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I am a big fan of mushrooms. Have always loved these little fungi, be it Portobello or button mushrooms or even Enoki mushrooms. Whenever I eat out I would surely order a plate of mushroom as my appetizer. I remember once I ordered a baked Portobello mushroom and it cost me whooping RM 15 for just ONE piece of it. Expensive and overcharged indeed. After that experience I decided to try to bake my own Portobello mushrooms instead of letting them charged me such expensive price.
The other day, I bought myself a packed of Portobello mushrooms from supermarket. It only cost me RM 9.99 for a pack of 8 pieces :) And today, I'm just in the mood for some baked mushrooms. After browsing for some recipes online, I decided to follow a simple recipe from a blog I read. I did add additional ingredients to the original recipe as per what I have in my fridge ;P
Baked Portobello Mushroom (My way!)
Ingredients :
8 Portobello Mushrooms
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
3 strips of bacon, chopped
a dash of mixed herb (it's up to you whether you want to put this or not)
a pinch of salt and pepper to taste
Mozarella cheese
Methods :
1. Removed the stem of the mushrooms.
2. Heat up a pan and fried the bacon till half cooked.
3. In a bowl, mix in the tomatoes, onions, half cooked bacon, mixed herb, salt and pepper. Mix well.
4. Meanwhile, heat the oven in moderate temperature and grease a baking tray.
5. Stuff the mushroom with the mix and place it on the baking tray. Bake for 15mins.
6. Half way through, spread some cheese over the stuffed mushroom and continue to bake for another 15 mins or until cheese melts.
The verdict :
A yummy-licious baked Portobello mushroom at a much cheaper price at the comfort of your home and not forgetting, with all the ingredients that you love.The photos might not look so nice as I am only using my phone camera. Nevertheless the taste that is most important
This is something which I just got to know about. How corrupted this country is. Yes, the country which I'm staying in. Corruption not only happened in the government but to the everyday lives and this one, to the matter of life and death which really disgust me.
Recently a friend's father got hospitalized. Her dad fainted in his house. Naturally, her brother calls for help. He called his friend to help him get an ambulance as he was trying to help his dad regain conscious. The ambulance is from PBSM which is our Red Crescent Society. I have no idea how this friend get an ambulance from PBSM.
Apparently, it took sometime before the ambulance arrived and the ambulance even lost their way and tell the caller they can't find the place. Is this how an ambulance should provide their services when human being's life is depending on them??? I suggest the company provide them with a GPS system so they have no excuse to be lost or can't find the place.
It's known that whenever we need the ambulance services, we would have to pay a fix sum if not by mileage. What astonished me is that when my friend told me that the ambulance guy actually asked for 'kopi money' before they sent her father to the hospital. Her father is already inside the ambulance and waiting for the ambulance to sent him to the hospital and yet this guy is outside demanding for 'kopi money' before he drive the sick guy to the hospital. This is day light extortion! How can he asked for money when my friend are already paying for the ambulance service? This is a matter of life and death as my friend's father is in critical condition. A minute delay means a minute less for the doctor to save him life.
From some blogs which I just read, it seem that most of the ambulance services are privatised. Even if you called up the hospital and request for an ambulance, you will be told that all their ambulance are out and refer you to a private ambulance service provider. Privatization to me is not a bad idea but when it is privatized and there's no service delivered then what is the use of privatization?? Apparently this seem to be the case whenever a person call up for ambulance services and this is not the first time such issues had been highlighted. I told my friend to write a letter to Ministry of Health and the newspaper to complain and make known about this issue. But she's reluctant and said 'suan ba' (forget about it) and don't wanna make a big fuss over it. But that's not what I see, if everyone who received such services and just forget about it, then these situation will keep on repeating itself. These people will get away easily and keep on doing their daylight extortion. It's sad to know that people are taking advantages out of such situation.
As I read more blogs about ambulance services provided here in M'sia, mostly are complains about their delay in reaching the locations. Especially huge accident location where the victim/s are in really bad shape. I felt bad and ashamed for my country. Ambulance are supposed to help us the 'rakyat' and yet they let us down and some even cause unnecessary death especially to accident victims. I wonder how these people view the value of life. I really hope the Ministry can do something about this and not to let our 'rakyat' down again.
My annual girls trip recently is to Lang Tengah in Terengganu. It's one of the less popular islands in east coast Malaysia. In fact, I'm surprised that not a lot of people know of this island, not even Malaysian. I encountered a few fellow Malaysians who asked me where is this Lang Tengah and they only know of the infamous Redang and Perhentian island.
Well there's 5 of us in this trip, supposed to have 6 but one of the girl couldn't make it last minute, what a pity. Nevertheless, 5 of us is more than enough to have good jolly fun in a secluded island hehe. Early Friday morning, we make our way to Subang Airport for our flight to Kuala Terengganu. Ever since KLIA was built, I have never step foot into Subang Airport anymore and I am surprised that they are renovating it and it's so brand new and stylish. Only one disappointment, the entrance to this building is still under renovation and is so small that we nearly missed it. Anyway, the flight was early so we reach there way ahead of our actual arrival time. This is the first time I set foot in Kuala Terengganu's airport and it surely does look good. Better than the one in Kuching. The last time I was there, the airport look very old to me. Anyway, 5 of us shared 2 cabs to Merang Jetty. It was only a half hour drive from the airport. I can see a lot of development undergoing near the airport as we cruise along the way. Before I knew it, I'm already at Merang Jetty. It's a very small jetty with a few wooden stalls selling souvenirs and food. In fact there were only 2 food stalls. As our boat to Lang Tengah is not due untill 11am, we have plenty of time to ourselves and we decided to have our breakfast while waiting for the time to pass in one of the stall. We tried their ready packed nasi lemak which doesn't taste that nice to me and another ready packed of nasi minyak. The nasi minyak taste better with it's curry and some pickle vegetables. The stall owner was very nice to us, attending to a bunch of very demanding ladies and of course we did sweet talked him a lot. Calling him 'handsome' and 'sayang'. hehehehe .
After breakfast, we feel even more sleepy as some of us did not sleep last nite. We couldn't wait to be in the hotel room so that we can take a nap. The boat ride from Merang Jetty to Lang Tengah is another 45 mins or so. By the time we reach the resort, we are all so tired and so wanna sleep (afterall we did not have a good sleep the night before). So we checked ourselves into the resort and went for our lunch (which is provided. All the meals are provided). Surprisingly after lunch, no one wants to go back to the room for a nap. Instead everyone was excited about the beach and water. We had a slow lunch while waiting for the time to pass by as our snorkelling session is at 4pm. Everyone changed into their bikinis and head off to the sun bed out at the beach. Trying to get a nice bikini tan.
Snorkelling wasn't that bad but I don't see as much fishes as compared to when I went Perhentian Island. Praises must be given to CY, cos she finally managed to overcome her fear for water and follow us snorkelling. Although she's very scare but still she give it a try. The instructor were there to help her. Pulling her hand and bringing her around. Kudos to CY! The rest of us just swim around once we jumped into the water. Second day snorkelling was slightly better cos I managed to see some sharks. I did saw a school of them. Not a huge school but a few of them swimming in pack. Silly me wanted to chase after them but of course I can't swim as fast as them. Oh, I did my discovery dive in this trip. My first time ever in diving. It's been my wish to take up diving course but until today I have yet to make it realise. So, this time I took up the discovery dive just to see if I like diving as a hobby or not. Well, turns out I do like diving but I do have some problem with pressure too.
The 3 of us took up the discovery dive and boy, were we a bunch of panic queens. The instructor was kinda surprised as he did not expect those who can swim turns out to be panic queens. Yes, including me! In fact, the only friend of mine who does not know how to swim seem to be quite calm about diving first time in confined water. I went panic when I first dive into the water and my friend who swim very well too. She complained about her mask which water keeps flooding in and I complained that my mouth piece is too loose till I drank a lot of chlorine water. Eventually we did managed to settle down and do our balancing and dive in properly in the pool. But once we are under the water, we are like kids swimming in our different directions and not listening to what our instructor had to said. Poor instructor had to shout out to us like little kids. (I did not aware of this until we were told about it by CY who did not participate. She said it's a very funny scenario.) After lunch, it's time for us to go try out our little diving skills in the open sea. With all the gears attached to us (the tank is very heavy for me!) we walked out to the open sea from shore following our instructor. Once in the sea, we float ourselves before wearing our fins and swim out further. Everyone puts on their masks, checked their mouth piece, make sure the mask is not blurred and in we go into the water. As I sink further into the water, I feel kinda excited that finally I get to do a real dive. haha. As we are just beginners, the instructor keep us closed to him so we wont get lost. He held on to our hand and together we swim under the water towards the big open sea. Well, after awhile I was a bit sad cos there is not much to see. Mostly are dead corals and a few fishes. Yes, the distance between me and the fishes has become closer but I still cant touch the fish haha. After about half hour or so we turn back and swim toward the shore. While the instructor were holding my 2 friends, I swim alone following closely or so behind them with him always turning back to check on me. I do enjoy the moment when I am swimming alone following behind them.
That night, everyone was very tired except for my 2 friends as they got to try night snorkelling with the instructor. He had promised to bring them out in his canoe for a night snorkelling. The rest of us just hang out at the big huge rock while waiting for them to come back. All we do is just lye down and look up to the stars and moon while enjoying the night breeze and the sound of waves. Such a soothing moment. The next day we had to get up early to catch the early boat ride out of the island. Back in KT town, we called up the cab and asked them to bring us to the famous keropok lekor in KT town. Turns out we need to join the already long Q in order to buy these famous keropok lekor. Everyone bought enough for family and friends as souvenirs before heading toward the airport.
We had a great time at the beach and everyone has got a new sexy tan look. As for me, I have extra. I have a 'deaf' ear. My right ear feels like as if it's still under the water. Doctor said might be due to the pressure and there's also a slight perforation in my ear. My hearing is still not fully recovered yet and meanwhile I'm on medication to heal my 'deaf' ear. So, no more diving for me I guess. Sad.
Saw in the recent news that our blood supply in the blood bank is running low. Would like to help blood bank to urge public to donate their blood in order to restore the supply and to save lives. You will be surprised how a pack of blood can do wonders in a person who really needs it and of course, in saving their lives. These blood supply are normally used for patients who undergo surgery, those involved in accidents, thallasemia, dengue, fire victims, babies, high blood loss for women during delivery, etc. Yesterday as I was driving, overheard from the radio that our National Blood Bank is extending their blood donation operating hours from 7.30am -8pm from Mon to Fri and 7.30am -4pm on Sat.
I have alway think that donating one's blood is kinda noble job. As blood is only self produced in ones' body thus make it even more precious. Besides, there are benefits in donating blood. It helps to reduce the risk of heart attacks by eliminating excessive iron in the heart, stimulates the generation of red blood cells and most importantly, knowing that your blood can save someone's life. I personally can not donate blood as I'm a 'vampy' and so I would like to thank all who have done this noble job of donating blood and may God bless u all.
Lastly, if you still have not donate your blood, please do go and help our blood bank regain their full blood supply. It does make a difference in someone's life.
As Chinese New Year is just around the corner, I'm sure everyone is busy with spring cleaning and CNY shopping. Me, like most of them, am a last minute kinda person. I dragged my spring cleaning till the very last minute ie a week before first day of CNY. I did clean up here and there but you know there's still plenty to clean. It's the time when I usually 'found' back all those 'forgotten' stuffs. Be it my bags or clothes or accessories etc. I just realized that I haven't been using a lot of my bags and am surprised to know that I even own a certain bag. It's also the time to re-design my room per say or time to tidy up the over packed wardrobe. Yup, time to take out those clothes which I have not been wearing but not willing to part with and donate it to the charity. Since I'm not willing to part with ... how to donate it out le? Sigh, I have a very bad habit. I just like to keep a certain things thus my room is fully packed with a lot of 'rubbish'. Rubbish to others but to me, it's those little cute stuffs or souvenirs or miniature perfumes etc that 'I think I might need/use in the future' ... Only thing is, that future seldom hardly come by and these things always ended up in the rubbish bin after a few years down the road. No wonder the recycling business is so good. Thanks to a lot of people like me :p
What a way to start my new year! Just yesterday, the car which we just bought is badly damaged due to accident. Yup, second day of the new year and already I'm in bad luck, literally speaking.
It was mid day and I got a call from my dad (he's using the car) telling me that he had an accident and asked me to go with him to the workshop so I can bring him home while his car is left in the workshop. I asked him who he bang and he told me it's a taxi. Why do I get a not so good feeling after hearing this ??? I'm sure most of you would know. It's pretty typical and common here that whenever you had an accident and if the one you knocked is either a cabby or motorbiker, you will tend to have to go through some dramatic phrase from these people. I don't mean to be harsh on them but it's proven case. Ask around your friends and you will know by means of dramatic scenario.
My came when we reach the workshop. One look at my dad's car and I told him to just make a police report and claim insurance for our and the other party's car damages. The cab's back bumper was broken and there's no major damages and the cabby claims that when he got knocked it caused him to got his toe hurt and it was bleeding. I told him that we will go make a police report together and claim MY insurance. I've called my friend and he advised me not to pay him a single cent and let the insurance company settle it. Come to think of it, I should cos I have been paying my insurance every year. Only thing is I will lost all my NCB but it's better to have to fork out my own cash.
Before we proceed to make our report there's the whole dramatic scene with the cabby and his wife both voicing out their dramatic stories. Firstly, I don't understand why he have to go pick his whole family to go to the workshop with us and secondly, I think they expect us to give them some extra money. Why I say so ? It's cos both of them keep on emphasizing that the cab is their only means of income and once the cab is in workshop he can't work. Then there's some story that school is starting soon and his kids need money to buy books and clothes and per day his earning is about RM 200 and that we should compensate his income loss. I was like ... WTF
Accidents happened and nobody wants it. I already agreed to pay for his car damages and now he wants more? Compensation of loss of income? What about my dad? Without his car, he too will be loss of income. Both hubby and wife keep on lamenting their dramatic stories and even said I'm being mean. If I'm being mean I would not have bother to talk to much to him. My dad somehow got soft hearted and gave him them RM 100 for compensation. I was like ...ggrrr should not have given them a single cent as we already agreed to pay for their CAR damages. So, eventually I told the cabby, we go make the police report and he can write everything and anything about him being hurt and compensation for his loss of income in his report and send the report to the insurance company. I told that the insurance company will settle it for him.
Finally, we managed to make the police report and when he was seeing the sergeant in charge, I guess he lamented his dramatic stories again to the sergeant. When he came out, he told me the sergeant intro a runner to help him settle his problems. The runner will bring the cab to his workshop and will do all the documents for him and will also liaise with my insurance company. I told him good! Of course cos I don't have to deal with his dramatic stories anymore! After that send the car to the workshop (recommended by my friend) and now my dad is without car for 2 weeks. So who's gonna compensate his loss of income I wonder ?
Come to think of it, the cabby told me he earn RM 200 per day, RM 200 x 30 days and it's a RM6000 per month. Wow! better income than me provided if he works everyday of the month. Anyway, it's all over now and I do hope my new year will be a blessed and fruitful year ahead.
Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year 2009. May the year be filled with joy, laughters, successes and everything good ;)
It was my first musical and definitely no regrets in having to pay such expensive ticket for it. It's every penny worth it. I got myself a pretty good seat. Fourth row from the orchestra. Of course, if given a choice the best seats would be another 4 rows behind where I'm seated.
Not complaining since my ticket cost me about RM 300++ after a 20% discount for early birds. The show starts at 3pm sharp. Late comers will have to wait till a few songs later before they are let in.
Just a little bit of recap of the storyline, it's about a girl who's getting married and wanting to know who her real father is and also to give her away for the wedding. This musical is full of laughters and of course, the ever famous Abba songs. I'm sure everyone is bound to either sing along with the cast members or hum along the songs, just like me. I sing along to almost all the songs. Not singing out loud of course. I do not wanna disturb others from enjoying the movie and certainly don't wanna be disturbed too.
I grew up listening to Abba, Beatles, The Carpenters, etc so basically I know the lyrics by heart. Oldies but the goodies! Thanks to my parents and till now, I'm still a fan of oldies.
Towards the end, some of the audiences actually stand up and dance along to their singing. I almost did hehe And till today, I still have those songs in my head and can't stop playing it on my pc or humming to the tune. I'm just loving it. I guess this is the beginning of my many musicals to come.
I have a dream, a song to sing .....
It's Christmas day. Wishing everyone a merry christmas!! ... This year I did not have any big celebration, no partying or clubbing. Just a dinner with my bf at this restaurant which he saw in one of those or rather a few food blogs.
We decided to give this restaurant a try since the rating seems to be quite good and it's nearby his place too. This restaurant's name is Fusion Haven. They served fusion foods obviously. From the photos of the food, it does look appealing and yummy too. The food are served ala French style, like when dining in fine dine restaurants. Portions are small and it's meticulously decorated. Nice to see and I definitely feel like eating it just by looking at the photos hehe
We asked the waiter over to get him to recommend us their signature dishes in each category ie the appetizer and snacks, main course, soups, etc. We ended up with most of their signature dishes. A mango salad, a smoked duck and cream of mushroom for my bf (the waiter told us that it is not can soup and it's freshly prepared), I ordered a pan fried dory tower, a unagi rice for my bf's mom and a snack of unagi roll. The food came as per the photo, not disappointing at all, a plus point for them :)
The unagi rice is nice according to my bf's mom. The smoked duck was a wee bit too salty for my liking. My pan fried dory wasn't at all nice to me, the fried dory is kinda cold and chewy to me, quite disappointing dish for me. The unagi roll is worth trying though. The soup came last and it came with a pastry on top of it ala Dome's signature soup pie. The pastry is crispy and delicious but the soup is very disappointing. One spoon of it and I know the waiter kinda lied cos I can taste that it is from a can soup. I do think they added extra mushrooms and maybe some other herbs to make the soup taste nicer. But sadly, me and my bf still agreed that the soup is still make of 70% can soup. Overall it's not a pricey place to go for dinner, our dinner came to about RM100. Cozy ambiance but with loud echo which make conversation hard. Not exactly a place I would wanna frequent though. Oh, and sorry no photos of the these food as I'm not a professional food blogger and we were too hungry to remember about photo taking hehe
That's my Christmas dinner. Next thing I know I actually had a Christmas dinner waiting for me at my aunt's. I guess there's a miscommunication between me and my aunt cos I thought the dinner is on Christmas day instead of the eve. I ended up joining them later on. My parents too. We reached there quite late. Really embarrassing as everyone is waiting for us. Nevertheless, I do enjoy my hours there playing with the dog and my little nephew and not forgetting the good food there. How can I not be fat with all these good food coming along during these festive seasons????? hehehe
Yesterday it's the DongZhi Festival. Most of us are back to hometown to be reunited with our families for a reunion dinner. Myself included. This year, instead of mom cooking up a storm for the four of us, we decided to celebrate it together with my uncles and aunties and their families.
We went for a brunch at Chuai Heng, Ampang Waterfront as they are having a promotion for dim sum. Per basket is only 2.88++ or 3.88++. Very cheap. Earlier on, I booked a table for 10, turns out there's a total of 13 of us sitting at the round table, happily ordering our dim sum and chatting away. Their dim sum is steamed whenever u ordered it and not those type where a lady pushing a cart full of dim sum selections for you to choose. The food is fresh and delicious. We finished each and every plates/baskets of dim sum. They even served us each a bowl of 'tong yuen' to celebrate DongZhi.The bill came to about RM 200+ only. Really cheap. Maybe cos most of my uncles and aunties are already senior citizen and they can't eat much but still it's cheap :)
For dinner, the whole gang went to one of my aunt's place. She's cooked up some dinner and most importantly my favourite hakka dish, the braised pork with sea cucumber and fu chuk :) I practically finished 1 bowl of the braised pork without eating much rice hehe.
Some said you have to eat the number of 'tong yuen' according to your age and also there's a saying, once you eat the 'tong yuen' you are a year older, which is which? I don't know but I know I had my share of 'tong yuen' and am definitely growing older a year :)
Women, no matter how old they are, they all wanna be beautiful and look young. And just for that particular reason, we can spend thousands of ringgit in skin cares or cosmetics just to make ourselves beautiful :)
Myself included. Used to spend a lot on my skin cares as I am a firm believer of healthy skin speaks louder than a beautiful face with make up. So, beside the usual skin care regime, I diligently do my homework at home aka self facial with masks that I bought from pharmacies or supermarket.
Lately, I surf the net for homemade mask. I've heard a lot about the benefits of homemade mask before but have never tried any, so yesterday, I decided to give it a try.
I chose a banana and egg white mask. The ingredients are simple and easily found in a normal household. According to the net, this mask nourishes our skin, tighten our skin and have anti aging effects. The main ingredients are :
1 ripe banana (has moistening and soothing effects)
1 egg white (tighten and refine pores for firmer skin)
1 teaspoon of honey (helps in absorbing and retaining moisture)
3 spoonfuls of oatmeal (absorb and removes skin dirts, oil & impurities & is a natural skin cleanser)
Methods :
1. Peel off the banana and cut it into sections. Use a clean fork, smashed the banana on a flat surface.
2. Put the smashed banana into a bowl. Crack the egg for the egg white. Mix the egg white into the smashed banana.
3. Put in the honey and mix well.
4. Lastly, pour in the oatmeal and mix evenly.
5. Using a brush, apply the mask over your face. Start with a thin layer and then proceed with another layer of mask. Leave it for 20 minutes or longer if you like. Rinse it off with warm water and pat dry face. There should be leftover mask, keep it in the fridge and use it once everyday for 3 days for a better result. The mask should have a 2-3 days shelf life depending on how fresh the banana is :)
Verdict :
Day 01
After applying the mask on my face, I do look very silly. The mask smell nice with oatmeal. When I'm waiting for the mask to dry, it does feel that it's working it's wonder in firming my skin. After rinsing off, I do feel my face smoother and according to my mom, a bit fairer. Tonight I'm gonna try it again with the leftover. Looking forward to a fairer, smoother and firmer skin when I finish off the mask. Will update. :)
Indeed there's a lot of leftovers, I managed to finish the mask in 4 days ie for 4 nights I have been doing this mask. I do feel that my skin is smoother and firmer. My skin look healthier. The only downside of this mask is when you wash it off. It's hard to wash off the mask after it has dried. It kinda stick to your skin that's why the warm water helps. Try it out and see for yourself.
A very bad day for me yesterday. It was raining with heavy thunder storm. I allowed my dog into the house as whenever there's a thunder storm he tend to make a big fuss about it, howling and barking and scratching. But even when he is in the house, he's on his leash. And to make him less anxious I gave him his bone to chew on. To distract him from the heavy thunder storm. He was chewing nicely and even fall asleep half way through chewing his bone.
I didn't bother him till later. When I go near him and wanted to pet him. That's when he bite my hand. Yes, he bite my hand really hard and as I was struggling to let go, he bite more. He thought I wanna take away his bone. I took the cane and cane him as hard as I can with my other hand. Between the 'battle' I did not realize that he bite me that much. Eventually he let go. I thought it was just a small bite, then only I realize that I was actually bleeding when I saw droplets of blood on the floor. 2 of my fingers were quite badly bitten. There's a little swell on my hand, like a lump. One of my finger felt number and swollen. There's also a quite deep bite mark in between the thumb and the second finger. Luckily it have not reach my vein or else I think I'm gonna be crippled. I wash my hand with cold water, cleaning the blood and wound. Had to put a wool on it to stop the bleeding. Immediately I went up and took a cream to put on it. Wanted to bandage it but Steve came at this time. He was shocked to see my condition.
Was not that bad, just a very dark and furious and about to cry face on me :P He took over the job to bandage me. He clean my wound with alcohol swabs as I don't have dettol. It's not painful as he said or I thought it should be. Maybe cos I have already wash it earlier. He dab on some antiseptic (yellow liquid) on the wool and cleanse my wound again. Then he bandage it. This pic show how does
my hand look like yesterday. I am like handicapped girl. Nope, I did not go see doctor immediately last night. I went to the doctor today and she said I should get a jab within 24 hours of the bite. Luckily it's still within 24 hours. Got my jab and medicine now. And I'm no more on bandage as doctor said it's best to let dog bite/scratch wound in the open and not cover it in bandage. Luckily my finger less swollen today and I can move my fingers as previous but still there is a numbness and painfulness in it. Have to handle my hand with care. And I still managed to type this blog out so I guess my fingers are on it's way to recovery :) 
Just received 2 bad news today. It makes my heart shiver a little. No tears come running down but the mind keep on asking a lot of questions. How did it happened? Why did it happened? Will it happened to me? etc.
First bad news, get to know that a child who wasn't even born yet can't survived the pregnancy. Indeed very sad for the parents of this child. The gender of this child has not been detected yet. I still remember a while ago as I was talking to the soon to be mummy, she's so excited and happy about the coming child. Telling me the child in her tummy is kicking her and being naughty. Looks like it's all gonna be a memory to her. Yes, a very sad memory. One that she might not wanna remember. First time being mother and father and now they have to terminate the pregnancy due to defect in the baby which is non curable. It is going to be their hardest decision ever make. Indeed very heart wrenching. I am shocked too when I received this news. I know she might be reading this too and I hope she don't mind me blogging out this news. Hope everything will turn out fine for both of you. May the power of peace of mind be with you both.
Second bad news received. A friend of mine had pass away last Sat. She was admitted to the hospital due to swollen legs. Doctor said it was water retention and gave her some medicine. When I visited her, she look alright to me. The same old girl I know. The cheerful and happy girl. I wonder what happened to her. We were the same type of people. Outsider who don't know might wanna call us the vampires or the blood suckers. We only turn vampires once a month and check in ourselves for some fresh blood. Although we hardly see each other but we understand how each of us felt whenever we face similar problems. It sort of comfortable to have someone understand what we had to go through. The pain, the side effects, the consequences and the future that behold for us. It is very sad to know someone of my age and with similar difficulties has gone away. It somehow trigger more questions in my mind.
As I have always said, live is short, enjoy and live it to the fullest. Hopefully I can and I will.
Today, while I was having my dinner with my parents at a nearby shop, came a woman asking us for money. The woman dress in clean clothes, had tidy clean hair (or so I think, from what I can see) and does not at all look handicap to me. She walk near our table speaking softly but still can be heard by all of us for money. We ignore her. The shop owner shouted at her asking her not to disturb her customers. The beggar, yes, that's what I would call her, walk slowly round our table and came over my side of the table and again begging for money. My dad said no to her and again the shop owner shouted at her warning her not to disturb her customers or else she would tell all her customers not to give her money.
All these while in my head I was thinking, why would this woman beg for money? I mean she's not handicap and she look perfectly in her sane mind. She had tidy and clean clothes and hair. So, to me, she can find a job and work for money instead of begging for money. What in her mind that make her do so?
Honestly speaking, I don't pity these kinda people. Not that I'm heartless, to me she can earn her living. Find a job as a restaurant helper or dish washer or what ever that can give her money rather than begging. Maybe to her begging is the most easiest way to earn money. If there's 10 tables in that shop and per table give her RM 1, wow, just 1 round of collection she can gain RM 10. That's a decent meal with a drink. Seems easy earning right? But on the other hand, can U do what she did? To beg in public and be as thick skin as her? Not everyone can do so. But with the current economy situation I think a lot of people might be desperate enough to beg.
From the religion book that I have read, being a beggar like her, u will be punished too in the after life. Punishment will be in the form of using copper/iron knives to scrape of the skin of the beggar's face cos the beggar did not use the correct path to earn money and are very thick skinned.
I have finally finished reading this book. Yea, I took quite a long time to do so. After reading this book, I realize what we often see or heard is actually true and it's happening.
The last I wrote is about the Third Tribunal. In each tribunal, there's quite a number of prisons in them just like what we have on Earth. In this tribunal, there's a copper/iron knife face scraping prison where sinful souls are punished by scraping off their face's skin. Yes, sound torturing indeed. This is a prison for those who do not understand the meaning of modesty, righteousness and courtesy. Next will be the Prison of Hanging Up Side Down. In here, the soul will be hung up side down by the feet which the soles are pierced by hooks attached to steel wires. This is to punish souls who had upset moral obligations, ruined social structure and defied the human duties and relationship.
The Fourth Tribunal is ruled by Wu Guan Wang and he's in charged of 16 small prisons which carry out different punishment. One of them is the Prison of Forced Drinking of Medicine. It's for those who when they are alive, they imitate drugs and medicine without following the proper way to do it and at the aim of making bulk money and not for the health of those who ate it. Next is the Prison of Boiling Water where souls hands are up raised and nailed to the wooden framework and are being splashed with boiling water to their hands. This is punishment for thieves, robbers and swindlers. Mouth Piercing Prison, the name says it all. It's a place where souls are pinned to pillars and are being mouth pierced with steel sharp skewers. This is to punish those who don't use our mouth to speak out proper and decent words. Next it's the Severing of Sinews and Extracting of Hand Bone Prison. In here souls are sever the sinews of the hands and strip of the flesh with pointed and sharp knives. The flesh are then feed to 'iron dogs' in Hades. Prison of Poisonous Bees are for people who spoil the good name of temples and places of worship. In here they are being stung by tiger head bees and there's no way to avoid it as the bee has it's own spirit and will only sting sinful souls.
I think it's better for those of you who's interested in the book to read it yourself. Shall not blog anymore about it. My friend had borrowed the book from me and hope she enjoy reading it.
Yet another bizarre dream I had last night. I only remember this certain part and I have no idea how I could dreamt such dream.
This time I dreamt I'm pregnant. It's a twin. A baby boy and a baby girl! Yes, I can see it clearly with the ultrasound photo or x-ray photo in my dream. The next thing I know, I was being led all around in search of a doctor. I don't know why but HE brought me to doctor. Don't seem to me like I'm in a rush but yet I feel like I have to walk from one end of the mall to the other end, up or down the lift, rush into the car or was it a bus, I really can't remember. Eventually I was awaken by my dogs morning session barking.
Weird right? Wonder what can this dream mean? Or maybe lately there's 4 or more friends of mine who had just recently gave birth. But non of them gave birth to a twin. Anyway, just another weird dream of mine.
Usually weekends are the days that we all look forward to. Why? Cos it's the day we don't have to work. I don't know about you but I have a five days week policy so my Saturdays and Sundays are free for myself!
Weekends usually past by very fast. Like they say, good times always end without you realizing it. I guess to me, weekends are my good times. It's the time when I can spend time with my loved ones and also can just laze around my house doing nothing. It is also on weekends that we manage to catch up on movies or may be have a movie marathon :) or go shopping. That's what I do on weekends with my bf. At times when we are so lazy, we can just laze around either his or my house the whole day. Call us lazy bums but hey, it's the days when we don't have to work. Else what is there to do on weekends? House chores? Yes, I do that but not on my weekends. As my family had a cleaner lady over once a week so most of the washing, sweeping, ironing is done by her.
Weekends can seem to be boring too. So I'm also wondering what other things can I do during my weekends beside sleeping and lazing at home :)
Well, the title speak for itself. Recently I just came back from Bangkok aka my annual shopping trip despite the recent riot and protest happening in Bangkok. Before my flight, my friends, my cousins, and my parents were nagging me about me going to Bangkok as the news had just shown a few death in the recent protest. So I check up with a friend of mine who know someone in the Thai Tourism Board about the condition in Bangkok. Apparently shopping areas are hardly affected by the riot. Only the government house areas are affected. So we decided to brave out this journey despite the numerous warning from friends and relatives ;P A day before my flight is due, we got an sms from Air Asia saying that the flight is gonna be delayed but my friend somehow mis-heard the information and told me that it was cancelled. For awhile there's a tiny bit of disappointment in me cos I so wanted to go Bangkok and so I called up another gf of mine to get the whole picture of the story. Apparently it was a false alarm, the flight was in fact delayed not cancelled. Phew.... We took the last flight to Bangkok and since it was delayed, our touch down time was delayed too. I reach Bangkok about 1 am M'sia time and 12 am Bangkok time. It was a tiring trip for me maybe cos my biological clock was telling me it's my bedtime as it is 1 am M'sia time. By the time we reach the hotel, it's already about 3 am in the morning and we are all drop dead tired and totally knock out. I don't even bother to have a close look at my hotel room. The hotel we stayed in is a themed hotel, every room has got different theme. Mine was one of the Japanese wave themed. Overall the hotel room is not bad as it cost us only RM 130, it's only meant for us to sleep in and bath in cos most of the time we will be out shopping or sightseeing.
Day One : We woke up early so we can have plenty of time to shop as we are going to Cha Tu Chak
the weekend market. The hotel provided us with breakfast thus everyone stuff themselves full with a heavy breakfast so we have enough energy to walk in the weekend market. It is a hot and sunny day and by the time we meet up for lunch or tea we are all burn and sweaty and of course happy with our shopping. That is only the 1st half of our shopping itinery! 2nd half is to the famous MBK shopping complex to continue our shopping! Reason we choose MBK is because we wanna be in a shopping complex with air cond as all of us are all sweaty and smelly haha. Once we are in MBK, the first place we head to is Swensen :) Surprisingly Swensen in Thai is darn cheap. Me and Steve had a chocolate fondue with ice cream for RM 14.90 only. After Swensen, everyone is recharged and continue our mission to shop :) Last stop before heading back to hotel to refresh is Burger King for a pork burger. In Thai, it's all about pork burgers haha For dinner, our friend aka the
half Thai boy hehe brought us to Chinatown for a very cheap and delicious seafood dinner. We had raw oysters, fish, prawn, vege, crab, mussels, fried rice and tom yum seafood soup and drinks for only about RM 282 plus. Darn cheap. Average per person is about RM 47. Cheap right??? Sorry ah no photo for this dinner as everyone is too hungry to remember about photo. Once the food arrived we just dig in and within 5 minutes the food is gone so I have only the mess we left behind after our delicious meal hehe :p
Day Two : Second day for shopping would be the whole sale area aka Pratunam. By this day, my little thigh are swollen and my feet is very painful. Still, we continue our mission :) The guys, well only Steve and Scott, went to the food court to have their beer session while waiting for us to shop. I guess they are tired of waiting for us ladies the shopaholics hehe. We were in Platinum Mall and I find things here are consider expensive compared last year when I went there. I could not get much in Platinum thus I bring Junie to another area, which I always go during my past years of shopping in Bangkok. I guess prices drop once u go out from the shopping complex. I can get 3 short pants for RM 10 outside of the shopping mall and mind you, it's quite nice design. Junie is satisfied with the shorts. We even
bought some dresses for RM 10 per piece. Although the material is not really that good but I think for RM 10 it's worth it. By the time we went back to the food court to meet up the boys they are already going on their 7th bottles of beer. Beer in Bangkok are cheap doesn't matter it's imported or not. Later that night we went to Suan Lum Bazaar for dinner and shopping again. We had a 3 litre beer tower of Paulaner for only RM 90 which I consider darn cheap compared in KL. Well, can't compare actually cos there's not much Paulaner in KL.
Day Three : By this day, everyone is almost broke from shopping. Yes, that's how surprising it is. Lucky this day it's a sightseeing day so I guess not much money will be spent except for entrance fees, food and transportations. We had a laid back morning before going to the Grand Palace. Sadly we can't go in when we reach there as they have some festival/praying session going on inside thus the staff advised us to go other places before coming back by lunch time. 6 of us grab 2 tuk tuk and off we go to another temple which apparently only open once a year and we were lucky cos that day it is open door day. For some of them, taking the tuk tuk is a once in a lifetime experience. Why? Cos the tuk tuk that we took are kinda racing on the heavy traffic roads. Yes, the driver to my tuk tuk is like driving the F1 only it's on the main roads of Bangkok. All of us are saying NO to tuk tuk now hehe. To go into Grand Palace, one have to dress decently ie the skirt or pants must be longer then knee length and the top have to have sleeve or cover your shoulder or else you will be force to rent their pareo before they allowed you to enter the Grand Palace. As this is my 2nd time to the Grand Palace, we are all well aware of this and everyone dress up accordingly before going to Grand Palace. After the Grand Palace we went back to the hotel to bath and change our clothes before going to another place. In the evening we went to Erawan Shrine for praying purposes. Later on our friend brought us to a nice place for dinner again. It's by the Chao Praya River side. This time we managed to snap photos of our food before it is gobbled up by us hehe. After dinner we went for a drinking session in Khao San Road. This is an interesting place full of mat sallehs and the things that they sell here are mostly hand made and only in limited quantity. Too bad I was very tired out that
night plus it is raining thus I don't have much mood to continue shopping. I head back to the hotel once I finished my drink to pack my luggage.
Day Four : Last day in Bangkok, it's a free and easy day. The 2 shopping king and queen continued their mission and the rest of us went sightseeing. This time we went to Wat Pho which is one of the largest temple in Thai and also with a huge reclining Buddha statue in it. It is a very large compound inside this temple. After Wat Pho we went to a temple nearby our hotel before going off for our last lunch in Bangkok as we are going back to KL in the evening flight. Me and Steve managed to find a little restaurant/pub/bistro nearby our hotel for our lunch. It is actually in Patpong area. It serve good Thai food at affordable prices. Yes, it's authentic Thai food. We stuffed ourselves full before heading back to hotel to freshen up before going to the airport. Guess what, this trip I am not the shopping queen. All my friends thought it is gonna be ME but surprise surprise, it is NOT me. Overall it is a fun filled trip for everyone. We had a great time in Bangkok shopping and I'm sure everyone would love to go there once more hehehe :) Next year perhaps ? 
Over the Raya holiday, I went for Mama Mia the movie in Pavilion. It's a sort of musical movie inspired by Abba songs. I'm not sure about the guys but to me (I think most of the girls) would like this movie. It's about a girl getting married and she wanted her father to give her hand away in her wedding. She found her mom's old diary and know that there's 3 possible guys who could be her father. So she invited 3 guys without her mom's knowledge to her wedding. It was a very cheerful movie and mind you, you most probably will be bound to sing along with the movie. All the songs are Abba's gold hits and I'm sure most of us are familiar with their songs. If u don't no worries cos subtitles of the songs are provided. In my case, I grow up listening to a lot of oldies like Abba. While watching the movie, I'm so tempted to sing along but knowing that my singing is gonnna disturb my fellow neighbors I decided not to sing out loud or sing along. But the girl next to me doesn't seem to agree with me. She's went on and sing along with the movie. Not that it's a wrong thing to do but it can be kinda disturbing. Luckily the movie can drown her voice else I would have to ask her to keep quiet. Hehe. Because of the movie, I bought myself the dvd although I've watched it in the cinema. Yes, my plan is to have a sing along when I play my dvd. Hehe. And now I suddenly become Abba song fanatic. I'm downloading almost all the songs in that movie and been listening to it ever since. Call me crazy but that's me. ;) Oh, lastly it's recommended for everyone to watch this movie and I'm planning to go watch the Mama Mia play in Istana Budaya this December too :) Even my bf had watched this movie twice; one in a private premier preview and 2nd time with me. His verdict : the movie makes him wanna dump all the works in Malaysia and go back pack and lead a care free life like in the movie :) See for yourself and enjoy the movie.
Generally, in most religions, we are taught to do good deeds to people or else we will be punish for all our sins done during our lives on Earth. I'm not exactly a very religious person so I'm not here to preach or teach anyone about anything relating to religions. For myself, I'm a Buddhist and Buddhism believes that there's heaven and hell and even the 'underworld' where sinners will be published. For those who frequent temples will know that temples provide a lot of books about Buddhism but most of it are in Chinese which prevent people like me who are non Chinese educated to read and understand Buddhism further．
Yesterday when I was in a temple, I saw at a corner there's a lot of books about Buddhism but all of them are in Chinese except for one. The title of the book look appealing to me and since it's the only English book there I borrowed the book. The title of the book is 'Journeys to the Under-World'.
The book was originally in Chinese and was the result of the deity 'Jigong' bringing the soul of Mr. Yang Sheng, a leading planchette handler of Sheng Xian Tang, Taiwan, to visit Hades on instructions of the Jade Emperor with intention of helping and saving human beings. The visits were completed in 62 journeys and were generally made in the night time.
According to the book, there's a total of 10 Tribunals in Hades and each tribunal have several sub division. I just complete reading Journey No. 16 which is to the Third Tribunal 'The Prison of Scooped Eyes'. I'm not going into details about this book but I just wanna highlight a few things mention in this book. And for those of you who wanna read up this book can borrowed it from any Buddhist temple.
The First Tribunal is where the soul goes to when they dies and this is also the place where the soul is registered and being investigate of his good and bad deeds during his life. If the soul is found to have done more bad deeds than good, he is then sent to the Second Tribunal to be trial.
On Mr. Yang Sheng Journey No. 6, he visited the 'Magic Mirror Pavillion'. After the soul had reported in the First Tribunal, he will be brought to this Magic Mirror Pavillion. The mirror will reflect what each and every evil deed the soul had done during his life on Earth. Later on, Mr. Yang Sheng tour 'Wang Si Cheng' (city of those who died unnatural deaths). This is the place where souls of those who have met with accidental death are sent to. In the first room in this place, Mr. Yang Sheng saw a lot of small crying babies covered in blood and upon asking the General of the place, he's told that these are the babies of those who had been aborted. The body of these babies are formed and thus they have souls. According to the book, when a baby is aborted, the baby's soul will of course have resentment and will wait until the parents die so the baby can confront them to account for the abortion. Please be a responsible parents and don't abort as the baby will be waiting for you in the other world.
Next is the Second Tribunal, which in fact is the real Tribunal for punishing souls. In every Tribunal there is a special pulpit for preaching and discourse to the souls to rehabilitate them. In this Second Tribunal, Mr. Yang Sheng visited the Odour Pool in Hades. Inside the pool he saw male and female, young and old, mixing up with strips of dung and urine.These were the souls of human beings when on Earth they are prostitutes, pimps who cheated girls, smugglers, those who used placenta of new born babies, swindlers and cheats, womanizers, gangsters, deliberate bankrupts, bribery officials and unscrupulous building contractors. These people when alive had evil hearts and therefore when they are sent to Hades, they have to smell and wobble in the excrete in this pool. It kinda give me a nausea feeling even imagining human beings in such pool of excrete not to mention to be in it. This serve a very strong reminder for everyone to not have any evil hearts or thoughts.
Next is the Hades of the Hungry Ghosts. This is the place where people when alive they are rich, spent lavishly, ate well and had no pity on the poor, needy and deserving. So when they die, they will be in here in a beautiful suit/dress and will only have one meal of vegetable broth a week. Sad isn't it? Thus it teaches us not to waste food and even though we are filthy rich, never forget the poor and needy. I will always remember not to waste my food from now and will be very thankful for the food that I managed to have.
In Journey No. 13, Mr. Yang Sheng tour 'Naihe Qiao' and Hades of Dancing. In 'Naihe Qiao' he saw a continually swaying and rocking bridge from which souls are falling to the bottom below and crying non stop. Below this bridge there are thousands of various snakes which will bite the souls once they fall. This is where people who alive have evil hearts and cheated people's money, cheated women, were instigators, cause people to quarrel and fights, took delight cheating others etc will ended up in... being bitten by poisonous snakes. When he goes to Hades of Dancing, he saw males and females all dancing in a pale hall. These are the souls of dance hostesses and dance patrons when they are alive. The floor of the hall is made of red hot iron plate and so when stepped on, the souls will burn their feet and cry aloud. These are the souls who dance for enjoyment and bodily pleasure and even to earn money or took up prostitution. Those who dance for the sake of health and exercise will not be sent here. After reading this chapter, I'm beginning to think twice of going to clubs or pubs.
Hades of Coldness, it's a place where souls are left in coldness with a very minimal clothing. Those who will be sent here are those who cheat people who entrust their property to them for safe keeping, procurers and pimps who demand large sum of money for the release of prostitutions etc from their bondage, people who are too showy, who spend recklessly and lavishly, those who prefer to spend on more expensive dresses just to show that they have a lot of money rather than to help the poor and needy and those females who take pleasure to go about scantily dressed thus exposing their bodies. Yet another reminder for me to do more good deeds.
Third Tribunal, The Prison of Scooped Eyes. In here souls will have both their eyes scooped out and left with blood oozing from the eye sockets and crying loudly. Soldiers of Hades will use a iron fork to scoop the eyes until the eye balls fell off. Then the eye balls are retrieved and fitted back into the eye sockets and wash with magic water; which will have the effect of reviving the soul from fainting.The scooping process will be carried out 3 times daily on each soul. People who always look down/despise others especially the poor and less educated, guys who love to peep, watch and read obscene books or movies, etc, people who cheated in examinations will eventually be punished here. Come to think of it, human these days be it guys or girls have most probably done most of the above mentioned sins. Sigh.
I've only read till here and am still reading the book. Will update once I have finish the book.
