Optical Illusions

We went to Castle Mall at night some time back. The corridors were empty and most of the shops were all closed. We were headed for Coles to get some bread and milk, I think.

MacGyver and the two kids walked ahead. I pulled out my phone to take a picture of them walking on my favourite section where the tiles have this optical illusion design on the floor.

ANZAC Biscuits

I got a taste of ANZAC biscuits last Friday. They were like oatmeal cookies but better (read sweeter).

Here is a recipe I will try one day.

ANZAC BISCUITS

Makes around 28 biscuits

1 t butter for greasing

1 c rolled oats

1/2 c flour

1/2 c desiccated coconut

1/2 c brown sugar

70 g butter

2 T golden syrup

1t baking soda

1T boiling water

Preheat oven to 160C and grease several baking trays with butter.

Combine oats, flour, coconut and sugar in a large mixing bowl.

Place butter and golden syrup in a saucepan. Melt over medium heat.

Stir to combine then turn off the heat and let the mixture cool a little.

Add baking soda to boiling water in a small bowl.

Tip mixture into melted butter and syrup.

Tip wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Combine using a wooden spoon.

Place teaspoons of batter onto grease baking trays leaving about 5 cm of space between them to allow biscuits to spread. Use your fingers to flatten them a little bit.

Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Colonel Sanders

As compared to Betty Crocker in the previous post, Colonel Harland David Sanders is a real person. Colonel Sanders should be an inspiration to people young and old. At age 40 he started serving his chicken and at the age of 65 he started franchising Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. (Gosh, I wonder what I will be able to achieve in the coming years.)

Needless to say, I love KFC and I am thankful to Colonel Sanders for coming up with his pressure frying technique and mixing up those 11 herbs and spices. Anybody who really knows me knows that I love gravy (lots and lots of gravy!). Too bad they don't have free gravy refills out here. You have to PAY for extra gravy. Heck, they don't even give you a fork for your chicken here. The most you will get is a spoon for your mashed potatoes. I suppose one could use that if one decided to go for the extra gravy.

I have included some of KFC's history from the KFC Australia website just for reference.

KFC History - Colonel Sanders

Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of the original Kentucky Fried Chicken, was born on September 9, 1890. When he was six, his father died and his mother was forced to go to work while young Sanders took care of his three year old brother and baby sister. This meant he had to do much of the family cooking. By the time he was seven, Harland Sanders was a master of a range of regional dishes.

After a series of jobs, in the mid 1930s at the age of forty, Colonel Sanders bought a service station, motel and cafe at Corbin, a town in Kentucky about 25 miles from the Tennessee border.

He began serving meals to travellers on the dining table in the living quarters of his service station because he did not have a restaurant.

It is here that Sanders began experimenting with different seasonings to flavour his chicken which travellers loved and for which he soon became famous.

He then moved across the street to a motel and restaurant, which seated 142 people. During the next nine years he developed his secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices and the basic cooking technique which is still used today.

Sander's fame grew. Governor Ruby Laffoon made him a Kentucky Colonel in 1935 in recognition of his contributions to the state's cuisine. And in 1939, his establishment was first listed in Duncan Hines' "Adventures in Good Eating".

A new interstate highway carried traffic past the town, which soon had a devastating affect on his business.
He sold up and travelled the United States by car, cooking chicken for restaurant owners and their employees. If the reaction was favourable Sanders entered into a handshake agreement on a deal which stipulated a payment to him of a nickel for each chicken the restaurant sold.

By 1964, from that humble beginning, Colonel Harland Sanders had 600 franchise outlets for his chicken across the United States and Canada.

Later that year Colonel Sanders sold his interest in the United States operations for $2 million.
The 65-year-old gentleman had started a worldwide empire using his $105 social security cheque.
Sadly, Colonel Harland Sanders passed away on December 16th, 1980 aged 90.

KFC now stretches world wide with more than 9,000 stores in 86 countries serving the Colonel's Original Recipe.

Betty Crocker

Betty Crocker is not a real person. She is a brand character similar to Ronald McDonald.

According to wikipedia, this name was first developed in 1921 by the Washburn Crosby Company which later merged with several milling companies to form General Mills. The name Betty was chosen for the cheery, all-American name while Crocker came from the Washburn Crosby company director William Crocker.

Marjorie Husted was a home economist and businesswoman who helped develop this character. At the onset, Betty Crocker provided personalized responses to consumer product questions. The daytime radio broadcast Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air debuted in 1924. Ms. Husted provided the voice and scripts for that show for two decades. A portrait of Betty Crocker first appeared in 1936. In 1949, actress Adelaide Hawley Cumming became Betty Crocker, appearing on TV until 1964.

Over the years, the image of Betty Crocker has changed. The current image of Betty Crocker, according to the corporation, is actually a combination of 75 real-life women of diverse backgrounds and ages thought by the company to represent the true Betty Crocker. These portraits were always painted, with no real person ever having posed as a model, and they never showed the character from the shoulders down.

Meditation

Encounter with meditation #1. I caught an episode of the TV series Medium the other week that had the father-in-law of Allison DuBois paying her a visit and telling her that his son should go see a doctor. They showed a flashback of the father having a heart attack (and dying). Allison's husband Joe eventually goes to see a doctor who recommends that he does some meditation to help lower his blood pressure. Joe was skeptical about the whole meditation thing but decides to try it anyway. He takes his meditation guidebook and looks for a spot outside his office to meditate during his lunch break. While he was there, someone else arrives. It is the owner of the company Joe works for and the chosen spot just happens to be where his boss does HIS meditation during breaks. This unexpected meeting brings Joe to the attention of his big boss who later pays him a visit, shares his experience about the benefit of meditation, and invites Joe to an upcoming after office event. At the end of the episode, the father pays Allison another visit and admits that nothing is wrong with Joe but that it was his way of helping out his son.

Encounter with meditation #2. When I go to the library, I make a bee-line for light reading in the romance section. Having read most of the Nicholas Sparks and Cecelia Ahern books available in the library, I venture out and borrow books by other authors in the nearby bookshelves. Sometimes, if we arrive towards the end of the day, the returned books waiting to be shelved are stacked in the trolley and parked along the aisle. On two consecutive visits to the library, I found books written by the Dalai Lama on the trolley. I borrowed both of them.

The first one I read was How to See Yourself As You Really Are, while the second one (the one I have been reading on the bus to work), co-written by Laurens van den Muyzenberg is The Leader's Way. Both books mention meditation. The first book mentioned breathing three times through your left nostril, then three times through your right nostril, then three times through both nostrils. The second book has the co-write giving a layman's description of the same thing on pages 62 to 63.

Van den Muyzenberg writes:

Visualization exercises involve some more advanced control over the mind. This type of meditation asks you to imagine yourself changing into something else, and its purpose for non-Buddhists is to calm the mind. Here is just one example of how to go about it.

Imagine that you have three channels in your body. The central channels is a transparent tube about the width of your little finger, running straight down the center of your body from the crown of your head to the base of your spine. The right and the left channels are also transparent tubes but are narrower than the central channel. They run from your nostrils up to the crown of your head, where they curve down like an umbrella handle to run along the central channel, parallel with the spine to slightly below your navel, where they join the central channel.

Having visualized these three channels, first breathe in through your left nostril, imagining that the air is flowing into the crown of your head and continuing down the left channel to the left of your navel, where it switches to the right channel. Here, you breathe out through that channel, passing the crown of the head and flowing out past the right nostril. Repeat this three times. Next, do the same exercise starting with the air coming in through the right nostril and going out through the left nostril. Do this three times. Lastly, breathe in through both nostrils together, bringing the air past the crown and down through the right and left channels to the point where they join the central channel. When the air reaches the central channel, tighten your inner pelvis and hold your breath. As soon as you no longer feel comfortable, exhale naturally through your nostrils, but visualize that, instead of air going out, it dissolves inside the central channel. Do this three times.

On page 65, the Dalia Lama describes the Padme Hum. I found this part interesting because we often see people chanting while doing meditation. I figure this is the Padme Hum which apparently has deeper meaning than just a repetition of words.

This mantra is also often recited as a dedication when someone has died. When my mother passed away,my brother and I and many others recited Om Mani Padme Hum more than a hundred thousand times.

The meaning of Om Mani Padme Hum is very inspiring. OM, pronounced as AUM or OHM, means body, speech, and mind. When we use the sound OM, it signifies that we would like to develop a pure body, speech, and mind, such as those of Buddha. Purity, here, refers to the absence of negative thoughts and emotions and of bad (unwholesome) actions. The remaining syllables indicate how to make this transition and use objects as symbols. MANI, meaning jewel, relates to Right Conduct, taking the right action inspired by an altruistic intention. PADME means lotus. A lotus is perfectly white even though it grows out of mud. It presents an image of your mind that is impure (stained with mud) and can become pure (white lotus flower), so relating to Right View. HUM means "indivisible"; that is, Right View and Right Conduct must be combined.

Breathing exercises helped me immensely when I was going through Lamaze. I don't think I am ready to go down the road of serious meditation just yet but I do believe that there is benefit in doing so.

Lost and Found

I was on the bus the other day and observed this young lady on a seat across me. She seemed like a university student with her A4 notebook and her iPod. As we approached the first stop at the city, I noted a blue highlighter on the floor of the bus beside her seat. When she looked my way, I motioned to show her the fallen highlighter. She smiled and picked the highlighter up. As she tucked her highlighter in her pencil case, the bus reached our stop.

She got down ahead of me and we both walked towards the Queen Victoria Building. From the corner of my eye, I noticed someone running in our direction. It was a lady in high heels. She overtook me and caught up with the uni student then handed her a pink cellphone.

I am sure she won't remember me but she would surely remember the lady in heels.

The uni student must have been thanking her lucky stars that day.

SketchUp

One of my boys has recently gotten hooked on Google SketchUp. It seems that his teacher asked him to do some extra work since he was the first to finish something or another in his Technology Information Communication (TIC) class. He was given a choice of studying the program Moviemaker, making a PowerPoint quiz that would link to YEAH! or BOO! at the end, or studying Google SketchUp. He chose to study Google SketchUp, and according to him, at some future date, he would "teach" his teacher (and perhaps his classmates) how to use the software.

He started with SketchUp at school and continued playing with it at home. With some guidance and tips from MacGyver, he has managed to come up with his ideal house.

Let me give you a tour of his first draft.

This is what his house looks like from the outside.

Notice something weird under driveway in front of the garage?

No, there is no mistake in the picture. That patch of dark is meant to be there.

Do you want to know what it is?

Well, it's where the batmobile is hidden (of course!). You can see it from this angle.

(BTW, there is a Ferrari in the main garage for his daytime driving.)

Now that you've seen the what the house looks like from the front, check out the backyard...

(This is based on the backyard of the house where we stayed for over a month.)

... and the bathroom.

(This is essentially what can be found in the bathroom here at Northern Views.)

And now ... here is the main attraction ... the shots you have been waiting for ... the master's bedroom.

From afar you can see the piano, the study table with a PC and printer, a plasma TV, four speakers, two bean bags and an airconditioner.

Can you guess now who designed this masterpiece of a room?

If you guessed RD, you're right! This view of the room shouts RD with all those Perry the Platypus plushies on the headboard.

To prepare for that future date where RD would be required to 'teach' Google SketchUp, we had a dry run at home where MyGirl and I were his students. MacGyver rang a bell to announce the "start of class" and RD called his class to order. RD taught us how to create floors and walls, how to change the color or texture of these surfaces, how to download images for our designs, etc.

So thanks to RD, I have learned something new.

Little Pookie

MyGirl's bedtime companion is Little Pookie, a pink plushie pig (from one of her uncles or aunties) based on one of Sandra Boynton's characters. She absolutely LOVES this stuffed pig. She refused to put this pig in the shipping boxes and her luggage, so she hand-carried it with her on the plane.

The unthinkable happened last week, Little Pookie got a little pukey. Yes, MyGirl vomited in bed and LP was among the casualties. The bedsheet and the blanket were easy enough to handle, but LP was a different story altogether. The cleaning instructions on LP indicated surface washing only so that is what I tried. However, my initial surface washing didn't quite do the trick. I figured I would put LP in the washing machine on a sunny day.

As the days wore on, MyGirl started missing her bedtime buddy. She urged me to get LP clean again so that they could be reunited. When the weather report predicted "mostly sunny" we decided to give cleaning LP another shot.

We were going to do a load of towels and figured this would be the best batch for LP to join. I tossed LP into the washing machine with the towels but before hitting the START button, I announced that I was not sure what would happen to her toy (considering the cleaning instructions and all). I asked MyGirl if she wanted me to give surface washing one more try. I think I scared her with my statement because she sheepishly asked that we pull her toy out of the washing machine. We retrieved poor LP from the sea of towels and spared it the wash cycles.

MyGirl stood behind me as I filled up a basin with some water then added liquid detergent. As I was about to start washing LP, she shrank back and said, "I don't want to watch." (Seriously, she sounded as if I was going to torture her pig.)

Anyway, I hung up LP on the laundry lines after I washed it and hoped for the best.

That evening, when I got home from work, we checked Little Pookie out.

See for yourself whether I did a good job or not.

This is how I found MyGirl's bed when I went to her room one evening.

MyGirl quickly jumped into bed with LP to join the shot.

Holy Week Here and Yonder

PALM SUNDAY

Traditionally on Palm Sunday, there would be a dozen or so vendors positioned outside churches in the Philippines selling palms of different sizes and designs. People would buy one or two palms and have these blessed by the priest. During the blessing there would be a loud rustle of leaves and a huge sea of green. I wondered where we would get palms here in Australia, knowing there would be no vendors weaving and selling palms outside the church.

When we arrived at St. Bernadette's last Sunday, I got my answer.

At the entrance of the church, there was a table with a basket full of cut palm branches. Each piece had about four or five pairs of leaves. We saw the churchgoers ahead of us pick up branches, so we simply followed suit.

During the mass, when the priest went around to bless the palms, we raised the palm branches like everyone else. There was no fanfare, just a simple blessing.

MAUNDY THURSDAY

Unfortunately I had to go to office on Holy Thursday so we were unable to visit churches here nor attend services with the Washing of the Feet. On the upside, the traders gave Operations some hot cross buns because apparently hot cross buns are traditionally eaten here on Good Friday. So since it was a HUGE box of hot cross buns (there must have been almost a hundred pieces in there), I was able to bring five pieces home for everyone to taste.

GOOD FRIDAY

In Manila, Good Friday services would be held at various times depending on the parish's preference. Here in Australia, I discovered that all the Catholic churches have their services at 3pm. I smiled when I heard that. It felt right to me. (If you really think about it, three o'clock IS the hour of great mercy.)

As early as 2:30pm, the church was filled to the rafters. The priest approached the altar in silence a minute or so before three o'clock. When he got to the altar, everyone knelt down. There were readings, the Veneration of the Cross and distribution of communion.

During the services, I thought that people would line up along the aisles to kiss the cross but instead the cross was passed overhead, hand over hand, up and down the pews. (I wonder if that is their way of making sure that the people carry their crosses.) After the services, the people did get a chance to kiss the cross.

BLACK SATURDAY

Are there special activities or services on Black Saturday?

I can't think of any. In fact, we haven't planned anything for tomorrow.

Interestingly enough, since Good Friday is a public holiday and most stores are closed on that day and on Easter Sunday, Black Saturday aka Easter Saturday has a lot of stores having special sales. (Maybe we'll go shopping.)

EASTER SUNDAY

The stores here have more chocolate easter eggs and bunnies on their shelves than they do in Manila. I have yet to discover whether Australians believe in painting boiled eggs and hiding them on Easter Sunday. If it is any indication, RD mentioned that one of his classmates honestly believes in the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. (I think she is related to Linus van Pelt.)

We plan to hear mass as usual. We will celebrate Easter with some store-bought ravioli for lunch or dinner. And to make the day extra special, we will open the bag of Chocolate Flakes MyGirl and I picked up from Coles last weekend. (Yummy!)

So to one and all, Happy Easter!

Bus Rider

I have spent approximately 12 hours on the bus since I started work last week. It is quite possible that I have spent more time on the Hillsbus these past few days than I have in Manila buses over the past fifteen years. I am not complaining, mind you; I am simply stating a fact.

The hour's trip is not bad at all. The bus is clean and comfortable. There is sufficient light and airconditioning. The ride is fairly straightforward. I take the bus at a nearby street and get off very near the office building. Of course I still have to figure out why there are instances when the bus driver announces that it is the last stop when I want to get down one or two stops away. Fortunately, I have been dropped off at places where I can find my way to work. Little do these drivers know that I've been to this part of the city a total of 8 times -- 6 times to report to work and twice for the 2 job interviews I've had. (I just have to remember not to fall asleep on the bus because if I miss my stop, I'm in big trouble!)

Apparently, Manila does not have a monopoly over traffic. The roads and freeways of Sydney get filled with cars during rush hour. It is surely a blessing to be riding a bus. Aside from sparing you the trouble of driving, getting stuck in traffic, getting lost, and/or looking for parking, riding the bus enables you to arrive within minutes of the estimated travel time plus you have the luxury of reading a book, going to sleep or watching the scenery go by. (There would be times when you have to stand, of course, but that is a small price to pay to get to work on time.)

All this is made possible because of the bus lane. I just have to say that I love the bus lane. Let me rephrase that -- I LOVE the bus lane here.

The bus lanes here really work. With the aid of the bus lane, buses are able to keep their schedules and provide reliable transport to a lot of people. Students and workers alike take the bus everyday. I would say that most of the people who take the bus actually have cars at home but still opt to take the bus anyway.

I am looking forward to the 18th of April. At the moment, I spend $12.60 per day to commute to the city and back. The 'press release' is that MyZone would save me $16 per week! (Oh, the things I could do with that extra $64 per month!)