Feast you eyes on Tandoori Chicken!

Made this last sunday for dinner. But I don't have an oven at home, I went home to my parents and used their's instead! I WANT AN OVEN!



In case you are wondering, I didn't make this from scratch. I cheated and bought the instant Tandoori Mix. :-p This is the 2nd time I did this. Once before i got married. And now after married. And I have to say, I think its much better THIS time. I squeezed some limau kasturi juice on it.AND WALAAA! Its finger licking good. Oink started with Fork and Spoon also end up eating with fingers. The meat is so soft and juicy!




And this is the dishes for dinner. I only cooked the Tandoori Chicken and Lady's Finger. The rest (braised egg and tom yam soup) is curi from given by MIL.

SSPCA ( Sarawak Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)


San, Malcom, Jackie, Jee, Oink and I went on Sunday (27th July).We were welcomed by Mr. & Mrs. Lim.

San came whispered to me, saying, "EH, cannot take photo."



Mr Lim then explained why they put up notices saying no photos allowed. He told us, there's an incident where a robber came chasing after them, even into the premise, wanting to rob them! And there are also cases where reporters came in, and took photos, and writing articles saying they didn't treat the animals well enough.

Well, I am a good mannered person. So of course I asked Mr Lim before I took any photos of the animal.





I saw puppies, dogs, cats, kitties..lots of them. But a few caught my attention.


I notice this tabby cat, and approached it, but when I got nearer, it started to hiss at me, LOUDLY!

I asked Mrs Lim about it. She said it was abused before. Poor cat!

And this one, looked at me curiously, didn't purr/ meow/ hiss.



And it looked at us, with its one eye. The other eye, was gouged out by it's abuser.



poor cat..it was quiet, looking at us.



Yes, there's a maternity unit at the center. Which I think is very good, its protects the expecting animals/ litters/ puppies from threats/ harm from the others.

I was told by Mr. Lim, the animals are fed with chicken heads and rice. Chicken head! Can you imagine yourself eating chicken head?? They say its the cheapest and what they could afford, as there are soo many animals in the center.

Some people even made holes on the fence/ gate, and then push in unwanted litter/ puppies into the premise.

Mrs Lim also relate to me a story. Its sad to say that it involves chinese. There's these few chinese, they came in, looking at the puppies, and set eyes on the black one. They thought Mrs Lim don't understand their dialect. HA! but they were wrong! And as it turned out, Mrs Lim heard they are planning to eat the black puppy! She said some even came asking for the black puppies' blood! EWWW..that's why she is reluctant to give away the black puppies for adoption.

There's a section of the premise for dogs caught by the councils. I was not allowed to take any photo of it. So I am just going to tell you the story here. If they are sick/ nobody came to claim them, they will be put to sleep within 48 hours! So pitiful ler..as they are afraid that the sick ones will infect the other animals. They had no choice.

:-(



Oink with Mr and Mrs Lim. Oink is our representative. :-p

We manage to collect RM350. Not bad eh?

San and me, has previously spent about RM160 of it on 50kgs of rice and 9 pieces of towels.

We also sorted some newspapers at San's house. Mr Lim told us that they used 5-8kgs of newspapers each day. So guys, if you have any unwanted newspapers at home, instead of selling them for a dollar or less, why not bring it over to SSPCA?

Then the rest we bought 15kgs of dry cat food, 10kgs of dry dog food, a big bottle of dog shampoo at Amazing Pets. Jaqq later topped up rm20 more and Audrey topped up the remaining outstanding balance from the bill. So in total, we actually collected about RM389..not bad eh?

Jaqq's friends also donated some canned food, shampoo and dry food.

Jaqq also manage to get these boxes for the animals.

Mr Lim told me, if people donate cash. They do give out receipt. *hint* can get some tax exemption!


Anyway, here's a story about a cat. It touched me, so I am sharing with you all. And I hope it touches you too.



Animals have life too. They also want love and care.

This post will make you hungry

yup, i think the highlight of my Brunei trip..

Is to eat.

Not at any places. Don't ever try eating Laksa here. Don't say I didn't warn you.

First, eat at here!


















Empire hotel (SIX STARS******)@ Bandar Seri Begawan Kuching also don't have 6 stars hotel.

























We had the lunch buffet..and boy the buffet spread was magnificent!

























ala Japanese

























Salad bar, and they had raspberry dressing instead of the usual mayo & thousand island!
























beef, yummmm...

















PASTA! any ingredients, and sauce, and i picked cream sauce..yummy!



























desserts...oohh la la..got gold on the frosting somemore!memang 6 stars quality!




















seafood corner..there's actually fresh oysters serving nearby. Oink's favourite. He ate 8 of them. I don't know why my photo is not here. hmmm...but now its late and I am sleepy..I will upload the photo if I remember..:-p

These are some of the photos I took, until I cannot bear the hunger..AHAHAHA.. Almost drooled!

There's another place where you should try.


















Excapade. The one we went is at Kuala Belait, but I heard Bandar also got.



























These are some photos of the many japanese food we had. The maki oh so nice lo. Its so big, I squeeze the whole maki into my mouth during my first attempt. Bad move, I can't even chew. 'x' So the next maki, I took delicate bites, like a lady should.'x'

Got anything to shop at Brunei?

Drop the idea if you ever plan to go for a shopping spree in Brunei.There-is-not-much-to-buy. Don't say I don't warn ya. Good also la, in a way, i save $ also.


But I did manage to get a pair of shoe, they are having sales at Charles & Keith. I tried these on, and instantly fell in love with it.


Cantiknya~


We exchanged only 100 Brunei $. And most of them, we spent on these...*drool*

























Even though, there's nothing much to buy. But I have to admit, Brunei has really nice variety of cocoa ohmygoodness. YES! CHOCOLATES! mi armor!

Erm, the bottle of liquor and wine, we bought them at Miri's duty free though.HEHE. I prefer a bit of sweetness in my alcohol.

Next up is what best to do in Brunei!Stay tuned!

BRUNEI!

Hello everyone!

I am going to Brunei tonight.

Will be back on Tuesday.

See ya all.

Meanwhile, I have several new posts over the week. You can read them up. EHEHEH.

HELP THE ANIMALS!

Last night, I terkenang my cat...it made me so sad

He died on 22 feb 1998..my mimic..I didn't even have a photo of him..but his face is imprinted in my mind, he lives in my memory..

And I remembered that I once told myself, I should help the needy animals one day. And that one day never happens...there's always something on, things to do..bla bla bla

So last night, I went to check out SSPCA website.

I saw the cruelty cases, it wrenched my heart..

So I told Oink, I want to help! I must help this time!

So today, i started my mission, by emailing 2 animal lovers that I know and messaging up a few frens.

And surprise surprise..what started small, began to grow!

San & Diana - Diana replied she will chip in..San also, she will also accompany me to shop, and she suggest we start a blog on animals..on how to help them. What a great idea! San also help me asked a few others ..and manage to get Pauline, Pauline wants to donate dog food and she is going to buy them late during lunch!

Jackie responded to my message, and manage to ask a few of our colleagues, and she manage to collect RM55 from her side..and she also manage to get a discount card from a friend of her's, Audrey, we can buy supplies at 5% discount at Animal Kingdom!

OH! I am so touched and happy! Overwhelmed is what I can say. Feel like crying! So many good people out there...I am so happy!! to think that my email started around 8++ this morning, and by 12pm the kind act has spread to so many people!!Thank god!! God bless all these people..really feel like crying now.

I will go shopping with San next Saturday on items that cannot be found in pet shop, such as towels and rice. San and I will also be collecting newspapers and boxes from people who are willing to contribute.

And on next Saturday, I will go shop with Jackie and Audrey in Animal Kingdom!

If you are interested in contributing, pls contact me. The amount doesn't matter. We accept any amount/ stuff (refer here for the wish list).

We will send over the donations on 27^th July 2008, Sunday to SSPCA. Time till be confirmed later. Tentative time will be around 10.30 am. We welcome anybody to join us that day! They are open for visits from 10.30 to 3.30pm on Sundays.

Pls help the animals!

Love it, Love it not?

Remember Mango's pet bed?


She likes to chew & nibble at that particular place...when she feels like it, she will flung the whole bed with her whole might..



























When she's lazy & a bit sleepy, she will chew like this..looks very enjoy while doing so...tsk tsk tsk..









When she's sleepy and wants some sleep..she will climb in and snuggle up.Make herself comfortable.













Tsk tsk tsk..banyaknya pattern..







I just have to put up this photo..she's so cute. She just had her bath in this photo.

Guilin - Yangshuo : A Haven of Peach Blossom

This is the nearest name I can find to describe this place.

If you can understand mandarin..read this...
























Hope you get the idea. Like the name..the place is beautiful



see...

and more..



And you thought u've seen alot mountains here over at borneo..look at the amount of hills they've got there..I lost my count..

*.*




We were told that there are several chinese ethnic still living here. And indeed I see houses, and even tombs as we cruise along the lake/ river (hee..not sure what it is).



We soon pass a narrow path.

And behold..another beautiful scene when we came out.




After a while, we alighted from the boat, and started doing some walking.

















People playing cultural music.

* continued walking *

* continued looking *

* took photos *




We hear a song! If you know Liu San Jie, its her song..someone singing her song..




hmmmm..what is Oink doing there?@@


come.. I give u some hint..

Ok, its like this..its a old tradition where a girl will throw one of these "ball" at the people waiting down..actually meant for men only la..so whoever that manage to grab the ball, gets to marry the girl.



-.-" Oink showing off his "ball", NO! NOT THE BALL...the flower ball duh..

but he later told me " too bad the girl not pretty"

*faint*



I like this place..its so pretty, so serene..

Guilin

I notice that Airasia soon will fly KL- Guilin.

Since I don't really notice alot blog entries on Guilin, I shall blog about it now.
Hee

This year March, Oink and I went flew from Kuching to Jhr, then Jhr we flew to Macau, we then took bus to Guangzhou, spent 2D1N there, then we flew to Guilin (didn't want to take bus cos its takes whole night!) and spent 4D3N there, then we flew to Shenzhen, then spent 3D2N at Shenzhen, then we cross over to Hong Kong, and spent 5D4N there, then we went to Macau and spend 3D2N there. *breathe in hard*

We explored the other areas by ourself, but when at Guilin, we acquired Tour Service.

Thinking it might be a kampung kampung place, transportation very hard to find one.

Our flight to Guilin was really early, 7 ++ am I tink?so we woke up at 5am! So sleepy! Took a taxi to Baiyun Airport. The airport quite big! got buggy one..to send you to the departure entrance...for a FEE...

oh ya..one thing I discover about China is, even u paid the entrance fee, some services inside may require you to pay again!Still Hong Kong better! Everything included in the ticket.

Once landed, we were brought over to a nice cafe for lunch. Imagine, 4 person (us + the driver & guide), needs over RM100 for lunch!wat a rip off!

I saw these outside the restaurant. No...these are not pets! They are meant to be served on your dinner table! And they kill them just by the street! Its true, while i was passing by, a waitress was banging a cleaver on a fish's head...URGGGHHH, I quickly turned my head away and walk away fast fast..

Then, we were brought to our hotel. Its a hotel by the river. In mandarin its called "An Hua Jiu Dian", when i search the net for the review, its called "Anwar Hotel"...ROFL!!

Remember me saying I thought it will be kampung kampung? I am sooo wrong!taxisssss are everywhere! Obviously we don't look like locals lo, cos the taxi drivers keep hon-ing us.

We were curious and start exploring the shops nearby, and we notice there's a lot of ppl at a certain shop. Its a shop selling "pao" (chinese bun). So we went over immediately to check it out.

This cute baby looked so curiously at me, so I took his photo while his/ her mama queue up for the bun, while I'm waiting for my Oink also.



Yummy! Fresh from the steamer...so soft n fragrant...and its cheap!

We went to a cruise at the famous Li River. It was raining the night before. So the water is murky.



And its very windy...and c-c-cc-coldddddd!



Guilin is famous for the 2 rivers and 4 lakes. I forgot what they are called.. only remembered Li River 'x'

So the next morning, we went to this park, at the lake.

I think this is a common scene in China, veterans doing folk dances, tai chi..etc.. I even saw a crowd singing at the park 'x'



And this is how the water in Guilin looks like...



so beautiful...emerald- coloured waters..

As we walk along, we saw these 2 pagodas, one is named silver pagoda, the other gold.

to be continued...next up Guilin-Yangshuo

One way to save $$$

With the recent petrol price hike, even if some food stall owner don't increase the prices, they found other ways to lessen their operating cost. eg. use lousier quality rice, lousier food material, less quantity, etc

Usually I go out also don't know want to eat what.

Even the fast food stall i usually frequent, cost me more now. I usually take 2 vege type dishes and 1 meat, which cost me RM3-3.50. Now its RM4. Not planning to go back anymore cos I think the rice they use is the lousy type. The tauke even smiled cheekily and said the rice price have increased. But I notice they are still using the same lousy rice ler..CIS

So I have decided to bring home cooked lunch every Monday. Since I got time to cook on Sunday night, its easy to put them in the fridge, and heat them next day in office with microwave for lunch.

And I always enjoy cooking. Try different things. But I only let Oink be my lab rat, to test my experimental cookings..muahaha..

Today is not the first time I brought home cooked lunch.

For less than RM10, I can buy good quality materials for lunch, enough to feed 2 people. Even for RM10, I can buy beef and such for lunch. Where else can you eat lunch for 2 person and have beef?And within RM10 somemore.

I sometimes find Oink very "hang fuk" to have a wife like me 'x' (oops, puji sendiri..muahaha)

I try to cook 3 dishes every time, comprising of 2 vegetable dishes and one meat. Balanced diet ma..and to have more variety..

Lets see what we are having today...




Come closer..




This is what's in my bento. Chicken, brinjal stir fried with very nice belacan, and oyster mushroom with carrot.

Not only its more economical to bring home cooked food, but can have better food at a much better value also..

YUM YUM! I've just heat my food and want to eat now...HUNGRYYYY!!

BON APETITE!

update: My chicken tasted fabulous. This is the first time i cooked my chicken this way, I marinated them first then cook them in "grilling" style, although I don't own any grilling stove. I hope you know what I mean. My other dishes are not less yummy. Oh so satisfied now! *rubs tummy* I feel great! Now to think back, I think my cooking are less oily. No rice gets wasted as well, if i eat outside, I always can't finish my rice :-p. With home cooked meals, i can bring the exact amount of rice that I want. No food goes wasted.

You got to feel it for yourself!

There's only one and only one mission when we decide to go Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. That is to challenge ourselves, to try Mt. Kinabalu.

We bought our tickets last September. We didn't start training until its near to our climbing date. :-p

When we saw the mountain from our van, i don't know about the rest, but I was a bit scared when i see the real thing. Its so so so so tall.

We spent the night at Pine Resort before starting the climb next morning. It was very cold at the resort.

We started from the Timpohon gate. It was very misty and a bit windy. A bit chilly.

This is one of the better trails..there are worse than this.



As we got up, its getting colder and by afternoon, it rains! We keep moving to keep warm.


















I was getting really wet...SIGH..


















This is Aileen, looks like ninja right? But she is the toughest of us all, she carried 10kg on her back.






While me & Oink hired a porter to carry our 9kg load. I was only carrying 3kg on my back.WAHHAHA..

After braving heavy rain & strong winds, finally we made it !!!


to Laban Rata!...not the summit yet, need to spend a night, rest, eat first ma, before waking up the next morning at 2am to resume our adventure.

It was very very cold, I cannot even describe how cold is it. Even if the food was hot, less than 3 mins later, its cold, like eating food from fridge! And worse is that the heater only starts at 8pm! SO SO COLD. Feel oh so miserable.

Woke up at 2am to get ready.

Brought this heat pad my MIL bought from Japan. I need warmth!warmth!warmth!



Look at how cold it is at Laban Rata!

Actually its gets wayyyy colder as we go up.

There's typhoon somewhere at Philipines, according to our guide. So we are climbing up in bad weather.








My gloves are wet and my hands were freezing...:(

There are droplets of water on my eye lashes...:(

my face feels numb...:(

my 2 layers of pants also soaked wet till my underpants..:(

no sunrise to see, its was dark, windy, and cold.. :(

When i was climbing down, i sprained my left knee..it hurts like hell everytime i am bending it..so walking down from Laban Rata for 6km is like a nightmare for me. The last 2km, I even felt like crying. But i keep walking, slowly but at least I am moving on. Luckily Oink was very patient with me, although I was very grumpy from the pain.



Look at the fastest record, i don't even know how there people do it. Even the veterans did better than me..*run & hide in a corner*


Oink with his cert, I got one too :)

For many many years to come...I think I won't try such as extreme activity anymore. 'x'

I shall relax, enjoy, eat till fat fat 'x'

Even if I go KK next time, I shall go to their gorgeous beaches/ islands instead.



























Or come for their delicious DOTTS egg tart..YUMM




































Best eaten fresh from the oven!