Happy Birthday, Joyce

Today is a very special day! Its my uni dearie cum rummie Joyce’s birthday! And this post is for you, girl :) Reminiscing those golden good old days, I remember that we have never missed out each other’s birthday throughout the four good years. I am missing the good times we shared celebrating eachother’s birthday with Kuo, at the same time feasting over mouth watering food;from Japanese, Spanish to Korean. *drools*.

Fate has brought us together four years back in2007. The first friend whom I get to know upon stamping my feet into the first class the uni, and more alleviated to know that we can click well. However, little did I expect that fate has brought us further. We spent a lot of time together and soon became room mates for 2 good years. Braving ourselves by bringing over all kinds of kitchen utensils, pots and what-nots, we whipped up healthy meals together. The one whom I braved to share all my thoughts, andalso the one who lend me both shoulders when I needed one.

*Photo taken on 250309*

Here, I am wishing you all things beautiful in life. May your day be filled with sunshine and smiles, laughter and love. May the Lord Himself go before you in everything u do & hope this wonderful day of yours blossom into lots of dreams come true and many happy returns of the day! Once again, happy birthday, dear. Lots of love :D

Happy Purchases

We were out for few nights consecutively earlier this month to do some last minute back-to-uni shopping for my sister. We were all aiding her with her stuff's hunting, yet; once in a while, I managed to steal some time into some outlets and grab several necessary-but-not-so-urgent stuff as well as unnecessary stuff for myself. Below are part of the few stuff of mine that made me grinning from ear to ear :P.

One of them was a jewelry case from Daiso. Apparently, this looks nothing much but a typical plastic case that one may find anywhere; unfortunately, all that I have come across thus far were either too small, too few numbers of compartments or with single cover (the kind single-lid-covers-all), to which I would usually get to store my craft's stuff. This purchase is what I wanted exactly to store my accessories; with individual cover and spacious enough for my fingers to dig in :).

And, something totally out from my list; Delicia nail enamel/varnish from Daiso. I am no nail expert, but I fell in love with its very-easy-to-apply brush. I am not sure how specialist would define a good nail enamel is like, but to someone with very limited of nail painting experience, the friendly brush would be the first criteria. Painting can be done in a jiffy and I *heart* the cute looking bottle and I also very pleased with its finished outcome too; smooth, even and sufficient with single coat. The best part was it's almost odourless :) I think I can put on hold for the thought of getting the 5 in 1 Nail Coat by Lelan Vital at the moment. *stingy* :P

Loreal Smooth-Intense leave-in serum. I was first introduced to this product by Kuo, and I remembered that forthe first time using it, I fell in love immediately with it and had been pestering her to bring that over to the class forthe first few days before I managed my very own first bottle that weekend. One bottle of 100ml can last me for more than one whole year despite me washing my hair on a daily basis :). When we went into Guardian, I decided to buy and keep another bottle, for I have about 2cm left in the bottle which I presumed could last me maybe for about 20 pumps more or less. The price was RM38.XX according to the label attached to the rack. I just thought to myself ‘not too bad, after more than one year they have only increased their price for no more than 6%,this time with a sleeker design some more’ thereafter headed to the counter for payment, to my utter surprise, the price in the cashier counter showed RM27.XX, I thought my eyes were playing a trick on me. Not wanting to be detained upon leaving the counter and asked for the balance at the exit point, I reconfirm with the cashier and was told that discount labels displayed wasn’t updated and the price scanned was correct amount after discount. How to not feel ecstatic about such a bargain? =)

Not done with the serum drama, the prawn head-ness syndrome in me has never subsided to one lesson after another. Sigh. I have been procrastinating from mentioning about this happy purchase of mine as I have ‘lost’ my newly bought serum until today, after some frantic search up and low (I realized its missing only last week), I finally found it lying underneath my trashes inside a Daiso plastic bag I hung by my desk, the moment when I was about to throw that plastic which was full to the brim :P

On another day at different Guardian outlet nearby my home, while strolling around aimlessly waiting for the rest to settle the payment at the cashier counter, my sister called out for me to go over to the front counter and ask if I am interested with these classy little tin cases. Yes, she knows very well that I am a sucker for all sort of tin cases, especially if they come along with products we purchase. Talk about frugality ;P. I quicken my steps towards the counter. Once again, I couldn’t believe my eyes that less than 10 tins of limited-edition Kotex Luxe were sold with only RM1.88 per unit, can you believe that? I couldnt believe it myself too. Apparently, because many of them were dented and scratched and new batch of packaging will be released soon. They were too winsome to resist. I had hard time selecting 3 tins (2 for myself) that were still in 99% perfect condition. So, okay-lah, I am going to give myself the consent to use only one tin and the rest will be kept until … *shudder*. :)

Celebrating the Moon

Mid-Autumn Celebration in this current years had been celebrated in a simple way, and this year without my brother joining us. When I was younger, we would usually gather at my grandparents house. These years, we will usually be settling it with a dining out at my parent’s favorite Chinese restaurant. How much did you actually know about the Chinese Moon Festival, or better known as the Mid-Autumn Celebration or Mooncake Festival? If you are interested to read up a few numbers of legendary stories, which tell the celebration's history, read up about it here.

So, what is the significance of glorifying Mid-Autumn without moon cakes? We never missed having moon cakes served on the dining table with a teapot of Chinese China Tea (like how the boss called it), and I used to be a very light moon cake eater for any mooncakes that come with lotus paste, until this year where I walloped quite a bit and fell in love with the less sugar versions in all the moon cakes gifted. We were showered with moon cakes most of the years and this year we received three boxes, where 2of them were given by my parent’s acquaintances and another one from the boss :)

Tai Thong moon cakes, all four pieces were double yolk with white lotus paste. I love their packaging so much. The cheerful design imprinted on the cover very much resembles the joyous celebration. Look up for their other designs of gift boxes (under packaging tab in their website), they have specially designed boxes to resemble different season in a year. How cute. Likey! Themoon cakes were tight in sugar content, very much to my liking. I broke the record eating the highest amount of moon cakes in my entire life :)

Tai Thong moon cakes

The one below was courtesy of the boss. Whenever I was given the autonomy to choose, me being the typical me, I was easily enticed to fancy looking products available in the stores. I was kind of attracted to pie moon cakes such as this and this displayed at on the rack, but the boss commented that they don't look that-mooncake-y. Lol. Like previous years, we landed at Multi Bake and this time, I went for their souvenir package for it was the only package available that came in tin case (I have soft spot for tin cases! ;)). I handpicked two different traditional moon cakes; white lotus double yolks (since this was the first moon cake gift we received, little did I expect that we will be receiving a whole box of all white lotusdouble yolk's days after). Another one was mixed nuts moon cake as I know it was one of my dad's favorite.

Multi Bake's moon cakes

True enough, dad enjoyed the mixed nuts variant to bits. The only comment was it was a little too chunky compared to previous years, thus slightly drier. When he saw the pies moon cake sometime after that at Ngiu Kee,he commented the same as the boss; and added that old-school moon cakes are invariably the best. Well, I think that roosters somehow shared the same mind. By the way,I am girdled with 3 roosters; dad the fire rooster, the boss as the metal rooster and my bro, the water rooster respectively.

Mixed nuts moon cake

These homemade jelly moon cakes came in abox of 4, courtesy of a friend of my parents. One of them in purple has been given to a friend before it reaches home. These lovely moon cakes tasted as lovely as its look. The pink one has red bean paste jelly as filling, orange one with mango jelly filling and the yellow colored moon cake came with corn jelly filling.

Homemade Jelly moon cakes

Each year, what made me feel delighted most was the after-consumption affair :P. I heart every kind of gift boxes/tins that comes with the moon cakes. Here’s my collection thus far, these empty boxes/tins are occupying quite an ample section in my cupboard. Be it any brandname of mooncakes, you’ll get a unique and different design each year; sometimes dependingon the type of moon cakes you purchase too.

Some of the empty gift boxes/tins

They will come in very handy whenever I wanted to organize my stuffs and definitely save me a bit from splurging money for boxes :). Earlier this week, I have started to make use of some of them tostore my souvenirs or small gifts, to store my sewing kits and craft materials and what-nots. Another one to store my stacks of receipts O.o. Yes, I do keep certain receipts to trace my what-where-when for all my happy purchases and good food :P. I should really make it a habit to pen them down into a notebook instead. Aits, guess the old habit in me dies hard ;P

Cardboard gift boxes

Moon cake tin gift boxes

Now you tell me, how to not keep such pretty and intricately designed gift boxes? :). I know this post came out rather late, and one can even get mooncakes for half the retail price by now. Lol. Nevertheless, Happy belated Mid-Autumn, peeps :)

It's a Shore Thing

I don’t blog chronologically these days :(. All my posts are jumbled up in term of sequence/date. This post is my one and only up-to-date post thus far, pausing so many long overdued posts :P. Not forgetting, Happy Malaysia Day to all, we Malaysians are truly blessed with public holidays. You are reading a Malaysia Day post for now, but you might be seeing an Independence Day or Mid-Autumn Festival next O.o

In the morning, I tagged along my mom to join the RE class students for an excursion to the beach in Second Beach, Tg. Aru. Retired to the bed early that morning, I dragged myself up again after 5 hours sleep. Off we went to the church to join other RE teachers with the lunch preparation to be brought over to the beach.

A view of the yachts docked on the shore

Spaghetti lunch for 150 paxs

By the beach

Sandcastles by the students

It had been quite a while since I last went to the beach and bythe time we touched down, there were a LOT of people camping by the beach andthe weather was merciful too. While the fellow students were having games, Ienjoyed myself sitting under a tree, enjoying cold breeze while watching all the students having a swell of time.

The big tree I dwelled under

Feeling all zen under the not-very-shady tree

Lush greenery. I love!

Yes, the breeze was cold but it was rather sunny. The prawn-head-me have totally forgotten about my hat *sigh*. Only upon touching home, I saw a slash of redness along my lowerneck, exactly where I have neglected when I apply the BB Cream this morning.Yes, I was sun-kissed and I have forgotten about sunblock too! *bummer me* Twas fun nevertheless and I reckoned that we should do this more often :)

Fresh Cream Swiss Roll

My bro was home last Friday night for a semester break in conjunction with the Raya holidays and has returned to his college last Sunday. Holidays were well spent, our itinerary were packed with shopping and more shopping apart from a full two days plus spent for the Nationwide Youth Fellowship (NYF) in the church.

So, the whole family tried our best to squeeze in some quality time together and the same time struggling (due to time constraint) to tick off all the foods which have been listed beforehand, which my brother have been missing and will be anticipating after the break :). Many of the time, we were out early in the morning and returned home midnight.

Blueberry fresh cream swiss roll

Gooey blueberry jam underlain with whipped fresh cream

Unfortunately, not all can be ticked off due to the close down for the celebration. Nevertheless, we had good time and stuffing our stomach satisfyingly full (or silly?) :P. My sis and I reckoned that we cannot give this a miss too: Fresh cream swiss roll from Sunshine Bakery in Beverly Hills Plaza. We were yearning for their peach and strawberry fresh cream swiss rolls; but alas, luck were not siding us. We had ours in blueberry and yam instead, which were equally yummy. Served chilled *drools*.

Foodie Fun

The boss was here twice in June (another twice in July and once in August). For June, the first one was not-really-expected but the second one was totally unexpected, as the boss told me that the moment he reached the office on the following day after he touched home after the first trip, he received a letter calling for another meeting on the following week, he said he can see me literally dancing on the floor the moment he flip opened the letter:). LOL. Another out station errand for him, another spot check for me.

So, whenever the boss is around,we will be going on food marathon and junkies hunting. Here are some of the foods we had in random order for the month of June and July, to which I remembered to capture. One of them, where the boss enticed me to take the udon challenge had already been posted up here :P.

There is a coffee shop sized food centre located adjacent to Cititel Hotel. Whenever we had our breakfast there, the boss will order for their kon lou mee without fail, be it with roasted duck or roasted pork belly (saunyuk) and barbecued meat (char sau). As for me, I would usually opt for dim sum instead while taxing few strands ofthe boss’ mee occasionally :P. I preferred lighter portion of meal for breakfast.

Kon Lou Mee with Roasted Duck

Kon Lou Mee with Char Sau & Sau Nyuk

For lunch, when we have no where in mind to dine, we would usually settle with fast food and especially attracted to McDonald more ever since they released McShaker in barbeque flavor.

McD's GCB Burger

McShaker

I love this kon lou wan tan with century egg from the food centre mentioned earlier very very much. I am not sure how do you call it though. I was initially ordering for wan tan soup and after the lady boss of the stall reassured with me that I merely wanted wan tan without mee, she suggested me to have it in kon lou instead and claimed that it was nicer to be eaten that way instead of in soup base. I obliged and went for it. True enough, it tasted superb with the thick sweet soya sauce and sprinkles with a generous handful of spring onions. Likey! :)

Kon lou wan tan with century egg

Laksa

Rojak is a must-have during each trip he was here. The boss loves rojak, particularly KL Rojak from Centre Point and Suria :). Anything goes with the sticky rojak sauce turns yummy, I guessed that was how the boss defined that :P. Why did I say so? Sometime ago, when I regard myself successful with my first attempt of spicy mini spring roll, I decided to keep some for the boss to try. Little did the prawn head me knew that they cannot last for one week despite stored in an air tight container and refrigerated, thus they went a little soggy :( But, on the hindsight the boss was willingly polishing off the whole thing by dipping them into the dark sticky condiment :).

KL Rojak

Shall you be visiting Sandakan, one of the food you cannot let go is their beef jerky, especially the black pepper flavored one :). It was among the best I have tested thus far. This round, again the boss brought over this packet of spiced strips of jerky for my family *finger-licking-good*.

Sliced Beef Jerky

But this time, along with a separated handy small packet for me :)

Revamping Old Blouse

The other day, I was in the mood of second round of wardrobe decluttering. I managed to make up some space during my previous session yet there are still a lot of my stuffs mainly cloths are stashed inside a basket and left homeless. While I was going through one rack after another, I found some clothes that still leave sentimental value to me without any specific reasons. Sentimentality can be such a burden at times, don't you think? I stumbled upon this polka dot blouse which I owned for at least 7 years now, but had been sitting inside the closet for more than 6 years. I remembered that I have only worn that for a couple of times because of its broad shoulder width. Besides, I was too skinny back then thus the blouse look a bit oversized on me.

Upon seeing it, I decided to do something to it instead of giving it away. Topped up with a slight confidence that I am no longer the once skinny teenage girl (well, a few reckoned that I am round on the face i.e chubby cheeks) and was last complimented by Ben, whom I have not seen for goodness knows how long last two days :P Boo hoo hoo, what to expect from someone who have been staying home for the longest period of time :P

So, what did I do with the blouse was narrowing the shoulder width, which I did with rough approximation. To cover the area which I have newly altered, I moved the two baby pink 1” dia buttons taken off from its stretchable waistline to cover the newly altered spot. So simple and fast, and I am proud to announce that I have been wearing my old-turned-new blouse for few times now :)

Lazy cozy Afternoon

What’s best to greet a lazy and cozy afternoon? Joining my papa in the afternoon or spending an off day with the family with papa around means tea break session is a mandatory :) This is one of the many photos I took and basically because I am missing freshly made bread with cold butter and coconut egg jam (kaya spread) we had at a coffeshop at Luyang. They are also famous with their blueberry spread with fruit chunks :)

Happy Quarter Life

Hello September Good bye August! How time flies and I have yet posted up my thank you note and grateful prayer to the Almighty Lord for giving me the opportunity to look up at the dazzling skies for a good quarter of the century on last 13^th August 2011. Like any other years, my birthday was kept at a low-key. The day before my birthday was my last day working. The moment I touched home each day; I was nearly collapse, literally and I threw myself to the bed early. Albeit tiring and lasted for a short term, it was indeed a valuable experience for me. I thanked God for the opportunity and have no regrets upon the decision made. Tossing and while lazing on my bed that Saturday morning, I caught a glimpse of birthday greeting on our notice board hanging on my room’s door. I widened up my eyes and after ensuring that it was meant for me, I mumbled to myself “oh my, I have totally forgotten about my birthday”.

Birthday greeting from my sis on the white board

I would like to thank all my friends for the wonderful birthday wishes; be it on the FB wall, SMS-es as well as calls. The longest distance of sms I received was all the way from a friend working in Azerbaijan. I thanked God for giving me a circle of wonderful friends whom I get to know over the course of the journey we called life. I still have ex-students (6 years back) from the RE class in Sunday School greeted me happy belated birthday, jie jie last weekend *awww*. 

White gold bracelet & necklace and pearl earrings as pressie

Thank you, Lord for I am blessed with a supportive and caring family and a loving boss. For through them, I find completion and feel whole in and within it. I thank You for all the good foods I smell and savor daily, the warm and cozy shelter I dwell under, the ability to sleep soundly through the nights and waking up and wake up every day to see the sun and to breath in fresh air despite staying in our technology infused planet, the successes I have accomplished, the many failures I faced for they make me grow wiser day after another, the good health I have been granted to walk through and enjoy life to the fullest in our temporary planet Earth, among others. Thank you again, Lord.