Archives for March 2020

what a great fortune ! what a great time in the kitchen !

In my house, we are blessed with a “Michelin” chef. My domestic helper, Rohimah has discovered her passion over the twenty years that she worked with us——cooking.

She is a born cook as she has all traits of a good chef; tons of patience, curiosity, adventure, humility to accept feedback and intelligence.

Every meal is a delightful experience. My husband who cooks well himself would exude extreme exuberance when sampling her cooking. It is quite hilarious to watch how food can make people so happy.

I cooked too but lack some of her traits. So I set out to watch her and the following are important habits to cultivate.

1 Get all ingredients ready. Rohimah would first prepare all ingredients like garlic, onions, parsley, etc all chopped and set aside in small dishes. Meat are properly marinated and timed so that when ready to cook, the sauce would have infiltrated the meat.

2 Frying pan is always hot first. This is important because if the oil is not hot, you cannot saute the garlic and onions well and they need to be fragrant before adding the rest.

3 No short cuts— If a certain vital ingredient is missing, she would never embark on that cuisine. For instance, you would never think of starting to cook if you run out of garlic or onions and that dish needs these essential elements, would you?

4 Prepare with the end in mind. When food is ready, they are always served hot and placed in a dish that enhances the appearance of the food. Garnishes such as parsley, spring onions, chillies and fried onions, etc are good options. Adding some of these colors to food will make them appear more vibrant and vivid and even more palatable.

To date, she has at least 50 dishes under her belt. I would like to share one of her delectable recipes here.

I called it “Rohimah’s Signature fried chicken”. It could give KFC a run for the money and I wish you could taste them.

Ingredients; chicken parts, salt and pepper, coriander powder, corn flour, tempura flour, egg white.

Note: After washing the chicken pieces with salt and water, dry well on paper towel if you want them to be crispy.

Mix the ingredients into the meat and set aside for 45 minutes in the refrigerator.

Heat up cooking oil ( if you drop some of the blend in the oil and it sizzles, it is ready. Cooking in oil that is not hot enough results in soggy fried chicken. Deep fry until golden brown then scoop up and drain on metal rack or thick paper towels.

To serve, you may garnish with dill, parsley or add cucumber and tomato slices at the side.

Voila ! Rohimah’s Signature fried chicken, crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. May you try cooking this dish and turn your family members and guests gaga ! Maybe you could embark on this business, next to KFC ?

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world “—–J.R.R. Tolkien

Watch this blog for the launch of Rohimah’s ebook on her cuisine, many of which are extremely easy to prepare……soon

watch your mood……

Everyday, we feel challenges, frustrations, provocations. Something will crop up and test your temperance.

The basic principle of physics — Every action is met by a reaction. Except that the reaction is decided by us.

Your temperance will determine what kind of day or life you are going to have. Unbridled, you will live to regret it — the hurtful things that you have said cannot be easily retracted, the actions that you have taken would be difficult to reverse and the damage done will be forever remembered.

So, from the start, why not realize this — your temperance is within your control so we should learn to exercise that. Living with joy is about controlling your temperance.

This realization was sparked when scrolling through the mobile, I found a lot of videos about rage, shot and uploaded by people. A simple incident, a bad mood triggered yelling amounting to a meltdown even a brawl. Is it really nice and normal for humanity to continue this way in today’s world?

I have watched videos of people helping others in dire circumstances and felt the love and warmth of humanity. Especially in the rescue of animals trapped in many ways, that is the display of true temperance at its best.

No amount of hollering, hair pulling and cursing alleviate the situation. Stay cool and work on a solution.

Videos are plentiful of how some rescuers often compose themselves and repeatedly battle through icy waters, swift currents or scaling steep walls to bring a stranded animal to safety.

Today, we have much more privileges and benefits than our forebears. Great discovery, better education, more freedom. Yet, something is elusive. Happiness is no where to be found. Humor is lacking. Tolerance is not existent.

Temperance is wisdom. People who exercises self- restraint often find solutions to a problem and succeed in overcoming obstacles.

It is an important trait to cultivate as it is a sign of maturity. It gives yourself and others confidence dealing with you. Yet, so many people have knee jerk reactions.

Temperance is also the key to long life. Naturally, a self controlled person is even tempered and we all know that anger or any extreme emotion is not good for your body.

If you want to avoid all the stress related diseases- high blood pressure, stroke, migraine,etc keep your cool. We will have more clarity of thought to solve problems.

Temperance is essential for happiness. Such a person is more attractive and dependable.

Life, good or bad is about temperance. If you want more peace and happiness at home and at the work place, be aware of this factor and watch your mood.

For pleasure, delight, peace and felicity, live in method and temperance. — Margaret Cavendish

It is a great era ! Opportunities abound for those who are fearless.

“ Your route guidance is now completed” My adopted sister, the GPS in my car had announced and I found that I had arrived after some mindless driving. You do not need to pay loads of money for your car GPS. Google GPS or yahoo GPS is a free app and will ensure you find that restaurant in your destination anywhere in the world. If you are buying a product that has no English words on it, just run google translate camera over it and viola, the ingredients are revealed !

‘ Tick, tick, tick,’ the computerized endodontic locator sounded and I knew I had reached the apex of the root canal that I had attempted to access. Before this, only x rays with the diagnostic file would measure the exact length . Now with the click of a mouse and a sensor, the picture appears on the monitor. No more developing and fixing of films.

In addition to taking great pictures with your handy phone camera, you can now animate your still photos making the clouds drift by, the rivers flow, the waterfalls spill over and so on. It is really a treat for the eyes.

Welcome to the world made by great leaps in technology and communication.

The examples given are not exhaustive. The advances have pervaded almost every field and industry and continuously evolving, it will take two lifetimes to enjoy them all.

Technological advances are giving more comfort and convenience to our lifestyles but for the uninitiated who do not embrace change, it can be a stressful time unless one embrace it like a love one.

Change has been the constant throughout our lives and is unlikely to go away .

Personally, I do concede that I find too much on my plate of change but I would still continue to dip my fingers into this ever enlarging pie.

I remember several years ago when I received from my husband the gift of an iphone followed by an ipad which to most of you are regular items.

Back then, I was actually quite happy with my now defunct nokia phone and a physical book. However with these two products, a whole new world had subsequently opened up that led to functions like banking on the mobile, surfing on the go and free messaging to my heart’s content just to name a few daily activities. These days, I also book good cinema seats, read any novel and shop online, anytime and anywhere.

I believe that there are many more functions but I do not have enough time to explore.

Change is inevitable. It is the present and the future.

I have tried to convince my senior relative to learn the useful functions of the ATM machine and online banking but he still carries wads of cash with him.

I have tried to get my sibling to change his decade old fridge for an environmentally and energy saving one and he finally did. I managed to teach him youtube and HBO and netflix. He says he has found reasons to live longer given all the old movies and songs at his disposal now. His world has become so fascinating.

I have tried to encourage my friend to use the playstation that has many fun genres of dancing as she was too lazy to use the gym. I remembered using Jane Fonda dance laser disc. Now you have Nintendo switch that can guide you with great music and moves that you could follow in your own room to have fun and burn calories.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is equivalent to magic — — — Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Change is important. It is the very essence of the human spirit, to innovate, to create and make life better, faster and happier.

Not welcoming it is tantamount to going back to old ways of doing things. Why would you want to do that?

Do you still want to wait in long queues if you can resolve your transaction over the internet?

Do you still want to get something done in hours when you could use a software that allows you to complete your task in a jiffy and at your leisure?These days, workers may work from home if they can produce results.

Do you not want to wallow in silence while your friends are discussing the latest gadget and having loads of fun every day?

Hence, brace for more changes to come.

Robots are a familiar sight doing butler services in hotels, cleaning spaces on office floors and playing an active role in space, manufacturing, medical field as well as in the military. Robots would be able to serve in industries where the jobs are mundane and repetitive freeing humans for more creative jobs.

Electric vehicles are getting better, driverless vehicles are still being worked on so that they can be totally reliable and totally autonomous. You would be able to just sit back, catch up on your work or take a nap.

Touch commerce is getting more common as more people discover the convenience of online shopping, varieties of products and competitive pricing. This is a huge challenge to the brick and mortar models. Anyone today with a good product, knowledge of bringing it online and marketing it well can reap profits. It can even become a second career to your 9 to 5 job not to mention opening a whole new frontier to your learning and interests.

Just three examples and we are skimming on the surface of many marvelous changes to come. Many are just mind-boggling and these show how innovative human beings have become.

Everyday, I feel the change around me. Getting older throws me a greater challenge but I am determined to ride this wave of transformation and enjoy its perks.

How to embrace change.

Be open minded. Human beings are naturally resistant to unknown territory ( I remember how I rejected the free iphone )Yes, first feel it in my bones, know it is something spectacular to explore and dive into it. These days, when there is a new gadget or idea which I think would be of use, I would adopt it. Dabble in it. Understand it. Then apply it.

Do it. My most recent venture was to learn how to create a wordpress website. Intimidated at first by my younger fellow classmates, I persevered, resitting the class till I understand how the backend of a website works. Creativity is not my forte but I think the course triggered this sleeping part of my gray matter.

To my surprise, I managed to complete my dentist website though it could not be compared to ones done by paid professionals in terms of quality but I have met most of the objectives of a good website. Now, I am trying to learn about SEO, another new terrain for me but I believed that I would be able to optimize it in due time without having to pay for ads.

BeCurious and continue to learn. Like my cats but I believe that I would not be killed if I acquire the knowledge. It is not possible to know about many changes or the latest development in every aspect of our lives but along life’s journey, it helps to get interested in something and learn in depth. Then you will discover the benefits. The more one dip our hands into this change, the more natural it would feel.

Reason to do so. When they say that these days, there are people who have fallen through the cracks, I believe that it is not just economically but technologically as well. Without embracing change, when we step out of the house, we would become inconvenienced and disadvantaged and feel archaic. With mass migration across borders and people are getting more savvy with the latest developments that enhances their work performance, the competition for jobs would only get keener….as a dentist, I am not spared too even though I have been in practice for more than 30 years.

Increased confidence. In a gathering with friends and colleagues, I no longer feel lost when topics veered towards digital gadgets and useful softwares. I made it a point to let salespeople demonstrate their latest technology whether it is related to dentistry or not. Investing in good gadgets turn out to be a great help in my career. For instance, the digital dental camera is a fantastic marketing tool that provides instant images on the monitor and is very educational to the patients to provide the optimum treatment plan to them.

Gain respect. I feel that I have been able to bridge the gap with my children who are incidentally in the IT business. At 62, I have created my own dental website, learned about photoshop, learned about e-commerce and SEO though I have not exactly figured out how to use the latter to my advantage yet. But keeping in touch with technology usually puts one on par with your kids and your colleagues and friends. There would be common and current topics to talk about. You may even impress your boss!

Wonderful retirement awaits me. Bustling with ideas, I envisage myself being busy with all the latest technology that I have chosen to adopt and hopefully, I can enjoy every waking moment.Second careers would flourish. Now that I have discovered medium and many apps that could help potential writers write better with more ideas and accuracy, it is indeed a going to be great fun.

My assertion: Let’s all embrace change and enjoy our lives!

Live each day happily but do not forget to record the moments

As I looked through my old albums, I am glad for one hobby that my family has. It is photograph taking. Though we were not rich, we would always take pictures. I remembered my dad carried this old camera box and occasionally take random shots. On weekends, my parents, two older brothers and I would go out to any part of Singapore and my dad would take pictures.

My brothers seemed to inherit this interest in photography. Later, they would even develop the photos in their own makeshift dark room. The black and white pictures were pristine for amateurs. I became one of my brother’s ‘model’ as we went out on weekends to places and he would take more photos.

Looking back, the photos evoke a lot of memories — Our family activities, the good times, the old places of Singapore that are now transformed, the fact that we were once so youthful and now getting on in age but still enthusiastic about life.

All these hobbies became very important in their future careers. Both brothers became designers of sorts. One started his own business and had to take good pictures of his products. The other sibling took good pictures for his company’s portfolio. They had no formal training but constant dabbling in this hobby brings out some sense and proportion in the art of taking shots.

Today, as I travel, I would never fail to take random shots and am very happy to use some of these shots for my articles in medium. You can even submit what you feel is a good picture to a photo competition websites, hopefully to win a TOP prize.

Our memories have dimmed but photos bring them to life. I remembered my mother in her last days while in her hospital bed. Nothing could make her smile until I took out the album about the few cruise trips we had together. She remembered the cruises, the buffet spread, the sundeck at the upper floor, the shows we had watched in the cruise theatre.

Suddenly, she smiled and said, ‘This ship is so big!’ and pointed at the high ceiling and the surroundings of her ward. We knew that she was delirious but those were happy moments for her. That was all that mattered.

The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.” — -Andy Warhol

People change but photos are for posterity. The significant images of the past and present are forever kept in our archives.

Pictures capture the glory of my beloved home that is Singapore. From a fishing village slightly over 100 years ago to the modern city it is today with state of the art architecture, great food and culture. It is what makes Singapore a top destination in the world. Thanks to avid photographers, the many beautiful perspectives of this island country is forever recorded and appreciated all over the world.

Photographs are proof of what we had done together as a family. Looking back, I only wished we had been more discriminate in the taking of pictures as there have been many retakes, one looked better than the other. Hence It would take a long time to discard superfluous shots and I have still have a truckload so to speak. But we continue to tote our phone cameras with us.

My spouse used to emphasise that if the kids ever complained that they had a dull childhood, he would toss all these albums at them! Evidence of great family time!

Photographs are a record of our activities, progress and achievements in our lives. I have always said that in a fire, I would rescue the photo albums where possessions are concerned. They are the treasures of time and our lives.

Time has flown and will continue into eternity. But whenever I wanted to freeze time, I would revisit my albums.

Live, write, capture the moment- that is what makes life so meaningful as we evolve through the ages.

Photography shows the beauty of our world, the intellect of humans as they make life ever more progressive and leave a legacy for many generations to come.

Work on your four As. Life is always great !

So many times, I hear the expressions, ‘life is short’ , ‘ life is unpredictable ‘, ‘ I don’t need to shop anymore’, ‘I am too old for that!’ I like to think that these are cliche statements . The last statement is even uttered by an elderly patient who clearly needs dentures. When would be a good time to have dentures to eat better, I wonder.

Like it or not, we are going to grow old , stiff like an oak tree and die or suddenly be called into the next dimension without our consent. In any case,we should all make good use of this unique life that is given to us.

This aging syndrome is most keenly observed at my classmate gathering — over the years of gathering, talk have evolved from career to family to health and death and counting casualties . But I believe that we should put a positive spin on this.

How and why did we get like this ? I like to think it is the fear of aging and dying. When We were younger we lived with reckless abandon and unlimited joy . Nothing cowed us. Go and look at your old photos- how you looked so carefree and I bet some of you took risks. I did and had a good time. If I had given too much thought, I would not have tried anything.

But When you grow older , you become rational, sensible, cautious — you hear how older people fall and suffer. How older people should not be doing stuff anymore. Moreover, now that you are also exposed to too much bad news of the world. Knowing too much and forgetting how to live. You want to preserve life, you fear death hence you become too careful and risk averse.

Eating so healthily that you forget that variety is the spice of life. You stop shopping and decide that your life should just be shades of grey. Your attire reflects that! Your countenance shows that!

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art — -Eleanor Roosevelt

Since aging is inevitable, let’s get some facts straight first.

We are all going to be old and wrinkly anyway so we should try to look better and more attractive in our own way. Shop ! Maintain yourself! Enjoy!

One thing would get better before it’s gets worse — that is the brain. Because by now, your brain has processed many events in your life and you have grown wiser without you knowing it.

Hence it is the wonderful period of time for maturing individuals.

I have given some thought as to how one could grow old happily and gracefully.

Other than eating sensibly and exercising which goes without saying; we could-

1 Spend time to improve our cognitive abilities through reading. Learn new things and skills ie. continuous learning ,\ socialise more and keep abreast of the changes around us. The important thing to develop is the brain that can put you in good stead . I recommend Toastmasters activity.

Becoming an active Toastmaster is an excellent choice. This constant teasing of the brain through table topics, the discipline to write one’s speeches is almost a panacea against dementia and depression. There is much to learn and share among your members as we are from different backgrounds.

2 Reinvent yourself — get a new look. Get a new color lipstick , do your hair. learn the latest dance called shuffling. Even guys do facial these days.

Do not stop shopping. You can still be a minimalist by replacing the non functional stuff with current ones and keep the numbers same. There are apps that allow you to exchange your old items for cash instead of binning it.

Dressing nice and neat not necessarily expensively gives you a sense of confidence and wellness.

2 Stop worrying about the children/grandchildren if u do have .

Remember my own parents used to worry about our survival because there were so many of us-my father envisaged us living on the streets — 30 years on, we are still not starving . Some of us have battled though the daily struggles ,some of us have reinvented ourselves, but we are still alive and well.

Conclusion:-children will come into our own.

3 Do some volunteer work and get in touch with people less fortunate than ourselves — then we have a lot to be thankful for.

4 Older age is a great time for celebration — duties are done; we have time on our hands and with good health- it means lots of time for hobbies even second career. Rekindle that fire in your belly and in your relationships. The world is filled with so many new innovations and new things to learn about. Meet up with old friends and let some of your enthusiastic friends rub off some of their glow on you.

How many slices of your cake have your eaten and how much is left?

We all will age. Nothing can stop the ravages of time. Given this, we might as well make the best of it and live as well as we could.

Stay positive! Work on your attitude, aptitude, appearance and association with people to make life interesting and inspire a whole new generation 。

Do not stop shopping! Do not stop dancing! Do not stop spending! Let us show the younger generation that aging is to be revered and not reviled. We can all grow old happily.

Count your age by friends not years. Count your life by smiles not tears —John Lennon

This decision brought me lots of advantages

Recently, I have develop a deep interest in the Mandarin language. From young, it was always my weakest subject although my dad was a teacher in a Chinese speaking school back in the 60s in Singapore. He came from China at a young age of 19, a bespectacled man with not many pennies to his name but looking to eke out a living in Singapore.

He spoke with an accent that makes you know straight away that he was not local but from the province of Fujian in China. Somehow, I have never developed a love for the language though half my siblings were schooled in Chinese, the rest of us in English schools. I used both languages when I spoke to my older siblings depending on their schooled language but used the dialect of Hakka when I spoke with my parents.

In school, I failed miserably in Mandarin studies. A lot of rote learning was required in learning the idioms and writing the kanji characters. My essays would always have blanks interspersed between words and the story hardly intelligible. However, I could still communicate in a rudimentary style in Mandarin though I knew it was not an acceptable standard.

Then into my fifties, I became interested in this language. It came about when I was about to treat a young patient from China who came to Singapore to work. She was carrying a thick literature book and her occupation on her treatment card read ‘cashier’ at one of the supermarkets. In our short conversation, I found that she had ventured to Singapore to enjoy her culture and way of life. Though she graduated from the University of Szechuan in design, she had chosen to experience a new life here and could only find work as a cashier. She was struggling with English.

After the dental treatment, I posed her an offer. “Why not help each other ?”, I said. I could teach her English and she could brush up my Mandarin. To my surprise, she sounded keen. That was set and we became committed to meet each other twice every week in the evening at a coffee house after work.

Her name is Kai Zhen. She turned out to be an academic and a great teacher. She would bring materials for me to read. I was determined to unravel the difficulty of learning Mandarin and uncover the beauty of its words and meanings. As I read, she would correct my pronunciation. Then she would assess my understanding and often gave me analogies to help explain the idioms better. In the process, she regaled me with wonderful anecdotes of ancient China which have more than 5000 years of history. There were so many lessons to learn. She had turned me into a very eager student.

Then , it would be her turn to read in English and I would help her with the right pronunciations and explanations. It was a pleasure to have an enthusiastic student lapping up everything during the lesson. We read ‘Animal story’ and many other fables over the weeks. I have heard of the titles of the many books that she was interested but never explore them myself. We also worked through grammar workbooks so that she could prepare for her Toefl exams. We were both fired up to learn and bathe in this form of mental stimulation.

From my learned kai Zhen, we progressed into the philosophies by Confucius and his teachings from the Analects. It was an amazing time. There was so much wisdom and good thinking that one could adopt into our lives even in today’s world. I would consider this type of interaction with a friend as the most meaningful.

All good things came to an end when Kai Zhen announced that she would be returning to China to get married. Our mutual teachings lasted about one year. By then, I have felt that she had given me enough foundation to explore Mandarin on my own. Moreover, the apps that she had introduced to me were very helpful as many books could be downloaded and read free with audio as an alternative. They did not even require wifi. She was determined to continue her English learning back in China.

I am very grateful for this encounter. Even though there is a 35 year age gap between us, I learned that a mentor can be a much younger person. A good teacher is one who is learned and enthusiastic to teach. A good friend can be made if we both share the same values.

My life has been enriched by Kai Zhen because of our chanced encounter as a dentist/patient and because I had popped the question, “ How could we help each other?”

All attempts at mutual education is to help us grow. It widens our vision — Robert Kennedy

This mutual benefit should be practiced more often. Find yourself a great teacher who is kind, generous and knowledgeable. Meanwhile, brush up your own skills whether in art, culture or anything else that may be of interest to others. Then exchange the information gladly. Life is so much more meaningful because of this interaction.