Newsflash:
Miss Japan is Miss Universe 2007!
Most embarrassing moment: Miss USA fell hard on her bum during the evening gown parade! *gasps* Then, for no apparent reason the Mexican crowd started boo-ing at her. *double gasps* Really, that's so rude!

Memorial Day holiday


We slept in. Adrian went for a hair cut and we ended up in Hoboken; home of ol' blue eyes Frank Sinatra.

This chic town was rather quiet today. Most people were out of town due to the long weekend. We found a great parking spot underneath a shady tree and made our way to Washington Street (main street of Hoboken).

My stomach was set on Karma Kafe. Had eyed this particular place for quite sometime :)

Karma Kafe's daily lunch buffet priced at $9.95 per person. This was what I ate. It was good but slightly toned down. Good value for money though. The waiter was very attentive. He could have sought a career in Bollywood too, if not waiting tables *winks*.

After lunch we took a quiet stroll along the tree lined street. If it was a Friday or Saturday night, it would have been heavily populated with the hip & young and bar hoppers alike. Today was calm and everyone looked doe-eyed and happy to soak up the sun. Summer is finally here!


Scenes from the sidewalks...

Warm weather calls for Al-fresco dining

Al-fresco diners and their pets

Nice detailing on the windows of this building

Hoboken City Hall

Scenes from the streets...

Spot the jay-walker, u-huh!

Fast food nation but Hoboken has many restaurants to match the appetite of its colorful inhabitants

Scenes from the Hoboken waterfront

Apart from the usual sun-bathers, there were anglers and those trying to catch a crab or two. No such luck today...

Fishing rods all lined-up with no catch

Carnations at the World War I Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial

Since we already had lunch, we stopped by Satay for some sweet, sweet dessert!

One of the best Malaysian restaurants in New Jersey serving authentic satay, roti canai and many other traditional Malaysian dishes.

I wanted chendol but they ran out of it. *sniffles* Had this peanut pancake instead. Not a bad choice either ;)

Ice-kacang with all the good stuff i.e. attap seeds (nypa fruticans), agar-agar/jelly, grass jelly, red beans, sweet corn bits, etc. inside the shaved ice.

Who could resist Malaysian milk tea with sago pearls (chen-chu nai-char)? Nope. I didn't think so ;)

Overall, it was a very nice and relaxing day for us. But, the long weekend is over. *sigh*

Stocking up Malaysian style

Flushing Mall and the exterior of Melvin's shop

Our friend Melvin is our Malaysian connection for goodies & foodstuff from home. A hard-working and entrepreneurial young man, he recently opened up shop at Flushing Mall in Queens, NY. We paid him a second visit today and stocked up on some Malaysian foodstuff.

Don't be fooled by the shop's small floor space. He has everything a Malaysian might yen for while residing in this land of the free. From durian dodols, marukus, curry powder to Tean's Gourmet pastes & spices; you name it & Melvin is sure to have it. By the way, Tean's Gourmet Crispy Prawn Chili goes very well with dim sum dishes & fried rice.

Some of the stuff we carted away from Melvin's shop - Anglia Shandy, satay fish sticks, ikan panggang (fish flavored snacks), Maggi instant noodles, Maggi chili sauce (spicy), Ngan Yin roasted peanuts & Indomie noodles

Satay fish sticks and Anglia Shandy reminded me of my childhood. When I was young, my Mom (the biggest anti-junk food police) confiscated every tit-bit and snack she could find at home. To prevent us from eating satay fish sticks, she said that those sticks were made out of edible rubber. Yeah, right!! I would buy a few sticks during recess in school. It was sinfully pleasurable to the palate; like eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Anglia Shandy was kiddie beer to us kids, drank to the fullest during Chinese New Year. With only a small percentage of alcohol content, it was good training ground for future, adult beer consumption during university sun downer sessions.

If you wanna stock up, this is Melvin's address:

OK HONG
133-31, 39th. Avenue
Flushing Mall F#9
Flushing, NY 11354

Water

Every once in a while, a good film comes our way and touches our hearts deeply that we think about it every now and then. For my friend Sue, it's Masterpiece Theatre's Jane Eyre. Like her, I am also a Bronte fan and Sue promised that this latest version is the best she's seen so far. I can't wait to get my hands on the DVD. I have placed a request with my local library for it and I should be getting it by next week. Whilst I look forward to this latest version of Jane Eyre, I would like to recommend another film that I saw not too long ago,"Water".



Canadian film maker, Deepa Mehta received death threats and faced many obstacles from Hindu conservatives when filming "Water" but I am glad that she didn't relent. This is a good movie for those who are eager to learn more about other cultures and to fully appreciate the civil liberties we enjoy in this lifetime.

Plus: The lead actors Lisa Ray (Kalyani) and John Abraham (Narayan) are easy on the eyes & you'll be drawn to Kalyani's plight in no time.

However, the center of the film is about a young girl, Chuyia. It is not a chick flick. There's NO twirling around the trees, sprawling on the grass to some "Bollywood" tune but a heavy film with underlying political and social issues affecting India in the 1930s. If you know your history well, you'll recognize which prominent historical figure I am referring to.

Watch it to understand abandonment. Watch it to remind ourselves what it is like to be able to live and love freely. Every now and then we need to see a film like this as a wake up call to our fine and dandy lives which we take for granted ever so often.

"It's a joke & I'm sick of it."

For those of you residing in the East Coast, you're sure to have heard about a morning talk show called The View even if you don't watch it everyday.

When I first saw The View 4 years ago, their opening debate wasn't too bad with Meredith Vieira as moderator. However, it started to get on my nerves after 2-3 weeks. Is it really necessary to put 4 or 5 women on the floor all talking, yakking and blubbering at the same time? It's hard to hear who's saying what and definitely doesn't look professional to me. What an awful din to my ears!

Anyway, things started to go from bad to worse after Meredith left for the Today Show at NBC (she must be thanking her lucky stars!). The two biggest put-offs on the show are Rosie & Elisabeth. One is too self-centered and smart-mouthed for her own good and one has a brain size smaller than a pea. I can't wait for "The View" to be axed because...


This show is not a representation of smart women with relevant opinions on important issues. It's a joke! Barbara Walters, a decorated NY journalist co-created The View probably as something light for her twilight biz-news years. What was she thinking? For years, The View has not been known for anything good but for their scream fest and bitch-like relationships. It's time for The View to end for the sake of all women.

What would arch-enemy the Donald say??? You're ALL fired!

Jala neti

Damn pollens! This year's allergy season is the pits. I've never had a bad allergy reaction until now. When Adrian started using a neti pot to relieve his seasonal allergies, I called it "Aladdin's Lamp". I'm a new convert.

This is a ceramic neti pot that looks very pretty
(of course plastic ones are easier to keep & unbreakable)

This is the type we use:


This yogic nasal cleansing technique has given me a renewed appreciation of the term "breathe well". Aaaah...Did you know that jala neti helps improve your sense of taste as well? Get rid of those boogers and enjoy your food even more. How about that?

Just remember to tilt your head forward and breathe through your mouth when administering the jala neti. Hee..hee! I kinda enjoy watching the liquid pass through my nasal passage and loop out the other side. Morbid but fascinating.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti, people!

Better late than never? Or, why even bother?

My Aunt who is a piano teacher in London admires Argentine pianist, Martha Argerich very much. Argerich has been on a "sabbatical" of some sort and is very aversive towards the press and media. You've to be an ardent fan in order to know where in the world she'll be performing next. Whenever Martha decides to "pop-out" of her hibernation, Carnegie Hall is usually her chosen venue.

More than a year ago, my Aunt asked me for a favor to get her a Martha Argerich autographed postcard. So, my natural choice was the Gift Shop at Carnegie Hall since she has appeared there a few times in the recent years. I sent them an e-mail but there was no response from them. After several weeks, I figured they didn't carry it, anyway. Hence, the rude silence. Spring came and went, summer came and went, fall came and went, winter came and went. And then spring came again...

One May morning, I opened my e-mail and found a reply!

Yes, after 1 year, 2 months and 18 days, Carnegie Hall decided that it was not very nice to leave a potential customer hanging in the air and wrote a reply stating the obvious. The nerve!

Things that I could have done during the time it took them to send a reply:
1. Have a baby
2. Grow my hair long
3. Make another round trip back to M'sia
4. Eat 200 bowls of laksa or kolok kway tiau.

Anyway, you get the idea.

CARNEGIE HALL Gift Shop Customer Service: @!#$*. They didn't even say "SORRY".

A Spring Celebration



Yesterday we finally did something that we should have done years ago. We went to a Pinkster Festival at the Campbell-Christie House in historical New Bridge Landing. Pinkster is a colonial celebration of spring. This is one of the advantages of living in the north eastern seaboard of United States. The four seasons of spring, summer, fall and winter are all unique in its on way with myriad of activities to participate and enjoy.

Folk painting of the New Bridge hamlet
(borrowed from the Bergen Historical Society website)

New Bridge Landing is only 5 minutes away from our apartment in New Milford. New Milford is the birthplace of Bergen County. Bergen sounds Dutch??? Well, it is! But, when the Brits took over from the Dutch, New Amsterdam became New York (named after King George's younger brother, the Duke of York) and Albany became the capital of New York State. Why Albany? The younger brothers of the King of England were traditionally bestowed the titles - Duke of York and Duke of Albany by birthright.

And, NO. I didn't make this up. The local historian a.k.a. Professor Mike gave us a very informative lecture in the tavern at Campbell-Christie House complete with cold lemonade and cookies. Not bad for a lazy Sunday afternoon activity.

The Dutch influence is an important and integral part of Bergen County's local history as evident in the Dutch colonial sandstone houses found in northern New Jersey including the three houses at New Bridge Landing i.e. Campbell-Christie, Demarest and Steuben.

Map of New Bridge Landing

Campbell-Christie House (late 18th. century)
This house was saved from demolition and moved from its original site near the present Wine & Roses store in New Milford to New Bridge Landing. Can you imagine how they moved this 200-ton house for 2 miles across the Hackensack River to its present location?

A May Pole outside the Campbell-Christie House

Clogs and copper ware by the fireplace

A lantern, a plate of walnuts and a nutcracker by the tavern window

A traditional dance performed by costumed dancers with traditional music played by Ridley & Anne Enslow on the fiddle and hammered dulcimer respectively.



Anne sang a Dutch folk song about a woman getting on a horse carriage hence the horses' hooves sound effect ("click, clock, click, clock") produced by Ridley using his little percussion instrument.

Campbell-Christie Out-Kitchen

Fresh produce by the window

Chestnuts and potatoes

Open hearth cooking - carrot stew, perhaps?

Brick oven

Old-fashion crumb cake baked traditionally using the
brick oven (see above) & 18th. century bake ware

We sampled a slice of it and it was divine. Moist and fruity. Delish!!!

Demarest House (18th. century)
According to Professor Mike, this is possibly the oldest house in the whole of New Jersey. Unfortunately, the Demarest and Steuben Houses are closed for restoration as a result of the Nor'Easter flood last month.

Just like the Campbell-Christie House, Demarest House was also dug-up and moved from its original site near the Huguenot or French protestant cemetery (next to the Borough Hall) off River Road at New Milford.


Westervelt-Thomas Barn (mid-18th. century)
This barn was originally in Washington Township. The main frame was brought to New Bridge Landing in 1958.

I could almost picture Clark Kent standing by this barn in Smallville ;)


Steuben House (mid-18th. century)
This is the only house built on New Bridge land. It originally belonged to the Zabriskie family who owned and operated a prosperous grist mill. But, Zabriskie was a loyalist and fled to the British area of Manhattan after escaping arrest.

Zabriskie's house and assets were confiscated and given to Major General Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, a Prussian recruited by Benjamin Franklin to train and prep up the crumbling Continental army during the Revolutionary War. Ironically, Steuben put this house up for auction and sold it back to Zabriskie's son.

During the Nor'Easter storm, the sub-power station opposite Steuben House "exploded" and the House was half submerged in flood waters. A pretty scary situation.

New Bridge Landing (left) and New Bridge (right)

All that is left of New Bridge Landing... site of the grist mill and wharf. The grist mill burned down in the mid-19th. century.

New Bridge on the one hand, played an important role during General Washington's famed 1776 winter retreat. Steuben House was also used as Washington's headquarters. He slept in the House while the emaciated Continental troops camped outside.

Want to know more about New Bridge Landing? Check out:
Bergen County Historical Society

--------------------------------------------------------------

Newsflash: I just read on MSNBC that the Cutty Sark is gone. This prominent British maritime relic was burnt to the ground earlier today!!! I saw this famous tea clipper about 7 years ago in Greenwich. I can't believe it :(

Ethno fusion music

I've been wondering what has become of the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) held every year at the Sarawak Cultural Village since 1997. This year marks their 10th Anniversary. Is it still as popular or has the attendance dwindled? I went to the RWMF twice in the early 2000s and enjoyed their workshops and nightly concerts very much. The last concert I went to was 5 years ago. Unfortunately, I didn't like the rowdiness of the crowd. I began to wonder if people were really enjoying the multi-cultural blend of music or getting intoxicated from alcohol and delusional on "something".

One of the local acts that stood out was Tuku Kame's Jerry Kamit. During the concert, he played an amplified sape or sapeh with such agility and versatility; blending both traditional and modern tunes. Anyway, here's a music video I found on You Tube with Jerry playing to a song entitled "Our Rainforest." The song is very upbeat and catchy although I am a little bit apprehensive about him standing so near the pounding waves. Spoilers: Jerry's string-less sapeh & his tie-dyed out-fit. *sniggers* Overall, it's not bad really ;) No doubt, he's very musically talented. Ethno fusion music is pretty cool.

"A series of unfortunate events"
(Thank you Lemony S. for writing this book!)

April/May is turning out to be the "darn-est things happen to me" month.

Here's the rundown:

#1
During my road trip, I managed to get myself stuck in the bathroom in the middle of the night. Trust me, if this happens to you, you'll never take another night pee for granted. Of all the days, the doorknob decided to pull a fast one on me and jammed up. Somehow the latch on the door knob got stuck in the door recess and would not move when turning the doorknob. After a few jiggles, the knob stopped turning all together. The phrase "dead as a doorknob" keeps playing in my head these days. Is it possible to have doorknob phobia?

#2
Took a miscalculated step outside my apartment and fell at an awkward position; resulting in a swollen ankle and bruised toes. A possibility that I was "sleep-walking" that morning.

#3
Forgot to take my ATM card out of the machine over the weekend. I had to retrieve it from the bank/teller this morning. Is it possible to be such a ditz?

#4
Unknowingly deleted some e-mail messages that didn't even belong to me! I thought I was logged into my account and found some weird senders. Hmm, I don't know these people and proceeded to delete them off one by one. As I moved the cursor to "log out", I discovered that I was logged in as "_ _ _ _". Oops..! At this point, the phrase, "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing" rings true. Or should it be the brain doesn't know what the right hand is doing???

If the list reaches #10, I might need some help breaking this spring jinx! I'll make myself lunch and remember to throw some salt over my left shoulder ;) Or perhaps, it's time to use my "oculus malus". I've had it for a while, a gift from my friend's travels around the Mediterranean/Aegean regions.

Mother's Day 2007

For the three mothers in my life;
my Grandma, Mama and Ee Ee/Godmother.

This is my tribute to you. I'm not a poet so no soapy poems ;). Just a "Happy Mother's Day" message straight from the heart and with lots of love on this special day.
~xoxo~

My husband's roots

Adrian must be wondering when I would write something about his Pa's hometown. Well, today is The Day. Pa will be coming to see us in 3 weeks. A 24 hour journey isn't easy for any traveler; and more so for a senior traveler. We'll see how bad his jet-lag is when he arrives on May 31st. Hopefully not too severe coz we have a fury of activities lined up for you, Pa :)

Adrian's grandfather was a pepper farmer in Serian. A large number of his relatives still live there with the exception of an uncle, two aunts & his Pa who moved down to Kuching City many moons ago.

A short paragraph about Serian for newbies:
Serian is a district in the Samarahan Division; about 40 miles/64 kms south-west from Kuching City. Agriculture is the main economic activity here. During the weekends, this town is bustling with locals going up to the Indonesian border of Tebedu to score some cheap Indonesian (West Kalimantan) crafts and produce.

When we're back in Kuching, we usually spend half a day on Sunday at Uncle Simon's coffee shop. Uncle Simon is the youngest in Pa's family.

One of our favorite thing to do is check-out the market nearby. Adrian is usually stuck at the osphronemus goramy stall for a while. Goramy?? Kaloi, lah! Such a fish enthusiast, he is.

Some of the typical stuff you see at the wet and dry market in Serian :)


For those of you who don't know what this contraption is (see below), it is a coconut grater. The coconut tree is also known as "the tree with a thousand purpose" or in Malay "pokok seribu guna". Coconut water makes a delightful thirst-quencher on a hot day. Grated coconut & coconut milk is commonly used in many local dishes and this machine preps the white flesh for cooking.

Plugged to an electrical socket, it grates the white flesh into fine "hairs" in seconds.

Scenes from my [early] childhood: Grandma or my maid, the late Ah Nee (Bless her soul!) sitting on a low bench type thing; grating away in the kitchen. A manual coconut grater! Yup, no such thing as an automated grater back in those "dark ages". Tip: manually grated coconut yields a fluffier finish than automatically grated ones. Better for Nyonya cakes like ondeh-ondeh.

This is how it looks like - I'm trying my best to draw it for y'all ;)

Manual grater vs. the automated one (see above)

Anyone still has this traditional coconut grater at home? I must remember to take a nice photo of it when I go back next time. I've used it many times when Ah Nee wasn't in the kitchen, hovering round by back in case I grate my own fingers. Those jagged edges - very, very sharp indeed! A lesson well-learned. Shhh....ok?!

L'amour Pepe non tasse de the pour moi???

For the past week, I've been haunted by a certain anal scent that has been lingering around. It goes on and off depending on where the originator is. It started one night while we were walking back to our apartment. The odor preceded the little critter. We soon chanced upon a "Pepe Le Pew" sniffing about his business in the nearby bushes. LUCKILY, Pepe didn't use his 15cc of natural sulfur on us. Pheew..!

There was an overwhelming whiff of anal scent again this morning. I have a feeling that Pepe is a she after all. It's spring time and "Penelope" skunk could be lurking around for a den to raise her kits. Let's hope that this isn't the case. If she decides to hide out in the boiler room at the basement, then skunk control may be needed.

Touche Pepe?