Selenium Chai's blog

Brought the boys to visit Logos Hope at Vivio City. It's really interesting to find that the people inside have to pay themselves there, as a service to reach out to the people. And places they go include even Arab countries !! Amazing how God uses this vessel to reach the people !!

Wine Appreciation

Wine Appreciation_George Wong

Learnt these pointers about wine appreciation from the "God of Wine", George Wong's class on 3 Aug at Casa Chile:

20/20 Rule

• White wine should be taken out of the wine fridge (usually 12 degrees celsius) and chilled to an ideal 8 degrees celsius 20 min before serving.
• Red wine should be taken out and left for the wine to open up 20 mins before serving.  For vintage wine it's best to pour into a decanter so there is a bigger surface area for the wine to mix with oxygen in the air and open up (oxidise to bring out the character)

Tips

1. Hold the glass by the stem
2. Look at the colour of the wine
3. Swirl before tasting (and see how the waves fal
4. Take a sniff as the aroma opens up
5. Sip a mouthful and let the palate and tongue be exposed to the wine, draw in a little air to let the wine aerate and releases its aroma
6. Enjoy the aftertaste

4 Basic Rules

1. Start from the white and move to the red and darker coloured ones
2. Start from the lesser bodied to the full-bodied ones
3. Move from the dry to the sweet ones.
4. Start from younger wine to older wine.

First time with BodyVive

Today is the first time I joined a Les Mills fitness class, BodyVive after joining Fitness First for more than a month.  

The music was good as they used many nice familiar tunes and the moves were interesting.  It's the first time I worked out with a Vive Ball and it's a really cute little thing.

But I don't know if it's the air con, or my level of working out that I didn't perspire at all.  The instructress, Joyce told me I can work harder by having bigger movement next time.

Until then, I must say I am really glad I made it for this class at 4 pm today because I really enjoyed it!

Hope to be more disciplined in coming here to work out to improve my stamina and also body shape!

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Girls only afternoon

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I can't remember when was the last time I had a all-girls only afternoon out.  Today 12 of the 'younger' sisters from Faith BP Church gathered at Holiday Inn Parkview for a buffet lunch fellowship.

Boy, it was really a nice break from our man, children, family etc as we indulged in the international spread of salmon, laksa, fish fillet, dim sum and many interesting dessert like Durian cream, mochi, ice-cream and flavoured cappucino. 

Of course we had a great time catching up each other and talk just about anything under the sun.

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So we all ate from 12 to 3 pm, and each of us paid $20 as there is a HSBC promotion for 1-for-1.  Not bad for the amount spent, even though the spread was not very big, but we had enough nice dishes like laksa, salmon etc to last us enough to skip even dinner!

After that some of us went shopping along Orchard Rd, starting from Centrepoint. It was really fun as most of us were so busy nowadays it was so difficult to shop even with ourselves, let alone with so many other sisters. 

I thoroughly enjoyed myself, walk from Centrepoint to Paragon with Anna and then through Takashimaya and finally to Wisma Atria. 

Reached home around 8.15pm!  Tired but happy and refreshed mentally!

Joel learnt to show "No More!"

Joel had learnt to show the sign of "no more" by waving his 2 hands.  This afternoon after waking up from a nice 3 hr nap, he smiled and did the "no more" sign several times...

I wonder what he meant... but he looks really cute and funny.

Now at 13 months, he is walking quite fast, a little zig zac at times and would go for 10 over steps before he 'collapses' and resort to climbing, which is what he does best after all for the past months!

Joel has also cut his 5th tooth a few days ago (finally!), after much speculation, saliva drooling and painful crying nights over the past months!!

Last 2 days he managed to sleep till  6am after I dream-feed him at around 12 midnight (less than 3 oz as he was too sleepy to drink the whole bottle).  Hope he will improve further more and doesn't wake up at 2 or 3 am and make noise or pass motion, like what he did for the past 1 month!

....which was also a reason why there was such a long time since Jan that I blogged....

Joel's 7th month

This is an exciting month for Joel.  He started to be aware of his surrounding, and was so much more responsive to us.

Food:  He eats 2 small bowls of rice cereal for lunch and dinner, and just started on a bowl for breakfast too.  He loves fruits.  When I fed him with pear, papaya or banana puree, he kept wanting for more by reaching out to touch me, looking very excited and shouted when I was too slow! 

Motor skills: He can now crawl quite well on the big bed... but on hard ground he is more careful.  He pulls himself up when he is in the cot and loves to rest his teeth and bits the railing!

Sound: He makes sound like 'ge, ge' when he is happy.

Joel's first standing up at his cot

Joel's first crawl

Squatting by the planpen

Joel's 1st swim

From white bread to wholemeal

Bread

I have always find wholemeal bread hard to chew and had it as an option.... not until recently after learning about the fantastic goodness of it.

Maybe it's the maternal instinct in me to eat healthily for my body with a growing baby inside, or maybe I am getting older and wiser...

But I realised that Gardenia and Sunshine's Multi-grain Wholemeal Bread taste really great.... on its own! 

With my hubby out of town and no one to buy late nite supper home, I find that munching on the plain wholemeal bread itself is soooo... satisfying and therapeutic.  The best part is I don't feel as guilty as when I munch on other junk food or biscuits loaded with... arrgh, trans fat!

Trans Fat, Arrgh...

I think that is the best way to stop me from over indulging and excessive stocking up of biscuits at home.

Almost every week I read about trans fat in the papers, and it is really agonising to realise that many of the favourite snack for myself and children contain this partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is none other than the dreaded TRANS FAT! 

Arrgh, to think that one of my favourite spread was Planta magarine as a kid.  There's this special flavour to it that is soooo nice.  But for the sake of health wise, from now on we have to think butter, plant based oil, olive oil etc....

And the thought of eating out especially at fast food joints... and the char kway teow, and so many many delicious oil-rich food... Ouch, to be healthy we definitely have to pay a price.  And I do not want to pay the price for being not careful about it. 

How to be Happy

No matter how hard we strive everyday, I think at the end of the day we all want to be happy.  So how to be happy?  I came across this yesterday and thought that it is a really good reminder for myself.  I hope it will help you also:

Ten Rules for Happier Living
1. Give something away.
2. Do a kindness.
3. Give thanks always.
4. Work with vim and vigor.
5. Visit the elderly and learn from their experience.
6. Look intently into the face of a baby and marvel.
7. Laugh often - it's life's lubricant.
8. Pray to know God's way.
9. Plan as though you will live forever - you will.
10. Live as though today is your last day on earth.

"Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help" - Psalm 146.5

Slow Down and Live

Today I came across a very interesting read in The Daily Bread reminding us to take time, slow down and live!  For once I thought it's really one of the wisest thing I've ever read regarding new year resolutions. 

Many times I have lots of plans and resolutions for the new year and too often, these commitments crowd my life and made me rush through things, meeting my own deadline, making me very impatient with my family and somewhat, derided me of the joy of living!!

In the Bible, Psalm 1, it was written, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of he ungodly.....but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law doth he mediate day and night."  Here's a person who enjoys the peace of blessing of God and is not frantically dashing all over to make a living.

Carol Odel who writes a business column says that slowing down can positively affect our lives at work and at home.  She encourages everyone to slow down , and even welcome red traffic lights and using the time to meditate.

So this will be one of my resolution this year: take time to live.  Enjoy red traffic lights!  Breathe!!