The room test

I prefer a laid-back approach to life. At the same time, I think my preference to have closure makes me strive to get things done too.

You Are the Living Room

You are laid back and casual. You can have fun in almost any situation. You believe in being easy going. Life's hard enough, and you're not going to make it any harder. You are sociable and friendly. You welcome almost anyone into your life. You are completely unpretentious. You prefer living in a comfortable home to living in a showy home.

What Room of the House Are You?

The hunt for the best mashed potato in Singapore, part 42

On 2 May 2009 (Sat), I visited the Changi International Airport. I noticed that one of the stalls, specifically the Western Food stall, at Changi Airport Terminal Three, Basement Two Mall, Kopitiam (Kopi @ Terminal 3) Food Court, sells mashed potato. Being on the hunt for the best mashed potato in Singapore, it became so natural for me to order a serving of the mashed potato to do a review.

This mashed potato is sold at $1.50 per serving. The mashed potato was average and just palatable. The texture of the mashed potato was worse than average for my liking. As for the brown sauce, it did not quite bring out the flavour of the mashed potato. In fact, it gave an aftertaste that I had found too peppery and undelightful to my liking.

I don't think I would go back to this stall to have mashed potato again. It is just below average.

Anyway, I shall continue to send heart-warming thoughts to my friend to whom this series of posts was dedicated to.

I wish this friend of mine the faith and humour to deal with the times when things have yet to turn out right.

***
Where to find this stall?:

Changi Airport Terminal Three
Basement Two Mall
Kopitiam (Kopi @ Terminal 3) Food Court
No. 65 Airport Boulevard.

11 parts blog posts about the National Museum of Singapore

On Yesterday.sg recently, noelbynature points out that Alicesg has written a massive 11-parts blog-post about her visits to the National Museum of Singapore. There is so much to know about the museum.

Find out more here: How many times can you blog about a visit to the museum?

Conquering Quarterlife Crisis: One Blog at a Time

Yesterday, I blogged about a book on the topic of quarterlife crisis that I have read recently. This morning, I was pleasantly surprised to hear from Molly Hoyne, Executive Director of Stratejoy, Inc.

Stratejoy is a site dedicated to helping 20 & 30 something women define success on their own terms and lead an authentically joyous life.

Here's quoting a few parts from Molly's email to me:

Stratejoy is thrilled to introduce four amazing women – Robyn, Kendra, Andrea & Marisa – who will be blogging about their Quarterlife Crisis starting Monday, July 13, 2009. They are allowing the world to be part of their journey as they tackle unemployment, big moves, soul sucking jobs, relationships, finding joy, staying true and all the other life-changing experiences that go along with being a Quarter Lifer.

These gutsy girls are helping challenge the stigma that this “crisis” is considered a failure and that somehow they should have avoided it. They’re not blaming anyone; they’re simply admitting they don’t have it “figured out” at the time in their lives when they thought they would. Through their weekly posts, these four women from across the country – DC, New York, Chicago, and Portland – will encourage you to think about your life, to challenge expectations and to carve our your own definition of success.

I have spent some time browsing Stratejoy and found that it has some useful resources and insights. Do make a visit.

Read: Who Cares What You're Supposed to Do?

Source: Amazon.com

This is a book that I would recommend women who are in their twenties and early thirties to have a read. In today's world, women have the privilege to have more options opened to them as compared to many decades ago. Strangely, having more options may create unknown pressures and doubts because there is possibly no exact road-map for women today. Furthermore, many of the societal expectations from many decades ago continue to prevail.

There are expectations that seem to suggest that women of that age are supposed to:
- have a fabulous career
- be financially independent
- be married with children
- have your own home
- enjoy a busy social life
- have a great body
- do it all right

Such expectations can unknowingly create pressure, doubts and feelings of guilt for those who felt that they cannot meet up to the expectations. What I find useful about this book is that it explores how one can put the pressures and expectations into perspective.

In addition, I find that it gave some useful strategy on how to steer away from self-doubt so that one could be in a better position to figure out what one would really want of one's life, rather than let the society dictate how one should live one's life.

The authors proposed the following four steps to resolving self-doubt:
1. Recognise and name the problem.
2. Understand and challenge the expectation.
3. Connect to what you value and believe.
4. Seek allies against self-doubt.

Essentially, Who Cares What You're Supposed to Do? Breaking the Rules to Get What You Want in Love, Life and Work is a book that explores the issues that women who are experiencing quarter-life crisis are likely to face.

While I find the case-examples a little hard to follow at times as they are scattered over various chapters of the book, these examples did help to illustrate many of the issues that are commonly faced by women in their quarter-life. I find it an insightful read as I admittedly experience issues related to quarterlife-crisis from time-to-time.

I also like the fact that this book was written by a psychologist. That seemed to make the writing style fairly appealing to yours truly who likes reading non-fiction books related to social science issues.

I took about a slightly more than a week to finish reading it. I look forward to overcoming some of my self-doubts and claiming the power to define my life on my own terms. May you too.

***
Online ites on Quarterlife crisis:
http://www.quarterlifecrisis.com
http://www.stratejoy.com

***
Title: Who cares what you're supposed to do? : breaking the rules to get what you want in love, life, and work
Author: Dickerson, Victoria C., with Fine, Carla.
Publisher New York : Berkley Publishing Group, 2004.

Available for loan from the National Library Board Singapore. Call Number: English 158.08422 DIC

Week 28 of year 2009 on the double bass

5 Jul 2009, Sun: I started off gaining the momentum by practising studies to warm up. Afterwhich, time was spent practising Capuzzi's Concerto in D major.

6 Jul 2009, Mon: It was my first day rehearsing with my piano accompanist for the DipABRSM. We worked on Capuzzi's Concerto in D major and Faure's Apres Un Reve. It was my very first time playing these two works with piano accompaniment and it helped to know the areas that I would need to work very closely with the piano.

One thing that I need to work a lot on would be to work with the metronome to get the dotted quaver rhythms and triplet rhythms accurate, and to distinguish between the two. I need to count diligently too.

Next, I need to practise and have greater control over the way I do the vibrato. I need to have good control over the speed that I do the vibrato. In addition, I need to be able to keep my vibrato sustained. Practice and more practice. If I need help with the vibrato, I suppose I could ask my tutor for some guidance.

One thing somewhat new that I have learnt from the rehearsal was that I could help cue myself in by writing the rhythms for the piano parts on my parts, especially at places where there are rests.

I feel very grateful that my accompanist suggested that we work on Berkeley's Introduction and Allegro. It was something I have found challenging to work on and yet it was exactly so that I need to work on it more often. If not for my accompanist's suggestions, I might have postponed working on it to another day. While there are many details that I need to work further on, I was pleased that I had actually managed to rehearse this entire piece, and finally appreciated how the piano and the double bass relate to one another, during my very first rehearsal. This was a milestone in itself.

8 Jul 2009, Wed: I practised Faure's Apres Un Reve. The goal was to explore ways to vary the speed that I perform vibrato on the double bass.

9 Jul 2009, Thu: During the double bass lesson, my dear and kind double bass tutor allowed me the chance to play on his double bass that was strung with solo-tuning strings. The solo-tuning strings are already by nature, brighter in tone. His double bass further projected a warm and bright tone. Many of the times, I would have to manage my own self-doubts when I play on good instruments like his.

Anyway, during the lesson, he gave me tips on the vibrato techinque. Yet, nothing beats spending time to practise, and practise. We worked on Faure's Apres Un Reve and the first movement of Capuzzi's Concerto in D major.

Towards the end of my lesson, my tutor played a lovely rendition of Dittersdorf's Second Concerto on his double bass. That was inspiring.

In the evening, back at home, I worked on a couple of quick-studies.

11 Jun 2009, Sat: I worked with the metronome clicking at semiquaver-rhythm. The goal was to improve my rendition of the semiquaver-passage and the passages with dotted-quaver rhythm in the first movement of Capuzzi's Concerto in D major.

Another lovely evening at Little India

Colourful Little India, it is quite an interesting place to visit when one is in Singapore. It has charms of its own that intrigue me.

Firstly, other than a love for air-wells, I have an interest in the pre-war shop-houses in Singapore simply because I have a fascination with walking along five-foot ways. Secondly, the fragrance of spices and flowers in the Little India area are simply treats for the senses, at least for yours truly.

Today, I visited Little India with one of my good friends. She is kind and accomodated to my request to visit one of the South Indian temples in the Little India area, Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple. We had the honour to observe a religious ceremony (temple worship) when we were there.


I am pleased to share that I have learnt something new as a result of my visit to Little India. That has to do with the theories to answering this question: Why are certain Hindu Gods and Goddesses depicted in blue?

"One of the theories is that Vishnu, because of his association with water, is depicted blue; therefore all his incarnations including Krishna, are shown as such. In Hinduism, persons who have depth of character and the capacity to fight evil are depicted as blue skinned. ...

"The theory of the blue coloring of Krishna goes to the fact that the Creator has given the maximum of blue to nature i.e. the sky, the oceans, the rivers and lakes. The deity who has the qualities of bravery, manliness, determination, the ability to deal with difficult situations, of stable mind and depth of character is represented as blue colored. Lord Krishna spent his life protecting humanity and destroying evil, hence he is colored blue."

(Source: Yahoo answers)

Many thanks to my friend for noticing that some of the statues of the gods in the temple were depicted as blue-skinned, and for sharing her findings on this with me. Yeah! One new thing I have learnt today! Our friends help us see things that we may otherwise not have noticed on our very own. Thank goodness for friends.

The delicious dinner that my friend and I had at a stall near Desker Rd.