面对恐惧

我还以为自己真的勇者无惧，这一次倒是真正面对恐惧了。

话说放工后我们一行人到吉打州西岭吃晚餐。晚饭后我决定不原路返回，而是随朋友走山路上高速公路。

由于我知道我们一行人路线不同，于是我在看见第一个高速公路的牌子后便决定离队直往。小妹妹打电话来问我怎么这么快离队，应该继续尾随她们前进。我见两旁完全没有转向的空间，开了Waze又说我在正确的道路上，于是我决定继续前进。

那是雨后的夜晚，没有路灯，马路两旁是一望无际的黑暗，偶尔风吹过，浓浓的雾便柔柔地把前路给覆盖了。我想起其中一位小妹妹曾经说过那么“一条大白天我也不敢走的公路”，这样的荒山野岭，想来必然对了，硬着头皮勇往直前。我翻山越岭地在森林里孤独地穿梭，在能见度不到50米的山路上开始自我怀疑，直到Waze叫我转左……

我的车子转入一条从油棕园穿过的小路。由于是黑漆漆的夜晚，车子开高灯能见度也低于50米，我只看见路上积水的坑坑洞洞。我停顿了很久。我开始想象车轮跌进泥坑进退两难的窘境、想象突然有强盗出现、想象我横尸荒山野岭、想象亲朋戚友的哀伤、想着那些未完成的事……两膝开始酸软……

过了几分钟吧，我恢复理智，掉头走回头路吧！恐惧的基础是无明，回头路是“已知”，心里必定比较踏实。

在回头路上为了自我安慰，我开始想着自己的人寿保险可以如何让父母安享晚年、想着弟妹应该可以坚强面对、想着一切存在着的事物的不生不灭、不增不减……

恐惧的基础是无明，面对了，就释然了。

Having Fun with Clip-On Lens

Mid of December, my brother shopped online and found himself something nice on Lazada Malaysia for RM50. However, he needed another RM30 of purchase to get free shipment so he turned to his sisters as usual.

We had nothing particular in our mind so the first thing we did is to browse for toys and baby gears. While browsing, we talked about our mutual friend's latest posts on FB where he took marvelous photos with his newly bought clip on lens. Eureka! We shopped for universal clip-on lens for our phone and totally forgot about the baby in the house :)

We placed order on 15th Dec and got our new toys on 18th Dec. Pretty good service from Lazada I'll say.

My LIEQI Universal Clip Lens comes with a clip, a wide angle / macro lens, a fisheye lens and a pouch. (The wide Wide Angle / Macro Lens is a 2-in-1 device, where the Macro lens available by unscrewing the Wide-Angle lens.)

It fits well on our phones and iPads. What I love about this new toy is that it is light, easy to carry around, and most importantly, the quality is not bad at all (for the price of RM29 per set)!

The wide angle lens has nothing to shout about but I have no complaints! (reminder: RM29 per set!)
Fisheye lens is fun to play with but my favorite is the macro lens.

Here are some photos for your reference:

Normal phone camera

With clip-on wide angle lens

With clip-on Fish Eye lens

macro - strawberry close up

macro - grass1

macro - grass2

macro - grass3

macro - flowers of pegaga

macro lens - airplant baby

macro lens - wild flower

macro lens - flower bud

macro lens - 煤炭屎鬼

This set could replace my bulky DSLR on normal days, and I can still have fun with photography.

2014 - A Year of DIY & Art Works

我向来没有半点艺术天分，但胜在什么都想尝试。今年就以有限的艺术细胞，做了好几样自己相当满意的“作品”。

我们的“能力”，源于自己的想象。你要是觉得自己可以办得到，也就办得到了:)

乐趣无穷的厨房

2014年。迷上顶级厨师，被刘一帆绚丽的刀工征服，因此在厨房里多了一些新意。

2014年。踏上mobilehome旅程，在大洋路上煮煮、走走、看看、拍拍、玩玩、吃吃。

2014年。办公室里的DOE激起我煮蛋的热忱，顶级厨房里那三种鸡蛋料理的压力测试我必定过关。

2014年。妈妈到新加坡两个月，我在厨房成了一个必然。

这是一年乐趣无穷的厨房。

微景观初体验

一切缘起于我妹夫……

他因妻儿短期不在身边，突然间多了些空余时间，不知怎的迷上terrarium。他老婆人在大山脚心在老公身边，为此很努力地在淘宝寻找和terrarium有关的物品。很不小心的，我也因而被那些可爱的玩意儿迷倒，到淘宝败了几个。

双十二下的订单，正好赶上Boxing Day到达。包装很好，我们基本上满意得很。

看见藓苔仍让青绿新鲜，顿时松了一口气。

我本身买了两个，一个是可爱的雨滴小盆（难度：零），打算放在办公室娱人娱己，并为办公室增添生气。

那浇水器是个云朵状的器皿，浇水时把清水往里头灌，雨滴就会慢慢形成。

龙猫撑着伞、小女孩穿雨衣，人造雨水滴滴答答，非常有童趣。

没事可以在办公室里“赏雨”。随时可以诗情画意一番。


可怜这些苔藓闷在箱子几个星期了。近来天天细雨绵绵，正好让它们淋雨去，并呼吸新鲜空气。

雨中撑伞的龙猫迷倒不少阿姨叔叔哦！

我买的另一个是“升级版回家中圆瓶”。必须自己作landscaping，多多少少有一点儿难度。

整套包含苔藓、圆瓶、装饰品、工具

首先，依照指示铺上一层轻石。

把水苔泡浸在水里一分钟后铺在轻石上。（别把整包的水苔都泡进水里，材料包里头的材料都比所需的来得多）

过后再铺上种植土。由于这“升级版回家”是斜坡设计，在铺放种植土时，可以用随这苔藓微景观DIY套装附送的汤匙，以设计陡斜度。

而随这苔藓微景观DIY套装附送的毛刷正可以用来清理粘在玻璃瓶上的沙土。铺上苔藓、把摆设品随自己喜好摆进瓶子里便可。

可爱吗？

最后，为苔藓喷一喷清水，再把木塞给盖上，迷你生态系统就完成啦！苔藓可以进行光和作用，泥土内的水分又可蒸发并凝结于瓶身，再循环为苔藓所需的水分。适合懒人呢！

DIY玻璃小屋制作心得（三）

由于没有玻璃屋，我的爱琴海小屋一直被我忽略在一旁，直到那天我收到PP的大礼……

是玻璃屋哦！

我虽然没做好准备，但实在兴奋，就迫不及待地装上沙子。满怀期待的开始继续制作……

这爱琴海小屋原是声控电灯，但因我一时大意，收货时没小心检查，把灯泡都装上了，这才发觉电板坏了。我只好稍微更改，把它改成我的airplant微景观。

很不错哦！我挺满意的。


DIY玻璃小屋制作心得（一）
DIY玻璃小屋制作心得（二）

What Your Insurers Won't Tell You

This is my second last post about my 2014 Australia Trip. I always wanted to write about this but I have to wait until everything settled, and wait until I'm free :)

So, here I am, telling you what happened to our insurance claim for the miss-connection.

4 of us booked our Air Asia tickets from Penang to Sydney (transit through KL) and from Adelaide to Penang (transit through KL) in 2 different booking. I book first, the rest of the 3 booked later. We bought travel insurance from AIG as usual.

When announced that KLIA2 will start to operate on 9th May 2014, I had a very bad feeling. Our flights were dated 9th May 2014 too.

On 9th May 2014, KLIA2 got "kelam kabut" on their first day of operation. Our flight from Penang to KL was delayed for more than 4 hours and hence we missed our flight from KL to Sydney. Though Air Asia arranged us to take the next earliest flight from KL to Sydney, our schedule was all messed up. We missed our express bus from Sydney to Melbourne, we have to pay one extra night of accommodation at Sydney, and we wasted our 1 night accommodation at Melbourne.

After I came back from Australia, the moment I receive the letter from Air Asia, I immediately submitted my insurance claim. The 3 girls submitted theirs one week after.

My insurance claim process was quite smooth (still took more than 3 weeks though), and I received my RM600 cheque in about one month time. The other 3 girls received their cheques more than 2 months later, but the amount was RM200 each!

We were shocked! We sent emails to request for explanations but there were no responses from the insurance company (except some stupid computer-generated-auto-reply). After many rounds of complaints and follow up from the victims and from myself, 5 months after the incident, finally they received their rightful claim amount of total RM600 each. However, until today, no one cares to tell us what went wrong at the first place.

If we had no patience to deal with all those rude officers, if we gave up, I'm sure the insurance company would happily close the file and forget about this episode.

Don't naively believe the slogan of "Treat Customers Fairly", don't naively think international companies will provide international standard service.

Know your rights! 

百花齐放

当时年纪小，喜欢整整齐齐的。最爱看人家院子有一大片青绿平坦的地毯草。
现在年纪大了，反而喜欢自由奔放的。最爱我自家院子那些参差不齐、百花齐放！

杂草们、野花们有一种挡不住的生命力，烈日下风雨中自顾自个儿地茁壮成长，帅气极了！

妈妈不在家之食谱（五）：牛肉碎香菇番茄酱蒸茄子

话说，我们几天前用牛肉、萝卜、番茄、香菇弄了一大锅的意大利面酱汁，结果吃不完，放在冰箱内好多天了，我一直耿耿于怀。昨天买了两粒茄子，打算把这剩余酱汁给干掉。

做法：
1. 茄子切半，放入锅内蒸一蒸。稍微软熟后从锅里取出。
2. 用汤匙把中心的瓜肉给挖出，混合之前的酱汁放入平底锅内，加上黑胡椒、香料炒香，再从新放入茄子中心。
3. 蒸熟入味后即可食用。

 

既简单，又有营养，最重要是这样子我就可以把剩余的食物给解决啦~

南游之延续：Satay Celup Party

话说我们南游吃satay celup不成，搞到许多人抱憾而归。

雷州小妹化身为有求必应仙女，竟然答应千里迢迢从马六甲打包satay kuah来槟城让大家尝尝，因而成就了我家的satay celup party。

这satay celup party也可谓一呼百应，众人出钱出力只为让大家开心。

在七仙女家里成长的一位小弟弟一大早就来我家，载我妈妈走遍大山脚所有的巴杀购买材料。由于是开斋节假期，许多运输公司不开工，各巴杀的新鲜鱼虾蔬果都少得可怜，还好老妈子老马识途，总算不至于空手而归。妈妈看小弟弟任劳任怨，买菜回来立刻搬出榴莲存货，两人在dry kitchen大吃一顿，臭味熏天！

小弟弟一离开，来了两位学徒小妹。她们在厨房忙了一个中午，变出两样绝对出得厅堂的cheese cake和松酥蛋。

Satay Celup party时间一到，大家各自把在家里准备好的食物拎了、陆陆续续地出现。（不过我们的摄影女皇不在场，照片确实是少得可怜。）

我们就在“大人吃得开心，小孩玩得开心”的情况下嘻嘻哈哈过了几个小时的欢乐时光。

我现今最爱的厨房小器具

妹妹给妈妈买了一个做蒜茸的小器具。妈妈不在家的日子，我对之感激不尽。

以前大学在外，我们有轮流下厨的习惯。其中一个大家最讨厌的工作，莫过于把蒜头切成蒜茸。我们时常开了桌子，坐在电视机前一边看戏一边慢慢的剁。没法子，我们华人下厨不用蒜头爆香好想不知道该怎么做下一步。

这玩意儿简单好用，就这么简简单单一支。

把剖皮后的蒜头放入。

盖起来用力一挤，蒜茸就出来啦。

就这样子把其中一项最吃时间的工作，变为几秒内可以解决的轻松任务。

用后打开清洗方便得很。

妈妈不在家之食谱（四）：药材面早餐

好几晚的药材汤喝不完，隔天我总是煮了面、把汤弄热、带上紫菜和鸡蛋，到公司吃早餐去。简简单单的美味。

基本上我的温泉蛋的DOE已经宣告成功，repeatability一流，问题仍然在剥蛋壳，有谁可以教教我当中秘诀呀？

说起我的鸡蛋DOE，那天和妈妈一起看《顶级厨师》，压力测试竟然是三种煮法的鸡蛋，我很骄傲地说要是我去，那场压力测试赢家必定是我。哈哈！温泉蛋和poached egg这玩意儿不曾做DOE是根本掌控不了的。