Jayden gets Baptised!!

Jayden (Jude) got baptised on the 19th October at 12.15pm at Queen of Peace church. It was fantastic. Weather was great, Dad and Aunts were around to witness the whole thing. Here are some pictures....

(Jayden just before the christening....heee..having a nap in the car)


(Jayden just inside the church before the christening..looking refreshed after his nap)


(Jayden getting baptised)


(Jayden taking a breather after the baptism in his tuxedo printed romper..heee..shoes courtesy of Auntie Tina!)


(Makan after the baptism..heee..we had sweet 'n' sour pork, winter melon soup, curry chicken, fried rice, stewed pork belly, cashew nut chicken....all cooked by my Aunt... YUM YUM YUM)

Teeth!!

For the past 4 days, Jayden has been having very bad nights. He would wake up screaming and not settle down. He would also wake up just about every hour. The days are not much better. He would be clingy, would not play on his own and would cry everytime I put him down. Not eating well too. Was wondering what happened..if he had suddenly developed a bad case of stranger anxiety. Then the root of all that became apparent when I saw TEETH!!!!! 2 of them...little bubba has TEETH!!!!!!! heee..today..he is feeling so much better..smiling and happy to be alone...hee hee...Thank goodness that was just a short thing...I am hoping I don't have to go through every time he sprouts new tooth though..and no chance of a pic..wouldnt open his mouth at all for me to see....

Cookies...hmmmmmmmmmm

heee...my friend Tina...she send me cookies from Singapore from this place called The Cookie Museum...they have all these cool local flavors like ikan bilis, laksa, nasi lemak etc and they come in a pretty box...heard from her they have like american brekkie flavor also..hee hee...tried to access their website... #^%$^$##^$^...horrid horrid website...http://www.thecookiemuseum.com/...please la...this kind of website just IRKS me...what is the point of the website..NOTHING on it..NADA..cannot even click to get in...then again..if I got it wrong..I apologize before I get a call from their laywer..but seriously...U COOKIE MUSEUM PEOPLE...CAN U HEAR ME????!?!?!!!!!...


Tried the Laksa one...not too bad..but I do not think I can eat too much....Abit jelat after awhile...heee..when I go back..I want to try their Cran Lychee flavour since I loved Lychee...but at 30 - 50 sg a tin..I better eat all the sample worth and consider seriously which flavors to buy..hee hee...actually just greedy want to try everything..heee..

Popiah

Made Popiah over the weekend..my mum's recipe....really isn't hard to make...but a lot a lot of work..all the chopping and cutting..sheesh..woke up at 6am to do..and only completed making at around 12ish...the taste....simply divine..if I may say so myself..hee

Ingredients for Popiah:
7 big turnips (bang guang), peeled and shredded
8 medium carrots, peeled and shredded
2kg prawns
1 1/5 cups of dried shrimps, soaked and chopped up
4 tbsp of heaped garlic
1 cup oil
12 chinese sausages (lap cheong), steamed and cut into small thin strips
1 dozen eggs, hard boiled and chopped into small pieces
1 iceburg lettuce, peeled and washed
half kg bean sprouts, tail removed and blanched in hot water
ground roasted peanuts
sweet Popiah sauce
Popiah chilli (see below for recipe)
60 Popiah wrappers
dark soy sauce
light soy sauce

1. Add prawns to pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and once prawns are cooked, off the fire. Shell prawns and remove vein. Chop into small pieces. Put liquid through strainer, retaining the liquid.
   
2. Add oil and garlic to wok. Fry till fragrant.
3. Add dried shrimps. Fry till fragrant.
4. Alternate between adding the turnips, carrots and liquid from the prawns. Keep frying until vegetables are tender.
5. Add dark soy sauce and light soy sauce to taste.
6. Using the Popiah wrappers, add lettuce, bean sprouts, ground peanuts, chinese sausages, prawns, eggs, sweet Popiah sauce, Popiah chilli and turnip and carrot mixture (don't forget to drain the mixture) to it and roll it up as you would a spring roll.

Popiah chilli Ingredients:
10 red chilli
4 chilli padi
8 cloves of garlic
sugar to taste
oil

1. Put chilli, chilli padi and garlic in food processor and blend. Add sugar to taste and oil to make a smooth paste.
   

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad

I like the way this book is written. It's easy to read and the characters are interesting. The main character in the book - Sultan...despite all the knowledge he gained by reading, I feel that he learned nothing from them. He rules his household with an iron fist and yet it seems that everything is still out of his control. A good view of how the Afghan people live. A society caught in between the modern world and it's tradition is how I feel.

From Publishers Weekly
After living for three months with the Kabul bookseller Sultan Khan in the spring of 2002, Norwegian journalist Seierstad penned this astounding portrait of a nation recovering from war, undergoing political flux and mired in misogyny and poverty. As a Westerner, she has the privilege of traveling between the worlds of men and women, and though the book is ostensibly a portrait of Khan, its real strength is the intimacy and brutal honesty with which it portrays the lives of Afghani living under fundamentalist Islam. Seierstad also expertly outlines Sultan's fight to preserve whatever he can of the literary life of the capital during its numerous decades of warfare (he stashed some 10,000 books in attics around town). Seierstad, though only 31, is a veteran war reporter and a skilled observer; as she hides behind her burqa, the men in the Sultan's family become so comfortable with her presence that she accompanies one of Sultan's sons on a religious pilgrimage and witnesses another buy sex from a beggar girl-then offer her to his brother. This is only one of many equally shocking stories Seierstad uncovers. In another, an adulteress is suffocated by her three brothers as ordered by their mother. Seierstad's visceral account is equally seductive and repulsive and resembles the work of Martha Gellhorn. An international bestseller, it will likely stand as one of the best books of reportage of Afghan life after the fall of the Taliban.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Little Smart Jayden

I was concern about Jayden not pooping for the past 8 days and so I called the maternal health nurse and post my concern to her...apparently they can go without pooping for up to 3 weeks....but he was farting alot and I was so sure that it was going be pretty soon...and when he does poop..it's going to be something not unlike the Olympic fireworks....I wasn't too far off with my prediction...

At childcare today, Jayden actually had...according to the childcare worker...an "EXPLOSION" hahahahahahahaha....apparently it was so much that she had to bathe him...hahahahaa...poor gal...I hope she did not have to go for a shower as well....but how smart is he...knowing that mummy just dread the thought of cleaning his 8 days worth of poop....he left it for someone else to do it...hahaha... :)

Ski Trip at Falls Creek

Went for Ski Trip last weekend with a couple of friends at Falls Creek....we stayed in Bright at this place called The Odd Frog...

....did not look impressive from the outside..but was pleasantly surprised at how cosy it was inside....

now..this place does not have central heating...only a wood fireplace...all was fine and dandy while we were still awake...but imagine how cold it got at night when the fire died out...hahahaha...poor Thomas was trying to light the fireplace at 2am with frozen fingers......

Went up to the mountains the next day....Thomas tried snowboarding(failed miserably...MWHAHAHAHA...he said his body went into spasm everytime he stood up) and I just hung around with Jayden waiting for them to finish skiing...all because I did not do my research...they actually have childcare there....I could have gone skiing..but who am I kidding..I hate to ski....I have more fun watching my toenails grow...which I did....but it was not a totally boring trip for me...heee...had my first try at tobogganing...screamed so much...that I lost my voice...contrary to what Thomas would have told you about the amount of chocolate I ate....heee...

But I have to admit that the best part of the trip was playing dress up with Jayden..hahahahahaha..I have NEVER seen such a small snow suit and snow boots for babies.....