The Ceiling and the Water

One day I returned home to find the sky had fallen.  Heh ok ok it was the ceiling board.  JE said she'd informed me ages ago but I had mumbled something about how hubby used to handle repairs and I never had to trouble myself, then I entered the house and promptly forgot about it.  Well apparently it didn't repair itself and this happened.  Fortunately I had a number to call by now from my earlier wall repair.

Before

All fixed for RM3k.

After

Within the same month (August actually), my water bill suddenly shot up to about 30 times the usual.  I was in and out trying o check the problem using chatGPT, didn't work.  :)  Eventually googled for a plumber to come check and got some minor repairs in as well.  No issue was found, must have been a tap was left on while we were away for a week.  Tried to request a discount from the Water department but no luck.   

Fixing

Oh well.  At least the problems were settled.

Melaka Days 3 and 4

Even though 4d3n seemed quite long, it doesn't translate to all that many meals!  We aren't able to eat that much - well *I* can, but I gain weight fast nowadays.  JE and SE have appetites way smaller than mine.

Laksa kahwin (mixed curry and assam broth) and cendol at Jonker88 for is a must-do for me at Melaka.  We shared just one bowl of each...

Finishing off the laksa

... to reserve stomach space for The Stolen Cup cafe.  Coffee was good and also the combo of blueberries, walnut and ricotta drizzled with balsamic vinegar and honey on a bagel.  I was already thinking how to replicate this at home!  The Jamon ham dutch baby also did well though the ham did get progressively salty.  

Blueberry ricotta on a bagel

We returned to this cafe the next day - SE had the green shakshuka which she liked.  My spaghetti vongole was so-so (noting this down for the future)

Same cafe, second trip

For dinner, tried out this place called 'Sua.suana at Bunga Raya'.  We had fish&chips, the udang lemak nenas (prawn and pineapple in spicy curry) pizza and the lava cheesecake.  Not bad but would try other places next time. 

Prawn curry pizza

OK that's all the food I have to document.  I enjoyed this trip, though I was tired after and took a day to recover!  And that was with smooth traffic going home, at slightly over 2 hours.

Melaka Days 1 and 2

Since this was a foodie trip... 

First some freshly-baked pastries 

Daily Fix for dinner:  My fav sweet/savoury pancakes with bacon, sausage and caramelised banana was good as usual.  SE tried the risotto which was decent.  

Happy diners

JE's smoked duck was tasty but way too salty.  They should have served salad with this or halved the duck.

 

Smoked super-salty duck

The next day, tried Wild Coriander since my sis raved about it.  Hmm all the signature dishes were only average.  Concluded my sis doesn't have very good judgement haha.  Messaged her (she happened to have gone to Melaka as well a couple of days earlier) and she complained the standard had gone down.  Oh ok then.

Pie tee

Beef rendang platter and Nyonya laksa

JE perked up after getting a drink.  Tried the new blue drink from Zus.

Velvet Blue Smoothie 

What I like about Melaka is I could book accommodation near the happening Jonker Street, park upon arrival and not need to drive out anywhere. Traffic in Melaka is usually heavy and parking isn't easy to come by.  JE did want satay celup though which was not quite within walking distance.  Taking Grab to Ban Lee Siang cost only RM5, perfect!  The timing of our trip was great - since it was just after the Merdeka PH, the crowds had thinned out considerably.  It was only a short wait before we got our table.

We happily picked out sticks of food to dip into the peanut sauce to boil.  Hey but where were my favourite cockles?!  Sigh.  Probably they were not in season.  Cockles are getting rare these days.  As for the sauce, confirmed I prefer it compared to McQuek's.  Enjoyed our dinner which was cheap at below RM50 (would have been more if there had been cockles for me to pig out on!).

Yum yum

JE tried out the new matcha flavour from Mixue while waiting for our Grab back.

Quite good

So glad we took Grab, worth it as a fuss-free, stress-free solution. 

Melaka trip 2026

I had supposed no more trips within the country.  When the girls were younger, we had rotated between PD, Melaka, Genting and Ipoh for holidays.  Well, they are no longer little kids who enjoyed that sort of outings.  Like SE said, we had visited all the attractions.  Then out of the blue JE mentioned she missed the lime drinks in Melaka and also the satay celup.  So I thought, hey why not?  We were free for the Aug/Sept holidays as JE had exams coming up.  It could be a 'relax, study and eat' trip.  JE liked a change in her study surroundings.  It was tougher to persuade SE though she finally gave in.

So off we went.  :)  First putting a note here for future reference.  The rest-stop 30mins from home offers very decent shops - we could have lunch here next time.  

Hmm not bad

For accommodation, for once I was scouring listings for suitable study places haha.  

And here we are!  "Reserve 40 Melaka" is nice and huge, with plenty of horizontal surfaces.

Long counter here

Dining table here

There are also 2 bedrooms with queen beds and dressing tables, and one more bed in the curtained area next to the dining table.  There are 3 bathrooms (the luxury! haha)

And it is a stone's throw from the happening Jonker Street.

Off to explore the food scene

Minion

Posting a sweet photo of JE with a 'minion'.  I'm not much of a movie watcher but we have gone for all instalments of the Despicable Me franchise so far.

Me with a Minion 

JE is only in shorts as she withstands cold well.  She'd be the one in short sleeves in cold weather whilst SE would be all zipped up in a winter jacket.  My tolerance is in between these two. :)

Ah Kong’s Birthday 2026

My father turns 84 on THIS day, 19 August!

We celebrated last weekend with a Chinese course meal at Oriental Pavilion.

Now what's this? Baby back ribs with preserved plum tomatoes

Food was overall good.  Though the 'cod fish' was served fried in batter and the 'Australian scallop' was mixed like fish-paste - why waste premium ingredients?  Unless they weren't premium to begin with.... hmmmm.  

Dessert of herbal 'turtles' in mango cream

Is there enough space on the cake for the candles?  Oh yes enough haha.

84 times happy birthday!

6 grandkids - 1 has gone off to university

With everyone

My father is having some health issues which don't have clear causes and thus no clear remedies.  Docs are mainly writing it off to 'old age' at this point.  Praying this will improve.  We very much want him around for a long time to come.

Food at malls

Right after our Yunnan trip, I started a new 1-year assignment which entailed going to the client office daily.  After over 3 years of hybrid WFH/office, I could hardly believe having to fight traffic jams daily!  Driving takes up a total of 2.5 hours.  And of course I can't be surfing the net while sitting with other humans!  The work is not my cup of tea either, which is making me seriously think of retirement.  Luckily I managed to get a day of WFH a week for now. 

On to a more enjoyable topic, FOOD.  All these are at malls which win for easy parking, food variety and availability of other shops.  

Father's day lunch (yes this was over a month ago, but refer to my comment that I can't be surfing the net now in the office hehe).  A note that my sis completely misunderstood where to meet and missed this. 

Nong Geng Ji (Chinese): Overall not bad, worth repeat visits

Red Kettle: Dutch baby for me, pork buns/mantao for SE

Chica Bonita(Mexican): Corn looked better than it tasted

Aftermeal: Shaved ice dessert, hojicha flavour

Tea count

Every trip we have been, JE requests to get bubble tea or similar beverage which could have bought one a square meal.  Decided to do a formal count.  We didn't come across any tea shops for 2 days so this started the night of Day 3.

1. Day 3: 'A Cup of Dali' is the name of the shop.  JE says this is local to Dali.  Fine, trying local brands while on holiday makes complete sense. 

This one tastes like Chagee

2. Day 4: JE spotted 'Auntea Jenny' which we also have back home.  JE said something about there being options only available in China.  Well fine then.

 

This one I don't quite like

3. Later that night - she followed Google map to the Chagee shop.  Apparently this drink was only available in China.  

Chagee is the bomb!

4. Day 6: In Xizhou, another Chagee.  I had lost track of the drink names, all are tea of some sort with milk.

Another Chagee

5. Day 7: In Kunming - someone is obviously holding tea.  I had also lost track of the shop name by now.

One more tea

Total of FIVE cups.  This is already with me suddenly becoming deaf whenever she started talking about the possibility of tea shops nearby.

Day7 Kunming

On our last day, the weather turned cool.  So much more pleasant to be strolling around (check out the more smiley faces in this post compared to the previous ones!).  We went back to the Golden Horse archway area.

Us at the Archway

I liked these little baos, delicious and only RMB12/MYR7 for the lot.

Little pan-fried pork baos 

JE's favourite was this halal beef pancake - very good too and cheap at RMB6/MYR3.6.

This beef pancake is the bomb

For lunch we went for simple yet different.  This stall at the food court sold steaming hot bowls of food - you request the seller to put your selections onto your tray then bring it to the cashier.  We picked only a few since we were pretty full.  RMB38/MYR22 for 4 bowls and 2 rice - tasty stuff.

Spicy chicken, pork patties, steamed egg, corn with capsicum

All right, that's all we had time for!  It was a smooth metro ride to the airport.

Try some giant fresh figs first

And a smooth journey back home.

Our loot from China

Yes we did enjoy our trip despite the hot weather.  Green light to visit more places in China in the future. :)

Day 6 - Xizhou

Last day in Dali already.  Took a Didi to Xizhou on the west side of Erhai lake.  I did wonder if I'd input the correct destination as I was expecting something more cultural with people involved in activities other than selling things to tourists.

Another ancient town?

Everything good/Hao

Oh well, it was nice wandering around and the wares on sale were different.

Old building

Finally crossed off the last item on our list - Xizhou Baba, a traditional bread with savoury or sweet filling.  We tried both - a freshly baked savoury one with meat and green onions, then a sweet one with the rose jam common in this area - and preferred the savoury.

Babas come to us

Quite scenic ya?

Also this 

Headed back to Dali and had lunch near our hotel.  SE now has fond memories of the 'milk potato' dish (which I remember trying hard to finish heh).

Potatoes and pork ribs

Dali was definitely worth the trip!  After that it was back to Kunming via the high speed rail.  

Day 5 Erhai Lake

Itinerary for the day was the east shores of Erhai lake.  While photos on the internet looked good, AI kept warning that our first destination of Lixiangbang (the China 'Santorini) wasn't 'authentic'.   When we got there.... OHH the place is basically just photo set ups, like what we have back home in Sekinchan.  The modus operandi was, buy expensive drinks/food to enter an establishment with props for photo-taking.  Without that, there were limited photo opportunities.

Without paying 

We wandered around a bit. SE was against going into any establishment.  I thought, well we had come all this way.  SE remained adamant - she argued we could just take some photos around and leave.  I decided to insist we go for it.  A coffee cost RMB68/RM40. 

  

Ah much better

Kiddos weren't in the mood to take photos.  Somewhere between the stress of dealing with my teens and the beauty of that place, I missed hubby intensely.  Sigh.  You can't quite see it in the picture above, but SE is holding Captain Hook who has been along on all our trips.  

It was an uncomfortably hot day.  The coffee arrived as a half cup hehe.

With the RM40 coffee

I think the pizza fared better for CNY118/RM70.  Too bad it was loaded with fresh capsicum which the girls dislike.

Exorbitant coffee and pizza

The view WAS gorgeous - blue skies, the lake.  The props weren't bad actually, only thing we weren't optimising the angles (plus I had grumpy models).  Below were the best photos.

Sky and water

Platform

Violin

Sofa

Swing

Next destination was Xiaoputao or 'Little potato island'.

Island behind with temple on it

Better picture of island

Pomegranates again

Nothing too much to see so we Didi-ed to our last destination of Shuang Lang.  This was much bigger and more interesting.

More shops here

Struck off another to-do item on our list - 'Cross bridge noodles'.  The 'bridge' here had many small toppings which you drop into the hot stone bowls filled with steaming soup, together with the noodles.  We requested one spicy soup and one no-spicy.

Cross bridge noodles for lunch

After lunch, we wandered around the ancient town.  At one time I thought we had covered all of it, but eventually discovered that it was much larger.  

Skies and water again

Sunset here was special due to the combination of Cangshan moutains behind, clouds lit from below, all reflected by the lake.  It was nice to just sit, wait and experience.

Sunset

After that we were ready to leave. But we walked for ages before we could exit the ancient town area!  So relieved when we finally reached the edge and could get a Didi.