The Purpose of Life

A trip home for 3 weeks seems rather short especially when I haven't been home for more than 4 years. However, I am glad that the timing was perfect!
It happened that I decided to stay in Bandar Utama, PJ for the first week eventhough I "suppose" to stay at my grandma's place in Setia Alam, Shah Alam. But I was thinking it will be easier to go around, to shop and to spend time with my brother who work in PJ. I was right. I spend the 5 days staying with my 5th aunt, chatting, catching up, sharing thoughts at night before sleeping. Then I followed her to the office where I will see my brother (they both work for my uncle). Then I get to spend the lunch time with my brother, at the same time exploring different places with yummy local food. After that, we asked our dad out for dinner. It was great that I planned it that way, later I learned that my 5th aunt and my brother was very busy the 3rd week and believe it or not I didn't get a chance to meet my 5th aunt again after the 1st week. :)
The second week I went back to my hometown in Ipoh and had a lazy time there, spend time with my other brother and my mom and our new added family member, BaoBao, our dog (a Shi Tzu breed). I wish I could have done more in Ipoh. I wonder why there's not enough time...mostly I don't know where to go and so coincident my brother was busy to take me out at night. But I have to say I really enjoy the breakfast time in Ipoh, those noodles, yong tau fu (stuffed beancurd), and chee cheong fun (thin roll of rice noodle with gravy) is extremely delicious!!! I also enjoyed the vegetarian sushi that my brother recommended. I think the other reason is that I was thinking maybe there's chance again next year when hubby is going home with me. I have to write down and plan accordingly where I want to go... hmmm....have to take him to hike at Menglembu...and what else? to go around the oldtown in Ipoh I guess...I'm kind of lost, I don't remember where else to go... I found myself became unfamiliar with Ipoh. I think I can get some suggestion from FB.
So, at the end of 2nd week, I went to Penang and stayed at my friend, Doreen's place. It was a beautiful condominium by the beach. I am really thankful to her parents. They were so warm and welcoming. For the whole 2 days, they took me to different places with great local food. I almost burst with tears of happiness when I ate the asam laksa...that one is really good!!!!!!!!!!! Arrgghhh...I'm craving for it now. With such limited time, Doreen's dad make an effort to take us to tour around the island. I've been to Penang many times when I was little but I think I haven't been there for more than 10 years. The city has improved a lot. I also get to meet some of my high school classmates who are now living in Penang.
The 3rd week and the last....I went back to KL with my mother. This week I stayed at my aunt's place who live accross the street from my grandma. It's a very relaxing and warm week as well that I get to spend more time with my grandma and my other aunts and uncles, chatting, catching up and listening to my grandma's stories about her childhood and when she married my grandfather. She also told me about the day my grandfather passed away. I 'm glad she's coping well, and I keep telling her that I'm coming back soon next year with my husband, and that she has to live to meet him, to meet my children, to meet my cousin, Shen Yee's children, Hong Ping's children....etc.. she laughed...and said "ok, ok"
On my grandma's birthday, I took out some old pictures I took from home to share with everyone and I can feel the warm feeling and hear the laughter as everyone reminiscent the good old days.
On the day I have to leave, my 3rd aunt cried, my first aunt did too, my mom didn't, hehehe, she's used to it I guess, me too...but I'm crying now.... my grandma stand outside and keep waving until our car turned away. My cousins, and my brother including me keep saying, we'll see each other again, soon, in March, that's a great comfort.
Family is so important... I wish I have some of them staying in New York with me, but I am happy that at least I have my loving, caring hubby with me. He comforts me by saying, "one day honey, we may be able to retire in Malaysia." I think as long as I can go home every year, I'm happy.
I ask myself repeatedly will it be better if i never leave my country?...I know it won't be the same, just as my friend said, you will never learn as much if you never leave your home, if you never leave the comfort zone. I agree. It is a learning process.... I learn something during this trip, the message become clearer to my mind - The Purpose of Life is to discover yourself.
I think it takes many events and encounter with many different types of people to realize and really found ourselves.

I will share some of the photos soon.

Beautiful Calgary

Before it became an old history, I do want to talk about my trip to Calgary, Canada recently(hmm… a while ago). When hubby announced that we are going to Calgary, I was thinking “What kind of place is that? I never heard of it.” Later I recalled one of our friend once mentioned about this city that if she get to choose, she will want to live in Calgary and she described it as a big city with high rise building but not as big as NYC and not as crowded but just a very nice place to live in. Hmm?

Now, we see it for ourselves and I have to say I fell in love with Calgary. It’s a very well-balanced city I should say, it feels like home, there are times that I felt like I’m walking in KL because they are so many oriental faces, most of them are from Hong Kong and in certain area, there are many Japanese too. Basically they have very healthy mix of many races, and you don’t see obvious separation. They are very well mixed in the society.
I’m a city person, I always love high rise building and especially enjoying looking up at the city light at night. But a big city as busy as NYC can also mean lower quality of life. Calgary has both the view, energy and the quality of life…

We stay in the downtown area so that we can conveniently walk to the US Consulate. This trip is for business purposes but we grab the opportunity to travel around a little bit. Bicycles are everywhere especially near the high rise buildings. Looks like most of them ride the bike to work.

Calgary is a very clean city, I heard they are the 5th cleanest city in the world, I was thinking to myself, this city is already super clean, who gets the first place? Maybe you have to consider the size of the population too relatively.

Most of the building have beautiful sitting area in the front or the back of their buildings.

We were wondering where are the people? We see many buildings, it cannot be that empty, and it’s lunch time.
And there you go, everyone is inside the buildings. They have what they call the elevated walkway, or the crosswalk between most of the building so they do not need to leave the building for lunch or dinner.
On the second floor of most buildings are restaurants, food court, malls, boutique…etc. So, in the winter they do not need to put on and take off their coat and walk in and out of the building like us, they can stay inside, keep warm and still walk through the whole downtown. Nice! Brilliant idea. Of course NYC can’t follow that, we are always scare of bomb, remember? You don’t want to connect the buildings, sigh.

They have many nice seating area everywhere inside the building, and not bench I’m talking about, they are nice beautiful sofas. Everything is very new and clean in this city. FYI, for privacy purpose, we’re not allowed to take picture inside the building, we didn’t know until the guard came to us, LOL!

I think they have more Starbucks than US. Well, we can’t help to stop and have a cup of our favorite Pumpkin Spice Latte!

We both think this is by far the vacation with most satisfying meals. Of course being a vegetarian is not always without challenge in terms of getting food. But in Calgary, we find it very easy to get fresh healthy vegetarian food and the people are very happy and willing to modify their recipe for us. Even this kind of fast food, I would not dare to try in NYC, but this one here is FRESH and delicious. We also found a very nice vegetarian restaurant with Hong Kong style food.

It’s so relax to stroll along the unique shops.

Chinook Centre is the largest shopping mall in Calgary. It is really HUGE and the food court/cafeteria is big, new, beautiful, and fresh. There’s soooo much things to see!! I skipped all the retailers that I can find in US, pick those that sounds most interesting, it’s still impossible to visit all of them. However, I was still lucky to grab some stuffs that I need with a very good deal.
By the way, we noticed Calgarian are majority good looking with lean body.

The Prince’s Island is 5 minute walking distance from our hotel. A very beautiful park. A stroll along the river and bridge complete our day.

From Calgary, we rent a car and drove to Banff National Park. The scenery along the way is indescribable…
And when we reach there, and as we walk and observe the beauty of the nature’s masterpiece, we both have the same feeling that we human are indeed so small…
The amazing part is we are so small yet we are so smart and powerful in creating all the technologies that enable us to reach places on this earth like never before, but we human can also be rather destructive in many ways…
Whatever it is, we’re totally taken away by the grand & magnificent view at the Canadian Rockies.

A view taken from the cable car.

There are more places that we really want to visit but with the limited time, we didn’t get to go, we will have to go back again one day. I wish I can bring my parents and family along in the future.
To view more pictures go to my Facebook.

Autumn Cleaning

Photo: Calgary, Canada (on the route to Banff National Park)

It’s time to clean up the spider webs that have spread across my blog. :) I don’t know why I’m just not so inspired to write lately…and was actually busy with quite a few things too. However, under the demand of my faithful reader – my dear husband :P , and hopefully some of you who did follow my blog, hehe sorry for kept you waiting. Well certainly not my brothers who claim to be too busy to read my blog. @-@
Anyway, it’s time to start writing, I think it’s also the time for a new look and style perhaps.

Here comes the bride…

Spa Castle 2009

It was hubby’s birthday last Wednesday. I took him to Spa Castle for a treat. It's just 25 minutes away from home. We figure that there are so many places in NYC that we haven't explore, so we are not going away this summer.
I give them 4 stars out of 5 because the food are a little too expensive. I think it should be more reasonable. And I think they are quite cheap to offer just one set of uniform which will easily get wet, you have to wear it when you are not in the pool. Nevertheless, the service are great and the idea of hassle free for everything is a plus, you don’t need to bring anything with you around, just pay for the services, food and drink with the watch they gave which will also open your locker. Smart!
More importantly, it is very well kept and VERY CLEAN.

When you are inside the building, everyone has to take off their shoes and walk around barefoot just like we’re at home.

They have Jacuzzi, hot tub, ginseng pool, jasmine pool, kiddies pool, aqua bar (where you order drinks and sit in it), hinoki bath…and others. There are many different types of sauna for example, jade sauna, salt sauna, LED sauna, music sauna….etc.

There's sleeping area where you can take a nap after the sauna and hot bath. Definitely feel sleepy after the massage. Our first private room massage. We have 2 Korean masseurs who speak Chinese. It surprised us, they are not convince I’m Malaysian, they said I look like Korean… The experience with the massage? so so…not as great as we expected.

Smart idea too for them to charge more on weekend so it won’t get too crowded, so for those who can at least take a day off or go after work is better. USD35 for weekday and USD45 for weekend, you can stay as long as you like, it open from 6 am to midnight.

By the way, not a place for people who feel uneasy being naked around other people. You have to take off everything in the shower area and pool area inside the locker room, of course, only ladies in this area.

Purple Jewel

I have to claim that this is one of the most delicious healthy food I ever have which does not require a chef , seasonings, whatsoever.
This purple yam/sweet potato is just purely yummy!!! The kind of sweetness it has is beyond description. Another gift from Mother Nature, thank you. It’s just pure bliss to enjoy this little “natural energy bar”. Hubby and I love it so much we have to have it almost everyday for our breakfast. I think this is now its season because we usually don’t see it all year round. Or maybe they will have it from now on, hopefully.

One of my favorite at Gloria’s Sticker

This is one of the many interesting stickers that I really like at Gloria’s Sticker, the multipurpose sticker with many different icons you can choose from plus the choices of different fonts. It looks even nicer in person. A glossy silver metallic look. Versatile, elegant and personal.

If you are interested in cute sticker for yourself or your children or just need it so that your little ones do not lose their things in the day care or school, please visit my friend’s website at
http://www.gloriassticker.blogspot.com/

She has all the cute designs and quality name personalized stickers. Better yet, she is currently offering a summer special for the month of July and August!

You can even have 2 or more names on one design. Each order is produce with love and care. Hurry up, go & check it out! Summer special end soon!

My first 4 tier cake!

Here’s my first project of the year! A 4 tier cake for my girlfriend’s baby shower.

Ingredients:
1) Diapers
2) Ribbons & embellishments
3) Lots of love!

My girlfriend loved it! This is a very interesting yet useful gift which can also set as a creative centerpiece for the baby shower.

Note: I take orders but only for New York City area. Contact me if you are interested! :D
Price may vary depending on the ingredients.

What do you think?

This picture was taken a few years ago in an art shop in Birmingham, Alabama.
Do you agree with what it says there?
In a week of ideas brainstorming, sketching out my thoughts and playing with different art materials keep me in good spirits all the time.

Creative Cap

I have always love art, design and creative things since my early childhood. I have so many coloring books and my mom will recall and say how much time I spend everyday coloring them. Later when I went to kindergarten, I will color all the images even in my Math book, hahaha! I remember one time the teacher was holding up my book and told the class how nice my work is and they could do the same. Man… do you think they’re cursing behind me that i gave them trouble? My favorite session/class was always the art & craft and music class. I paid attention on my artwork and I was thrilled every time when my piece was chosen to be put up on the wall. I have a drawer at home where I keep all my art and craft stuff and also my collection of cute things.
Somehow, later in high school I found out I was very interested in Science and decided to go ahead to pursue my study in this field. However, right after I finish high school, I think I want to be a designer…. OMG, what a confused soul…. Because of financial purposes, I was only able to study briefly in Art & Design during college.
I was lucky enough to find a job in a home fashion company where I work as the home fashion coordinator/ personal assistant of my boss who is also the creative director of the company. I love my job. It was always busy and dealing with urgency of production but I love that I was involved in creating beautiful things. I spend most of the time flipping through interior design magazine looking for ideas and whenever my boss came back from travelling to different countries, I am sure the first one she hand those magazine she bought from overseas. When she went shopping for decorative pieces for our company exhibition, she would ask me to go with her, I treasure those experiences.

New York is the capital city of the design world but it is way too competitive for international student to find a job in design. As much as I love it, I am a very practical person too. I want a career that will guarantee me a job and income…. ^_^, after all it’s a huge amount of money and energy for me to support my study here. HUGE!
Of course, how can one do something that they don’t like? Am I lucky enough to have happen to love both Art and Science, hahaha! So there I go with the Health Science, my other lover.
This is as well extremely competitive but in admission and academic wise, the demand of job is high.
I had a dream that time…I want to have a stable job which will guarantee my income and later on I would still find a way to engage my self in creative business.
So many years in such an academic demand field….I have long put away all my art and crafty tools away, although I have a whole box filled with those things but it had been quite dusty.
Sometimes, I think fate is a funny thing…you never know how it takes you by surprise ….
One day, by accident I saw something that inspire me….that calling upon my soul to once again to put on my creative cap!

Recently, I bought some art materials and I’m thrill to start my gear, hehehe!

Vegetarian BBQ trip to Bear Mountain State Park

Anytime a trip to get away from the city is definitely refreshing to the soul and body. Pictures speak a thousand words… Here’s some of the pictures of the BBQ trip to Bear Mountain, a state park at New York upstate, rising from the west bank of the Hudson River. I feel so lucky to be able to enjoy this beautiful place and I’m very thankful to all of those, my friends who had working hard in putting their efforts together for this vegetarian BBQ gatherings. Not only the foods were great but knowing that we are enjoying food without hurting lives and environment is even better!

We heard about global warming so much in fact some people say they feel numb about it already…but we should not because indeed we are really in a state of EMERGENCY now. Human has been abusing the only place that they can live in – the planet Earth.

Below is an excerpt from The Huffington Post:
Eating As If the Climate Mattered, by Bruce Friedrich
United Nations environmental researchers released a report that everyone who cares about the environment should review. Called " Livestock's Long Shadow," this 408-page thoroughly researched scientific report indicts the consumption of chickens, pigs, and other meats, concluding that the meat industry is "one of the... most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global" and that eating meat contributes to "problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity."

I was talking to my brother on the phone the other day, he said there’s a release of a list of countries that may sink or swallowed by the increasing water cause by the melting of the arctic's ice. Many activists have go around and passing the message that recycling are not the only or the fastest solution, what actually help the environment to recover faster is the decision made on your plate! If only everyone will leave a piece of meat, even just once a week, it will make a great impact. Human tend to start react only when the problems are right in our face. We are smart creatures, that’s why we are able to predict and already foresee the consequences of our actions, we can change because we care.
I was watching a discussion about the environment and how going for meatless diet can help on the TV the other day….the thing is even if someone say they don’t care about the environment, the problem is now all the antibiotics that left in the animals’ bodies when they were slaughtered had taken a toll on humans’ health… Research has shown that the toxic found in the animals are way much higher than the pesticides found in the vegetables ( for those who say “oh, the vegetables are full of pesticide too..”).

Many times I heard people says, “Oh well, so many others are doing it, even if I change, not going to help much.” Just imagine if all of us think like this? Who’s going to do it?
Scientific research has proved that many animals are as smart and sensitive as we are. For more interesting facts, go to http://www.goveg.com/

My youngest brother is an environmentalist. I am so proud of all that he did and his perseverance. I remember last time when he asked me to bring my own bag to do shopping. I told him I still need the bags for my garbage/trash can. He told me that I wouldn’t need that many. So, I make an effort to bring my own beautiful ^^ reusable shopping bag from Whole Food, every time I went for groceries shopping. At first, we keep forgetting to bring it with us but now we are used to it, for almost 2 years now, I feel good whenever I save those plastic bags. Whole Food will refund $0.1o for every purchase that we made without using their paper bag or plastic bag, and the Chinese supermarkets were equally happy when we took out our own bag, they even asked us where to get the pretty reusable bag, hehe. We only take the plastic bags when we are really running low on supply for our trash can. ^^

Yummy vegetarian skewer! Enjoy food without cruelty! Go Veg Go Green…

Yummo!

Chatting away with my ex room mate, Emi…..just like old time.

Ivan and Ryan, both are veggie babies since they were in their mothers' womb.

More pictures of the trip here.

Please try from today onwards, be a vegetarian for at least once a week…
Eat Better, Feel Better!

Joyce and her cupcakes

Joyce's creations, image taken from her website.

Funny, I didn’t know my childhood best friend is into baking. Joyce if you are reading this, yes, I’m very surprise…which I shouldn’t be probably because we haven’t been in touch for such a long time until Facebook brought us back! ^^ I mean during all these time anyone can change right? My memory of Joyce Siew is a very studious, discipline, and somewhat serious person…:P hmmm… also very artistic. She used to draw beautiful My Little Ponies for me to hang in my room. But never thought she’s into baking.
We were best friends during elementary school. We spent a great deal of times together. Our parents know each other. I remember so vividly those time when I stayed at her place during Christmas and all those other days when we would spend the whole afternoon at her house playing Monopoly, or Hopscotch at the front yard.
Such a long time ago, I’m very glad to find her again at FB. Believe me or not, my parents would still ask me sometimes, “Oh by the way, are you in touch with Joyce Siew? where is she now?”

If you are interested in cupcakes and stuff, visit her websites at Teamo. Her creations are beautiful! This really give me encouragement and inspire me to keep going with my experiment and my project, though it is not bakeries.
Congratulations Joyce! (not sure if this is a little late, I have to find out when did she started this business) Anyway, keep it up!

The Holiday

I don’t remember how many times I watch this by now. I’m the kind of person who usually do not watch a movie twice. I got this DVD from a friend, watched it a couple of times at home and again with a friend who I thought may not like it for the fact he is 85, but to my surprise, he loved it! The reason I thought he would not enjoy it because at a big picture, it’s a love story but actually there are inspiring parts in the movie.

Very entertaining and well written. I like the four of them, the sophisticate Kate Winslet, the pretty and funny Cameron Diaz, the handsome Jude Law and the hilarious Jack Black.
The two women who were heart broken exchange house for the holiday, unexpectedly found their love…
I like all the earrings they wear! hahaha, yes, being an earrings lover, I noticed that!
As sentimental as I am…the words that Kate Winslet says in one part totally touch my feelings. Sometimes I think those who marry their first love/boyfriend are so lucky but then if I’m one of them, I may not be able to feel it when I watch these love stories which make it more interesting…. So, I mean I can cry with them, melt when their heart melt, jump and said “yes, totally true!” when they give an analogy to the situation they are in….and all that 0_0
It also makes me appreciate so much on what I have and to also get a clear picture of what I need.

Some quotes from the movie, "You should be the leading lady of your own life” … “i know how you can actually ache in places you never know you had inside you.”
Enough said, I just love this movie…. the settings are very nice too and the score is great.

June the special month

June is my name, is the month I was born and the month I get married. The month of the fun season- Summer!
As it getting close to the end, I’m reflecting on those events that took place, I’m a little busy lately or more precisely a bit lazy to take out the pictures and blog…hehehe

June 1st – Our Anniversary! the 2nd Anniversary. We celebrate it in LA. More pictures here. Thank you hubby for being such a wonderful husband. The best part was when he thank me for I have changed his life… #.#

June 9th- My Birthday! I spent the day cleaning up and organize some of my stuff and reflecting on my life and all the events that have taken place and what I have learned. hubby came home and cook for me that night. I took out the champagne glasses from Tiffany&Co (a wedding gift from my buddy, Emi) for the first time to celebrate, hehe. The day before my birthday, we had dinner at my in-laws place, my sister in- law bought me a cheesecake, my parents in- law gave me red packets (lishi). ^^ A nice and quiet celebration overall…Hmmm…but I can’t believe I'm leaving the 20’s :p

This is the famous ice cream store under the Brooklyn Bridge but living here for almost 8 years, we never tried it. It’s yummy! Looking at my BIG silly smile, you can tell I’m an ice cream lover, right?

A few weeks before approaching our anniversary I told hubby that I may need an iPod so that I can utilize some of my travel time in the subway to listen to audio books. Just a thought. He was thrilled of course, my man when he heard he can get to buy or even shop for others on electronics, he is exited.

We usually tell each other…. “don’t buy me anything, I don’t need anything right now.” We don’t like to buy things for the sake of buying or to celebrate whatever it is. Sometimes we will buy it the time we need it and say, ok this is for the birthday, or anniversary or Christmas…in other word, we can’t wait till then and we don’t do it purposely for that day.
We browse together and I chose the purple iPod Nano, I'm not a high tech person, I totally don’t care about what model of phone or electronic device I use as long as it functioning well for its purpose, LOL! Hubby lied to me and said we should wait since he heard rumors that they are going to have a new model coming out soon in a few months. Ok…. so I forgot about it until he surprise me! he did this a lot….act like he had forgotten about my birthday or valentines day and surprise me with a big bouquet of flowers or something...

It’s up!

Finally, our piece of artwork is up on the wall. Our first puzzle together, hehehe. It’s a 750 pieces puzzle that we get from Barnes & Noble. It was done long time ago in the beginning of spring but we couldn’t find a place to help us frame it and most places charge more than $150! And for some reason, I didn’t notice that IKEA has those nice frame with very reasonable price…until my buddy Kit Wai reminded me about it, thanks girl!

Almost done….

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After cutting and fitting and drilling, finally, now it’s up on the wall! We love it! So peaceful…. a mother horse and her baby horse.
Hubby said this piece will go to the baby’s room in future :P

Portrait of my hubby, LOL!