My Types of Books

Find your right book - J.K. Rowling quote (Source: Google.com)

I love reading but I do not just love any books that come into my hands. If I would say, it requires fate to be able to read my type of books. Recently I realize that only my type of books would give me a kick, a motivation to keep reading it, until the end.

I did try reading just any book. It was not thick. It was not heavy (in terms of topic and content). By right, in my opinion, it should be easy to read and fast to finish. However, despite it was being just beside me, for one and half month the post it notes that I pasted into, was still stuck there at the same page and finally I decided to return it back to the library. The book did not call me to open. My heart was not willing to open it as well, to continue where it had stopped. I bet any fellow reader would also feel this way before.

So, my type of book. I could say I was very lucky to be met with them. Let me share them with you.

1) The Little Liar by Mitch Albom

  

The Little Liar - Mitch Albom

" A powerful novel that moves from a coastal Greek city during the Holocaust, to America, where the intertwined lives of three survivors are forever changed by the perils of deception and the grace of redemption. Eleven-year-old Nico Krispis never told a lie. When the Nazi’s invade his home in Salonika, Greece, the trustworthy boy is discovered by a German officer, who offers him a chance to save his family. All Nico has to do is convince his fellow Jewish residents to board trains heading to “new homes” where they are promised jobs and safety. Unaware that this is all a cruel ruse, the innocent boy goes to the station platform every day and reassures the passengers that the journey is safe. But when the final train is at the station, Nico sees his family being loaded into a large boxcar crowded with other neighbors. Only after it is too late does Nico discover that he helped send the people he loved—and all the others—to their doom at Auschwitz. Nico never tells the truth again. In The Little Liar, his first novel set during the Holocaust, Mitch Albom interweaves the stories of Nico, his brother Sebastian, and their schoolmate Fanni, who miraculously survive the death camps and spend years searching for Nico, who has become a pathological liar, and the Nazi officer who radically changed their lives. As the decades pass, Albom reveals the consequences of what they said, did, and endured. A moving parable that explores honesty, survival, revenge and devotion, The Little Liar is Mitch Albom at his very best. Narrated by the voice of Truth itself, it is a timeless story about the harm we inflict with our deceits, and the power of love to ultimately redeem us." - Goodreads

You must have heard or familiar with the author. This American author is not only a book writer, he is too a musician and a journalist. He has sold over 40 million copies worldwide, books and stories that inspired people all around the world. Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, For One More Day, Have a Little Faith, The Time Keeper, The First Phone Call from Heaven, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, The Next Person You Meet in Heaven, Finding Chika, The Stranger in the Lifeboat, and the most recent one, The Little Liar. 

I believe you may have read at least one of the titles I mentioned above. And some, might have read all of them :)

The Little Liar was not only inspirational. It was very sad too. How sadistic war was. How could human behave in such ways. So many how I questioned as there was no humanity, no love, no compassion, nothing. Instead, there were many lies spoken that many people believed, just to dupe them into life that they had never imagined. 

It was my type of book because I could relate the story and the places mentioned with those I had travelled to before - the shoes on the Danube River bank, the exhibit inside the Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives, next to the Dohány Street Synagogue and the Raoul Wallenberg Holocaust Memorial Park, and so on. 

2) From a Mountain In Tibet: A Monk’s Journey by Yeshe Losal Rinpoche

From a mountain in Tibet - Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche

"The extraordinary story of how a wayward boy escaped his war-torn country, found himself, and became the leading Tibetan monk in the West. Lama Yeshe didn't see a car until he was 15-years-old. In his quiet village, he and other children ran in fields with yaks and mastiffs. The rhythm of life was anchored by the pastoral cycles. Food was carefully apportioned and eaten together, everyone was family. The arrival of Chinese army cars one day in 1959 changed everything. In the wake of the deadly Tibetan Uprising, he escaped to India through the Himalayas to start over as a refugee. One of only 13 survivors out of 300 travellers, he spent the next few years in America, experiencing the excesses of the Woodstock generation before reforming in Europe. Now in his seventies and a leading monk at the Samye Ling monastery in Scotland—the first Buddhist centre in the West—Lama Yeshe casts a hopeful look back at his momentous life. From his learnings on self-compassion and discipline to his trials and tribulations with loss and failure, his poignant story mirrors our own struggles. Written with erudition and humour, From a Mountain in Tibet shines a light on how the most desperate of situations can help us to uncover vital life lessons and attain lasting peace and contentment." - Goodreads

This book told us the story what the Tibetan went through during the Chinese army's arrival to Tibet. It changed fate of many. Lama Yeshe was lucky enough being able to escape, although he had to go through difficult times - food scarcity, sickness, uncertainty, no clue where to head to, etc. He also told us the story on how he could change himself to where he is now. I enjoyed his story very much and very grateful that he could share his life journey to all of us in this book. Many things I could learn from him. By now, you must have already known what type of books I love reading.

3) A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East by Tiziano Terzani

A Fortune-Teller Told Me by Tizian Terzani

"Warned by a Hong Kong fortune-teller not to risk flying for an entire year, Tiziano Terzani—a vastly experienced Asia correspondent—took what he called “the first step into an unknown world. . . . It turned out to be one of the most extraordinary years I have ever spent: I was marked for death, and instead I was reborn.”

Traveling by foot, boat, bus, car, and train, he visited Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Mongolia, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. Geography expanded under his feet. He consulted soothsayers, sorcerers, and shamans and received much advice—some wise, some otherwise—about his future. With time to think, he learned to understand, respect, and fear for older ways of life and beliefs now threatened by the crasser forms of Western modernity. He rediscovered a place he had been reporting on for decades. And reinvigorated himself in the process." - Penguin Random House

I found out about this book from one forum in Facebook. Not knowing what it was about, the title and the picture were enough to draw my attention. As I unfolded each page, I fell in love with the way the author telling his story. And yes, fortune-teller, phii or spirit, war story, Buddhism, travel journey to places I had ever been to, were among the topics that I had interest with. Plus life learning from other people's story and experience, inspirational story, they were priceless!!! That was how I loved and enjoyed reading his book. I would check the google map too sometimes for the places he mentioned to imagine where they were located as he moved around to many places in Southeast Asia and I bet many readers also did the same :D

I am hoping to read more on these types of books. If you happen to have any books to recommend me to read, please drop your message below. Who knows I will have fate with that books. 

Books quote (Pic source: Google.com)

So, what have you read lately? I hope all of you read too sometimes, despite your business in life, in study, family obligations, traveling, and so on. Reading is really good for our mind. It can give our life inspiration and reminder to keep going upward and moving our butts off!!! Hehehe... if you know what I mean. Anyway, I hope you can find your types of books to read and enjoy reading ya!!! Cheers!!! :)

Nothing much

Make more memories while still can (Source: Google.com)

No updates for more than 2 months. Where has the time flown into??? In less than 2 months time, we are going into another year.... Crazy, really crazy, isn't it???

September was great. I worked like only few days, and spent most of my time doing what I loved doing. Hubby, son and I went for a short trip - taking Royal Caribbean 3-night cruise to nowhere - despite the pandemic and the increasing of Covid cases. It was a good break for all of us where we spent most of our time eating and relaxing (little walk, sleep more, jacuzzi, watching full moon, sun and stars).

The procedure before departing was a bit long, as we had to do a final ART test and wait for its result. We felt safe this way though because they had to make sure that everyone had the negative results. 

Once coming back, I had many memorable days to spend with families and friends over lunches and dinners. It felt good to meet up with people we cared and loved more often as we never know when the next time we could ever meet again. Just wanted to feel the warmth of our togetherness. 

October was a busy month where I was given more days to work. The Covid cases had increased tremendously during this period too. Since I worked in Food and Beverage related job, my colleagues and I had to do swab test once a week, to ensure that everyone was fit and safe to work. Thank Buddha we were all so far so good, so with families back home. 

But it did not mean that we would be safe forever. Just my feeling that one of the days, we all just had to get it at least once. And if we were lucky, we would be able to overcome it and life would go on. If we were not, then nothing could stop us from leaving. 

It was sad to hear people that I knew passed away due to Covid. Not only that. Many had lost their jobs and minds because of it too... Life was really challenging and it really tested our capabilities in managing stress and anxiety due to uncertainty of the future. 

The situation gave us so many question marks on what life would be. Many had resort to get the answers from the fortune teller and bagua readers, as they were wondering what life lines and roads they had in this lifetime. 

Why? And yet, we do (IG: rimareyka.writes)

People like me, just think of going with the flow. Live life one day at a time. I do not think much about future as I did not even think much about tomorrow. Try to live more of the present moment, and be aware with my own conducts. That had already made me busy enough. 

Hehe... I do not know what I am bubbling about right now. Just want to post as it had just been too long to let this blog vacant. Just want to say that I am fine, still kicking and alive. Grateful and thankful for so many good things that happened to my families and friends. I hope they will always be. 

i Light Marina Bay Festival and Picnic Part 2 - What a wonderful weekend! :)

The Grand Budapest Hotel

It was a lovely Saturday afternoon. I'd planned to watch the above movie together with my colleague. It's been a while since I went to watch a movie in a cinema. The ticket price had been exorbitant high nowadays. On weekend it costed S$12.50 per ticket plus S$1.50 booking fee that we had to pay when we booked the ticket online. Nevertheless, I would still be going as I read in the newspaper that the above movie was worth it to watch. I had no idea what the movie was all about, but I guessed it must be related to the hotel and I was curious about it. My colleague had no idea as well and just followed my judgement on why I chose to watch that movie.

The Grand Budapest Hotel was a movie directed by Wes Anderson and inspired by the writing of Stefan Zweig. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, Jude Law, Adrien Brody, Harvey Keitel, Jason Schwartzman, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Mathieu Amalric, F.Murray Abraham, Bob Balaban, Lea Seydoux and Saoirse Ronan. You may want to read more about the movie here. But overall, the movie was about the friendship between a concierge (Monsieur Gustave) and his protege (Zero Moustafa) where the hotel was located in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka, a European Alpine State. It was a 100-minute movie and I enjoyed watching their conversation, the old hotel background, the love and hate that was shown on it :)

Picnic outside The Shoppes :)

Once finished, both of us went down to buy takeaway food. We passed by the Burger King outlet and found out their new burger, called BK Charcoal Black. We were quite curious with the taste and decided to buy one set meal, the Tendercrisp Chicken. We also bought a packet of Nasi Lemak, a local Malay dish, rice cooked using coconut milk and pandan leaf, added with delicious fried chicken wing, fried peanut and ikan bilis, fried egg, and spicy sambal. Hmmm..... nyummy! To ensure we would have enough energy to walk for tonight, we bought a medium size Kkul dak (Korean honey fried chicken plus some Korean rice cake and hash brown topped with mustard and cheese powder). Slurrrppp..... (Are you drooling now?? Hehehe...) We took MRT to Bayfront station and walked to outside The Shoppes again, right where I had my picnic just a week ago. It was still quite early, around 6.30 pm when we reached. The sky was still shining bright but it wasn't hot. We sat down and started diggin' into our takeaway food. Bon Appetit!!! :)

PasarBella and Friends Go To Town @Marina Bay Sands

There was PasarBella and Friends Go To Town" (a farmer's market - originally located at 200 Turf Club Road in Bukit Timath) outside The Shoppes. At the Bukit Timah, it was a permanent market that opened daily from 9.30 am to 7 pm (some stalls opens until 10pm). You could dine in a family, lifestyle restaurants back in the rustic interiors. There you could also experience a multi-sensory grocery shopping at the Grandstand. The quaint stalls, exotic aromas and festivities could also be found outside The Shoppes this weekend. There was a magician and live band music that beautified the had-already-been beautiful places with a perfect weather. In fact, it had been there too last week. But it was too crowded until I didn't notice its existence. Hahaha...

Beautiful Sunset in Singapore city :)

We ate until very full and decided to have a walk. Just nice, the sun started to set and I managed to capture the above image, seconds before it was really gone behind those skyscrapers. We walked to Garden by the Bay this time through the bridge that linked The Shoppes to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, and all the way up to the garden itself.

Supertree Grove at Garden by the Bay, Singapore

This place had been there for few years but it was my first time to step into the area. There were two conservatory areas that visitors could visit - Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. You needed to pay to enter to these two places. The above picture was the Supertree Grove, which iconized the garden. It was 16-storey high. When we reached the area, it was at 7.45 pm. Just nice! The OCBC Garden Rhapsody (or the Rainforest Orchestra - Asia) was just about to start. I was lying down on the green grass and watched the light and music performance above me peacefully and joyously. Few stars were sparkling above me. Again, I felt blessed!!!

Lightings from the OCBC Garden Rhapsody

The above picture were few of the lighting played during the Rhapsody. It was perfectly beautiful, wasn't it?? There were 2 session every day - 7.45 pm and 8.45 pm. It was free of charge. Once the show was over, we walked back to the Shoppes and walked outside the building. This time, we browsed the other part of the i Light Marina Bay Festival (B sections) - last week I browsed only at the A sections.

Captivating Singapore city from afar

It was very crowded. The i Light Marina Bay Festival would soon be over in one more week's time. Many tourists were spotted along the way creating a hustle and bustle environment, that made Singapore a lively city, a city that never slept. My colleague and I enjoyed our walk yesterday night. I salute the efforts made by the government to keep the city alive by providing non-stop entertainment to its visitors. Below please find some of the pictures captured from the i Light Marina Bay Festival - Section B. Hope all of you had a great enjoyable weekend as I did! :)

Light Rain by Troika

Digital Wattle by Out of the Dark

3D Tic-Tac-Toe by Angela Cheng and  Sonny Windstrup

My favorite:) - Giant Dandelions by Olivia d'Aboville

CNY long weekend

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

First day of Chinese New Year (CNY) was spent by visiting relatives house. Every year, if we weren't abroad, we would visit my hubby's eldest Uncle's and my hubby's grandma's house on the first day. Other uncles with their families would go there too, so we would meet each other.

Aem (the eldest uncle's wife) would usually prepare a lot of food at their house and asked us to stay for lunch. They knew I was vegetarian on first day of the year so they cooked and provided a vegetarian meal for me. I think I was the only one hehehe... They even asked me to bring the leftover vegetarian food back home so that I didn't have to trouble myself thinking on what to have for dinner.

Suan Pan Zi or Yam Abacus Seed

She made and cooked the Hakka traditional food called yam abacus seed or suan pan zi. It was made of yam and tapioca flour, cooked with cuttlefish stripes, mushroom stripes, and seasoned with some sauces and black pepper. It required lots of work to prepare this dish.

It's said that by eating it, people would be good at counting money,  which preferably own money (hopefully had lots of money to count) hehehe...

Since I couldn't eat it on that day,  they put aside the balance and was given it to me. Hehehe... I felt pampered though. Thank you Aem for your kindness and care ^^

Deep fried Ngoh Hiang

Same thing when we went to my hubby's grandma's house. The 2nd Uncle cooked dinner for us. Since I was vegetarian,  he prepared two types of vegetables with mushroom especially for me. He also gave us 4 rolls of his handmade frozen Ngoh Hiang, mixed of minced pork, prawn, crunchy bangkuang, some flour and egg, rolled with beancurd skin so that I could eat it the next day by deep frying it at home. Thank you 2nd Uncle! I really had 'kou fu' wor!!! ^^

At both places we chit chatted and mouth busy chewing some snacks and tidbits. Hehehe... It's time where we usually gained weight eating high-calorie and fattening food, such as: rou gan or bakwa, pineapple tarts, fried crackers, etc.

2nd day of Chinese New Year - We spent the day to rest at home. Usually people could visit friend's or other relative's house. My brother and families had gone back to Indonesia, so did my Indonesian and Malaysian friends. So I didn't have any place to go.

The weather was very hot too, made us lazy to go out. Therefore, we spent our time fully staying at home - eating, reading, sleeping, eating, watching TV, reading, and sleeping again hehehe...

Journey to the West - Conquering the Demon (pic source: Wikipedia.org)

There were few Chinese movies that we watched. But there were two that I enjoyed so much. I will introduce the two of them here. First one: "Journey to the West - Conquering the Demon (in Chinese: 西遊·降魔篇)". 

This is a 2013 film directed by Stephen Chow and Derek Kok. Many of you should have heard about "Journey to the West" before. It's a Chinese literary classic stories written by Wu Cheng En, a very famous stories. We watched the long series since we were very young but they made it as movie in action-comedy style here. The Ost song title "Love of a Lifetime" or "一生所爱" sung by Shu Qi 舒淇.

The Sorcerer and the White Snake (pic source: Wikipedia.org)

The second one, also based onthe famous Chinese legend, "The Legend of the White Snake", a movie titled "The Sorcerer and the White Snake", a 2011 movie. This one was directed by Ching Siu Tung and was played by the famous martial artist, Jet Li, now a Singaporean. This film depicted a sad love story between human and demon. It was really sad la.... :'( The Ost song - "Promise 许诺" - sung by Raymond Lam and Eva Huang was very nice :)

If you have any access to watch it (by buying the DVD or downloading it online somewhere), go and watch it. I think you will love it too :)

Kwan Im Temple @Bugis

Day 3 of CNY - We went to Bugis, had our lunch at the hawker center, and prayed at Kwan Im Temple. Many stalls were not opened yet. We had to queue for quite some time to get our food and drinks. Prices were deliberately increased too during this time as they knew many stalls were closed and we still had to eat and drink. I ended up buying Fried Chicken Briyani rice from the Indian stall where I didn't have to queue hehehe...

The temple was very crowded. People would usually go there to pray, especially in the beginning of the year. Many stalls were there such as: fortune telling stall, donation stall, flowers and joystick stalls, etc.

We went up to 2nd floor of the opposite building to pray to Tai Sui. "In Taoism, those whose Chinese Zodiac is offended or by their sign conflict or clashes with the Tai Sui of the year are advised to go through a prayer session with a Taoist Priest to ask for blessings in obtaining Peace and Good Fortune throughout the year." - source: Wikipedia.org

This year, those who were having Horse, Rooster, Rat, and Rabbit Zodiacs were advised to pray to Tai Sui. We just went there, and they knew already our purposes. We paid around S$17-19 depending on types of praying that we needed to have. Just told them our horoscope and how old we were. The person would prepare few things to pray. One auntie would be there to pray for you. At the end we could give some money for them as a token and there would be one red packet filled with a card which was believed to protect us throughout the year. Just hope things would go smoothly and we would be blessed with good health and safetiness throughout the year.

Once it's done, it was shopping time! Hehehe... Quite lots of shops had been opened. We walked and had our dinner then went back home. Tomorrow I'm going back to work like usual and will be busy for month end closing. Well, hope all of you had enjoyed your weekend too! Wish you all the best for this Wooden Horse year! Jia you!!! ^^

Feng Shui

Source: mypaper.sg 28 January 2014

Pardon me for the blurred scanned file above. It was extracted from today’s local newspaper, Mypaper.sg. I printed and scanned the article above as I found it interesting.

First, it’s my first time hearing the Feng Shui Master was so successful and rich just because he was advising the Feng Shui things to others. I mean, yeah, they could be rich, but not as what mentioned in the article above. It seemed that he was damn rich!!! “Four-bedroom apartment in the heart of Marina Bay, zips around in a chauffeur-driven BMW 7 series sedan, and jade pendants carry eye-popping price tags as high as S$13,688,633 spotted at his upscale Feng Shui galleries in Sin Ming Road”. Wow, I didn’t even know that there was such a valuable jade pendants existing in this world with such a high price!!! Well, maybe it’s different fate for Feng Shui master. They supposed to know what is good and what can be done to change the luck and fate.

As for fortune teller, they might hold different job description. They usually count people’s luck based on the birth date and time. Some might be able to change people’s luck with prayers to Gods, and some would ask them to purchase pendant or other things to alleviate the bad luck and turn it around to the better one. Those came with high price too though!

I often heard that it wasn’t good to hold a job as fortune teller as you acted as God to change people’s fate and destiny, which was usually written down by God before you were born (that’s what people believed). So, sometimes they had to be held responsible for what they did for revealing someone else’s destiny. Therefore, usually, people who know how to calculate and read people’s fate and destiny would reluctantly reveal what others’ have on their hands, especially if the person’s life predicted not to have a good one. If the related person was unable to take it, it would bring depression for him/her and he/she would lead a life full of sorrow and unhappiness as he/she would keep thinking of his/her future’s fate. Many chose to give up and decided to end their life. Whereas in Buddhist teaching, we were taught that our fate and destiny still can be changed depending on our current course of life, on how we act and react towards others. The choice is in our hands.

Second, it was said in the article above about the parents who came to see him and asked him for a good date for their child to be born by Caesarean. Master Yun Long Zi said, he would usually give them three choices of dates, where the child’s personality would depend on which date was picked. “So, do the parents want the child to be learned? Wealthy? Powerful? Kind? In Singapore, 90 percent of my clients chose wealth. In Indonesia, they chose power.”

With the advance technology, pregnant woman is given a choice on how to give birth – natural give birth or Caesarian. Lots of people, especially rich ones, would choose Caesarian because first, it won’t as painful as natural giving birth. We often heard devastating story of the pregnant woman waiting for the hole to open and how painful it was to let the baby coming out from their stomach.  Second, the after-birth pain would be better for Caesarian too rather than the natural give birth one. At least the woman who went through Caesarian giving birth would be able to pee comfortably and with no pain compared with the one who underwent the natural giving birth.

But most importantly, people can choose the date on when they want their baby to be born – for Caesarian, unlike the prompt feeling and urge to give birth at any time for those who chose natural giving birth.

Obviously, all parents want the best thing for their children. That was when they consulted the Feng Shui Master for the date and time for their child to born (As I said previously, that someone’s fate and destiny is usually counted using their birth date and timing). And as Master Yun Long Zi said, he offered three choices of dates to parents on what kind of life that their children would have. It became the destiny lies in the parents’ hands now instead of God. To be wealth? To be powerful? To be kind. Three difficult choices to choose. As difficult as if you were asked by the Genie in the bottle on what kind of request you wanted to have if you were only given one choice. Touch your heart and ask yourself, which one would you prefer? It’s difficult choice though among those three.

We heard many stories of kind-hearted people. They wanted to do so much to help others, but they didn’t have enough resources and power to do so. They had to work hard, ask around, and put in lots of efforts in order to reach their goals. They wished themselves to be rich, so that they could give more to those who needed it. They wished themselves to have more power, so that they could do and contribute more to the society.

There were stories too that the kindhearted men were not allowed to marry the girl they loved or being asked to divorce their wives, only because they were not rich nor powerful. Although they were kindhearted person, the parents of the girl wouldn’t want their daughter to suffer or lead the unhappy life due to the lack of money and resources that the man had.

I asked few of my colleagues around. They all told me, they would want their children to be kind. No use they get rich or powerful when they grow up but when you grow older they may as well send you to ‘Lao Ren Yuan’ or Old Folk’s home in English.

When I asked myself which one to choose, I chose ‘to be kind’ as the answer too. But why as per Master Yun Long Zi said, 90% of Singaporean parents chose wealth while in Indonesia, they chose power??? Because we are not them. Those who consulted him would mostly come from elite, super-rich, powerful people, who wanted their family to keep being rich, elite and powerful, to continue their family’s wealth from one generation to another. That’s why they chose those two and not many chose ‘kind’, like us.

It’s interesting, isn’t it? Sometimes this thing will bring us into dilemma. However, just be positive with everything and leave things to the nature. That’s all! Because sometimes, when you don’t know much thing, you will feel better. Just believe that everything that happens, it happens for a reason. We may go up one day but we may go down and fall too. Only with failure we are then able to learn from it and avoid the same mistakes to happen again. Most important is our attitude towards life. Because one day, we all will die and nothing lasts forever in this life. Things change all the time. Nothing is permanent.

So, maintain your kind-attitude, be positive and responsible nature. The rest will follow accordingly and eventually bring happiness into your life. I’m sure all of you can do it! Never give up to obstacles in life as it is not permanent. There will be solution for each problem. Just focus on the next important step, not the problem itself. Wish you all the best for your life journey everyone!