What do you think of positive affirmations & gratitude journaling? Do they help?

If you walk pass my one of my colleague's desk or cubicle you wont miss it. It's "decorated full of positive affirmations of all sizes. Some in very pretty postcards, others in small tiny cards. The messages are pretty diverse, but all very positive, inspirational & encouraging. We always wonder if it helps. She has been the same since day 1...lol... Intense & quick to snap at her boy friend. She's very nice to us though. Maybe he deserves it. I know guys can be very annoying.

Then we noticed something else on her desk the other day. She has a book of some kind. It says Gratitude Journal on the outside. Wow !!! It's trending I guess. People are keeping them. Not sure if things like these works. The encouragement is there I guess, but how much of it will seep in? I ask her about it & she let me have a peep. It's cute.

She'll note something small on it everyday. Things like "I am grateful that there's no traffic jam today" or yesterday's entry was " I'm grateful that I can share this with my friend " ..lol... that would be me!

Should I keep one as well?
It wont hurt I guess.

Do you have problem sleeping?

Do you have problem sleeping like I do?
A friend told me, to change all my bed sheets to white ! I go huh ???? Where's the connection? She said, noticed how the hotel bedroom sheets are always white? Yes, but I always thought it's probably due to the laundry issue. As in, it's easier to clean white sheets- if they are dirty , you just wash them with bleach. With colored sheets, once they are used often, the color will start fading & very quickly they'll looked old. Also if you bleach them, they will look 'very used' as well! Hotels definitely don't want that!
Anyway, shouldn't colors like blue or even green be more soothing & calming?
She said she had read it somewhere. Hmmm.... I prefer my bed sheets with nice soothing colors & design.
Plain White would be too stark for me.

Something like this would be nice:))

Poor Megahan Markle for having to tolerate her idiotic half-brother Thomas Markle Jr.

I'm sure by now you would have heard of the coming Royal wedding between Prince Harry & Meghan Markle. Well as with everything wonderful & nice there's always someone whose jealous & who'll try to sabotage it.

In this case that would be Meghan Markle's idiotic half brother Thomas Markle Junior. He had sent a letter to Prince Harry, asking him to cancel the wedding, plus saying a bunch of nasty things about Meghan. It's all in the news now. Poor Meghan.... such an embarrassment! Can't you be happy for your own sister? She's marrying into the royal family .... you know how exciting & dreamy that is ? The act itself reflects what a Total Loser he is!

Now he apologized & wanted to be invited to the wedding, can you believe that ? Well That kicks off the topic of our conversation yesterday. Boss was not coming in, so we were free to discuss world affairs....lol....  It's between the Malaysian election which is full of twist & turns & Meghan Markle's idiotic half brother. Haha.... guess who wins the "scumbag" of the day?

We all agree, Thomas Markle Jr is indeed the greatest Scumbag , maybe of the month or the year 2018  !!!!

The beautiful Meghan in Suits !!! Love the show!

You can't change someone who dosen't see an issue in their actions

I've recently joined a new yoga class with Joyce my friend. She has finally decided to start taking up yoga @ the cc near her place. So to support her, I went over to join her. It's a small class but the mix is good. The ladies were all really nice. After class they like to hang around & chit chat a little which I thought was fun. The ones I go to before, we just pack up & go after class. So this new thing was fun for me.

Last week we stayed longer & I get to know them better. Jenny (not her real name ...haha ... I thought she looks like a Jenny) shared that she's content with being single in her late 40s. She said after a long marriage followed by a couple of relationships, she has found happiness in being on her own. I found that to be extremely powerful! And here we are going all hype when the bf didn't call. She's such a sweet heart- I told her so.

She has such good advice for us too. " You can't change someone who dosen't see an issue in their actions." She said she didn't leave her husband for making too many mistakes, she left because he made the same mistake too many times.
Kudos girl !

So cute right? Do yoga , it's good for yo !!!

A source of anxiety

The firm where my colleague's ( Lili)  husband works brought in a new female manager, and he seems to be lunching with her  almost everyday. He told Lili, they are working on a project together, she's "divorced and very nice". Lili & her husband has been married for 7 relatively happy years & now she's feeling threatened.

She ask me today should she ask her husband not to go lunch with his new female colleague again? Told her : NOOOOO............

Insisting he don't lunch with that lady does 3 unfortunate things: It says she don't trust him. It'll be awkward for him. Plus he might just continue doing it anyway & now he'll lie about it !

What then? Kim ,another colleague suggest she "hint" about the seven year itch. Say casually even a faithful husband would be slightly tempted just as a trusting wife can be a little insecure over these daily lunches. But we all thought before she even do any of this, she should make it a point to meet this very nice divorce lady.

Who knows- we might even think of a very nice divorce man for her????

All I want for Christmas is ......

I am not rich or very fabulous but I do have everything. Good health, a good job, nice house to stay in, good family & friends.

So this Christmas, I only want to have a tiny waist. I have lost much weight & I have manage to maintain my weight quite well. But I just don't seem to lose at the waist. It's thick & awful. My friends said it's fine, looks OK. I don't know maybe I'm just paranoid.

For my colleagues, I'm doing this DIY gift for everyone. Saw this online, such a good idea & wont break the bank:))

Guilinggao is good for complexion ...haha..

Last week I was having lunch with my colleagues at Crystal Jade Kitchen, Taka. When it's time for dessert, the waitress recommended we try the black turtle/tortoise jelly aka Guilinggao.

I have never try that before. It's popular in Hong Kong & it's supposedly good for complexion. We are suckers for anything that's marketed that way ...lol... the 4 of us ordered one each.

 Hmmm.. it tasted strange, a little bitter but the honey makes it ok. After a while, the strange taste grew on me. Upon returning from lunch, I was still thinking of it. Yesterday I couldn't take it anymore, we went back to Crystal Jade & can't wait for dessert ....lol..
Go try it:)

Another reason why we shouldn't have too many kids !

The other day I bump into an old friend, & would you believe, she do not remember me! I cant understand, I'm like quite "outstanding" in school- though for all the wrong reasons, but still. She apologized & finally ... she remember. Her excuse, she has just given birth & her memory & brain seems to be getting a bit off, really????? It's known to happen. Time to take care of your brain then, experts recommend:

1. Do puzzles: to increase creative thinking, the cerebrum needs exercise.

2. Just 2 glasses of wine a day can improve cognition.

3.Fresh food like sashim, vegetables optimize brain function!

4.And water speeds up brain function. When the brain dehydrates, it releases a hormone that shrinks the tree liker branches in the brain that store info.

Well you can try. For my friend, I'm not sure what's going to happen after her next kid....lol....!

Gecko Strumming A Leaf

Friends are always sending me pictures of frogs & geckos because they thought it's my thing ....lol..
Well here's one of them :)) Sweet isn't it ?

How to reduce white hair?

I can't believe it, I'm barely old enough to be married, yet I'm spotting strains of white hair on my head !!!! Is it due to stress ? This happened to my friend after she studied for her MBA. No more exams for the rest of her life, she said.

But what about me? My work I guess, it's pretty stressful! Then another friend recommended I start taking Taiwan Black, brown rice! Yes, & she swear by it. Her aunt took it & it works ....hmmm..... I've ordered a packet from her.  Not sure where she bought it from, I'm sure you can find it in some organic stalls all over town. Here's how it looks.

Looks like this after cooking

Apparently you just add it to your usual white rice & cook it as per normal in your rice cooker. Well I'll be trying it soon. Just thought I share this information. Can you imagine all the money we can save from dying our hair at the salon !

Please don't ask for help until you've googled it

My new Boss has a soft spot for our new cleaning lady. The new Boss just join us this year & he brought along the 'new cleaning lady' from his last place of employment. I heard, they have been working together for more than 10 years, span across 3 different company, she's like a mother to him! I know it's odd, but stranger things have happened.

New Cleaning lady has a son, Ken, who has just graduated last year, & my New Boss had hired him to join us. Just a week with us & he's driving all of us mad. Mandy the most senior among us is questioning our local teaching standards now ....lol... Why is NUS churning out people like Ken? I don't blame her. There's something not quite right with him. He asked the weirdest questions. E.g.

1. Can we eat sweets at out desk?
2. Does anyone takes off their shoes under the desk?
3. Has any clients physically harm any of us? ....lol....
4. Can employees physically defend himself if a client will to slap him/her for no reason?

Mandy got so mad with the latest question this morning, that she told him " Please don't ask for help until you've googled it !". He said "sorry" & quickly left the room, probably to look for his mother. Well at least he's polite, hope he didn't cry in the toilet!

What's my indulgence?

It's tough when you are always watching your diet. What to do, to remain slim you just have to do that. But sometimes I give myself "cheat days" . What's my indulgence?

Yes it's crabs! All kinds of crabs, Chilli crabs, black pepper crabs, hairy crabs, crabs legs ....I love them all. The only thing I don't like is the latest- salted egg crab. Salted-egg anything is fine but I just don't think salted egg goes with crabs.

Fire Escape Hood

Just came back from a trip to China. See what I found in one of the hotels!

Yes it's a Fire Escape Hood ..lol.. I know, I've never seen anything like this before, in any hotel ! It's so unusual, many of us actually thought of opening it up & see what's it like. But in the end we decided against that. Anyway, it's really cute :)

Prima taste, Laksa: you need to try it !

Friday night I was very hungry & too lazy to go out for food. Nobody's home, so I thought I'll just cook some instant noodles. Mum always has a few varieties stock up as all of us have our personal favorite. Mine is the mee goreng kind. Open the kitchen cabinet & it's fully stock but only of one kind of noodles!

Where's my mee goreng? I cant believe it, texted mum. She said give this laksa a try. Text my sister to complain & she text back. 'If heaven has a taste, this is it!' Hmmm.... no choice, I try it & like they said , the rest is history. Today I even check if we need to replenish as I've eaten twice already & I saw my sister & dad eating it yesterday! I'm right, I better go down to the stores to get MORE ...lol..

Older people aren't appreciate enough for their experience & perspective.

Which is the month people generally quit? After bonus that's for sure. Also I guess people do wait till after Feb as that's a short month & major holidays like Chinese New year are usually around that time.

But August ?  this month we suddenly see a bigger than expected exodus of staff. OK I probably shouldn't put it that way as the 3 staff that left are nearing retirement age. One of them actually told me, she was being 'asked nicely' to go!- "out with the old' that's how she puts it.

I often feel that older people aren't appreciate enough for their experience & perspective. There's too much sweeping away of the "OLD" in our culture. And as we get older, many of us experience the feeling of being marginalized or sidelined, simply because of our age. The OLD are always with us, as are those who are no longer alive, whether they are pets or parents or grandparents. We don't stop loving them, nor do we stop remembering them.

Nothing OLD need to be swept aside , to make room for the NEW. There's plenty of room in for all of us. And all of us grow old one day.

Are we becoming heartless, uncaring, unloving people?

Yesterday our usual group plus one new girl went lunch together. On the way to our favorite lunch place, we encounter a group of people asking for donation for a certain cause. These days I noticed we have gotten wary of such activities after the NKF scandal a few years back. We decided to say no, & walk away.

Then during lunch, New Girl 'questioned' our rational for 'not helping'. She spend like 5 solid minutes reducing us to a pile of heartless, uncaring, unloving people. She say we should be compassionate & do things to help others all the time. At this point we kinda looked at "KingKong" , the go-to-guy for such issues ...lol..

Sure enough, he caught the cue & Said:
"It's silly, if all everyone did was to spend time doing things to help other people.
It's a little like everyone doing each other's ironing. I spend my time doing ironing for you. You spend your time doing ironing for her, she spend her time doing ironing for me -"
What I mean is , wouldn't it be much simpler & less messy if we spent at least some of the time doing our own ironings for ourselves, so that other people wouldn't have to do them for us?

New Girl is now pretty pissed off with KingKong ...lol.... Looks like lunching days with us is over for her.

Tim Ho Wan, it's good !

I finally get to try the dim sum at Tim Ho Wan the other day. The first time I saw it was at Plaza Singapura.The long queue really makes me very curious & dying to try. But I don't like to wait so I've been waiting for them to open more branches & sure they did. When you are that famous, you should. Now they have branches @ :

68 Orchard Road #01-29A, Plaza Singapura, Singapore 238839
450 Lorong 6 Toa Payoh Hersing Centre #02-02, Toa Payoh, Singapore 319394
311 New Upper Changi Road #B1-51/52, Bedok Mall, Singapore 467360
3 Gateway Drive #01-13/14, Westgate, Jurong East, Singapore 608532
12 Kallang Avenue, #01-01/02/03 Aperia, Singapore 339511
One Raffles Link, #B1-63/63A, Citylink Mall, Singapore 039393

I went to the one at Aperia, they open till 3am at this branch! Also ample parking, perfect. The food is definitely worth waiting for. Oh... we didn't have to wait at this branch as it's just outside town, could be way off for the usual people. I'm always around Bugis, so it's quite near for me. If you have not try, I do recommend it, it's nice !

This is a spinach dumpling, very nice :)

Is Obesity related to your genes?

Had a class gathering over the weekend. Have not seen some of my x classmates for years now. Doris just came back after staying abroad for years. So we thought it's a very good excuse to meet up & catch up.

Wow... some of us has changed.  Doris especially, she looked like a different person. We had a good time & Doris somehow had to explain why & how she got to have double her size. Well she has never been skinny in school, but this is different. She told us this is because fat runs in the family.Is that even possible? We were all divided on this issue.

Seriously, one shouldn't blame the genes right??? Someone from our group started googling for
answers ....lol... It appears being active lowers a person's genetic risk of obesity. Ha... that we all agree on :)) Then another friend told me to pass Doris some of my panbesy ...lol... It seems everyone knows I took slimming pills for slimming:((

Goodness, told them I don't have to take them anymore as I'm maintaining my weight quite successfully by living a more active life. See it's true I'm the best testimony to that. Yes slimming medicine like panbesy & duromine helps you lose the weight, but maintaining is all up to you after. By that time Doris is kinda looking at me hopefully ...lol... Finally I gave her my doc's contact. She'll be here for a month, & she could go back a different person. She's hoping for that :))

Dont ever snack during this time of the day - The Fat Hour

Have you watch the program "Kids said the darndest Things?" It's a very old & successful show where they show kids saying cute things. That show is fun, & kids do say the cutest things. Sometimes adults too? My colleague for one, is always providing us with the humor we need to survive through the most boring day .

Today at 10:30am, he announced that we should not go for tea, so no snacks...lol...  According to him between 10:30 & 11:30 is the FAT hour! Didn't we know? Of course not ! When you snack at this time vs other times, this will keep your metabolism working. The short interval between this timing & lunch , sets up an expectation of eating at the same intervals throughout the rest of the day. Since there's an 'expectation' of eating, the desire of eating will sets in & we might just go ahead & snack at these "intervals". We could be setting ourselves up for habitual snacking throughout the day !!!!! so more calories are consumed in total.

If you think about it, besides the funny name "Fat Hour", the argument does make a little sense. But not taking tea breaks...... no way ! We suspect he's trying to impress our boss by 'motivating us to work through tea breaks".

Just spotted this on someone @ Orchard !!!

I cant stop thinking of it now ...LOL...