Little Cozy Corner

I had a VERY sweet and plesant surprise today. Ted really made my day. :love: He had mentioned to me yesterday that he was going to make me a special dinner and he did a magnificent job! I had worked the whole of last week [Saturday and Sunday] right up till today and I was really looking forward to a restful weekend. What a marvelous way to start it off indeed.

The first sweet surprise I got was a bouquet of pink roses waiting for me when I got home, he didn’t mention a thing when he came to fetch me at the station and I had no idea what was waiting for me at home. When I got back, as I was hanging up my jacket and all, he called out to me from the kitchen and when I got there, there he was…..standing with a bouquet of beautiful pink roses. So sweet lar! :love: :love:

Then he made me some strong tea coz I like it really thick so that I can add milk and it would somewhat taste like tea back home - not the same but nearly the same and I cant really argue with that, can I? After that, he pretty much hurried me off into our study and practically forced me to blog/surf. He told me that I was not to come out of the room until he was done. So I obediently stayed online until he hollered out to me.

What greeted me was beyond my expectation!!! :love: :blush: He had prepared a meal of rice with pan fried fish, accompanied by my favourite wine from the Brown Brothers - Spatlese Lexia [a sweet sort of dessert wine], a single stalk of rose in the centre and some candles to complete the romantic look. I was escatatic and so excited that I was running around looking for my camera coz I just had to immortalise it. It was just so beautiful and so romantic….. :daydream: How could I not love this man??? :love: Such a lovely soul he is… :hug: And he’s MINE!!!! Happy Yvy…. :dancing:

The meal…. :drool:

The man… :love:

The pic of a bird the man took… :hehe:

Have a funfilled and rested weekend, folks! :hug:

Another weekend has past and I’ve lagged behind FF….:sad: Now I realise why people can’t find the time to blog. I realised also that I havent had time to blog myself! By the time I get home from work, I’m dead beat. And it’s not making things any simpler by having 2 internet junkies at home….*sigh* Then again, I hardly have the energy to actually blog these days. Must be my work….it is a little stressful to a certain extend but I take it all in stride. It’s part and parcel of life and I’m just taking a little longer trying to adapt to that part of my new life.

That being said, I’ll never leave THIS bit of my life…ever. Period. I had fun at the recent Parramatta Riverbeat festival. I mentioned it last week I think and today, I’m letting the pix I took do the talking. It isn’t as clear nor as bright as I want it to be coz it was drizzling that day and it was just a really dull day BUT the events were so happening!! At least 2 bit of it were.

Girls from Jalsa Creole, a band playing mainly Mauritius music with 4 gorgeous dancers.

Many people, animals and FOOD! :tongue:

Me and Spiky the bearded dragon - VERY prickly and it clung on to my hand as you can see.

Sleepy the Shingleback lizard also known as the two-headed lizard coz it’s tail looks like its head.

Bubblegum the blue tongue lizard. Pretty little thing and a great help in the garden - it eats up all the snail!

Very pretty indeed and this was moments before I dropped it and grabbed it by its tail before it landed splat on its head! I’m surprised it didnt snap at me as they are known to do that. :secret: *Ooppss….*

FF is back!! :dancing: :party: 

Did you know that I have a mini aviary outside my bedroom, by the balcony? Well, I do! All this thanks to Ted who bought me a bird feeder for my birthday in September. Although their chirping sends me up the wall in the mornings, I must admit that they are quite a beautiful bunch and you’ll soon see why. :love:

The first cuckatoo who visited us….

Then he/she brought a friend along.

These are our normal visitors although them turned up in throngs today….surpringly enough.

More on this end of the balcony.

A pair of love birds having a quite romantic brekkie. They travel in pairs and this is the most notorious pair! Chases the rest away all the time.

The only crimson rosella who dropped by one day.

These are the scavengers [achelly they are pigeons...irritating specimens!], all waiting in a line to attack my beautiful lorkeets. Damn pandi birds!!

Hope you like my mini bird park. Have a blessed weekend…!!!

I feel like as if I’ve just only arrived in Sydney [today]. Not too sure why I feel that things seem rather brand new. It must be coz my Internet is up and running and I feel rejuvenated! :tongue: Anyway, it’s about time I brought back good ol’ Fancy Friday. I bet you miss it but I miss it even more coz I haven’t been putting up my pix weekly as I had planned. None the less, I’m not really complaining lar coz I dont really have that many pic to put up, really.

In any case, I still have a few from when Ted cook me my first meal - I’m the missus, of course it’s only right that I should be pampered. Heh.

I’ve got pix to show you but my stupid blog is giving me problems! It wont let me put in any pix!!!! :grrr: Anyway, pls make a beeline to my Flickr account and check it out there, ok? Sorry peeps….:worried

Hope you have a good weekend….I have to get back to my hot wok - my first attempt at cooking nasi lemak and rendang to go with it. It’s for our dinner at a church get-together tonight! :drool:

Mum had a farewell party for me on Wednesday. We called a few family members and some of my close friends. The BBQ was great fun and the food ~ DELISH! :drool: As usual, we made our own dishes. Mum always takes pride in being the perfect host and till to date has not failed anyone’s expectations, at least she has definitely not failed my standards. She’s DA SMOKIN’ CHEF!

The main item was the chicken and frankfurters while the others were merely side dishes. We started preparing a little late but as usual, we’re always on time where time management is concerned. [Did I tell you that it takes me days to pack for a trip and I hate rushing to pack my bag? I started packing my suitcase to take with me to Oz since last week and I'm still not done!] I guess it was twice faster since 2 pairs of hands were working. I even had a debut signature dish out that night. It started out as pieces of steak for the bbq but ended up as a special mince meat dish….ala Yvy style. Actually, it looked very much like serunding. I think I know what went wrong though. I was so adamant and insistent that I had try out this recipe I conjured in my mind and die-die must do no matter what. After all, how tough could it be to prepare the steak with my special recipe, right? WRONG! In this case, it backfired! I guess it was partly my fault. I was suppose to tenderize it slightly the night before but I must have whacked it way too hard and on top of that, it was marinating in my special sauce over night. The final blow was when an aunt suggested we half-boil the meat first then add in the marinate so that it soaks right through and on that day, cook/grill/bbq till fully cooked.

By the time I mixed in my special brew, practically the whole pot of meat had fallen to bits. So I did the next best thing ~ added in more flavouring and had Mum help me stir it till it became dry as I was busy setting up the porch and such. Turned out might fine and was a hit among many. Guess Mum’s gift for cooking DOES run through my veins. Baby, worry no more…you shall not starve to death and we shall not live on nasi goreng alone, all the days of our life. :hehe:

Getting the bbq pit started was another drama ~ thank god I’m no drama mama myself or I would have been freaking out! Also another glitch no thanks to the inexperience me when it comes to bbq-ing. Who knows lar that those bbq coals which you can get in the bags were that fume-y and not hot enough? Costed us a bomb when all we needed was a bag of good ol’ charcoal wood to get the party started. *sigh* Poor Uncle Winston and Aunty Theresa were fanning away trying to get the fire up. But despite the slow start-up for the fire, once it got going….all went smoothly and the chicken was S-U-P-E-R!! :drool: :drool: Nice and slightly charred on the outside but ,juicy moist and succulent on the inside. Double, triple :drool:

The slow start….

The smokin’ pit ~ THIS is what I’m talking about! :drool: :drool:

See that dish on the bottom right? Yvy’s Special…

More food!!! :drool:

Our desserts waltzing in….

A (wo)man’s best friend during any party….BOOZE!! What bbq would be complete without a little firewater, eh? :smug:

The past few times I made my way back to my hometown in Kluang, I had always missed the chance of having one of my favourite breakfast there, the all famous Kluang Railway Station Roti Bakar [Toasted Bread].

Kluang may be a small town right smack in the middle of Johor but it has a very well known railway line where this famous coffee shop is located.

A couple of views of this coffee shop. Throngs of people come by daily and it’s ALWAYS busy from the moment the doors are open till they close. You can see the queue of people waiting for a seat. There is small open air space at the side but it’s not as comfy as inside of course ~ hot mar…

:drool: THIS is the famous roti bakar [toasted bread] with homemade kaya & butter, paired with their just-as-famous coffee. See the butter and kaya oozing out? :drool: :drool: BEST!!

It’s amazing how long people are willing to wait to have the coffee and bread. My cousin and I waited nearly 1/2 hour before a seat became vacant. Thankfully, the people in Kluang are slightly courteous and did not cut into our queue. Everyone kept to their queue which was somewhat of a miracle to me.

A pix of me and Gabriel, a childhood pal’s son. Love the classic Coconut Tree hairstyle. It will never be outdated!

Here are some shot Sis took while we were at the stable at UTM. I couldnt resist feeding the horses there. Don’t mind the overdressing bit, we went there directly after receiving her scroll and the studio snapping session.

Me feeing Billy, he’s skinny here as he wasn’t feeling well for sometime.

Me being pally with Teruna, he kind of ‘blessed’ my hand with his booger when he did that thing horses like to do…can’t explain it but I think you know what I mean. It’s like a sneeze but not really…. :sick: