Friendship

Every one has friends and some of us have plenty of good friends and if you are lucky enough , you have one or two real best friends. Who knows you inside and outside, who often speak your mind even when you are in silence. Some one who knocks your head when you are in the wrong path, some one to hugs you and supports you when you fall, some one who cries together with you in your sorrow, someone that is not scare to share his success or failure with you.

Like Oprah said : a true friend is some one who walks with you when your " limo" broke down. Not those who wants only to ride in your limo...

I am blessed that through the years of my life, I have many good friends and some a truly best friends. Who grew with me, witnessing me to evolved to a person who I am today. Who's been there through thick and thin and yes... a true friends need to be in touch and no distance nor space can tore the friendship apart.

Friendship is one of most important thing in live . I always try to encourage my children to nurture their friendship skills, because I believe to be a good friends you will need to have some skills, such as : to love your self, to respect others, to accept the differences and to look beyond the differences it self. A true friend closed one eyes and in friendship you will also need a lot gratitude.

The quote that I love and capture it all is:

“Much of the vitality in a friendship lies in the honoring of differences, not simply in the enjoyment of similarities.

I always remind my self and my children to loves our selves first. It is so much important to be comfortable and accept us for who we are.

It is lack of love for ourselves that inhibits our compassion toward others. If we make friends with ourselves, then there is no obstacle to opening our hearts and minds to others

How about filtering friends? It is a dangerous world now anyway. There are a lot of bad people out there or people with bad influence. Should we be nice to everyone?

I believe friendship , like love, also build based on "chemistry" . It is either you have it or you don't. And the strong based in our family' s values in life will give our children the fences and filter they will need to choose their friends or better yet to protect themselves to certain people that could give the bad influence in their lives. ( same thing when it comes to choosing life partner)

But again, I think, with certain personal values in mind, when I make friends, I always remind my self that:

Every person is a new door to a different world.

Like most of us , I had a bad experiences in friendships before. There were heartache, dis-agreements, betrayals, backstabbing and some might ended in the loosen of the friendship it self. But that doesn't make me scare to start to know new people with different background from me or come from a different place . I will always take the risk of having betrayal, heartache , backstabbing . Because as they said, every person will show me a different world. In some way I can learn something and anything from that person. And when you found the "right friend" I think the whole heartache things you get from the "bad" friends will totally worth it!

So "Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.”

Keep that in mind and you shall be grateful for all of your friends today. And it needs to be nurture from time to time and be respected. And never take any friendship for granted.

To celebrate the Friendship day ( first Sunday of August), to all of my new and old, real and "virtual/blog" friends , those who lives near me or miles apart, no matter where you are or who you are, what skin colors do you have, what language do you speak , which accent do you have..........

Happy Friendship day, and you all have opened a new world to me! Thank you....

I might said a wrong words , did the wrong things and made bad decision but that is all about it after all. The imperfection is the perfection. If there is any one who only wants to be friends with the perfect some one, he/she shall close the door from friendship forever.

If this 2 very different species can look each other eyes by eyes and make peace with their differences , can we do the same as well?

~~~~~~~~~~~

“It is one of the severest tests of friendship to tell your friend his faults. So to love a man that you cannot bear to see a stain upon him, and to speak painful truth through loving words, that is friendship.”

Long week end before School Holiday

Courtesy of mybeautifulsabah.blogspot.com

So we are in March already. It is only days before Indy first school term break! We gonna have a small trip this time .March is the month full of birthday for us. So when I went out for "presents hunting" I came home with bags and bags of presents. :) But I am the person who take "giving presents"very seriously :) I enjoy to hunt children presents. Will think about their age, their preference, something fun but useful and not giving the parents headache ( hopefully :0) )

Anyway....we missed Shirley's daughter birthday last month. Too bad, Maya was sleeping that time :( so we couldn't make it. But we went to Sona's 1st birthday yesterday at The Imperial Hotel, Warisan Square. The place is nice, the food is great. I love Naan, and curry, but it also had sandwiches , corn soup for kids and pudding, and cucur and of course cupcakes and cakes!

I was worry also that Maya will sleep that time. But I think , for toddler it will be great if they know the b'day person, so it will connect the face and person and the party :) Since Maya knows Sona and meet already a few times, She was so excited about it. And kept asking me from a few day earlier, Mom , Sona bday? got cakes? got ballon? got plates? We buy present for Sona? :) Maya sing for Sona?
I think this was her first memorable Birthday party for her. :)

My girls social activities now aday getting much busier than Mommy... :) party here and there.... playdates here and there... :) but I love to see them making friend and having so much fun.

Indy and Maya both were amazed by the magician's acts... LOL...Maya keep saying to her dad, Pa ...just now, uncle eat tissue! LOL..... ya my dh couldnt make it to the party , too bad he got another function to handle himself that day. It 's have been 2 weeks from his last off day, so we are looking forward for the vacation soon :0) . I never return there since we left there 8 years ago even though it is near...

April I think it will be another interesting month ( I will make it to be interesting of course , with some of your help :) )

Enjoy the photos

Indy said : wah Sona is so lucky , her mom can really bake a cake. Can Aunty Deana make my dream cake for my 7th birthday?

The lovely Birthday girl and Mommy ..

The cakes gallore!Purely temptation for kids and adults!
This didn't last long... I shamelessly admit , If I get a container I will put some to bring home! hahahaha..... honest maaaah......:p

This is the Coluscakes loyal customer :)
Singing and cutting cakes time!
Magic tricks
huh...this uncle is so funny......

And the next day is Monday... a public holiday... so I took the kids to have sushi lunch at CitiMall . We love Japanese food but this is the first time we had our lunch here at CTmall.
For dinner? Since the kids don't see their papa as much these past weeks, I decided to bring them to visit papa Niko and have our dinner there tonight.... but the sky is so dark now....

I just found more photos from Sona b'day here at mybeautifulsabah.blogspot.com.


Photo courtesy of Deana and Mybeautifulsabah.blogspot.com

Our Sunday Barbecue

One activity that my husband like to do on occasional Sunday is to invite his friends to our house to do barbecue . Since his friends are mostly from F & B field so during our bbq, at least there were 2 chefs including my dh :) so nice ah...means no cooking for me !!!! hah!

This time we invited 2 friends, both are chef. My dh is not a fan of heavy marinated bbq meat and he doesn't like to include : chicken wings, sausages, corn, fish . He prefer to stay on the simple and basic seasoning : garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. He wants to taste the natural taste of the meat instead of covering it with heavy gravy.

Me? I can eat both Asian mix American bbw style ( but not with the heavy bbq sauce specially with honey glazed or something sweet). For Asian style I love to eat bbq fish with lemongrass, chilli and galangang wrapped in banana leaves or tumeric ( kunyit leaves) .

This time we stick to our signature BBQ menu
Pork ribs marinated with lemon, garlic, extra virgin olive oil , salt pepper.
Quails marinated in the same ingredients
Rib eye steak
Roasted Potatoes
Salad.

Actually the quails was not in the menu, but since we went to Gaya street market ( where we met Deana and Faye btw! We always bump into each other latetly hahaha! Maya told me : Mamma, baby sona again!) We saw the one lady sells the quails, and we thought that will be great to do BBQ with. Indy and Maya were grossed out when they saw skinless small birds. Any Maya said : baby chicken!!

Helen ( our maid) started the fire. Yup that is our BBQ pit! The simplest, cheapest one, Not the elaborate electric one :)
Really looks like the " tukang satay" one right? LOL

Washing Potatoes and Salad ( he kicked me out from the kitchen after that , he said instead of taking photos why don't you make some cocktails? grrr)


Simpe Garden Salad ( seasoned with Balsamic Vinegar and Olive oil)

Roasted Potatoes

Very yummy dip...freshly chopped garlic, chili , salt in extra virgin olive oil

The poor Quails


Ribs
Rib eyes ( sorry photo cant be turn...dont know why)
We ate this medium rare. yumm. Indy and Maya loves it to

sizzle sizzle sizzle......

Posing up before eating.

While we were waiting for the BBQ pit to heat up and wait for one more friend to come, the girls had a good time playing outside.Indy with Maya's bike , and Maya with her "car" .

Favorite way to play, down the slope and bang to the gate!
I wonder how come the " car" is still in good condition! This is her 2007 Xmas present from her makcik.
With broken umbrella back ground!

Waiting for the meat to be cooked.

My fave: eggplant BBQ with garlic, chili and olive oil dip

Before that when we are waiting and had our aperitif drinks. My dh had this "brilliant" idea to open up our old tent. He said Indy's tent in the playroom is too small for her to play with.
I said it was ok....just for playing house and having pretend guest. But he said we should open the big tent.
I didn't know why I SAID OK!!! grrrr.....after it was opened.....it took the whole room! It was HUGE inside the room! The tent is made to fit 3 adults ! We used to put this tent on summer time in our Guangzhou house next to our inflatable pool in our terrace.

Anyway , this time we opened the tent indoor and it just too big for the room! I REGRET to agree with that. But Indy and Maya are so happy about that, so I guess no choice for me, I just need to stuck with the big tent in the room for now! BIG SIGH!

Here are the photos

Showing off her new " home" . She likes to spend time in her tent. It is her" sacred" place, she put her favorite toys inside there.
SEE HOW BIG IT IS!!!!

Comparing the old tent and the new one

Her Favorite friends : pony, turtle , fish, doggy, she even has her book rack, clock,small kitchen inside the tent

Other corner is: seating corner with the picnic and tea set, and sleeping corner . Here Maya did her sleeping pose

In her sitting corner.

Claiming her own space in the jie jie's tent.

Now I am trying to persuade Maya to occupied the small tent instead of disturbing her jie jie's tent. It is a mission imposible I guess. Indy wants them to become " neighbour" but Maya instisted to LIVE IN with her. Chaos!!!

Have a great week a head!