Why do Men have Nipples and preferred Blondes?

It is Saturday and bored... Fret not, Photosophize got just the things to wake you up. It is time to learn some knowledge (though a bit useless)! Ever wondered the following:

• Why do people yawn?
• And why when they yawn, we yawn too?
• Then how come Men ,who do not need to breastfeed babies, have nipples as well? Hint: There is no difference between male and female from start....
• Why do we drive on the left side of the road?
• I like apply blusher a lot, but seriously why do people blush?
• How come Men just couldn't get their eyes off blondes ladies? Hint: It is just instinct at work...

Read 20 little mysteries at:

• Top 10 Little Mysteries
• Ten More Little Mysteries

Childhood Reminiscence – Kallang Beach

Note: Photos have been "aged"

Not sure why, I was in reminiscence mood few months back. I thought a lot about my childhood. Well, I used to question whether I did have one. Haha… I missed the neighbourhood where I grow up in and things that we used to do when I was young. There have been a lot of developments in Singapore. A lot of things have changed. I decided to drop-by the neighbourhood to take some photos and thus visited the place during the weekends.

We used to stay at Beach Road when we were young. Near our place, there is the Kallang Beach. Kallang Beach is not a natural beach, but a man-made one. I always thought it was where the Kallang river ends, but not sure why it was called a sea , perhaps someone could advise me on the term.

I remembered that we always begged our father or uncle to bring us there during the weekends. Yes, I do know that Kallang Beach is “notorious” and my mum forbids us to go there during the lunar seventh month, but it is as good as we can get. Where to find a place where there is sun, sea and sand? In addition, the biggest lull was probably the few playgrounds in the park then.

Living near Kallang Beach has its plus points. There are always sea breeze throughout the day, thus always cooling. If the National Day happened to be held at the National Stadium, we have the best view in the city for fireworks. There is no need to squeeze with the crowds and break your head just to see the far away bfireworks and no need to break your head on how to get home after it. You are enjoying fireworks at the comfort of your home!

The "bridge" which will bring us to "Beach". Hmm.. It rhymes. Looking at it reminds me of the excitment that we always had crossing it.


Kallang Beach changed as well. First thing I noticed was the raising water level. It was supposed to be low tide, but the sea water was beaming up the shore. There wasn't much sandy area left. I remembered we used to dig for La La (a type of shellfish) to bring home to cook. I definately would not do that now, but 20 years ago the area was relatively clean. In any case, I have eaten them and still alive.

Also, I guessed they are doing some development work, thus a lot of areas are actually boarded up. The playgrounds are gone... The park was so remotely quiet that I felt rather uncomfortable walking there alone.

Ok, look at the picture, guess what is it? Those who think that it is a tiny coconut, please put up your hand! I always thought it was baby coconut too, until recently while watching a Taiwan documentary that I learnt that it was betal nut!!! Amazing right? Just to clarify, I might be mistaken, thus let me know if it is not betal nut.

I brought along a small shove then, hoping to catch some La La for photos, but the raising water level does not allowed me to do so. Nevertheless, I found some seashell which signifies that they are still around! Judging from the size, the La La looked big.

Crawling around the sand are Morning Glory vines. I happened to spot a flower bud. I guessed it will looked beautiful if bloomed.

Sam Tat Building. I am not sure what they really do in the building, but it was one of the old significant landmark at the Kallang Beach area. Before it, there was the famed old gas work installations at Kallang Beach. It was demolished several decades ago. As seen in the photo, the exterior signs were all wore out. The Chinese character which supposed to reflect "三达大厦", the sign now reflect "二达大厦" and English sign Sam Tat Building now refected "Am Tat Bui Ding". Haha.

Anyone knows the name of this bridge? I supposed this bridge was quite ancient too, but there was no inscription of the name. Hmm...The design looked very similar to those bridges in Clark Quay area.

The pillar design looked like it was built during the colonial times.

I wondered whether lion and palm tree craving had any significant.

One of the larger canal which flows toward Kallang Beach. There are actually people fishing along the banks. Can the fish be eaten in the first place?

Time really flies...

Singapore Curry Chicken (Recipe with Pictures)

Want to learn how to cook authentic Singapore Curry Chicken? Read on!

I supposed curry originated from India. Singapore as people know is a multi-racial country where there are diversity in cultures and religions. People of the four majority races, Indians, Malays, Chinese and Eurasians live harmoniously in the small island country. There is strictly no one type of Singapore cuisine, but local Chinese, Malay, Indians and Eurasians influenced each other heavily in their cuisine.

Singapore curry chicken is one of such dishes invented by local Chinese. They use the Indian curry spices and pastes as base and added some “South-east asia” touch to it. One of the characteristic of the Singapore Curry Chicken would be the use of lemongrass, pandan leaves and coconut milk. From what I understand, some Indian curries do not used coconut milk. Lemongrass and pandan leaves are typical South-East Asia herbs which are not used at all in authentic Indian curries.

Curry chicken is one of my mum's best dishes. Her version always a tad spicier and more “lemak” (Malay word for thick and creamy) than other people’s curry chicken and always tasted very delicious. I reviewed her version. She prepared and grinded her own chili, followed by frying them herself. The frying process takes hours which involved constant stirring. I guess modern housewife or people like you and I might not want to spend so much effort to it, thus I thus simplified the whole recipe and added my own touch (to quantify that this version is different from her's).

However, there is still one “complicated” thing needed do in my version which is to get the proper curry paste.

We always buy our curry paste from North Bridge Rd market.

Inside the market, there was stall owned by this Indian lady who sells curry paste.

Basically, you tell the aunty you wanted chicken curry, vege curry or mutton curry etc and the portion of meat i.e. one chicken for example and she would advise you according how much you need.

Because she blended the paste on the spot, she can made adjustment. I usually tell her that I want mine spicier.



What so special about her paste? Her chili was grinded using a machine-operated stone-grind! You can just imagine that all the chili seeds will be crushed to non-existence and all the essential oils will be released into the paste.

Main Ingredients:
Chicken (I used one whole chicken for a big family)

To be cut into chunksEggplant – 1
Onions – 2
Carrots – 2
Russell Potatoes – 3
Long Beans – 10 to 15 pieces

Curry Paste Ingredients:

Curry Chicken Paste - $1

If this is not available (headache), I suppose you can get fresh curry paste from supermarket too. They are usually placed at the fridge near noodles section.

Coconut milk/cream - one packet or one canned.

To be pounded/blended

Chili (optional if you want it spicier) – 2 large one or 5 small bird eye chili
Shallots – 6 pieces
Ginger – 2 to 3 cm knob
Garlic – 1 head

Additional herbs:

Lemongrass – 1 piece (smashed)
Pandan Leaves – 3 leaves tied into a knot

Condiment:

Salt and Sugar to taste

You will also need:

Wok and Soup Pot

Preparation:

Egg plants cut up in large chunks. Do soak them into salt water, otherwise they will oxidized and turned brown. They are to be added lastly.

Onions, Russell potatoes and Carrots cut in chunks.

Chicken cut into chunks as well. I find the meat will "disappear" if cut into too small a chunk.

Long Beans cut up into long snips. They cooked easily thus are to be added lastly.

Method:

In a heated wok, add two - three tablespoons of oil. In high heat, add in the smashed lemon grass which is cut up in two pieces and fry till you can smell the fragance. Then add in the curry paste mixture and fry till you can see red colour oil floating on top of the paste. Stir constantly at this stage as they sticked to the bottom of the pan easily. This will take about 4 to 5 minutes of frying.

Then, add in the chicken pieces. Stir them around till they are coated evenly with the paste.

In a seperated pot, heat up 1/3 pot of water. When boiled, add in the root vegetables.

I got two stoves at home, thus can do them concurrently, otherwise fry the curry paste and chicken first. When chicken pieces are evenly coated and half-cooked, remove them from heat and boiled the water in the soup seperately.

See above. While continuing to maintain high heat, ensured that the chicken are coated evenly with the paste and they are not yet cooked. This process will brown the meat slightly so that they will have a better favour.

Mixed in the half-cook chicken into the pot of boiling root vegetables "soup". Add in the pandan leaves knot as well. Turn into medium low heat and let it simmer for at least 45 minutes to one hour. This allows the curry flavour to permeate into the chicken meat and also allowed the potatoes to "melt" into the sauce.

After one hour is up, add in long beans and egg plants. Let it boil for few minutes, then pour in the coconut milk. Bring it up to a boil and switch off the heat. You do not want to boil the coconut milk mixture for too long as it will start to cuddle.

A pot of delicious Singapore Curry Chicken is served! It goes well with rice or lightly toasted baguette!

For health-conscientious individual, you can substitute the coconut milk with fresh milk or use half -half of the coconut milk and fresh milk mixture.

Check out other recipes here - My Kitchen

Two Rainbows in the Singapore Sky (It Happened Before!)

I heard on radio this morning about amazing sight of two rainbows appearing in the sky at the same time. Some officials from Science Center explained that the phenomenon was due sun rays passing through two blocks of moist air in the atmosphere, thus creating mirroring effect. Actually, it happened before in Singapore and I managed to take photos of it!

As stated in Wiki, it is quite rare for a secondary rainbow to occur. When it does, the second rainbow is usually fainter, which usually locate outside the primary one. Because it is a reflection of the primary one, the colours are usually in opposite order of the primary rainbow i.e. violet on the outside and red on the inside!

Click here to read my earlier post about two rainbows appearing in the sky – I considered it an auspicious sign !

Ps: There are quite a few photos of it !

Top 10 Useless Body Parts

Wow, I never know our body got spare parts that are useless. In my opinion, they should add excessive fats as one of the useless body parts! Ask anyone especially the girls, they will tell you that they are not needed at all... Hahah.

Note: I said excessive fats, not fats.

Read MSN encarta's article - Top 10 Useless Body Parts .

25 Things about Photosophize

There is this "25 things about yourself" craze in Facebook. One of my friend tagged me in one of her's and I thought she is pretty honest. I tried to draft my own, but stopped as I am concerned of revealing too much privacy for my comfort.

However, I thought it will be "fun" to reveal some things about Photosophize so that readers will have a better idea . So, below is 25 things about Photosophize.

1. “Photosophize” sounded masculine, but I am actually a lady not a guy.
2. I made up the word - “Photosophize” which supposedly meant philosophizing photos. I believed there is a story behind every photo.
3. Majority of the photos that are published earlier are taken using Nokia N73 camera phone. However, my phone is a bit cranky now, thus I am using Panasonic FX10 camera.
4. Am saving up for Nokia N79, but if any camera phone company happened to read this and decided to sponsor me, I welcome all. I will make sure all people know that I am using your product.
5. I would describe myself as curious and creative and love anything related to design and music.
6. I wanted to be a musician when I was young. I thought I can write pretty good lyrics.
7. Dislike arrogant and selfish people. Especially those who judged and looked down on people.
8. My voice is the most beautiful thing that God or whoever had bestowed me.
9. I love to sing and I know I can sing, but I have never won any singing competition before. Hmm… Maybe voice is not the sole criteria.
10. My idols are Faye Wong, Teresa Teng and Madonna.
11. I am rather interested in making short film. I hope to produce my own short film in time to come.
12. Though I love to eat, I cannot eat beef due to religious reason.
13. Also due to religious reasons, I vowed off eating frogs, crabs and prawns etc live living thing. I am not very strict with prawns though as long as I am not cooking them myself.
14. Because of #10, I hope I could be vegetarian one day.
15. Lousy food spoilt my mood and day because we can only eat so much per day, why waste it on lousy food?
16. I used to go library every weekend to read in order to improve my written English.
17. I am terrified of dogs. Would avoid them at all cost.
18. If I was a fruit, I would be durian. Those who can stand me will love me a lot, those who cannot take it, will loathe me.
19. I often offend people without knowing and I can be bossy at times.
20. I started blogging because I got too much spare time.
21. I hate liers and to be taken as a fool sometimes. I might not say doesn’t meant that I don’t know and I don’t mind.
22. As much as people are more educated nowadays, there are still people who looked rudely at fat people especially fat girls. It is very rude to do that, I always make sure they know that.
23. I know streets of KL like the back of my hand, but I never know how to navigate my way in Orchard.
24. My brothers are my most important food critics. They are just impossible to please.
25. I do hope I will be able to find someone who will accept me for who I am. I want to bake him a jar of cookies to bring to work, so that he can have one and thinking of me. :)

If you happened to read this, start sharing 25 things about yourself too. Perhaps we can hyperlink each other's article.

What would you win an Oscar for?

Wow, I would win the Best Actor/Actress award!

You are confident and talented. (I also have low self-esteem and panic attacks at times as well.. sound like an artist hor...) When it's time for you to shine, you step up. You have a strong personality. You love attention, and you can command an audience of any size. You tend to be a bit obsessive. You're the perfect person to immerse yourself in a big role. You're both empathetic and expressive. You understand and communicate well.

Ps: I always know I could act... I was borned on the same day as Maggie Cheung and Sophia Loren... It is in our genes. ;)

Take the personality test here.

U.R.I - Upper Respiratory Tract Infection...

I guess the hot and dry weather finally caught up with me. I had upper respiratory tract infection again. Half-way relating the symptoms to the doctor and he immediately said it is the similar as the other time and began to scribble away. Yes, not sure why, but I am always very prone to respiratory and throat infection. This time round, the doctor gave me 2 days MC, so that I do not go around and spread my germs.

It started with the common flu and dry throat. Was sneezing the whole day at work the day before. The doctor prescript anti-biotics, flu tablets, medicine for infection. I felt rather amused looking at the amount of medication I have to take. If I could, I rather drink pi pa gao and wait for it to heal. I actually never like to see doctor because I am one of those few people who do not know how to swallow pills. Sometimes, I need to drink about 500 ml just to swallow the tiny flu tablets. Hai~ I wonder how am I going to finish off the cute pink and white coloured anti-botics course.

Then today, despite drinking a lot of water, the dryness got worse and I am trying very hard to suppress coughing, but I guess it could not be contained much longer. Just took some of my brother’s cough syrup (it tasted like it though it was not stated what it was) and I counting down to knock out time.

Pardon me, if I am not making sense. I am not supposed to operate any machinery now, let alone writing coherent article... ...

*Cough, cough... Yawning… Think cough syrup is taking effect now. Good night…