Holy Batman!!

We have bats in the house.

When we first moved in, there were bats up on the ceiling. But after the second nights, they were gone. Probably got scared by us moving in.

Then a couple of years back, they came back for a few days and then gone.

This time, they came back again and seems to refuse to leave. Aiyo...how ah? The noise is disturbing our sleep and it's beginning to smell too.

Over the weekend, my dad and I decided to climb up onto our ceiling and paid them a visit. There were more than 10, some still young. And the stench from the droppings were terrible. Despite our banging and prodding and a can of Ridsect, they just simply refuse to leave.

Mami : How ah?

My dad : I think I'll go up again and try to catch them.

Papi : I think you'll need gloves. If they bite you, you'll become a vampire.

Mami : Ha ha no lar, you watched too much 'kiong see' movie already. What can we put to scare them ah?

Papi : I know!!

Mami : What?

Papi : Garlic!!

Mami : Garlic? Can meh?

Papi : Can!! You see those dracula movies or not. They usually hang garlic around their neck and in the house, so the dracula won't hurt them. Dracula scared of garlic wan!!

Mami : LOL!! Aiya!! You ah...

Talk about 'Ng Fook Lam Mun' but this 'Fook' (bats) is causing us sleepless nights!! *sigh*

p.s. Garlic won't work on bats.

CNY eve

Back to work today. sigh..

So, what did we have for tuan-nien lunch?


Kampung 'white' (steamed) chicken...


..and hainanese chicken rice.


Braised mutton


Mixed vege


Butter Prawn, cooked by yours truly :)


Stuffed Chilli ala Yong Tau Foo (this is authentic hakka style with fish, prawn, meat and salty fish, yummy!)


Stuffed mushroom

And the star of the day...


Steamed lobster!


And some sauces to go with it. On the left is hainanese chilly sauce while on the right is onion with soy sauce, hakka style.

At night we went to FGS Dong Zen temple in Jenjarom, Kuala Langat, Selangor for their lantern and flora festival. It was the first day and the lotus was not even 'blossomed' yet, to reveal the sitting buddha inside. Officials were seen busy with the opening ceremony of the Lotus Pagoda.


Lanterns


More lanterns


Yiyi and Little Buddha

If you planned to go to the FGS Dong Zen CNY lantern and flora festival, remember, parking is free there. There's a huge parking space just next to the temple (on the left of the temple). Ignore those thugs that seems to direct you to their parking space, and then charged you RM5. These thugs were trying to make a quick buck and were trying to block traffic leading to temple. While we were there, 2 groups tried to block our car, and I simply ignore them. Follow the RELA officials and they will direct you to their free car parks. I even made a complaint to the RELA official, and when we left, we saw the police taking the thugs for a little 'talk'. hehehe...

For CNY, we went to Sitiawan and Taiping, but that's another entry.

Rejected

I think the white envelope came in yesterday. It was in our mailbox this morning. Mami was out fetching Yiyi to her kindy.

I took it out from the mailbox, along with a CNY greeting card and some junk flyers. In front of the letter read "Private and Confidential", addressed to Mami. It was from the company she went for an interview more than 3 weeks ago.

Bad news. It was a reject letter.

Mami was really hopeful on this one. Really looking forward to it. When I passed the letter to her, immediately she knew what it's about. And I can see she was really dissapointed. Tears were welling up in her eyes, but she kept it in.

I think part of the rejection is because of her experience. It was a junior position, and they are looking for fresh graduates. Although Mami has agreed to the pay cut (and a big one too), I guessed they just weren't comfortable with it. Furthermore it was also a job of a different industry. A completely different industry. So it's difficult to match her experience with their requirements. The only reason why she tried it was because there's a friend working in there and her department was looking for someone to help her. So she'll be happy if Mami could join her and help her. But I guessed, the boss didn't think so.

Don't worry, Mami. Sometime we'll run, sometime we'll walk and then, sometime, we'll fall.
That's life. We just pick ourselves up, and move on. Life goes on.

If we couldn't get this one, we'll get the next one.

A better one.

I promise :)

Dong Dong Chiang!!

Oh boy, oh boy!!

3 more days to Chinese New Year. Yay!! But it's not the new year day itself I am looking forward too, but the eve. This year, Chinese New Year's eve is on Saturday, 17 Feb 2007.

If you don't know already, the Chinese New Year's eve is the reunion day and the day we'll have the tuan-nian dinner (or brunch, lunch, supper...) . On this day, my mom will cook the bestest, yummy dishes. There's chicken, fish, prawns, vege, authentic hakka yong tau foo, and of course, hainanese chicken rice! I'm Hainanese mah. Thinking of the chicken rice makes me droolll...

We normally started the day early. Being the only cook in the house (and no daughter to help her hehehe..), my mom will prepare all the dishes. My brother, Mami and I will help her and at the same time help her with the house chores.

We normally eat around 2pm. My dad normally comes home around noon from his shop. He works half-day on this day. The rest of the day is just resting and relaxing, watching TV. This year, we'll probably go jalan-jalan at some shopping or to some temples to see lanterns and flowers.

At night, we'll give angpows (yak-sui money) to each other. I still gave to my parents, Mami and of course, to Yiyi. And my brother too. (Oii!! Cepat kahwin lar!!) . Then more TV watching, and snacking (keropok, BBQ meat, Coke, kacang, crispy honeycomb cookie, cheese tart, chocolate, mandarin oranges......)

Then midnight.......Happy New Year!! Kong Hey Fatt Choy!!!

Another offer

Thank you! Thank you all for the advices and tips!

I must say your comments really made me re-think the whole thing. Of course, Mami was there too. So, I have responded to the offer and I have put in a good package since they have asked me for my expectation. If it worked out, then great lar. If it didn't, then I don't lose anything.

And then, there's the second call. This time from another company, our competitor. Actually my ex-supervisor is there now and thanks to him, he had gave me a rave review to his boss there. His boss and I spoke on the phone for a few minutes, the usual hello-are-you-interested-to-come-over chat. We have fixed an appointment after CNY to take this further.

Wow, 2 opportunities in a week. And it's gonna be tough, coz they are both something I wanted to do. Really hope this turns out positively.

And oh yeah...Happy Valentine's Day!!

To go or not to go

Yeah, that is the question.

I just received a call for an ex-employee of my current company. Apparently his big multinational company is looking for someone and he wanted me to join him. The pay will be good, and I think the benefit would be very attractive, but the work will be very hard. And lots of traveling too.

Aih....decision...decision.

Lately, my company is going off-course, a lil' bit, and they are losing focus on the core business. Actually, one of the main reason this company was started a few years ago was to break away from a parent company and to mainly concentrate on this particular business that we are in. At that time, we felt that we need to be more focus and to take away all other (unperforming) business that was bagging us down. Thus this company was born.

But now, looks like they are going the opposite way and going backwards. Going back to the old ways, trying to take on something that is totally unrelated to our field. And the worst is, they started to neglect the core business, causing some lost opportunities along the way.

But on the other hand, this company has been treating me real good. And there is a sense of belongings and familiarity that makes it a difficult decision to leave. And step into a world of unknown.

Maybe I should take the step? Or not?

Mami has a simpler thought. "If the pay is good, go lar!", she said over the phone.

Aiyo, how lar....

So I don't really what to make of this offer that came this morning. Is this good news?

To go or Not to go leh?

Lauya Pencil

Yiyi : Mami, Mami!!

Mami : Yes, dear.

Yiyi : Mami! This pencil is not good.

Mami : Why?

Yiyi : Spoiled already, cannot use. Lauya pencil lar.

Mami : Come, let Mami have a look.

Yiyi : Spoiled already lar, lauya wan.

Mami : *check pencil* Ok ak? The pencil is ok mah.

Yiyi : No lar, when I draw with it, it will draw outside the line wan. It doesn't follow the line wor. No good lar, spoiled already.

Papi : LOL!! That wan not pencil lauya lar, your hand lauya lar. kih kih kih...

Yiyi : No lar, the pencil lauya lar.

Kids do have a really interesting perspective.

She proceeded to show me how 'lauya' the pencil is. hahaha... She is showing some improvement in holding pencils, drawing and writing. Her hands are getting stronger and she has better control of the hands.

lauya : lousy.

Teacher Yiyi

Yiyi : Okay, everybody!

Papi, Mami : *chat chat*

Yiyi : Be quiet!

Papi, Mami : ...

Yiyi : Now, what is this?

Papi : I don't know, what is that?

Yiyi : This is a purple dolphin. Everybody say "purple dolphin"

Papi, Mami : Purple dolphin!!

Yiyi : Good. Okay, everybody say "A - Apple".

Papi, Mami : A - Apple!!

Yiyi : Good!! *clap clap*