Keroleen - Little Diary, Little notes

I have recieved the following for a friend of mine, so thought that I should share with you all too!

It is about a simple man tells how his booking an air ticket for his father, his first flight, brought emotions and made him realize that how much we all take for granted when it comes to our parents.
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My parents left for our native place on Thursday and we went to the airport to see them off. In fact, my father had never traveled by air before, so I just took this opportunity to make him experience the same.
In spite of being asked to book tickets by train, I got them tickets on Lufthansa.

The moment I handed over the tickets to him, he was surprised to see that I had booked them by air. The excitement was very apparent on his face, waiting for the time of travel. Just like a school boy, he was preparing himself on that day and we all went to the airport, right from using the trolley for his luggage,the baggage check-in and asking for window seat and waiting restlessly for the security check-in to happen. He was thoroughly enjoying himself and I, too, was overcome with joy watching him experience all these things.

As they were about to go in for the security check-in, he walked up to me with tears in his eyes and thanked me. He became very emotional and it was not as if I had done something great but the fact that this meant a great deal to him.

When he said thanks, I told him there was no need to thank me.But later, thinking about the entire incident, I looked back at my life.

As a child how many dreams our parents have made come true. Without understanding the financial situation, we ask for football, dresses, toys, outings, etc. Irrespective of their affordability, they have satisfied to all our needs.Did we ever think about the sacrifices they had to make to accommodate many of our wishes?

Did we ever say thanks for all that they have done for us?

Same way, today when it comes to our children, we always think that we should put them in a good school. Regardless of the amount of donation, we will ensure that we will have to give the child the best, theme parks, toys, etc. But we tend to forget that our parents have sacrificed a lot for our sake to see us happy, so it is our responsibility to ensure that their dreams are realized and what they failed to see when they were young, it is our responsibility to ensure that they experience all those and their life is complete.

Many times, when my parents had asked me some questions, I have actually answered back without patience. When my daughter asks me something, I have been very polite in answering. Now I realize how they would have felt at those moments.

Let us realize that old age is a second childhood and just as we take care of our children, the same attention and same care need to be given to our parents and elders. Rather than my dad saying thank you to me, I would want to say sorry for making him wait so long for this small dream. I do realize how much he has sacrificed for my sake and I will do my best to give the best possible attention to all their wishes. Just because they are old does not mean that they will have to give up everything and keep sacrificing for their grandchildren also. They have wishes, too.

Hi hi,

Me into baking again. Today busy day too but luckily still able to nap for 2 hours in the afternoon. :P

My son challenged me to cook "Cereal Prawn" tonight and I of course PASS the test. Almost there just that I didn't have the green colour leaves and the chillie fry with the cereal. Will cook again next time to surprise my parents. He wanted it beacuse we had a great dinner last night at JUMBO resturant@ the Changi SAFRA. We ordered Cereal Prawn, Scallop with OX sauce and Fried Rice for dinner last night. I ordered Fried Rice because a few of my collegues recommended me. Anyway, I do not have the capability to cook that hard to master fried rice thought it sounded so simple.

So much talk about dinner, then we went off to bake a bread for supper tonight. If have any remain shall have it for breakfast. :)

Here the picture,


P/S: Must give some credit to my son who had helped me to mould the bread using his personal roller that I got for him from IKEA - children baking set.

Yeah. My first time there together with my family of course.
And my son wanted to take this DUCK TOUR, ended up have to queue for 1 hours for it. So you can see the popularity of it.



Other pictures at the Navy Open House:


As you can see there is lots of ships available for visiting. However I didn't manage to have chance to step into any at all due to the duck tour queue. :(

Taught my mum yesterday and she made it with little instructions. :P
Brought some over for my collegues to eat..love it. Guess if one day I am not working think selling pop corn to those children can earn some $$.


Plain PopCorn
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/3 cup popcorn kernels


Directions:
Mix the ingredients in a microwavable bowl with lid and stir well.
Place microwavable bowl with lid in the microwave and cook on high power for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the pops are 5 seconds apart. (Note duration depend on your microwave power).

Remove the microwavable bowl with lid the oven and open it carefully, avoiding the steam. Pour the popcorn into a bowl and drizzle it with butter, then toss with salt and cheese, or honey, if desired.


This recipe for Plain Popcorn serves/makes 8 cups

Today is a day declared by the government to dine with your family. See how pathetic we were these days that we do not even have time to dine with our family members.
Primary school today also release at 5pm in order for the children to go back home on time to dine with their family. However, working parents are not allowed to knock off early today so how is this going to work *puzzled*. Maybe only the affected ministry and the government sector able to meet the goals, for the rest of us who are in 1/2 govt agency or private, as usual this type of good practise was never ever been followed based on the GREAT history records.

One of my collegue's sister actually suggested to her nieces to write letter to my collegue's boss to indicate for early release so that her mummy can dine with her.
See the scenario now?!? Luckily my child is still young else he would be very disappointed if I am unable to make it for dinner. Can say that it is a blessing in disguise.

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Extract from the Net
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Eat with your family today, Singaporeans told

SINGAPORE, May 25 (Reuters Life!) - Singaporeans, please eat with your families. The Singapore government has designated Friday, May 25, as Eat With Your Family Day, urging people on a Web site to strengthen family ties through the "simple act of sitting down and taking a meal together more frequently".
The annual "Eat With Your Family Day", which always falls on a Friday before the start of the mid-year school break for students, is organised by the "Centre for Fathering", according to the National Family Week campaign Web site.

Singaporean families are generally small and quite close-knit but busy life styles and long working hours often mean members eat out often or rarely sit at the same table.

The Singapore government has for years been trying to boost the city-state's birth rate -- one of the lowest in the world. For example, the government sends dating tips to local graduates soon after they leave universities.

I think a colleague of mine needs some mental help.
Personally I think she had some problem in her altitude.
Let me name a few and you be the judge:
1) Come in only after 0900am at times 0930am when office work hours only begins at 0830am.

2) Never join us for lunch, must be thinking we are like "aliens" that she is so scared to lunch with us. Maybe she do not like to lunch with us also different tpoics maybe. But she only lunch with that 3-4 guys from a different department or 1-1. Once I saw them going for lunch together all the guys walk in front chatting while she follow like 1 meter away almost behaves like the japanese woman in older days to walk behind the husband. Funny right, I thought they are a group seems like not also.

3) When she do not lunch with her "lunch kakis" she would just walk out any hours for her lunch and only return 1 hours later. Once she just turn around and tell me that she not joining me for lunch. I was so "puzzled" as I didn't even mentioned that we are to lunch together.

4) She do not seems like a team player at all. Sit at her own comfort sit like a princess and shout across her discussion when she feel like to as if her peers owe her $$ like that.

5) When she do not OPEN her GOLDEN mouth, she would be writing emails to the rest of us who are just sitting right behind her. I do no see standing up and walk over to discuss problem is such a GREAT hurdler to her.

6) She especially likes to send out funny emails to us and CC our bosses when we are ON LEAVE. So much so we cannot reply the emails.

7) When dicussions fails to meet her objective or get her way, she would comment this to the rest of us " Let's bring it up and let our boss decide". She thinks my boss is really free to listen to such small matter especially on colourings.

8) One last thing, she likes to have this type of "Kua Kua jiao" attitude when boss assign her to help out. She would comment this and that out loud makes the other party like so incapable and she is the better one. What i feel is that, if she do not wan to help say so why want to make such a BIG "woo ah" about the whole issue.

So you see she having problem or we are the ones.

Anyway, in all work of lifes, I believe we are to encounter lotsa of funny people aorund us. If do not like it just ignore and carry on with our lives.

This is what I have found out, sharing with all of you.

There are 5 basic food groups and a healthy diet consists of eating a variety of foods from all of the groups but in the correct proportions.

1. Bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, noodles and breakfast cereals.

These foods mostly contain starch and should be the main part of all your meals. If possible try to choose high fibre varieties. This group of foods are an excellent source of fibre and are rich in vitamins from the B complex.

2. Fruit and vegetables.

This includes all frozen, fresh and canned fruit/vegetables as well as salad vegetables. These are all excellent sources of vitamins, minerals and fibre and are naturally low in fat and calories. You should try to eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables every day.
The following is a guide as to how much equals 1 portion:

2 serving spoons of small vegetables, e.g. sweetcorn, peas or mixed frozen vegetables.
1 whole fruit, e.g. like an apple or banana.
1 medium slice of large fruits e.g. melon or pineapple.
2 medium fruits e.g. satsuma’s, plums or kiwi fruit.
1 small bowl of small fruits e.g. strawberries or grapes.
1 medium bowl of salad
2 tomatoes
Half a cucumber
2 serving spoons of green and root vegetables e.g. cabbage, broccoli, carrots or parsnip.
1 glass of fruit juice.
3. Milk and dairy foods.

Milk and dairy products include cheese, yoghurt, milk and fromage-frais. They are rich in protein, calcium, vitamins and minerals. Eat or drink a moderate amount of these foods - about 2 to 3 servings per day. These foods contain a good source of calcium, which is essential to our diet, but as these foods can also be high in saturated fats try to choose reduced fat versions when possible.

4. Meat, fish, poultry and pulses.

Eating fish 1-2 times a week is good for you, especially if you eat oily fish (sardines, mackerel and salmon). All types of meats are included in this category and red meat is an excellent source of iron and vitamin B12, but try to choose the leaner cuts and trim off all visible fat before cooking. Lentils, nuts, peas and beans are also in this food group. Try to use lower fat versions of all these foods whenever possible. You should eat approximately 2 servings from this category each day.

5. Foods containing fats and sugars.

This last group contains butter, margarine, cream, ice-cream, low fat spreads, cooking oils, mayonnaise, salad dressings, cakes, biscuits, chocolate, sugary drinks, sweets, pastry foods and crisps. All of these foods tend to be high in fat and calories. Try not to eat these foods too often and when you do only have them in small amounts. If possible try to go for the healthier varieties for example sugar free sweets and low fat crisps.

Hehe..see what I have done for myself this evening.



Can you see what's in there?

This is what I use to prepare - Mangoes and apples plus homemade yogurt.
A SUPER healthy meal right? :)

我终于可以用中文写博客了。 真的好高兴。

朋友们 你们好。好久没用中文写字了， 连汉语洴英也没那么灵活。 看来我得多多练习中文书写。
博客 会是我的练习地方。我得多多加油。请给我时间证明 – 我的华文还是可以的。

他五岁了。时间过的真快我也老了。
今日他是个活波好动的小男生。

我送了个scooter个他。他高兴极了。他还带着它到圣陶沙去玩。
他跟我说他度过了一个快乐的生日。



忘了提我买了一个影有“Thomas The Tain Engine" 图案的蛋糕给他。

我祝他“生日快乐，永远开心”。

年轻真好！

Cheerful girl. Saying that to myself after 2 unlucky incident.

Forget about the unpleasant moment, life still move on right?
Here is what I had done for myself early in the morning.

Sandwiches + Cream of potatoes soup for lunch with my collegue.
Brought her a baby pandan leave plant to grow, hope that she would loves it and grow it well. I have personally grew 3 of these in my little garden. Why 3 because my husband needs plenty of the pandan leaves to be place in his car. According to my mother-in-law, pandan leaves would actually keeps the crocoaches away. Hope this tips helps.

Yes! I was there too! :)
Nice concert, had fun with going out with just my husband while my parent takecare of my son. I am really impressed by their dancing despite of their age! Do you know they are now in their 40s..yet they can sing and dance for whole 3 hrs! I cannot even jog for more than 10 minutes let alone singing plus dancing. I was telling my
husband, if I am able to do that, guess I will be as thin as a bamboo.
Also like to comments that their dancers are really pretty and sexy girls!
Enjoyed the show throughout very much.

By the way, there was a check perform to ensure that the audience do not carry any video camera or camera into the concert. But they seems to have forgot one thing, that is - camera phone are so common these days and they can easily use it as a camera! Will upload the concert photo soon.

I was thinking donkeys years back when we do not own a handphone, we need to memories all our friends phone numbers. Guess that time my memory must be really good to be able to store so many telephone numbers. As technology evolved, handphone had become a common item in each and everyone's life. We seems to be unable to live without handphone. That remind mind me if I ever lost my handphone, gone are all my friendships as they are mostly connected via phone calls. Better beware and keep a backup copy of the phone listing. :P

Do you have any apple cake/bread recipes to share?
Me looking for means to get rid of the apples in my fridge.

Found it here :
Extract from the web:
Apple Raisin Bread
SUBMITTED BY: Helen Hanson

"A yummy fruit and nut filled oat bread. I also like to use 3 mashed bananas in place of the apples, and sometimes use some of each."

Original recipe yield: 1 loaf
PREP TIME 15 Min
COOK TIME 1 Hr
READY IN 1 Hr 15 Min
Recipe is for 12 serving

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cups grated apple
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup raisins
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, and oats. Add apple, nuts, raisins, eggs, milk, and oil. Mix until dry ingredients are moistened.
Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until done. Cool on wire rack.

COOL man...still have nutrition information for this bread. It is as follows:

NUTRITION INFORMATION
Servings Per Recipe: 12

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 220
Total Fat: 7.8g
Cholesterol: 36mg
Sodium: 320mg
Total Carbs: 34.2g
Dietary Fiber: 2g
Protein: 4.4g


Will try it out and let all of you know how it is like. :P

My son vomited yesterady moring :(.
Hence I stayed at home to takecare of him yesterday as mum was going out.
Luckily he was recovered in the late afternoon. Phew!
However, me was dead tired with lotsa of bedsheets to wash and dry... as he vomitted twice and urined on the matteress! Urgh! Busy doing the cleaning and cooking takes up my whole day.

Managed to bake a butter cake for this morning breakfast though using 1/2 the recipe as i scared cannot finish:



Butter Cake Recipe:
Ingredients

250 gm butter
200 gm caster sugar
6 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
300 gm self-raising flour (sifted)
½ to 3/4 cup of evaporated milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C.
2. Beat the butter with the caster sugar until white and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time and mix well. Then add is vanilla essence and evaporated milk and mix well.
3. Lastly fold in sifted flour into the butter mixture and mix well. Pour into a greased and lined cake tray and bake for about an hour.

Thanks to Hugbears for sharing on her blog.

Yes! Today is Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all my friends who are mother, mum-to-be and to myself too.

Busy busy day...went in and out of the house a few times to have lunch, shopping and dinner. However, still managed to make this Steam Pumpkim Cake. Having a hard time trying to shedder the pumpkim. Guess should minimise making this as very time consuming and hubby commented that he do not how to appreciate it. :(



My son is sick for these 2 days, keeping me not able to sleep properly at night.
Hope his fever would be gone soon and be able to attend school soon.

Hi all, this morning I was surprise to receive a HELP comment from a foreginer seek help to look for a little gal, requesting to be posted on my blog. As I do not know portugal language, hence I translate from the chinese one.

Here is it.

If you spot this girl, please contact 00 351 282 405 400.


Madeleine McCann, almost 4 years old,disappeared from The Ocean Club resort, Praia da Luz, Lagos, Portugal, in the evening of May 3, 2007. Police says that she was kidnapped by an english man.

They suspect that the kidnapper might have changed her hairstyle, however, her right eyes is unique and can be identified easily as according to the picture on the left.

P.S: I doubt the kidnapper would fly her so far here into Singapore, guess she is looking for a broadcasting means. Lets pray for the gal's safety and to back soon with her parents.


Orginial link: http://muitateoria.blogspot.com/2007/05/ateno.html

When I found the banana bread recipe on the net, I could not bring myself to believe that it was so easy even a few mummies had try and proven it. Afterall these mummies of the moms4moms forum are experts in baking. Since I had brought a bunch of banana, I decide to give it a try afterwork at home.

On my way home, i am still thinking of "All purpose flour = Plain flour"??
Then with the 2nd recipe, it state Self-raise flour, so I choose this flour instead.
So before dinner within 15 mins, I measured and pour all stuffs into the mixing bowl and stir with a fork and have the bread into the oven.

Tasked my mum to watch over the banana bread while I bring my son out after 20 mins of baking. The end result is this:



Eating it the texture is between bread and cake. Wonder why cake shop called it Banana Cake while online most people called it Banana Bread? Anyway, as long as can go into the stomach safe and sound do not care whether what should it be known as right?

Sorry my family loves it so much that we had only this much left for breakfast. :P
Mum is so pleased with it that she wants me to bake a 2nd one, translate the recipe into chinese and saved the remaining banana for her to try out tomorrow. Guess my family will have more banana bread cake to eat.

The recipe that I use:
One Bowl Banana Bread

(yield: 12 servings)
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2 medium)
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F.
Coat bottom of Loaf Pan with butter.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a big bowl.
Add remaining ingredients; stir till all ingredients are moistened.
Pour batter into Loaf Pan.
Bake @ 60 mins or until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean.
Remove from oven to cooling rack; cool for 10 min.
Loosen sides of loaf from pan; remove from pan.
Cool completely.

Hi Hi,

As promise to my baking n cooking buddies to show off my "ACHIEVEMENT" on bread making - Sesame Walnut Bread. This indeed captured by hubby's stomach.

Here's a picture of it:


Thanks to a mummy for sharing this recipe on the KC forum.

Today my collegue, Candy and I decided to lunch in.
Guess what we have?

We had porridge to go with a vegatable dish, fried eggs and a bean paste canned food.
Luckily we prepared our lunch today as it was raining cats and dogs outside during lunch time.

The one and one canteen owner provided in the whole building as usual is laughing with his mouth BIG BIG on a rainy days. Staffs would usually lunch there to avoid getting wet.

This morning I was very impressed by a collegue of mine for her endurance and determination to lose weight and stay healthy. She have been running for more than 4Km since 2 weeks ago and today I was told she lost 2Kg... impress right? No need to go to those slimming centre, pay to lose weight and suffer.

Can you make a guess since when I last ran for 2.4Km? Answer should be easy right. It was during my JC days when PE and fitness test was a compulsory! During that time I was underweight by 10Kg..can you imgine a skinny me?!? :P I think MOE did a good job in planning the our school cirrculum to have PE a compulsory lesson, else there would be more fatty around especially with so many good food to munch on. Maybe our companies should also incoprate exercise into our working hours just like what the Japanese companies do.

Guess from now on, I shall also set myself to a healthly lifestyle to exercise.. let me see what can I do...jogging? A bit boring...Swimming? A bit troublesome as need to bring lotsa of barang barng along...Gym? Sweat in air-con environment no good...
Dancing mat..this i have at home.. can work, but no music liao and it only exercise the legs. Need some thinking on what can I do...we shall see... stay tune. :P

*sob sob* Since afternoon I am down with headache after my nap. Guess I had drank little of water until now my head still pain pain. Urgh!!!!!!!

See what I had done just now,



Yes yes, bake again..this time round Muffins...



Can you guess what flavour muffins I have made?



Headache headache go away! I do not like headache!

Hi hi,

Have a great SATURDAY? I have and usually this is the day I would like forward to and wish it would last as long as possible.

Simple lunch and dinner for me today. Yeah..dragged my hubby to go supermarket to shop and we decided to cook "Buk Kut Teh" for dinner. Yes, we did! And glad that this time round my son no longer complain about the soup that I have made for dinner.

Thinking should I cook supper as we had dinner early today... think shall make some chick peas again. Afterall I had brew a BIG pot of "Ju Hua" think at least 3 litres.
Ok, better go and soak my chick peas to cook later. Yummy..can't help thinking of it.

Lets see Chick Peas Nutrition Value:
Nutritional Summary for Chickpeas (garbanzo beans, bengal gram), mature seeds, cooked, boiled, without salt


Hmm..seems no harm eating more Fat content low. :P

Hey I am back from Malacca. My short trip during the Labour Day... and last night I had finally downloaded and uploaded my pictures on to the webshot to share with all of you. Guess what my company actually block access to the Webshots site where my photos are stored! Urgh..#%$^&* stupid company, block this and that so what as if the staff productivity would increase tremedously.
This is watch I see on the screen, sick right?