Shaun at his final destination, The world famous, Petronas Twin Towers

Out of sheer boredom, I did a google search on my husband, and gosh, there were so many things on him in there. One of the very exciting things he did was in 1999, when he drove blindfolded through the city center of Kuala Lumpur. This was way before I even dated him.

Shaun’s starting point, at the iconic Dataran Merdeka

Shaun started from the historical Dataran Merdeka. He took a scenic slow drive through town to reach the iconic Petronas Twin Towers, which at that time, was THE tallest building in the world.

Anyways, there’s lots of pictures of him doing his blindfold stunts which I want to share with you guys. CNN News featured him as well, though it’s just too bad at that time, youtube didn’t exist yet, or else, we would have uploaded a copy of what he did there.

Shaun Tan Blind Fold drive

There’s so many other pictures, so just click on the picture above to view all of them.

Driving why blindfolded is actually not his real occupation. And while he studied law at University of Buckingham, and he did his Barrister-at-Law post-graduate law degree at Lincoln’s Inn, England, he’s no longer a practicing lawyer anymore. Actually, internet marketing is his life now. Shaun, or Sen Ze as he is called online is a very well respected, well known internet marketing guru.

And oh, did you know he’s a left handed person? He was really hoping for our sons to be south paws like him, but they took after me instead, haha. Oh well. They have his intelligence and my good looks. Perfect.

My college room mate Jennifer Knapp is a well known American gospel singer. Here’s one of her videos, A little More.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEYkSZjbsRs

For Lay It Down, her 2000 release, she began moving toward a mainstream sound. This release garnered a Grammy Award nomination in 2001.She also gained a Grammy nomination for her third release The Way I Am.

I loved British rock, Euro pop, hip hop and R & B songs back then but that didn’t jive with Jenn who shared a dorm room at Pittsburg State University, Kansas (Go Gorilla!) with me. She was into alternative rock, country and everything else I wasn’t into. Our music selection could not be any different. Later, after I graduated, I heard she became a gospel singer.

Anyways, we could not really get along back then. She smoked tons, stinking up the room while I cooked a whole pieces of rainbow trout, head, tail and bones and all in my little microwave in my dorm room. In her defense, it was a smoking dorm room. Then, she’d have that big noisy electric alarm that never shut cause she’s always in deep sleep, never waking up to shut that racket while I embarrassed her over and over with my total dorky Asian behavior, absolutely alien to American ways.

It’s been years now, and we have both really change. However, she’s not been in the music scene for a long while now. Doesn’t matter. Her albums are great. Buy them.

Many four-year-old boys like dressing up as Superman, and Alex Briggs is no exception.

But Alex has a superhero’s toughness to match after bouncing back from life-saving surgery to fix three holes in his heart.

During the risky five-hour operation, surgeons had to break Alex’s breast bone and stop his heart.

Yet just 48 hours after the open-heart surgery, Alex was back in his red cape and running around the hospital ward, to the relief of his parents, Army private Ben, 25, and his fiancée Diane Lamont, 26.

Miss Lamont, an accountant, said: ‘Alex is always climbing and jumping off things. He’s a bundle of energy and thinks he’s invincible. Now he’s able to run around and pretend he’s Superman to his heart’s content. He’s amazed us all’

Soon after Alex was born, it became clear to the couple, who have two other children, Alan, seven, and Cara, 17 months, that he was not well. He seemed to have no energy and would regularly turn blue and start wheezing.

When Alex was 18 months old, hospital tests showed that he had a congenital heart problem called Atrial Septal Defect, and had three holes in his heart, which were stopping the blood flowing around his body properly.

Doctors suggested leaving the holes to close themselves but Alex’s condition worsened.

Miss Lamont said: ‘He was such a bubbly boy and wanted to do everything his brother did, but after 15 minutes of running around he’d start shivering and turn blue and have to go to sleep.

‘Even though he was our little Superman he’d have no strength or energy. He was constantly getting ill because he had a low immune system and he spent most of his time on the sofa or in bed.’

Further tests proved the holes were larger than previously thought and had caused a secondary condition called pulmonary stenosis – a narrowing of the valve that regulates blood flow from the heart to the lungs.

Mr Briggs said his son could have dropped dead at any time without the operation in May at Leeds General Infirmary. Alex came out of the operating theatre on a life-support machine and doctors warned that the first 24 hours were critical.

But after just two days, he was back on a normal ward begging for his Superman outfit.

Five days later Alex was allowed back to his home in Hull. He has a ten-inch scar on his chest but ignores it and doctors expect him to lead a normal life.

He became obsessed with Superman after watching the 2006 film Superman Returns.

Miss Lamont said: ‘He walks down the street or goes to the supermarket in his Superman outfit. He’s a real poseur, he’ll say “Hi, girls” to the schoolgirls. They love him.’

By Daily Mail Reporter
10:07 PM on 17th July 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1200359/Alex-real-Superman-runs-TWO-DAYS-open-heart-surgery.html

My little boy is forever opening the fridge to peer into it, looking for something to eat. He’s a fruit bat, so, generally, so long as I have fruits, he’s happy.

That got me thinking.

I have received emails from people saying they don’t have access to healthful raw food to eat when they are out there working. What to do?

Here’s my tip! Always make extra when you create your masterpieces.

Juicing carrots this morning? Make extra, keep in the glass jar and pop them into the fridge. Bring the drink to work. I know, I know that experts say juice biodegrade, and we should always take them fresh, but who has all that time? It’s not like there’s a juicer at the office pantry right?

Another good tip to know is that vegetable juice lasts longer than fruit juices, plus it’s way healthier. You can keep vegetable juice for about 2 days in the fridge. So, yeah, make large batches of them.

Keep your recipes simple. Simple food are faster to make. You see, the raw food diet is a just a mindset in my opinion. People think there’s all sorts of rules to eating raw food, and that raw food creations are complicated. But no. That’s one of the reasons why hubby and I like raw food. Durians don’t take much time to cut, open and eat. Full of protein, and tastes yummy! My family and I always pop extra into the freezer, and eat the ones from the freezer, ice cold, creamy like ice cream. My raw smoothies take, the most, 5 minutes to make as well, and the kids love them. There’s always a big jug of some drink in the fridge everyday. Raw vegan ice creams and raw vegan puddings take about 5 mins – 15 mins to make as opposed to cooked ice creams and puddings take a while to make. Healthy stuff. And I try to make more, though often times, they disappear too fast.

In my previous blog at eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com, I always encourage people to eat more raw food, as opposed to totally cutting off cooked food. Way too radical for most people. Once a enthusiastic raw foodie realizes how easy it is to eat raw food, generally, they tend to eat more of it as they go along. Not as hard as people perceive.

Peach! Does it make you live longer?

According to Chinese legends, peach is a fruit of the fairies and it is said to lengthen life span. This is why the Chinese God of Longevity is always holding a peach in his hand. The traditional Chinese also like to present this as a birthday gift, for the very same reason …. implying that they wish the recipient a long and prosperous life.

Talking about nutrition, the Chinese also believe that peach clears heat from the body, moisturize the intestine and improve blood circulation. Older folks should try to eat peaches more often, to get more blood and more oxygen flowing through their bodies. However, the Chinese believe that pregnant women should not take too much of it. It’s an old wife’s tale. I’m not sure why that is. I’ve search the Internet for information on this, but no info in English has turned up. But you know, my mum has always said that the Chinese are an observation lot. The local uneducated folks probably couldn’t explain why peaches are bad for pregnant women and don’t have a scientific explanation for stuff, but I would assume, over thousands of years of observation, they must have noticed that there are bad side effects of eating buckets of peaches at a go.  A peach a day is probably ok. It has good amounts of folate, that is good for the growing baby inside.

Some of the info taken from Cook Easy! Eat Healthy! Fruit and Vegetables (Chinese book)
Photo of cut peach by Patrick Tregenza, courtesy USDA Agricultural Research Service Image Library

Recently, the Cheras District 11th Mile water treatment plant was due to high ammonia levels detected at the intake point, in this case, Langat River. What’s more, authorities are thinking of shutting down the Salak Tinggi water treatment plant in Ginching Village in the district of Sepang, for good. The Labu river apparently is so polluted, there was a RECORD number of 13 closures since 2005, including two this year.

Clear indicator
Abdul Halem Mat Som pointing to the confluence of
the Labu river and the Nilai river and explaining the contrast in the colour.
While the Labu river was dirty brown in color,
Nilai river was black and emitted a nausea-inducing stench.
The Labu river downstream was also clogged with rubbish.

This is really scary. Think about it. We are drinking polluted water, every single day. And this is happening, not just in Kuala Lumpur, it’s happening all over the world.

I have a rain water tank out in the garden, right next to the door to the kitchen. And right now, I’m thinking, this is the best possible water we can use for ourselves. Sure, when the rain comes pouring down from heaven, it collects some pollution along the way, but it just can’t be as bad as the Labu river now can it?

Last year, I had an opportunity to ask a water treatment plant specialist which water was cleaner; rain water or the river water at the treatment plants in KL? He didn’t give me a straight answer. And instead went onto a long explanation about how the rust from the large water pipes caused the tap water to turn brown.

Three good words to think about right now. Reliable water filter.

Info taken from http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2009/7/15/central/4317744&sec=central