Tuesday, March 31, 2015

abc wednesday Letter L

 Lots of free labor/labour at our Love where you Live project.
 Lion dance
 fruit salad leaf
luxury car

http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.co.nz/

Sunday, March 29, 2015

planting for charity







http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/

When you visit Singapore, and go out to the west, you will come to the Nanyang Technological University. You will see many manicured gardens. You will also see a patch of green.

I recycled plants when neighbours left, and when I left, I sold the plants to raise money for our Charity, Deaf in Kenya. I raised over S$2000.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Japanese Rose/Portulaca grandiflora hybrids



In August 2008, I did this post and it attracted 828 hits.

I liked the Japanese Rose, it is nothing like a rose that you are familiar with. In USA, it is called a moss rose. It is a succulent or a bush.

Portulaca grandiflora hybrids grown in Singapore Malaysia.

The common varieties in Malaysia are many-petaled (doubled) hybrids which comes in different colours: white, red, pink, orange and a white-pink combination.

There is also a single layer petal, and the leaves are broader.

Japanese Rose makes a nice ground cover, borders and beds in the sun. It also makes a good hanging basket plants. My paternal Grandfather grew many kinds of flowers in the garden of his big bungalow. The Japanese Rose has reddish stems. It grows like a grass carpet with green single thick pine needle like leaves. He grew them as borders for the opulent look, the one inch rosette-like flowers are beautiful and can be cut for a little vase. Grandfather’s footpath to the house is very long, and on both sides of the footpath are lined with the beautiful flowers.

The Japanese Rose blooms only in the morning under strong sun. In the afternoon, the rosette closes up into buds but they still look very beautiful.

In NTU, there is a ruling that residents can grow only in pots and not directly in the ground except at the gardening club allotment. I grow my Japanese Rose in pots. I have a whole border of red, pink orange and white Japanese Rose leading to my house. If you drive out from the North Spine car park, there is a nice border and patch of beautiful Japanese. Slow down and appreciate and smell the flowers.

I teach my Samoan student after she told me that her Grandma's name is Rose, she laughed and laughed. My other kids laugh that I am singing them a Chinese song. Then I realise that it is an Asian version. This song is about the Rose of Malaya, I guess it is about this rose, and not the rose that one that is more known in the Western world.

ROSE, ROSE, I LOVE YOU (MAY KWAY O MAY KWAY)
(Wilfrid Thomas / Chris Langdon)
(Based on the traditional Chinese Folk Song,
"Meigui Meigui Wo Ai Ni" - Music: Chen Gexin)

Frankie Laine - 1951
Buddy Morrow & His Orch. - 1951
Gordon Jenkins & His Orch. (vocal: Cisco Houston) - 1951
Petula Clark - 1951

Also recorded by: Miss Hue Lee (Yáo Lì) (original song - 1940);
The Quests; Anita Mui; Frank Chacksfield & His Orch.



Rose, Rose I love you with an aching heart
What is your future?, now we have to part
Standing on the jetty as the steamer moves away
Flower of Malaya, I cannot stay

Make way, oh, make way for my Eastern Rose
Men crowd in dozens everywhere she goes
In her rickshaw on the street or in a cabaret
"Please make way for Rose" you can hear them say

All my life I shall remember
Oriental music and you in my arms
Perfumed flowers in your tresses
Lotus-scented breezes and swaying palms

Rose, Rose I love you with your almond eyes
Fragrant and slender 'neath tropical skies
I must cross the seas again and never see you more
'way back to my home on a distant shore

(All my life I shall remember)
(Oriental music and you in my arms)
(Perfumed flowers in your tresses)
(Lotus-scented breezes and swaying palms)

Rose, Rose I leave you, my ship is in the bay
Kiss me farewell now, there's nothin' to say
East is East and West is West, our worlds are far apart
I must leave you now but I leave my heart

Rose, Rose I love you with an aching heart
What is your future?, now we have to part
Standing on the jetty as the steamer moves away
Flower of Malaya, I cannot stay

(Rose, Rose I love you, I cannot stay)

http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/r/roseroseiloveyou.shtml

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.co.nz/

Alphabe-Thursday letter T: Tongkat Ali




This is Tongkat Ali, literally translated as the walking cane of Ali.

Other Names: Eurycoma longifolia, Longjack

Tongkat Ali is a tree native to Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. The part of the tree used medicinally is the root.

Why Do People Use Tongkat Ali?

Tongkat Ali was dubbed the "Asian Viagra" in a May 1999 report in the New Sunday Times.

It has been used in Malaysia for many years by men to increase sexual desire, libido, sexual performance and to treat erectile dysfunction.

Tongkat ali appears to work by increasing levels of the hormone testosterone. Testosterone is primarily responsible for the growth and development of male reproductive organs.

Because of its testosterone-enhancing properties, tongkat ali is also used by bodybuilders to increase muscle mass and strength. http://altmedicine.about.com/od/herbsupplementguide/a/tongkat_ali.htm

The owner of this root herb however tells me otherwise. It is a misconception that Tongkat Ali is an aphrodisiac. His native doctor tells him that it is a cleansing herb. Once your body is cleansed, you will be healthy all round. This is the root of a very big tree found in the deep jungles of Borneo. It is valued more than 5 million dollars. Even then, he would not part with it. Usually people get only a small tree.

***After thought*** The root as a whole would be more than MR10,000. If it is grounded into powder and sold as a Tongkat Ali "coffee" in an organic herbal bar, you could get $5 million. At any rate, it is not for sale.

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.co.nz/


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Thursday, March 26, 2015

FSO: animals



http://annkschin.blogspot.com/2008/11/irresponsible-dog-owners.html
In these photos, some children found a bitch with seven puppies in the neighbourhood. These kids loved the puppies and found milk for them and food for the bitch. Some grown ups were also fascinated by them. But the occupant of the apartment where these dog and puppies had made their home at their basement wasn't happy. She wasn't happy with the S*** and the terrible smell. Before the residents could find homes for them, she rang the SPCA and had them taken them away.

When the kids found that the puppies were gone, they cried. Some fifteen years later, a certain person in my house is still very emotional when she talks about those puppies which had become other people's pets, instead of hers.


Animals [Friday My Town Shoot Out Link-Up]

Share with us your favorite animal images from your village or town. This can be pets, zoos, wildlife

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Alphabe-Thursday letter S




During our Love where you live, Mt Albert Baptist church members spruce up the local primary school. A sweeper sweeps up the dirt, and dumps it in the skip.

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.co.nz/


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ABC Letter K

 In the kitchen of Mt Albert Primary school, where my church Mt Albert Baptist Church went to Love  where you live. This mum and daughters team helped the morning tea for the hundred over workers.


The gardeners kept the school clean and chucked the junk into the skip and trailer.
 Kepa Haka, out national dance. The students are not only Maori students but across the board.

 Kumara, similar to sweet potato is a much loved food. I fried some kumara chips.


http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.co.nz/

Sunday, March 22, 2015

FSO Autumn




Autumn is here when the trees shred their leaves and cover my car and come in through my window.  These leaves are gold, not brown. Soon, the trees will be bare.
How I wish they are real gold.
We are in Down Under, New Zealand. Where, when the Northern Hemisphere are having Spring, we have Autumn.


Sam had fun walking along leaves fallen at the footpath. He was making such a rusling sound that the woman infront of him turned back and LOL.

Autumn is here, when the leaves start falling.  I have no idea what these are. I looked up, and saw a pine tree. Perhaps it's the fruits/cones.

[Friday My Town Shoot Out Link-Up]

Autumn is here in New Zealand.

Friday, March 20, 2015

http://www.campbellaeroclassics.com


Many facebook friends have asked me about my cover photo.











In 2012, I had the best ever holiday I had, apart from the Black Water Rafting I did about 12 years ago at Waitomoto caves.

I went flying, I don't mean flying in a commercial jumbo plane or Fokker friendship. I flew in a tiger moth. Yes, I mean tiger moth.

I went to Christchurch to visit my old friends. They took me to Loburn, to visit Ivan and Sandy Campbell. We were all excited as we drove to North Canterbury to Loburn Abbey airfield, as we knew we were going to fly in this special plane. Our oldest "pilot" today was Mrs. Chew, aged 81. Paki Paki.

Thoughts of Jean batten conjured in my head. Ivan and Sandra make their own planes and are the creators of the World's only Class leather hard shell flying helmet. Ivan gave us flights and I am so grateful for their generousity.

We all had a marvelous time, looking at the picturesque snow laden mountains, the paddocks, the horses, the sheep and the cows.

http://www.campbellaeroclassics.com
Sandra's hospitality extended to teaching us play croquet. Croquet has a special place in my heart. I was 20 months when Dad left us in Borneo to study in London. Croquet always brings me more memories as my dad played croquet in London in the 1950s. As a teen, I saw pictures fo women dressed in long dresses playing croquet, and wondered why dad played croquet. It was only when I was an adult when I asked him why he played a ladies game. He said it wasn't, it required precision. And yesterday, I found out when I played with my friends. It was not only reminisces with this Chew Family but with my Dad.

After all the thrills and spills, Sandra treated us to a beautiful lunch which we sat outside in a wonderful sunny winter afternoon.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Alphabe-Thursday letter R




recycling education at a public park.
http://jennymatlock.blogspot.co.nz/


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ABC Wed Letter J





 when this is completed, it will be a very busy junction.
 Here's a junk yard.
 New Zealand is the first country to start the bungy jumping.

My daughter jumped off this bridge twice. My uncle said I was crazy to let her bungy jump.


v


 a glass of kale juice.

http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.co.nz/

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Piano moving



My daughter loved playing the piano. Here she is playing a fancy piano at my cousin's house. We didn't buy a fancy piano for her. We told her that she could buy her own when she earned her money.

She did buy a fancy one, but alas, she had traveled abroad and could not take it with her.

The purpose of this blog post was a comment in the face book posted by my friend Ivy Ngui and Chien. It is a nostalgic post. When we went to NTU, Singapore, we chose to stay at a low rise apartment. Twice in a 3 storey maisonette, and once in a 4 storey maisonette.

We hired piano movers to move the piano many times. There were two men, one was quite old. When they grunted as they heaved the piano, I didn't dare to look.