Favourite fruit - Cherries Or Japan Ju Fong grapes?

I was logging on to facebook one day and found an interesting quiz my friend took. The quiz is called naming the fruit. My friend scored 54 points and so I told him it was a rather good score considering many people knows how to eat fruits but are usually bad at naming them. I am one of such people. Bad at naming fruits myself. I took the test bravely and my result is astonishing good at 80mark for my standard. And so my frequent preparation of fruits for my husband to eat as a housewife could be the reason why it pays off for the better score I achieved. ; )

So one day (14 July 09), I thought it was good for me to figure out which fruit I like best. To find my favourite fruit. I was eating the cherries while typing this blog topic. I am figuring out if cherries are my favourite fruit because it could be it but there got to be other nicer ones I thought I've forgotten! My mind is wondering the taste of durians and its range(durians are great but messy on hands), strawberries, melon, apples, oranges (never my top list though), pineapples and the only one that could compete closely with the flavorful cherry fruit I'm munching would be the grape from Japan call "Ju Fong". By the way, my dog's chinese name is also named after this fruit. He had a share of the fruit every time we purchased it. My dog's Chinese name is Ng Ju Fong!

Have you tried the Japan grape Ju Fong? Ju Fong could be a brand name or location in Japan. I am not sure. But these grapes are available at Isetan and Market place during the month of July to November yearly. The fruit is priced around S$16.90 for a small pack in a container. Sometimes, it comes in a carton box packaging and priced at S$99. There is a difference in sweetness and fragrant in the fruit packed between the two types of packaging. I have tried both out of curiousity. The S$99/box are of higher grape grades. One bite of the round deep burgundy colour grape could represent the whole pack of a ribena drink. This was what I had described to my sister & brother-in-law when I first introduce this beautiful fruit to them. Indeed, the grape burst its flavor into your mouth on first bite. Fragrant and sweet.

Then I switched my focus on the cherries I was munching still. I can eat around 17 of them at a go, nonstop. The ones I like are huge and deep burgundy color. I believed they are from Australia. By the way, Australians are very lucky to be blessed with this fruit available cheaply in their country. I like Cherries with a good bite. Good cherries are crunchy. I can distinct the difference between the cherry flesh and its skin in my mouth. The flavour is lasting in the mouth if the cherry is huge. Furthermore, they look so cute and innocent on the plate. Seems like saying "I'm cute, come on have a bite of me!". They always look tempting when they are washed and placed on nice dessert plates. I prefer cherries with stalks still attached to them for convenient handling. The green stalk also compliments the redness of the fruit.

So, which fruit is the winner for my favourite fruit? Both fruits are rich in Vitamin C and are antioxidants giver. My choice is for the Cherry fruit! For Ju Fong is not available on my table during Christmas season, but the cherry fruit is. And when I munch the Cherry fruit during Christmas parties, I get the feeling of being in love and happiness! Actually, the feeling is there every time I bite into the fruit!

Hanging on to the old memories .....

I was doing my regular, ahemm............. house cleaning when I found inspiration for today's topic. "Hanging on to the old memories".

Have you ever got stuck in a spring cleaning situation when you know keeping certain old junks are pointless yet you don't have the heart to throw them away because it carries certain memories of you or your close ones? What's the point of keeping them when the items are all dusty and old and rotting? Yet, some of us choose to hold back the old junk and grow dust instead of clearing space for a better living condition.

Some of us probably feel that it is a waste to throw things away if they are not in the most dire state of condition. They prefer to see them go through Slow Rotting Process. Or SRP I call it.

There are several reasons why people choose to keep unused stuffs, some maybe old items. Here are some of the reasons I can think of:

- Money was used to attain it before,
- It will turn antique someday,
- Maybe they will be useful in the future,
- Pure Greediness, just want to have things around.
- For keeping of old memories.

I'm particularly interested in the last reason - "keeping of old memories".

This is an interesting reason. The item could be related to an event or an item to remember their grandpa, ma, great grand ma or childhood friends that they had since lost contacts etc. This group of people choose to hang on and live in the past and forget to enjoy the present moment. Hanging onto the past helps them reignite their glory or regrets in life. Whatever it is, they are the people who choose to live in the past. They rather chucked aside the unused items and put them in a storage room regularly. And hoping to get some surprise when they do the next round of spring cleaning.

I believe there is a reason why majority of the human population get dementia when we grow old. The purpose is to forget. Yet some of us do not understand that to be able to forget is a type of blessing. For things or a person that you cannot forget, then it is your personal calling that the item or person is related to you somehow by fate in your life.

Above is to commemorate a picture I threw that contains memories of my winning of a certain award during my tertiary studies days. It was a picture I took with my lecturer. The reason I threw it away is because it was dusty. I have lived happily at that moment and I don't need the picture to remind me of the glory I went thru during those times. If I miss my lecturer, I'll give him a visit or a call at the Poly. This is because I am living happily every moment and keeping the dusty picture makes no difference to my happiness now at all!

So, start doing your spring cleaning soon and avoid SRP! Live every moment for this is God's gift to us now! ; )

(Above picture is an owl souvenir I bought back from Japan this year. isn't it cute? Soon, it will be thrown away...... when it grows dusty.. but how soon?? I don't know... HAHAHAAAA)

Relax, enjoy high teas like the Englishmen.

Ok, did I ever mention that one of my favourite high-tea hang out place is now no longer in operation? Apparently, it opened for only for less than a quarter. I supposed it was an Italian cafe called "Bon Bon patisserie" used to locate at Vivocity mall 2nd floor which had now ceased operation. What a let down. The food is tasty with ice-cream probably imported directly from Italy as crepe topping. The ambience was also cool apple green in colour. The cafe was facing the direction of the Sentosa Island where the ugly construction is now taking place. Everytime I visit, I would have ordered my favourite crepe to go along with a pot of hot tea. The tea pot was unusually huge and round. Green in colour to match the walls. Very Italian decoration. Anyway, the cafe was long gone and I do hope it will be back someday.

I have found another high tea spot along the cafes where I spotted "Bon Bon". Its call the The White Dog Cafe. The entrance is not very distinct so everytime I visit the place I got to do a U-turn to look for the cafe. Maybe I'm kinda blur, but seriously speaking, the deco outside the shop is not as loud as my favourite "Bon Bon". To my surprise, my first visit there for high tea is rather cheap. For a total of S$6.5 , you get to choose from a wide selection of desserts to accompany with tea or coffee. The beverages are not refillable. Although the tea is normal and can never match my "Bon Bon", the dessert call warm coco muffins is simply a dessert killer. The chocolate fillings inside ozzes out when you dig into the muffin. Its warm and super chocolatey favoured. Oh, if you are not a fan of tea or coffee there like me, you can top up some money to change the high tea set to smoothies and other beverages found in the drink menu. I had mine changed to Strawberry smoothies and its flavourful. It only costs me extra 4 bucks.

My hubby also spotted a good deal on the beer list. For a glass of Tiger costs you only S$3.5. I think it costs S$5 for Heinken. Its definitely a good hangout area if you are looking for a place to rest your feet while overseeing the construction of Ugly Sentosa. I have attached a picture of the recent Sentosa development if you are reading my article from abroad US or Australia.

By the way, looking at the messy construction, I do missed the old ferry terminal once located at Sentosa. I recalled a conversation with my Dad one day when he was out on an invited cruise to his friend's The White Rabbit. At first, he told me he was invited to a "boat" and his friend paid S$50Million for a boat. I thought he was joking because a boat can never cost that much. He excitedly fished out his camera to show me the pictures he took with his friend. The picture is a cruise. And the dinning table itself can sit up to 20 guests. And so I told my Dad it makes sense for the cost if it is a cruise! And further conversation explains that the maintenance of the cruise itself costs around S$2Million/year to keep the crew members and a parking lot at Keppel club. And so that probably explains why the government cannot bare the high costs for a few ferries and rather build a link to Sentosa for us to travel there by car or our bus "11". Probably more economical to the government in the long run.

Too bad, for the younger generations, they will not be able to enjoy the cheap ferry short rides at a very affordable price anymore!

Warrior of light

I was having a regular meeting with an ex-colleague of mine last week. She is an ex-colleague of mine turn friend. We sort of hit it off when we met at Philips simply because we both likes to laugh, talk and love fashion. Like me, she is a kind lady and full of enthusiasm about life. Once, we took a test provided by our ex-company pertaining to characteristic analysing. In short, the profile test is call The Bird Test. The result shows we do have common characteristic of the bird, Peacok. Although her main bird type is the peacok while mine is high on peacok next to my main bird type, which is the Eagle. (I shall take this opportunity as a reminder to blog about The Bird Thoery for my next blog topic).


We met for lunch at a Japanese restaurant call Ichiban Boshi located inside Centre Point mall. There serves a set menu which contains my favourite chicken soup in a pot together with sushi and sashimi fish. In the mist of our conversation, she fished out a book that I instantly knew was for me. Oh no, my heart says, its a book! I hate to read for those who knows me. And my friend knew it too. However, everytime we meet, she has to introduce something about a book for me to read or she will literally buy a book for me to read. She seems to understand that as long as its a gift for me, she knew I will not reject and somehow will diligently do some reading on it.


And so, I recieved the book (with my expressionless face) from her while telling her I hate to read. Hahahaaa. Oh, then, came a familiar name on the print. It spells Paulo Coelho! Sparkle in my eyes began. Its a name that I am familiar with. Out of all authors, somehow in 2005, he stands out among the rest many years back while I was shopping at borders which then I've decided to grab a copy back home to read. And only for him, I will pay to buy a book to read and keep!


The reason why I bought Paulo Coelho book of "The Manual of the Warrior of light" was because he shares the same exact view of life with me. As simple as that. I bought this book years ago and thought that since he spelt out what I think and feel is correct in life, I should keep his copy of book as a momento in case I stray along the way in life. Paulo Coelho is one of the awaken beings in this world. Reading on, you will understand why I say so.


You see? This friend of mine fished out the right book for me! Preferred author but this time a different book, The Alchemist. I've not read this book, but I'm sure it will contain some of the warrior of light which I've read years ago before I've even met her. And so I officially kick off with my content of the day. The Warrior of light.


Look around you, feel the presence of those around you. How many of you realised there are basically 2 types of human beings? Simply those who encourages you and those who discourages you. Those grouped in a team but don't do team work. And those who lived in a family but don't do team work. Anywhere you go, probably, there will be 2 types of human beings. Its just a matter of how many of the 2 types are in your life. And so where ever I go, I have a clear picture of who is around me. Simply I name them "the candle lighter" and "the candle blower".


Candle lighters are those who encourages you to attain happiness. These people are getting rarer on earth simply because as civilisation progress, alot of people are contain in huge organisations that somehow creates a ranking system where it highlights unfairness. And so, from organisations explodes issues like office politics, gossips, boss carrier and the back stabbers. And some spreads to family issues. So who are the candle lighters? They are mainly found in religion, charity functions, individual contributors, journalists, authors, teachers, doctors, artists and musicians. I'm sure there are some which I've missed out, but if you can see the out of balance between the huge MNC organisations around the world ratio to the candle lighters, you will know why some of you rarely meets one in your life. : )


Candle blowers are abundant on earth. Some turned candle blowers without them knowing themselves. Simply because they have been put too long in an organisation and experiences projected them to do candle blowing jobs out of their "claimed experiences". They are generally mature aged and had been through employment. Some turned candle blowers because they are neglected in their family or have bad family parental experiences. They may NOT even know they are candle blowers to others and even their children.


How do you identify between the latters?


Candle lighters normally says things like: "just go where your heart feels, go ahead to do whatever you like in life, you only live once, money is secondary, no harm trying, if it makes you happy just do it, don't get dispair, god is with you, as long as you are happy, I'm with you".


Candle blowers example will normally says things like: "you better not do this or that, its not going to happen, i've experienced it and its bad, I don't think will happen, we are condemned". And will continue to do things to make others unhappy. The reason is because somehow their light in their life has been blown away at certain point of time yet they don't even know and so became a lifeless life and hence turned candle blowers.


Why is it important to know which is the lighter and blower? This is so, when you face issues in life, you don't go to the wrong source. There are so many teenagers today facing problems and ending their young lifes so young. The figure is escalating.


Somehow, there must be a reason why when everyone spends time doing reading, I play the role to observe life. I like to look at human ways and their speeches and observe. I am especially quick in picking up peoples' flaw and so not to repeat their mistakes. Is this the reason why I choose not to be part of an MNC organisation? No, infact, if I am in an organisation, I will bring light source in. However, due to my personnal agenda, I have to grow stronger within myself. A light source so strong within me I cannot keep ignoring.


More miraculously, ever since young, this light source in me is so powerful which continue to stay in my mind. The enlightenment gives me the strength to be able to identify very clearly between good and bad. Justice and evil. Therefore, I always know how to ensure that I'm always in the best environment so that my light source is protected properly from the candle blowers ambushed among the human race.


I knew I had a mission when I was borned and never forgets it even when it was supposedly to be washed away through education and working life, my mission in life continues to be with me. To look for the truth. I have found mine and I know my purpose in life. Today, I look at the clouds and see happiness instead of pondering what is up there like when I was young! And so what is my mission of protecting my light source? I am the Warrior of light and I can relight the candle lighters when theirs are blown out. For when I relight them, they can then lit up other deem lightable blown candles.


And so, the theory of birds of feathers flock together..... I guess I will have to schedule for chinese meal next time I meet my girlfriend to talk about the book, The Alchemist ; )

(Below picture is taken by my hubby when we were in Japan early part of the year. I loved crystals and the natural light that shines thru the crystal piece is simply lovely! I hope thru this picture and article, it will benefit you and shine some light on you if yours has been blown out long long ago .... :)