Weekend is here !

It's saturday tomorrow which means big lie in for most of us, though I am going to get up earlier for a flight to S. Uncle cabbie will come get me around 8am and by 11am, I will be touching down and having lunch with my folks.

Am looking forward to taking my niece out to splash in the waterpark or to picnic in the Botanical gardens, so she can have fun rolling around in  the grass.

I know some friends are celebrating their wedding anniversary this week so a big congrats from me !

To many more years of love, hand-holding and surprise kisses.

I will see some of you next monday for dinner. Until then ! Have a brillant weekend.

Mentally there

I am counting down to the days left in KL. The move is making me quite excited and tonight I am making my first Persian dish to mark my enthusiam.

Lamb Fesenjan

This is a slow cooked lamb stew, with walnuts and pomegranate sauce. A delicious sweet and sour combination that is best with duck but can work with chicken or lamb as well. About 300 gm of walnuts are grinded  ( dish for 2 )  and mixed into the sauce, making it thick as creamy and nutty.

I took this photo from J. Oliver and the recipe is similar to the one I used. T has a Persian cookbook from which my version came from, and the result was yummy.

Nooshe jan ! Bon appetit !

Thoughts on a wall

Was cruising on one of my favourite sites in Etsy,  I chanced upon an artist , William Dohman who fashions signs out of recycled wood. The signs are simple but thoughtful and it would look fantastic anywhere.

Next to a hammock? In a reading nook ?

I am tempted to get some for Sri Lanka.

He also takes custom orders and will fashion any word for you, provided it is no more than 7 letters.

Sleep. chill out, play, think are all words that I would ask for. What do you think?

Cloudy Horizons

The past week news bulletins were filled with stories of natural disasters. The Chinese have suffered yet another earthquake and the Iceland volcano has erupted, causing mayhem for the locals.

Can't imagine what it is like under those black clouds.

The skies over Europe are locked down. Food imports are halted, DHL deliveries delayed (T's new phone orderd online managed to catch the ferry out of the UK but is now stuck somewhere in Paris, poor chap), our travel plans might be changed. We are not flying out for another 3 weeks but with the backlog piling up, we are expecting chaos at Heathrow.

The photos from Iceland are depressing. The river is drowning in ash.

David Chater from AJ did a live report and at high noon, the place was blanketed in darkness. They said this is what a nuclear war would be like. The poor livestock is slowly suffocating to death, but still some people refuse to evacute. Why ?!

Designer envy

Today I came across two amazingly talented designers who use luxurious materials for their creations. Israeli- brand Paula Bianco's jewellery are statement pieces that will dress up a fancy cocktail dress or over a plain T-shirt, glam things up a notch.

I love these old styled block type pendants.

Kara Ross, a New York based designer, has bags and jewellery in her portfolio. Gold, enamel, semi precious stones, skins and wood are used in her creations. Not a huge fan of the wood but the other combinations are stunning.

The Neo clutch is a black velvet body with a lizard square within gold corners.

The Brevis is coral with matt gold and a tiger's eye.

I want this antique knotted gold necklace !

Pocket watch incream enamel, gold and white lizard is so beautiful.

Honeycomb cuff in strawberry stingray

Snake chain in antique gold

Stunners aren't they ? Shop online here.

Handmade Noodles in KL

As it stands, we only have about 4 weeks left in KL to sample all the goodies before leaving for our new home. My friends have been very kind to offer to take me to out of town areas to eat at their favourite local hawkers. Today we were in the red light district in central, amid greasy car repair shops and wholesalers.

The objective was to have a taste of Kin Kin's infamous chilli pan mee. I have no idea how to get to this place, since T took numerous back roads and all the road names were unknown to me.

She said that we had to get there before the lunch crowds to avoid a 45 minute wait. The coffee shop was already half full at 11.45am and the proprietor was very friendly with T because she comes every week.

The entire coffee shop sells one dish - pan mee. The noodles are made fresh daily and the dough cutter was right there next to the boiling vats of stock. The champion of the dish was in the chilli and there were signs everywhere warning patrons against takpowing the home made chilli. We ordered the dry version which came with a poached egg and a bowl of hot soup with vegetables as a side.

The noodles were al dente and had a lovely chewy bite to it. Dried ikan bilis and fried pork was sprinkled generously on top. After dumping a tablespoon of the famous chilli in it, which was more like soggy chilli flakes, we dug in.

I was very impressed and was tempted to lick the bowl when I finished. Thank you T for taking me here.

These photos were taken by a food blogger KY eats.

There is also a map.

Phone love

I have been busy playing with my latest toy over the past week. The HTC legend phone is so cool to use, I send emails, check facebook, take great photos and everyday I find new apps to use.

The home page of the phone works as a weather barometer. It shows me what the local temperature is and if there is a storm coming, windscreen wipers turns up on the screen as raindrops start pounding the screen. It's so neat !!

Other than that, the packing has started. Well we started spring cleaning and throwing out stuff we have little use for. In T's study, there are stuff older than me ! The movers will deliver boxes tomorrow so I can start putting stuff away for storage. Not something I am looking forward to. Luckily my friend S is coming over to help.

We have a budget of 25 boxes for the move and when I sat down to draft my list of stuff coming, I have already "filled" 30 boxes. More decluttering needed and I really have to be brutal about what I take. When we moved here 4 years ago, we had 200 boxes. Shocking and to think, we have more stuff now.

Happy Birthday L!!!

A fitting birthday card for my friend L. Have a blast babe, am sure you won't remember a thing but wish I was there to join in the revelry.

The card is hand painted by talented Ann Fraser found on etsy. Cards for Complicated People is her shop and is stocked with all sorts of cute messages.

Have a fab weekend! I am going to be busy with social events this weekend. Dinner with friends on saturday and then a baby 100th day party Sunday. Still haven't bought a present yet, better get on that soon ! Ta !

Ceramic Art

In a few weeks, I have to move and the packing remains to be done. The task is daunting since over 4 years in KL, we have accumulated enough stuff for 2 houses. The upside is that we are not taking anything with us, which means I need to start dividing up stuff and decide what goes and what stays.

For the first 3 months we were told that the company will put us up in the corporate hostel. Feedback from friends indicated that it is a dire place but since it will help save some cash, we will tough it out. Which means I have a big job of trying to cosy up the space. I think some of the rugs and most of the wall hangings will come with us to brighten up the flat.

Kitchenware is tough, I wonder if I should bring or leave. The last thing I should do is buy more but if I can ever get my hand on Samantha Robinson's pieces, I will. A sydney potter and ceramicist, she hand paints nature inspired landscapes and delicate florals on each of her creations.

Her shop in Bondi, Sydney is called Tea Petal. Sweet name.

It's not kitchenware, its artware.