Inspiring Quotes!

Guitar Guitar Guitar. Been practising lots... my fingers hurt! but the more I play my guitar the more I luv it :-). Nothing much to update really, I thought it would be good to just write a few inspiring quotes. Motivational Quotes are great, live up your mood and increase your positivity . They have so much wisdom in just a few words.

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is  a miracle."- (Albert Einstein)


"You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great." - (Les Brown)


"Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, you can achieve" - (Napoleon Hill)


"Excellence is not a skill, it is an attitude" - (Raph Marston)

“Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.” —Lao-Tze

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.” – (B. Olatunji)

“We are all here for some special reason. Stop being a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future.” – (Robin Sharma)

"The mind is everything, what you think is what you become"- (Buddha)


"We are what we repeatedly do Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit"- (Aristotle)

 "Life is not just about reaching the goals, it's about living it to the fullest" - (unknown)

For more inspiring Quotes, http://celestinechua.com/blog/2009/06/101-most-inspiring-quotes-of-all-time/ :-)

Baking is so fun :-)

My first carrot cake :-)

If you never try, you'll never know

I was free last weekend so I was tempted to try baking a cake. Since I never bake a cake before, I thought baking a cake would be really a challenge for me. But it turned out to be so much fun. It took me 45 mins to prepare and 45 mins to bake. Preparation was getting alot exciting since our house hasn't got a scale, had to use intuitive judgements and manual measurement to measure the ingredients X-D. Fortunately the cake came out to be okay (actually quite nice :-), no brag here as I was told by my landlady and housemate it was yummy!!!).

Here is the recipe;

Ingredients;

175g light muscovado sugar

175ml sunflower oil

3 large eggs , lightly beaten

140g grated carrots (about 3 medium)

100g raisins

grated zest of 1 large orange

175g self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp grated nutmeg (freshly grated will give you the best flavour)

Methods;
 
1.Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/fan 160C. Oil and line the base and sides of an 18cm square cake tin with baking parchment. The easiest way to do this is to cut two long strips the width of the tin and put each strip crossways, covering the base and sides of the tin, with a double layer in the base.
2.Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs. Lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange rind.

3.Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl. Lightly mix all the ingredients - when everything is evenly amalgamated stop mixing. The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny.

4.Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40- 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack. (You can freeze the cake at this point.)

Surely I would bake more often now, I enjoy it lots :-)
 
P.S; I am working on my personal development blog, yeah it's my new blog atm. I have been procrastinating these days. Sigh... need to be more discipline and start writing :-)

Family :-)

Since it's Mother's day in UK! I thought of writing a short post about my family :-) i was just chatting with them this afternoon, surprisingly how open i can be to them now. I used to be really shy to talk about certain stuff to them. But literally i can say anything to them now. I think Asian normally we are more conservative, we treat our parents like our superiors not friends,i mean it is nothing wrong to treat them with respect instead we should treat them with respect. However, we also can treat them as friends, discuss things with them. They normaly give the best advices, eventhough they may not be right all the time.

I love my family with my heart and soul!!! We are just an average, simple and ordinary family, my parents work really hard for their kids and I come from a really big family (KB = keluarga besar not keluarga berencana!). I know how hard they have worked to provide for us, food, shelter, education!!! I and my siblings get along very well too. Just want to say love them all :-). I am trying to give everything to them too, by becoming the best person that i can be (i am working on becoming the best self) :-)

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family: Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." (Jane Howard)

second video; Leaving on the jet plane

Heyhey this is my second video, the first video was really silly therefore i dare not publish it here. This video is slighly better i think :-P. The title of the song that i am singing is "Leaving on the jet plane" Beware Noise Pollution :-P. Hope those whose know how to play guitar well could give me some advices to improve my skill lol :-). Btw I don't purporsely want to upload the video on Youtube first but I haven't worked out how to upload the file straight to my blog from my computer. This is kind of double work for me.
I went shopping just now in town, bought quite lots of stuff. Spend and spend money again! not good!!! I think women spend lots of money from new clothes (which i am trying to avoid spending too much on clothes) to Skincare, haircare products (these are inevitable). I don't put on make up so i save on this, cause i don't believe in covering your flaw to look better, it only makes your skin worst i think. I would rather spend more on skincare. The silly thing that, i did today was that when i was trying on hair serum i accidentally sprayed it on my face ouch!!!

Personal Development

Yay...It's friday, it's time to write! First of all, just want to say i have decided not to put pictures on every posts of my blog unless i really need to. I notice i have wasted lots of time searching for pictures on google images and the pictures that i have found actually make my blog look very childish. Apart from that, I have removed my last post for editing. I am abit embarrassed actually when i read back. The story doesn't really flow and it's hard to understand what i wrote. I have been reading a post on this topic and I used quite lots of words from there. It sounds like plagiarism hehe... but not entirely ok! her perception on love is so similar to me, can't help it. Based on the above reasons, i choose not to publish my post until i alter it.

Recently, I have been reading quite lots of personal development blogs. I realise there are hundred or thousands of similar blogs and i came across a few really good one. The writers have inspired me in one way or another.  They got me thinking and open my eyes. Here are the links to the blogs;

http://www.pluginid.com/

http://celestinechua.com/

http://www.stevepavlina.com/

Their blogs may not appeal to certain people but for those who are interested in personal growth certainly find them very useful. They address quite important issues in life, it's interesting because they are telling the true story of their life. How they strive for their success in life which starts from the bottom to the top and I think they are very brave to share every single details of their problems and mishaps to the world and also the ways they used to overcome the problems. These certainly help thousand of the readers who visit their blogs regularly. Between, some of them are earning 4 digit or 5 digit figures from their blogs. I have no idea how it works out but that's the truth. That is the trivial thing, the most crucial one is that those bloggers i mentioned above are really living to the fullest. They live consciously, fully aware of themselves. To sum everything up, they have found their true identity.

I am not saying that i am completely lost, no direction or haven't got a clue at all. Certain things i am quite sure about myself, but still i am not fully understand myself and not fully aware yet. After i graduated and have moved to working life, I have abit of time to retrospect myself and my life. I realise that there are still lots of me need improving, for my personality say i get excited really easily, literally i can't control my excitement. In this case i need to learn to be more composed and calm. Second, i am very indecisive sometimes; i can get influenced by people's opinion just like that. In this case i need to know what i want and stay grounded to myself. It is good to ask for second opinion so that it broaden your mind, but in the end decision has to be made by yourself consciously. So that if anything doesn't go your way, you won't be able to blame others and you have to be fully responsible for that. However if decision is made by our own self normally we won't feel regret no matter what the results turn out to be because we know it is what we have chosen and we have done enough.

I find writing is really a good way to express and understand myself more. I am keen to document my progress on my personal growth and the improvement that i make and the problems that i solve. I know I am not very good in expressing myself verbally, probably i don't really good in talking and also I just recently notice i stumble with different languages. I will definitely elaborate more on these things.
Cao for now :-)

P.S; However, i don't like agree on everything that they have written. Some i do find them abit controversial, mostly they are very useful. I think just learn things that are relevant to you and ignore those that are not.

Btw, i find this video is very inspiring! thought of sharing :-)

Happy Chinese New Year and Valentine's day!

Happy Chinese New Year 2010! Tiger year!

&

Happy Valentine's day!

First of all, i want to wish everyone and myself  "A very Happy Chinese New Year, 新年快乐! kiong hee! kiong hee! Gong xi! Gong xi! and Happy Valentine's day! :-)) what a happy day!

What a coincidence that Chinese New Year and Valentine's day fall on the same day!. At first i thought Chinese New Year was on Saturday, not until i chatted with my family and friends that i realised it actually is today :-P. Heard from my parents i still get angpao (red packets/envelopes) from relatives even i am not at my hometown :-). I miss all the happy moments, family get-together, Chinese New Year's biscuits and steamboat (hot pot) dinner on New Year's eve.

As an Indonesian born Chinese, Chinese New year is quite a big day. As a romantic idealist, Valentine's day is quite a big day as well :-). Though not spending this special day with my family and special someone. I pamper myself quite alot, went out with girlfriends yesterday for a girly day out and i cook good food for myself today, my favourite soup and do the things that i enjoy :-). It's still indeed a happy day! :-)

The inspiring movie! ShawShank Redemption

"Fear can hold you prisoner, but hope can set you free" (shawshank redemption's quote)

ShawShank Redemption! one of my all time favourite movie! I just watched it recently a month ago, precisely on Christmas day at a friend's house. I think this is a very inspiring and meaningful movie, that is why i want to blog about it :-)

This movie is alot like "Prison Break", Shawshank is like the short version of Prison Break but less dramatic and excitement of breaking out from prison instead it focuses more on the value of life.I like Prison Break as well especially the first season (i only watched season 1 and 2, stopped watching because it was a sad ending)

The summary of the movie;

The movie is about Andy, a young and successful banker whose life changes drastically after he is convicted and sentenced to life for murder at Shawshank prison. There are strong circumstances evidences, but he is actually innocent. He is very isolated and lonely at first but then he realises there is something deep inside him that can't be touched and  that is "HOPE". There is still a hope for him, even he is in the most tragic situation in his life, there is still a hope for him to be free even it seems really small. From that on, he lives his life on this hope. He starts to make friend with fellow inmate called Red and starts to gain trust from the warden and the captain of the guards. he even makes the prison a better place for the rest of the inmates by expanding the library, bringing in more books and acquired donation to revamp the library. Red indirectly has helped Andy to escape from the prison, he has connections on the outside who can acquire contraband for the inmates. He smuggles in a small rock hammer that Andy uses it to dig a tunnel through his cell's wall over the last two decades that allowed him to escape Shawshank. Before he escapes, Andy leaves a note for Red to come to look for him when he finally achieves his parole. He eventually comes across Andy on the coast, and they happily reunite. Friendship's forever!!! How sweet!!! love the happy ending! :-) x

This story is really touching! This tells us EVERYTHING is POSSIBLE! there is a HOPE for everyone in every situation in life! as long as we believe in them and work on our dreams! He can even shine in the prison! Andy epitomizes why it is crucial to have dreams. His spirit and determination, leads us into a world full of imagination, filled with courage and desire. This movie inspired me to change my blog title to these three magical words "Hope - Courage - Determination" :-) x

Good friends in my room

Here i just want to share my comfy room. Since i spend alot of my time in my room, resting, decision-making, relaxing, etc. I always like to make sure my room is in a good condition, what i mean here is clean and tidy :-). i still have my clothes scatteres around my chair but that's it.

When i was still in University, my room used to be in a very messy and disorganised state. Clothes were all over the place, papers and books scattered all around the floor. I never let anyone go into my room. I would only clean and tidy up few times a year, once before Chinese New Year! haha...
However when i started to work, i moved to a small town and my room is not as big as it used to be. It';s actually really small, so i can't afford to let my stuff scattered around on the floor or else i have to space to walk. This actually help me to cultivate a good habit to keep my room tidy and clean. I vaccumm my room once a week, i don't have to really tidy it up cause i don't simply misplace my stuff anymore, i will put it back to its place once when i don't use it.

Once its ur habit, it's always be there. Ironically, i can't stand cluttered room anymore. It would wind me up, i always make sure it is in a good state all the time. Secretly, now i feel my room has inspired me, i love being in my room, spending my own sweet time :-) i don't feel embarrased to let people into my room anymore, in fact my housemate and landlady always come into my room to chat :-). Conclusion, you can change ur habit, cultivate a good habit and make it ur real habit! :-)


Good friends in my room!

My Guitar and Teddy Bear

Books

Old Laptop :-)

Other things in my room are radio and magazines (New Scientist and Psychology and etc) and TV. I listen to the radio every morning before going to work and occasionally at night. I am not a tv person, i don't watch tv that much anymore except for the X factor :-) but i watch movie online though and magazines i just read them occasionally.

If you want to make a CHANGE, start it off with your bedroom!

New Year! New Me! New purporses! :-)

Another fresh New year is here,

Another year to live!

To banish worry, doubt and fear,

To love, and laugh, and give!

This bright New Year is given me,

To live each day with zest,

To daily grow and try to be,

My highest an my best!

I have the opporunity

Once more to right some wrongs,

To pray for peace, to plant a tree,

And sings more joyful songs.

(William Artur Ward)

"We will open the book, its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The books is called opportunity and its first chapter is New year's day" (Edith Lovejoy Pierce)

Yay! my first post of 2010! May this year be a wonderful year to everyone, blooming in Health, Happiness and Success!.

To begin with, i am going to mention briefly on my new year resolutions! this year i am going to work on three major aspects of my life; my job, personal growth, and relationship. Thus, no doubt! this year i will blog more on those stuff, especially on the personal development. I am determined to be a good blogger this year to update regulary and useful stuffs which are based on my experiences and the books that i read. Hope to increase the traffic to my blog this year! :-)

First of all, i just want to talk succinctly about my job. I am currently working as a Chemical Engineer for a small Energy based company. i involve in power generation side of things so what i am doing at the moment is closely related to current hot issue "Climate Change". The challenge here is how to keep the lights on whilst keep the carbon footprints low or diminish it completely. Sounds intriguing!! yeah, this job is interesting and i enjoy what i am doing! :-). I really want to learn more and gain more knowledges on my job!

Personal develpoment is one of the main key that i want to dive into this year. I am very interested in Personal growth since last year, after i read the blog by Celestine Chua. I did mention on my previous posts, i want to work on my personality. There are a few things, i really want to improve :-), i hope i can share my experiences with others and wish to help others that have the same problems. Let's work together to be the best self and to live the best life! :-)

Thirdly, relationship, mainly i want to broaden my network of friends. Hope to meet more people this year and socialise more as i live in a small town, I have to go out more often to meet people! and i also want to make more friends online which have the same interest in personal development through blogs!

And if i am lucky i may meet my knight in shining armour this year ! lols :-)

Severus Snape

I have completed all Harry Potter books! Cool!!! i can't believe that i say this " I am a fan of Severus Snape"

He is a brave man! btw, i like the name of Harry's youngest son "Albus Severus"! yeahh :-)

I am playing my guitar now, practising some christmas songs!!! good way to unwind before bed :-)

Ahhhhh this is how i spend my weekend! browsing, reading and writing!!! i need to go out, and socialise, make new friends!!! Get a life!!!

Story part 1

I learned the courage was not the absence of fear,

but the triumph over it.

I felt fear myself more times than i can remember,

but i hid it behind a mask of boldness.

The brave man is not he who not feel afraid,

but he who conquers that fear. (Nelson Mandela)

Look well into yourself;

there is a source of strength

which will always spring up if you

always look there. (Marcus Aurelius)

It's friday night, a quite night for my housemates are not at home. I am sitting in my desk with my table lamp on, listening to slow music while writing my blog. It feels so relaxing and tranquil, escaping from the hassle and bustle week.

Here, i recall what was on my mind when i was writing christmas cards to all my colleagues yesterday. I was like, Gosh! i have been working for a year.

Precisely, on the day i had to wake up at 4.30 am in the morning to catch a flight to Newcastle. It was not my first business trip up North, i have been up there for a few times. However, this was the first time that i have to travel to and fro up North on the same day and it's on the day that i thought is kind of a special day to me. It may be inconsequential to some people, but I would certainly remember my first working day. I still can remember vividly as I stepped into the small office, sitting in my own desk and staring at unfamiliar faces. It's my first proper job as in a graduate job that related to my course of study and the job that i put lots of effort in.

Between, it's not really my first job, I had to work part time for a few months before i landed on this graduate job. I worked as cashier and stock keeper before, i didn't feel like keep asking money from my parents after i have graduated and i wanted to be more financially independent. This part time job helped me to survive, i managed to cover up my living cost while looking for a proper job.

Now as i think back, vividly on my mind. I saw this girl that worked so hard to fulfil her own dream and her parents' expectation. She didn't want to let herself down and most importantly, not to let her parents and family down.

I saw this girl that tried to look as cheerful as she could. But deep down her heart, she knew that there was a feeling of fear for she was aware that transition period to the next stage was not an easy step at all. There were lots of uncertainties and unclear pathway.

I saw this girl that never give in, never know the words "surrender or white flag". She prayed hard as well for she knew God was the mighty one that she would find her way eventually.

To be continued.........

lalalala

lalalla... i am singing... Whitney Houston song "I will always love you". ROom karaoke again... singing is always my "thing" LOL

sleepy but want to playyy!!! since it's friday! stay up abit late :-P

Sparkle Ladies Conference

yay... it is now almost 10pm when i am writing my blog, it's kind of weird that my computer is still on. I usually turn it off the latest is by 9pm. I just feel like writing now, i wish one day has got more than 24 hours. It is just not enough lots of things i would like to do and enjoy doing! and writing is one of them apparently.

I went to this Sparkle ladies conference! it was really good. I really got inspired today with the talk by the amazing women. It taught me how to be a better self! Amazing! self belief is one of them, be confident and believe that you can do what you want to do. I have abit of an issue with self-confidence sometimes. I feel i have not done enough and constantly beat myself up over a very small mistake that i have done! Moreover, i blame myself over something that i can't even change and things that are completely not my fault. That may sound abit silly, but yeah sometimes i try to hard to please others and to be overly perfectionist (neurotic perfectionist which is not constructive at all). The fact is that others that care for you they just don't mind it at all, they accept you they way you are!!! Between no ones is perfect. You just need to best the best that you can be!! make good use of what you have and most importantly be a good person and person you truely are which make you shine from within and special!

I think i slowly have grown up, now i learn to take responsibily about myself by making the my own decision in life and i want to work on my personality, also start to believe in myself more. Family and good friends are really important and also to have your spiritual faith which empower you and push you furher to become your real self. I believe all religion they are the same (except the extremist which cause by human being), they want to lead you to the right path and be a good and better self.

HArry Potter

I am reading "Harry Potter and the deathly hallows" and listening to the X factor finalist song "You are not alone". I have actually been listening for 10X today hahah it's good Michael Jackson must be proud!

i had a good time with my housemate giggling for nothing, she is fab! lovely girl! and we actually witnessed a meteor shower. I saw a spark radiated away from a single point in the sky!! I reckon it was a meteor! haha

Sleep

i had bad nights last week, hadn't been sleeping well, too many things get onto my brain!!! eventually i decided to go to London yesterday for a change. I havent been to London for awhile and i havent seen a friend of mine for ages. I had a really good day i went to temple there was annual gathering between London and Manchasters friends. I was participating the games that they organised, i was very hyper. I was wondering whether is the effect of not enough sleep .

i had a bad night the night before, slept for only 3 hours, was stunned that i still managed to gather myself to go to London. It was raining when i was on my way to London which doesnt really help my mood. But I was excited when i got there, we were playing some words games i was jumping ups and down when i guess correctly ==' which is not the sort of things that 23 years old do. This incident make me think that i actually have a maturity of a teenager!! haha

Anyway i dont entirely blame myself that i behaved that way cause most of the people are actually younger so they are easily get excited:P

luckily, i got back in time for X factor show and i slept for 11 hours last night:)) (get another hour of lie-in, the clock has just changed to one hour slower, 25 hours a day!!! ). I need to make sure i get into my routine, turn off my laptop and phone after 8pm and turn off the light after 10.30pm. Fingers crossed!! that i can sleep well tonight:)

BOYZONE

i am still shocked by the news about Stephen Gately (more shocking than Michael Jackson news). He is still really young, 33 years old. Boyzone will never be the same anymore without him. he is one of the lead singer besides Ronan Keating. What a shocking news! Boyzone is my favourite boyband since i was 15 years old, frankly is the first boyband i ever like. My favourite is Ronan and Stephen comes second. He is my good friend's favourite. Even so, Stephen is undeniably good singer.

Boyzone reformed again last year they just went for a tour and it was successful and their new album is due to be released in 2010. Louis welsh, their manager and one of the X factor judges was absence on Sunday. He has a good friendship with him and all the boys from Boyzone adore him as well. I believe all the fans will be missing him.

O.o

X factor X factor!!! get hooked to this show!!! hehe

CLimate CHange

I just skimmed through Sustainable Energy book by David Mackay. He is a professor from Cambridge University and now he has been appointed as the government body to combat climate change in Britain. It's all because of his book which is reader friendly, the readers don't have to know about engineering stuff to understand the whole process, as long as the readers know abit of maths, then the readers can work the number out, that is why it is so appealing to people up to the politicians. It is a really good book describing all the energy available from Clean coal, all types of Renewable Energy and Nuclear. He also suggested how to reduce power consumption for cars, planes and also heating during winter.

Its quite a thick book and it can be downloaded online it for free by googling it so its good:)