Working on a Sunday ...

I have to work today ... It's the weekend, I know. But I would not call this all "work" ....

 

Look at the big boys' toys I get to play today. :-P

Mr. Bean's Souped Up Mini ...

This beautiful mini just arrived a couple of days ago into my showroom. A beautiful car. The bright yellow reminded me of the silly Mr. Bean immediately.

Koryo Won Restaurant @ Suria KLCC

Stumbled upon this Korean Restaurant at Suria KLCC. I wonder what Koryo means, because my son belongs to a Taekwondo club which is called Koryo as well ....

 

I don't think the word koryo has anything to do with food.

David Allen ... another interview

I thought I'd share this interesting interview with David Allen by fastcompany.tv

Silvery Glitter .....

My Kids and I spend the weekend at a local community hall. The kids participated in a Taekwondo championship organized by our Local Council, Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya, MPAJ.

Syafiq, my second boy, was eliminated in the quarterfinals and came back home empty handed. His elder brother, Syafie, on the other hand, sailed through to the finals but lost in the final match. It was a close fight, but I think Syafie could have clinched the Gold medal if had tried just a little bit harder.

One thing I learned, and hopefully my kids too, that in a competition like this there're going to be losers. What's important is that he tried his best. With that in mind, I am content with the silver medal Syafie brought home. I bet he wanted to win as bad as I did ... perhaps more ... It is important to win but it's important to be a good loser as well, isn't it?

Here are some shots of the kids in action.

Syafie(blue vest): taking off

Syafie: reverse thrust to the opponents' face

Syafie: another try

Syafiq(red vest): trying his best to win

I've been a supporter of this sport since both my children became active in Taekwondo. I covered the events officially when requested. This week, I took photos a parent giving support to his boys.

Cucumber-Carrot-Mint Riata

Raita is a raw vegetable, yogurt based salad, not unlike coleslaw other than the yogurt for the dressing. There are lots varieties of recipe for this salad, but I like mine with mint. I mentioned about this dish briefly in my previous posting, so, I thought I'd share the recipe, my version, of this very cooling salad.

Cucumber Carrot Mint Raita

• 1 cup shreaded cucumber (squeeze the moisture out as much as possible)
• 1 cup shreaded carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
• 1/2 cup low fat yogurt
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar

Mix everything up and chill in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes before serving. Easy peasy ...

This salad goes with just about anything, even just on it's own. My kids love it and it a good way to introduce fresh raw vegetables to their diet. It's good for me too .....

Food Diary

This morning a friend sent me a link to an article about food diary and how it helps to reduce weight. It's a good read but, eventhough I keep a personal journal (and a few other notebooks), keeping a dedicated food diary is not for me. I do write about what ate occasionally in my journal if it's interesting enough or if it's something different.

I tried this food diary "thing" before and I can only stick to the food diary for a few months before giving up, because I felt it became repetitious after some time.

Why?

I cook my own food, so I know what I put in my cooking. I generally plan my meal in advance. A typical meal has 3 dishes, One legume/bean based veggies like, French beans, Okra 9ladies fingers), Snake beans, bean sprouts ... etc. One leafy veggies (white or green) like cabbage, Bok Choy, Kailan ... etc. And 1 protein, tofu, chicken, fish or beef. I rarely go out for lunch so when I jot down what I ate everyday, the menu seems the same through out the week. I lose motivation to keep on jotting down my daily consumption because of this.

Also, I don't snack between meals. Instead, I replace my lunch with a light snack like homemade sandwiches I packed from home or fruits. So, I did not have anythig to write down in between meals.

I followed this type of diet, for more than 2 years now, eating more vegetable based food, but my weight loss has been very minimal. I am still as big as a cow!! ... I used to weigh 122kg a couple of years ago and the weight did drop to 108kg and has plateaued since early this year. In order to lose weight, I need more physical exercise which I know I really lack doing. I know I need to sweat the weight out, but still bogged with self made excuses .... sigh!!!

Not knowing the exact calorie content of the food I cook makes calorie counting useless, at least for me. How much calorie did I consume this morning? ...
- I mug coffee with artificial sweetener,
- 2 slices wholemeal toasts with last night's leftover chicken curry.
- 1 bowl of cucumber and mint raita, also leftover from last night. (love this simple salad, suitable anytime of the day. I'll post up the recipe someday)
Without knowing how much I consumed for breakfast, I am quite at loss as how much should I take for the rest of the day.

I am not saying the article is off the track or totally wrong, it's a good read and may be beneficial to lots of people. I am just sharing a personal point of view and experience, that I tried it and did not work very well for me.

Wet Tuesday Morning

Yesterday's rain carried on till this morning. As usual, my complaint is traffic congestion. A round trip to send my kids to school normally takes half an hour. This morning, it's been 70 minutes and I'm still in the car.

At this rate, I'll get home only at 8.30am and have to get ready for work and drive to my office. I'm going to be late today.

You can only plan for the day, but there are lots of external factors that could affect your initial planning.

I'm late. I'm late ... I'm late,I'm late, I'm late .....

Raven - Blogging from the thumbdrive

While looking for ways I can update this blog easier, I stumbled across this blog editng software that installs in my portable thumbdrive.

Raven, is a WYSIWYG blog editor that looks like an ordinary word processor, so using one should not be a major obstacle. It's just like writing in a Word documents and then publish the blog when you are done writing and when you are satisfied with the image layout.

One feature that I like is that I can write a few blogs and store them on the thumbdrive to be published later. I can write a few blurbs at a time, and publish the ones that I have completed. The unfinished blogs are saved in the thumbdrive, so, I can open the files, edit and publish whatever I've written, wherever I have access to a computer.

All published blogs are kept by the software, in the thumbdrive, acting like a backup to whatever I've posted to my blog. Plus, I can edit the older writings to make corrections or additions, then immediately republish them.

Being able to manage blogs offline is a great plus. On top of that Raven allows management of multiple blogs to multiple service provider. Raven supports services by Typepad, Blogger, Wordpress and a few others. I manage a few blogs using Blogger and Wordpress, so Raven is a lot of help.

Currently, Raven is still in beta and FREE. Hopefully will continue to be free ....

Moleskine Replacement

The price of moleskine journals here in Kuala Lumpur is pretty high, so I've been for the look out for a suitable and cheaper replacement for quite some time already .... but still going back to the pocket moleskine.

I found out about a moleskine lookalike by Rhodia at www.blackcover.net called Rhodia Webnotebook. I would like to own one, to test one out for myself. After reading the full review, and some googling, this notebook will not be any cheaper than a moleskine. How soon this will arrive Malaysian shores is also a big WHEN?

So, I'm entering the giveaway contest organized by www.blackcover.net, to try out my luck in winning one. Who knows, I might get hooked to the Rhodia Webnotebook .....

Wish me luck.

Keynesian Paradox of Thrift at Work .....

Hungry ... I went out for lunch to a nearby restaurant where I usually get my regular fix of fried rice. The first thing that I noticed was the absence of the usual chatty voice of one of the waitresses. When asked, the owner said that she could not afford to pay the monthly salary of the waitress, so she had to let her go ... What happened?, I asked. The reply I got was just as I suspected. The owner of the restaurant said ever since the increase in fuel prices, she has been getting less and less customers. In order to cover the increase in fuel expenditure, her clients had to cut down on eating out. The regulars who often come for casual chit-chat over a few cups of teh tarik now do that at their own homes. I noticed a few of my colleagues bring in their own lunch to work, instead of going out to the restaurant for lunch. All these had reduced her overall operating income. Things were made worse when her cook demanded a higher salary to cover for his commuting cost due to the increased fuel cost. The restaurant owner had to increase the cook's salary, because without the cook, she would have no restaurant to manage. She had to pay more for a cook and covers the waitress part herself. One customer, sitting at a table adjacent to mine, overheard the conversation joined in the chat and said, "Sejak harga beras naik, nasik goreng Akak dah naik harga dari RM3.00 ke RM3.50 ... mana tahan!" (Since the price of rice went up, your fried rice is now up to RM3.50 from only RM3.00) , he said he had cut his lunch spending by half, only going out for lunch every other day. I understand how the restaurant owner is feeling right now ... confused, but she had to set her priorities, otherwise, she would be running her business at a loss. If this trend is true throughout the Malaysia economy, I fear a recession is not far ahead. As it is now, the government had cut down spending to ease their burden on fuel subsidy. Cancelled or deferred projects means a lot of businesses would be losing a lot of potential income, not to mention the negated employment opportunities. The company I worked in (automotive business) depends on the success of these business entrepreneurs and professionals. The more they earn, the more they'd spend on automobiles. If these people reduce their spending, my company would suffer a reduced income, and I could go the way of the waitress at the restaurant. This seems so familiar .... Keynesian Paradox of Thift at work???