Category: Work & Productivity

Thoughts about time, money, and value.

Many things at work and at play made me realise the (dis)connection between time, money, and value. My thoughts:

1. What a pity that what is not commercially valuable is consider of little value when it is intrinsically worth much.

2. My faith in people means that I give more time/ benefit of doubt to that person than he/she actually deserves.

3. But as time is limited, I want to give priority to people who value my time/company more than those who do less.

4. A short time to other people may feel like a long time to efficient people. When someone says, “Oh, it’s just one month”, it’s not true to me. That one month may feel like three months. Maybe because I know can do so much in short time that it feels like a long time. It is never *just* a few minutes to me.

In two months time, I turned a bare garden into a little farm

5.  I avoid ‘multi-tasking’ because ‘focus’ saves more time. So sometimes I can be preoccupied by one thing and one thing only.

6. As I grow older, I begin to like things to move at a faster than rather than a slower pace. This affects my patience.

7. How much more time have I left on this earth I will never know. So sometimes giving into my impulse is ok.

8. Things takes away time. At the moment, I don’t want to buy anything.

I like to spend time doing things that I love slowly

 

9. Better spend a little time thinking about time lest we squander them all to useless activites/thoughts.

10. It seems ironic that I like to save time because I like to spend time doing things that I love slowly.

Luxury is time.

How much is my time worth?

I was in Sin Chew Daily, a local Chinese newspaper, last week. I had no idea what it was saying about me; I could only read my Chinese name and simple words like ‘big/ 大‘ and ‘person/ 人’.

Today Mommy read it to me. Chinese makes me sound impressive “大显身手 / tai yin san sau”. I feel like a kung-fu master 🗡🥋😜

A torch ginger flower is not a lotus…

Organising a two days long class or a painting excursion to a park seem impossible at the moment. 🌸🍃☀

So I took a 1 hour online class, google for a photo, and starting simply painting! 🎨

This is the result:


My sisters mistaken it as a lotus flower… 😭

Actually it’s Torch Ginger Flower (bunga kantan); the bud is used in Asam laksa and curries.

This is far from what I want to achieve. But I will take baby steps. One day it shall be as realistic as @art.by.ratna paintings💪

#bungakantan #flower #stationery #watercolour #watercolourpainting #art #pink #painting #travelpalette #torchginger #torchgingerflower #edibleflowers

Making time for hobbies

When I first do ‘adulting’, I forgot that I had hobbies: things I love to do for fun. Oh how dreary life (and I) was.

So decided to paint again. I organised a watercolour painting class with my friends and bought some art supplies from @stickerrific . But how do I find time to make it a part of my life?

I figured that if I watch less Instastories and scroll less of my Facebook feed, I will have some time. So I skipped consuming social media to sketch and paint. I do that in small blocks of time, 15 to 30 minutes.

This illustration of Cencaru Sambal is created over six sessions. I truly believe that when there’s a will, there’s a way.

Next I’ll love to organize a private watercolor class with @art.by.ratna and a sketching outing at a park. Who wants to join?

The Fay Khoo Awards Food Photography Workshop

Exploring food photography with SC Shekar last weekend. He makes beautiful images of food, scenery, and people (some which I’ve admired for years unknowingly).
The authenticity and ease Shekar injects into something I deem as artificial and complicated is inspiring.
I really dislike too much food styling which turn food into inedible art. Professional food photography was not something I agree with completely until last Saturday.
I would always keep my photo real even if it is not as pretty as it can be: what you see is what I cook.
Now I am sure I can make food images which are both beautiful and delicious.

More photos:

My new cookbook: 3 Ingredient Recipes

When Seashore, a publishing house under Popular Bookstore, asked me to write ‘3 Ingredient Recipes’, my first thought was: is that even possible?

I explained that I can possibly develop 50 recipes using 5 ingredients. But three?

THE IDEA

Then the editor told me that seasonings that are commonly found in the pantry e.g soy sauce, salt, cornstarch, etc are not included. I heaved a big sigh of relief.

I was impressed by Seashore’s editorial direction and thoughts though. They understand that someone who cooks often will have basic ingredients such as seasonings and long-shelf life ingredients in their pantry.

They wanted to show that you only need a few main ingredients to cook a meal. For example, to make Braised Chicken With Mushrooms, you will need 1) chicken 2) dried Chinese mushrooms 3) ginger. A cook will probably have the rest of the ingredients such as soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, and shaoxing wine.

SOME OF MY FAVOURITE RECIPES IN THE BOOK

  • Kimchi Pancake
  • Stir-Fried Pumpkin With Basil
  • Spicy Papaya Salad
  • Thai Fish Cakes
  • Stir-fried Curried Squid
  • Lemon Chicken
  • Minced Pork with Salted Fish
  • Homemade Chicken Nuggets
  • Apple Pie
  • Ambarella Pickle


This cookbook is in Chinese and English

Because the large Chinese characters on the cover, many people assume that it’s a Chinese cookbook.

Nope, it’s bilingual. You can read it! So please drop by Popular and get a copy 🙂

How much is my time worth?

In a capitalist society, everyone has a price tag. You are worth how much the system is willing to pay for your labour.

At times, you have the freedom to give a set of numbers to tell others how much you are worth (for x amount of time/work).

I find it so hard to put monetary value to my time; it is worth much more than whatever I’ll ever charge.

#thinkingtoomuch #myfamilyiscuriouswhereIgetmyconfidencefrom#butmytimeisreallyvaluable #readingtoomuchphilosophy#getbacktowork