Spare Me Some Reading Time

The World Book Day falls on 23rd April. In conjunction with that (Heck! Don't I sound serious?), I have snapped up three books from Borders.

"The Witch of Portobello" by Paulo Coelho has been on my "want to read" list for sometime. The word "Portobello" sure brought back a lot of memories. True enough, the story takes place in London. The arty cover of "What the Lady Wants" attracted me whereas "The Cupid Effect" was chosen by my girl.

It has been exactly a week since I bought these books, and I have yet to lay my hands on them. I have been busy cracking my brain and trying to churn out a number of sensible fee proposals to my potential clients.


It is always extremely difficult to give a lump sum quotation as it is almost impossible to estimate the hours I am going to spend on one particular task/job. Some companies may be very proper and systematic in their contract administration, but that is hard to come by in Malaysia. I would say, a great majority of them don't even possess a system. In the event they don't, I may have to spend more time doing jigsaw-puzzle, trying to patch pieces together in order to re-construct the factual issues prior to me getting down to doing the real work. With the current price hike, I can't take any risk, I just have to be extremely cautious.

Now that with all the proposals done and sent out, I suppose I can now subside into the settee, put my feet up, brew a pot of coffee and start on my newly purchased books. Happy reading...

Tummy Warming

On the journey back from kids' badminton training, we de-toured to Ming Tien Food Court at Taman Megah for dinner. It has been a while since we last came here. This place is always a 'parking' nightmare, but as it was early dinner time, we have no problem finding a parking lot.

Spotted a Vietnamese stall, so we ordered the Pho with beef brisket.

The beef brisket was so tender, unbelievably yummy. The pho portion was big but the bowl seemed to be too small, hence there was no room for the tasty soup. Pity. This is not the clear soup version, but soup with tomatoes and carrots. Love those fragrant leaves. Best!

Next to the Vietnamese stall is a stall operated by a Chinaman. We ordered the fried dumplings, guo tier. RM6.00 for 10 pieces.


Quite good, considering the price. The sauce was not the traditional type with shredded ginger in red vinegar, but red peppercorn mixed with vinegar. It went well though.


Also ordered two portions of xiao lung bao from another Chinaman stall.




The skin of the xiao lung bao was thin compared to those from Dragon-i. The meat filling and the soup could rival those shanghainese restaurants. RM4.50 for a portion of four.

My boy wanted his wantan mee. To quench our thirst, we ordered a giant serving of watermelon juice. All in all, a truly satisfying meal.

From Bed Linen to Haute Couture

Picked up my girl from school, headed straight to Subang Parade. While whizzing along Federal Highway, the kids asked why. I told them I have received a SMS invitation from my friend WY to attend the fashion show organized by her team. Yassie puzzled, feeling tweaks of curiosity and trying to recall which one of my friends is in the fashion line. I told her that WY is in the bed linen business. She stared at me perplexedly. I shrugged coz I was as puzzled as her, kept thinking: has WY ventured into Fashion without me knowing?

When we walked towards the foyer, we could hear the music and the voice of the emcee. The show has just started. It was a fashion/catwalk show organized by Akemi, the bed linen specialist, featuring some of their latest bed linens and curtains. A total of six models, being cladded in bedsheets and curtains, displayed the various designs/themes by Akemi. It simply goes to show that bedsheets are no longer the boring plain white colour but a whole array of colours, patterns, themes, fibre and even thread count.

Let's not go into superfluity, I will enlighten you on what happened. But, let the pictures speak for themselves.

WY and co. have done marvel, very innovative indeed. The bedsheets looked a bit stiff though and hence the bulky feeling. The curtains looked better on the models.

So, nice time when you were to attend a ball or something, but cannot find a stunning enough outfit, why not take the ideas from Akemi. Fling over either a bedsheet or a curtain, deploy some innovative tying methods, and with the help of some pins and threads, you may do wonders and make all heads turned.

Almost Guilt-free Dessert

Emo. Disgruntled. Traumatized.

"I need a holiday!" demanded vociferously.


Browsed thro' a number of travel sites and made a reservation via the hotel website.


By a press of the button, "Confirmed". Yes! We are going on a vacation this coming school holiday. Don't care whether the kids like it or not, they will just have to tag along.


My kids helped themselves to the orange sorbet that I made yesterday. Well, not exactly the smooth type of sorbet, it was more like slushy water ice, my own version of granita. Very refreshing, tangy and cool on the palate. The plus point is that it is virtually fat-free! My kids definitely prefer this to dairy ice-cream. I was requested to try out other flavours each week. Well, see how.

Prayers

Yesterday. Received a shocking SMS from Yassie's dad from London. Initailly, it took half a minute for his words to register. From his scantily worded message coupled with his broken English, he was telling me that he was rushing to the hospital to see my nephew W's wife as her brain was bleeding and was in serious danger.

I felt an ALMIGHTY shock! For a moment, I was too dumbstruck to reply. Another SMS came and he said he will call me later.

Waited and waited, in horror, for a whole afternoon. Eventually he called. My nephew's wife S has just undergone a craniotomy to remove a tumor in her brain, may need sometime to recover from the general anesthesia.

Apparently she had a blackout and fell while at work. The doctor later discovered a tumor in her brain, pressing against and bursting some arteries/veins, hence the bleeding. For reasons best known to the surgeon, he had chosen to surgically remove the tumor instead of opting for laser/radiosurgery. According to Yassie's dad, the surgeon made an incision on the shaved scalp, then used a special type of saw to cut open a piece of bone in the skull. To everyone's surprise, the tumor was no way to be seen!!! The surgeon covered up the skull and took a few more brain mapping scans to locate the tumor before he opened the skull the second time. Eventually, the tumor had been successfully removed.

Eeerrrrr! A horrible mixture of vexation and terror grips my intestines. But I took this with a grain of salt. I always reckon brain surgery is the most demanding, requiring a unique combination of training, skill, dexterity and precision. But then, how on earth could this happen? This is life threatening, fatal peril!!

Poor S, she is so young, only in her early thirties. Tumor, the very word strikes fear in the heart of anyone. Moreover, it is in the brain. Surgery in the brain, the most frightful event!

Being thousand miles apart, we can only pray for S. She will definitely make it and will recover soon, there is still a long way for her to go...

Prayers.

Reminiscence of Ah Sim's Lobak Kou

Oh. Crikey, the alarm went off. It was 6 a.m. Sunday morning. I had to drag myself out of bed coz I needed to send my girl to school. School? On a Sunday? Yes, her school was the meeting point. She was to participate in the Jogathon Warisan 2008.

This Jogathon Warisan is a yearly event. Yassie has been taking part every year for the last three years. The Jogathon is organized by The Youth Section of KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall and 22 other youth associations. It starts from Kwong Tong Cemetery and passes by a number of other cemeteries along Jalan Istana. You may be thinking: Why cemeteries? Eery, huh? Their slogan reads, " 跑义山，保古迹，爱环境", i.e. for the purpose of taking good care of historical sites and nature.

While at home, I tried out my culinary skills in the kitchen. I made Lobak Kou (steamed radish cake).

I have fond memories of Ah Sim's, my mother-in-law, Lobak Kou. She makes the best Lobak Kou. You may think I am exaggerating, but it is true, to me at least. I used to watched her making the cake in the kitchen in Slough. She would painstakingly shredded the radish, fried up the garnishes including dried prawns, onions and red chillies. Then she would mix the rice flour batter in a huge plastic 'basin'. She normally made quite a lot, three trays in total stacked up in the steamer, a huge family to feed. For the fillings, she put in thinly shredded mushrooms and pork strips. It was absolutely delicious, I simply adored it. Sigh, I miss it so much.

As my kids love the pan-fried version, I reduced the amount of water and omitted the garnishes. I added in some chopped chinese preserved pork belly. I couldn't find grocery store that sells wheat starch, so I did without. This is how it turned out. I have yet to achieve my mother-in-law's standard though.

This is the pan-fried version with eggs

This was my kids' comment, "Yummilicious. You are great, mum. Can we have this once a week?" Aha.. you see, my ultimate fans!

KLFU and FWED

You have just fallen off your chair, coz you could not believe four letter words coming out from me.

Aiyah! Not four letter words-lah. KLFU stands for KL Freeze in Unison, whereas FWED stands for Freeze for World Earth Day.

It all started with Zain HD, who posted an event listing on Facebook and invited his mates to participate in the massive freeze held at Pavilion KL on 13th April 2008 (last Sunday). Groups of people would pause themselves at the same period of time at a specific location.

It was not an authentic event created by Malaysian(s). It was inspired by an event in the States - the Frozen Grand Central (The video was viewed by millions across the world via YouTube. Watch it, if you could not understand my waffling). Similar events were performed later in London, Paris, and other major cities.

Zain's intention was, in his words, "Where human beings get together to do something in unison, without speeches or reference to their age, colour, sex, beliefs and background." True, a great way to show global unity. (Spot the man himself in freeze)

After the success of KLFU, another Freeze event is going to take place today. This time round, there is a mission - Freeze for World Earth Day. The event seeks to create an impact and awareness for earth related issues. According to statistics, an average person uses 2,255 watts of power, or a little less than 23 x 100 watt light bulbs... A lot of power to be wasted. Just imagine if you could freeze the daily activities of as many people as we can for 5 minutes, that is a lot of power we will be saving!!!

It sucks as Politics are dividing us, I hope that a larger number of people would join this event, to show that people in Malaysia can be united, for a good cause.

"Freeze in conjunction with World Earth Day - Save energy by freezing people and power."

Date : Sunday, 20th April 2008

Time : 8.oopm

Venue : Sunway Pyramid

Note : Remember to synchronise your watch.

Tips : Freeze in creative pose, preferably with symbols or items of Environmentalism

A Beefy Goodness

I decided to drop the weekly food shopping so that I could help Josh in his preparation for next week's exam. After sending Yassie off to school, I came back home and Josh made a request for scrambled eggs. I happily complied and made him toasted ham sandwich, scrambled eggs and iced Milo.

By mid morning, received a call from Yassie, asking me to go to her school immediately as her handphone has been confiscated, she needed my signature for the release of the handphone. What? She expected me to go then, on the Parents' Day, to fight with hundreds of parents for a space to park, some more illegally? Moreover it was her own wrong-doing. I was adamant and refused to go.

We went and picked her up by noon. Apparently, she managed to get her phone back without much hazard. Obviously, she was not happy with me, didn't let out a word in the car. I knew, I knew. Being her mother for fifteen years, don't I know what is on my daughter's mind. Easy peasy. I know she always crave for beef noodles. She was placated quickly enough when she heard that we were de touring to Section 17 to try out the famous Uncle Cheng beef noodle. The stall is located in Khasiat Coffee Shop, near Happy Mansion.

Josh ordered the Ais Kacang. Surprisingly it turned out to be quite good.

Yassie was undecided whether to take the dry or soup version. Julian, the proprietor, said that the dry version is more 'laku' . We ordered 2 dry and 1 soup.

The dry version comes with a bowl of beef broth, separately. 3 beef balls, beef brisket, tripe, on a bed of lai fun, topped with preserved vegetables, roasted peanuts, sprinkled with sesame seeds and laced with a dark brown beefy flavoured sauce.

The soup version was garnished with Chinese celery, spring onion and preserved vegetables. The beef brisket was tender and yummy. Personally, I don't quite like the lai fun. It looked transparent enough, but it was soft, not chewy enough. The broth was full of beefy goodness, heavenly.

The portion looked small at a glance. But by the time we finished, we were so full. The price was quite steep, RM6.50 for a bowl. With that price, I would prefer the beef noodle in Wooley Food Court, Ipoh. A big bowl of beef mixed noodles only cost RM4.50

As you can see, Josh took his own sweet time to enjoy his Ais Kacang.

Am I Neutral?

If you are a regular at 1 Utama, you probably would have seen those Malaysian Dreamgirl's posters/banners being put up in every corner of the complex.

Malaysian Dreamgirl is the first model search reality show in Malaysia, to be broadcasted not on the traditional square box in your living room, instead over the Internet. It is about ordinary Malaysian girls going through the difficult process to become extraordinary MODELS. A typical copycat production of the America's Next Top Model. I don't really know why I am writing about this as I haven't watched any of the episodes. I merely browsed through the photo gallery.

12 finalists were chosen from thousand of ordinary girls, being given a complete makeover and segregated them to reside in a house. In the "Dreamhouse", they do all these together: eat, sleep, play, laugh, bitch, pulling hair, have their photoshoots etc. After weeks of challenges and dramas, only six went through to the Grand Finale, which is to be held on 29th April 2008 at 1 Utama.

A Ha! Now I remember why I want to blog about this. This contest is not based on judges' votes but is based on popular votes from ordinary Malaysians like you and me. You can cast your votes via sms and if your bank account permits, you can even cast unlimited votes. That's where I am coming from. If a contestant has a huge collection of friends or a big family tree, she will sail through easily. Simple as that.

One of the 6 finalists, Cheesie, a.k.a. Ringo Tan, is a celebrity blogger. She certainly have an advantage over this. She is quite pretty, but petite at 162cm and weighing 40kg! The smallest in size.

My favourite:

Adeline. Tall, sweet and cute, probably not a piece of 'model' material (height wise, yes!). A lot of criticism about her broken English. But who cares. She will make a good model for teenage magazines.

Jay. Aaaaah, this is more like it. A born MODEL! A stunning 175cm. But then, doesn't process a pretty face. Should look at her Precinct 2 photoshoot. She turned out to be the best, capturing the theme 'masculine' perfectly, reminded me of Grace Jones!

And, of course,

Ringo, the whole bloggosphere favourite. You can say I am biased coz I do sometimes read her blog. May be becoz of that, I already got used to seeing her face. I thought she did quite well in her photoshoots. I simply love this for Precinct 2.

The Summer White. I feel they put too much make-up on for an outdoor photoshoot.

This one is a quick portrait taken by ShaolinTiger when he visited the Dreamhouse. But I love this snap, very natural. More like the Cheesie we know.

Am I neutral?

My vote goes to Ringo.

The ordinary girls, by ShaolinTiger