Our new puppies

Bobby disappeared...we wonder if he went to look for a girlfriend or if he had been knocked down by a car? After waiting for two weeks, we decided to get new doggies.

One of our staff had six new born pups. He gave away three pups to others, two to us and kept one for himself. They are now about eight weeks old. He thought his was too young to be left alone, so he asked if we could take care of his along with ours, and he will take it back when it gets older.

That's why you see three pups in the photo. The fat one in the middle doesn't have a tail, and she looks like a bear cub. That's ours. And the one on the right, or is the one on the left - ours too. I know the one with the white under belly isn't ours. But we love them all the same. They are so cute!!!!!

Grandpa fixing kennel

Here is Simon's grandpa fixing up the kennel last Sat for our 2 new puppies coming today.

It's hot, hot, hot!

One of the rare days when Tiger and Tigger are out of the pet carrier and asleep without any protection. Coz it's a very hot day today!

Getting comfty

This is Simon watching telly after dinner. Tiger and Tigger are getting used to us letting them in once every couple of evenings. After exploring both upstairs and downstairs, Tigger decided to get comfty too.

Anyone can cook - Ratatouille

I made gado gado (mixed mixed) last Sun, but realised it was based on an Indonesian recipe. So the sauce wasn't like what we're used to in Malaysia and Singapore. It was more lemak. But everyone was nice and tried a little. In the end, we ate most of the vegetables, and dabbing only a little of the sauce.

Today was better, I made wantons with MIL's supervision. She told me to fry the minced mushrooms with the chopped onions and garlic and cool first, before mixing in the minced chicken. I used to take the easy way out and fold the wantons in triangles. This time, she thought me how to fold in a nicer way. Scoop the filling and place on corner of sqaure wanton skin, and roll it up. Then take the ends of the wanton, fold, twist and stick with a little water. We fried them till golden brown, and yes, they taste as good as they look.

Small garoupers

We have a small group back in Singapore called Small Garoupers. We wanted to be fisher of men and played with the acronym SG (small group). Instead of having a Hebrew name, we wanted one that is local sounding. So we thought of the name of a local fish called garoupa. From a fusion of 'Group' and 'Garoupa', viola...Small Garoupers.

Miss you all.

Simon's birthday, 13 July

As for Simon's birthday, he is a simple man and prefers not to celebrate. He doesn't really like cake and expensive presents. He loves NYDC mud pies though, but I couldn't get that here. He had left his book on how to tie knots for fishing on the plane. So I thought I will buy a similar one for him. But I couldn't find any at the one and only Popular book store and the shops that sell fishing gear. I didn't get him a fishing rod too coz he already has two and he needs more practice than more rods.

Finally, I got him a foldable chair, a net to net fishes when he catches them, and a Chinese fishing magazine (with CD-ROM on some anglers' deep sea fishing experiences, man those fish were huge and weigh more than 10kgs!). Mum help hid the presents in the store room. On his birthday, he sat down for breakfast and read his papers. He discoveredthe fishing mag inside the newspapers, hee hee. Only when he was almost done did he noticed his presents in the corner. I cooked simple meal of claypot rice for dinner and we had two cups of tiramisu after dinner, one to be shared by each couple.

Mum's birthday, 10 July

For mum's birthday, we had a simple and healthy steamboat dinner last Sun together with Simon's sister, Catherine, her bubby Bryan and baby Megan. After that, mum cut the birthday cake together with dad and Megan, and she thought that was it.

On Tue, Simon and I went to help Dad buy her a bouquet of 2 dozen roses. She has not receive flowers from Dad for a loooong time. We said we had to meet a friend who was driving down from Brunei. Of course, we confessed and repented of our sin later. Then we hid the flowers in our bedroom till all of them returned home from work. Dad came up and got the flowers from me and he surprised her with the bouquet.

I already asked Dad if we could go to mum's fav vegetarian restaurant. He said it's really up to her. She may very well want to cook herself. I managed to catch her in the kitchen ready to defrost a fish. Told her since it's her birthday, we should go out for a meal. She agreed. Cat and Bryan came too. We had tom yam curry veg, deep fried mushrooms done cereal prawns style, sichuan pot of mushroom and tapicoa, and sambal kangkong (but not too hot as mum and Cat can't take spicy stuff) .

How do your parents celebrate birthdays? My mum is the same as my MIL, she always cook for the family and the husbands of her generation always eat what the wife cooks. Sometimes, it's hard to convince them to take a break and have a meal outside. As for presents, best to give ang paos, but once in a while, presents will be a lovely surprise.

Grace Methodist Church

We attended Grace Methodist Church last weekend, and two weekends ago. It's the only Methodist Church in Miri that has English Services. Service on Sun morning is from 8.30 to 10.15am. People here are nice and friendly. We will try out the small groups. Hope we can find one as nice as Small Garoupers back home! Miss you all!

Homecoming for our kuching

After a month's quarantine, Tiger and Tigger are finally home with us. But when Simon was trying to put them in the pet carrier, they struggled as if thinking, "Oh no! We're not going on another flight again!"

When we brought them home, we had to put them in the balcony as MIL said they cannot be in the house. Simon's niece loves to crawl all over the place and may breathe in the cat hair. Hmmm. Anyway, people have aviaries for birds, we have a similar one for cats. Grandpa help built the netting around the balcony and a wooden hideaway for them. Poor dears wanted to be let in, but no, I must be strong. Er, we will let them in once in a while... hee hee.

Our rumah and kereta

This is a photo of the back of our rumah (home in Malay) and the huge garden behind it and on the side.

Our only means of transport - kereta (car in Malay). Public transport isn't as efficient. Buses ply few routes and taxis have to be booked unless you happen to be at the main taxi stand in town.

Before you scream at us in envy, the cars are between 17 to 30 years old. We'll be selling a couple of them. But in Miri, it's good to leave a car at home to give impression someone is at home and burglars will think twice about robbing your place.