Shopping Therapy

is good for your soul, but not very friendly to you wallet 'x' (totally love the one with the ribbon-shaped buckle)

Bandung + The shopping

I will blog about the food next time.

I bought aa on sales tix to KL last yr. But I am bored of KL already, also hand itchy, bought another return tix to bandung. We went with Selina. It was a very short trip, 3d2n, and was not a smooth sailing one. I think there's only one flight in from KL to bandung and bandung to KL everyday.

millionaire!

Exchange 2 million rupiah. I didn't exchange much since we are not going to spend alot of time there.

Our flight was delayed. And when we arrived, the traffic is very jam! In indon, its called macet. The taxi asked are we going anywhere tomorow, we said yes, we planned to visit tangkuban perahu, eat at Kampung Daun and do more shopping tomorrow. He offered to drive us around for 400k rupiah. I thought the price was reasonable so we ask him to come at 9am next morning.

Arrived hotel near 7pm.Stayed at New Sany Rosa hotel. They don't have a site. I called to make my booking under Oink's name. And I called a few days before the intended date to confirm. And guess what? When I arrived, they said they didn't have a booking under Oink's name, and all rooms are full except for the family suite which is $$. Spend precious shopping time there insisting that I DID make a booking and even showed him my phone log. After a while, the guy relented, and let us have a room that was under booking, but the guest didn't turn up (7++pm already). We left our luggages in the room, get ready in 10 mins and waste no time and walked to the nearest Factory Outlet (Rumah Mode).

I thought they are open till 10pm, but its actually 9pm only. We finished dinner around 8.30pm. So after 30 mins of shopping, they announce that they are closing. :(( I didn't get anything on the first day.

Next day, we finished breakfast 15 mins before 9am. We waited and waited for the taxi driver to turn up. We waited until 9.15am. NO sign of him. I am feeling quite pissed , I decided then and there that indons are not to be trusted. First, missing hotel booking and now this. Luckily i printed a list of other car rentals. Made some call from the room. 500k rupiah, more expensive, but don't care already. When we walked out to the lobby, and guess what, we saw the taxi driver, waiting for us at the opposite side of the road. :-O! Oink said we should ignore him since he is not punctual, and hence should be not trustworthy also.We didn't wait for more than 10 mins for the car rental to come. I tink the taxi driver didn't have a good eye sight, he didn't even know we boarded another car. More reasons not to hire him 'x'

Went to tangkuban perahu. Nice view, cool temperature, but bad smelling(sulphur) air.


After that, we went to pluck strawberries. We did that at cameron. Selina was more excited here. Bought cheap strawberries ( I think around rm3 per packet, even cheaper than cameron) and some other berries (looks like raspberries, not very sure) and it was really cheap. But sad to say, 90% of the berries didn't make it until we reach kuching. I blended the remaining berries into milkshake. 'x' Don't waste food mah.

After that, we went to Kampung Daun (gorgeous place) for lunch, which I will further elaborate in the next post.

After lunch, its SHOPPING TIME at Jalan Riau and Jalan Dago !

Now to show you my shopping stash. TEEEHEEEHEE

Please take note,2 of the dresses are not for me. If you count the pink one as NO. 1, then no. 1, 3 and 4 are mine. I really love the pink one, the brand on the label is Tommy Hilfiger but not sure is it authentic. And I already pass my mum the long cardigan I bought her. The white knitted cotton thingy is actually a looped scarf.

There's more. 'x'

Cute PJ. cannot resist. Fringed top + heart prints on the pants. LOVE!LOVE! LOVE! after convert to RM, its about rm20+. Bought the cap at Unusual Accessories(that's the name).

Erm, I'm not done yet 'x'

I think come to bandung must buy warm clothings for winter/ autumn (for future trips). If not mistaken, both are Zara Basic's. The cream coloured one has 2 layers. You can take off the thick furry part of the inner layer out and just wear the outer layer like a trenchcoat. Super value for money. After convert, I think its RM152. Please take note of the green trenchcoat, got story later.


And this is all of Oink's shopping stash *crickets chirping* and the striped shirt is for his brother. :-s I caught Oink looking really helpless when I ask him to shop at the men's section. I took some time to help him choose, but he is a picky man. He ended up choosing on his own, the black versace shirt. Shorts and striped shirt were chosen by me.

After all those shopping and eating and etc. I am only left with

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'x'!!! Somemore I didn't have enough money to pay for my last day shopping. Oink topped up for me. And I happily announced that I will stop shopping and instead will help Selina choose what to shop. I spoke too soon. We went next door, and I fell for the green trenchcoat. I was scared that Oink will give me "THE LOOK" so I borrowed money from Selina. ROFL! but was caught red handed later when he saw me pay for it at the counter and he gave me -.- look. 'x'

Anyway, we almost miss our KL-Kch flight. At first, we queue at the wrong counter. It was almost our turn at the domestic counter, but some guy annouce for kuching, alor setar, etc need to go etc etc counter. We saw a malay guy, and thought its open, so we quickly place our luggage on the belt, and I put the boarding passed on the counter, to be told that the counter is not open. So we moved to another line. And I think I left our boarding passed there.We wasted so long at the baggage check in counter that when its our turn, the indian guy refuse to check in our baggage, he said counter close already. When he ask for our boarding pass, we cannot find it anywhere! Imagine the panic! We explained and explained, he reprinted our boarding pass and said he cannot guarantee we can still check in our luggage. He was quite rude. We used the emergency baggage drop lane and luckily the guy still let us check in our luggage. Phew. We then SPRINTED to the LAST GATE at LCCT to board our plane home. I was sweating like a pig, and my legs hurt from all the running. But I am glad we still manage to get home. AHHH..HOME SWEET HOME. I hope my next holiday won't have heart attack inducing events!!

P/S : All photos are taken with my new toy, Samsung Galaxy S2 except the photos of shopping, which are taken with my Nikon d40x (+ sb800 nikon flash)

Mango's Language

This is how we communicate with her. Which is a mix of Hokkien , English & baby language.

(1) MAM MAM - which means FOOD. Her most favourite command. Always answer to this command promptly. We sometime use this to con her to come to us if she doesn't respond to command (2) for a few times.

(2) LAI - which means come. This depends on her mood. If she's in a good mood, she will come after calling LAI once. If not, you have to keep calling LAI LAI LAI...., if she still doesn't want to come, pretend to take food (make noise with plastic bag-works like magic) and say MAM MAM.HAHAHA 'x'

(3) SHEE SHEE - Which means go outside to pee (and poo). She obeys this command most of the time. Loves the opportunity to go outside to bark at people while searching for the potential spots to do her bowel business. We sometime use this to con her to do no (4)

(4) POM POM - Bath time. She hates bath time. If you try to con her to go outside with this command, you will see her trying to sneak away by hiding beside the sofa, going under table, trying to run away. So you see, we have to con her with command (3) then once we are outside, fast fast close the door gril. The con doesn't end here. She is not that stupid you see, if you call out POM POM, she will not move an inch, and stay as close as possible to the door, so you have to walk to the water pipe, and use command (2) to con her to come to you. Sometime she is smart, she knows what you are up to, and refuse to budge. So you have to sweet talk to her, and whistle. eg. *whistle*, LAI mango LAI, LAL good girl *whistle*. Usually works. And when she arrives, I will usually go MUAHAHAHA, POM POM! 'x'

(5) KIA- 1 Kia means Let's go(ride in the car)! 2 kia means lets go for a walk nearby. She responds to both eagerly.

(6) ONG ONG - sleep. If she's tired and sleepy, she will willingly walk herself to her bed. If I see that she's already half asleep, I will carry her and put her in her bed. If she's still awake, she will try to sneak away again, refusing to go to sleep.

(7) STAY - she will stay with her body down, all legs on the floor. She will usually do this without your command if she wants the food you are eating 'x'

(8) SIT - when she is still a puppy, she can do the sit pose. But now her SIT is more of a STAY :-s

Some of the communication between us is also visual. Like if I show her her water bowl, she will drink the water. I show her her harness without saying command(5), she will still jump with joy and gets excited. If I pat her bed, she will know I want her to get in.

Ok, I am ending this post with a cute photo of Mango :)

Simple Sunday Dinner

I saw this at kimberlycun's blog. And I knew I have to try to make it.

I like it when she blog about cooking, hers are always comprehensive, complete with loads of photos to guide you.

Here is the before photo (I think I put too much oyster sauce :x)

DONE!!! SMELL DAMN NICE.

I stir fried spinach and boiled chicken and turnip soup to go with the chicken rice. Can you spot Oink's pair of leg? He can't wait to eat. Can you spot Mango the glutton too?

This Chicken Rice is so easy to make. Its doesn't take alot of time and its sooo yummy. Love it! All thanks to Kimberlycun.

Canine Anemia

I never knew a dog can get anemic until it happened to my own pet.

Mango was behaving odd for the last few days. Not much appetite and she seems to be a bit lethargic, she doesn't follow you around that much. Her little energy seem to be only used on barking at neighbours or their dogs.

We brought her to our parents on Sunday night. And at around 7.30pm, my mum called us, sounding panic. Apparently Mango just had somekind of seizure, she hid under the chair, with her head shaking and her eyes are not moving, she was not responsive to my mum's calling. Unfortunately the vet is not open on Sunday night. So I told them to observe her for a while and let's see how it goes from there. I have decided to bring her to see the vet the next day.

So last night, after an early dinner, we brought her to Ting & Lu. The vet didn't even touch her yet, and can already diagnose she is anemic. I asked him how he knows?He said you can tell by looking at the inside of her ears, its not as pink as it should, and true to his words, we notice the colour was paler. He prescribed antibiotics and multi vitamins(liquid) for Mango. If she doesn't get better in 10 days, she will need to go back :(

Anyway, I did some research. And I would like to share some of the info. I got the info from this website.

causes for blood loss:

- parasites such as fleas (its been a long time since we found any fleas on her)
- wounds or traumas (we did notice some blood stain on the floor last weekend and thought she's having her period, which in the end is not)
- toxic or chemical poisoning (this I am not sure, we made sure we don't spray insectide near her/ her stuff, but I remember last week, Oink was on a mission to kill the hordes of ants crawling near the window, I am not sure did she walk near the area after that)


How to detect :

- gums and insides of the eyes are pale/ white
- lethargic and weak
-panting, labored breathing and fast pulse
- if the bleeding is internal, the stool are of darker colour (black)
- if the anemia is serious, may have heart murmur and rapid heartbeat

Our vet has advised us to feed her chicken liver or any tonic that can help promote blood cell production. My dad just sms-ed me to tell he bought some chicken livers. I think I want to go find supplements that has iron in it.

I hope my Mango gets well soon.

Cameron Day 2

On the second day, we did the touristry stuff. Joined a local tour for a day trip. Booked 'em at our hotel.

Our breakfast at the hotel. I really love eating outside, close to nature, in the cool cool weather. No flies, just nice food, nice view and cool air. AHHH.. and of course with good company too.;-)

The tour van came at 9am for us.

Our first destination : The Tea Plantation

The view is breathtaking. When we were there, there's lots of other tourists too. Our guide told us the tea plants are well over 80 yrs old, older than most of us, and demonstrated by lying on the plants and how the plants supported his weight.

Then Oink decided to try for himself.


90+kg man turn turtle 'x'!! He had to take off the bag to get up. 'x'

Next : Mossy Jungle

This is not tarzan, he's our guide. Its really cool here, I like it so much.

So much, that I am going to put my photo here 'x'

Hi! 'x'

Next : Some tower

The guide told us, people here use this tower to gaze at the sunrise. Unfortunately I am not so much of a sunrise person (can't wake up so early), I am more of a sunset person. They look same to me! 'x' I know... I am not a romantic person.

Next, back to Boh Tea Plantation for some tea. :-)

Trying to sip my tea like an english lady with my pinky raised, but I simply can't do it. The cup is too heavy. Or is it the way I hold the cup wrong?

The correct way after I google is:

"Tea cups with a handle are held by placing one’s fingers to the front and back of the handle with one’s pinkie up again allows balance. Pinkie up does mean straight up in the air, but slightly tilted. It is not an affectation, but a graceful way to avoid spills. Never loop your fingers through the handle, nor grasp the vessel bowl with the palm of your hand."

Ok, maybe the cup is both too heavy AND I hold it wrong :-p

Then we went back to Brichang town for lunch break. Oink claimed he had the best mee goreng mamak ever at Brinchang, After lunch, we were brought to the crysanthenum farm, veggie farms, cactus farm and strawberries farms. So the afternoon for us is like an agro tour. :-p

Wall paper worth eh?

We didn't pluck any of the strawberries, we just buy those packed ones. Really cheap. Rm20 for 3 boxes. We had these desserts at one of the strawberry farms. After all these sour strawberries, I think we've developed a new kind of phobia. Fragariaphobia!

Our tour package includes steambot meal for dinner. Did I mention I bought the sweetest corn ever at Cameron? SO SWEET I TELL YOU, I had it cut up and put into the steambot. YUMS. Notice the strawberries? I didn't want to touch it #fragariaphobia

Oink just chew on two of it, as he thinks its a waste of food if we don't eat them.

It was around 8pm when we finished dinner. We were sent back to our hotel. And that's all for the day.

Cameron Day 1

The pudu Bus Station was temporarily restationed at Bukit Jalil while we were at West Msia. Which is a total inconvenience, its alot further, and we needed more time to get there. We took a Unititi bus to go up to Cameron. It took about 5 hours to go up, and the higher we went, the colder we felt. I was excited.

We arrived at Tanah Rata around 4+ pm. Tried walking to our hotel (Bus people say its very near), and got lost, after walking round and round, we finally found our hotel.

Our room, with garden view. I love it. Its spacious, clean, and the air is cool. As soon as I finish taking photos of the room,

Oink attacked the bed. We then watched TV and just laze off on the bed, resting after the 5 hours long bus trip.

6+pm, we left our cozy room to hunt for dinner. We walked up and down the streets at Tanah Rata. Looking into restaurants, kopitiams. I told Oink I didn't want anything spicy after the Satay Celup at Melaka.

We settled for Rosette. Saw a couple of ang mohs inside. Couldn't be that bad.

We ordered these.

And almost immediately we miss Melaka's food. Both of us only liked the Asparagus. 'x'

After dinner, we walked around leisurely, with nothing in mind, just a nice walk. Then head back to the room, to rest and watch more TV. We need a good night rest for our activities the next day.

Cuti-cuti malaysia : Melaka

I cannot deny I was pretty disappointed about not going to Japan. And we don't know what to do with the Kch-KL-Kch tix.

Oink said we can still go and have a cuti-cuti Malaysia. And so we did. Our first destination was Melaka.

We reached KLIA via firefly on the 8th April 11+ am. I thought there's a bus to Melaka from KLIA, bt they moved to LCCT. So we took a bus to LCCT. There, we bought Transnasional bus tickets at Rm21.90 each. The bus will depart at 2.30pm. So we found somewhere to sit while I read my book, and I bought Oink newspapers.

The bus was ride was ok , we arrived around 4 at Melaka Sentral. We didn't leave for our hotel straight away, we wanted to get a ticket back to KL first. It was there we bought Nice Coach ticket at rm22 each.

We then took taxi to our hotel, hotel hallmark at Jalan Kubu, which is quite near to Jonker Street. My first choice was Jonker Boutique Hotel, but it was fully booked. The room was quite cheap, around RM100 with breakfast, although the room is small, it was clean and has LCD TV + DVD player ( I was surprised).

We walked around 5 mins to Jonker Street, and arrived there sweating. I did my research on Melaka's good food by reading KY's blog. He recommended Jonker 88 for the cendol.

I had mango special and Oink had Durian something. There's alot of customers in the shop. I would say that they tasted nice, only a bit too sweet for us.

After that we felt hungry, and wanted to find Hoe Kee Chicken Rice Shop or Chung Wah as recommend by KY speaks. Come to Melaka of course need to eat their Steam Chicken with rice balls right?We found Hoe Kee, but it was closed :-((((. And we couldn't find chung wah :-(((((. At times like this, I wish I have a smart phone to go online and search info with. So, like 2 hungry ghosts we wondered around and walked into the first chicken rice shop we saw. Famosa Chicken Rice Shop and ordered heaps.

And its not yummy :-((((( I would say the best tasting of the whole lot was the roasted pork 'x' Even the normal Chicken Rice at Kuching tasted better. Somemore the staff was a bit rude. We can't finish the all the rice balls.

After the bad dinner, we walked around Jonker Street. The street was filled with stalls selling food, trinklets, hair accessories, toys, clothes, etc. I bought 2 mini egg tarts and we went back to the hotel.

We woke up early the next day and wonder what should we do for the day 'x'. we decided to look at the simple map we took from the airport (if you want to buy a more comprehensive one, you will need to pay rm5..yeah..MALAYSIA BOLEH!!!'x') and just walk to the tourist spots nearby. It was a hot day. And my wedges were killing me. I told oink I MUST buy a flip flop or something that is more comfy.


RM10 purchase that saved my life. I love them so much, I even wore them at KL malls when we were at KL 'x'




We went to Cheng Ho Museum. RM10 per person. Guided tour available in both english and mandarin.



It was there I found out that Laksamana Cheng Ho was a eunuch. 'x'


Famous Red buildings. Alot tourists here. There are stalls selling souvenirs too.

There's alot colourful trishaws here too. Rm40 for an hour. Rm25 for 30 mins. We took the latter just for fun.

Then its time to look for lunch! I wanted to try some baba nyonya food. And we found a shop at Jonker Street that offers Baba Nyonya food.


I ordered Ayam Ponteh out of curiousity. Oink had Pineapple fried rice (What a boring choice 'x', so it I won't post photo of it). And we also ordered shrimp paste brinjal.

And it was delicious. So nice I tell you. Just looking at the photo makes me hungry now. We then walked back to the hotel to rest a while. It was a very hot day.



After that, we walked out and bought tickets for the duck tour. Its a special amphibian vehicle that can be driven on land and also serve as a boat on water. The tour took around one hour. We are brought around the city and a short cruise on the melaka strait.



I never seen people trying to fish like this before.


After the duck tour. We then walked to the nearby Dataran Pahlawan mall for some shopping. The mall is quite big and surprisingly, I bought more stuff here than at KL.

For dinner, we went to Ban Lee Siang Satay Celup at Jalan Ong Kim Wee as recommended by KY Speaks. The place was packed. We were at first in awe on the amount of food all those people can eat. I think a table full of young boys that sat near us ate hundreds of those satay celup. It was then we found out its 60 cents each. WTF so cheap 'x'. Where to find in Kuching??? No wonder those people eat like its free 'x' We left the place contented, full and satisfied. Sorry, there's no photo for the satay celup. We were hungry 'x'.

The next day we woke up a bit later. Laze around, took our sweet time with breakfast. Then we walked again to Jonker Street to buy some souvenirs.

I was really pleased when I see Nice Coach bus arrived at the platform at Melaka Sentral. It was really pretty with purple colour exterior and the seats were all in purple. It was the nicest bus ride I have ever taken. Free drinks were offered. So I enjoyed my book reading while eating chips in the bus. It was really relaxing.

Next post= Cuti- Cuti Malaysia : Cameron Highlands

Betrothal 过大礼/纳彩 (05.11.2007)

I have run out of stuff to blog. And also lazy 'x'

So I will blog about events from the past. Memories that were meant to be blogged, but was too lazy back then.

Today I am going to talk about one of the Chinese wedding tradition.

I copied the title from wiki.

Now, according to wiki :

Betrothal 过大礼/纳彩 Up to a month and at least three days before the wedding day, the groom and a friend or a matchmaker will deliver the betrothal gifts on the auspicious date chosen.

Western and Chinese wedding cakes and peanut candies, together with two bottles of brandy, at least six tins of canned ham and even number of oranges are included in the wedding gift baskets. Two pairs of dragon and phoenix candles 龙凤烛are also included. Also included is gold jewellery from the groom's parents to the bride, such as the Cantonese Dragon and phoenix bangle 龙凤琢 or the teochew's four items of gold四点金.

Mine happened about a month before my actual wedding day (26.11.2007).

Oink came with his brother in law to my house, with 2 beautiful hand-decorated baskets done by my mother in law.



I don't remember much. But from the photo you can there's red wines, canned goods, oranges, packed teas, and gold.



And there's also a big pork leg. According to my MIL, its a Hakka custom. And I'm a Hakka girl.


And of course the "deposit" for me, the mas kahwin. I don't remember why there's 2 different ang pau packets 'x'. But we got the red packets from 688. So we just use it 'x'. Oink's mum must have told him to use those two.

Now, we were suppose to return half of what we received. The wine, the canned goods, the oranges are easy. The money we also returned almost half back. But the pork leg gave us a headache. Its too big, how do we chop it into half? So in the end, my mum just cut out the meat as a gesture.

So, that's it. Hope its useful information for anyone who is getting married 'x'

It is pure coincidence?

or is it FATE?

About a month ago, my mother in law ask us whether we wanted to go NZ or not. We were still deciding, and Oink was about 80% sure to join my MIL, when NZ is hit by earthquake.

Although the places we wanted to go is not including Christchurch, but Wellington was issued a warning on the possibility of another earthquake affecting the area. So we just forget the idea.

Then, we considered Korea/ Japan.

Honestly speaking, Japan attracts me more. The idea of visiting filming sites doesn't really attract me much 'x'

So after paying visits and calling up to the various travel agencies, we decided on, lets call it agency A, a new, small agency, just because the Japan tour package has one extra day in it and its ex Kuching, instead of ex KL. But 1 wk later, they called us, to tell us the tour was cancelled because the rest of the group has changed their tour to go KOREA.

So by then, I was quite annoyed already, and insist on staying with the plan. So I made calls here and there. And decided to join agency B, a big company who has a branch at KL. Their itinerary has one less day, and we need to go KL to meet the rest of the group. So after paying deposit and everything, I came back to book tix to KL. 3 hours ago, i saw 0.01 fares on fireflyz. Just 3 hours later, it goes up to 39.90. GRRR.

After that, for 4 days, we prepared the various docs needed for the visa. Went to renew passport even.

The very day we submitted the docs, is the day, Japan got hit by earthquake, tsunami. And now radiation leakage.

Japan, I have no fate with you..OHH~~

I hope Japan will recover soon. Its sad to see such a beautiful country turn into this.