Communication Tools

I am baffled at how the cellphone has changed our lives forever in a very very short time. Here I would like to start a debate of whether it has been all good or all bad. Well for me I have to confess that I am hooked too although I resisted for as long as I could. But then I am careful not to be rude like talking loudly around others or ignoring a conversation unless it is to get out of a a boring one.

We are all practically a slave to the cellphone to the extent of feeling naked without it. About a decade ago, Visa's tagline was never leave home without it but now I think it's a more appropriate tagline for the cellphone. Seems like the minute the little children know how to utter a few words they will be presented with a cellphone as their xmas gift from well-heeled uncles and aunts. What happened to the dolls and meccano sets for children as christmas gifts. Are these appropriate for kids ?

Back in the sixties, when "flower power" was in full swing, those of us with telephones (those black ones with the "old phone" ring tones) were considered priviledged to have telephones in our homes. I remember my mom used to padlock the zero (any of you remember the telephones had this dial where you literally have to dial the digits) so that we can't make any calls out to save cost. Back then, people were more cost conscious and though calls cost just 10 cents for a whole duration of the call, we were still not permitted to use the phone except for very important calls. I remember my brothers and I used to tap the phones coz we discovered that although we can hardly make any calls out without the zero, we could still tap it 10 times to free the zero and it works everytime. Of course mom never found out coz there were no such thing as itemised billing then (yes, the calls were charged even though we tapped through)

The good thing about the old days was that we communicated so much more through snail mail and looked forward to the postman everyday and we even sang songs to Mister Postman. Nowadays, the postman is nothing more than a bearer of bills ...........nothing nice like christmas, new year or birthday cards anymore as more of us are just forwarding messages that have been sent to us by another party. What a sad state of affairs.

Family hardly sit after dinner for a nice conversation to see how each other day's went and no more board games like Ludo, snake and ladder, scrabble or monopoly. Each member of the family is busy after dinner with homework, television or DVD, smsing or surfing the net. With all the new cellphones, blackberry and other gadgets of communication, we are hardly communicating. What has happened? How did it come to this? Anyone out there has the answer???

Under-bed Storage

Nowadays with living spaces getting smaller, we have to be creative to come up with extra storage areas without cluttering our homes. One good way is making under the bed a neat storage area instead of what our mothers used to do with shoe boxes. In the old days, what we did was to keep all our stuff in shoe boxes or old fruit or milk cardboard cartons and pushed it underneath our beds. Although this worked fine while storage is concerned, but when it came to cleaning time, it was a real hassle to have to remove box by box and vacuum and mop before having to pile the boxes up one at a time again.

In keeping with the old tradition of shoe boxes and cardboard cartons, these are still good containers to keep our momentos but to make it easier for the cleaning process, a plank on wheels comes in handy as all you have to do is to pull our the plank and the whole lot of boxes comes with it. No muscle required. The good thing is you can make this simple but useful contraption yourself just as I did at minimal cost.

If you happen to know someone who has a plank lying around somewhere, that's fine, if not just purchase a cheap piece of chipboard or plywood board to your specifications. Get four casters (roller wheels) from hardware shop or supermarket. They come with four holes to each of the rollers and the screws are also provided most of the time. Just screw in the roller wheels in each of the four corners of the planks and there you have it. A rolling plank that will hold all your boxes when it goes under the bed. If you want to be more creative, you can screw in two hooks on each end and attach a rope to it. This will act as a handle that will make it easier for you to pull out the plank when you need to vacuum under the bed. Useful for keeping your shoes too if you are like Imelda Marcos. I think it cost me about RM25 total for one but then if you can find any old planks for free like a table that's broken or someone has thrown out a cabinet and the doors are still good, then all these can be converted to this useful plank on wheels.


Underside of roller

Go make yourself one and make one for friends too. I am sure they'll appreciate it.



Side view of rollers

Ice-trays for freezing

In my first post I recommended cooking and freezing food as the option for busy people who have no time to cook a decent meal on weekdays. So here are some more useful tips using the freezer.

The Ice-tray has more uses than just freezing water into ice-cubes (or whatever shapes they come in these days). If you have surplus limes, lemons or oranges or whatever citrus fruits, juice them and pour the juices into the ice-trays and when frozen, pop the iced juice cubes into zip-log bags or if you are like me, keep them in transparent plasticware and you can use them when you need them whether for a juicy drink or just some for your sambal belacan, or to make your lemon chicken. If you like ice lemon tea, you can pop one or two cubes of the frozen lemon ice into your tea and I am sure you will be able to come up with more innovative ideas to use them. You can do the same with coffee and tea too and when you want to drink ice coffee or tea instead of just popping ice into your beverage thus diluting it, you can use the coffee or tea ice cubes and while they chill your beverage it will add the same flavour to your drink without diluting it.

The same can be done with your coconut milk (santan) instead of using packed santan powder or santan in cartons coz these will somehow contain some preservatives. It's so easy to buy ready squeezed santan in the wet markets or even in the supermakets. They are sold for approximately RM1/= per packet. Frozen santan cubes can be just dropped into boiling curry without even having to thaw it first. Invaluable because it saves time and santan is not something that keeps well so the only was is to freeze it.

I have heard that even brandy and whisky can be made into ice cubes but I can't attest to it as I have yet to try it. That would be great in your drinks if it freezes well don't you think. I will test it out and let you know how it turned out later. In the meantime, go crazy with the citrus juices, coffee and tea and coconut milk. These have been tried and tested.

These pictures were also taken outside my house but this time it's the sunset at about 7 p.m. just after a slight drizzle. What magnificent colours.

These are pictures of the sunrise taken outside my house at 7 a.m. What a spectacular sight. We have to look after the earth and Nature if not we will never be able to experience these magical moments and scenery in the near future

Making Jams

A good way to use up fruits of the season is by making jams and preserves. In Malaysia where I live, although our seasonal fruits like durian, mangosteen, mangoes, rambutans, langsat are not suitable for any of these, some can be made into delicious ice-creams. So for me I usually buy the fruits like plums and apples from the supermarket to make jam but strawberries are available nearly all year round in Cameron Highlands, a highland town just 45 minutes up a scenic route from where I live. So whenever we visit Cameron Highlands I will make sure I buy more than I need for my jam coz then I would have some leftover to be frozen for later use. Pineapple is available year round in Malaysia and makes a really delicious jam that is not only good with bread but also to make jam tarts. Of course the three fruit marmalade using grapefruit, oranges and lemons is the best bet coz these three fruits are available easily any time of the year.

The advantage of making your own jam is that not only do you get more fruits in the jam but you can adjust the sugar level to taste coz some of us are more health conscious that others so some of us like it less sweet. Moreover I like to make my jam a little runny coz it goes really well with plain home-made yoghurt. So to start with I will teach you how to make strawberry jam :

Frozen strawberries and a potted strawberry plant in my garden

Strawberry Jam

Ingredients :

About a kilo of strawberry jam
About 1/2 kilo sugar (to taste)
Approx 3 cups of water
Jars for storing jam


Method :

Remove leaves from strawberry and wash them. Put in a heavy based pot with the water and let it boil. When it starts to boil, turn down the heat and let it simmer and stew while stirring periodically so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot. At this juncture, it is also advisable to use a skimming spoon to lift off the scum and foam that will form at the top of the pot. Let it simmer till the fruits are soft and mushy, then add in the sugar and turn up the heat to let the strawberries come to a rolling boil. At this stage, it is crucial that you keep stirring until you notice the jam leaving the side of the pot. Now, just take a plate and a drop a little jam onto it and let it cool. After a few minutes just take the plate and slant it over to see if the jam rolls off. If it does, then it could be too runny so cook a little longer but if it runs very slowly down the plate then it should be just nice. But if you prefer a firmer jam, then cook it a little longer.

Make sure jars are sterilised by boiling in hot water, dry it with a cloth and leave in a heated oven to dry completely or can just dry in the sun.

When jam is ready, fill jam jars to the brim and cap immediately when hot.

After it has cooled, it can be kept in the fridge. Will keep well for at least a month

Custom made Crystal Jewellery

I have a little business selling my handmade crystal jewelry online and also at jewelry parties which I organize. My fascination was initially with crystals and their energies and it's healing qualities. The more I read, the more I wanted to know about crystals. I bought beautiful crystal beads and chips and I saw the potential in turning them into beautiful necklaces, bracelets and ear-rings. I researched on how to make jewelry from the net and in our local library and started with the little things that I had : my pliers, a few strands of crystal beads and some strings. The first necklace I ever made was with the amethyst chips and when friends saw it they liked it and I gave it away for free. After giving away several necklaces, bracelets and ear-rings I decided that I needed to get back the cost that I put in at the least and my little jewelry business was conceived. This was in September 2006 and since then I have lost count of the number of pieces I have sold. Besides just selling my pieces, I also conduct jewelry making classes for a minimal fee. Since I am into many kinds of craft, sometimes when the mothers are taking their jewelry classes, I will conduct other craft classes for children. I really enjoy these classes and my students get such a thrill when they see the finished product done by their own hands.

Do visit my website :http://www.trinketstation.com

Keeping Green Vegetables Fresh

French Beans and Air-drying chives

Here are some useful tips to keep greens fresh in the fridge for a few days and sometimes even up to a week. We sometimes feel that we should buy just a little more than necessary so we don't have to do our shopping everyday but then find that they are wilted and yellow by the time we really need them. You can actually do several things when you get back from the market/supermarket :

Firstly make sure that all the veggies are dry and not too much moisture is trapped in the plastic bags.

• For spring onions cut the roots off and clean them, then cut the length into two and leave them in a mug so that the water drains dry. Leave for a about an hour on the kitchen table and then put them into plastic container. When you need them, you can then cut them up the way the recipe calls for. Will keep for nearly a week in the fridge

• The same can be done for the celery and keeps for about the same time.

• Chilly padi or bird's eye chillies keeps really well in a bottle in the fridge

• For cabbage always tear off outer leaves to use first coz once you cut up the whole cabbage, it starts to get yellow and brown and there will be wastage as you will have to cut off the edges.

• For Brocolli and cauliflower, it is best to keep them dry and not wash them. Cut them up
  into florets and keep them in plastic container with cover and keep in the fridge.

• Butterhead which is a hydroponically grown vegetable, keeps really well in the fridge. Just use the outer leaves and keep the rest back in the bag that it's packed in and keeps fresh for up to a week at least. Really good eaten raw in salads or blanched and drizzled with a little garlic oil and soya sauce.
  

• String Beans or French Beans is easy to keep fresh too. Just cut the tip and string it, wash and keep whole in plastic container with lid till ready to use then can cut to length required

Planting Herbs in my little garden

Rosemary Plant


Young Basil plants

I am an avid gardener but so far I have been concentrating mostly on plants that beautify my garden space. However, a few weeks ago I decided to devote a little of my gardening time, skills and space to plant some useful herbs which will be handy when I cook instead of having to head to the wet market or the supermarket just to get the herbs.

The little rosemary plants on the top pic are struggling to grow but I am giving them a lot of TLC to help them thrive. Then I have the daun kesom which is used in assam curry dishes like assam laksa. . How encouraging !!! The daun kesom that you see in my post on the assam fish curry was picked fresh from my garden. Isn't that sweet. Nurtured by my own hand. I collected some sweet basil seeds from a neighbour's garden and sowed them and they have begun to show promise. I am trying to plant the basil into little pots so that I can give my two sons a pot each. Since they love pasta, this will be a welcome addition to the other plants growing in their balcony. Imagine just plucking a few leaves off the balcony garden and throwing it into the pasta. Yum yum !!

A scenic drive to Camerons Highlands

Last Sunday morning was hot and humid in the Kinta valley so my hubby and I decided to take a drive up Cameron Highlands via Simpang Pulai. From Ipoh, where we live it takes us just about 15 minutes to reach the foothills at Simpang Pulai. The climb is really gradual and you won't even notice that it's climbing until you look down and see how high up it has climbed.

The scenery though still very beautiful has been spoilt by the many "scars" on the mountainside due to rock blasting. Was really sad and annoyed to see the destruction on nature, done so blatantly and with no guilt and all for the sake of money . We arrived Kg Raja about 40 minutes from Simpang Pulai and headed straight to the garden centres. The air was crisp and much fresher than down in Ipoh city and the many green veggies was a feast to the eyes. Although it's still cool and nice in Cameron Highlands , hopefully something will be done asap to stop too much so called "development". It's becoming a concrete jungle. I can still remember the Cameron Highlands of my youth and I mourn the demise of that beautiful Highlands that I knew not so very long ago.

There are some really distasteful looking apartments that seemed out of place in such a nice and scenic setting. My only hope is that the authorities will do something to protect the scenic beauty of Cameron Highlands and preserve it as a tourist attraction.

Oprah's New Online Class ........ It's Free

Today is the first day of Oprah Winfrey's and Ekhart Tolle's online class on the latter's book A New Earth. Go to Oprah.com and sign up. It's more a spiritual and self improvement sort of class and I think will be helpful to many of us. It's free so I guess no harm joining up as we have nothing to lose but everything to gain. Happy learning and this is the website : www.oprah.com

Save Toll Charges on the Old Trunk Roads

On Saturday, my husband and I took a slow leisurely drive to Kuala Lumpur. We travel to Kuala Lumpur often enough to visit our sons, always taking the highway which will cost us something between RM 24.00 to RM27.00 on toll charges, depending from where we enter and exit the highway. So a trip to KL inclusive of petrol will cost us at least RM100.00.

This past weekend we decided to try the old trunk roads as friends and family have told us that the roads are much improved and most importantly, free of toll charges. We left Ipoh at 7.45 am and took the highway till Tapah and exited to the old road and paid a toll of RM5.60. We were pleasantly surprised by the ease of driving on the old roads and the bonus was the beautiful scenery and the nostalgia as we passed the towns like Sungkai, Bidor and so on. It has been years since I have been on these trunk roads and certain stretches was dual carriageway too. We drove all the way through Rawang until Jalan Kuching to my son's apartment which is just off Jalan Kuching. Can't imagine that we paid a toll of only RM5.60 as compared to RM24 - RM27 on the highways. Although the speed limit was only 90 kmh and it was raining most of the way, it took us just short of 3 hours to arrive Kuala Lumpur as compared to 2 hours on the highway but was worth the little extra time taken because the toll saved was significant enough. My hubby says on our next trip we should be able to go all the way and not pay a single sen toll.
I am game............why not if we can save money and we arrive anyway.


Rainy morning