Shopping Online for CNY

This is a season to be jolly, fa-lalala-lala. OOPS! Wrong season! Gong Xi Gong Xi Gong Xi Ni! Phew, I guess I am still in Christmas mood although Chinese New Year is actually the day after tomorrow. And tomorrow night we will be having our reunion dinner. This year, the dinner will be slightly different for my family. Usually, we will just have the dinner on the eve of the CNY just among the few of us in the family, dad & mom, sis, bro and myself. For the pass few years, I will be the one organising the whole thing from deciding what to cook, when to go marketing and what to buy.

But this year, early last week, dad suddenly told us that our auntie (dad's youngest sister) invited the whole family to have the reunion dinner at her house. We will pick grandma from the nursing home and have a nice family dinner together. And mom & dad actually done most of the marketing since the weekend since I am not taking much time off. As usual, dad & mom bought too much of everything. Imagine buying over RM150 worth of poultry and RM200 worth of roasted chicken, duck, braised pork, etc. I want to faint when I hear about it from my brother. Dad's excuse was so that we have food on the first few days of CNY.

Oh well, at least we can freeze the stuff and keep for a few month? Mom was nagging about going to town to buy a drink serving tray last night but in the end she agreed not to when we all basically refuse to drive to town and be stuck in jam for many hours. Today, it is worse. I believe most people have started taking their leave yesterday and is flooding the supermarkets and shopping malls to do last minute shopping. Even during lunch just now, we met a mini jam outside BDC Everise! I imagine it will be worse tonight!

All this makes me seriously think about online shopping but I other than purchasing AirAsia ticket online, I have never trusted online shopping. Suffice to say that all the horror stories of being cheated is enough to put me off. But I 'stumbled' (ok, so I was blog hopping. bluek!) on the website on Ashop Commerce which is one of the US based provider that host the shopping cart software. Ashop even boasted the ability to provide the highest ranking on most search engines through their easy to use ecommerce software. By providing 100% optimised shopping cart, merchants and consumers can both rest assured that the best and most secured online shopping experience is available.

Perhaps next year I can consider starting up my own business selling cookies, cakes and homemade dried pork as side income during festive season? Or rekindle my dream to start up my own business but instead of opening a real store, to open on on the web. Will someone kick me so that I will make that first big leap?

Finally Approved

Money will always be a concern for most of us I guess. I mean, of course money is not everything but without money in this modern world, it will be extremely hard to survive. Even with the income that one earn from work is sometimes not enough especially the current price raise in almost everything. To make matter worse, the traders and business people try to take advantage and use the price hike in commodity such as flour to further increase the price of goods without much sense to consumer like me.

I guess that is why I was so worried about the move to KL. With the rumors that there will be a big possibility of petrol price hike this year, everyone have some kind of speculation as to how much it will increase. Some say as much as 30cents per litre. That means approximately 15% increase. Imagine if the weekly petrol consumption on average now is RM50, if the price of petrol really does go up as much as 15%, it would mean additional RM7.5 per week. It might not seem like much but from the trend, when petrol increase, the inflation flood gate will open wide and chain reaction will happen. Does that mean I will be paying RM2 per can of Cola at the coffeeshop?

When I started blogging, I actually was thinking of using this as a way to make more friends from all the place and ultimately build network. To be, blogging is where I can express my feelings in words and share with others how I feel, especially all the frustration. Yes, also a place to release my stress and complain all I want about those that makes me really mad. But that is another topic (or few topics on its on for next time!)

Anyway, I was really excited about the prospect of blogging and get paid for blogging. This is totally new to me. All this while, I always assume that those that go online to blog is simply to fill up their time and have nothing better to do. Never in my wildness imagination would I think of blogging as a source of side income. I mean, I know about all the MLM and Network Marketing which is a nice way to call direct marketing such as Amway. But blogging and get paid to blog? Is that even possible?

But after checking out Smorty, I am basically hooked! Basically it connects the advertisers with the bloggers to advertise on blogs to have more wide coverage. After all, the only place that is really borderless is in the cyberworld. Blog advertising is actually a really smart way to go. Not only it is more cost effective but more efficient in term of coverage as well. The bloggers with say 20 unique viewer per day will mean the potential for advertiser to let 20 different people from all over the world know about their products or services.

Anyway, What a nice ang pau for CNY 2008. I can see the money come rolling in instead of having wings and fly away. So, I guess the year of the rat is not a total unlucky year for me if I can blog for money.

Momo (Melting Moment)

2 part icing sugar and 1 part coffeemate

My momo baking in the oven

Beautiful white momo

I took leave today initially hoping to make my pineapple tarts, momo, horlick layer cake and cheesecake. But with the car trouble eating up most of my morning, I only managed to get the momo done today and after that I am just too lazy to continue with the pineapple tart. I have all the ingredient but I am just to tired to even contemplate making them tonight. I guess I will do both the pineapple tart and horlick layer cake tomorrow since one uses oven and the other is steamer.

I must say the momo turn out rather nice today despite the fact that I was exhausted from the heat and stress. This is actually one of my favourite cookie and I find that those bought from the bakery or stalls are sometimes not as nice, a little too hard and dont really melt in the mouth. To make the most light and fluffy momo, it is important to ensure that the flour is dry enough. Traditionally, this is done by dry frying the flour in a oil-less wok over small fire until the flour is slightly crispy to touch. But I admit that I cheated. I pour all the flour into a pyrex bowl and microwave the flour at high for about 5 minutes.

Momo recipe is really simple. All you need is one small can of ghee (about 1 cup), 1kg of flour and a mixture of 2 part icing sugar and 1 part coffeemate. Mix the flour and ghee together. Knead till the dough no longer stick to your finger (If it still stick, add a little more flour and knead again). Roll the dough into balls and line them on the baking tray. Make you squeeze them well and make sure it is really compact before rolling them into shape or else it will break during baking.

Bake in the oven at 200 degrees for about 20-30min or until the balls turn slightly brown. Remove from oven and let it cool down slightly, i.e. cool down enough to touch. Take each ball carefully and roll them in the icing and coffeemate powder. DONE!! Easy right???

oh yah, dont be tempted to taste the momo before it cool down completely or you will definitely burn your tongue!

Unlucky fortune for the Year of Rat

My car broke down today and I had to forked out RM310+ to repair it. Actually, that is the price I paid for the dry car battery. Apparently it is maintenance free and guarantee for one year. I can almost wings on my ringgit flying to the sky...

It all happened this morning. Mom & I decided to go look for dried pork especially those with the three layer meat from somewhere in town. We left from my dad's shop at Seng Goon garden at around 10am. There was jam EVERYWHERE! I mean, in Kuching, to be stucked in a jam for more than half hour at one time is really crazy. Everyone seems to have taken off and going for last minute shopping.

The car show absolutely not sign of having any trouble this morning. It started as normal and I even remember thinking to myself that this is a good car to have. Very reliable and fuel efficient. But come to think of it, those little minors problems that I been having with the car must have been an indicator. Once, the aircon wouldnt turn on properly but after a few push of the button, it works just fine again. I forgotten all about that as it never happened again after that. Other time would be the car alarm went abit crazy. Sometimes the central locking would not work and other time it is perfectly ok. But I thought that is because the car key is falling apart. Guess little did I know, the car has been trying to tell me that he (yah, I think of the car as HE) needs help.

Right, back to this morning, we bought some three layer dried pork at CKC and then decided to swing to a house behind the old Upwell building before they moved to Jalan Song to check their dried pork. The shop sometimes sell the bits of dried pork that is not shaped nicely for cheaper price, roughly RM50 per kg. Since it still taste the same and at the end of the day, you will still cut them before serving, no harm in getting this right? Unless of course, it is as a gift, then this is not so presentable. Last year, by the time we managed to get there, those ugly bits were already sold out but this year there were still plenty left. After getting those, mom & I got into the car and as I start the engine, a big loud bang can be heard.

At first we thought someone rammed into the rear of the car. It was that loud! But after checking around and see no other car that looks like it is hurt too, I realised that the engine wont start at all and the engine is making funny noises. I told my mom to get out of the car quick in case it does some other weird things. I opened the hood of the car and realised that the loud bang was actually 2 of the battery cap flying off and hitting the hood. We of course immediately call for the calvary, my dad! hahaha...

Later, upon further inspection by the mechanic, we discover that the battery might have short circuited. The top cover was actually loose like the cover of a container not being closed properly. So we suspect that normal water mixed with the battery water and making the whole battery become a mini pressure cooker. Thank goodness it only affected the battery and only the cap exploded. I cannot imagine what will happened if the whole battery explode. And also thank goodness the car was not moving when it happens. Or else I dare not think what disaster that will bring.

Thank goodness also that dad didnt follow us and he was able to be the knight in shinning armor, brought us a new battery which was not in the right size by the way but the mechanic were a miracle worker. He temporarily tied the battery with some wires so that the car engine can at least start and I can drive it to our usual garage in Hui Sing. All in all, it was a morning wasted but were very lucky that no one was hurt and the car was ok.

In Twist and Knots

After trying for a few months, I finally got a job offer in KL with the salary scale that I am hoping for, well close to it anyways. (After being stumped a few times and being told that I am out-pricing myself from the market, I was starting to feel abit low.)

On top of that, it is the type of job that I know I will enjoy because it is challenging and most probably involve some travelling. Not forgetting the fact that it is a MNC and just got listed recently. I also like the location of the office as it is not too far from where my babe is working. I have met up with the team that I will be working in and I truly like what I see. The working atmosphere is not so formal but at the same time people know what they want and achieve their goals. I think the company have great potential to grow.

So, what is the problem you would say. Well, remember I said the salary is close to what I am hoping for? Well, without the extra bit that makes the salary close to what I hoped, babe & I are worried that we will not be able to survive. Ok, maybe can survive but most likely not have much savings for any emergencies. The idea of being broke with no where to turn to immediately is seriously giving me the jibbers! Especially since I will be paying for 2 houses basically, 1 in Kuching and the other rented house that I will be sharing with my babe.

The one in Kuching is the house that my bro & I bought for our parents. It is nothing fancy, just a single storey semi-D in the sub-urban area. But it is roof over the head and I want to be able to continue paying the home loan and let my parents stayed there till the end of their days. I do not want to burden my dad or end up he having to pay my share of the loan. That is seriously not something I want to think about at all.

And of course, moving to KL would mean that babe & I need to get a place of our own eventually. I mean in the first few months, we can crash with some of our friends while looking for suitable place. But sooner or later, we just need to get our own place. I doubt the two of us have face thick enough to stay too long at the friend's place anyways. So, at the moment, we are pretty comfortable with the idea of a place in Setia Alam where babe is staying now. The rent for a double-storey terrace is about RM600-650. From Setia Alam to Bandar Utama area for work daily would most probably mean monthly petrol of about RM500, plus toll, about RM200, total approx RM700 just for transportation. Oh not forgetting the high possibility of fuel hike somewhere this year.

Then we start counting our daily meals and concluded about RM300 each per month for lunch on working days and other meals & groceries at RM500 each.

Meaning my monthly expenses: RM350 (half of rental) + RM700 + RM300 + RM500 = RM1850.

And this has not even included the utilities such as water, electricity, phone, etc. EGAD! Yah, panicking abit. Babe were suggesting that we look for houses in Damansara area so that we can reduce the monthly petrol cost abit since he will be using his bike to work. I dont know, even now, I never feel safe about him riding a motorbike to work although it is only 15 minutes away. What more to say from Damansara, a 30-45minutes ride away. Am I worrying too much?

As you can see, the wires in my brain are all twisted up and in knots trying to decide. On one hand, we worry that if I do not grab this opportunity, nothing similar will be coming along anytime soon. On the other side of the coin, what if it is a really bad decision to not wait for another better offer? Aiyahhhh how like this? On top of that, I know my mom will kick up a fuss when I told my family my plans if I decided to take the offer......

p.s. Anyone with good advise is greatly appreciated!

What I Love And Hate

Billy's mom tagged me with What I Love and Hate tag.

1). I love to eat; Anything with Oyster. I keep on thinking of the oyster mee sua that I had at a Taiwan Snack House in Bukit Raja. Heard there is one in 1U too.
2). I hate to eat; Bad low quality food especially yucky chicken nuggets.

1). I love to go on; a stress free long vacation where people can only reach me in dire emergency.
2). I hate to go on; shopping spree in a jam packed supermarket with inconsiderate people leaving their shopping cart in the middle of the lane.

1). I love it when; it rains and I am curl up in bed during weekend or public holiday with my babe and fluffly teddy bear (hahaha childish!)
2). I hate it when; it rains cats & dogs while I am on the road trying to reach my destination in the shortest time possible.

1). I love to see; sunset or sunrise on a cruise ship for my honeymoon. (babe, if u r reading tis, tat is a hint!)
2). I hate to see; kids throwing tantrums, screaming & kicking on the floor in public places (God, I pray my future kids wont be like that)

1). I love to hear; the sound of baby coo and laugh with sheer joy over absolutely nothing.
2). I hate to hear; my mom nagging:P

And so, I completed the tag from Billy's mom and I would like to tag the following people:
Apple Jul
World of Didi
BigFishChin

CNY Madness

So, to continue with the Chinese New Year madness that has finally started in Kuching, decided to share with you all my goodies stash for the CNY. Was sharing with some friends that Kuching seems to have forgetten that CNY is around the corner. I mean, even last week, there were hardly any shoppers at the shopping centers here. The previous years, 2 weeks before the festival, the festivity had already started and everyone start to rush and causing crazy jam everywhere.

But this year, we only start to see the jam today! This morning, when I was out with Rose to get our hair highlighted at Tun Jugah, there were still hardly any cars on the road and in TJ. That was around 10am. After we got our hair done, we went to Memories Cafe at Padungan as Rose was suddenly thinking about fried rice. After we left the place around 2pm, that is when we finally got caught in traffic jams almost everywhere!

Guess everyone finally suddenly REALISED chinese is less than 5 days away and is rushing for last minute shopping. Or was it that some were waiting for their payday on the last day of the Jan or first day of Feb. Anyway, I am just glad that I got almost all my goodies. Just need to go to the supermarket to get flour and butter for my cakes and cookies. I think I will do that early tomorrow morning so that I will miss the jam.

My Stash of goodies. Some of it anyways. The rest are still in plastic bags!

Mom is talking about buying dried pork again. So tomorrow going to have to go get the small mesh wire so that the homemade dried pork that I am experimenting with now using Windy's recipe wont break into tiny ugly pieces. So, here I share with you my first sad attempt at making the dried pork. Taste wise, it is almost like the real thing that you buy from the shops. Softer actually because were using good quality pork. I am using minced pork meat with some fat. This is from roughly 100gm of pork. (err...half eaten by mom already..hahaha)

Mom & Dad like it so I will just need to make it look more presentable! If I can get that done, maybe I can start selling homemade dried pork or even beef next year! hahaha

Crispy Seaweed

Finally got my CNY baking started. Well, sort of anyways. I started with something simple first, which is the crispy seaweed. My mom love this stuff and so does the rest of us. Last year, mom bought one can the size of the biggest nestum can for RM15-20. Kinda expensive actually. For me anyway since I know how much ingredient and effortless they are. And sometimes I just cant believe how people can sell small little packet of the crispy seaweed for crazy prices.

Anyway, this year, I decided to try and make them. The ingredient are simple enough:

1. Seaweed sheets (You can basically use any size and type that is readily available from most supermarkets)

2. Frozen popiah skin - similar size to the seaweed sheet.

3. Egg whites (10 sheets of seaweed will need roughly 2 eggs but dont crack all the eggs. Crack one first and when you need more, crack the next one. This way, you dont waste)

4. Salt & pepper

5. Pastry brush (or any soft brush)

How to make them? Very simple.

1. Lay 1 piece of the popiah skin on a flat surface (I use a rectacle chopping board so that the table dont get too messy:P)

2. Brush the egg white generously on the popiah skin. (Make sure entire surface is covered or else the seaweed and skin might separate during deep frying process).

3. Lay the seaweed on top of the brushed popiah skin.

4. Brush the egg white again generously this time on the seaweed.

5. Cover the brushed seaweed with another piece of popiah skin.

6. Cut the seaweed popiah to bite size (Or whatever size that you prefer).

7. Heat up about 1 cup of cooking oil in a wok. Fry the seaweed popiah in batches and drain excess oil using the kitchen towel.

8. Add pepper & salt according to your own taste.

DONE!! Easy right? hahaha.. and for 10pieces of seaweed, 1 pkt of popiah skin and 2 eggs cost less than RM15 I am sure and that is enough to fill the empty nestum can till overflow.

2nd Award - Forever Friends Award

Dear wonder sweet Maurica, my 2nd award in 1 week. She is one generous lady, sharing with us all the awards that was awarded to her. I am sincerely touched that she remember me in her list of recipient. So, ahemm..(Clear throat), " I would like to thank all the people out there that has made this possible. Without out...."

OOPPSSS! Ermm..I am day dreaming. This is not the Emmy:P

So, from Maurica's list, I decided to pick just one (dun wan to be greedy mar!). The reason I pick Forever Friends is because I think I am very lucky to have someone as Maurica to be one of my new found blogging friend. Although I am barely two months old in the blogger world, I feel very honoured by alot of seasoned and wonderful bloggers that is always friendly, encouraging and willing to help.

Thank god there a place where the diseases in the name of development has not really touched.

Once again Maurica, DOMO ARIGATOMASU! (THANK YOU VERY MUCH)

Shopping for CNY

wooo hoooo..obi is not in!! She is talking half day off. Does this mean that the mouse can come out to play now that the cat is not around. hahaha...Actually, feeling abit unfair too that she can go off when she set the rule that there must be at least 50% workforce at all time in the department. Today, there is only 3 out of 5 person working. With her gone, the workforce is confirmed to be less than 50%. The law maker does not abide by the law that is set by them? But I dont care lar, as long as she is not here, eventhough I have plenty of things to do, I am still happy and less stressed!

OK! Enough my lady boss. Lets talk about CNY which is just less than 1 week away. Finally, starting to have abit of new year mood. Went to Everise right after work yesterday just to have a look see and survey. Of course, did intend to change window shopping to actual shopping if anything catches the eyes. Turns out that there were plenty of interesting things that caught my eyes. End up spending more than RM200 in less than an hour! hahaha.. yah yah, I know, WOMAN & SHOPPING!

Among the items that I bought yesterday was dried pearl mushroom. It is actually the normal mushroom but the size small and really cute. Just couldnt resist getting it. I can almost imagine how they will look like when I cook them in different dishes. Also bought 2kg of pistachio nuts which is mom's favourite. Also bought a few types of cookies too. One of it is the nice sugee cookie with icing topping.

Also 2 pkt of seaweed & 1 pkt of popiah skin to make the crispy seaweed popiah tonight (hhmm..which reminds me, I forgotten to buy a small brush. Will go get it later!). 3 different types of cookies and some preserved fruit such as preserved kiwi (very nice green), pineapple (my favourite), orange skin (dad's favourite) and plum. Keep on reminding myself not to buy too much or it will end up like last year preserved fruits. Most of them went into the tong sampah (rubbish bin).

Anyway, when I finally got home, turned out that mom & dad was also in CNY mood and went to Boulevard to buy some goodies too. So now, we have 3kg of pistachio nuts and 2 big packets of dried mushroom. Thank goodness other things that we bought are different ones. Now we have a pretty decent stash of goodies ready for CNY. Sort of anyways...there is still my baking!!

During lunch time just now, we just couldn't resist to go the Choice Daily supermarket at Tabuan Laru just to have a look. The supermarket looks so festive from the outside. Inside, I saw this really really nice dark chocolate from Australia called farm choc. Some are dark choc with milk choc filled with Australian wine, cost about RM7-8 which I think is pretty reasonable. It claim to have less than 30% carb and fat. So, I guess good for those on low carb and high protein diet. The supermarket also sell some rather interesting important muesli at reasonable price. I think I will get my supply from there next time.

Actually Choice Daily supermarket seems to have wide choice of imported items at reasonable but the more common stuff are pretty highly priced compared to other supermarket. I wonder if will be able to survive when Coldstorage open at Green Height soon. Oh well, more competition means better prices for poor consumer like me. So, I dont mind them having healthy (or even unhealthy ones like price war) as long as they keep the prices down.

Oh yah, by the way, I did see some dried pork sold outside Everise BDC for RM54-58 per kg. I didn't try any as I was rushing for time. But looking at it, it looks rather dry and tough. Not sure if it will taste good or not. I guess we get for what we pay. But if what we are paying is RM75 per kg, ermm, I rather pay for gold:P

Tomorrow will be going out with my friend to highlight my hair. Usually, I wont even bother to do that as I dont really like to put chemicals on my hair but the friend was able to get a discounted price from the rather reputable saloon. So, I thought, with the bonus given with our pay last month, I might as well indulge. So, tomorrow morning, 9.30am is hairdresser time. And then will be going to India Street to get some baking supplies to make my pineapple tart, momo (melting moments), cheesecake and horlick lapis.

Mom also just called to say that most of the supermarkets in Kuching will be open till midnight this few days starting today and TELLING me that we are going out tonight. So, while dad and bro go around to get their CNY clothes, mom, sis & I will be shopping for CNY goodies. Mom is looking for dried pork! Shall I tell her I am going to attempt to make my own using the recipe that I have?? hehehe..better not just in case I fail or am too lazy to make them!:P