Pasar Kutu & Homemade Soaps

Pasar kutu??? Yes, pasar kutu, or....as I have literally translated from English......flea market. 

Well, actually, a flea market is called pasar lambak in Malay (at least, I think so), but I really think it's more fun to call it pasar kutu, as in, a market of fleas. hahahaha!!!

Anyway.....yesterday, hubby and I popped by the flea market at Amcorp Mall. The flea market operates from 10am to 6pm, Saturdays & Sundays. A table rental is RM30 on Saturdays, and RM50 on Sundays. 

Although the flea market has been around for years, this is only our second visit there. Most of the vendors are retired people selling antiques, stamp collections, old black & white photos, collectibles like coal irons, records, record players and even magazines dating from 1960. And some items that are so antique that I couldn't quite figure out what. 

There was a table that sold homemade soaps, which the vendor claimed he made them himself. Now, that really got me interested, as I love homemade soaps made from natural ingredients. 

But at the same time, I was puzzled, as from what I understood, lye, a basic ingredient in soaps, is not available to the individual. Only large organisations like Palmolive could buy it as lye falls under the poison or hazardous category. So, how did the vendor make his soap? Did he import lye from Indonesia?

His answer was no. In fact, he had never heard of lye, even after I spelled it out for him. He said he did not use lye, and does not know what lye is. So, how? To satisfy my curiosity, we bought a scrub bar that he claims is what people use to make their skin fair. Hubby wanted to look as fair as me, so he was sold immediately. :))

This is the soap we bought. It's RM5, and the vendor said it could last 3 weeks, used on a daily basis. The ingredients are: curcuma aromatica extract, rhinacantus nasutus extract, palm kenelate, perfume (essential oil), glycerin & water. 

Hmmm.......no lye. The ingredients don't mean a thing to me. Hope my cousin, the soap-making expert, could help me understand the ingredients better.

I also bought a pot of plant for my mum. Blackie my cat & master had chewed my mum's precious plant until it is all gone, and my mum had been moaning the fact that it's not available anywhere in KL, not even in the nurseries in Sungai Buloh. She was beginning to think she would have to make a trip to Penang to procure this plant.

It costs only RM5, and the vendor said he grew it himself in his own garden. It is an indoor plant and must not come into contact with sunlight. Hope Blackie will leave this plant alone. So far, he hasn't noticed it yet. :))

Plasma TV Just Got Bigger!!!!

Yesterday, while scouring around an electrical shop at 1-Utama, we came across Malaysia's largest plasma TV.....103"!!!! And the price? A whopping RM220,000!!!

But the picture quality is not as sharp as the 50" plasma TV yet. It will take some time before the technology catches up, I think. 

Wish I can afford such a TV, but then, I'll probably have to upgrade to a larger house to accomodate such a huge TV....hahahah!!!

The 103" TV made the 50" look like dwarves

A zoomed in view of the price tag

Only RM3 For A Valentine Movie

This Valentine, we decided to do something different. Instead of the usual Valentine dinner that we opt for every year, we set out for a quick & simple dinner followed by a movie.

We hadn't quite made up our mind as to what to watch yet when we arrived at Star cinema in Kepong, and was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a Valentine promotion.

It's Lovers' Special - Share a movie at only RM3 per ticket, and the movies for this promotion are Wall-E and Mamma Mia. Although Wall-E was screened in the cinemas last August, we missed it as hubby wasn't too keen on watching a lovestruck robot chasing his paramour across the galaxy. 

But since Saturday was Valentine, and love is in the air, as Lupie said, it was the right time to get hubby to be mushy and catch Wall-E.

And hubby's verdict after the end of it? He enjoyed it! Yay!  :))

Synopsis: What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off? After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, WALL*E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting knick-knacks) when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL*E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans (who have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return home). Meanwhile, WALL*E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets an adventure into motion. Joining WALL*E on his journey across the universe is a cast of characters including a pet cockroach and a heroic team of malfunctioning misfit robots.

Extracted from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/synopsis

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

To my darling hubby, cousins & dear friends:

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!! 

MAY YOUR LIFE BE FILLED WITH 

LOVE & HAPPINESS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.

Curry Prawns

Yup, I cooked that. I wanted to cook it during Chinese New Year, but the prawns were being sold at RM45 per kati. Mind you, not kg, but kati. 

So now that the prawns are back to their regular price, I can enjoy my curry prawns again. This recipe was passed down from my grandmother to my mother, and now to me, and as you know, in grandmothers' days, it was a bit of this, a pinch of that.....yup, no measurements used.  :)

The ingredients are simple: lots of fresh and dry chilli, some onions, garlic, lots of shallots, lemongrass & belacan (ground together), gingerbud flower, daun kesom & assam. 

We like it real spicy, so the proportion of chilli was very much higher than the rest of the ingredients. Oh yeah, not forgetting the prawns and ladies' fingers a.k.a okra.

Weinbrenner Shoes Is Great!

Hubby came home from Bukit Merah last night with glowing reports on the Weinbrenner shoes he bought a week ago (*). He said walking down the steep, slippery jungle trail is now as easy as ABC. He said the shoes just "stuck" to the ground and refused to let him slide. Well, the soles were like sports car tyres, so we would have been disappointed if the traction is not good.

His only "complaint" was that his employer gave them too much food to eat.  He said there were 6 meals a day, and the spread was large and extensive, with crabs, prawns, fish, lamb, and all other fattening stuff. He weighed himself and found that he has put on 2kg in the 3 days he was there! Now you know why he "complained", he was concerned about his weight.  :)

(*)related post: http://blackie007.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-does-1-utama-shopping-mall-and.html

What Does 1-Utama Shopping Mall And A Virgin Forest Have In Common?

Nothing really. Except that last Sunday we needed to get a pair of outdoors shoes with a good grip.And 1-Utama has it.

Hubby's employer, for some reason, likes to put his staff through some tough survival activities in his jungle resorts once every few months. 

On the last trip in Belum, hubby slipped and nearly fell to his death. It was pitch dark, and they had to go into the jungle without any lights so as not to disturb nature. He couldn't see where the land slips down and with his existing shoes being worn out, he couldn't get a good grip on the earth bed when the land "disappeared".

Since he has to go to Bukit Merah (again!) tomorrow, for a 3 days 2 nights trip, we decided it's better for him to buy a new pair of shoes.

Hubby's new shoes

A good grip. We tested it at the shop.

Chinese New Year deco at 1-Utama

Sitting around a fire in a shopping mall? (zoomed in view)

No, it was just a red silk cloth (zoomed out view)

By the way, I bought Blackie the CAT this collar & leash at Pet Safari, Ikano 2 weeks ago for Chinese new year - it's good to wear red for the new year, even for cats.  :)