Having "Me" Time

It's the little things that matter.  What is it that make one happy?  Is it money? Is it wealth? Is it getting that newest bag or that trendiest fashion item? Or is it the little things?  In my thirties, I realize that for me now it is the little things.  A thought, a gesture, an experience. The other day, I came home and since the weather was so lovely I sat on the front porch to take in some fresh air.  The weather was cool, the wind blew, trees wavered in the wind and birds flew here and there preparing their dinner (or so I think). This for me was happiness. I sat there looking out into the open sky whilst sounds of birds chirping filled the air.   Birds would fly and perch on the electrical wires forming a sihoulette against the darkeneing sky.  Someones one, sometimes two, or maybe more.  I could hear as the gush of wind ruffled leaves of nearby trees.   I wonder what makes birds happy.  Do birds know what happiness is? Or is it simply having food and wings to fly suffi

I'm always looking for something healthy to eat and drink, but when you are on a weightloss program things get a lot tougher.  I love drinking Yakult.  If you don't know what it is, it is probiotic drink made by fermenting skimmed milk with a special strain of Lactobacillus.  This is supposedly a very healthy drink that is supposed to regulate your bowel movements and help you in a zillion ways. It's an awesome drink that refreshes me every time I drink it.  I love it.   The funniest thing is that it is only sold by direct sales.  It's not easily found in stores and you have to find it from one of the Yakult ladies dressed in their brown uniform with a brown cap.  Originally from Japan, this drink is now sold worldwide. However, if you are on a diet, I have to tell you this.  BEWARE.  Yakult is extremely high in sugar with roughly 17 grams of sugar in a 100g serving!!  That's already around 6% of your suggested daily intake.  Sugar, as I've mentioned before

Talking to a Japanese friend about Japanese food and ramen, I cannot but think about taking you to this ramen place I've been going to since I was young called "Ramentei."  If you live in Bangkok, I'm sure many of you have heard about this place and have been to it.  They have a couple branches, with the original one being near Villa Supermarket on Sukhumvit 33.  There's another one next to Thaniya Plaza where one goes to see golf materials, and there is also one between Suriwong and Silom roads. What I love about it, is that it's simple, serves good food fast and you know what to expect.  Delicious ramen, served efficiently and in a relatively clean restaurant.   Some locations are older than others, but overall, it's clean and good.   You can choose between sitting in the Japanese style tables, or on regular tables.  I personally prefer regular tables since I always think they're more comfortable and don't require my pushing myself to get u

Every year just before my birthday, I get into a frenzy and decide I have to make a resolution.  It's a relatively new phenomenon for me thats been happening ever since I hit my thirties. I suppose it's the sudden realization that I am no longer young.  Each passing year, means another year of my life has passed and there are fewer to look forward to. We grow up hearing abuout New Year Resolutions, but I wonder why can't we have Birthday Resolutions? It sounds so much more fun.   Each year just before our birthdays, we can all make resolutions.  Resolutions for ourselves. Resolutions that we want, whether it be taking better care of our health, or finishing that project we've been planning for years. You start off these resolutions at your own pace, your own time.  The focus is on you. Afterall, it's your birthday.   It's "Me" Time resolutions to remind us that these are goals we set for ourselves and sincerely want to get done.  Remember though th

Have you ever woken up and had a “bad” hair day? I think every girl must have experienced this one time or another in their life. Sometimes you wake up and don’t know what happened overnight while you were dreaming to cause your hair to just become a nest like mass that seems to have a life of its own. As it happens (like it always knows when), it happens on the day your alarm clock seemed to have turned itself off and you have to rush off for a morning meeting. You feel like you are having a “bad” hair day. It just doesn’t feel good and it nags you the rest of the day. If you were like me, sometimes I’d go around saying I have a “bad” hair day, complaining about it and telling others about it…It turns out to be a miserable day where everything goes wrong. Then one day I realized, it was better to keep quiet. If you are having a “bad” hair day, have one privately. By telling people about and announcing your ”bad” hair day to the world you are actually focusing their attenti

The weather is kinda blue, the sky is cloudy, the rain drizzles.  It sounds like a perfect evening for a night out listening to Jazz/Blues.  I've been in Bangkok for years and heard about this "Saxophone Pub" as the place to go listen to jazz/blues, but never had the chance.  Finally, one drizzling evening, I had the opportunity and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed sitting and listening to live bands playing the Blues. It's located right by the Victory Monument and withing walking distance from the BTS station.  If you drive they also have limited parking, but its by the roadside so you take your own risk.  At first glance, I thought I was somewhere else other than Bangkok. It reminds me of Philly. The outside has orange lighting and a small door leads you inside to a dimly lit room.  It's more spacious than it looks outside and the high ceiling upon entering makes it feel comfortable.  The live band plays in the middle of the room and a counter surrounds it,

I love Japanese food. I can eat it everyday and still not get bored with it.  Tonight I feel like having some Japanese Oban Yaki (which are Japanese pancakes with some fillings) so to curve my craving,  I will tell you instead about it.  It's incredibly delicious and satisfying.  It's comfort food that beats all the other comfort foods. (For me anyways) I've never had this pancake anywhere else other than at the Isetan Store at Central World in Bangkok so I cannot tell you if it's the best one, but even then I find it scrumptious.  I can feel my eyes sparkle and already my mouth curving into a grin just thinking about this pancake hot off the stove with gooey fillings.  I like the one with the hot chocolate filling, but the creamy custard or the red bean are also just as good.   The chocolate is hot and gooey to the right consistency, not too sweet nor too bitter.  I can imagine myself biting into the warm hot chocolate, whose taste is just perfectly offset by the pan

If you've read the New York Times this past weekend, you might have come across an article entitled "Baby Makes Four, and Complications."  It's a very interesting article about how nowadays there are increasingly a number of "unconventional" families. What do I mean by conventional? A conventional family is one with fathers, mothers and siblings.  We get older, study, start our careers and the next step is most certainly a traditional settling down.  We get married, have kids and continue on the cycle.  This is what is taught to us in grade school.  This is what kids play in the playground.  I remember role playing this with friends. This is what is expected of you. However, due to the economy, circumstances, unforeseeable events sometimes we find ourselves in an "unconventional" life.  So was the life of Carol. She found herself in the fourties and unmarried.  No "Mr. Perfect" had come along.  She wanted a child, but she didn't h

While thinking about "Big Rock" the other day, I wondered what do I do in 24hours and how can I be more effective in achieving what I want to achieve?  I can't make my 24hours become 48 hours in a day  (although I would love to) so I just have to work with the same number of hours but with a prioritization. A typical working day for me goes like this: 7  hours :  Sleep 1 hour  :  Travel to and from fitness 1.5 hour: Exercise +shower+change 9 hours:   Work (assuming this is a VERY good day) 1 hour:    Travel home 1.5 hour:  Dinner + family time 0.5 hour shower 1 hour blog 1.45 hours spare time (in case of traffic, long showers, long dinners, ) Looking at this breakdown, I realize I have roughly an hour extra a day to do what I want to do. What should be my priority during this hour? If there is a long traffic jam, I lose this personal time. It can be family, health or work.  Just one hour a day isn't much, but if you realize that this is your valuable time the

We all know there are 24 hours in a day, yet we always want to do more in less time. While reading about effective time management the other day, I discussed the topic with Alex. A lot of people (I included) like to think that if I manage my time better, I can squeeze in more things. I can get more things done because I am more efficient. (This is awesome, I can actually do things that would usually take me two days in one day.) Actually if you really think hard about it. Being effective doesn't necessarily mean squeezing in more accomplished tasks or finished works into the same amount of time. Effective time management is really about prioritizing . It means ensuring that you get what you need and should get done, actually accomplished in the allotted time. An example is given in the book I read about a "Big Rock." The big rock is placed in a glass and those who see it, declare that the glass is now FULL with this Big Rock. The lecturer then takes out a bag of sand an

Yesterday I got sucked into a world of figuring out which phone package was best for my lifestyle and internet usage and found myself drowing in all its information content.   There are three main mobile companies in Thailand (DTAC, AIS, TRUE)  and only one of them at the moment has 3G.  The other two are working on it.  I happen to be using DTAC which doesn't have 3G yet and at the moment is suffering from a lot of technical problems. Now I'm a loyal customer of over ten years, but sometimes things may need to change.  I'm not sure if you've had the same experience as me but lately, its been getting harder for people to contact me from lack of signal and other technicalities.  I'd be there sitting with the phone in front of me, then a message pops up showing a missed call.  A few minutes later, the actual will come through with a rather disgruntled voice asking me how come it's so hard to get through. Was I using the internet?  If I was, calls made don'

Sundays are usually days I have to relax and contemplate a little. This past Sunday I watched a movie called "Never Let Me Go" and it is indeed an emotionally touching movie. I had tears in my eyes as I watched it on my computer screen, I suppose if I were watching it on a big screen it would be even emotional. It's a heartbreaking for it raises questions about the morality of cloning humans for organ donations. I remember debating the morality of all this in highschool.  Afterall, this was during the era when Dolly the Sheep became the first success story of a clone from an adult cell.  This was a scientific breakthrough, but was this moral?  Was this the right thing to do? To what extent is technology to be used for one's on good? "Never Let Me Go" addresses this question by showing us kids growing up in a seemingly normal English boarding school.  The only difference was that they were clones.  They took lessons, played rugby, and had emotions just l

I've been up since 5.30am this morning.  I'm up this early not because I'm ill, nor do I have somewhere to go this early in the morning, but I'm up because I was so exhausted yesterday I came home and fell flat on my bed at 9.30pm and a good eight hours later, I am up.  I have to say that I feel totally refreshed and alive once again.  Since it's the weekend (and because I'm getting hungry) I thought I'd take you on a little trip to have duck noodles at an old Bangkok market. If you've been following me since last year, you'd probably know how I love having noodles for lunch. I still do (though now I can also have them for dinner) and when I discover a noodle place that's delicious, I just get all happy and giddy.  Today's duck noodles is the one at Nang Lerng Market which is near to the Nang Lerng stadium where horse races are held.  It's on the border between old Bangkok and modern Bangkok and not too far by taxi.  It's around th

Yesterday I started out writing with the intention of talking about "Dragon Fruits" but half way through I realized I was talking more about weigh scales.  Tonight I'd get straight to the point and talk about this relatively new fruit called "Dragon fruit." When I first heard the name I wondered what could a fruit look like to justify such a name?  Is it shaped like a dragon?  Is it large and full of fire with flapping wings ?  That's what I always think about when I hear the word "dragon."  I still love saying the name "dragon fruit."  It makes me feel like I am in a mystical land. Interestingly, it's a fruit that comes from a cacti plant that only blooms at night. What's more, it depends on pollination by bats and moths. Not exactly your ideal fruit that dangles from pretty looking trees, like apples that tempted Adam and Eve. However, after seeing the "dragon fruit", I can somewhat see why it's called so

Considering the number of restaurants I have been reviewing (and I have plenty more lined up), you might wonder how can one stay in shape and prevent excessive weight gain? As my advice has always been the first step to maintaining a healthy lifestyle is to be "aware" of what one is eating.  If you aren't exactly sure, write it down and take note.  If you ate a lot yesterday, eat less today.  It's simple as that.  You are what you eat. If you couldn't be bothered to note what you've been eating, then use the weigh scale.  Weigh yourself everyday.  Weigh yourself at the same time of day each.  It works wonders, and best of all, it takes less than a minute to do. (No excuse that you don't have time.) I have to admit though, that almost two years since I first started my diet, I still have a slight fear of the weigh scale.  I wonder if the needle will jump up after I've had that delicious chocolate cake, or that incredibly fattening creamy salmon sp

 Since my good friends are out eating at Taling Ping today (which I have to skip due to a bad stomach)  I thought I'd write about this restaurant that is a great place to take guests from out of town or a place to have little reunions over authentic Thai food.  The great thing about this restaurant is that it has expanded from it's original location on Silom's Pun Road to the convenience of Siam Paragon and Central World Shopping Malls.  All within BTS access.  Wonderful if you are meeting friends who are coming from different parts of Bangkok. Taling Ping is somewhere I always take my guests from out-of-town for a relaxing dinner combined with some shopping.  It serves traditional Thai cuisine with a good ambiance and good service.  Make sure you get there early for the seats fill up quite quickly.  Their food is reliable and the taste is consistent no matter where or when you go.  There are a few favorites of mine at the restaurant.  I especially like the basic chi

Sunday night is here and finally this writer gets to continue on with her blog.  The fast few days have just been hectic, tiring and not enough "me" time.   There have been some comments that I haven't been reviewing enough restaurants so tonight I want to share with you a Mexican restaurant that just makes you feel like you are in the Americas. It certainly does remind me of college days when we'd go to Happy Hour after hours or after late study sessions at night to munch on quesadillas and nachos.  Since moving back, I've been only to a few places that serve good quesadillas, nachos and other mexican foods.  La Monita is one of the better ones. The first time I went to La Monita was about a year ago when it was just newly opened.  Near to the Ploenchit BTS station it is only a few minutes walk to the row of shop houses neighboring Mahatun Plaza where the restaurant is open.  I went with a long time friend of mine and together we ate several dishes, all

Being in a contemplative mood today a title of a book pops suddenly into my head:  Harold Kushner's "When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough."  I have to admit I have not yet read this book by Rabbi Kushner but somehow the title has intriqued me on more occasions than one.  It's a title that grabs you whenever you walk by it at the bookstore.  It grabs your inner voice and leaves a mark in your brain as if it were your subconscious speaking the words "when all you've ever wanted isn't enough." So what happens I wonder when all I wanted isn't enough?  How much is enough?  Is there an end to enough?  The end seems far in sight.  It seems to be far out into the horizon like when you are looking out towards the sea.  There is no end.  The earth is not flat and we won't suddenly drop off the ocean even if we wanted to.  If we keep going and going, we'll go around in a circle and end up where we started.  We end up still wanting some