My office on Monday (Aug 29'11)
by Adrian

I called in my office's emergency hotline and got a message there would be a delayed opening. Needless did I know no way in hell the office could be opened. See for yourself....! Do you think it is possible? At the end, they decided to close the office.


Anyway, things are getting back to normal now. Unfortunately, I do know some colleagues in the office still clearing their basement or trees that fell on their house as we speak. We really considered ourselves very lucky to sustained only puddle of water in the basement. Thank you for your prayers and well wishes.

Sunday morning (Hurricane Irene Day)
by Adrian

As expected our basement has water in a few spots. The unexpected one was our storage room. I have to remove all the stuffs in the room as the carpet was soaking wet. Also, the window well facing the front yard was almost flooded with rain water. I had to scoop out the water using a bucket. See for yourself, the damages caused by hurricane Irene.

Water seeping through the ground (I assuming due to the water table rising)

Discovered carpet soaked with water after removing the stored items

After relocating the items from the storage room, the basement looks like a war-zone

Our backyard's view from the side window

Front yard

Debris on the main street

Good thing it is over as hurricane Irene changed her coast slightly. Or else we probably be in the direct hit. That being said, we still have to be careful as the ground is soggy and the trees are prone to fall even with a faint wind blowing. At least, the worst is over for now. Please continue to pray for us....!

Side note: Juan, our contractor has just arrived to inspect the damages in our basement. He gave us a few proposals. Unfortunately, either way we still have to drain cash from our emergency fund. Sob sob...! For those of you who feel very generous, please feel free to donate to our "Hurricane Irene" rebuilding fund. I do have a paypal account so if you would like to donate. My pay-pal email is aycy@lycos.com. He he...!

Eve-Hurricane Irene August 27, 2011
by Adrian

It has been raining for almost two hours and it does not look good as certain areas might be flooded. Surprisingly, Shoprite (regular grocery store) and New Kim Fung (Chinese store) were not that packed. Unfortunately, the UHT milk Parmalat has been sold out. We do have milk but it is the refrigerated type. Hopefully, we won't have a power outage. The TV and radio stations have been doing a very good job in telling people to stock up essential stuffs just in case the worse happens. For example, water, batteries, flash lights, weather radio, and basic food. As you can see we are doing our share.

Flash lights and battery operated radio

Water, pastry, baby formula, and Indomie, curry paste and laksa paste

Our backyard taken at 8.20pm

Channel 7 ABC live weather report at 8.41pm

The latest forecast in our area for tomorrow is "Hurricane Irene; torrential rain and strong winds; heavy tropical rainfall will lead to flooding". You could check the status of our local weather by clicking to "AccuWeather" or go www.accuweather.com and type 07666 click go.

Stay tune fore more updates...!

Earthquake Tremors in NJ. What's next? Hurricane?
by Adrian

We have earthquakes in California, hurricanes in Florida and tornadoes in the Midwest. It didn't occurred to us we would experience similar natural disasters. But we did. At least one for now.

It was a regular day on August 23, 2011 around 1.50pm. I was in my cubicle drafting an email to one of my customers. Suddenly, my co-workers in the office started asking, "do you feel that?". I did not pay attention to them at first as I was concentrating on my email. And then I started to hear steel beams clinking and I felt the floor was swaying back and forth. I told myself this is definitely not a good sign. Without any hesitation, we quickly proceeded to our safety zone in the parking lot. People were panicking not knowing what had happened. And then someone said there was an Earthquake in Virginia and somehow it shook New Jersey as well.

The Record-Front Page

Metro-Front Page

Northeasters like us are not used to earthquakes, hurricane and tornadoes. We do have storms but nothing this big. Good thing everything is back to normal within half hour or so. Just so we thought. Guess what...! That evening we have a weather forecast saying that a category 3 hurricane will be sweeping through the area in a few days time. It is forecast-ed to arrive on Sunday in our area.

Live tracker from MSNBC

To prepare for the worst scenario, I started stocking up the essential stuffs. As I was looking for size D batteries at the grocery store, I already noticed people have started to flock to the premise as well. Unfortunately, the entire shelf of size D batteries for flash lights has been emptied. I suppose I am not the only one thinking of batteries. Well at least, we already have the essential items we needed to survive in case of emergency.

Please pray for us and wish us luck. Stay tune for more update.

Ka Chang Ma

Today is Sunday and as usual, it's a cooking day for me. I try to whip up a dish that would last a few days so that Adrian doesn't have to do heavy cooking on week days. Since I come home late most days due to the long commute from NYC, Adrian would have to put on his "Top Chef" hat in the evenings. I am lucky to have a very capable chef at home :)

Ka Chang Ma is one of those dishes that keeps well. It is a traditional Chinese chicken herb dish served to women post pregnancy and very common in my hometown. The herb is Chinese motherwort or its scientific name - leonurus sibiricus, and honestly, it's not easy to eat. As a young girl, I never liked it. I would scrape the herbs of the chicken before eating ka chang ma. Why would anyone eat something that smell vile and reek with alcohol?! The latter might be an incentive to revisit the dish every now and then... lols! Well, I've come a long way and have acquired the taste of ka chang ma. Since its days as a post-natal dish, folks have started eating ka chang ma as a regular food and has become a local delicacy in my home town.

The MAIN ingredient although also know as "Little M...." is NOT to be confused with another herb which recently became legal for medicinal purposes in NJ!

Prep chicken & fresh ginger (pounded & squeezed - save the juice for later).

Heat the herb until it's fragrant but not too brown, otherwise your dish will taste bitter.

Stir-fry ginger pulp until fragrant - set aside.

Stir-fry chicken pieces & add ginger juice.

Add the herb and ginger pulp.

My Holy Trinity of cooking wine - 2 types of rice wine & Sherry for sweetness. Amen!

Transfer to a crock-pot and cook on low for another hour until chicken becomes tender and all the herb & wine is fully infused in the meat.

VOILA!