Kiko, our new Chihuahua puppy

N & I have finally got ourselves a puppy! A long haired chihuahua (吉娃娃), that is. And a cute one too. This little cutie is only two weeks and a half old when these pictures were took at the pet shop in Ikano. We got it for RM1,799, with some discount vouchers thrown in by the shop. We could get anything from the shop on 15% discount for the first purchase.

We had scoured the Internet on puppies & dogs pictures, for adoption or for sale, and had even went to SPCA and the pet shop at MidValley to look around. However, none caught our eye. Though one brown mongrel in SPCA came close. The dog was already an adult, so it was not exactly what we wanted. However it was very friendly. But we wanted something smaller.

We went to Ikano last weekend, and somehow this little cutie caught our eyes. The pet shop assistant did a good job in explaining (or "selling" rather) to us how a chihuahua was going to be a good pet for both of us. In the end, we were both "conned" into buying this cutie to join our family! :P

Since it's a male dog, I decided to name it Kiko. Look at the 3 different colours patches on his body. It just make him looks so adorable. He was shivering a little when I carried him in my arms. When I wanted to return him to the pet shop assistant, little Kiko then tried to glue his head to my chest!

Kiko is coming back home this Friday. We're so looking forward to it! :D

Stir Fried Vegetables with Pasta

I prefer to cook noodles or porridge for weekend lunches at home. So I flipped my recipes book for ideas..."Stir Fried Vegetables with Pasta"...aha..that's something easy and I've most of the ingredients.

1. First, chopped up the vegetables (you can substitute any of the veg e.g. capsicums, beansprouts, courgettes etc. ):
- baby corns cut into 2cm and halved,
- carrots cut into strips
- cabagges cut into thin strips
- some ginger flower ( not sure what you call them in English, looks like ku chai / spring onions with small flower buds)
- ginger cut into strips

2. Then boil the spaghettti for about 13 minutes or until al dente (follow instructions on packaging). You can substitute this with other types of pasta. Drain the water, and immersed in cold water for later use.













3. Now the stir-fry part. Heat up some oil in the wok, stir fry the ginger strips until it turns abit brown.
4. Add in the vegetables. Stir fry until the vegetables are medium cooked.
5. Add in the cooked spaghetti and continue to stir fry.
6. Add 2-3 tablespoons of yellow bean paste (tau cheong) and mix it well with the ingredients in the wok.
7. Continue to stir fry for another few minutes. Then serve it hot.

The recipe above is vegetarian, so I had added fried marinated pork slices. Just add salt, pepper, soy sauce and some cornflour to marinate. Then fry it in hot oil in the work. I did this before I cook stir fry the pasta and vegetables. So I could reuse the remaining oil for stir frying the pasta and vegetables.

Serve the stir fried vegetables with pasta with the pork slices, and sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds on top...tadaa! You have your quickie lunch meal. ( The keropok-like thing you see in the picture below is papadam..nice! )

To wash it down nicely, I also cooked a pot of chinese tea.

Waffle World @ Sunway Pyramid Old Wing

Last Friday I was “discharged” from having to cook dinner :) I think it was also god’s will that there was a blackout when we were just about to leave the house that night. (how to cook in the dark leh…) So we went to Sunway Pyramid.

We had a hard time finding a parking lot, and our stomachs were grumbling, the time was already 8:30pm. And being not familiar with all the eateries in Sunway Pyramid, we spent another 10-15 minutes choosing a place to fill our stomachs..it was then this shop caught my eye. The big waffle sign at Waffle World! Ok, not exactly an appropriate choice for dinner. But hey, they also serve some main courses, and we could have waffles for desserts, right? :P

I had to remind N not to dig in before I get the chance to take photos of the food. We ordered Footlong Experience (the 1-foot long sausage), Spaghetti Vongole (spicy with clams) and the Triple Nutz Waffle. The Footlong experience had a cute presentation resembling a smiley face, I had a small bite of the sausage, but it tasted normal. My spaghetti vongole was a letdown. I had expected a spicier dry chilli taste, but it came in more tomato-ish gravy. The clams were small and not very succulent. (what do you expect from a waffle shop rite?) But the Triple Nutz Waffle….waaa..that looked extremely yummy and you bet it tasted heavenly too! The waffle has chocolatey taste & smell of cocoa, the fillings was fully of nuts. And with the ice cream topping on it..yummy! You have to try it yourself.

Maldives Honeymoon trip - Day 2

We were woken up by the morning prayers from the mosque nearby the hotel. It was not even 7am local time, but the skies were bright already.

We went to the sixth floor for the breakfast. The place was small and no other guests were around yet. We chose a seat with a nice view overlooking the jetty and the sea. We were expecting a buffet breakfast, but were glad when the waiter served us toast, fruit juice, sausages, omelet, grilled mushrooms, fruits and coffee while we enjoyed the nice view and busy taking photos. I must say the breakfast was good.

Around 8:30am, a tour agent met us at the hotel lobby and guided us to the jetty. We took at short ferry ride to the airport island and waited at the airport for the speed boat transfer to the resort. To give you an idea how costly the food/drinks are at the airport, we bought a 500ml bottled mineral water and 300ml bottled Coke, and we were charged USD7.

There were about 7 couples in the speedboat, including ourselves. The ride was about 75 minutes. It was blue colour everywhere you look, the skies, the water… and few specks of white and green in the faraway islands. It gets boring after awhile, and most of us on the speedboat were soon snoozing away.

The room was ready for us when we arrived. We were briefed about the resort amenities, the activities and where to get food. As I had stated that we are honeymooners, our room had some flower decorations and a complimentary fruit basket. The view from the room was wonderful. You could enjoy the breeze look out to the horizon from the balcony . And when you look down, you could see corals & fishes swimming in the shallow clear water.

Initially we wanted to join the shopping trip to a nearby island in the afternoon. But the hot weather and after a long ride to the resort, we decided to have lunch and nap in the comfy room :P When we woke up, it was already late evening, and we managed to get a few glimpses of the sunset view and took some photos with the tripod. It was such a serene view, as you listen to the sound of waves beating the shores.

We decided to try out the Thai restaurant for dinner. The food was quite delicious. We tried something new that we don’t get in the usual Thai restaurants in Malaysia - fried marinated pork slices with bread crumbs (I can’t remember the name). The food preparation was a bit long, but we had too much time on our hands. So we whiled away time snapping photos as the table (again). We spent about USD50 for the meal.

There wasn’t much entertainment at night. We sipped cocktails at the lounge area while listening to live singing. And that was the second day.

** Read about Day 1 adventures **

** Read about Day 3 adventures **

What's Your Dream Job?

I was doing random surfing and clicked on this really good quiz. The analysis actually reflects my personality. You will get to know what you are really good at, and what are your preferences when choosing a job.

Here’s my score. What’s yours?

Score:
Number of A's: 2
Number of B's: 3
Number of C's: 4

Mostly D's: If you answered mostly D's, your ideal career is probably creative. Possible career choices include: writer, photographer, musician, interior decorator, graphic artist, fashion designer. Of course there are many more careers to choose from, but knowing your preferred type can help you narrow down the choices.

Mostly C's: If you answered mostly C's, your ideal career probably involves working with things. Tasks you might do in these careers include setting up, precision working, controlling, driving, operating, tending, feeding or handling. Possible career choices include: chef, repair person, carpenter, collectibles dealer, veterinary assistant and mechanic.

Mostly B's: If you answered mostly B's, your ideal career probably involves working with information. These careers may include tasks such as synthesizing, coordinating, analyzing, compiling, computing, copying or comparing. Possible career choices include: library assistant, editor, web developer, professional organizer, accountant or private investigator.

Mostly A's: If you answered mostly A's, your ideal career probably involves working with people. According to Human Resources Development Canada’s National Occupation Classification, these careers may involve: mentoring, negotiating, instructing, consulting, supervising, persuading, speaking, serving or assisting. Possible career choices include: teacher, human resources, flight attendant, life coach, daycare worker, personal assistant.

My first try at cooking sambal udang petai

I had bought the Maggi sambal pedas paste during one of my groceries shopping trip. And got some petai and limau purut leaves from the pasar borong last week. N had volunteered to "kopek" the petai so I had no excuse to not cook the sambal udang petai dish.

This was my first try at cooking this dish, so both of us were abit excited. You must be thinking that both of us must be crazy to be excited over one dish. But you see, we both love this dish, and petai, alot :P

The cooking turned out to be quite simple in fact. I had followed the cooking instructions on the sambal paste packaging and added my own ingredients, and voila!...you have the sambal dish.

Ingredients I used: de-shelled prawns, petai, ladies fingers, red onions, cut chillies, limau purut leaves, a bowl of asam jawa juice, tomatoes, some sugar and salt to taste, and of course the sambal paste.

First I lightly fry the onions and chillies, then put in the petai and ladies fingers, pour in the asam jawa juice, the sambal paste, tomatoes and the limau purut leaves to boil for like 5-7 minutes. When the fragrant smell of sambal permeates your kitchen, put in the prawns and boil for few minutes more. Then switch of the fire, and serve. Itu macam aje, kan senang? ;-)

Excuse me for the poor photo qualities, taking photos while cooking is not a simple task when you have oily fingers :P

some of the ingredients for "sambal udang petai"	"tumis" the onions and chillies
boiling the gravy	my first sambal udang petai (we had roti canai to dip in the leftover the next morning :P)
some fried taufu with thai chilli sauce	the 3-course dinner (abit too much for 2 persons hor?)

Maldives Honeymoon trip - Day 1

Our honeymoon trip started the day after our wedding banquet. It was a late evening flight to Maldives, lucky it was a direct flight with MAS. I must admit it was a shock to find that there were so many Indians on board with us. Do not get me wrong here, I've nothing against Indians. I'm just not used to boarding flights with so many Indians onboard, and almost all of them are males! I'm guessing they are foreign labours who are just flying back to their hometown, as our flight was a connecting flight to Colombo, after stopping at Male (capital of Maldives).

The flight started off nicely, until there was this white guy sitting beside who took off his shoes, and all of a sudden, a whiff of "ikan masin kering" smell permeated our section of the cabin. We're lucky to get another 2 adjoining seats in other section of the cabin. We guessed the air stewardess knew why we requested to change seats.

The in flight food was a new experience too, as it served either vegetarian or curry chicken meal only. This was probably because a large number of the passengers are Indians and vegetarians. We guess the most surprising part of the meal was having fragrant spices as aftermints! The small packet consists of various spices that looks like cumin seeds or what-ever-spices-that-I-don't-recognise. You chew on them and they emit and leave behind a nice smell (if you ask me, nothing in it that smelled like mint to me).

It was about four hours flight, and we reached there 9:15pm local time. Male is 3 hours behind Malaysian time. We were greeted by a tour agent who escorted us to board the ferry to Male island. Male airport is on another island, which is only 10 minutes ferry ride away from Male island. We checked in to Hotel Relax Inn (RM497++/night for one double bed standard room inclusive of ferry transfer from/to airport) which was less than 5 minutes' walk from the jetty. This was an overnight hotel before the transfer to the resort on the next day.

The hotel staff served us a concoction of pineapple and orange juice as welcome drink. The room was appallingly small! I've booked a double bed, but frankly it looked like a super single bed to me. Lucky both of us could still squeeze in the bed without either of us falling off the bed.

Accomodation booking:

https://www.mal-dives.com/

Flight with MAS:

http://www.malaysiaairlines.com.my/

** Read about Day 2 adventures **

** Read about Day 3 adventures **

ROM on 16.03.08 Putrajaya

Legally married on the 16th of March 2008! We registered at JPN Putrajaya. Arrived there around 9:30am. There were already some couples waiting in line.

The staff were most courteous, we even took a photo with the staff. Eventhough the waiting time was a little long, we did not notice it as we were busy snapping photos. Our turn came around 10:30am.

Bedsetting Ceremony 安床仪式

Bedsetting day was set on March 13th. Bedsetting is a simple ceremony which basically means putting the new bed in the wedding couple's room and laying on new bedsheets.

N's mom was the one who set the bed for us. She put some coins in the angpows (red packets) and put them underneath the two legs of the bedframe (near the headboard). This is supposedly to offer and pray to the "Mother of Bed" (literal translation) 床母, who will guard over the wedding couple and bless them with children. Then both of us helped to put on the new red bedsheets with dragon and phoenix designs (resembling the wedding couple). The double happiness lamps were also put on the bedside table and litted up till the wedding day.

N's two cousin brothers were invited to "jump on the bed" 跳床 after the bedsheets were laid. Only boys are allowed. This is to bless the wedding couple to have sons soon after getting married (早生贵子). After that no one is allowed to enter the bedroom or to touch anything in the room.

red bedsheets, double happiness sticker and lamps litted up	N using angpow to trick little cousin to jump on the bed
N's two cousins	my dressing table

Betrothal Ceremony 过大礼

Betrothal Ceremony （过大礼） was set on March 8th. N's two sisters accompanied him with a car loadful of betrothal gifts visited my house in the morning.

We set up the gifts as offering to the gods, then prayed to the gods as sign of thankfulness and ask for gods' blessing towards our coming wedding. Here are glimpses of the gifts.

2 pairs of old coconuts - signify grandparents & granchildren.	fruits in even number, tea leaves, dried fruits & nuts
offerings to the god	last minute touches to the gift baskets to be returned to the groom's side
praying to the god