Thursday, December 31, 2009

Frazzle Friday

I'll save the opening year post for later.. But now I feel like making a post about musics. Music is a gift. Music can move people, so strong to be able to change people. Music is simple as a messenger. One of my many favorite songs is Thank you for the music.

Year 2009 marked the year that my dream came true to see my all time favorite boyband The New Kids On The Block on stage. It happened in january 2009. I was brought back to when I was 14 years old and so much in love with Danny Wood. I can still feel the concert sensation like it was yesterday. I am happy that the guys have enough faith in the fans that they have the courage to perform together again. It took a lot of guts for late 30's men to perform as boyband. To my 5 NKOTB brothers, I would like to say thank you for the love and I'll be forever your blockhead sister!! :D

Other than that I have been to quite a number of concert this year. one great thing of living in brussels is that there are a lot of international concerts. hhmm let's see: nkotb, il divo, jason mraz, james morrison, and bsb. Yes you can see that i favored male artist :D

Having following the artists, I am grateful that they are also participate in charities for good cause,
opening new way of thinking and approach to better living condition (spiritual, best practices and self help)

As for 2010, i'm looking forward for more concerts in particular, josh groban.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Close of 2009

(Photo courtesy of : http://www.mneylon.com/blog/images/2009-calendar.jpg)

This is the post that any blogger can't resist. The post on last day of the year, rite? Let's talk about 2009, shall we? I think this will be more about me than any other things that happened in the world. So just bear with me on this post, kay.
I'll do this review in horoscope style. You know, with different categories and stuff.

Here we go...

Love & Relationship 2009 - It has been the most challenging year for my husband and I this year. We have been living separately for exactly 11 months till today! While status 'living separately' makes you gulp,but we managed to get over speculations, rumours and sad-jokes. The eight years are surely overweigh the gruesome eleven months. We were blessed (surely I am). I think this is what made me shout out to the world that my husband and I made an extraordinary couple :D
I am grateful to have him as my husband. I wouldn't trade him for any other things in this world (yes, even if you put expensive jeweleries, handbags, and shoes all combine together LOL).
I am grateful for my famiy and Syl's family who have been supportive in our decisions. Helping us to get by the tricky moments.

Career 2009 - Now this one is interesting. I did tarot card reading in November 2008 in order to help me to choose my career path. haha It's another different story. One thing that I remembered, it said that the career that I've chosen for 2009 would be the one that involves a lot of new knowledge, challenges, that I will be given the chance to give out my ideas. The latter was important to me because I need to exercise new ideas, I felt stuck in the rut doing routine works. It's so true that I think a lot of my energies went to my career this year. I'm happy that lotsa time I have been given the chance and what I asked, believed are those that I received.

Money 2009 - I have collected quite a lot of receipts and bills this year. Living as a single sucks! The fact that I'm living alone in Brussels for more that we have expected, made me dig deep inside my bank accounts. On top of that, there is going back to Nancy over the weekend expenditure, left me no choice. However, thinking back, I do not know how I could make things better. What I have now and managed my income and expenses are at the most optimal. I have zero credit, which I am proud of. At this time I am blessed to have a husband who keeps reminds me to save for rainy days and to not spend money when you don't have it. By nature I am both big spender and big saver. So I think it balances things a bit.

Social 2009 - New place, new work, new social cirle, of course. I am so blessed to make a lot of friends this year. I'm grateful to have these people who open up to me and accept me into their circles, homes and lives. With this, I extend my gratitudes, my hugs, my laughters and my hopes to all my friends who have been there for me. I could not survive the 'Love 2009', 'Career 2009' and 'Money 2009' without my dear friends. Then, social networking tool like Facebook is a great way to express my gratitude and be socially prosperous this year. At this time, I have a total of 222 friends on my Facebook. Of course I did not interact with all 222 people; but just you know, if you are in this 222 number, then I acknowledge your existance in my list :D

Health 2009 - Urrggh swine flu phenomenon... tell me about it. I have a lot of luck on health this year, considering the travels I did from Central America to Asia. Thank god! There are some colds here and there, but that are expected I suppose. It takes sickness to be healthy, rite?

All in all it has been a challenging year for me. Nevertheless, after long hard year, I'm looking forward for a meaningful and satisfied closure of 2009. Thanks 2009!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Between Holidays Gifts


*crickets sound*
It has been almost a month with no gifts? Why, I'll be dammed[sic]!
Please accept my humble apologies for having abandon the gifts-world for some times. For those who knew me well, I have been busy starting my last post, delivering a 'real' gifts to people around me. My head is still spinning until now as I try to remember what date we are now. As much as spinning done, I have to touch the ground before it is too late. This reminds me of 'Up' suddenly.

So, what day we are now again?
Ah! Tuesday... That should be Makan-makan Mardi.

My mom drank cucumber juice (freshly blend) in order to control her blood pressure and cholesterol level. Malaysian food is mostly known for containing high cholesterol, and after indulging on such great feast, my mom would counter the effect by drinking cucumber juice. I only know that cucumber contain lots of water, just because it's nicely eaten during hot summer weather, and also to put slices on the eyes.

So I started googling cucumber, and cucumber juice. Amazingly it is not a myth (yeah I don't know how I concluded that cucumber is not healthy in a first place).
From various websites, I have seen there are common words for benefits of cucumber juice namely 'Skin', 'Eye', 'High blood pressure', 'Hair loss' (this is interesting), 'Stomach problem'.

Cucumber should be eaten or juiced with the skin. Like many other fruits and vegies, their skins are where all the goodie stuff reside.

According to Juicing for Health:
The cucumber contains alkaline-forming minerals and is an excellent source of vitamin C and A (anti-oxidants), folate, manganese, molybdenum, potassium, silica, sulfur, and lesser amounts of vitamin B complex, sodium, calcium, phosphorus and chlorine.



Hmmm With all those list of minerals, vitamins and what-not, it's something to consider isn't it? :D
Of course when you buy organic is much better than those fatty grown by pesticide cucumber.. So try to get from your local market or organic stores and let's rip off those minerals and vitamins from cucumber!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Makan-Makan Mardi - Rendezvous

Hiya.. no that's not a name of a signature dish or restaurant. Though would be a nice name tho.
Anyway, I have no recall of what I have been eating, or more like what I stuffed myself with. That's not good. I have always wanted to jot down what I ate and because this is the first step to lose/control the weight. But I never get to pass joting down dinner LOL.

The post that I wanted to share is that, in the next couple of weeks I'm going to stuffed myself even more and sensesly. Why? Because I will be in Malaysia and the main agenda when I am there is makan (eat). Food is the thing that I missed the most when living here in foreignland. Of course I missed my families, but I can't eat them can I? hahaha

I have started to make rdv with friends and families and they all involve food! In the list includes, penangite food, japanese food, johorean food, thai food.. oh the thought of it makes me drools. Of course I will take lotsa pictures of the food I ate (or will eat). My mom told me once that I am like 'jakun' person (what's translation for jakun eh?). Like I never seen food before. hahahaha
I have once being told not to take photo in a restaurant, and I saw some signboard in restaurants in Malaysia and Thailand that forbid photographing the food they served. I wonder how malaysian foodblogger managed to do this.

Nevertheless, I shall try to snap as many photos I could :) hehehe
This is as far as I could go for jotting down what I ate!

So what's your favorite food that you could not simply get around where you live? Is there any food that you ate during your travelling and you have been yearning for since the last time you had it?

Yum yum.. stay tune for next Tuesday then!!!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Karaoke Khamis - Let's (bad) romance


Sorry I know it's still Wednesday, but when I started singing I can't stop LOL

Of course one of 2009 highlights is Lady Gaga. Doesn't matter how freaky she is, she keeps on proving that she is an entertainer. I think I would like to go to her concert one day. She's a mean song writer as well.

I have travelled quite a lot this year considering that the nature of my job is not to travel that much. But for each place I have been to this year, it has always make me discover Lady Gaga's new songs.

So the first is Pokerface. If I were to go to Chicago, this would be the song that I'll discover on MTV in my hotel room. Next is Papparazi, which I discovered on MTV in my hotel room in Vienna.
After that there is Lovegame which I first saw the video on MTV in my room in San Jose, Costa Rica. The latest addition Bad Romance is on MTV in my room in Basel when I was there for a mere 2 days meeting.

Looking back, Lady Gaga has been following my career as much as I'm following hers LOL
OK enough talking...
So this week I chose Lady Gaga latest single Bad romance!!!

Let's enjoy the romance and let's see if you could do the monster twist while singing the part 'oooh oohhh oohhh oohhh'



Hmmm... I'm gonna try with the choreography as well hahahahaha
Enjoy!!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Sum up - Bday week


Hey all!
It has been a wild ride the past couple of weeks. I tell ya it won't end now. I shall be busy till the end of the year, at work and in personal life. Seriously sometime I wonder how I can keep up with myself. Some people would just give up on me (laugh laugh)

The biggest highlight of the week is not that I manage to survive bday at work LOL. That would be nuts! (peanuts?!! LOL). It's also not about me making my first every baked cheese cake and it's a success. Instead the highlight would be my birthday!! YAY!! I can't deny it that birthday is the mark that you are adding another year to your age. And I can't deny that those increasing numbers haunt me like hell. But putting away those numbers, I think that the best way is to do what you want to do in life, make full use of your being in this world, to your family and friends, and most importantly feel good about yourself.

There is no birthday without a celebration right? :D
It just happens this year, BSB is having a concert at Antwerpen on my birthday huhuhuhu Just what a girl needs LOL
I went with my sisters last Friday. I think that having to be there on my birthday with them is the cherry on top. A girl couldn't ask for more! We sang from the top of our heart (lung? LOL) at the concert, we danced, we screamed, we had some serious fun, I tell ya. For the mini breaks, the boys showed mini-movies adaptation from some movies like Matrix, Fast and Furious, Enchanted and Fight Club. We know the boys are funny guys, it was fun (did I just said fun? LOL).
OK I can brag on this day in day out. So here it goes, some of the latest songs from BSB for my and your pleasures. Enjoy!!!



Saturday, November 7, 2009

S-Day - Sesame Street

HAPPY 40th ANNIVERSARY, SESAME STREET!!!!!!!!!!!

What? You don't know what Sesame Street is? Phhooeeyy!!

Well that is what I said to my husband.. then..

What? You don't know who Big Bird is? Oh gaawwddd!!

By this time I'm blinking back tears.. hahahaha
OK let's not be dramatic then.

However, as you can see there, today is Sesame Street's 40th Anniversary. Amazing isn't it? 40 years already! This show never dies I tell ya. Not for me at least. I was surprised however that some Google homepage celebrates the anniversary by putting the Sesame Street's characters on the Google name, but not Google.com. I know about it when my husband told me that "your muppet tv shows is 40 years old now" I said "what??" Then I go to google.fr, and I know what show he was talking about.

Appreciation:
I appreciate Sesame Street and the whole Children Television Workshop for bringing in this educational yet entertaining shows when I was growing up. Put aside Barney, Teletubbies, Dora, Diego and everything else kids got nowadays. Nothing beats Sesame Street! When I watched Sesame Street at my parents home in the afternoon, I was merely 6 years old (maybe younger),and how I wished that I was chosen to be one of those kids in the show. Even just for the opening credit. This show taught me how to count, count backward and count faster (remember the song 12345..678910..11 tweeeeellvee!!). It also taught me that people comes in different backgrounds, privileges, and talents. I remember even when I was teenager, I am a bit arrogant to keep watching Sesame Street just because it's for kids and 3-2-1 Contact is was cooler. Anyway, I kept going back to Sesame Street for the fun of it. How can educational show become fun?

Acknowledgement:
I acknowledge the effort of all characters in Sesame Street for bringing the fun out of learning. Big Bird, Grouch, Kermit the Frog, Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster, Count Dracula (ah ah ah), Snufflelafegus, Elmo and of course my all time fav, Grover are full of fun and entertainment. The human characters are great too.. I can only recall of Maria tho.. LOL

Over time these characters go beyond Sesame Street and appearing in movies and some special shows.
As I mentioned before, my fav character is Grover. In the show, Grover is known for loveable muppet friend and with his friendly voice, he is funny yet likeable by kids. He has another identity which is Super Grover. Of course he is like Superman, trying to help people. But it ends up he is being funny. I have the Super Grover plush toy which I bought in Singapore as my own graduation gift. When I saw it, I knew that I had to have it. LOL.



Now, how well-known Sesame Street is? I think that most of kids around my age would watch Sesame Street while growing up. Or is it? Going back to the conversation I had quoted at the beginning of this post, there are people who don't know Sesame Street. Or maybe they know it but it existed in a different way? So I check on the french version. Guess what?! They have french version of Sesame Street.
In France, it is called '1 rue Sesame'. Why would they put number on the street? Beats me LOL. Can't they just settle with 'Rue Sesame'? Perhaps there is already something existed by that name.
Next the characters.. Lo and behold!!! The essential character that makes Sesame Street, Big Bird does not exist in France!!! How can this be? Instead, the french bird is called 'Toccata'. Seriously? I think Gros Oiseau is not that nice as a name LOL. Grouch is blue instead of green and his name is 'Mordicus'.
Next comes the theme song. Yes you guess it right. It's in french of course :P

So here is 1 rue Sesame theme song with Toccata:


Here is the english song:


However I don't know if there is the difference in the way they teach the kids. Of course in different language, I wonder if the system is different.
I found these 2 great versions that shows even the sounds of animals are different in different languages LOL. watch them. It's fun!!

French version of Cookie Monster (Macaron) - The Horse Whisperer


English version:


Ok I can go on and on..
happy to bring back those memories to all who know Sesame Street, and for who don't, it is never too late to discover this show!

For the ending, I share with you Jason Mraz version of Kermit's song Rainbow Connection. Let's sing it!!


This is the original and look! Kermit is leftie :D

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Karaoke Khamis - Larger than Life

Yaattaa!!!
The date is approaching people!!! Next week I will be watching these guys live on stage!!! wwwoohoooo!!
Words around say that one of the songs will be Larger than Life! Let's practice! hahahaha



If you don't know how the song goes, here is the vid clip.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Makan-Makan Mardi - The Dos and Don'ts of Dining Out

Something to share :D

Dine Out on a Diet: Your Restaurant Survival Guide: The Dos and Don'ts of Dining Out

Mamma Mia Monday - Yaattaaaa!!

OK actually I want to post this video on my blog. Tuesday is supposed to be foodie entry. LOL

Now I know why BSB hit Japan first! Because of this video huhuhu...

Well, then enjoy!!

Saturday, October 31, 2009

S-Day - Steamy


Right now, I swear to you that I could eat off my home floor! hahahahaha
I steamed the floor with the steamer that looks like a vacuum cleaner, only that you put water in the body, and then wait a bit till the water hot enough (with indicator of an orange light). Then, the brush end part, is where you put small towel, then then steam away!

This way of cleaning using vaporized water is great because not only it cleans with water like mopping, but also allergic-free. There is no dust flying around. With mopping, you need to wait for some time for the area to dry. But with steam cleaner, it's just a matter of minute.

Other than practicality, steam cleaning cleans off germs, odor and micro-thingy that makes your home unhealthy.

Speaking of health, when you are down with cold, steam dispenser or air humidifier is great to keep the humidity in the room and unblock your nasal. This is good for both child and adult.

Another point of health, is steamed food. I love steamed food. Be it steamed bun, steamed dim sum, steamed fishm steamed cake... let it steam steam! (Note that I didn't say steamed vegies.. this is an exception :P). At home, I use either my rice cooker that comes with steamer tray or medium sized bamboo steamer tray. Oh I so wish to eat steamed fish right now. Or perhaps I will go buy frozen dim sum at the asian supermarket and have dimsum for dinner later.. yum yum

Another thing that I like right now.. is do steam my face. Can someone offer me a visit in a salon for facial.. Aaahh.. blisss...

How do you use steam in your life? Full steam ahead!!!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Karaoke Khamis - N to da S to da Y to da N to da C

From so many songs that you could sing in Karaoke, I would always have a go on boybands song. The lyrics are easy, repetitive and easy to follow. Not to forget the ever awesome choreography, and the beauty of the boys hihihii...

This time I chose NSYNC. Remember this boyband? Most particularly this is the group that introduce Justin Timberlake. Just like Robbin Williams, Justin continues to be popular after he went solo. For me, NSYNC's distinguish features are ever oh so good looking boys, and their dance choregraphy. I think that is why they did not stay on like BSB or NKTOB, because there is lack of good music.

Nevertheless, in Karaoke world, I would always game for Bye Bye Bye, It's Gonna Be Me and Drive Myself Crazy.
So here I'm sharing with you a gift from NSync - It's Gonna Be Me.



For those who wants to do the choreogrpahy also, here's the original version. Hehehe.. Enjoy!!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Wet Wednesday - Drink up yall!


OK y'all, time to drink up those clear transparent liquid.. yup water!!!
I am still having problem to keep track of my water intake. Anyway, who does? Well, actually some people are... Just not me.. maybe not yet.

So how much water do we need to drink per day? There is even the measurement of how much water you flush out (read: urinate).. eww I'm not going there. But let's us remind each other that it is important to drink water.

By googling, I found that the easy rules is 8 x 8 oz per day. 8 oz is like what ?Around 220 ml? So that would be like 8 glasses per day is it? Yikes I think my water intake is below that.

Taken from stronglift.com:
How to Build The Habit of Drinking More Water. By drinking more water, more often. The more you do it, the easier it gets. Some tips:

Start Early. Have 1 cup of water ready on your nightstand. Drink it first thing on waking up. Persist if it’s hard: you’ll get used to it.
Drink 2 Cups with Each Meal. 2 cups at lunch, 2 at dinner, 2 with your snacks. Eat first, drink later. Otherwise you’ll struggle with your food.
Sip Water During Your Workout. Take a bottle of water to the gym and sip water during your workout. Sipping will prevent a set stomach.


I don't think that we could really see the effect of drinking a lot of water. Some people say it helps them to loose weight, some people said that it gives them better hydrated skin.
But I think the obvious thing is to avoid having kidney stones. People said it's painful to have your kidney stones removed.. isk..

Let's get a habit of drinking water, shall we!?

I'm off to bed now, and I'm taking my water bottle. When you go to bed, bring water bottle and let's drink up as soon as you open your eyes tomorrow morning.
Cheers!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Makan-Makan Mardi - Let's Ethopia


Last week I had a great dinner in one of restaurants not far from Grand Place, Brussels. It is an Ethopian restaurant.
I have never known African cuisine nor ever dream of going into such restaurant. Seriously what can you eat at Ethopia? However, amazingly it was a great discover and thus would like to share with you.

The restaurant is called 'KoKoB'. I don't know what it means though..
The menu is quite elaborate. That for sure answered my question as to what Ehtopian eat! Their vegetarian menu has a lot of variety.
The decoration is nice, the ambiance is very cheerful and nice. Apparently the restaurant is a place to host some expositions. I expect the arts and paintings on the wall changes each time there is new exposition from new artist. Also, sometimes, there are live bands, but when I was there there was no live bands. The restaurant surface is long in depth. With different composition of seatings as you go inside.

If you look at their menu (in pdf format) there are so many choices.
There were 5 then 4 of us. We ordered Menu Decouverte. Like this we have a bit of everything. There are 2 great things about eating here. First, the food is served on a round tray covered with 'injera'. This is a staple food a pancake-like made from teff flour.
From Wikipedia:
Teff or taf (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter), Amharic ጤፍ ṭēff, Tigrinya ጣፍ ṭaff) is an annual grass, a species of lovegrass native to the northern Ethiopian Highlands of northeastern Africa


Then the waitress put in bit of portions of everything for everyone. Most of them are with bit of sauce, then there is salad and cheese made from yoghurt. With this, it came with a basket of rolled injera. In order to eat it, you tear the injera, then scoop different items on the tray. It is best to eat with your hand, though I saw people eating with fork and knife.

This is what it looks like (Photo courtesy of KoKoB Facebook):


If you ever come down to Brussels, then do not hesitate to go to Kokob, situated at Rue des Grands Carmes, 10 - 1000 Bruxelles.
It's about 50m from MannekinPis :)

Monday, October 26, 2009

Mamma Mia! Monday - Daylight Savings


Actually the Daylight savings started yesterday at 3a.m. I should put that as my awareness post. However, I was away for a long weekend at Mickey's land so this is again a squeezed-in post.

Daylight saving is only good when it's Winter time. Summer daylight saving is where we loose 1 hour (moving the clock 1 hour forward), and Winter daylight saving is where we gain 1 hour (moving the clock 1 hour backward). Basically at the start of it, we get tired earlier but in the morning, it's much easier to wake up. Daylight savings are observed by some parts of the world. And they are not observing at the same time. For example, Asia Pacific like NZ and AU did their daylight savings early october, while Europe is doing it the just last Sunday (I think around the first day of autumn..hmm) and US and Canada will do the change some weeks after Europe.

Did you know that daylight savings is to help save energy. In summer daylight saving, the hour is moved forward so that the day is longer, so that people can use much of natural light (sun). How can these ppl have the time to think such way of changing the time? Moreover, how come there are people who are committed to change their clocks with the time comes. Just because they were told to do so. Is there anyone in the world who lives in a daylight saving country,and just refuse to change their clocks? hehehe Or perhaps the person just move to country that does not observer daylight saving? Funny isn't it?

Anyway, daylight saving or not, we are all should conserve energy whenever we can. Make sure that you did not leave lights on in every part of your house, and use energy-saving light bulbs. It's not only save the energy, but also your money!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Karaoke Khamis - Can't get enough of JM

Who's JM? Which JM? Jason Mraz or James Morrison? hahaha
Actually they are related somehow. I knew of James Morrison's concert via Jason Mraz facebook. I like James's voice, it's kinda unique, and he is cute looking too LOL... I had the pleasure to go to James's concert at Ancienne Belgique last Monday. Of course this week's karaoke could be James's song.

I am having a problem to choose which song for this post. The more I youtubed, the more video that I discover. And I like him singing live. Anyway, a girl has to pick..

Here are the 2 famous songs which I think would fit the purpose of sharing with you.
Let's sing it!!!

The first top song that makes ma discover James:


Then a nice collaboration with Nelly Furtado:


BONUS
And I love this Live Acoustic:


I'm off for a long weekend! Enjoy this gift :D

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Wet Wednesday - Let's Start This

Wow, we are Wednesday already? I have been neglecting you all. No gifts for Monday and Tuesday? tsk tsk tsk. This is because I have been busy as a receiving end. When you are pouring with gifts, sometimes you tend to forget that you need to give back.

Here are the highlights of the past days:

Mamma Mia! Monday - Mamma mia indeed! I had the pleasure to experience a great James Morrison's concert at Ancienne Belgique. I like concerts. The whole waiting, excitement, and enjoying good live performance. It must be hard work for those singers/performers to give the best on the show.

Makan-Makan Mardi - I was invited for a dinner at a friend's place. It's a gift indeed. Other than concerts, I like food. And I'm grateful that with food, comes great company. I acknowledged the fact that the source of living comes hand in hand: food and friends.

Then here we are on Wednesday.
While browsing for the 100+ ways to conserve water on the WUIW site, the first tip caught my eye. Everything starts with yourself. I would like to share this tip with you:
Tip #01 - There are a number of ways to save water, and they all start with you.


I like it.
Have you been turning off the running shower when scrubbing your body?
Let's start this!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Awareness Ahad - Self-Awareness: Control

This is my first serie of Self-Awareness post. I believe so much in being self-aware. Thus, I would like to share my thoughts and my findings with you. So what is really self-awareness? Well, there's the word "self" that means our own mind body spirit.. and "awareness" means knowing, conscious, informed... By putting both words together, I would say being knowledgeable about our own state.

I believe that self-awareness in general is important, because it makes you know more about yourself so that you could benefit out of your own mind, body and soul. It is like knowing the land that you bought. Knowing the soil on that land can give you an idea of how you are going to nurture it and make it to produce or use for benefit. It is the same with your mind, body and soul. Sometimes it is scary to know yourself. Indeed, we are amazing creatures :D

As I mentioned, this is the first serie, which is self-control. There are other areas of self-awareness, namely stress, ambiguity and emotional intelligence.

When we mention "control" we always reflect on controlling someone or something. No.. In self-awareness, you get to know how you control yourself, how you approach control. Psychological field has introduced what it is called "the locus of control". Based on how you perceive things, you could know the way you act. Let's get some quotes. Quoted from James Neill

What is Locus of Control?
Within psychology, Locus of Control is considered to be an important aspect of personality. The concept was developed originally Julian Rotter in the 1950s (Rotter, 1966).

Locus of Control refers to an individual's perception about the underlying main causes of events in his/her life. Or, more simply:

Do you believe that your destiny is controlled by yourself or by external forces (such as fate, god, or powerful others)?




There is Locus of Control test which I would invite you to do. Spend some time to carefully answer all questions.
Try to google "locus of control test" and do some of them.

Here I would like to share my result. My Locus of control score is... 2.
Based on the locus control scale, I have an internal locus of control. I agree that most of the time I tend to take all tasks very seriously because I feel that everything depends on what I did and the decisions I made. In addition, I also learned that I am the kind of person who likes to take control and do what it takes to achieve the best outcome. I believe that consequences of certain tasks or activities are usually due to my actions or my decisions. I remember that each time during completing a task I would remind myself that I need to get things right and do it correctly because each step is crucial and may give impact later. I am now aware that I am a person who like to be pro-active, seeking as much information as possible, place great emphasize on doing things right first time and I will not easily think a success is due to luck or fate or if a failure it is caused by someone else’s fault. I learned that when I have been given a task, I am 100 percent responsible for its success or failure.

Do the test, and do a self-reflection on the result. This is just a guideline. Do not push the nothing of internal or external locus of control into yourself. The purpose of sharing this is so that you could nurture yourself to becoming a better person.

What is your locus of control? Have you tried to know yourself or you think you are better off with make-believe?

Saturday, October 17, 2009

S-Day - Superstitions


I've wrote this on my other personal blog, but I thought it deserves sharing with you all...

I have been meaning to write about superstitious for some time because this topic is in my mind in and out and in again.
I hate being superstitious..I don’t like to lead my life with some untrue beliefs. But despite of all my efforts, I’m still superstitious. I believe that something that I do, or said could lead to something else. Some things or some actions could lead to certain luck or events.
Take a simple superstition - it is bad luck to open an umbrella indoor. I am well aware that it is not true, it is because it’s dangerous that opening umbrella indoors may injure someone. But still I will never open an umbrella indoors. I know! Crazy right?
I won’t walk pass under scaffoldings, or under ladder.. I look at black cats with suspicions…

Sometimes I even invent a superstition of my own. A classic my own version of superstition is with perfume. A perfume can give me luck or the opposite. For example, if I wore a perfume and something bad happened, I swear that I will lay my hands off that perfume. Eventhough it is a very expensive perfume and I just wore it once. But if I wore a perfume and it brings me good days, not so much good luck, I will wear it over and over again, and buy it again until they didn’t produce it anymore.
I like to try on another perfume, but I always have this dilemma when I took this new bottle of perfume and thinking do I want to risk my good day today? I know! Crazy!

What have you been holding back because of superstitions?

Friday, October 16, 2009

Fantastic Friday - Bookwormy


Fridays are just so fantastic. LOL. There is nothing that can describe the day that ends the working week.Don't tell me there is anyone in the working world who does not looking forward for Friday, or have a motivation peaked on this day. OK maybe I am generalizing.

I have been working my ass off on some Fridays. Mostly for some overdues deadlines. Usually if you are overloaded on Friday, that means it is possible you will be working on at least Saturday morning.huhuhuhu

Anyway, we are talking about fantastic friday!

During lunch time I went to the Waterstone's English bookstore. I think this is as close as any bookstore in English speaking country as it is in a French/Flemish speaking country. Waterstone's is a UK-based bookstore. I'm so pysched when I googled and saw this bookstore on the web. In addition, it is in the city centre, where I can reach easily using my usual bus route.

I was thinking to get the new Dan Brown's book 'The Lost Symbol'. So I went there with a mission! (I could spend hours and hours in any bookstore LOL) I had lunch first. Body fuel is important and also because I know that I would spend hours in t he bookstore, then it won't left me much time to get lunch. As I arrived at Waterstone's, I'm happy :D The display, the buy 2 get 1 free offer makes me realized I am indeed in an English bookstore.

Unfortunately, they have no Dan Brown's latest on paperback yet. I said no worries. I continue browsing some books, well.. browsing thru the whole store, to be exact! The bookstore is not so big. I've seen bigger of course. But I would say it's enough to satisfy my cravings for English books. There are areas which I would go first, and it is in this order:
1. New arrival/Best sellers
2. Romance
3. Mind, Body, Spirits

I get my Fiction fix at the best sellers shelves and also those buy 2 get 1 free tables.

I saw some interesting books and materials at the Mind, Body, Spirits section. Among them are the book called The Secret History of the World, The Secret Daily Teaching and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. I would ponder more on them when I have more time.

So what did I buy and read today? A book entitled Then Comes Seduction *^^*

What more can I ask for a fantastic Friday? I went to bookstore, I got myself a book and I'm going home to my love (after 5 hours on the train).

what did you read lately? and what is your favorite bookstore and why?

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Karaoke Khamis - RIP Stephen Gately from Boyzone


Last Saturday, the entertainment world lost yet another talented singer, Stephen Gately from Boyzone. He died of natural causes while vacationing in Majorca. So for this week's karaoke, it's his gifts to the world that I'm sharing with you.

For those who don't know, Stephen is the one 2nd from the left wearing the red coat. huhuhu This is them singing "Love me for a reason" One of the songs that made Boyzone sit on the chart.



This another video clip, in which I think very great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih_rl3CrCCo
(sorry no embedded available)

And now, let's sing it!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Wet Wednesday - Water!


This wednesday I'm going to write about conserving water. OK, so you might say who is this person to advise on conserving water. But before you skip this post, just to clarify that the purpose of I'm writing any of these posts is for self reflection and that I would like to share my reflection with those people that I care, you (awwww hehehe).

Thus, what do we know about conserving water. To my understanding, it is to not waste water. Of course we've seen water flowing from the tap or from the river (after google imaging). But that's the thing. We often take water for granted. Especially you those who live in a geographic area surrounded with water. The price is water is cheaper compared to those living in the mainland. Water supply also can be a BIG political issue in some countries, namely Malaysia and Singapore. So, do not take water for granted.

I goggled and found some interesting websites which could be a point of change for you and me.
Water Conservating website: http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/ says it call. USE WATER WISELY!
It's a very nice website. Because you know some of these websites can be very dull. But not this website. Nice natural color and interesting entries. One thing caught my eyes when I visit this site is one of the blog titles "1,800 gallons of water to make one pair of jeans." OK, Not to say ban jeans. That's insane! But instead of throw them away when you don't want it, maybe you can recycle your jeans, like donate to the charity. To think of it, it has been sometimes that I did not wear jeans... Looks like I've saved gallons of water already hahaha

So go to the website and learn something. I will put the link on this blog so that you can visit it anytime. Let's visit it once a day and take 1 tip at a time.

This morning, as I was in the shower and thinking about today's post, I noticed also that I have been leaving the shower running when I was soaping. Hmm.. Of course, I know that if I turned off the shower I would be cold. But I tried and turned off the shower while soaping. I think it takes some times to get used to it. But I am open to change. I want to conserve water.

Enough said... Hope that this post opens up your mind and sure is mine.
That's my wednesday gift to you. I acknowledge the water that I use every day.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Makan-makan Mardi - Chocolates

I don't think this will be my first posting of chocolates. Living in the country and city of the pralines, it is really bad for my weight. Especially I seek comfort thru chocolates.. huhuhuhu
They are so effing delicious!
I like to just walk around the tourists area at Grand Place and walk into those chocolate shops and sample the delicious chocolates. The fact that they taste so light, which makes me want more and more.
Of course I savor each bite of the chocolates. It is not some usual chocolates you can find in the store.
I noticed that the big difference between a "real" chocolate and those industrial ones is the sweetness. Industrial chocolates taste the sweetness of sugar, while a real chocolate from maitre de chocolatier tastes bitter. The ancient South American populations used cacao to make chocolate drink and it's suppose to taste bitter.

I won't go thru the maitre de chocolatier just yet.
Today I bought an industrial hazelnut flavored chocolates and these are christmas chocolates (the plastic bag has santa cartoon on it). It's cheap and I bought it at a supermarket.



I bought it because of they look nice in the little aluminium cups! I remember I used to help my mom to make this chocolate cup during Eid. It was the trend at that time. Perhaps one day I'll make em.

So here's my gift to you on this fine Makan-Makan Mardi. Chocolate is good for your health (if eaten in moderation)

Monday, October 12, 2009

Mamma Mia! Monday - Mamma Mia indeed!

I just realized it's Monday!!! and I am 3 gifts late. Aie aie aie!!!

Sorry for not posting Fantastiche Friday, S-Day and Awareness Ahad. You see when you are surrounded by great people, you take it for granted and forgot to give.

Alright, I'll try to resume the last 3 gifts, OK.
Fantastiche Friday:
Last Friday was a chill out day for me. Of course who has the motivation to work on Friday afternoon? I rewarded myself with long lunch break alone. However I'm disappointed that the sweetened tofu is not available huhuhuhu...
In the evening, I had a treat from some friends. I discovered Glacier Zizi.. it is a well-known italian ice cream place and it's not far from my house! My husband joined us late at night. It was great.

S-Day:
I had an idea of an S topic. But I think I'll have a proper post of it :D

Awareness Ahad:
It was rainy and I just recovered from a flu. Thus, I buried my intention to join the Breast Cancer Walk/Run. huhuhuhu Maybe next time, I'll do my deed.

In addition to that RIP Stephen Gately from Boyzone. He was dead in his sleep at Majorca. He was 33 years old (my age!) hhuhuhu..
Grim Ripper is planning a big party this year with all those celibrity losses until now. huhuhuhu

There you go my friend.. Mamma miiaaaa!!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Karaoke Khamis - Ebony and Ivory

Living in perfect harmony...

I have this song the whole week. So for the karaoke extravaganza gift... let's sing it!



While looking for the video, I've found this PSYCH promotion that used Ebony and Ivory.
I love Shawn and Gus sooooo much.



Hope you all like my thursday gift :D

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Wet Wednesday - Rain!

Hokeey..

It's time of the year where there is an increase in the number of rainfalls in Europe.


Yes I am grouchy when it comes to the dark clouds that carrying the water, but I'm still grateful that it's raining. It cools down the earth and it provides source of water to some area. Think of it, the area that hardly touched by streams, or oceans or waterfalls, the cloud carries the water and showers the dry land.....

Walking back from work today, it was raining heavily with heavy lightning.
By the time I arrived home, I'm all soaking wet! And I have an umbrella.. The streets are full with water, I'm soaked till the bone!

I googled the average rainfall in Brussels. Well, October is not the maximum average rainfall. November is. Huhuhuhu.. So it will get even worse? Huhuhuhu....
In October, Brussels gets average of 71mm of rainfall. While in Nancy, average of 60mm. huhuhuhu

When I was growing up, my understanding is that getting soaked in the rain is bad, and can make you sick. I think it is because of you can catch cold or something. Anyways, I have to embrace myself for more wet days! But then, we should be thankful for the rain, like I said it is the source of water, rain washes away the dirt, cleans up the streets. So it's a good thing! :D

Makan-Makan Mardi - Tofu

Tardy post! huhuhu

So yesterday I had a somewhat healthy dinner.
All has tofu in it.
So I had the miso soup with tofu, and soya drink (drinho)..

Anyone has not tried soya products yet?
Soya or tofu is a good base for those who are vegetarian. But you do not need to be veggies lover to like tofu. I love anything that is soya-based.

I remember when I was a kid, I used to eat tofu with soya sauce. Yummies!!

I am happy that the Asian (Pinoy) shop near my house is selling soya drinks and tofu.
But the big asian supermarket in the city has more varieties, such as soft silken tofu, sweetened tofu, dried tofu, japanese tofu.. aahh yummies..

I think tofu is like cheese for asian. Cheese is made from milk based (goat milk or cow milk). Tofu is made from soya "milk". It is also gone thru the adding of coagulant to make it "curd".

According to wikipedia:


Tofu is low in calories, contains a relatively large amount of iron and contains little fat

Just thinking of tofu and soy milk, makes me drool.. hehehe

Tofu can be served warm or cold. And of course there are lots of products based on soy milk, and like I said different types of tofu , plus many ways you can enjoy them.

So this is my gift to you.. tofu.. try em and you'll like em :D




Just somthing on the sid: Shrimp Siu Mai :)




Monday, October 5, 2009

Mamma Mia! Monday - Urgh what more can you ask?

Mamma mia, here I go again!

It's Monday peeps!! Yes, we all start the week again.
Although Monday is kinda cold and rainy here, but then be grateful that it's the rain that supply water to all rivers and streams and ocean?

Do not forget that it's one of your 7 gifts! :D

Have a good Monday, whereever you are!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Awareness Ahad - Pink October

Dang! I missed Sunday post by 5 minutes! Anyway, never too late...



And it's never too late to start to be aware of something. Since this is the beginning of October, I chose Pink October! For all you who do not know, October is the month of Breast Cancer Awareness. I've always wanted to support a group with purpose. It's all started with the NKOTB concert. Oh yes... You see, one of the Block is an active supporter of Fight against Breast Cancer due to his mom being the victim of it. It happens that Danny Wood is my all time favorite Block member. Sometimes it is amazing how Universe works. Anyway, after been to the concert, I followed Danny Wood in Twitter and Facebook, and started to open up to the idea of supporting fighting against breast cancer. I don't know where to start, so I start with the simple thing, by subscribing to Komen.org on Facebook. It is a huge foundation for Breast Cancer and the story about the creation of the Foundation is amazing. Only love can make you achieve to do things that big.



I do not have any personal experience in Breast Cancer. But you do not need to have a sad moving story or wait until someone in your family (or even yourself) to be diagnosed as having Breast Cancer to participate in this foundation.



Start small by educating yourself with knowledge about Breast Cancer is easy. There are so many information at the moment on the Internet. But, I would like to do more than just know there are those things out there.



Do you know that:


"Today the chance of a woman being diagnosed with invasive breast
cancer
is 1 in 8. The chance of it killing her is 1 in 35. And it remains the second leading cause of cancer death for American women behind lung
cancer
."
(Chicago Tribune)



Question is, how many women do the mammography? I haven't done it yet. Should I?

Sometimes, ignorance is a bliss. It is better to not do the test, due to afraid what you might discover. It happens to some women, it could happen to you. Would I want to march into the clinic one fine day and ask for a mammography, just like that? huhuhu...



I just learnt from Komen.org that they just had a Breast Cancer Run here in Brussels. Too bad I missed it. Then at the gym, I saw a poster for another Breast Cancer Walk/Run organized by the university ULB and Brussels own Foundation "Vivre Comme Avant". The event will take place on next Sunday 11th October. I wish I could join in. But then again, it is hard to participate in something new. I hope that I'll have the courage to do it. I'm still new in this.



Another simple yet difficult to start to do is to wear the pink ribbon. If you think of it, it's so easy right? The ribbon is so small, yet I'm kinda concious to wear it. I think that I deserve to wear it since I am not deeply involve in the Breast Cancer Awareness. But then again, does wearing the pink ribbon or participating in the Walk/Run, would contribute to supporting the people who fight Breast Cancer?

Or is it just by giving donation to the Foundation would be enough?



This post is a reminder to myself that it is a good start to support Breast Cancer Awareness and I hope that this post will become a starting line for you to start looking for more information about fighting and finding cure for Breast Cancer.



Let's support this!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

S-Day - Sincerity

It's Saturday, people... What have you been up to? Nice plans during this 2 days weekend?

For the first post of S-Day, I chose the word Sincerity.

Being sincere would mean different thing to different people. All because it is a simple word but yet difficult to fulfil. We like our friends to be sincere with us, say what's on their minds, do what they think the best, but usually truth hurts. Not so much to the listener or receiver, but to the speaker himself.
Admit it. It is hard to speak of your own true feeling and opinion, and usually omitting certain information is what you think the best.

To what degree of sincerity that we must exercise?
The answer is the highest level. We must embrace being sincere. By thinking you are sincere, you avoid any future omission and lies. You avoid any false hope.
OK again as I said it is not easy as the speaker to open up all the time. Sometimes, we avoid telling what's really on our mind under the pretense of "protecting" someone.

Practice to be sincere once a week if not once a day, or every minute and every second.
In every day tasks, try to be sincere to one another, to your friends, your colleagues and your love ones. Nowadays there are many ways to open up to your thoughts, to be generous, to do things at your own free will and to avoid falsification.

On a different perspective, in Islam, sincerity means "ikhlas". For everything you do is based on good intention. In Islam, boasting oneself of the deed done, automatically diminish sincerity. I think this is a simple understanding as to how you can achieve to be a sincere person. I am sure that in other religions or beliefs, the concept is the same. There is no selfishness or thinking that you will get rewards for doing good deeds.

As a doer or speaker, you have to put good intention first. There will be no intention of getting the rewards, praise or higher position in the company. If you do your task with thinking "I'm doing this to show people that I am super intelligent", then you crushed sincerity in you and what you've done. Of course, you want something out of doing good deed. But that is just your inner desire. It's not wrong to feel like that, but putting those desires away, start to do things for the good of your own and the others first. The reward is the sincerity itself.

To sum up, I like to relate to sincerity as honesty, openness, love, acceptance, embrace, gratitude, charity, care, and acknowledgement. Add some if you like as I know there are a lot of sincerity in the Universe, and we just need to align ourselves to it and continue the journey.

Let this be the starting point for us to explore sincerity.

Start being Sincere now!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Fantastic Friday - Global Effect

Yay!! It's Friday!
In short, we like to use TGIF.. There is even a restaurant chain with this name. Can you believe how powerful Friday is...

From observation, I can see that everyone is in a mood to plan things for the weekend, to acknowledge that the days of doing something they like or doing nothing at all are coming.

In some cultures, Friday is a special day, culturally and religion-wise.
In muslim countries, Friday is where there is this Friday prayer. It's so special that there is a special prayer on this day! Isn't it fantastic? In Malaysia where I come from, on Friday afternoon you can see most of the population would join together, heading towards the nearest mosque. It's a sight! The Friday prayer is for men only, so what do us ladies do during this long afternoon break? hehehe.. As for myself, I would go shopping, or having a long lunch with friends. We felt like it's weekend already!

I have not deplore on other cultures or ancient times. But I think for Christians there is Good Friday, isn't it?

There is a trending topic in Twitter called #Follow Friday.. I'm not going there as yet! :D
Then on Facebook, it's a celebration when it comes to Friday. You see people are "active", plans were made, and most of people acknowledge that it's Friday. Why not everyday we say Finally it's Tuesday! That doesn't sounds right, does it?

There you go, my first attempt to acknowledge that friday is so fantastic.
TGIF!

Seven Gifts A Week

Day after day, week after week we lead the life as we seem fit. We crinkle our nose when it is Monday morning, we sigh when it comes to Tuesday and we smile when Friday and weekends are visible.

Taking one step back, those seven days that we live and re-live, over and over again in cycle are the chance for us to be who we are and what we want to do.

I look at the days as gifts. Just like happy birthday gifts, you like some of them, sometimes you would prefer something else. But also you can decide what you will get, by deciding what you want as a gift.

So for me it is the same as the days in the week. Sometimes they are to your liking and sometimes not.
But most important, and I think the message that I want to pass through via this blog is to tell, my friends, to choose what you want to be, acknowledge the gifts that you receive and be thankful that you have the seven gifts a week :-)

That is how I came up with the idea of this blog.
Of course, I can't make it possible without the help of people around me. I radiate all the power of knowledge around me and the right people came to me at the right conditions. I acknowledge my friends in Facebook who came up with different ideas when I asked for words starting with certain letters :-)
Do accept my gratitude for encouraging me!

Then it is time to start this blog, and the question is to why I asked for words starting with certain letters.
This blog is dedicate to the seven days a week that are given to us. Therefore, I am looking at words that could go with these days. I could said this earlier when I asked in Facebook. But that's not fun isn't? And I did asked for fun :-)

The word that accompany the day will help me to focus on what to blog. Meaning that each day will have a theme.

The moment has come...

Here is the list of the Seven Gifts A Week:
Gift #1: Fantastic Friday - It's everything to describe Friday that we love so much

Gift #2: S-day - I speak 3 languages, and all 3 of them starts with the same letter! Saturday, Samedi, Sabtu

Gift #3: Awareness Ahad - Part of it I like an awareness theme and Ahad = Sunday = Dimanche

Gift #4: Mamma Mia! Monday - Mammmaa miiaa!! describes mondays (to me at least)

Gift #5: Makan-makan Mardi - Yes I like food! Although I already have a foodie blog, but food is food! You can't get enough of it!

Gift #6: Wet Wednesday - I took this concept from Jason Mraz. It shall be anything to do with.... Water!

Gift #7: Karaoke Khamis - Seriously, do you think I would skip karaoke for something else? Khamis = Jeudi = Thursday. I asked on Facebook word starts with 'J'. The suggested words can't beat karaoke :-)
These names are not definitive. Where the fun is if we won't ourselves to have different gifts each day?!

I'm grateful that it is done and very hopeful to contribute to change :-)

THANK YOU:MERCI:TERIMA KASIH