Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

A daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling.

It seemed that just as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen.

He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one he placed carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and the last he placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word.

The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. In about twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her he asked, "Darling, what do you see?"

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft.

He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.

She humbly asked, "What does it mean, Father?"

He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity, boiling water, but each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. But after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" he asked his daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?

I heard the story while doing my MBA and in Serena Yong's (my ex-boss) presentations during one of those forecast review sessions in my days in APJ. It just came to me, that as Christians that we ought to do more than just be affected by life, we ought to influence the people around us - spread His love. Hmm...

Winter preparations

Warm Feet with Australian Lambskin Wool Boots
So tonight I dug my winter indoor furry boots out - UGG boots as the Aussies called them :) They were sent to me courtesy of Uncle Simon last winter from Brisbane, Australia... love that man. Sitting down during the night conference calls can be cold for the feet.

Warm in Bed
Last weekend over dinner Vinny was complaining about having too much stuff and no room in his tiny 8ping apartment (26.4sq meter). So I offered to buy his extra electric blanket off him. It's kinda win-win, he gets rid of the extra one and I get to stay warm and toasty in bed. Last winter I resisted an electric blanket - paranoia about being electrocuted in my sleep. What changed then? Remembering how much I hate being cold, especially while sleeping.

I like to think that I've gained some winter experience now that this is winter no. 2 for me. :)

My 1st weekend as a 38-er

Post birthday dinner with Vinny & GH turned out to be a 2-parter dinner. Yeah, Vinny was nice enough to let me choose the restaurant and I was torn between Persian (Iranian) food and this French restaurant that had pretty good reviews on some blogsites. And he being the foodie, we ended up eating at both, not in the same night of course!

Friday night, it was Persian Heaven.
Address: 1, Ln 61, Hejiang Street, Taipei (台北市合江街61巷1號)Telephone: (02) 2517 1603.

The barbequed meats tasted pretty good actually. And there was meal-time entertainment, this belly dancer whose wobbly bits troubled me.. I like my muscles rock hard and taut please!

Then French on Sunday night, L’Idiot, address: 台北市民生東路3段156號1樓（近敦化北路口）156 MinSheng E Rd Sec 3 Tel 02-25456966. The 8 course set meal was excellent! Saturday was a hang out with the gals evening with GH & Emily - the 3 of us hung out, ate a fantastic dinner GH made (her shepherd's pie was simply awesome), watched DVDs, baked cookies all night. I stumbled home at 2-ish am.

Counter-efforts vs the good food this weekend, I managed a half hour run at the gym after morning mass & also climbed on Sat. Vain pathetic losing efforts against the bulge.

about and around Taiwan

Last Friday, GH and I checked out Ningxia night market - a little known night market amongst tourists, but said to be the best night market food in Taipei. It is really ALL food, unlike Shilin, and very few non-Taiwanese about. Here's the really (REALLY) yummy taro balls for which we queued almost 20mins and endured the rude service for.

And here's a pix of us at some green moss filled lake in Alishan. This was some weeks back, but dear GH just managed to download her camera...

Another year, another birthday

And with that, I turn 38. Time flies, I can't believe it's my 2nd birthday spent in Taiwan. And to quote the very wise Fr Anthony - who was overheard muttering "there is no new/old year, every year's the same"... It certainly does feel the same, between being 37 and now, 38. Hmm...

"Good for you"

What does it mean when someone says "Good for you"?

E.g.
Me - I had a great time over the weekend.
Response - "good for you!"

Now what does that mean?

I always resented it when I get that response. To me, it means, "Yeah really? Well, good for you, cos I don't give a shit!"

So can someone shed some light, does "good for you!" as a response supposed to be taken postitively, have I been wrong all these years?

It's Advent!

Steph was up late (as usual) and gave me this link


And from there, I was led to this...



Enjoy! A reminder of the season - Christ is our Saviour. Amen!

It's officially winter!

It's interesting to have seasons. It's also interesting that now we can dig out our winter jackets again.

What's not so interesting is the feeling of being cold. I had a pre-taste.

Went for a weekend getaway with Emily & Ghee Hwee at the Green Island. It was hot and balmy when we left on Friday - felt like 30degrees in the day. So all I packed was a cardigan. Winter arrived somewhere between dive no. 2 and dive no. 3 ; between Saturday late afternoon and Sunday morning.

Water temperature on Saturday was 27-28degrees C ; Sunday was 25-26degrees C.

The sudden cold front brought with it high waves... The ferry ride out of Green Island made me sick enough to barf. So much for the big lunch I had :(

Blues drove all the way from Taitung back to Taipei. We stopped at Hualien for dinner - ate a big meal again, then started to wind through the mountains. I felt sick all over again.

Yeah, it was a fun weekend all in. I still feel slightly queasy but it'll pass... or so I hope.

PS I need a thicker wetsuit.. my 2.5mm wetsuit is suitable only for Singapore/Malaysian waters.

Typhoon!

I've been a little busy lately due to my platforms launch dates plus being coordinator for the upcoming marketing summit.

Up to late last night, I was in the office working on a set of slide templates. I wasn't working late alone, GH, Chris and Emily as well. At some point in the night, Chris insisted on booze, GH found a bottle of red wine and they popped it open with a screwdriver (seriously!)... We drank French wine out of little paper cups. Groan... Anyhow, I managed to finish the slides, sent it out and then we went home at midnight. Yet another long day in the office :)

We had a marketing summit sync up meeting this morning at 9am. I did not realise a "typhoon" blew in overnight.

Overnight, the organization was changed - the mini NB team is now part of my boss's organization. Impact to me - possibly reshuffle of platform responsibilities. And, the marketing summit is cancelled. Just like that. All those late nights, that template I worked on just a couple of hours ago..

I was soooo looking forward to meeting Steph! Most importantly!

Jay Chou & Ghee Hwee

Ghee Hwee gave me Jay Chou's latest album Capricorn - complete with my favourite song - Daoxiang.
I was bitching last Monday - stressed from work and also largely from the loneliness. And she wanted to get me the CD to cheer me up, but she was too busy until Saturday to buy it. She gave it to me Satuday night when we met up for dinner.

I was so touched. *sob*

Now happy - have Jay Chou rapping in my ears...

Happy All Saints Day!

After work on Friday evening, I went with Luca and Ghee Hwee for some Italian at Capones. There was a live band playing and as we left after dinner, our bellies full of excellent pizzas, the refrains of Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry rang in my head for a long while - "everything's gonna be all right!"...



Saturday morning, I was awoken by the ADSL guy. He replaced the phone plug, hopefully that helps - my Internet connectivity's been unstable, really bugs me as it takes forever to get TV downloaded! Grr... Spent the rest of the day cleaning house and watching TV until Ghee Hwee called for dinner.

We had some excellent dim sum from Tang Dynasty, then headed for a foot massage. We meant to go to the 6 Star Foot Massage at Bade Road, but saw this other one next door and decided to give it a try.

Walking in, I started whinging to her about why no TVs available... But the place is really different. In front of the massage chairs is a wall with flowing water and get this, live music - a celloist + pianist played through out the 70min massage. It was really out of this world, all you hear is the gurgling sounds of the water feature on the wall and the live classical music. The classiest foot massage place in Taipei - 928 Goldmine Foot Massage, at No. 324, Sec. 2, Bade Rd.

To everyone in Taipei, instead of happy halloween, I wish you all a Happy All Saint's Day!