Great Household Tips

Great Household Tips

Ants Problem : Ants hate cucumbers. Keep the skin of cucumbers near the place or ant hole.

What made me post this Great Household Tips was this article on how to eliminate ants. Just imagine you see an ant trail one day.  The next, you might probably see an ant hill.  Might you not wonder whether they have dug a tunnel beneath your house by the way they so industriously marched past?  Must remember to keep some cucumber skins to try a little elimination.  Not polluting the environment with any Ridsect nor Shieldtox anyway. 

Nope, it is not working.  Tried twice during the last two weekends.  Still have ants crawling past my window sill.

To get pure and clean ice : Boil water first before freezing.

To make the mirror shine : Clean with spirit

To remove chewing gum from clothes : Keep the cloth in the freezer for an hour.

To whiten white clothes : Soak white clothes in hot water with a slice of lemon for 10 minutes.

This I have to try.  I have used Amway, I have used Top.  Currently I am using Liquid Dynamo.  The clothes now do have a pleasant smell after being dried under the sun.  But my white clothes still do not stay white.  Just bought Attack.  Thought soaking the laundry overnight and some hard scrubbing might work.     

To give a shine to hair : Add one teaspoon of vinegar to hair, then wash hair.

To get maximum juice out of lemons : Soak lemons in hot water for one hour, and then juice them.

To avoid smell of cabbage while cooking : Keep a piece of bread on the cabbage in the vessel while cooking.

To avoid tears while cutting onions : Chew gum.

To boil potatoes quickly : Skin one potato from one side only before boiling.

This I have tried.  It works.  It is definitely must faster than what I was used to.

To remove ink from clothes : Put toothpaste on the ink spots generously and let it dry completely, then wash.

To skin sweet potatoes quickly : Soak in cold water immediately after boiling.

To get rid of mice or rats : sprinkle black pepper in places where you find mice or rats. They will run away.

Have not tried this. I can't find it in my heart to think these furry creatures adorable.  They give me the squirm.  Any one love rats?

The Quickest Way To Stop Diarrhoea‏

If you always like to “lau sai” until damn “chiak lak”, perhaps you can follow the remedy below. No need to pay money!

This is an age old practice, which is true provided the diarrhoea is not cause by virulent pathogens such as Cholera and Typhoid, which will need added antibiotics.

Please read on…. 
 

QUICKEST WAY TO STOP DIARRHOEA
by: A Singaporean

When someone gets diarrhoea, sometimes the solution is so easy, we wonder why anyone has to suffer.
 
Of all the ingredients here, the most potent is Rice, but not in the usual form we eat it in, and neither would rice porridge work well too.

The secret is in rice water.

This is already known in this region. Ask your maids -- Sri Lankan, Indonesian, Filipina and they would know about it. My Malaysian relatives know about it.

(My mother) knew about it. When Dr Albert Winsemius came to Singapore for a farewell and thank you dinner in his honour, he brought along his wife, Aly and his granddaughter, Jolijn. Both women came down with very bad gastroenteritis. They saw the doctor who gave them medication. It was slow to work.

My mother boiled some rice in lots of water and went to their hotel with two 1.5L bottles of rice water.  I cringed in shame at the offer of this folk remedy, which seemed so primitive to me. Never heard of this cure before. To my surprise, it worked, and they were even able to go out for dinner the next day. Both were exclaiming how the rice water did the trick of making them well again. Well, luckily it worked, I thought to myself.

I was discussing this some years back with Kim Ng, the ex-matron of KK Hospital.  She said, yes, that is what Professor Wong Hock Boon, the notable pediatrician teaches. I was shocked and made some comment how could he?  It was common knowledge so what had he to do with it?

Many months later, I regretted laughing at it.  Dr Christina Shanta Emmanuel,  who is the CEO of...uh, which group I have forgotten, either National Health Group, or Polyclinics, or whatever.. regarded me seriously when I brought up the topic like it was good fun. She said that Prof Wong Hock Boon had presented a paper on it at some conference after he had done clinical trials. 

Then his results were published in the Lancet, the Medical Journal all doctors read. In fact, said Shanta, he was credited for saving the lives of 2 million African babies
by this method.

I am impressed.

It is rice water and not rice, that does the trick. I have found it effective again and again.

THE EXACT RECIPE FOR THE REMEDY
 
You take a handful of rice and boil it in a large saucepan with lots of water. Like three or four large glasses. Then you cool that and drink the water. If you are in a hurry to relieve the ailing person, take the saucepan off the fire and stand it in another saucepan or basin of cool water with ice cubes if necessary. This gives the patient a chance to drink the rice
water sooner and cure himself or herself sooner.

When drinking the rice water, make sure there is lots of it. You have to tell the patient that enough water must go in to line your guts from throat to other end, all 10 to 12 metres of it.  If you take rice, it stays in the stomach. If you take broth, some of it may go into the small intestine.  But if you take rice water, it will carry rice grains to every inch of your small and large intestines to the end where the problem is.

How does it work?  Even Prof Wong Hock Boon doesn't know. Read the article by going to this site: http://rehydrate.org/dd/dd06.htm#page2

It is good to pass on the news to everyone you know because the complaint is so common and people suffer unnecessarily. You would be doing your friends a great favour to relieve them of their misery when the occasion arises.
 

Maya Angelou

I just want to share the thoughts she lives by!!!

In April, Maya Angelou was interviewed by Oprah on her 70+ birthday. Oprah asked her what she thought of growing older.
And, there on television, she said it was 'exciting... '

Maya Angelou said this:
'I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.'

'I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.'

'I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life.'

'I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as making a life.'

'I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.'
'I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back...'

'I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.'

'I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.'

'I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back....'

'I've learned that I still have a lot to learn..'
'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.'

Maya has some fine thoughts and I tend to agree with her on her last line ... that people will never forget how you made them feel.  I remembered how I wanted to do more and tend to work even more efficiently when I knew my ex-boss appreciated my work.