World of Anime.

Before I start to blah blah............. Happy Mederka Folks! It's the 50th and going strong... so keep it up! "Gemilangku Malaysia"

I have been following the series of Naruto since 2 years ago... and still keep on doing so. I would say this is one of my favourite anime so far. The main character, Naruto Uzumaki, is a loud, hyperactive, unpredictable adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition, as well as to become Hokage, acknowledged as the leader and strongest of all ninja in the village. The above picture is Sakura Haruno, one of Naruto's acquaintance. Well this is their sensei Kakashi Hatake, The name "Kakashi" can be written in kanji as 案山子, which means "scarecrow". Kakashi is one of my favourite character in the manga and also Sasuke Uchiha as well who is also one of Naruto's acquaintance. If you would like to have a peep at this anime you can check this link: http://www.crunchyroll.com/showseries?id=2112 Alrite folks, this is another Anime that I like........ mostly I love the way they draw the anime character. It is soooo....... japonais. Look at the eyes and hair! Well she is called "Jigoku Shoujo" or Hell Girl. The story of this anime is not as interesting though. Well, you can check this link to find out more. http://www.jigokushoujo.com/top.html

Golden Eggs!

All right people.... I have successfully make the golden eggs! It takes lots of patience and time to create this , but it's all worth the try! It is a wonderful idea for a party. I have clean the egg mould properly before making the "Golden Eggs". LOL
Well, how does my golden eggs look? Impressive huh! I have made these golden eggs jello with longans. ( Dragon eye )
Another version of my Longan (Dragon eyes) jello pudding!

Sunset in Bakheng Hill

Before I start describing where this place is, I would like to mention that why we choose to go to Cambodia as our ideal place for Honeymoon. Well a lot of people would go to a more enchanting places or a romantic island, but me and my partner prefer some interesting place that we never been before and we can do some sight seeing and relax and reasonable price as well. So we choose Siam Rep in Cambodia. We did not go to Phnom Penh at all, which most tours do, both of us spent a week in Siam Rep only as we would like to venture Angkor Wat only. The temple is part of the Angkor World Heritage Site, established in 1992.

Before I kept bragging about, the first stop that we went when we were in Siam Rep was to experience this intense hill climbing to watch the beautiful sunset. Well it was worth it! Look at those people that were climbing to gether with us!
Well, this is how the steps up the Bakheng hill looks like! Interesting isn't it? I was feeling like Lady croft myself! Mind yourself those trees by the side, the trunks all had sharp needle-like long torns!
The thing is despite all the tourists going up and down the hill, there's this group of Cambodian band, playing khmer music.
Beautiful sunset! The sunset was really enchanting. Both me and my hubby will never forget this wonderful experience. You have to be there to experience this captivating view. Although the crowd of people is considerably immense but there were peace and silence when everyone watch this breathtaking view.
Well, look at the amount of people there waiting to watch and capture the Sunset!
Phnom Bakheng at Angkor, Cambodia, is a Hindu temple in the form of a temple mountain. Dedicated to Shiva, it was built at the end of the 9th century. This picture was taken after the sunset. It was around 7pm in Cambodia.

Les Artisan D'Angkor - Part 3

Lots of souvenir shop in Cambodia sells this kind of Wood lacquering Buddha statues/ sculptures. Here you can see the process; from wood carving to lacquering and gilding.
Here are some art pieces that you can frame and decorate your interior. The theme will mainly base on elephants, abstarct Buddha figures, and those Apsaras dancing.etc.
Here are some bowls use for decorating the interior...... whereby you can drop in some floating flowers onto the bowl fill with water.
Here you can see that the craftsman is carving the wood into a Apsara dancer. It is carefully crafted and later will be lacquered as well.
This Apsara Dancer is beautiful....... it's not done yet. They will need to lacquer it though!

Les Artisan D'Angkor - Part 2

Silk Paintings - Here are some of the techniques used to trace a picture on to the silk, so that it can be painted and framed! Well the motifs are mainly relate to the stories of Buddhism teachings.
Over here, we observed the lady paint one of the pictures. She uses a tiny brush and apply the paint evenly onto the thin silk fabric. Interesting isn't it?

This lady here is using a pen to retrace back some of the lines onto the silk fabric. It's suppose to touch up some details as well. Intricate details are seen here in the picture, and lots of gold paint are seen too in the picture.

Les Artisan D'Angkor - Part 1

A visit to "Les Artisan D'Angkor". It is a place that train young people in rural Cambodia that does not receive any high education. It is to cultivate the Khmer cultural heritage root. Over here we saw some craftsmen carving wood/stone. The themes were mainly repertoires of the carvings that you can see at the walls of Angkor Wat and other temples.
The artist here is lacquering one of the carved pieces.
After applying the lacquer, this is what it looks like!
After gilding............ the lacquered piece has a kind of stone finish don't you think so?
Well done! This is a finished piece of wood carving........ that look similar to the bas-relief at the walls of Angkor Wat! This piece of wood is not cheap either! If you happen to visit Siam Rep, don't forget to stop by this place! :)

Silky worm... to expensive fabric!

Well, when I was in Cambodia, I visited a Silk Farm. These are some of the processes that I manage to record. Indeed it is a tiring process. That's why silk are expensive!

In Cambodia, the people there are quite poor, they actually earn a hard living to make these silk fabrics.

In order to support them and help them earn a better living, the french NGOs actually set up a farm to train those Cambodians!

So, these are the silk cocoons from the silk worms..............

The silk worms will eat those leaves and grow then turn into those cocoons! Impressive?

They look like maggots to me....... yucks!

Well, this lady here are boiling those cocoons and spinning the silk into threads!



Watch the tiny threads!

Again, another lady is spinning the thread. Interesting!

Well, they will dye the silk threads with colour. These are the samples of colour. Mostly they use a natural dye.

So after dying the colours, they will dry it, by hanging it on a stick.

This lady here is weaving the silk cloth! She's separating the threads and colours carefully! A lot of work. She had sort of a guidance booklet in front of her, so she can determine the patterns.

Viola! This piece of cloth is done! Intricate designs right?

Happy 60th Birthday to My Dearest Mother! 28/07/07

Mum, Happy 60th Birthday! This is a black forest cake, mum's favourite, so we decided that this will be the cake for her big day! Well we also did order Hazelnut cake for the rest of the company during the dinner celebration though! Good choice bro, as everyone loves it!
So, this is the "Bunch of Roses" that we ordered for mum! Well all together 60 roses! Big bouquet isn't it? There are some tiny bells too...... kinda interesting!

Well this particular photo is taken by me for the stamps...... which is my dad's gift for Mum on her big day. Well how does my mum look?

This symbolic peaches of longevity and prosperous cake is made of flour and is given to my mum from my hubby as a gift. So according to the traditional chinese cultural belief, it serve before the buddha and goddess first before it is taken by the family members. As always we will first pray before we eat right?
Well this is the logevity noodles that are being prepared in the morning for the family members and guests that arrive early in the morning to wish my mother. Well, my family does follow the traditions of the chinese culture! Honestly I do not really know what are the procedures, so I just follow! Well I got to eat and recieve ang pows too! This is the present that me and my brother presents to our mother, a bit rush but we all love the end product. This will be hung up in my mother's home for her memories!
So, these are the stamps that I've been rushing the "Pos Malaysia" for. Eventually after tracking them down with my long distance call to KL, they managed to sent it over to me on time for the framing..... and as our guest door gift! So my this is my Dad's choice of gift for her big day!
This door gift was given out during the dinner, and most of the guest thought that we kinda made it out on our own, well we have to really mention it that it can be mail out to friends! Well, I'll send them those photos with these stamps!

Care for a drink? Port wine?

Well kinda in the mood of testing some port wine. I love port as it tastes sweet. I've got a sweet tooth so I rather prefer port than other types of wine available. I was introduced to this port wine long time ago when I was in college. But I made a stupid mistake and thought it was red wine. It tasted sweet no doubt and the alcohol contain was higher than usual. Not much of a drinker I am, so I share it with some friends who were also young and innocent and have no knowledge or so about port wine......... we actually couldn't finish it as we thought we should on that day like all types of red wine........ so we drank until all we could and the rest I leave it to my friends and I do not think they drank it as well........... so, I guess they gave it away too. It was a huge bottle as you can drink it for months!

So now, I enjoy little bit of port and have tried a few of them.
Cockburn's, Warre's 1670 Warrior, Graham's 1820-late bottled vintage(1999).
Well I'll continue my lists.... meantime I came across some cocktail recipe and was eager to try it out since I have a few different types of liqueur in the cupboard.

If you are interested... click this link to find out more. Well currently I indulge myself in Apricot liqueur!
http://www.cocktaildb.com/recipe_detail?id=3644

Act 8- Handphones for kids?

Saw Bedak kid with his new toy today. He was talking over a handphone while Camry is sitting by his side near the small park in the center of town. He did not see me as he was concentrating talking over the phone. Ironically there's a phone booth beside him. Hah!

I kept on wondering kids these days at their tender age already own handphones. Carrying them anywhere they go. Some bring to school, some even talk in their bedrooms, some talk in the car, some place it beside them while they sleep.

Hold on a second here...... tell me something, how harmful are these electronic stuff? I thought the radiation are quite harmful and also we as adults are warn through emails, and stuff that the radiation can cause us cancer....etc. So why are kids allowed? Why does their parents allow them to use? The kids brain are still growing, and for no reason at all we expose these kids to these harmful radiation! Are you nuts?

Of course there are the safety issues.... how about training the kids well so they wouldn't rely too much on the handphones! Like remembering the house phone number? Like remembering what time you are fetching them... etc. Use when needed only, that is the rule. Not like everynow and then, like ignoring the normal phone and using handphones only.

At what age do you think it is possible for a child to own a handphone? Let me know what you think!