Long Holiday Plan

Today is our Malaysia Independance Day celebration and even though I am not in Malaysia, I still can feel the  happiness in every Malaysian because today is a public holiday in our country. I used to celebrate the day either at KLCC to watch the fireworks or out from town to somewhere to celebrate our anniversary.

Hubby and I started our dating on September 11...a very special number that easy to remember! Unfortunately we can't make our wedding on this particular date but good to me too as I can have more celebrations on 2 different dates. We celebrated our last year anniversary in Cairo,Egypt because during that time we were resided in Cairo and hubby couldn't take any leaves to celebrate the day at somewhere else. So as usual, I thought this year we are going to celebrate in Amman,Jordan as well. However, who know's hubby gave me an early surprise that we are going to celebrate it in Maldives!

Waoh..I was very happy indeed when I heard that and both of us started to plan our holiday a month ago. There are lots of choices of resorts in Maldives and this Huvafen Fushi win our hearts the most.

We read lots of good reviews about this resort and hopefully it will not dissapoint us for the price we paid. I will do a review on the resort after the trip :) This resort require to stay not less than 3 days which means if you plan only 2 days in the island, you have to choose other resorts but not Huvafen Fushi. Luckily we get an ideal package from Huvafen which is Buy3 Free1. We are going to stay 4 nights at the resort but just pay for 3 nights. Apart from that, we will spend a night at the Male town as well to visit their famous fish market, museum and mosque.

After the Maldives trip, we will spend 2 nights in Dubai as well. When we were in Dubai, Burj Khalifa was still in process. And now, Hubby said he would like to visit and take some pics of it to be added in his collection. Travelling in Dubai is much more convenient now with its new metro line. I just hope the weather will not be too hot!

 Personally, I feel the design is kinda weird.

We will be spending 3 days in KL as well to do our shopping and some personal arrangements. To me, KL is still my shopping heaven. Dubai can't beat KL in terms of shopping unless you shop for branded stuff :p

So this time, my holiday will be kinda long which is 3 weeks covers Maldives, Dubai, KL and last but not least my hometown, Sandakan! I miss my parents very much and the yummy seafood as well.

I should start packing now and both of us are really excited for it. Stay tune and to all the Malaysians, Selamat Hari Merdeka!

Manila Bus Hostage

My heart got disturbed badly after watching the incident of Manila hostage. I cannot imagine if I am one of the hostages in the bus, what will I do or what will I ended up? I watched a few of the clips and I felt the so called SWAT team was really hopeless. They do not helped at all but instead hurted the hostages. Hubby and I wondered, there were times when they were so close to the hijacker while he was just hanging the gun on his body, why don't they just pull him out from the bus and get him to the ground???? What are they doing? They seems just chit chat with the hijacker. One of the victims head was being hurt by the police when they used a traditional way, a long hammer to break the window glass. Isn't that is another stupid action from the SWAT team?

Even though now the HK Government requested whatever reports from the Philiphines Government is useless anyway. It's no use crying over spilled milk. Those reports cannot help anything at all and Philiphine definitely will be in my banned list to visit. However being a Malaysian, I doubt our country policemen can handle the case well if it happens in Malaysia. I am so sorry to say that but I never trust our policemen at all. I prayed for the deceased so that they can rest in peace. It was so tragic and this is another real story that reflected us(hubby and I) to stay happily and appreciate the time we have for each other.

Another thing that makes me angry

Don't they look "idiot" to take pictures? Do you think it is cool?

Another batch of "idiot chicks"!

Sorry that the clip is in Mandarin, but by watching the clip, you should be able to understand the incident happended in the bus.

They were trying to summarise the whole incident.





















Life is too short. You will never know when is your last meal or when is your last time to see your family. Appreciate every moments you have now before it is too late.

Sandakan-My Lovely Hometown

I was born in Sandakan, a small city on the north eastern coast of Borneo. Sandakan is the second largest city of Sabah. Sandakan was named as "City of Nature" because Sandakan is the gateway for ecotourism destinations in Sabah, such as the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre, the Rainforest Discovery Centre, Turtle Island Park, Kinabatangan River and Gomantong Caves. Basically Sandakan seems a place with well-preserved of the old buildings, nature and friendly folks. As mentioned by one of the famous blogger Kenny Sia, "Sandakan completely free from the evil wretches of commercialism and globalisation" which is so true. Only recently we have chain restaurants like Secrets Recipes and Old Town Kopitiam. I hope there will be more food chain coming in especially McDonalds so that children in Sandakan can have more fun with the Kids Happy Meal :)

Sandakan has another name which is "Little Hong Kong". I am not very sure why Sandakan got this name but most of the people in Sandakan, around 90% can speak good cantonese! Sandakan cantonese almost the same with cantonese in Hong Kong. People will never thought Sandakians can speak good canto unless they visited Sandakan before. I still remembered when I was in my industrial training, a new friend in the company could guess I was from Sandakan with just a clue from me. Guess what? I just mentioned to him that I was from Sabah in cantonese. Sandakan is the only city in Sabah that use cantonese as daily language. You will find out more the reason Sandakan known as "Little Hong Kong" from the clip below.

One of the most famous TV programme in Malaysia is "Taste with Jason". By it's title name, I am sure you will know that the programme introduce good food around Malaysia. And yes, the crew came to Sandakan as well to introduce our fresh seafood. Supposingly they just came to shoot one of our famous restaurant namely "Ocean King" but the crew was fascinated with the sea environment in Sandakan and decided to shoot the fish hatchery in Sandakan as well in order to add more interesting to the programme. And, guess what? They chose to shoot my in laws hatchery farm. When you saw a couple interviewed by Jason, the host of the programme, at a hatchery farm that's my in laws :) The clips are in mandarin except during the interview with my in laws. If you couldn't understand the language, you may read the full story here.

I will be going to Sandakan next month for a holiday and I will update more on the tatsty food in my hometown in future. In the mean time, enjoy the clips!

Ramadan 2010

Ramadan in Jordan is not as happening as in Malaysia. There are no food stalls selling street foods like what we have. The worst is that all restaurants and even food courts only open at 6 pm onwards! And it means that I got to cook more even on weekends. Something unexpected, our favourite Indochine restaurant in Hyatt Hotel is close for the whole ramadan month! OMG!!!! I gotta find more recipes to survive the whole month and I need to stock more poultry, beef and lamb meats, fish and pork in the fridge. The locals here shop crazily during this ramadan month :( 

I miss HongKong

It has been years that I didn't visit HongKong. My in laws love HongKong very much because of the foods, cultures and the cold weather in year end. Everything in HongKong seems perfect to them to have their annual holiday. The last time I went to Hong Kong was in 2006 after my last exam in my final year. It was my graduation trip and I still remember that I shopped crazily in Hong Kong for working attires as soon after the trip I will need to start working in CyberJaya.

Time flies, I really miss Hong Kong a lot and when I saw those Air Asia zero tickets temptations, I really wish I can make a reservations and fly to Hong Kong again. Anyway..our holidays seems limited. We only get 2 weeks of holidays every 3 months in Jordan and for that 2 weeks, most of the time we will reserve to family.

I don't really remember the itenaries but I will update again in future as I am planning to visit Hong Kong again within these 2 years. As far as I remember, the food in Hong Kong was super good and definitely one of the shopping paradise! Fashion in Hong Kong is never outdated and you will easily find nice accessories as well. If you love branded stuff, it is cheaper in Hong Kong. Japanese bought a lot of branded stuff whenever they visited Hong Kong.

Since I don't have the itenaries to be shared, but as usual I still  have some memorable pictures to share.

Picture taken in 2005. I prefer HK street food than Taiwan street food.

Avenue of Stars. A "must visit" place in HK.

Another place, Ocean Park. Hubby really gained lots of kilos!

See...I visited again in 2006. And this day was Hubby's birthday! :)

A good thing using digital camera..there is a date on the pictures which really help to remind the good times.

 What else if not HK Disneyland 

I remembered during our wedding dinner, as usual we will display the pictures of us from young until as what we are now, my dad in law turned to me and said, " How come you look so different?" I have been dated with my husband for 9 years before get married and my dad in law never felt the changes though he always see me in person until we showed the pictures to compare! Haha...I hope I change to better but not worse!

Cheddar Cheese Cupcake

This recipe was shared from a new friend in FaceBook. She was my secondary school senior and she is really good in baking! This cupcake texture similar to chiffon cake, definitely a good bite for tea break.

Ingredients:
Serves 12
Part A: 4egg yolks
            60ml milk
            50g caster sugar
            60gm melted butter
            120g cake flour/ superfine flour
            1tsp baking powder
            1/4 tsp salt
            1tsp orange zest/lemon zest
Part B: 4 egg whites
           50gm caster sugar
           1/2 tsp cream of tartar
150gm grated cheddar cheese

Steps:
1) Hand whisk ingredients (A) to a smooth batter. Leave aside
2) In a clean n dry mixing bowl, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Add sugar and continue whisking till stiff.
3) Add egg yolks mixture into egg whites batter. Mix well. Do not overmix. Add in half the grated cheese. Overmix will cause the cake texture hard.
4) Spoon the mixture batter into muffin pans.If you are not using any paper cups, remember to grease the pan.
5) Bake at 180C for 20-25mins(depends on the size of ur cupcakes, cake is done when skewer comes out clean) Recomended to check ur cakes after 20 mins, if it is not done, continue with another 5 to 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Unhappy days....

I am sick, and had a wild guess that I might be hormone inbalance. Life is not good and I am dragging my daily life from day to day. Is good to be August now..as I can't wait to go back visit my parents and have their pamper by next month. Mummy's love over the phone is definitely not enough and I need more such as mama's cooking and her warm smile to me. I still remember when I was home, anything that I want to eat, I will just let my papa know it the night before and the next morning..my breakfast will be ready on the dining table. My ordered was never easy, as I was picky to have certain food to add into my noodles and my papa always forgot something each time he packed my food. Papa will said "Gosh, I forgot" and Mama will cut my words replied to papa "You always forgot!"  Haha...something that I love to see every morning and that's why I still feel bless and love them very much.

I have done my list of food to have in KL and Sdk so that I won't miss anything that I missed. I am quite forgetfull these days...