Archive for the 'Festivals' Category

Mine is almost done. Accept for food stuff that is. But I’ve got the new clothing and decorations. I didn’t want to rush with the mad crowd so I shopped very very early in a nice relaxed manner taking my own sweet time. Haha. Thats the good part. No rushing. The bad part is there is no Angpow packets or other goodies to collect. And the mood isn’t really there yet.

Still that is a small trade-off compared to walking around with stressed, tired, grouchy and whiny kids and trying to push little shoes into uncooperative feet, or persuading the kids that clothes are reallly much more fun to shop for than toys and oh not forgetting those long long long queues to try clothes and those long long long queues to pay.

So, yes, I’m done with my shopping. Now its just the cleaning. Now that the fun part is over, the hard part has just begun. But lets look at the bright side. Perhaps all the exercise that comes with spring cleaning the house will make me fit into that “L” sized cheongsum I bought. And no, I never made it for my lose 5 pounds in 5 months to fit into a “M”. BOO HOO HOO. And Chinese New Year is coming and that means food glorious food, instead of losing 5 pounds in 5 months, I’ll probably gain 5 pounds in 5 weeks. HELP!

Yesterday I went to the Pavillion for the first time. They were having Chinese acrobatic dances at the stage and the red flowers decoration was up. The Chinese New Year mood is here!

I must say that the fitting rooms at the Parkson, Pavillion are really big which is the way it should be IMO. Usually the fitting rooms are so small that you would have to squeeze yourself like a contortionist just to close the door. I think that the queues outside fitting rooms would be shorter if you made the fitting rooms larger because usually people shop in groups and they like to try in groups to give each other comments. (I don’t know about men but thats what women usually do). Otherwise, everyone has to queue a mile long then come out and I comment on your outfit and you comment on mine and repeat making the queue longer and longer and annoying everyone else in the queue.

Anyway, back to the Parkson fitting room. It had an armchair, a table and a three way mirror (if thats what you call it). The two sides can be moved about (as discovered by my two kids). It could easily fit in my family of four and more. Very nice. A good place to let the kids sit down and rest while you try outfit after outfit after outfit. Hehehe.

However, for a fitting room as large as this one, you should expect to pay premium prices. The outfits can try cannot buy unless you have lots of $$$$. Funny, how they have managed to turn around. At one time, I thought the Parksons all look so run down and about to close down and now they have become so premium.  

Thats what everyone appears to be doing during the last two weeks of the year. The shopping malls were packed… like sardines. The gift shops were packed. The toy shops were packed. The book shops were packed. And the eateries were packed from all these shoppers.

Then in no time at all, the clothing department, shoe department and supermarkets will be packed again with shoppers preparing for Chinese New Year. From Hari Raya to Deepavali to Hari Raya Haji to Christmas to New Year and then Chinese New Year……..

Isn’t it fun to be a retailer in Malaysia, a multicultural country with multi celebrations? They must be laughing all the way to the bank! And I’m crying all the way from the bank.

I went to Carrefour to do some shopping during the weekend and was amused to see the speed at which Christmas is being taken over or replaced by Chinese New Year. All things Christmas has disappeared in place of the coming Chinese New Year (which isn’t really far away at all, being just one more month to go). So its…..

• Goodbye Jingle Bells, Hello Dong Dong Chiang
• Goodbye Green, Hello Red
• Goodbye Christmas trees, Hello Cherry Blossoms
• Goodbye Christmas Turkeys, Hello Lap Cheong
• Goodbye Christmas Log Cakes, Hello Yee Sang
• Goodbye Silver Bells, Hello Red Lanterns

Yup! If you go shopping soon, you will be seeing all of the above at the shopping malls. Soon, it will be time to shop for New Year clothes, F&N orange, Mandarin oranges, Bak Kua (Barbequed Pork) etc. All this shopping is going to put a BIG, BIG dent in our pockets!

I haven’t been anywhere near my blogs for two weeks now. Too busy enjoying the holidays. Hehe. No, I haven’t gone anywhere for a holiday. Just pottering round the house doing small things for the house like repairing the doorbell, painting old patches etc and playing silly games with the kids and their dad like making paper boats and watching them sail in our back drain in the rain.

Thank you to those blog friends who dropped by my blogs with your Christmas and New Year wishes. I had a very good Christmas indeed, stuffing myself with the turkey stuffing. Hahaha. There goes my diet! Now I’ve only got about a month left to Chinese New Year and I haven’t lost an inch!!! Malu nya!

Anyway, I just wanted to wish you all a very Happy New Year 2008. May all your wishes come true and I would like to leave you with this wonderful holiday images. December is really the most wonderful time of the year isn’t it?

Here’s a beautiful fairyland to greet shoppers at Mid Valley Megamall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You could even get to meet fairies a dancing…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But if fairies are not your thing, perhaps you could watch the soldiers a drumming….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or you could simply stop to admire the Christmas tree made entirely of bread and buns!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or stop under the toadstools to rest…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or just take a photo or two with close friends and family. You’ll have lovely backdrops to add to your photo album.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I only managed to take some of these images at One Utama and Mid Valley Megamall because thats all the time I have for. There’s still the Pavillion, The KLCC, Sunway Pyramid etc to make shopping in KL extremely fun and enjoyable during this year end season.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008 TO EVERYONE!

Last night was a night for love. We went to the park with the kids with our colourful paper and plastic lanterns and our candles. The moon was full, the air was still, just right for playing with fire.

The park was filled with people and bursting with love. There were lovers walking hand in hand, teenagers having fun and parents chasing after little ones. What a wonderful scene. And everywhere you look, there were candles and lanterns burning. Playing with fire is not just for little ones.

How romantic it was. Much better than a candlelit dinner. Very good atmosphere for “pak tor” (dating). And how fun it was for the teenagers too who got together in groups. And of course it was enjoyable for the little ones.

My little ones decided that they wanted to blow the candles I had lighted up so I had to keep on lighting them up again and again. From their experience candles belonged on top of a cake and were supposed to be blown out not lighted up.

A very nice evening and a night of love for all.

Playing with lanterns and candle fire of course. What did you think? Hehe.

Its lantern festival today so we’ll be taking the kids to the park to play with fire. This is the only time they get to officially play with fire so they love it.

I still remember my childhood and the time I played with fire. We used to have this steel gate and we would “decorate” the entire gate with candle light. It was so lovely. Sometimes, we would walk to the park near our house with our lighted lanterns.

I don’t think our parents accompanied us. But then it was safer then. How carefree and simple life was. Now, parents live in fear and paranoia. Allowing our children to walk unaccompanied to the nearby park in the dark is a no-no. Oh, I won’t go into all that although I have many unspoken things in my mind. Enough has been said.

Its lantern festival afterall. So lets have fun, stuff ourselves with mooncake and let the kids enjoy the only time they get to play with fire.

Happy Mid Autumn Festival to those who celebrate it.

What mooncake flavours have you tried this year? Last year I tried durian and coconut and yam and green tea. Usually the snow skin ones are the ones with the variety. This year, so far… I’ve tried…..

1. Miniature Snow Skin Chocolate Sunflower Seeds with Bailey Soft Centre
2. Miniature Snow Skin Coffee Paste
3. Miniature Snow Skin While Lotus Paste
4. Miniature Snow Skin with Hawaiian Nuts and Oriental Herbs Paste
5. Baked Miniature Red Bean Paste
6. Baked Miniature Pistachio Nuts and Green Tea Paste
7. Baked Miniatre White Lotus Paste with Yolk
8. Baked Miniature Pandan Paste with Yolk
9. Low Sugar Barley Tangerine
10. Black Sesame Seed Paste

The kids love them because they look so pretty and colourful and come in little boxes. Its a real adventure to eat. Sorry no pictures as we ate them before I could get my camera out. Haha. 

They’re so “miniature” you can wallop all in one mouthful. To me they all taste almost the same ie SWEET with only slight difference in taste. The coffee paste one tasted like local coffee. The bailey soft centre was sinfully chocolate but the most distinctive of all had to be the Oriental Herbs one. It sure was strange to smell and taste Chinese Herbs in a mooncake. Others that have distinctive flavours are those that have a strong aroma of their own such as Green Tea, Pandan etc.

To me the mooncake industry is turning into one big con job. They’re so expensive. Still we get conned every year. Every year we would organise a mooncake party at one of our siblings house. We would all come with different flavoured mooncakes then cut them up into tiny pieces so that we could taste all sorts of varieties while the children would have fun with their lanterns and candles.

So… what mooncake flavour have you tasted this year? Care to recommend any?

I’ve finally taken my first bite of mooncake this year. Big sister gave us a box of Tai Thong mooncake. (Judy, is your mouth watering again?) The kids love it too. I cut it into little bite sized pieces so they can pick it up with their fingers and eat. The first time, I didn’t and my boy took a big bite and gagged afterwards. I had to remove the ooey gluey mooncake which got stuck in the upperside of his mouth. Silly mommy. I should have been more careful. Its a choking risk.

The other thing I want to mention is that much to my amusement, I found in my Google Webmaster Tools’ Query Stats that my Parenting blog keep on coming tops on Google for the following search terms:

tai thong mooncake

tai thong mooncakes

tai thong mooncake

tai thong mooncakes prices.

This is from data gathered and averaged over the last 7 days from all over the world. As for the Malaysian google search its even more amusing.

I’m tops on the search engine for terms like…. tai thong mooncake, tai thong moon cake, tai thong mooncakes, tai thong mooncake discount, tai tong mooncake, how to make a lantern for mooncake festival, mooncake festival song, mooncake tai thong price, tai thong mooncake prices and purple cane mooncake.

How did that happen? Well, I had written about mooncakes back in 2005 and 2006 and although I didn’t specifically mention Tai Thong, my commenters did. Hahaha. (Looks like lots of people want to eat Tai Thong Mooncake hence the search.) So I’m now specifically mentioning Tai Thong on my heading to test out my SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) skills in using keywords to get found on search engines.

After this post, I will search for Tai Thong mooncakes to see how this post competes with my Parenting blog on the search engine. Lol! Somehow the Parenting blog usually comes up higher, I have no idea why. Tai Thong had better pay me for the free advertisement. Maybe they ought to provide me with free boxes of mooncake so that I can eat until I say “No” to mooncakes. Burp!

Oh before I forget, to those search engine visitors who are asking about Tai Thong mooncake price, its average price is around RM9 per mooncake depending on what variety of mooncake you are looking for. The price varies. And to those who are looking for paper lantern crafts, check out my Parenting blog for my post on Paper Lantern Craft for Lantern Festival.

The mooncake battle has begun. I saw it with my own eyes. It started about 2 weeks ago. A little early since Mooncake Festival 2007 or the Mid Autumn Festival isn’t until 25 September 2007 this year.

However, the battle cry has begun. Everyone is joining the battle too. From specialty mooncake makers, to bakeries, hotels, restaurants, ice-cream shops and florists too. May the best packaging win!

At 50sen a bite and more, its certainly a battle worth fighting. Afterall its only once a year. Still, going into battle 2 months before the war seems just a little too early for me. I think I’ll wait a month before tasting my first mooncake. It doesn’t come cheap and its not extremely healthy to consume in large quantities. Lol!