More of CNY........

Finally....my PUSSY WILLOW was up & ready to receive & welcome the new year !!! After several attemps to find a nice one, we failed until again, we saw them in IKEA (we bought it here too last year)!! I also wonder if it was pure bias.....anyway....at least it managed to convince us to pay!! But Ikea was so "kiam sap" this year, 1 stalk was just too little for the eyes so in the end, we bought 2 stalks and it looked like this.......... eyes "baru syiok" !!

CLOSE UP.... CLOSE UP.....

NICE Ah ???

Then I was taken by a surprise when I saw this in IKEA...

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A supposingly furniture store has became so commercialise that it also tried to reap some extra profit from the happening of the festives. Nevertheless, i didn't even give a second thought when my eyes caught the sight of it & there goes 2 containers were seen swipe into our trolley.

Btw, anyone know what is "nga ku" in english?

You see....not only me that do not know what was the name, even IKea also don't know....hahaha !!
Anyway, it was not just me who is a super fans of 'nga ku' chips, my boys too inherited the same taste bud! And i really mean seriously love...... to the extend of both able to finish the whole container in less than half a morning !!

These chips were bought last Sunday & they were already gone by Wed that followed(i think) & that was with me hiding it here & there....or else ??? I must go & hunt for some more now!!!

I also found these in Ikea, 3 little vases that were so sweet & captured my heart too.......

I NEED MORE RED IN MY HOUSE ......

SOME MORE......

OK......ENUF !!

The other afternoon, my huby went to do some hamper shopping for his customers. Since he was already in the hypermarket, he grabbed the good opportunity for a peaceful shopping without our 2 monkeys! And obviously it was to fulfill the festive needs!

So, he rang me......to ask what i want him to buy. Here are my answers:

- get some can fruits for cordial;

- chicken essences, lo hong ka;

- "lin kou";

- get some snacks/junk food for "gift exchange" during CNY house visiting;

- get me some shandy beer.....

then since i can't think of anything more specific, i just told him to go ahead with whatever he thinks appropriate!!

Of course the ultimate outcome was another surprise to me....with my mouth wide opened!!!

As i dug into the packs of plastic bags.....I kept saying.........

oh my god, oh my, oh god, oh no, aiyo........

Lets Check them out.....

Gosh, such ugly "lin kou".....

(i) my can fruits turned out to be 2 cans of longan, laici & sea coconut each (total 6 cans).....want me to die of diabetic meh?

(ii) i only expect 1/2 dozen of shandy beer but the quantity came back as double ....hopefully there are guest out there to help finish them!!

(iii) next... don't know what mushrooms & clams = also 2 cans each....i know these are meant to be given away as gift but if i were there doing the shopping, i would have cut all the quantity into half !!

That's not the end yet........next are the loots of junkies !! Again, these are also meant to be given away BUT BUT BUT i specifically mentioned to him to get something that we are keen to eat ourselves...just in case, in the end the junkies are not given away!!

But then, i would have to say probably we both are different in some way or another, bcoz his choices weren't the same as mine at all. I think if i was there doing the shopping together with him, quarrels & disputes between husb v wife are definitely inevitable !!!

These are the junkies that i wouldn't likely eat.....

Well, well, well... despite all......i was actually spared of the tiring & boring CNY shopping...... should i still complaint??

No no no....i absolutely should NOT, i just thought it was an amusement that i should share it here,....men today can be so different heh, no? hahaha !!!

Btw, don't you think this is a blurdy "blood-sucking" festival ??? After this CNY, i'm sure everyone has a deep burn of hole to the pocket!!!

Did you see a pagoda in KLCC?? Looks like they made good use of the elevator heh, no? This is the place that i would pass-by everyday (where my office is nearby)....so i thot i should just snap them & keep here for you (if u don't happen to drop by)!!

Btw, i will be leaving the city for hub's hometown on Tues afternoon....hope it'll be a 'not-so-jam' & smooth journey!!

An early GONG XI FA CAI to everyone.....just in case i'm not able to come back for another posting before the big day.

Our CNY Snack

I copied this from here. I almost instantly grabbed the idea and do it as i know my boys love to eat seaweed. Furthermore, this brilliant idea is just so easy to adopt. And since my CNY mood is tentatively still high, i had better do it quick before the wind change its' direction.....

Just place the seaweed on the popiah skin (oops...i even forgot to apply some egg white).

fold the skin over to cover the seaweed

cut them into smaller pieces & fry lah......

Here is the outcome, i was afraid they might turn soggy very fast but i was wrong, they were very crispy, hence good for munching in front of the TV !!

Looks & taste good, u know........

Place them into these container......looks even better, no?

Can sell ar?? any interested buyer ahh??

But u know what....once my boys tried them, they said :

"emm, ok" while nodded their head...........

then after a while, i started seeing them 'digging' for the seaweed hiding between the crispy popiah skin....and threw away the skin......'faint' or not?? Aduh....'kik sam' only, like that business 'tak laku' lah !!

"Sin Nien Lai Lor" / New Year Coming....

I was brought up in the city thus had celebrated CNY the city's way all along. Feeling of excitement started as early as the 30th nite i.e. The Eve of CNY. Back then when i was a child, mom still practised the "Welcoming of the Prosperity God session" or in cantonese, we called it "Chip Choi San Yeh"! To me it was just another praying session. So there placed the praying table outside the house compound with various food lying on the table. Out of all, the one & only that i had fond memories of was none other than the "Loh Hon Chai"/a type of vegetarian dish with mixtures of veges+glass noodles! Mom would cooked a big pot of that firstly to serve the prosperity god & secondly knowing that we (all my siblings) loved it so much! The praying session usually started at midnight. As soon as mom finished the praying session, she would announced to us that we can start to eat the "Loh Hon Chai". By that hour when we were all still well awake, our stomach would have been very hungry.....so there we rushed happily for a big bowl of it! That was one of the childhood thing that i missed so much.....

Then, the following few days of CNY would be spent visiting family members, relatives & friends. It was the time, we girls got very anxious & excited as we changed ourselves into RED new clothings, received red packets while counting the dollar & cents, stuffed ourselves over with the cookies & not forgetting "GAMBLE "......yes it was our family culture that during CNY, everyone got the licence to gamble.....the elderly folks would seen engaged with 'mahjong' while the young adults as well as the older kids were seen fooling around with 'black jack'!

Living as a chinese, the wife is expected to be part of the husband's family celebrating CNY. This was particularly so when it comes to reunion dinner.

So UNFORTUNATELY, since my parents has only 5 daughters, the impact was that all their 4 married daughters would be celebrating CNY with the in-law family (at least from reunion dinner to 1st day of CNY).

For those that are lucky enough to have their in law staying near their parents, they could just hop over to their parents' place & continue the celebration after the 1st CNY.

But i wasn't that lucky......in the sense that my in-law stayed as far as 3 states away from PJ! We will usually depart for huby's hometown one day prior to our reunion dinner and spent at least the next 3 days of CNY in the 'boring' hometown. By the time, we head back to PJ, most likely than not, the atmosphere of CNY would have vanished !!! Worst still, it can even be time to start WORK !!! That's where hit me MOST....i haven't even got the time to visit my family members or relatives, not to mention friends!

As we left one by one, my parents were left with no choice but to eliminate all the CNY practices that she used to had....to the extend that she no longer even cook the reunion dinner as there is only going to be my unmarried younger sister eating with them. Instead, the 3 of them occassionally joined my other uncle's family for the reunion dinner. It was such a heartbreaking evolvement isn't it....sigh !!

Started since 5 years ago, my parents decided to spend the CNY with a vacation overseas. And i couldn't be more than happy for that. Coming CNY, they will be holidaying in Harbin, China.... wow, an extremely cold place, ehh!!

So, how then was celebration of the CNY in a 'kampung' with my in-law...that would be story for another day, ok?

Though, usually by the time we are back to our home, we are left without much time for partying, i still touch up our house with some CNY stuffs here & there......more so being a year of mouse this year, i just can't resist these cutie little mouse....(though i will ran my life away seeing REAL rat, hahaha)

"Dady mumy are so stingy"....the boys had been begging us to get them the "lion head" for a while but we were again stucked with the dilemma of whether to buy 1 or 2...in fear of the anticipated fight! But then, i was so surprised that evening after work, i was greeted with 2 little cheeky smiles.....yes, they got their LION HEAD finally !!! Boys, now you know how much your poh-poh love you...be good, will ya?

Would You Love Them ??

We went to this place a week or two before and snapped some photos that were worth keeping a record. Unfortunately, I've been keeping them & my mind only agreed to work(post them) now.....and due to the delay, i have forgotten what made up the reason on our trip all the way from puchong to kepong. Anyway, what I'm pretty sure was we had prawn mee there which was one sitting at the top priority of my favourite noodles. Besides prawn mee....... asam laksa, curry laksa, sarawak laksa, laksam johor and nasi lemak are all my beloved food...............tsk tsk tsk tsk, how sinful i am to my health heh?

I had a very weird story behind prawn mee & asam laksa which was at the courtesy of my dear mom. Since young, i had already love eating these noodles & EACH time.....AFTER i finished eating them, my mom would started to tell how "poisonous" were these noodles to our health & our skin !!

She would nagged & reminded me that the prawn mee soup was boiled using the prawn shells & most of the time, these shells were rotten & stink. Then for asam laksa, the fish bones that were used to boil the soup were harmful to the skin......eat too much, will grow rashes, pimples, acne's & etc etc. My mom even blamed it on these dishes which could result in certain cancerous illness

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As a result after each consumption, i would developed a very guilty feeling ....then my whole body/skin would started to feel itch.....not a real feeling but rather "imagination" only......arghh, can u imagine how terrible it is..........

Because of that, i do not simply go with the flow of my mind when attempting to eat these noodles.....i would definitely give it a second thought..........like... i would ask myself when was the last time i had it & so on........hahaha, how effective those nonsense tales from mom can be huh??

Having said all, i still 'love' eating them so so much, sei mou?

Come....lets take a look at the place, the external decor was simply eye-catchy, no?

This was the 'poisonous' prawn mee that i had gobbled without much thought over....yum yum!

I can't be feeding my boys these spicy prawn mee so we ordered "LAM MEE" for them with

CRABs (at their request)

Finally, here is the interior decor.........

so so so colourful........refreshing!!
everything in orange & yellow!

There was even a mini zoo up there...

See upstairs.......nice also hor!

Finally, once we left the restaurant, we discovered the outdoor seating..........oh my god, look at how romantic it was with the PURPLE colour curtain, hahaha
it was sure a good hang out place for young couple hor?

U like it also?

Lovely pictures to share

We visited Sungai Buloh again.....which is renowned as plants & flowers heaven. Huby has been pestering me for quite a while to agree with him rearing orchid. I was not so keen initially as i dislike the idea of the usage of charcoal in orchid. But since he has been "nice" that afternoon....and in addition to our needs to get a few more pots of 'prosperity plant', i went ahead with his plan.

Lot 28 was a "prosperity plant" heaven...

We love the prosperity plant bcoz it is one of the easiest to take care......at least so far, it was the longest that we could maintained!!

And the boys joined us this time by each of them picking by themselves a pot of baby prosperity plant to rear.....they were excited & treated them as their babies! I hope these plants would grow healthily together with the boys!

Next was our orchids.....i have to admit that they were indeed beautiful and i must say i was late falling in love with them !! Didn't know there were so many types & can be so colourful too.....

Some of the unexpected "picks" were none other than these "Chinese New Year" related plants... some of which i was not aware of the names:

$$$$$$ MONEY Plant

Bamboo something.......????

Another type of bamboo ...????????

Too bad, our "pussy willow" is still outstanding and we will continue to hunt for it !

Since I was busy & can't help snapping pictures of the beautiful flowers at the nurseries, it is just wise that i share them here.

Have a pleasure time viewing them!