So something exciting is happening to my site!

It has moved to a new home at our own family domain set up by Phillip:

http://freemythots.kangglobal.com/

So freemythots.wordpress.com will no longer be updated but will remain accessible.

Thanks so much to all of you for visiting my site and reading my blogs.  I hope you would continue to do so at my new site. Very soon I’ll be updating it with new content. Please bookmark it in your web browser.

As soon as we arrived at the hotel, we were ushered into the foyer.  The moment we stepped into the foyer I felt lost.  It was as if we were transported back into time, like to the period between the 16th and 18th century.  Almost everyone was dressed up in fanciful garb and some with special head gear on too, except the few who perhaps were too shy to adorn themselves with such costumes.  I could see camera flashes going off here and there and some exclamations of “ho-ho, wah-wah, ha-ha” every now and then as we continued to walk into the big foyer.

As I had never been to Phillip’s company dinner, I didn’t know anyone there.  When I asked Phillip if he could recognise people he knew, I could see that he was trying hard to do so.  However, a few minutes later Phillip was able to identify his colleagues dressed up like Lawrence of Arabia, Captain Hook, Queen Elizabeth and Richard the Lion Heart.  Immediately, I whisked out my camera and asked to have some photos taken with them.  I was also happy to meet ‘Flintstone’, which is one of my favourite cartoon characters.  I have to confess I could not take my eyes off the brilliant stones and gems from the crown of the Queen.  Everyone looked magnificent except the very ordinary ones like us.  Well, if I were given the task to be the judge to select the best dressed costume for that night, I would give everyone who were dressed up the first price.

Well, the entertainment that night was great and fun.  The MC did a great job getting everyone excited and participating in the games.  There was a stand-up comedian – a ‘mat salleh’ – belting out his version of Malay, Chinese and Indian songs.

Before the night ended, I was tempted to ask the ‘Prince’ who was sitting besides Phillip, why he did not choose to be the King instead as there was no king there that night.

Before

After

Before

After

The end of the year 2009 is fast approaching.

Mentally, I am doing a countdown on the number of days left before I go to Australia to visit my son Edmund for his convocation.. To be exact, another 9 days.

As I would be away in the new year, I thought it would be good to brighten up the house with some new paintwork. With more time on my hands now I finally got down to do some refurbishing and repainting of some old furniture. At the very first look one would feel the urge to just throw these old furniture out. But, I for one, just love to give old furniture a new lease of life or should I say a second chance.

So I started painting the smallest item first as it would be the fastest to complete.  Armed with a small paint brush and a bottle of shellac I started to work on a small rotan chair in the car porch.  After dozens of quick strokes with the paint brush, I could see the old chair becoming new and coming to life.  Careful not to miss any part unpainted, I examined the chair carefully and turned it up side down to make sure.  After the first layer of shellac, I sun-dried the chair and did a second and then a third layer of shellac.  With the chair looking new, I could not wait to start on the table.

After four hours of work I could feel the chair and table smiling to me with their new coat of shiny shellac.  I wondered how old the chair and table were and that how may people had sat on or use them.  How many stories the chair and table  had heard and the comfort they had give?  These old furniture now have a new lease of life.

This reminds me about giving myself or others a second chance in things in our lives.

Zun was quite an expert at driving on KL roads.  While she effortlessly weaved in and out of the roads, and from the main trunk road to the side roads, I tried to make a mental note of the journey.  But with my bad sense of direction, I gave up after a few minutes.  On the way to the restaurant, Zun remarked that this new place we were going to was cheaper than the one they went the night before. She has done some research on the internet on the food and its charges are reasonable.

Within minutes we arrived at the restaurant located at a side road off Jalan Ampang, KL.  It was actually  a double story detached house converted to a restaurant.  By this time the place was already quite packed with customers.  At the entrance everyone had to take off their footwear and walked in on thickly carpeted flooring.  I also observed the thick colourful red canvas separating the smaller rooms on our way in.

We were shown to our table (that looked like a conference room table) in a room, which we had to ourselves.  After looking at the menu, Phillip and I could not decide what to order as all the dishes were foreign to us.  We thought we better leave the ordering to the experts – Haris and Zun – but no mutton for Phillip as he didn’t like the taste of this meat.  “Good, we can order a spring chicken for Phillip, it comes with some rice”, Harris suggested.  Finally, we had the Captain recommending the dishes to us.

Before long, we had these dishes: a plate of barbecue meats or Kebab, a plate of salad, a backed spring chicken with rice, a plate of unleavened bread, a plate of barbecued lamb . We also ordered a pot of piping hot minted tea, served along with our meal.  The dishes were all big helpings and everyone ate their fill.  The taste of baked chicken and roasted meat is different from those of the western or chinese cuisine.  We thoroughly enjoyed the chicken, rice, salad, barbecued meats and could hardly eat another bite after two and the half hours of eating.

We had good company with Haris cracking his jokes and everyone sprinkling a dash of life matters across the table.  We all went home filled and each family took home some packed meals of food that we did not finish as we do not believe in wasting them.  Zun and Harris finally sent us to Kelana Jaya LRT station where we had parked our car.  It was a good dinner with good company and we had a great time thanks to Haris and Zun.

Just wondering, what will we  would be exploring next.

Then the worst was when they entered my kitchen and started to play with my refrigerator magnets.  I was really pissed off by then and scolded them.  I didn’t care if their mother was watching or not.  I really wanted to give them a big smack if I could.  I figured that I would do their mother a big favour by disciplining her children.  I wonder why some parents allow their children to misbehave in other people’s homes.

When I related this incident to my daughter Esther, I told her that she and all her siblings were very well behaved.  They had never touched people’s stuff when visiting the homes of friends or relatives.  The reason – I strongly believe – is that as soon as they were born, I wrapped them in towels with their arms tucked in securely most of the time.  This continued until they were about two months old.  The Chinese folks believed that this practice was to prevent children from having ‘too many hands’ as they grow up. It would help them to have better control of their hands.  This was something I learned from my mother and mother-in-law and it seemed to have worked.

So whenever I see children misbehaving I would asked their mother if they had their hands were ‘bound’ when they were babies.  My personal survey proved that this ‘theory’ is about 99% correct.

This is indeed wisdom passed down from generation to generation.  Parents, if you are reading this, take heed of this.  Learn from your elders.  Your children will thank you for it.

Wawa is gentle and sensitive to scolding or discipline.  He would look at you at the corner of his eyes and give you a few pitiful blinks.  Wawa is very cute but if you are a stranger to him he would suddenly growl at you when you come nearer to him or try to touch him.  Very very few of our visitors managed to touch Wawa at the first encounter without his fierce growl. Although he is a male dog I think Wawa has more of female character than a male.  He seems girlish at times.

Roxy is just the opposite to Wawa.  He is very masculine and macho. He’s very friendly to anyone, implying that he will make a very guard dog. Roxy also loves the outdoors very much and dashes to the front door whenever he hears the door open. He would just be willingly be on the leash if you put it on him and waits at the gate for us to bring him out for a walk.  However he has a very soft spot. Though being macho, he has a thing for soft toys.  Recently we bought him a Mr.Bean doll and he loves it.  He plays with it in the bathroom (that’s where we put him to sleep at night), and when he is ready to go to bed he would take the doll with him to his basket.

It suddenly dawned upon Philip and me that after almost 30 years of being together, now there are only the two of us at home.  Our other three children are also overseas.  Phillip’s mom has gone to stay with his eldest brother Peter.  I  realised that we have the whole house to ourselves.  “Now we can eat when we are hungry and not eat at fixed time of the day”, I told Phillip.  “I can do all my hobbies like gardening, painting, handicrafts or blogging from dawn till dusk, when Philip is at work”, I told myself.  The only problem is, I think, there is a danger of forgetting to eat as I get very passionate about what I am doing and does not get hungry.  But I make sure that our two little boys (chihuahuas) have their meals at their set times.

It is a strange and good feeling to suddenly have more time on my hands..  Just this afternoon, we had our lunch (more like a first date after empty nest) in Old Town White Coffee Restaurant at Damansara Utama.  Looking around we saw some couples having their meals there.  A couple was using their laptop as there was free WiFi there.  It sure made us feel young again .  It is new phase of life that we are entering and we thank God for such a blessed life.  Others might call it ‘Empty Nest’ but I would rather call it ‘Happy Nest’ .

Tired of my telling him the same things over and over again, my husband Phillip called me ‘Astro’ the other day.  When I asked why, he said I was just like ASTRO (Malaysia’s satellite TV station) because it always repeats its programmes many times.  I don’t know if I should take it as a compliment or an insult being given this nickname.  Mind you, ASTRO is very informative and entertaining at the same time, despite being repetitive. Without it many people would be bored to death.   Therefore, I told myself it’s not bad to have that nickname after all as ASTRO’s tagline is “Making Your Life Richer”.

When one of my friend’s son heard about my new nickname, he has started calling me Aunty Astro.  To him I might be a walking encyclopedia.  Soon I have to charge for services rendered as ASTRO does it, I told Phillip.  All the work and meals provided would be charged, I reminded him jokingly.

I was very impressed by the way the lady chef making ‘la men’ or the  chinese mee with her hands.  She was very quick with her hands and using her fingers she could make fine strands of noodles in a minute or two.  From my chat with her, I learned that she has been in Malaysia for the past four years and basically doing the same thing – making noodles and chinese dumplings for this restaurant.  She has only a day off a week and would just rest at home.  Her working hours are long and tiring but she is cheerful and loves her job.

The other chef came all the way from Sibu, Sarawak.  After taking an intensive course of Chinese cuisine, he has been a cook for a number of years.  He too seems to be good and happy with his job.  His job is to stir-fry vegetable with mushroom and seafood on the spot for customers.  First he parboiled the vegetable in a big wok of boiling water before stir frying them with the other ingredients.  He handled the big wok or frying pan with ease (he is a big fellow with big hands). He flipped the wok as he stir-fried the vegetables. Well he used a big scoop to stir fry and not a spatula like I do.  I told myself that I have to practise on my small wok since I have small hands.

Finally both the chefs told me that their mothers got them hooked to cooking!! Now they are earning a good pay and enjoying their job.  The best part I think is the satisfaction of seeing their customers tucking in and enjoying and their cooked food. I sure enjoyed the vegetables though I did not try the noodles – they looked delicious – because I was too full by then. I could hardly take a bite.

Thank you chefs for a job well done.

All the top and best restaurants that I had been too have men as chefs.  Is it because men are better cooks than women?  Are men better in handling mass production of food and are in control when working under tons of pressure – to produce the best quality food consistently?  Are men more focussed than women in culinary arts? Are men better managers than women ?

I would really appreciate visitors’ feedback to these questions.  Thank you.