Drums of Pavilion

Have you checked out the CNY decors at Pavilion? This year's theme is drums. At the foyer, there's the Drums for good health, wealth and prosperity and shoppers are encouraged to beat the drums for good wishes.

 

What would you wish for ? I'd wish first and foremost....

Peace and Well Being - Chu Ru Ping Ann

Good Health - Shen Di Chien Kang

for my family and friends this Lunar Year and always :)

Looks Like A Duck !

We were at Ikea Cafe and had the CNY special, the roast chicken set. I think it was around RM13 or so, hubs and I love the roast chicken, despite the long queue :)

Amber commented aloud : LOOKS LIKE DUCK !!

 

The thigh and drumstick sure looks like head and neck of a duck ! LOL !

Egg Replacer

Ever since I found Orgran's egg replacer on the shelves, I can bake more cookies for Amber. 

The egg replacer is meant to replace egg white, egg yolk or whole egg in recipes. 

I've tried it on pineapple tarts and the dough did have the texture of the usual tarts I bake.

 

I'll use this purely for recipes where egg is essential for binding purposes. I don't think I'll steam an whole egg coz it's not aromatic at all.

Thanks to Orgran, I can bake a lot more food for Amber. 

Orgran egg replacers are available at most pharmacies and I purchase mine from Olives at Menara Multi Purpose for less than RM12.

Winekaki Gathering - 19 Jan 2011

**backdated**

The hubs and his winekaki's had another a do to kickstart the gongxi gongxi spirit on 20 Jan 2011. This round was at Steve and Fun's.

the wines we had

the ones that did not make it. Leonard got it exchanged at the wine dealer's. Always recommend to buy from credible dealers and be a regular. At least when the wine goes wrong.. either from bad storage, bad shipping or bad handling, we can get an exchange. Logistics is very crucial here. One error in the chain, the wine turns bad.

Steve set up a tent outdoors for the kids.

Fun had plenty of toys for the kids too.

Fun had loads of scrapbook-ing stuff from materials to machines for us to meddle with.

We had our first lou sang toss. The first is always the best. Always :)

The food we had.. mostly takeaways as it was a working day and no one had the time to cook. Nevertheless, food was excellent.

One taking notes, while the other giving..

Even the husbands were fascinated with her scrap booking tools. Plenty and she has a whole attic room for her stuff. *envy*  *envy*

Amber likes the Haji Samuri satay, Kajang original :)

The best tool had to be the iPad. ES had a program downloaded just for wines, to memo down the wines we had. He is now promoted officially to be our 'wine librarian'   :)

 

Wine, crafts, food and kids.. it was a very enjoyable evening for our winekaki's and families.

Next stop - Leonards !

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 :)

Doing What Adults Do

Some kids thrive on schedule, some are flexible. Mine thrives on schedule but I'm sorry I can't afford to stick to a schedule that's best for her. We have our never ending list of things to do and she has to fit in on weekends. I'd rather she be with us than pay the childminder extra to take care of her. Amber knows a whole lot of stuff that we do, like why her daddy needs to meet the client and who we are meeting.

I can't put her to bed by 9pm coz I have the housework to do. If I do try to put her to bed, I'll most likely waste about an hour or more getting her to sleep and fall asleep too. There goes the piled dishes and laundry.

After our maid left, she was a free and easy kid. No fixed meal times, bed times or shower times. Last Saturday was quite a long day. She woke up late, we dashed out of the house and came back past 9pm and she's already asleep. She missed her shower ! Terrible me but what to do ? She's my best accesory that I carry around with on weekends, be it marketing, meeting clients or running errands.

She even konk-ed out while having dinner and hubs had to carry her like a soft toy. We got quite a few funny stares too but we're used to it :)

Hubs relishing his Duck King noodles !! 

Saliva dripping down.... tsk tsk tsk.

Cheong Sam - the traditional outfit

I think cheong sam is a very elegant outfit and everyone should have a chance to wear one. 

This year, she had 3 new cheongsam outfits. 2 from me and another from her uncle. She and cheh cheh will wear the same cheong sam that their uncle bough for them on Day 1 CNY.

The kindie had a pre-CNY celebration last Friday and I put on a red cheongsam for Amber. I had to remind her to sit gracefully and cross her legs sideways when she sits on the floor and never never to wipe her dirty mouth with the cheongsam !

A half awake Amber here..  wishing you Gong Xi Fa Cai ! Xin Nien Kuai Le !

What Chinese New Year Means to Her

Apart from the long break from school., angpows and new clothes, cookies and ngakus, chinese new year means togetherness to her. She looks forward and keeps talking about it weeks in advance, counting down the days to go back to Tampin to meet her partner in crime, her cousin sister Yuen Wen.

The kids are creating a ruckus at the grandparents. They played 'marry' - one being the bride, the other groom and the blankie is the veil.  They played 'lau por por' - with a balloon stick being the walking stick.

They played pop-pops by the boxes !

Kids have most fun during Chinese New Year !

Sketches

Amber now likes to sketch stuff and she'll stuff it in my bag. I get loads of surprises everytime.

Here's one she sketched and I found in my bag.

It's our house... with 3 windows, and we have an ugly looking car, with a very small hood.

It's Sunday, 23 Jan 2011

There's plenty of clouds in the sky

and plenty of birds flying too !

Have a good day peeps !!

Festive Mood at Petaling Street

We went to Petaling Street last Saturday. Hubs, who's born in the year of rabbit and me, the rat, both our signs clashed with the Grand Duke Of Jupiter (Tai Sui Yeh). We went to the Sin Sze Si Ya Temple or more commonly known as the Yap Ah Loy Temple, to get our blessings and protection from the Grand Duke Of Jupiter. This year, the four zodiac animals that clashes with the Grand Duke is rabbit, rat, horse and rooster.

Believe or not, I can't say much but we hope getting his blessings will lessen any misfortune that'll fall on us. I remember 9 yrs ago, my zodiac sign, rat,  also clashes with the Grand Duke but i did not go to the temple to get his blessings and I had a series of misfortune, I had a car accidenta and the driver scooted away, I was ill for months hubs had an eye operation. It could be merely conincidence but since then, we made it a point to seek out the Grand Duke's blessing and also to pray for safety of our families.

We had a major do at the temple, the prayers took around 90 minutes. We are quite 'banana skinned' when it comes to prayers but they had many staff there guiding us on the protocols. My only minor issue was Amber tagging along, wanting to do everything that we do, only she's too short to look out for burning joss sticks ! I had forgotten to take pictures in the temple. bah!!!   We were given some mandarin oranges, tea and biscuits to consume and flowers for bathing. With that, the family is blessed :)

We took the opportunity shop around Petaling Street and the sounds of 'dong dong doong dooong chiang !!!'  led us to the lion dance performance at another temple up the road. How lucky to catch a lion dance performance before the New Year :

I like the guy on the drums... Ada gaya betul !

 We followed the troupe down the heart of Petaling Street and lucky Amber, she has the best view on daddy's shoulder :

Then we had lunch at Koon Kee Wantan Mee, Jalan Hang Lekiu. Amber could not have the egg noodles and I ordered porridge from Hon Kee, next door, they were allowed to serve the porridge at Koon Kee using disposable wares. Amber had pork porridge and those spare parts were for hubs and us.

We skipped breakfast and was famished. We ordered megaworks... large noodle with charsiu and wantan and an extra plate of mushroom chicken feet. All my favourites. Famished till I forgot about snapping pics again. I only had the porridge to show :

We too a stroll around Petaling Street, catching the sights and sounds of a place so touris-ty and yet so synonymous to celebrating CNY in Malaysia.

fruits

lanterns and decorations

souvenir tees

florals

pussy willow

There is another story on pussy willows. We used to have a pot at home each CNY but was told pussy willow in chinese - 'ngan lau' sounds like tears - ngan lui.. and some calls it's 'mui far'  , sounds like wilting flowers - not properous sounding plant and that was the last year we had those at home. Frankly speaking, I prefer fresh potted plants instead.

Then we went to Pavilion and caught  lion dance performance #2. How lucky !!! 

This one requires more skills.. lion dance on stilts.. amazing !

The lion went around greeting the shoppers

And gave out lucky mandarin oranges. Lucky Amber received one lucky orange from the lion !

She enjoyed the mandarin orange  by sucking the juice from each wedge. She doesn't like the pulp.

We caught lion dance #3 at Lot 10 in the evening. Did not snap any photos as I was tipsy and heady after testing 13 French wines in the afternoon !

What a day.. what a lucky day.. 3 lion dance ! Looking forward to usher in the new spring year.

Xin Nien Kuai Le ! Chu Ru Ping Ann ! Xen Di Chien Kang !

to all my readers, friends and family !!