CNY 2009 in Miri

I know Chinese New Year is already over for almost >1 week now - But work has been really busy since I am picking up new things so I can't blog in office, and life is also busy with many other things - especially since now I am sharing computer with EG - I am just too lazy to blog.

EG and I had an agreement that we'll take turn to celebrate Chinese New Year at our respective hometown alternatively - i.e. 2008 in his house, so 2009 in my house. So this year, we went back to Miri for CNY.

EG had his 3-colored-special-teh-C in Miri as showns in TV8 Hochiak!. We didn't go to the same restaurant as recommended by TV8 but we went to another place - thanks to my sister. EG loves it. What so special about this Teh-C? Go watch the video clip @ the above link. :P

The 3-Colored-Special-Teh-C

My best friend - Shizuka - was in Miri for CNY this year too. I think she feels that Mirians are really nice (just like me!!! :D) so she chose & married a Miri-man. What a coincident!! The funniest thing is, another zi mui of ours also married a Borneo-man but she's @ Sabah. We always find it funny but anyway, I am not going to discuss that now. :)

Since both Shizuka & EG have been complaining about the not-so-nice kolok mee & laksa that they had at home, so this round, I did some survey and we went for breakfast together @ a newly open coffee shop (maybe not too new also) - Mdm Wee - who made her own noodles for both kolok mee & laksa.

Both the non-sarawakians took the famous Sarawak Laksa

Another view of the laksa.

Glad that the two non-Sarawakians said it's nice. :D

We waited for 45 minutes for the food to arrive. Well, it was long, but since we had quite a bit to chat with each other, we didn't feel that it was too long. But my mum gave a not-very-happy remark when she knew it as she said the coffee shop always has this problem.

All the Sarawakian ordered their kolok mee.

Mine is with soy sauce + chili sauce.

EG and I reached Miri nearly on the midnight on Thursday. And on Friday, we went to airport 3 times to fetch my sister and my two brothers, coming back from KL & Sibu, all different flight schedule. It has been a real long time that 4 of us got together. The last time I think was during my wedding?! That's already >1 year ago!!!

After our breakfast together with Shizuka (yeah they all tagged along :P), we went to Marina Bay as konon-nya it's going to be one of the high class area in Miri (?!) after x years (????). Me not sure but since I have never been there, we just stopped by to have a look, and took some pics.

The 4 Tengs

EG and I

This year, our parents didn't cook all the dishes for the reunion dinner after our persuasion as it just took too much work and time to do that. We catered half, and cooked the other half. Both my parents started to get busy in the kitchen at 2pm+, and all dishes were ready at 4.30pm. So, we had our reunion dinner @ 4.30pm. How bizzarre right?! But like my dad said, eat slowly, and later 9pm we'll have another round of supper if anyone is hungry. :D

>10 dishes for reunion dinner.

We didn't even finish half of them!!

It's also our tradition to play fire crackers at 12am on the 1st day of CNY. Almost all the houses at our street - Jalan Baiduri 1 - lit up the fire crackers. And No, no police dropped by. :D

It's too loud for a cat :P

Gong Xi Fa Cai !!

Though there are quite a lot of people visiting our place during CNY as usual, this year, we have booked our time to go to Brunei for the famous and cheap Sushi in Escapade on the 3rd day of CNY. My dad was quite reluctant to go but since the whole family planned to go, he wouldn't want to miss out the fun too. I'll blog about that next time soon (I hope!) :D

My family @ Escapade Sushi, Brunei

Last but not least, ever since my brother took up photography as his hobby, we never go studio for our family shoot anymore. This year, since we had a new member - EG - joining us in our CNY celebration, of course we won't miss the chance and snapped our family portraint on the 2nd day of CNY in our house.

Family photo 2009

Going home.... is always the BESTEST of the BEST!

E

Happy Valentine's Day Supercolossal

My Quillling

During Christmas, Karen from my church (Note: She's also the one who designed my wedding invitation cards that received countless good comments) gave us a fridge magnet as Christmas gift. My first response was just amazed + astonished looking at this cute stuff. It's so simple, and yet, SO NICE!.... It came with a custom made bag with no glue.... But I forgot to take a pic of that.

When I was making some invitation cards for a church event in Karen's place, she told me this is called Quilling. And then she showed me those that she did for the Pastors in church, I was even more speechless looking at her work. Then, I started to have itchy hands to try on quilling too.

Since CNY is coming, Jireh U CG had a small celebration during CG time. I have decided to make a simple bookmark for all my CG members.

So, firstly, I have to cut the paper into 0.3cm size, and it's not as easy as I thought since I don't have proper tools.

Paper strips

Next, I started to roll the orange paper to be the mandarin orange, and the green ones to be the two small leaves. There are supposed to be the right tools to do the rolling but I don't have. So I have to use toothpick / hairpin to help me in the rolling. Lucky thing is my fingers are rather small, so it does help a bit. :P...

When I started rolling, then I found out my mandarin oranges are not in even sizes due to the inaccurate measurement during cutting. Gee... Now I really admire Dr. Andrew & Karen's steady hands since they will do the measuring & cutting by themselves if the quantity is not a lot.

My cacat mandarin oranges :P

Since it's Chinese New Year, I purposely bought some RED paper as the base. At First, I cut them into rectangle but EG said it looks weird. So after some trials, EG suggested me to cut off the edges on the top, and stick my mandarin oranges & their leaves on top.

My halfway done book mark

Then EG helped me printed my favorite verse from Jeremiah for 2009, with nice fire crackers as clipart (Chinese New Year maa....). Then, stick them slightly below the mandarin oranges, and ta-da..... here's my final piece of "art"... :P

My bookmark

In total, I made 25 pieces of book marks for my CG members, including 5 for myself and EG and I wanted to give my siblings too. Seriously I don't think it's VERY VERY nice but it's a good start for my little interest in quilling. I am still looking for the proper tools to do this.

Bookmarks for JirehU members

The bookmarks were given out on last Friday and I wasn't in the CG as I was on my way back to Taiping. At 10pm, my handphone was bombarded with thank-you SMSes -- That's how we thank someone when they are not around in CG.

I am inspired to make better ones next time. :)... But anyway, CNY is just around the corner. So, Gong Xi Fa Cai to everyone! And have a great time with your family and your love ones!!

Anniversary Presents

I have been looking for a new watch since both my current watches are at least >6 years old now. All girls like new things ok? :P.... Anyway, after looking for weeks, finally EG bought the Casio Sheen for me.

My new watch

I asked EG what he wants for anniversary. Funny, he asked for a bottle of potato chip for his anniversary present. Kakakaka!!! Ok here's the background - I once read in some magazine that potato chips are bad for health and are cancerous. I am not sure how true this is but EG used to eat quite a bit of potato chips at home - especially when he's reading his novel before he sleeps. I think that's a bad habit so I strictly prohibited potato chips @ our home.

Anyway, since it's anniversary - so I got his favorite Jacker's potato chips for him. :P

Jacker Potato Chips - EG's anniversary present

Ya, I know. It's unfair right? But then, nothing is fair in a relationship, right? No? :P. Kekekeke... **evil laugh**

1st Year Anniversary

Life has been busy these days - both in office, and after office. And that's why now only I am going to write about the celebration that EG and I had for our anniversary last weekend.

Strictly speaking, it wasn't our anniversary *yet*, but then again, it's actually the day we registered. For us, our wedding day is actually the day when we said the vows before God. However, since we have things tied up during the coming weekends and also preparing for our home trip back to Miri for CNY (YIPPIE!!), we have decided to celebrate it earlier.

EG found in a friend's blog about Blue Reef Fish & Chip shop @ Tanjung Bungah. We did a small search in google and found most good comments on the shop. Since EG and I are rather small eaters, the initial plan for buffet was off, and we decided to head for this new restaurant @ the other side of Penang island.

Map downloaded from some other blogs

I didn't manage to take a pic in the shop but it's a very cosy restaurant situated @ Casa Permai - a very quite and peaceful neighbourhood @ Tanjung Bungah. I felt slow-and-easy as it's not crowded, and you can even take your time take a walk @ the small garden opposite Blue Reef, which we didn't, where you see children and kids are doing all sorts of activities there like skating, jogging, etc.

The waiters & waitresses are very attentive and they can give very good suggestion on food to order. For the appertiser, we got smoked tuna salad with vinaigrette. It was very refreshing and the tuna was very fresh and they just melted in your mouth. Yums!

Smoked Tuna Salad with Vinaigrette (RM15)

For EG, he tried the dish where most people recommended - the Fish & Chips. It came with two choices - either battered or with bread crumbs. According to the waitress, for the first option, the fish is battered with beer while the second just with normal bread crumbs. So, EG tried the first one. When the food arrived, EG was amazed by the portion of the food.

Fish & Chips (RM16)

It looks different from the normal fish & chip from the normal shops - where it comes with HUGE fried batter, with lots of oil. For the one @ Blue Reef, the whole piece of the fish is full of juicy fish fillet. You're eating the fish, not the batter. :D... And the beer batter made the fish taste slightly different.

Look how juicy the fish is... Yummy...

For me, I am a salmon lover so I got a pan seared salmon with couscous. This was the first time I heard of couscous and the waitress explained that it's a kind of pasta from Mediterranean. The portion doesn't look real big but it was really very filling. And it has a really good food presentation. I didn't really fancy the couscous. It tasted good, but I just couldn't have too much of them. However, EG loves it very much and I think he took almost half of the couscous from my plate. =)

My Yummy Salmon Dinner (RM19).....

In between meals, there were waitresses kept dropping by our table and asked if the food is OK, if we need any help, or if we need anything. The service is very good and we were thinking they might charge 15% or more for service charge (kekeke!!) but to our surprise, the price is NETT! There's no surcharge. And the price is very reasonable.

The next highlight of the dinner was the cake. Weeks ago, EG's colleague ordered a Mille Crepe cake for the project team in office from HumbleBeginnings. And we decided to get one also for our anniversary celebration since I never try it before. I browsed through the website and was quite skeptical of which flavor to choose. Then I decided to choose French Vanilla - the signature flavor - which it's recommended for first timers. For topping, I chose my favorite shredded white chocolates & roasted almond. They don't have any shop but they will do free delivery with online booking of at least 48 hours - but only in Penang & Johor. Hence, they sent me the cake on Sunday and Ta-Da.... here's the cake! :)

French Vanilla Mille Crepe Cake

The waitress wanted to light up the candle for us but we stopped her. *shy* ma.. This Mille Crepe cake has 20 layers of crepes with combination of Fresh Cream & Vanilla custard between each layer. Imagine the amount of time + work needed to do this. And hence, the price is slightly more pricey than the normal cakes. It starts from RM55 for 0.9kg onwards, and we'll need to add RM10 for topping for regular size.

Look at the layers...

I was already 90% full after the dinner. But when I tasted the cake, it just tasted like HEAVEN. And I just couldn't stop eating though I was really very full. The taste is light and no as sweet as the other cakes. The cream and the vanilla custard tasted just NICE and with the sweetness from the shredded white chocolates and the cruchiness from the shredded roasted almonds, it was just PERFECT. =). Of course we didn't finish the cake. We left the remaining 6 pieces for our breakfast / lunch / dinner for the next few days. :).

Another shot of the cake

We were very happy with both the dinner & the cake. I told EG I think we had two of the best food in Penang that night.

Anyway, we were happy that we have endured our first year of marriage together happily. And we thank God for all the grace & blessing He had for us. And Happy 1 Year Anniversary to ourselves. :)

Happy 2009!!

My mum always says "Time Flies" when we were young, I think she still does. And I never realise how fast time flies as I always wanted to grow up faster.

But now, since I am quite a grown-up now, I can literally feel that time is really flying.

Looking back at 2008, there are just too many things happening in 2008. I remembered I was filled with hopes and excitement while posting my last post to give my Thanksgiving for 2007, I have dreams and dreams. With much love and blessing for the loving God, I have achieved most of my targets, and moreover, more than I have asked for.

Year 2008 marked the biggest change in my life by starting with me marrying the cheekiest guy I have ever met, had a wonderful wedding that I have always dreamt of, and a great honeymoon in Bali. It was just a wonderful wedding. Though everything was hectic and stressful, but in the end, we see God's blessing and everything went on great. Till now, I still flip my wedding photos, and the wedding event still put a smile on my face. Many asked what's the difference before and after I got married, I couldn't really put them in words, but I do feel that relationships after wedding is more challenging to handle comparing to during courtship or when we were boyfriend/girlfriend. But, we're coping well - I thank God for all the good mentors around us who share with us on the ways to maintain good relationship. :D

Work was crazily busy in 2008 too. With great responsibilities, more and more projects came on their ways in 2008. And with much blessing, I still get the chance to travel for meetings & training. On the other hand, without me realising much, I was slowly involved more and more in ministries in EPCC.

Time just flew through 2008. On the last month of 2008, the most shocking news among my friends will be my resignation news - changing to another company. Many were shocked and asking if it's a good time for the change due to the economy downturn. I too struggled for the decision making, but over and over again, God convinced me that this is the right choice that I have made - despite the fact that the increment wasn't that attractive, and I might lose all those that I have established in the old company. Even though the economy is bad and things are uncertain now, but God promises us in Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." I have been praying for a better jobs that allows me to have a better work-life-balance for the past 2 years, and with God's promise, I feel the peace in me and I know this is what He has prepared for me.

2008 ends with many many good news. Though December is my last month in my old company and I should be the most free person in the office, but you were wrong! I was busy with many many other things. In December alone I attended two weddings - one in Malacca and another one in Bukit Mertajam. One of them is the wedding of my very very best friend - Shizuka. I was honored to be appointed as the coordinator + the wedding planner + the em cee + the zi mui head. Imagine the stress! But Joy is more than stress!! This is the first time I became an em cee in a wedding - some more have to speak in Mandarin. Glad that I did well - and Shizuka's parents are very much impressed. And I also took the opportunity to go down to KL to meet up with my girl friends and their baby juniors - the moment together were just priceless.

2008 is going to end (in another 6 hours) soon. Looking back I only feel the joy and feel so blessed. I have yet to set any resolutions for 2009 but I will do it before end of today. I feel the peace and the joy while welcoming the coming of 2009. And again, I believe God has much more in store for both me and EG.

Oh, one resolution that I can think of now is - blog more! I have been very lazy. :)

So my dear friends - hope all of you have a great 2008, and let's welcome 2009 together!! =)

Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas

Our 2008 Chritmas Pressies

For the past few years, I never really celebrated Christmas in Penang or in my church as we'll always be going somewhere for the holiday. For this year, since my best friend's wedding is going to be on the day after Christmas, EG and I stayed back. Then only I found out how much I have missed out for the past few years, I felt so much of the Christmas mooood.

I had a fantastic Christmas Harvest party with my Jireh Unlimited CG members on Saturday, and enjoyed the Christmas Service in Vistana on Sunday. Besides, I also received some gifts from some church friends (since previous years I never had any gifts for Christmas since I was rather new in PG). Then I realised, receiving gifts is such a happy thing. The feeling of opening the presents is so exciting, with lots of anticipation of what's underneath the wrapper, like a little girl I used to be. *wink*... Next year, I told EG, we should do Christmas shopping and bless our friends too!!

Christmas is not just about partying & gift exchange, it's to celebrate the birth of Jesus. The Christmas mood is now everywhere, stirring up all the happy mood of all. I always love Christmas, and the day after Christmas too!! *hint* :P

So hereby, I wish everyone have a Merry, Merry Christmas and a Happy, Happy New Year!!

安息。。。

一年里，有许多的天灾人祸。很多时候，我都把所有当作新闻，当然，有时又会对灾民感到同情。可是，当天灾，当人祸牵涉到我们所认识的人，那种心情非笔墨能形容。

2008年12月6日，我与一些朋友结伴到马六甲。当我们到达目的地时，看到电视新闻报道国际山庄土堋的新闻， 共有4人丧命。 那时，我还不以为意。当我们在马六甲Jonker Street时，我收到我妹发送给我的一则短讯，告诉我我们在两年前，在中国新年旅游团认识的一位朋友，是其中的一位受害者。

前几个月，我还刚与我的朋友的丈夫在Facebook里互问彼此的境况。他们还在网上上载朋友怀孕的像片。朋友也刚在两个月前刚刚产下一位男婴。我还刚刚在Facebook里看到朋友与夫家四代同堂的全家照。记忆在不断的回到两年前我与她在中国杭州湖中的谈话，想起她与她丈夫恩爱的画面。这一切一切一直在我的脑海中不断的游转。

我的心情，无比的伤感。新闻报道朋友夫家全家安全，朋友是唯一的受害者。

生命- 是如此的脆弱。我深深的感触- 今天不知明天事的这一句话。很多时候，我们以为一切在自己的掌握中，可是，我们却忘了，人其实很渺小，生命除了脆弱，更是短暂。我的心情，是无比的沉重。一夜之间，一个两个月大的婴孩失去了他的母亲，一位丈夫失去他最爱的太太。

无言。。。

生命无常。珍惜身边人。

Hearty Dinner

I have been taking the easy way for dinner for the past few days - steamed fish, mee suah, soup and etc. So I have decided to cook a better dinner for EG on Sunday (esp. since he has been very patient bringing me shopping for almost 6 hours+ on Saturday).

I tried surfing for a few recipes on soy sauce pork belly. Everyone use slightly different ways to cook soy sauce pork. So I have decided to combine all the recipes to be my own recipe. :P. I mistakenly took down pork rib instead of pork belly from my freezer in the morning. Anyway, I assumed that the recipe for pork belly will work for pork ribs too - and I was right of course. :P

Pork Ribs

Ingredients & Seasoning

The ingredients are simple - garlics (I put a lot as I love garlics), chinese mushroom (soaked till soft and sliced), dried chili, dried cuttle fish (cut into small pieces), 2 pieces of star anise & 3 inches of cinnamon. I got the star anise & cinnamon (or kayu manis) from Giant after church today specially for this dish. For the seasoning, I mixed 2 tsp of Oyster sauce, 1 tsp of Hoisin sauce and 2 tbp of dark soy sauce.

1) Pour in the seasoning 2) Pour in water + all the other ingredients 3) Simmer for 1.5 hours 4) My yummy tao yu bak

So what's the sugar for? I followed some of the recipes online, I heat up the pan and add sugar. Once the sugar caramelised, I put in the meat and coat it with the sugar to lock the juice in (according to the online recipe :P). EG smelled the nice aroma and came in the kitchen to check it out and be the photographer. Next, I put in the seasoning, pour in water, put in all the ingredients and let it simmer for 1.5 hours to make sure the pork became real soft. I also added boiling water occasionally to make sure the gravy didn't dry up. EG commented the gravy was not thick so I add in some corn flour to thicken the gravy. And that's it!

Ingredients for stir-fry lotus root & the dish

For the vegetable dish, I have some left over lotus root from the soup yesterday. So I cleaned and cut up everything and stir fried them in the following sequence - minced garlic > carrots > mushroom > prawns > snow peas > lotus root > capscicum. And ta-daa... it's done in <5 minutes.

Now you see, now you don't

The dinner was served hot with rice. The tao yu bak tasted fantastic and the vegetable dish was still very crunchy. And as usual, EG loves the dinner - especially the tao yu bak. He loves the gravy as he said the saltiness + spiciness tasted really good. He was literally "drinking" the gravy. Funny thing is - the dried cuttlefish didn't make much difference. Maybe I should have put more.

Nom nom nom....

Next time, I'll try with the pork belly and hopefully it'll be as good as this. =)

How do you know your cooking is nice :P

How do you know your cooking is nice and your hubby loves your cooking? :P

Sky Restaurant @ Penang

EG drove to town during lunch time few days ago to send his guitar for some i-dunno-what-and-i-dun-really-care "operation". :P. So, he asked his colleague for a nice place to eat in town - since both of us don't really know the hidden restaurants in Penang. The colleague suggested Sky Restaurant along Chulia Street for the best Char Siew rice in Penang.

It is not hard to spot the coffee shop, it's right underneath the Sky Motel. (Picture downloaded from some other people's website on the net :P). We were there early, slightly before 12 noon and the restaurant is already almost full.

Sky Restaurant

A glimpse in the restaurant


Typical coffee shop

The guy told EG we need to wait for 20 minutes for the food to be served. For drinks, EG ordered a white coffee. Wow, it tastes real good - very kao as how we'd normally say. I feel like I am eating chocolate while drinking it.

The very kao white coffee

After waiting for almost >20 minutes, finally the food is served. They have chicken and duck but EG order char siew siu bak. We also got a soup - there's generous amount of pork rib, and a plate of vegetables (choy sum) with char siew sauce.

The food looks little and we wanted to order more chicken, however, the waiting time is quite long due to the crowd so we cancelled our plan. To my surprise, I was overfed and it last even till my dinner time. The siu bak is nice, but nothing much to boast about. However, the char siew is really really nice - crispy and sweet (I think it's honey glazed). It's sinful, but yummy!

The soup

Vegetables with Char Siew sauce

The sinful but yummy char siew siu bak

We were very satisfied with our lunch and planned to bring our KL friends here the next time when they visit Penang. And oh ya, the price is very reasonable too - total of RM12.50 for everything (exclude drinks). I think it's worth it.

So, there goes my diet plan - but YUM! :P

Orange Peeler

Facebook has been taken too much of my time and it also kills off all my "mood" to blog.

Anyway... What do you think the below silly looking thing is? :D. Well, the title tells it all. It's an orange peeler. EG is an orange lover and oranges are our main fruits after meal almost every day. He bought the orange peeler when we were doing some shopping somewhere and it is very cheap.

To cut oranges, normally we'll use knife and chopping board to cut the oranges. However, as a lazy person as I always be, I am just lazy to wash the knife and chopping board, and clean up the kitchen counter after cutting the fruits. This silly looking kitchen helper does a great job in ease my daily fruit preparation.

Wonder how it works? First, use the broad and flat side of the peeler to "dig" out the i-dunno-what-you-call-it part as like the picture.
Next, place the curved stem into the orange skin. Hold the fruit firmly and just glide it down the orange skin.
You will see the orange skin sliced like the below picture. It nicely separates the orange rind from the fruit.

Some use the flat edge to peel off the orange rind but I use hands. The flat edge can also be used to remove the white bitter pith.
And ta-daa, fruits for the night.
Wonderful tool, right? Try it out and I am sure you'll love it. I tried bringing it to office and it makes the eating orange process so much easier. :)