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A fantasy I’m dreaming of May 11, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home, Memes & Tags, Thoughts & Scribblings , 9comments

 

It is 8:00a.m.  I stir myself awake, still in a daze but very much aware of the clattering of cutlery in the dining area outside.  I stifle a yawn, stretch and turn over and it was then that I realize hubbs and Ethan were not in bed already.  I quickly got up, brush my teeth and wash up, and as I wipe my face dry, the aroma of freshly made pancakes and waffles greeted me.  With a smile, I waltz into my dining room, where I saw that my darling hubby had made me a breakfast fit for a queen princess!

Both the boys gave me a hug, wished me a Happy Mother’s Day and we had a terrific breakfast together.  We then got ready for church and had a really enjoyable service there.  All the mommies present were given a rose each, as a token of the celebration for Mother’s Day.

We then headed for the beach where we were gonna have a family picnic.  Hubbs had packed a basketful of goodies which included most of my favorite food items like chicken pie, cheese cake, Twisties and oh yeah, some pink guava juice too.  The weather was slightly cloudy with just the right amount of sun.  Perfect to acquire a tan. Which I took full advantage of :) After a couple of hours playing with the waves, building sandcastles and having nothing but fun, we headed for home for our afternoon siesta.

We woke up just in time for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants.  Ethan was on his bestest behavior that night, obediently sitting in his baby chair and eating all by himself.  Not a single crumb of food was dropped.  Of course, for me, margarita was part of what I ordered for dinner too! :)

And then we came back home, and got ready for bed.  I read Ethan his bedtime story, Jack and the Beanstalk, gave him a kiss and tucked him into bed.  He looked up at me, reciprocated the kiss and said, “I love you Mommy!  You’re the best Mommy ever!  Happy Mother’s Day!”

Oh yeah, and before I called it a night, hubbs gave me a massage, complete with soothing essential oils and calming music.

Bliss.

Was that good enough a fantasy, SlaveMom?

Ah well, I did go to church today though.  And although I didn’t get that rose, I got a pink carnation and a mini brocade case from Mama’s Nyonya restaurant when we dined there for lunch.  Better than nothing la.

Happy Mother’s Day to all you awesome mommies out there!  May all your wishes come true!

And a very Happy Mother’s Day to my Mama, the queen of my heart and soul!  You’re da best!  I’m so glad I get to spend Mother’s Day with you this year! *grin*  Thank you for the freshly harvested sweet sweet persimmons you brought back from Perth too!  Y-U-M!

Oh, and also a special shoutout to Adino’s wife, Poey Chin, who just qualified to celebrate her very first Mother’s Day!  Congratulations Adino and Poey Chin, on the arrival of little Rachel!

Now, since it’s already Mother’s Day today, I’m gonna twist this tag a wee bit and give a chance to the daddies instead to fantasize about Father’s Day coming up in June.  Fair, no?

Hereby tagging:

Don’t hold back. Let it rip! Will you share your Mother’s Day/Father’s Day Fantasies on your blog? Then pass it on to other Mothers/Fathers to share. Let’s be silly and let our hair down. Then add your name and blog post url to the list and let it go around. I’ll start with mine. Anyone can participate in this. Just write your blog post and add your name to the list. It’s that simple.

1. Mumsgather shares - What I REALLY want to do on Mother’s Day
2. Kiddos Realm shares
3. Ruth shares
4. Jazzmint shares
5. Chanel shares
6. Karen shares - My Mother’s Day Fantasies
7. Lemonjude shares - My Mother’s Day Fantasies
8. Sting shares
9. JO-N shares - Mothers
10. Montessorimum shares - What I REALLY want to do on Mother’s Day
11. Mummy In Vain shares - What I REALLY Want To Do On Mother’s Day
12. Slavemom shares - Mother’s Day Plan… In Dreamland
13. Giddy Tigress shares - A fantasy I’m dreaming of

Funky foxy fanciful fiver May 9, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Memes & Tags , 6comments


Dandelion dream alphas from A work in progress 

Aiyo, I missed this dateline by a week liao.  According to this meme, I am supposed to post my entry a week after being tagged on a Friday, and I was tagged by the bento-crazy DSLR-maniac Hijack Queen some 2 weeks ago!  Eeeek.  Anyway, at least I am posting this on a Friday. :)

DO YOU PREFER…

1. To watch or participate?
Lazy Smart people like me WATCH and learn, and then selectively participate.

2. Malls, catalog shopping, or the Internet?
Must I only choose ONE?  I love ALL of those options.  Don’t you know that I am a kaki shopping?  Hence, I must live up to my name la.  Seriously though, it really depends on what I am shopping for.  I’d even go to the extent of shopping in all options available, weighing the pros and cons before I land myself the perfect bargain.  That’s the kaki shopping for ya.  … and men think we women take so long to shop!

3. A bath or shower?
A shower with full blast bursts of water.  Even better if there is a massage function in the nozzle.  Works wonders on the nape of the neck, y’know.  My usual routine now is to have a cold shower every night before bed.  The cold water keeps me alert enough to have have a quick read before I hit the sack.  And my skin never felt better.

4. To talk to people by telephone, in person or by e-mail?
Email, because I get to phrase everything out the way I want it, I get to use the backspace and delete key and then I have a black and white proof of what I sent and what replies I get.  Trust me, emails have come in handy for me all the time.  The downside to this is that *sometimes* people don’t really get what you mean.  Someone called me up sometime back and asked if I was angry with regards to the email I sent out.  I told him no, but he said that I sounded angry from the email.  However, no matter how I reread my email, I just couldn’t pinpoint where he misconstrued the anger.

5. Typing or writing?
Writing by typing.

And I am tagging:

allthingspurple
rinnah
parisb
wen
slavemom

Have a good weekend y’all!  And oh yeah, here’s wishing all mommies out there a fantastic Mother’s Day this Sunday!

Blown away by the breeze May 8, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Drooling & Cooking , 13comments

Who doesn’t appreciate homecooked food?  Especially if it tastes really good and arrives like 10 minutes after the order had been placed… We recently stumbled upon a nice and cozy restaurant nestled in Aboo Sitee Lane in Penang.  Actually hubbs went there with some friends of his, and he was going on and on about how good the food was, that I simply HAD to try it out.  Oh by the way, I just found out that Aboo Sitee Lane in Hokkien means Gangsters’ Lane.

So anyway, the name of this restaurant is Nyonya Breeze and upon first glance, one might pass it off as a vegetarian restaurant, simply because of its (misleading) green and white signboard.  This picture was taken as we were leaving the place.  See the two cute guys in the doorway? *grin*

We didn’t order a lot since it was only two adults and one rice-loving kid dining.  Only four small dishes and dessert.  We ordered tau eu bak (braised pork with soya sauce), acar hu (sort of a pickled fish), jiu hu char (shredded radish, carrots, cuttlefish etc served with fresh green lettuce) and huan choo heok masak lemak (sweet potato leaves and sweet potatoes cooked in a soup mixture with TONS of santan).

I loved ALL of the food.  It was a nice authentic touch that the food was all served in those old-fashioned plates with the pink flower designs.  Actually I enjoyed the food so much that I almost did not notice that the tau eu bak did not have any eggs.  I did LOVE the masak lemak dish though.  Reminds me of the one my grandma and mother makes.  Mom calls it masak titek, which I believe is the same.  I can almost taste the flavor and aroma of the santan even as I am typing this now.  Definitely a must-order when I come back to the restaurant next time.  Not to self: get recipe from Mom.

I noticed a lot of elderly nyonya-looking folk eating at the restaurant too, which goes to show that the food must be good.  Lunch came up to RM37.75, which was very reasonable.  Of course it helped that our newly approved CIMB Platinum MasterCard qualified us for a 10% discount off the bill.

A dinner story at Friday’s May 5, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Drooling & Cooking , 16comments

When we dine out, we value exceptional service, much more so than the quality of food served.  Of course, the food needs to be definitely above average, but if we do encounter a restaurant with delicious food coupled with horrible service, or rather service that makes us, the diners, feel uncomfortable, we will not think twice about boycotting it after that.

Therefore, it goes without saying that the reason we keep coming back for more to Friday’s is the impeccable service we receive whenever we dine there.  Well, save for a few instances where we were assigned dumb not-too-smart server-challenged servers, we do walk out of the restaurant feeling good about our dining experience.  Last Thursday, Labor Day, was no exception.  We ended up having our dinner at Friday’s because our initial plan of going to Soba Yoshi backfired when we discovered Soba Yoshi decided not to labor on Labor Day :P

Here’s what we ordered at Friday’s:

(sorry, no foodie pictures this time round.  I actually THOUGHT I had an old picture of the quesadilla’s somewhere in my archives, but apparently not)

True to the exceptional service, the kids’ chicken spaghetti was served first, together with the shrimp martini, and after that the ribs came.  I had almost finished my plate of ribs, but my hubby’s chicken quesadillas had not yet arrived. 

The manager at Friday’s suddenly came to our table and presented us with a bowl of mushroom soup on the house.  He did not tell us what it was for, so we thought it was to compensate the delay in the arrival of the quesadillas (or perhaps because we were regulars there *wink*). 

A few minutes later and still no sign of the missing quesadillas, we asked the manager to check on the status of our order.  Then a few minutes later, our server came to our table and asked us, “You ordered just one main course, right?” 

Duh. We stared at her and said, “No…. we also ordered a chicken quesadillas!” 

She walked off hastily, with the manager hot on her tail, *scolding* her or something.

A while later, the server came back to our table, apologized for forgetting to include the order earlier on and reassured us that the chicken quesadillas would be arriving in about 5 minute’s time.

And that’s why, boys and girls, all servers should ALWAYS ALWAYS repeat their orders.

Anyway.

After our meal, Ethan was restless so I took him out for a walk while hubby finished his meal and paid up.  Later, my hubby told me the manager came up to him and told him the quesadillas was on the house.  However, when my hubby asked for the bill, the manager decided to charge us even LESS than what he would have charged us had he only removed the chicken quesadillas from the bill.  In the end, instead of paying RM68.65 for the stuff our meal (sans the quesadillas), we ended up paying just RM44.75 for the stuff that was supposedly complimentary.  I guess it’s just Friday’s way of recording their inventory or something.  Not complaining though.  It’s a good consolation…everyone’s happy…well, except for maybe the poor server who made the mistake though.

Now THAT is what I call SERVICE.  Making the customer happy :P

Believe me, I have dined in restaurants where even after I had complained there was a STAPLE in my son’s food, they did nothing but solemnly take the plate away with nary a single word or apology.  The nerve!

Of course, that wasn’t the only good thing that came out of our dinner that night.  We met Angie, Bart and Julian too, who were celebrating their anniversary at Friday’s.  And that encounter resulted in this very adorable family portrait, courtesy of Bart.  Thank you, it’s awesome!  We’ve not had a family picture taken for a long time now, and this was a splendid one…

Stress plus Cheese equals? April 28, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Drooling & Cooking , 26comments

It was the stress that drove me to it. My facial therapist commented that I have these really knotty stress knobs around the area between the base of my neck and my shoulders. The more stressed up someone is, the knottier the knobs are, it seems.

Well, oookay…stress AND craving for cheesecake made me do it. It had been ages since I made cheesecake and I thought why not? I used to make a similar non-bake cheesecake years ago, and since I recently stumbled on this Philly non-bake lemon cheesecake recipe, I decided to give it a go last Friday. I love it because it is so simple and easy to make and also, cos I didn’t need to turn on the oven. Plus it is extremely comforting to stuff myself with it and (hopefully) reduce the level of stress. Heh.

When I opened up the packets of Philadelphia cream cheese, lo and behold, I discovered that the recipe is actually contained in the box cover itself. There was also a recipe for dark chocolate cheese cake, which I might try at a later date. Y-U-M.

Philly Non-Bake Lemon Cheese Cake

INGREDIENTS
1 cup sweet biscuit crumbs (I have always ever used McVitie’s digestive biscuits, so that’s what I used this time round too)
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 x 250g Philadelphia brand cream cheese, softened at room temperature
2 teaspoons gelatine dissolved in 1/4 cup boiling water
1 x 400 g can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons grated lemon rind

DIRECTIONS

Tip: 1 cup biscuit crumbs equals approximately 10 sweet biscuits crushed. (with the Mcvitie’s digestives, it’s about 5-6 pieces)

Because I didn’t use a springform pan it was rather difficult to cut up that first piece of cake into a nice little slice, but it still tasted divine. I should rename the recipe to Lemon Crumble cheesecake or something, eh? Had a slight sore throat after downing the cake, and hubby thinks it’s the cheesecake, but I beg to differ….although I am taking it easy with the helpings now. Hehehe… The strawberries taste sublime with a dollop of that cream, though.

I wonder if Andie wants to trade a slice of her peach cheesecake with mine?

My burden-free shoulders April 25, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Thoughts & Scribblings , 19comments


Photo credits 

A few months ago, my hubby and I decided to pay off our housing loan, thus making our home completely 100% ours.  I can’t describe the feeling of jubilance we felt as we signed the relevant papers and realized that there were no more monthly payments to be made to the bank.  We also had to engage our lawyers for some legal matters pertaining to the settlement and since our strata title was also ready then, we commenced the procedures to get the title too.  Last week, we went to the lawyer’s to collect the strata title, together with all the other documents.  It was a huge step towards being totally debt-free.


…eggstremely sinful cholestrol-laden breakfast…

And today, we took the final step that will make us bask in a state of debt-freeness. I paid off my outstanding car loan and obtained the registration card last week.  However, the registration card still stated the company I work with (I took a company loan) as the owner of the car.  I had to make a trip across the Penang bridge to the Road Transport Department in Seberang Jaya to have the cancellation of ownership done.  Thanks to directions from Susan, hubbs and I tried to make it there as early as possible.  I promptly got a number, but hardly had I warmed my seat, my number was called.  The officer flipped through all my documents, checked my IC, and then chop here chop there…and it was over in a matter of minutes.  There was no super fancy equipment that was used to cancel the ownership though, so I am still rather confused why this could not be done in the JPJ branch on the island.  Hmmmm….seems like a waste to make a trip all the way to the mainland for some manual chops.  Well, in any case, the car’s all MINE now!  All MINE!!!!! How sweet is the feeling….

Oh yeah, on the way to JPJ Seberang Jaya, we stopped by the Touch n Go office at the Penang Bridge to check if my Touch n Go card needed to be upgraded.  I had received an email some moons ago about the need to upgrade the card every 10 years.  It’s a good thing we went there today.  My card was gonna expire in June this year, and the “upgrade” makes mine usable till the year 2018 now.  I say “upgrade”, because I don’t know exactly what they did to the card.  It only took a mere 2 seconds and my card was not even exchanged for a new one.  The old card was just placed on a small black platform device thingy and the lady behind the counter just hit a couple of buttons. Let’s just pray it doesn’t automatically “expire” in June.  hehe… we’ll see.

Anyhow, feeling very accomplished and excited today, I decided to finally file my income tax returns electronically, 6 days shy of the deadline.  Of course, the next step now would be to settle the outstanding tax before April 30 2008.  Boo! Funny how many people like to wait till the last minute to do it, by choice or not, I don’t know.  So far the people I have asked have not filed their returns yet.  Have you?

Healthy sorta life for moi April 18, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Thoughts & Scribblings , 15comments

My blogging life is eluding me.  Gone are the days when I can publish non-stop post after post of interesting topics, gripping even.  Now I have consigned myself to blogging when time permits.  Maybe it is the environment I face every day…or *almost* every day.  Takes every ounce of my energy and faith just to prod myself along.  Sometimes I just want to throw in the towel because I am just too tired to try anymore.I am thankful though, that despite these adversities, I still find solace in the little little things that give me a healthy push in the right direction.  And these are some of the things that I have been doing.  They don’t erase the problem completely, but they do put a smile on my face, in a healthy kind of way.

I used to take evening primrose oil (EPO) capsules on a regular basis, up till the point when I got pregnant.  Then I stopped, because I had read that the oil is touted to make the uterus contract, making it harmful for the unborn child.  I didn’t take it all through pregnancy and breastfeeding since the effects of EPO on babies is still unconfirmed.  Since I stopped taking EPO, my eczema has taken a turn for the worse.  My fingers would crack so bad, it sometimes bled.  It’s painful just to bend ‘em fingers sometimes.  Then a few weeks ago, I consulted my Mom and she reminded me of EPO, and how it is useful to cure atopic eczema and psoriasis.  I promptly bought a bottle and have been taking 2 tablets twice daily since.  My eczema has not completely cured, but at least I see some vast improvement in the skin texture.  And I love that my skin is on the way to healing!Last Monday, I indulged in a facial too.  Unwittingly I agreed to have an anti-aging skin renewal facial done (for preventative measures only, what were you thinking??!!), assuming that it was one of the facials I had already signed up and paid for.  The facial was fantastic.  I dunno what they do…they put some vitamin stuff on my face, gave me a head and shoulder massage and I drifted off to sleep, until I was awaken by the therapist.  My skin definitely felt smoother and cleaner and looked brighter than before.  I then discovered I had to pay RM200++ for the facial, but at that time, I was already reeling over how marvelous the facial was, I didn’t mind.  Of course, knowing me, I showed some disdain and remarked that it was a miscommunication in the first place when I thought I had already paid for it.  Anyways…I walked away feeling great.For about three weeks now, I have been taking cold showers in the evenings.  Yeah, you heard me right….COLD showers.  It all started when my hubby told me the story about Ryan Babel remarking that taking cold showers help heal muscle pulls, tears, knocks and bruises faster and eliminates fatigue too.  Well the initial spray of cold water that hits your skin does make you cringe a tad, but after that, it’s really invigorating and I love how my skin feels after the shower.  It’s hard to switch to this routine when we’ve been hot-showering all this while, but I do remember I used to bathe in cold water all day long, when I didn’t have a water heater.  I suppose the cold water constricts and closes the pores making for smoother skin afterward.  Never felt better.  I highly recommend this to everyone.And oh yes, today, I hit the gym!  The one in my apartment, that is.  Been wanting to do so for a long time running, but finally did it today.  It’s not a very good gym, i.e. the treadmills and stepper are all manual (need to use your body weight to move it, no electrical connections wan), so I didn’t touch those.  Instead, I headed straight for the vertical leg lift.  Very good for the abs, arms and butt, aitelyu.  It’s like doing leg curls vertically, you know…so you’ve got the gravity going against you too.  If there is just one gym apparatus in the whole wide world for me, this would be the one.  Ladies, try it and you’ll see what I mean *wink*.  Let’s hope the two vertical toned lines on my abs will be visible soon.  Tee hee!!!  I did some quadricep extensions, lateral raises, tricep curls and some lunges too.  Not bad for a start, eh?But I had this for dinner though….

Can’t be good for those abs of mine, huh?  SIGH… I certainly foresee more left lifting, leg curling, abs tightening and tigressy grimacing to come!

Mystical superhero fantasy April 11, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Memes & Tags , 15comments

I missed getting tagged by her, but because she lately had a bout of NBTB, I was yet again given the honor by Rinnx! I’m really afraid she will use her telekinetic energy to move all my stuff away fast fast, so I had better do this real quick before she gets to me.


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1. Superhero power I want
Shapeshifting. Just like the superpowers possessed by Mystique. I have always been intrigued by her, even though she is on the baddie side. Wouldn’t hurt if I had her body too, ya know…

2. Why?
Originally I wanted to choose the telepathy power or the invisibility power, but I figured if I could shape-shift, I could be in a room where no one would know of my existence and then I would be able to know what everyone was discussing. Not what they were thinking though. Unless they think out loud. Plus, don’t you think Mystique is sexay?!!

3. Downside of this power
People might not trust who I am, because they might perceive me as changing all the time. And I might lose track of who I really am, if I do it too often.

4. My superhero nickname
Stealth (I originally thought of Tigrex but it sounded too much like T-Rex). If there are any other better suggestions, you are most welcome to let me know.

5. My motto
I’m watching. And my theme song is “Every Breath You Take”.

6. Sworn enemy
Hypocrites. With this super power of mine, I can shape shift into anything I want just so I can find out what these people are up to.

7. Official vehicle
I can shapeshift into any vehicle of my choice, depending on my mood. Beemer, Jaguar, Toyota Highlander?

8. Day job
Fashion consultant. I can change my image, my attire, my haircut, my shoes and handbag as often as I want to suit the season’s latest fashion.

I had fun doing this meme. Anyone else wanna play? What about:

Paris
iamthewitch
Paik Ling
Wen
Health Freak Mommy

** included by special request: Wuching ** ~ can’t wait to read yours!


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Instead of work, I want to April 10, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Thoughts & Scribblings , 20comments

NOT work, of course!!

Work, work, work and more work! Every single work day, my fingers meticulously create and reply emails with clockwork precision. Open email, read read read, then type out replies, think a little bit. Rephrase the email, sometimes. Hit ALT+S. Gets dreary sometimes, aitelyu. Attend meetings, answer customer calls, draft and finalize project documentation…can it not get any more predictable? For once, I would really like to get away from it all. There are so many things out there waiting for me to experience, why do I have to remain cooped up in the workplace? Yeah, cuz it brings in the dough. Don’t need a genius to work out that equation.

If only someone will instead PAY me to:

1. Open ceremony with my new 32-inch MAXIM wok!! Complete with a WYSIWYC (what you see is what you cook) glass cover and vents for airflow control (though I don’t know how the *control* portion works because the knob on the glass cover is not rotatable). I bought this baby for a steal at only RM74.50 (it retailed at RM269, but Jusco had it on sale at half-off, plus I made use of my RM60 worth of Jusco vouchers, and voila…here was a wok to give me hours of endless hours of cooking joy). What shall I cook first? Yummy claypot chicken rice? Stir-fry vegetables? Ehon’s cheese and mushroom omelette? Or lormaikai? No…that one must use steamer…

2. Go for a holiday. If only I can teleport myself back to the Maldives for a second honeymoon! White string bikinis, pristine sandy beaches, snorkelling, food…and sun sun sun!!! Throw in a full body massage and bask myself in the intoxicating scents of lavender and ylang-ylang essential oils and I am in paradise.


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3. Join Preeta on her book tour. I just got word that one of my dear ex-classmates and good friend, Preeta Samarasan, will be embarking on a book tour this coming May in conjunction with the launch of her first book, “Evening Is The Whole Day“, which is already gaining rave reviews in the press. Preets is an excellent writer, and in fact this was already apparent in our schooldays when she displayed her prowess in the English language and also French (she got an A1 for French in SPM!) Preets was my Ding and I was her Dong. Don’t ask. And she drew a really adorable picture of a polka dotted piggy in my autograph book. I’m hoping to be able to fit into her suitcase now.

4. Watch reruns of Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy or Heroes while pigging out on ice cream. Curling up on the couch without any interruptions, and (NOT) getting fat in the process is just a bonus.


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5. Enjoy a relaxing, no-holds-barred lunch with a good girlfriend. It’s always enlightening to catch up on each other’s lives while having a scrumptious lunch. Even though it is only for an hour or so…and then bam! back to work….SIGH. Never mind what we ate, it was the company that mattered.


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So how? Anyone wanna pay me good money to do the things I love?

Yummy tummy mummy! April 4, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home, Drooling & Cooking , 24comments

My parents are here in Penang for a short holiday and of course, also to spend some cool quality time with their grandson.  Yesterday, while I was working from home, my parents were out running some errands downtown.  They came back in the afternoon with some surprises for me.  Cool!  You know how I love surprises!

Look! Mini darling ang-koos & chneh-koos!  The red ones contain grounded green pea paste whereas the green ones have coconut filling.  Who’s to say good things don’t come in small packages?

My parents also tar-powed one packet of char koay teow for me which I finished in a jiffy, hence no photos lo…

Tonight, Mama prepared a splendid concoction of Ba Zhen chicken soup, with kampung chicken and all the herbs and stuff.  Sorry, I don’t know the correct terms for these herbs, but they are supposed to be good for health and vitality la. I ain’t complaining cos it tastes great and I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep tonight…