Make urself Happy

1. Play all day long with your pet. Whether a dog or a cat, make yourself a kid again while cuddling with them and throwing their favorite toy for them to fetch. They are your best friend even if you've scold them a thousand times, they'll still return their love. If you don't have a pet, go get one now!

2. Buy something for yourself. Get your credit cards and puchase that thing you've always wanted. It feels good to buy that after the long wait.

3. Eat Chocolates. Yes, I have a sweet tooth. Everytime i go to supermarkets, there's no excuse not to grab a chocolate bar. Makes me feel good and have the guilty feeling later. :p

4. Give yourself a break. Once in a blue moon, forget all your responsibilities and release the stress. If you have 2 days off, reserve a day for yourself. If you feel like doing nothing so be it. Sometimes, it feels good to do nothing for a day!

5. Pamper yourself. Go to nearest spa and have a body massage. A day full of stress from work or school deserves some reward.

6. Watch the Clouds. It will give your a lighter feeling. If you see some carefree birds flying on the sky, means you got some bonus.

7. Get some laughs. Remember your buddy who makes you roll in the floor while laughing? Pay him a visit and share the laughing gas.

8. Make others happy. Release your sense of humor and you'll feel happy when you see them laughing with your jokes.

9. Count your blessings. Be always thankful for all the things you have. You're truly blessed to have them.

10. Be optimistic. Remember, life must go on! Even if it feels like you're on a dead end, remember that things happen for a reason. Now do the tricks and have a positive outlook.

8 easy ways to be eco-friendly around the house.

Want to live a more environmental friendly life but don't know how? Well, all you need to do is follow eight simple steps.

Below are listed eight easy ways to be eco-friendly around the house:
1. Clean out your storage: Take out the items that are not in use anymore and organise them in different groups. Then decide what to do them accordingly.

2. Recycle smarter: After grouping what you want to discard, think of how and where to recycle these products or donate them for reuse. A way to recycle smart is to buy items made from recycled content and with limited packaging.

3. Use energy more wisely: Use compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs), which use 20 per cent of the energy of incandescent bulb and also last 10 times longer. Keep a check on your energy bill to monitor the trends every month and ask your energy company about renewable alternatives.

4. Use less water: Saving water is important because it is a limited resource, either by taking short showers or putting a bottle in your toilet tank. You can also reuse water around the house, such as using cooking water for plants, which may provide nutrients to the plant.

5. Start composting: Composting is a great way to reduce your waste and help your garden at the same time. Most food scraps and biodegrade material like cardboard, which may produce nutrient-rich fertiliser, can be easily used.

6. Invest in energy-efficient appliances: Try and start replacing older appliances in your home with more energy-efficient ones. This may reduce energy output and save money on electricity bill.

7. Start a Green Group: Activities like carpooling can be arranged by talking with friends about the importance of conserving. Develop programmes and activities in your neighbourhood for others to get involved.

8. Plant a tree: The original carbon offset. Planting a tree can not only reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, but can also provide shade for your home. This may even help in reducing energy costs and will provide fruits that you won't have to buy at the store.

Cooking Tips (Avoiding 10 Common Errors)

As most readers will know, I love cooking. I am a fanatic when it comes to doing things “perfectly” in the kitchen and have, consequently, read everything I can get my hands on about cooking. I am an amateur, but at least I am a reasonably well informed amateur! This list is a guide to help save you from some of the most common cooking errors we all make.

10
Pan too Cold

When you cook in a pan which is not hot enough, things stick and they don’t color. This is a very common mistake made when cooking steak or other meat dishes in a frying pan. Don’t be afraid to turn the heat right up - you can always remove the pan from the heat if it looks to be too hot. Make sure you use a little oil to the pan before you begin to heat it (don’t use a non-stick pan - throw all the non-stick cookware in to the bin).
9
Fish Overcooked

Overcooked fish is one of the most revolting things you can eat. It lacks flavor, and it lacks moisture. When you cook fish properly, it should retain some of the transparency that you get with raw fish. Don’t fear that it will be raw - the heat can still penetrate to the core without overcooking it. As a side note, when buying fresh fish, make sure the fish eyes are shiny and clear and that the gills are still red. Fresh fish should also have no odor (apart from the smell of the sea) - if it smells fishy, don’t buy it.
8
Too Much Interference

When you cook a steak, you must put it in the pan and not touch it again until it is time to turn it over. Moving meat around a pan stops it from browning. Coupled with a cold pan (item 10) you will end up with limp, soggy, and uncolored meat. You should not fall to the temptation to give things a shove or to check for the level of cooking. Cook based on time (for example one minute either side for steak) and leave it alone!

7
Overcrowding
When frying on top of the stove, people tend to try to do everything at once - putting half a dozen sausages in the pan, or 2 or 3 steaks. This only ruins the food - overcrowding the pan causes food to boil (as there is not enough room for the steam to leave the pan) instead of browning. Cook in batches and, if you need to, keep meat in a warmed oven while you continue through the batches.

6
Overcooking Meat

Most people who have little cooking experience will be familiar with the large cut of meat that has shrivelled up like a prune during cooking. The reason for this is that when you heat meat beyond a certain temperature, the meat proteins begin to contract - forcing the juices (and flavor!) out of the meat. The solution to this is to make sure that when you roast meat, you do it on a low heat for a long time. The great chef Heston Blumenthal (owner of The Fat Duck) cooks his meat at a maximum of 75C (~170F) for many hours - resulting in succulent and flavorful cuts. I strongly recommend you check out his cook books - “Family Food” is a particularly good one and it includes a section on meat cooking in this manner. I am fortunate enough to own a signed copy!

5
Not Enough Salt

All too frequently people use too little salt in their cooking (or worse still: no salt at all!) Salt is essential in cooking as it provides flavor and in some cases texture. You should salt all meat before you cook it, and most of the time you should salt water before cooking vegetables in it. It is not enough to add salt at the last minute as some foods cook better with salt adding during the cooking process. I should also mention here than you should immediately throw away any table salt you own and buy proper sea salt (or kosher salt). Table salt contains flowing agents and anti-caking agents. It contains so much of this stuff that if you sniff a container of table salt - it smells like metal. Good quality salt should have no smell or a very slight perfume (from the sea).

4
Blunt Knives

Blunt knives are not only bad in the kitchen because they tear at what you are cutting, but they are extremely dangerous. Most accidents involving knives in the kitchen are caused by blunt knives. The reason for this is that the knife is more prone to slipping. I personally prefer Japanese steel in my knives but there are also some excellent quality European knives as well. For those with the big budget I strongly recommend Hattori knives (go for the HD or KD series - they will cost upwards of $300 a knife). The knife pictured above is a 27cm Hattori KD Chef’s Knife ($1,175).

3
Using Dried Herbs

Dried herbs have no place in the kitchen. They have little (if any) of the flavor of the herb they are meant to represent. If you cook with dried herbs, you cook with no flavor. The first time you use fresh herbs in your cooking, you will immediately understand the importance of them. This also goes for vegetables - always buy the freshest vegetables you can (preferably locally grown - buying locally grown means you only get what is in season, and therefore you get the best tasting veges).

2
Using Cheap Kitchenware

I am sure we are all well acquainted with pots and pans that are as light as a feather and coated with a non-stick coating. Throw. These. Out. Now. You simply can not get the right feel for heat with these abominable tin pots. A proper cooking pot should have a very heavy base. They need not be cast iron, but they should certainly require a little elbow grease to lift. If you have the wallet large enough - you should aim for copper pots as they provide the best conductivity of heat.

1
Using Cheap Wine (दारू)

Wine is undoubtedly my favorite thing in the world - I quaff copious amounts of the stuff (in order to improve my palate of course). One of the big “sins” in the kitchen is using “cooking” wine. There is no such thing as special wine for cooking - it is cheap and nasty wine with a dishonest label on it! The golden rule with wine in the kitchen is that you must only use wine you would happily drink. The upside to this golden rule is that you invariably end up with a lot of spare wine for drinking. Be sure not to keep your “good” wine in the pantry when you are done - drink it and buy a fresh bottle next time you need it.

The Importance of Relationships

Mankind is a social animal. Ones mental health, that is our happiness, self-esteem, and ability to work, is influenced greatly by our relationships. There is a form of psychotherapy called interpersonal psychotherapy that attempts to improve ones mental health by focusing on ways of relating to others. A commonly held perspective, that either leads to mental ill-health or is the symptom of mental ill-health, is an egocentric view where one believes the best way of improving our relationships is to change other people and that other people are the source of all our problems. It is important to realise that in order to change relationships we can only change the way we relate to others, and then others will change the way they relate to us.
Your relationships will work best if you are able to be yourself within them. Relationships in which you can be yourself are likely to feel more comfortable and to make you happier. This doesn’t mean one can throw tantrums when you feel like it, nor be as rude to people as you wish. Relationships don’t even have to be comfortable, some very good relationships can be provocative and challenging. However relationships tend to be unsatisfying when one is fulfilling a role rather than being oneself. So in order to improve relationships one must first understand them.
Bringing about change in a relationship is a cycle with four recognisable phases:
Look for patterns.
Focus on specific areas of difficulty.
Assert ones own needs.
Notice how others change in response.
Go back to 1.
1: Looking for patterns
Ask yourself questions like these:
When do I feel at my worst? What is happening then?
When do I feel at me best? What is happening then?
Do the same kinds of things keep happening to me? Do I seem to keep going round in a circle?
A common pattern is that ones relationships call the tune, where all the buttons controlling the mechanism of our relationships are in the hands of other people.
2: Focusing on specific areas of difficulty
Interpersonal therapy commonly recognises three different types of relationship problem. Start by focusing on specific areas of difficulty and then label each as a problem of a particular type. This helps to separate one problem from another so that you can think about them one at a time. The three common types are:
Disputes: for example, frequent arguments between husband and wife, or parent and child.
Role changes: for example, growing up and leaving home, or retiring.
Loneliness: or a lack of close friends.
3: Asserting ones own needs.
Accept the idea that you can have some control over what happens in a relationship. Don’t accept that other people have all the choices. Ask yourself what you want from a relationship? Think about how you would like to be and not about how you appear. Speak up for yourself, think about what you want to do and don’t worry about displeasing others. If you find yourself in a relationship that you don’t like, have the courage to end it. Assertiveness involves being fair to oneself and to others.
4: Notice how others change in response.
Develop your independence. The more you take control and allow yourself to be yourself, the more others will respect you. Don’t be afraid that if you disagree with someone it’ll end in an argument. The better you become at playing your full part in relationships, the better you will feel about yourself. Once you accept yourself, others will find it easier to accept you. This may set off a chain-reaction that will help you make other changes. Relationships are systems. When we make changes in the ways we relate to others, those others will respond to, and resist, the changes. In a system one change leads to another and the skills of communication and negotiation help ensure that the changes we want and the changes others want match, so that the system can adjust and adapt.


The importance of solitude
Although good relationships are valuable, don’t underestimate the importance of solitude; the ability to enjoy, and to find creative strength in our own company. To be at ease with oneself alone can be a source of refreshment and energy. Solitude is a necessary component of many creative activities that require us to draw from our own inner depths. Solitude is not the opposite of good relationships. In fact if we are continually seeking company because we are uncomfortable with ourselves, this is likely to tarnish our relationships with others. If we are at ease with ourselves we will be at ease with others.

Three guidelines for improving your relationships
Work on changing yourself, not on changing others.
Changes take time.
Work with people as they are.
1: Work on changing yourself, not changing others.
The temptation, particularly if a relationship is stormy, is to insist to oneself and to others that it’s not you that needs to change but the other person. Now it may be true that the other person could change but since you cant change other people, it isn’t worth trying. The only way you can change another person is to change the way you relate to them. Working to change oneself is always difficult. Working to change relationships is even more difficult because it can be very tempting to think that other people are at fault, and that they rather than you should make the effort. Do not be distracted by trying to change others. The changes you make will precipitate changes in others. Leave these changes up to them, and the relationship will feel better to you both.
2: Changes take time.
When you change the way in which you relate to others, they may resist that change and do things to make you change back. Making changes in relationships can take longer than making changes in yourself alone, and it requires persistence.
3: Work with people as they are.
Be realistic. If you find yourself thinking "If only he would tell me what he’s thinking" or "If only he didn’t criticise me so much", remember that if you want to bring about some changes in those relationships you should put away these "if only" and accept people as they are. Once you start making changes in yourself, the other person is likely to begin to change. You will then be able to find out if you can accommodate each other and proceed with the relationship. If after trying to change you still find the relationship is no better, then it might be better to end the relationship.