LaundryAmah

It’s been ages since I’ve been up north and since my cousin from Sydney is here I drove him up to Ipoh for some good food and also to meet up with our 2 other cousins who lives in Ipoh.

We left quite late as we dilly dallied we were on our way around 10+ in the morning. We stopped over Bidor for the duck leg noodles. The noodles is very different from the ones here, crispier and doesn’t have any boric acid after taste. I drank all the soup as it was sooooo yummy! Sorry was too excited and gobbled up the noodles before taking a photo!

Arrived Ipoh at about 1.30 pm. First stop has to be Old Town Kong Heng Coffee Shop lerr…

Again I forgot to take the picture of the noodles but here’s the empty bowl…

We also had popiah also, it was so yummilicious lor…

As if not enough, we walked next door to this coffee shop called Thean Chun, it’s actually right next to Kong Heng.

We had the famous steamed egg custard caramel & egg tong sui…

Then my cousin said the kuey teow soup at Thean Chun is better than Kong Heng so I mai try lor…(yes 2nd bowl…ok ok la…not that bad cos the first bowl was shared with Apah..and so was this one..)

After that only was I satisfied! Burp…

Actually not lor…we continued our journey to search for Funny Mountain for the smoothest, softest tau fu fa. This place is just opposite the famous Foh San Dim Sum.

After that only were we satisfied to the max and off we went to visit our cousins (daughters of the uncle in China).

Thanks to cousin Yong for her excellent memory we were able to find all the food destinations and of course the Ipoh cousins’ residence

After that we left to get the famous Ipoh Heong Peah from Gunung Rapat, which is the factory. I usually buy from the shop in town but according to cousin Yong, it’s more fresh from the factory..naturally lerrrrr…There was this unique display in front of that shop, displaying the items that the Chinese traditional wedding requires. Sorry the photo is not so clear as I took it thru the window…

After that I met up with my customer as he has the jalan(way) to the sweetest pamelos from Tambun. When we arrived the shop was already closed but thank goodness the shopkeeper lives there and we were able to ask them to re-open the shop! By that time it was time for dinner and off we went in search of a place recommended by cousin Yong’s friend. We have only very vague description of the place so we had a bit of problems looking for the place. We made a few rounds and finally gave up and went to another place which again have only very agak agak (rough) knowledge where it was!

We finally found it and indeed it was a popular restaurant as it was full house!

The kids fooling around while waiting for food…

One rapper and another violinist…

By the time we were about to finish I realised it was quite late. I immediately thought I should bring the kids to my family friend’s place for a quick shower so they can change into their PJs and let them sleep in peace all the way home. I walked out of the noisy restaurant to make a phonecall and before I could end the phone call I saw the family friend’s grandma, then the mom, then the father! wahhhh we were practically squealing! They were “scolding” me for not calling them to inform that I was in Ipoh. Then I realised the whole family was in Ipoh. What a coincidence! Ipoh can’t be that small?? Anyway it was really a great reunion as I haven’t seen some of them like for donkey years as some are living in New Zealand. We quickly rushed back to the house and showered the kids in a jiffy and had some catch up time with my childhood friends but we couldn’t catch up for long as it was already 11 pm!

All in all, it was like the most fruitful trip ever to Ipoh accomplished in one day!!

Angeleyes was in town and of course we have to meet and eat!!! We gathered a few others, Angie, Nyonyapenang, King’s Wife & Angel came along and we met at Midvalley. We couldn’t decide to eat where and I decided to eat at this Taiwanese restaurant which I saw while walking down the escalator from the car park floor. The setting sort of captivated me and thought it was quite a good place to eat.

The place not only looks good, the service was excellent and the food was also very good. Well, only thing the menu had a few spelling errors which we were thinking aloud whether it was done deliberately or what..

We had a jolly good time eating of course and even continued our eating session at Alexis and both King’s Wife & myself couldn’t resist ordering the tiramisu!

After leaving my friend’s place, we left for HK island as it’s time for my major shopping at the warehouse at Ap Lei Chau. I never fail to visit this place each time I am in HK. My damages were however shortened due to my friend (Mr D, the one whom Kieran interrogated the day before…obviously he didn’t have enough of it!) who came to meet up for a cuppa again. I was about to look at shoes and he called! Dang! Being Amah, the ever so polite and ultimate 8 poh friendly person…I sacrificed my shopping time to meet him lor..Nevertheless the damages were 2 tops and a skirt from Lane Crawford outlet store. That’s the place I got like at least 5 pairs of shoes during my last trip. Unfortunately, there weren’t many good finds and of course due to my shortened time there.

The cafe we had our cuppa was in the same building, it was quite a unique place, as there were not many tables but there was a big play area for kids. Kieran totally enjoyed himself there while we chatted..(thank GOD!).

Full set of Oven/stove, pots n pans, larder & Fridge!

The “chef” serving his dish…to..me? no…it was a pretty blonde girl!

She sat patiently waiting for Kieran to cook for her…

After the cuppa we left and walked out to the other warehouse which was SPACE selling off season Prada and Miu Miu. Along the way Kieran was chatting with Mr D. He again asked him funny questions and I can’t remember most of them except for this..

K-Do you have a girlfriend now?

D-Em..no..

K-why?

D-well..emm…

Suddenly Kieran pushed me towards Mr D..

K-My mummy be your girlfriend la!

Me-KIERAN! Stop it! Don’t be ridiculous! Better not simply say things if not I will get into unnecessary trouble ok! *roll eyes*

I again was so embarrassed and wished there was a big hole on the ground that would just swallow me up!

Good thing the walk was not that long…so once we reached SPACE, Mr D waved goodbye…yeah goodbye…*don’t call me again!!…Please!!!*

The time at Prada was short and sweet and I bought a waistpouch, a bag and a blouse. Since the exchange rate was favourable, I bought the blouse. Usually I only indulge in the bags…ngek ngek ngek..

After Prada…went out to meet Uncle David and Aunty Fiona for dinner at TST. Didn’t want to go there really as the MTR fare was kinda pricey…actually it didn’t make much sense as we were staying on HK island, and where we shopped was on HK island too..but I guess it was ok after the dinner we had was quite worth it afterall…

We ordered a set dinner for 2 persons as the set comprised of a wide variety of dishes and just added a fried rice for Kieran. The set meal comprised of sharks fin soup, lobster baked in cheese sause, steam fish, vege fried with scallops, lotus leaf rice plus dessert. We really enjoyed the meal, especially Kieran who’s not a fan for food…he loved the lobster! We had toasted bread to dip into the cheese sause too…yummmz..

After dinner, the action didn’t end there and we made way to Mong Kok. Talk about it in the next post…

Picking up from my last post re meeting with my university mate whom I found on Facebook! Ok this friend is quite a unique person, in fact weird..nevertheless, he was nice enough to meet me and buy me tea. Soon Kieran dominated the conversation and asked him all sorts of questions and this question nearly made me choke on my sandwich…

Kieran-When you sleep with your girlfriend do you take off your shirt??

My friend- *grinning & speechless*

Me-OMG! I DID NOT teach him this ok! Don’t think weird ah!!! Kieran! No manners, young kids cannot ask such questions! *smack!!*

Kieran-*giggling*

I was soooo embarrassed ok..I really didn’t know what to say except that I don’t know where he learn to ask such questions. In fact Kieran did go on asking questions…and my friend kept turning to me and said this…

Friend-Your son is very interesting…intriguing…

*roll eyes* no comment!

My friend had to go off to another appointment (Thank God!) and we parted and we ventured off to shop and Kieran could recognise the place and kept pointing to me, there was the place we ate, that’s the place we stayed…bla bla…wow that was quite good memory as the last time we were there was in June 07. These kind of things so good memory, when it comes to more serious stuff like his music notes and school work cannot remember!

It was only a short while shopping as I was tired and decided to go back to the apartment. “Qu cheh” was busy and couldn’t have dinner with us so her maid cooked for us. It was a simple dinner with the chinese new year waxed sausage but it was best tasting sausage I ever had! It was from the famous Yung Kee at Central HK, next to Lan Kwai Fong. This restaurant is famous for its roasted goose.

We quickly took our showers before “Qu cheh” comes back as there is only one bathroom and/or toilet. Kieran was screaming once I turned off the shower as it was brrrrr cold. The apartment is on the 28th floor and is located slightly uphill…so that explains the cold..

When “Qu cheh” came back, I gave her a good massage after her shower. She was overworked due to the festive season and also the fact that Valentines Day was 2 days away. She said that I should come more often to massage her! My reward? Free stay at her place la!

The next morning we had the bestest homemade “Lorbak ko”. I asked “Qu cheh” to teach me how to make it but she said it’s pointless as we are not able to find the good ingredients back in KL! Potong steam nya!!!!

After breakfast, we took it easy and went down to the supermarket to buy some gifts as I was visiting my university mate. She gave birth to “Long Foong Thoi” (twins, one girl and one boy). She was located in Kowloon and we had to take MTR and then a taxi to her place. She gave me the English address but the taxi driver couldn’t understand me! So I had to call her to ask her again for the Cantonese version…..

We ventured off further to find a breakfast place and found one descent ala HK style “char chan teng” (coffee shop) and the weirdest part was there was a waitress there that looks exactly like my previous maid, only fairer! So freaky ok! Anyway, the food was ok & cheap.

Before packing our stuff and checked out, I went for a hairwash and it cost me RMB15 only!! So the cheapest neh! We walked to the Luohu Checkpoint as it’s only 10 minutes walk and the weather was superb for walking anyway. They have separate entry level for overseas travellers from the local Chinese & HK travellers so the queue was not long.

There was this Japanese guy standing in front of me and I noticed he kept turning around and has this “yum yum sup sup” (horny) smile. Of course not looking at me la! I slowly turned around to find out who’s he looking at and saw this China Doll girl standing there waving and smiling shyly at the Jap guy. No need to ask la…must be eh hemm eh hemmm girlfriend la…Then the girl walked towards the guy and they whispered into each other’s ear, like so happy and se-weet se-weet..liddat lor…Amah mia interpretation of their conversation..

Girl-Last night u were great…

Guy-I’m glad you enjoyed yourself..

Girl-When are you coming again? I’ll miss you lots..

Guy-I will try my best and come down again next week..but you know..I can’t make it too obvious by coming over too often…my tigress at home may suspect ma…

Girl-yehhh..*twisting body and pouting lips*

Ok ok..the above conversation is purely fictatious and derived from Amah’s mia imagination ok!! Don’t sue me ah!

As they exchanged whispers, the Japanese guy started to sweat! Wah..it’s quite cold that morning ok…and he was just standing there wor..how come start sweating geh? Anyway, the girl took out a tissue to dap on his forehead to wipe the sweat away..heeheeheeheee….”sei hum sup loh… ” whispering oso can sweat…blechhhh (sorry no photos…already eavesdropping…cannot be too obvious right??kekekekekke)

The crossover went smoothly, and we were in HK in just 15 minutes! Quickly bought our Octopus travelling cards. Kids are entitled half price fares so you must specify you want a child card. I called my “qu cheh” (friend) to tell her we are on our way to her place. She thought I was going to stay in a hotel but I asked her if we could stay in her place before we came wor! Wah,,good thing she didn’t have any other guests..so she had to tidy up her apartment to receive us like immediately! She lives alone so her apartment is quite small, can’t blame her la…

The train ride was about 2o minutes to the maid Kowloon East Station. We had to change to TST station which is connected to Kowloon East station. The system is HK is so super duper effiecient…they have walkalators to help us walk with ease. The MTR trains are frequent like every 5 minutes or less..and we were on our way to “qu cheh”’s place at Tai Koo. Since our luggage were still relatively light and easy to handle, I decided to take the train all the way to save on taxi fare. The walk up to “qu cheh”’s apartment was kinda tough as it’s uphill all the way! Had to start taking out my scarf then my windbreaker….in fact it’s warmer here compared to Shenzhen.

“Qu cheh”’s place gets “smaller” each time I go there..the last time I went, she added a fridge in her already cramped living room and now with the festive decoration, the apartment somehow looks more cramped…

The above lovely peonies greeted us as we walked in the apartment. “Qu cheh” is a florist and she’s quite popular among the rich and famous…In fact she was supposed to come to Msia before Chinese New Year but she was not allowed leave as it was during that time where speculation of the death of the late Lydia Shum was going on..

After we left our stuff in the apartment,”Qu cheh” said she had to go as she’s busy so we made our way out too and met a long time friend in Causeway Bay…I haven’t seen this guy since 1993 after we graduated. I actually found him on facebook! Cool huh? Anyway..the conversation we had over tea was really interesting…will talk about that in my next post…

Got to take a break from Shenzhen-HK rendesvouz… cos on Monday I received the saddest news ever… I was at the saloon as usual having a gala time, chewing on chips and suddenly I received an sms from Angie (Oscar’s mommy). She told me that she has to resign to help her hubby. Meaning she’s going to be “si thau por”, so it was like a very weird feeling, as a friend, I’m sooo happy for her, but as an employer, I was devastated! The chips that I was chewing on just now suddenly tasted bad and I stopped eating it…The holiday I was planning for end of the year also scrapped leow….

Remember I mentioned before how thankful I have Angie as my assistant, she’s really been (still is) a great help and I can totally rely on her and she can manage my business very well without me around. So much so till I sometimes always take her for granted, always going away for shopping seeing customers & holidays till she gets overloaded with work. She has never complained nor voiced out and never fails to greet me with a smile in her normal cheerful self each morning!

So you tell me, am I going to miss her or not?? Of course la! We have been friends for more than 10 years woi! And we have been so close that we can talk about anything under the sun….I am really going to miss that and of course our hyena laughing!! We have grown to be so alike and at times, our customers cannot tell us apart over the phone! Even when they meet us, they ask if we were sisters! Yeah, she’s the sister to me that I never had…and I can totally share my deepest & darkest secret with her! Hey but then again, we will still meet la…right? Angie??

So to assess how crazy this has been,  King’s wife sms to me yesterday reminded me of something…

KW - “your favourite sale of all time is starting tomorrow wor how’s things?”

KW was reminding me of the Ikea sale la..what else? I usually get very kanchiong (excited) over the sale and will plan ahead on the logistics and how I can reach the sale on time but somehow lost the enthusiasm until KW reminded me…so I went la of course! But since I was not as enthusiastic as before I only arrived there around 9 + am. (The last time I was there before 7 am!)

So, right now I am busy looking for someone new to join me, so if you are funny and willing to work while the boss is always away, please do drop me a note! No special qualifications is required, just a willing heart and positive attitude will do!

Yesterday we had a eating gathering & it turned out to be more of a laughing gathering and my side hurt like mad from all the eating & laughing…

We had something different this time, away from the commercial restaurants, this restaurant is in a house, with no signboard..and dinner has to be ordered one day in advance subject to availability..they serve the Hakka Lui Char (some mixed vege & rice with tea) & Hakka “Pun Choi” (mixture of veg, meat, seafood, abalone, scallops all in one dish). We had “Pun Choi” and it was not bad…Location : No.67 Jalan Gasing, 46000 Petaling Jaya. Tel No.

We were supposed to have 10 people as the dish was prepared for 10 at RM420.00 nett. However, only 8 of us turned up. King’s Wife is missing from the picture as she was still stuck in the jam… So LB, now u know what is “Pun Choi” la..next time u come back we bring u there lor..

After dinner we proceeded to Star Bucks to chat, actually laugh more like it. We laughed so loud I think we scared away the customers around us! Muahahahahaha..

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My lil Picasso….

While Amah was out my lil Picasso was at work decorating the furniture and the walls!! Discovered it just now & it got Apah so upset and he was scrubbing away after I took the pictures!!

This is a tag from Kerry some time ago. Took me quite a while to complete the task! And I sitll have like quite a number of tags still owing…never seems to end huh?EIGHT THINGS THAT i’M PASSIONATE ABOUT

1. My kids
2. Gardening
3. Baking
4. Shopping (mainly bags & shoes)
5. My work
6. My friends
7. Blogging
8. Food

EIGHT THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE

1. To see that I have enough funds for my kids’ designer wear education and wellbeing
2. Hopefully to see them grow up and venture into different stages of life
3. That I will go back to the gym…
4. Taste all the bestest food in the world!
5. Stay in the bestest hotels around the world too!
6. To visit all the countries I’ve not been before, especially Japan
7. To own a Chanel 2.55 lambskin bag
8. To own a Cartier watch

(damn materialistic huh? So? I like wat!)

EIGHT THINGS I SAY OFTEN

1. Kieran stop bullying your sister
2. Kieran practice your piano
3. Turn off the tv! Right now!
4. No!! Kylie!!!!!!!/Kyliee…NOOOOOOO!!!
5. Kids plsssssssssssssssss….stop that!
6. Go away!
7. Mari sini………(to the maid la..)
8. Daddy…………………………………. do this..do that…bla blah blah…

EIGHT BLOGS BOOKS I’VE RECENTLY READ

I only read blogs now…

EIGHT SONGS THAT I COULD LISTEN TO OVER AND OVER

1. All Leslie Cheung Songs
2. All Jacky Cheung Songs
3. Don Moen CDs
4. My son’s singing
5. The Leo Ku medley song..love it!
6. Songs from Sound of Music
7. Carpenters songs
8. Bee Gees/Abba

EIGHT THINGS THAT ATTRACT ME TO MY GOOD FRIENDS

1. Direct, just say it la Truthfulness
2. Availability (please be there when I need u…pls? pretty pls???) *blink blink*
3. Laugh at my jokes Sense of humour
4. Grace (forgive me when I forget the appointment time and whatever that I forgot!)
5. Patience (with my senseless babblings…) I love u!! (you know who u r!)
6. Kindness (for being my friend in the first place!)
7. Fun (don’t be a drag k…)
8. Makes me laugh la…I LOVE to LAUGH…and when I laugh it’s thunderous LOUD! kakakakakkakakakakka..

EIGHT THINGS I’VE LEARNED THIS PAST YEAR

1. Never allow your maid to have the freedom to choose the chores to do..always fall back on a schedule..A FIXED SCHEDULE!
2. Never allow your maid to be alone in your house for longer than 1 hour
3. Blogging is no longer fun when people begin to touch on sensitive issues…TOUCHY…..
4. Be prepared when going for a meeting (knowing is one thing, actually doing it is tough!)
5. Never bow down to senseless and illogical demands
6. Pray hard before you choose your maid, I mean like hard as in down on your knees..
7. Never copy and paste and reuse email chain on gmail! NEVER cos it really gave me a heartattack thinking that I sent the wrong email to the wrong party!
8. Never start playing any games on Facebook..cos I’m so hooked and I can’t stop! Blek!

Dinner on day 8 was a treat from Piggy Hooo and we had Aussie food for a change! It was really a heavy dinner (again…only more meat, as in RED meat). We had wine too, in fact I had a lot of wine in this trip and I’m like kinda get addicted to wine lor…I find the food presentation was not really that impressive but the quality was pretty good. I just can’t get over the potatoes there, really taste soooo yummie! And the pumpkin soup…you really taste the pumpkin…like so pumpkinish lor..

I wanted KY (my host) to sleep in at least for this day but somehow, we woke him up! He’s a very light sleeper (is there such a word) even the slightest sound get him up! My buddy Ms F came to pick me up to go to her church. She was late…(had to oi oi her baby to sleep first) and she brought her 1st son along. She was speaking Cantonese to him and he was replying in Aussie English of course, u know the lousy Auussie accent..hahhaha…

I kept yawning in church and couldn’t concentrate! In fact there were a few moments that I nearly dozed off! Bad girl…After church we went back to Ms F’s house and I tried the dumpling she made (inspired by the dumpling we had at Bob’s Kitchen the other day). Wow, her dumpling was quite good, only thing the skin was not so good since it was bought off the shelf. She also made some really good chilly sauce for dipping. Actually, she’s become a “yellow face woman” (literal translation from Cantonese) lor. That’ what I dread most…to become a “yellow face woman” but I can see that Ms F is happy, so let it be! LOL!

Anyway, this is me and her 2nd boy, who suffers from ezema also….so cham lor.. By the way, the painting behind me was painted by Ms F, she’s quite good with this also, too bad I didn’t take the photo of all of them…maybe she should do that for me…

KY came to pick me up and off we went to the DFO at Chelteham for more damage shopping. The DFO is not too far from Springvale and is bigger than the one at Rhodes Sydney. And of course Amah shopped like there was no tomorrow (yes no more cos Amah leaving Downunder leow..). Initially I was worried how I was going to bring the stuff I bought but somehow that day I didn’t think about it and just kept adding more loot…(buy now worry later kind of attitude).

I even bought muffins which KY asked me to leave at his place since we were so tight of space…but I really couldn’t do it and had to bring them back! So yummie leh..Notice the Tim Tam? They now have in various types, but I only bought this one and the original one. Tim Tams are like the star Aussie Product in the supermarkets and they have like premium shelf space and are like everywhere! I managed to get them at the lowest price (surveyed price since day 1) at AUD1.99 which is about RM6. Guess how much they are selling here at Cold Storage? (RM10+ lor!! But they don’t have the full range here la…)

After shopping, we went to Springvale for Vietnamese food. I wanted to buy my hosts dinner, so I pretended to go to the toilet and excused myself to find the cashier. Unfortunately, my host caught me in the act and refused to let me pay! Shiats!

Anyways, we had to rush back as time was running out, and I had to stuff pack my new loot in and we were supposed to leave for the airport like in an hour’s time! I stuffed and stuffed but my bag was bursting and couldn’t fit in the stuff I bought so I forced asked Mr D to allow me to use some of his luggage space and I had to re-pack for him in order to fit in my stuff. At the end, I still had to pack an extra box!

We drove back the rented cars to the drop off at the airport. Everything went smoothly. Check in was however a nightmare but thank God we were early. In total we had 8 bags and 3 boxes and the total weight was 230+ kg which had exceeded the allowed 200kg! We chatted up the lady handling our check-in and she seemed to liked us and finally allowed us the extra without having to pay the penalty!! I actually screamed out, “God bless you!!” so loud!

We passed check-in with flying colours and now the hand luggage part…We were not able to bring in water as they didn’t allow it eventhough it was for baby milk purposes..but they didn’t allow Aunt2’s massage cream as it exceeded the allowed amount. We nearly had an argument with the officer but after showing them the doctor’s letter and much explanation, they allowed the cream in! They weighed my hand luggage and phew…it passed! Claimed my GST from my shopping spree (allowed for purchases above AUD300 on a single receipt).

The flight back was smooth and again I didn’t manage to complete the movie I was watching..and it was a pretty good one too! Rats! All in all, it was a really good trip, and I am so grateful to my buddies for being such great hosts and would like to thank them for taking such good care of me (especially for stuffing feeding me).

That’s all about my Downunder Journal…and updates on my kids will be on their way soon before you forget Kieran & Kylie!!

The Seafood dinner at Boxhill was fantabulous and yummilicious! My first time eating snow crab. white colour baby crab! The crab was still swimming in the aquarium when we selected her and four other live abalones too!

That’s me with my fantastic host KY and MsW, the one who brought me shopping!

Empty oyster shell…oyster swallowed leow…

Fried wax meat with super sweet and crispy Kai Lan (the wax meat taste doesn’t really blend in)

After dinner we dropped Ms.W home and we managed to meet up with her family. I haven’t seen her parents since uni days! I remember her dad and mom were (still are!) really good cooks and I can never forget the dinner we had there more than 10 years ago!

Saturday morning started of with a little chaos as both me and cousin M had to wake up early to wash and blow our own hair! No Ah Ngor (our hairdresser) to help us…no styling aids…ayooo…what to do cincai (simply la) tied up my hair in a bun la. Cousin SM managed to still curl her hair! Terrer! Why all the fuss? The reason for this trip la..it was Piggy Hooo’s graduation ceremony day la!

We drove down to the Melbourne University, thanks to the trusted Melway but when we saw the trams we kinda panicked! We managed to find the place and there was a parking near the hall. Phew! Cam whore session began immediately upon arrival, including the kids!

Saw this bicycle at the Melbourne Uni grounds…so cute lor..

After the cam whoring session, I left for the city to meet up with another old friend who migrated to Melbourne a few months back. He is still looking for a job…so I didn’t want him to pay for yum cha but he insisted and said that he made enough from his employment in Shanghai! I felt so bad lor…The food standard has deteriorated..not as before…but nevertheless..ok also la…Oh one more thing, yum cha has to be booked before hand for weekends if not…eat yourself la!

Eric with his Shanghainese wife, who’s pregnant with their 2nd child, so I really hope he finds a job real SOON! All the best! Mom always remembers Eric as he has a very deep and old man’s voice, and he was our chauffeur in our uni days! hahahaha..

After yum cha I went to this familiar place to wait for KY to pick me up. We used to use this place as a waiting place…

Flinders Station (main train station in the city)

After that we went on our way to Dandenong Ranges to feed the birds.

Fine, I will take my rubbish home!