Selamat Ari Gawai

Gawai Day falls tomorrow. It is celebrated by our Dayak communities, a thanksgiving day marking good harvest and a time to plan for new farming season and activities for the year. On Gawai Day, open houses will be normally filled with endless rounds of tuak (rice wine), delicacies and cakes. Should you be visiting any long houses during Gawai Day, visitors would be entertained with traditional dances and cultural performances.

This year we would not be going to any open houses or doing any Gawai visiting. I will be flying away during the Gawai celebration. Update after I am back from the trip, ok?? :)

To all Dayak blogger friends and readers, Happy Gawai Day and Happy Holiday.

Cooling down

Cook mung bean dessert over the weekend. It was hot here, feel like in hot sauna all the time. When are we going to have rainy season? It is getting very warm. Lukily we have serviced our air-conditioner on Saturday. We spent most of our time indoor over the weekend, in the bedroom. Outside temparature too unbearable for us. Apparently the fan motor spoiled, so cause not much cool air coming out from the unit. We spent RM80 on the services, cleaning and pumping of gas.

Since hubby missed taking dessert, I cooked mung bean soup last Sunday. Usually I will mix it with some barley and sago, but this time I did not get any barley and sago, so it is plain mung bean soup. A great dessert for a hot day. :) Yum yum.

Bluer Day

I have never like Monday but today is definitely not my day. Woke up, feeling tired than usual, my mind keep debating whether today is Monday or Sunday. How I wish it is Sunday. But reality sank faster than the iceberg sank the great Titanic, I have to admit that it is not going to be a better day for me.

True enough, I nearly have an accident on the road. Some crazy guy parking his staled car on one of the busiest roads in Kuching, and everyone taking times squeezing through. As I squeezing my car through, someone in other car also squeezing through from the side. Ggggrrr! How inconsiderate. Furthermore, my petrol indicator kept blinking red, telling me that it is time to fill my car with some petrol. I was worry that I may be the next car that stopped in middle of the road!! After filling my faithful car with petrol enough to cover my 5 working days, I rushed to office.

Although today weather was gloomy without sight of sun the office temperature was rather warm. Maybe because of temperature, everyone is rather in high mood today. I developed a headache during my weekly meeting till lunch time. Not only that, by lunch time, we were so hungry that we can eat the whole horse! *laugh* Thank god lunch brought some good mood in us as we tried out new eating place across the road. Buffet lunch, RM5 per person only. Cheap right? Food was so-so, nothing fancy, but we just stuffed ourselves with what offered on the buffet table.

I thought the day was getting better but it was not. Afternoon went well in the office, and we have rain too. Monday is aerobic day so after work, I rushed to the aerobic centre. By the time I reached the area around 525pm, I noticed that the area was quiet. Waited for 5 minutes and sensing something was not right, I called the person in charge. After several calls, no one picked up the calls, so I decided that was it for the day. No one turned up and calls cannot get through. It must have been cancelled. I did not attend last week session, so I assume that they have decided on canceling today session without informing me.

Sigh! The person in charge did call me back, apologize for my time. Anyway, it was not the first time and I decided it is time to look for another aerobic centre. Oh well, at least I went home earlier today and able to catch my Chinese drama series at 7pm! Yes, I started to pick up a series just few days ago. *wink*

Alright, my headache is haunting me again, I better call it a day. Good night and sleep tight everyone.

Take Care of Your Contact Lenses Hygiene

A family friend recently told us that his wife is going to undergo an eye operation. The wife is a contact lenses wearer. She did not take care of her lenses hygiene; she seldom clean or rub the lenses with necessary solution. Soon, her eye contacted an infection early this year. She did not go for any treatment, thinking that the infection will go away. Slowly it developed into a viral infection.

Recently our friend brought his wife for check-up at specialist’ clinic. Turn out that the small infection turned into virus that attacked her eye nerve system. Meaning that she may go blind permanently. The more heart-breaking news is that she has to undergo an abortion due to the possibility of viral infection affect her unborn child. The doctor advised the couple to abort the baby as chances are high that baby will be blind from the viral infection.

So friends out there, please take care of your eyes. If you are contact lenses wearers, do rub, clean and rinse thoroughly your lenses before placing them into the solutions in your contact lenses cases. I am a wearer too.

A couch potato or what?

I am not so much in television, as I don't watch much of it nowadays. I used to follow those Hong Kong drama series and sports channel, but those were the days before I married. Staying in hubby's house with my sis and bro-in-law, I seldom have the privilege to watch tv programmes. Maybe I dont miss it too. So nothing to lose from it, I bet.

Darling hubby loves to watch those Taiwan soup opera on AEC, ASTRO channel at 6pm every weekday. How I hate it? I dont quite understand their Hokkien and I do not read the Chinese subtitle. So, a no-no series for me. Once hubby sticks to the drama, nothing can distract him anymore. All antenna concentrated on the television and external distractions are blocked out from his reception. Sometimes I enjoy watching him watching tv more than I watch tv itself! *laugh* He can sit there from 6 till 7pm, and I hardly can get his attention when it is dinner time. Need to call more than twice and clap my hand to get through him. Sometimes I leave him alone and I have my dinner by myself.

If you ask me what I watch, I only watch CSI series on AXN on Sunday afternoon. If there is any tennis matches, I will try to tune in, but usually it played in the evening. Everyone would be around by that time and we dont watch the same channels. Mostly hubby and others watch Chinese channels more. And little gal will fidget and nag to go to the bedroom for her usual play time.

Since hubby is in front of the television, I nag him to do some exercises at the same time. So he started to do his usual weight-lifting exercises. Flexing his dumbells while watching television. Now, I guess that is better than him sitting and doing nothing but watch television right?

Hubby's new tea set

My 4th posting for the day. It has been long since I make so many posts in a day huh? *wink*

Just want to show you hubby's new tea set. He bought it this morning. The whole set is around RM140.00. Wow! I think he is crazy to make such purchase. For me, it is expensive for a tea set as nothing unique about it, but hubby said usually other places selling them for around RM200 - 300 plus? True or not?

It is not really a set, the teapot and cups and saucers are a set. The tray and coasters are separate items.

If you are wondering whether this set is going to be a decorative or for consumption purpose, I don't know. Just see what hubby is going to do with them!!

Six Ways to Win Friends

I am currently reading a book by Dale Carnegie “How to win friends & influence people”. It was hubby’s book. He has always intrigued me in first place, by how he likes to buy and read all those motivational and self-appreciation books. I found them boring in the past. But not anymore.

The first book he introduced me is “Rich Kid, Smart Kid”. I believe you know who the author of the book is, right? In the past I would grab any best selling romance novels on the book shelves but now, I would browse around those business and motivational books to check out the latest best seller books in the market. I still read romance novels but I have developed reading interest on fiction, thriller and motivational books as well. Reading is a never ending process, I learnt a lot by reading and it also help to keep my brain from turning “rusty”. *laugh*

Back to Dale Carnegie’s book, I would like to share with you its tips on how to make others like you. All summarized in six points as follow. Hope you learn something from it, because I did:

Become genuinely interested in other people
If you want others to like you, if you want to develop a real friendship, if you want to help others at the same time as you help yourself, always interested in what other people do, think and say. You must be sincere.

Smile
Smile is a messenger of your goodwill. Be generous and genuine when you smile. When you meet people, a good first impression is important. Smile is a strong first impression

Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language
Name is owned by the person that we talking to, and nobody else. If you remember that person’s name, it makes that person feels important

Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
Communication is a two-way road. Remember that the people you are talking to are a hundred times more interested in themselves and their wants and problems than they are in you and your problems. So, to be a good conversationalist, be an attentive listener too. To be interesting, be interested. Ask questions that the other persons will enjoy answering.

Talk in terms of the other person’s interest
Know what the other party’s interest, may it be sports, career, family issues and food. Talk on what interested them.

Make the other people feel important – and do it sincerely
Talk to people about themselves and they will listen for hours