The rising sun

刚读完一本名为“The Rising Sun" 的书， by Michael Chrichton。

是我喜欢的悬疑侦探小说类型，不同的是增添了如何对付日本人的招数 。在日本公司上班的X买的，他需要了解怎么对付日本人。

故事是说一个漂亮的美国女子在一间日本公司的大厦开幕典礼被杀，一个单亲爸爸身为专为与日本人调解的警探被要求协助调查而卷入这场“必须找出凶手，不然就会被凶手整死”的困局。故事背景是日本正是经济强国，还没陷入几十年的经济低迷前的时候。

我本是带着轻松的心情读这小说。可是越读到到结尾我心情就莫名的沉重。

日本当时是世界第二大经济强国，几乎要超越美国 。而美国国内似乎也面临着许多问题。似乎和今日中国的崛起有着许多共同点。

美国声称当时的日本不愿开放日本国内市场，让国际交易变得不平等。这类的指控今时今日仍不变，变的是被指控的对象是中国。日本从90年代就一直经济萧条，第二经济强国的地位已早早被中国取代。我曾经在某篇报章报道读到美国总统“呼吁”中国‘behave like a grown up nation' (长大-类似叫中国不要再像个小孩一样，学我美国开放经济让市场成熟自由发展）我当时就说：Maybe US should learn not expect others to sacrifice for them, grow up please! 美国就是喜欢打着“开放市场”的旗号逼着其它国家牺牲自己国家的经济发展，像个任性的孩子因为自己的玩具比其他小朋友的旧了，就吵着要其它小朋友分享玩具，自己却死咬着自己的玩具不放。

希望中国十年后不会像日本一样。

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Ham & Mushroom Aglio Olio

My new attempt on Aglio Olio!

I was tasked to cook lunch for Xu Family last Saturday, but it was a lazy Saturday rainy morning, so I wanted to make something easy. Hence, I got all the ingredients at NTUC@ tampines mall after McDonald breakfast.

I simply need to cut the Ham and mushroom into slices and throw all the ingredients together into the pot and fry, no need to de-shell prawns or marinate chicken whatsoever! lunch was prepared in less than half hr. (used honey baked ham and 3-in-1 mushroom pack from NTuC: white & black button and one Portbello)

I added chilli padi this time round. tips for ppl who love spicy food: use small fire to cook, 煸, garlic and chilli padi for some time, before garlic is burnt. your noodles will be more fragrant and spicy. If u can't really take spicy food, remove all seeds wash the chilli thoroughly, add at the end for garnishing only.

To increase the aesthetic look and a bit of 'nutrition', I added wild rocket salad on top of the pasta.

How I make the salad:

A box of wild rocket from NTUC, and japanese sesame salad dressing, sprinkle some parmesan cheese over.

looks yummy right? But sad to say, it doesn't taste as good as it looks. I took a shortcut to cook for everyone at the same time, the noodles became too dry, oil not enough, garlic not enough and the ingredients were not well mixed. :(

It is still wise to cook aglio olio in small portion, maybe for 1 or 2 person if you are an inexperienced cook like myself.

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Real Yoga

My first purchase on groupon: 6 session of yoga at Real Yoga

Went for my first session yesterday, lesson recommended by dajie: Body Opening!

Had a very bad first impression of Real Yoga. First of all, the consultant I was supposed to meet wasn't around. Then I was just shown to the changing room without much orientation of the whole place. I had to return to the changing room twice, first to put my slippers in the changing room as shoes are not allowed in the studio and there's no place to leave our shoes outside studio  (I don't really like the idea of walking barefooted from the changing room to the studio, not as if they had made effort to keep the floor clean ), second time to put HP in locker.as we're not allowed to use hp in studio. shouldn't they let me know during the 'orientation' if they have so many house rules?

I find the place rather small and cramp, it's almost impossible to be able to reach for my things in locker with ppl changing in the area and putting things in their locker etc . And they don't have toilet! To use the toilet( I only found out after the class) we have to walk out of the premise, the shopping centre toilet with only three cubicle.

The yoga mat were placed very neatly and packed in the studio. When I stepped into the studio the first thing I noticed is a stench of smell, maybe from sweat on the mat( probably they were nv cleaned as the mats are always on the floor) or maybe its feet smell plus the poor ventilation of the room... this is something I had never experience in Fitness First or California Fitness...

The only good thing about Real Yoga is probably their lesson/instructor. At least the yoga positions were taught on greater detail so we could do it correctly.

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