A Toas-Tite Legacy

Everyone has tried toasties in its symbolic shape of a triangle.  Has it ever occurred to you why they are also being called flying saucers, when you knew all so well that flying saucers are, nothing but round?

During a recent spring cleaning of a pile of tupperware, my mom unearthed a sandwich grill of yesteryear and it was that 60-year-old antique which solved my little mystery. 

Researching something vintage made in the 40s has its challenges but with a little digging, it soon becomes pretty clear all at once that this thing named Toas-Tite, is no longer being produced.   

I listened in awe as my mom describes how she, as a little eager kid, had fun giving the adults a hand by holding this Toas-tite on top of a flame on the old gas range.  That has us firing up the stove this morning at breakfast and made sandwiches out of this kitchen collectable.   

We buttered each slice of bread, fitted them into the Toas-Tite, placed thick wedges of cheese inside, along with stir-fried eggs and corn beef, closed it, looped the ring around, and then cut off the excess edges of bread.

As the sandwich cooked over an open flame, circular rings from the metal gave it the look of - there you go - a flying saucer!

Watching my folks hold their flying saucers like a kid reminiscing the old days,  I felt lucky and joyful being able to savour a tidbit of this legacy together with them. 

Mardi Gras Rugby Weekend

Every one of my friends currently binge drinking at the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens claims it has been a great weekend for them so far – even though the specifics are a bit hard to recall.

None of them I knew play rugby, nor do they know the game rules, yet for years, they have been enthusiasts for the annual mardi gras in Hong Kong.  

As they say though, if you can remember what happened at the Hong Kong Sevens, you probably weren't there!

I certainly wasn't there. 

I was stuck in heavy traffic because apparently, everyone else was there!

TGIF

On this Friday, my office directly facing me seems so close yet, so spiritually far away - like a mirage - It's hard not to feel exhilarating about my little getaway!

Chocolate Wine Pairing

One guideline people usually live by in pairing food and wine is: light food go with light wines and heavy food go with heavy wines. Or by the old rule – primarily red with red meat and...white with fish and poultry.

Have you heard of Chocolate Wine Pairing?  This was totally foreign to me before my visit to Vero Chocolate Lounge, which I mentioned in my last blog entry.

The curious me went to do some research on what the experts have to say about this artful experience.  

Rule #1, typically the wine should be at least as sweet, if not a touch sweeter, than the chocolate you are serving it with. Otherwise, the taste may quickly veer towards bitter or sour.

When pairing wines with chocolate, your best bet is to match lighter, more elegant flavored chocolates with lighter-bodied wines; likewise, the stronger the chocolate, the more full-bodied the wine should be. For example, a bittersweet chocolate tends to pair well with an intense, in-your-face California Zinfandel.

Similar to “formal” wine tasting, if you will be experimenting with several varieties of chocolates, work from light to dark. Start with a more subtle white chocolate and end on a dark or bittersweet chocolate.

Some say it can’t be done, pairing wine with chocolate.  I think it's worth a try.

And if we have the right wine to complement the right chocolate, I can really imagine a match made in heaven! 

Chocolate Work of Art

Took me a while to locate Vero Chocolate Lounge and a visit to this chocolate heaven made me feel more discerning than the most tasteful ladies of leisure! 

Look at these sculptures, we have Terra Cotta Warrior and handbags made out of chocolate.

Their signature Dark 70% raspberry chocolate drink here is simply scrumptious! 

My sweet tooth will no doubt head to this haven again very soon!

Morning Ritual

I would say 3 out of the 5 mornings, I would bump into this dapperly suited man who lives several storeys below me.

We would nod and smile to each other as he enters the elevator and as soon as the elevator door closes, he would always perform this same ritual every time.

He would kneel down and tie his shoelaces!

Yes.  Did I say a dapperly suited man? 

How long could that possibly take him to do at home before dashing out of his door?  

Clothes make the man.  The fact that he has no time for this exercise which merely takes anyone no more than 1 minute to complete, is simply beyond me. 

Albert Yip?

謎語一則:

 Albert Yip, 猜一種食物

Yesterday, a restaurant in Tin Shui Wai, Hong Kong made an exhibition of itself as it presented a menu where 'Beef Tripes' 牛栢葉 was translated as 'Albert Yip', due to the fact that 'Beef Tripes' sounds similar to 'Albert Yip' in Chinese. 

Another of their classic includes 'hand fighting fishballs' (aka handmade fishballs). 

What do you think? A wicked marketing gimmick or simply, just appalling English?  

Paperwork Welcomes You On Board!

Congratulations, you’re hired!  “Welcome on board!” 

 

For your first task, you will now spend the next hour navigating your way through a heap of paperwork. 

Are you ready?...get set...now go write your name and ID card number, again and again and again.

Does this sound familiar to your first day of work?  

If your organization is like most organizations, your new hire onboarding process would be a tedious, cumbersome, and let’s admit it, not very environmentally friendly.    

My company has about 10 corporate policies and forms that are required for the new hire to read, review and sign prior to their first day of work, with no less than 40 pages of paper that needs printing, which then the HR collects and perhaps do a copy of those – from each new hire!

I would have thought with all those IT advancements, we should be saving a lot of that hassles with a bit more automation.  No?  

A Durable Piece of Appliance

I believe every rice cooker tells a tale or two, simply because they seem to last forever to tell enough tales.  They do what they do best - cook rice to sheer perfection diligently every time.  

This is going to sound like an advert but whether it's four servings, or at full ten, this 20+ year old Tatung brand rice cooker never fails on my auntie - Now feeding the mouths for the 3rd generation of her family.  

Out With Old; In With New

Nerves and anxiety before a big event is always a good sign for me. The anxious moments and the second guessing seem to keep me sharper. When I don't is when I have usually left a piece out of the puzzle.

Sometimes I do wish I could be wrong once, so at least I can feel surprised.  

Today was a good day nonetheless. 

Everything that turned out today was exactly what I expected - a day that signified the end to a long wait and a new start dawning. 

Sounds absolutely encouraging.  But if it was so good, why do I feel the cold grip of this daunting task tightening around me?  

I am confused.  

Can I actually be in a contradicting situation - where I am completely denying a raw anxiety when I finally see lights at the end of a tunnel? 

I feel you - like a loner dangling precariously on a tree top. 

A Proper Marriage for Heritage

When you marry Heritage with government policy maker, you can expect a divorce right away.

 

When you marry Heritage with a commercial driver, they get to live hand-in-hand, in a paradise.  

Here's a fine example.

This heritage is recognised as one of the four oldest government buildings in Hong Kong built 120 years ago. I had much anticipation brewing as I stepped into the former Marine Police Headquarters, or currently named the 1881 Heritage after a posh makeover. 

I went to check out their eateries which included a European dining spot, a gourmet Cantonese cuisine house and a British pub with its own jail cells!

All of them absolutely conspicuous and what more can I say but...I am so lucky to be living in Hong Kong!  Lucky and proud!

A Baby Business

Each time I needed to find that special something for a new born, I have been faced with a challenging search through numerous websites and stores to find that top-rated item.  Once that decision was made, the next challenge came: where to find that in town?

As someone who's not a parent, I must say this one-stop-shop was quite an eye opener for me. With everything under one roof selling babies stuff, Babies R Us was all I could come up with, until this day when I was brought to this baby-specialist store.

Should I ever be out of job, I should seriously consider starting my own baby photography business!  

Imagine a business I get to set my own hours, constantly get to see joy on my customers' faces as I unveil my products and what's more, my customer base can only keep growing each day.

I think baby's business would forever be lucrative because I see people spending a lot of money on their children these days - as simple as that.  

I'm Likin' It

Today I have truly liked a friend's status, some photos well-taken and a very touchy comment. 

I personally think Facebook’s "like" function for the news feed items, is the equivalent of an online clap. It allows you to get a clear message across - crisp and precise with one easy click.

We are often very stingy in making praises in real life.  Next time you go online and when your friends share something great, do let them know you like it.  Your friends, and their photos, notes, status updates are what make Facebook such a great social networking tool. 

Second thoughts, don't go “liking” every feed you see because, I think that can really piss some people off by sending them loads of notifications.  You wouldn't want to jeopardise the whole purpose of that button, do you?  

Floating on Cloud No. 9?

Did you know the expression 'up on cloud no. 9' to describe a feeling of euphoric exaltation, is based on actual terminology used by the U.S. Weather Bureau?

Clouds are divided into classes and each class is divided into nine types. 'Cloud nine' is the cumulonimbus cloud that you often see building up in the sky in a hot summer afternoon and may peak up to 75,000 feet!  So to say, if one is up on 'cloud nine,' one is feeling exceptionally high. 

To describe how I feel at the moment, I would be sitting on a Stratus cloud like this one here - one with the lowest altitude - dismally gloomy. 

A Pet or Baby Stroller?

Paid a visit to the SPCA, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals a few days earlier and I overheard a conversation by a young couple comparing a dog to someone’s baby, which I thought was rather inappropriate. 

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE dogs and cats. The beloved dog I had in high school didn’t die 15 years later and losing him felt like losing a dear member of the family.

If someone you know are having trouble telling the difference between raising a pet and a baby, here is a crispy distinction I learnt from all those magnificent parents I know on earth.

If it brings you happiness, joy, and maybe even your slippers, it is probably a dog.

If it brings you happiness, joy, grey hair, and a touch of insanity, it is probably a child.

Salute to all my friends who are brave enough to be life-long committed mothers and fathers.

An Impulse Purchase

There is this incredibly cool gadget that we have to have, a great pair of shoes or jeans, a book or a sweet that won’t cost much.  

I am sure you have all done it but this seldom happens to me - the fact that I made a very spontaneous purchase today.

The impulse buying occurred when I was in a store, without pushy salesmen around and no powerful advertising to overcome.  I then spotted this device that has the same colour tone as the T-shirt I was wearing.  

Bang...That was all it took!

Heritage

Came across this model of an interesting example of a 1920s Chinese shophouse.

Just like the real thing, the exhibit's ground floor is being set aside for commerce of sorts whilst families live in the terraced floors above the street.

It would really be heartache to see the local government mess up the restoration or the preservation project of these tenements because this type of heritage is almost gone from everywhere else in Hong Kong. 

The Greatest Thief of All

Time is the one thing that we can never hoard, purchase, or reclaim. The old sayings “Make hay, while the sun shines,” and “A stitch in time saves nine,” have been proven true throughout the generations.

The truth is, a thief has been following our trail from the time we are borned, stealing our youth and munching our golden season of life.  One day, sooner or later, that thief, the greatest thief of all, would catch you up. One day, you would lose it all before you knew nothing is forever!

Here's my afterthoughts of the movie, Echoes of The Rainbow: 

If time is the greatest asset that human has, perhaps procrastination is the greatest thief of time.

The old time is always there for a laugh, just like an echo of a really beautiful rainbow.  But, I think it's time to move on to a new chapter.     

Taking Forever

This is going to be the idiom of the day.

All I wanted from the start was something
And it got me thinking.

All I want now at the end is something
But I can't stop thinking.

I can only hope for the better, but
why is this taking forever?

Easy To Earn, Hard To Redeem

I think most of you would agree to this sad state of affairs that landing the free seat you want using your frequent-flier miles has been a pain in the a**.

No matter how enticing their chances look in Asia Miles' calendar view, the seats never seem to be available on the flights and routes I wanted.

Do tell me what's the point of a loyalty programme that doesn't reward you for your loyalty!  

At the end of the day, since the miles aren't expiring just yet, I gave up, cursed them for selling false hope and decided to look under the household section instead!

Freakonomics

I hold an Economics degree but it would be total fakery if I said I know exactly know supply and demand works.  

In fact, all that Econometrics has not made the slightest sense to me nor can I work out theories behind market economies.  I can't even do maths remember?  Let alone the monetary effect on interest rates and exchange rates. 

This new book I have in front of me provides premium delights as the authors argue that economics is, at root, the study of incentives and not merely supply and demand!  I can't agree more!

I am reading this with great anticipation and I can't wait to explore a new way of looking things - one that may literally redefine the way we view the modern world altogether. 

Who knows, some day I could publish my thoughts like no other, in a book as well!

Squeezable Fruits?!

I remember being fed with little cartons of pureed apple from HEINZ when I was a kid and that was considered a luxury.  

This thing here defined how the whole food category has been revolutionalised - They have now taken real organic fruits, mash'em and can be squeezed right out of the pack! 

It has all the goodness of fruits, great for tossing in lunchboxes and I'd like to think of them as an easy squeezy way to eat fruits. 

Nothing beats the real thing no doubt, but it's organic and what's more...I can be a kiddo again!

The Mean, Lean & The Bean

Nestlé, a well-known brand, the maker of Nescafe coffee, Kitkat, Gerber baby food and Perrier water topped estimates with better than expected growth in sales last year.

And speaking of which: coffee gadgetry. There are all sorts of lean choices available in the market, but the one I like the most has to be the one that comes with George Clooney.

People sing about it. My friends have it and my peers have it.  There has been a roaring demand for its Nespresso coffee capsules which apparently is helping the Swiss food goliath hit the numbers. 

I was really tempted to invest a machine earlier.  However, due to the sheer fact that they are everywhere I go, I figured the best way is to invest on their variety of capsules so I can simply bring a few of them around and chuck them in a machine whenever I come across one.  

I reckon I could be a clever bean sometimes!

Life Is Good

The week has been dreadingly slow and Friday couldn't have ended any better with a wonderful Sake appreciation dinner.     

 

We danced the night away consuming these bottles of the highest grading Daiginjō-shu. 

Man....Life is good when you mix culinary arts of food with fine drinks and when you have some pleasing someone to share the joy with. 

My Sci-Fi Idol: Wesley [衛斯理]

Came across these series of books at a friend's house today and scenes from the 40 odd stories I read flickered upon me.  

I got introduced to the Wesley Sci-Fi series at young age and have hailed him as my imaginary idol ever since.    

I remember following Wesley in his quest to the earth's core and back, up to heaven and down to hell....dealt with half-breed and the fragmented, talked to prophecy and encountered the extraterrestrial!  

I wonder where all that passion for Sci-Fi has gone after all these years. May be time to pick up Orson Scott Card's Enders Game for a starter?

RH Arrested, Suspected of Murder

Relative Humidity (RH) has been arrested this morning in connection to the murder of a 3-year old Air-conditioning Unit, injuring a 6-year old Television set and assaulting a Body Fat Scale which is merely a year old.  

Last month was unusually humid in Hong Kong, with the prevailing RH averaged at 88%, the highest since 1959, 10% above the norm.  

RH, who allegedly attempt murdering the victims, told the police many home electronic appliances have humidity specifications, say from 5 to 95%.  At the top end of the spectrum is when moisture may increase the conductivity of permeable insulator, leading to malfunction.  

"A dehumidifier could just be your solution to combat this weather," said Inspector Mould. 

While I was trying to take Inspector Mould's advice, I read this article on today's paper.

So the whole town is after these.  Perfect isn't it?

Cover Your Tracks with Tiger Text

Tiger Text is the latest powerful stuff available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, just rolled out in time for the Year of the Tiger!

So what is it? 

It is an application that delete both sent and received text messages after your desired length of time, as in Mission Impossible 

"This tape will self-destruct in five seconds".

Many would be linking the naming convention of the app to Tiger Woods who was being caught cheating not long ago.  However, according to its developers, the name has nothing to do with him, but rather, attributed to the real big cats because they are hard to track.

For Blackberry and Android users, don't despair, a version for your platform will soon be available!

Colours

Can you name these colours immediately when you see them?  

Would you be able to tell the difference between the shade of Chambray and Turquoise?

The next time we try to describe a particular shade, let us try not to use words such as greenish, bluish, yellowish and see how far we can go before our vocabulary is in exhaust!  

Eat Right

It is Sunday morning, the edges are not as sharp as they should be after Saturday night's farewell to the week. 

While most of my healthy friends were running for the marathon at dawn, a good and hearty Soho breakfast was on the mind.

At Eat Right on Staunton Street, their calories counters gave me something to ponder and so at last, scrambled eggs cooked naked, served with spinach on rye bread became my ultimate pick - filling for the heart.

Up In The Air

"Up In The Air" is one of those movies that I can go watch without trailer previews or needing to read the synopsis beforehand.

 

The fact that Clooney is starring in this movie alone, was more than sufficient to drag me to the cinema like a magnet. The reality that I got presented with a BOGOF offer doubled it down and...the truth that I could enjoy with good company was worth pushing back my otherwise long overdued facial appointment!

Simply delightful!

P.S.

"Up In The Air" talks about how Clooney spends most of his time up in the air flying and when he's on land, sacks people for a living.   With what is going on in my office now, I just couldn't help feeling ironic about the whole timing thing!

Adieu

We have talked about the arrival of this day for many times, imagined and even rehearsed how it would all be like, and yet I refuse to admit you are finally heading out the door of the company today.

A decade is a pretty long time to be sitting next to someone in the same office.  If we are to take a 40-hour work week, makes it 50 weeks a year, 10 years turns out to be 20,000 hours!  This span of time can be hardship if things were petrifyingly dull but I am awfully glad that it was mostly exhilarating.  

I am very sure that we will forget lots of the nitty gritty details as time goes by, but I am also certain that only the best of the best would linger on in our minds.  

It has been my honour to be able to find a true friend in the office, and you and I know a large chunk of my life could not have been the same without you. 

Wishing you all the best. 

P.S. These were lovely.

ANA To Join Women-Only Loo Club

In theory, women won't expect to have to lower the toilet seat on ANA flights any more!

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is introducing the ultimate answer to men who refuse to put the toilet seat down: 

Go find your own toilet.  

They are responding to customer requests and announced from March 1, it will join Korean Airlines in having a dedicated women-only lavatory on its aircraft.  

I personally think this is a sheer nuisance.

Goodbye City Golf

With the approval of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, cranes are seen at the site on day 2 shut down of the golf club. 

Well, the government and the precious land can't wait, but my golf?  Surely.   

Goodbye to the closest driving range from my home.  Guess it will be a while till I pick up my golf again.

Read A Person Like A Book

A few months ago, I read a book with immense interest on body language, titled  I Can Read You Like a Book, by Gregory Harley and Maryann Karinch. 

Later that day, I experimented the concepts learnt from it and held a conversation with a friend online.  She was surprised when I told her I knew what was on her mind and how she was feeling at that time!

You are thinking "Psychic" isn't it?

There ain't no rocket science here, but a certain pattern which, if you can master, will allow you to "decode" a person just like I did.  

Well, I thought I had things in my grasp.      

The same friend above caught me totally off guard yesterday when she saw right through me and read me like a book!

So...either my book is too easy for her to read, or she must have read the same book!

I need to invest in...another book!

Cute Taxi Advertising

We are a consumer nation and we will buy rocks if it is packaged and advertised right.  Agree?

My favourite ad campaign lately would be these cuties running on crisscross streets in Hong Kong.  Did they catch your eyes?

 

Reading Emails After Being On Holiday

Most people are used to the pile of email which awaits them after returning from a few weeks off.  Let's say you have three hundreds sitting there and you have an hour to just read without needing to respond to any of them.  Is it better to read the most recent emails first, or the oldest first? 

I always experience this dilemma plus the constraint in time, but it is generally my habit to read them from oldest to first. That way, if an issue or outage has occurred, I could come across the notification first, then the resolution to the notification. 

What is your way to deal with yours?  Would you scan and filter? Sort by sender?  Would love to do a little survey here and could be interesting to see if there exists some kind of correlation to the personalities and occupations in the sample.  

 

The Knitted Love

I learned to knit in the first year of secondary school and the first item that I knitted, like most people, was a scarf (full of holes), trashed the very next minute.  

I found learning to knit very difficult to master and remembered complaining to my mom when all of the stitches came off the needles. 

"How am I ever going to knit?" I said.

She told me to just sit quietly and find my own way of doing it (as if it was that easy!)
 

I have a great mom who can come up with hundreds of different knitting patterns in her head. She can practically produce a vest in a day, a long-sleeve pull-over in two, but that string of her genes certainly didn't reach me.   

Till this day, I remain totally hopeless in knitting, but I admire those who can.

I am also proud and glad to be wearing my mom's knitted wear.  

Cheetos: Cadbury & Kraft

I have no idea what got on me, but I bought myself a pack of Crunchy Cheetos to munch on the way home. 

I mean, what could I possibly be expecting from that sort of snacks?  To satisfy my tastes buds or to fill me up?

Neither could happen, but I had an afterthought.

The thought of the ­Americans – so good at so many things, so bad at coming out snacks like Cheetos!  The fact that they are meddling with the Cadbury formula, could prove too much for many of us to bear. 

It is a very British thing, Cadbury. We have all got a great deal of fondness for it. It was my favourite pick in tuck shop, it has been one of the few home comforts I miss while I am abroad, along with the BBC or the self-deprecatory British humour.

Look at Cheetos, they have them in every shade of orange imaginable, Spicy Orange, Smokey Orange...and they tasted downright bad!

Kraft better downright assures us, that they are going to leave Cadbury's dairy milk chocolate formula intact.
  

I used to play the piano...

There are literally millions of adults today who took piano lessons when they were young, but at some point down the path, all that accumulative hard work was forgone some way or the other. 

Over the years I have never heard anyone say "I'm glad I never learned to play the piano", but I have heard hundreds say something like "I sure wish I had paid more attention when I was a kid", or "I would love to get back to the piano some day."

I am definitely one of them.  

I sat in front of a piano tonight, couldn't recall any songs I used to memorise by heart.  I couldn't run my fingers on any scales nor arpeggios, which I used to pride myself in performing quite flawlessly.  

The most shameful thing was, I couldn't even demonstrate to a 3-year old kid how to play the world's easiest piano duet - The Chopsticks!

I should very much be ashamed of having attained grade 8 in pianoforte!


 

A Chocoholic Confession

Chocoholic - Is there such a word?  Apparently there is, and it is a portmanteau of the 2 words chocolate and alcoholic.  

I have a confession to make.  Due to an alleged addiction to chocolate, the chocoholic me have not been updating my blog for the last 2 days.  

Even though I can never seem to get enough of these snack from this fifth major food group, before I got drowned from indulging these lovely chocolate from Royce, I did remember to take photographs of what I consumed for my Project 340. 

 

A Whole New World of Cognac

I met with an uncle who's a connoisseur and had the honour to taste some of the finest Cognac in his collection.  

I better jot down what I learnt like a reporter, before everything evaporates!  

• One can never be in too much of a hurry to enjoy the wonderful Cognac you just been poured.  The best rule of thumb is to let the Cognac breathe at least a half-minute per year old.  Thus for the XO I had, which was 20-years of age, breathed for a minimum of 10 mins prior to our tasting.   

• A tulip glass must be used to get the full aroma do somersaulting in the glass.  

• Great Cognac is sipped and not swallowed!  So what he meant was, taste a few "drops" at a time, let it sit in the mouth for a good minute for flavours to engulf the whole of our palate and entice our oral cavity in totality.  

• Hold up the tulip glass and take one or two shallow sniffs, don't enforce it with a big breath or else the 80% or so spirit will just anesthetize our entire olfactory and dumb our senses.

• Then try to make sense of what you got out from that momentarily wait. Was it fruity or flowery?  Woody or spicy?  Chalky or oaky?  

I had no clue as you can guess, but the roof of my mouth and the back of my nasal sure had some fun crawling in a whole new world of wine tasting! 

  

Define: CNY

Most people associate Chinese New Year (CNY) with spending time with family, visiting relatives and catching up with close friends.  Plus lots of eating...and food, and, more food!

For me, part of the fun occurs when our normal home get transformed into make-shift casinos! 

Gambling is simply ingrained in our family tradition and

in the last 2 days, I have won some lucky money playing Fish-Shrimp-Crab, Caribbean Studs & Blackjack at the pleasure of my own home.

It wasn’t as much about winning or losing, but being part of the action allows members of the family to connect and joke around.  

Family together-ness would always be something that we all have to treasure - best defined during CNY and carry way beyond throughout.   

 

Welcome To The Year of The Tiger

Facts About Us Southpaws

Being a member of an elite society, I hereby present you with some interesting facts pulled out from the internet about left-handedness.  

• Roughly about 5-15% of the world's human population is left-handed.
• 4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed.
• 1 in 4 Apollo astronauts were left-handed (250% more than the normal level).
• Left-handed drivers are apparently more successful at learning to drive than right handed people. As many as 57% of left handers passed their driving test first time compared with only 47% of right handers (a poll for the AA Driving School found).
• Lefties are more prone to have allergies, insomnia, migraines and are 3 times more likely to become alcoholic.
• Most left-handers draw figures facing to the right.
  
• Left-handers adjust more readily to seeing underwater.
• Left-handers excel particularly in tennis, baseball, swimming and fencing.
• Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Einstein, Ben Franklin, Bill Gates are some famous lefty geniuses.
• Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama are lefties presidents I know.

I was hoping to find evidence to support the fact that we are no good at numbers or bad at maths.  Only to find leaning comfort which states left handed people are the only people in their right minds!

Blur Or Not To Blur?

I was discussing the preferred selection depth of field (DOF) with a friend over coffee and that was when I realised opinions can be quite subjective. 

The decision can be truly a matter of personal preference when trying to determine the appropriate use of DOF to enhance an effect in a photo.

One thing is certain though - no one would say no to a smaller f-stop number!


Let's do an experiment here.  Which photo do you prefer?

A Cuppa of Ronnefeldt

Tea, next to water, is the most widely drunk beverage in the world (and beer is third I think).

If I am to buy tea bags, I would look no further than Twinnings from London because it would be a no brainer - can't go very wrong with that choice.  

I recently discovered many hotels serve Ronnefeldt tea, so I went and check out their organic Japanese green tea.  

One thing good about this brand is that it tells you how long you should let the tea bag sit in the water.  So it would be 2-3 minutes for its Organic Japanese Classic; 8 minutes for their Lemon Sky.

My morning coffee has not been replaced, but a sip of tea in the mid-afternoon, added on the fact that it is organic, definitely serves me right.