Journey to the West...

Au Naturel

2010-08-17T13:12:00.001-07:00

The toxic chemical of detergent and cleaner like many different brand of multipurpose cleaner, Windex(glass cleaner), etc. will leave traces of chemical after we use it. Last year we bought a spray bottle which come with a few very useful microfiber cloths including what I found very interesting is the recipe of non-toxic cleaners printed on the bottle.
After one year of using the natural general cleaner, we are very satisfied. We clean our stove, counter top and refrigerator with it, it is an amazing cleaner! I am sharing the recipe here. So far the next one I would like to try is the window cleaner, but wonder if apple vinegar works

Let me know if you tried the rest…

GENERAL CLEANER
Add 2 tablespoons baking soda to 16 oz. warm water

WINDOW CLEANER
Add 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar to 16 oz. warm water

DISINFECTING CLEANER
Add 10-20 drops of tea tree oil to 16 oz. warm water

FLOOR CLEANER
To 16 oz. of warm water add:
1/2 teaspoon liquid soap
1/2 teaspoon borax
Squeeze of lemon or
Splash of vinegar
Spray for with solution and mop as usual

LINEN SPRAY
Add 5 drops of your favorite scented oil to 8 oz. water
Use to freshen linens and curtains

The Power of Words

2010-07-12T11:40:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday, as I shared this story, I saw the kids faces lit up and the adults nodded in agreement with a BIG smile…

Enjoy the story… :)

A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and
two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs
gathered around the pit. When they saw how deep the
pit was, they told the two frogs that they were as
good as dead. The two frogs ignored the comments and
tried to jump up out of the pit with all of their
might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that
they were as good as dead.

Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died. The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of
frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He
jumped even harder and finally made it out.

When he got out, the other frogs said, "Did you not hear us?"
The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He
thought they were encouraging him the entire time.

This story teaches two lessons:
1. There is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day.
2. A destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes to kill them.
Be careful of what you say. Speak life to those who
cross your path. The power of words....it is sometimes
hard to understand that an encouraging word can go such a long way.

Remedy for heat rash

2010-07-06T19:53:00.000-07:00

Hah! My beloved "bedak"!
This is very handy during scorching hot weather, like what we're experiencing here lately. This is a powder made of rice which will melt in your palm when water is added. Then, you can apply it to the skin and wait for it to dry. It gives a soothing,cooling effect as it dries. If you are from the South East Asia region, I think you are familiar with it. I had some heat rashes at the back of my neck a few days ago, after using it a couple of times, it dissapeared. :)

This is handmade by my grandmother, one of her specialties.It was made from scratch patiently over the period of months. It don't look smooth, tiny and cute like those in the market because my grandma is making it for the family only and I think it's faster this way :P

Nowadays, I think people don't use it as much anymore. I wonder if it will dissapear one day...

Let's go Banana!

2010-07-02T08:13:00.001-07:00

Note: I waited for the whole month to use my birthday reward. The card was tossed around and I even use it as a coaster for my mug, hehehe...

Yes, I mean Banana Republic!

Eversince I become their member, they kept shower me with gift cards and reward cards. And I have to say their reward are very different from the others. Most of the time, a very long time limit (up to 6 months) and no minimum purchase, they will just give me the $15 to spend on whatever I buy, including the clearance. How can I not love them?!
Few months ago I used a gift card and bought a pair of beautiful earrings for only $0.98 which original price was $26!

They also send me birthday gift card too. I love their merchandise because it's elegant and beautifully made with good quality.

Now, if you say, I must have spent a lot in order to get all those gift cards. I can assure you I didn't because I'm a frugal spender. I was brought up to only buy things that I need, not so much for indulgence or desires.
Living in the US, a shopaholic nation, I believe not only me but almost everyone is bombarded with coupons, rewards, sales, gift cards...etc. which basically trying to lure you to spend your money at their retails. But most of them come with tiny small prints which excluded so many things that you cannot use the coupons for. This is especially true for Macy's. They send you like so many gift cards and coupons but it all has a minimum spending and they will not allow you to spend on their clearance or discounted items. Then again, if there's something that you need in coincidence, the coupons work, better than nothing. But do not just go there thinking you're saving with those coupons and end up buying things you don't need.

Anyway, I am so pleased to be a member of the Banana Republic. Thank you! By the way, the banana rewards are good for Gap, Old Navy and Piperline too! So if I can't find anything at Banana, I can still go to Gap or the other store.

Psss... Banana Republic is having a sales now & their 4th of July special let you get another 25% off their sales merchandize. And I just found out they have this special thing now(not sure until when) that if you bought something on Tuesday you get a $10 reward good for your next purchase, this apply for card member only.

Whatever it is, be a smart spender. It would not be very wise of you to go shopping everytime you got a coupon in the mail, isn't it?

Time

2010-06-30T10:47:00.001-07:00

Time flies and never waits for anyone. I’m amazed at the speed of it flying by. The very last entry of my blog was more than 6 months ago and it then went into an idle mode. I became so busy at work and other personal affairs.
Being interested in so many things and wanting to do so many things, I most of the time overwhelmed myself. Those who know me, my husband, my brother and my cousins will always remind me that I’m being “greedy” :D It’s always so much to do, so little time…
Time management wasn’t an issue to me while in college; I can say I was very good in that. But now, I’m not sure it’s the amount of things I want to do is so vast and scattered or is it the “partly human partly owl” schedule driving me nuts. Anyway, I’m ready to relearn.

Working overnight shift can be so confusing and time consuming. It takes someone to really understand it only when he/she went through it. Not that it’s better but for 3-4 nights/week on a 12 hour shift, I personally feel it’s not the worse. Compare to some who work for 5 nights/ week even on a shorter shift like 8 hours can turn your world upside down.

Anyway, sometimes life is like that, we can’t have everything perfect, correct? But we can work around it to make it better for us and our family. When it’s getting tough, I remind myself that I’m making a difference in my life and of others. Other than that, I want to make sure I’m having fun doing what I’m doing and sometimes I need to create fun for myself to keep things in balance. Okay, talking about BALANCE, now I’m talking about 2 things here. Have fun & enjoy what you are doing; and Time Management- manage your time well so you can be stress free.

One should feel good in whatever they do. Remembering The Secret, if you are not happy about what you are doing, your negative thoughts is sending more on the bad frequency to the universe and calling for more things that make you feel bad. .“It is impossible to feel good and at the same time be having negative thoughts. If you are feeling good, it is because you are thinking good thoughts.” (The Secret)
Do not underestimate our thoughts and emotion. I once read a book says emotion is energy in motion… So our negative thoughts can definitely make an impact on our life and collectively it can even impact the world.
Anyway, be happy and have fun in whatever you do! When they say, learn from a child, I think it’s basically that. They sure know how to have fun & enjoy. :)

Time management! I read Professor Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture a while ago, but how much do I remember now? Not much. So I’m so happy to accidentally come across his lecture on the web just now. And the topic is TIME MANAGEMENT.

“Being successful doesn’t make you manage your time well.

Managing your time well makes you successful.”

It’s an interesting lecture. I’ve definitely relearn something that I thought I knew. If you are interested, here’s the link to the video:

Do you guys sometimes feel there are so many things in life that we have to relearn?

A matter of a few degrees…

2010-01-04T08:46:00.001-08:00

Icons on my computer desktop

Just a few degrees difference can sometimes mean a great difference…
Celsius on the left icon and Fahrenheit on the right.

Lesson: Do not always believe what you see… :)

The Purpose of Life

2009-12-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

A trip home for 3 weeks seems rather short especially when I haven't been home for more than 4 years. However, I am glad that the timing was perfect!
It happened that I decided to stay in Bandar Utama, PJ for the first week eventhough I "suppose" to stay at my grandma's place in Setia Alam, Shah Alam. But I was thinking it will be easier to go around, to shop and to spend time with my brother who work in PJ. I was right. I spend the 5 days staying with my 5th aunt, chatting, catching up, sharing thoughts at night before sleeping. Then I followed her to the office where I will see my brother (they both work for my uncle). Then I get to spend the lunch time with my brother, at the same time exploring different places with yummy local food. After that, we asked our dad out for dinner. It was great that I planned it that way, later I learned that my 5th aunt and my brother was very busy the 3rd week and believe it or not I didn't get a chance to meet my 5th aunt again after the 1st week. :)
The second week I went back to my hometown in Ipoh and had a lazy time there, spend time with my other brother and my mom and our new added family member, BaoBao, our dog (a Shi Tzu breed). I wish I could have done more in Ipoh. I wonder why there's not enough time...mostly I don't know where to go and so coincident my brother was busy to take me out at night. But I have to say I really enjoy the breakfast time in Ipoh, those noodles, yong tau fu (stuffed beancurd), and chee cheong fun (thin roll of rice noodle with gravy) is extremely delicious!!! I also enjoyed the vegetarian sushi that my brother recommended. I think the other reason is that I was thinking maybe there's chance again next year when hubby is going home with me. I have to write down and plan accordingly where I want to go... hmmm....have to take him to hike at Menglembu...and what else? to go around the oldtown in Ipoh I guess...I'm kind of lost, I don't remember where else to go... I found myself became unfamiliar with Ipoh. I think I can get some suggestion from FB.
So, at the end of 2nd week, I went to Penang and stayed at my friend, Doreen's place. It was a beautiful condominium by the beach. I am really thankful to her parents. They were so warm and welcoming. For the whole 2 days, they took me to different places with great local food. I almost burst with tears of happiness when I ate the asam laksa...that one is really good!!!!!!!!!!! Arrgghhh...I'm craving for it now. With such limited time, Doreen's dad make an effort to take us to tour around the island. I've been to Penang many times when I was little but I think I haven't been there for more than 10 years. The city has improved a lot. I also get to meet some of my high school classmates who are now living in Penang.
The 3rd week and the last....I went back to KL with my mother. This week I stayed at my aunt's place who live accross the street from my grandma. It's a very relaxing and warm week as well that I get to spend more time with my grandma and my other aunts and uncles, chatting, catching up and listening to my grandma's stories about her childhood and when she married my grandfather. She also told me about the day my grandfather passed away. I 'm glad she's coping well, and I keep telling her that I'm coming back soon next year with my husband, and that she has to live to meet him, to meet my children, to meet my cousin, Shen Yee's children, Hong Ping's children....etc.. she laughed...and said "ok, ok"
On my grandma's birthday, I took out some old pictures I took from home to share with everyone and I can feel the warm feeling and hear the laughter as everyone reminiscent the good old days.
On the day I have to leave, my 3rd aunt cried, my first aunt did too, my mom didn't, hehehe, she's used to it I guess, me too...but I'm crying now.... my grandma stand outside and keep waving until our car turned away. My cousins, and my brother including me keep saying, we'll see each other again, soon, in March, that's a great comfort.
Family is so important... I wish I have some of them staying in New York with me, but I am happy that at least I have my loving, caring hubby with me. He comforts me by saying, "one day honey, we may be able to retire in Malaysia." I think as long as I can go home every year, I'm happy.
I ask myself repeatedly will it be better if i never leave my country?...I know it won't be the same, just as my friend said, you will never learn as much if you never leave your home, if you never leave the comfort zone. I agree. It is a learning process.... I learn something during this trip, the message become clearer to my mind - The Purpose of Life is to discover yourself.
I think it takes many events and encounter with many different types of people to realize and really found ourselves.

I will share some of the photos soon.

Beautiful Calgary

2009-10-30T20:35:00.001-07:00

Before it became an old history, I do want to talk about my trip to Calgary, Canada recently(hmm… a while ago). When hubby announced that we are going to Calgary, I was thinking “What kind of place is that? I never heard of it.” Later I recalled one of our friend once mentioned about this city that if she get to choose, she will want to live in Calgary and she described it as a big city with high rise building but not as big as NYC and not as crowded but just a very nice place to live in. Hmm?

Now, we see it for ourselves and I have to say I fell in love with Calgary. It’s a very well-balanced city I should say, it feels like home, there are times that I felt like I’m walking in KL because they are so many oriental faces, most of them are from Hong Kong and in certain area, there are many Japanese too. Basically they have very healthy mix of many races, and you don’t see obvious separation. They are very well mixed in the society.
I’m a city person, I always love high rise building and especially enjoying looking up at the city light at night. But a big city as busy as NYC can also mean lower quality of life. Calgary has both the view, energy and the quality of life…

We stay in the downtown area so that we can conveniently walk to the US Consulate. This trip is for business purposes but we grab the opportunity to travel around a little bit. Bicycles are everywhere especially near the high rise buildings. Looks like most of them ride the bike to work.

Calgary is a very clean city, I heard they are the 5th cleanest city in the world, I was thinking to myself, this city is already super clean, who gets the first place? Maybe you have to consider the size of the population too relatively.

Most of the building have beautiful sitting area in the front or the back of their buildings.

We were wondering where are the people? We see many buildings, it cannot be that empty, and it’s lunch time.
And there you go, everyone is inside the buildings. They have what they call the elevated walkway, or the crosswalk between most of the building so they do not need to leave the building for lunch or dinner.
On the second floor of most buildings are restaurants, food court, malls, boutique…etc. So, in the winter they do not need to put on and take off their coat and walk in and out of the building like us, they can stay inside, keep warm and still walk through the whole downtown. Nice! Brilliant idea. Of course NYC can’t follow that, we are always scare of bomb, remember? You don’t want to connect the buildings, sigh.

They have many nice seating area everywhere inside the building, and not bench I’m talking about, they are nice beautiful sofas. Everything is very new and clean in this city. FYI, for privacy purpose, we’re not allowed to take picture inside the building, we didn’t know until the guard came to us, LOL!

I think they have more Starbucks than US. Well, we can’t help to stop and have a cup of our favorite Pumpkin Spice Latte!

We both think this is by far the vacation with most satisfying meals. Of course being a vegetarian is not always without challenge in terms of getting food. But in Calgary, we find it very easy to get fresh healthy vegetarian food and the people are very happy and willing to modify their recipe for us. Even this kind of fast food, I would not dare to try in NYC, but this one here is FRESH and delicious. We also found a very nice vegetarian restaurant with Hong Kong style food.

It’s so relax to stroll along the unique shops.

Chinook Centre is the largest shopping mall in Calgary. It is really HUGE and the food court/cafeteria is big, new, beautiful, and fresh. There’s soooo much things to see!! I skipped all the retailers that I can find in US, pick those that sounds most interesting, it’s still impossible to visit all of them. However, I was still lucky to grab some stuffs that I need with a very good deal.
By the way, we noticed Calgarian are majority good looking with lean body.

The Prince’s Island is 5 minute walking distance from our hotel. A very beautiful park. A stroll along the river and bridge complete our day.

From Calgary, we rent a car and drove to Banff National Park. The scenery along the way is indescribable…
And when we reach there, and as we walk and observe the beauty of the nature’s masterpiece, we both have the same feeling that we human are indeed so small…
The amazing part is we are so small yet we are so smart and powerful in creating all the technologies that enable us to reach places on this earth like never before, but we human can also be rather destructive in many ways…
Whatever it is, we’re totally taken away by the grand & magnificent view at the Canadian Rockies.

A view taken from the cable car.

There are more places that we really want to visit but with the limited time, we didn’t get to go, we will have to go back again one day. I wish I can bring my parents and family along in the future.
To view more pictures go to my Facebook.

Autumn Cleaning

2009-10-29T12:49:00.001-07:00

Photo: Calgary, Canada (on the route to Banff National Park)

It’s time to clean up the spider webs that have spread across my blog. :) I don’t know why I’m just not so inspired to write lately…and was actually busy with quite a few things too. However, under the demand of my faithful reader – my dear husband :P , and hopefully some of you who did follow my blog, hehe sorry for kept you waiting. Well certainly not my brothers who claim to be too busy to read my blog. @-@
Anyway, it’s time to start writing, I think it’s also the time for a new look and style perhaps.

Here comes the bride…

2009-08-28T10:30:00.001-07:00

Spa Castle 2009

2009-08-18T13:44:00.001-07:00

It was hubby’s birthday last Wednesday. I took him to Spa Castle for a treat. It's just 25 minutes away from home. We figure that there are so many places in NYC that we haven't explore, so we are not going away this summer.
I give them 4 stars out of 5 because the food are a little too expensive. I think it should be more reasonable. And I think they are quite cheap to offer just one set of uniform which will easily get wet, you have to wear it when you are not in the pool. Nevertheless, the service are great and the idea of hassle free for everything is a plus, you don’t need to bring anything with you around, just pay for the services, food and drink with the watch they gave which will also open your locker. Smart!
More importantly, it is very well kept and VERY CLEAN.

When you are inside the building, everyone has to take off their shoes and walk around barefoot just like we’re at home.

They have Jacuzzi, hot tub, ginseng pool, jasmine pool, kiddies pool, aqua bar (where you order drinks and sit in it), hinoki bath…and others. There are many different types of sauna for example, jade sauna, salt sauna, LED sauna, music sauna….etc.

There's sleeping area where you can take a nap after the sauna and hot bath. Definitely feel sleepy after the massage. Our first private room massage. We have 2 Korean masseurs who speak Chinese. It surprised us, they are not convince I’m Malaysian, they said I look like Korean… The experience with the massage? so so…not as great as we expected.

Smart idea too for them to charge more on weekend so it won’t get too crowded, so for those who can at least take a day off or go after work is better. USD35 for weekday and USD45 for weekend, you can stay as long as you like, it open from 6 am to midnight.

By the way, not a place for people who feel uneasy being naked around other people. You have to take off everything in the shower area and pool area inside the locker room, of course, only ladies in this area.

Purple Jewel

2009-08-10T09:57:00.001-07:00

I have to claim that this is one of the most delicious healthy food I ever have which does not require a chef , seasonings, whatsoever.
This purple yam/sweet potato is just purely yummy!!! The kind of sweetness it has is beyond description. Another gift from Mother Nature, thank you. It’s just pure bliss to enjoy this little “natural energy bar”. Hubby and I love it so much we have to have it almost everyday for our breakfast. I think this is now its season because we usually don’t see it all year round. Or maybe they will have it from now on, hopefully.

One of my favorite at Gloria’s Sticker

2009-08-05T13:29:00.001-07:00

This is one of the many interesting stickers that I really like at Gloria’s Sticker, the multipurpose sticker with many different icons you can choose from plus the choices of different fonts. It looks even nicer in person. A glossy silver metallic look. Versatile, elegant and personal.

If you are interested in cute sticker for yourself or your children or just need it so that your little ones do not lose their things in the day care or school, please visit my friend’s website at
http://www.gloriassticker.blogspot.com/

She has all the cute designs and quality name personalized stickers. Better yet, she is currently offering a summer special for the month of July and August!

You can even have 2 or more names on one design. Each order is produce with love and care. Hurry up, go & check it out! Summer special end soon!

My first 4 tier cake!

2009-07-28T13:58:00.001-07:00

Here’s my first project of the year! A 4 tier cake for my girlfriend’s baby shower.

Ingredients:
1) Diapers
2) Ribbons & embellishments
3) Lots of love!

My girlfriend loved it! This is a very interesting yet useful gift which can also set as a creative centerpiece for the baby shower.

Note: I take orders but only for New York City area. Contact me if you are interested! :D
Price may vary depending on the ingredients.

What do you think?

2009-07-25T21:35:00.001-07:00

This picture was taken a few years ago in an art shop in Birmingham, Alabama.
Do you agree with what it says there?
In a week of ideas brainstorming, sketching out my thoughts and playing with different art materials keep me in good spirits all the time.

Creative Cap

2009-07-24T10:17:00.001-07:00

I have always love art, design and creative things since my early childhood. I have so many coloring books and my mom will recall and say how much time I spend everyday coloring them. Later when I went to kindergarten, I will color all the images even in my Math book, hahaha! I remember one time the teacher was holding up my book and told the class how nice my work is and they could do the same. Man… do you think they’re cursing behind me that i gave them trouble? My favorite session/class was always the art & craft and music class. I paid attention on my artwork and I was thrilled every time when my piece was chosen to be put up on the wall. I have a drawer at home where I keep all my art and craft stuff and also my collection of cute things.
Somehow, later in high school I found out I was very interested in Science and decided to go ahead to pursue my study in this field. However, right after I finish high school, I think I want to be a designer…. OMG, what a confused soul…. Because of financial purposes, I was only able to study briefly in Art & Design during college.
I was lucky enough to find a job in a home fashion company where I work as the home fashion coordinator/ personal assistant of my boss who is also the creative director of the company. I love my job. It was always busy and dealing with urgency of production but I love that I was involved in creating beautiful things. I spend most of the time flipping through interior design magazine looking for ideas and whenever my boss came back from travelling to different countries, I am sure the first one she hand those magazine she bought from overseas. When she went shopping for decorative pieces for our company exhibition, she would ask me to go with her, I treasure those experiences.

New York is the capital city of the design world but it is way too competitive for international student to find a job in design. As much as I love it, I am a very practical person too. I want a career that will guarantee me a job and income…. ^_^, after all it’s a huge amount of money and energy for me to support my study here. HUGE!
Of course, how can one do something that they don’t like? Am I lucky enough to have happen to love both Art and Science, hahaha! So there I go with the Health Science, my other lover.
This is as well extremely competitive but in admission and academic wise, the demand of job is high.
I had a dream that time…I want to have a stable job which will guarantee my income and later on I would still find a way to engage my self in creative business.
So many years in such an academic demand field….I have long put away all my art and crafty tools away, although I have a whole box filled with those things but it had been quite dusty.
Sometimes, I think fate is a funny thing…you never know how it takes you by surprise ….
One day, by accident I saw something that inspire me….that calling upon my soul to once again to put on my creative cap!

Recently, I bought some art materials and I’m thrill to start my gear, hehehe!

Vegetarian BBQ trip to Bear Mountain State Park

2009-07-16T21:38:00.001-07:00

Anytime a trip to get away from the city is definitely refreshing to the soul and body. Pictures speak a thousand words… Here’s some of the pictures of the BBQ trip to Bear Mountain, a state park at New York upstate, rising from the west bank of the Hudson River. I feel so lucky to be able to enjoy this beautiful place and I’m very thankful to all of those, my friends who had working hard in putting their efforts together for this vegetarian BBQ gatherings. Not only the foods were great but knowing that we are enjoying food without hurting lives and environment is even better!

We heard about global warming so much in fact some people say they feel numb about it already…but we should not because indeed we are really in a state of EMERGENCY now. Human has been abusing the only place that they can live in – the planet Earth.

Below is an excerpt from The Huffington Post:
Eating As If the Climate Mattered, by Bruce Friedrich
United Nations environmental researchers released a report that everyone who cares about the environment should review. Called " Livestock's Long Shadow," this 408-page thoroughly researched scientific report indicts the consumption of chickens, pigs, and other meats, concluding that the meat industry is "one of the... most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global" and that eating meat contributes to "problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity."

I was talking to my brother on the phone the other day, he said there’s a release of a list of countries that may sink or swallowed by the increasing water cause by the melting of the arctic's ice. Many activists have go around and passing the message that recycling are not the only or the fastest solution, what actually help the environment to recover faster is the decision made on your plate! If only everyone will leave a piece of meat, even just once a week, it will make a great impact. Human tend to start react only when the problems are right in our face. We are smart creatures, that’s why we are able to predict and already foresee the consequences of our actions, we can change because we care.
I was watching a discussion about the environment and how going for meatless diet can help on the TV the other day….the thing is even if someone say they don’t care about the environment, the problem is now all the antibiotics that left in the animals’ bodies when they were slaughtered had taken a toll on humans’ health… Research has shown that the toxic found in the animals are way much higher than the pesticides found in the vegetables ( for those who say “oh, the vegetables are full of pesticide too..”).

Many times I heard people says, “Oh well, so many others are doing it, even if I change, not going to help much.” Just imagine if all of us think like this? Who’s going to do it?
Scientific research has proved that many animals are as smart and sensitive as we are. For more interesting facts, go to http://www.goveg.com/

My youngest brother is an environmentalist. I am so proud of all that he did and his perseverance. I remember last time when he asked me to bring my own bag to do shopping. I told him I still need the bags for my garbage/trash can. He told me that I wouldn’t need that many. So, I make an effort to bring my own beautiful ^^ reusable shopping bag from Whole Food, every time I went for groceries shopping. At first, we keep forgetting to bring it with us but now we are used to it, for almost 2 years now, I feel good whenever I save those plastic bags. Whole Food will refund $0.1o for every purchase that we made without using their paper bag or plastic bag, and the Chinese supermarkets were equally happy when we took out our own bag, they even asked us where to get the pretty reusable bag, hehe. We only take the plastic bags when we are really running low on supply for our trash can. ^^

Yummy vegetarian skewer! Enjoy food without cruelty! Go Veg Go Green…

Yummo!

Chatting away with my ex room mate, Emi…..just like old time.

Ivan and Ryan, both are veggie babies since they were in their mothers' womb.

More pictures of the trip here.

Please try from today onwards, be a vegetarian for at least once a week…
Eat Better, Feel Better!

Joyce and her cupcakes

2009-07-08T16:21:00.001-07:00

Joyce's creations, image taken from her website.

Funny, I didn’t know my childhood best friend is into baking. Joyce if you are reading this, yes, I’m very surprise…which I shouldn’t be probably because we haven’t been in touch for such a long time until Facebook brought us back! ^^ I mean during all these time anyone can change right? My memory of Joyce Siew is a very studious, discipline, and somewhat serious person…:P hmmm… also very artistic. She used to draw beautiful My Little Ponies for me to hang in my room. But never thought she’s into baking.
We were best friends during elementary school. We spent a great deal of times together. Our parents know each other. I remember so vividly those time when I stayed at her place during Christmas and all those other days when we would spend the whole afternoon at her house playing Monopoly, or Hopscotch at the front yard.
Such a long time ago, I’m very glad to find her again at FB. Believe me or not, my parents would still ask me sometimes, “Oh by the way, are you in touch with Joyce Siew? where is she now?”

If you are interested in cupcakes and stuff, visit her websites at Teamo. Her creations are beautiful! This really give me encouragement and inspire me to keep going with my experiment and my project, though it is not bakeries.
Congratulations Joyce! (not sure if this is a little late, I have to find out when did she started this business) Anyway, keep it up!

The Holiday

2009-07-06T08:51:00.001-07:00

I don’t remember how many times I watch this by now. I’m the kind of person who usually do not watch a movie twice. I got this DVD from a friend, watched it a couple of times at home and again with a friend who I thought may not like it for the fact he is 85, but to my surprise, he loved it! The reason I thought he would not enjoy it because at a big picture, it’s a love story but actually there are inspiring parts in the movie.

Very entertaining and well written. I like the four of them, the sophisticate Kate Winslet, the pretty and funny Cameron Diaz, the handsome Jude Law and the hilarious Jack Black.
The two women who were heart broken exchange house for the holiday, unexpectedly found their love…
I like all the earrings they wear! hahaha, yes, being an earrings lover, I noticed that!
As sentimental as I am…the words that Kate Winslet says in one part totally touch my feelings. Sometimes I think those who marry their first love/boyfriend are so lucky but then if I’m one of them, I may not be able to feel it when I watch these love stories which make it more interesting…. So, I mean I can cry with them, melt when their heart melt, jump and said “yes, totally true!” when they give an analogy to the situation they are in….and all that 0_0
It also makes me appreciate so much on what I have and to also get a clear picture of what I need.

Some quotes from the movie, "You should be the leading lady of your own life” … “i know how you can actually ache in places you never know you had inside you.”
Enough said, I just love this movie…. the settings are very nice too and the score is great.

June the special month

2009-06-30T22:45:00.000-07:00

June is my name, is the month I was born and the month I get married. The month of the fun season- Summer!
As it getting close to the end, I’m reflecting on those events that took place, I’m a little busy lately or more precisely a bit lazy to take out the pictures and blog…hehehe

June 1st – Our Anniversary! the 2nd Anniversary. We celebrate it in LA. More pictures here. Thank you hubby for being such a wonderful husband. The best part was when he thank me for I have changed his life… #.#

June 9th- My Birthday! I spent the day cleaning up and organize some of my stuff and reflecting on my life and all the events that have taken place and what I have learned. hubby came home and cook for me that night. I took out the champagne glasses from Tiffany&Co (a wedding gift from my buddy, Emi) for the first time to celebrate, hehe. The day before my birthday, we had dinner at my in-laws place, my sister in- law bought me a cheesecake, my parents in- law gave me red packets (lishi). ^^ A nice and quiet celebration overall…Hmmm…but I can’t believe I'm leaving the 20’s :p

This is the famous ice cream store under the Brooklyn Bridge but living here for almost 8 years, we never tried it. It’s yummy! Looking at my BIG silly smile, you can tell I’m an ice cream lover, right?

A few weeks before approaching our anniversary I told hubby that I may need an iPod so that I can utilize some of my travel time in the subway to listen to audio books. Just a thought. He was thrilled of course, my man when he heard he can get to buy or even shop for others on electronics, he is exited.

We usually tell each other…. “don’t buy me anything, I don’t need anything right now.” We don’t like to buy things for the sake of buying or to celebrate whatever it is. Sometimes we will buy it the time we need it and say, ok this is for the birthday, or anniversary or Christmas…in other word, we can’t wait till then and we don’t do it purposely for that day.
We browse together and I chose the purple iPod Nano, I'm not a high tech person, I totally don’t care about what model of phone or electronic device I use as long as it functioning well for its purpose, LOL! Hubby lied to me and said we should wait since he heard rumors that they are going to have a new model coming out soon in a few months. Ok…. so I forgot about it until he surprise me! he did this a lot….act like he had forgotten about my birthday or valentines day and surprise me with a big bouquet of flowers or something...

It’s up!

2009-06-29T11:14:00.001-07:00

Finally, our piece of artwork is up on the wall. Our first puzzle together, hehehe. It’s a 750 pieces puzzle that we get from Barnes & Noble. It was done long time ago in the beginning of spring but we couldn’t find a place to help us frame it and most places charge more than $150! And for some reason, I didn’t notice that IKEA has those nice frame with very reasonable price…until my buddy Kit Wai reminded me about it, thanks girl!

Almost done….

..... ....

.... .... ........

After cutting and fitting and drilling, finally, now it’s up on the wall! We love it! So peaceful…. a mother horse and her baby horse.
Hubby said this piece will go to the baby’s room in future :P

Portrait of my hubby, LOL!

Remembering your talent…May you rest in peace…

2009-06-28T19:23:00.001-07:00

Talking to my brother on the phone yesterday about Michael Jackson’s death brought back a lot of my childhood memories… Michael Jackson had brought so many wonderful music to this world.

I remember singing and dancing together with my youngest uncle who is a fan of Michael Jackson. He would play his music record or music video and make us all dance together. I was very young but this fantastic singer’s music would make us start moving and dance along.
I remember asking my uncle to replay the music video of Thriller but that time I had no idea about his name until I was older. I recalled my brother’s favorite song is You are not Alone. My favorite is Black or White. Until today, the music video of Black or White still totally get my attention, I will not move until I finish watching the whole thing. And of course there are a list of songs that are so popular which most of us enjoy, Billy Jean, Beat It, The way you make me feel, We are the World and so on…
Remember how people everywhere tried to imitate him? And no matter who try to do that, whether they are good or not, they would always draw a huge crowd, just to see how well these people can imitate Michael Jackson, and that also proves that he was so good that people just cannot get enough of his dance moves.
I remember when I just came to New York, there was a teenager who would imitate Michael Jackson and performed his dance moves at most subway stations, and every single time there were huge crowd gather to see his performance. He was pretty good but nothing compare to MJ, of course.
My mom was saying she really likes his look before all the plastic surgeries and most of us agree he is very good looking by birth. Take a look at his younger picture, isn’t he cute?

May you rest in peace…

Top rated!

2009-06-18T10:03:00.001-07:00

A friend of us just moved to Manhattan near the Battery Park. We were helping her to set up the network system in her home office and organizing her apartment.
This is an image of Battery Park directly below her high rise apartment building.

After that, she took us out for dinner and we had a blast at Matsu II, a sushi restaurant located at the upper east side Manhattan. Since we are vegetarian and we are not picky eater, hubby and I are always very satisfied with our asparagus roll, avocado roll, …and all the other veggies roll that we usually order at sushi restaurant. But at Matsu II, the owner who were once a vegetarian for 2 years told us that he knows exactly what we can eat and what not and since he’s a very good friend to our friend, he went to the kitchen and prepare us all the special order! And I can tell you they are SUPER DELICIOUS, it’s beyond words! And those you cannot find in any restaurant, they were all his own creation. He is very nice and tell us to call him in advance if we ever want to go there so that he can prepare the special meal for us. Matsu II, top rated! Sorry no pictures of the food because we forgot about the camera and just dig in and eat, eat, eat…

Never Quit

2009-06-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

I received this from an email when I was a student, not long ago... And it was just when I needed it. I will never forget those struggling years I had… Future was uncertain... would all the hard works bear a fruitful outcome? or it's just a waste of time and effort at the end?.... Would the pain disappear…when is it going to heal or is it going to leave a permanent scar?
Reading this gave me a huge encouragement. I would like to share it with you if you have never seen it yet.

One day, I decided to quit. I wanted to quit my job, to quit my relationships, to quit my spirituality; I even wanted to quit my life. I went to the woods to have one last talk with God. "God", I said, "Can you give me one good reason not to quit?" His answer surprised me. "Look around", He said, "Do you see the fern and the bamboo?" "Yes", I replied. "When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo." "In the second year the fern grew more vibrant and plentiful. And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo." "In the third year there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit." "In the fourth year, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. Still, I would not quit." "Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant. But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall. It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. I would not give any of my creations a challenge they could not handle," He said to me. "Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots? I would not quit on the bamboo. and I will never quit on you! Don't compare yourself to others. The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern. Yet they both make the forest beautiful. Your time will come," God said to me. "You will rise high." "How high should I rise?" I asked. "How high will the bamboo rise?", He asked in return. "As high as it can?", I questioned. "Yes", He said, "Give Me glory by rising as high as you can. And
remember...I will never leave you, nor forsake you. I will never give up on you. I will never, ever quit on you." Everyone has days when they want to "quit". When there are struggles...obstacles in life, remember we're just growing roots!! God has a purpose in mind for each one of us and we need to talk to Him and let Him help us realize that purpose. Always remember, He'll never leave us, He'll never forsake us, and He'll never quit on us.

Tagged by Meng Loo - Nurse Story...

2009-06-05T10:23:00.001-07:00

Ok, Meng Loo, here’s my homework. sorry for the delay, haha! :
Once you've been tagged, you have to write a post with sixteen random things, habits or goals about you.
At last, choose five people to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them.

June sis - tell us nurse story please :)

1. I cried almost every week when I was a nursing student because they torture us in school. The stress level is unbelievable.

2. Nursing is a profession which require both brain power and physical strength!

3. My heaviest patient was 400 pounds(181.8 kg) :P I needed 5 other nurses to help me to turn that patient and 3 of them had to be male nurses.

4. You also need a strong stomach, and be calm NO MATTER what happen! Ex: A patient throw up while I was drawing his blood, I couldn’t run or even move away because I have to finish my task.
-_-

5. I still remember the names of some of my patients.

6. I had nightmares during my first few weeks of work. One of them, I was sitting up in bed holding my husband’s finger because I was testing blood sugar in my dream…wa-ha-ha-ha. After that, he made sure all the needles are kept away.

7. I didn’t know I have such a large bladder, one time I forgot to go to the restroom for about 10 hours straight because one of my patient was in crisis and I was running around for the whole shift.

8. There are many places to work other than the hospital. School, office, corporate building, private home, independently, etc…

9. The best thing about working in the hospital is we only work 3 days a week, the down side is sometimes it has to be on the weekend (weekend is nicer to work because it’s more quiet) but then I can’t go out with hubby.

10. I see life differently after working in the hospital…

11. Many times I pray to God to help ease their sufferings and pain because there’s nothing else we could do…

12. When a patient died, besides the family member we pay attention to care and comfort the patient in the same room because usually they became worry and develop anxiety attack.

13. My goal in my career is to work in delivering the message of prevention and living a meaningful life.

14. I am proud to be a nurse but mostly I am very grateful because I know for the fact that it cannot be done by myself, they are many blessings that I received. My hubby is one of the angels that help me.

15. I enjoy describing the many different "disgusting" details of handling care of patients to my mom, muahahaha, because she used to tell me and my brothers that if we cannot handle “dirty” things how are we going to handle our own babies’ poops?
Ahem, mom, bring it on!

16. Life is short! Find the meaning of life and live a meaningful life not just an enjoyable one.

Now, choose 5 people…hmmm, hey guys no pressure, you can do it or leave it. hehe

1. Siew – please include your romance story, I don’t know how and where you met your husband. *wink

2. Gigi – tell me about you and John after having a baby. You can write about anything except Ivan because I think I’ve heard enough about him, LOL!

3. KW- tell me about your life in MN or anything

4. Wow, that’s all I can tag….tell me how to recruit my buddy to start a blog.

5. Shen Yee, stop reading my blog quietly, now, time to come out and write something…..

Lily of the Valley

2009-05-26T14:45:00.001-07:00

Lily-of-the-valley is one of my favorite flowers. They are so cute and elegant! The scent is magnificent! No wonder many designer brand fragrances are using the scent of this flower in their ingredients. Even though I read that it is not difficult for it to grow, however I rarely see them. I will definitely plant them when I have a garden in the future.

Passport

2009-05-13T14:35:00.001-07:00

How cool this is, renewing passport only takes 3 days now. 5 years ago, even though they said it takes 6 months, it took almost 9 months in order for them to send home and back to US.
Now, it only takes 3 days!
The ‘kakak’ (sister in Malay) who is a nice Malay lady is still working there. It’s such a pleasure to see her again, she’s always smiling and she gently reminded me, “lain kali datang awal sikit” (next time come early) Hehehe, they stop accepting application at 12:30pm and I was there 10 minutes before 12pm, but they were very efficient, they took my pictures, thumb prints and processed everything pretty fast and gave me a receipt to pick up my passport in 2 days.

It was nice to see so many Malaysian. And ah…. it’s so nice to hear my name being called correctly…LOL..I think this is the only place that can get my name right so far. American just can’t pronounce my last name, “Ng…where’s the vowel?..” ?!!? End up the easiest and it make sense to them to pronounce it as “Eng”, well, I can live with that, after all I’m too lazy to correct every single person. Then, I found out there’s another way people pronounce it, my Filipino colleagues in the hospital pronounce it as “Nang”… what??! No, not Nang, I corrected them. Then some colleagues came out with “N.G” (sounds like Angie) That’s ok, whatever, N.G. is fine too. and because of my last name, I’m famous in the hospital, Ms. N.G.!!!!

Anyway, here’s a conversation I overheard at the consulate between the clerk and a woman who wants to get her passport or some sort of document so she can go back to Malaysia ASAP.

Woman: Aiyo, I mesti balik loh, mau balik tengok doktor.
Kakak: Ini take some time…
Woman: Tak boleh tunggu lah. Perut saya sakit…mau balik tengok doktor, doktor sini tak bagus lah.
Kakak: @_@ oh, ya ke?
Woman : (she turned to us and said in Cantonese) ng dak la, zhoi ng fan hui, shang cancer dim ah? (but she’s smiling while telling us)
Not that she’s not worried but she’s a happy-go-lucky person. She was able to joke around with everyone.

Translation:
Woman: I have to go home to see the doctor
Clerk: This take some time
Woman: No, I cannot wait. My stomach hurt…I have to go home and let the doctor check, the doctors here are not good
Clerk: Oh, really?
Woman: Cannot…if I don’t go home to check, what if I have cancer?

Hmm….it is just pure joy to have my new passport in hand…
I’m coming home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank You

2009-04-27T21:19:00.001-07:00

I was clearing up my drawer and saw a little book of mine where I’ve written down some of the meaningful quotes that inspire me. I saw this piece at the nurses station during my final semester’s clinical rotation. I like it very much because I can relate to it.

“Happiness keep you sweet
Trials keep you strong
Sorrows keep you human
Failures keep you humble
Success keep you glowing
But only GOD keep you going.”

(Picture was taken at the Longwood Garden, Pennsylvania.)

Without struggles, I may not have learned to be strong and be endurance but without happiness and success, I may not look back and feel grateful that I’ve come a long way. Thank You for everything…

The weekend at the Hampton

2009-04-22T19:50:00.001-07:00

This trip of mine to Amagansett, Long Island was 2 weekends ago. I was busy and haven’t been able to talk about it.
Amagansett is next to East Hampton, both are places of the wealthy living in New York, they usually have their mansion or beautiful cottage in this part of Long Island.

Since I was there for my training, hubby thought it would be nice to meet me there and travel to Montauk together to see the light house, that’s at the very end of the island. And it’s just another 40 minutes to Montauk from East Hampton.
It’s really beautiful over there, I heard about Montauk a long time ago and we were talking about going there but we never been able to drag ourselves to travel there because it’s a 3 hours drive from New York City to the end of Long Island.
However, due to the limited time and it was pretty chilly, we didn’t spend that much time in the East Hampton but I will be going back there in the summer and we’ll share more of the pictures of the beautiful East Hampton.

This is part of East Hampton, it’s very quiet and peaceful. It reminds me of Europe.

On our way to the light house at Montauk.

Here’s the light house at Montauk, Long Island.

I think hubby’s photography skill has improved a lot.

We wanted to get closer to the water but it was very windy and chilly that Easter morning.

I was collecting some beautiful stones and pebbles, they are so round and polished.

And we will be back in the summer when the weather is much warmer…

My friend got up early in the morning and cut these daffodils from the garden for me before I left. They were lovely on my dinning table.

Babysitting Ivan

2009-04-21T22:33:00.001-07:00

The 2 days babysitting Ivan was quite fun even though I didn’t expect he is that attach to people and having separation anxiety.
Day 1 :
He willingly stay with me after John(his daddy) left for work but even if I left him to go to the kitchen, he’ll be calling out “yeee,yeeee…” all the time and he would be waiting for me right at the door when I go to the bathroom @.@ LOL!

Day 2:
Now, hubby was working from home that day and Ivan was soooo happy to have him. I mean, Ivan REALLY adores uncle Tony. Every second, he would charm uncle Tony to carry him. “ Chu chu, Bao bao” with his arm wide open and hubby would carry him but since he had to work so he put him down and said “Sook sook has to work, I’ll play with you later” but then he said his heart melt when Ivan keep calling for his attention. hehehehe, so we realize that I’m the “discipliner” and he’s the “spoiler”. I’m a strong believer of discipline no matter how much you love them…I told hubby, if your words does not match with your action or you’re not consistent, they know. Anyway, I think it’s ok to spoil him a little for 2 days, so we’ll just have fun and hand it back to John & Gigi, hahaha!

Ivan kept checking on hubby even though I’m with him, he wants to make sure uncle tony is in his seat.

Having fun stepping on uncle Tony’s belly, woopsi

Hubby was wrestling with Ivan trying to put him to sleep. LOL!!

And there, Ivan charms uncle Tony to carry him

However, he willingly lay down on uncle Tony’s arm and fell asleep pretty soon.

Ivan was smiling wide when he saw uncle Tony the moment he woke up…

and lay joyfully in his arm.

I asked hubby to lead him an example of drinking water, Ivan was having fun, like men drinking beer, hahaha

A-gong, I love you, I will always miss you…

2009-04-16T19:17:00.001-07:00

I cried out so loud together with my mom when she delivered the news that my grandfather had passed away. Even though I had experience the loss of someone close, like my grandmother from my dad’s side and one of my aunt (in-law), however, this time it hurts me so much… Maybe before I kind of expected they would be leaving us soon, aunt was suffering from cancer and grandma was very old and was not ambulating well. Or more likely because they passed away not long after I saw them and hold their hands.

The last time I saw my grandpa was three and a half years ago. He was strong and healthy and his voice was still loud and clear, you can hear him from far before he enter the room. He was still always out and about on his bike. However, last year he was hospitalized and got all his children worried but after several procedures, he’s out from the hospital and functioning well. He’s 85, you kind of ready for that to happen…I guess…but who will be ready for the death of a loved one?, of their parents? My mom was crying out loud over the phone… My brother said my other aunt was crying uncontrollably and he could hardly hear her over the phone. My uncle trying to hold back his tears but I can hear his voice cracked when he was trying to comfort me that grandpa was already 85…and that he has been on & off with his illness…
I was crying with my mom and mumbling that I haven’t been able to go home for so long, and that after seeing my grandparents pictures in my cousin’s wedding recently, I had made up my mind to go home this year but now he will not be there…
I haven’t seen him for so long…and now he’s gone forever.

Most of my friends envy that I have the chance to live overseas but the reality is it’s not as good as it seems or imagined, most of us in overseas are so homesick but due to many circumstances we could not go home that frequent or some are stuck because of the document or the complicated immigration procedures…A few of the fortunate one are those who can go home every year.
I miss home so much. And I miss you, a-gong!

Introducing Hot Pocket!

2009-04-10T13:25:00.001-07:00

I am usually the one who cook or prepare meals but whenever I feel lazy or too tired to do so, hubby will do it.
If everyone in the household is working or if you live by yourself, preparing a meal can be a tiring task, all the washing, cutting and cleaning…. nevertheless I believe that nobody should be deprived of wholesome meal. Still, it doesn’t mean if you always eat complicated cooked meals it is wholesome or nutritious because one can cook all the nutrients/vitamins away. So I usually watch the variety of colors (of the veggies) that I’m eating and to include beans or legumes, squash, leafy vegetables…etc. in my diet. At least, I tried. I realize being a vegetarian makes us eat more of the variety of plants and after some researches I did over the years, nope, I don’t think vegetarian will deprive of protein or B12 because you can get that from plants or supplement! and if you eat right.

Hubby usually prepare the dinner on Wednesday since I will be home late after my Pilates and dance classes.
Anyway, here’s one of those quick, simple and easy meal he came up with the other day and I’m loving it because it’s not only yummy and nutritious, the most important thing… it’s FAST! LOL!!!
And I named it Hot Pocket, hubby doesn’t agree with the name, he said it’s just pita bread but I like to call it Hot Pocket. Okay to warn you, it’s not like a fancy woo wow kind of meal, hahahaha, just that I’m thrill we discovered something simple and easy to prepare at home which is much healthier than instant noodle. Of course, you can get this kind of food or wrap anywhere in the restaurant but at anytime a home cooked meal is better, right?

These are the ingredients we use:
Pita bread – warm the pita bread on a pan
Stuffing:
-organic pre-washed salad mix
- stir fried chopped celery, soy ham, organic sweet corn, organic green peas, and pine nuts
- sliced olives
- sliced avocado
Sauce: we use Kewpie mayonnaise (In M’sia- you can get it from Jusco), (in US- in Chinese supermarket/ Japanese supermarket)
I also love it with my homemade salad dressing made from Dijon mustard.

Bipolar weather

2009-04-09T08:14:00.001-07:00

Okay, this is what I called a bipolar weather, one day sunny, one day snowy, what?!?! If you guys are familiar with the bipolar disorder, where they have manic phase and a depression phase. Manic is when they are all up and energetic, then the depression is, you know, depressed and all down…

So, it was all warm on Sunday and we visited the New York Botanical Garden(stay tune for more flowers story :P) and I was wearing a feather-weight sweater without jacket…feeling the warmth of the sun touching my cheeks. It was so nice…

Yesterday, when I leave my apartment, my jaw dropped when I open the front door, “Is that snow?” OMG, snowing in April? I have to wear my thick winter jacket again -_-

Now, today is all sunny and warm again… truly bipolar. But I am going to seize the opportunity to enjoy when it’s nice today!

Spring time & the Flower Power!

2009-03-30T10:15:00.001-07:00

It was a very nice warm breezy day on Saturday. Hubby and I were in the mood for a walk around the city. We went to Union Square for Paragon Sports since he’s going to get me a swimming cap, goggle and the earplugs as he promised. ^_^
I have long forgotten about the farmers’ market which are usually there certain time of the year especially when the weather is nice. There’s always fresh local produce you can find with reasonable price.

And what attracted my attention?….no surprise….the FLOWERS! They were so fresh and beautiful!

I had hard time which one to pick. They were all so beautiful. Which one do you like? The hyacinth, tulip or the freesia?

Then, something caught my eyes….

Wow, even the dried one were so beautiful and colorful. And I figured… why not I buy these since it’s going to last longer, hehe

These dried chilies bouquets were so beautiful, I took a sniff, hooo… it’s hot! I almost bought it but then… I think these purple little flowers would look nicer in my living room.

Chilies wreath!

Some other interesting stuffs… homemade candles…

And hubby spotted something hilarious about this T-shirts stand… Can you see it?

..…

…..

Hahaha, when are we gonna get over this? The Obamas have become the “American Idol”! Everywhere you go, at every corner of the streets, you’ll see their faces printed on something.

Just before we leave for lunch, ahh….more flowers…
Me: baby, can I get that hydrangea?
Hubby: Hmm, no place for that la…I’m hungry, come on, let’s go.
Me: -_-

The lunch at Cosi was great! Flatbread with mozzarella, tomatoes and basil, and a house lemonade. Yummo!

Baby talk...

2009-03-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

My little nephew, Chester, is growing up fast and I think he is just sooo CUTE! Most babies are cute but of course, most people have stronger affection with those who have blood ties or related to them (needless to say all parents think their child is the cutest in the world)…
And maybe for that reason, I just cannot stop giving him BIG smooches. I also think he looks a little like hubby (one of my friend said he looks exactly like hubby *o*). Well, looking at Chester does makes me want to have a baby of my own, hehehehe. Muack!
Newborn Chester @12 hours old (at the Beth Israel Medical Center)

Chester @ 2 weeks (at my sister in-law's home in Staten Island)

Me & Chester @ 2 months -making funny faces (doesn't he looks like Popeye here? :P)

Hubby & Chester @ 5+ months ("uncle can't stop smooching me")

The journey of a great grandfather...

2009-03-26T06:07:00.000-07:00

Evergreen Cemetery in Brooklyn

This past Sunday I went to the cemetery in Brooklyn with my hubby and my parents in-law to pray and pay respect to my husband’s great grandfather. For the Chinese, Qing Ming (or Cheng Beng-as known in Malaysia) is a day to remember and honor our ancestors at the cemetery. I just learned that there are some different names for this day:
o All Souls Day
o Clear Brightness Festival
o Festival for Tending Graves
o Grave Sweeping Day
o Chinese Memorial Day
o Tomb Sweeping Day
o Spring Remembrance

His great grandfather came to New York in the early 1900’s and own a laundromat but he passed away before he can get his family over to NY. According to my mother in-law, he travelled home to China a few times, by ship! And it took him more than a month to get there and he would usually bring a big container with him filled with things for his family, like those we saw in the “Wong Fei Hong” movie I guess. Gosh, I cannot imagine how that was like....It scares me when I think about the 24+ hours flight from New York to Kuala Lumpur. For him was like MORE than 30 days! On a ship! I really respect the courage of the people in the old days and their diligence. Hey, now, compare to great grandfather...the long flight home doesn’t sounds that scary after all...

Volunteerism

2009-03-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

Since I have more time now, I decided to go back to be a volunteer for the same hospital I used to volunteer for. This time I decided to help in the nursing department as well instead of the other program. As a nurse , I always enjoy the part where I can listen to the patient and talk to them, give them extra blanket, fill up their water pitcher or any little things like that to make them feel comfortable and relieve some of their frustrations of having to stay in the hospital. However, these are nice things that most nurses wanted to do so much but cannot get to do because of limited time and to prioritize, we are actually not encouraged to spend time on that since we have tons of other important things to be done for the patients and for the record of the hospital as well (you'll know what I mean if you are a nurse). Besides, those are the jobs that really should be done by the nurses aides or nurse techs instead of the registered nurse, ideally.

Today, it's my first day going back to this hospital and my job as a volunteer is to fill up their water pitcher in the morning, help the nurses to prepare the ice packs, get the medicine cart organized, set up the admission kits for the empty beds and push a coffee cart to every room during afternoon to offer patients and families some refreshments(sort of like the flight attendants!). Fun!

It's a new kind of experience...not stressful like the nursing job but get a lot of smiles and appreciation...and one thing I found most rewarding today, I walked into a room and saw one of my favorite very famous Hollywood actor!!! I was surprise at the beginning and wasn't sure I am seeing what I'm seeing, so I take another glance, in order not to make him feel uncomfortable, I talked to him just like I do to other patients.Smiling while introducing myself to him, and get his water pitcher. No, I was really cool and calm…because this is a hospital, guys. Oh and if you are still waiting for me to tell you who’s that, sorry I can’t. I mean if you’re in healthcare, you’ll hear about the HIPPA law (pertaining to US only) which you have to keep the patient’s privacy. So, zip!

I mean I’ve seen some of the Hollywood stars at the restaurant where I used to work when I was a student, but that’s different, because this one I like and he's really FAMOUS! and most importantly, people doesn't want other to know if they're in the hospital, correct?
Those I seen before in the restaurant I can mention…well, I saw Hillary Swank, Hillary Duff, Tobey Maguire (yes! Spiderman! I’ve seen him twice) I even got his signature down… on the credit card receipt, LOL. I even saw some I don’t remember…oh and also Ang Lee who would usually booked a whole section of the restaurant.

Anyway, back to the volunteering at the hospital, overall, it is rewarding…even though I don’t get paid, other than the lunch, I love being there for the people and I also get to observe how things are different from other hospital. I am also looking forward to meet more people and hopefully with my present, I can make their day a little easier. This is a great hospital, oh and for the privacy reason still, let’s not mentions the hospital name also, tips: as you can see from the 1st picture, it overlooks the East river of NYC. *wink

Quotes for volunteers: "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."- Winston Churchill.

"The gift of time is priceless."- Unknown

The New Blogger on the Block!

2009-03-17T16:25:00.001-07:00

I've been contemplating about having my own website for a long time...for years I mean. I enjoy reading my friends' postings but I do not know where to find time to write my own. After a few pushes from some of my good friends : ) (you know who you are) included my husband, I think to myself "yeah they're right, it's probably time to start writing. Sitting in my cozy living room, the best place to relax, to think, to read, to write and to share my thoughts and observations in life... Now, here's the 1st step of my journey into blogging...

"The Journey of A Thousand Miles Begin with One Step"