Happy 端午节

Today is  端午节 , a festival which is mostly commonly known to commemorate the death of the poet cum  minster Qu Yuan in Singapore local context. How the rice dumpling came about is that people drops the sticky rice balls into the river in bid to save the body of Qu Yuan from being eaten.

In Singapore. there are many flavours of the rice dumpling. The types that are commonly found would be Bak zhang and nonya  flavour.

Photo courtesy of so shiok.com

photo courtesy from dongyuan.com.sg

 I love the bak zhang the most .... so each year i look forward to eat the bak zhang from my grand auntie. Cos her bak zhang consist of salted egg yolk, chest nut, mushroom and pork belly.
Have fun to learn how to wrap bak zhang today. You may learn it at the following link- http://fatboo.com/2013/07/how-to-wrap-bak-chang-top-10-tips.html

Relationships Wednesdays

Actually before the start of the year I was trying to hope that I am able to blog daily with all different themes on each day. However due to my workload, I had to slow down my pace.

Supposedly every Wednesday is a day I would share about relationship issue.  Today  I would like to share about platonic friendship.

Actually, platonic friendship is possible to occur. For me, it is easier for me to have good guy buddies rather than female good buddies. I have 2 good guy friends whom they knew of each other's existence even though they are of different countries cos I introduced them to each other on one occasion.

I am thankful that these 2 good guy friends are always there for me when I needed a listening ear. Tomorrow is going to celebrate birthday with one of them. So I still think that men and women can still be friends cos men and women just need to have friends of the different gender to offer them the perspectives from the different gender. Just keep it cool on the platonic friendship ! 

Mala Xiang Guo

Recently, I fell in love with this dish called mala xiang guo after my brother in law cooked this dish at my place for the weekly lunch meeting.

What I did was to get all the ingredients which i wanted to cook in the mala paste.

My take for the ingredients for this dish would be sliced celery, lotus root, crab stick , oyster mushroom , prawns , sotong , sliced beef, fish balls and enoki mushroom.

Here's the look of the mala sauce which i got from giant.

 Giant is selling ard $5.50 if i din remember wrongly

What is balanced in my house fridge was  crabstick , enoki mushroom, fishball , oyster mushroom so i did the mala xiang guo with the ingredients .

Here's how it look like

The numbing sensation i got from this mala xiang guo was shiok to the max...have fun cooking this dish at home and dun need to go to food court and eat the expensive dish again.

Steps to prepare this is simple:

1. Wash all the ingredients clean
2. Heat up the pot with a bit of oil and saute the garlic till fragrant
3. Add 1 packet of the sauce in to fry
4. Add the ingredients in
5. Let it cook for a while
6. Ready to serve with white rice.

In need of a part time job ?

Part time job is a job where one works less than 35 hours a week as according to the Ministry of manpower's website. So what kind of part time jobs in Singapore could be seen on job portals Singapore? It could be a part time admin, f&b, cashier, distributors for flyers and many more others. Stroff.com is specializing in Part-time jobs Singapore is one of the better job portals in Singapore that you could use to aid yourself in finding a part time job. As usual, there are many various reasons that one would look for a part time job. So which is your favourite way to find your part time job?  For me, it was through a referral in the past when I was a teenager.

Here's the link to the manpower website to help you know more about the employee's right as a part-time worker:

 http://www.mom.gov.sg/employment-practices/part-time-employment/who-is-a-part-time-worker.

Part-time jobs are so common for students who are in the college, polytechnics, and university levels. It is nothing more than earning an extra keep for themselves or earning their allowances.

Here're some things to look out for when looking for a part- time job as a student:

•  Ability to slot your working hours into your daily schedule after school
• Near home if you are still schooling till late in the evenings
•  Ample rest so that you would not neglect your school work
• Able to learn new things
• Most importantly, know your employee rights from the MOM's website before starting work.

           

·                

Part time jobs for students should not only be to earn allowance only but also to gain working experience as well as to understand how your parents feel when they are working.

For me, I started working part-time at the age of fourteen at my father's shop as a cashier or crew.  It was like burning my weekends away beside finishing my CCA in school and rushing to finish my homework before going to help out at the shop. It has helped me to be a better planner for my finances and time management.

 Even though I was working in my father's shop, I was not given any privileges. I was supposed to work just like any another staff of his. Reporting to work on time was one main question that I have to consider as I have to estimate the amount of travelling time that I require for travelling to his shop. Next, I have to manage the homework that I have yet to complete. So what I did was to have a plan that was able to fit into the duty roster that where I can work. Upon having discussion with my supervisor, my weekend schedule was like from after  4pm onwards till late like 11pm for Saturdays and Sunday mornings till around 5pm. With this kind of schedule not only was I able to complete my homework, I was able to have ample rest before school starts on Monday.

So remember to choose a part time job which suits your personality and capability then you will not find it tiring when struggling with schoolwork and the part time. You will then be able to enjoy and excel in the job.

Introducing one of my weekly routine for skin care

Just to share with you people out there, my skin type is those that is of combination skin type.

For me, my combination skin type is outer surface seems dry but underneath the skin is those that is of the oily skin type. This means that I would always have to unclog my pores quite regularly else blackheads and white heads would be popping every now and then.

I loved to use the face lift mask from Nuskin to help me to get rid of the white heads and black heads weekly. 

Me doing my unclogging the pores session( paiseh on the ugly me)

There is a technique to lift up the so called mask sheet in order not to cause ur skin to sag, you have to lift it up in the upwards direction or else the skin will sag. This goes to using any other brands of paper mask.

First loot from Great Singapore Sale 2015

Today I finally succumbed to shopping during the Great Singapore Sale 'cos my favourite pair of shoes almost gave way.  So I shopped around vivocity and managed to get a nice pair of racy red of shoes from mphosis.

Is it nice?  This is my first pair of racy red shoes after so long....thinking of what to match to dress up with this tomorrow....Anyway it is really worth it during GSS cos it is only about $21.

Internships in Singapore - What is it all about?

Talking about internships, it reminds me of the movie “The Internship” which was filmed at Google.  We are currently in an internship frenzy period for university and polytechnic students in Singapore. I remember that during this time each year, I would pause to ask myself if I need to start to look for my internship jobs. This time is also a good time for me to get part time jobs singapore opportunities for my summer vacation.

Here’s a picture of “The Internship” movie in case you have forgotten.

So what is an internship all about to you? Is it just something that you look forward to during the poly or university days? Or is it something that you dread ‘cos you have to find your own internship jobs?

For me, I feel that taking up a singapore internship that is related to your course of study is important as it will help you to define your career path to a certain extent. During my poly days, my internship in an engineering firm was not only related to my studies, but I also really worked on a project for the company’s alarm system. I am thankful that my internship was not like that of some of my other friends who did irrelevant jobs like telemarketing in an insurance company.

Having said that, the stress you have to go through to find an internship on your own is frightening enough when you do not know how to write your own resume and how to contact the ideal company which you wish to work for. Before I was being sent out for my internship by my lecturers in polytechnic, I was thinking of how to get the job that I wanted to try out instead of getting the one that was being assigned to me by my lecturers ‘cos I heard some of my friends saying that those that find their own internships get better pay.

Fret no more, I chanced upon this website called “Stroff.com” which is an internship portal for students to find their internship and for some fresh graduates who aims to try something else before setting down for their life long career. At Stroff.com, you will be able to find intern jobs that are related to your course of study. It also provides really good career guidance tips for people like us who are still studying or who have just graduated.

Here’s some of the preferred internship categories when you sign up with them:-

I registered myself in just to try if the site is user friendly. It is pretty user friendly ‘cos it uses larger fonts. Actually, I found that the job descriptions are clearer than some of those posted in jobsdb.com.

Part time jobs for students are usually the easiest to find. Perhaps next time, you might want to try out Stroff.com first before heading down to the recruitment agencies.

 To sign up, you just need to register your email with them which can be done within 2 minutes. Most importantly is that you do not have to go through the gruelling process to cold call prospective employers and companies to try to land your internship jobs.

Have fun in your internship singapore experiences, you people out there!!!

What are the factors that causes the hair not to be smooth?

Usually fretting on how to get good hair days? I do often get bad hair days due to that I have a lot of hair that looks like a bomb even though the natural curls are nice.
 
So what are the factors that causes the hair not to be smooth ?

• Weather- are you surprised to see that weather is one of the factors?

 

• Smoothing treatments- too much of it causes the hair to be become brittle.
• Hormonal changes
• Using the wrong kind of shampoo
• Brushing your hair when it is wet
• Daily use of hair dryer or flat iron

So how to counter these nasty factors?

• Prepare to shower your hair with lots of conditioner but remember just apply to roots and not the scalp
• Use ion blow dryer
• Straighten hair when it is wet
• Do a hair mask once a week - I use the DIY Hair Spa Steamer Nourishing Hair Care Cap from Qoo10.sg , it works pretty well
• Use sulphate free formulas to wash your hair.

 

Cheese baked spiced pork cube udon

Today  I decided to cook one of my comfort dish to ease of my craving for the spiced pork cubes.

This dish could be done within half an hour. Nothing much fanciful but rather it can be done for just a single person without much fuss.

Ingredients
1 packet of udon ( Ntuc brand)
1 can of spiced pork cubes ( Narcissus brand)
2 slices of cheese ( Ntuc brand)
1 egg

Steps
 1. Open the packet of udon and rinse it
 2. Heat up the wok and put some oil in it
 3, Pour in the spiced pork cubes
4. Pour in the udon
5. Pour in the beaten egg
6. Put in 2 slices of cheese and cover the noodles
7. Wait for about 15 mins
8. Ready to serve.

Review of Teochew Ah Mah Braised Duck

Braised duck is traditionally a dish that is cooked via the teochew’s style of cooking.  It is formally known as 卤味 which is known as one of the braised varieties. It is a dish where one could spend up to hours in the kitchen from the plucking of the feathers to the braising of the duck.

When I cooked this dish myself, I would prefer that the braise sauce to be more on the sweet side as my family prefers it to be sweet. Having said that, this is the first time I have the opportunity to review on Teochew Ah Mah Braised Duck to compare the difference between my own homecooked and outside one as I seldom consume braised duck out of homecooked food.

Teochew Ah Mah Braised Duck’s braise sauce is slightly more salty as compared to my homecooked one. Having said that, there are many differences in individual’s preferences in the taste bud. The meat gives a meaty feel when upon the first bite. I loved to put the braise sauce on my rice and mix it with his chilli sauce which is sedap aka delicious.

Learning from the stall owner, Mr Ong that the Teochew would either braised it on the sweet or the salty side. It is not a definition that the duck has to braise it on the sweet side only. He said that he had learned his recipe from his grandmother just like me learning from my mom who has learnt from my grandmother. However, I found that his braised duck is slightly more fragrant than mine when I cooked. I wonder what ingredient did he add in.

He actually recommend me to try a lot of his other dishes like the duck noodles, duck kway chup, braised pig trotters, pig tail with peanuts ,another of my favourite which is the preserved vegetables and many more others the next time round when I visit his stall.

Duck noodles

Duck Leg Kway Tiao 

My favourite-perserved vegetables 

Braised peanuts with pig tail

I was still amazed by his braised duck ..so the only thing to pack back was his braised duck for my parents to taste. My parents were like ‘hmm..this braised duck is not too bad’ after all I reheated the braised duck the next day… the duck meat was not too stiff and difficult to bite.

Before I forget, Mr Ong said how to know if the braised duck is nice to eat is based on 2 factors. The two factors are there could not be a funny kind of smell on the duck and there should not be any msg in the cooking of the braised duck.

 There goes another dish for the traditional food which is being struck off my list to learn for cooking. If you are keen to bring your old folks to try out the traditional braised duck , you might want to bring them to blk 504 bishan street 11 to try out Mr Ong’s Teochew Ah Mah Braised Duck from 2^nd of May onwards.

My Korea Trip ( 5/3/15 - 10/3/15) - Part 1

As this is my first time going to korea, I got very excited for this trip as it was the winter season. Finally, I am able to experience winter.

I arrived at Korea at around 3.15pm on the 5.3.15. I nearly lost my luggage on that very day cos the queue at the customs was pretty long. Good thing that my luggage bag is bright in colour, so managed to go to the lost & found section to get back my luggage bag.

My friends and I decided to take the subway to the hostel cos the cab will take more than an hour to arrive at the hostel that we booked.

On the subway to the hostel 

Here's a picture of relief goods storage in the subway...dunno what is it for ...

Upon arriving, we then realized that there are a lot of staircases to climb and no lift so have to carry up the luggage like this to go to the hostel.

Photo courtesy by joycelyn quek

 
So we ended up for the first night for some thing cheap for the dinner after feeling tired. As we planned for an early trip to go out the next morning , to visit a lot of places.

DIY Scalp Massage for Healthy Strong Hair! ♥ (Stimulates Growth

I thought this is a good video to share on how to get healthy strong hair. Hope that helps !

Something for personal development

 

I think this is something that we all must learn in order to pick ourselves up from failures and depression.

 

Hope you will be able to benefit this quote . Enjoy the weekend.

Black pepper pork slices

My mom asked me for the black pepper pork slices for one of the dishes for dinner. So as per her advice , I got the shoulder butt meat that is worth $3 to do the stir frying.

Ingredients that are needed for this dish ( serves 3) 

$3 worth of shoulder butt meat from wet market 

2 tablespoons of Lee Kum Kee black pepper sauce 

A tablespoon of garlic 

A teaspoon of oil at most
A teaspoon of corn flour 
A drizzle of sesame oil, light soya sauce and pepper

Steps to prepare

1. Wash the meat clean 

2. Slice it thinly and wash it clean
3. Marinate the meat with corn flour. light soya sauce , pepper and sesame for about half an hour.

4. Minced the garlic 

5. Heat up the wok and stir fry the garlic.

6. Add in the black pepper sauce till fragrant.

7. Once sauce is fragrant, add in the pork to stir fry for about 10 mins.

* Remember don't stir fry till the meat is too hard. Sorry people, I am unable to take photo of the end product ços my family was too hungry.

Easter

This Easter is somehow different for me...Being introduced to these 2 new songs yesterday at my church's service ..which I hope non Christians would begin to understand why Christians are being so thankful towards God the Father as He sent his son, Jesus to die for us on the cross.

I hope to share with you people on these 2 songs...especially for those who are weary , facing tough situations in life.

 Mercy Rewrote My Life Lyrics

For years I traveled a road all wrong
My heart had lost its joy and its song
Till grace placed me right where I belong
When mercy rewrote my life

Chorus:
Mercy rewrote my life
Mercy rewrote my life
I could have fallen my soul cast down
But mercy rewrote my life

(key change)
Verse:
My mistakes God turned into miracles
And all of my tears He turned into Joy
Then my past was forgiven and my new name it was written
When mercy rewrote my life

Chorus:

Mercy Saw Me Lyrics

The years had left scars, the scars had left pain.
How could He recognize me? I wasn't the same.
I knew I should pay and I knew the price,
but justice and law demanded my life.
His tender heart heard my desperate cry
and He saw my past through merciful eyes.

Beautiful! That's how Mercy saw me.
Though I was broken and so lost,
but Mercy looked past all my faults.
The justice of God saw what I had done,
but Mercy saw me through the Son.
Not what I was but what I should be,
that's how Mercy saw me.

Wherever you go, you can't go too far
that His eyes of Mercy can't see where you are.
Yes He loves you too much to leave you alone.
No He won't leave you alone.
Yes, you're flesh of His flesh yes you are, yes you are
and you're bone of His bone.
Yet His heart cries out for your heart today.
See yourself through His eyes and then you can say:
Sin had stolen my dignity and all my self esteem,
but I was made brand new again
when Mercy looked past me.

Beautiful! That's how Mercy saw me.
Though I was broken and so lost not too long ago,
but Mercy looked past all my faults.
The justice of God saw what I had done,
but Mercy saw me through the Son.
Not what I was, but what I could be that's how Mercy saw me.
For not what I was, but what I could be, that's how Jesus saw me.
 

I hope all out there could also experience the love of God just like what I experience.

 

Blessed weekend!!!!!

Solo hair colouring session sponsored by Hoyu

For last month, I was overwhelmed with Chinese new year preparation.  I was being sponsored by Hoyu to have my solo hair dye session with the hair technical manager, Ben.

Ben, who has many years in doing hair coloring, explained to me the difference between European brands of hair dye like Wella and Loreal and Hoyu. The difference between European brands of hair dye with Hoyu is that the colour of  Hoyu's hair dye is based on the colour wheel which primarily consist red, blue and yellow. 

 For example, if I wanted to dye my hair a bit of purplish red Ben would have to mix the colour red and blue together in order to get purplish red. The proportion will be based on which colour I would want it to appear on my hair more.

Hoyu's hair dye system stems out from the colour therapy which can be found in the following pictures:

Before mixing the colours together 

After mixing the colours together 

The other range of colours

Here's the beginning of my hair dye session 

Pardon me for this natural curly look

During the session

The end result is really nice. Sorry people I lost the picture which is stored inside my handphone previously. Anyway, a big thanks to Hoyu for giving this opportunity to me to have a personalized hair dying session with technical manager, Ben.

One thing that Ben shared with me was that whichever salons that use Hoyu hair dyes are specially trained by him if the salon owners are keen to get their staff trained.  Most importantly, I feel that salon owners can take the opportunity to use the PIC grant to get their staff trained as well. Not only is training course subsidized, the staff is one step nearly to be a better skilled worker.

The aftermath of going to Mr Lee Kuan Yew's wake

Last Tuesday, I went to queue for 6 hours to go and pay respect at Mr Lee Kuan Yew's wake. Though today is a brand new day without Mr Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore, I still believe that we the young Singaporeans are still able to unite ourselves to bring Singapore to a greater new heights.

Throughout the waiting period while waiting to go in to the parliament house to pay respect, one thing for sure is that it is really we Singaporeans and foreigners are helping one another to ensure that all things like the drinks, apple and bread were being passed around to ensure no one is being left out.
Hopefully , this kind of spirit will continue to be within all of us.

I just want to share this song if we could hold on together to all Singaporeans. We will continue to see the bright future for the future generations to come.

 

Death of MM Lee Kuan Yew

Though this is the mourning period for MM Lee , I thought of one thing which is to celebrate that he no longer has to suffer . It was a painful thought to know that he died . However, he did not live his life in vain.

For someone who put us the small red dot onto the world map , living his life for the fellow countrymen. I have nothing but extreme gratitude to him. There might be people saying that he is autocratic in the past. For sure , he is not one. Just that he had to be decisive in all matters. In comparison to Hitler, I guess MM Lee is much more well loved and well respected.

I just want to express my deepest gratitude for MM Lee for making Singapore so successful. Hoping that the young leaders whom he might have picked up for training to make Singapore more successful , are able to bring Singapore to greater heights.

There are also people showing the black ribbon with the design with MM Lee's face on facebook. I wonder if we could make it into a badge for all true Singaporeans to wear on the day of his funeral.

MM Lee please rest in peace

 

Invitation to insights into UK Commercial Parking by Park First Limited Singapore Branch’s Senior Business Development Manager.

Recently I got to know Issa, who shared with me about UK Commercial Parking in Glasgow International Airport offered by Park First Limited, part of Group First UK.

A little background on GroupFirst who has been around since 1998. GroupFirst is one of the leading property investment, design and development companies in the UK.

They worked closely with financial institutions and industry professionals to create a range of unique property investment companies that sit under the Group First umbrella. Their diverse network range of companies range from serviced apartment blocks to housing estates, business centres to industrial estates, self-storage facilities to international airport car parks.


Park First, which is founded in 2004, is a property investment company which provides investors with exclusive access to market leading products. I believe parking is big business. I have not personally experienced a time when parking rates has gone down! And everyone NEEDS parking. They provide exclusive access and affordability into the UK commercial parking market.
 

This is the first time which I learned that commercial parking could be purchased in a form of investment which will provide you with passive income and capital gains. This is something that is hardly been heard of in Singapore. Or Never heard of.


Investors are invited to meet the team at the company’s prestigious office, to help remove any uneasiness which can be felt when dealing with other companies.


For this preview, Park First would be marketing their last phase of their parking facility at Glasgow International Airport. So far they have sold 4 car parks in the last year amounting to over 3000 parking spaces and running out fast. For more information, please take a look at the flyer.

I will be updating an exclusive coverage on what insights I have garnered from this event to help you guys to learn more about investing in overseas property.

 Please do not hesitate to call Issa, Senior Business Development Manager @ 83338403 for more information to find out more if you had missed this preview. Do remember to quote ándrea' if he asks how did you find out about this project.

 

Grandma's Kaya Recipe

Recently, I have been going down to my grandma's place to stay with her during the weekends. This is not just only to spend time with her but also to learn the family recipes.

Her kaya is something that I often missed when I am doing the spreading of bread.

This recipe is done by using melted sugar instead of the usual pandan leaves where there is a green colour.

Ingredients

6 big eggs

Pandan leaves to be wash clean and tie as per the picture

1 rice bowl of sugar

 

Add ten dessert spoons of  sugar to the beaten eggs.

Continue to stir the mixture in the rice cooker. Please remember to add some water in the rice cooker.

Slowly add one rice bowl of coconut milk to stir . After stirring a while , put the pandan leaves in and

continue to stir. Continue to stir till it is semi harden. By this time, you can start to melt the balance

sugar in the rice bowl using a sauce pan . Then put the melted sugar into the mixture and continue to

stir until no bubbles is in the mixture.  Stir until the water in the rice cooker boils. Cover a linen cloth

over the mixture and steam it for another 5 to 10 mins.