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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Feng-tastic

We were given some frozen feng (the "e" is pronounced "eh") (or curry feng) about a month ago. Last week, we finally decided to heat it up for dinner.

Feng is a traditional (southern? i.e. Melaka or Singapore) Eurasian dry curry popularly eaten during Christmas. It is made up of finely diced pork, liver, and other innards . The curry has a distinct taste of ginger and coriander (I think)... reminds me of curry puff filling :o).

Curry feng
[CUrry feng: Simply feng-tastic!]

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Pine Nuts

After the Chinese New Year holidays, a colleague from China gave us a bag of roasted pine nuts. These delicious nuts are available from the northern region of China. The smell from the bag of pine nuts reminds me of the smell of leather :o)... exotic...

Pine nuts
[Roasted pine nuts: whole nuts, shells, and the insides]

Priority Parking?

At our apartment, we have open-air common car parking lots that are available on a first-come-first-served basis for residents who have more than one car, or for visitors.

We know of a particular resident at a neighbouring block who owns a motorcycle and (presumably) at least one car. He usually parks his motorcycle just at the entrance to his apartment block, while he parks his car at this *particular* common parking lot.

On numerous occasions, when he wishes to drive his car out, we have seen him riding his motorcycle to this *particular* common car parking lot, drive his car just out of the parking lot, and then park his motorcycle in the just-vacated parking lot, i.e. to reserve the lot for his car.

It is understandable if he had swapped cars if he has more than one car (afterall, car parks are meant for cars). In fact, logically he should have another parked at his designated owner's covered car park. But using a motorcycle to reserve a common parking lot?

Hmmph!

Motorcycle in car lot
[Priority parking?]

Friday, March 13, 2009

We're Pregnant, Again!

We are happy to announce that we're expecting our second baby! Angie is now 20 weeks along and baby is due early August 2009. Some of you picked up our hint when we blogged about Julian being 20 months old :o).

Things are pretty much the same as when we were expecting Julian - no morning sickness, no cravings, etc.

Angie has felt baby moving since 3 March 2009 at 18+ weeks (Julian made his presence felt when he was 20 weeks).

Again, we had warned our gynaecologist not to spill the beans on baby's gender.

The feeling this time around is noticeably different compared to when we were expecting Julian. Obviously this is due to the fact that we are preoccupied with Julian. But we try our level best to remind ourselves that we have another little one on the way and we try to show as much affection as we can :o).

Trip to Taiping

On 8 March 2009 we went to Taiping. We arrived about 4.30pm and checked into Hotel Furama. It was a clean and simple hotel with all the necessary facilities for us.

Hotel Furama
[Room inspection at Furama]

We took Julian to the railway station but unfortunately there were no trains scheduled to arrive at that time.

KTM Taiping
[Where's the choo-choo train?]

Tracks
[Right on track]

The weather was wet and so for dinner, we headed for a place with a sheltered car park - TESCO. There we met Aileen and proceeded to Taiping Sentral for dinner. We decided to eat at Heritage.

Chicken nasi lemak
[Chicken nasi lemak at Heritage, Taiping Sentral]

The next day we went to the Lake Gardens. It was drizzling but we managed to let Julian have a look at the paddle boats on the lake. We also took him to play on a concrete slide. Daddy and Mummy also enjoyed the slide :-)

Trees
[Trees of Taiping Lake Gardens]

Big slide
[The Slide]

After checking out, we met Aileen for lunch - again at TESCO due to the weather. This time we ate at Rasa Mas.

Curry laksa
[Curry laksa at Rasa Mas, Tesco, Taiping]

We left after lunch. We initially planned to take Julian to the Ecopark at Bukit Merah, but he fell asleep in the car and the weather was wet. So we postponed that visit.

Senior Citizen Association Cafeteria

Last Thursday (5 March 2009) saw us at the Senior Citizen Association cafeteria along Jalan D.S. Ramanathan (formerly Scott Road). It's a quaint little eatery at the back of the main bungalow. They have a limited menu, specialising in chinese, nyonya, and western food.

We tried some of their signature dishes: roti babi (a thick deep-fried vegetable and meat sandwich) (RM3.50 each), choon pneah (spring roll) (RM3.50 each), mee jawa (RM3.50), and mee sua tao (mee sua in thick soup which tastes like shark-fin soup) (RM5.00).

Senior Citizen Association cafe
[The cafeteria]

Roti babi & choon pneah
[Roti babi (L) and choon pneah (R)]

Mee jawa
[Mee java]

Mee sua tao
[Mee sua tao]

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Julian at 21 Months

Julian turned 21 months old on 28 February 2009.

Since we started weaning Julian about a month ago, he's developed an addiction for his pacifier ('tot-tot' in his language). Previously he would only take it when he wanted to sleep (when mummy's not around). But now he would ask for it even when he's not sleepy. We try to discourage it as much as possible by distracting him with other things. But we also realise this is probably his 'replacement' attachment, so sometimes we give in.

Another improvement is Julian now travels in his car seat willingly and without any fuss. Right up to Chinese New Year, he was still relunctant to sit in his car seat when the three of us were travelling together. On several occasions, we forced him in. Then mummy would sit in front and leave him alone at the back. We found that he would only fuss and insist on being taken out when Mummy sat at the back with him. Since 5 February 2009 we noticed that he no longer objects to being put in his seat and is in fact very cooperative :-)

He's still practising his jumps. There's improvement. In fact he jumps on the bed, lifting both feet off the surface. But he's not confident nor steady enough to do the same on hard surfaces just yet. (He practised walking the same way - on the bed!)

Messy face
[Making a mess]

Colour pencils
[Julian having a go with his jumbo-sized colour pencils]

Fun at Ferringhi

We had the chance to go for a holiday from 27 Feb to 1 March 2009. After much deliberation and indecisiveness, we decided to take a holiday in Penang!

We decided to book ourselves into Bayview Beach Resort for one night on 27 Feb 2009. We checked in close to 3.30pm and after settling in, we went for a swim in their marvellous swimming pool. Julian was particularly excited. The children's pool had 'dolphins' at the bottom and the depth was very good for Julian because he could walk and splash around. We also took him to the jacuzzi where he had fun with the bubbles! After the swim we took him to the beach but didn't spend too much time there as it was getting late.

Dinner was at a food court in the night market area. We walked around a bit. Then we went back to the hotel.

The next day, we had a late breakfast at the hotel. The spread was good. Lots of variety. After breakfast we went to the beach to play. Then it was more fun time at the pool. Julian seemed to prefer the pool. After a good time, we checked out.

It was a good holiday and we all enjoyed ourselves. Seems a little strange to stay in a hotel in your own hometown but honestly the hotel was fantastic and the stay made it a relaxing holiday for us. Won't mind doing it again...

Kiddie pool
[Kiddie pool with dolphins]

Jacuzzi
[Julian's jacuzzi]

Watering can
[Watering the sand to make them grow...]

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Dinner at Pulau Jerejak

On 26 Feb 2009 we went to Pulau Jerejak for dinner. It was organised by Bart's department and was our first trip to the island.

We took the 6.30pm boat. It started to drizzle as we were going to the boat. The wind was very strong and Julian hung on tightly to Daddy. It began to rain cats and dogs once we got into the boat. Despite the rain, the boat ride was quite smooth. Julian fell asleep. He woke up as we were walking to the resort after disembarking.

All aboard
[All aboard!: Mummy and Julian on the boat]

View from the boat
[Obscured island]

It was a barbecue buffet dinner, which was quite nice. Thankfully it stopped raining as we were having dinner. So after dinner Julian could walk around. We took the 9.30 boat back to Penang. The boat journey was about 10/15 minutes.

Bowl of fun
[Julian having a bowl of fun]

Tenth Encounter

We presented our tenth Engaged Encounter Weekend. The 72nd Catholic Engaged Encounter Weekend was held from 20-22 February 2009 at the College General, Penang. 24 couples attended the weekend. We were on the presenting team with Fr. Francis Andrew, and Terence & Christine Dragon from the Singapore Engaged Encounter Community.

This was the first time we were away from Julian for an extended period (3 days, 2 nights).

Participants of EE72
[Participants of EE72]