Monthly Archives: December 2010

White Fungus With Longan Drink


Its summer in New Zealand now and the heat in Auckland can be unbearable. What more perfect than a nice chilling beverage to cool the body and cheer me up. In Malaysia cheap and abundant stalls selling fresh coconut juice solves the problem. But coconuts in New Zealand costs like $4 each….at least! Ice creams are nice of course but it just makes you thirsty. Soft drinks and beer aren’t my cup of tea. I always liked chinese herbal tea (leung-sui) though. So I’ve decided that the boiled fungus and longan drink (suet-yee-longan) would be ideal for summer.

Ingredients

  • White fungus, about 1 handful
  • Dried longans, about half a handful, rinsed
  • 2-3 pcs honey dates (mat-joe), optional, rinsed
  • 2 strips pandan leaves
  • Sugar to taste

Method

  1. First soak the white fungus until its expanded and soft. Break it off into bite size pieces, wash and drain.
  2. Bring about 3.0 liters of water to boil in a pot with pandan leaves.
  3. Once boiling add in the fungus and dates if using. Bring to boil again.
  4. Once boiling, add in sugar to taste and bring to boil. Sugar is added early so that it has time to caramelise.
  5. Once boiling, lower the heat and let simmer covered for about 45 minutes or until the fungus is no longer “crunchy”.
  6. Add in longans. If necessary, season with sugar and/or add water. Bring to boil.
  7. Once boiling, lower heat and let simmer for another 20-30 minutes.
  8. All done!

I usually let it cool before consuming. For best results, I usually chill it in the fridge over night and its perfect for dessert or just a beverage by itself the next day! The soft and juicy longans with the silky fungus and slightly thick sweet pandan-scented broth says it all :-)

Autumn in Japan (III)


Day 3: Hiroshima

I had wanted to include Hiroshima in my travel itinerary because I felt that it was one of the places I wanted to visit in Japan, remembering its history as one of the two only cities in the world where the atomic bomb was ever dropped. The other being Nagasaki. My day started early morning at the Kyoto hostel I was staying in the night before after a tiring and fruitful day exploring Kyoto and Nara. Kenix and others had boarded the overnight bus back to Tokyo as it was a working day for them. I took the local train to Kyoto station where I boarded the Kodomi Shinkansen bullet train to the city of Hiroshima. It was a 4-hour journey.

Upon arrival, I noticed the Hiroshima station was very busy and huge. My plan was to spend a day here visiting the memorial park and museum, or the A-bomb Dome as the locals call it. I was equipped with not much information because I was too tired to do much survey when in Kyoto. Plus, I was assured by Ryan that a one day trip was more than enough in that city. I was relieved to find a tourist information centre with English speaking attendants at the Hiroshima station. So after a little chat and being provided with city map and tram route, I was ready to go.

The first stop was the A-bomb Dome, the remains of the tragic bombing in 1945 during World War 1. It was a tram ride away. As if to add a sense of sadness to the memory of the bombing, it was drizzling the whole day I was there in Hiroshima. I had to purchase an umbrella at a nearby 7-11 shop for 399yen.

The A-bomb dome was the only original damaged building structure at the memorial park still left standing until today to commemorate the fateful day.

A-Bomb Dome

The memorial park houses numerous monuments built in remembrance of the innocent people of Hiroshima who died and affected in any way by the horrible bombings. I did not get to take a lot of pictures of the monuments because of the rain and it was a little difficult balancing the umbrella using my chin and shoulder while my handbag hung from my other shoulder, one hand holding the camera with my feet hurting from the blisters due to too much walking in Kyoto and Nara the past 2 days…..well, you get the picture! I decided to save my energy in enjoying my moment sight-seeing in the park.

Memorial Park Hiroshima

I met Luisa, a young solo traveller from Germany and we decided to walk together as we both speak no Japanese! We paid 50 yen each admission fees each to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. We were greeted by an introductory 10-minute video about the background of the bombing and then a section about the history of Hiroshima city before the bombing. I liked the layout of the whole museum where it traced the whole story right from the days when Hiroshima was at its peak, to its lowest point during the bombings in its first section. A replica of the A-bomb Dome was placed right in the middle.

There were also some very very interesting “facts” about the reasons behind the bombings by the Americans. There were original confidential documents depicting that the bombing of Hiroshima was already in the planning, even before the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese. See, I’ve always learnt in history books that the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima was a respond to the surprise attack on the Americans in Pearl Harbour…..? Ah well, the Japanese insisted otherwise. And the ambience within the memorial museum was indeed very sombre. The videos and posters in the museum sends a very strong message that the Japanese is all for peace and against any form of nuclear weapons.

Interesting “fact”

My personal favorite artifact from the atomic bombing was a pocket watch collected from the bombing area. It was stopped at 8.15am, the exact time the atomic bombs were dropped onto Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.

Now that all visitors were well informed of the background and history of the bombings, the next section focused on the science and aftermath of the bombings. There were videos explaining the science and mechanics behind the atomic bombs, how it works with a lot of numbers on temperatures,  impacts, circumference of the “fblast” etc. A number of case studies were summarised on posters, pictures and videos showing documentaries of some of the medical conditions suffered by some survivors due to exposure to radioactive irradiation from the bombings….very heart wrenching stories. Tumors, internal bleedings, deformed babies, cancers…….just heart-wrenching. The after effects are still suffered by survivors up until today. You may find more information here.

I was informed that when in Hiroshima, the Okonomiyaki is a must try. Okonomiyaki is a Japanese savoury pancake with fillings like beansprouts, cabbage, noodles, meat, eggs and sometimes even cheese. Sometimes, its known as Japanese pizza. Its specialty lies in the Okonomiyaki sauce topping, a thick brownish dark sauce….reminds me of oyster sauce.

Luisa and I settled for this cute little stall, a bar-like layout with stools seated round a large frying pan, somewhat like the teppanyaki pan for the grilling of okonomiyaki right under our noses. We sat there dumbfounded staring at the Japanese menu written on a wooden board right above us. We spoke no Japanese, the chef spoke no English!

I ended up pointing to what the girl beside us was eating and signalled to the chef for one piece. The chef was understood that we meant to share that piece and took the liberty to cut it in half for us. It was a vegetarian okonomiyaki with noodles and lots of sauce……not very impressive but worth a try!

Our Okonomiyaki
Luisa and me

After lunch Luisa and I found a place to sit down and chatted since it was still raining. Plus, my feet was really hurting and I did not feel like walking anymore! We parted and exchanged e-mails an hour before my Shinkansen was due to arrive at about 6.00pm. Took a tram back to the Hiroshima station and bought bento for dinner on board the train. The journey back to Tokyo took more than 5 hours or so. I was literally exhausted and had a nice nap on the train. I was missing Kenix already….. :-)

Next up: Tokyo

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Autumn In Japan (II)


Day 2: Kyoto and Nara

After a good night’s rest, we head to the Tokufuji temple which is in the outskirt of Kyoto, a train ride away. The queue outside its entrance simply reflect that this temple is a must see. The queue was long but moving forward fairly swiftly. Tourism in Japan must be making lots of money. Admission fee is 400 yen per person, you do the math!

The queue at Tokufuji

Upon entering we were on this wooden and elongated pathway, overlooking its maple tree garden. Yes, more red leaves (and bigger crowds)! The view was very pleasant though it would be better with fewer people. Nevertheless, it was still a worthwhile visit.

The maple tree garden and the crowd
The crowded observatory from afar
All of us – Fuiming, me, Sue, Kenix and Ryan
Interesting shadows

We moved on to its main building which is a wooden castle. We were only permitted to mingle and take pictures at its vicinity. It was locked and looked deserted inside. There was a little zen garden. I especially loved the wooden door textures and colour.

The Zen garden
Beautiful wooden doors

Next stop was another temple, Fushimi Inari. Kenix said the temple houses two foxes to which the Japanese prays for agricultural harvest. The fox statues were seen everywhere. However, the most eye-catching feature of this place was its numerous shrines. It was quite a sight!

The shrines at Fushimi Inari

Look what I found at the temple!

We then took a train to Nara, arriving by noon time. The main attraction in Nara is their deer park where deers roam freely and you get to feed them with biscuits and pet them. From the train station, we took a bus to the deer park. The first thing I noticed was the horns of the male deers were all cut off, which I thought was sad. Perhaps it’s for safety purposes. Well anyway, we started walking around the park feeding deers with biscuits bought there. It was after lunch and quite a number of the deers were lazing around minding their own business. Some just did not bother to eat, even if you shove the food to their mouth. Had too much to eat I guess.

This one reminded me of Bambi

We made our way to another huge temple within the park, the Todaiji temple. It was simply beautiful! Unlike the Tokufuji, this temple is still active. There’s a gigantic statue of buddha inside and many were praying. There were also few other statues beside buddha which I did not recognise.

The magnificent Todaiji temple
Buddha

Then, Kenix and I and started lining up to wait for our turn to crawl through some hole which would bring good luck. The queue was pretty long and since we paid the admission fee, might as well try out everything there is! Ryan who didn’t join us in line, went further up to take pictures and came back telling us that it’s actually for kids and we won’t be able to crawl through the hole because it’s too small! Ah well, we went up the line with him and indeed it was a very small hole, through one of the wooden pillars.

A kid crawling through

We took a bus back to Nara city centre and had dinner. There, I parted ways with everyone because it’s a working day the next day for them. I took the train back to Kyoto alone and spent another night in the same hostel as the previous night. It had been a very long day and my I could already see a few big blisters on my foot due to excessive walking for 2 days straight!

Next up: Hiroshima

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Previous posts:

Autumn in Japan (I)


Day 1: Kyoto

People say Japan looks entirely different each season. White snow in winter, pink Sakura in spring, holidays in summer and red leaves in autumn. What better place to witness the incredible and infamous red maple leaves of autumn in Kyoto, Japan’s historical and one of the oldest city of Japan. I thought by “red leaves”, people really meant the brownish color of whitering leaves, a sign winter is near. Boy was I wrong. The maple leaves were bright chilli red and simply stunning! Apparently, the green maple leaves turn a bright yellow before turning bright red in autumn. The red leaves set against some yellow and green plus the clear blue sky, it was every photographer’s dream come true.

Kenix and me

We walked through this “bamboo jungle” and caught a glimpse of 2 geishas on a trishaw. Kenix said they were probably not real Geishas but tourists who paid to be made up like geishas and taken around for a ride as part of their package.

Bamboo
Geishas (Not…?)

I noticed that Japanese temples usually have a little board of some sort to display little wooden plates written with wishes. Of course you have to pay to write one and hang it on. Somewhat like a wishing tree. I thought it looked very interesting and Japanese.

Japanese “wish board”

Our day in Kyoto was spent visiting magnificent ancient temples and castles, set against the backdrop of amazing red maple leaves. It was impossible to stop by each and every temple/castle in Kyoto. Firstly there were heaps of them and secondly, we were charged admission fees. Since Kenix had been here in Spring, she recommended her favorites which she thinks are worth a visit. Next stop, the Golden Pavillion “Kinkaku-ji”.

Kinkaku-ji: The Golden Pavillion

We took a bus to Philosophy, a touristy spot featuring stalls selling Japanese souvenirs and snacks. It was super crowded! Ah well, Kenix said Kyoto is crowded at all times due to excessive marketing campaigns attracting tourists to Kyoto from all over Japan and beyond. I bought myself a 4 flavoured soft serve sundae (always yes to ice cream!) - sweet potato, red tea, green tea and vanilla for 250yen. Not yummy per se, but worth a try for its unique Japanese taste. Oh did I mention Japanese love their teas? They even infuse it into ice cream flavours, that’s how much they love tea!

The crowd at Philosophy
Some Japanese confectionery
Quadruple flavoured sundae

Our next stop was supposed to be another temple up the hill, the Kiyomizudera temple. But due to seriously bad traffic, it was almost sunset when we arrived by bus. No sunlight, no views. However, we noticed a poster announcing there will be night illumination starting from 6.30pm at the said place. Apparently this only happens rarely and the lights depicted in the poster was spectacular. And so why not? We made our way up the hill and the more we walked, the crowd became denser and denser…… At one point, we were just stuck, puzzled at why everyone was just standing there because the entrance was still a few hundred meters away.

“This isn’t the queue, is it?”

You bet! It was unbelievable!!! Even if you managed to get a ticket in, how do you suppose a crowd like this to fit into the place and “enjoy” the scenery? With that, we decided to go off for dinner and called it a day.

Next up: Nara.

Previous post: Autumn in Japan (Prologue)

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Autumn in Japan (Prologue)


When my good friend Kenix invited me to visit her in Japan this year, I jumped at the chance! Like (almost) everyone else, I enjoy travelling for leisure a lot. Read: HOLIDAY! :-) Japan was never on my list of must-go places simply because I never thought it was possible due to its reputation of being one of the most expensive holiday destinations in the world. Free accommodation was a bonus *wink* but the company of a close and localised friend sealed the deal for me. From impossible Japan to “why not?” Japan! I discovered travelling to the Land of the Rising Sun does not necessarily need to put a hole in your pocket, you just have to do some homework and fish for bargain deals which are exclusive to foreign tourists like me (and you!). Probably I’ll cover my preparations prior to arriving to Japan in another post. For now, this will be the first of a series of posts documenting the places I’ve seen during my unforgettable 10-day stay in this amazing country.

I arrived at the Tokyo Narita Airport about 7pm local time and by the time I made it to Kenix’s apartment by train, it was already after 10pm. So I figured I wouldn’t count this as Day 1. I couldn’t sleep the first night, jet lag probably and I had to be up and ready by 5.30am to catch the earliest train to Kyoto, my first destination. I spent the night alone because Kenix would be catching the overnight bus to Kyoto with 2 of her friends joining us, and I’d take the Shinkansen bullet train which would cut the journey down to about 2 hours! Of course, the Shinkansen fare is a few times more expensive than regular highway buses and therefore, its more economical for Kenix to not choose this route. As for me, well….what did I tell ya about cheap bargains for foreign tourists in Japan?? ;-)

I was very nervous about taking the train all by myself initially. Kenix was really helpful planning the train transfer routes and times beforehand and giving me clear instructions and directions to the train station from her place. So, armed with all the printouts of the train routes and zero Japanese language skills, I braved myself to catch the train, make 1 transfer and finally board the Shinkansen to Kyoto to meet Kenix and her friends, my very first adventure in Japan!

I am very proud to report that I arrived in Kyoto as planned the next day, in one piece. And may I say, I was very very very impressed with the Japanese railway system! Even if I cannot read or speak a word of Japanese, getting around the train stations and platforms was very straightforward and clear. All I needed was the train route plan in my hands and just follow the departure times of trains to make sure which train to take at each platform. All trains arrive on the dot…..like the DOT! One minute late and you’ll miss the train. In addition, the transfer times of trains are very well organised and you do not need to wait longer than 10 mins for your next train to arrive. If the platform of your next train is quite a walk away (some stations are huge!), be assured the arrival time is more than 10-15 minutes away. By the time you get to the right platform, the train is always less than 10 minutes away……WOW!

The Shinkansen bullet train line is the pride of Japanese transport system. The Japanese are the pioneers of this technology which now are adopted in Shanghai, Taiwan and some European countries. I felt privileged to have an opportunity to ride this high-speed train. The built and look of the Shinkansen is very modern and futuristic. The journey to Kyoto was fast and surprisingly smooth, literally. I think it was travelling at speeds over 300 km/hour. I rode the Kotomi Shinkansen which stops at a few major stations before arriving in Kyoto. I hardly felt the train stopping or speeding up after stops, that’s how smooth the Shinkansen was. Clean, comfy and spacious seats made my 2-hour ride to Kyoto very pleasant indeed!

Next up:

Chinese Pork Stew


Chinese pork stew (low-jue-yoke) is one of my favourite dishes to make. Simply because everything is cooked in a single pot (yat-wok-suk!!), it lasts a few days and actually gets more flavourful day by day. Typical accompaniments for the pork are shiitake mushrooms and boiled eggs (low-dan). Ideally pork belly (fah-lam-yoke) should be used because of its decent fat to flesh ratio. Its alternate layers of meat and fat (mmmm…….) is very important to ensure your stewed pork won’t turn out stiff and dry! I am not a fan of shiitake mushrooms, but since Terry is not much of a pork person, I usually add in a fair amount of shiitake mushrooms to keep him happy.

Ingredients

  • ~300g pork belly meat, cut into bite sizes
  • ~8 pcs dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked til plump and soft, sliced
  • 3 eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
  • Chinese 5-spice powder (ng-heung-fun)
  • 3/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup dark soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
  • 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
  • Salt to taste
  • Sugar to taste
  • Cornflour (optional)

Method

  1. Marinate pork with one tablespoon of 5-spice powder and enough soy sauce to coat every piece. Set aside.
  2. To prepare gravy, mix the 3/4 cup of soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of five spice powder together in a bowl. Add about 1/2 cup water, stir. Set aside.
  3. Heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a medium saucepan.
  4. Fry garlic and ginger until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
  5. Pour in your gravy, bring to boil.
  6. Once boiling, add in pork, shiitake mushrooms and eggs. If needed, add more water until all ingredients are covered in gravy. If it looks too diluted, add some dark soy sauce and/or soy sauce carefully. Bring to boil.
  7. Once boiling, switch to low heat, cover and let simmer for about an hour or until pork is tender.
  8. Season with salt and sugar if needed.
  9. If you prefer to have your gravy slightly thick, stir in a teaspoon or two of cornflour (optional).
  10. Remove from heat and serve!

Like I mentioned, I find the dish more flavourful the next day. Its perfect on rice or even noodles (gon-lou). Please note this recipe is for a decent pot of pork stew enough for the two of us for like 2 days! Feel free to half it. Anyway, the most important thing is the gravy so as long as you have something blackish and enough to cover your stuff, it’ll work just fine, no matter the amount! I think this recipe can be directly applied for chicken feet and mushroom stew too (dong-goo-mun-gai-geok), simply by subsituting pork belly with fried chicken feet. Maybe you could give that a try too.

How To Make A Couch Potato Happy


Everyday when I come home, I cook, eat, wash, shower and *plop*….I’m on the bed, remote control in hand flicking on the TV. Back in Malaysia I had cable TV at home so everything was bliss. Here in my current rented double room which I share with Terry, all we had was an old 20-inch box type and used TV and a table top indoor antenna. Which I was quite happy with since we started off with no TV at all at our very first room we rented 2 years ago. Then we moved to our second place and bought a small 14 inch $1 used TV which pretty much showed stars and flickers. Then we moved again, this time the landlord has a 30 something inch flat screen and cable TV…..how nice…..

Then we ended up at this current room with no TV. During our first few months here, I felt sleepy and went to bed at about 9.00pm (plus minus) every night….well because I had nothing else better to do! It was pretty depressing, being a couch potato and all…..without a TV you’re just a lazy pig who sleeps at 9.00pm!

Watching your partner turning into a pig was no fun and as such, Terry bought the above mentioned $5 20-inch used box TV off Trade Me, a local online auction website. Sort of like the Malaysian equivalent of Lelong.com. And it came with a remote. And so I started to stay awake watching TV every night until it was 11.00pm. The couch potato was back and she was quite happy.

Anyhow, since the TV was in our own room, with no external antenna, we had to settle with a table top indoor antenna. $5 dollar bunny ears antenna didn’t work so we bought a good $30 one so that we could boost the signal reception. The pictures were not sharp because of the weak reception, but still watchable. And we could only get to receive a few channels. However, everytime I changed the channel, I had to readjust the antenna. Pretty sad….but hey at least I can watch TV.

Then Terry decided that we should get a digital decoder so that we get crystal clear pictures even though if the signal is weak. Off we went to hunt on Trade Me again and we got this 4 year old 32-in flat screen TV plus decoder at a fair price. And so he installed the huge-ass TV, connected it to the decoder and the good old indoor antenna as receiver. Voila! Crystal clear pictures! Terry’s so smart! Still not receiving all channels although with repititive tuning attemps but the couch potato was happy!

And so I get to have my TV time every night, with slight disturbances where I need to readjust the antenna position occassionally….I think its affected by weather. One day, I came home and had a pleasant surprise. TV time as usual but as I flicked the remote, I noticed there were additional channels.

“Terry, did you tune the TV again, we are getting all channels now! Even chinese channel!”

“Oh yes, there’s a new antenna”

“New antenna?”

I was pretty puzzled because I can still clearly see the table top antenna and its red light on.

Terry pointed to the side of the TV table and then I saw it.

Terry built his own TV antenna!

Who knew that an antenna made from scrap works so much better than a $30 one. Terry is so smart, my very own at-home handyman….. :-)

Christmas In The Park 2010


11/12/2010

Christmas in the Park is here again! This is the time of year when heaps and heaps and heaps of Kiwis come to the Auckland Domain for a nice picnic and free concert. Concert starts at 7.30pm but people come as early as 5.00pm to pick a nice picnic spot. With mats, tents, camping chairs, blankets and all!

This is actually the second time I have attended this concert. The first time was back in 2008, my how time flies. So…..this time around, I was more prepared. I don’t have a picnic mat so I brought an old bedsheet. Beers for Terry, water, camping chair, 2 packets of chips and some roast potatoes and mussels packed into a lunch box. And off we went, arriving at 6.00pm. Our car was parked 15 minutes walk away, far far away from the domain to avoid jams or carparks that charge like $10!

The huge Christmas tree

As Terry and I walk into the domain, it was already 50% filled. Especially around the stage vicinity, it was packed! Guess everyone was eager to catch a glimpse of their favorite local artistes peforming that night. Well, since good sound systems i.e. huge speakers were set all around, we decided to settle for a spot really far away but strategic in a sense we could view the entire field. And we’re near the portable toilets *wink* I  also noticed police patrols, st john ambulance booths and also an enormous “Lost Kids” balloon….just in case….

Our spot

There were food stalls selling chips, hot dogs, doughnuts, pizza, candy floss and drinks. Judging from the number of people there, the queue at the stalls were actually not that long. Not surprising as I saw many brought bags and boxes of food supply from home, me included. Everyone was getting cosy at their little spot eating snacks and laughing with friends. It was a very nice ambience.

Things started to get crazier as more people swarmed in. Our spot wasn’t that bad as we were not in the “middle”. We couldn’t get in touch with a friend who’s suppose to meet us because the Vodafone appears to have jammed. Yes folks, I realised that this happends in New Zealand too. I remember how Maxis sucks during each festive season, You have to send your greetings 2 or 3 days earlier.

The stage and the crowd

The concert started off with live performances of christmas songs – Silent Night, The First Noel etc. As it was summer, the domain was not dark even when it was over 8pm. Makes you want to stay and stay and stay enjoying the songs. Yes, in New Zealand, we get summer christmas instead of white christmas.

We decided to leave as it started to get more crowded. Shortly after we left, my friend’s texts started arriving saying she was in the middle of the crowd near the stage, it was crazy and she rather not “fight” her way through to join us. Poor thing….

Next year I’ll make it a point to stay until the closing…with Santa on the sleigh and fireworks.

Merry Christmas everyone!

P.S. I made it snow on my blog, pretty cool huh?!

Day Two


Just one day after my first post, I am starting to think all this blogging thing is a mistake! I start to doubt if I can consistently update with interesting stuff about my life that people would actually enjoy reading. I know, I know, I blog for myself and not for an audience. But I really can’t help it. I wouldn’t want to come back and read my own posts and find it mundane and pointless. Yes I consider myself as one of my own audiences.

Perhaps I should just relax and take it easy. Maybe today is not a good day to write. Probably I am being too hard on myself again. I have already changed the appearance of my blog more than thrice since yesterday. I want it to look good, its one of the factors that would make me like my own blog and prompt me to write better. I am not quite happy with this narrow column for my posts though. The sides seem too wide and a waste of space! I want my words to be the centre of attention here, yet I want the blog (My blog!) to look nice as a whole. I want it more personalised, to be more “Me”….but I am not tech savvy enough to make the necessary tweaks!

This is very frustrating and it is making me very anxious too.

.

.

.

.

.

Its been 5 minutes since the last line was written. And look, I’ve hit 240 words for this post. Thats not so bad, ain’t it?

I feel better now.

I think I can really do this blogging thingy.

End of lament.

The First Post


Two failed attempts at creating a blog and actually keeping it active, I am quite sceptical at starting this one. You see, having a string of abandoned blogs under your belt ain’t something you should be proud of. But don’t get me wrong, the idea of having a weblog document my life events appeals very strongly to me. And I enjoy writing a lot. It’s just that…..well, enjoying writing is one thing, being good and consistent at it is another!

Probably I was being too hard on myself. My frequent excuse was “I have nothing special to write” or rather “If I have nothing special to write, I might as well don’t”. Or some days I was just plain lazy. But how could this be? If writing is really what I enjoy doing, then I wouldn’t have to drag myself to do it, yes? Afterall, a blog should be a medium where you write your thoughts or feelings…to express yourself. Casually. Yes, ”casual” is the key. With that,  let’s wish a long life to this blog, where I vow to casually and consistently update with musings, experiences, hobbies, stories and many more.

Here’s to my life. Unscripted.