PRECIOUS MOMENTS..

Chinese New Year 2012

2012-01-23T23:34:00.000+08:00

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR

GONG XI FA CAI

MAY THE DRAGON YEAR BRINGS GOOD HEALTH,

SAFETY AND PROSPERITY TO ALL OF US,

AND PEACE TO ALL MANKIND.

Not much decorations have been put up at our home this Chinese New Year, have been busy with works and other daily chaos. We have just put away our Christmas trees on the eve to make way for some Chinese New Year decorations. Lanterns are up few days earlier but the Dragon figurine is still very much lying on the table.

The Chinese believe that there should have some food on the dining table to welcome the brand new year, symbolizing the abundance of food throughout the year. Here are some of the goodies I placed on our dining table to attract the good chi to our family.

Fine Dining venue at the Republic of Texas

2012-01-19T16:57:00.000+08:00

The month of December till Chinese New Year is the season to be jolly, thanks giving and to welcome the brand new year. Celebrations would not be complete without good food, and gathering with families and friends.

During these festive season period, many restaurants are offering special menus to cater for those who prefer to dine out. Many working class mothers are too busy to prepare a set of complete meals for their families. Not to mention the time to shop for the ingredients, time to prepare and cook and clear up the mess after the meals. As a working mother, thinking of all these tasks is enough to make me tired.

Being a busy business lady, a friend of mine who lives in Texas was telling me that they had a wonderful Christmas meal at the Republic of Texas, its banquet restaurant Dallas with her families and friends, a truly fine dining experience. Its Republic of Texas Company Store also offer over 100 gourmet Texas made products and fine foods. Of the Republic of Texas Foods, the gourmet smoked meat looks particularly delicious to me. It is also a good place to get hold of Texas wine, there are wide varieties of wine to choose from, a toss for a good year ahead.

Those who love Mexican food, you could try out its Mexican Cuisine too. I also noticed on their website that a 10% discount will be given for all orders till 31st March. If you are thinking of holding parties at home, try find out from them on the catering menu or the party delivery menu, they cater for groups as small as 10 to as big as over 1000 guests. Let them handle the tedious part of any functions, that is, the preparation of food and drinks.

I have told my friend that if I visit Texas, please bring me to the Banquet Restaurant Dallas for a taste of its gourmet smoked meat dishes!! :D

For the Longans and Tangerines

2011-12-19T23:26:00.002+08:00

All because of the fault of a dog chasing after a cat. It is a usual thing that our neighbour's dog chases after their own cat. The cat will jump, run for its life and hides under the car, the dog will keep barking and find its way to get the cat.

This usual dog and cat chasing scene has turned out to be a little disaster when the dog ran on the drying cement in front of our car porch. The renovation work is in progress to enlarge entrance and fix the gate for our house. As you can see the naughty dog has left his many foot prints.

Our neighbour felt bad about what their naughty dog has done. They sent over some longans and tangerines over to us to apologise despite we told them earlier that it is not a problem we could touch it up again the next day.

Since they are sincere in sending their apology, it is hard for us to refuse their gift of apology. I can tell you those longans are sweet and juicy, Crystal loves the mini tangerines, I have to stop her from eating too many for reason being that too many will cause one to cough.

Roasted Turkey for Christmas

2011-12-19T14:02:00.005+08:00

Christmas is here in less than a week time. Time flies so fast and so many things to handle that I find myself haven't got time to get things done for Christmas this year. I am still deciding on what presents to get for the kids, Clet is busy with our front gate renovation, so he hasn't got the time to spare on the Christmas presents this year, luckily I have got crystal to help me on getting some girl's accessories done as gifts, yes, she handmade them, I helped her on the beginning and finishing touches (will post it in my next post).

Christmas is not complete without some kind of feast in the celebration. Some may think having turkey is a must in the Christmas menu. If you have no plan to roast your own turkey (which is a lot of work and know hows). Here are 2 places you could order a cooked/ roasted turkey in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Borneo Turkey is where you could order a cheaper organic turkey, the cheapest is RM120.00 for a 3kg roasted organic turkey with free side salads. My colleague has ordered it last year, she is thinking of ordering it again this year.

Christmas Carolling

2011-12-16T14:24:00.004+08:00

We have been busy for the last 2 weeks or so. Our girls started their carolling after we had a short trip to Tawau. They were having fun going house to house sending the good news on the second coming of Jesus Christ. This is the first time they joined the Kids of the Kingdom's carolling group. This is the youngest carollers from our church, kid age as young as 3 years to 9 years, parents are advised to accompany them during the 4 days of carolling. Inevitably we as parents join in as part of the carollers as well. The kids are so very excited when receiving goodies, food & drinks at the church members' houses that we visited.

Crystal continues to join the elder group of the Children Liturgy's carolers this week. It's our turn to welcome them to our home on Wednesday. I bought some chocolate biscuits and packet drinks as goodies for them to bring back.

As carollers, our girls brought back bags and bags of goodies. Now our home are filled with goodies, pray and hope that with God's Blessing, our coming new years will be sweeter than previous years. It's truly an experience for Crystal and Pearl this Christmas for joining the carolling.

Lighting Fixtures

2011-12-01T17:24:00.006+08:00

I always like the coziness of the hotels' room, of course I mean those with at least 3 stars hotels. I realise that it is because of the effect of the lighting fixtures, and the type of lights that the hotels choose to use in their rooms.

Some of the lights that they used are very simple not those fancy types but yet able to give their guests the welcoming and coziness effect. The lighting fixtures are just at the right place. Usually there is a lamp shade by the bed side, down lights at the door way, small lamp just right on top of the dressing mirror, and of course one in the wash room. I realise that they use dim lamps and bulbs to achieve the warm effect which we can also do the same for our home.

As I do not have bed side lamps yet, to have them would sure lift up the warm and coziness for my bedroom. As for my front porch, I would like to fix an antique outdoor wall light, that will give a total make over look from outside.

The Macarons has arrived!!

2011-11-30T22:37:00.005+08:00

I would like to say a big "thank you" to InspiredMom who recently organised a free giveaway contest at her blog. I am very overwhelmed to the fact that I was the winner in this contest. when I first saw the contest, I told myself that I want to have those Macarons and I followed through with what are the requirements to be a winner, and I did it!!!

I have won a pack of 12 pieces petit Macarons in assortment of six flavours, that is Cafe, Pistache, Framboise, Chocolate, Vanilla, Citron. I received it this afternoon, just a day it was sent by courier, it was securely packed, I received this box of Macarons without damaged. Perfect!!

I have heard and seen so much about Macarons in website advertisement, recipe and food websites, blogs and magazines, honestly speaking, I have never tried the Macarons before. For one they are consider luxurious treats and secondly, hardly find shops selling them in where I live.

Blogging can be rewarding. I earn some extra money through sponsored posts and most importantly I earn friendships through blogging.

Into the Fifth day of Detox and Rejuvenation Program

2011-11-30T21:10:00.005+08:00

Just an update on how I am doing with my annual Detoxification and Rejuvenation Program (DRP).

I am now into my fifth day of Detoxification & Rejuvenation Program (DRP) today, I decided to do just 5 days this time, that means today is the last day of my Detox. One would ask whether I feel any difference after the fifth day of strict fruits & vegetable diet supplemented with vitamins in the package. I would say YES. I feel much lighter, not only slimmer, I also feel much relieve on the neck strain and headache problem that I have been suffering all this while, and I wake up more refreshing even with lesser hours of sleep.

I am more at ease in following this program as compare to last year (which I completed the course of 7 days). Probably I know what to do and what to expect in this time round.

Do I crave for food?? YES, definitely, but my will power is strong enough to resist those food placed in front of me while having dinners together with my family for the last 4 days. Craving for food is always the biggest challenge in carrying out the DRP.

If you have gone through a strict diet like what I do, I am sure you will crave for your favourite food. I can tell you that there is one food that I crave the most in these 5 days. I have told my hubby and he will bring me there after I am done with my DRP, hopefully tomorrow.

I am really craving for this Fish Soup with Rice Vermicelli that I used to have for breakfast at one of the famous eatery in town.

Let me show you what I really craving to have….

Is this mixed fish meat and fish balls soup with rice vermicelli, dip with the mixture of light soy sauce, chillie padi and calamansi juice. Yummy…I am droolling now!!!!

This is the coffee shop in Bandaran Berjaya, Kota Kinabalu, famous for its Mixed Fish Soup

Baby Micole's Full Moon Party

2011-11-24T17:23:00.004+08:00

My ex-colleague, Doris, invited us to join them to celebrate their new born baby girl, Micole's full moon party on 20th November.

We have not been seeing each other ever since I resigned from the Stockbroking firm 4 years ago. I am really glad that she included me and my family in her invitees' list. She is as pretty as ever, only put on a little inches after giving birth.

I also managed to catch up with my other ex colleagues, Vivien, June and Lesley in the party. Only in a party like this we are able to meet up with old time mates. As we are all having kids with the same age groups, our topics for the night were mostly about the affairs & happening around our kids, especially 3 of our kids are going to Primary one next year but at a different schools in town.

Vivian and me (at the back), baby Micole and her pround mummy, Doris

Crystal and Pearl meeting little baby Micole

At the Kitchen Boulevard Restaurant

2011-11-22T13:22:00.006+08:00

Since it is still lunch hour. It's a good time to blog something about food.

My colleague introduced to us, the Kitchen Boulevard Restaurant, with this leaflet. This restaurant is belongs to her friend, she has been there many times, she finds the food is good and the price is also reasonable.

Me, as a food lover, who really like to eat, went to have a try on one of the Friday. We were the first customers for that evening, it was raining and was only about 6pm. It is not a big restaurant, very cosy with wifi, there is an upper deck with sofa and dinner table for small private gathering purpose.

playing games on the computer mounted next to the dining table. Good to have it as business presentation to 3 -4 persons.

the settee at the upper deck

View of the restaurant from the upper deck

These were what we ordered from the menu, I did not take the photo of the brownie as I was busy eating when it is served.

the salad, my favourite :D

Our girls' favourite, Carbonara spaghetti

This of course is Clet's order, the lamb. He gave a thumb up for this.

The Kitchen Boulevard is located at :

Lot No.6, Ground Floor, Block E,
88 Market Place, Lorong Pusat Komersil,
88/2 Jalan Pintas, 88300 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
Tel: 088 253788

Show case of flowers & plants

2011-11-21T13:13:00.007+08:00

On once fine Sunday many weeks ago, we headed to Gaya Street to look for plants.

The Moss Roses or 9 O'clock flowers are the ones that I was looking for, cheap and easy to grow, so long as there are water and sunshine. I managed to buy these bundles of mix colours Moss Roses for RM1-RM3 (USD0.32 - USD0.99) per bundle.

Just plant them in a pot with good soil

The Moss Roses will grow easily and bloom in 1 - 2 weeks, this is what I like about these flowers, I have no time to take care of any flowers and plants. I only manage to have a glimpse of them during weekends and public holidays when I do not have to go to work. Because Moss Roses only open their beautiful petals from 9am or 10am and shy away around 3pm to 4pm, this is the time I am still at work.

These are some of the beautiful Moses Roses or 9 O'clock flowers at our front porch that I captured on one of the weekend.

and some outdoor plants which I do not know what's the name of these plants, hope you could help me out to identify their names...:D

This outdoor plants need plenty of water, no soil needed

very sharp leaves plants, I once asked my hubby whether this plant is suitable to be placed by the door, according to Feng Shui School of Taught, sharp edges items are not good for Feng Shui, what do you think???

These plants have more leaves than flowers, their leaves are of different colors, they are of same species...I think..??

Preparing for Christmas

2011-11-20T17:45:00.009+08:00

November will soon be over, it's time to prepare for Christmas, the first thing to begin with the preparation is to put up the Christmas Trees, yes we have 2 Christmas Trees, 1 big and 1 small revolving Christmas Tree with lights.

Our girls are ever so excited to put the ornaments on the Christmas tree.

After attended our niece's abacus arithmetic competition at Suria Sabah this afternoon, we went into Metrojaya to have a look and feel the Christmas' atmosphere. They have put up a lot of very beautifully decorated Christmas trees at very departments and every aisles.

This red colour theme Christmas tree is our favourite.

Ornaments have been put up for sales, many type of colours to choose from for you to decorate according to your Christmas colour theme this year. Since we have many of our Christmas decorations which we have been keeping for many years, we did not buy any as we have already have enough.

Silver colour ornaments

The red ones

Admiring some of the beautiful ornaments

The purple ones

Ladies, the sales are on at Metrojaya in KK, some items are up to 80% discounts. I desperately needed to change my handbag, after searching through the bundle of handbags, I managed to get myself a very reasonable price handbag, it is not Coach, definitely not LV for the moment..it is only a GF (Gio Fiore), at 70% discount. Can you guess how much it is???

Free Giveaway contest by Inspired Mom!!

2011-11-20T02:12:00.006+08:00

I have been seeing many posts and pictures on the colourful macarons on the internet lately, they look yummy but haven't got the chance to have a taste of these melt in the mouth macarons. The are very pricey.

I am happy to learn that our dear blogger friend, Inspired Mom is holding a free giveaway macarons contest at her blog. The contest is very simple, just go to her blog follow her instructions, comment on her "12 Days Skin Food Challenge *Product Review*" posts.

Skin Food's skin care products are very new to us, have not even hit the shore of East Malaysia yet, but it is coming soon. Inspired Mom is trying and reviewing these products for the 1st time, hope these products will bring a supple and youthful looking skin for her..if it is proved to be good, I want to try them also as you can see the price is very reasonable, check it out from her Day 7 - Price Revealed post.

Learning to Play Guitar

2011-11-20T01:10:00.004+08:00

For the past 1.5 months, Crystal has been attending guitar classes at the church once a week. Pearl is able to join in the class after their daddy bought a ukulele for her from his trip to the Philippines 3 weeks ago.

Lesson in progress. Guidance by teacher

Both of them has shown some progress in their guitar playing skills after having their own guitars but still need a lot of practices before they can play smoothly. Interest in playing guitar play a major part, they seem to have the interest thus far and hope they could progress further and be good in playing guitar. I would love to see them playing their guitars and sing along soon.

Pearl seriously practicing with her ukulele

Thanks to Michael, our church member, in sacrificing his time for the free guitar lessons every week.

Angry Birds Dressing up

2011-11-18T14:00:00.010+08:00

With all the Angry Birds waves in town, I couldn't help but to buy 2 pretty angry Birds' dresses for my 2 little princesses. In fact, they never asked for any Angry Birds' goodies, not a big fan of Angry Birds as they do to Barbie and Bratz.

Though they are not a big fans of Angry Birds, because of the waves are so strong that they have received many birthday presents and gifts featuring Angry Birds.

in a hypermarket with their new Angry Birds dresses

The Kudat Golf & Marina Resort's Best Year End Bargain Deal!

2011-11-17T23:34:00.007+08:00

Frankly I do not like people put any advertisement materials on my car, I hated it most when I was in a hurry and realize a piece of paper stuck in front of my windscreen when I was about to go, need to come out from my car again and take it away again.

This piece of paper was stuck at my car wiper this afternoon when I was off for my lunch break. Like always, I quickly take it away and squeeze it like another piece of waste paper. While waiting at the traffic light, curiously I reached out to this paper to find out what it is all about before I throw it away.

Interestingly it is a flyer about room promotion Best year End Bargain Deal at Kudat Golf & Marina Resort, I have been to Kudat several time mostly on day trips and never have the chance to stay at this resort. The package is pretty attractive. The Room Deal "Pay As You Book" package is at RM188 nett onwards for 2 Adults & 2 children with room, breakfast and dinner provided or you could choose a room for 2 at RM118.00 nett onwards for room and breakfast for 2.

If you plan for a Cuti Cuti Malaysia, Kudat is a place of visit to consider for a short stay trip this school holiday, it is about 3 - 3.5 hours drive from Kota Kinabalu. You could also visit The Tip of Borneo at the same time, it is situated at Tanjung Simpang Mengayau, the northern most tip of Borneo. I have been there once and do not mind having another visit there again.

Properties auction sales

2011-11-16T22:53:00.003+08:00

Today, Clet conducted the property auction sales for Maybank. 7 properties up for sales, 2 were cancelled last minute (glad that the house owners managed to update their payments), leaving 5 for auction, at the end of the day 2 properties were sold.

New Home for our Hamster

2011-11-16T21:45:00.006+08:00

Actually this cage was bought more than a month ago, I just haven't got the chance to post it here. We supposed to have a pair of hamster, the female one has escaped (set herself free) and never returned, leaving the male one all alone.

It's growing day by day, the small baby hamster cage no longer provide a comfortable space for him to walk, limited space has deterred his movement. 1 day, when feeding him, I noticed that it is limping, one of his leg has turned black. I quickly moved him to a bigger storage container and left him there for a day or two to observe. With more space to move around, his leg has thus recovered. We have no choice but to look for a bigger cage to house him so that he can grow healthily.

We checked a number of pet shops around town in order to get a nice cage with reasonable price. With few choices to choose within our budget at one of the Pet Shop at Bornion Centre, we finally decided to buy a big pink cage.

Pick and choose which one is more suitable

In the same shop, we saw a very cute and well behaved Poodle, he just sits and walks around the table with no fuss.

There the owner of the shop also showed us the new pet in town, an animal size slightly bigger than the hamster, look like squirrel but slow in movement, forgot what's the name of this animal. But it's not the kind of pet for us.

Just to show the baby cage that house the hamster before and the new big pink cage.

Logos Hope berthed in Kota Kinabalu Port

2011-11-15T14:21:00.009+08:00

My colleague passed to me a copy of this..at first glance I thought it's just another product sale leaflet. At second look, it's actually something new in town, the Logos Hope will be in Kota Kinabalu for the first time from 18 November to 11 December 2011, just in time for the School holiday break.

There are over 5000 titles of books to choose from on their fully air-conditioned deck that opens from Tuesday to Saturday from 10am - 10pm, and on Sunday from 1pm to 10pm, Monday - closed. The entrance fee is RM1.00, free entrance for children under 12.

It would be a good opportunity for school students, parents and book lovers to visit Logo Hope this school holiday..a great outing for the whole family to experience.

My Next Car Purchase

2011-11-09T14:25:00.006+08:00

We are always having problems with the power windows of my 10 years old Proton. We have changed all 4 sets of the power window motors some three months ago at the Proton Service Centre, and this morning there show some signs of problem again, wind down and it will not go up, it’s STUCK!!

I had an experience of winding down the driver’s side window to collect a parking ticket at the entrance to my office, the window was stuck, I had to find a safer parking space, spent the next 15 minutes to get this power window up back, and I wouldn’t dare to press the button to wind down that window again. I was late to work as a result. If it was a raining day, I would had become soaking wet till I got to the office. I was told by the car repair workshop that it is the common problem for this make of cars.

After this morning incidence, hubby and I were talking about the age of my car, unavoidably there are areas need to repair and maintain for it to be in good running condition.

I am always thinking of changing or getting another car for the reason that my car is getting old. I have been observing those new cars on the road, local brand cars would be more affordable but again I have been driving local brand cars all this while, upgrading from one after the other, why not consider other made cars, right!? There are a few Toyota Cars that catch my eyes. I particularly like the Toyota Harrier, a metallic gold in colour would be nice, probably I could just dream about it right now, who knows one day I will be able to buy one..a new model one of course!! Alternatively, I am setting my eyes on a Honda CRV, a smaller model of 4-wheel drive that suites me better.

I am working hard on my business now and hope it will allow me to buy the car of my choice..Soon!!

Wanna get a free ticket to Japan?..

2011-10-12T10:21:00.008+08:00

Wanna give yourself an opportunity to get a free ticket to Japan??

My colleague msn to me this link this morning and I thought it would be nice to share this opportunity to whom like to have a ticket to Japan for FREE!!

Check on the link : 10,000 Free round-Trip Tickets to Japan for more information. You could be the lucky one!!

Manufactured Homes

2011-10-10T13:54:00.003+08:00

Buying manufactured homes and park model homes from factory is something very rare in our country. Our houses are all built on sites. It is interesting to know that homes can be built in the factory and be delivered as per our requirements and needs in the United States. These homes are built in compliance with the building code set out by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and are also constructed to meet the standard guideline to its quality, durability, strength, transportability, and fire resistance.

At first I thought these manufactured homes are meant for temporary used, in actual fact the structure and design are very much for a long term residential used. Many factors that are required in a modern living like what they have today such as plumbing, electrical, air-conditioning & heating system are all being taken into consideration and can be in-built into the these homes. Extension can also be added to the existing construction of the homes as and when required in the future.

As the park model homes are all manufactured in the factory and deliver to the actual site for assembling, the noise and dust pollution in building homes can be eliminated at the actual building ground. I assume a lot of us would welcome the idea of having the homes built without having the noise, debris and dust around.

Everything that need in building a home can be picked and chose in the factory itself, it would be very interesting if we could find park model homes or manufactured homes factories in this part of the world.

My ebay purchase had arrived

2011-09-28T21:05:00.007+08:00

A long waited purchase from ebay had finally arrived today, it took 16 days to reach me from China, it is an international delivery thus took a longer time..glad that it did not gone missing.

This is the parcel, want to know what's inside?

???

???

???

???

???

???

Can you guess what is it??

Is a black plastic earrings display holder, I bought it for only RM7.18 (AUD2.29), a very reasonable price for an earrings organizer which I have been looking for. Now I can organise and display my earrings properly rather than placing them in a plastic container in my drawer like this....

I am pleased to see now that I am able to organize and display my earrings in a more proper manner, and also easier for me to pick and choose which pair I want to wear whenever I need them, I am an earrings lover, must wear earrings when I go out..whenever possible :D

Don't look so hard, you won't be able to spot any real diamonds or real precious stones collections here..I need another display for that..*.*. A number of them are handmade by myself, gonna made some more once I manage to find my beading tools..they have gone hidden ever since I moved house.

The only setback is that it is a bit small for longer tangling earring like this one,

The longer earrings will have to be placed to the back so they will not cover the bottom ones, like this....any how I am happy with it.

Home grown Vegetable plants

2011-08-28T21:11:00.002+08:00

My colleague gave me some eggplant seedlings many weeks ago, we transplanted them into a black plastic bag and left them at the backyard. A few days a ago, we noticed that the plants have grown a lot and been attacked by fungus or some kind of pesticide.

We took them all to the front yard, and transplanted them into bigger pots. We do not intend to use pesticides nor fertiliser, because we are trying to have organic home grown vegetable, if they ever bear egg plants, we could expect them to be small and skinny eggplants..:D

Egg plant tree

a small egg plant tree

this is the one attacked by fungus

I also grow some vegetable plant like this one, but I have forgotten what it is. I bought the seeds from tamu, there is no mention of what seeds on the plastic, I forgot all about what seeds I have bought. They do look like Sawi to me..

Tony's 67th Birthday

2011-08-22T11:00:00.005+08:00

A chocolate mango cake from his children

It was Tony's 67th birthday, celebrated at his home last night. He is the eldest brother of Clet's siblings. Plenty of food and great gathering for all of us.

A photo with the kids - nieces (crystal & pearl) , grandsons & grand niece & nephews

A photos with his siblings

Did not manage to snap his family photo, trying to see whether I can get one from their facebook.