Happy Valentine's Day

Every year this inaugural day comes by and I left with an empty feeling that I should either be spending it with someone special or doing something useful. Since I never have someone special to spend Valentine's Day with, this year I thought I'd try to be as productive as possible... by making a video about it and hopefully putting a smile on someone's face.

Mind you, you may have noticed that there is a huge gap between the frequency of my videos, and the chronological sequence can put H.G. Wells to shame. The reason being is that I'm experiencing massive back log issues with my PC. The memory in my laptop keeps busted, the hard drive keeps filling up (filming in HD will do that) and worst of all, the video editor I was using is a nightmare. A lawn bowl match is faster than this video editor (dare I not say it's name). 

Due to incompatibility issues with .mov files which is the format my HD camera films in, I went seeking an alternative. I did manage to find one... it has its issues as well, but at least I have a new video done up within 2 days of filming and editing. I'm happy to present the first new video I've published with this new editor. I'm still trying to work it out though.

Hopefully, if it all works out, you will be able to see more videos coming up... and trust me there's more. The only thing I need to find is time... and patience... and lots of it!

OK, back to the theme of the post... Valentine's Day. Some people think its a marketing sham, it's a cheesy, sales ploy... which maybe true... but to me it's a constant reminder that things have not really changed in the love front. You can see for yourself here.

Many of my friends have wedded or coupled, about to get married, or currently dating... and it really makes it think what it will be like to actually have someone there to support you in what you do, and believes in your dreams. I believe that everyone deserves to experience love. It's one of the few signs that magic still exists in this modern world.

Of course, I can always distract myself with copious time-consuming projects, fly away to other countries to seek the thrill of adventure, watch tear jerking romantic comedies on DVDs and work out at the gym, but every now and again, in the back of my mind I think, wouldn't it be nice to share these experiences with someone.

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to trust and rely on someone who cares about you as much as you do for them? Wouldn't it be nice to know that they believe that you are the most magnificent creature to walk this world, no matter how many blunders you do or flaws you have? Wouldn't it be nice to just not be alone in a crowded city? Presents are nice too :). I guess these are all questions we all ask at some stage when we are single.

So, now that I'm getting into the video blogging thing, I decided to distract myself/be productive by creating a video for all to watch, laugh and share... of course some of the attitudes are there for comedic purposes. It may not be an accurate representation of me since I consider myself to be quite romantic and passionate towards things. 

I hope that you enjoy my video and that you all have a nice Valentine's Day, whether with loved ones, by yourself or at your anti V-Day party. Let me know what you got up to, I'm interested to hear if you did anything more exciting than what I did... made Youtube videos.

Till next time, take care.

P.S. You might have noticed that I am looking really sage-like and scruffy in the facial hair department. There is a reason for this and it has something to do with upholding Chinese New Year festival traditions... Don't worry the festival is almost over... and I'm looking into finding a loophole so that I'm no longer chewing on my goatee when I'm eating this time of year lol.

How To Make Ice Cream In One Minute

Without making this blog turn into a cooking site, I took this time out to share with you a new favourite recipe of mine for homemade ice cream, perfect for the hot summers in Australia. I've been making all different kinds of ice cream flavours at home and I've gained a lot of attention from my friends for the recipe and my cooking adventures so I decided to create a video to document me making it for a dinner party i got invited to recently.

Cooking for other people personally is a wonderful creative process. It is about appealing to the senses, sharing in good company and tasting the rewards of your creations. However, not many people have the time to cook these days. I'm certainly not excluded. So when I first came across this recipe, all of the manual prep work combined was estimated to be 15 minutes... which can be a lot of time for a dessert dish that takes 15 seconds to eat :p.

So, in my own unconventional cooking style and experimentation I came up with a solution as you can see in my video in this post.

This recipe is so versatile and can definitely cure those sweet tooth cravings... even for models... in this video I used low fat versions of the dairy ingredients.

You can substitute the fruit component with any fruit flavour that you think will go well with ice cream. I'll love to hear your suggestions in the comments. If you like fruit pieces of this recipe I suggest that you fold them in. The trick to good ice cream is to avoid the crystalisation of the liquid. That's why people use ice cream machines... unfortunately, I don't have one... yet.

This video was done in one take and was quite fun to make. A few bloopers, and a heck of brain freeze from eating too much ice cream. It'll spare you the details for another time, in the meantime enjoy.

If you want to make this at home you will need the following ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of thickened or heavy cream

1 cup of milk

1 cup of condensed milk

1 1/2 cups of fresh or frozen fruit of your choice

Combine well and freeze overnight. Allow to thaw for about half an hour before serving.

(Homemade ice cream tends to melt quickly.)

Bon Appetit!

New Year's Resolutions

Hey everyone,

I know how delayed this video is, but I figured that between New Year's Day and Chinese New Year there is a leeway gap that all new year's resolutions can take time to manifest. So if you failed in your first attempts of your new year's resolutions there is a second new years day coming really soon for you to become prepared. This video too a lot longer to make than my other videos to date... perhaps because this video was quite personal in nature, revealing my New Year's resolutions for 2011 - sharing with the world my dreams, goals and aspirations.

The year 2011 has a strong significance to me. It marks the one year anniversary of my job in the corporate world ended and deciding what direction I want to go now. It is daunting and scary, even though I had a year to think about it. All I know is that I must follow my passions and live a passion filled life otherwise my life would have no meaning.

My news resolutions for this year is:

1) To cook more, since cooking is one of my passions;

2) Getting enough sleep because this is tied to having a healthy life;

3) Drinking more water - hydration is always good :) ;

4) Exercising more, the ritual of a model;

5) Reading more; food for the brain;

6) Getting focused;

7) Channeling my artistic muse and nurturing my creativity;

8) Letting the world know more about me... since I believe I'm a great person to get to know :p... so this is through more blogging and vlogging on my Youtube channel;

9) Going around the world again, to feed my passion for travelling and meeting the world;

10) To get sign with a modeling agency (my ultimate goal and number #1 priority!)

I'm asking my readers to help me keep them in check. I'd also love to hear what your resolutions are so feel free to let me know in the comments sections below

New Year's Eve: Saying Goodbye to 2010

I had really high hopes of finishing the year 2010 with a bang. 2010 was the year to "awaken the spirit" and I set some really high goals I wanted to achieve. It was no surprise that even towards the last few hours left in the year I was busier than a crazy cow. To most people the end of the year towards December is a period of relaxing and winding down. For me, it is about ramping up and entering the New Year full force with more focus and determination. I guess that's why I'm called Edrenalin lol.

The end to 2010 was pretty much a rough time for me. I was at home, feeling light headed and had a nap, and then worked the rest of the day through on my projects right up to 10.30pm. Then I decided to head into town and try my luck to see the fireworks. Unfortunately, by the time I got there every location by the harbour was locked out and I ran left and right around town to find a good lookout, being pushed and shoved by people who swearing abuse at me. In the end I was in the middle of the street in Circular Quay and I saw a peephole of the Sydney Harbour Bridge under the freeway pass. Unfortunately, as well, the view was obstructed and every 3 mins there way a train that went pass, blocking the view. I never heard so many people united in unison to booing at a situation.

I thought it was a sucky view myself but it was the best that I could do. I use to be in an office looking out in the harbour and I'd work there till midnight and step out on the balcony and get a breathtaking view of the fireworks. I did that for the past two years but now I no longer work there, and had no invitations to any New Year's Eve parties and it was such a shock. I didn't realise that there was a lock out to watch the fireworks.

Anyway, one of my resolutions is to make positives out of any situation... and I must say it was pretty tough to make this one out. However, I knew that I had friends from London visiting Sydney and we were able to catch up after the fireworks. It had been years since I seen one of them so it was really great to spend time with them. The early hours of the new year turned out really nice, even though my friends and I went into a restaurant in Chinatown and the forgot to bring out my order of food and drink. But I was in good company, and that was more important.

I bid my friends farewell, since it was getting late and I was already tired. I slowly made my way home in all my drowsiness.

World AIDS Day

World AIDS is celebrated on December 1st each year around the world. Its goal is to raise awareness, commemorate those who have passed on, and celebrate the victories such as increased access to treatment and prevention services. While great progress has been made, thirty million people are still living with HIV throughout the world and this number increases every day.

HIV and AIDS are prevalent issues in today's society. It forces to ask us "who are we?" and "what do we care about?". Do we care about a whole generation of people dealing with HIV and AIDS every single day of their lives for the rest of their lives? Do we care that millions of children in Africa are left orphaned because their parents were taken by AIDS.

HIV doesn't discriminate between male or female, age, social status, education, race, religion or any other labels. You might know someone who has HIV or had someone you care about die from AIDS. This issue affects us all one way or another!

Not many people know this but I use to give my time to the AIDS Trust of Australia and stand on the street, holding a bucket and collecting donations. I also use to volunteer for the AIDS Council of New South Wales (ACON) and it was through my volunteer work with them that I appeared in quite a few poster campaigns for health and youth issues - one of them was for getting HIV testing and increasing HIV awareness. It gave me one of my earliest taste of being infront of a camera and modeling. So these became issues that hold some importance to me.

One of the most powerful Symptoms for someone who has HIV or AIDS is fear from people, stemmed from prejudice and ignorance. These affect our friends, colleagues, siblings, children, parents and partners who have HIV or AIDS.

Get the facts, combat discrimination and take affirmative action. Help others dealing with HIV and AIDS through understanding and self-education. Understand what is HIV and AIDS, how is HIV transmitted, what you can do to protect yourself from HIV, regularly get tested, what to do if you think you have been exposed to HIV and understanding and supporting people living with HIV and AIDS.

Stop the stigma and end the discrimination. HIV and AIDS doesn't discriminate so what should you? We all can make a difference, whether it’s through a donation, volunteering or simply making wiser decisions regarding your sexual health. Together we can stop the spread of HIV and end prejudice.

Thank you for your time!