Photohunt: Spicy

After two or three generations in Malaysia and Singapore, Chinese people like me like spicy food so much that we don't have appetite if the food is not spicy/chilli hot.

I found from a Romanian friend L that she eats chilli as though it is a salad. She even beat me. The New Zealanders just stare at us. They say," You can say it is not spicy."

On Fridays, we have "munchies" at school, we are rostered to bring morning tea, could be sweet, could be savory.

Some one brought a platter with meat, cheese, snacks and these yellow chilli -capsicum cross. L took one, and demonstrated how to eat it. Just pop it in your mouth and bite a piece off. I took one, and did the same. As I said, it is is a cross, it isn't hot, until Pong!!!. Well, I am ex Malaysian Chinese, I can handle that.

But nobody else did. After morning tea, these two were left over. I took them home. Yesterday, I cooked some thin Chinese rice noodles with the very expensive dried thin prawns/shrimps that my girlfriend Lynn gave to me. I seldom use them because they are very expensive.

A week earlier, a facebook friend posted his noodle dish with this. So I thought I will do it too, before the dry prawns get mouldy.

I decorated the noodles with the spicy chilli-capsicum and spicy Thai pickled cherry tomato likealike chillis. Martin Yan would be pleased I used Napa cabbage too.

Bon appétit Sandi, may be I will invite myself to be your guest chef in your place.





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photohunt: Drop

March 3rd * Drop

When the air pressure DROPS, we have strong wind and heavy rain. We have a weather bomb. I was caught in a sudden gust of wind and rain. My umbrella fell backwards.

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The Saturday PhotoHunt" Fluffy

My friend C made this beautiful, light and fluffy birthday cake for a mutual friend. She gave him a surprised birthday party. She wanted to make him a man's cake, so she could not use flowers. She used fresh fruits, cherries, kiwi fruit, black berries, peaches, pears and mangoes.

We told her to use footballs or rugby balls.





The Saturday PhotoHunt : The PhotoHunt theme for the week is 'Fluffy'.
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photohunt: Near

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I must say the bikes are parked too near to each other. I won't like to own of of them when I try to get out. I might just cause a domino effect and make all of them drop down,.

photohunt:almost black Miner's lamp

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Last november, a mine explosion killed 29 miners in Pike River, in Greymouth New Zealand. It was almost as black as this photo.

A lamp like this would be handy in earthquake struck Christchurch where thhey didn't have power.

Photo Hunt: Canada Day

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Photohunt for this week is open. I take it to mean I can post anything I like.

Today 1st July is Canada Day. I wish all my Canadian friends a Happy Day. A Special greeting to Barry and Linda.

This the coat of arms of Windsor University. I was there in 1975-77. Canada was the first country I lived away from home.

Photohunt: Bubbles

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This post is a follow up of the Watery Wednesday photo of the ducks swimming in the creek.
These bubbles are a bad sign of a dying creek. The creek is polluted and people are warned not to get into the water. Idiots dump all sort of rubbish and choke up the water. Once, there was even a shopping trolley.

The poor ducks, they will continue to swim because it is their nature to swim. In some extreme cases, they die. Hopefully , this won't happen to these ducks.

Photohunt: Apr 24: Addiction

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Apr 24: Addiction

I drink a few cups of coffee a day.

Usually at work and at home, I drink instant coffee from grandules and white coffee mate and one teaspoon of sugar. The water engineer likes my coffee.

If I am at a coffee bar, I like to treat myself with a cup of cappuccino made by a barista. The coffee comes in a paper cup which is not agreeable to my "green" mind. That is why I don't patron this place a lot.

At the gas station where I fill my gas, if you buy $50 worth of gas, for a dollar, you get your choice of coffee. So I always patronise this gas staion.

Sometimes coffee come made in a plunger.

My niece took me to the posh Palazzo Versace Hotel on the Gold Coast for a luxurious evening. The cappuccino that came in a dainty cup and saucer. I miss the times when my girlfriends in Singapore went for afternoon High Tea at the Shangila Hotel. I pretended to be a rich Tai-tai or socialite.

I guess you can say I have a coffee addiction.

PhotoHunt 185: Bags

The water engineer went to Beijing when he was an associate professor for a conference. He came home with these bags for me. The small bag has good memories, I took it to my Dad's 81st birthday while I danced away while clutching it tightly. Some one had given my Dad a big cash gift via me, and Dad told me to hold it for him.

This Japanese silk make up bag holds the testimony that it doesn't take much to make friends.

Sad to say, my girls have not inherited the genes of her mum and grand ma, and great grand ma. They are not interested in sewing or knitting. This must have been very hard for G to make during her Home Economics class. She gave it to me and I keep it to keep all my costume jewellery and beads.

A Korean student gave me this silk cell phone holder before she went home.

Auckland University is one of the universities that moulded my thoughts.
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All these bags are given to me. Each with a special story.

The Japanese make up bag holds much sentimental value. It was given to me about thirty years ago by a visiting Plastic surgeon from Japan. We played impromptu tour guide to her and her two children. She was very touched and showered me with many Japanese gifts.

Photohunt: Sports: Samoa Cricket:Kirikiti

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In the wake of the Samoa Tsunami Tragedy, I honour all those who died and those who lost their friends and relatives.

I was very curious about this game Kirikiti which looks like a cross between baseball and cricket. I went closer, and the players were very happy for me to take their photos. I ask my Samoan students. They say it is very popular and they play here in uckland as church groups. They wear their lavalava,when they play. Both men and women wear their lavalava akin to the Thai and Malaysian sarongs. Only they wear them shorter.

For this week's photohunt, what an appropriate sports it is, Kirikiti to feature on National day of mourning in Samoa.

photohunt: Words

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These words are in Chinese. It says, everyday is a good day, every year is a good year. A very auspicious and positive tablet to hang on the wall and start the day.

Photohunt: Electric

Dotted along the road, these green transformer reduce the voltage of electricity that comes to your house. Like this one, they are often subjected to graffiti.



This is a sub station, and there are many warning signs. Click the photo to read the signs on the door.



One has to be an idiot not to heed these signs.



My electric rice cooker, to the Asians who eat rice, rice, and more rice, like my Chinaman water engineer, this is indeed the best thing since sliced bread. All I need to do to put the rice, add the water and press the button. Now I can spend minimal time in the kitchen and sit at my computer blogging. In the past, I had to be around to wait till the water boils, and then turn it low. I am not going to tell you how many times I burnt my rice.



This is another life saver, the battery charger for my batteries of my camera and my cell phone. How often are you about to snap a very good photo or in the middle of an important call when your battery goes flat?



This is an electric chandelier in my house. It comes with the house and visitors laugh at how the water engineer has done a fusion of the new and old. He had fixed modern energy saving light bulbs.

September 12: Electric
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It is amazing how dependent we are on electricity. Today in my house, if there is a power cut, I can't do anything. Certainly I can't sit at my computer and post photos to you.

It's not always like this, in my mum's home, she cooked with either wood or gas. She hand washed her laundry. In my grand dad's house, there was absolutely no electricity.We used hurricane lamps and small kerosene lamps. We went to bed early.

Photohunt: Orange

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These photos were taken during my July holidays. You may like to guess where I went.

There was a big Chinese temple, and the colour of the roof was golden orange. In fact all the trimmings from the fence to the windows are orange.

This fruit is called rambutan. It has a hairy exterior which you tear apart, and eat the juicy flesh inside. There is an oval stone. Scientists have done wonders, in the old times, the flesh stuck to the stone. Now, the good ones, thanks to the magic of grafting, the fruity lfesh comes apart. In Malay, rambut means hair. No prize for guessing why the fruit is called rambutan.

Have a second look, this is not America, the name bas sekolah gives the game away.

The photos were taken in Malaysia, but they could well be in Singapore, Indonesia or Brunei.

Photohunt: Ripples

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This looks like some one has a giant wand and stirred up the clouds causing the clouds to be ripples going round and round. In some Science exhibits, they have a similar plane where you can drop a coin and it will either go straight down the hole, or it will swirl round and round to everyone's delight.

Photohunt: Artificial

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August 15: Artificial.


This is a wooden bird. It is a door knocker, given to the water engineer by his friend. As it is a gift, we do not like the weather to ruin the poor little bird.

Photohunt: Low

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From the top of the sand dune, you have to go down real low to the low lying river below. It's about six stories down. The water engineer likes the challenge and we go there often at Bethels. I can manage going down only twice, because when you climb up, for every three steps you make, you drop two.

Photohunt: Entertainment

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This is real entertainment, three natives from Borneo in loin clothes and parangs aka machete doing a traditional Chinese lion dance.

At the Royal Mulu Resort, on Sunday evening, the dancers wowed us with the dances of all the racial groups of Sarawak. Meanwhile the diners tuck in a scrumptious buffet dinner included the BAKU fern.

Photohunt: Rocks

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We traveled up the river by long boats powered by outboard engines. At certain places, it was too shallow, so the boat man had to use poles.

These giant rocks were sometimes a little too close for comfort, when there is a gap of ten feet for the boat to pass through.

Photohunt:Garbage

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I was visiting Singapore and saw this human powered rubbish removal vehicle along the side of Orchard Road at CKTang and Merriot Hotel. Ka Pai and thumbs up fro saving the world.

PhotoHunt 167: creamy

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This photo will bring lots of chuckles when my sister Elizabeth and I are in our eighties. Elizabeth and her husband were given a surprise and got "shipped off" to Down Under by her daughter J and our siblings. It was going to be a holiday they would never forget.

It was already autumn, and we had unusually cold weather. I was suffering from a flu, and my doctor told me not to eat cold things.

New Zealand is a dairy country and our ice creams are very very creamy. When our Uncle D offered to treat us with these yummy icecream, I resisted the temptation. I was also being a Mother hen to Elizabeth though she is older than me. I admonished her for eating the yummy ice cream. Everyone in the party were slurping the creamy icecream, except for me.

The photo shows her hand wondering which flavour to choose. She was spoilt for choice. There were "101" flavours.

By the way, yesterday, at morning tea munchies in school, some one brought upmarket ice cream. Smack in the middle of a bitterly cold winter, I helped myself to some icecream. Elizabeth is going to LOL when she reads this post.