baked salmon wrapped in baking paper

both sides of my ancestors Chan and Kong had fish ponds.

Photohunt: Candle

During our Food in a minute social function in MT Albert Baptist Church, the organisers paid very close attention to the decor and presentation. My friend W displayed his Dutch candle sticks and shoe, and his  collection of tropical fruits (artistic ones) .


The PhotoHunt today is 'candle'


http://whistlestopphotohunt.blogspot.co.nz/

Ah Kung, Grandpa's 71st birthday.

Grandpa's 71st birthday

This was a very formal event. Here he is wearing the formal attire of a royal official of the Ming Dynasty. It was a black silk top on top of a black silk gown.

Mum made his cake. An aunt brought some red Chinese cutting of auspicious words. Making it a perfect fusion of East and West. For breakfast, all of us were served with sweet long noodles. yes, you read it right, the sweetness signifying a sweet life, and long noodles for long life to all who ate this noodles.

We were very proud of mum, she is at the right hand corner. Mum was one of the early Sibu ladies who made western cakes. She learned if from the wives of Dad's English bosses. To this day, I haven't tasted a cake that is more delicious pure butter full of eggs cake.

There was great feasting, and hundreds of guest were invited. My dad told me that at the birthday of a very healthy and successful person, people like to come to these parties. Some even gate crash. They believe in taking away a bit of the luck of this birthday boy. They will take away uneaten food to share with their family at home.

Vice versa, if the birthday person was a sickly person, people will avoid going to the party. It is seen as taken home the bad luck of the sick person.

Having just written a blog post about the sweet noodles, and my confession, I repost my Ah Kung's birthday.

Photo from Roger Tay, sweet noodles. My Ah Kung's noodles had no eggs.

http://annkitsuet-chinchan.blogspot.co.nz/2014/11/sweet-birthday-noodles.html

Sweet birthday noodles.

 

 

Roger Tay Today is my actual birthday. I would like to thank all relatives, colleagues and FB friends for all the good wishes. Once again thank you all and may God bless you all abundantly. My wife still stick to this age old tradition of sugar syrup, mee sua and eggs to celebrate my birthday. Thank you sui boh.

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  Ann Chin This is the first time since my grand pa's birthday that I had sweet noodles. What dialect group are you? We didn't have eggs, just a very very small bowl, and I didn't eat it. Thanks for memories.

  
  

  Ann Chin May I share your photo for my blog?
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  Roger Tay Ann, you can share, no problem.
  My father is Teochew and my mother is Hokkien/Nyonya..
  This sweet noodles with eggs has been a age old practice by my late mother since we were young. She passed this tradition to my wife, since then this has been practised on every birthdays.

  
  

  Ann Chin Hokkien/Nyonya? I wonder if anyone else does that. I am a Quang Ning Cantonese. I will write my blog and you will LOL.

  
  
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This photo posted by my Facebook Friend Roger Tay caught my attention. The sweet long strand noodles , less the eggs  brought me back to 1968. It was my Grandpa aka Ah Kung's 71 st birthday.  Mum made him a beautiful western butter cake. An Aunty made some paper cuts of auspicious words.

For breakfast, we had sweet noodles. It was symbolizing long life. I suppose long life for the birthday boy.  At 14, I didn't like sweet noodles, and I was in the kitchen about to throw the noodles into the bin we used to keep leftovers for the ducks and chicken.

I was caught red handed by an aunty. She said, "Ah Suet, you want to die." She quietly suggested that I give the noodles a quick rinse and dribble some soya sauce. I ate it feeling very guilty.

Fast forward to when I was 21, I left Sarawak in September to Canada. Grandpa was at the Sibu airport to say Goodbye.

Fast forward 4 months.  I was in my bedroom, when a flat mate shouted,
 " Your grandpa died?" He read the obituary from the Newspaper another flatmate had subscribe.

I was very upset, I whispered to Ah Kung. Did you punish me because I didn't eat your sweet noodles? Why couldn't you have died before I left or waited till I graduated?

Fast forward many years later to Father's 81st birthday.  The same aunty told my older sisters to cook the Foochow Noodles. It was a let down for me, I wanted to make it up by eating the sweet noodles.

My nephew David Lai

David's mum is a Chan daughter, my first cousin.

Margaret Chan, a Chan daughter

My sister, the Chan family is very proud of her.

Natural Products Research & Development Centre (NPRDC)

NPRDC focuses on research and development in three related components, namely; Herbal Science, Agroforestry and Biotourism.

Objectives

The strategic objective of this centre is to research and develop natural resources involving researchers in multidisciplinary and internationalization of the centre through the communication between local and overseas researchers.

NPRDC is also set up to secure research grants that comprise the purchase of equipment needed to develop the centre. It is hoped that the centre will be able to facilitate researchers with advance machines and apparatus, which will be a resource for reference in Sarawak. The centre also aims to produce post-graduates in related disciplines.

Profesor Madya Dr. Margaret Chan Kit Yok Head NPRDC Universiti Teknologi Mara Sarawak Kampus Samarahan, Jalan Meranek 94300 Kota Samarahan Email : drmchan@sarawak.uitm.edu.my Phone No : 082-677689 Fax No : 082-677504

Fair Land Sarawak Map

Roger Cheng and his men were parachuted down to Kapit, stayed in the jungle with the Ibans, and came down by boat to Sibu, Lanag Camp of Japanese, at Tai Kuon school, where he was welcomed by my Grand Dadand his friends.

force-fed children

Scary, it happens in New Zealand. Father was an administor in Education, and he always talk about his work, and teachers' behaviour. I have never heard him say this.

 

Teachers who force-fed children to keep teaching

3:39 PM Thursday Nov 27, 2014

 Both women have admitted to allegations that they force-fed and mistreated children in their care while working at the centre, a Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal decision said. Photo / Thinkstock

Two early childhood teachers who admitted to mistreating young children in their care can continue to teach, although it will be under strict conditions.
Mary Lucia Herepo Ngapo and her daughter Rebecca Rose Ngapo worked at the Te Rau Oriwa Early Learning Centre in Tokoroa, which is operated by Te Wananga o Aotearoa.
Mary Ngapo was employed as manager of the centre, and her daughter Rebecca Ngapo was employed as an educator.
Both women have admitted to allegations that they force-fed and mistreated children in their care while working at the centre, a Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal decision said.
Rebecca Ngapo admitted to shovelling spoonfuls of food into a child's mouth, when the child opened their mouth to breath or cry.

She also admitted to force-feeding another child and yelling at the child to "hurry up" and "swallow it".
Rebecca Ngapo admitted to confining children in a small room with the door closed for periods of at least five minutes at a time, throwing balls at children to get their attention, and rough handling children.
Her mother, Mary Ngapo, admitted to holding a child's head back and force-feeding them stew, which the child did not want to eat.
The tribunal's ruling confirmed the decision by the wananga to dismiss the two staff members, Te Wananga o Aotearoa chief executive Jim Mather said.
Mr Mather said a robust investigation was carried out after the allegations were raised and the welfare of their children was "paramount".
He said a new centre manager was appointed to the centre earlier this year.
Mr Mather said a recent review conducted by the Education Review Office said: "the change of leadership had contributed to favourable improvements in centre operations for whanau, kaimahi and children."
Mr Mather said the centre was focused on delivering a high-quality service to the 53 children attending, as well as building relationships with the Tokoroa community.

ornamental Kale

I used to think that Kale was a vegetable. I saw this in a florist, and bought it for my daughter G when she came home for dinner. The florist said it would last 2 weeks, but the outer petals started to droop after two days.

Mother and Grand dad would have loved to grow this plant.

http://floralfridayfoto.blogspot.co.nz/

Tru2U Christmas Packs : Tart Cherry

Tru2U Christmas Packs

 

What is better than giving yourself, your loved ones (children included) and friends a restorative sleep this Christmas?

Christchurch based business have extended their popular range of health-supporting products to include cute – and useful – gift packs, and we thought you might be interested in it as a Christmas present idea for your blog.

The new Christmas gift packs – all containing Tart Cherries or NZ Sweet Cherry (both of which help support restorative sleep with naturally occurring phytomelatonin) – are suitable for the whole family, helping to ensure those you love get quality sleep and natural health support

I have a friend, with a professional job who had trouble sleeping try out with Tart Cherries and this is his report.

 

As someone who can have trouble getting to sleep this struck me as a product with great potential, and I think it is a potential that was met - I feel I have been sleeping better since I have started taking it.

Tru2u is made from the juice of tart cherries, which the bottles says are high in phytomelatonin, a natural component of a good sleep cycle. The recommendation is to take it an hour before trying to sleep, either by itself or mixed in with something else. I quite like the flavour, but I also enjoy tart flavours.

I have continued to take this product nightly some weeks after first starting and there is a good reason I keep coming back to it.

by H.

tru2u.co.nz/
I am not paid for this review, I am giving a bottle to try it out.