Transform Life

Yoga class @ Bodhi Yoga, Taipei

2011-11-21T22:42:00.001+08:00

Our itinerary in Taipei was very packed, I'm glad that I had a chance to attend at least 1 class in the week. Before the trip, I searched for yoga studios in Taipei, most of the studios provide classes in the morning starting 8+ and in the evenings. Bodhi Yoga is the only place that provides the first class as early as 7:15am, perfect for me!

It was a 5 mins slow walk from the MRT station, very conveniently located at the 3rd floor of a corner lot commercial building. A big signboard can be easily seen across the road.

A pretty and soft-spoken fitness consultant welcomed me to the studio. I filled up the registration form and she asked a few questions regarding my health condition and practice experience, then guided me to the changing room. Then I proceeded to the class room.

It was a small room that fits 8 of us including the instructor. Despite small, it was well-lit with natural light and soft breeze blowing through the windows.

It was a 60-min Hatha class by Janet. We started class by lying (stomach) down on the bolster, breathing softly through nose, clearing our minds, expanding our lungs and awakening our spine by feeling the air flowing in our body. We continued the class with some regular Warrior poses, backbending, Sarvangasana and ended with a short meditation and 3 OMs.

The instructor was clear in giving instructions but she's kind of too soft in her voice volume. A few times I needed to guess and look at her or my neighbour student to get what she said.

After Shavasana, each student was given a small piece of sanitized cleaning cloth, we wiped our mats and placed the cleaning cloth in a small pail, then arranged our blocks, bolsters and blankets to their original place (a corner of the room), then left the room. Students here are so disciplined and well-mannered, no loud chattings within the studio compound, only gentle greetings, polite smiles and friendly good-byes.

Most of them took a bath and rushied to work, but I was rushing to start my every-second-counts journey :)

Birthday trip @ Gold Coast Morib, Sepang

2011-10-24T22:12:00.000+08:00

Not my birthday, it was my hubby's. Wanted to give him a surprise by driving him to the destination blind-folded. During the journey I lost my way, my blind-folded man beside me told me how to travel back to the correct route! Nevertheless, it was still a birthday surprise for him :)

Gold Coast Morib is a new hotel, a condominium-like guest rooms surrounding a water theme park. The water theme park isn't too big, with some water slides, a tunnel which you can stream in it with a water tube, a big pool with water guns and several 'raining mushrooms'. During a weekend, the water theme park is filled with laughter and giggles of children and parents. We had fun too.

Our room (private suite) is spacious with full amenities. It has a big jacuzzi in the bathroom - one of the main attractions to me of this place.

We had dinner at the hotel's cafe. The food is nothing much to scream about, and the waitress came back to us a few times to let us know the dish we ordered was not available and told us to pick something "simpler" so the kitchen can prepare it. All the staffs at the hotel are well-trained and polite, so we didn't mind the lack of ingredients and food variety at this new hotel.

Chicken Bolognese Spaghetti

Breakfast

The next day after breakfast, we took a morning walk around the water theme park and the beach beside the hotel.

A nice stretch in the early and quiet morning.

It was during low tide, the sea is so far from us.

The Pier Restaurant, opened only from 3pm onwards.

Overall, it's a nice short trip for us. A weekend to unwind ourselves from the busy city.

Slow Cooker Pumpkin Porridge

2011-10-18T22:11:00.000+08:00

It's time challenging for a working woman to take care of household chores after her 9-to-5 job, let alone cooking dinner during working days. Cooking itself takes time, and preparing the ingredients too. I'm always searching for ideas on quick-prepared food for me and my husband.

I got the slow cooker porridge idea from some mommies' blogs. They have to take care of their toddlers (especially busy if they are not sleeping) and at the same time prepare porridge for them, have to make sure the porridge doesn't overflow or dries up/overcooked, and most importantly have to make sure they remember to turn off the stove when it's done. So boiling porridge in slow cooker with a timer solves all the problem.

And I use this idea to get my dinner prepared when I'm out to work.

I rinsed the rice and cut the pumpkin in cubes, placed everything in the slow cooker with 3/4 water in the pot, turned on the switch and timed the timer to switch on from 2PM to 6PM.

Nice and warm organic pumpkin porridge awaits me at home :) Served with some acar.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

2011-10-17T20:47:00.002+08:00

I like baking chiffon cakes. While the cake is baking, I always look through the oven door every 10 mins, wishing for the cake to rise, rise, rise. When I take the cake out from the oven, overturn it on the table and look at it, I wish: don't fall, don't fall, don't fall.

But this time (this is my 4th or 5th time, lost count), it still falls. It's too heavy for a chiffon cake, and it falls out from the cake tin immediately when I overturned it to cool it.

Thankfully, friends and family who ate it still considered it nice :)

The cake fell off the cake tin, but still intact.

I adapted the recipe from here:

Ingredients:

A)
5 egg yolks
85 gm corn oil (I used canola oil)
115 ml hot milk
1 1/2 Tbsp instant Nescafe Gold (I used Cocoa powder)
120gm sugar
150gm flour
1 tsp baking powder

B)
5 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
90gm sugar

Method:

1. Dissolve coffee (Cocoa) powder in hot milk. Leave to cool down.

2. Preheat oven to 180C.

3. Combine milk with the rest of ingredients (A) until it becomes a smooth paste. (I beat the yolks, followed by sugar, oil, milk + Cocoa, and lastly sift in flour. I mixed well at each addition of ingredients.)

4. Beat egg whites until frothy. Add in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks.
5. Add in sugar bit by bit and beat egg whites until stiff.

6. Put in 1/4 of egg whites into (3) and fold to combine.
7. Repeat step 6.
8. Pour (7) into remaining egg whites and fold to combine well.
I put in 1/2 egg whites into (3), fold, then put this mixture into remaining egg whites and fold till well incorporated.

9. Pour batter into clean ungreased tube pan. Lightly shake pan left and right to level the cake.
10. Bake at 170C for 40 minutes.
11. Immediately remove from oven and turn cake upside down on table. (cake will sink if not done fast)
12. Leave cake to cool completely before dislodging from pan using a flat knife. Cut with a sharp knife.

I didn't need to dislodge the cake because it fell of the cake tin once I overturned it.

It rises high, but shrank too much at the bottom.

The texture of the cake is too compact.

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2011

2011-10-11T11:07:00.000+08:00

I thought this book sale is only for children books (that's why I missed the one last year), until a colleague told me it's for all kinds of books and her photos of purchase convinced me. More importantly, the prices are too tempting, ranging from RM5-RM25. I decided to go right after work.

The place is conveniently located near office, with highway free from traffic, we reached in 20 mins, and walked another 10 mins to reach the exhibition hall - impatient to wait for the feeder bus.It's a Monday, the hall wasn't as crowded as weekend. Books were nicely arranged in categories, and most of them were tidily-stacked brand new books. Boxes were provided as "shopping bag", I even saw a few pushing trolleys and luggage bags for their purchases. We were just strolling along each section, picking and flipping books that look interesting, nothing particular in mind. I picked a few books and proceed to the cashier, so nice to shop during weekdays, the cashier were quite empty.

I think I left the hall with the least purchase:

3x novels about dogs - besides a few exceptions (Eat, Pray, Love and P.S. I love you), all my novels are about dogs, non-fictions. I love reading how dogs of different breeds, sizes, temperaments affect life of their owners and people around them. I'm enjoying this happiness, and enjoy reading others.
2x traveling books - I'm backpacking to these countries. It's good to know more.
2x recipe books - hubby flipped through the books and decided these are the dishes he likes.
2x baking trays - haha! what a place to get cheap baking trays. I think these were originally free gifts along with purchase of cook books.

Spent RM84 for all these, some are hard covered and colored pages, it's really a great deal.

This sale attracted so many people and all went home without empty hands, are we merely going for cheap deals or the price of books in our country is too high causing us to buy/read less? Whatever, I will come back next year!

Croquette (可乐饼)

2011-10-04T21:31:00.001+08:00

I watched a cooking program on TV some time ago and this dish was introduced. It's very popular in Japan and Taiwan, especially among kids, I think because of it's crispiness.

I forgotten about it and only recently, when I'm out of idea what to make for a less time consuming dinner, I thought of it. I adapted the recipe here.

Ingredients：
Medium size potato - 2
Big red onion - half
Small chunks/diced of meat - about 100gm (recipe used pork, I used chicken)
Egg - 1
Flour - for coating (I used All-purpose flour)
Bread crumbs - for coating
Salt, black pepper - for seasoning

Method：
1. Peeled and washed potatoes，cut into slices and steamed in steamer until soft。

2. Cooled the soft cooked potatoes and mashed it。

3. Diced the onions。

4. With a little cooking oil，stir fry the onions until fragrant，then add in diced meat，continue stir-frying，add in some salt and pepper for seasoning，continue stir-frying until ingredients are cooked。

5. Mixed the cooked ingredients into the mashed potato，the ratio of ingredients and mashed potato should be 1：1。

6. Divide the mashed potato into several small portions，then shape it into the desired shapes with hands，(I shaped it into the traditional round shape)，coat it with flour、egg、bread crumbs respectively。

7. Lastly deep fry until golden color。

I served it with some fries and salad.

This is a simple recipe yet can be creative with the ingredients. I would like to make it a vegetarian version with some mushrooms and cabbage next time.

Shanghai mooncake

2011-09-12T23:16:00.002+08:00

I made the lotus paste using Christine's recipe. I used white lotus seeds so the paste is fair in color. The texture of the paste is not so right. It's too dry to be considered as paste, probably because I cook it for too long. I like the taste, not too sweet, unlike the commercial ones.

I used SeaDragon's recipe for the Shanghai mooncake. I made plain and egg-yolk version, and everybody (who had eaten) prefers the egg-yolk version. The skin is a little too moist, it would be better if I can make it a little more flaky.

For the egg-yolk version, I used half salted egg-yolk per mooncake. The egg-yolk is pre-cooked in the oven, 180C for 10 mins. I topped it with some black sesame seeds for decoration, also to indicate it's egg-yolked.

After our lantern session, we had some mooncakes with hot tea.

中秋节快乐!

Jelly Mooncakes

2011-09-12T23:07:00.003+08:00

I've made jelly mooncakes a few years ago, but totally forgotten how was it. This year I planned to try making it again since nowadays commercial mooncakes are getting too expensive.

I started with the simplest one which is jelly mooncakes. It actually should be called mooncake jelly because it's really just jelly, with the shape of traditional mooncake.

Simplest in the sense of ingredients and steps. The tricky part of making jelly mooncake is timing. Making the 'filling' at the center of the 'skin' requires good timing. Too soon (when the first layer of jelly not readily set), the filling will drop to the bottom of the mould - causing the 'filling' to be on top of the mooncake; too late (when the first layer is set and 'dries up'), the second layer of the skin will not stick to the first layer - causing the mooncake to split into half when done. This I learn from the hard way, trial and error to capture the correct timing.

Another miskate I made is didn't bring the liquid mixture to boiling point before taking off heat and pour into the mould, the jelly did not set, it remains liquid after refrigerated for one night.

I used the recipe from here. And modified it accordingly to the flavour/ingredient I like. The recipe is enough to make 6 'filling' jelly (I use muffin tray as mould) and 4 mooncakes.

A: 'Filling'
1 1/4tsp Agar-agar powder
40g castor sugar
100ml evaporated milk
200ml water
1/8tsp salt

B: 'Skin'
1/2 tbsp Agar-agar powder
70g castor sugar
350ml water
100g dragon fruit (blended)

'Filling'
Mix all ingredient A together and boil it, then pour the boiling mixture into the muffin tray. Let it set, to be used later.

'Skin' and assembly
B: Mix Agar-agar powder and castor sugar, then boil it in water with the blended fruit, scoop some boiling mixture into the mooncake mould, about 20% full, let it slighty set in room temperature, then place the 'filling' at the center. Pour the remaining mixture into the mould till full. Can poke a few holes in the jelly with toothpick to avoid the bottom and top part split off. Let it set in room temperature, then refrigerate it overnight.

Cuti-cuti Malaysia

2011-09-05T18:07:00.000+08:00

Next time when you are planning for a location to visit during a vacation, do consider local destinations first. There's really a reason why Malaysia is attracting so many tourists every year :)

Batu Caves - Selangor

Berjaya Hills, Pahang

Ipoh Train Station - Ipoh

Perak Cave (Temple) - Ipoh

Melaka River - Melaka

Dutch (Red Square) - Melaka

St. Paul Church - Melaka

Clear Water Cake

2011-08-24T22:52:00.000+08:00

What is simpler and easier than baking muffins? This, the Clear Water Cake, I think it's a direct translate from its Mandarin name - 清水蛋糕

Even for a baking novice like me, I only used 10 mins to prepare the batter and send it to the oven. A perfect quick cake for breakfast or tea-time.
I adopted the recipe from here.

Recipe

(A)
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 whole egg
- 50g canola oil
- 1 tsp vanilla essence

(B)
- 50g low protein flour (cake flour)

(C)
- 3 egg whites

(D)
- 50g castor sugar

Method

1) Beat (A) till well mixed with an egg beater.

2) Sift in (B), mix well.

3) Whisk (C) till frothy, add (D) and beat till stiff peaks.

4) Fold in the egg white mixture to egg yolk mixture in 3 additions, mix till well combined. Scoop the batter into paper cups till 60% full.

5) Bake in preheated oven at 150C for about 20mins.

The cake didn't rise as much as I thought it would, so I think that's why the cake's texture is soft but not very fluffy. The cake is fragrant and taste very eggy which I like, a little like the Chinese 鸡蛋糕, but again not as light.

Let your smile change the world

2011-08-03T16:30:00.001+08:00

I always try to give out my best, love to see people leaving the classroom with a smile, or great laugh after a good workout, or even with loads of related questions for me.

Though I can't be the favorite of everyone, I still hold on to my principles, not trying to please everyone, understanding that humans are all individuals knowing what is best for them.

Like what a friend told me today: Let your smile change the world, don't let the world change your smile.

How sweeeeeeet :)

Remembering

2011-07-20T16:31:00.000+08:00

Yesterday a student asked whether I used to teach in YogaZone. She followed an ex-YogaZone teacher somewhere else and she finds that our teaching is very similar.

So glad to know that people still remember YogaZone. Although is no longer exist, its teaching and spirit will always continue.

The benefits of stretching

2011-06-02T09:36:00.000+08:00

Many think that Yin Yoga is for flexible people, or ladies, merely stretching and holding a pose for a long few minutes is torturing and boring.

In fact, everybody should be enjoying this and gain the benefits of stretching:

Adapted from Natural Health

1. Increase the range of movement
As you constantly doing stretching, the length of the muscles and the tendons are also increased. This will help in increasing the range of your movement. Thus, the limbs and joints will be able to move before an injury can take place.

2. Increased ability to perform skills
When you have a wide range of movement, you will be able to do more things. For example, you can jump high without feeling pain when you land back on the floor. This will also help you start a new sport or improve more in your current sport. Stretching in this aspect allows you to have a more active lifestyle.

3. Prevent injury
You can prevent injury to joints, tendons and muscles with stretching. When the muscles and tendons are well-flexed, they are considered in good working order. This will help in a faster recovery and decresed soreness. The muscles of the body will be able to take more exhausting and rigorous movements with less probability of being injured.

4. Reduce muscle tension
If the muscles are given their regular exercises and stretching, it is less likely that they will contract. This will relieve you from any muscle pain or problems.

5. Enhance energy
Being able to move more will also give you more energy. Stretching will also help enhance your awareness, like knowing that you have a body that is capable of doing many things. Thus, you are more driven to move rather than sulk in the corner.

6. Reduce cholesterol
Research shows that doing prolonged stretching exercises help reduce the cholesterol in the body. This of course must be done with a healthy diet. This can prevent and even reverse the hardening of the artiries, allowing you to avoid coronary diseases.

So start to incorporate stretching in your everyday lifestyle. You will feel the improvements in your body and mind, living to the fullest.

Incorporate yoga into your lifestyle - Reading while Legs-Up-the-Wall

2011-05-12T14:36:00.000+08:00

This is a variation of the original 'Legs-Up-the-Wall' pose. It is a calming pose helps relieving tiredness and tensions on the legs, neck and back. Bringing soothing effect to your mind.

Sliding your legs apart into a wide "V", a Yin way to stretch your inner thighs and groins. Wide-legged pose also helps to detox kidneys.

End this practice by bending your knees and hugging your knees towards your chest, then rock yourself from side to side. Lastly rock yourself to either side and rise yourself up.

Ekta Holistic Centre

2011-04-25T12:27:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was the soft opening day for Ekta Holistic Centre. The founder Master Surjit Singh Khalsa prefers not to name his centre as a Yoga studio because it provides more than that.

Ekta Holistic Centre is a safe and nurturing place for healing and personal growth. Its mission is to bring understanding of healing with yoga, concentrating more on mind, body and soul with a purpose of bringing us inwards; teaching us to listen to the body and observe the mind.

Ekta provides more than 20 classes per week, with various yoga style and time to choose from. The centre is conveniently located at Bandar Puteri, Puchong with ample free parking space around.

Besides yoga classes, the centre also provides healing services as such Reiki, Hypnosis, Time Line Therapy, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Shambhala Healing, and Ekta Healing. These services are available by appointments only.

The centre is having a free trial period of 7 days, starting from 24 Apr to 1 May 2011. Also an ongoing promotion of 50% discount on monthly package for early bird customers.

For more details, visit the website - http://www.ektaholistic.com.my/index.php

MY Vegetarian

2011-04-01T11:06:00.000+08:00

I've been to their branches at Puchong and Taman Equine. White is the main color of the shops, a clean and bright environment; with paintings of vegetables and fruits hanging on both sides of the walls, making the shops look fresh and appetizing!

It serves a wide variety of food, ranging from snacks, appetizer, set-lunch/dinner, main dishes, rice and noodles, soups, and 'dim sum' too. The food are priced reasonable, the drinks are a little pricey. So I usually order soup and not drinks.

Shop entrance.

Sweet & sour pork rice.

Fried fish fillet rice - The fish fillet is made of mashed potato, crispy on the outside, soft and tender inside :).

Fried 'siew mai' & dumpling soup.

Fried rice.

'Kum Hiong' prawn rice.

Fruit rojak.

It's definitely a good place for a vege-gathering. Visit their website for more details.

Simple Fried Spaghetti

2011-02-22T22:50:00.000+08:00

Chinese New Year is always the season to feast in rich food. Visiting relatives and friends during Chinese New Year also involve lots of titbits and soft drinks. After this festive season, it's time to return to a light, healthy and balance diet.

Ingredients:
Single portion Spaghetti Noodles
4-5 cloves Garlic, chopped.
1/4 Capsicum, thin-sliced.
1-2 Shiitake Mushroom, thin-sliced.
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
Salt
Black Pepper

Method:
1. Boil spaghetti noodle until cook.
2. Heat olive oil in frying pan. Fry chopped garlic until lightly gold. Add in capsicum. Then lastly add in mushroom.
3. Add in and fry cooked noodles with all the ingredients. Add in salt and black pepper to taste.

Serve it hot.

Simple yet satisfying...

Welcome to the 'Rabbit' year

2011-02-01T15:50:00.000+08:00

Sasangasana, also called the Rabbit pose, is a simple pose with great benefits.

Sitting on Child pose, holding on your heels, rest the crown (top) of your head in front of your knees, then lift your hips as high as possible, until arms are straighten. Feel your spine curved and elongated, chin tugged to chest.

Benefits: relieves mild head, neck, and back pain; lengthens spine and stretches back, arms, and shoulders; maintains mobility and elasticity of spine and back muscles; improves digestion; aids insomnia.

Each time after a Rabbit pose, I release my forehead on the mat, come back to Child pose and rest for a few breathes before sitting up to avoid dizziness.

Cornflake Cookies

2011-01-26T12:13:00.000+08:00

Why cornflake cookies are popular during Chinese New Year? I think it's because the crushed cornflake on the outer layer of the cookies resembles golden flakes. It's all about prosperity :)

This is the last batch of Chinese New Year cookies I'm baking for this year. Surprisingly this is the simplest recipe. Original recipe is from Rasa Malaysia, but I needed a lot more cornflakes than suggested in the recipe.

Ingredients:
200g butter
150g castor sugar
2 eggs
300g all-purpose flour
130g cornflakes (coarsely crushed, I used the end of a rolling pin)
1 tsp vanilla essense
30g corn flour

Method:
Beat butter and sugar till pale and creamy.
Add in vanilla essence. Mix in the lightly beaten eggs.
Fold in the flour and corn flour with a wooden spoon. The dough is moist and a little sticky but still able to be shaped using fingers.
Using a teaspoon, scoop out about 1 teaspoon of the cookie dough and roll it into the crushed cornflakes. When coated with cornflakes the dough is easier to be shaped. Roll it into a small ball and place it on a baking tray lined with baking sheet, then lightly pressed it to form a flat round cookie shape.
Bake for 20 minutes at 180°C or till golden brown.

The cookies aren't too sweet but it's fine to my taste. The outer layer is crunchy and the cookie inside is light and crispy.

Golden Pineapple Roll

2011-01-21T11:13:00.000+08:00

Now I understand why Pineapple tarts/rolls are sold more expensive than other Chinese New Year cookies. It involves 2 main effort - the filling and the pastry. After making the filling (pineapple jam) and the pastry dough, we need to shape the dough, using a cookie presser (for pineapple tarts) or pipe it into rectangular piece (for pineapple roll) or roll it into a small ball (for pineapple cookie). Then place the filling on top or in the dough and bake it. The steps are more tedious than the other cookies and the ingredients cost more too.

I got the original recipe from Fresh from the Oven. I made some modifications for a more moist dough so that it's easier to pipe and roll/shape it.

Ingredients:
Pastry:
220g butter
360g all purpose flour
2 egg yolks
25g icing sugar
25g castor sugar
1 egg yolk, for egg wash

Filling:
2 cans cube pineapple, drained and crushed
1/4 cup castor sugar
1.5 teaspoon cornstarch

Method:
Pineapple filling:
I used Ayam brand canned pineapple, the drained weight for 1 can is 245g. I crushed the pineapples using blender for just a few second, not too fine.
Using medium heat, cook the drained crushed pineapple and sugar until most liquid has evaporated, and the mixture turned golden. Stirring constantly using a wooden spoon to avoid burning. Taste, and add more sugar when needed. Add in 1.5 teaspoon of cornstarch to thicken the mixture.

Pastry:
Sieve all purpose flour and sugar into a medium bowl. Beat butter in a mixer until it turns light in color and fluffy. Add in egg yolks until well combined. Mix in the flour mixture with wooden spoon until just combined. The dough should be moist but doesn't stick to the bowl.

Pipe the dough into a long piece, place an adequate amount of filling on the dough piece then roll it. Apply egg wash on each roll and bake it at 160°C for 15 mins or until the color turns lightly brown.

I followed the step-by-step instruction for assembling the pineapple rolls here.

With this recipe, I made about 64 cookies.

It's a messy and time consuming process but the end result is worthy :)

Seated balancing

2011-01-20T10:02:00.000+08:00

This isn't an original pose in Hot Yoga (Bikram Yoga). But I like to include it into my Hot Yoga session. In the heated room, it's easier to stretch, and the risk of hurting ourself is reduced. So this is a good time for us to challenge this pose. Stretching is not the crucial point in this pose, to be able to stay balance and stay still is the challenge we would like to overcome. We need to learn to ignore the heat, ignore the sweat, ignore the stickiness all over our body. Only when we can ignore the external factors, we can focus on our intentions.

Chinese New Year Butter Cookies

2011-01-10T16:37:00.000+08:00

This is the second Chinese New Year I'm baking cookies instead of buying. Not only it's more economical, I enjoy baking and seeing people eating the end product of my baking. It has more of a 'sharing' sense.

I tried 2 different recipes and I think this is better. The cookies are crispy and it melts in the mouth because of the correct composition of icing sugar and corn flour.

Ingredients:
150g butter
50g icing sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
140g plain flour
40g corn flour

Method:
1. Cream butter and icing sugar until the colour turns a little pale.
2. Add in vanilla essence and mix well.
3. Mix in plain flour and corn flour using a wooden spoon. Batter would be a little moist.
4. Using a piping tip, pipe out the cookie onto a baking tray lined with baking sheet.
5. Top with chopped cherries (for a merry look).
6. Bake at 160°C till the cookies turn slightly brown (original recipe suggested 15 mins, for me I checked on the oven from time to time until I get the desired color of my cookies).

I got the original recipe from e's joie. I doubled the scale of the ingredients so I can bake more cookies in 1 shot, and it works :) I get about 100 cookies for my modified recipe, each cookie about 1/2 tbsp batter.

How to stick to new year's resolutions

2011-01-05T15:41:00.001+08:00

Many of us like to set a list of new year's resolutions for ourselves. It may be learning a new language, joining a dancing class, quit smoking or stop being a workohalic and spending more time with family and friends. But most of the time we either procrastinate or we stop doing it after a few tries. And another year is gone.

How to stick to new year's resolutions? These are what we can do.

1. Reminder
Set the time slot for your new activity in your handphone/Outlook calendar with beeping reminder at least a day before, so you do not have excuses on last-minute reminder and have not prepared for it. You can have post-it notes on your PC monitor, mirror, wardrobe, fridge; anywhere that is often visible to you but it's private.

2. Companionship
Doing it with your spouse/friend/siblings/cousins, so that you can motivate and reminding each other. Doing something new in a new environment with a campanion helps to relieve the fear, nervousness and shyness too.

3. Rewards
Rewards always increase motivations. Treat yourself to a spa/massage or buy a pretty dress to reward yourself for a month's hardwork of Pilates.

4. Sidetrack
If you are planning to quit a bad habit, find something else to do to sidetrack your usual habit. Whenever you think of picking up the packet of potato chips for your DVD time, reach for an apple instead.

5. Enjoy it!
Enjoy what you are doing. Nobody will procrastinate or forget to do the things they enjoy.

6. Most importantly, START it now :)

Making Tang Yuan (汤圆)

2010-12-22T11:44:00.002+08:00

I made the same mistake I made last year, bought the wrong rice flour. The dough made from normal rice flour is much harder, and couldn't get cooked even boiled for a long time, it looked cooked outside, but raw inside.

Only around 10:15pm last night I realised I made this mistake again. And quickly we went to the nearest supermarket when they were closing, but they had their glutinous rice flour sold out. We then went to an indian grocery shop and fortunately they still have a few packets left. To make it more dramatic, it started raining when we stepped out of the house.

Remember, use Glutinous Rice Flour, there're 2 types of rice flour.

I do not have a particular recipe for this. I mix the flour and water gradually to get the desired dough texture (Firm enough to roll and do not stick). Add and mix in coloring when needed. Roll the dough into small balls. Cover them with cling paper (to avoid losing moisture from the dough balls) and keep them in the refrigerator for the next-day's use.

Today is Winter Solstice Festival, 冬至. Chinese celebrate it, family members gather togather and eat Tang Yuan, symbolizes reunion.

In the morning, I boiled the Tang Yuan in a pot. When the Tang Yuan floats onto the surface of the water it means it's cooked. I scooped the cooked Tang Yuan and into a bowl of cool water to avoid them from sticking to each other.

I used Gula Melaka (coconut sugar), boiled in water, made the dessert soup to eat with the Tang Yuan. Too bad I did not prepare some Pandan leaves to go with it, if not it will be more fragrant. Again, no complicated recipe, just boil a small pot of water, stir in the Gula Melaka bit by bit until I get the desired sweetness.

冬至快乐!

How to lift in Purvottanasana

2010-12-20T11:27:00.003+08:00

I can't seem to lift my hips higher in this pose, was it because of my shoulders aren't opened enough?

Try to pull shoulder blades close to each other to support the chest.

Another thing that we should try is to lift through our feet. Step our feet firm into the mat and not merely supporting our body on our arms. This will help to reduce risk of hurting our wrists.

Most importantly is to keep our neck relax in this pose. Keep it neutral to the spine.

Feel the strength and stretch on the thighs and the spine.

Morning vs Evening

2010-10-13T22:45:00.000+08:00

Most people think that one should not exercise on empty stomach. But Yoga is different. I love practicing on empty stomach in the morning. It awakens my drowsy body, clear my mind, nourish my brain with lots of oxygen (rather than be used to digest my food in the stomach). A morning practice prepares me for my day ahead.

I love to end my day with an evening practice, before dinner. It releases body fatigue from a hard day, brings peace to mind, makes me sleep through the night and wake up to a brand new, hopeful and positive day.

One month has passed...

2010-09-29T16:40:00.000+08:00

I've learned to organize a class without refering to my sequence notes, everything is in my mind.

I've learned to not use the "I want you to..." instructions too much. Thanks to Jaclyn, simpler and straight-to-the-point instructions are easier to be catched. And my instructions now don't sound so demanding (like a kid).

I've learned how to observe and take care of the elderly in class.

I've learned that, it's not possible to please everyone. I'm utterly greatful to those who allow me to spread the goodness into them.

A new start

2010-09-01T17:56:00.008+08:00

Today is a great start.

It was a beginner's class, I felt more nervous than attending my TTC exam and teaching all other classes I had previously. I wasn't sure why. It could be the expression on the faces, it could be the merely-2-feet-distance with the teacher coordinator (the examiner), it could be the surrounds of all total strangers, or it could be a bit of everything.

I received compliments and criticisms. I accepted them with an open heart because both are motivations to reach further and achieve more. This is how one can grow stronger.

I believe therefore I am.

Baked macaroni and cheese

2010-08-03T14:23:00.008+08:00

Ingredient

200g Mozzarella cheese, sliced 1/2 of it, another 1/2 diced
1 1/2 cup macaroni
1 broccoli, diced
2-3 Shitake mushroom, diced
Olive oil, salt and pepper

Preparation

1. Boil macaroni.

2. In a large frying pan, heat olive oil and fry broccoli and mushroom until half-cooked. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to deep baking try (I do not have casserole dish so I used baking tray).

3. Preheat oven to 180°C.

4. When macaroni is almost cooked, drain and add to fried broccoli and mushroom. Add the diced cheese. Sprinkle with a little more salt and pepper and gently mix together.

5. Cover with the sliced cheese and bake until cheese is melted and the top slightly browned, about 15 minutes.

Enough for 3-4 servings.

Marina Yoga @ Krabi, Thailand

2010-07-29T09:30:00.005+08:00

Marina, the owner of Marina Yoga, has a strong accent, I didn't know which was it until she told us she's from Germany. (That explained why our day tour agent who called her on the phone helping us to book for a class started with "Sawadee Ka" but ended up speaking broken English).

Her yoga place is a hut, an airy and quiet hut surrounded by plants, 2 doors away from her house. There's a gazebo beside the hut, a whiteboard hanging in front of it noting the time of classes and names of registered students. And, her 2 pet dogs and some stray cats walking around guarding the place, in peace.

I enjoyed her Hatha class very much. It was an evening class so there weren't any vigorous steps or series. We had a smooth flow of warm-up, arm strength series, abs exercise, standing balancing, stretching, twisting, and ended with a short Yoga Nidra.

Her instructions were clear with demonstrations. Her encouragement words were strong and powerful, yet fun. Her words during Shavasana had calming effects. Our evening class was a fun, satisfying workout. She's a friendly lady and likes to chat. She told us how she came to Krabi, how she loves Krabi and how she built up her Yoga business there.

I wonder I will go back to Krabi for my future vacation, but I do hope we will meet again, maybe in another part of the world.

Stay firm

2010-07-26T09:45:00.005+08:00

Time changes things - people, places, perspectives, life.

Regardless of the changes under your feet, stand strong and stay firm in your beliefs.

Tree pose at Ao Nang beach

PS: Wave comes and hits your leg, the sand fades away under your foot making your standing ground loose, your mind must be strong, your focus must be sharp, in order to stand firm - great balancing exercise.

Cheese Tarts

2010-07-16T15:41:00.004+08:00

Ingredients

Pastry

125g butter
65g castor sugar
1 egg yolk
250g plain flour
1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Filling

250g cream cheese
20g butter
60g castor sugar
1 egg

Method

Pastry
1. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence.
2. Add in egg yolk and water. Continue creaming.
3. Fold in flour and mix.
4. Wrap pastry in plastic bag and chill in refrigerator for 1/2 hour.
5. Roll chilled pastry to circular shape and cut with pastry cutter and line in tart molds.
6. Prick some holes on the base of the pastry using a fork. Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes or when the pastry starting to turn yellow.

Filling (while baking pastry in oven)
1. Beat cream cheese, butter and sugar together till light, add in egg and beat till well mixed.
2. Spoon mixture mixture into baked tart shells.
3. Mix 1 tbsp cocoa powder with a small amount of water (I add bit by bit until I get the correct paste texture). Mix into a paste.
4. Dip the tip of a chopstick into chocolate paste and draw circle on top of the cheese.
5. Bake at 180°C for 10 minutes or when the pastry turned light brown.

Either my tart mold is too big or I made my pastry shell too thick, I'm only getting 11 tarts with the ingredients above (15 is the number suggested in the original recipe).

PS: best eaten when chilled.

Neck stress during ab crunch

2010-07-14T18:19:00.008+08:00

This is one thing that bugs me when I do ab crunches. Most of the time I gave up because there's too much stress on the neck. That's also one of the reason I don't enjoy Pilates class.

Last month I attended Min's Pitales class at Chayo Studio. Her class was very enjoyable, it was like a mixture of fast-pace Yoga and slow-pace aerobics. With the music playing at the background her movement was like a graceful dance. And the most important thing she had taught me - the head/neck position during ab crunches.

Previously I always did it with my chin tucked in.

Now I tried her method, keep my head and upper back neutral and neck relaxed.

I now look at the ceiling instead of my belly during ab crunches, and avoid pulling my upper body up using my hands. It helps a lot.

Chayo Studio

2010-06-16T21:43:00.003+08:00

I'm looking for a (new) nice place to practice, without having to commit for a long time period, convenient for me to reach the place after work, with convenient parking facility and lastly with class schedule that have classes I like and have convenient timing for me.

All factors considered, I decided to go for a trial at Chayo Studio.

I like the location of this place, its located in the Kelana Mall, opposite Giant. Ample parking space in the building, cost RM0.50 per hour for the first 2 hours, and RM1.00 per hour for the subsequent hours. Giant free parking is another choice, but it'll get a little messy if it rains.

At ground floor, it's a vegetarian cafe - no eggs, even our strict-est vegetarian friend can dine here :) The studio is at the first floor. It's a serene place. Small and cosy. Consist of a reception area with notice boards and chairs for registration/waiting/resting, a small office and 2 studio rooms. The bigger studio can fit around 12-15 students, with an elevated seat in front for the teacher and mirrors on the right hand side. The room is equiped with projector and screen and sound system I think to be used during workshops. The teacher's seat is decorated with religious/spiritual statues and paintings, but nothing too intimidating.

Entrance & reception

Merchandise corner

Waiting for the previous class to end outside the studio.

I just had a quick peep at the other small studio, it can fit around 6-8 students, a nice place for a quiet small group.

The only drawback of the studio is that it doesn't have windows. Although during class the aircon is switched to room temperature, I still prefer feeling and listening to the natural sound of wind outside the room.

Today was my second class there and I'm totally enjoying (exhausted by) it.

Oreo Cupcakes

2010-05-11T16:22:00.008+08:00

It's been a long time since I last baked. I've prepared the packet of Oreo in my kitchen a while ago and have been waiting for the right mood for baking.

I adopted the recipe from here. I prefer vanilla cupcake so I used 100g self-rising flour instead of 75g flour + 25g cocoa powder and castor sugar instead of brown sugar.

I followed the method for making the frosting but I couldn't get the correct texture, so I spread the frosting onto the cupcakes instead of piping, but I really would like to try to pipe pretty frosting onto my cupcakes one day.

The frosting has the correct sweetness that I like, and the crispy base is a brilliant idea. Simply yummy~

Handbag organizer

2010-05-05T11:07:00.006+08:00

Sometimes I have trouble finding the thing I want from my handbag. A big handbag is useful as I can put everything inside. It becomes a problem when I have to search for something from the mess.

I came across something called the 'handbag organizer', but the price is not something I'm willing to spend on. So I tranformed one of my many woven bags I got for free during shoppings into a handbag organizer.

Not only that my handbag is now more organized, it's easier when I switch handbags.

Strawberry cheese (cup)cake

2010-03-12T16:43:00.002+08:00

I only left with 250gm cream cheese, so I scaled the original recipe to make only 6 cupcakes.

250 gm Philadelphia cream cheese
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup castor sugar
3 disgestive biscuits
1 tbsp (melted) butter
3 strawberries
strawberry jam

1. Crush the digestive biscuits. Combine the biscuit crumbs with melted butter. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom of each cupcake mold.
2. Mix cream cheese, sugar, pure vanilla, egg and beat till creamy.
3. Fill each cupcake mold (3/4 full) with the cream cheese batter.
4. Bake at 175°C for 15 mins.
5. Remove cupcakes from oven and cool individually on wire rack.
6. Place half strawberry on top of each cupcake and drip with strawberry jam.
7. Refrigerate the cupcakes before serving.

Homemade Strawberry Jam

2010-03-12T11:30:00.002+08:00

I bought a lot of strawberries from Cameron during the weekend trip. Besides eating them fresh, I used some of them to made strawberry jam.

I used:
12-13 big strawberries (cleaned and halved), smashed with a potato masher.
1/3 cup of castor sugar.

1. Pour the sugar into the smashed strawberries, mix it, then pour into a sauce pan.
2. Keep on stirring over medium heat.
3. Boil the mixture till it's slightly thicken (the mixture will get further thicken when it's cooled down).
4. Pour the mixture into a sterilized bottle (I re-use a preserved vegetable bottle and boiled it in hot water).
5. Close the bottle tight, place it in the fridge after the jam is slightly cooled down.

Using towel in Yoga class

2010-03-04T09:21:00.002+08:00

A small towel comes in handy in class not only during perspiration.

1. Use it as a prop (if you do not have a belt).

Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend)

Gomukhasana (Cow Face Pose) - Hand

2. Use it as padding for knees.

Crescent Moon

3. Use it as blind during Shavasana, so you don't squeeze your eye lids to close your eyes.

Think positive

2010-03-03T08:52:00.003+08:00

Because I believe in Law of Attraction, I like to think positive.
Only with our heart and mind open, we can keep more beautiful things.

Purvottanasana

Spaghetti with homemade sauce

2010-01-14T21:15:00.006+08:00

200 ml Cream
125 gm Pamersan Cheese (I think it's too cheesy, should have just use 100 gm)
Some chopped Broccoli, Shitake Mushroom and Onions.

1. Oil the sauce pan with 1/2 teaspoon butter.
2. Fry the onions and mushrooms. I prefer the vegetable to be fresh and crispy so I didn't fry it together with the ingredients here.
3. Pour in cream and bring it to boil.
4. When almost boiling, lower the heat and pour in cheese (I should've chopped it into smaller chunks so that it's easier to melt), keep stiring till all mixed well.
5. Pour in boiled spaghetti and broccoli.
6. Mix well and serve.

I love the creamy texture. I tasted it while cooking and it was just nice, but it was too cheesy when mixed with the spaghetti and eat it mouthful. Seriously have to reduce the cheese the next time I make this :p

Abs workout

2010-01-11T16:56:00.005+08:00

The simple and effective abs workout I've tried recently...

Can do it with alternate-leg,

Both legs,

And sideways.

Resting lower back on the mat to prevent the back from arching when lifting the leg(s), thus prevent aching or injuries on the back.

Strong like a Tree

2010-01-06T10:14:00.003+08:00

Someone asked why his foot of the standing leg in a Tree pose (Vrksasana) is hurting so much causing him couldn't stand for long.

I had the same problem. The method I used is similar to what we need in Arm Balancing poses, in the opposite way.

Instead of putting all the weight on the standing leg, try 'claw' the foot firm into the mat - press the ball of the foot and all toes into the mat. And micro-bent the knee of the standing leg, using the strength of the thigh to take some weight off the foot and this will be less stressful for the ankle.

By doing so, the thigh is more tiring but it's a good workout for the leg.

Yoga @ Yoga Now, Langkawi

2009-12-14T16:39:00.004+08:00

Yoga Now is 15 mins walk from the Cenang main beach road (quite far, should have drove in), behind the Rasa Restaurant. There're signboards at the junctions so it can't be missed.

At the end of the road, we saw a small traditional malay house, with a big blue banner.

The temperature outside was killing, but practicing inside the house was peaceful. It was a traditional Hatta class. The class started and ended with 3 OMs and chanting, I couldn't understand the sanskrit chanting but it sounded different from the Invocation chants I heard in other classes. We rested in Shavasana for a few minutes in between each pose/series. During the class, we listened to the sound of the wind chimes hanging outside the house, and felt the breeze through the windows.

I love the Sun Salutations the most - the flow was graceful like a dance. I forgotten how many we had done, but it wasn't as tiring as I thought it would be.

A combination of ab exercise, inversions, arms & standing balancing, forward & back bends, seated twisting and a full 10-minutes Shavasana refreshed my body and mind. It was a great lesson for my asana practice, as well as my daily life.

Homemade yogurt

2009-11-24T22:23:00.003+08:00

During our Korea trip, 1 of the morning we had breakfast at a hotel that served fresh strawberry yogurt. Not those individual can that we buy from supermarkets. It was served in a big bowl like soup, with toppings like almonds and nuts. I had it with pieces of fresh oranges.

After coming back home, I miss the fresh yogurt. I then searched for the recipe on the net, surprisingly it's so easy! The only thing I needed to buy was a food thermometer.

I reused a spaghetti sauce glass bottle for measuring the amount of milk I need and to store my yogurt. I do not have a heating pad, I wrapped the bottle of warm milk + yogurt starter with towels, then put inside a food warmer bag and left it at a corner in my kitchen.

I didn't want it to be too sour, so I left it for about 9 hours (overnight). I woke up in the morning, sliced some strawberries, mixed it in the yogurt, and placed it in the fridge.

Homemade yogurt is not as thick as the commercial ones. It tastes great with the appropriate sourness yet feels so fresh especially to eat it with (lots of) fresh fruits.

BREATHS, BANDHAS & DRISHTIS workshop with Azmi

2009-11-23T09:50:00.003+08:00

The first session of the workshop was mainly theory, and seated breathing practices. It was relaxed yet energizing for a Saturday morning. Ujjayi breathing alone made my body feel warm. Breath is an important part in Yoga - always breath comes first before the pose; inhale to lengthen, exhale to deepen. Long and soft breathing helps in claming and stabalizing the body.

During the short break, we had fruits and vegetables juice for a light refreshment before going into a more physical session of the workshop.

Bandha means inner locks. Locks of energy in different parts of the body to acquire strength for more challenging poses. I still can't differentiate the feeling whether it's 'locking' or squeezing these parts, though squeezing the muscles seems like giving me the results that I wanted.

More than 1 hour of asanas in exploring different Bandhas, then we proceeded to the Drishtis session. It was a short 15 mins or so Sun Salutations and some Vinyasa poses emphasizing on our Drishtis.

It was a very 'Ashtanga'ish workshop, tiring to me. I skipped the last few Vinyasas and came straight to Downward Facing Dog. The most beneficial part is about breathing, learning to breath right with the poses makes pratices more joyful and enjoyable.

Waiting for Part II workshop.

Cupcakes with orange cream cheese frosting

2009-11-20T13:37:00.007+08:00

I found the best simplest cupcake recipe (I added vanilla extract but not baking powder). The texture and taste are both great!

There're left-over oranges in the fridge, so I thought of making some orange flavoured frosting.

I used the frosting recipe here, with some modifications. I used the whole block of PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese (which is 250g), fresh juice instead of extract, and added the icing sugar to the sweetness I like(around 3/4 cup).

Chocolate chips cookies

2009-11-18T09:41:00.004+08:00

After finishing a packet of Famous Amos, I felt like baking some chocolate chips cookies. I used the recipe from Joy Baking.

Why the recipe uses un-salted butter and salt? So that we can adjust the saltiness? Anyway, I used salted butter (that's what I have at home) and skipped the salt :p

Humble warrior

2009-11-10T09:47:00.000+08:00

Practice to build strength and confidence.
Learn to bow and down to earth.

Banana shake

2009-11-03T14:46:00.000+08:00

After a week of eat-and-sit/sleep Korea trip, it's time to cut down on heavy meals. I bought a comb of bananas and a big bottle of fresh milk for dinners.

To make 1 cup of banana shake, I used

1 Banana (around 100gm or slightly more)
150ml fresh milk
1 tablespoon oatmeal

mix and blend for 1 minute.

The best thing of making juice/shakes for dinner - washing is so easy :)

Honeymoon in Korea

2009-11-02T13:55:00.008+08:00

We love the weather and scenery there. Mild sunlight with cooling wind blowing on the face was refreshing, but not in the night because it was like needles pricking into the skin. Trees were in mixed colors of green, orange and red. Many places in the outskirt were planted with big cabbages, oranges and paddy, which were ready for harvesting in this season.

Many said food over there is bland and got bored with it after a while, but we enjoyed it till the last day of our trip. Most of the time we had steamboat, with lots of cabbage in the soup and refill-able side-dishes. Meals always served with plain rice - Korean rice which are fat and round similar to Japanense Sushi rice. But I noticed that Korean seldom serve fruits with meals.

Besides sight-seeing, shopping was great in Seoul. The Skin Food outlets were crowded with people as though they were shopping for groceries - getting baskets full of skin products. The streets were busy and lighted up till late at night, and we feel safe walking around. Some shops were opened till 11pm, many people were eating at the roadside stalls which seemed like they just got off from work. Happening yet safe city.

It's definitely a nice place to visit, but it would be more romantic if not going with a tour group - everything wouldn't be in a rush, then would have more time for strolling, snapping photos and shopping!

Marble cake

2009-10-21T22:04:00.001+08:00

The cake I baked always 'explodes' in the center. Some said is the way of beating (after adding the eggs because eggs trap air inside the cake), some said is the heat distribution of the oven.

Tonight I tested again with a Marble cake mix which I bought some time ago.

I used the middle rack in the oven. First I turned on the top and bottom heat mode. After 20 minutes or so, when the cake slightly expanded in the center, I turned the heat mode to bottom only.

And it turns out great! Should experiment with other cakes :)

By the way, the instruction states that divide the batter into half and mix the cocoa powder into 1 halve. I shall make it 1/3 cocoa and 2/3 butter the next time I bake Marble cake, too much cocoa makes the cake too bitter.

How to check on Triangle pose

2009-10-08T15:29:00.005+08:00

I've learned this method from a Iyengar class, to check myself in a Triangle pose (Trikonasana).

By gently turning head back to look at the back heel to 'feel' the lower hip is slightly pushed to the front making both hips straight (on top of each other).

Next have to work on elongating both sides of my body.

Fruit juice recipe

2009-09-30T16:06:00.005+08:00

Taken at a fruit juice shop. More ideas on making delicious and healthy juices :)

Stepping into yoga studio again

2009-09-22T21:32:00.001+08:00

It's been a long time we since we last went to Sri Hartamas, the only thing for us to go there was YZ. Today we drove on the usual highway, stepped into the same studio, but everything has changed.

I showed the free passes I got from KL Yoga to a girl at the reception, she wasn't sure whether the passes were valid. She asked whether I have the original copy (I got the passes through email and printed out) and from which branch did I bought the passes. I told her a detailed story from what is KL Yoga and how I got the passes from the net. Another guy walked out from the office, discussed with her, and finally accepted the passes. They wasn't rude but weren't as friendly compared to previous YZ's staffs. No class cards were given out to people who have registered for the class and no towels provided (we went down to the supermarket to get 2).

We attended Thomas's Hatha 1 class (which was the only pleasant thing that I experienced during this visit). During the class, a few students raised and asked whether they have entered the wrong session. Apparently, the schedule was changed and no one informed the students, and there wasn't a Today's schedule board at the entrance like before.

When we were leaving the place after bath, there wasn't anyone at the reception. No one greet you 'good bye' after class and no one 'pester' you to join membership after a trial class, I wonder that was good or bad.

Maybe it was a day after public holiday so the atmosphere of the place wasn't encouraging and motivating. Not sure about other members (I did see a few ex-members around), but I miss YZ very much.

Free ENERGY Yoga Passes

2009-08-18T15:50:00.002+08:00

KL Yoga has been a great source for me to find out new Yoga studios/teachers, Yoga events and great health tips. And now it got even better - giving away free Yoga passes!

No slogans/proof-of-purchases/registrations/photos/videos needed, just do 1 of the 3 simplest thing:
1. Subscribe to KL Yoga OR
2. Spread the word in your blog/website OR
3. Post in Facebook

Act fast as passes are limited! And help spread the word/love around :)

Egg tart - part II

2009-08-17T21:52:00.004+08:00

With the correct sugar and new molds (exactly like what Christine used) I bought from Jusco last night , I couldn't wait to try baking egg tarts again, and this time was a success, great improvement!

No wonder the Chinese saying: 工欲善其事,必先利其器 (If a craftsman wants to do a job well, he first has to select a tool well.)

Tea time - egg tarts

2009-08-15T17:24:00.002+08:00

Thanks to Christine's recipe, I've learned to make my very own egg tarts. The ingredients and steps are simple and easy to understand. I followed the recipe exactly except for:

Sugar: I used fine sugar (not icing sugar as listed in the recipe) because Giant ran out of icing sugar. I think that's why the crusts ware too crispy, supposed to be firm but soft.

Shaping: I don't have cookie cutter, so I used a jelly cup, traced the round shape on the dough, then cut it out with a Kiwi cutter (the cutter came with a box of Kiwi that I bought some time ago, 'knife' at 1 side, 'spoon' at the other side)

I didn't have toothpick to test whether it's ready. I baked it for the maximum time - 30 mins.
Some had burnt crusts because the egg custard overflown.

Another problem was, I should've mold the dough till the top of the egg-tart-cup, I thought the dough would raise a little so I kept some space, but turned out my egg tarts were all too shallow :p

Anyway, they were delicious. The taste of the crust and custard was good, the correct sweetness that I like. Well done - to me :)

Lemon cake

2009-08-12T16:56:00.005+08:00

We contemplated for 30 minutes or more, on whether to get this oven. It has the right size for baking and roasting chicken. It has a nice design that I like (conventional oven but not too conventional design). It comes with trays and grills. The price is lowered (which is attractive) because it is a display unit and no more new stock (the reason we couldn't make up our mind).

After walking around the electrical section a few times, we decided to take it :) And glad we did.

My first project was Lemon cake. A simplest/instant recipe: Pillsbury Moist Supreme Cake Mix :p

@ 20 mins.

@ 40 mins. Ta-da~ I don't know why my cake always 'explodes' in the center. Why can't raise evenly?

Yummy~

Seated forward bend

2009-08-11T16:27:00.007+08:00

It's a busy start for August. Translation tasks at work are making me crazy looking and comparing Chinese vs. English sites. Not sure it's because I haven't restarted my system for a week or it's because of the heavy load of chinese characters in MS. Excel, it's giving me super slow respond time (hanged a few times) and made my work even more frustrating.

Bringing forward the class today, just want to shut down my laptop and enjoy the rest of the evening.

Lunch today - Inari sushi

2009-07-22T14:06:00.004+08:00

So glad to find that Jusco @ IOI mall is selling the frozen Inari skin. I guess this is the simplest Japanese dish I can prepare.

1. Steamed some rice using steamer. Didn't use Japanese rice because it's expensive. Didn't use rice cooker because I added slightly more water to make the rice sticky (than normal rice we eat with chinese dishes) and putting extra water to cook in rice cooker makes the rice stick to the pot - no good.

2. Hard-boiled an egg. Smashed it and mixed with some Japanese mayonnaise.
3. Cut some Japanese cucumbers into small sticks.

4. Opened the defrost Inari skin (it then looked like a small bag/pocket), put in some rice, topped with the mayonnaised egg and cucumber.

5. Itadakimasu.

Ate with some boiled Edamame.

Only had 4 Inari sushi with some soybeans and I'm feeling so full~

Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskara)

2009-07-14T21:55:00.002+08:00

Previously some new comers joined the class so we've skipped Sun Salutations for quite some time. I want to make sure they build strong foundation of the basic poses before introducing them the sequence in a flow. Today we started our class with Sun Salutations again. 4 sets of Sun Salutation A.

Each time we place our palms on the ground next to our feet in our begining Standing Forward Bend, we don't move our palms until we raise up from our ending Standing Forward Bend.

Palms on the ground here is like our aim. Sometimes we move forward, sometimes we fall back. We never move our aim or lower our expectations. We move on, whether it's a big leap, or step-by-step, we work hard to reach for our aim.

Cantonese style fried noodle

2009-06-30T21:36:00.005+08:00

Dinner for tonight:

I used the instant noodle I bought from Jusco last night:

1. Boil the noodle till it's cooked, rinse with cool water and leave it aside.
2. Stir-fry some chopped garlic (for fragrance), together with some sliced capsicums (green, red and yellow), celery, and Shitake mushroom.
3. Add some water (depends on how much gravy you would like), add some soy sauce and pepper.
4. When it's boiling, beat an egg into it, mix it.
5. Add some corn starch to make the gravy thicker.
6. Pour the vegetables with gravy onto the cooked noodle.
7. Eat :)

The story of Warrior (Pose)

2009-06-25T14:57:00.003+08:00

A warrior went to a yogi wanted to learn yoga from him. The yogi told the warrior to stand while waiting for him to medidate. The yogi medidated for a hundred years and the warrior was still standing strong (in his warrior pose). He has learned yoga - he learned to endure to be strong and to be determined in doing what he has decided.

Yoga is not only about asanas, it's about the way we live our life.

Iyengar Workshop with Riana A. Singgih

2009-06-21T23:16:00.000+08:00

First thing she asked the class was anyone practices Iyengar yoga. No one responded. She laughed. She explained briefly what is Iyengar yoga and started the class with the "Invocation to Patanjali", she said those who would like to chant can follow her line-by-line, but after her first line, everyone kept quiet and she continued till the end. Again she laughed, no one heard of it? I did, in Nicola's and Amanda's classes, typical Iyengar style of starting class. But I just followed the 3 OMs.

The first pose was Adho Mukha Svanasana, she spoke in Sanskrit. The class looked at her. Third laugh, you don't know the Sanskrit names? Dog pose :p She didn't sound too sarcastic, she was just surprise (at least to me), as this is a workshop, she must be expecting some 'serious' Yoga practitioners. But in fact, most of us treat Yoga as a form of physical exercise. Chanting, meditation or Mudras(hand gestures) are too religious or spiritual. Anyway, it was fun that everytime she said a Sanskrit name, she followed by the english name of the pose, and sometimes she asked "this is what you called right?" :D

A lot of corrections on alignments are done. She walked around the room with her 'forceful' instructions and I was very sure everyone only started to adjust themselves or looked themselves into the mirror when she mentioned something.

Some poses needed a partner, I went alone so I had to make friend with a girl seated next to me, but she's an extremely quiet girl, we didn't even exchange names, merely following instructions.

We did Downward Dogs, Standing Forward Bends, Triangles, Warrior IIs, a few Vinyasas and Seated Forward Bends & Twists. At our last 1/2 hour, we were out of time, we could choose to do either backbends or inversions. Eventually we proceeded with Headstand. Everyone in the class was adventurous, some did it in the center of the room, some against the wall. She spotted incorrect alignments in all these poses and explained how to adjust ourselves and how to help the others. Correct alignment is very important to prevent injuries and to obtain the benefits out of the poses.

Most sports (at least for those I've tried) are trained with correct postures before you attempt to score. Bowlers simply throw the ball to practice the correct style before learning to aim the pins; golfers swing their golf sticks hitting the air to practice the correct posture before learning to hit the ball with the correct strength. Correct postures in Yoga (and in our daily life) is even more important because that's how we score the game.

Finally we ended the class with, of course, Shavasana and 3 OMs. Tired, but very beneficial.

First scarf

2009-06-17T16:03:00.004+08:00

Thanks to Karen for her encouragement and thanks to Youtube for its great videos (videos from CyberSeams are the best!), I've completed my first knitting project - a simple scarf of Garter stitch. Videos made learning so much easier, I admire people who learned from books with just 2D images.

Garter stitch - every row, front and back have the same pattern.

The scarf looks OK on the whole, but I know a few flaws. I can't hide the frayed knots of the yarns, I can only 'adjust' them so they are only visible on 1 side of the scarf, that becomes the back of the scarf. And binding-off was the most tricky part, everything was good until the 2nd last stitch :( I didn't know how to save it. However, I learn from my mistakes, hopefully next one will be better :)

I used 3 balls of yarn for that, it's kind of short, so I've prepared 5 balls for my next project. Knit stitch on every row bores me, I'm going to try the Stockinette Stitch this time.

For a better breathing

2009-06-16T22:51:00.002+08:00

It's been hazy nowadays. Today's class emphasized on chest/lungs expansion. Most backbends do the trick.

Pigeon pose.

We ended our class with Kapalabhati, a breathing technique to cleanse our nasal passage and lungs, eliminate more carbon dioxide and take in more oxygen, giving ourselves a fresh mind to continue our daily routine.

Steamed beancurd with mushroom

2009-05-27T22:12:00.003+08:00

It was a busy night. Work and meetings after meetings. So had to cook something really simple.

I love eating steamed beancurb. During my super-lazy days, I would just pour some oyster sauce on the beancurb and steam it. If not, I would add some 'toppings'.

1. Soak some dried Chinese mushroom until soften, slice it.
2. Add some seasoning to the sliced mushroom - I used vegetarian oyster sauce and a bit of sesame oil.
3. Spread the marinated mushroom on the sliced white beancurd. Steam for ... I didn't time it, but should be around 10-15 minutes (depending on how much water in the steamer and which type of pot/wok material is used).
4. Sprinkle some chopped spring onions and serve.

White and supple, mmm~~~

Daidomon @ Great Eastern Mall

2009-05-23T23:13:00.006+08:00

A friend showed me the Daidomon promotion e-flyer last Thursday. We spontaneously decided to go try it out today. We've tried Jogoya promotions for several times and we think their service is terribly lousy during promotion period, we were thinking whether it would be the same for Daidomon.

Amazingly, the food is nice and the service is even better! This was our first time having Japanese BBQ, we do not know what to order and the waitress kindly suggested and brought the food to be BBQ-ed to us in her most friendly smile. She explained to us how to use the stove/hot plate, and came to check on us (and other customers) from time to time whether we need anything else or any help. This is so different from other eat-all-you-can restaurants when having promotion where they usually are 'too busy' to refill or take your order.

Daidomon serves a full range of buffet main dishes, beverages and wine.

Got my main dish and salad from the buffet line.

Fried rice, fried noodle, stir-fried vegetables, Maki (a bit messy looking though), potato salad and deep fried vegetable pie

I love the japanese salad dressing.

It also provides a menu which we can order raw meat and vegetables for BBQ.

Too bad they didn't have the Yasai Tempura today.

After the BBQ, we had fresh fruits, fruit cocktail and ice-cream for dessert. And I have to say, all self-service ice cream gives me a hard time, regardless it's Walls or Häagen-Dazs, I always have aching fingers after scooping it.

Not worth paying 39.90++ for vegetables only? I enjoyed the food as well as the get-together and it was all worthed it.

My breakfast today

2009-05-22T11:10:00.003+08:00

Keen Yee always complain about my heavy yet unhealthy breakfast. So this morning I prepared something 'considered' healthy.

There are many ways to make French toast. When I was young, the mum-way was dip the bread in beaten eggs, pan-fry it, spread butter/margarine on it and sprinkle some sugar on it. My way of doing it now is dip the bread in beaten eggs (sometimes I add a little fresh milk in it), pan-fry it with olive margarine (more fragrant) and sprinkle some sugar on it (raw brown sugar). A bit of oiliness and sweetness always make the food tastier but we can be eating healthier by choosing our ingredients wisely.

I did not add milk into the eggs today because I prefer to enjoy it just by itself. The Anlene Concentrate is my new favourite now. Those who dislike milk because of its cow-y smell should try this, vanilla flavoured milk.

When migraine strikes

2009-05-21T15:29:00.002+08:00

I love teaching (or should be sharing knowledge of) yoga. But there were times I felt reluctant to go to class, that’s when migraine strikes. While struggling with the pain in my head, I struggled to send out the class cancellation email. Skipping my own class is more guilty compared to skipping other's classes, especially they only got to practice once a week.

Most of the time I dragged myself to class during these moments. And I never regretted because I always feel good yoga-ing. Even though it’s merely 1 hour it makes me forget about the unendurable pain. The pain do comes back after class (saddest fact is only pain-killer subsides the pain), but I just wish to make myself feel good for as much time as possible in my life.

Wedding preparation and shopping

2009-05-16T09:32:00.006+08:00

There are many chinese customs to be carried out before the wedding ceremony. We are all modern generations and have simplified many of them but some customs are not avoidable. Not to mention there's also a lot of shopping to do, all the auspicious but tedious things to prepare.

Thanks to RedBliss that provides one-stop service of everything related to wedding, saving our time of searching and shopping. Now they are having 30%-discount-promotion so more of a reason for us to get everything we need from them.

A set used for An Chuang (install the bed) custom and the actual wedding day.

A pair of modern 'oil lamp' to be kept lighted for 3 days 3 nights, have to get Duracell batteries for that :p

Tub for bathing baby (pre-wedding, and we are talking about babies here :| ).

Sewing kit replaced the sewing machine of olden times, representing the girl (bride) is good in sewing and other needle works.

Potty set - oranges and ang pao to be placed inside and sealed with red paper. A young boy to be asked to break the paper to get the oranges and red packet on the wedding day representing the couple giving birth to boys (not only babies, and must be boys :| ).

Anyway, being a chinese, I'm sure this a journey that every married couple went through, so I shall not complain too much and just comply.

The sales girl reminded us a lot on how/where to place, what to do with those things. So many rules~ I hope I can remember all of them.

Do not fall asleep

2009-05-14T14:16:00.004+08:00

I always play a soothing music in class for Shavasana. It's a piece of music Azmi used to play during Shavasana in his class. I love it because it calms me and I can relax myself by listening to it.

There was once I'm not sure whether it was the CD or the player, the CD got "stuck" and couldn't play. So I tried to relax the class verbally with "release any tension at your joints", "do not hold any part of your muscles", "listen to the rhythm of your breathe" kind of words. Lastly I reminded them "but, do not fall asleep". Someone raised and looked at me "Do not fall alseep?"

All of us love Shavasana, but it's not easy to lie down on the mat comfortably with eyes closed but do not fall asleep (especially after a workout). I've noticed people dozed off during Shavasana, and I used to have wandering mind during Shavasana. But the correct thing to do during this 3-10 minutes is to relax the body and mind. It's hard but it's what we're trying to achieve, for at least a few minutes.

What I do is I (really) listen to my own breathe. I keep myself conscious by feeling my abdomen raising and flattening, feeling the air flowing to every part of my body nourishing every cell. I feel relax as I have no time to think of anything other than my breathe, just enjoy the feeling of letting go.

Keeping our mind empty once in a while helps bringing in new thoughts.

Open your heart

2009-05-05T20:45:00.002+08:00

Backbends open the heart, energize the body, invigorate the mind.

Ichiban Boshi

2009-05-04T22:40:00.007+08:00

I was previously surprised by the vegetarian sushi menu introduced by Kinsahi, then I found another japanese restaurant that provide quite a variety of vegetarian choices - Ichiban Boshi in Pavilion KL.

Besides the usual Egg Mayo, Inari, Cucumber/Radish Maki and corn Sushi, Ichiban Boshi has something more interesting.

Vegetables Roll (Maki).

Vegetables Handroll (Temaki).

Forgotten the name, something with Inari and pickled radish.

Cold beancurb.

The thing I like about them is that these are not vegetarian as in they are 'fake' seafood/meat, but they are all vegetables - fresh and colorful vegetables, to be eaten in a creative way.

Another plus point is, the price here is like Sushi King, with better customer service, environment and food.

Extended Side Angle

2009-04-28T21:28:00.004+08:00

I was sitting at my desk for hours reviewing abundant requests (extra requests during QA stage!) from a client. Just before my get-off-work time, I felt a mild lower back ache, felt like getting a back massage but too bad I don't have the time for this luxury.

Soon it was class time. After a couple for hip-opening and twisting poses, I felt much better, so much relief for the lower back.

Parsvakonasana.

I love Yoga, for its self-therapeutic effect.

Stuffed cucumber

2009-04-24T14:17:00.008+08:00

It was one of the main dish of my lunch today. I wanted to follow the recipe but failed because of laziness :p I just took the rough idea of this dish and made it my own version (I didn't even follow the measurement, I just estimated based on my own liking). Looked nice, tasted not bad too. I think I shall follow the full recipe another time and it will be much nicer.

Original recipe:

Ingredients
Cucumber 1, large
Corn flour (cornstarch) 1 Tbsp
Soft bean curb 300g, mashed
Dried Chinese mushrooms 6, soaked to soften, stems discarded and minced
Water chestnuts 45g, peeled and minced (I couldn't get this so I replaced with potato)
Carrot 1, small, peeled and minced
Salted vegetable 30g, soaked in water for 30 minutes, washed and minced (I skipped this as I try to cut down on preserved food, but definitely will taste nicer with this in it)
Cooking oil 75ml
Vegetable stock 180ml (Didn't make this, I replace with some 'mushroom water' - the water I used to soak the mushrooms + soy sauce + sesame oil + salt)
Sesame oil 1 1/2 tsp

Seasoning A
Salt 2/3 tsp
Dry mustard 1/2 tsp (I skipped this)
Corn flour (cornstarch) 1 Tbsp
Egg white 1

Seasoning B
Salt 1 tsp
Ground white pepper 1/2 tsp

Method
-Peel cucumber and trim off ends. Cut into 2.5cm thick rounds and use a small round cutter to cut out the soft centres (I don't have small round cutter so I used butter knife to cut manually, not smooth edges but it won't be seen). Wash cucumber rings and pat dry with paper towel, Dust inside of tings with corn flour.

-Mix mashed bean curb with all minced ingredients and seasoning A. Mix well. Heat 2 Tbsp oil and stir-fry mixture for 2 minutes (I skipped this step). Pack into cucumber ring.

- Heat remaining oil in a frying pan and lightly cook stuffed cucumber rings over medium heat until just browned.

-Pour vegetable stock over cucumber rings and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer very gently for 20 minutes until cucumber are tender. Add seasoning B and sesame oil. Transfer to a deep serving dish and serve hot.

Quoted from Chinese Vegetarian mini cookbook.

I skipped the whole last 2 steps. I poured the stock + seasoning into the plate with stuffed cucumber rings and steamed it for 10 mins or so. Haha, much easier!

Eagle

2009-04-21T22:11:00.002+08:00

It looks very much entangled, but it helps me loosen the knots in my body.

My private Yoga corner

2009-04-07T11:09:00.004+08:00

Finally I've cleared up the space and claimed this corner of the house as my private Yoga corner. A place for my home practice. A place to seek quiet and peace.

Since I've not joined any Yoga center for my practice, Yoga Today is now my guidance and companion.

My next target: fixing a big mirror here.

White book shelf

2009-03-27T10:38:00.004+08:00

This is the biggest piece of furniture (so far) we bought from Ikea - 202cm tall, not to mention very heavy too. It has 3 colors, I picked white to match with my white computer desk.

I think I'm not only in love with Ikea furnitures, I'm addicted to fix my own furnitures too!

I like it big, simple and flexible, the shelves in between are adjustable to different heights to fit files, magazines and books of different sizes.

Another thing I like about it is the nice curve fitting at the bottom of the shelf, which allow it to 'lean' against the wall without a little gap.

We weren't aware of this when we saw the display set and we thought it was a defect when we took out the pieces of planks from the box :p

It's not only a book shelf, it can be an elegant display cabinet when glass doors are fixed to it. Thinking of getting another one to be placed beside it :)

Curtains for living hall

2009-03-27T10:23:00.003+08:00

I decided to sew curtains for all the windows in my house. Meassured the length and width and bought the material from Kamdar. But for months, I only managed to complete the ones for my living hall and my room - too busy with work, life, and dogs.

When I first completed for the living hall, I got very excited (my first time sewing curtains) but when I hung it I went 'Oh no!~', it was dragging on the floor, almost could be the backdrop for photo studio. It was left dragging until I finally got some free time to alter it.

I reckon almost everything is hard to build but easy to destroy, except sewings. It took me 1/2 hour to unpick it, the re-sewing only took 10 minutes.

Yet, after first time alteration, it was still a little too long. It's either my measuring technique or sewing technique is lousy, or blame it on the tool :p The first time I used the plastic sewing measuring tape, the second time I used the retractable metal measuring tape (as I think it's more accurate as it can stay 'steady' when it's locked) and I finally got it right, yeah~

Gown Testing for Wedding album

2009-03-22T08:06:00.027+08:00

This was the only day I am a model changing many pretty dresses and stand on the platform for people to admire :)

We engaged RedBliss as our wedding photo album shooting back in February during the bridal fair in MidValley. We were only able to go for gown testing today as all the previous weekends were booked - good business huh~

We booked for the earliest time slot - 11AM, we reached even earlier, the staffs were cleaning and tidying up the place waiting for customers.

I flipped through the gowns, all are so pretty, I was tempted to try all. I ended up trying on around 20 gowns to pick 5 for photo shooting and 2 for the actual day ceremony and dinner. For my package, I was allowed to choose any dresses from their collection, but only allowed to choose 1 wedding gown and 1 evening gown from the Gown for Sale section - marketing gimmick, the more you pay, the more you get to choose so called 'special' gowns. But I even had difficulty choosing (and eliminating) the 'normal' gowns upstairs .

This was the first gown I tried on. I have seen a friend of mine wore something like that and thought it was elegant. This is from the Gown for Sale section, I gave this up because I 'had' to pick another wedding gown from this section.

Another elegant gown from Gown for Sale section, but it was a little too plain for photo shooting.

After trying on so many wedding gowns, I had made my mind on:
This for indoor photo shooting, wedding gown from the For Sale section. I love the exaggerated-big skirt (we call it the layered-cake skirt), with the bling-bling on the top, it's like a princess dress!

This for outdoor photo shooting. Simple and light, easy to walk/run/jump in it. I hope there will be clear blue sky during the shooting day and the blue beads around the neckline will be a pretty match with the sky.

This for actual day ceremony. I love the pink (if it's red then it will be PERFECT!) flower sewing at the bottom of the skirt, and it looks a bit like chinese traditional cheong sum, with a high hip-cut at the side. I picked this because it's easy to walk around in it, and comfortable to sit / go in and out of the car / bow for tea ceremony.

Next was to choose evening gowns, 3 for photo shooting, 1 for actual day. Choosing evening gown was confusing, so many designs, so many colors, I have to give up so many nice dresses!

This was my first choice, I love the sweet pink, the and furry little pin in the center.

This was worn by a model shooting for their 'For Sale Gown' album. The 'evil-looking' collar can be removed and the gown will look more 'decent' :p We called it the vampire gown. I love it at first sight. But it doesn't fit me well (or rather, I don't fit in well). The tailor said it can be altered but it will not look nice when close-ups. So have to give this up. The sales personnel were nice to allow me to wear it a little longer, haha).

This was one gown that made us 'Wow~' for at least 10 times.

I love that too. But I had to give it up too as I wanted this even more (I don't want to have gowns with same color that makes the album looks boring). It has 2 ways of wearing it - without the small jacket it looks like another princess dress, with the small jacket it looks so ancient-victorian, I always love it! If it wasn't because of the jacket, I wouldn't have chosen it.

So my choice of evening gown from the For Sale section was this - a mermaid gown. Again I love it's exaggerating-ness.

It was a tiring 3-hour gown testing session, hungry and thirsty, and what I've learned for gown testing were:
1. Book for the earliest time slot and reach there early, then you can pick all the nice dresses and try on it slowly. Another girl came in later than us, and I was holding most of the For Sale gowns. If we were late we might not be able to choose as many or we need to wait longer. If you are going to RedBliss too, going early makes sure that you get the bigger fitting room and big sofa set in front of it for the comfort of your partner/friend/parents that are going with you.

2. It will be a longgggggggg session, make sure you had your meal. Don't be an angry woman when trying on the gowns, everything will look bad too.

3. Bring those who have same taste in dresses to pick the gowns with you. Or you won't be able to pick any - too many people, too many comments. The girl at the next room seemed spending more time to get mutual agreement with her mother.

4. Photo taking are not allowed in most of the bridal shop during gown testing. We did it with my phone camera in a least obvious way. But the sales personnel that attended to us just pretended she didn't know, however, she warned us not to let others see or they will have a hard time controlling another group that came for gown testing too. You won't be able to take photo on your own in the fitting room as the sales personnel comes in to help to zip the dress and bring you out, and help unzip the dress in the fitting room and leave you to allow you to change - in short, there won't be a time you have a dress worn decently in the fitting room.

Anyway, it's a day you can be Amber Chia, so enjoy it!

My wedding shoe

2009-03-17T10:00:00.004+08:00

I tried on a pair of gold color heels in Vincci and a pair of Santa Barbara heels in MidValley, then went through all shoe boutiques in The Gardens and Sunway Pyramid. Eventually, I got my pair from Lewré in One Utama.

I like the design of its embedded bling-bling in the shoe, although it's not real diamond or not even Swarovski (they do have shoes with Swarovski but I didn't buy those).

It's 3 inches high, but it is comfortable to wear and walk in.

I saw a few pairs in other boutiques too, but most of those satin shoes seemed old and stained, even it was a new pair from the box. I think I should start surveying how to take care mine.

Easy Purvottanasana

2009-03-04T15:05:00.007+08:00

During our Twister game last weekend, many said that this game benefits those who practices Yoga. I'm half-agreed. It's true that one needs the flexibility to stretch, and the strength to hold own body with only palms and feet on the ground. Flexibility and strength can be achieved by practicing Yoga and other exercises, and it depends on individual (some might be borned with super flexibility without practicing).

One of the pose they reminded me of is the Table Top pose (an easy version of Purvottanasana), as most of the time (in this game) this pose comes handy - placing hands in front of the body is something we used to do, but placing hands behind without sitting on the ground is something we don't usually like to do.

During my first few practices of this pose, I thought it required lots of arm strength. Now I came to realize that, the correct way (or more comfortable-for-wrist way) is to lift the body up using the hips strength. So I always remind my class to use more of the hips to lift up instead of depending only on the arms, so that it doesn't strain too much on the shoulders, elbows and wrists.

However, Twister doesn't only require these, because there will be many hands and legs coming in between blocking your way, it requires creativity too! I want to play it again~

A' Famosa gathering

2009-03-03T10:07:00.019+08:00

It was meant to be a gathering of colleagues and ex-colleagues, it turned out to be more a dog event than a human event - 11 of us, with 5 dogs. We had BaiBai the Spitz, Dagger the mongrel, Jan the mongrel, Yumi the Shih Tzu and Mocha (AKA the King) the Chihuahua, a mixture of everything.

Courtesy of Lydia - half of the group.

We stayed in a double storey bungalow, 4 bedrooms 3 bathrooms 1 kitchen and 1 swimming pool.

This was the second time BaiBai went to A' Famosa, Dagger's first time. But they both settled down and mixed around soon after we reached.

We mingled for a while, fed the dogs, then went out to have dinner at Tampin, bringing Mocha along.

After dinner, despite the rain, we drove south to Malacca. Food in Jonker Walk was our motivation. The rain begun to stop when we reached there. It was still drizzling a little but obviously the crowd there (and us) didn't mind. We sat down and had Cendol in one of the dessert shop, and all of us bought some food to eat along the way and some for supper. I personally went there for Abacus Beads (Suan Pan Zi).

We left Jonker Walk about an hour later. We passed by the Malacca River when we were walking towards our cars. We saw a Ferris Wheel at the other side of the river.

All were discussing whether it was the Eye of Malaysia - some said yes, some said it's too small to be the Eye of Malaysia. Anyway we gave up guessing and decided to Google about it when we come back.

We headed back to our bungalow, let the dogs out to do their final 'business' for the night, and we all gathered in the hall eating, drinking and Guitar Hero-ing. The dogs were busy walking around the house.

In pyjama, time for bed.

The next morning, BaiBai woke up (and woke me up) at 7:30 as usual. It was a pretty sunny morning, let them out at the yard and they had their satisfied morning walk.

Dagger had run off the leash once and we almost lost her, so we are very careful when we bring her out for walk. The yard of the bungalow we stayed in was fenced up with brick walls, so we were very sure and felt safe to let her loose and run about. We had a great time watching her exploring the yard :)

Dogs had all their fun, and the fun for us started after breakfast, when we wanted to pack and check out, we decided to have a game of Twister before we leave. I saw this game on TV a few times, watching others play is always fun, and it was REALLY fun when I tried it myself. We had great laughs and I think the dogs must be laughing in their hearts too.

Courtesy of Lydia - Dogs: What are they doing?

Courtesy of Lydia - Trying really hard not to get kicked out of the game.

Courtesy of Lydia - Only palms and feet can touch the floor, really tiring.

Courtesy of Lydia - Everyone was laughing, those who were playing and those who were watching. I laughed my tears out while playing.

It was a great trip and I love going A' Famosa not because of the Water Park or Safari or the Cowboy Town, it's because we can have holiday with our pets :) Hope we can discover more places like this.

Ikea white computer desk

2009-02-24T17:06:00.008+08:00

It wasn't my plan to buy my computer desk from Ikea. I've surveyed some furniture shops and set my budget at RM250 for a 6 ft long table, just table without drawers or those PC-allocation-parts (CPU space, keyboard drawer, etc).

Last Sunday I went to Ikea to get the pet's poo bag (they used to sell it at very cheap price but I couldn't find it anymore, why they discontinue it? :( ) Disappointedly, we walked to the exit through the store section, then we saw this white computer desk being displayed at the hallway. It's 100cm long and costs RM95 each (RM55 for the table top, and RM10 for each leg of the table - the usual Ikea pricing method). I like it at first sight. We measured with the paper measuring tape provided there, to make sure the length is what we wanted (100cm is around 3.3ft). We also checked how the legs are fixed to the table - besides the easiness to fix, we have to make sure it doesn't wobble). After all the checking, we took 2 sets. With just a screwdriver, it's easily fixed. I like the color and the simple design. But 1 of them isn't level (not sure whether it's the floor or the legs of the table) so I have to slipped a piece of folded paper under the leg to make it stable.

2 new computer desks at my family hall. Hhmm, need to get some cable-ties to make the cables tidier - why can't everything be wireless?

This chair was displyed with the desk in the store, but it costs more than the desk - RM169. It's very comfortable and nice. When I get it some other day, then it will be more of the reason for me to work from home more often :p

Wedding lunch - Farah & Khairi

2009-02-21T22:57:00.005+08:00

This is the first time I attended a close Malay friend's wedding. I always see Malay neighbours have jamuan at their homes with catering for weddings, but Farah's one was held in a hall, it was grand. Before I stepped into the hall I smelled the fragrance of Nasi Beriani which made me so hungry~

Not for the guest, this was for the bride & groom and their family, guest had another buffet line.

The wedding cake was bride's custom order to Sheela, simple and pretty. Any orders? :D

They looked like the King and Queen!

After their ceremony and photo sessions with family & friends, we finally got chance to take individual photos with Farah.

Attended with the dress I bought from Irenelim few weeks ago.

Farah, you look stunningly pretty today! Wishing you two a great marriage life ahead :)

Applying dog license for Daerah Sepang

2009-02-20T13:36:00.004+08:00

It's a super troublesome thing to do.

First I went to the MPS (Majlis Perbandaran Sepang) office to get the form. 1 application form, and 4 forms for my neighbours to acknowledge and sign to say that they agree with me keeping dogs (that's fine, and fair).

Then I have to take pictures of my dogs in their cages in my house compound, to show that my dogs are well-kept and not running around disturbing others.

I prepared everything and went to submit the forms, photos and their vaccination cards. The officer in MPS photocopied the vaccination cards for reference, and returned me a photocopied application form with receival acknowledgement. She said within 14 days, officers from MPS will come to the house to inspect (whether the address is correct, and whether the dogs really staying at the stated address). They will come during working hours. I told her I need to work and nobody will be at home during working days/hours. She said that the officers will give me a call when they are coming, then I can arrange with them :| (Only they need to work, dog owners don't need to work?) After the inspection and if everything is alright, then they will call me to collect the licenses (RM12 each per year). Before getting the licenses, if the dogs got caught walking around without licenses, I can show them the photocopied application form with receival acknowledgement, or else I will be fined for RM200-RM300.

Anyway, now still waiting for their call. I wonder, do owners need to apply licenses for their cats?

Proposal

2009-02-15T14:47:00.000+08:00

It wasn't a luxury nor glamorous one, but his sincerity made me said 'Yes' :)

Thanks for all the best wishes and congrats. This is just the start and I hope for a smooth and happy journey ahead.

Taman Pertanian Shah Alam

2009-02-14T16:35:00.012+08:00

It has many different names - call it Taman Bukit Cahaya, Taman Pertanian Shah Alam or Taman Pertanian Seri Alam. A colleague told us about this place, which is a nice and big place to enjoy the nature and cycling, so we decided we go there for a day trip. The entrance fee is RM3 per adult and RM1 per kid under 12 year-old.

As we entered the park, we had choices of method to explore the park: walking, tour bus, or cycling. We picked cycling as this was 1 of the main reasons we came - to enjoy the nature and wind, but later on we regretted because the place is hilly and cycling was tiring.

Big tour bus that goes around the park.

Rented the bicycle at RM3 for 1st hour and RM1 for subsequent hours. New bicycles - RM5 1st hour and RM1 for subsequent hours.

Our first stop was the paddy field and Cocoa field, but I didn't see any Cocoa (or maybe I don't recognize it).

Besides greens, there are many animals kept in the park, and it didn't smell too bad like the zoo.

Lonely pony inside the compound standing near the gate, I think he wished to come out.

Ostrich.

Buffalo.

One of the attractions of this park is the Four Seasons temperature garden. It was 'winter' from Dec till March, and on the door there was a notice saying that 'Temperature: -2 to -7 Celsius. No jackets provided.' :| But since we were there, we decided to give it a try, with our t-shirt and shorts. Not as 'scary' as we thought.

Fee per entry for the temperature garden is RM3, I think it's over-charged because it's just a small house with both side of the area decorated with some 'snow' and dolls, couldn't even walk on the 'snow' and pose beside the dolls. Snow house @ Genting and Ice World in The Mines Wonderland are much better. Maybe Spring or Autumn will be nice.

Anyway, the park is soooooo big that we couldn't finish in one day (we only covered maybe 20% of it), the sun getting warmer in the afternoon so we went home around 12PM, would like to visit it again, wish to visit the fruits farm and fish farm next time.

Ikea TV Bench

2009-02-03T10:44:00.004+08:00

Last year I got a RM100 Ikea gift voucher for joining their online members' survey. I love the furnitures and things from there, they always have contemporary design and innovative usage. But furnitures there are normally more expensive compared to the neighbourhood furniture shops.

With the gift voucher, I bought a simple TV bench from Ikea. It took almost 1 hour to get it fixed. Some might think fixing your own furniture is tedious but to me it's fun and brings much satisfaction.

This was the second easiest piece of furniture to fix (for all the things I bought from there). All bolts & screws fit perfectly. Although we made some mistakes but it was quickly being corrected. But hhmm, it seems a little different from what is shown in their 2009 brochure.

Anyway, I'm using it perfectly fine, so no complains :)

Happy New (牛) Year

2009-01-25T23:59:00.000+08:00

1 minute to Chinese New Year! Wishing everyone a prosperous and healthy Ox year ahead~

All the best

2009-01-21T21:37:00.003+08:00

Today is a sad day. I couldn't hold my tears for a few times. Only when you lose something, you realised how important it was to you. Sometimes, it's not that you are going to lose it, but you just know it will never be the same again.

However, leaving might not be a bad thing, life goes on. I can only sit here continuing my daily routine and wish all of them Good Luck and All The Best in life~

Lion Dance

2009-01-20T08:52:00.007+08:00

One of my favourite thing during Chinese New Year is the Lion Dance. We had it in our office 2 years back, but didn't have it last year because at the time the new social committee wasn't set up yet. So this year (2008/2009), being a social committee member, I strongly pushed for the idea of hiring a Lion Dance troupe to our office, and it was approved!

I prefer the red one.

The lions were good at posing.

I loved it when they danced around the pond, so lively and cute~

They were not just dancing and hopping around, they played with each other, playfully disturbed each other and my colleagues (even my bosses from U.S.), and also fight over the plate of fruits. Everything was part of the play of course, but they did it so funny that amused the audience all time.

The red lion won and got to eat up the fruits.

Fruits got eaten by the lion.

We didn't use this troupe before, I simply google-d 'Lion Dance troupe KL' and Khuan Loke Association Lion Dance Troupe was in the list. They were very punctual - we agreed to start at 3PM, they reached at 2:30PM and discussed with us the route (to go around our office), prepared the fruits and hung the lettuce up the roof. The dance was great and they finished it within the time frame we gave - 1 hour. The people were friendly and polite too. Hope to have them again next year!

Moving house is disaster

2009-01-19T09:16:00.003+08:00

I don't understand, why there are SO many things? After hours of unpacking, the boxes there didn't seem to reduce! And those are just half of the stuff we moved in. Ah~

BaiBai and Dagger looked blur and curious about their new home too.

Room sweet room

2009-01-10T20:13:00.006+08:00

Since the renovation work has started, I had not have a single good night sleep. Woke up middle of the night worrying about whether the work can be done smoothly or did I miss out anything.

I wanted to move out from here (the current rented place) as soon as possible - so that I don't have to pay more rental to the lousy landlord; so that I don't have to struggle with the blocked kitchen sink every evening (landlord refuse to repair); so that I don't have to come home seeing my car porch full of rubbish thrown over by the kids next door. I gave 2 months notice to the landlord and determined to move out end of January. So I have to make sure (very sure) that my new house renovations will be done by then. Besides calling the contractor everyday to remind him all the little little details (he has too much work I think, always forgetting things), I go to the house to check on the work progress everyday.

The work has been on-going for 2 weeks plus. Finally the interior painting, grills, light & fan fixings are done. And today is the day my bedroom set being delivered :)

Before,

After,

Can't wait to sleep in my new room!

Vegetarian anchovies fried rice

2009-01-06T09:55:00.005+08:00

1 week holiday is over. Back to the realistic busy working life. Despite daily job, household chores and managing my new house renovations, I still prepare lunchbox to work. It's also good that I finish most of the food at home to make it easier when moving to new house.

I steamed some rice last night, and prepared the ingredients - vegetarian anchovies, sliced mushroom and defrozed mixed vege.

I bet it will be nicer with egg, but didn't plan to replenish any food at home so just make do with whatever I have now.

Christmas in Singapore

2008-12-25T23:59:00.012+08:00

The last time I went for Christmas countdown in Singapore was 1994 (if I remembered correctly). Wanted to countdown in Singapore again this year but it was raining whole afternoon yesterday so decided to go today instead. Went there mainly for the street deco and lightings.

Arrived Queenstreet at 12PM, went to Bugis Village for some shopping first :) I told myself not to buy any more clothes as last week already bought some. I could resist all the blouses and dresses @ 10 dollars but just before I left the place, I bought myself 2 blouses @ 16 dollars :D

Done with 'real' shopping, went in to Bugis Junction BHG for some window shopping (things are more expensive there).

Merry Christmas arch @ Bugis Junction.

Merry-Go-Round tree.

Diamond tree by Lee Hwa Jewellery, in front of InterContinental Hotel.

Later in the evening, took MRT to Orchard road.

Mery Christmas arch @ the junction of Orchard MRT station.

Cake Christmas tree.

Deco of Shaw House shopping center.

The night view @ Orchard Road was prettier.

Cupcake Christmas trees.

The lantern cars reminded me of Chinese Mid-Autumn (Lantern) Festival, except these were Jesus, fairies and sheeps.

Jesus mails.

Went home early around 9PM to avoid jams (human and traffic) late at night.

Orchard MRT entrance.

Not too crowded at the MRT ticketing machines.

Reached home and collapsed on bed at almost 12AM. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year~ I'm going to enjoy my long holiday till the 5th Jan!

Team Building @ Klana Resort, Seremban

2008-12-22T09:23:00.018+08:00

It started off with a rush. I set my alarm wrongly so it didn't ring at 6 in the morning. I woke up at 6:45AM and I supposed to leave my house at 7AM! I quickly washed up, loaded everything (luggage, gifts, and other stuffs to be used during the Christmas Dinner) in the car, and drove off to Seremban.

The location map on its website is very clear, I reached the place slightly after 8AM, met with the manager who arranged our team building activities, Wendy. She arranged everything for us according to what we have agreed, and even prepared a meeting room for us to keep our luggages and other stuffs while waiting for the maids to clean the rooms for check-in.

After our morning tea, the group formation took place. We were split into 3 teams, I was in the red team (Spartan!). Before the actual team building activities, we had some warm-up through ice-breaking games. The small ice-breaking games made me panted :p

The first activity for our team was Flying Fox. I always know what to expect from Flying Fox, but when I looked at the ladder and the rope at the top of the building (4 storeys high), I got scared. I kept telling myself I must do it because it was going to affect the whole team. I climbed the ladder step by step without looking up and down, tried to reach for the next step by feeling with my arms and pulled myself up. Finally reached the platform at the top of the building. The team building instructor was waiting there. He checked my safety equipments, and kept telling me to relax and breathe. He then told me to sit at the edge of the platform, I told him I would close my eyes and just push me down. And there I went, right down to the other side of the park. Felt terrified for a second, then I actually enjoyed it. The feeling of being freed. It wasn't as scary as I thought.

Next acitivity was Rapalling. We all thought that would be tougher than Flying Fox because we got to climb down from 5th floor, and we had to control with our hands and legs (not free-fall like Flying Fox). We walked up to 5th floor by stairs. Another team building instructor was there waiting, next to the window. Again he checked my safety equipments, and told me to go near the window, step 1 leg out of the window at 1 time, stepped on a tiny platform outside the window. A rope was attached to the hook in front of my waist, I was instructed to hold the rope with my left hand in front, and right hand behind of me. Then I had to slowly release the tension of my hands holding the rope to let myself down slowly. This wasn't scary once I trust all the safety equipments that were attached to my body. I couldn't kick and release like what others do (as what the instructor shown us during demo), I was more like running on the wall while I released myself down to the ground.

Followed by Obstacle Race, I think this was the toughest as this activity was not merely on strength and courage, it was more on team work and brainstorm. The obstacles were set along the journey we were supposed to complete, and there were tons of rules we had to follow. We had to cross a pavement with stones with the correct 'rythym' (1 leg only or 2 legs together). We had to go through a big tyre hanging vertically without touching it (not even our t-shirts and pants). We had to walk on a tiny hanging plank without touching anything/anybody. We had to carry one of our member on a long bamboo stick to achieve something. And lastly was the commando crawl. I think we couldn't complete it without some hints from the team building instructor :p It was sweaty and dirty, but fun!

The Treasure Hunt in the afternoon was something different. The Treassure Hunt I heard normally have clues and lead to more clues, and finally get the answer. The Treasure Hunt we had, is merely looking for answers. We were given a hand-drawn map with coordinates, another paper with the destinations coordinates, and a blank answers sheet. We were supposed to identify all locations on the map, and look for a 4"x4" square zinc plate with something drawn on it at each identified location (may it be on the tree, on the wall or roof), and draw them on the answer sheet.

It was really a day full of rushing. After the Treasure Hunt it was almost 5PM. We social committee members gathered in the temporary meeting room to do our final preparation for the Chritmas Dinner at night - wrapping the lucky draw gifts. After 1 hour, everything was done, I rushed back to the room to bathe and get dressed because the reception for the dinner was 6:30PM! But all the rushing and hard work was worth it - seeing everyone had a wonderful night in the wonderful ballroom.

Everyone settling down.

Food~

I was too busy preparing and shopping for this event, didn't have time to shop for a dress for this dinner. Lucky we have something called the online boutique. Easily, I bought my dinner dress from Irenelim Fashion.

Also bought a pair of earrings from Ryl (and had someone to delivered to me to Seremban :D).

It was a busy, body-aching, yet fun filled night. It was fun to be part of the social committee to organize all the events. We hope for more events next year!

My fellow social committee members who I had lots of fun working with.

New hair cut for the new year

2008-12-18T21:06:00.006+08:00

I always wanted to try a new hair style, after years of long (rebonding) straight hair. It's not that I'm bored with long hair, but just wanted something different. The more I browse for clothes in irenelim.com, the more I like the hair style of one of the model. I was in JB for a long holiday, so one day after my spa treatment in Cres, I walked to the hair salon next door, full house. Walked to another hair salon at the other corner, also full house. Wah why so many people went for hair cut/treatment/color the same time as I wanted to? I really wanted to have the new hair cut so I just went to a nearby neighbourhood salon and showed the hair stylist the photo. 1/2 hour later, I looked into the mirror, I saw this. Hhmm, somehow it wasn't what I expected. And the worse thing was, the longer part of my hair was much thinner, so it really looks like jelly fish :( (Lesson learned: Don't just simply walk in to some neighbourhood salon for a stylish/modern hair cut)

When I returned to KL, first thing I did was rushing to APT and get a professional hair stylist to get my hair 'fixed'. Thank god, it turned out so much more decent.

I love my new short hair. No need to tie up during class, no more strands falling into my food from the back of my shoulders, no more spending hours blowing dry my hair to make it straighter, felt so much cooler and lighter. More importantly, happier.