Saturday Morning Outing to Geylang Serai Market

Sat. 31st Jan. We were on the way to the Jamiyah Children Home in Eunos Avenue - had to see the Supervisor there to finalise arrangements for our hosting them at the Chingay Parade and Line Dance Party tonight. So, dropped by the Geylang Serai Market for breakfast.

The danzbuddies are hosting a group of teens from the Jamiyah Children Home for tonights's event. The PA had asked for some representation from a minority group and also for some young people at the Line Dance Party - and we are happy to be able to make the arrangements for both requirements.

For the record, contacts at the Jamiyah Children Home are:

Mr. Sophian (90906512)

Mohd Shariff (91294635)

Ms. Khairiani (63449533)

Mohd Irwan (81438714)

Jamiyah Childrens Home (Darul Ma'wa)

No. 1 Chin Cheng Avenue S429400

On arrival at the Geylang Serai Market, the Dear Wife headed straight for her favorite stall - 'Sinar Pagi Nasi Padang' and ordered two servings of lontong - so, lontong it was for breakfast, no argument about that. Not only that, a good many other goodies were also bought for lunch. This is one stall we highly recommend to you folks - very good variety of traditional Malay dishes - real sedap ones! They are at in the middle section , corner stall near the roadside.

Another favourite stall is the kueh stall , 'Eeh! Eeh! Nak Lagi! (yes, its a funny name) - again, very good selection of different types of kueh-kueh. We never leave Geylang Serai Market without buying a selection from them.


Went home and had such a wonderful Malay lunch, at reccession-friendly prices some more..........yummy!

Lo Hei Party - Friday 30th Jan

After the two-week long LNY break, danzbuddies came in full force to celebrate the Lunar New Year with a 'Lo Hei' party on Friday night. All came in their new year outfits, lots of red colour here and there..........and all came with their contribution of a dish or two. There was so much to eat, I'll have great difficulty to list them all - we needed to break for 'recess' again and again to try and finish up the food. Even then, some 'ta pau' arrangements

were needed in the end.

We started with a noisy 'lo hei' toss up - with so many present, we had to do this in turns, in three groups. And then, everyone went around sampling whatever each of the other danzbuddies had cooked or bought.

For dancing we decided to do some good 'oldies' and everyone enjoyed such golden oldies like 'Begin The Beguine', 'No Tengo Dinero', 'Cha Cha Blue', Dream Weaver' and ' Dreaming My Dreams' after the new dances were walked through. And, of course, we had to do our 'Gong Xi! Gong Xi!' circle dance to give everyone a chance to wish the best of everything for the New Year of the Cow -and according to some line dance geomancers, its going to be a good year for us dancing 'cowboys' and 'cowgirls'.....

To add to the festive mood, we had some Lion Dancers and Dragon Dancers turned up to do their thing in Tanglin CC - and so it became a bit noisy at one stage. Line dancing taking place upstairs at the Dance Studio and Lion Dancing taking place downstairs at the Courtyard.

Thanks again everyone for chipping in for this 'lo hei' party - a great start to the new year ahead.

And kudos to the three 'Ladies in Red' - you light up the night!

REMINDER!

Tickets for Saturday's Chingay Parade and Line Dance are still available. Please call me if you need tickets to join us at the Parade and Line Dance Parrty

Dance List for Walk-thru Jam Session - friday, 30th Jan

01 Committment
02 Pasdena
03 Lost in Your Eyes
04 No Tengo Dinero
05 When I Think Of You
06 Pick It Up
07 Bossy Boots
08 Begin The Beguine
09 Cha Cha Blue
10 Key West

11 Runaround Sue
12 Love Love Love
13 Contigo
14 Pata Pata
15 Electric dreams
16 Dreaming My Dreams
17 Dance Weaver

Holiday Time in San Francisco

On Sat (24th Jan) we checked out and left SLC for the airport early to ensure we have adequate time for airport immigration clearance. We shouldn't have bothered - there was a delay, and we were not surprised - we were getting used to such problems at US airports. Our 10.30 am flight was delayed til 12.00 noon but finally got off only at 1.00 pm and had us arriving at SFO airport at 3.30 pm. We quickly collected our rental car and headed straight for the Grosvenor Suites - the service apartment we were staying in.

The Grosvenor Suites is rather old, but it is very centrally located at 790 Pine Street, Nob Hill area - two blocks from Chinatown to the west, three blocks to Union Square to the south, next to the cable car line on Powell Street. The suites are big - one double-bed room, one sitting room with sofa bed, kitchenette with dining table, all for under US$100.......good value for money. We got Suite 1909 this time - right on the top floor with a balcony and wide windows looking out on two sides giving us a great view of the city and the bay.

We spent three wonderful days in San Francisco - shopping, dining, seeing the sights and best of all, was able to spent time with our elder son, Kenny who was on vacation from his work in Sydney and had been visiting Los Angeles and SFO the last two weeks.

We had a great time:

- shopping at the Westfield Mall with great outlets like Bloomingdale, Borders, a great foodcourt, restaurants, supermarket, cinemas - you can spent the whole day there and not feel bored.

- dining at Fisherman Wharf ( tasted their 'must-try' dungaree crabs and clam chowder served in sourdough breadbowls) Yummy!

- taking a ride on the famous cable car

- driving around and seeing Twin Peaks (great view of the city from there), Chinatown (lots of firecrackers going off for LNY), Golden Gate Park, Pacific Heights, etc....

We found a great Singapore restaurant at the Westfield Mall (Market Street, opposite Union Square) called 'Straits' - owned by Chris Yeo from Singapore. He had made a name for himself with his Straits restaurants in SFO ( several outlets) and recently was invited by famous US hip hop rapper Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges to open a US$24 million Straits restaurant in Atlanta. After trying out several items on his menu, its no wonder to us how he had been able to succeed so well.

We had:

- Chicken and Beef Satay (big chunks of meat, nice peanut sauce), $12

- 'Chow Kway Teow' (nicely fried, plenty of sprouts, fish cakes, lap cheong and prawns), $14

- Rack of Lamb ( served in a nice creamy laksa sauce), $26

- Seabass baked with rice wine ( nicely garnished with shitake mushrooms, dried longans), $25

We thoroughly enjoyed the dinner and told ourselves - 'must record on the blog so that we can be reminded of it for the next trip to San Francisco'. A good fitting last meal in San Francisco this trip.

The next day, we started out early for the airport at 8.30 am (Tuesday, Jan 27th) and after some 24 hours touched down at Changi T3 at 1.30 am, Thursday, Jan. 29th.

-

Salt Lake City - Town Built by the Mormons

On Jan. 23, Friday, we arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah after a long tough drive through 160 miles of snow, sleet and fog along Highway 15. We were happy to locate the Marriott Hotel, drove into the carpark, unloaded our bags, handed our car keys to the valet and headed for the check-in counter only to find out that we were in the wrong Marriott - we were in the Marriott Downtown Hotel, our reservation was with the Marriott City Center (two blocks further away). we were too tired to relocate, so asked if we can have them call to cancel our reservation over the other hotel and check us in - we had to pay a higher rate, but managed to get a room. As with all Marriotts, it was very nice and comfortable, but everything costed us money (internet connection, mineral water in the room, etc....).

We got out for a look-see: our first stop - Temple Square, Utah's most popular tourist destination. Within Temple Square are 20 attractions related to the Mormon Pioneer history and their way of life. We were really impressed with the Salt Lake Temple, worldwide icon of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Later-Day Saints. It had taken 40 years for the Mormons to build this 6-spired cathedral. We also saw the inside of the Tabernacle, home of the famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Tabernacle organ - a real architectural wonder. From anywhere inside the building, you can be heard clearly across the huge hall - without microphones.

Touring the complex with two Mormon guides to explain the various exhibits, we were amazed to learn about the faith and devotion of the Mormons that brought about the founding of Salt Lake City and that built all the buildings at Temple Square.

The Church of the Later-Day Saints (better known as Mormon religion) was founded in New York in 1820 by a Joseph Smith who claimed that Jesus Christ appeared to him with the express purpose of getting him to restore His Church and Gospel to its purity and fulness to the earth. Joseph Smith later bought forth the Book of Mormon and soon had a big following of more than 10,000. His new teachings, with different views and practices, were not in agreement with those of other denominations and the Mormons were persecuted and driven out of New York and his group migrated to Ohio, Missouri and then to Illinois. In Illinios, Smith was arrested, then shot and killed in a gunfight.

Brigham Young became the new leader of the group in 1844, and he is credited with the relocating the faithful to the valley of the Great Salt Lake in 1847. Since that time, Salt Lake City has served as the international headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints. It was amazing to read about how 10,000 over Mormon pioneers went on foot, pulling handcarts containing all they got over 4 months through the great plains and over the Rocky Mountains to reach their 'Promise Land' , Salt Lake City which , in those days, nobody wanted. At last, they were left alone to mind their own business and through their hard work, determination, successful conversions and colonization of new territories in Utah and Idaho, the Mormons had grown to be the fourth largest religious denomination in the USA today.

With little time left we next paid a visit to the Gateway Mall (big shopping complex) and had a quick dinner at its Food Court. We found a Panda Express stall and were happy to tuck into a Chinese meal at the stall.

In the meantime, a 'cool change' had developed and when we got out of Gateway Mall, the temperature had gone down to minus 5, there was fog all around and we just could not walk the two blocks back to the hotel. Fortunately, the tram service was in operation and we caught a ride on the tram back to the hotel.

That's about all we had of our visit to Salt Lake City and it was a pity we didn't have more time to see some other attractions. For those who watched 'American Idol' - the last show was shot in SLC and featured some of the well known Osmond family. For me, Salt Lake City had , til now, only meant the Osmonds and the Mormons. We are glad to be able to visit and see the real Salt Lake City and many of the other attractions up close.

Having A Great Time in Pocatello

GONG XI FA CAI ! and all best wishes to all our danzbuddies and friends back home.

All too soon we had to end our 5-day stay in Pocatello, Idaho and what a great time we had.

Although it is a small town, Pocatello (with only 55,000 residents) is well-served by many good hotels, shopping malls, and nice restaurants. The TownePlace Suite was comfortable with good daily breakfast, a nice in-door swimming pool with hot-pool (jacuzzi) and in-room internet connection - a great help as we were able to maintain link with the stock market in Singapore and not missed out on the action at SGX.

The only thing that bothered us was the snow - it was great to see snow falling outside in the morning, but it meant having to dress up in multi-layers complete with hats and gloves every time we go outdoors. And it meant having to scrape snow off the car every morning before we can drive off

The people we met in Pocatello were all very nice and friendly - everyone we encountered would say 'hi' and smile at us. We were invited to dinner with Kelvin's boss, Tim Flagstad and colleague Kellis Cobinett at the Texas Roadhouse, a real cowboy type of restaurant serving buffalo wings, steaks, hamburgers, hot dogs and all other typical American dishes. And, surprise - throughout the evening, the waiters and waitresses will gather together and do a line dance!

We went to the home of Kelvin's colleague and wife, John O'Connell and Nancy Goodman and their menagerie (2 dogs - Osa and Trevor and two cats ) and had a nice dinner cooked by John himself ( a great vegetable broth and pasta) - also enjoyed 'home brewed' beer and stout, all produced by John in his backyard garage.....

The big news for the week was all about President Obama's inauguration and it seems to be the only thing being talked about on all TV channels on Monday and Tuesday January 19th and 20th. We were invited by John and Nancy to join them at the Pocatello 'Obama Inauguration Celebration' party at the Stephens Performing Arts Center. And so we went and had a whale of a time, meeting more nice people, eating, drinking and dancing the night away.

We enjoyed dancing with the crowd and was able to share a bit of line dancing on the dance floor. It was a nice surprise for us to see a picture of our dancing at the inauguration party in the next morning's edition of The Idaho State Journal, the state's daily newspapers.

Other places of interest we visited included the Poatato Museum in nearby Blackfoot (where 90% of USA-consumed potatoes are produced, the Lava Spring Hot Pools (where we had a nice two hours soaking in the natural hot pools) and the ISU Museum of Natural History (where we learned lots about the red indians, cowboys and the great migration of the white men to the wild west among other things.

Most of all we enjoyed the time spent with Kelvin - and we are happy to see him doing well in his job as a sports journalist at the Idaho State Journal. He gets to cover all sorts of sports all over Idaho as well as in many other American cities. He has a good office, lives in a nice duplex on 6th Avenue, a good neighbourhood in centre of town and enjoys what he doses - we were able to join and see him at work covering a basketball game at the Idaho State University Stadium

And so on a snowy morning on Friday 23rd January we bade farewell to Kelvin with a promise to come again, next time in summer for better weather and for a visit to the Yellowstone National Park which we missed out visiting because of the cold winter weather.We left Pocatello at 11.45 am for the long drive back to Salt Lake City, shivering all the way in sub-zero temperature and arrived at the Marriot Downtown Hotel in Salt Lake City at 3.30 pm.

Onward Journey -Pocatello Here We Come!

Sunday morning, 18th Jan. , we woke early for breakfast and after a quick check-out, drove to downtown Salt Lake City for a look-see and for some shopping for the trip to Pocatello. However, we found the streets deserted and all shops closed - now we know, Sunday mornings nothing happens in SLC, or for that matter in many other American cities......So, with no other option, at 11.00 am we started off on Highway 15 heading north for the Utah - Idaho border.

We went quite slowly on the highway,- partly because we wanted to be careful as we were sharing the road with many container trucks, but mainly because of the magnificent views we encountered along the way - we saw miles after miles of snow-capped mountains on both sides of the highway, so very beautiful, no words can do justice to what we saw. We had expected a tough drive, what with the cold weather and so on - but, it turned out to be quite manageable. The US highway system is so well developed - road conditions are good and well sign-posted with plenty of Rest Stations where one can stop for rest, coffee, meals, shopping, directions. And we made a lot of stops as driving for the four hours on a straight highway with only mountains to see was making me feel sleepy......

We finally arrived in Pocatello at 3.00 pm and made a bee-line for the Tourist Information office to get all the information we can can get and to get directions to the Marriot TownPlace Suites where we were to stay. We chatted with Gerald, the volunteer manning the office - a nice old man. We asked about line dancing - he suggested we checked out the 'Green T' or the 'Texas Roadhouse' by the Mall. We were telling him about our visit to see our son, Kelvin Ang who just moved to Pocatello last November - and he immediately recalled seeing Kelvin last year when he had come by to ask for directions - what a memory! or maybe it's a case of not many chinaman coming by that office.

Located next to the Tourist Office, the town had put up a statue of the Shoshone Indian Chief Pocatello after which the town is named and we were able to read a bit about the history of his town. The big Chief Pocatello and his Shoshone tribe used to own the whole spread of territory in South-eastern Idaho. Between 1843 and 1869, the 'Oregon Trial', starting from Kansas City in Missouri and going through the wild western states of Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and California saw the greatest migration in America. First came the mountain men (fur traders), then the gold-diggers after gold was discovered in California and finally the settlers seeking a better life out west. Chief Pocatello was 'persuaded' to sell off a big chunk of his tribal territory to the white settlers or face dire consequences and, so the rest is history..........

With the directions given to us, we made it to the TownPlace Suite at Via Caporatti. What a nice hotel - in a great location on a hill top, surrounded by, guess what? - snow-capped mountains and with the surrounding grounds still covered with snow from last week's snow fall. The temperature was really, really cold for us - minus 7 degrees C - much too cold for us - we quickly checked in, had a good rest and, in the evening, met up with Kelvin who drove us to his favourite chinese restaurant -

Chang's Garden for dinner. After that we had a quick drive aroud town - it's a small town, with only 55,000 residents, a lot of whom are students and faculty members at the Idaho State University. So, we saw a lot of young people about - all very well behaved and helpful. We like it here already - looking forward to an enjoyable stay..................

Journey To The West (Western USA....)

Our Journey to visit our son, Kelvin in the US did not have the smooth start we had hoped for. Our flight, on Sat. Jan 17th - SQ 016 on a Boeing 777 ER to San Francisco via Seoul was delayed for half an hour due to a fuel gauge malfunction. We arrived in Seoul after a 5 hour flight, were told to get off the plane with our hand luggages and then directed to go straight to a counter to have our names checked, went straight through customs check (x-ray bags, take off shoes, etc) and reboarded immediately - this had us all thinking - what that was all about? - wouldn't it be easier for all to have us stay in the plane, or otherwise have us go into a 'secured holding room', so that there is no need to recheck bags. After all, all our bags were so thoroughly checked in Singapore. The result was a further delay in the plane taking off for the 10 hour flight to SFO.

We arrived in San Francisco 45 minutes late at 11.30 am - which got us worried as we had a connecting flight to catch at 1.00 pm. On reaching the Immigration counters, we were disheartened to see long queues left , right and centre and, worse yet, the lines were hardly moving. It turned out that there was a computer systems malfunction which caused all the PCs there to work in 'stop and start' mode. We waited and waited and finally got through at 12.30 pm, collected our checked -in bags, made a quick dash to the dosmestic terminal for our Delta Airline connecting flight, but sad to say - were too late, we had missed our connecting flight to Salt Lake City. We got checked onto the next flight leaving at 4.30 pm, which was on time and it got us to Salt Lake City by 7 pm local time. By the time we got our bags out, collected our Hertz rental car and found our way to the SLC Holiday Inn Airport Hotel, it was 9.30 pm. It had been 24 hours since we left home - but it was still Sat 17th Jan, I always feel strange about this gain in time when travelling eastwards to the US. We were so tired, we just went to bed!

Lesson learned - in future, allow plenty more time in between connecting flights, especially when travelling to the USA........

URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR DANZBUDDIES

1. 30th January Event

LNY "Lo Hei" jam session will be held on 30th January during our Friday Walk Through jam session. Wednesday, Friday and Sunday danzbuddies who wish to join the party, please contact C P Tang - he is co-ordinating the 'food & beverages' arrangements.

2. 31st January Event

Tickets for our participation at the Chingay Parade and Mass Line Dance Party are now available. Danzbuddies who wish to get the tickets can contact Bernard & Bessie Ng. You may call him and make arrangements to get the tickets from them during one of their weekend sessions at the Botanical Gardens. In case the tickets with Bernard runs out, I still have some tickets with me - let me know via SMS if you wish to reserve........

3. 1st February Jam session

A Lunar New Year Celebration party will be held when we meet for our Sunday morning jam session on 1st February. Please bring a little of something to 'share share'..........

Danzbuddies Valentine's Day Social Dance Party

Please note that the venue for our Valentine’s Day Social Dance Party has been changed to Pek Kio CC at Cambridge due to renovation work being carried out at Tanglin CC.

Pre-Holiday Preparations

It's been a very busy last few days - with so much to prepare for our trip to the USA this Saturday. Good thing we were able to confirm hotel stays and car rental bookings via the Internet. We will stay at - the Holiday Inn, Salt Lake City , Utah (Sat 17th), - the TownePlace Suites in Pocatello, Idaho (Sun 18th to Sat 24th), - Grosvenor Suite in San Francisco (Sun 25th to Tue 27th).

The US government now requires visitors to register with their Department of Homeland Security no later than 72 hours before entering the country. Good thing you can do this online too - still it takes time to fill in required details and do some silly declarations, e.g. do you belong to any terrorist organisation, have you taken part in any terrorist activities, etc..............

Had to visit my ophthalmologist friend Dr. Khoo Chong Yew at Raffles Hospital to check on my right eye - felt a bit of pain there last week and thought it better to have it checked. -The Dear Wife wanted to make sure we don't have a problem on the 20-over flight. Turns out it was an infection - called "episcleritis", was given some eye drop ('TobraDex' - tobramycin, Dexamethasone) - problem taken care of. Chong Yew once again waived his usual $80 consultation fee on account of the help I had rendered him when publishing his book 'The Meaning and Purpose of Life' some ten years ago......it's great to have him remember what I did for him so long ago ......what a friend! Thank You again CY.

Next stop was a visit to Dr. Ng Siau Peng at Ubi Medical Clinic for our flu jabs and to chat about my Cholesterol test result which wasn't that bad - no drastic increase over the last test result 6 months ago - but still have to watch my diet. Current weight at 70 kg - too heavy, man....need to lose 5 kg!

So, OK, let that be my New Year Resolution.......

Total Cholesterol 197 (<200) Jul08 195
HDL Cholesterol 51 (>38) Jul08 50

LDL Cholesterol 124 (<130) Jul08 122

Cholesterol/HDL Ratio 3.9 (<4.51) Jul08 3.9

Triglycerides 109 (<200) Jul08 119

Had to visit the AA to apply for an International Driving license - I don't normally do this for visits to Australia, but for the USA, better play safe, the Americans can be quite fussy over such things.

Finally a vist to SIA downtown office at The Paragon.....to do an advance check-in. However, could only checked in for the Singapore- San Francisco leg. The connecting flight on Delta to Salt Lake City will have to be done at Changi Terminal 3 on Saturday morning.

Our schedule for the trip;

Saturday 17th SQ 16 Singapore - San Francisco dep 0915 arr 1105 18 hrs

(stop over Seoul, South Korea)

DL 4822 San Francisco - Salt Lake City dep 1300 arr 1555 2 hrs

Sunday 18th drive Salt Lake City - Pocatello dep 1300 arr 1500 3 hrs

We will stay in Pocatello til Saturday 24th and spend time with son Kelvin Ang, who works as a sports journalist with the Idaho Journal.

Saturday 24th DL 4813 Salt Lake City - San Francisco dep 1055 arr 1215 2 hrs

Will spend Lunar New Year in Frisco - other son Kenny will join us from his current visit to LA.

Also, hope to get to do some line dancing in the San Francisco areas.

Tuesday 27th SQ 15 San Francisco to Singapore dep 1235 arr 0105 with stop-over in Seoul, South Korea (Jan 29th!) 20 hrs

Will try to post our journal on the trip.......so , stay tuned.

What's New @ our Sunday Jam

We had a couple of new members joining us last Sunday, Jan. 11th - in the persons of Nipaporn Merkel also known as "Jazz", originally from Thailand, now living in Singapore at Coronation Road West and Ben Leong who hails from Tiong Bahru. And, as usual, it fell on brother Alan Khoo to help get the new members get into the swing of things and , as usual, he did a good job of it and had both of them grooving away on the dance floor.

On account of Jazz's Thai roots we took the opportunity to include Khoo Kaat and Hot Chilli Cha in our playlist. We also shared with the group the following new dances - 'Keywest' and 'Runaround Sue'

The two-hour session ended with everyone doing our own version of the 'Gong Xi Gong Xi' dance - lots of fun we had....going round and round in circle, changing partners........everyone went away in a happy Lunar New Year mood........

We are taking a break for the Lunar New Year holidays - the Sunday jam sessions will resume on 1st February.

Danzbuddies Video Clip

Danzbuddies doing 'Nashville' with Joenan at our December 12th jam session.

Danzbuddies Video Clip

Danzbuddies doing 'Party Line Cha' with Joenan recorded at our
December 12th jam session.

Danzbuddies 'Welcome 2009' Party

Our danzbuddies were still very much in a celebrating mood when we got together for Tanglin CC 's 'Welcome 2009' New Year Celebration Party - and as with our previous Christmas Party (Dec 12th) and New Year Eve Count Down Party (Dec 31st), it was another 'sell-out event, thanks to the overwhelming support from members and friends.

Participants appreciated the table-seating arrangement, the great buffet spread, free flow of wine, hot and cold drinks and bananas. The buffet dinner was again catered by Pines Food Services. For those who had asked about them, here are the details of the company.

Pines Food Services
414A Telok Blangah Road Singapore 098844

Tel: 6278 8414, email: pineskitchen@singnet.com.sg

Contact Ms Leng Kweh

HP 9631 3039

Leng used to work with Smiling Orchid which used to be our regular caterers. She left to become a Director of Pines Catering and we went along to Pines as she is really good with her service and always gives good value for money.

For our party, we paid $6.00 per head for a good spread of mee siam, sweet n sour chicken, sambal fish fillet, fried tau-hu in rojak sauce, vegetarian nonya chap-chye, Thai Pineapple fried rice and for desert - Thai jasmine Jelly, mmm .....yummy yum!

RECIPE - Miracle Soup

Many of you have asked about the recipe for the 'Miracle Soup' - the Five Element Vegetable Broth which we get to drink every week. So here it is.

The Five Element Vegetable Broth is a Life Extension Herbal Formula......a natural solution for good health, vitality and rejuvenation. For details about its history, testimonials, scientific details of the ingredients, go to Google and search for

'http://ancientpathweb.com/VegeBroth.aspx' and/or 'dr. tateishi kazu'.

What the Five Element VegeBroth may do:

- heal cancer
- restore injured joints and bones
- slow down ageing process
- rejuvenate the skin
- heal cataract
- heal liver disorder
- lower blood pressure
- improve cardiovascular conditions

The RECIPE
















16 oz (450 g) daikon (white radish)
8 - 10 oz (abt 250 g) daikon greens (white radish leaves)
8 - 10 oz (abt 250 g) carrot
8 oz (abt 250 g) burdock root ('nui pang' in chinese, 'gobo' in japanese)
3 - 5 pcs Fresh JAPANESE shitake sun-dried mushrooms. If not sun-dried, expose to sun for a few hours.

IMPORTANT

* Do not peel anything
* Do not mix with any other ingredients to avoid undesired interactions
* Do not add any meat or seasoning
* Use only organic vegetables
* Only cook in a stainless steel or glass pot

Put above items into the pot and fill the pot with three times the quantity of water (12 - 15 cups). Bring to a boil, reduce the flame and simmer for an hour or so. Strain and drink

Store unconsumed soup in a GLASS container and put in the fridge. Finish up the soup within two days.

COMMON MISTAKES

- using wrong kind of ingredients, especially the Chinese Shitake mushrooms instead of the Japanese Shitake mushrooms.
- Not following the proportion of vegetables as indicated.
- Using wrong type of pot - must use stainless steel or glass pot.
- Leaving the soup outside in room temperature for more than six hours
(it becomes bad-smelling - throw away , do not drink!). Always store in glass container and in the fridge.

WHERE TO BUY THE INGREDIENTS

Pek Kio Market, Cambridge, Stall #01-70 - 'Healthy Vegetable Stall' sells organic vegetables. You can get all the ingredients from them - tell them you want ingredients for 'five fragrance soup' ('wu xiang tang' in chinese, the guy will know what you want!)

I usually pay about $10.00 for one purchase of the above required quantiy.

DANCES to be taught - Wed. Jan 14th 2009

Our Wednesday class this week will feature two dances from our fav choreographer, Robbie McGowan Hickie and a nice dance from Audrey Watson.

Robbie's 'Pick It Up' is an easy beginner dance, 32 count, 4 wall danced to 'Wine It' by Jarvis Church. At 116 bpm, the song is catchy with a good beat, should go well with the class.

'Bossy Boots', danced to a nice 'country' song - 'Boots' by Joey and Rory has an unusual 68 count(64 + 4). with one restart but should be manageable for most in the class. A good dance, we think should be able to do well.

Next dance is 'When I Think of You' , 32 count 4 wall. Very easy no stress dance. Goes well with the Chris De Burgh song of the same name. We chose this with our more 'senior' line dancers in mind - hope they like it!

Our New Year Eve Count Down Party

The capacity crowd of 150 danzbuddies and friends who turned up for Tanglin CC Dance Club's Count Down Party were pleasantly surprised to see the nice arrangements set up for the event - tables with nice table cloth, jugs of red wine with wine glasses, novelties, goodie bags for all, a sumptous buffet catered by the ever-popular Pines Caterers, plus special fried rice and ice-cream from Tanglin CC Cafe.........

Gracing the ocassion were many VIPs from Tanglin CCMC, including Chairperson Mdm Teo Meng Hua, Vice -Chairman Steven Koh, WEC Chairperson Alice Siew and Goldhill NC Chairman Steven Lee. We thank them for their great support of the event and their encouragement of our on-going dance activities at Tanglin CC.

After a warm welcome was accorded to our guests, the party got off to rousing start and it was non-stop dancing from then on.

Making a special appearance were Spiderman and super heroine 'Black Rose' whose theme song is that used in the 'Old Time Buddy' line dance - we had lots of fun and laughter with the 'special choir' joining in the chorus throughout the dance......

Everyone was eagerly waiting for the Count Down dance - which was adapted from our Social Dance class 'bachata circle dance' - they were not disappointed. We counted down from one minute to midnight and then it was a real merry-go-round as all of us danced around and around, changed partners and wished each new partner who came along a 'Happy New Year'....

Once again, a big thank you to our danzbuddies for their support throughout 2008 and best wishes for an even better 2009!

Christmas Break in Sydney

It was time again to take our Christmas break and, as usual, we flew to Sydney to spent time with our son Kenny, now living in Sydney. We decided to fly on the SQ 231 midnight flight, arriving at a more agreeable 11.00 am instead of the usual 6.00 am. A quick turn-around at the Hertz counter after immigration and off we went in a nice Toyota Camry to the Meriton Service Apartment on Kent Street where we were allowed to check in (some places allow check-ins only at 3.00 pm). This being our first time at the Meriton (our previous stays had always been at the Oaks Hyde Park Apartments), we just had to check out the facilities - on Level 15, was the 25m heated pool, whirl-pool, gym, suana and roof-top open area for our morning tai-chi session, all very nice!

Next stop was the 'yam-cha' lunch at the Regal, our fav Chinese restaurant in Sydney. Then, it was off to Chinatown and the Thai Kee grocery store for some serious shopping for all we need for breakfast at the apartment. Eating out can be quite costly in Sydney, so we cook ourselves a good breakfast, have a light lunch and go for a nice dinner at night. And so it was Jimmy Lik at Victoria (nice Thai fusion stuff) that first night, followed by dinners at Regal (again), Billy Kwong (good smoked duck), the Pink Peppercorn (Laotian menu), Din Di Fang, Sky Phoenix and Jordan's @ Darling Harbour.

Unfortunately, all line dance classes in Sydney had closed for the Christmas / New Year holidays ans so, no line dancing for us this trip. However, there were lots and lots of shopping - at Paddy's Market, Paddington Weekend market, and especially at the various George Street malls on Boxing Day when all shops hold their traditional post X'mas Sales - up to 70% off !

On 23rd, we took the 2 hour drive to Hunter Valley for some serious education on wine-making, etc. So, now we can say ' Hunter Valley, Vineyard long lunch? - been there, done that, lah!'

Not wanting to fight with the crowds outside we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the apartment and at the 'Internet Cafe'. Before that, we had gone to our favourite Sydney Fish market and bought all the sea food we need for our Christmas meals which all three of us cooked by turn and it was difficult to tell who did the best dish, maybe it was the Hunter Valley wine!

All too soon, it was time to pack up and head for home on Sunday 28th - had a good flight back on SQ222 , Airbus 380 no less, arriving home 10.00 pm.