Today in my tutorial in the university we talked about different religions. It made me think of our Chinese religion. That should be a part of our culture, I guess😂. Most Chinese don’t really have religious belief but we do have our local religion—Taoism or Daoism. It is a quite interesting religion, though it might be weird to use ‘interesting’ to describe a religion. Now I am going to explain how interesting it is. There are some key ideas of Taoism. One of them is fortunate-telling. Taoism members can forecast the future and can help you find things you lost. I hadn’t really believe this mysterious power until a member helped me find my lost cat. My cat left my apartment as my brother forgot to close the door when he went down stairs to get a food delivery. After I found my cat was lost, I was anxious, upset and angry. It was 10pm and I spent 3 or 4 hours looking for him. There were 26 floors in the building and I checked all the floors for several times: I went to the highest floor on feet then went down to the lower ground level. But I couldn’t find it. The next day, my friend asked a member of Taoism to forecast where my cat was. The guy told me where I should go to find my cat. I followed his suggestion and I found my cat!

Recently, I have been practicing how to play Perfect on piano. I love the melody and lyrics so much. Hope you love them, as well. I found a love for me Darling, just dive right in And follow my lead Well, I found a girl, beautiful and sweet I never knew you were the someone waiting for me 'Cause we were just kids when we fell in love Not knowing what it was I will not give you up this time Darling, just kiss me slow, your heart is all I own And in your eyes, you're holding mine Baby, I'm dancing in the dark with you between my arms Barefoot on the grass, we're listenin' to our favorite song When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath But you heard it, darling, you look perfect tonight

Think of something interesting in my culture, I would like to say drinking warm water. It may be normal to some Asian cultures, but it is definitely ‘interesting’ to Western people. I didn’t know drinking warm water is part of my culture until I watched a video posted by a online celebrity from America introducing the feeling of drinking warm water. It was quite funny because she didn’t have a kettle to boil water so she used a microwave to warm the water(this inspired me to boil water using a microwave and I still use this method sometimes). For Chinese people, drinking warm water is good for our body, although I don’t really understand the logic. I personally prefer warm water in cold days and cold water in hot days. But sometimes, especially after workouts, I drink cold water even if it is cold outside because I don’t have the time to wait all the hot water goes warm( we usually have a drinking fountain at home,but I don’t have one, so I use a kettle to boil water and put the hot water in a thermal flask.) I have found there is difference between drinking warm water and cold water. When drinking cold water, I feel I am still thirsty even if I have had a lot. However, with warm water, after 2 mugs, I feel I am not thirsty anymore. Have you ever had some warm or hot water? How was it?

My last trip was a on a houseboat in Murray Bridge River in July.It was fantastic as it was my first time to have a houseboat trip and I had a really good time with my friends. I hadn’t got an opportunity to go sightseeing because of the lockdown. Finally the situation here was better in July and I had the opportunity to have a real holiday. We wanted to try something different and relaxing. A houseboat trip was perfect for us as we were 8 people and we wanted to spend some time together and play some games. Also, driving a houseboat in river is amazing since you don’t need to have a boat license; you only need a driving license for cars. The whole trip was also ‘thrilling ’. We experienced some difficult times: the boat was stuck between two stakes and the wind was quite strong. Besides, we nearly hit the bank because of the strong wind. We were using a drone to film us and had to released an engine to lower the speed so the boat was a little bit out of control. Now thinking back of the trip, I hope I can have another amazing houseboat trip again.

Today I got my Learner’s License for driving. For getting the license, I passed a theory test and got a eyesight certificate from a General Practitioner as I am short sighted. Now I can legally learn to drive under the supervision of a qualified driver. Hopefully after 6 months I can pass the road test and get my Provisional 1 License.

A Wonderful Dinner Welcome any suggestions or corrections. Yesterday, I had a wonderful dinner with my friends Bright, Grace, Joyce and Beryl at Bright's home. Each of us made a dish. ( I feel it is hard to describe the situation, lol) I cooked sweet and sour pork ribs, which is quite popular among Chinese, especially people from north China. Others cooked spicy beef enoki soup, kimbap, pizza and brownie. They were all tasty and we enjoyed them very much. During the dinner, we watched a popular Korean drama called Hospital Playlist via Netflix. Actually, Bright and I had watched all the episodes. Bright is crazy about the show and wanted everyone to watch it, so we watched it together. It is a bittersweet drama about stories in a hospital, where the leading characters work. As it is about a hospital, there are many touching scenes. We burst into tears when a daughter transplants her kidney to her father and the father feels guilty for it. However, it is hilarious sometimes. When one of the leading characters plays a game called Maffia with his mother and other elder people, it was so funny as the seniors don't understand the rule and 'ruin' the game without knowing it. After dinner, Bright performed the music in the drama. It was fantastic. She had learnt playing the piano when she was young but stopped it for a long time. She picked up it for the drama as she loved the music in the drama. I was motivated by her attitude. I will work harder and hope I can play the piano as well as her.

Learning how to Play the Piano as an Adult Welcome any suggestions or corrections. I would like to have it more natural. I have been dreaming of having a talent for ages. It is like all the friends around me has some talent to 'show off'-- painting, dancing, singing or playing an instrument. However, I have no talent for such things. Several days ago, I watched a video on YouTube about how a guy had progressed in a year on playing the piano as a beginner. I was impressed and motivated: what if I started to learn how to play the piano? I had been obsessed with the idea that I could play piano one day, so I bought my first piano. Now I practice playing the piano every day. I am learning how to play it with an app on an iPad. During the first couple of days, I had almost finished the essential courses in 3 days. Then I found I was quite clumsy: I could not push the right key and sometimes when the music was too fast, I can not play it. Then I searched online about suggestions for beginners and realized I hadn't mastered all the skills and was too eager learning new stuff. So, I haven't started any new courses but been practising the essential songs since yesterday. I am thrilled that I have made some progress. I can easily play the songs I thought too challenging before. I can do simple chords and read simple music. Also, I feel my pinkies are slightly stronger than before. I think I am able to play some classical music after several months.

Cold Noodles with Shredded Chicken Breast Do you like authentic Chinese cold noodles? Here is how you can cook it at home. Ingredients: Oil Chicken Breast x 1 Cucumber x1 Noodles some Spring onion X half Ginger Slice X1 Minced Spring onion Minced garlic Chilli powder Salt Chinese cooking wine Sugar X 1 teaspoon Light soy sauce X 3 teaspoon Chinese vinegar X 2 teaspoon Chinese Oyster sauce X 1 teaspoon Cooked Sesame or fried peanuts Step 1: Boil chicken breast with cold water, some cooking wine, spring onion and ginger. When the chicken is ready, drain it and put it in the cold water. Shred the chicken and cucumber, then put them aside. Step 2: Boil noodles till they are ready. Drain the cooked noodles with cold water. Step 3 Make the sauce 1: 1tsp minced spring onion + 1 tsp minced garlic + 1 tsp chilli powder+ some hot oil ( heat the oil till it is very hot in a pan or in a microwave) Make the final sauce: Add 3 tsp light soy sauce, 2 tsp vinegar, 1 tsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp sugar and some salt into sauce 1 Step 4 Mix the final sauce, shredded chicken and cucumber, and the cooked cold noodles Add some cooked sesame or fired peanuts, if you like. The original recipe is from 小d姐姐 via 下厨房.