Prayer Food

Yesterday was my mom's 13th death anniversary. So the entire family (siblings and families) went to my brother's house for the prayers (Mom's tablet was kept in brother's house while the ashes were kept in temple). It was also a time where the entire family get the chance to get together.

As brother was taoism (so was my late mom), we offered cooked food and burned incense papers to my late mom.

Before prayers, it was all so messy in my brother's kitchen....lol. The above chicken was to be steamed.

All these chicken parts were used to cook curry chicken.

This is rice vermicelli that needed to be soaked in water before cooking.

Look at all these mess....lol

Glad most of the cooking done by my eldest sister and brother's wife....lol I contributed by purchasing the cooked roast duck and roast pork while 2nd sister and youngest sister offered some money to brother. And eldest sister contributed some of the cooking ingredients and food and the cooking.

So after praying, it was our turn to tuck into the food. And we stay the entire day chatting and playing cards to pass the time. And soon it was dinner and eldest sister and sister in law cooked some extra dishes in addition to the leftover from lunch. Thanks sis and sister in law for all the cooking. :) And oh thanks to second sis for washing up...hahaha. Not that I am lazy, I hurt my back.....good excuse. :)

Dancing Moon

It was supposed to be a simple photograph of the moon in the night. But the moon looked like it was dancing in the dark....lol

No idea why the moon appeared in this way, the only reason could be me not holding the camera properly....lol

UFO?

It's really the moon only. :)

For other sky watchers, you can go to Skywatch blog.

Crystal Jade HK Cafe

Saw this picture hanging outside the cafe where we had lunch. The mini chinese dress looked so cute. To see what we have lunch you can view at my food blog.

Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Part 2

Still in the vicinity of kwan Im Temple, I spotted some people touching the laughing buddha. The laughing buddha belongs to a shop in the background just next to the Kwan Im temple. The shop sells mainly buddhist statues, artefacts, charms, etc. The owner was smart to attract customers by placing a huge laughing buddha outside his shop. Not sure how it started, but everyone seems to touch the laughing buddha for luck, blessings and etc.

And no, I dont follow suit, never went to touch the laughing buddha....lol. No. 1, am a free thinker, No. 2, since SARS(a deadly unknown disease), never wanted to touch anything that have so many people touch.

I know of a friend who dont go out because it is 14 (means sure die in cantonese)....lol. So you could only see him out in the street except on the 14th of every month, dont he go to work on the 14? And someone I knew had No. 8(means prosper in chinese) on his car license plate, house number, telephone telephone, etc but now he is a bankrupt. I am just happy and contented with each day waking up still alive. :)

Sorry for the shaky video...lol. I was minding my steps and not holding the camera properly.

Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple

Singapore is a food and shopping paradise. Singaporean loves looking for food and shopping and travelling. But we do find time for prayers.

The main religions are Islam, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Judaism.

Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple is a very famous temple in waterloo street. The temple is also involved in charity work, contributing to several health and educational organisations. For more information on the temple you can view wikipedia.

On auspicious date, the temple will be very crowded. Outside the temple were some vendors selling incense papers, josssticks and lotus flowers.

The lotus flower is a favourite as the goddess of mercy is always depicted standing inside the lotus flower.

A short video of the temple.

For more photos of place of worship in my blog, you can view them here.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Ah Chew Dessert at Liang Seah Street

Saw the local TV programme on food about dessert so we decided to try out the dessert at Ah Chew Desserts.

Inside it was beautifully decorated and I love the lanterns.

Even the funiture are very oriental and antique looking. I hope I have space in my house for this beautiful table and stools.

To know what is inside you got to hop to my food blog to view the it.

Skywatch

Took this photo in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. It showed the monorail with the KL tower in the background.

Hubby and me was lost for a while in Chow Kit Place but from far we saw the monorail track, so we walked towards the track and managed to find a monorail station and realised we were one station away from Chow Kit Station where we first alighted and where we wanted to headed for...lol.

For more of my travel photos in Kuala Lumput, you could view them in my travel blog.

For other sky watchers, you can go to Skywatch blog.

People's Park Complex

People's Park Complex is a high-rise commercial and residential building on Eu Tong Sen Street in Outram, within the Chinatown of Singapore. I remembered mom used to bring me to shop here when I was a child as it was one of the few pioneer shopping mall back then.

The above photo showed the normal crowd on a Sunday. It is a best place to look for travel agencies as there are many housed under this complex. From the photo, you could see SA Tours, ASA Tours and Commonwealth Travel and there are more smaller travel agencies in the next People's Park Centre.

For more information on People's Park Complex you could view it here.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

New Orchard MRT Station Exit

Hahaha....just fooling around with my camera and video the new exit out of Orchard MRT Station. It looked so much spacious and brighter than the old exit.

Skywatch-Twin Tower

From the KLCC shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, one could look up the roof and see the tall twin towers. You can view my other photo of the twin tower here.

Very easy to move around in Kuala Lumpur, we could just catch any bus that said KLCC, it cost only RM2 from Bukit Bintang to KLCC.

For other sky watchers, you can go to Skywatch blog.

Wedding Rings

These bears are so cute. The wedding rings belong to my husband's nephew and his new wife. Photo was taken last year when they went through the registry of marriage. They would go through the chinese wedding custom end of this year. I am so excited and happy for them.

I hope to take more photos then. :)

Chinese Wedding Accessories

I am back to my normal posting but for my travel photos, do visit my travel blog.

These are so cute. I was helping my sister in law (hubby's side) to look for some wedding accessories for her son's coming wedding in December. The are so many shops in People's Park Complex selling all these chinese wedding accessories. The following photos were taken from two wedding shops facing each other.

I love the bed with all the cute accessories which featured the wedding bride and bridegroom in cartoon. Chinese love everything in red which symbolised good luck.

This shop is smart to bring in a bed as a promotion and they decorated just like a wedding bed.

Depending on what dialects you belong to, you need to buy different wedding accessories according to your dialects. Mostly cantonese have the most rules to follow...lol The mirror is for the wedding day where the mother would comb the son/daughter's hair while the father will recites the three or four chants/blessings.

The four blessings are:
一梳梳到尾，(First combing, together all your lives) 二梳百年好合，(Second combing, harmony in your marriage) 三梳子孙满堂，(Third combing, blessed with many children and grandchildren) 四梳白发齐眉。(Fourth combing, blessed with longevity.)
Sweet pink rice ball soup汤圆 will be served after the hair combing ceremony to wish the couple a complete and sweet marriage.

Some interesting gifts that need to company the bridegroom to the bride's house. They are usually very auspicious food/fruits. The wedding candles are a must for both parties.

Now they come with these commercialised self adhesive chinese wordings which symbolised double happiness. I remembered I used to cut the words on red paper by myself for my wedding...lol. The twin lamps are a must and must be switched on the whole day.

These tea sets are used for tea ceremony during the wedding. The bride and bridegrooms have to kneel before their parents and serve teas to them and relatives.

The rules and regulations are too long for me to type...lol. You can find out more from wikipedia and here too.

(Sorry for some blurred photos, I took them with my handphone.)

Malaysia - Twin Tower

I am back from my Kuala Lumpur's trip. This is the twin tower in Kuala Lumpur, West Malaysia, it used to be the highest building in the world.

Will blog more about my trip in my travel blog.

Resting and will be away

I will be resting and not blog for the rest of week. Going away for a while...

Skywatch

Took this photo of the plane at changi industrial estate, near changi airport. Easily to spot planes going up and down in this area. That was why there ain't no high buildings in these areas.

For other sky watchers, you can go to Skywatch blog.

SMU Challenge

This is another charity, organised by Singapore Management University Student Association Council (SMU-SAC).

The concept of the event is to have participants cycling on 120 spinner bikes simultaneously in an attempt to clock as much distance as possible for 30 hours consecutively because for every kilometer cycle, they would raise a dollar for charity. The amount will be pledged and donated by donors. (Source taken from here. )

A short video on the cyclethon.

Charity

Took this photo in earlier September and I forgot all about it.

It was a charity for needy students. The girl played very well with the chinese instruments.

A very short video, I was in a hurry so did not capture the full music.

Formula 1 winner

Took this photo from the television, the race was broadcast live on TV.

He is the winner of Formula 1 first night race right here in Singapore. Congratulations.

Spain's Fernando Alonso was first followed by Germany's Nico Rosberg in a Williams and Britain's world championship leader Lewis Hamilton who came in third.

And I thought I wont watch the race, it was quite exciting and dramatic especially when Ferrari's Massa who was leading the race at first but made a mistake at the pit stop dragging the fuel hose...omg...a dearly mistake and he came in 13th.

Formula 1

Saw this beautiful Formula 1 racing car on display outside Tangs Shopping Mall. Of course, I cant resist taking photos of it. The Formula 1 race will be on tomorrow and it would be a first night race for F1. For more information, you can view its website.

Just a short video showing people posing with the car taking pictures jut like me...lol

Skywatch-birdnest

This photo of bird nest was taken during my South Korea's trip earlier this year.
Can you spot the bird that made the nest?

For other sky watchers, you can go to Skywatch blog.

Race Car

I saw this racing car at Novena Square, it looked so lovely.

There will be a Formula 1 night race on Sunday night. It would be the first night race for Formula 1. For more beautiful photos, you could view keropokman's blog.

Birthday Cake

Ok I did not get to eat the little pretty cake in my previous post, I do get to eat this blackforest...lol It was yummy.

My son celebrated his birthday over a four days period with different group of friends and sunday was with family....lol. He is popular.

My son's 19th birthday

Hahaha, this morning when I opened my fridge, I saw these two cute little cakes sitting there starring at me and asking me to eat them...lol. But the little note did not give me the permission to eat.

It was written by my youngest son who will turned 19 today. These cakes must be brought home by him last night and I guess must be given to him by someone he fancy or like...lol

Hmmm....cake cake, you looked so pretty and delicious....lol

Creepy Crawlies

It was just one of those days that the rain had forced some insects to run into my home..lol

A very common house beetle. It was actually quite small but I zoom to make it looked bigger and I cant made it turn around to smile at the camera...lol. It just flew away when I tried to take a photo of its front.

This house spider was crawling on my cupboard. It looked fierce...lol. It was only after I loaded this photo into my computer, that I realise the spider had lost two legs (there are four legs on one side and two legs on the other side). Poor spider. Of course it jump quick and ran away from me.

A short video of spider who looked so fierce....lol. I wondered what happened to its missing two legs.

Skywatch-The moon during mid autumn festival

As a lunar month is about 29.531 days long, the full moon falls on either the 14th or 15th of the lunar month in those calendars that start the month on the new moon. In any event, the period between full moons can be either 29 or 30 days.

So every mid autumn festival (which falls on the 15th day of the chinese eight lunar month), the moon is always full.

This photo was taken two days before the mid autumn festival so the moon was almost full.

For other sky watchers, you can go to Skywatch blog.

Flats in Chinatown

These few blocks of flats in chinatown are one of the few earlier old housing estates. The owners have since grown old, so majority of them are old folks. The youngs prefer to buy flats in newer housing estates.

Mid-Autumn Festival Variety Show

An outdoor stage. It was part of the mid autumn celebration in Chinatown. Most of the audience are senior citizens as the housing estate in here are mostly occupied by old folks.

Chang Er and the Rabbit

This is Chang Er and the Rabbit. They both lived in the moon.

Chang Er on lanterns.

Story of Chang Er (I am posting this story again so you dont have to look for them in my previous post)

Legend of Chang Er

Hou Yi and Chang-E
An archer, Hou Yi, saved the earth from scorching when he shot nine suns that originally circled the earth. As a reward, Hou Yi obtained the Elixir of life but he became so tyrannical that his wife, Chang-E, stole the Elixir and drank it. Chang-E found herself ascending to the moon and thereafter was escalated to status of Moon Goddess. Hou Yi in turn was given a cake by the Queen Mother of the Western Paradise (Xi Wangmu). He could withstand heat upon eating the cake and was sent to remain in the sun. With a special talisman he was able to visit his wife Chang-E on the 15th of every month. Thus the moon's brightness on this day. This legend is believed to have been started during the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD) although some believe it may have started earlier, tracing it to the rule of Emperor Yuan (2346 BC).

Rabbit in the moon

Buddha had disguised himself as a hungry, old man and approached three animals; a fox, a monkey and a rabbit, for help. The fox caught a fish for him, the monkey brought some fruits but the rabbit offered its own body as meat by throwing itself into the fire. In gratitude, Buddha resurrected the rabbit and sent it to the moon to be venerated.

(Source: http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_804_2005-01-13.html)