Heavenly Paradise@AdelineAng.com

Here is an interesting article I came across with, about an Australian dentist’s definition of Canadian:

An Australian Definition of a Canadian
In case anyone asks you who a Canadian is . . .
       
You probably missed it in the local news, but there was a report that someone in Pakistan had advertised in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed a Canadian – any Canadian..
   
An Australian dentist wrote the following editorial to help define what a Canadian is, so they would know one when they found one.
     
A Canadian can be English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. A Canadian can be Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, Arab, Pakistani or Afghan.

How did you celebrate Christmas? To me, Christmas a great time for traveling and and having a get-together with friends. Other than that, there is not much to look forward to, since I’ve no family here in Canada. To cheer up my Christmas spirit, I might give myself a gift or two for Christmas. I know, it sounds pretty pathetic…

Last year, however, I celebrated Christmas with Miles and his family. A truly Canadian Christmas celebration; Christmas tree, treats, gifts, food etc.

I couldn’t remember the last time I was excited about Christmas and anticipated for the Christmas morning to come. Even though I never truly believed in Santa as a young kid, I was always looking forward to receiving my stuffed Christmas stocking on Christmas morning.

It brought back my childhood memory when I received a stuffed Christmas stocking in the morning! I’ve never had that many Christmas gifts in the past. Unwrapping each gift brought great excitement. That was one of the greatest fun celebrating Christmas!

Christmas decoration on the dining table.

Turkey and ham, with homemade beets and pickles for on Christmas day.

Homemade minced meat pie.

Plum Pudding. A must-have Christmas dessert in Miles’ family. It has a similar taste to fruit cake.

Hard Sauce, goes with the plum pudding. It is made of butter and icing sugar, and tasted like cake batter.

Christmas tree with gifts from Santa!

Cracking the nuts can be fun; walnuts, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, and almonds.

Let it snow…let it snow….let it snow… The white and fluffy snow is not only pretty to look at, but also fun to play with!

We had joy
We had fun
We had seasons in the snow
But the snow that we played
was just never last too long

* Modified from “Season In The Sun” by Westlife.

The womanized “Winnie the Pooh.”

The cute snowman blushed as being kissed on both cheeks.

There was a group of us who attended a friend’s farewell party at the East Side Mario’s Restaurant. John, who was part of the “gang,” has decided to move to Toronto for a more stable job. John, we shall miss you always :)

Despite the sadness of John leaving us, we had a great meal together. Of course, I had fun snapping pictures too ;)

The interior of the East Side Mario’s.

The signature crispy garlic bread. Freshly baked. Yummm…

Caesar Salad.

Bruschetta. Fresh Roma tomatoes, garlic, basil, olive oil and balsamic glaze served on herbed flatbread.

 Cheese Cappelletti for cheese lovers! Pasta stuffed with ricotta cheese filling, topped with even more ricotta, baked with our Besciamella-Tomato sauce and our blend of Mozzarella, Provolone, Gouda and Parmesan cheeses.

Firecracker Shrimp Farfalle. Large black tiger shrimps sautéed in extra virgin olive oil with fresh green chilies, snow peas, Roma tomatoes and basil. Served with bowtie-shaped paste tossed with herbed garlic olive oil.

Zesty Sicilian Pizza. Italian sausages, Capicolla ham, black olives, pizza sauce, and four cheeses.

 Sizzling Calamary Al Diavolo. It’s the signature appetizer. Lightly seasoned calamari sautéed with garlic, onions, red, green and hot cherry peppers and served sizzling in a herbed tomato broth with lemon.

 The New Yorker pizza. Pepperoni, red and green peppers, mushrooms, pizza sauce and blend of cheeses.

Cannoli.

Cannoli (meaning “little tube” in the Sicilian language), one the most famous Sicilian desserts that can be found in almost all Italian pasticceria. The Cannoli shell is made of flour, sugar, salt, eggs, water, vinegar, and vanilla. It’s traditionally filled with rich and sweet ricotta cheese.

Chocolate Mousse cake.

One year after another, and twenty four hours a day never seems enough; each minute passes by even before we realize it.

Canada, or Fredericton to be precise; a place that I called my second home, for more than a quarter of the chapter of my life thus far. I couldn’t be grateful enough for all the blessings that’ve been showered upon me, in this foreign land that I used to know no one and no one knew me.

Live the life to the fullest, and cherish every moment in life. Welcome to the year 2010! May this year be a fruitful and a blessing one to you and me!

Stylish? Practical? I’m perplexed looking at the so-called “winter boots” on the market. Most of the women boots look pretty and stylish. Nonetheless, it doesn’t take long to realize that they have poor insulation, and with no water resistance! What good it is to keep one in the winter?

Oh well, I shouldn’t say that. For someone who hops into the car from home, drive to work, hop from the card into the work building, and hop back into the car and drive home after work, maybe, those boots won’t be a bad option.

For me, a few hundred metres of walk to the bus stop everyday, and a few kilometres of walk for groceries or to downtown when the buses are not available.

Where can those boots get me to? No where! It doesn’t take long before they get soaking wet from the snow, and leads to wet socks, and freezing feet.

So, be practical!

I’ve a good pair of leather boots that I’ve been wearing for the past six winters. It has good water resistance and well insulated. However, over the years, soles are losing treads and the traction isn’t the best. There were times where I almost slipped and fell on the icy patches, and worse still, I could barely balance myself walking down a steep slope. That was terrifying…

The solution to this is, studded boots! Same idea as studded winter tires, they will give more traction as compared to regular winter tires. These studded rubber strap, “Stabilicers,” can be placed around the bottom of my boots.

Off I went! Instead of avoiding the icy ground, I can now walk in a straight line without much complications.

Thanks to Miles for the great idea. It’s a nice Christmas gift, that allows me to walk in the winter with confidence ;)

I’m not a big fan of flu shots; not that I’m afraid of needles (I’ve had lots of practice from blood donation), but I’d rather let my own body immune system fight off the virus. What would happen if my body depends too much on the flu shots? Yes, by getting flu shot, I’m quite certain that my chances of catching the flu is close to nothing. Nonetheless, who can guarantee that I’m not catching something else in the air?

How many flu shots does it require for us to stay away from all the bugs? The answer is “too many.” Hence, my idea is, let my body defend for herself. This way, defense system can be strengthen and fight a longer battle.

Conversely, immune system that’s over protected (fully depend on flu shots) has a harder time to be on its own when crisis arises. Worse comes to worst, our body loses the battle and we feel miserable. At least, our body will then recognize the enemy and will do a better job in defending him/herself next time around.

When H1N1 flu shot became available to the public, I was contemplating whether or not I should get one. I convinced myself to get one in the end based on the following reasons:

1) H1N1 can be deadly. It doesn’t seem to get any better but worse. Prevention is better than cure.

2) If I never get the shot and happen to catch the flu. I’ll be the only person to be blamed.

3) It’s free. Actually, it’s more like I’ve already paid for it since it’s from the taxpayer’s pocket.

Some of the symptoms of H1N1 swine flu are: extreme fatigue, sore throat, cough, headache, runny & stuff nose, muscle aches, nausea, and vomiting. Who can get it? It’s just about anyone!  

The media hype on H1N1 influenza virus leads to absurd paranoiac amongst the public. Here is the question. Is H1N1 flu virus any worse than other flu or disease that we know of? Reports have shown that seasonal flu kills more than 35,000 Americans every year, 1.6 million people died from Tuberculosis in 2005, and SARS killed 163 people up to 2003. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were about 8,000 confirmed death cases caused by H1N1 flu virus, up to end of November 2009. Is H1N1 virus any worse? Do the math.

What are the impacts of H1N1 (by getting the public paranoid)? Drug companies are selling more drugs, doctors are attending to more patients, medical institutions are getting more businesses. These phenomena made me wonder: are these all about media and politics?

Look at this. Every month, 50,000 people die from AIDS in South Africa. Every day, nearly 1,600 people die from AIDS. And guess what? 42,000 people died from car accidents in 2001 and more than 20,000 death cases from the common flu in the USA annually.

Stay healthy. Be happy. Instead of living in fear because of influenza viruses, there are lots of other things in life to be treasured and cherished.

Most people would probably agree with me that puddles aren’t pleasant to stumble into. Muddy and yucky. Eww! Pedestrians, especially, have to be extra cautious while walking along the sidewalk. Try to stay as far away from the road as possible. The “man-made fountain” is not as pretty as you thought it might be; yucky splashing water when a car is driven by the puddle is best to be avoided.

Apparently, carrying an umbrella on a rainy day can be very useful. Besides keeping ourselves dry, it can potentially be used as a “shield” to protect us from the splashing water.

Having said that, puddles can be a great setup for capturing water reflection images. Pretty cool!

The surroundings seem so different when it’s covered in snow. Although winter weather can be brutally cold, I enjoy the beauty and serenity of winter. It’s part of the nature, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to experience winter. I’m hoping to enjoy the most of it. Dress warm and stay strong!

My winter boots made their first appearance of the season this past Sunday. Taking pictures in the winter can be enjoyable, yet torturing. By the end of the session, my hands were nearly frozen. Gloves and camera don’t seem to go along very well. I was snapping pictures with my bare hands. Cold… freezing cold… but it was worthwhile :)

More baking! Miles and I did more baking last weekend. There was something new that we wanted to try preparing–gum paste.

Similar to fondant, gum paste is a pliable dough that can be easily shaped for cake decorations. As the name implied, the latter has more of a gum texture and it holds its shape better than fondant.

Cake baking, cake cooling, cake leveling, cake icing, cake chilling… all happened on the first night. Fondant and gum paste were prepared on the same day.

The next morning, we moved on to rolling out the fondant and laying the thin sheet (1/8 inch thick) onto the cake. Miles did a fabulous job transferring fondant onto the cake on his first attempt!

While the cake is being chilled in the fridge, we cut out various patterns on gum paste. Then, they cut-out patterns were placed in mini tin foil cupcake liners to hold their shapes. Painting was the next step. We used mainly gel paste food colouring for painting. Meanwhile, home-made chocolate icing was artistically piped along the top and bottom edges of the cake.

Finally, we assembled the gum paste ornaments onto the cake, placed a maraschino cherry on each flower, and garnished cake with milk chocolate curls.

Final results:

It was a heart-breaking moment to have to cut the cake. Oh well, that’s what the cake is for–consumption! More importantly, Miles and I had great fun preparing the cake and everyone enjoyed eating it ;)

It’s hard to believe that the calendar is slowing easing its way into the last month of the year. It’s only less than a month away from Christmas! Christmas carols, Christmas decorations, Christmas sales…

Snow has finally arrived, on the last day of November. Despite a few freezing cold days in September and October, we’ve been blessed with a mild November weather (yes, after Miles and I stopped biking to work).

Days are shorter and nights are longer, as we gradually approach the end of December (Dec. 21st has the shortest daylight hours). Going to work in the dark and returning home from work in the dark. The bright sunshine can only be admired from afar when I’m at work.

While everyone is hustling to Christmas shopping and trying to have it squeezed into their busy schedule, Miles and I have already accomplished most of the shopping needed to be done. Believe it or not, we started Christmas shopping early September!

No major plans. No major trips. This is one of the very few years that I’m not visiting any new places during Christmas/New Year’s Day.

Here is a glimpse of what I’ve done in previous years:

2003 – Stayed in Fredericton and celebration Christmas in the residence.
2004 – Spent “Boxing Day” shopping in Moncton.
2005 – Participated in International Christmas in Nova Scotia.
2006 - At Urbana Student Mission Conference in St. Louise, Missouri.
2007 – Travelled to Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City for Christmas; New York and Boston for New Year’s.
2008 – Visited Calgary and Edmonton for Christmas and New Year’s.

This year, I’ll be in Fredericton/Grand Bay/Saint John for most, if not all of my Christmas/New Year’s vacation. Hopefully, there will be skiing opportunities should the weather be favourable, and also chances to go skating during the holidays.

It’s going to be a quiet, joyful Christmas this year, for the seventh year in a row celebrating the festive season without family around. Next year, hopefully, Christmas will be different, a good different.

Ever get bored of doing the same thing over and over again? That’s one the dilemmas I often face; when I lose interest in a particular event or simply because it doesn’t seem meaningful to me anymore.

During my first year of the university, I was eager to explore new adventures, which includes becoming a radio DJ! The online radio streaming broad casted the radio show live and allowed my family and friends in Malaysia to listen to my voice. Unbelievable!

It wasn’t until several years later after I graduated, I was back to the campus radio station (College Hill Radio Station) again. With the recent renovations at the studio, I’m enjoying my brand new experience hosting radio shows on the weekends.

Together with other radio DJs from the Chinese Student Association of the university, we’ve a blast presenting the only Chinese radio program to the local community!

Are these cupcakes? Or muffins?

The definition of these terms based on the online dictionary as follows:

Cupcake – a little cake for one person, baked in a small, cup-shapred mold and often iced

Muffin – a quick bread made with eggs, baked in a small cup-shaped mold and usually eaten hot

These are banana muffin (recipe can be found here) topped with fondant (or known as gum paste). In my opinion, they shall be called banana muffin cakes!

I was in a “decorative mood” when preparing these. I wanted something unique; not the plain old muffin nor the typical cupcake with icing. How about some colours and patterns on the muffins to make muffin cupcakes?

I wanted to prepare some tom yam fried rice for supper one night and decided to come out with a dish with seasonal theme. The colours of the season: green (broccoli), orange (carrots), yellow (eggs), and red (tomatoes).

Bon appetit!

Tide in and tide out,
Tidal cycle repeats itself.
You said to fear not,
‘Cause I’m not by myself.

Holding my hand, I said in prayer;
Hoping this moment will last forever.
Holding your hand, you said to separate never;
Hoping we’ll be happily together.