This year is kinda simple one for me as I’ve scale down the hassle of baking, and cleaning the math after and also beautify my kingdom with lots of ang-ang decorations. But I do had something new to usher the coming New Year, that is, painted one side of my wall white. Previous, it was apple green and I found out it makes my photographs a bit dark. So this time, totally off white for me. Since it is a new wall, new coat, it deserve a new painting too.

3 pieces of chinese painting on a slab of marble with carved frame.

Last year, I read in the newspaper that Kok Fah aka chrysanthemum was supposed to help boost one’s wealth. I bought a few pot not because of the old tale belief. The flowers was begging me to bring them home.

How could I be so cruel right? So I bought one yellow and one red chrysanthemum. I have no idea what is the name of the pink flower. They are so pretty I thought I must buy them.

Ok, that was last year. This year, I bought only the yellow and red chrysanthemum. I knew I will spent more at the nursery if I were to step foot in there. Well, talking about boosting one wealth, do you believe it works? I would say… practise good karma.

Have to cut this post short as my Boss allow us to go back early.

I’m down with a bad throat. I can only blame it on the Mandarin oranges. Please do not over indulge in them as they contain lots of harmful pesticide and chemical.

To those driving on the road, please be careful and drive safely. Do not over speed. But if you intend to speed, please drive at 160km/h. At that speed, the XXX is not able to capture/detect your car with their speed radar.

Gong Xi Fa Chai (ang pow gia lai) to all who is reading.

Without failed on every CNY, I will dress up my ‘Models’ in chinese traditional costume to take a few shots of them for rememberance around the house. But this year, the lazy bugs is overpowering me. I’ve decided to skip the docorating at home. At least, I painted one side of the wall, ok! Now that I have a newly painted wall, I lagi sayang want to stick anything on it.

So, instead of shooting the kids inside the boring house, I dragged the kids to The Curve.

*Proceed at your own risk. High bandwidth ahead!*

The fat chubby huge boy won’t go away.

It was a breeze shooting Model # 1 *phew*

Well, upon seeing the beautiful pictures from the LCD screen, the Photographer-wannabe herself did not want to miss the opportunity to have her pictures taken too. Good thing there are a few other dSLR camera owner. I get one of them to help us take a shot. Once I passed him my Canon 400D, he was fiddling my camera. I peep at his dSLR and saw him using a Nikon one. In a speed of lightning, he went and turn (as in zoom) my 50mm F1.8 lens. I just go, “Nooooooooooooooooo!” Fyi, 50mm lens is NOT a zoom lens. I nearly went and lecture him about 50mm lens. *pfft….*

The first shot from him:

Over exposed! Well, not really over exposed. There are some spot lights shining on the stage. But I still like it. How does it looks in black & white mode?

I still like them nevertheless.

I quickly thank him after that, grabbing my cam and walk away cursing under my breath.

Model # 2 turn:

Model #2 can’t wait to see how much bonus she received.

Watch this. When she found out there is no cash in the angpow packet, she went berserk!

She was throwing tantrum and refuse to cooperate. Aiseh, so we belanja her eat kum (mandarin oranges).

There you go. Now she is happy again. But still with gloomy face 🙁

Model #1 happily finish up the rest of the kum. I was salivating behind the cam.

You must be wondering where is Model #3. Earlier at home in the studio, he told us beforehand that, “Transformers don’t wear Ah Pek clothes (Chinese traditional costume)! Transformers don’t like to take picture. Transformers fight!”

What’s wrong with kids nowadays?

All I get was this:

Whenever I aimed the cam at him, he would disapear from the thin air. Maybe can invest in a Bazooka lens, hor!

Finally, he agreed to have his picture taken. All because of a bribe piece of bread.

errrr…. I gotta go now. Model #2 is running awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!

Wei, wei, wei, Chinese New Year is just one week away from now. Have you stock up your cookies? This year, I am quite lazy to bake. But because I have few orders from a dear friend of mine, I decided to make just enough for her and also a few for my relatives.

I tried to bake simple cookies this time. To me, the cornflakes cookies is kinda easy to bake.

Just cream the butter, sugar, eggs and flour. Coat them with cornflakes before sending them to the oven. Let me know if you want the proportion for the ingredients.

I find them more presentable and faster if you bake the cookies in mini paper cups but the texture is not completely crunchy especially at the base of the cookies.

I think something is wrong with my recipes. Good for the kids tho as they get to eat the something-is-wrong cookies. *snigger* I remember during my childhood days when my mom make Kuih Kapit for CNY. We only get to get the chau tah (burned) or cacat (distorted) looking ones. The curse has been passed down to this generation as kids STILL get to eat only chau tah cookies but Mom will yell if they ever touch the nice looking piece. 😳

To finish up the cornflakes that I have, I coat them with melted chocolates and deco with some colourful sprinkles.

My Children finished up the whole container of this. By the time I found out, they left only 3 pieces behind. By night time, Baby Princess is crocking! Now I have no more cookies to chia my guest.

At the same time, I baked the pineapple cookies too. This time I’ve replace the pineapple with Buah Kurma (Dates) cos I really want to keep it a simple baking session.

You can find the pineapple cookies recipe here. All you need to do is replaced the pineapple jam with Buah Kurma. Very simple task.

This is how it looks like inside.

I’ve done baking for CNY and earned myself a back pain from the 5 hours of baking. *ouch*

Short Talk – Leaving for a cruise vacation is so exciting that one might forget a lot of important chores like booking for car rental in advance. Everyone remembers getting the cheap flights, but people often forget the airline tickets at home or the hotel when traveling in large groups.

Wei, wei, wei, Chinese New Year is just around the corner. What do you think of my new CNY banner? Took me hours to complete it, so you better say something nice about it (*sticking out tongue*). This is the first time too I’ve posted up a pic of me with my glasses on. Yea, I am long sighted. The vain me wore contact lenses but at home, I will be looking like an Ah Soh. So Bernard, I’ve granted your wish. Better give me an Angpow cos I am younger than you. I don’t care!

Since CNY is just 2 weeks away, the Bank near to where I was working was pack with Chinese nation who started to change new $note$ to usher the upcoming Chinese New Year. Upon seeing the crowd, the excited me planning to do so one of these days before the new $note$ ran out of stock. Which usually happen la.

While I was counting how much $note$ to change, I’ve notice a new number of family addition this year. Which means more angpow had to prepare.

Remember my nephew, Jonathan?

This bundle joy of my sister has grown so big. Very chubby and I love to hug this little teddy bear.

And another bundle joy of BIL (aka Hubby’s brother) baby was born sometime last month. I’ve captured something that I really like during the baby’s full moon.

In the background was SIL (not baby’s mother!) holding onto the Baby while capturing images of BIL paying respect to their ancestors announcing the arrival of the newborn.

It’s the baby turn now to give 3 bows (asif!).

Oh, I forgot to intro. Everybody, say hi to Shao Wei!

Shao Wei, say hi to everybody.

These two are the new addition from my immediate family. Not forgetting, one of my cousin sister too had a newborn baby. And my other cousin brother. And another cousin brother is getting married on Chor Yat. Gosh! I’m going broke again. Help!

Well, everyday is an obstacle for me to perfect my shots with my Canon 400D. Previously, I’ve grasps enough of outdoor scene. This time, it is in a place that I hate most. I’ve never like taking pictures in a restaurant as they are using yellow lights which makes your picture yellowish and it seems like everyone is down with jaundice. So, lots of trial and error again this time.

Back to the event, my Nephew, Alex who is residing in Singapore was down in KL from KK with his Wife-To-Be, Lily, after a successful ‘negotiation’ with his future Parents-in-law. Eventually we met up with him for a dinner with Hubby’s other siblings. Well, this is my first time meeting her too.

While waiting for the rest to arrive, this is a shot of my eldest bil. I think he can’t make up his mind of what to order.

When I showed him this pic, he can’t remember himself engaging in that posture. lol.

The honorable guests arrived shortly. The moment they walk in, Lily had that glow in her eyes that catches my attention. From there, I whipped out my camera and started snapping secretly.

I have to say, she is really photogenic. Makes my life easier too. haha… She felt very awkward when I keep on aiming the camera at her. Ah well, I told myself to tone down as not make her feel uneasy.

As for food, since CNY is just around the corner, we had Low Yee Sang. Woohoo!

While I was thinking how much exposure/shutter speed to set my cam, suddenly all of them started digging in.

A little of havoc there but I still managed to cheat thru screen. haha…

The happy faces of toasting.

What did I mean by ‘cheat-thru-screen’. In low lights, I set the ISO to 1600 to get a brighter result without using the flash. But anything with high ISO, the picture will turn out grainy. Obviously if you resized them, you can’t see the noise at all. So, this type of picture is not suitable to be printed out. So sad isn’t it.

Well, another trial and error here.

Since I’m using 50mm F1.8 lens, I should have increase the aperture to F4.5 to avoid the blurring image on the left. Well, at least I learn a new thing today.

After all the makan-makan and some socialising with………. (what do you call my nephew’s wife ah?) ………… LILY, she got all excited with the pictures I shot. Ahem! Of course kembang la. This is her comment, “Wow! Never in my life someone captured my photographs this way.”

She then actually started posing for me.

I can’t help myself to scrapbooking again. What a lovely couple they are.

I get Alex to do monkey face at the background. See what he did?

Potong stim. That is not money face la. That is like Mr Bean!

We ended the dinner with CNY dessert. The ‘Nien Kau’ coated with grated coconut.

This is the way how I usually eat them! Now I can’t wait for Chinese New Year to come.

Some people called it ‘the chinese bubble gum’. lol

On the way out from the restaurant, I can’t help myself with one last shot of the ang-ang decoration.

Chinese New Year coming liao lor. Tong, tong, chiang…. tong, tong, chiang…..

p/s: My eye getting an eyesore from the jaundice. Ouch!

I was frustrated with the result of my photography and has been bugging Kamkuey to hand me some ‘face-to-face’ tutorial rather than ‘online’ tutorial. And since last Thursday was a public holiday, we took that as an excuse to meet up for brunch too. Well, there’s also a ulterior motive. Hehe… want to meet up with his jar boh pren also ma (Sorry, no pic. *ngek, ngek, ngek*)

With partner in crime, Athena. (psst… do you think she looks like Sammi Cheng or not?)

Both our spouses was there but I didn’t take their photo la. Not that I’m interested with other people’s husband.

haha… just kidding!!!!

Well, a bit of havoc created by my kids at the beginning. Fighting, yelling, crying and my camera dropped on the tarmac road. Good thing it was in my camera bag – well cushion!

Food! The ever famous Klang dry bak kut teh.

My fellow guests never failed to give it a thumbs up. All scrapped to the bottom. Nothing was left except some dry chilies.

We adjourned to Bandar Bukit Tinggi for another specialties in Klang. The Yu Yu ice (Mandarin – Yau Yau Ping). Whatever it is. So, lots of testing shots here and there la. Kamkey with his ever famous trick shots:

Si beh chun hor. It is not easy. A lot of coordination work with the zoom and shutter button.

I played with his 50mm F1.4 lens too.

Chun to the max! Look at the creamy background.

Finally after many sessions of theory, practical, quoestionaire, even some head bang from Kamkuey, I do understand ………………………………………………………………..

………………………………………………………………………………………………………… A BIT ONLY LA.

Scenario 1

Aunty: Carlgene, come! Help me to carry this chair and arrange them there.
Son: *ignore*
Aunty: Come la. I know you very strong wan.
Son: *shake head*
Aunty: Wan la. Let me see you strong like Transformers or not.
Son: Transformers FIGHT! Transformers don’t carry things!

Scenario 2

Mummy: Please la. Learn Teakwando, ok?
Son: Wait I am 8 years old first.
Mummy: You learn now. Later strong-strong can fight like Transformers.
Son: NO! I am not a machine!

~~~***~~~

That two conversations really cracks me up. On the other hand, I’m saving the conversation for………………

THIS!

Jeng, Jeng, Jeng…..

Finally, I’ve got all the Autobot! Muahaahaahaa! *evil laugh*

Both (Son & Mother) of us are addicted to Transformers. He can spent his whole night watching it (till 1am) on YouTube and I’m busy defending battle on Facebook. And both of us are Autobots fans. All you Decepticons out there, watch out!!!!! 😉 you know who you are.

p/s: For those who started battle on me, a BIG THANK YOU for contributing some points. Muahahaahaa… *evil, double evil laugh*

With the Chinese New Year drawing nearer, I find myself getting more lazy to cook. Blame it on the lazy bugs in me. But what do you expect after a tiring days spring cleaning for the oncoming festive season? Thus, no cooking means no update in my ‘Mouthful Monday’ category too. So, I thought of this quick, delicious and yet healthy meals for the family.

The proportion shown here is enough to feed a family of 2 adults and 3 children.

Ingredients for the porridge:

• 3/4 cup of fragrant rice
• Water

Method:

Clean rice and soak them in water preferably overnight. In the morning, rub soaked rice with your palm. Discard water and replace with clean water. Simmer rice for about an hour on slow fire till your porridge gets very soft. Add more water if it dries up. The texture should be a runny.

Now, we are ready for the steamboat!

I prepared my children’s favourite dishes, that is the fish noodles. They are basically fish paste that was shaped longish like noodles. So, no rules as what you should or should not have. Here are some ideas for you – fish balls, squid, shrimps, chicken fillet, fish fillet, pigs intestine, mince pork, bean curd sheets (foo chok), tau pok, yong tau foo, chinese cabbage, baby corn, button mushrooms… Well, just to named a few here. It is up to your preference and availability from the market.

Since I don’t have a steamboat pot, I substitute them by using the electric rice cooker. They work the same. Filled half of the pot with porridge.

Food that required longer cooking like red meat should go in first.

Replaced cover and bring porridge to a boil again. Well, if you really want a more perfect steamboat, you may add some ginger shred, sesame oil, spring onions or fragrant shallots.

Baby Princess was curious why food was cook on the dining table. Well, I have not done this for ages! I’m pretty excited about it too.

Oh, and she is planning to mess them up too. “Daddy, quick! She took the soya sauce!”

Well, the next time I’m going to make it a big feast so that I can have all the dishes mentioned earlier. The  fish balls, squid, shrimps, chicken fillet, fish fillet, pigs intestine, mince pork, bean curd sheets (foo chok), tau pok, yong tau foo, chinese cabbage, baby corn, button mushrooms, ginger shred, sesame oil, spring onions, fragrant shallots…. Bon appetite 🙂

… I had so much freckles on my face. *sigh…

The above pictures was hijacked from Kamkuey and I had them reduced by 30%. Tell me, nice boh? Canon 30D wor, works better than my 400D and he is using 50mm F1.4 (RM1,300!!!) where else my F1.8 cost me only RM290. If you hop over to his blog, you will see all the freckles on my face. I think Canon 30D works even better than a magnifying glass. Can make someone who is ugly, even uglier!

While I was scrolling thru our makan-makan photo, I hijacked another photo of Prince.

He had his haircut last weekend.

Dad & Son walk into salon.

Dad: WE want to cut G. I. (something like military cut) hairstyle.

Stylist: Who first?

Dad: He (while point at son) go first.

*cut, cut, cut. snip, snip, snip* *finish*

Dad: Errr… Miss, I don’t want G.I. already.

And so I was fuming. Fuming because I don’t like the hairstyle at all!!!! But I was laughing at Hubby’s reaction when he decided not to had G.I. hairstyle or else, he might really looks like a Military man. Well, as for Carlgene, he dislike the hairstyle too. He had a cap on the whole day and even told us that he’s afraid that his friends in the school will tease him “Botak head”.

Mummy: Kharsyn, tomorrow when you go to school, you must protect your brother. If anyone tease him Botak head, you are not allowed to join them but must stand up for your brother. OK?

Kharsyn: But Mummy, we always call Anson (schoolmate) “botak head.”

Mummy: Wah, see! You all better take this as a lesson and not call people nickname. Now kena lor.

The whole haircut session did added some stress and upsetting me. That was before. But now, whenever I saw him, I will make a circular motion on his head. Cute!

I was told that Advertlets has closed down. Upon checking their website, it is no longer available. There goes all my advertising money. Luckly the amount of money I have in there is not much. If not, I would sure sulk like mad. This makes me think, should I withdraw all my money from Nuffnang, Adsense and Text-Link-Ad whenever it reaches the minimum amount? So far, I have all the monies accumulating in the advertiser’s account. The reason? Cos I want to see a B.I.G. cheque coming in. Simple! hehe…

Ok. So the rumours of Advertlets had spread. I’m not sure how true it is. But on Sunday, all the Malaysian blogs with Advertlets code could not be access till the Advertlets code was taken down. That happens to me too and now my site is back to normal. So the speculation is there. I hope they will restore their site if the rumours is untrue.

Updated: 10.28am

Not only they are Advertlet-less, they are also domain-less. I’ve found Josh’s Blogger’s blog at http://advertlets.blogspot.com/. You can check them out. So, he is not shutting down Advertlets. Just some glitch happened to his domain during renewal. This is what he said:

What happened?
A complication regarding the renewal process of the domain for Advertlets.com. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.