Saying sorry the kids’ way

This video is so cute! If someone says a sweet sorry like this, it would be difficult not to forgive! 🙂

I rarely hate people because for me if you don’t like someone, it is better to get rid of them from your sights and forget them. Done! your mind is clean and clear from negative things. But I don’t know why I really dislike people who don’t like to say sorry and I keep that bad memory about them very long :D!

I really think saying sorry is an art. While many adults are bad at it, children tend to be very good at that. Listening to this song reminded me of a sweet memory of a kid I adore. Long time ago, when I was a young student and stayed in an icelandic-american family where the single mother had three boys. I helped the mother to take care of the kids sometimes when she was away. I quickly became close to the little kid as he was somehow isolated by the elder brothers when the mother was not home. He told me everything about his school, the girls that liked him, his friends etc. He asked me to help him with homework and even asked me to correct his English, since he could speak well but could not write well yet. The 9 year old kid could play many good piano songs of which I liked the most “Morning Mood” by E.G and asked him to play that again and again. Once he went out to play with his friend and did not come home on time. The whole family tried to find him everywhere but could not find him even at his close friends’ or neighbours’ house. His mother taking a trip abroad was extremely worried when she got the phone call from me and tried to ask all the people who could know but failed to get traces of him. Finally he got home at 9 pm (he was supposed to get home at 6 and go to bed at 8 pm). I was so worried that when I saw him I almost cried both for happiness and anger. I strictly talked to him but then did not talk much during the time he ate alone in the kitchen as normal, only answered shortly what he asked. He knew that nothing he said could make me forgive him at that moment. He did not eat anymore but went to the piano and played the song “Morning Mood”. I was writing my thesis at the table nearby and heard the song. I went to the piano and saw him with a penitent smile saying “I am playing it because you like it”. My heart was immediately melt. I broke into a big smile… Of course I forgave him. It was easy to be convinced by a sweet and subtle boy:) …

Later I attended a talkshow where a psychologist told people that though he was considered an expert to read people’s mind and effectively respond to fix difficult situations, he had to call his little six year old son a master in the art of saying sorry to people. Everytime his mother got angry with him, he would rush to the mother, hug her and say again and again “I love you so much, mom”. The more the mother pushed him away, the more tightly he embraced her and said it sweetly “I love you very much, mom, don’t you love me?”. The mother finally had to surrender :).

I am not sure that could work when adults do the same but I believe when little kids do it with naive, innocent eyes looking at you, it is hard for anyone to constrain a “surrendering” smile and a warm feeling in their heart.

No one likes to be manipulated but sometimes being manipulated by a sweet sorry seems acceptable,…well actually I mean…lovely :)!

Why I changed my facebook profile picture to support France?

Picture’s source: Allposters

I have read some saying that changing profile pictures to show cares and sharings for the victims in the recent attack in Paris is a “nonsense” or “stupid” thing or an unfair action because the victims in recent attacks at many other places in the world deserve to be as equally identified and cared as those in Paris etc. I rarely talk about political stuff on facebook and hardly changed my profile pictures after any facebook trends. It doesn’t mean I didn’t care. I just prefered keeping this facebook out from any trends 🙂. But I do this time and find it worth doing (even find it more necessary after reading the opinions mentioned above). Why? Firstly because like many out there, I have nice memories and good feelings when I think of Paris as a beautiful city- the city of love, light and peace. But above all, the recent attack has huge impacts on people’s mind in many senses.
I totally agree that we all are equal and humans of all ethnic groups deserve to be treated the same. However, we should not compare the attacks in Afghanistan to the recent one in Paris to judge how unfairly people are indentifying the tragerdies at the two places. Its not abt discrimination. Besides humanitarian aspects, it has “symbolic meanings” and huge communicative effects. Why do ppl show their solidarity more on social media when the attack happened in Paris? Because Paris is one of the symbols for peace, satefty, security and a belief in a beautiful and happy life. What FIRST come into your mind when you think of Paris? Beautiful, peaceful things or wars and conflicts? But NOW Paris has been attacked. The belief is broken. No where is safe anymore. Do you see the awakening influences of the issue? It awakened ppl to act and show the solidarity. Changing the profile picture on social media is, truly, a very small deed everyone can do but it shows how solidary the world is towards the fights against terrorism. Social media nowadays have huge communication impacts. Immagine, without this “chaging picture” trend, we all still feel sorry and painful for what has happened but we cannot see how much and clearly ordinary ppl in the world are caring about the issue and showing their supports and solidarity for the fight towards a safe and peaceful world. We definitely cannot cry nor “change the facebook profile pictures” to show sharings for all the dead people in the world but we can do it once for things we all see clearly and understand how serious it is to our OWN lives, our beloved ones and people who are close to us, because, saying roughly, danger is right behind our ass. It indeed has a great spiritual effect. It caries symbolic meanings and has great communicative impacts, too. And surely, it never means the victims in Afghanistan don’t “deserve” to be cared as much as ones in Paris…

Hunting blueberries and mushrooms at weekend/Cuối tuần hái nấm và blueberry

Hôm qua bọn mình đi hái quả việt quất (blueberries) và nấm. Và là đây là thành quả sau hơn nửa ngày rong chơi trong rừng!

Lúc đi là hơn 12 giờ trưa, vào đến bìa rừng thì trời đổ mưa rào. Tưởng phải về đến nơi rồi, nhưng cuối cùng bọn mình vẫn cố đứng chờ dưới mưa, thu lu trong cái ô nhỏ. Mang tiếng là rừng nhưng toàn cây lá kim nên chả có tán lá cây mà che cho đỡ ướt. Được khoảng 10 phút thì trời bắt đầu ngớt mưa, mình không chịu nổi đứng một chỗ nên bắt đầu cúi xuống dưới chân để hái việt quất. Thế nào mà trời lại tạnh dần và sau đó còn dần dần hửng nắng. Thế là đến cuối ngày đã lượm được ngần này việt quất và nấm. Vậy là lại sắp có món súp nấm và bánh việt quất (Blueberry pie) từ nấm rừng và quả blueberry tươi rồi nhé. Đã chấm dứt chuỗi ngày phải nấu súp nấm bằng nấm nhạt thếch mua trong siêu thị hay làm bánh bằng blueberry đông đá, ra bao nhiêu nước mà lại mất bao nhiêu vị thơm ngon Mời cả nhà ăn ngó ké hihi
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This is the achievements we got from the trip yesterday into the forest picking mushrooms and blueberries. It began to rain heavily few minutes after we entered the forest and we thought we had to go back home. Fortunately, after 10 minutes, the rain abated. I could not stand still, so I started to pick some blueberries around my feet. Amazingly the rain gradually stopped and it turned into beautiful sunny weather. Then we started a fun day discovering blueberry bushes and mushrooms… The long series of days cooking tasteless mushrooms bought from supermarkets and making pies with frozen blueberries have ended. So we will soon have proper mushroom soup and blueberry pies/ jam to invite you on this page

Peaceful morning with croissant and hot chocolate drink

Woke up at 6:05 in the morning- very early compared with all the other days during this holiday time. Well, if you ask what time I normally get up during these days, I would feel ashamed to say that around 10 am or even 12 sometimes :D. Though I may wake up much earlier but feel like staying on the bed to read and surf internet or chat with my family and friends. but today is an exception.  It’s just because I had a croissant dough waiting for me in the fridge which made me feel nervous since i didn’t want to ruin my hard work like i had done the previous time anymore :).

Instead of egg wash, today i brushed the croissants with cashew oil and found that the colour turned to red brown after baking which looks much more beautiful when brushing with egg wash. Yesterday when seeing snow falling i was too lazy to go out to buy eggs but it seems sometimes being lazy can make you become more creative and you find something nice. So don’t be afraid to be lazy sometimes 😀

The most interesting moment when you bake something is always when you take out the batch from the oven and quickly grab one to taste it or simply to use as your breakfast with a glass of hot chocolate milk. Just that, you peacefully enjoy your tranquil morning. I do love and treasure those moments a lot. Sometimes after you have bobbed upon the sea of life, you just want life to be peaceful in this way.

And here below is how to make croissants for people who care:

Ingrediens:
A:
400 gr bread flour
25 gr melt butter
15 gr sugar
8gr instant yeast
8gr salt
225 ml milk

B: 250 gr chilled butter rolled into rectangle of about 20x25cm. Keep in the fridge for about 20 min.
Mix all the ingredients A into a dough and let it rise into a double size. Punch out the air and roll it into rectangle, large enough to hold the chilled butter. Fold the dough and keep in the fridge for 30 min. Take out the dough and fold in the chilled butter to enclose completely. Roll the dough into rectangle and fold into thirds. Keep the dough in the fridge for 30 min. take out, roll into rectangle and fold into thirds, put into the fridge for 30 min again. the last time, take out the dough, do the same as the two previous steps and keep the dough in the fridge for 8 hours.

After resting in the fridge for one night the dough will look like this:

Roll into rectangle and cut into triangle:

Shape croissanst and let it rest for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven at 190 celcius degree 10′ before baking. Brush croissants with egg wash or cashew oil. Bake for about 15-18 min.

And this is how croissants look afterwards. Enjoy! 🙂

Holiday life

These long holidays enable me to do many things that i didn’t manage to do during the past few months. Too many things to learn and deal with distracted me from my passions and hobbies. So you can understand how much i enjoy these holidays when i have time to be back to designing work, cooking and photography. In few days i have cooked more dishes than the past few months and dont know when i can finish all the food but still want to try more dishes 🙂 I actually enjoy my life at present very much. I think i wasted too much time and lost many things enough to recognise that i want to live the life i really want and enjoy it the way i feel the most comfortable, without caring what people think about me.

However, to be honest, if i had Doraemon’s magic door, i would open the door to come to Hanoi now to enjoy the new year atmosphere in streets and go to cozy cafes or eat street food with “my” lovely people. Just a few days and come back. Suddenly miss home and miss Hanoi. It means normally i don’t miss that much though it’s always in my heart.

And here below are some of  my home-made products. Enjoy ;p

Vietnamese bread

Tofu

Vietnamese Donut

Nem chua, made from pork. (Nem chua made from beef was used to make pizza; shown below)

nem chua Pizza. Recipe by Thuy. Really like the taste

Ah forgot to say: Happy New Year to everyone. I wish us a happy and lucky year 🙂

The dark

The dark has come and I start to feel depressed!

The only thing i need in life is tranquility of a peaceful, simple life. I thought i felt it here. Oviously I do. but it’s not always easy to keep the mood up all the time.

Just took some collective vitamines and continue my work. Hope this bad mood will soon go. Sun, my sun, come here, come on…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6tV11acSRk

Điều không thay đổi

Bài blog mở đầu đáng ra được đăng ngày 19.10 nhân sự kiện mình phát hiện ra sự thay đổi về cảm nhận với món sữa chua và lan man sang những quyết tâm thay đổi khác nhưng chả hiểu sao dù đã save và đăng rồi, hiển thị rồi, một lúc sau quay lại thì thấy biến mất, nên đành khai blog bằng câu chuyện của ngày hôm nay vậy.

Số là mặc dù vẫn đều đặn duy trì phong độ như ở nhà nhưng hôm nay mình đã có một ngày ăn uống thỏa thuê, no say, ngon cái miệng và hài lòng cái bụng nhất kể từ hai tháng nay. Bữa trưa: cơm với canh riêu trai và bò cuốn lá lốt, bữa tối: cơm dấm cá và cá kho tương. Chẹp chẹp, bụng đã tròn xoe rồi mà nhắc lại vẫn cứ thèm. Mình đã quyết tâm thay đổi nhiều thứ nhưng có một thứ không bao giờ có thể thay đổi được đó là dù bận đến mấy, ăn uống là phải tử tế. Có long tóc gáy lên vì công việc cũng phải dành ít nhất hai tiếng đồng hồ mỗi ngày cho nấu nướng và ăn:)). Đời mấy tí, ăn uống chẳng phải là một trong tứ khoái của loài người sao:)).

Kể từ khi sang lại, mặc dù ko dám mua sắm thả phanh như ở nhà và không thể ăn hàng hay “tụ tập” bạn bè thường xuyên ở quán được; ngoài ra còn ngập đầu trong các thể loại deadline; nhưng tâm hồn ăn uống thì không vì thế mà kém phong phú. Kể sơ sơ cũng đã xoay xở để ăn đủ các món quê hương :D. Có vài cơn thèm vừa nhú lên đã bị ấn xuống, sâu đến nỗi không ngóc đầu lên nổi =)) Nào phở, bánh xèo, gỏi cuốn (thường xuyên nhất), nào bánh trung thu, chả lá lốt, cà bung, chè đậu xanh, đậu đỏ, xôi đỗ (các loại) chấm muối vừng, miến xào, mì (miến) trộn. Riêng chả giò (nem) thì thường xuyên cuốn cả trăm cái bỏ tủ đá ăn dần =)). Và đỉnh cao là xoay xở để mua được cả cá nước ngọt và trai để nấu riêu, dấm, và kho nước tương=)) Đấy là chưa kể vẫn chăm chỉ nấu các món tây và làm bánh (dù các thể loại khuôn vẫn đang trên đường tới=)) ) Ăn uống no say mới thấy tiếc cho những người có điều kiện ăn mà cứ thích nhịn. Đôi lúc nhìn gương thấy cái mặt mình tròn ung ủng ra, cái mũi cao cao đang lún xuống giữa hai gò má, cũng thấy có chút phiền lòng. Sắp béo bằng khi ở Tromso rồi. Cơ mà được ăn uống ngon thế này thì dù lấy compa cắm giữa mũi quay một vòng ra cái mặt cũng vừa lòng. Vả lại, ở cái nơi mà ai ai mũi cũng cao cao, thanh thanh như nhau, mặt dài ngoằng, góc cạnh như nhau thì những cái mâm tròn đựng đầy xôi thịt có khi lại lạ và thu hút nhỉ ?! =))