When I was around 20 years old, I hit rock bottom. I was losing touch with reality, I was in a mutually abusive relationship, and I sought comfort in the arms of men over and over again. My best friend and room mate suggested innocently that I speak to her youth pastor from high school. I was desperate and willing to try anything.

I sat on our stoop in the fading sunlight pressing through the trees, listening to the man on the other end of the line tell me who I was according to my experiences and according to scripture...

God's Unfaithful Bride.

He asked me to open up a bible and read with him through chapter 16 of the book of Ezekiel. He told me that from birth I was wretched, sinful, and unwanted. Then God came, found me, and took care of me as his own daughter. He washed me, made me beautiful, and made me his. But I played the harlot. I was unfaithful. I slept around and sought out other men. And because of my sinful behavior, God let me become worse than a prostitute. He let me become a whore. And in his rage, I am now being punished by God. He will take all of my lovers and gather them around me, expose my nakedness, and let them do to me as they wish. And only after that will his fury subside, he will calm toward me.

Yeah, so, that youth pastor pretty much told me God was going to let my lovers gang rape me.

To blog or not to blog? I love to cook at home - for family and friends. Nothing fancy. Just good, tasty, not too fiddly meals, cakes and the occasional dessert. And I love to share recipes. They're not my recipes, they come from cookbooks, chefs, websites, all over the place ... but I always acknowledge where the recipe came from. I started a collection of recipes in the nineties when a friend at work asked for ideas about what to cook for dinner that night. At home, I typed up a recipe and for fun put it on a Natalie's Kitchen Classics letterhead ... and so it began. I'm hoping with this blog to share recipes with friends who are interested, without bugging my Facebook friends who aren't interested! So here we go ...

I'll start with that first recipe that became a Natalie's Kitchen Classic. It was Spaghetti Carbonara from Trattoria Pasta by Loukie Werle - still a weekly favourite in our house. (In fact, it's my 11 year old son's favourite home cooked meal.) The most significant thing about this recipe is that it has no cream - oil, egg and parmesan yes, but no cream. (And don't skimp on the oil!) I must also say that, despite the author's insistence on 'very fresh' eggs and pancetta, it works just as well with eggs and bacon from the supermarket - and I've never used a flame tamer!

With more than a million new downloads every months, VirtualDJ is the most widely used DJ software, and the uncontested leader of non-timecode digital DJing. It has been used around the world for the past 10 years by bedroom DJs and professional superstars alike to rock millions of parties, and has been chosen by leading DJ brands such as Pioneer, Numark, Hercules, Denon, Gemini, or Vestax, to be included with most of their digital DJ controllers. With its cutting-edge beatlock engine, your songs will always stay on the beat, and you can work your mixes incredibly faster than any other DJ. The automatic seamless loop engine and synchronized sampler will let you perform astounding remixes on the fly. The video engine lets you mix and scratch music videos or karaoke as easily as audio. With NetSearch and MusicGroups, you will stay on the edge of the musical trends. And with the versatile VDJScript language and hundreds of downloadable skins, you can tailor your software to your exact needs. Whether you are a professional experienced DJ, or a music enthusiast, VirtualDJ is all you need to get the party started.

What's new in this version: Version 7.4 adds our new ContentUnlimited subscription plans, full compatibility with Windows8 multi-touch surfaces, dozen of new controllers native compatibility.

I'm back! I'll be taking a new tack with my posts from now on. I'll post one video a week and then spend the next few days analyzing the mistakes I made in the video. Afterwards, I'll post another video with me interpreting the exact same material and see if self-reflection is effective in improving my interpretation skills or not.

As before, I will continue to follow a rule of not listening to the speech before turning on the camera in order to give an authentic representation of my current "on the fly" interpretation level. The second recording will represent what my interpretation skills would be like if I was able to get a hold of the transcript and prepare beforehand.

This week's speech is a TED talk by Anne-Marie Slaughter titled, "Can We Have it All?" and I only interpreted the first minute of it.

Here is the Dailymotion link if the above embedded video isn't working.

It is the beginning of a new year, and I thought of starting a photo blog to record some of the highlights of my photographic adventures. Facebook has too much "noise" and I don't really like their layout of photos. The bulk of my photos will still be there, but the best will be here.

I started photography in 2010, without knowing that I was a shutterbug at heart. I wanted a passion then, I wanted something that I loved to do. I wasn't sure, and I dived straight into an investment of SGD$1.8k for my first kit body Canon 550D with 18-135mm lens with all I earned in the army. I must say this is really the best investment I've made, I am still using this camera today. My camera body is due for an upgrading soon, but more about that later.

Without this hobby, I may still be a slob lazing around at home without motivation to discover and learn. I strongly believe that photography brings me to places that I would never have gone without my camera. Recapping on my recent student exchange to Oslo, I braved temperatures below -20°C to capture the northern lights, spent 2-3hours in total darkness in a forest alone at about 0°C to capture startrails. I was also lucky to make it through Egypt unharmed during their civil unrest, and escaped unpickpocketed throughout my european cities journey. In this blog post, I would also like to express gratitude to encouragement from my travelling buddies throughout the journey, and their support for me.

Here is a short amateurish video, attempted by me to summarise my fall exchange at Oslo, and of course the travels I made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW9JVB7GaXM

Today I saw a woman walking out of a parking lot carrying rolls of toilet paper under her arm.

A lot of people do that, carry toilet paper. I mean, everyone needs to buy toilet paper. (Or not, I guess, depending on your lifestyle preferences... I ain’t judgin’...)

But this woman... She was maybe in her early forties, a little pudgy, and she had this blank, bored look on her face.

Like she was just going through the motions of day to day living.

The Official Top 55 Books Chart, - Croatia MAY 2014.- ... - Literary Fiction – - Most Popular Books – - Selected Books In Literary Fiction – ... 1. IVAN ARALICA: „JAPUNDŽE“ 2. PAVAO PAVLIČIĆ: „KRVNA VEZA“ 3. MIRO MEĐIMOREC: „LOVAC NA GENERALA“ 4. RADICA LEKO: „KRUH I IGRE“+“U NJEMAČKU BRALE“ 5. DRAŽEN PRĆIĆ: „DOGOVORENI BRAK“,“COME and BACK“ 6. DRAŽEN PRĆIĆ: „TAJNA PROVINCIJE“ 7. MILJENKO STOJIĆ: „DID JOZO“ 8. ELIZABETA MEDIĆ: „ANĐEO NAD MOJOM ZEMLJOM“ 9. VERICA SIKORA „MAMA MUTTI“ 10. ZDRAVKO VUKIĆ: „BORNA VITEZ: SVE ZA HRVATSKU“

... 11. NEVENKA NEKIĆ: „KOTORSKA TRILOGIJA“ 12. ANKICA KALE MORINJKA: „BURA S UMCA“ 13. ZVONIMIR MIKULIĆ ĐONO: „IZA VRATA“ 14. BOŽIDAR BREZINŠČAK BAGOLA: „U SJENI LJEPOTE“ 15. JULIENE EDEN-BUŠIĆ: „ŽIVA GLAVA“ 16. NIKOLA i SHERLEY ŠTEDUL:“KRIŽAR ILI DUH SLOBODE“ 17. ANĐELKO VULETIĆ: „PITANJE ČITATELJU“ 18. DRAGUTIN TRUMBETAŠ: „PUŠAĆI I NEPUŠAĆI“ (I,II,III,IV,V)- 19. IVAN GRLJUŠIĆ: „AMERIKA, AMERIKA“ 20. NIKOLA SIMIĆ TONIN: „ENGLESKI OKVIR ZA AHMIĆKU SLIKU“

... 21. STANKA PAVUNA: „LILI – ŽENA NAŠEG DOBA“ 22. ZDENKA ČORKALO: „VILA VELEBITA“

23. BORISLAV VUKASOVIĆ LONČAR: „NEOKALJANI“ 24. MILO JUKIĆ: „SAMO JEDNOM SE GUBI“ 25. FRANJO VUKOJA: „JESENJE LIŠĆE“ 26. MILAN KRMPOTIĆ: „SIZIFOV POSAO“ 27. PAVAO PETRIČEVIĆ: „ZAMAH LEPTIROVIH KRILA“ 28 ZVONIMIR MAJDAK: „PONOĆ“ 29. MATE MARAS: „PISMA OD SMRTI“ 30. LUKO PALJETAK / NATALIJA VOROBJOVA: „ČETVERORUČNA SONATA“

In Ramallah, my default was to avoiding talking about heading to Israel. In Israel, I’ve noticed my default state has been to avoid mentioning I was just in Palestine. When it does come up, I continue the conversation very cautiously.

I don’t know how people will respond. Will they be upset? Interested? Offended? Jealous? So far, I’ve seen a range of reactions.

Reactions of individuals in Palestine, on traveling to Israel:In general, no one get upset. At least on the surface.

Overall I’d say there was definitely curiosity, but some people definitely had an undertone of disappointment and jealousy because they could never go there. A few times I started talking about the rest of my trip (travel through Israel for a week, China for two weeks immediately after), and I think that undertone may have gotten stronger.

If you ate your way into it, you can eat your way out of it. All you need is information, and a whole lot of support.

That's what I do.

For instance, diet has been an accepted mode of reversing heart disease for many years now. Dr. Dean Ornish has been doing this for many years, and in fact was the first to have his heart disease reversal dietary program accepted by a major medical insurer (Blue Cross Blue Shield) as an ALTERNATIVE to coronary bypass surgery. Likewise, type 2 diabetes is also being reversed with the same kind of dietary program, which involves boosting your nutritional intake through the roof by teaching you how to eat a whole foods diet. What are whole foods, you ask? Well, those would be....real food. Things that do not come in a plastic wrapper or a cardboard box, by and large. Those are things that are nutrient rich instead of nutrient poor, and result in your body feeling satisfied instead of developing cravings because it isn't getting enough nutrition. Those would be foods that don't leave you craving sweets, or nutritionally-bankrupt simple carbs.

If you're looking to "push the reset button", finally lose that weight, or improve your digestion, or fix those pesky problems getting enough sleep or good quality sleep; if you're tired of having low energy, and if you (and everyone around you) are over your mood swings and cravings, then it's time to take control and start fueling your body up in a way that promotes easy well-being, fabulous energy, and excellent health that everyone around you will want to share in. Everybody's going to want to know your "secret".

We're very satisfied in our new space so far. Lots of things to get used to, but Thai Bahts to tuk-tuk rides we're gonna seriously enjoy this place for the next six months. As promised, some overdue photos of our fabulous apartment:

Looking from the front door, through the living room, and towards the east-facing balcony.

Spectacular kitchen with cook top. Lot's of places aren't really set up for cooking much more than rice and boiling water.