Home-Made....

(Warning! This entry contains non-halal graphic. Please view at your own discretion.)

Winter Solstice festival falls on 22nd of December last year. According to grandmum, this festival is celebrated in a larger and grander scale compared to Chinese new year at China because it marks the end of a year. But Chinese new year (also known as the spring festival) marks a new year, so why isn't it more important to usher in a new year? She knocked my question off by saying, "it's tradition, must follow."

One of the must-have during this festival is the coloured glutinous rice ball. The glutinous rice balls are made of flour but due to innovations, some have peanut and an assortment of fillings. I personally prefer the traditional plain one. I enjoyed making and eating the glutinous rice balls, especially the non-white ones because I dislike white colour.

The colourful dough.
I rolled them all. Nice?
Only get to eat them once a year. I like to soak them till they are soggy.


As I have mentioned earlier, Winter Solstice festival rings out the current year and since Chinese new year is just around the corner, granny decided to start preparing for it by making prawn crackers and try making roasted pork. The little elf here lent a hand.
The dough.
Sliced dough, have to dry them under the sun.
Yummy but oily prawn crackers.

Fatty, marinated meat.
Roasted pork.
Yummy!

Tzu Chi For World Peace

On Boxing day, mum asked me to accompany her to an event organised by Tzu Chi Merit Centre. Tzu Chi is a non-profit NGO originally started by a lady, Master Cheng Yen from Taiwan. The objective of this organisation is to help the needy irrespective of age, gender and skin colour.

The event my mum and I attended was a worldwide event where people, irrespective of race and skin colours gather at different places (Tzu Chi centres) to pray for world peace. I was not really keen to go because I am not oh-so-religious-and-holy. Anyway, being a filial daughter, I accompanied mum.

The gathering I went to was held at PISA (Penang International Sports Arena). There are 1,108 non-professionally-trained performers (but their performances are flawless). The turnout was overwhelming, the arena was full except for about four rows.

The lighting and sound systems were very good and I was pretty impressed by the various human formations. There were live testimonials of Tsunami survivors, Myanmar flood victims and many others. Majority of the crowd was tearing during this segment. Before the evening wraps up, all the lighting were switched off and the arena was pitch-black. Each performer, crew and audience lighted a candle in unison with one objective, to promote and practice world peace.

I did not regret one bit attending that event. It was not so religious after all, but more of creating awareness that there are many people suffering around us. We should be grateful for what we have and help the less fortunate whether in monetary or non-monetary form. And one thing for sure, Tzu Chi has been practising 1Malaysia, 1Nation, 1World a long time ago because they really do help people irrespective of race, religion and skin colour.

First Anniversary !

On Christmas day, Mich's Monologue turns one. It's nothing to shout about since it is only one miserable year old and it's not like I blog so often and hit 100 entries in a year. But still it contains all my 'bitterness, sweetness, sourness and even saltiness'. Plus, don't people always exaggerate on their one year anniversary celebration, be it wedding, birthday, first year courtship, first year in the same job, one year since you got your driving license, or bought a house or a pet. Anything!

For me, I am going to celebrate by changing from....
....this.....

...to this....

The Season of Giving and Receiving

When you see this picture, your first reaction will be "What?! It's already new year and you are just about to blog about Christmas? You are so out-dated!" Well, that's undeniable, I had been pretty busy for the last two weeks of year 2009 and am simply loving it.

Anyway, lets get back to Christmas. After all, this is an entry all about Christmas, the season to be jolly, the season of giving and receiving.

About a week before x'mas, I attended a christmas play. The plot is simple but meaningful. The most impressive part of the play are the props, they are all made of foams.



Although my family does not celebrate Christmas but since Malaysia is a multi-racial country, I joined in the fun during this season of giving and receiving. Certainly giving is more fun than receiving when you see the expressions on people's face the moment they open their presents.
Presents for my loved ones.
Assorted chocolates, perfect gift for me.
Limited edition chocolates. Is it so obvious that I am a chocolate lover?

On the day itself, I had lunch with my parents at Station 1 Cafe, the first franchise in Penang. The food are average but the drinks they serve are good.

Our drinks.
Mum had chicken chop with mushroom sauce.
Dad had black pepper chicken maryland.
I can't remember what's mine called.

A dear friend of mum gave my family :
A box which looks like a doughnut box....
But they actually contain cup cakes!
Really cute and too-pretty-to-eat cup cakes.
The cup cakes are chocolate flavoured, yummy!


I personally like snowman more than santa claus. Merry Christmas!

The 160 Hours

I am back after a one month plus hiatus. No more text books and exam stress, yay!

I took a ten days study leave from work to fully concentrate on my revision (well, actually more of last minute cramming of facts and figures). During this period, I did not devote myself to the text books 100%, I did lots of other stuff which I know I should not do since exam is just around the corner. (I certainly hope my boss doesn't read blogs and stumble upon my blog. He might give me a warning letter for cheating the company but hey, I really did sat for the exam).

Since I have ten days of study leave which is equivalent to 240 hours, minus 8 hours of sleep per day, I still have 160 hours to study. So this are the stuff I did during the very important (but I did not fully utilise) 160 hours :

1. Went to the market with granny (2 hours per day). The morning wet market is actually a very interesting place to visit. The bargaining, the crackling of jokes among the traders and the sight of mummies and wives selecting the freshest meat and vegetables to cook a hearty meal for their families kick start my day.
Gigantic jack fruit.
An array of fresh fish and I can't even name one.
A very cute shop that sells home-made soy sauce, chillies paste and pickles. It is the nicest and cleanest shop in the market.
Yummy peanut pancake.

2. Kitchen helper to mum (about an hour)
Some of the vegetables that I chop.

3. Book fair (Went there twice, spent approximately 3 hours each day). The advertisement claimed that it's the biggest book fair in the northern region of Malaysia and I was not disappointed at all.
All this for less than RM 50. What a great bargain.

4. Seafood dinner by the sea (3 hours for the hearty dinner with my family). Nice view, yummy food and reasonably priced. You can check out my previous entry 'Yummy Discovery' for more details on the restaurant.
Fishing boats.
Fishermen mending their fishing nets.

5. Hang out at the shopping mall (about 2 hours each on two separate occasions).
While I was taking this picture, a friendly Caucasian came to me and said ".....free Friday.....". I did not get what he said due to his heavy accent, so I just smiled and left. After much pondering, I figure out that he offered to snap a picture of me with the snow men.

6. Went to Gurney drive for my all-time favourite laksa (about 4 hours since we stroll there). After dinner, we noticed a huge crowd surrounding 'something'. It was a 'silver-man' (street performer). He is the first in Penang, therefore it's a novelty.


7. Accompany granny to the dentist (Waited for grandma's turn from 9am and finally at 10.30am, she was called into the clinic. Went home at 1pm. In total, 4 hours).
The washroom (considered very nice for a dental clinic).

All in, I have approximately 100 hours left to study, minus all the eating and bathing time. Well, luckily I manage to scrape through the exam. I rewarded myself with donuts after the exam.
Cute box.
Yummy but sinful donuts. Of course I did not finish all six by myself, that will be way too sinful.