Mini Family Gathering

Family steamboat gathering. A moment to catch up with cousins, uncles & aunties. With almost everyone around, it feels like a mini chinese new year gathering. Wait till CNY and the group gets bigger.

Too much leftover food. Over estimation of our stomach 'capacity'. :P I think we have enough food to feed a battalion of army.

This little nephew of mine just melts my heart away. He is so adorable with that cheerful personality.

Cute couple. My cousin and his girlfriend.
It's not easy to get a good picture with a bunch of kiddos.

O' Christmas Tree

Our Christmas Tree is finally lighted. It looks a tad messy in this picture (ok so there's no system here, hubs & I just hang the decor anywhere we feel like it or makes us happy) :) but it sure does add an air of festivity to our home. The tree has always been placed in the hall, but this year we decided to move it to our dining area. It seems to fit well with the lights flickering in the reflection on the opposite window. Love the effect.

Lunch for 7

I successfully served lunch from my kitchen for a party of 7 couple of weeks back. Can you see me doing my winning somersault and back flip move? :P

My menu:

Potato and ham salad

Garden salad with balsamic vinegar

Grilled chicken

Angel hair pasta

Wild Mushroom Soup

My pot of wildmushroom soup.

All I want for Christmas...

My momma-instinct is so strong now, I want a child. Like NOW. We saw this 'si-fu' who said hubs and I will have children naturally in 2 years time. 2 years?!! That is like freaking 730 days or 17520 hours!

Should we go against natural selection and seek medical assistance or sit back and have faith. I am not a person who can sit back and let nature takes it course. Patient is definitely not my name. And lets be realistic, we can't just rely on that 'divine' info (Hello! I major in Medical science) can we?
After much deliberation, we decided to proceed with scientific intervention and called up my OBGYN (whom earlier confirmed that I am 'reproductively' in good shape after loads of 'weird' tests) to kick-start the 'miracle' process. And then guess what, their lab is still under renovation. Bummer. Nothing can be done now.
Sigh... I got to wait for another month. Keeping fingers crossed. Well, looking at the bright side, if what the 'si-fu' claimed is true, and our 'scientific intervention' aka project mini alpha is a success, then we will just have more children. Perhaps we should just loosen up and enjoy the process of getting there. And oh, work the extra hours too ;)

Funny signs

Christmas spirit...?

* The Christmas tree is finally up, but
* we have not got around to decorating it yet (so, yes its just a green tree), although
* I have intention of making a Christmas wreath for the front door, still
* need to put that thought into action and
* still not making any plan for Christmas dinner, nor
* have any idea on Christmas gifts but
* I have time for another cup of coffee

Chicken Soup for the Tired Soul

Home-cooked wholesome chicken soup with potatoes, mushrooms and dash of parsley served with toasted baguette for dinner.

Teluk Kumbar Seafood

Seafood, family and sunset view = A contented silly me :)
The sight of Mr Sun going to sleep....

Finally, the sky turned 'orange'.My favorite BBQ crabs.

Mum & DadThe four musketeers. Brother looking extremely tanned from his recent fishing trip.Brother & hubby posing 'funny'... probably looking for birds....

Hot Chicken Salad

I marinaded chicken breast overnight with terriyaki sauce, some oyster sauce, thyme, oregano, salt & black pepper. Then grilled it till tender.
Serve on top of cold salad with balsamic vinegar dressing. Delish! It is simple yet yummy. Hubby wiped clean the plate. Will definitely prepare this again.

Artsy Boxy

Decoupaging is my latest craze.

Before: Functional name card boxes with not much funAfter: I am liking the 'retro' feel. 2 'retro-fied' name card boxes, one for personal use and one for business use (yeah, I am organized like that).
This is where they will sit on my home office desk

Good Weekend

The last weekend has been very fruitful. Plenty has been accomplished over the few days of my domesticated life. But not sure if the calories burned will balanced out the calories consumed.
It started on Thursday afternoon:
Hubs went golfing with his buddies
Mom in law came over (I entertained with lots of chatting and gossiping)
I tried some new chicken stew recipe, did laundry, ironing & cleaning

Friday
Hubs & I took MIL shopping at Gurney Plaza (with more chit chat and juicy news)
Breakfast at Xuan Xin Restaurant (Delicious fried rice & Dim Sum)
Lunch at Manilla Place
Tea at some tea house selling bird nest drinks
Drop in at jewelers to check on the progress of my new solitaire ring setting
Some DIY project at home

Saturday
Had delicious hokkien mee for breakfast
Golfing with Hubby and brother at BJCC driving range
Car wash
More shopping at Queensbay (bought new swim wear)
Hub’s buddies came over for table tennis session

Had mee suah kor for dinner with black vinegar. It was good. I cant remember the last time I had this dish.

Sunday
Dear hubby was so sweet to scrub clean the bathroom (a chore that I intend to do) while I slept in (Too much FB games last nite) I love you darling!

Sinful nasi kandar lunch with lots of gravy
Visit cousin at hospital which led to a mini family gathering at the hospital cafetaria
Seafood dinner at Teluk Kumbar to celebrate dad’s birthday (Yummy crabs & beautiful sunset view)
Night swim (desperately need to try out new swim wear :P). It is very nice to have the whole pool to our selves.

I am exhausted... happily exhausted

Bruschetta

Vegetarian bruschetta is my hubby's all time favorite. It is also relatively easy and fail-proof to prepare.
Ingredients:
Baguette
4 Tomatoes
Mozzarella / Cheddar cheese
Olive Oil
Basil
4 cloves of Garlic

Method:
Topping
1. Remove seeds from tomatoes. Chop tomatoes to desired consistency / size.
2. Chop garlic finely.
3. Mix the tomatoes and garlic (or you can use food processor). Add 2 tablespoon of olive oil and 2-3 teaspoon of basil. Mix well.

Base
1. Cut baguette diagonally 1.5cm thick. Drizzle olive oil (I use basil infused olive oil). Toast / bake in oven for about 5 min. Turn over and bake for another 7 min.
2. While the baguette is still hot, place cheese on top (Melted cheese is yummy-licious) and add on with the tomato toppings. You can also garnish with fresh basil leaves.
3. Serve hot.

Laptop Support

Very often we have been using our laptops while 'lepak-ing' on the couch. Hence, rise the need for a laptop support. Warm heat on the laps coming from the laptop is not cool (pun intended ;-P). We have been shopping around, and are planning on getting one of those that cost approximately RM100 until we came across these practical Japanese table look-alike thingy at Tesco for a fraction of the cost (RM10!).
Before: The boring ol' tableAfter: Jazzed up with beautiful printed papers and plastic lamination for water-proofing.

This little table serves nicely as laptop support with good leg room and with enough table space left for a cuppa. Alternatively, it can also serve breakfast in bed ;)

When not in use, the legs can be folded up, lean it against the wall and now its a nice one of a kind piece of art. Talk about multi-purpose at such good price:
Table: RM10
Paper: RM3

Watch Out!

My birthday present from dear hubby, a Tissot PR50 Automatic:

My Tissot, joining the rest of my watches 'family'. Noticed a similarity, all three have steel chain straps, all have round faces and all are from hubby. Each piece have their own significance and with them brings memories. I love them all.

Birthday 2009

I turned 30 two weeks ago! It is quite difficult to grasp that I can no longer say I am in my twenties. Where did all the years go? Well like the saying goes 'Age is something that doesn't matter unless you are a cheese'.
Celebration started with family dinner at CRC.

"A family in harmony will prosper in everything""There's only one happiness in life, to love and be loved"

And then dinner with dear hubby at Hard Rock Café. It was a crazy fun time.30 years of life and my little lungs don't have the capacity to blow out a candle 3 feet away...Another slice of birthday cake complimentary from Hard Rock Cafe.This is the 10th birthday I have celebrated with my darling hubby. Thanks for all the sweetness! Many more to come :)Tomato Basil soup served with yummy bread. The soup was a tad too salty to my liking though.
I can barely finish a quarter of this big portion from the Smokehouse- Hickory Duo Bar-B-que combo (Ribs & Beef Brisket)The Beatles and us :D

Traditional Mee Suah lunch prepared by mummy with 2 hard boil eggs, 2 drumsticks & spring onion garnishing. It represents longevity, prosperity, love, health and everything good.Mee Suah with red packets from my parents. Can't be more traditional, yet it is something that I cherish and would like to carry on.
All these with a meeting with old friends for tea completed my 30th birthday!

I have matured over the years and am thankful and feel blessed for all the accomplishments and experiences that life brings. I have learnt a lot along the way yet there are so much more to learn and explore.
I have completed my tertiary education
Stayed in a foreign land on my own for 6 years safely
Worked in a hospital in a foreign land for 3 years (Going thru the SARS commotion safely)
Got married to a man I love dearly and love me plenty
Bought my first home
Have owned 2 cars
Visited 6% of the countries in the world
Switched thru 4 jobs (From all totally unrelated industry)
Landed a job that I like
Build and developed a business with dear hubby
Learned to cook
Appreciate my parents more than ever
Where there is great love, there are always miracles
Treasure every moment spend with my siblings
Got disappointed that the painting of Mona Lisa is so much smaller than I expected
Starting to grow plants (Inadvertently, many plants were also sacrificed in the process)
Still mesmerized by “Haunted Mansion” in Disneyland
Learned that you can’t just order “latte” in Italy (all you get is milk)
Realized that if you get caught for speeding in US, you gotta put both hands on the steering wheel (else you risk having a gun pointed at you from a cop)
Discovered I like vanilla ice cream more than chocolate
The simple joy of having hot steaming Maggi cup noodle on the cold Swiss mountains
Love is a condition where the happiness of another person is essential to your own
Everything happened for a reason
Life is divine chaos, embrace it
Life is good!

Robert Frost - Time and Tide wait for no man, but time always stands still for a women of thirty