Air Supply

I dun have much money to attend concert until i started to work for a couple of years. Anyway, watching concerts has not been my priority. I find that concert is very noisy, crowded and of course the ticket's price is always very expensive.

I attended Air Supply Concert once a few years ago at Suntec. I dun recall but I am pretty sure that Air Supply was not my first concert.

It was an enjoyable and relaxing evening to watch them performing live on the stage. Beautiful songs and perfect voices. Not very noisy though crowded but the ticket was expensive. I realize that their songs appeal to both the young as well as the more senior audience. The songs also touch those in love, waiting to be in love and those who are not in love. It's kind of bring out your memory of the past, present and some imagination for the future. U just dun feel tired of listening to the songs. Strange and amazing, right ? No wonder they have so many fans around the world.

On Friday, 19 June 2009, they will be performing again in Singapore at the Expo. Tickets are already on sales at Sistic.



If you have not watched their performance before but like listening to their songs, i highly recommend that you should try to watch it while they can still perform and to "supply air" on stage. Ticket is expensive as usual but make it as one of the activities to do while u can.

Upcoming exciting fairs

There are two exciting upcoming fairs :

(1) Singapore Books Fair 2009
Venue: Suntec
Date: 29 May - 7 June 2009
Time: 11am to 10pm

(2) PC Show 2009
Venue: Suntec
Date: 11 June - 14 June 2009
Time: Noon to 9pm

I definitely enjoy attending both and will be spending much time to explore at the fairs. Will bring my daughter to the books fairs and not the PC Show as the latter is usually be very crowded. I will end up carrying her throughout the visit and that's pretty tiring.

I'm sure i am going to buy some books for myself and for my daughter. Would like to explore netbook and digital photo frame in the PC Show. I think the digital photo frame is not getting much attention at the moment though it can be a useful tool at home / in office. It was an expensive gadget then.

Besides using the digital photo frame to display running photo in a slide show format with mp3 music, it can also be used to view video clips, acting as an alarm clock, a calendar, to show contact listing, etc. As for office usage, it can be considered placing it at the reception area to present information on your services, upcoming events, help lines etc. The screen size ranges from 8" to 15", costing from $99 to $300+ The price is becoming more competitive and affordable.

The netbook is to replace my daughter's portable DVD player. The battery unit is not working quite well now. I may have to replace it soon but not immediately. Should I buy now or wait for a little longer till the next fair or next year.......I want it or I need it ? another struggling and learning process. Ha...

Simple and light in taste dish

I always enjoy eating simple and light in taste dishes. Not easy to find such dishes if eating out. The best option is to prepare these dishes at home. Luckily, i do enjoy prepare dishes at home at times and one of the dishes is cheese salad.

Ingredients:
- a single or 1.5 slice of cheese (non salted or light salted)
- one carrot
- one to two potatoes
- one small portion of broccoli

Skin all the carrot and potatoes. Then cut all the vegetables into cute size as shown in the photo below:



Soften the carrot and potatoes by boiling it separately and place it on a plate. Boil the broccoli for less than a minute and place it on the same plate. Heat up a frying pan without using any cooking oil. Add the boiled carrot, potatoes and broccoli into the frying pan and stir. When the pan is getting hotter, quickly add the slice of cheese into the pan and stop stirring. Off the fire when the cheese begins to melt. Stir fried it again briefly and put it into a serving plate. A simple and yet nutritional dish is done.

If u prefer it to be more crunchy, u may wish to mix some of your favourite corn flake with the vegetables. U can also add variety such as raisin, slice of tomatoes, apricot, slice of apple, strawberry etc to make it not only colourful but also improves its nutritional value. No bacon chips,please.

I used to eat the same boiled vegetables without any addressing but find it quite dry. Instead of using mayonnaise or thousand islands sauce as addressing, I try to melt non-salted cheese and mix it with the vegetables. It blended pretty well with good and creamy taste. :-)

Mapping your walking and running online free of charge

If you enjoy jogging / walking, you may wish to learn more about this website that will allow individuals to map the jogging /walking route online free of charge.

Personally, I face a problem of knowing the actual walking / jogging distance that i have covered. Unless i own a proper equipment, i can only estimate based on some prior knowledge. The website helps to address the problem for me.

On the website, you can zoom in and out of the map to locate areas of your interest. Once located, you can start to map the route by indicating a starting and ending point. The website will calculate the distance between these two points in kilomaters for you. In addition, the system will also share with you how much energy u may use (in calories) based on your weight to complete the run/walk. You can then save and print the route plotted for future reference. It also provides online training log service to help you to keep track of your exercise activities. Pretty cool and simple to use at no cost at all. :-)

The website is at http://www.mapometer.com/
Hope u will find the website useful. Have a Happy walking / jogging, everyday

Site recce

Doing projects will usually need to do a site recce of the event ground. The extra knowledge from the site recce would be useful in helping us to better plan for the event as well as giving us some prior information of possible challenges that we may face on the day of the event.

I had an enjoyable site recce recently by physically walking through a suggested brisk walking route somewhere near the National Stadium. Though I was working then, the walk provided me an opportunity to exercise along the way. I also discovered that the authority had built a new road linking the Tanjong Rhu area to the Stadium road area. It was, indeed, a peaceful happy walk.

It's not so healthy to be in office working whole day. It's more productive to have some time to exercise during the day to refresh, recharge and reflect. It's all about work life balance.

休息一下也是为了可以走长一点的路。不是吗？

Colourful

My daughter enjoys colouring a lot. I guess all kids like it because they can "paint" freely on a piece of paper with their favourite cartoons. :-) The keyword is freedom.

I also enjoy watching my daughter doing the colouring. She will sing song while she is colouring. She will also "invite" me to colour it with her. When done, u can see her bright smiling face and happily showing her work around.

Out of the many colourings that she had done, the following is one that i like most,



Do u find it colourful ? It is indeed very colourful. I was totally amazed of her work. Firstly, she has learned to colour much better ie within the drawing. Secondly,she added much life to the black and white drawing not only with different colour but also mixed and balance the colour pretty well.

Based on the colouring, her mummy shared that she is living happily in a colourful world. Of course, we will want her to continue to live happily not only in a colourful world but also one that is full of love, warmth and leading a simple lifestyle with enough food, money, work and rest.

Most importantly, buy me a 1-week tour package every 6 months. Ha..... ;->

HK Drama

Do u watch Hong Kong drama ? I do occasionally. I dun have much patient to follow one episode by episode. I prefer watching the first few 1 - 3 episodes and then jump to the last 2 episodes to "complete" show. I feel that watching those happenings in-between can be quite a waste of time.

There are some exceptions : the drama has a very interesting and engaging story line or when some of my few preferred actors/actresses playing a key role in the show. One of the actors is Bowie Lam (林保怡）. I enjoy watching his acting especially as a police investigation officer or as a doctor in the War and Beauty (金枝慾孽）.

In the one of his most recent drama, the gem of life (珠光宝气）, he acted as a rich, smart businessman who built his empire from scratch. He spent lavishly and behaved pretty arrogantly. I dun quite enjoy the show because the story line is not very outstanding and it is a 82-episode drama ! I skipped quite a number of chapters. However, he had a few dialogues (translated briefly as below) that I can relate and do agree with it. Meaningfully as follows:


"When one's poor and hungry, u have no choice but to go all out to survive. Hence, I will never let my stomach goes full though I am already pretty rich now so that I am always out to compete and win. It is not that I want this world to have the rich and poor. The truth is that the world already existed with rich and poor. When u are poor, u can only use whatever assets u have to earn a living and once u become rich, u can then use your real capability to make even more money."

"In this world, there is such a thing called u dun have a choice"

"It is very tiring and painful to continue hating and being angry with someone whom u really love. I have been living in this way for so long that I dun even know who I am now. I started to hate myself, hated myself so much…...and feeling lost"

Profound.....

0550

Numbers for 4D ? Nope
That's the timing that I usually set on my handphone, 5.50am from Monday to Friday. Why set at 5.50am ?

• To go toilet ? Nope, do u set alarm for that ?
• To make milk for my daughter ? Nope. My daughter will go by her own timing,not mine.
• To go wet marketing ? Nope, only at times but just too early to go to a wet market at 5.50am. Most stalls are still packing and preparing for business. Messy
• To surf internet ? Nope, quite unusual.
• To watch tv programmes ? Nope, very unusual except maybe for some matches during the Football World Cup season.
• To prepare breakfast ? Possible but just a bit early and very tiring to do it everyday at 5.50am
• To read ? Nope. At times i do wake up a bit early naturally and decided to do some reading especially when i am fully awake.
• To distribute newspaper as second income ? 5.50am is too late to do so le.

If u are smart, U may have guessed correctly, I wake up to exercise at nearby neighborhood park and park connector. I will do brisk walking or slow jogging.

The challenge is always at the moment when the alarm "sings", struggling whether i should wake up for the workout or continue to sleep a little longer. The most sian part of it is when it starts to rain when i am about to go for the sweating.

The most important thing is not to disturb my daughter's sleep, else she will pester me and wanting to follow me. So I will set silent/vibrating alarm at 5.50am. The good thing about it is that i may miss the alarm at times, conveniently. Ha......

Teochew dishes

I had my first typical Teochew cuisine when I was invited to my brother's wedding dinner food tasting session many years ago. It was a good dining experience and got to know a few Teochew dishes. Since then, I have patronized the same restaurant many times for the nice Teochew cookings.

Coincidentally, I ran into another Teochew restaurant located in Bedok North HDB heartland named Chin Lee Restaurant (深利美食馆）not too long ago. There are a few signature dishes to order whenever i eat in a Teochew restaurant:

- Steamed Pomfret in Teochew Style (must be 斗鲳 and not 白鲳 ）
- Freezed pork skin
- Yam Paste with Gingko Nuts & Pumpkin as dessert
- Briased goose
- Sea Cucumber with Fish Maw soup
- Stired fried Sambal crayfish

Besides ordering the steamed pomfret and yam paste, we tried 2 more common dishes so that my daughter could have something to eat for dinner.

Chin Lee Restaurant is definitely well decor. The staff provides a very attentive and pleasant service to all customers, similing at all times and responsive to request. :-) Food is served pretty fast and it is tasty, not so salty in general. The pomfret is very fresh and yam paste sweetness is just nice for me. We also ordered soup of the day and i enjoyed the winter melon soup much - simple and light in taste. :-)



At the end of the dinner, they served us with some denser Oonlong chinese tea so that we wun feel so oily. I will patronize the restaurant again to try the other dishes. Chin Lee Restaurant is located at Blk 115, #01-285, Bedok North Road (opposite the Fengshan Food Centre). Tel: 64445554. They serve both lunch and dinner 7 days a week.



My grading (♥♥♥♥♥ means excellent):

- Location ♥♥♥♥ (pretty convenient if u drive with shelter parking lots)
- Food ♥♥♥ to ♥♥♥♥
- Service ♥♥♥♥♥
- Price ♥♥♥
- Dining experience ♥♥♥♥

Learning to write, draw and colouring

Ever since my daughter started learning to write, draw and colouring, she has been fascinated by what she can do with all the possible pencils, pens and colouring materials we have made available to her. She will request paper to write and draw. Then she will share with us what she has done with some simple story and characters. Though the drawing may not be very nice, we are amazed by her imagination and story line at times.

To make it more engaging, we may "develop" or "expand" the story or drawing with her by colouring on what she had drawn or adding some of our own drawing to it. It is interesting to observe the way she behaves and thinks in the process. ;-)

Btw, u may want to consider buying mess free colouring booklet from Crayola (http://www.crayola.com/). The colour only appear when u apply it on the special paper provided. You can buy it from the Times Bookstore with prices ranging from S$12 to S$18.

Enclosed is one of the many "arts" that was done by my daughter. She is learning to write numbers in English and Chinese now. I find it quite well written. She shared with me that the centre is also teaching her how to write her own name.




My expectation of her ? Nope, just let her has the "space" and time to explore and learn (ie freedom and flexibility). I just want her to realize learning is always a fun experience and journey. It should be and must be - lifelong learning.

Favourite authors

I enjoy reading books written by Cailan (蔡澜) and Yi Zhongtian （易中天）. Cailan born in Singapore, studied in Japan and staying in Hong Kong. Yi Zhongtian born, studied and staying in China. He is a Professor with Xia Meng University.

Both authors publish pretty number of titles and they write on different topics. Cailan focus his writings on food, travel, novel, lifestyle, columnist etc while Yi Zhongtian focus his writings on China history, historical figures, society, arts etc.

Some of the books written by Cailan : 蔡澜谈日本，蔡澜谈电影，蔡澜的生活方式，蔡澜食典, 好色男女，老澜游记 etc
Some of the books written by Yi Zhongtian: 品三国，品人录，闲话中国人，中国的男人和女人 etc

There are a few reasons why I enjoy readings their books:
- Both adopt a pretty direct and simple writing style. I can easily understand what they are writing about.
- Both know how to engage or “tease” the reader with quality content.
- Besides reading leisurely, they allow me to be more knowledgeable about the subjects
- I feel good after reading their books
- Both encourages me to think more about the subject. They provide me with “space” to explore and learn.

Yi Zhongtian‘s writing tends to be more heavy (and dry at times) in content due to the nature of the subject. However, the author has definitely done an excellent job of cooking up a very interesting and enriching read. Foong Pheng advises me not to read so many books written by Cailan in case he “poison” my thinking/outlook on relationship, gender, lifestyle etc.

Ha…

Gifts

Received some gifts from Vietnam

(1) A handcrafted chop



(2) Hand made card



Thank you

拿得起怎会放不下

Bought a colourful chinese book recently from the Commercial Press Book Store because of the meaningful picture shown above. Of course, we are not talking about weight lifting as a sport here.

It is pretty common to advise someone to learn to put "things" down ie to let go instead of holding on to it when the situation no longer allows it and to be troubled by doing so. Of course, it is easy to say than done in reality. One of the reasons is that we all have the tendency wanting to possess it and dun like to disown it.

In fact, you may need more energy to lift "things" up than putting it down. If u cannot withstand anymore, why continue holding it ? Simple wisdom travels a thousand mile and bring a warm /peaceful smile out of you.

The author is 阿虫. Title of the book is 平常话说平常心.
There are many more wisdom written and drawn in the book. A nice book and a good buy

For more information about his work, u can visit the website at http://www.artware.com.hk/

My book shelves

My book shelves at home.



4 in total. Going to add 2 more as there are still many books and DvDs/VCDs on the floor. Quite messy at the moment though I have been cleaning up the reading room regularly. I can spend hours here and my daughter also enjoyed "playing" with the books or helping me to tidy up at times. Will be integrating my daughter's book shelf here as well. Presently, her book shelf is placed in the living room.

Hope that the additional book shelves will make the reading room more tidy and cleaner, ie a cosy place to enjoy reading better. :-)

"Flying" a paper plane

Happen to capture my daughter playing happily with a paper plane. The plane was folded in the nursery as part of the programme during the day. She has learned to "fly" it pretty well. I have been sharing with her how to “fly” a paper plane but she din seem to get it then. Hence, I was delighted to watch her playing with it now. :-)

At times, she learns faster in the nursery than at home. Maybe due to peer pressure in the centre or maybe i just do not know how to guide her correctly along the way.

She was definitely contented, ha.... When I was recording the clip, it strike me that enjoying life can as simple as just "flying" a paper plane, don't u agree ?

Why smoke ?

The harmfulness of smoking is known to many yet there are still many smokers. I think it is a personal decision. You maybe "forced" or "seduced" to smoke but ultimately, it is still a personal choice. I dun like the 2nd hand smoke and will try my very hard to excuse myself whenever possible.

However, i cannot understand why there is always a handful of smokers who like to conveniently continue smoking in a lift. They can choose to finish smoking before taking a lift or lit up a cigarette after the lift ride. It does not take more than a minute to ride in a lift. Can all smokers stop smoking when using a lift ?

The 2nd hand smoke and its smell is going to stay in the lift for awhile and people would be "forced" to breath in these harmful materials in the lift. Not to forget that the lovely children are also using the lift, day-in, day-out.

While the smokers may think that they have the right to "enjoy" smoking, all of the non-smokers also have the right to "enjoy" a clean and healthy air especially at common or public plsces such as in a lift.

Though there is a penalty to smoke in a lift when caught, it is just not effective. The TV camera in the lift dun seem to help too. Also not clear who has accessed to these recording ?

It is definitely a selfish and irresponsible act to smoke in a lift.
Basically, the smokers just dun care about it. Damn it.

It's really irritate me a lot.

Where is my staff pass ?

I lost my staff pass recently. Though I think that I may have misplaced it elsewhere, I still tried to ask my daughter for it.

My daughter likes to play with my wallet and coin pouch. She will empty my wallet / coin pouch and place all the cards, money notes and coins everywhere in the dining area ie on the sofa, behind a photo frame, on top of a tv, slot into the gap between two surfaces etc. I am not sure of what she is doing but I am sure she is having a good time. Anyway, it will usually end up me clearing up the “mess” and to look high and low for the cards or money notes.

“Girl girl, did u see daddy’s staff card”
“Yes…” she replied happily
“Where is it ? Can u give it to daddy ?”
“Can. Do u love me ?”
“Yes, I do”
“Daddy, card”
“emm….staff card, not name card. With daddy’s photo”
“Not this one ? Photo” she gave me a blur look
“Did u take daddy’s staff card”
“Yes”
“Can u return it to daddy, please”
”Ok”
“Na, daddy”
“Nope, this is a library card” I was a bit angry but din shout at her
“Did u see or take daddy’s card ?”
“No, dun have”
“Sure ?”
“Sure” she smiled at me

I continue the search elsewhere. Eventually, I found it. Underneath the car matt where I sit to drive in and out almost everyday.

I’m happy to find back the pass.
I feel relieve that I din scold my daughter over the matter. I just believe what my daughter said. She din lie to me. :)

My daughter is not feeling well today

She has running nose yesterday but no fever. Given her some medicine and then sent her to the nursery. Her condition din improve and decided to bring her to see a doctor this morning.

Wah, must take temperature before registration at the clinic. Pretty crowded. Anyway, it was quite fast today though we had queue number 14. Doc shared that she has no infection and that's why she has no fever. As usual, her sensitive nose caused the problem. Lung is clear. No chocolate, No cold drinks and pretty of rest. Ok to sleep in aircon room but maintain it around 24 - 25 Degree Celsius.

Happy that she is doing fine with no major illness. :-) Taking care of her at home with one day child sick leave. Will be cooking liver/pork soup with mee sua as lunch and vegetable porridge as dinner for her. Sweet green bean soup for the afternoon snack after her nap and apple for dinner. Will do some laundry and office work as and when i have some free time.

Will also be bringing her to the Popular to shop shop before fetching her mum from work.
As busy as in office but for a good cause though I am more tiring :-)

U know what, she is reading this blog while i am typing. She can recognize many words now and at times, caught you in surprise when she suddenly read out the words u typed loudly.

Ha....

LCCT at KL

The Low Cost Carriers Terminal (LCCT) at KL seems to be brighter as compare to 5 months ago when i was there recently. Then I recalled that it was under some renovation then and the "new" terminal is definitely much better and comfortable.



The terminal serves the AirAsia flights in and out of KL. Basically, it has two main areas, namely the domestic and international flights. The domestic flight area has more people and more outlets as compare to the international area. U can find KFC, Mcdonald, Old Town White Coffee, Marrybrown, Coffee Bean, Food Garden food court, Taste of Asia and convenient shops at the terminal. I tried the chicken rice at the Taste of Asia outlet. Not so nice and quite expensive. About S$4.50 per serving.




After check-in at the International Flight counter, the waiting area is also very comfortable , clean and bright. U can do a bit of shopping here: Duty Free Shop, Convenient shop, a cafe and a bookstore. But no TV programmes available. I suggest that you have some food before u check-in as there are more choices outside than at the waiting area.


From the LCCT, visitors can travel to the KL's city area by the public coach to the KL Sentral Station. It takes about 60 minutes to reach KL Sentral Station. It costs MYR$9 per way per person. From KL Sentral, u can then travel to the city area (ie, Bukit Bintang, KLCC, Chinatown etc) by walking to a nearby mono-rail station (not shelter, hopefully it is sheltered in the near future). Pretty convenient though can still be improved.

Of course, i prefer to the "new" LCCT because it is more user-friendly and more services. Foong Pheng observed that there dun seem to have any more Tiger Airways at the LCCT. Maybe the Tiger Airways has moved its operations to the KL International Airport (KLIA). Food for thought - "Things do change to survive. Dun ask so many why and how. "

Mixed vegetable soup

So far, I am more interested to learn cooking chinese dishes. No particular reasons, just my preference. Brewing/cooking soup is something i am more likely to try and do regularly. Besides learning how to brew soup from cookbooks, I also pay attention to the ingredients used when i eat out. Mixed vegetable soup (i name it) is one of the soups that i learned from a eating place.

The ingredients are very simple as follows:
- Carrot (qty: 2 - 3 units)
- Potato (qty: 4 units)
- Sweet corn (qty: 2 units)
- Green radish (qty: 1 unit)
- Soy beans (qty: about 35g)



Wash and peel all ingredients and cut all into cube size except the soy bean.

Steps:
(1) Soak the soy beans for about 30 minutes.
(2) Boil a container of water and put in the soy beans first to brew for about 10 to 15 minutes
(3) Add sweet corn and green radish to the soup and continue to brew for another 15 minutes
(4) Then add the remaining potatos and carrots into the soup for another 25 to 30 minutes

Dun need to add any salt. The soup is tasty naturally. Btw, I dun like to use salt when i cook. I like dishs of lighter taste and prefer letting the ingredients to do the wonders. Of course, it is healthier to consume less salt.

I will also use the soup as stock to cook porridge for my daughter. i will then smash some carrot and potatos into the porridge + sweet corn before feeding her. She loves it a lot :-)

The soup is halal and suitable for vegetarian.
Try to brew it one of these days on your own. :-)