Healthy Snacks

I am hypoglycemic. This means that I have low blood sugar. It also means, amongst other things, that I am a low key personality owing to the simple fact that my blood sugar is low. So, I am a fairly quiet person with a lack of energy, or "spark" as some people would call it. Some would call me boring, but I don't find myself boring. In any case, I have to eat fairly regularly to keep my energy levels up; about every 2-3 hours.

And, no. A person with hypoglycemia cannot just have sugar to "pick up" that low blood sugar. The body does not work that way. Just the opposite, actually. Having sugar will actually make it worse as the insulin response (already too quick in this condition as it is) to metabolize this newly added sugar will be so fast that the person stands a high probability of passing out. This has almost happened to me before on many occasions where I have eaten something that contains too much sugar (unknown to me). But, I usually make it to someplace where I can lie down and sleep it off. What is needed here are foods with "slow release" sugar. This invariably means natural foods with very little, or no added processed sugars at all. About the only time I can eat sugary foods is after a fairly large meal. That way, the sugar is buffered by the rest of the foods in my system already.

Usually I have some fruit, or yogurt, or once in a while a bag of chips (see a previous post entitled "Junk Food" regarding that). I used to have nuts until my body became unable to digest them properly anymore (even with digestive enzymes). Too much bloating and gas to make it worth my while. So, I have been trying out some interesting new healthy snacks here in Korea lately as just fruit and yogurt have become a bit boring all the time.

Here are some of the new snacks that seem to be pretty good. All of these items were purchased from Home Plus for anywhere from less than W1000 to less than W2000 (US $0.80 to US $1.60). I'm sure they can be found at other major grocery stores, too. Maybe even corner convenience store as well although I have never looked for them there.

These "Fried Peas" taste great. They remind me of some other Asian style fried peas I've had before. There is no added salt, so the flavor is just the peas. There's a slight nutty flavor to them as well. I think they are also dry fried as well because I cannot seem to detect any oily residue on my hands after eating them. About the only negative I have to say about them is that they have an extremely hard texture to them. This makes for a great crunch, but it is very hard on the teeth. I worry that I might chip or break a tooth! Yes, they are that hard. Tread very, very, carefully here.

Recommended (if you have strong teeth)

These "Black Soy-Beans" have a very nice crunch to them without being so hard as to cause worry about breaking one's teeth. They taste almost identical to unsalted roast sunflower seeds as found in packages back in North America. The soy beans are obviously roasted and, as I cannot detect any oils after handling, it must be a dry roast process. Very tasty with a nice texture.

Recommended

As far as dried "Banana Chips" go, these are amongst the best I have tasted. They have a nice crunch to them without degenerating into a slightly disappointing softness as found in banana chips in North America. The crispness stays throughout the eating process. They are naturally slightly sweet (at least I don't think there is any added sugar) with a hint of "butter-caramel-honey popcorn" in the after taste. Just a hint. That's a bit strange to describe, but it is what I taste when I eat them; an almost candy-like mix of flavors along with the main banana flavor. Very yummy.

Highly Recommended

My Water Moments

My baby, the Olympus 1030 SW has been with me for 2 years now, but it has been 5 years since dad bought it.

It was a waterproof camera, being there faithfully during my dive trips.


And while I'm having fun!

But ever since the 'accident', my camera can no longer go underwater. Looking back at my water moments...




It would be nice if I could do underwater photography again.

These pictures represents my water moments because it brings happy memories of me fooling about weather I'm underwater or above. Either ways, someh0w I manage to get wet!

And that's why I need...*Gasp* The Sony Cyber-shot TX5!!

From what I've heard, this amazing camera bears the title of The World's Slimmest Water-Proof Camera!




And, and, and, not only is it an awesome looking water-proof camera, its shock-proof, temperature-proof, AND dust-proof too!

Plus, this beautiful camera comes with some marvelous functions like iSweep Panorama, Handheld Twilight, and Anti-motion blur. Yes my friend, this is the camera for me! ITS MINE!!

If I had such a fantastic camera like the Sony TX5, hopefully my pictures would be clearer, daring, and beautiful in addition to the fact that I would be able to have my underwater partner again; capturing a few of the amazing things I see during some of my dive trips and my silly days.

SONY REDEFINES MY CAMERA!!


Check it out! First of all, the Sony TX5 produces beautiful images- even in low light! Besides that, its images are natural and vibrant as it drastically lowers noise level and achieves high accuracy in auto-focusing, exposure auto-correction, and auto white balancing; resulting in the beautiful picture as shown above ;)

Capturing perfect twilight shots

Not only that, with the Handheld Twilight mode, the images are boasted 50% less noise, allowing the camera to superimpose six visual frames to create a single optimized image.

Moreover, even when taking a picture at high ISO setting or without using a tripod, you still enjoy cleaner, sharper, images with Handheld Twilight.



BRINGING OUT THE STYLE IN ANY SITUATION


Water-proof
Yes my friend, it really truly is water-proof. With this camera, I could take beautiful underwater shots up to 3m deep for 60 minutes. Which is pretty convenient as I love to go diving underwater in the sea!

Temperature-proof
Despite its fab exterior, this camera is one tough cookie. I could keep shooting even below freezing point up to -10 degrees Celsius! Which means I could take a mean picture during harsh weather!

Dust-proof
Now this I gotta see! Sometimes, my camera gets dusty once in a while so I have to clean it whenever I want a clear picture. But with the superb dust-resistance of the Cyber-shot TX5, I'd get spotless images whatever the environment is! Yay!

Shock-proof
This camera can take a drop of up to a height of 1.5m, which would be pretty useful to me as I'm pretty clumsy sometimes. Once while I was holding my camera, I slipped and almost fell off a jetty. Luckily, someone grabbed me just in time! Who knows what would happen if I landed on the camera!

POWER AND PRECISION

Effortless panoramic photos

With this camera, I could take beautiful panoramic photos by sweeping the camera horizontally to create stunning landscape shots, or vertically to capture tall objects. Plus, it also recognizes faces or subject movement and cleverly stitches the photos together to create a natural-looking panoramic photo.

How cool is that??

Clear and sharp images in low-light environment


Now we're talking!

This anti-motion blur mode uses six superimposed frames to create one single optimised image with 50% less noise. This means I'm able to shoot clear and sharp images even with high ISO settings in low-light environment!

OMG! It takes 10 photos in 1 second!!


Woah! It has got to be the most awesomest feature ever!!

This wonderful camera can capture fast actions or a moving subject in a sequence of 10 continuous frames per second! This sequence of continuous shots are also grouped to simplify playback as the camera analyses each group in order to locate and display the best shot automatically!

Is this my kind of camera, or is this my kind of camera???

St. John Vianney Play - The Musical

Yeah OK I'll embarrass myself this ONE time in my post so you gotta appreciate it because it's gonna be the first and last time I'm putting up dumb pictures of myself.

So the reason why I'm dressed up like that is because I was involved in our church play about St. John- Marie Vianney; the saint for priests. I play as the mother of St. John- Marie. I feel old.
A few posts ago, I did mention that I was supposed to be on of the kitchen maids who ran out of supplies and St. John prayed for it and POOF! There it is.

Lets just say Roann took over my role but its NOT because I did a lousy job (like I said, I'm not such a bad actress), I got promoted.

But I sorta felt guilty about taking over the original mother's role... I hope she doesn't hate me. Its not like I asked for it.

*I still wanted to play with the dough on stage*

But anyway, check out the amount of makeup Victor has to go through (he's our main character, St. John Vianney)!

If you look real closely, you'll notice that there's patches on his face. They put plasters on his face and tried to conceal it so that he'd have wrinkles. Eeee.....

Omg, if I'm the mom, that means I'll have MORE wrinkles!!

Wow. And I thought having pimples are bad enough.

But wait! There's more...


OK, so he looks pretty normal in this picture right? *why is he giving me that WTF look??*


I gotta hand it to him, he sure can take in loads of nonsense for the team. He's supposed to look bald so, he had to wear on of the teacher's stockings on his head XD

Being the main character, Victor has to go through loads of changes of costumes, makeup and yes, believe it or not, blankets. Man, it must be really hot in there having to wear layers of blankets so that he'd look fatter.

And here's Victor's final transformation!!

TADAAA! Hollywood makeup!

But seriously. Being the guy's 'mom', I had to go through some weird makeup too. Like two days before the big day, the teacher's tried to put 'old' makeup on me by drawing wrinkles on my face.

They made me scrunch up my face and they'd traced down the wrinkles. Sounds fine, right? WRONG!

Gosh, I never thought putting up makeup could be so.... painful.

While they were drawing wrinkles on me, I have no idea what kind of makeup tools were they using. But whatever it is, it hurts!

They keep pressing in something that felt like a toothbrush onto my precious face until by the time its all over, I discovered a few scratches on my cheeks. Luckily, they weren't noticeable. Thank the good Lord for concealer.


Yes, I can't believe I'm doing this either but this is me looking as old as possible. Eee... I look like one of my teachers lah!

Note that this is still me in the SAME costume and the SAME makeup. Lucky they didn't plaster wrinkles on my face like the other 'old men'. (They even put powder on my eyebrows and hair)

Like this guy. His wrinkles are blended in quite well I must say.

Did I mention that he's my so-called 'husband'?

Its sad though, that I didn't catch my partner's name. Its only on the big day that I found out who is the father. If I'm not mistaken, I think his name is Joseph?

That was the time we tried to walk like an old person together for the dying scene.

But sometimes I wonder. If St. John- Marie died of old age, how can I possibly be alive if I'm the mom???

I gotta admit though, the costumes look great! Because the play is set in the Victorian era, we have to dress up in an English- like manner.


Don't they look absolutely fab?


The guys don't look too bad either!



Nice hat!

Eh, I guess I haven't been trying to look old so here's the best facial old-like expression I could do. Oh God...

Wet & Wild With Our BEC

One word to describe last Friday's Family Day; AWESOME!

Really.

As you can see, we had a hell of a time in Sg. Congkak, Hulu Langat! Its too bad I wasn't there for the first half of the day because I was in church for the St. John Vianney play rehersal.

Oh well, at least I got to escape from doing the chicken dance.
By the time I got there, it was about lunchtime. I had to walk uphill for 10 min because the forest reserve doesn't allow cars to come in so I took loads of pictures of random people on the way. Some people actually tried to get my attention so that I could take a picture of them. But I was kinda disappointed that I missed the treasure hunt :/ There's uncle Mike BBQing the sausages. I like the chicken the best. Never touched the sausage.

Sometimes when I see people eating the sausages with their hands, they like to wriggle it a lot and it sorta reminds me of something alive wriggling in their hands, struggling to get out.

I couldn't bear to eat the poor fella. Even if its a sausage.
MAn, I love this part!

That's when we've got to have a water fight and its like a war zone. You have no idea how many times I've been splashed along the way. Thank goodness my camera's waterproof.
You know, for some reason, I find Eric rather photogenic. I mean look at him!

He's a genius!

In the meantime, check out the amount of people who has been splashing me all day!
Will they leave me alone!!???
There's Roann, my stalker.
Well, I'm pretty satisfied that Family Day was a big success. Its nice to bring in the fellowship and have fun together.


THREE CHEERS FOR FAMILY DAY!! YIPEEEE!!

Hot Summer Treats II

Well, part two of my "Hot Summer Treats" series has appeared a lot sooner than I had anticipated. It's been really hot here lately! LOL

Starting off this series of short reviews is a "Mandarine Orange" flavored (and colored) popsicle that tastes great. The orange flavor is intense without being sour, or too sweet. It's just about spot on. This one is a simple solid orange popsicle without any additional flavors inside of it. The orange flavor supposedly comes from "Jeju Island" oranges renowned in South Korea for their superior flavor. The orange taste is stronger than the "Shark" themed dual flavored popsicle from last week's review series. Very refreshing and light.

Anyways, this one can be found at most non-franchise chain convenience stores (the mom and pop stores carry a greater variety of different ice creams/popsicles than the big chains it seems). I think it was W700 (about US $0.50).

Highly Recommended

This "Kiwi" popsicle is probably the best popsicle I've ever tasted! It's three layers; the outside layer is kiwi sherbet; the middle layer is plain and simple ice (!) - for the crunch, I guess (or, to prevent the flavors from mixing detrimentally during its shelf-life); and the inside center is pineapple sherbet. This flavor mix tastes amazing when eaten together; the slight tartness of the kiwi mixes with the sweetness of the pineapple to create something most excellent. This is something akin to a tart slice of kiwi dipped in dark chocolate and eaten together; something very unique and delicious.

A must try popsicle if you can find it. Not available at the chain conveniences stores. I also think I was over-charged for it as there is no price printed on it like the others. And, it's a bit smaller than most popsicles. But, at W1000 (about US $0.80), it's no biggie! YMMV

Most Highly Recommended

The final item up for review is the "Mango Ice Candy" from Paris Baguette. I had high hopes for it simply owing to the fact that is a Paris Baguette branded product. And, I have had some great experiences with their foods from pastries to ice creams. Although, I have had a few dud items from them, too. I would not really classify this one as a total dud per se. But, it was not as intense and rich a flavor as I was expecting. The mango taste was fine, just not as strong as I had anticipated. It also seemed to be a bit too "frozen" if such a thing can happen. Maybe if it was not so hard, the flavor might have been better. But, even at the end, when it would have softened up some, it was still a bit hard and "bland" in comparison to other popsicles I've had. Meh! Win some, lose some.

Only available at Paris Baguette. W700 (about US $0.50)

Sorta Recommended; It's ok, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it.

The Awesomest 2 Weeks of my Life

What's up my dearest, dearest of readers?

OMG, I've been ignoring my baby for 2 weeks because I've been having such a great time! I don't know about you, but, it was a blast and a much needed break after the mid year exams. I haven't even touched my homework yet...

I started off by going free and easy during the first few days like sleeping as long as I want, going online all day and NOT touching my homework. At all.

Then during the weekend, my brother and I went for a memory and leadership course. Now, I can remember all kinds of stuff! Just give me a list of words and I can remember it! Beauty eh?

Check out this poster I did over there. Epic.



Ooh! And there's the time I went to Genting with Roann and my family. We had such a great time there.

Man, this is the only photo that is decent enough to take a picture with a clown. This fella ar, when we tried to take a pic with him, he keeps pushing Roann away and goes away from me until Roann threatened that she'd choke him or something.


And here's the time we went to the... something temple along the way to Genting.




Check it out! We flew paper airplanes from our room in the morning when the sky is cool and breezy. We watched it fly outside and it really flew out there for a long time until we couldn't see it anymore!

Oh! And the day after that, when I already came back from Genting, I went out with two of my good friends Rachel and Melissa to watch TOY STORY 3 in 3D!!!

I can't believe TGV officially has got 3D at last and the movie was awesome and even better! I love it! To think of the things I had to do just to get the tickets!

So we were there at the ticketing booth lining up and the line was unbelievably long! I checked the movie screening and Toy Story 3 was about to be sold out and I was getting desperate 'cause I really don't wanna waste my time going there for nothing.

And that's when I saw the ticket reservation booth and PING! Its like a light bulb above my head came on and I knew what to do then.

So, I went to the reservation counter and gave the guy behind the counter a 7-digit bullshit number. He typed it down and not surprisingly, there's no seat. I acted shocked and surprised(I'm not such a bad actress, you know) and told him to type it down again. Once again, no seat.

The guy said that the number was a few months ago and I said that can't be, my friend gave it to me. Then, I pretended to call my 'friend' while Melissa was there pretending to scold me while I apologized pathetically.

And that's when I told him, "Sorry ar, I can't get her. Can I buy a ticket here anyway?"

The guy was like, "Actually, you're gonna have to wait in line then."

Then I was like, "PLEEESEE??" *batters eyelashes*

And that, my friend is how we got the best seats waaay at the back right on top where we could have the best possible view of the screen. AND watch the show in 3D.

Thank you, thank you very much. *bow*

If the person behind the counter hadn't been a chinese guy or if Melissa and I hadn't worn short pants and skirt, we wouldn't have the tickets. I guess luck was on our side that day.

But I'm never, gonna do that again. Unless another awesome movie comes out.

Hehe! I love this pic!

That's when we had our BEC Family Day the day after my movie episode. We had fun getting each other wet in Sungai Congkak, Hulu Langat. I'll elaborate more about the event in my next post.

Heehee! Poor Amanda, innocently posing for the camera.

And last but not least, the St. John Marie Vianney play starring Victor Lee! Yay!



I'll elaborate on that play too in my other next post. There, I'll show you how I tried to look like an old lady. Really.

Oh Yeah! I almost forgot! Mom's kitchen is done and ready to cook!!

Check it out! BEFORE....

AFTER!

BEFORE...

AFTER!

Its so nice to have our kitchen back again along with having a homecooked meals.