Tiles

On the 17th January, which was a Public Holiday to celebrate Thaipusam.

In the morning, I drove my parents-inlaw, sister-inlaw and her kids, and Bb-G to Ikea. We went for breakfast, then left the kids in the indoor playground and we did our shopping. My plan on that day was to get a new carpet for the house before CNY. 

By late noon, we went home. MIL cooked dinner for us and I took the kids to the playground AGAIN. Kids will never have enough of playground.....haha..

Before we had our dinner, SIL told me there was a fraction of dust on the floor. I suspected it dropped down from the ceiling which the area was just beneath a spotlight (I assume the spotlight hole was dirty). SIL  helped to sweep away the dust, but it came back again....

We prepared the dinner for the kids first. In my mind, I was thinking to clear up the dining area and let the kids to have their food on the dining table. But somehow something in my mind tell me to get the kids to eat at the main living hall, and luckily I did. Just a few minutes before the food were served to the kids, we heard a loud explosion !! It came from the dining area !

When the explosion happened, FIL who was lying on the couch thought some neightbours were playing  firecrackers....MIL who was sitting on the sofa thought she made some mistake in the kitchen, and the gas exploded..... and I was standing near the kids witnessing how the tiles exploded !

4 pcs of tiles burst out and started to crack. FIL helped to remove the tiles. Soon the cracks started to spread to other parts of the living hall. It was very scary as each step that we walked could hear the eerie cracking sound. It happened too sudden that my mind went blur.....

(the dust on the floor was a signal, telling us that the pressure was too high till dust was forced out from the tiles before they cracked and burst)

Anyway, we managed to get the some contractors to fix the tiles. At first they said it took 10 days to complete, I say NO WAY MAN, CNY is so near , I cannot afford such a long period. At most they have to settle within 5-6 days. So, Monday 20th, they started the repair work. On the first day, the workers removed all the tiles. On the second and third day, they started to hack the cement. The whole house was covered with thick dust. The forth, fifth and sixth day, they lay the new tiles. We were confined in the masterbedroom during this ordeal. 

So finally the repair of the tiles was done on Saturday, 25th at 8pm. After having dinner outside,  I swept the floor, wiped off the dust on all furniture, mopped the floor umpteen times till 11.30pm. It was tiring.... On Sunday morning, 26th, my maids come over to help me and all of us were on full force for an entire house cleaning. All job done by 9pm. Pheeeewwwwww....... and we are back to our home sweet home.....

I pray Horse year is a good year, 好的来， 怀的去 。。。。

Wishing everybody Happy Chinese New Year, may you be blessed with good health, happiness and wealth in the year ahead!

大家新年快乐， 恭喜发财， 事事顺利，马年行好运 ！
     

Hair

The other day when MHNL suddenly asked us in our old schoolmates group chat, she had actually triggered me to get my hair done before the CNY. My hair grows very slowly, and usually I only need to cut at most twice a year. Basically my hairdo routine remain the same for every year, i.e., I will get my hair done in the salon - cut, dye, treatment, (and perm if I feel I want to) and the hair style can last me for the remaining of the year, and by mid of the year will get another hair cut to trim away the messy part.

So, yesterday, I finally went to settle my new hairstyle. I was actually helping my lady boss to get a cosplay hair wigs for our annual dinner this Saturday and after completing my task, I quickly searched for a hair salon in the mall. The cosplay shop owner recommended me a good salon, and hence I heed his advice. 

I told my hairdresser what I desire and he designed a modern Japanese bob style with little curls at the bottom. I will look modern . Then he also recommended me  to choose orangy brown for my hair colour. I totally trusted  him and let him take charge of my HEAD for a cool 5 hours. Luckily the hair salon provides Ipad for their customers. I watched the Singaporean drama 96 degree Cafe via youtube to pass time...

I was satisfied with my new hair style...

  

My Birthday

During my birthday, Papa-M came home very much early than usual. He passed me one bakery box. When Bb-G saw this, she "lectured" her dad. Bb-G: HUH....! why the cake is so small??? Mummy is a big woman , why you buy a small cake for
           her? And why only has one candle? She is not one year old you know or not??


HAHAHAHA....

This was my cake

Just like what MNHL said, her birthday was just an ordinary day, mine too....at least she had a big cake, what I had was a small chocolate cake....hahahah...

No offend ya Papa-M, but I am happy enough to celebrate simple-ly with both of you at home

By the way, I prepared these dishes during my birthday

Pan-fry salmon with stir-fry capsicum with fish ball

 

Pork with mushroom stew

Stir-fry green veg with garlic



The big big bones from the herbal soup

And of cos 红鸡蛋

Bak Kua

When I was at my friend's house during the new year eve for party, she let me try her homemade bak kua. And I was impressed...I didnt know that we can make bak kua at home, and the texture and taste can be so similar to the bak kua sold commercially.

She taught me how to make, and I was so enthusiastic to make it at home, and finally I had my 1st bak kua done at home on last Friday night. 

I went to a pork shop and told the seller I wanted a piece of soft meat with some fat. Told him to wash and mince for me too. Back home I used a big pot and put in the seasonings, i.e., sugar, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, honey, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, dark soy sauce, fish sauce, pepper and salt. I don't have 5 spice powder, hence I gave it a skip.

 

Mix all seasonings well and blended together with the minced pork. I used a pair of chopstick to blend the pork until it was quite sticky. I think my dark soy sauce is very black, hence, my mince pork was dark too... 

After marinated the pork for several hours, I laid a piece of cake paper and scooped an amount of pork on it. Then put a layer of cling wrap. Slowly spread-even and rolled till the pork became thin. Bb-G was as eager as me, and she requested to help me

So happen I had pineapple at home, therefore, I added a small amount of the fruit into the pork too.

Next. I put all the pork spread on a table and blew them under fan. My friend actually asked me leave the pork under the sun,  this process is to get the minced pork gel up as a sheet. Since I made this at night, wind from the fan would do the magic too..

My friend's method is to grill the sheet pork with oven, but I was too lazy to shift down my heavy oven from the top kitchen cabinet, hence I grilled them with my Korean double pan. And it worked! 

My BAK KUA....

 

Papa-M said it was nice. Bb-G loved it too. I gave some to my friends and collegues, they  commented  the bak kua was yummy.....I am so glad.  I shall make more before CNY.... YAY! No need to buy bak kua anymore, they are so expensive nowadays, and home made bak kua is free from excessive oil, preservative and red colouring....what a healthy way to enjoy this CNY snack !!



2014

Welcome 2014 !
1) Tomorrow, 3rd Jan,  is my birthday, so I am one year more mature by midnite.  

2) Plan to make bak kua at home, will go to buy the necessary ingredients tomorrow and make them during this coming weekend. Hopefully the bak kua will turn up nice...

3) Wish to put off a bit of weight before Chinese New Year, so that I can look slim in my new clothes . He he he... Anyway, have not shopped for new clothes yet...plan to shop by next 2 weeks

4) Company annual dinner on the 11th Jan. This year the theme is "Movie". Colgs and me will scout for suitable costumes.

5) BB-G has changed to a new school. And she is not going to nanny's house too. She stays at the school day care centre after the class ends. The new school is a bit further than our house, takes roughly 25mins to reach. I fetch her to school in the morning, while Papa-M brings her home in the evening. I wake up at 6am, then pre-cook the dinner. Then when they are back home , Papa-M need to reheat the dishes and they can have home cook food. 

6) Going to attend cousin-in-law's wedding during 2nd day of CNY in Penang. Will have a huge  family gathering too with my inlaws.

7) Plan to get a whole roast pig to pray the God of Heaven on the CNY 9th day. Past 2 years we only bought one part of rost pork, this year we want to make a change since friends are coming over to lepak and have funs at my house. 

8) Will have a "poon choy" making session with close friends during CNY. Instead of having "poon choy" in the restaurant, my friends and myself decided to make it at home, to enjoy the fun of cooking the dish during CNY

9) Wish my career shun shun li li.....wish my family healthy and happy....wish to get more chance to meet up with my old schoolmates.....wish to travel overseas for holidays

10)  Last but not least, wish to add in one more member to the family.... ^_^

X'mas 2013

What I had during the X'mas this year. A nice potluck party at close friend's house. We had good food, we sang X'mas songs, we exchanged presents, and we took lots of photos !!
I prepared tortila chips with dressings to the party. 
Bought tortilla wraps from the supermarket. Cut into triangle, then air fry them with my Philips airfryer. 

          

                                                                               

 Next, I prepare the dressings. To let all the friends to enjoy the crispy torilla chips even more, I made up 3 types of different dressings. 

Dressing #1 -  tomato salsa. Cut cherry tomatoes, capsicum and big onions into small cubes. Chopped fine the parsley. Mixed them all together, added in some salt, pepper, lemon juice, and little bit of sugar. Put in a bit of dried English herbs too. Done. 



Dressing #2 - creamy avocado. Again, cut big onions and capsicums into small cubes. Dig out avocado flesh from the skin and mashed. combined mashed avocado with the cubes, added in salt, pepper, a bit of mayonaise and lemon juice. Done

Dressing #3 - sweet chili. This is an easy one. Just add some finely chopped parsley and onions into a bottle of sweet chili sauce bought from the shop.

See, the chips with the 3 dressings. Glad my friends loved them so much.

The host of the house (they are Christians) prepared  roast turkey for all of us. This turkey weighed 5kg. Nice to eat with the gravy and chesnut as the meat filling. 

Another friend made potato minced pork pie. 



We had alcoholic cocktail with peach and also X'mas tree sweet watermelon.

Party ended at about 2am, and we knocked off immediately when reached home.....