Thursday, February 24, 2011

Newspaper article

My cakes and I were featured in a local Chinese newspaper, The International Times, earlier this month. It's a lesser-known paper, but still, a whole page was dedicated to me! *shy* hehehe...

It just so happened that a friend's friend works for this paper and proposed to interview me. I of course agreed and this was what came out of the interview. I can't read Chinese, so I have no idea what was written of me, but the pictures are nice!! :)


If you look closely, you'll notice that it's actually a screen shot taken on my iPhone! Well, it was a pdf file, and I had no idea how to post it on my blog! I couldn't re-type it, cause it's in Chinese! I couldn't post a link to it, cause it wasn't available online. So I opened it on my phone and took a screen shot and it became a png file which I could upload here! I have no clue as to how else it could've been done!

So here is a picture of the article.. the best I could do! :)

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Chap Goh Meh 2011


Here's a delayed entry! 

Chap Goh Meh, literally the '15th night', is the last day of the Chinese lunar new year celebrations. It was last week and we marked it with a family dinner as usual. This time we had it at the Chinese restaurant near my shop, Pai Jia Le.

It was packed, as it always is for such occasions and it was a lucky thing that I had pre-ordered the food. SIL in Miri was very clever, she chose to go to a Western restaurant to beat the crowd!


Well, frankly, I'm glad Chinese New Year is over, cause this is how Solomon slept for most of the 15 nights!!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Unbelievable

I have been deeply disturbed since yesterday, after I heard some news which would make those 6pm serial dramas seem as boring as documentaries on astrophysics!

Huh?

Okay, be prepared for a long story... It's rather sensitive material so there will be no names.

So X has a neighbour, this weird guy who lives with this lady (don't think she's the wife) and his son, aged around 10. I call him weird cos he rents a room at a terrace house, but has a truck, a pick-up, a boat, a car or two, parked all over, inside and out. Then he owns a gun and hunts. One night, he even hauled back a huge crocodile and was skinning it on his car porch! Then another time, he shot a big huge bird which X couldn't identify and figured was most probably some endangered species!

More importantly, this man and his 'wife' frequently abused the boy! The woman especially would beat the boy and shout at him abusively and call him names right on the front porch for everyone to see! All the neighbours knew about this and it was a frequent occurrence too! Once, they even saw, I forgot the man or woman, kicking the boy who was doubled up, lying on the floor. X's family tried everything, they befriended the boy, talked to the parents, and even offered to bring them for counselling. Anything before having to resort to the police.

Once, they were causing such a racket on their front porch that X shouted for hubby to go have a look. The man was beating his son with a plastic pipe until it shattered into pieces!

Finally, one of the neighbours reported it to the police, the police said that this was already the second report and they came and took the boy and the lady away. The man wasn't around, and when he found out, the coward stayed away from his house for a couple of days. The lady apparently spent a night in jail and the boy was put at the General Hospital until Social Welfare could make arrangements for him.

X visited him in hospital and he was scared, being suddenly left alone, but was still a very cheerful child! The Social Welfare people interviewed him to find out more. Apparently he used to stay with his Grandma at another town and only recently moved in with his dad and 'step mum'. He insisted that he loved being with his dad despite what he had to endure! It also seemed that he wasn't doing very well in school. He said that he could not concentrate, because he knew that when school was over and when he got home, he would be hit again.

The man had the nerve to plead to X and family to give him another chance and give a good testimonial to the authorities! It didn't happen of course, and after that, the court decided to put the boy in a facility for abused children for a few months. No one was allowed contact with him, so even X didn't know how the boy was doing.

Since then, the boy has come home to his 'parents', and no one knows what lies the parents have told him, cause when X's hubby saw him one day, the boy just stuck his tongue out at him!

Well, at least the boy is not being abused any longer (or so we hope). There's definitely no more public abusing that's for sure.

So anyway, is this the end of the story? Oh no....

Recently, the man left a huge, truck/ trailer parked on the road next to X's house. It basically takes up half of the road and also happened to snag one of the telephone wires, disconnecting the lines in X's house. After a few days, it was apparent that he had no intent to move the truck. X's hubby approached him and requested him to move it but he refused.

After that came some heated exchanges, lawyer letters, and police reports... something to that extent...

So then, X's hubby decided to find out more about this man. What he found was beyond awful.

It would seem, this man and woman were the prime suspects of a murder case which happened 6 years ago. A man who went to his house, to collect payment for furniture after the first cheque bounced, inexplicably disappeared!

I do not know the exact details, as X told me the story in a rush, but it went more or less something like this;

The dumped body was found, with bullets matching this man's gun. (for more accurate info read comments below) Despite this glaringly obvious evidence, the judge found them innocent because, all the evidence was 'circumstantial', as no one witnessed the act!!???

.....

Have you picked your jaw off the table yet?

Unbelievable right? The next time you plan to murder someone, just remember to make sure you don't do it in front of anyone else mmmkay??!!!

 It just so happens that X knows the murder victim's cousin and they informed them that they were appealing to the courts for a retrial or something. If he is found guilty, the penalty will be death by hanging. They told X and family to keep away from this cold-blooded man. I wouldn't need to be told twice!

So, in the mean time, this mad man is allowed to live freely, with this very same gun, among innocent, unknowing families!! This is so atrocious and absurd! I find it so disturbing because in this country which we live in, there seems to be no justice. Murderers can roam free and innocent people can mysteriously 'jump out the window'! How can we live in a country where we cannot feel safe? Where innocent people like you and me could one fine day find themselves in jail or worse, and people who murder your loved ones not only do not have to pay for their sin, but might instead get rewarded!

It is obvious that there is something very wrong with our country. It is undoubtedly a beautiful country with beautiful people, but is unfortunately rotting from the core. I think that when my kids grow up, they should consider living elsewhere. I dread to imagine the fate of my children, or grandchildren or great-grandchildren, for that matter, should they continue to live in this country and there were no changes in the governance.

I read an article once about the mass migration of Malaysians. Karpal Singh was quoted saying, "Malaysia is such a beautiful place. Why should we leave? Stay and fight!" or something to that extent. That is indeed a noble notion, and I applaud those who 'stay and fight'! But in the interest of my family, I think I would tell my kids to, "Go! Go far, far away!"

The further the better...

Car wash

I'm at the car wash now. I usually detest wasting a good whole hour at a car wash, but my car is seriously dirty. So, so dirty. So dirty that it's getting embarrassing! And I usually don't really care when my car is covered with a layer of grey, I figure as long as my kids are clean, it doesn't matter if my car is off colour!! :) So, you can imagine how filthy it has to be before I surrender and go to the car wash!!

Since we live in a condo, it's a bit harder to clean your own car. You have to drive it to the car wash bay, then haul all your buckets and stuff down. Then there's no electrical socket to plug in a vacuum cleaner anyway, so we just bring the cars to the commercial car wash.

As you can see, I am not one of those car fanatics. My requirements for a car is that it is big enough for the 4 monkeys, is not too beat up and basically can get me from A to B! I don't know nuts about cars. I can only tell you  if a car is a sedan, a sports car, a lorry, a van or an SUV, but beyond that, I just differentiate by colour! Don't even bother asking me about brand and model! I don't waste brain space on car details. I do, however, have an impressive knowledge of infant milk formula brands and prices as well as the different 'models' of disposable diapers available in the market! :)

So anyway, I'm here at the car wash, and at least I brought my netbook so it's not a total waste of time. Every time I come here the guy asks me if I need air freshener (hint hint?) and tells me not to let my car get so dusty as it's not good for the kids!! hahahaha...

He's a hard-working, straight-forward boy (a little slow mentally I think. Not joking.) and I like to come here because he is very thorough and gets the car really clean inside and out! But he's not here today. I wonder if he's stopped working and whether the other guys will be as thorough as he was...

Oh well, we'll know soon enough.

Have a great day ahead everyone! :)

Friday, February 18, 2011

Ocean's 11

So I mentioned visiting the casino on our Chinese New Year holiday to Genting Highlands. I learned a lot about this insane world of gambling! It's pretty amazing and also very sad to see all that money being gambled away, and more so when 99.99% of gamblers are our very own Chinese!!

I think gambling is hardwired into the Chinese brain! We all dream of getting rich and while people wish for peace and joy at Christmas, we wish for prosperity at Chinese New Year! :) Go to any casino in the world and I bet you'll see mostly Chinese folk; men and women alike! Funny isn't it? Notice how there are virtually no 'ang moh' tourists at all in Genting Highlands???

So anyway, this is what I found out. The casinos at Genting Highlands are divided like this;

First there is the common area where anyone above 21 yrs of age and not Muslim is allowed in. Here you can get free water and cordial I think, and you can place small bets like RM10 or something...

Then, you have the area for silver card holders. Coffee and tea are free and bets get larger.

Next is the VIP lounge for gold card holders. Here you can have food and non-alcoholic drinks for free, and of course bets get correspondingly larger...

Then you have the Elite Club for platinum card holders. There is first class food available 24 hrs here and also free booze! Hubby brought me here and we had wine and cheese and of course I had to have the Haagen Dazs ice-cream even though I was freezing!! :) How can you pass on Haagen Dazs ice-cream? Moreover this was free Haagen Dazs ice-cream! It was all for free even though we didn't gamble!

The minimum, I repeat, minimum, bet at a table here is RM2000!! I think you could feed a poor family for a few months with that amount!! And that's just one bet which takes only about a minute or two!! The people here reeked of money and I felt so out of place in my Bata sandals and green hoodie jacket (I forgot to pack formal wear)!! :)

That is not all! There is yet another more elite club called the Maxim club. I think there are only over a hundred members in this club and I dare not imagine the amount of money that rolls there!

Anyways, I think that all casinos are dangerous places where money seems to have no value!


Look at that, RM10,000 reduced to a small piece of plastic! While at the casino, we met one of  Hubby's acquaintances who was casually flipping a rectangular piece, and I strained to see what was printed on it, and to my shock it read, "250,000"!! That's a quarter of a million!! *crazy* I think you could build a small school in Africa with that piece of plastic!!

Here we are slogging away 9-5 for chicken feed compared to what these guys are casually gambling away! It's a little mind boggling and depressing, dontcha think?

I have since come to the conclusion that casinos are definitely *evil*!! But they do serve nice ice-cream, I must say... :)

So does money make the world go round??

Well, one thing for sure is it does get you nicer washrooms!!

Here's one of them regular washrooms at Genting, for us regular folk....

 and here's one outside the VIP lounge for VIP butts... :)

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Genting trip 2011


On the second day of Chinese New Year, the whole Ng clan, together with Kung Kung Titus went for a holiday. We spent 2 nights at Genting Highlands, and another at Kuala Lumpur. Well, technically we were in KL, but we stayed at Gardens Residences, and never set foot out of The Gardens or Mid Valley Megamall the whole time we were there!


I don't know where to start, so I guess I'll just let the photos do the talking!

This is Solomon's first time on a plane and he enjoyed it so much, he's been asking to "fy ayopyane high, high" everyday, since we got back.

 Cousin Hughie loves to sit/ lie on public floors! The cutie pie wasted no time getting on the airport floor (outside the toilet!) as soon as we landed! :)

Here we are 'stranded' at luggage collection and guarding the kids as Grandma, Taiku and Daddy went to inform the authorities that someone else took Grandma's luggage! While Grandpa and Uncle Will went to the train station to see if they could catch the culprit!

The authorities managed to call the lady on her handphone, because she left her own luggage on the carousel and it had her tags on it. She was already in a taxi and on her way to LCCT! Silly lady! :)

Waiting for the Genting Highland Resort cars to bring us up the mountain.

Our first meal at Genting, was lunch at a Chinese restaurant, where a plate of simple wantan mee cost RM16!!

This is wantan mee... at least ours came with a bowl of wantan soup!

Anyway, after that, it was off to the arcade to waste hundreds of ringgit on collecting coupon tickets to exchange for slinkies, stickers and cheap stuffed toys!! :)

 I thank God that Sidekick came along! This is the first time we brought her on a holiday, cause it's also the first time we brought all four kids on holiday as well!

 Since Sidekick was around, I got to sneak out when all the kids were asleep! Hubby brought me to the casino, since I never had a chance to go to the special VIP rooms. I'll write more about those in my next post!



So anyway, the next day, we spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon at the outdoor theme park. It was a beautiful day and everyone had lotsa fun.

Solomon had the time of his life, since this was his very first encounter at a theme park!

He wanted to go on this rodeo ride with Claire and Eva. We were hesitant at first, cause I was worried he would cry halfway through the ride! But I figured I could always ask the lady manning the controls to press the stop button if that were the case.

So we let him go and after some initial uncertainty, he was laughing all the way!!


Annie must have found the carousel "lame"... and insisted she and Daddy go on the swinging galleon ride thingy...

That's more like it...

There was plenty to see; lion dances, magic shows and there were these guys with the big heads walking around (see below). The gods of prosperity right?? Chai sen...


Well at least they're cute, unlike those scary men in red make-up lurking about in shopping malls!!

See what I mean??? *gooosebumps*

The kids with their loot; a total of 5 stuffed roosters (meant for pets and not kids, I read the label) from playing those impossible carnival tossing games!

Kung Kung fell asleep on the bench while we waited for Daddy and Annie who were queuing up for the galleon ride.

Tai Ku and Uncle Dylan were a great help with the kids. Thanks you guys!

That night, we had dinner at another Chinese restaurant, and this was the highlight of the meal...

You know what that is???

Deep fried durian!!!

It sounded a bit fishy at first, but if you are a durian lover, you will fall head over heels for this! It is durian flesh and white chocolate ganache (that's chocolate + cream) with a flour coating and deep fried!!

Leaving Genting hotel and heading down to KL...

 We stayed at The Gardens Residences and their two-bedroom apartments are simply gorgeous and so well-equipped!

Here we had dinner at TGIF to celebrate my dad's birthday and also little Hughie's birthday which was coming up soon.

The food was sinfully delicious and Annie who loves western cuisine (the unhealthy American deep fried kind) was bewitched and kept saying she wished we had a TGIF in Kuching!


Everyone also enjoyed the 'presentation' made by the staff for the benefit of the birthday boys! Until now Solomon is singing, "We will, we will, rock you!"

So we stayed a night and all we did was shop and eat!

 Kids' heaven...

 Look what they had for breakfast! Cheezels and chocolate milk!! Hahaha... holiday ma.... Mum not bothered to argue...

Another great thing was that we got to meet my Aunt Jo and Uncle KS. Aunt Jo was my mum's oldest, bestest friend. Sis no.4 and I stayed with them when we were studying in KL. They were so generous to have opened their homes and hearts to us. FIL also knows Uncle KS from their Police Field Force days in Sarawak.

 The icing on top of the cake was the train ride to the airport! Living in the only state in Malaysia which does not have railway tracks, a train ride is indeed a novelty for the kids!! Actually, it would have been cheaper if we took the taxi, but a train ride was way 'funner'!

Though tiring, we all had a grand time. I was rather dreading the holiday, what with the CNY crowd to contend with at Genting Highlands, all the while with 4 kids in tow. But it wasn't all that bad. I guess it's because we had Sidekick and all the grandparents and aunties and uncles around to help out.

Whatever the case, the kids had a blast and they can't wait till the next holiday!


Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Kantoi

I recently learned this new word, "kantoi" from Hubby. Apparently, it is a local Malay slang for "caught red handed".

So, you can use kantoi in cases such as this...



or this...


FYI: that is Daddy's expensive Chinese New Year lime plant...

:)

Friday, February 11, 2011

Chinese New Year happenings

So this time round, we ushered in the year of the rabbit. The celebrations started on the eve of the eve of Chinese New Year, with dinner for the Ng clan at Mandarin restaurant. There were cousins and aunties from Vietnam, Miri, Penang, KL, and great aunt Anna from London. So it was pretty much a complete reunion!


The next day was "Sa Chap Meh", literally translated it means 30th night. It is the eve of Chinese New Year, when families get together for dinner and as always, there will be waaay too much food served!

 The kids eyeing the Coke!

 So first, we had lunch at my dad's. It was much quieter this year, because the "Singaporeans" could not make it back home this time around.

Anyway, as tradition dictates, we would usually light some firecrackers before starting the feast. For your information, fireworks and firecrackers are illegal here, but that doesn't stop the Chinese community from lighting up the Kuching sky at midnight on Sa Chap Meh! *we rock!* :)


After lunch, we exchanged ang pows; red packets containing lucky money. Only married couples are required to give ang pows to children. So this is when having 4 kids comes in handy!! :)



Later that night, the celebrations were at the Ng home. It was the dinner feast with family first, then the other relatives popped by later for second rounds!


After everyone was stuffed to the point of regurgitation, came the pyrotechnics! This is Hubby's department and he usually goes overboard when purchasing his weapons of mass destruction! This year however, he managed to restraint himself and only bought a carton of fireworks and another of firecrackers. He also got some flying lanterns and sparklers for the kids to play with.


Here are some gorgeous photos not taken by me! :)

Next on the agenda, after the kids went to bed, was the gambling!


Just some small time Blackjack... Chinese New Year is not complete without Blackjack!

The fireworks started as soon as the sun went down, and became deafening towards midnight. The noise even woke Annie and Solomon up! So they came down to see the colourful display. At midnight we joined in the fun and lit some crackers. After another 15 minutes of frenetic explosions and choking smoke, the racket started dying down until 12:30pm it stopped cause it started to rain. What excellent timing!

Anyway, after going to bed at 3am, the next day, the first day of Chinese New Year, was filled with visiting relatives' houses.

Then on the second day, we went on our trip to Genting Highlands and KL... and that's another post...


Poor Solomon doesn't appreciate all the loud noise from fireworks and lion dances. For a few nights, he even fell asleep with his fingers plugging his ears!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Puppies


Around a month or two ago, the dog at Kung Kung's house gave birth to 7 puppies. One puppy unfortunately died, so that left 6; three males and three females.

Yesterday, I gave 2 to my staff and Annie chose the fattest, cutest one as her BFF Samantha's birthday gift. I sent it to school that afternoon and all the children were instantly smitten! She was just so adorable, and I wanted to share the cuteness!!  >_<


*geram*

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Airport


So as you know, Daddy travels a lot for work. He mostly goes to Bintulu on weekdays and comes home on weekends. Solomon is so used to seeing Daddy emerging from the airport doors that every time we go to the airport, even if it's to send or pick up someone else, he'll be looking for Daddy. He must think Daddy lives at the airport!


So anyway, the other day, when we were heading to the airport for our trip to KL, Solomon pointed to the airport and said, "Bintulu!"

Upon hearing this, Eva laughed, then she shook her head and smiled at her little brother all-knowingly-like and said, "No lah Solomon, Bintulu is not there."

Then she pointed up and said, "Bintulu is up in the sky."

!!!


(Well, at least she's a step closer to being correct!!) 

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