Muar

I just got back from Muar yesterday afternoon. We left on Sunday evening. Jinxgirl brought me, Caleb and Roxanne along to visit her maternal grandmother. Roxanne is a grey coloured dog that Jinxgirl's Aunt Priscilla bought her from a Precious Moments shop.I talked with her and she is really nice. You can't see her eyes, though. And her body is long and almost as thin as a snake.

The day before our trip, we brought Caleb for a check-up as we wanted to be sure he did not miss out on his first vacation. He had been too young when we went to New Zealand last year and he got chicken pox this year and could not join us in Japan. Fortunately, the doctor certified he was healthy.

After jinxgirl's Chinese class, we set off for Muar. Jinxgirl, Caleb and I had dinner in the car. Roxanne was in the luggage. We watched Ballad of the Prince on the portable DVD player after that. Caleb fell asleep in the car. We got there at 9:30, unpacked Roxanne and put Caleb to bed before playing Pokemon(jinxgirl's new favourite game).

After breakfast the next morning, we went out. Jinxgirl was delighted to find that Rudolph was still alive. Caleb and I talked with him and found out that he had gotten his name after he turned up at his current owner's doorstep on a wet Christmas eve. He was homeless, hungry and has a flu that had caused his nose to turn red.

We played with the car after feeding Rudolph. Uncle Pat bought the car for Jinxgirl when she was 4.They left it in Muar because her Po Po's house has a huge compound to drive around. It was red and had a lot of screws. I twisted my horn inside one of the screws and used it like a screw driver. It certainly felt much sharper after that. Caleb tried it too but he could not stick his horn in properly.

While we were half way through another episode of Ballad of the prince, Jinxgirl's relatives arrived. Her cousin, who is older than us sat down and watched the rest of the episode with us. Then, we started doing some craft together. It was sure hard work! Even then, we did not manage to do it properly as we had tied the strings wrongly. Thus, we had to cut it away and abandon.

Finally, it was "mee hoon kueh class" time! Jinxgirl's grandma had agreed to teach us how to make mee hoon kueh. It was definitely not as easy as we thought. Caleb fell into the basin of flour while we were mixing it! Luckily for him Jinxgirl said that it is not toxic; all he needed was a new coat of blue paint. Meanwhile we teased and called him Snow White! The mee hoon kueh was yummylicious...we each had 3 helpings!! Yum!

The next day, we packed up and went to meet Jinxgirl's relatives for breakfast at a bak kut teh place. Jinxgirl, Caleb and I were hungry so we ate a sandwich each before hand.

Then, we went to a more distant relative's house. Jinxgirl's aunt, nicknamed Aunty Jambu for the delicious jambu fruits she grows, served us a platter of fruits. Sweet and juicy!

Finally, it was homeward bound. We rushed Caleb to the paintbrush clinic to get a new coat of blue paint. Despite this ordeal, he said that he had enjoyed his first vacation thoroughly.

"It's a pity we didn't take a plane, though," he commented.


Rudolph...the black nosed dog???
This is Rudolph. He belongs to Jinxgirl's grandma's neighbour. He loves treats! Jinxgirl, Caleb and I fed him 3 crackers for breakfast and another 3 for dinner. When we introduced him to Roxanne, he sniffed at her and then turned away, looking bored. Sigh. Guess he's not ready for a girlfriend yet.





Mee Hoon Kueh-the making of it
Jinxgirl and her grandma are making Mee Hoon Kueh. Mee Hoon Kueh is a Chinese dish made from flour. Water is mixed with the flour. The dough mixture will need to be kneaded repeatedly until it is sufficiently mixed.



Then, the dough is pinched off and spread out by pulling at the ends to make it thin and in a circular shape. The ones jinxgirl did were easily identifiable-they all had holes in the center and were thick around the edges. :D

Dropping the Mee Hoon Kueh into the pot of boiling water.


Putting the cooked Mee Hoon Kueh aside.


Pouring hot water into the soup wok.


Putting in vegetables.


Adding meat.




Adding pepper.


A bowl of the finished product. Voila! Absolutely delicious!!!











Walking around the neighbourhood, we see lots of fruit trees. Our friends, the Frutties, live inside the fruits. The Frutties have wings like insects and round bodies like fruits. They also have parsely for hair. A lot of them died recently due to the floods and droughts. We spoke to some of them in these plants and they said that global warming had become a swear word among their people.






A papaya tree laden with roundish unripe papayas!


A banana tree with tiny, unripe bananas.

Jahhhk out