A Wee Morning Post…It Has Been A While!

It has been a while where I have the luxury of time to do a post in the wee hours of the morning.

The morning started out with light rain and I was pleased as it is an attempt at wiping out the ash smoked air and hopefully dousing the fiery forests all aflame in parts of Indonesia.

However, my auto pilot brain behind the wheel failed miserably this morning as I almost made an earlier exit off the highway, we call CTE!

Ugh! My auto pilot brain behind the wheel has always performed well. Hmm..time for a reboot I guess! Must be a “virus” in the hard drive LOL!

Thankfully I hit the brakes fast to stop with room to do a swift reverse and back onto the right path.

The Coca Cola red truck behind me was a good distance away to allow me to do this and thankfully, the driver of this truck was in a good mood and not one of those who would see another driver in difficulty and accelerate! We do have morons like those here and trust me, they come in truckloads! 😉

On I carried with my journey and it prompted me to think about what the day would mean for me.

Clearly I am overworked and I would like to add “underpaid” LOL! All minions would proclaim their “underpaid” status – so…we are all trained in the light of Adam Smith….we are afterall “selfish beings” and we gotta be in this dog eat dog world. 😀

I checked, I was no different. I am no saint. I am not in line for pontification though Pope Francis has been traversing the world, giving his wisely words ;-p

Sigh…I am a minion and with a plateful of tasks for the day.

For once I slept like a baby, all curled up with my inanimate furball Garfield. How come? I took 2 pain killers as my back and legs were hurting.

I could almost hear Drs James and Pang’s voices in the background tut tutting away! Overdoing things as always 😉

I do not usually take pain killers as I prefer to use breathing techniques and sleep off the pain to start the next day. But I felt the need to as this evening I have an event to attend.

I wish I could just “switch off” for the day but nary a hope is in store as I know I will hit the ground running shortly.

Electrical Lord did not have an opportunity to deliver one of his 3 hour sermons yesterday as he found the 4 Swordsmen to address! Phew!

This means, ME – the target is for today but I do want to be able to leave on time at 6.30pm for the event I need to attend.

Till my next post on the outcome of today….have a great day ahead for those in my zone and for those in the other zone…pleasant dreams as always 🙂

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Some Wisdom…..I Gotta Be This “Useless Tree”

Lao Tzu was passing with his disciples and they came to a forest where hundreds of carpenters
were cutting trees, because a great palace was being built.

So the whole forest had been almost
cut, but only one tree was standing there, a big tree with thousands of branches – so big that ten
thousand persons could sit under its shade.

Lao Tzu asked his disciples to go and inquire why this tree had not been cut yet when the whole forest had been cut and was deserted.

The disciples went and they asked the carpenters, ”Why have you not cut this tree?”

The carpenters said, ”This tree is absolutely useless. You cannot make anything out of it because every branch has so many knots in it.

Nothing is straight.

You cannot make pillars out of it.

You cannot make furniture out of it.

You cannot use it as fuel because the smoke is so dangerous to the
eyes – you almost go blind.

This tree is absolutely useless. That’s why.”

They came back.

Lao Tzu laughed and he said, ”Be like this tree. If you want to survive in this world be like this tree – absolutely useless.

Then nobody will harm you.

If you are straight you will be cut,
you will become furniture in somebody’s house.

If you are beautiful you will be sold in the market, you will become a commodity.

Be like this tree, absolutely useless.

Then nobody can harm you.

And you will grow big and vast, and thousands of people can find shade under you.

Tao: The Three Treasures, Vol 1

*received this from Chicken this evening 🙂
My oh my…I gotta be “useless” else I will be “chopped” up….
For me, this is the best wisdom against office politics…be “useless”
😀

30,000 Views On GarfieldHug!!

Muark! Muark!😙😙😙

I cannot thank you kind WordPress readers and bloggers for this statistical number of 30,000 views!! 😁

I am a dunce at numbers really!

My math teacher would often roll her eyes when it was my turn to do any assignment in high school.

I was only good at Algebra.

Hopeless at Trigonometry and Additional Math.

Geometry was all about alternate angles or corresponding angles!

Thank goodness I still remember 90 degrees for right angle and half a circumference is 180 degrees and 360 degrees is all round. 😂

Thankfully I grasped calculus but have since returned my sine and cosine to Prof Sherman 😀

So…truth be told I did not feel nor know about the 30,000 views till I was alerted by you kind fellas! 🙂

If only you can see me grinning from ear to ear now as I polish up my dinner plate and multi tasking as I post this 😉

Being a south paw and trying to work my chopsticks is akin to chasing my food on my plate.

Gimme a shovel…trust me, it would be easier to eat with LOL! 😀

My “30K” is with thanks to you all lovely people for coming by and reading my ding a ling moans, groans, jibing or plain sardonic humor.

Your patience and kindness is appreciated and felt as I see each “like”, “comment” or each “view”

Garfield hugs and thank you all for always dropping by, giving me encouragement or a chit chat session as I enjoy your posts.

Have a lovely day or evening ahead
😀

Rain…Morose Sobering Thoughts

Monday….I don’t know if it is just me or because I have so much to do at work that time just goes by….whiz by before my eyes….

Thinking positively it means that Boredom is not a word in my work dictionary. Thankfully….else, I would be twiddling my thumbs and toes waiting for end of my work day 😉

I remember when I was with the Chinese Lord, time was harder to fleet by and I had to go around pretending to be interested in what others were doing. Ha ha!

But now…sigh..it is a tad too fast for me.

Usually by the time I look at my watch and this is usually when seated in front of Electrical Lord for his “sermons” it would be 3.30pm.

Before I know it, it is 7pm.

Today our “sermon” was from 12.15pm till 3pm.

Lunch was non existent to me and thankfully I had bitten half a sandwich before I was summoned.

As I stared out of the window at 5pm…it was dark and thundering. I was glad the rains started to fall.

But the smell of smoke or burnt wood was very strong.

As if a huge bonfire was doused and the smouldering wood ash floated.

Hopefully this rainfall would remove the smoke ash from the skies and put out some of the hot spots in Indonesia.

The Met station has warned that the haze would get worst tomorrow. Hmm as if with a vengeance as the rains fell during this short 3 hours!

Ms Sensitive tendered her resignation as she felt offended by Electrical Lord sending photos of her work station that had left over uneaten food to me.

I felt she was overly sensitive as Electrical Lord was not wrong.

Uneaten left over food not stored properly but left over the weekend on her desk attracts pests like rodents, ants or roaches. She is in the wrong.

This is an example of Gen Y who dishes out criticism but are unable to accept their own shortcomings.

Sigh….if she leaves on account of this then it is a pity 😦

I wonder what the new generation is going to be as our future workers?

Molly coddled?

Unable to take the truth?

Can they even make it as our new future leaders?

I shudder at the thought and am grateful that I will not be alive to see little red dot in another 50 years.

Ha! I just want to leave quiety and quickly, not beyond 65 years old.

Good years….mobility and faculties intact with good quality of life…minus the hospitals, minus the surgeries and most of all minus the pain!

Now then…this would be living by my books!

Sigh…when the rains fall…in my quiet moments, I will ponder the inponderables but facing it squarely 😀

Today Is 15th Of Mid Autumn Festival

Happy mid autumn festival all and may peace, love and blessings abound in your home. 🙂

My neighbor who lives a floor below me text me yesterday with her good wishes for this occasion and sent across the picture I posted.

She gave me a box of single egg yolk moon cake in liang rong from the prestigious Shangri La. She is sweet and I appreciate her kindness:)

I loved the box though.

It was an ornate red cloth fabric with bamboo and white floral print amidst pseudo leather casing with 4 tiny drawers made from cardboard and each drawer housed a moon cake wrapped in plastic.

As if the mystique a d aura of what in door numbers 1 to 4 has in store!

Half the fun (for me, it is the box that I like) is the decorative boxes that hold the moon cakes.

Deviating from the old fashioned square boxes, some shops retail these moon cakes in canisters (I use them to hold tea bags after, great recycling efforts on my part), boxes made to be carried like handbags or red acrylic boxes with an emblem of pseudo jade to give it a regal quality.

My friend from Hong Kong…H (H used to work with me in a company located  near the ferry point to Jumbo Floating Restaurant) sent me a more kiddy greeting.

Just like H – he is like me…a child inside. H married an ogre and he quit from the marriage and is now happily single and running his own business.

As I reminisced over my days working and living in Hong Kong (HK), I remember this is the time of waxed ducks, waxed sausages and claypot rice. Yummy as the chilly nights of HK begin

I used to trot to ‘Tong Lor Wan’ for “Aunty’s Soups” translated from Cantonese “Ah Yee Leng Tong” – dinner would be a bowl of piping soup literally!

I met 2 boyfriends there. I could not fall in love with one called M and instead fell in love with a Singaporean commuter called P.

P fell out – I was not rich enough then, strugglinh graduate on first job. P was a head honcho with a financial company.

Just as well or else I would have married an ogre too LOL!

P hangs around just as M does but we are still friends.

M is still single as he is an entrepreneur and figures if he cannot find the right woman, he better stay single or fight alimonies.

M moved to Shanghai and lives in a mansion as he always dreamed of 4 poster beds with sprawling mansion.

In land scarce Singapore or HK…quite hard really!

As for P, he is much like the Cockerel shown after marriage.

Shredded, feathered and tarred with little voice in marriage.

His conscientious choice to pick $ over true love….his own doing and no amount of whining would appease his heart I guess.

All I can do is listen and pat his shoulder with sarcastic reminders…your choice remember….$!

P says till to date, I am his “soul mate” of which I smile with sarcasm…”ya right…maybe because of my current stature, mingling with Dukes and Duchesses of Yore that makes me validated as a “soul mate”

If I was the same non descript human…hmm…I would be plankton
😀

Overdose Of Bond Movies

The last 2 months have been nothing but Bond movies on free to air goggle box here.

I have Bond themes oozing out of my ears 😀

My TV antennae also receives Malaysian TV channels and they too are airing Bond movies.

From Sean Connery to Roger Moore to Pierce Brosnan to Daniel Craig. I forget that one other Bond character by one time actor’s name before Daniel Craig! Brain went into Bermuda Triangle I guess 😉

Tonight Quantum Solace.

Before that was Casino Royale, Moonraker and Live And Let Die. The list goes on and on…I never knew there were so many Bond movies made!

I much preferred my afternoon delight in Bollywood movie “Gulaab Gang” as it was about how the women folk are oppressed and raped or disallowed schooling.

Typical corrupt government by a lousy woman governor who goes all out to stamp out another heroine trying to revolt against her for better living for females.

Going to the polls would not work as corrupt woman governor goes about poisoning the revolutionists (largely all women) and or shooting them.

It ended in tragedy as the corrupt woman governor arrived at the revolutionists camp to shoot them all resulting in the heroine killing her to save others.

Revolutionist is then sentenced to life inprisonment.

I admire the die hard spirit of the oppressed women folk and though incarcerated for life, the heroine continues her educating of women in prison too.

Such gallantry and sacrifice for a cause….Unfortunately I am not hero material.

I doubt I would kill for a cause but I would probably get killed for it.

Hmm…I should be taking some defence lessons and hyakk!! Karate chop here or Muay Thai kicks….so.much for watching Ip Man, Jet Li or Jacky Chan…

I am no kung fu expert LOL!! 😀

Saturday Musings & Saturday Cookery Skills

The haze is still in unhealthy ranges and school was shut yesterday.

No luck for office employees to go home 😦 we are more resilient than kids ha ha!

N95 masks or respirators flew off the shelves as people masked up to stem out the particulates of ash from the Indonesian fires.

I was busy distributing masks to employees as they must be protected too 🙂

Our government is taking a firm stance against the twits who slash and burn to produce palm oil related items or pulp and paper.

The maximum fine is SGD2 million for related companies doing business in our little red dot. Idiots!!

Sad when Indonesian officials still insist they are not wrong and expect us to thank them for the oxygen from their trees for 11 months.

They are not doing much to alleviate the poor air quality in our region.

I laughed when I heard my favorite DJs Glenn and Flying Dutchman on One FM singing…”Thank you for the haze” – I love Glenn Ong’s sarcasm. He is as fed up as I. 😈

Not much to do when hazed in and so I decided to cook up a storm after posting funny posters from Chicken.

Last evening I bought a whole roast duck for $37 and ate half with mum and dad, freezing other half which I used to create this dish, I called Roast Duck in savory garnishing.

I chopped up 200 gm of garlic, thinly sliced 10 shallots, 50gm ginger, julienned.

In sesame oil and sunflower oil mix, I fried the ginger till piquant and then mixed in the sliced shallots. Once golden brown, I tossed in the garlic and diced red chilli padis for the spicy bite.

Once this bed of garnishing was ready and fragrant, I tossed in the roast duck.

*chilli made me sneeze whilst the shallots made me cry when peeling and dicing*

Tossing the duck with the garnishing till nicely mixed, I poured in thick dark soya sauce and a teaspoon of brown sugar crystals.

This gave it a nice caramelized look and taste.

Savoury, spicy and sweet – it tasted not bad for a non chef or cook who hits and misses most times 😀

There my meals for this week is prepared.

If I tire of it, there is left over pizza 😆

Pizza to the rescue and or bread….ha ha..

Food solves unhappiness….

Food satiates my hunger….

Food gives me reprieve from boredom as it allows me to create dishes to try! LOL!

Happy Saturday Folks and may your air quality be better than mine 🙂

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