Dreaming for holidays @ Land Below the Wind, Kota Kinabalu!

It had been a very lazy Sunday afternoon... I have tonnes of chores to work on as usual on a weekend, but my mood has been swinging up and down. Been dreaming for holidays lately, ya.. I know I will soon have a short break holiday very soon. Before getting there, and with the very hot and humid days lately made me dreamed of highland breeze and underwater chill.

It might be a tourism promotion on-going at Sabah, specifically its capital Kota Kinabalu lately. Browsed through 2 articles at The Star Saturday's newspaper... all about the beauty nature at Kota Kinabalu, made me feel like planning my holidays back to my home-state again very soon. But my dream will not materialize until the end of this year, will see how... Unfortunately, I could not make it to my childhood friend's wedding this coming end-May, else I could have plan out something for my holidays.

First was the diving paradise at Tunku Abdul Rahman (TAR) marine park - http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2009/4/18/lifetravel/3687467&sec=lifetravel. Remembering my first trip ever to TAR marine park's one of the island, Mamutik during my visit last August 2008. Though I wasn't a diver at that time, I hope to return to the island as a diver very soon.

Secondly was the highland encounter of Sabah Tea near Mount Kinabalu. I have never been to the place before, I would believe it should be nice with the close to mother nature experience. I had been sicked of the commercial places at Peninsular Malaysia, i.e. Cameron highland. Wishing to enjoy a quiet breezy morning at the highland one day..... heee... enough of day dreaming again~! :P http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2009/4/18/lifetravel/3693891&sec=lifetravel

Here's some pic to share, all by myself from the Land Below the Wind.....

Pic taken @ Mamutik Island, TAR Park. Aug 2008.


Pic taken @ Mt Kinabalu park, Dec 2002.

World Vision Malaysia - Building a better world for Children

Some or many of us could have heard of World Vision organization in Malaysia. They had achieved very good responses with its publicity over the past few years.

We have a sponsored child at Kapur, Thailand. Her name is Suriya. Guess we had sponsored her since she was 10+ years old, and now she has turned 13... obviously a teenage girl now. I have been corresponding with her via snail mail (postal mail) these while, as the organization does not encourage us to get in contact with them directly. All postal mails have to go through their World Vision center in Thailand, before they distribute the package/mail to the children. In a way, that's good to protect the sponsor, as well as the children.

We should do our part as much as we can. I do hope she will grow up and be a very successful person one day. She could change her lifestyle one day with the support of us... indeed some Artists even have a few sponsor children all around the world. Though, they might be doing this as part of their celebrity promotion, if such act could lead to better life of the poverty children all around the world - why not? Some kids are so brilliant, but they are unfortunate to be borned in such condition of life, where no one would choosed to be. Give them a hope, you could see the glaring stars from their eyes, which lead them to a better future !

I forgot to snap pictures of all the gift I had sent her all these while... in fact I should as I could remember what I had given her and will not repeat the same gift next time round :P. Anyway, here's what I always get in return when she replied my letter - Beautiful stamps from Thailand !!

Gardening World - Lotus Root

Still remembering my older post, showing off my lotus flower at home.... I have been admiring them for quite some time.

Recently, due to the heavy and compact home for it has been overwhelmed, we decided to remove them out, planning to re-plant and re-pot them all over again.

Here's the end of its life story.... very compact Lotus root.

Earlier I could not identify its root till I chopped them horizontally, there's the root we normally have for Chinese soup, 莲藕汤.

Some recipe for reference : http://recipes.wikia.com/wiki/Lotus_root

DIY - Spagetti Carbonara

It's normally Fettuccine Carbonara ! But this time I had changed my recipe to Spagetti instead. Indeed I do see others doing the same.. and it tasted good. This was my first time trying on Prego's Carbonara sauce.

Indeed a good try.... my ingredient was simple.

• Ingredient : Spagetti, sliced ham, canned mushroom, 1 slice of cheese, olive oil, chopped garlic
• 
  
• Recipe:
• 1) Heat spaggetti on another pot.
• 2) Fried ham (I have 2 types of ham - fried and cooked)
• 3) Fried chopped garlic + mushroom + ham
• 4) Pour canned Prego's Carbonara, and add water... and a slice of cheese
• 5) Sieve spaggeti out, add olive oil, add parsley flakes
• 6) Serve Carbonara mix onto spaggeti... and here it goes.

Here are some good recipe sites, worth exploring. Especially for some one like me who likes a ONE-Dish Meals!!.

• http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes/one-dish-meal
• http://www.backofthebox.com/recipes/onedish.html
  

DIY - What's there for breakfast ?

One ever told me that she will not blog/write about others food, not to place free advertisement for others like most floggers doing today. Thus, my food blog has never been a favorite posts after all.. at least 2 has told me that :P. But still, I will continue writing even if it is not in favour... at least its for me to document and past time in blogging.

So, what's there here this time.... I had been keeping these picture for a while, its time for me to 'show-off' my self-cooked breakfast meal. At times when I am bored of outside commercial food for breakfast, I will start to cook. Here're some of the breakfast meals I had done so far... (forgot today's picture, but it looks about the same like this below).

Next is the Pancake meal! My sis will not love this, guess why? Coz since we were kids, our dad had stuffed us with this kind of pancake very often, at least once in a month's weekend? Well, for me I would still like it. Our serving was normally just with butter or honey, served hot will taste nicer.

In case one would like to try.. here's the recipe.

• Ingredient :
• Egg, Flour, Sugar (prefer white sugar), Water
• 
• 1) Sorry, I don't have the exact measurement for ingredient above, all based on my own judgement.
• 2) Beat egg + flour + sugar into cold water... make sure flour is all beaten up evenly.
• 3) Heat the pan.
• 4) Scoop a small cup and round them at the pan.
• 5) Flip over when it turns golden yellow.
• 6) Serve.

It's as easy as ABC, but it takes time to do it one by one.

The pancake picture reminds me of Paddington Pancake's servings. Kind of indulge into their dessert servings with mixed fruits and ice-creams... Been hearing it from a friend's recommendation ever since last year! Guess I am able to do the same like theirs too ;)

Next time mine will not be as plain for breakfast... will add egg, ham or even bacon !!!

Gardening World - Surprises @ my backyard

It has been a while since I last wrote about 'greenery' stuffs. My backyard is always a place for recycling, especially when there are extra unwanted greenery vegetables and fruits.. they will be 'dumped' to the plants' pot as recycle fertilizer. At times, seeded fruit or vegetable will grow by itself here.

First of all, here's what we call Ginger's Flower (姜花). I had the old Bentong ginger planted about a year ago... one day I was just wondering if it will bloom flower. Indeed ! Kind of an interesting and nice one.

Follow on, I found out my pineapple has bear fruit! Not the first time... It is sooooo cute, very tiny ya!

Lastly I found out another surprise. What's this plant? How's it compare to the following Blackmores Ginkgo Forte supplement's picture.

This is my first time seeing such plant... how it grew? Well.. it was me who dumped all of the old ginkgo bibola (commonly called 白果 or 银杏) as part of the recycling ferterlizing action to my Mulberry Plant. I wonder how long will it takes to grow like a tree and bear fruits.

Food - Thai Foods @ Tesco, Mutiara Damansara

It has been a lazy weekend for me, dull, undecided, indulge in my sleep most of the time. Even for blogging, I have no idea what should I blog this weekend. Nothing special and interesting... anyway, let's start with a 'so-so' food blog, nothing interesting but if you crave for mango-sticky-rice, you don't need to wait for any Thai Food fair or fly all the way to Bangkok.

You could get one served here... This particular stall locates within a bunch of other hawker stall outside Tesco premise which connects the way to The Curve shopping mall. Since I have no mood for any window shopping this weekend, rather wish to shop for groceries at hypermarket... here I went!

The stall sells all types of Thai food, all with the standard price of RM5.

Mango lover... here you go with this Mango sticky rice.


Yummy Tom Yum, the soup was so tasty till its shrimp was tasteless...