Grandma's Wisdom

For the longest time way past my adolescent days, I have been told chocolate milk was made from fresh milk that turned bad.  I was being steered away from drinking chocolate milk.  I have faithfully heeded that advice until Google confirmed they can't find a hit in the www!

Till this day I still want to throw salt over my right shoulder (or is it my left?) after knocking over the salt shaker because my house-mistress said it would keep evil spirits away.

Oh, and here's a good one - you will go blind if you sit too close to the television, or if you cross your eyes, they will stay that way.

You do know the above aren't true (I hope).   I mean if they are true, I do wonder what my house-mistress would say about the salty evil spirits I have consumed over the years! 

I can, however, think of a few instances where the good old-fashioned "grandma's wisdom" has proved to work miracles.  


Non-stop coughing

Rub Vicks VapoRub on the bottom of the feet, cover them with socks at bedtime, can stop the cough almost immediately.  

Alternatively, try shots of whiskey.  It won't kill the germs but my grandpa swore by it as the best readily available cough suppressant one can get.
   

Bloated Stomach

Apparently, gently massaging the skin along the collar bone will release gas by either small burps or if you are persistent enough, big belches will follow.  

Sore Throat

Gargle with salt water - a remedy that works economically sound. 

Ache & Pain

There is nothing quite like a good old fashioned hot water bottle to comfort and soothe those shoulder aches and back pains.

Do you have some of your favourite Old Wives’ Tales to share or tips from your granny that have seen the arc of life? 

Pure Insanity

Have You ever had one of those days when you feel you are just completely spinning off the earth's axis?

Deadlines looming (or whizzing past), the phone keeps ringing, and your to-do-list just keeps piling up.  You have just spent the whole day dashing here and there and none of those on your list got ticked off at the end of the day. 

You go home, get some rest, and the next day you seem to have pressed the replay button of yesterday and you are haunted by the same scenario. Then comes the long-awaited weekend which is never quite long enough of course.  And then it is another week of the same. 

If this is too familiar - this serves as an alarm for you do something about this very contagious insanity. 

I don't have anything wicked to propose.  But since you feel like you are spinning off this crazy earth's axis anyway, why not try tilting the angle of your insanity and look at it differently, might be a sane idea for now.

Come back and tell me if this worked for you because if it worked for you, it might work for other human beings too! 

Come As A Guest, Leave As A Friend

Historically, coffeehouses were important places for groups to gather and discuss issues of the day.

Today we have arguably seen this experience diminished, forgotten.

Many of us get our daily caffeine boost at the local Starbucks or other commercial coffeemakers.  For the sake of waking ourselves up, we duck in, pay quickly, and on we go, head on with our lives.   Alright, in certain days, we might decide to plug in our laptops, appeared to be toggling with some office documents but really, it was for perusing Facebook profiles, and for that, we might linger on for a bit longer. 


With the overwhelming establishments of cafes in town, two friends of mine recently decided to join in the bandwagon and opened a small cafe.  Tough competition is obviously one thing, how to run the business is another.  While we applause their bravery, you don't read fear in them at all because - they have it all figured out. 

They have figured out the very one thing that is going to differentiate themselves from the rest.  And that is - the philosophy of why we drink coffee beyond our need for one. 

They believe what they have, is truly a place that separates from home and work; A neighborhood hub for meetings, socials and gigs.  Or, as they'd like to call it - a platform for guests to create new communities and connections. 

They would like to have you "come as a guest, leave as a friend".  

A motto as simple as that.  And they mean it.  

Think about it.  When was the last time you had great coffee, good buddies and great conversation?

Not Eating Properly?!

A patient walks into a doctor's office. He has a cucumber up his nose, a carrot in his left ear and a banana in his right ear.

"What's the matter with me?" he asks the doctor.

The doctor replies, "You're obviously not eating properly!"

"I see. Lately I observed that I have been talking with my fingers too. Is there a cure for that, doctor?"
 
The doctor replies, "If you can discard your smartphones and revert back to your good old analog phone, that helps and you could be talking again in no time!"

In this era, email and texting are just plain handy isn't it?  You allow the recipient more flexibility in answering, usable amidst noise and even allowing to a certain extent, a medium of flirtation less invasive than a phone call but quicker than a snail mail. 

If you think about it, very few among us yearn for a world in which the only music is classical, the only dance is ballet and daily clothing requires corsets and waistcoats.

As such, we don't necessarily have to take the drastic approach like the doctor suggested above.  We might as well embrace a brave new world where we can both talk with our fingers, and our mouth.  And trust me - it certainly won't hurt to revisit the formidable letter-writing every now and then, should romance be missing in air. 

An Organic Saturday At School

Kwok Siu Lau Hall, for many of us old girls, myself included, is to be associated with solemnity of morning assemblies or perhaps the cold line-ups of desks during the season of examinations, if you asked me. 

The purpose of my recent visit provided a fresh new perspective to be appended to the nostalgic part of my school memories. I was back to school with a mission - as a mentor - and was struck by so many great moments worth accounting for. To start off with, the young lady who greeted me at the desk asked, "Are you our mentor?  We’d love to have you."

“Wasn't I lucky to be assigned to a group of courteous students”, I thought to myself.   The afternoon that followed was definitely one that was fun-filled, most valuable.   

A handful of old girls in my year volunteered to take part in the school's mentorship program and we were summoned to enjoy a Saturday afternoon bonding with our mentees while engaging ourselves with an entirely foreign, do-it-yourself activity - the making of organic lip balm.

Not knowing what constitutes as ingredients in the balm that we put on our lovely lips virtually every other hour or so, cooking up our own lip balm sounded like a daunting task to most of us in the first instance.  However, with incredible teamwork of trial and errors, coupled with hours of laughter, it was seriously quite easy. 

The whole process involved precision in the measurement and preparation of each and every ingredient in correct proportion.  The timing and coordination were also vital in the execution.  Our given task was to produce one lip balm per person and much of the fun was derived when we had to pick the best tube within our group to compete against the representatives from 15 others.  The job was particularly tough for us as our group was the largest of all, with 12 tubes of dazzling designs to shortlist from!

Not sure if you would agree but I feel like every time I needed to look for lip balm in my handbag, the tube would have grown legs and mysteriously walked away.  Very gladly, after an afternoon of concerted effort, we all went home with an extra tube.  We even imagined we can stop standing in line at stores to buy new ones, now that we have mastered how to make our very own organic one from scratch.

Our winning formula certainly caught a fair share of attention from the panel judges, even we didn’t win any prizes at the end, I found myself energised by the intense creative spirit, enthusiasm and sheer talent of everyone involved in this exercise.  

And to my glorious mentees - choosing to sit in a hall on a beautiful day beyond school hours – intent, eager to learn and ready to take on the world, all you youngsters who do not already know, are indeed winners!