Time to flash my stash! (This is just half of what I got since arriving but never mind…)

Btw, did I mention that I’m planning to get some more roving? I just can’t decide if I should or not!

…the house smells like garlic now.

Now, it’s not because I ate a boatload of garlic. Neither did I buy ten kilos of the pungent bulbs. It’s just that after making my usual rounds at the balcony, I discovered that my kalanchoe was heavily infested with aphids and then those flying bugs around my ginger and other houseplants which I thought were innocent might actually be flying aphids!!!!

Apparently infestations start off with a couple of flying aphids which will move from plant to plant. The last thing I want is these pests near my roses so after sacrificing my kalanchoe to a massive prune (I had to lob EVERYTHING off. *sob*), I scouted the Net for non-toxic pesticide and discovered that aphids dislike chives, cloves, anise, lavender and hear, hear, garlic. Garlic is used because it contains naturally occurring sulphur which acts as an antibacterial agent and fungus preventative.

Of course there are other alternatives like Orange Spray which uses orange peel and water or Yarrow Tea which utilizes yarrow plant and brewed coffee. But because I don’t really have oranges or yarrow at hand, I settled for the Garlic Spray recipe instead.

One site called for one crushed garlic bulb to be added to two cups of water and the mixture ought to set for a day or two before straining for further usage. Another called for crushed garlic soaked in oil for a day or two before adding some to water and dish washing detergent. My recipe has a slight adjustment to it - I crushed half a bulb of garlic in some water and add some dish washing detergent before spraying all my plants with the stuff.

The results? The house smells a little like garlic but guess what? ALL the flying aphids are dead!!!!!!!!!! HURRAH! What’s next? Orange & Lemon Spray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For more information on natural alternatives to pesticides, go here and here.

For those wannabe models and people who just want to be in the limelight for being beautiful, here’s something you might be interested in. And no, it isn’t just any regular beauty contest!

Look of The Year @ http://www.lookoftheyear.com are looking for young people from all over the world to send in their best pictures. Yes, that means Malaysia to.

This opportunity might just win you a cool 10,000 USD as well as a start as a model in the fashion capitals of the world, eg Paris, Milan and New York.

For more info, feel free to visit their site here.

I know. I know. I really ought to stop picking up so many hobbies but seriously, when you are not working (writing about things like Austin Air air purifiers do not count!) and have heaps of time on your hands, hobbies are one of the things that keeps a person sane…not to mention occupied.

Anyway, this isn’t really a new hobby. I picked it up last year but somehow shelved it aside when work got crazy and never quite picked it up again when the wedding plans came like a storm. The fact that I left my DIY spindle and rovings at home after I moved to Switzerland didn’t help one bit at all!

Nevertheless, of lately, I have been getting that spinning bug and well, almost all my readers know that once I get a bug, it’s only a matter of time before I succumbed. I put some of my hard-earn moolah into getting a custom-made handmade spindle from Spinsanity. Shannon is a gem and excellent with her hands; she makes the spindles by herself and paints them as well. I got her to paint mine with a sheep…I know, how typical!

So while waiting for my spindle to arrive, I stopped by the local hypermarket (20 minutes bus ride to and fro from town) to purchase some squishy soft roving. They were for felting but can be used for spinning. These little babies come in either 25gms or 50gms and I ended up getting 200gms. After separating them and then braiding them into four bundles, they are now finally ready for some serious spinning. Oh, there is also my shopping cart over at Handpaintedyarn.com which contains three 100gms rovings. *drools*

Ok ok…I should stop.

Btw, I am experimenting with my photo displays so do bear with the change in text.

…and after unpacking (almost everything is out of the box except for the six arriving this weekend via my father-in-law) plus some sprucing up, here’s a look at the place now. The paintings you see in the photo(s) are gifts from my mother-in-law who is a painter by profession.

All photos were taken with a Canon Powershot 1S and a fisheye lens, courtesy of Nil, of course.

Recently, I was asked to review several TV shows/contests, one of which is currently ongoing and organized by Dockers.

Make Your Own Dockers® Commercial Contest allows people the chance to create a video advertisement for the clothing company. They may be viewed online and rated by views. The winner will then have their video advertisement submitted to NBC Universal, Inc for what they write as “consideration as a commercial to be shown during the June 13, 2008 broadcast of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, as well as made available for a limited time online at NBC.com”.

The Dockers contest runs from 11:30 pm EDT, April 29 to 11:59pm, June 6 and consist of several phases (submission, finalist and grand final announcement). It is open only legal residents of the US aged 18 and above.

So far, they have received quite a bit of entries from all sorts of creative minds. Some remind me of home videos while others prove to be more stylish. One of my favourite entries is “We Speak Your Language” by shd0728 - the commercial is about the word “pants” in different languages. Pretty creative and very in tune with the modern world today. I hope it gets picked as one of the finalists for the contest!

Anyway, if you’re a resident of the States, have a fair bit of creative skill and am looking for that break into the media, this could just be it…of course cash prizes are always attractive but seriously, nothing beats seeing your name aired nationwide. The Dockers contest could be just the thing you need!

Visa-issues aside, Nil (and I) have been thinking of make a trip to the US - it has always been on his list, the whole Grand Canyon exploring thing among other stuff - and after my parents’ trip last year to the States, well, lets just say that he brings it up at every opportunity he gets!

I’m still trying to delay it because of the whole visa thing; it’s pretty difficult for Malaysians to obtain a visa and once you’re rejected, you can forget about ever applying again…or so I have been told.

Sure, I would love to check out the States but for purely selfish motives - I want to do more yarn shopping!!!!!!!!! This would probably entail me bugging him to head over to the West Coast instead of the East. He may not jump on the idea; after all, this hubby of mine is pretty selective when it comes to travelling. I don’t think he’ll even bite if I try to feed him this “Orlando vacations” thing. Theme parks are just not his style…even though he did enjoy the water slide at Sunway Lagoon.

Anyway, we’ll see how it goes. Right now, we have a budget to think of not to mention other family commitments. Life is really different when you’re married, y’know.

This Malaysian has a very different view of farms prior to coming to this country called Switzerland. The only sort of “farms” I was exposed to were more like paddy fields and orchards or dusuns. Most of the chicken and pig we do get in the country are bred commercially; and because they stink, you can’t really find them unless you go out of your way to look for them. Even when you do find them, they don’t exactly smell great. Most of the time, these breeding places stink to high heaven and the air is just stagnant.

In Switzerland, the countryside is dotted with plenty of farms with equally a lot of acreage. You can run into dairy cows, cattle, chicken, and horses just about 20 minutes (by train) outside Neuchatel. There is also a riding school nearby (where I used to live) but still, nothing beats seeing these farm animals out in the fields grazing away. Wait till you see a dairy cow stare you right in the face!!!! Those eyes and lashes are just mesmerizing…not to mention the fact that they can grow to about six feet in height from head to hoof!

A lot of these farms consist of a barn that houses things like horse supplies (or others), equipment, animals and naturally the house where farmers live in. In some instances, it can be just one big building; most of the time, it’s a plot of land with two large buildings next to each other. I am not too sure what the statistics show but many of the farms I saw during my hikes feature gardens where farmers grow some vegetable and seasonal fruits like strawberries.

Unlike Malaysian commercial breeders, these farmers allow their herds to graze in open fields; even the chickens have their own little space to run around in. The open grassland and wind helps minimize the smell of ammonia - cow dung is a fantastic organic fertilizer in case you were wondering. You’ll find that some farmers may even recycle dung for their vegetable and fruit crops.

I remember encountering the stench of a now-defunct pig farm in Puchong where my mum’s relatives were staying but surprisingly, walking through Swiss farms was a “breath of fresh air” (pun intended). Sure, you will find dung sometimes on the dirt path but the air smells of grass and not pee or anything else, which makes the hiking experience all the most enjoyable!

So honestly, if you’re ever in Switzerland and you have time for a hike, go for one and discover a little bit more about farming the Swiss way…at least from an outsider’s perspective.

In case you’re wondering why I would run into a cow during my hikes, be aware that hiking trails in Switzerland allow you to cut right through the middle of pastures and farms…but more on that another day.