The horrific world that we live in

These days people are really fearful of things happening. What I mean are the fraud cases whereby people get swindled or cheated. My mother sent me emails occasionally to warn me against certain unscrupulous individuals and the latest ones are rather scary. Some cases involved using our sympathy like a baby crying and when we go out the house to investigate, a knife will be pointing at our throat to rob us; a child coming to you to ask for directions to his home only to have you being mildly electrocuted and raped; going for "exotic" tours to have your relative/spouce missing and then a few years down the road see them being tortured on TV and more. There are many horror stories indeed involving tourists that I feel too disheartened to read further and absolutely no mood to go anywhere for holidays now.

What is your idea of a dull evening?

I am not sure why this topic sounds interesting for me to write about even. I mean my idea of a dull evening? Duh...ok, perhaps I am feeling kind of dull myself. My eczema outbreak, skin problem that is, almost made me too self conscious to leave home. In fact I just let myself be confine to my air conditioned bedroom! The temperature is just not showing any mercy to me outside either. When I sweat, I get into trouble. Itchy and bleeding skin. When I don't sweat, I get into trouble. Flaky and dry skin.

Back to my idea of a dull evening, sitting in front of the laptop and playing computer games. Not that there isn't blog work to do, just that sometimes I don't have the mood to do anything. There are forums to visit, meme to answer to or just visit other people's blogs but the mood thing gets in the way. I only chat with one person online which is my brother who is living abroad but he holds a full time secular job while I am just a full time housewife. So only get to meet him online at night and that too with the different time zone only for a short while.

Now another thing that I do is reading. I wouldn't by all means call reading an interesting novel a dull evening. I have spent nights without sleep just to finish a very engrossing novel. That is good entertainment for me. I dislike television and do not have one at home now. Sometimes I do watch a movie or two but not that much these days either. So have I really answered the question? Dull evening would be aimlessly sitting in front of the laptop with no particular purpose in mind except writing valueless rambling post like this...

What type of water do you drink?

What type of water do you drink? I mean there was this question posted at one of the forum that I am participating now. Whether it is safe to drink from the tap or do we prefer bottled water. Perhaps in some countries it is safe to drink from the tap but certainly not in Malaysia. Even in the city, the water is too contaminated.

I use a distiller at my home. See the photo. I pour tap water into the container. Then it boils the water and when the boiled water evaporates, the fan on top (cover of distiller) cools the vapour and water flows out into plastic container. That water is sweet. I am not kidding. The ants come for it. But this water is really clean and pure with no chemicals added. It simulates the natural water cycle but without pollution. The sediments and rust that are left over after the distillation process proves to me that tap water at my place is not safe for drinking even after boiling.

What's in your bag?

It is fun sometimes to know what people keep in their wallets or handbags. I have read at some meme that people keep all kinds of stuff in their handbags. The usual of course is not necessary for a post here and no one has tag me yet for a "what is in your handbag" meme, so I just take the liberty of posting mine.

After I had my skin problem, I have ceased using makeup and therefore my handbag does not contain any lipsticks, powder, foundation, eyeliner of any kind. However, my genius of sister gave me a mini fan of which I am grateful for. (See photo of the mini fan). I hate crowds at the mall and would easily get stress out. On the other hand, I like the air conditioner at the mall, so when I get too hot after walking even in the air conditioned mall, I will whip out my mini fan to cool myself down. And couple that with my mini water bottle of 300 ml, I can at least last a little longer at the mall even on a crowded day. These two items is something that I must have with me no matter where I go nowadays.

And if I am going to spend a few hours at the mall either window shopping or just watching people, I will bring a novel with me. Then I will find myself a nice cozy cafe and sit there reading while savoring my favourite cappuccino plus cheese cake. Ah, that's life.

What about you? What do you keep in your handbag or purse?

Is digiscrapping really addictive?

Recently, I made a promise to my brother who lives abroad that I will make him a scrapbook. This is a real life one where I will paste photographs in an album and make short notes at the bottom or sidebar and send it by post to him. Well, I have not in any way started even to shop for the album yet, so the project hasn't really taken off yet. This will be my first project of this nature because I want to share what's going on here and my life with him being abroad.

The thing though is, I am not sure whether I like this project or not. The thought just came to me. I was reading in some blogs how people love digital scrapping and how they became addicted to it. Is digiscrapping really so addictive? I was never a person into photography. I mean I don't have much of an eye for taking photos and I also am not the sentimental type that keeps and arrange my photo albums regularly. I seldom reminisce with taking photo albums out and look at them. However, I do move house frequently and those are the times the photo albums come out of the closets and I will flip them through. Nevertheless, I can understand why some mothers would love to take plenty of photos of their babies and children to view the progress of their growth and memorialized the experiences with them on photos. They only remain babies for such a short while. I also understand if some folks like to save up plenty of photos if their spouses are working away from home. This too will be good reason to save up photos when they communicate with each other.

So coming back to this project, I will need to go shop for an album and take it from there then. If I enjoyed the process, I will look more seriously to do online ones too.

Feeling out of sorts

I just had a blood test on Monday because I was feeling so tired and even fainted once recently. Actually the results showed that my glucose level was a bit on the high side though not warrant any medication yet. I should be more careful about my diet and more urgently at this moment is to do some exercise regularly. I have been unable to bring my weight down for some time now and it is worrying. I must schedule time now to do some walking at least.

In addition to that it seems that I had some viral infection that my immune system was fighting and that really took a lot of resources from my body that I was feeling tired easily. I am recuperating now and just feel out of sort some times. In times like these, certain small things gets me down. Sigh...my blog was rejected from a certain sponsor company. Anyway, I need to work harder from now on. Just feeling a little tired for now.

20 months and 600 posts

Hurray, after spending 20 months on this blog, I am finally at my 600th post! I have learned a lot from my fellow bloggers, made many friends as well. It has been fun and I would say worthwhile. There were times that I feel like giving up, but what I did instead was took a break instead. The encouragement, comments and visits from friends and social networkers helped me greatly to stay on course. Sometimes even blog hoppers who dropped by just to say "nice blog" is so refreshing.

I appreciate greatly my sponsors and advertisers from various sectors and fields of their expertise who has given me the opportunity to represent them in my blog. Their contribution directly or indirectly had brought many visitors and made my blog more colourful than my very monotonous life. Thank you once again to everyone.

Sincere regards,
Serena

Nescafe Gold Blend

I have always liked Nescafe Gold Blend Coffee. It has a distinct soothing flavour rather than overly strong which causes headachy feeling for me. So I am pleasantly surprise that they came up with a 3 in 1 pack now which I can use even while on the move. Cool indeed.

Niagara Falls

Have you ever been to the Niagara Falls which is located between the border of Canada and the United States? I went there in 1994 when I visited my aunt who lives in Ontario, Canada. The Niagara Falls is about 120km from Toronto, Ontario. Water flowing from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario carved a gorge past the Niagara escarpment and over time, it has eroded the shale below the hard dolomitic rock at the top. More than six million cubic feet (168,000 m³) of water fall over the crest line every minute in high flow and almost 4 million cubic feet (110,000 m³) on average. It is the most powerful waterfall in North America. The water flows at the astonishing rate of 56.3 kph (35 mph). The falls are currently retreating at a rate of about 1m (3ft) a year.

I did not get the opportunity to go on the boat cruise Maid of the Mist which takes visitors up the gorge to the base of the Horseshoe falls for a truly dramatic and wet experience not to mention the photogenic view as the sun creates rainbow in the mists. However, I did have the opportunity to go in the underground walkways leading into observation rooms which yield the illusion of being within the falling waters. Naturally the sound was deafening when you are faced with the sheer noise of almost 185,000 cubic m (6,600,000 cubic ft) of water roaring into the gorge every minute. It is very astounding and amazing experience indeed. And you can feel the power of the falls and speech in the midst of these forces is unnecessary.

What's Your EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient)?

Your EQ is 120

You usually have it going on emotionally, but roadblocks tend to land you on your butt. On an average day, you're quite happy, together, and content. You live your life well. Your emotions aren't always stable, but you can go along with the ups and downs pretty well. You tend to be motivated, energetic, focused, and level headed. You see the world pretty rationally, and you don't tend to over dramatize things. When things are bad, you know they eventually have to get better.

What's Your EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient)?

Whereas the top part of the analysis is from the generated code after answering the questions, it is rather accurate barring the energetic, focused and motivated part. I am finding it harder and harder to do so in all that I do. Sometimes I feel good and yes, I can feel motivated. At other times, I just feeling like nothing is worth doing. But what do you know, at this moment now, I am motivated and focused.

Let Go of the Past

Did you ever think that holding on to the past can rob you of your energy today? This was what I read about recently. Whenever I think about how it was to be healthy and carefree before my eczema flares up terribly, this actually robs me of the energy and time that I can use to do something positive now. It is better to treat the past as some colourful material that shapes my life as it is now and move on in new directions from now on.

Of course, there may be areas of our life ( I am not talking about just health issues here) that involves pain and regret that we are not able to deal with alone. In this case, we can talk to a professional counselor or close friend. Just opening up about what's holding you back can help put the past where it belongs - in the past.

Walking Kit

I am really desperate for some exercise now. I have been thinking about getting a treadmill but the better ones are rather expensive. I got this walking kit from Mph Bookstore for an incentive though. Yeah, I did say that I am desperate. I actually need something extra besides my legs to get me walking now. It consists of a manual with diet information and of course weight loss tips, a pedometer to measure the number of steps I have walked and hand grips for the stronger swing so to speak. Not sure if this will really help me lose weight but I need to do something. Now I just need to set a schedule to get down to it.

Yamaha 135 LC - Hubby's New Motorbike

Yamaha 135 LC

Need a break

I feel stressed out. My body is feeling it. My eczema is breaking out. There has been a teeny weeny financial challenge last weekend and I was a little concerned. Hubby was getting a new motorbike and we had a little difficulty in our financial turnover. Anyway, I guess there are other ways to beat stress.

I was reading some book about beating stress. We all know the drill but it helps that someone brings it up again once in a while. So here goes:

• > Develop healthy habits in diet, sleep, and exercise. I wish I can be more resolve with the exercise thing. Even my sleep pattern is disrupted with the eczema outbreak. Food is another of my weakness.
• > Invest time to build healthy relationships.
• > Pay attention to your spiritual needs.
• > When unexpected crisis catches you off guard, give yourself a break.
  
• > Cut out nonessentials, and take the time you need to get back your feet on solid ground.

I read an interesting book

Last Saturday, I was at the bookshop for a long time browsing at new releases and special offers. There was some offer for Jodi Picoult's books. This is the first time I heard of her but she already wrote and published many books. I bought a few that were on offer. I like her books very much. They are soul searching and thought provoking.

As I was not feeling too good yesterday, I had the opportunity to read the whole day I was in bed. I picked up Jodi Picoult's - Plain Truth and I can't put it down. I read the whole book of 482 pages in two sittings. No doubt I had to finished the last few pages this morning but it was a really interesting book. I learned a lot about the Amish people, their beliefs and life style from the book. I highly recommend it.

Lavender

I have loved the smell of lavender since my good friend who lived in England made me a pouch of dried crushed lavender. The scent of lavender is still fragrant after a few years. All I need to do is just crush the pouch and the scent will fill the cupboard. When it was freshly made, it can even fill the whole room.

In England, she grew these lovely flowers in her own garden. I can only imagine, the soothing fragrance of lavender when the breeze passes by. It must be lovely and aromatic. Nevertheless, I was told that the scent is stronger when dried. We can't grow lavender here in Malaysia, at least I have not seen them grown here. I have always loved the colour lavender and purple. If there are things that looked good in purple, I would rather choose this colour over pink or blue. I had a purple dress once. I wore it until I outgrew it.

My reading progress

I have just finished A Cup of Comfort for Weddings and now going to another series named A Cup of Comfort for Dog Lovers. In A Cup of Comfort for Weddings, the book tells about stories from the brides, the bridegrooms, the father of the brides and mothers too. Many heart warming stories of true love and marriages that survived until the great great grandchildren.

Those days people married really young. About in their teens. With the World War 2 in progress many form long lasting relationships before and shortly after the war. When they give their word, most will fulfill their promises. I really enjoyed reading these inspiring books.

Share bible reading widget

I am glad that I found a bible reading widget to chart my progress. The widget is at my side bar under I am Reading. I am able to write notes and start study groups but as for now I will just chart my own personal reading Bible progress. I would like to complete the whole bible of 1189 chapters in a year and that is about 4 chapters a day. I won't be able to do it daily in the sense of the word, there are days that I have more time to do reading and others rather filled up. But at least I can be regular at it. My husband is also helping me out with the daily bible reading schedule.

If you are interested in getting this widget for your bible reading schedule and notes, check this out: http://www.bibleshared.com/. The widget is on their blog after you have signed up.

My reading progress

After about two weeks, I have finished reading one book for this year. I have finished A Cup of Comfort for Sisters and now I am reading A Cup of Comfort for Weddings as my side bar indicated. I am rather pleased with my progress so far. I am not competing with anyone and therefore no need to rush through my reading. I am glad that I can finish a book as I thought I had lost the interest to reading due to my frequent mood swings.

I am also doing alright with regards to my bible reading schedule. I have done Genesis 1-32, Malachi 1-4, Matthew 1-17, I Peter and 2 Peter, 1John, 2 John, 3 John and Jude.

Playing and Addicted to Sudoku

I have heard and read about how folks can really be addicted to this number game. What I didn't thought of was how I can be one of them! Although I generally like numbers, I was thinking how can grown ups be addicted with filling in the same set of numbers from 1-9 in tic tac toe manner in grids?

Sudoku is a logic-based number placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 boxes (also called blocks or regions) contains the digits from 1 to 9, only one time each (that is, exclusively). The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid.

Completed Sudoku puzzles are a type of Latin square, with an additional constraint on the contents of individual regions.

The modern puzzle was invented by an American architect, Howard Garns, in 1979 and published by Dell Magazines under the name “Number Place“. It became popular in Japan in 1986, after it was published by Nikoli and given the name Sudoku, meaning single number. It became an international hit in 2005.

I am now at Medium Level. Have a go at it and see if you get into the Sudoku fever!