All of us know someone who always seems to be happy. Sometimes you wish you can be like that but sometimes it annoys you to no end that he/she is so happy and you almost wish something bad happens. Let’s face it, it’s not easy being a grown up and walking around happy all day certainly take effort.

As I was waiting in the doctor’s office yesterday, flipping through magazines, I came across an article about happiness from Ladies’ Home Journal magazine (lhj.com): Here are 4 happiness habits shared from deeply happy people. Courtesy of authors of Happy for No Reason.

1. Don’t believe everything you think

·         Here are some facts: we have 60,000 thoughts a day

·         95% of those thoughts are the same as yesterday, and the day before

What’s worse is that majority of our thoughts are negative. Bad news. Having negative thoughts stimulate areas in our brain that involves depression and anxiety. One thing to remember is that our thoughts are not always true. We are hardwired for negativity (especially girls). Casing point: if you receive 10 compliments and 1 criticism, what do you remember?

2. Take time out to smell the flowers 

We all get busy in our daily routines and often the little good things are overlooked. It’s time to change that. Try to notice every little good thing that you see, feel, taste, hear and smell. This intention activates the reticular activating system (RAS). I am no doc but according to magazine (which sited from doc research), RAS is a group of cells at the base of the brainstem that is responsible for activating your memory system, allowing it to bring important things to your attention.

Have you ever shopped for a car and suddenly noticed all the same cars on the road? Well, that’s RAS at work. So, you can use it to be happier. When is the last time you take a moment to watch the sunset?

3. Think Positive

Next time you are faced with an issue, try to think of it as glass being half full instead of half empty. Find the good side of things and lean on it. Being optimistic can work wonders.  So if you are running late, instead of saying ‘ I don’t want to be late!’, say ‘ I am going to be on time’.

4. Appreciate those around us

It is a fact that having good social relationships is one of the key contributor to happiness. For women, these relationships may be more important. (ie. This explains why sometimes I am tired of hearing my own voice when I have yak-fest with one of my friends about whatever issue of the day). The more women engaging in bonding activities, the more oxytocin they release, producing a calming effect and therefore lowering stress. Besides, it feels good to appreciate our loved ones. Doesn’t it feel good to tell them that you love them or is thankful of them? Try it!

5. Find your Passion:

Think about what you love. What is it that you do recharge your inner battery. For me, it is anything to do with people. I am passionate about people and love to learn about their history and culture. It fascinates me and I always walk away with one more learning. For that, I know that my job needs to be around people.

Incorporate your passion into your daily lives. It’s not hard, simply follow your heart!

Tiptoid:

Try to avoid things or people that make you unhappy. Surround yourself with people that make you feel good and things that make you happy. For me, my biggest fan is my fiancé. He always seems to lift me up when I am grumpy.

ps. It’s 1am now and he is sitting in front of me playing his games waiting for me to finish my blog so that we can go to bed together. He doesn’t know it but those are the little things that make my heart smile J

Good night!

With the gas price being sky high, no wonder going to the gas station is no picnic. Ever wonder how many extra miles you can squeeze out of your car when your gas light is on?

This is your lucky day! You can get the answer from www.tankonemmpty.com. You can type in your car’s make and model to find how far site visitors reportedly made it on ‘empty’. note that the data is according to the site users. 

Here is the feedback: (Warning: Don’t try this at home!)

1. Honda Accord     44 miles
2. Honda Civic        43 miles
3. Toyota Corolla    43 miles
4. Toyota Camry     41 miles
5. Ford Focus         38 miles
6. Ford F-150        36 miles
7. BMW 3-series   42 miles
8. VW Jetta          39 miles
9. Mazda 626        37 miles
10.Ford Taurus      34 miles

As I searching for something fun and cultural to do this weekend, I came across Dailycandy.com. A very fun site that provides daily news about food, fun, arts, fashion and travel..etc. It also provided a calendar of events at major cities. Here is what’s happening this weekend:

Here are some insights on some of my favorite places to visit and dine in the French Riviera ( I lived there for about 2 years). I was going through my files found this doc that I wrote for a friend who was visiting Nice, France. I am surprised that I had so much time to write in such detail. So I thought it’s best that I share with everyone, just in case you are visiting the French Riviera. Perhaps sooner than later. 

• Nice
  • La rue Masséna is the main pedestrian zone of Nice. There are many shops and restaurants.  I recommend to go to a restaurant there one day or night, and enjoy your mean while people watching.  There are many restaurants there, I don’t remember the names, but most are good.  Pizza or La bouillabaisse would be my preference to order. 
  • Sunday mornings (before 11am) there is an outdoor market (marche) in Vieux Nice.  It has mostly food, but some local oil painting artists are also there. I’ve seen some of the best artwork from them.  I used to go there to get the freshest fruits, vegetables and flowers. There are lots of cafes there for a nice coffee and again people watch.  It’s also a super opportunity to take some great pictures of the ‘locals living’.
  • Right outside Vieux Nice is Promenade des Anglais, it’s a nice walk along the beautiful beaches.
• Vallauris
  • Le MenuScript – wonderful restaurant!  Great food and the owners will come out and talk to you to see if you like their food.
  • A great place to buy wines to take home is from Sovical (1955, route Saint-Bernard Porte 11) .  It’s about 5 minutes from Sophia (Compaq site)
  • Great place for potteries. This is where the local artists make them. This is also the town where Picasso lived, on a small street at the edge of the town, with magnificent view of the sea.  Just a few houses next to where I used to live J
• Monaco
  • Monte Carlos – Café du Paris is a café / restaurant right outside of the Monte Carlo Casino.  Great place to people watch, and see the most exotic cars pull up to the Casino and the hotel.  The food is good there but expensive.  Most of the time we just get a coffee.
• Antibes
  • L’Oiseau qui chante (translates to A Bird that Sings) is a restaurant right outside of Antibes.  It’s a great local restaurant with good food and great prices (Everything is great.  Good Escargot too)
  • Le Jardin (very good one)
  • La mer (by the harbor)
  • Les vieux murs
  • There is a pub next to la Marie (the government building), don’t remember the name.  We used to go there often.  An American woman from Texas and her Dutch(I think) husband owns it.  The hubby loves Jimmy Buffet and always play his songs at the pub.  They make the best fish and chips, and the combo ordeurf platter.  It takes a while for the food to come out since the Woman cooks it herself.  When she can, she comes out and play the piano and sing
  • After dinner, be sure to walk by the gated port. (when you are walking out of the Antibes front entrance, walk to the right up a slight hill, then you will see the gated port.  Pedestrians can walk in.)  There you can see the most elaborate yachts, some with helicopters on it.  The yacht at the very end of the port belongs to some rich Arab guy.  Not sure if it’s a price..
• Cannes – This is where the annual film festival takes place.
  • Le tantra, la cantine
  • Le baoli
• Biot (small town right next to Sophia-Antipolis)
  • La pierre a four
• St Paul de Vence – If you have time, you should visit St Paul de Vence.  It’s a gorgeous village on the tip of a small mountain.  There are many quant restaurants.  Right before entering into the ally, there is a nice restaurant to your left.  Right in front of the Boulle court.  I highly recommend visiting St Paul. It’s also an artist’s heaven. Many art galleries from the local artists there.

Kady’s favorite eats … a la Cote d’Azur: 

o       Pizza – it’s all thin crusted and oven baked

o       la bouillabaisse – specialty of the region, a mixture of all seafood. Very good and large serving.

o       les moules (mussels) – it’s a specialty of the region and it’s excellent! It comes with fries.

o       la Soupe du Poisson (fish soup). Sounds weird, but delicious.

o       Any pastries! Especially the Pain Raisan and Pain chocolate (chocolate coissant)

o       Escargot

o       Filet Mignon (Their ‘medium’ tend to be more like ‘rare’ for Americans)

o       gigot agneau (leg of lamb)

o       la Salade Nicoise

o       any fish (Poisson)

o       Any dessert!  Flan, Crème Brulee, Tarte au pomme (apple pie)

When eating out, I recommend ‘le menu’.  It’s a set of pre-selected menu, with appetizers, main entre(s), then dessert.  It’s the most valuable way to dine and with chief suggested food combos.

Bon Appetit! 

I read a great blog about akashic. which is a filing system that records your every thought, word and action. What’s even more interesting is that today, technology can in fact read your thoughts from within the brain. Wild isn’t it? Check out the video from chiefsocialofficer.com. It’s a great video to get jog your mind on this beautiful Friday morning!

If you are like me, you have been saying ‘I need a vacation‘ for way too long and it is time to do something about it. One minor problem though, is that with the oil price hitting the roof, air traveling is suddenly becoming unbearable. As I surf through the countless travel sites, daydreaming on what it would be like to sit on that beach, the warm tropical breeze, smell of the ocean, the sound of waves dancing..sipping a cool cocktail…ahhh.. , I was quickly reminded that my ideal vacation of going to another country like the Caribbean’s, Europe, Asia, is out of my budget .@$%  

However, because baggers can’t be choosers, if there is well, there is a way. i.e., if I want to take a vacation, it is still possible without setting foot on the plane. And today, the first page I happened to open from the Credit Union newsletter (of all magazines) is titled 7 reasons to travel this summer. I think it is a sign. Don’t you? So here it is:

1. Rejuvenate yourself
2. Change of Scenery. Doesn’t it sound great to just leave all this behind and simply get away?
3. Relax
4. Build relationships, with your family, friends, or that special someone.
5. Reinvent yourself. Taking a trip breaks up your normal routine, which allow you to think more creatively.
6. Satisfy curiosity, by exploring new cultures and be adventurous
7. Learn something new

Even if you just get away for a mini-vacation, it can do wonders for your soul.

“20 years fom yow, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do… Explore. Dream. Discover.”

                                                                                                            - Mark Twain

More and more people are using the web as their main shopping outlet. With overwhelming number of shopping sites out there, I personally find it easier to shop in a real store instead of a virtual store. One way to make your decision for online shopping easier is via social shopping sites. What’s that you asked? Social shopping sites allow groups of people to connect with each other based on their peresonal interests. Users from the social shopping sites can share information about products, deals and prices. Some even allow you to create shopping lists with your friends. (One thing comes to mind is to search for a travel social shopping site. I have been looking for affordable tickets to Europe for weeks now). Below are 17 social shopping sites and their stats from http://socialmediatrader.com/ You can see that the demographics of social shopping sites cover a wide range. I am looking forward to using some of the sites to help my future purchases.

The data in the table below was compiled from Compete, Quantcast and MSN Adlabs.

If you are like me, you have millions of things on your mind and it never seems to stop. Sometimes I feel like my mind is like that little hampster running on the wheel going, going, and going.. or maybe that energizer bunny, or the Road runner. Well, you get the idea.

Well, I found a good article from Wikihow about staying focused (below). The main take away from me is to follow your passion and inspiration.

By the way, Wikihow is a great source for misc ‘how to’s’. Check it out!

How to Stay Focused

This leads to the question on how to stay focused on results we would like to bring about, and to keep the mind right on target.

Steps

Steps

• Do not make a goal out of something you do not have already as a great passion in your life. Use something that inspires you and gives you certainty and confidence. Then plan it much bigger and go for it.

Don’t be afraid to put your fingers in dirt

I spent the weekend gardening with my fiance. At first I wasn’t too crazy about the idea of spending the weekend slaving in our yard. (My idea of a perfect weekend is a combination of city and outdoor activities with great dinner at a non-chain restaurant then dancing the night away) But as soon as we started working in the yard, we couldn’t stop. We worked for 6 hours on Saturday and Sunday. It was so much fun that we didn’t want to stop. This is the first time this season we started to work in our yard. I forgot how good it felt to touch the dirt. Really!

We went to Home Depot and stocked our car with flowers and plants. We started an herb garden, planted lavender bushes, then moved around the perennials. Since this is the first Spring since we moved into our new home, we are not sure what all the green sprouts will become. I look forward to see it grow every day. I feel like a kid every couple of days whenever I explore through my yard to see what is peaking out of the ground. So far we had lots of Tulips. They are so beautiful. So much so that I had to cut some and bring it in the house so that I can look at it all the time.

If you haven’t done so, I invite you to touch dirt. Whether it is repotting plants or planting flowers, I guarantee that somehow the feeling of dirt in your fingers will make your heart smile and all of the sudden realize that life shouldn’t be so hectic after all.

Happy Spring!

Tis the season to think about vacation time! Maybe it’s because I live for vacations, or perhaps that my work is getting to me. But lately travel magazines appeals to me.

Is I flip through pages of Real Simple Travel magazine (a great magazine full of useful tips with affordable travel suggestions). I came across some great links that you should definitely book mark:

To monitor your favoritate airfare tracker: www.airfarewatchdog.com

Airfare site that factors in budget airlines like JetBlue and Southwest (most don’t): www.sidestep.com

Checked out reviews on user-generated site: www.tripadvisor.com

If you are looking to staying with local hosts: www.couchsurfin.com

To connect with locals who will meet for coffee or suggest spots to visit: www.travbuddy.com

That should be enough to get you busy for a while. As for me, I am looking for a romantic vacation in the caribbeans the end of May. It’s looking like Cancun. I shall let you know. Any good traveling tips that you can share?