Hamper of Joy
Sometimes I always wonder to myself, what does Christmas means to those less fortunate? Will they feel extra lonely? I think I would, if I were them.
So when we get to know about the Hamper of Joy event organised by the one of the church’s committee, we decided to join without any hesitation. Hamper of Joy is actually a charity event for the poor and marginalized of society during the season of Advent. Everyone are invited to take a card from the CANDLE which is placed at the Church foyer.
Each card will state the wish gift of the pre-identified recipients, some of them want a walkman, some wants a toy, some want Anlene milk powder, an umbrella walking stick, some want a pair of jeans… and many more. Many were around to take the card, and then left to grab what was written. There were quite a few items i wanted to take but i just could not figure out where to get them.
I actually wanted to get a walkman for a blind man but we just couldn’t think of where to get it during that time. So in the end both of us pick two cards stated… not to tell. I will definitely walk around town to look for places which sell one of the older stuff which we can get in the 80’s and i will provide the elderly what they want.
Nicely wrappred with the wish card on top, the presents were then placed in the designated box. Even though it is not an expensive gift, but we just hope that this small token can cheer up someone unfortunate this Christmas. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
Wedding Colour
December 6, 2009
Filed under Tie the knot
Tags: hot pink and black, theme colour, wedding, wedding colour
Once we have announced our wedding date and sent out ’save the date’ card, many come and asked what is our wedding theme colour.
A wedding without a theme colour will lack of the ambience and mood. The colour chosen should also reflects the personality of the bridal couple. It could be a colour that is meaningful to both, or your favourite colour. If you are choosing more than one colour for your wedding, then must make sure that the colour combination works perfectly. Also, the theme colour should be decided during the initial stage of wedding preparation so all your wedding vendors can work according to the theme, for a truly wedding occasion that belongs to your two.
Back to our wedding colour, in fact my wedding planner a.k.a my FW already started brainstorm on it many months ago. Since we are going to have a garden wedding dinner, so she initially proposed a very environmental friendly theme colour – apple green. For this theme, we will be giving away green apple as thank you gift, use gren apple for table centerpiece, bridal car decoration, etc and etc… as the ideas go on.
Soon, she was wondering why must we stick to one colour only as it is too common already in most of the wedding today. With reference to the Pantone guide, her favourite hot pink was added into our theme colour. A combination that I like and fits the garden wedding too.
Somehow, bride-to-be is always very frequent minded person. Her reason to not have apple green and pink as our theme is it is too ordinary, lots of Malaysian are having this theme colour now. So she think that we should choose a colour that only minority will go for – black and hot pink, which is a combination of our favourite colour.
In Asian culture, black symbolised bad luck and is more for a funeral, not wedding. It’s not surprise at all to receive critics because there are still a lot of close minded people around us. We won’t change our mind again and even decided to have everything ranging from the stationary to decoration, attire, cakes and etc to be in black and hot pink. We can never please everyone so why let them to ruin our decision. Afterall, it should be a theme that represent both of us, not everyone.
Road Trip to the Historical Town of Malacca
December 5, 2009
Filed under Food, Travel
Tags: chicken rice ball, christ church melaka, jonker street, melaka, otak-otak, road trip, trishaw
Melaka is a place that I always want to go since few months back but just don’t have a chance to. Driving to Melaka is actually kinda like stuck in a very bad jam in KL, that will take me 1 1/2 to 2 hours just to reach home. But the nightmare will start if you’re going to Melaka during holiday season, because once you have exited the Ayer Keroh toll, a long jam start from there, all the way down to the town itself and this can last up to an hour.
It’s heavy rain when we reached Jonker Street so we just head on to ‘recharge our battery’ while waiting for the rain to stop. Of course, how can we come Melaka without having the most famous chicken rice ball even though all the chicken rice shops are full house?! I was also surprise and amazed that there were also many shops opened around the area that also sell the same thing, but i came to the one i like the most ever since i came to Melaka ages ago.
We managed to get a table very soon without lining up like the rest do *potong Q* again. As usual, my FW would placed the order on behalf and start waiting for the food to be served, reason because she can speak canton while me and my brother and his gf stood there looking at the menu. The service here is surprisingly fast as the chicken rice balls and chicken meat were served within ten minutes. Simply love the rice balls even though it was cold. Possibly due to the rain and the crowd, nonetheless the food here is still superb just like yesteryears.
There is nothing to shout about with this roasted pork compare to those I have tried in KL.
Otak-otak (a.k.a ‘brain-brain’) is a specialty from Muar but it has become one of the must order here. I still prefer the grilled otak-otak wrapped with banana leaf, although the steam version is equally appetising. There is one particular shop in Tropicana mall which sell many varieties of it, that would be a different story.
The sweet dessert for our lunch was the ais kacang which can only satisfy my hunger for it because it is not up to my standard. I still prefer the one made by the old lady up the road before going to this one, but i would settle for second best.
The rain stopped right when we finished our lunch and so we could enjoy walking down the Jonker Street without any worry. Two years ago, I was here during the evening time and what I experience is totally different from what I am seeing today. The street is still busy as usual and full of ‘nyonya’ feel, except that the vibrant of an old town isn’t there.
I have no idea why this dessert shop is so famous while it’s just selling the ordinary desserts. I will sure try it out during my next visit, provided I don’t have to line up.
Although this is my third time to Melaka, but I still love to visit all the churches and historical sites here. I’m a historian, pursuer of the truth, and i believe there are many more historical sites to be found in Melaka.
However, I won’t pay RM10 or more for a short ride on trishaw going around, unless if I am a foreigner. Or provided my parents come down and they havent since for a very longtime. Then i do not mind paying for them, and for me, i would rather walk.
I found it very funny as the trishaw were playing Michael Jackson, Elvis Persley, tamil, mandarin or even malay songs, plus Techno ahbeng song. Wouldn’t it be better if they play traditional songs instead? P.Ramle comes to mind.
Unfortunately, my FW was not feeling very well and start having fever, so I didn’t get to explore more. Need to rush back KL before anything bad happen to her and even my bro and his gf were worried. Anyhow, Melaka is always one of my favourite cities and I will sure be back again, soon.
Italiannies @ The Gardens
November 19, 2009
Filed under Food
Tags: bread, italian food, italiannies, pizza, The Gardens
After attending sunset mass last Saturday evening, my FW suggested to go The Gardens for grocerry shopping, as well as early dinner. Gardens is one of the very few shopping complex in town that have endless choices in exotic food. You name it they have it. With a lady who is craving for Italian cuisine today, we head down to the Italiannies.
It’s just early 6pm+ when we arrived there. The waiter escorted us to a table at non-smoking area, over-looking the noisy traffic of KL from the window. While waiting for our food to be served, we were discussing on our wedding preparation – choosing my fourth bestman, transportation arrangement for the bridesmaids and bestmen, etc and etc.
The first dish served was the unlimited flow of bread. It’s best to taste with olive oil – the essence of Italian cuisine. We particularly like the wholemeal bread but just after two pieces of bread, we can feel that our tummy was starting to get full. Gosh… this is just the starter. Yet the waitress brought us another plate of breads again.
Next on our table is the Margherita Pizza. What we love about Italian pizza is even though the topping are tomatoes, basil and mozarella cheese only, it is still very tantalizing because it’s charcoal baked. Even tastier if you sprinkle some chili flakes on it.
My FW wanted to order tiramisu at first but I was so tempted to try out this new specialty – Quattro Platter. Again, the portion of this dish almost give us heart attack because it is really huge. But quality wise it wasn’t up to my expectation.
We tried and we tried but alas our stomach could not finish the last plate. Thus, our total bill is only RM60.70, which is really cheap for Italian restaurant’s standard. I will sure come back here again, but will just order one dish and shared by both. Else I will be ‘DBKL’ again!
Kik Kok @ Ikano Power Center
I love food, because it can make me tummy happy. I am always curious when seeing something new that I never tried before, but curiosity can kill the cat. This happened to me for many times, yet it doesn’t stops me from being ‘adventerous’ again. I can’t be that unlucky all the time right. For instance, the kik kok at Ikano.
It’s just a very small stall located next to the escalator, but its name ‘Kik Kok’ has captured my attention. I bet most of you must be thinking the same with me, what does Kik Kok means. There is no such word for it in the English dictionary at all, but those who can read mandarin can immediately tells that it is literally means as ‘crispy’. To be more precise, it is actually just a very thin version of pancake called crepe, filled with jam or other ingredients.
Unlike my FW’s chicken floss crepe, my peanut butter kik kok wasn’t made upon order. It was a bit hard and cold but still good enough for a quick bite before dinner.
