Happy Merdeka!

Tomorrow is 31 August!  Yeah!

It is our 56th year of Independence and being a Malaysian, we should be proud of our history and roots. This afternoon while at home, I watched a historical movie called "1957 Hati Malaya" and the movie touched my heart.  I cried when the actor portraiting Tunku Abdul Rahman shouted "Merdeka" in front of thousand of people.  All the sacrifices, hard works, sweats and tears that our Father of Malaysia has been through that time. I am proud to be a Malaysian!!

And I am also happy that tomorrow is here because my hubby will be back from his KL training tromorrow afternoon after a week.  I missed him so much!  Called hubby last night and he said the hotel he is staying is in Masjid Jamek and many activities happen in preparation for the Merdeka Day parade tomorrow.  So packed with people and jams.  I think he misses the quieter and calmer life in Sibu.  *wink*

I would like to wish all Malaysians "Happy Merdeka Day".

Drinking coconut water

It may be the old wives' tale, but I am advised to take coconut water; especially now in my last month of my pregnancy.

It is supposed to cleanse and cool down my body and same time, help with the new baby's complexion - some said for a "clean" complexion while others said for fairer skin.

Hmm, why no body told me that in my previous pregnancies??  Or probably because I never ask and I always thought it is "prohibited" drink to take during the whole term of pregnancy.  But since I was advised by my MIL to take coconut drink, I have been taking it once a week starting early this month.  And soon, (actually now) I can take twice or more a week.  Still not advisable to take daily since it is cooling. 

Don't know how true and does it helps with the easy labour and "cleaner" baby, but I know that coconut drink is rich in nutrients.  It helps to prevent Urinary Trait Infection, digestive problems and other health problem.  It is essentially fat and cholesterol free; and not to mention coconut drink is nice to be drank.  I love coconut drink even before I am pregnant. 

Celebrate in Fisherman

Last night we celebrated my birthday as well as Jay's birthday (which falls today) in Fisherman Restaurant.  It is next to Cafe-Cafe and been there since 1986.  A friend of a friend is the son of the restaurant owner, and hubby has been introduced to him when we arrived in Sibu.  He has been there few times and told me the food is very localised and nice.  So if you are coming to Sibu and want to try local dishes, this is one of the places that you must not missed out.

Compared to the next eatery places, this restaurant does not look much of an attraction and when you went into the restaurant, it did not look appeal because of the interior.  But being into this business that long, this restaurant has its own customers.  This restaurant is previously named Fisherman Pub and they used to have live band performing there.  But those were the days.  Still the food rocks as ever, I heard.  :)  And this restaurant was even featured in TV3's Cari Cari Makan segment! 

We were served with its keropok appetizer.  Mukah keropok.  Always the best!!!  Used to have one Mukah Restaurant in Ban Hock Road, Kuching that serve this keropok but the restaurant has been closed down long time ago.  Not that the business was bad, but I guess the family moved back to Mukah.

Our first dish was Umai. I never like Umai but I enjoyed this Umai last night and ate a lot.  Spicy, sweet and sour in one dish!

Next is the restaurant's signature dish.  This clam is called Lokan.  It claimed to be the only restaurant to have this dish in Malaysia.

And when you pry open the shells, this is what you found inside them.  The lokan is stuffed with medley of meats, onions, and other spices.  Very unique and tasty indeed!!

We also ordered its paku which is cooked in local style.  In coconut milk.

And of course, we did not missed out on some meaty dish.  We had its roasted lamb cutlets.  The cutlets were delicious to be eaten by itself but it comes with 2 dippings; namely mint sauce and the other is more of garlicky taste. 

Our next dish was deep fried terubok.  The skin was salty from the marinade and the flesh was very sweet.

Lastly not to be missed was the grilled prawns.  Damn big!!  But the flesh was very tender.

Last but not least, our dinner concluded with the birthday cake for the birthday boy!! 

Total cost was around RM330.00 plus drink.  Regardless of the price, I would definitely come back to this restaurant!!

Yours truly is 36!

(Image taken from Yahoo!)

 

I am turning 36 today!  In few more years I would be a 40 year old woman!  Wow! Stop there!  I do not want to think where I would be and what I would be doing when I am 40 years old, but I know that I am 36 today and I am a proud mummy to 2 lovely children and soon 3 children next month!!!

 

So much has happen this year, first been me by taking the big decision in quiting my shop and become a full time homemaker and mother to my children.  And hubby's big step in taking his current post as branch manager in another town and we moving away from our comfort home in Kuching.  It just happened so fast and unexpected but I am glad to say we are surviving and adapt to the new environment. 

 

I am celebrating my 36th birthday in Sibu!  My first birthday in Sibu.  And we are going to celebrate my birthday as well as Baby Jay whose birthday is tomorrow.  Have not yet decide where.  There are still many places that we have not yet explore over here.   We shall conquer but we will take it one at a time.  :)

Wild meat

It has been hot week over here other than the one day heavy downpour on Monday evening which continued till Tuesday late afternoon.  It was great to have rain occasionally, as can wash away the haze.  I am still recovering from my sickness. Luckily I feel well today after few days rest.

Did not cook much at home.  Lazy to do so.  Actually lazy to do much lately.  Lol!  On Tuesday evening my SIL brought us to Terminal 5 for dinner.  The rain has stopped then and our first plan was to visit Syabu-Syabu in the city centre but it was closed that night.  Wonder it was their off day or because of other reason?  It was the 14th day of 7th month that day and many people offering burnings at the road side.  Not many cars on the road and some shops were closed that night.  So we went to Terminal 5 instead.  A great place with many choices of food but not all food is good, according to my SIL.  But the black pepper lamb rice that I had was nice.

MIL cooked and packed few containers of wild boar meat for us at home, so for 2 evenings continuously, I have been warming up the cooked lemongrass wild boar meat for dinners.  But no one complained!  Because it is very delicious!  I love the fatty part of the meat because it is more tender.  *wink*  

Weekend is here!  And hubby would be travelling this Sunday till next weekend.  He is doing his branch manager certification courses and need to attend 3 rounds of training before can be certified.  So a lot of travelling for the coming 2 months. 

Not so good

Schools have started and both kids are having their crying dramas in schools yesterday morning.  I have to send both to schools yesterday since hubby could not do so.  My girl was fine at home but once in school, she started to have teary eyes and quietly weeping while walking to her classroom.  My Jay was even worse than her, with him telling me that he did not want to go to school once he was awake yesterday.  Sigh!  So all those coaxing and persuasion did not really worked as he was crying aloud once we reached his kindergarden.   Kids!  Really headache.  I wonder whether they are missing their Kuching schools, friends and teachers and still not used to the environment over here??? 

I am down with cough and sore throat since weekend and am still recovering from my sickness.  How I hate sore throat!!  Because I could not take antibiotic and it took such long time to recover.  And I also lose count of how many times I fall sick to cough and sore throat since we moved over to Sibu.  Around 4 times?  Or is it 5? 

As for my pregnancy, I am doing fine.  Doctor is happy with my condition and everything is normal.  I am now in Week 35 plus and soon I would be in delivery room.  To be exact it is abot 3 weeks from now.  Oh dear!  How excited I am.  This morning I have even started to pack my bag, getting ready to bring to hospital.  Let see.....I have 2 spare baby clothing for my baby to wear when we check out from hospital.  I even stand by 2 5oz bottles; mitten and sock; a wrapper to wrap the baby, a towel and some personal stuff of mine.  I think I got everything!!!

Walking through the Central Market

It is the biggest covered market in Sarawak.  When my mum and sis were here last week, I had a walk for first time in Sibu Centre Market Complex.  This complex is completed few years ago; highlighted Iban selling exotic and jungle produces and handicraft, and Chinese poultry sellers offering live chickens and ducks wrapped in newspapers.

Have a peek at the market yourself!!



Something different

Almost everyday we had kampua for breakfast in Rejang Park, so today I told the kids that I would not want to eat kampua anymore.  Lol!  I were craving for something different.  So hubby this morning brought me and kids to Rafie Cafe in Jln Kampung Dato for Malay food. 

Yes!  Roti Telur and a glass of Teh Tarik!  My kind of breakfast to pump me up.  *wink* 

I shared a plate of roti telur with my boy, while the girl has her own plate.  And same time, I ordered a plate of fried mee hoon to try.  My boy ate most of the roti telur while I tasted a bit of the roti and try its dhal and sambal. 

The roti telur was great with nice dipping especially the dhal.  The fried mee hoon looked pitiful, but after a bite, I changed my verdict.  Very nice.  Dry enough and with a lot of ingredients.  Total cost of our breakfast was RM13.00. 

Almost over

My kids came back yesterday from their 3 days holiday in hometown.  The house was quiet without their presence.  Kind of miss their voices and presence.  Even my SIL also commented that the day went by pretty slow at shop without hearing their noises.  Lol!

School holiday is now in their 2nd week.  Next week the school is reopen and everything will be back to normal again.  My BIL and family drove to Sibu from Kuching on Monday and they will be staying till this Friday.  So my kids have their little cousin to keep them company and fun for few days before the school starts.

Finally, I tasted them

We went to Thomson Corner in Jln Pedada on Saturday afternoon. Kids were not around, they went back to Kapit in the morning. 

Hubby and I had early breakfast of kampua in Jln Lanang so we were pretty hungry by 11am. I have been craving for rojak for quite some times, so I nagged hubby to go to Thomson Corner.  He never been there before.  I been there twice with my girl. 

In Thomson we ordered its famous dishes (that I heard so much from others) such as Nasi Lemak Special, Sarawak Laksa, Rojak and Rojak Sotong.

Are you starting to drool over my food? Lol!

Hubby's plate of special Nasi Lemak with super delicious sambal and scented fragrant rice. 

This laksa can compete with those famous laksa in Kuching! I ordered a small bowl but enough to satisfy my tastebuds.

Tasty fruit rojak, full with beancurd, cucumber, pineapple and chestnut. I like its sprinkle of sesame seed. The rojak paste is not bad, not too salty and sweet; just that I commented that it is not enough for me.  However after I tasted the rojak in Taman Muhibbah Hawker Stall last night, I like the one in Taman Muhibbah.  The paste is more "kau" than this rojak in Thomson. 

We ordered its small plate of rojak sotong (RM5) to try. When it came I wondered where were the sotong but found they hidden underneath the kangkung and beancurd. Again I enjoyed its rojak paste with lots of pounded groundnuts. *wink*

The good and the bad

After picking up my mum and sis on Thursday morning we brought them to Jade Dragon Temple before bringing them for breakfast in the city. Since we are going to house visiting in the afternoon we decided not to have heavy breakfast. So hubby suggested Mitsu Syabu Syabu. My first time there. 

But it was a bad first time experience for me. Service was bad and slow although the food compensated for the poor service I would not want to go there again. Definitely not on a holiday or weekend. The staff did not coordinate and communicate among themselves. 

It took us more than an hour to finish our breakfast. And we had to chase them more than twice for our dim sum. Some more they keyed in wrong price by charging RM5.00 instead of RM0.60 for a glass of warm Chinese tea! Gosh!

The dim sum were nice I had to say. We ordered its xiao lung pau (RM 5.50) but in the end we have to settle for another dim sum (RM6.00) because it was too long waiting. Sigh!

In the evening we went to Hong Fu. As usual, packed with customers. But it did not took more than 15 minutes for our food to arrive! This round we ordered 1kg fresh crab since mum and sis enjoy crabs. And not forgetting the sea snails that I had before. We also had deer meat, Sabah yew chai, crispy pig trotter and fried taufu in minced pork sauce. Total bill plus drink only RM158!

Beautiful bump and counting on

Hi guys!  A short post over here!!

Surprise! Surprise!  *wink*  Don't worry, just pictures of my tummy; nothing indecent.  Wake up early this morning and suddenly thought of taking pictures of my growing tummy. 

Nice or not?  *wink*  People said the poking belly button indicating you are carrying a boy but I don't know how true it is because I remember when I was carrying my girl, it was poking out as well.  Lol!

I am in my 34th week now. Times really fly. And in about a month time my baby boy is coming to this world, and new motherhood adventure will begin. Both anxious and excited if you are asking how I am feeling right now. I may be a mother of two, but it is different from baby to another one.

Bought few things this week for my confinement such as kei chi, red dates, longan, white wine for kacangma and herbal bath packs. And I finally get my hair cut too.  Short and nice!  Lol!

Right now I am going to enjoy my few weeks pregnancy time before I have my hands full with the new baby.

Another day tomorrow

I know it is getting late now but I could not sleep. Sleep is hard for me now. I hardly could doze off till very late at night or early in the morning.

The kids were tired from the shopping in Wisma Sanyan and drive around the Malay kampung this evening. Brought them have a look at the decorations and avtivities on the eve of Raya. We saw many people cooking and selling lemang and few houses lighted the oil lamps in front of their houses. Many cars driving through just to feel the buzz of the festival.

Need to get up early tomorrow because my mum and sis will be arriving at airport around 8am. So bring them around and go to hubby's boss for Raya open house.

So before I go to bed, I would like to wish all Muslim friends "Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir Batin".

In Farley



Before our temple adventure , we went to Farley food court for breakfast.  We used "Waze" application in my Samsung handphone to find our way there.  I have been there on Saturday night after dinner with my SIL and kids but we went to the supermarket and department store only.  It was very packed.  My SIL said the food court's dim sum is nice and has many varieties, so I suggested to hubby to go there on Sunday morning.  Unfortunately, when we reached there around 10.00am, there were not much choice left. 

But we still ordered 4 plates of dim sum which is RM4.00 per plate to try.  We tried something that we never tasted before in Dim Sum like this Thai-style steamed squid.  Taste-wise, it was a bit spicy and sour but very appetising.

Hubby ordered "gu chap" (beef mix soup) to try.  Taste like kueh chap except with lots of beef slices and beef balls.  RM6.00 per bowl.

There were a big crowd on Sunday.  The Malay stall was not open, probably because of the coming Hari Raya.  Other food stalls include noodle stall and chicken rice stall.  Hubby ordered its kampua, which he said was nice; but we could find better kampua in other place. 

Divine and mystic temple

Heard about this biggest temple in Sibu (and some claim to be biggest in SEA) so we drove along Sibu-Bintulu road to hunt for Jade Dragon Temple (Yu Lung San Tien En Si) after our breakfast in Farley yesterday morning.  But before we went there, we drove along Jalan Salim.  Just car ride along the road.  We could see the view of Rajang River on our right as we drove along the country-side.

We diverted to Sibu-Bintulu road after the Durin junction and hunted for the temple.  It is not difficult to spot as it is along the main road. 

Indeed a very mystic and divine sight.  It was very hot yesterday.  We reached there around 12.00noon.  You can say we were crazy enough to stop and walk around under the hot sun without any sunblock and umbrella as protection.  Lol!

View from the car before we parked in front of the temple.

The main arch

The Chinese 12 zodiac

My girl posed with her zodiac

Not to be left out, he also posed with his own zodiac

Journey to the West???

Planned to bring my mum and sis who are flying over on Thursday morning to this temple for a visit.  They will be here for a night only.  Could not wait to meet up with them and bring them around Sibu!

My 33rd week

I went for my check up with Sibu Specialist Medical Centre yesterday.  Need to follow up with the doctor there since I am going to deliver my 3rd baby there next month.

The doctor did a thorough check up on me since it was my first time there.  He did ultra-scanning and 3D scan on baby in my tummy.  Am glad that everything is normal and healthy, except that the baby position is slightly lower in my womb.  So that is why I am easily tired and have frequent urination because baby is pressing on my lower abdomen.  But other than that, the baby is healthy. 

I don't know about other mummies, but in this 3rd pregnancy, I am getting lazier.  In term of putting lotion on my body and eating more supplements.  Unlike my 1st one where I ate and put everything into my body. I guess that was the reason my 1st baby was bigger and heavier and I grew pretty big. And everything was cut down when I was pregnant with the 2nd one.  And it is even lesser with this pregnancy.  *wink* 

It was not that I do not care about this pregnancy but I felt lazier and more tired now compared to my 2 previous ones.  And I also do not put much emphasis on my appearance.  I do not bother to put on make up or put more time on my dressing when I go out, unlike the previous pregnancies, I were totally conscious of my appearance.  To me it is okay to look ugly while I am pregnant now. 

However one thing that I am happy about is that I do not have any stretch marks on my tummy.  Never one stretch marks in all my pregnancy terms.  Totally beautiful round tummy.  Not that I am boasting that I have beautiful skin, but it is a blessing not to endure those unsightful stretch marks.  I saw a cousin's tummy who is about the same EDD with mine; hers is full of stretch marks.  When I shown her mine, she was surprised that I do not have any.  *wink*  So I do save on those anti-stretch marks cream, which I never used at all.  Just normal moisturising lotion on my tummy.

Now my check up would be every 2 weeks till my delivery date.  Could not wait to get it over with!  I am getting heavier and lazier nowadays. 

August holiday in Sibu

Mid term school holiday is more or less starting tomorrow for my 2 kids!!!  My eldest can relax herself after the mid-term exam while Jay's holiday only starting next Wednesday.  And not forgetting that we are spending the school holiday in Sibu, for the very first time!! 

Life is pretty good here and the kids are adjusting to school and the new environment. My girl has passed all her exam paper and is No. 2 in her class. However the marks are below our expectation; average 78; but nevertheless she has done her very best.  We are happy that she passed all. And she is starting her new tuition yesterday since she has been complaining on her strict tuition teacher in the previous centre and we managed to find a tutor who tutoring 3 students at home, near to my SIL's shop.  So it is convenient for me to send and pick her up.

I am helping out in my SIL's shop during the morning and in the afternoon, taking care of kids and resting at home.  Do cooking once a while, and other days my SIL brings us out for dinners when hubby is not coming home for dinner.  Hubby is adapting to his new workscope in his office.  As usual, everywhere is the same with office politics and rebellious staff; hubby is having headache handling some staff.

I am in my 33 weeks now.  Getting heavier and more tired, but I am getting enough rest as I should.  Most stuff has been bought and getting ready for the arrival of new baby.  And we have choosen a date for my C-Section.  Oh dear, little did we know that soon we are welcoming our baby to this world!  :)

My Miscellaneous Picture #6: I see RED!

A little bit of my Princess:

A true country-girl; born and raised here!  *wink*

A bottle filled with love seeds collected by my girl in Traffic Garden Kuching.  It took her 3 trips there to fill up the glass bottle.

Her favourite clog which make so much noises than I banned her from wearing it most of the time.