Koh Family Restaurant, Bandar Puteri Puchong

We discovered this restaurant a little before Chinese New Year, and we actually went back again during the festive season (as you can see from the Yee Sang below). One of the things I really like there is their Fruity Cincau- a yummy cincau concoction with longans, pineapple cubes, nata de coco, and a wedge of lime. It's such a nice, refreshing drink; a lovely twist to the conventional cincau one usually gets.

I'm a huge fan of stingray, so the fish cooked in an asam pedas style was definitely my kind of thing. Yum. The Lemon Chicken was quite nice too- crispy on the outside, tender on the inside.

Will definitely dine there again- the Fruity Cincau is worth it! Hehehe :)

No.1, Jalan Puteri 5/8,
Bandar Puteri Puchong
Tel : 603-8061 9621

Immanuel- God with us

I attended my first proper BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) lesson today. I was a bit late since I got lost (yet again) while trying to get to the church, and the group I was in was squashed in a rather tight corner, but overall, I'm really glad I went.

We studied Matthew 1:1-25 today, and I was really encouraged by a couple of points that could be drawn from the passage. I was reminded of how difficult it must have been for Mary and Joseph, as they each dealt with the implications of Mary being with child during the 'engagement'. It was a difficult situation to be in- mockery, disgrace, and for Mary, perhaps even possible death (she could have been stoned). Yet both Mary and Joseph trusted God and obeyed in faith.

From this, we learnt that God often uses difficult circumstances to accomplish His will; and how He sometimes allows trials to come our way, to get our attention. The last few weeks or so at work have been quite rough, and I am trying to learn to commit all things to His good hands, to trust Him, and to hopefully grow in spiritual maturity. It has not been easy, and I have so much to learn..

We closed our study focusing on verse 23: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"- which means, "God with us."

I am so encouraged as I reflect on the fact that God is with me, always. I pray that as Good Friday and Easter draw near; you are too.

Immanuel, O Immanuel
Bowed in awe I worship at your feet
And sing Immanuel
God is with us
Sharing my humanness, my shame
Feeling my weaknesses, my pain
Taking the punishment, the blame
Immanuel
And now my words cannot explain
All that my heart cannot contain
How great are the glories of your name
Immanuel, Immanuel

Shopping for furniture

The past few weeks have been CRAZY- both on weekdays (with what else, work of course :p) and on weekends (furniture shopping)!

We heard that the CF to our new place is ready; so we started to hunt around for furniture. Thanks to hubby, who drew such lovely floor plans- complete with cute drawings to indicate where the sofa set, dining table, etc could go; plus all the accompanying dimensions *grin*; we decided to take a risk and ended up buying a few items ahead of actually seeing the house! The discounts on offer seemed really good, so hopefully everything turns out ok.

So far, we've bought the following:
- Sofa set
- Coffee table
- TV cabinet
- End coffee table
- Dining table + 6 chairs

I have to say that shopping for furniture is incredibly tiring, not to mention, stressful on the bank account!! :(

We spent most of today shopping for a bed, so we've been flopping ourselves on one mattress after the next; trying to figure out which one to buy (they all turn into one big blur after a while :p). Think we've pretty much settled on Dunlopillo, although we haven't actually paid for it yet.

What next? There's still built-in wardrobes, lights, etc etc. Aaarggghh!!

I have to give credit to dear hubby for doing so much for our new home. He has been working tirelessly on almost every item- drawing up layout plans, figuring out the internal compartment designs for the built-in wardrobes, researching the different kinds of mattresses, washing machines, cooker hood + hob + oven sets, working on the administrative side of things (calling people, placing orders, etc). Even as I sit here blogging, hubby is surfing the web for a suitable flat screen TV, hehe...

I'm so blessed to be married to this man! :)

p/s: If any of you have any tips / contacts that you can share with us (especially for built-in wardrobes), do let us know- thanks so much!

Chili's, Mid Valley

Mum and Dad were in KL recently, and we ended up at Chili's since Dad felt carnivorous, and Tony Roma's didn't have a table for us. Oh well, Chili's is usually a good choice, in any case.

Dad had the lamb shoulder, which was delicious, although Mum felt that the taste was a tad too strong. I thought it was lovely with the mint sauce. Hubby and I shared the BBQ Ribs and Chicken (something along those lines; can't remember the name) which was very nice as well. I'm a big fan of BBQ sauce :)

Mum had the Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, which didn't impress. In fact, I thought the sauce tasted like it came straight from a jar. Hmm.

Think this is the first time we didn't have the fajitas at Chili's! Guess it's nice to try something different for a change :)

Two movies in one weekend!

What a busy weekend it has been. We found time to catch 2 movies, plus we did quite a fair bit of furniture (window) shopping. Checking out furniture is super-tiring I tell you, but more on that another day! :)

We caught Jumper on Saturday in Mid Valley. It's always nice to catch the first movie of the day, when the queue is virtually non-existent and the shopping mall is just beginning to show signs of life.

Anyway, Jumper is about this guy who can teleport- what a cool ability to have, eh? The role is played by Hayden Christensen; but I don't really think his acting ability has improved much from his Anakin Skywalker days. *chuckle* Still, it was great to see him 'jumping' from one place to another- morning in New York, afternoon in Fiji, evening in Egypt. What a life! No need for long-haul flights at all. Or walking, for that matter.

After the movie, hubby and I were discussing how this power could be used to lead a legitimate life (as opposed to robbing a bank and living off the money :p) and still make the most of this incredible ability to go anywhere in the world in a hearbeat. Sigh- it's every traveller's dream come true... Anyway, one thing we thought he could do was to set up a delivery service; that would certainly give DHL a run for their money! Hahahaha :D

The other movie we watched was Vantage Point. This is the story of eight strangers with eight different points of view, each trying to piece together the truth behind an assassination attempt on the President of the United States.

Don't worry, I won't give too much away here. All I can say is that the movie may progress at a slower pace than you're used to, but then again- it IS called Vantage Point after all. It was still action-packed all the way though, and there were quite a few surprises as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

We really enjoyed Vantage Point, and our overall verdict is that we liked it better than Jumper. And oh, it features a star-studded cast as well; Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker and Sigourney Weaver :)

Pantai Seafood with Harry Potter & Ginny Weasley

I am so behind with my blogging. This dinner was held ages ago, so things are rather hazy now. One thing I do remember is that the whole point of the dinner was to meet Harry Potter's Ginny Weasley!! Poor girl, I hope we didn't scare her to death. :)

So how was Pantai Seafood? One word- CROWDED. It was my first time there, and I was surprised to see so many people on a weekday.

Absolutely loved the shredded kailan...

We ordered marmite crabs, and although the crabs seemed a little small, they were quite tasty indeed. Other memorable dishes were the shredded kailan and the fried rice with anchovies.

Yum!

A close call...

I was driving to work the other day- minding my own business as I drove along a straight road, when this car suddenly appeared out of a junction right towards me! The opposite side of the road was filled with cars in queue, which meant I could not see this car waiting to come out of the junction. To think he didn't even bother to check if there was oncoming traffic!! Sheesh.

If it wasn't for the small gap that allowed me to swerve to the left, he pretty much would have rammed into me! Thank God there wasn't any motorcyclist on my left, or another car following closely behind. Fortunately I wasn't driving too fast either, which meant that I managed to brake on time.

After that close call, the other driver stuck his arm out of the window and waved frantically to apologise. He did that for a good 100 metres until he turned off the road. Oh well, at least he KNEW he was at fault!

What a way to start the day! But I thank God I escaped without a scratch; to myself or my car...

Phew.

Souled Out with Harry Potter

Just realised that I forgot to blog about this dinner that we had with Harry Potter ages ago. We chose Souled Out since Harry Potter's other group of friends was there as well, so it was a case of killing two birds with one stone. :)

We had a great time eating and chatting. We ordered this salmon pizza, which I really liked; maybe it was the Japanese egg mayonnaise that I'm so mad about. Every time I go to the supermarket I would stare longingly at the bottles of this mayonnaise (the one with the baby logo in front) and then slap myself out of the daydream, since I would realistically have no use for THAT much mayonnaise. Heh :p

Kebab- not too bad

Chicken Cordon Bleu- yummy...

And of course... dessert!

It does seem like Souled Out has updated their menu somewhat; looks like hubby and I will be popping by more often! :)

Ushering in the Year of the Rat...

... with what else- FOOD, of course! :)

Mum-in-law cooked up a storm for the reunion dinner; there was soooo much food! It was quite amazing to see her single-handedly whipping up so many dishes (I didn't help to cook, but I did wash the dishes!) She even made me pig's stomach soup (so sweet of her)- which I like, but don't usually get to eat; cos hubby just isn't a fan. So it was pretty much just me, the huge bowl of yummy soup and those delicious rubbery strips!

On the first day of the new year, we went to pay hubby's grandma a visit. Then, it was off to Sunway Pyramid- we brought mum-in-law to watch the new Stephen Chow movie, CJ7. The cinema was packed, and we had to settle for seats four rows from the screen! :p

So, did I enjoy CJ7? Well, there were some parts that made me angry, and I was really annoyed that people were finding those funny. But maybe it's just me being overly-sensitive... hmmm. There WERE some tender and meaningful moments though, so for me that evened things out a bit.

Mum-in-law made dinner again, and of course, there was loads of food! Think there is waaaay too much eating this time of the year, no? :p

Happy Chinese New Year!

Raymo and Babyraymo would like to wish everyone a Happy & Prosperous Chinese New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!