Faye Wong is 2008's Sexiest Vegetarian !

People voted Faye Wong as the sexiest vegetarian for the female category on PETA website! We couldn't get enough of her too ! :D

Chicken Rendang and Fried Cabbage

I received a call from my brother one afternoon.

Brother: "Hey, are you coming back to dinner?"

Me:"Ya, why? Is mum cooking?"

Brother snigger:"Got cook, but I am cooking instead. Quick place order, what do you want to eat today?"

Me laugh jokingly, pretending in horror:" Huh... You cooking? Erm... I think I am working late today..."

Brother stresses:"I am cooking. See you at home ! Bye~"

Me: Gulp~

I went home early that day at about 7 pm. He had only start to marinate the chicken and was only started cutting the cabbage... We waited till 9.30 pm before dinner is served. There were two dishes - Chicken Rendang (he likes curry stuff) and Fried Cabbage.

The rendang is still edible (LoL), ok wasn't as bad as I thought it will be. The potatoes were stewed till mushy and acted as thickener for the sauce. He used packet rendang sauce, so the taste is ok, not really wonderful. My mum thought that it was a bit too salty.

As for the fried cabbage, there is a story behind this dish. This dish was 'invented' by our late grandmother. We don't know how she come up with this combination of frying white cabbage with lunch meat! I saw her cooked the dish once and I thought it was quite a clever dish. She would first cut the lunch meat into small pieces and then fried it without any oil as the meat itself has a lot of fats. After the much of the fat had been forced out the meat, add the cabbage which was cut into thin strips. Mix the cabbage and ensure that it is evenly coated with the meat, add a little water to it and stewed.

I can never forget the taste. The sweetness of the cabbage would neutralised the saltiness of the lunch meat (in fact she would not add anymore condiments to the cabbage) and together created this very harmonious balanced taste. It was sadly one of the last dishes she cooked for us. Even though, we cooked the dish almost the same way as her, the taste was never quite the same. Her's always tasted way much better than ours...

It would taste better if left to stew longer. :) Btw, the dinner is not free. I have to pay for the ingredients...

中国的超级模仿王

吓死人了，这位中国的女孩竟然模仿了十四位男女歌手唱千里之外！！！ 实在好厉害！她名字叫嘉恋， 所模仿的都是超强歌手 - 孙燕姿,莫文蔚,SHE,李玟,王菲,李宇春,许 如芸,刘德华,张学友,蔡琴,王杰,张宇,宋祖英,张惠妹。

我觉得她是个会唱歌的人，所以可以很准确的抓到各个歌手们的特色，可惜学王菲逊色了点。改天有空，我也来模仿一首王菲的歌曲， 我对她的歌声也略有点研究， 可以切磋切磋。模仿要很小心，因为很容易以后唱歌没有了自己的特色。我很在意自己是否唱得很像原唱者，所以现在一直在寻找自己的特色。

Communicating with Men - Part One

Just for laughs, I spoke to someone, a man, on the phone today. I felt very strange that there are long silents pauses after my questions. I had expected him to answer straight, but he plaused very long. I almost thought the line was cut off. I mean this is not typical when talking to a woman. Later, I thought perhaps he thinks that we are talking into walkie talkie and I should say "over" before he would reply my questions.

Then it strike me. Men and women think and operate differently. To effective communicate with each other, there are some interesting points that women have to take note of. For example:

1: When men gave a suggestion, he is not really open to objections. He expects and will do whatever to get you to agree with him. You just have to follow his ideas.

Explaination: Men believed that they know the best. They believed... but we know it is otherwise...

2: Always act stupid. Or at least try to be convincing.

Explanation: Men get intimated easily when you appeared to be smart. (my friend's theory)

3: Need help? Appear weak and frail, not forgetting to feed their ego a bit to get them going

Explanation: Every men has a "hero" in them. They never hesitate to help the "weaker" sex. I have never fail to get my brother to change fish tank water using this method.

4: When pointing out mistakes, suggest subtlely.

Explanation: Tell him straight will hurt their ego. Smart women will make men think that they can resolve problems by themselves. (I have not master this yet.)

5: Speak slower and be precise.

Explanation: Men are like old computer running on window 95. They cannot process a lot of things fast.

6: When men talk, listen attentively.

Explanation: Apparently I was told, men feel very flattered that someone would give all their attention to them.

7: To get a good impression, laugh at their jokes (even though it is not funny)

Explanation: This apply to your boss too. I read it off a body language book that in courtship process women tend to laugh more at the jokes of the men they like most.

Porker in Boots

This is interesting story. Pig has no sweat glends, thus would they would roll themselves in mud to cool their body down. Guess what, there is a piglet in UK who has mud phobia ! Oh goodness, pigs also got complusive disorder too. So funny. Whoever thought pig is dirty, think again.

The farmer first noticed the piglet as it did not join the rest of the brood in exploring the surroundings. They had thought it wanted to be close to its mother, thus did not move far. However, the piglet appeared to be uneasy and even shaky (can you imagine, so funny!) standing alone at the rim of the muddy ground. Farmers finally suspected that the pig might have phobia against mud as it explore normally when place in grounds without mud.

To help the piglet to overcome the fear so that it can explore around, they tried to slip on small weillingtons boots for it as shoes. Amazingly, it began trottled on mud as soon as the boots were sliped on. The piglet was given an apt name too - Cinderella.

Because of its special behaviour, piglet will not be killed for meat. It will front a campaign to support the plight of pig farmers. This story kind of reminded me of the pig character (Wilbur) in Charlotte's web. I feel kind of bad to eat pork. In case you do not know, pigs are actually very smart animals. They ranked top 10 in animal kingdom for cleverness, thus I think it is somewhat hard for them to accept that they are reared to be eaten.

See picture of the pig in the news here. (It's cute!)

( Warning: Don't read on if you still intend to eat meat.)

In fact, I read another heartaching story in newspaper about how a cow escaped from slaugter house in China. Cow panicked when saw companion being slaugtered around him (who would not...). In bid to escape, cow struggled free and dashes out of the slaughter house. The survival instinct was so strong that it even jumped over one metre height wall to break free. However, it was not meant to be, cow was recaptured soon. To prevent it from running free, the butcher cut its' tendon on the spot while the cow was still alive and kicking.

I saw in the picture that the road was red with blood spilling out from the cuts. The cow cannot even stand and hooves were hanging loosely from the body... The picture showed three to four people hauling the half dead cow up a lorry.

I feel very sad for the cow that it had tried to escaped, but yet people cannot let it off to roam free. It is the few minutes of freedom it gained, but still comes to a pathetic ending (I think it has a worse ending in this case) that greatly saddens me. How unforgiving and cruel human is to the cow and what has it done to deserve all this. The sense of helplessness must have been through its mind and how frightening it must have felt.

Luckily I do not eat beef, I can say that I do not owe this cow a life. However, I am guilty of eating other meats as well. I feel for them after reading the story above. Pigs, Chickens, Ducks and very little lambs must have felt horrible in the slaugter house...

Give me some time, I will try to be a full time vegetarian. I pray and hope that God bless all animals whose lives are sacrified in order to support us.

豁达论III

教诲一句没听进
忠言反当小人心
虚情假意为平息
其实背后暗批评

好意相劝求宁静
人前笑意愿听取
身转脸变歹意存
冷言寒语再闹嬉

不服早前求相对
硬得比她略一筹
人身攻击当玩笑
谁知儿戏千里传

初见玩笑不可解
众所皆知面无回
京城听闻直怪罪
命察秋毫祸首推

告知玩笑已闹大
面白心跳互告发
虽然把祸一人当
名誉着地无挽回

老爷后知拍案骂
怎会丑事又一庄
不过才刚检讨过
转眼祸事闹更大

劝其一人分寸守
竟然无理顶状回
觉得自己错没有
全是他人害相随

旁人都知他愚蠢
怎让别人头上爬
矮瓜前后随人称
骂不还口狼狈奸

最毒模数蜘蛛精
竟想乱世再添翼
装笨问解词中意
其想故意揭谜底

虽知玩笑或指吾
可总不能自认定
说穿不过讨没趣
感叹社会却如此

友人劝说别在意
豁达忍过天必晴
坏人自有天收拾
刚才不就是实例

日过几天形又露
当时教训已不见
完全没有改过心
无所事事更得意

人要既往不咎要多少次。。。

怎么样唱歌才会好听?

让我来介绍以上的这位歌手－Sayuri Ishikawa。她是日本数一数二的演歌天后。我是在一次偶然的机会听到她的歌曲“天成越”而对她的歌声印象深刻。记得有一年，　电视台播了日本一年一度的红白大赛，　刚好听到她唱了这首歌。我记得在歌曲的段落，她狠狠地瞪了荧幕一眼，那种从眼睛散发出的情感和锐气，让我非常惊讶震撼。她放了很多感情在表达歌曲的内容。我当时觉得要把一首歌曲唱好，就得用心，投入，放感情去唱。专业歌手唱歌和普通人唱Karaoke的分别在于放感情. 专业歌手在诠释歌曲时,除了有熟炼的技巧,还比普通人多了一份感情.

其实不止她，连已故的邓丽君唱歌的时候也是那样投入，而且感情运用收放自如。我为什么会懂？我爱唱歌，所以常常研究别人是怎么唱的。我听老歌并非因为老气，而是在听老一代的歌手怎么运用技巧唱歌。我觉得要学唱歌就必须从基本学起，而老歌手的技巧都是唱歌的基本功。现代歌手虽然都不那么唱歌了，可是基本功和技巧还是在那里。(Actually, a lot of them don't know how to sing...)

演歌: 石川小百合- 天成越

怪不得演歌叫演歌。。。因为真的要放很多感情在歌曲里面 !

演歌: 石川小百合- ウィスキーが、お好きでしょ

(Translated to : Whiskey, Your Favourite...)

If only I can sing live like that...

Labels & Love (And the City)

Get carried away... Whoever that comes up with the slogan should be rewarded! I managed to catch the movie yesterday and thought perhaps we were too carried away. The content were hardly subtantial and I don't understand what is the hype about.

I have never watch the series before, but know that the famed HBO series had nude and sex scene in it. The show popularised Comopolitan cocktail drink, famous Manolo Blahnik high heel shoes and branded bags.

While the series main focus is on the 4 main characters's sexual desires and fantasies, the movie is milder as it focuses on love and labels, as in finding love and the perfect branded bag and heels. The whole show feel like one overage "girls" slumber party !

I really wonder what happened to their families members. Their world seems to be only revolved around their friends. The characters are somewhat overly superficial and that they fall over heels on brands and labels.

I mean some of the plots just does not make sense and seem unrealistic at times. I have to admit that it is an entertaining show as part of it are quite funny. However, it is quite boring as there isn't much content. If you have not watch it, I suggest you watch it on weekday. It is not worth $10.50.

Don't get too carried away.