Bananas

Was actually in a team meeting the other day where one of my colleagues was supposed to give a talk on some frameloading (warehouse operational term whereby totes were being put onto metal frames - they call it dollies - and then onto the vans to the customers) stuff and mentioned something about certain foods that cannot be chilled, for e.g. bananas. Some what interesting to know...

1. Why bananas go black in the fridge - http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2001-08/998138054.Gb.r.html


2. Never put your banana in the refrigerator - http://www.eatingbritain.com/208_never-put-your-banana-in-the-refrigerator.html

Quoting from the first article, it says bananas develop chilling injury below 12 degrees celcius. Hmm, does that mean I have to keep my bananas warm during winter!? Yea, keep the heater on to save the bananas! :P :)

The second article is somewhat more informative, to the extend of describing how bananas saved the world! Interestingly...

• PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood. .. Hmm worth a try?


• Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system. ... Ohyea comes in handy!


• Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation. ... Would like to try this back home!

Volunteering @ London Marathon

13th, April 2008:- Had been looking around for some charity activities and stumbled across Oxfam's Marathon Volunteers on the website. And so, we went. Witnessing the London Marathon the first time myself, it was pretty an experience. Never had I imagined there we soooo many people so enthusiastic about the charity event.

Got to the cheering point outside City of Pride pub in Canary Wharf around 9. Got ourselves geared up with Oxfam's t-shirts and wind breakers and started helping out to set up the cheering point. Blowing balloons, getting runners' names onto boards etc. The runners started to come through around ten. Having high expectations that I would spot Ronan Keating, I eagerly await and cheer on other runners passing by. Many were in costumes and very amusingly entertaining! The most unfornate thing would be when the down pour began around eleven. But the fortunate thing would be that we were already on our rain coats and the crowd behind us offer some space for us under their umbrellas. There were many other cheering crowds along the road from other charity organisations, many with more lovely balloons and pom poms etc.

Disappointingly, I didn't spot Ronan Keating. I must have missed him passing by! Damn! But then it's all fun for a Sunday...

Spot Me Above!

The Terracotta Army Exhibition @ British Museum

6th, April 2008:- Having failed the first time around to queue for tickets for the exhibition, feeling baffled, we try the queue again on the last day of the exhibition, quoting "last day", I mean the last day that they are selling on the day tickets, the exhibition actually ends on the 7th but that day is only for people with advance booked tickets. Took the earliest tube around half five and got there quarter past six. Already, the queue spans up to the next turning corner. Blimey!

Battling the morning cold and rain, we managed to get through the gates around half seven to eight. We had to queue again once inside the museum compound. With white pieces of non real tickets printed "This is not a guarantee for tickets" and numbers of 512 and 513 indicating the number of people we were in the queue, there was a fair chance that we should be able to get the tickets this time. They have 700 on the day tickets that day.

Once inside the lobby, the queue continued. There were only 3 people working on the ticket counter for the first hour, and thus the queue. Lingering amongst the queue feeling bored, we then spotted a filming crew interviewing people in the queue. Not quite knowing who they were initially, they eventually approached us! They told us they were working on a video for the museum and would like to ask us a few questions. With the camera on us, we just tag along answering his somewhat very general questions like "How long were you in the queue", "What makes you visit the museum" blah blah blah. I wonder if our parts will ever get into the afore-mentioned video :).

Around quarter past nine, we finally bought our tickets! Went for the half 10 slot so that we can get some McDs breakfast before that. There were a lot of people in the circular exhibition hall. Many exhibits were like normal stuff you will see in China thb, pots and pans, music instruments, lifestyle stuff etc. The most interesting exhibit is a model potraying workers in the process of making the terracottas. There is sort of a defined route to follow throughout the exhibition and it eventually led visitors to the terracottas at the end of the route. There were only about 12 to 14 of them, and not all of them are perfectly unruined. I think the chariots are way cooler!

What amazed me most is not of the exhibits themselves, but the anxiety of visitors wanting to get into the exhibition. Ebay tickets can go up to fifty quid per ticket. The normal price is only twelve. And although the normal price is just another twelve quid, I just wonder what actually makes those people queue for hours just to get in??? (Btw, I queued merely because I couldn't get in the first time cos we got there at half 8 and the queue is unbelievably too long) While on the queue, I even saw people with sleeping bags. What on earth were they thinking!?

Photographs are not allowed in the exhibition hall and thus the following :)

The queue outside, after the gates (left), Big ad banner for the "show"(right)

Me on a cute template from my HTC (left), Terracotta figures made by some school kids displayed in the museum lobby (right)