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A visit to Straits Quay over the weekend proved fruitful … we met Helen Lee at the Flea market and her broods of colourful bears … Aside from selling the ready-made (sewn) bear of various sizes, Helen also sells DIY version where you can choose the coloured patterns you like in a complete kit of cotton fillings, threads & ribbons, buttons & of course the pre-sewn cotton fabrics..

All it takes is a little bit of time and voila .. one can complete a bear within a few short hours.. This particular bear was completely by Fan Lin within a couple of hours..She’s already asking for a second Bear

Helen also offers help to those who may need them to complete any bear.. beside an instructional sheet that comes with the kit, she also conducts Bear & Bunny workshop at her shop in Simpang Ampat. Details on  her facebook page – Helen’s Handmade Shoppe

Wanna see more of these adorable bears ? check out this FB Page - the Ferringhi Garden Charity Bears … where you can adopt one at RM36.00 each ..Proceeds will go to the Children’s Protection Centre in Penang.. & they ship worldwide !

They’re Engaged !

Yes – Shanan & Kalpana is getting engaged on this beautiful day  2nd Sep 2011 .. Congratulations !

Crossing the bridge to another new chapter in their loving relationship

Shanan – Charming & charismatic young doctor and yet, playful with a wonderful sense of humour.

Kalpana – Beautiful young lady whose contagious laughter can melt the coldest of hearts.. Shanan never stood a chance ! haha!

When Cupid strikes, these 2 lovely souls met and fell in love …

A match made in heaven — they will now begin their journey together ..

We wish you happiness and joy …

Congratulations & Have a wonderful engagement today !

Looking at him now, one would not know that Forrest was born with deformed back legs. At birth, his PAW was facing upwards and he had to drag his backlegs to move around.

Eldest amongst 2 surviving kittens, he could hardly walk & fighting for mommy’s milk was a chore but our little fella was a fighter …

During the initial weeks, we lovingly massaged his back legs daily. It must have been painful because Forrest would meowed loudly in protest but we persisted.. We had expert advise that the massages would help. If not, he may have ended up crawling throughout his life

=

We were so relieved when Forrest finally learnt to walk using all 4 legs.

Our determined little kitty even started to play fight with his brother Twisties. And he’s usually the bully !

By his 3rd month, Forrest was walking and running (zooming) around the house wrecking havoc ! When we got our IPAD2, Forrest was the SMART kitty who had his fair-share of the play time with the new toy.

Now, at 5 months, these siblings are now considered teenage boys who loves nothing but to tear the whole house apart.. The aggression is beginning to show … Soon – the spraying will start … MMmmmmm… I think it’s time to consider that important visit to the VET..

What does this little story teach us ? Winners never quit ….. so what if life threw us some hard times ? It’s up to us to never give up but persevere to face the difficulties .. success will come !

Once again, the holy Ramadhan month is upon us .. Our Muslims friends are observing the daily fasting ritual – from dawn to dusk.

Paying a visit to Bandar Perda, we experienced multitude of colours and scents that are known especially this time of year .. This is the only time when some of this dishes are prepared and available.

It’s wonderful to live in a place with so many variety of food and culture!

Young pedlars selling chips

Preparing Roti Johns …

The young man is holding a packed ROTI JOHN …

Saw only a LONE store selling bubur lambuk … Mmmmm …

Frying Pasembor

After deep-frying, the pieces are cut into smaller portion

One cannot missed the colouful drinks store…

Kakaks preparing the Chicken Rice packs

Looks delicious

The Kuih Muih … they get more varied each passing year..

Red Selasih, Yellow orange & Green Kiwi …

Friendly Pakcik & his son

Skewers with Blackpepper … trust me .. they are very tasty …

Sold Out venison … pakcik said we need to come early to get the Gulai Kawah or Rendang Rusa .. Fast Selling !

Anyone fancy a GEARBOX ???

How about a ROLLING CHICKEN ?? hahahha

Personal favourite — the chicken curry

After all that buying – it is SHARE & SHARE ALIKE … going home to BUKA PUASA

To all my Muslim friends .. selamat berpuasa … Am sure enjoying the exceptional dishes along with you for BUKA PUASA !

Straight from CNNGO page, where our Penang laksa came in 7th in World’s 50 most delicious foods.. I, a person who DOES NOT cook .. decided to try to prepare it for the family .. haha .. be warned my darlings Lin & Bryan ..

TalentCook’s Penang Assam Laksa Paste LAKSOUP promises to bring out the *ahem* gourmet cook in anyone .. <wink>

The DIY paste actually eliminates the need to prepare the Laksa Soup base .. however, one will still need to add in the Kembong (mackerel)  fish and prepare the veggies to make it authentic ..

Faithfully following the instruction on back of the packaging, off I went to the market to get the onions, cucumbers,mint leaves, ginger flower, pineapple, red chillies & lettuce before going back to the kitchen to cut, sliced, stripped & julienned as necessary …(mmm, dont I talking like a real cook ??)

Of course, no Assam Laksa is complete without dollops of heh ko/prawn paste

The result… not too bad for a first time effort… The premix soupbase from Talentcook is spicy & sour, with the added ingredients, my Laksa was full of flavors.

Mmmm.. accordingly to the website, they also hv the DIY paste for the Curry Mee & Hokkien Mee… perhaps I should experiment again next week ? …

Thank You Steven Lyall for lending me the Canon 85mm f/1.2 ii to try out … first thing I did is to try it out on the kitties at home!

Catching Twisties sleeping in the basket at one dark corner … we gingerly moved him to the bedroom for slightly better lighting.. Setting the camera to f/1.2; it is indeed a revelation ! The lens is amazing !

Although the focusing takes some getting used to.. the sharpness is unbelievable …. Twisties never looked better !

Feeling the movements, the little fella opened his little eye to spy his surroundings…

Hearing the continuous clicking noise, our furry friend decided to sit up and smile for the camera…

what do you think … my cat got the posing moju ??? hahahha

It’s the only way to describe them, GLAMOROUS ! These felines are groomed, trimmed, poised and displayed total DIVA personality. Their humans doted on them & wait on them like royalties. These CATS had it made !

We have never visited a cat show. Ever since our own cat Raya came into our lives, she has shown us that life taking care of a CAT is a privilege. Humans don’t adopt cats, it’s the other way around! People who claims to be dog people or simply don’t care for cats’ existence have simply NOT MET the right cat, yet.

Back to the Cat show – the CAT Friends of Asia IV, held during the weekend of 19-20 Mar, 2011 at SSTWO Mall in Petaling Jaya, had 159 entries in 6 rings of competitions.

Organised by John Chin of Proventus Cattery and sponsored by Royal Canin, we saw Persians, Maine Coons, Abyssinians, Ragdolls, Birmans, British shorthairs, American Curls, Scottish Folds, Bobtails, Long Hairs, Short Hairs, Local Cats and many many proud breeders ! The 6 judges had a tough time picking out winners and have nothing but positive comments and praises for the kitties on show.

Mesmerizing stare … (breeder : Felis Wonder)

Young couple Rita & Munis celebrated their love and tied the knot on Sep 10th … with the temple ceremony that started at 5am in the morning, the very colourful wedding went on to a beautiful reception that ended with a very enjoyable dance close to midnight …

Here are some of my favourite shots :-

Munis – the handsome Groom

Let’s groove to the music !

Radiant Bride – Rita

This Syawal marks the 1st anniversary Raya has been with us. Enjoying the royal treatment and lapping up the attention – The Royal Queen has truly settled in as part of the family !

As I write this post, our Raya is with her new beau – ABANG at this happy cat farm in Sg Petani. Rather than her usual escape to go gallivanting around the neigbourhood, we decided to find her a new beau; sort of like an anniversary gift. (we found her a year ago on our neighbour’s roof this Raya season)

Who is ABANG ??

Abang is a handsome hunk of an orange TABBY from Cikgu Zack’s Cat Farm ! The minute he laid eyes on our Raya .. he was a goner .. known to be an aggressive male  who does not get along too well with other cats, ABANG actually try to *seduce* Raya on first sight …

CIKGU from Sungai Petani is a new friend I met with a love & passion for all things FELINE.. Cikgu & his family keep about 30+ cats of all breeds and ages at their family home. Imagine the dedication & discipline needed to keep all the feline boarders happy, fed & most importantly CLEAN.

With his passion for cats, he has his own blog SAYANG SI COMEL where his shares his knowledge & provide helpful tips on how to take care of your kitty.

These are some of kitties he has

To RAYA – happy anniversary – we love you very much !

You are the most intelligent, most polite, cleanest, coolest cat  we know &  yet warms up our home like brimming sunshine   !

This year is a bit special, just when our Muslim friends are observing the Ramadhan (fasting) month , we are also in the midst of the  7th Month of Lunar Calendar .. a.k.a. Hungry Ghost Festival …

It is believed by the Chinese that during this month, the gates of hell are opened and all souls (ghosts) roam free to seek food on Earth. Many Chinese also take this opportunity to pray tribute to their deceased family members and all roaming *ghosts*; afterall, satisfying the ghosts will help to get us  good fortune and luck.

Prayers & offerings are arranged by neighbourhood associations, companies, and even temples who put on elaborate & entertaining concerts in the form of outdoor traditional Chinese Opera performance in some neighborhoods. These concerts are always held at night. There is a belief that this entertainment would please those wandering ghosts too.

The followings shots were taken at a Chinese Opera show near where I stayed.  I enjoyed the performance very much as they are very colourful and the players are very expressive in their movements as well as facial expressions.

The story they portrayed are based on famous Chinese folklore. Nowadays, even if we do not follow the dialects used, there is an electronic device displaying the subtitles in bright red text to help us understand what’s going on !

Neighbours taking a break from daily routines to enjoy the performance.

we have drama

There are sword fights (action packed)

Fine looking Hero (or was he the bad guy ?)

Love that long & flowy sleeve with beautiful needlework !

A touching scene

The opera performance can be very loud too … that is because all the music is LIVE and the orchestra that plays along are right behind the stage !

pardon the bare torso... afterall, they are playing in sweltering heat of 30deg Celcius even at night