Archive for February, 2008

Posted on February 20, 2008 - by Abner

My First Blog Award

Got tagged or rather given an award *wink* during the holiday period by Rizal of RestnRileks… Appreciate it for the heads up, bro. His blog goes by this tagline : Rattan and My World, My Arts, My Crafts, My Design and My Thoughts. So if you are interested in any of the above, just poke around his blog. He happens to be a lecturer at National Crafts Institute on the art of rattan.

Thought that I have some fun with the award. Just some result of an itchy left hand.

The participation rules are simple:

1. If you get tagged (and want to play along), write a post with links to blogs that you love,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.

The award was originally done by Emila Yusof who does really nice artworks and products. I really like her illustrations and her style. This talented lady dabbles in sewing too. And her mum is into wedding crafts. Being on her site just inspires me.

Figured that I keep this post short and sweet so that you could save some time and spend it on both of their sites.

Posted on February 18, 2008 - by Abner

Get Stoned

Fancy getting an oversized pebble or make it several stones in your living quarters? It’s a bit of Zen-ish look but with a huge twist of fun.


Sure it brings calmness, serenity and peacefulness but when you have a few kids in there… it turns into a war zone.

(more…)

Posted on February 14, 2008 - by Abner

Roses and Chocolates

It’s mid afternoon now and I can feel the heat of it on my back amidst the clinging and clanging of the lion dance troupe on lower ground. Yeah… it’s gonna be a hot Valentine’s day today and I would like to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day. No point telling you how this day came about for most of you probably read about it before. If not, just Google it.

So any plans tonight? I for one certainly have none made up. Yes yes… it’s my first Valentine’s with my dearest but the thought of getting shoved to a table with a narrow walkway where I am only inches away from other love birds whispering sweet nothings or sharing knowledge on knots and candles is definitely a no no. Nor would I be happy with lousy service and set courses prepared before hand. Many a times situation like these tend to douse out the flame for romance. Enough said.

Anyway here is something that I would like to share with you all. Yes, Kee Yit, I drew these. Something that I do to entertain myself on and off.
I shall name it “My Bunny Valentine” a dumb word play off a song title.

His second line would be : Let me be your bunny tonite.
And remember people, bunnies need a lot of loving. Yeah you know what I meant. *wink*

Posted on February 13, 2008 - by Abner

Back to Work

Finally am back in my cubicle. Been a long holiday for me… a very long one indeed since the 1st of Feb till the 12th. My days off involves a lot of sleep. So much so that my backbone seems to crumble away.
The Lunar New Year celebration is getting milder as years go by. I no longer anticipates it with glee as I used to as a kid. I remembers that it was during this times that I could eat a lot of prawn crackers, dried floss meat, yummy grilled meat, cakes… damn… I can’t really know what you call them in English. Am having blanks here when I am trying to translate them. Here’s some visual.
Ate a few slice of the bak kua and some prawn crackers. 1 karipap donut thing – “kok zai”. Did not take a sip of any packet drinks. And the other goodies were missing. You might have noticed that I did not include mandarin oranges in it… it’s because I don’t eat them. Period. Don’t ask why. I just don’t.

My angpow collection has reached an all time low… dipping at 5 I think. Including the one I got from my boss this morning might make it 6 or 7. Anyway I have not opened and have a peek at any of it yet.
Psst… come closer… my angpow collection from last two years are still stashed inside a box till today. Still in their red packet. No special meaning or whatsoever, I just felt like leaving it untouched for the moment.

Did not meet up with any of my friends this year, as usual actually. Most of it was spent shuttling here and there so would rather spend it at home. Another rerun of reality is that I keep losing in gambling. This year my youngest girl cousin introduced Texas Hold ‘Em Up at the table. It bore my pocket wide open but fun nonetheless.

And 2008 shall be the year which I had the most mushroom. No… I don’t mean in quantity. Normally the dishes will be filled to the brim with shiitake mushrooms but this year I had so many kind of spore-bearing fruiting body of fungus, that made a lasting impression on me. My uncle got them from his recent trip to Hong Kong where it’s unattainable here. The shiitake and abalone mushroom made their entrance as usual but the others just made me go smurfy. Their texture and taste was just great. Loved them. No tedious cooking method just simple into-the-wok-and-out stuff. There was also a soup made from mushrooms. Loosely translated into Monkey Brain Mushroom soup. From top, it looks like mini monkey brains but it also resembled a coral to me. The soup was superb and I had seconds. Supposedly good for the lungs. Wished I had more chances to taste them though.

Aaa… brings me back to this morning when I reversed my car only to find that I had a flat tyre. How appropriate for that to happen to me on my first day back to work. Did not realize it when I got back the other day. Bummer. Am waiting to get back and get down and dirty later tonight with it. Coincidentally today is the 2nd anniversary of me being attached to this company. Cheers to me!

Oh yeah tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day. Would not be celebrating as I hate crowds, lousy food and services.
Happy Valentine’s to you!

Posted on February 3, 2008 - by Abner

Froggie Sway

Am going back to my hometown in an hours time. Here’s wishing everyone a Happy Chinese New Year in advance!

Doubt I will be updating my blog because I do not have internet connection at home I think. Unless my brother will get his laptop back and we be stealing some line. So far the weather has been a little cooling here in KL instead of scorching hot as one would expect a few years back. Last years weather during CNY was kind of similar too. Guess it’s global warming at work as I heard several parts in China are experiencing sudden snow storm.

Oh and the barbecue that we had last Saturday went off without a hitch. It was one of the best I had actually especially in terms of food. Happy. Left house at 10am that morning and headed for breakfast… kopitiam style with toast/steam bread and cham. Then it was to market, to market to buy a fat… instead of pig we got our hands lugging around kilos of squid, fish, cockerel clams, stingray, chicken wings and sweet corn. Our main concern this time round was to have quality food and cheap produce was a big no no. We had seen lots of wasted food in the past bbq sessions and it’s time we wise up. We bought our food fresh from the market and some premium bbq cocktail sausages and meatballs from hypermarket. Buying what we needed was quick, the only killer here was the jam… we did not expect such a bad traffic jam in our area and we think it’s the last minute CNY shopping thats driving everyone crazy. Wasted an hour plus time just for the traffic part.

 When we got home, five of us divided our jobs. We knew what to do. We cleaned, marinated and wrapped the seafoods in aluminium foil, uber fast. Took us 45 minutes top. We were beat by then. Tired. I was not feeling over the top the whole time though as I sprained my shoulder blade while sleeping. Turning my numskull to the left hurts. Anyway treated it with Panadol Extend and some Counterpain… aaa much better. We started at 8pm and it ended at about 1130pm. Everything was well under control and although the food was a tad too salty… ok make it salty… but we countered it with cold beer and melted cincau. Ha… the cincau was put to high heat for too long so it kinda merged together. But who’s complaining when you are too thirsty. Hehe…

So this time round, wastage of food was at an all time low - 5% and boy was the food great. Actually the spices that we bought did most part of the magic. Am thinking of doing another one… smaller scale where only a few of us… sitting round the bbq pit. What I learned this time is :

• taste your marinated recipe before adding salt
• do not add cincau to boiling water
• add in some oil to the marinated fish, squid and stingrays in foil so it won’t be that dry and don’t wrap them up too tightly.
• how to clean squids. take out their eyes, the ink pouch (this is where the black ink comes from, their teeth (squeeze their head) and take out their soft backbone.

My mum just called. Think it’s time to leave. Take care everyone and have a Happy Chinese New Year… have a joy welcoming the ratty one. The title is nonsense and not related. It’s just a toy on my brother’s table.