In order to win 1 year’s Flickr Pro account worth $24.95, simply answer the following question:

What was the name of my first ever puppy, what age was I & what is doggy dog aka chewy’s real name?

As explained in the previous post, these are the steps you need to take in order to enter:

1. Find the answer in my blog using pages, archives & the search bar

2. Post your answer in the comment area & your comment number is your entry number

OR

3. Tweet your answer on Twitter to the question along with the hashtag #ananyah666 at the end of your entry

4. The winner will be chosen via Random.ORG & will be notified both by email as well as on this entry after closing

All entries must be in at 12 midnight GMT, otherwise they will not count, so make sure you check your timezones!

Good Luck, you have 12 hours

Update: After receiving all entries, we only had 6 correct ones and the winning entrant was:

Congratulations! Expect an email from me regarding your prize

For the rest of you, see you again in 12 hours with your next competition question

This month, ananyah.COM has been around for 6 whole years and to help celebrate this occasion, starting tomorrow, I’m giving away 6 prizes in 6 days to celebrate 6 years of blogging *throws confetti in the air* can you tell I’m in a good mood?!

Prizes up for grabs within the upcoming 6 days include:
1. A customized blog design by moi including 1 years free hosting & maintenance
2. A years Flickr Pro account worth worth $24.95
3. A £20 gift voucher from Just-Eat (UK Entries only sorry) courtesy of David Buttress
4. A signed CD by Kelis & a deluxe box set CD/DVD set of Corrine Bailey Rae live
5. 3 of my favourite French Movies on DVD
6. A handmade bath produce gift basket customized to your choice, thanks mom :*

How will it work?
At 12 midday GMT, a new question will be asked and will close at 12 midnight on the same day. In total there will be 6 questions and all answers will be found within my blog, so make use of pages, archives & the search bar! Some are easy, some are a little bit more tricky but it’s all in good fun!

You can enter every days competition events, however, if you are a winner one day, you will not be able to win another day… making it fair to other participants!

How will I determine the winner & how do I enter?
Entries will be accepted by commenting on the individual blog post on the specific day. At 12 midnight each day, comments will be closed off. Once you comment your answer to the question, your comment number will automatically be your entry number, for example if you are first to comment, you’ll be Number 1 and so on.

You can also enter using twitter by tweeting the answer along with the hashtag #ananyah666 within the 12 hour allocated time. Your twitter entry number will be determined by counting the number of blog comments that have been entered. For example, if there are 15 blog comments and 10 tweets… the tweeted entries will be number 16, 17, 18 and so on.

Once all entries have been gathered, I will be using Random.ORG to determine the winner by inputting the total amount of entries and randomly generating the winning number. The winning number will be captured and posted to show that I’m not favouring one entrant over another

The winner on each day will then be posted on the entry after comments have been closed (so check for updates!) as well as on twitter, and will be emailed for contact details, so make sure you enter your correct email address if you enter by commenting. All prizes (excluding the Just-Eat voucher) are open to World-Wide entrants so no matter where you are, you’ll get your prize

The competition starts at 12 midday GMT on Saturday July 11th so keep a look out on Twitter, your RSS feeds & of course my blog for the first competition.

Good Luck & hopefully we’re around for another 6 years!

I’ve been going to Duck Bay on the banks of Loch Lomond ever since I was a little kid, it’s one of my favourite places to go in Scotland. So when we got really good weather last month, we went for a picnic in the area for the afternoon with my brother, his fiance & dog tagging along.

If you’re ever in the area, you should really go there, great views

So Whitney Houston has got rid of her bad boy husband Bobby Brown, cut drugs out of her life & is making her musical comeback on September 1st with her highly anticipated album “I Look To You”. Her first single off of the album is “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” which I got my hands on today.

I’ve always loved me some Whitney ever since her “I wanna dance with somebodddddddddy, I wanna feel the heat with somebooooooooody” and of course her infamous track “and I, will alwaaaays love yoooooou” showcasing her powerful vocal range. There is no mistake, Whitney can sing BUT after years of drug abuse, smoking & god knows what else, she can no longer do the ultra high notes, so she has to make do with a lower vocal range. Saying that, her voice still sounds good but from Whitney, you’d expect some added “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah” and “ooooooooooooooh’s” screeches à la Mariah & Leona Lewis.

The song lyrics obviously mean a lot to her & probably is autobiographical of her life the past few years and her struggle to be who she used to be, the ultimate musical diva!

I didn’t know my own strength and I crashed down and I tumbled but I did not crumble
I got through all the pain, I didn’t know my own strength, survived my darkest hour
My faith kept me alive, I picked myself back up, hold my head up high
I was not built to break, I didn’t know my own strength

Listen to the song:

Download MP3:

Whitney Houston - I Didnt Know My Own Strength (479 times)

Growing up in Singapore, one of my favourite dishes was Kai-Lan in Oyster Sauce… if I could eat it 24/7 with rice I would have Kai-Lan is otherwise known in English as Chinese Brocolli and you cannot find it ANYWHERE here *cries* I’ve tried, even in the Chinatown but they have a substitute Pak-Choi which is pretty much similar and known in English as Chinese Cabbage so it satisfies my cravings! It’s great as a vegetable addition to any Chinese dish you cook & tastes amazing So here is my quick easy recipe that only takes 15 minutes to make & tastes yummy!

Ingredients:
2 Cups of Basmati Rice
2 Small Onions chopped
2 Peppers sliced into strips
2 Small Pak Choi
1 tbsp Chilli Sauce
As many uncooked Peeled Shrimps as you want
2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 Sachet Blue Dragon Stir Fry Oyster & Spring Onion Sauce (use another if you like more sauce)

Method:
Boil 2 cups of water into a sauce pan with the cup of rice with a pinch of salt for seasoning, the trick to perfect rice is for every cup of rice add 2 cups of water. Turn up to the highest temperature on the hob until boiling then turn right down puting the lid on the pan and let it simmer away for around 10 minutes. Never ever stir the rice as this leads to it becoming wet & soggy, you want dry fluffy rice, don’t you?!

Meanwhile, bring another pan of water to the boil, throw in the uncooked shrimps and boil them up for a few minutes until they become pink, this shows that they are cooked. Once cooked, leave to the side.

Next, add the Vegetable Oil to a frying pan to fry the onions & peppers with 1 tbsp of Chilli Sauce to give them a little kick until brown. Add in the sachet of sauce mix and let it simmer away gently until it’s nearly time for the rice to be ready. You’ll know when the rice is ready when the water goes away and holes start appearing between the rice grains. At this point, you can taste the rice to see if it’s alright & push a spoon to the bottom of the pan to make sure it hasn’t burnt (the joys of trying to make the perfect rice!)

Boil water again into the pan you used to cook the shrimps (saves on washing more dishes!) and de-segment the Pak-Choi blanching these for a few minutes. Blanching basically means to boil the vegetable quickly and then run under cold water for a few seconds to stop the cooking process (check me, eh!).

Lastly, add in the Shrimps into the Onion & Pepper mixture making sure that they get covered in the Oyster Sauce mix stirring for a minute or two to heat up the shrimps again. In the pan you used to blanche the Pak-Choi, add a little of the Oyster Sauce from the frying pan & mix together.

Add some rice to your plate, top with the Shrimps & Pak-Choi… et voilà, dig in*drool*

Note: If you can’t get Blue Dragon Stir Fry Oyster & Spring Onion Sauce or would rather make your own sauce mixture then all you need to do is purchase a bottle of Oyster Sauce (comes in handy!) and for this recipe use around 4 tbsps of Oyster Sauce along with 2 tsps of soy sauce, 1 tsp of corn flour and 3 tbsps of Chicken or Beef Stock, mix altogether and just carry on with the steps from above. It does taste so much better making your own sauce because you can add things & take away things but I ran out of my trusty bottle of Oyster Sauce so had to use the sachet instead.

I’ve started learning to drive again, I mean I’m now 27 so it’s about time especially since alot of jobs I’m applying for especially in IT need you to be able to drive!

Last time I was behind a wheel was in 2007 so I was pretty nervous when I had my 2 hour lesson today with a new driving school but I was suprised by how much I remembered especially when it came to gear changes on the manual (stick shift) car!

I’ve got another 2 hours booked next weekend and we’re starting to move onto things I never learnt before so it should be pretty interesting, but at least I’ve got the basics under control… I can drive in a straight line, turn left, turn right and go around a round-a-bout… what else do I need?!

Stay off the roads when I’m around hahahaha