Big giant bone

We went to Staines this afternoon for some chinese buffet and got this from the petshop


He loves it, it is huge, it is £5.99!!! and it was already half gone by dinner time....

The boys have been getting along very well these days. We usually spend about an hour with the rabbits upstairs before nap time and Bronx comes along following them around like a security guard.

He's slowly learning to let go and calm down when the rabbits are around.



Here's the rabbits feeling rather chilled out and contented.. They do look rather fat don't they?

Hmmmmm......

Michael's big erection

At the moment, we are both busy doing works to our house, mainly redecorating and bringing it up to date.

We started in the garden about a month ago, clearing the garden off the spider (they were LARGE and aplenty!) infested plants, shrubs, trees.... basically.. everything.

The previous owner of this house planted really strange, ugly, crawley, thorny plants and they were all stubborn and a pain to remove.

However.. we managed.

Then.... we decided it was time for the rotting old shed to go and also the fence between us and our neighbour also, as it was quite badly damaged by the crawling plants.

Thankfully, we had help from some friends with the fence and the digging.

Taking down the shed took a few hours, but taking down and putting up the fence took a good 3 - 4 days work!


That's Mike celebrating after successfully putting up the new second fence panel. 2 down, 2 more to go!


That's the mess that was our garden......


Here's the fence completed! Hurray!!

We also dug a 6 inch deep hole for the concrete base of our shed.

It took us 2 days to dig, put in the wooden frame, lay the sub-base, waterproof membrane, mix the concrete and level it out.

I did the concrete mix and leveling while the husband was at work last Thursday. It took me almost 5 hours!!!! and I don't think my arms have forgiven me..

It isn't perfect, but for a first timer and working alone, the husband thinks it's pretty good.


We sanded down the fence next to the concrete yesterday and painted it. We also painted over the concrete. This is how it looks like as of now.


Not bad huh?

The garden is still messy, but compared to a month ago, it is quite acceptable. Once the shed is up and the tools are in, we will have a garden again!

Of course there're still lots to do - the other side of the fence needs sanding and painting, the flower beds need to be built and then we will lay the garden with nice green grass, make a pathway to the door and decorate it with a nice homely bench and a fountain???? (the husband says MAYBE) :P

Hehe.. for the moment we are all dancing happy and busy bees!

Hi Pigeon

At 2 years and 10 months L's favourite question has to be 'What's your name?'

The funny thing is that it actually took him a while of asking before he actually understood at all what it means.

Yesterday in the garden there was a particularly tame pigeon looking for worms and berries.. L went right up to it and said, 'Hi Pigeon. What's your name?'

When he got no reply he pressed on and repeatedly asked for the pigeon's name. It was really really cute!

He did give up eventually and went back to his scooter.

Later when the pigeon got in his way he bent down from his scooter and said very politely to it - Mind Pigeon, mind!

Isn't he just adorable?

The missing beansprouts...

Living in London introduces you to a whole new world of gastronomy. Walking down a typical high street, it is unlikely you will find anything less than 5 - 8 different ethnic food shops.

I was just wondering how living in London have changed the way we eat.

In Malaysia with my family, it used to be Chinese day in, day out. A good day eating for me will probably be Wan Tan Mee in the morning, Chicken Rice in the afternoon (if I can manage the portion) and a home cooked Chinese meal for dinner. The most 'un-Chinese' thing we eat at home is probably peanut butter bread, we don't even do cereal.

The husband in Penang was a lot more diverse and he had a lot more choice and budget. His choice breakfast would probably be Roti Canai with curry for breakfast, Duck Rice in the afternoon (he could probably do 2 portions) and a large Thai or Japanese set meal for dinner.

When we started living together, he had problems seperating me from my Chinese food and I had problems making myself try weird odd foreign foodstuff.

These days it is a lot better and we both eat a wide variety of 'world food'.

I was looking through an old photo album and found some of our dinner photos.

This was obviously when I was missing my Ipoh Beansprout Chicken (which is missing the Beansprouts because the husband won't eat them) and decided to just replicate it at home rather than wait my heart out to get it in Ipoh.

See how messy everything is? Just like in the hawkers! Haha..


Here's when we decided to have a Japanese pig out session. We usually only eat sashimi when we go to Billingsgate Market to buy whole salmons. They do very well in the freezer. It is just a big job de-scaling, chopping and slicing.


This is the middle portion of the salmon that will become sashimi.


Another meal we were addicted to cooking for a while (because it is fast, easy and clean!) is toad in a hole. It is basically sausages in yorkshire pudding. It looks pretty when they are fresh from the oven. No these are not burnt, they are meant to be quite brown.


We had them for Christmas together with veges and onion gravy. The chinese roast pork was there because we were feeling naughty.

And here's what I miss MOST from Malaysia. It just does not taste the same over here. They make the noodles like RUBBER BAND! Bleah :P

Oh Danny boy..

I grew up living with a person who was perpetually about to go bankrupt.

I love him to bits but when it comes to managing his finances, I don't buy any of his ideas and to a certain extent, I know he is irresponsible but I will never tell that to his face because it will be a knife cutting through his heart.

It has not made me a spendthrift, it has not make me careless with my money, neither has it made me a kiam siap kui (stingy ghost).

I learnt how to manage my own finances when I was 12, building my own secret bank in a pretty Pocahontas notebook which was a present from a family friend.

Of course I had a proper bank account managed by my parents but I soon learnt never to trust or rely on money that I cannot see.

You might think that a 12 year old only saves to get fancy stuff their parents won't buy for them because it is a waste of money but I was saving to get myself proper things like my school uniform and books.

It wasn't that they were denying me basic rights to go to school, I did it because I wanted to feel independent, that I was capable enough to survive on my own without having to rely on my parents and without having to live to fulfil their expectations instead of my own.

Today, I know to keep a close eye on our finances and make sure it does not go running into trouble.

I do not dislike or look down on people who have gone bankrupt because I can understand why and how easy it would be for someone who blindly chases after money.

I DO keep away from the stock markets like I would do a bad egg because I have seen more than enough damage it has on reckless, often over-ambitious and frequently unlucky sods looking for fast and big money.

But what I am NOT, is paranoid about being bankrupt!

I don't go scanning around reading articles about how not to go bankrupt although sound financial advice is always welcomed.

I do not want to be a bankrupt BUT I also do not fear being bankrupt because I know I have lived through it and although it was not pleasant, it is certainly nothing you cannot recover from if you are determined to.

Also, if you take it positively, it is an experience to learn from and it should hopefully make you wiser ;)

The dream

This Sunday I turn 24.

It is a strange feeling because the last time I thought about being 24 I was 12. That's because it was a Tiger year and I was thinking.. hmm.. next Tiger year I would be 24!

I used to wonder what I would be doing when I was 24..

Married? Not married?

Would I still be in Malaysia or would I have achieved my dream to be a doctor in some African country with deadly scorpions (no idea how I would ever cope with that considering I scream at the sight of the tiniest spiders!)

Now that I will be 24, it seems I have ditched a few of my 12 year old ideas, achieved some of what I wanted to do and adopted some new ideas along the way (some of which the 12 year old me would probably not be very happy about - like kissing a boy, yucks!).

What would I want for myself when I turn 36?

Well....

I want to be as madly in love as I am now with that fat boy who is super demanding about his lunch!

I want to be a mother and hopefully have children that DO NOT whine too much!!

I want to be self employed (yes I know it's everybody's dream) and have the husband at home running our own business.

I want to move to a place away from London where we can buy a bigger house with a much larger garden where we can then adopt a young collie who will run around like a mad dog.

The saddest thing about all these are that Bronx, Chicken Pie and Wibble will probably not be around when I turn 36.

At the moment I don't know if I can live with that. Talking and thinking about Jake still brings tears to my eyes and we still miss him very very much.

Of course that is life, if I don't ever lose them I will never get to know another dog or rabbit but it is always so hard when you miss something you know you won't see for a very long time.

Anyway..........

That's 12 years to wait and 12 years to enjoy everything we have at the moment and whatever comes in between.

Popiah

A few Saturdays ago we invited Uncle Mike and Justina for a popiah experiment.

Popiah being the delicious wet vege rolls you get in Malaysia, not the fried version.

We decided to try making popiah because we (well, mostly I) have been craving it for ages and also because we finally found turnip (the Chinese variety not the English one) in a chinese supermarket.

The turnip itself cost us about £3.50!!!!!!!!!!!!

But that is a small price to pay when you have been craving something you can't get easily..

Here's what was in our popiah.

Hoi Sin sauce, Popiah skin wrapper, cooked french beans,
pan fried tau kuah (hard beancurd?), fried onions
and stewed turnip. Oh and there was lettuce leaves and
chilli powder added later as well.

We made the popiah skin ourselves partly because I don't know anyone who sells them and partly because nothing but good old homemade popiah skin will do.

It was rather tricky to make the skin but nothing 2 smart ladies can't do. The finished product came out good but a bit too thick (next time I'll remember to leave the batter overnight) :P



Have you ever seen popiah skin being made? If you haven't I recommend looking it up on youtube, it is highly fascinating stuff.

Anyway, here's the finished product

Looks good, yes? Popiah + World Cup = extra yummy!

Look what Uncle Mike did to my poor soldier when I was in the bathroom getting ready to leave.

All that just because I tried to throw a grenade at one of his soldiers! Humph! No more popiah for you Uncle Mike!