Last weekend was my Dad’s 69th birthday. As usual, we will book a place for makan (eat) preferably in a private room so that the kids can run wild without distracting other patronage.This year, we had the dinner in Palace of The Golden Horses.

Every year, the number of family members is increasing tremendously. I’m talking about baby boom! From one grandchild to three, then 5, then 9! Next year, my dad shall have a new addition of family members. That is a big number of 10! And of course Dad will have a big bash when he is 70! Wow! Look at all the numbers here.

My wishes for Dad is 白头偕老 夀比南山
(white head till old aka Longivity) and 身体健康(Good health).

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Of course we camwhore!

We took turn to pose with my parents and Prince insisted that he wanted to be a Superman.

There we go, Superman! *sigh… Then, he wants to be a Spiderman! Aiyah, we quickly shoo him away. Ka-ka-ciau-ciau (disturbing) only.

While at the lobby, we camwhore a bit too. These are my favourite photos.

With Mom and Youngest Sis (psst… still single and available!)

Ever since I started blogging, my parents kinda accept my siaoness in photography. For example:

“Ma, what time are you cooking the fish head curry ah?”

“Soon.”

“Aiyah, wait for me to come first.”

“Why?”

“Want to take photo la.”

“-_-‘

Nowadays, they are more willingly to pose for me.

“Ok, both of you hold hands. Back facing the camera. Head turn back…. Body don’t turn! Only the head!”

Aiyah, like this la…

(psst… my youngest Sis is still single and available)

Of course when I say “like this”, I’m showing my Mom what is captured on the camera’s monitor. Then she will go, “So small. I can’t see la. No spect.” That’s my Mom -_-‘

Not bad hor. Look at the hotel’s corridor and light-up ceiling. Blend well with the lovey-dovey couple. Hmm…. photo a bit bland without decoration.

Let’s see…

Woot!

Recently, I’ve upgraded my Photofiltre version to Studio 9. I’m crazy over the new tools! I love them so much. Of course this one is trial version. Sienz.

What is life like without TeeVee for a week?

Surprisingly, no one put up any grudge except for this poor Mummy who have to deal with more toys lying around the house. Since kids has the bad habit of eating in front of the TeeVee I thought it’s a good opportunity to get them to eat on the dining table. It works for eldest Princess (7 y/o) but not for Prince (5 y/o) who insisted to sit on the floor with his miniature table!

Few days back, Hubby decided to send our Sony to the service centre. He try to hauled the big 29″ ass TeeVee in our Waja but………….. Like I’ve said, it’s a big 29″ ass TeeVee!

Man will always be Man – Instead of putting back the “big ass” on the TeeVee cabinet, Hubby just leave them on the floor.

Kids will always be Kids – What else? 5y/o and 2y/o love to sit on the TeeVee.

Women will always be Women – Expected la. Mummy have to remind them not to play with the TeeVee. The more I reminded them it turns out to be nagging and shouting, “Where is your ear? Can understand or not!” 😳

Finally, after Hubby missed last weekend F1, he decided to set up the projector!

Woot!

Drink coke, Eat popcorn!

This is just a temporary solution. Will definitely move in to LCD TeeVee when we have the budget.

So, who is up for movie marathon? (but have to one, two, som with my kids la. Sien lor)

Lap Cheong aka wax chinese pork sausage.

As I’m still into my health freak week, this is what I did. Instead of deep frying the fishballs, I had them microwave with some lap cheong which was sliced thinly. End of the result, no greasy kitchen and no oily meal plus you get a very flavourful gravy.

The following pictures is quite obscene but I wonder how many of you peel the lap cheong skin before cooking?

Exactly like love rubber >_<

Sibeh obscene can die lidat >_<

Nevertheless, sibeh kau ho chiak!

Firstly, you thought there is limited things around the house that is colourful. As you go about your house doing chores, you tend to find every nooks and corner is filled with colourful things.

• Colourful handmade patch work blankets
• M&M Choco in the fridge
• Candy coated Hershey Kisses
• Tupperware collections
• Legos & toys
• Imitation Croc shoes
• Colourful sprinkles
• Stack of laundries
• Clothes pegs

There’s just so many things to name! Just as I thought I’ve finished compiling colourful things I saw around my house, I saw Princess digging into the cookie jar and was munching away Sugar Topping Biscuits.

Have a colourful weekends ya all and please say hi to your mom for me.

Spiderman 3 – (screening in cinema now)

As well as the challenge that Spiderman faces from the Sandman — he learns of a connection with the murder of his Uncle Ben — a mysterious black substance has turned his Spiderman suit black. It brings forth a darker side of Parker and Spidey that nobody has seen before when he is conveniently infested with an alien parasite. Indeed, the central theme of the film is that even superheroes can have a dark side.

The problem is that even Spiderman’s “evil” side is still hopelessly mild-mannered. We are shown a montage of his sub-Mr Hyde depravities. His hair droops over one eye; he swaggers along the street; he flirts with passers-by; his girl ditches him; and he makes an ass of himself in a nightclub. In short, he behaves like a textbook drunk on any given Saturday night.

A horrifying glimpse into the unspeakable pit of the human soul this is not– source

I would highly recommend this movie. Some claimed that there is not much fighting going on. Halo…. this is not Jet Li kungfu movie, ok. This is Spiderman. The guy that hangs around tall building and goes web swinging.

Pirates of the Caribbean – (Opening nationwide on 25th May)

I did not watch Part 1 or 2 and don’t intend to watch part 3 cos I’m saving up for …..

Fantastic 4 and Harry Potter! – (coming soon in June) I can’t wait 😀

Shrek 3 – (coming soon in June)

Well, not my type of movie. Good thing Hubby volunter to watch it with my 2 eldest. Hopefully the Carnival Sales is still on at that time.

Looks like all the good movie is lining up in June. Gotta mark my calendar and start saving from now on!

Talking about $aving$, our TeeVee finally died on u$ after $erving u$ faithfully for 10 year$ and not forgetting the con$tant abu$ing from the kiddo$ for the la$t 6 year$. Bye bye money and hello new TeeVee. Don’t know $hould be happy or $ad. I’m eyeing on $ony LCD Flat $creen :D. $ay only la. Where to get $o much money.

Once we found out the baby’s gender, immediately Hubby told me he’s going to name her Jia Xin. In Chinese, ‘Xin’ means a role model or someone who is loved by all. If you were to translate both the name to English, it means…. INCREASE SALARY! Next, come to her name to be spelled out. Her middle name took after one of my niece, Kharlene. And I adore my classmate (who is also my best friend back then) named ‘Syn’. To make it a bit special, I combine them and it became Kharsyn.

When my Gynae told us it’s a boy, you can see us beaming in pride, smiling from ear to ear. Again, I leave the decision to Hubby as I’m not good with Mandarin kind of things. He wanted his boy to be a macho man and not the sissy type so he makes sure the name must be like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don’t quite like how it sounded in Mandarin – Jia Zhen. “Zhen” is a POLITICIAN or government (zhen fu). And there I fancifully thought of ‘Carl’ as in Carlsberg (*hic) and again I adore the name Eugene. That is how I get Carlgene.

I went thru lots of stress during my 3rd pregnancy. A very uneventful pregnancy. Let’s not touch on that. And I want her to be a ‘kwai ler’ (HAPPY) child. At that time, the name Charlotte (pronounced as Shar-lert) was frequently mentioned in the papers and internet. That is how I get Kharlette (pronounced as Car-lert). At home, we called her ler-ler as in happy-happy. She is indeed a babbly happy child.

The busybody Eastcoastlife tagged me on this. My turn now to be busybody. I shall tag…

1. Sue Yi’s papa
2. Karen & Cayden’s mama
3. My nephew

I have no idea who to tag as most of you has been tagged! Glad to say, the tag ends here.

To complete the answer to my quiz here – this is ME! I know I looks like a boy 🙁 but when 58% of you guess that is was my Hubby, that makes me wanna cry! Want to know what is the meaning of my name? My last name is “Zhang”. It’s a boy name 😐 . I can’t blame my parents as they are longing for a baby boy and hence, decided to gave me a boy’s name in hope their next child will be a boy just to dissapoint them again and again. During my childhood days, I have some chinese educated friends sarcastically telling me my name is meant for boys. Now I can tell them my name is on par with Zhang Ziyi. *ngek, ngek, ngek

So, does any of my children resemble me when I was a baby, jek?

The first correct answer was given by Lilian. Yes, you are right! Well done, Sweetie 😉 . Thanks for playing the guessing game folks. xoxo

Can you tell who is who?

Answer will be given tomorrow 🙂

It’s Photo Hunter week again. wheeeee…. cooking!  I love cooking!

Lately, I’ve been trying to eat healthy and it’s not easy for Asian as we stir-fry a lot.  So, instead of stir-fried my greens, I blanched them in boiling water for less than a minute to retained the vitamins.  You can opt to use the water for sauces or soup.  That way, you don’t loose anything.

This is organic kai lan with organic apricat mushroom.  So healthy. Can.

 

 

 

 

Used a teaspoon of olive oil to brown your garlic.  Add a cup of water and bring them to a boil before adding oyster sauce and mushroom.  Thicken gravy with a little tapioca starch.  Pour gravy onto your blanched kai lan.

Or you can brown some baby anchovies till crispy. I was told that olive oil is used only for cooking but not for deep frying.  As for me, I used sunflower oil to brown my anchovies and use a kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil.

 

 

Brown some garlic + water + oyster sauce + tapioca starch = gravy.  Pour them over your vege and garnish anchovies on your kai lan.  I find the crunching sound from the anchovies is very therapeutic!

Happy Cooking 🙂

On the way back from Red Rock Canyon, we passed by a deserted cowboy town hence I’ve forgotten the name. Let’s just called it The Cowboy Town. Can? The place is meant to be targetted at tourist hence there’s a small (it looks BIG after conversion!) fee to pay at the entranceVery friendly people here

Talking about lansi fansee, I was tagged by Wuching to name my lansi fansee. Let’s see how the respond going in this post 😉 . Make sure all my lansi fansee comment ah.

When I say there is nothing to do here means there is really hing to do here. All we did is camwhore and lots of camwhoring.

Hmm…. if I’m not mistaken, I took three different poses. I couldn’t find another pose in my memory stick. *sigh… can’t remember if I’ve deleted them.

They have a show shortly after our arrival but it was so boring can die lidat, I walk out of the show. Dunno what shit they are talking about. All I know that it has something to do with American history. What do you think of a show when half of the audience is falling asleep and one of the stage presenter have to hold up a plank reading “applause”, “standing ovation”, “booooo”, “awwww”, “cry”….zzzz….

The only thing that facinate me is the stuffed yak buffalo and bull head. Pardon me if I’m wrong on this. ooOoo and I love their interior. Look at that big and dazzling hanging wheel light. Nice! Can get my carpenter to made one for my dining hall 😉 The pic above the yak buffalo is a chappel. Who’s getting married?

If you read my ‘twisted’ meme, under item no. 4, hubby did mentioned that I criticised his photography skill. Nah, show you this…

Very nice scenery hor. Just take a look at me! He did not tell me I squint my eye! grrr…. That is the problem when you rush thru a photography session. Point, focus and shoot. Then wait 2 second for the preview. My camera has 3″ monitor screen. Lidat also cannot see meh? It is so ridiculous if I were to screen thru each and every picture. Anyway, the battery is running out. I’m trying my best to conserved it. *Grrrrr! Beh kua.

Just incase you lost your reading glasses it says here – Please do not give me so much water. I am a desert plan and don’t NEEd much water. You’re KiLLing ME with your kindness.

If you are in a desert, please drink lots of water. Or else you are going to looks like a raisins.

There is a small pet zoo too. Horses, bulls, mandarin ducks, peacocks and WHITE peacocks!

Quick! Make a wish. I read from forwarded e-mail, if you chance upon a white peacock that is horny aroused showing off it’s erection tail, make a wish and it will come true. And I squat there with my camera, waited and waited and waited. Dem smelly somemore. Now you see why I did not strike lottery. ooOOoo, they have a fig tree. Too bad the blooming season is still early.

Ok. Enough photos of me. Coming to food! We had Vietnamese food for lunch. Too much of American mia burger makes us very uneasy in the tummy. Constipated konon!

As usual portion is very big can feed 2 Malaysian with petite size like us. My all time favourite…

Vietnamese rice spring roll.

I’ll let you guys have the recipe in due course. Hopefully…

… go back to read Day 12 (part 1) in Red Rock Canyon here

… proceed to read Day 13 here

The original meme was given a twist by Mott . Lidat also can ah? *ish. Previously I was washing linen in the public. This time, I’m opening a can of worms listing the ugly side of jessieling and how her hubby is pissed at her. And Mott ah… no need to be shy to comment in blogs la. Ain’t all bloggers love the attention shower by readers?

*ahem. This is the innocent Hijack King cos I don’t hijack anyone. She claimed I have bad attitude. Her’s is even worst.

1. She nags a lot.
2. She has a very bad temper. If you make her angry a bit, she will turn into a big godzilla.
3. She love to spend time in the kitchen thus throwing leaving the kids under my care. I don’t have peaceful time reading my newspapers or have my afternoon nap. And when I take my afternoon nap, she will nag nag nag again. If you don’t believe, please refer to item 1.
4. She’s such a perfectionist especially when come to photography. So fussy can die lidat and always complain that I don’t have enough skill. Cheh, as tho she is full of skills. She will nag nag nag again after downloading the picture to her laptop. If don’t believe, please refer to item 1.
5. She always want to win and if I don’t give way, she will start yelling and stomp off. Sometimes she will leave the house. One thing that I really don’t like is she will slam the door so loud. I mean really L.O.U.D!
6. Sometimes she will call me names. Never show her respect. When I look at her fiercely, she will go, “WHAT?!”
7. I work so hard to earn money for my family and each time I come home late, she will show me sour face and talk rudely to me. Worst thing she will go nag, nag, nag. If don’t believe, please refer to item 1.
8. I hate it when she end a quarrel with “Whatever la” and stomp off.
9. She never pick up after the kids leaving their toys all over the floor. I have to do that even if I comes home so late at night. (And the wife say: Who cares!)
10. She shed hair like a persian cat!

Now you know the ugly side of me, huh.

Next come the tagging…

1. 5xmom (You asked for the tag. Don’t you 😉
2. King’s Wife (The original meme started by her. Now let’s see her twist!)
3. Sasha (First time tagging her.)
4. Zara & Zaria’s Mum
5. Angeleyes