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Holiday season is around the corner and this is a moment to think about the type of gift that we wanted to give to our famly and friends. 

Most of the people might have a hard time in thinking of what they wanted to give to their loved ones. The gift is often measured in terms of monetary value which makes giving very commercialised and loses the true meaning of a gift.

Actually, there are many ways to show to your family, friends, loved ones and so on that you care for them. Your care and concerns showing to them are indeed precious and priceless gifts that money cannot buy.

In this Blog, I’m going to show you 8 ways of givings and these are the GIFTS FROM THE HEART.

Yes, there will be moments that your family, friends and loved ones just require you to lend them a listening ear especially when they find that life is full of frustrations. So, your role at this moment should be a patient audience. Let them pour out their frustrations, vent their angers, cry on your shoulders and so on. 

You will find that those people whom you care for are now a happier person once they have released themselves from being frustrated. They might be grateful to you for your gift of listening. So, don’t under-estimate the power of listening. This is a gift from the heart and it is priceless.

My Favourites :

My sister likes the meals at the English-style Jack’s Place restaurant very much and she often bugs us to visit Jack’s Place whenever she has accumulated enough reward points. She really gets excited when it’s time for us to pay Jack’s Place restaurant a visit.

My family and I had finally gone to Jack’s Place restaurant tonight for our dinner as my sister has accumulated enough reward points to exchange for one or two complimentary meals. When we reached there at 7:15pm, the restaurant was already full so we got to make our last-minute reservation to come back at 8pm.

We reserved a table for 10 persons first and then reached the restaurant at 8pm sharp. After we were ushered to our table, we spent about 15 minutes to place our orders as there were 10 of us undecided what to eat. Luckily, the captain was quite patient so she was waiting and recommending the food to us.

We had finally made our orders and then waited for our food to be served. We ordered spring chicken, grilled chicken chop, chicken breast meat stuffed with cheese & ham, lamp chop, cheesy mushroom with scallops and so on.

Chicken Breast Meat stuffed with Cheese and Ham :

Cheesy Mushroom with Scallops :

My sister feels that the accumulated reward point is helping her to save money for having the chicken chop, mushroom soup, lobster soup, desserts and so on. Whereas, I find that it is a time to burn a big hole in the pocket when paying for the bill.

I would think that the strategy of using reward points to exchange for meals is working well for most of the restaurants and retailers because most if not all of the consumers would think that it is a waste if the accumulated reward points are not used.

Anyway, we will take it as a time for the family to get together. It is going to help to boost the economy too 🙂

My Favourites :

First of all, I wish you have a very happy and peaceful Thanksgiving Day if you are staying in the US.

I went to the SITEX PC show and John Little Mega Sale at the Singapore Expo this afternoon as I was not working today. It was not too crowded over there probably because it was not a weekend. 

I think it is better this way so that I can really go from booth to booth to look at those laptops, desktops, gadgets and other IT accessories on display without having to get squeezed around in the crowd. Besides laptops, Apple’s iPod Classic, iPod Touch and iPhone are very popular IT products which drew the attention of many visitors at the SITEX PC show.

iPhone is in the wish-list of many people :

Besides PCs, there was also a section for selling cars. I think the event exhibitors nowadays are trying to pack a few different events together in one exhibition hall so as to cater to different needs. Maybe this is the so-called killing one bird with two stones.

Here is a picture of the sportscar displaying at the mini car show :

As for the John Little Mega Sale, I walked around and then picked up a few packets of Japanese Wasabi peas and seasoned seaweed. These are the snacks that my sisters and niece like to eat very much.

After spending a few hours at the SITEX PC show and John Little Mega Sale, I was really feeling tired and hungry so I went to the Malan Noodle restaurant to have a bowl of Chinese crunchy prawn noodle.

Here is a picture of the Crunchy Prawn Noodle :

I like the prawns which were very fresh and crunchy. You will love the crunchiness of the prawns after taking one bite. It will taste even better when eating the prawns with chili.

I spent my off day at the PC show today but I yet to have any plan for tomorrow which is also my off day. Hmm….let me think about how I want to spend my day tomorrow.

My Favourites :

I happened to find an interesting video clip on YouTube telling a story of 4 small puppies and 1 Greek pig living happily together at a farm. 

The 4 puppies were abandoned at birth and left on a farm near Salonika in Greece. Unusually, the farm’s sow decided to take them in. They now all live together. Wow, this sounds like a fairy tale kind of story. But the fact is that the mommy pig is really adopting the little dogs and feeding them with her own milk together with her piglets.

This is amazing as we know that different species don’t usually live together as one family. The act of love from the mommy pig towards the puppies is making us to think otherwise. This shows that the mommy pig is indeed very generous to treat the puppies just like her own offsprings. Perhaps this is called true mother’s love among different species.

Watch the interesting and heart-warming video clip on how the puppies, the piglets and the generous mommy pig live harmoniously together :

My Favourites :

I have been to a dog training show recently. The theme of the event was to advocate people not to buy pets on impulse especially during the holiday seasons such as Christmas. If you want to have a pet such as dog, cat, rabbit, hamster and so on, please Be A Responsible Pet Owner because A Pet Is For LIFE.

Animals have lives just like you and I so be nice to these creatures. You should not buy a dog just for fun or just because you are in the mood for having a dog or you need a companion only when you feel you are lonely. 

My Favourite Dog Breed — Pug :

You should not dump the dog if you find it troublesome to keep dogs. Pet dogs are not litters for you to discard them. Please do not abandon the dog after you find that you no longer need it as if you are throwing away the used tissue papers.

Chihuahua Mommy and Babies :

If you are a good and responsible dog owner, it may be good to send your dogs for some dog training programmes in order for your dogs to listen to your instructions better.

Dog Training :

Be A Responsible Pet Owner
because……
A Pet Is For LIFE.

Rabbit :

I hope you love your dogs and take good care of them. I believe the dogs would love you and be faithful to you even more in return. Remember this….dogs are human beings’ best companion. Be A Responsible Pet Owner because A Pet Is For LIFE.

My Favourites :

It has been closed to 5 months that I have not visited Downtown East. I’m surprised to see there are many new shops setting up at E!Hub building. There are many new restaurants, games outlets, amusement outlets, fashion shops and so on. 

As usual, my sisters, sister-in-law, niece, nephews and I will hunt for food first whenever we go for our outings. So, the choice for today was to have our lunch at a newly-opened restaurant called Buddy Hoagies Cafe which specialises in selling western food and their price list seems to be reasonable too. We placed our orders and then waited for the food to be served. 

Grilled Pepper Chicken Chop :

After having our lunch at Buddy Hoagies Cafe, we went to the arcade game outlet to have some fun. My sisters and I played our favourite “spot the difference between photos” game. It was really very fun and we enjoyed the game very much.

We spent a few hours playing at the arcade game outlet. We were tired and hungry so we obeyed our hunger and then went for our dinner. The choice for dinner was to try out something new at another newly-opened restaurant so we went in to Just Acia to have our oriental food there.

Just Acia serves a combination of Chinese, Japanese and Korean food. 

Ginseng Chicken Soup :

Soft Shell Crabs :

Salmon Meal :

We like the different varieties of food served there and I’m sure we will go back to patronise Just Acia restaurant in the future. We just had too much food and too much fun for today. Probably the best thing to do was to go home straight and to have some rest.

My Favourites :

Today is the second anniversary of my dad’s death. How time passes? It has been 2 years since my dad was gone on 22 Nov 2006. He was 82 years old at that time and died of stomach cancer.

I still can remember that I had received a call from my family to inform me about our father was in critical condition while I was still working in the office on 21 Nov 2006. I informed my boss about my dad’s condition and told him that I needed to go off immediately. Then, I grabbed my bag and dashed off as quickly as I could. 

When I reached the hospital, the nurse told us that my dad was still very energetic in the morning but he had lost his consciousness closed to noon time. The doctor told us to be mentally-prepared and predicted my dad would be gone within the day by 3pm.

My dad used to have a strong will to live and he didn’t pass away within the day as the doctor had predicted. My family kept him company round the clock. On the next day, my dad was still in unconscious state. Then, my siblings and I took turn to stay by his bed to look after him.

In the afternoon and closed to 3pm, my eldest brother and I were by my dad’s side. Suddenly, my brother saw my dad was trembling with breathing difficulty and he signalled me to notify our siblings. The medical staff were rushing in to diagnose my dad and were trying to revive him. Unfortunately, my dad’s heart had stopped its beating and the doctor declared that my dad was dead.

My dad was a very determined person and his strong-will to-live had earned him one more day to survive. The message that my dad was trying to convey is that “never give up hope easily”. Thanks dad, you are always in our heart. We hope you are doing well in the other world. To dad, with love.

My school teacher taught me to sing the “Oh My Papa” song when I was a kid. I found the video clip of this song sung by “The Everly Brothers” on YouTube. Hope you enjoy watching the “Oh My Papa” video :

My Favourites :

I was not working today and I also didn’t have any specific plan for myself on how I wanted to spend my rest day which is a Friday. It happened that my sister and sister-in-law were also not working today as they needed to pick up some document from the town area. So I sent them there after having my breakfast.

After parking my car, I brought my nephew to buy soft drinks while waiting for my sisters to settle their stuff with the agent at the Peace Centre. Suddenly, I heard someone was calling my name from behind when I was opening the canned drinks. I turned back and saw my ex-colleague whom I have not been seeing for 10 years.

He saw me passing by through the glass door after he had deposited a cheque at the bank counter. He told me that he is jobless now so he has the time to do some missionary work for the churches. It includes travelling to the less developed countries and linking up the missionary work with schools. 

My ex-colleague had also updated me about how some of our ex-colleagues were doing. He can keep on talking on and on until my 8 years old nephew was so impatient by pulling my hand to signal me to go. So, I told my ex-colleague that I got to make a move first to meet up with my sisters.

After that, we drove to the Park Mall to have our lunch at the Han’s restaurant. My nephew likes to eat crispy fried noodle with gravy so we ordered one set for him. My sister ordered a set of chicken chop and I ordered a set of cheese omelette.

Chicken Chop With Mushroom Sauce :

Cheese Omelette With French Fries :

Yuan Yang or Yuen Yong (A Mixture of Coffee and Tea) :

After having our lunch at the Han’s restaurant, we travelled to Orchard road for window shopping as well as bringing my nephew to his favourite arcade game outlet to play some games. We have had a very fun and enjoyable day. All these activities are unplanned and this is how I spent my rest day today.

My Favourites :

I was having international buffet dinner with three of my friends at the Carousel restaurant of Royal Plaza on Scotts hotel tonight. This is a very popular restaurant and we usually have to make a reservation about 5 days in advance. So, in order not to miss the boat, I had in fact made the booking last Wednesday, ie. one week in advance.

We went to Carousel restaurant last month and there were three of us as one of my friends was not feeling well during that time. We like the environment and the buffet spread very much. So, we decided to go back to Carousel restaurant to have our next gathering in November after getting my bonus. 

This time round, we have a gang of four persons. The four of us had been enjoying our food and our conversation so much that I didn’t have the time to take a few pictures tonight. Never mind, I think we still have the chance to go back to Carousel restaurant in the near future to enjoy the nice food there. 

All of us have been busy working and don’t have the time to meet up with friends. I think we have to find time to catch up with friends once in a while and to find out how everybody is doing. This will be a moment to share our joys, laughters, stories, frustrations, sorrows, angers and so on.

Most of the people think that work and family are more important than friends. They would rather choose to work long hours or stay at home looking after the family than to have gathering with friends. But, don’t forget that true friends are hard to come by. Wouldn’t your friends worth your time to be spent with them if you have the time to spare? 

For me, I would definitely find time to spend with my family as well as with my friends no matter how busy I am. Would you?

My Favourites :

I came home quite early today and then went to take a shower. I took my dinner followed by drinking a big bowl of old yellow cucumber soup. Needless to say, I have had a heavy meal tonight. 

So, what is the thing that you should not do after eating a heavy meal? Actually, there are many things you should avoid to do. If you are a student, people will advise you not to revise your homework after you have taken your meal. 

If you are a working adult, I guess you must have heard of your colleagues saying they cannot start working immediately after having their lunch. They ought to rest for a while before starting their engine again.

What is the reason behind? The obvious reason is that you are not going to concentrate well after a meal as you are getting very sleepy after that. This is so because the blood is rushing to the stomach to digest the food and blood level in the head is getting lesser so you will feel sleepy after having a meal.

I had collected my “Secrets of Building Multi-Million Dollar Businesses” book from AKLTG on 28 Oct 2008 and I’m planning to finish reading the book as quickly as possible. Reason being that I told my friends that this seems to be a very good and motivational book especially for business owners so I will lend it to my friends if they are interested to read the millionaire book.

There are 9 chapters altogether and I have finished reading up to 8 chapters and a half so far. So, there is only 1 chapter and a half to go. However, I don’t think I can finish up with the reading because the heavy dinner really makes me sleepy even though I find that the “Secrets of Building Multi-Million Dollar Businesses” book is really a very good book. 

Therefore, I’m going to sleep right now and probably finish up reading the rest of the chapters in the next few days. Good night.

My Favourites :