Friday, May 31, 2013

Happy Gawai, Sarawak





This is Elley's relative dancing at Elley's wedding. He had a traditional head gear and long pierced ears. And I specially requested that I have a photograph with him.

During Gawai that year in 1995, the Chan Clan led by Sister Dr Margaret Chan to Batang Air to celebrate this festival with the Dayaks. We flew from Sibu to Kuching, went by 4 wheel drive to the second division, and then by boats on the lake.

The funniest incident we fondly remember was the Australian Chans were helping themselves to the small dishes of food. When the host found out, they quickly took them in, you see, through a language miscommunication, the Australians thought the food were there for them to eat. In actual fact the food were offerings to their Gods.

They brought out the food for us to eat and the fire water the duak to drink.

Elley Lina That's my uncle, the late tama Raja Bala, a good

 dancer...and the food you were refering to is for "Miring"




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Thursday, May 30, 2013

FSO: Vintage

 If we were very good, Grandpa would let us wind the handle. But only he is allowed to put the needle on the vinyl.





Next to the restaurant where I had lunch was this old Vintage shop. I really like the gramophone. It is my youth. When I was little, Grandpa had one of those, and we learnt to sing a Korean song. It is about a boat, a cloud boat which brings us back to our home land.

Homeland to Grandpa was China,
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Photohunt: Something red,a red store



The CEO, Mark Powell of the Warehouse came to our church on Sunday. I was not there because I had a bad cold. The Warehouse is also known as the Big Red Shed and considered a discount store.

I like it that it has clearly marked disabled parking and parents parking. You pay 10cts for their plastic bags and the money is given to charity. Good on you. Warehouse.

When we first signalled our intention in late 2008 to introduce 

a 10-cent charge on check-out bags we were met with some 

scepticism in the media. Our customers’ purchases of 10-cent 

bags have enabled us to distribute a sum of $432,000 to 

around 68 community groups over the past year.

When compared to the 2008 baseline, our programme has 


eliminated nearly 500 tonnes of plastic which would have 

otherwise gone to landfills! This equates to an 82% reduction

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Alpha Thursday letter B for bins


Letter B for bins, wheelie bins or rubbish bins, This is a pretty colour, my girl students tell me purple is their favourite colour. Seen in Brisbane, this is the first time I have seen a bin in purple.
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Sunday, May 26, 2013

Sunday stills: Sky






The Next Challenge: sky


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Vicks VapoNaturals Drops, Cherry Menthols






I became the perfect candidate to review this Vicks VapoNaturals Drops, Cherry Menthols. I came down with a bad cold and my doctor gave me two days of Medical certificate but not medicine.

My nose was stuffy and blocked simultaneously. I had a fever and a head cold. This new pack of Vicks VapoNaturals Drops, Cherry Menthols gave me relief as it clears my dry and itchy throat. The cherry and mentol taste was very soothing. It also relieves me of my cough and the cough irritant. It is important as a teacher that I suppress my need to cough.

Packed individually, it is handy that I can put a few drops in my pocket as I go on my work. At night, I suck one to help me sleep as it suppress my cough.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Save our world: save our kids.



Johnson and Johnson, what are you going to tell me and my kids? 



Today, the personal care giant announced that it would voluntarily (after consistent pressure from the public and groups like EWG) remove hidden formaldehyde from their baby products like baby shampoo and baby washes.  Formaldehyde is NOT listed on the back of my bottle of “no more tears” shampoo.  
Formaldehyde is “hidden” in these products in ingredient names like “DMDM hydantoin“, and “1,4 dioxane” .
It is too late for me and all my kids. I was sold on J & J for my kids. I used everything J & J, oil, lotion, powder, shampoo, washes.
I am not a grandma yet, but this is not going to stop me to expose companies that have carcinogens in their products, especially if they hide them under unsuspecting names.
Mums be ware.
http://worldobserveronline.com/2013/05/17/johnson-johnson-admits-our-baby-products-contain-cancer-causing-formaldehyde/

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/463154/20130501/cosmetic-brand-johnson-license-cancer-causing-baby.htm#.UaGe3NLTxXE

The famous cosmetic brand manufacturer Johnson & Johnson loses its license in India due to an ordered case by the Food and Drug Administration after 15 batches of baby powder products were found sterilized by an irritant and cancer-causing component.


Friday, May 24, 2013

slug

 I have never seen a slug so big in the garden. It is more than 1 and half inch long.  My daughter asked, " Mum, what have you got?" I must now go an feed my slug.


Urban jungle



Where I lived in Singapore, NTU was once a jungle, there are still parcels of land that is left to be a jungle for the national Service for the boys to train as soldiers.

Human development push the wildlife to an extreme. Monkeys moved to where man have encroached. Photo shows scaffolding when my apartment was painted. You can see the vertical stainless railing that the monkeys climbed on. The monkeys don't need the scaffolds to come to our apartments.

There were rainforest trees just outside my balcony. The upside, I see lots of exotic birds and monkey jumping on the branches. The downside, monkeys come into the house and steal our food.

We were the first household in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore to have a brush with wild monkeys. When you see our apartment and the tall trees, you will understand why. The University was built on the edge of the city and encroached on the jungles. As more and more land were cleared for housing, the monkeys had no where to go.

It was about 8 years ago, I had just returned with Sam from a shopping trip, and Sam had left his french fries on the coffee table. I was at the corner of my dining room at the computer. Our dining room and lounge opened to the balcony where the trees were just outside us at the 4th storey.

An adult monkey climbed on to the railing of my balcony. Next, he was sitting on the chair barely a metre away from me. I was quietly calling to the children who were upstairs to come downstairs to watch. At the same time, I was afraid that it would attack me as it bared its fangs at me. It then walked to the lounge, sat at the couch and started eating the french fries. After he had finished eating the french fries, it grabbed hold of a canister of roasted peanuts under his arms.

At this time, three little monkeys climbed along the railings. The adult monkey very cleverly balanced on 3 limbs and climbed up the roof of my neighbour's apartment and cracked open the canister.

More monkeys came to join him, and all in all there were eight. I peeped from my stairway watching them enjoying a feast from my peanuts.

I had a nature journal with the university resident's website. Soon everyone knew about the monkeys. This was very interesting to the expatriot community. My neighbours came from all over the world. Unfortunately after the initial curiousity, the residents treated the Macaque monkeys as pest. We couldn't leave food outside on the tables. These monkeys created havoc by stealing our food and tearing orchid flowers apart.

I invited A/P Dr. Vilma for the Nature Society and the university to talk about these Macaque monkeys. The ladies had an enlightened afternoon. Vilma explained the plight of the monkeys and how men had rob them of their natural habitat. The best thing was to ignore them.

The university however, did not ignore them. They trapped and darted them. Oh, how sad, we could not exist with them.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

FSO : From the ground.



Welcome to Friday My Town Shoot Out!
FMTSO is a group of online friends from around the world sharing photos of their communities.
The blog does not belong to one person in particular, it belongs to all of us.
Volunteers have kept it going since its inception in 2009.
Every week we have a new theme to shoot for.
Have fun, explore, enjoy and won't you join us?



May 25: (Changed) From the Ground Interpret as you like.

 In the most unlikely place,  a pair of twins entertained us at Mother's grave.
 Standing from the ground, I looked up and saw a pair of whales.
 Needs some imagination here,  from the ground some diners emerge in a Japanese Restaurant.
 Is this a real boy or a sand sculpture?
A boy stirs the sleeping dragon.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Photohunt: a special texture, Polar fleece




The Water Engineer  complains I wear my red hoodie everywhere.

My little six old French-Spanish student asked me if I voted. Who did you vote? I told her I wore red. I know, you voted Helen Clark.

Polar fleece usually referred to simply as "fleece," is a soft napped insulating synthetic fabric made from Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or other synthetic fibers. Other names for this fabric are "Polar Wool", "Vega Wool" or "Velo Wool", however the names of the composition suggests organic materials being used, fleece is 100% Polyethylene Terephthalate. One of the first forms was Polar Fleece created in 1979 by Malden Mills, now Polartec LLC., a new, light and strong pile fabric meant to mimic and in some ways surpass wool. Fleece has some of wool's finest qualities but weighs a fraction of the lightest available woollens.

Polar fleece is used in jackets, hats, sweatersjogging bottoms/sweatpants, gym clothes, hoodies, inexpensive throw blankets, and high-performance outdoor clothing, and can be used as a vegan alternative to wool. It can be made partially from recycled plastic bottles and is very light, soft and easy to wash.[1]
Aaron Feuerstein intentionally declined to patent Polar fleece, allowing the material to be produced cheaply and widely by many vendors, leading to the material's quick and wide acceptance.[2][3][4]


http://gattina-eyholepictures.blogspot.co.nz/2011/11/list-of-photo-hunting-themes.html
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Alphabe-Thursday for letter A for aquaduck




The Best Gold Coast Attraction! Take an Adventure Tour the 

Gold Coast by land and water without even leaving your 

seat.  

The aquaduck is like a duck, it goes on land and in the sea. 

Sorry it went too fast for me to take a good photo.





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Monday, May 20, 2013

My world: aloe vera gel


This aloe vera plant is in Auckland. They bloom.

The aloes I grew in Singapore, and I grew plenty, never bloomed. I think because I used to cut the leaves for medicinal use. The plants were either punishing me for that and refusing me the joy of seeing the beautiful flowers, or the plants converted the goodness to medicine, and were rewarding enough.

In Singapore, hordes of female workers come from Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Philipines come to this, more advance city state to work as domestic helpers or just known as maids. Yes, you read it right, maids to be used and some abused.

I lived in an upper strata of society where the employers were university professors. I never employed a maid, because it just wasn't me, to keep a maid 24/7. I was a champion for many of them.

One day, by accident. one showed me her hand which was festering with pus. I asked her what had happened?

"Aunty Ann, I was frying fish, and accidentally the oil spatter on me."

"Did you tell your employer?"

"No! I afraid?"

"What you afraid of?"

"She scold me for being careless."

My blood was boiling, but it was not in my place to interfer, so I went to my garden of aloe veras, broke a couple of leaves to tell her to apply on the burn.

"Aunty Ann, it is very good, I feel the cooling, and not so painful."

I gave her two pots of aloe vera to take back to her apartment.

"Aunty Ann, no I afraid, my boss will find out."

Exasperated, I told her then to come to help herself to my leaves. 

Couple of months later, the maid showed me her hand, it had fully recovered, and the scar was fading.

Aloe vera is medicine in a leaf. I ran a gardening column and introduce everyone to this miracle plant.




h

Sunday, May 19, 2013

The Next Challenge: One Subject: Wedding











These are unofficial photos of my niece Katie's wedding to Mathew.

The Next Challenge: One Subject

So for this weeks challenge choose one and only one subject and take multiple pics of that subject. If you choose horses, take different kinds of horses, if you choose flowers take different kinds of flowers, you get the idea..


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