Thursday, September 30, 2010

Kettle Brand - Honey Dijon Potato Chips


This is probably the best chips in the world – Kettle Brand’s Honey Dijon potato chips!

There is nothing that this bag of potato chip cannot comfort. Everything seems so right the moment you popped one of the glorious crispy, sweet and savory with a hint of tang chips in your mouth. Heavenly!

I mentioned before. These bags of comfort are usually available in Cold Storage at $4.50 per pack. NTUC, recently stocked them as well, I noticed. If they sought my view, NTUC should permenant stock them as a stable item.  

There are many flavours – Unsalted, Cheddar Cheese, Salt and Vinegar, Sour Cream. The other of my favourite flavour would have to be Sweet Onion.

Have a sinful time with them!

Photosophize’s recommendation – Definitely must-buy!

Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) – really?

I realised that I eat for comfort. Ever since the braces is on, I am unable to do so. I have no where to release stress.

In fact, eating has become a chore. Food get stuck in between the braces and it will take me quite sometime to clean them up. I have become somewhat lazy to eat.

Just the other day, I was trying to chew on some bean sprouts. Unfamiliar with the new bite, two of my teeth collided. It hurts a lot!!!One of them had become shaky after that. I was instructed by my dentist to avoid “hard food” especially to avoid using my front teeth because they were rather fragile and unstable.

Great. What have I got myself into? I still have two and half years to go. What is there to look forward to in life?

I eat less nowadays and mostly liquid food. Looking myself in the mirror, I think I looked worse. No one, not even Tyra Banks can work the braces. It just make people looked ugly.

The price to pay for a beautiful smile better be worth the trouble. I really hope I would be able to lose some weight and be healthier after this…

In the meantime, I need some encouragement from Mika – convincing myself that “Big Girl, You are beautiful.”

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Just random quotes…

Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game, one foot from a winning touch down.”

Ross Perot

If you're a competitive person, that stays with you. You don't stop. You always look over your shoulder.”

Magic Johnson

Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.”

Tony Blair

If it doesn't matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?”

Vince Lombardi

It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.”

Sun Tzu

In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment.”

Charles Darwin

I've always had that obsessive will to win and a commitment to excellence.”

Sumner Redstone

The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”

Vince Lombardi

Dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price.”

Vince Lombardi

The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure.”

BC Forbes

Monday, September 27, 2010

Green Peas Soup (With Step-by-Step photos)

Lie - Life have been so busy that I seldom cook nowadays…
 
Truth - Ok, in actual fact, my mum nagged that I don’t clean up so I have been barred from the kitchen.
 
In any case, I managed to do some cooking lately. My mum reluctantly allowed me back into the kitchen because I had braces installed recently. It was a dark moment for me. I couldn’t express in words how miserable I was. 
 
I couldn’t eat any solid food. For two consecutive day, I was on a plain porridge and preserved vegetables diet. To a foodie like me, life had no purpose anymore… I regretted putting on braces a lot and still is.
 
Worrying for my mental and kidneys’ health, I decided to spice up my liquid food diet. First and foremost, the diet needs to be healthier and more well-balanced. So, I bought loads of fresh vegetables from the supermarket and thought that western-style soup would be a great liquid diet to incorporate whatever nutrients I need during this difficult period.
 
First posting on blog will be – Green Peas Soup. I had learnt this recipe from Nigella Lawson. She also named the soup as “Slime Soup”.
 
Western soup is very easy to make and hardly require any cooking skill. I reckon that if you know how to boil water, you can definitely cook this.
 
Of course, I had made some changes to her recipe to suit my needs and taste buds. Here is my version of Green Peas soup.
 
Ingredients:
 

One medium-sized potato (preferably Russell potato) – for carbohydrate and as thickener to thicken the soup.

Some cloves of Garlic – depending on how much you like them. Garlic can lower cholesterol, I read somewhere, so I always like to eat a lot of them as health food.   

Somehow, I decided to go with vegetable stock cube instead of the meat ones. I wanted a clean vegetable taste. By all means, if you want to use chicken stock. I think beef and fish stock will be too overpowering.

Erm nope, we are still making green peas soup. I haven’t been eating much vegetable then. Thus, I panicked a little and added a little of whatever I have to “make up” for losses.

Cauliflowers – two golf-ball knob.

A bunch of spinach.

About 200 grams of frozen green peas.

A few handful of Parmesan Cheese

Method:

Boil some water in a pot. I added milk to it to give it a richer taste.

Add in the stock-cube for flavour.

First in high heat, add in the potatoes and garlic. Leave it to boil for about 5 minutes before adding the cauliflower.

Turn it down to medium heat and let it further simmer for 3 minutes before adding in the spinach and then green peas.

Let it boil for about 2 minutes. Do not over-boiled the green peas.

Take the pot off the heat.

Ladle a few heaps of the soup mixture into a liquidizer like the above. A word of caution – the mixture is quite hot. Do not over-fill the mixture. Fill up to about one-third of the container. Blend them in batches. Also, do put a wet-towel above the lid as the steam will escape and scale your hand.

Because you blended the mixture in batches. Some scoops might have more ingredients than others. To balance them up, mix them well the pot when bringing them to a boil. You can also re-adjust the thickness with more milk or water.

During this stage, add in the few handful of parmesan cheese. You decided how cheesy you want this soup to be.

After adding in the parmesan cheese, taste whether the soup needs any salt or pepper. I did add a small pitch of salt and a generous sprinkle of pepper.

I think the green peas can be quite sweet and can do with a tad more salt to give it a savoury edge.


Serve it piping hot. With a touch more of Parmesan Cheese for extra kick.

 
A satisfying, healthy and tasty meal. Immediately, braces seem more bearable…

Monday, September 20, 2010

My Birthday Cake 2010

Hee Hee.. My Brother A, bought me a cake from Crystal Jade Bakery like last year.

A Black Forest Cake.

Tasted ok, but he chosen Crystal Jade Bakery cake because they offered a 40% discount after 8.30pm.

Happy!

Reflections

It is time of the year again to reflect on my life and to set targets for the next year. I am one year older today. As per last check on the mirror, there are no drastic lines appearing on my face yet. Freckles seems to have increased but worse are the spots who are not showing any signs of retreating… The clock racing in full speed without any signs of slowing down. It is beyond my reach now.

I do think that I had somewhat matured during this past year. Some of you might not think so, but I did mellow down, a little perhaps. It takes time…

Things were still quite rocky and unstable in the early days. Nothing is what it seems to be. I fell from time to time again. Luckily, there will always be a group of kind people to help me up. The fall hurts, but comforting motivations are always not far away. I am thankful for their kindness. Because of their encouragements, I survived one ordeal after another. Things are starting to pick up recently and looking more bearable for me. I will keep my finger crossed and hope for the better.

In a blink of an eye and many whining sessions later, I completed the first year of my degree course! Surprise?! Last year this time, I would not have believed that I could do so. Result for the final module of the year was not out yet (regrettably, I didn’t do well for that one), but thus far I did pretty fine. 

I cherished the opportunity to further study a lot. I studied very hard, putting in a lot of time and effort. It is perhaps a little too much that study had become an unhealthy obsession. Reflecting on some of the things which I had done, I somewhat regretted them very much. I am not proud of them. I seriously felt the need to slow the pace down more and to take things more easily. Not sure if the effort can be sustained, especially that I am very competitive by nature…

However given what had happened recently, I reflected on whether one needs to win every time. An important lesson that I have learnt - To win a battle, one has to sacrifice a lot of important things to achieve it. Sometimes, they are not worth the sacrifices. For example, I am guilty of not spending more time with my family and I wish I  could improve on this. 

It has been quite a good year. I felt very blessed in many ways. There had been many kind people  who had helped me in one way or another. For once, I actually feel the warmth on earth.

Goals for the upcoming year:

  • To thank those who had helped me in one way or another (See if I can help them back, so as to repay their kind gestures.)
  • To lose at least 10 kg
  • To be more social-able so that I can make more friends. (I am very not keen on this one, but I know I need to expand my social circle.)
  • To rent a car and drive my family out for an outing (I haven’t drove since I got my license. Strangely, none of them looked keen to sit in my car when I told them my plan…My mum laughed and even want me to practise under my brother’s supervision first…||| I actually got more millage than him, considering the excessive number of lessons that I took…)
  • To improve on my grammar
  • To practise my English pronunciation
  • To stop occasionally and smell the flowers…

Friday, September 17, 2010

那些花儿

那片笑声让我想起我的那些花儿
在我生命每个角落静静为我开着
我曾以为她们会永远守在我身旁
今天她们已经离去在人海茫茫

她们会还好吗? 她们在哪里呀? 
幸运的是我曾陪她们开放

啦……想她们. 啦…她们还在开吗?
啦……去呀!  
她们已经被风吹走散落在天涯

有些故事还没讲完那就算了吧
那些心情在岁月中已经难辨真假
如今这里荒草丛生没有了鲜花
好在曾经拥有你们的春秋和冬夏

啦……想她们 啦…她们还在开吗?
啦……去呀!
她们已经被风吹走散落在天涯

她们会还好吗? 她们在哪里呀?

我们就这样各自奔天涯…

Anna Wintour on David Letterman

Watch this video of Anna Wintour on David Letterman. I always admired people who can talk smartly. Anna demonstrated in this video how to defuse loaded questions from Letterman without sounding rude or appearing too aggressive.

If only I can talk like her… 

More about Anna Wintour… I like her reply when asked which was her favourite issue - “always the next one” !

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

David Garrett – Csardas Monti

Music speaks a thousand words too.

This piece of music – Csardas is written by Vittorio Monti, an Italian composer. It is the only famous composition by the composer. The tune reminds me of a memorable moment in my life…

Like a brat, I am spoilt rotten… I will never forget your kind gesture. I considered it to be the first birthday present which I had received this year. It is the best gift I had ever received. I am very grateful.

No words can express my gratitude adequately. I wish you know that I am truly thankful…

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Lessons to learn from Anna Wintour

I read this article some months back and thought I need to highlight it. It is about Anna Wintour. God bless, but in case you didn’t who she is, Anna Wintour is the editor-in-chief of fashion and lifestyle magazine – Vogue! (Remember that, please…)

Again, if you did not read my earlier posting or have not heard about the documentary film – The September Issue, Anna had allowed an acclaimed documentary film maker, R.J Cutler to follow her and her team at Vogue from January to August 2007. The significance was that the September 2007 Vogue magazine was the single largest magazine ever published to date – boosting a total of 840 pages.

Cutler shared his view about Anna Wintour in the article. He related somewhat dramatic his observation about Anna to his friend that “Well, you can make a film in Hollywood without Steven Spielberg's blessing, and you can publish software in Silicon Valley without Bill Gates' blessing, but it's pretty clear to me that you can't succeed in the fashion industry without Anna Wintour's blessing."

Interestingly, he wrote that his eight months experience with Anna Wintour could be summed up into four lessons of management.

  • Keep meetings short
  • Trust your instinct
  • Surround yourself with great talents
  • Don’t look back

Don’t want to be accused of plagiarizing content, thus please read his elaboration here. I find them all very valuable tips.

However, I do want to discuss about this point, “Surround Yourself with Great Talent”. He wrote “Anna Wintour knows that you're only as good as the people who work for you, that bad leaders are threatened by strong team members, and that success comes from surrounding yourself with the most talented people you can find.”

I must say a lot of “leaders” failed to realise the above point. Many times, you see them getting people who are more likely to follow their instructions rather than someone who could work independently. People are somewhat intimidated by “strong team members”. As a result, they have a team of followers, but with very few thinkers.

Feel free to rebut me if you don’t agree with my observation, but I attributed the above symptoms as them having low self-esteem and too much of an egoistic mentality.

Some lecturers in school for example have no problems of letting students shine in class (strangely they are mostly Aussies), but there are a few who could not stand students of being “too smart”. Like somehow students who knew too much facts would steal their show away.

Not sure if they meant it, but Aussie lecturers would tend to say things like while they try to enlighten students, students had also helped them to understand some things better. You will never hear that from a Singaporean lecturer - They teach and students are to learn, which is technically correct too.

Of course, this is an Asian and Western cultural difference thing. Not that one is more right than the other, but the greatest difference is that one method encourages more participation and discourses, the other is more passive.

My point is that – why can’t people accept that others might know more, or would be in better position to advise them on a certain issue? Why must they see themselves as so high and mighty that only their views are correct? One can insist on their views, but then learnt to take up the responsibilities as well.

Vogue, like they say is Anna Wintour’s magazine. Whether it makes profits or not, the magazine is produced under her direction. She will be responsible and held accountable for the magazine’s sales.

Regrettably, a lot of people just want the talk and not walk the talk. A lot of people can talk too, but it is the walk that make or break them.

At times, I wish I could be as decisive as Anna Wintour…

Please read:

R.J. Cutler – What I learned from Anna Wintour

Ps: To clarify, my hair style was not directly an influence from her…Although like her, I might not change it again. It is the only style that suits me…

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Nick Vujicic - No Arms, No Legs, No Worries

I saw this video link on my friends’ Facebook page. Watching it, I was almost in tears.

Googled and found out that the speakers’ name is Nick Vujicic . An Australian, Nick is born limbless due to a rare disorder Tetra-amelia. He is 28 year-old this year…  (More information about him here)

I can relate to some of his lines “It is very hard to smile sometimes in life. At some point of your life, you encounter a storm and you wonder how long the storm is going to be…” (I assumed that the storm will stop, will it?)

He also said “It is a lie to think you are not good enough, it is a lie to think you are not worth anything…” At times when self-esteem is really low, I really feel I am worthless. But there are also times when I can differentiate some scheming opportunists trying to crush my ego for the sake of highlighting their superiority. Nope, in situation like that, I do know I am better than what they say of me. :P

Be thankful…I personally feel that it is very hard to be thankful with what you already have. In time of hardship or in face of a crisis, you tend forget what you already owned.

On that note, I did something sinful again. I thought I will regret if I did not at least ask. Well, speechless. It is an unfortunate situation. They hurt me, I hurt him, it hurt me and I eventually hurt him again. Ultimately, I will be the one who feels the most pain…Like what I am feeling right now.

This episode is the biggest regret of my life. If only we could turn back time, I would have done things differently…

In the meantime, watch these other videos of Nick Vujicic that I managed to find on YouTube. They are quite humourous, but very inspirational.

There is a liner which he said that I like – “There is a perfect time for everything, not now, but it is coming…” I hope better times are on the cards for me. I also wish that God will look after all the good people who have helped me in one way or another.

Moving on…

Monday, September 6, 2010

Tarot Cards

When I was young, I heard interesting but somewhat scary tales about the power of Tarot Cards. I was told that they made freakingly accurate predictions but one has to be very careful when playing with them. There have been reports of people experience strange death after they picked out the death card or something…

They maybe hear-say, but I was so fascinated over the tales that I bought one deck too. Not sure where it is now, somehow I don’t feel connected to the cards at all. Maybe, I wasn’t spiritual enough.

Recently, I found this website by accident which provide free online tarot cards reading. You can choose one out of the 20 themed cards – my favourite is the Golden deck. Then, choose a spread that you wish to be enlightened, for example are you at a cross road, if so Two Paths might be what you need, do you need some advice on relationships matters? Then, relationship spread might be useful.

I usually chose the one-card for fun and to “predict” the take of certain situation . Accurate? I still cannot verify yet, but it is sure interesting.

I especially like the Tarot Cards’ art work. They are enchantingly beautiful… Did I mention every card has an interesting story behind them? Cool…

Here is the URL:

http://www.facade.com/tarot/