Posted by : foongpc | Friday, January 3, 2014 | Published in books,
cakes,
food,
poems
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Ten little Gartien pineapple cakes in a box,
One was eaten by Panda and then there were nine.
Nine little Gartien pineapple cakes on display,
One was munched furiously by Panda's brother and then there were eight.
Eight little Gartien pineapple cakes tempting everyone,
One was stolen and then there were seven.
Seven little Gartien pineapple cakes crying out "Eat me!",
One had his wish fulfilled and then there were six.
Six little Gartien pineapple cakes looking pretty,
One found her admirer and then there were five.
Five little Gartien pineapple cakes having a party,
One got drunk and then there were four.
Four little Gartien pineapple cakes dancing the night away,
One fell out of the box and then there were three.
Three little Gartien pineapple cakes looking at each other,
One killed himself out of boredom and then there were two.
Two little Gartien pineapple cakes feeling lovey dovey,
One was snatched away and then there was one.
One little Gartien pineapple cake left all alone,
He was eaten by who else, but Panda! …. and then there were none.
*Based on the famous nursery rhyme "Ten Little Indians" and the book "And Then There Were None" by my favorite detective novelist Agatha Christie. If you have not read the book, it's about 10 people stranded on a remote island and they got killed off one by one. It's pretty obvious that one of them is the murderer but guessing who is the one proved to be the ultimate challenge.
**The Gartien pineapple cake is from Penang. It's priced at RM45 per box of 10. Details on Gartien.com
1. The haze is back!! HELP!!! I am suffocating right now with the stuffy and smoky air. Where is the rain when we need it?
2. I find it harder and harder to blog hop nowadays. There are simply too many distractions. After reading one blog post, I started to check out my Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, and even what's showing on Astro before hopping to another blog. Total failure!
3. What's the big deal about iOS7? Not really a big deal to me. Cos I am only having iPhone 3GS. Time for an upgrade perhaps?
4. Finally, Superman no longer wears underwear! Hahaha!!
5. Congratulations to Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng for winning the Walter Scott Prize for his historical novel The Garden Of Evening Mists. Have you read this book?
6. Talking about books, have you read Amy Chua's Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Mother? That's such a good enjoyable read of a book and I highly recommend it if you want to know how a modern Chinese American mother brought up her two daughters.
7. I noticed a lot of new burger outlets springing up in Klang Valley and elsewhere in Malaysia. Do we really need so many burger joints?
8. How much on average do you spend on food everyday? Is food your biggest expenses every month?
10. That's it for today. My 33rd Random Notes. Wonder when will I reach my 100th Random Notes! I hope you enjoyed reading all these randomness! Have a great day!
1. Time flies and my birthday is over. Thank you all for the wonderful birthday greetings and wishes! Here is my improvised birthday cake from Redbox karaoke. LOL!
Why is there just one candle? Well, it signifies that I am one year older but none the wiser. Haha!
2. Last Sunday, I went to watch the movie 'Life Of Pi'. Have you watched it? I have read the book of the same name years ago, and was wondering how anyone could possibly make a movie out of it.
But thankfully, director Ang Lee is a genius! I enjoyed the movie very much from the beginning all the way to the very end. It's easily, in my opinion, one of the best movies of 2012!
3. Have you seen the new underwater hotel in China? It's called Hotel Ark.
This unique hotel is half submerged in water, whereas the upper half has self cleaning windows! Would you stay in this hotel? According to feng shui expert Joey Yap, this hotel brings a whole new dimension to water feng shui!
4. My friend came back from a holiday in Turkey last month and bought me a box of Turkish Delight.
It was my first time tasting this sweet dessert from Turkey. It was made from pistachios and hazelnuts and a host of other ingredients.
I was expecting it to be overly sweet but surprisingly, it was not. In fact, it was chewy and yummy! I just could not get enough of it! Have you eaten Turkish Delight before?
5. The other day I found a huge envelope in my postbox. I opened it and found these!
They are souvenirs from blogger friend Mariuca who went on a holiday in Monte Carlo and Amsterdam.
This is fridge magnet clogs from Amsterdam. Nice?
And this is a super giant pencil with three mini pencils from Monte Carlo! Cute! : )
Oh by the way, I love the blue color clogs and pencil! Blue is my favorite color in case you do not know. Thanks Mariuca for these gifts! : )
6. I try to eat healthy nowadays. It's quite tough to do so when you are eating out most of the time. Do you think this is healthy? It's for my lunch.
However, just eating lots of vegetables and fruits do not mean you are eating healthy. You also have to make sure the vegetables and fruit are not pesticide laden, which is pretty common these days. That's why I said it's tough to eat healthy, but we must always try to do so to maintain good health.
7. On days that I need to lose some belly fat, I go for Subway Veggie Delite Wrap! Yes, it's very low in calories as it's all vegetables, but you can easily spoil it all with the added sauces!
To make sure it remains low in calories, only add honey mustard sauce. It tastes yummy and has the lowest calories among all the sauces offered at Subway, I think!
8. Of course eating unhealthy once in a while is OK so please live a little! LOL! I always love Tong Kee egg tarts, but recently I discovered a delicious egg tart from - of all places - KFC!!
This KFC egg tart is truly delicious! Have you eaten it before?
9. I love all types of fruits. Durian is still at the top of my list of favorite fruits, but I never ever turn down a bunch of duku langsat!
Unless, of course, they are tasteless or rotten. LOL!
10. Guess what song is playing in my mind again and again nowadays? No, it's not some Christmas songs although they are on heavy rotation on my CD player. It's Adele's Skyfall - the theme song for the latest James Bond movie of the same title.
This song suits Adele's voice perfectly and the background orchestration is super awesome! After listening to this classy song, a lot of other songs (refer to No. 11 below) sound like trash to me haha!! OK, I'm exaggerating but I just love this song!
11. How do you feel when 8 or 9 year old kids start singing Flo Rida's Whistle or Katy Perry's Peacock or even Rihanna's Rude Boy? I wonder if the kids know what they are singing? The hidden meanings in these lyrics are obscene, at least to young children, don't you think?
Now I am not saying that I don't enjoy listening to these songs. They have pretty catchy melody and rhythm. But to think that children are happily singing away these songs just make me cringe. LOL!
I first started writing about The 7 Stages Of Disease back in 2009. At that time, I was devastated with the news about Farrah Fawcett's losing battle with cancer, rumors about Steve Jobs suffering from cancer and the death of my own brother-in-law from Stage 4 colon cancer.
Over the last 2 years, I have continued writing about it, on and off. This is the final installment of The 7 Stages Of Disease series, which is long overdue. Please note that all the information in this series are not mine, but are based on the book 'Fit For Life : A New Beginning' by author Harvey Diamond.
Please get this book and read it - I highly recommend it to anyone interested in good health and in preventing the dreaded cancer.
For those who have never read my posts on this topic, and to help refresh the memory of those of you who have read them, here then are the links. I shall wait for you to read them.
Now that you are familiar with the first 5 stages of disease, let us proceed to the next stage.
Stage 6 : Induration
When the body creates an ulcer to rid itself of toxins, it will then try to heal the ulcer by replacing the tissue where it has been lost. This scarring of tissues, is called induration. The hardening of tissues is done with a purpose, and that is to encapsulate the toxic material that is threatening the health of the person.
By trapping the toxic material in a sac of hardened tissue, the body is in fact quarantining the toxins and preventing them from spreading freely throughout the body. This sac is often diagnosed as a lump or tumor, but it has still not reached the cancer stage yet.
Induration is the last stage during which the body is still in control of its cells. If we continue to practice a destructive, unhealthy lifestyle that has brought us to this stage, the cells in our body will start to 'go crazy'.
They will become parasitic, living off whatever nutrients they can obtain, but contributing nothing to the body in return. The constant poisoning has finally altered their genetic encoding and they become wild and disorganized.
When cells go wild in this manner, the condition has reached Stage 7, the final stage, which we called cancer.
Stage 7 : Cancer
At this stage, cells are no longer under the control of the brain, but are multiplying wildly in an unorganized manner. Although there is a chance that cancer may be arrested or reversed if diligent and concentrated effort is taken with a healthy regimen, the best way is still to prevent it from happening in the first place.
Why prevention? Because up to this day, medical science have yet to find a cure for cancer. If you want to know the TRUTH about modern cancer treatments, read HERE.
The whole purpose of me writing about The 7 Stages Of Disease is to create an awareness that you can actually prevent cancer. At any stage from 1 - 6, you have the ability to reverse the progress of ill health and return to vibrant health. Do not wait till you have cancer before you take action. Live a healthy lifestyle today.
It has been some time since I blogged about The 7 Stages Of Disease.
According to Harvey Diamond, author of the bestselling book Fit For Life : A New Beginning, disease never ever sneaks up on you and strikes you down. It takes a long time and a great deal of neglect and abuse of the body for disease to finally occur.
From the 1st stage of disease to the 7th stage (ie. cancer stage), many years may elapse. At any stage you can stop the disease from progressing by doing the right thing.
Before I talk about Stage 5, you may want to take some time to read up on the previous stages or simply refresh your memory by clicking the links below.
OK, now that you are familiar with what happens in each of the stages from 1 to 4, let's move on to the next stage which is...
Stage 5 : Ulceration
At this stage, the body has been under assault for such a long time that massive amount of cells and tissues are being destroyed. Lesions and ulcers begin to occur. This condition is extremely painful because of the exposed nerves.
Some examples of ulcers are stomach ulcer, mouth ulcer and open sore on the arm and leg. The body is actually using ulcer as an outlet to rid itself of toxins. If the level of toxemia is sufficiently lowered, the ulcers will heal by itself.
However, if you continue to add toxins into your body, the body will be forced to go to the next stage to heal the ulcers.
That... is the 6th stage, the pre-cancer stage called Induration, which I shall talk about next!
From our original vibrant health state, we had continuously abused our body by ingesting toxins and accumulating them in our body. The body is infinitely smart and tries to eliminate the toxins and even warn us with symptoms and irritations by making us go through 6 stages before reaching the 7th which is the Cancer Stage.
So far, I have talked about Stage 1 (Enervation), Stage 2 (Toxemia) and Stage 3 (Irritation). At any of these stages, if we take action to remove the cause of our health problems, the disease process will stop and good health returns.
But when we continue to ignore these 3 stages, the body will inevitably progress to the next stage which is....
Stage 4 : Inflammation
Inflammation is the body's most intense effort to cleanse and restore itself. When this process occurs, you become keenly aware that a problem exists for it involves pain.
None of us like pain. But believe it or not, pain is our friend! It has a purpose and that is to warn us something is wrong somewhere.
Imagine if you can't feel pain. What happens when you rest your hand on a hot stove without feeling pain? What happens when you step on broken glass without feeling pain? So you see, pain is the body's most effective warning signal.
If the last 3 stages gave you irritations and minor discomfort, you may chose to ignore them. But will you still choose to ignore pain?
When pain is chronic and unrelenting, it is a sign that the body is desperately attempting to get rid of the ever increasing level of toxemia before it causes devastating damage. With inflammation, the toxins in the system have usually been concentrated at a particular organ or a particular area of the body for a massive elimination effort. The area becomes inflamed due to the constant irritation from toxic material.
When inflammation exists, we are diagnosed with words that end with "itis".
Ever heard of tonsillitis? It's the inflammation of the tonsils.
How about appendicitis? It's inflammation of the appendix.
Hepatitis? Inflammation of the liver.
Arthritis? Inflammation of the joints.
Colitis? Inflammation of the colon.
Nephritis? Inflammation of the kidneys.
Sinusitis? Inflammation of the sinus.
Dermatitis? Inflammation of the skin.
OK, I'm sure you get the idea. But what do most people do when they feel pain? Off they go to see the doctor in search for relief. And what does the doctor do? Prescribe drugs to take away the pain.
Unfortunately, the drugs do nothing to remove the cause of the problem. They only serve to lessen the pain temporarily. Worse, the drugs are adding to the body's level of toxemia which the body is desperately trying to get rid of!
Stage 4 is crucial for it is in the middle of the 7 stages and actions taken at this point will determine whether or not you are going to recover your health and return to a state of vibrancy, or fall deeper into the diseased state.
If you do not start to detoxify your body at this stage, you will most likely progress to Stage 5 : Ulceration, which I shall talk about next!
I wrote a series of posts about The 7 Stages Of Disease last year and somehow, due to some reason or other, I did not complete the series.
Two nights ago, I accidentally came across one of the posts and decided I must not let my readers wait forever for the remaining posts. So today I would like to resume this health series.
By now most of you must have forgotten what this series of posts are all about, so for your benefit and for the benefit of those who are new to my blog, kindly read the following posts before you proceed.
OK, now that you have read the above 3 posts, let's move on to the next stage, shall we?
By the way, whatever that is written here and in the above 3 posts are not something that I simply cooked up but are based on the book Fit For Life : A New Beginning by bestselling author Harvey Diamond.
We learnt that disease does not appear out of the blue but gradually. In Stage 1 (Enervation), the symptoms are tiredness and loss of appetite. In Stage 2 (Toxemia), the symptom is fever. Now if you continue to ignore these warning signs, you will progress to...
Stage 3 : Irritation
Irritation is a condition in which the body sets its defensive mechanism in motion and speeds up its internal activities in order to unload stored-up toxins. This process can happen at various points in the body.
An example of irritation is the urge to urinate or defecate. This is probably the best way to eliminate toxins from your body.
However, one of the common symptoms of irritation due to toxemia is itchiness. Perhaps you are not aware, but the skin is the not only the body's largest organ but also an organ of elimination. When toxins in your body are removed via the skin, they cause itchiness on the surface areas of your skin.
This is in fact, your body's way of getting your attention. It is not serious unless you ignore it and do nothing, in which case, you will progress to Stage 4 - The Inflammation Stage.
Not everyone will experience itchiness however. You may feel queasy or nauseated for no apparent reason. Some people will feel that persistent tickling sensation in the nose. Yet others experience nervousness, depression and anxiety.
Other classic symptoms of irritation includes headaches, difficulty falling asleep, putting on weight easily, bad temper, coated tongue, bad breath, body odour, dark circles under the eyes, and for women, out of the ordinary menstrual problems.
You might be thinking - don't everyone experience these symptoms one time or the other? You are correct. Unfortunately, some people live for years in this state of irritation they even learn how to adapt and live with it!
This is because the discomfort they experience is not serious enough for them to go for a medical check up or for treatment.
But here's the problem. When the effects of enervation, toxemia and irritation are ignored long enough, and the toxic residue in the body that started all these builds up to an even higher concentration, the 4th stage of disease ultimately, and inevitably, results.
Stay tuned for Part 5 where I will talk about Stage 4 : Inflammation
1. There is a strange phenomena happening in my bedroom. I am a subscriber to Readers Digest magazines and I keep them in my room so that I can read them before I go to sleep.
Recently, I noticed that the older magazines started to curl up at the edges. Take a look.
The magazine on the left is the November 2009 issue whereas on the right is the more recent March 2010 issue.
Can you see how curled up the magazine is on the left? The one on the right is already showing signs of curling up! And no, it has nothing to do with how I handle the magazines, if that's what you think.
Why do I say that? Well, the much older Readers Digest magazines (2008 issues) that I have in my collection never did curl up no matter how badly I handled them! But then again, those issues were not placed in my bedroom. They are all in the store room after spending like one whole year in my bedroom.
So why are these Readers Digest magazines curling up in my bedroom? Anyone of you have any good theory on this? Or is it time for me to call Agent Mulder and Scully?
2. Recently, I was down with a migraine attack. It was a shock to me as I rarely have migraines. I would say this is the second time in my life suffering from migraine, my first time being 2 years ago!
It all started late one morning when I experienced vision disturbances. I had difficulty reading as I was seeing black patches and dark spots! Any pictures I saw appeared to be pixelled or blurred. Straight lines seemed crooked to me!
Having experienced this unusual symptoms before the onset of my migraine attack 2 years ago, I quickly went to my bedroom and laid down. The first time I had this experience, I thought I was going to die! Now I knew better.
Minutes later, the throbbing on one side of my head started. I felt nauseated and wanted to vomit. Lying down and sleeping provided no relief whatsoever. I went to the doctor and he prescribed me anti-migraine drugs.
I never really like to take any form of drugs but this migraine was paralyzing me to the point where I could do nothing but lie down the whole day! There goes my revenues for that one day!
The doctor advised me against sleeping late at night and drinking too much coffee. Well, I don't drink much coffee but I have to admit I sleep pretty late at night! I am a night owl if you don't already know me! Haha! But I guess I would have to sleep earlier from now on!
By the way, I learnt to massage some acupressure points in relieving migraines, and they really helped to give me some relief! For more details, read HERE.
3. I hate to touch anything after washing my hands in a public toilet! Like turning off the tap, or pulling down the roll of tissue to wipe my hands, or turning the door knob to open the toilet door.
It defeats the whole purpose of washing my hands! That's why I simply love taps and tissue roll with auto sensors! Like this one in the Gardens Mall.
Just place your hand in front of the sensor machine and the tissue paper will roll out from below. Love it! : )
4. Last year, I and my friend went for lunch at Prego, an Italian restaurant in Westin Hotel KL. Now, you may be wondering why I am blogging about something that happened last year.
Well, I just realized I have forgotten to blog about this and as I happened to come across these photos, I thought why not include them in my random notes today? Haha!
The above is the complimentary bread given to us as an appetizer before our main meals. The bread was huge and I was already half full eating it! What I really like was the slightly spicy sauce that came with it! Eating the bread dipped into that sauce was heavenly!
We shared the pizza...
...and the pasta.
And we were so full by the end of it! Gosh! I guess I am NOT such a big eater after all! Haha!
I don't mind going to Prego again, even if it's just for that complimentary bread alone! LOL!
Posted by : foongpc | Saturday, September 26, 2009 | Published in authors,
books,
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Two weeks ago, I received a mail in the post box. When I opened the mail, I found a book called "Stretching Your Dollars And Sense" by Lydia Teh.
It was Lydia Teh herself who mailed me this book, which happens to be her latest book. I had just won a contest on her blog and this book is the prize. Thanks Lydia!
And oh, she also left me a personal message in the book. Cool!
I have yet to read this book but I am sure it will come in handy especially at times like this when we need all the tips available to stretch our money!
By the way, I am a big fan of her other two books which I have finished reading some time back.
"Honk! If You're Malaysian" was thoroughly entertaining and utterly enjoyable! It was Lydia's amusing view on Malaysians' way of life.
As for "Do You Wear Suspenders?" I think it must be the best book to brush up on my English! Funny and interesting at the same time, I enjoyed reading every single page!
If you have yet to read these books, I highly recommend them! They are guaranteed to make you laugh or at the very least put a smile on your face!
Do you like to read? I assume you do otherwise you won't be reading my blog, right? But then, maybe you just like to look at pictures. Haha!
I have a friend who said that she seldom read books because she will go to sleep after a few paragraphs. So her pastimes are spent watching DVDs on her computer. How sad!
I think people who don't read are missing a big part of life! There are so many things you can learn from books and blogs!
I love to read. Unfortunately, I just cannot find the time to read as much as I wanted to. I still remember when I was a small kid, I had all the time to read! Oh, those were the days!
During my early primary school days, I read mainly Enid Blyton's books. They were my source of joy and entertainment! Although I could not remember most of the stories, names like Big Noddy, Mr Pink Whistle, Mr Twiddle and Mister Meddle do strike a chord in me.
Enid Blyton was such a wonderful story teller! I had so much fun reading her books and all those wonderfully weird characters she created. Besides writing funny and interesting stories, she was also good at mysteries. Who could ever forget her popular Adventurous Four, or The Famous Five or even The Secret Seven?
The Famous Five was a big hit with me. Do you remember that tomboy George who was really Georgina and she had this adorable dog by the name of Timmy? And then of course there were Julian, Dick and Anne that make up the rest of the team!
It was The Secret Seven books that introduced me to the word "password". The Secret Seven were really a group of 7 children who loved to hold secret meetings at secret places. All the members must say the password in order for them to be allowed in for their meetings.
Guess what? I was so fond of the Secret Seven when I was small I actually played what I now call "The Secret Seven Game" with my siblings. Yes, we had secret meetings under the staircase of my house. That's right, under the staircase! haha! Well, that time, we were all tiny enough to gather together in such a small space. I vividly remember my sister actually calling out the wrong password and I did not want to let her in! It was just so fun at that time!
When I was a little older, I lost interest in Enid Blyton's books and got myself immersed in Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators. That was my first introduction to famous movie director Alfred Hitchcock, although I never ever knew who the author of the books is to this day! Well, I just checked Wikipedia and found that this detective series was created by a person named Robert Arthur Jr.
Do you still remember the names of the Three Investigators? They were Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews. Jupiter is the smart one who always lead the way in solving all the mysteries. Pete is the athletic one, while Bob is studious and wear glasses.
The Three Investigators even inspired me to come up my own riddles! I still remember a game I had when I was small. I would hide an object somewhere in the house, and then wrote a riddle for my siblings to solve in order to locate that object! What fun I had!
Thinking back of my childhood days just brings back a flood of memories. The good and the bad, the funny and the embarrassing ones. Perhaps I would share more of my childhood days with you readers in my future posts.
There is a small village in Southern China called Bama where people are living to the ripe old age of 100 and above. It is so famous that now tourists are flocking to that village to see for themselves and to discover the secret behind the villagers' longevity.
Watch this video for the report.
Could their longevity be due to the water they drink? Or the food they eat? Or the clean air they breathe? Or is it due to their carefree, relaxing lifestyle devoid of any stress and mental problems? Could their daily activities and 'tai chi' exercises contributed to their long life span?
Or even maybe, it's all due to the good feng shui or the magnetic field in the area.
Perhaps it is the combination of all these factors that hold the secret to their longevity.
Whatever it is, do you want to be like them - to live to a hundred and beyond?
Let's take it further. What if humans one day discover the elixir of youth and live forever? What if we can choose not to die? Live eternally forever and ever? Like the vampire Lestat in Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire.
Will you then yearn to die? To end it all?
Will dying become your goal in life? Wouldn't that be ironic?
To me, I would love to live to a hundred. But maybe not more than a hundred. And definitely not forever. But it all depends.
If I am healthy and still mentally sharp and still able to enjoy sex at the ripe old age of hundred, why not? Haha! Although I would want to look as youthful as now. Not with all those wrinkles! Talk about vanity!
But if I am sick, cannot walk without a walking stick, or bedridden, is there any point in living to a hundred? Might as well die earlier, no?
But nowadays, you will be lucky to live to a hundred. Especially for those of us who stay in the cities. At least those who are living in kampongs or villages still have the chance. With all the stress and fast-paced city lifestyle, and the pollution and the type of food we eat daily, we are lucky if we make it past 60!
Humans' life span are getting shorter. I still remember people during the Biblical periods lived to a few hundred years. I wonder if there is any truth in that!
Although advancement in science and medicine had managed to prolong humans' lives, yet most of the prolonged years are lived in misery.
As for the prospect of living forever, I think I will be bored to death. Tell me what can you do when you are 6,000 years old! You would have visited every corners of the world! You would have tasted every single food there is to taste. You would have done all there is to do except maybe, killing yourself.
But hold on. We are meant to have eternal life. That's according to the Bible. But every religion does mention that we are eternal. We may pass on, but our souls continue to live. And according to Buddhism, we come back to Earth again and again and again until we can break out of that karmic cycle.
So will our souls be bored? Perhaps not. Because we seek to experience different things. We seek to create different things. In different lifetimes. In different parellel universes. We are after all, creators.
Perhaps that's why not many will reach Buddhahood. Not that they can't. They don't want to. They choose to come back to Earth and create a different experience so as to know who they really are.
So perhaps living eternally in our same physical body is not such a good idea and it may be against the nature of things. We need to die so that we have the chance to change our experience.
But living to a hundred? That's OK provided we have not achieved what we have set out to do. Otherwise, why bother to live to a hundred?
