Jamie's ministry of food

i have always had an interest in cooking, though i have never really got down to cooking itself, but i always watch cooking shows by Jamie Oliver, Rachal Ray and even ch 8's 三菜一汤.

having been slacking off on saturday mornings rather than training, i soon found this show on tv: Jamie's Ministry of Food. It is a show based in the UK, whereby Jamie experiments with "Pass It On". Having realized how much of Rotterdam people doesnt know how to cook, and dinners are always take-outs which leads to tons of overweight people with health problem. He decided to start something, something to get everyone cooking healthily in their own kitchen.

how his plan is going to work is that he hopes to teach this small group of people various recipes, and these people are strongly encouraged to pass on these recipes and teach like a few more people, and these few more people will pass it on and this continues till ideally, the whole country all knows how to cook some simple fares.

for the first few weeks, his plan didnt seem to work as the original group that he taught are just too scared to pass it on, fearing rejections and screw ups. but soon, his plan finally started to see some results.

with the series coming to an end, some of the people are skeptical that once Jamie leaves, people will stop passing it on.. only time will tell..

a new year im not looking forward to..

the original post.. was an angsty one.. one about people leaving church for another.. one about how i think their reasons are just their own self-justification, in their attempt to make themselves feel good about leaving, and not proper reasons..

they dont owe the church anything, they dont have to stay.. but they havent done what they should to make it a better place for them.. they just want to go to a place where their choice of fruits are given to them on a platter..

then i thought about it.. what's the point of ranting.. it does nobody any good.. and after all.. i did start this new blog, promising not to talk about anything angsty..

so i reflected..
am i really that bad a leader that so many under me wants to leave?
am i really blind to something that they see and i dont?
even though we are serve wholeheartedly without a return in mind, can the reason of "its only fair that i get something back in return" a proper reason?

do i feel a sense of unfairness.. yes.. but.. all things happen for a reason..

i may not see it now.. i may not see it in a few years.. but im sure someday, God will show me why things have come to this..

pray that those left behind.. will find the strength.. to overcome this..

its really not that easy..

part of what i do at work includes looking at customers complain and attempt to do some form of service recovery. its only been 5 months and i have read so many different complains and replying to them. many times, I wonder if its really that hard to get things right with the customers. i mean.. you just have to keep smiling and ignore all the negative things the customer may say..

today.. i was corrected.. it really isnt all that easy..

i was at an outlet today and for a long while, i was tending to customers who wanted to redeem the free food we are giving out. due to some operations mistake, the waiting time for some people were an hour (cant believe people are willing to wait an hour for something that is worth $1.. Singaporeans..).. so I had to "send" this lady to go window shopping and come back an hour later to collect. (by which she already asked what was holding up the redemption in an irritated tone) so 1 hour later, it just happened that i gave away the current batch.. and this lady had to wait another 10mins for the next batch.. i tried asking her to take a seat and wait for just a short while but she decided to walk away.. but not before muttering something sarcastic even though i tried to explain she wasnt the first few in the queue anyway..

as she walked away.. i cant help feeling irritated.. and even shook my head in disbelief.. its a good thing she didnt see me do it.. if not.. i would soon have to deal with a complain on me..

flyers.. that's a first

this is not about the place where tourists are all forced to go when they visit Singapore.. but speaking of that, just earlier this month, i went to "take a ride" on the Flyer. Thanks to Mcdonald's and the monopoly contest, I won a 1 for 1 ticket to the flyer... no way would I pay the full amount.. but if its half.. might as well..

well.. the 30 mins didnt feel that long.. nor was it really boring.. but it is still one of those things most ppl probably only do once in their lives.

now.. back to the flyers.. i had to give out flyers.. for the first time in my life. i have always been a skeptic about flyers.. knowing that most of the time, it doesnt work.. but this time round, we had to do some publicity for a church event..

after this experience.. i must say... ill just help the flyers distributor even if i dont care about what they are giving out.. (i am always those that will say no thanks to flyers.. but at least im much better than those who.. avoid you like a plague.. not even acknowledging you...)

but thankfully.. there are still enough kind Singaporeans.. to help me get my task quickly over..

its been a while..

many weeks since the last post..

many things happened... and i found out that im not that much a people person as i was in the past.. mistakes made that led to... things happening.. certainly dont feel very good huh..

but... after today.. though what has happened cannot be changed.. things seems to be getting better... really good feeling about it..

sebby is such a strange character..

every year. for the past 6 years. i ask myself why, why do i put myself through them. waking up so early. spend the whole day in the sun (or mud and rain in many cases), getting totally burnt, totally tired. and dragging myself out of bed on monday morning.

with every year, the process became harder and harder. especially this yr. i felt myself dragging myself across the finish line: sept 18 and 19. for a long while, i told myself that i'll take a break from frisbee. dunno how long, but for a while at least. i said that yesterday afternoon after when xinhong asked me, in the evening when jeremy asked me.

now that its truly over, a part of me, the weird part wants to be there again next year!!!! what's wrong with me?! i just cannot put it down. and that's what been getting me into "trouble" these past years, unwilling to take a break!

2005: what an eye opener.. i was young and fit then.. hur hur..

2006: sprain ankle caused me to miss one of the biggest game yet..

2007: worst fields yet...

2008: first time as a chuckie! though those are my ex smu teammates.. haha.. dont have photos..

2009: now... with the chuckies..

2010: how time flies...

hmm.. what was i doing?

in what is a new experience, i had my first concussion last thursday. chasing after a disc, i crash into someone coming in from my blindspot. i had my faiir share of collisions, but somehow, this one was different from the rest.


the pain soon wore off and i picked myself up and continued to play. i soon realized that i have no idea what i was doing and what happened during the entire training


i sat down and tried to recall what happened. for a long while, there was nothing. slowly, i started to rem the things before the collision. however, till today, that half an hour after being knocked, it seems like it will remain a blank for the rest of my life.


i asked debbie if i was walking around aimlessly while playing that short while after, but she says i was quite normal. so it seems like i just cannot rem things.


symptoms of concussion that may appear in the days/weeks after and have appeared.
giddyess - a slight one that comes and go
headache - a slight one that just... appeared today


hopefully that's it.. nothing more..