Jar of hearts…

There are movies…and there are epic movies and there are  songs…and there are songs that take my breath away. Nope, that Titanic theme song is not one of those songs on my list – somehow, it brings to my mind images of a life-support machine. LOL!!!

But come to think of it, I have not heard a song that I really like for a long long time. It certainly does not help one bit that the teeny-boopers everywhere have gone crazy over kid with a pre-puberty voice…and have you listened to the lyrics of some of the songs lately?

There is one that goes, “Do you ever feel like a plastic bag?”  and another one says, “Ain’t about the cha-ching cha-ching, aint about the ba-bling ba-bling!” and don’t get me started on those Korean songs that young people seem to love to bits these days – I really wonder if they can understand a word they say.

One of the newer songs that I quite liked was “Just the way you are” – not the Billy Joel classic of the same name but a totally different song by Bruno Mars. However, it certainly did not sweep me off my feet and finally, when I was beginning to give up of ever hearing another great song, I found one – this one…

It certainly put me off when I read some of the comments on the video clip about her looks and her teeth. Good grief! Shouldn’t it all be about the talent and not the appearance? No wonder we’re getting all the songs these days that are not really worth a listen – I guess the artistes are all good-looking!

I love this original version best because of the emotion in the voice – the feel in the song, the hurt, the anger…that is missing in this cover version by that youtube sensation…

…even though I think he did pretty well, I must say and I do enjoy some of his songs like his medley of the old and the new “Just the way you are”, for instance.

Then, this particular song that I love is featured in Glee too…

…but out of the three, I still prefer the original. What about you?

Left & right…

I drove past this coffee shop the other day and I noticed that there was a new stall in front. So I decided to stop by to check it out. It turned out to be a Malay stall selling the usual stuff – nasi lemak, mee goreng, bakso…and even halal kampua noodles.

The Chinese stall where I had the kampua noodles that I thought were not really that great was still there – in the middle with this new stall to the left/in front and to the right/at the back, I spotted a familiar face – the old lady who was originally in this coffee shop long ago and then she moved to the one across the road and now she had come back to this one. If it’s of any interest to anybody, the one across the road, Peter’s Cafe, has closed down or moved elsewhere…and so has Courts Mammoth which used to be right next door.

That morning, I ordered the lady’s mee goreng istemewa (fried noodles special)…

…which came with a fried egg…

…and some masak hitam beef…

Well, it was still as nice as ever and the best part was that it was only RM3.50 a plate.

We have to pay RM3.00 at least for the Foochow fried noodles at the Chinese stalls/shops and most  of the time, all we would get would be some tiny bits of meat and spinach. Based on that consideration alone, I, for one, would prefer to come by this shop and enjoy this instead…for just  50 sen more. What about you?

Let the show begin…

I love musicals. So far, I’ve watched “Miss Saigon” at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London and “Grease” at the Dominion Theatre also in London. These are the old traditional type of theatres that would not fail to bring to mind Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera”…unlike when I went to see “Singing in the rain” at one of the more modern ones, the Pavillion in Plymouth, England – it just wasn’t the same.

The St James’ Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand is one such theatre…

…and Melissa had the opportunity last Saturday to go to this very grand place…

…to watch “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber”.

Here she was at the theatre that day…

She and her friend, Myra (who hails from Sabah), did not have lunch before the matinee so they decided to have some hot dogs…

…from this place…

Myra certainly seemed to enjoy hers a lot!

Om…nom…nom…nom!!! LOL!!!

I think Melissa bought the souvenir magazine from the stall…

…and as usually is the case at such shows, photography was not allowed and unlike the father, my girl is not the type to try and snap a picture or two. LOL!!!

After the show, the two girls went for dinner at a Chinese restaurant and Myra had this…

…while Melissa had this HUGE bowl of noodle soup…

That is to be expected as the portions of everything served in New Zealand are always very big.

The girls certainly enjoyed themselves and even though it was not the first time for Melissa as we had gone to see “Mamma Mia” at the very modern Esplanade in Singapore, this was definitely her first time at a theatre that was a lot more like what one would imagine it to be.

Fly me to the moon…

Well, actually I did not go to the moon – I only went to Apollo, the coffee shop located in the housing estate of the same name here in Sibu. LOL!!

My friend was telling me that the kampua noodles there were very nice…and when my niece came home for the Labour Day weekend recently, she made it a point to go there to eat, praising it to the skies. So, the other morning, I asked my missus to go out for breakfast and we made our way to that particular coffee shop.

She had the kampua noodles…

…but unfortunately, she had already tossed it before I was able to snap a picture of it.

I had the mee pok – the flat version of the kampua noodles…

…and I also ordered a plate of pian sip, the Sibu Foochow version of the Kuching kiaw or the wantan…

…and unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, my missus said that her plate of kampua noodles was more than enough for her so I had to finish that all by myself.

My verdict? It was all right but there are others that I prefer and I think they put a little bit too much msg for my liking. My missus did not feel it though…but she did agree with me on one thing – that the noodles at some other places are better.

Other than that, at RM2.50 per plate, it is more expensive than many other places…plus the kopi-o-peng (RM1.50) is also pricier than elsewhere and it’s not like it’s in the middle of town where they have to pay more for rental and what not. Tsk! Tsk!

Will I be dropping by this place again then? I guess not…

Give it a try…

I got this photograph from somebody’s album on Facebook but I can’t remember who now…

…and I’m sharing it with everybody here as it has happened to me before.

I can’t remember what I was buying then but the seller told me that it was 20 sen each and for RM2.00, I would get 10. I did not bother to make any mental calculations then and I just assumed that he was giving me some kind of special offer, encouraging me to buy RM2.00 so that I would get more. It was only when I got home that I realised that it was no cheaper than if I had bought, say, RM1.00 of the stuff. Tsk! Tsk!

Anyway, since we are on the topic of fish, my missus tried her hand at making otak-otak the other day…

For the uninitiated, otak-otak is some kind of fish paste delicacy mixed with all kinds of ingredients – shallots, chillies, lengkuas (galangal), serai (lemon grass) kunyit (tumeric) and the leaves…wrapped in some kind of coconut leaf and grilled over a charcoal fire.

Well, she used banana leaves instead and instead of wrapping it all up, she had the open-top style like the otak-otak at this cafe in Sibu. Besides, instead of grilling it over a charcoal fire, she baked it in the oven. Hence, in the end, there was a hard layer at the top…

…but other than that, I thought it tasted really great. I wouldn’t want to cook that myself though as it looked like it was so much work! No, thank you! LOL!!!

You needed me…

To all teachers and teachers-to-be…

I cried a tear; you wiped it dry
I was confused; you cleared my mind
I sold my soul; you bought it back for me
And helped me up and gave me dignity
Somehow, you needed me

You gave me strength to stand alone again
To face the world out on my own again
You put me high upon a pedestal
So high that I could almost see eternity
You needed me
You needed me

And I can’t believe it’s you
I can’t believe it’s true
I needed you and you were there
And I’d never leave
Why should I leave
I’d be a fool
when I’ve finally found someone who really cares

You held my hand when it was cold
When I was lost, you took me home
You gave me love when I was at the end
And turned my lies back into truth again
You even called me friend…

You needed me…

A VERY HAPPY TEACHERS’ DAY

Autumn rendezvous…

The falling leaves…
the autumn leaves of red and gold…

Well, it’s autumn in Wellington, New Zealand and the days are getting colder but at the Begonia House, the flowers are still blooming…

Aren’t they beautiful?

Melissa and her friends were invited there a week or so ago…

…for a barbecue…

They had a great time but unfortunately, it rained but all she needed to do once she got back to her apartment that evening was to have a nice, hot bath. No problem at all…

Well, the mere mention of autumn would bring to mind this sad but beautiful song by Francoise Hardy…

I hope you all like it. Have a great weekend, everyone.

Morning sun…

In yesterday’s post, I mentioned how the stalls at this coffee shop have all moved to the inner section of the premises probably because the outer section is exposed to the morning sun and it can get quite hot…

I also mentioned that I saw a couple of new stalls that were not there before and I tried the beef noodles that day. Well, I noticed that the other new stall had quite a lot to offer as well so I went back there again the very next day and had the shui jiao or prawn dumpling soup (RM5.00)…

When it  was served, I was shocked to see only FIVE shui jiao in the bowl – that would work out to RM1.00 each and the whole thing looked so plain and did not appear promising at all.

Well, I’m glad to tell you that truly, appearances can be deceptive as I found the soup very nice, full of flavour and very tasty indeed – just right…and the best part was it was in no way due to an overdose of monosodium glutamate (msg) as would often be the case.

The skin was soft and smooth and you can see the whole prawns/shrimps inside…

Unfortunately, I found the prawns/shrimps somewhat bland unlike fresh prawns where one would be able to taste the freshness and the fishy prawn taste.

Despite that, I enjoyed it a lot and it was a lot nicer than what I had here. Rest assured that I certainly would go back for more – but the next time, I think I would just order the meat ones; if I remember correctly, they’re only RM4.00 a bowl…

The day before…

The day before yesterday, I stopped by this coffee shop on my way to my parents’ house. I had not been there for quite a while and it seemed that they had shifted the stalls to the inner part of the shop. I suppose the other part would be exposed to the morning sun and they would not fancy being baked in the heat.

I found that there were a couple of new stalls now and I decided to give the beef noodles (RM4.50) a try…

It was not too bad but I thought the broth was a bit too diluted for me – I would prefer it to have a much stronger beef flavour.

And guess what I bought from my regular Malay food stall at Bandong! Sambal petai (stink beans)! My sister was telling me that they sell that but I told her that all this time I’ve been patronising the stall, I have never once seen sambal petai there. So I told her to buy some for me, should she happen to see them selling that at any time…and so she did. She got me RM2.00 of it and I took that home and refried it, adding my own prawns to it…

Oooo…that was heavenly and needless to say, we finished it all and licked the plate clean…

I hope none of my students went home that evening complaining about their English teacher’s bad breath! LOL!!! And you can bet that a visit to the washroom the following day would not fail to remind me what I had been up to the day before… Muahahahahaha!!!

This is my life…

My missus has retired and that means I can retire fully now…from the kitchen, that is! LOL!!!

When she was working, she might whip up some fast-to-cook dishes in the morning before she left for work like this steamed minced pork…

…or this ang chao chicken…

For the uninitiated, ang chao is the residue that one gets after making the traditional Foochow red wine.

Sometimes, she would fry meat – chicken or pork, in soy sauce with ginger, Bombay onions and potatoes…or on my way home from my parents’ place, I would buy some things from the shops or the stalls for the two of us for dinner. On Fridays, as I did not have any tuition lessons on for the day, I would cook dinner before she came home from work.

Now that she is no longer working, she is free to do the cooking in the morning while I go over to babysit my bedridden mum and I would come home for lunch…and now that she has a lot more time on her hands, she would be able to cook something more painstaking and elaborate like this baked chicken in banana leaf…

…that she had seen somebody cooking on television and decided to give it a try.

It was quite nice and so was her stuffed fried tau kwa (firm bean curd_ soup…

As you can see, she was extra generous with the meat unlike what we usually can get in the shops. Hehehehehe!!!

Wait a minute! Normally, when she was not home, I would have something very light and simple for lunch and enjoy a nice, good dinner with her in the evenings but now, I would be having three substantial meals in a day – breakfast, lunch and dinner. Oh me oh my! It certainly looks like I will have to loosen my belt again pretty soon. LOL!!!