Bubble Gum and Random Ramblings

Oh! It's been a long time since we last chewed one of these...


[Bubble Gum]

One piece didn't seem enough to blow a decent bubble but that didn't stop us from being kids again :o). Unfortunately, these did not have the artificial tattoos.

Tonight, we had instant bak kut teh noodles with french beans and meatballs. Odd choice of vegetables but today's dinner menu was rather unplanned.


[Instant Bak Kut Teh: What will they think of next?]

On a more sombre note... Angie starts marking exam scripts today *pout* *pull hair*.

The Week That Was, That Is and That Is To End

On Monday night (29 Aug), I was in a baking mood. So while Bart was away for choir practice I busied myself with a new recipe - Cappuccino Squares. The result: very cappuccino - coffee with 'white froth' on top and chocolate sprinkles :-)


[Cappuccino Square: the coffee lover's cake]

On Tuesday, Bart and I decided to go for the pair look. I had recently purchased a maroon blouse (which matched perfectly with one of Bart's shirts) and also some scarfs. So I was eager to parade in them ;-)


[Mutiara Match]

Yesterday, Wednesday was Merdeka Day. Happy Independence Day, Malaysia! Bart and I spent literally the whole day lazing at home. Only went out to get dinner - which was not entirely satisfactory. So we compensated by indulging in some tim sum, white radish cake, cheese roll and sausage in pastry roll :-)

Today, Thursday, was the Bishop Anthony (of Penang Diocese)'s silver episcopal jubilee. The Cathedral Choir was on duty, so we were in church today singing our hearts out. Bart was on the organ. The mass lasted two and a half hours - about forty-five minutes to an hour was devoted to speeches!

Tomorrow, Friday, is the last day of the semester for me. Hurrah! *Three cheers* *clap, clap, clap* Sadly (or not), Bart will have to begin teaching next week...

Niq and Chui Ying's Blog

My brother and sister-in-law have just created their own blog: Ying & Niq's Niche. Yay! :o)

Oriental Treat

Last night we had friends over for dinner. This time we decided to serve something oriental instead of doing our regular Western. On our menu were mixed veg, brinjal with dried shrimps, chicken in gravy (prepared specially by Bart) and pork ribs 'tau cheong' soup. For dessert, we had lychee and we washed all of that down with Whispers of Summer (a pleasant blend of passion fruit, orange and other fruit juice).


[The Eastern Spread: All ready to be savoured]

Mixing Juices

After meeting the Malaysian Idol finalists, we headed to Chulia Street for our favourite fresh mixed-fruit juice. The stall is just in front of the Betel Nut Cafe, facing Love Lane. You can order any mix you dare to try. Our favourite mix is banana with pineapple. Since today they were out of bananas, we tried a glass of apple and pineapple, and another glass of guava and pineapple. Very refreshing... ahhh!


[Fruit Mix Mania: Dare to try nangka with papaya?]

After our dose of mixed-fruit juice, we headed down the coastal highway and ended up having dinner at Sri Tanjung, a place for ikan bakar and Malay-Thai cuisine.


[Dinner at Sri Tanjung: Grilled ray fish, deep fried squid and kailan with salted fish (not in photo)... RM20]

Sri Tanjung is located near the Penang Bridge, across the highway from the N-Park and E-Park apartments. It is hidden from view on the highway due to tall hedges grown by the roadside. The turning into Sri Tanjung is also very inconspicuous. Be very alert if you intend to go there for the first time. Missing the turning would require you to make a very, very long round trip to get back on the correct side of the highway.

Idols on the Island

We were at Gurney Plaza to meet six of the seven Malaysian Idol finalists. We got their autographs, too. The Idols who were present were Nita, Daniel, Farah, Adam, Faizul and Ash. Xerra couldn't make it. Unfortunately, they had all run out of autograph cards. So, I resorted to giving each of them name cards to sign on :o).


[Difficult to get close: Quite a turnout... lots of screaming girl-fans, especially of Daniel]


[Up Close And Personal: Aha! Finally... getting closer...]


[The Autographs! (From L to R, top to bottom) Daniel, Nita, Farah, Adam, Faizul and Ash]

Second Encounter

Angie and I presented at the 57th Catholic Engaged Encounter Weekend held at College General, Penang from 12-14 August 2005. Twenty-five couples attended the Weekend. We were on the presenting team with Fr. Gerard Theraviam (making his debut with CEE Penang), and Chris and Lina Baptist. This is our second time presenting.


[57th CEE Weekend presenting team: (from L to R) Bart, Angie, Lina, Chris and Fr. Gerard. Photo taken by Peter Liew]


[Participants of the 57th CEE Weekend with the presenting team and supporting couples]

CEE Penang's website: click here.
Photos of the 57th Weekend: Album 1 and Album 2.
Peter and Gladys' post: click here.

Doodle Duck

Angie was in a doodling mood the other day. This was what she drew on a used envelop. Does the song sound familiar?


[Quack Quack!]

Chick Chack!

A new photoblog... at the moment, it's called Bart's Fifth Eye.

Love Fruit

During our past two trips to Cameron Highlands, we bought some buah cinta (love fruit). Some people call it the hill tomato as its flesh has a tomato-ish texture. Taste-wise it is sourish with a delicate aromatic sweetish taste. Angie doesn't quite like it because it is sour but I quite like it.

Yee Yee told us that she has seen this fruit in Australia and it is called tamarillo. After doing a simple search on the internet, apparently, it was once considered "a lost food of the Incas". It has been renamed and commercialised in New Zealand. For more information, you can check out this site.


[Fruit d'Amour: Probably named as such because of its shape... like a heart]

Hokey Pokey

After our offal meal last Thursday, we joined Peter, Gladys, Uncle Chris and Aunty Lina for snooker at the Oriental Club at Anson Road. We had fun and we were laughing at each other's snookering antics.


[Cueing for Fun: Waiting for our turns...]


[Read, Aim, Poke!: Angie having a go...]

Offal Offering

Last Thursday (21 July 2005), we joined a group of relatives (Yee Yee from Australia was back on a visit) for offal noodles at the Ho Ping coffee shop at the junction of Jalan Kampung Malabar and Penang Road. By default, each bowl has a couple of minced meat balls, kidney, heart, liver, intestine and brain. Luckily we went in a group and we could pass on stuff we hadn't had the 'guts' to gobble down.


[A Bowl of Pig: (clockwise from top) kidney, meatball, heart, liver, more meat balls, more liver, intestine and brain]


[Brain in a Bowl: A handful of intelligence...]


[Ho Ping Coffee Shop: Junction of Jalan Kampung Malabar and Penang Road at dusk]

Highland Workshop

Over the weekend, we attended a Catholic Engaged Encounter Workshop held at the KRS Pines Retirement Home in Cameron Highlands. The workshop was facilitated by Fr. Ambrose Vaz, and Connie and Lewis Shan from Singapore. Thirteen of us, including the facilitators, attended the workshop.

In between sessions, we had steamboat dinner at You Hoo restaurant in Brinchang, visited the Brinchang Night Market, and had a durian party on Saturday night. Before we left this afternoon, we stopped at Kea Farm.


[See-through Lift: Interesting machine at the Home]


[Fun with Food: Fr. Ambrose digs in...]


[Cool Contrast: No sweat at this night market]


[Satay Strawberries: You can coat these with honey, sugar or chocolate]


[Delirious over Durians: Finger licking good...]


[Dried Flowers at Kea Farm]

Angie left Camerons feeling unwell and uncomfortable (headache and nausea). She is feeling much better now and is resting/sleeping as I write.

More photos available at CEE's Photo Album and Peter and Gladys' Blog.

BEC Meeting

We attended our BEC (Basic Ecclesial Community) gathering last Thursday (14 July 2005) night. This time it was a combined meeting between BEC 4 and 5 of Zone G. Quite a good turnout.

What do we do at BEC meetings? Well, there's a monthly reflection paper that is used as a guide for discussion or sharing on a certain topic. The topic of the reflection this month was on Harmony and Reconciliation.


[Fellowship: We had a little fellowship after our discussion]


[Pleased to meet you: Toes interact too...]

Instant Sichuan Spicy Noodle

There are all sorts of instant noodleS available nowadays. We tried Sun Shun Fuk's Chicken Flavoured Sichuan Spicy Noodle from China/Hong Kong last Thursday. Not bad and the packaging is quite neat. Sometime back, we also tried their mushroom-flavoured one.


[Sun Shun Fuk's Chicken Flavoured Sichuan Spicy Noodle: Wanna play Pick Up Sticks?]

Equatorial Enjoyment

Tuesday (12 July 2005) night saw us enjoying a buffet dinner at Equatorial Hotel with Janice and friends. Janice has just completed her studies in USM *congratulations!* and was in the mood to celebrate. Thank you, Janice, and we wish you all the best in your future undertakings.


[Angie and Janice: Filling their buffer with the buffet]


[Equatorial Egg: This egg had its yolk taken out, mashed, and replaced with tuna flakes, yolk put back, and garnished with an olive ring and fish roe]

Huggy Says Hello!

Huggy was in a mood for photographs the other day...


[Paradigm Shift: Looking at things from a different point of view...]

So Far So Good

Last Saturday night (9 July 2005) after Angie's baking spree, we had dinner at Kafe Goodall on Gottlieb Road. We arrived early enough at about 7pm to secure a parking space at the customer parking lots.

There was quite a good range of food there, from the standard Penang hawker fare to interesting international selections. Angie and I went international, naturally :o). We had something from the Italian stall (Chicken Al Capone, RM7) and a set from the Japanese counter (Unadon, RM10)


[Chicken Al Capone: Cheesy chicken with a mob mop of spaghetti]


[Unadon: Delicious ell in teriyaki sauce served with rice, seaweed soup and a small crab stick omelette]


[Kafe Goodall: So Far So Good...]

As we left, we passed by the Special Nasi Lemak stall... but too full already... *sigh*

Oven Fresh

Today is a public holiday in Penang. No need to go to work... :-)

So, after lunch, I indulged in a little baking spree. Oven menu for today: Bread Pudding followed by yo-yo biscuits. The last batch of biscuits have just come out of the oven and all the goodies are sitting on the dining table cooling down as I write this blog :-) Total baking time: about 2 hours 20 minutes *beaming with pride* Good time for me since it usually takes about 2 hours to complete one baking project. Today I've got two items out!

Fresh from the oven...


[Bread Pudding]


[Yoyo biscuits]


[Bread Pudding: Seconds before entering a certain oral cavity]

Veggie Vestern

Yesterday we had fun entertaining again after a fairly long break (for us, that is). This time we invited two vegetarian friends. What did we serve? Our favourite - Western - but this time it's vegetarian. A first for our guests as well as us! We had tomato soup, our signature mashed potatoes, stir-fried veg (broccoli, carrot, capsicum and mushroom) and Bartian vegetarian meat patties served in mushroom sauce. Dessert was Viennetta ice-cream courtesy of our guests.


[Veggie Chop: Care to guess the ingredients?]

Name That Dish!

Angie got creative yesterday for dinner. While the rice was cooking, she dumped in slices of pork, diced carrots, diced chicken frankfurters, some shallots, some thick dark sauce and soy sauce. And voila! Had a distinct vegetable soup taste to it. What's this dish called? Err... time to play a new game called: Naaaaaame That Dish!


[This dish must have a name: Care to suggest a name?]

Veggie Spaghetti

We started the new month (1 July 2005) with Veggie Spaghetti. What's in it? We put in mock char siew and Japanese cucumber. How did it taste? It tasted like spaghetti with mock char siew and Japanese cucumber :o).


[Spaghetti Vegenese: No animals were harmed in cooking this dish]

Cinema, Cinema, Cinema

Last week, we were on a movie spree, having watched three movies in five days; two of which were French movies (with English subtitles, bien sur!).

On Friday (24 June 2005), we caught Agents Secrets (a.k.a. Spy Bound) at 6.30pm. Then on Sunday (26 June 2005), we got Wai Fun to tag along with us to watch Ah! Si J'etais Riche (a.k.a. Ah! If I Were A Rich Man) at 5.30pm. We had bought five copies of the Star paper to redeem five free passes.


[Femmes Fatales: Angie and Wai Fun posing with the French Film Festival lady with the over-sized glasses]


[Our free passes and tickets]

Finally, on Tuesday (28 June 2005), we had a date with Mr. and Mrs. Smith. This time we made use of a buy-one-free-one voucher. In total, we spent only RM14 for seven seats :o). Never thought movies could be this cheap these days, eh?

Father's Day 2005

19 June 2005 was Father's Day. We were shuttling between Menglembu and Butterworth over last weekend to visit both our families to celebrate Father's Day.

On Father's Day eve, we took my Dad to our favourite Thum's Western Food in Ipoh Garden. The price is slightly higher than our usual food court western food but their servings are generous and the presentation is quite impressive. We shared a Fish & Chips (this comes with onion rings *yum, yum*), a grilled Chicken Chop and a Chicken Maryland (the batter tastes something like KFC *nice crunchy skin*) among the four of us.

Sunday lunch saw us having yam rice, Hakka-style yong tau fu (one of my Dad's signature dishes), pork trotters with mushroom (my Mom's concoction), and some long beans.

[Fathers Day lunch]

For Sunday dinner, we were back in Butterworth to celebrate with Papa. We ate at a restaurant at Pantai Bersih. We had balitung (a kind of shellfish). That was my first time... Papa had to demonstrate how to suck the flesh out *hsssssppp* :o). We also had potato leaves, egg-wrapped mixed vegetables and claypot tau fu. For dessert, it was durians :o).

On the way back to the island, somewhere near the Seberang Jaya Carrefour, my car reached a 'milestone'.

[Another reason to celebrate: Photo taken while speeding along the highway... excellent photo skill, I have]

Niq & Chui Ying's 1st Anniversary

Today, Niq helped me solve a little word puzzle over the phone:

1st word: What's on your head?
2nd word: What's the informal word for passing urine?
3rd word: The girl of Green Gables?
4th word: What's between your thigh and your shin?
5th word: What's between two choruses/refrains of a song?
6th word: To whom with love?
7th word: When replying to an e-mail, this appears at the front of the subject field.

To Niq and Chui Ying... Hair-pee Anne-knee-verse-sir-re!

Horsing Around

Today we visited the Penang Turf Club for the first time to see the Annual Horse Show 2005. There were pony and carriage rides, and an expo of mainly horsey stuff (what else would you expect?). But the main attraction for us was the display of various breeds of horses, ponies and a donkey, as well as the equestrian showjumping.


[This is a horse: the brown one... on the left...]


[Clowning around <:o)]


[Giddy-up: this is a horse jumping...;-P]

We are sad to announce that Mutiara Brew 2 (the Perry) was not successful. It was over-brewed (we harvested it on 26 May 2005, after 3 1/2 weeks). Now we've got a bottle of pear perry vinegar (as opposed to apple cider vinegar). We suppose it's good for health, too!

To make amends, we have now initiated Mutiara Brew 3. It's back to the good old reliable apple. And as a by-product of Mutiara Brew 3, we have some lemon shortbread to enjoy.

Chao!

East Coast Escapade (Part 3: Kuala Terengganu)

In this final installment, we hightlight some of the things we did in Kuala Terengganu. We didn't do much here becuase our trip to Chagar Hutang (Pulau Redang) split our stay here (14-15 & 22-23 May 2005).

At the mouth of the Terengganu River is Pulau Duyong where boats are built, some using traditional methods and material. We learned that there's a special technique of bending planks made of hard wood using heat to fit the frame of the boats.


[Little kid: This kid appeared lost at the shipyard... hope it found its mommy]


[Boat over troubled waters: A boat heading in the direction of the South China Seas]


[Traditional boat-making: Boats like these take about 2-3 months to complete and can cost between RM70,000 and RM100,000]

More photos of our East Coast Escapade:

• Kota Bharu
  
• Chagar Hutang (Turtle activities)
  
• Chagar Hutang (Facilities)
  
• Chagar Hutang (Sights)
  
• Chagar Hutang (Wildlife)
  
• Kuala Terengganu