Easter in September

Today we baked some Easter cookies. Finally tried out our new Australian cookie cutters (Thanks again, Yee Yee!). Check out the shapes!


[Angel, Bear, Kangaroo, Rabbit and Koala Easter cookies :-)]

I think we could have chosen a different recipe to do more justice to the cutters, though... the raisins really got in the way! The poor little bear even lost its arm... Anyway, that's another baking project in the bag... :-)

Rich Kaya

We bought some kaya (egg jam) from Tanjong Tokong yesterday. It is reputed to be one of the best kaya around. It has a coarse texture which gives it a homemade character. It tastes really yummy!

It is made and sold by the owners of a little coffee stall at the small foodcourt area of the Tanjong Tokong flats (if you're coming from Gurney Drive, the junction to the flats is at the traffic lights just before the Chinese Swimming Club). The coffee stall is apparently famous for its toast bread and kaya. They proudly displayed a newspaper article featuring the stall.


[Tanjong Tokong Kaya]

Bak Kut Teh in Ayer Itam

We have been reminding ourselves to try different places to dine at but we always seem to end up at somewhere familiar.

A Bak Kut Teh shop we usually patronise is the Cheng Heong Restaurant in Ayer Itam. It's located near the Ayer Itam roundabout, three shops away from the Esso petrol station.


[Cheng Heong Restaurant]


[Bak Kut Teh, braised chicken feet, Yew Char Kueh and yam rice]


[Bak Kut Teh condiments: Cut chillies, garlic, and light and thick soy sauce]

Buying Dryness

Last Saturday (9 September 2006), we bought ourselves 36cm x 31cm x 44 cm of dryness. Purpose? To prevent mould from growing onto our precious camera lenses. Yup, we got ourselves a Sunpod dry cabinet.


[No more mould...]

Matters of the Heart in KL

We were in KL from 31 August until 5 September 2006. We tended to various matters - visiting loved ones, learning new bus routes, attended concerts, shopping, photography, attended a work-related course, and matters of the heart...


[Twin Towers from the National Heart Institute]


[Twin Towers from the KLCC Park]


[Twin Towers reflections]


[Asian Glossy Starling: Birdie at the KLCC park]

Sixth Encounter

We presented at the 62nd Catholic Engaged Encounter Weekend held from 25-27 August 2006 at the College General, Penang. 20 couples attended the weekend. We were on the presenting team with Fr. Francis Andrew, and Chris and Lina Baptist. This is our sixth weekend on the presenting team whilst it was the first for Fr. Francis.


[Participants, presenters and supporting couples of EE62. Photo credit: Peter Liew]

Almost Kiu Nyuk

Kiu Nyuk is a classic Hakka pork and yam dish. The Cantonese call it Kow Yoke and have the yam substituted with preserved vegetables.

We almost had real kiu nyuk for dinner tonight. By the way, this is our first time trying :o). Since it was a last minute idea to try cooking this dish, we couldn't get any yam from our green grocer. So, what to do? We used potatoes instead.

Three key ingredients which contribute to the dish's sweet strong flavour are: five spice powder, red fermented beancurd or lam nyui in Hakka (or lam yee in Cantonese or tou joo in Hokkien), and onions. How did it turn out? Not too bad... with room for improvement.


[Hakka Kiu Nyuk is always arranged with alternating pieces of pork and yam]


[Almost Kiu Nyuk... we'll get it right next time]

Tuna Tortilla Temaki

What do you do with a can of tuna, carrots and kailan? Well... invest in some tortillas and you can have some tasty tuna temakis.


[Tuna Filling and Tortilla-halves]


[Fill It Up...]


[...and Tortilla turns into Temaki]

Annabelle's Arrival

Mom and Dad went for a holiday to Pulau Redang recently. When they returned home, they brought along with them a green turtle! Since we are such ardent fans of the green turtle (read about our stay at Chagar Hutang), they decided that they would give it to us as a holiday present.

We named her Annabelle. We think it is a 'she' because of her short tail.


[Annabelle our Green Turtle]


[Annabelle's Tail: A tell-'tail' sign...]

Solvita Success

Last Tuesday (11 July 2006), we made another attempt at bread baking. This round it was with the Solvita bread-mix. We put in only half of it and topped-up another half with plain bread flour. In the past, we've always got non-springy, non-fluffy and non-chewy-starchy bread.

This time round, it was practically a complete success! The best we've baked so far. What we did differently this time was:
1. We baked a loaf instead of buns.
2. We switched to a more expensive (and softer) margarine. Being misers, we previously invested in a cheaper margarine that was slightly softer than a brick.
3. We used a little bit more yeast.
4. We kneaded the dough more vigorously for the second rising.


[Sweet Success: Our Solvita loaf]


[Solvita Slices: All ready to be savoured... yum, yum...]

Fifth Encounter

We were involved in the 61st Catholic Engaged Encounter Weekend which was held at College General, Penang from 30 June-2 July 2006. We were on the presenting team with Fr. Edwin Paul, and Chris and Lina Baptist. This was Fr. Edwin's debut with CEE Penang and the fifth weekend for us. 23 couples participated in this weekend.


[Participants of the 61st CEE Weekend with the presenting team and supporting couples]

Accident Incident

We were involved in an early morning rush hour car accident in Island Park this morning. We were at a T-junction (approaching from the bottom of the T) wanting to turn left. As we made the turn, another car came from the left, driving on our side of the road (wanting to cut a long queue of cars). We hit the brakes to avoid a head-on collision, but this did not stop the car behind from hitting us from behind *mumble, grumble*.


[Our Warrior (Satria): Violated from behind...]

New Friends

We have new friends in the apartment.

Meet Sabrina, Kelly, Jeremy the Giraffe and the A&W Great Root Bear. Sabrina and Kelly were named after our recent trip to Sabah and KL. Thanks Mom for introducing them to us :o).

We were somewhat disappointed to learn that the name of the bear is Great Root Bear. What a name...! Think we'll call him AndreW.


[L to R: Jeremy, Kelly, Sabrina and AndreW]

Sabah The Thirteenth (Part 3)

On the fourth day of our stay in Sabah (18 May 2006), we rented a car and took a drive. Main destinaton: Kinabalu Park to see the highest peak in South East Asia. Along the way, we made a couple of interesting stops...

Stop 1: Tamu at Telipok
This is considered a 'small' tamu (compared to Kota Belud, which only opens on Sundays) but there was a good variety of things to see. After feasting our eyes, we decided to sample some local fare...


[Lepat Jagung from the Tamu at Telipok]

Stop 2: Tamparuli
Here, there's a fairly long suspension bridge across the river. A walk on it is certainly not for the faint-hearted!


[Bart on the bridge]

Main destination: Kinabalu Park

When we arrived, the weather was cloudy and the mountain top was hiding behind thick clouds. Somewhat disappointed, we drove on to visit the Poring Hot Springs, stopping on the way for lunch at Kundasang. This little town with temperate climate (like Camerons) offers a variety of flowers and vegetables. Fortunately or unfortunately, we had to wait out the rain at Poring so we only had time to see the hot water pools. (There's a waterfall nearby but requires some trekking...)


[Poring Hot Springs]

I think the rain must have been a blessing cos as we headed back, Dad suddenly noticed Kinabalu peak-ing out at us!! :-) Yippee!!! Our trip was not in vain after all... :-) After the customary photo shoots, we headed back for the city, stopping at Pekan Nabalu on the way to buy some pineapples (our guide the previous day told us pineapples here were sweet).


[Mount Kinabalu]


[Another view of the Roof of South East Asia]


[Pekan Nabalu Pineapples]

On our final day (19 May 2006), we took the opportunity to visit some places in KK which we couldn't get to on foot: The Sacred Heart Cathedral was gorgeous, the Tun Mustapa Building (Sabah Foundation Building) gave us a good view of the city and the islands beyond, and Tanjung Aru Beach was lovely.

After that, it was time to bid farewell to the Land Below the Wind... we shall return...

Sabah The Thirteenth (Part 2)

The third day of our stay in Sabah (17 May 2006) saw us being picked up at 7am from our hotel on a 2-hour van ride southwest (again) to Beaufort (pronounced Bow-fort). What's this all about? Whitewater rafting on the Padas River. Woohoo!!

We arrived at Beaufort railway station at about 9.15am and we were told that we'll be catching the 10.00am train. This gave us some time to walk around the quiet town of Beaufort. Our train was delayed and we had little else to do except to observe curiously the way of the locals on the platform. This was time well spent.


[Chicken Fertiliser a.k.a. chicken feed Beaufort-style]


[Bus on rails: Our delayed train is similar to this one, as basic trains can get]

When our train finally arrived at about 10.30am, we started on a rustic train ride south which took us upstream. The train snaked along the Padas River, making its way into the interior of Sabah. Scenery along the way was quite charming. After about an hour, we made a 10-minute 'pit stop' at Rayoh Station. This was for us to keep our belongings as this would be the location where the rafting ends later.

After this, we had to endure another 30 minutes on the train before we arrived at Pangi Station, the starting point of our rafting expedition. The guides distributed life jackets, helmets and paddles (oars), and gave a briefing. There were some interesting rules and techniques to follow, e.g. about body rafting (when you're overboard) and how to use the paddles.

After the formalities, we were off!


[Our Raft]


[Here it comes... and...]


[Wooooo!!!! Hooooo!!!!]

We fought rapid after rapid, taking in the water and savouring every toss and turn the rapids made. They had funny names too like Cobra, Washing Machine, Scooby Doo, etc. There were instances when the raft was tossed so high, we could hardly paddle the water. There were other rafts on this trip and some even capsized (some done on purpose upon request :o)).

The rafting lasted about an hour, maybe more. The river was rather swift as it rained the night before. We exited the river at Rayoh Station and had a sumptuous lunch of barbecue chicken, roast lamb, sausages, fried rice, noodles, fruits, etc.

After lunch we caught the 2.30pm train from Rayoh Station back to Beaufort and from thereon a van back to Kota Kinabalu. Mom, Dad, Angie and I, we all had a really splashing of a good time. Woohoo!!

Sabah The Thirteenth (Part 1)

We finally conquered the only state we had not visited in Malaysia. From 15-19 May 2006 we completed our visit to all the thirteen states with a visit to The Land Below the Wind.

The trip started fairly eventfully with our flights being delayed. But since we were on holiday, we didn't really care :-) However, this meant we arrived later than expected and so our first day was simply sampling Sabah fare for dinner.

On our second day, we toured Kota Kinabalu City on foot. We visited the Filipino Market, the dry and wet markets, and a shopping complex (to look for souvenirs). We also stopped at the Sabah Tourism Office for information. Then we made our way up to Signal Hill via a short cut for a panoramic view of the city and nearby islands.


[Filipino Market: More of a handicraft centre now]


[Shark Fin: Available among many other types of dried seafood]


[Signal Hill: Panoramic view of the east-end of Kota Kinabalu City]

On the way down, we checked the time at Atkinson Clock Tower, and decided it was time for lunch. So we headed to a food court to sample more local cuisine.


[Seaweed Tempatations: Fancy some tampai-ampai?]

After lunch, we attended to some monkey business. We embarked on a guided tour which took us on a two-hour, fairly rough ride southwest to an area called Klias. After tea we boarded a boat that took us on a river safari (Sungai Teratak) in a mangrove. Task: spot the nose-y proboscis monkeys.

The first ruffle of the leaves... all in the boat craned their necks to see...a silver-haired langour (this is a rare creature as well - so it's a reward). The second ruffle of leaves...more craning of necks...several long-tailed macaques... *disappointment* The third ruffle...ah....we are third time lucky...it's the proboscis!!!! But oh...so far away... how to see that nose??!!! Advice for future proboscis monkey watchers: bring a pair of binoculars or a telephoto lens on your camera! Anyway, we did see some potbellies...


[Proboscis Monkey: Not all have the unique long nose... juveniles and females have short or pointed ones]

Moving on, dusk came. The egrets came home for the night. They actually make quite a spectacular sight roosting on the trees...like cotton in the tree.


[Birds of a feather, sleep together]

After a sumptuous dinner of seafood and pucuk paku *yum, yum :-P*, we headed back to the river to experience Christmas in May. We were not disappointed as the fire flies blinked their best for us. Then it was time to say goodbye to our wetland friends...

We were back at the hotel at around 2230hrs.

Dad In The News

Dad was in the newpapers today - the Star (North pullout). It reported on the welcoming ceremony for the distance learning undergraduates at USM Penang, highlighting the presence of 65 senior citizens. Dad was among the 65.

Dad, we're very proud of you. Wishing you all the best!

Please click here for the full article. If this link is no more valid for one reason or another in the future, please let us know.

Influenced by Influenza

No, we did not let an east european lady con us of our money or something like that but we were really knocked out by some mean bug.

I started feeling funny during the weekend of the 13-14 May but recovered to enjoy a nice holiday during the week. After our holiday, Angie caught the bug quite badly starting from 22 May (don't know if it was from me or from the holiday). She struggled for almost a week. Then, on the night of 26 May, I got the bug really badly and it lasted for a whole week. Was having 39.5C fever for a few days.

Finally, we are both, our (almost) normal selves, again.

Fourth Encounter

The 60th Catholic Engaged Encounter Weekend was held at the Marian Formation Centre in Ipoh from 12-14 May 2006. We were on the presenting team with Fr. Ben Nieukey, and Chris and Lina Baptist. Nine couples participated in this weekend. This is our fourth time presenting, and the first time on an 'outreach' weekend, i.e. away from Penang.


[Participants of the 60th CEE Weekend with the presenting team and supporting couples]

Our 2nd Anniversary

We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary on 1 May 2006.

The morning saw us at St Anne's Church in Bukit Mertajam for the concluding sessions of the Pre-Convention for the Laity (Diocese of Penang) Towards the 3rd Peninsular Malaysia Pastoral Convention.

In the evening, our anniversary celebrations began. Firstly, we subjected ourselves to some pampering at Apsara Spa in Tanjong Tokong. We had a massage, body scrub (here's where things got rough, to exfoliate the skin), and milk bath (complete with flower petals and lavender essential oils... must have taken many goats to provide all the milk). Ahhh...


[Apsara Spa: We had our 'spa'-cial treatment here]

Next, we headed to Ingolf's Kneipe (Tanjong Bungah outlet) for our anniversary dinner. Incidentally, we celebrated our 1st anniversary at Ingolf's too, but at their Batu Feringghi outlet. We had the minced pork and chicken klopse, Hawaiian-style grilled pork and chicken, and Hungarian goulash.


[Dinner at Ingolf's: 2 years in a row]


[Minced pork and chicken klopse]


[Hawaiian-style grilled pork and chicken]

After dinner, we headed home for the most important event. We lit our unity candle and said an anniversary prayer together.


[Our unity candle on our 2nd anniversary]