Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Feeling a teeny weeny bit nostalgic because I know I'll be missing the whole CNY ching-chong-chang festivities back in KK. I will miss the pineapple tarts I will miss the cheesy dong-dong-chiang music I will miss the numerous lou sang sessions I will miss the leftover nien gao fried in egg for breakfast I will miss gorging on mandarin oranges and bak kwa I will miss the endless nibling of kuaci and nuts I will miss drinking yeos packet drinks But most of all... I will miss those monkey-like antics of those colourful lion dancers! Here's Douglas Lim's stand-up comedy rendition of these legendary lion dances (preceded by an also funny routine on Timberlake's Sexi Back)

This is a wonderful poem to commemorate the new year. I had thrills down my spine (good thrills) and hair standing moments as I read this poem. I'd like to share it with you and I hope it thrills you too! Ring Out, Wild Bells Lord Alfred Tennyson Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light; The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the mind, For those that here we see no more, Ring out the feud of rich and poor, Ring in redress to all mankind. Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. Ring out the want, the care, the sin, The faithless coldness of the times; Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes, But ring the fuller minstrel in. Ring out false pride in place and blood...

Received another tag. Quite interesting so let's see how I go... 5 Things in My Bag 1. Loreal Lipstick No. 708 2. L'Occitane Shea Butter Mini Hand Cream 3. Essentiels De Chanel palette 4. My new Nokia 6120 5. Business cards 5 Things in My Wallet 1. Credit cards 2. ATM cards 3. Photo of hubby and me 4. Driver's licence 5. Spare bandaid (for emergencies) 5 Favourite Items in My Bedroom 1. Currently reading The Language of God by Francis S. Collins 2. Trying to finish Big in Asia by Michael Backman 3. My cuddly hubby ^ ^ 4. Jug of water on bedside table 5. Royal Selangor pewter box - wedding thank you pressie from Wini 5 Things I Wish To Do 1. Sleep 2. Get a pay rise 3. Learn how to be be more patient 4. Be able to cook Kiu Nyuk in the original Hakka style 5. Finish knitting the scarf for hubby 5 Things That I Am Doing Now 1. Writing this tag 2. Watching Heroes 3. Enjoying a glass of port 4. Checking my iGoogle page 5. Chatting on MSN Anyone else interested to pick up this...

In case you're curious, here's a peek into the house design we've selected for our home. We're making some changes here and there, but generally this is what the layout looks like... One of my favourite features in this design is the kitchen island. I like the open and airy design of the living and kitchen area... (image from display home) What you think? You like?

It's been a while since we took Christopher out. And today all the men in his family besides Christopher were down sick. Diana had to stay home to look after them, so hubby and I picked Christopher up to go to church today. One of my ( occasional? ) readers is probably curious to find out how well her son behaved today without his parents around... Well, I'm happy to report that he was a very good boy. It was pretty much like a normal routine Sunday. Dropped him off at the Little Bubbles room, he didn't even make a fuss when we said good bye. After church, we took him with us for lunch with the youths. He ate a small bowl of hor fun and kept himself amused playing with his cars. Some of the youths also helped to entertain him playing car racing on the table. One thing I admire about Christopher is that he is the tidiest eater compared to other kids his age. When he took a mouthful of hor fun , he used his teeth instead of chomping down with his whole mouth, lips and all. T...

Mum brought over some lovely fish from KK when she and dad came over on holiday a couple of weeks ago... including this succulent ikan bawal putih .... mmmmmm.... steamed and drizzled with a bit of soy sauce... perfecto! Whipped up this recipe for fish cake on my own... minced fish fillets, mashed potato, chopped chives, flour, dash of milk, egg, salt and pepper... then pan-fried with some olive oil... yummy!

Tag from Sue Ern (and thanks for your own 8 random facts… very intriguing! ^ ^) So here goes… 1) I know sign language , i.e. Signing Exact English (SEE) . I picked it up from Jorena , a hearing impaired girl from Singapore whom I struck up a friendship with when I was in Perth. I actually surprised myself that I picked it up so quickly, that I was even able to do some basic interpretation of sermons for Jorena in church (my sign language might be a little rusty now though, through lack of use) 2) I don't like milk . Ever since I was a kid, I loathed having to drink milk. My brother was the total opposite who would drink the stuff straight out of the carton. To make up for my calcium and nutrition needs, mum (being the sensible mother she is) let me eat cheese and yoghurt instead. Remember those colourful milk packets we used to get in school that all the Malaysian primary school kids get excited about? I wasn't one of them. But I faithfully took my ration of milk packets...

Hubby and I are in the midst of getting a piece of land to build a house. A house to call our home. There is so much to consider, but so far we haven't had much time to meditate on it as much as we'd like to. We have been receiving both negative and positive comments from various people. Positive being that the suburb has been picked out as a key development area in Perth, with plenty of infrastructure and amenities planned. Negative being that is perceived to be a little further away from Perth. It is so scary. Scarier than buying the investment property a few months ago. Hubby reckons that it feels scarier than getting married! So please pray with us over this.

We were at Ronald and Diana's house to get our haircut and have dinner. Yes, a haircut - we know a hairdresser who does house visits. Christopher after his haircut (which was 6 months overdue!) For dinner, we had this very interesting dish called 'Golden Pillow'. It's basically chicken curry cooked inside a big bun. Very nice! Apparently it originate in Singapore, but one of our church members learnt how to cook it, so we tarpau-ed a couple of them from him. After dinner, it was play time! Chrisopher's latest trick: Jump so high, up in the sky!!! Wheeeeeee....... For some reason, some people seem to be surprised that hubby gets along with kids so well. Why should it be surprising? He likes children very much lar--his favourite now being Christopher. Anyway, again we had a tearful parting when it was time to say good-bye. This time he wanted to follow us 'home' and bawled when we tried to explain to him that he was already home. Sigh, hard to tell if it was ...

Today we had the adventure of playing surrogate parents to little Christopher. Ronald was at worship practice and Diana had to stay home to look after Daylan who is sick, so they asked us to help pick Christopher up for church. He was very happy to sit in our car. For some strange reason, he seems to like sitting in our car very much... and kept himself amused, looking around and making funny faces with MH-koko. After church, he insisted on following our car to lunch. Perhaps he just likes the variety of sitting in a different car for a change from seeing mummy's and papa's cars every day? I suggested another theory of a subconscious memory of his papa's old Mitsubishi Mirage when he was still a baby? Who knows? During lunch at Emma's Seafood, he sat between Ronald and MH--it was quite a comical sight to see the two grown men looking after Christopher. Ronald was trying to get Christopher to eat his food, while MH was trying to keep him clean, wiping his hands and dusti...