My dream car for now

I am a very simple person. It's the Nissan March.. :-D

                                         Picture taken from here



The Nissan March was the first car that I owned when I first came out to work (of course, it's a second hand one lah..). My brother helped me to get a second hand one (that time it didn't look as nice as this, needless to say) so that I can go and bang it and put a dent anywhere on the car, and it won't hurt. I just got my driving license, you see.


That was a good choice, coz whenever someone hit my car or when I hit someone's back side (which was quite often, since I day dream a lot even while driving), the other person's car always ends up the one badly dented while mine didn't look like it was involved in the accident at all. It's a truly good one for banging people's car. *wink*


I totally love it. Now with the new design, I love it even more..! I think it's a car with character.. :-D

The many different colors that they have now, but somehow I like the pink one.

Of course, I love this one the best, if the weather permits it here. Well, already said it's a dream car mah..

At one point of time, I was dreaming of owning a Fiat Multipla. Yeah, you heard right!


You know why? Coz each time I see one that passes by, I will only see the cute back side, which looks like this...

My fascination with it went on for sometime, coz I kept seeing the back.


When I told ST about it, he nearly fainted. Until one day, he pointed out the car to me from the front and I saw the horrible design. That was the day I changed my mind.. ;-)


Here, this is how it looks, for those who has no clue like me..

But the car is extremely spacious inside. We took one of this in Europe, from the hotel to the airport, and it's really high. 


Oh well, guess it will have to be Nissan March for now.


--moon


Blog name - carrot head and applemint


Hey, check this out - 
1) Five facts about me
2) Confession
3) What's up, Doc?

Sup tulang & ulam, anyone?

                       Feel free to click on any picture for a clearer view

Few weeks back, ST and I had lunch at a restaurant in Sunway and we enjoyed ourselves so tremendously I felt that I have to showcase the outlet here in order to do justice to the restaurant.

Last week, we went back there for lunch again, and this time, I got ST to ask the owner for permission to take pictures of the food. To my utmost surprise, the owner was extremely friendly and helpful and even got the staffs or other stall operators to move aside to accommodate my quick “little informal photo session”.

Still, it wasn’t easy, coz customers kept coming, and I felt awkward trying not to get into their way. We were there earlier this time, hence, not all the dishes were out, but the customers had already started spilling in.

The sambal chilies, oooh how I love them..

The ulam, ST’s favorite.. The variety is not terror huge but it's still there if we want some. I mean, how much can we actually eat in one sitting?

Curry beef and mutton

All the seasoned fish & chicken

While I was busy snapping away, ST started helping himself to the food, make me "kan cheong" only .. !@#$%?#!

This is ST's favorite fish dish which he dived into..

This was what I came for... the soup...!!! 

Click on the pix above for a clearer view. Need to explain something here... See the inside of the bone? The lady said we can order it, poke a straw inside and suck the juice out. I stood there with my mouth open for a while, trying to imagine someone doing that (of course, won't be me la). Was thinking of getting ST to do it.. :-D


These are ALL the stuffs/ingredients that the stall owner scoops into the soup, when you order mee or mee hoon soup (below).

And these too, they're different parts of meat that the stall owner peels and throws in.

And the end result...? Waaalaaa.....!!!

My noodle soup for lunch (above), accompanied by the must have - veggies!


The burst of flavors from all the spices and the "sup tulang" was in-describable.. (is there such a word ah..?)

This is my fav sambal..

And these are some of the dishes that I managed to capture on camera while dodging the oncoming human traffic. The one right below are just veggies..! About 15 different types altogether (not including the ulam).

And what is the name of this restaurant....? 

Am sure some of you has already been there and knows about it.. ;-)


It's next to the Domino's Pizza, facing the LDP highway.


I wanted to take a picture of the friendly shop owner, but becoz the paying "q" was rather long, and he was always busy, I decided not to disturb him any further.

Blog name - carrot head and applemint

Trapped in a system with no place to go (Part II)

Changing the game by changing the rules 

                                                            Picture taken from here

1) Relationships within a family system are inter-connected and highly resistant to change.

2) Communication among members has a content component, and a relationship component that centers on issues of control.

Family systems are highly resistant to change. Each family member occupies a ROLE that serves the status quo.

A family as a system

1) Picture a family as an object or mobile suspended from the ceiling.

                                                                   Picture taken from here

2) Each part/figure is connected to the rest of the structure by a strong thread tied at exactly the right place to keep the system in a balance.

3) Pull on any string, and the force sends a shake throughout the whole network.

4) Cut a thread, and the entire system tilts in disequilibrium (an unbalance situation).

5) The "threads" in this example represent "communication rules" that hold the family together.

6) A systems approach to family relationships defies simplistic explanations of why people act as they do.

7) Relationships are complex functions in the same sense that mathematical functions link multiple variables.

Axioms of interpersonal communication

1) The nature of relationship depends on how both parties punctuate the communication sequence.

2) While definitions of relationship include the issues of belongings, affections, trust and intimacy, The Interactional View pays particular attention to questions of control, status and power.

All communication is either symmetrical or complementary

1) Symmetrical interchange is based on equal power.

2) Complementary communication is based on differences in power

Healthy relationships have both kinds of communication.

Effective change for the whole Franklin family will come about only when members are helped to step outside the system and see the self-defeating nature of the rules under which they are playing. This process is called – reframing.

To reframe is to change the conceptual and/or emotional setting or view point in relation to which a situation is experienced and to place it in another frame which fits the “facts” of the same concrete situation equally well or even better, and thereby changes its entire meaning.

The Interactional View by Paul Watzlawick looks at dysfunctional patterns within families in order to gain insight into what is healthy communication.

This blog post is written based on my understanding of Watzlawick’s theory, extracted from the book - A First Look at Communication Theory by Em Griffin.

--moon

You might be interested to check out my previous blog post below : 1) 3 things you can't live without 2) The tug-of-war dialectics of close relationships 3) What is your personal space expectations? 4) Why do people do their utmost to avoid distressing mental state?

Blog name – carrot head and applemint

Monday blues

                             Picture taken from here






Having the Monday blues this morning? This is what I would do.


Get to a nearest shopping complex or pharmacy during lunch and buy myself a new lip stick/lip gloss/lip balm. 


It will help lighten up your mood and your look this afternoon.. :-D


A bit tight on the budget side?


Then seek out one or two of your more crazy colleagues during break, have a cup of hot coffee with them while you catch up with each other on what happened over the weekend. It's a good "mood booster". You could also do it over lunch.

No crazy colleagues around? Then listen to what this guy has got to say.


"It has been my observation," says Abraham Lincoln, "that people are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

Cheers and have a fabulous week ahead!


--moon

Blog name - carrot head and applemint

Laughter the best medicine

I was reading an old copy of the Reader's Digest yesterday and came across some hilarious jokes which I would like to share here.


Belly Flops - Claudette Markus
My sister walked into the butcher shop and ordered the biggest porterhouse steak they had. 


"And please cut off all the fat," she added.
"You sure you want all the fat off?" the butcher asked.
"Yes, it's much easier to take it off here," she explained, "than after I've eaten it."




Excess Baggage - www.becquet.com
While waiting in the baggage claim, I watched in horror as my suitcase came bumping down the ramp and sprang open. I tried to retrieve everything, but couldn't catch up with my toothbrush. As it went around the carousel, I overheard a passenger say, "My, that person travels light."




Blog name - carrot head and applemint

Five facts about me

1) 4 is my lucky number.

Yeah…. I know….

2) I’m afraid of the dark, even in my own home. However…  I can’t sleep with any lights on.

3) I don’t know how to use make-up, seriously.. (if that’s the right word to use).

4) I don’t like most things in the mainstream, and I don’t think they like me either.

5) I am a big clutz…, meaning an excessively clumsy person who always ends up either getting hurt OR breaking something.  

In my case, it’s always both.. -.-

Blog name – carrot head and applemint

Trapped in a system with no place to go (Part I)

                                                            

                                                      Picture taken from here

Today we look at dysfunctional patterns within families, in order to gain insight into what is healthy communication.

A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often abuse, on the part of individual members occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions.

Until recent decades, the concept of a dysfunctional family was not taken seriously by professionals, especially among the middle and upper classes. 

Any intervention would have been seen as violating the sanctity of marriage and increasing the probability of divorce. Children were expected to obey their parents (ultimately the father), and cope with the situation alone, leading to high depression and anxiety rate amongst the young adults.

For today’s topic discussion, let us look at the Franklin family scenario below :

a) Sonia (the mother)

Is an accomplished pianist who teaches advanced theory to students in her own home.

b) Stan (the father)

Will soon become a successful partner in a big accounting firm.

c) Laurie (the daughter)

Is an intelligent student and the no. 2 player in the school tennis team.

d) Mike (the son)

He dropped all pretense interest in studies, sport, or social life. His only interest is drinking beer and drug addiction.

Each of the Franklins reacts to Mike’s substance abuse in different but "less than helpful ways."

Stan denies that his son has a problem and he hardly initiate heart to heart talk with him. Boys will be boys, he said, and he’s sure Mike will grow out of this phase. 

Laurie felt responsible for her kid brother and is scared because Mike is getting “wasted” every few days. She tries to help by introducing him to her straightlaced friends in the hope that he’ll get in with a good crowd.

Sonia worries for her son’s future. One weekday morning when he woke up with a hangover, she wrote a note to the school saying Mike had the flu. She also called a lawyer to help Mike when he was stopped for drunk driving. Although she promised never to tell his father about these incidents, she chides Stan for his lack of concern. The more she nags, the more he withdraws.

Mike feels caught and trapped in a vicious circle. Smoking pot helps him relax, but then his family gets more upset, which makes him want to smoke more, which…. During a tense dinner-table discussion,  he lashed out at his family : “You want to know why I use drugs? Go look in a mirror.”

Although the rest of the family sees Mike as “the problem,” a psychotherapist, describe the whole family system as disturbed.

Does the above scenario look/sound familiar?

How can the members of the Franklin family break out of their never ending game and experience real change in the way they relate to each other?

Look out for my next post.

Blog name – carrot head and applemint

Thinking aloud - Sweeping while customer eats?

I was at this coffee shop having my lunch this afternoon when one of the staffs started sweeping around the place. I tell you, nothing pisses me off more than when someone does this while the rest of the world is eating.

This isn’t the first time I see it happening here. It’s a common thing for staffs to do at coffee shops, mamak shops & fast food chains, to save time. Though I understand that the owner is trying their utmost to keep the place clean, but to have your staffs sweep the floor while customers are in the midst of eating, is just beyond me…! I think that it is so so rude..!

                                                 Picture taken from here

Each time it happens, I will eye the guy from far, watching him like a hawk while he/she slowly gets closer and closer to my table. When they get too near, I will put down my cutlery and tell them off. At times they seem to be at a lost, coz I am sure they were under instructions to keep themselves busy and useful while customers are eating, especially during the low peak hour.

At certain mamaks or coffee shop where I am a regular, the bosses will tell the staff to avoid the area around my table, in respect of my wish, but that’s not the point I’m trying to highlight here.

Where is their sense of hygiene and courtesy to customers..?!?!

The level of airborne dust that sweeping creates or bring up is just beyond description.

I know a lot of people feel the same way as I do, but the thing is that, they choose to ignore or close an eye to it. This I cannot accept. Being in a third world country, trying to move up to first world, we need to guide and educate people of all level that it is not an acceptable thing to do. There must be better ways to carry out the cleaning process without affecting the dining guests.

My suggestions

1) They can try to use a push broom that picks up dust and rubbish off the floor, that pushes them straight into the dustpan with cover (if someone or kids did a mess up on the floor).

2) Designate a specific time of the day (off peak time), close section by section while you sweep and clean. Not sweep around dining guests, please..!

We can make this a better place to eat in, but everyone need to play a role in highlighting the "in-appropriate thing" about sweeping while customers are dining, and not ignore it. Ignoring it will only mean you are giving them a silent consent to what they are doing, hence encouraging it further.

Blog name – carrot head and applemint

What's Up, Doc?

We were in JB last week, participating in the 3P – Malaysia International Industrial Machinery Expo (3P stands for Plastic & Rubber, Food Processing & Packaging, Sign & Printing).

I was expecting the usual boring stuffs, you know, standing around and handing out leaflets, constantly looking at our watch and hope that time will fly by. From experience, participating in machinery expo would only mean booths after booths of heavy machinery at work, steel and metal stuffs, and everything heavy duty la..

Surprisingly this expo was rather different from those many that I’ve attended before. Why…..? Because of this…

There was plenty of food going around the entire expo hall, because of the players in food processing machinery in this expo. Instead of just displaying their products which are like the ones below, they were also displaying loads of the end products, for people to sample.

                             These were what they were selling, cake makers

However, the ones below, they were available & free flow the whole day...

                             Little cakes and cookies in rows of trays

                          Lovely scones with chocolate chips, yuuumm....!!

               Whole counter of food on trays, all for us and visitors to sample

Then there was this company that came out with a new product (opposite our booth), which can produce 80 soft boiled eggs all at one time, and keep them in the tank (we call it ultrasonic tank coz our machines comes with one that looks like that too) throughout the day, without compromising it’s quality & temperature.

                                       This is their product (silver container).

And all the eggs comes out looking exactly the same, what the heck! There’s no over cook or under cook eggs. See how lovely they look..?

So, we participants were like, eating eggs in the morning, afternoon and evening. The boss and personnel in that booth was forever offering us eggs, 3 in 1 instant coffee, and food (taken from the booth that sells the cake mixers).


Caught our Technical Engineer going for the 2nd egg of the day, I think...!

As if it’s not enough, there was a GIANT booth near the main entrance which promote bakery making machines. And oh my god, you gotta see this, how they display their end products. Please hold your saliva...

    (This pix was taken with our Technical Engineer’s iPhone 4, ok…, don’t play play)

Ok, before I continue, please close your mouth...


And for your info, the above pix wasn’t taken from the internet, ok. Just in case, you don’t believe me, here’s a piece of proof…

And uh.. you wanna see the food samples they have on the table for everyone to help themselves? Here you go…

                                     The egg rolls are to die for

                 I didn't try the round buns though.. was trying to be selective

What’s worse, whenever I go near their booth to grab some sweet bites or take pictures, their sales person will hand me a plastic bag and insist that I "ta-pau" (pack some) as well.

See what I mean.. This one, I didn’t ta-pau myself one, ok. I didn’t want to take any away, but the guy just packed it and handed the plastic bag to me. In fact, that was what most exhibitors and visitors were doing, they brought bigger plastic bags to ta-pau for their staffs’ mid morning and mid afternoon coffee/tea break.


Each booth in that hall that day, seemed to have a mini pantry of their own, with loads of food on the table for customers, courtesy of these few booths that provided ample samples to the whole world. It was like a party expo or something. At the end of each day, you get people walking around offering those food stuffs in trays from booth to booth, to clear up before closing.

Of course, because there are plenty of good food being offered and served, everyone was extremely happy and friendly. Made quite a number of friends at the expo. Truly enjoyable, even though it was tiring.

At night, after all the standing during expo, naturally my feet & legs felt like giving way. Our hotel is adjoining to a duty free shopping complex. We were browsing through the departmental store when I came across this pair of sandal, tried it on and love it, I felt like I was walking on air. It’s Scholl, thank goodness, so I got my friend Chris to order it for me.

 Blog name – carrot head and applemint