.....times of refreshing.....

One good thing about being at home during festive seasons was I get to enjoy home-cooked food by my mom. I seems to be eating non-stop since CNY eve till the day I leave Ipoh. Even though this year's CNY was a bit quiet, the best thing I look forward to is the simple but delicious dishes prepared by my mom. Eating out was quite stressful as I gotta 'compete' with others for seats and the food were not as nice as before. The eateries just quickly prepared the food and served while the counters were happily collecting money from the mark up prices. There was this morning where I had dim sum with my family and parents and we gotta stand to wait for the seats for almost 30 mins, while the dim sum standards deteriorated.

I only spent three days in Ipoh and though it can be boring at times, it's not too bad where at least I can drive around up north to take a break as well as spent some time with my parents. Btw, here's some simple dishes prepared by my mom during dinners.

Big prawns ... after salivating by STP's post on tiger prawns, I finally can have some.. :P

Assorted of mushrooms and baby abalones

Mushrooms with vegetables

Yee Sang - take away from a nearby restaurant

Chicken

Oh yeah .... I need to run again after a week break to shed off the extra calories and diet a bit. After all, its the Lent season. :)

To most of us, the CNY seems over although the festival has just reaches its mid-point of the 15 day celebration. Yes, I am back for work after a short holiday in Ipoh. This year's CNY was kinda quiet as my brothers were not back, thus, we had a simple reunion dinner at home. It was nice to have a steamboat on an unusual rainy CNY eve's evening.

Nothing fancy ... just some abalone, sotong, prawns, tofu, fish ball, squids, liver...etc.

I was out most of the time and I was also surprised that Ipoh was not that jam compared to previous years. I guess it's most likely due to the short school holidays and most folks rather don't want to travel. Coming home was a breeze but going back to JB was terrible. I was stuck in a 6 hours plus jam starting from Seremban.

Well, I took some pixs around Ipoh. Let the pictures do the 'blogging'.

Below and above, shopping at Yee Hup Confectionary in Gunung Rapat for delicacies.

Having lunch at the famous Old Town Kopitiam

The char kway teow ... sadly, the standard diminished , probably due to the bulk orders from the crowded patrons.

The Kopi ice still good.

Freshly baked egg tarts. The filling was thick and hot!Nice !!

Fried Carrot cake ...the food that I love since I was a kid but sadly this one really cannot make it. I didn't finish it.

Shopping next door for exotic produce and notice these ... snakes gall bladders.

Dried star fishes...

I drove around looking for wall mural paintings but only found some ...

 

Above and below, the busy stretch of streets which was turned into a pasar malam.  A street of taugeh chicken eateries starting from Lou Wong.

Got some cute delicacies

oh... I love this one... the 'tok tok' malt candies. It's been awhile since I had it.

Have a good week and drive safely if you are planning a journey.

It's the time of the year again and I like to wish you abundance in the Year of the Ram!! May your wishes and financial dreams come true and just prosper and prosper!! HUAT AH!!:)


I also wish you good health, good luck and happiness throughout the year! May only the good things showered on you!! Enjoy your holidays!! :)

I guess most of the folks have started their CNY holidays and started travelling on the roads. Me too, I was already on leave and will set to travel this week. CNY this year will be slightly quiet as two of my brothers can't make it for home due to work commitments. Thus, it's only my family and my sister's family with my parents but then, I am sure I will enjoyed the trip as I still have friends back home. It's also almost one year since I went back home, thus I will have a lot of places to go as well as makan. hahaha...

Btw, to those who travel, do note the following for a safe journey -

- Ensure your car has been serviced and in tip top condition
- Have good etiquette on the roads and follow the law. Yes, follow the law which means drive within the speed limit, signal, courtesy to others users, no tailgating, no take over from the left, no driving on the emergency lane, don't speak on the mobile while driving ...etc. For the family sake, reach home safely.
- Rest well
- Feel good and have a good meal before driving
- Play some CNY songs to lift up the mood
- Rest if you must at R&R
- Pray before you start your journey for a safe and smooth driving
- Defensive driving
- Stay alert
- Have a kopi :)

hahaha..that's all I can think of... just drive safely. Since my kids still need to go to school on Monday, my weekend is as per normal except that I don't have to wake up early for work on Monday. And, same makan habit too! I was at Tea Garden on a Sunday after fetching my kid from school and decided to have something appetising.

My favourite char kway teow

And Kopi ice ... this was great for a hot day! Hope the pix don't looks weird.

Happy Holidays folk and drive safely !

1. Not a good day for me yesterday as I dropped my key poach in the bus. It only contains some coins which I don't mind losing but without the keys, it was very inconvenient. I checked with the 'lost and found' section of the bus interchange but they didn't collect any key poach, except other keys. Then, after a badminton session in town at night, I waited almost for an hour for cabs in Little India and really got furious as all the cabs reluctant to take me citing they were going for dinner. These were lies as they preferred to fetch customers nearby in order to earn more. I thought of filing complaints against these errant cabs as they cannot choose their destinations. I ended up taking a bus home.

2. The CNY holidays are around the corner and today is the last day of work for me before I go for a week break to balik kampung. I am looking forward to the break but then, it has been a tough week and I guess I may have to bring my notebook home to work. Work is really piling up!! Anyway, glad it's weekend and I can wind down a bit.

3. Been consistently running especially in the morning. Woke up around 7am and did various distance of runs in 5KM, 6.5KM, 8KM and 10KM runs at different routes.  I am actually trying to train for a half marathon and go for it in the second half of the year and it seems very tough, though I managed to complete 10KM. I will see how it goes but for sure, running really requires discipline. hahha... Good thing is I have clocked almost 30KM weekly nowadays, which is my best so far.

4. I am back for badminton and am in my company's team for the annual Public Service tournament. Anyway, this year I will be playing as a reserve since I am not match fit after a layoff from my injury. Had a good warm up session with the folks yesterday before the first match, which we narrowly lost 1-2. This is the yearly badminton tournament I participated and it was fun!

5. Since it was cooling and breezy in the south lately, my family and I decided to have steamboat for dinner. It was quite comforting with hot soup and ingredients in the cool evenings.

The ingredients for 3 adults and 2 small kids

Side order - thin bacon slices

Noodles

Side order -My favourite mushrooms

Side order - Small fried fish

Adding the ingredients in ....

Have a good weekend and happy last minute shopping!:)

I was thinking of what to blog but thanks to Rose 's post on her Beautiful Sunday, maybe I should blogged about my pleasant Sunday too! It didn't started well as I failed to fulfil my promise of waking up early at 5am plus to accompany my wife to send my kid to school at 6.30am. My wife said she tried to wake me up but I was still snoring .... hahaha... Anyway, later, the whole family fetch the kid back from school with me on the wheels and walking over to pick him up. We went to KSL City for lunch as well as did some CNY shopping. Again, I really find it ridiculous to have Sunday as a working or rather schooling day where the malls were so crowded and it really don't look like a working day!!

With my niece who joined me from Singapore, we really had a good time shopping at the crowded KSL City mall. I didn't get any clothes though the ladies and kids did, but I got myself an affordable bottle belt or pouch for my running. I remember during my last run, I really had problems of where to place my stuffs like shirt to change after a run and wallet. In the end, I gotta carried a light backpack to run.

A variety of pouches at the Direct sport mega shop

My convenient pouch

With this pouch, I can put in my MRT card, some notes and probably a very light t-shirt to change. And it only cost me RM59, quite a good buy compared to those which I checked before.

I went for a run later in the evening and though I am kinda tired after hours of shopping, I struggled to finish a 6.5KM run in the breezy evening. It was great as I am sticking to my training plan for half marathon. Will be running more this week before breaking for CNY.

Earlier of the day, I had a braised beef noodles and  calamansi drink at Taiwan Recipe in KSL City. The drink was refreshing with salted plum and passion fruit added into it. The beef noodles also not bad, though the portion is slightly small.

I always love plum + calamansi drink

OK la... been a while since I had braised beef noodles !!

It's a pleasant Sunday ! :)

Well, I really had a busy week and when I'm back home each evening, though I wanted to update my blog but my mind goes blank. Thus, I ended up winding down reading the feeds on Facebook, twitter, commenting on blog posts and watching Youtube clips. Good thing is I still manage to exercise as well as gobbled up nice food which I am sure the calories intake is more than the calories I burnt earlier. LOL ... Anyway, after a workout this evening and when I was buying a can of 100 plus at the vending machine, suddenly I saw someone looking at me closely!!

Somebody watching you ...boy!!

Then, I realised it was actually a cardboard figure of an uncle encouraging us to play table-tennis. hahaha... Though I was not shocked or scared by it, on one look, I really thought someone standing near to me and staring at me!! And , speaking of these cardboard figures, there was this policeman everywhere in Singapore.


And, well, I even saw folks posting selfie with this 'mata'. hahaha.. Initially , when they put this figure up, I also thought there was a police around when I was far away, till I look closely. I also remember when I was driving at the North South highway, those PLUS dummies which auto-wave the flag also looks so real from afar. :)

Oh...btw, few day ago, I was at Gary Kim Restaurant and since I was feeling quite full, I decided to order 'maggi' mee.... a chicken soup noodles. Surprisingly ,it was nice but then, I guess all 'maggi' or 'nissin' mee are nice. :)

Chicken Soup noodles with some fried chicken chunks in it. A little spicy.

And, my cup of HK cafe to wind up

Have a good weekend, folks!

Looking down from third level

Another shot ...

The main makeshift stage ... I guess there will be some performances there, in weeks to come.

My yummy lunch!

Have a good week!