YOUR LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING?

Christmas is just a few days away, and you STILL have not completed your shopping yet? Try this website for unique and quirky gifts AND do something good as well. Part of the proceeds from the sales will go to help the people at www.kiva.org start up their own small business and improve their quality of life.

So even if you have done your Christmas shopping, please bookmark the website and go back and buy something there in the future. These really cute gifts are great for birthdays; there's some excellent notebooks that will look nice on your office colleague's table, perhaps some pretty earrings (original works of art may I add, and unique to boot) for your sister or a girlfriend, or maybe a special painting to hang on your wall which really makes great conversational piece.

Go and see more at

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5101743

Happy holidays.

Jasmin

Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

ps please forward the link to your friends and ask them to buy something and help a community at the same time.

$10 OFFICE CHRISTMAS PRESENT CHALLENGE

No money to buy presents? Why not make your own?

I was listening to the radio just the other day while dropping my little son at school when I heard a guy bragging to the radio DJs that he decided to be an office Scrooge last year. You see, every year, his entire office staff would each buy a $10 Christmas gift, and place all these gifts together, do a draw and people would pick up a gift based on the number they pull out of a hat .. or a box.

Anyways, instead of buying something meaningful as the office Christmas present, he decided to just grab a bag of sugar from his mother's kitchen, wrap it up in newspaper, tie it with kitchen string and dump it under the fake plastic Christmas tree at the reception area. I think that's just terrible, terrible attitude. I'm sure many of you guys have this tradition at the office so you would know how the recipient of the awful gift felt!

I believe it's better not to give, than to give in such bad manner. He could have just opt out gracefully, but nah. But ok, what if he was on a very tight budget? We all are nowadays. It IS possible to give a meaningful gift which will not cost you $10, but is worth much, much more to the other person in value.

Take the sugar present for example. He could have just put the sugar into a nice manly looking glass jar and stick a couple of Cinnamon sticks (kayu manis) inside for fragrance. Perfect gift for the office coffee drinkers who love Cinnamon flavored coffee first thing in the morning (and we know quite a few coffee addicts don't we!), and really, does not cost much at all, and is so easy to make. Great for tea drinkers who like their chai with Cinnamon and milk too!

It IS possible to bring cheer and joy, even if your budget is less than $10. The point is to find something that is practical, usable and thoughtful.

One of the great DIY gift ideas from Erica

Really, there's lots of creative ways to stretch your dollar ..... just needs that little bit of imagination. If you need some ideas to crank up your creative juices, just visit http://lovelydiy.wordpress.com/ to see how Erica does it.

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

GO ECO FOR YOUR LAST MINUTE HOLIDAY GIFTS

A present wrapped in a discarded flyer.

Christmas is just around the corner. There's some great, last minute, thoughtful gifts you can get for people, and it's not hard to obtain.

Just 2 weeks ago, I bought some really super tasty, organic, natural, unheated (raw) honey from a young boy who collects honey from the jungles of Pahang with his dad. Since his family collects from all sorts of beehives, the taste of the honey for different bottles are not the same, but that's ok. Really, that's the beauty of pure food. Some of the honey are white and cloudy, others are light in color, and some are really dark. Better than some of the commercial ones out there, which are mixed with coloring, sugar and artificial flavorings, diluted with water to keep the honey looking all the same. Think about it. How do they get these honey looking uniform? Worse, much of the honey commercial honey we buy is also heated, thus destroying some health giving benefits like enzymes and vitamins.

But back to the bottles of honey I bought from Mat.

I just wrap up these awesome bottles of pure goodness like the way I would wrap bottles of wine as gifts for people who I think would really enjoy them. I feel good too because I'm helping Mat and his family earn some honest living. You see, as soon as they collect enough of this jungle honey and filter them into glass bottles, Mat will lug these heavy syrupy golden liquid (and they are extremely heavy, take my word for it), catch a bus really early in the morning and journey a few hours into Kuala Lumpur to look for customers to buy his produce at the neighborhood market.

I tried to wrap the honey up to show how it'll look like but I now realize I'm pretty crappy when it comes to decorating stuff, so I may pay a young neighbor if she would consider wrapping some of my stuff for me. She really does some beautiful pieces, so it's really win-win for us all. Mat and his family get some income from the sale of the honey. The teenager gets some pocket money to spend for Christmas. I get some gorgeous presents to give away.

Speaking of buying local and supporting the local industry, you could buy really interesting stuff if you look carefully. You could buy a wonderful rotan tikar (or a hand woven rattan mat) for a house decorating mad friend! You could buy them from some Malay markets. If you look carefully, you could also buy some bamboo woven baskets, handmade handbags or the songket (songket is a handwoven silk or cotton fabric that is intricately patterned with gold or silver threads.) .

Organic local fruits in cute local-made handwoven baskets would make great gifts. Buying local produce will reduce your carbon footprints. And going organic means you are helping the industry by not supporting pollution and farmers that use dangerous chemicals in their orchards. People love a great story, so include a little card in the basket with a note about where the fruits and the basket come from. If you know the farmer you buy the fruits from, just explain in the note who they are and how great they are to use organic farming methods. Lots of Australian organic products use this delightful method which allows the consumers to get to know who made and sell these products. I think it's really charming and thoughtful. I always wondered why we Malaysians and Singaporeans don't do it more often.

Cookies I bought from a small vendor at the Subang Parade flea market, but first, my kid has to test and approve before I can give them away as Christmas presents.

The other things most of us love are cookies, and around the holiday season, lots of women bake cookies to supplement their income. Here is our chance to help these small vendors out, and buy some delicious treats as gifts. The cookies shown in the picture above will look really festive once it's wrap it up with some beautiful violet organza ribbons leftover I'm going to recycle from my wedding decorations. The plastic packaging look a bit frosty because I just took them out of the fridge.

Talking about saving money AND reducing your carbon footprint, how about wrapping your gifts in unwanted flyers. I wrapped this gift using a McDonald's flyer I was about to throw away. Wrappers cost a pretty penny nowadays, so there's lots of savings to be made there. My camera doesn't do justice to the wrapping shown above, but it really looks cool, if I may say so myself. The idea didn't come from me. I saw a friend do this once before for her kid's birthday, and it looked really nice. She told me it really wasn't worth spending tons of money on wrapping her kid's presents because he was going to tear them to shreds in a matter of minutes. The joy he got was really from furiously tearing the paper apart to reveal the gift inside.

The next gift idea is homemade cut out coupons. They really do make excellent gifts for people on a shoe string budget. I'm really dying to receive one, especially those that offers free babysitting or free home cooked meals or free foot massages!

Go forth and reduce, reuse and recycle!

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS

Please watch this video. It's about how fur is cruelly harvested. Good to watch even if you don't wear fur, because it reminds us, out there, there are animals also in need of love and compassion.







Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

ps I would like to to thank Moonshi Mohsenruddin, one of the members of the "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group for sharing this heart breaking video

BABY EATS VITAMIN C!

Yummy sweet melons. Aren't they just gorgeous?

Yesterday I bought a whole big yummy hunk of honeydew melon from Tesco, and it only costs RM2.10. Feed the entire group of 5 adults, 2 toddlers and a baby. Not bad, not bad at all.

Honey dew melons are really good for everyone because it has lots of Vitamin C. I fed my baby the soft part of the melon, cut into really small pieces for him to "chew" as he has only 2 front teeth.

Honey dew melon also has potassium, good for people who has high blood pressure, and certainly good for my mum, because then she has other alternatives to cucumber that helps bring down her blood pressure. (Click here to find out how we help control my mum's high blood pressure with the help of a daily dose of cucumber juice)

Honeydew melon is a good source of folate as well, so it is good for pregnant women. Some Chinese women may not want to take it because they may believe it is a "cooling" fruit. I believe it's ok to take everything in moderation. The unborn child and the mother certainly needs the vitamins and the enzymes. I always believe a natural source of food is better than some synthetic pills any day!

Scooping out the melon seeds to be dried and eaten another day

The raw melon seeds. It's edible but gotta remove the seeds from the slimy pulp.

Here's a cool recipe for a honeydew melon milk. It's a very good milk alternative for children. It has lots of good fat in the seeds, lots of good enzymes. Good source of calcium too.

Raw Honeydew Melon Milk

- Blend the seeds from one honeydew melon with 3 cups of water.
- Strain as you would for nut milk, meaning strain the liquid in a nut milk bag, or use a very clean old pillowcase.
- Then put the liquid back in the blender with about 1 C of honeydew melon flesh, a bit of good vanilla extract (I use just a few drops for a hint of flavor), and 1 T of honey or any raw sugar (maybe not necessary if your honeydew melon is peak summer sweetness)

- Blend.

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Tips to reduce blood pressure

• Cucumbers help reduce my mum's high blood pressure
• Lower blood pressure by keeping things in the right place!
  
• Jicama reduces blood pressure
  
• Cats love lemongrass, dogs hate it
  

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Man follows sound of handphone to find dead son at Bukit Antarabangsa massive landslide

Bukit Antarabangsa landslide victim Datuk Sharudin Adnan with his daughter Noreennur at HKL mortuary. Pic by AZMAN GHANI / The Star

Jasmin says: This is a classic example of greed over common sense. For years, the residents of Bukit Antarabangsa were campaigning to stop all hillside projects because the soil at this hilly area is very unstable. There has been numerous, numerous landslides. Lots of people have died in previous landslide, and now, this disaster has killed more people. What does it take to prevent the loss of life? Is life cheap?

And what's worse, a lot of people are still not moving out, maybe because they can't afford to buy another home, since they have sunk in so much of their money into this dream home of their. A friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) lives at one of the apartments there said she's not leaving. She's confident that nothing will happen to her because she says her apartment is on top of a large bedrock. But the fact remains, there were a few mini landslides near her apartment, and the site of the current landslide is really too close for comfort.

Please read on

========================


Published: Saturday December 6, 2008 MYT 1:30:00 PM
Updated: Saturday December 6, 2008 MYT 8:03:45 PM

Taken from thestar.com.my
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/6/nation/20081206132932&sec=nation

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Shaharuddin Adnan had hoped for the best when he heard the ringing of his son’s mobile phone, but his hopes were dashed when all he saw was a hand sticking out from the rubble of his collapsed house holding the phone.

The 63-year-old retired businessman’s home was one of the many which were crushed by the landslide at Bukit Antarabangsa Saturday morning.

His son Shaiful Khas, 20, died in the incident. Also in his house at that time was his wife and a relative, both of whom survived the disaster.

Shaharuddin said everybody was on the top floor of his double-storey house except for his son, who was playing computer games downstairs.

“At about 3am, I heard him shout ‘Why is the house moving?’ Everything else was a blur, as the house started to fall apart and collapsed.

“When everything came to a stop, I found my wife and relative to be safe, but I could not locate Shaiful. So I decided to call him on his mobile phone and followed the ringing tone,” he said.

He found Shaiful buried under the rubble, with only his hand sticking out holding onto his mobile phone.

The rescue team came in with saws and other equipment to extract Shaiful, but he was already dead, said Shaharuddin.

Shaharuddin said he had noticed some earth movement in his housing area of late, as cracks started appearing in his fish pond.

“But they were minor, I did not think something like this would happen,” he said.

Engineer K. Thanarajah lost his wife Dr N. Yogeswary, 40, in the incident while his second son Thivesh, 10, suffered spinal injury.

Thanarajah fractured his arm, but his two other children escaped unhurt.

A relative said Yogeswary could have survived had she not rushed into Thivesh’s room to save the boy.

“Walls started crumbling, and the staircase broke, leaving them all stranded upstairs,” he said.

According to Kuala Lumpur Hospital deputy director (medical) Dr Laila Nor Ibrahim, 14 patients had been treated, with eight discharged already (as of 1pm Saturday).

She said those warded were in stable condition, including a three-month-old girl.

CUCUMBERS CAN REDUCE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

My mum checking her blood pressure. She does this everyday for a few years now. It's really simple to use, easier than learning how to use that TV remote control.

About a year ago, my mum's high blood pressure (BP) had become unstable. It would go up and down rapidly, all in one day. It would jump up to 160 over 90, and then suddenly drop to 140 over 90 and so on.

Now, any doctor will tell you, that's a dangerous sign. At that time, I was really concerned about her hypertension, but I was quite hopeless on how to help her as I didn't live with her, so I can't monitor her BP.

She consulted her doctor who was also very concerned and changed her medicine to see if it would help.

It didn't.

My mum's body was telling her something was seriously wrong.

Mum would get headaches, and feel weak. She often needed to lie down to rest.

Now, I knew that cucumber juice was an excellent remedy for people who wanted to reduce their BP, but you know, like most everyone else, juicing just wasn't her thing.

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Note

We have moved to www.BuddingPlanet.com. Come visit us there!

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About 3 months ago, I made it a point to juice a glass of cucumber for my mum everyday, and monitor her progress. So far, so good. Her erratic BP reminded me not to take my parents for granted. You know, we would all love to see our parents nag us until they live to be 130. And, thus, I made a conscious decision to take a more active role to improve her well being.

My mum's trusty old Mercury Sphygmomanometer. My cousin, a doctor says a Sphygmomanometer is more accurate than a Digital Blood Pressure Monitor

My mum's stethoscope which is used to listen to her BP while she's using the Mercury Sphygmomanometer

Right now her BP hovers around 130 over 90, and sometimes, it even goes down to 120 over 90 (yippee).

It was tough going at first. Mum said she preferred fruit in it's original form so I varied her diet with fresh raw cut oranges, apples and other fruits. The downside was a person could only chew THAT much of fruit only, and my toddler son meanwhile kept swiping her fruits because he's such a fruit bat, and darn it, she let him eat practically everything!

I also served fruit on a platter for her just before we have our meals so that she didn't miss the ritual of sitting down to eat with the family. The plate of fruit would fill her up somewhat before she ate other stuff on the table. By doing so, she wouldn't feel deprived of her cooked food. Now this is an important aspect. When we deprive ourselves of comfort food, we tend to want to gorge on them even more. The purpose was to reduce my mum's BP, not to make her want to binge on her favorite greasy, high caloric, carb filled food. The increase of fresh fruits and raw vegetables from the garden (she also increased her intake of ulams) helped her feel more alert and she had more energy, but when she checked her BP, it was still erratic. I could also tell when her BP had shot up. It was on the days when she complained of migraine. Didn't need the Sphygmomanometer to tell me that.

Finally, I persuaded her to just drink cucumber juice everyday and to measure the results to see if it works. I mean, what harm can a glass of cucumber, with a spoonful of honey to make it all go down easier, do. So she agreed. And ... yes, it works. The numbers in the diary don't lie.

Nowadays, our whole family just buy bags of cucumbers when we visit the market or to Tesco for mum. So we have like bags of cucumber sitting right next to the juicer on the kitchen counter as a reminder to juice those cukes first thing we see them.

Lest you think we threw the doctor's phone number away, no, we didn't. The doctor is an important person in our quest to reduce her hypertension. Till today, he helps monitor her progress. Mum still takes her hypertension pills, but at a much reduced amount. It helps that we note mum's BP in a diary everyday, and that mum shows him the results when she see him. Seriously, I'm just pleased as punch that her BP is at a much better level.

A simple and cheap pill box from Guardian Pharmacy to hekp mum remember to take her daily pills.

A doctor is very important. But really, the most important person is the person who has hypertension ... and the family members take on the serious supporting roles. We need to take our health seriously, and not to expect the doctor to track everything for us. We have to take charge and monitor our health. Only then, can the doctor really help us. Most patients see a doctor like only once every 3 months. The lazy ones even skip some appointments. How is the doctor going to help these people if they don't try to help themselves?

You know what they say, prevention is better than cure. Why wait for a stroke or a heart attack to attack before we take things seriously.

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Tips to reduce blood pressure

• Lower blood pressure by keeping things in the right place!
• Jicama reduces blood pressure
• Cats love lemongrass, dogs hate it
• Yummy honey dew melon

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ps please do show this article to anyone you think has serious hypertension problem. Show them, they can take control of their health if they seriously monitor their BP constantly. However, the BP info presented here was simplified for easy understanding. Please consult your doctor on what to do, to track your BP levels.

FDA set Melamine Standard For Baby Formula?

US FDA Setting Melamine Standard For Baby Formula.


Jasmin says "Shouldn't the standard be zero melamine in baby formula? Why would mummies even agree to feeding their babies melamine, no matter how minute!"

Please forward this blog article to a friend who is feeding the child milk formula for them to be aware of the latest milk info.

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What another mummy says about it.

Date: Sunday, November 30, 2008, 10:59 PM (Yahoo Foodlab Forum)

What? a couple of days ago no Melamine was acceptable now we have a standard of 1 part in a million..

This chemical shows higher protein levels when tested but in the body just posses a threat to your child's kidney and liver..(from what I have gathered..)

I never used formula and I am angry..I hope everyone that does use it is angry and says no..maybe the formula makers will rethink this decision..

be blessed and be a blessing~

Robbin Larsonmomma to Zoey (3 yrs old)

================

here's the link about the approval from the FDA
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081129/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/infant_formula



FDA sets melamine standard for baby formula

By JOAN LOWY and JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writers Joan Lowy And Justin Pritchard, Associated Press Writers – Sat Nov 29, 11:40 am ET


WASHINGTON – Two months ago, federal food regulators said they were unable to set a safety threshold for the industrial chemical melamine in baby formula. Now, however, they found a way to settle on a standard that allows for higher levels than those found in U.S.-made batches of the product.

Food and Drug Administration officials on Friday set a threshold of 1 part per million of melamine in formula, provided a related chemical is not present. They insisted the formulas are safe.

The development comes days after The Associated Press reported that FDA tests found traces of melamine in the infant formula of one major U.S. manufacturer and cyanuric acid, a chemical relative, in the formula of a second major maker. The contaminated samples, which both measured at levels below the new standard, were analyzed several weeks ago.

The FDA had said in early October it was unable to set a safety contamination level for melamine in infant formula.

Dr. Stephen Sundlof, the FDA's director of food safety, said Friday the agency was confident in the 1 part per million level for either of the chemicals alone, even though there have been no new scientific studies since October that would give regulators more safety data. He had no ready explanation for why the level was not set earlier.

The standard is the same as the one public health officials have set in Canada and China, but is 20 times higher than the most stringent level in Taiwan.

The problem of melamine in infant formula first surfaced in China in September.

Sundlof said the lack of dual contamination was key because studies so far show dangerous health effects only when both chemicals are present. He emphasized that neither of the two tainted samples had both contaminants.

The agency still will not set a safety level for melamine if cyanuric acid is also present, he said.
Both the new safety level and the amount of the chemical found in U.S.-made infant formula are far below the amounts of melamine added to infant formula in China that have been blamed for killing at least three babies and making thousands ill.

"The levels were so low ... that they do not cause a health risk to infants," Sundlof said. "Parents using infant formula should continue using U.S.-manufactured infant formula. Switching away from one of these infant formulas to alternate diets or homemade formulas could result in infants not receiving the complete nutrition required for proper growth and development."

A scientist for a national consumer group said it was irresponsible of FDA to assure the public that infant formula is safe based on tests of only 74 samples, especially since cyanuric acid is a byproduct of melamine, making it likely that they will be found together.

"This is a slippery slope of rationalization by FDA," said Urvashi Rangan, a senior scientist with the Consumers Union in New York. "FDA needs to get a handle on how widespread the problem is and, most important, if both these chemicals are occurring in any products. They just haven't tested enough to know that yet."

Earlier this week, members of Congress and the Illinois attorney general demanded a national recall, something FDA said made no sense because it had no evidence suggesting that the formula would be dangerous for babies at the levels of contamination found.

After saying it made an error in its data, the FDA on Wednesday produced these results: Mead Johnson's Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron found melamine at levels of 0.137 and 0.14 parts per million. Three tests of Nestle's Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron detected an average of 0.247 parts per million of cyanuric acid.

Separately, a third major formula maker — Abbott Laboratories, whose brands include Similac — told AP that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in its infant formula. Those levels were below what FDA found in the other formulas, an Abbott spokesman said, and below any national safety guidelines.

Abbott Laboratories, Nestle and Mead Johnson make more than 90 percent of all infant formula produced in the United States

The agency had left the impression of a zero tolerance on Oct. 3 when it stated: "FDA is currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns."

The FDA and other experts said they believe the melamine contamination in U.S.-made formula had occurred during the manufacturing process, rather than intentionally. The U.S. government quietly began testing domestically produced infant formula in September, soon after problems with melamine-spiked formula surfaced in China.

Melamine can legally be used in some food packaging, and can rub off into food from there. It's also part of a cleaning solution used on some food processing equipment.

___
Pritchard reported from Los Angeles.
___
On the Net:
FDA: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/storytext/infant_formula/30064323/SIG=11m4l7ah9;_ylt=Ag0rnpw2jH.OH1aj7eSRzVSWwvIE/*http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/melamine.html

VERY PROFESSIONAL LOAN SHARKS

Hubby and I saw a very professional looking loan shark banner over the weekend, somewhere in Manjalara, and can't believe how brazen these loan sharks are nowadays .... offering a low interest rate? .... yeah right .....

Unfortunately, somewhere out there, there's always someone desperate enough to call them, especially during this stormy economic situation.

Desperate and depressed people always have health problems. Consider this. Have you ever seen a happy desperate guy? Depression really does make a person ill. It's the stress that's killing them slowly.

Hopefully, they don't call the number on the banner because these clowns will be more than willing to help them dig deeper into trouble.

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

CUCUMBER TO REDUCE COUGH AND SORE THROAT

Asians believe that the humble cucumber is good to reduce cough and sore throat.

My dad had planted a cucumber plant in his garden, and had invited his office staff to take some since there were quite a lot to harvest. Before you can say stop, ALL the organic cucumbers were snapped off.

Now, we never expected cucumbers to be very popular, especially with some of the young, 20-something bachelors. Some of these guys profess not to even like vegetables. Plus there were lots of other lpvely organic vegetables growing in the garden for their taking. There were lots of long beans, spinach, sayur manis, chillis, cekur, ulam raja, kang kung (also called water spinach, swamp cabbage, water convolvulus or water morning-glory).

Yup, dad has a huge garden, and a great part time gardener.

Anyways, back to those cucumbers, apparently, the whole office was down with a bacterial infection. People were coughing, lots of lozenges were passed around. The Malay staff believe cucumbers would help soothe their sore throats. The Chinese meanwhile believe that cucumbers have "cooling" properties.

Good to know.

I asked the guys how they eat them, and most of them just chop up the cukes into small chunks and eat them raw, just like that with rice and sambal and curry. Others like to juice it (I recommend adding a bit of raw honey for flavor and sweetness if you are not used to having raw cucumber juice. Alternatively add a pinch of sea salt and omit the honey).

Anyways, it's been two weeks since those guys harvested them cukes, and the plant has died on us. Dad said those termites are destroying his plants.

That's terrible. Now everyone has to buy them from the nearby supermarket.

Jasmin
Come join my "Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

International Meatless Day

Today is International Meatless Day.

But how and why did the Meatless day came about?

In 1986, Mr Bob (Bali) Gurbani suggested that November 25, the birthday of Sadhu Vaswani, the humble, Indian holy man be observed year after year as International Meatless Day.
Sadhu Vaswani was a highly intelligent man who devoted his entire life to giving love and hope to the poor and lowly, the sad and afflicted ones. He also loved animals with passion. He believed all living things deserved dignity, reverence of life. Every little thing he did was inspired by the Vision Cosmic. His heart bled at the cruelties inflicted upon animals day after day, for food. This deep awareness of the need for reverence for all life, in whichever form it is manifest, formed a very essential part of Sadhu Vaswani's teachings and has been propagated by the International Meatless Day Campaign. Therefore, for more than 2 decades, hundreds of thousands of devotees have been observing Nov.25, as Meatless Day and Animal Rights Day. The campaign was apparently so successful that four state governments in India - Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh - have issued instructions for the closure of slaughter-houses as well as butchers' shops on 25th November every year.

You know, many supermarkets in Asia keep live fish in tanks. And they kill the fish on the spot upon order by a shopper. It takes a harden heart not to be affected by the way the supermarket employee / fish monger kill the fish. They literally bash the head of the fish with a mallet. And the fish don't die instantly. The poor thing would still struggle to survive minutes after that. And if it still moves, the fish monger would repeatedly bash the head with the mallet. How do I know this? Well, I innocently bought a live fish a few months ago from Tesco, for my son, thinking a real life fresh fish would be tasty. Yes, the fish was tasty, but I could not shake the image of the dying fish from my head. My sister-in-law was shopping with me that fine day, and we both had to look away, knowing the fish was being bashed repeatedly. It was painful to look, and it was a painful lesson. I, for one, am severely reluctant to buy live fish anymore.

But here's the problem. We all get desensitized when we don't see how animals are being killed for food. It's just meat in a package.

Do I still eat meat? Yes, but not so much anymore. Do I need reminders of how they have to die so we can eat heartily? Yes. Do I eat a lot of vegetables and fruits nowadays? Yes.

I try not to waste when I eat nowdays, though yes, there are times I do throw leftovers away. Such a wasteful thing.

I try to respect the food that comes to me.

Here's to a Happy Meatless Day to you, today, tomorrow or anyday possible.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/

Parts of the info was taken from http://www.sadhuvaswani.org/ and www.meatlessday.com/

I HATE YOGA!

That's it folks. The National Fatwa Council has declared that yoga is "haram" or banned due to it's Hindu elements. They fear that yoga could erode the faith of Muslims.

All this fuss about yoga *hrmphh* Tell you the truth. I don't really like yoga. I once accidentally farted midair into a middle aged man behind me while I struggled to do a butt-in-the-air Downward Facing Dog pose. I did try a few more times after that, but again, they all ended up in a disaster. I learnt, basically, there's no quiet method to fart while doing yoga, and with that pose, there's no way I can avoid the "gas". With that, I decided to retire gracefully.

Baby doing a similar yoga pose that made me stop doing yoga. Yes, his butt IS in midair. No lie!


Besides, yoga is too hard *whine* *whine* I have to take time off from my beauty sleep to contort my body into various poses only my husband can enjoy looking.

Having said that, I can see that yoga has helped a few of my friends tremendously. My friend Airene has been going to an exclusive swanky yoga center somewhere off Jalan Ampang, in a beautiful restored colonial house, for a few years now. She can do an impressive headstand. And she has a really healthy, beautiful, strong looking body. Her teacher has a very good breathing technique for those who breathe through the mouth rather than the nose (for people like me) due to sinus problems.


That was probably how my butt had looked like when I did the darn pose!

Isn't it amazing how small children sleep. My first born loved to sleep in this position as well. So organic, so natural, it must give them a feeling that they are still in the womb.

Little children have really amazing limbs. Yoga would probably be easy for them. However, I have come to accept that yoga is not for everyone, especially for me. Oh well. I'm going to drown my sorrows in a glass of shaken not stirred fresh, raw organic grape juice.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/

ps I got this video from youtube if anyone is curious to know what the Downward Facing Dog pose is all about.

pps I'm so sorry, but my center alignment is not working again.

MY CHILDHOOD FARMING EXPERIENCE

My 2 1/2 year old son juicing a big bag of carrots for breakfast,

with mummy supervising, of course.

How adorable is this!

When I was a young kid, my cousins, brothers and I would go on long walks along the narrow dirt roads leading to small Seremban farms that rear chickens, pigs, ducks and so on. There were a few vegetable farms as well. We, kids, would casually walk right through the farms. We never even thought trespassing was illegal, and nobody at those farms said anything, and even allowed us to look at the ducks and the fish swimming in the small ponds.

Here's a little trivia people may not have known. Back in those days when the pig farms were thriving, pig farmers where I lived used to boast that Malaysia, not Thailand, not Singapore, was the biggest exporter of pork products to Southeast Asia. This was an amazing feat considering more than half the Malaysian population were of Muslim faith. It goes to show how tolerant a society we are, being multiracial and all. It's important to note that the pork industry brought in millions of dollars in revenue to our country, and create thousands of jobs for people as well.



Those days are gone now. Those that had pigs, I was told by my aunt, had closed down now, after people started dying one by one from the horrific Nipah virus from the nearby farms.


At that time, nobody knew what these victims were dying of. Everyone was afraid. My paternal grandma, bless her heart, started to grow more vegetables in her garden, for the family. She had an amazing green thumb and everywhere you looked, there were beautiful green vegetables in pots, on the ground. It was marvelous. Everyone was more careful about what they ate. Grandma or Ah Mah lived to be 92.



Many pig farms are now placed in designated areas, with hopefully, better rearing equipments. There are also one or two Muslim politicians kicking up a huge fuss as they don't want pig farms. I know some readers here are not from Malaysia, so I need to explain that pork is not halal or not kosher, if you may, to the Muslim community.

Pig farms bad for Muslim communities. Mad cows disease. Fish with high mercury content as a result of polluted waters. The solution? Eat more fruits and vegetables. Organic if you can afford it. This transcend all race, all religion.


Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/


ps there is a good article about the Nipah virus problem. Please read at http://www.mysinchew.com/node/14068?tid=52

GOOD SLEEP

Here's a picture of my first born in such deep sleep that he is still holding his favorite No 5 Elmo card in his hand.

Unlike my kids who can put themselves into really good deep sleep, I used to have difficulty sleeping.

You see, I used to be a very light sleeper. I would think about stuff that happened during the day and if I need to, I would wake up in the middle of the night and write my thoughts and reminders down in a little notebook that has been placed next to my bed. Now, I knew this is a very bad habit. I was doing a great disservice to my mind and body by not allowing myself to have a good rest.

I then trained myself, will myself to getting good sleep. And good naps in the afternoon. When I was working with my family's Land Survey firm, I always felt that I needed lots of sleep. It didn't help that I would go out at ungodly hours of the night to meet up with friends. I would feel tired by lunch time, and lunch is only an hour. What to do? What to do?

I would quickly wolf down my lunch at home (home is 5 mins away from the office) and then grab as much siesta as possible before I start work at the office again a 2pm.

I would get a nice, comfy dark cloth and cover my eyes to shield myself from any light that might disturb me. I then also will myself not to think. I find that if I clear my mind, I fall asleep fast. I can even feel my body going into sleep mode!

I would glare at anyone who would dare wake me up during my naps, cause every minute is precious and the clock is ticking!

Those were the days, when I was young, and never appreciated sleep like I do today.

Problem is, I'm now very attached to having to cover my eyes, and sometimes I see my son trying to imitate me, but he doesn't realise he's not doing it right because he covers his entire face with his blankie. That's a definite no-no.

And now that I have 2 wonderful kids, a toddler and a baby who still wakes up like 3 times a night, I really, really appreciate good rest.

By the way, the raw foodie community belief that we need less sleep if we were to consume more raw food as opposed to eating a heavy cooked meal. I'm not sure about this theory right now because I still don't have enough sleep as my baby still wakes me up a couple of times a night, and that really makes me tired during the day. I will report on this later :-)

But thinking about it, I usually feel sleepy after a heavy carbohydrate meal, like the Indian Banana Leaf rice, or a heavy pasta for lunch. I don't feel sleepy after having a large glass of juice or a plate of fruit or a large plate of salad like the Penang fruit rojak.

Hmmmm. Something to think about! Anyways, it's now 12.25am, and I need to sign up to go to bed.


Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/

Here's another adorable picture of my son with the card in his hand and and his leg up against the wall. Really shiok!

CLEARING CLUTTER AND DONATING BOOKS

These are some of my children's books,

some lovingly chewed by the baby when nobody is watching him!

Last week was my spring cleaning week. Truthfully, I'm a secret rat pack, and my place has not really been purged for years.

I had lots of nice clothes I didn't wear for 3 years or more because I spent a lot of my time being pregnant. Good thing lots of people were willing to take it off my hands.


I had a lot of old books as well. Those who know me and my hubby, know we luv books. So, it's really hard to give them away. You never know when you need to refer back to them because once they are out of circulation, they are really hard to find (unless we are really desperate, I'm sure Amazon has them stocked somewhere). But you know what, clean home, clean mind, clean body.

These are my 14 year old MBA notes

which I have no heart to throw away,

taken in the dark, because the kids are sleeping

*grin*

So off these valuable books went to the nearest library. That way, I could just pop over and read my favorite books if I need them. Sharing is just wonderful.

Some of the books I'm currently reading
We have a whole room dedicated to anything that's made of paper;

files, books, whatever.

Then, there are more books in both our parent's houses.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

SHE'S GONE! AND WHAT WE CAN DO TO HELP

Nancy with my 2nd son

My kids' nanny, Nancy has gone back to Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia ... for good .... not of her choice, but because she failed her first year medical test as subjected by the Immigration Department. This is one of the major reasons I have not been online for a few days. So many things to pack and prepare for her travel.

I feel very sad for her because Nancy had come a long way, and with much difficulty and with much cost, to finally work in Malaysia, only to leave prematurely.

I never realised how difficult it was for Indonesian girls from very poor districts to come out and work. After all, she never once complained about her circumstances, and had worked cheerfully, taking great care of my kids, which I am really grateful for.

Once we realised that she had to leave, my husband suggested we find out how we can help her and her community who lived way below the poverty line.

How poor are they?

They are so poor, they had never needed a bank account.

The girls who leave their homes to work in other countries as maids and nannies are the ones who bring in the much needed cash to their families.

Most of these women go through a lot of hardship.

Here's what Nancy and the many girls in Indonesia go through.

A "sponsor" from her area would go round the villages recruiting young girls. He would offer Rupiah 1,000,000 (barely USD$90 to us but a princely sum to them) to the parents to allow the daughters to sign a work contract with him. In exchange, he will deduct around 6 months to 8 months salary when she finally finds work.

After being recruited, Nancy was send to a big city called Kupang 6 hours away from her hometown. There, she made her passport and was subjected to a medical examination. Some unlucky girls are send to brothels to be raped by "customers" before they are sent to Jakarta. And because the family need the money, and because the community are afraid, many choose to keep quiet, and allow the perpetrators get away with it.

After 3 days in Kupang, the passports are finally ready. A few hundred girls from around this island are regularly flown to Jakarta in a large, bare boned helicopter, two girls sharing one safety belt, hanging on for dear life. The helicopter's rickety, and scary, said Nancy.

Once they arrived in Jakarta, the girls were hulled to a building, where she was told approximately 700 girls from all over Indonesia, at any one time, are locked up with intimidating, armed guards patrolling the building to prevent any girls from escaping.

They have to sleep on cement floors with no mattresses, no blankets. Since there are not enough bathrooms, as many as ten women have to bath together at a time. If you think it's one large room like what we have at our regular gym shower room, think again. It's a tiny bathroom. Even I can't imagine how they do it. Many women do not bath for days due to the inconvenience. A lot of women go crazy, since they are not allowed out of the "prison". The lucky ones leave within the month, others, like Nancy, leave within 3 months. Some, considered, ugly, unteachable, or whatever, are "locked" up for up to 6 months waiting to be chosen to work somewhere.

Nancy says the pretty ones are harassed by the guards, and if the guards are bold enough, the girls are raped. The women are constantly verbally abused and beaten by the people who work there. Nobody really value them. The girls huddle together, and form friendships to try to make the best of their situation. If they are lucky, they will be sent to kind employers. If not, well .....

Nancy striking a pose for the album


Anyways, Nancy is really a nice person. And we were really glad it was she who came to live with us. It's really too bad she has to leave.

Hubby and I really feel that we should help Nancy and her community to the best of our abilities. These girls want to work here. And they long to work in a loving environment. We don't think these girls have to be subjected to such terribly dangerous situation. So, we want to help bring them here to work, safely.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not an agent, just a no name one woman "NGO" that's all.

I need your help and advise.

I would like to know what are the correct procedures to bring girls from Nusa Tenggara to work as maids and nannies for good people who will provide them with a safe and happy environment. By skipping the Indonesian agencies, they don't have to pay the agents 6 to 8 months salary. That's big savings for their family! Plus, they avoid a lot of abuses as well.

We, in turn get to know who these girls are because a lot of resumes are faked by the Indonesian agencies in hopes someone will pick these "unwanted" women quickly. By going through an unorthodox method, we hope that employers will get them faster than if it was done via a maid employment agency in Malaysia. To know why it takes so long to get a maid from the maid agency, we have to realise that these agencies get limited "bio data" or "resumes" from Indonesia. The choices are very unsatisfactory and the local agents hands are tied.

The other thing I would like to do is get to know the head of the immigration department in Putrajaya (The Pengarah). In order to get the girls to come here, they have to go through a medical examination in their home country. Unfortunately, I have searched the internet and have not found any medical facility which are approved by the Malaysian immigration department in that area. I would like to know how to get one approved because it would just be too expensive for these girls to fly all the way to Jakarta to be examined by a doctor.

I would like to have a chat with anyone who has brought in a maid from Indonesia on their own without the agency's help. So if you know guys know anyone, please ask them if they are willing to help me out.

There are ways to do this so that everybody wins. I'm not sure how, but I'm sure it can be done. It's time the people there take control of their own situation.

You see, my mum was from a poor family in Alor Setar. My great-great grandparents lived in a small wooden hut, probably just like Nancy and her family. My great great grandmother used to catch fish in the paddy fields for her dinner. When I think of Nancy's family, I think of my family. And I think everyone should be given that chance to have a better life.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

ps Nusa Tenggara's current date and time



pps am so sorry that the pictures are not clear and something is wrong with the alignment of the words. There's something wrong with the bloging program. I will clean up the blog nicely later.

TRY THESE UNCOOKING RECIPE

I love mushrooms. And my personal favorite mushroom is the shitake mushrooms, also known as the Chinese mushrooms.

Now, mushrooms have been found to help cancer patients in a very, very big way (read about it here http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/29068.php.

Eating mushrooms, it seems, helps cancer patients strengthen the immune system. Now, if mushrooms can help cancer patients, think of what it can do for you if you are one of those who are always tired from work, who easily catch illnesses from your co-workers and so on.

Recently, I found a new uncooking recipe that calls for raw mushrooms as the main ingredient.

Is it possible to eat mushrooms raw?

Is it tasty?

The answer is yes.

And what’s more, eating raw mushrooms has tons more health benefits than eating cooked mushrooms. Try the recipe shown below.

Raw Mushroom Steak

6 large Shitake mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoon Nama Shoyu or soy sauce
2 teaspoon cardamom powder
2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic

- Mix oil, soy sauce, cardamom, garlic and onion powder in a bowl and blend well.
- Dip each mushroom slice into the sauce. Marinate for about half an hour in the fridge.

Cheeze Sauce

1 cup cashew nut
2-3 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 cup water

Blend all Cheeze ingredients in a blender until creamy.
Place some marinated mushrooms on a plate, top with finely sliced Granny Smith apples (I like the contrasting flavors) or crisp salad leaves and then pour some of the Cheeze on top.

Jasmin
Eat Raw Food Today Facebook group

FREE COOKING TOOL

Cheap and easy to do solar cooker

I have always been interested in how to stretch my dollar, and solar cooking has always held a special fascination for me. Which is why I love this article, about how a BYU professor created a low cost effective solar cooker for people. http://solarcooking.org/plans/funnel.htm.

I know a lot of you guys who are readers here do tons of volunteer work in small communities who need free cooking tools like the solar cooker; that is cheap, easy to make and does not harm the environment.

Stylish solar cooker

Please have a read, and please pass this email to anyone whom you think may be interested, like a friend who does community work or someone who loves to experiment. The set up is not big, so it's also great for apartment dwellers who has a small balcony that faces the sun.

Cutting the cardboard

Maybe one day, we will see shiny solar cookers dotting the landscape, something no longer a novelty, but a regular thing we use everyday.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/

STOP THE INSANITY! GO FOR THAT CHANGE

One of my favorite quotes which I heard years ago when I was in college was "Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". This was originally quoted by Albert Einstein, but I learned this quote from a 1990s loud voiced diet guru, former stripper, with a blond buzz cut named Susan Powter. Anyone remembered her? I used to love her 1990s infomercial and her catch phrase "Stop The Insanity".

What a killer sales person! You gotta see her crazy youtube video.

I always remembered her always emphasizing the fact that we can't go through life doing the same damaging things to ourselves and expect changes to happen. We must change, and I go through life with that in mind. Really. Often times we fear things, but are too afraid to change. Too afraid to get out of a relationship, because we are afraid of being alone. Too afraid to change our diet because certain food has become our familiar friend.

President Barack Obama says he wants to change things, and the American people agree with him. Change is good.

If we are looking to change our health around, for the better, may I suggest that we start with 3 glasses of fresh raw fruit juice each day. Make that a commitment. One glass for breakfast, one for lunch, one for dinner. Just start a day at a time. Instead of coffee, blend a glass of banana smoothie for breakfast. Instead of a soft drink for lunch, maybe you could order a glass of fresh raw orange juice. Hey, how about some fresh raw mango strawberry juice to go with that dinner tonight?

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

SNACK ATTACK!

I had a snack attack last night, but the problem was, the single apple I ate was just not so satisfying. I wanted something savory, something salty that would make me go hmmmmm.

I didn't have any meat in my freezer, mainly because my freezer is not working well. It keeps icing over. All I had was lots of fruits and some raw shiitake mushrooms. I decided to make some yummy raw "stirfried" shiitake mushrooms. I realise many people have not had a raw mushroom dish, so I thought I'd share this recipe with you.

Yup, it tastes like it's stirfried.

Here's the picture of the raw mushrooms straight out from the fridge,
with the stems removed.

I then added one part soy sauce to one part vegetable oil.

It's not necessary to add so much. Otherwise, it'll just be too soggy.
Best to add a little bit of sauce at a time. You can always add more later.
In this case, I added half teaspoon of soy sauce and half teaspoon of oil to
one one bag of shiitake mushrooms.

The mixture is then stirred vigorously to form an emulsion.

Add the mushrooms into the sauce. Squeeze the mixture with your hands like you are squeezing a sponge. Don't worry, it will all mix well, and the mushrooms will not deflate like some pitiful birthday balloon with no air.

Here's the yummy, shiny, final product.

To make it look nicer, you can sprinkle some raw basil leaf on top. I didn't because my snack attack happened at about 11pm and I was too lazy to decorate this dish, so late at night.

It's real good. Try it, and try it on your friends. Add these raw mushrooms in some noodle dish to up your intake of raw food. Believe me, most people won't even realize it's not cooked!

Have fun.

Jasmin

"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group
http://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/

NICOLE RITCHIE AND HER PUMPKIN! (Happy Halloween everyone)

I came across a picture of Nicole Ritchie and her baby little Harlow Winter Kate Madden at a pumpkin patch, which I thought I'd share with you guys. Don't you think they both look so cute?

danasdirt.com

I don't celebrate Halloween anymore. I used to when I was studying in Kansas. I tried to when I came back home to Malaysia. I made a great looking skull and skeleton combo thing and hung it outside my apartment door. The problem was, when I came back, the thing disappeared. I made another one, and that too was gone by the time I came back from work. I thought it was some pesky kids, until I realised the old Chinese lady next door was freaked out by the skeleton. She not only removed it, she put joss sticks outside her door probably to ward off bad luck. She probably thought I was some black magic devotee or something. Ah well. I figured she won't understand, and so I didn't bother to explain, and just didn't do anything thereafter. It would have been a waste of my efforts.

Speaking of pumpkins, did you know you can eat them raw?

Yup! They don't taste so hot eaten raw right off the fruit, but in a great recipe, it's yummy.

Here's an exciting easy raw pumpkin soup recipe you might want to try.

Healthy, fast, delicious, yummo! And best of all, easy to clean up, because there's barely any dishes to clean up.

Chantel's Pumpkin Soup:

2 cups of raw, chopped pumpkin flesh
½ cup of bell pepper
2 small red onions
1 ½ cup of peanuts
1 ½ teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice
½ teaspoon of sea salt
1 tbsp. of coconut oil (olive oil works as well)
4 cups of warm water (but not boiling, as you don't want to kill the enzymes in the raw food.)

Put all of this into a food processor, blend until smooth. Garnish with pumpkin seeds.

http://www.citydirt.net/city_dirt/pumpkin_recipes_a_la_barbados.html

Enjoy.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

GOOD LOOKING HEALTHY RAW PEOPLE

Some people have asked me if eating more raw food will make a person look sickly because they don't eat certain "established" food like cooked rice, pasterised milk, bread, burger ... things we take for granted as our every day food? The answer is no, not eating these stuff won't make a person look and feel sickly. I mean, if it does, I'd probably not write about it.

In fact, eating more raw food, is good for you. The main basis of raw food is to eat food that does not have artificial chemicals inside, organic food (if possible) and eat food that does not have it's vitamins and enzymes destroyed by heat.

Anyways, here are some amazing photos of people on the raw food diet.

Before and after pictures
http://jinjee1.securesites.net/beforeandafterpictures/

Good looking healthy raw foodists
http://thegardendiet.com/goodlookingrawists/

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

ps please forward this email to your friends and loved ones and share the loving information of healthy eating.

MY NEW PHONE FONTS ARE SO TINY!

Despite the fact my eyesight is perfect, I have problems seeing some of the fonts on my new PDA phone. I think these types are phones are meant for 15 year olds, not really for a person like me. Still, I'm pumped. Like my dad, who is a Big Boy Toy fan, I love gadgets. This little puppy has WIFI, GPS, camera which will allow me to finally put up some photos on my blog, and so on.

I luv this puppy!

Speaking of eyesight, I found out some of the shops in Singapore are now selling organic dried Goji Berries (kei chi seeds or chinese wolfberries or medler seeds). That's so cool, cause now, I don't have to worry about pesticides and what-nots sticking to the fruit. Goji Berries, by the way, is really good for the eyesight. The Chinese for centuries have been using Goji Berries in slowly boiled soups, to not only enhance the flavor of the soups, but to also improve the eyesight, strengthen the immune system and so on. It's really one of the more powerful fruits we can eat.

I do use them in traditional, boiled soups, but I find it's more effective to eat sun dried Goji Berries raw. It's like eating sun dried raisins. All the goodness is still inside the berries since heat has not destroyed the fragile properties of the vitamins and enzymes. I sometimes just carry a small bag of the fruit in my pocket, in case I get hungry, while I'm out somewhere. If you google Goji Berries, you can find amazing facts and figures about how good Goji Berries are for us all.

Cheap, little tasty Goji Berries can be found in most chinese medicine shops or Asian stores around the world. Just walk in and ask if they have the kei chi fruit.

Yum!

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

ps you gotta check out this Goji Berry blog http://www.gojiberriesblog.com/2006/08/15/dried-goji-berries/

NOTHING WRONG WITH MY EYES AFTER ALL

I was scared that my eyesight had deteriorated, so I decided to hop over to the old optician shop, the one I used to go to since I was 14 years old to check on my eyesight. Now, I have not step foot inside there for more than 10 years now, ever since I got the lasik eye surgery my mum had been bugging me to do forever.

But guess what? The lady there recognized me after all these years. Called me by name even. Boy, I was taken by surprised, let me tell you. This was one thing I didn't expect. I have not seen her for more than 10 years.

Amazing.

But then, I used to visit the shop very often as a schoolgirl.

I'd lose my glasses in some toilet; glasses hung on my shirt would have accidentally dropped into the toilet bowl as I bend to flush. Why did I not wear those ugly frames? Because I was vain that's why. Bad enough I had to go through the ugly duckling stage then, why add more ugly stuff to my looks like those thick, cheap, plastic frames.

And I would do silly stuff like accidentally sit on my glasses thus crushing the frame or I would be careless and my plastic lens would have tons of scratches.

Many a time, I would quietly use my lunch money to fix my glasses cause you know, my dad would have screamed bloody murder if he knew how careless I was with my glasses. I would choose cheap frames, and cheap plastic lenses cause I had to keep fixing my glasses, and I had not much money to speak of then.

Anyways, back to the lady who recognize me, I always tend to forget, even in a big, big city, there always a little corner somewhere, where neighbours can and do try to live like they are in an old charm, small town community. Something like the Cheers bar, where everybody knows your name.

Kinda nice really. Kinda scary as well.

But hey, even better news! My eyesight is still perfect. The optician said there was nothing wrong with my eyes, except I could be staring at the "puter" far too long. I know sooner and later I will need reading glasses, but until then, I'm going to continue drinking my raw carrot juice and anything delicious tasting raw beta carotene foods.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook grouphttp://eatrawfoodtoday.blogspot.com/

HELP! I MIGHT NEED TO WEAR GRANNY GLASSES

So anyways, I just realized I can't read the fine print on anything. Hubby says it's a sign that I'm getting old, but help, I'm only in my 30s. I thought long sightedness starts to manifest in our 50s. I'm not ready to break out those bifocals yet.

I need to start drinking more raw carrot juice. See if that helps!

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

CHICKEN POX PARTIES

I heard about chicken pox parties years ago, back when I was still single, footloose and fancy free. Stuff like that never interest me. I had different parties to go to. But heck, now that I have 2 beautiful kids, even their poo becomes a topic of interest, parents reading this will know what I mean!

Lots of parents in Europe prefer to bring their children to a chicken pox party to infect their kids with chicken pox. They rather do that than to allow their kids to get a vaccine. The downside of a chicken pox party is other people, besides the kids can get infected, and apparently, the older you are, the more severe the reactions will be (good thing there is a pill that can prevent that if you and the doctor can solve the problem early).

Now, I don't want to be biased (as there are 2 sides of a coin), so I'm going to give you links to several different websites that have different opinions about chicken pox vaccines; why kids should have vaccines, why they should not and what is inside them.

I urge you guys who are not married to read this too, cause you will need to know these stuff when your kid pops out. Quicker than you know it, the paediatrician will start to whip out the syringe and you need to know your options. You may not have time or energy to check the info out at that time if you are still sleep deprived because baby decides he doesn't want to sleep at night, every single night!

Happy reading!

Parents try pox parties to avoid vaccinehttp://www.freep.com/article/20080919/FEATURES08/809190409/1033/FEATURES08

What is inside the chicken pox vaccinehttp://www.mothering.com/articles/growing_child/child_health/chickenpox_party_side2.html

Vaccinations can kill
http://www.vaccinetruth.org/page_221.htm

Chicken pox vaccines prevents death
http://www.drgreene.com/21_323.html

Chicken pox vaccines are good for you
http://chicken-pox.org/

Forum on chicken pox - worth reading to find out some details about how people coped with chicken pox http://babyfit.sparkpeople.com/archive_posts.asp?imboard=59&imParent=6575609

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group

ps don't take what you read on the internet as gospel truth. Please consult your doctor before you decide on the best chicken pox treatment.

DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN GET CHICKEN POX EVEN IF YOU WERE VACCINATED?

Just about a month ago, my local fruit seller told me there was quite a few kids in my neighbourhood down with chicken pox. Many of the parents have been dropping by his fruit stand to by raw coconut water. It seems the refreshing raw coconut water helps relieve the chicken pox symptoms, meaning it's believed to help reduce the "heatiness" of the body.
Now, I'm not a doctor, so I can't comment on the "heatiness" stuff (please see your doctor or your local herbalist for more information on this). I do know, it's no harm to drink coconut water. Lots of liquid is always good when someone is not feeling well. And coconut water is known to have anti bacteria and anti viral properties. It's pack full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants so you can't go wrong with raw coconut water.

But anyways, just about a week ago, my girlfriend emailed me that her eldest daughter is also down with chicken pox, and this despite having a chicken pox vaccine (she lives quite far away from me, by the way). If you don't know by now, chicken pox vaccines are offered for free in many countries so many kids do get vaccinated when they are toddlers. I was quite alarmed. Why despite the vaccine are people and kids in particular, getting sick? So I went into the internet, did a check, and yes, a few government health department websites around the world does state that despite vaccinations, one can get struck down by chicken pox, but the symptoms won't be so severe.

I'll write more about chicken pox later, but for now, please note that there are cooked coconut water and raw coconut water. Some coconuts (in the shell) are slowly "smoked" over a slow, smoldering heat to give the water a sweeter, thus yummier taste, but the problem is heat destroys vitamins and enzymes, so raw coconut water is the better way to go. Most people can't tell the difference between a raw coconut and a cooked coconut in the shell. So if you are buying coconut in the shell, ask the fruit sellers. I'm sure they will be more than happy to show you the difference.

Jasmin
"Eat Raw Food Today" facebook group