Porkfest, Dirty Santa and a `Hamsap' Jojo!

January 3rd - Today's the day when most of us including me will start work again except some lucky ones with extended leave (like my sis' family having their holidays in Japan..!)

Before the mundane begins... glad that I had another wonderful day - thanks to the replacement new year holiday. Our BS group had a `makan' outing to Klang - what else but for its famous bak kut teh! It was also dubbed `Cheryl's Going Away Porkfest' as it is a farewell meal with one of our dear members who has been posted to Sarawak for her teaching job.

We met at Tzu Anne's place and then car-pool up the highway while Cheryl& Yen, and the `hosts' Mark and Elaine waited for us at the toll and brought us to a bustling coffee shop called Lai Chun (which is just near Klang Parade) Because there were 14 of us, so we had to wait a while for tables and our patience paid off as finally got three square tables on the pavement - which was a relief as most people were sitting on the road which was wet with puddles.


Standing around waiting for tables (and giving pressure to the diners) and then finally got places to sit down and.. let the feast begin!



The tea came first then soon the rice and the piping hot pork ribs in herbal soups arrived. Almost all of us - besides Mark and Elaine - tasted DRY bak kut teh for the first time! It was really yummy, in fact I think it was nicer than the soup one. But of course I still loved drinking the hearty herbal soup and the Klang one is normally thicker than those you find in KL. Carmen and I who share a bowl ended up having many refills!


What we had: the soup based bak kut teh (top) and the dry type



After a satisfied meal (the only regret for me was the restaurant ran out of intestines!) we made our way back to T.A.'s house and proceeded with dessert! Ice cream to go with our host's homemade `accidental' spice cake - which has a rich chocolate flavour. It was a novelty to me, tasted quite nice actually. The baker was honest and said it was NOT meant to be like that cos she accidentally put spice in instead of cocoa power. Well, T.A. I think u have just created a new cake recipe that might work.. ;)

Then we had the `Dirty Santa game'. It is a bit complicated to explain in detail the technicalities, but basically it is a gift exchange with a difference - a greedy and `dirty' streak. All the gifts are placed on the table and each person has a choice to take a gift or take some one else's already opened gift if it catches his/her fancy. Then the person without a gift can choose again or grab another person's gift. So, several `hot' items went round a few times before a person finally `retires' after owning it for three times.

It was pretty fun.. and I was happy to get (literally) a picture book entitled `Where Dogs Dream' that Pat bought from London. :)

Some of us stayed back to watch a vcd - `13 going on to 30' before calling it a day and bid farewell to our dear sister.. :(

I wanted to take a nap when I got home but Jelly won't let me to - kept jumping on my bed! So I decided to spend some time playing with the two Js. Trying to get some good photos of them in the garden but ended up snapping many shots in their wrestling and tussling sessions again.


First, it is over a mulled-up soft toy....


Then, it is fighting over a piece of dried leaf!


Later.. the two gets even more rough..

As the weather was fine, even grandma came out to the front garden and sat at the garden chair. The two Js, normally would just leave grandma alone, decided to be `friendly' with her as she happened to be in their territory. Poor granny was terrorised by Jojo's sudden over passionate reception! I didn't keep Jojo away cause I know he is harmless but she kept saying that a male dog is always sooo `hamsap'!

Well, actually I was too busy snapping pictures and they turned up so candid and funny that I think it would be a waste not to post them here! LOL!


Jojo trying to kiss granny!


Then he just jumps on her and Jelly looks away....


Finally Jojo decides to just sit next to granny, who now looks relief