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From the monthly archives:

November 2009

A winter love story

… sigh! I’ve been missing those Korean/Japanese/Cantonese drama series back home. It all started with much convincing from my friends back in 2003 🙂 Many of you would know what I am talking about. I just couldn’t resist writing a post on it. I recalled Winter Sonata during a phone conversation with my friend (Ms Suze) recently. The more we chatted about it, memories of this celluloid love story rush through my being. I could hear faint voices in my head, begging for attention, “Kiran..Kiran.. are you there? Hello? Ooiii!”

{I snapped back to reality!!!}

… ahem.. oh god! I redialed Suze’s number, but the connection went busy. I would try again later. Now as I am writing this post, I realized, the later was 3 hours ago! OMG! Suze, please have mercy on me!

Anyways…

Winter Sonata, a Korean directional, is a great love story, coupled with interesting twists and memorable acting from the main casts. Some of you might find it surprising, but this movie has a similarity to Bollywood serials. Don’t worry, not the length and endless die-alive-die again scenes, but just 20 episodes of great love story. Though I find it a little draggy in the first few episodes, it gained momentum thereafter and I was hooked! I couldn’t wait to complete the entire episodes. Just was way too curious to know how the plot ended. It was like re-enacting writings of Danielle Steele. This is by far one of the shortest tv show review I’ve ever came across. I won’t write much, instead get yourself hooked to Winter Sonata and tell me, did you cry? 😉

I would fall off my chair due to a burst of excitement if I don’t reveal this quicker – Winter Sonata does offer some beautiful medley’s! 🙂 or should I say, Original Sound Track. Yes, believe it or not! Bollywood serials had a rival after all to compete against 😉 You might find this fact a little dubious, but I was only

...Ekta Kapoor, why do you have to include those horrendously loud background music in all of your serials? Can any one please explain this phenomena?

introduced to Kyunki Saas and the rest of Indian serials by my mother in law in 2007! 🙂 It was not televised in Malaysia till I married. But it’s never to late to catch-on with these great Indian serials. Though I prefer watching the 1st few years of productions. These days, the plots are running thin and the background score can be very irritating. I loved watching Kyunki Saas first year episodes. I’ve given up since, coupled with my Korean serials. Thanks to YouTube, I might find time to re-indulge in my old habits. Wait till mom finds out, she would freak out! 😀

On a separate note, Speakbindas.com interviewed me about Chatterbox. You can read the full interview here. What do you think of my interview?

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Stir-fry chicken with steamed broccoli

I posted this photo a few weeks ago on my photo-blog. My blog reader, Aditya, requested for the recipe. How can I refuse to such a darn simple recipe? I can never keep this secret to myself 😀

Ingredients:

1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken tenders {chopped into bite size}
1/2 lbs broccoli crowns
1 tsp garlic
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
2 tbsp Chicken Marinade [Any brand would do. If you can’t find any, mix some sugar, cornstarch & soy sauce into some water to make your own marinade.]
1 tbsp chinese rice cooking wine
1 tbsp cooking oil

Marinade:

In a bowl, add the chicken tenders, ginger and chicken marinade. Mix and let stand for 30 minutes.

Steam:

Wash and trim broccoli to bite size. I used a steamer to steam the broccoli in the rice cooker – covered, for 2 minutes. You can use a double-boiling system to steam the vegetables.

Method:

Heat skillet to medium-high, add cooking oil.
Add the marinated chicken and cook for 3 minutes each side. Don’t not stir the chicken till it’s cooked on each side.
Sprinkle in the crushed red pepper and garlic.
Add the rice cooking wine. Fry for a minute.
Throw in the steamed broccoli and stir-fry for 1/2 minute.
Remove from heat and serve immediately with fluffy, steamed rice. Bon Apetite!

The rice cooking wine and ready-made marinade has salt and seasonings. Unless you are using the homemade marinade, you might have to taste for salt. Sprinkle some if need be 🙂 After adding broccoli, do not overcook it. A little al-dente, retains the color and taste.

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I needed a break from

…planning my menu > cooking my planned menu > cleaning after cooking my planned menu > vacuuming > scrubbing > dusting > planning another menu.. not again! Le sigh.. the endless list of household chores!

So, last weekend was a blast {literally} with a trip to Kennedy Space Center – NASA. Some might quote me as geeky, but I heart NASA 🙂 If only, whilst growing up, my parents had coaxed me more towards space engineering. Anyone out there, dream of being an astronaut? You have my blessings for sure 🙂

This is a lengthy post, filled with photos. Don’t steal, ask for permission before using any photos. Considered warned 🙂

If you are a Floridian, I would suggest getting the yearly pass to NASA, or for that matter, any Disney theme parks! Total tour takes a whole lot of time. With unlimited returns to NASA via a yearly pass, you can plan your trip and cover every nook and cranny. You have 1 year to do that anyways 😉 There’s a whole lot of exhibits, tours and gadgets to see, test-drive and familiarize with. We arrived around noon and was greeted by some gracious security personnel at the check point. It was a fast and easy-peasy process. They were absolutely friendly. I heart friendliness. After a click of the above photo, me and Tarun were famished and begin our tour by visiting the Orbit Cafe for a scrumptious meal of chicken fingers and fries. It’s fast food for us whenever we are on the road.

With a happy tummy, we proceeded for our first bus tour. This is not our first trip to NASA. We skipped visiting a couple of exhibition sites that we’ve visited before and instead, choose to enjoy the informational bus tours and clicked away endlessly with our Nikon 🙂 These photo’s below are some of scenery’s taken from the bus:

Awaiting to board the tourist bus

This is where the orbiter is fitted & engineered with the Solid Rocket Boosters 😉

The Crawler is used to transport the orbiter to the launchpad for the countdown 😉

Pebbled pathway for the enormous Crawler!

We returned to the Visitor’s Centre Rocket Garden and enjoyed a full blown view of orbiters, shuttle rocket booster and experienced a whooping simulation of a shuttle launch. Goodness! It was so thrilling! No photos allowed in the simulation as it was a very shaky ride. Wouldn’t want to hurt yourself or any one else! I could never understand how these astronauts are able to handle such working conditions, riskiness and pressures. Kudos to them, I can never do it because of my vertigo. And the fact that I am very well under-qualified 😉 Sigh… this is the little astronaut in me, spewing words from the beyond 😀 Enough of me, let’s get back to more photos:

A model of a solid rocket booster!

A model of an Orbiter, where astronaut's are housed during shuttle missions.

The Launch Simulation Hall.. Exhilirating!!!

That’s it for now! Stay tuned for Part 2 – our visit to the Astronaut’s Hall of Fame. Yes, this tour was a long and enjoyable one!

On a separate note, we want to take this opportunity to thank our readers and well-wishers for your continued support, love and participation during the 2009 Orbbies: Orlando’s Rockin’ Blogs competition. We are eternally grateful 🙂

So, what are your plans for the weekend? Anything in the lines of … 3…2…1… Lift Off?

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Make-over

I know, the title is very cliche. As you’ve noticed, the blog is going through some serious face-lift. I’d struggle to find the perfect theme for my blog. The hunt and journey has finally come to end, with satisfactory results of course. The weird part is, I’ve been sucked into a journey of self-learning. Well, I never had the knack or patience in html, css and countless technology jargon’s anyways.

Now if you are like me, looking for a perfect, easy customizations yet affordable theme for your blog, look no further. Thesis is the one! No mess, no fuss, Thesis by Chris Pearson is the only theme you would need to kick off a beautiful blog. It is packed with loads of easy buttons, knicks and knacks for a basic self-learning programmer like myself. While some might argue the need to pay $87 for Thesis, it is every bit worthy of your penny. Sigh. If only I’d discovered this theme sooner. Well, better late than never 😉 The main reason I spent money on Thesis is for their amazing Thesis Support Community. All questions and doubts are generally just a “search” button away! Isn’t that simple? More time to blog, less time coding 🙂 That’s my kind of fun time! If you are already a Thesis user, congratulations! This might be your wisest purchase ever.

Every Thesis purchase option comes with killer benefits, including:

Lifetime theme upgrades

Complete access to the Thesis forums

Downloadable “stuff” that you can use to customize and enhance your theme (like background images and styles)

Support from the creator himself, Chris Pearson 🙂

I chose to write a review on Thesis because I am so happy with it! If you are a beginner looking for more information on this fabulous theme, feel free to leave your queries, comments or concerns in the comment section below. I would be more than glad to help and guide you on how I’ve customized my blog thus far. I’ve never been so excited for something this technical. Thesis made this excitement possible 😀 Stay tuned for simple step-by-step Thesis customization on Chatterbox. Soon.

Voting for the 2009 Orbbies ends on Friday, Nov. 20 at 5 pm (US Eastern Time). Have you cast your vote for us yet?

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And the award goes to…

I am often questioned, “why do I blog“? Well, personally, I find it to be very nurturing, a form of my stress-reliever and a hobby. But penning just these reasons aren’t enough. As I’ve mentioned in the about-us page, blogging is one of the most essential tool of communication with our families back home. It is often used to chronology our travels or daily rants for the ease of our family’s to keep abreast of our activities.

Ever since I was introduced to the blogging world, I’ve discovered many hidden gems. Some of their writings are based on fiction, comedy, personal rants, politics, social and much more. The possibilities are endless. One of my favorite blogger is Reema, from My Random Thoughts. Not only because she has recently bestowed the immaculate Addicting Blog Award to Chatterbox, but the way she manages to make blogging look so simple and exciting. She rants about her daily life as a college professor, a M.E. student, friend, daughter and a sister. Her blog carries multiple topics and tones. An array of spices for different moods, I’d say 🙂 Head over to Random Thoughts and get to know Reema your self 🙂

I'm loving it 😉

Thank you Reema, for this wonderful award! Now, let’s not be too greedy and keep this to myself. I would love to bestow this award onto some of my favorite bloggers who have supported us with great reads:

Drum rolls………

And the Addicting Blog Award goes to: Amreekandesi, eLekhni, Solilo, Museditions, The Mad Momma, Meena, Su Yin, Priyank, Ching Ya, Frat Mustard, Holly, Jaden, Ruhi, Shefaly, and Dinu.