Rumba & Ratatouille

Pssstt...psstt...! Rumba, Ratatouille is out to play!!!

Awareness: Earth Day, 22nd April

(Photo taken in Pulau Segayang, Indonesia. A privately owned island located south of Batam Island.)

Earth Day falls on the 22nd of April every year. In conjunction with this day, here are some of the things we can do to help to make Earth a better place to live in.

Save energy
Turn off appliances and lights when we leave the room.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Have leaky air conditioning and refrigeration systems repaired.
Cut back on air conditioning if you can especially these rainy season.
Do all our shopping only once a week to reduce driving – lessen air pollution.
Replace incandescent light bulbs with energy saving bulb.

Use less water
Don't let the water run while shaving or brushing teeth.
Take short showers instead of tub baths.
Wash only full loads of laundry or use the appropriate water level or load size selection on the washing machine.
Repair all leaks (a leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons a day).
Water the lawn or garden during the coolest part of the day (early morning is best).
Plant trees.

Reduce/reuse/recycle

Practice the three R's: first reduce how much you use, then reuse what you can, and then recycle the rest. Then, dispose of what's left in the most environmentally friendly way.

Reduce:
· Buy permanent items instead of disposables.
· Buy and use only what you need.
· Buy products with less packaging.
· Buy products that use less toxic chemicals.

Reuse:
· Repair items as much as possible.
· Use durable coffee mugs.
· Use cloth napkins or towels.
· Clean out juice bottles and use them for water.
· Use empty jars to hold leftover food.
· Reuse boxes.
· Purchase refillable pens and pencils.
· Donate extras to people you know or to charity instead of throwing them away.
· Reuse grocery bags as trash bags.
· Bring own cloth bag for shopping reducing the usage of plastic bags.
· When buying small items, request not to have plastic bags.

Recycle:
· Recycle paper (printer paper, newspapers, mail, etc.), plastic, glass bottles, cardboard, and aluminum cans. If your community doesn't collect at the curb, take them to a collection center.

Let's together, hand in hand, make an effort to make our only home (earth), a better place to live in. Treat it with respect.

Still head over heels... (with my curtain)

Lovely isn't it? My tea time.

Six Sense, anyone?

I am still all over my new curtains today... still very proud of myself... :p It's Sunday today and I decided to stay home. Finished up my remaining sewing projects. Added a matching placemat & a matching fridge-to cover to my kitchen... ahh... lovely...!

Vacuumed and mopped my home sweet home. Made myself an egg sandwich and a glass of coffee served on my newly sewed placemat on the serving tray & enjoyed the beautiful drizzling afternoon watching tv (did I mentioned I love it when it rained). It has been awhile since I last enjoy such blissful afternoon.

My blissfulness was rudely interrupted with a phone call from Harrison (he was supposed to be on his way to my place). All I heard was that accident in Kesas... and I ask 'so how?'....and he said something about calling someone... and I asked call for what?..and he blabbered about to arrange for tow truck cause cant start car engine. Only then did I realised that he is the one that had an accident. I was worried sick. Took a drive down Kesas to find him to ensure that he is alright but his car has already been towed and he was already at the workshop. Thank God, it was really a minor one.

The thing is, have you ever have a premonition (not sure spelt correctly), that something gonna happen and when it really happened, it is like.... I just knew it. I always have that. Some called it six sense.

Just two weeks ago, as I was parking my car at the slope in front of harrison's place, the usual place I always parked, before I got out of my car, I was overcome by a fear that my car will slide down the slope. So I double checked & tighten the handbrake and gave my car a few jerked to make sure it doesnt move. 10 minutes later, while we were at a shop nearby, we got a call from his sis, that my car has slide down the slope and ended up in the middle of the road. Can you believe it? Strange but true.

Luckily there is no damage. It just decided to stop halfway thru and ended up right in the middle of a two way road. A good samaritan placed a brick on my wheel and went knocking from door to door to ask whose car it was. Harrison quickly rushed back to remove my car. Later on, he told me that there were like 4 policemen, security guards & some other peoples surrounding my car. So kua cheong! Luckily no summon for traffic obstruction!

Back to Harrison's accident, for the past one month, I was kinda have this vision of his damaged car. So everynight, as he is leaving my place, I would tell him to drive carefully. Just yesterday, as I was getting into his car after dinner, I see it again. I was thinking to myself, that his car is so beautifully done up (he re-did its exterior recently) and it would be a waste to smash it. To break the premonition jinx, I told him my thoughts. Cause usually thoughts spoken out loud, would not happen.

But I only said something about 'your car is very beautifully done up...' I guess I should've finished my sentence with .. 'it will be a waste if it were smashed in an accident, becareful when you drive especially these wet days'.... sigh....

This senses always come and go. Just need to be smart enough to pick up the signals & take advantage of it. Sometimes it give premonition of something gonna happen. Sometimes, its like an antenna sensing something is not right. Sometimes its a communication link. I'll tell you guys more about this special power of mine next time.

Redbabe Sewing Again!

My first curtain project. Decided that I need a new set of curtain for my living room yesterday and therefore went to a kedai kain, and chose a simple neutral tone fabric that goes with my furniture. (another reason is cause it's cheap. afterall this is my first curtain project, not sure it'll see any daylight).

Started the cutting and measuring at about 11pm last night, and by about 2:00am, completed my first panel... ahhh....... total satisfaction.


Went to buy additional fabric this morning to complete the second panel (under estimated fabric requirement) and bought some other fabric for my kitchen as well.



(this fabric goes better with a white wall. still thinking should I or should I not change the wall colour. harrison already promised to do it for me. hmm... am kinda lazy though..)

All I wanna say is, am kinda proud of myself for completing these projects. :p I am afterall, my mom's daughter. All these skills must have been pre-programmed into me... hahaha.... or that i've learned subconciously while watching my mom doing all her sewing projects long ago.

Its not that difficult afterall!

NOTE:

living hall curtain = less than RM40

(i've been paying ikea RM100+ for 2-panel curtains all these while and I thought that is cheap!! how dumb!!!!)

Loving & Dying

I chatted with a close friend recently and she asked me something about death. I can't remember her exact words, but its something about it's kinda sad to die... to leave behind our love ones, our kids, parents and everything. Then I remembered a book I read and wish to share its excerp. It may not be relevant to the conversation, nevertheless, here you go :-

"No one is spared from death. All of us have to die. Life is uncertain but death is certain. The Buddha says birth is suffering because it leads inevitably to decay and death. We should understand this well. If we accept life, we must accept death. If we want to cry when somebody dies, then we should also cry at his birth. For the moment a baby is born, the seed of death is in him. But we are happy when a child is born. We laugh and we congratulate the parents. If we understand birth - that is must lead to death - then when death comes, we should be able to face it with a smile."

"Everything is impermanent. Understanding it, we will be able to let go. We will not be so attached to the gross sensual pleasures of life. We can live more wisely. We can grow old gracefully. And we need not fear death."

"While we are alive, we ought to live meaningfully so as to have no regrets later. Forgive everybody. Do not harbour any grudges or consider anybody your enemies. Life is short, and soon we will all be dead".

I went thru depression couple of times and I stumbled upon this book when I was at my down-est. And instead of feeling depressed over what happened, it opened up my eyes to look things at different perpective. And that is, everything happened for a reason.

Why thyroid? - So I dont take good health for granted.

Why my eye protrude & my terrible break out? - Many others are far worst than I am. So what if my eye protrude? I still can see :) Just a little blurrish..lols

Why me? - Why not me?

Why my favourite cousin passed away? - So that he suffer less and find peace.

Why a good friend lied? - Cause she is unhappy.

Life is full of choices. =) We have a choice to see things in however ways we like. We can look at its positive side, or negative side if we want to. Why not look at it at a brighter note? Why condemn? Why not praise? Its not easy. But as long as we have a conscious mind and make an effort to see things in a different light, am sure we will be able to see many beautiful things.

So, forgive & forget, let go & move on. Remove unhappiness & hatred from our heart, so there will be more space for love. Then we can love more richly, more deeply. And when death comes, we can die with acceptance & peace. I am still trying. :)