Memories

Memories of Tomorrow


Just finished watching a Japanese movie entitled "Memories of Tomorrow" ,aka Ashita no kioku. This movie talks about a man who suffered from Alzheimer's disease (AD). The movie was a bit of slow pace, story lines progressed very slowly: The main character Mr. Masayuki Saeki,a successful businessman started to forget many things,including his business appointment. He went to see a doctor and he was diagnosed to suffer from AD. He tried hard to stay healthy,in order to attend his only daughter's wedding. As time went by, disease progresses...the movie won 10 awards, such as Japanese awards for best film,best actor and best actress. Anyway,it's not quite my cup of tea as i don't quite like slow-pace movie.


Notebook (2004)

On the other hand, it reminds me of another movie about AD too, it's called 'Notebook'(2004). [There're 3 movies which shared the same name). This one,i quite like it: An old man read a story to an old lady, a story about a wonderful summer experienced by a young couple, Noah and Allie. Allie went to a village to spend her summer holidays, and she met Noah, a handsome local guy. Together, they had had heaps of fun. After the summer ended, Allie had to go back to city, and in fact, her mother wasn't agree with this relationship at all. Ever since, Noah tried hard to keep in touch with Allie, he wrote so many letters to Allie but none of them reached her...

What cause Alzheimer's disease?
The actual, ultimate cause is still yet to discover. Put it in a nutshell, AD is a neurodegenerative disease, which means the neurons in our brain aren't working as well as before. To be specific, it's the Cholinergic neurons. (Meanwhile, Parkinson disease is due to the degenerative of Dopamine neuron, and thus, an overactive Cholinergic neurons).

I haven't studied much about AD, I did learn a little bit about it in our pharmacology class.

Eternal Sunshine on a Spotless Mind

I love this movie a lot!!!! The storyline is awesome! I won't write much about it, I'll let you discover the story itself. Generally, it's about a story how a couple wanted to erase the memories of each other...

*****************

Yeah, sometimes i do feel like erasing some memories out of my brain, and sometimes, i desperately need my memory to be excellent!!!

Heard some people told me they had had a hard time forgetting their ex-boy/girlfriends. I guess it is always not easy, there are so much common memories, and most likely, one side still in love with the other side. However, i love this saying, "The harder you try to forget, the harder you can forget it."

Probably it's great that in reality, we don't have the memories-erasing machine like in the movie. For me, regardless it's a sweet or a bitter memory, it's still a memory, a memory that we should appreciate. After all, we have experienced that particular experience in our lives, and if we don't like it, somehow, it'll just gone without a trace, there's no need to try to forget it. Human brain is very amazing, somehow, it'll choose to delete the part it doesn't need.

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Buddhism and Taoism believe in reincarnation, i.e. after death, we will be reborn as other creatures in our next lives, based on what we did in our previous lives. In other words, if we do a lot of bad things now, we shall be reincarnated as cockroaches, or dogs, or cats, etc. in our next lives; and if we do good things, we shall be reborn as human, humans without congenital diseases...

Anyway, they believe that the spirits will drink a soup called 'Meng Po soup" before reincarnation, and this soup will eliminate all the memories.

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Memory Improvement
I'm sure everyone wants to have a good memory. As a medical student, i long for a good memory too,though it just doesn't work occasionally.

Below are some of my personal experiences on building up memories that I would like to share:

1. Play mahjung. Haha. (yes, it's first on the list :D ) in fact I'm not really good at it, will try to learn. Anyway, just play any games that can improve your memories, such as flipping the 2 same cards among piles of cards, etc.

Building up memories is a slow process.

2. Association. In physiology, it's called 'conditioned reflex', firstly suggested by Russian scientist, Pavlov, who won Nobel prize before. He did many interesting experiments, including the dog and the bell. He rang the bell, and soon, he fed the dog. Then, he rang the bell again, and fed the dog. He repeated this step several times and eventually, he rang the bell without feeding the dog, but the dog had its saliva dripping.

Well, what I'm trying to say was associate what we try to remember with things that we use or see in daily lives. I can't recall whether i have actually tried this before, but one example, you associate a list of things with the things you see on your most familiar route, such as the way home from your school.

3. Making up stories. For instance, a series of number: 157382498, it could be ONE day, FIVE boys with SEVEN EYES because THREE of them are blind, went to EIGHT bookshops TWO (to) look FOUR (for) books about Window NINETY-EIGHT.

Probably it's a silly method, but in my Anatomic pathology class, we ought to study lots of slides, and they're so similar and hard to be distinguish sometimes. The problem is, my teacher likes to ask us to identify slides. That's a really hard task!!!! but the 'good thing' is, all the slides have numbers on it. So my groupmates and I, memorised all the slides (we had two tests so far, each test had about 30-40 slides i guess)...Crazy...

4. Diet
-Not really sure about this though; however, Chinese believes walnut is good for improving memories (not to eat too much, probably 5 walnuts maximum as they're considered as 'heaty' food (refer to my previous post regarding cough, see 'health is wealth'). So does Ginkgo.

-I read this on BBC news health section: "A chemical found in chocolate, tea, grapes and blueberries can improve the memory of mice, research suggests." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6705215.stm

Conclusion:
Oprah Winfrey says, "write down 5 happy things that happen to you each day in your diary." and yes, i agree with that, diary is meant to be jotting down all the joy we have had every day. One day when we are old, when we look back, oh yes, we have had a great and joyful lives!

Happy New Year!

*Haven't been drawing for ages. Hope you get the message from my art :D*
*Please click on the photo for enlargement if you can't see it clearly*

Apparently,
There're always 2 sides of a thing:
2 sides of a coin,
The sky and the sea,
Angel and Demon,
Happy and sad,
Up and down...

Every day,I try to find a balance point,
Like a tug-a-war,
Sleep longer?Sleep lesser?
To be or not to be?

I have some bad habits,
I always struggle to decide which side I should stand,
My conscience told me I must behave,
My 'demon' told me, it's hard to give up a bad habit.

Anyway,
Tomorrow is new year eve,
My resolutions are,
To have more self-discipline,
Not to online too much,
Not to sleep too much,
Not to complain but be thankful,
Get rid of my 2 spare tyres around my waist,
Be able to do 100 push-ups per day,
Spend on what I NEED but not what i WANT,
Smile always,
Study smart and study hard...

Anyway,
I would like to wish everyone,
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

May this video clip brings you joy and laughter!

Memories of New Zealand I --first arrival in Auckland

Well, i have got some feedbacks from friends; some said they prefer to just look at the photos rather than read the words....

So there you go. I'm posting photos i took in NZ last time,parts by parts,but obviously, i have millions of them :D


Not many of us on this photo. This was taken during our first arrival camp. 5 of us Malaysian AFSers arrived Auckland a day later,well,the flight was delayed. Most of the AFSers had left for their hosted families before we got there.



Performance by Thai students.



Kiwi volunteers were performing,forgot what it was,but something to do with rabbit.



From left: Donna, Huei Yih, Lee Li, Aiden, and me.



Malborough Sound. The flight was great, the plane flew quite low,everything could be seen clearly.

Eric's macaroni

1. cook the macaroni first.
2. Wash it with cold water when the macaroni is done, this step is to retain the 'elasticity' of it.
3. In a pan, fry onions and garlic. Next, add carrots and mushrooms.
4. Add a pinch of salt, some seasoning, mayonnaise, butter, thyme, milk,water+flour to make the sauce.
5. Add macaroni and celery. Simmer for a while.
6. Sprinkle some grated cheese on top just before serve.

Largest city in Malaysia

Just saw this joke on uncyclopedia.com/

Q: What's the largest city in Malaysia?
A: City....................


image:google.com/




Answer is......

City Nurhaliza. (SITI Hurhaliza, she's probably the most popular Malay female pop singer.)

Red

Once upon a time, there was a city called Red. It got its name because......there was red snow every winter. The entire city was covered in red.

One day, the queen died. The king remarried. The new queen wasn't from the city Red. She was really upset with the colour red, which made her more emotional and stressful. In fact, she was afraid of blood, and red, reminded her of blood.

The king loved his new wife a lot. So, he offered 1,000,000 redollars for those who can find a way to stop the red snow, or to turn the red snow into white snow. (redollar is the country currency,i.e. red+dollar=redollar, it's enough for one to buy 5 rockets, 7 castles, 99999 cows, 12345 pigs, 678910 Ferraris, two Petronas towers, 5 lakes, and one pair of red shoes).

A lot of people had tried hard to find the solution, but none succeeded. Finally, there was a wizard called Derred, he said, red snow reflected the country prosperity. It resembled blood flowing in our bodies, which supplies nutrients, provides oxygen, transports all the metabolic substances, etc. Without red snow, was like a human without blood, or hokey pokey ice-cream without chocolate topping. In order to change the red snow into white snow, the king had to find someone with white blood, kill him/her, and pour the white blood into the sea.

Unfortunately, the king couldn't find anyone with white blood, but he managed to find someone with bluetooth. Well, the king didn't want the snow to be blue either, so he banished the bluetooth guy and his family out of the city, instead of killing them. (Well, that's how they all got to survive,and their descendants are still here on earth today, and people are still using their family invention: bluebooth, of course! The family uses the name bluetooth as a remembrance of their ancestors.)

One lovely Sunday, the queen helped the king to shave. Accidentally, she hurt the king's face, and guess what, there was white blood oozing out from the skin!!! Without letting the king knew, she quickly stopped the bleeding by applying a plaster. At that night, the queen was thinking, "Finally i found someone with white blood, wahahahahahaha....But he is my husband, shall i or shall i not to kill him? To be or not to be......." Eventually, she poisoned the king the next day without letting anyone knew, and poured his white blood into the sea. Few months later, as what had the wizard predicted, the snow was white!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And......she also found out that, she actually had a baby of the king....

another few months later, the baby was born. She named her, SNOW WHITE.

Well, the following story, i bet most of you guys have heard of it. Ya, this is the origin of snow white.

Cough!

Thank God my cough has been relieved almost completely. I'm still having some light cough on and off, probably due to cold weather. Anyway, coughing is one of the most annoying thing that could happen to me. I hate it!!!

Chinese medicine divides cough into several types, i don't really know them, but i know generally, there're two: cold cough, or heat cough. How to differentiate, how to cure???!!! I don't know unfortunately, but apparently using the wrong method can make the cough even worse. That's what i'm afraid of, studying medicine, learning to be a doctor, but don't know what's the correct thing to do....haha.

Saw these remedies on WikiHow: http://www.wikihow.com/Treat-a-Cough; they seem to be very useful. Anyway, i would like to add more information about cough:

IMPORTANT: there're just some "grandmum's remedy", it may works on some people, but it may not. The best thing is: consult someone with medical background; and be careful with the diet, as Chinese saying goes, "Main reason of sickness is due to wrong diet."

1. chinese medicine believes that, if a patient has sputum/phlegm, it's heat cough; and vice versa. For heat cough, patient should take 'cold food', such as vegetables, fruits....

Meanwhile, cough without sputum is cold cough; and patient MUST not take fruits, some 'cold-type' vegetables such as salad....

In both situation: patients should try not to eat oily food.

2. Mix coca-cola with gingers. Slow heat boil it for a while and drink it. (i don't know how long is the boiling time either, just heard it from someone and he claimed it's very effective.)

3. Russian remedy: warm milk with honey. Some Russians add a small pinch of Soda powder.

4. Honey is proved to be one of the best cure for treating cough. But well, Chinese medicine again, it says honey could be divided into different types too, based on what sort of flowers/ plants the pollen, honey is from.

Anyway, the main point is: never drink mix honey with hot water. It'll destroy the nutrient. Always always, drink warm honey juice.

5. Soak black sesame with warm water (as in mix a cup of black sesame tea) for a dozens minutes, and drink it (eat the sesame too). Do this every morning. Drink it with emtpy stomach.

From wikiHow:

1. Suck something soothing.
   • For 'productive' coughs, try white horehound. A bittersweet herb, it acts as an expectorant, triggering the coughing reflex and helping to bring up phlegm. Look for a horehound and aniseed cough mixture, available in drug stores/pharmacies.
   
   
   • For 'dry' coughs, try and get a hold of slippery elm lozenges (sold online and in some health-food shops). Made from the bark of the slippery elm tree, these were once medicine-chest staples. Slippery elm is loaded with a gel-like substance that coats the throat and keeps coughing to a minimum.
   
   
2. Dose a cough with homemade syrups.
   • Blend 2 tablespoons of lemon juice with 1 tablespoon of honey and add a pinch of cayenne pepper. The honey coats your throat, soothing irritated tissues, while the lemon reduces inflammation and delivers a dose of infection-fighting vitamin C. The cayenne boosts circulation in the area, hastening the healing process. Instead of cayenne, add a little freshly grated onion. Onions contain irritating compounds that trigger the cough reflex and bring up phlegm.
   
   
   • Another onion remedy is to peel and chop 6 medium onions and put them with 4 tablespoons of honey into a bowl set over a pan of boiling water (or double boiler). Cover and simmer for 2 hours. Strain the mixture and take 1 tablespoon every 2 or 3 hours.
   • Mix a little blackcurrant cordial (choose a 'high-juice' version) with a tot of port, although the alcohol is purely therapeutic to help you sleep.
   
   
3. Brew a cough-calming tea.
   • Thyme is an expectorant and also contains substances that relax the respiratory tract. To make thyme tea, place 2 tablespoons of fresh thyme (or 1 tablespoon of dried) into a cup of hot water. Allow it to infuse for 5 minutes, then strain out the herb. Add honey if you wish and drink.
   
   
   • Sip a cup of marshmallow tea. When combined with water, marshmallow leaf yields a gooey mucilage that coats the throat and also thins mucus in the lungs, making it easier to cough up. To make the tea, steep 2-3 grams of dried leaf in a cup of hot water for 10 minutes and strain before drinking. Drink a total of 3 cups a day.

Last Microbiology Lecture

We had our last Microbiology lecture today, or more appropriately, it was a student scientific circle/discussion.

Russian Christmas is on 7 Jan, so yes, we still had lecture on X'mas eve though it's the most important day in some countries, such as Denmark. )

This Wednesday will be the last class for Microbiology too. Hopefully I'll pass the MCQ test (multiple choice questions) and get 'avtomat' (automatic pass).

It's a system in Russia. If students get enough credits from each weekly/monthly test, they can get an 'exam-free' pass, i.e. they do not need to sit for final exam.

All the best!


Professor Paskhov was delivering a welcome speech.




My certificate for doing a microbiology project, entitled "Mycobacterium Tuberculosis".

Christmas

Tomorrow is Christmas eve.

In fact i never really celebrate x'mas, except in 2004, when i was in NZ. We celebrated it in Christchurch, at my hosted bro, Michael's place. Time flies, it was 3 years ago....



My hosted parents,David and Shirley Woodrow. Photo taken during the first week I arrived Dunedin.





X'mas at Mic's place. [Kathryn (Mic's wife), Mic, and my hosted parents. I was the one who took this photo, so nah, i wasn't in....]




New member of Woodrow family: Jacob





My liaison family: Denise and Graham Shirley.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Heaps of love,
Eric.

Southern Vietnam

I was in Ho Chi Minh City for 2 days; Mekong delta for another 2 days.

In fact, i had a very 'exciting experience'. As i mentioned before, I took a bus from Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh city, and i transited in Phnom Penh. Well, i actually forgot my bagpack in Phnom Penh......oopsy daisy........Luckily things are too expensive in Vietnam, and ....Thanks to the bus company, they sent my bag pack over the next day. (*couldn't believe i was so careless. The bus company offered airline-like service, i checked in my bag, and I had my tag as well. So i thought my bag will be transferred to Vietnam directly....) what a lesson.

first cultural shock: i had never ever, seen so so so many motorcycles ever in my life! it really scared the poo out of me when i crossed the road. Well, sooner, i got used to it, the tip was: Walk very slowly, make sure the motorcyclists see you, they'll dodge you for sure. So it's not rare to stand in the middle of the road while the traffic is flowing. but still, be careful; and the best tip is: follow the crowd, haha.

Heard it from someone else: if you see a Vietnamese points to a Suzuki motorcyle and says, "Honda?" Don't be surprise. Of coz that Vietnamese knows that's a Suzuki motorcycle, but in Vietnamese usually call motorcycles as Honda. Well, i guess Honda basically monopolises the entire motorcycle market in Vietnam.

Food.....oh gosh, Vietnamese food are great! It's very easy to find vegetarian food stalls and restaurants too. I love vietnamese spring rolls the most!!!!!!!!!!! (i still prefer Chinese spring rolls, they're more crunchy. haha.) Ya, i didn't try the famous Vietnamese beef noodles soup, couldn't find a vegetarian version of it, sad....

Tourists=local...what i meant was, they sell things for the same prices, to both locals and tourists. I like to bargain as usual, but in Vietnam, depends what you wanna buy, but food, daily tools...probably the same price. well, one boss told me, "Young man, don't bargain with me ok? i sell this to Vietnamese for 1 dollar, you also same, 1 dollar."

By the way, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) used to be part of Cambodia in the 18th century. i was amazed how fast it bloomed nowadays.

First day:
did a city tour. Visited Municipal hall, Vietnam version of Notre Dame, China Town, some temples/pagodas (People here call temple as pagoda, while my understanding is: pagoda is the one like a tower, but the temples i visited were one-storey).




Municipal Hall. I like the design of the window. They are like poles, which resemble bamboos, i.e. 'climb higher, grow taller'.


Central Post office which more like a railway station exteriorly.

Second day:
Went to Cu Chi Tunnel. I was very very impressed with the entire tunnel thingy. Those communist members were just genius!!!



Bamboo trap. Cheap way to kill American armies.




Hide. Get the lower part of the body down to the hole first, hands straight holding a cover which covered with leaves. It's pretty much "flawless" , especially those leaves played a main role in hiding, and disguising.


Heaps and heaps of annoying 'flies'/ mosquitoes-like little creature at night, in our hotel in Chau Doc. Gosh, i seriously had the worst sleep EVER in my life, luckily i was totally exhausted which enabled me to doze off on and off.

Mr. Teoh told me it was a good idea to put a pail of water under the light, and somehow those annoying creature would fall into the water. Hmmm....this method didn't actually work.

I read about an article before, regarding how much creature we have eaten during sleep through out our lives; but i bet i ate more than half of the total amount of what i would have eaten that night.

TIPS: pay more, get a nice air-conditioned room. And...NEVER open the door/windows that have contact with outside air!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Some interesting stuff:
1. The tunnel has 3 floors. Yes, 3 floors down to the bottom. 1st floor for battle usages; 2nd floor for daily activities such as sleeping; 3rd floor for getting water from well (not from the river in case American soldiers put poison into the river).

2. The tunnels are really really narrow and small. One must be very fit. I spent most of my time hanging out with a Danish family. The sons are so tall....They had had a fairly hard time crossing those tunnels, though tunnels were enlarged for touristic purposes.

3. To avoid smoke from cooking coming out from the ground, they built a very long 'staircases' from the stove. Hard to explain this, well, smoke will basically go through a very long passages (in a staircases form) , so, probably the carbon, or other particles will "precipitate", "sink"....I saw it myself, it was very true that the "final smoke" that came out from the ground, was basically, hardly be seen.

4. American used dogs to look for communist members. So, latter brought a lot of garlic, onions, chillies with them.

3rd-4th day:

Join the Mekong river trip. For me, nothing much interesting, but well, got to see different things such as fishing villages, etc.

I really enjoyed hanging out with a trip-mate, Mr. Teoh. So this uncle approached me, and asked me whether i am from Malaysia, and he knew i am from Jelebu. I was so surprised. Later I realised I was wearing my high school t shirt that day =.=lll

Initially, i thought he's a Vietnamese who migrated to France after the French colonial period. He speaks perfect French. Well, his wife is a French, that's why. In fact, He's from Malaysia. Mr. Teoh works for a business news agency in Paris. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to him. I had so much to learn from him , regarding economy, business management, investment, etc.

Anyway, Mr. Teoh and I, and another Australian guy were the only three who traveled to Phnom Penh after Mekong river trip. The rest went back to Ho Chi Minh city after that. It was quite a 'scary' trip, 3 of us, hopped onto a bus fulled of Vietnamese, and took a 4 hours bus trip to Vietnamese-Cambodian border. We thought the travel agency would arrange everything for us, but argh.........Whatever. We had a safe trip, and reached Phnom Penh eventually. That's what counted the most.

Phnom Penh

After Siem Reap (Angkor),i took a 8-hour journey to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I changed bus in Phnom Penh (4hours from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, another 4 hours from Phnom Penh to Vietnam,excluding time we spent in the custom.).

I had a good look of Phnom Penh after my Vietnam trip.


Image:from wikipedia. (erm....I wonder where they took this photo?)





Cambodian delicacies in Kampong Thom. (a town between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.) I heard there's another town where people eat fried-spiders. Well, During Pol Pot's regime, heaps of people didn't have enough food, so they ate spiders. Well, that's what i heard.

I saw it on "Globe Trekker" too, where bats are one of Cambodian delicacies.




National museum.





Royal Palace. Personally i think it's a bit like Royal Palace in Bangkok?!?! Well, probably either side influenced the other side, Khmer used to be the strongest nation in South East Asia in the old times. (should be around 12-13th century.)




Independent monument.




Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. It used to be a school, but during Pol Pot's regime, it became a concentration camp (detention camp?), where they tortured civilians, both male and female...They were sent to killing field after torture. Apparently only 8 people made it out alive.

There were some of the 'torturing tools' displayed in the rooms, as well as photos. Unfortunately I lost the photos i had taken...I felt really really sorry for the victims.....

Some stories:
1. Check out the central market, can't remember what it's called. But it's close to Tuol Sleng museum. You can get all the branded cheap stuff!!!! Obviously labours are very cheap in Cambodia, a lot of companies set up their factories there.

for instance, I just bought an Adidas track suit few days ago. It was made in Cambodia.

2. There're still lots of Chinese in Phnom Penh. In fact, Phnom Penh has the most populous Chinese school in South East Asia (perhaps asia)- Duan Hua. Hard to believe ay? I can't remember how much exactly is the amount of students, probably 8000.

3. One of the most popular Chinese news agency in Malaysia, Sin Chew Daily, has a branch in Phnom Penh. They still send teachers from Malaysia to Phnom Penh to teach Mandarin language.

4. Teachers here earn about 30 USD per month. Well, i was talking to a boy who helped out his aunt in a grocery shop. He speaks very good Mandarin, but not his aunt, so i was curious and wanted to find out why. Well, it is very expensive to send kids to Chinese-medium schools; mainly because teachers' salaries aren't that much.

5. First time i experienced such a thing, where i was required to pay an extra 'departure tax' of 25 USD in Phnom Penh International Airport. What the heck? i thought airport taxes are already included in my tickets.

6. Bring lots of USD1 notes with you if you want to travel to Cambodia. They're very very useful. Everything is basically, one dollar. A ride, a bottle of water, a plate of fried rice, etc...."one Doh-laar..."

Oriental Salad

This is a very very simple dish.

Well,I am partially addicted to this Japanese series called "Team Medical Dragon", so had to cook something simple and quick. (Partially addicted coz I still have tests next week;so have to 'control' my addiction. lol.)

1. Wash the veggies,put them in a dish.
2. In a pan, fry garlic till brownish.
3. Off the heat. Add 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. We 'fry' the soy sauce for roughly half a minute. It gives a fantastic taste!
4. Pour it onto veggies. Serve.

mushroom+egg+coriander soup

1. Fry garlic, then mushrooms.
2. When mushrooms are partially cooked,fry them together with an egg. (preferably beat the egg in a bowl first)
3. Add water till ingredients are covered by it. Then simmer.
4. Off the heat. Add corianders. Simmer for few minutes. Serve.

hot coffee?cold coffee?

My anatomic pathology professor told us during the lecture last Wednesday,"Hot coffee may cause lung cancer, while cold coffee will cause colon cancer."

How should I drink then?

Anyhow, here are some of the advice for drinking coffee, which I learned in my pharmacology class:

1. lethal dose of caffeine is 10g (about 100 cups of coffee). Don't think anyone will drink 100 cups of coffee in one shot,or even a day??????????

2. for those who drink around 6 cups of coffee per day, NEVER try to stop drinking coffee suddenly. Reduce the amount of consumption slowly.

vegetarian

"You miss out all the good food..." Quite a few of my friends were surprised to find out I'm a vegetarian. Well, my saliva will never drip though you serve me Tandoori chicken, lobsters, shark fin, New Zealand roasted lamb, penang oh-jian, otak-otak, any meat....Sorry, i am just not used to eating meat for so long.

here's my vegan story.

I 'officially' started not to eat meat last year. But, since i was 9 years old, i didn't take any pork nor chickens. But i did eat fish balls and anchovies. My family stopped cooking pork too, as Japanese Encephalitis was an epidemic in South East Asia during that period.

I started to eat fish and chickens, and beef, mutton, pork, etc....(in small amount of course) during my AFS exchange year in New Zealand. Amount of meat i ate in that year (2004) was way much more than I have eaten since i was 9.

I continued being an omnivore till last year Sept.

Here are some common questions that people around me used to ask me:

Q: How long have you been a vegetarian?
A: This is a hard question. I was a vegetarian on and off. But put it this way: amount of meat i ate in the past 10 years is about 2kgs.

Q: Can you eat eggs? drink milk?
A: Yes of course. They don't contain blood nor lives.

Q: why are you vegetarian?
A:
1.Coz i don't like the taste of meat.
2.sometimes when I'm lazy to answer, I'll just reply ,"religion-wise." as people will stop asking more, haha. But ya, it's true that Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism don't encourage people to eat meat, but they do not stop people from eating either. It's up to individual. No pressure.
3. I think animals have animals' rights to live. Sorry, no offense.

Q: Is everyone in your family vegetarians too?
A: nope. I'm the only one, but my parents can hardly cook meat at home, and every 15th day they will have 'pure' vegetarian food (just vegetables, mushrooms and stuff, no dairy products too.)



Would like to share this clip with you guys, i don't know is it true or not...Probably we can make this experiment ourselves.

Curry+sesame oil potatoes ; spring is coming

Can't think of a nice name for this dish: just called it 'spring is coming', as there're green, orange, yellow...colourful isn't it?

1. Fry tofu. Put it aside.
2. Fry garlic, then carrots, followed by celeries.
3. Add a pinch of salt, add cold water mixed with flour, simmer for 5 mins.
4. Add tofus, simmer for another 3 minutes.
5. Serve.



1. Cut potatoes into cubes.
2. Fry them.
3. Add chopped onions.
4. Add curry powder.
5. Add few drops of sesame oil.
6. Serve.
* My friend recommended me the combination of curry+sesame oil=fantastic taste. Well, it was alright, probably i didn't add enough sesame oil. But one thing for sure: anything with sesame oil tastes great! haha.

Blin-russian pancake

Had pancakes for my breakfast today. In fact i don't know why it's called russian pancake, probably just because it's made in Russia??!! Well, pancakes are pancakes, regardless where you make it.

Those pancakes reminded me of Spring rolls pastry. I LOVE SPRING ROLLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we call it popia in malaysia. Anyone coming to Malaysia, don't ever miss out popia. You'll regret if you forget to taste it....

Siem Reap + Angkor

It was 4 months ago when i visited Cambodia and Vietnam. In fact i wrote something about my trip on my online travel blog but somehow the article went missing; as well as my photos. The next thing happened was,my laptop didn't seem working, so i formatted it without saving my photos...Luckily, i sent some of them to my friends and they keep those photos for me. Thanks!!!!

Well, here I'm again, writing the same thing (again). Hopefully my memory is good enough to recall this trip.

Siem Reap (4 days)

First day:

I reached Siem Reap in the afternoon, sometime in July. I booked a hotel via a website beforehand, so that i wouldn't waste time looking for accommodation later on. In addition, I requested airport pick up from that very hotel. I walked out from the airport, looked for my name among dozens of cardboards held by dozens of hotel workers. And...I failed to find it. I waited for half an hour, and decided to So i ended to hire a motorcyclist.

" Hello. This is my reservation code, i have booked a room for 3 nights. Can you please check for me." I said to the receptionist soon i reached the hotel.

" Sorry sir , we don't have your reservation. Maybe you have a reservation in our branch."

So i ended up going to the branch, and.....nah, i had not reservation at all.

I was quite upset really. The website which i booked, was a prestigious publisher of travel guide books. I wonder was i cheated or anything because i used my dad's credit card to book those hotels and i ended up having no reservations???!!!!

Anyway, my motor driver recommended me another budget hotel (a hostel i'd say), which cost me USD 4 per night, private room with a private bathroom but without air conditioned nor hot shower. Anyway, I enjoyed my stay there.

Well, the first day, i had had some cultural shocks. Firstly, motorcyclists do not wear helmets. No offense really, but lives are much more expensive than helmets.

Meanwhile, I kept looking for phone shops to buy a sim card so that i could send text messages to my parents. I couldn't believe a simcard could cost up to 20 USD , even for the locals.

I spent the afternoon wondering around town, looked for vegetarian food stalls....etc.

In the evening, my motor driver drove me to a hill in Angkor to see the sunset. (Phnom Bakheng)

Well, in fact i planned to hire a bicycle and cycled from Siem Reap to Angkor Wat. Anyhow, i couldn't resist my motor driver's offer (though i think it shouldn't cost that much, as i just discovered other people were paying less than what I have paid; but in the end, i thanked him for giving me a safe trip.) Anyway, i paid 45 USD for 2.5 days trip, he drove me around Angkor region.

In fact i doubt i managed to cycle around. Angkor is about 7km from Siem Reap. Distance wasn't a problem for me of course, but i was concerned about the road safety.

Second till Fourth Day:

can't remember much what did i do each day, but i'll try my best to write some of the interesting stuff.

Angkhor experiences:

When i first saw the breathtaking Angkor Wat, i was , "wow, finally i'm here!!!"

Other buildings were nice too, such as Bayon :

Staircases in Angkor temples are kinda dodgy. They are fairly narrow. Though my foot size is 10 (UK), but still, i needed to walk like a crab on side ways. I really appreciated the tourism board set up some strings, and even built ladders, new staircases along some really steep old ones.

Thousand Buddhas sculpture



Wall, " i can't live without you my dear tree..."

Landmine museum

The heroic mine clearer Aki Ra has cleared hundreds of thousands of mines around Angkor region. I remember i have seen a documentary on discovery channel, about mine clearing in Cambodia. It was a very dangerous job of course. I felt really sorry for the landmine victims, especially kids. For more information about this museum/ relief fund, feel free to visit: http://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/home.html


photo: with kids in the landmine museum


Kids vendors

There were heaps of kids vendors around Angkor, selling all sorts of things,such as flutes, clothes, postcards, key chains...

"Sir, would you like some postcards?" one kid vendor came at the right time. I wanted to buy some postcards as i am a bad photographer. I guessed those postcards could probably remind me of the places i had been to. So, i bought 10 pieces from kid A; and within seconds, there was kid B running towards me, " Sir sir, I have different postcards...You want to buy from me? Please...." Well, i stood firm, telling him i had enough postcards and i didn't want more. " Sir, please buy one from me, i want to go to school...." He just attacked my weakness. Ok then, so i bought another ten pieces from kid B, and guess what, kids C and D started to approach me.....I quickly walked towards my motor driver and bid farewell to them....Sorry kids. Not today.

Once, a kid came to me and gave me a flower. I refused. The kid ran away. I didn't get to see his facial expression though. Sorry for being mean, but i had heard it before that kids may want something back in return, such as money. Anyway, i ran after him, gave him a pack of biscuits that i brought from Malaysia.

Later on, a little girl came to me and gave me a flower too. This time i thought, i shouldn't be so mean. So i took it. Next, she put a ring made of grass across my finger, and wanted me to tie the flower with the grass ring. So i did. "One dollar please." Sorry for being mean again, I gave her back the ring, and left.

Children Hospitals

I visited to 2 hospitals. One is Jayavarman VII hospital, runs by a Swiss Doctor, Dr. Beat (apparently he won some sort of prize in Switzerland in 2005 or 2006) ; another one was Angkor Children Hospital.

Latter is a teaching hospital. Medical students in Cambodia study medicine in French; but they'll have some English courses training if they want to work in Angkor Children Hospital, in order to communicate with quite a few foreign volunteers.

Besides that, i donated blood in Jayavarman VII hospital; and i turned up to a small music concert performed by Dr. Beat himself. He is an excellent celloist. Apart from music sharing, he shared with us some of his experiences and thoughts about health care in Cambodia and other countries.

"65% of Cambodians are Tuberculosis positive." This really gave me a shock.....But yes, no free vaccines are available there. Children got free vaccines from NGOs. That's why Dr. Beat told us, "young man, please donate blood. If you are not so young, please donate money. And if you are not very young, but not very old, you can choose what you want to donate, or you can donate both!" haha.

On the other hand (well, on the same hand actually), I had had some 'shock' experiences after talking to the public relation officer of Angkor Children Hospital.

"Averagely, each day, we have 400 patients (kids) from all regions around Siem Reap. We have 20 doctors (maybe more, i can't remember, but the ratio of doctors:patients are just not satisfactory.)....."

We walked while talking. The officer showed me around. We came to a ward, and i saw some mothers and their children were lying down on carpets, on the floor. "Well, it is raining season now, so dengue fever is very common. Unfortunately we don't have enough beds for them, so they just have to wait along the corridors..."

links:
Angkor Children Hospital: http://angkorhospital.org/default.php
Jayavarman VII Hospital/ Kantha Bopha Children Hospital: http://www.beat-richner.ch/

Handicap Cambodia

I visited HC as well. It was a centre which trains people to do prosthetics, or to help handicapped people to recover via physiotherapy and other methods. I had mixed feeling when I talked to the officer there while viewing their photos as well as prosthetics....

Handicap Cambodia is a project/branch of Handicap International: http://www.handicap-international.org.uk/

Eastern Promise

Nice story. I'm ashamed of myself for not being able to understand those Russian conversations. haha.

A midwife discovered a secret of a Russian mafia family...

Moral of the story: Don't be a gangster :D

Man from the Earth

Perhaps one of the most budget films i have seen so far, apart from "Memento" (another excellent film).

However, it is probably the best science fiction story i have seen in 2007.

A caveman who lived from hundreds of thousands years ago till today, a man who has experienced pretty much all the main historical events in mankind history....

Moral of the story: Life is really not how long we live, but it's about HOW WE LIVE.

Some other nation jokes

Q: why birds fly upside down when they fly across Country Z's sky?
A: Coz people from country Z are not worth to shit on.

Q: Why people from Country Z whistle when they poo?
A: to make sure they wipe the correct part after that.

Q: What would a New Zealander reply when you ask "how are you?"
A: not baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

Q: Why people from country X go outside when they see lightning?
A: They thought people are taking photos of them.

Malaysian Joke

Somehow, lately, i love to listen to nation jokes. Here's one about Malaysia.

Malaysian Joke, kind of what really happens in Malaysian Business world too....
Datuk Najib is the Deputy Prime Minister....

American Spaceman is called Astronaut
Russian Spaceman is called Cosmonaut
Chinese Spaceman is called Taikonaut
Malaysian Spaceman??? - Can-or-naut

Datuk Najib was thinking about sending the next Malaysian into space.
Three potential can-or-nauts were called for an interview - one Indian,
one Malay and one Chinese.

Najib interviews the Indian first: 'So, Muthu, this is a dangerous
mission. How much do you think you should be paid?'

Muthu replied: 'Ten million ringgit.'
'Why so much?' asks Najib.
'Very dangerous mission, Datuk. Maybe no come back!' replied Muthu.
'That's understandable,' says Najib.
'Thank you..Please ask the Malay guy to come here,'

So the Malay walks up, and is asked the
same question. 'Alamak!...20 million, Datuk,' replied
the Malay candidate.
'Twenty million? That's twice as much! Even the aneh before youasked for only ten million.'
'You see, Datuk,' explains Mat, 'I have 4 wives and 15 children ...With 20 of us, it is a big family to support when I am gone...!' 'I see,' says D.Najib. 'Okay, can you
ask that Chinese guy to come then?'

The Chinese guy comes in and Najib asks,'Ah Chong, given this is a very risky mission, how much do you want?'
Ah Chong thinks for a while, and says, '30 million.'
Najib appears shocked. 'What?!? 30million! Why so much?'
Ah Chong beckons Najib to come closer. He quietly whispers into his ear,
'Datuk, you take 10 million, I take 10million, and then use the extra ten million, send that aneh to space lah!'

And...Muthu will be the second Malaysian can-or-naut to be sent out to space.....