端午节

端 午节 (duan wu jie) or otherwise known as dumpling festival or dragon boat festival falls on the 5th day of the 5th month on the lunar calendar. this year, 5th day of 5th month falls on 31 May. coincidentally, it is also my deceased maternal grandma's birthday.

anyways, as the chinese settle on any parts of the earth, they will bound to remember all the different chinese festivals in the year.

this year, my in laws made many bak zhang or rou zong zi /meat dumplings. they made a cantonese shaped dumpling but with hokkien ingredients. i'll let the pics tell you what's it got.

My orchid-Paphiopedilum Insigne

*pics taken at different stages while its flowering. (took about 1 week to record it to full bloom)



somewhere in 2004, i bought this paph from the orchid society trading table.
it must be my 3rd or 4th orchid. it has one flower when I bought it.
after it finished flowering, i left it outside per the instruction from book and seller, but it hasn't done very well. as in not much growth and no flower. earlier this year, i moved it indoors and it started shooting new growth and then a stalk appeared -it's going to flower. i am so pleased and so proud of myself.
the blooming itself took about one whole month. it stayed as a bud for weeks (something like 4 weeks?) and on the final week, i managed to capture the bloom, day by day up to when the flower finally bloomed.

My orchid- Prologue

the bud of my paphiopedilum insigne ..this is the first photograph of the bloom.
it stays tight lipped for a long time. 

Lays-Sea Weed flavour

on one of our trips to T-Mark (taiwanese groceries), we found Lays -Sea Weed flavour chip.
it has subtle sea weed flavour and tastes light.
totally recommend this chip. trust Lays to make good chips.

Beginnners Guide to ..

YES. my passion for the moment, gardening. this post is especially for stace ;) i am trying to infect her with my gardening bug. *Grin.

here's my recommendation of beginner fool-proof plants.

main reason for picking them:

• super undemanding (can withstand some neglect)
  
• hardy
  
• multiplies giving you sense of achievement
• very colourful, looks cute
• can be decorative
• can be grown indoor and outdoor

• Echeveria imbracata (aka Monster flower, given its huge rossette forming structure)

- they have very interesting colours. they tolerate almost any type of soil (although the book recommend sandy soil) but they thrive on almost anything.
-with a little bit of attention, it will spread and produce many baby plants.
-they produce pink flowers with yellow linings to the petals
-recently I have tried and succeeded to propagate by using single leaf of the succulent.
-good for borders, pots, anything.

• Crassulae ovata (Jade plant)

-they come under a sub- species, for eg, some are green leaves, and some have green leaves with red rims.
-they have thick leaves and i grew mine under a bit of shade to give that dark green color on the leaves.
-sometimes they will flower too.
-to propagate, use single leave or a little branch.

• Pachyphytum oviferum

-sometimes called moonstones,
-they have very thick leaves and flowers is pale pink.
-can be propagated by single leaf or stem.
-when grown indoor, it can be very white but in sheltered dry outdoor areas, the sun brings out a pinkish color in the leaves.

• Haworthia attenuata

-my dad's friend gave him some bunch of these when he visited him in Auckland. he left me one baby plant and has since multiplied to two pots.
-narrow spiky leaves with bands of white tubercles give the outside of the leaves a zebra patterned look.
-they look a bit like zebras.
-in spring, they give out sprays of tiny flowers.

• Pony tail palm (Beaucarnea recurvata)

-my dad grew this in Sibu. they grew really big but takes ages to grow.
-am surprised to discover it's a type of succulent. it has a bulbous base.
-they like the ocassional drinks. if you grow them indoor, the leaves becomes very dark green.mine seems to have tinge of red on the leaves (maybe due to low temperature)
-what i really want to increase in my collection is palm with two bunch of pony tails on the same bulb.

• Sansviera (mother-in-law tongues)

- this is a really tough plant. it grows upwards so is suitable for any place.
- by tough i mean, it can withstand much neglect. i went on my trip and don't think it received a single drop of water. it still survived.
-after repotting in feb, it has produced many new babies and has grown much taller.
-having said that, i killed jakes first sansviera by standing it under full sun and full rain. (sometimes the plant label can be very misleading).

i think this is enough to get started ;)

new york city -being traffic engineer

after chicago, we flew to new york city. we flew into la guardia airport. it was good coz it wasn't crowded. unfortunately, we had to stay at queens. to be fair, the subway was really convenient albeit it was unlike the singapore or hong kong subway. it was less well lit and much older..they are like what you saw in tv.
i spent my first day at a traffic centre. jake's decided to bring me with him to meet his business contact. so i was 'traffic engineer' for nearly half a day. :P i pretend to be super interested at the traffic system. one cool thing was i could see traffic at times square from the control centre.
L:R the DOT 's numerous screens;funny how they call it air circulator when it is a fan; the server room; emergency response room they even have the news channel constantly on, CNN wasn't their choice of news channel; the system used by the operator in the emergency response room; NYC DOT logo;chart of every traffic light available on Manhattan; the bigger screens of the streets around;in walters suv, passing by one of the bridges; another view of the bridges;NYC has so many bridges, i donno which one is which; their EZ pass system you instal the 'machine' in your car and your car get scanned each time you past the bridge/tunnel; streets in Manhattan; some tunnels we are in; the great mural across the restaurant where i had my fabulous steak; 5th avenue pre christmas time.



at night walter and wife brought us around manhattan. we had dinner at this upbeat restaurant. and walter drove us around in his wife's SUV showing us the bridges, traffic system. i lost count of the number of bridges that we crossed. traffic was really jammed ...
we were on 5th avenue in the SUV and it must have took us 1 hour to get from one end to the other. it would be faster for us to be on our feet.

busy Saturday

with jake gone fishing since 6am, i was left to my own devices. since my laundry is overflowing from my hamper, it's time to put them into the washers. i figured out if they have gone fishing, it must be a good day. i started my first load at 6 am. gosh!!!!!!! and i logged on to read blogs etc.

then stace came online. that was good. we get to chat on MSN :) HEHEHE.
whilst talking to her, i loaded up some pics into my yahoo photoalbum. sal can finally see some pics of my wedding.

then i went to the bank to sort out the signatories for the orchid society. right after that, i went to shop for baby showers gift. that's when headache struck me!!!!!!!
there are so many choices available. they are all so cute. i must have been to about 4 baby places in the mall. most of the shops are filled with mothers and their prams. i finally saw a really cute 2 piece pink fleecy things from the craft market at the mall. one of my friend sells her hand made jewellery there. this time i stopped by one of this store which is tended by two nanna . they were knitting and i spotted the cute bunny rabbit 2 piece baby gear. i asked if she's made them and she said YES. i immediately bought them. i think i like to support local made products :)

then i drove to the horticultural society autumn show. i promised marnee that i would make it to the show. it was a chrysanthemum show and it was such an eye opener. i have never seen 'chrysanthemum' of that size. it's almost as big as a newborn baby's head. some were bigger. then i realised i left my camera at home. M was there and she showed me around.

next year i must go back and this time with camera. there were arrangements made by herbs, and people can compete with the fruit they grown at home. it's amazing what they have at the show.

i bought another houseplant from the trading table. *hiak hiak . i haven't checked out its name yet. it has kinda stripey look and has a shiny purple on the back of the leave.


here's jake's catch for the day, i think the snappers were in the freezer already by the time i took these photos.

mutated radish

recently i saw this giant radish lying around in my kitchen. it has the oddest shape, and weigh at least 2kg.

nevertheless, it still tastes good like normal shaped radish.
lesson of the day: Never judge a book by its cover. 

what i did last saturday afternoon

i pot up most of the goodies i got from marnee into pots.
that big cactus is one of jake's babies. the cactus' getting a new upgrade-much bigger pot!

new collection

on saturday, i went for a short meeting to glen and marnee's house. (my friends who babysat my orchid while i was away). len the past treasurer wanted to hand over the 'books' to me. after the short meeting, we had waffles with home-made jam. M's a great cook. i somehow ended up in G&M's garden. Next thing I know, M is busy pinching, pulling out bits and pieces of her ever growing collection of succulents and plants. first it was a bag, then there was the bigger 2nd bag

after len left, G then started to pull out even bigger plants for me :P like plum trees and big bromeliads.

i spent the rest of the afternoon, potting up the new plants i have got. it also involved some 'hole-making' process. i made some drainage into these plastic pots. the holes are not nice ( don't have /can't use a drill) but who cares, as long as the water drains out.


i spread out the baby plants, cuttings etc onto the ground.

chicago - the wind city part 2

random photo collection-cinderella window display



in chicago, marshall field also displayed the cinderella story. they displayed it on all their main windows.. whereas in minneapolis, we had to go to a different floor and see the display. they had more space in Minneapolis hence the more elaborated display and storyline.

chicago - the wind city

the moment i stepped on the O'hare international airport, i can feel that people are rushing. it was a big airport and at the same time people are on every nook and corner of the airport.they were walking real fast and the driver that drove us to our hotel spoke super fast too in her african american accent. wow! hehe..and another thing that i noticed was the incessant honking on the street. everybody just honked..and it was blimming cold too.i was in my layers and layers of clothings.

i got to explore chicago on my own for 2 days. we were there for 3 days. jake has to work for 2 days so i was on my own during office hours. at first i dreaded that he wasn't there but i soon came to enjoy exploring the city by myself.

we stayed at knickerbocker hotel. it's very 30s and i love it. the doorman wears their warm coat ...recently the Millenium hotel chain bought it. the location was good. we were like 1 min away from the Magnificent Mile. i guess Magnificent Mile is like the Singapore version of Orchard road. there's so many big stores to go too, i don't have enough time.

the highlights of chicago for me was going to its greektown, the lincoln zoo, and the Christkindlmarket ..

p/s: blogger is a bit weird. i am not going to put any more pics.
feeling tired.

creature in my garden

*this post is not for the faint hearted*

early this morning i have discovered something on my garden bed. took me a while to figure out what it was. it wasn't a snake, wasn't a garden lizard. then what is it!?!?!?!?!?!?!

it's a SLUG!!!!!! it's nothing new but what i have witnessed this morning is definitely something new. the darn thing is 6 to 7 inches long!!!!!! what a revolting way to start my day.

anyways Slug is like a snail but without a shell. So imagine escargo without snails.
anyways, i saw 3 this morning. Wonder if it's my bad luck or theirs ..i decided to sprinkle granulated coffee on them. read somewhere that these creatures hate coffee powder. they started to shrivel a bit but secreted lots of slimy silvery looking slime. but after those sslimy thing, they appear to have gone back to normal. so i decided to use the ultimate weapon.
SALT! remembered they dried up when their body come in contact with salt.

so i started to sprinkle them with salt and the two of them started to shrivel quite badly and even looked kinda deformed. then i decided i would leave them alone as i wanna go and prepare to go to work.

wonder if they are dead by now.

i was so motivated to find out more ways to kill slugs that i spent my lunch time googling about them. argh ..can't believe myself. but seriously they are such a pest they make holes in the lamb's ears i am planting.

so here's the gory pics. i took several of them but none turned out exceptionally well. most of them are blur.
*you might have to squint a bit to see the slimy creatures. they are almost as long as the width of the fence! *EUWWWWWWW

if you squint harder you will be able to see the silvery slimy thread they left on the soil.

am only putting one pic coz they look so offensive.

Repotting

a few weeks ago, i repotted the jade plant which has outgrown its pot. it was like a tug of war between myself and the plant. the plant has probably spent at least 2 years in its old pot. after shaking and pulling, the plant finally came out of its old pot.
the roots has formed around the pot

the plants soon-to-be new home. see the upgrade.. hehe.

here's how i repot my plant: (according to my own method)

• mix the potting mix and compost. i used a 1:1 ratio. for pot of that size i probably used about 10-12 cups of potting mix and compost each.

• i mix the both mixes in the wheel barrow. (round about this time, you can mix some slow release fertiliser with the mix)
  
• then i find 3 stones to place on top of the drainage holes. (remember the khb txtbooks?) so as not to block the drainage of the pot.

• then i fill about 12-15cm of mixes in the new pot and then stand the plant together with its old mix inside the pot and start filling up the mix.
• after potting, i ensure they have a good drink of water.
  

plant settling in its new home. hopefully next year, the plant would be taller :) i am already seeing new growths after repotting.

Minnesota - City of Lakes (Part 2)

This is a continuance of previous post about the highlights of my stay in minnesota.
i particularly liked these peanuts gang statutes scattered about in the city park in St Paul.They look so cute..they were taken couple of weeks before i arrived.


by the time i went,the grounds were covered with snow..


other highlights were :
disney on ice

christmas decors by marshall fields - apparently marshall fields (a nationwide dept store) puts up a christmas display in their shop every year.
it was colorful and some special effects was used throughout..i thoroughly enjoyed the display. the 2005 display was the Cinderella.

steven curtis chapman and mercy me concert - it was my first time going to christian concert.
it was a great blessing for me. i probably shed some tears along the way as i was very moved by the songs.

Minnesota - City of Lakes

jake has finally burned our trip photos from his laptop to dvd. we took so many picst. i will just summarise the highlight of each of my destination. stuffs i remembered fondly..

minnesota- is a state located in the midwest of US of A. so in winter it gets pretty cold (much colder than in NZ and it snows too) It has two city; Minneapolis and St Pauls. I stayed in Roseville which is 10mins away from Minneapolis.

things i like most about Minnesota:

ppl were very friendly. it reminded me of good old adelaide.

the highlights for me were: (in no particular order)

• the sculptured garden (although i was frozen into my bones)

Left: Sculptured garden feature was covered with snow







Right: 3 weeks earlier, jake snapped the pic at the sculptured garden

• minnesota insitute of art (jake has to drag me out from the place)
• watching a NBA game (between timberwolves(Minnesota team) and LA (not lakers but clippers)

left: cheerleading squads. they change their costume and location several times in the game.







right: Crunch, the Timberwolves mascot.

eye soother

i decided to do picture blog today. been busy plus lazy..is there such a combination of feeling/mood?
been to the library today ..raided the gardening magazines and almost broke my shoulder carrying those reading materials in my library bag.
anyhow,these are the pics I took of flora & fauna following my trip to lake matheson in south island. it was an hour's walk and i lose count of the number of types of ferns I saw.
i only took pictures of the ones i haven't seen b4..i believe some are moss like plants. they are so pretty ..and they sooth the eyes

sempervivums, echeverias and what not

i have been struck by gardening bug lately. In Style magazine don't really get my attention, and I been reading gardening magazine a lot..cc said i have turned into the Ultimate Si Lai. My interest in horticulture probably runs inthe family.. i have uncles and mom who's into all sorts of plants. one probably dominates the orchid scene in sarawak/malaysia and one owns a nursery.

anyhow, i have acquired some sempervivum and echeverias when i last went to the hospice shop. i actually went to check out bric-a-brac but discovered the volunteer has brought in those plants.

sempervivum and echeverias are a type of succulents. they are mostly a bunch of hardy and tough cookies and i like them in my garden given that they thrive well with or without attention.

sempervivum and echeveria forms rosette like structures and they are quite colorful.
they produce long stems of flowers (true for echeveria)

here are my humble collection:

good ol's fish & chups

thanks everybody's for your concern regarding my pc. it has improved slightly but MSN Messenger is still dead. i am too lazy to do anything further at this stage. i mean i have reinstalled MSN Messenger but it still refused to function.so i am using windows messenger. ancient version of MSN messenger.

anyways just want to blog about a place we went when my parents were here.
we drove past the Fishmonger and decided to stop by for quick supper. Fishmonger is a fish and chip shop ; a modern one with clean look but still smell greasy..has salads to choose from.

we decided to try the hapuka fish with potato and kumara (sweet potato) chips
the fish comes with slices of lemon and it's absolutely divine to have the fish with the lemon juice.

btw, the Fishmonger is located at parnell road.

i just googled and if you guys are interested can take a look at the website
they actually have another shop in remuera.

p/s: notice the cute vinegar bottle ;) doesn't it remind you of the minyak cap kapak bottle? KEKE

sick pc

my pc's currently not its usual self. it's taking ages to load etc.

and worst of all, my msn messenger won't start. even after i reinstall. something is wrong with my connection :(

i hope the problem can be sorted soon.

other than that, have been busy at work with month end. reconciliation after reconciliation.
i get bugged so much by all sorts of people at work too, argh. some wanted to know where these figure has gone to, some wants to know why this figure was found there..etc...fortunately i have a really cool boss. i have nicknamed my boss my tuition teacher (TT) ;) hehe. TT is what i called godsend ...TT has taught me many tricks in the past couple of weeks. :D