10 promises to my dog

An interesting ode to dogs, taken from Petsmore and SPCA.

Caring for pets in hot weather

This does not only apply to your pets but to animals in general like birds. I know Minnie has been generous... sharing her bowl of kibbles and water with the birds in the neighbourhood. It is so hot and humid with not much oxygen in the air... everyone including animals need heaps of water to stay hydrated. Especially with the very thick haze, all thanks to some inconsiderate people who still enjoy open-burning! Really don't understand their bloody mentality... they don't seemed to care if their loved ones can't breath *go figure!* Don't get me wrong, I know some of the hotspots are due to the heat + dry jungle but there are some which you can obviously see it's from humans ya... such selfishness will get you nowhere lah!

What does your favourite coffee say about you?

For the avid coffee drinkers!

10 healthy bedtime snacks

Someone shared this in Facebook but not sure how true ya... healthy doesn't mean not getting fatty tummy...

10 scientific ways to be #HAPPY!

By the way, today is Earth Day!

Our planet is at a turning point. The massive global migration underway now from countryside to cities will demand huge investments in energy, water, materials, waste, food distribution, and transportation over the next 25 years. If the right investments are made now, this unique opportunity will be the catalyst for dramatic changes in the built environment and the fight against carbon emissions and climate change.

You can find out more from here:
http://www.earthday.org/

Lessons from Li Ka-shing

This article was shared by the famous Joey Yap on his Facebook page which I found very motivating and inspirational for me. Hope it does for you too:-

I came across this very insightful article where Hong Kong Billionaire Li Ka-Shing shares is wisdom on how anyone could achieve wealth through a simple 5 year plan.

I've met so many people who came to me in my seminars and said they want to change and improve their financial situation, but they 'don't know what to do'. Well - here's where you can 'LEARN WHAT TO DO'. Take Li Ka-Shing's advice 

(Read this and share with all your friends who you think will benefit from this).

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Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing shares some of his money wisdom, outlining an inspirational five-year plan to improve one’s lot in life

[This article is translated from the original Chinese by Edmund Ng ]

Suppose your monthly income is only RMB 2,000, you can live well. I can help you put money into five sets of funds. The first $600, second $400, third $300, fourth $200, fifth $500.

The first set of funds is used for living expenses. It’s a simple way of living and you can only be assigned to less than twenty dollars a day. A daily breakfast of vermicelli, an egg and a cup of milk. For lunch just have a simple set lunch, a snack and a fruit. For dinner go to your kitchen and cook your own meals that consist of two vegetables dishes and a glass of milk before bedtime. For one month the food cost is probably $500-$600. When you are young, the body will not have too many problems for a few years with this way of living.

Second set of funds: To make friends, expand your interpersonal circle. This will make you well off. Your phone bills can be budgeted at RMB 100. You can buy your friends 2 lunches a month, each at $150. Who should you buy lunch for? Always remember to buy lunch for people who are more knowledgeable than you, richer than you or people who have helped you in your career. Make sure you do that every month. After one year, your circle of friends should have generated tremendous value for you. Your reputation, influence, added value will be clearly recognized. You’ll also enhance your image of being good and generous.

Third set of funds: To learn. Monthly spend about RMB 50 to RMB 100 to buy books. Because you don’t have a lot of money, you should pay attention to learning. When you buy the books, read them carefully and learn the lessons and strategies that is being taught in the book. Each book, after reading them, put them into your own language to tell the stories. Sharing with others can improve your credibility and enhance the affinity. Also save up $200 per month to attend a training course. When you have higher income or additional savings, try to participate in more advanced training. When you participate in good training, not only do you learn good knowledge, you also get to meet like-minded friends who are not easy to come by.

Fourth set of funds: Use it for holidays overseas. Reward yourself by traveling at least once a year. Continue to grow from the experience of life. Stay in youth hostels to save cost. In a few years you would have travelled to many countries and have different experiences. Use that experience to recharge yourself so that you’ll continually have passion in your work.

Fifth set of funds: Invest. Save the $500 in your bank and grow it as your initial startup capital. The capital can then be used to do a small business. Small business is safe. Go to wholesalers and look for products to sell. Even if you lose money, you will not lose too much money. However, when you start earning money, it will boost your confidence and courage and have a whole new learning experience of running a small business. Earn more and you can then begin to buy long-term investment plans and get long-term security on your financial wealth being of yourself and your families. So that no matter what happens, there will be adequate funds and the quality of life will not decline.

Well, after struggling for a year and if your second year salary is still RMB 2,000, then that means you have not grown as a person. You should be really ashamed of yourself. Do yourself a favour and go to the supermarket and buy the hardest tofu. Take it and smash it on your head because you deserve that.

If your monthly income is at RMB 3,000, you must still work very hard. You must try to find a part time job. It will be great to find part time sales jobs. Doing sales is challenging, but it is the fastest way for you to acquire the art of selling and this is a very deep skill that you will be able to carry it for the rest of your career. All successful entrepreneurs are good sales people. They have the ability to sell their dream and visions. You’ll also meet many people that will be of value to you in the later part of your career. Once you’re in sales, you will also learn what sells and what not. Use the sensitivity of detecting market sentiments as a platform for running your business and in the identification of product winners in the future.

Try to buy minimal clothes and shoes. You can buy them all you want when you’re rich. Save your money and buy some gift for your loved ones and tell them your plans and your financial goals. Tell them why you are so thrifty. Tell them your efforts, direction and your dreams.

Businessmen everywhere need help. Offer yourself to do part time for any kind of opportunities. This will help to hone your will and improve your skills. You will start to develop eloquence and soon, you’ll be closer to your financial goals. By the second year, your income should be increased to at least RMB 5,000. Minimum it should be RMB 3,000, otherwise you would not be able to keep up with inflation.

No matter how much you earn, always remember to divide it into five parts proportionately. Always make yourself useful. Increase your investment in networking. When you increase your social investment, expand your network of contacts, your income also grows proportionately. Increase your investment in learning, strengthen your self confidence, increase investment in holidays, expand your horizons and increase investment in the future, and that will ultimately increase your income.

Maintain this balance and gradually you will begin to have a lot of surplus. This is a virtuous circle of life plans. Your body will start to get better and better as you get more nutrition and care. Friends will be aplenty and you will start to make more valuable connections at the same time. You will then have the conditions to participate in very high-end training and eventually you’ll be exposed to bigger projects, bigger opportunities. Soon, you will be able to gradually realize your various dreams, the need to buy your own house, car, and to prepare an adequate education fund for your child’s future.

Life can be designed. Career can be planned. Happiness can be prepared. You should start planning now. When you are poor, spend less time at home and more time outside. When you are rich, stay at home more and less outside. This is the art of living. When you are poor, spend money on others. When you’re rich, spend money on yourself. Many people are doing the opposite.

When you are poor, be good to others. Don’t be calculative. When you are rich, you must learn to let others be good to you. You have to learn to be good to yourself better. When you are poor, you have to throw yourself out in the open and let people make good use of you. When you are rich, you have to conserve yourself well and don’t let people easily make use of you. These are the intricate ways of life that many people don’t understand.

When you are poor, spend money so that people can see it. When you are rich, do not show off. Just silently spend the money on yourself. When you are poor, you must be generous. When you are rich, you must not be seen as a spendthrift. Your life would have come full circle and reach its basics. There will be tranquility at this stage.

There is nothing wrong with being young. You do not need to be afraid of being poor. You need to know how to invest in yourself and increase your wisdom and stature. You need to know what is important in life and what is worth investing in. You also need to know what you should avoid and not spend your money on. This is the essence of discipline. Try to avoid spending money on clothing, but buy a selective number of items that have class. Try to eat less outside. If you were to eat outside, do make sure you buy lunches or dinners and foot the bill. When buying people dinner, make sure you buy dinners for people who have bigger dreams than you, and work harder than you.

Once your livelihood is no longer an issue, use the remainder of your money to pursue your dreams. Spread your wings and dare to dream! Make sure you live an extraordinary life!

Famous theory from Harvard: The difference of a person’s fate is decided from what a person spends in his free time between 20:00 to 22:00 . Use these two hours to learn, think and participate in meaningful lectures or discussion. If you persist for several years, success will come knocking on your doors.

No matter how much you earn, remember to split your salary into five parts. Take care of your body so that it will still be in good shape. Invest in your social circle so that you will constantly meet new people where you can learn new knowledge from. Expanding your network will also have an important impact in how much you earn eventually. Travel every year and expand your horizons. Also keep abreast with the latest developments in the industry. If you follow this plan diligently, you will soon see big surplus in your funds.

Whatever happened in the past is over. Do not dwell on past mistakes. There’s no point crying over spilt milk. Everybody makes mistakes. It’s what you learn from the mistakes, and promising yourself not to repeat those mistakes that matters. When you miss opportunities, don’t dwell on it, as there are always new opportunities on the horizon.

Being able to smile when being slightly misunderstood is good upbringing. When you’re wronged and you smile with calmness, it is generosity. When you’re being taken advantage of and you can smile, you’re being open-minded. When you are helpless and you can do a philosophical smile, you’re in a calm state. When you’re in distress and you can laugh out loud, you’re being generous. When you’re looked down and you can calmly smile, you’re being confident. When you’re being jilted in relationships and you can smile it off, you’re being suave.

There are many people who are struggling to make ends meet. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor.

There are lessons for all to learn from Li Ka Shing.

Top 80 health foods

Agreed! Really need to start eating healthy as nowadays there are so much MSG and unhealthy substances in cooking. Nuff said!

European Coffee Capitals

For coffee lovers... know the European coffee scenes.

I can't recall where I saved this from, not sure if it's NST or The Star o.O

Quote by Will Ferrell

Very true...

10 Canine Commandments

Something to ponder on...

Cancer Horoscope 2014 overview

For all Cancerians out there! Not sure how true is this...

Points of view

Which one are you?

10 Foods That Burn Fat

Taken from this link:
http://interesting-facts.info/2013/09/10-foods-that-burn-fat/

Literary Coffee

This was shared by Bookalicious in Facebook. Interesting...

Book Hangover

Oh yes! It happens many times especially when it's a really darn good book! When this happens, I usually have to stop reading for a few days for it to reel away or else I can't start with a new book. If not, both book's world would collide and I can't enjoy the new book! It's a fact!

Coffee vs wine

Agreed! After dinner, before retiring for the night, a glass of red wine is a healthy choice. Apparently it's good for blood circulation *winks*

Books = fun

Totally agree when I saw this shared by Bookalicious in Facebook. Loved the smell of it, the feel of it, the look of it... totally awesome! It's something unexplainable but yet shared amongst many book-lovers. Even during sales, we have that universal language while scanning all those books. We know when to go left or right, when not to intrude or block others. It's totally civil and cool. When you chance upon a favourite, you'll keep thinking about it until it's within your grasp! Which explains my mini library and the books which I've yet to read... well, I only have a pair of eyes! *rolls eyes*

My unread stash *winks*

Librocubicularist

Just saw this shared by Bookalicious in Facebook... so are you? I know I am *grins widely*

Anyway, had a scary morning today at work. Heard a loud thud but ignored it, thinking cleaner dropped something. Suddenly colleague said someone fainted at the entrance! The cleaner who happened to be cleaning the glass door was frantically pointing and calling for help! We rushed to the entrance and saw the vendor, who sits at the next cubicle from us, lying unconsciously with blood drooling from his mouth. I saw some blood splatters on the wall too. 2 things came into mind - either he's had internal bleeding or he's in seizure. Can't assumed which was which and a few chaps who joined us decided to lift him off to the lift and head straight to the lobby. Colleague joined them while I headed back to our cubicle, waiting for vendor's other colleague to arrive and fill him in. Later colleague filled me in that they sent him to the clinic opposite and doctor quickly worked on him while simultaneously called for an ambulance as he had to be admitted. According to the doctor, he had a seizure which I realized then that his mouth and hands were clamped tightly! He must have bitten on his tongue or gum which explained the blood! I should have realized those symptoms as I've seen such seizures before! Sigh... it shows how incompetent we are when it comes to first aid. Anyhow, thankfully he's been admitted and in good hands now, getting better, according to his colleague.

The one thing my colleague noticed was that during that emergency, all walks of life stopped and helped. Although some may stop to gawk but majority helped with the lifting, stopping the traffic, opening the doors, managed the registration at the clinic, etc. No one hesitated and all did their part to ensure a life was saved. It may be a harrowing experience but also brought us together as a nation which we seldom see, especially with all the cursing and swearing of traffic jams, rude people, brainless humans, etc.

Another thing was that even though we sat nearby, we actually didn't know each other. Yes, we know each other by face but not by name. Hence when this incident happened, we actually had difficulty finding his PIC and contacting his colleague. How sad... even his colleague didn't know his medical history which was scary.

What a Thursday morning!

Breast Cancer Awareness

As October is the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it seems fitting to share this picture I found in Facebook. Do share it with your loved ones. This also applies to men as breast cancer does affect a minority of men. Love thyself... live life to the fullest and take good care of yourself.

Fashion vs Style

It's so true... totally loved this!