Ji Mui Gathering at Doreen's

Many apologies for my long absense. I have not found the time to update my blog. I'm now back in Penang, so I hope that I can update my blog much more frequently. :)

Earlier in January we had a BBQ gathering at Doreen's home in Seremban. It was really GREAT to catch up with all my Ji Muis. A picture speaks a thousand words, so head down and see the story for yourself from the photos below. :P

Meaning of a Name

Ever wondered what your name means? Being an inquisitive person as always, I decided to look it up on the net. As it turns out Sandie is derived from the name Sandra which originates from the name Alexandra. Alexandra in the ancient Greek language means "protector of mankind". Cool right? To think I'm the protector of mankind. Hahaha, maybe in the spreading the sunshine/humour aspect? :P

I took the liberty to find out the meaning for some of my friends' names and listed them below:
Reese - Ardent, fiery (Welsh); Enthusiatic (English)
Doreen - Gift (English); Moody (Celtic); Blonde (French)
Sally - Princess (Hebrew & Israel)
Adeline - Noble & kind (French) Pleasant, of nobility (German)
Stephen - Crowned once, wreath (Greek)
Scott - Wanderer (Scottish); Of Scottish origin (English)
Simon - It is heard (Israel); Obedient, little hyena (Hebrew)
Dolores - Lady of sorrows (Latin-America)
Kevin - Handsome, beautiful (Irish); Gentle (Celtic)
Ann - Gracious (Hebrew & Israel); Merciful (English); Priceless (Irish);

If you are curious about the meaning of your name you can check it out from this site called Meaning-of-Names.com

Do you think a person's name affects a person's character? I think it does to some extend. But more often than not I believe that a person's character is formed based on their upbringing and the environment they are exposed to throughout their lives. Friends also influence you in a lot of ways, maybe sometimes you don't even realise it yourself.

Despite all the differences in our names and our personalities, the most important point is that we live our lives to the fullest so we will not have any regrets later on. Treasure your family and your friends, spend your precious time wisely and most of all thrive to bring happiness to others more than hurt others. I always believe that it is better to make more friends than enemies. :)

Steamboat! The Story of Pey Shen's 2008 Birthday Gathering

Venue: Pey Shen's House
Style: Steamboat

The "ji muis" met for a special early celebration of Pey Shen's birthday. All except Ms. Ng Siew Kheng lor. Yet proven again that it is so difficult to get a date that everyone can agree on. It was nevertheless very fun because we haven't met up with the whole bunch of us for some time. I am hoping that we will have more of this kind of gatherings. Maybe next time we'll have barbeque. :P

Look at our "leng lui" birthday girl!


















We all met up earlier at Giant near Kinrara for ingredient shopping. We ended up buying a lot of stuff, including lala, prawns, all kinds of balls, veggies... etc. Dinner started approximately at 7pm. We had to split into two sessions because apparently we overbought the ingredients. So we ate first, then rest and chat for about an hour and then resumed.

It was a fun and fulfilling gathering. One which is a definitely must once in a while. It was so great to catch up with everyone! In case if you are wondering how come there's no photos of us eating. Well, you'll have to wait for the photos from Doreen's camera. I forgot why I didn't take any photos of people eating. Must be caused I'm too busy eating. *grin*

Check out the photos:




























Cheshire's special fried onions!














We managed to capture a nice sunset. Doesn't it look as though there's a castle in front? :P














I think we took too much time posing that by the time this photo was taken, the sunset was nearly gone. (Note the unusually bright light behind.)

Sweet Potato Doughnuts?

While I was bunking over at Cheshire's home the other day, we made sweet potato doughnuts. It was thoroughly fun to make together. I think it goes to say that whatever you do, as long as you it together with close friends it will turn out to be extremely fun. It tastes quite good too.

Check out these great looking homemade sweetie yummies.















We got a bit carried away with our creativity as well. :P

Siew Kheng's Birthday Photos

Check out the photos for Siew Kheng's birthday gathering here

I just managed to upload it. :)

Nyonya food

Care for some scrumptious nyonya cuisine? While back in Penang one time, we managed to try out a Nyonya specialty restaurant called Mama's. We ordered a bunch of our all time favourite dishes. We ordered spring rolls which had crunchy popiah skin and a nice blend of veggies as filling. Very appertising indeed! Then we also had the infamous Joo Hoo Char. This dish requires a lot of hard work to do. All the ingredients are cut into really slim strips and then fried. Among the ingredients used are turnip, dried squid, carrots, mushroom, pork. This is one of my favourites Nyonya dishes. It was rather okay but I must say not the best that I've tasted. You see, I have been spoiled my mom's yummy home-made Joo Hoo Char so rarely can I find any others that can match up to it. :P

Also on our menu was Kang Kung fried with Sambal Belachan. It was quite good, with appropriate blend of sambal just to enhance the natural juiciness of the vegetable. We also had Too Tor T'ng (Pig's Stomach soup) which I find was a bit too pepper-ish to my liking. Somehow the pepper killed the natural sweetness of the soup, it was all covered up by the taste of pepper. Too bad ain't it? Also because my mom can really make killer Too Thor T'ng!

The curry fish head was alright. The curry is really nice but I don't really like the fish. But really this has more to do with my own preference. Generally I prefer fish with a smoother texture for the meat (eg. Pa Tin fish, which is really hard to get in Penang).

Then there was the Inchi Kebin (sorry, I'm not too sure how to spell it :P), some special seasoned fried chicken that traditionally comes with a few pieces of prawn keropok on top. This was really yummy!

On to the grand finale to the dinner, we had Bee Ko Moi (black glutinous rice dessert). Apparently this dessert is really popular, so much so that we had too pre-order before coming. Otherwise, it is pretty hard to get it because it usually runs out of stock quite fast. It was unusual in a sense that they put a lot of glutinous rice in it, so it looks really thick. And the best part? You can help yourself to the coconut milk, as much as you like. Which I normally take AS MUCH as I can! I think I would have enjoyed it a lot better if I wasn't so picky with texture. To me, it was a bit rough because they were too many glutinous rice. Wouldn't it be great if they grind all the glutinous rice into a paste instead? Ha ha ha!

Feast your eyes on these photos below:

BLEACH

My current craze is watching the Bleach anime series. I am so psyched to have discovered this amazing anime. It has a really cool perspective on Soul Reapers (or Grim Reapers). In this anime, they are known as Shinigami and each of them possess their own Zanpakutou (literally means Soul-cutting sword) which they use to send good spirits (Pluses) and dispel bad spirits (Hollows).

The story follows a high-school boy names Ichigo Kurosaki who was unwillingly turned into a substitute Shinigami, how he manages to juggle between protecting his identity from his friends and at the same time protecting the people he cares from Hollows and other baddies. It is so interesting to see how his character grows to adapt to the changes. Also, you'll get to find out more about his friends and rivals alike. Among my favourite characters are Ichigo, Rukia, Kon, Nel, Inoue, Ishida, Chad, Byakuya, Toushirou, Renji and many more. I enjoy watching Kon and Nel, they are both so entertaining and adorable!! Nel is so annoyingly cute!!! I'm not gonna tell you any spoilers so if I have managed to perk your interest, check Bleach out on any of those video communities. You can find those with the original Japanese voices and also the English dubbed version.

*Image courtesy from www.madman.com.au