2012年1月19日星期四

熬夜病Allnighter

    熬夜,尤其是通宵熬夜就我个人而言是一种不良的个人习惯和心理问题。不知道别的通宵熬夜者是不是也有这种心理疾病。我有时候也在晚上熬一会,再熬一会,有时候是看电视,有时候是上网,有时候是学习。我知道熬夜对身体有各种伤害,可是总是希望再过一会儿睡觉,好像潜意识觉得晚上的时间非常宝贵,不用就是浪费,也可能是拖沓的性格表现,也可能是对事物产生依赖而不愿意睡觉。

    先生比我能熬夜,且有各种“不可辨驳”的理由为自己的熬夜做支持。无论如何我也没法相信一夜不睡不会对身体带来不良影响。昨夜先生基本也是通宵,说不过他也不想大半夜红脸白脸的弄的俩人都不舒服,自己先睡了。因为身体微恙,晚上起夜比平常多,五点半起来见他仍然盯着电脑屏幕。我就纳闷,这么熬夜到底是什么心理呢,有什么客观必要性呢?回来躺下好一会睡不着,浑身疲乏,辗转反侧。后来困了,昏昏沉沉之间几次有坠入深渊的感觉,好像灵魂出窍,不由自主。换了好几个姿势,总算睡着了。

    希望新年里,我从自己做起,摆脱熬夜的困扰,养成良好的作息习惯。

2012年1月13日星期五

Is Pasta tasty?

Pasta often comes to my mind as a tasty food, So I sometimes want to buy and cook some. When we were in Shanghai, I bought pasta for some times, but every time I was disappointed since it tasted hard and flavorless. The hardness of pasta made my stomach uncomfortable. So, I told myself that pasta was not my dish and I should not buy it anymore. But, some time later, I would want to try again when it appears as a delicious food in my mind again although I am sure that I don't like it if I cook it myself. Today, I think about pasta and want to try some again.

I am so curious about pasta. Is it tasty or not?

2012年1月3日星期二

来多伦多最冷的一天The coldest day in Toronto

昨晚天气预报要降温,今天果然非常冷,达到了零下十九度。早晨看外面阳光灿烂,中午出门想去超市买菜。穿上了厚毛衣和厚棉靴,出门膝盖冷,因为没带毛裤过来,牛仔裤里只穿了衬裤。走了一段路觉得不冷了,但是左脚外脚踝下面磨的疼,每一步都疼,感觉可能是磨破了。我们原路返回家里。我心里还想着去买菜,就换上了运动鞋要出门。先生说运动鞋太薄了,肯定冷。我说不冷已经适应了,就再次出门。谁知道越走越冷,小腿没有靴子的保护倒不觉得太冷,但是膝盖就不行了,那种冷让人感觉马上要得关节炎了。我们马上又返回家里。进屋以后全身暖和的都很快,只有膝盖好像飕飕往外冒凉风,希望不要真的冻到关节炎。这是到多伦多后最冷的一天。真正的冬天来了。哪里有卖厚毛裤的呢?

Jan 9, 2012 overcast
前天把不合脚的靴子退掉,新买了一双轻便不磨脚的。还买了一套snow suit雪衣,所谓雪衣就是棉袄和棉裤,外面一层料子比较厚实,是能防风的,里料是人造短绒,中间有蓬松的填充物,隔冷空气。这回再下雪降温我也不怕出门了。

2012年1月1日星期日

It's hard to find a suitable wok

People prefer stir-frying in China, and the iron wok is the first choice for this way of cooking. I used to cook with iron wok over the gas stove for years since I began cooking. There are many advantages. First, the heat from gas stove can be transfered to the wok very fast, so the vegetables or meat can be sauted in a very short time so that the dish tastes very fresh when done. Second, the wok is traditional iron wok with a oval bottom, which allows the  cook to stir the food quickly and thoroughly without difficulty, so as to evenly heat the food. Third, when we stew something, the heat level can be easily adjusted according to recipe needs.

   Compared with gas stove, I feel electric stove here is really hard to use. I need wait longer time to let the pan raise to a higher or fall to a lower temperature. Besides, I cannot find a handy iron wok. In almost all the stores, we can find only the pans with large flat bottoms.

   I bought a iron wok in T&T supermarket. But it rusted as soon as I used it. No matter how well it has been used and protected, it still rust even though when it is coated with vegetable oil after use. I really feel disappointed and upset about this iron wok. But where is the handy one for me??

2011年12月31日星期六

退电视、买靴子Return TV, buy boots

Dec 30,2011 阴转雨
中午出门发现门外白茫茫才知道多伦多下了第二场雪,比第一场来得更正式些,到晚上也没有化完。阴天,风小,体感温度不太冷。我们出去换电视,使用日票乘公交车。

    到商店门口工作人员看见我们抬电视,指点我们到里面去。刚进门就有一个接待桌专门接待退货的,看来店家很有经验。的确有很多人来退货,退货的人拿着大大小小的商品。接待员简单问了下电视的毛病,检查了电视机,问我们要退还是换,我们说换。然后他在我的收银条上划拉两下让,我们去里面电视机区域要一台新的。

    我们到了电视区域,找到那天推荐三星的售货员,他哇啦哇啦说了一堆,我也听不太懂,然后他要了我的收银条就走了,过一会他回来说三星电视可能没有了,又不知哪里找到一个本子上面可能有各种型号电视的纪录,他说确定没有三星同型号电视机了。我们本来就打算好,如果没有三星可换,我们就要一个夏普的,价格一样,而且我们本来就倾向于买夏普。最终我们退了有毛病的三星,新买了同价格的夏普。

    恶心的是,第一次买电视被推荐了一个坏的,那好吧店员也不知道哪个有毛病。来换货竟然给我们一个拆封过的,当时他让我们等在退货台,说去帮我们拿新电视。电视买好了,等我们到了公交车站,公交来了我才注意到,这个电视是开封过的,因为能看到封装胶带下面有旧的被划开过的胶带。真是让人不痛快,已经麻烦一次了,换的又给我们一个开封过的。目前为止没发现电视本身有什么毛病,总算是欣慰一点。

    换完电视赶紧去沃尔玛买厚棉鞋。乘公交到镇中心,我已经没有什么力气了,因为身体还没完全恢复,我们出门前也只吃了稀粥和咸菜。进了超市赶紧挑选棉鞋,满货架黑乎乎的颜色,样式也不讲究了,没有什么好看的,只要舒服暖和就好了。我和先生每人挑了棉靴以后出来已经快虚脱了,遇到卖女装的商店,还是进去买了一件大毛衣。出来赶紧到tim horton买了俩三明治和一杯咖啡,其间因为我反应慢听不懂他们说的话被接咖啡的服务员翻了白眼。吃了点东西才有力气回家。

    到家把东西放下,赶紧出门去买菜。因为病了两天,家里蔬菜早就没有了。到华人超市,买了一堆蔬菜水果和肉以及各种中式调料,反正也乘车回来,就多买点。从超市出来天开始下雨了。没想到到家已经十一点了,真是忙活了一大天。赶紧做了米饭和一个汤就吃饭了。可能因为病了两天没怎么吃饭,晚上很饿,我就吃的很快,结果吃多了,有反胃的感觉,还好我吃的稀粥,过一会就消化了。

Dec 31, 2011
终于在年末最后一天我们感觉好了,做了肉段吃,胃肠也没有什么不良反应。Food basics买的鸡蛋和土豆我们都不敢再吃。在冷藏室的鸡蛋我打算要退回去了,剩下半盒我打算扔掉。因为不能确定鸡蛋是安全的。一袋子土豆虽然也很有嫌疑,可是已经开封了,没有办法退,再议吧。

2011年12月29日星期四

Serious illness

Anyone got ill after having the eggs bought from Food Basics supermarket?

On Christmas Eve we went to Food Basics nearby to buy some food. A kind of eggs is on sale for 1.88/package, so we bought two packs.
On christmas, I made a plate of scrambled egg with them. He ate more than I did. On Christmas evening, I cooked rice with scrambled eggs.
The next morning, my honey said that he had a serious bellyache, and after boxing day shopping, he got a high fever without any strength on the whole body, together with muscle ache on two legs. We thought he might have caught a cold. The evening of boxing day, I made pancakes with egg and onion, he felt nauseated on the smell of pancake. So he just had some porridge. I had some pancake though I felt a little sick of them too.
On December 27, his fever went away. I made simple pancake without onion and applied less vegetable oil, which made the flavor very light. Then he had a little pancake. I thought he was better since he could eat pancake. I had a lot of pancakes.
On December 28, I made light pancakes again. He ate a piece of that and felt bellyache again. I ate more than him. In the evening, I felt sick and didn't have any appetite, which I thought was caused by hunger. I bit some pancake before meal. Then I felt very nauseated when having meal. Immediately after I had a boiled potatoes I suffered from Vomiting and Diarrhea.

At that time, we realized that we could have got Food poisoning. Then we carefully remembered the foods we had had. Probably, the eggs are the poisoning food, which is the only food we continuously had these days.

Anybody has suffered from similar illness with food basics eggs?

The information from the egg package: Burnbrae Farms, best before Feb 04

PS: the food we had before illness
1. eggs, Burnbrae Farms, best before Feb 04, from food basics
2. potatos, yellow fleshed, 10lb in paper bag.ONTARIO potato dist.(Alliston) Inc., from food basics
3. pancakes, Selection all-purpose flour, 10lb, from food basics
4. onion, as seasoning in the eggs, potatos and pancakes, from food basics

Among these, eggs and potatos are the main suspects.

2011年12月28日星期三

我用过的护肤品My skin care products review

我们来加拿大是轻装上阵,什么都要新买,其中最先要买的当然是日用品。到超市逛逛,满眼的产品写的都是英文,晕了,牌子也没几个见过的。可着认识的品牌来吧。因我是干性皮肤稍微有些敏感,护肤品都买适合干皮肤和敏感皮肤的类型。

洗面奶:卡尼尔 GARNIER Moisture Rescue(Fresh cleansing foam) 200ml
心得:第一次用我感觉买错了,因为太油了感觉洗不干净,泡沫不太丰富。后来掌握了它的特点用得稍微好一点。使用这款洗面奶不能用冷水,否则不起泡沫,洗不净皮肤。这点可以想象一下在冷水里用洗洁精清洗一个装过肉满是油的盘子,很难洗净。
合适的用法是,用温水将面部润湿,将洗面奶在掌心打出泡沫后按摩面部。之后用温水洗净面部泡沫,再用冷水清洗一遍。
适合类型:干皮肤
评价(5分满):3.5分,香气很淡这点OK,洗完脸不干这点OK,不足是感觉油腻,洗不太干净。不推荐。

爽肤水:妮维娅粉水 NIVEA Visage Gentle Toner(dry to sensitive skin) 200ml
心得:这款水在国内用过好几瓶了,挺好用,平价。
适合皮肤:干/敏感皮肤
评价(5分满):4.5分,淡淡香气不错,擦完以后脸较润,接着用其他润肤品感觉挺好。大众产品,对得起它的价格。值得推荐。

护肤霜:旁氏干肤霜 POND'S dry skin cream(extra rich hydrating skin cream) 190ml
心得:这款产品用的非常好,也很平价,买的时候合人民币大约三十块钱。用手指挖一点乳霜,看起来像奶油那样细腻,均匀涂抹按摩脸部,非常滋润好吸收。刚到多伦多的时候天冷起来了,风大,空气比较干燥,擦了这个以后出门吹风回来脸部摸起来还是很柔软。
不像在国内我买过的美加净银耳珍珠霜,网上那么多人在推荐说适合干皮肤,其实这个产品一无是处,擦脸上油腻透了,全浮在皮肤上不吸收。无奈用来擦手,结果连擦手都不透气,不吸收,真是谁用谁知道。
适合皮肤:干皮肤
评价(5分满):5分,香气浓,小时候雪花膏的味道,擦完后脸非常润。性价比高,绝对推荐。

护手霜:隆力奇 蛇油护手霜 50g
心得:因为我的手一干就粗糙的很,因此随时需要护手霜。这款是小包装,不占地方,从国内买的带来,平时常用,尤其是干燥的季节。滋润,不过对于我这种超级干的双手,在北方的冬天用还不够滋润,并且擦完感觉有点油腻,要过一会才能吸收好。目前还没有用到更加滋润好用的手霜,并且这里好像没有卖这个的。这管快用完了,亟需在寻找替代品。
适合皮肤:干皮肤
评价(5分满):4.3分,香气浓烈,有的人可能不喜欢,如果是在办公室一个人涂了这个,满屋子都是香味儿。价格不贵,性价比较好,可以推荐。

Recipe for Chinese style pancake

My honey is better than yesterday. He had a hight fever after shopping and didn't want any food yesterday. This morning, he had a little porridge with pickles. In the afternoon, the fever is away and he looks better.  I know currently he can eat nothing but light food, so we decide to have porridge for dinner as well. Since he is better, with his permission, I made pancakes for him. He loved the pancakes and ate two of them with some porridge and pickles. I am so happy that he ate pancakes which indicates that he is much better.

Pancake is very easy to make, and is popular among Chinese families as breakfast. Below recipe is a simpler Chinese style soft pancake for my honey with bad appetite.

Ingredients:
1 cup of all-purpose flour,
1 egg,
water,
a spinkle of salt,
vegetable oil,
 a sprinkle of the Chinese five-spices

Directions:
1, put all indigredients including a little vegetable oil into a large bowl and whisk them into very smooth fluid batter
2, let stand for 10-20minutes
3, heat a clean non-stick skillet over medium heat, brush lightly with vegetable oil
4, pour some batter into the hot pan and swirl the pan quickly to form a thin even round pancake
5, turn the pancake over carefully when the top becomes dry(the color turns to beautiful light yellow), and the bottom becomes light golden
6, heat the second side for about 20 seconds and one pancake is done
7, repeat with remaining batter

Acturally, in a typical Chinese style pancake ingredients, there must be green Chinese onion as one important flavour sources. Nowadays, people sometimes replace the green onion,salt and spices with sugar and milk to make sweet pancakes .

Typical Ingredients:
1 cup of all-purpose flour,
1 egg,
1 tbsp minced green Chinese onion
water,
a spinkle of salt,
vegetable oil,
a sprinkle of the Chinese five-spices

2011年12月26日星期一

节礼日购物Boxing Day shopping

我们需要添置电子产品,因此每周都关注打折信息。一次在沃尔玛看见特价的爱普生液晶电视,虽然我们知道爱普生品牌是因为它的打印机,最后还是因为著名企业生产,就搬回家了。用了两个星期,先生在发现电视屏幕出现几秒黑屏,然后恢复正常。于是,我上网查这个问题,发现很多类似的和更加严重的问题。只能退掉。

终于等到圣诞节,比对各商店价格,决定节礼日去采购。不想圣诞节夜里先生坏肚子,早上整个人都没力气。闹钟五点半准时响起,先生说出发吧。怕他太难过,建议不要去了,再有特价再买。先生不肯,因为这是等了好久的活动,执意要去,就出发了。乘公交车路上需要倒车,第一辆车很快就将我们送到换乘站,下车的时候天飘起了轻雪。因为天还没亮,很冷,先生说有点恶心,但是仍坚持等车。大概因为假日期间,这辆公交车等了足有半小时以上。期间车站等这辆车的还有几位男士,拿着打折广告,不停聊天。第二辆公交车上的人多一些,我们上车后的第二站,忽然上来很多人,把公交车添满了。到了商店那一站,大多数人都下车了,我们也下车直奔目的商店。

此时,天才微亮,店门口人来人往,已经看到有人带着商品出门了。来得真早啊!我们赶紧进店搜索要的东西,进门先拿一个打折广告再说。先生直奔笔记本专区,我向工作人员问怎么买电脑,他用手一指:"那里排队。"队伍挺长,我先排队,先生又去看东西。过一会回来在我的广告上圈了几个笔记本电脑型号,告诉我计划买的型号排名。期间听见有人问路过店员是否有相关型号,店员说已经卖光了,那人马上离开了队伍,估计是去看新的目标。我也问一下是否还有我首选的型号,店员说有。事实上,直到我排了半天队以后我还是买到了我们首选的型号。接着付款、刷卡,一个目标搞定。

下一个是液晶电视,先生说不用着急,电视多着呢。我们在三十二寸液晶电视之间看来看去,看花了眼。最后决定在夏普和三星之间选一个。我一直觉得日本货比韩国货好,倾向于夏普。后来看买三星的人很多,店员也推荐三星说画质会更好一点。最终买了三星。刷卡付款,又一个目标搞定。

拿着不轻的两台机器出门,天已经亮了。在商店门口简单拍照留念就乘车返回。到家大约八点半,我非常饿因为早起直接出发什么也没吃,只喝一口水。我马上煮了白粥,煎了蛋饼。先生这时已经开始发烧了,饭也吃不下,吃一点葡萄就睡觉了。我草草吃点也睡觉了,起的太早了,困乏。

下午醒来,先生未见好转就开始装系统,又将电脑分区。然后又打开电视调试。这时我最不希望的情况发生了,电视屏幕左中部有一个红色发亮的坏点!我是特别嫌麻烦的人,上次退电视就觉得好麻烦,那么重的电视上车下车的搬来搬去。这次又碰上有毛病的。难道打折电视都是残次品吗?还是只有我们碰上? 麻烦费钱费力,来回公交谁给报呢?真是的:(

事实上,我们觉得圣诞节后特价日也不比平时特价便宜几快钱,不过这种购物的过程还是挺好玩的。相当于实地考察民俗了。很多商店都在广告上写了"挤破门的顾客Doorcrasher"才能买到。其实多数商品都数量充足,根本不需要太早去挤门,哈哈。现在的顾客都比较理性,没发现有什么东西被抢购一空的。

所购物品:笔记本电脑15.6"Acer Aspire5733

液晶电视32" Samsung LCD 32C350D

2011年12月24日星期六

Ad brochure is interesting and useful

I have studied a brochure about olive oil lately. It is a free brochure displayed by the olive bottles on the shelf for customers to take and read, in which certain olive oil is introduced along with a few related recipes. From the brochure, I have learned not only a kind of oil but also new words that I didn't know before. Besides, I can learn about the sentence structures, therefore improve English writing skills. Ad brochure is interesting and helpful to me.