[life-muses] - a memoir...

Reunion Dinner 2012

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 06:05:00 +0000

I started my reunion dinner a day earlier with my family. We went to Restaurant Yin Her located in Sg. Buloh New Village for our reunion before welcoming the New Year.

Tossing for prosperity, health and wealth!

Instead of ordering ala carte, we opted for their Chinese New Year set menu. Food was good but service was poor as it's a huge crowd last night! Surprisingly though the quality of the food was there :)

We will bade Year of Rabbit goodbye. To me Rabbit year started out good but I personally did not have a very good ending. Too many things happened - was not feeling myself for sometime which made me miss NAPBAS, parents in-law got into a car accident, "drama" at school and the latest being Cavan celebrating the New Year with his right hand in cast! All this on top of my very peak period in the office. I need a breather!!

Ooh well when I thought that all this will end, I heard that my cousin brother sprained his ankle and he is now limping into the New Year and my mum fell and hurt her knee. So she is also sorta limping slightly into the New Year.

Few more hours and my family need to "balik kampung" to my hubs side for Reunion Dinner tonight.

Here's wishing everyone a VERY HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! May the Year of the Dragon brings us all closer together in prosperity and health!

KUNG HEI FATT CHOY!!

CNY 2012 Preparation

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:54:00 +0000

I'm truly totally not prepared for the coming CNY which is happening this weekend!!..helppp yelppp!! Not one single deco is up in my house. It's totally BARE!!!

The only two things that I managed to do is clean the house which is still underway and completing by tonight or tomorrow night. The other thing is trying out this new snack DIY. Guess the era of Arrowheads aka "nga ku" is taking a backseat and this new snack is hitting the town like crazy. Not only this, I saw lotus roots as well but well, I'll keep that for another year to try. Also heard fried onions, hhmm another snack DIY on my list.

This year with time not on my side, this easy peasy crabstick snack will do :)) Bought these packs of flavoured crab sticks from the hypermarket.

thaw the crabsticks thoroughly

unfold them gently and stack em up!

slice them up! and you're ready for frying...

A note that I find tearing them up in pieces from their original stick form is much faster and easier than unfolding them and stacking them up to slice. One gets better after the first try eh :))
So into the hot controlled oil they go and.....

*sizzle* *sizzle* *sizzle*

It's important that your oil is hot and not too "big", you need to control your fire and once it turns golden brown, scoop them up, drain and you have your crabstick snack!

store up in an airtight container

As the snack is cooled and before storing, half of it went to our tummies! hahahaha....it's so addictive that once you pop into your mouth, you just CAN'T STOP!

Now with this done, I need to go and get those mandarin oranges. Yikes! why is CNY coming so fast this year? I've not even catched my breath from Christmas. Let's see if I managed to hang up some angpow made lanterns this weekend.

The Crack Elbow

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:01:00 +0000

Friday, 13 January 2012

Cavan got back home from school rather quiet and broke up in tears upon stepping into the house holding on to his right arm. Told us admist sobs that he fell down in school when school dismissed and his right hand is in pain.

My heart did a small twist upon hearing him say his hand in pain, can't move and seeing him holding his hand did not give me any positive thoughts. I had a 'dejavu' for a moment there remembering when he dislodge his own left wrist way back in 2009.

Calmly my mum fed him some red and green bean dessert to fill his tummy while pacifying him. Got him to have a shower and off we scouted off to the hospital. Having been thru this before helps me since hubs is away on Company Trip in Langkawi. Before we left the house, I've SMS him the news and wrote that can see physically his elbow has swollen and looked a bit dislodged.

As with A&E Procedure, after registering him they led him to the first base where the nurses will do the initial consultation. After asking a few questions and checking him up, his right arm was put on sling.

Cavan and his sling waiting for the MO after the initial consultation by the nurse

Waited for our turn to see the Medical Officer (MO) on duty and again relate the story and we were then ushered to the x-ray room. Once the x-ray film was printed out, we went into the MO's room again to see what's the damage. Suspicion is he has a crack on the lower bone of the elbow which was quite apparent in the x-ray. I was so hoping that it was just a dislodge elbow but guess this is not the case this time :(

I requested earlier from the nurse during the initial consultation to get Dr. Robert Penafort if it's found to be a similar case. Sad to say Dr. Robert is on leave till coming Monday. The MO called the other specialist, Dr. Gan Eng Cheng to explained the situation and we were then told that Cavan will be put on half cast and may be on it for the next 6 weeks. However, we are to return the next day which is today as I'm typing this out for Dr. Gan to check on him and advise further.

measuring the length of cast required

both of the nurses having a tough time cutting the cast!

start of the half cast session

wrapping it up tightly to support his elbow

putting the finishing touches

and he's ready to go home!

Let's hope that later when the sun rises and we consult Dr. Gan that it's nothing more serious than it is now. Looks like Cavan is going to spend his coming CNY with his right hand in cast.

waiting for me to settle the bill before we go back home

I thank God that it was his right hand that was injured and not his left for he's a left hander and he is still able to go to school and write except play the piano with both hands.

Thank you to all who left kind words when I posted my status with Cavan's photo in FB.

United Buddy Bears

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:07:00 +0000

It may be old news to some but I still want these huge bears to appear on my blog :D Purposely requested hubs to bring us downtown braving the jam and all on a weekend just to see with my own eyes these huge bears.

It was a sight to behold seeing them all dressed up in their countries best be it costume or landmarks. These are just some of those that I captured that night.

China bear

France bear

Look at how detailed the artist is!

Ireland bear

Japan bear

All hands raised up standing straight in a row

You saw their front, must also see their behind :p

I'm sure you would know where the following two bears hail from can you?

Pretty obvious eh? Presenting the Bear of Liberty from USA

cool hip bear from United Kingdom

Sweden bear

Now last but not least presenting to you our own cheerful yellow bear! Yep this is Malaysia's very own bear. Doesnt it make you smile looking at him for he's all yellow :))

painted by our local artist Imuda

United Buddy Bears are in town to promote living together in peace and harmony. The message that it's spreading is that they stand together "hand in hand", symbolising the future vision of a peaceful world.

You too can still catch them as they will be in Pavillion till the 15 February 2012 if you had not.

www.buddy-baer.com

Portugese Settlement Malacca

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:40:00 +0000

Our first short getaway for the New Year is to Malacca. It was rather an impromptu trip when we decided to head to Malacca for some sight seeing and dinner.

We headed straight to Portugese Settlement to enjoy the sea breeze before settling ourselves for some good Portugese dinner.

It was still bright when we arrived and there's already crowd gathering along the sea banks and pier.

My two boys enjoying themselves :))

Just gotta love the colours of the sky!

A glorious sight to behold when the sun sets.

By then the eateries that were open that day started to get crowded. Some even closed early as they could not cater to the crowd. We found a spot and was told that waiting time is 1.5 hours. There goes our plan of heading to Jonker Street after dinner! We didn't order a lot since it's only 2 adults eating. The kiddos usually will nimble here and there. We had Portugese baked fish, stir fried vegetable, ginger lala and baked otak-otak.

Fiery hot and very different taste from the usual Portugese baked fish that I have in KL. Authentic Portugese?

There's also a stall that caught my eye for it's fames horse shoe crab. I didn't dare to order this to try as I'm scared of over ordering. So I'll keep this for the next round I'm here.

We left Portugese Settlement admist beautifully brightly lit homes! It justmakes me happy looking at it. If you have no where to go the next Christmas, head down to Portugese Settlement and set your sight on these dainty homes beautifully decorated!

And this was how we spend our 1st day of New Year together as a family :D

Birth Year Personality

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:56:00 +0000

As we get closer to Chinese New Year to welcome the Dragon, why don't you spend some time to read this and get to know yourself better and also see if what is said here is true :)

Mouse (1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008)
People born in the year of the mouse are frugal, honest, and hardworking. They are also witty and efficient. However, their soft hearts may make them become wary of others, and lead to conflicts.

Cow (1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009)
People born in the year of the cow honest, charistmatic, patient and hardworking. They do not like to fail, either in career or love.

Tiger (1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010)
People born in the year of the tiger are passionate, honest, optimistic, and proactive. Honor and glory are their biggest motivations. However, their passion for success may lead to recklessness.

Rabbit (1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011)
People born in the year of the rabbit are sensitive, humorous, and talented. They are artists. In attaining success, they tend to put little effort in their endeavors, relying too much on their talent instead.

Dragon (1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012)
People born in the year of the dragon are adventurous, emotional and efficient. However, they may get caught up in daydreaming of a romantic lifestyle, or become too arrogant.

Snake (1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001)
People born in the year of the snake are ambitious and hardworking. They are perfecitionists. However, their overly perfectionist personality often results in self-doubt.

Horse (1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002)
People born in the year of the horse are cheerful, open-minded and consistent. However, they have a tendency to be arrogant and wasteful.

Sheep (1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003)
People born in the year of the sheep are compassionate and peaceful. However, they are also fearful and indecisive.

Monkey (1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004)
People born in the year of the monkey are social, cheerful, and positive. However, they lack tenacity.

Chicken (1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005)
People born in the year of the chicken are intelligent and courageous. They are also meticulous, and morally upright. However, they can also be self-centered and stubborn.

Dog (1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006)
People born in the year of the dog are honest, cheerful, sympathetic and responsible. However, they have a tendency to become reckless in maintaining relationships.

Pig (1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007)
People born in the year of the pig are honest, simple and tough-minded. Many are hardworking. However, their indecisiveness may prevent self-development.

So did any of the words strike a true chord?

source : http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=475504

High Risk Account

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:30:00 +0000

Have you ever found yourself facing rejection from credit card processors all because the business you are dealing in is considered to be "High Risk"?

Now what is "High Risk"? According to the dictionary definition, High Risk means :

Adj. 1. high-risk - not financially safe or secure; "a bad investment"; "high risk investments"; "anything that promises to pay too much can't hel being risky"; "speculative business enterprises"

You may be in the following categories - Casino and Gaming Industries, Multi Level Marketing (MLM), Offshore Account to name a few that is considered "High Risk" and this could damper your business for most of the consumers nowadays carries and pay with credit card.

BUT fret not for this company - http://www.highriskaccount.com can meet your unique business needs. HighRiskAccount.com offers internet merchant account processing services. They will work closely with you to assess the unique needs of your business and find one that will offer the best deal for your Company.

So now you can start to contact HighRiskAccount.com and get yourself on top of your business by giving your customers the option of paying by credit card!

Car Sifu - are you one?

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:50:00 +0000

It's the brand new year and some of us might be looking into changing our current car *wink wink hint hint* :))

Yea I admit my hubby is looking around and still is into changing his current car which at times gives a lot of problem. And when your car has problem it means problem to our pockets too!! Car maintenance nowadays is not cheap! Do you agree with me?

We went round a few showrooms to check out the cars and is now eyeing the Toyota Estima. Why Estima? because of the seating capacity and comfort of the car. With just one car, the whole family can go including grandparents. With parking becoming such a hassle nowadays, better just go out with one car instead of two and cut down on the time to find two parking spots or waiting for one another.

I personally find walking from one showroom to another very tiring and I admit too that I'm not that into cars myself. So the cars that I see is all the same to me for I dont know what to look out for besides the shape, colour and feel of it. It's a different thing for the guys I guess, for they will look out for things such as fuel consumption, engine capacity so on and so forth.

So what do I do to contribute my two cents when hunting for cars? I surf the net and found this - CarSifu. Boy was I happy and showed it to my hubs and he too went into it and check it out.

This site has a simple design and maneuvering around is easy as 1-2-3! :D Even me know how to find what I want to find :p

I just click on Toyota Cars to view all the cars produced by Toyota or simply key into their search box the exact car model that I want and voila!, a list of the cars pops out and all I have to do now is to click on view details to get more details of that particular car.

From here the details of the car is listed out with photos for you to view. Of course, viewing the actual car is a MUST thus there's a contact that you can get in touch with the seller and arrange the time and date for you to view the car that you have an eye for. Tell me, isn't this easy hassle free arrangement vs walking from one showroom to another and asking the same questions over and over again? Ooh did I tell you that this site has both NEW and USED cars for sale? No I didn't? Well I just did! :p

If you excuse me now, I'm gonna go back to the site and help my hubs to shortlist the cars that we wanna view. Toodles! :D

Happy New Year 2012!

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 01:38:00 +0000

Happy New Year 2012 again! It's only the 5th day of the New Year, not too late a post on how I spent my New Year's Eve :))

So how did you spent your New Year's eve? We had another family gathering, another pot luck at Mont Kiara and waited till the clock struck 12AM to usher in the New Year 2012.

Table set, food all set. Just a snap before we indulge ourselves in homemade goodness food! :D

What did we have this round?

Gado Gado with homemade creamy peanut sauce

Fried meehoon

"Fu-pei" roll with chicken and prawn meat

Corn patties

Bumbu Ikan

Chicken rendang

Braised chicken leg with mushroom

Sago with palm sugar and coconut

Palm sugar cendol jelly

There's another dessert which I forgot to capture - banana cake!

After dinner we hung around chit chatting waiting for the new year to arrive. While waiting, we fooled around as well.

As we start counting down, everyone prepared their cameras, phone and afixed their eyes to the beginning of this

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!!

It was a spectacular show of fireworks ushering in the New Year as we bade goodbye to 2011.

May we all be more healthy, wealthy and have a smooth ride to the end of 2012. Cheers!

Leaving you with a video of the fireworks we saw that night. Enjoy! :D

Highlights of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:30:00 +0000

Before I post on how I ushered in the New Year 2012, I'm gonna go down memory lane and do a highlights of 2011 (one highlight a month).

January

Ushered in New Year 2011 in Siem Reap, Cambodia! Joined the street partay!! :))

http://www.life-muses.com/2011/01/happy-new-year-2010.html

http://www.life-muses.com/2011/02/sunset-new-year-eve-countdown.html

February

Celebrated CNY ushering in the Year of the Rabbit with a beautifully handmade lantern out of Ang Pow packets

http://www.life-muses.com/2011/02/kung-hei-fatt-choi-gong-xi-fa-cai-2011.html

March

Went for a Business Trip to Singapore

http://www.life-muses.com/2011/06/singapore-business-trip.html

April

Went for a day trip to Gold Coast - - - - Sepang! hahaha

http://www.life-muses.com/2011/04/day-trip-to-gold-coast.html

May

Found a gem in my area where I love their spa, facial and massage! Am still going here on and off for treatments.

http://www.life-muses.com/2011/05/eve-de-beaute-spa.html

June

A month of winnings for me - 2nd price in Proton Exora VIP Test Drive and RM200 worth of Kleenex Tissues!

http://www.life-muses.com/2011/06/proton-exora-vip-test-drive.html

http://www.life-muses.com/2011/06/kleenex-comfort-kit-i-won.html

July

Had a scare when Caden fell and had an internal nose cut

http://www.life-muses.com/2011/07/my-dear-caden-you-gave-us-scare-last.html

August

Transformed my boy into a 'lil Blueberry for his kindy's Theme Day

http://www.life-muses.com/2011/08/lil-blueberry-boy.html

September

My baby boy turns 2!

http://www.life-muses.com/2011/09/happy-2-year-old-baby.html

October

My boy is graduating *sob sob* growing up way too fast!

http://www.life-muses.com/2011/10/making-of-grad_28.html

November

Another win in Dumex A Solid Foundation Contest!

http://www.life-muses.com/2011/11/dumex-solid-foundation-contest.html

December

Dad's 70th surprise birthday bash

http://www.life-muses.com/2012/01/dads-70th-surprise-birthday-bash.html

There's more than 1 event that was memorable for me in some of the months, but these are the ones that was the highlight for me. I hope that this Year 2012 will give me more memorable events to cherish.

Short Christmas Break

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:47:00 +0000

The day after Christmas, we left for Port Dickson for a short family Christmas break. Prior heading to Port Dickson, we went to Restaurant Asam Batu Laut for lunch.

It was packed needless to say since it is a Public Holiday but the waiting time is not long.
The dishes that we had there. It was yummy and reasonably priced. Would definitely come back here again.

The view behind the restaurant. It was low tide that time. Apparently the original restaurant is on stilts but currently it's based on solid ground and those stilts are sitting in crumbles which you can see from the restaurant.

After lunch we proceeded to Ilham Resort in Port Dickson. This is my 2nd time here. The first time was in August 2011 when we have a short escapade upon receiving a call from my brother.

We got the apartment number 2011. What a nice way to end the Year 2011 :D

The kiddos were eager to hit the beach and pool right after checking-in. Alas the beach is rather dirty. Dirtier than the last time I was here.

The kiddos contented with some sand play before heading to the pool.

That night we went out and scoured for food. Ended up in Restoran Ummi since our choice eatery - Jin Men Grill Fish was closed!!

It's pricey although I must say their grill fish is good for the flesh is moist and tender unlike the usual grill where the meat is all dried up.

We went for dessert after this and had durians! :D

It was a fruits galore for me for there's rambutan, longans, mangosteen and duku langsat. Oohh I lurve them all!

The next morning the kiddos hit the pool again.

Before checking-out, we climbed one of the hotel towers and had a spectacular view from above.

Before heading back to KL, we had lunch at Restaurant Weng Yin Seafood Village.

On the way back, we stopped again for dessert and yes durians again before settling into the car and head home.

It was a nice short Christmas break for our family.

Christmas Eve 2011

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:05:00 +0000

This will be my last post on Christmas. We spent a quiet Christmas Eve at home.

Allowed the kids to open their pressies early so that they can go to bed early :))

Both brothers busy tearing open the wrappers to unweil their pressies.

Open one and start to play with it first before continue to open another pressie.

Boxful of candy canes!

An M&M truck which Caden now calls 'big big truck'

Hhhmmm I wonder what is this?

Kiddos and their pressies.

Don't we all just love receiving gifts? :D

Winter Solstice cum Christmas Dinner 2011

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:58:00 +0000

I posted the dish I made for Winter Solstice. Here's the full entry of what we had that night. It was a close family dinner for Winter Solstice cum Christmas. The venue - my aunt's house in Mont Kiara.

First let me show you the set-up made for this Winter Solstice cum Christmas Dinner.

Beautifully decorated Christmas tree.

Spectacular table setting, do you agree?

Now to the food. It's all homemade except for two dishes which was packed from the shop. As it was a pot luck gathering, each family made a dish there.

Roast Stuffed Chicken made by yours truly

mushroom salad

aubergine (brinjal) salad

beef salad

yong tau fu

grill portugese style fish

babi kecap, an indonesian dish

apple cinnamon cake

And here the gang of us minus me of course since I'm behind the camera! :D

I hope you had a great Winter Solstice as we awaits the coming Year of the Dragon and a fabulous Christmas dinner with your family. I know I did.

Dad's 70th Surprise Birthday Bash!

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:57:00 +0000

We planned this surprised birthday for my dad 2 months ahead. Slowly coming out with the guest list, sourcing and purchasing favour, choosing location and designing the menu.

It was tough getting the contacts for most of them are with my dad. We weave here and there and got all the contacts we wanted and informed our guests the date, venue and time and most importantly stressing on the SURPRISE.

As I was saying in my Christmas round-up post, I went to Suria KLCC on a mission - to meet one of our overseas guest and long family friend who came purposely for the birthday bash.

Uncle Tony and Aunty Bea from Australia/Singapore

The day finally arrived and the venue that my brother choose was in Ampang - SKH Riverview Seafood Village. Timing was perfect as everyone arrives and the main star my Dad of course was the last to arrived.

The restaurant was crowded that time and he not expecting other guests was searching for familiar face ie. our own family members and when he started to see his guests he was surprised and went into a daze like from one table to another when he saw more and more of our invited guests.

He really was SURPRISED and delighted to have them all with him celebrating his birthday.

Now onto the food that we had - usual 8 course menu.

Started off with individual serving of double boiled lotus black bean soup without MSG, followed by birthday mee. Birthday mee are usually served in the long form for it symbolises longetivity.

We then had two flavours chicken - ginger steamed and smoked. Boy, was the chicken "smokey". We also had fried salted squid and cheese balls as our appetizer.

Our fish came in two style - flesh steam on a bed of smooth tofu and the fish head went into claypot style. One must eat veges so we had a platter of mix veges. Not forgetting our special soy sauce king prawn which was big juicy and fresh!

We ended our meal with a sweet dessert of red bean soup with glutinous rice ball peanut filling.

My dad with his childhood buddies - Uncle Tony and Uncle Stanley.

Our guests for that night includes :

my parents care cell members

aunties and cousins

family members and cousins

friends and family members

in-laws from Penang and family members

We ended the night with my dad blowing his birthday cake.

Our family - from 4 of us to 10 pax in total!!

Each of our guest when home with tummy full, happy smiles and a favour to remember by.

THANK YOU everyone for making it to my dad's 70th birthday bash and for keeping this surprise from him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

keep going as it's only 70.....

Christmas 2011 Round-up

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:23:00 +0000

First of all, MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 to all! :D

I've been pretty busy in December thus the lack of updates. However, fret now as I'm now bouncing slowly back and am completing posts that were supposed to be out in December 2011!

As my usual year end entry, I love mall hopping to check out the Christmas decos. This year I've been to a few only. I shall start with the one closest to me, my sorta 2nd home as I commute here every working day!

** loads of pics ahead**

Mid Valley Megamall's an 'A-maze-ing' Christmas

Gave me a feel of Alice in Wonderland. Love the rustic newspaper tho which came which a sticker page ♥ ♥

The Gardens Mid Valley

Minimal deco but spelling grandeur as it was decked in beautiful chandeliers. I always wonder how they clean up chandelier each time I saw one :p

Suria KLCC

Ain't I'm glad that I'm not seeing the usual tall Christmas year which they had for a number of years! hehehe.... It was by chance that I went KLCC to meet an old friendly friend for a mission that I got the chance to snap a few Christmas deco in KLCC.

Ikano Power Centre (IPC) - Swedish Christmas

Simple, minimal Swedish deco. We were given a glimpse of the Swedish village.

The Curve - Enchanted Christmas

Castle amidst Christmas trees, a very bluey theme.

1 Utama - Splashing over the big blue

An underwater theme, you get to see a lot of shells everywhere including hanging above you! Pretty and nice to look at but I felt it misses Christmas theme altogether.

Anyway, you take your own pick which has the nicest Christmas deco for Year 2011. So far, I felt it was just so so this round. Till the next year, hope everyone had a great Christmas celebration with love ones. Remember, Christmas is not about giving and receiving gifts. It's all about the birth of Jesus Christ.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS and A BLESSED CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Roast Stuffed Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:10:00 +0000

We had Winter Solstice cum Christmas Dinner at my aunt's house in Mont Kiara. It was a pot luck gathering thus each family had to bring a dish.

As its a weekday and I'm working, I decided to make roast stuffed chicken. The original recipe is adopted from Zang Toi the fashion designer when he shared one of his recipe that I read from one magazine many many many years ago. I was not able to trace where I placed that said recipe thus I prepared the stuffing from my memory plus my own tweakings :))

Prepared the stuffing and side dish the night before and got my mum to help roast it before I reached home so that we can straight head to over to my aunt's.

First we need to marinate the chicken.

I gave it a good massage all over! :p The longer you marinate it the tastier it is. Thus I like to marinate my meat overnight for it to get fully absorbed with all the what nots that I throw in.

Next up, I prepared the ingredients for the stuffing. If you're preparing it on the same day you intent to roast your chicken, make sure the stuffing cooled down before you start stuffing 'em into the chicken's cavity.

Visualing that my chicken will be rather "plain" looking with all the stuffing inside it, I prepared brocolli and potatoes as side dishes. Didnt want my veges to be bland thus when I boiled them I added a pinch of salt in the water.

After draining the veges, I tossed them with some butter and threw in dashes of parshley, oregano and rosemary for flavor.

So now, how did my roast chicken turned out?

.
.

Taa-daa! My roast stuffed chicken all ready to be eaten! :p

Game to give this a try? It's an easy peasy no fuss recipe and dish that you can prepare and impress your guest with.

Recipe :
1 whole medium/large chicken
light and black/thick soya sauce
spices - rosemary and thyme
salt, pepper and sugar
honey (optional)
- thoroughly clean the chicken inside out and marinate it preferably for at least 3 hours

Stuffing :
Carrots - cubed
Button Mushrooms - cubed
Fresh Mushrooms - cubed
Wolfberries (kei chi)
Red Dates
Garlic - finely chopped
- first fragant the garlic, add in all the above and stir fry, salt to taste

Side Dish :
Brocolli - bite size
Potatoes - skinned and cut into half
- boil the vege with a pinch of salt added into the water, drain and toss with butter and add in dashes of parshley, oregano and rosemary

Line your pan and roast your chicken covered for 1 - 1.5 hours (depending on your oven's heat and chicken size). 15 mins before you remove the chicken from the oven, roast it uncovered to get a nice coloured dry skin.

Decorate your yummy dish with the side dish you prepared earlier. Now, you are ready to serve your easy homemade Roast Stuffed Chicken!

me and my roast chicken :p

Graduation Party : Charleston Swing

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:00:00 +0000

Class of 2011 : that's the year my boy graduated from kindy :)

His kindy held a Graduation Party for all K2 kids and the theme was Charleston Swing. The party was held in PJ Hilton and it's even grander than any of my current Company's event!!

The ballroom set-up

The backdrop

Before the graduation ceremony take place, there were several counters set-up outside the ballroom where the kiddos get to decorate their own graduation frame, get themself balloons, tattoo, knick knacks accessories to dress up etc.. There's even a counter selling graduation bouquet! and this is only a Kindy's graduation mind you.

The teachers really dressed up for the event and so are the other parents and kids.

While the big brother is busy outside checking out those counters and playing with his friends, spotted lil brother as busy as well checking out the Graduation Book of his big brother LOL.

The party started off by annoucing the various Class of 2011 and the kids did their graduation walk into the ballroom on the red carpet! phee-witt!!

Soon after it was time for them to receive their scroll from their Headmistress. I hope that I'll get this chance of seeing my boy walking up on stage to receive his higher learning scroll in years to come!

The party continued with the teachers performing for us all. Usually its the kids who perform but this time it's the teachers treat to the kids for they dance a Charleston number. Nice!

The kiddos were then treated to a magic show and I just love the picture below where you can see Caden thoroughly enjoying himself! :D

There, my boy has graduated and is moving on to a new chapter in his schooling years. We are now 1.5 weeks short before Primary 1 year starts....

Foh San Dim Sum @ Ipoh

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:30:00 +0000

We were happily on our way up North (which turn out to be an awful ride) and decided to stop at Ipoh to have our breakie. I ate at Foh San in KL before and very much wanted to try the original Foh San which is from Ipoh.

With the help of GPS we managed to locate Foh San and just look at the building and the CROWD!!

It's a 2-storey building and you have to grab your own table as there's no numbers given out. Thus you have to have a good eye and sense to see if the table you choosen to wait beside will be fast to finish up their food so that you can then sit at that table! Found this extremely hard as I have 2 kids with me and the crowd is just too much for my liking!

2 hours drive and I'm not one to give up easily. So braved the crowd and joined em in table picking LOL!

The crowd at Ground Level, all tables FULL.

The crowd on upper level, also FULL but too lazy to go down thus decided to stay on this floor and wait for my table.

Foh San practice self service. Once seated, they will give you a card and take your tea order. After this you are free to roam to the counters set-up at the perimeter of the restaurant to get your food besides some of the push-trolley that goes around tables offering different kinds of dim sum.

Gotta que for food and at times when it's your turn, the item you want ran out!

Many different varieties of fried snacks

Some of the steam dim sum that we had that morning...

One dim sum item that I will not miss will be egg tart. I just love flaky pastry egg tarts! ❤❤❤

Overall, I just find Foh San Dim Sum normal. The next time I'm in Ipoh town, I'm gonna try the shop opposite Foh San called Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum.

Restoran Foh San Ipoh
51 Jalan Leong Sin Nam,
30300 Ipoh,
Perak
Tel: (605) 254-0308
Fax: (605) 253-5432

Disney Junior Online Resource

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:32:00 +0000

I'm a super BIG fan of anything Disney! if you do not know already *wink wink* for each time I write something about Disney, I'm sure you catch how much of a fan I am of Disney! ❤ ❤

So as I hinted in my previous post, my family was part of the lucky 15 families selected to attend Jake and the Never Land Pirates Birthday Party at Marmalade Cafe @ Publika! woo-hoo!!..

Upon entering I was totally impressed with the props! All handmade, DIY. From props to food, everything can be found online.

We started off the party with a treasure hunt. We were required to hunt for 5 gold doubloons! After Captain Sophia flagged us off, we were on our way to get our gold doubloons :))

Holding on tight to our questions that will lead us to the bling bling gold doubloons...

There were prizes given to the fastest 3 families that got hold of their doubloons and we were not one of em :(

Proceeding right after our hunt, the kiddos were treated to an episode of Jake and The Never Land Pirates.

Ooh ooh this coming Christmas Day, be sure to catch a special new holiday episode airing at 1.00 pm!

After the show, both kids and adults alike were hungry and we are all more than ready to savour the food that has been prepared in advance. Now the food are all so lovely that I thought twice before putting into my mouth to munch it! LOL!!

Top : Me Hearty Chicken Drummets and Never Land Palm Tree Veggies
Bottom : Mini Ship Hotdogs, Smee's Devilled Egg and Never Land Palm Tree Sandwiches

Top : A Treasure Chest of Golden Nuggets

Bottom : Marina's Spaghetti Marinara and Jake's Tropical Turkey Ham Pizza

Now what's a birthday party without a birthday cake right? This is not the usual cream butter decorated cake. We had a Captain Hook cake!!

Lovely isn't it? You dont have to memorise how to make that hook or the palm tree sandwiches. All you need to do is just to log right into www.disneyjunior-asia.com, click on the "For Grown-Ups" tab and everything you need to plan a party is right in front of your very nose :p

So now you can start to plan your kids party. Not a simple party but a Theme Party for Disney Junior's Online Celebration Resources will assist you to plan and impress your guests! I bet it will be the talk until the next party you plan :p

One for the album

Marmalade Cafe @ Publika

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:13:00 +0000

We went to Marmalade Cafe @ Publika early this month to attend a Pirate's Party. YES! We went to Jake and the Neverland Pirate's Party! :D

Marmarlade Cafe was transformed into a Pirate's cove for everywhere I turn I see treasure chest and gold coins!!

Just one thing, those GOLD COINS are made of paper >.< tsk tsk...

This is Jake, our host. Together with Captain Sophia and her crews, they created all those treasure boxes, gold coins, hats, wands and what nots which I will reveal to you HOW in another post so that you too can be a PRO in setting up your own Pirate's Party!

Leaving you now with my own two Pirates on that day.

More lovely pics coming up. Looking back and knowing how easy it is to create such party in future makes my hands itch to start planning for another party. Anyone wanna hire me as an event organiser??

Kam Lun Tai @ Sri Petaling

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:38:00 +0000

A few bloggers me included were invited for a food review at Kam Lun Tai Restaurant in Sri Petaling a couple of weeks back. Not very well verse with the roads there, I got my hubs an invite too and he went with me. He's my walking map! :p

Kam Lun Tai Restaurant is a very common household name for the older generation. Apart from the food review, AXA Insurance had an investment talk at the same time. Thus we were treated to both food and talk that night.

Emcee and Speakers

This post will be focuses more on the food as it was a food review afterall :D Once everyone has arrived and seated, the nom nom begun...

The dishes were all served at once rather than course by course. No issue here since we are all pretty hungry. So the more dishes we have on our table, the better! :D

We had prawn salad, pickled vege and tofu soup, roasted char siu, braised pork knuckle, japanese tofu, thai style fish fillet and crispy chicken.

I guess the highlight on the entire menu was the braised pork knuckle as everyone attacks it non-stop!! I can just have that dish with my rice and nothing else for the gravy is nice with tender flesh... yumz.... :)

We ended our meal with a cold dessert - sea coconut with longan. Add on to it, AXA's speaker brought down all the way from Penang a special treat for us all. Deep fried crispy durian pancake.

It was so soo crispy on the outside and oozing with durian on the inside! I miss this very very much!! We were also given a door gift of cake balls. I cant comment on the cake balls for when I wanted to taste it the next day, it has already landed itself inside my two boys tummy LOL.

Last but not least, a group photo of us that attended this Food Review at Kam Lun Tai Chinese Restaurant. If you're in Sri Petaling area, you can consider going to this Chinese Restaurant and get your fix on some authentic chinese dishes!

Kam Lun Tai Chinese Restaurant,
38D-G, 38D-1, 38C-1,
Jalan Radin Anum,
Bandar Baru Sri Petaling,
57000 Kuala Lumpur
(T) 603 - 9059 5122

A bummer start to Dec 2011

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:30:00 +0000

I had a pretty awful December beginning.

Was not well and needed to built back my health. Felt that I was down in the darkest pit! Luckily I was able to attend Jake & The Neverland Pirates Party before everything went down hill!! (post on this event soon). So much so that I couldnt RSVP to attend Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards (NAPBAS). I scored this invite!! but it's all now down the drain. Blogging and FB-ing all went on hold as I struggle to restore my health :(

As I rebuilt my strength, I continued ahead with what was planned in December. So here we are heading up North to join my sis-in-law to Betong, Thailand when we received that fateful call from my father-in-law informing that both him and my mother-in-law got involved in an accident and my mother-in-law is in the hospital!

Hearing this type of news is really awful and we made a U-turn immediately and mind you we were already at the border going to cross into Thai territory. Cut the story short, we travelled back to KL that same day and all of us went for ride up North and back down!

My boys especially Cavan who was looking forward to this trip to get his passport stamped was really disappointed but he understands the situation. Just pity him that he first nap and wake up, still half way to Penang, nap again reach Penang but need to meet sis-in-law first before prceeding further. Start journey to Betong, nap again and when he wakes up, we are back in Penang and was told that we are heading back to pole position LOL.

It's now mid December and I want to enjoy this month to the fullest for December and Christmas is my favourite month besides May. I just hope that I have the time to go round the malls to capture the Christmas spirit and at the same time help me lift back up my own spirit.

Aladdin the Musical Gala Premier @ Sunway Lagoon

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:47:00 +0000

As promised here's more shots on the night of the Gala Premier on 25 November 2011 @ Sunway Lagoon Amphitheatre. I still get excited each time I look back at the photos and videos taken that night! :D

Let's start by me entering the Amphitheatre. Guess who I met at the entrance?

JD the Genie and Dilly the Princess from MixFM!! Just gotta lurve his turban! :p

After waiting for an hour+ (need to improve on timing fellow Malaysians!), the show's curtain finally raised and let the musical begin!......

Show of the Ring

the market in the Kingdom of Askabar

spotted : live stocks in a musical!

Can you spot Aladdin admist the dancers?

The Sultan

The Sultan and Jafa who is the Sultan's advisor

Princess Jasmine is the one in front. Love this scene, it's so colourful so vibrant!

Princess Jasmine and Aladdin

Aladdin inching closer to the Cave's mouth carrying out Jafa's instruction

The Cave opens its mouth and in goes Aladdin!

The cave is totally awesome eh for it can move up and down with a glowing red eyes to boot!

Aladdin found a treasure trove and the magic lamp! :))

Let's clean this lamp by rubbing it....

WOAH!! who are you??

I'm the cool Genie whom you released and now you're my Master! :D

I just lurve this Genie for each time he appears, the air crackles and he will groove to some upbeat tunes! The crowds favourite!! MY FAVOURITE :))

Before I know it, it was time for a 15 minutes break and I spent this 15 minutes bringing Cavan to the toilet. By the time we qued and done with our business, we reached our seats in time before the musical start Part 2.

Those who are seated at the VIP Red Zone seats gets 3D glasses. Me on the otherhand "elek, kosong, nothing!". Only has my own glasses on :p Why 3D? Well Part 2 of the musical is where Aladdin and Princess Jasmine seats on the magic carpet and "fly"....

Part 2 started off with a huge fanfare! We have live fire eaters!! woooohooo...

And then came the scene where everyone gets all lovey dovey and swayed along with the magical flying carpet.

A treat for you, here's the scene on the flying carpet :

At the dungeons where Jafa held Princess Jasmine hostage and tied up The Sultan. The Genie was also summoned out for the magic lamp landed on Jafa's evil hands.

And before I could sit back more, the show came to an end.

dancers and cast bid their goodbyes

Prince Ali (Aladdin) and Princess Jasmine rode away on the magic carpet back to their castle...

This is definitely my FAVOURITE of all the musicals staged by Sunway Lagoon. Do I want to go watch it again? DEFINITELY!!!....

Aladdin the Musical @ Sunway Lagoon will be running from 25 Nov 2011 to 2 January 2012. Showtimes are Sunday to Friday at 7.45pm, Saturdays at 7.15pm and 9.15pm. There will be extra shows on 25 Dec 2011 and 1 Jan 2012 at 7.15pm and 9.15pm.

www.sunwaylagoon.com

FB : www.facebook.com/sunwaylagoonMsia

Twitter : www.twitter.com/sunwaylagoon1

AirAsiaRedTix : www.airasiaredtix.com

Once again a big THANK YOU to All Malaysian Bloggers and Sunway Lagoon for granting me this wish to see Aladdin the Musical.

Aladdin the Musical - Gala Premier

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:41:00 +0000

Yesterday night after work I rush all the way up to Sunway Lagoon to attend the Gala Premier of Aladdin the Musical.

It was a spectacular show and I totally enjoyed myself from the start to the end. It ended too soon for me as I'm totally impressed and as I mentioned before, just love the hunky Genie. He's really the crowd's favourite! Each time he appeared, fireworks crackles and he comes out with some groovy dance moves woo-hoo.... :))

Remember my previous post where I showed you the raw sneak peek that the cast gave us? Well this round, I'm enticing you further by giving you the REAL scene from the Gala Premier!!!

Are you breathless already? Still not convinced to go and see Aladdin the Musical all happening at Sunway Lagoon? You should start getting your tickets now.

Aladdin the Musical @ Sunway Lagoon will be running from 25 Nov 2011 to 2 January 2012. Showtimes are Sunday to Friday at 7.45pm, Saturdays at 7.15pm and 9.15pm. There will be extra shows on 25 Dec 2011 and 1 Jan 2012 at 7.15pm and 9.15pm.

www.sunwaylagoon.com
FB : www.facebook.com/sunwaylagoonMsia
Twitter : www.twitter.com/sunwaylagoon1
AirAsiaRedTix : www.airasiaredtix.com

This is my FAVOURITE musical brought in by Sunway Lagoon after having attended Peter Pan and Magical Musical. It just got better and better!!

I'll be posting up some pictures from the Gala Premier later. Their costumes were breath taking admist the beautiful backdrop :D

The Cobbler

noreply@blogger.com (life-muses) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:04:00 +0000

Cobbler : a person who makes or mend shoes ~ in other words a Shoemaker.

It was by chance that I got to know about this Cobbler who produces funky nice shoes. Not only you can choose from the different range it offers, you can even design your own! Now has this perked you up yet? DESIGNING your very own shoes! But later on this for I want to show you my brand new pumps.

zebra print pumps

The pumps that I have is a gift from Alicia. I rarely wear pumps or simply said, covered shoes for my feet are rather sensitive and easily get "bitten" by the shoes I wore no matter how "old folks" advice says - beat it, BITE it and swipe wax over the area. I did all of that and still the shoe BITE me! :(

I used to envy those that is able to wear pumps for the design is lovely but I've long resorted to only try on sandals for I can't bear the pain of getting bitten. Imagine having plaster on your heels but you still feel the pain and bleeding. Can't walk at all! :( Thus as long as my heels are not wrapped up, I'm fine and it's sandals all the way then.

Then this pretty shoe landed on my hands and boy ooh boy, it's solid, lovely and best of all, it DOES NOT BITE ME! :))

The Cobbler shoe ~ smooth seams all the way

My new shoes is from The Cobbler. The Cobbler is based in Singapore and delivers free to Malaysia! Not only that, it comes in an attractive gift box.

So now I too can slip on my pumps and walk the town tall and proud! :p Ok me now gonna log into The Cobbler and go DESIGN my own shoes!