The disadvantage of living in Sweden.

Immigrant and Immigration, Government Social Service or in Swedish we called it Socialtjänsten, Crime Rate, Schooling, Racist, Newspaper and many more have been a very big discussion now between the people in Sweden. Freedom of Speech was one of the thing that the people use to have freely before but now it is limitless; giving an example, you will be call a racist if have a drawing of a white and a black people (even with no statement of racist on the photo) You will be call a racist if you speak your mind and reveled the truth identity of who did the crime. 


I have been reading many of articles coming from different sources, many of which are written by journalist, professors, private person and I could not understand why Sweden turn into what they are now. People are boiling inside them as it get worst for every year. Reading just one or two newspaper that was printed out to the public everyday are not enough as the truth are not revealed truthfully. 

Let start with the immigrant and Immigration, every year it has increase number of asylum seeker in Sweden By August 2012 this year there were approximately 24,700 who have applied for asylum in Sweden. Most of these seekers comes from Somalia, Afghanistan,Syria and Balkan. Honestly, can this people read and write? Mostly not. The Swedish government have to provide them with education both for the adults and for their children using the Swedish taxes payers money. The adult will have to start the language course called the SFI ( Svenska för Invandrare) That is ok but do these people really wants to study and behave themselves after moving here? Be realistic, I have been to SFI myself and many times my teacher got very irritated by these people behavior. They came in late and go as and when they like. It interrupted the class each time people walks in and out during classes. Secondly they don't come to classes everyday. Immigrant get paid by the social which include their housing, allowance for food, clothing etc. They even get the first lump of money even to furnished their house. Swedish youngster who moved out from their parents after they finishes their school, have to bare all the costs of furnishing, renting, down payment to the apartment by themselves. No social or government will help them. I have seen many immigrant coming from asylum seeker countries, will only behave themselves the first few months or a year after they came to Sweden but the minute they get use to the place, they started showing off their true colours. 
A place in Rosengård in Mälmo have been blacklisted. They have been so many cases of gang raping, shooting and fighting in that area. A taxi driver was beaten up by a gang of immigrant when he asked the car to move a little as it was to narrow for him to pass by after dropping off a passengers. He was then beaten up by the gang and was brought to the hospital by an ambulance. I read news that teachers teaching in that area are desperate to leave the school and finding another jobs. Why do Immigration in Sweden bring in more immigrant???
Another cases which I am sure everyone knew or might have read or seen a video about an immigrant robbed a Swedish man in the train station after he fall and became unconscious. This cold hearted man, climbed down the to the railway track not to help him up but instead robbed him of his valuable and left him there to be run by an incoming train which he could have been saved if he had inform the ticket controller when he walks out. I could post many crime cases by immigrant which happened here in Sweden but it is not that difficult to google and find out about them. I know I would be easily called a racist for writing this article but I don't care at all as I am tired of hearing, reading news everyday of raping, gang robbery, fighting. A lot of Swedish people whom I know are so tired of this too. All we want is a safe place for us and our children to grow up in. 

Secondly I would like to take up a topic about the Government Social Service here. They are arrogant, stupid, unfriendly and heartless. They are pouring money to the immigrant with their accommodation, allowance etc etc. BUT when their own Swedish people asked for help desperately, they will ignore their own people and comply to all the stupid answer they can give to them. That is why more and more Swedish people are piling up their anger inside them. I read a news in friatider from a Swedish website, that a commune had bought a very  luxury villa of 8.5 million Swedish kroner, obviously from the local citizen tax payers money for an accommodation for the immigrant. When I saw that paper and see how the house was like inside, I was so shocked that they can shower all the money to the immigrant but would not help their own local people who have work their ass off their life here and paying their taxes. 
I know this story personally as someone I knew had worked all his life and have been paying taxes to his own country here in Sweden and one day, he got into a problem with his business financially and became unemployed. He could not afford to pay the rent and support his children, his electricity was cut off eventually. He called social and begged for help, he sent in all the different paper document they needed and it has been a month and yet each time he called the social service to ask if they could please help him as he is now becoming more desperate with no work and no money to survive. He got a NO for an answer and was asked to search for plan B on his own. I am sorry to say, I lost all my respect for the way the Swedish Social Service Government handles problems here. How could someone work in a social be so heartless when someone called to say, my electricity has been cut off now and I have a child home and all he got for an answer from them was ok,...but I have no time to talk to my boss yet now. I am boiling inside to see how they treated their own Swedish people here and then they could be pouring more and more money to bring in more immigrant when their own people are begging for help. I don't blame if some of the Swedish here do get very racist towards the immigrant because of the situation that they are facing here and how they are being treated. The unemployment rate are increasing dramatically here and instead of solving it or trying to create more jobs, they spent endlessly to bring in more immigrant to Sweden every year. Which mean spending more money for these people who cannot work as they have no education and cannot speak Swedish properly and obviously they will just get support from the social service who are pouring money on them year after year. 

If you have children and are rich, don't live in Sweden. I would suggest Switzerland as a place who have absolutely very little crime, no nonsense of immigrant problem and they do listen to people vote before taking any action. At least your voice will be heard. One latest news I read recently, Swiss banned smoking in public places and since the majority voter says no, the result have been deplored.

It is so simple and yet it's meaningful..

There are saying that goes;

Don't cry about the past. It's gone.
Don't stress about the future, it hasn't arrive.
Live in the present and make it beautiful!!!

And

The smile on my face, doesn't mean my life is perfect,
It mean I appreciate what I have and what I am blessed with.

And

Everything happens for a reason...

And

You can't start a new chapter of your life if you keep re reading your last ones.

And

It's not about trying to fix something broken,
It's all about starting over and creating something better

And

Obstacles cannot stop you
Problems cannot stop you
Most of all
Others cannot stop you
The only one who stop you is yourself

And

Every accomplishment begin with the decision to try

And

If plan A doesn't work
There are 25 more letters to go
So stay cool.

And

The most difficult phase of life, is not when no one understand you but when you don't understand yourself.

And

Last but not least...

It's not that I am so smart,
It's because I stay with problems longer ~ by Albert Einstein

Canoeing Competition

In the city of Stockholm have always been an activities going on. The last few weeks was a Triathlon where both days over the weekend roads are closed. This weekend was a canoeing competition.  

Yesterday when we were talking a walk in town, we heard music and people gathering around and looking into the water, out of curiosity we walked close and I saw people are canoeing right in front of the opera house.  The weather are starting to be cold now in the Autumn and I was wondering how can this people tumble and tossing themselves in the cold water.  The water streaming in this area is very strong and these canoes are trying to go against the strong stream. 

 Behind photos is the Swedish King Castle.

 look at this guy in the yellow canoe, he is tumbling in and out of the cold freezing water..

Wild Rabbit

It is nice when you can see wile animals in the city. Last summer we came across a deer right in front of our house. Everyone assumed that the deer must have lost his way around and ending up in the housing estate, furthermore it is alone. We even saw a Badger one summer while we were sitting at our backyard barbecuing. It wont be a surprise if you live in the forest where you are surrounded by thick trees but our house is right in the city and yet we came across all sorts of animals roaming around sometimes. 

Rabbits live in groups, and the best known species, the European rabbit, lives in underground burrows, or rabbit holes. A group of burrows is called a warren. Rabbit habitats include meadows, woods, forests, grasslands, deserts and wetlands. 

The Rabbit in Sweden changes its fur to white color when the winter comes. It is how they survive in the wild and blending themselves with the nature. Rabbits have a very rapid reproductive rate. The breeding season for most rabbits lasts 9 months, from February to October. The average size of the litter varies but is usually between 4 and 12 babies, with larger breeds having larger litters. 

Car Show

We took our usual long weekend walk. This time I did not have my Run keeper timer on since my iphone battery are getting low, so I did not have an exact keeping track of how long we had walk but I extimated it around 14 km like we used to walk normally between 10 to 22 km.
Our initial plan was to walk to Humlegården to the Royal Library to borrow some books for Gabriel but unfortunately when we got there, it will be closing in 5 mins and the Royal Library do not have any children books.

We passed by a Cars show in Kungsträdgården. Lots of different sort of cars from different brands and plenty of games for children. Gabriel won a movie ticket, zoomerang and a keychain. I must say that there are plenty of Pretty cool cars.

Happy 70th Birthday Dad

My dad who is still living in Singapore turn 70 today. Unfortunately I am not able to come back to Singapore to visit him on his 70th birthday. My brother and his family took him out for a dinner. I am glad that my parents still have my brother who is living very close to him right now.

My dad to the right and mom to the left with their 2 grandchildren Sarah and Izat.

Got this photo from my sister in law during Hari Raya in Singapore.

Egg, Cheese or plain Paratha

Made my own Paratha home over the weekend. My son Gabriel just love the egg paratha, my daughter love the plain ones and Peter just cannot resist the cheese paratha. So each time I did paratha home, I will have to do 3 different kinds plus at least 10 pcs minimum if everyone are home.

It was such a luxury when I was once living in Singapore as no one made their own paratha home, it is so easy to buy and you can find it in all the nearby housing estate, furthermore it deadly cheap. No one would actually take the hassel of doing it themselves. We ordered, we sit, we eat, we paid for it and we go.
Back here in Sweden, I dont have that luxury to just go out to a nearby food shop n order one. I have made paratha for many years eversince I left Singapore. It's getting better each time. The softness, the flexibility of the paratha is improving and now its just perfect. Since paratha is good to eat with curry, I would normally cook either chicken or meat curry but at times, i just love to eat it with fish curry too. Peter does not fancy the fish curry so if he's home, and I craving for fish curry, I would still have to do either meat or chicken curry. Another best dish to eat with is sambal. I just love it too.

Well if there are lots of chicken or meat curry left over, I would take the initiative to chop the meat into smaller pieces and make Martabak the next day, which I did this weekend.

I know it is so time consuming but I don't mind to do it for my family.

Recipes are simple but the mixing and pulling part can be a little complicated for anyone who have not tried this before.

Plain Flour
Melted butter
Salt
Water

Thats it!

Story shared in a Magazine

I came across this on internet while I was searching for some of my old photos that I have put it on the web before and I stumble upon our family story that was printed out in Aquila Magazine few years back.
I shared the story of our family experience in Egypt to her many years ago and later she have the story printed in her magazine. This is really amazing as I have forgotten about this story about our family. Looking back at the photo below that was displayed in her magazine. My children were very small and it is always nice to keep this as a memories.
Aquila is a very interesting magazine and Liana is a very smart lady who started this magazine and building it up to where it is today.

Thai Chicken Green Curry

4-5 cloves garlic

1-3 green chilies (Thai green chilies)

1 shallot chopped

1 thumb-size piece galangal OR ginger, sliced

1/2 cup fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves & stems roughly chopped

1/2 cup fresh basil

1/2 tsp. ground coriander

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. ground white pepper (available in most supermarket spice aisles)

3 Tbsp Fish sauce

1 tsp shrimp paste

1 Tbsp. lime juice

1 tsp. brown sugar

1/4 can coconut milk (set the rest aside for later)

Lemon Grass

Grind well to create a fragrant green curry paste. 

If using a blender, add more coconut milk to blend ingredients, up to 1/2 can as necessary. 

Once its done,

Add 2 Tbsp of oil in a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. 

Add the green curry paste you just made and stir-fry to release the fragrance (1 minute). 

Add what is remaining of your can of coconut milk and stir to combine.

Add pieces of chicken chopped into.

2-3 whole kaffir lime leaves (available frozen at most Asian food stores).

Stir and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to medium-low cooked - 25 to 30 minutes for whole chicken pieces, or 10 to 15 for boneless chicken. Stir occasionally.

To make more sauce,

Add 1/2 cup chicken stock. OR, for a creamier green curry, add more coconut milk (1/3 to 1/2 can) or evaporated milk (both are used in Thailand).

Once chicken is cooked, add any kind of vegetable like; chopped bell peppers OR experiment with other vegetables of your choice 

- green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplant all work well.

Taste-test the curry for salt/flavor, adding more fish sauce until desired taste is achieved. 

If too salty for your taste, add a squeeze of lime juice. 

Add more chili if not spicy enough. 

If you'd prefer it sweeter, add a little more sugar.

Fish Ball noodle soup

Fish Ball are bought ready made and can be found at any Asian supermarket. 

Dissolve a fish stock cube in a boiling water (you can use chicken stock instead or if you’re a pro, you may have your own stock).

Add garlic, ginger, star anise, coriander, spring onion to the fish stock and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Add fish balls then wait a couple of minutes before adding, cook for a further 3 minutes. 

In a separate saucepan, cook one nest of noodles for 30 seconds, drain then rinse under cold tap, and shake off excess water. Do the same with beansprouts.

Remove ginger, coriander, spring onion, and star anise from soup and discard.

Put noodles in soup and give them a quick shake to reheat.

Place noodles, fish balls, and pak choi in a bowl then pour the soup over these.

Garnish with fresh coriander and/or chopped spring onion (chives are an option too).

Add sesame oil or chilli(optional depending on personal preference).

If you want to make this dish with a Asian style then add galangal and lemongrass instead of ginger and at the end, add some lime juice, chopped chillies, and fish sauce.

Salmon

One of My Healthy Lunch 

Toasted bread of any kind

A slice of Cheese

 Fried Egg

Salmon

Cucumber 

1 table spoon of salmon roe

Mayonaise

If you like to add butter on the bread is nice but I am not so much of a butter fan. Its so fattening but I know its nice and its not that I have never ate butter, I do sometimes but not all the time.

Also add in spoonful of  Mayonnaise above the fried egg before you lay down the salmon. 

Stir fried Prawn

Very easy to make this dish too.

Onion slice thinly

4 Garlic pressed or pounded

Carrots slice thinly and long

Beansprouts

10 pcs of Thai small green chili chopped

1 red chili slice thinly

Coriander leave chopped

Fish sauce,

Light soy sauce

salt

sesame oil

Table spoon of brown sugar

Beef Curry

1 onion, chopped

2 serrano chiles

4 cloves garlic

Oil

1 kg of meat of any kind you like

Salt to taste

1 cinnamon stick

1 1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 can coconut milk

1 can diced tomatoes, drained

1/2 teaspoon sugar

3 potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces

1/3 cup packed cilantro leaves

In a blender, combine onion, chiles, garlic and 1/2 cup water and blend until smooth. Set aside.

In a large skillet with a tightly fitting lid, heat oil over high heat. 

Sprinkle steak with salt. 

Add half the steak pieces to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer to a bowl with a slotted spoon; repeat with remaining steak. Set aside.

Return the skillet to medium-high heat and add cinnamon, coriander, cumin and turmeric; stir for 10 seconds and then add the onion and chile mixture. 

Simmer for 1 minute and then stir in coconut milk, tomatoes and sugar. 

Add the beef back in, cover the skillet, and simmer 40 minutes.

Stir in potatoes and continue to simmer until beef and potatoes are very tender, about 20 minutes more; remove the lid during last 10 minutes of simmering if you would like a thicker sauce. Remove cinnamon stick; taste curry and add more salt if desired. Serve garnished with cilantro.

Hard boiled Egg with center filling

Easy but good. Did a few times when we had our big big parties at home. Dishes like this is easy and yet it is fast plus everyone loves it.

After boiling all the eggs, Cut them into half.
Took away the egg york out, seperate in a bowl.
Add mayonaise, mustard, finely chopped onion and thinly finely chopped spring onion, salt and mixed them with egg york.
Once they mixed into a paste, start adding them back into the middle of the egg with a small spoon.

Austria’s Green Lake, Amazing and Beautiful Flooded Meadow

I saw this article posted by one of my friend in Facebook and I decided to share it in my blogging too, so it will never be forgotten. Facebook posting are normally seen once and then it will disappeared as time goes by when all the new posting started coming in.

I have the video of this amazing lake where divers are going in and showing us.
I agreed that it is one of the most beautiful thing I have seen and it is amazing to see brunches, bridges, benches....
The water is clear blue and green and grasses are just as it was on land.

I am so surprised when I read that half of the year this underground is actually overground and the other half year it will be overground again.

Yellow Chicken Curry

We are feel for a curry dish for yesterday for dinner. It will only be my husband and our little boy Gabriel who's going to be home tonight, so cooking won't be that complicated when you knew what you going to be cooking.
Serves with warm rice and spicy lime pickle.

This Curry powder are made by my grandma's sister. 

It a little different from all the rest of the chicken curry I'hv cooked. 

This uses lemon grass and Pandan Leaves.

Soy Sauce Chicken

Soy Sauce Chicken with Hard Boiled Egg

1/2 Cup dark soy sauce

1/2 cup light soy sauce

2 cup water

3 cloves Garlic mince

2 cm Garlic mince

Spring onion

4 Star Anise

1 cinnamon Stick

1 ts Chinese five spice powder

1tbs Rice Wine

1 tbs honey

2 tbs brown sugar

2tbs white pepper

Put all the ingredients in a pot and start boiling.

Add in chicken after they started boiling for 20 to 30 mins

Off the fire, add in hard boiled egg and close it with a lid and let it stand with lid on for few minute.

It is nicer to let it longer as the chicken and egg will adsorb well with the soy and will bring out the taste.

A Pakistani Salafist and his niqab wife..

Interesting to see a Pakistani Salafist and his niqab-wrapped wife to go through security at a Japanese airport, which means that the wife must lift the veil for identification but it is not accepted by salafist. And threats hails.....

How do we explain this? Respecting all religion and it's culture is one thing that we all must do but going through an airport anywhere in the world, it is a basic rules that we have to know as a travellers. 

Muslim women in several countries, including Saudi Arabia, veil their faces because they believe the face of a woman is considered awrah.

Somehow firstly we have to show our passport and obviously our face too at the passport controller, otherwise anyone can go through the security airport with someone else's passport. If you hear the husband speech to the passport security controller; "I do what I want, I am a Muslim OK." It doesn't matter if you Caucasian, Asian, African or from any races or religion, we know that travelling across another country we have to respect the rules that these people are carrying out their work. 

Based on experience myself, I have to take off my belt, shoes or any kind of jewellery during the security control in London and several other airport. 

Lake Garda, Italy

We been there the whole family in the summer this year. I love it. Peter and I will most likely be going back there again at the end of October this year. It is a very touristic place but I just love the mountains views and the water surrounding the area.

I would recommend lake garda to anyone who have not been there. There are plenty of hotels to choose from in that area. Restaurants are everywhere scattered and their wine are cheap too. Drinking in Italy is cheap compared to Sweden. 

The only advise I would give to a tourist who will be travelling to Italy, is to get their money change at the airport of their own country before they arrive to Italy. I speak through experience. My husband and I have been travelling to Egypt before we went to Italy and since we were in Egypt for 2 weeks, we brought back several thousand of Egyptian Pound with us to Italy. Thinking we could easily change it in the money changer or banks in Italy like in any other part of the world. BUT..... no, it was not easy at all. We went to few banks in Lake Garda where we were and non of them would change it except for USD, British Pound and few other European currency. They advise us to go to the bigger city and the train station which is like 20 minute drive from where we are. Arrived there, asked a few people for the direction to the money changer and none seems to know and they showed us a bank, we went into the bank and we got the same story, no they did not take the currency we have. Make a long story short, we are tired of walking around from different banks and decided to drive to the nearest airport in Verona. 

Yeah we finally found one exchange office BUT.... they took 17% commission. Its like mafia robbery. So we decided not to change it there. The exchange office told us that it is the same commission rate everywhere even if we found one. We started goggling for exchange office in Italy and to our surprise we have a lot of tourist who have the same problem as us. 
After few days, we found one more exchange office, she told us the commission rate will be similar to the first exchange office we went to. My husband argued with her and eventually she asked us, how much are we changing and we gave her the stack of few thousand Egyptian pound. Then she offered us a 5% commission which we found was much better than the first one. We finally accepted it.
Beside the money changing problem we had, everything else was perfect in Italy. 

In one of the souvenir shops in Lake Garda Center.
Since Gabriel is collecting key chains from all over the world, he is making his way in choosing a nice key chain there.

A nice little lane by the water.

An old building and they look nice.

This is what Italy is also very good at. Their ice cream.
They are very tasty and yummylicious and you cannot
miss this if you go to Italy.

Every few meters of walking, you will find an ice cream
store with so many variety of flavours to
choose from.

This was the pool we went to everyday when we were in Lake Garda. It was perfect as
there was not so many people around.

Basically we ate a lot of pasta when
we were there. This is one of my
Favourite seafood pasta. I wish
I could remember the name of this
restaurant as it is one
of the best seafood pasta
I tasted in Italy.

 After dinner we walk to a nice cosy cafe, who serves ice cream (gelato in Italian). The girls and gabriel took an ice cream while Peter and I had a glass of wine.
Gabriel choosing songs in the juke box.

Vel and El..

Cheap Hotel in Cairo

Mercure Hotel Cairo, Egypt.

We stayed at mecure hotel cairo over viewing the Pyramid during the summer. It is a nice hotel, reasonable price. We paid around 80 USD a night for a suite room, inclusive breakfast. It has a large balcony. The swimming pool is pretty big and you can see through from the gym room underneath. The negative thing is that it is right the pool is right in front of the junction to the Pyramid and the traffic are very noisy. 

The pool during the night.

The roof top restaurant which serves grill food. you can see clearly the Pyramid during the day but during the night it is totally dark. As you can see it is very empty, not much guests. Eversince the revolution Egypt have lost a lot of tourists and all hotels are very quiet.

Gabriel with his dad before the dinner.

The large and spacious hotel lobby which also seems to be very empty.

As you can see it is a very nice and clean hotel. Its a pity that it is so empty. The breakfast spread was good. Plenty of different variety to choose from but the lunch and dinner became very routine as it does not have much variety after we stayed there for a week. 

So we decided to change to another hotel to.........

Barcelo Hotel Cairo

Its amazingly beautiful.

Barcelo Cairo Pyramid Hotel is a very nice 4 star hotel. It is much newer compared to Mercure Hotel. The furniture are very modern. Rooms are much smaller compared to Mercure and they do not have a balcony. Somehow we paid around 70USD for a suite room inclusive breakfast. Barcelo Hotel is situated just 4 km from the Guiza Necropolis where you can visit the famous pyramids and Great Sphinx. Around the hotel are walking distance to very cheap local Egyptian shopping mall. They cost nothing to shop in the mall. It is worth the price we paid, cheap, nice, modern, clean and plenty of shops just a door away.

The roof top pool with nice Gazebo, bar and a restaurant.

View of Pyramid from the roof top restaurant and lounge.

It was the first time for Peter and I to be sitting in a hotel lounge watching football. Gabriel wanted to see the match between Italy and Barcelona. So we decided to sit at the roof top lounge and watch the match. They served finger food, pizza and very cheap wine :)

We were quiet a number of guests from different countries that night at this lounge watching the football. It was indeed a very nice atmosphere.

The hotel modern armchairs. You can find nice beautiful furniture all in the hotel.

Mena House Oberoi

Mena House Pyramids

The 3rd hotel in which I will guaranteed to recommend is the Mena House Pyramid Hotel in Cairo. Its a 5 star hotel. Very luxury, elegant and gorgeous. Unfortunately I did not took many photos while we were there. This hotel has it serious 5star maintaining standard compared to other 5 star hotel in Egypt. the staffs are very professional and extremely service minded. The room rates are obviously slightly higher but I think at this time of the year with low season of tourist, it is affordable. They have plenty of different hotel in the restaurant. We went to the Indian restaurant there and the food are......  undescribable amazingly yummy. Too good to express in words. So if you do go to Egypt Cairo, dont miss the restaurant there as they have good solid food, especially if you like spicy.

After the dinner, we went to the lobby lounge and the staff are just solid service minded. I am really satisfied with my visit to this hotel.