Oatmeal cookies

I don't really like to bake but saw this recipe at a shop selling ingredients for baking. Now a days they do have pre-mix cookie flour for handicap bakers like me. All I need was the cookie mix, egg, rolled oats, cereal and margarine.

Ingredients:

Margarine 350g

Egg White 45g

Cookies Mix 650g

Rolled Oat 100g

Instant Cereal for coating

Beat Margarine until fluffy.

Add in egg white, mix until incorporate.

Lastly, mix in Cookies Mix and rolled oat to from dough.

Divide the dough into small portion and coat it with instant cereal.

Bake at 160C - 170C with top and bottom heat for 16 - 20 minutes.

I made it in the size of the normal cookies but the photo above came out like as if it was a huge biscuit. It was actually the size of a Malaysian 50 cent coin.

Thanks for reading and have fun baking. Happy Chinese New Year to all Chinese all over the world. May the God of Prosperity follows you where ever you go.

University of Hard Knocks

A few months before my SPM final exams, mum told me that she could not afford to send me for further studies. She didn't even mentioned that I could apply for a loan or a scholarship for a tertiary education. I was quite upset when she mentioned it. She said I should get a job instead of going to college or university. She is a single mum. Since dad left when I was 6, he ran from paying alimony and mum had 3 jobs, working from Monday to Sunday in order to put food on the table. Guess she is tired of working and is time I earn my own living.

She noticed how upset I was and said, the best university in the world is free, "The University of Hard Knocks". She said it is time to go out there and get some survival skills. Life in school is way too comfortable compare to the jungle out there, so in order to survive, go get knock by others and learn from it.

Just a few days after my major exam, mum got me my first job working as a temporary clerk for a batteries distributor company. She had quite a number of friends working there and manage to pull some strings. I just sat for my exams and the results will only be out in a few months time, so I don't have a certificate to apply for a proper job, yet. The company had just launch a consumer contest and need someone to sit and checked through all those entry forms, count it and record it in a book. Once the contest is over and I had recorded the last entry form, I will be out of job.

Since some of the aunties working here were friends of mum, they treated me like a little princess. I was to sit in one of the meeting room and sort out all those entry forms, alone and away from all the other staffs. Those aunties would take turn to keep an eye on me. Even when I need stationaries, I don't have to lift my butt, someone will get it for me.

Every day at lunch break, there is always someone to babysit me, take me out for lunch. No one allowed me to go out for lunch alone for fear I would get lost. Everyday at tea break, they would take turn to bring me tea, coffee, cakes, tarts etc even though I told them I was not hungry. I worked there for only one and half months.

I was only 17 then and earning a few hundreds by just doing something so simple and being pampered everyday gave me the impression that life after school is heaven. That's because at 17, no one really takes me seriously and guess at that age, I am not a threat to anyone yet, in terms of chances for promotion etc.

Those lovely 'Happy Working Life' didn't last for long. The true taste of 'hard knocks' came after my second full time job. I have 2 other jobs before this and still in my teens and everyone still finds me 'adorable' , like the baby of the department. At the time when I was with the second full time job, I was in my early 20s and others starts to take me seriously and finds me to be a threat even though I was friendly and hardworking. Maybe those two points intimidate others.

Thanks for reading and will share more of my 'life after school' experiences with all. So, how was your first day at work on your first job? Was it challenging or sweet?

For The Armpits

Lorna goes to the mini market to buy her boyfriend some toiletries. A clerk comes to help her, and asks if she needs assistance.

"I'm looking for some deodorant for my boyfriend, but I don't know what type he uses."

The clerk says, "Is it the ball type?"

"No, " says Lorna, "It's for his armpits!"

Dining Out

To impress his date, Ramson took her to a very chic Italian restaurant in town. After sipping some fine wine he picked up the menu and ordered, "We'll have the Giuseppe Spomdalucci," he said.

"Sorry, Sir," said the waiter. " That's the manager!"

Mad Cow Disease

A man and his wife went to a 'SteakHouse' for dinner.

Waiter: What would you like to have?

Husband: I'll take a beef steak.

Waiter: Sir, what about the mad cow ......?

Husband: She will order for herself!

Thanks for reading and enjoy that good laugh!

Motivational Quotes

"Today's preparation determines tomorrow's achievements"

I just love reading quotes. It is like vitamins for my soul. Keeps my fire burning. Fuel to motivate and push me to carry on. I get calender with quotes written at the bottom, I have posters with quotes on walls, even a line or two on my cross-stitch.

When the going gets tough and no one is around to give me that push, quotes will. When I need a pat on the shoulder to say "Well Done!" and praises are had to come by, I read quotes. Every single quotes means something to me. I felt like those are words from my guardian angel, guiding me all the way to the finishing line.

Besides me, a friend of mine would post a quote a day on facebook. Once I told him "Thanks for sharing" and he said all those quotes are necessary to keep him sane. Guess once you have reach the stage where you are climbing the corporate ladder and at the same time bringing up your family and your aged parents starts to visit the hospital regularly, you do need some kind of motivation to carry on living without going insane.

I am now taking baby steps everyday to prepare myself to eventually reach my goals. So many personal targets to meet, age is catching up and try not to feel overwhelmed at the same time. Being a Ram (Aries), I just could not lay back and relax, no, not yet. Will share my success tales in the future once my dream comes true.

Thanks for reading. Hope today's quotes could guide you to where ever you want to go, just like how it guides me.

3 colors in one

Isn't this lovely. Three colors of bougainvillea on one tree. Actually there are four colours but the white ones hasn't bloom yet. I had several pots of bougainvillea in the past, after a year or so it stops blooming. Those that I chuck one side without paying much attention to it, bloom very well during the hot season, but those that I paid extra attention, fertilized regularly, pay extra care, it stops blooming. Guess I must have over doing it. Hope this pot last longer.

It is such a sensitive plant. Unlike my other plants which bloom almost every week. My hubby loves gardening too. Every time when we passed by a plant nursery around our area, we have to go in and check it out and end up buying at least 1 pot of something home. Perhaps one of these days we might even need to convert the roof into a garden, keh keh keh.

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy gardening as much as we do.

A Basket Of Money

This would make a lovely gift. All you need is a basket. Some coconut husk. Some soil. Some "money plant" or any other plant that look nice in a basket.

Cover the basket with the coconut husk. Seal all those holes in the basket. You don't need to glue the husk to the basket, just lay it in there like a nest. Fill the husk with soil. Plant your "money plant", and there you have it, "A Basket Full of Money".

Thanks for reading and hope you like gardening as much as I do. Happy trying.

My Toddler Years

I was told that I was the most adorable baby in town. Yeah! I know! Doesn't all parents said that, keh keh keh. I have big round eyes that sparkles with long curled eye lashes top with double eye lid where most Chinese would long to have. Got it from mum's side of the family. Grandma had big round eyes and double eye lid even though she came from China. So does mum and me. Most Chinese would go for plastic surgery just to get that double eye lid.

Anyway, as I grow, my eyes don't look so big anymore and those eyelashes looks ordinary now as my face grew bigger. Last year, however, my neighbor's teenage girl who was sitting by my side, noticed my eye lashes and said how she wish to have long eye lashes like mine. Ooops, had not hear stuffs like these for years. What a compliment!

Where ever I go, I make head turns. Folks in my neighborhood nicknamed me "the big eye girl". My parents took thousands of photos of me during those few years. It could be because I was the eldest, like an only child then. Mum and grandma was always proud to show me off. I attracted a lot of attention where ever I go.

I was quite naughty too, as a toddler. I was told that by the time I was about 8 months old, I started to hold the milk bottle and drink on my own, independently. After every meal, I would push the glass bottle out of my cot through the wooden bar and break quite a few. Those days we don't used plastic bottles. To the extend, my parents have to place a mat below my cot.

I was quite a cry baby too. A bit spoiled, I think, at that time, with all those attention. When I cry, some of the tears would hang in there on my long curled eye lashes like tiny pearls, and when I blink, tears will drop on my cheek. Grandma always finds this amusing. When ever I cry, she would said, "Look! Look at her lashes!"

Mum treats me like a barbie doll. I had uncountable dresses of all sorts, hair pin, ribbons, you named it, I have it. She would dress me up with her fancy wigs of all sorts, and her earrings and jewelry etc and had me post for her photos. Every time when I look at those photos, grandma and mum would tell all those stories about me as toddler.

I am grateful that I had a, so called, glamorous life as a toddler. Even though I didn't end up being a model or joined any beauty pageant, at least I did attracted a lot of attention as a toddler. Just like a Chinese old saying, "it is better to had it, once before, then never to experienced it at all". Hope I translate it correctly.

Thanks for reading. Hope you find this interesting. So how was your life as a toddler? Was it as exciting as mine?

More funny tales

I would like to kick start the new year with some jokes / funny tales.

She Is Having A Baby

It was late at night. The man was at the public phone booth frantically ringing the 24-hour clinic.

Man (panting) : My wife! She is pregnant and she is getting contractions, and I think the baby is about to be born.

Clinic Nurse : Is this her first child?

Man : No, you silly! This is her husband!

What Date Is It Today

Two friends are in a coffee shop when one says to the other, "Can you tell me what the date is please?"

"No idea," says the other.

"But you have a newspaper in your hand," he says.

"Sorry, it's no use. It's yesterdays's paper."

Piano Recital

Raz Kum had taken his date to see a famous pianist. His date would rather have gone to her favourite disco. Halfway through, she tapped Raz on the shoulder.

"What's he playing?" she asked.

"Chopin's Polonaise in A-flat," he responded.

"Oh," she signed, "I could have sworn it was a piano!"

Have a good laugh and thanks for visiting this site.