Harvest Time

I'm harvesting. My garden vegetables! They befittingly chose to ripe in the Harvest Festival time. Look at these!!!!! I'm so proud. OK to be honest. I didn't actually plant these myself. I got help. I'm not that truly greenfingered as Whimsy. Still they're mine.

Tomatoes. Lebat kan !

These are not tomatoes. These are bell peppers. I'm waiting for them to turn red. Still orange.
My red chillies. Nicely coming out.

Limes. Still young. But I can soon pluck it I expect!

Well it's a long holiday this week. I wanna wish everyone out there, Happy Harvest Festival Holidays!!!!!!To whimsy- have an enjoyable time in Keningau! take loads of pictures! To Shabbymom - enjoy your resort hopping! I expect 5 parts of stories, k!!!

BYE!!!! see u next week!!!

My Weekend

How was your weekend? Fun I hope. Mine was.
We flew to Tawau for my cousin's wedding on Friday and stayed till Sunday.
This is nikah ceremony held at my cousin's new home at Villa Mas. Two of my aunts drove down from KK and arrived well after the nikah ceremony. There's a story to that. They've never been to the new house and needed instruction for the road. My cousin told them to follow 3 o'clock turn upon reaching the first junction and then 12 o'clock on the next junction. But they took such a long time to arrive and cousin had to call up to check. Do you know what happened? They found the junction alright but they spent hours looking for a ....clock tower!!! thinking that was the road mark. Duhhhh.....

This is 'bersanding' held at Dewan Lau Gek Poh.
Ada artis jemputan untuk acara di dewan ni. Ekin AF3.
My youngest niece, Adrianna Ruzainie. Tidak meragam langsung, infact, sleeping peacefully throughout ceremony and only woke up when they start karaoke.

We stayed at Kingston Hotel and took up 5 family rooms. Our last night there, we crowded my sister's room to watch AF final (they got Astro) and sent down the nephews to buy something to eat and hot drinks. They came back with roti canai and teh tarik. Perfect.

There wasn't any utensil in the room except jug heater and glasses. What we did was pour all the teh tarik in the jug and combine all the glasses in the rooms. It wasn't enough. No sweat. Two share a glass. The kuah kari had to go into the used cup mineral water. The cup is wobbly so somebody (Maria) had to keep her hand around the cup through out to avoid it from falling over...hahahah..

We had some free time on Saturday morning since the bersanding was held in the evening instead of morning. So what did shopaholic and sisters do? Roam the town!!

Found these slippers, RM 20 for 3. Not bad.

A Bit Tied Up

Hello ! long time no blog! what's been happening here? Well, this week the kids are having exam so fabmom is a bit tied up trying to oversee their studies. It's a good thing that we have some sort of treat for the weekend to spur them more (not that it's working much). The whole family are going to Tawau tomorrow until Sunday for the wedding of my cousin. 6 families are going so they're pretty excited with the trip. It's been a long time we didn't visit this aunt, so I'm looking forward too.

I'll update u'ol on it later, k! Happy weekend everybody!!

p/s : Looks like we can't do tea this week, gugurls. We must meet up next week!

Happy Birthday To Me

Happy birthday to me...Happy birthday to me... Happy Birthday to Fabmom....! Happy birthday to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is my birthday. (as if anyone is interested). (yang ke berapa..tak tau).

Got a nice watch from hubby.
Gotta card from my daughter.
And these from my two sons. Thank u for the thought anyway.

But I got myself a nice book . Latest of Sophie Kinsella! Oh it's great! As usual hilarious. Different character from Shopaholic but just as funny. You should read it ! Go out get a copy if you haven't!.

Nature Disaster

Very strong wind eh yesterday. I think it's the strongest yet. And the paper says it will go on till Saturday. Already a week of this strong wind has put some damage around here. Last night while I was about to go out to send the kids to tuition, the ground floor of the house lights went off. Only ground floor. The lights upstairs were ok. This was no blackout. There's a short-circuit somewhere. The electrogate won't open. (And this had to happen while my hubby is out of town). Hmmph...After some time, we found the problem, the lampu gate had short-circuited. Maybe too much rain, I don't know.

And I found something else, 3 pieces of the craft stone by the gate came off! Kuat juga angin tu!!! or the work was not strong. I'm also kesian at the tomato trees. One of them broke at the branch. The fruits were just starting. What to do...natural circumstances...hope today doesn't get worse.

Happy Birthday Helmi

My youngest son's belated birthday party yesterday. I wanted to try Deanacakes, the soccer players deco was really fetching, but they closed order, preparing for Mothers Day cakes demand. Maybe next time. Secret Recipe's White Choc Macademia

It's just a simple lunch. Malas la ambil gambar nasi, lauk semua. I made this old fashioned chicken pie for tea, which was a hit.

And the cheese onion scones using Min's recipe. A good recipe. It's going to my Recipe Folder now. Turned out just a little bit salty but that's my fault. I forgot I was using regular buttercup which is salted, so I should have just omit the 1 tsp salt. (Make that note in your recipe, ladies). We ate it with whip cream and ice cream. Masuk ka tu? Hentam ja lah. It taste good. I made about 20 pc. You can put the extra in a plastic bag like a bread and seal it. I found it lasts.
And just wanna tell u, 500g flour is equal to 3 cups, for your note, if you're making this.

cheese onion scones

Next time I wanna try the prawn quiche.

Mothers Day? Well, kira sekali la tu. I got all my sisters at the party. As usual, any party at any one of our place, will last hours with endless rounds of tea ( I made 4 teapots for only 8 of us). Had fun eating and laughing and eating and reminisced the fun times with our late mother.

AF6? Nda payahla komen tu. Bikin malas. I thought the students are getting better but AC juga tiada improvement kan. Tawar. Kenapa tiada penyingkiran? Sebab selamatkan Nadia? She got bottom place at the close of votes. Hmmph...I blame the ridiculous costume! Why did he make her look as if she's 4 months pregnant but trying to hide the bump? Did I say I'm not going to comment. OK sudahlah.

Have a happy week ahead!

Tea Party II

Yess! gugurls second get-together for tea at my house today. It's also an early celebration of my birthday.

They got me a beautiful gift basket of cakes and recipe book. Very sweet. I love it.

In here are - carrot walnut cupcakes, bread pudding and Gift From The Kitchen Book

Brilliant food gifts ideas

I love this. Shabbymom's homemade breadpudding. Perfect. And I still have 3 big slices in the fridge. I'm going to eat it with whip cream. Yes! weekend is for bingeing.

I served them my Hailam Chicken Rice. They loved it. As usual we had our tea at our favorite place, the terrace. Perfect weather and the kids are not 'shy-shy' anymore. They're running around making themselves home and they know where I stock my biscuits. Hahaha.. I wish they could stay overnight .

OK as requested, here is the recipe for the chicken rice.

Ingredients for Chicken & Rice

• 1 whole chicken (cleaned and drained)
• 2 cm ginger (crushed)
• 2 teaspoon salt
• a dash of sesame oil
• 1 bulb garlic & 2 shallots (chopped)
• 2 tablespoon oil
• 440g fragrant rice (washed & drained)
• 1 daun pandan

Ingredients for 'Kuah Kicap'

• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon seasoning powder
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoon light soya sauce (kicap cair)
• 200ml chicken stock

Mix these ingredients together. I suggest you double this recipe becos this is the 'killer' kuah. You would need more than a bowl of this.

Ingredients for Sauce - blend together all these :-

• 100g chopped ginger
• 50g chopped garlic
• 50g chopped shallots
• 200g chopped chillies
• 5 kasturi limes (juice extracted)
• 1 teaspoon tomato sauce
• sugar and salt to taste

Steps :

1. Boil sufficient water to cover chicken. Add in crushed ginger and salt. Simmer gently.
2. Lower heat and add in chicken. Leave to simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Remove chicken and immerse in cold water for 20 minutes. Remove and drain.
4. Heat oil and saute the chopped garlic and shallots until fragrant. Add in rice and mix thoroughly.
5. Transfer rice to rice cooker. Pour in the chicken broth. Put in daun pandan. Leave until rice is cooked.
6. Brush chicken with sesame oil.
7. This is my additional step : Roast in the oven at 250C for 40min. Don't forget to turn over.
8. Cut chicken into sections. Pour 'kuah kicap' all over chicken. Serve the rice with the sauce.

Macau n Kowloon PART 2

I tell u the shops in HK..if only u got the money...IF only u got all the MONEY..I tell u..it's shop till u drop!..there's nothing u can't find here!...Remember the huge LV logo by Pedder Street? The building is Peninsula Arcade. You step in, there's NO other shops in there except designer labels. All 4 floors of designer stores. Gucci, Prada, Hermes, LV, Harvey Nichols, Chanel, Versace, Fendi, Dior, Burberry, Armani...Oh god.!.they're bigger than life...but I could only look. They're way out of my price range!! even if they do 60% off..which they didn't.

The main lobby of Peninsula Arcade

So what did I buy? Clothes and shoes are not really cheap here actually, altho they are from the latest collection so I couldn't go too crazy..(yalah tu..) I got jeans and blouse from Chevignon, a spring collection Guess handbag, some blouses and jacket from Giordano & Izod. But I almost went crazy with the shoes! Again they're a bit pricey..but the thing about shoes is...they so test your will power...u just have to HAVE it!
I didn't get many dresses/blouse. The style here is a bit too Hongkee for me.
A momento from Macau.

The brand is Fiorucci, Italian leather.

It's not all just shopping for me. We did go to The Victoria's Peak in central HK. It's a must-go place if u ever go to HK. Only half hour ride by bus or 20 min by tram. Entrance to the Peak Sky Terrace is $40 per person (about RM 17). The view of HK from above is amazing.

The Atrium housed 3 floors of Madam Tussaud Museum. If u haven't been into Mdam Tussaud like me, then it's a good opportunity. You don't have to go to New York.

So there! I recommend this trip especially if you can get really cheap airfare from AirAsia. We got RM 500 return ticket per person, that's cheaper than going to KL. As a tip for muslim, you would do better to bring bekal makanan for the stay in Macau. Hard to find halal food. As a matter of fact, we didn't find any. Hong Kong, no problem. Lots of halal restaurants there, mostly operated by Pakistani.

The stop in Macau is also fun even if u're not a gambler. The city never sleeps. You could see the buildings in HK across the sea all draped in colorful lights. We got the chance to see this show (rehearsals for Beijing 2008), where the building lights dance to the orchestra music for about 1/2 hour and the finale - a writing on the wall ' Beijing 2008' lights up!

Actually the Historic Centre in Macau received the World Heritage status, so if u r not gambling and not into shopping(u must be crazy) u could visit the historic sites.Hik!

If u want to eliminate Macau trip, the option is a direct flight to HK by Royal Brunei
Airlines. But that's a different price altogether. Beijing 2008 is happening in August! Maybe u wanna try to book early for that event.

K.Bye now!

Macau n Kowloon 29 Apr - 3 May : PART 1

Hi!!! I'm BACKKK!!!!!!! how r u guys? Miss me? I checked on u all but not much post either or did u all went away for the long weekend from Labour Day?

OK. My holiday report.
We arrived at Macau at 11.30 pm 29 Apr. Macau is.....well it really is the Las Vegas of Asia. There seem to be nothing else here but CASINO! The landmark at the airport tower is the roulette table! There are shops ofcourse but doesn't beat Hong Kong (more of this later). Why are we here? It's a side trip to Hong Kong, there's no direct flight by Air Asia to Hong Kong (from KK). So we stayed the night, soaked up the evening life and the next day departed to Hong Kong by ferry.

Grand Lisboa. One of the casinos in Macau city.

Another casino, Wynn. Too much heavy decorating inside.

You've just got to see the lobby ceiling. Intricate dragons carving in gold!

Senado Square. A mix of high end shops and flea market stalls.The shops in the street of Macau
Senado Square - lots of shops here

It's quite interesting, Macau city. The official language is Portuguese and Chinese and the building structures in the city is heavily influenced by European designs being formerly ruled by Portugal. Their currency is called Patacas. English is not widely used even in hotels except ,big casino hotels such as Venetian Hotel (more of this later). We stayed in Beverly Plaza Hotel and I witnessed this American man almost tearing his hair out trying to ask the receptionist for a bucket of ice. She kept repeating '..eyes?..eyes?' so the man wrote down on a paper, ice cube, but she was still perplexed, and he tried 'frozen water' and the girl got more lost!

These next pictures are of Kowloon. First thing I noticed here is the crowd. It's just bustling with people and activites. Every which way you turned there is a crowd which seemed to be bursting from a train station or something. And the shopping. Oh..yess...the shopping..(more of this later).

Blogger, about to board a train to Central HK.

Can u see the background? 2 storeys of LV!!

We returned to Macau on the second last day for the flight back home. Here we met Wati and hubby who stayed at the same hotel. I must tell u this hotel is so so sooo breath takingly scenic and luxurious. The Venetian Hotel. Owned by an Italian, it's designed to be the Venice of Macau complete with the canals, gondolias and to-die for boutique shops and again ofcourse casinos.

Gotta go now! You've got to wait for my next post on my SHOPPING!