I came across Anders Jacobsen's blog in ScreenShot. Anders is going to donate USD1 to the British Red Cross for every blog who link to him plus all the links to the organisations stated in his blog.
Well, I'm heeding his call hence this entry will remained as my top post till end of January. Thank you Anders.
International aid organizations:
UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund)
United Nations' World Food Programme
Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors without Borders (donate!)
CARE International
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
UK/Europe:
Disasters Emergency Comittee (DEC) - comprises a raft of aid agencies, including the below and others
British Red Cross
Save the Children UK
North America:
American Red Cross
Canadian Red Cross
Save The Children
Anders Jacobsen: Webloggers: Give to tsunami victims and I'll give too!
Monday, 31 January 2005
Sunday, 23 January 2005
IMBB 11: Red & Kidney Beans Sweet Soup
I'm quite excited about this actually, no, I didn't mean in cooking this tong shui (Cantonese for sweet soup or sometimes it is know as sweet porridge). This is going to be my first time participating in Is My Blog Burning (IMBB). Every month there is a theme hosted by one of the food bloggers. This month's IMBB is hosted by Cathy of my little kitchen. The theme is Beans, beans, the musical fruit....
This Red & Kidney Beans Tong Shui is a sweet dessert which is very very simple to make. Usually most people will use red beans only for this dessert but some actually add in kidney beans for a slighty different texture. I've used large sago pearls this round.
In order to shorten the cooking time, I soaked the beans in hot water over night. Remember to add in a lot of water as the beans can absorb quite a bit of water. Drain off the water and add them into a pot of water of maybe 3 inches higher than the beans. Slowly simmer the beans until they're soften. This might take 1 to 2 hours. You may shorten the cooking time by using a pressure cooker. Make sure you check on the beans every now and then to avoid the water being dried up plus give it a stir too to avoid the beans stick to the bottom of the pot. I used non-stick pot to avoid this from happening hehehe... Add hot water to the pot when necessary.
Next, dump in the washed sago pearls and cook till translucent. Twist some screwpine leaves (pandan leaves) into a knot and place into the soup. Then add in more hot water once the beans are soften and the sago pearls are cooked. The amount of water depends on your liking. If you prefer a thicker soup, add lesser water. If you prefer a more watery soup, add more. I usually prefer equal portion of water and beans. I like to use rock sugar but you may just use granulated sugar. Add in according to the level of sweetness you would prefer. You may also add in steamed dried lotus seeds.
Serve it either hot or cold. This is how it looked like.
I always cook this tong shui all the time as it's my husband's fave plus it's one of the easiest to cook. You might wanna check this recipe out.
Thanks to Cathy for organising this round of IMBB. Looking forward to the next IMBB.
EDITED: Replaced the picture with a better one.
This Red & Kidney Beans Tong Shui is a sweet dessert which is very very simple to make. Usually most people will use red beans only for this dessert but some actually add in kidney beans for a slighty different texture. I've used large sago pearls this round.
In order to shorten the cooking time, I soaked the beans in hot water over night. Remember to add in a lot of water as the beans can absorb quite a bit of water. Drain off the water and add them into a pot of water of maybe 3 inches higher than the beans. Slowly simmer the beans until they're soften. This might take 1 to 2 hours. You may shorten the cooking time by using a pressure cooker. Make sure you check on the beans every now and then to avoid the water being dried up plus give it a stir too to avoid the beans stick to the bottom of the pot. I used non-stick pot to avoid this from happening hehehe... Add hot water to the pot when necessary.
Next, dump in the washed sago pearls and cook till translucent. Twist some screwpine leaves (pandan leaves) into a knot and place into the soup. Then add in more hot water once the beans are soften and the sago pearls are cooked. The amount of water depends on your liking. If you prefer a thicker soup, add lesser water. If you prefer a more watery soup, add more. I usually prefer equal portion of water and beans. I like to use rock sugar but you may just use granulated sugar. Add in according to the level of sweetness you would prefer. You may also add in steamed dried lotus seeds.
Serve it either hot or cold. This is how it looked like.
I always cook this tong shui all the time as it's my husband's fave plus it's one of the easiest to cook. You might wanna check this recipe out.
Thanks to Cathy for organising this round of IMBB. Looking forward to the next IMBB.
EDITED: Replaced the picture with a better one.
Monday, 17 January 2005
What the ...???
What the ... with these people??? It's in today's The Star newspaper about the Indian Progressive Front (IPF) General Assembly. I got cheesed off after checking the photo! WTF they need to get such a huge garland for the PM?? As if his neck and body is huge enough to wear it?? DUHHHH IT'S SUCH A WASTE OF MONEY!!! I'm sure it will cost them a couple of hundreds for that garland. They should have channel those money to any charities instead.
This is truly a Malaysia Boleh* spirit!
* Malaysia Boleh is coined when the Malaysian badminton team won the Thomas Cup many many years ago. It's literally translated as Malaysia Can. These days, Malaysia Boleh is used in a cynical way hehe...
This is truly a Malaysia Boleh* spirit!
* Malaysia Boleh is coined when the Malaysian badminton team won the Thomas Cup many many years ago. It's literally translated as Malaysia Can. These days, Malaysia Boleh is used in a cynical way hehe...
Wednesday, 12 January 2005
Should I Participate in IMBB11???
Tsunami Relief effort aside... there is this Is My Blog Burning (IMBB) exercise going around in the food bloggers community. Every month there is a theme hosted by one of the food bloggers. This month's will be hosted by Cathy of my little kitchen. The theme is Beans, beans, the musical fruit....
Just pondering whether I should participate or not since its quite easy to cook up some beans. Lemme see ok...
Just pondering whether I should participate or not since its quite easy to cook up some beans. Lemme see ok...
Monday, 10 January 2005
Kudos to all Volunteers
**Edited to amend some names**
Sorry for being absent for some time. Somehow the mood and pace is not there to blog. This one I simply can't resist to write about. I've a group of friends who went to Maha Vihara over the weekend on Friday, Saturday AND Sunday to volunteer their service from sorting of stuff, packing, sealing cartons to loading boxes into the trucks. Kudos to all of them. Majority of them are from Waja Performance Club, a premier club of our national car, Waja. Some of them brought along friends and family members.
I've promised them that I'm going to put up their names here and their photos too, courtesy from Romanoff. He managed to get some great pictures there that reflected the moment there. Thank you. Also thanks to Jerry whom organised this and those who have supported his call.
Those who were there... Romanoff, Helena, Firdaus, Jun Hao, Azlan, Jerry, Adam, Edwin, Alice, Kah Hoo, Edwin's Mother-in-Law (whom he forgotten her name *she's a 'hot' lady ok hehe*), Leong WT, Lee Ping, Ginny, Boon Chin. Hope I did not missed out any of your names here.
Many thanks too to ALL VOLUNTEERS who have lent a hand!!!!
I'll leave here with some of those photos:
Heave ho...!!
Gosh... look at their face!!!??
Now, this was the reason... soiled clothes!! Thanks to the ugly Malaysians!!!
Everyone got down to work after initial shock. Kudos!
More work to do...
Race is not a boundary... I'm very glad and happy to see this. Errrr to non-Malaysians, just that we have some extremist who refused to step into religious places other than their own religion. Maha Vihara is a Buddhist temple and the lady wearing headscarf sorting out clothes here is a Muslim.
Even packing and sealing boxes is an art by itself kekeke
Once again, many thanks for the lending hands.
Sorry for being absent for some time. Somehow the mood and pace is not there to blog. This one I simply can't resist to write about. I've a group of friends who went to Maha Vihara over the weekend on Friday, Saturday AND Sunday to volunteer their service from sorting of stuff, packing, sealing cartons to loading boxes into the trucks. Kudos to all of them. Majority of them are from Waja Performance Club, a premier club of our national car, Waja. Some of them brought along friends and family members.
I've promised them that I'm going to put up their names here and their photos too, courtesy from Romanoff. He managed to get some great pictures there that reflected the moment there. Thank you. Also thanks to Jerry whom organised this and those who have supported his call.
Those who were there... Romanoff, Helena, Firdaus, Jun Hao, Azlan, Jerry, Adam, Edwin, Alice, Kah Hoo, Edwin's Mother-in-Law (whom he forgotten her name *she's a 'hot' lady ok hehe*), Leong WT, Lee Ping, Ginny, Boon Chin. Hope I did not missed out any of your names here.
Many thanks too to ALL VOLUNTEERS who have lent a hand!!!!
I'll leave here with some of those photos:
Heave ho...!!
Gosh... look at their face!!!??
Now, this was the reason... soiled clothes!! Thanks to the ugly Malaysians!!!
Everyone got down to work after initial shock. Kudos!
More work to do...
Race is not a boundary... I'm very glad and happy to see this. Errrr to non-Malaysians, just that we have some extremist who refused to step into religious places other than their own religion. Maha Vihara is a Buddhist temple and the lady wearing headscarf sorting out clothes here is a Muslim.
Even packing and sealing boxes is an art by itself kekeke
Once again, many thanks for the lending hands.
Tuesday, 4 January 2005
The Latest on the Relief Situation
Hubby and I was at Maha Vihara, one of the centre collection aid for the Tsunami survivors, yesterday evening after work after a tip off from a friend that they needed hands to load goods into lorries. As we walked in we saw lots of people hanging around and some were dragging plastic bags to the back of the temple. The situation seems calm and collect and not as chaotic as some friends (whom have volunteered themselves over the weekend) have described to me. All halls were filled with boxes and a whole lot of them covered in plastics were placed in the open air as there is simply not enough places for them.
We were kinda lost, not sure what to do, so hubby got hold of a monk and asked him about it. He told us we can do anything we liked from packing to sorting of clothes, help to unload goods from donors up to directing traffic (yes, cos apparently there were lots of vehicles dropping off goods over the weekend that caused congestion in and out of the temple).
However, we found out that most things have been done by yesterday evening and they have stopped accepting clothes other than clean undies (errr I've heard some donors actually donated SOILED undies, gosh, what's wrong with them???) and blankets. Some even try to donate empty mineral water bottles!! For goodness sake, what are they for??? The volunteers have to tell them off sarcastically that the temple is NOT a recycling centre!
Since hubby drives a 4x4, he volunteered to send some of the goods to the port. The monk directed him inside the office and met a Mr Ma. Apparently this Mr Ma had volunteered part of his warehouse in Port Klang to store the goods before shipping out to disaster zones and if not mistaken also his fleet of lorries. He told us that most of the goods were transported to the warehouse on Sunday evening and he was surprised that when he reached the temple yesterday and saw so many boxes piling up again.
He had not scheduled any trip to the port yesterday as he had to attend to his own business. He was in fact planning for one this evening around 5pm and will contact hubby once the schedule is out. Kudos, Mr Ma!
When asked why shipments are made out mostly to Sri Lanka and not Aceh, we were told there is complication in sending to Aceh. Apparently there are two places in Indonesia where the warehouses are located. One in Jakarta and another in Medan. The warehouses are filled to the brim and everyone in the world we told not to send any shipments there at the moment except for medical supplies. The reason for this bottleneck was simply there is no way to transport these goods to Aceh as ports and landing strips were destroyed.
This was really true as I heard the volunteers need to track about 4 days to reach Aceh!!! Goodness... it's so sad. At the moment, medical supplies to Aceh is via air drop. Currently, most shipments are sent to Colombo, Sri Lanka via US Navy except for medical supplies where airlines like Transmile had donated freight space.
I've never imagined that there were so many things and services that can be donated or volunteered, from warehouse space, transportation, sifting thru the clothes, directing traffic, loading, unloading, arranging for all sorts of logistics etc and etc. So many key people there volunteered their service running the show, coordinating donations and distributing them.
As for the cash donation to Maha Vihara, they have not decided yet on what to do with it. They'll announce it later. As they can see it, the money may be needed later on to rebuild schools, infrastructures and so forth.
To those of you who hasn't do your bit, from the list pasted at the temple, the survivors now need the following:-
1. Clean water
2. Medicines - pain killers, oral rehydration salt, diarrhoea and wind tablets etc
3. Blankets
4. Clean undies
5. Cooking utensils
6. Unbreakable bowls, plates etc
7. Sanitary napkins
8. Baby Diapers
9. Milk powder
10. Bandages
11. Gauze
12. Cotton wool
Well that's all I could recall at the moment. There are now more avenues you can donate your goods to. Vivekananda (I hope I got the spelling correct) at the nearby Maha Vihara is also a collection centre. All Guardian, Giant and Cold Storage stores in West Malaysia are collecting goods and cheques. Please check the local papers for further details.
Friends, please do your bit for every cent count.
We were kinda lost, not sure what to do, so hubby got hold of a monk and asked him about it. He told us we can do anything we liked from packing to sorting of clothes, help to unload goods from donors up to directing traffic (yes, cos apparently there were lots of vehicles dropping off goods over the weekend that caused congestion in and out of the temple).
However, we found out that most things have been done by yesterday evening and they have stopped accepting clothes other than clean undies (errr I've heard some donors actually donated SOILED undies, gosh, what's wrong with them???) and blankets. Some even try to donate empty mineral water bottles!! For goodness sake, what are they for??? The volunteers have to tell them off sarcastically that the temple is NOT a recycling centre!
Since hubby drives a 4x4, he volunteered to send some of the goods to the port. The monk directed him inside the office and met a Mr Ma. Apparently this Mr Ma had volunteered part of his warehouse in Port Klang to store the goods before shipping out to disaster zones and if not mistaken also his fleet of lorries. He told us that most of the goods were transported to the warehouse on Sunday evening and he was surprised that when he reached the temple yesterday and saw so many boxes piling up again.
He had not scheduled any trip to the port yesterday as he had to attend to his own business. He was in fact planning for one this evening around 5pm and will contact hubby once the schedule is out. Kudos, Mr Ma!
When asked why shipments are made out mostly to Sri Lanka and not Aceh, we were told there is complication in sending to Aceh. Apparently there are two places in Indonesia where the warehouses are located. One in Jakarta and another in Medan. The warehouses are filled to the brim and everyone in the world we told not to send any shipments there at the moment except for medical supplies. The reason for this bottleneck was simply there is no way to transport these goods to Aceh as ports and landing strips were destroyed.
This was really true as I heard the volunteers need to track about 4 days to reach Aceh!!! Goodness... it's so sad. At the moment, medical supplies to Aceh is via air drop. Currently, most shipments are sent to Colombo, Sri Lanka via US Navy except for medical supplies where airlines like Transmile had donated freight space.
I've never imagined that there were so many things and services that can be donated or volunteered, from warehouse space, transportation, sifting thru the clothes, directing traffic, loading, unloading, arranging for all sorts of logistics etc and etc. So many key people there volunteered their service running the show, coordinating donations and distributing them.
As for the cash donation to Maha Vihara, they have not decided yet on what to do with it. They'll announce it later. As they can see it, the money may be needed later on to rebuild schools, infrastructures and so forth.
To those of you who hasn't do your bit, from the list pasted at the temple, the survivors now need the following:-
1. Clean water
2. Medicines - pain killers, oral rehydration salt, diarrhoea and wind tablets etc
3. Blankets
4. Clean undies
5. Cooking utensils
6. Unbreakable bowls, plates etc
7. Sanitary napkins
8. Baby Diapers
9. Milk powder
10. Bandages
11. Gauze
12. Cotton wool
Well that's all I could recall at the moment. There are now more avenues you can donate your goods to. Vivekananda (I hope I got the spelling correct) at the nearby Maha Vihara is also a collection centre. All Guardian, Giant and Cold Storage stores in West Malaysia are collecting goods and cheques. Please check the local papers for further details.
Friends, please do your bit for every cent count.
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