Friday, June 29, 2012

Over A Cupcake...

“There is no learning disability, only teacher inability and society incapacity." E.L. 
There are many ways to eat a cupcake. Oh well, of course there's only one way to eat a cupcake, that's through your mouth. What I mean is you can have your cupcake over a cup of hot chocolate, take a slow bite, sink your teeth into the cupcake and savour the taste or you can just down it at one go with a glass of cold water. We have our cupcakes over a discussion regarding what my Donk Donk has to say. Come to think about it, E.L. stands for Eloquent Lameness. This is an inside joke so not everyone will be able to catch the joke. 
 On the first bite, we were discussing about whether there is or there is no learning disability. The truth is, learning disabilities do exist so 1 point for us, 0 for Donk Donk. There are children with learning disabilities and definitely adults with learning disabilities. Not everyone is given the ability to learn thus, the mushrooming of Donkey's self-funded schools for children with various disabilities. Again, the Donkey struck it's own head for talking nonsense. 
On the second bite, we looked into the phrase 'only teacher disability'. We voted the Donkey down. There are teachers who are not able to teach, but there are teachers who did a really great job in teaching. One should start wondering, if the whole class was taught by the same teacher, why were there students who ace the subject while others flunk the subject. Teachers failure to transfer knowledge or students failure to grasp the knowledge? It's not a teacher's inability but the student's inability. Or is the Donkey saying that his group of teachers have inability in teaching? Or the Donkey itself is unable to teach? We laugh at that statement. Donk Donk just struck itself on its head for the second time. HHmmm... the improved red velvet cupcake tasted really nice. I love the sour cream cheese topping and love the colourful rice. 
 On the third bite, we were thinking deeply about 'society incapacity'. This is open for discussion as society does play an important role. All in all, we felt that the Donkey was just trying to garner praises with its not-too-smart statement. Donk Donk must have missed putting its initial at the end of the donkey-braying statement. 
 On the last bite, we figure we shouldn't discuss about such boring topic while having such a wonderful cupcake during tea time as we hardly have time for each other. Hubby comes home, I leave the house to work. And we're really busy and I spent at least 6 hours in the kitchen because that's the best part of the house. 
Truth be told, we did not discuss about the Donkey's lame statement. We were just enjoying ourselves with the cupcakes for 5 minutes then we have to carry on with our stuff. The rest of the cupcakes were given away according to my fat distribution method. It's far better to give than to receive and I'm happy when the guinea pigs enjoy the fruits of my labour. It's all about my improved red velvet cupcakes. 

Friday, June 22, 2012

My Lonely Thursday Morn'

I woke up at the same time, around 7:45 a.m. because I needed the much needed jog around the field. I jogged for five rounds, quite an achievement with the haze. I woke up looking at the moon sun. Due to the terrible haze, the sun can be seen peeking from behind the clouds. There was even an eagle black crow flying towards the sun. The field was very hazy and there's no fresh air to breathe in. I was thinking whether to cancel my plan and just continue sleeping, but when I saw so many people out there jogging as usual, I went ahead with my plan. It was good to sweat it out. By 9 a.m. I was back into the house. I was quite bored and there was no computer and no Internet connection at the new house and it couldn't get any more worse than having no story books and I didn't have my cross-stitch with me~!! So, I went to the kitchen and started playing with my new toy.... the oven...
Before I started baking, I cooked the main dish of the day. My Hokkien mee~! Some said not spicy enough, some said too sweet, but all in all, delicious~! Everyone has different sets of taste buds. To me, it's perfect. If it's spicier then I will be a very sad cook, because I'll be cooking to please others while I can't even eat it. I can't eat spicy food. It was a torture to prevent the mucous and the sweat from dripping into your plate of food. So, I like it this way... well, if you don't like it then I think you better cook it yourself or go buy from whichever stall you frequented :D
Then, I started baking. There's no clock in the kitchen so I wasn't looking at the time. I thought I have the whole day to myself. I started studying the recipes for cupcakes. It was written in the book that the amount of ingredients mixed together will give me 12 cupcakes. Recipe books always tell lies. I got only 6 cupcakes from half a block of butter. So I made 6 lemon cupcakes, 6 plain butter cupcakes... 1 tray 6 cupcakes only... and 24 chocolate cupcakes... then all of a sudden I was rushing because for the whole day, I haven't take my shower, neither have I brushed my teeth. By lunch time, I wasn't lonely anymore. Juju came to accompany me. She even sponsored a block of butter and then she was eating the cupcakes straight out of the oven. Then, my hubby came back with my eldest. My eldest came to the rescue.
I managed to bake the cupcakes but I have no more time to decorate the cupcakes with toppings. It was difficult. She spent the whole afternoon until dinner time decorating the cupcakes. If I were to sell the cupcake, it would be RM30 for one because of the time spent on decoration and it wasn't cheap making cupcakes. Butter IS expensive. Using margarine is a NO NO~! I dislike the taste and smell of margarine.
There were chocolate-flavour thick glaze icing, orange-flavour and the one I like most is the green apple topping. I love my cupcakes. They're soft and not difficult to swallow. Not like those chokingly dry cupcakes neither are they moist like moist cake. They're just perfectly fluffy... and I kill two birds with one stone. 
It's Lee Goff's birthday today. Since he's an American and it's impossible to have him here just for a short celebration, so we celebrated his birthday by decorating the white board with lovely birthday wish thanks to my youngest, who is gifted in arts. I will never be able to draw like that. And my eldest has the gift of using her hands, that's why I needed her to decorate the cupcakes or else it would be as plain as any other normal cupcakes. Happy birthday, Lee Goff~! Your birthday is a blessing to everyone as so many get to taste the fluffy delicious cupcakes....


In conclusion, my lonely morning turned out to be a blessing for others... 

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

❤ Cooking ❤ ...

You see, the new house has neither a good computer nor an Internet access thus, the lack of updates in this humble blog of mine. Anyway, most of my time is spent in the kitchen. If you've seen my kitchen, you will like it as well. It has almost everything in it. And I have been experimenting on other stuff. I am glad that I can cook good and delicious food. I can make anyone happy by just slurping the soup that is titillating to the taste buds. 
Mi mama sponsored a 42-liter electric oven to my kitchen so within 7 days, I have to try it out to make sure that the oven is functioning perfectly. So, there are many ways to cook. Blanch - the easiest, steam, stir-fry, deep-fry and I'm into baking and roasting now... hehehehe... 
My marble cake~! Successful... so the first two rounds weren't my fault but the oven's fault. The marble cake finished very fast. I think teenagers can compete with piranhas in eating eating competition. The piranhas will lose because teenagers have bottomless pit and they eat and eat and eat and eat. I think I have to place a steel door to my kitchen and chain up my refrigerator. That's the best way to prevent people from walking in and out of my kitchen. But I definitely can't do that... aaahhh... I love that marble cake of mine but I only eat a few pieces the rest all gone into other people's mouth...
You see... this one is different from the first one because this is the second marble cake. Within a few minutes, I'm making another one because the first one... all gone... the second was gone as well... Now, you get what I mean when I say that my kitchen can produce all sorts of delicacies... and it's going to produce more... muahahahaha....
AAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhh..... OOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooohhhhhhhhhh.... I'm a little bit obsess with the  perfectly done marble cake. *1 - 2 - 3 smile... kachak* I want some more.... but I have to do it myself...
I LIKE~! I LIKE~!        You'll surely like this if you have the chance to taste it... *nom nom nom nom* 
What's that chicken doing? Looking for something? Next time I will buy a chicken with the head intact. Then I can have a perfect stand-up chicken. That's ayam percik, the Kelantanese style roast chicken. I love it.... whose birthday coming next? I wanna try making a birthday cake... muahahahha...

The Best of All Cleaning Inventions...

A few weeks back, I was forever holding a mop because the new house seems to be collecting a lot of dust. I was just telling a few of them that I was wear a mop to make life easier. These kinda things really do exist. I salute to the Japanese who can invent anything to overcome laziness. Shucks~! I'm not lazy just that I am very busy and I don't have the time to clean the house up and down whole day long. At least I'm making sure that my new house is forever sparkling. 
It's so soft and I just simply love this. I have one of that in front of the bathroom upstairs. But it's rather expensive, I mean the mat. But this mop slippers are freaking expensive. It's RM58 for a pair for it's all worth buying and wearing. 
Yeah~! I'm cleaning the house all the time now, every nook and corner of the house. Make life easier. I'll show you another item that I have later on. I forget to snap the photo as I'm very busy upgrading my kitchen. It will be done very soon :D...


In conclusion, this is the best for wiping and dusting. Vacuum cleaner is no longer the best invention. Says who? Me, of course~! I dislike using the vacuum cleaner. It's so difficult to move around no doubt it's the best piece of machine for dusting.

The Haze...

The haze... it's not the title of any particular movie like 'The Lady". I'm just talking about the haze. The annual haze that comes enveloping our skyline so the neigbouring country that is contributing to us such pollution ought to face the music but seems like nobody is doing anything so I can only talk about it. 
Before this, I just need to open my front door to be able to see such clear blue sky. It's always cold in the morning, not wintry cold but at least it was about 26-degree Celsius. It's very nice to feel the wind blowing. The air smells good. I miss looking at the clear blue sky.
Now, I only see this, for the whole day and for the past few days I've been seeing this and it's not getting any better. God, I ask of you to send the rain to clear the sky. It was so humid that you wake up sticky and hot and hard to breathe. It's suffocating and the smell kept me thinking I might have burnt something in the kitchen and I checked the gas tank for a few times. It was the whole sky burning away.... *sigh* Why are there such inconsiderate people who would just do open burning to their land just for convenience sake? I want back that clear blue sky~! I have the right to ask for a cleaner air... go green? So what are those campaigners doing now? Go Green~! Go Green~! It's grey now...

Chinese Medicinal Hall...

Where's this place? I didn't even bother to ask anyone to translate for me. Pinky just told me that it's another place to suck money out of the pocket. We walked so slow that the tour guide was kinda pissed off with us. Bah~! A Chinese medicinal hall... I have nothing against Chinese medicine but I am all against being forced into going into one and listening to explanations that I couldn't even understand and I didn't go to China for a Chinese medicine tour, I can always get it back at home, more authentic....
Let me explain in great length what was wrong with this type of package tour. You see, we were led into a classroom-like room. If you remember the earlier post where we went to another place selling medicine, this one was even worse. One of the uncles from our group wanted to leave the room for a while to go to the toilet, he stood up, opened the closed door, only to come face to face with the round-face tour guide. The tour guide asked the uncle where he was going, he said he has to go to the toilet as he couldn't hold on anymore but the evil tour guide asked him to get back to his seat and only go to the loo after listening to the talk. What the %(*^*&%&$ ? I wasn't even half listening. I didn't even bother to look interested and I think I showed it with my face coz none of those white lab coats ppl dare to approach me. They asked Pinky to move forward. In fact they asked everyone to move forward so that they can look into your eyes and tell you that you're sick in every area and only their medicine can cure you. You can't buy one bottle or one box you have to buy at least a supply that will last your for half a year. Damn~! The 'doctors' will hold your wrist to feel your pulse and everyone was inescapable. Sounded like everyone in this group was sick.
We ran out of the building when the tour guide said we were about to leave. What the heck were we standing there for? It was at a freaking negative two degree Celsius and the wind was blowing and we were very cold but we had to move around to keep ourselves warm because.... because... because...
... of those two aunties lor... they went back inside because they wanted to buy cordiceps... ginseng laa.... if I were to do that when we went shopping the tour guide would have left without me but for this one, since he's gonna earn a handsome commission, he personally accompanied the aunties back into the building while asking us to wait there.... in the freaking cold... for more than half an hour... auntie aaaa.... why? Why need to spend so much? You've spent so much already... I would have gone to Shanghai with that amount of money that the auntie on the left was spending.
We were the noisiest people by the road side. I was there... what do you expect? We were actually jumping up and down... because IT WAS FREAKING COLD~! We were actually having fun chit-chatting away, killing time...
... introducing to you all the aunties that contributed largely to the evil tour guide's commission... without them, the tour guide would be poor... because we, the young adults bought NOTHING and we spent the least.... muahahaha...

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Old Drum Tower Street...

Let's continue with my unfinished trip in China. The story of the evil tour guide continues but there was always a bright side to the downside. How did we manage to come to this area? It wasn't in the itinerary at all. Introducing the Old Drum Tower Street...
Ignore the number 152 as it carries no meaning to any of us. I just wanted to remember the place. Pinky and I were not sure where we were so when we saw an address, I just snapped it. We were suppose to sit quietly in the bus while the Doraemon-size tour guide took those who paid for the performance to watch that performance. The tour guide refused to tell us how long the performance was gonna be. It couldn't be that he didn't know the duration of the performance since he has been to the performance for the umpteenth time. See, he was just plain evil. Do you expect both of us who travelled from afar to be seated quietly in the non-moving bus with no air-conditioning system? I know it was winter but to sit in a bus with the bus driver smoking like a chimney, that was suffocating, if you can imagine yourself in that situation. 
Pinky and I did what both of are very good in. Immediately when the bus driver found a parking spot, we stepped down from the bus. The bus driver was instructed by the tour guide to go and collect them from the performance place once he called. There was no parking for tour bus at that site. The tour guide precisely reminded the bus driver not to wait for anyone who stepped down from the bus and couldn't come back in time. Hmph~! Loud enough for everyone to hear thus, the rest of them just sat in the bus, doing nothing. Ridiculous~! That street was lined with old houses. Love the different bricks used. It was the 'China' look that I've always wanted to see. Some buildings were dilapidated, old and dirty, musty smell, yucky... but I still like it. 
The narrow street in between a line of houses. The streets were not as scary as the small lanes back here. There were many people walking in and out but we didn't venture further as we didn't know where the street was heading to. 
Pinky's mom said that Beijing's yoghurt was the best. I don't like yoghurt so I don't bother trying it. But I did take a sip because Pinky insisted that I taste the difference of the homemade yoghurt. 
At first, I thought we could just pay and walk along the street with the bottle of yoghurt in hand but there was a piece of paper saying that one should not walk away with the bottle. Of course I didn't know that because it was written in Chinese, duh~! The taste of the yoghurt was richer than those manufactured in a large scale. 
Hey, look at that~! Ain't that creative? You can keep you hands warm while riding on the bike. We had a great time walking together, seeing things as that's the first time Pinky and I walked on that road. We finished walking along the street, turned back to head to the bus, seeing that the bus driver was still puffing on his chemical-lighted stick, we decided to cross the road to see what was on the other side of the street. There wasn't much to capture opposite. Most of the shophouses were closed. So, we crossed over to where we came from, found another street with many people and we followed. 
There was a museum... an old clock tower museum and it was evil of the tour guide not to tell us that. If we would have reached here earlier, we would have bought the tickets and went in. We wandered along the street for too long. The place was so large and there were more things to see outside the tower. Almost 45 minutes has passed and we have the feeling that the bus would be moving anytime soon. We ran back to the bus but it was still not moving so we ran back to the clock tower area. 
I want to go to Xi'an~!! Will get to see the Terracotta warriors. But for now this one should do. After taking this photo, all of a sudden both of us sprinted away back to the bus. God is with us. He knew when to prompt of us to move our legs. We really ran as this was quite far away from the main road. The bus was already inching out of the parking lot. Our new friend told us that the tour guide has called the driver and when the driver told the tour guide that we weren't back yet and he should wait for us, the tour guide must have shouted at the bus driver that's why the bus driver moved. Hey, my God is more able and capable~! We didn't miss the bus, we were in time.... and we get to see another extra place compared to the others. 

Sunday, June 10, 2012

The Lady: Aung San Suu Kyi

I don't remember the last time I've ever finished watching a movie without falling asleep halfway. I decided to watch the Lady at midnite and by the time I was done watching, it was already almost 3 a.m. It was a very good movie. 


If you've never heard of Aung San Suu Kyi just Google her name and you can have every piece of information about her struggles for Myanmar. If some of you have heard a little about her and sometimes you have a busybody question like where is her husband and where is the rest of her family members while she was fighting for her country to have the rights to vote democratically instead of being ruled by the oppressive military junta, you seriously need to watch this movie. 


It was one struggle that no awards that she has won will be able to redeemed the lost time with her family. It was one movement that she has taken up for her country and eventually, the family has been sacrificed. Imagine being house arrested for 15 years, with no Internet and no books to read. One would have jumped out of the window or hear voices, but she persevered for her country. With no family members around her, I seriously do not know where she found the strength to keep on fighting or to keep on living. Even her husband has been taken away from her by cancer. 


I hope she can be the next Prime Minister for Myanmar, she deserves it more than anything else. Hopefully the people of her country will back her up 100% and have the courage to keep the good fight to release the whole country out of bondage. It's seriously worth watching. Go watch~!!

Friday, June 08, 2012

Savvy's Last Day Adventure...

It's the last day for the nomadic dog's holiday. This was taken while I was cross-stitching and he was trying to get some more sleep after breakfast. Realized that he didn't really like fan blowing but he loved to be in air-con room.
His favourite sleeping position... with his head under the comforter so the fan would not be blowing in his face or at his face. He slept that way for an hour without moving. I left him under my hubby's care while I was away for a couple of hours. When I came back, he didn't even know that I was downstairs. This is seriously not a dog that can guard a house. I walked all the way upstairs to find him taking his afternoon nap with the air-conditioning system at the coldest temperature. 
Woke him up from his deep slumber. It was time for him to go home but he refused to get up. He was very busy rolling around.
Look at that adorable boy~!!! He's so cute~!!! He's seriously not getting up....
He rolled and lazed around on the bed for another half an hour. Still very comfortable in the bed. 
Finally, he stood up but slumped back on the comforter. Reminds you of yourself? Wake up, toss and turn around under the comforter, get up but plop back down in less than a second. In the end, we forced him to wake up and go down. 
He went inspecting my garden. He did that early in the morning as well. He preferred the large field in front of the house but he didn't get the chance to go. There was a crickets competition so he couldn't go, poor boy. 
He was so excited to go home. He jumped from the back to the front passenger seat. I asked him to sit down... and he did but he made the shoulder his chair. What a fabulous boy~! That's the end of his nomadic adventure as a doggie on holiday.

Savvy's Third Day Adventure...

Do you know that Savvy has a wife by the name of Sasha and a daughter by the name of April? Both of them went off for a holiday in Klang and Savvy was left behind in Penang. Anyway, I think he has a better holiday over here. He was having a nomadic holiday experience. Saturday is my busiest day so I bundled the dog into the car and off we went to mi mama's house. Savvy behaved awesomely good. Since there was no one to hold him while he was in the car, I asked him to sit down quietly. And he sat behind quietly all the way from the centre of the island all the way towards south. It was a 20 minutes car ride and he wasn't even worried or hopping around like a mad dog wondering where he was going. He behaved really well in mi mama's house. I was surprised to see how different he was. 
Usually he would have climbed up and asked to be patted but with mi mama, he just sat there like a good boy. How different~! He went for a walk because my doggie used to go for walks. I don't know what else he did because I wasn't around for the whole day but all in all, he was well-behaved. He didn't even jump onto the bed. After church, I went to pick him up. Another house he's going to. I wonder whether he was confused or not, moving from one place to another. 
Oh... the 'real' dog unveiled~! The moment he reached the house, he ran all the way upstairs and jumped onto the bed and started rolling all over. I think he must have wanted to do that the whole day long. No more good dog and he gave us such a terrible fright at 3a.m., barking at 'something' and now, we're freaked out and thinking twice about staying over in the new house. Was it something from the empty house next door? *goosebumps* Definitely, there's no one we're going to sleep in the new house if any of us is alone.