One day at a time

Celebrating Chinese New Year

2012-02-05T08:27:00.000+08:00

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! It's a bit late but it's still within the 15 days of celebrating the CNY. :)

How has this CNY been? Same old, same old. The reunion dinners, the gathering of the clans, the feasts that followed, the exchanging of mandarins and ang pows...

But what's different this year was the fact that I realized how so many people out there who do not get to celebrate CNY like how I've come to take for granted with family and friends.

How it started was that I spoke to my colleague who's father is Chinese and her mum Thai-Indon. Her parents are divorced and she lives with her mum. One CNY, her mum went to church, leaving her all alone during the eve or CNY night itself. She had to cook her own instant noodles and cried to herself while eating it, with a determination that took root that she needed to marry a Chinese man in order to celebrate CNY properly.

Then KS and I went to visit my uncle Lay Kim at the old folks home in Melaka. He's my mum's half brother and he used to bring me and my cousins a boxful of firecrackers every single CNY. I noticed he was still in his room upstairs despite it being a lovely day outside. When I asked him why he wasn't walking in the garden, he replied, "They don't let me walk out of my room at all. I feel like a prisoner here". :(

So here's a thought to those out there who do not have families with to celebrate CNY with, this is the best I've done: I've eaten on your behalf and put on weight for you.

Making Pineapple Tarts

2012-01-15T21:19:00.000+08:00

Yes, the never ending quest for the perfect pineapple tarts has brought me to this. I've blogged about my Melaka aunt's pineapple tarts several times and knowing she has stopped selling them altogether, I asked her to teach me last year. I targeted to learn it sometime in the middle of the year but it never materialized. I was to understand later why it never happened in the middle of the year.

You see, the tarts are usually made and consumed during the Chinese New Year season. And I doubt if she wanted to make a whole batch in the middle of the year. And when I say a whole batch, I'm talking a minimum of 30 pineapples and even this wouldn't have been worth the while of all the labour involved.

Last weekend, one of the cousins asked this aunty to make a small batch. Just for about 5 families. So she gathered some of the relatives over the weekend to do this batch. Consisting of 120 pineapples, a huge coconut shredder that easily shredded the prepared pineapples, a huge industrial mixer, endless numbers of cookie trays, giant pans to reduce the pineapples into jam, manpower of about 12 - 15 people over two days. Yup, this was a small batch. Now I know why it's important to have large families when one does business.

My arms and back are aching from standing, sitting, stirring, reducing the pineapples (which took 4 - 4.5 hours per 30 pineapples), rolling and glazing the cookie. I'm proud to say I was part of the cookie making process. And would I know how to make them all over again? Alone? I've gotta be kidding myself. I'll probably attempt this once before next year when we're slated to do a larger batch. Yup, we have already booked the Aunty for a larger batch next year :)

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Pineapples!

Mashed pineapples from the coconut shredder

Reducing the pineapples

Until they become a sticky golden jam

Industrial mixer for the dough

Many hands make light work. Factory line style.

Eggwashed tarts

Trays waiting their turn for the oven

Tarts being baked

Putting the pineapple tarts into jars

Ta-daaah!

My personal batch is strictly mine... My presssssciousssss!! Each family will get just enough for personal consumption this time around. (I personally can finish 2-3 tubs of this on my own).

Exciting Year Ahead

2012-01-08T11:39:00.005+08:00

For the past couple of years, I have not really had any New Year’s Resolutions except for the vague “Let’s target to go [insert country name] this year” together with the mandatory “Start exercising and lose weight” and “Eat healthy”.

In the last quarter of last year, I came to a point whereby I had to make a few decisions on what I really wanted to do. And took action to it.

So far, I’m attending a basic internet marketing course to learn about SEO (which is still insufficient and I’m now considering attending the advanced class – the fee’s a bit high though) and I am also going to finally learn up how to do my aunt’s famous pineapple tarts.

I received a personalised Moleskine planner (my first!) for 2012 and it’s been a long while since I used a physical planner. Rather than leaving it to rot like most of my yearly gift diaries, I decided to simply use it and pen down (yes, I usually prefer to use pencil as I feel like I can rub it off if things change) my daily plans. My weekly calendar looks great, filled with so many activities, as though I need proof that I’m LIVING. Hahaha!

So, being a bit more sociable is so far in the works. Yay for the get-out-of-cybergames-damnit part of me! :)

It’s just thrilling to have a plan again and act on it, even though the outcome may not be as per what I expected. And having an activity penned down in my planner now spurs me to make it a compulsory on that planned day rather than procrastinating.

Instead of doing a whole year plan, I think I’ll reevaluate my goals every quarter to steer myself better. Plus, a 90-day challenge is much better than a 365-day challenge. The “exercise 2-3 times a week” part still needs work though…

Christmas 2011 Road Trip - North

2011-12-30T19:20:00.003+08:00

After one day in PJ, KS and I took the ETS to Ipoh to meet up with his family and grandma there. It was the first time we are taking this new train to Ipoh and found it clean, convenient and hassle-free.

Exterior of the ETS

Ipoh Train Station

Maple & Dawn at the Ipoh home

We spent two nights there lazing around before my parents, Ron and Jan came to pick us up on the way to Alor Setar. Yup, we all fit into the Avanza with Jan and I sitting at the last row. Passing all the padi fields made me realize how much I’ve taken the endless green fields for granted, considering many people I know who are amazed at them. Hey, I grew up with miles of padi fields right in front of my home for years, watching them turn from green to gold to being ploughed to the planting seasons.

It's been almost five years since I last visited Alor Setar. We stayed in this new motel called Mango Hotel. It was still being furbished but had the adequate furniture for us to stay. It was there when I realized how important it is to have thick carpets as the merest whisper could bounce and echo along the entire corridor and into our rooms. And also learnt the lesson why one should never choose a hotel which has a bar/club/live karaoke downstairs. Christmas season meant the nights went longer than usual so it was still rather lively past 2am.

So jealous! I took this with Ron's new camera (IXUS 220HS) handheld. So clear! Lights at Mango Hotel

Char Kuey Tiow at the Cowboy market: Our breakfast every morning

Visiting our favourite childhood haunts, we spent the days looking for good food and to also explore parts of Alor Setar we never visited. This time, we visited the Alor Setar Tower (which was built while I was schooling right beside it but I never visited), the Padi Museum which was located in some obscure part off the town and Lye Huat Garden, somewhere near Jitra.

The Alor Setar Tower was good because we could see all parts of Alor Setar, it being a small town after all. Entry is RM6 per person. Thankfully it wasn’t crowded so we could spend some time trying to capture night scenes such as these:

The Alor Setar Tower at night

View of the landmarks in Alor Setar

My old school in darkness

The next day, we went to the Padi Museum. Entry is RM3 per person but if you want to use your camera, you had to pay additional RM2 per camera. It didn’t have much but they had this amazing painting upstairs where you sit on chairs secured on a rotating platform so that you get to view 360 degrees of the entire painting. It had bits of the landscape protruding so it blends into the picture so realistically that my dad couldn’t even tell which portion was the painting and which was the 3D part of it.

Interesting roof tiles depicting the padi grains

Berposing at the entrance

Part of the 360 degrees painting

Another part of the painting

Found some strange pink eggs in the pond outside

We also had a bit of fun with the cut outs.

We then headed for a sumptuous lunch at the Curry Fish Head and Pintu Sepuluh. Very good food (loved the chicken curry and rendang beef).

Using old railway sleepers as part of the garden deco seems to be an in thing in Alor Setar. Saw them at two places.

After lunch, a few of us headed to the Lye Huat Gardens which is near Jitra, about a 20 min drive north of Alor Setar. It apparently had a mini zoo apart from some stone display so we were looking forward to seeing some animals.

Alas, upon arrival, we were told the zoo has been closed down but they had fishes and some crocodiles. Since we travelled all the way there, we decided to still go in anyway and paid RM5 per person with no concession for retirees, to my Dad’s disgust.

The place is, to put it in one word, a Frankenstein. Unrelated themes pieced together to form a “garden”. French marble-like statues greeted us at the entrance, pseudo terracotta warriors sat on the far right while a Chinese-Japanese unkempt garden flourished on our left. There was a hut-like structure housing some natural stones taken from caves with old bicycles plastered on its outside walls as part of the deco.

The garden

Half naked statues

Bridge over the koi pond

Various stones

As for the animals, there were two silver tabbies in a huge cage with a pile of cat biscuits and murky water, three crocodiles, one of whom was toothless and a whole range of sad-looking fish in algae covered tanks. There were some which were in clean tanks. I had a one-sided depressing conversation with an enormous fish which wore a miserable expression. “Help! Free me!” it seemed to say.

Silver tabby

Toothless croc

Sad fish

I really wouldn’t recommend anyone to go there.

Christmas eve was spent in the company of church friends with carollers and food until past midnight.

On Christmas Day, we went to the Wesley Methodist Church which shifted to it's no-longer-new premises before heading back to PJ.

Christmas 2011 Road Trip - South

2011-12-30T18:42:00.001+08:00

It’s been a crazy two months, with work piling and family trips planned. Work life has been even crazier as stronger emphasis has been given to my portfolio for next year, and given that I’m solo in my department, I’ve been mentally exhausted to the point that I just come home to play my Facebook games to erase work from my mind and relax before I sleep.

Anyway, this Christmas has been a bit more special. Ron came back and we planned a road trip covering the southern and northern tips of Peninsular Malaysia as a family. All in 10 days.

First, we went to Johor Bahru and stayed a night at my aunt’s new apartment. My uncle had a theme to everything in the apartment (like a F1 themed master bedroom and bathroom, black circles with a silver core for tables, deco etc). I never knew he was artistically inclined!

We headed to Singapore where we stayed in Asphodel Inn, Little India. We were initially doubtful to be staying there but because it was Christmas season, all other motels were rather expensive. Think SGD, two rooms, two nights and there was nothing below RM1,000 except for this deal I found on hotels.com.

Turns out, the inn was bearable and in the process, we discovered this great place called Mustaffa! The entire time we were in Singapore was to hang out at Mustaffa and City Square Mall beside it. We even missed the lights in Orchard (but mainly because the MRT was down during the days we were there). Plus Mustaffa was open 24 hours! If I could, I would have bought a whole load of stuff there! Thankfully, we were limited by the amount we could carry as we took public transport into Singapore.

We were in Singapore to attend my mum’s cousin’s 70th birthday. There we met cousins and relatives we’ve never met before. Not that we could talk to them in that short night but at least we connected with a couple and will try to keep in touch.

Uncle John and I sat down to update the family tree (Ron's camera makes my skin look flawless! Like!!)

My Mum's cousin, Ivy and her husband John, with my family.

The next day we had to rush from Singapore to Malacca for KS’s cousin’s wedding. Reaching there with just about time to get ready for the dinner, my parents and Ron continued their journey back to PJ.

The wedding turned out to be one of the most fun ones I’ve attended because KS relatives simply made themselves at home, taking photos in large boisterous groups, catching up with relatives we meet usually during CNY, 15 relatives from Indonesia also attended. I think there were about 80 tables so I didn’t even end up saying hello and wish the couple congrats because they were swamped with so many people!

This wedding happened to be KS’s cousin Andrew from Australia’s first Chinese wedding and he completely immersed himself with the YAM SENG. You can imagine the Yam Seng toasts were pretty er, exuberant and the Indonesians were er, amused (and probably thinking “These Malaysians quite kampong one…”).

KS parents had one Indonesian couple as guests at their home and they brought an interesting plant which you can make cincau from just the leaves. It was really, really good and I had several generous helpings of it. Unfortunately I could not communicate with them as they speak Mandarin while their Indonesian was heavily accented. Still, we had more relatives pour in during the day we were there and got to know Singaporean relatives whom I’ve never met.

Saturated with family gatherings and meeting new relatives, KS and I headed back to PJ into the complaining strains of Ang Ku for leaving her alone for days. Reached in time to do some laundry and bake a cake for KS’s grandma before repacking for the second leg of our holidays.

Uniquely Japan

2011-11-09T20:42:00.002+08:00

Here's a compilation of stuff I found to be uniquely Japanese.

Vending machines. Yes, they are EVERYWHERE. Majority of them sell drinks though.

Vending machine to order food, bring the coupon to the counter and they will cook it for you. Staff don't need to handle cash then. Smart. But took us about 10 mins to figure which ones were what, ended up with us guessing and crossing our fingers.

Vending machines selling drinks. Some machines sell the same drinks with different prices. Only if you're free enough to compare lah.

Vending machine selling ties, batteries and SD cards. Strange combination.

Animation is everywhere, from instructional to informational to just about anything.

This was up in mountains in Hakone with the black eggs. I have no idea why Hello Kitty is there posing with the black egg.

Other countries would show a stick man. In Japan, it's a boy and a girl on each side of the door with their hands getting caught in the door.

Even Mt Fuji has a soft toy. Guess who fell in love with it and bought it in a blink of an eye...

I have no idea what these two girls were supposed to be. Rabbit ears with tanned faces.

Mascot for the Shinkansen, a platypus with Japanese eyes.

Salesgirl at Akihabara. Most of them were dressed like this.

There were even Ultraman drinks!

Then of course, Japan captions are the source of corny lines:

Advertising for Pachinko. Bring me there now!

Even when I didn't feel like going, I was spurred to go to toilet with this enthusiastic encouragement.

And a few other things I noted:

Japan is very compact. Less space means smaller fittings. Tiny sink.

Where everything is wrapped. Brown and white sugar cubes individually wrapped.

Creative toilet fittings. Here's the all-in-one sink. Water and soap at the top and dryer at the bottom. I can't believe I don't have any pictures of their toilet bowls with their many buttons!

A toilet built only for kids. Low sink, small toilet bowls etc. Adult's use the mirror on top, just to show you how low the sink and hand dryer are located.

Portable toilets. Reminds me of a Japanese prank joke found on YouTube...

All waste is sorted, even at fast food outlets. Plastic and paper.

And they have the squatting toilet, smartly built. Looks like a lying urinal.

Quotes From Dad

2011-11-07T22:28:00.001+08:00

My Dad frequently mispronounces stuff which makes me laugh. The last one he said was that he got a set of blueteeth from the guy who sold him his new handphone.

Today, he was excitedly talking about a programme he watched on TV on Steve Jobs life. And of course, he said it again (I've shared this on Twitter before)

"After he created the Big Mac..."

And this was followed by a description of a curious company Jobs created:
"When he was fired from Apple, he then started up Pizza! You know, P-I-X..."

Suddenly, there's a lot of food related to Steve Jobs creations...

Split Forehead

2011-10-29T22:42:00.001+08:00

This happened many years ago but I was reminded by Karen Cheng's blogpost about her son. I was to have dinner with my CG leader when she called and asked if we could go to her home instead to check on her eldest son who apparently had a fall and hurt his head. She knew her capable maid would not call her unless it was really urgent.

We went to her house and found the son to be much calmed down, sniffing, but with a patch of cotton firmly taped to his forehead. I didn't think it was serious but when she peeled back the tape, there was a gash of about 1-2 cm. It had stopped bleeding but looked like it needed attention.

So I drove them to a nearby clinic in a kampung. The clinic was in an old wooden shoplot and looked like it had seen better years. The doctor took one look and said he had to stitch up his forehead. He told my friend to hold her son steady while he tried to inject anesthetic near the gash, between the thin skin on the forehead and skull. As you can imagine, the boy screamed in agony and moved, causing the anesthetic to spurt out so the doctor had to do it again.

I gasped for breath, seeing everything. By that time, the father had arrived and was helping to keep the son steady as the doctor started stitching. I stumbled out of the clinic and... sobbed, calling KS and telling him not to expect me at the meeting that night. I just couldn't take it and I'm not surprised Karen Cheng fainted from this ordeal.

Now as I think about it, if you have kids, this is bound to happen right? In my family, it was Ron who split his scalp when Grace pushed him away from the piano. In my cousins' family, it was Kelvin who hurt his head from slamming his head under a tap.

Oh dear. Maybe I'll make my kids wear helmets until they're 12.

Tokyo

2011-10-29T10:49:00.003+08:00

Our very first stop in Tokyo was our appointment with Studio Ghibli Museum. Why I call it appointment is because you have to buy the entrance tickets waaay earlier (we bought ours in the 3rd week of Sept for 14 Oct from my friend's relative who lives there and had the tickets mailed over. Even then, the weekend of 15 and 16 Oct were already sold out!).

We took the "Cat Bus" from the Mitaka JR Station.

The Cat Bus. I was rather disappointed it didn't have multiple legs nor was it furry.

Ghibli Museum is a strange building, rounded edges with lots of plants growing all over it. Looks like a submarine, somewhat.

The giant powerful robot from Laputa

No pictures are allowed inside the museum. All I can say is that it is definitely a must-visit for Ghibli fans. Despite limiting the number of visitors every two hours, the place was packed! We got to watch a short non-distributed cartoon in their theatre too. It was about a bunch of kindergarten kids who created an imaginary boat and their encounter with a whale in their sea adventures. Unfortunately, no English subtitles.

We then took the train to Shinjuku, which is apparently one of the busiest stations. That area is where all the shopping is. We didn't really shop but found cheaper food around there.

We stayed at Hotel Villa Fountaine in Shiodome Building. The place was really posh, after all the hotels we stayed in. We had a queen sized bed and we could walk around the room comfortably!

The reason why I chose this hotel is because it is the most affordable hotel near Tsukeji market, which we aimed to go on Saturday morning. Being the weekend and only two batches of 60 visitors allowed per day, we woke at 3am and started walking to Tsukeji Market at 4am. We weren't the first ones there but had made it for the first tour which started at 5:25am.

Dodging fast moving vehicles, we made our way into the freezing hall where the fresh tuna were laid out for inspection:

Armed with a torchlight and a sickle, the buyers inspected the fish by looking at the colour of the meat, hacking off a chunk, pressing it with their fingers and sometimes eating it.

Satisfied with their inspection, the auction began with the ringing of bells which is when the action starts. The auctioneers starts calling out the numbers on the fish with their price (I think) while the buyers indicate their bids by a mere lifting of a finger. It all went pretty quickly, I must say.

We were only allowed in there for about half an hour which flew by quickly. After that, it is highly recommended that we have a fresh sushi breakfast and one of the restaurants recommended in Lonely Planet is Daiwa Sushi. There was a long queue outside and the seatings were cramped with a maximum of perhaps 30 diners in two shops.

As the guide also says, if you're not sure of what to order, just order the set meal, which KS confidently did. The first thing the chef placed on our plates was umi. Now, if you know us, we are not exactly adventurous when it comes to food. Umi looked like some brain or intestine of some creature. I was horrified that I had to eat this and look like I was enjoying it since the chef was right in front of me!

Part of our sushi set. Umi is the orange one in the forefront, the texture not shown clearly in the picture.

I was very proud of KS, the less adventurous, who stuffed it quickly into his mouth and chewed. I tried doing the same but I had to take two mouthfuls instead of one. It didn't taste THAT bad, just that the texture grossed me out (it disintegrated in my mouth). Later we only realized it was sea urchin (which I have once eaten straight from the sea in Bay of Plenty, NZ).

So, there we were, stuffing our faces with raw unknown seafood at 6:30am. Our poor stomachs! Definitely a once-a-lifetime experience. To be honest, I couldn't really tell the difference in terms of freshness nor can I say I absolutely enjoyed this type of sushi. Give me raw salmon anytime but this? Hmm... However, I would consider this one of the highlights of my trip.

Next stop was Ginza, the shopping district. There, I found a large Muji shop and fell in love with the place. It's like discovering Ikea for the first time, just that it has more stuff like food, electrical items, clothes. One can almost build a house with Muji's product offerings!

We then headed to Asakusa to see the Senso-Ji Temple.

The entrance with the distinct huge red lantern in the center.

More lanterns

The Pagoda at Senso-Ji

The next day, we headed to Harajuku in hope of catching sight of the famous Harajuku culture. However, we only saw a couple of girls despite spending the entire day people watching. Our guess is that we went on the wrong day, it should have been a Saturday instead of a Sunday. So Lonely Planet had incorrect information.

Anyway, we visited the Meiji Shrine in Harajuku, a simple wooden structure with hardly any colours except for the beautiful wood. While we were there, there were three weddings going on! Oh, they were the centre of attention from the tourists! We took photos while their family posed for their photo session, captured every step of they took... like paparazzi! So somewhere around the world, these couples have their wedding photos in someone's holiday photo library.

Bridal party moving from one part of the shrine to another, with the couple shaded with the large red umbrella

Of course the whole proceedings took place with much seriousness and ceremony, up to the point of how the bride holds the closed fan in her hands when photos are being taken.

Besides the weddings, there were also many mother-child couples who came to the shrine, fully clothed in traditional clothes. Tourists kept stopping the parents to ask permission to take photos together with their dressed up child.

I must say the ladies look really elegant in their traditional clothes.

Beside the Meiji Shrine, there was a park where we saw the most bizarre collection of activities. I actually saw a group playing lacrosse (which I was looking out for when I went to London, since I've always read it in Enid Blyton's Malary Towers and St Claire's), a girl who brought a mini harp to play with her group of friends, a group of youngsters playacting, another group playing the clarinet to the song of Doraemon, couples doing the salsa at another corner...

A group of guys attempting to play the didgeridoo

Guys having fun beating drums, creating an upbeat atmosphere at the park

This guy was swinging this ball with a tail, amazingly fluid and graceful.

A group of guys and a couple of girls dressed as Elvis and grooving to his music at dusk

We walked away dizzy with such an eclectic mixture of activities from all over the world!

That night we headed to Odaiba, a reclaimed piece of land connected via the Rainbow Bridge which looks like the Brooklyn Bridge.

We were supposed to take the ferry here but missed the last boat

Strangely, there was a Statue of Liberty on Odaiba island too

The next day, we had booked a typical tour to visit Mount Fuji and it's surrounding areas. Unfortunately, the guide was merely functional, merely ushering us from one place to another. I would have loved to hear about Japan, more of it's culture or any information about Japan but the guy hardly spoke. I was comparing him to our Blue Mountains guide who drove AND talked the entire day, from where I learnt eating kangaroo meat is better for the environment. This Mt Fuji guide wasn't even driving, but mainly spoke about administrative stuff.

Our first sight of the majestic Mt Fuji

Yellowing trees! And a part of Mt Fuji at Station 5.

The set lunch was at a nearby hotel: the round labu-like thing is made up of about 4 dishes.

We were then whisked off to Hakone where we took a cable car up to this place where there's sulphuric activity (don't expect a Rotorua, NZ here though). Here, they boil eggs in the hot water springs and because of the sulphur, the eggshells turn black. They believe the number of these eggs you eat will equal the number of years you will live. So if you want to live long, eat a lot more.

Black eggs for sale

Since we didn't have enough time, we didn't manage to visit the place where they actually boiled the eggs. We were hurried down to catch the last pirate boat out to Lake Ashi. As you can tell, I really don't like tours as you don't have the flexibility of deciding what you want to do. But we didn't know how to get to Mt Fuji on our own so we thought a tour would be simpler.

We hurried so much that we had about 20 mins to kill while waiting for the boat to arrive.

On our final day, we headed to Roppongi, a beautiful town within the city. Very modern buildings. Here's the iconic spider structure:

And again, to end my post, here's the Tokyo manhole cover:

Around Kyoto

2011-10-26T19:38:00.002+08:00

Of all the cities we visited in Japan, I personally liked Kyoto the best simply because it wasn't a bustling city. Sure there are stretches of commercial lots but the Kyoto we walked around had old buildings like these:

I think this is a ryokan. The top listed one in TripAdvisor.com. Super expensive but super gorgeous views. Located along a street which KS said he read somewhere to be "the most beautiful street in the world". We actually saw a crane in this stream.

Discreet (and expensive!) eateries

These were taken in Gion. However, both times we were there, the sun had already set so I don't have a good photo to show the cobbled street where the geishas walk every day. And we were lucky, we saw a geisha hurrying out of a diner. This was after a good hour of walking around the area, with a diminishing hope we'd see one. There were heaps of tourists walking around the area, eyeing every single kimono clad lady trying to decipher if she was a geisha. So when I spotted her, I clutched KS's arm and exclaimed, "that's one!" as though we'd just won the lottery.

We stayed at this place called Nagomi Ryokan Yuu. Of course, staying in a traditional house was an experience we didn't want to miss and this was one of the most affordable one we found from the websites. This room was the smallest we stayed in, both ends of the mattress touched the wall. However, this was as per our expectation from the descriptions in various sites so we were fine.

Plus points for this place: staff spoke fluent English, everything is catered to English speaking travellers, there's a kitchen and laundrette, there's free wifi, the reception had the metro day passes so we didn't need to fumble at the stations.

This red umbrella helped us find the place as we walked along the narrow and swiftly darkening sky.

The room with the folded mattress.

Super comfy! I loved that it had free wifi all over the place.

We visited several shrines, each with it's own distinctive feature.

Otowa Waterfall: School kids lined up to drink from one of these streams to bless their studies.

Golden Pavilion: It didn't start out as a shrine but eventually someone made it into a shrine. Amazing to see the sun glinting off the gold walls.

Inari Shrine with its many pathways of these red orange arches.

We also went to Arashiyama, a beautiful little town slightly off Kyoto which we felt was like a vacation town. There's lots of photos on the bridge there, especially in autumn and a large bamboo forest.

Unfortunately, it wasn't autumn enough and the trees were still green.

From Kyoto, we took a day trip to Nara where we passed a park with wild deer. Now, KS heard from Yen that to engage with the deer, you have to do a thumbs up placed on your head, bow and say "Konnichiwa!" and the deer is supposed to bow back to you.

This is KS attempting the "secret signal". He tried this several times on several deer.

This is the response from the deer. "What the...?"

Then we saw this deer nodding and nodding to the shopkeeper until he relented and gave biscuits to chase it away.

At this stage, we realized, like all animals, they would do anything for food. So we bought the biscuits and voila!

At Nara, we went to see the largest wooden structure in the world. This building, like most shrines and castles we visited, was rebuilt and is only 2/3 of the original size, housing a HUGE bronze Buddha statue.

Just like the computer game Karateka

One thing about Kyoto though is that the train systems are horrible. We bought a metro day pass but was later told we could only use it on one or two lines when there were about 4-5 lines. So we spent a lot on transport here. And most places we visited required us to walk quite a fair bit and take buses which can be quite daunting if you're not sure which ones to take.

Food was also difficult to find, since we were on a budget. We ended up eating at the Kyoto station quite a few times which had good food offerings. We had the worst meal ever in Nara though. Mine was a curry udon which was unpalatable and this was the only meal I could not finish.

And again, here are the manhole covers:

Manhole covers in Nara feature the deer.

Kyoto manhole covers has the shuriken in the centre.

Osaka, Japan

2011-10-21T23:36:00.004+08:00

After a month of intensive planning, we went, saw and conquered Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo in about 10 days. This trip has required the most intense planning for us because:
1. We covered 3 cities
2. In a language we knew nothing, in characters we don't understand
3. A myriad of train choices crawling across the cities, some with almost similar sounding stations, with different types of ticket choices and a combination of them all. For Tokyo, I found two separate train maps, one for the Japan Railway tracks and one for the Metro tracks. And, we needed to buy the Japan Rail Pass before we got there.

Let me just say we had an Excel spreadsheet according to day and hours, where we wanted to go, what stations would get us there (together with interchanges), how much it would cost for the transport (Hyperdia is a fantastic help!) and in total, which train combination ticket would have been the most cost saving. Another great website for planning is Japan Guide.

First stop was Osaka, a vibrant city teeming with young, trendy and gorgeously dressed girls. We stayed in the heart of the action, Shinsaibashi. Almost 99% of the girls were beautifully made up, wore fashionable clothes and shoes. I really stood out in my t-shirt, jeans and sports shoes. And make-up-less face.

Some shots of Osaka and where we went (other pictures on my Facebook and Flickr):

The moat around Osaka Castle

Osaka Castle

Osaka Castle - there was some dancing competition going on

People came out in droves bringing their dogs. This lady brought her rabbit to watch the performances.

Umeda Sky Building elevator-bridge encased in glass. Wasn't as frightening as I thought. We went right up to the top to enjoy the Osaka skyline.

Experimented with my camera using miniature. Looks like a toy city right? Like those tiny models of a new housing project.

Visited the Aquarium which was, okay. I think I still prefer Singapore's Sentosa one. They had a sun fish in this tank too but couldn't get a good shot of it. This giant stingray was doing flips up and down the tank.

More fish. No need to go scuba. And frankly, I won't want to with a shark around.

Sat the Ferris wheel located just beside the aquarium. Japanese seem to like these Ferris wheel as we saw quite a few of them across the country.

Flowers and heartfelt thanks to Steve Jobs in front of the Osaka Apple Store.

Dotonbori - famous Glico Man at the bridge. Shopping street packed with people.

We stayed in Hearton Hotel which took us 30 minutes of walking around, dragging our luggage trying to get our bearings (but once you find it, it's SO near the metro station). This branch was in Shinsaibashi, the heart of the shopping area and would be the nearest hotel to a station that we stayed.

Small rooms but it was comfortable and had wifi in the lounge. Included in our deal was breakfast which gave us a choice of Japanese or Western breakfast. I tried both and um, preferred Western because the Japanese meal consisted of dry pan fried salmon with rice. A bit too dry to my taste. The Western meal had egg and a gorgeously thick crispy toast which sparked a craving for toast with butter since I've returned.

The bed measured 120cm across. We just didn't turn when we slept.

After Osaka, we headed off to Himeji for a day trip. Activating our 7-day JR Pass, we asked the station master which train headed to Himeji and was told to wait at a certain platform.

The Shinkansen

The train came soon after but then I realized we were standing where the green car (which I remembered to be some first class seats) stopped. Not wanting to risk having the doors close on us, we quickly got in, found the car to be quite empty and sat down.

Green Car logo

Seats in the Green Car

After a few minutes, we realized we were violating three rules of our JR Pass:

1. We were in the Nozomi train (the fastest train) which is not allowed on a JR Pass

2. We were in the Green Car

3. Those were reserved seats and we didn't make any reservations even if we could!

We decided to buat tak tau.Thankfully, the guy who came to check our tickets merely asked where we were heading and nodded pleasantly to us. Trip took us only about 30 mins. Wow! I fell in love with the Shinkansen then.

Unfortunately, the Himeji Castle is still under construction.

There was a room that held the various types of armoury. Inspiration of Darth Vadar.

It was gloomy in Himeji. Other than the Himeji Castle, we walked around some gardens just beside it.

There were stray cats at the castle and this guy came to feed them rice. Japanese cat eating rice.

Japanese Garden

From Osaka, we headed to Kyoto, making sure we didn't get into a Nozomi train again.

Also, I noticed every city had interesting manhole covers:

Manhole covers in Osaka, depicting the Osaka Castle.

Himeji manhole cover depicting... river and lilies? No idea the significance.

By the way, KS did a fantastic job in detailing where we went.

Dinner @ Carcosa

2011-10-19T20:10:00.003+08:00

Carcosa Seri Negara, a majestic British building in the heart of KL. We like to introduce it as "the place where Queen E stayed when she came to Malaysia some decades back". It still offers stately rooms and has a dining room which most people go for weekend brunch, sitting in the morning sun and sipping tea with English treats.

I've had the opportunity to come here several times for company functions. Every time I'm there, I fall in love with the architecture. Haven't had the chance to take photos of it in good lighting as yet.

My most recent visit was just recently, when I dined there. One can assume that eating at Carcosa would cost an arm and a leg, since it's fine dining in the midst of such luxury.

Okay, for a spot of promotion, with UOB credit cards, one can dine there for merely RM168++ for dinner for two. Yes, dine at this gorgeous place for less than RM200 per couple. This promotion is called Chef Creation whereby 20 top chefs around KL offer a tailor made menu for the price of RM88++ for lunch and RM168++ for dinner per couple.

The cozy dining room.

A nook in the dining room with large windows

For Carcosa, there are two dinner menus. One is the Western option and the other is the Malay menu. One couple can order one of each and sample each other's food (gasp! A faux pas in fine dining, no?). Since my friend Regina and I were there to sample the food, we disregarded this rule and dove into each other's meals.

Freshly baked crusty bun with a slice of butter

The food started to arrive and we were entertained by this charming man who politely asked our permission to "make some noise" and played the piano throughout our meal. Sigh. Wonderful!

Ravioli with clam and chive creamy sauce

The sup kambing for the Malay set arrived but because we were visited by Chef Nazri himself, I was a little shy to take photos in front of him. The lamb soup was very good, full of spices.

The asam pedas mixed seafood platter. Slightly spicy for me but I loved it.

The beef medallion with herb crust and potato au gratin as the main for the Western meal.

Sago pandan gula melaka soaking in rich santan with vanilla ice cream. I usually never eat sago but I was almost fighting Reg to finish this one. She good-naturedly gave me a bigger share of this. :) It had cubes of mango too!

The delicious tiramisu to end the Western meal. Just the right amount to leave you thinking you'd come back for more.

All in all, it was a wonderful meal and we finished every crumb and drop. I had the preference for the Malay menu since it's not often I have Malay fine dining. Absolutely loved the ambience. Highly recommended.

Now to convince KS to go try out the other places before promotion ends 31 December!

RIP Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T20:30:00.001+08:00

When Grace whatsapp-ed me this morning that Jobs passed away, KS and I were instantly disbelieving. "Sure or not?" were our first reactions.

The devastating news was quickly verified via Twitter. The day grew dim with grief.

My family had the Apple IIe when it first came out and now I'm typing this post via my iPhone.

Thank you for changing and impacting the world, Steve Jobs. You were gone too soon and will be sorely missed.

Sisters Day

2011-10-01T20:35:00.003+08:00

On a happier note, I just attended the youth's Sisters Day. Thought I'd pop in to see how it was organized since the last one I attended was decades ago. Brothers Day and Sisters Day is usually celebrated amongst the youth in church to appreciate one another.

*With an old croaking voice* Back in my day, the girls would prepare something special for the boys for Brothers Day and vice versa for Sisters Day. Usually it would be skits, games and gifts with loads of laughter.

Today, the guys prepared seats for the gals with the rules that only girls get to sit, decorated the hall with purple pinkish helium balloons, sang songs with a full band (like pros! And with changes to the lyrics which had the girls in laughter), hilarious skits and a lovely door gift. The guys had to stand all around the hall and be at the beck and call of the girls by serving them cakes and drinks.

Pastor spoke from Titus 2: 1-8 and explained why this Sisters Day was revived after so long, that the guys want to set the example of showing respect and reverence, not to be slanderers/gossip mongers and lastly to show love to one another.

Really appreciate their effort into preparing for this day. DUMC XYZ rawks!

Apple Vacations Travel Agency

2011-10-01T17:34:00.001+08:00

So far with all my travels, I have always avoided going through a travel agent because everything is conveniently online. Flight tickets, hotel bookings, even booking for tours can be purchased online.

For our upcoming Japan trip, as usual, everything has been purchased online except the Japan Rail Pass (JR Pass). One can only buy this overseas cheaply otherwise it will cost a bomb if you were to purchase when you're in Japan. And it is only available from very select agencies.

My friends immediately directed me to Apple Vacations who position themselves as the Japan experts tour agents. I saw from their website that they have the JR Pass, a Mt Fuji tour and travel insurance which I am interested to purchase and decided to go to them.

I shall just summarize my experience and leave this tip in the event you wish to use them:
1. They don't reply emails despite following up. Call may result in them saying, "We'll get back to you on your email" but don't expect them to revert.
2. They don't come across as being knowledgeable about their products (by being unable to tell me more about their products except from what is on their website).
3. They will charge 3% for using credit cards as payment. Mind you, for purchases in thousands, this is not a small amount. If you wish to avoid this charge, please bring cash or cheque. If you bring cash, bear in mind you're walking around Bukit Bintang (where their office is located) with a load of cash on you.

Armed with these expectations, you should be okay dealing with them if you are prepared to accept all of the above. But for me, discovering all these in a short period of time was truly disappointing. I only bought the JR Pass because I found the same Mt Fuji tour cheaper on Viator and I'd rather pay more to buy my insurance online than give them the extra sale.

I did think that with the internet convenience, business for travel agents would be affected and they would surely need to up their service in order to differentiate themselves. My bad.

Lion King in Singapore

2011-09-24T10:34:00.002+08:00

When my parents came back from Canada more than 5 years ago, they insisted we make an effort to go watch the Lion King, the theatre production if we had the chance.

When we went to London in 2009, they reminded KS and I to try catch the show but we ended up watching We Will Rock You instead (which was absolutely fun!).

So when The Lion King came to Singapore and before it ended its run, KS and I decided to go catch it and do our annual Singapore trip.

We booked into the Ibis Hotel in Novena via Hotels.com and was pleasantly surprised by the well planned room. Clean, sufficiently equipped with really tiny stuff which I don't normally use like the smallest fridge I've ever seen, small wardrobe, small kettle but they were generous when it came to things that mattered like a huge TV, comfy pillows and free wifi. It's about a 10-12 minute walk to Novena MRT station which was slightly less than 1km away.

First stop we made was to meet up with Jan and make our way to:

Despite my frequent trips to Singapore when I was younger, I never got the chance to go to the Night Safari. So this was a treat. It was great having to see the animals actually moving rather than us trying to whistle, cajole and call out to make them flicker during the normal zoo hours. I couldn't take much photos but here are some:

Cute zebra chairs

This tiger here was the highlight of our trip because it was sitting right at the viewing glass. Some kid was toddling in front of it when it got annoyed and tried to smite the kid down with its giant paw. Everyone then gave it a respectable distance despite the glass. Jan and I then went right in front of it and I tried to offer the back of my hand. But every time I did, it snarled. So yeah, certified wild.

In the end, it got bored, turned around and started drinking as seen here.

Bus stop at the Night Safari

By the time we got back, it was past midnight.

Next day was spent admiring the Marina Bay Sands building and the surrounding buildings.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel

The "Boat" on top of the three buildings

Oh, and of course our jumping shots.

The failed Merlion jump in front of the Durian. KS looks like he's in pain.

Marina Bay Sands: Reminds me of the British Museum

Glass ceiling at the British Museum

Okay, okay, it also looks like the Musee de Orsay

Anyway, KS and I caught our 2pm matinee for the Lion King there.

The verdict? It was good! I won't say mind blowing because we already know the story line and we were went in with pretty high expectations. Still, I enjoyed myself, especially when they performed some of my favourite songs from a cassette I bought right after the cartoon came out in the 90s, Rhythm of the Pride Lands.

The costumes were outstanding (I liked that the guy playing Zazu wore a bowler hat, very British! Or the little contraption for the heads of Mufasa and Scar) and I loved it when Rafiki spoke in er... a foreign language with all the tongue clicking sounds. She had such a powerful voice too! The kid who played young Simba was also simply amazing! Stole our hearts.

Feeling happy right after the show, we indulged in some cupcakes:

Mahal gile!

And again with Hummingbird cake the next day :)

After such a lovely time in Singapore, we took our First Coach bus back to Malaysia, a most comfortable ride (plus I managed to watch four episode of Bones on my personal screen!). However, it made an unfortunate pit stop at Macap along the highway. The place was swarming with flies!

See the little black dots?

Of course over a hundred came along into the bus and followed us back to KL.

Welcome back to Malaysia! Sigh.

Water Heating Solar Panels

2011-09-15T14:57:00.001+08:00

I believe I have said this before but this tip needs reiterating: if you are installing solar panels for heating water in your house, please, PLEASE have a backup heater somewhere.

In twitter, I would hashtag this as
#anothercoldmorningshower

The Ho Girls

2011-09-06T19:25:00.001+08:00

When we were in Melaka recently, I told Aunty Jancey I had the photo with her three girls playing "dead". So I went into my files and found photos of the girls which I don't think I've ever shared. So here goes.

L-R: Georgia, Sherrie & Datin - Perth 2007

The gorgeous girls & I - Perth 2007

Sherrie & Georgia - Singapore, 2010

Bang! Bang! Bang! All 3 playing dead.

Sadly, Sherrie passed on a month or so ago, the tai ka che of them. She was the disciplined one, the one ready to protect her sisters, plead with Aunty Jancey to stop punishing her sisters whenever they misbehaved. I've seen this, placing her paw onto Aunty Jancey's scolding hand and looking pleadingly into her eyes.

I remember when we went to a beach in Perth back in 2003 and she was my charge. A simple "Heel!" and her nose would almost bump into my ankle as we walked. It was an amazing feeling, which I, alas, can't seem to find the right words. Like a... connectedness... like we belonged to each other, which I've never felt with any other dog before. Thank you Sherrie for that experience.

Our trip to Melaka was also the first time we met 6 month old Dawn, the new addition to the family.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Dawn Ho, cross between a husky mother and a beagle father. The only time I could take photos of her was when she was tired out from all the running around the whole day. Here she was trying to sleep while I disturbed her by taking micro shots of her nose.

Eventually she ignored me and continued sleeping.

Here she was probably dreaming up what next to destroy because the next day she destroyed some furniture. Little rascal! We love her to bits!

Raya & Merdeka Break

2011-09-04T01:10:00.000+08:00

Over the Raya and Merdeka holidays, KS and I joined our church's conference which was held in Kampar. It was a good time of deep sharing from our Senior Pastor Daniel, good fun time when everyone let their hair down and performed skits and songs as well as going to Adeline's Rest House again for white water rafting. I didn't do the rafting since I've already gone and fell off twice before but went along to enjoy the company and great food.

The last time I didn't manage to get photos of the white water rafting so here are some:

Safety briefing before gearing up

Everyone gets released into the rapids to practice in case we fall out of the raft.

Being rescued after struggling against the current

We stayed in the same hotel I did when I went caving in Kampar in 2008, The Grand Kampar Hotel. This was the photo I took of a row of shophouses beside the hotel back then:

So just last week, we were back in the same hotel for our church's getaway and the building looks a lot more faded and sadly, still as unoccupied:

After the conference, KS and I decided to pop into Ipoh to pay a visit to his grandma. Using our seldom-used GPS, we passed by Kellie's Castle and decided to take a detour. I'm glad we did because I've heard about this unfinished castle since young but never bothered to visit. Here's the version of the history we read when we were there but Wiki says something else.

It would have been tremendously grand, had it been completed since there's still quite none like such a structure in Batu Gajah. Terribly ambitious too with the proposed elevator which would have been the first in the land then and a rooftop built for parties. I could not walk anywhere near the edges of this - eep!

I loved the secret escape routes (tiny stairs from all bathrooms on the second floor), a materialization of Enid Blyton's mystery books on castles or manors with secret passageways!

One of the narrow staircases leading from the bathroom onto the grounds of the castle

Apparently there are three underground tunnels that lead away from the castle, one to the temple which William Kellie Smith built nearby. I didn't see where they were located but one small room was sealed from public eyes.

All in all, I rather enjoyed the short exploration of this place although the story behind it is quite tragic.

And to end this post, we kept seeing this billboard along the highway:

Who celebrates their 50th Anniversary in 2039 when we're still in 2011?? Well, apparently, they do.

Levitations

2011-08-27T13:06:00.000+08:00

KS introduced me to this blog by this Japanese girl who does awesome levitation shots. Here are some of my favourite:

It's funny that she's dressed up to vacuum!

She looks so composed and relaxed as she does her jumps! Next level of our jumping shots?

Pray for Malaysia

2011-08-13T10:34:00.000+08:00

My church was recently illegally raided two weeks ago and since then, there have been a lot of issues brought up to further divide and ostracise the non-Muslims in this country, creating fear with the "you better don't touch us" attitude. The most recent one being the local papers being hauled up for questioning because they published an advertisement of a non-halal restaurant in their write up on Ramadhan.

But I do believe that these people driving the divide are only a handful, which unfortunately, are the ones on top. Whether they are the ruling party or the opposition, they both have these handful of people at the top.

This isn't the Malaysia I came to love was when all united on the 9th of July this year for the Bersih demonstrations. The heartwarming testimonies of how everyone helped one another regardless of creed, race or religion must continue to rise above what is happening these few weeks.

While we expect more accusations as those in authority design their excuse for the raid, we continue to hope and pray that Malaysia will heal without further aggravations. Pray with us.

Another Lesson On Flight Booking Learnt

2011-08-13T09:58:00.002+08:00

A couple of days ago, KS and I decided we really needed a holiday before the end of the year. We settled for Japan. Before we had time to sort out the details as to when we'd be travelling, where exactly we'd like to go within Japan, the AirAsia launched their maiden flight deals to Osaka and local travel fair descended upon us.

Flight prices were slashed and suddenly, travelling with a non-budget airline became a fairly affordable option. I was on the verge of booking a return flight to Osaka when KS told me to hang on and I remembered my last mistake of buying an air flight to Perth on the spur of the moment.

So instead, what happened this time? I bought a one way ticket to Osaka with MAS and as I was going to buy a one way ticket back from Tokyo, I realized there wasn't a promotion for the flight back. Instead, I would be paying more than two times the amount for my flight there! So, for a few hours while I waited for the MAS helpline to call me back, there was a general panic and I had with me a one way ticket to Japan.

Unfortunately, MAS does not allow an upgrade of their sold tickets, which I think is ridiculous. I was trying to convert my one way ticket into a return flight but with the deal that was currently being offered. Instead, I was forced to buy an AirAsia ticket back from Tokyo, which, thankfully was only a few hundred Ringgit more than the promotional price for MAS.

Sigh. All in all, we're on for Japan at last. Now to go hunt for what on earth we're supposed to do there!

On a side note, KS actually Googled "should I go to Japan?" when we were about to decide buying our flight tickets. Whatever happened to the good ol' flip the coin to make your life decisions?!

Mint Condition

2011-07-30T12:58:00.000+08:00

There's this somewhat strange trend that is happening in my office that is linked to a growing stack of metal cases from a particular brand of mint called Eclipse. So far it is confined to one particular department within my office.

It began last year, when these two colleagues who frequently buys this mint started collecting the tins it came in. One of them resigned, let's call him A, and he passed this collection to his other colleague B. Shortly after, B resigned and passed it to C. C kept it for a while at her desk and not long after, she also resigned, bequeathing the collection to D.

To cut it short, the current owner is G (the 7th owner) and he also very recently tendered his resignation, moving on to greener pastures. Now, this all happened within 14 months and this department has a headcount of only 6.

As you can imagine, it is frustrating for the head of the department (who also changed 3 times now, but not part of the 7 involved in this collection) to keep finding replacements and for the rest of us to have our work disrupted while these changes take place.

So, in order to stop G from passing it on to his other colleagues in his team, I have firmly and sacrificially taken on the collection and do not intend to pass it on. Unless, of course, if anything unforeseen were to happen to my current employment status.

I Survived!

2011-07-28T23:28:00.000+08:00

One good thing about Groupon is that you get to buy stuff you never thought you'd buy and try. Well, when I signed up, there was this pole exercise class that was being offered for RM12 for an hour's class with Viva Vertical. I mean, why not for a mere RM12 for an experience to try to find out if it perhaps could be the form of exercise that I truly enjoyed?

So I got my colleague to agree going for this class with me. Let me tell you, this was my first ever Groupon I bought and this was way back in March. The Groupon expires in 3 days. Yup. Procrastinator.

Anyway, we finally went to their Desa Sri Hartamas studio for their Fit Pole class and thank goodness, there was only one other student there. A Venezuelan lady who looked extremely fit! The instructor was half my size so I felt really... large. Nevertheless, we excitedly waited for the class to begin.

I must tell you, I can somewhat count the number of times I've exercised in the last one year. On one finger - my badminton game some time last year. I was already winded by just the warming up exercises.

Pole dancing, or I'd rather refer to it as pole exercise, is an exercise that works your arm muscles as we had to hang on to the poles as we swirled around it. However, my grip kept either slipping or I was holding on too tightly to be able to swirl around properly. The instructor was very patient and encouraging though. And by the end of the hour, we had practised half a routine. With the music, though, I was more like running around the pole trying to catch up!

Would I do it again? I'm not too sure. While it is different and now my muscles feel pain (the good kinda pain like you know you've exercised them well), my body is too tense to be able to flow with the rhythm. This exercise needs strength, flexibility, grace and poise. A long way to go for someone like me!

In a way, I compare it to rock climbing where you also use the arm muscles but minus the finesse and grace required. My colleague enjoyed it though.

Go watch a sample on YouTube and you'll see that they're all just muscles. Amazing! Without the Groupon, walk-ins are charged RM50 for an hour's sample class.

I shall now crawl off to suffer for a few days with an aching body.

So Sweet!

2011-07-24T01:03:00.001+08:00

A couple of days ago, I bought a rather expensive slice of red velvet cake at lunch, hoping to consume it for tea at work. However, still full from a heavy lunch, I decided to bring it along to dinner and hopefully share it with my family.

That night, we went to a hawker shop to have dinner and had a filling meal. Upon reaching home, I realized I left my slice of cake at the shop and was thoroughly dismayed at my carelessness. My dad offered to follow me back and I drove there as quickly as I could. Sure enough, the people had cleared the table and threw away the box with the sliced cake, thinking it was rubbish.

I was quite sad, although I had mentally prepared myself that it would not be there.

Upon seeing my disappointment, my nephew Cameron came downstairs from his room, sneaked over to his wallet and handed me a RM5 note at an arm's length, saying he was sorry for my lost cake and the money was to help ease the sadness.

It was really so sweet of him and I really couldn't take his money of course. So I just thanked him and told him I really couldn't take the money from him. He then slowly went upstairs back to his room.

Shortly thereafter, my sister Grace came down and explained his conversation with her. He basically felt very bad for me losing my cake and wanted to give me RM10 but he only had a RM50 and a RM5 note in his wallet so Grace told him to just go ahead and offer the RM5. Then he expressed his concern, that he didn't want me to "manja" him for giving me the money i.e. hug and kiss him. So Grace assured him I'm not really the hugging and kissing kind of a person.

Hence his arm length stance when offering me the money.

So after our encounter, he went up and reported that I did not kiss or hug him. But then he felt rejected! Hahaha! So sweet!

************

Sorry, I meant to say he felt rejected for me not taking the money. O.o Now what was I supposed to do?

Clean & Fair Elections

2011-07-13T18:55:00.000+08:00

For the past couple of weeks, my twitter and FaceBook were abuzz with only one thing: Bersih 2.0. Bersih 2.0, for those who don't know, is an organization spearheaded by a brave and amazing lady Ambiga Sreenevasan, who's agenda is to push for free and fair elections in Malaysia.

Naturally, the ruling government opposed this movement, claiming there is nothing wrong with the current system despite many discrepancies in the electoral roll which the Election Commission of Malaysia could not provide proper answers to.

And naturally, the opposition party jumped onto the bandwagon and somewhat hijacked it to a point that many thought Bersih 2.0 was organized by the opposition. Still, most knew this is not about the ruling or opposition party, but the fight for fair elections for Malaysia.

So it was planned that there would be a rally on 9 July 2011 (Bersih 1.0 was held in 2007 and was said to be so successful that it brought many losses to the ruling party during the elections in 2008). The theme colour was yellow. Now that the next general election is rumoured to be coming up, it may cross the ruling party's minds that history would repeat itself and they would be in trouble in the next elections. Hence, there was a clampdown days prior to the planned rally.

The King actually stepped into the foray and granted an audience to Ambiga, requesting that the rally be held in a stadium where it would be more controlled. She accepted, since the Prime Minister also gave the same suggestion. Having cornered her into an agreement with the King, the PM then rejected any use of any stadium and the Home Minister continued declaring Bersih as illegal.

This didn't stop the people supporting this cause and despite the ridiculous efforts and obstacles thrown at discouraging people from coming, Malaysians took to the streets on 9 July. People wearing the shirts (heck, even people wearing yellow!) were arrested. A group of silat experts had apparently threatened to appear and well, promised to do what they did best, but did not turn up. A couple of other groups promised to march and cause disruption to the rally only managed to fizzle out with a handful of supporters. So, Bersih 2.0 became a peaceful rally, with people from all walks of life united with one purpose.

The stories that have appeared on my twitter timeline on Saturday were very moving. Tear gas and water canons only made the supporters more united as they helped one another. Old and young, abled and disabled were all there. There were no race differentiation. These are the true Malaysians, no racial divide. The rally not only garnered support locally but it took place worldwide, starting from Melbourne and Sydney (or was it Japan?) and ended in San Fran.

Feeling warm and fuzzy from all the personal stories on social media, it was with bad aftertaste when the mainstream media had very biased reports immediately after. It made me realize that folks who do not have social media do not actually know an alternative news. If change were to happen, there needs to be more awareness and it certainly won't come from the mainstream media.

Here are a few blogs which described the event. Suanie, Marina Mahathir ... there are just so many out there. And for the top tweets on #bersihstories, click here.

Anyway, I am one of those who feel proud to be Malaysian now, a feeling that was evasive during the ra-ra of the 1Malaysia mantra preached by the PM years ago.

Scaring My Hubby

2011-06-28T19:11:00.003+08:00

Last night I slept in the spare room as I am still unwell and didn't want to disturb KS with my coughs. At 3am, I was awoken by squealing rats from the back lane of my house. For some reason, I rushed to the master bedroom where KS just so happened to be up taking a pee, I started asking him in panic if he has seen the "box". I was wildly gesturing, eyes wide and bloodshot, my fingers splayed showing him the size of the "box".

KS panicked and asked me, "What thing? You mean the cat? She's downstairs!" when I vehemently said, "No, no, not the cat. There's 5 of them." I paused and suddenly it sunk in that we do not have any other pets. So I just turned away and said, "Never mind. It's ok." and walked back to the other room to continue my sleep.

KS stood outside the door in total bewilderment and kept asking what it was and I kept asking him to forget it. Then, as I lay down, I realized I was actually asking him if our 5 Mogwai were safe since I heard the squealing. I laughed and went to explain to him.

Picture taken off the net

As you can imagine, KS was lying wide eyed and wondering what on earth happened. So he was mighty glad I wasn't:

a. Possessed

b. Suddenly sleepwalking

c. Going insane

Over the weekend, I was humming the song to this old Apple IIe game I used to love to play called Gremlins. I posted it here some time back and spoke to quite a few people of my era, yet no one else seems to recall this game other than the usual Lode Runner, Pac Man etc. So I did a quick search on Google to find out if anyone else remembered it. Hence, it must have stuck somewhere at the back of my mind.

He's not letting me off this one in a hurry.

Like Dominoes

2011-06-26T21:54:00.000+08:00

Towards the end of our trip to China, one of us got ill, runny nose, sore throat and cough. We thought nothing of it. After all, there were 27 of us and well, getting a runny nose etc is fairly common.

Until we all got back. The next two days, at least 6 of us (from Perth to Melaka to Masjid Tanah to PJ) also started having the same symptoms. No fever but you feel lethargic. After that wave hit, I think (and hope!) I'm the last one to get this super bug.

Bleearrrgghhhh.... stuffed and runny nose causing a mental block. Meds doesn't seem to work. Maybe I'll go back tomorrow to ask for a stronger dose.

China - The Expected

2011-06-20T23:10:00.012+08:00

Here are some shots of China which I kind of expected to see.

I was expecting to answer nature's call in nature itself, amongst the bushes but thank goodness, I didn't have to encounter that. My umbrella was used for rain instead of shielding myself as I had expected. However, I did come across those famous doorless toilets and I am glad to say somehow, I just didn't quite feel like going when I was faced with such a toilet.

One strange thing about the toilets in China is that there's a waste paper basket in each stall. Basically, you are supposed to throw your used toilet paper into these baskets. So, imagine if you will, as you squat over the toilet with the basket fairly close to your face, your eyes will be drawn to it's contents and you will automatically hold your breath as it would be less than a few feet away from your nostril.

Then of course, there is their famous Engrish. There were so many, from labelling watermelon as matermelon or honey melon as hamimelon, I didn't bother to take so many photos but here are a few:

At the 6-star hotel we stayed in Mei Zhou. An unexpected feeling!

Still at the same hotel, sign beside a bridge.

At another hotel where they were hosting the Koreans who were there for the Subaru Cup. Notice how they tried to change the spelling.

Another thing I noticed was that there is no Ground floor. The basement is called "-1"

In the city of Mei Zhou, there were two lions flanking the entrances of some businesses. Facing them, the one on the right would have it's mouth open while the other one has it's mouth closed. Our guide explained the open mouth was to bring in the money while the closed mouth was to keep it in. Didn't manage to take a photo of this.

And finally, I encountered people who would get their kids to urinate on cement or tiled floors or a pillar at the airport right in front of everyone, despite having a toilet or some bushes nearby. So these are the sort of things I've been warned about and that I have witnessed.

************************************

Actually, I remember one thing good about the toilets in China. Some had pedals to activate the flush, which I thought was brilliant since most folks "geli" to touch the lever/button to flush.

China - Family Matters

2011-06-19T18:31:00.002+08:00

As explained in my previous post, our recent trip to China was to witness the opening ceremony of the refurbished ancestral home in Mei Zhou. Relatives from Indonesia, Malaysia and of course, China, gathered on the 12th and 13th of June 2011 to officiate the ceremony.

Planned by the Chinese relatives and funded mainly by the Indonesian relatives, the whole affair was officiated in a very grand manner. Firstly, a large bus, a mini bus and two cars ferrying relatives were led by an outrider from Mei Zhou town into the village, which was about a 30-45 minutes drive.

As we approached the village, you can imagine the convoy attracted a lot of attention but that was nothing compared to what we were going to experience next. Upon arrival, the roads were immediately blocked on both sides to allow us to alight and cross the road in safety. Even an ambulance had to stop until we were safely ushered into the smaller road.

And when I say ushered, I mean with two lion dances, a band lined up along both sides of the road, a gun firing vehicle and exploding firecrackers.

The band, the lion dances and the gun firing vehicle on the far right.

Closer look at the "guns"

Here's a video captured while we tried to gather everyone to walk along the lane towards the home. My jaw just dropped from the sheer magnitude of this. Felt like we were superstars!

There were large helium balloons, an air pumped gateway, flags erected, lanterns, huge supply of firecrackers, 1-hour fireworks for three nights (you know, the kind that shoots high up into the sky and explodes into different patterns. It lasted for an hour on the first night. We didn't stay long enough to time the second night.), abundance of food...

Firecracker content from one box

There were at least 6 spots where the firecrackers were set off. This was the supply for one spot.

How one spot looked like after the firecrackers

Food being prepared on the spot. Health officials actually came by to check !

Food preparation for 150 tables for lunch on Day 2

The hour-long fireworks display

Besides the ceremony of placing the ancestral tablets into the prayer hall, the days were spent visiting relatives like an extended Chinese New Year celebration, eating, giving speeches and entertainment.

Speech by the Indonesian counterpart

Speech by the Malaysian counterpart

A portion of the Malaysian group

Some Chinese and Malaysian relatives

The whole Malaysian contingent

Since I could only speak English, I spoke to some grand nephews and nieces (yup) from Indonesia. KS belongs to the 23rd generation while these guys are from the 25th generation. They are about the same age as us and some of them already have kids. They had to call the 2 year old baby in our Malaysian group as Uncle. Looks like we have a lot of catching up to do.

The four guys standing are KS grand nephews

It was great being able to connect with them and hopefully we'll keep in touch.

On the second night, a stage was erected and there was an entertainment show organized with singing, dancing, some traditional, some modern. The entire village showed up.

Our Malaysian clan was well represented by nephew Yueh Ren who performed two traditional songs and gained fans that night. He's performed in South Korea too and some other parts of the region, by the way, so he's no novice!

The Indonesians gamely went up and performed a Mandarin song.

This is roughly the layout of the house:

The semi-circle rooms at the back is built upon a hill to prevent invasions so the height of the structure hugs the hill. Sorry for the comparison but it kind of reminds me of the Chinese graveyard, which is the best way I know how to describe it. The semi-circle pond in front is a feng shui thing for every Hakka home.

There were many long hours in between so we amused ourselves with jumping shots as usual.

New recruit! Yueh Ren joined in the fun. After jumping, an amused man came up to us and asked if this was our first time here. Another lady then came up and offered us some food.

And another new recruit, KS cousin :)

We certainly had a lot of fun this trip!

China - Touristy Stuff

2011-06-18T22:45:00.003+08:00

We recently had the opportunity to visit KS ancestral village in Mei Zhou, China to attend the opening ceremony of the newly restored ancestral home. The home was derelict and in shambles, a decision was made by the relatives to repair and restore the place. The main portion that needed immediate attention was the the prayer hall which contained the ancestors prayer tablets (used for ancestral worship). However, although there is no one staying at the house any more, it was decided that the entire home be upgraded and so the task of repairing the place started a couple of years ago.

So when the place was completed, relatives from Indonesia and Malaysia were invited to attend the opening ceremony which was nothing short of grand. We had an amazing 27-28 relatives from Indonesia and 27-28 relatives from Malaysia who attended this event.

When we reached Guang Zhou, we whisked off on a coach for 2 hours to this place called He Yuan, where a dinosaur egg was found floating along the river years ago. There, we visited an 800 year old Hakka village where people still stay and live like the olden days.

The lanes were laid with smooth stones which were worn down over the centuries that I couldn't resist but walk bare feet.

After that, we were taken to see what used to be the tallest fountain in er... Asia? China? I can't remember. Instead, I spotted this structure which reminded me of the boat in Spirited Away.

The next day, the coach took another 4 hours to get to Mei Zhou where we met up with relatives from China for lunch and then the Indonesians for dinner. In between, we visited an old temple and also another historical place about this person who helped with some uprising. Sorry. Everything was in Mandarin, and the English translations took longer for me to understand so I gave up. All I know was that this guy came to Ipoh to get funds to help with his cause.

After that, we had the ceremony which I will blog about in a separate post.

The last few days were spent shopping and visiting more historical places like a lake which had some story of a man who dreamt of his dead wife visiting him while completely soaked until he built a bridge for her to cross the lake, the very well maintained Opium War museum (if that is what it's called) and the riverbank where the canons which were used to fight against the um, British? Crap. As you can see, my blog entry will be full of inaccuracies. (Wait! KS has done research and gotten the correct names for the places we visited! Yay!)

A really tall bridge near where the canons are located

A horizontal tree growing across the lake at Su Embankment

Gateway to the Lake

Opium War Museum

We also had to be taken to the shop that sells medicine and jade, one of the government requirements for all tours to China. Ushered into a room, we were given displays of unique selling presentations, from frightening guests by looking at them and saying, "I can tell from your face you have problems with your kidneys" to "My wife finally just gave birth to a boy after having 7 girls, so I want to celebrate by giving you a piece of jade as a token of blessings".

Room view of the Pearl River in Guang Zhou on our last night

Our tour guide, Xiao Qu, and the bus driver who was too shy to take this photo, with the bus.

All in all, I enjoyed myself being in the company of KS relatives. However, if I were to ever go back to China for another tour, I would join one that has an English speaking guide because I probably only got 10% of what was explained. Translations went from Mandarin to Cantonese (which I also struggle with) and occasionally into English until we shifted places to sit near KS mum. Only then was I less embarrassed to keep asking what the guide was saying.

Visit from Canada

2011-05-29T19:41:00.000+08:00

My aunt and uncle from Canada visited us recently and it was really good to catch up with them. :) My uncle is amazing, he had contacts of his friends whom he hasn't met in over 40 years, all in a little notebook he carried around. So every day, he would meet up with one of his friends, schoolmates, ex-colleagues, neighbours and I even discovered I have a god-uncle!

See the guy in black and his wife beside him? He was my parents page boy when they got married. And that was the last time they saw him. In 1968. I kid you not. When my uncle contacted him, his wife was like, "I never knew you had a god-brother!".

His family were neighbours with my Mum and Uncle when they stayed in Melaka back then and he apparently used to stay over at their place quite frequently. So they are now in the Klang Valley and my parents finally have his contact. Wow!

Also managed to catch up quite a fair bit with my uncle. He came over to visit my new place and we chatted for an hour. He was passionately sharing about how proud he was of his kids, how well they are all doing, how proud he was to see the work of their hands. KS and I could feel it emanating from him. It was very touching. Kenny, Kelvin and Karen, I hope you guys know this. :)

It was really great to see them after so long.

Weekend of Icing

2011-05-29T19:09:00.001+08:00

Throughout the week, I was thinking about how to improve my butter cake and built up my desire to bake this weekend. So I scoured my favourite blogs for inspirations on new recipes to try and found this cute biscuit from Lachinvasion. It's called Yoyos. I ignored the butter cookies because of my previous experience with a simple recipe from KarenCheng, it turned out to taste exactly like the four ingredients I put in. And only Jan ate them all and asked for more. Again, bear in mind Jan eats cat food, amongst other weird things.

So anyway, I was attracted to the cute little things and decided to make them.

It's certainly not as easy as my choc chip cookies because I need to sandwich icing between them. KS patiently sandwiched them for me while I tackled my butter cake.

And since I was going to do icing and test out my butter cake recipe, I decided to make cupcakes and try decorating them. So I bought my first icing nozzle (yay!) and armed myself with loads of icing sugar.

My kitchen was a disaster after this experience. Firstly, some of my cupcakes overflowed and melted over the sides of the cup. Secondly, I did not know how to secure the nozzle into the plastic without having icing seeping out of the sides. Thirdly, I learned I need quite a lot of colouring to get a pleasant shade. The icing for the yoyos above had less than one drop of red to make it pink. Which didn't work, as you can see.

So in the end, I decided, what the heck, let's just slice the top of the cupcakes and just ice as many as I could for the fun of it.

You can tell my design sense is non-existent. So I went for the most geometric patterns I could think of.

All in all, I will need to muster up quite a lot of interest to do this again.

Icing on the Cake

2011-05-20T18:49:00.003+08:00

I've always wanted to try to make a chocolate cake, complete with chocolate icing. Several attempts failed until I read this blogger's recipe so I thought I'd give it a try.

At the baking goods shop, I spotted some cute sugary sprinkles in the shape of dinosaurs to give colour to my chocolate cake. So anyway, I toiled in the kitchen for a night and carefully spread the icing for a good hour (i hardly ice my cakes, so no practice) the day after. It so happened that night we went out to celebrate two friends' birthdays so I brought the experiment along.

Their comments were consistent and simple. "Cute dinosaurs!"

So my learning from this is, nobody really cares about the cake. It's the decorative icing that counts. :)

Never Say Never

2011-05-07T18:43:00.002+08:00

I've often said I would never be eager to go visit China. Despite my parents and my in-laws going there on several trips and having shown us photos and seeing photos of breathtaking views, my interest remained lukewarm. Why would I want to go where you have to be wary of what you buy, what you eat and worse, carry an umbrella whenever you need to use a toilet, that is, if I'll be lucky to have a toilet rather than just a hole in the ground with a heaping load of crap beneath me?

With that, yes, I am now booked to go China in June. And yes, I am eager to go. Simply because it will be the largest gathering of my husband's family at their ancestral home. A couple of years ago, my in-laws went together with newfound relatives in Indonesia and donated some money to build some er... building in that area. Now that the structures are up, there will be a huge opening ceremony and of course, all the donors and members of the clan are invited. So all my Masjid Tanah relatives plus the ones from Indonesia whom I have yet to meet and relatives from goodness knows where will be there.

I have been very keen on tracing my family tree and have started up a family tree online. With the help of relatives who are connected, we have managed to extend the tree horizontally. It's so fascinating to see people from all over the world related to one another, people whom I will most likely never meet in person, but just to know we are all related fascinates me.

So, this trip is one where I can see the vertical genealogy of the family I married into. My name is apparently in the family book there in China. So excited!

Which also means, my trip to US/Canada... :P... ah... never say never.

Not Again!

2011-05-02T21:52:00.002+08:00

I think I will always have this demon plaguing me. The "DSLR or No DSLR". So here I am, happily trudging along with life, often bringing my new G12 everywhere I go but I don't take any photos. So yeah, I don't take much photos these days. Uninspired. Plus my iPhone camera takes what is sufficient just to show proof that I was there hanging out with my group of friends.

Then yesterday at a wedding, even though I could have brought my G12, I didn't. Instead, at my table, my friend brought her Nikon D40 with these awesome lens. I took one shot. Just ONE shot. And I swear, I'm in love.

Focussed on the wrong prawn though...

I love the bokeh! But but but... would I spend thousands just so that I can get great bokeh shots? My G12, great as a point & shoot and as a prosumer, isn't able to give me this. Plus, it's not even 6 months since I got it and yet I hardly take photos with it.

Just bear with me as I battle this one out again. I usually am successful at stamping out any spark of desire by vehemently declaring, "Die! Die! DIE!!" but this time, even after chanting it for a full day and then seeing the photo again and again, my valiant efforts are starting to wear thin, my sane reasonings on why I don't need one are flying out the window. *Groan*

Groupsmore

2011-05-01T23:00:00.000+08:00

I recently bought some coupons from Groupsmore.com (which was bought over by Groupon not too long ago). My first two redemptions were done last week. The first one was getting 6 Chicken and Mushroom pies and one huge apple pie from this place called Mr Pieman. I heard the owner over the radio a couple of months ago. He explained he was trying to bring the pie eating culture into Malaysia, just like when he was staying in NZ years ago. I resonated with him, remembering my pie eating days in NZ, how affordable and widely available they were.

So I was determined to try them out and when the Groupon opportunity came along, I grabbed it. After all, we host our cell group in our place so it would be a good ~~excuse~~ reason to feed everyone.

Unfortunately, only one person turned up for that day. And I bought extra just in case 6 wasn't enough. So I had 8 pies and 1 large apple pie. Unfortunately too, it was SO salty, we could hardly finish up one pie each! I drank 6 glasses of water to wash away the salt but it lingered. I will try to find time to give this feedback to the company because seriously, no one would go back for seconds and I'm glad I didn't ruin the brand name had all my guests come.

My second Groupon was for a mani + pedi. I was the only one there the whole two hours and the two staff attended to me. I got sucked into adding more services (paraffin wax treatment) and ended up buying a package for 5 times of mani + pedi. Oh well... I reasoned I would be doing this more often now that I've discovered I like painted toe nails.

One more Groupon to utilize. Will blog about that once I use it up :P

Malaysian Comedy

2011-04-22T19:51:00.004+08:00

So many things have been happening in the news. Really, if you want to laugh at something on a daily basis, just read about what is happening in Malaysia. From sending effeminate boys (and their definition is apparently quite amazing, it includes boys who help do house chores!) to boot camp to "toughen them up", to offering a "FREE" email account to every Malaysian aged 18 and above (but Garmen agencies sending out emails to us will be charged RM0.50 per email. Quick calculation, say 17mil Malaysians x RM0.50 = RM8.5mil for every email that is sent to us. And where would this money come from? Taxpayers!).

Then there's the PM who on one day thanks the Chinese for playing a vital part in Malaysia's economy, and the next day says to the Chinese, "If you don't vote MCA in the next election, you will no longer be represented", failing to understand that it matters not what skin colour but the heart and intentions beneath who we want to represent us.

Then there's our dear Deputy PM who is clearly trying to claim his stake and shaking the very mantra our PM is advocating. Not 1Malaysia but 1Melayu or 1Bumi, backing an extremist idiot who claims to be doing all this in the name of his religion.

Thunderstorm Destruction!

2011-04-22T19:48:00.000+08:00

I don't know if this is true but I feel as though thunderstorms in PJ are really more severe than most parts of Malaysia. The last couple of days, we've seen terrifying thunderstorms in the evening. And it has brought much damage to my home.

Firstly, after the first time my modem was fried from a thunderstorm months ago, I purchased a surge protector to avoid another instance. The guy at the shop said, "This one guarantee wan... sure can tahan the lighting wan..." so I believed him. Every time there was a thunderstorm, I would smirk and feel that my modem is well protected. Alas, I was wrong. Not only my modem was fried, my house phone was also fried! Thank goodness my modem card on my computer was ok, unlike the last time.

Secondly, since Telekom changed my modem, my Airport Express wouldn't work and I had to re-connect it! After my initial drama of trying to fix it up in almost a month, I must say I'm glad I blogged about it so I just followed the steps again and *fingers crossed* my Airport Express is connected again! Yay!

Thirdly, my guaranteed lifetime warranty surge protector is kaput. So I'll need to go to the shop and lay my claim on it. Thing is, only the surge protector is guaranteed. If my entire computer had fried, I doubt if I would get any warranty for that!

Lastly, the extended part of my kitchen ceiling became flooded. There's a massive leak somewhere which drips into the guest room downstairs. We saw a puddle months ago and wondered where it came from. Today, not only did it leak but it also destroyed the paint and left water streaks all over my new kitchen ceiling. :( My contractor is coming tomorrow.

Emo

2011-04-16T15:25:00.000+08:00

There's this old man in my neighbourhood who would take a walk twice a day with his old dog and they would walk companionably around the area. The man would pause as the dog sniffs out a corners, sits down to scratch himself while the dog never wanders far from his master. If the master would walk another direction, the dog simply catches up with him to walk ahead once more. Warms my heart whenever I see them.

I'm just being emo.

Bags of Happiness

2011-04-08T00:27:00.000+08:00

Glitz and Glamour. For the last two nights, I was busy with work as we were the official bank for the Pavilion Pit Stop Fashion Shows featuring Raoul and Vertu, Canali and Tumi (brands under the Valiram Group).

I only brought my camera for the first night after which I decided it was still too heavy for me to carry around since I was running around getting things organized. So here are just two photos of the first night with Raoul:

This is Syafinaz, a local singer with a powerful voice as the performer for the evening. Then there was the fashion show.

There was a totally eye-catching backdrop for this, which is made of water. Technology from Korea. Amazing, right? I was so mesmerized by it that the models became the background.

Anyway, after working 3 nights in a row (first night was for rehearsals until past midnight), I am completely wiped out, feet throbbing and just longing to go home and put my feet up. But just to share with you 3 little bags of happiness:

Starting from the bottom:
Bag 1: I created the bag. Not that it's anything fantastic but quite a lot of people commented how nice it looked. :)
Bag 2: This was a little surprise gift right after tonight's event. Hehehehe... I'm still grinning.
Bag 3: I wanted to con shu eumura to do my make up tonight but the lady just did a very quick basic one for me as I wasn't willing to spend any more money for a full make up do. I bought some stuff from them anyway.

Aaah... little bags of happiness that made all the effort worthwhile!

News Today

2011-03-31T22:51:00.002+08:00

I can't help it but to blog about today's nation headlines. Too funny!

Firstly, there's this minister who recently said in Parliament:
“Some women drivers drive slowly and seem oblivious to traffic. When you honk at them, they get agitated with some even showing hand gestures to other drivers”

Obviously, this doesn't go down well and thereafter there were many criticisms on his statement. Today, he complains he is being "sexually harassed".

Mind you, this is the same polygamous guy who once told a female opposition who was questioning about a leaking roof of the Parliament building, "Mana ada bocor? Batu Gajah pun bocor tiap-tiap bulan juga (Where is the leak? The Batu Gajah MP leaks every month too.)”

Next, one of the trio behind the sensational media event held at Carcosa Seri Negara (where Queen Elizabeth once stayed) to show members of the media a sex tape of a man resembling Anwar Ibrahim and a prostitute. They had threatened Anwar and his wife to immediately resign from politics "otherwise, we will make the video public". Now, the trio are not exactly exemplary either, each with records (I can't remember what they are) but those cases were dropped. *what a surprise!*

So what does he do? He warns, "Back off, or I'll sue for defamation". Never mind your blackmail, sir. He further adds, “I would like to remind bloggers to not attack me or delve on my past,” he said. Riight... so this video was also taken in the past, shall we not delve in the past?

And finally, the ban of this poco-poco dance. The Mufti of Perak decreed it to be "haram" or illegal from religious views as it was a Christian dance. And why is it a Christian dance, by the way? Apparently it is something like a square dance and the dancers move in the shape of a cross.

Here's a video which I found on poco-poco. It looks like fun!

If we follow that reckoning of Cross = Christianity, we now have a dilemma. Why?

The letter "t" forms a cross *gasp*
We have many "crossroads" *double gasp*
Our phone numbers on our mobiles start with a "+" *faints*

Real hilarious news! My Dad teaches the senior citizens in my church some line dancing every week. He immediately said he was going to find out what this poco-poco dance was to teach them, since it's so Christian!

Mum's Hoard

2011-03-30T21:56:00.001+08:00

Not sure if I've blogged about this before about my Mum's habit of hoarding. My friends declare in the event of war, they will come to my parents place to stay because she has almost everything.

The one I tease her most about is her fridges. Actually, it's two large fridges and a standing freezer. They are all packed to the point that when you open the door, things tend to fall out. And there's only my Dad and Mum in the house, although she cooks dinner for me and KS on weekdays.

Then there's the toilet rolls. When they first shifted from Alor Setar to PJ, the stack of toilet rolls almost reached my height (times that with 10 rolls per pack). Some were yellowing with age. But it's better now. She has less than 10 packs now, split between upstairs and downstairs so it gives the impression that it's lesser now.

Cleaning liquids. She has an entire cupboard full of liquid floor cleaners, dish detergents, tile cleaners... she gave one to Grace last year to bring back to US and when Grace opened it, it had already somewhat spoilt from being kept too long. Unfortunately, she practices First In Last Out for this one.

Ribbons. Yup. I made some cakes some time back and wanted to have some ribbons to tie the boxes for easier carrying. Since Mum was out grocery shopping, I called to ask her to get some for me. She said, "I have" and I discovered, she had a whole plastic bag full of ribbons in various colours, sizes and materials.

I really don't need to buy anything. Need pots? She has extra. Need cabin sized trolley bags? Need Golden Churn butter in a tin (the expensive ones)? She had 6 in her cupboard about to expire. Need peanut butter? She has 2 large unopened bottles about to expire, 1 which just expired.

Today, I was looking for some pudding bowls to bake something this weekend. I went to the shop, saw one that would suit my need but thought I didn't want to buy 8 pieces only to have made this pudding once and never use them again. I went home for dinner and looked into her cupboard and found... 6.

She's so funny! But she did defend herself saying that when she was young and really poor, she had this habit of storing things out of fear of not having enough later on. Completely understandable. I'm just glad that she's so well stocked and that I'm nearby enough :)

My friend is deciding to dig a tunnel from her house to my parents place now for easier access in case of zombie attacks.

Facial!

2011-03-29T19:06:00.009+08:00

The one and only time I ever had a facial was in 2004, when my good friend was about to get married and she went for a facial. I decided to join her but can't remember the experience except for the fact that the location was too far for me and the lady spoke only Chinese.

So, when a facial chain opened right outside my parents house last year, it was only a matter of time before I tried it out. RM38 for a 2.5 hour facial for first timers, what's not to try? Plus, they do not have any packages like the other facials have and will insist you sign up for courses, making you commit to over RM2,000 worth of future facials.

My friend tried it out and said they were good and comparable to the other facials she have tried. Since her next appointment was coming up and it so happened that Jan was back from Singapore, we decided to give it a try.

Herbaline turned an old bungalow lot into a beautiful spa. I was impressed from the time I walked in. There's a guy in a smart uniform at the entrance making sure you get to and fro your car safely, sheltering you when it rains, the sheltered pond you have to walk across to get into the crisp white reception hall. Before entering the individual rooms, we were seated at sinks at floor level with sea-salted warm water to scrub our feet.

The first part of the facial was good, double cleansing followed by a steam blower, which made my face numb after a short while. THEN. The extractions started. OMG. My tears kept flowing as the beautician pressed, squeezed and poked. My nose was moulded into shapes I never knew it could, just to get a blackhead out. Thank goodness I only had two major pimples because she attempted to extract every drop of blood from them.

After that was the mask, which was supposedly soothing but I was still in pain. I also got her to remove some tiny bumps on my skin which she said were warts. I have warts! And it's hereditary! Dad confirmed he has some too, so Grace and Ron, see if you have warts on your faces too.

All in all, my face was fine the next day except for the residue scars of my pimples. But after four days, most of it is gone and now my face feels smooth. I still need to go back to finish up my wart treatment if I want to but I'm not too sure about the extraction bit. Others say this is normal. No pain, no gain?

Beautiful Japan

2011-03-15T18:11:00.000+08:00

It's now the aftermath of the major catatrophies that hit Japan. The social networks have been abuzz with pictures of the devastations, the frequent updates on the nuclear plant explosions, the unnecessary hoaxes telling people to avoid the rain even here in Malaysia because it has radiation... *rolls eyes*

However, today is the first time I am hearing about the strength of her people, the beauty of a civilized nation that none can surpass. No looting of shops, entire nations switching off unnecessary lights to conserve enegery so that it can be channeled to where it's needed most, people picking up fallen goods to place it back on the shelves and then queuing up quietly to pay for their purchases, no overbuying so that others can get what they need, people giving up buying booze or other wants so that they can donate the money instead. The list goes on.

My heart is filled with admiration for the people of Japan. What a great nation! So inspiring! Besides continuing to pray for Japan, I shall now support Japanese products as much as I can. I do not have faith in all the fund collections that is going on in Malaysia because I know the 2004 tsunami funds never did reach the victims until today.

Anyway, another silver lining story, I heard over the radio weeks ago that they found documents from the founding fathers of Christchurch which were hidden somewhere but revealed when it cracked open from the quake.

Tanjong Jara Resort

2011-03-06T17:49:00.002+08:00

A colleague forwarded me this special deal from a travel agency and KS and I decided to just take the package to Tanjong Jara Resort (TJR) since it included flights and airport transfers. We didn't have the time to book flights, to decide which place to go, research where to eat etc so this package was affordable and all-in.

TJR is located about an hour's drive south from Kuala Terengganu. They are owned by the YTL Group who also operate the Pangkor Laut Resort. This is the only state left which I have yet to visit so it was a great opportunity to see the views as we made our way there.

It was low season so there weren't many people about, which was great as we didn't have to wait to use the facilities. The staff greeted us by name, were extremely friendly even the gardeners!

Here's some pictures to show off the place:

We had to climb this wooden stairs to get to our room

Walking into our room, we were greeted by the cool air cond AND soft classical music. VERY nice touch. Plus, even though we arrived at 10am, they had the room ready for us.

Our room.

The bathroom

We had our lunch and then explored the whole resort:

I believe you can request to have a meal by the beach

Sofa to relax by the beach at night.

This was our view during our lunches, facing the sea.

One of the day beds beside the beach. We hung out here after our dinners just enjoying the sea breeze.

We went exploring a little under the blazing sun.

Another lunch view

The family infinity pool.

KS playing congkak for the first time. You can tell who's winning.

And the food! Oh my! We had fantastic meals here and really spoilt ourselves silly.

I had this strange ice cream combination, wasabi vanilla ice cream. It had a sting with every spoonful. I'm not quite sure if I like it but it was certainly different!

One of the most memorable meals. Chinese meal and the fish was SO good as was the four angled bean dish. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

Their famous chocolate lava cake with it's melting centre.

We told the chef we were celebrating our anniversary and she gave us an anniversary cake alongside our desserts.

This was on the second night when they found out we were celebrating our anniversary. We took a stroll along the beach and returned to our room a couple of hours later to find this:

It was an elephant made of face towels and a personalized note written on a leaf

The tub was filled with hot water with scattered petals and candles lit.

Even our pillow case was changed to this embroidered one that said "Happy Anniversary".

So we decided to get a bit creative and thanked them like this.

Sigh. It was really a great relaxing getaway. The staff were amazingly well trained, great food, great views. Here's KS blog post on the trip too.

Next trip we'll probably eye Pangkor Laut Resort.

Boobie Cake!

2011-03-02T10:56:00.001+08:00

I was talking to my colleague about baking a cake for the boss since his birthday was aproaching. We were thinking of a simple cake until another colleague piped in and said, "He said he wanted a boobie cake!". My colleague and I looked at each other and decided to take up the challenge.

So I baked the butter cake in two bowls and passed it to my colleague to do her decorating magic.

Here's what it looked like:

Post CNY 2011 Pictures

2011-02-28T23:22:00.001+08:00

I realized I haven't posted up my Chinese New Year photos! How very remiss! Anyway, here goes. The day before the eve of CNY, my Dad's side will hold the reunion dinners so that married folks like me and another cousin would be able to gather together and meet everyone.

View from my grandparents balcony in Bukit Bintang

When we arrive, we usually hang around for a bit while the ladies are toiling in the kitchen. I'll usually pop into my grandparents balcony which overlooks a park, now the Arab Park or whatever it's called now. I used to play firecrackers on that field decades ago.

The source of good food

Again and again, I am amazed at my auntie who would be able to cook up a storm in this tiny kitchen. Her daughters would take turns to assist her but she usually single-handedly does everything.

This year, my Mum prepared some lo sang, which is a first for us as we've never had it for our reunion dinners.

Here's us, preparing the two large trays of Io sang.

And here are the men, pretending to look busy.
Because of the sheer size of the crowd and despite having two tables, we usually have to wait two rounds for a seat to be vacant. See the amount of food?

The Adult Table

The ah, Kid's Table

The next day, KS and I would head back to Melaka for the reunion dinner with his parents.

This year, we had his uncle and cousin from Sydney visit and celebrate CNY with us. Again, see the amount of food?

Our annual family photo. Sorry, had to crop fat arms off hence the odd size.

This is us before we head off to Masjid Tanah for the gathering of my father-in-law's family on the first day of CNY.

Since KS's uncle hasn't been back in a while for CNY, he created a new tradition of getting those who wanted their ang pow to line up and greet him, making it a fun affair. It was also his birthday so I baked him a cake, not knowing it would be brought there for sharing with the whole kampung!

Father & Son and a heavily decorated butter cake

1st Generation: Some of my Dad-in-law's siblings and spouses. I believe he has 10 siblings (!) but some have passed on.

2nd Generation: SOME of KS cousins.

Hmm... I didn't take a photo of the 3rd Generation.

Anyway, on the second day of CNY, the neighbours had a dragon dance. Yup. Not the normal lion dance.

Dragon in action

Bye-bye!

The 2nd day is also when my in-laws have their open house where there's more food. And people wonder why I don't take photos of myself. Coz I'm FAT lah after all that food!

So, that's my CNY 2011 in pictures.

Missing Grooms

2011-02-18T10:31:00.000+08:00

Some time back I read in the local papers that the groom of an Indian couple did not turn up for his wedding. In embarrassment, his family then substituted him with his second brother and the wedding proceeded.

Today, in the papers, again another groom didn't turn up at the temple and what did the family do then? They decided to conduct the marriage ceremony of their second daughter with her boyfriend who was there as a guest for the wedding.

It's just quite amazing!

My Apple Airport Express Works!

2011-02-11T00:21:00.000+08:00

Warning: Geek stuff ahead.

About 2 years ago, my then colleague was showing off his new iPhone and mentioned how he was using it to stream music wirelessly from his computer upstairs to his hi-fi set downstairs using his iPhone as a remote. Since I have converted quite a lot of my CDs into mp3s, I thought it would be great to be able to do just that when I shifted into my new house.

So began the process of looking for a house. Then looking for my hi-fi set. Then looking for the cabinet. Then setting up my wifi connection. And finally, reading up on materials related to the Apple Airport Express. Even though I shifted jobs, I emailed this techie ex-colleague of mine who was kind enough to email me materials to research on.

When the Apple Online Store had the sale a couple of weeks ago, I decided to purchase one. I mean, I had everything in place! When it arrived, I was so excited with my new toy and promptly went home to try to install it.

However. It was the most complicated thing to install and the people whom I tried getting help from, the various staff from Apple Support and the technical guy at Machines (Apple dealers in Malaysia), they all were stumped upon telling them I didn't have a Mac.

For many days I rushed home from work to call to get help. I was told to get a wireless card for my desktop to read the Airport Express. Then in finality, I was told to buy the Airport Extreme for twice the price just so to make sure it connects! Finally, I decided to bring it to my usual computer shop who gave it one look and said, "I don't know how to help you since even the Apple folks can't!". In the end, I decided to return the item before my first 14 days to return the item expired.

When I tried to return it, Apple Malaysia asked me to try calling the Apple Support again for one last try. Tried yesterday but was too late, it was past their closing time for their Level 2 Seniors (as the Junior staff apparently are not trained for such a complicated case). So I tried again today.

After talking to a Shawn for an hour, I am elated to say that it is now streaming music wirelessly downstairs. Except, I need to now look for the correct wires to connect it to my amplifier. Fingers crossed, my amplifier would be able to stream this.

According to Malcom Gladwell's book Outliers, this is the reason why I do well in Maths. I'm amazed at my tenacity at this.

Hmm... I'm not sure if I should write down what we finally did to make it work since I couldn't find support online. Ok, skip the next part since this is just for my records and if anyone else Google's this:

*******************

Hardware: PC Desktop Windows XP linked to my wifi modem via ethernet cable and the Airport Express

Software: Install the Apple Utility software given in the CD together with the Airport Express; iTunes later on for storing and playing songs; Remote apps on iPhone for as your remote control.

Purpose: To stream music wirelessly from my computer upstairs to my hifi downstairs.

Connect the Airport Express to the desktop via ethernet cable.
Plug in the Airport Express and wait until light blinks amber.
Open Apple Utility on the desktop and wait for it to detect the Airport Express.
At the bottom of this screen there's two options: "Manual" and "Continue".
Okay, this part I actually set up the Airport Express using the "Continue" button which is to join an existing wireless network. I had to use the "Manual" option because I didn't know what type of security my internet provider has for my setup so first try was wrong.

Anyway, it then connected to the existing wifi and voila!

I brought the Airport Express downstairs (without the ethernet cable), connected it to a set of laptop speakers, connected my desktop back to the wifi modem via ethernet cable and launched iTunes. Selecting the Airport Express connection from the bottom right icon with a rectangle and an arrow, I randomly clicked any song AND IT STARTED PLAYING. I can now almost close this chapter after 2 years. Just the wires now and praying my old amp wants to recognize this or not.

Pre-Chinese New Year 2011

2011-01-28T00:10:00.003+08:00

Chinese New Year is approaching! The malls that I've been to have been kind and have mixed loud CNY songs with other pop songs so you don't feel like you're going crazy.

This is what greeted me yesterday morning in my office. Done by the same IT guy who did the 7 foot Santa last Christmas. Isn't it sweet?

Then of course there is the usual rush to change old notes for new. Even though where I work is surrounded by so many banks, there was a shortage on smaller denominations as usual. So this is what I managed to get so far. I wonder when it would be socially acceptable to start giving old notes instead of new ones every year.

This year's ang pow packet from my company looks great! I love the matt art paper as opposed to the shiny ones.

So yeah, we've started packing our red packets already. Rummaging through our old "stocks", I came across this special unopened one. What was a fleeting comment from my friend who said her husband keeps all the ang pows given to him by his grandparents and parents as a souvenier made me keep some too.

This ang pow was the first and last given to me by my grandma since I got married. Every year of my marriage she would ask me to come visit during the 15 days of CNY but I never thought of the significance of it for the first five years. After all, I would see her during our reunion dinners two days before the first day of CNY. Last year, we took more leave and made the effort to go visit her, not knowing it would be her last. So yeah, this was the very ang pow she gave me then. Although I wasn't very close to her, but I feel her absence quite strongly this time of the year.

So this year, we really need to make the effort to treasure all our loved ones, not just during CNY but as frequently as we can.

Ok, ok, this post is meant to focus on CNY stuff. Our office is overwhelmed with the number of mandarin oranges and hampers that appear almost on a daily basis. So blessed!

Some came in cute baskets like this:

Some hampers had beautiful must-keep stuff like these porcelain blue and white ceramic tea containers (yes Ron, the same ones like you bought).

Some hampers were creative like this yee sang pack, one for each of the team.

Yesterday, we received a strange looking greeting card, filled with stickers from our creative agency.

This is how you assemble it:

Cute giler!

It is brilliant! Create your own Righteous Rabbit with the stickers given, pose it with the greeting card or in any creative way, snap a photo and post it up on the given Facebook site and the 10 most liked photo will win a Yes 4G dongle (high speed internet)! Mandarin oranges are aplenty and it really is up to your creativity to do this.

Well, that's it so far. I'll update if there are any more interesting things for pre-CNY.

Winning Contests

2011-01-26T22:27:00.001+08:00

A few people seem to think we've been very lucky in winning contests. To me, my biggest win was my trip to London to watch U2 last year but here are the other prizes we have won:

1. Mix FM Contest, 2002:

I was the first caller through for the "chosen song" of the day, Josh Groban's To Where You Are and I won RM2,000 cash. Which promptly went to fix my rusting car.

Photo taken off the web

2. AirAsia U2 Contest, 2009:

Well, I've already blogged about this one extensively.

3. OCBC Staff Credit Card contest, 2009:

One of the top 500 (?) frequent swipes on the credit card and I won the AstroMax, a recorder so that Mum could watch her Korean dramas at her convenience. One of my colleagues didn't even realize he won while I had my card swiped at every opportunity, up to 6 times in a weekend just to get this prize! Thus, peace settled in my parents house.

Photo take off the web

4. Esso Smiles Contest, 2010:

We pump Esso petrol and KS uses the Smiles loyalty card to earn points. There was a contest and KS won a Nokia handphone. He had his picture in the papers in their ad as well as their posters all over the Esso stations.

Photo take off the web

5. JetStar's Be A Star On Australia Day
Mardi, Yen's Aussie Mum, spotted this contest and forwarded it to Yen. We submitted this star jumping shot of Yen and Jan and were one of the 150 winners of AUD300 of JetStar vouchers.

The winning photos will published in some Australian papers on Australia Day. The website has a gallery of what others have submitted and I don't know how they make their selection because there were so many good ones! Anyway, it will certainly help Yen when she travels next with JetStar!

I guess lining up all the prizes we've won so far, we could say we've been pretty blessed! Especially some prizes have been pretty big ones! Of course there were those which we didn't win but in order to stand a chance in the first place, do join contests when you see something that interests you.

A Hundred Ringgit

2011-01-25T17:34:00.002+08:00

This is a story about an interesting friend. I'll just refer him as KL. KL went up to Genting Highlands for a business meeting for the entire day. After the long tiring day, he hired a taxi to send him home that night. The night was deepening and the road downhill was winding.

Upon reaching his house, he started emptying his pockets when he discovered a single RM100 note from his pocket. This surprised him because he couldn't remember when he last had a RM100 note since most banks dispense RM50 notes. He sat down, furiously trying to recall his transactions over the past couple of days and in rising panic, couldn't find an instance when he had come into possession of such a big note.

Now, Genting Highlands is famous for their casinos in Malaysia and is also famous for having lots of undesirable "spirits" to make people lose their senses and gamble away. KL declares he is "not superstitious" but at that very moment, fear gripped his heart as he sat alone in his empty house, wondering how the money, which obviously did not belong to him, appeared on him.

In a stroke of determination after a very long time pondering, he decided what did not belong to him should be discarded of and the most logical solution that came to his mind at that moment was to burn the note. Rummaging through the kitchen drawers, he found a lighter and headed into his house compound. His neighbour happened to be outside as well and she stared at him holding a RM100 note in one hand and a lighter in the other.

Acting as nonchalantly as possible, he proceeds to water his plants until she went inside. Quickly squatting over a drain, he lit the lighter and held the note over the blazing flame. This is when he discovered that the RM100 note was very difficult to burn. He had to hold the flame to it for a good long time before it finally blackened and even longer time before the flames finally licked the note. As it finally succumbed to the flames, he watched it turn into a crusty ash. Relief flooded over him and with his task done, he headed back into his house.

As soon as he climbed the stairs, the doorbell rang. This was at 11pm and he certainly was not expecting any guests. Peeking out tentatively, he noticed the familiar red and white colours of a taxi outside his house. As soon as he stepped out and saw the taxi driver who sent him home, everything clicked!

"Aiyoo Uncle! If only you were here 2 minutes ago!"

The taxi man had accidentally given him the RM100 instead of RM10 for change and had come back to claim it. Naturally, he was disbelieving despite being shown the ashes in the drain. In the end, KL gave him RM50 for both their mistakes and the taxi driver walked out of the house in a daze, mumbling, "He burnt it... he ACTUALLY burnt it..."

Relating this tale at a dinner recently, another friend told him 3 lessons:
1. To Chinese, burning real money brings bad luck
2. Burning currency is illegal
3. If you don't want the money, give it to charity or someone else!

Eric's Wedding

2011-01-21T22:57:00.001+08:00

Last weekend, KS and I went back to Melaka for Eric's wedding. Yes, THAT Eric from the Believe-It-Or-Not stories labeled under Eric's Misadventures. When I told my colleagues and friends, they all go, "Oh THAT Eric!". Again, for those who had yet to be introduced to his fables, the tales were told again. Eric, you're a legend.

Anyway, he pre-warned us it would be rather Chinese. However, when we arrived, the dinner was held at a lovely Nyonya restaurant with a very cozy Peranakan deco so there wasn't much trace of overly Chinese nuances.

The backdrop was designed by the bride, Rachael and it looked really lovely!

The cake was specially made by Coffee Bean, her ex-employer. It had a really cute figurine on top of them facing the same cake.

The many candles glowing all over the place and unique wedding favours were also done by the bride. Colourful jelly beans! So sweet!

There were hired professionals who sang classic Chinese songs throughout the night. Of course, a stage + mic + karaoke lyrics available = the perfect lure for enthusiastic relatives. That was the extend of having a very Chinese wedding as far as I know.

Until we had a surprise guest. One of the singers doubled up as the God of Prosperity and handed out gold chocolate coins and an ang pow with a lottery ticket from his huge gold nugget bowl! Eric, he took the cake! Sadly, I don't think any guest won the lottery that night.

At the end, we waited until the groom was available to snap a shot. Old pals meeting again. And my first photo of Eric on my blog. He's the one in white with the flush from many yam sengs, just in case.

Pecha Kucha Night

2011-01-19T00:06:00.001+08:00

Had an interesting night attending Pecha Kucha. It is a Japanese word (I don't know what it means) but the it uses a presentation format referred to as the 20/20 - 20 slides timed for 20 seconds per slide. So each presentation was less than 7 minutes. This is held all over the world. Tonight's topic was on social media and the line up of 10 local personalities were quite impressive.

Hosted by the British Council and Niki Cheong, it was held smack in the middle of KL. I, ah, suggested to my friend that he drive. Poor guy, I didn't realize he drove a manual so he had to suffer when we got caught in the expected jam along the Federal Highway.

Anyway, I digress. These were my highlights:

Niki Cheong - Apologized to the world for what social media has inflicted upon our lives such as Justin Bieber. And for affecting the many lives of our cetak rompak pirates for we now download illegal movies directly from the web instead of buying their wares.
Zain HD - He spoke about his experiences with CouchSurfing. His personal experiences and constant topic on how this site has enriched his life made his presentation easy to follow. Simple but personal. Powerful.
Foong Cheng Leong - He is a lawyer specializing in cyberlaws and he spoke about those who were "naughty" online (as in those who were politically outspoken) were persecuted.
Pastor Sivin Kit - I liked how he ended his presentation by saying the best thing about social media is when we become more human.

The ladies spoke very well too, clear and held the audience captivated. Many used it as a platform to promote their next event/product. However, the mic was not cooperative and kept going into silent lapses. I was also seated at a place where I couldn't see the screen so I could only hear the presentations. It would have been good to have screens at different angles like in weddings at Chinese restaurants when presenting photos of the wedded couple.

Overall? Still a bit raw but can be improved with practise, if these people were to speak again! And perhaps a more screens for the projection. Would definitely consider going again.

Happy Birthday, Hubby!

2011-01-12T00:00:00.004+08:00

Every year when it comes to KS birthday, he gets paranoid and worried that someone will play a prank and surprise him. And he DOES have reason for this and I believe it is because he started traditions of “surprising” people during their birthdays but that's another story altogether.

Let me share with you the pranks and surprises done on him that I remember most recently.

Birthday #1
There was one year his ex-colleagues arranged to meet us at a Chilli’s in KLCC without him knowing. We arrived at KLCC but I was warned that since Chilli’s do not do reservations and do not seat a group unless the entire group is present, I had to stall him while the group cajoled and negotiated to the maitre d’ to let them have a table. Pulling him suddenly into an electrical shop nearby, I declared I urgently needed to see kitchen hoods (or some kitchen appliance), much to his bewilderment.

Upon getting the signal that everything was ready, I guided him confidently past the maitre d’ and the crowd of waiting to be seated guests, to his slight surprise. His friends had the menus covering their faces and giggles so it was only upon reaching the table when he realized they were there with the first thought, “Wow! What are you guys doing here? What a coincidence!” before it dawned upon him. Of course there was the birthday song sung publicly.

Birthday #2
Church friends booked an entire restaurant in Uptown so I had to just tell him someone recommended this new place to eat, that it was quite cozy and it would be just the two of us. Unfortunately, I let it slip when I called to warn them by pretending to say I was confirming our reservations without stating my name. By the time he entered the restaurant, he was ready for the volley of shouts and fanfare.

Birthday #3 - 2010
With every passing year, KS gets more and more suspicious and paranoid so for this birthday, his colleagues roped in his boss the day before the actual birthday. The secretary asked him to go see the boss who "was in a foul mood" in the morning. KS was worried but went anyway. Upon reaching his room, the boss flung a report on his table and started shouting about not being happy with the publicity they didn’t get. KS was getting angrier, redder and more confused by the minute as he couldn’t get a word in.

When the team marched in with a birthday cake singing, it took him a few moments before he realized what just happened. His boss just laughed along with the rest. Such a cool boss!

Birthday #4 - 2011
This is this year’s birthday. Now that the main planner of his birthday surprises, Michelle, joined another company so she couldn’t plan with his bosses and colleagues anymore. And since she has visited our new house, she thought, instead of bringing him somewhere, they would all turn up at our house to surprise him, three days earlier, knowing he would be more suspicious as his birthday approaches.

So after careful planning and last minute surprises (like he wanted to go jogging and would definitely see their gathered cars nearby), they gathered in front of our gate, equipped with all the party gear (helium balloons, whistles and all sorts of noisemakers) and cupcakes, and rang the bell.

He had just returned from his evening jogging and was resting before he took his shower. From upstairs, I asked innocently, “Who’s that?” to which he replied cautiously, “I don’t know”. It was too dark for him to see and he thought it was the guards coming to ask for our monthly contribution. He walked out to give them a scolding for we have already paid. Only when he was approaching the gate did he notice there were an unusually large amount of people.

With a resounding blast, they made so much noise and sang happy birthday that the neighbour came out in surprise to see what the commotion was all about.

I promise we’ll just have a simple dinner just you and me on your actual birthday, ok? No more surprises. This year anyway. :)

Furry Toys Tours

2011-01-07T19:18:00.003+08:00

In the movie Amelie, in an effort to get her father to travel the world, she abducts her father’s garden gnome without him knowing and sends it off with her air stewardess friend. Her father then periodically receives photos of the gnome posing in front of famous monuments. When the gnome finally makes it home, he is inspired to go see the world himself.

Taken off the internet

There’s this French guy who was inspired by this idea and created a very specialized tour. Send your soft toys to him and he will take them to famous Paris landmarks and take photos of the toy there! I’m so tickled that there is a market for this and it’s really cute to see the photos.

Here are some photos taken off their website:

I reckon I can do the same for KL landmarks and local food! Anyone interested? :)

Watching Planet Earth

2011-01-03T19:41:00.000+08:00

It's been a very long time since KS and I watched loads of DVD. While we had a small 15" (or was it 12") TV in Klang and a DVD player, we were hardly home long enough to watch many shows.

Then we stayed in Sea Park where we didn't have a DVD player and the only shows we'd watch is the occasional drama series, which I can't even recall any now. It was that infrequent.

Anyway, we now have set up our significantly bigger TV (a whopping 32"! Hahaha, that IS an upgrade from our small TV) and paired it with a blu-ray DVD player. KS colleagues lent us a few blu-ray discs to "test" our new ensemble. One of the highlights of the stash of blu-rays is this one, Planet Earth. A six-disc documentary on, well, earth.

Picture taken from Amazon.com

It's amazing to see how the earth is strung on a delicate balance, the types of creatures which live in the extreme-st of conditions. It reminds me of what a great and creative Creator we have. It also scares me to think of how we humans do not know how to cherish this earth and have caused a tipping of the balance.

We've had a few friends over to watch a couple of episodes and we intend to have them over frequently until we finish the series. I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars only because I prefer animal documentaries. Still, I'd highly recommend it!

Damn You Auto Correct!

2010-12-29T20:29:00.001+08:00

If you ever need a pick up website, do drop by this site. Every time I read, I have tears running down my face. iPhone auto corrects words which you may have mistyped and would automatically correct it to something it thinks you're trying to say.

Sometimes, it comes up with funny sentences and is posted up on this site. Here are some of my favourite ones I saw today:

It's funny when they just go along with it like the one above. It's also funny when they try repeatedly to correct it and yet it still comes out wrong like this one and even his correction is auto-corrected into something else! Bahahaha! Crapple phone!

And this one had a funny headline "Please Invest in a Toilet"

The Yule Log

2010-12-26T09:37:00.001+08:00

I've often wondered why there were so many log cakes during Christmas. They're all over Malaysia and Singapore during Christmas season. Isn't the Christmas cake a fruit cake? My family still buys and eats fruit cakes for Christmas.

And then I stumbled upon this interesting article on Twitter. Since we can't get the Yule Log in our region, I guess it made it's way here in the form of a cake which has now become a staple for every cake shop.

*********************
Eeeee, shy. So it's not the Yule Log, it's the Bûche de Noël

Jump! Jump!

2010-12-25T17:04:00.000+08:00

Not that we wanted to pull a hamstring, nor were we THAT bored. We just wanted to get a little creative with our shots. Hence, here is a collection of our jumping shots...

Tim Burton's Book

2010-12-25T00:46:00.002+08:00

While in Freemantle, we stepped into one of the bookshops and came across an illustrated book written by Tim Burton. It is called, The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy, a collection of short stories and poems.

Now, I have been exposed to Roald Dahl and recently read Coraline but I was NOT prepared for the story of the Oyster Boy. A couple gives birth to a baby boy who looks part oyster, part boy after they have seafood on their wedding night. The boy grows up and is ridiculed until he is in his teens. One day the father is informed that eating oysters can cure his sexual problems so he goes to his son's room that night and tells him to prepare for death. And proceeds to eat him. In a gist.