Our Hong Kong Trip

It was quite a last minute decision. We decided to go for a short trip because WF has just been offered a job which will start in Jan and we lamented the two months break he had from work, we didn't go anywhere!

We decided on Hong Kong because its a short flight and it'll be good to see if Ning can cope well on flight. Of course, there is the Disneyland pull factor as well. Luckily, we managed to book our flights and hotel four days before we planned to leave.

I heard so many stories about how Hong Kong being such a child unfriendly place that I was a bit apprehensive bringing Ning there. And my feedback after this trip? YES! It is really a child unfriendly place. Their ubiquitous MTR is already such a child/handicapped unfriendly transportation. There are no lifts to the underground station and we had to carry Ning as well as the stroller down the many flights of staircase. The gantries at most stations are so narrow that you can forget about pushing your stroller past the barrier. It'll get stuck. There is only ONE lift in each MTR station, even for big stations like Central. And the lift are always filled with able-bodied adults that those in need like elderly and parents with strollers will have to wait for the second load.

Talk about their restaurants. We went to Yung Kee, supposed to be famous and good, almost like Lei Garden in Singapore. Even such a good restaurant don't have plastic wares for children, everything is served in breakable porcelain. The waiter told us they can only provide those take-away type of plastic spoon and bowls. I think the children in Hong Kong must be really well-behaved that they'll sit and eat peacefully in restaurants.

On the positive side, Ning enjoyed the trip a lot. She had no problems with flight. Though tiring for WF and I chasing after her (even in MTR stations), cleaning her and feeding her, it was fun seeing her enjoying herself so much.

For those parents who are thinking of going to Hong Kong with your children, a lot of entrance fees and transport are free for children under the age of 3. Even to Disneyland, Star Ferry, Trams to the peak, MTR etc. I supposed its a good deal in this aspect.

I've posted some selected pictures to share too.

Yee Zhi's Laughing II

In October, I posted an entry on Zhi's laughing. Many people thought WF was tickling him to make him laugh. Nope, in fact, he was just making some cooing sounds and my son went laughing away.

WF always call Zhi a joyful baby (then again, he used to call Ning a happy baby until her terrible two stage) because he can laugh at the most simple words said to him (see second part of the video).

We managed to capture two moments of him laughing. He really likes peek-a-boo when he's in the sarong. He's supposed to be tired and sleepy but he still wants to play.

Interestingly, we never achieve that kind of results you see in the second half of the video when we tried to say "hello, hello" to him again. Somehow, he wasn't amused anymore. Good thing we captured that!

Have a good laugh and here's wishing all readers a better year in 2008.



zhi laughing 2.mov

P.S: We're going for a short HKG trip this week so the blog will be inactive for 1 week. Will share more when we're back.

Christmas Log Cake

I mentioned in one of my previous post that I will be baking the Christmas log cake. In fact, for two years now, I have been baking quite a few durian log cakes. I can see that WF is getting kinda sick eating them. That's why I only made durian swiss roll once a year.

Last year, I did the traditional swiss roll type. Durian mousse spread on the sponge and then rolled up. Comments was, the durian was good but can be more! Ok, point taken.


So this year, I decided to do it differently where the core is filled with durian mousse and only a layer of sponge covering it (see picture). Just like the Goodwood Park Hotel's durian roll. It took me some time to figure out how to make the core. I bought the Goodwood's durian roll to try (in June), searched for a cylindrical mould, consulted a few recipes to see how to make mousse into a shape and improvished here and there. I was so nervous when unmoulding that first durian mousse. Luckily it did turn out fine.

Fyi, the durian flesh are real D24 durian flesh.

Other than the "improved version" of my durian log cake, I also tried out mango log cake which turned out to be pretty good too. Its a new change from eating the heavy-tasting durian log. I was inspired by Stefanie. She told me last year during our Chrismas gathering that she love durian cakes and mango cakes. So I promised her that I will go and figure out how to make it. So here it is! Hey, Stef, I remember!

Probably, I'll do a strawberry log cake next year?

Jumping Jelly Zhi

Nope, I didn't create the "Jumping Jelly Jean" name for my blog because my son loves to jump. It's just a coincidence that the blog's name and his favourite activity is jumping. I chose "Jumping Jelly Jean" because of the three Js and it rhymes with "jumping jelly beans".

Back to Zhi. He loves to jump. For whatever reasons I do not know. But I guess its because he's been put on the exersauce when he's 6 months old. The exersauce is like a walker but without wheels. And it allows the baby to rotate 360 degrees and also jump (you'll see that in the first part of the video).

There are times he refuse to sit and want us to carry him so he can jump about. He really loves to jump and we love to see him jump. Its cute. But sometimes I wonder if it is good for his developments. Now at 8 months, he doesn't really know how to crawl. Instead, he's crawling backwards (just like Ning)! He gets cranky whenever we put him on his stomach and urge him to try crawling.

I hope he'll start to crawl soon. So that he'll be more mobile and less dependent.

Anyway, here's a short clip of him jumping on two different occasions.



jumping jelly zhi.mov

Crazy about Cupcakes

There's so much craze about cupcakes this year (just like last year's chocolate moulding craze). I see cupcakes in wedding receptions, baby's full month celebrations, parties and on dessert tables. And these tiny sugar packed pastries have even replaced the good old sponge cake as birthday cake! Well, at least it saves us the trouble of having to divide and cut out the birthday cake.

Its even a trend to bake cupcakes nowadays. I see so many cupcakes supplies and equipments being sold at Phoon Huat and Bake It Yourself Store.. Frankly, I find them rather expensive. Those stands, icings, sprinkles, piping tips etc. There are even cupcake classes being launched.

So I embarked on my very first try on baking cupcakes. Since WF is getting so sick and tired of eating my bakings, I made these with the intention to give it to Ning's class for tea and I decorated them with pastel colours and Christmas sprinkles (see pictures).


I have to admit, its fairly easy to make but not the washing! There are certainly a lot of things to wash up especially when you're doing the icing. And really, if you can avoid eating cupcakes, please do. Compared to sponge, muffins and even log cakes, the amount of fat (i.e. butter or oil) and sugar is astonishingly high. And with the icing design on top whether it is buttercream or royal icing, one bite and I felt so sinful.

I still think muffins are better. Easier to bake and have higher nutritional value. One mouthful of muffin, you can get to eat carrot/raisins/chocolate chips/cheese. But a mouthful of the cupcake, you get to taste sugar and butter. Of course, some of you might say that is heavenly and smooth. You are not wrong. Once in a while, we should indulge in these... especially during this festive mood.

Winter Wonderland

The rainy & cold weather is here again. Like what Jean Danker (Class 95 DJ) said, this is the closest we can get of the winter weather.

As Christmas approaches (plus the cold weather), I can't help but remember the white Christmas we spent in Finland in year 2005. We departed on Christmas eve and landed in Santa Claus land on Christmas Day. Of course, we visited Santa on that same day too.

Everywhere we go, it is white, snow, wet and below 0 degrees celsius. It was so cold that we were wearing layers of clothing. As we were in the Arctic region, the sun rises at 10am and sets at 12noon. Even though we were doing reindeer sleighing at 3pm, it was like riding the reindeer sleigh on a 10pm kind of dark night. I always remember, it was minus 25 degrees that fateful night. Because it was also the night we managed to see the Northern Lights (also known as the Aurora Borealis").

To cut the long story short, we hired a taxi driver to drive us to some place to view the lights. The best spot to see the lights is a vast field, lake, forest or a flat plain that is in total darkness. Because any lights from the ground will dis-illuminate the Northern Lights up in the sky.

I tell you, we trusted whole-heartedly with this driver when he really drove us to some remote forest. And in the cab, we sat and waited. No sign, just the "crown", a greenish streak of light across the sky. Then he turned around and tell us,"you need to whistle to attract the light to come to you." We were thinking to ourselves,"Another local myth." But he went out of his cab and started whistling. True enough, in a minute, the lights came. And from green, it turned into yellow, then to orange then to red. Right above us! If I can describe it, it was like burning curtains hanging from the sky. These lights are in constant movement. So they change colours constantly as they shift in wave forms.

The sight was awesome. It was amazingly beautiful. We probably spent 2hrs for this experience as we continue deeper into the forest and to a lake. Too bad, we couldn't capture any of these sights as you need a SLR camera with wide exposure set on a tripod, given the limited amount of light and cold temperature.

I find that the best substitute to see a moving Northern Lights is the first 5 and last 30 minutes of this movie call "Brother Bear" by Disney. I think its the other best option from postcards (which is still).

For those who are interested, the peak seasons to see the Northern Lights starts from September to October. And from end January to April. You need to have a clear sky to be able to see this natural phenomenon. That explains why its peak is in the beginning and end of winter when the clouds are clearing.

So much about Northern Lights, here are some pictures we took from our trip. Yep, we did eat the reindeer meat other than riding it!

My Baking Adventures

Every year end starting from mid-November and all the way till Chinese New Year period, is baking time for me. Somehow, the festive mood will get me into baking almost every other day.

Hmmm... I can hear some sniggers and laughings from my Secondary and JC classmates. "Jean, baking?" Yah yah, I know I did badly in Home Economics during the lower secondary years. My rock bun turned into some kind of UFO because it was supposed to be half an egg but I put in one whole egg. They all just ballooned when I took them out of the oven. It was so embarrassing because I used up my classmate's share of the half egg! And it doesn't help when my home econs teacher was screaming away because she's gotten just enough egg for the class and there were no extras for my unfortunate classmate.

But people do change and improve. Now, I do BAKE and I dare say I baked pretty well. There are some mishap here and there like how my first quiche dough broke or my swiss roll sponge sticked to the wax paper when I was trying to roll it. Not to mention the plum flan which turn out to be sooooo sour because the fruit itself was sour (not because I squeeze too much lemon). Nevertheless, I'm still proud of my "achievements" and I've uploaded some "supportive evidences" for you to see.

And every Christmas, I'll be making my very own version of durian log cake. I'll share more in my next entry. But here's a preview of what my last year's log cake looked like.