Experiences

New Year: A Dialogue Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1909) MORTAL:     “The night is cold, the hour is late, the world is bleak and drear;     Who is it knocking at my door?” THE NEW YEAR:     “I am Good Cheer.” MORTAL:     “Your voice is strange; I know you not; in shadows dark I grope.     What seek you here?” THE NEW YEAR:     “Friend, let me in; my name is Hope.” MORTAL:     “And mine is Failure; you but mock the life you seek to bless. Pass on.” THE NEW YEAR:     “Nay, open wide the door; I am Success.” MORTAL:     “But I am ill and spent with pain; too late has come yo...

How did I spend my Christmas Day? First thing first, I got up a little bit earlier than usual. Of course, with the help of the alarm clock. I did a little bit of cleaning up of my kitchen. No cooking on Christmas Day as I would be out for breakfast and lunch. The first house that I visited was my best friends' house. Never missed visiting them every year. This time I spent just an hour as I needed to hop over to another house. I had idly and puttumayam with curry chicken. My favorite! Just a matter of about 10 minutes or so to the next place. This was my first time at her place on a Christmas Day.  Remember I wore saree with her? So nice of her to invite me for lunch but it's an early one. After finishing a tosai with curry chicken and a little rice with mixed vegetables and pumpkin paste, I quickly called it a day. It's past noon and I had to be back to the shop and wrap more hampers. True enough, I kept on wrapping till almost 6pm a...

When was the last time I met Claire? If I'm not mistaken, I saw here sometime just before the Chinese New Year 2015.  Claire was away for her long holidays since she retired from work. We couldn't find the time to meet up. Recently, she injured her ankle before her trip overseas. Since she came back, I couldn't find the time to see her too. So I asked my friend for her address so that I could give her a surprise visit. But my friend suggested that we go together. Made myself free few days ago and picked up my friend to Claire's place. I thought of buying dim sum but she had too much of it already. She just wanted chee cheong fun, loh mai kai and pau.. Just before I made a move, she gave me some souvenirs from her recent holiday. Thanks Claire ! Wishing you speedy recovery! Take care! Being cheerful is already good in speeding up your recovery!

Recently I redeemed three RM10 gift vouchers from TM online. I should have redeemed earlier as some 2K plus points were expired. Anyway, glad I got hold of the vouchers. They came in handy.  Bought two pairs of long cargo pants for the boss as his birthday is very near. With the total amount of more than RM200, I was entitled two RM10 cash vouchers. I was an Aeon member but I didn't renew it anymore as I hardly shopped there. But today I shopped and was told that I would be entitled the cash vouchers if I shopped with my member card. Thinking that it would be such a waste if I didn't buy those pants with an Aeon member card, I went to the customer service counter and asked for my girl's card number. With that, she earned some points.  But, I need to get back to Aeon as the boss wants a bigger size..

My friend's son got married yesterday. We as her friends who reside in Ipoh decided to attend it instead of our Alumni dinner in Taiping.  A wedding is only once in a lifetime but the alumni dinner is held yearly. So my friend was very grateful that we chose to attend the wedding dinner.   My friend was the efficient planner of her only son's wedding. All of us blessed the matrimony of both the bride and the groom. We were served nasi briyani... and some delicious dishes. Congratulations to both the bride and the groom and also to my friend..

Last Sunday, I didn't go to the shop. Instead I did some clearance of my kitchen space. Been holding on to some cluttering. Time to get rid of them. Without hesitating, I transported them to the recycling centre twice. Never felt better.. I just had my bath when the boss called. Thought he gonna ask me to get to work. Surprisingly, he asked if I wanted to go lunch with him. Normally we don't take lunch together. Got myself ready and we were hunting for a place to have lunch since it's already 3pm. On the way, we dropped by at a enchanting Indian temple. Took some pictures.. Next, we past by an Indian curry rice restaurant. So we might as well.. We had no intention to go anywhere else but something struck our eyes. There's a home fair at the stadium. Boss loves to look at suff. It had been ages since we last visited any fair/exhibition. We walked around and was tempted by this unique alarm lock. The salesperson managed to convince us.. On ...

My eldest brother wished to organised a birthday celebration for our mum. He planned everything in detailed. He chose the Imperial Restaurant in Subang and ordered a special cake for the celebration.   It's a beautiful cake for the special occasion. He even bought special red packets meant to be given together with the door gift.  A piece of RM5 note is put inside each packet. The door gift consists of a fork,a spoon and a pair of chopsticks which is considered auspicious. Mum wore her new blouse specially tailored for her big day. Only closed relatives were invited. A total of 63 guests attended the event. Mum's birthday fell on the tenth day of the tenth month of the Chinese calendar which coincidentally fell on a Saturday. My eldest sister flew from JB. My third sister took a bus from Singapore. My youngest sister flew from Penang. My second brother and his family flew from Penang too. My eldest, third and youngest brothers are fro...

As many of my customer friends are Indians, I decided to give them a treat. It was held at the Chinese restaurant in the YMCA building. I booked two tables for the 19 of us. Before we started the dinner, I had to give the prize to the winner of the Saree challenge at Chang Jiang.  She was clad in saree but I was clad in an innovated one. From 7pm onwards, one by one started to take their seat at the restaurant. Then came the pre-ordered dishes. We had rice and there was a bowl of soup too. Most of them had Chinese tea but some of us had red wine which I brought along. Simple yet appetizing ones. And it's reasonable too. After the dinner, we gathered at the living hall for a photography session. We took quite a number of shots. A group photo for the album. They thanked me for the treat but I thanked them for their presence! Happy Deepavali!

I had organised a saree contest at Chang Jiang but not many people seemed keen. Once a Chinese friend told me that she wanted to take part and I was looking forward to it.  She was waiting for a green light from our Indian friend. Unfortunately, our friend was too busy preparing for her son's wedding. Her time was really occupied.  I have an Indian friend who seemed interested to wear saree with me. Again, we couldn't get a proper time to do it. Both of us had time constraint. Thus, we forwent it. Two days ago, a regular customer came to Chang Jiang with her saree. She looked so pretty. This was the first time I had seen her in saree. Casually, I asked if I could wear her saree. Without hesitation, she welcomed me to go over to her place that very night after my work. I was so pleased and I told her about the saree contest in Chang Jiang. She was excited.  So, I went to her place and wore her saree. I had submitted this picture at Chang Jiang. ...

Have you heard of Nefful? I just heard of it recently. A customer who used to be sickly seemed healthy. So I asked about his condition. He then told me about the product Nefful. He was very efficient. In just two days, he brought his upline to talk to me. I was more convinced thus I signed up as a member. Nefful offers a wide range of clothings which is made of Teviron negative ion fabric.  Firstly, I bought a pair of boxer and a pair of wrist band for my boss. He wears them to sleep. By wearing the boxer, it helps to cleanse his system out of toxins. He is one who likes to pop medication into his mouth. The wrist band helps to stabilize his heart as he is a very stressful person. After a week of wearing, I washed them with the Nefful detergent. I was surprised to see that the water turned murky. See how much toxins he had in his system! I always wash my hair after work that is late at night. So I got myself a beanie. I hope that by wearing it to sleep, those m...

Finally I have got two new gadgets for my phone. The i-space adapter cable.  I had actually misplaced my set so I couldn't transfer my pictures into my laptop. So you can imagine I have lots of photos in my gallery. I had even deleted most of them after I had posted them. But I like to keep them as backup. Recently I used Dropbox but its space is so limited. I tried Cloud Album and yet to know if it's limited too. Yesterday night, I went into oppo shop and enquired about any adapter cable which might be suitable. So I found one. It cost RM35. Most importantly it worked.. Next, I have got a new cover for my phone. Originally, it was white and it got dirty. I had been trying to get the original one. Luckily I found it. I would love other color but they only had this color and the same white ones. I was surprised that I could trade in my old one for 20% discount. Great! Instead of RM89.90, I just paid RM72. My phone looks new all over again!

Have you heard of Dropbox? Personally I have heard of it before. I had asked my boy where he kept his photos and he told me it's the Dropbox. But at that time, I was not keen as I have my external hard disk. I store my photos there. But since I have my oppo phone  last Christmas, I don't save my photos anywhere. I just post them in my facebook. I can retrieve them anytime I want.  But two weeks ago, the boss's Samsung galaxy camera memory was full. He has lots of photos and he likes to view them from the camera itself. I was browsing his camera and I saw the Dropbox. So I quickly signed up and got all his 500 plus photos downloaded into Dropbox.  I deleted all his photos from the Gallery. He has lots of space for photo capturing now. And he can view all his photos from the Dropbox. He's so happy... Since it was successful case, I decided to download Dropbox into my phone. But imagine I have about 5k pictures. Photos was downloading into Dropbox and it g...

The Ninth Emperor God Festival starts on the 13 Oct till 21 Oct. My mum made a date with the temple as she would stay there throughout the 9 days. On the 14 Oct which was the second day, I sent my mum to the temple.  Here's the entrance to the dormitory. My first time sending my mum. Surprised to see the place which was clean and orderly. My two friends from Ipoh followed me to Taiping for a day trip. After putting my mum there, we went to get our lunch at the casual market. After our lunch, we went shopping at the Store nearby. As it was raining, we just took a drive along the Lake Garden. Since the rain wouldn't stop, we had our tea break at Taiping Mall. I had to be back to the shop before 6pm. So we left after visiting a friend and my aunt.

I easily remember my wedding anniversary as it falls a month after my birthday. As for Chinese calendar, it is 2 days after the moon cake festival. But I don't celebrate the latter. Actually I don't celebrate the former too but I like to remind my boss of it. So on that day, I got up and went about my usual stuff. I took a seat and started looking at my phone. Suddenly popped up a memory from Facebook. I had posted about my wedding anniversary 4 years ago.  Just a simple sentence. 'Today is my wedding anniversary!' But this time I had added the number. "Today is my 28th wedding anniversary!' Automatically, I had posted on my whatsapp groups too. It was nice and satisfying receiving wishes after wishes from my friends.  And my good friend living just a short distance away from me suggested that we had a dinner. Since it's a Friday, it should be fine. So we fixed the time at 8pm at Plan B. She came with her hubby and another friend. Four of us ha...

My girl had a week long break from work so she came back home. As a mum, I pampered her with home-cooked food. She had not been eating regular balanced meal during work. Everyday, I would prepare lunch for her. She loved eating no matter what I cooked. For dinner, she had to share our catered food as I had to work till late. Friday is always the best day for me. I can go back earlier as it's pasar malam night. So two days ago, I had a date with my girl. She drove me to Parkson and we had Sushi King.   She had her set of dinner whereas I had fried Udon. Sunday is also my day as I don't need to go to work. Since my girl was home, the boss closed the shop a little earlier and we went for a good lunch. Chinese lunch and she loved the fried 'suet yi' (dory fish) the most. She's back to her place and I wonder when will be her next break.. Always love my kids to spend their time at home.

A friend of ours, came back for a short holiday from UK. So, we decided to have a grand dinner with her. Some friends from Taiping and KL came to Ipoh for the celebration.  After the dinner, we went over to a friend's place for lantern lighting. I had brought some lanterns and candles from my shop. Those were the days we used to play lanterns.. It was a happy occasion for all of us. Since the lanterns were still in good condition, I kept them for my next gathering with my Chang Jiang customers. Here, kids played.. Some of the kids were my friend's neighbours.  They too joined in the fun. Of course, Mid-Autumn is not auspicious without a moon cake. With my friends, a friend baked some special mooncakes for all of us. With my customers, I brought some moon cakes from the shop. These two occasion were the best since we left childhood. Happy mid-Autumn to all... May your life be filled with love and happiness!

My mum is going to be 80 come November and my eldest brother initiated a birthday dinner for her. He had found a nice restaurant and managed to get my relatives and siblings to join in the celebration. My brother wanted me to accompany my mum to buy a piece or two cloth so that her blouses could be tailored. So on the 16 August, I drove up to Taiping and took my mum out shopping for cloth. It was not easy. She didn't like any of the cloth displayed.  I called my friend asking her if she she knew of any other cloth shop. She said that the good shop was closed on Sunday.  In that case, I might as well look for ready made blouses for her. Climbing up the stairs of the emporium was not so convenient for my mum, so, I made her sit somewhere and wait for me while I went up to the third floor. Managed to persuade the sales promoter to allow me to take the blouse downstairs for my mum to try it. Mum tried and it was a little tight. So I got a size larger for her. Seei...

Last September, we gathered for the first time to celebrate our birthdays together. There were 5 of us. I bought a birthday day to celebrate with my friends. And I actually treated all of them. At that time there were 9 of us attending the gathering.  This September, we gathered again yesterday for lunch at the same restaurant. But only 3 of us celebrated together. 2 couldn't make it. There were only 7 of us. This time, I brought a moon cake instead to replace the birthday cake.   We had lots of fun chatting, eating and joking away. I wanted to treat them again this time. But someone outsmarted me. She paid without me knowing it.  Thank you my friend for your generosity. We shall have our birthdays celebration at the same place annually.

Sometime in the month of August, I suddenly got the urge to bake cakes of different style. First, I tried steamed cupcakes whereby I added a packet of ENO enabling it to 'Smile'. I ate three and put the other three at the altar. Second, I tried steaming chocolate cake. This time I added soda bicarbonate and baking powder. It turned out good and I shared with my people. Third, I wanted to bake a cake using sweet corns. Love it as I love sweet corns. Fourth, I wanted to bake butter chocolate cake and added those extra corns. Turned out tasty even though I steamed it. Fifth, I make cheese cake. Non-baked ones. Just added Digestive biscuits and walnuts. Sixth, I intended to steam a zebra cake but it turned out a marble cake. Maybe it would become a zebra cake if I had baked it. Seventh, last but not least, a non baked chocolatey chewy cake . I had added raisins, walnuts and digestive biscuits. Guess the last one is the be...