Malacca

Hi pallies! I'm back. Hope y'all  had a great Christmas and a wonderful start to the new year.
We spent 2016 in Malacca (Melaka in Malay), a state located in the southern region of Peninsular Malaysia. It was a last minute decision as we all wanted a short weekend getaway before school reopens on January 4th. It had been quite a while since our last family vacation. Now that Josh is in college, his semester breaks and Rodney's school term breaks are no longer concurrent.

A little info about Malacca to share.

The story of Malacca a.k.a "The Historic City of Malaysia" begins with the legendary tale of a Sumatran prince named Parameswara who was out hunting one day and while resting under a tree, witnessed one of his dogs cornering a mousedeer. The mousedeer in its defence attacked the dog and even forced it into a river. So taken up by the courage of the wee creature, the prince decided on the spot to found a city on the ground he was sitting on. Hence, Malacca was born. Many claimed that the prince took this name from the 'Melaka' tree that was shading him. The year was 1400.

Parameswara established the Sultanate Of Malacca and the kingdom flourished under 8 sultans until it fell into the hands of the Portugese in 1511, followed by the Dutch in 1641, and then handed over to the British in 1795. Malacca went briefly under the rule of the Japanese in 1942-1945 during World War II.  In 1957,  Malaysia (known as Malaya then) gained its independence from the British.

The ruins of the A Famosa Portuguese fort, an iconic landmark of Malacca

Me and Josh. Excuse the sloppy dressing! I had to untuck my shirt and unbutton my jeans after stuffing myself with Satay Celup! Burp!

The Stadthuys

Malacca's most unmistakable landmark. This red town hall dates back to 1650 and is believed to be the oldest Dutch building in the East. The building was erected after Malacca was captured by the Dutch in 1641, and is a reproduction of the former Stadhuis (town hall) of the Frisian town of Hoorn in the Netherlands. Today it serves as a museum complex.

The Statue of St. Francis Xavier

Notice the missing right hand. In 1952, a statue of the Jesuit priest from Spain was erected in front of the ruins of St Paul's church in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of his sojourn in Malacca. A day after the statue was consecrated, a large casuarina tree fell on it, breaking off its right arm. Incidentally, the right forearm of St. Francis Xavier was detached in 1614 as a relic!

Satay Celup

No trip to Malacca is complete if you haven't tried their Satay Celup. Celup in Malay translates as "dunk" so Satay Celup is basically skewered seafood. meat or vegetables that are dunked in a pot of boiling peanut sauce. Think Malaysian fondue!

And you can't say you've been to Malacca if you missed out their chicken rice balls!

The rice balls are just rice shaped into ping-pong sized balls but they are more flavourful than ordinary rice and have a sticky texture, kinda like sushi.

We had a great time in Malacca but the boys and I would really have preferred a beach vacation.  Yep, I think I am going to add that to my 2016 list.

Spread Cheer With Cookies

I just love, love, love the holiday season! I live for the holiday season!  It's the perfect opportunity and excuse to BAKE, BAKE and BAKE cookies!

This holiday, I am participating in the Betty Crocker's #SpreadCheer campaign. Make the world a better place this Christmas when you spread cheer with the gift of cookies. Homemade gifts for Christmas is one of my favorite ways to show people I care about them.


My first batch of cheer. I will be distributing them to my neighbours, my favourite charity organization and to Hubby's co-workers.

You can download the adorable free printable  gift tags here.

Help get the word out to inspire others to keep the celebration going.

Use #SpreadCheer, tag your friends and nominate them to keep the cheer coming.

Snowman Cookies

The Complicated Chinese Family Tree

My newlywed neighbour, Jenny, will be visiting her in-laws in their village in China for the first time and she is frantic! That's because the Chinese kinship system is among the most complex  in the world and she is expected to address each and every member of her in-laws according to the different terms for relatives depending on whether they are younger or older than a closer relative (mother or father) and depending on whether they are maternal or paternal relatives. Calling them by their rightful titles especially the elders is a sign of proper respect and etiquette and it is a reflection of your parents. It means that you have been well brought up.

Here's a simple example.
Take my dad, for instance. He's the third child in his family of 2 elder brothers, an elder sister, 2 younger brothers and a younger sister. From young, we were taught to address Dad's  elder bothers as "pak" and his younger ones as "sook", His elder sister is "gu ma" and the younger one is "gu".

Confused already? And I haven't even started on the uncles' wives and aunts' husbands and my mom's side! Maternal aunts and uncles and their spouses and kids have different titles too! Hmmm, I wonder if that's the reason China introduced the one-child policy?!!!!  LOL! Interestingly, how does one address a gay relative and his or her partner/spouse?

This system is spot-on though. Say a friend tells you her ''sei yee cheong" is visiting, you know at once that she's referring to her 4th maternal aunt's husband.  "Sei" is the number 4, "yee" is a younger sister of your mom and "yee cheong" is the husband of your mom's younger sister. And if she tells you her "gu poh" has passed on, you would know that she's referring to a sister of her paternal grandfather.

I am wondering - how do you address the ex-husband of your mom's divorced sister? Ex-yee cheong? We never found out 'cos he passed on before my sisters and I were born!

Here's a video to share

                                              

My mind exploded after the first 10 seconds! My boys are lucky I do things the easy way out, They generally address all their aunts and uncles as Aunty and Uncle. So my younger sister is just Aunty J to them and Aunty J's husband is Uncle William! Anyway, I only have an elder and  younger sister which means my boys only have to remember "Tai Yee" (Big Aunty) and "Sai Yee" (Small Aunty). That shouldn't be too difficult!

So Good Luck to Jenny on her visit to China!

From left - Tai Pak (eldest paternal uncle), Yee Pak (second eldest paternal uncle, Sook Jai (youngest paternal uncle)!

POTUS

Guess who was at Josh's campus??!!!!

There were snipers on the roof top ....

K9 dogs were sniffing around and The Beast was entering the grounds!

WOW!  According to Josh,  it was just like watching a scene right out of a movie!

Yep! The President of The United States was in town and he was hosting the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Town Hall event at my son's university.

Just how cool is that !!!

This week's cookies

Polar Bear Cookies

Nutcracker

Is it just me or do you find a nutcracker creepy?  I am referring to those evil looking wooden soldiers that seem to haunt a perfectly good Christmas as they somehow find their way to being a staple during the Yuletide season. I was told they are meant to look scary, to ward off evil spirits. Those huge teeth and angry eyes .....shudder!! My former Danish neighbours used to display a waist-high nutcracker next to their christmas tree every year and it scared the crap out of my boys when they were little. We could see it from our window.  It looked really creepy at night when the lights were out and you could still see those ginormous white teeth under the blinking christmas lights. Eeeek!

Why are they called nutcrackers and do they actually crack nuts? I googled for information and here's what I learned from Dawn @ Dawn's Scary Thoughts.

"Well, they do crack nuts and apparently nut crackers have been around since at least the Greeks and Aristotle, at least in a decorative/functional form. England’s King Henry VIII gave second wife Anne Boleyn a decorative wooden nutcracker as a gift in the 1500s. But, the colorful nutcrackers we now associate with Christmas didn’t exist until the 18th century, and were the product of German craftsmen.

In Germany, nutcrackers weren’t just practical tools, they were totems said to protect families from danger. Their big wooden teeth were designed to scare away evil spirits, and their ability to crack nuts symbolized the circle of life: A tree drops a seed (nut), which becomes a tree and from the tree the wooden nutcracker is born. The nutcracker, by design, also was a form of satirical political commentary. Nutcrackers made in the image of high-ranking officials, kings and soldiers were a way to force high-status men to “serve” the people. For example, Napoleon may have won battles in Germany, but he was helpless in the hands of the German people, who made the little general’s likeness the most popular nutcracker design of its time.

In the 19th century, nutcrackers began being sold as children’s toys for Christmas. The most popular designs during this time were harlequins and soldiers. One of these soldier nutcrackers became the protagonist of E.T.A. Hoffman’s novel The Nutcracker and the King of Mice , which subsequently inspired Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suit e and The Nutcracker ballet. In America, the nutcracker as a collector’s item first gained popularity in the 1950s, when American GIs returning from Germany brought the colorful nutcrackers home with them. During the same period, The Nutcracker ballet’s popular success also sparked interest in the colorful wooden toy."

My cookified version of a nutcracker.

Nutcracker Cookies

And oh, my nutcrackers were featured on Sunday's Best Link-up #49 and Wake Up Wednesday Linky Party #97 !

Santa

Growing up, I always believed that our parish priest, Father W, was Santa. Father W was Irish and he looked just like the Santa depicted in my story books - jolly, round, red-faced  and lushly white-bearded. He had the kindest face I know and kids just adored him. For many years, he always played Santa in the children's Christmas parties that were organized by our church.  My parents went along with my belief and I was told that though Father W was a priest, he would magically transform into Santa during Christmas. I was convinced. I guess it bought them time before I would eventually figure out that Santa wasn't real. I was about six years old when Father W returned to his home country. Taking his place as parish priest was Father A, a priest from India.

Now, don't get me wrong - it was nothing racial but being greeted at a children's Christmas party by a brown and skinny Santa with a fake white beard made of strung up cotton wool instead of your regular picture-perfect Santa was a major bummer! One of the older kids at the party, a real meanie, squealed smugly, "It's Father A! Told ya, Santa IS NOT REAL!".

On the way home after the party, Mom explained the truth about Santa. Funnily, the revelation did not devastate me. Like the tooth fairy and Easter bunny, our culture and religion place very little emphasis on Santa. To us Christmas = Birth of Christ and Easter = Christ's Resurrection.

Frankly, I think Santa and the practice of gifting have taken away the true meaning of Christmas. I always remind my boys that Christmas is all about giving and not gifting when they don't get the gifts they request.

Interestingly, I asked my son, Rodney, how did he find out that Santa wasn't real. He answered that he never really gave it a thought and that he knew Santa wasn't real from the start! Anyway, he googled that when he was six!

Am I a bad mom?

When and how did you find out Santa isn't real?

This week's cookies

Santa Cookies

Cedric

My parents used to have a pug named Cedric. He was abandoned by his owners when they migrated to Canada.  My mom found him  in our neck of the woods when she was taking her daily evening stroll. Mom adopted Cedric. Dad lovingly nicknamed him "Ugly". Cedric was kinda ugly in a beautiful sort of way.

I hate people who dump their pets when they move. It breaks my heart. Poor Cedric! He pined for his owners ever single day. Each time Mom opened the gate, Cedric would run to the house of his previous owners and wait there until Mom called for him. He returned to the empty house daily, faithful, loyal and resolute, awaiting his master's return.

Cedric lived with my parents for a good five years before he succumbed to cancer. I dread to think what might have been if Mom hadn't rescued him. God bless my mom!

Pug Cookies

Sharing this short, poignant Hungarian film with an impactive message about abandonment.

                                              

There is a twist. The ending really hits and I had to watch it a second time before I got it. I was wondering what kind of a man could leave his child behind until I realized she was .........

Haze Update

This is the first time I'm out of the house in the open without a mask after being forced to stay indoors for more than a month because of the haze. The air quality is definitely better thanks to the monsoon season that has just started. The rain has brought some respite from the haze but experts warn the relief is temporary, as wind patterns could still turn unfavourable and bring polluted air from the fires in neighbouring Indonesia.

This picture was taken when I was at Josh's campus to deliver the RAK cookies. Thankfully, the resident ducks and geese were unaffected by the haze. It was reported that chickens were dying by the millions in a month when the API (Air Pollution Index) hit dangerous levels. Chickens are more vulnerable than humans because of their complex respiratory system. Funnily, you would think that mosquitoes are affected too but nope, they are not. Dang!

Finally, I can breathe easy! Good news for now until it comes back again to haunt us year after year.

This week's cookies

Peacock Cookies For Deepavali/Diwali

Random Acts of Kindness

I made these cookies for Josh's RAK project.

Aren't those Mother Theresa tags adorable? You can download them from Kristie's blog @ http://kristischaos.com/category/random-acts-of-kindness/

This week's cookies

Witch Cookies

Mosquitoes Prefer Blonds!

Ever wondered why some of us are pure mozzie-baits while others escape without a scratch?

Once, when we were out camping, mosquitoes ate me alive in my tent but my friends were untouched. And they were sleeping with their tent flaps open!

There seems to be an increase in mosquitoes lately and I am certain the haze is driving them indoors. Those pesky little vampires are biting me and Josh to shreds but Hubby and Rodney are unfazed. Over here in the tropics, mozzies have always been a pain all year round but we are bugged by them more than normal these few months, no thanks to the haze.

I had always suspected that blood type had something to do with a mosquito's choice of feasting. Josh and I share the same blood type (O) and Hubby and Rodney are both type A. Curious, I googled for information. Turned out, I wasn't wrong!
Research has shown that people with Type O blood are twice as likely to get bitten than those with Type B. Type A was even less popular than Type B. Aww! This really sucks! I feel like I'm a blood donor to those little beasties!

Some interesting facts to share.

1   Blood-thirsty females can smell their dinner from up to 50 metres away!

2.  Pregnant women are more likely to be victims as they breathe out larger than normal amounts of carbon-dioxide.

3.  As adults breathe out more carbon-dioxide than children, mosquitoes prefer to munch on them.

4.  Researchers think that genetics account for around 85 % of our susceptibility to mosquito bites. So if your parents are mosquito magnets, you are more likely to be as well.

5. In 2002, a Japanese study of 13 volunteers found that those who drank a single bottle of beer were more appetizing to mosquitoes.
The researchers believed drinking beer increases body temperature and the amount of alcohol in that is in a person’s sweat.

6. Mosquitoes tend to be attracted to people of a lighter skin. Bloody racists!  LOL! And they prefer blonds too.

7. Mosquitoes will go for the most delicious item on the menu and if you are more tasty than your friends, you are likely to become the main meal of the day so choose your company accordingly, especially when you are hiking or camping.

7. Mosquitoes have been around for more than 170 million years.

Do mosquitoes love you too?

This week's cookies

Yorkies in Halloween Colours

I've Got Chills!

I teared up and got goosebumps when I heard these kids sing at a Chinese talent show.
                         

WOW!!!!  Such powerful vocals!
"I yam strong when I yam on your shoulders"!  Too cute!

This week's cookies

Teddy Bears

AIRpocalypse When?

I woke up this morning with a bad headache, burning eyes and a sore throat - all the symptoms of breathing in bad air.

Once again, for the umpteenth year, we are engulfed by the dreaded annual haze. Schools closed for the second time this year as the API (Air Pollution Index) surpassed 200, meaning very hazardous and unhealthy air quality.

Acrid smoke billowing from agricultural fires in Indonesia is the cause of this perennial nightmare. On Saturday, as the haze worsened, an airport just outside Kuala Lumpur closed temporarily as visibility dropped to less than 400 metres. The condition is also risky to sea vessels without navigational equipment.

The haze crisis,  the worst since mid-2013 continues to choke us year after year during the dry season, when agricultural land is illegally cleared by burning in neighbouring country Indonesia.

School children donning masks against a hazy backdrop

image credit  - FreeMalaysiaToday

Image credit - Lim Huey Teng

We are told that Indonesia needs 3 years to solve the problem. Meanwhile, do we have to  hold our breath until then even if it is causing health hazards to many whilst incurring hundreds of millions of dollars in economic losses? If this goes on, people and animals would start dropping dead one by one like flies.

                                                     

This week's cookies for Halloween