Why Do I Write?

Salam..

I admit that quite a lot of people have been asking me why do I blog but I do not have a definite answer to that question myself. At first, it was about living abroad as I started blogging when I reached UK. Then I began to write about random things, i.e anything that crossed my mind and I felt like jotting them down somewhere. Having everything in mind written in a blank page, to me, it might be a self satisfaction. Or you could see me as a sentimental kind of person. A person who writes about the present and looks back at her writings to reminisce the past. Gitteww..

Yet it is not actually a new habit. When I was 11 or so, I used to have a notebook which I described each of my friends at school. But I swear I only wrote good things about them. Luls. Anyway the book is nowhere to be found now. Then, not so long after I stepped into high school, I wanted to own a diary and so I did. I ranted about everything happening around me from the beginning until I left my high school. Therefore, all good and bad stuffs were kept inside. If I were to go through each of the pages, I could only read it less than halfway because most of the contents revealed how immature I used to be. Haha. Truth be told, I was thinking of putting it into a fire before my future husband or anybody else finds it since that will be very embarrassing, but knowing all the memories during my high school were all inside, I somehow hesitated. 

Right now that I am already writing publicly, there needs to be a balance between my privacy and general posts so whichever ought to keep as private remain as private while those I put up on the screen hopefully will be something that is worth sharing, if not a part of reading for pleasure to those who are seeking for. I could be on and off here, depending on my mood. There are moments where I feel like writing as much as I could but once I stop, it takes me a while to brush the cobwebs off my blog. Hew.


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And I'm missing my family a little too much today. Spending my day off at home makes me feel no less like a forever alone. Hahaha.. Doa saja yang mampu dikirimkan semoga semuanya baik-baik saja :)

Till then, Assalamualaikum..

How To Reduce Eye Tiredness

Salam..

Young adults nowadays are hardly escaped from using digital devices ( computer, tablets, smartphones) and as a result of a prolonged near work, our eyes will become tired and some will also notice redness of the eyes. Also, this is sometimes accompanied by a headache at the end of the day.

Working in the optical sector, I have received a lot of complaints regarding this issue. If you are experiencing these kind of symptoms, here are some tips to reduce the risk of eye tiredness.

1. Regular eye exam

First and foremost, have your eyes checked regularly to ensure you have an updated prescription for your glasses or contacts. Inform the optometrists/opticians how often you use the computer and how far the screen is in front of your eyes so they can test your eyes at a specific working distance.

2. Practice 20-20-20 rule

Take a break! Do not push your eye muscles. For your information, our eye muscles help us to focus at near. Just as the muscles at other parts of our body, they will get tired after a prolonged activity. For example, after we do a vigorous exercise, our muscles will become sore. The same goes to our eye muscles.

So, remember this 20-20-20 rule. Take a 20 seconds break after 20 minutes of near work and gaze at distant objects (preferably green objects) before continuing your work. This will make a significant difference.

3. Remember to blink

Believe it or not, we blink less often when we are using computer/tablets but little that we realize about it. Blinking is very important to keep your eyes moisturize as it will spread the tears around the eyes. When we blink less frequently, the tears will get evaporated easily to the surrounding and leave our eyes dry.

Another vital thing you need to know is, tissues in our eyes (cornea) also need oxygen which generally comes from the surrounding. The oxygen will first dissolve in our tears before it is supplied to the cornea. So, when we are having dry eyes, less oxygen will get inside the eyes. As a result, our eyes will become red.

4. Use computer eyewear

Lenses nowadays have a protective coating against harmful blue light emitted from the computer screen. This blue light can cause damage to the eye especially retina (macular degeneration) and crystalline lens (cataract). By having a blue light filter built in your lens, it will reduce the damage to the eyes and lessen the eye strain. Besides, ensure that your lenses have an anti-reflective coating to reduce the glare by minimizing the light reflecting off the front and back surfaces of your lenses.

3. Modify the position of your workstation

It is important to position your computer at a proper distance in front of you. Generally, the screen should be slightly below the eye level and around 20-28 inches from the eyes. Avoid positioning your computer near to the window as it will give out glare which causes eye strain.

5. Eye exercise

Regular eye exercise can reduce eye strain by improving our focus and concentration. Simply hold a pen at your arm's length at your eye level. Focus at the top of the pen. Slowly bring the pen closer to your eyes and stop when it appears blur/double. Then bring the pen back to your arm's length. Repeat 10-15 times.

6. Modify computer display

Use larger prints as small ones require more focus. Adjust the brightness of the screen so it will be at the same level to the surrounding.

Last but not least, do have enough sleep as it will affect our overall health and well-being. Hope those tips will help!

Till then, Assalamualaikum..

Carbonara Recipe

Salam..

            Back then when I was in the UK, I preferred a home made carbonara sauce rather that getting one from the store because as far as I've been looking around, their carbonara sauce didn't look so tempting. All of them were just plain white sauce while I like to put some flavours in my cooking. So I decided to prepare the sauce from scratch. And that was the first carbonara I've ever had, thus I wasn't too sure of how it should actually taste like but getting positive feedback from the housemates, I could not care less of the 'real carbonara flavour'. As long as it tasted good and went well inside the tummy, everything should be fine. Hihi. Plus, the recipe is very simple and took less than half an hour to get it ready.

But now that I'm already back in Malaysia, my preference has switched to a ready made sauce, specifically from Prego. Why is that so? It's more cost effective! Haha. You will just have to add 2-3 more ingredients to complete the taste. So, here they are.

Ingredients :

1. 250g pasta ( I like to use either tagliatelle or bowtie pasta)

tagliatelle

bowtie

 2. 200 ml of fresh milk

3. Cheesedale

 4. 300 g prego carbonara mushroom sauce

5. Frankfurter

6. Button mushroom

7. Butter / Margarine

8. 3 cloves of garlic, peeled

9. 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped

10. Ground black pepper

Directions :

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Put a spoon of oil. Add the pasta and while waiting for them to cook, you can prepare the sauce.

2. Melt a table spoon of butter/margarine inside the pan. Add the garlic and yellow onion. Saute for 2 minutes to soften.

3. Add the frankfurter and the button mushroom that have been sliced into small pieces. Fry until crisp.

4. Empty the carbonara mushroom sauce inside the pan. To reduce the thickness of the sauce, add some water and 3/4 of fresh milk.

5. Add 3 slices of cheese to the sauce. Let them melt.

6. Season the carbonara with ground black pepper and salt.

Once done, serve your carbonara with the pasta of your choice. Simple right?

Till my next recipe,  Assalamualaikum..