FishY

Saw this inspirational note in inbox =)

The Japanese love fresh fish. However, the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste.

To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price.

So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish.

So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan? If you were consulting the fish industry, what would you recommend?

Too Much Money

As soon as you reach your goals, such as finding a wonderful mate, starting a successful company, paying off your debts or whatever, you might lose your passion. You don't need to work so hard so you relax. You experience the same problem as lottery winners who waste their money, wealthy heirs who never grow up and bored homemakers who get addicted to prescription drugs. Like the Japanese fish problem, the best solution is simple. It was observed by L. Ron Hubbard in the early 1950's.
" Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging environment." L. Ron Hubbard

The Benefits of a Challenge

The more intelligent, persistent and competent you are, the more you enjoy a good problem. If your challenges are the correct size, and if you are steadily conquering those challenges, you are happy. You think of your challenges and get energized. You are excited to try new solutions. You have fun. You are alive!

How Japanese Fish Stay Fresh

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are challenged.

Recommendations

Instead of avoiding challenges, jump into them. Beat the heck out of them. Enjoy the game. If your challenges are too large or too numerous, do not give up. Failing makes you tired. Instead, reorganize. Find more determination, more knowledge, more help. If you have met your goals, set some bigger goals. Once you meet your personal or family needs, move onto goals for your group, the society, even mankind. Don't create success and lie in it. You have resources, skills and abilities to make a difference.

Put a shark in your tank and see how far you can really go!

All 4 Gone!

Woke up on wed morn. My original confidence, no-worries attitude towards the surgery seems to be a little shaken as I read up more on impacted wisdom teeth surgery using Google. Concern about the side effects & other possible complications. My decision this morn is to go ahead with it & don' t think so much. 3 months ago: My dentist has recommended me to do it @ Alex Hosp due to the angle of the tooth. I guess all my wisdom teeth are still in a gd state as they are not causing me any pain. However, the dentist recommended me to remove before they start to cause problems to the molars ard them as those lower jaws wisdom are fully grown. Brushing is definitely difficult due to the angle of the teeth & food debris trappings are likely. Conclusion of the day: Prevention is better than cure! Remove them now instead of risking to remove the molars 2gether with the wisdom only when they decay! So after so much of weighing the pros & cons, I decide to have all four of my wisdom removed under general anaesthesia.

My x-ray was done way bck on 13 Jan. Original surgery scheduled on 21 Mar but postphoned due to work commitments to 11 Apr. It has to be done witin 3 mths which is b4 13 Apr. If not, the validity of the x-ray will lapsed and I hve to do the x-ray again = more $$ phew...Since I am on the monetary issue, glad that a referral letter has been taken from the polyclinic...it saves me 700plus under govt subsidy & the whole bill thus amounted to 900plus which can be offset by medisave. Extracting 4 wisdom @ a go is more economical than 2 each time =)

~The surgery~
GA was really an xperience, you feel yourself become more & more tired...& before you realised you have fallen into a deep slumber. Totally don't noe what happen after that. Only rmb the last qns by the GA doc was: How old are you? Where are you working? When I woke up, my mouth felt numb with a long strip of cotton guaze in it. Blood pressure was being measured constantly. The rest I can't see clearly cos was without specs...Before long, the nurses pushed me & the bed back to the ward on level 1. Shall cut short on the post-surgery medications & stuff....feeling ok now....hope the pain wldnt augment over the nxt few days...& the face wldnt swell..wish me luck=P

Going to hve the stitches on chin removed tmr. Hope no obvious scaring =P
What a week of surgery & ops...nvr go hosp so freq in a week in my whole life!!
Phrase of the day from myself: 健康很重要，无论是身态或心灵上，与健康当好友，天天都美好！

Wisdom, Stitches, Pain?

Updating my blog on a weekday..Tuesday night to be exact.

Mixed feelings now...glad to see that the stitches on my chin are recovering fine. They will only be removed on Thurs.

Going for the long scheduled & postphoned wisdom tooth surgery tmr.....I was told not to hve any more food from tmr 6am onwards...which means I wld hve to miss bkfast tmr. Left ofc @ 10 todae. Went hme to eat mum's white congee. Although I felt full but eating dinner, I actually started to eat bread considering that I wld not be able to enjoy my fav essential meal of the day - bkfast tmr morn. Silly & irrational.

Kaya Toast

On Gd Fri morn, went to visit aunt' hse to see baby janelle..
Baby jan woke up v early...but today I didnt dare to carry her cos I injured my chin the night b4 on my way hme with coll sherry. Sherry accompanied me to RH A&E as the RMG clinics were closed. I had stitches done on my chin. Really hope there will be no scar after the stitches are taken out as per the doc..

We went to HG Mall to have bkfast @ ya kun toast. Baby Jan seems to hve separation anxiety with her grandma as per my cousin. After bkfast, we headed bck to her hse, my another young cousin jera was using straws to make hearts & stars for her sch...it seemed rather complicated...haha but she said can earn svc pts...helped her with a few...but had to consult her along the way when I was stuck hehe...

Suddenly, dunno where the inspiration came frm, my aunt, cousins etc decided to make KAYA today. Jera was given the task to go the mkt to buy 3 coconuts, 1 kg of sugar and she was keen to go cos she wanted to get her straws too...she asked me to accompany her so I went along. After getting the necessary ingredients, we started to prepare our own Kaya...while one of my uncle fed baby jan milk. Baby jan doesnt't like to drink milk these days & prefer plain water instd. Given a choice, she'll willingly suck the bottle with plain water & turn her head away from the bottle with milk. My uncle was pretty good @ feeding her..haha we were saying maybe she was too frightened off by him & thus drank her milk obediently.

While baby jan was taking her aftrn nap, we were in the kitchen making the kaya. Making kaya involves lotsa patience as my aunt explains...constant stirring is required. From the beating of the eggs, adding in of the sugar, beating again and subsequent stirring of the mixture over the fire, it really takes plenty of patience and time to hve a smooth and silky kaya texture as the end product. Pandan leaves give a light green colour to the mixture, adding in sugar that has dissolved makes it brown. It was fun preparing kaya with the whole family & I learnt how to make Kaya today. The smell of the fresh hot kaya was real good..it went well with crackers & white bread yummy=P

恩恩的大头照=P (she resembles the baby on MummyPoko Packaging?? hehe)

Mum' Savour

It is Sun again!

Attended my mgr's church wedds on sat aftrn...it's a v. sweet affair with flower girls & boys coming in b4 the bride walked down the aisle=)

Sun morn drove to mkt. Mum is going to make Popiah today! We got the necessary ingredients like the popiah skin, turnip, bean sprout, lettuce etc @ the mkt. Mum alwaz got lotsu stuff frm Amk mkt on Sun cos tt's the only day she goes to the mkt in a week. Got so much stuff in the end...wanted to call sis & bro to come down & help carry the stuff up frm the car.

From the grounding of the peanuts, mixing the sweet sauce to cooking the turnip...the steps involved can add up to quite a handful..but the results are pretty satisfying=) I luv Popiah, esp the qiji & sembawang hill food centre ones...but I muz agree that mum's ones are v v. nice too=P Sun's the best when I get to hang ard in the kitchen when mum prepare homecooked dishes 4 us...

For def. of popiah - refer to bro hk's blog hehe...