Hungry Ghost Festival

This month is the month of Hungry Ghost in lunar calendar. Here in Penang, celebration for Hungry Ghost Festival is great, you can see lotsa temporary stages and tents being built all over the residential areas and town areas as well for the festival celebration.

The celebration of the festival usually lasts for 3 days, and some of them even longer, up to a week. During the first day, there will be a ceremony of inviting the God of Hungry Ghosts to the celebration venue. During the second day, foods and fruits will be presented to the God of Hungry Ghosts as a gesture to thank Him for taking care of the ghosts. After that, the foods and fruits will be distributed to all the members of the Hungry Ghost Festival celebration commitee of a particular group. At night time during the celebration period, a variety of activities and events will be held, such as prayers, singing competitions, concerts and many more. In the midnight of the last day of the celebration, a ceremony will be held to bid farewell to the God of Hungry Ghosts.

The God of Hungry Ghosts.

Foods and fruits that were presented to the God and being distribued to the members of the comittee.

Roasted chickens and roasted pigs.... YUMMY~

Shirts for the God.

2 weeks back, we witnessed the ceremony of bidding farewell to the God of Hungry Ghosts at downtown. We reached there around 11pm, and we did the prayers before we headed to a mamak stall nearby for a teh tarik session while waiting for the farewell ceremony to start. Usually the ceremony will start at around 12 midnight, but on that day, the people in charge "enquiried" the God and obviously He doesn't want to leave. So, we have to wait until the God agree to leave. 1 thing about the God is, if He doesn't want to leave, no matter how many people carry the paper statue of the God together, they just won't suceed to move Him. But when He agrees, 4 men can carry Him easily! Weird but amazing, isn't it?

Finally, at around 1am, the God agreed to leave. There comes the ceremony! Pixies after the jump:

Oh... Sudah mau balik liau...

The people preparing to send the God back..

Moments before "departure"..

The God on His way back..

Ice cream or Gelato?

Suddenly, im craving for gelato.

Im sure most of you knows what is gelato but still,lemme tell you bits bout it. =P But im lazy to type its out, so i just quote it from wikipedia. Hehe

Gelato, or the plural Gelati, is Italian ice cream made from a liquid, milk or water; a solid, sugar, fats or sweeteners; flavorings, pastes, fruit powders; stabilizers, guar gum, locust bean, etc.; emulsifiers, mono- and digylcerides; and air. The process in which gelato is made varies on the ingredients used as it can be made using a hot process, which includes pasteurization or as a cold process which doesn't require pastuerization. Both processes require a gelato batch freezer, which makes the end product by mixing the ingredients and incorporating air. Like high-end ice cream, gelato generally has less than 55% air, resulting in a denser and more flavorful product.

In my opinion, it does taste nicer than normal ice cream and basedon the definition, it seems healthier to me. *yummmyummm*

Anyway, I had gelato at this outlet called Gelatissimo located at the Pavilion, KL during my visit in the begining of this year.

They do have a variety of choices to choose from and by just looking at those gelato, it makes me wana have they all. But it will cost me loads. =(

Its just part of the variety selection. Looks tempting?Still have the "Merry Christmas" wishes. =P

After sometime of testing those gelati, i made up my mind for 2 types of flavour but i`ve forgot what i chose. But believe me, its really really yummy.

I WANT MY GELATO NOW !!!!! *grumpy*

Yeehaaaa!!!

Everybody sing :

~ Hooray! Hooray! It's A Holi-Holiday

what a world of fun for everyone, holi-holiday

Hooray! Hooray! It's A Holi-Holiday

sing a summer song, skip along,

holi-holidayit's a holi-holiday ~

Its a public holiday for Penang tomorrow in conjunction with the elction thingy at Permatang Pauh and we, here in the Island part also get to have a 1 day holiday...

So HOORAY!!! No class tomorrow...Hehe..!!!

Happy happy...can lazy for 1 day and hopefully no class replacement in the future...

*finger crossed*

Kitty Cat

Read this cruel things that happenedto cute doggies in jiejie`s blog. This makes me wonder what happened to "them" (picture below)

Although im not cat lovers but i found them really cute especially when they are small. Makes one want to "sayang" them. But its so pity that they are stray cats and nobody really wants to take care of them. Thus, they are left always in hunger and cold. *sniff*

Saw those kitties when I was having breakfast with my mum at the market. The 2 in the picture above were happily playing and care free - no worries at all. But we all know,that their fate will be a difficult 1. Open to all sort of risk - being capture and "kill" , hunger , being abuse, etc.

She`s so cute with round round big eyes.

I wonder how they are now. Hopefully, some good heart people adopt them.

Shopping spree

Due to the megasales event going on, we had our shopping spree last weekend. At 1st, its just Woofy who wana buy some clothing for himself but in the end.....

Hehe. I cant tahan myself where i also "bought" a few things (Woofy pay laa, of course =P)

This is what we got for ourselves.

For him :

Round neck tee from Samuel and Kelvin (Rm27 - after duno how many percent) , Polo tee from Baleno (RM55.20- after duno how many percent), pants from Bossini (Rm 53.40 after discount 40%) and undies from Renoma (RM 26.91 after discount 10%). =P

For her :

Polo tee from Bossini (RM 34.50 after discount 50%), Angel long white pants from Giordano (RM 44.50 after discount 50%) and Sally Hansen`s nail remover from SaSa (RM12.90)

Sally Hansen nail polisher from SaSa (RM19.90)

On Sunday, it was our family day and after our breakfast, we including my parents went to Island Plaza for a walk (note: initial plan just to do some window shopping) but...

....duno what happened to us including my parents, we went to shopping instead. =.=

For him :

Renoma tee shirt (RM45 after discount 50%) and John Langford shirt (RM32)

My dad bought 2 shirt from John Langford too and my mum bought 1 short for my god-brother.

Then, during the noon time, me and Woofy went to the PC Fair to look for some cheap gadgets. And again, this is what we got.

A pinky mouse (RM 25), 2 1 Gb M2 memory cards for our phone (RM 31 each -another 1 card is not in the picture) and 4Gb of memory card for my PSP ( RM 66)

Then, in the nite time, as we were waiting for my mum to attend a function, we went for a walk at Gurney Plaza and we buy thing again. This time is my turn.

I got a :

Pinky iPanema slipper ( RM 31.92 after discount 20%)

And, thats we had over the weekend in which we spend RM 536.23 in 2 days.

Ouch !!!! Now thats hurt...time to makan roti again and save till the next Megasales. hehe...

Apple Vinegar

This post is specially for jiejie in respond to this post. =)

This is Apple Vinegar that my uncle bought from Queensball Mall, Penang. In order to drink it, you need to pour in about 1 teaspoon and mix them with lots of water. 1 bottle of that can make many cups of vinegar drinks.

Taste wise - kinda sourish but nice. Recommendable. =) It comes in 2 flavor : apple and lemon but apple 1 taste better.

08.08.08 08 - One World, One Dream

Finally the day has come - the much anticipated, once-in-four-years event - 2008 Beijing Olympic Games has come!! Felt happy that China has made it to become the host country, and what makes it more special is the date and time of the opening ceremony - 8 August 2008, 8.00pm, which can be symbolized as 08 08 08 08. Hehe...

The Beijing Olympics 2008 will be held from today till 24 August, which is 17 days long. There will be more than 200 countries with a huge number of athletes participating in 302 events of 28 sports. 1 event more than 2004 Athens!

The cute mascots.

There are 5 mascots for the Beijing Olympics 2008, which is Beibei the Fish, Jingjing the Panda, Huanhuan the Olympic Flame, Yingying the Tibetan Antelope and Nini the Swallow. Cute, aren't they?

The Beijing National Stadium.

This is the venue for the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics 2008- Beijing National Stadium or also known as "The Bird's Nest" because of it's bird's nest-alike design. The stadium costs a massive RMB 3.5 billion, which is equivalent to USD 423 million, and it has a capacity of 91,000 spectators.

According to NBC, the Opening Ceremony tonight would include performances by a cast of 15,000 and declared it would be the most spectacular Olympics Opening Ceremony ever produced. Sources also said that 130.000 fireworks will be put on during the Opening Ceremony as well. Half an hour more to go, let's anticipate the exciting Opening Ceremony of Beijing Olympics 2008!

Penang International Dragon Boat Festival

We went to the Dragon Boat International Race yesterday. It was held at Teluk Bahang Dam which stated from 31st of July till 3rd of August and yesterday was the grand final for each categories that those rowers were racing in.

It was a rather nice weather yesterday with occasionally cloudy and a bit of sun. Lucky for us as its not that hot. There, they provided the spectators with free shuttle buses as those who came by cars can park their car opposite the Taman Teluk Bahang and those bus will transport you to the entrance of the event. very considerate of those sponsors. *thumbs up for them*

See, they even provide bathing area for the rowers or contestants.


The main entrance and also the resting area for those contestants. And, oh, most of those young rowers are very handsome and very muscular. *drools* LOLZ

Along the way, we saw many teams exercising and practising their movement.

The kawaii japanese girls team.

The Penang boys team

After some walk, we finally reached the racing area. Saw many peopleand supporters there and not forgeting the main "actor" - the dragon boat itself.

Closer look on the dragon head

Then, we walk to the VIP stand area. From there, the view was better and we get to have some shades there too. =P

After each race, there was this prize presenting session.

The main trophy

The Canada team emerged as the winning team - the guys team

We were there for a few hours and before we left the event, there was this contestant from Canada who were having difficulties in breathing. he was then sent to the medical area for help. maybe due to the hot weather. Hope he`s ok by now.

I never been to a dragon boat race in my life and what im experiencing yesterday was a really nice day out for me.

*************

On a unrelated event, guess what we saw in the middle of those rocks? See anything there?

If you see carefully, you can see this :

The lonely phtographer. So pro.