it's days like these..:)

and so i was rudely woken up by the Old Man's yelling at around 8 but felt rebellious and decided to sleep in just a bit more. was rewarded by my guilty conscience by a dream in which i was involved in a car accident with a paikia(gangster) (??!!) and Old Man had to settle the matter and I felt horribly guilty.

finally woke up and went to get my godma and the three of us went in search of Ah Mei Laksa which moved from Highway Cafe after the King Centre flyover toBig Horse Cafe in Sekama, on Jalan Foochow No.1.
sound familiar? yes lynn, it was the elusive tu kha peng kopitiam we were looking for that afternoon! we went in the wrong end of the road i think...

the name reminds me of a friend. lol. inside joke.

anyhooz shall post about Ah Mei Laksa another day, that lady is in serious need of publicity cos she is Kuching's best kept laksa secret. didn't feel like eating laksa so, tu kha peng review #2!but first!! there was this car in front of us as we were on our way and the back was FILLEDD as in FILLLED with rubbish! empty mineral water bottles and the like (click photo for larger albeit still crappy image :D). is it that difficult to find a rubbish bin in Kuching?ok so not very good photo but i was SO hungry..you understand :) and HAH the rice was not sticky and clumped together at all, meat was juicy and flavoursome, and the dark soup broth thing was really hearty and you could see bits of thing floating at the bottom which is always an indication of good soup!

(have interesting story to tell about previous tu kha peng place but ill consult with others to see if it is appropriate for public blogging and not an endangerment to my..errm..life :s) here is the stall for reference if you can't find it :D anyway the price was extremely reasonable, rm5 for such a large plate of meat. i could barely finish it all, but i managed :D
we went over to Koko(aunt)'s place with 2 tapao(takeaway)'s of laksa and found she was in the midst of making mooncakes :)~~~ Godma told me the pumpkin seeds that were a part of the mooncake mixture was really expensive, i forgot the price but will update later. these are the balled-up fillings for the mooncake, she made about 40 in all.
Pressing the filling into the outer pastry layer which is made out of flour and golden syrup.....before pressing it into the mold.
Finished product, before baking. the chinese words say mooncake i think. zhong something yue bing? lol. yeah, the chinese is still at crap level :S
Old Man was looking for chest of drawers and shelves for his room, so we went over to Casa Gothic on Deshon Road. I have been dragged around Kuching by my darling mother over the past years to various furniture stores, so like it or not, I've developed a taste for wood furniture and to my untrained eye, Casa Gothic has got some pretty good solid pieces. Old Man saw a few things he liked so i guess i'll be seeing them in my house soon :)
went to search for another furniture store along Gambier Street in town, but Sunday = impossible to find parking. just HAD to post this photo, this building has become too ugly for words :S

Old Man said in the Mediterranean somewhere they have rows of houses all painted in varying bright colours as well, i argued that was quaint and this was just ridiculous. Old Man then countered that the angmoh tourists would possibly find this quaint as well.

Yeah. Right.
Pit stop at Godma's house before heading up to the countryside (?) to hunt for prawns. Chek Hup brand Ipoh White Coffee is OMG SO GOOD. yes i am raving about 2-in-1 instant coffee but try it out yourself and you will see what i mean. Thick, roasted flavour and not too much milk either. No sugar necessary!
First stop, Bako. Was extremely strange driving along that road during the daytime with my family, i saw houses and places I'd never seen before even thought I must have driven there like, 20 times :D no luck with the prawns, but ohh gorgeous view. Have no idea what this river is called, but there were a lot of houses on the other side with the country, state and political party (*aHem*) flags raised and waving in the afternoon breeze.
Sharks for sale in Bako.
Got to Buntal Village, and success! There was exactly (supposedly ;)) one kilo of prawns left at one stall.Big, beautiful and fresh, and at only RM20 per kilo. Didn't take a photo cos was STARVING and my attention was directed only at the lady selling "kueh kuelek". Freshly fried! 5 pieces for RM1!! drool city, and oh boy was it good.ok lousy photo but the ratio of spongy centre to crispy edges were just perfect and it had a light milky caramel taste to it. apparently according to Old Man, kuelek is dialect name for a type of sombrero-ish hat that looks like this kueh. Godma was horrified at the amount of oil, but hey, you only live once :D
ah...beijing memories...san kuai.. mmm...wouldn't it be amazing if you woke up everyday to a view like this? makes you feel like all your troubles are insignificant and pointless, and there is still so much of life left to live. on the way back home, Light FM was playing The Corrs' 'Runaway' and it took me back to when I was 13 and experiencing my first heartbreak. so many things have happened since then, like chapters of a book, the phases of my life have been amazing, painful and surreal.

despite everything, little things, like a pair of glasses, can make me smile and keep me happy for quite a while :)