Last year, I bought the 5 Million Dollar Home instead of my initial plan that is The Keystone cos the boutique in KLCC has no stock of them. And ever since then, I have been calling them every fortnightly checking on the stock. Many moons had passed and I am getting more anxious about the buying.

Santa did not promise me a Keystone but he sure brings me a good kantau (deal). I bought the bag for only RM400.00 instead of RM569.00 from a MMU (Multimedia University) student where my Sister is lecturing. According to the seller, he used them twice only. And yes, they look so new! I don’t mind at all even if they are considered as second hand.

Before I continue, we are talking about Crumpler bags, ok? I know, the name is a bit confusing 😉 .

Logo on the Front – their trademark, stickman

Logo on the back. The brown area is a bit caved in so they act a bit like a massager.

Front view & Back view

Seriously, the bag is very bulky and heavy. But when you put them over your shoulder, they felt very light and the back of the bag was designed to snug fitly to your back. Compared to a sling back, the weight from the backpack was distributed evenly. No more sore shoulders that way.

Since they are bulky, personally I think the bag is good to be used during flight transit and not as your daily outing unless for an assignment or outdoor photoshoot where you need to bring along all your lenses.

This camera bag double up as a laptop carrier too.

The laptop compartment is detachable if you do not require them. But nowadays, which photographer don’t carry along a laptop for image transfer during a long holiday trip unless you have something like 30gig of memory card. For me, I would use this compartment to store my baby’s diaper. *wakakaka!!!*

Coming to the main part of the bag. The netting that protect the camera equipments. For those who is not familiar with Crumpler product, all their dividers are made from velcro and is fully adjustable.

During one the outdoor photoshoot with my sifu, he thinks that it has no harm to carry the external flash without using the cover to save storage space as I was really squeezing my gadgets in my 5 Millon Dollar Home. Now with ample space in The Keystone, I do not have to worry about the space again. Even after placing the kit lens and 50mm, I still have extra space for maybe the battery kit (asif! $$$) or the battery & camera charger, tissue papers, etc…

The only space I don’t quite like is the side pocket. You have to really squeeze your hand into the pocket to take out things cos they are too tight. Initially I thought they are just a dummy zipper. Well, the only thing I can think of is to keep some sanitary pad. *kekekeke*

Even though this is the smallest backpack (camera bag) among all the Crumpler range, I still find them too big and bulky for my usage. Not that I have so many lenses, mind you. But I can fully utilised them like chuck in my purse, handphone, kids stuff, etc. You know what model I will recommend if you have very little gadget like me? Take a look at Lowepro Flipside 300. They are two third of The Keystone. The thing that put me off is… they are Lowepro. Haha! And another main reason is the colour – black. However, I have no regret with the purchase considering I am paying quite a good price at RM400.00 😉

Since Carlgene wants just bread + butter + sugar, I woke up 30minutes later than usual.  But the big Sista wants Tuna sandwich and Baby Princess wants fairy bread. Gosh!  So many request.

This is the Big Sista’s bento.  The only food differences in my 3 children’s bento is the bread.  They all had pretzel and a bottle of Vitagen.  Since I do not have a baran long enough to act as a divider between the sandwich and Vitagen,  I had the sandwich wrapped in wax paper instead.  Anyway, they are just plain tuna sandwich cos the Big Sista doesn’t like vege or even cucumber in it.  She is so picky that I gave up on her!

The kancheong (heart throbbing) part would be in the evening when the children return from school.  And my first question would be, “Carlgene, did you finish your Bento?”

“YES!”

Yay!

I am a little phobia now and would check with him everyday if he wants a bento or buying food from canteen. And for Day 3 back to school, he wants to buy food.  Aiyah, I am so sad to hear that 🙁 .  The Big Sista still prefer a bento.  So this morning, I shoved a packet of Rocky for the two of them.  I can’t wait to find out this evening if the Prince finish the packet of Rocky AND still buy noodle from the school canteen. kekekeke… fyi, he has a very good appetite.

Guess most Mothers find it difficult to drag themselves up this morning after the long hiatus from bento’ing since the 6 weeks long school holiday. I almost ‘u-turn’ after shutting the alarm clock at 6am.

Top left to right: Blanched broccoli, slices of orange, pudding and Kewpie mayo in bear container.
Bottom left to right: Tuna roll with japanese cucumber, rolled up japanese cucumber and cherry tomatoes.

I was a little stress out and anxious since this is my Boy’s first day in Standard 1. I’ve brainwashed him the day before, “If Mummy make bento for you, DON’T BUY FOOD FROM THE CANTEEN, ok?” To him, obviously everything is A-OKAY. And guess what?

Food picks was a gift from Whoisbaby when Hubby met her last month in Las Vegas. Blessed her kind soul.

The first thing after he came home from school in the evening, he passed me back the bento box and said, “Mummy, today I bought noodle from the canteen.” LOL! I was not exactly angry but must show a bit unsatisfactory face. This is proven that boys is always boys. They are always curious and is brave to try new things. My Mom used to nag us, “the money in your pocket can bite, is it?” meaning we must buy something when we have the money. LOL.

And can you imagine I just threw all the food away? So wasted. I have to get assurance from him again, “Tomorrow how? You better tell me you want Bento or buy food from the canteen”. He can’t seem to give me an answer. I know, he felt like a big boy and buying food from the canteen is new to him but those noodle is so unhealthy! Not only that, they are just plain noodle with a miserable piece of fish cake. Read my lips. Just one piece of fish cake. Nothing else. No taugeh, no nothing! He finally said he wants a Bento for tomorrow lunch and requested bread + butter + sugar. And I offered to threw in a cultured drink. His face was gleaming. As long he is happy, I am happy too 🙂 .

Back when I was a little child, Christmas Eve was one of the best and busiest day. Mom will prepared her ever famous sweet corn pudding for the night carolers. Being living the furthest away from the Church where we are attending, our house used to be the last house the carolers would arrived and they normally reached way past midnight. Before we knew it, all the sweet corn pudding is gone. We have to get used to the small kampung tradition called TAPAU!

Watching the Carolers

Things has changed now. With us working and living in the busy town of Kuala Lumpur, we (siblings) took turn to host for Christmas. We wind up of a sizeable crowd of more than 20 people so it is rather impossible not to make a big fuss over the event.

Carolers watching us

This year, we celebrated Christmas in Penang and we still talk about the Tsunami that took place that year (2004) we was in Penang. The building shook, we ran hilter skilter out from the condo, screaming histarically thinking that the building is going to collapse. We tease each other’s action.

Christmas day was good. It is fun to see how we as a family created our own tradition. Mom no longer make sweet corn pudding but had whipped up a sinful pot of asam laksa. While Eldest Sis bake lots of other goodies and the only picture I took is the plate of california roll.

Green pea size thingy is wasabi. That is youngest Sis silly idea. The night starts with some Caroling. The thing about youngster in this new era, Carolers no longer carry along a Hymnal. They have all the lyrics recorded in their PDA. “Save The Tree”? Ok lah, not a bad idea actually.

Scripture reading time. What happened to the human’s memory?

We never sat down on the table for dinner. More like a standing-walking buffet enjoying the good food and each other’s company. Later in the night, we went out to the garden so that kids will have a bigger space for their performance.

The Host i.e. 2nd Sis and BIL with their 7 months old Baby

“Who’s Your Daddy?”

Every year, they never failed to choreographed a dance performance.

Jingle Bells

If you look closely, each of them was holding on to a little bell. And if you notice, my two other nieces supporting themself on one hand only, that is one of the yoga pose called side plank or in sanskrit called vasisthasana.

We wish you a Merry Kissmas

The kiasu adult!

Fifth Sis, i.e. Julie cheoreograph another performance to the song title “Silent Night”. We have our own Baby Christmas sleeping on the so-called manger. But more comfy one compared to Baby Jesus. lol

Super cute Baby right? The manger is made out from mini inflatable pool and the top sheet is a quilt.

Dad end the night with a prayer. It is already a tradition in my family.

Everyone in position for a family photo.

This family photo is going to outdated again next year when a new member arriving somewhere in June.

Before we adjourned back to indoor some people really know how to enjoy themself. Julie decided to get a piggy back from Santa. I WANT! I WANT!

The moment everyone is waiting for…. presents time!

Hubby did not specifically bought a Christmas presents for me cos he has already bought a lot of stuff for me from his recent trip to Las Vegas. But deep down in me, I always wish he could replace our 11 years old yellow gold engagement rings with a new  platinum ring *hint* o.O

Total mess! If only I have a wide angle lens, the actual sight is worst than this!

Back dated Bento again. Haven’t been bento’ing much during this school holiday. Energy have been running low every morning.

Daddy’s bento:

Top: Longan with a little carrot in the centre, breakfast ham rolled with carrot sticks and zucchini topped with olive.
Bottom: Fruits cake from Secret Recipe and some rice crackers.

Close up:

If you have the time, pickle the carrot stick and zucchini in a little vinegar, salt and sugar for about 5 minutes. That way, you get a nice crunchy texture.

I am so out of words this morning. The holiday bugs is still hibernating. Welcome back everyone.  *yawn*

Yesterday night on our way home after dropping No.1 at her tuition center, we saw “Santa Clause” giving out sweets presents at a petrol kiosk. The excited Mummy quickly put on the indicator and turn in to the petrol kiosk. It is not about the presents. It is the joy seeing Santa! And only Mummy will do such things. If it were Daddy, possibly he will pretend…

1. not to notice Santa
2. over shoot
3. lie to kids Santa has ran out of presents
4. all of the above

The million dollar question from Baby Princess, “Why does Santa gave us presents, Mummy?”

It took me 2 seconds to answer her this *ahem* *sing*, “Long Time Ago In Bethlehem, So The Holy Bible Says, Mary’s boy child, Jesus Christ was born on Christmas Day. *stop singing* When Jesus Christ was born, the Wise man present gifts to Jesus. So during Christmas Day, we give presents to people we love as an appreciation.”

Baby Princess just kept quiet. Don’t know how much she understand but the crazy Mummy suddenly get the hang of the song and kept singing the same phrase over and over again till we reached home.

Have A Blessed Christmas with good tidings.

I am nuts over cutesy pasta shapes. When I saw this packet of Christmas Tree pastas sold in Cold Storage (Singapore. Sorry folks) I know I have to get them even though they are a bit pricey at S$6.90 (RM16.00).

Make do with what I had in the fridge as I don’t intend to stock up anything in my fridge as after tomorrow, I will be away to Penang to celebrate Christmas with my immediate family members.

Left: Egg Pastas salad with kewpie mayonnaise and celery. I had the baby sweet corn steam with the ham. That way, the baby corn get the flavouring from the ham. Nice! In the flower silicon cup (latest loot from Michael’s, U.S.), we had canned tangerine. No fresh fruits as I am out of them.

I was supposed to make the glutinous rice ball (tang yuen) over the weekend but since I wanted to make peanut filling this year, I get my Mom to buy me the crushed peanut from my hometown and they arrived only on Monday and since I’ll be going away again this weekend, that left me weekdays to make the rice ball so that I can put up in my blog before the actual day that falls on 21st December instead of the usual 22nd December due to some leap year thingy in the chinese lunar calendar. (*phew! finally the full stop!)

And every year, I will need to refer back in my 2006 achieve for the old tales. I was taught by my Mom to make 3 white ping pong sized and 3 red ping pong sized first. Place them on the centre of your plate and now you can start shaping the tiny ones. The 6 ping pong sized tang yuen (glutinous rice ball is too darn long), represent each calendar month of the year. Oh, wait! How come I have 6 large size only? It was supposed to be 12 right? I better called my Mom now.

*toot toot*

*toot toot*

Dotter: Ma, those small tang yuen surrounding the 6 big tang yuen represent what?

Mom: This year is not 6 big. This year you have to make 13 big tang yuen cos this year is leap year got extra one month.

Dotter: I already make 6 big wor.

Mom: You check the chinese calendar la. It’s written in there.

Dotter: So the small one represent what?

Mom: The big ones is the parents and the small…

Dotter: But, but…

Mom: But what!

Dotter: I thought you say the big one represent each calender month of the year?

Mom: Aiyah, can also la. This is Tuan Yuen (family reunion). Like a big family gathering. The small ones represents the children and the grandchildren.

Dotter: Oh!

Mom: You better don’t simply write la. Go check out the book or go ask Lilian Too.

Dotter: Haha!

There ya go. Some folklore on Winter Solstice day. It is a good education for the kids. We will be having another around of tang yuen tonight. The two girls never ate any because they doesn’t like the brown colouring from the brown sugar that I am using and another reason is because they never like ginger. Maybe tonight I’ll cook some plain syrup for them.

But my Boy love it so much! He loves to dipped the tang yuen in the left over crushed peanut that I used for the filling. To make your own filling, roast or pan fried peanut (with skin) on dry pan till crunchy. Keep stirring the peanut throughout the whole cooking process. That may take up about 30 min to 45min hence now you know why I rather buy them from shops. Let them cool completely before removing the skin from the peanut. You can do this while watching tv. This may take you another 20mins. Watch out for the flying flakes! Next, pound them in a mortar. Add coarse sugar in the peanut. NOW YOU KNOW WHY I RATHER BUY THEM FROM SHOPS! It cost about RM2.00 for a small packet of crushed peanut.

I won’t be updating till next Monday. Till then, have a great weekend ahead and Happy Winter Solstice. Don’t let our Chinese customary die. Educate your kids what Winter Solstice is all about (even though my own knowledge is quite limited also. LOL)

The bento I’ve posted up is usually post-dated bento that I’ve made for the family. Since I packed ‘presentable’ lunches for my family members at least 3 times a week but only post up one bento post every week, can you imagine how much bento post is accumulating in my hard drive? The bentos have to wait for their turn to appear in the blogsphere according to dates. Since this Halloween theme bento won’t be making it’s appearance for another 2 weeks, I have to cut the queue cos it is quite embarrassing to post up a Halloween theme somewhere around Christmas. lol.

Top, left to right: Chocolates overload and cakes.
Bottom, left to right: Pumpkin cutout from carrot with nori sheets as the facial details. Strawberries yogurt for more calcium boost and the yogurt act as the dip for the carrot too.