Sunday 20 December 2009

Mum's birthday & Christmas Gathering

Mum's 65th birthday is on 21st December, the next day is always a "tung" celebration marking the start of winter in the Chinese lunar calendar, some said this day is "bigger" than Chinese New Year.

As the Christmas is just round the corner, I decided to celebrate the ocassions earlier merging mum's birthday and Christmas together on 19th December at my house, the pot luck style.

I baked two cakes, one butter orange cake requested by mum and a small fruit cake, Christmas is not so complete without a fruit cake, so I finally decided to bake a tiny fruit cake yesterday, it was decorated by Crystal and Pearl.

I prepared my speciality for the dinner, that's the spaghetti bolognese, cream of mushroom chicken puff and fried some ready packed chicken rolls. We moved around the furniture a bit to make more space for the evening too, that's kept us busy for the whole day. It was a very memorable and meaningful gathering.

My parents and five of us siblings
I should have taken a photo of the cake :C
A cute little Christmas cake, it's a bit sweet, gonna reduce on the sugar for my next baking.
Pizza from Pizza Hut brought in by Sis
Home made potato and ham salad by SIL, Shirly, Clet like it, I will need to get the recipe from her.
spaghetti bolognese by me
Older generation like my parents always prefer to have rice. Alfred took over the wok cooking this fried rice under the supervision of his wife, Catherine who is due to gave birth to a son end of this month. He is picking up cooking very well.
A big plate of fried meehoon by Alfred too, prove of great improvement in his cooking.
Egg and ham sandwiches ordered from the shop
fried chicken roll
Cream of mushroom chicken puff and tuna puff, my favourite baking.
Pause from eating to take a photo. Clet is busy fixing the video cam at the background.
sisters sharing a small table, Pearl and Anneliese were playing more than eating, they left their food almost untouched.

Sunday 13 December 2009

Christmas Decoration is up

While I was busy baking cookies this afternoon, I asked Pearl to help me to take some of our Christmas decorations that Clet has put up inside the house. Most of the decorations are old ones. I can feel that this year's celebration is very quiet, the mechandise and decorations put up by the shopping complexes are much lesser than previous years, recession has really set in...:(




Saturday 12 December 2009

Do you like Bambangan pickles?


I love Bambangan pickles, but not for Clet and my 2 daughters. They would close their nose as soon as I open the container of bambangan pickles. This was what happened this afternoon when I mixed some of it with my plain noodles. One closed the nose and the other shouted, "mummy, please close the container rigth now, I hate the smell of it". "alright, alright!" I said.


Bambangan belongs the wild mango family, it is a famous traditional appetizer to the Kadazan and Dusun tribes but it has gained popularity among other communities as well. The fruit can be eaten when it's ripen but I prefer it to be made into pickles. Bambangan pickles last for several if it well stored. I normally refrigerate it.


Friday 11 December 2009

My birthday

It's time to update on my birthday, gosh.. I'm already 41. First of all, I would like to count my blessings for which God has given me and my family, and also pray and hope that God will hear my prayers and grant us our wishes. Thank you Lord.

My birthday breakfast at Bandaran Berjaya.

A mango birthday cake, especially ordered by SIL, thank you.
Discovering what birthday present my girls have picked for me
A new oven, a present from Clet, thank you. The bottom heating element of my old junk oven has stopped working just a few days before my birthday, just in time to start a new one for Christmas as well.
We dropped by Wong's house to cut the cake after dinner. You may want to find out what we had for my birthday dinner here.

Wednesday 9 December 2009

The best birthday present



I have not been participating Tuesday Toot for quite a while , and I am back this week cos I have to give my precious little daughter, Crystal, a "Toot" for her wonderful birthday card that she had personally designed for me on my birthday last Wednesday, 2nd December.

She insisted to draw me a birthday card just an hour before the birthday dinner. She has also insisted her Daddy to buy me a birthday present on the very afternoon, popping in and out of the boutiques in the shopping complex, and finally, she decided on a floral long skirt for me. She was so tired that she felt asleep in the car on the way to fetch me off from work.

The messages in the card is simply pure and sweet though with some spelling mistakes which I do not mind at all. I love her thoughtfulness and her creativity. I read the card again and again, and always put a smile on my face each time I read it. This has become the wall paper for my computer at work. It takes the work pressure off me by looking at it. :D

Thank you, my precious Crystal, you have given mummy the best birthday present ever, love you lots!!

Especially designed by Crystal

Tuesday 1 December 2009

Book : Secrets of Asia's Most Successful Internet Gurus


I found a very good and informative book on Internet Marketing written by Pearlin Siow entitled, "SECRETS of Asia's Most Successful INTERNET GURUS" at Popular Book store. The selling price for this book is RM45.60 with a 20% off.

It was so interesting that I managed to finish reading the whole book in a night, yes, in just a matter of few hours. For those who are into Internet Marketing will definitely benefit from this book, big time; it is very well written and easy to understand. It has enhanced my knowledge to the wide range of Internet Marketing out there though a lot of work still needed to be done in order to get the know hows on areas that interest me most.

The content of the book is written in an interview contexts. The content covers :

1. List Building - Jaz Lai
2. blogging - Alvin Phang
3. Pay-Per-clicj (PPC) Advertising - Eugene Ang
4. Affiliate Marketing - Ewen Chia
5. Ebay - Benjamin Marc Wee
6. Niche Marketing - Patric Chan
7. Membership Website - Ian Del Carmen
8. Search Engine Marketing - Fabian Lim
9. Content Marketing -Patrick Grove
10. Copywriting - Ng Khai Siung

You will find each Gurus revealed their success methods in this book and the best thing is that it provides the websites for each Gurus at the end of each topic which allows us to explore further on what they have to offer.

Personally, I reckon this is a very good read for a newbie like me and recommend to all.