Googoo gaaga gurgle coo

Posted on February 19, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

I have a new title to my name now. Someone will soon be calling me “Kor kor” – Hokkien for Aunt. This morning, at 9:51a.m., a beautiful baby boy was born to my brother and his wife. All of 3.26 kilos, and every bit a bundle of immense joy, my nephew Collin said hi to the world and of course to his proud parents. See how comfy the little one looks in his crib, all warm and bundled up?

Scrap Credits
Cupid Said freebie Kit & Alphas from retrodiva {designs}â„¢
Christmas Bling paper from Lindsay Jane Designs
Stacked frame from Kim B’s Designs
Ilétait une foi stars from Petit Moineaux

Collin decided to greet everyone a Happy Chinese New Year, and made it in time to be eligible for an angpow too. Hi Collin… Kor kor will be coming to see you soon, with an angpow, okay? 😀 *hugsss*

Posted in Close to Heart & Home, Relax & Celebrate | 27 Comments

Much ado about my mojo

Posted on February 19, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

At first I wanted to blog about the Amazing Race Asia, but procrastination took control of my life and before I knew it, we were already watching the finale on Valentine’s night, where Adrian and Collin were declared winners. It all went down to the final roadblock where Rovilson did not manage to put the flag to the country fast enough and where it proves that paying attention to all those erasers with flags on them when we were little paid off. I kinda felt sorry for Marc and Rovilson for not winning, because those two practically owned the entire race. They injected humour and entertainment in a race filled with stress and even more stress. If ever I participated in TARA, I would want to play it like Marc and Rovilson did. My hubby did state the obvious when he remarked “But they didn’t win…”, but you know, it was the way they ran the race that I want to emulate. Still, I am very pleased that Adrian and Collin won, despite the adversities and hardships they faced. Congratulations guys!

So now my dose of weekly reality teevee will just be American Idol (down to the final 24 this week!) and America’s Next Top Model, which is a program I totally enjoy watching, together with Ethan boy too, of course. Too bad that while I was googling for the picture of ANTM, I accidentally discovered that the one shown on Channel V now has already been show in the US…. so I found out who won… shucks.


Photo credits

While chatting with Rinnah yesterday, I complained to her that I had lost my blogging mojo, save for updating Ethan‘s blog. The dry spell had finally gotten to me, as it had some other bloggers too. We both attribute this loss of interest to the Chinese New Year break. Too many angpows, nothing to write? Have to wait for chap goh meh to be over first? Go figure. I can’t even bring myself to blog about the upcoming elections. This year, I will be voting in Penang for the first time in my voting history. The previous times, I had done my duty as a citizen back in Ipoh. The poster war will be starting soon, I expect. Candidates are probably busy choosing their most trustworthy and honest-looking pictures to print on banners and posters that they hope can withstand the wind, the sun and the rain. So far, I have only seen BN’s banners with the tagline “Keep Reinventing” sprouting out all over the island. I just printed out the details of my voting venue yesterday and am happy that it will be held at a school which is very close to where I stay…within walking distance too, if I am hardworking enough.

Oh, by the way, I am still craving yee sang and hope to lou at least one more time before chap goh meh comes around.

Posted in Blogging, Thoughts & Scribblings | 10 Comments

Snap, crop, arrange..voila!

Posted on February 12, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

Three days before the Chinese New Year, I received the finished product of the personal project which I had been working on for months on end. Forty pages of photos of Ethan all captured in a 30cm x 30cm black hardcover-bound photobook, worth every second of the time I had spent laboring over it.

Never mind that I had to redo some of the pages over and over again because I was not completely satisfied with them initially.
Never mind that it took me weeks to finally get in touch with someone from Photobook to iron out the details of the order.
Never mind that I had to upload the photobook file at least four times because they got corrupted every time I did the upload.
Never mind that I had to follow up with Photobook to find out if my order would be able to arrive before Chinese New Year, only to find out that they had already shipped it out two days before my inquiry was made.
Never mind that I had to personally call the courier company to follow up on the status of the shipment, only to be told that they had gone to my house and claimed that no one was around. And never mind that no notice was left to inform me that they had tried to deliver the parcel.
Never mind that my hubby and I had to drive all the way to the courier company to pick up the parcel, because we were only too anxious to see the finished product.
Never mind that we had to wait a further 10-15 minutes before we finally held the parcel in our hands.

Because all this trouble was so worth it. I decided to create a photobook with Ethan’s photos after Jazzmint recommended Photobook over Pixart. At that time, my Pixart project was almost done, but I still took her word for it, and am happy to say that I have never looked back since. Compared to Pixart, I must say that the lamination quality of Photobook’s albums are way better. Just seeing the digital scrapbooking I created come to live on the pages of the photobook is really inspiring. In fact, I am seriously thinking of starting on another one for the next two years culminating with Ethan’s fourth birthday, and hubbs even suggested creating one for our wedding photos too.

Posted in Close to Heart & Home, Ethan, Parenting & Motherhood, Relax & Celebrate | Tagged , , , | 28 Comments

My New Year reflections

Posted on February 11, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

 

After five days of non-work, coming back to the boring, humdrum life of the office seems such a waste. Well, we are all still very much in the festive spirit of the Chinese New Year, and there are still ten more days to go of angpow giving, and receiving (for some)…and cookie eating…

I’ve already lou-sanged four times thus far, and still counting. Every time has been different from the one before. This year I have tasted vegetarian yee sang, jellyfish ones, salmon ones and the conventional fish kinds. Of course, eating yee sang is merely the tip of the iceberg where my Chinese New Year food experience is concerned. It started with the reunion dinner in Ipoh, where I stuffed myself full of scrumptious home cooking from Mom in Ipoh. Felt like a cow after that. The tau-ewe-bak dish I had cooked and brought from Penang was also added to the array of dishes that filled the table. Then I also had cookies non-stop. We traveled to Taiping on the first day of the New Year where there were so many varieties of pineapple tarts beckoning to me. With all this eating and stuffing, it is no wonder that I found my red cheongsam a little bit snug today. SIGH.

It was a splendid feeling to be back with our loved ones for the New Year. Even though the weather was scorching hot ala Chinese New Year weather, and even though I lost one of the hooks on my brand new pair of silver dangling earrings just less than thirty minutes after I had put them on. Yesterday, I checked with Forever 21 (where I had bought them from) but they told me they don’t carry *spare parts* for their earrings. Guess I shall have to convert the earrings into a pendant or something.

Yes, the balik kampung experience really was a joyful occassion, save for the traffic jams here and there and even though on the morning before we left Taiping for Penang on the second day of New Year, we discovered that the back of our car had been vandalized. Someone with really really itchy hands had scratched the surface of our car, and spelt out the “HA” on the boot. Probably wanted to wish us Happy New Year or something. We are just thankful no one was hurt though.

We returned to the comfort of our home after a marathon day of visiting relatives in Penang.  We had two whole days to laze around and enjoy.  And since it was still the New Year period, I got myself a brand new 2.2 liter electronic rice cooker.  Here’s to more days of chicken rice ahead!  Is it bad that I am already looking forward to the next stretch of holidays?

Posted in Relax & Celebrate | 18 Comments

Usher in the mousey year!

Posted on February 6, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

Have you gotten everything ready for Chinese New Year yet? Got all the pongkams (mandarin oranges), cookies, pussy willows and cherry blossoms? Got all the spring cleaning done? Got all the new new red red “ong ong” clothes and underwear washed and ironed out? Heh.

Me? I’m almost there…

The rush to get all the necessary new ringgit notes has finally paid off. All the running around from bank to bank, taking numbers and waiting in line, … an annual routine task for me, I’d say… well, since I earned the right the give angpows away, that is. And finally, on Monday, I reap my harvest…Love the crisp feeling and smell of the new notes. Love how smooth they feel in my hands. Love it love it love it! Next up. Packing them into angpow packets for distribution.

Yes, Chinese New Year is definitely a time of giving and of eating. This year, we will spend our Chinese New Year reunion in Ipoh, my hometown. This is the first time I will be back in Ipoh for the reunion since I got married about three years ago. So definitely a lot of eating involved there. Looking forward to the yee sang, jiu hoo char and too thor th’ng. Very the festive indeed.

Like all previous Chinese New Years, we have also prepared New Year hampers for our parents. We also gave a similar one to Ethan’s baby sitter. Preferring instead to have our hampers consist of nutritious food items instead of sweets and candies, we got these hampers from Eu Yan Sang, nicely wrapped and delivered to our doors. Love the sparkle and joy on the faces of our parents when we present it to them. Actually I am secretly wishing someone would give one to me too… hehehe…

So, to everyone celebrating Chinese New Year, a very Keong Hee Huat Chye, Kong Hei Fatt Choy and Xing Nian Kuai Le to you. To everyone traveling home on the roads, drive safely and remember to rest if you are tired. And to everyone enjoying the holidays, have a good well-deserved rest.  Now, bring on the food!

Posted in Close to Heart & Home, Relax & Celebrate | 17 Comments