Happy@Work: Yummy Packaging

Japanese are a bunch of creative people. One day would love to move out from IT totally and focus on this instead.

Banana Juice Designed By Naoto Fukasawa

Wedding #5 - しんこんりょこう

Blessings of the Day: Finally the little ones said he is willingly to walk down the aisle as the page boy and the little cute niece as the flower girl.. Sigh they are just so funny :)

We are flying to Japan for our しんこんりょこう (Pronounced as Shinkonryokou also means 新婚旅行) 6 days via ANA! Tickets bought at a good price of $570 per person including tax.

Quite a good bargain. It is a pity that we couldn't take SQ (due to the timing) otherwise the flight would have been A380 nevertheless ANA is not too bad either! So what do I look forward most?

• Mt Fuji
  
• Tokyo Tower
• DisneySea
• Ryokan: Japanese Traditional Guesthouse and wearing the outfit Yukata and deep into cool Osen, natural hotspring!
• 6 hours cycling tour around Tokyo
  
• Food: Ramen, Bento, Sushi and whatever is edible and yummy!

Yokohama Ramen Museum

*happy*

Driving Test

Blessings of the day : I think I had the most patient instructor on the earth. Amen :)

Today was my driving test. For the past 1 week or rather 1 month it was an intensive month of driving lessons on the road. It was also the only month I've entered into circuit for the first time.

I had to admit for the past 1 week, I couldn't sleep well. I was jittery, nervous and anxious. Everyday right after my lesson, I would call Kg almost immediately after I stepped out of the car and "report" all my mistakes and funny stories on the road. Kg was patient while taking the excuse from work to run to the toilet to hear me rant.

When was the last time I felt so nervous? I don't even recall I was THAT NERVOUS for my O levels exams. Neither was I nervous for my first story telling competition in primary school. (Ok that was irrelevant)

Everyday without fail this week, my body would start up the engine at 6am and start to get jittery again. Every circuit lesson I entered, I would either do well in parallel parking and mess up in vertical parking or roll off the slope and mount curb on the crank course.

It was soooo pressurizing! Every day for the past 1 week I would have "funny" and interesting stories to share with my family.

Day 1: 100+ demerit points + 5 immediate failures
Day 2: 50+ demerit points
Day 3: x number of demerit points + 3 immediate failures
Day 4: No strength to pull handbrake anymore and must use 2 hands. Left leg shake like mad turn numb and both hands - sweaty palms.

Last day or today. I can't be bothered anymore. Enough of worries! Enough of anxiety! That's it!

Morning 11.30am I met my instructor. I asked him how did the student fare before me. She took her test in the morning. He said: "Strike pole mount curb at parallel parking ~ immediate failure @ first pit stop"

*gulp* I told myself I can do it better!

Once in the circuit, it was much better than the past 4 days. My instructor also tried his best to encourage me and not let me felt nervous. I looked cool on the outside but inside I was screaming like mad *why did i even do this?!*

I messed up in crank course again. Mount twice and triple I remembered. I strike curb, forgot to check blind spot, never stop before the white line. I told myself again "I can do better!

Finally i spotted the fuel tank was @ E and my instructor told me to get a quick lunch while he ran off to top up the tank. I sat at the coffeeshop staring @ the chicken rice and my hands were still shaking.

*Sigh* I must have looked really pathetic.

Then I told myself, i need to do something about it! Then i flipped to my e-bible and read the following verses to myself over and over again. Remember the withered fig tree and Jesus was sharing about faith?

Matthew 21:19-21 (Contemporary English Version)

¹⁹and along the way he saw a fig tree. But when he came to it, he found only leaves and no figs. So he told the tree, "You will never again grow any fruit!" Right then the fig tree dried up.

²⁰The disciples were shocked when they saw how quickly the tree had dried up. ²¹But Jesus said to them, "If you have faith and don't doubt, I promise that you can do what I did to this tree. And you will be able to do even more. You can tell this mountain to get up and jump into the sea, and it will.

To me i was reading like this already:

But Jesus said to them, "If you have faith and don't doubt, I promise that you can do what I did to this [insert circuit station example: crank course] . And you will be able to do even more. You can tell [this crank/S course to widen up the road and let you go in and will not mount curb / tell these poles to stay rooted to the ground and dun fall down even if you touched it / tell the parallel parking/vertical parking/directional change to widen the road and I will not strike or mount curb] and it will.

Ok i am that faithful. I really said this while I am in the circuit!

Lo and Behold...

• the poles never fell
• i did not mount curb
• i did not strike curb
• i did not roll off the slope

Simply put, i did well in circuit and on the road. I thought.

But .. i still fail. with 40 demerit points. Thank you.

Sigh well, the tester was pretty strict with me. But I had to say he did prepare me and was also quite encouraging in his own ways. I thought I actually learn more during this test. Perhaps my instructor had been pleading me to remember to do the following and I've always "ignored" it and choosing to worry whether the poles were going to collapse.

Safety checks was my biggest killer in the test. I was slow in moving off, road hogging, turn the wheel while the car is in stationary position and many etc.

It was quite an experience this afternoon. I also really felt that I had placed unnecessary pressure on myself for the past 1 week making me so jittery for no good reasons. It was a good experience that I went through. I felt that if today I had passed and gotten the license, perhaps I wouldn't have been humble and would turn pretty overly confident.

As I looked back now, I really found it funny and laugh at the silly mistakes that I committed in the test. I had to admit I was really disappointed but I thought it would had been better to be a skilled driver than a dangerous driver.

haha poles stayed rooted to the ground. hahaha - what a prayer.

Dream Car

I think it is pretty pressurizing to go through the D-Test than spending money to buy your dream car. Changing subject I like to dwell the thought I am given a FREE chance to drive such car after I get my license!

I fell in love ever since this car first rolled out in Year 1996 or 1995. It was like my dream car! It was also ever since this car appeared, I've only like SMALL cars! I am only interested in SMALL CARS!



My first dream car must be RED - it doesn't need to be first hand :P



I like cooper for some reason! It just spells stable to me :)

The next car that caught my attention



i know i know not practical right?

Fine....

Our next vehicle will be this :)



Is the most ideal :D - can put bicyles, can take lotsa of things and i can go BBQ anytime! *Yippee!*

Full English Breakfast

Looking forward to cook a Full English Breakfast in our new home next year :)

Food never fail to cheer me up.

main courses | serves 2 Recipe by Jamie Oliver, Photo by © David Loftus
Preheat the grill to high. Set the oven to its lowest heat and pop 2 plates in it to keep warm.Put the sausages, mushrooms and tomatoes, scored-side up, on to a large grill pan and place under the grill, about 5cm from the heat. Cook for about 10 minutes, turning the sausages once or twice.

Add the bacon and black pudding to the pan and grill for 5 minutes, turning halfway through cooking, until they are cooked and crispy. Put the baked beans in a saucepan and warm gently for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Place a non-stick saucepan over a low heat. Melt 1 knob of butter in the pan, add the eggs, season to taste and stir gently until just scrambled. Remove from the heat. Put the bread in the toaster, and arrange the sausages, mushrooms and tomatoes with the bacon, black pudding and beans on the warm plates. When the toast pops up, butter it, then put a slice on each plate and top with scrambled egg. Serve with HP sauce or tomato ketchup on the side, and a pot of tea.

Served with 1 cup of english tea or Vietnam Coffee! *heaven*