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…

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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

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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.

Getting better :)

After more than a week of sniffling and coughing, my flu is finally on the upper end of recovery route :) I woke up yesterday morning feeling better already. My nose amazingly didn't "run", and my coughing was lesser.

I think I owe it to the "morning sleep-in till 10am" on the last weekend. Thanks to N who considerately didn't wake me up when he quietly woke up earlier to feed breakfast to Kiko, who waited patiently for me to wake up to have breakfast with me, all the while keeping himself busy surfing Internet and playing Xbox games in the living room (at least that's the sound I heard from underneath the sheets upstairs in my bed :P)

Perhaps I was exhausted for the past few weeks without enough rest, that I didn't realise my body immunity system was under performing.

Anyway, all I wanted to say was, I'm thankful and glad that I'm feeling better already. And thanks to N who was understanding to occassionally excuse me from dinner cooking duties and patient with my sometimes irrational behaviours when I'm feeling sickly :P

Dream a little dream of puppies...

I was checking work emails yesterday afternoon while Kiko was soundly sleeping away in his crate. And then I caught sight of him sleeping with his all four paws facing upwards...like this..


I quickly took my mobile phone and snapped this photo before he was awakened by my gesture. This little fella is getting naughtier with all kinds of antics. He may look as if he's sleeping soundly, happily dreaming his puppy dreams. But at the slightest sound, he will open his eyes wide and look around...then if nothing to be bothered about, he'll curl up again and continue his sleep.

Down with flu

First it started with coughing because of the phlegm in the throat, then I started to sneeze and sniffle. The sniffling got worse and my coughs were continuous, like I was going to cough my lungs out! Finally went to see the doctor who gave me the flu tablets, cough mixture and lozenges to sooth my sorethroat.

Due to the recent A(H1N1) virus outbreak, the doctor took extra precautions when diagnosing my symptoms. He took my blood pressure, measured my body temperature and asked if I'd been travelling overseas.

As I'm writing this, I'm feeling much better already. But I'm staying & working from home today. No need to infect the rest of the office colleagues with my flu bug!