Kay Kay & Chinese Calligraphy

Date:  Jan 30, 2014

The last two days, I volunteer in Pei Tong Primary School to teach/guide the students to draw Chinese painting.

While teaching the students on writing and drawings, I notice, all of students when writing their name, did not hold the brush properly.

That means they did not use Chinese brush before.

So, this year, I decided to spent more time with my kids so that they can learn the Chinese roots.

This 吉 word hang on my door for some time.

And he is the one who write the word.  Kay Kay.

Yeap, you can start letting your kids to practise writing starting young.

This is one of the time we ask Kay to practise writing.

Simply write 1-2-3-4 in Chinese.

Here we use the water ink paper.  When you put water on the ink paper, it will turn black temporary.  

As you can see, he writes in confidence.  And He likes it.

It is fascinating to watch your kids learn how to write these words.

Helping Out @ Pei Tong

Date:  Jan 20, 2014

Every year, before the CNY, Pei Tong Primary School will have some activities during the recess time.  

I usually will help up the PSG (Parent Support Group) in some of these events.

This year, we have CNY card using beads, CNY Food Introduction to introduce all wonderful CNY food, CNY Song Karaok and Chinese Drawings.

So, me and my wife station at the Chinese drawings section.

Setting up the table.

We have a professional artist here to teach the kids how to draw.  

It is nice for the kids to learn how to use the Chinese Calligraphy brushes to draw gold fish.

Wow.  Drawing gold fish is too complicated.  So, I changed to teach people to draw to mandarin oranges and write the word 吉.

Jay Jay dropped by to see me.

Day 2.  Still many students came to draw the Chinese painting.

Today, every one draw mandarin oranges because it is easy to draw, fast to complete and more students have chance to draw too.

I like this one.  Simple.

I love to hang out with kids.  I love to teach them what I know.

The Cookie Museum

Date:  Jan 30, 2014

Our company received a hamper from M1 this year.

This is no ordinary hamper.

It is a hamper from The Cookie Museum.

And…

It is a NASI LEMAK cookie.

Seriously, have you ever heard of Nasi Lemak cookie?

Well it says Nasi Lemak on the box.

So, when we remove the seal tape, immediately, you can smell a hint of chilli.

When you remove the cover, the smell of nasi lemak, the ikan bills, the peanut and the sambal chilli smell all came out.

This is what it looks like.  

So, and I tastes it.

Not so oily.

And it is a wonderful sensation eating this.

The smell and taste of nasi lemak are all presented in this cookie.

I ate 6-7 pieces of it.  And keep wanting it.  

May be because I love to eat Nasi Lemak.

It’s very addictive.

Oh… It is spicy.  

Yummy.

So, I went to their Raffles City shop to take a look.

Btw, they are in Esplanade, Raffles City Basement 1, Takashimaya Basement 2.

And I found more.  I tasted the Laksa sample.  It is full of laksa leaf smell and taste.

And the Satay taste like the satay peanut sauces.

So, I bought this uniquely Singapore cookie as gifts to my in-law.

Wahahahaha

Gadget: LG Pocket Photo Printer (PD233)

Date:  Jan 29, 2014

I got a new toy.

I actually bought it few last week but I have not open the box until today.

It is the world smallest pocket printer for printing photos.

When it first came out 1-2 years ago, I was so hoping that it support the IOS.  But it didn’t.  So, I waited waited and waited until 1-2 months ago, and it finally came out with a version that support IOS.

Connectivity is done by BLUETOOTH.  And it comes with the LG Photo Printer App for you to edit, modify, add frames, add words and QR codes to your photos.

The App is quite clean.  User interface is OK easy to understand, just like most of the IOS app.

So, within no time, I created this photo.  

Then, I press print.

The printer does not use ink or cartridges.  

When you first print, it will scan and print out this blue sheet.

Not sure what it does.  

And here it printed out the photo.  It is a small photo.  But it is good enough for giving people as a gift.

And if you use any QR Code scanner to scan the QR code...

Let’s scan.

And the face book page link is shown there.  Clicking on it….

It goes to your Facebook acct to that photo you have just uploaded.

This is cool.  Let’s print another.

It’s printing….

And here is the photo again.  Cool!  Very cool!

It is very light, and it is portable.  You can carry it to any where you like.

However, each time, you can place I think 10 photo paper in it.  (I think).

And 30x photo paper cost about $16.  it is a bit costly as each piece is about 50 cents.

But for kids, it is OK.  The printer itself I think is about $200 like that.  

Love it!

Feng Shui 2014

Date:  Jan 29, 2014

As we marched into the year of 2014, which is a Horse Year.  It’s time to change the house Feng Shui according to the flying stars of this coming Horse Year.

Feng Shui is something that you can choose to believe or not, but the main aim of it is to make you feel good.  Feel really good that it creates positive energies and enhance your success in every thing that you do for the next 1 year.

The science of Feng Shui is that simple!  Make you feel good, has lots of positive energies to live thru the year.

Do whatever you think you want to do.  Not you are asked to do.

Learn the basic, the science, the do not not do of it.  

Remember, you can choose to believe or you can choose not to believe.  It is totally up to you.

Of course, if you don’t believe it, then, don’t “kacau” those who believe and ask them not to believe.

If you believe, also, don’t force those non-believe to believe.  

This year is a Horse Year (after CNY).  I am a Dog animal sign, so, Horse is one of Dog’s friend.  So, this year, I should have nothing to be afraid of.  It’s going to be a good year for dog.  Feel it that way.  Explain it that way to yourself.  Jay Jay is also a dog animal sign, so, same as me.

I know, if you walk in the shopping mall, there are many yearly prediction for all the animal sign, and this year, some of the Feng Shui master actually says that dog sign will not have a fantastic year.  So, don’t feel sad.  Every one has different interpretation.  For me, strongly believe that you will be having lots of good luck with your buddy horse.  So, Dog will have a good year too.

This is the Flying Stars for the Horse Year.  (Got this from Lilian Too’s Calendar).

Get your compass ready.  I am still using the traditional compass.

Of course, you can also use the iPhone compass.  But iPhone compass is very sensitive to magnetic field.  So you have to be very careful where you place the compass.  For example, some table is made of iron inside the wooden surface.  So, if you place it on that table, your iPhone will read very erratic direction because the magnetic property of iron.  Some door is also like that, and so as some floor that has iron bar below.  

The best is to put the compass in your hand, and read it form the air, away from the door or floor.

So, this is my front door readings.

This is my home floor plan.  Draw an obvious SQUARE that includes majority of your home.  I take away the balcony because it is odd and isolated.  So, I can exclude that part our from my home.  

From the SQUARE, draw two lines diagonally.  And you find the CENTER of your home.

Then, map your home against the compass reading.  So, draw the eight sectors (each 45%) out.  North, East, South & West plus NE, NW, SE & SW.

I color it so that I can see clearly where is which directions.

Once you have this home floor plan direction chart, it is easy to see where you should place the feng shui fix.

This is where you need to read Flying Stars.

Next, where do I buy all my Feng Shui staffs.

I bought it from this store.  It is located at Bencoolen Shopping Mall.

Roselyn herself is a Feng Shui master.  She was introduced by my Sifu Benedict.  I trusted Benedict so much, as he is the one has introduced me all the Feng Shui fix, missing corners at my work place back in year 2000.  So, I have wonderful luck every since 2000 until now.  

I used to buy from World of Feng Shui (Lilian Too’s franchise) but now, I have stopped doing that.  Because I compare the prices of the goods sold at WOFS and Treasure Gallery, I can buy much more and nicer things which equally powerful fix at Treasure Gallery.  And when you speak to Roslyn, she will tell you what she has learned, and how to fix it.  Tell you all.  Which I felt is quite beneficial to me, as I can learn a lot too.  Later I will tell you what she taught me.

Feng Shui is like this.  There are many stores in Bencoolen shopping Mall, but I choose to buy from her, because 有缘.

This is 八仙炉.

Roslyn don’t do this for every one, only do it for customer who ask.  She will perform the 开光过炉 for all the Feng Shui staff you bought.

Last time I bought it from Lilian Too’s WOFS.  But I never see how they do it.  They claimed they did it.

But from this store, if you ask, she will perform it for you so that your Feng Shui fix will be more powerful.

So, whatever you bought, then, she will help you to “open light” (开光).  So, I think it is first I saw.  Wahaha.

OK.  I saw from Lilian Too’s flying star recommendation, Lilian Too recommend to place a image of General Cao Cao.  Roselyn immediately says CANNOT do that.  You are fixing your Feng Shui for your house, do you want to invite Cao Cao or Hua Mu Lan, thousands of army strength into your home?  I think think think, really make sense.  I don’t know why Lilian Too actually recommend that?

So, that is why when she explains to me this, I immediately knew she is good.

See these two 5 element pagoda?

Why do I have two?

because, I did the first one wrongly.  

5-element pagoda is a powerful fix to absorb your negative energies in the house.  So, to make it more powerful, you put some soil from your home into the pagoda.  What I did wrong is I placed too much soil and fill up the whole thing.  Yesterday, I revisited her shop to buy one for my friend, and she explained to put a little soil in it.  I was curious, and ask her why and what if I placed a lot of soil in it?  She immediately tell me the method was wrong.

It will lessen the power of the pagoda.  

And it is too late that I already activated this pagoda 3 weeks ago.

So, after I listen, then, I ask her again if I can open up the pagoda to release some soil out?

She said NO.  The pagoda cannot be reuse.  most of the Feng Shui staff can be reuse but not the Pagoda. 

As it absorbed the negative Chi of whole house for whole year, so, it has to be wrapped in red paper or plastic bags and throw away.

So, do not open it.  Otherwise all the negative energies flow back into the house.

So, since this is a new, one, the power is lessen.  So, I decided to buy another one. 

I asked her if I can buy another one, of course, her answer is year.

So, I just activated this at my Northwest (NE) location.  NE location is the arrival of FIVE YELLOW MISFORTUNE STAR.  and NE is the MAN / FATHER location.  Therefore, it has to be protected.  

So, that is why I have two protecting it there.  Wahahahaha.

THIS IS WRONG!  WRONG!  WRONG!

Put a little of soil as shown.  And DO NOT COVER over the hole inside the pagoda.

OK, you have been warned.  Do not do wrong thing, ok ya!

So, on Jan 10, I have activated my Feng Shui.  Yes, you have to choose a good day to do it.

For the benefit of my friends who want to do… here is the next two months calendar you can follow.

Find those that has 吉 day and its not conflicting to your animal sign.

February.

Those that can be reused, you can use mineral water or pure sea salt water to rinse and mob it.

Actually reuse quite a fair bit of the Feng Shui staffs I had.  So, after you wash all of them, then, you let them dry under the sunlight from the EAST.

Those that you don’t want, like the previous year 5 element pagoda, and so on, or those rusty one, you can throw them away.

Someone broke my Blue Rhino 角, so I better throw this away too.  I love this blue rhino and elephant fix.  But bo-pian have to throw it away.

I have this RED CRYSTAL ball to enhance my NORTH.  

North is Lucky Multiplying star.  So, I want to add more success luck here, so, RED ball goes here at the NORTH.

At the north I also protecting the NORTH using 3 killings animal.  Just to ensure that my Lucky Multiplying Star can stay clam in this area without harm.

Three killings is also in this sector.

So, the red ball and the 3 killing animals stay harmony at this North location.

The Violent Star is at the NORTH EAST location.  This unlucky star bring risk of robbery and violence to those residing in Northeast.  So, I protect it with the usual Rhino Elephant.  This year, I use a blue stone one.  Since my old Liu-Li one was broken and thrown away.

This is 5 kinds of auspicious food sign.  So, I place this at my Lucky White Star location at the SOUTHEAST.  This is to activate success at work, in business and good fortune for the family.

EAST is the trouble sector.  It is located in my study room, and this is where I work most of the time.  So as my wife and my children study room too.

So, as you can expect this will be the most fortified area in my home.

East is where the Afflicted Illness Star arrived.

So, a Wulu will fix it.  This Wulu is a medicine Wulu and it is placed in front of my wife.

I myself got this small Wulu.

Of course, I have some plant here in a Wulu vase too.  So three Wulu to protect from the illness star.

Since it is my study area.  So, I also place my usually animals friends there.

My other animals.

The Auspicious Wealth Star is located at the SOUTH sector.  

Here I have my lucky dual loop EIGTH to enhance the auspicious star.  This is extremely auspicious star flies to the South.  Bringing wealth, success and happiness.  Please take note that the Grand Duke also sitting in this sector. 

So, to protect and live harmony with the grand duke, I have my pi-siu sitting here guarding the house.

At the CENTER of the house.  It is the romance scholastic star.  So, I place my scholar globe here as well as the 六六大顺 here.

At the WEST area.  It is the Favourable Heaven Star.  So, I placed a YELLOW crystal ball here.  This white star is the indirect wealth star, which bring unexpected good fortune of a speculative kind.  Hmmm… means stocks?  Wahahahaha.

By the way, the yellow or the red or the scholar white crystal ball is a magical ball.  From time to time, you have to touch it to activate more power.  Wahaha.

Since it is a wealth location, put more things here.  such as treasure bowl.  

Argumentative Star is located at the SOUTHEAST corner.  So, you have to protect here to make your home harmony.  So, I reuse my RED apple.  You can also use red crystal ball.  Of course, my secret friends animals are all here.

I also protect it with Three Legged Bird with Sun Mirror.

This Argumentative star is getting stronger.  I think I may need more protection at this area.  Wahahaha

OK.  That’s all for year 2014.

And I hope this year will be a great year for every one.  Wahahaha  Huat Ah!