Do you feel the mood?

I have a new CNY banner! I have temporarily replaced my tree of love (representative of Life of Lopsided 8 blog) with the colours and peach blossoms of Spring, filled with auspicious red packets, tangerines as well as fire crackers. I also added the Golden Boy and Jade Maiden 金童玉女 heralding the coming of Spring 春- the Lunar Chinese Year.

I know the banner looks a bit "busy" with so many auspicious items, but "busy" is good for the new year. Hehe...

Ang Pow
Ang Pow also known as "red packets", are considered extremely auspicious to receive as a gift and even more auspicious as they contain money inside, filled with the good wishes of the giver to the recipient.

Peach Blossoms
In Chinese culture, the peach is a symbol of longevity, and is believed to defend against evil. Historically, peach blossoms were placed above front doors to stop evil spirits from entering the house. Peach blossoms that bloom during the New Year period indicate good fortune for the ensuing twelve months.

Fire Crackers
Another belief is that the exploding noise of the firecrackers will scare away all evil spirits and misfortunes, preventing them from coming into the New Year. In the Chinese New Year Parade, it is customary to throw firecrackers at the feet of the dragons in the parade to keep them awake for the celebration. Around the dragon dance in the parade, lots and lots of firecrackers are set off to they drive away the evil spirits.

Fortune Boy & Jade Maiden
Fortune Boy and Fortune Girl in Chinese traditional folk custom represented by wearing brilliant dresses. The red banner on their top are inscribed with 福 "Fu", carrying the meaning of the coming of the happiness, and "Fu" means happiness, as well as 春 "Chun", meaning the arrival of Spring.

Tangerines
You will often find tangerines, oranges and kumquats in Chinese homes. This is because they are considered to be very fortunate. Tangerines and kumquats are symbolic of good luck, and oranges are symbolic of wealth. This has come about through a play on words in the Chinese language. The word for tangerine 橘 sounds same as "gold" in Chinese, and the word for orange sounds the same as "wealth".

So are you in the mood for the chinese new year yet?

Wenzel Wenzel

This is a friend's labrador retriever, Wenzel.

My God, she has grown so much within 6 months. From a cute small puppy to a big gentle giant, Wenzel is golden beige in colour, almost all white. Very well groomed and trained. She is active yet tame, I like her alot. When I first met Wenzel at Muffy's party, I so adored her, and she let me carry her without any resistance, even kept licking my hands. Wenzel did not run wild with the other dogs. She preferred to follow her mommy or grandma or her friend, Ludwig. And she likes to be stroked.

Next time I hope to have my own retriever as a pet. Somehow I prefer slightly bigger dogs than the smaller ones. And I have always like retrievers, because they are active and somehow gave me the impression they can be "independent" and not too attention seeking or "manja". And dogs are really man's best friend, perhaps sometimes even more loyal, faithful and more predictable than your own friends. A pet dog would not bite their owner who feed her and raised her and to those who are kind to her.

One-hour chef

Thought of relieving mom from cooking dinner tonight as everyone geared up to watch the 2-hours last episode of "The Little Nyonya". And I was craving for roti prata and curry. So thought I had buy dinner back, would save all the trouble. But I baulked at buying the $3 per masala drumstick from the roti prata man (he was trying to rip me off if I buy just one dish and how many drumsticks would I have to buy?!). So instead I went to the supermarket and got 1kg of chicken wings/drumsticks and 1kg of potatoes and one pack of curry chicken rempa and one pack of coconut milk. And packs of frozen roti prata. Yes I decided to cook them myself.

I peeled and cut the potatoes, and together with the chicken wings and drumsticks, I sauteed them with the rempa till aromatic (thank god I didn't have to prepare the rempa from scratch!). Then I poured water into the mix. There were some oil floating on top, I sieved them with my super-oil-siever scoop. Was worried as the concoction looked watery. Next I poured in the coconut milk. And I was so relieved to see the final stage, milky look of the curry we know! The big pot of curry chicken and potatoes were perfect. Niece kept stealing sips of the gravy.

Next I started to pan-fry the prata piece by piece. It was pretty straight forward. The prata dough should be still hard and frozen before you throw it into the pan. In 5 minutes, both sides turned golden brown and done.

I wanted more flavour, so I added egg into the prata which I split open. Finally the end product looked not bad at all. This was our dinner tonight, together with "tang yuan" for desserts.

It was my first attempt at cooking curry chicken and prata. The feedback was quite good actually. The curry was milky and not too spicy/oily, just nice for the kids. And the crispy prata was what they like usually. All in all, the preparation and cooking time took about an hour, which was no hassle at all.

Hmmm, what should I cook next? Babi Ponteh? *hiak hiak hiak*

He is coming!

In less than 2 weeks, His Eminence Lama Zopa Rinpoche will be in Singapore! Yay! For those interested, this is his programme in Singapore. Do note that Rinpoche's teachings and initiations have historically run into the wee hours of morning from the night before. So please be prepared to stay late, as Rinpoche sometimes do change or prolong his intended teachings.

Rinpoche is my root guru and also with whom I have first taken my refuge vows with. A root guru is the master with whom you have the strongest connection with Dharma. The connection is deep and will last for the rest of this life. It may have lasted for many lifetimes already and the connection will probably continue for many lifetimes to come. A root guru is sometimes translated as a "spiritual friend" or "spiritual guide" because he or she will be your main guide along the path of Dharma.

There is a strong connection or bond between the root guru and the student but the student will offer and practise what he or she can. Some students learn more by simple acceptance; others learn more by asking questions. The role of the root guru is to bring you to know your own Buddha nature.

"For happiness, cherish others" - Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The Little Nyonya

My whole family including even niece and nephew were tightly glued to the local drama "The Little Nyonya" every weekday night. Alas it is the exciting finale tomorrow. I knew from Day One the show started this would be a hit, especially a good breakthrough for Jeanette Aw, who played the lead, Ju Xiang and Yue Niang. And yes it became very popular indeed. An award for her is imminent now. "The Little Nyonya" is officially the most watched drama in the last 15 years.

I felt the success of this drama was due to a few factors:

1. The casting was excellent and the co-actors and co-actresses, both veterans and newcomers put up a splendid performance, with each character. They made the entire story came alive. Good teamwork.

2. The chemistry between Jeanette Aw and Qi Yuwu (as her screen lover) was fantastic, probably because they have been paired up a few times previously. The character for Yue Xiang seemed tailored made for Jeanette, the soft-spoken yet stubborn Nyonya, made women pity her and men want to protect her.

3. 90% of the characters were so bad that you love to hate them. And it made you stay glued to the screen every night, watching and cursing them. Good storyline.

4. The very focus on the Peranakans, a much unique group in Singapore with their unique background and culture. Who could forget the colloquials used, and the mouth-watering Peranakan dishes and their pantuns added a nostalgic touch, especially to the older generation.

5. It taught us, that it does not pay to be always nice and kind, ie. the plight of Yuzhu (played by Joanne Peh), she was so good-hearted but was betrayed, raped and tortured by her husband and who eventually turned mad.

6. I did not know the men from the past, were all mostly wimps or cunning fellows, except the heroes. I thought the men from that era were too busy making ends meet. Haha.

7. I must commend the actress who acted as the limping Ah Tao, a celibate ma-jie. She was unbelievably good as her portrayal as the maid servant and the audience loved her. She should get the Best Supporting Actress Award, if she can beat the others like Xiang Yun, Eelyn Kok and Cynthia Koh in this show. And I think she can.

8. The economy is bad now, most people stay at home rather than out (which means spending more money). So watching TV was a good way to entertain ourselves, especially good shows. Hence the popularity of this show. It came at the right timing. Another way to think of it is, it is a relief from our daily stress.

Good job.

And here is a pix of my aunt which I took a few years ago, posing as the Not-So-Little Nyonya. Kekeke.

09/09/09

8-9 years ago, I told a gal, if anyone asked her when she was getting married (to ward off kaypoh people), just tell them 09/09/09 ( I was half joking ). Because...

1. Then, it was a long time before 2009, she has plenty of time to decide who she wanted to marry. She and her beau have known each other for a decade now.

2. That date is once-in-a-lifetime unique day, and it has a nice meaning "9" means 九 in chinese and 九 sounds like 久, which means 长长久久 (eternal bliss).

3. My twin boy cousins were born on 09/09/99 so I suggested to her the next decade which will fall on 2009.

4. By 2009, she would be in her late 30s and would have had a successful career by then, so it is indeed time to tie the knot, although I would not have guessed then that she would have waited so long to do it.

And I am real elated that she is heeding my "advice" and she is indeed getting married on 09/09/09 this year. 朋友, 好久不见, 你还好吗？

I wish the love birds eternal bliss. :D

Magic flower

Niece got her mommy to buy this "Magic Flower" for her from a roadside stall. The hawker claimed this toy was near extinct as it was no longer in production and said this toy was from the older days. Funny, why didn't I see this toy before in the older days? It was a stick with many many layers of colourful paper. You can twist and turn and discover different shapes, different colours, different designs of "flowers". And the challenge is to get as many variations as possible.

Happy Birthday, Rich Friend!

Happy Birthday to Rich Friend!

May you enjoy more business, more good food, more successes, more funny moments, more love, and more of Muffy!

And less nua-ing!

Tenya

Was at City Hall to run an errand and went for lunch at the newly renovated food court. Some of the stalls have changed, as normally I would just order the Ban Mian soup.

Today I tried this Japanese stall, Tenya, selling everything tempura. It is the first tempura bar in a Singapore food court. I ordered their Set 2 rice set, as I was sort of craving for sticky rice. The set comes with a bowl of rice and 8 pieces of tempura - mushroom, scallop!, prawn, pumpkin (my favourite), zucchini, sweet potato, carrot, avocado - and a bowl of miso soup. Other variations come with salmon too. It costs about $6.20 per set which was quite worth it considering it has scallop and prawn, the pieces are big, and they were generous with tofu in their miso soup. The rice was sprinkled with their special sauce and the crisps from tempura batter.

The best thing is, if you prefer ala carte, they have a wide spread of many other items all laid out as well, for you to choose from if you do not fancy their standard sets. Each piece of veggie costs $0.60, and seafood costs $1.80 each. Another thing was, the tempura batter was not bad, which produced a good tempura. Not many food courts sell good Japanese tempura and always it is due to the flour used. So I thought this stall Tenya was worth the try - tempura with the standard of a restaurant at food court prices.

Happy anniversary to us, my friends!

These 2 friends I have known for more than 3 decades, since primary school days. From left to right, is Jasmine, Liyan and myself. This photo was taken when we were in Primary 3. Our form teacher then was Mrs Elsie Quahe, who was quite old and about to retire and she walked with a limp. Mrs Quahe was the teacher who started my interest in English, and from whom I started to excel in English. She was the kindest teacher I know, and we cried when she retired.

I always felt this photo is so apt for the phrase, "Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil". Hiak hiak hiak.

A new year, another year. So, Happy Anniversary to our friendship, Jas and Veg! May we have another 3 decades till we "lao kok kok". This song is dedicated to you gals and also to Joan, Jess and Mag. 友谊万岁!!

First day of 2009

How was your first day of 2009?

My mom's 2 close friends visited us today. One of them, Miss M, was a high-ranking police official in a "hot" department within the police force many years ago before she retired. Many in the police force, the underworld as well as criminals knew this formidable woman then. Now she is just a nice friendly lady who likes to give me advise. So today first day of 2009 I had distinguished visitors.

I also went to the Buddhist Lodge in Kim Yam Road, River Valley, to offer lights and flowers to Buddha. As usual, I offered flowers to the standing huge Amitabha Buddha outside the main hall and circumbulated 3 times around Him, and also passed the 18 arhats as well. Then I offered light to the huge Shakyamuni Buddha inside the main hall. After that I went up to the 4th floor roof top where the Four-Faced 1000-Arms Chenrezig (Guan Yin) was, and circumbulated around Guan Yin 3 times. This is my usual practise.

Then I had a bowl of udon at the basement where Mediya Supermarket was. The different stations there sell udon, curry rice, sushi, katsu don, respectively. I had the Katsu Udon today. Their udon is one of the better and cheaper ones I know. I remember last time, I would eat there whenever I attend lamas' teachings at a building nearby.

Strolled along the river and went to a shopping mall to get something. It was so crowded, a vast contrast to the streets outside which were pretty quiet today, post-Countdown. I quickly left the place. Was supposed to go to the nursery to get a plant and soil but decided to head home as it started raining heavily for a short while.

The whole day was quite peaceful and meaningful apart from the distressing call from sis before I reached the temple. She fumed and complained about nephew throwing tantrums again. I had to call the boy at home to find out what happened. Sis was scolding nephew, why was it I felt as if she was scolding me? So suay. To me, the issue was still manageable and it was a matter of discipline, not anger. Nevertheless, I sms her after that to say next time, please cool down before calling me. I hate to be at the receiving end of other people's nonsense and suffering the brunt of their angry moments, especially when it has nothing to do with me.

Other than that minor hiccup, we ended the evening popping sparkling juice and I was happy to see my Grandma who paid us an impromptu visit tonight. Last night we also "popped" red wine for countdown. All that started well ended well. I think the best advise I had today was what I saw on the temple grounds - 看破放下自在随缘念佛.

Let's hope this is a great start to 2009.

Grandma

On the first day of 2009, I would like to wish my 84-year-old Grandma very good health and may she continue to have good health, stay happy and free from any obstacles for many many years to come. For someone her age, my Grandma is still very active and she can walk faster than any of us younger folks. Despite her age, her daily routine includes going to the wet market, cleaning the house, washing clothes as well as cooking dinner. My Grandma has taken great care of her 11 children ever since her husband passed away when she was only 47. She is one admirable lady I respect very much.