Goodbye 2009 ....

I realised I've slacked on my blogging...a lot. Have not been posting anything since the last 2 months. But it's ok, I've done many things outside of blogging world :P

Since this is the last day of 2009, I shall look back over the year that had passed...

Jan - Feb: still busy into wedding preparations and invitations RSVPs, busy on my new house renovations. and alot of cleaning, tidying and decoration work and moving things to the new house.

Mar: Had my "GuoDaLi" (bethrothal ceremony), getting married and moving into the new house. And went to Maldives for the honeymoon trip. Work-wise, getting a new line manager and lots of changes in work portfolio, roles & responsibilities and team mates.

Apr: Settling down to married life and changes in work. Adapting to married routine (lots of cooking & cleaning around the house). Frequent visits to in-laws' and my parents' house. Thinking of getting a pet dog, visited SPCA thinking to get a puppy but couldn't get any. Finally bought a cute male chihuahua.

May: welcomed our very first pet dog, Kiko, into our home on the 1st. Toilet-training for the puppy and lots of play time with Kiko. Had our first house-warming party.

June: down with flu. went to Dog's Day event in KL. started some gardening work at home. bought a new blender. experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen.

July: first time brought Kiko to the public park. Taught him some new tricks. First flash flood at the main access road to our housing garden, which stopped us from getting home. Got a new team mate at work.

Aug: first time trying Batik painting in a company event. went for ATV ride with some colleagues. more gardening work at home. Tried making my very first "loh mai kai" (chicken glutinous rice).

Sept: bought new microwave oven, started exploring oven cooking. bought and installed water filter (cleaner washing & drinking water finally!). brought Kiko to neighbourhood morning market. Submitted a winnning photo to the Star's newspaper thumbnails section. 5D4N visit to SiemReap and Phonm Penh with some friends. Totally a cultural visit!

Oct: a.ka. Ikea-month.. why? because we practically visited Ikea every weekend in October! project of the month was decorating the guest room. We got almost everything from Ikea. Though we had a busy and tiring time designing, planning, shopping, transporting and fixing up the room, we were really happy with the results! *you are quite welcome to stay overnight at our guest room :) Finally got my RM50 cheque for the winning photo I submitted. Joined company annual dinner event, and finally got my very first caricature drawing there! Also won a small gift from the lucky draw event :) First time participating in a Dikir Barat performance for a company's event, learnt about the dikir and made new friends.

Nov: work winding down for the year end. Busy planning for year end trip and some more minor renovations for the house. reflections on work and some planning for next year. Planning for all-gals gathering. Invited to perform a 2nd dikir barat performance at company's annual dinner (what a proud achievement for the dikir team!).

Dec: slow month as usual. Had our very first all-gals gathering (totally smashing! Had a great time catching up with everyone). 5d4n trip to Phuket, went for our very first Thai kick-boxing competition show and even got ourselves the VIP seats (just 2nd row from the ring!). "2nd-phase" renovation started for the house.

I've missed out alot of stuffs but generally this had been a great year. Lots of new experiences and learnings. And married life is not that bad as it sounds! It's less than 2 hours away from 2010, and I'm looking forward to the new year with lots of hope for a greater year ahead :D

Steam Prawns with Cucumbers

This is one of my favourite dishes and it’s so easy to prepare especially if you are already planning to cook rice using your rice cooker. I called it steam prawns with cucumbers.

Ingredients (serves 2 to 3 persons):
- De-shelled prawns (10-15 middle size)
- 1 cucumber, cut into wedges
- 1 tomato, cut into wedges
- 1 tsp of oil

- chopped garlic
- Sprinkle of salt
- Dashes of white pepper (optional)

Steps:
1. Arrange the prawns, cucumber and tomato in a bowl / soup plate.
2. Pour the oil over the ingredients.
3. Add garlic, sprinkle some salt and add few dashes of pepper.
4. Put into the steamer plate in your rice cooker.
5. When your rice is cooked, your dish will be cooked too.

If you are not using the rice cooker, then steam the conventional way or do microwave cooking (use your own judgement the cooking duration, should not be too long as the ingredients are easily cooked).

The RM50 cheque is here!!!

The smell of money can't be wrong... I was eyeing the mail delivery man making his rounds in the office, and then he stopped at my cubicle. There's a mail for me, one that I was looking forward to.

Yes, the RM50 cheque from the Star has arrived. Finally I got my cash prize for the candid photo I submitted weeks ago. And here's how the cheque looks like, proving to you it's not fake ok? (of course the personal details have been blocked out) :P

"Kiasu"-ism & me at Ikea

It was a beautiful Saturday, and like any kiasu people out there, I wanted to be the first 100 early birds to register for a free gift at Ikea, and oh my, I got it. Yeah sweet! A limited edition yellow-colour book ends (those that you "kepit" at the end of your books to prevent it from tilting forward). And the day was also the 5th anniversary of N & I being together as a couple (not as married couple, mind you…). So you see, it never occurred to me that I would see my ex on this fine day.

The limited edition book ends

N & I were busy looking around the marketplace hall in Ikea, at the fabrics section. I wanted to skip the section, but N was still lingering around looking for some panel curtains. It was then I looked up to my left while trying to search for N and instead, horror of all horrors, I was looking straight at my ex! Not that I had anything to hide, but I wanted to avoid having to make any casual small talk with him (imagine how fake it would be!) It was lucky that he wasn’t looking at me at the moment.

Somehow, we miraculously avoided each other paths. Perhaps he already spotted me (since I was wearing bright red!) and made a conscious effort to avoid me at all costs. Whatever he was thinking, I was glad we did not bump into each other. I quickly called out to N to hurry off to the next section. And I told him in hush tones what I saw. Trust me, it is an awkward feeling when you see your ex appearing near you when you least expected it.

But I quickly forgot the whole episode, as N & I were busy picking up more furniture for the house and spent our last weekend putting up the new cabinets and installing the shelves, attended two Hari Raya open-house invitations and ended the Sunday night watching the movie “Orphan”.

Chihuahua spotted at the morning market

A colleague told me about some stalls in the local morning market in my neighbourhood, so I decided to check it out two weekends ago. I told N that we shall wake up earlier on that fine Saturday, have dim sum for breakfast then head to the morning market. And we decided to bring Kiko along. We were sure the dim sum place would allow us to sit outdoor with our pet.

Hah! How wrong were we. We told them we were ok to sit outdoors, but nope, the dim sum restaurant’s staff still said no. I mean how troublemaker can Kiko gets? He’s such a small cutie! Anyway, we decided not to let the misfortune ruins our weekend and head straight to the food court at the morning market.

I thought morning market are supposed to be the busiest in the early morning. We reached there around 9am, but the place was not as crowded as I expected. We found a good spot away from the main crowd to have our breakfast. Hey, there was a dim sum stall at the food court! Not bad. And no one was there to say no to Kiko. We even saw another couple bringing their furry dog too. A little boy from the next table was saying to his parents “ee..look mom, there’s a little puppy there!”. That little boy was fascinated with Kiko’s small size.

After enjoying our dim sum breakfast, we walked round the market, towing Kiko along. If you are curious to know how a little puppy like him gets around in the market area, teng deng deng… Yup, in his very own "LD" puppy bag (looks like the LV logo right?) :P

Weather talk of Arizona

Apart from the Grand Canyon, I do not have much knowledge about Arizona. So I looked up abit on the Internet on Arizona.

Arizona is actually located in the western United States, and best known for its desert landscape, also has primarily very hot summers and mild winters.

Since I have not stepped foot in any dessert location, I have always thought dessert landscape primarily has only scorching days and cold nights. How wrong of me! Arizona has winters and summers in:
Nov to Feb : winter (4–24 °C)
June to Sept : dry summer (32–49 °C)

Just by comparing Arizona's temperature variances with Malaysia (23-34 °C), I think Malaysia's all year round "summer" is much "cooler" than the dry summer in Arizona! And being a tropical country, Malaysia does not experience winters. But the raining season could bring the temperatures down to 22-25 °C at night, which you may say is comparable to the mildest winter of Arizona.

Arizona's weather may not appeal to much to me, but the real estate (e.g. Scottsdale Arizona realtors) there are definitely interesting and captivating. If it interest you so much that you wish to relocate, there is always the relocation specialist to assist you step-by-step.


* This is a sponsored post. Read the Disclosure policy.

The RM50 winning photo that I took

I took this candid photo of dad feeding the monkeys at Bukit Malawati at Kuala Selangor, but the monkey got the better of him, clutching him from the back trying to get the whole pack of food for himself.

And this candid photo won me RM50! yeah..you read it right. I submitted the photo to The Star daily thumbnails with a funny title and caption: Piggyback monkey - Hey mister, I actually prefer a piggyback ride than bananas!

I thought I had a pretty good chance at the RM50 prize. And I was right ;-) Check it out at The Star's website. However, the editor had changed my photo's title and caption.

Crunchy Sesame Chicken

I wanted to cook chicken today, however I'm running out of ideas for chicken dishes.

I guess God heard me, so when my MSN homepage came out on my IE browser, this caught my eye "Simple chicken dishes". Immediately I clicked on the link and a whole long list of chicken dishes were displayed for my choosing. I thought this Crunchy Sesame Chicken sounded like a simple dish to prepare.

I printed out the recipe from the website and it didn't take long for me to prepare and serve this dish for dinner. I served them with Thai sweet & sour chilli dip.

One tip - the recipe didn't ask for marinating the chicken. However, the chicken could taste better if you marinade them for at least an hour. You could also add more salt to the recipe.

Homemade Chicken Satay

I bought a microwave oven during the recent CIMB Perfect Living '09 fair. And I've been experimenting with microwave oven cooking for the past few weeks. There were spots and misses. But overall, I scored more.

I had some chicken fillet in my fridge and I was trying to figure out how to cook it. As I flipped my microwave oven recipe book, I saw this...Chicken Satay! Well, I did have the main ingredient (Chicken fillet) and the satay sticks eventhough I don't have the satay sauce. Anyway, I decided to try it out.

I used curry powder, salt, soya sauce, pepper, few dashes of Maggi seasoning sauce and Chinese ShaoTsing wine for marinating the chicken. Then I let it marinade for about 2 hours. The rest was quite simple, I cut the chicken fillets into cubes and skewered them with the satay sticks, trying to cover all surfaces of the stick. (the stick may get burnt if left exposed in the oven).

I followed the instructions on the book, and after about 30 minutes of microwave cooking and grilling, the satay was ready! The aromatic curry smell filled my kitchen. But I thought the chicken was a bit dry, and I could have put more salt to taste. Since there was no satay sauce, tabasco sauce was the next best thing to dip it in.

Pictures of my garden

I've done abit of gardening around my house, so here are some pictures I took of my beautiful flowers last weekend. The roses have wilted though. I've yet to take a photo of my compost bin, I shall do so this weekend (if I don't forget :P). I can't name some of the plants here, so I'm going to describe it as best as I could here (according to pictures' sequence)

1. Purple flowers (aster??) - normally seen in flower bouquets, mushrooming fast in the planter's box

2. My potted plants in my patio

3. Pink hibiscus at the side fence which are growing quite well, trying to grow a bush hedge there to give us some privacy

4. Looks like roses, but are not. Only blossom when the sun is up. Available in many colours, but I chose red & pinks. Very easy to grow.

5. Red roses bought from Ikea sale. All wilted already by today, but a new bud is blossoming.

6. Wild heliconias - very "fat" and growing quite well in the big pots. I put them in a pot to control their growth. If they were planted on the ground, they will spread like wildfire.

ATV Ride @ Ulu Kemensah

09/08/2009

N and his colleagues organised a trip to Ulu Kemensah (near Zoo Negara) on last Sunday, deep inside a malay kampung, on Sunday morning. The place was so remote, that we had thought we lost our way. But with the reassurance of a Malay pakcik, our car was the first to arrive. We had to parked at the road side, so the earlier you arrived, the better you are to get a nice parking spot.

Before we started to ride the All Terrain Vehicle (ATV), the instructor demonstrated to us how to operate the vehicle ie. to start the machine, shifting the 3 gears (Reverse, Neutral, Forward), the handbreaks etc. Then he gave us some safety tips and we had few rounds of practice around the base station. We learnt how to navigate left/right, and going uphill, and downhill.

I had a minor accident during the practice session, I was trying to avoid a boulder going downhill, but I didn't manage to steer away in time, and the ATV toppled to the right. It was lucky that it toppled slowly, so I had time to put a leg down to stabilise myself. Before you panic, I was quite ok from the mishap. No bruises, no cuts, just minor muscle sprain and scared me a little. But I quickly recovered from the experience.

Believe me, steering it was hard! Turning left/right is not as easy as you think, the steering is just too hard to turn. I had to use my upper body to push left/right.

We broke up into two groups, with a guide each leading us into the jungle area. I forgot to time how long we took to drive in, anyway, it was an adventure driving in. Much better than hiking and sweating all the way. Our destination was the Sofea Jane waterfall. After a hard ride, we relaxed ourselves in the cool waters of the waterfall, and had a small picnic of nasi lemak bungkus, mangosteens, duku langsat and cool plain mineral water. The ride back to base station was a different experience, with more downhills compared to uphills on the way in. However, we're much faster on the return ride as we're already more experienced navigating the terrain.

I very much enjoyed the adventure, however driving the ATV was not a really good experience for me. Not because I fell off the ATV, but I found it very hard to steer the left/right direction and trying to stabilise my ATV when going up/downhill. Even grabbing the handbreaks kills me! I was unlucky to get a ATV with very tight brakes, so my hand sort of got numb and cramped after the whole ride. (The brakes are similar to your bicycle brakes). Having a guide riding behind me helped alot. He was much stronger and more experienced in handling the ATV, so he navigated some of the slopes, and helped me applied the brakes while I enjoyed the breeze :P

For those of you are who interested, you can make bookings via this ATV Malaysia website. Our package was RM150/person. I must say the map on the website is poor, the distance from Zoo Negara to the ATV base station is very far, and there was no roadsigns until you are very deep inside the malay kampungs.

Finally, I'll let the pictures speaks for themselves. More photos at my flickr page.

Painting a fish on batik

I've volunteered for the Batik painting event in the Company's Diversity event today. I was so eager to volunteer because I was so jakun have never done it before.

Eventhough my team mate ditched me last minute and fortunately managed to find a replacement team mate, it did not dampen my spirits. Yup, memanglah semangat and spirited :P

I must say my new team mate done quite well in the colouring *smug grin*. We were given a picture of a fish. The outline of the picture has been done. What we needed to do was to put in the colours only.

We were given Chinese calligraphy "paintbrush", a plastic container for water, palettes, a few bottles of different ink colours, and a small piece of cloth to soak up the water. I gave some ideas how we should paint the picture, and then we started the painting process. We're supposed to finish it within 30 minutes.

So my team mate "tackled" the main subject - the fish, and I did the rest i.e. the coral reefs, rocks, the blue water and the spots on the fish. We tried our best to bring some colour gradients, mixing colours and hopefully the end result look good enough. The painting was quite easy, as the batik cloth absorbs water real fast. The trick is to play around with water to get a lighter/darker tone of colour. As a finishing touch, we put our department's name and our initials to the batik painting

Tadaaa.... nah..tengoklah sendiri the hasil kerja. Not bad lah kan.. for two first-timers ? :P

Black Canyon Coffee @ Alamanda Putrajaya

There was a flash flood at the main entrance road to my housing garden after work yesterday, so we decided to have dinner elsewhere while waiting for the waters to subside before we could go home. We ended up at Alamanda because it was the nearest shopping mall and the journey there was traffic –free.

With nothing specific in mind, except for hot food, we decided to eat at Black Canyon Coffee which is located at the food court area. Black Canyon Coffee has many branches, usually located in Jusco shopping centers. Its menu are mainly Thai flavours, with some fusion theme, but it also has some western meals. The drinks menu is not too varied, though it has quite a selection of coffee beverages.

We ordered the following for two:

• Fusili Chicken Tom Yam (RM8.90)
• Pad Thai (RM10.90)
• Iced Chocolate (RM6.90)
• Iced Blended Green Tea (RM6.90)

iced blended green tea and iced choc	the napkin with the logo
Fusili chicken tomyam	Pad Thai

There’s a 15% govt & service charge on top of the price. If you happen to have a Jusco card, remember to present it when paying, and you’ll get to enjoy 10% discount of the bill.

The Pad Thai was quite tasty, though I thought it was abit “wet”. The iced chocolate was nothing to shout about, except it tasted like cooking chocolate with cream. N ordered the other two, and I tried a few mouthfuls. The Fusili is quite yummy with a hint of spiciness, the chicken was smooth and tender, the tom yam soup was just nice (not too spicy). The iced blended green tea was so-so only, it tasted just like normal green tea with abit of creamy taste.

Though the food experience was nothing to shout about, but there are quite a few of other food that I would like to try if I happen to revisit it. Not a bad choice for a quick lunch / dinner as they also have lunch/dinner sets.

Kiko's three tricks - sit, lie down and shake hand

Woof woof,

Daddy and mommy had taught me a few tricks over the past few months, and besides learning the tricks, I gained a few milligrams along the process. Hey, I need treats to learn better and faster, you know? ;-)

Daddy was training me last night, and mommy decided to record my "show" on her camera. So please enjoy my brief performance in the movie clip below.



I'm good, ain't I? You can also get a copy of it here.

Woof,
Kiko

Gardening: I'm going to start my own compost bin

I've always like gardening. It gives me a sense of achievement to see my plants grow taller each day or a new flower now and then. Of course, gardening also means the hard and dirty work of pruning out weeds and watering the plants etc.

I was reading sites on gardening few days ago and read about composting. This sounds interesting. You can create rich soil from your kitchen waste. And you can use that rich compost soil for your own garden. It's also environmentally friendly and it's a cheap gardening project.

It sounded simple, and with the minimum tools and some creativity, we can get composting started. There are many "how-tos" on the Internet, so just type in "how to make a compost bin" and you will get abundant information about it.

I particulary like this site, which inspires me with its plentiful ideas. It also has some videos which demonstrate the how-tos of gardening.

So I'm going to try out my own compost bin. Probably pop into the hardware store and see if I can get some tools to get started. And perhaps some wooden stakes/wires for my tomatoes plants too!

I may not be the best gardener, or have any green fingers, but you bet I'll be posting more on gardening stuff ;-)

First "family" outing to public park

Woof, woof,

Greetings...This is Kiko posting on mommy's blog again.

Daddy and mummy were eager to bring me to the park ever since they brought me home from the pets shop. After the first outing on the neighbourhood, daddy decided to bring us to this public park. This is my first "family" outing to a public park!.

I met another shih tzu dog named Momo there. She is a friendly dog, too friendly in fact. She walked up to me and started sniffing me up and down. I wasn't used to such "friendly gestures", and to daddy and mommy's much embarassment, I pee-ed on the spot. But daddy and mommy were so cool, they didn't reprimand me. Mommy was far-sighted to have brought some newspaper, so daddy used it to soak up my pee.

I love checking out the park. There were so many children and colourful objects. Some children were so attracted to me that they followed me. Some of them had the nerve of calling me "ee...kuching, kuching...". These kids don't know who they are calling a "cat". Me a cat?? Open your eyes big-big ok, I'm small but I'm mighty, and I'm definitely not a cat. I'm a chihuahua dog! I'll give you a piece of my mind if I'd longer legs to chase you kids.

I was so happy checking out the park, smelling the grass turfs and the tarmac paths. So much so I got distracted many times that daddy and mommy had to call me a few times to bring me back to track. I just love running alongside daddy & mommy.

Could we have another outing soon, please..? Oh, don't forget to check out some of our photos here.

Woof,
Kiko

It's all about dogs at Malaysia Dog's Day

We went to the Malaysia Dog Day. Oh my! There were so many dogs and puppies. Even when we parked our car, we could see the owners getting their dogs out of the car, and walking to the venue.

Once we were there, we proceed to register ourselves at the registration counter. Then we were busy checking out the stalls and other dogs, and snapping pictures of some cute dogs that we saw, or chatting with the owners about their dogs.

Kiko was too young to take part in any of the contests, so we just went to watch. We managed to catch the dogs' tails wagging contest, dog recalling contest, and the weaving the pole contest. It was fun to wactch how the dogs sprinted across to the finishing line, or trying to figure out their owners' wishes to weave through the poles.

Then there were dogs who barked at each other, or trying to sniff out each other asses (dog's way of getting to know each other), or even trying to bite and start a fight! We're quite lucky that Kiko was out of harm's way, staying safe in his dog bag. He didn't even bark or whimper abit. In fact, he looked kinda bored and sleepy because 11am onwards is usually his mid-day nap time.

There were some stalls selling dog accessories and some merchandise. We got Kiko 3 shirts for RM50, and we got a free soft toy for him! We didn't stay long to grab the goodies bag or the lucky draw results. We left before 1pm, but it was an eye opening day for me.

Check out my flickr page for the photos taken at the venue. Excuse for some bad shots, it is kinda hard taking photos of moving dogs! :P

Braised Chicken with Bittergourd

Today I felt like eating bittergourd. I used to hate eating bittergrourd when I was younger. I guess it is an acquired taste. Somehow I learned to like it when I grew older. And now it has come become one of my favourite vegetables (well, depending on how it is being cooked laa.. :P)

I've always just do plain stir-fry bittergourd with garlic or thin bittergourd slices egg omelette. But today N was longing for this braised chicken with bittergourd dish. Unfortunately I have not cooked this dish before and I've no inkling what to put to flavour the dish.

So again, it's MIL to the rescue! (and you thought it was my mom rite? If it was my mom, do you think I wouldn't have known how to cook after helping her in the kitchen all these years? :P) N called MIL and she helpfully described the cooking steps and recipe. Well, a fast learner like me can quickly pick up how the dish is being cooked without any visual aid ok? hahaha...

Here goes my first try...

Ingredients
Bitter gourd, cut to about 0.5 thick slices
Chicken pieces
Red chillies, cut to think strips
Garlic, chopped
Red onions, sliced
Yellow bean paste (Tau Cheong paste)
Sugar
Soya sauce
Cooking oil
Cornflour
Water


Steps
1. Heat some oil in the wok. Put in some onions and the bittergourd slices, and stir fry the ingredients for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add in the chicken pieces and chilli strips. Stir fry them with the bittergourd.
3. Add few teaspoons of bean paste (not too much, it's salty!) to the stir fry ingredients.
4. Mix some cornflour with water, and pour in to the stir fry ingredients.
5. Add more water if needed. (you need some water to braise the ingredients)
6. Add some sugar and soya sauce to taste (to counter the saltiness of the bean paste and the bitterness of the bittergourd).
7. Stir fry everything a 1-2 minutes, then put on the lid to braise the ingredients.
8. If the bittergourd's fresh green colours turns to darker green, and it it soft enough, then the dish is ready.
9. Dish out and serve.

Well, according to N, I did fairly well for a first-timer. Though he commented it was not salty enough. (aiyah...I say he has a salty tongue, he likes his food to be salty, while I prefer less salt)

My first try at cooking a simple pumpkin dish

I tried cooking my first pumpkin dish this week, with a little advice from my MIL. It wasn't that hard at all :P


Ingredients:
pumpkin, cubed
dried shrimps
red onions, jullienned
garlic, diced
pepper
salt
cooking oil
water


Steps:
1. Heat the cooking oil in the wok.
2. When the oil is hot, put in onions, garlic and dried prawns to fry until they turn a little golden brown.
3. Stir in the pumpkin cubes and stir-fry abit.
4. Add dashes of salt and pepper, and stir-fry to mix the ingredients evenly.
5. Add in some water (not too much, you can still add if not enough) and stir fry a little longer.
6. Cover the wok with the lid to let the "braise" the pumpkin, so that it will turn soft with the closed pressure and heat.
7. Let it cook for 4-5 minutes, then open lid. Try to cut the pumpkin cubes, if the texture is soft already, then it's cooked. Dish out and serve.
8. If the pumpkin texture is still hard, close the lid and let if cook longer.

Kiko's fav pic

Woof, woof,

Mummy has took more pictures of me few days ago, because I look so cute! So I picked my favourite picture with daddy to share with my beloved fans :-)

You can check out my other cute pictures in mummy's Flickr page.

Woof,
Kiko

A little tribute to Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett

As most of you have already known, my blog is not about celebrities, and eventhough I’m an avid fan of celebrities news, I don’t blog about them.

But I thought this is just a small tribute to both icons who have brought much joy to us with the entertainment skills…

I was driving to work this morning when I heard the King of Pop – Michael Jackson, has passed away due to cardiac arrest. I was shocked for a moment. I thought I had heard wrongly, or it was just a joke. And another star icon, Farrah Fawcett, of Charlie Angels’ fame, has also passed after a long time battling with cancer.

Not that I’m a huge fan of both, I don’t think I’ve even watched Farah in any of her Charlie Angels’ show. But my mom talked about her when I was younger. I also just learned that Farah’s full name is Mary Farrah Leni Fawcett. Her mother added “Farrah” to the name as it sounded good with Fawcett. I can’t name all MJ’s songs, but I used to watch his music videos on tv. I like his dancing moves, and I thought it was cool how he could do his famous “moonwalk”.

I’m not posting any pictures of them here, I’m sure you can find them on the Internet. And they would be staring at you everywhere you look in the news, papers and celebrity sites.

May they rest in peace.

Malaysia Dog Day (June 28th)

We just heard it over the radio. Malaysia Dog Day is on this coming Sunday, June 28^th (10:00am - 6:00pm). Check it out at http://www.puppy.com.my/k9day/. The location is at Chin Woo Stadium, Jalan Hang Jebat. Admission if FOC! Here’s the location map. And do read up on the FAQs and Do’s & Don’ts.

Anyone interested in bringing your doggie? Or practising your photography skills? If you are going there this weekend, do leave a comment here :) See ya there.

Kiko's first walkabout short video clip

Woof, woof (that's puppy language of saying "hi")

Mommy took a recording of me sniffing during my first walkabout. So here's me walking about. My tail is wagging and I'm so excited about sniffing new smells

Oh btw, ignore the background noise of daddy talking to the neighbours.

Woof,
Kiko

Kiko's first neighbourhood walkabout

Kiko was 4 months old yesterday! My yoga class was cancelled last minute. Wait a minute…what has the yoga class to do with Kiko’s 4 months old?

You see…I usually don’t bring my running shoes when it’s Yoga class day. Since it was cancelled last minute, I can be running “kaki ayam” in the gym right? Abaden..?

So N and I skipped gym session and got back from home early yesterday, and since it was Kiko’s 4 months old and he had just completed his 3rd vaccination, we decided to bring him out of the house. Yup, it’s Kiko’s first official walkabout in the neighbourhood and here’s Kiko speaking about his adventure…

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today daddy and mommy came home early. They are usually late on Tuesdays. I wonder why? I guess I must have been a good boy.

Mommy is not cooking dinner yet, and my dinner bowl is still not filled up. Hey, what’s happening?

Mommy is bringing her camera, and daddy is bringing the radio-controlled car he just bought last weekend. They were tempting me to follow them out of the house, but where?? Am I really allowed to go out of the house? I’m so sssscared…

Mommy finally picked me up and carried me along the street in front of our house. There are sooo many new things, sooo many new smells and sounds. But I want to walk on my own, so mommy put me down on the tarred road. Yuck! It smells dirty, and my paws are getting dirty. Wait..what are these black little things…lick lick... weird taste, but they are kinda hard and I can’t swallow them.

I started to sniff around, and I saw my Indian neighbours and Malay children looking at me. I must be so cute that they like to look at me doing my first walkabout :P

I need to pee…but where’s my newspapers? I can’t pee here… but I can’t hold anymore…
…
Aah… I’m relieved. Wait…my poop is coming out too..
…
Funny daddy and mommy didn’t yell at me. Daddy just casually pick up my poop with a piece of scrap paper.

I chased at the radio controller car, but it’s boring. There are so many things to explore here…
Wait..what’s that big fat creature that’s walking towards me…so fast! Oh no, it’s the next door neighbour’s pug, Puggy.

Puggy is dashing at me, she kept circling me, and trying to smell my a$$. Then she jumped over me. Piss off you fat dog! You are not smelling my a$$. And don’t “hempap” me with your big heavy body ok?

I’m crouching low, I don’t know where to run. Daddy and mommy are stunned, and then daddy picked me up and rescued me from that rowdy Puggy. Daddy’s my hero!

Today’s such an adventure, I'm so hungry now. I just want to eat.

Woof,

Kiko

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Computer Programmer joke

I got this in my inbox. I thought I was going to read about the story about the princess kissing the frog…or maybe not…

"JOKE OF THE MONTH"- THE COMPUTER PROGRAMMER

A man was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog, and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will tell everyone how smart and brave you are and how you are my hero." The man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and returned it to his pocket. The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will be your loving companion for an entire week." The man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and returned it to his pocket. The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you for a year and do ANYTHING you want." Again the man took the frog out, smiled at it, and put it back into his pocket. Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess, that I'll stay with you for a year and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?" The man said, "Look, I'm a computer programmer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog is cool."

(from www.comedy-zone.net)

I hope you had enjoyed the joke ;-)

Fried chicken with chopped chillies

N was out with Kiko to see the vet for Kiko's third vaccination, while I stayed at home to prepare dinner on Friday's after work evening. I was running out of ideas how to cook chicken. I don't want to eat oyster sauce chicken or steam chicken. And dinner has to be on the table when N and Kiko are back.

Without any plan in mind, I decided to marinade the chicken with some salt, chopped garlic and curry powder first. I let it marinade for about 20 minutes while I prepared other dishes. I thought of cooking curry chicken...but then I don't feel like eating curry. And I remembered buying some fresh chillies. So I chopped them up, and using the blade of the knife, pressed the chopped chillies a little to mash them up a bit.

While doing all these, I still had not much idea how my chicken dish is going to turn out. I went by my instinct. First I fried the marinated chicken into light golden brown. Then I fished them out from the oil and set them aside. Then with the remaining oil in the wok, I threw in the chopped chillies, onions, garlic, put a bit of salt and stir fry them. Then I pour the stir-fried chillies, onions and garlic over the chicken. Voila! There's my self-invented recipe of chicken dish :P

The stir-fried chillies was abit too oily as I should have pour away the extra oil aftr frying the chicken, but I didn't. Anyway, the dish turned out ok. It was not spicy enough as I'd expected. But it was a new taste, and something to add to my DIY recipe book :P

If you want to try it or improvise it, here's the recipe:

Fried marinated chicken
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
300 - 500gms chicken parts
few dashes of salt
approx. 3 tablespoons curry powder

1. Mix all and let it marinade for at least 20 mins
2. Heat some oil in wok and fry the chicken.
3. When chicken turn golden brown, fish them out from the oil and set aside to cool.


Stir fry
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 small red onions, chopped
2 chillies, chopped
dash of salt
about 3 teaspoons of leftover oil from frying chicken

1. Use the blade of knive and press the chillies (to mash them up abit to form chilli paste)
2. Heat oil in wok and put in garlic and chillies for stir fry.
3. After 1-2 minutes of "tumis", pour in the fried chicken and stir-fry to mix the ingredients.
4. Stir-fry for another 2 minutes.
5. Ready to be served.

Dancing bamboos, crazy shopping and a punctured tyre

My garden weeds are growing like nobody's business, and besides the little purple and white flower plants I bought last month, my garden looks kinda bare. My bum was itching to visit the plant nursery, so I bugged N to bring me there.

I like those bamboo trees that sway in the wind, it has so "zen-feel" in it, and looks like it's the in-thing nowadays. So we got two matured bamboo trees, which cost me RM110 each. I guess it was worth it, since the trees were already taller than my head, and had 5 to 6 trunks with leafy branches. Then I also got some other smaller flower plants. The plus point was the nursery worker was going to deliver the plants we bought and "cangkul" the hard soil and plant the bamboo trees for me!

After spending RM250 in that nursery, it was finally raining after a long stretch of dry humid days. It was pouring hard, and our tummy very growling loud. We head to Jusco for lunch and shopping. Shopped we did, membeli dan membelah our wallets. I got another two pair of shoes, when I just got the first 2 pairs last week! Gosh! But it was on sale, and I thought the shoes were lovely and so comfy!!

Anyway, after belah-ing our wallets, and ready to go home...N discovered one of the rear tyres was punctured. Right in the parking lot! Sheesh... So we're not going home yet?? Lucky the rain has stopped by then. N got into action replacing the punctured tyre with the spare. Second lucky for us, the tyre shop was just across the road, and it was still opened! Another RM5 spent to fix the punctured tyre and RM 1.80 on a bottle of soya milk later, we were finally home...

* N in action changing tyre (he told me to take these photos ok ? don't think I'm so "sam-pat" to take photos when people are busy changing tyres!)

Everyone got something, including Kiko who was just napping at home. N got Kiko a soft blue pillow, and radio-controlled car. It was love at first sight. I meant the pillow. Kiko just loves scratching the "holes" in the pillow. Somehow, he knew it was meant for him. The car? hmm.. I wouldn't say "love". He was curious yet afraid of it, he tried chasing the car, and barked when the car came at him. Well, that's his new toy for now. Or is it N's new toy? Haii..I don't know..whatever... boys will be boys :P

Fascination of blender and banana honey milkshake

I've bought a bunch of pisang emas a few days ago. When I bought them, they were still greenish yellow in colour. But they turned yellow in just a day. Anyway, that's not my point. My point is yesterday night, I enjoyed my first homemade banana honey milkshake. Not that I never drank banana milkshake before, but having it prepared by N is not an everyday's luxury ok? :P

I finally bought a Philips blender two weekends ago. N's quite fascinated with the idea of blending fruit juices and milkshakes and ice blended drinks and smoothies and....well, you get the idea. Meanwhile, I'm pretty impressed with the chopper function. It shaves off lots of time chopping up the garlics and carrots and any other food you can think off. NOW I know how useful and convenient the chopper can be.

In case you're wondering, I'm not trying endorse any Philips products here, or trying to show off my new blender. I'm just sharing the fascination and joy of buying my first own blender and making yummy drinks out of it. Hmm..chillies, garlics and gingers will be next. Not for drinks laa..for my curry dishes laa... ;-)

Oh, I almost forgot, if you're looking for banana honey milkshake recipe...

Ingredients:

3 or 4 bananas (depending on size and how banana-ish taste you like)

2 tablespoons of honey

1 small box of milk

Steps:

1. Peel and cut bananas into smaller chunks (2-3 cm)

2. Put bananas into blender jug and pour in the milk.

3. Add honey.

4. Blend the mixture for few seconds until it's foamy and all bananas seems to be blended into bits.

5. Put some ice cubes and enjoy your drink.