Long Breathe Diet

http://youtu.be/MKj93t2-Ai4

Oxycise 2

http://youtu.be/YjYYbNjN3eA

Oxycise 1

http://youtu.be/A3Ef2BQUyyM

Thermomix Pandan Mantou (Chinese Steam Buns)

Ingredients:

3-4 pieces of pandan leaves

130 g water

1 tsp yeast

15 g sugar

15 g oil

250 top flour*

Pinch of Salt

*Not high protein / multi-purpose flour

Preparation

DOUGH For BUNS

 

1) Place water and pandan leaves into Thermomix mixing bowl to grind the pandan leaves Time 1 min, Speed 8-10.

2) Strain the pandan water with a fine sieve ( I used an oil sieve. But any sieve that can sieve out the tiny pandan leaves particles is good).

3) Add panda water, yeast, sugar and oil into mixing bowl and mix Time 40 sec, Temp 37C, Speed 3. 

2) Add flour and salt and mix for Time 10 sec, Speed 3-6 (turn slowly from Speed 3 up to Speed 6).

3) Knead 2 min (Time 2 mins, Speed Knead- knead function is the button with the picture of a wheat).

4) Tip the dough out from the Thermomix mixing bowl onto a flat plate or the Thermomix silicon pastry mat. 

5) Roll, cut and shape into 10-12 pieces, place them on oiled Varoma dish and tray and cover it.

6) Leave it to rise for 30 mins in a warm place.

7) After about 25 to 30 mins, add 500g water into TM mixing bowl, Time 15 mins, Temp V, Speed 3 to boil the water.

8) When temperature reached V (about 5 mins after you start boiling the water, remove measuring cup and put on Varoma dish and tray to steam the mantou buns.

9) Remove lid before turning off to prevent drips of water on the Buns.

 These buns are best eaten straight away as they are warm and soft and do re-steam well when re-heating.

My most precious iRobot Roomba 780

In Feb 2013, my husband replaced our current heavy & complicated 3.5k Kirby vacuum cleaner to a much lighter & simple $200 Philips vacuum machine. I vacuum about once or twice a week but every times after I vacuum, I will be so tired and sweaty which I dislike. I started to research online and came across a forum topic on "life without maid" on kiasuparents.com. I was impressed by this lady, Pamela Lim who is an ex-entrepreneur, educator and a mother to five young kids who stays at a three-storey house when her two maids left! She 'inspired' me to make use of technology to simplify my life without maid! She highly recommended iRobot Roomba which she has a few for all her rooms that she bought directly from US a few years back. (Note: from my understanding, you need to get a transformer if you buy electrical products from US as Singapore is using a different voltage from US and warranty will be an issue and with the shipping costs, I think now with a few parallel importers in Singapore that import directly from the US, the price difference is not too significant to warrant the risk on warranty and getting the transformer and shipping in ourselves).

Finally after much research online on iRobot, we finally bought our iRobot Roomba 780 & iRobot Scooba 380 (with upgraded software to 390 version) in March 2013! I really love my iRobot Roomba! We schedule it to vacuum daily in the morning and I cannot imagine our house without the iRobot Roomba now! You will really be amazed at the amount of tiny little dust particles that it can pick up as it is extremely good with picking up tiny dust particles and hair (I have long hair and I lose a lot of hair daily)! My husband and my son both have sensitive nose, both of their condition improve after we have iRobot Roomba with us!  I would highly recommend it to families with young children (especially babies) and furry pets!  Roomba is good with areas under the sofa and beds too (must ensure that there is at least two inches gap underneath these furniture).

When the iRobot Roomba is doing its cleaning, we can be sleeping or out somewhere. After about 1 hour to 1.5 hours of cleaning, it will return back to its home based docking station to recharge! I only need to empty the bin and tap the filters clean once a week and take out the brush to clear away any hair that might have been trapped on the brush.

As for my iRobot Scooba, it has become a white elephant. It actually does its wet cleaning job well, but because my iRobot Roomba has done such a fantastic job and I have a nice part-time domestic helper that comes in once a week to mop the floor etc, I'm lazy to get iRobot Scooba to work.  iRobot Scooba is not as 'independent' as iRobot Roomba. I must be physically be there with him. First, must fill it up with water and cleaning solution. The water will be used up in 45 mins and if the room is big, you need to pour out the dirty water and refill it with water and cleaning solution and let it continue to wet clean or move it to another room.

I must say that iRobot Roomba is one of the best investment that we have made as it does not only save me time and energy, it perform its vacuuming functions so well that my husband said that the floor is so clean everyday now as compared to the times when we have maids! Maids have mood and someday they skip certain areas. And definitely the maids (and even myself) cannot vacuum under the beds so well! A neighbour visited me yesterday and she said that my floor is so clean even though I do not have a maid (and the part-time auntie was supposed to come over that afternoon which mean that the floor has not been mopped for a week!) I told her with iRobot Roomba, our floor is clean even without mopping for a week or longer!

Cheapest Electronics & Electrical Shops in Singapore

I decided to start this blog to share and document anything that I have researched, experimented and tried out that might be useful to anyone or even myself  because as time passed by, my memory might failed me (closed friends know how forgetful I can be and especially now with age catching up! Lol)

Since we have no maid (Feb 2013), we have taken advantage of many high-tech home/kitchen appliances that replace or simplify the tasks that were previously performed by our domestic helper!  I researched extensively online and we bought an irobot roomba, an irobot scooba, clothes dryer, Sharp Healsio Steam Oven(AX-1500V), Tiger Thermal Pot, Endo Thermal Pot,Thermomix etc. 

During the process, I also realise that if we are willing to spent a 'little' time to make a few phone calls, most of the times we can save a couple of dollars to a few hundreds dollars on just one appliance!

EVERJOINT ELECTRICAL TRADING
Block 159 #01-534 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4
Tel: 6458 9569(Mr Lee)
Note: Bought our Brandt washing machine & clothes dryer with Mr Lee after a few phone calls to a few shops listed and ordered on the phone without going down to the shop. But for certain items, better price will be given if go down to the shop personally. Mr Lee(the boss) is friendly & helpful if call at the 'right' time!

KONG TAI ELECTRICAL TRADING
Blk 504 # 01-221, Jurong West Street 51
Tel: 6565 8970(Alice)
Note: Bought our Endo Thermal Pot from Alice.

GOH AH BEE
Blk 210 # 01-247, Hougang Street 21
Tel: 6288 8611

PARISILK ELECTRONICS & COMPUTERS
No 15A Lorong Liput, Off Holland Village
Tel: 6466 6002(Kelvin)
Note: Bought our Sharp Healsio Steam Oven(AX-1500V) after comparing prices on the phone with these few shops and finally bought from Parisilk!

ETRONIN HOME APPLIANCES SERVICE & TRADING 
Blk 801 Tampines Avenue 4, #01-287
Singapore 520801
Tel: 6781 7810 (Catherine)
Note: Bought our cooker hood and hob here! 

MEGA DISCOUNT STORE
101 Thomson Road United Square
#B1-56D/E
Singapore 307591
Tel: 6254 7998 (Jing Jing)
Note: Jing Jing is a very helpful lady whom I have chatted a few times while checking the above appliances that we bought, but the prices were never the lowest so I never buy from this store. This month, when I decided to upgrade our fridge (Hitachi 6-Door R-C6800S Made in Japan)
and when I called, Jing Jing referred me to her colleague, Andy, and the price they quoted were much higher than Everjoint & Parisilk! As I was about to hang up my call after thanking him & telling him that I can get it much cheaper elsewhere, he asked me for the price and quoted me a cheaper price to match as they were having a roadshow & I believe they have a quota to meet! Love the vacuum compartment of this fridge, especially good for fresh sashimi, vegetables & fruits!
They really stay fresh longer!

There are a few other shops that was mentioned in renotalk.com and hardwarezone.com.sg but I never get to call them because the price quoted by the above few shops are already very attractive!  Kindly note that these shops mostly accept cash or cheque upon delivery and so far,  I am able to order by phone without going down personally! Please remember to call a few of them to compare prices!

The following are the other few shops:
EARMARK ELECTRONICS
Block 4 #01-119 Toa Payoh Lorong 7
Tel: 6255 4688

CHIN LEONG & CO
No. 664 Geylang
Tel: 6744 3053

AIK LEONG ELECTRICAL ENTERPRISE
Blk 121 # 01-16, Jalan Bukit Merah Lane 1
Tel: 6271 9365

HONG LIANG ELECTRICAL ENTERRISE
Blk 123 #01-70, Bukit Merah Lane 1, ALEXANDRA VILLAGE
Tel: 6278 3331

LION CITY COMPANY
684 Geylang Road S(389608)
Tel: 6748 3367

If you know of other shop that sell electronics & electrical home/kitchen appliances at good price, please feel free to add on to the list by adding them in the comment. Cheers!