Saturday, December 20, 2008

冬至 / Winter Solstice Festival - Mission Accomplished!

Tomorrow (Sunday) will be 冬至 (dong1 zhi4)/ Winter Solstice Festival. According to wikipedia, it means "The Extreme of Winter" when the sunshine is the weakest and the daylight is the shortest. This is one of the most important festivals celebrated by the Chinese, marked by the making and eating of 汤圆 (tang1 yuan2).


汤圆 or balls of glutinuous rice flour (tepung beras pulut) symbolizes 'reunion'. Tang Yuan may be plain or stuffed; the soup sweet or savoury (salty) - which usually differs from household to household according to their clan (Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, etc..)
My mission : To make special 汤圆 this year.
So, we made Tang Yuan this morning as Mom needs some to pray at the altar early tomorrow morning. This year its more special, as I decided to try a new recipe. Instead of stuffing the glutinous rice balls with palm sugar (gula melaka), we used some custard+corn cream as the filling.
That's why u can see that the Tang Yuan are a bit yellow in colour, because of the corn stuffing. Otherwise, they look like fishballs..hahaha..

For the soup, we use gula melaka, brown sugar & ginger. And not forgetting, the screwpine leaves (daun pandan) should be tied into a knot, and put into the soup once the water+sugar+ginger are boiled, i.e. mendidih (NOT cook together with sugar, etc). This is to get the maximum aroma from the screwpine leaves.



Hehehe.. misssion accomplished! =)










Thursday, December 18, 2008

Excellent Photo Printing Services!

Yup, yup..my 50pcs of 4R photos have arrived at my door this morning. =) So happy..

Thanks to EOE Online Photo Printing Services..For your info, I have participated in the EOE Online Blogger's Review Program, and managed to make it into the list..I'm the last one..No. 50...hehe..and as a 'reward', EOE printed 50pcs of 4R pictures for me Free of Charge!

Hehe... the photos are printed on very high quality paper. And all 50 photos are all placed inside the photo albums, also provided by EOE! Excellent service by EOE.. !!


I will definitely place another order to print pictures soon :) Only RM0.30 for each 4R photo, delivered to your doorstep at a minimal fee. If you order more than RM35, the delivery will be free!

Another good news~ !!They have extended the Blogger's Review Program, and another 100 lucky bloggers who review for EOE will get a chance to win a camera + 50pcs 4R pictures FOC!

Be quick, guys!!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

My Latest Craze : Atashin'chi (我们这一家)

Hehe..currently I'm a little bit crazy about an anime called Atashin'chi which literally means 'my home' or 'my family'. Its called <我们这一家> in Chinese, currently airing on 8TV 4.00pm Monday to Wednesday. =)

This anime is an animated sitcom (episode-based cartoon) which evolves around the daily experiences of a family consisting of four members, namely the Father (花老爷/老爸),Mother (known as 花太太/老妈), Elder sister (橘子) & Younger brother (柚子). I'm currently watching the Mandarin version on TV. The Japanese/Cantonese version is also available on Youtube.


The storyline of all the episodes are really interesting, focussing on the conducts & behaviours of the family members. It is very realistic, and somehow I felt that it is very true indeed. Another point which is really funny is the way the Mother speaks (Hokkein + Mandarin) which makes me laugh. Even my mom loves this show :)


It is highly recommended!


Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The meaning of 'LIFE'

My blog is entitled 'Life Is But A Dream'..When I searched for the meaning of 'Life' using Wordweb 5.5, there are 14 definitions given. Here goes :

1. A characteristic state or mode of living

"social life"; "city life"; "real life"

2. The experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities

"she could no longer cope with the complexities of life"

3. The course of existence of an individual; the actions and events that occur in living

"he hoped for a new life in England"

4. The condition of living or the state of being alive

"life depends on many chemical and physical processes"

5. The period during which something is functional (as between birth and death)

"the battery had a short life"

6. The period between birth and the present time

"I have known him all his life"

7. The period from the present until death

"he appointed himself emperor for life"

8. A living person

"his heroism saved a life"

9. Animation and energy in action or expression

"it was a heavy play and the actors tried in vain to give life to it"

10. Living things collectively

"the oceans are teeming with life"

11. The organic phenomenon that distinguishes living organisms from nonliving ones

"there is no life on the moon"

12. An account of the series of events making up a person's life

13. A motive for living

"pottery was his life"

14. A prison term lasting as long as the prisoner lives

"he got life for killing the guard"

I think the 'life' that I refer to in my blog is more relevant to Definition No. 1, 2 ,3, and 12 =)

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Song : 奉献 ('feng xian'/dedicate)

長路奉獻給遠方 玫瑰奉獻給愛情
我拿什麼奉獻給你 我的愛人

雲奉獻給草場 江河奉獻給海洋
我拿什麼奉獻給你 我的朋友

我拿什麼奉獻給你 我不停地問 不停地找 不停地想...

白鴿奉獻給藍天 星光奉獻給長夜
我拿什麼奉獻給你 我的小孩

雨季奉獻給大地 歲月奉獻給季節
我拿什麼奉獻給你 我的爹娘

我拿什麼奉獻給你我不停地問 不停地找 不停地想

白雲奉獻給藍天 星光奉獻給黑夜我拿什麼奉獻給你 我的愛人

love this song.. :) feel very touched each time i listen to this song

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Of Online Photo Printing & Digital Cameras...

Ever heard about online photo printing?

Before the digital cameras became a necessity, all the pictures taken with the ‘old style cameras’ (film - Kodak, Konica, Fujifilm, etc) were developed and the negatives were returned to us, just in case we want to develop more of it in the future. Remember the brown colour square boxes wrapped in plastic sheets? I still have these at home..
We siblings have our own photo albums, labelled with our names. Family pictures will be placed in the album labelled "Family". Photos of our trip to Australia will be labelled "Australia", thanks to Mom!

Those were the days..With the development of digital cameras (ours is Olympus µ720 SW), all the pictures that we took on vacations, family outings, etc were normally saved into the computer. Due to the lack of time and our usual busy schedule, I seldom print my pictures anymore. There was once when my computer broke down due to viruses, I realized it’s too late to save my pictures. But luckily, some of the pictures were copied into some CD’s and I managed to get them back.

After this incident I realized that I should not risk losing any of these precious memories anymore, especially those sweet moments in USMKK with my friends. I just found out about the “eoe online printing services” recently. With this service, I can print my pictures with only a click on my mouse. *wink*wink*

It only cost me RM 0.30 to print each picture of 4R, while a 5R photo only costs me RM0.50 each during this promotion period. It is much cheaper compared to any other photo developing services in any shops I can find in my hometown. (This is true, the cheapest I can get was RM 0.50 for one 4R picture provided I print more than 10 pcs, and this was like a few months back). With the economic condition now, I don’t think you can get anything cheaper than "eoe online printing services".

Plus, these pictures are then delivered to your doorstep for a minimal fee! (Overseas included). If you order more than RM35.00 worth of pictures, the delivery will be free, totally FOC! What’s more, there are no additional charges for this awesome service..hehehe.. =)

The procedures are simple:
1. Upload the photos you want to print onto the main site.
2. Select the payment option.
3. The photos will be sent to you within 3-4days time if you are staying in peninsular Malaysia.

Cool rite?? Why not try it now? hehehe… =)


Guys, I know some of you really wanted to buy a digital camera of your own. Dont fret, PTPTN/JPA money is on its way =P and be quick, the Christmas sale for eoe Online is until 31st Dec 08 only~
Try logging on to the page and check out the latest camera models. It provides professional description, as well as the price for digital cameras. What's best, if you have a few options in mind, you can actually select 5 models at a time and eoe Online will give u a detailed comparison (like mega pixels, optical/digital zoom, internal memory, weight, price, etc) of each model... Thus, you can wisely select your choice and purchase it on eoe online! ! =)

It also offers gadgets like video cameras, mp3/mp4 players, photo frames and camera accessories like memory card, batteries, etc etc...)

Excellent service with just a click away!! =) Bravo, bravo!

Looks like its time to get another digital cam, as lil' sis will be going to US to further her studies next year. She'll likely needs one to bring it ober there. Lets get dad to shop on eoe Online, as he's the one who's gonna use his credit card. hehehe... =P