Muar, January '12: One, Two... CIAK!

Day 2 in Muar started earlier than The Husband and I had hoped. No late mornings for us there. Instead, it was a mad rush for breakfast. The general rule of thumb when it came to all things food-related? Must! Be! The! First! To! Eat! Hahaha.


I guess that having grown up as a single child, I forgot that big families actually have to "fight" for their food. First come, first serve, cos the late go hungry. "Take the egg first!" "Put the tau kua on your plate!" "Eat faster!" Wahhh... With The Husband barking orders at me between every bite, eat also stress. -_-'''

So how to release all that tension?

Go fly kite lah...

Kite-flying in the afternoon of CNY Day 2.

Literally. HAHA. 

Jokes aside, the best part of our meals in Muar was the soup. OMG, THE SOUP! Heaven in every mouthful. If you don't look and just swallow lah, that is. Haha. Cos is made from what seems to be every part of every animal known to man. Pig's stomach, chicken feet, something's bones, full-body ikan billis – you name it, it's all in there. Everything but the kitchen sink. =p


And because nothing else even comes close to the soup, I shall refrain from talking about anything else in this post, and leave you with a picture of an almost-empty pot of super awe-mazing apa-pun-ada soup that makes me salivate at the thought (not the sight =p):

Super amazing soup. I had 3 portions in one seating!!

-----------------

Related Posts

-----------------

• Muar, January '12: Hello, Year Of The Dragon! [Friday, February 03, 201]
• Muar, January '12: Playin' With Fire [Friday, February 03, 2012]

It's Black, It's White, Do-Do-Do-Do Yeah-Yeah-Yeah

It's funny but this solitaire that The Husband got me? Well, it changes the way it looks all the time. And over the years, I've come to appreciate how different it somehow manages to appear in (1) direct sunlight, (2) in the shade without direct light, and (3) in the dark with barely any light. Like so:

In direct sunlight – very dark and deep.

In the shade – very white and clear.

And... urm... I'd show you pictures of how it looks in the dark with little illumination – almost see-through-black except that the cuts reflect the colour of any light nearby – but... sorry lah. I no skill to take those kinds of pictures with the ring on one hand and my GF2 in another. =p

Google Celebrates Charles Dickens' 200th Birthday

Was trolling the net earlier, looking for New Girl Season 1 downloads, when I spotted this google doodle that made me go all warm and fuzzy on the inside:

So classic and nice, right?? It totally takes me back in time and makes me want to watch some romantic / enchanting / heart-warming period films like Pride & Prejudice or Gone With The Wind. =')

New Ring, Old Bling, Same Meaning

I love my engagement ring. I think The Husband is a man of good taste in jewellery (who knows mine as well) because of the ring setting he chose when he proposed to me with a solitaire, back in 2010. Unfortunately, after wearing it together with my wedding ring for awhile now, I've come to realise that the two don't quite go very well together. :-/


Because of the difference in style – my engagement ring is set in a twisted band, while my wedding ring is set in a straight line – they tend to knock into each other whenever I move my fingers. To add to that, because of the difference in metal – my engagement ring is set in white gold but the wedding ring is a platinum band – the platinum band has begun to scratch the white gold one, leaving unsightly "scars" along the side.

So after months and months of consideration,

I decided to swap the slim, twisted band...

OLD setting of the engagement solitaire with my wedding band.

...into a thicker, straight one.

NEW setting of the engagement solitaire with my wedding band.

And now, I can't seem keep my eyes off my left hand! The ring looks so familiar, yet so different at the same time! And I think the quick wash at the jeweller's has something to do with how shiny it suddenly is now. Haha. Oh well, looks like my heart warmed up to the new setting faster than I'd imagined! =p

Oh, and here are some pictures I took of the GIA engraving on my solitaire. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it through a super microscope while I was checking on the workmanship. So fine and tiny! @_@

Through the looking glass.

Zoomed in a million times.

Celebrating The First Day Of Spring!

Late last night, The Husband and I grabbed my camera and went down to the living room to try our hand at egg standing. (It was all over Facebook and when I explained to The Husband that it was "some-weird-equinox-something-something-day-of-the-Chinese-New-Year thingy", we decided we had to see it for ourselves to believe it. The Husband was doubtful; I was hopeful. But barely 3 minutes later... TADAAAA!!!

The Husband and his standing egg.

OMG, it's doable!!! @_@ But not for me. T_T The Husband's egg obliged us with a stand-up miracle but my egg simply refused to stay upright. Then, within minutes, The Husband's egg tipped over, too. Haha. So we spent the next 10 minutes or so trying again and again and again – with other eggs and even the very same one that stood before – but to no avail. Bleh. So potong. Oh well, at least I've got some pictures to show for our late night efforts. :-/

And egg, standing on its own!

Don't Speed On The Highway

Late last night, The Husband and I made our way back to Penang to take advantage of the long weekend. Traffic was heavy and slow for the most part but between Tapah and Gopeng, we hit highway hell. Check out the reading on our car's speedometer that stayed with us throughout that 35km of torture:

10km/h from Tapah to Gopeng.

Thanks to that, we arrived in Penang at 2.30AM.

*wth face*

Please lah, you all. Drive safe and don't speed.

You get accident, we all suffer kau kau tau! >(

Muar, January '12: Playin' With Fire

I can't remember the last time I played with fireworks but this Chinese New year, I definitely did. And it was so freaking, flipping fun that I don't know why I haven't played in such a long time. =D We didn't have much to go on with but the few types we had at our disposal were better than having no fire at all.


We started off playing with Pop Pop. No, not the mild type I grew up with that was just a ball of gun powder in twisted white paper, sold in a yellow box. This was a new generation "Super Noisemaker" that goes, "POW!" upon impact. Haha. Very hardcore.

Pop Pop, the 2012 version.

Mini dynamites.

After that, we brought out the big guns.

There were two types in there. (Not that I could tell the difference from just looking at the pack. :-/) One that shot up straight into the sky before going, "BOOM!" And another that repeatedly burst into colourful bunches of fire flowers about 6 feet above the ground. Like this:

It was a fun night. I just wish I wasn't the moron who reformatted her SD Card before she extracted the videos of the fireworks in action. -_-''' ANYHOO... this was the illegal lot of loot that we begin with:

Not a lot... but whatever. I know we had a lot more fun than we had fire power. And if you ask me, that's the whole point of playing with fire anyway. =) Now, I can't wait till next Chinese New Year to roll along. Haha. And with that ends Day 1 of CNY 2012 in Muar!

----------------

Related Post

----------------

• Muar, January '12: Hello, Year Of The Dragon! [Friday, February 03, 201]

Muar, January '12: Hello, Year Of The Dragon!

Chinese New Year is usually my family's getaway time together. We pai chia the oldies in the morning, then immediately zoom off to Cameron Highlands to chill, relax, spend time, enjoy each others' company... and escape the blistering CNY heat. =p It's been that way since F-O-R-E-V-E-R. Since as long as I can remember.

But this Chinese New Year, I'm married. :-/

Because of that, things got very different for me. What is usually the most chillaxing time of the year suddenly became the most travel-crazy and hectic stretch of days ever! Culture shock kau-kau, man. Next Chinese New Year, I think I'll take leave BEFORE and AFTER the Chinese New Year holidays so I can relax, recoup and not burn out from the rush. Haha.


It all began with the eve of Chinese New Year, to be honest. Not at all in Muar, nor in the Year of the Dragon. Yet. 2 nights before CNY, I popped over to Delicious for the tail end of Reunion #1. On the eve of CNY, The Husband and I had Reunion #2 with my family over brunch. After that, it was back home to pack, pack, pack before shooting off for Reunion #3 dinner with Papa's side of the family. And all that before CNY even really started!! Phew!


But if you think that's it? It's not. Cos hey, we haven't gotten to the part where I talk about Muar. Which is the whole point of this post anyway. Haha. Because immediately after Reunion #3, we convoyed down to KL. Sleep, wake up, dress up in my CNY outfit, and immediately head off to Muar to make sure we get there in time for Reunion #4 with Mama's side of the family pula. And finally, after four long-drawn paragraphs, I've reached the point of my post. HAHA.

Passed many kampung houses sitting along

the trunk road on the way to Muar.

Crossing the bridge to get over to Muar town.

Arrived at our destination and immediately

had to start giving out ang pows...

 estherlauderlyn with her red packet from The Husband and I.
(This girl immediately take ang pow and write name wan. Don't mess.)

...then spent the rest of the afternoon mingling with the family. (Or did we end up sleeping the afternoon away? Hmmm... Cannot remember liao. Getting old. =p) All of whom I already know and have spent time with before. (The Husband and I dated for many, many, many years before we wed.)


Evening soon arrived and brought with it the highlight of Reunion #4 – CNY dinner at Sin Kee Ting's very fancy new banquet hall that fits, like, a bajillion tables. @_@ The following are some pictures I took while we were there. Lazy to write liao. You all read captions, ok? TQVM. =)

A luminous dragon waiting by the sidelines with its fire ball!

Left profile very ganas.

Right profile very girly. @_@

My drink of choice that night. I kinda like

the new label design they've got going on.

Lou Sang!! My very first one this year!

So sad. First day of CNY only lou.

Ready to rumble, toss and tumble!!!

Making a mess and loving it. The only kind of mess you can make
around the oldies without getting into trouble for it. =p

Lou-ed.
 

The only part of the Lou Sang dish that I eat. =p

Dinner was great until the dragon came out to play. Cos that's when all conversation between us stopped. The music was so, so very loud and noisy that nobody could get a word in at all!! It was like tong chiang drums on the loose in the banquet hall; not a dragon!

And as if not talking wasn't bad enough, they decided to not let us eat, too! So they terus turned off the lights and left us sitting in the noisy darkness. Boom! It was like, "WATCH DA DRAGON! OR ELSE!" Hahahaha.

Neon dragon glowing in the dark.

Leeching off someone else's flash.

After the show, and we were finally

allowed to talk and eat again, heaven came:

Heaven in a mouthful, I mean. =p

I don't know what the heck was in that cold, little, white ball we had for dessert but it was AWESOME. Gotta have been the best part of dinner for me. At the end of the night, The Husband, KJ and I found that we didn't quite have enough to eat so we went off to find some Ramli Burger. Haha.

A Ramli Burger store in Muar – not great. I miss

Jones Road's Ramli Burger. That one is da BOMB!

But burger is not where the night ended for us. There's more to come but I think this post is long enough as it is already so... stay tuned for the continuation! =)