Jamie and Hok (Jazz)- The Chairman's Waltz

"The One" loves to dance while me, I love to WATCH dancing (so does "The One"). Whenever I tried to dance, I dance like a how should I say, 'wooden puppet' and will make "The One" laugh so much that I wonder if he will get nitemare hahahaha

The previous nite, we were watching the tv program, "So You Think You Can Dance". Its a dance competition in US which holds auditions across the major cities of the US, looking for the top dancers in each city. All types of dance backgrounds are encouraged to audition. Salsa, ballroom, hip hop, street dancing, contemporary, jazz, ballet and many other types of dancers can be seen auditioning for a chance to win the grand prize – which, in the past, has included a new Hybrid SUV, $100,000 in cash, and a dancing role in Celine Dion's Las Vegas show –of US$250,000 and the title of "America's favorite dancer."

This particular Jazz performance by Jamie and Hok was so AMAZING and CAPTIVATING that both of us were literally 'glued' to the TV screen for their routine. It is beautiful..

Hope you guys enjoy watching it as much as we do.

Cheerios and Keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

P/S The Music is from the movie, "Memories of a Geisha"-"The Chairman's Waltz" which I think is a beautiful piece too..

Canada's Flawed Immigration System (Part 2 of 2)

Part 2..

Canada's Flawed Immigration System (Part 1 of 2)

This is a W5 current affair Tv program from CTV (one of the tv network station)..I really cant smile much re-watching this series..

Mentos Gum Pop Art

This is one adv that I seen and it still capture my attention each time I watch it. A good adv to me is one that even if its 'mute'/'no lines spoken' it has to make a visual impact and that pop art..its BEAUTIFUL!

There's even have a website http://wwww.makeartpop.ca where you can make your own art pop :) Have fun!

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PooHBear

Toronto St Lawrence Market

After visiting Pickering Market, "The One" and I decided, how can we miss our own Toronto's premier market, even mention as "One of the 25 best markets in the world, according to Food & Wine magazine" (that's what the St Lawrence's Market website says hehehe)

St. Lawrence Market, located at Front and Jarvis Streets houses over 60 specialty vendors consist of the 'North/Farmer's market', 'South market', 'market gallery' and 'St. Lawrence hall'

North Market/Farmer's market operates only on weekend. On Sat, from 5am, Ontario growers will bring their produce and sell it at the market and on Sunday this place will be occupied by the antique dealers..

Entrance of the North Mkt/Famer's Mkt (theres a beautiful wall mural of the scene of the mkt), behind the North Mkt, you can see the top of the St. Lawrence Hall

Close up of the wall mural

...and an explantion of the history of St. Lawrence Mkt

The South Market operates from Tue-Sat

consisting of 3 levels, the main and lower levels of the South Market contain over 50 specialty vendors, known for the variety and freshness of their fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, grains, baked goods and dairy products, as well as non-food items for sale.

Found these eggsentials interesting little items : Anything to do with Eggs with the theme of the chick! ;) There's egg spatula, egg slicer, yolk egg separator, egg masher, fridge magnet, adjustable measuring spoon, egg timer, egg tongs, mini pan...soooo cute :)

The lower level has an area explaining history of the South Mkt, with pictures and text

Cant resist taking a pic of this 'temptations'...

The second floor of the South Market is home to the Market Gallery, the official exhibition centre for the City of Toronto Archives. "The One" and I ain't much of a 'museum lover' so we skipped this section :P

Of course, how can we not taste some food from St. Lawrence Mkt,

Our chef grilling our fishes for the sandwiches..

"The One" and I had grilled talipia sandwich and grilled salmon sandwich..and I have to say, the sandwiches are wonderful (as usual, after finish eating, remember didn't take pic) hehehe

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Our Ang Mo (English) Breakfast

Morning woke up, hungry and was thinking what to have for breakfast; remembered we brought some hot Italian sausage the other day.. ting ting..I look at "The One" and smiled :)

"Lets have an English breakfast today, shall we?" I asked, "The One" smiled too...Happily we went to the kitchen. I asked "The One" to make melted Cheese bread (yeah yeah, our new creation..(he: the melted cheese on bread and me: add paprika on melted cheese) hehehe) while I made scrambled egg with onion and stir fried the hot Italian sausage. After almost half an hour in the kitchen..let us present..ta ta ta ta....

Our ANG MO (English) Breakfast! (complete with Orange juice of course :))

Yummy huh? heheeh can't help it, in the mood to take pic of our ang mo breakfast (When I said, 'Take picture!", "The One" said, 'for your blog huh?' and shake his head laughing) hehehe

and you guys know what? After having this breakfast..both of us were so full that we didn't even have lunch..see how filling this ang mo breakfast is? :)

Hope that you guys had a good, filling, happy breakfast today!

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Caution and p/s: We don't have Ang Mo breakfast everyday..if we did..i think our cholesterol level will be high rocketed in no time!! ;P so considered yourself warned huh! :)

Happy HatchDay Cyndi!!

haPpI HAtcHDaY CYNDI!!

Your Birthdate: June 23

You're not good at any one thing, and that's the problem.You're good at so much - you never know what to do.Change is in your blood, and you don't stick to much for long.You are destined for a life of travel and fun. Your strength: Your likeability Your weakness: You never feel satisfied Your power color: Bright yellow Your power symbol: Asterisk Your power month: May

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Happy birthday to a close gal friend, Cyndi :) Thank you for the lovely friendship we have formed, for your gentleness, laughter, big-sisterness, patience and many more..May you be happy whereever you go and whatever you do. May each day bring blessings to you, today especially, a day filled with lots of laughters and joy!




and of course, not forgetting, lavender wine for you to share with your 'special someone'...

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear and "The One"

Picture from http://www.noelgifts.com

Happy Birthday Mommy!

HaPpY bIrThDaY MOMMY!

Your Birthdate: June 22

You tend to be understated and under appreciated.You have a hidden force to do amazing things, doing them your own way.People may see you as strange and shy, but they know little.Your unconventional ways have more power than they (and even you) know. Your strength: Standing up for what you know is true Your weakness: You tend to be picky and rigid Your power color: Silver Your power symbol: Square Your power month: April

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Today is birthday of my dear mommy, Happy birthday :) hope your day is filled with lots of love and joy..I wont divulge its your XXth birthday (woman always like to keep it secret) hahaha Thanks for all that you have done for us, taught us and your time being there for us. Keep laughing, keep smiling and enjoy every day that follows!

Lots of Love from miles away,
PoohBear and "The One"

picture taken from http://www.noelgifts.com

First day of Summer 2007!

Finally, the first day of Summer 2007, arrives at 2.06pm, 26oC!

In the northern half of the world, June 21st is the first full day of summer. June 21st is not only the first day of summer, it is also the longest day of the year north of the equator (in the sense that the length of time elapsed between sunrise and sunset on this day is a maximum for the year); and this is called the summer solstice. The word solstice means “Sun stands still.” On this longest day of the year, the sun is farthest north.

While In the southern hemisphere, winter and summer solstices are exchanged.

Most of us will know, in the summer, days are longer, and night is shorter while in winter, the days are shorter and the nights longer; but do you know there is a time when the day and night are each 12 hours long? Does the terms "Vernal Equinox" and "Autumnal Equinox" rings a bell?

Vernal equinox is when the day and night are each 12 hours long. When will that be? That will be in between winter and summer, the first day of spring north of the equator, and the first day of autumn in the southern half of the world.

Just like Vernal equinox, day and night are the same length in Autumnal equinox; happening in between summer and winter, on the first day of autumn north of the equator, and the start of spring to the south.

So there you go, I learnt something new today, hope you did too ;)

Cheerios and keep smiling!

With Love from PoohBear

Info taken from:

http://www.nasaexplores.com/extras/constellations/summer_solstice_06-19-03.html

Dumplings festival

Mom reminded me that today (in the lunar calendar) is the 5th day of the 5th month which is also known as 'duan wu jie' or the 'dumpling festival'..arhhh...time to eat rice dumplings or 'bak chang' as we used to call it back home.

I only saw the 'red bean' dumpling the other day in the asian grocery that we frequent..but me, I love my bak chang in 'meat style'! hahaha (meat eater lah, cannot help it :P). Let me take u on a little tour of a few of my favourites...

Salted Rice Dumpling This dumpling is wrapped using bamboo leaves with fried glutinous rice and the filling of chestnut, mushroom and pork cubes marinaded with five spices. A typical Chinese style rice dumpling

Nonya Rice Dumpling This dumpling is wrapped using pandan leave with white glutinous rice and the filling of fine pork cubes fried with coriander powders. A typical Singapore Nonya style rice dumpling.

Salted Rice Dumpling with egg yolk. This dumpling is wrapped using bamboo leaves with fried glutinous rice and the filling of egg yolk, chestnut, mushroom and pork cubes marinaded with five spices. A Chinese style rice dumpling with more fillings

Chilli-Shrimps Rice Dumpling This dumpling is wrapped using pandan leave with white glutinous rice and the filling of finely ground shrimps fried with chilli and pork cubes fried with coriander powders. A different style of Chilli- nonya rice dumpling

My most favourite is the Chilli-shrimps Rice dumplings..ah ma used to make these really spicy and really meaty and they always taste so yummyyy..and of course, my galfriend Pearline, the rice dumpling that her mom make is also one of the best. With scallop inside..ohhhhh yumm yummm..how I miss all these bak chang..might be one of this day, I'll try to make too :P

Happy duan wu jie!

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With love from PoohBear

A toilet encounter

It was a weekend and as usual, the shopping mall was crowded. I had to go to the washroom and when I walked in, there was a long queue. When it was my turn, I went in and did whatever I need to quickly and flushed but opps...The flush wasn't working! I tried for a few more times and still it didn't flush. Remembering there is still a long line of queue outside, I had to go out, I can't stay in this cubicle till the flush work.

As I walked out, the next in line is a black lady probably in her 60s, before I could open my mouth to say that the flush is not working; she started screaming, "Asians are so dirty, always not flushing!"

I was so angry, I looked at her and said in my calm but a little loud voice (she's an old lady, didn't want to frighten her with my tigress voice; but loud enough so that other ladies in the washroom can hear me), "Ma'am, the flush is not working", I heard her say softly, 'oh', before I turned, walked to the sink, washed my hands and left.

When I met "The One" outside, I told him what happened, he pat pat my back and we both laughed hehehe

oh, by the way, I read this article from www.gadgetcool.com/archive/2007/12/

This toilet is so funny, it has an aquarium attached to it. The Fish 'n Flush is a specially-designed tank which is divided into two sections, one section for the fish and the other section for the flushing water.The aquarium tank is 2.2 gallons and features all the decoration and utilities any normal aquarium has (pump, filter, rocks, ...).Buy the Fish 'n Flush, remove your old tank and put the Fish 'n Flush on your toilet.Oh and please make sure you put the fish in the right compartment...Available for $450 at Fish n Flush



Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Happy Father's day!

Happy Father's day to our daddies today!

Thank you for everything you have done for us. I won't go into elaborating what our daddies did for us since we didn't do that for our mommies too hehe

To KC, happy father's day too. you're still a 'young daddy':)

Hope you all enjoy your day, go out, have lots of funs and embrace your special day!

Cheerios and keep smiling
With Love from PoohBear and "The One"

picture taken from http://www.clickandpost.com/

Spicy baked leatherjacket (its a fish)

Felt like having something spicy and something baked..looked into the freezer and decided to have fish for lunch yesterday. Well, lets have Spicy baked fish then..after googling for a recipe, this is the end product of my Spicy baked Leatherjacket fish (I used leatherjacket since thats what I have in the freezer although original recipe called for haddock fillets)




Ingredients:
2 leatherjacket
1/2 cup butter - melted
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Salt (pinch)
Black pepper (to taste)
Garlic cloves - minced
Chili powder (to taste)


Method:
1. Mix salt, pepper and garlic together thoroughly and rub on both sides of fish.
2. Place in a buttered shallow baking dish.
3. Spinkle chili powder on fish
4. Combine butter, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce.
5. Cover fish with some of the butter mixture
6. Bake fish at 375oF for 30 minutes or until it flakes easily with a fork. Baste with butter mixture 2-3 times during baking.


Original recipe asked for '1/4 teaspoon ground chili peppers', I used chilli powder, didn't measure just sprinkle on top of the fish, turned out pretty spicy! hahaha..lucky "The One" can take spicy ;) so for those who don't take spicy (you can leave out chili powder or use little for that kick) you won't want to be drowning a whole jug of water, do u?! hahaha

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Vaughan Mills - in Vaughan City

"The One" and I headed to Vaughan, to the Vaughan Mills, one of Canada's largest shopping are with over 250 stores. It took us a good almost 5-6 hours roaming and doing some shopping in the mall. Vaughan Mills consists of a number of branded names outlets, Guess, Aldo, CK, Fairweather etc (some are supposedly the factory outlet, however prices are not that much cheaper compared to the usual retail stores)



Even the Food court was a delight, with photos of the significant historical buildings in Vaughan

As usual, there is always ONE particular store that we enjoyed the most. That is the Bass Pro Shop. BPS is basically as it says 'outdoor world" it was an amazing and fascinating experience. Once you step into the store, you will be wowed by the interior design of that store. You can find amazing numbers of accessory stuffs for hunting, fishing, boating, camping, biking, golfing, almost any kind of outdoor activities accessories you will need.

At 2 separate entrances of the Bass pro Shop are 2 different fantastic landscape, one of the hunting scenes and one of the bears.

Can you see in the background the sea/ice plane that was hanging from the ceiling?

Look at those beautiful 3D landscapes of nature on the top of the walls

Close up of one of the 'mountain goats' landscape

This is the fishing section of the store

This is the hunting section, isn't that a fascinating sight!

Look at those rifles! It was definitely an eye opener for me, and there's the Swiss army knifes, binoculars, the rifles suppressors...

Can you see the cross bows on the left side of the photo?

There's even a shooting range where you can try shooting (with no bullets of course! :p) but look how nicely that range was done.."The One" and I definitely cannot resist having a go at holding the amateur rifles hehehe

All in all, we had a wonderful time exploring Vaughan Mills, especially Bass Pro Shop. Hope you had a good time doing a little Vaughan Mill Virtual trip with us :)

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Some pictures taken from http://www.mylivingtree.com/ and http://www.vuaghancity.com

Just for a smile

A little laugh that I had when I went to deposit a cheque in the bank...

Bank Cashier: Hi, how may I help you today?

Me: I'll like to deposit this cheque into this account no. pls

Bank Cashier: Sure ma'am, one moment. Is this your account?

Me: No, its my husband's

Bank Cashier: OK

While she was keying in the details and printing the transaction receipt, I asked,

Me: Can you let me know whats the account balance of the account too, thank you

Bank Cashier: Ma'am, is this a joint account?

Me: No

Bank Cashier: Sorry ma'am, if its not, I can't tell you the amount; although I'll like to know how much money my husband has in his account too

We both burst out laughing, she handed me the transaction receipt,

Me: Thank you, you have a good day

Bank Cashier: you have a good day too

Cheerios and keep smiling!

With Love from PoohBear

picture from http://www.teller-training.com

winniethepooh version of Baked Curry Seafood Potato Croquette

I love potatoes..mashed potato, potato salad, baked potato etc etc..yummyumm..and I love jap food too. So naturally, I like potato croquette :P

Although I like croquette, but I don't like deep frying; so after googling around for croquette recipes, I found my baked version of potato croquette. Add and minus ingredients here and there, I came up with my version of Baked Curry Seafood Potato Croquette. It turned out pretty good :) so here to share with you guys, when you feel like having a 'healthier' version of potato croquette.

Baked Curry Seafood Potato Croquette

Ingredients

3 medium potatoes

500g minced pork meat (or any of meat of your choice)

4-5 piece immitation crab stick, cut into cube piece size

½ yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced finely

1½-2 tsp curry powder

Salt (to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

2 tbsp oil

1 egg, beaten

Breadcrumbs and curry powder for coating

Method

1) Cook potatoes by boiling or microwave until soft, mash well.

2) Heat up oil and sauté onions and garlic till fragrant.

3) Add minced meat, curry powder, pepper and salt, mix well.

4) Add in mashed potatoes, blend well

5) Add immitation crabstick, blend well

6) Let mixture cool slightly and shape into patties.

7) Refrigerate for about 30 mins to firm up.

8) Mix breadcrumbs and curry powder well. (I used 3:1 portion, if you like it spicier, you can add more curry powder)

9) Dip patties into beaten egg and then in breadcrumb mixture. Shake off excess.

10) Place patties on baking dish/tray and bake in pre-heated 220C oven for 30 mins, or until golden brown.

This makes about 20 tablespoon size patties..hope you guys will enjoy it too!

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

Toronto LuminaTO festival

Toronto celebrated the Arts and creativity with "luminaTO", a festival that showcased Musics, Visual arts & design, Theatre, Literature, Films, Dances-the "luminaTO Festival" a celebration with different performance almost everyday for 10 days.



One particular event that catches "The One" and me is the "Masquerade Ball" in "Carnivalissima" event...now doesn't that sounds fun and mysterious! how can we miss it!

There were masks wearing, dancing, music, singing...we had 'Watermelon Margarita'..ooooo, and there were high slit performancers and there was this face painting thing going on (of course me went lah) hahah..

While we were there, we took a walk around the Carnival Market Place and sniffing out the wonderful aroma at the World Cafe Tent (there were Chinese food, Indian Food, Eastern European food etc) we had a nice Indian dinner there...

At the end of the day, we took the train and bus home, everyone was staring at us. "The One" had his mask on, while me had the painting on my face :P It was lots of fun and well, while we are still young, we can afford to be a little 'crazy' once in a while, isn't it? :)

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear