"Christmas Party" & Twins

At last, I'm back updating my blog.
I've been busy with my final exam, which just ended last Wednesday.

Hopefully I get a good result, although i feel that it is impossible.

Just pray for the best.

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Anyway, Christmas day was a great and tiring day.

While all the others are busy celebrating Christmas (we are Buddhists), my family members were busy having our own "Christmas Party".
As usual, everyone has been eating throughout the day.

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The preparation of ingredients itself started a day before.

I felt so lucky because I had the chance to witness (not the whole process) the traditional way of making "otak-otak".

"Otak" means "brain" in English, but we don't address them as "brains".

What is it actually? Please click here.

My aunt's maid grinding otak-otak ingredients using the traditional method.

The happiest people on earth will be the kids.

Play & laugh the whole day.

Some of the kids having their lunch.

We had chicken rice and Nasi Lemak for lunch.

My aunt & mama wrapping nasi lemak using banana leaf.

Nasi lemak for sale!! RM0.50 per packet. hehe.

And...

For dinner, we had BBQ chicken, grilled fish, otak-otak, coleslaw, fried noodles, pudding & more.

Can't remember what we had. too many food already (sorry, didn't manage to snap photos of the food, too busy).

Getting ready for BBQ.

DIY BBQ pit.

My cousin enjoying his BBQ chicken wing.

By the end of the day, everyone was so tired & went to bed early.

I should snap a picture to show you all how we arrange everyone to sleep that night. It's like a refugee camp. haha.

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Oh ya, we had a good news the next morning.

My uncle's dog gave birth 2 puppies.

We suspected that the dog had delivered on Christmas day, but had fallen into a hole under the dog's cage.

Luckily my uncle found the puppies.

A black & brown puppies.

"Ang Pow" from http://chrisblitz.blogspot.com

No, it's not Chinese New Year yet.

It's not my birthday either.

Then how come I received an "ang pow" (red packet) all of a sudden?

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Well, I won the competition organized by Chris Lim few months back and received my prize yesterday.

The grand prize suppose to be RM50 handphone top-up credit,

but since I'm a postpaid user, i got CASH instead.

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I didn't expect to win at all.

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Anyway,

Thanks Chris. ^^

Ang Pow from http://chrisblitz.blogspot.com

(p/s: I'm not using or promoting Maxis ^^)

Tortura 2-Medival Instrument of Punishment Exhibition

Public and private universities are on holidays now.

My friends are all back here in hometown.

While everyone is enjoying the holidays, I'm busy with all the assignments, midterms, quizzes & final exam which is just 2 weeks from now.

I just can't figure it out why MMU holidays are always different from other universities.

It's difficult to arrange time to hangout and catch up with my friends, especially during the busy short sem.

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Anyway, we still manage to find some time to hangout.

Had a great time with them for the pass few days. Time really flies whenever we are together.

Ok..ok.. enough, let's move on to the main topic.

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Last Wednesday, Lee Hoon, Siew See & me went shopping after my dental appointment.

Before we begin our so call "shopping spree" (can't forget what happen that day, only 3 of us know what happen.. hehe), i suggested that we visit the exhibition on

Medieval Instruments of Punishment (Tortura 2) in Bastion House.

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As stated by the name, it shows the instruments used to punish people.

What I can say here is, most of the punishments are really CRUEL!!

Although the punishments were meant for people convicted with various crimes, but it is still so cruel.

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Here are some pictures of the instruments.

These are low quality pictures taken using my handphone.

The Inquisitional Chair.
A wooden seat covered with spikes with belts to tie victim down so that he becomes incapable of escape with the spikes piercing his flesh.

The Guillotine.

I'm sure most of us seen this instrument before in movies.

This instrument is use to behead unfortunates as far back as the 14th century.

The Roman Guillotine.

This is the forebear of guillotine. Blunt edge of wood is used instead of sharp blade to cut off the convicts head, which rips the flesh and the vertebrae.

Disembowelment.
Victim's belly was slit, a part of the intestine was hooked and attached to the rope, and the rest of the intestine were slowly rolled out. The victim usually lives through the whole process.
see the picture below..

Next....

Branding Irons.

Used for marking some convicts, usually on the shoulder blade, but often on the cheek or forehead. His or her crime was specified by a code of letters or symbols known to everyone in the land. see below...

Code of letters.

T=Thief, R=Raper ...etc..

Head Crusher.

The victim's chin is placed on the lower bar and the cap was forced down by the screw.

the teeth would be the first to be crushed into its sockets, thus smashing the surrounding bone.
Nowadays, it is use for the purpose interrogation. the cap and chin rest are padded with soft material to leave no mark on the victim.

The last few instruments below are called Branks.

Many branks had iron mouth pieces that permanently mutilated the tongue with sharp spikes and blades.

the victims, locked inti these masks, were staked out into the town square and treated roughly by the crowed.

Gamma year Sem 2 2009/2010

It's already in the 2nd week of semester 2.

Short semester with the total of 8 weeks of study only.

I don't really like short semester coz everything is so rushing, especially the dateline for assignments, and the lecture & tutorial classes per week are doubled.

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Although I'm taking 3 subjects only this semester. But... It's all reading subjects.

Theories... theories... & more theories.. @.@

Don't know how I'm going to store all the info in my brain.

I prefer counting subjects actually.

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Subjects for this Semester:

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BAC2654 Public Sector Accounting

BMK2614 Principles of Marketing

BOB2614 Organisational Behaviour

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That's for now. Notes are "waiting" for me. ^^

Cooking session with friends

My friends & I had planned this cooking activity for so long, but only today we manage to make our plan work. Everyone had been very busy with their personal activities until TODAY, we manage to find some time to fit our cooking activity in our "busy" schedule.

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I woke up early to prepare my coleslaw (just a simple dish).

Steam the corn, clean & shred the cabbage and carrot.

Done with my task, I'm off to Yee Lin's house.

Shredded cabbage.

Reach Yee Lin's place around 10.30 am with Sherryn.

Here is where all the real cooking starts.

All the ingredients had been prepared in advance, so we don't need much time to prepare the food.

Everything goes smoothly.

Lingli & Sherling help Yee Lin & Jasmine with the cooking, while I am busy helping Sherryn with her Tangy Smoothie.

Lingli (left) & Yee Lin with the spaghetti.

Jasmine frying pork chop.

We manage to complete all the cooking in 1 & 1/2 hours.

That's the benefit when we have lots of manpower.. erm.. i mean girlpower.. hehe..

Anyway, thanks to Yee Lin's maid for doing all the cleaning, less work for us already. *wink..wink*

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Here's the outcome:

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Yee Lin's delicious spaghetti.



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Jasmine's tasty & tender Pork Chop.

(Sorry to the Muslim, it's non-halal)




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My colourful coleslaw.

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Time to enjoy our Lunch. Lingli calls this as "fine dining".

^^

Table layout.

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Oh wait, not to forget our Tangy Smoothie after lunch.

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Sherryn's refreshing Tangy Smoothie.

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After lunch, we proceed with the karaoke session.

We had so much fun & laughter today, especially the chaos when 6 girls are cooking in the kitchen.
Hopefully this will not be our last time cooking together.

Looking forward for more cooking session with other varieties of food.

Deepavali

A short post for this one.

Went Deepavali visiting yesterday.

Most of my friends can't make it for this year visiting.

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Started with Shaline's house around 1 pm.

I was served with typical Indian food;

tosai, idli, vege, chicken curry, mutton & few more dishes.

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After that, my bro & I went all the way to Jasin to visit Pav & Mathan.

Convoyed with Mathan & his friends there.

Their mum served us with ayam masak merah, rendang ayam, mixed vege and mutton kurma.

Something different from the typical Indian food.

This the uniqueness of living in Malaysia, we can serve any kind of food during the festive season (or all year round),

even my family serve lemang & rendang (food that are normally served during Hari Raya) for Chinese New Year.

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Went dinner at Kuhan's house with Shaline.

We had Nasi Beriyani and other few dishes.

Met Mr. Ronald & family there. Had a nice chat with them.

Time fly really fast whenever we are having fun.

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Oh ya, no picture for this post to prevent you people from drooling in front of your screen.

:P

Broken glasses

My dad, uncle, bro & I were on our way back from my grandparents place this evening, when my mum suddenly phoned and inform us that someone had broke our window when she reached home. My mum did not follow us back coz she was working this morning. The first thing that came across my mind was "Die!! People wanted to break-in into our house!"

I did not know how bad was the damaged or which window was broken.

I let my mind wandered and try to figure out which window was it, but my guess will be one of my kitchen windows (1 facing the back lane and another 1 facing the side of my house).

Once I reached home, I looked at the front windows. All the window glasses are there in their places.

Then, sure confirm my kitchen window already.

Kitchen window facing the side of my house.

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When I saw the broken glasses, I was like...

"Okay... Luckily only a small hole."

Found a stone in the kitchen, should be the stone that cause my window glasses broke.

Stone.

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Luckily my uncle has extra window glasses and gave it to us. If not, another extra work to go and find any shop that still open till that time.

2 assumptions on the incident:

1st : Kids playing at the back lane and accidentally broke the window. (I heard kids' voices playing at the back lane few days back)

2nd : Someone purposely broke the window to peep what's inside my house. Survey to break-in my house.

I really hope that my 1st assumption in the real reason.

Final exam + eating

Final exam is here again. Don't know why I feel that this semester pass really fast. Suddenly realize that my final exam starting this coming Tuesday. O.O

While others are busy studying for final, I'm busy eating.

I've been spending my time eating MORE than the time to study. =.="

Not that I'm busy visiting my Muslims' friends Hari Raya open house, but I've been busy with my own family and relatives gathering.

Three days of non-stop eating. Started with my granduncle's birthday dinner last Saturday.

It's a 10 course dinner i think (normally is 8 course dinner right?).

The kids are the most happy ones, meet their cousins all about the same age, play & laugh like there's no tomorrow. The adults are busy stuffing their mouth with the food & "updating themselves with the latest family news". hehe..

The next day, lunch at my grandaunt's house.

Another whole round of eating, talking & laughing.

Super tired by the time I reached home.

Then, yesterday, continue eating activities at my grandparents place.

My aunties,uncles & cousins are already there by the time I'm there.

I don't know we actually eat for brunch (yea, i reached my grandparents place almost noon), lunch, tea or dinner.

One thing for sure is we've been eating non-stop throughout the day.

Too busy eating to snap the pictures. there are only two pictures that i managed to take.

Aunt making curry puff.

The kids enjoying themselves.

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Okay, it's time for me to quarantine myself to study.

Sakura House

Craving for Japanese food?

Want something delicious, cheap & different from the ordinary Sushi King or other japanese restaurant?

The answer is Sakura House.

This is actually a single storey terrace house in Duyong, which is converted into a restaurant (restaurant sounds big for me).

Look out for these lanterns & banners outside of the house.

Address & phone number.

It's advisable to call & make reservation in advance in order to make sure you'll have a place to sit. This place usually a full house during its operating hours.

You can also order your food in advance to save the waiting time.

Map to Sakura House



Operating hours.



Some pictures of the Sakura house.

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Lets look at the menu..

Before that, they serve free flow of japanese green tea. *Great*

Menu 1

Menu 2

Menu 3

Menu 4

Menu 3 & 4 with pictures.

Dine -in with a group of friends to complement the delicious food.

Waiting for our food to be served.

(look at our hungry faces.. hehe..)

Finally... after waiting for sometime..

Food!!!
Here are some of the food that we ordered.

Unagi eel sushi

From left: Califonia hand roll & Crab hand rolls

Topiko

Takoyaki

My Mix Furai Bento. :D

My soft shell crab. *heart* :D

Everyone was enjoying themselves with the food.

want prove? see the picture below...

Look at Sherryn & Jasmine's happy faces. Hehe :P

In few minutes time...

All food gone. haha..

All cleared in few minutes.

Oh before I forget, to show how much we were happy with the food, we made a "special" gift to the owner.

Hehe..

I'll definitely want to go there again. Anybody wants to join me?