Sunday, February 25, 2007

Tree for all Seasons

My hubby and I always make the most of things. *nods head*
We do not simply waste our hard earned money on unnecessary things for our house *nods head again*

Behold our first Christmas tree - classily adorned with traditional WHITE Christmas flowers (I do believe such a thing exists, if only for the sake of my blog. After all, if there's a WHITE Christmas, there ought to be White Christmas flowers too right?)




So being very wise in our decisions to spend our money, see what a little creativity got us in decorating our house for CNY....


Behold! OUR CNY tree!! I must say, we should be the very first people to lay claim on this innovative idea! Very soon, shopping malls would be copying OUR idea...
Just reuse the christmas trees, and adorn them classily with BRIGHT ORANGE mandarin oranges! Saves time on redecorating, saves money on decorations. Looks just as good hey?

:)

Thursday, February 22, 2007

CNY: Part III

- picture blog -

3rd day: Lunch @ Sg. Buloh (my maternal grandparents)



My little nephew all decked up in a traditional costume.




yo wassup!


This photo is for you to enjoy dad:



CNY: Part II

- picture blog -

Eve @ Bentong (Ed's dad's side)


Reunion dinner (the meatballs are delish! Being entertained by upcoming pop stars


In case you're wondering, that's my very own HOME-MADE hamper/basket to my hubby's grandmom. had lots of fun picking stuff to pack in - don't play play woh, got Eu Yan Sang flower mushrooms, Ginseng slices (aiyah, not noticeable in this pix), FERRERO ROCHER (gee, wonder if his grandmom will eat it hee hee), pineapple tarts, the must-have mandarin oranges AND nian-gao plus a bright red ribbon to make the basket look very CNY! had a field day taking pics of it. Difficult to get good lighting late in the evening.

A very significant point in me life -*nods heads*

1st day - uneventful

2nd day: Dinner @ Puchong (Hubby's mom's side)






woo hoo! fun part - our first year of giving ANG PAUs! everyone had to line up and 'feed' us with good wishes - heh heh. bring it on! Being on the giving side is more fun!

Part III comin up...

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

CNY



I'll bet every Chinese blogger is busy writing about Chinese New Year.

This is my first Chinese New Year as a married girl! Yup gotta go back to my hubby;s hometown. Psst! Good thing its just nearby so we can be there for the reunion dinner and come back right after. hehe!

Of course we got caught in the spirit of CNY, (I least I did) buying lots of cookies, shopping at hypermarkets to buy drinks (this is a good time to stock up on 100plus), mandarin oranges, Bak Kwa (dried pork), mushrooms. etc for my parents, in-laws and my grandma, wah! dont even want to know how much I spent!


Check out hypermarkets and all their stacks or rather towers of sweets and canned drinks!

carrefour's very own 'twin towers'


Coke must also compete - who's the tallest of them all?

fuiyoh! complete with a dragon too! even the malays are busy buying our honey mandarins :)

The rest are snapshots of the decos that i bought and the humongous load of cookies and snacks we stocked up on. Hopefully our frens will finish em all....

My really red and festive placemats complete with chopsticks and chopsticks holder. They really add a festive cheer to my dining table!




Check out the almond ones on the front right corner - they are delish! so buttery and yummy but they crumble too easily though... bought them from a fren's contact.. cost rm16.

None of us had much mood to work today... hey CNY is just around the corner! we had fun opening our dept hampers and having a lucky draw to divide the goods! haha.

GONG HEI FATT CHOY!

Saturday, February 10, 2007

The Lure of Shanghai

Waa ha ha, in case you think i'm gonna write about the delicious Shanghai Dim Sum or the vibrant city nightlife, you're absolutely WRONG.

I am going to write about what I always do when I go abroad - shopping! Yep. and Shanghai is a shopping haven for imitation goods heh heh!

Although i must admit i didnt intend to spend that much this time round. My last trip to Shanghai (in 2005 i think) really put a dent in my usually medium sized purse.

The imitation goods used to be found in this big open market - even the ang mohs are a plenty there buying 'Samsonite' luggage bags and 'Nike' goods. We found out that it shifted but no one really knew where to. When my colleague and i got there, we didnt waste ONE minute checking with the hotel staff, taxi drivers etc where all these wholesalers shifted to. We found out that its now located at Qi Pu. erm dun ask me what's that. My mandarin sucks.. though i did manage to pick up some pretty useful words to negotiate with *wink

So we spent 2 fruitful days (8.30-6pm!) covering Qi Pu. (its opens at 5.30am! and closes by 6.30pm) Its actually an area where there are lots of old shopping buildings about 5 storeys high.

ok

Don't get me started on the toilets! We had to abstain from drinking water throughout the day from fear of needing to use the totally G_R_O_S_S toilets. Do you know the girls toilets are made WITHOUT cubicle doors?!! i can see everyone squating there just like that! Some were even sms-ing while doing their 'business'!!! I headed straight to the one at the end so no one would be able to see me - BIG MISTAKE. The last one is where all the ^&**&)# goes to!!!! AWWKKGGDSSGHHHH!! because every cubicle (if you can call being separated by waist high cement walls that) is joined by this drain running across at the bottom and it all leads to a hole that's found at the end of the toilet! THAT"s where i went! oh no, but i really needed to go so i just mentally shut all my senses, did wat i needed to do and got out of there as soon as i could!
Good Grief, they dont have individual flushing systems! A 'cleaner' lady would just take a pail of water and flush from the front so all the *()#*% would go sailing towards the end of the toilet and fall into that one hole.

YUCKS!

anyhoo, sorry for that but i still can't believe i had to endure that. well, i guess for the sake of shopping.....

ok. Back to my shopping... You can find most of the popular international brands there: LV, Gucci, Coach, Samsonite, Lesportsac ermm.... Prada, Miumiu, Hugo Boss, and of course Rolex, etc the list goes on! woooo *drools*

haha. i bought a wallet for my dad and a leather 'Dunhill' belt for my hubby. The finishing is almost like the originals (yea, like i know haha).


Bought a pair of nice pearl earrings for my mum coz she lost one of the earrings from the last pair i bought her.

There's lots of cK underwear there as well! This time round the selection was even wider! yippee and the quality was really good! just like the ones i bought the last time i was in Shanghai. Shan't post the pics here anyway *wink.

AND here are I my treasures:

- a MUCH needed new COACH wallet



and a MUCH needed new shopping bag Miumiu! wooo see the beautiful leather... feels so luxurious too :)






too bad we didnt have enough cash for shoes :( i wanted badly to buy some chic knee high boots

:( :(