This site is now powered by Wordpress.

It took a while but I have finally managed to convert my blog from Textpattern to Wordpress. The conversion process was made easier by the import utility provided by Wordpress, but a considerable amount of time and energy had to be expended  to tidy up and reformat the content.

Then there’s the usual search for a suitable Wordpress theme, followed by the tweaking and tinkering to customise the look and feel of the website. While the site is still far from complete, the process has reached a stage whereby it is ready to go live.

Hence the old Textpattern driven blog has been laid to rest and with immediate effect this site is now powered by Wordpress.

Becky

Warren and Becky

Becky and Ashley.

Warren

Kids enjoying foot massage.

Kids enjoying foot massage.

Smiling Warren


Smiling Warren, originally uploaded by Danny Tam.


Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Becky


Becky, originally uploaded by Danny Tam.

Daniel


Daniel, originally uploaded by Danny Tam.


Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Gong Xi Fa Cai

CNY

Wishing you and your family a very happy and prosperous Chinese New Year.

Ashton Tam, Christmas Baby

Latest addition to the Tam clan, Arthur and Lai Seong’s Christmas baby, Ashton Tam:

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone.

Have a breakfast a day keeps the heart attacks away

I received the following interesting article in my email today pertaining to the connection between breakfast and heart attacks.

While I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information I always prefer to err on the side of caution. Hence I’m sharing the article here.

Read on:

As many of us are approaching 30 yrs old with some are already in 30s, we should be kind and gentle to our body. The least that we could do is to be moderate in everything we do and watch out on our food intake. Eat healthy food.

Breakfast - Heart Attack

For those who always skip breakfast, drink at least a glass of orange juice.stay healthy! :) You’ve heard many times that ‘Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.’ Now, recent research confirms that one of the worst practices you can develop may be avoiding breakfast. Why?

Because the frequency of heart attack, sudden death, and stroke peaks between 6:00 a.m.and noon,with the highest incidence being between 8:00 a.m.and 10:00 a.m.

What mechanism within the body could account for this significant jump in sudden death in the early morning hours? We may have an answer. Platelets, tiny elements in the blood that keep us from bleeding to death if we get a cut, can clump together inside our arteries due to cholesterol or plaque buildup in the artery lining. It is in the morning hours that platelets become the most activated and tend to form these internal blood clots at the greatest frequency.

However, eating even a very light breakfast prevents the morning platelet activation that is associated with heart attacks and strokes.

Studies performed at MemorialUniversity in St.Johns, Newfoundland found that eating a light, very low-fat breakfast was critical in modifying the morning platelet activation. Subjects in the study consumed either low-fat or fat-free yogurt, orange juice, fruit, and a source of protein coming from yogurt or fat-free milk).

So if you skip breakfast, it’s important that you change this practice immediately in light of this research. Develop a simple plan to eat cereal, such as oatmeal or Bran Flakes, along with six ounces of grape juice or six ounces of orange juice, and perhaps a piece of fruit.

This simple plan will keep your platelets from ticking together, keep blood clots from forming, and perhaps head off a potential heart attack or stroke.

What my son gave me for my birthday.

Warren drew the above birthday greeting card for me recently. In case you are wondering, he is not depicting me as a nasty fire breathing dragon, although I can be stern with him when the occasion calls for it. Apparently he drew inspiration from a toy Megablok dragon which was a gift from his uncle Pete for his 6th birthday.

Cancer treatment and prevention

I received this article via email. It is one of those mails which circulate amongst a close circle of family and friends.

I usually skim through these mails but this particular one caught my eye because it dealt with the scourge of humanity, cancer. Upon reading the article in full I found it to be informative and logical. While I cannot vouch for the authencity of the contents, I have decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. I could not detect any item in there which would be detrimental to our health and have decided to share it here. Nevertheless please exercise your own discretion when you read the article below.

Hope you will find it interesting and may it one day help to save lives:

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person’s lifetime.

3. When the person’s immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.

CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg’s aminos or sea salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk cancer cells are being starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork.  Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of he althy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts)and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

f. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.

g. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body’s killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

h. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body’s own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body’s normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

i. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

j. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

Pelikan’s brand new fountain pen - The Majesty M7000

I found out today that Pelikan would be releasing a new premium fountain pen called the Majesty withthe model number of M7000. The press release can be found here: Pelikan press release on the Majesty M7000 fountain pen

 

Here are some mouth watering photos of the Majesty (courtesy of Pelikan):

 

The first thing you will notice about the Pelikan Majesty fountain pen is the absolutely beautiful barrel made of fluted sterling silver Ag 925 which is coated with platinum. The nib is a two toned 18K gold handcrafted nib. From the picture it seems that the overall finishing of the pen is excellent as can be expected from Pelikan.

 

 

While the platinum coated sterling silver barrel is a show stopper by itself, the Pelikan Majesty fountain pen conceals a unique secret. The barrel casing can be removed to reveal the very familiar differential piston filling mechanism with a visually appealing and functional transparent ink reservoir.

I will be eagerly awaiting the arrival of the M7000 pen to Malaysian shores. My favourite pen specialist shop, Pengallery is expecting to offer the Pelikan Majesty M7000 sometime in the second half of April. I really can’t wait to get my hands on one.

Pelikan M650 Fountain Pen Review - Green Striped Barrel


The Pelikan M650 fountain pen with green striped barrel

This is a brief review of the Pelikan M650 fountain pen with green striped barrel. The Pelikan M650 is a discontinued model from Pelikan’s Souveran family of fountain pens. It has been out of production for a few years already but once in a while new old stock may be found on offer. Such was my good fortune when I stumbled across the green striped M650 on sale at one of the pen retailers in Singapore. I was doubly lucky to have purchased it at a very substantial discount.

First Impressions:


From left to right: 1931 Yellow Gold LE, M100, Souveran M400, Souveran M650,Souveran M805,Souveran M1050

Being a member of the Souveran family, the M650 shares the same distinctive look which is the trademark of Pelikan’s flagship range of fountain pens. As can be seen from the comparison photo above, the M650 is the midsize member of Pelikan’s fountain pen range. It shares the same barrel size as the M600 pens and has the additional feature of a vermeil cap, ie gold plating over sterling silver.

Appearance and Finish:


The vermeil cap; gold over silver (Ag925)


The Pelikan logo on the cap


The distinctive double band at the end of the barrel.

The M650 was originally offered in a variety of barrel designs. My pen came with the green and black stripes. The barrel is translucent, which allows the ink level to be seen easily when held against the light. At the end of the barrel is the piston fill knob which is decorated with the distinctive double gold band. The vermeil cap has the Pelikan logo embossed (silkscreen?) on top. Engraved on the cap is the number 925 which indicating a silver content of 92.5%. The clip bears the trademark Pelikan beak design.

Design/Size/Weight:

The pen has a total length of 134 mm. The barrel is 103 mm long while its cap has a length of 62 mm. The barrel width is approximately 12 mm. When posted the total length is approx 154 mm. The pen weighs 22.5 grams, slightly heavier than the M600 which tips the scale at approx 17.6 grams. This is of course due to the heavier cap made of sterling silver.

One of the hallmarks of Pelikan fountain pens is quadruple thread on the cap which allows the cap to be attached or removed with a
single turn. A very convenient feature during daily use.

Nib design and performance:


The finely engraved and beautiful two tone 18K nib.

The Pelikan M650 is designed to take on interchangeable nibs (ie the nib is interchangeable amongst the M600 range of pens). My pen came with the 18K solid gold fine nib. It is two toned and beautifully hand engraved. The nib writes very well, laying down a fine wet line with the smoothness which is typical of Pelikan fountain pen nibs.

Filling System:

As can be expected the M650 is equipped with Pelikan’s excellent differential piston fill system. With the piston filling mechanism, the barrel acts as the ink reservoir and the pen is able to hold a substantial amount of ink.

Cost/Value:

The M650 comes with the exquisite vermeil cap, Pelikan’s famous differential piston filling system, and the very fine 18K solid gold nib. At the price which I paid for this pen, it definitely represents excellent value for money.

Overall Opinion/Conclusion:

To summarise: On its own, the Pelikan M650 is a fountain pen with a distinguished pedigree, has a well proven design, quality construction and impeccable finish. That alone is a good enough reason to get the pen. The fact that the Pelikan M650 is now out of production makes it all the more collectible. The Pelikan M650 is a worthwhile addition to any fountain pen collection.

How to catch a girl’s eye - Joke

I would like to share a joke which was forwarded to me via email.

Ever wondered how a man can go about catching a girl’s eye? Read on if you wish to know more:

A man is dinning in a fancy restaurant and there’s a gorgeous woman sitting at the next table.

He’s been checking her out since he sat down, but lacks the nerve to talk to her. Suddenly she sneezes, and her glass eye comes flying out of its socket towards the man.

He reaches out , grabs it out of the air, and hands it back.
“Oh my, I’m sorry,” the woman says as she pops her eye back in place.

“Let me buy you dinner to make it up to you,” she says. They enjoy a wonderful dinner together, and afterwards they go to the theatre followed by drinks. They talk, they laugh, she shares her deepest dreams and he shares his.

After paying for everything, she asks him if he would like to come to her place for a nightcap and stay for breakfast.

They have a wonderful time and the next morning, she cooks a gourmet meal with all the trimmings.

The guy is amazed. Everything had been SO incredible.

“You know, he said, “you are the perfect woman. Are you this nice to every guy you meet?”

“No,” she replies. “Just the ones that catch my eye.

New Year Greetings

I came across this piece of gem and I would like to share this simple recipe for a happiness in the coming year:

 

Take twelve whole months,
Clean them thoroughly of all bitterness, hate, and jealousy,
Make them just as fresh and clean as possible.
Now cut each month into twenty-eight, thirty, or
thirty-one different parts,
but don’t make up the whole batch at once.
Prepare it one day at a time out of these ingredients.
Mix well into each day one part of faith,
one part of patience, one part of courage,
and one part of work.
Add to each day one part of hope,
faithfulness, generosity, and kindness.
Blend with one part prayer,
one part meditation, and one good deed.
Season the whole with a dash of good spirits,
a sprinkle of fun, a pinch of play,
and a cupful of good humor.
Pour all of this into a vessel of love.
Cook thoroughly over radiant joy,
garnish with a smile,
and serve with quietness, unselfishness,
and cheerfulness.
You’re bound to have a happy new year.

 

Have a great New Year everyone and God bless.

Christmas Greetings

It is that time of the year to send out Christmas greetings to friends and relatives. So in addition to the customary greeting cards and text messages, here’s one more way to get the message out:

Wish all of you a blessed Christmas and may the Lord shower each and everyone of you with blessings on this day and all year round.

Jesus Christ born in a manger