Happy Independence Day!

Merdeka Day is no doubt one of my favorite holidays of all time and congrats to Malaysia for coming thus far. Woohoo! It is the 52nd birthday of our beloved nation tomorrow, or as I see it, the birthday of our glorious country on earth.

Let's enjoy this momentous day for all the efforts and achievements since independence. It is a great day indeed and yay, I don't need to wake up way too early tomorrow. :)

Regardless of whether you're out at a BBQ celebrating over yummy meals, spending time with your loved ones, enjoying the brilliant fireworks, or simply catching up on some patriotic movies, I hope everyone is having a joyous and safe holiday weekend.

Peace and harmony. God Bless Malaysia!


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We have scent-sational Mariuca celebrating her birthday all week long. Have a blessed birthday, Mariuca!

PhotoHunt - Surprise

Kids are always full of surprises and challenges. They are literally creative, fun, intuitive and would do things you never imagined they would or could do. More often than not, it will surprise you at what a young age kids are able to do the funniest things to make you laugh. It will surprise you to watch their personalities unfold. It will surprise you how much they will teach us about life.

But the sweetest surprises of them all are often seeing my little princess shaking her butt like a pro.

And at times, she likes to run up to me, surprises me with a huge goofy grin on her face and then run away giggling to herself.




First Commenter - keeyit

Wordless /Wordful Wednesday - Temple of Heaven, Beijing

The Temple of Heaven was surely one of my favorite sights that I visited in Beijing. It is a fantastic structure, symmetrical beauty in proportion and and as such has been listed as a World Heritage site. The temple itself is quite a huge park, which is split into several parts.

The main attraction here is the 'Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest', the main building in the complex. The Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties would come here each winter solstice to make sacrifices to Heaven and to pray for good harvest.

The detail is just splendid in every sense of the word

My tour guide told me that the circular wooden structure is wholly made of wood without the use of single nail or cement and it has been standing for centuries. How cool is that!

Several interesting features of the temple complex symbolize the connection between Heaven and Earth, of circle and square structures. It reflects on the ancient Chinese belief of "The heaven is round and the earth is square".

a bronze urn at the Temple of Heaven




First Commenter - Liza

PhotoHunt - Ripples

While going through my photo archives, I stumbled upon some photos of water ripples and I think this seems like a good choice to share for this week's photohunt.

During our trip to Switzerland, we took a lake cruise towards the vast serene lakes of Lucerne. Everywhere I turned, I noticed majestic views of lush greenery and water ripples like these were very interesting to observe.

The crisp mountain air combined with the panoramic view was lovely and it was nice to sit on board and feel the breeze and watched the ripples moving across the water.

The last two shots were taken during a canal tour in Amsterdam on autumn days. Amsterdam's maze of waterways has certainly become a symbol of the city.

As can be seen in the picture, that's a glass covered touring boat with autumn trees reflected in ripples of water in the canals .

The canals seemed like busy streets and most of the time, we noticed numerous tour boats, rowing boats, peddle boats, sailing boats, and barges passed by. Seriously, it's quite the norm for some locals to live on the water where a number of houseboats lined the canals. The shot above shows gentle ripples and reflections on the water's surface caused by the motion of the boat we were in.

First Commenter - Mei Teng

Wordless Wednesday - Variegated Bougainvillea

As I was driving to work yesterday afternoon, I passed by this house that had this eye-catching, colourful bracts of bougainvillea. They’re truly a sight to behold which makes the house looks so vibrant and colourful with life.

First Commenter - Ladyviral

Tasty Puffs

Most of us would probably have eaten curry puffs countless times, but have you tried the unique variations like Crispy Durian Puffs, Pandan Chicken Puffs or other flavours? Crispy puffs or curry puffs are a quintessential snack in Malaysia and they have been one of my all time favourite snacks since childhood.

We heard about a bakery that serves probably the best tasty puffs in town and it’s located at Lagenda Heights, near Alor Setar. They have a wide range of puffs and I love the piping hot puffs with their irresistible crispy pastry.

this outlet offers unique crispy puffs of savoury varieties

The crispy puffs are made fresh daily and stamped with a symbol to differentiate their respective fillings.

This is durian puff filled with durian puree. I just love this piping hot puff when the durian filling ozzes out of the thin ultra crispy pastry. It's soft, fragrant and richly creamy. The sweetness is just right for me. Hmmm..........so yum, yum. Priced at RM2.50 each, the huge tasty pufffs are selling like hot cakes here and the quantities are actually quite limited. Every mouthful bite releases the sumptuous taste of durian, in fact I almost felt like eating the aromatic fruit.

Since the durian puffs was such a hit, I ordered the pandan chicken puff which is equally tantalising to the taste buds. Priced at RM1.80 each, the aromatic puff is filled with delicious chunks of chicken, potatoes and a quarter of a hard-boiled egg in a thin and crunchy crust. Hmmm......so sinfully delicious!


First Commenter - Monica

PhotoHunt - Artificial

Artificial plants and flowers make lovely centerpieces. I like the idea of decorating my home with a couple of artificial blooms as they look like natural flowers and last longer too. They can fill up the emptiness in any living space and add colours to my home. The only thing is they get dirty and what I need to do is dusting between a short period of time. Otherwise, the dust just sticks on the flowers making the flowers look artificial.



The last time I visited the Hongkong Disneyland was a few years ago and while there, I managed to watch one of my favorite Disney 's animated classic, "Festival of the Lion King." It was fun to watch Simba, the Lion King and his friends facing grueling challenges throughout the artificial jungle. Interestingly enough, this simplified version of the Lion King’s story was splendid but most of alll, it was the lifelike artificial animated characters that made The Lion King Celebration spectacular. I still missed that darn parade.



First Commenter - keeyit

Wordless Wednesday - Taipei 101

Taipei 101 is currently the world's tallest Skyscraper tower since 2004 which beats Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur. The upcoming world's tallest tower, the Burj Dubai will claim that record upon its completion which is expected ready for occupancy by the end of 2009.

First Commenter - Mei Teng

A mouse in my House

We recently had to deal with a mouse that had made its way into our home but we couldn’t possibly live with any sort of mouseketeers in our house, could we? I get the creeps even thinking about the rodent crawling into my bed at night. It won't really harm you, but it can cause enough damage by gnawing food.

I discovered a few packs of food stuff were chewed open which means that the evil mousie has been feasting on the packs all night long. I'm not sure how the rodent managed to sneak into my house in the first place. It's an annoying pest and I don't want it as housemate because it probably carries germs, infections and such.

With no time to lose, I set a mousetrap cage and placed it near where I had seen the little critter. The kitchen may be my favorite section in the house and it happens to be also the mice's favorite part of the house too. Obviously, it’s the place where they can find food.

Since I had previous encounters with mice, it wasn't difficult to set up the trap. I have used this cage trap for years and all it takes is a piece of dried toasted salted fish as a bait. Tying the bait to the hook works well enough as when the mousie touches the bait, the trap door will snap shut. I tried to imagine that little critter being roasted but then, I couldn't bear the thought of hurting, killing it or leaving it to die of starvation. My hubby would usually take it a very long way, away from my home to set it free.

I bet it looks just cute in the cage but running around my house doesn't sounds cool at all. I'm sure many of you have seen cartoons like Tom and Jerry and would have known the reasons behind of Tom having his way with annoying Jerry.

Have you encountered any unwanted house guests, pests or otherwise?

First Commenter- Sandy

PhotoHunt - Low

This is another different sight of tea plantation that we've visited in Cameron Highlands. On the last leg of our trip, we stopped at the Cameron Valley tea plantation before heading to KL. As expected, the view overlooking the valleys are spectacular with low neatly, trimmed tea bushes covering undulating low hills like a green carpet. And with the low cool temperature all year round, Cameron Highlands is an ideal place to grow tea leaves.


Incase you are wondering, tea pickers begin their work among low hills before sunrise. Tea leaves are then transported to nearby factories for further processing.

Everything is so lush greenery

A close up, low angled view of the tea leaves.

First Commenter - Lina

Wordless Wednesday - Happy Bride and Groom Daruma Dolls

This vintage set of male and female Daruma dolls slightly resemble the Kokeshi Dolls without limbs except that they have bright kimono designs to the clothing, painted faces and the lady has pretty long hair.

First Commenter - NickTay