Home for Christmas…at last

Final count - five luggages, three big and two small *Gasp, Gasp, Gasp*

Look out for our adventure back home…one of the highlights, the kids are heading back to Singapore school *evil smile from mama*…(just ten days out of five weeks, not so evil lah!)
Here's wishing you, my faithful readers,

A Blessed Christmas and God's never ending blessings to you and all your loved ones in the New Year and many many more years to come!

Why I like him?

I love Jamie Oliver. As a person who loves to cook and bake and basically experiment in the kitchen, I find his recipe extremely easy to follow and almost 100% successful each time I try them out. Although he is known as a celebrity chef yet he is very different from the rest. For one, he doesn't dressed up to cook even on National TV. Please tell me who dressed up to cook in the kitchen? He has a very strong voice for eating healthily and that does not mean expensive food. A cheap cut meat can have all the nutrients needed for a healthy body and he teaches his audience how to go about cooking it using the common ingredients found in the market. The way to healthy living is eating REAL food... period.

I think one of his biggest contribution to society is starting FIFTEEN, a cooking programme meant for training street kids in London how to cook and hence, able to get a job.  Giving them a chance to survive in society using culinary skills taught by himself and his team.  If more rich and successful person can think like him, the world will be a much better place for all, even the under privileged.


My collection of Jamie O's magazines and cookbooks


My little library of cooking books and magazines. I got to get a proper storage place when I go back home.

Notre-Dame de Paris

The Musical came to Shanghai recently and we all went to watch it. One of the finest musical we have ever seen and with great singers and actors. Their voices were fabulous, never heard anyone so good before.  In a city where there isn't much to do, having good musicals coming to town is a great relief.


Ticket for the show Notre-Dame de Paris


Amazing chandeliers. The Chinese simply adores them.



This is the Shanghai Culture Square.

Just about everything…

Haven't been writing for a while her cos' I have been busy attending Zumba classes. I must cos' I am going to feast! Busy with buying last minute stuff to bring home and of course packing, packing and packing. Thank God I am a type A person. A lot of stuff have been packed way ahead and yes, still packing. *Gasp*

The other reason is because I have been following the news of the big MRT breakdown back home! It concerned me greatly because my family depends on the MRT a whole lot. In fact, most of my fellow countrymen also depend on it. Prior to this biggy, there have been numerous minor breakdowns, a signal sent out to the people in charge that something was wrong, very wrong. But no one took it seriously and the system finally collapsed. The greatest blessing out of this was that there were no loss of lives.

I wrote in to the papers to question about the passenger limit and it was published…

Trains should have passenger limits

Published on Dec 20, 2011
SMRT says a train's back-up system, powered by a battery, should last 45 minutes ('Emergency power should have kicked in' and 'Don't break the windows: SMRT'; both last Saturday).
But if the carriage is packed to the brim, 45 minutes is too long to wait and that leaves the passengers with no choice but to break windows.
Staying calm and waiting for help will not keep people from suffocating. When the air is thin, even five minutes is crucial. We have always been told to think out of the box, and breaking the windows in times like this seems the wisest thing to do.
SMRT's senior vice-president for communications and services, Mr Goh Chee Kong, said the train was very crowded, so some people may have felt there was no ventilation.
Were the carriages packed beyond capacity so passengers could not feel the air coming from the ventilators? Are carriages too heavy, so the weight destroys the collector shoes?
Buses and taxis have a limit on the number of passengers they can carry. What about train carriages? Should there not be a limit?
Shirley Woon (Madam)
 
I contributed quite a fair bit to the forum page. How much of it will be read and action taken. I really do not know. But what I do know is that I speak my mind, I write my mind. At the end of the day, I will live with no regrets of what I should or should not have done.

p/s: actually one company which I wrote in to voice my concern some years back, actually took up my suggestion and made changes to the way they do things. So, don't think your thoughts are not important, they are and they do make a difference!