A toast...

(photo taken from the gf's hen's night actually :P)

to 2008.

Happy New Year!

May 2008 will be even better for all of us :D

ATV adventure

My holiday back home will never be complete without going for an adventure trip ever since my very first one not too long ago.

This time round i opted for the atv biking adventure over the others cos it looks so much fun annnnndd it was!

The trip lasted for only half a day. Too bad my second sister's schedule didn't coincide with mine for this holiday - she's only going back mid of next month - so what she did was to call us twice when we were in the jungle. Heh.

She was like bad bad me! For organizing one without her. Lol :P

Sorry sis!

Anyway, the atv looks pretty easy and not challenging at all.. at least, that was what i thought initially and bet you feel the same too but it is so not.

Before we embarked on our adventure, the guide had to trained us for 15 mins on how to operate the atv [very complicated but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty ok], which has a manual gear - that means, we had to adjust the gear accordingly just like a car or a motorbike - and also, we had ride on it for many many rounds in the training area for us to feel comfortable and confidence.

The trainer would watch each of us to see how we fare.

If he feels that we couldn't make it, he will not allow us to continue on with our trip... Safety always comes first.

Unfortunately, my mom didn't manage to pass the test. Yep, mom came along too! She's one sporting mom yeah? She loves outings like these in fact. And my youngest sister almost couldn't make it too! That baby.. ha!

So the mother was not allowed to ride on her own atv. She was told to follow the trainer as a pillion rider instead.. very much to her relief. Yes yes. She was relieved to know that :)

Because the whole thing sounds pretty scary to her.. and to most of us too especially the going up the hill part which the steepness is around 60 degree!

There were so many stuff to remember especially when we are on the slope. Eg :

. No putting our feet down when the atv is not balanced - one or two wheels are not on touching the ground due to the unevenness because it's a jungle track after all. According to the trainer, such reaction is a reflex. But we have to counter it. We have to keep our feet on the atv at all times

. must lean forward at all times else we'll really feel like we are gonna topple

. must accelerate gradually. Sudden acceleration = backward summersault and we definitely would not want that, would we?

. no avoiding holes on the track. So that's back to point 1.. which means the atv will have one or 2 wheels in the air

. no stopping in the middle of the slope. We have to keep on moving no matter how scary it is

Honestly, we were all pretty scared and the guide was worried for us too!

Even though the very nice guide wasn't oblige to come with us, he actually followed us till the slope and helped out through the riding up, holding on to our atv so that we really wouldn't do a backward summersault.

When we first saw the slope, we all wished we were in our mother's position, that is.. as the trainer's pillion rider. I felt giddy by just looking at it. We all went 'oh shittttttt...' ahahaha. I had tons and millions of butterflies in the stomach i tell you and i am so not joking about it.

All ready to go.. see the big rock? We went round and round around it for more than 30 times!

My heart beat darn fast.

I was scared. So were the sisters. Hehe... All of us were worried about 1 thing only. Which is - sudden acceleration = backward somersault. Heh.

Anyway, we turned out doing exceptionally well. We made it! Woo hoooo~

The trainer was really pleased. So was the guide.

In fact, the trainer was pretty taken by us that at the end of the journey, he actually told us that we were alot more skillful and 'terel' than he had first anticipated. He thought it was his doomed day that day when we 5 ladies went marching in to his shop that morning. Lol.



After the first slope, we rode a little while before the slope no.2 came.. a more dangerous one definitely.

The thing is, usually after you managed to go through the first obstacle successfully, the second one doesn't seem so scary anymore though the fear is still there. We were definitely more confident compare to our first attempt on the slope.



The ride through the jungle was a pretty scenic one. Not sure what type of jungle it was but we sure saw many bamboo trees or rather, we were surrounded by them. I almost could imagine myself in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". Heh.

For our final adventure, we were asked to leave our atvs and hiked for a good 10 minutes ONLY to the waterfall.


Hiking time!

The short hike wasn't tough but there were some difficulties eg; crossing a wobbly handmade bridge. However, it was good fun!

I wish the hike could be longer. I enjoy leisure walking in the jungle tremendously [sans leeches that is].

Finally..



The waterfall!

From here, we hiked up further, to almost the top of the waterfall at about 2 storey high.

But not before the sister spotted my bleeding leg.


Initially, the sisters thought i had hurt myself during the ride, scratched against something etc but i was VERY sure i didn't.

Then.

Almost simultaneously, our heads screamed LEECHES!!!

The sisters, especially the eldest sister and my mother instructed me to pull up my pants further to check if the leech was still there. It wasn't.

I tell you, i almost wanted to strip down to butt naked if not for the 2 men there. I cannot imagine how high up the leech could have gone!

Not to mention holes >.<
Then, the sisters and mother started to squeeze my whole upper thigh damn hard and did the rub down motion, hoping they could squeeze the leech to death and bring it down too.

Guess what?

It worked!

The sister got the leech but alive, stucked to her finger. Now.. it was her turn to scream. Hehe... The very amused trainer [after witnessing the whole incident] offered his expertise then. Just dip the finger to the water and the leech will let go. Easy peasy.

Yeah, so the sister saved my life! *phew*

Just before we leave the waterfall to resume our atv biking, the sisters spotted this.

Aarrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh~

Why oh why?



Me again!!!

That #$%^&* leech!

This time, the trainer came forward to save me by offering his finger to the leech. By then, we were pretty cool by these leeches already which explained the photograph. The sister told me to hold still and snapped a couple of photos of it before the trainer stepped in and told us that if i don't want any scars on the leg, i better get it out fast.

He proceeded on to show us his 10cent scars on his legs.. due to scratching.

This, i can attest to it.

The first bite on the leg near the shin that i had on this trip?

Until today, the little punctured hole is still there and i scratch it like nobody's business but still with a little conscience thankfully. Extremely itchy. Sigh. I wonder when it will stop itching and go away forever... grrr.

Nevertheless, the trip was a good one. Everyone enjoys it and so did i.

If you need more information, go here.

ppssssstttt : the guide is quite a cutie! Reminds me of my Hyun Bin.. hahaha. Sshhhhhh.. don't tell the husband!

For first timer, it's advisable to do the Khamisah Waterfall Adventure first. No kidding. You will need the basics and familiarity before embarking on the tougher trails. I almost wanted to take up the harder trail initially and i'm glad i didn't :P

It's a fun fun day!

One of the programs that i had lined up for the boys to do during the very long break was to bake.

I have seen schools offering baking classes to the young ones, so i thought why don't i conduct one myself instead of paying the school to do what i know though there will be some difference of course. [between baking in the school and baking at home with mommy]

What i did was to prepare the dough in advance minus the boys' help.

After that, it was hands off for me.. totally.

And it meant just that, totally hands off for me.

The boys did the kneading [slightly], rolling, stamping etc themselves.

All by themselves.. with a little help from the helper though.

And i?

Just standing around, trying NOT to give any instructions at all which i managed to successfully *grin*, carrying the baby and watched the boys have fun or rather, watched the boys fret mostly over their difficulty in stamping the cookies and trying to get the dough out in one piece. Heh.

Nevertheless, i was rather impressed with the results.

Orange butter cookies

Not too bad aye? ;)

Sure. There were some disfigured Hello Kitties. There were also some disfigured Stars, Hearts and not to mention.. the broken giant Star and Gingerbread Man.

But what matters more is that the boys had fun which they claimed they did and they loveeeeeeeed the cookies to bits!

The hint of the orange zest in these butter cookies was very refreshing.

Initially, i wanted them to continue on with decorating/piping using the icing with colours but by the time the cookies were baked, all of us were very much worn out.

So, that was that. No further decorating/piping.

While i was away...

my garden angel has been taking care of my precioussssss...

Not only the plants did not turn brown and wilt, they are thriving!

LOOK!


Remember my poor tarragon which died on me few weeks back?

The last stalk standing is now flowering!

Yellow flowers...

Ahhhhh... :D

And then, i have other surprises too!

To my delight of course... Yes yes, i cannot stop gushing and smiling! :P



The died-ed tarragon is re-growing again.

See the baby tarragon?? ^.^

However.

Unfortunately.

Although all other plants are doing very very well, in fact.. the husband has harvested more than 10 bright red and very spicy chili padi when i was away, there is this one plant that isn't doing so well afterall... :(

My poor poor mint.


Hopefully now that i am back, i can nurse it to its healthy self once more [and not the reverse i hope!]

*definitely keeping my fingers cross*

Anyway... thanks heapsssss, garden angel *muaks* for your time and effort spent although you came home at 9pm daily but still took time to sayang my plants as instructed *ahem* :P

Away~

Will not be blogging for the next 2 weeks.. :D

More friends...

Added more plants to what i had initially.

This is how my corridor looks like now.. still waiting for the husband to weld a few of the hanging racks for me.



However, after a couple of days.. most of the plants got moved to the balcony where the morning sun shines.

The corridor gets no direct sunlight at all :(

Some of the new plants i got :



My prized possession : rosemary

I never get bored from smelling it. In fact, i do that almost every morning! :P



Then, my not so stable tarragon.

I can't a bigger, stronger pot apart from this pot.

Other plants that i got are mint and spearmint[for the boys' cough].

Then, i planted some of my own. Those are roselle [from seeds where the fruit was given by the guy who attended to me] and spring onion [from shallots -my own].

Check this out!!


One of my chili padi turning red!

A few days later, which was yesterday...



I harvested 4 of them from the plant.

Super duper red! *yay*

But i haven't eaten them yet though.. so not sure how they taste like. Heh.



Then... *sniffs* i found out that my tarragon is dying on me :(

Not all though, 3 stalks died and one still thriving. Hopefully the thriving one will survive.

Run Lola Run!

If you ever see a couple sprinting towards a car, laughing and screaming like a madman, you can be very sure that the couple will be the husband and i.

Because both of us are always running to the passenger door, not wanting to be the driver whenever we go out for some quality time.

Unauthentic German pork knuckles

The first time i had real German pork knuckles was when we were invited by a German couple friend for dinner over their house.

They specially flew the pork trotters here just for us when they went home for holiday. Man, it was enormous!!

However, it didn't quite leave an impression except the crispy crunchy skin which i didn't get to eat much then due to my then-braces.

Feeling a little adventurous these days, so i decided to try baking my own German pork knuckles. Usually, whenever i have pork trotters in the fridge, it'd be used to make Teochew braised trotters but not this time round! ;)

My very first attempt of baking pork knuckles..



After doing some recipe reading online, i decided to adapt my own version, remembering well what i dislike when i had the friend's authentic knuckles.

For one, mine was a little more flavourful.

I didn't just roast it like that with salt and pepper.

What i did was to boil it with a pot of chicken stock together with some root vegetables for over an hour + salt. Then, it was roasting time for 30-45 minutes but not before i rubbed the skin with lots of oil and salt to make it real skin.

While roasting, i didn't baste the skin even once with the good gravy to keep the skin dry and crispy. For the last 15 minutes before it is done, i switched my oven from roasting to grilling simply because i was kiasu! I really wanted a to-die-for skin! Heh.

Verdict : awesome! The skin was done exactly what i wanted. As for the meat, ooh la la... moist, soft and tender + full of flavour, from the chicken stock with root vegetables. Not even a single piece of meat could be found on the bones at the end of the dinner.

It was a total hit!

Everyone loves the skin to bits, especially the kiddos.

Will i cook this again?

You bet!

Despite the many many work.

p.s : wanted to take more photos but unfortunately, as USUAL, the camera battery died on me on my very first click. UGH!