You’ve probably heard it said that the proper way to eat soup is to scoop it with the spoon away from you. In the West that’s what the spoon is for. It is not for scooping up the rice off the plate. If you remember the controversy in Canada two years ago, that was what ... (more)
Entertain me
You’d think that with dozens of cable channels to choose from, one would never run of television entertainment. You’d think that with the number of movies that premiere each week, there will at least be one winner that will be remembered, talked about, dissected and debated over coffee, wine or beer. “Hellboy 2″ put me ... (more)
Sometimes, I’m such a romantic
While most people associate rainy days with something drab and gray and depressing, I feel that rain, mist and fog make the most romantic setting ever. Perhaps, it’s a carry over from the first time I read Wuthering Heights which, to this day, I consider to be the most romantic novel I have ever read. Or a subconscious rebellion against the association of rain with wrath and punishment and destruction — you know, Noah’s Ark and all that. I see rain as a necessary ingredient for growth. It is something the quenches the thirst of the earth. It is a cleansing and a renewal.
A glass of milk
Milk is on the news again as the China milk crisis continues to unfold. A statement by the Chinese health ministry says that as early as August that manufacturer Sanlu Group was aware of the presence of melamine, a banned chemical, in the baby milk powder that has caused kidney stones in at least 32 ... (more)
Garden steps
Back in the old house, the front and back garden had steps made of cast concrete slabs with embedded pebbles. This variety of garden steps is the most common and they are available in different shapes and sizes. We didn’t exactly choose this kind of steps, it came with the landscaping job. I have two ... (more)
Are analog clocks obsolete?
I was reading an article about a three-year-old child’s sleeping issue being solved by a digital clock in his bedroom… My kids first learned to tell time by reading digital clocks too. And when I tried to teach them how to read analog clocks, we started having problems. In fact, when they were old enough to start wearing wrist watches, they preferred digital to analog. And it ate at me, you know? I wondered if that was okay.
The problem with bamboo / matchstick / grass blinds
Ever since we saw this house and decided to buy it, I always dreamed of hanging bamboo blinds on the living room and dining room windows. I also thought that bamboo blinds would look great in my office/study. Bamboo blinds are elegant, environment-friendly and they come in so many designs and shades. Little did I ... (more)
Ever heard of Natalie Dylan?
That’s the alias of a 22-year-old woman who hopes to raise a million dollars to finance her graduate studies by auctioning off her virginity. Dylan said she got the idea from a Peruvian woman who did the same thing and got a $1.5M bid. The Peruvian woman backed out though.
Why mothers kill
As we were sitting down to dinner on Tuesday, my husband asked if I had heard about the Filipino mother who killed her three children then committed suicide. I remarked how life seem to imitate fiction citing an old episode of CSI where, before stabbing herself, a mother stabbed her children to death to preserve their being “angelsâ€. Our younger daughter, Alex, said it was like the plot of the movie “The Others,†too.





























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