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Month: October 2012

My New Air Fryer – The Path to Healthy Eating

My New Air Fryer – The Path to Healthy Eating

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I’ve been reading about people gushing about their air fryers for a while. It was some time before I convinced myself to buy it, because of its hefty price tag!!

Anyway, I’ve bought it. I’ve only used it to fry some fish fingers and it’s true I didn’t use a drop of oil. They turned out crispy. But then again I wasn’t a fan of fish fingers.

I cut up some potatoes into strips and made my first batch of home made fries. I soaked them in water for 30 mins to get rid of the starch, brushed a little oil on them and air fried them. They turned out quite fine, though nowhere near the legendary Macs fries. Macs fries are really unbeatable and absolutely sinful, unfortunately.

Then the air fryer just sat there, under utilized, until I checked out the recipe book and googled some recipes online.

I decided to air fry some food for 宝贝’s lunch.

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As usual, no condiment meal. I put a piece of chicken thigh into the mesh basket. You can marinate it with the condiments of your choice 2-3 hours before frying or even the night before. Brush it with a layer of oil. I forgot to brush mine so it came out a little dry. Set the temperature at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 mins. If you use a traditional oven it’d take abort 30 mins.

I roasted some cherry tomatoes and some cut up spinach for 6 mins at 160 degrees Celsius.

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The chicken turned out a trifle too dry. I must try again by brushing it with a little oil. The tomatoes came out great. Nicely roasted. The spinach was a surprise. They became crunchy, like those dried seaweed that I love to snack on. The next time I fry the spinach, I should mix it with a wee bit of salt and maybe some spices. It will make a good healthy snack, for myself of course.

Quite a good experiment to have discovered crunchy spinach!! :)

Baby Wants to Play… Or Sleep?!

Baby Wants to Play… Or Sleep?!

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I really pitied the little baby. He was yawning and his eyelids were fluttering shut. But every time his eyelids shut, his grandmother would poke him on his chin to wake him up.

“Erm.. I think he’s very tired and wants to sleep..”

“No lar! He doesn’t want to sleep! See! He’s wide awake! I shook him in the sarong and he eh eh eh!” his Ah Ma negated my remark.

The sarong she was referring to was a cloth cradle that hung beneath a spring suspended to the ceiling. Personally I am totally against letting an infant sleep in such a contraption. Firstly, because of the up and down movement. The adults and children tend to be over exuberant in the shaking and it does no good for brain development. The infant tends to get used to the movement and can’t sleep otherwise. Sleeping in such a condition doesn’t give quality sleep, another reason on the hampering of brain development. Besides, it is hung in the living room, where everyone congregates, with the television switched on. How could the poor baby sleep in such a condition??!!

“Why don’t you bring him into the room so that it’s quieter and he can sleep better?” I ventured again, out of pity for the poor little thing.

“He wants to play!” Ah Ma happily continued to poke him on his chin, waking him up whenever his eyelids fluttered shut.

 

I swear that if I were the baby, I would go nuts. Whenever I was about to nod off to sleep, someone would wake me up by poking me on my chin?! I can’t imagine such a thing happening to him. But then again, I’m an adult, he’s just a wee thing who still can’t express himself.

Oh well… he’s not my child. I’d better keep my mouth shut before I receive complaints on my behaviour. His caregivers should know better. But if I were his mother, I would have snatched him out of her hands, barricaded myself in the room and put him to bed. Who cares if I’m branded as an insensitive daughter-in-law, preventing my mother-in-law from showing off my baby.

To stop a baby from sleeping is a BIG SIN!!

 

Freedom

Freedom

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It’s been a whirlwind of activities and seriously I’m facing fatigue…  Even the long weekend didn’t quite top up the energy level.  There were tonnes of things to do, preparing for the little one’s arrival, spending more time with 宝贝, fulfilling family obligations, cramming all the work I have in the little time available.

 

Yesterday evening I received an email.  A colleague of mine has just resigned after 8 long years.  We were not the best of friends, but we did have some kind of friendly competition over the years for our sales results.  And we talked about some issues that bothered us.  Operationally, his leaving didn’t have any impact on my work.  It’s business as usual.

 

The working environment has evolved over the years.  Change is inevitable and in some areas, it’s for the better.  However, this direction may not be what we “signed up for” when we first joined.  The sales environment is a harsh one.  No one is indispensable, not even if you are the TOP sales.  This should be the way a company operates.   The livelihoods of others shouldn’t be held at ransom by a handful of people.  This is from the perspective of the business owners.  Life goes on without a hitch.  Besides doing sales and managing teams which we used to do, we now have to grapple with proposals, management meetings, extra committees, speak at public seminars, fluster around when top North American executives drop by for a visit.  When faced with the top management, say politically right things to keep things amicable.

 

It’s a feeling of deja vu.  Hey! Didn’t I leave the corporate world so that I could leave all these stuff behind? I find myself being drawn into them once again.  Everything that I hated doing.  Attending meetings which I frankly think is a waste of time, (non sales revenue generating activities), listen to people argue about what to do, only to end up at square one.  Obligations to attend big group meetings with agendas forcefully put together for accountability purposes.  Dragging myself out of my bed to attend something that I don’t believe in.  Saying things that are superficial and not being able to tell people off in their faces?

 

He wrote on his facebook “Freedom is treasured above all”.  Have I forgotten that I used to have control over my time and activities? Without having to account on why I’m absent for some silly meeting because I simply feel like doing something else?

 

Have I forgotten that sometimes freedom is as simple as being able to choose to read newspapers leisurely on a Monday morning (instead of rushing to the office to mark my attendance for a meaningless meeting)?

 

Living is not enough.  One must have Freedom, Sunshine and a little Flower – Hans Christian Andersen

 

 

 

 

Where’s My “Me” Time??

Where’s My “Me” Time??

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It’s always been like this. Everything I get a wave of inspiration or a special feeling that I want to blog about, I’d start on it. But when I’m in the middle of it, something crops up that requires my immediate attention. By the time I’ve put out a few fires and get back to my blogging, the inspiration or feeling has vanished.

Sigh… There are simply too many distractions in Singapore. It is really bad business for any form of creative writing. I’ll need to lock myself in a room, turn off all communication tools and work on it!!

I kind of miss the time that I had spent in Germany, totally isolated and cut off from the numerous distractions. The quality of writing I did over there was much better and of course, being in a new place helped. There were numerous new stuff, quirky feelings to blog about. And a lot of time was spent on self reflection, getting to know myself better.

Right now I just feel myself getting sucked in the whirlwind of activities, doing things because other people wanted to and not for because I wanted to do it. Where’s my space??? Where’s my “me” time???

Press the Hot Button Part 2

Press the Hot Button Part 2

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Just an add on to my previous post Press the Hot Button.

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The passenger thinks he’s riding on the bus and he needs to press the button to alight?!

Smrt should do more to educate the public to reduce down time for such silly incidents!!!

That button is for EMERGENCIES!! Not to be pressed for fun!! Sigh….

宝贝’s Show and Tell

宝贝’s Show and Tell

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宝贝 has to do a show-and-tell twice each week; once in English and once in Mandarin, according to the theme of the week. Last week was purple week. So she needed to bring a purple object for each session.

I’m the English show and tell Oic. Initially we rehearsed the short little session over the weekend. She just needed to make a speech of 1-3 sentences. Yes, not those 5 mins session kind. Can’t expect too much from toddlers younger than 3!! As time goes by, I just look for something adhering to the theme and give it to her. Lazy…

The first purple object that I set my eyes on was her swimming goggles. “Would you like to bring your goggles to school for show and tell??” She agreed. Nowadays we have to get her approval so that she would willingly do it. Sigh. Kids nowadays…

Me : Can you demonstrate how you did your show and tell in school yesterday?
宝贝：ok. (she slipped the goggles over her head and over her eyes).
Me : hang on. You wore your goggles?!
宝贝：Ya. (I must start saying yes instead of ya. She’s picking it up from me. =.=”) Good morning friends! My name is Yihui. I have purple goggles. This is how I swim. (she “swam” around the room in breast stroke.) Thank you everyone!

Hmmm… Ok. Considering that I didn’t rehearse with her. Not too bad. I didn’t expect her to put on the goggles. She looked quite hilariously in them with her school uniform. Hahaha.

My mom is the Chinese oic. She’s much more hardworking than I am. She would rehearse with 宝贝 every single time. She brought a toy brinjal for it.

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婆婆 （grandma)：今天的看看说说怎么样？（how’s today’s show and tell?)
宝贝：婆婆，很好。(very good)
婆婆：你怎么说？(what did you say?)
宝贝：大家好！我的名字是梁懿慧。这是紫色的。很好吃。它可以开又关，开又关。谢谢大家！(hi everybody! My name is Liang Yi Hui. This is purple and yummy. It can open and close, open and close.)
婆婆：为什么你没有介绍茄子？为什么开又关？(why didn’t you introduce it as the brinjal? And what’s with the open and close?)
宝贝：哦！我忘了它的名字。开又关是这样咯！(oh I forgot its name. Open and close refers to this)(she demonstrated by pulling the brinjal apart at the Velcro joint and putting it back together again)
宝贝：老师说我很棒！(Teacher said I did well!!)(grinning from ear to ear)

Last minute improvisation to cover up her brinjal boo boo.

Maybe all that presentations, seminars that I did while I was pregnant really contributed to her pre natal education. She was hearing my voice like 75% of the whole day!! Yadda yadda!! I talked so much that I even got tired of talking… =.=”

So if you want a talkative child, talk a lot when you are pregnant!!!

Miss Unconventional

Miss Unconventional

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宝贝 finally completed one of her art pieces yesterday. She has 2 more uncompleted work – pictures of a fish and a ship. I must be guilty of passing these faulty genes to her. I’ve 101 projects that I’ve started but are still pending completion. *guilty look*

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Ta Da!! Her Children’s Day (which was last Friday) t-shirt. She can wear it next year as it’s really big on her. I’ve seen all the children carrying their T-shirts out of the room yesterday. She was holding hers gingerly at the top as the fabric paint hadn’t quite dried.

宝贝：I did it all on my own!! (she announced proudly) I’ll carry it home myself.

Me : Great. Just don’t dirty the car or I’ll make you clean it up. By the way, why’s your Dolly’s hair red?? All your friends’ dollies have black hair.

宝贝：I like red hair! (I can just picture her dying her hair red as soon as she comes of age. >.< )

Me : Errr ok. But aren't the buttons too big for the face? (the eyes I've seen on other tshirts were made of smaller buttons or sequins). And she looks like someone punched her in the eye.

宝贝：Big eyes can see better!!! That's the makeup. And she's wearing a dress.

Me : =.=" (I can just imagine her with red hair and gothic style make up in future. Maybe I can help her with that for the upcoming Halloween party…)

Having said that I could notice that she had painstakingly stuck the red wool strands in two directions. The dolly even had a centre parting. And the cloth bits were arranged in the same direction to resemble a skirt, complete with a sequined belt. Her zombie looking doll kind of grew on me after a while. :p

After all, she's right. Why conform to the norm? Why does the sky have to be always coloured in blue? Why does the grass have to be green? Why does the dolly have to look like a regular girl? She can be a zombie for all I care!

Adults like us have too many rules and conventions that we live by and we have forgotten how it's like to think out of the box and to be different from others.

I hope creativity continues to thrive in my quirky little one. Maybe she will paint the grass pink next time!!

I Feel so Touched… T.T

I Feel so Touched… T.T

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The hub is in India for a few days on business. In the middle of the first night, I heard someone tip toe into my room. I turned around and saw 宝贝 climbing stealthily up my bed, clutching her little bolster. She hasn’t come to my room in the middle of the night for months.

She said “mama” in a soft voice and snuggled against me.

The next day, she told grandma about it.

宝贝 ：爸爸在印度。妈妈自己睡。(Daddy is in India. Mama was sleeping alone.)
婆婆：哦！ 是吗？(ohh, really?)
宝贝：嗯。所以我陪妈妈睡。(yes. So I went to her room to accompany her) *she beams*

Awwww…. I am so touched!! I must be the luckiest mom on Earth. Where can I find a sweeter and more sensitive little girl than her??

My darling with her orange carrot juice mustache.

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Press the HOT Button!

Press the HOT Button!

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It’s only today that I realized how frequently the emergency button has been abused on the mrt. The button is big and undoubtedly attractively red. That may explain why.

The “hot” button was pressed for several reasons.

1. Unwell passenger. Ok fine. Sounds pretty valid to me.

2. For no reason. Several times the Smrt was unable to locate the source of the problem. I suspect it lies with certain “itchy fingers” of the passengers. I wonder if there’s an illness called itchyfingerholic.

3. UFO. Unidentified bag left in the cabin. Well, ok. There’s the risk of a bomb. One can never be too careful. I still remember my fateful incident in a London tube station. We saw a bunch of officers running towards a solitary bag left in a tube station. Dear Seow said,”oh my goodness! It may be a bomb!”. We ran for dear lives. With a backpack full of 1 month’s *barang on our backs. We were pretty darn fit then. It’d kill me to perform the same feat now!!

4. Someone’s bag/hand/some part of the body was caught in the door. It’s happened to me before!! No one pressed the emergency button for me. T.T

5. But today’s the one that really cracked me up. Check this out.

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Someone pressed the emergency button because he was upset by his neighbour’s loud music. He must have mistaken the button for the player’s stop button?? He stopped the whole train just so that all the rest of the passengers could be trapped in the train together with him and enjoy the loud music.

Wahahaha. I marvel truly at his ingenuity. I wonder who he is!! C’mon stompers!! You are not doing your job!! You should have *stomped him!!! He can then enjoy his moment of fame.

Next time if someone plays gangnam music I can press the hot button?!?!


*barang = stuff

*stomp = an online tabloid where people snap photos of unsuspecting strangers in various compromising positions and upload them. Link here.

宝贝 – The *Ge Tai Singer

宝贝 – The *Ge Tai Singer

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宝贝 has been in a singing mood lately.  She hums to herself or launches into a gusto tune, whichever suits her at that point of time.

She was playing with her puzzle when she suddenly decided that the room was too quiet and she needed to jazz up the mood a little.

十八的姑娘一朵花呀 (English Translation: A lady at eighteen years blooms like a flower)

一朵花 (like a flower)

每个男人都想他呀 (Every man thinks of her)

都想他 (thinks of her)

姑娘长大不得了呀 (When she grows up, she will be incredible)

不得了 (incredible)

粉色的笑脸 (Pink smiling face)

粉色笑脸赛晚霞 (Pink smiling face like the colour of dusk)

啊 姑娘十八一朵花 (A lady at eighteen blooms like a flower)

一朵花 (like a flower)

Whaaat???!! Her “Every man thinks of her” stunned me…. This song is one of the oldies (aka my parent’s era).  Although I don’t really know the lyrics of the entire song, but it certainly didn’t sound very right to me… In fact it sounded a little “r-rated” to me, considering that it’s from a 3 yr old.

Me : Who taught you this song??

宝贝： 婆婆. (Grandma)

Me: Are you sure you are singing it correctly?!

宝贝： Of course! (rolled her eyes at me. She ROLLED her eyes at moi?!!) Following which, she did another heart wrenching rendition of the song… with her head swaying from side to side.

Unconvinced, I googled the song… this is the correct version of the song.  It certainly is very very different from the version she’s singing.

十八的姑娘一朵花 (A lady at eighteen blooms like a flower)

一朵花 (like a flower)

眉毛弯弯眼睛大 (arched eyebrows with large eyes)

眼睛大 (large eyes)

红红的嘴唇雪白牙 (with lips bright red and teeth snow white)

雪白牙 (teeth snow white)

粉色的笑脸 (Pink smiling face)

粉色笑脸赛晚霞 (Pink smiling face like the colour of dusk)

啊 姑娘十八一朵花 (A lady at eighteen blooms like a flower)

一朵花 (like a flower)

See! I knew it! My mom has been teaching 宝贝 “r-rated” songs!! What happened to nursery rhymes and children’s songs??? Sigh… Meanwhile 宝贝 is still singing in the foreground like a *”ge tai” singer.  I hope the neighbours have their earplugs on.

*ge tai = 歌台.  Typically during the 7th month, many ge tais performances are staged all over Singapore.  “to entertain the spirits” The ge tai singers typically sing oldies, hokkien songs etc.

For the original version of the song, please click on this youtube…

 

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After running through the entire song, I realised that the lyrics were indeed correct!! It’s just that they belong to the next stanza. So she’s mixed and matched the lyrics from all 3 stanzas… =.=”