Experiences

Well, I am the only one to cook for the family every Chinese New Year. As usual, I had prepared myself by marketing for foodstuffs especially the vegetables, chicken and pork. My husband bought fish and prawns for me. I didn't go to work on the CNY eve as I needed to get ready for our reunion lunch. By the time my husband and kids came back from the shop, it was almost 4pm. I had already prepared the lunch. CNY reunion lunch dishes At 8pm, I just had reunion dinner with my kids as my husband was out. After the dinner, we went for a late night movie. On the first day of CNY, I prepared noodles for my family.  It was already 11am. At 3pm, we had lunch. Their father had gone out after breakfast. At 8pm, we had our CNY dinner. Their father came back just on time. Tomorrow is visiting time... Gong Xi Fa Cai!

This year, I received lovely CNY cards from some of my blogger friends and suppliers too. Thank you very much. Just recently, I received few more CNY greetings . They were nice cards and the 'fook' word is simply awesome! The above are hand-made and they are very special. The 'horse' is so 'handsome'.  Here's wishing all my blogger friends  a very Happy and Prosperous  Chinese New Year! May the year of the horse brings you lots of good health, wealth and happiness!  Thank you for being my friends!  

Remember I posted about my hamster being killed about 3 months ago? So we thought three was a crowd. Thus, the weaker one was killed. The two hamsters got along very well and they seemed to love each other's company. Once I saw the white one chasing after the black one and I was tickled. He must be a gay!  Well, they even slept so close to each other. They were great friends.  When my girl came back from UK, the first thing that she played with was our dog, Teddy. Teddy was so happy that he didn't even bark. Next she saw the two large tortoises but she didn't play with them. She just had to see her baby hamsters. She knew about Hammie and Sammie's passing. She was curious about how the baby male hamster was being killed.  Never mind about that. She just loves to play with the baby hamsters even though they are grown-ups now. Last Sunday, she cleaned the hamsters' cages. But last evening, her friends came and they were playing with the hamsters. Suddenl...

Last Friday when I was at KLIA welcoming my girl back from UK, we stopped by a chocolate shop. I wanted to buy more chocolates but I didn't have enough cash. I didn't bring my credit card as well. Actually, I had no intention to buy any chocolates in the first place. But the word Chocolate at the shop was so tempting.  I grabbed Lindor, Kinder and Hanuta. But I had to let go Hanuta. We keep the Lindor but I gave the Kinder to  my staff whose birthday was yesterday. My girl bought lots of chocolates from UK.  This Kit Kat is for my boy. Bounty is for me as she knows that it's my favorite. and Hanuta too.. I simply love chocolates!

Recently I had a challenge whereby the customers posted their breakfast at Chang Jiang. I decided to give all the participants a dim sum treat. There were 7 participants altogether. Only 3 came. Too bad the others couldn't make it. We were enjoying the dim sum.. first round.. second round.. We had fun time enjoying our dim sum and chat..

This morning I took the bus at Amanjaya Station to KLIA to welcome my girl back from UK.    the Amanjaya station  I took the 9am Yoyo bus which cost RM42 per trip. This book was bought for me by my youngest girl. Finally, I could find the time to read. It is a motivational book which talks about life and our dreams. The bus reached KLIA at 12.30pm. I went to the arrival hall and waited for my girl till 1.15pm. Then we headed back to Ipoh at 2pm. Reached Amanjaya station at 5.20pm. Reached home at almost 6pm. Took my kids to Yum Yum to have a scrumptious meal  to welcome my girl's return. Home sweet home, my girl!

Yesterday was my girl's birthday. She didn't want a cake. She said it's so unhealthy. Ok, so we decided to go for our breakfast together. She took me to a coffee shop in Ipoh Garden. While waiting for our noodles, we had the fried har kau. Then our misua came. It's good to have misua on one's birthday. Just a simple breakfast but it tasted so good. I even drank up the soup. And also tapau for the boss. He liked it and asked where we bought it. I told him and he was surprised. "All the way there for breakfast?" I replied, "Why not? It's Jean's birthday!"

My boy is helping at the shop so I have much time to spend at the kitchen in the morning. He wants me to cook chicken for him everyday. Previously I hardly cooked chicken. I usually fried fish for him. Well, he's skinny and we told him he has to eat a lot of protein so as to put on weight. His sister told him to eat eggs and bread in the morning and eat chicken as his main dish for his meals. Normally, my cooking is very simple. Now I have to think of ways to cook chicken everyday. Recently, I cooked the chicken below which tasted good for my boy. I just simply seasoned them with light and dark soya sauce for a couple of hours. I also added honey and coarse black pepper. Then I fried them. They turned out nice. He liked them. Guess I have to google for more ways of cooking chicken.

The boss gives ang pow to his staff and part-time workers every year. He is the one who decides on how much to be given to each of them. He told me exactly how he liked it to be given. So I carried out his order. I calculated the amount and then prepared the ang pow. All the ang pows were given. But I haven't got mine yet. It has to be given by the boss personally. Surely all of them were happy. This particular staff was so happy that he grinned at the boss. The boss thought that he was weird. I told him that the guy must be very happy. So have you received your ang pow from your boss?

Have you ever written a diary? I had when I was being in love with my only loved one. I kept it till I had to shift to my present place. Before I shifted I had torn away the diary and only kept those cards. Those days we corresponded through snail mails and I even kept them till I got married. But I had already destroyed all of them many years back. Recently, I attended my aunt's funeral and my mum told me that the family had found a diary which belonged to my late aunt. In her diary, she had written in Chinese what she had done since 2003. That means it had been 10 years since she started writing. She had even mentioned me whereby she visited my home. She could even recall the time she started her journey from one place to another. I was amazed that she could recall all that happened after she had come back from a visit to different places. It is a treasure to the family and I was hoping to have a glimpse of the diary one day... http://www.my-diary.org/   ...

Recently, I received some self-created cards from my customers' kids. Here they are: there's a cute ang pow..the horse was well drawn. Happy CNY from a cute horse.. What is this phrase? wow, so many fishes swimming.. auspicious symbol 年年有餘 nin nin yau yue 大吉大利   daai gat daai lei 恭喜發財 kung hei fatt choy Want to see what they got in return for their cards? Visit Chang Jiang ..

Horse is a very special animal. My kids love horses and I would take them to visit the horses should there be any horse show.  Thank you Shane and Doris! This gift and the CNY card was given by my two customers cum friends. The gift is so beautiful. What does the Chinese phrase say? The spirit of the horse is recognized to be the Chinese people's ethos – making unremitting efforts to improve themselves. It is energetic, bright, warm-hearted, intelligent and able. Ancient people liked to designate an able person as 'Qianli Ma', a horse that covers a thousand li a day (one li equals 500 meters). http://www.travelchinaguide.com

Since we bought the non-stick pan recently, my boy has been using it frequently. This morning, I tried to make a pancake with it. Simply beat up two eggs.  Add some light soya sauce.  Pour it on the heated pan. Then arrange the sliced bananas over it. Flip half way to cover the other half. There you are, a Thaipusam holiday treat! Happy Thaipusam!

25 Nov 13:  On our way to Wales, we made a stop to snap some pictures of the magnificent Welsh castle. the awesome one.. Everyone of us was given a red t-shirt. We were supposed to wear it and take a group photo. I was already wearing a red Scotland t-shirt so I just held it. But no... it wouldn't look good if I just held it for the group shot. So I wore it over. The tour guide took our photos and promised to email to everyone of us. But till now, I haven't received it.... It was sunny but it was actually very cold....

Recently my mop gave way. It broke just at the neck of the mop. Some of us might just throw it away but I didn't. I just put it there on the pail till this morning. I had got a new wooden stick from my shop. I even borrowed the spanner from my shop. I wanted to loosen the neck but it wouldn't budge. I had done it before for my customer and it worked. So I broke it and started digging the remains with my screwdriver. Then I just screwed the new wooden stick into the hole of the neck.  Voila! It's new again!

This must be my best cd ever. It contains some of my favorite songs which I can sing along easily. I must thank SK profusely for this awesome cd! May be I should say "I like you for being so generous!". I was in Taiping last weekend and I went back to work today just before noon. No one told me about the parcel which must have reached my desk last Saturday. It was put among my other stuff. I was browsing through my stuff and I found a package from SK. Oh, I was thrilled to have received such unique cd. Now as I type this post, I am listening to the cd. Can you guess how many artists are there in my cd? Thank you SK for the lovely cd, key chain and the Chinese New Year card!

My eldest aunt (my late dad's sister) passed away recently and many relatives were present. My second, third and youngest aunties were there too. I haven't seen them for ages. We didn't talk much as we had the rituals to follow for the whole night of last Friday. Last Saturday was the funeral and we had another ritual to follow. When everything was done, it was already past noon. Then we followed to the graveyard. My late aunt was buried beside her late husband who passed away many years ago. The day was fine as it had been raining for the whole night before the funeral. The grave was wet and it was messy. Anyway, all's done and by the time we got home, it was already 2.30pm after we had our lunch at the casual market.  mum and second aunt My second aunt lives in Ipoh but I haven't seen her for quite some time. Recently my uncle, her husband had passed away and I didn't know about it. I felt sorry for her. Last Thursday, she had gone to Taiping by b...

We walked to the church to visit Shakespeare's grave. Here's the grave.. The tombstone of Shakespeare is inscribed with these words: 'Good friend for Jesus sake forbear, To dig the dust enclosed here! Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones'. Shakespeare is thought to be buried 5 metres under the stone and his bones are still intact, as per his wishes. In an attractive setting near the River Avon is the parish church where Shakespeare is buried ("and curst be he who moves my bones"). The Parish Register records his baptism in 1564 and burial in 1616 (copies of the original documents are on display). The church is one of the most beautiful parish churches in England. Shakespeare's tomb lies in the chancel, a privilege bestowed upon him when he became a lay rector in 1605. Alongside his grave are those of his widow, Anne, and other members of his family. You can also see the graves of S...

25 Nov 2013: Here's the place where we got to see Shakespeare's home town. And the statue to tell us that we were at the right place. We were going to have a walking tour in this town. If you had studied Shakespeare's literary works, you would understand the meaning behind each statement. As for me, I only knew, "Hamlet" and "As You Like it".. I studied these two literary books of Shakespeare for my STPM which I took privately when I first became a qualified teacher. I studied privately through post from the Cambridge College in Singapore.