A day of a typical Sunday - 19/7/09

I woke up around at 7:00 am. As I am already 1 hour late for spiritual class I don't feel like going to spiritual class anymore, thus I continue to sleep. Within that 2 hour of sleep from 7:00 am till 7:00 am I have negative dream. I dreamt that my house's porch area was cut away due to make way to more wider road. I felt terribly sad, so sad until I woke up around 9:00 am. I have kept tracked that if I ever continue to sleep after I woke up most time I will have negative dreams be it around 5 am or any time morning.

So as usual after cleaning my body I went to wet market. One of the items I bought was 12 nos. of lemons. The vegetable seller asked me if I am going to do fruit enzyme, I told him. No, I am going to cook arteries blockage concoction. He told me he has heard about it and asked me to write down the recipes and passed to him. I have no difficulty of breathing , neither do I have any health problem, this is just one of the precautions. This is my 3rd batch. My first batch was cooked on Mar 29, 2009 (recipes included).

It is nearly 10:30 am when I reached home. I prepare breakfast by frying 1 plate of soya bean noodles. Naturally with drinks, today I choose coffee.

I decided no rice today. Boil sweet potato, potato, fruits for lunch and spaghetti for dinner. Since mangosteens and rambutans are in season and cheap today, I bought each type 1 kg. Rambutans are selling at RM2/kg and mangosteens are selling at RM3/kg today. They cannot keep long therefore just bought 1 kg each. Once I start eating rambutans seems cannot stop till finished. I like the sweetness of rambutans.

During the afternoon I prepare the concoction. Preparation takes nearly 2 hours. Also prepare the syrup for mooncake skin. Syrup has to be prepred months earlier. Mooncake Festival will be coming in 2 - 3 months times. This takes me another 1 and half hours. After that I take shower and do some washing.

In the evening, I have tea time of fruits and lemon juice.

At 6:10 pm, I went for meditation in the evening to make up for the for the lost class in the morning. I foresee as long as I live I will go on with meditation because meditation and spiritual class suits sorrowful yet nice person like me, hehe. In my circumstance I need meditation to keep me going alive. It gives the soothing effect of being alive, to be connected to the Cosmic Energy. It gives wellness to the mind.

Watering my plants. Hope that my plants and herbs may grow well. Sweeping also not done today, ironing clothes also postpone. Resting also not yet included. See how time passes extremely fast during public holidays and weekends. Left with just short period of time for me to surf some of my favourite websites and updating my blog.

Cannot Die

Whenever I look at this old tree trunk with grass grown in it in the middle brings me some old memories. The memories of the Chinese saying, "Chi kee chow chit tiam hor" in Hokkien. It simply means for each strand of grass sure to be one drop of dew. Therefore one can sure never starve to death. This is similar to the Malay version simpulan bahasa, "Ulat di bawah batu masih boleh hidup." I simply love this idiom. In difficult times such as now where certain management tend to in almost every conversation indicating sacking people. This particular idiom serves as soothing the mind as not to be afraid. We can still survive. We shall not be starving to death as indicate by certain egoistic proud management. Like the grass it stays alive forever even during drought season.

1 Hour Quick Lunch Menu

As I am on leave today, I have the pleasure to do my own cooking. As the pictures depict I cooked mixed grains brown rice, steam lady fingers, fried ginger tau foo with tomato and celery and burdock root soup. My Mandarin speaking friend called Burdock as "New Phang". I have them done including cooking and washing up within 1 hour.

The cost of the ingredients are about RM4.50 (for both lunch and dinner). I have enough quantity to eat for dinner and lunch. Assuming I were to eat outside just for lunch alone at "Economy Rice" stall ; 1 plate of white rice RM1.00, soup 1 bowl RM2.00 (dilute too), 1 small plate of tau foo RM2.50, 4 nos of lady fingers RM 2.00. Total price RM7.50 only for lunch at coffee shop stall.

Carrot and sesame muffins

Ingredients
375 gm self raising flour,
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
1 tsp ground mixed spice
90 g castor sugar
1 large carrot, grated
4 tbsp sesame seeds
170 gm sultanas
100 g natural yoghurt
1cup (250 ml) fresh milk
3 tbsp butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 200 C. Into a large bowl, sift flour, bicarbonate soda and mixed spice. Add sugar, carrot, sesame seeds and mix to combine.
2. In another bowl, place yoghurt, milk, butter and eggs and whisk to combine. Stir yoghurt mixture into flour mixture and mix until just combined. Spoon mixture into muffin cups an bake for 20 mins or until muffins are cooked when tested with a skewer. Best serve when warm.

On the bed or on the wood flooring?

Where do you prefer to sleep, on the bed or on the floor with a carpet or thin mattress on the wood flooring.? After testing for a few months I will be sleeping on the wood flooring. This is because I have backache. By lying down my back straight on a hard surface this works like an auto massage. I even discard pillow which suppose to support my head. Head, back where the hunch back is, bum all straight on the floor. It is a wonderful feeling. My backache has minimised. The body feels good. Wish I had started to sleep on the wood floor earlier. Another side benefits of sleeping on the floor is that it is always cooling in harsh hot weather. I do not need fan or aircon with wood flooring.

Declutter, detox the mind

We have read and heard so much of detoxing of our body through special diets to release our bodies from stored toxins. We have also heard of feng shui masters advise us on declutter our home. The more spacious our home is , the easier the chi to flow. Similarly the mind also need needs detoxing. Feelings such as resentment, frustration, enmity and unexpressed anger can become internal poisons that ultimately damage our well beings and quality of life if they are not resolved.

Meditation and spiritual lessons are the methods to assist us to have the inner strength to cope with life. However to gain inner strength through meditation requires a certain period of time. I have not gain mine yet after I have learnt since year Aug 2005. Most probably because I don't practise constantly, the spiritual connection that our mind make with cosmic forces. The more regular and concentrate we are the more inner wisdom within us is acquired.

Life may be considered difficult and complicated or simple and easy depending on how we perceive it to be. It is only a matter of switching or tuning the mind to either which side. We have to let go of our junk and clutter. This applies to material possession in the home, work-related activities, relationships, thoughts and emotions. We are inviting too many distractions into our lives unconsciously through our experiences and others' experiences by our observations. One of my teacher's favourite slogan is "Don't think". What she meant was on a regularly basis we have to identify what is no longer serves a useful purposes. This applies to our personal life and career aspects of our life. This is getting the excess baggage out of our life. Do something every day to make our life less complicated. Refuse to spend time with people or things that are draining our energy, space, time or money. Do not remember or think of the weaknesses of others in our mind. Do not worry about things that might never happen. What if... any mishap happens. Switch off.

W can't change anyone or everything and live in perfect pure world, but learning to cope with the inevitable and be able to handle any situations like a somersault may make a difference.

Just sharing - 7/7/09

It is already past midnight and I haven't sleep. The reason is my sleeping pattern is that sometimes if I miss the 9 something "sleep bus", it will be very late for me to have another sleepy moment. I wonder if there are many people having this kind of sleep pattern like me.

Lately I have been very tired and weak. Too tired to write anything. Even if I write it will be mostly my anger, frustration and hatred. I hate to tell lies therefore I can't write what is not in my heart. I notice many people are having devilish trait. Maybe to others it is a norm, a norm to stay alive. My friend shared with me that he too was very fed up with certain peers character who talked so bad and condemn one contractor. Whereas in front of the contractor he pat and smile with the said contractor, even talk about games as if being old close friends. Just ten minutes ago criticise severely the contractor.

Some even lies and talk nonsense just because their position are higher. No wonder these days people are more prone to illness. I wonder if their thoughts, words and actions are not in alignment, will they ever feel any uneasiness. They talked one thing, do something else, maybe feel another things. One example is, one director boasting to outside people that his organisation is all working harmoniously like a big family. Inside the company, he is abusing verbally and mentally his employees. Internally his heart is condemning the workers for being not hard working enough, not loyal enough, not good enough, not efficient enough.

Nowadays nobody is really pleased with anybody I am sure. Similarly I too not satisfied with anyone in my life though I can assure that I give my passing marks very low. This is inevitable in life. Everybody has flaws including myself.