"Hari Kemerdekaan" ke-51

Today is Malaysia's 51st National Day! Happy National Day to all fellow Malaysian bloggers! And yes tommorrow is a holiday, yippi... Crystal and Pearl are all ready for today, they brought back Sabah and Malaysia flags coloured by themselves in the school, and have been shouted "Malaysia", "Merdeka" few days back and today Pearl is singing "Negaraku" which really amazed us though the wordings are here and there but she grabbed hold of the tune perfectly at the age of less than 3.

They brought their flags along with them today. Here they are showing and waving the flags in the car.
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Ballroom Dancing Competition

As my SIL, Kim was unable to attend her daughter's ballroom dancing competition dinner last Saturday, BIL Edward invited us to join SIL Grace and niece Olivia to the event. Kathleen loves ballroom dancing very much and has been practicing for several weeks prior to this competition. She again became a boy partner due to short of boy dancers in the school. Crystal loves dancing too and would like to learn ballet after watching so much of Barbie's VCDs. To give her more choices I brought her along for her to have a feel of what ballroom dancing is about to see whether she has interest in it. Kathleen also took the opportunity to teach her some steps that night. Crystal danced along with the music most of the time with her own ballet style (she just can't help to move her body with the music). After the event, she still insists on learning ballet.

The event

Only got to know my friends, Florence & Lily (they are sisters) are actively involved in ballroom dancing for 3 year now.
Kathleen & Crystal before the event startsKathleen and her dancing partner
competition was on while we were enjoying our dinner
Kathleen and partner on the dance floor
Crystal enjoying her first dish, she was really hungry

one of the dishes regularly served in any sort of dinner, The Yam Ring with vege and cashew nuts

another familiar dish

Red beans with sago was the sweet /dessert served for the night

The New KKIA

Have you been to the new KKIA? Some of you might have dropped by just to have a glance at our newly built airport, I myself have not been there yet but I do have some photos to share with you all taken by Clet. It looks pretty impressive. It has been long overdue for Kota Kinabalu or rather Sabah to have an improved airport considering the increasing number of tourists coming to Sabah each year. Let's have a short tour of our new airport. :D

Eating Yoghurt

I love Yoghurt, not just for its taste but mainly for its many health benefits. I have learnt how to make my own yoghurt lately (with many failed attempts) so that I will have my yoghurt supplies ready in my fridge every day. A few days ago my brother dropped several mangoes at my house just right for me to make some apple & mango yoghurt for desserts. Clet is not so fond of this susu buruk thingy however, he does not mind if it's served with his favourite fruits, mangoes. The girls reject it altogather, they simply dislike its soury taste, got to find a way to let them eat yoghurt, anyone has good yoghurt recipes for kids? Mind sharing with me?

Mangoes & apple yoghurt dessert

Spread the BLOG LOVE

Oh Yes this is my 200th post and am here Spreading my BLOG LOVE. I was tagged by Aunty J on this one.

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(Pls. don’t remove)Credits: Elements/Paper by Dani Mogstad/ Layout by JennyL
Rules:
1. Don’t remove the credits when you post the image

2. Please link back to the person who tagged you and pass this tag to many of your friends

3. If you have more than one blog, please post this to all of your blogs so your other blogs can be listed to the master list too.4. Remember to come back here at A SLICE OF LIFE (pls. don’t change this link and leave the exact post url so I can add you to the master list to help increase our rankings and improve our Technorati Authority.

6. Spread the BLOG LOVE FEVER!!

BLOGGERS
1.Jenny Said So2.Simply Jen3.This and That4.Bargain.Sales.Deals.5.A Slice of Life6.Aussie Talks7. When Mom Talks8. Me and Mine<9. Creative in Me10. For the LOVE of Food11. Little Peanut12. Pea in a Pod13. It’s Where the HEART Is14. Around the World15.SugarMagnolias16.kathycot17. buhay misis 18. when mom speaks19. walk on red20. kathycot cooks21quicker822. Eds Mommy Life23. My Precious Niche24. Just Me.. Eds25. Can of Thoughts26. Designs By Vhiel27. Vhiel's Corner28. Anything and Everything in Between29. Good things in life...30. Precious Moments..31.Your blog is next.

My BLOG LOVE goes to:

1. The Journey Of Hope

2. Beachlover

3. Colyn's Corner

Let's keep spreading the Blog Love folks :)

Cat Show

Have you been to the Cat Show at the Sabah Trade Centre over the weekend? I am not a cat lover but just like to see lovely cats, I am sure most of the children too...

We followed BIL Edward to the trade centre on Saturday afternoon particularly to see the cats show. We met up with Clet at the trade centre where he was also at the properties fair there since morning. The entrance fees to the show was RM5.00 for adult and RM2.00 for children.

Which cat do you like?
Tickets to the show by way of stamping on the hand. Crystal refused to be stamped, we cannot let her be alone outside so I got her hand stamped as well and that made her in tears, really funny little girl. I have to expained to her why a stamp is needed on her hand. When she saw the cats she forgot about the stamping altogether.
Some of the visitors at the show

Evaluation in progress by one of the judges

Another evaluation being done (honestly I do not know what are the criterias they are looking for from a cat to be the champion)
Crystal, Kathleen and Pearl seated at the front witnessing the evaluations on the cats
Look at Pearl, it showed on her face that she was moody probably because she was hungry as she refused to eat her mee soup in the morning

BIL Edward and the kids, Kathleen and Edson

Crystal and Daddy at the foyer before leaving the trade centre for lunch.

I managed to take some photos of the cats with one hand and holding Pearl with the other hand since she insisted to be hold throughout our visit to the cat show.

Tony's 64th birthday

Brother in Law, Tony, celebrated his 64th birthday on 20082008. We had a good dinner and supper there. The birthday cake was superbly delicious. It is always been a great ocassion for family gathering. The kids were having fun with the cards while the adults gathered in front of the TV for the Olympic games.

Happy birthday, Tony
A "Hidden Treasure" birthday cake specially made by SIL, Grace, for her hubby.
Some of the dishes served for the night.

Servay Penampang burned to the ground

The Servay hypermarket penampang where we used to do our groceries shopping was burned down tonight, the 20082008, a day that most people claim to be a good day guess not for servay. The following are some of the snapshot taken by Clet at about 11.15 pm.

What Olympic Sports Are You?

You Are Softball

While you do like competing, you like cooperating even more. You find working with a group to be much more invigorating than going solo. You are a true team player. You like contributing to the win!

What Olympic Sport Are You?

Wedding - Stephen & Pauline

It was our nephew's wedding reception yesterday evening after the bride's last week. We had a buffet style dinner at the Wong Kwok Restaurant in Penampang, the food was plentiful and the evening was joyfully filled with songs while we were having dinner through till the end. Crystal and Pearl picked up the microphone presenting a song "Your are my sunshine" towards the end of the reception. Here are the photos of the evening:

My Facebook

It has been a while since I last log-in to my Facebook account. Today I finally got the chance to sit down to "update" it after receiving many friend requests emails. After several rounds of surfing the facebook, I am still finding myself a bit lost on how to make use of its features. Apart from receiving gifts and other goodies from friends, I am particularly excited about accepting friends that I know into my friends list, it is a good way to keep in touch with friends both near and far especially friends that have not started joining the blogsphere.

Fruits are not cheap anymore

On the way back from Mambakut after attending Steven and Pualine wedding, we decided to stop by one of the fruit stalls at Papar hoping to buy some local fruits. Oh my! Oh my! we were shocked with the prices of fruits these stalls were selling. Their overhead must have been pretty high for these stall operators judging from the price they are charging or hoping to make a fortune by putting up such high prices, "Wonder whether this could anything to do with the price of diesel". Their pricing were much higher than Kota Kinabalu Supermarkets. Guess their target market are the tourists.

We ended up buying five phillippines' mangoes for RM14.00 since Crystal has been asking for some a couple of days already. We ate one and it taste really nice. Coincidently my brother, Albert gave us about 20 mangoes grown from his backyard in the same evening, I had to give some away to avoid aggravating our already bad coughs by eating too much.

Wedding - Stephen & Pauline

We attended the wedding of Stephen and Pauline at the bride's resident at Membakut on Saturday, 9th August 2008 and the photos tells it all.

While everybody was busy with the celebration, the children were having their own fun, running, jumping, balancing, dancing, just about everything they can think of. Crystal and Pearl were sweating all over but they sure had a lot of fun playing with their cousins , Jojo, Kathleen, Edson. I guess the feeling of them being let loose in the compound must have given them so much different from living in the city with all the restrictions and space limitation as compare to living in the countryside.





They were having so much fun that Crystal refused to go home and leaving the party with tearful eyes. The daddy gave her a bit of "lecturing" in the car and not long after that both of them fell fast asleep on the way home. They must be very very exhausted.

My cough remedy

I have had a bad cough & flu that disturbed my sleep at dawn on Wednesday. Luckily the Birdnest Chong Chau Pi Pa Dan came to my rescue again. I immediately went to Foh Sang early in the morning before work to buy two bottles of this to continue with my dosages as we ran out of stock at home. Crystal was also started to sneeze and cough for the last few days and we have no hesitant to put her on one pill three times a day, and she has been very cooperative in taking the pills despite its awful taste, she seem to have fully recovered today after 3 days on this medication. I am also feeling much better now with lesser coughs but still need to continue with my pills till I am fully recovered. Again the Birdnest Chong Chau Pi Pa Dan not only works on me but on Crystal too.

Bought from Cebu, Philippines

We have had some girls stuff bought from Cebu lately with the help of the Wong family when they were holidaying there in the early of last month. I had a new bag, the size and design is just nice for casual and working purposes. They also helped to buy some new dresses for Crystal and Pearl, the designs and materials are far better than those made from China as compare to those of the similar price range that we could get locally, i.e. price ranging from RM15.00 to RM40.00. They are altogether 10 pieces of clothing for Crystal as she is growing up fast it would be wise to get more for Crystal so that she can pass it down to Pearl. We had to keep these dresses out of Crystal's sight at the moment we got it as we wouldn't want to overwhelm her by giving her too many new dresses at one time. We thought the dresses are still big for Crystal but after trying one or two on her, we realised that they are just the right size for her to wear right now so I have got to wash them all up ready for her to use amytime. Here are some of them.

hanging up for drying after washing

Egg Molding

I got to know about this egg molding from Joyce's blog some times ago and wanted to get a set for the girls since. Just happened that we had our early lunch at the Four Seasons Steamboat Restaurant yesterday, I did not forget to drop by the so called Japanese grocery shop there just to look for this egg molding. It is RM5.99 for 2.

Right after taken her nap, Crystal reminded me to boil some eggs, what else, she wanted to see what magic can these molding can do to the eggs, I was eager too..quickly i boiled two eggs and let cool.

Still intact inside its plastic cover
all ready
the molding is just right for a small size egg
a little bear out from the moulding
and a little rabbit too..

The girls were so very happy to see what their eggs have turned out but the daddy and the mummy were the ones who ate the eggs. They did not eat them bacause they were all full just after dinner. Next time I will have to make sure to prepare the eggs before meals so that they get to eat the eggs too.