Looking through Another Eye

These photos are taken at one souvenir shop at Amsterdam Museumplein, I was playing with some of the item and attempt to take some funky photo through the viewer.

A very successful photo, with my nephew as the object

A not so successful one, Johannes was getting impatience ...

The view of the viewer through the viewer... (O well, if you know what I mean :P)

The effect of the photos is through this special viewer...

.the.arrival.

We picked my nephew up from Den Haag HS station as he arrived from Paris via Thalys. We head straight for a rather full meat monty dinner at a Greek restaurant since he only meat eater....

The dinner is overloaded with meat and I couldn't even finished my smallest portion plate (should order kid size plate next time) while the gentlemen ordered full size plate and swept the meat clean...

Then we hopped over to Hotel New York for drinks and dessert. It was not so busy on a Tuesday night... I told some photos while Johannes telling the story of Holland-New York to my nephew...

The tart though looks delicious but is piled with sugar...

And of course the highlight is the hand delivered box of Laduree macarons.... as Forest Gump said "life is like a box of macaron, always full of surprise..."

My Laduree pink box .....

Open... full of colorful macarons...

Thanks Bertie

.special.guest.special.delivery.

I have been going for my daily pilgrimage to the hospital daily, each time is a never ending waiting and while waiting I just intensively FB-ing using my cell phone....

My nephew is arriving this evening from Paris and I am getting very excited and waiting with expectation for this special delivery - MACARONS from LADUREE!!

When we were there in spring this year, I have been sampling macarons from Pierre Herme, Laduree, Aoki Sadaharu and many others...

And carrying my macaron around the city in this lovely Laduree signature green bag and box....

And I wonder this time if I am going to get macarons in green box or purple one like above (downloaded from www.laduree.fr)

I will know tonight.

polaroids

I discovered this website http://www.rollip.com/ that provides user the feature to convert photo with Polaroids feel. I tried 2 photos so far and it does give the nostalgic feel like any Polaroids photo should be....

Polaroids photo

Original photo

Polaroids photo

Original photo

Go and try it and have fun!

.special.guest.

Tonight we have special guests, our pastor and his translator visited us at home and had dinner with us.

It was out of the concern of my health situation that he wanted to pay us a visit and pray for us. A very much appreciated gesture.

He also shared with us how to deal with such situations and letting God to take the complete control. Thank you pastor for your word of encouragement....

.bright.n.colorful.

Today we didn't do anything particularly special but cleaning the house, preparing our small room for my nephew who is visiting us coming Tuesday.

Original intention is to cycling but the weather turned grey so we decided to head to IKEA to get something for the kitchen.

I spotted this colorful textile material, at the first glace they are quite Japanese but on a second look they are very Scandinavian... Still they are very colorful textile for curtain or cushion...

Then I spotted some graffiti in orange

and in green with some encouraging wordings...

Both graffiti is actually the imprint of bookshelf...

After IKEA, we hunt for food at Delft city center, we both craving for meat today, wanting to do the Greek but I didn't want big portion so we ended up at this small Turkish eatery. It was still alright (a bit chilly while waiting for the food to be served) to sit outside and enjoying my meaty Turkish dur�m while Johannes enjoying his full plate..

And now it is time to sleep..... good night.

.fresh.java.

Good Morning everyone, I woke up feeling still drowsy from the paracetamol that I took last night, but am getting better especially after a cup of fresh java....

Yesterday, Johannes collected the coffee grinder that we ordered from a specialty shop in town. This morning we grind the fresh whole coffee bean ourselves and make ourselves a fresh filtered coffee...

The coffee is not as strong as Senso since it is filtered but it is the process of grinding the bean that made our Saturday morning special...

It is definitely autumn now, as I can feel the changes in the temperature although the weather until now still reasonably sunny and warm at this time of the year...

Enjoy your Saturday!

::a.road.to.recovery::

I spent my whole day in drowsiness especially after the hysteroscopy this morning. I have a good news, my uterine cavity looks "good" and no sign of growth of polyp and very promising according to my gyny.

This time the hysteroscopy is shorter but much painful than the last time. Although she is gentle when extracting some small sample but it has left me with quite a painful after effect.

I have to continue to take the hormone pill for another 2 weeks until the laboratory result is known. Although there is still two weeks to go to know the final outcome but it is already a relief... and I can't thank God enough for that He has making me new according to 2 Cor 5:17.

The doctor also confirms that the hormone pill has the side effect of worsening blood sugar level and so I know that when I stopped with the hormone pill, my blood sugar will fall back to normal. Again it requires GREAT FAITH but He who begins the good work in me, is faithful to complete it...

I thanked God for this doctor, she is full of passion and has the patience to listen and she is even more excited about the outlook of the next step for us...

Thank You Lord for bring us closer to our dream and desire that at one stage seems so f...a...r away and almost impossible but now it is made possible again...

It is another Friday again... Have a good weekend.

.what.matters.most.

Lately I have been thinking about life, despite of all the circumstances I try to remain positive and maintain the normal pace in my life. The circumstances also make me re-thinking on what matters most in my life.

I remember the story of Job in the bible where God allows Satan to ripe off almost everything from Job. I am not saying I am Job but there must be a purpose for God to allow all these things to happen to me... If it is for His glory, I am willing to pay the price.

Tomorrow I am going for a long waited polyclinic surgery and I know all things work for the good of those who love Him...

My health matters most at this moment but Jesus precedes everything...

Pray for me if you can....

Kyoto Style Baked Sweet Potato

Today I made the Kyoto style chakin shibori Sweet potato with cinnamon. Interestingly sweet potato is called Sui-to Poteto (スウィートポテト) in Japanese. This confection seems to be very easy to make, light and with natural sweetness from the sui-to poteto itself...

I cut and steam the sweet potato and then smash them in a mixing bowl with a bit of 20 g butter, 1 tbs cinnamon powder, salt, 1 egg yolk, add sugar to taste if you want extra sweetness, I didn't add sugar but decided to let the sweetness from the sweet potato to take control.

Once mixed, the next job is to get the mixture into individual ping pong shape and twist with pattern if you are up to the challenge, I didn't border...

Last step is to glaze each one with egg york and sprinkle of black sesame, then send to oven 200C for 20 minute.

It is bite size, slightly glazed outer layer but the inside is moist and I can still taste the coarse sweet potato. I washed it down with a glass of cafe latte.

The half bite view

Baked Sweet Potato

Do you wii?

Lately we have been thinking about wii... Yesterday evening we tried it out at one of the electrical appliance shop at our city. It was really fun... I played the table tennis and it is almost like for real as I need to use real force and apply real movement... Virtual reality is the way to go...

I think we will wii this week...

image downloaded from www.wii.com

Spanish Ceramics

It's Monday again, a bit of Monday blue so I decided to write something which is the continuation of my recent Andalusia trip. Here are some of the Spanish ceramic that I have acquired in Seville and of course hand carry back home. Most of these would add nicely to our current collection of ceramic.

Spanish ceramics are more bulky and more of earthware but they are colorful, bright and enlightening...

On the contrary, this is not really Spanish but Morocco tea set although I bought it from Seville... Will surely find an occasion to drink tea with it...

New Creation

2 Corinthians 5:17 -Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Today's sermon gave me a revelation and realization that because I am in Christ and therefore I am a new creation. Because I am a new creation, the part of my body that may be distorted shall be made new again according to this scripture.... Yes, I am talking about the supernatural power of Christ and the blood that He has shed for me. Therefore, the organ/cells of my body will be renew and made new again according to this very scripture in 2 Corinthians 5:17. I am going to claim this verse to my body till I see it happens in reality....

Likewise, during the prayers of our care group, the Holy Spirit spoke to me about the royal priesthood, and that the blood in my body is belonging to the royal priesthood and belongs to Him. Regardless of what has been diagnosed in my blood, I must believe that I have the blood of the royal priesthood.

YES, right now I need the GREAT FAITH to believe that all that are happening to my health condition is going to change, it's going to become anew because I am a NEW CREATION.

This coming new week, I will start seeing and experiencing the NEW CREATION in me...

1 Peter 2:9 - But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

A Farewell Dinner

Tonight we had a farewell dinner for a sister who is leaving the Netherlands and going back to her home country - Taiwan. The dinner is at Delft, besides DIY sushi, we also had other dishes.

It was a night with good FOOD

Other dishes

Ingredients for sushi and sushi

A night of FELLOWSHIP with FRIENDS

A FUN night too...

in wearing Japanese Yukata and Koreans Hanpok

final adjustment

posing for photo

And a FAREWELL to our friend - Joy Lin (middle)

God bless you Joy, whatever you do, wherever you are, always remember Him.