Where to go during the holidays?

It's a pleasure to be able to go on vacation but it can be a headache to decide where to go especially when you have a budget constraint as well as the factor of time.

I was toying with the idea of getting closer to nature at Titi Eco Farm. But, it will also be opening myself to the threat of these blood-sucking creatures.  In fact, I had this idea since about two years ago, but I still haven't got the guts to face brave this nightmare yet.  But, it's a really good opportunity for the kids to appreciate mother nature.  Ideal for relaxation too, for the older ones especially.

The hyped Legoland should be every child's dream.  Already Hoe was telling me how thrilling the rollercoaster is, according to his friend.

Singapore's Universal Studio was suggested a few months ago.  The kids would die to go.  Maybe next year.  Though this is not comparable to our Legoland, I prefer visiting the latter first.  The currency pinch is also something we have to consider.

Genting Highlands?? No! We will be greeted with throngs of enthusiasts, gamblers and holiday makers wanting to have a ball at their upgraded theme parks. There isn't even space to move around comfortably in the indoor parks.  The kids must be loathing me for rejecting this again.

The people you love hurt you the most

Why do people you love hurt you the most?  

Because what they say, don't say, do or don't do matter to you more than anything else.

Do you care when people insignificant to you say or do something? 

No, because only the ones you love matter.

Just my thought that I want to share with viewers of my blog, as I brave the journey of motherhood.

Dinosaurs Live in Malaysia

A close encounter with 'real' dinosaurs.

They are as good as real. With wagging tail, some are roaring, flying or moving. They are live-sized!

Stegosaurus

Deinonychus

Ankylosaurus

Triceratops

Tyrannasaurus-rex

Pachycephalosaurus

Utahraptor

Sarcosuchus

The names of these dinosaurs are provided by courtesy of Wyng. For those rarer ones, we googled and even referred to his 'Know The World of Dinosaurs' book.

He made his own milk

This was posted on 2 April 2009 in my previous blog.  Here is a reposting.

While I was busy engaged in my home office, I heard Wyng screaming something and asking for milk. As I couldn't make myself available to rush to the kitchen, I told him to give me a minute.

"I made already", he replied.

After about 15 minutes or so,I managed to finish what I was doing and proceeded to the living room. I almost got the shock of my life when I saw his empty milk bottle on the table. He had, apparently made the milk himself and obviously, drank the entire bottle. He was lying on the sofa, taking his ever needed nap. There is no trail of milk powder or untidiness in the kitchen when I went in to examine. Everything seemed to be in proper place. I really can't imagine how he knew the amount of warm water to mix with cool water. The milk is within easy reach as it is already in a milk dispenser.

Good thing is he napped without my constant reminder and his independence in getting what he want without the help of mummy. Bad thing is he could hurt himself handling the flask while attempting to prepare his needed drug.

Oh! He was 5 years and 7 months old then.

Am I doing too much for my kid?

Tomorrow is the last day of the PMR exam.  After tomorrow, it will be havoc for our home as Hoe will be declared 'free' from the major exam, for at least another year.

Wyng's last day of the final year exam will be on Tuesday. So, which means Tuesday afternoon will spell a topsy turvy home come afternoon when Wyng reaches home from school.  Hoe will be off on Tuesday as he doesn't need to sit for the Chinese Paper.

As of now when I'm blogging this, I've just completed a marathon of downloading and scanning sets of questions for Hoe to do.  It was a last-minute thing to do as I notice Hoe wasn't very strong in this Living Skills paper.  And, I've just discovered (after he told me yesterday) that he does not have any model papers except for the sets of questions from his school.  From what I gather, he doesn't seem to be able to achieve A for each set of papers he completes.

It was only yesterday that he requested me to download answers to a few sets of the other states' previous years' trial sets.  After a few unsuccessful attempts, I gave up.  His teacher gave the students questions without answers! So, instead of continuing the fruitless attempts, I volunteered to download the current year's trial papers of other states for him to do.  All in, I've downloaded questions from five states for him.  Sigh..each set took about half an hour to do, excluding downloading time.

Even Hoe said I'm too enthusiastic and diligent downloading the papers.  I hope Mom is not too overly diligent in this case as Hoe is the one sitting for the exam.  I told him he had deprived me of my weekend relaxing.  "Sorry, sorry.." Hoe kind of murmured apologetically.   " I just want hard work from you, not a sorry." was all I could say.

Oriental cravings

Pork Ribs in XO sauce

Salted fish and pork

Lotus Roots,minced meat and vegetables

Oriental Cravings at One Utama

Another satisfying weekend meal for us, this time at 1Utama.  As usual, Hoe loves the pork ribs and pork.  Wyng, almost just had white rice.  He was 'forced' to have some pork, that was also stuffed into his throat (almost literally) by Mom.

These dishes are really rich and tasty.  The serving is a little too small, though. Not that cheap, the bill came to about RM100 including rice and chinese tea.

Our first vegetarian dinner

It's the first time we had vegetarian dinner ever since Wyng was born.

This restaurant is located at Taman Maluri, along Jalan Jejaka, can't miss this.  It sells a fusion of Japanese and Chinese food.

Wyng's choice, his favourite sushi.

Vegetarian sushi

This traditional home-styles french beans is yummy. The minced meat tastes really rich.

French beans and minced meat

Hoe's favourite for this dinner meal was the Thai styled bean curd and french beans.  Good things are always not enough.  We couldn't get enough of these two dishes.

Thai style bean curd

Pork ribs..the taste if not bad but the texture is not porky, though.

Pork ribs

Similarly for this chicken dish.  The lemon sauce is okay, but again the texture is not so much of chicken meat.

Lemon chicken

Overall, we enjoyed this vegetarian meal.  Hoe even asked to come back for a second time. 

Mom gets stung everywhere she goes

I get stung wherever I go, at home.  By the blood sucking creatures.

In the living room whilst I am watching television. In the study room while I am surfing or at my PC.  I'm not even spared when I shower in my bathroom. Yes! there are mosquitoes even in my bathroom. While washing the dishes or cooking in the kitchen, I get stung too.  At the car porch, they stalk me while I hang or collect the clothes.

So, what's the solution? I seldom get bitten by these blood suckers in my bedroom ever since I have the electronic mosquito repellant.  Once in a while, I spot one or two in my room. But somehow, they don't really bother me.  So, the repellant works, in a way.

I used to dab a little repellant cream on my leg and hand while watching TV. During the daytime, I despise any stickiness on my hands or legs. Moreover, applying anything on the hands when I need to cook is definitely not a hygienic thing to do. So, I'm kind of vulnerable to these creatures during the daytime.  

Now, lately I resort to this Antimos mosquito repellant which seems to work. I've been using this for the past one week.  It's tidy and handy.  I take it almost wherever I go except to the kitchen and bathroom.  I may have to get more of these repellants as the only one I have is given to me by my sister.

At the point of blogging this, there are already a few red swollen spots on my legs. 

Stop disturbing the insect

Wyng, still in his uniform after school, intrigued by the insect

Wyng always can't resist leaving those insects alone.  He'll be preocuppied with them for a while most of the time.

Here, before he even stepped into the house, he was already trying to get the grasshopper away from the bamboo plant.  He used the water spray to shoo it away.  

The next day, the grasshopper ended up in my toilet.  Well, I wonder if this was the same one which Wyng harassed the day before.  

He got a warning from Mommy not to disturb any creature and let them stay in their habitat peacefully.  Dig me, Wyng!

Mom chose Thai food at Flying Chillies

To celebrate Mom's birthday, this time Thai food was the choice.  Mindful that we had to order some food which suit the kids especially Wyng, we ended with quite a tableful.  Two dishes to satisfy Wyng, pandan chicken and the fish cake, but he only took the Pandan chicken and scrambled egg (not pictured).

After this sour and spicy Thai meal, Daddy and Mom sort of decided we won't be having tomyam soup for our meals anymore. It's too sour for our stomach to take. Moreover, with the serving here, we practically got drowned with the soup.  Hoe, for one, couldn't take too much, just about half a bowl.

The restaurant was at Mid-Valley's Flying Chillies.  Our rating for the food is probably 6 out of 10. Service is so-so only.  No major complaints about them, not that efficient, as usual, what do you expect of Malaysian customer service?

A must-have Thai dish as appetizer, mango kerabu

Spicy and sour, tom yam seafood soup

Pandan chicken, always the smallest portion, was walloped in no time.

The family's favourite, pandan chicken

Fish cake, kind of  a 'let-down'

Sweet and sour fish

If only we could have a bigger and meatier fish.

Japanese food, again

I know it's so untimely to post something about Father's Day. I missed posting this last time, so this is to make up for it and also to share the photos with visitors.  This time, we had our Japanese savouring at a sort of high-end Japanese restaurant, Kiku-Zakura.  It's was my suggestion. Ouch... so painful on my pocket.  I regretted the decision, not because of the food but the price tag.

Daddy's the king for the day, so naturally, he picked his favourite and pricey one from the menu.

The most expensive menu on the table, Bento, Daddy's favourite

Hoe can't resist rice and he picked this curry chicken rice

Hoe's curry chicken choice

 As allllllways, Mom chose Teriyaki Chicken rice.

Mom's choice of Teriyaki Chicken rice

 Since Mom was footing the bill, she had another side order to satisfy her 'tuna' pangs, Tuna Californian roll.

Not something that could satisfy Wyng's appetite, he shared Mom's Teriyaki chicken rice as well.

Wyng's 'nugget' dish

How to change the administrator's password?

Hoe told me excitedly he has learnt how to change my desktop's log-in password without having to log in.  In disbelief and scepticism, I asked him to show to me right away on the desktop.

Sure enough, he demonstrated to me how he did it before the log-in screen comes.  It was done while the PC was in the booting stage, in the operating system booting.  Not really certain how and where he learnt it although he said he learnt it through one of his IT lessons at school, I cautioned him not to attempt to try this anymore. Even if he has done it, his act will soon be discovered as changing the password means the administrator will notice once she logs in.

Although I didn't react very well to this discovery, this guy has some kind of intelligence if he really wants something.  He can think of ways to get round something.  Sigh...if only he could put this intelligence of his on something more useful. I'm talking about his academics, of course. 

What kids do nowadays

Three kids in a family. An iPad each!

So, this is the common scene now at public places.  At almost every single table in WIFI eateries, you can see the indispensable smart machines, either a smart phone, a tablet or an I-pad.

Three kids in the family, father and mother.  4 I-pads, at the table! And another smart phone. The equation is perfect. 5 in the family with 5 intelligent machines. Except for their maid who was free, the entire family was busy. Not talking, mind you but touching away and pressing, their I-gadgets.

Only the table on both sides of this table (including our table) were aware of their obsession.  We couldn't help but gazed at them a few times whilst savouring our dinner. Well, the parents were least disturbed by their kids' behaviour at the table.   The other table was occupied by an elderly couple who seemed clueless with why the kids were so engrossed in the square machines.

As for me, I was bold enough to snap their pictures for me to post in this blog.

Not wanting to be a sour grape, I'm glad I don't own an iPad or iPhone though my kids are crazy about them.  Whenever we frequent shopping malls, the first place they head for is any IT shop which sells Apple products. And they will be stuck there for a while until Mom and Dad come shooing them out of the store.  That's all the iPadding they can enjoy.  No complaints at all about this! In fact, I'm glad they are iPad free, at least at home.

Wyng and his drawing book

After dinner, Wyng was allowed to play at one of the stores

Whilst the kids beside us were iPadding away, Wyng was busy reading the words on the disposable paper table liner in front of him.  The history of some Thai Gods were depicted on the paper liner. Before dinner was served, he was engrossed in drawing his pictures.  Yeah, he brought his drawing book along that night.

We shared thoughts about those things written apart from commenting about the other customers in the restaurants whose hands were also occupied with their intelligent machines. It was an observation started by Wyng and Hoe as they scanned the entire restaurant and deduced the preoccupation of people with iPads or smart phones.  I was speechless!

Why have a date in a restaurant when they could just iPad at home?  Mothers are supposed to be communicating with their kids to share their thoughts and not allow them to get unnecessarily attached to these machines.  Such is the sorry state of family communication.  Who's at fault? But, does anyone care or realise the damage it is causing in the first place?

Mothers especially, it's time to weigh what's best for your kids! A lot of lessons can be learnt in raising kids in this new but challenging era.

What does their grandma do?

What their grandma does:
a. washes her grandkids' school shoes, school uniform, lunch containers and tumblers
b. buys fresh fish from the market for me to cook for the kids
c. alerts me if I should send or pick the kids on time for tuition
d. smuggling Wyng's favourite candies into the house (knowing fully well that Mom doesn't approve to this)
e. cooking my kids' favourite dish
f. wakes the kids up in the morning
g. buys dumplings or biscuits from the wet market for the kids as breakfast

Her enthusiasm to attend concerts or performances put up by her grandkids is comparable to that of mothers of the kids.  And over the years, she has the opportunity to see so many performances. So blessed is her!

Except for task (a) which I don't do due to my eczematic skin condition, Mom is not shrugging her responsibilities. She never fails in her parental role. Just that Grandma dotes on her grandkids too much that she does more than required of her.  She also worries about them just like how Mom does. In fact, she is a worrier, now I know who I take after!  Perhaps, this trait of hers explains her wizened appearance but mind you, she's a bull when it comes to accomplishing home chores.

Grandma's birthday two years ago

On top of the above, grandma does break some rules. She keeps mum when Wyng doesn't finish his plate of meals.  Worse still, she collaborated with Hoe and hid from me the fact that he was playing computer games on unearthly hours of the day.

So, I'm not surprised that the kids miss their Grandma when she doesn't spend the nights at our home.  Hoe once said,'You must live long, Ah Poh!'

Gone for good

KW, my nephew, has gone to serve as a missionary for the LDS church for 2 years.  Being the second male grandson in my maternal family, it's not surprising that he's being doted on by his aunties. Hence, all of us, aunties, willingly sacrificed our time to send our beloved nephew off at the airport on National Day.  Lucky him, his departure was earlier scheduled on the eve of National Day which would mean only his parents were able to see him off.

We expect flood to occur. And true enough, Grandma couldn't control her tears as soon as seeing one of her most loved grandsons.  And we still had another two hours more before his departure.

Photo session with the 'star' of the morning....

Yee Mah posing for the camera while Grandma just couldn't hold her tears 

Snapping a picture with cousins

This family picture was also taken using a Polaroid which KW took with him to the mission

My nephew, having the 'last' McD meal with his family, an hour before departure

While his Mom (on the left) was busy jotting down some last-minute reminder notes for him, here's KW, still  so cheery for the camera

We blamed our Mom for triggering our emotional button.  Deep inside our heart, we couldn't bear to see our nephew leaving us for 2 years. Everyone was so emotional and teary at the departure gate when KW gave us, one by one, his last hugs.  My sister, KW's mom held back her tears so that her son could leave without any hesitation.  But tears flowed from her eyes as soon as KW left.

Goodbye! We shall miss you!

Two years is not too long but not short. Knowing that he will be doing something for a good cause and that he will be coming home as a finer young man receives blessings and support from his family and relatives.

Help me with my smart phone!

What era are we in? An era of touch...I mean touch phone or rather smart phone as far as communicative device is concerned.

My HTC Wildfire S with its 'non-original' case

HTC Wildfire S

This unit was the only one left in the store. I love the pink!

I have finally gotten myself a smart to keep up with the Joneses, that is after much ding dong. With the perception that a touch phone is not going to give me any hard time, I went hunting for one.  Nobody who is 'in-touch' with technology should be opting for anything less than a smart phone. However, being more cost-conscious now, I am not willing to part with anything near 2gran just to get the 'made for human' Samsung SIII phones, I am willing to settle for less hi-tech phones.  IPhone is definitely a big NO for me. As what Hoe said, it's not for people like me who seldom FB (Facebook). He's right, I am no big fan of IPhone.

So, my next logical choice is a Nokia, I am soooooo loyal to my old E71 (by the way, my loyalty WAS not questionable as all my previous phones were Nokia phones) which is starting to give me problems after 3+ years of faithful service to me. Lumia is what I was eyeing for,being a smart phone.  I even walked into a Nokia store, tested a few Lumia's but unfortunately Nokia salesmen weren't aggressive enough.  Otherwise, a Lumia should already be in my possession.

The sales went to HTC instead.  To cut the long story short, after some persuasion but not really hard sales, an HTC Wild Fire S (a 2010 model) sale was closed.  At RM699, I want to believe that it is a value buy.  AFTER paying for the phone and after a few enquiries of the price from other stores, it is confirmed that I did get a good bargain.

To cut another story short again, my HTC phone isn't as user-friendly as I would like it to be. Typing SMSes can no longer be done at lightning speed.  The keypad is too small for my fingers making composition of each message become more of a cautious task rather than an effortless one.  Frustration and stress are now part of sending messages.  I can never composed a zero-error SMS, not to mention a speedy one. Shuts! So, I have countless messages ending up as Drafts. And to go through the list of messages in the draft folder needs tonnes of patience as the latest draft will appear on the top of the list, whereas the phone always takes me to the bottom of the list ie the oldest draft. 

Calling someone is not a breeze anymore. Instead of selecting the person to call from Contacts easily, sigh.... some adjustments are really needed, a whole long list of contacts with any common first or second alphabet or number will appear. 

Having said all the above, my worst problem is still on texting.  I am even contemplating buying a new keypad phone to replace my smart phone!  Talking about being hi-tech....

Should I worry about my PID?

Do I have to be needlessly worried when my gynae gave me a clean bill of health?

Perhaps not. I should have full confidence in him, a gynae specialising in oncology.  Afterall, he was highly recommended to me by my ex-colleague who had her cancerous breasts and womb removed by him.

True enough, he is a very experienced gynae.  After seeing him and his diagnosis, I am more relieved.  

In 2007, this Dr Wong diagnosed me with PID which stands for Pelvic Inflammatory Disease. Check this web for more information on what's PID.  Never would I imagine myself contracting this disease with all the discomfort felt on the right side of my hip.  They were just dull but lingering pain which lasted for a few days, came and was gone.  As I was posting this, I had not had this pain for the past few days. Only sporadically.  In fact, I had gone to see a female gynae before going for a second opinion with this Dr Wong.  As I wasn't very comfortable with this female gynae's advice of going back for a follow-up 3 months later, I proceeded to get a confirmation from Dr Wong on this PID issue and another problem.

Just as what he had previously advised me 5 years ago, there is nothing I should worry about as I still have my normal menstrual cycle and that the dull pain isn't bothering me.  His last words before I left the clinic was if I am still worried I could follow up again after 6 months although he had initially told me to see him again a year later.

You look gothic!

Just because I put on my eye-liner, nude lipstick and blusher does not make me look gothic! But, that comment came from Hoe when he looked at me wide-eyed for a good few seconds, at least 10, I think.  I wasn't sure whether I should feel flattered or not!

Having a nude face most of the time except for the occasional lipstick during weekend shopping spree for the past few years invited that kind of remark from my observant son.  I wasn't even completely dolled-up.  And when I showed them my recent studio photos where I was all made-up and dressed to the nines, they drew 'yerrr'  (not equivalent to 'Yes', more of 'dislikes') and sarcastic giggles from them.

I just wished they could be fairer to me and give me a sincere compliment.  Those photos were the masterpiece of professional hands and touch-up as well. Can't be that bad, especially when Mom could still make some heads turn, err...maybe a decade ago.  Now? Not sure, daren't find out.

Mom needs help!

I've procrastinated getting an extra hand to help me with my....house chores..of course. What don't we procrastinate, by the way? Not because I'm trying to be a super woman. Probably, I can handle some house chores along with my home business.  And, I have a pair of teen hands to help out on Sunday (yes, only on Sunday) which means I am left with other endless house chores to cope with.  Oh! I should not forget my Mom (my sisters will kill me for being ungrateful) who helps me with the washing and cooking for dinner so that I have less things to worry.  At least, the kids have home-cooked food on the table for dinner.

After more than 2 years of staying in this bigger house of mine, I am calling it quits! Enough of rushing  frantically on a day when everyone is supposed to be relaxing or slowing down their pace or going to church.  It's one chore after another.  And by the end of the fourth chore, I'm drained!  When I am drained, other things go chaotic (a different story perhaps on this..).  Working from home doesn't mean I have to work 7/24.  I need a deserved break too.  

With my eczematic condition, the more I should be staying away from 'wet' house chores.  Anyway, it's a mountainous task maintaining a clean and reasonably tidy and presentable house with only so few hands willing to chip in some energy.  Thinking that it's easy to get help, I have asked my neighbour to give me the contact of her existing part-time domestic help.  To my surprise, she's fully booked and can't accept more jobs.  What!

There are dozens of cleaning services companies out there I can choose from, actually. But, no way, with news of cases of burglary or what not. No way am I going to let total strangers, especially those without any recommendation, to stay in my house for at least 4 hours.  So, I have to rely on recommendation from people I know.

There's another contact which I can call.  I've gotten hold of the number for about at least 2 weeks now. Too busy to call, I suppose.  Sigh... procrastinating again. My hands can't wait. 

No home-cooked lunch

It went on for one week since last week.  Pity my kids, have to make do with tapau-ed (packed home) lunches.

Not because Mom is lazy or an aftermath of the drought. It's just my hands playing tricks on me again.  In order not to aggravate the condition, I've decided to stay water-free with my right hand and stayed away from the kitchen basin as much as I can.  

Hoe is not complaining at all as he walloped anything to satisfy his hunger pangs.  Wyng, though he isn't really whining but from the speed he gobbles his food, I can tell he still prefers Mom's soup for his meals.

My eczema skin condition doesn't get any better, not that I expect it to.  It's been a while since I get this dry cracking of my skin.  But, this was the worst of all.  I've never had such deep crack before and it lasted for about two weeks.  Such discomfort whenever I contact with water.

I am encountering problem uploading my photos on Blogger.com.  The only picture I managed to upload was the one below which was taken about more than a week after my skin started to itch and dry again. There was no crack yet then.  I will upload a picture of an aggravated condition.

Apart from my fingers, the palm was not spared. Notice the red buldging rashes on the palm.

A week later...It's so bad that it began to crack,  deeper and it had spread to the adjacent pointer as well