A Weekend through Peep-tures

Enjoying the last few weeks of our weekends together before the little one arrives.

Friday night dinner at Tsuruya E Gate

Good food, great company with close friends is the best way to kick start a weekend. The star of the night was little Nat boy who got along with just about anyone and nearly followed the waitress home!

JoJo at starbuckAlex with his new toy. A gift from Adelene

Adelene with her new toy!! A gift from Alex… what a lovely couple.

my lovely wife -Andrea.

Saturday afternoon visiting Mary Ann who had just given birth to a handsome little baby boy.

The hilarious part was each time I took a photo of him, even with the flash off, he’d automatically turn his head to where the camera was. It got to the point where I was standing at an awkward angle behind him that Choon Siew told me to have pity the poor baby and just take the photo right in front of him so he didn’t have to strain his neck!

Sunday afternoon playing with my new toys (full review to follow soon).

Someone once said men are just boys with bigger toys …

Events for photoshoot for Penangites

Jan
29.01.2010 – 30.01.2010 Thaipusam in Penang

Feb
04.02.2010 – 04.02.2010 Queen Mary Cruise visiting Penang
06.02.2010 – 14.02.2010 Kek Lok Si Temple – Display of Lights
20.02.2010 – 20.02.2010 Chinese New Year Party
21.02.2010 – 21.02.2010 Hokkien New Year (Thni Kong Seh)
26.02.2010 – 26.02.2010 Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday
27.02.2010 – 27.02.2010 Chap Goh Meh Celebration 2010
28.02.2010 – 28.02.2010 God of Prosperity’s (Twa Peh Kong) Float Procession

March
13.03.2010 – 14.03.2010 Penang Go Kart and Food Festival 2010
14.03.2010 – 28.03.2010 Penang Sakura Blossom
14.03.2010 – 21.03.2010 Penang Orchid Festival
19.03.2010 – 21.03.2010 The Siddhartha Musical Show

April
13.04.2010 – 13.04.2010 Water festival or Songkran
24.04.2010 – 24.04.2010 Vasakhi Open House
30.04.2010 – 02.05.2010 Bridex 2010

May
28.05.2010 – 28.05.2010 Wesak Celebrations in Penang

June
05.06.2010 – 06.06.2010 Penang Durian and Fruits Festival
06.06.2010 – 13.06.2010 Penang Floral Fest 2010
25.06.2010 – 27.06.2010 Hash House Harriets Penang 2,000th Run
25.06.2010 – 27.06.2010 Hash House Harriets Penang 2,000th Run

July
03.07.2010 – 03.07.2010 Penang TYT Open Charity Golf Tournament
07.07.2010 – 07.07.2010 UNESCO World Heritage Celebration
17.07.2010 – 25.07.2010 St Anne’s Festival
17.07.2010 – 17.07.2010 Bon Odori Festival
23.07.2010 – 24.07.2010 Dragon Boat 1st Club Crew Championship for Commonwealth Countries

Aug
07.08.2010 – 07.08.2010 All-Star National Chingay Competition
10.08.2010 – 07.09.2010 Penang Hungry Ghost Festival 2010
11.08.2010 – 09.09.2010 Bazaar Ramadhan
25.08.2010 – 25.08.2010 International Clap & Tap Chamber Orchestra Workshop & Concert

Sept
11.09.2010 – 11.09.2010 International Lion Dance On Stilts Competition

Oct
02.10.2010 – 02.10.2010 Lantern Festival or Moon Cake Festival
03.10.2010 – 03.10.2010 Loy Krathong at Wat Chaiya Mangalaram Buddhist Temple
08.10.2010 – 16.10.2010 Nine Emperor Gods Festival
26.10.2010 – 26.10.2010 Navarathiri Festival
31.10.2010 – 31.10.2010 Children’s Day Carnival

Nov
05.11.2010 – 05.11.2010 Deepavali
21.11.2010 – 21.11.2010 Penang Bridge International Marathon 2010

Dec
10.12.2010 – 10.12.2010 Ms Pesta Pulau Pinang 2010
11.12.2010 – 12.12.2010 Pesta Dragon Boat
18.12.2010 – 18.12.2010 Pesta Chingay & Lion Dance Parade
24.12.2010 – 24.12.2010 Christmas Eve at Esplanade
24.12.2010 – 24.12.2010 Christmas Eve & Christmas Party at Upper Penang Road

A Stroll Down A Living Heritage Community

So what can one do on a saturday afternoon? Well for me, I had been thinking to visit the Clan Jetty again after the Bangun Penang Clan Jetties Art Project Sept 2009.

It wasnt a good day as the sky was cloudy and it had drizzle before. But I decided to pick up my camera and my tripod, Andrea decided to accompany me and be my ‘grid girl’ (holding the umbrella for me)

We are lucky to witness this site which is under renovation, the whole building was striped naked and only kept upright by stilts or wooden poles implanted into  bucket of dried cement on the base of the building. This is truely an amazing sight! The buckets or the based are sitting on top of a layer of mud….

Another close-up on the based of the foundation….or is there any foundation at all??

some art pieces left over from the Bangun Project

Another artist installation at the site.

and more about the Bangun Art Project:

Bangun is an ongoing series of contemporary site-specific art projects focusing on history, heritage, community and culture.  For this project, Bangun will bring its focus to the Clan Jetty communities of Penang. Artworks and performances will relate to the culture, history or future of the Clan Jetty communities.

Workshops in poetry, dance, theatre performance, installation art, shadow puppet making and performance among others will be conducted during the week.  Workshops are free and open to people of all ages and will culminate in performances and presentations in a program to be run over the weekend.

Artists from Penang, KL and several international artists will facilitate the workshops and also present their artworks and performances in the weekend program of events.

This program is interesting, thought-provoking, educational, experiential and a lot of fun.

Ohh….last but not least, my grid girl….

Tang Yuan (Kuih Ee) in Penang

Tang Yuan (or kuih ee in Hokkien as Andrea insists on calling it) is a traditional Chinese dessert made from glutinous rice flour and water. It’s probably what every child played with before there was even Play Dough. I remember getting all excited when Mum would allow me to help her make it and having to wash my hands carefully before being allowed to roll the dough into sticky, marble sized balls. After a while, I’d usually get bored and make different shapes (my favourites were snakes and snowmen). Mum would then inspect my finished products with a critical eye, grumble about how they were of uneven size and swoop the snakes/snowmen back into the mound of dough.

So when a friend recommended a stall located just opposite Traders Hotel (the old Shang Gri La) in town, that sells one of the best tang yuan in Penang, I was curious about whether it’d taste the same as the sweet stuff of my childhood memories.

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They offer a few variations of tang yuan. The basics are are the plain glutinous flour ones around the size of marbles and served in a hot, sugary syrup. They weren’t perfectly round but it’s understandable given how busy they were. Thes best way I can think of to describe it to people trying it out for the first time is that it tastes like gummy bears, the texture is pretty similar to the bubbles that you’d find in pearl milk tea.

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To my delight, they also offer the larger variety that were filled with peanuts & sesame that was perfect when served in a syrup made with brown sugar and ginger. The ginger adds a bit of bite and surprisingly went well with the filled tang yuan. You can also request for the sugar syrup to be served with or without ginger.

Personally, I prefer the one without ginger caused they taste like bird nest…..

here’s the map

View Larger Map

Penang Before and After

I came across these interesting photos in my email some times ago. To make this fun, I will try to take the same photo from the same spot and share with you.

Odeon Cinema with the roundabout

Double Decker in Penang? Photo taken in front of the old Penang Road Police station.

The famous Boston BAR next to Penang Road

electric cable car? This look familiar, but i am not sure where this was taken. Drop me a message if you know.

Cold Storage. I think this was taken in upper Penang Road.