CNY Decorations in the Office

Chinese New Year mood is officially ON! 

This year we bought ready-made decorations to save time. All of them are sponsored by YT. 

 

Except for one big 春 wording on the glass wall hand-made by Elaine using red packets. 

Hope these decorations will boost up the mood and cheer up everybody in the office. 

Wrapping paper from RM2 shop

There is a boom of RM2 shops mushrooming around Perak. I like to check out the place from time to time for good bargain. Sometime you may find things that are really worth the 2 ringgit but sometime, it could be more expensive than buying elsewhere. 

This wrapping paper was bought from the RM2 shop nearby Ipoh Parade. They came in 3 pieces. One pink, one blue and one gold. If you use the other side of the wrapping paper, it's silver color. So you get 4 colors with RM2. Not bad huh?

I've used it to wrap some gifts during last year Christmas. Aren't they classy and expensive? Haha..

Chest of Drawers

Looking at my chest of drawers, I feel really fortunate to have engaged with a trustworthy contractor who has done a great carpentry job and at a reasonable price too. I liked a white color chest of drawers from IKEA. It has exactly the size I wanted. But to get that, I need to travel about 3hrs to Kuala Lumpur as Ipoh does not have IKEA and then, carry it back to IPOH and assemble it myself....and it's not cheap too. With the addition cost from the travel, that's just too troublesome and too much effort. 

IKEA Birkeland Chest of 6 Drawers with size 109x52x112cm (WxDxL) at RM1090 (£200)

It's a beauty, isn't it? But too bad..It's out of my reach...

Some other chest of drawers I found on the web that I liked

Hubby and I tried to search for a suitable one in our local furniture stores but none suits my requirements. They were either not the right size or the color does not match our room's color or they were too expensive. In the end, we asked our kitchen cabinet contractor, Hisham, whether he could spare some time and fabricate one including installation within a week as we wanted to have it before the wedding. (This happened last year dec 2013 and after all other renovation jobs were done)

I drew a sketch of the chest of drawers I would like to have and consulted Hisham. Consultation with him was a brisk. Everything I asked for can be done. Since I wanted big drawers of different sizes, he suggested to use a better quality drawer slide to hold the heavy drawer. I'm ok to pay extra, as long as the drawers are stable and last me at least 10-15 years. (so greedy)

So, after waiting for 1-2 weeks, the chest of drawers are completed. It is fixed permanently to the wall. The color material also matches with our wardrobe and dressing table. Very nicely made! It cost me RM750 but I have everything I wanted for this chest of drawers. Size was 110cm Width x 110cm Height x 52.5cm Depth. Drawers size from top to bottom: 20cm, 20cm, 25cm, 30cm

Top drawers: Hubby's and toiletries; 2nd drawer: mine; 3rd drawer: Hubby's shorts and Ts; bottom drawer: Towels

Tittle Tattle Houzz

Pssstt...... Let's have a cup of coffee and a chat at Tittle Tattle Houzz. The newly opened cafe (actually not so new now cuz this post was kept in the draft folder for 2 months already!) is family operated and it's located in Bandar Baru Medan Ipoh. Situated opposite "Aberdeen Cafe", the place has ample parking space during the weekends. But it's only opened from 11am till 5pm, so make plans to go early. Otherwise, the best dessert will be sold out! 

The owner of this cafe is a genius in art. She made all these wooden decorations and glass bulbs for the plants at the entrance of the cafe.

All the interior designs are done by her too. You will notice she loves butterflies! They are all over the walls. :) Even the air-conditioner is decorated. First time to see this in a cafe. Brilliant idea! The walls are also decorated with newspapers comics! 

My sister loves this chair. She posed for me to show that this chair is so comfortable for reading and have a sip of coffee. :D

See the girl in action? She's the owner of this cafe. She's busy preparing our drinks. *wink* The menu is on the wall. You can also view the menu from a tablet /ipad in front of the register. 

Now, may I present you the delicacies of this cafe? I love the tiramisu so much! It's the best dessert here. Selling like hot cakes! If you are late, you won't get to taste it. What I love about this cafe is they put a lot of thoughts in ensuring the food & drinks are at the best quality. The cold drinks are served with ice cubes that won't melt and glass that won't have water condensation at the external wall! This way, the cold drinks will always have the same taste without ice melting and watering the flavour and the glass / table will stay dry throughout the customer visit. So cool ideas! 

The address and contact number of the cafe :-

Notice the button on the business card? :-)

World Cup 2014

One of the cafes we frequented for lunch have flags of all the countries who made it to the World Cup 2014 displayed in their cafe. We were told that the owner of the cafe bought the flags online. He must be an avid football fan. He even supplied football jerseys to his waiters and waitresses. I saw him with football attire today. Should have taken a photo of him with his Brazil colors jersey. 

I'm not a big fan. But I support Germany! Go, go, go, Germany!! =D

Side Shields for Glasses

I've been searching for side shields from all our PPE suppliers, but none has this item in their list of products. It seems like it is not a common item in our local laboratories or workplaces. Safety goggles are very common but our workers complain of headache, dizziness, pain at the ears, discomfort, etc after wearing the goggles for hours. 

Some are short-sighted and need prescription glasses. We allow them to wear their prescription glasses as safety goggles as it is better than without wearing any glasses for eye protection. However, a safety goggles is still a better eye protection equipment. Someone recommended us to use side shields with our prescription glasses. 

I found some quite suitable side shields but they are actually quite costly to import from the US. It is because we are buying a small amount and the shipping cost is too expensive. If anyone of you know of a source, do recommend. Thank you! =)

1. From Tasco, USA, which cost USD2.70/pair. 

2. From Northern Safety, USA, which cost USD1.08/pair. 

3. From Amazon, USA. Price is USD4.00/pair. This is so expensive!

4. This is a more flexible version of side shield looking at the design. It can be worn for any type of prescription glasses! Selling at USD0.79-0.90/pair, seems like a good bargain.. if there's a distributor in Malaysia or nearby neighbors, it will be great. From Northern Safety, USA. 

2014 - year of the Horse

2014 is the year of the Horse according to Chinese zodiac. I received a couple of greetings from friends showing the horse in different designs. Nowadays, we don't usually receive cards via the slow mail or even via email. Many send their greetings via SMS and mostly through "Whatsapp" and posting at FB, which is the trend in this generation. Here is a collection of greetings I received from friends. 

This year is my first year of NOT receiving angpaos (red packets), means I have to give out angpaos! Lol.. The reason is that I'm married just last Dec and according to Chinese tradition, those who are married will need to give to the singles, especially children. Some said for newly married couple, they should give double packets to signify double joy. I'm not sure when and where this tradition started and whether it is a must to follow, so I only followed partially. ;-P Anyone can shed some lights here? 

Adventure with BBQ cake

It was a lovely Saturday morning and perfect day for baking cake. I've already planned the baking session with mom as 'sifu' the day before. The cake was for a CNY gathering on that night. Everything went well from weighing the ingredients, cutting the peaches & plums, melting the butter and mixing the ingredients together. Not long after the tin of mixture (not yet become a cake) was placed in the oven, disasters kept coming! First, the oven went 'pop!!' and before I knew it, mom was shouting, "The oven exploded! Your cake, your cake!". I was washing my hands in the wash room when the explosion happened. Not sure what happened to the oven though... and before we checked the oven, we quickly save the cake first. 

Everybody started to think of solutions. (everybody here include mom, me, my sister and an aunt) We tried calling the nearest aunty to our house, but she has no oven. Tried another aunty, but she's out in town. We must cook the cake as soon as possible, otherwise the mixture with all the fruits inside will sink and I can't imagine what will happen to the cake! I was so nervous! 

Mom was quick in thinking of a solution. She suggested using a wok to cook it. At first, I thought she meant steaming the cake which is absolutely no good for a crumble cake. But actually, she just meant heating the cake in a hot covered wok. I took this photo as fast as possible and cover the wok with a lid. ;D But a few minutes in the wok.. gas went off! While changing to a new gas cylinder, we really wondered whether the cake can still survive or not.. lol

After 15 minutes of cooking the cake in the wok, the temperature still did not rise to the desired temperature. It stayed at about 130C, but we required 175C. And the crumble was melting slightly. Not sure who came up with the idea of using the BBQ grill. We were brain-storming of whether we should cut the cake smaller and bake the cake in the oven toaster, and someone suggested grilling the cake. :D But we couldn't start up the grill! I thought that's the end of the cake... but glad that the BBQ grill was able to start-up after a few more attempts. hahahaha..

Checking the cake in the BBQ grill

Anyway, the cake was a success though it was a bit burnt at the bottom from the fire of the BBQ grill. But glad that everybody enjoyed the cake and the humour behind the cake baking adventure. ;D

Cooling down the cake after BBQ

Taste yummy! The crumble, the peaches and plums all came out OK after moving from oven to wok and to BBQ grill

Random post

* 酸角糕 = Acid horn. Can't stop smiling when I found the English translation of this China product.  ;D It's actually Asam Jawa or Tamarind. 

* J is now "legally" married with Matt. They signed the paper on 4.1.13. If you read the year first, it will be 13.1.4 and in cantonese, it sounds like 一生一世, which means everlasting. Saw their photo in newspaper the day after their ROM. However, as it's Chinese tradition to have the groom with his entourage to "fetch" the bride on the actual wedding day + having tea ceremony + wedding banquet , they are still not "officially" married yet.. (Ya, Chinese tradition is a bit complicated..) and the actual day will be in Dec. I'm so looking forward to that day. ;D

slightly blur cuz I took the picture from the newspaper

* Did not use gloves for an analysis the other day and my fingers became so dry and lost its sensitiveness. Thought it will be a fast analysis and I won't touch any chemicals. Wearing gloves are sometimes quite troublesome when handling things like opening bottle insert or peeling labels or holding tiny things. But yeah.. i learned my lesson. No more bare hands when handling chemicals especially toxic chemicals like chloroform. Oops.. 

* Visit a colleague's new born baby. Cute, tiny little girl.. ;D

* Was at All Inn Dessert some time ago with a group of friends. Didn't manage to post review on time. Anyway, we had a good chat but they don't have the normal types of '糖水' (cantonese for sweet soup) like 花生糊 (peanut paste soup), 紅豆沙 (red bean paste soup) or 黑糯米粥 (sweet black glutinous rice soup). I was expecting those but probably they are sold out or they don't have it at all. Can't remember whether they have it in the menu. Those in their menu are too fancy for me. Haha.. just not dare to try la! To be safe, I ordered "Dates, Aloe Vera & Longan" dessert which was slightly too sweet. Well..it's not too bad and not too expensive. It's actually a nice place for a quiet, chill out time with a few close buddies. "wink"

CNY decorations

Finally! The decorations are ready! ;D 

The firecrackers really took us some time to combine together. They just didn't want to stay at their positions and kept messing around. We later  found an easy way to stitch them together with the all-purpose cellophane tape. Added a crane in the centre of the lantern. It also took us some time to hang it as it was not easy to reach the ceiling with only a stainless steel stool.

Close-up of the lantern with fire crackers

After hung up onto the ceiling

A bigger view of the decoration

More lanterns were made later and hung on the ceilings.

This lantern has three stars (by KP) and a smaller lantern at the bottom (by SC)

Took me quite awhile to stitch this together. There are one little crane in each of the lantern and two fishes at the bottom

Decor on the wall

Now, you can really feel the festive mood swinging in. Hope this will liven up the working environment and reduce some work stress. ;) Thank you all for the contributions.. I hope this activity helps to build up team spirit among fellow co-workers too and instil cheerfulness in everybody who's working in the office. ;P

Preparation for Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is around the corner. Have you start preparing for the festive season or are you not in the mood yet? ;P

Our office is already getting ready with the decorations to boost the mood. It seems that most of us were still sleepy and couldn't really concentrate at 8 o'clock in the morning (probably because everybody else does not need to work today since it's a public holiday - Thaipusam). We decided to do a bit of art work and decorate our office for the coming CNY. Well..not everybody was sleepy, some were already working diligently.. lol. Well, we were also contributing in some ways too.. it's a good team building activity too! But of course, the difficult part was left to be done after office hour. >.<

So here are some decorations that are still not finished yet. They will be hung up the ceilings tomorrow. 

Lanterns I made

Crane by Coco and ribbons

Small little fans and fishes contributed by YT, SC and Coco.
The stacks of cylinders will be made into fire crackers (by YT)

This is my idea.. but YT helped hung them up ;P Looked more like a wedding than CNY decor..hahaha..

 Below were how our office looked like last year CNY.

Big "福" on the glass window. 

Three big lanterns along the office. 

Wall decoration by YT

Life of Pi

Thinking of which title to use for my post.. "Life of Pi" or my first experience at Aeon Station 18 TGV cinema? Maybe both? But maybe "Life of Pi" is better since it is the story that kept me wanting to know more about the director, the story and actually, wanting to read the novel. 

Cousin and aunt wanted to watch this movie. Little did I know that it was showing at the cinema until they brought it up at the dinner table. They briefly told us about the story which tells of a young Indian man whom his family had a zoo in India. At some time, they had to leave India and transport the animals on a ship. But when they were travelling, they encountered a severe storm and only this young Indian man survive and had to live on the sea with a tiger after the ship wreck. 

It got me interested and wanted to watch the movie. But we didn't book tickets earlier and so, ended we had to watch a 3D show at Aeon Station 18 (the only cinema with reasonable seats). But it's all worth it, watching it in 3D. The scenes were so like "Avatar"... showing the life under the sea, whale, dolphins, and some magical island. Each scene is just too short to take it all in!

The most important thing of this story is that it brings you to think about God. His existence and His provision during time of needs. "Pi" started narrating his story to a writer in the beginning of the movie by telling him that the story that he's going to tell him may lead him to believe in God. 

It's an incredibly good and meaningful movie. And it will get you thinking. Yes, maybe I'll start reading the novel. ;)

Fly trap

Mom bought this fly trap sticky paper to catch the annoying flies which were disturbing our peaceful lunch and dinners. Caught a few but there are still some which are too smart to be caught flying around. We have to use the mosquito racket to kill these flies. But it's hard to catch them. Wonder where these flies came from..could be rubbish area in the neighbourhood that attract so much flies.

But never the less, this sticky paper helped us reduce the amount of flies flying around at our table when food is served. But look at the eggs that came out when the flies die...! Eeewwww! I circled the eggs in green.

If the flies lay eggs on your food, you will get food poisoning. Diarrhoea and vomit. So be careful when you see flies flying around your food.

Ramyun from BIG korean drama

Saw this ramyun selling at RM4.50 in Aeon supermarket. It looks so similar to the ramyun that Kang Kyung-Joon (Gong Yoo) likes in the drama. In the drama, he had the whole cabinet full with the same type of ramyun. I guess this is how advertorials are slot into drama... very common for korean dramas. Especially clothings, handphones, glasses, watches..etc. 

So... i bought one to try out. Yes, one only lah.. ;p 

Taste was ok lah.. not too great that I'll fall in love with it and buy a whole full cabinet. Well, I did purchase the ramyun after watching the drama..the ads in the drama did meet its objective. lol..