Sweet Sour Potato Carrot

This is a simple Chinese dish that I learned from t.v. All you need is carrot, potato, dry chilly, Chinese sausage, sesame oil, a bit of cooking wine, some black vinegar and a pinch of sugar. Cut every ingredient in match stick size. Heat wok and add sesame oil.

Stir fry potato and carrot. Add some cooking wine, follow by Chinese sausage and dry chilly. Lastly add vinegar and sugar to taste. Dish should be dry with no gravy.

Thanks for reading and hope you will like this dish.

Working life - in my teens

Since mum told me that I will not be attending college or university due to financial constraint, I made a promise to myself that I will not spend anymore of her money once I step out of school. Mum got me my first job, temporary job actually, at a friend's place, counting and vetting through contest forms. (I mentioned it in my previous post) . It only last for about a month and a half.

I could still remembered very clearly, on my last day on the job, I took some of my salary and went shopping for clothes, shoes and bag, preparing for my next real job. As usual, I took a bus home. While I was in the bus, I was worried where and how am I going to find my next job, for I will be jobless from tomorrow onwards. Moreover, I am still waiting for my SPM results and will not have any certificate to show my qualification etc. Upon arriving at the bus-stop near my house, I notice a new supermarket right where I got down from the bus. Had never noticed it before. There was a big "vacancy" sign outside.

Being an Aries, bold and always in a hurry to get things done, I went in and ask for the office without realizing not only do I not have a resume but also a hand full of shopping bags. A girl showed me the way. So happen the manager was in his office that time. I went in with all those shopping bags. Everyone was looking at me. I introduced myself and asked if I could work there. He asked me a few questions and next thing I knew, he gave me a form to fill, told me about my salary and ask me to start the very next day. He even hand me 2 sets of uniform. I got the job as a cashier, my first try in getting a job. So proud that day, kept smiling all the way home.

The supermarket was just walking distance from my house. So everyday I would go home for lunch and dinner. Granny would cook for me and my sister, who was still schooling then. I made a lot of friends there. The boss was nice, so were the supervisors and fellow co-workers.

I worked there till I got my SPM (form five) result. After that I start applying for jobs with some banks. Mum said for a girl, I should either get a job as a teacher or be a bank employee. I have no clue what to expect or know which road I should follow. I just leave everything in the hands of my guardian angels above.

My first three jobs was good, no complain, except that the salary was low because I lack working experience and still in my teens. The above was only my second job. I find that once I step into the twenties, all those fellow colleges start to take me more seriously and no more pampering. They began to feel that I am a treat to them. That is when I felt the competition had began and fully understood the phrase "it's a jungle out there".

Thanks for reading. How was your working life? Were you happy all these while or stay on the job just for the money?

What's wrong with me

This woman rushed to see her doctor, looking very much worried and all strung out. She rattles off, "Doctor, take a look at me. When I woke up this morning, I looked at myself in the mirror and saw my hair all wiry and frazzled up, my skin was all wrinkled and pasty, my eyes were bloodshot and bugging out, and I had this corpse-like look on my face! What's Wrong with me, Doctor?"

The doctor looked her over for a couple of minutes, then calmly says, "Well, I can tell you that there is nothing wrong with your eyesight..."

Don't Be Silly

Samuel goes to a psychiatrist. He says, "Everybody hates me!"

The psychiatrist answer, "Don't be silly. You haven't met everybody yet."

Tell Me Why

The psychiatrist at our local hospital received a postcard one morning from one of his patients. It read, "Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here so you could tell me why."

Just for laugh! Forget about all your worries and have a good laugh!

Feed Them For Life

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day

Teach him how to fish and you feed him for life"

This reminds me of a documentary I saw on t.v sometime ago. It was about this Chinese Malaysian family of 5. The dad had a stoke recently but was not bed ridden. However, he could not walk as fast as he used to and most of the time he would move around in his wheel chair. His wife is a housewife and his 3 children are still in school. The man was out of job. Charity starts pouring in from all over Malaysia from various organizations to individuals and schools too.

One of the organization did offer his eldest son scholarship to enter college the following year. His neighbors and relatives offer foods and clothes. During the documentary, they did interview a few neighbors, some relatives and friends. One particular neighbor did mentioned that she suggested to the man's wife to start babysitting for others or maybe sell food at the nearby market but she didn't want to without giving any reason.

There are thousands of folks within Malaysia every year who need charity, some cases are urgent and serious like patients who needs a heart transplant or some babies who need surgeries to live etc so how long do you think that charity would stop going to the family mentioned above? How much or how long can those good folks support that family of 5? Eventually it will stop.

There are lots of ways of earning a decent income even to those who are home bound, handicapped or illiterate. Might not earn much or be a millionaire but at least able to support the whole family till the 3 children start working. There are plenty of such jobs in Malaysia.

If only he and his wife could see that they should start to learn how to fish and not wait for someone to hand them one every now and then.

Thanks for reading and hope this tale be a lesson to all of us. No one knows what will happen to us the next minute but what ever happened stay strong, get up and start all over. Opportunity are abundance out there.

Another plant in a basket

Another DIY plant in a basket. Same as my earlier post but this time a different plant. All you need is a basket, some coconut husk, some soil and some plants. Fill the basket with the coconut husk before adding soil so that soil will remain in the basket. Then add plant and add more soil.

Just add a ribbon at the side of the basket and it would make a lovely gift. Thanks for reading and happy trying.

Hope Japan Recover Soon

It is unfortunate that such major disaster were to happen. It is terrifying to know that it is beyond anyone's control, even though someone might had earlier detected something like this might happen but what can we do to prevent it. So scary to see almost half of Japan vanished overnight.

It made me feel so vulnerable. All those hard years of building wealth, status, business etc just disappeared in front of of our eyes in seconds. All we could do is watch it vanished. I am sure all this had made some people stopped what ever they are doing and take a break. Life is too short to work so hard.

Now a days when ever I pour myself a drink, I thought of those folks in Japan, such a developed country now some of them have no water supply. Must be devastating especially to those who are used to good life with water coming out from taps, electricity at a push of a button, abundance of food supply at the groceries etc. Most of us do take these things for granted.

Nothing last forever, not even us. So folks out there who thinks that they had made it to the top and start to look down on others, think again. If disaster like these were to happen, you will end up staying in the same shelter home with the rest. Be more humble and thankful with what you have now and don't have to be so stuck-up about it. Like the saying goes, anything goes up must come down.

Thanks for reading and let us all pray for Japan.

Here's To Higher Education (funny tale)

Suffering from a bad case of the "blahs," I went down to the adult-education centre to see what classes were offered. As I leafed through the brochure, I spotted one that sounded interesting.

"Are there any spaces left in the self-motivation class?" I asked the receptionist.

"Sorry," she said. "That course was cancelled. No one signed up for it."

I was looking for something to read in the prison library when I bumped into another inmate holding a book. It had the curious title "Robbing Banks".

"You found that book here?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said, grinning. "In the self help section."

What A Coincidence

Having looked the other way for weeks, the boss finally called Smith into his office for a sit-down.

"You know, Smith," he said, "I've noticed that every time you have to take your dear old aunt to her doctor's appointments, there's a game over at the stadium."

"Wow, sir, I guess you're right," Smith answered. "I didn't realise it. You don't think she's faking it, do you?"

Just for laughs. Thanks for reading. Enjoy a good laugh.

Poison A Child's Mind

In my opinion, it is extremely easy to poison a child's mind. I had witness a mum who influenced her daughter to hate her own mum. She would show a proud smiley face when her teenage daughter talk rudely, talk back loudly and argue with her own mum. She forgot that one day she too, might be a granny to this daughter's children and the same could happen to her too. History could repeat itself as she had brought her up that way.

Then there was this granny who manage to make her grandchildren hate their parents by telling them bad stuffs about their parents. Of course, she only told her side of the story. Once the grand children started hating their own parents, no matter what others said, they would still believe grandma more.

Once on Oprah show, it shows a lady who was abused by her husband. He would beat her up and called her all sorts of terrible names in front of their kids. The sad part was their teenage son, believes that the dad was right and his mum deserve to be punished that way. Brought tears to me while watching that episode. How could an educated teenager unable to differentiate what is right and what is not?

My mum and dad went separate ways when I was only six. My grandma (mum's mum) always reminds me and my sister that no matter what happen, they are still our parents. We should still love and respect them as mum and dad no matter what.

I do not really see eye to eye with my own mum. She was raise as an only child and had a bit of that stingy, selfish, only love herself attitude all a long. So growing up with mum does not make me feel like I had a mum but she is a great provider. She make sure we had every necessity that a child should have. Other than that she does not know how to show her love and affection to me and my sister. We felt the coldness when ever she is around.

Having said that, I never disrespect her as I always felt that even though she does not know how to be a good mum that doesn't mean I should retaliate and be a bad daughter. My sister and I still take good care of her and make sure what ever she wants, if we could fulfill, we would. Even my sons and my sister's children all still respect her as a mum and a granny.

Once a girl, a graduate, told me that she and her mum always behave rudely to her mum's mother. Ask why and she said that when her mum was young, grandma always bully her mum by making her do all the house work while other brothers and sisters go out to play. Hmmm does that sounds like an abuse? On the other hand the grandma told me that this particular daughter had asthma and would always want to keep her at home. Further more, when this daughter was in her early twenties, she was involved with a married man and the man's wife called her up, begging her to send her daughter some where else so that she would stop seeing her husband. That was her second reason for keeping her busy at home, hopping that she had less time to go meet that married man. I am very sure the young graduate does not know of the second part of the story.

So if you see my point, parents or guardian are extremely powerful in influencing a young child's mind. Why teach them to hate someone when sooner or later the truth might surface and in return they might hate you more. Why not just teach them to love others unconditionally and make this world a better place to live in. I always tell my son this : when someone slapped you that is a bad person, report that person to an authority, but when you slapped back, it makes you equally bad. Does retaliation solve problems? No! It just make it worst.

Thanks for reading and hope we could all make this world a better place and a happier one too.