my fish therapy

a birthday gift from Maggie to try out my first fish therapy.

Ear Candling - is it safe?

Sometimes ago, my colleagues went for ear candling at a beauty salon situated at my office down stair. After the session, my colleagues claimed that their ear is much clean than before and the salon staff has even showed them the dark debris which was the dirt inside their ear. I was almost convinced by my colleagues to try it. Fortunately I did not do it.

Ear candling is actually not recommended by doctor. In fact, there was no scientific proof to support claims that ear candling provides medical benefits.

Ear candling is done by lighting one end of a hollow candle and placing the other end in the ear canal. The smoke that flows through the ear canal is supposed to create suction that will help remove the wax and dirt in the ear. However research said that the suction power from the candle is not possible to suct the wax. Since wax is sticky, the pressure needed to pull wax from the canal would have to be so powerful that it would rupture the eardrum in the process and candling procduce no vaccum, so how does it work?

The layer of wax has a protective role, it cleans and lubricates the ear and protect the ear canal from bacteria and fungus. The ear has a self-cleaning system that naturally removes ear wax, and actually most people do not require additional cleaning. The doctor said that ear candling could actually lead to complications like ear infections or compressed ear wax and when ear wax becomes compressed, it could lead to a blocked ear. Instead the doctor suggested to use over-the-counter ear drops which will make ear wax soft and allow it to flow out on its own.

The next time before we try anything new, it is good to do some research and the best is to wait and look for any review. It is never too late to try but it will be too late if anything negative happen.

Southern Bridges

Heard so much about the Southern Bridge and finally I have a chance to walk around it this afternoon. If you are thinking of starting the walk from Alexandra Arch, here are the buses available.

Alexandra Arch, spans 80 m across Alexandra Road. The bridge, with its curved deck and tilted arch, spans across Alexandra Road like an opened leaf. On the Hyderabad Road side, the bridge is connected to HortPark - the gardening hub, via the Floral Walk. Near the bridge is Gillman Village, a former British military camp in the early 20th century, is now home to an eclectic mix of restaurants, pubs and art galleries.At night, the bridge will dazzle with colour-changing LED lights. The lights display will be on between 7pm and 12am daily.

The 830 metre Alexandra Road Garden Trail will stretch along the eastern bank of Alexandra Road between Depot Road and Telok Blangah Road. The 80m long steel bridge is 15m above the ground. It provides a good bird eyes view of Telok Blangah Estate.

Along the walk, lookout for this big durian tree. You can see a lot of durian hanging on the branches. As you walk further, you will enter into the Henderson Waves. It is a bridge that connect the two hills of Mount Faber and Telok Blangah Hill. At 36 metres above Henderson Road, Henderson Waves is the highest pedestrian bridge in island Singapore, and was put together in 2.5 months. It holds the bragging rights of being the tallest bridge on the Island (surprisingly knocking off the Sheares Bridge) and spans some 274m.

It was a good afternoon walk when the weather is cool. Need to bring your own water, as there is no water supply along the way, until you reached the end of the bridge. It was also a good outing for family in the Sunday afternoon.

Pulau Semakau

Went for a trip to Pulau Semakau sometime last year and I was fascinated by the island's marine creatures.

Pulau Semakau is a small island located to the south of the main island of Singapore and it is Singapore's first offshore landfill and only remaining landfill in Singapore. It covers a total area of 3.5 square Kilometre and has a capacity of 63million m³.

Currently Pulau Semakau is an island where Singapore disposes most of our waste material after they have been incinerated. We get to see how the incineration ash & no-incineration wastes are disposed in Pulau Semakau. Besides, we get closure to nature as Pulau Semakau has nature sight-seeing areas whereby you can enjoy the views of different wildlife.

I was acting as a model for the tour guide in his blog.

Look at the patch of mud we have to walk thru and we have to be careful not to step on any creatures in the water. So you can imagine how slow and watchful each step we took.

This is the starfish we saw and they are huge and heavy

Guess what is this creature? You never guess that this is the sea cucumber that we ate on our dining table ! It is big and slippy. This is the front side of sea cucumber and the other is the back side of the sea cucumber.

These are some of the corals. Aren't they beautiful and colourful.

I cannot remember what is the call. It look like a bunch of grapes hanging.

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HortPark is a very new park open last November and some of the areas are still under renovation when we went over this afternoon to attend an hour workshop on "How to make speice tea." This 23-hectare regional park in South-Western Singapore is also a park connector, connecting Telok Blangah Hill Park to Kent Ridge Park. We walked regional park and it was interesting to see many kinds of flowers and parks.

During the class, we learn how to make tea using the various herbs and spices found in the Herb & Spice Garden at HortPark. Below are the receips for the three types of teas we learnt during the workshop. Personally, I prefer Mint Tea, not really like the Orange Spiced tea and Masala Tea, I guess it is not my "cup of tea".

Mint Tea

4 cups water

2 pandan leaves - tie into a knot

3 sprigs fresh mint

2 small thin slices of old ginger - crushed

3 tea bags (preferably green tea or black tea but not chinese tea)

sugar or honey, to taste

Garnish

Mint leaves

Method

1. Add pandan leaves, mint and old ginger to boiled water.

2. Add tea bags and boil for 3-5minutes.

3. Add sugar, stir and leave it to brew for a few minutes.

4. Strain, pour into a teaport and the tea is ready to be served.

Pour the tea into individual cups and garnish with remaining mint leaves.

Orange Spiced Tea

3 cups water

2 oranges - to make 1 cup of orange juice

2 tbsp leamon juice

4 pinch of cloves - crushed

3 cinnamon sticks

3 tea bags (preferably green tea or black tea but not chinese tea)

sugar or honey, to taste

Method

1. Add cloves and cinnamon sticks and bring to a boil.

2. Add tea bags, orange juice and lemon juice stir and boil for 3-5 mintues.

3. Add sugar, stir and leave the tea to brew for a few minutes.

4. Strain, pour into a teapot and the tea is ready to be served.

Masala Tea (the kind of indian tea we drink at the hawker centre)

Ingredients:

3 cups water

8 cardamoms-crushed

3 sticks cinnamon

3 teabags

1/3 cup condensed milk

2/3 cup evaporated milk

2 pinch of cloves

Method

1. Add cardamoms and cinnamon in a pot and bring to a boil.

2. Add tea bags, stir and boil for 3-5 minutes.

3. Add condensed milk and evaporated milk.

Notes:

It said that ginger help to aid digestion and treat stomach upset, diarrhea and nauseas. Ginger has also been used to help treat arthritis, colic, diarrhea and heart conditions. It also believed to help the common cold, flu-like symptoms, headaches and even painful menstrual periods. Do not take ginger if you have a bleeding disorder or if you are taking blood thinning medications, including aspirin.

Cinnamon helps to reduce blood sugar, cholesterol, and Type II diabetes. It is also used alone or in combination to treat diarrhea. Chinese herbalists tell of older people, in their 70s and 80s, developing a cough accompanied by frequent spitting of whitish phlegm. A helpful remedy, they suggest, is chewing and swallowing a very small pinch of powdered cinnamon. This remedy can also help people with cold feet and hands, especially at night.