Tuesday 25 February 2014

没有不可能

从小到大,励志书籍总是告诉我们这世界上没有不可能的事。我不知道相信的究竟有几位,我倒是深信的。

这里,和大家分享一个发生在我们办公室里的真实小故事。

话说,农历新年前我在巴刹买了好几束鲜花,让同事们插在花瓶里,点缀办公桌,好让办公室增添一点生气。

农历新年假期回来,大家的花儿都枯萎了,除了这一束……


大家只是说:“这束怎么这么耐呀?”,却也没特别注意这角落。我们还开玩笑说是主人磁场好呢。

几个星期过去了, 她还是一副绿叶油油的模样,大家开始觉得‘神’了,于是走近细看。只见枝干底部开始长根!大伙儿大呼不可思议!






今天,一个月过去了。我走近细瞧,根长多了,还发了两叶新叶芽呢!她生命力之强真叫人感动!


所以,你说,这世上哪有什么不可能的事?一切,还不是凭着“撑下去”的决心!

Monday 17 February 2014

偶尔也下厨

周日晚餐
我有些朋友渴望吃得健康,却懒得下厨。我因为每天下班后回家就有热腾腾的饭等着我,所以没有什么资格高谈阔论煮一餐饭有多简单。 (我虽然一直自认有一点儿天分,但我下厨的几率应该比你碰上蓝月亮的几率还要低。原因是,我妈妈是个天才,每一餐她总要竭尽所能煮出合乎每个人口味的食物,所以我基本上英雄无用武之地。)

然而,偶尔,我也下厨。当妈妈不在家的时候……

昨天,闲来无事决定给自己煮一顿晚餐,清清淡淡的。不过,那毕竟是周末的杰作。今天,原本想要约朋友长谈的,不成行,也就回家煮饭呗!

以下是我的三十分钟食谱,绝对适合天下懒人。

基于冰箱内还有许多新年吃剩的食物,我就只在这堆食材中动动脑筋。搜索了一轮,决定派上用场的有:豆腐、鸿喜菇、鱼漂、紫菜、包菜、烟熏鸭肉、猪肉薄片、小辣椒。还有我刚买的味噌料。

我的个人口味非常极端,要么就重口味如sambal、perut ikan、asam pedas等,要么我就喜欢清清淡淡的食物天然味道。 今天走清淡路线。

1)香辣猪肉炒鸿喜菇和包菜

材料:
两片吃火锅用的薄片猪肉片,切成小条状
包菜几叶、切条状(随个人喜好)
鸿喜菇(也随个人喜好)
蒜头切成蒜米
我的秘密武器:小辣椒切成和蒜米一样大小(为什么四川人嗜辣?因为辣椒去湿。马来西亚闷热潮湿,在任何一碟食物里偷偷加上一点儿小辣椒正好“吊味道”)
1。鸿喜菇在滚烫的开水里烫一烫。放一旁。 (水别扔了)
2。锅里头油热了就把蒜米和‘小辣椒米’丢下去爆香。蒜米边金黄色后把猪肉条沾一沾酱油后加进去炒好让它吸取小辣椒的味道。
3。猪肉一转熟就把鸿喜菇和包菜放下锅快炒。

我没另加任何调味料,只靠猪肉那一定点酱油和小辣椒‘吊味道’。 包菜必须处于半生熟之间才会有爽口的香脆口感。吃不惯太清淡的朋友可以自加盐。


2)猪肉裹豆腐夹烟熏鸭肉 

材料:
两片吃火锅用的薄片猪肉片
两片切成薄片的烟熏鸭肉片
豆腐

1。把猪肉薄片放在刚才烫鸿喜菇的锅里稍微烫一烫让猪肉处于半熟状态。
2。豆腐打横从中间剖半(如上图)
3。在金属碟里铺上一片猪肉薄片
4。把下半部分的豆腐放在猪肉薄片上
5。把烟熏鸭肉片铺在豆腐上。
6。把上半部分的豆腐党在烟熏鸭肉片上。
7。再把最后一片猪肉片盖上。淋一点儿酱油,加一点点鱼露(真的只是一点点哦!只要 hint of 鱼露而已哦)
8。把碟子放到锅里蒸一蒸,直到最上面一片猪肉熟透即可取出。撒上柴鱼片和蒜米油即可食用。(我计算错误,下次得把豆腐再切半才能让猪肉片扮演‘包裹’的角色)

看见那汁吗?那是猪肉里流出的油汁遇上酱油和鱼露


3)紫菜鱼漂豆腐味噌汤
把鱼漂在刚才的热水里烫一烫。取出。
在碗里倒入味噌汤料、紫菜和鱼漂。用刚才烫鸿喜菇、猪肉、鱼漂的汤汁倒入碗里即可。


4)烟熏鸭胸蒸白饭
我的烟熏鸭肉不小心多切了两块,就放到白饭上蒸吧!

两菜一汤包你三十分钟内搞定!

Thursday 2 January 2014

Day 29 - Still In Progress

I know I know, i supposed to complete my 30 Day Beach Body Program by now. That's what I determined to do too but sometimes things just don't unfold as per our plan, and this is definitely one of those.

28th Dec 2013. We went to Grand Palace (under the hot sun, of course), and went shopping at Siam Paragon. By the time we reached Waterford Service Apartment, it was around 8:30pm and I had terrible headache. I wanted to go for massage but Ah Wei and En insisted that there's no fun to go shopping without me. So I followed them to Siam Paragon again, as a kind hearted gesture. We ended up in night market after Siam Paragon was closed. By the time we reached our service apartment, had hot-water-foot-soak, showered, and finally climbed up to our bed, it was way passed midnight.

29th Dec 2013, aka Day 29 of the program, I woke up at 7:45am. Felt slightly better than previous night but I knew I haven't recover fully. I decided to do the 50 Curtsy Lunges as per the program, and I did. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough energy for the 100 I didn't want to over stress my body so on 29th Dec 2013, I completed only half of Day 29. 'Catch up at home next year', I told myself.

I gave myself 2 days off after came back from Bangkok, and today supposed be the day I catchup on the workout. I woke up at 5:50am, and started some simple punching, followed by 10 froggies as warmups. While doing the lunges, out of sudden, I had unstoppable sneezing. After 30 lunges and maybe more than 100 sneezes, I decided that I shouldn't insist to continue using my mind power, but listen to my body instead. I went back to my bed, hid under my blanket, and rested until 6:45am.

First working day of 2014, I sneezed and sneezed and sneezed. My boss shooed me to get mc. So here I am, after a good 2 hours nap, now sitting in my garden writing this blog post during working hours.

What a way to start 2014.


Tuesday 31 December 2013

Day 27 & 28 - Staying Healthy in Bangkok

I kept my promise to myself: I still woke up early for my 30 Day Beach Body Challenge, even when we were on family trip at Bangkok.

Day 27 = 100 Russian Twists + 4x60s planks
Day 28 = 25 push ups + 200 seal jacks

First day in Bangkok, I woke up at 6:30am. Had some skaters as warmup before i started the program. The parquet floor was cold but I have no choice but to place my butt on it for 100 Russian twists. Without the dumbbells, the twists are slightly easier. The killing part was the planks. Maybe because Bangkok is furthers away from the equator, I felt harder to support my own weight :p

Second day in Bangkok, I delayed my wake up time to 7am. Day 28 workout consists of one of the workout that I hate most, and one of the workout I love most:
En taught me how to do the pushups correctly. Right posture or not, push ups are still extremely difficult for me. Luckily Wei also couldn't do it so this actually made me feel not as bad. Haha!
I love seal jacks because it's exactly those workouts that your primary school PE teachers want you to do. This makes me feel youthful :)


Thursday 26 December 2013

Day 26 - Boxing Day

How can I not start my Boxing Day with Punches as warmup? :)
 
After the punches, I started with 100 bicycle crunches. Now I'm getting better at this, at least I can do 80 bicycle crunches in a row without break. Not to discourage myself, I completed the first 100 by doing only bicycle (without crunches) for the balance 20.

Then, I switched to 50 butt kicks. Seems easy but I can only manage to do 50 before the break. So I decided to do 25 crunch kicks on each leg to make it 100 butt kicks.

Before I headed to work, I did another 100 bicycle crunches.

However, Day 26 actually consists of 200 bicycle crunches and 200 butt kickers. It means I still owe myself 100 butt kickers this morning.

How to catch up? Well, I completed the balance 100 with 50 side crunch kicks on each leg after work, before we head to airport :)


Wednesday 25 December 2013

Day 25 - You Better Workout, You Better Not Cry

"You better workout, you better not cry, you better not shout I'm telling you why, supermen and plank jacks are fun."

I started my Christmas holiday with 100 supermen and 200 plank jacks.

I broke the 100 supermen into two sessions with yoga cat pose in between to balance up the strain.

For 200 plank jacks, I broke into two sessions two. In between I squeeze in some mountain climbers so that my bare feet could relief from the impact of jumping jacks.

This is a great way to start off my holiday as this set of workout is great for my self esteem. Something I need during the break, after the hectic year end schedule.


Tuesday 24 December 2013

Day 24 - Keep Moving

I started my day with 25 wood chops on each hand as warm ups. I used dumbbell for this workout as I want to make sure my arms got enough resistance when doing this.

After the warmups, I started the 200 mountain climbers. Mountain climbers are slightly harder than i wish, but as fun as I want. You can vary the pace as you wish, as if facing slopes with different difficulties. You have to keep moving because you need the momentum to push you through. I observed tights muscles, core muscles, and arms muscles working real hard.

Wei asked if I'll continue this program when we are at Bangkok later. Of course I will! I have completed more than 80% by then, why should I stop? I must keep moving! That is something I promised myself. This month is a preview and 2014 will be the real start :)


Monday 23 December 2013

Day 23 - Piece of Cake :)

Today is one of the easiest day, 50 reverse lunges and 100 skaters. Both are my type of workout, not too hard, good enough to tone muscle, and can have lots of fun if you have good imagination :)
After a hectic weekend, I was not able to jump start to my workout. Instead, I snoozed and snoozed until I have to sacrifice my stretching and breathing exercise. Went straight to warm up using skaters then reverse lunges. 
I still have time to do a quick browsing through Facebook before went off to work. So, I think I really burnt a piece of cake worth of calorie with piece of cake workout.


Sunday 22 December 2013

成功

昨天,一行人出席了年长一届学兄学姐们的二十周年回校晚宴。
除了话当年叙旧,大家也免不了谈起某某近况如何、谁干了什么大事业。

我觉得每个人对成功的定义固然有不同的诠释,但当晚有一个典范是我的答案。

当司仪宣布杨旺成校长到达现场时,未等司仪宣告仪式,大家早已自动自发地、由衷地起立热烈鼓掌欢迎校长,直到他走到席位上坐下来为止。过后有人问:"咿,我们怎么都站了起来?"我笑。是的,我们都未经思考衡量,激动地以行动向校长致万二分的谢意。

在社会打滚了二十年,大家都明了要把一所学校管理好是一件多么艰难的事,更何况这是一所大型国民型中学。我们都明白校长对华教的贡献,我们都理解严格背后的爱。敬重,是必然的。

校长桃李满天下,对社会的贡献功若丘山,受到几代人的尊重。这,就是成功的典范!

当年严肃的校长现在可以和我们一起玩自拍了