coffee beans

I don't believe we can do so many things in this world. That is the small routine things that matter. How I wish that I can contribute to the world will start from the daily basis the things that I do for me, myself to the company and to the community. Quite apart from anything else, my experience is trying to change things for the better makes you feel better, healthier.

Nowadays we often heard Multinational Corporation strongly put an effort on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) campaign. CSR is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society. Business giving back to the society.

I believe it is now more important than ever before for business to assume a moral leadership. The business of business should not be about money, it should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed.

Business must be run at a profit, else it will die. But when anyone tries to run a business solely for profit..... then also the business must die, for it no longer has a reason for existence.
In terms of power and influence, you can forget what you were taught in school, forget politics. There is no more powerful institution in society than business. As I believe that business is one of the way by which we could introduces values into a non-value industry. Anything that change values changes behavior and all knowledge should be translates into action.

CSR is also about people power. We can vote with our money. Yes, I definitely won’t buy the T-shirts from a company that hire children worker.

Human are individually communicative person : When you do good in a community, the benefits eventually get back to you.

Little Dragon work in company which adopted baby giraffe in the National Zoo, very cute !!
And more and more company aggressively launch a campaign “Plant a Trees” or “Save a Reef”.
Provide education for low-income families, built facilities and so on. We need business that safeguards the environment. We need business that encourages countries to educate their children, heal their sick, value the work of women and respect human rights.

It doesn’t matter that your company is 3 persons or 3 million persons, you can always start your CSR project. My aunty and I start our CSR project by re-cycling the used coffee powder for fertilizer. As we generates lots of used coffee beans on daily basis, instead of throwing it away we are giving it to the landscaping company for them to use as a natural fertilizer for the plant.

And I personally use the used coffee beans and mixed it with honey, oats and yogurt and use it as a body scrub to make my skin glow plus the caffeine in the coffee have a slimming effect. Double good !!

Fortune Cookies

Please grant me serenity to accept I’m not alone in thinking life sometimes sucks and courage to get my own back.

We are living in a competitive world. But not to forget we are born winner. Just imagine that the sperm have to swim a thousand miles to meet the egg and the one and only was chosen and after 9 months we were born. Our existence is the evidence of winner. The rule is never give up to the match. We have to keep on challenging until dying. We are the Lucky one already !

However we hardly deny that ......
Life dumps on you sometimes. We all get dumped. By love, life, friends, work or family. Even they broke your heart, you should never let them break your will to get out there in killer heels. Never mind your hang-ups. Just go out and buy some hold-ups. Don’t let people get on top of you. Get on top of them. Life is what you make it. It’s your own screenplay. So what are you waiting for ? Now, put us down. Get out there. Write yourself an X-rated scene for today and make sure you live it !

Anyway if you feel like giving up just remember Mariah Carey song

There is a hero
When you look inside your heart
You don’t have to be afraid of what you are
There an answer if you reach into your soul
And the sorrow that you know will melt away …..

A favourite song to sing inside the bathtub whenever I felt down ! Never fail to cheer me up !

And one more things go out to have a nice dinner at Chinese Restaurant and eat fortune cookies, they never say bad things ….I just crack one and it’s says "pursue your wishes and your fortune is on it’s way"

Fortune cookies Rock !

sun & sea

I think that as hard as we all work, and how busy life is, it is super important to be able to take some time to relax, be with your loved one, and just get away from it all ! Almost everybody I know love to travel and have their favourite getaways.

I love travel – it’s nutritious for the spirit to try things that may see (at first) weird or difficult. I always want to discover more about myself, and the only way that happens is if I expose my mind (and senses) to things it’s unused to, and I like to explore and savour another culture, and to feel what a welcoming place the world can be. Traveling doesn’t have to be expensive or faraway places. A few hour drive with a good company is more meaningful than anything.

Last weekend I was persuaded by my aunty friend to accompany her 12 years old daughter to their vacation getaways in Cherating beach. Cherating Beach is in the east coast of Malaysia, 4 hours drive from Kuala Lumpur. How can I resist sun & sea even though I have to baby sit 12 years old Momoko chan right ! What so difficult about doing nothing but eat, swim, hang out and relax, which is heavenly ! So I grab my bikini and join them to have fun in a sun !

Momoko chan insist to build the most beautiful sand castle in the world and determine to compete in the World Sand Sculpture Festival one day. Me play the good role of assistant collected the considerable amount of shells and seaweed to decorate the castle. We dig a moat to protect the castle from invaders, crabs and such like; lastly we put our hand prints and signature to our creation like the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Gosh ! didn’t realized that building sandcastle is such a tiring activity. Anyway we had so much fun and Momoko chan insist that we should do this every couple of months to realize her dream of competing in the world championship which I figure it will takes about another 10 years to go ! Hmm … may be I should advertise and ask for help to anybody who want to become sandcastle artist. Any takers ?

The Prof did mention in his email to go out to travel for four days or more to regain luck whenever you get frustrated or angry with something. I totally agree

Life is beautiful ! Make it better and try to live life full of laughter !

tomato

I love tomatoes. I’m crazy about tomato. I’m maniac about tomatoes. I’m obsessive about tomatoes. Fresh tomatoes, tomatoes sauce, tomatoes ketchup, tomatoes in whatever form, I can’t live without tomatoes. I must have tomatoes every day.

There are variety types of tomatoes. The beefsteak are large tomatoes often used for sandwiches; plum tomatoes often used in tomatoes sauce and paste; cherry tomatoes (my favourite !) are small and round, often sweet tomatoes generally eaten whole in salad.

Italians eat a lot of tomatoes. Tomato sauce is now more recognizable Italian that the tricolor of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is the lifeblood of the Italian food – some would even say of the Italians themselves. You can combines pasta with around fifty different sauces containing tomatoes.

The Italians I know never seems to go through real ‘down’. They always bubbly and jovial. May be there’s an enzyme in there that makes you perky. My guess is it’s to do with tomatoes.

Pomo d’oro is tomatoes in Italian literally means golden apple. Prof wrote that the enzyme in tomato is called lycopene. Lycopene gives a red colour to a tomato, and the beauty of it, it can suppresses the growth of cancer cell in human body. Lycopene also defends body from carcinogen contained from the ultraviolet ray of sunray.

The lycopene also actively working to generate the oxygen inside the body to reduce stress. Lycopene can generate happy hormone in your body. See, another reason why I love tomatoes.

Moreover the lycopene control the oxidation of bad cholesterol and prevents body from aging.
It also makes skin beautiful and have the whitening effect.
In Europe, there is a proverb “When the tomatoes reddens, the doctor becomes blue”.

Luckily I live in temperate country where tomatoes growth in abundant annually. We have a regular customer in our café whom I fondly called Sensei. He is headmaster of the Japanese Kindergarten in KL. Apart from running the kindergarten his hobby is gardening. I manage to persuade him to plant cherry tomatoes in his garden after promising him to look after his cat whenever his away. Often I will go to his garden nearby to help him water the plant. Oh ya, may be I can buy Sensei the basil plant so that he can plant it with the tomato for the tomato to grows sweet, as I read in the book somewhere that tomato and basil love each other and you can get benefit from both. Sometimes he will bring me the tomatoes and I often used the tomatoes to make my favourite Summer Vege Pasta. My original receipe using a lot of tomatoes.

I need to persuade little dragon to save on our salary so that we can go to Rome the capital of Italian Cuisine. Where we can have the Pizza Margherita. On top, there is sweet tomato sauce that foams up all bubbly and creamy when it melts the fresh buffalo mozzarella. Buon appetito !

Moreover, where every Leonardo, Michaeoangelo and Antonio call you "Bella"

(translation = beautiful) every time.

Dolce vita – the sweet life.

eclipse

On July 22nd the moon’s shadow fell across Asia in the longest total solar eclipse the21st century will witness. From the Ganges River in India to remote islands of the Pacific, the sun rose only to vanish again, allowing the stars to twinkle — a celestial show that inspired awe and fear in millions across Asia. Never before have so many people lived under an eclipse’s path.The skies darkened first in India just after dawn, then a wide swath of Asia was blackened as the eclipse moved eastward over southern Japan and then off into the Pacific Ocean. In some areas, the eclipse lasted as long as six minutes and 39 seconds.

China has traditionally seen eclipses as ominous. A government directive ordered officials to combat “superstition and terror”, watch out for traffic accidents caused by distracted motorists and prevent stampedes.

Others in India were gripped by fear and refused to go outdoors. In Hindu mythology, an eclipse is said to be caused when a dragon-demon swallows the sun, while another myth says the sun's rays during an eclipse can harm unborn children. Along the banks of the Ganges, thousands of devotees turned out to pray, chant and bathe in the waters, which were dotted with women in colorful saris and bare-chested men, all wearing dark glasses.

At a Buddhist temple in the Thai capital Bangkok, dozens of monks led prayers at a Buddhist temple to ward off evil. The eclipse is viewed as the bad omen for the country and the praying to boost the fortune of the country.

Total eclipses are caused when the moon moves directly between the sun and the Earth, covering it completely to cast a shadow on Earth. Wednesday's was the longest, there will not be a longer eclipse until 2132.

My first encounter with eclipse began when I was very little. I grew up in the plantation in the very big house on top of the hill. My dad the scientist wannabe never let the opportunity slip when there are any natural phenomenon occurs. What I remember on one day my daddy call me to come out as soon as possible outside the house and the was a tub basin fill of water and my dad asked me to look at it and never look up. The image was amazing, it look as if the moon eating the sun gradually. Later I found out it was actually solar eclipse and found the explanation in Science book. During those day there were no special google or binocular made to public, not to mention we are out of nowhere so the only way is to look as the reflection on the water tub basin. Whenever the eclipse occurred I still remembered the special moments with my daddy.

Personally I view the occurrence of the eclipse as a natural cycle of earth sun and moon realignment. Me, always view life as the half full of glass take this rarely occurrence as a sign that we should reset our cycle of life. To declutter whatever chaos we have inside and to start a new. If we have slump in our daily life whether it is work of personal we have to part from it temporarily. Most likely we often encounter blockage or jam in our daily work or study. However, it is not possible for the jam to slip our easily. What we need to do is to part from the blockage and let it recover by parting from it temporarily. The logjam, the slump is a kind of tiredness. Tiredness can be recovers. To slip out from the slum at work, free time for vacation is required to recover from a mental and physical stress. The French called this La retraite, is to become free from life to which work and study etc. are restrained through life.

So taking from this celestial even I’ll start cleaning and declutter all my stuff. Maybe I’ll do the scattering of beans ritual like the Japanese kids during the New Year, Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi “The Demon out, the Luck in”. Hopefully the luck will recover. Finger crossed.

Tres Chic

“God, grant me the serenity to accept my salary may not extend couture. Courage to go own-brand in times of trouble, and the wisdom to always look a million dollars, even if that’s the amount I owe”

Hello sister ! skint is chic. I need to do makeover of my wardrobe. I decided to do my own brand.
Just because you’re on cut-price budget doesn’t mean you can’t wear couture. You may be strapped for cash but never let things slip appearance-wise. Nails clean, hair washed, make-up professionally applied. You should look fabulously well maintained. Image is everything. Listen, if the old budget doesn’t quite stretch to couture then don’t despair. Whether your budget screams Armani or China Town, you should still get out there and party. Just because your bank account is empty doesn’t mean your diary ever should be. There is nothing shameful in being poor. The landed gentry may be land rich but they’re cash poor thanks to generation of gambling and debauchery. You’re in very good company, believe me.

It was Oscar Wilde who said that only a fool doesn’t judge people by appearances. He was right. How we look matters. It matters for all sorts of reasons. In this world we have to wear something every day and, whatever it is, you may be sure it tells the world something about you. It signals – more quickly that a lighting strike – whether we are fun. Clever, elegant, shy, intellectual, dowdy, sloppy, showy …. You name it, dress can convey all these qualities and more.

Psychiatrists say that they can judge the psychological health of a person from how they dress – it can speak of optimism and openness, or despair and utter hopelessness. Those who don’t bother can find themselves trapped in a downward cycle of not liking the way they look, and so they take less and less trouble, and therefore they like the way they look less and less.

Let’s try to understand it in formula that Prof. gave me ….

The person can be judged 90% from their first impression.
55% is judged from the expression of the face. 38% from the sizes and the tempo of the voice, and the content of the spoken work is 7%. This is the “Law of Mehrabian”, that American psychologist Albert Merabian created in 1971. "Rule of 7-38-55" from this ratio, and the initial of "Verbal information = Verbal", "Auditory information = Vocal", and "Visual information = Visual" is taken and is said, "Law of 3V".

The content of the spoken word is merely 7% because 93% of the remainder is the face expression and the voice. Now, I have a prove not to understand to my aunty nag !

Every woman will be amazed and thrilled when the make-over has been successful. It’s good for one’s self-esteem. It helps one face the world more confidently. It’s good for the gaiety of the nation. There was – and always is – plenty of time to change, no matter what your age. And it’s worth it. Completely empirically, one observes that those who dress prettily, elegantly or glamorously have a lot more fun that those who don’t. Glamour is a great life-enhancer and there’s no need to surrender it simply because the years are rolling by. Nor does it depend on continually buying loads of new clothes. A great haircut, fabulous shoes, cute bags and jewelry (which does not have to be expensive) all can do much to add more that a touch of glamour.

I don’t think there has ever been a better time for women wanting to look their best. It takes a modicum of time and money but then doesn’t everything that is worth while?

Actually, the personal appearance and the gesture also greatly influence.
Hearing understanding the content that the other party speaks pays attention to the other party's expression and operation. As for us, the expression of the face performs the key role from the spoken word. It is possible to make oneself felt to the other party by showing the smile of one million dollars to the other party.

The person who is lucky is always keeps the smile of one million dollar, and a conferrable person in the other party as for a fresh feeling and an agreeable first impression.

Take it from here, I better start design my own dress now and paint my heel sole RED and pretend to be expensive Louboutins! Apply my cherry lipstick and practice my Darlie smile.

It's summer time and I'm LUCKY for sure !

Aurora

Do you know the story of Greek myth “Pygmalion” ?
In olden time there was a young king "Pygmalion" in a Cyprus island.
As carving is his hobby, he liked to carve the image of a beautiful woman sculpture.
One day he obtained a wonderful marble and he immediately began to carve “the ideal image of Female”.
He kept ardently carving every day and night “the perfect beauty that cannot be desire from the woman in this world". Then, the statue was completed. As it is alive, it was a statue with the perfect beauty and stunningly beautiful, Pygmalion fell in love with the female statue.
The flower was picked and given, a beautiful necklace was worn, and when the night came, it laid in the bed and she was caressed gently. Pygmalion kept wishing that this statue can be given life to it and kept on believing. One day, the Pygmalion's wish reached the ear of Aphrodite who was the goddess of love and beauty. Aphrodite took pity of his love and decided to give the life to the statue. When Aphrodite blew in the life to the statue, the cheek of the statue of a cold marble was tinged with red, and the warmth of the skin came alive. The lip of the statue trembled faintly. Pygmalion rejoiced for the life and embraced closely. And, she was named Galatea, and eternal love to her was sworn to Aphrodite. Two people married. The child named Paphos was born between them, and it lived happily ever after. This story is a legend to teach "The wish to come true if you keep believing strongly”

It is a legend that became an origin of the name of "Pygmalion effect" proven by psychology
“anything that is not acceptable as it current negative situation, if you continue to believe on the ideal, the unexpected of the good result will came and the ideal will become reality”
The fate will be able to change if you believe strongly. Believe in yourself and your destiny will change. Whatever you believe, anything you wish will come true.



So I’m expecting that I will really see an aurora with my love one, Someday. I’ll picture it vividly this magical moment in my mind and I know deeply in my heart that the miracle will happen, sooner or later ......