Scary Scent

One night, I was walking in the kitchen, at the back of our house, when I smelt a nice and flowery scent. The hair at the back of my neck stood immediately.

Calmly I walked back to the living room. Mami was there, trying to get Yiyi to sleep in the 'buaian'.

Papi : Eh? Mami, I smelt something in the kitchen.

Mami : What? The butter cake, is it?

Papi : I am not sure. A flowery flagrance. Like 'kemenyan'.

Mami : *gulp* Aiya, you ah, don't scared me lar.

Papi : Come, come, we check it out.

Mami : Don't want lar, scare lar.

We put Yiyi to sleep first. Then ...

Papi : Eh? Mami, come lar, see where it's coming from. (I was trying to get her to help me, because she has a more sensitive sense of smell)

Mami : Don't want lar, I scare lar. You go lar.

Papi : Come lar. Don't worry, I am around mah. (ahem... a hero like that)

Mami : *reluctantly* OK lar, OK lar...eeee....yer...

At the kitchen...

Papi : See...got or not *sniff sniff*

Mami : No. *sniff sniff sniff*

Papi : How about here *sniff sniff* Ah! here here...

Mami : *sniff sniff* Ya hor.

We were searching and searching but couldn't make out the source of the scent: the washing machine powder, the floor liquid cleaner, the softener.

Then I looked into the dustbin. A soap paper wrapper was in there. Immediately I picked it up, brought it close to my nose, and immediately I recognised the scent. It was the soap wrapper. Aiya! Give Mami a scared only lar.

Baking a Cake

After reading Lilian's post about the butter cake, Mami decided to give it a try. She have been bugging me for a few days to bake the cake.

"Eh? We bake tonite ah? Want or not?" She said.
"Can. Up to you lor. You got all the ingredients?"
"Errr...I need UHT milk and Castor Sugar."
"OK, later we go buy"

Later at the shop, we were looking for castor sugar, but can't seems to find it.

"Eh? Papi, what's castor sugar ah? Cannot find leh."
"Huh, don't know. See that side got or not?"
"No lar, normal sugar can ah?"
"Cannot lar. Neh..this icing sugar lar."
"Cannot one, icing sugar is not castor sugar lar."
"Aiya, same one lar, different name only mah."
"No, no, no, must castor sugar."

But luckily we found it in another shop. Then we went straight back home. At home, we were arguing what to use to mix and whip the butter and sugar!

"Mami, we use this fork lar."
"You lar! I asked you to buy that wire-whipper, you don't want."
"Aiya, this one also can."
"I think that one easier to whip mix mah. Here try this wooden spatula."
"Maybe I can tied several forks together with a rubber band and...."
"Hah! You try lar, you go ahead and try!" *wave spatula*
"OK, OK, wooden spatula...." *whip mix whip gulp*

Since we don't have a kitchen weigher, everything we 'agak-agak' wan.

"Mami, the sugar how many grams?"
"Eh...230 grams"
"This pack is 450 grams, so about half the pack lar."
"Errr...about that lar"
"OK, so I pour until the letter A on the packet here" *pour ...check...pour....check*


Before

"OK, Lilian said preheat 180 deg C"
"How we know the oven is 180?"
"Errr...until the power light go off kua?"
"Sure or not?"
"Aiya, we switch on for 5 mins, then we put it in lar."

So we waited, and waited, and waited.

"Wah!! Smell so nice!!"
"eh...how come still white-white like that"
"yalor hor, tambah another 5 minutes"

Finally....


After

So that's our first time baking a cake! ha ha ha..But why the skin kedut kedut one ah?
So how's the taste of the cake, you ask? Delicious! *kembang* although it doesn't taste like a butter cake. Taste more like a egg-flavoured cake, but still nice. I think not enough flour lar.

"Eh Papi, if the cake nice, I bake wan lar. If the cake not nice, then you said you bake ar?"
"Ini macam pun ada kah?? OK lar, OK lar"

'L7'

We were pumping petrol when a 5 series Beemer rolled in.

Papi : Fuiyo! Mami, Mami see quick.

Mami : What?! BMW only mah.

Papi : See properly, look at the plat number. Wow!!



L7, which is arranged in a way that resembles a rectangle, with two diagonal corners opened. A plate number starting with an 'L' belongs to vehicles registered in Labuan. But I think this is an old plate, transfered from an older vehicle to this brand new BMW.

Misai

Boy : *run run* Mommy! Mommy!!

Mommy : What is it, dear?

Boy : Mommy, I saw Daddy's bird.

Mommy : What?!

Boy : I saw Daddy's 'bird bird'. He went 'shi-shi' and didn't close the door. So I went in and saw it.

Mommy : Ha ha ha .. what so surprising? You also have 'bird bird' mah. he he he

Boy : Different la, Mommy.

Mommy : Same lar.

Boy : No lar Mommy, Daddy's one black color one, and got misai!

Mommy : ROTFLOL!!

misai : Malay meaning mustache (or moustache)

Blogger vs Haloscan

Some of the bloggers out there found out that some of the comments posted on their free Haloscan have been disabled or hidden by Haloscan. Me included. This is because, as their normal member (free), we are only entitled to 4 months of database space. Comments older than 4 months old will be archived and stored into another database "to keep the performance of the site at an acceptable level". So I guess there's no free lunch, is there?

Check out Haloscan FAQ for more info.

That's why I am re-activating my Blogger commenting system. At this point of time, it's free and has no limit on storage space or time period. The commenting system has also been updated and now it supports pop-up window. Just like Haloscan. But still you cannot edit comments made on your blog. Not that I intend to anyway :) However, you can delete comments.

So why didn't I use Blogger Comments in the first space?

Actually I didn't like the interface (without the pop-up). It was a bit confusing and readers were forced to click on certain links at least twice. They still do. But now with pop-up, problem solved. But I still prefer Haloscan simple interface.

Another thing I don't like is there is no 'control panel' or 'management centre' for managing comments. A place where you could view all comments, see who made them, reply to comments, delete comments, ban IPs etc. BTW, can you ban a certain people from commenting using Blogger Comment? With Blogger, I have to go page by page to reply to comments. *sigh* Free and unlimited mah, so cannot complain lor.

So, as you can see, at the bottom of this post, I have two commenting system, a Haloscan's, and a Blogger's. Please us the Blogger Commenting System to leave your comment :) I am leaving Haloscan in, until I can figure out how to retrieve back my old comments. (No escape lar, have to pay already). And I will still be using their Trackbacks (coz Blogger don't have Trackback and Haloscan seems like no limit for Trackback). Eventually, Haloscan will have to go, unless they come up with something ;)

CNY Open House

Last week...

GrandPa : Yiyi, Yeh-Yeh bring you to see lion dance, want or not? Tung Tung Chiang!

Yiyi : Ah...ah...

GrandPa : Eh, where got lion dance ah?

Papi : neh, this Friday, MCA is holding the state-level Chinese New Year open house mah.

GrandPa : Is it? Where?

Papi : Near the 3K complex, the swimming pool leh. Start 7.30pm. Got makan makan some more.

GrandPa : OK, let's go!

Friday...

GrandPa : Wah, Yiyi, did you see that lion there! Wah!!

Yiyi : Ah....ah....

GrandPa : Did you see that? Wah, got people dancing lar.

Yiyi : Ah....ah....

GrandPa : Wow! Look at that! 24-drums lar...fuiyo!

Yiyi : Ah....ah....

GrandPa : Look! Look!! The lion jumped so high! Wah!!

Yiyi : Ah....ah....

GrandPa : Fuiyo!! Look at that! Amazing, the fireworks! Yiyi, did you see that!!

Yiyi : Ah....ah....

Mami : *whisper* Eh? Papi... I think your dad is having more fun than Yiyi lar.

Papi : yalor he he he...

I have some pictures, but I left my digicam cradle at home. *sigh* Will try to load tomorrow. :)

Celphone Offenders

Siren : Beee....Booo....Beee.....Boooo....

AhBeng: *talking on hand phone* Aiya, ma-tar ah! I call you back ah!

Police : Encik, Tolong matikan enjin.

AhBeng: Apa salah, latuk?

Police : Encik telah melakukan kesalahan kerana menggunakan handphone semasa memandu.

AhBeng: Talak lar, encik. Mana ada?

Police : Saya nampak tadi semasa saya memotong encik dibelakang sana.

AhBeng: Bukanlah encik. Tadi saya bukan talipon lar.

Police: Apa yang awak buat?

AhBeng: Saya kolek telinga lar.

Police: Hah? Apa?

AhBeng: Yalar, saya tadi bawak keleta itu punya jam, saya mya telinga manyak itchy lar, saya cari cari barang mau korek talak jumpa, jadi saya pakai itu saya punya handphone lar. Itu antenna panjang mah. Some more itu antenna ada lampu punya, dia boleh kasi itu dalam terang lar, lagi senang mau kolek. Latuk mau try kah?

Police : *pengsan*

Today in The Star:

Ying Yong Slippers

Papi : Ha ha ha .... hey, look.

Mami : What?

Papi : Your slippers, ha ha ha!

Mami : Huh?



She wore two different slippers to work yesterday. And the funny thing was the slippers were of different type, one with the Y shape strap (the middle strap goes in between your toes) aka 'selipar jepun' and the other is the slip-in type.

She's so gonna get me for this....he he he *run away and hide from Mami*

Ying Yong : Cantonese which means two of the opposite type, like yin and yang.

Things happened for a reason.

Sometime, it's amusing how things work themselves out. It's amazing how unrelated events can tied up together to give us a big surprise!

As you all know, some of our electrical appliances were damaged due to some problems with our electrical system, including our Astro unit. So yesterday, we tried to get a Astro technician to look into it.

We have the number of the Astro technician who came and install our second unit 6 months ago. I got his card, put it into my shirt pocket (that was the last thing I remember) and went for work. Reaching the office, I wanted to call him and look for the card. But it was gone. I lost it. I have no idea how I lost it, or where I lost it.

Not sure what to do, we came up with two choices:
1. Call the electrical shop from where we bought our Astro, or
2. Call the air-con shop around the neighbourhood.

We decided to call the air-con shop around the neighbourhood, to see whether they provide Astro servicing. Surprisingly, they do provide the service and asked me to call their sub-con. I called the gentleman, and made an appointment with him.

So at the agreed time, we went back, and wait for him. Half and hour later he arrived. He walked in, and his face expression changed immediately. I noticed it and felt weird, but I proceeded to greet him. Mami was behind me, when suddenly she blurted "Eh?!! Aren't you BigBro's BIL??". He too, was taken by surprised to see us. He still remember Mami.

Big Bro is Mami's closest friend from college. He treated her like his sister and she treated him like his brother. Mami's was quite close with his family back in college, but then, later, with work commitment and family, they didn't keep in touch for many many years. We also met his BIL a few times. Mami was quite close to his kids back then.

"Wah so many year never met lar"
"Yalor"
"Last time I remember your son only 5 years old ah"
"5 years old? Now Form 1 already lor"
"Hah??! Form 1? Wah! That 7-8 years already ah?"

We chatted for a while. He fixed our Astro in no time. Got a special discount as well, he he he.. And it turned out, he's also an experienced electrician. And we are having him to check our internal wiring and to install some lightning protection.

If I didn't lost the Astro technician card, we would never meet him. If we didn't call the air-con shop, but instead, call the electrical shop (which is the more sensible thing to do), we would never meet him either.

Sometime, things happened for a reason.

Angpow

Mami : Wah, my BIL kaya already.

Papi : Why?

Mami : He got a big angpow!

Papi : From who?

Mami : From his sub-con lor.

Papi : How much?

Mami : RM5000!!

Papi : WHAT?!?! RM5000?!

Mami : Kaya lor, RM5000, you know.

Papi : Aiya, construction line is like that one. I think we got into the wrong field lar. Last time the whole family went to China, also some sub-con sponsors right?

Mami : Yalor he hehe...

Papi : But then not simple one, the sub-con will expect some return as well. You scratch my back, I scratch yours.

Bad Luck

What a way to start the year of the cock....

I have been having a series of bad luck events since 2 weeks ago.

A few days before Chinese New Year (CNY), the external unit of my air conditioning unit in my master bedroom went 'kaput'. Being CNY and the holiday season, and as the compressor has a 5-years warranty, we didn't managed to get the service centre because they already 'close-shop' for the CNY. But we finally got to them yesterday, and it will take them 3 working days to process our complaint and then only they can take action. So for the time being, as for the past 1 week, we have to withstand the heat!

Two days before CNY, we headed home to pack our stuff to balik 'kampung' (My kampung is in USJ he he he), only to find there was a blackout. After a heavy downpour, four of the houses in the same row had no power. We called TNB, which they responded in half an hour. And power was restored almost immediately. I normally disconnect all power outlets and switch off all electrical appliances during a blackout to prevent damages by power surge. When the power was restored, we switched on a couple of lights to confirm the power is back. Then only we went around the house to switch on the electrical appliances one by one. The nightmare began when we tried to switch on the living room lights.

"Pop! POP!!"

The lights exploded! It's those lighting with 3 light bulbs on it. We have 3 of them, so a total of 9 fluorescent light bulbs. Casualty No.1. As we were late and rushing to go to my parent's house, we simply did a quick check on other major equipment and left.

Second day of CNY, we came back again to do some packing to go to Mami's hometown. We tried to switch on the Astro for some music, but all we get is "Service Currently Not Available". Weather was fine, and the decoder is still responsive. A quick check revealed that my satelite signals is 0. Something's wrong with signal receiving, either the satelite dish or the splitter. Casualty No. 2. Again we were rushing to leave for Malacca, so we put is aside to check when we come back.

Fourth day of CNY, we finally came back from Malacca. I decided to do some troubleshooting with my Astro. We have another decoder unit in my bedroom, with a small TV. I switched on the TV and ..Booommm!! The TV exploded! Casualty No. 3.

That night, we decided to sleep in the living room because it was too hot for Yiyi in my bedroom, especially with the air-con out. In the living room, we smelt something burning, thinking it was from the fried TV. We were wrong.

I switched on our living room ceiling fan. But when I wanted to change the speed of the fan, using a remote, the fan did not respond. It didn't even respond to the Off signal. Immediately we knew where the burnt smell was from. It was from the fan. Casualty No. 4.

But the killer came yesterday. We suspected high voltage being the problem. And if high voltage is the problem, we could make some claims to TNB to compensate our losses. So we called TNB to have them to check it out. They came, with experts, technicians, crane and all, took more than an hour to check. So what did they find? Loose wiring in the house, in my DB board, damn!. Which means it was an internal wiring problem and in this case, was not TNB's fault. Which also means we have to bear all the losses ourselves.

There goes our angpow money! *sigh*

Happy Chinese New Year

Papi, Mami, Yiyi and Family would like to wish you all a Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Tuan Nien Fan

Tuan Nien Fan or the Reunion Dinner is the meal (lunch, late lunch or dinner) that a Chinese family have during the Chinese New Year's eve. All members of the family will go back home (or try to) to have this reunion dinner, which is normally held at the 'ancestral home': the main home of the eldest member in the family.

Every year we went back to my parent's home to celebrate Chinese New Year. Our 'balik kampung' journey normally take us about 5 mins of journey as their house is located near our home.

Early in the morning, my mom would wake up early to prepare the 'tuan nien fan'. Among the dishes that she will normally cooked are chicken, fish, prawn, stuffed chilli, and vegetable. Her cooking is normally a combination of Hainanese and Hakka dishes.

Hainanese Chicken Rice:

Boiled kampung chicken with fragant rice.

Special Hakka Chicken Sauce:

Fried onions and garlic with light soya sauce, thick, black soya sauce and oil.

Hakka Stuffed Chilli (ala Yong Tau Foo):

Fried Green Chilly stuffed with minced pork, fish and prawn.

Fried Prawn:

A simple prawn dish with only salt and garlic.

Mom's Special Fried Chicken:

Fried Chicken with mom's special recipe.

Steamed Fish:

Steamed fish with garlic and coriander.

Stir-fry Mixed Vegetables:

Stir-fry mixed vegetables, baby corn, mushroom, carrot, cauliflower, bean with chicken stock.

Chicken Soup:

Chicken Soup with button mushroom.

Tuan Nien Fan:


Yummy!!

Gong Xi Fa Cai !!

When we thought that we were going to have a not-so-happy chinese new year, suddenly things starting to look good.

Account Staff: *walk walk...stand in front of my cubible*

Papi : *look at Account Staff*

Account : *Search search...for something inside a big envelope*

Papi : *rub rub hand*

Account : *pull out a form...and a cheque!*

Papi : Yeay!!

Account : But the payslip is not ready ah.

Papi : No problem. This is more important.

Yeah, she can take her own sweet time to prepare the payslip, I don't mind. The most important, we got our money!

Thanks to all the reminders you guys have sent me, I proceeded to the bank, just downstair of the office, with my account book in my hand. The ATM was out, so have to queue lor. And the queue was exceptionally long! Whoa!

The money didn't stayed long in the account, went in fast, came out also very fast. As soon as I deposited the cheque, I have to withdrew the money out. *sigh* More things to buy, mostly gifts and presents.

Jom Shopping!!

Papi Mami will be away from Feb 8 till Feb 12. So to everyone out there:
Kong Hei Fatt Choi, Gong Xi Fa Cai, Kiong Hee Fatt Chai!
Long Mar Cheng San, Sang Yi Heng Long, Pou Pou Kou Seng!

Chinese Delicacies

One day, after taking a walk at the park, we took Yiyi back to my parent's house. We were exercising Yiyi, letting her do the walking.

Upon reaching home, we again put her down to let her walk in the house, but she refused to touch the ground. We know that she's just 'manja' (pampered) and wanted us to carry her around. But GrandPa and GrandMa think differrently.

GrandPa : Aiya, she tired already lar, the leg tired lar. (we know she's not because we have been carrying her)

GrandMa : Is it? Aiya tomorrow I have to cook some pig's trotter for her lar.

Papi : Huh?

GrandMa : Yalar, to make her leg stronger. Pig's trotter is good, you know. I just put a piece into her porridge.

Chinese has this concept "Yee Yeng Pou Yeng", cantonese meaning eating the parts of an animal will strengthen or improve the health of the same part in our body. For example, eating a pig's kidney will improve your kidney, eating a cow's heart will improve your heart etc...

I know this long ago. I remembered when I was sitting for my exams (SRP, SPM and STPM), one of the must-have delicacies that my mom made for me is the pig's brain.

Mom : Hah, drink this pig's brain soup. It will improve your brain.

Papi : But mom, pigs are stupid, aren't they?

Mom : Pigs are not stupid, is just that they don't use their brain often, so they look stupid. Since they don't use their brain often, so their brain is consider new and fresh lor. Eat lar.

Papi : *pinch nose and gulp* gulp gulp...

How does it taste? Like stale Tau-Foo-Fah. Yuk!!

A friend just told me that the Golden Rooster is a good year to have a baby. He asked me "Hey, where to get good tongkat ali?". I told him no need to go for tongkat ali. Just follow this Chinese concept. Eat more pig's dick, cow's dick or goat's dick. If possible, try elephant or horse.

But do avoid the testicles. Unless you want "tua lam pah". he he he...

Just Can't Wait - CNY!!

OK lar, this is a happy post as opposed to my sad post, earlier.

Yesterday, we were chatting about Chinese New Year over dinner, while eating mandarin orange. I was a bit excited. So...

Mami : Wah, looks like you like Chinese New Year very very much, like a kid like that.

Papi : Yalar, it's a festival mah.

Mami : For me, it's normal only, just another public holiday.

Papi : Eh? Best you know, can eat keropok, eat kueh, can drink carbonated drinks, can gamble, can watch TV, can play mercun, got mandarin orange. Syiokk!

Mami : ha ha ha

Papi : But last time, lagi best. Because can get angpow some more...he hehe...

Some of the thing I enjoyed most is the mandarin orange. Sweet and juicy, if put inside the fridge to cool it, wah!! Syiok man!

Also this is the only period when my mom will fried keropok for us. Actually it's for visitors, but normally me and my brother (and sometime my dad) will 'whack' first before the visitors. She normally fried prawn crackers, fish cracker, and sometime, squid cracker.

Other 'must-have' in my home is cashew nuts, assorted pckled fruits (asam jeruk), sweets, sunflower seed/kuaci (red type), a type of biscuit made of peanuts, peanuts (cap tangan), a sweet crunchy oily cracker called "Mat Fung Tau" (beehives?), and kueh kapit.

Speaking of kuaci, every year my mom will share her, or rather her mom's (my grandma lar), kuaci story. We were told that our grandma was actually a champion kuaci eater. She had a unique way of eating kuaci. She scooped a handful of kuaci and put it all in her mouth! All with the shell. Then seconds later, she would spit out the shell one by one, all nicely cracked, leaving only the kuaci inside her mouth. "ptui....ptui....ptui....ptui...." She will also opened her mouth to show everyone the kuaci inside her mouth.

Then she told us about my uncle (my mom's youngest brother) who loves kuaci but was too small to de-shell them. So what did he do? He asked my grandma to do it for him, of course, old grandma style.

"ptui...ptui...ptui...ptui....."

No Money

Happy Chinese New Year?

:(

Our salary (for the month of January) is late. Although this is not the first time, but since CNY is just around the corner, things have been quite tight financially, and some of us are getting pretty desperate.

"We are working hard to raise the money." the boss told us.

But we need money for the CNY. Clothing, food stuff, angpows. Aiyo, like that die lar.

Then, the GM told us this when we asked him about the salary.

"We will be getting it this Saturday."

Huh? Saturday? But we don't work on Saturday. That means, if all goes well (fingers crossed), we only get it on Monday! And if you don't bring your account book on Monday, then you will need to wait for 3 working days for the cheque to clear. 3 working days... Monday ... Tuesday .... Wednesday. Okay....hmmmm....

Wait a minute. Wednesday's a holiday, Chinese New Year. So is Thursday, and Friday. Arghhh...!!!

*make note to self: Bring Account Book to office on Monday*

Mami was thinking of taking leave on Monday, the 7th. But another colleague commented "Ha ha if you need the money, have to come to work on Monday!"

*sigh*

Congested

Selangor holiday, KL jam.
KL holiday, Selangor jam.
*sigh*

Today it's the Federal Territory day, so it's a public holiday for KL, Putrajaya, and Labuan. We wanted to go to Subang Parade during lunch time to do some shopping, but it was so congested that the cars were spilling out from Subang Jaya onto the Federal Highway!

Everywhere we turned was congested. So we ended up in my parents house, looking for Yiyi and had Cintan instant noodles instead.

We are planning for CNY shopping this evening. So hopefully we could sneak out early and avoid the rush hour crowd!