Cloudy Sunday 30.08.09

At 7:15am, mom woke us up for an early jog. Damn.. thats so damn early lor. But not wanting to disappoint her, (as we can see all she wanted was for us to spend the morning with her). Hence, we had no choice but to get our lazy butt out of bed and start washing up, changed into our running gear and drove to Mengkuang Dam for a jog. But it was a good time spent there. With fresh morning breeze, what more can we ask for. But as I have never run in such an early morning, I had problem getting my sleepy feet to run. My body kept telling my legs, Run Run Run... but they just didn't seems to have woken up yet. Still sleeping and can't move as fast as I usually did in my evening run. Damn.. never mind. I walked instead. Still, I was breathing in some fresh air. Can't complain further. I didn't had my mobile with me, hence no pics of the dam.

On our way home, we had wanton mee for breakfast but wasn't fanfastic though. Tasted so so but still, better than the one sold here, if you don't want chili, they splash ketchup into the bowl. Damn, taste weird. But I do know of a place in Spore that serves really good wanton mee, where I previously lived. Its located at a coffee shop along Serangoon North Ave 4, opposite Rosyth Primary School. They have the best wanton mee in Spore so far, to my taste. Individual taste bud. But I am happy with this one.

In the late morning, we went to buy my late father's fav (and mine too!) Bak Kut Teh. Bought some to pay respect to him. After which we went back to the coffee shop to enjoy my share of Bak Kut Teh. Damn nice... too nice that I just wallop everything before I could think of taking any pic of it. Hahahaha... (may be next time :D)

On our way home, it was pouring heavily. You can see from the pics below, really dark clouds.

We dropped by a clinic to buy some cream for my eczema, but the clinic would not open till 2:30pm and we arrived at 2pm (we thought they re-open after lunch at 2pm). As it was raining very heavily, brother decided to just wait outside the clinic instead of getting into the car again as he doesn't want the car to get wet when he opens the door. He used the table next door (from a coffee shop which only opens at night), flip it side way and use it to cover him from the rain. Haha... (see below)...... pls pardon me as my mobile 's camera was not able to focus.

Eventually we didn't get to buy the cream as according to the nurse, we have to wait till 3pm as the doc's signature is required to purchase the cream. Damn... we didn't wanna wait no more. So we left and went home to help mom with some spring cleaning of the house. But brother was furious with the cream issue, and drove there again after that. Took him 30 mins to drive there and another 30 mins to come back . Poor him. After all his efforts, the cream better works on me, or else... hmmmm....!!!!

For dinner, we went to Chai Leng Park's hawker centre, where you can find all the almost good food there. :D

I was hunting high and low for my Penang char koey teow as I have not had one yet since I came back on Tues night. Its a must have whenever I come back home. Unfortunately, both stalls were not there, might be due to the heavy rain, they deciced to stay home. Hahhaa... But I settled for a stall that sells economic fried bee hoon, noodles and koay teow. Just so happened when I walked past the stall, I saw an old man just finished frying a big "bunch" of koay teow, so I asked him if he could fry just a plate for me, which all he did was to add an egg to it. No prawn No cockles. Sigh... when you are in a desperate mode, in hokkien, we say "No fish, prawns also can lar".. LOL.. Not bad though.

And my fav "yin yong"... its a mixture of fried bee hoon and hor fun with egg. Wooohooo... Yum Yum...

So much good food.. but so little time to enjoy them. I am missing my "you tiao" and "butterfly" from Raja Uda. :o(

Comfort Food and Outing

Everyone has his or her own comfort food. My comfort food would be anything cooked by mom. I miss her cooking when I am away from home. Sometimes when the feeling is too strong, I will cook myself but no matter how good they taste, they will never feel as good as from mom's kitchen.

This pic of mom's fried noodle, which I have not tasted for more than 10 years. The night before my brother's birthday, his colleagues treated him an asumptious Japanese buffet. So it was just me and mom, and she cooked this fried noodles for the both of us. Suddenly it brought me back those childhood memories where we ate only simple food and yet we enjoyed every bits of it.

This is what we call "Birthday Mee Sua". Its a must to have for birthdays when we were young, but after I came to Singapore, I have not tasted this for 13 years. But finally, bcos of my brother's birthday, I get to eat this for breakfast. Such a contentment. Mine is without the eggs as only birthday boy get the eggs (plus mom think I am fat enough and do not need the egg)..hahaha..

At noon time, we went to Queensbay shopping mall in Penang. Finally, I stepped out of the house since my arrival on Tues night. LOL.. but I am more than happy to stay home with mom anyway. Bonding time.

By the time we arrived, it was in between lunch and dinner, neither here nor there. As Kin Kin were too hungry (he didn't had anything for the day yet), hence we ended up eating our dinner at about 430pm, started with Dim Sum at Dragon-i. Too eager with the food that neither of us took any pic of the food. They were just so-so anyway. Then we proceed to Swensen for ice-cream, yummy yummy!!!

Mummy dearest were too engrossed with her Vanilla Ice-Cream with Banana and Butterscotch, specially ordered for her by me, of cos. I wanted her to share my Sticky Chewy Chocolate Ice-Cream with me as mine was too big a portion, but she doesn't like chocolate, so I created one of vanilla version for her (yes, vanilla is her fav).

This is Kin-Kin. Mom used to baby sit him when he was just a month old, till he was 5 years old. He is 19 this year and a head taller than me now. But he is still very close to us. Very very close and we love this boy. He is more than a brother to us. Beside him is his gf, and they are one lovey-dovey couple.

My Sticky Chewy Chocolate

Birthday boy's Coit Tower (with the terbalik Malaysia flag!)LOL

... view while we were leaving the carpark....

..my little sleepy eyed Ching Ching...

...unintentionally taken family photo (didn't realised mom popped out from the back seat.. hahahaha)

..view from the mid of Penang Bridge

Q: Anyone wanna guess what are those barrier for?

A: Its meant to block the view of the opposite traffic from all the "kaypohs"on the road. Especially during accident. Don't be surprise, opposite lane has an accident, but your own lane get jammed and traffic refused to move, cos all too kaypoh wanting to see. LOL.. horrible!!!

Last but not least, I really enjoy this trip and the bonding has been great. We manage to pass by the whole week stay without fighting and I look forward to coming back more often so I can spend more time with mom and brother, the love of my life. Nothing is more important than wishing them good health and happiness. May GOD bless them with lots of peace and love.

Ah Boy's Birthday on 29.08.09

It was my brother's birthday. I baked his fav butter cake for him the day before and wanted to sing him a birthday song, but he hated birthday song. So NO birthday song and he just wanted to cut the damn cake. LOL. As I am not familiar with mom's oven and I can't seems to get the temperature right before putting in the batter for baking, the cake turned out a little wet in the middle though I overbaked for an extra 15 mins. The side was a little dark in color already. Neverthesless, still ateable though. :D

As I spend most of time at home, I am growing to love this little girl more. She is so well behaved. She does what she is being told to and will not throw tantrum and hardly cries. She is a simple happy child. Laughing most of the time and its so easy to make her smile and laugh. That makes me love her even more. I wish my own child would be like her. So adorable. Still praying for one and may GOD bless me with one soon. As for now, little Rou Ching gets most of my attention at home, of cos none less for mommy dearest and silly crazy brother.

15Malaysia

15Malaysia is a short film project. It consists of 15 short films made by 15 Malaysian filmmakers. These films not only deal with socio-political issues in Malaysia, they also feature some of the best-known faces in the country, including actors, musicians and top political leaders. You may think of them as funky little films made by 15 Malaysian voices for the people of Malaysia.

Each short film are realised every 2 days. Here are some of the clips.

POTONG SAGA
A laugh-out-loud film about a Chinese boy’s misguided attempts at opening an Islamic bank account.



HOUSE
An Indian boy is asked to build a model of his house at school. A tale on the social economic plight faced by many Malaysians.


THE SON
A teenage Chinese witness to a racially motivated assault is being driven to the police station. A quiet reminder of the dangers of inter-communal suspicion and conflict.

HALAL
A very silly slapstick comedy demonstrating the proper Islamic way to slaughter chicken.


CHOCOLATE
A quiet tale that reminds us that, despite the multifaceted contradiction of Malaysia, life goes on – even if not all of it is sweet.

Day 2 @ Home Sweet Home

Been watching tv almost whole day except when I was sleeping at night. Hahahaha.. mom's fav past time is watching her taiwanese hokkien series from the"happy channel" on Astro that brother subscribed for her, and only her. So you can imagine how good my taiwanese hokkien gets after being home for a week, given that I pick up dialects and languages quite fast. haha... they sound really funny as the hokkien sounds like an exact translation from mandarin.

I prefer to watch cooking show though. My favs are Sugar by Anna Olson, Martha Stewart, Michael Smith, Nigella Lawson... these are my alltime fav chefs, cooks, whatever you call them, but to me, they are just angels with good food to share.

Another fav past time is to play with little Rou Ching aka Rachel (hubby gave her that name since her chinese name rhymes with "Rachel". She is a 2 year-old girl whose parents live nearby and mom baby sits her in the day time when her parents go to work. She is very cute. Very talkative, busybody and a copycat. She repeat what you say and she does her baby talks all the time. Of cos we do not know what she is talking about but she seems to be happily yacking away as if she understood what she mumbles. She also loves to follow us whenever we go. She will carry her little chair or stool, follow us and when we are busy, she will park her chair (or sometimes stool) beside where we stand and continue yacking away. Even as I m typing this blog... she is touching my face and calling me "auntie" or "mama".. and yack yack yack... hahaha.. she damn cute lor.. cannot tahan.. i can't help but kiss her all the time. She has really nice curly hair. Love that curls.

Okie.. I m off playing with "Rachel" again...till then... adios...

Oh Oh.. btw.. mom is cooking my fav dishes again today... keep a lookout for the pics tomorrow. :o)

Home Sweet Home

Yes, I am now back home in Penang... or to be exact, Kulim. The reason why I always say Penang cos if I were to say Kulim, people will start asking me where the hell is Kulim. Actually I was from Butterworth, where I grew up for 19 years before I came to the beautiful island called Singapore (my family moved to Kulim 13 years ago). Been here since then and Singapore has been more than home to me. I have all my friends here. Home in Kulim is where both mom and brother resides. 2nd home. Still home to me too. When I said I miss home, I meant more to I miss mom and brother. Hahaha....Sounds rather ironical when I fight with them most of the time... used to.. but now hardly... we are much much better now. When we see how other siblings fight, we find them really silly cos no matter what, we are siblings after all. One can choose a career, husband or wife, friends.. but one can't choose parents and siblings. Its GOD given and HE must have HIS reason for HIS choice. We just have to accept that fact and learn to live with each other. Harmony doesn't come easy but one has towork hard for it... and the results...Peaceful home and Happy live. Its worth the hard work. Life was never perfect to start with and will not stay perfect anyway....

Weather is very HOT here.... I am getting migraine, headache, pain in the ear, ulcers in my throat and tongue, OUCH!!! I always fall sick when I am home. Too heaty I guess. So funny... I was helping mom to fold the joss paper for seven month ghost festival's prayer.. I thought I saw blood on my thumb. Oh No... nose bleed? I got panic cos I am afraid of blood!!!! Then I started calling out for mom and she was asking me what happen. She thought I was bleeding too... I told her to check my nose cos the last thing I touched was my nose. I was rubbing it earlier. Nope... nothing... then I realised.. it was from the color of the joss paper. As the top layer of the paper was red in color and earlier my thumb got wet as I was drinking water from a mug that was still wet earlier. Damn... but thank GOD.. it wasn't nose bleed. I would FAINT... yes.. serious.. I would have fainted if it really was my nose that bleeds. Hahahaha.. such a hopeless girl. All thanks to "Y-D"...cos when I was having lunch with him yesterday, he mentioned about how he gets nose bleed easily due to heatiness. I thought that only happens in the movie. But it really happen to people. Ouch... I know its not painful for him.. but the thought of blood dripping out from the nose... is enough to make my hairs stand... Eeeeekkkk... YES... I get freaked out from dripping blood... Aikkkkss...

Mom is cooking my fav dish now. Yeah.. its still early to cook dinner.. but this is my mom. She usually starts cooking dinner at 4pm. She is improving now though. Its already 5pm. Hahaha... LOL...here are some mouth watering pics of my fav dish.

Now... I can't wait for my brother to come back from work and we can enjoy this long awaited dinner as a family. Yum Yum Yummilicious.....!!!

What Tiger Airways?

I am in a super duper foul mood today. Why? All down to Tiger Airways. Why? Cos they sucks big time. Communications sucks! Service sucks! Systems sucks! Meaning everything sucks!

I booked my ticket to Penang about 3 months ago. How the hell would I know whats the weight of luggage I will be bringing back with me 3 months later? So I did not purchase the luggage allowance online when I booked my tickets (as its cheaper to purchase this in advance, unfortunately!!)

Now, as the travelling date is getting close, I called the call centre to purchase the luggage allowance few days ago, but I ain't sure if the staff are "not working", or just plain DEAF!! No one seems to attend to calls and I have been put on hold to listen to their so-called "music on hold"... !!! YES.. for hours... Arghhh.. this really pissed me off big time as there are no other ways I can get thru to them. NO, they do not have an email that I can send in for HELP. Seriously, how do this airline get to where they are now? OMG!!! And SERIOUSLY... I m not gonna travel with this stupid airline anymore!!!! DAMN!!!

Hida, my colleague, went to googled online for "How to contact Tiger Airways".. and the results came out to be SUPER NEGATIVE!!! I realised, I am not the only one who hates that airline... everyone knows this airline just doesn't have a proper level of communication. OMG OMG OMG!!! This is a Singapore operated airline.. how can that be? Seriously... I don't know...

Anyway, I just can't be bothered anymore. I will just freaking pay the allowance upon check in, even though its double the price. But its just not worth getting my blood boiled over this stupid airline.