Toys These Days

This is probably the coolest books for dino-lovers, who are old enough to understand biology too. I grabbed this last baby on the shelf for my 7 yld old cousin who just started school, but it'll require his dad to read and explain to him though. An educational toy that also bonds parents and child! What more could you ask for...


I'm tellin ya, this book is totally biology-geek awesome. My eyes twinkled when I flipped through the pages that were actually layers of the T-Rex's anatomy all in a 3D space. Each page reveals a system (ie skeletal, cardiovascular, reproduction etc) with the corresponding organ displayed. Cool right...


His tubs of dinosaur toys cannot beat this one for sure... or am I speaking in a biology geek's point of view. Hee hee.

The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Rules The World

This may be an underrated notion. But I see it coming. Look at Hilary Clinton, she is running for the U.S presidency.
Women are realizing that they.. ahem... WE can really make this world a better place!

Unfortunately, we still live in a patriarchal world. I think civilization is evolving, always has been, but lately, I feel a storm brewing. The Stepford wives are going to wake up and clean up the morality mess!

In the context of events that has been occuring in Malaysia, or at least from what I've read in The Star papers and from 'coffee shop talks', I think the governmental and political parties lack women as part of their workforce. Women with power to do the right thing. Women with knack for details and good foresight. Women who are nurturing in nature. Women who wants a job done efficiently for the good of mankind, instead of money, status and lust. Women who are less corrupted.

I don't know but this could be just the first step to a revolution.
"...women were being appointed Village Development and Security Committees (JKKK) heads, not because there were no male candidates, but because they kept ignoring the responsibility until the post was at last handed to a woman." This is real you know... there!Lazy 'family men' a cause for concern

In the meantime, I will try my best to raise a good leader and an impeccable man. I think that's where it should all start. From the warmth and secured corners of our homes. Hmm.. maybe that's what the empowered women are doing, ie raising good children, while the men play golf and try to mess up the country. Ooops..

*aruri falls from being pelted with rotten nangka*

How To Accidently Cook a Gai Tzao (Wine Chicken)

Accidents make wonders sometimes. Look at this one.

That's not the point actually. I was preparing dinner last night, and one of my dishes was this simmered chicken in soya sauce and a bit of wine and whatever-I-can-rummage-out-of-my-super-ingredient-drawer. This recipe is courtesy of a colleague's cookingexpertmom which I modified. Now, this bottle of lovely wine, was personall made by my late mother-in-law, oh bless her, for my confinement two years ago. I think it's rice wine, and some aunts also made grape wine, right at their own kitchens! The only wine I know how to (accidently) make was forgetting to wash my rice cooker pot for 2 weeks... garnished with funguspores.

Here's how to repeat my disaster that turned out to be quite palatable:

1. Marinate chicken pieces ( I used chicken wings ) in a pinch of salt and sugar, sesame oil, soya sauce and a bit of wine in a mixing bowl, for 20 minutes if you're rushing, one whole day if you're not.

2. Crush some ginger with a pestle if you have one, or a chopper, like how Mr. YanCanCook does. With one super stroke.

3. Heat a pot, add cooking oil. Fry the ginger, then add the chicken, and continue frying for 5-10 minutes.

4. Add a bit of water, keh chi (those little almond-shaped reddish orange coloured seeds called wolfberries) and wine.

This is the part where you pretend you're going to add a bit of wine, but accidently pour out more than you want. That is how you practise agaration (agak agak la!) How? You hold the bottle of wine above the pot, tilt your wrist to pour, then as if you have wrist spasm, you jerkily twist your wrist summore. THAT is how you achieve wonders.

You may keep bottle of wine next to you while cooking, to sip if you like.

5. Simmer for another half an hour if you have time. Add more salt or wine if desired.
6. Serve with pride.

Disclaimer: Not reproducible. This is only a guideline. Keep alcohol away from children.

p/s I will take picture next time.

Namasite

I'm reading a science paper, and all of a sudden, I lose myself. I look up and I forget who I am, where I am and what I am doing here. I let go of who I love most, who I hate, what I love most, what I hate and I feel, for a brief moment, nothing. I feel nothing. Just plain nothing. How fascinating is that. It could be what they say an enlightenment.

Like when you're in a yoga pose, maybe in a rather challenging pose that you've been practising for some time, and out of nowhere, this sensation of being at ease in that pose is attained. No strain, no pain. Just at ease.

How priceless is a moment of stillness, in this life race. I had no past to haunt me, and I had no future to worry about. No opinions, no judgements, no worries.

Then I felt this urge to blog. Pooof goes my enlightened moment.

Oh, where was I on the science paper... ah yes... Introduction.

Weekend in Penang

My family and I flew to Penang to attend my cousin's wedding. Daniel flew for the first time! My first time flying too.... on AirAsia that is. Not bad I'd say! Smooth take-off and landings, nothing too dramatic for the little one to handle. And since he figured out all seatbelts work the same way more or less, he fastened his own without any introductory lessons.


The afternoon was spent eating char kuey teow, oyster omelette, penang asam laksa ( damn shiok!) and lot of lap chap side dishes... if only the hotel served those during the wedding dinner! It was so unfair at the thought that I was having typical 10 course boring dinner when I'd rather be eating those hawker food outside, and sweating and getting dirty with my hands!

Once you have a kid, every outfit you wear to weddings no matter how elegant it is, will be (un)matched with a huge toty sports/baby bag. No more glam matching clutch purses. Well, the Marry Poppins bag may be out of place, but it has everything you'll ever need to survive for 10 years in a bombshelter.


Social butterfly at work:

The Delectable Apple's iPhone

I wanted to post this yesterday when I heard the news. THE news of the millenium. THE mother of all mobilephones was born.

I knew it was going to happen someday, despite a very persistant and confident 'NO' from another die-die Mac user.

One thing Apple is very good at, and that's making us Asians hot and bothered. Aku panas! When something so irresistable like this is launched, it will only crawl to Asia's hot-sweating-hungryforthenewiphone-shore in 2008. Never mind, better still. Alpha generation.

Gawd, it looks so good, can you hear my panties drop?!! Go check it out at apple.com

Water Baby

Babies and water are like peas and carrots, burger and fries, laksa and seehum. Ecstatically inseparable. Not surprising, since they spent 9 months in it.



That's the great thing about living in undesirable hot and humid tropical weather, you get to dip in the pool anytime you want!

What I heard on the radio today:
This navy leader from Singapore was among the chosen ones to participate in a sail on a replica of the ship seen in the movie The Master and Commander (the one starring Russell Crowe, and a cute little boy had to amputate his arm, remember?). He shared one of his most memorable moments.
" There was this night when the storm was very heavy, and the crew had to climb the rig to pull the sail down due to the strong winds. One crew member puked at another member's face. But the crew is very understanding, even when you puke at each other's face, they don't complain"

So it's ok to puke at each other's face when the weather is bad.

Sharon Tan's Wedding & My First Day Perm

Our flawless-complexion Convent classmate Sharon Tan finally tied the knot with long-time beau Ping Long, Tingkatan Enam STPM schoomate. There were people I have not seen for 12 years! The last time I saw some of the Convent girls, we were all wearing pinafores. But the familiar faces brought back the good 'ol nostaligic days again.

I wished I had taken more pictures if Daniel hadn't hogged my camera, especially of my Sixth Form classmates.

From left: Me and Daniel, Sharon the bride, Chui Ling, Siew Lee and her son.




From left: Me&Daniel, Su San, Sharon, Chui Ling (sitting), Queenie, Anna and Ai Ping.


Couple of the hour.


Now, what you didn't know was... I permed my hair that very day. And I'm talking about big glam curls. It's just ingeniusly hidden as a pony-tail.
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Sure, I'll show you. Me.Poodle.You.Laugh.


Do I or do I not look like a Korean housewife. Now I understand, boredom breeds disaster. In the meantime, these tight curls are going to loosen up and become softer and look more natural ( by Chinese New Year, according to my friendly neighbourhood hairdresser) which by then might make me look like a Korean mistress! We'll see...

Blog-Deprived

I gave up blogging since last Tuesday. Super-slow connection I think is equivalent to no connection at all! I can't help wondering if the end of the world is indeed looming near. Natural disasters are increasingly fiercer and weather is becoming strange sometimes. Who would imagine a small town like Kota Tinggi flooded like this.


Poor mom, lamenting that natural disasters have been occuring during her birthdays, tsunami being the worst. But that didn't stop me from whisking her off to the new largest mall in Singapore called VivoCity.


It was huge alright. For the first time in many many years, I shopped ( and window-shopped ) for 10 hours non-stop!! Amazingly, I wasn't tired! Well, not that amazing really, because the little monkey wasn't with me... hee hee. But everytime I see other kids his age, I just miss him so much. My mom is also quite 'geng' hor!

We headed to Food Republic for lunch first before embarking on our fiery shopping spree. Food Republic is the new-ish modern food court concept where all the best food stalls/signature dishes in Singapore are housed together.


I must say that the design was incredible. The entire place was made of old antique-ish furnitures and decors from the past century, and brightened up with modern contemporary Victorian-styled lights and shades. There was even this whole line of old wooden doors! You may still be able to see these kind of doors on old colonial buildings or row of old houses in places like Malacca. How nostalgic!


My mom saw this Thunder Tea rice and told me it's a traditional Hakka dish.

She says "Girl!! You married a Hakka and you don't know ah?!! Get a set and learn how to cook it"

Stunned.

This is how it looks like before you pour the bowl of the Hulk green basil leave sauce into the bowl and mix it real good.

As you can see, it's made of taufu, long beans, some green leafy vege, fried anchovies and peanuts. Looks weird. But surprisingly, it taste good!


Not going to show our shopping bags (mostly hers). Scary.

The wonderful experience ended with a hot spicy dinner at a Thai restaurant. There's my contented mother.