How To Kill A Snake ...

You should not.. really !

One crazy afternoon, with one crazy news after another, I put Amber to bed and went down to make myself a cuppa coffee. Instead of heading to the kitchen, I walked to the living and looked to my front gate, to check on the weather. I was hoping it won't rain as the temples will be praying for Amber that same evening (another story - Amber had recurring nightmares and her por-por consulted the temple, was told some dirty spirits were disturbing).

I saw something awkward among my curtain/sheers skirting.. for whatever reason, it caught my attention and at closer look, I thought I saw a SNAKE !!!  I had to look hard, snakes are so clever at disguising themselves to the surroundings.

I called to my helper to check again and she jumped at the sight of snake. Called hubs and he asked me to call the Bomba. Very clever of him to shove responsibility. I didn't think a small snake (around 2 feet long??) warrants a call to the Bomba. I asked my helper if she's gutsy enough to kill it. My instant thoughts was Amber's safety and killing it made most sense. I cannot imagine what'll happen if Amber was watching tv in the living room and saw the snake.. sigh...

We went to the kitchen to look for tools... my helper found a dry mop with a flat base and I have the cangkul in hand... armed with our lifesaving tool, we started our mission.  My helper pounced on the snake with the mop and the snake hissed. mouth ajar.. she pounced harder and pressed on it. I used my cangkul to hack the snake but it won't break. 

Panic.... 

What shall we do with a snake which wouldn't die ??? I dare not hack too hard, in case my floor tiles cracked.

In quick thought.. I told my helper to soldier on.. keep pressing down on the snake.

I boiled a kettle of hot water and poured down the snake. Gory .. but EFFECTIVE !!!

The snake shrivelled immediately and died.

Sorry Mr Snake.. I shouldn't have killed you and the fortune teller told me recently snakes visiting your home indicate good fortune flowing in,  if I didn't kill you but shooed you away.. good fortune will flow into my home ..   :(  Too bad, Amber's safety is my first priority !

Enzymes & Recycling

I'm sure I'm one of the many whose left with dozens or gazillions of mandarin orange leftovers from CNY. When I was small I used to love mandarin oranges I'm always eyeing on the wooden carton of teochew mandarin orange that my parents buy for the New Year. One carton for prayers and giving away as buah tangan leaving not many for own consumption. I think they comes in sizes of 112,96,72 or 56 orange per carton. U see how crazy I was ? I can remember the # of orange per carton and boy.. the aroma of an opened carton, NICE !

30 years forward, I don't look forward to mandarins anymore. Buying a box for CNY was just for customary sake, to pai nien or as a polite gesture to return to visitors. The company gives us a carton each year. Damn kiamsiap co. all we get is a carton of mandarins and a box of mooncakes.

Anyways..... the first few days of CNY, mandarins exchanged always fresh and tangy. I'll have 1 or 2 or just a few more, the most. The rest are kept in the fridge till after new year and thrown away when they look old and shriveled..

I started making garbage enzymes last year and these mandarins comes in handy. Along with some mandarins that I've collected from my sis and my kaffir limes, I made a big box of garbage enzymes. Enough to share with my family and wash my 6 toilets.. !!!

 

Just follow the 1:3:10 rule (1kg brown sugar, 3kg fruit and 10 liters water) and leave to ferment for 4 months, you'll have bottles and bottles of enzymes and the residue makes excellent fertilizers !

See ? I do my part to recycle and pledge to live sustainably too :)

Garbage Enzymes

I've heard plenty about garbage enzymes but was hesitant to make some. I've thought, how good could garbage waste be ? My friend Jo gave me a small bottle of enzymes, fermented from CNY leftover limes. Boy, it was good, my floor was streaking clean and that bottle lasted me for almost a year. I diluted a small capful of enzymes to a pail of water to mop my ceramic tiles. That also shows how frequent I mop my floor.. te hehehe..

I made my own garbage enzymes from pineapple peels. I harvested them just before the CNY and now I have enough bottles of enzymes to last a year and more to share with the family too.

Recently, we were at Geographer's Cafe at Jonker's Walk. I saw the bartender peeling pails of limes. To me, the fragrant and zesty lime peels were prized. He gladly packed them for me when I asked if I could have them :)

 

Almost a kilo of peels

Mixed with diluted brown sugar in proportions of  1:3:10  (1kg sugar : 3kg peels : 10 liters water).

seal and ferment for 4 months and they are good to use.

These are bottles of harvested pineapple enzymes. Plenty to share with family and friends

So, if you have pots of lime plants and leftover mandarin oranges, you know what to do :)

Welcoming the new lunar year of RABBIT - finally.

The cleaners just left. 2 cleaners x 4 hour each to clean the bits and corners of my house esp the icky parts that I don't touch - the kitchen exhaust fan, cooker hood and outdoor fans. After a horrifying attempt to D-I-M (Sasha, I like yr terminology) and ending up with sore arms, this year, I engaged cleaners, a month before the new year. 2 sessions, 2 weeks apart.

Last 2 weeks, they only did grills, windows and blinds. Today, they cleaned kitchen, outdoor fans and toilets. One of the cleaner developed a very bad rash after cleaning the fan blades. There were white spores on the blades and she itched to the max upon contact. I applied some magic camphor cream from China - Bao Fu Ling and asked her to take a shower. Some manpower wasted there so I had to chip in to scrub the driveway and patios. Backbreaking but 3 of us got the task done.

Last night I baked some pineapple tarts for Amber. She saw those that I made earlier and wanted to have some, eagerly. Heartbreaking, aitelyu ! I improvised a bit and made a version with vegetable shortening and Orgran's egg replacer. She was happy. Very. No words can describe the look on her face. She spew out her sweetest words - Mama's cooking is - THE BEST IN THE WORLD! And that, melts !
The oven's been cleaned and baking trays and such put away. Leftover ingredients frozen and repacked. The cleaners did the final job of cleaning the countertops throughly.

The gardener came today too, trimmed and cleaned what was needed. All I did was tell him to make my place nice for me, I don't care what you do :D  He's a nice chap, in his 60's and takes his time to prop up my garden meticulously.

I gave away bags and food to his family. As the new lunar year approaches, I try to have a clean fridge and cupboard, clean sofas, clean house... basically everything clean and uncluttered.

I feel so relaxed now, with a clean house to welcome new lunar year. .and oh.. the kitchen's closed too... until the year of the Rabbit.

We are eating out today.. and every other day till the new year. ... ..... YIPPEE !!!

The Tree Is Up..

After the disastrous attempt with the gingerbread man, I dug out some hidden treasures from my store, from my B&K (buy and keep collection). Amassed many years ago.. before I even had Amber. These mini wooden ding-a-lings . ard 25 piece in a box, I got it for a steal, only RM1 from Watson's warehouse sale. 

I was sick and homebound last week, I had some time to hang the ding-a-lings, baubles and hubs did the lights. Our tree, standing tall, proud and warm. I look forward to turn off the lights at night and leave only the Christmas tree lights on :

 My favourite ornament of all has to be the extendable Santa Claus.. Cute eh ? We fell in love with it immediately and just had to bring one home.

Cute eh ? 

We wish you a merry Christmas, We wish you a merry Christmas, We wish you a merry Christmas ....And a happy New Year.

Home Spa

Our master bath has not been fully utilized. The bath tub untouched and we really should have listened to ourselves when we drew the plan for our bathroom. Having stayed in a condo previously with a tub attached to the master bath - untouched for 8 years, we made the same mistake again by fixing a tub in our home now.

Personally, I find it a waste of natural resources to soak in the bath. Not my style.

She, always asks why she can't swim in the tub and I had to explain to her the whole mother nature cycle thing. Evaporation, rain, water, waste and yadayadayada yada. To placate her, I offered her a tub bath. A luxury and fun time for her, only when Papa & Mama is home on weekends, she gets to have her luxurious play time at the tub with some toys and bath soaps. I save those little bottles that we nicked collected from hotels for her tub-time.

My blue laundry tub has now migrated from laundry area to master bath. Fits her perfectly. With the little teapot, she sometimes play pretend to shower me, pouring the water over my head. :D
Hubs also taught her to make a giant bubble too. Oh, she has so much fun in the tub :

 

She was soooo sooooo happy and excited to form a giant soap bubble, she shouted to me to quickly grab camera and take picture before the bubble 'pops'.

Our 'home spa' is so much fun !!!

Hope This Works !!!

We have some pesky cockroaches at home.. small baby cockroach.. very very annoying and for someone who jumps up mile high when I see a cockroach, I know I need to get help.

Then, I came across this at the hardware shop :

My saviour.. just plug and use.



I don't care if it can or cannot get rid of mozzies and spiders.. it's the darn cockroaches I want out of my house.

Now, you know my little secret.. .. my greatest fear.. cockroaches !

From The Backyard

I've got some lovely potted plants growing at my backyard.





The thick luscious very meaty aloe vera. Apparently,South American variety.. if I take care of these well, it can grow to very thick and >1kg in weight per stalk...
My ex-Cambo helper was helping herself to the aloe vera.. using it as a mask for her face, very oi-leng hor ? Since then, nobody paid much attention to it. I thought it'll be waste to let it wilt away.

And then I have these kaffir limes screaming out to me :

The kaffir lime trees, after my daily watering, constant fertilizing bore me a lot of fruits. Very obedient tree this one, unlike the lemon plant.. water and fertilize, not a single flower budding.

I have so many limes hanging from the tree, the thing with this lime is they don't turn yellow. I don't know if it's ripe or not but lately when I press or squeeze them, it's kinda 'soft' to the touch, unlike the rock hard kaffir limes sold at the market. I plucked a few giant ones.

And.. I thought of a combo of both.. aloe vera and kaffir lime.. Coffeesncookies homemade.. very original.. never heard of this desert before..

This is what I did:

Shred the rind of lime, and juice it.. so juicy, unbelievable !!! Usually, any cooking will require just the rind and discard the flesh but the limes were so juicy and I didn't want to waste it.

Boil a syrup thick syrup and add in rind and juice.

Peel the skin of aloe vera and cut to chunks. Put to boil for 1 minute and drain. Add ice cubes

Add kaffir lime syrup.

So yummy and refreshing.. our friends Thomas and Joanne was the willing guineas to try out my new concoction, they too, find the exotic desert very refreshing.

Now, we thought it'll taste even better with vodka..

hmm... vodka + shaved ice + kaffir lime syrup + aloe.

Kaffiraloe Magarita ??

I need to get a bottle of Vodka asap !!!

A Nice Gift

My neighbours from our previous condo was back from Sydney recently. We look forward to meet them and catch up with their happenings and I'd always wish them the best of health. Both husband and wife are in their 70's. I miss having them as neighbours, we would always share tong sui or tea time specials that she bakes. When he buys durian, he'll always remember to get an extra pack for me.

We had lunch today at RSGC and I love the serenity of the place, overlooking the greens, in the quiet restaurant, just the 4 of us, them, hubs and myself. They'd offer me the place with with a better view of the greens.. which I so love.

Along with lunch came some nice little gifts from Sydney :


Macadamia nut chocolate and a wooden door stopper.

The door stopper brings back memories of days when Amber was toddling. She's always pick and toy around with the door stopper at their home. I couldn't find another one in Malaysia and Su Eng promised to find another for Amber.


Nice eh ? Very English and homely look. Hand painted.

Thank you Su Eng, for getting this for us from e-bay, I'm amazed you went through the trouble getting online searching for it. Thank you Su Eng & Wye Tuck for the lovely lunch and it's always our pleasure to meet up with both of you.

Hugs from Amber too !

Over The Weekend

no more maid, no more helper to call out for .. to do this and that. need time to get used to it but I kept on psyching myself .. i can do it ! i can do it ! think martha stewart ! think bree !

well, not so bad after all. asked friends over for dinner on friday night, grilled chicken breast, potato gratin, and salad (no wokking, minimal cleaning), did the laundry, running in and out of the house when it rains. repotted some plants, hubs washed the car.. then his little family join the fun and all 3 of us got wet, guess who's the happiest... the little one lar..

then, all 3 of us got a hair cut. amber's hair is too long, hard to manage and wasting lotsa precious minutes just to blow dry.




we also did grocery shopping, she got excited with the 'lion head'. i refused to buy, at least not until i do my price comparison first.


and did major shopping on household cleaning stuff, mop buckets, gloves, mops and yes, we invested big in mops.. since I had to get my hands dirty, might as well invest ! I grabbed 3M microfiber mops and works like magic.. much lighter and easy to handle. i sweep my upper floor in less than 5 minutes.. good eh ? also got a 'fengshui' broom, not due to fengshui reasons but it was 'big' enough, bigger sweep coverage area. less time needed to sweep and spoon those hairs, dust and pesky annoying dirt.


ahh... see who is 'sibuk' at the supermart ? she loves to play with brooms and such. must really train her to start young...

Colours of Our Christmas

We had the best Christmas this year, I cooked Christmas dinner, baked a Christmas cake (brandy fruit cake) and we even had time to sneak to KLCC on the eve of Christmas to join the carolling there. Oh what day....

I took the day off, went to market and Cold Storage, thoroughly enjoying my day, all my myself.. then went home, prepared the cooking and roast, then my BIL's came, staying over for the weekend and then we all left to pick up hubs at the office and headed to KLCC. Timing and route is very important on a busy traffic day like this to avoid being caught in the eve jam, for which we avoided, thank god..

It's been months since Ambers last trip to KLCC and she was the happiest. She's been bugging me to bring her to KLCC coz we can see the Twin Towers from our home and all along MRR2. Amber was most happy and she's been asking for Santa Claus for weeks, since she saw the Christmas decorations at Pavilion last month. I wanted to go KLCC on the eve coz I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus !!

Everyone was busy with their last minute shopping and we just join the 'crowded crowd'.


She picked this decor somewhere and placed one in hubs pocket and another in mine.



Finally Santa !!!!
But.. but.. but... when we went to take photo with Santa, Amber was afraid and didn't wanna go near him. Haih... only after a long persuasion, we took a photo with Santa, Amber nearly cried.

I asked her why she was so afraid of Santa while she's been asking for him everyday. She remembers Santa giving her candy canes at Ikea last year. She told me :

I want Santa old old wan.. this Santa, young young, I don't like !!!

Kids are kids... I really don't know why she said that.

Luckily, Santa's candy cane can placate her

The colors of Christmas at KLCC.

Then by 8pm, we quickly hurried home, I had Christmas dinner to cook. Most of the stuff, I've prepared beforehand, only chicken to roast, soup to reheat and pasta to cook..

Amber decides to be an 'Angel' for the evening. She wants us to call her 'Angel' instead of Amber. Angel is a nice name too ya ? Why didn't I think of it when choosing a name for her.. but then.. how to scream, shout and punish a girl called Angel ? Rather contradicting huh ?

Presenting my first home cooked Christmas dinner. All easy peasy stuff, I stuck to what I was confident at :

Pan roast of whole legs, sausage wrapped with bacon, carrots, aubergines and sweet potatoes

With crushed rosemary, lemon and garlic

Tadaa.... simple, easy peasy, let it roast while I do the other stuffs. We don't fancy turkey (thank god !! I cannot handle such a big and heavy bird) and whole legs are best.. no need to fight for the best part of the chicken.

Then I made some pasta, the quickest and easiest type ... with olive oil and chilly flakes

For starters we had garlic bread (homemade) and fresh mushroom soup. I even tried to make my food look nice and decorated with sprigs of parsley, but it sunk.. dunno why..

Mashed potatoes. Personally, I prefer roast potatoes but BIL spefically asked for mashed.

The pasta, which everyone liked coz it's spicy..

The spread

Somebody enjoying the Christmas dinner but I think she enjoys the sparkling juice served with the wine goblets more.

And my brandy fruit cake ...

Looks kinda bland boz I didn't decorate with blanch almonds or cherries but hubs said it's the best-est cake I've baked (3 whole long hours in the oven) !!!

Apple crumble

Hubs likes to take photos of empty plates and bowls, don't ask me why but this is what's leftover from our Christmas dinner :

And guess who helped clean up the crumbs ?

So, did you have a blast on Christmas ???? I hope you did ;)