Never Keep Anything Bottled Up Inside Of You. Always Bring It Out.

In My life I have learned not to keep anything bottled up inside and always spill the beans no matter what. I actually feel so much better everytime I do because if I keep anything bottled up inside of me, that makes life a lot more stressful and a big burden on your heart and it may suffocate you in the long run. Blogging takes a lot out of me as I express my feelings with writing and I talk to close people and loved ones in my life who understand my situations. If your going through rough times, or if you feel like venting out, do it. It is very good for you and it takes a big load off your mind and heart. You may not be aware of it, but you actually do make it better by speaking out about it.

People get sick, stressed, over-analyze themselves, sells ones self short, and all these terrible things can happen if all of us don’t speak out. People always tell me to never keep things inside of me unless they are secrets and things that people do not want me to tell anyone, that will always stay with me forever and I will never tell a soul, but besides that among everything else it should be said out, and they told me to never hesitate and be afraid of expressing myself. Its part of Human nature. All of us have problems, all of us have our worries so on and so forth, but its always good to say it out loud, its always good to confide in someone, if we don’t those problems will escalate and escalate and to the point like its a temperature gauge and when the mercury will explode. You do not want to get yourself to that level.

When you have a problem with someone, when you have issues you would like to discuss to someone, you tell it to their face and come up with solutions to solve that problem, or talk it over with someone, without other people interfering, and just have an open communication with whatever bothers you inside and whatever you need to express. Its super important to realize that. You may strengthen bonds with others by just doing that. You need to talk pleasantly and start the conversation by, “we need to talk about something that has been bothering me” or something along the lines of just being sincere and respectful as you confront the person, because nobody wants anyone to hound them and give them grief. Its always good to be respectful about it, rather than being hateful and rude. It sets yourself up for more problems when you want to solve it with others. You will see problems diminish and you will see that your bonds with people will be more strong if your straight forward, if you apply yourself and just let it all out. You don’t want a two faced person in front of you and a person who laughs and smiles but really they cannot stand the fact that there are problems that have not been discussed.

Some people do not realize the wrong they do, so we must make people aware of it and tell them like it is. No one likes a fake person. Its important to be real, to be nice about it and you will see how things will get better.

Life can sometimes throw obstacles to your face, so we need to talk to prevent those obstacles from contacting you. There are so many personalities, so many characters in life, different people, different mentalities, but always remember, “An Ugly Personality, Can Ruin a Pretty face” – UNKNOWN ——– So do yourself a favour, set yourself free and do not let anything get bottled up inside. You wouldn’t want to risk having a serious nervous breakdown now would you? Think about it!

My Trip to Varadero, Cuba from February 5-12, 2012

Last week I embarked on a wonderful travel journey to Varadero, Cuba. I got to travel with Sunwing Airlines which I really enjoyed the service and they gave us champagne, complimentary headsets, great food, then to end the flight with a sunwing airlines chocolate mint. It was my 10th time in Cuba and I must say it was an incredible time. The weather was beautiful and hot, the turquoise seas were there right before my eyes, every opportunity I had, I was in the ocean swimming and getting that salt water on me which did wonders for my mild psoriasis that I have and it took away the dry skin condition I have. I spent time just under the sun and I got a tan. I met some really nice people and made friends with them instantly. I made friends from Chile, Russia, Vancouver, Ontario, and made some more Cuban friends.

I really enjoyed Varadero. I took the Varadero Bus tour hop on hop off double decker bus like England, and toured around the whole strip and it was so beautiful, an array of hotels, resorts all over, the palm trees with coconuts, the hot sun, saw so many vintage and old cars from the 50’s, 60’s, So many souvenir shops around with so many unique things. Cuba is all around a beautiful country with beautiful people. I met the famous baseball team of Cuba of Matanza’s province and later I watched them play on the TV they had at the lobby and they won. So I hung out with them after the win at the hotel and it was a blast. There was also a pageant of the Resort I stood at called Miss Oasis and I won first place. So I am Miss Oasis, so they gave me a bottle of Blumans Ginebra.

the last couple of days the ocean was very rocky and the currents were very strong, so the lifeguard and the administration of the resort, prohibited the guests from swimming as it was very dangerous, so everyone hung out by the pool side and a lot of people went into town. The winds were so strong and then after that, It was our last day and after checking out, we hung out with our newly made friends until we left to the Varadero Airport to come home. We were delayed for an hour coming home, but coming home safe and sound is the important part. I don’t really care if there is a delay. I would rather have the delay, then to have something terrible happen or something. Always have to play it safe….  Here are some pictures.

Health 101 — Vegetarian Dinner – Garden Salad, Steamed Vegetables/Brown Rice

We are so concerned about losing weight, keeping it off, getting more healthier, and we often are worried about gaining weight again, well, with this recipe you control your weight, lose weight and feel healthier when incorporating a lot of greens. Greens are an antioxident that prevents cancer, diabetes, and other forms of disease. Here is my recipe to health and longevity. With your dinner, always have water and refrain from soft-drinks and other drinks. Purified/Filtered water would be the best source. Drinking water from water bottles carry sodium and unwanted calcium build up in our bodies and it can be detrimental to the body…
This also helps with exersizing as well.
Salad Dressing: (Healthy and Easy)
1/2 tsp of salt 1 tbsp of mint leave powder 4 tbsp of olive oil 1 or 2 Lemons (squeeze all juice) (more if desired, depends on size of Salad) Mix the Dressing together.
Incorporate Lettuce, Celery, Carrots, Red Onions, Green Onions, Green Peppers, Red Peppers(mild), Cucumbers, Cherry Tomatos in the Salad — You are done
Steam vegetables like — Mixed vegetables like how you get from the grocery store, heat them serve.
Then cook some brown rice. Make sure Rice is thoroughly washed… Brown Rice takes a little longer to cook then regular parboiled rice, so use as desired quantity, and only take 2 dinner cooking spoonfuls to your plate. Brown rice is essential and healthy for losing weight and it gives energy to you.
That is all!
HEALTHY EATING MEANS HEALTHY LIFE!

After A Month from The Costa Concordia Tragedy

For the past month, I have been thinking a lot about the tragic Costa Concordia capsizing that took place off the coast of Italy in Giglio Island. It pains me to see all those lives lost. We probably would not have had any deaths if the cruise crew were not ordering people to go back to their cabins. They thought by doing that, they thought that they would not make the passengers on the ship panic, but they failed to tell people what really is happening and that there is on the list of criminal offences. I am still in disbelief over all this. I thought at first it was a movie they are setting up, but it really happened which is so unfortunate. Before being able to work on a cruise ship, before being about to operate and be a captain of a cruise ship, everyone needs a lot more training, a lot more background checks, and people need to go through strenous amounts of tests before they can lead a cruise ship and its passengers that will travel on it. It is very important that the cruise lines hire captains that will be more responsible, not show off, not to abandon people and the ship if a catastrophe strikes, Heaven forbid. These things are super important.

They do not realize the damage this has done to loved ones, families, friends, so on and so forth. The Captain is a coward for doing this terrible thing to so many lives. He was responsible for the safety, security of more than 4200 people on board his ship, and so he thought he take a huge cruise ship for a joy ride and go off coast to show off his ship, then hit a huge rock and put a huge gash on the ship, and capsizing it, then abandoning ship, having dinner with a woman, so many things. Unbelievable. This coward needs to be locked up for good. 15 years isn’t enough.

I am disgusted that this ever happened and this day in age when cruise ships are at their finest, with technology, stablizers, and modern day gadgets. This would have never happened if the Coward did not go close to shore. There are bouys that ships need to get through and follow them, and navigational systems that tell how deep the water is that the ship travels on. I remember going on a cruise and the captain announced that were 6,750 feet above water in the Caribbean. WOW thats a lot of water.

God help all those families and friends effected by this tragedy. I am sure we all are in this world.

 

Talin’s Roast / Marinade

Today I will be discussing on how to cook Roast with great Marinading sauce.

It is so important to incorporate the Tomato Paste as that is the key ingredient as well as lots of Garlic.

Roast Marinade.

You get some roast, cut it up — wash it, clean it,

1. 5 Tablespoon full of Tomato Paste
2. 1 Teaspoon of All Spice
3. 1 Teaspoon of Salt
4. 1/2 Teaspoon of Black Pepper
5. 5 Cloves of Garlic Chopped into Fine Pieces .. Do not squeeze the garlic. You want to have the Garlic pieces everywhere.
6. 1 or 2 cups of water so it can cook— Remember Tomato Paste Absorbs a lot of water so add a bit more to your satisfaction to prevent from burning…

Cook for about half an hour — depending on the size of the roast. the smaller ones take about 15 minutes….

And your done!

Talin’s Signature/Famous Cake Recipe

Baking cakes is one of my favourite things to do in the Kitchen… Here is my recipe:

6 Large Eggs ( must be mixed very well before adding things to it) must be like a very creamy colour.
1 1/2 Tsp of Vanilla Extract
1 Cup of Canola or Mazola oil
2-3 Cups of 1% Milk (Depending on the consistency)
1 1/2 to 2 cups Sugar
1 1/2 tsp of Baking Powder
3 cups of Flour (Make sure the batter is not too watery not too thick – in between but more to the watery side, but a creamy effect to it)(Put each cup one by one. let one dissolve then put the other in and repeat)
1 Tbsp of Cinnamon (OPTIONAL- You do not really have to)
Mix all that together in a Cake Mixer Machine (Or Dough Mixer)

Mix all ingredients very well and keep doing that for about 10 minutes with all of that.

Instructions

1. Get a Cake Baking Bowl or a Pyrex – Depending on the Batter Size. (Remember it will rise because of the Baking powder)
2. Spray the Bowl or Pyrex with Cooking Oil Spray – Covering the whole thing. do not miss spots.
3. Put the Cake batter (Let the cake batter Settle in…
4. Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees Celsius
5. Put the Cake in (cook for 45 minutes to an hour) depending on the strength of your oven. It may Vary so do check up on it from the oven window. If it starts to get golden brown on top it doesn’t really mean the inside is ready. (DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR – That will make the cake flat)
6 – You know it will be ready if you stick a Toothpick in the cake and you play around a bit then take it out and if you see it clear with no batter stuck to it, then it is ready.
7. Take it out, let cool for 20-30 minutes maybe an hour then serve.

Then you have the option of decorating it with sprinkles, icing, or anything you want or have it plain too.
Will make a great dessert after dinner, or if you have a dinner party or take it to someones house. Very easy..

Estimated Preparation/Cooking time is an hour and a half

My Experience seeing the New Holy Cross Armenian Church of Laval being built before my eyes… By: Talin Orfali

I had embarked on a wonderful journey to Laval, Quebec and I had a spiritual, emotional, physical closeness to the future new home of the Holy Cross Armenian Church of Laval, Quebec. It was an experience I will never forget, seeing a new Armenian Church being built from the ground up, seeing the hard work being put into it, and all the hard work our clergyman, and our Armenian Community, Community of Laval and all those who day and night made this possible. I love you all deeply, God Bless this beautiful new church to be and all those who will walk, pray and enjoy this beautiful church once it is built. I am ever so excited and anxiously waiting for the opening ceremonies to take effect. I will be the first one there.

It is an indescribable and emotional feeling I had being there, actually seeing it, and feeling it. Although I will miss the many memories shared in the Holy Cross Armenian Church of Laval house on Boul St Martin, but those memories will forever be cherished and new beginnings and new memories will be rendered into my heart, mind and soul in the new church on Chemin Souvenier. I love Laval, Quebec and Montreal very much. It is again an indescribable feeling being in that city. I feel like I am at home and I cannot wait to call this new beautiful church my home away from home. May God Bless, and keep this church safe and I wish for a successful building process and God Bless and energize the builders and all those who worked so hard to get to where it has got today.

The New Holy Cross Armenian Church of Laval is with me everyday in my heart, mind and soul and not a day goes by where I don’t think of it. Let new memories begin. God Bless everyone.

Meatballs with Yogurt Soup (Matzounov Kufteh)

I know in my previous article, i stated to write how to make mantee, but that will come up in next issue…

Meatballs with Yogurt is a favoured Armenian Dish.
Anyone can try it. It is a tasty dish, that is served at lunch or dinner.

Ingredients:

Fine Boulgour
Ground Beef
Salt
Walnuts (OPTIONAL)

Yogurt
1 Egg
Lemon Squeezed
Dried grinded Mint

DIRECTIONS..

1. mash the ground beef together, adding 1 or 2 cups of Fine boulgour and a little bit of salt to the meatball ingredients, then roll the meatballs to bite sized pieces.

WARNING: Do not put tooo much boulgour as the meatballs will come apart while cooking. Make sure the meatballs are soft, but a little hard.

2. have half a pot of boiling water

3. Get a bucket or 2 of plain yogurt, crack 1 egg into the yogurt in a mixing bowl, and add some dried grinded mint, and then add quarter cup lemon juice so the yogurt sticks together and doesnt break in the water and with the meatballs. PUT THIS IN LAST.

4. Cook meatballs for 5-10 minutes as it wont take long.

5. add the yogurt mixture in.. cook for 5 minutes and serve.

FOR FUN — Add some walnuts into the meatballs for a game. who ever gets the walnut, can win a prize or something. HAVE FUN with your food…

BY: TALIN ORFALI

The way children are brought up to be… Todays True Story…

Today, I was so amazed at this little girl who looks about 6 or 7. This little girl and her father get to the cash register to buy food, and without the father telling her to pack up the food into the bags, she started packing it up as the cashier was scanning each item, and she did it all by herself until the cashier was done and when the father was paying for the food, she had already packed everything. it looked to be about 15-20 items.

She even put the bags into the cart. I complimented to her and said you are a very good girl for helping your daddy. She blushed a bit then the father said thank you very much to me for being so observant and so sweet to my little girl. I said to him you are raising your girl very well to take the initiative and doing things without being told. The father told me, thank you very much for making my day a special one. I will never forget that. I appreciate your wonderful comments.

You know these little things are a big difference in how children are brought up to be. You know when well-mannered, good children come from stable, and good families when family values are seen, taught, and absorbed into these children as what I had seen today while patrolling this grocery store.

Raising a child is a very difficult process, but to start absorbing and teaching children from right from wrong from a very early stage before 2 and a bit after 2. That will inhibit the child and the child will learn quickly and be seen doing great things.

I am not saying all children are bad and only the good ones matter, but I am saying that children progress well when parents teach them well.

Bible Study and Friends I have made from that.

In the beginning which was about 5-6 years ago, I started coming out to bible studies at my Armenian Church, which led me to learn more about God and Jesus and a lot more about the bible and theological learnings in the Armenian Perspective. Soon after My life made a complete 360 degree turn. My Life got better, things started to really look up for me, but soon after I had those terrible feelings of unwantedness, and lonliness return back to me due to some stresses, but now everything has found its place.

I now have the most wonderful true friends who have helped me a lot through my tough times, and I am a very happy individual, who has good friends that she can talk with and spend time with. They give me confidence, encouragement, and strength to do what I do, and to know I have people on my side. They know who they are.

I have been taking care of myself a lot more these past several months, by eating sensibly, losing lots of weight, and I am finally thinking about myself for a change, and not thinking about what rude, two-faced, fake, cruel, and persons with big egos tell me, because I have no place in my life for those who bring me down and give me the cold shoulder.

As Long as I have God, My family and friends in My life, evverything else will come to place. I love My life and everyone in My life.

I am so Happy!

I love My life, I love the people in my life, I love myself, I love everything in my life. My Family and Friends make me so happy and They mean the world to me. I don’t know where to begin and where to end about how wonderful I have been feeling lately about myself, and about who I have become.

I have been laughing a lot more, smiling a lot more, and feeling so positive and optimistic about everything in my life and thats the way it is supposed to be. My Family and My Friends Happiness and Health is #1 to me and without Happiness, and Health there is nothing in this world. To me the DOUBLE H is sooo important in ones life.

I have so much to be thankful for, I have so much to look forward to in my life. I just love it all, and I LOVE YOU ALL!!!1

Without My Family and My Friends in my life who support me, love me, care about me and appreciate me, I wouldn’t be where I am today..

The people around me make a big difference in my life, and they know who they are.

Exciting Things to Come to My Blog Near You.

Hello, I have some exciting things happening on my blog :). I can say YAY! 🙂 I am really happy about them. I finally got the hang of WordPress and blogging has become routine for me everyday and I am quite impressed with what WordPress has to offer for me and it’s so lovely to be here. Now in recent weeks I did a lot of thinking on how I can spice up my blog a lot more with a more personal edge to it. Here are a few things that you will see on my blog in the coming weeks and months:

– I am thinking about changing my theme of my blog soon and layout. I looking forward to my readers ideas on what I can do for my next layout? OR Should I leave my blog layout as is? I value my readers opinions and suggestions as everyone is entitled to them.

– Having more pictures of myself, my travels, and my interests on a separate page, but still on my blog.

– incorporating pictures with some of my blogs.

– Including photos of the food I cook with my recipes I post which will be posted very soon.

– More interaction with my readers, and responding as much as possible.

– I will be writing a lot more about where I have traveled, airlines flown, so on and so forth and have experienced different places as I said, I have traveled a lot in my life and will continue to do so God willing.

– A lot more motivational, positive posts because It is very important to me and something I am passionate about to make a big difference in ones life.

Stay Tuned… 🙂

Life is too short. You never know what happens from one minute to the next.

Lately, I have realized that life is too short and you never know what happens from one minute to the next and I always say to my family, my friends that it is very important to keep on communicating with loved ones as much as possible, enjoy, cherish moments with people whom are part of your lives because you never know, the next day those moments to cherish with that person will no longer be. Life has so many surprises, twists, turns, obstacles, ups, downs, which is why I always say.

I always bring up the materialism subject, because not everything is about materialism in life. We can always replace items, and everything, but we can never replace our loved ones and people in our lives who have passed on and we can never replace the memories we have had with them as it will always be part of us in our lifes journey. We must always remember the good times we have with people, cherish, keep in touch as much as possible because you are here today, but gone tomorrow or your here in the morning, gone at night. Life is unpredictable and we never know what it brings us, which is why I say, enjoy life, take everything lightly, and some people always hate on others and do terrible things. I mean what for? Were all on this earth, lets live and let live and have peace and harmony in this world where we can one day tolerate each other and stop the fighting, bickering, and all these terrible things people do.

This year of 2012, has been a really terrible year so far after losing 3 of my relatives, and all of them were so special to me and all I have of them now are memories that will live on with me forever. Never stop saying I love you to loved ones, never stop saying thank you to them, and always appreciate who they are and the time spent together. Rekindle bonds that have been broken, talk about problems you have with others, solve them or else sometimes when problems are not solved we often regret it and sometimes its too late to say I am sorry. I am saying that you never know how long we have in this world and we have limited time, so we must enjoy and forget about things that don’t really matter and focus our energy on the people.

My Condolences to those who have lost loved ones. It is not easy, but always know I am here to give you a virtual hug, virtual shoulder to lean on and I am here to listen because people are important to me and they are my NUMBER ONE!

Peace and Love to all.

 

I Am Glad I Made The Switch To WordPress Blogs

Lately, I have been so impressed with WordPress and how incredibly easy it is to create blogs, to keep things organized. I love this WordPress site. It also brought me to wonderful and lovely fellow bloggers who are so talented in writing and everything else in between. Anyway, After Searching on the internet for top blog sites, WordPress came into the search engine and I am so glad I made the switch. I was with Google Blogspot until end of October, when suddenly my Google Blogspot Disappeared and My Google Gmail account was disabled for no reason at all. I have written a couple of blogs about the terrible ordeal I had with them. If you like to read them, simply search Google on my blog and you will see related articles. I just love this site so much. Its so easy to get around to read others blogs, I can search for blogs in relative to me and the subjects I love, I see so many great ideas people come up with, I see cooking and baking recipes, what people do for christmas, new years, easter, thanksgiving, valentines day, so on and so forth.

This wordpress website is very special to me and I finally found my passion of writing and writing in my blog is important to me everyday.

I am glad to be part of the WordPress family.

I love all of you.

 

Hello February! We Meet Again! :)

Hello February! We meet again. So much is happening this month on my blog. So many different stories, recipes, and exciting things. I do see people’s comments on my blogs daily and I thank you all for taking the time to write to me. I truly appreciate it from the bottom of my heart and I do read so many blogs and as I said were all one universal language. As much as I would love to reply to each one, it will take me sometime, but Everyone will get the answers soon enough. Anyway, its another month, another fresh start, lets see what this month will entail.

I wish everyone a wonderful February and I see that Valentines day is coming up. To those who are in relationships, or married, what will you do for your better half? Will you be going away? Will you be going out for a nice dinner? Going to the movies? OR the Big One? Maybe some couples will get engaged, Get married, elope. You never know when Cupid Strikes? Don’t worry single people, I am single too and sometimes Valentines Day makes me sad that I don’t have anyone but, thats ok, It will happen sooner or later. I am always looking at it as a glass half full. It will happen for me. I hear this all the time that someone out there is out for someone. I truly believe in that. Believe in yourself and believe in it.

Anyway, Have a great February, All the best!

Love

Talin