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MY PHOTO FOR THE DAY - SACRED TREE

For all the people of the earth, the Creator has planted a sacred Tree, under which they may gather to find healing, power, wisdom and security. Its roots spread deeply into Mother Earth, its branches reach to Father Sky. Its fruits are the good things that our Creator has given to all peoples, the path to love, compassion, generosity, patience, wisdom, justice, courage, respect, humility and other great gifts. - Alyssa A. Lappen

I took this photo of the beautiful 'Sacred Tree' art work, at the Native American gift shop,  National Museum of American Indian, Washington D.C.

OLD AGE - HUMOR

CRUMPLED CERAMIC CUPS

Crumpled cups - do you find the design interesting? These ceramic cups have been designed to look like as if you crumpled a paper cup after you finished having coffee. If you saw crumpled cups, would you buy them; would you be comfortable drinking your tea or coffee from a crumpled cup? I saw these ceramic crumpled cups at Sultan Center the other day.

GREEN SCHOOL - AN AMAZING SUSTAINABILITY SCHOOL IN BALI

John Hardy and his wife Cynthia conceived the 'Green School',  an amazing educational village amongst the jungle and rice fields of Bali in Indonesia, to spread their vision and ideas on sustainable living through an alternative education system to locals and foreigners. Hardy explained, "We are building Green School to create a new paradigm for learning. We want children to cultivate physical sensibilities that will enable them to adapt and be capable in the world. We want children to develop spiritual awareness and emotional intuition, and to encourage them to be in awe of life’s possibilities.”

Green School sits on 23 acres of lush green, tropical landscape. Bali’s terrain ranges from volcanoes and jungles to reefs, rivers and the ocean, turning the school into an amazing ecological classroom. Open space surrounding the school, has been planted with organic fruit, vegetable gardens and rice paddies. The school is constructed using natural and renewable material primarily bamboo. The bamboo classrooms house students from pre kindergarten to 11th grade. There are about 300 students currently. The Heart of School houses the library, the administrative offices, and a few classrooms.

The school’s mission statement reads “Empowering global citizens and green innovators who are inspired to take responsibility for the sustainability of the world.” The administration is always on the look out for finding new ways to incorporate sustainable energy. Cynthia would like students to incorporate  physical interaction with the land: “Kids will take responsibility over pieces of land,” Cynthia says. “They will work the land, cultivate seedlings, plant the seedlings, weed the rice fields. When the rice is fully grown, they will cut it, thresh it, take it to the mill. They will see brown rice and compare it to white rice. They will look at the weight, the cost, the world price versus the subsidized price, how many hours it took to make, how nutritious it is. Students also learn how to make soap from coconuts, chairs and charcoal from other natural resources." Their vision aims at complete, sustainable learning experience revolving around what is naturally available on Earth, and using that to both create and conserve.

Green School’s goal is that students will be endowed with academic skills and global awareness, taking with them ideas of possible ways to continue developing the planet in sustainable ways.

Green School - Sustainability features:

* Structures are built from renewably, locally sourced bamboo, from the roof and walls to the blackboards and chairs. Roofs are made of alang-alang thatch.

* Working towards using 100 percent renewable energy, using photovoltaic panels, a micro-hydro-powered vortex generator, and bio-gas (methane extracted from animal manure) instead of bio-diesel.

* Bamboo sawdust is used to power the water heating and cooking systems.

* Walking paths are constructed with stones, rather than cement or asphalt surfaces.

* The roads are volcanic rock and walkways are gravel

John and Cynthia Hardy

Green School

LITTLE EMOTIONS ARE GREAT CAPTAINS OF OUR LIVES

MY PHOTO FOR THE DAY - YOUNG KITTEN PREDATOR GETS A MOUSE

Do you know why cats are known as the perfect carnivore? That's because their whole being is designed for hunting and eating animal flesh, from their claws and teeth to their digestive system. Young kittens are taught by their mothers that mice and birds are good to eat. Kittens have a natural instinct to chase and catch fast moving small items. It's a natural predatory behavior which forms an important survival skill. While I was out the other day, I came across this stray kitten who was playing with a mouse it's mother must have probably caught and given as a part of the kitten's training process.

ALLADIN SHOW A HUGE SUCCESS AT 360 MALL

On Wednesday (August 22), my husband and I went to see the much talked about Alladin Show that was taking place in the 360 Mall. It was the final day of the four day show. I was glad we went for it. It was a great show by a group of talented artists that entertained and kept the crowd mesmerized with their acrobatic skills and various feats.

The show started at 7pm and ended around 9.30pm with short breaks after each show. There were three different shows. The first was the Genie Show, followed by Magic Show and the last was the Fire Show. We enjoyed all the three.  A big thanks to Viva Telecom and 360 Mall for arranging this show for the public. The crowd was quite enthralled with the performance.

Here are some photos I took of the show

Genie Show

Magic Show

Fire Show

ENJOY YOURSELF - A BEAUTIFUL SONG BY GUY LOMBARDO

I was voice chatting with my son yesterday and he shared a youtube link with me, of an old but beautiful song he had heard at a concert in DIA few days back. My son said, 'you have to listen to the lyrics, it's really nice. I listened to it and I loved  it. It's called "Enjoy Yourself  It'sLater Than You Think".

Songwriter Carl Sigman wrote this with friend Herb Magidson. "Enjoy Yourself" was recorded by Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians in 1949. The popular song remained on the Billboard for 19 weeks! Usually verses in Carl Sigman songs illuminated common conversational phrases, which he had a talent in capitalizing. He told 'Newsday' in an interview, "I was always listening, reading or looking for everyday expressions. I strive to make conversational lyrics - that's my strength - like 'Did anyone call?' or 'I'll never forgive myself.'" "Enjoy Yourself" is still played every New Year's Eve in many places all across the world.

Here are the lyrics you can look at as you listen to the lovely song

You work and work for years and years, you're always on the go

You never take a minute off, too busy makin' dough

Someday you say, you'll have your fun, when you're a millionaire

Imagine all the fun you'll have in your old rockin' chair

Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think

Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink

The years go by, as quickly as a wink

Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think

You're gonna take that ocean trip, no matter come what may

You've got your reservations made, but you just can't get away

Next year for sure, you'll see the world, you'll really get around

But how far can you travel when you're six feet underground?

Your heart of hearts, your dream of dreams, your ravishing brunette

She's left you and she's now become somebody else's pet

Lay down that gun, don't try my friend to reach the great beyond

You'll have more fun by reaching for a redhead or a blond

Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think

Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink

The years go by, as quickly as a wink

Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think

You never go to night clubs and you just don't care to dance

You don't have time for silly things like moonlight and romance

You only think of dollar bills tied neatly in a stack

But when you kiss a dollar bill, it doesn't kiss you back

Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think

Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink

The years go by, as quickly as a wink

Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think

BABY BORN WITH HEART ON RIGHT SIDE AND LIVER ON LEFT

Image Credit - MSN

A Saudi mother gave birth to a baby boy with organs on the wrong side. The baby has his heart on the right side and his liver on the left. Doctors at the hospital said that the birth took place normally and that there was no need for surgical intervention. The baby was kept in ICU for observation and is stable. According to  medical opinion, the bady can actually lead a normal life.  The doctors said that the case of organ reversal was rare, occurring only once in every million births!

Via MSN (read the whole article)

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TIME ON EARTH

PARENTING - KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR CHILDREN IN SUPERMARKETS OR SHOPPING CENTRES

It's little children's nature to explore, to play and to have fun wherever they are. When you take them out, it's freedom galore. To keep them safe, or wandering off out of curiosity, or to prevent them from disrupting or damaging goods or dropping stuff at supermarkets or department stores, it's important to explain to them what they can do or cannot do before you take them out and even while you are at the store. As parents, make sure they are around you while you shop and that way you can keep an eye on them.

Two days ago, I was at a supermarket, where I saw two little children had dropped a tall rack of chocolates accidently, while they were running around and playing. The rack fell, all the chocolates got scattered on the floor blocking the way to that section on one side. Anyways, there was no damage done, nothing breakable. The sales attendant was notified and he rearranged the rack and the chocolates. But then, what if the items that fell or likely to fall, when children accidently knock down while they are playing, were things that are easily breakable like glass bottles filled with juice or glass ware or plates!

After the chocolate rack falling incident, the kids didn't stop at that, they were running around all over the place again. What happened to the parents?

MY PHOTO FOR THE DAY - GIFT OF FLOWERS, A PAINTING BY ME

This is a painting I did for my husband way back in 2004! That was the first time I painted flowers using oil paints. I remember how anxious and apprehensive I was that time, wondering if it would come out alright. It seemed difficult in the beginning, but as I kept working on it, there was flow, a continuity, fuelled by the desire of wanting to see it reach completion. It was something special I wanted to gift my husband. This taught me that whatever seems impossible, difficult or hard in the beginning, if you are passionate about your desire or dream, and follow it, without stopping, you will see it fulfilled in some way or other.

WEIGHT LOSS - LOSING WEIGHT IS SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO DO FOR YOURSELF

 If you are on a weight loss journey, you are doing great, you have a plan, only thing, you have to see to fulfilling the promise you made to yourself on a daily basis. It's like heading for the shower each day, or going to work. You have to do it everyday. If you are having a hard time trying to lose weight, you need to stop and see what are the reasons that prevent you from adopting a healthy lifestyle or improved eating habits. Do you give up easily, because you don't seem to want to lose the additional weight?

When you embark on a weight loss plan and have decided to eat healthy, make it a part of your daily obligation, a responsibility - something you have to do everyday by choosing your foods with awareness, eating light and eating less, avoiding too much of oil, sugar and salt. Sometimes, we want eat like 'everyone else', or we get tempted to go back to old eating patterns, only to feel guilty for sabotaging your own plan. Because truth is, inside us, we know what we truly want, what's good for us and what we ought to be doing about it. But you see, you have the power to choose what you need to eat, no one can take that power away from you. When you are aware of how much is truly in your own hands, you can make a huge difference by sticking to a weight loss plan you have charted out for yourself.  And the results will be miraculous, I promise you.

It's okay to indulge moderately into eating something that you enjoy like icecream or chocolate, or a slice of pizza, just once in a week, but make sure you just have a small portion. But certainly not a 'small' portion of every junk food available to you, then what happens is the 'small' portion only adds up to a huge amount of calories. Losing weight is not impossible if you stick to an intelligent, workable plan. Do you know that 'you are your greatest friend' or 'your own greatest enemy'. Which do you choose to be? And yes, you can certainly can lose weight and do it for yourself, so you can experience optimum health and improved life in every way. You deserve the best!

PANDEMONIA AT LONDON FASHION WEEK

Watch Pandemonia the latex clad sensation in action

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WHAT WORRY DOES TO YOU...

MY PHOTOS FOR THE DAY - CHILDREN HAVING FUN

I was at the Marina Mall yesterday and there was this huge crowd of children outside Pinkberry's and I wondered what was all the excitement about. Children were having fun interacting with Smurfette and Barney and parents were clicking away photos of their children posing with them. I saw some kids inspect Barney's tail. Here are some photos I took.

USAIN BOLT CELEBRATES HIS 26TH BIRTHDAY ON AUGUST 21



Usain Bolt's wax figure which was unveiled at Madam Tussaud's wax museum 4 days before London Olympics started
Fans wrapped in Jamaican flags stand next to Bolt's wax figure

HAPPY BIRTHDAY USAIN BOLT !

The fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt, turned 26 today. He three gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. At London Olympics, Usain Bolt the sensational world sprint hero, won the 100 metres  gold medal with a time of 9.63 seconds, setting a new Olympic record. He also won the 200 gold medal with a time of 19.32 seconds. Bolt was so comfortably ahead near the finish that he was able to slow down, put his left finger to his mouth and tell everyone to "shush". As soon as Bolt crossed the finish line, he did five push-ups, one for each of his Olympic gold medals.  Usain Bolt has a nickname - 'Lightning Bolt'. Following the race, eighth place finisher Anaso Jobodwana of South Africa described Bolt as a "ghost" who "disappears in front of you.

"It's what I came here to do. I'm now a legend. I'm also the greatest athlete to live. I've got nothing left to prove." - Usain Bolt (after his victory)

If Usain Bolt wasn't a sprinter, he would have been a fast bowler in cricket.

Usain Bolt with his family
Usain Bolt (center), father Wellesley (left), sister Christine (left), brother Sadik (right), mother Jennifer

Usain with his girlfriend Mizicann Evans