December News!

Now we are into the last month of the year and what a fast pace it had been! I realized that I am slower with getting things done and tire more easily due to not enough sleep and menopause? Well I am looking forward to the holidays when I don't need to get up at 5am and have enough rest! Today we just have an apple crumble with raisins for our tea break to celebrate our 3rd Advent! Wait a minute, I didn't post any thing for our 1st and 2nd advent.... What did we have? For the 1st Advent we had Mandeln Stollen and Lemon Pie, 2nd advent we had Mandeln Stollen, Apple Strudel & ice cream with Soo Hwa, Wei Wei, Stephanie, Lina, Kevin and Kimberley. We saw how our tortoise climbed up the stairs! (pictures taken by Wei Wei) Throughout the weeks was my constant struggle with Niki over his online games, talk with Herr Volker at school and going in and out of Singapore to make sure that we have enough money to cover our postdated cheque due on the 20/12/2010 for the payment of our apartment at Sherwood Towers! Until this moment we still do not have enough S$! Anyway, let me post some pictures to make this blog more interesting.......
See how I can manage?

What's new?

On the 9/11/2010 Joerg was involved in an accident at Enstek, Sepang, near his working place. Fortunately nothing happened to him or the driver of the other car! Our poor 4wheel Toyota has lost one of its 'eyes' and the bumper and side were badly dented! Look at the other driver pointing his fingers at Joerg and look at his proton!



Now we still have to claim his insurance but the bad news is that they will replace with 2nd hand parts as the 4wheel is considered 'old'! The car is at the workshop and we don't know how long it will be 'hospitalised'!




Then we went to collect the BMW which was also costing us a lot of RM since we bought it! Every weekend it is also landing at the workshop! The last complain was the brake pump which was rather dangerous said Mr Chin the mechanic! Let's keep our fingers crossed that there will be no more surprises!
So, we will take a look at the weekly progress of our fence in Mersing....

Our life in Johor Bahru and Mersing........

The 1st week of November is gone and we have another time of teenage rebellion with Dominik. On Thursday, his friend Till was supposed to come home with him but he was not given permission by his parents. So Niki decided to go to his friend, Jannis' place without any prearrangement with me. At 6pm he was still not home but sent me an sms to say that he wanted to stay overnight at Jannis. If I don't like it then he can stay overnight at Till! Then he sms me to say that he was on his way to Till's home. (After Vati's call with Till's mum we realised that he had lied where he was!) Well, I didn't agree as it was not discussed before and would like him to come home. After rejecting our phone calls, we decided to contact the parents of Till after many tries. When we finally got through, the mother of Till called his son and managed to convey our message that Niki should call us back to say that he is on his way home! He only came home at 11pm! What a theatre! Vati has a serious tell off with Niki and warn him that we will sent him to the boarding school if he continues on misbehaving! After much thought I am thinking it might not be a bad idea to prevent further friction between us and they will also teach/guide him and help him to do his homework! The costs is also not so far off from the schooling in Singapore! This may be one alternative....
Our Mersing project proceeds with the fence......
First week....

Second week.....

Third week....

And who is visiting my garden?

Our garden tortoise was getting adventurous and heading for the water pond!

November 2010!

Whoa, the last post was in August and now we are in November! Heh, what happened in September and October?? Both months were not a healthy time for me as I was down with migraine, menopausal symptoms, cough and influenza and finally stomach aches and cramps! Fortunately we have Sabine & Stefan to distract me of my misery! Sabine also brought along Remifermin to help me with my menopause discomfort! Dominik has 1 week Autumn holidays and so we could join them in KL and Ipoh! In Ipoh, we stayed at the railway station hotel which was old and not well maintained. We went to 'makan' at the famous chicken taugeh kwayteow restaurant but the famous dim sum restaurant was under renovation. We ended up in a neighbouring restaurant with dim sum too. I bought lots of biscuits and pomelos, things which Ipoh is famous for!






We had a reunion dinner with my family members in Puchong with two full tables of 10 course dinner!




Boo.... that's what I want to say!
Meanwhile after school started for Niki on the 18/10, we have only complaints from the teachers that Niki has been failing all his tests and undone homework for the first quarter of the new school year! Well, I have anticipated it since he was only on the laptop most of the time right till midnight although the next day was test! Anyway we had a lot of discussions and talks and Niki finally decided that he wants to do better for his studies and he's going to try harder for the 2nd quarter to avoid going to the 'hauptschule' standard - but he really has to work extra hard like in a marathon race...... Must finish the race even if it is gruelling!
The next thing we did was we finally purchase our apartment in Singapore at Sherwood Towers, Jalan Anak Bukit! We have been a few times to look at several apartments and hesitate to buy as it was so expensive. But we did an impromptu purchase last month (10.10.2010!) for a 1388sq ft. apartment. Did we do the correct thing? Well, time will tell..... So, beginning next year we have to start on the renovation works for this place and Joerg will be busy also with our Mersing project. Well, are we prepared for a busy 2011??? Not forgetting, Sabine and Stefan will be shifting to Singapore too.... 2011 - It will be a year of many changes......

Visitors from Germany....

After Niki's safe arrival home on the 5.8.2010 and our time spent with my Swiss friend and family, we were ready to receive our next guests from Germany, Uwe and Claudia, on the 14.8.2010! Joerg took off a few days and on Mon 16/8 we went into Singapore to see the new Casino from the Sands. The architecture is quite impressive. We had a 'guided tour' of the view of Singapore and its surroundings with the 'phone' when we were 200m above ground level! The swimming pool of the hotel was also at the top most level and we just wondered! After our 'exhausting' trip in Singapore, we went for a good chinese foot reflexology and body massage. Uwe and Claudia enjoyed it although they were sceptical before we started out. Then we came home for supper - chicken curry and french bread!
On Tuesday we drove around in Johor Bahru showing the Istana grounds and end up at City Square waiting for Niki. Then we came home for tea/coffee break with cheese cake. It was pouring cats and dogs and so I have to take a video of it but the one I am downloading has no thunder and lightning! Just a typical tropical, torrential rain, watch how it is washing away the earth or top soil! (Sorry, failure to upload!) Just some pictures of our time together.

Another new week .......

Yesterday I went for a farewell lunch for our Japanese friend, Seiko. She was the one who played host to us when we were holidaying in Japan and bringing us around her hometown. It was a steam boat lunch and it is good to meet up with old friends once in a while.

It is exactly 1 week since Niki came back and he is grumbling that he should have stayed back in Germany one week longer! He has still not got over his jetlag and sleeping late at night. Today I brought him to Danga Bay to have a workout with his skate board! He has been pestering me and since he needs some exercise to make him tired for bed! Anyway it is only 2 more days and school will reopen! Oh no! No more long morning sleep for me!

We have visitors from Switzerland!

The days just passed by so quickly. On Thursday, I went shopping for the printer ink again. First (on Wednesday) I went to find it in the Danga City Mall where we bought the Xerox printer and guess what? The two outlets which they have were closed!!! So the next day, I went to Landmark mall to look for the similar outlet and managed to find the 4 ink cartridges which cost me RM1111! Since waking up in the morning, I felt something wrong with my left ear. I could hear but felt not the usual self - something like when one has some water in the ear after a swim, but I didn't go swimming since a long time! So, I head towards Wisma Maria to see Dr Ong, the ENT doctor. As the nurse said, "You are very lucky as the doctor is going off for a holiday starting today! Next time, it's better if you ring up to make your appointment! He was still there and I even had a long chat with this doctor who is forever so serious!!! I think he was already in a holiday mood going to Melbourne to see her daughter! Then I prepared myself to go to the Changi airport to pick Niki. I was there punctual but had to wait another hour before Niki shows up as he was the last to be escorted out! The next day, Friday, I was not feeling well with light migraine! In the evening we had a badminton match and so I had to participate. How fortunate that Niki has brought me the tablets from Germany! On Saturday I had to bake some cakes for our guests, the Kindt family from Switzerland. We knew each other (I mean my friend, Susanne) when Daniel was working with ABB for the power plant in Pasir Gudang. Now she has brought along their 3 children, Selina (16years born in Kuantan), Jonathan (13years) and Deborah (11 years). They brought us so many chocolates and cheese! (Vati is all smiles as Niki didn't bring any chocs back from Germany!)



This is Daniel & Susanne.











Niki is playing with Selina, Jonathan and Deborah.

Busy, busy with what???

Today we managed to do our Tai chi but we had a hurried ending of the session because of the dark clouds above our heads. Since I had ordered some fish from the Mini market, I decided to borrow an umbrella and went to collect them! The threatened rain was blown away by the wind and I arrived home dry! At 9.30am, it started to rain and Rahman came today with a friend, to do some gardening. I am glad as I wanted to put back the water plants from my Japanese garden. Let's hope it is water tight now!

I went round the garden when the sun came out again and took some more pictures of our plants with their fruits!










Since we are at fruits, I also took some photos of the local ones I bought yesterday and today!
Want to try some of these rambutans?















How about the dragon fruit?


This banana is from our garden!

The sun is out.....

When the sun is shining and greets you in the early morning, the spirit is lifted up somehow! The clothes will have a nice smell after the drying and the birds are chirping merrily! Even the bananas are happy as they have also turned yellow and the squirrels have already their feed! Plus the flowers in the garden looks brighter and...... look at the blue skies!

I just finished making a dessert to bring along this evening to the Haegers. Want to make a guess? Its a long time since I have tried making this as I have written down this recipe from my mum-in-law who had always pampered her 'maenner' with lots of desserts! This is one of her children's favourite -'apfelsine speise'!


We need 500 ml of orange juice, juice from 1 lemon or grapefruit, 10g of gelatine (powder or 'leaves'), 2 egg yolk, 2 egg white & 3-4 tabsp. castor sugar

Soak gelatine in cold water until soft. I use a water bath to melt the 'blatt' gelatine and pour into the fluid mixture of juice, yolks and sugar. Whisk and mix well. Cool in the refrigerator till half set.

Whisk the egg white until stiff. Fold it into the half set mixture, mix well and place in the fridge until set. (Better to cool more than 2 hours and to put back in fridge as soon as possible if unfinished!)

This is how it should look like when it is completed. Very good for a hot day as it is very refreshing!
Well, have a good time trying and reading as we have to get ready for our dinner invitation soon.