Feel like Christmas + 10 years

It does feel more like Christmas at our home!

The tree is up! Christmas is my favourite time of the year as I get to decorate the house (just that small corner of the house) to make it looks merrier and to get into the festive mood. I feel like a kid again, with my kids setting and decorating the tree.

This year we place the tree next to the piano. I thought the tree stands out next to the piano.

When it is lighted up at night....

We are having the blue and silver theme this year. Last year, we went gold and red and the year before, it was blue and silver. We did purple before but I actually like current colours combination. Very Christmassy.  Simply magical and festive, don't you agree?

May this happiest season of the year fills your home with joy, love and peace.

And my blog is celebrating 10th blogversary today. OMG! I couldn't believe it myself. My first blog entry 10 years ago. To many more wonderful years of blogging (I hope).

Simple enough

I were here last week when I brought my youngest to clinic for his skin problem. After done at the clinic, I went to 2 shops away to buy my brunch. Simply Fish in 3rd Mile.

As name stated, they use fresh fish fillets for their noodle soup. But I wasn't came for its noodle soup. I came for nasi lemak. Heard from hubby that the nasi lemak was good so I thought I gave it a try.

I bought the normal nasi lemak for RM4. For RM4, it was good enough. It has peanuts, crispy anchovies, salted fish, sambal, fried egg and cucumber.

The sambal was good, like what hubby said. Very spicy. Made me had runny nose after finished up the whole pack!

But I didn't like my fried egg. I prefer hard boiled egg. If it is a fried egg, I don't like it done like this. I want my yolk runny and soft.

The rice was lemak enough. Mildly fragrant. But what happened to my salted fish?? Where the tail goes?? Lol.

And one Saturday when we happened to be in the vicinity, I went to tapau rice from their economy rice. More than 10 trays to choose from (non-halal), the dishes looked good and tasty.

Saw they had kacangma so I tapaued some for lunch. Not bad. I wouldn't mind coming back for its economy rice. Reasonably priced and you get to take your own dishes.

It has been that long

Back in 2011 when I operated a shop, I used to find my hubby for breakfast. He worked in a nearby bank then so after I dropped Jan to kinddy and Jay to nanny's, I would picked him up for breakfast.

One of our usual breakfast places was Tien Hsia Lai Cafe in Jalan Keretapi (next row of shop after Public Bank). I tasted its kolo mee, Sarawak laksa and Malay fried noodle. 

It was a corner shop where central police station is on its right. Not many stalls; just 2 or 3.

Kolo mee stall and Malay fried stall next to each other

But it has been that long since we came here. More than 5 years. So, not so long ago we rekindled our visit with the kids. The coffee shop was still the same with same people. The kolo mee stall couples still remember us. We had a short chat before order our food. The Malay stall is now taken care by younger brothers of the Malay lady.

The boys had kolo mee (RM3.50) with a bowl of meatballs soup. I did not take photo of the soup.

Jan and I each had the fried noodle (RM3.50) from the Malay stall.  Slightly spicy and sweet. And they gave us a small bowl of soup.

I saw next table ordered a bowl of Sarawak laksa. I remember the laksa was nice. Maybe the next round we drop by here again.

Show support

School is officially out for 2017!! See you next year!!

Last Friday, the kids' school was holding its first ever fund raising event in the hall.  Fund for new sports equipment.

So everyone chipped in by providing food and drinks and other stuff and buying coupons for the sale.

The hall was packed in no time with crowds came to show support to this event. We were going from one stall to another hunting for something to buy. Took us about 30 minutes to decide on what to buy.

And we bought these food home. For our lunch and afternoon tea time. We had laksa, vegetarian spaghetti, sushi, curry puff, fried snack and chocolate cake.

We're early

We're very early on one Saturday morning when we were in this place in Ewe Hai Lane for breakfast. 

It was slightly after 8am that morning and the place was deserted. Couple of tables were taken so we have many tables option to choose from.

We ordered our usual (noodle + cheng soup) set. We did not needed to wait so long for our food to cone to our table.

The delicious cheng soup was worth every dollars you paid for. Full of goodness in a bowl.

The vinegar kolo mee went so well with the cheng soup to the very last strand.

If anyone of you ever drop by in Kuching, this is one place where you would not want to miss. One of Kuchingites' loved coffee shops for kolo mee. Their brewed drinks are good as well.

How it goes

Exam is done and dusted. Kids are enjoying the rest of the remaining school days before the year end holiday begins.

Kids bring and play games (like Snake&Ladder, chess, aeroplane board games) in classes, join some friendly competition and play monkeys around teachers.

For some reasons, I have made some adjustments when it comes to my kids' enrichment classes and tuition schedule.

Last month, Jay had his last piano lesson. He has learned for over 2 years but somehow he does not show much interest in learning so after talking to his piano teacher, we decided to stop his lesson. I bet he was very relieved not to play on the piano anymore. Theoritically, he can master the notes but he does not show enthuasiasm in practising on the piano. Hopefully he will pick up again some day since there is a piano at home and the sister can encourage him to play anytime.

Last month, Jan also joined in a pra-UPSR BM tuition on Tuesday evening. She is average in her BM; scoring 60 and 72 marks for both papers. I wanted her to expand her knowledge and learn more from tuition in preparation for her next year's UPSR exam.

As expected, Jay did not do that well in Chinese and BM subject. Quite worrying as he could not catch up with both languages well.  I found him a home-based tuition teacher who can do a BM 1-to-1 session with him. He just started this month. As for Chinese, I need to speak to his current Chinese tutor on improvement or maybe find him a 1-to-1 tutor that willing to help him.

Their arts class is going to end this month as to give way to their school activities and tuition next year.  We will see how things go in 2018.

Ok, all said, I couldn't wait for our family holiday now!! ^^ I bet everyone feels the same. Time to enjoy the year end season.

Miscellaneous Picture #73:Rose apple, birthday, kids, holiday

• My favourite fruit is in season! Big, juicy and sweet. I love rose apple.
• A little birthday party for my hubby in his office for his 40th birthday.
• Jan done well in her year end exam. She got 3rd place in her class for the overall academic performance and will collect her trophy next week during the Award Day. One more to add to her collection. 
• Last week she brought home a hamper for a 2nd place in a story writing competition in her school. She shared her hamper with her brothers. 
• Jamie sure loves this pink sunglasses. I think he looked cute in them.
• Next year he would be in K1 (5 years old class). Gosh. It felt like yesterday I held him in my arms in the delivery room and next year he is going to a full day class in kindergarden. 
• Start to bring out our luggages so we could pack for our family holiday.  Oh boy, I couldn't wait.

Pinoy lunch

It has been more than 2 years since we had been to Pinoy ihaw-ihaw for Filipino cuisine.

So on hubby's birthday, we went there for lunch after the church service. Initially he wanted to go to Tracy's kitchen (the next row after Ambank in Padungan) for its Hakka braised duck (lo ark), but it wasn't open that Sunday. So we ended up in Pinoy since we were already in Padungan area.

There wasn't anyone there. We were the only table so basically we had the whole place to ourselves. Lol.

I had a glass of refreshing organic soya which I enjoyed as it was not too sweet.

We ordered 3 sets of this set lunch that consisted of roasted pork belly, a fried egg and garlic rice. It priced at either RM8 or RM9. I forgot the price already.

The thick pieces of pork belly were crispy and fatty with the fat layers but I were not crazy about it. Hubby liked it very much. As for the egg, it was disappointing as the yolk was over done. I prefer a runny egg but none of us had it that day.

Other than the set lunch, we also ordered 5 sticks of pork satay. RM3 per piece. I liked the satay more. Peppery and sweet chunks of pork.

Overall our lunch cost over RM60. 

The big man's favourite

Yesterday was my big man's birthday.  Happy 40th birthday, hubby!  Wishing you good health, wisdom, happiness and loves from me.

He does not like big celebration or hassle about his birthday, so like past years, I cooked him a simple homecooked meal consisting of his favourite dishes. So this year it would not be any exception.  A simple dinner for him last night.

His favourite vegetables, namely stir-fried midin and steamed lady fingers.  I added Hakka white rice wine to the midin for that extra flavor. For lady fingers, after steamed, I just toss some oiled garlic mince and oyster sauce on top.

I also had my "famous" deep-fried nam yue chicken wings which everyone loves so much. Fingers licking good to the bones!  Lol.

And this has got to be my man's all-time favourite soup.  Lotus root & peanuts pork rib soup.

I cook it almost every 2 weeks or at least once a week whenever we could find lotus roots in the market.  Some day I would just toss in peanuts and lotus roots with pork ribs into the slow cooker but other day, I would add more ingredients to give the soup tastier and more nourishing.

Ingredients:

400g mix of pork ribs and soft bones

300g lotus roots, sliced

4-6 pitted red dates

2 dried scallops

1 carrot, sliced

Handful of peanuts

Water

Salt to taste

Light soy sauce to taste

Parsley for garnishing

Methods:

1. To soften the peanuts, soak and rinse them few times before toss into a pot of water.

2. Cook in the slow cooker for about 2 hours before add in the other ingredients. Blanch the pork ribs and soft bones first before adding into the slow cooker.

3. Cook further for another 1 or 1.5 hours until the meats are cooked and peanuts are soft.  Season with salt and light soy sauce.

4. Serve warm with parsley as garnishing.

Where I want to escape

A place where I could go to and away from the buzzing of the city.

I want to feel the warmth of the sun, the gentle breeze with sand on my feet in a secluded spot of the beach.

After a nice walk in the beach, I would go for some fresh seafood like flower crabs.

But reality checks!! I am not staying near a beach. Just day-dreaming again! Thinking of a retirement plan with my man; going old with him in a retirement home in a beach! ^^

For now, I could just day-dreaming of going back to the beach again. Lol.

*photos taken in Sematan last month on a short drive there*

Breakfast with her

I brought my mum to Mega Inn coffee shop (King's Centre) for breakfast after our market shopping in Kenyalang last week.

It has been a while since I had breakfast with her over here.

I had a glass of warm soya milk for RM1.40. Liked that they used nice mug for my drink. 

My mum had her usual whenever we were here. She had her fishballs mihun (RM5.50). They made the fishballs themselves so the fishballs were good and fresh.

As for me, I went for this fried mihun with cangkuk manis from the fried stall. RM5.00 for this plate of goodness. Not too oily, the muhun was well seasoned with bits of dried prawns, eggs and cangkuk manis.

That was our breakfast. And I also bought a pack of nasi lemak (RM5) from the nasi lemak stall for my lunch.  It was quite a portion; I hardly could finish it.