Two new visitors from way yonder...

I will blog about two new and recent visitors to our blog site; they are Helen and Mag. Both of them have things in common like both miss Sarawak food very much (kolo mee and Sarawak Laksa amongst the list) and both ladies are from Sarawak - Miri and Kuching respectively to be precise... hooray for Sarawakians!! (Don't know why I cheered but it's always good to be a Sarawakian!!) They were linked to my site via fh2o and Ramblings blog sites (many thanks Francis and Doc Chen).

The other common and yet different thing about them is that both are now living abroad, Helen is studying in Melbourne, Australia whilst Mag is training to be a nurse in Austin, Texas, USA (cowboy state!). So one's down there, the other is way, way, way on the other side of the globe... (sorry Mag, hope this does not increase your homesickness and make you miss our Sarawak Laksa even more! So now you can deduce who is the one who misses her kolo mee! :D).

Their blog is as interesting as their personalities (from what I gather so far from their blog entries and it is a good thing!) as their blogs are honest, personal views of life; be it abroad or that of Malaysia. Go pay them a visit and say "Hi" from the Yongs for me! So, I can only conclude that it is through the world of blogging that one can meet two new instant acquaintance so fast... they may be far away physically but in cyberspace reality, they are only a click away!

I have linked their blog sites to mine on the right hand side of my blog... so go visit them and drop a line or two! But don't ask me why they call themselves as PatientHelen and Indaiyoyo.
Perhaps if they read this blog, maybe they can tell us what their chosen cyberspace names mean.

Ice Age 2 : The Meltdown

Have you watched ICE AGE 2? Well, I found this trailer and it looks like one of those "must see" movies for the family! Hope you'll enjoy this clip.

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

I never knew that the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from the Nutcracker had lyrics to it. So, to those as ignorant as me, here are the lyrics to the song...


See the candy fairies, sugar-plums, jelly-beans, chocolate bars,
Dance the minuet,
With the candied cherries, lolly-pops, peppermints, candy-canes,
As they pirouette,
See the FAIRY PRINCESS curtsying, gracefully, beautifully,
Swaying to the tune...
Music in the air (so entrancing)
Flowers in her hair (as she's dancing)
Love is everywhere (Ah-h-h-h-h-h-h-h)
'Neath the yellow lemon-drop moon.

There she goes now, on her toes now,
To her yellow lemon-drop moon.

Reflections : I can just imagine my little daughter dancing to this song!

Good night

I'm tired and ready for bed but before I do that, just one blog entry. It's been a busy day at work but all is good. Now time to say good night to the world... rest your head well and have a peaceful sleep tonight!
God bless!

Flying home from KL

Flying home from KL, originally uploaded by Yong Family.

Yup, another business trip to KL this week. It's the second week in a row now. I'm glad that I'm flying home as I blog.



It's raining rather heavily in KL and KLIA. We were about to leave the terminal when I took this picture. The conceirge at the hotel where I was staying mentioned in a worried tone that it would rain rather hard in KL. "It's going to be a bad one", he said, refering to the rain that has just started. Indeed, as I was in a taxi heading to KL Sentral, it was raining cats and dogs! Poured like someone pouring water from a pitcher! Thank God I made it safely to KL Sentral to catch the KL Express to the airport.



The plane took off on time, leaving a very wet KL behind. Very soon I will be home... another 2 hours or so. It's always good to be going home!



For reflection : We are looking forward to an everlasting home, where we will be with our Lord for eternity... our eternal home!



2 Peter 3:13 'But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.'

Milk Power

Had your calcium intake today? Here's a pic of our kids drinking their milk in style... while watching their favourite telly programmes!

They need milk to build healthy and strong bones and teeth. With the milk products nowadays, there are a lot of added vitamins and other "goodness" for brain development (all added to the milk powder). Jessica is slowly weaning off mummy's milk now as she is big enough to take "cow" milk.

Anyway, hope this picture puts a smile on your faces as you remember those days when you use to drink milk from a bottle! :D

Hot vanilla latte

Hot vanilla latte, originally uploaded by Yong Family.

I'm caught in the rain in KL. Just had lunch and ready to head back to my hotel when it decided to pour. So now I'm stuck at Dome with my hot cup of vanilla latte... waiting for the rain to stop. A pause in my hectic day.

Jess says "car"

Have been busy lately but now have found some time to put this video of Jess on the blog. We were in the car waiting for "mummy" to 'tapau' pizza for dinner when I took this video with my PDA in the car. Jess has her own way to say 'car'... cute, eh?

Tim Sum at Han Palace

Since my dear friend PW has been blogging about food, here is one that I will do on food..."tim sum" to be precise.

Our family decided to have brunch at Han Palace, a chinese restaurant at Grand Palace hotel in Miri, this morning. (Oh yes, fyi, if you are not from Malaysia or familiar with Malaysian holidays, today is a public holiday in Malaysia.)

"Tim sum" is a cantonese phrase that means mid morning snack (or something to that effect) . As with all cantonese dishes, "tim sum" is a meal with lots of meat, meat and meat (in the form of dumplings). Of course there are other assortments like chicken feet, carrot cakes, glutinous rice with chicken, etc. and sweets."Tim sum" is usually split into two main categories; the deep fried and the steamed type. This morning we had both types and ended up with some nice sweets i.e. mini egg tarts, lotus paste wrapped in sticky & gooey thingy (I don't know what to call that now) sesame seed covered ball. Delicious!

Here are some pics of our "tim sum" for you to see what we had.
















The first round... (didn't take photos of the second round cause we were too busy enjoying the food)
















Braised chicken feet! Our favourite.
















Carrot cake : It's made of turnip, not carrots.

"Fei Chi Tou"

I just came back from the barber (or should I say hair dresser as that is the more trendy term to use nowadays) and what I overheard really put a smile on my face.

Whilst I was having my regular hair cut at my regulat hair saloon, a teenager sat down next to me, ready for his haircut. So another hair dresser tended to him and asked how he wanted his hair cut. He replied, "Flat top but keep the front long!" Huh?

Then the hair dresser informed him that a flat top is maximum "tuan" (in mandarin that means short) to give it the "flat top" shape. But that young man was keen to get what he wanted and insisted to keep the front long.. or rather not too short. The hair dresser was adamant and said that he can do as he requested but he might end up looking like a 13 or 14 year old boy. Huh?

Anyway, the young man, who was later convinced that he didn't want to look like a young boy entering puberty when he walked out of the saloon, finally gave in and said, regular cut would do. Not convinced by his answer, the hair dresser asked him to describe again what it is that he wanted exactly done to his hair.

So there goes the poor soul describing his "dream hair style" again ... what came next shocked me, as the hair dresser said, "Oh u mean 'fei chi tou' (in mandarin that means aeroplane head) style!". Double "Huh?!"

I tried not to laugh but it was just so funny... By the time he started cutting the young man's hair, mine was done already. I was tempted to stay and see how it turned out but do to time, I left the saloon with a smile on my face. Oh, well, that was the most interesting conversation I've over heard at a hair saloon!

And if anyone out there can describe to me what a "fei chi tou" looks like, it would sure make my day! :D

Helpful little hands

This afternoon as we were just sitting at our patio by the garden, surfing the net and doing some leisurely reading... whilst enjoying the afternoon breeze. Then, Josh decided to take a plastic bag, went to the shaded part of the garden and started to weed, of all things!

At first I thought he was just playing and not really weeding but to my surprise, he was actually weeding! Yes, he was picking up all those "lalang" amidst our pearl grass in the garden. I believe he nust have copied my parents when they were around... mimicing them when they were here, pulling out the weeds from among the grass. What helpful little hands.

Hopefully this is not construed by neighbours as child labour! Here are the pics I took when he was weeding...

Josh's favourite song

Here's my first podcast of my son's favourite song (for now) ... sung by him (actually a duet with her sister... listen carefully to Jess' voice in the background).

But before listening to Josh and Jess' version, here's the original...

"The Little Einsteins™ Theme Song"


Click on the Podcast to hear J&J's version! Enjoy.

Little Einstein
The J&J version.

Pickled chillis

Pickled chillis, originally uploaded by Yong Family.

This has got to be the most famous and cannot do without condiment among Malaysians. I love it with 'kolo mee'. Yum!

Jess is two

We are celebrating Jess' 2nd birthday today... Here's to our precious princess, Happy & Blessed Second Birthday.. from your Mummy, Daddy and your brother, Josh.

(started taking online tutorials on Gimp... the pic is a product of the tutorial!)