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

He is awesome

This was posted on 5 June 2009 in my previous blog.  Here is a reposting.


I couldn't believe the effort he is taking to help me promote my venture among his classmates in school. If only he put such effort and talent of his in other areas such as his studies, I think this guy will fly. But, ....

Never have I taught him to use such method to publicise this. He did it when I was not aware of it, using the little home 3-in-1 printer, scanner and photocopier to photocopy his home-made flyers complete with coloured graphics of his favourite anime (which are not related at all to what I'm doing). He was too selective and cautious with the people that he was going to approach. So, I explained to him the law of 'the more you approach, the higher is the success rate'. He seems to understand it. 


As I am writing this now, this is the defiant teen of mine now. Wasn't he angelic? Mothers of teens will understand what I mean. How an angel can turn into someone as 'devilish' as to break all possible rules. Well, maybe some mothers out there are fortunate and are able to have obedient teens, but certainly not me.


For the record, he managed to secure one customer who has been with me for almost 3 years now. 

My teen always gives me surprises

Unfortunately, they are mostly the shocking ugly truths which always never fail to send my blood pressure shooting sky high.


You see, he has been attending Kumon since December last year.  It is his choice to go for this class. Hence, he should be giving all out to make sure he does well, isn't that logical?  Once, I caught him 'breaking' the first rule of the Kumon routine.  He didn't record down the time he took to complete the set he was doing which receive 'hoo-hah' from me. Upon interrogation, all he said was something that didn't make much sense and not even worth my remembering.  


In another instance again about Kumon, he was seen copying answers of the worksheets he was 'doing' from his previous completed worksheets. How 'creative' is this fella in making shortcuts? 

Catching him clicking away his handphone while he was supposed to be revising his work is already quite common scenes nowadays. It ended up with the custody of the phone taken over by me which always got rebutted by him or getting an earful from me.

How about some of his non-academic books under his reference books? Not unusual.  Oh, how I hate to step into his room all because of the fear of discovery of some shocking truths!  Believe me there are worse things that had taken place in that room!

The number one rule about coming back home after school was long broken by him.  He is supposed to come back home straight from school and if he ever needs to stay back at school, he has to call back home. Not only he doesn't do that when he stays back at school at some occasions, he even came back late when he promised earlier to be home for lunch or on time for Kumon class. Again, his replies to my queries show that he didn't bother much to keep his promise ie to come back on time. Further questioning will reveal this difficult teen's indiscipline.  This is the typical Hoe!

" I hung around in school because I want to join my friends..." or "I played basketball ..."
"Why couldn't you come back by the time you promised even if you played basketball?"
"I didn't keep track of the time..."

What do this tell about Hoe? Blatant ignorance to comply to rules! Sigh...

Not only he wasted the lunch cooked for him, he also had to miss the Kumon class as my schedule does not allow me to send the kids for Kumon too late in the evening.  Having to wait for Hoe means Wyng will also miss Kumon, something that I don't want to happen.  Putting all these 'losses' aside, what is disappointing is his failure to see the negative implications of his defiance and laid-back attitude.

"Why? What's wrong?" These words uttered by Hoe each time an 'offcence' is unfolded are enough to drive me up the wall.

Mom's lessons are many to be learnt and I just wish the pain of learning to cope with my teen is lessened.

Press charges against neighbours

Staying in this neighbourhood is becoming stressful with the presence of certain 'hooligans' who choose to disturb the peace of the residents for their own pleasure.

I'm beginning to realise the disadvantage of staying in a house where there is a small area right in front of the house.  This area is being abused as a football field! Not because there is low traffic but this is just a walking distance from where the hooligans stay.

You can see ball flying as high as the height of a double-storey house. The impact of the ball falling on any unlucky car is enough to cause a damage.  Pray hard! That's all I can do, most of the time.  Telling them off doesn't work, that is how they got their names, hooligans!  So, what happen to the parents of these hooligans whose age range from middle primary to early secondary kids.  I believe either they don't give a damn because the area is safe from their own houses and no damage will be suffered by them. Or, they are also no different from their offsprings. 'Like father like son' holds true most of the time.

Come most evenings, whenever I hear balls bouncing, I start to panick.  Can't blame it as I slowly develop a phobia to balls.  If my car is parked outside our home,a great chance it will not be spared.

Breaking a car window (happened to my next-door neighbour when they just moved in), breaking a car bonnet (which belonged to one of the hooligans), flower pots, banging gates, hitting cars parked by the roadside are just common.

Wyng, sensing my annoyance and I believe he too disturbed with their stubbornness, suggested an action that I should take.  It happened after the ball banged my new gate.  A great thud ensued but upon interrogation, none of them admitted kicking the ball to my gate.

"Mommy, ask them to pay la if they break our things."

"How to do that when they don't admit doing it?"

"Press charges against them la..."

I guess even Wyng can't stand the hooligans' notoriety.

Burger for dinner

Nothing unusual but it's a first for the family by the roadside!  Where else if not at Wangsa Maju's Kaw Kaw Burger.

RM10 for a meal set consisting of a burger, 2 sausages and a drink, still not too costly la.. But, if you ask me to stand in the long queue to wait for a meal, I'm afraid my hunger pangs cannot beat my impatience.

Hoe gave a 'best' rating for this meal. Wyng? I believe, it's ok for him as he was already half full after taking the 2 sausages.  Grandma who was with us (but did not take burger) commented that he should not have eaten the sausages first for they filled his stomach too soon before he even savoured the juicy burger.  Grandma only had char kueh teow, Malay style for dinner, available at a nearby stall which hardly had a single customer.  The serving was too small for her and it was for a RM4. A burger is better only if I can convince her to take this forbidden food.

Reliving the tradition

This was posted on 18 September 2008 in my previous blog.  Here is a reposting.

With the presence of the grandparents, the tradition of gathering for a dinner during mid-Autumn festival (or commonly called Moon Cake Festival) is still alive. What about when they are not around? I'd like to continue with the culture of eating mooncakes and having the kids playing lanterns. For the story of how this festival comes about, go to story of 'Woman Of the Moon'.

I still remember when I was young, our family used to have a mooncake party at the car porch after dinner. Delicacies such as the must-have moon cakes (during the day, moon cakes are shunned by everyone due to the overfeeding of this cakes prior to this auspicious day), pomelo, ground nuts, fruits, 'bulls' horns' (can anyone tell me what's the name for this food?), jelly, and chinese yam are generously placed on a table for everyone in the family to savour.

We invited our neighbours to join us and they too had their own table full of food, we basically exchanged food. We didn't tire of telling stories of the moon (concocted by us just for fun).

This tradition has since stopped since the departure of my father. I wish to relive this sometime in the future.

Mommy is out of earth!

This was posted on 14 October 2008 in my previous blog.  Here is a reposting.

Wyng drew the earth. His circle was almost perfect. Patches were added (he was drawing with a pencil without any colour pencil with him). I tested him the colour each of the patch signify.


Next, he drew the face of Mommy. He then wrote 'Mommyoutofearth' with no space in between the words. I corrected him and subsequently he wrote it the correct way on another line.


He was elated after completing his drawing and kept chanting 'Mummy out of earth'. I really couldn't manage to get the meaning of his drawing. 

I can't believe Mom is sewing

It's eye-straining, it's finger-pricking. Something I don't enjoy doing now at my age. I can't even thread the needle as easily as how I used to do it 5 years ago. I'd rather leave this mountaineous task (I mean just the needle threading part, to Hoe).  It's not about saving a few ringgit to get his pants altered just because it's too long.  It's about convenience at the right time.  This is always required urgently on weekends when the next day is a school day. Somehow, holes always must be mended on weekends and not earlier.  So, it leaves Mom with no choice but to fulfill this motherly responsibility. If I have a choice, I'd rather have a heart-to-heart conversation or a revision session with the kids than doing this sewing stuff. It's best left to the expert who can just do this in the blink of an eye, effortlessly.

What it means to have a myopic kid?

It definitely means higher maintenance what with a kid like Wyng who always tests the durability of glasses.  He hardly takes care of them.  After only two years of being diagnosed with myopic, he has ruined 3 pairs of glasses.  He was wearing the fourth pair of glasses with no damages until a few days ago, unfortunately, we had to give him a new set of lenses as his power (for myopia) has increased by about 100 for both eyes. His fourth pair of glasses was only a few months old, less than six!  Thankfully, he manages to maintain his astigmatism at the same level as last year.

Left with no choice, we had his lenses changed whilst still retaining the old frames.  On top of this, we made another pair of spare glasses for him as a contingency for 'accident', just in case. At a power of 200 and 175, this can be blinding enough for this avid reader.

Having an increase in his myopia just means that this boy has been writing or reading at a distance with his eyes too close to his books.  Sigh.. I have caught him a zillion times with his chin on the desk whilst doing his homework. This does not include the time he spends alone in his room alone for his bedtime stories or reading during other times of the day.

I'm glad that his astigmatism doesn't increase. It shouldn't be as he hardly has access to the computer and television watching is mostly at a 'safe' distance.