Kopi 'O'

马来西亚原味咖啡 -- 正!!!
It does come in a sachet, and it's a 2 in 1 mixture, but it does the trick when you crave for a Malaysian style black coffee. 'Ahhh...!'

Freecycle.org

Have you something you don't use anymore yet reluctant to dispose off or don't have space to store? Surely many of us find ourselves in such a situation sometime or another.

Having moved many times last year, the DDA finds herself with household items which she doesn't really need anymore, or which are duplicates. But those items are still in good condition and not ready to end up in a rubbish pile.

The Freecycle Network is an online outlet that offers us an alternative way to handle our stuff which are not ready to go into the dump. Make these things available to others! Give, don't throw and contribute to the landfill pile.

Freecycle enables:

• giving to someone who needs that item - a form of recycling
• reduction of waste, indirectly reduce unnecessary consumption
  
• reduction of landfill build-up
• find something you need which you otherwise won't spend a fortune getting

There are in total 3,387 Freecycle communities across the globe,the members amount up to 1,991,935. When they say global, they really mean global. They have communities even in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Finland!

Once signed up, you can receive regular emails from the email group updating on the recent offerings and posts looking for items. If you spot something you need, just email the person and wait for a reply. If you have something to offer, you just post a message up and wait for people to get it touch by email. Of course who gets the 1 item will totally be the givers decision. Usually it goes by knowing who's who in the Freecycle community, and that person being an active Freecycle member.

Interested? Go check the Freecycle website out and locate your local Freecycle community to start engaging in something that makes the world a less cluttered place!

Light

Winter Olympics

The Olympic Winter Games started in Torino on the 10th February. BBC2 is constantly covering the Olympic Games.

Watching the coverage on intervals, the DDA spotted 2 winter sports that are familiar - ski jumping and curling. Yes, the only reason for the knowledge of these two sports is due to the Finn's introduction. The DDA knows so little indeed, the world is awaiting to be discovered.

Ski jumping is a very interesting outdoor sport. You usually hear about skiing, snow boarding and ice skating, but ski jumping is a curious sport to the DDA. From the TV screen you can observe that ski jumpers are dressed in space suit looking sleek outfits - they're supposed to give extra aerodynamics to the jumpers. As for the skis, they are longer than the normal skis the cross country skiers use. The jumpers start off skiing from the top of a manmade hill slope, and at a certain point pushes and jumps off the edge and let science play its role - they fly. Yes, it looks pretty cool from the TV screen. The DDA wonders what it's like to see this live.

Curling on the other hand is an indoor sport. The first word that came to mind when the DDA saw the sport was - queer. You have a team of four in the game. One in charge of sliding the curling stone (made of granite) aiming for the desired spot on the ice surface, two holding brushes following the stone start sweeping and brushing the path before the stone. The most curious part comes when the participants starts brushing vigorously to lead the stone to the desired path and position.

Maybe you might think that these are nothing new to you, but the DDA thinks that the world is filled with many curious and interesting things. Good example - curling and ski jumping.

Rice Porridge and Marmite

Thursday: evening, sudden feel of lethargy. bedtime at 22:00.
Friday: first conscious feeling in the morning - slight sore throat. carries on with life.
Saturday: feeling slow, towards mid-day a slight fever develops.
Sunday: the nose gets stuck, the brain slows further, the body weakens.
Monday: DDA officially down with a nasty cold.

The DDA decided to stay home to rest.

While sitting at home with concerns of work piling up at the office, the DDA begins to regret having taken the free flu jab offered at the office some months ago. It appears to be doing her more harm than giving her the immunity against colds and flu. Not good!

So the only thing the DDA can do to distract the mind from the bugging concerns of piling up work was to think of food to heal the body. The most simple and healing food - 'pek moi'白粥 (rice porridge). Since there's no 'guan tao chai sim'罐头菜心 (preserved choi sum), DDA makes do having 'pek moi' with marmite!


Yes, marmite is not the best, but was the only thing to be found in the kitchen that appealed to the palate. Marmite does not appeal to everyone, maybe some of you out there are thinking 'eew...' or 'yuck!'.

As for tea after a needed long 3hour slumber, instead of 'kiam pniah' + 'kopi' (milk crackers and Malaysian style coffee), DDA makes do with digestive biscuits + warm milk.


Yes, after all these diversions, reminder of piling work still lingers behind the back of the mind. Maybe DDA should think about dinner now.

Silly Mother

The DDA spotted a mother with a baby stroller. This is not a normal mother with a pram. The mother was on roller blades and blading along pushing the pram!

Yes, the DDA saw this with her own eyes. First, she thought it looked interesting, so she called the Finn to take a look.

Then as the Finn came to look, it crossed the DDA's mind that it can be rather dangerous wouldn't it to roller blade and push a pram at the same time? It does seem like killing two birds with one stone, but what if the mother lost control or had to make an emergency stop, and the stroller didn't stop?

While the DDA was thinking aloud, the Finn made a comment which sent the DDA into a fit of laughter.

'It's silly of her to do this, it's dangerous. And she looks funny doing it in a skirt!'. Roller blading in a long skirt? That's a first.

On a diversion, the DDA was musing at her collection of magnets. Most of them are of Japanese cartoon characters.

	Totoro
	Qoo
	Forgot this guy's name... can anyone help??? I think it's something like 'XXX 小飞人'? Astro Boy 小飞侠

Mushed Brain

It is the second day back from the XSL hands on training.

The DDA's brain is drained... feels like mush.

There are 2 more days to go. How will the DDA fare? It would really depend if the DDA can make the brain absorb & comprehend in a much efficient way.

Or it might be that the DDA is over anxious to get the learning done too fast?

Re-potting Violets

This weekend is dedicated to doing nothing much since last weekend was packed with activities (Saturday pub lunch, hunt for a pub with football match viewing, mad pre-Chinese New Year grocery shopping, hot pot preparation, cooking, entertaining).

Yes, this week is a 'do nothing week' apart from re-potting the violets that are growing stronger and fast. See below a family picture of the violets:

Whilst doing nothing, the DDA and the Finn enjoys some home made smoothies.
Yumm...

Simple Bliss

Have you experienced happiness just by finding the things you've been looking for a while in the most unexpected of places?

Well, the DDA did, this afternoon, during her lunch break walkabout.

The violets at home have been growing, yes despite it is winter. They seem to be doing pretty healthy, and multiplying. So before they grow out of their pots, the DDA thought it fit to re-pot them.

It's been rather difficult to source miscellaneous items like pots & potting soil as there are no high street shops around this residential area. Most of the shopping areas we visit do not have any gardening shops. Or it might be that we've not been looking in the right places.

So this afternoon, while on her lunch break walkabout with a friend. They were strolling along this street heading to a health food shop in central London. In the midst of confusion and anticipation of locating the right street with the right shop in it they turned a corner, then the DDA found it!

Yes, pots and potting soil for her violets.

So without second thoughts, she dashed across the road to the hardware store and checked the goods out. When they headed back, the DDA was carrying a bag of potting soil, 4 pots, and 2 planter dishes.

That will keep the violets in better condition and the DDA happy for a good few weeks.