One two three four five, once I caught 3 fishes alive..

Some friends has called us up yesterday afternoon to go fishing. I really didn't want to go as it has been drizzling the whole of yesterday and it was such a nice day to stay home and rest.

The kids were excited though. It would be Brendan's first fishing trip and Eryn's second. It would be my first time going too (not taken into consideration the "fishing" at the big longkang/drain near by grandma's house when I was young). I had to reluctantly drag myself to go. Afterall, majority wins.

So, off we go to the private fish farm, located somewhere near Broga in Semenyih. Surprisingly, the rain stopped the moment we reached there. We had wanted to stop by the rabbit farm on the way there but it was closed.

It turned out to be quite a pleasant trip actually. I caught three fishes - TWO "nim yue / lim yue"  (aka "wallagonia attu" or ikan tapah in BM) and ONE "sang yue" (aka freshwater snakehead fish or ikan haruan in the BM). The first fish I caught was a huge 4 kg "nim yue", but unfortunately, the fish farm owner didn't allows us to take it back and we had to throw both back into the pond. Everyone said that I had the luck today - a beginner's luck. hehehehe...

According to our friend, "nim yue" can grow up to be as heavy as I am! Apparently, this is a type of freshwater catfish species and is known to eat monkeys. It's considered to be one of the biggest freshwater fish and is quite expensive too. Was told that the market rate is more than RM100 per kg! It looks like a wierd looking catfish to me.

We kept the "sang yue" and brought it to a nearby restaurant to have it cooked for dinner and it was so, so, so fresh and yummy!

The 4kg "nim yue" (ikan tapah) I caught. My very first fish in my first fishing trip :-)

Walking around from pond to pond, searching for a good location. The first pond didn't bring us result. My two "nim yue" was caught in the third pond I selected while my "sang yue" was caught in the fourth pond I chose.

Some of the fake fishing bait our friends uses. More for the experts I suppose.

Our friend chose this little frog for my bait. It is a live one. Probably not pro enough to use those colourful plasticky fishes like the previous photo.

The first pond we went to. No fishes at all. Can you see what little Eryn is doing while everyone, including little Brendan, is busy fishing?

Here's a closer look at the princess-in-waiting, sitting down eating her biscuits and apple with her feet up on another stool. She hated the ants that kept coming to her feet.

Lots of "fei chow yue" (ikan talapia in BM)  in some of the ponds. You can easily scoop them out with a net, but they're just not the type that we are looking for. Besides, this is meant for commercial selling, not nice for us to just take it without any effort.

This pond was being emptied and sprayed with water to clean it. If you see closely, there are some holes in the ground. We were told that these are fish nests. When the water is being sucked out to a smaller drain into another pond, the eggs and tiny fishes will be sucked out as well to grow in another pond.

and this was the "sang yue" I caught, with some reeling help from little Brendan. Beginners' luck!

Fresh, yummy "sang yue" cooked in soya sauce and garnished with shredded ginger and corianer leaves.

Eryn's self-entertaining passtime

How does your kids entertain themselves when they're alone?

For my 6 years old Eryn, she plays imaginary house or be an imaginary princess or watches her favourite Barbie stories. At most times, she gets hooked on her drawing, or cutting up pieces of papers and glueing them back again, or do her own "fashion-designing" and colouring. She can go on and on doing these things when her kor-kor doesn't want to play with her or when kor-kor is in school.

Here are some of her latest stuffs...



Eryn's castle made from brown paper, a drawing torn into two and bits of papers. There's an angel in the sky. How sweet. Notice the drawing of the car? Can you see the words on it? It says "Buy This". And as for no. 5, I don't know what she meant by writing the word deb, while no.9 looks like a bra.



Here are the bits of papers and brochures that Eryn cuts up and pasting here and there. The green cardboard box at the bottom right is actually the packaging for a kids' Darlie toothpaste.



Torn papers glued together to look like a notebook. She says this is her menu order for her customers. The bottom piece of paper is folded and glued together and she says this is a secret letter.




Eryn designing some clothes (and a pair of boots!) for her cardboard paper doll. I'm surprised that she draws and colours these by herself! You can read about the DIY cardboard paper doll  here.



Now guess, what's is the scroll about and what is in that Apollo box? Make a guess, before you scroll down for the answer  (^__^)

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Tah dah! The content of her scroll. A girl by the name of Arora, with a rainbow and a butterfly. Gotta ask her what are the two rectangular pieces beside the girl.

 

and, in the Apollo box, are the cardboard paper doll and clothes that I made for her a few months back. I didn't know she still keep this in her drawer.

  

And these are some of her "treasures" : her "jewellery-box", two wallets, a little princess pocket notbook, a cute wolly puppy handbag (its nose makes a sound when pressed), one of her McDonald toy which she pretends it to be her face powder in a tiny red bag (came as a door gift in a recent wedding we attended) and a handmade card with her name on it.