No MATTA Fair for me

The first of the twice-a-year MATTA (Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents) Fair 2010 is on this weekend, from 12th-14th of March 2010 (10am to 9pm) at Putra World Trade Center (PWTC) Kuala Lumpur. I wanted to go and get a good travel deal but with no clear idea of when and where I wish to visit this year, it is no go for me this time.

Since it turned out this way, I just have to be contented with sitting at home and looking through our previous travel photos. Here are some photos from my 3-day Copenhagen trip from 3rd-5th of October 2002. We went there because our airmiles were going to expire so we used them instead of wasting them.

We stayed at the Ibis Triton Hotel, room 518. The above photo shows the view from the main door.

It has a very big bathroom.

We did not get to try the famous traditional Danish open faced sandwiches, "smørrebrød" because we were too full from dinner when we came across them but we managed to take a photo of them. They looked delicious so it was really a pity we did not get to taste them.

I am standing in front of the Kronborg Castle in Elsinore. This castle is the castle mentioned in Shakespeare's Hamlet and we spent a fair amount of time looking through each room in the castle. We also visited the Frederiksborg Castle but did not pay to go inside as there was not enough time to do so.

We went on a river cruise and admired the little mermaid from the boat. We did not manage to visit the Tivoli Gardens because it was closed during the 3 days that we were in Copenhagen.

As we went on our own, we spent most of our time walking to the castles from the train stations so we were very, very tired at the end of each day. But looking back now, it was a memorable short trip.

To admit or not to admit

For the past few days, I have been going daily to a government hospital to visit a relative who was admitted for tests and observation. It was a few days into CNY that my relative felt that her heart was beating too fast and after meals, she would have pain all over her upper torso. She self-medicated for a week before deciding to see a doctor and get a referral to be admitted to the hospital for tests. One year short of 70, with diabetes, high blood pressure and a history of heart disease, she does not look sick at all but she can tell that something is not right with her body this time.

The main thing that struck me during these visits was the sheer boringness of a hospital stay for the patient. Once visiting hours were over, there was nothing interesting for the patient to do except to lie there and wait for more tests to be carried out by the doctors. Sure, the patient could read a book and watch tv but the mind is not there and it is not enjoyable to read a book or watch tv lying down on a hospital bed with machines sticking to one's body.

Seeing this, it does not surprise me that some people would endure pain and discomfort to avoid a hospital stay and having tests done on them. Now I wonder which category do I belong to:

A. Someone who will consult a doctor and go to the hospital for tests when feeling some pain.

or

B. Someone who will endure pain and discomfort for as long as they can in order to avoid going to the hospital for tests.

I couldn't decide but I believe that there is a kind of pain that is so excruciating that one would not be able to endure it at all and would be forced to go to the hospital whether one likes it or not. But for everyone else, I would prefer them to be in category A because it is better for them and also for me if they get admitted to the hospital when they could still do it than for them to be found unconscious by someone else and be admitted then. For in the latter case, the condition would be serious and perhaps even fatal.

So it pays to make extra effort to take good care of one's health by exercising regularly and eating healthy food in moderation. Not to achieve eternal life but to avoid the sheer boringness of a hospital stay.

Bye bye CNY

Yesterday was the last day (元宵节 yuán xiāo jié / 十五暝 Chap Goh Mei) of the 15-day CNY celebration. Initially I planned to visit i-City Shah Alam at night with my family after seeing the pretty photos taken of the lights display by blogger Family First.

After I have visualized the trip in my mind, I realized that we would probably spend more time travelling in the car than admiring the lights. I also do not know whether the lights display was still on or not. There was no information about the lights display on i-City website. So I just googled for all the blog posts with photos of the lights and showed them to my family. All of us agreed that we have been able to experience the beauty of the lights through these photos so we do not need to make the actual journey there. I just have to say a big thank you to photo bloggers who enabled us to do so. Therefore, the trip was cancelled but everyone was happy to end the CNY celebration this way.

However, we are all looking forward to next year to celebrate CNY again as it is an important festival to ethnic Chinese all around the world. Although it is not a public holiday in many countries, Chinatowns around the world would still celebrate it in their own way, sharing this significant event with people from other cultures.

I was in London Chinatown during CNY 2000. There were many makeshift stalls in the street selling CNY goodies and the street was packed with people. All the Chinese restaurants were opened for business unlike here where many of the Chinese restaurants would be closed for the first two days of CNY. Chinatown was just bustling with activities. Good for Chinatowns worldwide for celebrating CNY!

1st Photo: CNY 2000 in London Chinatown

2nd Photo: A closeup of the little boy in the 1st photo. He is playing with a toy dragon as the year 2000 is the year of the dragon

CNY activities

The countdown continues. 7 more days to go before the CNY celebration ends. My top 3 CNY activities are eating, eating and eating.

Instead of going to the restaurant for "lau sheng" (捞生), my family prefer to eat home cooked food so my mother and sister made vegetarian "yu sheng" (鱼生) from the existing food they have at home. They managed to come up with the following ingredients for the dish - shredded white radish, shredded carrot, pomelo sacs, shredded cucumber, shredded chinese pear, home preserved vinegared shredded ginger, chopped peanuts, and sesame seeds. They even went to the extent of making their own crispy and crunchy crackers (薄脆) from scratch which turned out to be extremely crunchy and delicious. Their hard work paid off because all six of us have fun tossing the "yu sheng" and eating the yummylicious and healthy home made vegetarian "yu sheng". I hope my "lau sheng" this time counts because I was tossing the salad with the chopsticks in my right hand and snapping photos of the "lau sheng" with my point-and-shoot camera in my left hand. Not fully participating to toss the highest.


My mother and sister even made some time to bake a few types of cookies. When I was staying at home, I used to help my sister with the baking. Now I just help her with the eating.


When I was about 4 years old and my sister 8, we used to play "pretend baking" where we made an oven from a cardboard box and for the cookies, we drew various colourful patterns on mini pancake cookies on art paper and cut them out to put into the oven. Just for old times' sake and in celebration of our younger play days together, my sister baked the following cookies. They looked exactly like some of the cookies I drew during those days but sad to say I did not get to taste them because my sister can't stop herself from gobbling all of them up since they reminded her so much of her younger eating days. So 7 more days to go before my eating spree can officially stop.

One more day to CNY!

It seems that this food is a must during CNY. As it is, I have to join the queue and wait patiently for my turn. I don't eat this at all but just need to get one packet for my parents-in-laws. Can't buy it early as it cannot be kept for a long time unless I get the vacuum packed ones which my parents-in-laws do not like. So I have to queue.

Here's wishing everyone (who celebrates CNY) a very happy Chinese New Year! For the rest, happy holidays! Enjoy yourselves but don't eat too much! ;-)

Colourful shooting stars

When I was about 8 or 9 years old, during Chinese New Year, my father would buy many types of fireworks. My favourite firework is the Roman Candle that shoots flaming colourful stars into the sky, one at a time.
As we were young, we were afraid of the sparks so while my father went to the garden to light up the Roman candle, we would hide safely behind the window, waiting in trepidation for the colourful display of sparkling and dancing stars.

Then we would watch in wonder and awe as each star shoots out of the tube and arcs through the dark sky leaving a colourful trail behind it. We would also count the shooting stars as there would be a pause between each shot.

There was one time, the Roman candle fell on its side and shot flaming balls into our house. The flaming balls hit the walls and ricochet off them making it seemed like the flames were everywhere. It was such a terrifying moment. We jumped onto the sofa and screamed our heads off. Luckily our house was not burned down.

Remembering this incident, I can understand why consumer fireworks are banned. Worldwide, there have been many injuries and fires caused by fireworks. So although fireworks leave me with many happy and memorable memories, I have not bought any fireworks. Come to think of it, I have also never lighted any fireworks till now and I do not intend to do so in the future.

Sitting, counting, waiting

Today is Federal Territory Day, a state holiday for the Federal Territories (Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya) in Malaysia. As there will be many people in shopping malls today buying new clothes, new shoes, new bags and other goodies in preparation for Chinese New Year, I spent the day at home to avoid the crowd.

Even garden centers and plant nurseries will not be spared by the crowd. Many are shopping for CNY plants such as 四季橘 sìjìjú (citrus madurensis/calamondin) and 金钱树 jīnqiánshù (zamioculcas zamiifolia). There are many other popular CNY plants. As long as the name of the plants in chinese or the colour or the shape of the leaves/plants can be somehow linked to good luck, wealth, prosperity, good fortune, gold, being fruitful, or any auspicious meaning at all, one can be sure that the plant will be heavily marketed as CNY plants with expensive pricetags. I am all for plants and I don't care about the symbolism or why people buy them. As long as there are plants around, I am happy.


For this CNY, there will be no new clothes and shoes for me because I have decided not to buy any new clothes and shoes for the year 2010 until all the clothes that I have (not that I have many) are all worn out. This year I adopt the motto of reduce, reuse and recycle. So not buying new clothes fall under the category of reduce and reuse. One of the guidelines to reduce waste at home is to "buy only what you need". And I have decided that I do not need any new clothes because I can reuse my existing clothes for CNY.

But I still need to buy some CNY goodies for my parents-in-law and elder sister-in-law. I buy the same type of things for them every previous year and since I hear no complaints from them, I will be buying them the same things this year too. So right now I am sitting at home, counting down the days to Chinese New Year, and waiting for people to go back to work so that I can shop in more favourable conditions.