, I did not realise she is an avid traveller and award-winning photographer with her own exhibition. Second, while browsing through her photos, I recognised an acquaintance (my buddy's friend in JC) whom I know too!  Third, on a closer look, together in the same photo with this Dharma friend and my buddy's friend, I also recognised an old secondary classmate of mine! I could not recognise her at first until I saw the name.  I think she looked alot alot different now.  

Wow. All 3 persons from different walks of life and all of whom I got acquainted with at different points of my life and I found them at the same time (being acquainted with each other!)! I think 3 of them were probably classmates in primary school. I have not added my "new" found friends as I am still recovering from shock.  Probably will check it out with that Dharma friend if I see her again.  Yes, the world is so small, and will be getting smaller still, with modern technology around. Haha thanks, Facebook!  

Crappy crab?

Saw this comic on Sunday papers, by Jim Toomey. Cute and kinda philosophical. 

To me, the morale of the story is:  

Happiness, whether permanent or temporary, is not dependent on your innate character.  Whether you are ugly, have a grumpy, selfish, crappy character, you can still be happy.  Even if you are rich, popular, generous and possess good looks, there will be times of unhappiness too. You can change your innate character. It's just a matter of conditioning your mind. Nothing to freak out about.  

"Being miserable is a habit. Being happy is a habit. The choice is yours." ~Tom Hopkins

Kiam Chye Ark

As we had some guests over for dinner, I made Kiam Chye Duck Soup (Salted Mustard Cabbage Duck Soup) for the very first time, with a recipe from the internet. I have been wanting to make this soup but never had the chance, and have not had Kiam Chye Ark for a long time. 

Ingredients:
1 whole duck, cut into pieces, with skin removed
350g kiam chye (salted mustard cabbage)
300g pork ribs
3 litres water
5 big tomatoes, cut into quarters
6 preserved sour plums
2 tbsp red dates, seeds removed
1 tbsp wolfberries
8cm piece ginger, cut
1 fresh red chilli
(Serves 8-10 persons)

Method:

1.  Rub duck meat with some salt and rinse. Scald both duck meat and pork ribs and rinse well.

2.  Cut kiam chye into 5cm pieces and soak in water for 15 minutes, then drain.

3.  Bring 3 litres of water to a boil, then put in the duck pieces, pork ribs, kiam chye, preserved plums, ginger, wolfberries and red dates.  Simmer over low heat for 2 hours.

4.  Add tomatoes and chilli and simmer for another 15 minutes. Remove any excess oil.  

5.  Optional: Add seasoning to taste.

This was my huge pot of simmering soup after throwing everything into the boiling water. The wolfberries and red dates enhanced the colour of this dish. Remember to leave the tomatoes and cut chilli till the last.

Tadah!!! I was very pleased with the result, considering it was my first time cooking this. My Kiam Chye Ark was very appetising with its combined tangy taste from salted mustard cabbage /tomatoes /sour plums.  I can eat plain rice with just this soup alone. In fact, my guests finished the whole pot. :D 

Surprise!!!

I'm back! I went for a cruise for a few days. Need some time to sort out the photos before I post anything. In the meantime.....

Once in a while, I will buy the Kinder Buenos Egg for niece and nephew. They have a collection already. Besides chocolate, each individual egg comes with a small toy inside, which needs to be fixed. Each egg is unique in the sense that the toy is different and can be in different forms and designs. Hence, I think the egg serves to provide the "Surprise" element, because you don't know what you will get each time.

This was niece's toy.  A standing icon-TV whose screen shows a smiley face, but when tilted at another angle, it shows a shocked face. Hehe...cheap thrill hor.

Tampopo

Another noodles post. One of the days, I met up an ex-supplier whom I have known for more than 10 years. So naturally he wanted to buy me dinner.  As we were near Liang Court, we went to Tampopo Japanese Restaurant.

Ever too often, I would need my ramen fix. And Tampopo is famous for their ramen. As they were having their Hokkaido promotion, some usual ramen items were not available. The captain recommended those on promotion. He said their usual tasty ramen broth takes about 20 hours to boil, and the type of broth used during the Hokkaido promotion takes 2 days to boil! So I thought, it had better be good! We ordered the Shio Ramen. It came with a very rich looking thick aromatic broth with a generous  thick slice of their famous black pig, seaweed, corn and egg. I did not eat the pork. True enough, the broth did not disappoint. I liked my chewy-textured ramen with the excellent slurping-good broth.

Just a look around the restaurant, it has a black dim theme, with flowery designs on the walls as well as Christmas decorations to liven up the place. The floor was cement-finished, no tiles.

We also ordered a vegetable tempura, which was nicely done. I always like the tempura dip.

Final look at my delectable ramen. One of these days, I am going to try making a bowl of ramen just like this.

Those who truly matter.....

Saw this in Jeanette's blog.  Quoting her... "I feel that most times we forget the important things in our life, those that truly matter.........in a way, I believe when we look at this video, it may be a mirror for our own behavior at times. Those times we lose our temper, those times we get impatient, we forget that we are on the receiving end of unconditional love and yet, at times, we forget to reciprocate that love."

May this be a reminder to ourselves, not just about family, spouse and loved ones, but good friends as well.

Jalan Sultan Prawn Noodles

One of the days, we went to the famous prawn noodles shop, Jalan Sultan Prawn Noodles, in Geylang Lorong 1.

The usual orders would be yellow noodles, or bee hoon or both mixed, and you can choose with prawns, or prawns + pork ribs, or just pork ribs. However this visit, I was quite disappointed with the dish. Somehow the soup was not as flavourful as before, or maybe it was just not hot enough.  It did have the traditional rich taste of prawn noodles soup, I expected and which this shop was supposed to be famous for. The pork ribs, however, were well boiled and tender. We also ordered a side dish from the Wu Xiang stall as well, a combination of items of your choice. I usually choose the fried prawn fritters, the reddish looking sausage, century eggs, fried beancurd, fishballs, and wuxiang. Look at the remnants of the prawn shells at the end. At this shop, they sliced the prawns into halves, thus gives you the illusion that there are plenty of prawns. :D

This time, I was more interested in observing the surroundings. The shop is located behind a row of old shophouses. The place was actually not that clean, being situated at the back lane of  old shops and restaurants. There were many black crows stationed around the buckets of waste food, ready to pounce on the leftovers rather inconspicuously. But of course I noticed them. There were also other junk people left lying around, like this signboard of a company. Wow, it was a real old-school signboard. I wonder if the company is still alive? 

Among those shophouses in front, were many shops selling steamboat buffet, especially Chongqing steamboats. They left their tables and chairs behind during the day. See the holes on the tables (for the steamboats)?  During weekends, these restaurants are rampant with locals and especially many patrons from China and foreign workers. Well, they are operated by mostly China owners with China waiters/waitresses anyway. We have never tried the steamboat buffet here even though it is not expensive. Think we prefer those  steamboat restaurants in Bugis instead. 

Like peas in a pod

I exchanged almost all of my photos I took of niece and nephew with my bro-in-law and sis, and I also copied their version. We have definitely accumulated tons of photos over the years. I picked some cute shots. We have too little of those when they were babies, must definitely scan more. 

I love this, so cuteeeeeee!  Basically you will notice they both look really alike, except vastly different in temperament.

I took this photo of niece in an entire series. She was so sweet at that age with curly hair. Nephew looked adorable in this too, slightly pouting.

The boy likes to monkey around, dressing up as his sister, while his sis is more serious and steady.

Aiyoh another photo I drooled. Both looked so angelic in CNY garb.

They were always posing with something or with something on them!!! Nephew always has this cute frown when in doubt.

Dressing up again.... one an angel, and the other, a skirt-chaser. :D

 Making monkey faces again.

I begin to see....

I am sort of dumbfounded about two things on Sunday. It is about the 2 separate dreams I had just 2 weeks ago. One was when I suddenly dreamt of a Dharma friend who was wearing all white in the dream. She is not someone I am that close to, in fact an acquaintance. So, was surprised she appeared in my dream for the first time. Then  on Sunday I heard that her father has passed away. 

The other dream in which I dreamt of nice resplendent roof top tiles on top of a tent right outside my house, where a lama was conducting a puja. On Sunday, I got a sms from the same temple informing members about the placement of holy objects on the roof of the temple. I did not know anything about placing holy objects there in the first place. Was it why I dreamt of beautiful roof top tiles in the same temple?

One precious experience

Apart from the centres I usually go to, on and off, I do attend some teachings or events organised elsewhere, especially when visiting Great Masters, Rinpoches and Venerables are in town.

I have always wanted to do a mini retreat (I am not ready for those that require continuous few days stay-overnight). So I was keen to try the one-day Mani chanting program, which was about the most familiar six-syllable mantra ‘OM MANI PADME HUM’, mantra of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva (Guanyin), which embodies perfect compassion and the core essence of the 84,000 Teachings of all the Buddhas.

The teacher for this program was Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, a reincarnated Tulku, whom I met for the very first time. Rinpoche hails from Yachen Monastery in Sichuan China, which houses 11,000 monks. His practice and realisation has been recognised and highly praised. He has wholeheartedly transmitted the Buddha's teachings to disciples with karmic connections all over the world.

Tsultrim Rinpoche is the thinnest Rinpoche I ever met, and even though he is only in his 30s, he cuts a delicate figure. However his demeanour appeared serious but patient, and learned far beyond his years. Besides Mani chanting, he led the 200 of us into the practice step by step, in doing the preliminaries, full prostrations, visualisation, meditation, as well as teachings. He led us in circumambulating the Buddha statue and the entire hall while chanting. Most precious were his teachings and he gave precious oral transmissions of  Avalokiteshvara, Green Tara and Ksitigarbha according to his lineage. He also bestowed the oral transmission of Phowa, which is about how to transfer our consciousness at the time of death. I recorded all that down. He said it is beneficial to  play the recording of Phowa to anyone who is dying.

What touched me was seeing many people wanting to offer khata to Rinpoche and giving him red packets (money),  but he rejected them all. It was then announced that Rinpoche has stressed that he is here purely on teaching the Buddha Dharma, and even though he appreciates our offerings (供养), there is no need to do so. I cannot help but be thankful that I have met many precious genuine teachers.

BTW, Tsultrim Rinpoche has remarkably strong and melodious vocals. I feel he should release an album, really. Below is my recording of his chanting Om mani padme hum.

Om mani padme hum by Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche.m4a - Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche