Non-Traditional Christmas Celebration

I didn’t have any plans to celebrate Christmas or whatsoever this year. Thanks to my wonderful friend who tried to brighten up my gloomy days due to my uncle’s death! ❤ It was a last-minute plan to simply have Christmas dinner together. I’m sure majority of you chose to have western cuisine as part of the traditions. We actually chose to dine at a restaurant specializing in making Asian fusion dishes. 😛

When we stepped into the restaurant, we were very surprised to find out only one table was taken at that time. The entire restaurant looked incredibly cozy with full of Christmas decorations which I absolutely adored. We only sat there for a few minutes and requested to sit outside for a better view.

Its view amazed us as we didn’t know it has a good view before we came. It not only had an amazing view, but the vibes were incredibly relaxing there.

Yes, you are right. They were papadum and prawn crackers. 🙂  The restaurant offered us papadum and prawn crackers as free snacks before we started to have our Christmas dinner. I always love to have papadum with mint chutney, but never tried to pair prawn cracker with mint chutney. I really loved this pairing actually. 😀

I wasn’t hungry before the appetizers arrived. Once I saw the appetizers right in front of me, I couldn’t resist the temptation to dig in. 😀 The appetizers included Thai pomelo salad in chilli jam with shrimp, rice paper roll with soft shell crab and avocado, and tandoori turkey tikka with cranberry chutney. I have to say all of these appetizers were absolutely delicious, but my favourite went to tandoori turkey tikka with cranberry chutney. The turkey was super duper tender and juicy. I didn’t know what kind of seasonings or spices they put into marinating to make the turkey this flavourful. The cranberry chutney had even brought its rich flavours to another level!!! nom nom 😛

The second course was cream of asparagus with scallop. I’m not fond of cream usually, but this creamy soup was definitely an exception. I adored its creamy texture without making me feel heavy. I didn’t know how the chef made it refreshing and creamy at the same time. It tasted absolutely divine with a distinct sweetness of asparagus and scallop. The more I had it, the more I liked it. ❤

I was almost full after having the appetizers and second course, but I pushed myself to eat more not to waste all the delicious food here. Main course finally – Tandoori salmon with dill & honey mustard served with baby potato in cumin and naan…The salmon was perfectly cooked and it was quite interesting to have it naan. I liked it, but I liked the baby potato even more since I’m a big fan of potato. 🙂 The baby potato was also perfectly cooked. It was neither too hard nor too mushy with a rich curry flavour. Yummm 😛

Finally finally my favourite part of a dinner – dessert hehe 😛 …The desserts were mango cheesecake and homemade cardamon ice-cream with pistachio. Honestly, I never liked cardamon. However, this homemade cardamon ice-cream completely proved me wrong. I actually loved it very much. I never thought cardamon ice-cream can taste this divine. It was very refreshing with a great smell of cardamon. Although the mango cheesecake wasn’t as good as expected, I didn’t care much about it since the ice-cream had already ended our night beautifully.

❤ ❤ ❤ Merry Christmas! May this Christmas be bright and cheerful! May the New Year begin on a prosperous note! ❤ ❤ ❤

With love,

Khloe 🙂

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A Light In The Darkness

The moment you start lighting a candle, you can make a good guess of how long the candle can last you. However, it will never be the same when it comes to human life. When the death is calling, it can take anyone away at anytime.

Christmas is just around the corner and my family was happily planning for a Christmas party at the beginning of last week. All of the sudden, we received a call from my aunt (my mom’s younger sister) who told us that her husband was sent to the hospital since he had difficulties to breathe. My mom and I rushed to the hospital to visit him. It was sad to see him being intubated, especially he went into coma and his conditions remained critical as he was having a pleural effusion and high fever at the same time. After seeing him, our worries arose a lot more because he already had heart disease 10 years back and his heart had stopped once when he arrived the emergency room. His doctor also strongly emphasized that he could not proceed to have a heart surgery unless his high fever was gone. Unfortunately, his fever got higher and higher day after day and eventually he passed away at the tender age of 54 last Friday.

Life is incredibly fragile. No one can predict what happens next. A week before last Friday, we had dinner together and he looked all healthy at that time. Who knew the entire situation could turn upside down in a week?  Although my aunt and her sons didn’t cry much in front of us, the swollen eyes of my aunt and their tried faces could tell how traumatizing it was to them. I know it is extremely  hard for them to accept it (even my family and I), what happened already happened. I just hope time heals the pain of their loss.

Here I am lighting a candle to be the tribute to my uncle. Hope the light of the candle not only shows my respect to him, but also brings light to the darkest time of my aunt and cousins.

 

Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I am beyond blessed and honorable to be nominated by two of my lovelies Mamamaitri and garfieldhug for this meaningful award. ❤ I couldn’t thank you enough for such a nomination. Please drop them some love to visit their amazing blogs. They not only have an amazing blog, but they also have a wonderful personality.

The rules of this award:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and add a link to their blog.
2. Display the award on your post.
3. List the award rules so your nominees will know what to do.
4. State 7 things about yourself.
5. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award.
6. Contact your nominees to let them know you have nominated them. Provide a link to your post.
7. Proudly display the award logo (or buttons) on your blog, whether on your side bar, ABOUT page, or a special page for awards.

7 things about me:

1. I’m always shy. I might not look like a shy person here on WP, but in person definitely. Remember back when I was a 4-year-old kid who hid under the table for a few hours because I was too shy to say hello to one of my uncles who came to visit my family. Even when I was studying at University, I was usually the one who sat at the back or sat in the corner. But now I’m trying my best not to be too shy by talking to people more. 😉

2. Banana is one of my favourite fruits. It is a staple for my breakfast (Oatmeal with sliced banana) nom nom 😛

3. Somehow I always get spontaneous ideas for whatever I do. Remember back when I got a lot of spontaneous ideas for doing my assignments and answering my exam papers in the past. 😛

4. I always aim to do yoga 5 times a week. 🙂 If I don’t have that much time to commit, I will try to do it at least once a week. Otherwise, my body is like aching or something. I just don’t feel good about it.

5. Blue is my favourite colour. I don’t care what shade of blue it is, I love it all basically unless it looks very unpleasant to me. 🙂

6. I’m 100% Chinese, but for some reason quite a lot of people around me think I look like Thai, Filipino, Singaporean or having mixed ethnicity. I got asked a lot about my ethnicity when travelling to Thailand.  Some of them even spoke Thai to me before they asked my ethnicity during my recent trip to Thailand. 😀

7. I hate to sit on the plane. I just can’t sleep or sit patiently on the plane. I have to walk around 😛 😛 😛

Although the rule of this award is to nominate 15 other bloggers for the award, quite a lot of bloggers are having award-free blogs/ busy doing their own personal things and there are more than 15 bloggers deserve to have this award. As a result, I’m going to break the rule not to name anyone. Please feel free to get this award from my blog and post it on your blog. 🙂

I love you all my inspiring bloggers ❤

xoxoxox Khloe

You Are Unique

“We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light.” ❤ -Evelyn Dunbar

The Sweetest Love

My grandma has never changed a bit from I was a kid until now. She has always been genuine, loving and caring. She always spent a massive amount of time taking care of my grandfather who had stroke and diabetes before I was born. His physical movement had become limited and he needed to use a wheelchair if he wanted to go somewhere a bit far after having the stroke. He also needed to follow a special diet because of diabetes. My grandma knew she couldn’t take him back to the time when he had no stroke and diabetes, but all she knew was taking good care of him might prevent his case to go worse. From that time onwards, she handled everything related to him from a simple daily activity to a more complicated tasks. She helped him to put on his clothes and bathe. She was fully in charge of his diet to ensure every single meal he had was nutritious enough  to keep him healthy. She took him to a hospital for constant regular check-ups and wherever he wanted to go. Anything could help comfort him and make him happy, she would do it without any complaints.

Unfortunately, he had his second stroke which left him unconscious when I  was only 7 years old. Even though he was in a serious condition, my grandma was very strong and she didn’t cry a single tear. She just focused on praying hard for him and hope he would get better. He finally became conscious after a week something and told her to be well-prepared if anything happened to him again. Then, he passed away 2 days after. Although she didn’t cry much, I knew it was the toughest time of her life to lose someone she loves the most in a short period of time. I must say she was incredibly strong. She remained positive and went back to her regular routines of taking care of my brother and I right after the funeral. It was a time when my grandma and I started to develop a great bond between each other. One day, I told my grandma that I wanted to sleep with her. In fact, I didn’t want her to feel lonely without my grandfather sleeping next to her. She started to feel the love I have for her and taking good care of me has become one of her favorite things to do. She took me to school, made me delicious meals, buy me toys that I wanted…Gradually, my happiness has become all that matters to her. All these years, she wants nothing but to see me happy.

As her 92nd birthday is approaching, I’ve been stressing on what to buy her lately.  However, there is nothing she is lack of in terms of all the material things. I figured making her a hand-made birthday card with the digital art I made and other photos we took together is much more meaningful than anything else. Choosing this artwork with me smiling for the birthday card is most appropriate as she loves to see my smiling face. My smile is a reflection of all the hard work she put into making me happy. The messy background represents how much she protected me from all the noises that might be harmful to me in order to keep me happy. This artwork will be an artwork represented the love between us is unconditional and the love I received from her is the sweetest love I’ve ever had in my life.

I love you grandma!!! ❤

With love,

xoxoxo your granddaughter Khloe ❤ 🙂 ❤