Guess what these 5 Chinese characters would spur your mind? 你是我的菜 nǐ shì wǒ de cài, literally it means *You are my vegie* huh! How will Pete or Suituapui gonna cook this kind of vegetable, you prefer steam or fried? [BTW congratz to Pete, his blog got featured in today's Star ~ Sunday Metro entitled "Discovering Lumut"]. Saw the wordings and pix of vegie on a T shirt worn by the kopi girl (a coffee shop waitress) at my favourite kopi tiam and I cheekily asked "Darling are you my vegie?" She replied with an outright answer without hesitation ~ 'NO'. Aiya there goes my achy breaky heart. Lesson #1 never to ask this sort of question in front of your girl friend, a huge mistake lolz or old enough to be her dad. *sobs*.
Wokay wokay getting serious a bit. We have known this kopi girl for quite sometime for we are regulars to this kopi tiam and her name is Ling and not Darling. What struck me as a Bananaz, I could not figure out the last word which I was told it's 菜 cài *vegie* a slang for 'babe' or 'chick'. Why vegie and not something else or maybe 'tomato' sounds cool too right *chuckled*? At least the slang for chicken is prostitute cos of the homophone in Why*Ask*Why [7]. No wonder I often hear lovely vegies this, cute vegies that, especially in Cantonese movies. But I do come across this saying as well, when a man *usually sugar daddy* gets swindled by a woman, he is said to be 砍菜頭 kǎn cài tóu [chopped vegie head]. Oh gee! Could there be a relation between the vegie for ladies and the vegie head for men or its totally two different vegie slangs? Any *sifu* kind enough to give some input on the difference please.
Feb 14 2011 everybody would know pretty well its Valentine's Day where couples would be celebrating love in the air with candle light dining digging deeper into the pockets due to the steep prices. Firstly the price of sugar cane had shot up rocket sky high on the 8th day of CNY and now roses would follow the same rocket trend. Stylized depictions of hearts (♥) are used as prevalent symbols representing love thereby would be dangling all over shopping malls with doves and Cupid. *Why Ask Why* the shape of heart (♥) turns out to be this way and guess we might not get a pass in our biology exam to draw the heart in this shape?
There has been some speculation about the connection between silphium plant and the heart shape (♥) symbol where the plant seeds are used for birth control purposes. The symbol is remarkably similar to the Egyptian "heart soul" (ib) which could possibly derived from the shape of silphium seed grown in Cyrene, Libya. As the seeds were so heavily used by the Ancient Egyptians in curbing pregnancy the plant became extinct. The shape of Heart (♥) depicting a seed/fruit of silphium are found in ancient Cyrene silver coin. Other version of the Heart (♥) symbol could also be considered to depict features of the human female body? Bananaz Beleaf It Or Not? [Read]
Thoth
In Egyptian Mythology, the heart was the key to the afterlife during Judgment Day where the heart of the dead was examined by a jackal-headed Anubis during the Weighing of the Heart ceremony. The heart is weighed against the feather of truth by the goddess Ma'at with Ammut awaiting the result and the recording by Thoth, a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon. If the heart weighed more than the feather of Ma'at, it was immediately consumed by the monster Ammut, a female demon with a body of part lion, hippopotamus and crocodile. Next, the triumphant having passed the test is presented by the falcon-headed Horus to Osiris, seated in his shrine with Isis and Nephthys to pass into paradise.
When in love we often say it with flowers or with 5 Cs, what about singing one of Teresa Teng's *The Moon Represents My Heart* to woo your loved ones and to touch her heart? In this movie Ritchie made the song poorer. Anyone wanna have a go at Sentral Station?
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
இ Baŋäŋaz இ
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The future is so extremely bright..
Today is 正月初七是“人日” or *Human Day* or Man-days, the seventh day of the first month of the lunar year, also known as "Man wins Festival", "people feast", "Population Day", "seven people" and so on. Anyway “Happy Birthday Everybody” its our birthday and the future of this Year of Rabbit is gonna be so bright even the rabbit needs to wear sunglasses. Sorry for the late post got held up with the reformatting of my laptop thought to give my lappie a hopping start on the opening day of work.
According to the old tradition in Guangzhou, China on the 7th day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar, the villagers of Chaozhou-Shantou have this custom of seven dishes to give them the auspicious colors on the 7th day of Chinese New Year – (1) Onion (2) Garlic (3) Lettuce (4) Celery (5) Mustard (6) Spring Cabbage (7) White radish carrot and each vege would have a special meaning. Over time the chefs in *Malaysia and Singapore (*in alphabetical order as both countries are at loggerheads claiming to be the very first*) capitalised the idea of the 'seven dishes' and 'tossing' the 鱼生 {yúshēng} or yeesang in Cantonese. Apparently the latest news I saw over the TV, Shanghai is beginning to catch on the tossing fever and restaurants are rolling out 鱼生 {yúshēng} from RMB100 per dish.
The Chinese people have their ways to rely on vegetables to get lucky and prosper what about the Westerners? Heard of rabbit's foot, four leaf clover, horse shoe or good luck charm? Even my Malay associate do believe in leaf power which she gave me a kind of *daun* leaf (sorry cant remember the name) to be kept in my pocket during our powerpoint presentation, said to give us a better edge in winning the contract which we did. Well well believe it or not it could be the leaf power, or our great product and superb presentation? Myth or superstition? If you beleaf in it, it will come. Bananaz Beleaf It Or Not!
Now who is always lucky? Sir Cliff Richard don't need a four leaf clover, rabbit's foot or good luck charm or even fengshui but Lucky Lips..
♫..I know I just can't lose
When they spin that wheel of fortune
All I do is kiss my chips
and I know I'm bound to win, yeah
'cause I've got lucky lips..♫
Fengshui do play an important role in one's person luck and we have read so much from blogger panda foongpc on his fengshui tips by Lilian Too & Joey Yap. Something interesting about the one word in fengshui. Are these two Chinese words in simplified version the same ~ 风=凤? Maybe to those 'mangoes' aka 'Chinese educated Chinese' would spot the difference almost immediately but not Bananas. Anyway dont *small look* 小看xiǎo kān, and underestimate the Bananas even though they may not know the meaning but quite certain some may have noticed something is amiss. These are totally two different words with merely one stroke lesser in the word on the left.
They sound almost the same, look quite like twins but certainly and absolutely 风≠凤 thus the below is self explanatory.
A stroke could be deadly to a person just as deadly in writing towards the meaning of {风 fēng [風] as in Wind} and {凤 fèng [鳳] as in Phoenix}, as its a heaven and earth disparity in meaning. Never to take things for granted with the Chinese simplified version of writing. It could be disastrous if left unchecked. Imagine on an auspicious day for the installation of signboard it could end up as bad omen if the signboard needs to be taken down for amendment due to misspelling. Would expect the worst three little words of unhappiness ~ 'Choy! Choy! Choy!'
Thursday, February 03, 2011
இ Baŋäŋaz இ
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Looking 兔tù-wards 兔tù-day & 兔tù-morrow with 兔tù-getherness 兔tù-begin with good health & wealth Wishing All A Hopping, Happy & Prosperous Rabbit 兔tù Year 恭喜发财 GongXiFaCai(\_/)
We are named after this beloved fruit, Whose skin outside is yellow to suit, Whose fruit inside is white as off-white could be, How? You might wonder, did this stereotype come to be? Well, we too, sport a yellow skin, But our tongues wag white, which is not in kin “If you don’t speak Chinese….,” so they say, “You are not Chinese enough!” and that’s the way. Our own kind deem to treat us like weed, And that hurts very much indeed, We dream of a nation united, is always the case, But how could that be, when united we are not as a race? Call us whatever name you like, Banana People are strong as a dyke, Within us, there is NO colour divide, Within us, UNITY will reach far and wide. poem courtesy of Short Horse Tales
Sunday, February 20, 2011
இ Baŋäŋaz இ
