5 Years Anniversary

It's our 5 years anniversary this year. 5 years, with 2 beautiful children. Many told us well done. I somehow can't believe that we have been husband and wife for 5 years. How time flies.

With two children, it's tough to plan for any getaway trips that we wanted to, also we're saving up our leaves for CNY and later this year. Hence, we kept it simple, and went to Kampachi in Equatorial for buffet lunch. I have been wanting to go for quite some times, especially on my birthday, but it always didn't happen due to many reasons! Sigh... So this time, I was very determined to go! :)

Overall, the food is good. Sashimi is good. EG and I both whacked 1 plate each. :D.. It's fresh and soft. Beef is very good too. We are not a very big eater hence we have to be careful with our intake so we can try many types of food.  While eating the buffet, I had to feed Natalie once. I told EG, good la, she burnt my calories and I could eat more. Wahahaha! :).. EG said Eunice enjoyed the buffet more than us. :).. For Natalie, she fussed a bit but still we could stayed there for 1.5 hours, so she has been a good girl also. :)

Foooood... Yums!

Some pics of my girls eating..

Some pics of us

While on our way back to the car park, EG took a nice pic of me and my girls. Love the shot. Everyone looks happy. :)

Me and my girls

Since last year December, I have been thinking of a special gift for EG. We're not gift person so we don't really buy things for each other. My colleague Cindy introduced me to scrapbooking, and I bought a mini album kit from her online shop. However, I only started doing it a week before my anniversary. When? I had to do it when everyone was sleeping soundly, because it's supposed to be a surprise! :)... EG slept with Eunice in her room so I could do in my room with a dim light while Natalie was sleeping. Yea, and that made my panda eyes worse last week.

Anyway, being a guy, EG wasn't VERY touched, but he said it's nice. I know he's a heart person so I am pretty sure he'll show me this album many years later and told me how he treasured it, just like some the small souvenir that I did for him many many years ago before we were even couple!

Our 5 years journey together as husband and wife

While I was doing this, I found it's so interesting to do scrapbooking. Now I know why people love doing it. However, it'll require some investment in all those kits and papers. I'll see if my interest will continue before I try more later. Nevertheless, I think for a first timer, I had done a good job. :)

5 years together, and I truly believe the best is yet to come! I thank God for His abundant blessing upon us and our little family of four now. And I truly believe there will be more blessings ahead of us and I am sure that we'll continue to grow old together as a lovely couple. :)

Family Portrait Shots

Happy New Year! :)

EG and I took a week off on the last week of December since babysitter is off. No, we didn't go anywhere but stayed in Penang to spend time with parents and kids, and celebrated Christmas.

We got our friend Daniel to help us to take some simple family portrait shots, since this is going to be the family size for the next 2-3 years. And we plan to give to our parents during CNY this year. :). My MIL bought 2 similar dresses for my two girls during Christmas so I thought that's the best outfit for two of them.

It's such a challenge to take pictures with children. Eunice will have her mood, but thank God she was still willing to take pictures, just not smiling, sometimes not looking at camera.. Natalie fussed and slept during the photo shoot session, and getting her to look at the camera is really a BIG challenge.

After taking the few shots, EG and I are already tired and don't feel like taking more with other postures. No mood. So, we stopped since we're happy with the pictures. :)

I am still waiting for Daniel to give me the edit copies, but below are some of my favorite shots. Sorry for the blur picture coz I re-take the pic with my iPhone. I am too lazy to download and resize the pictures. Excuse me for that but as a mother of two now, I really don't have much time left. :)

Nat slept in her rocker and we finally could take some pic in peace :)

My two pretty girls

Family shot after Nat woke up

Another family shot

I love this shot :)

And this is my fav shot on my pretty little baby Nat :)

Happy December :)

I am a happy girl this month. :)...

My dearest hubby decided to splurge on me on my birthday month.. Yay! :)
He also said this must be done so that he'll have a good start of 2013 after many years of lessons learnt when he took my birthday lightly. :D

So I have two presents this year. Yay!! :)

And I love my presents so much.

Thank you Dear! Promise won't nag you for not spending on me anymore.. at least for some time. :D

Tadaaa! New watch! :)

It comes with a very nice box with cushion :)

On my small wrist :).. Love big watches :)

  

Meet my new bag!

The metal monkey!

Interview

I hate going through interviews. Yeap. After I graduated, I went through 7 times of interviews with different companies before I got my first job. Probably I got traumatized then. And I hate going through interviews, especially the technical interviews.

I remember how nervous I was before I came for interview for my current job. I prepared for few days before I came for the technical tests. And I thank God that my interviewer (my boss) was very kind and it was a pleasant one, and I got the job!

Recently, I was given chance to interview candidates to join my team.

I still can remember how I felt while going through every single interview that I went through previously. Thinking back, since graduated until now, I think I have been through 10+ interviews. So when I looked at the candidates that I interviewed with my colleague, I can feel how nervous and empathized them. But of course, I am a very nice person and I try my best to put them at ease as I know how they felt, esp. when they couldn't answer or understand our questions.

Anyway, it was a good experience.

Though I feel sad for the candidates who didn't make it.

That reminds me, after going through so many interviews before I finally got my first job, I actually told myself that I want to be a HR hiring manager in the future, and reject those applicants, to let them experience what I have experienced.

But, I guess, I am a very soft hearted person. I actually dreamt last night that one of the candidates cried during interview when she found out she didn't meet our criterias.

Ya, sound stupid.

But, it was still a good experience. :)

Makan-makan in Ipoh & Taiping

After becoming parents, EG and I hardly have time to spend with each other. After 2.5 yrs of training (since Eunice is born), now we're used to parent-lifestyle and can do things more effectively in a shorter time. Both of us can't really shop when we go out with Eunice. We actually have been taking leaves on Friday to have some time for ourselves, like watch movies, shopping or etc. If Eunice is out with us, we'll be bringing her to places where she can enjoy, instead of for us to enjoy. :)

This time, I sent my baby Natalie to babysitter 2 weeks before I came back to work from my maternity leaves. And EG and I planned for a Ipoh makan trip, just the two of us. We didn't manage to spend long time in Ipoh anyway because we needed to do something else in Taiping. So, we stopped by Taiping for breakfast in our favorite coffee shop, then drove to Ipoh and went Ipoh Parade to have some pak-toh time where EG bought some shirts. And looked for toys for Eunice (yea, we both missed her), and went for late lunch before we came back Taiping and Penang again to pick up our girls, and resume our busy life.

Ya, so the pics of the food. :)

My favorite coffee shop in Taiping

Curry mee

Fried noodle + bee hoon

The half boiled egg - after finished.
They ran out of toasted bread as we went late. :)

The recommended coffee shop by friend in Ipoh

Dunno what is this called, EG ordered this.
Looks like curry mee but without the noodle and only with the pork balls, fish balls, and etc that we chose.

Very nice popiah

The famous tau-geh

The famous Ipoh Kuey Teow, slurp!

Yea, best in the country in newspaper!

A Loving Saturday Morning

Sometimes, I think I have the best hubby in the world. :)...

I woke up on a Saturday morning, getting a bit stress up with all the things that both EG and I need to do over the weekend - marketing, cooking, cleaning, washing, house chores, laundry, and not to mention feeding and coaxing a fussy baby.

When I came to the kitchen, I saw some cute arrangements on my kitchen counter.

Guess what's inside?

Tada! Our breakfast!

I know it's just a simple breakfast but I appreciated EG's thought to get up earlier in the morning (while I'm still trying to get my engine started while playing with my girls). Not to even mention, he went to market to do marketing for me so we'll have food to cook for the next week. Oh, he even did all the cleaning before leaving to market for me.

So, this is called ~L~O~V~E~ I guess. :)

That's why I say, I think I have the best husband in the world. :)

Bear & Cat Talk

Cat: Is your new breast pump heavy?
Bear: It's ok la.. It's only heavier when I put the cooler bag with the frozen ice pack and the storage bottles with milk inside..
Cat: Oh? Why?
Bear: Eh.. 4 bottles of milk plus a n ice pack wor...
Cat: Hmm.. Isn't it the same? After you pump out your milk then you'll feel lighter and the weight goes into your bottles..
Bear: Huh?? Then do you feel lighter after you pee???
Cat: (Signature cheeky smile) Maybe?!?!

Ya, we still do stupid talks..

Bear & Cat Talk

I woke up at 6am in the morning to prepare dinner for the night before leaving to office.

Me: U are lucky to have a wife like me who is willing to cook for you!
EG: U are lucky to have a husband like me who is willing to eat whatever that you cook!

:P

OK la it takes two hands to clap. :)

Toy Story

My childhood didn't have much cartoons, because my mum was quite strict on us. I remember watching some same Mickey Mouse cartoons, Tom & Jerry, and can't remember more than that. :). I wonder if that's why I love to watch cartoons now.

As Eunice is growing, EG has been buying some nice cartoons for her to watch. Toy Story is one of them. I never watch Toy Story before until now, yea, until now 30+ yrs old. :D... When EG showed me and Eunice the first one, I am quite impressed. I thought the story line was not bad. Eunice loves it too. And just like what a normal kid will do, she has been watching Toy Story I for easily 20+ times, until I can remember the whole story line already.Then, EG got her Toy Story II last month and Toy Story III last weekend. I was quite excited actually... Hehehe...

It's a Walt Disney animated cartoon about a boy called Andy, who owns some of these toys, which actually "came to life" when nobody is around. :).. Quite a creative idea I thought. Anyway, in Toy Story I, the story is about a new toy joining Andy's old toys and some jealousy and rivalry and which later resolved. In Toy Story II, more toys added in. And in Toy Story III, Andy has finally grown up and going to college, so the story is about what he's doing with these toys before leaving to college.

Among all, I love Toy Story III the most. Some parts are really funny, and well, believe it or not, it moved me to tears during the ending. Ya, EG laughed at me, as usual. But yea, I am those type who can cry even over a cartoon, a very small heart I have.

Anyway, it's a nice cartoon series with very good story lines even until the finale. :). And Eunice even learns how to sing the theme song "You've got a friend in me" from the cartoon. Hahaha.. how cute! :)

Toy Story I

Toy Story II

Toy Story III - I love the lotso bear, but he's the evil one! :P

Rice Cooker Recipes

Yea I've been cooking quite a bit for many months. So I really appreciate some quick and easy recipes especially when it's a busy weekend.

My friend shared this extremely simple chicken rice recipe with me and I found the original recipes here. I tried cooking it the first time and EG loves it so much! It's very nice, and it is also very very simple. It doesn't dirty the kitchen and the only oily thing is probably just the rice cooker! :) He loves it so much as it's so nice to eat, and yet it doesn't take up a lot of his time to do the clean up. :). So far, I've been making it for 3-4 times in the past 1.5 months and EG still loves it a lot. :)

Chicken Rice

Simplified Hainan Chicken Rice


Ingredients:
Boneless drumstick (approx 350g), garlic 2 cloves, ginger 3-4 pcs
White rice 2.5 cups, water 2.8 cups (Note: I just cook the normal amount that we take)

Chicken Marinade:
Salt 1/3 teaspoon, Rice wine 1 teaspoon


Seasoning:
Rice wine 1 big tablespoon, Salt 1/2 teaspoon

Steps:
1. Marinade the boneless chicken drumstick with salt and rice wine for 30 minutes.
2. Mince garlic & ginger.
3. Put rice & water into rice cooker.
4. Add minced garlic, ginger and other seasonings. Mix well.
5. Put the marinaded chicken on the rice, skin side faces down.
6. Cook as usual
7. Once cooked, do not open the cover and leave the rice & chicken inside the rice cooker for another 30 minutes.
8. Take out the drumsticks, mix well the rice.
9. Cut the drumstick into desired size.
10. Put some soy sauce on the chicken & rice before serve.

Later I found another recipe online for claypot chicken rice by using rice cooker here. Since I have all the ingredients at home so I decided to give it a try. It involves more steps than the chicken rice but still it's simple. Btw, I added the fried egg myself. :)

Claypot Chicken Rice

EG said it's also nice. But for this recipe, I need to clean up the wok since I need to stir fry the ingredients first but it's still consider a very simple and easy dish to do esp. when we need a quick meal. :)... So there two are for sure the must-keep recipes.

I love these recipes because I can pre-prepare them before I go out, and knowing that I have delicious meals awaiting for me when I come back. :)

2012 Update

After being parents for 2 years+, both EG and I got more and more effective in getting our household done. Sometimes, friends are amazed of things that we could do, but they often forgot, that also means that we don't get to go out so often, because there are just too much housework to do. That also explains why my blog idles for so long. :P

And yea, for Eunice's sake, I have been cooking dinner, for at least 3-4 nights on weekday, Saturday is a sure-cook day and Sunday is my free day. It's a break for both EG and I. With now that Eunice is 2 yrs old toddler, it makes things easier to go out or to eat out. :)

Many friends asked me, how do I manage to cook on weekday after a hectic day in office? Well, my meals are very simple. I normally will do a meat with a vegetables. If we're very hungry, I'll have a 3rd dish - which is either fried eggs, steam potatoes, or etc. I bought a magic cooker (which is actually a thermal cooker) from Cosway. I used it to cook soup either on the night before, or early in the morning. After I come back from office, I just need to cook rice, and wash all vegetables and fry them. It can be done quite quickly. Sometimes, I'd do steam chicken or steam fish or some simple boiled soup with fish. All can be done within 30 minutes. And after eating, EG will take over the washing part. And most of the time we're all done by 8pm. We make an effort to have fruits everyday so I'll cut some fruits for everyone to eat after that. And by 10pm+, Eunice and I will be snoring already. EG will normally stay up to tidy up the house or do some work. :)...

Having said that, in order to prepare meals on weekdays, that means we need to do marketing on weekends. Yeap. We've been going market on weekend to stock up the poultry, vegetables and etc so we have food to eat for the rest of the week. We found that the vegetables in the market, though slightly more expensive than the hypermarket, surely taste nicer and sweeter. :)... So, we go to the market without fail on every Saturday morning, no, not with Eunice. So it's either I go, or EG goes. Depending on situation. So, Saturday is a super busy day for me because if EG goes market for me, I'll prepare the list of food to get, and I need to prepare breakfast, clean up all the poultry, keep them in portions, and keep all the vegetables, and STILL cook for lunch & plan for dinners. He's not so free either. He has to help on all the laundry, hang, bathe Eunice, wash car porch, and do other housework. Very busy, but definitely satisfying.

Thank God EG is happy with my food though it's just some simple food. When I crack my head on what to cook, he'll tell me it's ok, he won't mind if I repeat the food every week. Ah, that's very sweet and make my life much easier. But I do make an effort to do something different during weekend especially. And sometimes I bake too - but EG is not a cake person so mostly it's for me and Eunice. :)

And yes, all these are done with a 5 mths belly. And yes, I'm going to be mummy again, and yes, my EDD is early August. And you wonder how I can do so much with a belly? Erm, yes, I can. :)

I just hope when my 2nd baby arrives, I'll still be able to do whatever that I am doing now for my family. :)

My home :)

Ever since I moved to Penang in 2006, I only went home during CNY. The last time I went home was in 2009 CNY, and after that I never go home ever since I'm pregnant with Eunice, until recently. My brother got married in Aug and of course I have to go home. :)... and we took Eunice for her first flight at her 18th month.

There are some special things in my home. :)... Besides my family, the home cooked food, the famous Sarawak kampua mee and their laksa, there are some other special things in my home that I cannot find else where.

My dad plants vegetables. And no, he doesn't do that for a living. He worked in a bank before he retires, and now he's helping a relative doing some office work. My grandfather was a farmer. Hence that's where my dad and two of my aunties got the skill from. He uses natural fertilizer (he used to ask my brothers to pee in the potty :P) and no pestiside for his vegetables. The reason he does that is very straight forward - to save money. Now that I'm paying to do the marketing every weekend, I do know that it doesn't only save money, but it also saves the time spent to go and buy in the market - not forgetting that you can always get the freshest vegetable just at your home. :)

That's me in my dad's straw hat cutting some vege for Eunice's porridge

My dad's little farm

Kangkung, spring onions, and some other vege that I don't know what their names are :P

Close shot of some new baby vegetables

We even have dragon fruit trees in my house! :D... And it's the one with the red flesh. During our home trip there weren't any fruit but when my mum visited me few times in Penang, she used to bring some over for me and wow, they are sooooooo sweet! In Penang, sometimes I pay nearly RM3.50 for 1 red flesh dragon fruit, no guarantee that it's sweet. :). And we also have papaya trees. We had papaya trees since I was young. My dad always says papaya are the cheapest fruits to feed a family of 6! :)

The dragon fruit trees


Papaya trees

When we had our wedding in Miri, EG was having some kind of "cultural shock" to see how we, foochow (or hock chew), celebrate a festive day.

First, we won't run away from our famous Sarawak mee suah. This mee suah is different from those that we buy in the market from Peninsula. EG said it's nice and he has never tasted them elsewhere. It's salty, and very thin and soft. I recently got some mee suah from Setiawan from a friend. I'll see if it's the same as ours in Sarawak.

The mee sua

I told EG, I had eggs for breakfast since I'm primary 1 to form 5, almost everyday, except weekends. We'll either have hard boiled eggs, soft boiled eggs, or fried eggs with baked beans. Funny thing is, we never complaint. Maybe because all of us love eggs. And probably that explains why all of us get good results in our exams - eggs are full of natural DHA mar... :P. Anyway, hard boiled eggs are also another must have to eat together with mee sua during a celebration in my hometown.

Hard boiled eggs

Tang Yuen, made of glutinous rice flour, will also be served - but this one is mainly during wedding. I remember my aunty made me and EG to feed each other the tang yuen to signify that we'll be in love forever. :). One thing special for this is that in Miri, or at least in my home, we only have the dry ones - which is coated with crushed peanuts or beans. This round, my auntie made it with pumpkin to add more flavor to it. Actually, I only eaten tang yuen in syrup when my best friend brought some for me during uni time. :P

The yummy tang yuen

The Foo chow red wine chicken soup is definitely a no miss when we go back to Miri. We'll eat this with mee sua together. We'll be served this the day we reach home, and the day we leave home before going to airport. We'll also eat this during birthday, baby fullmoon, or any celebration. It has been the tradition all the while since I was young. This is a very simple dish cooked with chicken, ginger mushroom, and the Foo Chow home made red wine, but for me, I taste really good. I tried to cook it here using the same recipe but it doesn't turn out as nice as my mum's. I checked it through this round and finally concluded that it's the type of chicken that we use. I have to find the special chicken "species" in a bigger market. :)

The boiling chicken soup

And this, is how the mee sua be served to all the guests. A piece of meat with a mushroom, and mee sua. :)

The famous Foo Chow Mee Sua

Sometimes I feel sad that I can't speak Foo Chow anymore since I have not been speaking it after I left home. Even at home, I was speaking the very basic ones with my grandma before she passed away. So, I don't think Eunice will ever learn Foo Chow. But I do hope that I'll continue to let her eat all these traditional Foo Chow food since she's half a Foo Chow now. And I hope she'll appreciate the culture like how I do. :)

Logo's Hope Floating Bookfair

EG's parents came Penang during 1 Malaysia holiday. So, we went to the floating bookfair - Logos Hope that docks in Penang since 25th Aug till 18th Sep.

The ship

Logos Hope

Logo's Hope is the biggest floating bookfair in the world that travels around the world. I have been wanting to visit so we took the opportunity to bring my in laws there together on the holiday.

It was a public holiday but I was hoping the crowd will not be too many. I heard my friend actually queued for 40 minutes to get up to the ship. Thank God when we went, the queue wasn't long - actually there were no queuel. :). The entrance fee is only RM1 per adult, and free for children less than 12 yrs old.

Going into Logos Hope


Though there's no queue, still there're quite a lot of people

Once we went into the ship, there'll be a 2 minutes video to give a short introduction of Logos Hope.

The little girl was also attracted to the video

The mission of Logos Hope

There are quite a lot of books in the bookfair priced from RM8 to RM80. They have a very unique pricing - the books are priced in Units. Every 100 units = RM8. Hence, you'll see books tagged at 100 units, or 300 units. The reason is very obvious - they are travelling around the world, so they just need to change the conversion to the local currency of the countries that they stop. Brilliant idea, I thought. :)

Though there were no queue at the ticket counter, but there are many people browsing the books. That explains why I don't have pictures in the ship. I had to carry Eunice with one hand(worrying that ppl will bang into her), and look for my books with the other hand, while EG looking around for his parents. There's no signal in the ship so we couldn't call. I let Eunice walk at the less crowded place sometimes but still I need to watch over her.

We did not stay long in the ship as the crowd got more and more and we started to feel warm, plus Eunice is showing sleepy sign (yawning). So we decided to pay and get off.

Pose again while on the way back

While doing my payment, I asked the cashier if there are so many ppl everyday. She told me that they haven't had so many visitors for long until today - must be because of the public holiday.

I like the children books on the ship. There are many Christian books and I feel that they are very reasonably priced. I got 2 books for Eunice that is 100 units each (RM8), and EG got a story Bible for Eunice @ 200 units (RM16). I thought they were really not expensive.

For myself, I got a recipe book (to cook for Eunice) and a small baking book at 300 units each. My mum in law got some books too.

Our books from Logos Hope

For EG and my father in law who read a lot, they thinks the books in the bookfair are just so-so, they actually didn't get anything. But I thought it was a very good experience to visit a book fair in the ship, and I won't mind going again. :)