2011

Overall, 2011 has been a good year for us.

We completed our new project in August 2011 and were very thankful that it went smoothly with only 1 minor setback.

Similar to last year, we did not venture out of Malaysia for the whole of 2011 as we just couldn't bear to be separated from our guppy fish and garden plants although I did spend the last week of the year away from them.

I met up with three of my ex-coursemates in Penang after having not seen them for 5 years and had a wonderful time. I am happy that they made time for me.

Goodbye 2011! Hello 2012! Happy New Year everyone!

Season's Greetings..

..from Penang. I will be spending the New Year in Penang at my brother's place. Just got here last night. Please recommend - any must-see places or must-eat food?

view from my room this morning

Snap away

I see Christmas decorations everywhere - so what else is there to do but to take lots of photos of the pretty displays. Here they are:

Pretty lights surrounding a lone snowman

Seashell angels 

Can you spot the Santa Claus?

Giant Toys

A white Christmas

What is a green rabbit doing here?

Christmas in a Castle

A Fun Fair

Giant Candy Canes

Where are Santa's reindeers?

A golden Christmas

An A-maze-ing Christmas

Lots of presents

Lovely Chandeliers

Tiny Christmas Trees

christmas wreath

A different kind of christmas tree?

An elegant Christmas tree

Alvin and the chipmunks

Santa and his reindeers

Stop at love

You can find love at this traffic light.

Tasty

When my family and I dine out, we make it a point to try different cuisines so a few days ago, we ended up 20km (about 13 miles) away from our home just to eat at this restaurant that serves Middle Eastern food.

Two of us ordered the set meal (a plate of Kabsa or Mandy rice with a piece of chicken, a bowl of vegetable soup and a glass of iced lime tea or syrup) priced at MYR9.90 nett.

A small pot of Arabic tea with mint (MYR6) and two glasses of iced lime tea.

Left: Special chili sauce. Right: Vegetable soup.

Left: Mandy chicken rice. Right: Mandy rice (MYR5)

Left: Kabsa chicken rice (the piece of chicken was hidden underneath all those rice).
Right: Madghoud Lamb rice (MYR 18).

Tagine Musaq'ah with lamb meat, fried eggplant and fragrant chili served with bread. (MYR 17)

All in all a delicious and satisfying meal. Not to mention affordable too (total bill for 4pax: MYR68.20)

PIP Joint

Two days ago, while I was sleeping, I could feel a throbbing pain in my index finger joint on my right hand and the pain woke me up. To be exact - it is the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint. Then the pain was gone but reappeared randomly on and off. Just that one joint and there is no swelling, no redness, no numbness and no stiffness.

Just forty and experiencing the onset of arthritis so soon?

Edible?

Look at what I found in my plant pot - yellow mushrooms!

Details about them (from searching the web):

Name: Lepiota lutea or Leucocoprinus birnbaumii
Edible: No, they are poisonous.
Precaution: Although the mushrooms do not harm the plant in the pot, if there is a danger of small children or pets eating them accidentally, they need to be removed from the pot.

As I have neither in my household, I let the yellow mushrooms be.