Give me love (2)…

(We’re halfway through our “commercial break”, folks…)

To continue from where we left off in my previous post, I must not forget to thank smallkucing‘s aunt – his father’s sister, once again for dropping by to meet me when I was in Auckland and giving me these…

We flew back from Auckland, New Zealand, at 1 something in the morning (NZ time) on the 21st of December, 2012 and arrived at KLIA at 7 something in the morning, Malaysian time…and Mandy, another so very dear friend of mine, insisted on dropping by at the airport hotel to see us even though it is so very far away…to take us for dinner here but that will be in another post sometime in the near future, hopefully. LOL!!! The way things are going, it certainly seems as if the NZ posts are never ever going to end.

Well. Mandy, being Mandy, certainly did not come empty handed…

She gave us this very lovely layer cake…

…and what I loved best about it was that it was not sweet at all – kind of sweet and savoury a bit with the very pleasant fragrance of spices, not too strong – just nice!

She also gave us this bread from the same bakery and the Sitiawan mee sua that she bought in Ipoh…

I loved the mee sua served dry, tossed with Bovril and everything else and I felt it was nicer than our own local Sibu ones.

However, when served with the Foochow-style chicken soup cooked with our traditional Foochow red wine…

…it paled in comparison – our own Sibu Foochow mee sua tastes very much nicer this way.

Then, there was MerySia too who had come home from her vacation to her home place in Medan, Indonesia and she went through the trouble of going out of her way to drop by my place just to give me all these that she had brought back to Sibu with her…

I felt somewhat embarrassed as I did not buy much in New Zealand – things are way too expensive there…and I couldn’t jolly well give her things that somebody else had given me…so all I could give in return were two miserable souvenir NZ key chains. As they say, it’s the thought that counts…so I hope you do not mind, Mery.

Next in line, I received these from Yee Ling…

…which arrived just in time for me to use to wipe away all my perspiration – flowing out like rain from every pore after I came from the nice cool weather in New Zealand to our hot, stuffy and humid conditions here. LOL!!!

She also sent me these separately via poslaju…

I think I will save them for Chinese New Year too…and she also enclosed this t-shirt…

…from this event that my good buddy, Huai BIn, was involved in. Of course, it is too small for me but it is just right for Melissa.

Last but not least, when I was in New Zealand, I received an sms from Jimmy (formerly based in Bintulu, now teaching at a premier school in Kuching) telling me that he had made some tempuyak (fermented durian) and would like to send me some…but I was not around then. So the other day, after we had come back to Sibu, he sent me a tub of his labour of love…

…and it was absolutely superlicious!!! Gosh!!! That was certainly a lot – 20 durians, at least…to make that amount.

It is so very sweet and nice of all of you,  Lay Soh, Mandy, MerySia, Yee Ling and Jimmy, and I do appreciate it all very much. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and may God bless you all always. Cheers!

(Now on with the show…)

Give me love (1)…

(We interrupt our regular programme for this very important message…)

I would like, at this point in time, to take a little time off again from my New Zealand posts to give due acknowledgement to some very lovely and special people and to express my appreciation and gratitude for their kindness and generosity over the Christmas and New Year festive season.

When I was in Wellington, I received an sms from Quay Po who was in a panic somewhat as she had sent me something via poslaju but to Sibu and I would not be around to receive the consignment. I told her it did not matter as usually they would hold it for sometime and if nobody came to collect, they would return it to sender. I got back to Sibu on the 22nd December, Saturday and was only able to collect the parcel on the 24th – they would only hold it for 14 days, it seems…so a few days more and the thing would have been sent back. Anyway, thank you once again, Quay Po, for the Christmas presents…

…and the lovely Christmas card…

Melissa liked the cute penguin…a lot!!!

And of course, I must thank my wonderful super-dearest of dearest friend and her family in New Zealand once again also for the birthday and Christmas presents they gave me, my missus and Melissa…

…and thank you so very very much for all the things you gave me to take home…

…including these two tins of pâté de foie gras…

Oooo…I love liver pâté  with crackers! Yum! Yum!

Thank you also for all the ham, bacon and sausages and everything…

I’ve been cooking them bit by bit for breakfast…

…and I am pretty sure that I have enough in my freezer to last for a long, long time!

I’m afraid I’ve finished the super yummy chocolate cake…

…but no worries! I still have the cookies and the fruit cake and I am saving them for Chinese New Year. If I’m not mistaken, fruit cakes with an ultra-high liquor content are like fine wine…and old people. The older they get, the better they become! Hehehehehehe!!!!

Well, folks! If you think that is all, I am afraid you’re all sadly mistaken for my friend also gave my missus boxes and boxes of spices…

…and this bottle of Vegemite to me as well…

She insists that the New Zealand-made one is a whole lot nicer than the Australian one which I have tried before and ended up throwing away the whole bottle…except for the bit that I tried and did not like. Well, I’ve yet to try this one but I did sample a bit earlier in New Zealand – it came with the daily morning breakfast packs at the apartment where we were staying in Wellington and I must say that I liked it very much. The chocolate’s for Melissa, mint-flavoured…and this is one…

…of the ten XXXXL t-shirts…

…that she got me from New York when she was there last year.

I am pretty sure there are some more somewhere – I think I saw a packet of iodised sea salt and the skin for those Vietnamese rolls, and shoes and slippers for Melissa too…but there are simply too many things to keep track of all of them. Seeing is believing, right, folks? We went with only 20 kg luggage between the three of us…and came home with the maximum allowance of 60 kg plus three hand-carried bags, totalling at least 20 kg altogether.

Thank you again my dear NZ friends for these and everything!

(TO BE CONTINUED…)