A long long journey home

Aisehman ...time really flies . It was like 9 days since my last post. Okay a quick recatch of what happened in the last 9 days.

24th Dec ( UK time) - left Burnley to Manchester via so many towns like Accrington, Bacup, Blackburn, Bury and Bolton. Reaching Manchester National Express station at Chorlton street at 12.15 p.m

24th Dec ( UK time ) - Reach Manchester airport at 12. 45 pm .


After deciding to cancel our stay at Holiday Inn Manchester Airport, we rough it out for the night at Manchester airport by sleeping on these pink cushion chairs


instead of hotel beds which will save us RM 500. We were not alone, they are many others who also rough it out at the airport with us since there was no transport to the airport on Christmas and Boxing Day unless you hire a taxi which will cost GBP 70 !! At least we are fully equipped with bread and chicken for the night. One ang-moh char boh was so hungry cos all the shops at the airport was closed that I spare her some Christmas ginger cake of mine

25thDec ( Uk time) left UK @ 8 pm for Dubai by Emirates Airline

26th Dec ( Dubai time) - reached Dubai @ 6.50 am .

26th Dec ( Dubai time ) - left Dubai for Kuala Lumpur via Changi airport

26th Dec ( Singapore time) - reach Singapore transit hall @8.40 pm

26th Dec ( Singapore time) - left Changi airport @ 9.20 pm for Kuala Lumpur

26th Dec ( Malaysia time) - reack KLIA @9.55 pm

- stayed another night at KLIA

27th Dec ( Malaysia time) - left LCCT @ 7.40 pm for Kuching

27th Dec 10.30pm reached home after being away for 1 month and 12 days........

28th Dec - attended the staff meeting @8 am ,

registration and collecting fees of students @9.45 am till 11.45 am

Thanks to the red wine and beer on Emirates airline to overcome those jetlag or else I will need 2 toothpicks to keep my eyes open during those 2 sessions.

Yearbook of Enlightenment 2008

Was reading this interesting book :

Like to share some of the very interesting quotes that I found in that book, since these are quotes that you and me always say and use.

From the way of Mrs Cosmopilite

1. Mrs Cosmopilite says:

If the wind changes, your face will stay like that.

The correct answer is : Like what?

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2. Mrs Cosmopilite says:

Do you think this is a hotel? You just come here only to sleep.

This one always catches Ms C.'s paying guests by surprise.

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3.Mrs Cosmopilite says:
Do as I say, not as I do

The acolyte responds: How do you do?
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4. Mrs Cosmopilite says:
Enough is Enough

The seeker of wisdom says: And?
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5. Mrs Cosmopilite says
Don't you have anything better to do?

The acolyte responds: I will leave and smell the cherry blossom.
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6.Mrs Cosmopilite says
How many times do I have to tell you?

The acolyte responds: One more time.
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7.Mrs Cosmopilite says
I can always tell when you're lying

The wise man says: There is no truth.
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8. Mrs Cosmopilite says
I'm not going to ask you again

The correct response is silence
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9. Mrs Cosmopilite says
If I've told you once.......I've told you a million times

The wise man says; A million is mostly zeroes
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10. Mrs Cosmopilite says
If you don't stop crying, I am going to give you something to cry about.

The seeker says: This does not move us forward.
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11.Mrs Cosmopilite says
When I was your age, I had to walk ten miles through the snow, uphill, by myself, every day, to go to school.

The acolyte says: Did you really live less than a day's journey from a school?
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12. Mrs Cosmopilite says
If you can't say something nice,don't say anything at all.

The seeker says: Why is it so quiet in here?
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13. (My favourites)
Mrs Cosmopilite says
Go to your room and think about what you have done.

Hu-lin was discovered in a mummified state by Mrs C.'s having gone to his room 3 years previously to think about what he did and never returned, having become engrossed. He had achieved enlightenment but not lunch...hahaha

Source: Yearbook of Enlightenment 2008

Let's talk turkey!

This is the time of the year where you can find turkey of all sizes and types in supermarkets:

- whole turkey, small, medium, large and extra large

- turkey crowns- turkeys with legs removed, to save space in oven and freezer

- turkey joints- whole pieces of breast meat off the bone

I was looking for a ready roast small size turkey at Tesco, Sainsbury's and ASDA but I cannot find any. I am not going to roast one even though there are so many uncooked one at the supermarket since roasting a turkey will take at least 3 to 4 hours and calculating the amount of gas ( kitchen's oven is a gas oven ) used is not worth it at all and gas is expensive in UK.

Then I found this :

When opened up, it looks this big - 700g at 99p which is less than RM 7. It is an extra huge drumstick. I know it is cheap because ang-moh love breast and not thigh. Actually most Chinese love thigh meat better since thigh meat are much tender than breast meat.
It was so huge that I needed to debone it which is quite easy, or else it will not fit into those bachelor's cooking pot here. Then I season it with whatever seasonings I can find in that bachelor's kitchen, organic honey, soy sauce, salt, left over mulled wine boiled with clementines( those small red oranges), big onion, extra virgin oil, hot chilli powder, pepper . Easy , just dump everything into the pot with potatoes of course, and cook for half an hour.Then take out from pot and grill in oven for 20 minutes. That's it, done.
Then cook a packet of roast turkey gravy with the stock and pour over the grilled turkey. Delicious and yummy.
For soup, boil water, put in one chicken stock ( haha, brought from Sarawak) then dump in those fresh mushroom ( 50p for a big packet since it is in season now), carrots( 29p for a big bag too and very cheap and fresh here) beans, broccoli and cauliflower.
Then put these mini rolls in oven and grill with the turkey
Behold another meal for the day. Hohoho..with turkey drumstick as star of the dinner.

Hohoho Merry Christmas

Saw this real horse carriage in town yesterday . Taking photos is a real challenge here because the bright sun is right at the back of the carriage but never mind we still manage to take some nice photos.

How cold is cold?

The first question that my MSN friends and buddies at home always ask is what is the temperature? cold kah?
The temperature now is -4 degrees Celsius. To tell you it is cold, you will only know that it is cold. Hence during our daily walk to town yesterday I took these photos to show folks at home how cold is cold.

1. This is how all cars outside the house look like in the morning. The water on the car's roof top and the windscreen has frozen so before driving they all need to scrape off that thick layer of ice. We are thinking why not just take hot water from the tap and pour it over, isn't that a faster way to melt the ice?




2. Fresh frozen leaves.
3. Dry frozen leaf
4. This is how the green patch of grass looks like.
5. There is even ice on the road, good for ice-skating hor. Mind you it can be very slippery when you walk on it. Talking about ice on road, when we were on our way back from London , we saw many of those blinking signs saying: "Accidents ahead" and then" Gritting in process "and we were wondering apa itu gritting? We were joking that we should sms Mary Wee, my buddy , an English teacher to ask her apa itu gritting since we were in the coach and there is no way to check the meaning of that word. Can't blame me lar cos my English teacher last time never teach me that word. Haha, I know you also don't know the meaning of that word too, right? If you don't know , go and check it out yourself hor.

6.See so cold that even dogs are wearing thick baju!!

Christmas Food

Christmas is just a few more day away and everybody is busy.

Helen is posting about her Christmas presents,

Keeyit is posting about her Christmas presents and Christmas tree

Maverick is posting about Christmas news and Santa Claus

hence I need to be busy too hor, so I am posting about Christmas food here. I am just back from ASDA and bought these:

Gingerbread man ( of all the things, this student of mine wants me to buy ginger breadman for her so now I have to stick a big FRAGILE sign on it so else it will become gingerly powder when I reach Kuching.)




Toad in the hole which is basically sausage in pastry casing. GBP1 for 12 of those.


Christmas Yule log which has a coating of nice creamy chocolate around the whole yule log. GBP 1 per log.


Lamb shank which looks exactly ike the picture


And Christmas pudding of course:

Petronas Twin tower sky bridge

Do you know that you all can visit that skybridge that connects the two towers for free?

When we were in KL before we flew over to Manchester .since we are staying in Mandarin Oriental and being so near to KLCC we went to Petronas Twin Tower to look look , see see. Then we saw a notice saying that visitiors can visit the skybridge for free. Just need to line up when the counter opens at 9am then get your ticket according to the time you want. For us we choose the 6.30pm which was also the last trip up to the Skybridge for the day.


Got Yellow Box some more at the queuing up place:

So go early to line up if you don't want to see this sign . The best time to collect your tickets is 9 am .This photo was taken when we went back at 6.15pm.

Surprisingly a lot of ang-mohs were lining up for the free trips too. Sometimes these foreigners know more free things than us local here.




When it is our turn we were all given this 3D specs and a pass each. The 3D specs was for viewing the montage presented by Petronas to inform us of what Petronas has done for the country and for the people of Malaysia. Quite an impressive show, short and effective - 7 minutes show.



Now before we entered that lift that brought us up to the skybridge, humans and all baggages are checked like at the Airport. Maybe they don't want people to go up there with weapons or bombs.

This is what we saw when we came out from the lift at 47th Floor, or is it 42nd?


Briefing at the skybridge:
Go so high up , sure must take photos hor? Or else where got people know you have been to Skybridge le!


View from Skybridge:






Since they kept my laptop in their locker , I was given this locker tag to claim back my luggage .

Model showing the skybridge that connects the 2 towers.

Nice trip to the Skybridge. Must try if you do come to KLCC , afterall it is FREE.