Eye of typhoon hit Boulevard area?

More photos on my facebook.

Boulevard, Miri, looks like a war zone this afternoon. Many roads were blocked ...

 ... due to falling trees.

 Cars were damaged as branches came crushing down.

 ... more casualties...

 Branches snapped like matches!

So these unlucky few who parked under the trees will have surprises... I was told by one of the owners that   the insurance will not pay as it is an act of God. So I asked a shocked man, do you believe in God? He was not sure!

The huge damage was the driving school at Boulevard. The steel structure literally ripped off. In fact not a single roofing material left.

The classroom was wrecked ...

  Nearby the driving school, you can see the strength of the wind... this huge branch was of no match!

 ... another top of the tree was literally pinched off it trunk and thrown some 20 meters away!

 Nearby, the religious school has two gaping holes on the roof. The fire engine was on site just now.

 Surprisingly, or rather thanks God for it, the squatter areas was not too bad.

This huge branch was ripped off it trunk.

We have not seen such huge wind in Miri before.
More photos on my facebook.

This cat has perfect heterochromia

This is the first time in my life to see a cat with different eye colour, one blue and one brown!

 I just wonder how is the vision like...

According to my son Jonathan, this is a condition called heterochromia iridum. Read up more about it here.

Update: After I publish this blog, the cat has mysteriously disappeared from my friend's shop in town. Could someone had stolen it or whatever, no one knows.

5Cs no more!

The traditional 5Cs that define wealth in Singapore are no longer that relevant today, according to a survey on what people in the city-state strive for in life.

Singaporeans prefer to pursue intangible goals in life such as having a happy family (70 per cent), travelling around the world (52 per cent), and be healthy at a ripe old age (53 per cent).

The traditional Cs — cash, car, credit card, condo and country club membership — that people hoped to achieve in the past are now overshadowed by another set of new Cs made up of non- material possessions.

The new Cs are Control, Confidence, Community, Can and Career.

Some commented that this kind of mentality will cause death  or serious injury or just drop dead all because they have goal!

But on the other hand, without goal, where is the motivation in life?

I would say, the new Cs are quite good but whatever, don't overdo or they really kill!

Is there heaven?

Life after death experience by an American neurosurgeon. Read more here and here ...  

What are they actually selling??

I looked at the label and saw "Thai Style Rice" and without looking at the ingredients, I thought this is Thai Style vermicelli, ie, rice noodle.

They look like reasonably good. So I bought two packs home!

I cooked it two days ago and found that it is tougher than I thought. It is definitely not made from rice. At one point, I thought it is the green pea noodle （东份）. It is chewy. So I decided to check the ingredient...

... it is actually made in China and made from corn starch. Not rice at all! How upsetting.
Although honest (I hope) on the label, it includes Sodium polyacrylate which is a super absorbent polymers (sometimes taken to refer to plastic).  Next is Sodium dihydrogen phosphate, which is supposed to be used as laxative.
The last item is Xanthan Gum which seems to be a very interesting. It is widely used as food additive.
Now, I am unsure ....

... can this thing be eaten?! No wonder it has such a foul chemical smell when I opened it.

Inflation or profiteering?

Malaysia is reporting low inflation rate all these years. But is this really true? We all know that we are getting less and less for the money we spend! The mee (noodle) on the plate is getting less and the drink is getting more expensive. So in reality what has been happening? Let's see....

 This cracker was 410g until last week. Now the cracker is only 385gm but selling at the same price. So, this is a reduction of 6%. Look at LUX soap ...

It use to be 100gm per cake of soap! Ok, that was quite sometime ago, perhaps not that long ago since I still have them! The price used to be RM2+ for three.

Then, it went down by 10gm to 90gm. And at the same time, price gone up.

Now, if you go to the market, this same soap is now only 85g. The price today is RM3.30 for three. We bought some last week at a discount! Ok, now the sugar subsidy is 20 cent less. The minister said that traders and businessmen must not have exorbitant price increase of food! This is interesting ... he used exorbitant, ie, the price can still go up a little! However, have a look...

Drink in the coffee shops used to be using the bigger cup on the left, ie, 300ml. Now, everyone changed to the one on the right, ie, 250ml. So, a reduction of 16%. I know that prices of drink is now RM1.80 to RM2.50 from around RM0.80/1.20. In another word, the prices have more than double over that last 5 years.

Look at this franchise drink from Taiwan which is coming to Miri. It comes in a hefty 700ml cup! 700ml is almost equivalent to 3 cups from the coffee shop. No wonder youngsters love them. This also means that it is not as expensive as we all thought!
Ok, this is Miri. How about other town in Malaysia?

Try this drink - 5 greens for health

I have been so busy lately that time flies without me realising it! Whatever, taking care of oneself is important. The saying goes "anything tasted good is not good for your body". I am not going to debate on this. But this drink (so called five (5) greens) I made for myself is definitely not going to taste good. Jonathan, my eldest son, described this as "a heavenly drink"! You know what he means!

 I will not attempt to describe the taste and you will figure it out for yourself...

I put green pepper, cucumber, bitter gourd, green apple and celery into my high speed blender and out it comes, a drink like above. This is the famous "five greens" health drink. It is supposed to lower your cholesterol and high blood pressure.

The trick to drink this juice is to blend it and without thinking, swallow everything down in one go! An ex-colleague told me that this drink help to put the cholesterol back in order! So, have you tried this and how was your result?

Recipe:
Half Green pepper
Half cucumber (3-4 inches)
Quarter bitter gourd (2 inches)
2 stalks of celery
One medium green apple
100-200ml water

Above should make about 500ml. If you cannot finish everything in one go, you can always share it with someone or use it twice.

Go and check your cholesterol and BP now and then drink this "heavenly drink" for a month. Check the results of your cholesterol and BP again.