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

Butter Chook-shortcut method

last thursday i made some butter chicken. stace asked me how it was made, so i decided to blog about the dish. it was real easy and quick. reason being.. i used the maggi packet rather than made the materials from scratch. (i know i am cheating but it saves all the extra time)
the things needed for the butter chicken:

1 onion
1 bottle of cream
1kg chicken
2 packets of maggi packet
1 table spoon of butter

1. melt the butter and add in the onions. sautee the onion until it's soft.
2. throw in the chicken and start mixing them well.
3. add the content of maggi packet and blend well with chicken.
4. after about 5 minutes, pour in the cream.
5. let simmer until chicken is cooked. occasionally, mix the chicken and the cream.

*finished product

my new craze -dahlia

meet my new tuberous friend.
the dahlias.
i fell in love with these plants on my visit to the christchurch botanical gardens.
they will be my next project ..

Around Auckland City - Lantern Festival 2006

since i have relis around, we also brought them to Lantern Festival..it's an annual festival held at Albert Park in Auckland City. There are lanterns around the park and also food stalls. There are also Corporate stalls like HKSB and Lee Kum Kee selling their products. the various martial arts bodies also come to demonstrate their art and ppl also sing and play instruments at the Albert Park rotunda..

Around Auckland City - mt eden crater

i have been real busy during the CNY festival. gone back to work *GREAT .. and relis visiting.
we brought uncle richard to mt eden crater on the eve of chap goh meh. btw, Auckland has one of the highest number of dormant crater in the world... mt eden is just one of them.

when we were there, there were so many tour buses there..we managed to take pics at the spots we like...

here are the views of the crater ...there are cows grazing inside the crater also. that patch of gooey thing is the souvenir the cows left around the area...

happy chinese new year

dear all,

i am finally back in auckland and slowly the routines are coming back. i went back to work on thursday (*Yikes)

today is the first day of CNY for the year of the dog (can't remember what dog it was this year, whether it's wooden or gold or??)

anyways, for sure, i am red as lobster today. my family at over in auckland for CNY and me and jake brought them to pick mussels at coromandel and went tramping at karangkahe gorge.
it wasn't even scorching hot today and yet, i am already red as a lobster...grrr.

i am in the process of scanning my studio pics. please be patient. i know some of you are waiting to see it.

alrighty, just a short post.

in Sydney airport

hey everyone,
one step closer to home. i have spent the last 3 days with pinkcocoa& shinchan. haven't seen pinkcocoa in 5 years. last meet was during Olympic 2000. it was good meeting them.
we pig so much, i seriously need to diet for jan 20!!!!!

i miss everyone. can't wait to meet you guys up ...

just short post.

eileen, man, what a long silence from you. finally saw you in ccie's blog. ;) hehe.
yeah good idea man, let's meet up. i still haven't found the fg and rb's stuffs.
where are you now?

okay my plane is flying off in 1 hr ...arriving in NZ at 2300..

*big hugs and kisses to all..

greetings from calgary

dear all,

been traveling around US and Canada in the last month. it has been awesome and tiring too.
met many interesting people and also met families.

just want to let everyone know i am still very much alive and kicking.
am in calgary and will be flying to LA for new year.

will update my blog with more pics and stories once i am settled back in nz.

take care...

merry christmas (belated) and happy new year.
let 2005 be a good year and 2006 be an even better one :)

p/s: stace, happy birthday to you. probably be internetless until i see you in Jan.

friday

my colleague organised a morning tea for me and gave me a wedding card. *Gosh i am touched.
there's lots of quiche, pies, sandwiches..and jocelyn she baked some chocolate eclair and strawberry pastry pie thingie.

in the afternoon, work was frantic. temp was still here and today she got to prepare the cash flow, while i prepare some other stuffs. of course i get bugged half the time by everyone. and my boss was giving this really tight deadline.

anyways glad i finished everything.

when i got home, i remembered i need to drop my baby phallie (My orchid plant) with glen and manee. Rang them and manee said it was okay to drop by( it was 8 30pm then). my plant was practically growing outside the pot..all the roots are dangling outside. glen reckons i am trying to grow it like an air plant;P he immediately took out the plant and gave it a 'root' cut. cutting off dry roots and repot it..baby phallie instantly look 10x better. so one thing less to worry. iknow my plant is in good hands. as for the rest of my troops, they are outside the house at a 'shady' place i hope. i appointed an official person to water my plants. *Jake's bro.. hopefully he remembers.

my packing-gosh i hate packing. it was easy when i pack for jake coz i just dump everything into his bag, fold and tuck them away. i didn't have to think at all. he's already determined what he wants. but for me, gosh i have 100 'what if' questions in my head, so i am still packing and it's 1 05am. Great. talk about being organised.

better get back to packing. grrrr...

oh, everyone please pray for me. pray i have smooth journey.
love you all...*hugs and kisses

ps: i just pig on pork chop with brocolli/cauliflower and rice coz my tummy's practically having a drum concert.