Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Here's wishing you a Happy 2012 filled with peace, prosperity and happiness and of course, with lots of good books!!

Monday Thoughts

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend and a wonderful Father's Day celebration yesterday! I enjoyed mine; we made plans to have lunch at a vegetarian restaurant. I had mushroom soup and baked potato curry rice. It was scrumptious! We also ordered two medium pizzas but because we were too full, we had to ask the staff to pack it as a takeaway. We then proceeded to shop at a nearby shopping mall, in which I bought some clothings for myself and for my daughters as well. We had dinner at a Korean restaurant and I was glad that they had a few dishes catered to vegetarians. Their hotpot kimchi soup tasted heavenly; and my husband teasingly asked me if I would consider visiting Korea for our next vacation!

Onto a bookish note, you may think that I am having a reading slump considering I haven't been updating my blog with book reviews but trust me I have been reading; it is just that my reading progress is slow (and not to mention the fact that I have been playing 'Gardens of Time' on Facebook during some of my spare time and let me tell you, that game is simply addictive!).

I was also thrilled to receive an email from Ms Chan Takyin (陈德贤), a Hong Kong author who asked me if I would review a few of her chinese books. I haven't read her books but after reading the blurbs I said yes to reviewing 愛在三度空间 and 在晴朗的日子分手 (self translation: Love at Three Dimensional Space and Breaking Up on a Sunny Day.)

Reading wise, I am almost done with Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok so the review will be forthcoming. I also contacted Jean Kwok through the publicist and she has agreed to write a guest post for my blog so stay tuned for it!

I hope everyone has a lovely week and happy reading!

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday

My husband and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary last Sunday. This is an old picture taken two years ago since we went out for dinner instead of buying a cake as a celebration (the same as of last year).

Mailbox Monday & Happy Valentine's Day!

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. This month's Mailbox Monday is hosted by Library of Clean Reads.

Here's what I bought and received from The Book Depository last week:

1) Raziel by Kristina Douglas

2) Against the Fire by Kat Martin

(I haven't been reading romance for a while so I need to get to those soon!)

What books came into your house last week?

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And because today is February 14th, I'd like to wish ALL my friends a very "Happy Valentine's Day"!

Happy Sunday!

Hi everyone! I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Mine was great! We had a fun time going house visiting since it is Chinese New Year! Needless to say, I took several pictures both indoors and outdoors, ha. Above is a collage of the flowers arrangements (except the bottom right since that was taken at my in-laws' place) and our CNY goodies (e.g. egg rolls, pineapple tarts, cashew nuts, pistachio nuts etc) at home.

Well I'll be back to work tomorrow. Life is finally back to normal after the 2-days holidays (and not counting the weekend as well); how time flies, huh! I didn't do any reading or read all your posts on my Google Reader since I was too busy house visiting and/or watching TV, but I definitely look forward to reading all your posts once I'm back to the office tomorrow.

Chinese New Year Cookies

If you are friends with me on Facebook, you'd have read my status about my wish to know how to bake those delicious Chinese New Year cookies (CNY falls on 3th and 4th Feb this year). It all started when my coworker offered us her handmade cookies - Double chocolate mint cookies and Kueh Bangkit. I asked for the recipes and she is very kind enough to share them with me. I decided to spread the love by sharing them with you here, hopefully you will try them yourself if you are interested.

Double chocolate mint cookies

Ingredients
115g salted butter
180g Self Raising flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
80g castor sugar
50g light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tube of Polo mints**
1 cup of chocolate chips

Method
1. Crush polo mints in a bag, set aside.
2. Cream butter, sugar in a mixer till creamy.
3. Add egg to beat till well mixed.
4. Turn off mixer and fold in flour, chocolate powder, chocolate chips and crushed mint.
5. Lined a baking tray with baking paper.
6. Use a piped bag to squeeze out tiny spots on the paper
7. Bake in preheated oven 180 for 15 mins.
8. Remove and cool completely on wire rack.

Important Notes
** The most important ingredient here is the mint. Best to get Polo Mints. If you can't find Polo Mints (the famous tagline was "The Mint with a Hole"), then use any candy mint that are just hard mints not soft mints.

Don't attempt to use Peppermint Oil flavouring. It will make the cookie taste somewhat artificially 'plasticky'. You need to pipe it out on a sheet of baking paper. The raw dough should look like a tiny 5 cent coin. When it is baked, it will spread out a bit.

To get the cookie to be more flat and spread thinly, use more butter. Add 50g more. And you need to adjust the sugar content as confectionery chocolate (those you get from supermarkets) are already sweetened.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kueh Bangkit

Ingredients

500 gm. Tapioca flour
220 gm. sugar
250 gm. coconut milk
3 egg yolks
Pandan leaves - cut into pieces and dry it

Method
1. Dry fry the tapioca flour with pandan leaves for about 10 mins over low heat. Sieve and remove pandan leaves and leave to cool overnight. Can prepare this a few days ahead.
2. Warm up the coconut milk then add in sugar and stir till sugar melted. Leave aside to cool. Add in egg yolks and stir till well blended.
3. Pour coconut mixture into tapioca flour and mix into a pliable dough. Dough should be able to stand on its own and does not have a shiny look.
4. Roll out dough and cut with a cookie cutter.
5. Bake over low heat at 160C for about 20 - 25 mins. Cookies should be whitish in colour and not golden brown.

Note
If dough is too soft, add in additional flour and if dough is too dry, add in some coconut milk and egg yolks.

Happy New Year!

I’d like to wish all my friends and readers a very Happy New Year!

May 2011 brings you happiness, prosperity, good health and more books!!

A Trip to Jurong Bird Park On Christmas Day

Well the weekend had just passed us just like that! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Our Christmas was spent at the Jurong Bird Park. Actually we had wanted to visit the previous week, but it rained so we postponed our trip. So here are just a few pictures we took... Happy viewing!

Main entrance of Jurong Bird Park

Don't you love these little guys?

The King Penguins. Can you also see one swimming in the water?

These flamingos made a spectacular sight!

Assorted colourful parrots.

Watch some various birds performing at the Pools Amphitheatre.

Waterfall!

My husband captured this little fellow hopping around while he was taking some pictures. I love its pose... so adorable!

Another eye-catching scene.

Pelicans. They remind me of some scenes from Finding Nemo.

Eagles always look fierce and dominant no matter how they pose.

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead! Can't believe this week is already the last week of 2010! I hope to finish reading David Levithan and Rachel Cohn's Dash & Lily's Book of Dares so I can add it onto my 2010 reading list. And then, there would be my 'Best Of' list which I would be posting in a few days' time.

I don't have the habit of setting New Year Resolutions since life can be so unpredictable but I'm hoping that next year will be another great reading year for me. And it would also be a year dedicating to my TBR pile since they are always growing and I need to make a dent out of those before they got out of control! (More bookshelves, please!)

Happy reading everyone! I'm off to read some more from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares; it gets better the more I flip through those pages!

Happy Holidays!

It's Christmas tomorrow and since I won't be blogging then, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Holidays, and may your holiday season be blessed with peace, love and joy!

Merry Christmas!

Chinese New Year (ramblings)

Hello All! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I know I mentioned in my previous post that I will be back in the middle of this week, but I just want to share a few pictures I took during the Chinese New Year (CNY) holidays. On the eve of CNY (13 Feb), I had the traditional reunion dinner with my in-laws (we had steamboat for dinner but unfortunately I did not bring the camera with me thus no pictures) and that was the time where we all gathered around, chit chat and enjoyed this festive season. We also caught the special CNY variety shows on TV and stayed until 12 midnight where we all count down the day to CNY.

On the first day and second day of CNY (which is today), we visited our in-laws', my dad's and relatives' place subsequently where we would exchange New Year greetings and mandarin oranges. This is also the best opportunity to 'play catching up' because we rarely meet up with the relatives as everyone of us are busy with our own life and so forth.

Tomorrow, my husband and I would be meeting up with some friends. I think it would be fun because we have not met them for some time and one or two of them had a new baby and we cannot wait to find out how everyone is doing.

Well, I shall end this post with the following pictures. I apologise if the pictures are not of good quality due to the poor lightings.

Our New Year goodies

More New Year goodies

Assorted red packets (also known as Ang Pao - for putting in the money to be given to children or to anyone who is single)

Ang Pao and two mandarin oranges (the latter always comes in pair and is a must during the exchange with relatives or friends)

My Uncle's potted tangerines

Happy Holidays!

Tomorrow is the eve of Chinese New Year*, so I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Chinese friends and readers a very Happy & Prosperous New Year! May you all have a roaring success in the coming Year of the Tiger!

Because the first day of Chinese New Year coincides with Valentine's Day, I want to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day and may you have a wonderful day with your loved ones!

Due to the holidays, I will be off for a short break and will most likely be back in the middle of next week! Cheers to all!

* During Chinese New Year, mandarin oranges (and tangerines) are considered traditional symbols of abundance and good fortune; they are frequently displayed as decoration and presented as gifts to families and friends.

Happy New Year!

(This is a scheduled post.)

Hello, my dear friends! I wish you all a Happy New Year and let's hope the new year will be better and more fulfilling than the last!

Miracle in Sumatra: The Story of Gutsy Gus by Jeanne McNaney (and a Merry Christmas to You!)

ISBN-13: 9780981453460
Publisher: Ovation Books
Published: October 2009

Illustrated by David Cochard
32 pgs
Ages 4-8
Source: Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists

Hello, everyone! Thank you for visiting and commenting on my blog! I hope you have a wonderful week! I am currently enjoying my leave off, spending time with my family and guess what, I managed to squeeze in some time for my reading! I finished reading Miracle in Sumatra yesterday and enjoyed it very much! My five-year-old daughter has been intrigued with this book ever since she saw me taking it out from the package I received two days ago and I told her I will share the story with her after I have read and review it (Many thanks to Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists for sending this book to me for review!).

So what is this book about? Basically it is a story about a young orangutan named Gutsy Gus and his courageous deed of saving his parents. One day, while he is out playing, his parents are captured by an animal trapper named Hunter. Hunter does not only capture orangutans, but he also capture chimpanzees, gorillas and even bonobos. However, he is not satisfied with his finds, and he wants to capture more. He decided to leave for Asia, Sumatra where there are enough orangutans for him to catch, but what he did not know is that the jungles of Asia had a protector (an angel) named Gabriella. She is the heavenly angel who watches over the forests of Sumatra.

Before Gus' parents are captured, little Gus is playing and he met a human girl named Maya. Maya's father is the boss of men who chopped down trees and sold them for wood to build houses and boats, and during an exploration trip she met Gus and is very fascinated by him. She offers a banana to him, and soon Gus follows her through the forest, happy to have her as a new friend. At this time, his parents are captured while looking for him and it is soon after that Gus and Maya heard the cries of his parents.

Gabriella knew about the trouble and offers an advice to Gus and Maya, for both of them have to work together to save Gus' parents.

Miracle in Sumatra: The Story of Gutsy Gus is both an entertaining and an educational read as it inspire young readers to be courageous and caring (there is a scene towards the end that touches me deeply) while in addition raises awareness about the environment and love and care for the endangered species (in this case the orangutans). Besides the enchanting story, I also loved the bright and colourful illustrations by David Cochard which further made this book lively and enjoyable. Miracle in Sumatra is definitely a keeper and I have a feeling that my daughter will love it too (she was born in the Year of Monkey and in her opinion, orangutans and monkeys are all the same).

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Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! May the warmth of this holiday season fill your home with books and happiness!

The True Spirit of Christmas
by Marajo Tenderass

Lots of people
Crowds everywhere
Rushing and pushing and shoving,
Going nowhere.
It's Christmas time again
Have to get all those things done
Hustle, bustle, quickly,
We must beat the sun.
Must get this and must get that
Maybe this nic, maybe that nak
When did it happen?
When did we lose track...
It's a race, yes it is
We are running, yes we are
But lets not forget
Before we get too far-
What is really really important
Doesn't take much to figure out
Take time to love
and love from the heart.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dear friends and readers,

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Lunar New Year!

First and foremost, I wish to apologise that my post about my trip to Perth, Australia will be delayed. My husband had uploaded all the pictures the other day (there are a lot!), but because of the preparations for the Lunar New Year and some other stuff, I am not able to post them at this time. Plus, I want to choose the best pictures and I need some time to draft about my trip too (which is not an easy task with our two little darlings who are always begging for my attention at home!) but I promise I will do it.

Anyway, I shall leave this festive picture for you.

Yes, it is the Year of the Ox!

May The Year of the Ox brings you flourishing prosperity and greater success!

(Picture by chooyutshing)

Happy New Year!

Our Christmas Logcake

My husband bought a blackforest Christmas logcake for Christmas last evening. Our eldest daughter was so thrilled and told us beforehand that she wanted to keep those lovely cake accessories after we have consumed the cake. Of course we have to agree; and don't you think they are adorable?

Here are some of the pictures we took:

The overall view

Santa busy at work!

Jingle Bell... Jingle Bell... Jingle All the Way...

The snowman has some fun with the white snow (cream, I mean... hehe)

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Happy holidays!

Merry Christmas!

It is Christmas Eve here today! I am sure most of you are getting ready for Christmas, aren't you? I can already feel the festive moods in the air...

Merry Christmas, everyone!

* * *
The Christmas Gift of Knowing You

The Christmas season fills our hearts with joy;
Bright, happy days bring special kinds of pleasure.
We're wrapped in the excitement of it all,
The sights, the sounds, the smells, the tastes we treasure.

Yet when we have some quiet time to think
About our finest blessings all year through,
We focus on our family and our friends,
And appreciate the gift of knowing you!

~ Joanna Fuchs

I've Got Mails!

I remember there was a time during my childhood days that my good friend and I used to send letters to each other once in a week, even though we were classmates and we have so much to talk about in classes. I know some of you may think we were weird or even funny, but it meant something to both of us at that time because we enjoyed the writing moments, and moreover it was fun anticipating the letters to arrive in our mailbox every week. However, we discontinued this 'habit' after we went on separate ways when we were posted to a different high school and the additional school work and activities had kept us all busy.

Even though electronic mails are popular and so much quicker and easier to use, I still prefer the traditional way of writing and sending mails although not many of us do so often nowadays due to our hectic schedules and so forth.

So, I had received some wonderful mails over the past few days and without saying, I was both thrilled and touched to find they are all from my best blogging friends. Let me share them with you:

First, Nymeth sent me this lovely Christmas card and two beautiful handmade bookmarks she made for my daughters! Isn't she sweet and talented? I especially love the prints of her bookmarks; I love the brown elegant designs and the other is just adorable with little chicky prints and white polka dots!

I then received a very cute Christmas card by Wendy. I have to grin whenever I see the card because not only the penguin is adorable with its skiing gears but penguins happen to be one of my favourite animals too!

Follow up next is a book titled Gossamer by Lois Lowry and a beautiful Christmas card by Alice. What made this gift so special is, Alice gave it to me after she found out this is on my BookMooch wishlist! I was simply speechless after opening her mail and at the same time, I was also touched by her thoughtfulness.

Thank you so much, ladies! You have no idea how much they mean to me!

Merry Christmas and Long Live to our friendship!

Edited to Add (6.13PM):

I have another surprise when I received this beautiful glass of tulips from my best friend, Jennifer, for my birthday earlier! She had specially ordered it from a local florist although she is living all the way from Pennsylvania! I am so, so touched by her kind gesture! Thank you so much, Jen!! I miss you too!

Taking a Day Off...

(This is a scheduled post.)


I am taking a break from blogging/blog hopping today; and it applies to my reading as well. After all it is my birthday today and I want to do nothing but to spend the time with my family and enjoy the day off. It would be a quiet celebration, nothing as big as my 21st birthday so many years ago, ha! But it would be a meaningful one for me as in every year [Read: A year older (Yikes!) but a year wiser too].

Here is a piece of virtual cake I am sharing with you. I hope everyone has a great weekend!