Buzz!ng with Le Couple Toy

chanfamily

Your passing was expected, yet still it surprised the hell out of me.

For years I have been angry and frustrated that you just do not want to look after your health better, for your own sake or your wife’s sake or your children’s sake and even your grandchild’s sake. That you just let things be. That you just seem to regress into being a petulant child more and more often.

For years I have seen you show your tantrum to your wife whenever you don’t get what you want..again, acting like a petulant child.

For years I have seen you allow people to walk all over you and abusing your kindness and generosity. I am angry that you don’t fight back. That you don’t tell them to shove it up their ass.

But now that you are gone, I can’t even begin to express how much I miss you already. You have been so consistent in my life…always in the background, always watching, always observing, just not saying much..

I remember…

You used to bring us to the amusement park

You used to pick me up when I fall down (very often)

You used to have cartoons taped for us from Hong Kong…very precious cartoons that were not shown here…and how I used to brag about it to my classmates

You used to buy many Sanrio trinkets for me and sis from your trips that I would show off to my classmates in school (no one in my school had that luxury in those days)

You used to allow me to throw tantrums without scolding me…then I’d feel sorry and come apologize quietly

Now,

I wish I’d taken more photos with you

I wish I’d done more things with you

I wish I’d spent more time with you

But my biggest wish is that you are now at peace, no more worries, no more regrets and no more suffering.

Was watching a movie on Astro a couple night’s back and heard this line…

“Never choose the better guy. Always choose the guy that makes you better.” 

For some reason, this line made an impact. So much so that after few days, I still remember it. (friends that know me knows that I have horrible goldfish memory… :p) 

So. This quote is going into my book of wisdom that I will pass on to my daughter/god daughter/niece/friend’s daughter someday. 

xoxo

ToyGirl

crack on floor

 

Saw this picture whilst surfing the internet this morning. I love the motivation and inspiration that pictures like this gives. Reminds me to see the beauty in everything. That all problems can be solved. That a little crack is not the end of the world.

xoxo

ToyGirl

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We went to Perth recently for a long weekend at the end of September. It was a short 5 days trip and we experienced freezing cold from the day we arrived to hot and sunny days towards the end. But I still love the cold in Australia. When its not raining and the sun is out, it is a joy to just sit in the sun with our sunnies and sunblock on without breaking a sweat. 🙂

Our first day, Toyboy and I had work to attend to. So our holiday officially started on the second day. Also, the first night in Perth, we were all konked out by 10pm latest. Toyboy was the first to hit the sack at 8pm. This was all thanks to Air Asia’s flight! flight took off at 11.55pm. You would think with a 5 hours flight, we would all arrive fresh and rested. But NO. Not when its a budget airline and they NEED to conduct their food service followed by the duty free sales service. And they insist on waking you up just to ask if you need a cup of tea / coffee. 😦 So Toyboy and I arrived in Perth terribly exhausted and yet had to attend to work for a whole day. Thank goodness we both managed to last throughout the day. Can you imagine us nodding off during meeting and discussion??                        *totally embarrassed*

The second day everyone woke up fresh and ready to see more of Perth! yay! We took the ferry to Fremantle. The #1 thing on our to do list in Perth was to eat OYSTERS! Believe me…we ate oysters every chance we got!  Our host suggested ferry to Fremantle so we get to take in the scenes. I totally fell in love wit the beyooootiful skyline. So blue! and Clean!

I could just lie on the grass and stare up at the sky all day long.

At night we were joined by 2 more friends from Melbourne and we had a typical Aussie style barbecue.

Bar hopping at night.

This is our third day. On the way to Swan Valley for some wine tasting at Sandalford Winery. None of us were too impressed with the wine tasting menu, so didn’t buy anything. Plus, we were all just too hungry for food and a little hungover from the night before…me thinks :p

After the wine tasting, we went to Elmar’s in the Valley. Its a micro-brewery with a huge garden. They are famous for their pork knuckle like all pork and beer place. We sat and ate like proper adults at the tables on the patio but the sun and green grass lured us. Lucky us, the sun came out and we were able to enjoy the sun considering how cold it was the day before. We ordered desert and it was even served to us out on the lawn. I.Love.Picnics. ♥ 

Did I mention I love picnics? This is on our fourth day. The temperature was near 30C and with nothing planned, we went for a picnic at King’s Park. Oh…how I wish we can do that here in Msia. To be able to picnic without mosquitoes attacking from all corners. To be able to bring our dog for picnics. To be able to enjoy the clear blue sky.

Our last day we went to the Royal Perth Show. hehehe…so lucky that it coincided with our trip. I came back with a Hello Kitty loot bag. I knew I took a picture of it, but can’t find it anywhere. :p

Being the vain-pot that I am, I look at every mirror that I walk past. So its super cool that the apartment we stayed in, had mirrors as doors to the elevator. This is me doing a Karen Cheng pose. :p

Can’t wait to go back to Perth for another short holiday. Its great that its only 5 hours away. Lets hope we can do without the Air Asia flight next time *fingers crossed*

xoxo

ToyGirl

This year, ToyBoy decided to cook me a seafood feast! So we took half the day off on my birthday and went to our favourite grocer NSK Hypermarket at Kuchai Lama. NSK is simply the most amazing supermarket which warrants another post on its own.

Anyway, we came back with 2 mud crabs, 2 hairy crabs, 1 coral trout and half kilo of tiger prawns. All for ~ RM100 only!

Its hairy crab season now and ToyBoy absolutely loves it for the crab roe. Lucky for him, when we got to NSK, a fresh batch of hairy crabs just got delivered. I could practically see him jumping for joy like a 3 three old when given a lollipop…hehehe…

I on the other hand, am not a fan of hairy crab because I don’t eat crab roe. So the mud crabs are for me, whilst the hairy crabs are for him. So fair hor?

Unfortunately, my pictures did not do any justice to ToyBoy’s hardwork. The only way to save the pictures was to make it into a collage. 😦  Haigh…..if only can stop my hands from shaking….

Oh, and why bleeding love? That’s because throughout the course of preparing this meal, ToyBoy had his thumb clamped by the crab’s claw (when I wanted him to pose for a photo with the crab), his third finger cut when he toppled a bottle and it broke, and his feet cut (slightly) when he stepped on a piece of broken glass. My poor husband. Luckily the meal turned out superb, so all that effort, sweat and blood was not wasted.

Love you darling!!

xoxo

ToyGirl

Been feeling rather moody, grumpy and tired today. Although told ToyBoy I didn’t feel like cooking dinner, but suddenly just had a huge craving for chocolate and I remembered this recipe that I’ve used before. Its a very moist chocolate chip cupcake and I can’t remember where I found this recipe.

So whilst ToyBoy is cooking us dinner (boiled soup, stir fry cabbage and pan fry burger pattie), I made us chocolate cupcakes for dessert. Perfect team work isn’t it? :p I know, our dinner isn’t exactly gourmet, nor does it fit to any theme. We were walking around BIG at Publika, saw the beef patties and was really tempted. Then ToyBoy decided he wanted soup. So he got some vegetables and ikan bilis (dried anchovies) to make our chinese version of instant soup.

Here’s a shot of ToyBoy busy at work with our dinner.

 

My cravings satisfied. 🙂

xoxo

ToyGirl

This post is way overdue. Barkery Oven participated in SPCA’s World Animal Day on the 23rd September. Boy, was it tiring. But, at the same time fun. It was held at Desa Park City which is a dog friendly park.

This is my table all set up waiting for people to start arriving. Fortunately, didn’t have to wait long. 🙂

Naturally, we brought Miki there to mingle and make friends. However, be warned that Desa Park City park is full of fleas! Miki came home scratching non-stop and we found fleas on him. The poor thing. Luckily we stopped scratching after a shower.

This is our first customer. They bought our Cheesy Carrot Muffin.. 🙂

All in all, we had a great time, although I was really tired out from the baking. The crowd was very different from our previous event at Jaya One. They asked A LOT of questions. Perhaps one day I’ll compose all the questions and have the answered on my Barkery Oven page. hmm…definitely an idea worth thinking about coz almost everyone asked the same questions.

Next week, we’ll be at another event selling our treats. This time, it’ll be at White Box@Publika. Air conditioned. *yay*

xoxo

ToyGirl

This is a photo only post. Nothing much to write about. Played around with the effects on Picasa. Decided to make all the pictures have a 60’s feel. Retro. I like!! 🙂

We were in Hong Kong in August. Weather was perfect. Ate a lot. Had my fill of luncheon meat, egg and rice. Oh and egg tarts too!  yummmm….

Day out on the junk.

Clubbing at Lan Kwai Fong

The boys looking gaya. Again.

xoxo

ToyGirl

ToyBoy frequently travels outstation for work and he always buys some local delicacy back for me, such as tau sa peah from Butterworth (it tastes much much better than the popular Penang Island ones), or otak-otak from Muar, or freshly made fishball from Yong Peng. This trip, he came back with bananas so I made banana cake which is his absolute favourite cake.

I Googled for a recipe and found one by Amy Beh on kuali.com

This recipe allowed me to try whisking egg whites till stiff. Yah I know I know…you must be thinking what?? I like to bake but have never whisked egg whites??? :p

I chose to try this recipe out of the rest that Google generated mainly because the ingredients are what I have on hand. Some recipes call for dry milk powder and some called for condensed milk.

ToyBoy’s verdict: Yummy!

But honestly, the cake is just a little too crumbly. May be the egg whites not whisked till stiff enough. It actually became a bit runny after I’ve added it to the batter. Is it supposed to do that? Will definitely try this recipe again. Next time, I’ll use 1 1/2 cups of mashed bananas instead of 1 cup.

Supper time!!

xoxo

ToyGirl

 

 

 

This past week both ToyBoy and I have been having stomach flu / food poisoning. I vomited my guts out, whilst ToyBoy had a total bowel cleansing system. Not  Nice.  We spent the entire Tuesday sleeping. Along with the vomiting and diarrhea, we also had feverish chills that left us feeling really tired and sleepy. It took a lot of energy just to sit up and drink a bowl of soup. 😦

After we were done with the purging process, we both ended up with indigestion due to the excess amount of wind in our tummies. This makes eating very difficult. Foods that produces gas has to be avoided. Foods that is starchy is a huge No. Foods that ‘excites’ the stomach also cannot touch. In the end, it doesn’t leave us with much choices. Especially not for ToyBoy that had to travel outstation right after he was well enough.

Luckily for me, I was at home. So I made my usual remedy for stomach wind.

The ingredients consists of:

1. Old Ginger

2. Red Dates

3. Dried Longan

4. Goji berries

Slice the ginger. Soak red dates, dried longan and goji berries till slightly soft. Boil a pot of water. When the water is boiling, put all ingredients into the pot and let everything boil for a few minutes. After that, turn the heat down and let it simmer till the red dates are soft and the dried longan as ‘expanded’. I usually let it simmer for at least 20 minutes. Strain the mixture and drink. The ginger gives this drink a warming ‘heat’ that helps your tummy to expel wind. This drink is usually a confinement drink. I adapted the recipe and added goji berries. Oh, I also didn’t mention qty of eaach ingredient as I usually just put in a handful of each. If I want it more ‘heat’, I put more ginger, if I want it sweeter I’ll add more dried longan. Just play with it and go with your taste buds.

I usually drink this for a a day or two till my tummy doesn’t feel gassy and I stop burping after every meal. :p

Kanpei!!

xoxo

ToyGirl