DIY Photo printing

Went to Low Yat Plaza in the afternoon with hubby to look out for a color printer as the one we had was too obsolete.

Actually we were looking for one that can print good photos besides the normal document printing, coz it'd be more convenient for us to print our kids photos next time. We have eyed on the Canon ip3300 & also Epson R350, however, we didn't manage to buy it in the end coz we were rushing home for a family dinner & didn't have time to ask around.

Anyone has any idea about colour printers please feel free to share with me? Our budget is not more than RM400.

Last minute

As most of us aware, today is the last day for submission of 2006 income tax form. As hubby & I are always the "last minute" type of person, we only filled our forms last night, haha.

We got up around 10am this morning to drop the form at Pandan Indah IRD office and guess what, it was a real traffic jam there. The lobby was crowded and every lift is full & it's all headed to the same floor. Well, looks like many others were like us too :D

There were actually many IRD officers standing by the roadside surrounding the IRD office building with a big sack collecting the forms from people as well. It's actually quite convenient to people, at least those who just want to drop the form don't need to park the car & go to the office.

Chinese soups

Since Dillon is fully on rice for dinner now, we have to prepare soup at least 3 times a week, or more. Well in most cases my maid will be the one making the soup actually, I'm just preparing the ingredients. The soups that Dillon would normally have includes Herbal soup (assorted), Old Cucumber soup, Winter Melon soup, ABC soup (his favourite!), Lotus Root soup, Peas soup & White Radish soup.

The ingredients I used (for serving size of 4 adults):

Herbal soup
1 pre-packed herbal soup ingredients (assorted, ranges from RM5 - 8, can get from market or chinese medical hall)
1 chicken carcass (add some chicken feet if you like, I normally would :D)

Old Cucumber soup
1 no. of old cucumber
Pork stock bones (about RM5)
Some dried oysters, red dates & kei zhi

Winter Melon soup
1/4 no. of Winter melon (depending on how big it is, normally quarter is enough)
Pork stock bones
Some dried scallops, red dates & kei zhi

ABC soup
2 no. of carrots, potatoes, tomatoes & big onions
1 chicken carcass (add chicken feet if you like)
Sometimes I will add a bit of "jar choy", or crushed white pepper but it's optional

Lotus Root soup
Lotus root (my mum said choose the "fat, round & short" ones wor)
Fan got (really don't know what is this called in English)
Pork stock bones
Some peanuts, red dates & kei zhi

Peas soup
8 - 10 no. of pod peas, remove the pod (the pod is light red & white & the peas is white colour, don't know what is the exact name of this pea, but can use to make porridge too, real sweet) - will get the pix & update
1 chicken carcass
Some red dates & kei zhi

White Radish soup
2 no. of white radish
Some dried oysters/cuttlefish, red dates & kei zhi
Some crushed white pepper (coz white radish is "leong"/cold food, optional)

Long lost home cooked dinner

Normally my hubby & I would have dinner outside during working days because it's too late for me to prepare dinner when we reach home. Therefore since it's a long weekend this week, I have decided to have home cooked dinner to satisfy our stomach.

This was what we had last night, just a very simple dinner with 3 dishes & 1 soup as you can see, it comprised of Steamed Egg Rolls, Fried Mixed Mushrooms, Stir-fry Young Beansprout (tau miu) & Lotus Root soup with fan got & peanuts.

Though it's nothing fancy but both of us were very satisfied. Dillon was also having dinner with us but he was just having rice with soup & steamed fish.

Fried mixed mushrooms

This is a healthy yet delicious vegetarian dish.

Ingredients:
1 pack of golden mushroom
Some chinese dried mushroom & grey mushroom
Ginger slices

Seasoning:
Oyster sauce, Siu Heng wine (optional)

Method:
1. Cut the chinese mushroom & grey mushroom into thin slices.
2. Fried the ginger slices first, then add in all mushrooms.
3. Add in a little bit of plain water or mushroom water (the water where we soaked the dried mushroom) & oyster sauce to taste.
4. Sprinkle a little Siu Heng wine (optional)in the end & it's ready to be served.

May add in/substitute with other varieties of mushroom eg. button mushroom, shitake mushroom etc.

Steamed egg rolls

Just prepared this for dinner last night, this is my 1st time doing this dish and I do feel that my mum did it a lot more better than me, gosh I miss her cooking so much.... :)

Ingredients:
Fish paste (I bought the ready made one from market)
3 no. of eggs

Method:
1. Beat the eggs, add in some salt & pepper to taste.
2. Fried the egg in omelette style, using a flat frying pan.
3. Spread the fish paste evenly on the omelette, then roll it up neatly.
4. Put in boiling water to steam for about 15 minutes, take it out to cut into pieces & it's ready to be served.

Enfagrow A+ & Sustagen Junior Promotion

Went to Giant in Taman Connaught this afternoon to buy diapers and I'm delighted to see that Sustagen Junior & Enfagrow A+ is having a promotion.

The chinese medical hall in my place here is selling Enfagrow A+ 1.8kg at RM67.20 (refill pack at RM24.90) & Sustagen Junior refill pack 700g at RM18.20 (twin pack RM36.20), which I think is consider fairly cheap already compare to many other places.

However, today at Giant, the Enfagrow A+ 1.8kg is only selling at RM63.99 while Sustagen 700g at RM49.99 for 3 packs, literally RM 16.67 per pack only.

However, I'm not sure if this is applicable to all Giant outlets though.

My new blog is done

Finally I'm done with the transition between my 2 blogs. I've moved all my posts on general topics, recipe, dining out etc etc to my new blog, which is now named "Under The SUN".

The previous blog will change its name to "Mummy Yiau, Dillon & Baby" and the relevant topics remained there.

Not sure what others would think but to me it looks more organised now that I have separate the posts in 2 blogs. Hopefully I have more time & ideas to write for both blog.

Books Fairs

If you’re twiddling your thumbs wondering what you should do to spend the long weekend, here are two book events that might be of interest.

KL International Books Fair 2007


Times The Bookshop will also be having a stock clearance alongside Guardian's Mega Stock Clearance.

Details are as follows:
Date: 26th April - 2nd May
Time: 10am - 8pm
Contact: 014-227 3635
Venue: 2nd Floor, Dataran Hamodal, Block A, (behind Colgate), Jln Bersatu 13/4, Seksyen 13, 46200, PJ. (below is the map)

Slow connection

Since hubby has gone for badminton session tonight, I was thinking to write a few post & also to visit a few blogs which I don't have the time to drop by this afternoon. (coz if hubby is around, he will be occupying the working desk.)

But I was so disappointed as the connection is very slow, it took me quite a while to load a page or to leave comment on other' blogs..... (maybe coz hubby is running other project on the pc at the same time)

Baby is kicking me hard too while I'm writing....... and oops, it's now time to read to Dillon and prepare him to sleep already, guess I'll put a stop here for today.......

No more Dim Sum

I just had Dim Sum lunch @ Eastin Hotel yesterday when my clients dropped by and to be frank I'm not a big fan of Dim Sum but since the clients suggested it, I'll just have to give in.

Then today, we are having a department lunch to bid farewell to one of the member & also to celebrate one's birthday, again my boss suggested Dim Sum @ China Treasures (gosh....) & do I have the say? Of course not since it's not my last day or birthday & not me paying either.......end up I had Dim Sum 2 days in a row.

In fact I just had 1 piece of each variety only, plus a tiny bowl of fried rice & a few cups of chinese tea today and still my stomach was feeling so uneasy after the lunch, and I don't even have the appetite to take my dinner...... it's really not a pleasant feeling. :(

Ok, no more Dim Sum for me in the next 2 months at least!!

New IPTV platform in Malaysia

Just log onto the worldip.tv website with a broadband-enabled personal computer or a 3G cellphone in order to get the live streaming and video-on-demand programmes. We will be able to watch programmes from Indonesia and China, as well as local channels. Local channels available are TV3, ntv7, 8TV and TV9 while the foreign channels are Indonesia's Metro TV and China's Dragon TV.

The service is FREE until June, after which BDM would charge local customers RM10 a month while overseas subscribers will have to pay US$5 (RM17).

So sign up now & experience it for free for a limited time. I've tried watching it from my office PC, the connection is fast & smooth, not sure if it'll be the same with my streamyx at home though :)

Google is the #1 brand

Google has beaten Microsoft to being named most powerful global brand of 2007. It's the second year in a row that a tech brand has beaten household names such as Coca-Cola, Marlboro and Toyota. Google ranked first with a brand value of more than $66bn, nearly double its value in the 2006 ranking from Millward Brown Optimor. Microsoft came in third at $55bn.

Other tech companies in the top 10 are China Mobile in fifth and IBM in ninth, while featuring in the top 100 list include Nokia (12th), HP (15th) and Apple (16th).

The 10 most powerful global brands of 2007 plus brand value:
· 1. Google - $66.4bn
· 2. General Electric - $61.9bn
· 3. Microsoft - $55bn
· 4. Coca-Cola - $44.1bn
· 5. China Mobile - $41.2bn
· 6. Marlboro - $39.2bn
· 7. Wal-Mart - $36.9bn
· 8. Citi - $33.7bn
· 9. IBM - $33.6bn
· 10. Toyota - $33.4bn

Source: ZDNet Asia

Steamed minced pork with mushroom

This was what I cooked for dinner last night, Dillon was having it with herbal soup & rice and he finished up a bowl (about 4 table spoonful) of rice.

Ingredients:
Pork meat (tender lean meat, "mui yok" in cantonese)
Chinese dried mushroom

Marinade:
Soy Sauce, Pepper, Sesame Oil, Egg White.

Method:
1. Chop the mushroom into small dices
2. Chop the pork meat & then add in mushroom dices.
3. Marinade the mixture with the above seasonings. Add in a bit of the water we used to soak the dried mushroom if you want more gravy for the dish.
4. Put in boiling water & steam for about 15 minutes & it's ready to serve.

Marinade
Done

If you don't like pork, you may substitute with chicken meat. Alternately you may substitute the mushroom with dried cuttle fish or salty fish meat.

Try this appetizing dish when you can't think of what to prepare for dinner.

Photo slides

After seeing my colleague Sim’s (who got married in Mar) photos on her wedding day & dinner, I suddenly have the urge to take a look at my own again (miss those good old days too much perhaps? hehe). When I was browsing through the photos online, the idea of making up slides has crossed my mind….. and since I don’t have any nice photos to share here…… so there you go, now I have my wedding studio shots & also wedding day & dinner photo slides up in my blog. (what a long & lame "reasons"...:P)

The studio shots were taken at Taipei Taipan Bridal World in Jalan Ipoh; whereas the wedding day & dinner ones were taken by a pro photographer.

On second thoughts, I’m now also a mummy of 2 kids (soon…) already, wonder who else would be interested to look at my obsolete wedding photos, hahahaha....

Halal Dim Sum

Anyone longing for some Halal Dim Sum?

Normally I don’t fancy Halal Dim Sum as I think the non-Halal ones would definitely taste better but “China Treasures” has proved me wrong. I have been to this halal Chinese restaurant, which newly opened at the Sime Darby Convention Center during one of my department lunch occasion. The ambiance is nice & cozy, and most importantly the Dim Sum they served is special and reasonably priced (similar to/less than the hotel’s price).

When I say “special” is because many of the Dim Sum on the menu is not those common ones that we have always seen in other places. What I’ve tried and would recommend are the Fried Dumpling with XO sauce & shitake mushroom, Scallop Siu Mai, Mango Prawn Roll, Glutinous Rice & Fried Carrot Cake with Taugeh. There could be more but that’s all I could recall now.

If you are interested to try it out, it is located inside the Sime Darby Convention Center and here is the address: China Treasures, 1A Jalan Bukit Kiara 1, 60000, KL. Tel: 03-2089 3788. All HSBC & Standard Chartered cardholder will enjoy a 15% discount off the bill.

Rainy Friday evening

It's Friday evening and yet I'm still stuck in the office and the main reason is my hubby. He is still on his way back from outstation trip (he just called and tell me he is at Slim River now, so another 1 hour to wait?) to fetch me home.

Well this is the "problem" that I have to face since we started car pool. The reasons to car pool is to save on petrol, toll & parking of course. Furthermore we are working in the same area and the distance from our home to work area is about 24km one way so it's really not a bad idea to car pool after all.

Some people admired me to have hubby to fetch to & from work everyday and don't have to be stressed with the traffic jam and well, that's true enough; but on days where I have to wait like this, I started to think how nice it would be if I were driving like I used to..... Never can get the best of both worlds, can we?

SALES !!!

Not sure if you have come across this blog before but it has complete information on the latest Sales & Promotions going on in Klang Valley, but I'm sure you'll be interested to explore it.

Shopping & Sales

Another similar info website would be Lelong but it might not be as comprehensive & organized as the one above.

Wedding Bloom

This is also a year of wedding bloom to me. Just imagine in my office of 40 staffs, 5 are tying the knot this year; plus my sister-in-law there are already a total of 6 weddings that I knew:

10th Mar: Sim (chinese wedding)
10th Mar: Connie (chinese wedding)- Yes both on the same day!
17th Mar: Sis-in-law Airine (chinese wedding)
31st Mar: Darren (malay wedding)
19th May: Ruvian (malay wedding)
18th Nov: Soon (chinese wedding)

and maybe there are some more on the way which I have not known about yet..... ^_^

Anyway, I'd like to give my best wishes to all the couples and perhaps next year would be year of baby bloom in my office again!

Another sleepy Friday......

What actually makes me sleepy was the TVB drama which I'm currently "chasing" after. My hubby's colleague has recently lend him a whole lot of TVB dramas and if you are a hardcore drama fans like me, you'll know what is it like once you started on one of these drama series, "once you start, you can't stop" basically describes it. It's like an addiction and you'll just keep watching it one after another episodes, of course unless the storyline is lousy & bored.

So what would be my plan this coming weekend? Bet that I'll be spending most of my time on TV. Oh, not forgetting to watch the Formula One Race in Bahrain on TV, attending a parents-kids gathering @ 1-Utama & might be going to PC Fair @ KLCC as well. Wow this will be another busy weekend for me it seems.

Ronaldo to Star on The Simpsons?

AC Milan striker Ronaldo will star in one of the new episodes of the 18th season of The Simpsons on FOX. Ronaldo will appear in the episode to be aired on April 22 in the USA as a friend of Homer, and will lend a hand to Lisa`s football team. Ronaldo recorded his voice-overs in Portuguese, English, Dutch and Spanish. The Brazilian former Real Madrid forward is a popular figure for cartoon-makers, having two years ago been offered a role in the Garfield 2 film. Problems over the timetables prevented the player from taking part in that particular project.

I can't wait to see how would the animated Ronaldo figure looks like in the show, having said that, it's been a long while since I last watched The Simpsons show, nowadays I'm only busy watching Korean & TVB dramas only...... :)

Long holiday in May

Workers Day and Wesak Day will fall on the same day this year – the first time it has happened in many years.

State Labour Director Abdul Rahim Md Said said when two public holidays fell on the same day, the following day would be a public holiday, applicable to companies which recognised Wesak Day as a public holiday.

Read @ The Star

So for those who work 5 days week, take leave on the 30th April and we'll have 5 days long holiday to enjoy! Hooray :)

Bloggers to get registered (2)

On the proposal to get bloggers in the country to register with the authorities, the Prime Minister said this needed careful study to ensure such a ruling could be implemented. He said the registration of bloggers was not a policy at the moment.

Deputy Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor recently said in Parliament that bloggers using locally hosted websites might be asked to register as one way to prevent the spread of negative or malicious content on the Internet.

Abdullah also said that he was aware that many people were unhappy with the activities of bloggers who spread “fairy tales”. On whether there would be a new law to govern bloggers, he said that there were already laws in existence to deal with the spread of false information.

Plucked from The Star

Well, I guess this would not affect us at the moment so long we don't post anything sensitive in our blog? But if registration of blog become mandatory, then it'll be another story la..... hope it doesn't happen.

Earth Hour

Here’s a video created by an Australian who was inspired to write a simple tune for a greater cause, Earth Hour, which was “celebrated” on 31st March 2007. The event was jointly organised by WWF Australia and the Sydney Morning Herald. For an hour between 7:30 and 8:30pm in Sydney that night, all the lights went out and the event was such an unexpected success that WWF will now make it an annual event in more cities.

To find out why turning the lights out in Sydney for an hour was a significant step in environmental awareness and what impact that hour had on the environment, read more about it at http://earthhour.smh.com.au/

Watch Video here

Online Shopping

Online shopping is no longer a new term, it is indeed a quite popular trend nowadays, esp to the SAHM who needs to attend to their kids and wanted to do some shopping.

Though I know I can buy most of these stuff at the shop but when think of driving there to look for the shop & buy it, I'd rather pay the delivery fee to get it. I've bought some items from these online shops (mainly baby/nursing stuff) and found that the service, delivery, payment options and quality of products are up to my expectations.

Even if you don't fancy the idea of buying online, browsing through these websites and check out some beautiful stuff could be a good way to kill your time too.

See all the links I've shared on my side bar, enjoy browsing/shopping!

LIVE Concert @ Sunway Surf Beach

If you have tuned in to FM98.8 lately, you must have heard of the Live concert held at Sunway Surf Beach which involved Hong Kong, Taiwan & local singers on 7th Apr yesterday.

I was there with hubby and a friend and the crowd is massive (you can see from the picture, where you might thought it's another toll hike happening at Sunway, hahaha), because it's free, as long as you got the tickets given out by FM98.8 or through other means.

The concert itself is nothing much fantastic, but I personally like the venue & atmosphere. Sitting by the "beach side" while enjoying Live concert music under the star lite, it's something that I've never experienced before. Of course it'd be more wonderful if minus half of the crowd, and if they can start the show on 7pm as shown on the ticket (they only let us in at 8.30pm!!)

Kluang Station Cafe

You may not know where is Kluang but I bet you must have heard of Kluang Station Cafe? I was in Kluang today with hubby, Dillon & father-in-law in the occasion of "Ching Ming" and this is also the 1st time I step into Kluang town.

We tour to the actual Kluang Rail Station and there I saw the "original" & 1st ever Kluang Station Cafe, which is so small & so obsolete. I thought to have a coffee there but too bad it's not opened, or maybe I think it has ceased operation now. But according to my father-in-law, it used to be a popular hang out place back in those days. I should have took the picture but too bad I didn't do it.

Anyway, we end up having drinks at one of the typical kopitiam and we've ordered 1 kopi, 1 teh, 1 teh ais, 1 barley & 1 set of toast, guess how much the bill is? RM3.50 only!! Unbelievably cheap huh?

Good Friday & B'day of Kuan Yin

Today (7th Apr) is a holy day for both Christians & Buddhists. For the Christians, it is Good Friday; for the Buddhists, it is the birthday of the Goddess of Mercy or Kuan Yin.

The papers have described this joint celebrations as an “extremely rare occurrence”. According to YiJing calculations, Good Friday coincided with Kuan Yin’s birthday twice in more than 200 years, from 1906 to 2127 which means we will have to wait another 20 years before these two important religious dates coincide again. Is this even rare than having the GongXiRaya or DeepaRaya?

Anyway, the next occurrence will be on March 26, 2027 and I would be 48 years old by then!! Would I be still writing blog that time? Hahaha maybe my son also start writing one loh..... :D

Bloggers to get registered

Our government has now actually think of asking the bloggers to get registered to prevent the spread of malicious content on the Internet.

Read more on today's news on The Star

Bloggers form grouping
Waste of time to register

Wonder what impact would it bring if this is enforced.

Sleepy Friday

What a sleepy Friday morning for me, all because of the Monopoly Game. Not quite sure why, but when I am pregnant, I became more addicted to PC games, same thing happened during my 1st pregnancy where I can spend endless hours sticking my head in front of the PC & play games.

Last night I only played one round of Monopoly and that already took me an hour, which is why I'm so restless today, hahaha. ^_^

I found that I enjoyed playing it on PC than on the Board and apparently it is ranked the Top 3 board games on PC nowadays. Try it out yourself and discover the fun of it, hehehe, but be cautious that you might end up having sleepless nights......

Here are the links to download the trial version:
PC Game Zone
Download Free-Trial