House Tour

This is the crazy place we stay in~ You know chalet and camps? (remember last year youth camp...) It is like staying at those sort of places everyday~ We have all sorts of insect crawling around~ big bomb lizard, squashed green grasshopper, cockroaches, spiders, ants, i-dont-know-the-names...... And it is always so dirty and dusty despite the fact that we spend one day cleaning it thouroughly every week:(

The sad-looking 'kitchen', cooking is like camping here~ I miss my kitchen in Singapore!!!
( oh u can see me in the mirror reflection!)

Really looks like camping right?! Oh i insist on using olive oil for cooking!
(see the bottle on the left? it's leonardo's olive oil! lol!)

See how much veggie we consume in one meal? this is our typical dinner plates(pre-cook)! 2 big plates of colourful vegetables! You know that to have a balance meal we should have vegetables of all sorts of colours? Yup! Some days our plates are even more colourful!

our typical 'chinese' noodle meal, we also have pasta, veggie soup and tofu scramble on the boring but quite healthy menu~ Dinner is often accompany by 'How i met your mother' on my netbook! Thanks to Li yeow!

Our 'living' room, actually it is our laundry room~

tiny fridge and 'shoe rack'!

Super messy sleeping area+skype room

cleaning weapons + giant pail (to store water for the crazy water cuts!)

So people this is the pathetic place we have been living in for 3 months! So don't ever complain about Singapore! It is a great country! And don't complain about not being able to cook! If i can cook here, so can you!!!!

Pancakes!

 I have the best supervisor yea? She invited us after work last night to enjoy some pancake with chocolate sauce! She really is a superb supervisor! So talented, humble and kind! I'm really blessed to work under her! (note! pancakes are non-vegan!)

The giant pancake the leonard tried to make! I love this pan! So good for making pancakes! I want!

We added bananas into them! SO

We bought watermelons to her house because i knew she has normal(big) knife so we got to enjoy the sweet watermelons!

Now for our weekend eats: (Korean restaurant (again!) and Aroma cafe)

My cinnamon and ginger tea! Really nice! but a bit too sweet~

Leonard's green tea and honey latte. So nice!!!

My cold soy noodles~ Quite nice but i got a bit sick of it toward the end.
Should totally have more vegetables! (there were only cucumbers and noodles!)

Leo's Ja Jiang Mian!!! Black bean paste with potatoes, onions and mushrooms
( i should have ordered this!!! It's so good!) i'm still a lover for hot food~

My vegetable submarine! quite nice, the veggie patty is nice but they should add more veggies!
Don't like fries and they are not even hot!

yux! leonard's totally meat pizza which he finished all on his own!

Oh we managed to weight ourselves too! There was this free weighting scale outside the stationary shop that we went to and we weight ourselves~ Sadly we both hope the weighing scale is spoiled because my weight dropped and his remains the same even though he thought he lost weight and i thought i gained weight! lol! But maybe it is because i have so much hair that i dropped 1kg of it?! or maybe it is because i have diarrhea every 2/3 days~~ Nevermind we are going back soon~

Did i mention that the handmade paper here is very cheap?! one A0 size for 50 cents! Score! We bought quite a lot of papers~~ :) Oh i'll let you guys know why i think we eat a lot in the next post~

Love, Pray, Eat, Draw

Recently i have been thinking, why do i want to blog? How should i categorise it? But i realise this is just a space for me to Love, Pray, Eat and Draw(and only in this sequence!) Hopefully whatever it is that i rant here, it will somehow bless you in one way or another. India has change my blog too huh? lol

If you notice i have deleted my tagboard, not because i don't love it when all of you tag(i really love your encouraging words so much!!!) but because if you noticed there have been some really irritating and unnecessary spams on the tagboard. I want to say a big thank you to all of you out there who have been reading this tiny small blog of mine! THANK YOU!! I really hope of you will comment instead because every time i get a comment, I'm more inspired and thankful and so encouraged!

小小的梦想能改变世界

生命不是天天希望能快点长大，考好成绩，找到好工作，找好老公，生可爱的宝宝，希望孩子快点成长，希望孩子考好成绩，找到好工作，找到好老公，成家立业，抱孙子。。。

生命是每天更认识上帝与他同步
生命是相信你的生命不只是停留在这世界
如果只是一天过一天
没有盼望
我宁愿生命停止

但是生命因为有神
所以有信，望，爱
让我们向着他给我们的标杆直跑
不是我们一个人在跑
是神拉着我们跑

所以我相信
我们每个人所做的每件事
都能够带来改变在这世界
不管是大的改变还是小的改变
都能够成为一个祝福还是一个伤害在这世界

今天让我们来决定
我们这一生所做的一切
要带来什么改变在这世界？

A heart of Compassion

There is no word today because it is the end of the elephant god festival and it is really important to the Indians here, so important that we officially get a holiday! But sadly everywhere is close so we are stuck at home all day~ Quite sian but actually it is a blessing to have a day to rest and pray! Something also happened today at my Singapore home, so it was actually a good thing that i could be Skype the whole day.

My dearest youngest sister Yu Rou, she is such a special girl! She really is such a lovely and kind girl:D She always does thing that are unexpected and so so kind:) Even though to the outsiders she may seems to be the less 'smart' child in the house but really i feel that she really has a heart of gold compare to us when we are younger. She is so sensitive to others feelings and always does something that is so unexpected.

Today she found a pigeon at the void deck of our house, it was hurt and could hardly walk or fly. And what did she do? She carried it home and tried to find food for it! She was so upset when she called me on Skype because there was nothing in the house for the pigeon! She was crying so badly... She say she brought it back home because she couldn't bear to see it die. She even went out to buy bread for it! But that poor little pigeon got out of the box and look like it was dying. Yu Rou got so worried and called my parents for help( because i obviously couldn't do anything for her-_-") But my dad got really angry with her and i advised her to ask our neighbours for help. In the end our neighbours helped her get the poor pigeon into the box and she brought the bird together with some bread downstairs. Yu Rou was so heart broken because she didn't want to see the bird die.

I'm really touched by her actions. How many of us would have done what she did? I bet all of us will turn a blind eye and totally ignored the poor bird. She really has a compassionate heart even at such a tender age. She saw a poor soul that needed help and she just did her best to help. It made me question myself... As we grow up we tend to loose the heart to love and care, to do something that is out of our daily routine. We are so used to the seeing people beg or suffer that our hearts have turned cold. Isn't it true? When we see someone on the streets who genuinely seems like they need help, how many of us will pause and lend a hand? I got upset when i realised that my dad scold yu rou, telling her she did something very very stupid! Did he not see that she is so sweet? Instead of worrying so much about the bird spreading 'disease' and dirtying the house. Have we grown up to become too practical?

Yu Rou, i want you to know that your sister here is very proud to have you as my youngest sister and love you a lot:) I hope your story will inspire more people to get out of their comfort zone to show love and compassion to the people and animals around us! And definitely the animals on your plates too!

Eat eat eat

Before i start posting everything that we consumed on saturday, i just want to state that actually i love eating. (even though i may not look like i love food!) I love eating and i'm a picky eater. I love finding and reading up on places that serves good food. I will appreciate more if they are vegetarian friendly and healthy. I believe good food are created from fresh and clean product that do lots of good to our body and is kind to the environment. Why i suddenly got onto this topic because even though i love eating, i have spend a lot of my time in recent years, stopping myself from consuming too much food(in fact most of the time starving myself....). But i'm feeling better now, because i don't face the stress of people commenting on my appearance and other problems that i left temporary in Singapore.

I think it will really do me a lot of good if people around me just keep their comments to themselves and stop making unnecessary remarks about my weight. Do you really have to say think like, 'hey yu jie you seems to have gained weight!', 'hey you are fatter now', 'oh my why you so skinny huh!' etc. Look i don't care about what you think of me ok? So just leave my appearance alone! Gaining a bit of weight is not fat! I hate the word FAT!!! Get it?! Why are people who are really fat don't get comments like that... Look skinny people are sensitive too, it is not like i'm crazy over looking like a model. Just that i don't want to have to struggle silently after someone make a unnecessary comment about my weight again. It has happen once too many times, so i prefer if everyone just leave the outward appearance alone and talk about the weather~

ok enough of angst! lol time for some food photo of saturday:

Stuffed mushrooms starters~ really yummy!

Thai crispy noodles~ tasted ok, but not very thai~

Thai noodles and sambal veggie? Taste and look nothing like sambal~

Singapore map on the menu( can you see Bedok?!)

the best custard apple and mango ice cream! YUM!

Happy cinnamon coffee!

sugar cubes!

veggie lasagna! ( this is the last time i consume cheese~~)

leonard's chicken food~~

Doesn't look like india right?

We went to K.P and had lunch at Melaka Spice(for some not v authentic south east asia food!), seasonal fruity ice cream at the Natural, ice tea at Barista, dinner and tea at Aroma. After feeling so bloated after the cheese i think i may finally stop my love for it and be another step close to becoming a vegan~

Under the same sun

Since i took my camera cable to the office, i shall post my fun weekend in photos:

The really nice and funny group of friends
( I told you guys that indians are all very handsome?
 lol higher chance of me spotting a cute guy on a 6 seater than on a SBS bus!)

Pune zoo!

Love the elephant!

Family of deers

Vikka and his fiance

Iguana! (can you spot it?)

Beautiful river!

Our host- Johnny Depp(actually he is call Savesh!)

Savesh's brother( so innovative right?!)

hahahahhahahahahahaha

Nice scenery right!?

Boating for 20 mins

Street food! Taste quite nice, but i dare not eat too much for fear of my weak tummy~

Had a great day at Pune zoo on Sunday thanks to Sarvesh! He is a really funny and nice guy! He is not attach, so~ anybody interested? i have his number~ Leonard and i have the feelings of the zoo animals too during the whole trip, because everywhere we go people just stare at us~ i think we were the only asians in the whole zoo! (imagine we are in a cage that states- Singaporeans, a tidy and picky bunch)

Colourful flags~~

This weekend has been awesome! Thank God for His grace and blessings:D

We got tried and sick of Indian food and we also wanted to celebrate the end of our 2nd month here! Yay! So we went to the one and only authentic Korean Restaurant-cafe Morro in Pune! It wasn't easy to find! Inside of the cafe is totally different from India, it is so neat and tidy and serene~~ A small but sweet place. The waiter and owner there were really sweet too:) Even though the waiter did not get the fact clear that i was a vegetarian despite him asking veg or non veg and served my bibimbap with beef in it... I was a little upset but decide to forget it and pass all the meat to Leonard (who is v happy-_-") The boss was nice and took my bowl to help it pick the meat out because i told him i did not need him to help me make another dish. He even gave us a chocolate cupcake to make up for the mistake. Really well-mannered and sweet people:)

I finally found sweet potatoes at the veggie stall in the area! Do you know sweet potato requires no pesticide to grow and even if not organic they are still much much healthier than potatoes. I'm going to learn to eat more sweet potatoes and less potatoes. ( even though i don't really like sweet potatoes and love potatoes) but it is really more of a habit i think. i also bought this big colourful fan thing~~ hmmm will try to show it here~

Today we had a great time too, Shavesh our colleague is so nice he brought us to a ex-colleague's house! We had a yummy but oily lunch, ate a lot of too sweet stuff and watch a lame horror movie-1408. They were so friendly and fun. This is also the start of the elephant god festival thing and they brought the statue to a beautiful river to eh..drown it~~ A little weird but i love the river, it is so beautiful and i rode on a motorbike and the scenery is gorgeous! Too bad we forgot to bring our camera-_-" It is also a tradition to offer sweets to us and we had too much sugar today! zzz....very fattening stuff

When we got back we found all the kids gathered at a small building in the middle of the colony. We went in and saw the have a huge statue there and it is a temp 5 day prayer place. The parents also co-organised stuff for the kids, today was the drawing competition. I have no idea but the kids love talking to us and asking us all sort of questions! They are all so cute and keep showing us their drawings! Some even say things like 'when you go back Singapore, we will surely miss you!" So sweet right! I love talking to them, they are so innocent and lovely kiddos. They are having sack race and dance performance tomorrow! hopefully we end work early! I really want to see them race!

What a lovely and blessed weekend~~ Thank God!

Cover me under YOUR wings:)

God is good ALL THE TIME:)

I have been having a rough week last week for a reason even i;m not sure, but God is great and i learnt to trust in Him. I didn't blog due to my weird emotional status and lack of time. It is Friday night and i have decided to rant a little before i sleep.

Let's put some funny and interesting India stuff a side first. I feel that: India is crazy ans Singapore is lame.
We went to eat Thali last Saturday, it is a giant plate with lots of typical traditional Indian food(if differs slightly in diff part of India), it is unlimited and they will just keep refilling it for you! crazy right? for only $5 SGD! Hmm but Indian food is typically too oily and sweet and just weird for us, we could just chomp down 1++ serving. Indian men like to pee and spit(like merlion) in the public. Some even shit. Families who cant afford it don't give their kids shoes. Dungs are everywhere! Cow, dog, pig, even human dung... everywhere! Indians are cool in the way they share their food. Have something? one piece, everyone tear off a small bite. Bring-to-work-lunches are never eaten all on your own. Always, always 1++++++person will 'kope' your food! They don't care much about hygiene. There was once my colleague took a pencil on the table to stir his cup of tea! They love to laugh, sing, music and colourful clothes! They can travel 2/3 hours on weekends just to go sightseeing! They can squeeze like sardines on 6 seaters! Singaporeans, we are a little lame compare to them right?!

Leonard and i have both agreed that despite being homesick and missing the convenience of Singapore, we actually quite like India( though the living condition remains crappy)

India made me count my blessings everyday... I actually did manage to give some rupees to a girl, gave candy to a boy, fed bread to a sick dog... I'm less afraid now and dare to give more. I see so many in need and can't help wish i can give more. I remember seeing one boy holding a rag standing in the middle of the road. What is he doing? i thought, crossing the road? But actually he was 'begging' wiping posh(clean) cars with his (dirty) rag then going to the window to ask for money. For a while i couldn't do anything but stare at him... It is so dangerous! The road is full of cars and drivers who care nothing about traffic rules and a skinny little kiddo... But for everyday survival.. He rush car to car hoping for a few coins. I think he changed my perception of life. While we worry about our school results, the latest iphone, the latest fashion trend, there are kids risking their lives daily on the street...

I have got to know kids in my living area, a bunch of little girls between 7 -12. They seems to enjoy playing with me and i love it that they don't worry about homework and stress and do not have their eyeballs stuck to a computer/psp screen. They have no high tech toys but they play happily among themselves with nothing but each other. They may not be street kids or rich Singapore kids but in a way they seems more real, just like how children should be. Not worried or stress over PSLE. Parents don't go crazy trying to make them get into top schools. Parents here are not like that.

If we pace down ourselves to observe and learn each day, India actually have lots more to learn than Singapore. They lead life each day with zest and hardwork and not crazy materialism and envy. I do admire the people here for they have something in their life that many of us lack The perseverance of making ends meet and being joyful even in the simplest things.

In Singapore, are we trying to be too greedy about unnecessary things and ignorant of what is essentially important in life?

What is important? God, loving people around us and our Earth
Everything else, i feel, is a bit unnecessary.

Thank God for teaching me everyday here, i know why I'm here in India.