Happy Valentine's Day !!

HELLO,

Here's wishing everyone (be it single, attached, married couple, young or old) be showered with

LOTS & LOTS OF LOVEssss
not only today but through out this 'ox'spicious year!!!

With the recent spending in the various greeting seasons/festives together with the current economy turmoil, i am in no mood of throwing any celebration for this unimportant date, hahaha
Thank god, we both has the same consensus of dropping this event from our celebration plan as there are simply many more important dates to cherish !!!
Some more, with those 'sponsors' made on my recent "vacations saga", i've no heart to ask for more....blek !!!

But am still glad that my 'ah beng' still took some trouble to get this super pinkish & sweety card, though he kept nagging how expensive cards are today, grrrrr .... :(

Wonder if it was because of this simple VALENTINE's BENTO i made for him yesterday??? it was rare to see him burst into a laugh over my bento
**wink wink**

*** so easy to please him ***
(left over rice, unfinished raisins by kids, long overdue sausages....tsk tsk tsk)

STAY LOVELY DOVEY today yeah.....

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY !!

It's a long weekend.....Happy Merdeka Malaysia !!!

We all have an extra day off on Monday so the family got itchy....cannot sit at home! Mind has been thinking where to go..........then the filial son thought of his kampung, guess kind of missed home kua.... ???!!! So a phone call was made to his dad back home....hinting an intention to go back which obviously triggered the excitement in his old dad!!!! The intention lasted for a while only to have it changed by huby!! He said as we need to make another trip back again in Nov-08 for a cousin's wedding, so maybe we should postpone this???

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So when huby conveyed the message to his dad, he sensed that his old dad was very upset as he claimed the grandpa wanted to see the twins so much.......

Unfortunately, the filial son got touched & melted by his dad's reaction, hence the soft hearted side in him override whatever decisions made earlier...... and so this trip is ON !!

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Will be departing this afternoon and will be putting up a nite in Penang basically for food & will let the twins visit the cousins there too for a few rounds of 'fight'.....haha

Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan !!

Happy Holiday to all too....

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MORE Cooking.....Baking.....and cooking !!

Hey, here are more works from this cupcakes newbie!! This attempt was nothing to hoo about as i only used pre-mixed cake flour so there shouldn't be any mistakes with the cake. I just wana play around with the decor part........haha, like playing masak-masak lidat !!! It was fun this round as the boys also helped me with the design & also placing of the chocs chips!! And it served us supper that night.....which is no good!!

My verdict: still looked very cartoon.........more practice to come !!

Btw, the above bake was during one of the weekday's night and during weekend, below was another try! It was meant to be chocolate mousse cake but obviously didn't really turned out as desired !! You see la...........before even can "walk steadily", i already wana "run" (simple cake also can't master, wana do mousse cake wor...)???

Here's a tales for you to laugh about..........

By the time it was done, it's was nearly 11pm & my old man was already obviously snoring away in the living hall!!! As i was excited over the bake, i woke him to give him a first bite over my mousse cake. He initially brushed aside my offer.

Only after i said "i made this mousse cake just for you la", then only he opened one side of his eye, sat up & opened his mouth (albeit reluctantly) as the guinea pig !! Munch.....and.....munch, he then commented : mousse cake ahh?? the chocolate top ok lar (fair enough as it was edible)..........then..........as he further commented, the bottom layer....what is it??? ........... rubber ahhh ??? alamak...... kik sei ngo la!!! Not believing him, i tried myself. Yes, it was indeed hard & bouncy!! I checked back the recipe & realised it was my own dumb cooking sense! As the recipe was written by one of the fellow blogger who might not be as detailed as the book writer, she only mentioned about the cake flour which i figured she must have expected a baker to understand that it would either mean pre-mix flour or if one is to use plain flour, the baking powder or the likes should be added along side which i obviously didn't do so. As I only BLINDLY followed........she said cake flour ma..........so i ma put plain cake flour lah........and it turned out 'rubber' loh !!!

But i wasn't about to give up. Since the chocolate mousse was edible, i immediately bake another sponge cake the following morning, separated the mousse layer & placed it on top of my freshly baked cake so the rest needless to say.....was already history, yum yum ok lah.......hahaha!!

what a baking tales, huh ??

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Next is our home made pizza for lunch !

Similar to the baked cracker version, this version uses whole meal bread instead. I added ham & sausage slices on top of the white cream & tomato pasta sauces!! Great finger food!!

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Saturday dinner was home-cooked.

My creative huby wanted to cook his creation of Japanese noodles!!

The idea came after fallen in love with a special 'soup' that my mom like to boil.

It was the "white carrot boiled with roast pork"/"pak lobak pou chue kuat thong"!!

Other important ingredients are red dates, dried scallop & dried 'hou si'/clam. Below was how it looks. The speciality about this soup was that the roast pork really managed to bring out a very strong & fragrant smell so much so that my boys could recognised this smell whenever my mom boiled this soup & my mom always happily told me how excited the boys could be when she boiled this!! My monkeys certainly has a taste bud similar to his dad.

Then by using this as the soup base, huby served it with the "Japanese soba mee" together with all other Japanese side dishes......check out below !!

Apart from the crab stick, steam fish cake & fried fish cake, i can't tell what were the rest so can't expect me to name them in japanese, ok!! And it was my dear lou kung that did the marketing of all these stuffs in Isetan before picking me up after work.........wuah, sound such a good man hor!!

With the super sweet & fragrant soup base, soft & smooth noodle...........arghh, u can imagine how much it suited all of our tastes!! Both mom & dad had big bowl of it until "liam-liam jui" !!

Finally, here is my dessert, just a far view of it as it wasn't very appealing to see the inner part.
Areas to improve on:

- reduce the barley quantity in the 1st layer
- to blend the corn before using it in the 2nd layer
- to eliminate the sago from the 3rd pandan layer

Once the above areas are 'worked on' properly, i believe this makes a very delicious & beautiful dessert !!!

Oooh my.....am i turning this into a food blog already??

Is this wise or silly.....???

Being already "lou fu lou chai" / long married couple, it's not easy at all to think of a gift for each other!! Too many occassions throughout the years we've been together so it was the case of ............. "ideas-exhaustion" !!!

--> if it's somethg that i could afford ...... then i know he will not be impressed !!!

--> if i want to impress him ...... then it would mean serious damage to my pocket !!!

Recently, he has bought some real expensive shirt (d horse which he has been admiring for awhile) but he kept his desire unfulfilled until the brand was on SALE !!

After his purchase he jokingly suggested that i sponsored him partially so i don't have to get him a b'day pressie!! i said for what.....if i'm only paying him money (for things he has already paid) ......simply means 'nothing' !!! So I ignore him...... he got to pay for his own luxury needs!!

After much thought, in the end, this was what i got for him.........

His reaction after unwrapping this was a very loud :

" kau chor " ???? / a mistake ????

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wah...kakakakakaka........

Since ultimately i had wanted for him a "good health " more than anything else, why not getting him this detoxifying drink?? isn't it a 'wise' gift & not silly as he claimed??

anyway, while he enjoyed the drink very much.... i felt my money worth spending !!!

The Begining of life at 4x.........

When Mag (my 4th sis) was asked how many candles she needed for the cake she purchased, she said " 4 "......and almost instantly, the cashier said: ooh, 4 years old ahh? Then Mag burst into a laugh....explaining that nope, it wasn't for a 4 years old kid BUT it was for her bro-in-law who turned 40 years old !! Needless to say they all laughed for a moment!

I agreed it was rare for someone at such age to even think about celebrating the occasion but somehow I reckon it was an important milestone we both achieved in our life/marriage as husb. & wife!! We've not just known each other for nearly 10 years, shared the happiness & sweetness in life but we'd also walked some dull moments together!! Like any other couples, we'd been thru lots of ups & downs too.

I somehow feel that it was the beginning of a new chapter in life when one strike an age that begin with number '4'....no more calling yourself 30s, hahaha !! Maturity & stability are 2 traits that will surely be associated to that age!! Attaining such age will certainly NOT lift the burden weight off the shoulder instead will only add on to it.....

From a very young age, i already had a thought that being in a man's role is always 'tougher' than that of woman's (though i know many would not agree with this)! I used to & still think that man has a "heavier" responsibility than a woman in many aspects towards the family & children !! If a man is able to 'provide' sufficiently (if not very good) to the needs of his family & children, people would generally said HE is a GOOD husb/father. Instead, if HE ever failed in this role, there might be a possibility that HE is not regarded as a GOOD one! And if a woman is MADE to support the family (even if it's her own willing), than people would said SHE doesn't has a good life b'coz naturally people would think that the husb. is incapable of fulfilling the role to support the family. The rule of thumb is such that man is meant to be the 'MAIN' bread winner of the family........arghhh, i'm kinda 'freak-out' thinking of it.......thank god i'm not......
And for that, "if" given a choice, i will never want to be a man (even in my next life)!!! You may find it silly or disagree but yes, that's what i think......how vulnerable?

And so far.......... i did count my 'blessing' that 'my man' has carried his role 'well'. Like any ordinary human, he does has his shortfalls but i'll just have to keep reminding myself that he has carried with him much of the family's burden thus leaving my shoulder nearly weight-less!!

To appreciate what he has contributed, i threw a little party at home to mark this special occasion and the achievements we'd attained thus far. Initially he was against the idea, but after i promised to bring down the headcount to only my immediate family members, he compromised!

We begin the day with a swimming session for the kids....it was a hot afternoon, so the dip was just nice !!

Very soon, the guests started to pour in....so first thing they do was 'makan' straight away!

Looks like a lot of food heh......but the menu was very simple only!

The main meal was my 'chiu phai'/signature home-made fried rice.

Then, as i don't trust my own cooking skill, i decided to back-up with something more secure....KFC lar!

Next is another important dish.......which coincidently turned out to be 'ok'! We sometimes need inspiration even in cooking, and if not for seeing this dish YOU cooked recently, i wouldn't be inspired to try it out, 'siu heng' wain steam prawn .....tq genie!!

The rest were sausages, fish balls, sandwiches, fruits salad & dessert!!

We even bottoms up these.............emm, that was high!!!!

I also got the kids some bubbles so that not only the adults enjoyed, the kids got themselves into much FUN too !!!

Got the kids to sing The Song to my 'lou kung'........

Finally it was the gift opening session................

Mic can get perfume relatively cheap (30% disc....that's d advantage of being a cabin crew) and shared the gift with Mag (who also bought the cake).

Then, my elder sis Ling got these stuffs for the b'day boy. Of course it was the notty wife's idea....i had earlier given them a wish list so that they don't end up getting unnecessary things for him. My sis was complaining that she had not even bought undies for her own huby.... luckily my bro-inlaw was sporting this time, he accompanied my sis with the shopping BUT was making much noise at the sametime.... as he claimed that he has NEVER got himself into such expensive 'wear' inside .......wa kakaka !!! Mom & youngest sis, Teng contributed the KFC meals!

Overall, it was a warm family gathering and i wana thank everyone for marking their presence in a celebration we 'termed' significant !!

Most importantly, i wana wish my 'lou kung' a healthy life, a happy person

& successes with business in the years ahead !! we luv u always.........

More photos here

Am i really possessive......i hate this !!

My 'fatty' travelled again..........yeah, no big deal........in fact, initially i had no intention of mentioning it here!! If you have been following me, i'm sure u had read quite a number of times i rant about him bringing back lots of loots from his travellings....be it for business or leisure !! And not forgetting how he messed up my life when he travelled leaving me to manage the boys all alone!! It goes to show how often he travels............& i can udrstd if it is for business but......!!

I admit that i hate it when he travels with his buddies for leisure, i hate it when he chose to leave us at home when he happily vacationing, i hate it when he does it so often...........

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To me, once u have a family, it means u r no longer as free as when u r a bachelor where u can just pack yr bag & leave anywhere.....anytime!! But now that u have the role of a dad & a husb, every action/decision affecting your family deserves a deeper thought!!

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So, though i know i don't have d power to stop him from pursuing his plan, i still choose to torture him "verbally".......aka 'nagging' !! I can't help but to burst out all my unhappiness, disappointments & upsets. So just when he was about to depart, i sent him an sms "reminding" him how much he has been travelling "unnecessarily" lately.....saying things like he was 'selfish' ....being too much....i also asked him to reflect....but i didn't forget to ask him to take care as i didn't want to sound too nasty!!

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Actually I didn't expect him to return a call immediately knowing that all his buddies were around then but he did..... and i know now i must have made myself 'very bad' in front of his buddies.....well, i don't care anymore!! Our conversation didn't really ended in a war......it was just a casual lecturing & both of us are ok!!

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But what i just don't understand is ..........why in the world every time when it was my turn to babysit the boys, there are problems with the boys. The last time around, it was Scot that had food poisoning...........and guess what, this time was Sean's turn. I'm angry & upset with myself as it made me a lousy mom !!

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In fact, I only decided to write this after finishing 'my wish' post below when Sean suddenly woke up from his sleep walking into the bathroom. As he pulled down his pants, i thought he was just going for another release!! He already had 'poo'/diarrhoea 2 times during the day!! But I got really fumed up when i discovered that this lil guy had accidently 'berak'/poo in his pants...........yikess !!!

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The fact that i was made to endure the 'stink' & 'mess' at midnight really made me wanna blame that 'fatty' more.......yes, i'm gonna make him more guilty !!!

I didn't take their meal for granted this time. I brought them to good air-cond 'kopitiam' restaurant for breakfast, then it was McD for lunch and chinese courses for dinner with grandpa+ma............what's wrong with that?? It wasn't varied much from what we will head on should dady is around !!!

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Now that my boiling blood has cooled down, i began to wonder......am I being too possessive over my huby?? Am i really not right for being so offensive to him travelling for leisure (without us)??

I didn't deny that i do travel with my girlfriends too but i'm sure it will less than 3 times a year......

I don't know............ i just hate it...........when my poor boy is not feeling well and i had to endure it all alone !!!

Steamboat CRAZE & Assorted..........

A very laid back post...........

A public holiday (Prop. Md b'day) that falls on a week day (thurs) had us thought of fulfilling our sudden crave for steamboat. In fact we decided to STEAM the BOAT that whole 'DAY' starting from late breakfast to late lunch so that we could hang around at home without having to worry about hunting for food outside !!

So the night before, we did all the marketings. My fussy huby wanted to make the dipping sauce "SPECIAL" so a thorough browsing was done over the shelfs. According to him, this particular 'brand' is famous for its' superior quality & taste. It was from Japan. As i have absolutely no idea of how special a soya sauce can be, i can only be his follower. One thing of obvious note was the 'special' price of course!! I think it can easily cost a few times higher than the ordinary type that we consumed. Well..........after trying it out, the verdict was.......i still like the usual type, and it's not that premium to my taste afterall, hahaha.......

In order to be able to immediately start the steamboat early in the morning, i spent that whole night washing & preparing everything ALL BY MYSELF........that was really hard chores i tell you....and for a while i actually regretted !!

We started the morning by making our chicken herbal soup base........

Then, just shifted everything out from the fridge to the table....nicely displayed for my camera before we started to attack them.......hehehehe

And when it comes to steamboat, i especially LOVE vegetables so i had requested to have at least 3 types of them......and gosh, we were like cow that day !!!

A MUST-HAVE for steamboat was the "Taiwanese Sausages"....so glorious....yayaya, i know it's not healthy !!

Then, i bumped into these little century eggs in Giant so i had sinfully picked it up. Actually the last time i ate this was so long long time ago.........yaya, i know it's just another lame excuse!!

Anyway, i only allowed myself to eat 2 of it and 1 goes to my huby.....now i still have like 6-7 balance and i think my body has recovered and ready to swallow it again......haha

And finally here is the ultimate companion to the steamboat.........yes, CHILLY PADIs !!!

At the end of the day, we were so satisfied especially after longing for another steamboat for a while!! The last one that we had was during CNY back in huby's hometown!! I had the feeling that we just went eating & eating non-stop and probably break a while for TV, walk around the house for some other chores & there we ended up at the table eating again.........arghhh !!!

Anyway, i think it must have been the "power of the teo chew" that resulted in our steamboat craze.....oh my !!

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Towards that weekend (should be last week), huby was away to Bangkok........again, apparent this time was an incentive trip to his customers!! So, being mother hen to my little chicks, i have to tag them along to whatever plan i may have. Coincidently, i had agreed to a gathering with some girlfriends. Luckily we had chosen a place quite comfortable to house my 2 monkeys for at least 2 hours of lunch !!!

Believe your eyes.........see how comfy the monkeys were!! I brought along their gameboy, stationeries & colouring books & chewing gums just to occupy them !!!

Did the place look familiar ????? Yes, it was "The Apartment". Though i like the setting there but i must agreed that we were quite dissapointed with the food. But, nevermind lar....so long as we had a good chat. As the boys didn't really had a fulfilling meal, we proceeded to get some donuts at Big Apple after our session.

Later, the boys participated in the FREE sand art session given to the kids so all the aunties got to chat further........

wakakakaka, look at what the monkeys had done to mr. bean's eyes !!! LOL

That's the end of our Saturday !!!

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When dady was not around, mumy as usual was lazy to go out. The part-time cleaner worked from 9am to 1pm so we sort of had some quick bites for breakfast!! Then, as the boys wailed that they were hungry, i searched over my kitchen and found a box of cheese pasta. So I immediately threw them into boiling water, together with some steamboat left over the other day. See below......it supposingly looked good ehh, no?

Then, just when i squeezed the cheese gravy to be tossed over the macaroni, i kinda smelt something sour gushing over my nose!!! There & then only it knocked on me to check the expiry date...............tadda !!!
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It expires on 31/3/2008.....i think i must have kept this for at least 6 months. And it was another week to expiry so being so sceptical, i decided not to serve my kids.........there it goes down the garbage bin, what a waste but still better than another episode of diarrhoea, right (like what happened the last time) ?
So, once the cleaner was done, i immediately rushed out like a mad mother crazily hunting food for her hungry kids !!!

Dinner was spent with grandpa & grandma.....as usual when dady was not around, they would be the ones that will be taking care of us !!!

Dady was coming back that Sunday night........around midnight! So when dady was not around + mumy finding excuse not to carry the boys upstairs, the boys had to sleep on the floor of the living hall !!! We waited until dady was back & everyone happily went back to our room for a good nite sleep........

That's the end of our Sunday !!

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Here are just a showcase of the loots from Bangkok.....courtesy of my shopaholic lou kung!!

Famous, yummy yet hazardous JUNKS !!!

And i just LOVE the macademia nuts so so so much. As they are so expensive here, i requested him to get these...........little did i expect macademia nuts chocolates which were so sumptuous i tell you. I know it's very sinful to my body so again, i only allowed one piece of chocolate at a time!!! Arghh....how i wish i can swallow more............

Next is "dodol"......ahh, i think melaka ones are better! Though i like dodol too but i don't know why i only like those in triangle shape ones and not like these....yucks!!! I still haven't take a bite at it yet.......

How can the dady came back empty handed without anything for his precious. So die die also he must get them something. Not the usual thomas train that is not moving (which they already had).....this time, these trains are movable type !!!

These keychains are just a plain burnt to the pocket....i don't understand why he bought them so there went my curse again...........

Finally, i can't believe my eyes too............you will surely agreed how much he loves these little pony shirts, yes he was only buying the little pony logo(s)!! And i realise the older my old man is, the more vain/"oi leng" he has been......"sei for mou" ????
So i kind of believe the sayings that goes " fart lou hau " now, hahaha...........

That's the end of my assorted updates too !!!

annie-q termed it "lau sai"/diarrhoea post.....and i have to agree......blek !!

Getting Older......

Yes, i got a year older today !! But it was not a fruitful day....as i'm pretty stressful working today....i only manage to lift my butt up for the washroom. Whole day sitting in front of the square box(pc)....work, lunch & work as the auditor chose to come in the office today when it was still our closing period....arghh !!

Guess another contributory factor to the down celebration mood was again due to hubby not around....given previously i could have been very mad at him but i wasn't really this time around.....looks like getting a year older is becoming less important.....maybe??!!

I was sitting in the car next to him yesterday when his bis partner called on his mobile to invite him to attend a site meeting in Kuala Terengganu today. He had instantly accepted the invitation .....but only wanting to reject it later. He was trying hard to be honest to his partner by telling in front of me that it was his wife's b'day so he wasn't sure if he should go......then, his partner teased him that he has used the same excuse to reject him sometime around last year-end !!!

"ooi, yr wife b'day again ahh........how many wife u have ahh??"

Then he started to giggle......kekekeke. What a lame excuse !!!

Given the same situation, how would you re-act? Or how can i re-act actually? To forcefully keep him from going will only makes me feel selfish and not an understanding wife! Even if i managed to hold him back physically, if his heart is not with us genuinely, it would be meaningless, right?!

So in the end, i let him go...........albeit reluctantly!!

But then, knowing that he feels a bit 'bad'......i quickly grabbed the golden opportunity and take him for granted by making him wash this............

the wok used to fry the 'kuih bakul' during week end !!

bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

My fried 'kuih bakul' / 'lin kou'

Knowing that huby will be going to Terengganu today, we actually had a simple celebration ystd, the eve. I was on leave yesterday but not entirely bcoz of my big day. Primary school placement was open for registration on 3/3 (Monday) so this definitely was a more significant task to us. I was kind-of taken by a shock suddenly thinking how fast time flies....my boys are going to Primary One next year!!!

After sending the boys to their kindy, we headed to "the selected" school (after much scrutinization) and boy.................i can't believe my sight !!

We queued up for nearly 50mins just to get our documents checked & the "nombor giliran" for submitting our application......tsk tsk tsk !!

Just a little tips to share with parents who soon need to register for their kids! As aware, children would be allocated a place in the school where it is nearest to where the child stay. But the allocated place/school may not always be a favourable choice of the parents. And this happened exactly to us.

If we were to use our home address for the application, the chances of succeeding in getting a place for the boys in our desired school are very low.

So "as advised" by those so-called expert, we can get someone else's home address which is nearer to the desired school for the registration.........just by saying our boys are babysitting there!!! PURE BULLSHIT !!! The education ministry would ensure that the address used for registration is the same as the address as per our Identification Card.

So, Unless if one could supplement with a tenancy agreement that the children with his family are staying at the bbsitter's place, the education ministry will reject the application!

Anyway, we had our ways and got our application registered for our desired choice of school (despite it is not the nearest to our home)......hopefully luck is with us!!

It's a brand new school ............check it out, how is it?

Pleasant & great view........facing the green hill where the basketball court & field are located, how??

The whole process nearly taken up half of my day. Went home for a quick rest while huby attended to some emails. Then we headed for our dried bak kut teh lunch (recommendation from Ah Xian-AEC food show). After lunch, i got huby to send me for a full facial right from face to eye and to neck which lasted me until 5:30pm. It was then time to be back & prepared the boys for our dinner.

And what is celebration without the company of FOOD, huh ??? !!!

It was our first try at Michelangelo restaurant in Sunway Pyramid.

While waiting for the food, Scot was pushed to finish off his home work....

Finally, our food arrived.......slurpp slurpp !!

Here is my piece of birthday cake........emm, emm...

It was quite a satisfactory meal for me BUT my huby said his stomach only achieved 80% and he wants 100% ........ he wanted to get J-Co donuts. I tried to prevent him but he still insist to trade a deal with a condition that if the queue is long, he won't buy. But on a Monday night, how long can the queue be...........and so we ended up with this home for supper!

Aduh.....

Here is a sweet b'day card from the beloved one!

Guess today with the advance of internet & communication, card hardly play the role in greetings!! Other than the above from a sincerely loved one, all i received were with "special motive" which i really hate so much.....

You see yourself lah.......no eyes see !!

If really want to give me FREE, give lar..........don't force me to buy 4 packs just to get only 1 pack FREE !!!

Lu, same tactic saja lah........

So, these are what i will do without hesitation.....nah, take back lar !!!