王菲-迷魂記

王菲-迷魂記
詞：林夕 曲：謝霆鋒 編曲：梁翹柏 

別叫我太感激你
藥水色太精美
別要我吃出滋味
愉快得 知覺麻痺

為甚麼 呵護我
當我痊癒了 可吃甚麼
為甚麼 感動我
等我難習慣 最低痛楚

怕甚麼 怕愛人
扶著情感 得到禮品總會敏感
怕甚麼 怕習慣豁出去愛上他人
但卻不懂去 弄完假再成真

別錯碰我的手臂
毛管不夠爭氣
別賜我太多福氣
令美點 都掛住你

為甚麼 寵壞我
等我難習慣 半掩被窩

怕甚麼 怕愛人
扶著情感 得到禮品總會敏感
怕甚麼 怕習慣豁出去愛上他人
但卻不懂去 弄完假再成真

怕甚麼 怕被迷魂
扶著情感 得到細心只怕喪心
愛甚麼 愛令我勇於報答太多人
但卻不知道 如何死裡逃生

王菲 - 哪兒

最好没有人明白我说什么，只有你听懂我唱什么 ...

Tis the season of expressing gratitude

Other than setting fire on plastic trees, exchanging mugs, stuffing self silly with cold turkeys and getting high on egg nogs, there are more important things to do during the Christmas season, such as expressing gratitude.

And so I did.

I am a rather sentimental person. Those who follows my blog will know it by now. Live life with no regrets. That is what I always tell myself. Don’t regret over things which you did not do then.

There is always an appropriate time for everything. Once you missed the best time to do something, you will never get the same reactions again.

Many people have passed through my life for the past one year. Some of them had left behind an impactful influence which shapes who I am today. I felt grateful in many way of those positive influences.

I am of the opinion that one should express those gratitude readily and promptly. As William Arthur Ward puts it, a gratitude not expressed is like a present wrapped but not giving it. What is the point? You know how you felt, but those who had influenced you might not.

What harm would it cost you or them if they knew how you felt about their influences? I am very puzzled when people laughed at me, calling me weird when I do that. So what if your friend knew how thankful you are towards somebody? What difference would it makes to those people who had influenced you? No differences because they don’t know.

My conscientious is clear. I treated people who matters sincerely. I meant every word I said. Interpreted my motives anyhow, I don’t have and I don’t care. What matters to me is them not you.

Speechless still. I sought forgiveness, if I had caused this much grief. It hurts me still and it remained speechless. I regretted what I did, but what else can I do?

Will it remain speechless always? I wish good health.

Regardless, I still have many more people whom I need to thank. Cherish this holiday season to thank those people who matters. A simple note of gratitude is worth more than the mug or some silly ornament.  

Don’t delay and regret... 

Brett Domino – Bad Romance

They are really talented and very cool!

Wake up and smell the English Breakfast!

Good morning! I hope you are hungry!

The above is one of my favourite photo taken recently – English Breakfast.

I do think that I take very beautiful food pictures.

Can smell the coffee, eggs and bacon already?

Faye Wong - Rilkean Heart

It has been a long time since I was so overwhelmed by a song and it’s lyrics.

An old friend tagged me to this song “Rilkean Heart”. It was performed by Faye Wong, aka Her Royal Highness, Asia’s Queen of Pop at her concert in Shanghai.

No one. No performer can do what she does – singing with minimal interaction with the audiences, stand still with hands on her hips throughout the song. Displayed through body language, she showed that she still own the stage.

Her voice brought back a lot of memories. Rilkean heart was originally a Cocteau Twins song. Faye had filled it with Chinese lyrics in one of her albums. It never occurred to me all these while that it was a covered song. 

I like the English lyrics better. They are very profound and intriguing. “Rilkean” refers to the Austrian Poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s writings, ideologies, history and characteristics.

The thing which makes me love Faye Wong is that she can still inject her own style into a song which already had a strong style of the original singer. She often gives covered song an extra edge.

For those who wanted to listen to the original version, here it is!

Rilkean Heart

Rilkean heart I looked for you to give me transcendent experiences
To transport me out of self and aloneness and alienation
Into a sense of oneness and connection, ecstatic and magical
I became a junkie for it
I come looking for the next high and I'm sorry I've been
putting the search on the wrong place

I understand that you're confused, feeling overwhelmed
Well that's a feeling state from then, the reality

With cleaning up my emotional life and getting in touch with myself
I'm beginning to ground myself in my own sense of being as an entity
One entity on the planet,
Become truly self reliant
And become connected with something beyond me
That is where I have to go
I'm so sorry I've been putting the search on the wrong place

You're lost and don't know what to do
But that's not all of you
That's your reality today
And that is all okay

I understand that you're confused, feeling overwhelmed
Well that's a feeling state from then, the reality

I'm lost I don't know what to do
It's not all on you
That's the reality today
Right now it's all okay

I understand that you're confused
Feeling overwhelmed
Love's a feeling straight from then
The reality

What to eat in Johor Bahru - Bah Ku Teh

I thought it will be interesting to do a series of postings on Johor Bahru eateries.

We are only separated by a few kilometers, but the food is distinctly different from Singapore’s. Some of them are really nice.

First post of the series – Shun Fa Bah Ku Teh

I had eaten at this Bah Ku Teh place before. However, the time when I took this photo, I had merely passed by.

 

It was one of my favourite eateries in Malaysia. They served traditional Malaysia Bah Ku Teh i.e. herbal style soup and in claypot.

 

The difference between Malaysia’s Bah Ku Teh and Singapore’s lies with the broth. Singapore’s famous Bah Ku Teh has a simpler taste and lighter coloured broth. They are usually Teochew’s style i.e. flavoured with garlic , pepper and meat only. Malaysia’s tend to have a richer broth and heavier in colour i.e. rich brown.

 

Between them, I prefer the Malaysia’s style better.

 

The eatery is situated at Taman Sentosa, Jalan Sutera Satu, about 10 minutes drive from City Square.

 

Do try it when you are in JB.

Lady Gaga – Stand By Me

Stand by me is one of my favourite song and Lady Gaga covered it during one of the tour!

Will you stand by me?

Stand by me

When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we'll see
No I won't be afraid, no I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh now now stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me

If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
And the mountains should crumble to the sea
I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me, stand by me-e, yeah

Whenever you're in trouble won't you stand by me, oh now now stand by me
Oh stand by me, stand by me, stand by me

Darlin', darlin', stand by me-e, stand by me
Oh stand by me, stand by me, stand by me

Tanpopo Deli Desserts

I hardly have much leisure times these days. Most of the free time I had were spent on school work.

 

I did however manage to go out with friends on several occasions for “normalcy” purposes . Hence just imagine the disappointment I had, when we ended up having some rather dissatisfying ramen for dinner at Liang Court!

 

It almost spoilt my special night out!!! I will not name the shop here (for now).

 

We decided that we need something good to get over the disappointment.

 

There is no better mood-lifter than dessert, we thought.

 

We therefore adjourned to the basement level where Meidya was located.

 

Tucked at the other end was Tanpopo Deli, where they served a selections of salads, take-ways bendo sets and delicious looking cakes and desserts. 

 

 

My friend, Mindy ordered this Custard Pudding which comes with Caramel Sauce. It was a very smooth pudding, with a light and fragnant eggy, milky taste.

 

The slightly bitter-sweet caramel sauce gave it a special character. Every mouthful tasted so comforting.

Another of my friend – Celine ordered this Green Tea short-cake with strawberries and cream.

 

It was probably the best testing cake among the three desserts which we ordered. The cake was light and fluffy, permeated with a light green tea flavour.

 

As you can see in the picture, there were hidden nuggets of azuki beans in between the cake which compliment the green tea flavour so well.

 

Strawberries and Cream – Do I even need to say more? Match made in heaven!

 

Last but not least, I ordered this Chiffon Cheese Cake.

 

I had never seen such a well-raised Chiffon cake before. You see, I bake cakes occasionally and I know how hard it is to bake a perfect Chiffon.

At the first look, I knew I had to order the Tanpopo’s Chiffon cake by look of the cake size. They are so well-done. I was speechless looking at it.

 

This cake does not have an exciting flavour. In fact, it is a simple chiffon cake, topped with a very lightly sweeten whipped cream topped with some sheds of Parmasan Cheese.

 

I love it, actually. I think the saltiness of the Parmasan Cheese brought out the subtle sweetness of the cake.

This is what I like about Japanese cakes and desserts. They are not overtly sweet or as rich as their Western cousins. Like Japanese culture, it has a hint of subtleness which leave you craving for more…

 

But before you stuffed yourself silly with more desserts, check the time first.

Tanpopo Deli sells bento sets at a discounted price after 8 pm!

 

Since you have a relatively light dessert, you will definitely have room for supper!

 

Do try!

Lion hugs and kisses its lady rescuer

My eyes turned red when I saw this video. This lady rescued a malnourished lion six years ago. She managed to nurse the lion back to health and eventually made an arrangement with a Zoo to take it in.

When she visited the lion at the zoo, it remembers her. Like a cat (ok a giant cat), it gave its rescuer a big hug, trying to rub some scents onto her. Awwww… Mimi does that too sometimes. She will react very excitedly when I visited her after a long while.  

That is why I always have a soft spot for animals. I never believed theories that argue that animals are not conscientious. On the contrary, they are aware of human feelings and sentiments. But unlike humans, they are much more genuine.  

While searching the video on YouTube, I chanced upon another video of lion remembering its owners. I felt very touched watching these videos.

Love knows no limits. True friendships last a lifetime... How true! 

News clipping of the lion and its lady rescuer.



Another story of a lion remembering his owners.

Mimi in lomotion

Mimi in lomotion – I haven’t see her for a long time. I miss her!

Efforts and hard work are intangible…

A brain storming session for one of my individual assignments

Some see it, many do not....

Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster

If I could summarise a period of my life with music, one period of my life be represented by Lady Gaga’s. I am quite into her nowadays.

I have heard you. A lot of people have commented that she is scary, weird and her music is dark. But I could relate this period of my life to what she is trying to communicate with her music.

"Be yourself. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't achieve your dream!"

Lady Gaga

“…I want your everything as long as it is free…”

“Sorry, I cannot hear you. I am kinda of busy…Stop calling, Stop calling, I don’t want to hear anymore. I got my head and my heart on the dance floor…”

“…I can’t be with you like this anymore…”

“You popped my heart seams and all my bubble dreams. I will never talk again. After all the drinks and the bars we have been to, would you give it all up, give it all up for you? Why are you so speechless?”

“She’s a mess… She’s a mess… she falls apart.”

“The monster ate my heart and brain!”

“I am your biggest fan. I will chase you down… I will not stop until it is mine.”

“Can’t read my, can’t read my poker face. You can’t read my poker face… Can you?…”

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.”

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

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…

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…

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” !

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…

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…

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…

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/

Show me your teeth!

National Dental Centre called me after a much-anticipated two years wait. There is finally an orthodontist specialist-in-training who needed a patient for his/her final year project and I  was that “lucky” patient. I sincerely hope he/she is the “A” student of the batch and the end result will be a very satisfactory one. (*Finger crossed*)

Maybe this time round with the help of the braces, I will be able to slim down more and become healthier. I heard my friends telling me horror stories about braces. Ulcers will be a “stable” in the mouth. I will not be able to chew anything hard or sticky. I will also need to pack a toothbrush, a teeth picker and floss to remove drags which will often stuck in the between the wire. Oh yes, the tightening of the braces wire will also give me headache and jaw pain… Talking about the price one has to pay just to get a beautiful smile.

Nevertheless, I am willing to endure that no matter how hard the process can be. Unknown to many, all I want all these years was really to smile showing my teeth. A simple action which many people can do without much thoughts, but yet I can never do that.

I am very conscientious of the gaps between my teeth that I hardly smile… I even developed a smile which hardly required me to show my teeth. To people who “read” body language, I could be seen as pretentious or that I have got something to hide. Also because of the lack of smile on my face, there are many people had thought that I looked fierce. Well, for the record - I am fierce, but more towards rude people.

I am going to ask whether they allow me to choose colour of the wire. I kinda of like white or shocking pink colour. Hmm… Maybe not green cause they will looked like permanent drags of vegetables stuck in between my teeth. How about lucky red?

Yeah! Maybe this coming Christmas, I could smile showing my braces.

*Grin* *Grin*

Coincidentally, Lady Gaga had a song called “Show me your teeth”. The lyrics is not really about teeth though… I like the line “No one is perfect”

Durian Mousse

Yummy Durian Mousse from 717. Quite nice. Can taste the bits of durian meats in the mousse and there is a small piece of sponge cake in the middle. One comment though what is with the green and yellow cream on top? I think they are unnecessary.

I am in a bit of “Eat, Pray and Love” mood recently. Ok, no love yet, but definitely praying a lot and eating for comfort. I am in serious need for relaxant.

Happy days!

Happy 45th Birthday Singapore!!!

May Singapore be peaceful and prosperous always!

Here are my favourite National Day Songs:

Home by Kit Chan. I agree that there is no place like Singapore.

I believed this is my dear friend’s favourite song as well – One People, One Nation, One Singapore.

What do you see?

C is for Crabs!

It is time to know your ABCs.

 

The letter of the day is C.

 

C is for Crab!

 

What is crab? Well, there are many types of them, I learnt from Sheng Siong Supermarket. They ranges from different prices.

 

 

Starting from the Cheapest, we have flower crabs. These are sea crabs and they cost pretty cheap at $2.50 per piece.

 

 

Usually, when I saw them in market or supermarket, they are dead. Amazingly, Sheng Siong sell alive ones… Hmm. Do be more careful with these crabs, apparently they can cause allergy more readily than normal crabs. Some poor quality one have ammonia taste too…

 

 

Hoho, next up Indonesia meat crab. They cost slightly more than the flower crab, at $3.50 per piece.

 

There they are. They have greenish gray shell. If I am not mistaken, they are mud crab and they do not live in the sea. I am not sure why they throw them in aquarium like the above.

 

 

Well, moving along the prices going further north too. Here we have Candian Jumbo King Crab. They cost a whopping $52.80 per KG. My god…

 

They looked the cousins of the flower crabs, but I reckon they should taste better. If not, how do they justify the price? Anyone tasted them before? Are they any nice?

 

Yes, we are now at the battle of heavy weights!  The Alaskan King Crab cost $148 per piece!!!

 

Remember Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch documentary? Well, they are fishing for these Alaskan King crabs at the Baltic sea. In my opinion, they looked like some creatures from outer-space…

 

While I seldom eat crabs (couldn’t bear to kill live animals for food), I do want to try these someday!

 

Da dah! You have reach the most expensive crab. The Australian King Crab cost a staggering $400 per piece!  Wow…

And the above photo shows the most expensive crab at Sheng Siong supermarket. It looked meaty. I supposed it tasted quite nice too. Anyone knows why it is so expensive?

It looked mean too on second look…

That’s all kids. Now you know your ABCs…