One Kind of Vegetarian

Today sis and I took baby brother to lunch at a vegetarian restaurant to celebrate his birthday. We had almost finished our meal when a white lady walked in.

As friendly and hospitable Penangites, we offered to help her to select a dish but first we told her that it's a vegetarian restaurant.

She told us that that's alright because she's a vegetarian but - and this is where she dropped her bomb-shell - she doesn't like vegetables!

Huh?

Christmas Came Early

Attended NST's Street's launch last night. I won two nights stay in Premier room for two persons at Hotel Nikko KL. It comes with breakfast for two for two days and dinner for two for one day.

All I had to do was answer a simple question. Which wife did Cheong Fatt Tze build the Blue Mansion for? The answer was in the TVC they had just screened. I paid attention and was able to answer correctly that it was for wife no. 7.

So Touched

The bride called me to check whether I could find the hotel where her dinner was held.

This is simply amazing 'cos it's a wedding with at least 60 tables and I didn't think I was anyone special to her.

Audiobooks

...are wonderful. I managed to finish three books in the past three months on the way to and from work. And home is just 10-15 minutes away.

That's redeeming the time.

Sudden Craving

I have a sudden craving for Big Apple doughnuts from the Curve. Only from The Curve 'cos I always feel that the doughnuts from other Big Apple franchisees don't taste as good.

Croaking at the Karaoke

Dancing Queen just caught the karaoke bug so last night she rallied 'Bee and me for a karaoke session at Red Box.

Dancing Queen and I have a limited repertoire when it comes to songs that we can sing independently without the singer. We know the chorus for most songs but fail miserably with the verses.

We also have trouble getting the right key if there is no intro that includes some tune from the song. That effectively axed out all the John Denver songs with acoustic guitar chord intros.

'Bee left the room at one point to get dinner. When she came back the song had changed and, much to her horror, she found the two of us singing our hearts out oblivious to the fact that we were both singing in different keys, and neither of us were in sync with the key for the music!

The only musical one amongst us was 'Bee so she had her hands full most of the evening trying to get us in the right key. With her help we managed to avert the indignity of being asked to leave the place.

How la to go karaoke liddat?

Marriage Vows

"To have and to hold, from this day forward,
for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish,
'till death do us part"

...simply means that I promise you my present love and my future love no matter what happens.

The Care Bears Are In Town!

Yesterday the Care Bears came to town.

TADA!

The Care Bear entourage

The occasion was Mel's birthday and these adorable and yummy Care Bear cupcakes almost created a riot in the office. There were plenty of oohs and ahhs with everyone fighting to take pictures and staking their claim for the cupcake of their choice.

A rainbow cupcake for me
and a blue Care Bear one for hubby

Pamela's Mother

This morning's telephone conversation went something like this.

Me: Hi Mr M, I'm Lillian's sister.

Mr M: Yes, what can I do for you? BTW, what's your name again? You're Pamela's mother, right?

What a cheek! He remembered my daughter's name but forgot mine. That's life. It's always easier to remember the names of sweet, young things. I should be offended.

To Combat WInd

Nothings beats a nice cup of ginger tea to chase away a bout of wind.

TOP's 32nd Anniversary Bowling Competition

This year we celebrated TOP's 32nd Anniversary yesterday with a difference. We still had the usual combined service but after that the whole church - both the Hokkien and the English congregations, the old and the young - adjourned to BJ Bowl for our first ever bowling competition.

Members getting ready for the competition

We managed to form 35 teams of 5 players per team. There was even a pastors' team and we even managed to persuade our guest speaker Pastor Clement Wong to stay back and take the place of one of our players who was away to KL. I, with my injured finger, also also had to take the place of another player who went down to KL for the weekend.

Combined GLO photo comprising 4 teams
- Power GLO, Super GLO, Mighty GLO and Wonder GLO.

Many people commented that the names of our teams reminded them of washing powder. Maybe that's why some of us ended up being "cuci longkang" specialists.

But we didn't do too badly considering the fact that all of us were amateurs, most of us have not bowled for the past ten or twenty years and some have never bowled before. Power GLO was runner up for the title of best team and they lost to a team whose members came with their own shoes and bowling balls. So we're actually the best even if I say so myself.

Power GLO members with their medals

Pastor Clement, our anniversary guest speaker,
with Sean Hooi a.k.a Super Hero, Wonder GLO's team leader

Don't know what this is but I like it

The Essence of Courage

Found this in my inbox this morning.

"Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half truth when the whole truth can be won. Endow us with the courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns to compromise with vice and injustice and knows no fear when truth and right are in jeopardy."

- "Cadet Prayer" that is repeated during chapel services at the U.S. Military Academy

I Did It

They said I would but I didn't...cry when watching "How To Train Your Dragon."

I Limp, She Also Limp

Woke up limping. I don't know how I did it but I managed to sprain my left foot in my sleep.

Our dog was also limping this morning.

Two old ladies, same problem.

Enough Is Enough

Last night was SGGS's 125th anniversary. We, the glamorous divas, recycled our "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" dance from Fame Up for the finale. Our dancing is nothing to shout about so we made up for the lack by blinding the audience with our bling-blings!

At the end of the night, we resolved that:

1. we shall not dance at next year's ex-pupils' annual shindig if we have to wear the same skirt again, and

2. we shall not attend if the theme is red, again. Two years of red in a row is simply too much.

Realist

A pessimist sees only the obstacles.
An optimist sees only the opportunities.
A realist sees the possibilities.

Be a realist.

This gem, although not quoted verbatim, came from the audiobook "The Hole in Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns which I was listening to over the past few months.

Nine of Us

Here are the nine of us from the office who went for the makan.

Photo from Esther

It's not

...the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. - Mark Twain

That reminds me of our Princess. She's a plucky ole gal. A centenarian and still fearlessly protecting me whenever she thinks that I'm being attacked or threatened.

It never crossed her mind that she's only a Miniature Pinscher and that one kick can send her flying.

Good Food at Homestyle Restaurant

Nine of us from the office went for a scrumptious dinner at Homestyle Restaurant at Permai 32, off Vale of Tempe Road.

Skinny French Beans in Black Sauce

This looks like toast but it's actually beancurd
topped with sauted aubergines

Prawn curry

Arthur's favourite - Guinness Stout Chicken

Bittergourd in lightly scrambled eggs might not look good
but tastes fantastically smoooooth

The most expensive dish of the night - braised fish,
ngo-ar (in Hokkien) or ma yau yu (in Cantonese)

Cheongsam Night

Last Saturday was our ex-neighbour's son's wedding. The dress code for the wedding dinner was 'Traditional' so we obediently put on our cheongsams.

In our traditional best

It was a shame that few of the guests bothered with the dress code. Which goes to show that trying to impose a dress code is a pretty pointless exercise. At least in Penang.

I was very impressed by the couple's ability to enjoy the moment despite the embarrassment of forgetting the guest list and having their guests stand outside the hall for almost an hour. In the end they simply declared free seating for all, apologized for the boo-boo and carried on with the evening.

Some couples could have easily allowed this problem to spoil their big night but all I saw were happy smiles on their faces. I salute you Ee Keong & wife!

Cuppacakes

On our last trip to KL we dropped by Uptown to buy some cupcakes.

RM 50 for 12 cupcakes by Wondermilk

Look good, taste good too.
Unfortunately the icing is not royal icing.

In my opinion, the best cupcakes are found at Delectable at The Gardens. I bought 6 for hubby on an earlier trip and he so loves them.

The Delectable cupcakes are crazy expensive (cannot remember the price) but that's the price you pay for designer stuff. I can assure you it's worth the money simply for the beautiful sugar craftsmanship. And the icing on the cake (???) is that they also taste heavenly.

I want some now!

Up and About

Good news! Princess is up and about.

Worried

Princess is sick and it's stress-induced 'cos we boarded her at a pet shop for 4 days when we were away attending a seminar.

The vet's advice is not to move her. At her age she cannot take the stress and may not make it. It's that bad.

He Who Has Faith...

And we know that ALL things work together for good
to those who love God, to those who are the called
according to His purpose.

- Romans 8:28, NKJV

Paradoxical Commandments

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway.

- From The Paradoxical Commandments, by Dr. Kent M. Keith.

Sending Jewel Off

Woke up at 5.45am on Sunday morning to send Jewel off to India.

L to R: The dentist-to-be, her beaming mom,
'bee who felt conned into waking up so early and me

Still Our Babee

Dee had to piggyback her down the car-park ramp
'cos she was wearing spindly heels

Manja nye!

Return to Malacca

We made another trip to Malacca and this time we stayed at another heritage boutique hotel, Courtyard @ Heeren.

The entrance from the back where we parked our car

The lobby area with beautiful antique furniture
and a lovely water garden below the staircase I'm standing on

Curtains separated the sleeping area from the rest of the room.
Each room is individually decorated, so every room is unique.

Beds were simply mattresses on a raised platform
which reminded me of the 'balay' that my grandma used.

The side table

One of the many beautiful court-yards in the super-long house
that brought in the natural light.

Long corridors that showed the original brick work of the walls

We saw gaudily decorated trishaws along one of the lanes
off Jonker Street

Sis said that mom would have been so pleased that I've finally found my nyonya roots.

Non-Bowler

It's confirmed. I am not a bowler. I hurt my ring finger bowling last night. It's now swollen around the knuckles.

I also pulled my left thigh muscle delivering my first ... bowl or whatever you call it?

Then I saw this video that really put me to shame.

Money Down the Drain

That's exactly what happens when I go bowling. : (

Happeeee!

...'cos my 'bee is coming back in less than a week!

My Actual Birthday

Today is my actual birthday which makes it an occasion just waiting to happen. I simply cannot allow this day to just go by without any fanfare so I created one. I decided to have a laksa party at the office.

My dearest sis ordered, collected and delivered the laksa. Although darling hubby begged to disagree, everyone declared that it is simply the best laksa in town. Someone liked it so much that she ate four packets!

All the prepacked laksa

My dearest sis, who turned laksa lady for the day

All busy enjoying the laksa

A few were on the other side of the hall

It's good!

Another thumb's up

Since hubby went without lunch, he took me out for tea when he went for his late lunch. I thoroughly enjoyed the roti kiap with kaya and butter (actually margarine) with kopi O peng for my tea time treat.

Teatime

Then we rushed back to the office 'cos my colleagues had promised me another cake to make up for the tong chiang cake that was such a disappointment to me on the day of my party. But first they made me close my eyes. Then they led me into the room. When I opened my eyes there was no cake! Those rascals hid the cake.

Close your eyes. You can open them
when you are in front of the cake. All tipu wan!

All was forgiven when I laid eyes on the cake. It was such a pretty daisy cake that we put the candles around the cake instead of on top of it in order not to spoil the lovely flowers. Despite all the care taken, we eventually destroyed all the flowers when we devoured the delicious carrot walnut cake.

I like my pretty daisy cake

Closeup of the cake

The cake with candles around it

In front of my pretty cake and surrounded by friends

A compulsory siao siao picture for the occasion

Hubby joins in to sing "Happy Birthday"

Then it was time for presents. I had to act surprised 'cos I was actually given a budget from my colleagues to shop for my present so I knew what it was. But where is the fun if you open a present without a look of surprise, right?

My presents

I think I did a good job of acting surprised

A pair of Nike Lunarswift to get me running

So after eating non-stop the whole day I guess it's time to put on my running shoes. But not today 'cos, after all, it's my birthday.

Birthday Highlights

It was the best birthday party ever because my guests gave of their time, talent and treasure to make it a fun and entertaining celebration. I emailed the night's programme to all my guests so they know they cannot be late 'cos it's an action-packed night and it worked! Everyone came on time, except for Darwin whose bus broke down on his way back from KL and Shida who was supposed to pick him.

Gifts for all my guests. China powder for the ladies
and a choice of either Popinjay or Sandalwood soap for the gentlemen

A lovely bouquet of roses from James Bond
and a box of chocolate-coated macadamia nuts.
Just perfect for someone who's nuts over nuts!

The opening act, before the dinner was served, was a spectacular number "For Your Eyes Only" – A Romantic Red Rhumba for Restricted Audience by Ruby and Rambo! RRRrrrrR!

"For Your Eyes Only" actually features James Bond
and his gorgeous Bond girl

Then it's makan time! E&O Hotel prepared a lavish buffet spread for us to feast on. I made a number of changes to feature more nyonya style dishes in keeping with the theme for the night. For example, instead of coleslaw I requested for pasembur and it was a really good exchange. We had huge prawns and soft shell crabs among the ingredients of the pasembur!

And the cream of mushroom soup which replaced the cream of pumpkin soup was a hit with all the guests. Some of them went for 3 or more servings of the soup which is made of real blended mushrooms. Yummy Assam Prawns replaced the grilled lamb chops and the beef rendang was simply superb. So tender. And I indulged on the best sago with gula melaka and santan ever.

Everything was delicious and the food was more than enough. Unfortunately we did not take photos of the buffet spread. However, here's one showing some of our girls making off with the many types of tea available at the end of the evening.

Caught red handed!

After dinner it was show time. I was MC for the night 'cos I planned the programme and I'm the only one who knew what was going on!

To encourage the performers that none of them could do any worse I embarrassed myself by singing "Enjoy Yourself" which is meant to be the theme song for the night. As usual I did not have time to practise, I sang a capella, I don't know the lyrics and and I'm not sure of the tune so it was kinda disastrous. But everyone still clapped and I think I managed to get across the message of the song. That was all that mattered.

Then the real show began when DANJER took the stage. Now we know that we've staff moonlighting as magicians and that their sifu is Master You a.k.a. Youtube. Anyway these two guys tried to set fire to my kebaya but I foiled their nefarious attempt at arson 'cos I was wearing a fire-proof kebaya that night!

DANJER with their card tricks

Trying to burn a hole in my kebaya with a cigarette!

Jewel and Jason performed a special special for me. I am so touched. I loved the dance which is made up of a medley of tunes from Lady Marmalade to Greased Lightning and the dancing was so fun! Even they had fun performing it.

Go, Greased Lighting go!

Then Mel sang a special number "Someone to Watch Over Me." Her singing was superb but the mp3 got cut off and so she had to complete the song a capella. No problem for her.

Following that we had Laksa Lemak to perform a rhumba to Laura Fygi's Historia Amour.

Rhumba by Laksa Lemak

After that we had an intermission to cut the cake.

My tong chiang cake doesn't look all that bad
after being transformed by Lillian

All the ladies in kebayas

The gentlemen. Hubby donned a batik shirt. A special honour!

The second half of the programme kicked off with Peter singing "Think of Me" from Phantom of the Opera. Then he taught us a Scottish jigg. Most of my guests joined in and worked off some of the calories accumulated over dinner.

We had such fun trying out the jigg

The Ding and the Dong then brought us the Beh-Sing Opera. They sang a Chinese number even though one half of the duo doesn't understand mandarin!

Beautiful expressions from the Ding, or is it the Dong?

I booked the original Wonder Girls. Unfortunately they had a prior engagement to perform in KL on the same night so I ended up with our very own Ken Ray-produced Wonder Girls wannabes instead. They decided to call themselves Babi Pongteh. Don't ask me why.

Nobody, nobody but you!

We all decided to learn the steps

Shida and Darwin arrived just as we were going to say good night. Despite being so tired, after the long trip for darwin and long wait for Shida, they performed the zouk for us.

Zouk

I am so blessed to have friends and loved ones who took the trouble to dress up, to practise and to perform in order to make me a happy birthday girl. Thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart!

My wonderful colleagues who dressed the theme
and sacrificed many lunch hours to practice their performances