End of the Road.

So i've finally got to the end of LiveBelowTheLine, and while totally irrelevant i feel like screaming at the top of my lungs that single line from that Boyz to Men song. Haha don't worry i won't.

So today i went into work and opened the money tin which i left in the staff room to collect yoyo money, spare change etc etc etc., as seen below. 

It totalled $78.45, and i counted this on the wastage sheet :)

I then took it into CommBank and used its nifty coin counting machine, got in trouble for taking pictures, bc i wanted to show you.... ekkkk so could only take a pictue of this receipt outside of the bank. (10 out of 10 service my ass!)

lol i don't know why i needed this picture?

Then i donated it towards my online page where i currently stand  at $750.15

  So yeah.

As i will not sing Boys to Men, i would like to shout out to my brother and thank him for his generous contribution and his loving remark of "hello" :D

I would also make a shout out to (haha imagine me in CB yelling a "CAN WE HAVE THREE LINES THANKS?") all the VILLAGERS who have contributed to this money tin and thus far supported me not only in monetary donations but just in general in LivingBelowTheLine, In now way would i have reached my target without each and everyone of you. And honestly from the bottom of my heart appreciate every cent and dollar (haha it reminds me of Amanda in She's the Man . "Every touch.... every..." errghhhh haha moving on :)

With this $750.15 and counting, WE have sent 15 disadvantaged students to school for 6 months on scholarship.

In closing my last blog, i want to say thank you to:

Ashleigh

Hien

Jasmine 

Antionette

Liana

Steph P

Kamaia

Robbie 

Grace

Caitlin E

Michael M

Amy

Anna 

Hanna

Brit

Sani-O

Josh Janssen

Daniel

Jen

Osh

Taylor

Weezi

Mary

Daniela

Gnet

Chris

Jesse Overton-Skinner

Steph I

Caitlin F

KWNG

My beloved work colleagues at Village

& 

Sarah F

For your donations.

And as noted in my first blog


There's always gonna be another mountain (or target)
I'm always gonna wanna make it move (or hit it)
Always gonna be a uphill battle (or be a temperamental hungry Karyan)
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose (/ not hit the target)

It's all about the Climb, having some glimpse of how it feels to live with 1.4 billion others in extreme poverty and actually not doing something for charity but something that has to be done.
It's a basic human right. Justice.  

I've effectively reached my target and gotten a glimpse of how it feels to live with 1.4 billion in extreme poverty.
I look forward to the future believing that this will translate to Making Poverty History.  

With much Love and Hope,
Karyan Ng

when you're sick and promise never to take being healthy for granted again...

Heck! I say this all the time when i'm sick, i'm such a sook and its something that has constantly churned in my head this past week. (But with a burger instead, with beef and cheese and pineapple and bacon and relish toasted in a panini bun instead.......oooohhhh Grill'd how you fulfill me!) DROOOOOOOOOOL ahhhhh it hurts!!! why did i just do that to myself? *sad face*

Two of my favourite things

On a much brighter note, SleepyBear compliments of Ashleigh Graham, has kept me company this past week as i endeavour to live on $2 a day. Good thing is  he didn't smell like food and i didn't feel bad not sharing my jelly with him, he understood and well.....slept while i devoured it anyway.

If you know me well, or perhaps not at all

You'd realise that i spend most of my day pondering on what's going to be in my stomach next.

It's like what Leo says in Inception, "They say we only use a fraction of our brain's true potential"

Well HECK MAJORITY of my true potential is spent thinking of food!!! Dammit!

And this week has critically challenged me, i can't focus in lectures and i can't do my readings without having to re read the sentence for the third time.

For me, LivingBelowTheLine is an experience that is truly irreplaceable and in no way could i have got a better glimpse what 1.4 billion people go through  E V E R Y D A Y than by taking up this challenge.Some people look at this campaign as a gesture of charity,  but as Mandela said

Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.

And nothing hits home better than that. 

Poverty is pain.

It feels like a disease.

It attacks a person not only materially,

But also morally.

It eats away at ones dignity and

drives one into total despair.

Thank You Caitlin Fraraccio for your outstanding and generous contribution to changing the life of a Cambodian child 

and

much Admiration and Birthday Wishes to Steph Moroney who is celebrating while LivingBelowTheLine, you are amazing to be doing this during your birthday week!

...like warm butter sliding down hot toast

You know that thing when you see someone cute and he smiles
 and your heart kind of goes like warm butter sliding down hot toast? 

Well that's what it's like when i set eyes on my 39c jelly sachet. Only it's better.

Haha so basically i just ripped that off Shopaholic,

but i was so happy when i found this baby today that all these movie quotes ran

through my head. 

Here's another:

Because that's what love is.
  
It's that first moment
when you hold your baby girl (or pack of   

jelly crystals)
 
...and you didn't know that anything
could be so small or so delicate.

 And you feel that tiny heart beat...(or

edges of the shiny box) 
  
...and you know that you couldn't love
anything more in the whole world.

 And you hope that you can do right
by that little girl... (or that 40c)

 ...and always be there to catch her (or eat it) when
she falls (or when its made), and that nothing ever hurts her (or

makes her inedible) 

I haven't had any 'sugar sugar' products in the last three days and the fact that i can

now have this beautiful beautiful product in my hands, most likely for my dinner tommorow will

make me the happiest LiveBelowTheLiner ever!

This is my little bloggage today.

I wanted to share the slogan for the LBL tees with you: 

1 bowl of rice -61c

1 piece of fruit- 40c

1 week of sacrifice- $10

-----------------------------

Making a difference- priceless

and i wanted to say Thank You to Steph for her generous donation 

in supporting me and making a difference.

Much Love, 

The grass is greener on the other side.

I received an email from Richard Fleming today, the co founder of the LiveBelowTheLine campaign entailing:

All too often we become overwhelmed by statements and figures like...
"A child dies every 4 seconds to a preventable disease."
"1 million people go to bed hungry every night."
"72 million children miss out on going to school each year."

We get stuck on the day-to-day tasks of study, assignments, emails, meetings and phone calls... and lose perspective of the bigger picture.

This week you have the opportunity to refocus on the big picture. Your stomach will rumble... you will struggle with work... and you will battle with hunger pains.

But, remember that this week...
You will play a key role in communicating the challenges of living in extreme poverty.
You will become a key part of a campaign that is reshaping the way society thinks about poverty.
You will change the way that your friends think and act about poverty.

You will have an affect on the boy that was supposed to die in the last 4 seconds.
You will have an affect on the mother who will eat a nutritious dinner tonight.
You will have an affect on the girl that will go to school tomorrow for the first time.

Thank you for being part of the Live Below the Line movement - always remember that you play a crucial role in reshaping the world - and a future in which nobody has to face the challenges and injustices of extreme poverty.  

It was something to help me through the day, and that it did.

It helped me in laughing it off that the ONE time i get a freakin' free coffee voucher, its the week i can't redeem it! ughhhhhhhh

It also lingered in my mind when i walked pass the FREE UMStudentUnion bbq's, where there was no line for food for the FIRST time, i dare not lie. And i admit i nearly cried *tear*

On another note. Today i spent some quality time with my mother making fried rice (of which i could only eat :$)

It consisted of
500gms of rice (75c)
Mixed frozen vegetables (40c)
4 eggs (65c)
Half an onion (20c)
Oil (10c)

This would last me for 4 meals and i have packed them into containers for freezer storage :D Cheaheh!

A quote i wear close to my heart is from Roberto Clemente:
If you have the chance to make things better and you don't
You're wasting your time here on Earth. 

I have the chance to make the world a better place, and i will.
Thanks to all my supporters and sponsors whose money has already contributed to making the world a better place.

And much and many Thanks to Daniela , Jeanette, Chris and Jesse for their donations in helping a disadvantaged child go to school in Cambodia.

Much love and appreciation

nom nom nom. oat oat oat.

$0.13 of Oats with $0.13 of Banana

So the 'start of something new' begun today [love my Disney movies ;) ] and i woke up to my mother being sad that i couldn't eat her home made meals this week :(

The hardest thing right now isn't the hunger but the fact that i can open my pantry and ravenously devour everything in my path....lol i make myself sound so presentable don't i? :D

So for breakfast i had oats with half a smushed banana swimming amongst it and must i say half a cup of oats really makes a LOT of oats. Hahaha there were so many oats in that sentence. Oat Oat Oat! ok. i'll stop.

Then i did some study (of course i did.)
Then i cooked up a good tomato based pasta sauce which had:

A can of tinned tomatoes (75c)
1 x stock cube (7c)
Mixed frozen vegetables (40c)
Italian mixed herbs (15c)
1/4 Onion (10c)
Oil (3c)
with a total of a nifty $1.5

I figured this would last me for three meals with spaghetti so did this:

you may also note that there clearly is not three meals with tomato sauce included and this is becasue i ate this

At this stage you may be also thinking that i really like that bowl and well the answer is yes. yes i do.

So moving on, i have three containers of  beef stock flavoured spaghetti remaining so i may eat them by themselves as is or decide to make a pasta bake or something of the kind with it and my potatoes.  

Tonight i may just fry some potato chips or something.
I do know that i have $10-$8.44-$0.13(for oil and onion) : $1.43 left for condiments which i will wisely allocate for scarce resources needed for my belly.

Thanks for reading and if you have any spare change, please donate at http://www.everydayhero.com.au/karyan_ng
because putting your small change into this will make the greatest change in another’s life.

Love

$8.44 of food.

So the day has finally come.
Actually no that's wrong.
The "day before" has finally come and im prepping myself  to not automatically wake up and reach for the first edible thing in my reach, and shove it in my mouth.

I bought $8.44 worth of food on Friday. I felt quite the bargain shopper and was extremely happy with myself; i had compared and contrasted the prices of foods between Woolworths and Aldis (just quietly i am still getting used to this change of Safeway to Woolworths in FGate, gahhhhhh!) and bought what i thought would be best value in terms of bulk purchasing and having a long shelf life.

Now i know how it feels to be on the other side of the counter when i say the "Jumbo Combo" is the best value for your money ;)

For $8.44 i got:
1.25kg of brushed potatoes ($1)
A dozen eggs ($2)
500gms Oats (66c)
500gms Rice (75c)
Beef Stock cubes (69c)
2 Bananas (53c)
500gms of frozen mixed vegetables (80c)
Whole canned tomatoes (75c)
Mixed Italian herbs (30c)
Spaghetti (96c)

I actually dislike Oats/porridge, so i may have to blindly stuff my mouth with the stuff each morning.
But i should, while i hate to say it as it has so many negative connontations attached to it
"Suck it up! Be a man! Rub some dirt on it!" (google it)
Knowing that i actually have food in front of me, food which i can and will ration for the next 5 days unlike 1.4 billion others,will make me grateful for every mouthful.

Thus far from the support and love of all my friends i have raised $486.70 for The Oaktree Foundation's educational project's in Cambodia. I initially had a target of $300 but with the utmost support from them i smashed this and raised the target to $400.
One day after i raised this target i hit it again and raised it to $650. It's double and one-sixth(to be annoyingly technical) of my original target but you know

There's always gonna be another mountain (or target)
I'm always gonna wanna make it move (or hit it)
Always gonna be a uphill battle (or be a temperamental hungry Karyan)
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose (/ not hit the target)

It's all about the Climb, having some glimpse of how it feels to live with 1.4 billion others in extreme poverty and actually not doing something for charity but something that has to be done.
It's a basic human right. Justice.