New challenge

Me and my sister decided to buy a digital camera because the last one we owned is the normal film camera (camera is not on our priority list, so there's no rush). We wanted only to check out 2 brands, its either Olympus or Sony. So we went to Sg Wang and after considering the options available, we finally settled for Olympus Stylus mju 760.


Front view


Back view

Top view

With a price tag of RM1150, the package come with the 760, battery, 2G memory card, casing, screen protector, strap, charger and the USB cables.

It's surprising very light and sleek. 7.1 mega pixel, all-weather and also an "Image Stabilization" function for those who can't take a shot without shaking their hands ;D

There are scene modes for Portrait, Landscape, Landscape & Portrait, Night Scene, Night & Portrait, Sport, Indoor, Candle, Self-Portrait, Available Light, Sunset, Fireworks, Cuisine, Behind Glass, Documents, Auction, Shoot & Select, Beach & Snow, Underwater.

The 760 also has a 'Guide' mode, listing all the things you want to do while shooting, i.e. close up, shooting in motion, shooting at night and etc. For a full professional review, please go here.

I tried to take a few shots and here's some sample (click the pix for a clearer view) ...

Indoor

Toys in a cupboard


Toys on top of a cupboard


Candle on a cupboard


Oil burner

Outdoor

Neighbor's meow mi (one of his back leg has been partly amputated poor fella)


Plants outside my house

Close-up

Nail polish

Fruits

Grapes from the fridge

Plants

Bamboo

Night shot

Lantern hanging outside (surrounded by very dim lights)


Painting on the wall

I'm not a pro in photography but hopefully can pick up some skills along the way. This should come in handy when we go for holidays in the next few months :)

A BIG THANKS to my dear sister who voluntarily paid for it for family use.

A Mother's Love

Mother’s Day has become so commercialized nowadays. From flowers to gifts to eating out, everything is more expensive because everybody will be celebrating Mother’s Day.

To me, everyday should be a Mother’s Day as long as we cherish, appreciate and love our mom. Did they ask for those flowers, the gifts or the most expensive restaurant on Mother’s Day? No, all they ever want is the best for us. There's no meaning to celebrate Mother’s Day just because the whole world is doing it. It has to come sincerely from your heart.

Did you mom …

Scold when you don’t clean up your room and dump your stuff everywhere?

Nag when you don’t pay attention at school and come back with a big ‘D’ marked on your exam papers?

Discipline when you broke her precious vase when she has warned you for a 100^th time not to touch it?

Worry about your health when you fell ill?

Wait for you to come home at 3.00 a.m because she is worried about your safety?

Cook and put food on the table so that you will never go hungry?

Wash your clothes so that you will have something to wear?

Iron your shirt so that you can have some relaxing time at home?

Sew your torn trousers as if it's still new?

Help out financially when you have too many credit cards to pay?

Cry when you got hurt due to your own reckless driving when she advice you to be careful every time you hit the road?

Advice on your career decision hoping that you choose the right path?

Accept you back to the warmth of the house when you decided to move out but failed to make it?

Ask about your other half so that she can be sure of your own happiness?

Pay for some of your wedding expenses when you are not financial capable to wear that $3000 gown and have a lavish reception?

Sacrifice her time to look after your baby when you are back in the corporate world and want to save on the babysitter fees?

Keep her own troubles to herself so that you don’t have to be burden by them?


Call because she misses you?

The list goes on but if you do have such a mom … congratulations! God has bless you and me!

I still have a lot to learn on how to appreciate my mom's efforts. My mom is a person who never speak much to me and my sister. There seem to be an 'invisible wall' between us but I'll never love her less. I hope that one day we can break the wall and have a daily mother-daughter talk. We have only one mom in our life so let's celebrate Mother’s Day with her everyday.

To all the great moms out there and to my own mom … God bless you always.

Trying vegetarian

To be a vegetarian, you need to have a very strong determination. You cannot let anyone or any dish to distract you once you have made the decision. I admired those who did it. But I despise those who claimed to be a vegetarian but keep on eating mock chicken, mock duck, mock fish and mock everything made out of flour! And their main reason of being a vegetarian is because they don't want to 'kill' to eat! Come to think of it, their mind still want to taste that chicken and fish? Where's the logic?

Anyway, a healthy vegetarian dish should consists of vegetables, tofu, beans, mushrooms and other natural ingredients. It can be very tasty and delicious.I tried to cook a vegetarian dish today. It's my own creation of vegetarian fried rice.

Ingredients:
Potato
Button mushrooms
Red and Yellow capsicum
Onions
Egg
Rice


The ingredients


Cut the potato into cubes and fried, put aside


Stir fried the sliced button mushrooms, put aside


Fried the onions and the capsicum in cubes until fragrant, add salt


Add in the potato and mushrooms


The rice and egg come last and some soya sauce as final touches


The dish

The taste is not bad considering I've not done this dish before and from my own non-existing recipe. I hope I can come out with different vegetarian dish in the future. Who knows? I might try to be a vegetarian but only for health purposes. But then again, it will take a long time for me to completely let go off all my favorite meat dishes :( For now, this is just the beginning.

Cooking pasta

Ok I'm suppose to try on different recipe each month so that by end of 2007, I've at least one of my resolutions achieved.

In January, I tried cooking yam rice and it turned out not what I expected. Still have a lot of room for improvements. In February, I used Chinese New Year as my lame excuse and I skipped one month. Then with a blink of an eye, came March. Err I still have not figured out which recipe to try although my food expert colleagues did give me some idea. So I used up the whole of March to decide on the recipe and I have 2 dishes to accomplish if I want to make up for the numbers.

Anyway, in April I decided to cooked rendang chicken. Recipe courtesy of my Malay colleague who is an expert in all the rendang dishes. I asked her to buy me the ingredients but she blended everything for me. So I just fried those ingredients, add coconut milk and put in the chicken with the kerisik and that's how I did my rendang chicken. I took the pictures with my handphone but before I managed to transfer the photos, my handphone was infected with virus and I've to sent in for repair. All data gone. So no photos to show.

But I still lack of 2 dishes and now is already May. So I need to buck up and decided to cook pasta with mushroom sauce. I used the San Remo Fettuccine pasta, Campbell's creamy chicken & mushrooms condensed soup, button mushrooms, turkey breast ham and asparagus as side vegetables.


The ingredients


I used butter to fried the garlics and mushrooms until fragrant


Pour in the condensed soup and stir slowly


The result

The pasta is too thick, did not absorb the sauce too well. Taste of the sauce is ok but next time I'll add more mushrooms and I'll buy the thinner type of Fettuccine. Perhaps I'll try seafood sauce the next round.

Cooking really needs creativity and patience if you want to experience different type of dishes. It's not about dumping everything into a pot and let it cook by itself. I still have a long way to learn.