X'mas Holiday

I went to Singapore again for my X'mas holiday. Each time I go to Sg, my dear would bring me to somewhere special. This time he brought me to an Italian Restaurant in Dempsy Hill, La Forketta. The environment and food was good, but I did not like the service of the restaurant. The waitress who serve us was not well trained, she couldn't give a good recommendation on their food. However, this could not spoil our mood, because we seldom have time to pak tor in such a romantic environment.

My main activity in this holiday was shopping, shopping and shopping. I got sponsor from my dear for this x'mas sales as he got nothing for me as x'mas gift. LOL! Thus, I shop until drop! Anyway, I only spend about half of the budget. That means I still have another half for my next shopping trip in Sg. Thanks my dear!

In this shopping trip, I found that shopping in Raffles City Shopping Centre is more convenient, as Orchard is too big. I only managed to shop in few shops in Orchard: Zara, MNG, Tang and some shops in Far East Square, and that took me one day. I had no time for Paragon and Takashimaya. While City Raffles Shopping Centre has more shops concertrated, like Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Guess, River Island, Robinsons, Mark & Spencer and many more. In additionnal, it is very easily reached, as it is directly link to City Hall MRT Station. I would definately go there again next time.

Hectic day

It's X'mas in 2 more days, there are a lot of flower deliveries to be done. Today, I arranged all Penang Island's deliveries in the morning, because I knew that there would be heavy traffic on the bridge during the festive season, especially at evening. Unfortunately, when I was on my way back, there was an accident happen in the middle on the bridge. I started to stuck in the traffic jam from Tesco. It took me about 1 1/2 hour to cross the bridge. The worse thing was my car aircon stop functioning for nearly half and hour, can you imagine how hot it was during 1pm?

I guess tomorrow's traffic will be heavier and I cannot predict will there be any accident. Luckily, all the X'mas greeting deliveries already been done today. If there is any last minute order, I will ask my partner in Penang to help me. I will not cross over the Penang Bridge tomorrow. NO!

Mee Goreng Recipe

A Boy, I found a Mee Goreng recipe for you. I simplify and modify a bit for you. I think these ingredients are available in Norway. Hope this can help you. I know you must have missed this dish so much!

Ingredients
2 pieces instant noodles, boiled and well drained
100g mutton, sliced thinly into bite-sized pieces.

(A):
1/2 tsp light soy sauce
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp sugar
10 shallot, thinly slice

(B):
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
4 tbsp ground chilli
4 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp water

(C):
1/2 cup oil
100g bean sprouts / cabbage
1 green chilli, seeded and thinly sliced
1 potato, boiled and cut into 1cm-thick slices
1 egg


Method
Marinate mutton with seasoning (a). Heat oil and fry marinated mutton until aromatic. Add seasoning (b) and stir-fry well. Add in noodles and stir. Add bean sprouts or cabbage and fry for one minute. Add potatoes, green chillies and lastly an egg. Squeeze half a small lime into the mee and continue to fry until dry.

Afternoon Tea

Having afternoon tea is a culture in my family. My brothers and I used to have biscuits, corn flakes or nyonya kuih as our afternoon tea when we were small. Sometimes my papa bought mee goreng, mee rebus, laksa, cendol, cucuk udang, char kueh tiau or roti canai for us when he came home from work, especially when he was in morning shift, which he finished work at 2pm. Ah Boy loves mamak and malay food very much, as spicy food is his favorite. While Ah Seng loves only delicious food, no matter what it is, it needs to be prepared with 'heart', I remember Char Kueh Tiau is one of his favorite food since he small. And for myself, Laksa is always my favorite. My mom and I always add some rice in the remaining laksa kuah so that it won't be wasted.

During the weekend, either my papa, mom, grandma or aunty Mi would prepare the afternoon tea. They could prepare macam-macam, like red bean soup, sweet potato soup, bo bo cha cha, cempedak kuih, mi hun kueh and cucuk udang.

Of cause, as a typical Malaysian family, durian also became our afternoon tea during the season.

Since we grew up, we seldom have afternoon tea already, though those are one of my sweetest memory during the days we stayed in Taman Transkrian.

Nonetheless, I am so lucky that since I operate a shop in Chai Leng Park, I have chance to eat afternoon tea again. My papa likes to come to my shop during the afternoon. Especially when he has something to do at nearby, for sure he will stopby and bring me for tea. He loves mee rebus and mee goreng, while i eat cucuk udang or curry puff with coconut juice. I hope I could have more chance to have afternoon tea with him, I know he enjoys it very much and me too.

East meet west

Finally, I have my X'mas mix with CNY window display done today. I remain the bear hand bouquet in cone shape ( like a X'mas tree), soft toys and snow sprays on the glass, but replace the X'mas tree with some CNY theme artificial and dry flowers arrangement.

I get my inspiration for my main theme decoration from a display in an art gallery in Salzburg, Austria. The materials are available here, glass vase, feathers, rattan ball, dry yanagi and dry palm leaves. I love the combinations and the use of orange and red color. Due to the limited space, I only make one instead of 3 decorations. I need to allocate other more commercialize items for the window display, though this might affect the overall appearence. I try to find balance between art and commercial, by hoping this can attract more people to come.

Sunday Special Event

What people do usually on Sunday? Shopping, sleeping at home, watching movie, picnic, family gathering, do part time job.... ect.. Those are what common things people do, unless they have special occasion or hobby.

I am also a normal person who have these activities, but last Sunday I attended Madurai Veeran (an indian deity) festival with my dad. We prayed for the God blessing on my mom's health, by hoping she could stand up and walk again one day. During the ceremony, my pa tied on a head gear and wore a dhoti. He looked no bad at all in this indian formal costume ya? Maybe a kurta as top would be perfect? T-shirst a bit wierd.

Which one now?

Christmas is on next Thursday, while Chinese New Year is coming soon in end of January. I had my Christmas window decoration a month ago. I decorate with bears, a small chrismas tree and some christmas theme artificial flowers arrangement. To make it more attractive, I hang some gold colour christmast ornaments and spray some snow on the window glass.

It's only 9 days to go for Christmas, but the radio start to broadcast some cny songs these few days. This really makes me eager to change my window decoration. I cannot stop of thinking for some ideas for cny. I wish I can change it by tomorrow, but christmas has not past, oh... what should I do now?

Anyway, there are only 6 weeks to go for cny, so maybe I can change the decoration a bit by a bit first. Maybe a vase of artificial flowers arrangement with red peonys and white vase. Red and white are christmas theme color, while peonys are popular during cny. Peony is a symbol of prosperity and happiness for Chinese.

Shanghainese Hairy Crab

I went to Dragon-i Restaurant in Queensbay Mall last weekend with my parents. My mom read about the Shanghainese hairy crab set promotion in news paper and she would like to try the famous delicacies from southern China.
The promotion is for dinner only, RM98 per pax (min. 3 person, or else RM128 per pax), with 1 steamed meal Shanghainese hairy crab(200g), 1 steamed Shanghainese crab roe dumpling, double-boiled chicken soup with fish maw and bamboo pith, salteed fresh vegetable with crab roe, Yong Chow fried rice and a bowl of sesame dumpling with ginger soup. The set is too large for us per person, so we order 3 steamed Shanghainese hairy crab for each of us (RM48 each, not cheap too!), with some shanghainese steamed meat dumpling (xiao long pao), steamed vegetable, fried rice, la mian... ect..

Eating Shanghainese hairy crab is very interesting, they provide some tablewares for us, a small scisors and a tiny folk. Ladies would like it very much, as we can eat crab in very elegance and polite way. The crab shell is softer compare to local crab, that's why we can use scisors to cut it, instead of using hammer to break it. I am not the expert in crab, but one thing I can comment about the taste, the crab paste is really great! Greater than local crab paste! If you like crab paste, you must give this a try. It would not disapoint you.

But one thing to be very careful about eating this Shanghainese hairy crab , do not eat with empty stomach and remember to drink ginger tea after taking it. I had a very bad experience about this. I should write this blog a week ago, but my stomach seriously bulging with air whole night after the meal. I loss of my appetite everytime I think of crab. LOL! Until now only I dare to upload the photos.

Why we work?

After graduate from school, most of us become working group. We come to the stage of financial independent, we start to pay for bread, house rental, car installment and insurance by ourself. That is just the beginning, not too burden if not over spend. Life is still easy.

After few years working, many start to get engage. At that stage, we need to work harder to pay for house installment, annual vacation, house hold expenses, retirement financial planning... ect.

Then, when the baby born, work to earn money is not only to maintain our lifestyle, it has become a responsibility. We responsible to work harder for the sake of a better life to our family, for the one we love. Perhaps a bigger house, a nicer car, a bigger coverage insurance policy or a better education financial plan for children.

We work for money, and money make our life better. While better life make us happier. Ya, we work for life. No matter you like it or not, YOU NEED TO WORK!

Lullaby

Since i bought a dvd player, watching dvd has replace my book reading habit before sleep. I like to watch China historical tv series before sleep. The series are great, but the story lines are serious and a bit slow in rhythm. That's the reason why I choose China historical tv series as my lullaby. It not only can lull me to sleep, I can learn some chinese history while enjoying the most relax moment in a day.

However, sometimes I watch Hongkong tvb series too. I just started 家好月圆since last weekend. But, I'll cross my finger to say that it can help me to sleep, somemore it make me sleepless. You want me to proof it? Well, it's 3:48am now, and I'm still blogging lor! Needless to explain why it make me sleepless, many have watched it before, they will tell why. LOL!

I need to wake up 8am tomorrow and a lot of work is waiting for me to do tomorrow, hai! I think better stop to watch the series for tomorrow night. If not more wrinkles will come out.
Brain, please stop active now, let me sleep please......

ti amo

It's traffic jam when i drove back from shop just now. A new song named Ti amo was playing in the radio. There are 4 languages of I love you in the song lyrics, ti amo, ti quiero, sarang he yo and I love you. I am not going to write any comment of this song now, but this song inspired me one romantic idea to make your love one surprise.

Imagine that each time when you travel to one country, you find someone to write 'I love you' in their language, and remember to put down their signatures and date. After collecting for 10, 20 ,30 or more, and when you present to your love one, sure she will happy until tears drop. Maybe you may think this is a stupid idea, because it might take many years to finish the mission. But, this is really cool and it shows that you miss her any time and any where. Nah.... if you propose to her with this gift (of cause with ring and flowers too), your chance to get her nod is higher!

p/s: If you do not have time to go travelling frequently, here is a tips for you, go to places like Bukit Bintang, Orchard or Chulia Street, where many tourists hanging around, you can get as many as you like! :p

Wedding Gift

I have a wedding dinner invitation recently, it will be held in Kuantan. Too bad, I cannot attend the dinner, as I plan to Singapore during the period and air ticket was booked. Nonetheless, a nice present will be sent to my friend. I don't want to give ang pao only, that's not sincere enough as I really feel sorry for not attending the dinner. I try to search for something special and able to express my sentiment in some online shopping website.

I find few wedding presents in Swarovski are suitable and attracted me.

Bells: Silver-tone metal parts; faceted clear crystal bells.

This will be a significant memory of wedding day, when the bell of wedding ring.... Ding Dong.... Ding Dong.....

Butterfly, Aurora Borealis:
This fully faceted butterfly is made of Aurora Borealis crystal. I love each new ray of light dances off the facets in playful and harmonious ways.

Angel Wings:
Flying fly wing to wing. A simple sentiment, beautifully captured. The ornament in clear crystal shows Crystal Fabric applications for a special effect and hangs on a white satin ribbon.

Bears Hand Bouquet

Once, flowers and chocolates are the most popular gift for girls. Bears are popular too, but some worry that it would be too childish for mature age girl. However, bears hand bouquets are very popular in Asia now a day. And many mature age girls love it very much too, as they think that it can be kept longer than fresh flowers and more variety in design too.

After wrapping into hand bouquet, bears look cuter and more lively. It can be decorated with some beads, love sticks and artificial mini roses. These additional accessories would make it look sweet, elegance, classy or stylish. The design are more flexible and creative. For fresh flowers hand bouquet, the freshness of the flowers is the most important concern, as a result, some creative designs have to be given up. But, in bears hand bouquet, this issue is not a problem at all, bears can be placed in any position and tied to any shape we like.

Try for a bear hand bouquet as your next present instead of fresh flowers hand bouquet to your love one, she might be surprised!

Evening Primrose Oil

Premenstrual syndromes have troubled me for many years. Especially lower abdomen pain at the first day of menstrual period. I have tried many ways to release the pain, like do more excersice, drink only warm water daily and take bak fong yun etc., but the effects were not significant.

Until 2 months ago, i started to take evening primrose oil, the effect is very good. Although there are still slightly back pain and tireness, but no more lower abdomen pain. This is really a good news for me, as I can sleep better, work better and even excersise better during the menstrual period! Finally, I found something that really works!

I take 1 pil per day of 1000mg EPO only, although the label recommended 1-3 per day. However, it's depends on different personal physical. For me, 1 per day is more than enough. Remember to take with meal.

How it works:
Evening primrose oil (EPO) is a source of the omega-6 fatty acids gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) and linoleic acid (LA). Omega-6 fatty acids and substances made from them, are components of nerve cells, all cell membranes and hormone-like substances known as prostaglandins. Prostaglandins have multiple local hormone-like actions, which include regulation of tissue inflammation. Conditions that involve inflammation, such as eczema, may benefit from supplementation with omega-6 fatty acids.
Low levels of GLA have been found in women with premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Essential fatty acid deficiency can lead to an excess of the female hormone prolactin which is responsible for many of the symptoms of PMS. Supplementing with EPO increases a prostaglandin known as PGE1, which may help with the symptoms of PMS.