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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Tuesday 14 October 2014

6 Years Old!

My boy turns six very soon, and we held a celebration on Saturday with some of his friends. Last year's celebration - just a month before my girl's birth - was supposed to be the final one for a couple of years, as I wasn't sure how capable I would be to do one while caring for an infant. But mother's guilt got to me. Especially after my son - who has been counting down the days to his birthday for the past two months - said that he was looking forward to playing with his friends on the bouncy castle and the ride-on cars. I did tell him that I might not be able to do it this year, as we will be hopping on the plane the day after his birthday, and he accepted this with astounding maturity. I decided to put myself to the test anyway, and organised a somewhat last minute birthday party for my son (invites were sent out only two weeks prior). As with previous years, I hired a bouncy castle and a couple of ride-on cars (but I have a feeling that this will be my last time doing a party in this format as my boy will outgrow the rental toys by next birthday). The weather was perfect (the weather forecast for early showers did not eventuate), there was plenty of food for everyone (phew!), and the kids had loads of fun.

Hired out our residence's barbecue court, and some rental bouncy castle and ride-on cars:

As for the boy's cake, it was a no-brainer decision to do a Star Wars themed cake as that is his current obsession (thanks to hubby). In the week before the party, I found out that one of his little friends has allergies to eggs, dairy and gluten, and along with my boy's nut allergy, I had the gargantuan task of making a cake that would suit them. Hubby said from the beginning that I should to stick to my plan to bake the usual cake and make some gluten-free cupcakes for the little friend, but I hate excluding anyone with special requirements (having dealt with it myself for almost six years), at least not without giving it a go first. So I tried making a gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free and nut-free cake, but unfortunately the cake mix I used wasn't suitable for a large cake - it was fudgy and moist in the centre even after two hours of baking (hence the standard toothpick test indicated the cake was not cooked) but the edges had baked rock hard. With so little time, I ditched the idea of making a gluten-free Darth Vader cake, and made gluten-free cupcakes instead. Instead of building the cake from scratch, I ordered a Darth Vader cake pan from the US to help make my life a bit easier. The decorating instructions that came with the cake pan proved too fiddly, so I decorated it the way I felt comfortable with. For the cake, I used the tried-and-true Chocolate Butter Cake recipe from joyofbaking that I've successfully used for previous birthday cakes, and it baked beautifully in the cake pan (much to my relief, as the party was on the next day!). For the frosting, I started off with a chocolate buttercream (using 1 cup butter, 3 cups icing sugar, 3/4 cup cocoa powder and 4-5 tablespoons milk) and tinted it with about eight drops of black Americolor food colouring. This gave a dark enough colour without affecting the flavour nor give people coloured teeth. Then I frosted the cake with a frosting spatula and piped the details on with a piping bag and tips. For a rushed job, it didn't turn out too badly. The boy was pleased with the cake, and there wasn't much leftover - success!

Darth Vader cake, decorated my way:

The gluten-free cupcakes were a hit with the little boy who is allergic to gluten, eggs and dairy! His mum said she had never seen him polish off anything so quickly before:

Friday 3 October 2014

Beach picnic @ Pulau Manukan, Sabah (Malaysia)

One of the things we were told to do in Kota Kinabalu was to visit one (or more) of the islands off the coast of KK. This group of five islands make up Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park, Malaysia's first marine park. Given that we were travelling with a 5-year-old and an infant, visiting more than one island was not feasible, so we selected Pulau Manukan solely on the fact that it featured the most developed tourist facilities out of the five islands. I would have loved to explore the more remote and undeveloped islands, but travelling with kids often doesn't allow me the luxury to choose the more adventurous options (travelling with kids is still better than not travelling!). We arrived at the ferry terminal in downtown KK, and after enquiring at a few counters for ferry times and ticket costs, we settled on one company whose schedule and pricing suited us. Then we donned our lifejackets and off we went on a speedboat for a 15-20 minute ride that was speedy, bumpy and splashy at times. It was a good thing I had my 6-month old baby safely strapped onto me via a carrier, and we were amazed that she napped through the ride!

In the speedboat watching the coastline of Kota Kinabalu disappear:

Arriving at the pier in Manukan Island:

We plonked ourselves, bags, snorkel equipment and food down at the first vacant table we saw, which happened to be one of the first ones to the right of the above pier. And here we stayed for the next few hours enjoying the sand, beach and water:

A candid shot taken by my younger sister shortly after hubby came back from snorkelling the reefs further out. This was baby's first time at the beach:

Though Manukan is fairly well-equipped with facilities, I read from other travellers online that food options on the island are quite limited, and this was confirmed by our taxi driver who drove us to the ferry terminal. We asked him to bring us to his recommended eating places to buy some takeaway food for our lunch on the island, and we enjoyed the food shortly after arriving at Manukan while the food was still warm.

Fried 'Tuaran mee' (noodles from a town called Tuaran in Sabah), with pork:

Hubby requested horfun - stir-fried flat rice noodles with egg sauce that was packed separately in a plastic bag:

We bought two types of dumplings, one with seafood, and another with preserved egg and prawns. Both were good, but we liked the preserved egg one better ('we' being my sister and I who love preserved egg):

Tofu stuffed with pork ball. This one was suggested by our taxi driver. Nice homemade tofu with the heartiness of pork:

Chicken bun:

And a sweet pandan bun:

It was a beautiful day trip out to Pulau Manukan. It was a shame to see the effects of the tourism industry on the coral reefs, some of the ones closer to the shore were bleached, but my sister said the ones further out looked healthier. I heard there are some amazing dive sites around this area, and I would love to check them out in future!