cauliflowerhead

Eggs or Bunnies?

2011-04-25T04:45:00.000-07:00

This has been one crazy week, rushing everything out for ECHO youth service! So much stuff to do! Had to spend the whole week doing out everything! And i realized that i'm a workaholic, I always say yes to everything that come my way..... perfectionist + workaholic do not go together! But I always like to challenge myself and reach for the moon because if everything don't work out, at least you fall on the stars~ Oh and i finally decided on a company to work in! So excited to start work in May! And i baked vegan cookies but they tasted quite~~~~

What i have been up to

2011-04-08T09:24:00.001-07:00

Other than being super busy with FYP, i did a freelance work for a magazine. Yay this will be my first published work. It's all for a mens' lifestyle magazine. First day of dip show was quite exciting, but a little tiring. Looking forward to meeting new people, next week will be a hectic week. I'll start cooking and baking soon. And i miss running! ok next week i shall start my running routine again. Oh portfolio updated.

Oh 2011! the new year starts officially on march!

2011-01-18T07:37:00.000-08:00

I have been so flooded by FYP that 2011 does not feel like a new year at all.
I like blogging but i'll be on hiatus until march! Hopefully i'll feel more like a human then.
I want to sleep, run and eat like normal.

Oh gosh thank you iris!!!!!!!! You are too sweet!!!!

*break due to overload of memory and need to transfer to hard disk, if not i won't be blogging*

WHY I MISS INDIA LIKE MAD!

2010-12-01T09:48:00.000-08:00

Crazy good custard apples!

Crazy cute animals by the roadside!

Crazy 2-seaters rides!

Crazy good and cheap pomegranate!

Crazy fun dinners in giant plates!

Crazy fun kiddos!

Crazy sweet friends!

Crazy beautiful scenery!

Crazy workplace!

Crazy good good home cooked food!

Crazy cute and sweet veggie family!

Crazy good fruits!

OH MY GOSH!!!! I MISS INDIA!!! I WANT TO GO BACK NOW!!!! WHY I MISS IT EVEN THOUG THE WATER IS DIRTY AND ELECTRICITY ARE CRAZY??? BECAUSE THERE IS NO FYP THERE! THERE IS NO STRESS THERE! NO EXPECTATION OF OTHERS THERE!

VeganMoFo till next year~

2010-12-01T09:21:00.000-08:00

Sadly this time round i didn't get to post as much as i wanted to:( I'm just too busy with school work and stress. But I really thank God for giving me a chance to meet fellow MoFoe-ers, they make me feel that being vegan is not weird at all. A whole bunch of vegans are out there and they are really sweet and fun people( well, at least on their blogs!). They are really great cooks too! I'm really thankful to all the international readers whose comments are so encouraging:) Seriously Singapore still has a loooong way to go before we become a more understanding and environmentally-friendly society. Most people here don't even know what vegan means or the difference between vegetarian and vegans:( How i wish i have friends like these! One of my favorite vegan blogger(maybe because she is asian too!), she has a bunch of sweet friends who actually bother making vegan food for her! nice~~

Thunder Tea Rice

Even though it is a little late but last food to introduce to Vegan MoFo- Thunder tea rice! I had a really horrible day yesterday, i just couldn't post anything~~ Just buy the thunder tea rice without the ikan bilis and i think it should be vegan! Yum! I really wish i know how to make this~ It is absolutely fantastic! Normally comes with rice and 5-7 kinds of veggies, peanuts and tofu in a tea soup! yes tea soup! It makes the whole thing green in colour! I love this dish! My sisters bought it back for me yesterday and it was good:) I'm sure i can find better ones in Singapore, but this is one dish i'm not picky about! I love it! And it is healthy too!

Well despite the most horrible day of the year- yesterday, it was cheered up by thunder tea rice and the sweet little girlie below! Well ending off with a sweet bye bye~

cute little cousin:)

Wacko!!! There is no turning back!

2010-11-27T06:06:00.000-08:00

Oh ho very good! Very successful people! I am upset and don't want to be a vegetarian now. I don't want to be because 95% of the people around me are against me/don't understand me/hate me. How i sincerely wish time will turn back and I did not do the IP project for vegetarian society of singapore which lead me to read Eating Animals which led me to Veganism which lead me to this big headache/upset. Too bad I know what is going on now and I cannot turn back time and if anyone force me to eat an animal's corpse i'll just vomit and die.(maybe not but i'll run away to hide in a hole...) The point s i cannot don't want to be a vegan/vegetarian because i CAN'T!!!!! I have to do it!!! I cannot eat with so much cruelty and hack-care about the earth! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Why can people do it???? I don't get it either! Oh gosh angst teenage girl! Oh but i'm 20 already! So i have to be matured and nice to people who love destroying their health and the world! :D

Today i taught 15 kids that we should love sharks and protect them:) I spent time researching and found a fantastic guide online to educate kids on protecting sea creatures! I felt for a little while i was doing something meaningful in the world. The kids kinda got what i was teaching them. I feel that it is so possible to change the way people live if they are educated at a young age.

What you should all know about sharks:
-they have been around for 400 million years
-they are the protectors of our oceans! (they keep the food chain balance:)
-There are only less than 100 sharks attack in a year with very few fatal cases
-Human are the reason they are facing extinction
-Human kill them by the 100 millions
-Sharks fins have zero benefits(yeah! Stop Stop Stop crazy people!)
-Many many sharks are left to die after their fins get cut off...

Is it worth for such an amazing species of animal o die just for your STUPID SHARK FIN SOUP??? Gosh humans are really selfish huh... During lessons today what most of the first stuff the kids know about sharks....shark fin soup! gosh:( Why can humans do it anyway. Be cruel, cause animals to be extinct and grow fat-_-" Even after my lesson there is still one kid who said that he wants to kill sharks and drink shark fin soup.(Well it is no coincidence that he is overweight, no offense but you are what you eat) Even though all the up and downs i still face today as a vegan wannabe I felt that at least i made a small difference in the kids life today. They learnt that sharks are not evil, not made to kill humans and humans are the one killing them. I thought they won't get it, but i could tell a few of them got it. I was so touched when this girl went out and told her mum/maid(sorry not clear which) that she learnt that we should not kill sharks! Sweet:) (heart melts!) My dearest friend if you still intend to serve shark fin on you wedding, then just don't invite me k? I don't want to fight with you or hold a 'parang' against your chest to warn you against it! (not joking!)

The sharks are made of reused materials!(newspaper, old art paper, cupboard etc)

Singapore is so backward in terms of environmental awareness, it is simply amazing. We are such a developed and fast pace country yet shark consumption is legal?!! gosh! I know how some non-singaporeans may feel, ridiculous right?! I love my country, my friends and relatives, but shark fin soup?! *faint faint* too cruel!!!!!!!

hmmm maybe i should try to be less passionate or enthusiastic about things i believe in?! I need to sound less wacky right~ But this is my blog, not yours!

VeganMoFo-Eugene's Style

2010-11-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

Just a VeganMofo by my dearest Eugene! I'm secretly so proud of eu darling! These are his first few attempts so far at salad making! His not a full fledge vegan yet but give this guy some credits! From our crazy quarrel days over animal consumption (and secret eating of Big Macs! EWWW!) to eating fresh fruits and salads everyday and making them all on his own in his university dorm. I think he has made vast improvements since i came back! Last last week he didn't even know he had to wash his vegetables before cutting! So blur but so cute! Haha. He made such big improvement in his diet and i'm really really happy! He is probably the healthiest NTU student now! He only eats fresh fruits and veggies and nuts and oats! I want to eat like him too! Salad everyday~~ But i still have my sisters to think about and of course organic salad greens are not that cheap for a family of 6:(

Well i'm going to start work soon in a few months time! The only perk of starting work is more money to buy organic veggies, save up for a food processor and dehydrator! Yay!

VeganMoFo- I miss you!

2010-11-20T07:36:00.000-08:00

I am busy and stress up lately. I have a tendency of avoiding things when things get out of hand. I also think that being in India has successfully trained me to keep things to myself. When too much stuff goes on i just push them back...

Forget it! I shall not talk about the stressful stuff! Food!!! I think my friends think that i hate food but i think they are totally wrong, a person who knows how to appreciate food will love wholesome veggies and fruits because they are the purest form of good food from God! If He wanted you to eat cup noodles, He would have just created a cup noodles tree instead of an apple tree right??? I seriously find it really crazy that my friends eat so so little fresh veggies and fruits! It is really weird how little veggies singaporeans eat! ok one day i shall food stalk one of my friends to prove this point!

Happy Birthday Daddy! not vegan cake:(
i have no idea what is wrong with the vegetarian bakery, no eggs but dairy cream?!

I love these desserts!
Sesame paste! Red bean paste! Almond paste!

New and improved version of ja jueng mian!

Some hot chilli paste and tomatoes are essential to make it not that salty!
Personally a taste that goes well with my taste butt!

Super good sandwich duo!

Marinated tempeh and apple salsa with alfafa aprout!

Avocado pesto spread and mushroom with leeks with sprouts!

I think i have developed a habit of creative food fridays, because i tend to explore more on fridays! I love the pesto spread and i didn't know tempeh tasted o good when marinated!!! I'll try to type the recipes here when i have more time~~

So not Bar Chor Mee~~

2010-11-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

I haven't got to post for a while because schoolwork is getting intensive and I haven't tried cooking anything new. I don't know why I am just so tired lately, maybe I somehow overworked myself? Well, I really pray for more strength each day! I need to get back to my wake up early routine! A really simple recipe today, didn't intend for it to turn out looking a little like the Singapore's 'Bar Chor Mee' (Minced meat noodle, yucks!) But this noodle taste good and is easy to cook:)

Minced tofu mushroom dry noodle
serves 4

The mushroom stir fry:
2 cups of Shitake mushroom(cut small)
1 cup of different mushroom of your choice( I use this)
1/2 a small onion(diced)
2 piece of garlic(cut really small)
2 small block of firm tofu(cut into small rectangles)
1 tablespoon of mushroom vegetarian 'oyster' sauce
1 table spoon of teriyaki sauce
1/2 table spoon of korean soy bean paste
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
a dash of pepper

A lot of green leafy veg of your choice( I use Cai Xin Zai)
4 portion of mushroom noodle( any chinese style noodle of your choice)

Boil hot water and cook you noodle and veggie separately, leave them a side.

Add a little olive oil and stir fry the garlic and onion until onion turn transparent then add in the tofu until they turn a little brown. It is ok that they become a little scrambled, this make them look like bar chor(minced meat, but i hate bar chor mee by the way! yuck!)

Add in the mushrooms and the rest of the seasoning and cook until the mushroom are thoroughly cooked. You may want to add a little water to make it the mushroom sauce more watery~

Serve the mushroom tofu sauce over the noodle and with the veggie. Oh and maybe a vegetarian dumpling too! And some malay style sambal chilli!

That is all for today! I really need to do my work!

Vegetable farm and CACTUS steamboat!

2010-11-05T10:10:00.000-07:00

Today is a public holiday and thank God for the amazing weather! Our family planned to go for a morning hike at Machritchie Reservoir and head down to the Choa chu kang farms, but it started pouring really heavily in the morning! We were quite upset and I prayed that it was all in God's hand and asked Him to bring us through. Thank God even though we couldn't go for our hike but when we reached the farm area the sun came out! The weather was amazing! Thank God for His grace!!!

I love going to the vegetable farms in Singapore! These are the few rare ones left in Singapore and they produce amazing vegetables! Our first stop was FireFlies farm which produce and import organic vegetables and they sell out really fast despite being at such a remote of Singapore. Their sweet potatoes are so big and cheap! :D

My mum picking out the best veg!

Sweet potatoes, mini pumpkins and turnips(jicama?)!!!!

The guy is harvesting Dou Miao~

Beautiful weather at the farm:)

Our next stop is the mushroom and cactus farm! We bought lots of mushrooms, Aloe Vera and a cactus which we used for our steamboat tonight! Eh i forgot to take note of the name of the farm~

The farm also grow wheatgrass and the guy is harvesting them at an amazing speed!

Growing black fungus!

A overall view of the farm, lots of cactus all around~

Next stop- Bollywood Vegetable farm and Poison Ivy restaurant! It was as amazing place! Their organic bananas are small in size but taste amazing! I want to grow banana trees too! They are fantastic! We had a healthy meal at Poison Ivy , the bistro at the farm. Most of the veggies are directly from the farm and no msg! It tasted light just like out typical home cooked food and I definitely prefer it better than Singapore typical zhi char.

Love the hand-painted signs!

Banana trees!!!!!!!

Brown rice to go with the dishes~

Sweet potato leafs stir-fry with garlic~

Vegetable Curry~

Sou sauce tofu with mushroom~

Super good veggie tempura!

Fig tea~ Good for the hot day!

Well of course the day didn't just end this way~ It ended with the best steamboat i ever had! Cactus soup base steamboat! Whoo~~~ Well my mum is the amazing cook who made this happen! She is really fantastic! I will definitely try to get the proper recipe to post it up here. But it is a vegan cactus soup and there were turnip and lots of chinese herbs in it! Everything in the steamboat were fresh products from the farm trip!

All chinese love steamboats! They are great for family gathering and there is no fix way of planning a steamboat meal. But sadly typical steamboat we get at restaurants now are always full of frozen meat(yuck!) and processed food! So as my theory of the best food comes from home prepared food is proven true once again today! For the amount of organic veggie and tofu that went into our steamboat, we would probably have to pay a sky high price at vegetarian restaurants. But I bet you will never get cactus soup anywhere!

Green Wheat grass noodle to go with the steamboat~

Cactus soup in steamboat pot, mushrooms, tomatoes, leafy veg, tofu and vegetarian dumplings!

All the fantastic mushrooms bubbling in the pot!

Yummy!!!

The cactus cooked! Taste kinda like winter melon~

Whoa a supper long post! But today was such a great day i definitely have to share it here for VeganMofo! Oh forgot to add i finally bought a red organic capsicum today!!! So precious! and expensive! I'll probably use it for a salad tomorrow~~

Rojak Rojak!

2010-11-03T23:35:00.000-07:00

Veganized-Healthier-Version-Rojak!

Oh this post was due yesterday, but I was too busy and by the end of the day I got too tired and fell straight asleep~ But I made this Rojak last night! Rojak is a mix of veggies, fruits and you tiao ( Chinese oil stick! eww!) and is a very Singapore dish. My whole family love this dish but sadly they have to put some kind of animal product in and in this case- shrimp paste! (arg!) But thankfully Singapore also has a lot of vegetarian food company who have vegetarian-ized lots of pastes and sauces. My mum bought this Vegetarian Rojak paste which contains sugar, chilli, vegetarian belacan, sesame seed and salt. So this paste tastes sweet and spicy~ This is my version of Rojak and basically i think it is quite a flexible 'South East Asia salad'!

Vegan Rojak!

serves 2

Toast 2 slices of vegan bread (this act as the you tiao! but healthier!)

1 small apple

2 small cucumber

1/2 a big Asian pear

1/2 pineapple( I didn't add this because my sisters ate them all up before i could use them but you must add it!!! pineapple is a must have in Rojak!)

A handful of cherry tomatoes

A handful of roasted peanuts/ 2 tablespoon of peanut powder

A handful of corn( i use raw corn)

2 tablespoon of Rojak sauce( 1 for each bowl)

Cut everything into bite size, spoon the Rojak sauce into each bowl, mix it up and top off with peanut powder! Remember to mix mix mix!

I'm glad to be participating in MoFo, even though my recipes may not be fantastic like some blogs that i read. But it is so inspiring and i learnt so much from various blogs! It is very difficult to be a vegan in Singapore, a lot of peope don't even know what a vegan is!! They know vegetarianism due to religious reason but the vegetarian food in Singapore do have quite a bad name of being oily and unhealthy(too much fried faux meat!). I'm glad to at least know that there are so many vegans around the world who believe that their diet and lifestyle can make an impact on this earth!

Oh my comfort food!

2010-11-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

Thick rice noodle fried 'fish' soup:)

Yippee VeganMofo day 2!

As a Singaporean, my taste bud is pretty much as mixed up as my country! Singapore is made up of Chinese, Malays, Indian and a lot of foreigners and I'm really proud of how we manage to live harmoniously is such a diverse culture:) Today I share a comfort food my younger sister- thick bee hoon(rice noodle) soup! Oh it is just so good! We can eat this 3 days in a row and still want to eat it again! There is no particular way to cook it but as long as it is a rich soup base and lots of veggie it will taste good:)

Thick Rice Noodle 'Fried Fish' Soup

serves 2 or 3

80 cents/ $1 worth of rice noodle

( I bought it from the wet market, it is really up to how big your appetite is!)

1 bag of organic Xiao Bai Cai

(Or any form of leafy veg, sometimes i use broccoli!)

3 puny organic carrots

2 small firm tofu

1 short part of a ginger(sliced)

A small small handful of kelp

A few pieces of Thai style Veat( Toast them till crispy in the oven)

1 tablespoon of Korean fermented black bean paste

1 tablespoon of vegetarian Pes Me Udang

1 teaspoon of vegetarian powdered soup stock

1 teaspoon of olive oil

-Use hot water to wash the thick rice noodle and leave it aside

-Stir fry the ginger in the olive oil for around 2 min then add in the black bean paste and continue to stir fry and then add 2 and 1/2 cups of water. Add in the Pes Me Udang, vegetarian soup stock, tofu and carrot and wait for it to boil.

-After it has boiled, add in the Xiao Bai Cai and kelp then wait for the Xiao bai cai to turn quite soft and off the fire.

-Divide the rice noodle between the bowls and spoon the soup in and top off with the 'fried fish'

Paste use for Penang Laksa

Korean black bean paste, so far i only found it in Korean shops, NTUC haven't had this one yet

This may not be the healthiest recipe but I'm a student and often I'm rushing for time and I'm quite broke too. So this is comfort food at it's best! If I ever get the chance to improvise and make it healthier and make my own soup stock I definitely will! But for now this noodle soup is here to stay!

Despite my unhappiness and stress lately, God gave me a great encouragement in the form of my dearest Eugene:) He is so cute:) We had many arguments when it come to the issue of vegetarianism( I'm slowly helping him to become a vegan too!) and it was tough on us when i was in India and through skype he will deliver me the bad news of him consuming meat! But thank God! After all our ups and downs and a NTUC grocery shopping trip, he has stepped up to his game and improve a lot in terms of his diet and basic uncook culinary skills:)

Eugene's first attempt at vegetarian lunch box! Quite good for an amateur yea?! So pretty!

When he sent me this photo through MMS today I was so touched by how much he has changed and how he is working so hard to change. I know deep down it is not easy for him to stop eating meat and he is doing this partially for me too:) His gesture meant so so much to me! At least the one dearest to me is changing! It gives me hope that maybe love and persistence to help my friends and family in their diet will one day pay back too! Thank God for His little encouragement! Thank EU (Eugene!)

Veganmofo Day #1

2010-11-01T06:11:00.000-07:00

VeganMofo
(Go click Singapore and you will find my blog!:D)

Hooray or the start of VEGANMOFO 2010 ( Vegan Month of Food!)! I'm quite excited but I'll definitely not over stress myself by trying to blog daily but definitely more than normal as I experiment more with different vegan dishes! To start off the food fest, I decided to try out two recipes that I have wanted to try for a long time(since i saw them when I was surfing the net in India!), Caramelized Lemongrass tofu from Veganlicious and Raw Pasta from Choosing Raw!

Oh so good dinner!

Dinner tonight was good!!! I modified the recipes a bit but everything worked out great! Love!!!! My take on the 'pasta sauce':

Tomato Papaya 'Pasta Sauce'

makes 2 cups

1/2 cup of baby tomatoes

1/2 cup of papaya

1/2 an avocado fruit

1 teaspoon of olive oil

a dash of thyme

a dash of oregano

a dash of pepper

1/4 teaspoon of sea salt

Place everything into the blender and blend for 1 minute or until everything is kinda blended up meshy.
Serve it on top of shredded zucchini, cucumber, carrot and spinach leafs and you get a nice bowl of yummy veggie 'pasta' goodness! It is raw but it tasted so refreshing and good!

See the brownish square hidden under the spinach leaf? So good tofu!

Caramelized Tofu Sandwich
Makes 3 sandwiches

The tofu

2 medium size block of tofu from the wet market( very soft and fresh!)
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 table spoon of mirin
1 teaspoon of vinegar
a dash of pepper
1/4 cup of water

Shredded carrots
Olive oil spread
Spinach leafs

Dissolve the sugar in the water in a pan, stir until all the sugar has dissolve. All in the rest of the condiment and stir until it bubbles. Cut the tofu up into thin rectangles and place them in a shallow dish. Pour the sauce over the tofu. Marinate for at least 1 hour!(the longer the better, mine was around 2 hours) After the marinating, bake them 20 minutes in around 200 degree Celsius for each side.

Toast your bread, spread a thin layer of olive spread on one, place a layer of shredded carrots, layer the tofu and top off with the spinach and bread. A really healthy and yummy combi!

Hopefully the sharing of these simple recipes may inspire some of my non vegan friends to cook some healthy stuff! Seriously with so much veggie and fruits to work with, i don't see a reason to miss meat! I really don't miss them at all and I hate it when people say things like i eat grass or eww i JUST eat veggies. They just don't know how to appreciate what we have naturally that is not only good for our body and better for the environment too!

The past weekend has been a tough one for me with so many friends making not-so-nice comments about my diet and dear friends who deliberately eat things like KFC and drink Coke. I don't get why I have their well being in mind but they just seem so happy to eat things that are so harmful to their body and environment. Arg!!!! I was so confused yesterday!! But I should stop thinking about it....

Sharing about good food

2010-10-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

The last week of my holiday was spent eating lots of yummy vegetarian/vegan eats! My aim now is to share good food with people who have no knowledge of the how our basic healthy diet should be like. Persuade them through their tummy first!

Crazy fusion meal with our guest: Iris!

Indian style super spicy lady's finger dish~

Mushroomy tofu dish! Too much mushroom! but it was goooood!

Side dish: marinated cucumber and carrot

Vegan Ice cream!!! All vegans know about this but i shall post the recipe below for my non-vegan friends:D

Hooooooray! Healthy organic veggie meal with bestie! ( eh but a bit too expensive~)

I love this salad soba noodle!!! It is tooooooo good!
Lots of fresh organic raw veggies with rice puff, nori and 2 sweet sauce~

Vegetarian bibimbap!!! Quite nice but got egg~~ the kimchi should taste a bit more salty then sour~

Home cooked korean jajiang mian with raw salad!

Our favorite Indian restaurant!
Thanks Jia Ying for the loooong ago recommendation on her blog!
This is why i love blogs~~ Food heaven!

Our first family meal in 3 motnhs!

Why my dad always look so strict~~

This is good!!! Looks like meat?!
It manchurian fried cauliflower!!! I don't get how they can cook it this nice~

My mum's favorite: Indian style soup! Almond soup and tomato soup!

This is good tooo!!! Arg!! I feel hungry just looking at it!
This is potato and cauliflower dish!! Very good!!!
I really don't know how to describe Indian food, they are salty, spicy and...eh...

One reason my dad doesn't mind going.. this! He loves it!

Naan!

Thanks for being so patient you deserve this recipe!

YOU-MUST-TRY-BANANA-SOFT-SERVE

serves 4

5 frozen bananas

1/2 a cup of sweet soy milk (i use organic soy milk!)

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

1/4 cup of vegan chocolate chip(optional! I don't have but I bet you it will make your soft serve taste gooood!)

Put everything together and blend! It may be a little difficult if your blender is not that powerful, mine is terrible! But i cut the frozen bananas up first before putting them in so it is a little bit easier for the machine. It will come out thick and rich! So good! Better than the macdonald crap! And bananas are so super cheap! My recent craze is bananas!! So versatile so good! I use them in soft serve, salad dressing, muffins and just eat it as it is!!! Love!!!!

Let's use food to inspire people

2010-10-28T06:45:00.000-07:00

"I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower peopler everywhere to cook again."

Jamie Oliver

So true don't you think? The situation in America is happening to Singapore too, not as bad but not great either. A lot of my friends don't cook and neither do their parents. They have no basic knowledge of the food they consume. They even choose not to know (even though food is the one of the most crucial part of our lives) and I even got criticized for trying to spread what I feel is best for the people around me.

How many of us care about the food we put into our mouth each day? On average each of us consume food 1095 times in a year (If we eat 3 meals a day). You do realize that what we eat affects our lives right? If you just ignore and eat anything that is convenient and 'yummy' for 1095 times in a year and if you are 20 this year you would have consume 21,900 meals. Your body is basically controlled by what you eat each day. So if you are consuming crappy oily hawker food, imagine the amount of oils and unhealthy fats in your body! But if it is healthy plant-based wholesome food for the next 20 years of your life, I'm sure you will feel much better physically, emotionally and spiritually too:)

I can't help but agree with Jamie Oliver and secretly this is my wish for my generation too...

Nothing is impossible with God

2010-10-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

It took me one week to post this because i am still a little afraid that i cannot maintain this new lifestyle, but by sharing it here, I hope that readers of this blog can serve as witness also friends to encourage me to hang on. I have been living a very close to pure vegan lifestyle, i don't consume animal product but i think some of my hair product may have them but i cannot afford to buy new ones so i shall finish this batch first before i save up to buy Body Shop products which are vegan~ I even stop eating ice cream, chocolate and normal bread, i make sure they are vegan. But no worries! I eat a LOT!

My meals consist of huge doses of veggies and i try to incorporate in lots of raw vegetables and fruits! At least one salad a day and a smoothie and loads of fruits! I made cashew cheese, pumpkin seed plate, avocado basil spread, grapefruit dressing etc. Loads of new recipes in the past week and i feel really good eating loads of fresh veggies and fruits! I buy organic and non-organic depending on the Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 list. I avoid outside food unless i have no choice for example meeting my dear friend Zimu after cell and i have no time to make my own meal~ If not i try to avoid outside vegetarian food too, because they are way to oily and veggie-less!

Adding on to this huge leap in diet, I also try my best to jog 2.4 k everyday, ran 4 times last week, i try to wake up in the morning to run, if i can't make it, i will make up in the evening~ For someone who haven't exercise since my junior college days, i think it is a huge leap for me! My target is to run a 5km/10km for Nike Shape run 2011! I really believe i can do it and i hope whoever is inspired out there will join me and we can train together! You definitely won't have expected this from me it you talked to me a year ago. I hate running! i faint when i run! But now? I am really starting to enjoy the feeling of my heart pumping faster and sweating and turing red in the face!

I also try to do more housework by cooking and mopping and vacuuming the house. It helps if the house feels neater and less stress on my parents. I hope to start cleaning some areas too before school starts! I also managed to meet up with some of my good friends who i said i wanted to meet by dragging the meet ups for months, years... lol. I manage to make dinner for Yining and argue with Zimu last week, 2 of my good friends and i am so glad i bothered to meet up with them and share some love through food and Christ:)

Oh i tried my best with the environment saving by avoiding plastic bags( to the extend to bringing 4-5 reusable shopping bags to NTUC!), bringing my own extra shopping bags everywhere, flushing the toilet bowl with wash veggie water or bathing water and standing is a big pail to bath so the water that i use is saved in the pail and i can use the water to flush toilet. A bit troublesome but worth it! It is difficult to implement changes in my family when all they do is complain about how troublesome it is and how some food don't taste as nice as mummy's. But I don't give up that easily!

Oh so good vegan food!

Oh so good grapefruit pomegranate pink salad!

Chickpea patty and avocado basil sandwich! Super good!

Sweet curry peanut dressing and broccoli salad with "egg" scramble, looks scary? taste good!

Oh gosh!!! Best banana chocolate vegan bread 'muffin'

Drool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i already made 2 batches! Totally satisfy my sweet tooth!

Vegan happy sandwich!

Beet+mushroom+cashew herby 'cheese' spread= Superb vegan sandwich!

Bento-ed pink salad!

Fresh dill plant:)

Sorry for horrid photo but forgive me i'm lazy and hungry! Too busy drooling most of the time to take good photos! Gosh if you are reading this please go try this banana bread recipe!!! So easy and so good!! Please add vegan dark choco chips in! Totally worth it!!! Oh i am going to give away black india salt!!! This is a superb salt from india that will make your tofu scramble taste and smell very similar to eggs! Totally useful for those wannabe vegan who are egg addicts! Just comment after this post about how you want to change your lifestyle for the better and i will pick a random commentor and gift you the black indiany eggy salt! i was so kiasu in india and bought extra and hopefully there is someone out there who is interested! Because you may be the only commentor then of course you get the black salt!

Gosh i need to sleep! Gotta run and do grocery tomorrow!

Are you going to live for Christ?

2010-10-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

Is your life perspective focused on what really matters?

One important thing i learnt in India is instead of viewing things from the human point of view, why not by faith? When i learnt to put 'me' down, I could see that my Lord is building up my faith by teaching me to trust in Him in all circumstances. When we learn to do things according to how God lead us, instead of going against His guidance, we will normally reap unexpected results. It is amazing what God can do in your life if you are willing to obey.

Often in situation we only see how everything is not going our way, but what we really need to do is pause and pray. Is this really the way God wants it to be? Have i viewed from God's point of view? Towards the end of the trip, God showed me how amazing His creation were, I could only stare in awe and i just want to cry. Only then did i understand why God forced me to India, not to make me suffer but to enjoy and worship Him. Knowing a Lord who so amazingly built the mountains and the rivers actually loves you and wants you to love Him back. This point itself is already beyond my understanding. Do we realise that when we have the urging feeling to pray, read the Bible and spend time with the Lord, He is the one who put the feeling in us? He first love us and want us to draw close to Him, not the other way round. When we get this feeling, we should immediately draw close to Him because it is not everyone/everyday that this happens. The amazing creator of the Earth wants to spend time with us, shouldn't we be running into His arms??

This brings me to the point that our God has given us a gift which is this life that we have. We only have one life and we should treasure every minute of it. One minute wasted is like throwing away one minute of the gift from our Lord. We only have maybe around 80 years to live, actually it is not a lot if you look at the big picture. How do you want to spend this life? How do you want to distribute your time? One life to know God better? Seize it! Read His Word, pray! Fellowship with Him! Get to know Him better each day! One life to love those around you? Seize it! Love and serve everyone around you with all your heart! Treasure them! Let them know they matter to you! Let them know that Jesus love them! The moment you don't do it may be a chance of losing them to Hell. One life to love the earth and you body? Seize it! Our body is the temple of Christ! We should treasure it! It is a gift! With a healthy body we can do so much more for Christ! So how are you going to treat it? Our earth is God's creation, He gave us this beautiful earth to love and treasure but how many of us are making a choice each day to harm it, be it by the food we consume or the waste we churn.

We only have one life! Live it like it matters! Stop spending time watching TV, updating your facebook status, tweeting etc. If we put all these small amount of minutes and hours together, perhaps we can spend the time with a friend in need of a listening ears? We are given the stewardship of time from Christ, we should seize every opportunity to love God and love others:)

Reflections

2010-10-13T09:09:00.000-07:00

Why do we often live wishing that time will pass faster so that we can do certain things or think about our past how we wish we could turn back time? Why don't we live now? In the present? We are often living and hoping in the past and future but many of us choose to forget about NOW.

During the India trip, i kept wishing time will pass faster so that i can get back to Singapore faster but now that I'm in Singapore i can't help but look back at the India trip and miss it so much. I learnt so much from the trip and one most important thing- I only have one life and i got to live it's worth! I really got to live out every second of my life instead of just letting each day pass as if they are not important, each day is a blessing!

Veggie seller's son!

Fruit Stall<3

Lovely kiddos

Great friends! Miss them!!!

Boating river!

Truck Art! Why singapore don't have...

The sweet little girls in their pretty saris:)

Priya! I miss her!!! Uber cute!!

my 'new' shoes!

My lovely colleagues:) Miss them!

Elephant!

My sweet supervisor, her mum and I in sari-s!

India was a really life changing experience for me, it's a crazy lovely country:) I admit i did got really pissed off with the whole living situation and how the company and my lecturer handled the situation and my attitude and perspective of the whole situation was quite terrible. But if given a chance to turn back time and choose again, I will still choose to go India even if we were stuck sleeping on the floor for 3 months. We had to pay for every single thing unlike most of the OSIP internships, we had to cook on our own to save money, we had to clean the house weekly, wash our clothes with our hands, take 6 seaters everyday, cross crazy highways without traffic light(and risking our lives!), carry vegetables and 5 litre bottles from work all the way to our homes, cry secretly at night because i miss home too much, get really pissed off by rickshaw drivers who wants to cheat our money AGAIN, dirty my new flower shoes, cook in candlelight, no water and electricity at home, drop hair+grow pimples because of bad air and water.... I will still go India!

I met lovely people like my colleagues, supervisor, vegetable sellers and fruit vendors, i saw how simply awesome and beautiful the nature can be! I saw how hardworking and innovative Indians can be, i ate delicious and fresh fruits.. above all i realised Singaporeans don't know how blessed they are! We have everything! Clean roads, clean air, clean water, electricity everywhere(i keep worrying that my electricity will get cut off!), good Internet connection, sturdy infrastructure, proper lift system, predictable weather, good government... seriously just having all these on their own are more then enough to be thankful for. I can't help but be surprise at how people can be so materialistic here. It seems that a lot of Singaporean are never happy with what they have and always wanting more or complaining about something. Looking back, I'm amazed at how adaptable the Indians are to all the crazy constraints in their country yet they are so hardworking and always laughing!

Coming back i have learnt to treasure so much more! My time, i wake up early to run and pray, i plan my meals before hands, i did a lot of housework, i make sure every hour is well spent because our time is precious, every day is precious! I learnt to treasure water and electricity and just about every paper and plastic. I went to NTUC with four reusable bags, i make sure we flush the toilet bowl with water from our veggie washing, i prepare containers if my parents want to ta pao food. I have learnt to take small steps each day to treasure whatever that i have because i know now that everything is a gift and blessing from our Father in heaven and nothing should be wasted! Be it time, object, food or people. I'm trying to stop m family from watching TV too because i have survived 3 months without it, I'm sure my family can too~

I now know human relationship is the most important of all and the free time we have should be spent with our family and using kindness and love towards each other. These 2 weeks will be a training time for me to learn to love and be patient with the rest of my family member, by doing the housework without complaining and cooking food full of love:) I only have one life and i;m going to live it with love! I'm gonna love my environment, animals, people around me and most importantly loving God! I only have one life to get to know Him better each day! I need to treasure the time i have with Him!

The things i experienced in India were just too precious for words and i can't tell you how much i wish you were there with me:)

Gift tag for future vegan baked goods:)

2010-10-08T00:30:00.001-07:00

2010-10-04T02:27:00.000-07:00

My Lord is the best artist of all

2010-10-04T00:52:00.000-07:00

Even though i didn't go church yesterday, but I was totally left in awe at God's amazing creations and left without a doubt He is an amazing creator! He really is! I just sit on a boat in the middle of the river and I really can't explain in words how amazing it all is. I wanted to cry at the absolutely beautiful scenery and ask how can someone not believe in our great Creator?! Do they expect everything that is this amazing sprout out of nowhere?? I am quite determine to travel around this world and view all the other amazing creations! woweeee! Singaporeans we really don't know what we are missing out is life! Being so contented with some lame gadgets (iphone, ipad....) or the latest fashion, caring more about buying this this this and that. Lame. Going out to the great world, helping people and loving the environment is so much greater than the materialistic stuff! I feel even more determine to protect out Earth now be it through food or daily life.

We had a great weekend! We went to lunch at a dear colleague's house with his cute family!

His kiddo is so naughty and active!

Rarjesh and Shailesh!

Vada Pav making in action! Our favourite Pune food!
(even though it is so unhealthy!! Don't worry i hardly eat this! but it is so yummy....)

Kas Valley! Oh gosh too beautiful!

Kas Valley- the valley of flowers
(looks just like grass? zoom in please~~)

This is how fantastic the zoom in view is! flower flower and more flowers!!!

Flowers+ caterpillar!

Pretty!!!!!!

I love this place!

This is what you feel like doing when you see the place!
(by the way this is my crazy and fantastic supervisor!)

The girls on the trip!

The road is just wonderful!!! Air is so great!!!

the view all around the boat~

the boats~~

Everyone on the boat~

Boat guy~

Sweetie Priya and her mummy~

If heaven is more beautiful than this~~ I'm quite sure it is

woweeee!!!! Kas Valley!

Totally beautiful place outside of Pune and India has lots of this kind of places! I'm so thankful that God brought us here just before we leave! Thank God for the wonderful trip and beautiful weather! I'm also glad i got to know my colleagues better through this trip:) It was just awesome!!

On a side note, this is how chickens are suppose to look like! Not the farm factory chicken you consume which cannot even walk on it's own legs! This chicken is so cute! How dare you even think of eating it!

House Tour

2010-09-27T22:28:00.000-07:00

This is the crazy place we stay in~ You know chalet and camps? (remember last year youth camp...) It is like staying at those sort of places everyday~ We have all sorts of insect crawling around~ big bomb lizard, squashed green grasshopper, cockroaches, spiders, ants, i-dont-know-the-names...... And it is always so dirty and dusty despite the fact that we spend one day cleaning it thouroughly every week:(

The sad-looking 'kitchen', cooking is like camping here~ I miss my kitchen in Singapore!!!
( oh u can see me in the mirror reflection!)

Really looks like camping right?! Oh i insist on using olive oil for cooking!
(see the bottle on the left? it's leonardo's olive oil! lol!)

See how much veggie we consume in one meal? this is our typical dinner plates(pre-cook)! 2 big plates of colourful vegetables! You know that to have a balance meal we should have vegetables of all sorts of colours? Yup! Some days our plates are even more colourful!

our typical 'chinese' noodle meal, we also have pasta, veggie soup and tofu scramble on the boring but quite healthy menu~ Dinner is often accompany by 'How i met your mother' on my netbook! Thanks to Li yeow!

Our 'living' room, actually it is our laundry room~

tiny fridge and 'shoe rack'!

Super messy sleeping area+skype room

cleaning weapons + giant pail (to store water for the crazy water cuts!)

So people this is the pathetic place we have been living in for 3 months! So don't ever complain about Singapore! It is a great country! And don't complain about not being able to cook! If i can cook here, so can you!!!!

Pancakes!

2010-09-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

I have the best supervisor yea? She invited us after work last night to enjoy some pancake with chocolate sauce! She really is a superb supervisor! So talented, humble and kind! I'm really blessed to work under her! (note! pancakes are non-vegan!)

The giant pancake the leonard tried to make! I love this pan! So good for making pancakes! I want!

We added bananas into them! SO

We bought watermelons to her house because i knew she has normal(big) knife so we got to enjoy the sweet watermelons!

Now for our weekend eats: (Korean restaurant (again!) and Aroma cafe)

My cinnamon and ginger tea! Really nice! but a bit too sweet~

Leonard's green tea and honey latte. So nice!!!

My cold soy noodles~ Quite nice but i got a bit sick of it toward the end.
Should totally have more vegetables! (there were only cucumbers and noodles!)

Leo's Ja Jiang Mian!!! Black bean paste with potatoes, onions and mushrooms
( i should have ordered this!!! It's so good!) i'm still a lover for hot food~

My vegetable submarine! quite nice, the veggie patty is nice but they should add more veggies!
Don't like fries and they are not even hot!

yux! leonard's totally meat pizza which he finished all on his own!

Oh we managed to weight ourselves too! There was this free weighting scale outside the stationary shop that we went to and we weight ourselves~ Sadly we both hope the weighing scale is spoiled because my weight dropped and his remains the same even though he thought he lost weight and i thought i gained weight! lol! But maybe it is because i have so much hair that i dropped 1kg of it?! or maybe it is because i have diarrhea every 2/3 days~~ Nevermind we are going back soon~

Did i mention that the handmade paper here is very cheap?! one A0 size for 50 cents! Score! We bought quite a lot of papers~~ :) Oh i'll let you guys know why i think we eat a lot in the next post~

Love, Pray, Eat, Draw

2010-09-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

Recently i have been thinking, why do i want to blog? How should i categorise it? But i realise this is just a space for me to Love, Pray, Eat and Draw(and only in this sequence!) Hopefully whatever it is that i rant here, it will somehow bless you in one way or another. India has change my blog too huh? lol

If you notice i have deleted my tagboard, not because i don't love it when all of you tag(i really love your encouraging words so much!!!) but because if you noticed there have been some really irritating and unnecessary spams on the tagboard. I want to say a big thank you to all of you out there who have been reading this tiny small blog of mine! THANK YOU!! I really hope of you will comment instead because every time i get a comment, I'm more inspired and thankful and so encouraged!

小小的梦想能改变世界

2010-09-25T21:12:00.000-07:00

生命不是天天希望能快点长大，考好成绩，找到好工作，找好老公，生可爱的宝宝，希望孩子快点成长，希望孩子考好成绩，找到好工作，找到好老公，成家立业，抱孙子。。。

生命是每天更认识上帝与他同步
生命是相信你的生命不只是停留在这世界
如果只是一天过一天
没有盼望
我宁愿生命停止

但是生命因为有神
所以有信，望，爱
让我们向着他给我们的标杆直跑
不是我们一个人在跑
是神拉着我们跑

所以我相信
我们每个人所做的每件事
都能够带来改变在这世界
不管是大的改变还是小的改变
都能够成为一个祝福还是一个伤害在这世界

今天让我们来决定
我们这一生所做的一切
要带来什么改变在这世界？

A heart of Compassion

2010-09-22T07:03:00.000-07:00

There is no word today because it is the end of the elephant god festival and it is really important to the Indians here, so important that we officially get a holiday! But sadly everywhere is close so we are stuck at home all day~ Quite sian but actually it is a blessing to have a day to rest and pray! Something also happened today at my Singapore home, so it was actually a good thing that i could be Skype the whole day.

My dearest youngest sister Yu Rou, she is such a special girl! She really is such a lovely and kind girl:D She always does thing that are unexpected and so so kind:) Even though to the outsiders she may seems to be the less 'smart' child in the house but really i feel that she really has a heart of gold compare to us when we are younger. She is so sensitive to others feelings and always does something that is so unexpected.

Today she found a pigeon at the void deck of our house, it was hurt and could hardly walk or fly. And what did she do? She carried it home and tried to find food for it! She was so upset when she called me on Skype because there was nothing in the house for the pigeon! She was crying so badly... She say she brought it back home because she couldn't bear to see it die. She even went out to buy bread for it! But that poor little pigeon got out of the box and look like it was dying. Yu Rou got so worried and called my parents for help( because i obviously couldn't do anything for her-_-") But my dad got really angry with her and i advised her to ask our neighbours for help. In the end our neighbours helped her get the poor pigeon into the box and she brought the bird together with some bread downstairs. Yu Rou was so heart broken because she didn't want to see the bird die.

I'm really touched by her actions. How many of us would have done what she did? I bet all of us will turn a blind eye and totally ignored the poor bird. She really has a compassionate heart even at such a tender age. She saw a poor soul that needed help and she just did her best to help. It made me question myself... As we grow up we tend to loose the heart to love and care, to do something that is out of our daily routine. We are so used to the seeing people beg or suffer that our hearts have turned cold. Isn't it true? When we see someone on the streets who genuinely seems like they need help, how many of us will pause and lend a hand? I got upset when i realised that my dad scold yu rou, telling her she did something very very stupid! Did he not see that she is so sweet? Instead of worrying so much about the bird spreading 'disease' and dirtying the house. Have we grown up to become too practical?

Yu Rou, i want you to know that your sister here is very proud to have you as my youngest sister and love you a lot:) I hope your story will inspire more people to get out of their comfort zone to show love and compassion to the people and animals around us! And definitely the animals on your plates too!

Eat eat eat

2010-09-20T00:24:00.000-07:00

Before i start posting everything that we consumed on saturday, i just want to state that actually i love eating. (even though i may not look like i love food!) I love eating and i'm a picky eater. I love finding and reading up on places that serves good food. I will appreciate more if they are vegetarian friendly and healthy. I believe good food are created from fresh and clean product that do lots of good to our body and is kind to the environment. Why i suddenly got onto this topic because even though i love eating, i have spend a lot of my time in recent years, stopping myself from consuming too much food(in fact most of the time starving myself....). But i'm feeling better now, because i don't face the stress of people commenting on my appearance and other problems that i left temporary in Singapore.

I think it will really do me a lot of good if people around me just keep their comments to themselves and stop making unnecessary remarks about my weight. Do you really have to say think like, 'hey yu jie you seems to have gained weight!', 'hey you are fatter now', 'oh my why you so skinny huh!' etc. Look i don't care about what you think of me ok? So just leave my appearance alone! Gaining a bit of weight is not fat! I hate the word FAT!!! Get it?! Why are people who are really fat don't get comments like that... Look skinny people are sensitive too, it is not like i'm crazy over looking like a model. Just that i don't want to have to struggle silently after someone make a unnecessary comment about my weight again. It has happen once too many times, so i prefer if everyone just leave the outward appearance alone and talk about the weather~

ok enough of angst! lol time for some food photo of saturday:

Stuffed mushrooms starters~ really yummy!

Thai crispy noodles~ tasted ok, but not very thai~

Thai noodles and sambal veggie? Taste and look nothing like sambal~

Singapore map on the menu( can you see Bedok?!)

the best custard apple and mango ice cream! YUM!

Happy cinnamon coffee!

sugar cubes!

veggie lasagna! ( this is the last time i consume cheese~~)

leonard's chicken food~~

Doesn't look like india right?

We went to K.P and had lunch at Melaka Spice(for some not v authentic south east asia food!), seasonal fruity ice cream at the Natural, ice tea at Barista, dinner and tea at Aroma. After feeling so bloated after the cheese i think i may finally stop my love for it and be another step close to becoming a vegan~

Under the same sun

2010-09-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

Since i took my camera cable to the office, i shall post my fun weekend in photos:

The really nice and funny group of friends
( I told you guys that indians are all very handsome?
lol higher chance of me spotting a cute guy on a 6 seater than on a SBS bus!)

Pune zoo!

Love the elephant!

Family of deers

Vikka and his fiance

Iguana! (can you spot it?)

Beautiful river!

Our host- Johnny Depp(actually he is call Savesh!)

Savesh's brother( so innovative right?!)

hahahahhahahahahahaha

Nice scenery right!?

Boating for 20 mins

Street food! Taste quite nice, but i dare not eat too much for fear of my weak tummy~

Had a great day at Pune zoo on Sunday thanks to Sarvesh! He is a really funny and nice guy! He is not attach, so~ anybody interested? i have his number~ Leonard and i have the feelings of the zoo animals too during the whole trip, because everywhere we go people just stare at us~ i think we were the only asians in the whole zoo! (imagine we are in a cage that states- Singaporeans, a tidy and picky bunch)

Colourful flags~~

2010-09-12T10:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend has been awesome! Thank God for His grace and blessings:D

We got tried and sick of Indian food and we also wanted to celebrate the end of our 2nd month here! Yay! So we went to the one and only authentic Korean Restaurant-cafe Morro in Pune! It wasn't easy to find! Inside of the cafe is totally different from India, it is so neat and tidy and serene~~ A small but sweet place. The waiter and owner there were really sweet too:) Even though the waiter did not get the fact clear that i was a vegetarian despite him asking veg or non veg and served my bibimbap with beef in it... I was a little upset but decide to forget it and pass all the meat to Leonard (who is v happy-_-") The boss was nice and took my bowl to help it pick the meat out because i told him i did not need him to help me make another dish. He even gave us a chocolate cupcake to make up for the mistake. Really well-mannered and sweet people:)

I finally found sweet potatoes at the veggie stall in the area! Do you know sweet potato requires no pesticide to grow and even if not organic they are still much much healthier than potatoes. I'm going to learn to eat more sweet potatoes and less potatoes. ( even though i don't really like sweet potatoes and love potatoes) but it is really more of a habit i think. i also bought this big colourful fan thing~~ hmmm will try to show it here~

Today we had a great time too, Shavesh our colleague is so nice he brought us to a ex-colleague's house! We had a yummy but oily lunch, ate a lot of too sweet stuff and watch a lame horror movie-1408. They were so friendly and fun. This is also the start of the elephant god festival thing and they brought the statue to a beautiful river to eh..drown it~~ A little weird but i love the river, it is so beautiful and i rode on a motorbike and the scenery is gorgeous! Too bad we forgot to bring our camera-_-" It is also a tradition to offer sweets to us and we had too much sugar today! zzz....very fattening stuff

When we got back we found all the kids gathered at a small building in the middle of the colony. We went in and saw the have a huge statue there and it is a temp 5 day prayer place. The parents also co-organised stuff for the kids, today was the drawing competition. I have no idea but the kids love talking to us and asking us all sort of questions! They are all so cute and keep showing us their drawings! Some even say things like 'when you go back Singapore, we will surely miss you!" So sweet right! I love talking to them, they are so innocent and lovely kiddos. They are having sack race and dance performance tomorrow! hopefully we end work early! I really want to see them race!

What a lovely and blessed weekend~~ Thank God!

Cover me under YOUR wings:)

2010-09-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

God is good ALL THE TIME:)

I have been having a rough week last week for a reason even i;m not sure, but God is great and i learnt to trust in Him. I didn't blog due to my weird emotional status and lack of time. It is Friday night and i have decided to rant a little before i sleep.

Let's put some funny and interesting India stuff a side first. I feel that: India is crazy ans Singapore is lame.
We went to eat Thali last Saturday, it is a giant plate with lots of typical traditional Indian food(if differs slightly in diff part of India), it is unlimited and they will just keep refilling it for you! crazy right? for only $5 SGD! Hmm but Indian food is typically too oily and sweet and just weird for us, we could just chomp down 1++ serving. Indian men like to pee and spit(like merlion) in the public. Some even shit. Families who cant afford it don't give their kids shoes. Dungs are everywhere! Cow, dog, pig, even human dung... everywhere! Indians are cool in the way they share their food. Have something? one piece, everyone tear off a small bite. Bring-to-work-lunches are never eaten all on your own. Always, always 1++++++person will 'kope' your food! They don't care much about hygiene. There was once my colleague took a pencil on the table to stir his cup of tea! They love to laugh, sing, music and colourful clothes! They can travel 2/3 hours on weekends just to go sightseeing! They can squeeze like sardines on 6 seaters! Singaporeans, we are a little lame compare to them right?!

Leonard and i have both agreed that despite being homesick and missing the convenience of Singapore, we actually quite like India( though the living condition remains crappy)

India made me count my blessings everyday... I actually did manage to give some rupees to a girl, gave candy to a boy, fed bread to a sick dog... I'm less afraid now and dare to give more. I see so many in need and can't help wish i can give more. I remember seeing one boy holding a rag standing in the middle of the road. What is he doing? i thought, crossing the road? But actually he was 'begging' wiping posh(clean) cars with his (dirty) rag then going to the window to ask for money. For a while i couldn't do anything but stare at him... It is so dangerous! The road is full of cars and drivers who care nothing about traffic rules and a skinny little kiddo... But for everyday survival.. He rush car to car hoping for a few coins. I think he changed my perception of life. While we worry about our school results, the latest iphone, the latest fashion trend, there are kids risking their lives daily on the street...

I have got to know kids in my living area, a bunch of little girls between 7 -12. They seems to enjoy playing with me and i love it that they don't worry about homework and stress and do not have their eyeballs stuck to a computer/psp screen. They have no high tech toys but they play happily among themselves with nothing but each other. They may not be street kids or rich Singapore kids but in a way they seems more real, just like how children should be. Not worried or stress over PSLE. Parents don't go crazy trying to make them get into top schools. Parents here are not like that.

If we pace down ourselves to observe and learn each day, India actually have lots more to learn than Singapore. They lead life each day with zest and hardwork and not crazy materialism and envy. I do admire the people here for they have something in their life that many of us lack The perseverance of making ends meet and being joyful even in the simplest things.

In Singapore, are we trying to be too greedy about unnecessary things and ignorant of what is essentially important in life?

What is important? God, loving people around us and our Earth
Everything else, i feel, is a bit unnecessary.

Thank God for teaching me everyday here, i know why I'm here in India.

100th post: It's time for change!

2010-08-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

The internet is being so crappy today, most probably because it is the last day of the perpaid plan? I don't know. We will have to go down to the service centre again to get the plan again. I'm definitely quite upset because i intended to have a good chat with my family and iris. I have one million reason to be pissed off. In India, it is so much easier to feel this way.

But hey it is the 100th post and I should not dwell on it and be so upset! (Actually i'm not even very upset because i'm too use to things going wrong here) I want to talk about change! Change change change! This word has been going round and round in my head whole day. Change is happening all around me. Everything here is a huge leap from home and everything require extra patience and effort. But i realise one thing. Change is ever happening and it is always around us. Just whether it is big or small. And whether we want to do it or not.

I realise coming to India, God has successfully striped me of all things that i could possibly have. My family, eugene, church, cell, money, water, electricity, water, proper food, hair...and the list goes on. These were things that have distracted me. (most of the time in a good way) But they distracted me from God, from His purpose in my life. When He took all these away, what did i have left? Him.

It is now up to me how I could embrace this huge drastic change in my life. Nobody to whine to, no shoulders to cry on, no sister to feed me, no parents to nag me, no eugene to pamper me, no iris to ask for help, no water to bath, no light to see... So what will i do?! Hate this place?! Hate every single person i see?! Fly back to singapore? No. Instead God changed my viewpoint and i realized what He wanted me to learn. I still do not what is His Big plan. But I do know that i need to change my perspective of the situation and put my eyes on Him. Hey Yu Jie, let go! Let Him lead! Stop being so stubborn!

Change is all round us! We cannot let God work in us if we don't want to change! I also come to understand that change is stem from Love, which is the greatest of all! I changed my mindset about my situation because at the end of the day I know God loves me and I (always trying) to love Him. So i know it is time for me to change. In fact now i have learnt to see the beauty of India. I do not mean the scenery, but the way people live their life. They are actually very environmentally friendly and they are a country of toughest people who try their very best to make a living despite the condition of their surrounding. They are so innovative with their use of materials and they do not use unnecessary things. ( Only things they really need). They love their country and their culture.

How do i change my lifestyle to fit into this place? Change and be humble!

Another big change i want to talk about (again!) is diet. I know maybe you are tired of me harping on about it~ But hey it is my 100th post and i have the right to yea? I know alot of people find it hard to accept the fact about factory farming and vegetarian diet. But it is really asking yourself, why do i want to do it? Why should i do it? I did it because i realised that, God i cannot be doing this to your earth, your animals(unethical and cruel farming) and your people(worker who are under-paid and starving countries)! Time for a Big change! Change is always easier when you know why you are doing it and what you are doing ti for! It is a huge change in your life. It is not easy. but are you willing to do it? I'm sure it is easier than coming India! Lol!

First of all change your heart, change your perspective and everything else will come naturally:D Stop hugging onto all those old mindsets! We should be flexible and influential! You never know where God leads!

I think more changes are coming! I'm looking forward to them:D

Blessing in disguise

2010-08-18T20:51:00.000-07:00

Remember how i was complaining about the water shortage?

Even though it may seems so terrible in the eyes of a Singaporean, but if I choose to see it in faith. It is actually God's best way of training my to wake up! The water comes at 6am and I have no choice but to make up at 6 so that i can bathe and wash my clothes in peace. So i totally am forcing myself to wake up early and this actually gives my ample time to have a bit of prayer and Bible reading time:D Amazing isn't it?! If it is not for this situation, I'll never have been able to wake up and with my day schedule, it is impossible to have any form of QT. So i gotta learn to sleep earlier and wake up earlier, even though i am already waking up at 7, but 6am will be much better:D

Faith is trusting what the eye can’t see.

Eyes see the prowling lion. Faith sees Daniel’s angel.

Eyes see storms. Faith sees Noah’s rainbow.

Your eyes see your faults. Your faith sees your Savior.

Your eyes see your guilt. Your faith sees his blood.

Got this from Princess blog! It is a great way for me to learn to change my perspective of my life in India:)

Oh i had such a great time chatting with QQ yesterday(even though we talked till VERY late and i couldn't wake up that early) but it made me realize how essential it is to have a good chat with your good friends once in a while:D

How to kick off!

2010-08-18T10:49:00.000-07:00

I'm thankful and amaze on the way God works! Totally blown away! I will never in my entire life expected God to use my blog to make people realise what vegetarianism and veganism is all about! I'm so touched by how God has helped people understand how i feel! Finally! Thank God!!!

So i really think just like how we must follow up with baby Christians i should be responsible to help you guys start your vegetarian diet or at least eat much lesser meat or animal product! Yup i'm trying to be vegan! I really feel that it is quite essential that I provide some tips because personally it would have been much easier for me if someone had gave me tips while i just started off. I'm not a pro and it is definitely much better if you guys can do some research on your own. Find the best way that can fit you!

First off, just try cutting down on your meat intake, if you have no choice or you feel tempted, choose fish! It is the healthier option. Don't eat beef or chicken, especially beef! They are super horrible for our environment! Worldwide, beef production contributes more substantially to climate change than the entire transportation sector! Yikes! Practical tip for eating out: Best if you can find a vegetarian stall but if you can't find one, you can always choose vege options from cai fan stall or malay briyani stall. For the bedok people, the coffee shop near bedok library(the one with Aston's) has a really good vegetarian store. I feel the niang dou fu is a much healthier option than normal vegetarian.

For a start i think it is mush easier if you go visit vegetarian store and get your meal. But not only is it not that many options in Singapore, it is often unhealthy because it is so oily and processed fake meat product. It is good for a start but in the long run, i really want to encourage everyone to just up your intake of veggies, fruits, multi grains, tofu and tempeh!

You may start exclaiming that hey no way man, i don't want to be like a goat and it is so difficult! Yu Jie it is easier for you because you always eat these kind of food! I know i have grown up in an environment that is much more exposed to veggie and food than all of you. But really eating healthily is much better for you and the environment and most likely your family and future family!

Next step, it is probably to learn to cook some simple stuff or pack your own simple lunches. I know how difficult it is to get a good healthy and yummy vegetarian lunch! One easy thing is probably sandwiches! At least it is vegetarian! One good delicious tip, toast your bread, add lettuce(hydroponics lettuce!), tomatoes slices, cheese and juicy pear/apple slices! It is easy and healthy! So So fast to make and if you find it not filling, you can always pack organic apple, cucumber, carrot.... etc to go with it! Light and healthy!

Once you get use to packing your own lunch, learn to cook simple dishes! simple vegan dishes! Veggie pasta, salad(so much combination!) and my current craze- scramble tofu!!! So good and you can always pack one early for your lunch! Why i keep emphasizing on packing lunch is because i understand how we are always our at school or work and it is best to just have a good vegetarian lunch prepared!

When you cook your own food, it is always healthier (much more!) and environmentally friendly! Go find a pretty lunch box and you won't need those Styrofoam or plastic containers anymore! If you are willing to spend money and want something totally healthy, please go to Salad Stop! It if so super good! Make you own salad for around $7-8 and you can add as many stuff as you want and they have such a huge range of veggie/fruits/nuts. Their salad dressing are great too! I know it is a bit too much for salad! You should make your own!!! I totally love salad and there are so many great blogs that have such fantastic recipes!

Go these blogs:
Choosing Raw
Vegan Yum Yum
Vegetarian Society Singapore
Crazy Sexy Life

This it is for now, do note that these are not christian blogs and there are some things that are not my take of life. I want you guys to know that you can be a vegetarian and a Christian at the same time:D

Global Warming causes extreme effect on the climate

2010-08-17T05:20:00.000-07:00

It is suppose to be monsoon season in Pune. Yet we are living in water shortage.

This is what happens when you ignore the Earth.

India sometimes makes me feel this way

2010-08-17T05:07:00.000-07:00

Love- Join the revolution!

2010-08-17T03:23:00.000-07:00

“I’m only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something, and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do that something I can do.”
–Helen Keller

“God, how can You stand seeing all the pain—starving children, human trafficking, genocide, injustice, degradation, unbelievable pain, poverty—in the world and not do something?”

I don’t even know that I was really expecting to get an answer, but I just asked Him. Immediately His answer came back: “I work through people. I’m waiting for My people to arise and do something.”

Read. A very apt article for me. Thank God for speaking to me through unexpected people and situation.

It is not suppose to be a cruel world...

2010-08-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

I’m a person who like to see change happen. Good changes of course. If a bad situation happens I either do my best to change it or I becoming very upset and hide away and totally ignore it. A bit extreme I know but i just notice this is how i am. Which is why i often avoid things or become ‘lazy’. Not because I don’t want to do anything about it, but it is often too big for me to handle. Which is why I am always so firm on what I believe in. Which is also why a lot of people see me as being very stubborn and fussy. I’m sorry but i have to get things right.

This brings me to why I became a vegetarian. I didn't become one so that everyone will think that i’m ‘SO HEALTHY’ or act so elitist when I’m eating. Or even part of my eating problem. Yes I admit I DID have an eating problem. But I became a vegetarian not to become slimmer. NO NO NO. One good thing about coming to India, I have manage to overcome my eating fears. Mostly because I have to think about Leonard and feed him (with what i cook) and I just have too much work to do and not enough to eat most of the time and also lots of diarrhoea. Ok that is off track. But no vegetarianism is NOT because i want to eat less or become slimmer!

I learnt about it through my school IP project and read up alot of books and got alot of information on what factory farming and meat consumption if doing our planet. I decided that yes I want to change, I want to make a difference. See? I saw that i could a make a difference with what I eat and decided that yes i will make this change happen. How can I after knowing the environmental impact of meat production still eat meat? How can I knowing how cruel the factories are at rearing all these animals still consume them? How can I knowing that people, kids are going hungry because of the lack of grains that are going to all these animals still eat meat?! You can??! Sorry I can’t. If i can make a difference I will and I will try my best to persuade those around me. How can i allow people I love and care about consume animals after knowing the amount of antibiotics and “shit” that goes into them?! Sorry you can but I can’t and I will do my best to persuade you not to consume meat. It is NOT because i want to attract peple’s attention or be laugh at or be made into a joke. It is not.

Do you guys know how difficult it is? That people is always making sarcastic remarks? Stuff like hey trees are also living things you know? They have feelings too? Erm excuse me? What rubbish are you saying? They have not read about factory farming and they come argue with me like that?! The stuff people say to you can be really hurtful. 80% of the time i receive remarks like these. Hey people, if you cannot have the courage nor self-control to be a vegetarian, who are you to be so mean to me? Don’t ever try to act smart in front of me. Because I know my small act at each meal makes a more positive change to the environment my God created than that piece of factory farmed crap you are eating. God created the animals and the environment for us to love and care for, not to slaughter and make a crap out of. Yes the Bible says we can eat meat, BUT NOT IN THIS UNETHICAL manner. Get it?!

Sorry about being so emotional. I cannot help it i guess. I keep getting all these mean remarks from people and they are hurting me and my sisters. It is totally unfair.

Another big issue I’m facing now is Christianity in India. I seriously doubt if there are many Christians here, I doubt if there is a charismatic church. It upsets me to come to face this reality. I can feel it. The whole atmosphere. You can’t blame the people here for how they act and the way they live. India is a overpopulated country. They have problems feeding this many people. Everyone is trying to survive in this country. It is no surprise that they are always trying to cheat our(2 young n blur Chinese) money. No surprise at all. I found something that is really lacking. Love. Love between people. Yes they are friendly(i mean my colleagues) But they need to survive more than anything else. But as i travel around, seeing so many kids asking for alms, people sleeping on the streets, kids without shoes, walking in between the crazy traffic just to sell some flowers/ toys for a few rupees... It hurts. It hurts alot. People just ignore them. Me included. I dare not do anything to help. I feel so totally worthless seeing how much they need help. THEY DON’T DESERVE to live like that! I’m upset about how i cannot make a change int their lives. They don’t know what love is. They don’t know that Our Heaven;y Father loves them! I’m really upset and confuse whenever I think about this. And i’m always thinking about it.

Why...Why... Why must they live like that...How do i spread God’s love to them? How to they live each day without love, hope and faith?

Dear God, how do i make change happen? How do i let those in need know that there is love, the greatest love of all from You? I feel so small, tiny and helpless in this BIG country.

4th week!!! One month!

2010-08-15T05:37:00.000-07:00

I’m so blur, i forgot to upload last weekend’s post-_-

So we spent most of last weekend and the first part of this week being sick. Terrible flu and sore throat. It felt horrible to be sick and nobody to take care of you. People who usually care for me are my family and Eugene and they are so far away from meL I miss home a lot. India is exciting and I really quite like my work and supervisor but being away from home and having to do everything on your own....not fun. And lonely.

We went to Dorabjee’s again yesterday to get more stuff for cooking. Yea we are saving up by cooking and I have cooked every dinner since last Sunday. We even had scramble paneer for lunch today. Very yummy! Who needs eggs when you get tofu?! It’s definitely a better alternative to eggs so I’m really glad i tried a new recipe today! I’m getting closer to my dream of becoming a vegan! I haven’t drank milk and eat eggs for a long time~ I just have to find ways of cutting down on yogurt(curd!) and ice cream!! Hmmm maybe make my own ice cream when i get back to Singapore? Well, this topic will continue later~

We also went to walk around a bit yesterday, following the Pune Guide that we got from the company, we found Kayani Bakery! I’m so glad we found this place! Mind you, it looks nothing like our singapore breadtalk or four leafs! It had no shelves or whatsoever only one big counter with lots of people squeezing in front of it. They are famous for their butter cookies! Especially the Shrewsbury ones and that was what we got! We bought half a kg of Shrewsbury and Brazilian nut and a small loaf of brown bread! Yummy! Totally love the cookies! It is definitely a bit too much for the both of us! Half a kg each! I think i’ll gain weight from it! Haha! But I’ll definitely pack them back for my family and the princesses! Yummy cookies coming your way in 2 months time!! YES!! 2 more months!!! One third through this internship!

We saw a giant cow moo in the middle of the street, a poor dog dead in the middle of the street little puppies roaming around, crazy rickshaw driver having a fist fight with his passenger.. yes this is India! Drama is norm. We bought some yummy super yummy pink guava from the road side. Small and pink! You never get such good stuff in Singapore! The fruits here are really divine! Custard apple, pomegranate and now guavas! They are guavas are so sweet! It is not a popular fruit in Singapore because it taste so---blah~~ But in India, they are super good! I hope the guava season last till Oct! So i can bring some back! Oddly the things that excite me most here is food! I love trying their fruits and baked goods. Hmm so far I haven’t got to try any really good India food yet, it is definitely on my list of must try. The Little India restaurant still trash the Indian food i had so far.

Today is also India’s independence day! So there were lots of discount going on yesterday! I managed to get a good bargain of 3 books at only 99 rupees!! That is like $3.30 SGD! Yea! Actually my sole purpose is to get this book call Planet Chicken, it was around 149 rupees last week and i was tempted to buy because it is only $5 SGD but thank God I didn’t!!! Now i got it for only $1.30! Because 99 divide by 3:D I sound so auntie:X But I’m really thankful that God only allow me to buy this week! It will be a good book for me, my family and all those around me! I’ll have more information to bombard to regarding that scary chicken on your plateJ

I shall end this post on a cheery note since what the next post will be a little heavy and I don’t want to upset you by forcing it on you~

3rd week!

2010-08-15T05:35:00.000-07:00

3^rd week!!!

I hope time flies~ I really miss Singapore and can’t wait to go back. I should try not to feel this way but I can’t help it. I’m tried and sick and so is leonard. Both of use having a terrible cold and i’m having this weird cough. I also wish that my hair will stop dropping. It looks so scary now:(

We had a tough week, Ots and late nights and horrible meals. Plus the virus in us.Can’t help but wish I was back in sg. I know i can take it and it is quite an exciting and different experience. But i gotta be truthful and admit i miss singapore. I miss the care of my family and Eugene. I miss not having to worry about every little details in life.

We went out alone whole day yesterday. To SGS mall which is near M.G. Rd. It is like a Malaysia mall? But worse. Only 2 stories but being inside we fell much safer and a bit of home. We had macdonald!! Yum! Vegetarian alternatives!!! Leonard had a vege patty meal and i had a paneer salsa wholewheet wrap. Very niceJ How i wish Singapore can have these alternatives too. It’ll make life much easier for me sometimes when i’m in a rush and need a quick bite. Fries also tasted great suddenly! Haha.The mall had The Body Shop, Esprit, Adidas etc. We went to Landmark after lunch, it is a bit like Borders, just that I don’t know why the books are so dusty. I found an interesting but poorly designed book called the How to Save the Planet. It gave quite practical and step by step ways to save the earth in every possible way from daily life to eating. Quite good but just that it is too brief, it’ll be good for youngsters. It gave me quite a bit of inspiration for FYP. We spent quite a long time there and Leonard bought a book to read.

Next stop—Dojabee, one of the better super market that import international brands. It is still smaller than bedok NTUC but it will have to do for now. Bought salad greens, tomatoes, corn, button mushroom, sliced veggie mix, paneer masala mix, paneer, curd, nutella and MILO! Hahahaaha. Leonard insisted on buying it because he really need it to feel a sense of home. It is very expensive! Around $10 sgd for one small can. Even the KOKA noodles here are expensive $1 sgd for a small individual pack, the price of 5 of it add together. The international brands are all quite expensive! We went back to SGS mall after that for chinese fast food. It’s call YO China! LOL! Chinese food with chinese prices. So funny! Leonard find the tag line really crappy. We had a fried rice combo with szchuan vege and manchuan thingy. No idea what it is. It tasted quite like our za chai fun but worse. Thoug it was quite popular and people were queuing up to get it. SGS mall also has the most number of Asians and Caucasian we have seen so far. It is quite comforting to see other Asians in India.

On the way back we stopped earlier at a fruit store to get custard apple, pomegranate and apple. Only to realise we stopped too early and there was a better and nearer fruit stall on the way down. We bought 2 more custard apples because they looked so big and yummy. The custard apple and pomegranate here is so much cheaper than Singapore! And they are so good for our health. So i’m planning on eating as much of it as possible while i’m hereJ

We cleaned the house again today! It get so dirty in just one week because of the dusty air and falling hairL I made us a salad for lunch and i’m planning on cooking a paneer masala later on for dinner. It will be quite easy with the ready mixed masala(spice in Hindi).

I think one of the reason we are sick is because of the bad air quality. It is very super dusty and carrying a scarf of cloth to cover your face is a must when you get out on the street and even on 2 seater. Good thing i bought along my scarf! We saw giant cows, goats and basket-ed chicken during our travel and lots of spitting men.

It’s exciting but i can’t help but wish it will end soon. I’m sick and tired~~~

oh my cauliflowerhead!!!

2010-08-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

i miss my hair!!!! come back my dear hair!! if u come back i will not complain about you anymore!!! Please come back to me!!! I love you so much!!! I cannot live without you!!! My hair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear everybody, PLEASE pray for my hair! I don't now why it is falling at such an amazing rate. I'm really upset over it:(

Count your blessings~

2010-08-01T03:52:00.001-07:00

I finally managed to attend a bit of service today!! yea!!! Yuhan brought the laptop to church and I managed to catch the end of the sermon! Lan mu shi even prayed for me!!! I'm so touched! I could feel the Holy Spirit working in me even when i'm million of miles away from the church. I miss yous guys so so much! My big family. Your guys should really appreciate your time of prayer and worship and sunday services. It is actually a God-given blessing!!!! I really learn how to appreciate all these seemingly little things when i'm here in India. I miss EN community so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss Princess cell so much!!!! Thank you all for the prayers! I really pray that the next week cell outing will be a blast!! Let the Holy Spirit work on Saturday!!:) I want to go!!!!!

Either Or~

2010-08-01T03:49:00.000-07:00

I'm finally able to blog! After so long of not being able to do so~ This week passed much quicker than the previous one, I think it is because we are getting used to our life and there is a certain routine. We have got a gigantic pail to store water in case of water shortage, heating rod in case the water heater is not working, torchlight and candles for the electricity cuts. Life has become much easier even though the situation and environment is still the same but our view and way of dealing with it have changed tremendously. We also spent bear 3 hours cleaning the whole house today. We bought a mop and a proper plastic broom. We actually mopped our room thrice to make sure it is super clean so now, we don't wear our slippers in. It is a good thin the weather here is so cooling, we didn't sweat at all during the whole process. I feel much more comfortable in the house now:)

Didn't get to share the crazy 2-seater u-turn... LOL! For a 2 seater to get to our place it has to go a really big round and it is quite troublesome for the driver and we did not know that there is actually a u-turn in that area which shorten the whole distance by quite a bit. It is actually this tunnel under the road. I told u guys about how it is monsoon now so that underground tunnel is ALWAYS flooded! So it cranky 2-seater driving thgouh it is quite an advernture! We were super shocked during our first ride. Remember there is no doors for these vehicles?! ya so it was quite a thrilling ride in the rainy weather. We took 2 seaters back from the office because the company finally gave use some stuff. We now have the small gas tank to cook and boil water, a fridge, a table, 2 chairs and utensils! yea~~ We managed to make hot drinks from the million packets of stuff my mum made me brought here. I'm NOT carrying them back to sg, so we really have to finish them!

Forgot to say, during one of our rides back home we had to carry 2 chairs with us and it was uber squeezy inside. Both of us holding the chairs, it was impossible to move. And it made travelling along the tunnel even more exciting~~~ haha.

Oh I'm going to share about the exciting day we had yesterday. It was Saturday so we ventured out to Muhammad Gandhi Road, (M.G Rd), as we had been talking about it during the pass week. The auto(2-seater) ride there was a crazy and wet one. India is giant size and Pune is BIG (size of sg) sp we took quite a long ride on the auto and it began raining quite crazily. And the auto had no doors so naturally we go a BIG SPLASH of mud water when some cazy bus driver drove by. -_-" hate it. eww. This happened twice!

We finally managed to get there and walked around aimlessly. We saw this BIG cow sitting in the middle of the walkway, i don't know if it is going to die soon. there are lots of cow here. We even saw this big herd of them walking pass the middle of a junction. SO amusing! While walking around, these indian ladies carrying their kids started to confront us, begging for money. They were quite daring, even touching me on the shoulders. the poor kid wasn't even wearing pants. We walked in front of the posh shop, hopping the guards will help drive them away because we got no where to go and they were really persistent. I dare not even take out my money because this road really had lots of beggars and i was afraid they will all flood to us if i was to give one of them. The guard really got out to chase them away while i was calling Rochana because she wanted to bring us somewhere nice for lunch. In the end we went to hide at Barrista again because this road was getting a bit too much for us.

Before we even began drinking our teas and coffee, Rochana called and we had to rush out to meet her. I had to take my earl grey along in a lid-less paper cup. Rochana brought us to this really great place called the 11th east street. They had this vintage red london bus inside which was converted into a bakery with comfy cushions. The whole place was designes like a england street, complete with fountain and lamp posts. They had an intercontinental menu and the food was the best we had so far! We orded a grilled salad(!), crab cakes, grilled mustard fish and mushroom lover buttered rice. Of course i ate the meatless stuff! Don't u dare start doubting me! haha. I had a nice cranberry mocktail too. We finished off with banana pie with vanilla ice cream and chocolate indulgence cake. The food were fabulous and we spent a long time there, mostly because we had to wait quite long for the food. But the service was quite good. The waiter and sercuity guard wore quite cute uniforms! haha.

Next Rochana drove us to this building with some really nice shops, while she headed out to get some furniture. We went to Curiosity first where they had really nice nick knacks and quite a lot of the items were made by people from homes and orphanages. They had really beautifully textured wrapping paper too!! at only 50cent sg dollars!!!:) Then we went to Crosswords which is a book store very much like our local MPH. We spent quite a long time there because i was so immersed into reading these 2 books, one about poverty in India and the other about child sexual abuse in the middle and high class indians. I really am contemplating whether i should get them... The books gave me a LOt to think about. Lastly we went to Either Or! It is such a fabulous shop! totally love it! It beats all the shops on Haji Land and the prices are so affordable! I know where to get souvenirs now! This shop has alot sorts stuff and alot were made of recycled materials! Love it! they have some really nice fabrics for the clothes and lovely accessories:D There was also this super cute pig push toy with 4 piglets attached to it! Reminded me of he pig family living near us. I hope it will be there when we go back during the end of our stay here, i really want to get it for yu rou! They also had this coin pouch made from read coconut!! It was so cute!! Leonard and I really wanted to get that! They also have this range of paper goods made from elephant dung! So cool! I want to get so much stuff from there! I must save up more!

We had a terrible time going back because Rochana dropped us off at the highway because her drive was in a rush. it was 9+ and there was hardly any 2 or 6 seaters. There were lots of people and all were hitching rides and rushing to any autos that came by. Both of us were so noob standing there in shock at the dark highway.(the lamp post was spoiled) We finally got a 6 seater after more than half an hour. Such a scary way to end our day. We finally cooked maggie mee on our own! cus we hadn't had dinner. actually is i cook leonard eat la. But it was really easy to cook~~

(don't u think this"~" looks like maggie mee? hahahaaha. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

Flowers?

2010-07-25T09:45:00.001-07:00

hey singapore!!!

Leonard and i decided to be independent and venture out on our own! wow so proud of ourselves! We went to F.C road, which is a road full of students, because it has a few colleges there. I went there also because i had to buy some pens. Silly me totally did not stock up before i came. The place we were suppose to go is VENUS trading. hmmm. it is a combination of popular and art friend? but the stuff are not cheap. The pen i bought cost near $3.the other one was only 20 cents. Kinda miss Art Friend. In india you really start to appreciate every single thing!

We had a tough time getting there. i think we took near 30 minutes just walking up and down. It was raining the whole day. heavy rain, light rain, drizzle~~ arg. But this part of Pune is a bit more developed than where we live. It has shops like nike, crocs, levi's, metro etc oh and subway!! but we didn't eat there. We ate at Barrista which is something like Starbucks but not exactly like it. there is also a Cafe coffee day here, another imitation. Other than snadwiches we decided to treat ourselves to drinks. i had a hot chocolate! nothing like what singapore has but it is better than nothing. It cost $2+, my sandwich cost $2+. BUT BUT they ALWAYS have vegetarian sandwiches! yum! eh it is not only tomatoes and lettuce k!! Indian's standard of vegetarian food is very high k~~ lol

I'm really upset about one thing.... I saw a few street kids begging for money. I felt really upset. I let my fear got better of me and did not give this poor skinny kid. He only asked for 1 rupee! I really shouldn't listen to everyone's warnings. I just got so worried and thought that all the beggars will swarm up if i gave this little kid. I saw him while i was eating in the cafe and no one gave him a single rupee. :( :( :(

On our way back in a 2 seater a little girl was trying to sell me flowers. (remember they have no doors?!) I don't know what is wrong with me!!!??? Why can't i just buy it from her?!!?!?! The rickshaw will drive off anyway... nothing could have happen to me.... I felt like an evil person all the way back.... i promise i will try my best to give these kids if i ever see them again. i shall goggle tonight to see if anything terrible happened to people who gave money to these kids.

I'm really not giving to feel better, but it's just that if the little amount i give them could land them a meal, isn't it worth it?

P.S. I saw a dead cat on the street!!! so sad! anw there are ALOT of stray dogs around. they remind me of kington! Kington! You don't know how lucky you are! It always make me sad to see these poor animals around.

P.P.S A big family of pigs live near us! they are always rolling around in the mud and eating rubbish.

It's raining now! yikes!

2010-07-25T00:18:00.000-07:00

hey everybody!!! i know all of you are really worried abt me and so am i. i'm worried abt myself! Anw when we first arrive here we got a shock!! lol totally shocking! The chennai airport was already shocking eh it is 180 degree of difference from our sg airport. And i really learnt to appreciate everything in sg now.

First of all our "flat", hmmm nothing accept for 2 mattress. hopefully i can post up the photo. After much argument and tears with the company we got a fridge~~(for wat?!) and a super wobbly table. but no chairs yet. though they did promise some plastic chairs and gas stove by monday. view here.

#2 no electricity when it rains and it is monsoon season here! so you get the idea how often it is cut off right?? eh almost everyday. So don't have hope that i'll blog more often. oh and the water supply get cut off once in a while too. so we just bought this giant pail (a size that can drown kington! lol) to store water. It has a lid too because weird things will fall in.

#3 Now traveling... well you really need to be quite brave. The only cheap way is by a "6 seater" which is a doorless auto rickshaw kinda thing which suppose to seat 6 people comfortably with the driver at the front. BUT this in india~~ yea so there is no such thing as a "6 seater" minimum 10 people NOT counting the driver. and we reached a PEAK yesterday with 12 people +1 the driver. you got to realise that these "6 seater" things are really old and cranky (not your lovely taxis) I cannot describe how much i love the SBS bus and our dearest MRT!!! Forgot to add that there is almost no traffic light here where we stay! or anywhere near us. NO traffic lights so it we have to be brave, step out on the really crazy and honking traffic. They are crazy! the traffic!! it is like honk honk honk forever for no reason. A person with singapore driving license will not survive here. after a week we are semi pro at crossing this crazy roads

#4 food....They are not really healthy in terms of the things they eat. Indians love sweet and fattening stuff. They eat chapati most of the time instead of rice. But there is still rice. at least lunch is provided for us at the office. They love spices here, they have spices everywhere! in everything! one good thing is pune has 70% vegetarians so i'm vegetarian diet is maintaing well:) But it's so difficult to get fresh vegetable served and just veggie! in no curry form! I really don't get why people thing good food is oily fatty and flavourful. It is like that almost everywhere! the "good" version of chinese food, malay food, indian and even western food are always like that. hai i don't get it. The only time i got salad was at a potluck at my colleague's house yesterday.

#5 work and my colleagues are nice. Can't describe much about my work because it is confidential. Just know that i learnt a lot and they are giving me things that i lkie and i can do. I'm becoming a more efficient designer too:) My head's name is Freeda, she is such s sweet person:) She is the one who invited us to her house these few days when her hubby was away. We slept over at her place twice and the potluck we had yesterday was at her place. She is really helpful and sweet. Another one is Roochna who brought us to watch Inception the movie at their cinema. the theater is REALLY BIG and the movie was really great! Our colleagues are really helpful and nice, they really made everything much more tolerable.

i know people kept asking me to go stay over with a colleague or something but you really got to understand that they are really not as well off as us and their living condition is still nothing compare to average singaporeans. The supposedly well off once, their houses are still nothing compared to singapore. And don't tell us to borrow stuff and all that because they themselves have nothing much too. You really got to be here to understand the whole situation. And stop assuming that we can do this or that. Because it is not this way in india.

SO far i learn a lot. both physically and mentally. I think overall thing trip will really teach me a lot and i'm not about to give up despite everyone trying to get me to go back. It's not easy but hey not everyone gets a chance like this. And i really should learn to look on the bright side of life. And learn to appreciate the good(s) instead of the bad(s).

I'll try to be online after 12 at SG time everyday. So do go facebook or add me on skype to talk to me. MSN is not working v well so see ya all on facebook and skype. But don't forget, we do get electricity cut-off here~~

love all Singaporens:)

Best Girls

2010-07-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

My favorite group of girls:)
Really enjoyed my last cell with them before i head off for india next sat morning (9am flight)
Oi! Yiting where are you!!?? my last cell lei. never give me face~~ We had so much fun and all we lack is you! I really feel so blessed to be in this group. With such a sweet group of funny girls. All of us went through so much together and changed so much as a cell. We are so different yet we can have so much fun together. I'm gonna miss you guys so much when i'm in India. I always look forward to cell time every saturday. 12 weekends without you girls is too much to bear!! Please skype me during cell and sunday service! I don't want to miss out from any of the Princess action!

I will pray for you girls in India~~~
:)

Please visit!

2010-07-08T07:01:00.000-07:00

Yu Rou says:
Ask your friends go read my blog!
Here.

She is very cute:)

1 week left

2010-07-08T06:58:00.000-07:00

Counting down to india~~

I think because of caroline, i am more efficient. She is so hardworking. With her i cannot drag my AdCam work. God is really amazing. He really is.

On tues, the ad we had been working on got turned down and questioned by lecturers. It's really not totally our fault because the lecturer sounded as if he was ok with the idea and we could proceed. But our efforts were wasted and he left us totally at a lost because wed was the presentation. We were REALLY upset. I randomly thought of an idea and we chiong all night at caroline's house.

God's amazing interference + 0 sleep= Good presentation

Seriously we could have screw up with the idea, the 3 lecturers could have said anything that sounded logical. But God made them saw the good side of our idea. It is amazing. It is a miracle.

2 more weeks to india. Vaccination done. Insurance done. I just need to finish buying the stuff on my list. Going to india made my appreciate the little things in life:)

counting down.... LESS THAN 2 WEEKS!!!

2010-07-04T01:42:00.000-07:00

Erm 2 weeks form now i'll be in INDIA!!!! Cannot believe it.... I really wish that these 2 weeks all i need to do is pack my stuff and meet people that i'll miss when i'm in India. But sadly the coming 2 weeks i'm busy rushing AdCam:( WHY!!!!! But i must learn to embrace my work. If not i'll have a tough time getting it done. Our idea requires so much illustration:( I should not fear it!!!! I should use God's love to love my work and all the business!

oh I'm hungry! Hungry for Revival!

And hungry for food only found in singapore (bean curd, mr bean, ah boling peanut soup, my mum's fired dumpling and honey green tea, my mum's cooking!!!!, tofu, mum's milo oreo, vegetarian niang tofu.....) those of you who are so free now, buy me some singapore food~~~

3 weeks to go

2010-06-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

In 3 weeks time, at this point of the day, i'll be in INDIA!!!! I cannot believe it. I'm definitely worried. So much stuff to prepare and I have not really started and so many thing to complete. I'm WORRIED. a little scared and a little excited. Erm i still cannot fully comprehend and believe the fact that i'm going. -_- I can't. I asked people whether they will make the same choice as me but often they won't. Because it's scary, dirty, troublesome, unfamiliar.... but doesn't the fact that you can experience a totally different life and culture and the way people lives make up for all that?? which is why despite all the worries, i'm still looking forward to this internship:)

I'm excited to see other parts of the world that my Heavenly Father has created:)

Far Far Away

2010-06-15T08:29:00.000-07:00

I went somewhere far far away and let my hair down~ I'm just glad that my mum and sisters are happy. My mum doesn't get many carefree days. This was a costly trip for us but worth the smiles and laughters:)

Oh it was so irritating that the best rides were not open-_- Advise to all of you, make sure all the rides are available before purchasing the tickets!

i only want to do things i like

2010-06-13T07:22:00.000-07:00

but i never seems to be able to do it

love tea~

2010-06-04T08:32:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it hurts so much i just want go into a deep sleep and never wake up. Hopefully little acts of love will make up for it and let me forget the disappointment...

Rojak Rock band!

2010-06-01T23:13:00.000-07:00

Thank Eu for the yummy lovely supper! I'm busy managing the rojak rock band gang~

Salad Stop!

2010-06-01T23:07:00.000-07:00

Please go Salad Stop! It's at Marina Square, Raffles Place and Novena Square. Went with Eugene on our 3rd anni and I quite love the whole idea. For $8.80 you get pick from all sorta veg, carbo, fruit and seed, they will mix it up with a dressing of your choice! Rasberry vinaigrette tastes fab! It is a gigantic bowl of goodness~ Thank Eugene for forcing me there, at first i didn't want to go because there was hardly anybody inside., but Eugene insisted and both of us fell in love with our salads! lol

Happy Birthday Ah Han!!!

2010-05-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

The Man who Planted Trees( go Youtube it!), taught me a lesson. In a way the shepherd is like God! Planting and planting the seeds, so full of hope, so selfless! Woah~ Thank God that He gave me a chance to share Word today because He used it as a way to help me back to the race! The race of Christ. I really learn one important lesson, Persevere on for Christ and you will be able to preserver on for everything! Be it studies, family etc. I'm actually deep in school work debt, but I'm sure if I depend on Christ and put His work first, He will bring me through my next 2 weeks of crazy-no-sleep-work-week.

A lot of stuff run through my mind each day, I think i need to post more of my thoughts if not they will run out of my brain like too-too-train~~ Pray Pray Pray!!!

Together

2010-05-24T02:51:00.000-07:00

Pune- Elephant Design

2010-05-14T05:21:00.000-07:00

I'm going to Pune, India from 19 July to 8 Oct!!!!! I cannot believe it......

commi de cochon

2010-05-09T23:21:00.000-07:00

Went to sinkid today, even though not confirm whether they will want to hire me but the CD Way gave me a pair of cool communist pigs! Ginette and Marcel! The hair of Ginette is especially cute!

i just realise that there is a dead cockroach beside tofu man

2010-05-07T04:35:00.000-07:00

I think it's official that i'm stuck in Singapore for internship. Well, I'm not super happy about it. In fact I want to storm my feet and scream, but hey God made it such that all the doors for overseas internship close. So i'm older and wiser now and have learnt how to control myself and not dwell on it. The company wants me in their singapore office but i was thinking if i should aim higher and sent out more cover letters. Hopefully i may get some favorable response, if not i'll stay put in tai seng.

What doesn't break you only makes you stronger

2010-05-02T22:55:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry they had to leave before i can put in my best effort to love and care for them. It is emotionally and physically straining to have to go through the past week. I wish it need not be this way, I wish...

"We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

We will know one day why things had to this way. but maybe it will take days, months, years....

Back to work, to the daily routine of life, healing day by day...

Go Green for Christ!

2010-04-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

hahaha!!!! Even Jaeson Ma is willing to go green and go vegan for Christ!! All of us should play our part yea?!

Hoddeok

2010-03-30T00:43:00.000-07:00

My dinner box for the day~ looks yummy?

preparing the Hoddeok batter

making them flat in the pan

delicious and hot hoddeok! with sweet cinnamon peanut filling!!!

visit Maangchi for the Hoddeok recipe!

easy delicious dessert for your family!

oh no, i should be working on my online portfolio for india!

not cooking and cooking and cooking....

but i can't help it,

seeing new recipes that seem easy to cook are so tempting

that i always end up cooking again...

His Princesses

2010-03-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

A really fantastic trip to Kranji farms! Thank God for the great food, fantastic weather and lots of joy and laughter! I sure everyone enjoyed themselves and looking forward to our next outing! Lots of love princesses! Princess Farm trip~

Let HIM lead

2010-03-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

I walk and i fail, i let myself go ahead and i stumble and fail. I often fail when i don't let my Father in Heaven lead me. I become scared and i thought it's going to be the end, i can never pass through this big wall. But our Lord never fails, He will use the divine moments, to grab you and carry you on. He leads us though our toughest moments. We just need to trust in Him. Stop trying so hard on your own. Let our Father guide us through. If may seems that He is not answering our prayer, not helping us, but that is Faith. The willingness to wait on our Father and trust that he will guide us through. This is when you will see His amazing work in our lives!

Awakening the soul through PRAYER!!!

2010-03-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

Newsong Irvine | {ME} Awaken Your Soul Pt.5 "Prayer" [2010.03.14] from Newsong Church on Vimeo.

1 Samuel 3:1-11

Prayer is waiting on God

Prayer is listening to God

Prayer is action with God

Secret hideout

2010-03-29T02:12:00.000-07:00

Eugene and i finally had quality couple time together after near 2 months. We found a nice beautiful place to chilllax~ yippee! We going there for a mini picnic again on wed evening:)

Act of Love-Food

2010-03-29T01:59:00.000-07:00

The youth leaders had a prayer meeting last friday and we were encouraged to fast. But i had to cook and made myself a lovely lunchbox for dinner, but felt bad abt eating it. So i decided to give to 师母for dinner. I really wanted to eat it because it was my first time making the sweet crispy firm tofu( spent an hour just making it!), i was tempted it eat it!!! But i guess an act of love is really giving something that you really want to someone else. Inspired by Jaeson Ma's 365 days of love:)

Vegan lunch box

2010-03-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

sorry for blurry photo, was taken with lousy phone camera

BUT it tasted great!:)

Baby Sweet Potato Leaf

2010-03-22T08:18:00.001-07:00

Drawn in pen, finish up in photoshop CS4

I must intro Vegan Yum Yum!

This lady and her blog is living evidence that it is possible to eat healthily, yummily and environmental-friendly-ly! thank God i found her fantastic blog! Those of you who thinks that you need meat to survive or have a fantastic meal, this fantastic lady has proven you wrong!! I tried her thai-style firm tofu recipe today! It tasted totally fantastic! I'm so glad to find a person who enjoy firm tofu(tau kua) as much as me and and has come out with such great variation to such a simple ingredient! Her link is to your right~

I must be truthful , this is my blog and i have the right to voice my opinions

Let me state out the reasons why you should go vegetarian/vegan:

-Meat Consumption causes more pollution to our earth than all our transport

-Rearing the animals is a terrible waste of our resources, 16 pounds of grains to produce 1 pound of meat

-The world no longer has Old-Macdonald-has-a farm, there are only farm FACTORIES, the 'meat' you consume is just a genetically produced animal and the harm it will cause in your health way surpass the benefits(calcium, iron etc.)

-You won't kill an animal, so why will you let other people commit such cruelty for you? there is a reason why factory farm animals are abused, many workers(you animal killers) vent their frustration and stress on the animals

-Antibiotics human consumes is 3 billion pound each year while farm factory animals consume 25 BILLION!

There are many more reasons, which i may mention next time. But don't try to argue or deny these facts, i have been studying and reading about meat consumption for about 2 months and read articles and books. So i'm really stating facts here. Don't roll yours eyes or skip this post! IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS! I really encourage those who are not persuaded or wish to know more to read 'Eating Animals' by Johnathan Safran Foer. It is such a good book. The tone is humorous and sarcastic and he is not trying to be hard-core persuasive, he is really stating the facts of why you won't want to eat meat nor give it to people you love. He started writing the book because he was going to be a father and wanted to know what goes on in the meat industry before allowing his son to consume meat. Well, in the end i think his little boy is a vegan and i think the point behind his book is love.

If you love your family and friends, you won't let them eat meat. Not persuaded? Read Eating Animals! God Bless:)

Love that is so great

2010-03-21T00:50:00.000-07:00

Photo of my mummy and i

yes i was a fat and chubby baby

the only thing i came in first in my life was probably the baby contest

i went blog hopping and came across a few blogger mummy

maybe that's why i have the mummy-ish feeling now

i came across a graphic designer + mum

it's so cool to be a designer + mummy at the same time

we may not realize it

but our mums are probably the most 伟大 people

that are the closest to us

a few days ago my mum bought a purse for yu rou

and a bag for 'us' (the 3 older sisters)

i decided to claim it as my own

haha because my mum seldom buy stuff like these for us

it makes me feel happy just carrying a bag that my mum bought

the least scary thing about growing up is having kids and a happy family

and our future big family gatherings

that my sisters and i will often imagine during bed time

we will each cook a (vegetarian) dish

and gather at our parents' house

and have a great family time together:)

Relax, take it easy

2010-03-18T00:40:00.000-07:00

The craziest and stress-est and tired-est time of my life is over

it was so totally tired that it felt unreal...

it was only 2 weeks? but it felt like 2 months..

i really want to thank Yu Han and Eugene for making it possible

without their love and help...

i won't be alive...

now i feel a bit lost and weird

like unable to get over the fact that i no longer carry the heavy burden of work

oh and i'm ending 2nd year and starting 3rd year...

UNREAL

time flies~~

now the BIG question lies in front of me

to go OSIP or not?!?!

if i choose to go i'll just be one big selfish person

if i choose not to go... hai... i don't think i'll ever get to go india in the near future

Dear Heavenly Father!

Help! i don't know what to do!!!

My name is NOT John Smith

2010-02-26T21:36:00.003-08:00

Our Lord is God

i should stop trying to figure Him out

if He could be figured out

then He is not God

Just put everything into His hands

and trust in Him

Some of my works are exhibit at the NOISE exhibition

but they are very sui bian about your works

so i'm NOT proud of the way they put my works

looking at the way they treat my works

made me moody the whole night

my works are not fantastic

year 1 works

how good can it be

but anw the above image of mine on a t-shirt looks quite nice

i hope they will give it to me after the exhibit

Perfect Pancake! (ll)

2010-02-25T06:49:00.000-08:00

Yay! i got manage to take nice photos of my perfect pancake!

it was very salty when i made it for lunch

but i decide not to add the soy sauce for dinner

and made lots of pancakes for my sisters

Korean pancakes are so yummy!

Perfect Pancake!

2010-02-24T23:58:00.000-08:00

A meal that i cooked the previous night.

Eh not very perfect but i'm improving

The eggy roll i got the recipe here http://www.maangchi.com/

She is a korean lady who is so kind and sweet

she youtube herself making korean dishes

which makes it so easy to learn!

i love her!

After a few trials of vegetable pancake

i finally made one that is nearly perfect today!

yippee!

it's so absolutely yummy when you make it right!

no photos because they looked a bit ugly

i made it for myself for lunch

because i don't want anyone else to suffer from my failed attempts!

Eugene's 21st

2010-02-21T08:41:00.000-08:00

i'm so glad February is over! Finally!

i don't really celebrate birthdays but this month is the birthday of 3 important people in my life. so inevitably i had to celebrate properly for them!

including Eugene's 21st! Yikes! i was so blur! see the penguins above? i forgot to print the A and we had to make do with balloon. hahaha! though i felt a bit neglected because he had to attend to so many people but i'm still quite happy because i get to play with little Narius! we finally became good friends that day! yay! he took home Penguin N, because his name start with the letter N! He is the cutest little boy ever! only 3+! hope that one day we will be close enough so that i can bring him out to play and eat ice cream!

I don't think i want to celebrate my 21st. i don't think it is necessary at all. Maybe i'll just fly to a country that i always wanted to visit!

Oh anyway, I'm trying my best to become a VEGETARIAN! yea~

why?

-Most importantly for the environment & kids in hunger( Cattle consumption can feed the entire earth's population!)

-For animals! ( i hate it that they are slaughtered in such cruel manner! visit www.meat.org)

- For health ( not really, because i have always been more discipline in terms of eating~)

Anw i get to cook more nowadays so i get to eat vegetarian most of the time. just that it's really difficult to stop the egg, milk, cheese and yoghurt. arg...

oh i found a very good website that teaches korean dishes!

Yippeeeee!

My Lord

2010-02-09T09:34:00.000-08:00

photo taken during yr 1

i enjoyed praying and spending time with my Lord

in fact nowadays i really wish that is all i need to do

i'm sorry Father that i failed You

by venting my frustration on Eugene

by showing my dad the face

as a result he thinks i'm disrespectful

Dear Father i really want to scream sometimes

but i know i can only throw it all to You

You can take it and empower me

but for others around me

i'm suppose to gain the spiritual muscles

to fight on

i am weak but You are strong

let me not dwell on self pity

i only ask for more of Your

Holy Spirit

streams of living water

2010-02-04T06:50:00.000-08:00

Today is an amazing day

actually everyday is amazing if you put it in God's hands

I'm really learning to put the Lord first

in everything i do

I had a great time of prayer today

John 7:38

"Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,

streams of living water will flow from within him"

When you pray for God's Word in to our life

like the way Philip Mantofa teach in his book

It is really amazing!

After that i went to consult another teacher for my project

i really thank God for such a good lecturer

she really gives very constructive ideas

i'm really thankful to God for such a great lecturer

i became frustrated while cooking in the evening

i became temperament and frustrated

but God works in amazing ways

and my evening ended up great with Shui ling and Li he

Philip Mantofa's book is great!

We bought extra ones just to share around

Anybody interested?

MC

2010-01-28T03:27:00.000-08:00

my idiotic mac die-ed on me
the keyboard went crazy
so now it is in hospital
i feel v handicapped without it
i think it is more important than my handphone
i can't do my work!!!

what i wore

2010-01-25T06:50:00.000-08:00

pen and watercolour

a few of my illustration friends and i have decided to draw what we wore daily

it's actually quite a good way to improve

hey daddy!

2010-01-22T07:08:00.000-08:00

photoshop cs4+ wacom

i will really love it if we could travel to the depth of the ocean in the future

Essence

2010-01-14T23:52:00.000-08:00

我的老师说

画画要有本质

老师说的对

我的画有时缺少了什么

就是本质

Memories

2010-01-14T03:57:00.001-08:00

painted in photoshop cs4+wacom tablet

sometimes you just wish that time can reverse on it's own

and you can re-do things that you regretted doing

but it is really time to move on

Finally done!

3 things to thank God:

-I thought dateline was wednesday but it was actually thursday,

so no late submission!

-I didn't fall asleep in accounting class today! first ever!

even though i slept so late last night~

-The whole artwork turned out quite well,

better than what i expected

Last assignment and last accounting test~~~

By God's grace i can do it!

耶木兰

2010-01-14T03:40:00.000-08:00

photoshop CS4 + wacom tablet

如果耶木兰是个人，我想她一定是打扮成这个样子！

我花了很多时间来完成。虽然并不完美，但还是个学习过程。

From CMYK to RGB there is some colour errors, not as nice~

helvetica & stripes

2010-01-06T22:20:00.000-08:00

feel like wearing stripes, stripes and horizontal stripes

"i got my test result back today and i must admit that i didn't do as well as i hope to do. i was half a mark short of an A. but even before i got back the result, God reminded me that i should not live up to the standard of this world, what grade i got should not affect me so much. i should learn to be joyful in the Lord, not be find joy in results and grades. as long as i do my best, God will do the rest! i can glorify God with my B too! because i learnt to praise Him even when i did not meet up to my own expectation or the expectation of man. Thank You heavenly Father for teaching me and guiding me! i'll be thankful always~

important stuff

2010-01-04T22:43:00.000-08:00

don't look down on things just because you think they are not worth alot

enough time wasted! back to study for accounting test for tomorrow

Thank You-s

2010-01-04T01:22:00.001-08:00

Lets not forget the thank you-s and i'll-try-a-little-harder before we dash head first into 2010

My dad & mum- for the love and concern, sweat and tears; helping me put together my annual report till the wee mornings

Yu han- for being the best sister possible; my best friend; best cook

Yu xuan- for teaching me how to be patient; for giving me a chance to be e big sister

Yu rou- for telling me the funniest jokes; for giving me a chance to be love and care

Eugene- for always being there; always patient & loving even in the toughest time

Zhenling- for guiding me through some of the toughest times; for being a role model

耶木兰s- for being the best cell group mates ever, i don't know where you can find better cell mates

there are still people that i need to thank but most of them have already got their thank you notes:)

I will depend on God's guidance to be:

a better daughter

a better sister

a better girlfriend

a best-possible intern to 公主

a better student

Hooray for 2009! Let's work hard for 2010, God will make it better than ever!

2010

2009-12-31T23:48:00.000-08:00

the annual report above is fully design by me(photoshop+InDesign)
it's the reason i was totally shag for the past month of november
annual report + book illust= killer
no copying of ideas, if not i'll shoot you dead
God bless my annual report~

WoWoWoWooooOOOoooOOOoooo
it's 2010! i'm 20....
can you believe it... once the 2 get in front of your age
time will fly~~

the best time of the year always happens in december
my december is pretty great:)
youth camp was quite alright
it turned out ok and pretty great esp for the 阳光ers
but it sort of made me realise i'm probably a little too old for camps like this

the Christmas week was great!
i enjoyed all the performance
enjoyed being part of the youth!
i really love my church youth
everyone has become much closer and bonded after these few weeks

one person i must thank in 2009 is
Philip Mantofa
ok, so he will probably never know i said thanks
but
his life pretty much is a great encouragement to me
God has really use him to speak to me
thank you Mr Mantofa!

In 2010
i should learn to complicate my life less
be dependent on God
stop making everything seems so problematic
life is not complicating
we are probably the one making it so complicating
keep thinking and worrying
the best solution is probably to pray
and depend on God

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T00:25:00.000-08:00

Hooray for my favorite time of the year!

just really wished that it is not so busy & hectic

it'll also be really great if i'm not feeling so sick

i guess i'm really too tired and haven't got enough rest

i am quite disappointed that i couldn't make a nicely designed card for everyone this year

it makes me really sad

because i study visual com

so this is sort of like what i'm good at

but i'm just too sick n tired

i really need rest

so do appreciate my sisters and i

we gave a small small gift, but just imagine doing it 30++ times

it's kinda tiring

despite of everything

i'm still really thankful to God for all He has given

He is really great:)

i'll share more in my end of the year post

for now

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

JESUS LOVES YOU!

a clear mind

2009-12-15T04:20:00.000-08:00

anw do u know how great it is to do clean up after a long period of time?

i cleared my table

it's SO clean now

so it is sort of like beckoning me to start work

a clean table is v tempting

for workaholics like me

Love

2009-12-15T04:08:00.000-08:00

watercolour

i finally am finished with my super tedious block

it was such a horrible experience

i slept like 3-4hrs a day

every moment was spend rushing work

i had hardly any food or rest

to top it all off was the emotional roller coaster

that Somebody put me through

i don't get why i had to go through all that

after all the hardwork

my teacher says stuff to doubt me

i starts doubting myself

i really wish my teacher will stop acting this way

but another teacher really encourage me when she said

" i must say it's really good to have a student like you

you have the right attitude"

well between the both of them

it's kinda obvious shares who the same belief as me

the above is one of my favorite illustration for my book

i really like my book

it's a story that needs to be read to get what i'm trying to say

it's a story of a love between my sisters and i

as least my watercolour skills improve

anw i only rested for like 1+ day

only to realize that my teacher has given us work AGAIN

he just sent the assignment brief

it is going to be ALOT of work AGAIN

hellooooo

it's my holiday you know...

Change

2009-11-13T08:55:00.000-08:00

to the other runners in the race,
we are more than what the world sees in us. we are made to change the world.
i must admit i feel(yes, still feeling) horrid this week
after what seems as unfair treatment to me
but
" We should see the TRUTH not the facts"
the fact is i suck
i produce lousy work
the TRUTH is my Father in heaven was with me
He knew what i went through
He thinks i rock sock

i'm here not for the things of this world
they will pass
the only thing that never change is the TRUTH

my purpose is to Change the world
be the Change

i know i know
not easy

but this is the purpose of the post
to remind me
n
to encourage you

additional help

2009-11-10T22:04:00.000-08:00

To my dearest,

eu deserve the best actor award!

expressive illustration

2009-10-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

sch has started

i'm busy again~

really busy & hungry~~

wedding bells

2009-10-05T23:55:00.000-07:00

done in illustrator

i love weddings

they are really wonderful

i designed this invitation card for a lovely church couple

(click on image to enlarge)

make me wish that i'm planning for one too

hahahaha

but that is still a loooooonnng way to go

for now i'll just be contented designing for other couples:)

it's a blessing to find someone who loves God and loves you:)

TOfu fu

2009-10-05T23:36:00.000-07:00

i think it's quite important that i share this

the chicken tofu patty that i make tastes fab!

i follow my own instinct to cook it

and wow i totally love it

it makes a well balance meal

with tofu, chicken, all sorts of veggie, egg, flour and cheese

it tastes great within a sandwich or on it's own

if anyone out there want a detailed recipe, just comment

i'm quite glad that i can cook better now

it's so much healthier to eat what i cook

because i know what goes into my food and i can add lot of veggie in

just that it takes up a lot of time n

it can be stressful to think of what to cook for the 2 meals everyday

things i learn...

2009-09-24T06:53:00.000-07:00

i think these past few weeks i learn a lot of stuff

God led me through a depressing period

now i'm glad

what i went through was difficult but important

even though we are still going through a lot of problems as a family

but we will make it through

it is a lesson of faith

we just need to learn to lean on God's shoulders

Amen

you look like a basket baller

2009-09-23T05:56:00.000-07:00

i like this illustration

i like how they sleep soundly

like they have no worries and problems

sometimes i guess this is really what i need

to sleep on blessed peace

on a lighter note

i finally finished the last episode of harper's island

hahahahaha

i'm like 2 months late

i did all my chores and cooked a quite successful lunch

i wanted to eat pancakes

i know this doesn't look appealing

but

it's yummy and make a good filling lunch

next time i'll try not to burn it

My favorite project to date

2009-09-16T00:23:00.000-07:00

appllied illustration is still my favorite module
i wish i can indulge in my simple illustrations again
like the illustration above
break out
and go free
another reason to jump on a plane
and fly to australia

cooking mama

2009-09-16T00:14:00.000-07:00

I think i have evolved into half a housewife. yikes
my hands smell of garlic
my hair smells like chicken
it's not a total bad thing
but i really prefer drawing

oh you emo boy!!!!

2009-09-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

i have weird moods swings which is probably the reason i don't blog often.
2nd reason blogger has his mood swings too
i often can't post photos
if blogger is a human
i'm going to strangle him
arg!!!!