Please meet Aki-chan and Haru-chan

Sigh.. I have been stuck in this meeting since 9am this morning and it is already 4pm... no chance to really post anything or read many blogs today. Since it is tea break now and the cakes are not that great, I decided to rummage through some old pictures on the thumb drive and realized that I never got to introduce my 2 furry friends, Aki-chan and Haru-chan. In Japanese, Aki means Autumn and Haru means Spring.

When they first arrived, Haru-chan (above) and Aki-chan

This is them today - Haru-chan is on the left and the other is Aki-chan

They are (sorry, "were" is the operative word here) 2 dwarf rabbits and when i got them, they were only 5 months old. And they were like two balls of fur. It has been almost 3 months already and they have grown quite a lot.. and eating me to the poor house sob sob. They are not that dwarfish any more. In fact they are quite big. The male (Aki-chan) is slightly smaller than the female (Haru-chan) for the time being but I think in time to come, they will both be heavy-weights. Apparently they are not related, hence, no incest case here. However, there is very little hope for baby bunnies as according to several rabbit breeders that I spoke to, it is very difficult to bread this species of bunnies... sigh...not too into the "go forth and multiply" sort. Never mind lah.. these 2 are already eating me out of house and home.. any addition, I cannot imagine...haha.

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A Hybrid Pao

I was chatting with Babe at lunch one day about this absolutely yummy pao (I think it is called Wor Pao) that I use to have many years ago. My late dad buys them from a kopitiam somewhere near Sentul (I think) each time we make a trip to Genting Highlands. The pao is actually a hybrid pao as it has the usual chicken fillings (sang yoke) but topped with a steam cake. Since the development of Sentul area, the kopitiam does not exist anymore.

Babe told me that she has seen another type of hybrid pao where they have the loh mai kai fillings inside a pao. Wow, best of two worlds hor. Anyways, last weekend, as I was at Taman OUG in Old Klang Road getting a special type of dog food for the mutts at home, I passed by a kopitiam which has that pao steamer at the front of the shop. I saw something which almost resembled that sort of pao I was telling Babe. Asked the owner of the kopitiam the name of this pao. But she could only speak Mandarin and being the worse type of banana person, can only understand Cantonese. Could not make out what she said at all. It has char siew (bbq pork) fillings and she claims that the top bit is Malai Kou (which looks like normal steam cake to me). Anyway, got one to see if it tastes ok. Costs RM1.80 for one.



Verdict : Average only. This could be due to the very little char siew filling at the bottom. Ended up only with a mouthful of pao/flour. The original Wor Pao I had was brimming with fillings. So, the search continues for my elusive Wor Pao.

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How to choose which movie to watch?

There are so many interesting shows in the cinemas at the moment and the choices were quite varied. I actually wanted to go watch Vantage Point but didn't realize that when a movie is running its last leg at the cinemas, their show times are very limited. After dinner, I went out with a friend to Sunway Pyramid TGV hoping to catch Vantage Point but found out that there was only one show and if I am not mistaken, it already showed at 6:45pm. Oh well, maybe I'll just have to get the DVD for that.

Since we are there already, might as well choose something else to watch. We went through the screening times... haha.. you guessed it. We actually selected the movie to watch based on the most convenient screening time, and not the show it self. There was Spiderwick Chronicles (but tickets were all sold out except for the 11:55pm show, an it was only 9:10pm..sigh..), Ah Long Pte Ltd (9:20pm but it is in Hokkien....mmm), Horton Hears a Who (9:20pm), Minotaur (9:20am but the ticketing guy told us that his friends saw it and definitely do not recommend it...SIGH!)...so, never mind, the people in the queue is already throwing dagger stares at us...decided to take a chance on 10,000BC.

It turned out pretty interesting, at least for me. The critics (extract from Wikipedia) were reportedly to have given this movie terrible reviews. Rotten Tomatoes has reported that 9% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 83 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 37 out of 100, based on 25 reviews .

Main lead -Steven Strait as D'Leh, a mammoth hunter.

Main Lead - Camilla Belle as Evolet, D'Leh's love and the survivor of a different tribe that was killed by the "four legged demons". While kidnapped, her hand was whipped, forming a scar in the shape of the "hunter"

One of the supporting leads - the Sabre Tooth Tiger

The photos were obtained from The Internet Movie Database site.

At least the scenery shots must have been its saving grace ... the barren land, the thick snow caps, the lush tropical forest and the never ending desert. Actually, not bad lah.. I would have given it a 7 1/2 out of 10.

10,000 BC

Rate: ( U )

Language: English

Run Time: 110mins

Director: Roland Emmerich

Cast:

Camilla Belle, Steven Strait, Cliff Curtis, Omar Sharif, Reece Ritchie, Tim Barlow.

In a remote mountain tribe, the young hunter, D'Leh (Steven Strait), has found his heart's passion -- the beautiful Evolet (Camilla Belle). When a band of mysterious warlords raid his village and kidnap Evolet, D'Leh is forced to lead a small group of hunters to pursue the warlords to the end of the world to save her. Driven by destiny, the unlikely band of warriors must battle saber-tooth tigers and prehistoric predators and, at their heroic journey's end, they uncover a Lost Civilization. Their ultimate fate lies in an empire beyond imagination, where great pyramids reach into the skies. Here they will take their stand against a powerful god who has brutally enslaved their people.

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Are Good Speakers Born? or Made?

Is a person born to be a good speaker or does he/she trains to be one? Actually I do not have the answer to this question. I was just viewing this video off YouTube and was recalling some previous interviews by some of our members of Parliament not too long ago. All individuals interviewed were interviewed in English and none of them could claim that English is their mother tongue. But how is it that these two can speak clearly, articulately and makes sense, whereas the others (I am sure most of you will know who I am referring to without naming names heehee) mumbled, stumbled and cannot make cow sense (no offense to the cows here). Thank goodness at least one of them probably may not be exposed to more interviews any time soon (phew!)

Judge for yourself...

Riz Khan - Malaysia's election tsunami - 12 Mar 08





CNN InterviewS PM Abdullah in Davos 2008 - 25 Jan 08





ZAM -- Al Jazeera Phone Interview with Zam - 10 Nov 07





HardTalk | Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar | Sarah Montague 3

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Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins

I just got this email from a friend after lunch I just want to share it with you...

Cancer News from Johns Hopkins

1. No Plastic Containers in Microwave Ovens

2. No Water Bottles in the Freezer
3. No Plastic Wrap in the Microwave Oven


A dioxin chemical causes cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic.

.

Recently, Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital, was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. This especially applies to foods that contain fat.

He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body...

Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food... You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else.

Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc.

He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons...

Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead

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Kena TAGged and so happy wor

I was so busy with work this morning that I only got to open my own blog like now (almost lunch liow) and saw a message on the ChatBox from Cooking Momster (SueSue) telling me that she tagged me...wah...happy lah heehee.. Cooking Momster is one of my news blog friends and I was so excited to see what she Tagged me with.

She wanna know what I think about her leh, amongst other things.

Hee Hee… here it goes.

A) LIST OUT THE TOP 5 PRESENTS YOU WISH FOR :-

1. Enough Money (so that I don't have to work and can blog the whole day)
2. A new Job that brings work satisfaction
3. Sigh.. with money.. anything else will no longer be an issue hor :)
4. Good health (which money cannot buy)
5. Love (which sometimes money can buy..haha..don't slap me for that)

B) THE PERSON WHO TAGGED ME IS: SueSue

C) YOUR 5 IMPRESSIONS OF HIM/HER:

1. Fantastic Cook
2. Loving Mum to her 2 kiddos
3. Wonderful Wife to her hubby
4. Good sense of Humor
   
5. Friendly

D) MOST MEMORABLE THINGS HE/SHE HAS GIVE/DONE FOR YOU
-shared so many lovely recipes on her blog...hugz

E) THE MOST MEMORABLE WORDS HE/SHE SAID TO YOU
- when she said she wants to link me ...double hugz

F) IF HE/SHE BECOMES YOUR LOVER, YOU WILL
- heehee.. we are both straight wor...

G) IF HE/SHE BECOMES YOUR ENEMY, THE REASON WILL BE
- Never Ever...why.. coz FOOD (& Love) makes this world go round

Now I would like to know from my new blogger friends, what they think about me...

A Tale of Two Superheroes

Raising Mercury

Shadow Pimpernel

Codename:Dreams

Joy of a Homemaker

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Chocolate Cheese Cake

Finally, this set of lazy bones have typed the recipe of the Chocolate Cheese Cake which was mentioned in this older post. I love the cooking part, but I hate the documenting part. That is why I decided to force myself to do it by creating a new blog just to log all the recipes down. If you want to check out the recipe, then you'll have to click here :).

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