Bike thieves - urgggh!!!

Hubby and I were very excited about the new park connector between Woodlands, Sembawang and Yishun (aka Northern Explorer Park Connector Network, a real mouthful to say!). We attempted the ride on our bikes last weekend with our 5 year old adventurous son from our home all the way to Admiralty Park and then to the Woodlands Waterfront. It was all done within 2 hours, and my son was begging for more.  Alas, we had to cycle back home and prepare dinner.

Recycling your keyboard

My old grotty keyboard. 

My recycled top nautical style.

This is my before picture.  The top looks too cutesy, especially with the flower made of buttons. The top is made from tshirt material.

Time for a revamp! Been seeing a lot of rope in clothing recently. Why not add it to mine? I used the pink rope from the Mooncake packaging I blogged about in September, and bought some jewel embellishments from China Town. Then I went wild with my hot glue gun.  The only downside I had with this project is that I wasn't able to control the amount of glue coming out of the gun.  I think if the nozzle was finer I would have had less glue oozing out.  I also burnt myself  :-(  Have to be careful next time!

My finished Christmas Tree!

Woo hoo! Today has been an eventful day, mainly because we didn't have to follow hubby to football in the early hours of the morning (shhh!). I ended up finishing my Christmas tree, recycling part of my computer keyboard as Christmas decorations, and refashioning my white top. I'm smiling from ear to ear :-)

iPhones

Not going to be blogging about the latest version, but about the fact that with the apps, you can convert them into any handy device (well, almost).

There's the noise meter app, but going by the comments it may not be accurate as compared to the professional noise meters, especially when noise monitoring requires the meter to be away from the body.

There's also the app where you (yes, a normal lay person like you or me) can monitor the  water quality of your neighbourhood's rivers, ponds, or any waterbody!  San Jose, CA, is getting it's community to help monitor the creeks.  What's good about the project, is all the data is publicly shared on a website.  Perhaps this site could be enhanced by putting up the action made by the local authority in response to any pollution or litter spotted.

I think it's a great idea, and getting the public involved in this activity may enhance the environmental awareness of those involved, but maybe Singapore would be too small a place to make this work . Watch the video

Sustainable seafood for the zoo?

I wonder whether the Singapore Zoo would serve their penguins and sealions sustainable seafood?  Afterall, the Edinburgh zoo is doing it!  Come to think about it, I don't recall seeing anything on Singapore Zoo's website about what they do to reduce their environmental impact.

Miranda the sea lion eating MSC-certified Scottish herring at Edinburgh Zoo.

Photograph: Karen Murray/MSC/PA

Recipes for Health

After reading up on Quinoa, I discovered the New York Times' website with "Recipes for Health".

They have a good selection too.  I'm hoping to try out their whole wheat quinoa bread!

Quinoa

Hubby says he doesn't like me mixing red rice with the white rice. He says that it is difficult to digest, well, for him anyway. I have tried Kashi in the rice cooker but even after soaking overnight, it takes extra effort to chew and swallow it. I think guys just don't like to chew too much (except when it comes to meat!) especially when they're in a rush to watch their favourite football team on cable. Ugh!

Last night, I tried using Quinoa. I read that it "met all the nutritional needs of the Inca" (1 cup of quinoa = protein in 4 eggs = 12g fibre) before the Spanish invaders banned it as they considered it to be peasant food and replaced it with corn & potatoes. Actually, I think they didn't like it because they didn't realise that they had to soak Quinoa to remove the bitter saponins on it before cooking.

I added 1 cup of uncooked quinoa, 1 cup of white rice and reduced the amt of red rice I usually add (1/4 cup).  I can't remember how much water I added, but I use the traditional method that my mum taught me, which is to place your hand flat on top of the rice and pour the water in until you can't see your knuckles. Don't ask me what happens to thicker or thinner hands, I don't know, it just works!

Can you see the grains of Quinoa? :-)

Verdict - happy hubby with no indigestion but still gets his fiber intake! :-p

Good for fried rice too!!

DIY Christmas Tree - progress on the baubles

Over the Deepavali holiday, we made more baubles for the Christmas tree.  I recycled some of my old baubles, and used felt and scraps.  Need to make some more!