Cafe Hopping

Jewel is back for the holidays so we had a night out cafe hopping along Green Hall Road.

We had dinner at Kaffa and then adjourned to another cafe further up the road (cannot remember the name) for Crepe Mille cakes and drinks.

Baby Brother and I with our desserts in the foreground; bottom fr left to right, BBQ Ribs, Portobello Mushroom Pasta and some Philly Cheese Sandwich with something something

I took photos of Baby Sis and Jewel but not with my camera. Hence no photos of them.

Our table at Kaffa

I think I've seen a red tv like this before

Darth Vader was hiding in the corner

I would love to play with this!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Today I made a total of 44 mini-mooncakes using new moulds I couldn't resist buying because the patterns are so pretty. They are also a teeny bit bigger than the micro mini ones I bought earlier so the yield was less 22:30.

See the pretty patterns.

After my first successful attempt at making snow skin mooncakes two weeks ago I felt confident enough and in an adventurous mood to experiment with new combinations today.

• Coffee snow skin with tiramisu filling


• Green tea snow skin with lotus paste and kuaci


• White snow skin with black sesame filling a la Michael Jackson


• Pink snow skin with honey and longan filling

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone!

Hatyai Jaunt

Hubby and I together with a bunch of church friends went for a weekend trip to Hatyai on the 20-21 July weekend. So this is really a very belated post with only the highlights of the trip.

Due to good business Lee Garden Hotel was out of rooms so we had to upgrade to a suite. The room was huge but the air-con vent was placed at the lounge area instead of the bedroom. Isn't that ridiculous? All of us couldn't really sleep well that night because of the heat. Thank God we only stayed one night.

Our very spacious suite

After we checked in, we piled back into the van and headed to Songkhla for a seafood lunch.

Hmmm, what shall we have for lunch?

Lunch was cheap and good but some of the dishes were so spicy hot that I cried!

Then the van driver insisted that we have to go to the beach because it was too early to go to the floating market. 

Baked eggs sold by peddlers at the beach
stirred our curiosity but not our appetite

We were told that the coconut ice cream in Thailand is very delicious and since we had time we asked the store keepers for the location of the coconut ice cream stall. They weren't helpful at all and we were given the run around. Nevertheless we eventually found the stall. 

Enjoying my super yummy-licious coconut ice cream

And then we stumbled upon the Consulate General of Malaysia at Songkhla.

All of us felt compelled to take a photo outside the building of
the Consulate-General of Malaysia in Songkhla. So patriotic!

Finally we arrived at the floating market. 

At the floating market

The seller will use a basket to serve the food to the customer
who will, likewise, put the payment into basket

It was there that I did something so unthinkable and unbelievable that no one who knows me would believe that I did it if I don't have pictures as proof. 

There were other stalls by the river-side and there was this stall
selling crispy fried maggots, larvae, crickets, grasshoppers, etc!

Kelvin bought some and somehow managed to persuade me to try some.
Surprisingly the silkworm (that's what the vendor said it was)
didn't taste too bad. In fact, it was quite "lemak." 

Then Hubby also joined in

As we wondered around the market, the one thing I noticed in Thailand is their great love for colours. 

From colourful baskets...

to colourful cakes...

to colourful sushi!

 Most of the time we travelled by tuk-tuk which was a real squeeze for the 10 of us. 

Hardly any space left for Hubby who was taking the photo

But the most memorable thing for Hubby was the 3-layer teh tarik just outside the hotel. 

 The next day was spent shopping and by the time we left...

...the van was packed full to overflowing. 

On the trip back we also had an adventure trying to escape being stopped by the authorities who were asking passengers to come down from the vans and unloading their luggage for a thorough check. 

We even went off the highway into the small kampungs with our van leading a convoy of 6 vans. When we went onto the highway again we thought all was well but the van driver saw the enforcement officers at the rest area. So all the vans went fast and furious trying to get across the toll before being stopped. 

All the while there were so many calls from our van driver to the rest and vice versa. Some of the conversation was in Hokkien and while others were in Thai. We had a great time trying to decipher what was going on since we could only hear the driver's responses which is only a quarter of what is being said. 

Everyone was caught up with the adventure. Even those who were sleeping woke up.

Prayer on Aging

A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY NUN'S PRAYER ON AGING

All the passages below are taken from George Sweeting’s book
“The Joy of Successful Aging” published in 2002.


Lord, Thou knowest better than myself
Know that I am growing older and will someday be old.
Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say
something on every subject and on every occasion.
Release me from the craving to straighten out everybody's affairs.
Make me thoughtful, but not moody; helpful, but not bossy.

With my vast store of wisdom it seems a pity not to use it all,
But Thou knowest, 0 Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.
Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details;
Give me wings to get to the point,
Seal my lips on my aches and pains,
They are increasing, and love of rehearsing
them is becoming sweeter as the days go by.

I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of others' pains,
But help me to endure them with patience.
I dare not ask for an improved memory,
But for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness
when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others.
Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.

Keep me reasonably sweet; I do not want to be a saint;
Some of them are so hard to live with-
But a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil.
Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places,
and talents in unexpected people.
And give me, O Lord, the grace to tell them so.
Amen.

Happy Birthday, Por Por!

My first, albeit belated, and shared birthday gift from Grandson.

So he didn't buy it.

So he didn't choose it.

So he didn't know he had given me a gift.

But I know, and that's all that matters. Especially to one who has a really serious case of Doting Grandma Syndrome.

Snow Skin Moon Cakes

Since it was my first attempt at making moon cakes, I decided to play safe and start off with the no-bake version.

I really like this kind of moon cakes but they are so very hard to come by nowadays. Most probably because of the need for refrigeration which leads to higher cost.

Anyway, here is my first batch of moon cakes with two kinds of filling: Lin Yong and Tau Sar.

Next time I've gotta be less heavy handed with the colouring and try to make the skin thinner.

The Wheels of Life

...go round and round. That sounds so Buddhist and karma-ish but I am actually commenting on this little illustration that was posted by one of my friends on Facebook today. 

It brought to mind my late mother-in-law's declaration that it is of utmost importance for a person to be able to eat and to walk in old age. Only then would a long life be meaningful. 

She used to be a nurse and so she had seen how important it is to be able to eat in order to give one strength and energy to survive...and to walk, which translates to independence. 

To live wheel-ey well in your old age you should, for a start, make sure you take good care of your teeth 'cos that will enable you to eat well. That, in turn, will give you the energy to avoid the two sets of wheels found in the bottom centre two squares of the illustration above. 

Unfortunately for my MIL, she could not avoid those two sets of wheels but it was not because she did not eat well. Even when she was ill she would force herself to eat in order to have strength for the day but towards the end of her illness, she was not able to walk as a result of a collapsed spinal column due to osteoporosis. 

We eventually bought her a wheel-chair but she passed away very soon after. She only used it for a very, very short period of time; barely a month if I am not mistaken. She was an independent and self-reliant person and losing her independence broke her spirit.

Some of us may avoid those two sets of wheels found in the bottom two squares of the illustration above but no one can avoid the last set of wheels; none except those who are ready when Jesus returns for His own.