An Article for Sharing.......

Many a times we tend to overlook some good article in a newspaper or magazine - especially article from the children's column!

Recently as I was flipping through a few day's old Borneo Post an article suddenly caught me by surprised: "Your Guide To Good English" and here's to share.........

A Model essay......... Describe what you think the best age to be is?

The best age to be........

GENERALLY children wish they were grown up and old people wish they were young again. Each age has its own pleasures and pains. To my mind, the happiest person is the one who knows how to enjoy fully what his age has brought to him.

Childhood is the happiest time in one's life. If the children are brought up by good families they will be well-bred, loved and taken care of carefully. They will become useful citizens to society.

But childhood has its pains too. They are not allowed to do whatever they wish. If they do something wrong they will be punished. Therefore they are not quite happy.

When they grow up, they completely get rid of strict regulations and rules from their parents and schools but they have to work for their food, their clothes and their lodging. Now they must have responsibility towards their families and society.

The old age has been always considered as the worst age to be, but it is not necessary for the old to be unhappy.

After many years of hard work, when reaching their old age, the old man accumulated lots of experiences which will be valuable treasure for their future generations. They are now entitled to the pride in what they have bequeathed to their children. They can have the joy of seeing their children and grandchildren making progress in life or growing up around them. Moreover, if in their past lives they had great contributions to society, to their fatherland they would be remembered forever and ever by the generations to come.

Home Recipe for sharing........

Here's a chicken recipe to be shared with everyone...... for information there is no specific measurements for each ingredients as they are all base on estimation. What I normally do is, I will taste along the way during the process of cooking.

Braised Chicken with eggs, chicken liver/gizzard and Beancurd (Tau Kwa)

Ingredients:

1. Get ready the chicken for cooking. It's best to cut the chicken into bigger pieces such as one whole wings, drumstick, thigh or even in quarter. Marinate the chicken pieces with dark soya sauce, sugar, salt and five spice powder.
   
2. Have one whole garlic, with skin on break it up into two or three, wash and crush it slightly, put aside.
3. If using eggs, hard boil the eggs, after cooked & cold take off it's shell and put aside.
4. For liver or gizzard, wash and clean it and leave it whole, put aside.
5. If beancurd is used, cut it into smaller pieces (say 9 pieces), deep-fry the beancurd pieces using medium fire until light brown, put aside for later use.

Methods:

1. Heat up kuali, put 2 to 3 tbsp. oil and fry the crushed garlic using slow fire. Dish up the garlic once it turns light brown.
2. Pour the marinated chicken into the kuali with the oil leftover from frying the garlic, turn the chicken pieces, then add in water to slightly cover the chicken pieces. Cover with the lid and cook over medium fire, turning from time to time. (Normally I will do the tasting during this time.) Salt & sugar can be added and more soya sauce can also be added if the sauce looks light. At this stage I prefer to use rock sugar (if I need to put more sugar) than white sugar as it glaze the chicken pieces and makes it looks nicer.
   
3. Put in the boiled eggs, liver or gizzard and fried beancurd. More water can be added from time to time to ensure that the meat are properly cooked. Again, it's up to individuals whether they prefer more sauce or otherwise.
4. Once almost done, put in the fried garlic pieces, give it a good stir. The aroma from the garlic is just superb!
   
5. Serve according to the style you want it - cut it into small-bite sizes or otherwise. Same goes for the eggs, liver or gizzard.
   

Note:
Other ingredients such as beancurd, eggs, liver or gizzard can be dish out first once its cooked as chicken needs longer time to cook and we don't want the rest of the ingredients to be over-cooked.

"Enjoy Cooking!"

The 'First Attempt!'

As we get through the different phases of our life we continue to learn and experience new things - all the ups and downs of growing up, school days, working life, marriage life, etc..... etc......

The process of learning and experiencing new things tends to prick our nerves. Personally I've experienced many of such situations and would be proud to share some of them:-

• When I had my first tooth extraction in lower Primary School at Poliklinik, Central Padang, I still remember my fearful screams and shouts from the dentist chair!! Today, whenever I get a glimpse at this scary place (as the imagination of my young days) it will always brings smile to my face and also the faces of my children when I relate to them!!
  
• Reporting for my first day of work also brings some chills through the back of my nerve as it's something totally new and the expectation is 'blank!'
• Singing on stage as well as giving a speech have also given me 'Butterflies in my stomach' and it's something which many people will experience. Once a while I'll experience legs cramp, heavy breathing, slight trembling of fingers as these are all the effects of 'Stage Fright'.

During the times of our nervousness.......... panicking......... wondering........ worrying........ have we ever realise how our facial expression will be like????? As we can't view our own self when we are in such a situation definitely we won't be able to know.

I've always been admiring my daughter's 'Jump Shot' photos as well as her friends. It's only until recently when we made a road trip to Bako that she invited me to do the 'Jump' while she take a shot of me jumping. My first reaction was "I don't think I can make it!" With no excuses given to me I finally agree to do it, but before that I start to ponder - how high do I need to jump? How will I look? I am scared!" The 'first attempt' is always hard, but having breaking the barrier of fear "it's not that bad after all........"

My first attempt - scary feeling, I feel myself like a heavy log and body is tense, which can be seen from my face & body expression

2nd attempt........ an enjoyable & relaxing jump!

WOW!! I've made it!!!!!

Family's Chap Goh Mei 2011 Celebration....... [Final]

It's Sunday morning, 20th February, we attend the 10.30 morning Mass at St. John's Cathedral. Like any other Churches it's packed with people from all walks of life, young and old.

After Church Mass, we drove to Berjaya Time Square, have our breakfast cum lunch.......

There are so many nice dishes listed in the huge Menu, but making decisions on what to eat is always difficult - everything seems to be nice!!! A decision have to be made, so this is what we've ordered............ so, LET'S EAT!!!

After a nice meal we went around 'Window Shopping', next we stop by at TESCO to get some necessary items and then back home. As we are flying back home tomorrow, Monday, so we intend to spend quality family time with each other.

It's indeed another great short holiday spent with the presence of the whole family together with many things to catch up with. Hoping for more of such family-get-together in the future........

Family's Chap Goh Mei 2011 Celebration....... [Part 3]

The early morning's view from our hotel room window is SUPERB!! As the sun slowly rises..........

Both me and hubby are up early, so we decided to take a walk..... the lobby of First World Hotel is quiet as most people are not up yet.

We have our breakfast at Resort's World 'Resort Cafe'. It's a buffet breakfast with varieties of nice local and western foods........

Like the saying "Going to Genting without going into the Casino is better off not coming!" So after breakfast Dad, Alex & Choulyee went into the Casino to have some bets while the three of us went around taking photos.

Another family photo taken in broad daylight.........

Fun time seems to be over, so we went back to our hotel room, packed our bags and do our check out through the machine, walked to the Skyway Station, bought our Cable Car tickets and that's the end of another family outing...........

Family's Chap Goh Mei 2011 Celebration....... [Part 2]

As usual on the evening of Chap Goh Mei we all gather for a reunion dinner, and this time it's at a restaurant nearby at Cheras. We all enjoyed these nice foods which are also seen on the expression of our cheerful faces................

18th February (Friday), we have breakfast at Steven's Corner........

After breakfast we proceed to the nearest Petrol Service Station to pump petrol and also doing final check on the air pressure of the car tyres.

We drove all the way to the Skyway Station, parked our car and proceed to the counter to purchase tickets for our Cable Car ride to Genting. Being Friday, which is a working day we need not have to go through the long queue.

In just a short while we reach Genting, check-in to the two rooms which we've booked through the website, take a short rest in our room, then off we go.......

We decided to have something light to eat at.........

After which we walk round the whole resort, taking photographs and enjoying the views of the beautiful CNY decorations and most of all the cooling environment, which also means away from the polluted city environment.

We met up with Alex after work, roughly about six something. The wind is blowing very strongly outside with the heavy mist, it's indeed very cold!!

We have Buffet Steamboat at Hotpot with lots of nice ingredients to go with the soup as well as pan-fried, and also the beautiful surrounding overlooking the place where we sit.

After dinner, we take a stroll into the Casino, Dad go for the Slot Machine while Alex & Choulyee prefers the bet of "Big, Small". From the Casino we then decided to go outside to capture some photos, and to our amazement it's freezing cold and everyone is shivering and worst of all myself as I am wearing 3/4 pants and part of my leg is exposed to the strong, gushing cold air.

We then quickly stroll into the Archery Centre, which is much warmer than the outside........

After the game of Archery, we decided to get back to our room and after few rounds of card game we then retire for the night.........

Good Night...... Zzzzzzz!