A day in your parents' life include relaxing on our sofa together watching TV. Thank you for introducing Netflix in our life. We also enjoy watching news summaries of current events on YouTube. They provide quick updates across various global and local topics. We also watch entertaining short videos especially if they are funny.
I read that shared laughter can improve the overall relationship satisfaction. It is often described as the "secret spice" or "emotional glue" of a happy and long-lasting relationship. I hope it will strengthen our bond and reduce our stress.
It can be addictive. I limit the hours I watch them by setting a timetable. For instance, I watch short videos when I am:
-waiting for someone. -having my lunch in my bike shop. -walking around for exercise (to make sure that I complete the course, I usually watch an interesting video like true crime stories that runs close to an hour or longer).
I thought about sharing this aspect of our life after answering this question on Quora:
So, don't cancel your Netflix subscription plan for us if you think we are too addicted. As you can see, we will know what we should do if we have reached that stage.
Stop thinking that a
future event will occur that will make our life better.
Generally, we think
that life will be better:
-only after we have
completed our education.
-only after we have established our career.
-only after we have found our soulmate.
-only after we have started a family.
-only after our children are all grown up.
The list never ends if
we keep waiting for an external event to improve our circumstances. We should
focus on what we can control.
This mentality can
prevent us from finding value in the present moment and be grateful for what we
already have.
Today, I read the
following quote from James Clear's newsletters:
American novelist
Ursula K. Le Guin reminds us that change always begins by taking responsibility
for how you live:
“You cannot buy the
revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It
is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”
This is what I have gathered:
If you are looking for
a rapid change in your life, don’t wait for things to happen. You may be
waiting in vain when you could be the wheel of your own revolution.
To start this
revolution, we must have a purpose to achieve.
Once we have achieved
it, we should not rest on your laurels. What we need to advance further is
inspiration. We can begin by looking around for it because it can add years to
our life.
P/S: I am glad to be able to use these quote posters I have created to share a life lesson.
This is a good metaphor
to use to teach the young to watch their attitude.
It implies that the
feeling or behaviour that someone is displaying is not acceptable as it can be
perceived by others as being:
-disrespectful or
-negative or
-inappropriate
If you do a search for
example of bad attitude, you will see the following listed:
-being pessimist
-always blaming others for your mistakes
-always resisting change
-always complaining
-have tendency to procrastinate
-being selfish
-being combative
-a general unwillingness to cooperate
-displaying victim mentality
-being self-centred
-being unapproachable
-displaying condescending behaviour
-openly displaying feelings of jealousy or resentment
-being impatient
What are the chances
of your getting the support for what you want or need from friends or relatives
if that is the kind of attitude you are displaying?
It is good if you are
being taught at a young age to watch your attitude. Then you will learn how to
control yourself and change your behaviour. Developing the ability to change or
adapt your attitude is considered a valuable interpersonal skill. It will help
you to:
-foster better
relationships.
-improves collaboration.
-increases overall effectiveness in personal and professional settings.
There are many
positive attitudes you can adopt. In fact, from the following link, you will be able to find 101 examples of positive attitude that you can use as skills in your
resume or in an interview.
As I cook mainly Asian dishes, it is not likely that I will consider buying a tortilla press. However, if you need one, I will suggest that you try to improvise with the kitchen utensils that you have on hand.
Do you have two wooden rectangular cutting boards similar to the one shown here?
I love answering questions like that because that is the kind of cook I am.
This is my cheap and easy way to cook spare ribs which I shared on Quora.
I boil soup on a daily basis with soup bones or chicken. On days I want to cook with spare ribs, I will add about 6 to 8 pieces of them to the pork or chicken soup I am boiling for the day as this will help me save time. I like it that the additional spare ribs added will also enhanced the flavour of my soup.
You will be surprised to know that the ingredients I use in one of my regular soups is similar to what you would use in making Western soup stock. Check out the recipe I shared at the following link if you would like to do the same.
If you do not plan on making soup or soup stock, you can just boil the spare ribs in a pot of water. You want to boil them till they are soft enough to bite into but not falling apart, which is about 30 minutes on high heat or about 45 to 60 minutes on low heat.
Once they are ready, you can remove them from the soup or stock and stir fry them in a wok with:
-8 to 10 table spoons of water (or soup/stock) -1 Tbsp of white or brown sugar (or honey) -1 Tbsp of garlic oil. -1/2 Tbsp soya sauce. -1/2 Tbsp oyster sauce -Dash of black or white pepper or -1 Tbsp BBQ Sauce
Stir fry till the liquid is reduced and the sauce thickens to glaze the ribs. If you have been too heavy with the sauce, just add more water. You can then thicken the sauce by whisking together 1 tablespoon of corn starch with 2 tablespoons of water to create a slurry. Once the sauce starts to boil again, add the slurry in bit by bit while stirring till it thickens.
This dish can be eaten with rice.
Spare ribs tend to be more expensive. Here is another way to reduce cost to purchase a larger quantity if you plan on cooking for more people to eat. Boiled spare ribs can be kept in the freezer. Each them you use them to make your soup stock, you can store them in an airtight container. Once you have accumulated enough in your freezer, you can thaw them to marinate for a day before you airfry them to serve as shown in this video.
You can watch the video from the beginning if you would like to know how the Char Siu Sauce (BBQ Sauce) is prepared and how it can be used to cook other dishes.
These are the ingredients used in the video to make the Char Siu Sauce (BBQ Sauce) for 1kg of spare ribs:
You can omit the following ingredients suggested if you do not have them:
2 Tbsp Onion Powder
1 Tbsp Five-spice powder
2 Tbsp Cooking Wine
1 Tbsp Sesame Oil
3 Tbsp Shallot Oil
Your other alternative if you do not have all the ingredients is to use ready-made Oriental BBQ sauce. My go to brand is Lee Kum Kee.
This is how you prepare the spare ribs to airfry with the homemade or ready-made sauce:
Other than spare ribs, this sauce can also be used to make char sui with the following parts of the pig:
-pork butt or shoulder
-pork collar
-pork belly (very fatty)
-pork loin (leaner option can turn out dryer when cooked)
If you like the way I cook my spare ribs, you should also like the way I cook pulled pork.
Do you know that tea has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties? You can brew your tea to drink or leave it to cool down to use as follows:
-as a toner for your skin to calm redness, reduce puffiness or minimize pores. -to fight signs of aging.
Don't throw the tea leaves away as you can add them into your face mask or scrub to use. If you brew your tea with tea bags, you can also chill them and use them as compress for your tired eyes. So, don't throw away your used tea bags either because you are going to discover many more ways to use them after watching this video.
Now that you are aware about this, here is a cost saving idea for you.
When you are on a holiday, do you keep the complimentary sachets of coffee or tea in your hotel room? I have a collection of tea bags and mini sachets of instant coffee like this at home.
You will wish you had collected them once you know that you can make Dalgona Coffee or Dalgona Milk Tea with them.
You can learn how to make Dalgona with what you have at the following link:
Though I love reading about gardening, I cannot say that I am proud about the way I landscape my garden. But I am definitely prouder than neighbours who have weeds growing all over their gardens.
Currently, my favourite job at gardening is weeding. I like to weed barefooted. I then collect them and throw them in the compost pit I have dug in my garden. Once I have covered that pit with soil, weeds will start growing over that patch. If I am lucky, sometimes seeds from my kitchen waste grow out from it.
If you follow the correct procedure for creating compost, you will know that you have to aerate it by turning the material in the pit occasionally. However, I have never done that for my compost pit but cucumbers managed to grow out from it successfully.
I am happy if they grow but I am fine if they do not as they make great compost.
This winter melon was another surprise I found in my compost pit. It was harvested just in time before it turned into compost.
I like the idea of planting over raised beds and through my experience, the cheapest way to build a raised garden bed is to dig a compost pit at the spot where most of the weeds are growing in my garden. These are information I shared on Quora in my answer to, "How do I build a raised garden bed cheap and easy?".
As I dig the pit, I will pile the weeds I have dug out on one side and the soil on the other. Once the hole is at least 3 feet deep, I will dump any of the following waste I have on hand:
-weeds that I have dug out or pulled out by the roots. -cuttings from my garden. -grass clippings. -dried leaves and twigs -kitchen waste, such as, fruit and vegetable peels or scraps, egg shells, coffee or tea grounds or bags. -shredded paper like newspaper or used paper towels or napkins or empty egg cartons. -cardboard from my bike shop or from shopping online.
If I want to increase my collection of green or yard waste, I can look out for them along road sides or at parks in your neighbourhood. Sometimes, the municipal workers cut grass in our neighbourhood and leave bags of the clippings behind for collection later. I can also tell my neighbours to keep their cuttings and grass clippings for me the next time they trim their plants or mown their lawns.
There are other ways I can increase the composting material. I can be friendly with the staff at food stalls I often eat at or at grocery stalls I tend to buy from. From such places, I should be able to collect:
-coffee or tea grounds. -egg shells. -kitchen waste. -coconut shells and husks. -pet shops (ask for pet/fish food that have expired) -cardboard boxes. -ash or small bits and pieces of charcoal leftover in bag or grill (eg, satay stalls or Korean BBQ restaurants that use charcoal for grilling)
I found out from reading the following article that adding charcoal to a compost pile quickens the composting process. You can also burn coconut shells or wood to create your own activated charcoal:
Since the intention is to create a raised bed, once the pit is heaped full with compost material, I will place sheets of cardboard to cover it before adding the soil I have dug out. Then I will add potting soil over it so that plants can be grown over it right away. You can save on buying fertilizers as over a period of time, the material in the compost pit will have degraded to add more nutrients for your plants. The sheets of cardboard will prevent the top soil from sinking too much into the pit as the material degraded. Once the plants you have grown have taken roots, they will hold the top soil together. You can add more soil over the raised bed as it sank further into the pit over time.
You can watch this video if you want to follow the right procedure for creating compost for your raised bed. By following the instructions, you will also be able to speed up the process of composting.
Do you know anyone in the timber industry? Check with them if they have any of the following timber waste from logging or from processing their end product:
-sawdust
-bark
-chips
-slabs and offcuts
One of my neighbours had a company building wooden furniture and gazebos. I had received many free bags of wood chips from his factory. I use them as mulch in my garden to prevent weeds from growing in my planter box. All such timber waste can also be added to the compost pit.
I have seen logs like these in my former neighbourhood park before.
Some are from trees cut from the homes of residents living there. Sometimes municipal workers cut or trim trees by the road side that would pose a hazard to public safety as they have overgrown to obstruct traffic signals, streetlights, and signs. If you can get your hands on logs like these, you can build a raised bed the German way. It does not matter even if the logs have rotted to a crumbly pulp as it will help to retain more water for growing your plants so you do not have to water your plants as much. The technique is known as Hugelkultur and you can learn how to go about it by watching this video.
If there is space constrain in your garden, you can build your raised bed upwards in a spiral manner with:
-bricks
-stones
-cinder blocks
-chunks of concrete
-logs
-bottles
Though it is called a herb spiral, you can grow flowering plants if that is what you prefer. If you do a search at Pinterest for “herb spiral”, you will find many methods to build one. Here is one I found built with stones and cardboards laid down at its base, to prevent weeds from growing through the spiral.
This diagram shows the type of plants that should be grown around the spiral to optimise growth.
This is how the herb spiral will look like if you use bricks or cinder blocks.
Watch this video to see if this is what you would like to do as it provides a very clear tutorial on how it should be build.
You can then refer to GrowOrganic blog for written information about the material you need and the steps to do it.
If you use your creativity, you can re-use many material that would have been discarded to build your raised beds. These are how raised beds can be made with coconut husk.
Are you good at woodworking? If you are, see if you are able to get your hands on pallet. You maybe able to find them discarded at factories or at industrial estate. If you can get them free, you can build a raise bed with the planks. Here is a good example I found on Pinterest.
You can learn how to make one by following the instructions provided at the following link:
You can easily find other designs on Pinterest by doing a search for “make raised bed with pallet”. I like this design as PVC buckets are more durable than liners.
If you are bad at woodworking, you can just lay the pallets on ground and fill them up with potting soil. You can also place your pallet vertically against a wall to grow your plants. You can watch this video to learn how to prepare it for your garden.
You can use the planks from the pallet to build a 4’ by 4’ bottomless box to grow your plants, the square foot gardening way.
You are good to start, once you have located a spot that has good drainage and 6-8 hours of direct sun per day. This simple concept will make it easier for you to harvest what you need. It will also help you to:
-cut down on your gardening chores.
-save space, money, water and seed.
-grow healthier plants.
You can learn how to go about it at the following link:
I usually save (pin) articles, useful hacks or tips about it on my Pinterest board about Gardening.
Here is a tip that you should take note of.
Do you know that coarse builder's sand used for mixing concrete or laying paving can be added to garden soil to improve drainage and aeration? Buy them bagged from a plant nursery that you trust. It is not a good idea to take them from construction sites. My husband took back some leftover sand for his job site and spread it all over our garden. He was not aware that there were seeds in them. Within a few days, weeds that we have never seen in our garden before started growing.
