Tony Roma's Ribs

We went to Tony Roma's Ribs Restaurant @ Gardens, Mid Valley last week to bring my mum to taste one of the best beef ribs we've ever tasted. I also wanted to redeem this :


an onion loaf. On Alycia's birthday last December, we had lunch at Tony Roma's restaurant at the Pavillion outlet. We were given a voucher to redeem an onion loaf the next time we order a main course. The onion loaf was quite huge and anyone would feel bloated after chowing down the entire loaf. The onion loaf is made of huge onion rings deep fried with batter. Quite tasty but the most I can eat is only several pieces as they fill you up really fast.



The delicious beef ribs.

Hubby ordered a blue cheese burger. For a cheese lover like me, I was surprised that I hated the blue cheese. It really tasted like baby's regurgitated milk.... no joke! One bite of the burger sent nausea down my guts. Hubby asked me to scrape off the cheese which I did but the pungent baby's vomit taste was still lingering on the burger. So if you think you love cheese and want to order a blue cheese burger, think twice. However, some people may love it, just like how some people think 'chow tau fu' (fermented smelly beancurd) taste heavenly.


We ordered a grilled salmon with buttered rice for the gals,


and a ribbon shaped seafood pasta. The portion was so huge that we could not finish and had to pack it back for dinner.



My maid had forgotten to pack the bibs into the bag. Luckily Tony Roma has huge plastic bibs for diners.

Sherilyn enjoying the hot buns with garlic butter. You should try their garlic butter - very tasty.

Final Ultimatum

Bear with me ok, here's another long ranting on my pet peeve....

Yesterday evening, my maid agent dropped by my house to counsel my Cambodian maid. After the counseling session, my maid appeared even more dreamy, forgetful and now she even puts on a 'hak meen sun' face (black face). The whole of this morning, she gave me a blank look as if physically she was here but her mind was somewhere else. When she was feeding Sherilyn breakfast this morning, she fell asleep and I had to wake her up! Minutes later, her eyes were fixated at an object and she was oblivious to the surroundings (fatt ngau tau).

Next, she was keeping the clean laundry from the clothes hanger outside and left the clothes in the living room whilst she hung out the wet laundry. Sherilyn then began to play with the clothes and scattered them on the floor. When I picked the clothes up, I was shocked that most of the clothes were still damp. When I asked her why she had kept the clothes as they were still wet, she gave me a blank look. By then I was really pissed off with her. I had to check the clothes piece by piece to single out the wet ones. When I asked her to touch the clothes herself and asked her to tell me if they were wet or dry, she just shoke her head slowly as if telling me the clothes are dry! She appeared really blur and 'moa sum kei' (lack of enthusiasm and zeal to work) and I really felt like shaking her shoulders to wake her up from her dream. I asked her to be frank with me and to let me know if she wanted to continue working for me and she said yes. I counseled her and told her to buckle up.

Just a moment ago, my maid, Sherilyn and I were upstairs in my room. My maid was changing the bed sheet and I was in the toilet. When I came out from the toilet, I realized that Sherilyn, my Miss Accident Prone had gone out of the room, jumping away and running down the stairs. My blur maid was dreaming away, obviously very oblivious to the surroundings and did not even notice that Sherilyn had opened the door and ran downstairs. I gave her a piece of my mind and told her that if she does not buckle up and keeps dreaming and being forgetful, I will send her back to the agent. I was very frank with her and told her that the agent has offered me a new replacement temp Indon maid but I chose to give her a chance to turn over a new leaf. I will give her one week to change and if she shows no improvement by next Friday, I will send her back to the agent and this time, I really mean it as I can no longer tolerate her.

A Very Constipated Sherilyn

Since birth, Sherilyn has been a very constipated baby. When she was a newborn baby, she would only poo poo once in every 3 - 8 days and when she did her poopie business, it would last between 15 - 30 minutes! Last year, I found out that her constipation was due to the Choline in the formula milk that she drinks (Enfagrow A+). Now she's on Dutch Lady 123 (day time) and Enfagrow A+ with fibre (night time). For a long time, the constipation was kept at bay until recently. She has been suffering from constipation for the last 2 weeks. This could be due to the fact that she's not eating enough and thus, does not have enough bulk to form the stools. Her eating habits have become from bad to worse lately. Whenever we eat rice with dishes, she would pout her lips and give me a 'foo kwa meen' (a face as bitter looking as bitter gourd). My maid and I have to take turns to coax, bribe and threaten her to eat... for almost 1.5-2 hours every meal. When it comes to bread, cookies, crackers, cakes and fish balls, her face would light up and she will have no problems chomping down her food.... bribe-free, cane-free and threat-free. But I can't be feeding her with these everyday, twice a day, can I?

Today is the 3rd day she has not been doing her poopie business. This morning, I made her sit on her throne for almost 2 hours yet it was a fruitless effort. After her nap this afternoon, I made her sit on the toilet for almost 1 hour and voila, the poop finally made its appearance, albeit with much pain and blood. She drinks a lot of water and milk but without sufficient solid food, there is no bulk and thus, suffers from constipation. Do you have a child who's like Sherilyn too?

Go Easy On Your Sugar

When I was carrying Alycia, my gynae ordered me to do a Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT) and I really hated it. First, I had to fast overnight and the next morning, I had to drink a few glasses of yucky ultra sweet glucose solution before my urine was taken and tested over a period of a few hours. I passed the test but when I was 34 weeks pregnant, there were traces of sugar in my urine during one of the routine urine tests. For my subsequent pregnancies, I begged my gynae not to have this test done. The day that my gynae told me I had mild gestational diabetes (luckily only for a short while) till today, I have been really very watchful over what I eat. Since my late maternal grandmother had diabetes, I am also at risk of having diabetes if I don’t watch what goes into my mouth. Diabetes is really a dreaded hard-to-treat disease and if anyone has it, they really need to get a high risk life insurance from wholesaleinsurance.net to safeguard themselves. So the easiest way out is to watch our diet and go easy on sweet stuff.

The Future Ballerina

That's Alycia in the trial baby ballet class yesterday. Read more about her ballet class here.

Alycia Is Learning Ballet

We have just returned from a free trial ballet class at the dance center...... and have signed up Alycia for ballet impromptu! I did not intend to let Alycia learn ballet so soon but she loved it. Maybe it was because her little 5-year old aunty, Wei Wei is also there and she has company. I shall upload the pictures that I have taken at the dance center and post it in my blogs tomorrow. So stay tuned.....

What's She Thinking About?

Just what is Sherilyn thinking about so deeply here... with her arms up behind her head? Sherilyn is always full of funny ideas and poses. Read more about her here.

Fun On The Trampoline

That’s Alycia and Sherilyn jumping on the trampoline. The three of us really enjoy jumping on the trampoline together but we have not been doing this exercise for the last 9 months. I can’t wait to be able to start my exercise regimen again but I would have to wait for at least another 3 to 4 more months. What I would really love to get for the kids is a children-friendly trampoline with enclosure and W-shaped leg bases. The W-shaped leg bases make the trampoline more stable and the kids will not fall off the trampoline with the safety net. I have not seen this type of trampoline here before but have seen them at trampolinepartsandsupply.com. I know my kids will love this new trampoline and I can even allow them to jump on their own with the new safety features.

In A Dilemma

My maid agent has promised to give me a replacement temp maid to exchange with my super slow Cambodian maid by this week. The new replacement temp maid will be another rejected maid, this time an Indonesian maid. Whilst part of me really want to try out another maid, the other part of me is worried that the new temp maid will be worse off than my current Cambodian maid. Besides, I am really very tired of training the new temp maid all over again. Based on my experience with 5 Indon maids, I find Indon maids more cunning than Cambodian maids. Though my current Cambodian maid is super slow, blur and at times appear really dumb, I think I rather keep this type of maid than a cunning maid who has tricks and mischief up their sleeves. On the other hand, my assumption may be wrong. Who knows maybe this new temp Indon maid will turn out well? I'm really in a dilemma now. I have to make a decision by this Friday.

Kids Say The Darnest Things

My 2 brats can really make my day with the things that they say. A couple of mornings ago, I told Alycia and Sherilyn that I have an appointment with the gynae in the afternoon. Alycia who always seems to be on top of things and knows very well what's going on though I never tell her things directly asked me "mummy, are you going to see Dr Jason today?" I wonder how she knows I am going to see Dr Jason coz I have been seeing Dr Chung (my fertility specialist) and Dr Patrick (the fetal specialist) all the while. Alycia knows why I have to see 3 different doctors and she knows where their clinics are too.

Later as I was dressing up to go out, Sherilyn asked me "mummy, are you going to see the doctor to take out baby now?" "Mummy stay in hospital. Daddy bring us to see you in hospital" . When I heard that, I burst out laughing. The gals seem to know that mummy is going to deliver the baby soon. At the hospital, Sherilyn saw a woman on a wheelchair and she kept asking me why the woman was in the wheelchair. I then explained to her that the woman had a surgery on her stomach and now she can't walk. When she came home, she kept saying this to me "after doctor take out baby from your stomach, I will push mummy on the wheelchair, ok?" Sometimes, my gals can really say things that touches my heart.

Disney Swimsuit

Daddy bought us a new Disney swimsuit with a picture of Minnie Mouse together with a pair of goggles and a matching swimming cap with Minnie Mouse on it last week. Mummy said no need to wear swimming cap as it would make us look old but daddy was very insistent in getting us a cap so that the goggles would fit nicely on our heads without our hair everywhere on our face.

Daddy did not like us to wear bikinis when we swim as he said bikinis are cute but not wind-proof and he didn't want us to catch a cold. So he bought us each a Disney swimsuit though they were very costly. We really love daddy as he is always so cool and willing to buy us anything that we want..... but mummy is not too happy as he feels daddy is a tad extravagant and spoiling us rotten.



Mummy thinks the Disney swimsuit with frilly skirt looks like a professional skater's costume. She even feels we can wear the swimsuit to the shopping mall as it looks like a dress. Do you like our Disney swimsuits?


I had a fall and a bandage on my forehead, so mummy said I can't pose with the swimming cap on.

Pregnancy At Week 31+

That's my big baby belly at week 31+. The 2 gals still love to hug and kiss my belly, especially Sherilyn. Baby is very active and is moving, squirming and kicking mummy all the time. She's also very prone to hiccups. The tightenings and Braxton Hicks contractions are very frequent and I get them throughout the day. They are more frequent when I need to pee, when I move too much, when the baby moves and stretches, when my tummy is being touched or pressed (especially during ultrasound scans) and after every meal. That's the reason why I can't eat much these days. My guts are now all squeezed by the enlarging uterus to a point where I hardly feel hungry these days.

Alycia Can Finally Write

Yes she can and I am so proud of her. During my mum's 10-day stay with me, she has been coaching Alycia with her writing for 1-2 hours everyday and now, she can finally write all the numbers from 0 to 10. She can also write her own name, though at times the letter 'c' will be written the other way round. Anyway, it's already a big achievement for her since she had missed attending pre-school for more than half a year last year.



Notice the remarks in red from her class teacher?

More Rantings On My Super Blur Maid

I really need to rant and rave about my super blur and dreamy Cambodian maid again. I don't fancy most of the posts in my blog to focus on my maid but I really need to rant out the silly things that she did that really drive me nuts..... everyday without fail. I really don't understand how her brain functions and just can't believe she is so terribly forgetful. Last night, I had given her specific instructions to remove the pork from the freezer early this morning to prepare soup.
This morning, when she wanted to throw the pork into the basin of hot water to clean them, I just had a guts feeling that she had taken the wrong bag of pork. So I asked her to read out to me the 'identification label' I had pasted on the plastic bag. She then read the label.... "pork for frying".... then gave me her usual silly / guilty smile again and gave me a silly excuse. I was really mad with her coz not only had she taken out the wrong type of pork again but she also took out 2 packets of pork instead of 1 packet. I told her that it would defeat the purpose for me to label the meat if she doesn't read the labels. She has been working for us for more than 1 month and she's been doing this almost everyday yet she can go wrong. I was mad coz now the meat was already half defrost and it is not advisable to re-freeze them again. Also, she had to defrost the correct bag of pork now to make the soup and more time will be wasted.

I wonder why she's so terribly forgetful, careless and blur. When she works, she gives me a blank look, as if her mind is not with her. Sometimes, I feel like giving her a good shake on the shoulders to wake her up.

Kids Need To Exercise

On Friday, my mum and I finally had the time to bring Alycia and Sherilyn to the playground to let them release all their pent up energy. I have not brought the gals to the playground for ages as evenings were normally spent coaching Alycia in her heavy load of homework from pre-school. The gals were really happy the moment they reached the playground, like puppies that have just been released from the cage. I strongly believe that kids should be given more time to play and exercise, preferably everyday. Their little brains need all the oxygen to function optimally too and being cooped up at home and indoors all the time is quite unhealthy for a growing child.



Alycia has piled up some pounds lately resulting from lack of exercise. I used to bring the gals to the park and for evening / morning walks almost everyday last year. I really should start the gals on an exercise regime once agian.

Sweet Potato Omelette

My Cambodian maid's cooking has slightly improved. She used to overcook the food or had them partially burnt. After some guidance from my mum and me, she can now prepare a decent meal of fried rice, fried vermicelli and omelette. She still cannot make a pot of good soup though.

This sweet potato and spring onion omelette was cooked by her, all by herself and it was by far one of the best dishes she has prepared for us in her one month stay with us.

Ingenuity Or Primitive?

I seem to have a pet peeve with my Cambodian maid. Sorry, just bear with my maid stories. Like what Sweet Jasmine has commented, I can even write a book on interesting maid stories, LOL! Guess what I saw my maid doing today? After she had cooked some noodles to eat with the fried chicken that we had bought her last night, she poured the noodles and chicken into a melamine bowl. She then sat on a stool to eat her bowl of noodles.... slurping the noodles away loudly and obviously enjoying her meal. Beneath the bowl was a dried mandarin orange peel / skin. She had used the mandarin orange skin as coaster to protect her hand from the heat. I really find this lady hilarious. On one hand, I think she was being ingenious to have thought of such an idea but on the other hand, it is really primitive of her to do such a thing at this day and age. I can't blame her as she told me she is from a real 'ulu' village where people there still use charcoal to cook and boil water.

I Feel Really Heavy

As my tummy is getting bigger, I feel really heavy. I find it hard to walk fast and extremely difficult to get up when I am in a sitting, squatting or lying down position. My baby should be around 2kg by now. When I get up from a lying down position to an upright position, I even have to lift my tummy with both my hands, otherwise my tummy will tighten or harden again. I am only 31 weeks+ preggers and I am sure I will find it even harder to move about as my pregnancy progresses. I can't imagine how difficult it is for women carrying twins, triplets or more babies to move about during their pregnancy. Chin Nee, all the best to you!

Blog Rush Again

I am on a blog rush again. This time, I am trying to clear off most of my assignments before my mum goes back to Ipoh on Sunday. Once my mum's gone, I know I will not have so much time on the computer. My maid is really quite hopeless, terribly forgetful and I can't rely on her to do much. I still have 10 more outstanding assignments and I know I won't be able to complete them before my mum leaves. I may even have to let some of the offers expire or only work on them at the eleventh hour, which is something which I hate.

If I have not visited your blog yet, my apologies. I am really running out of time and I will try to find some time to visit your blog real soon.

Seoul Korea Korean Restaurant

Daddy had wanted to bring us to a Korean restaurant to celebrate Sherilyn's 3rd birthday but we had a last-minute change of plan and went to a Chinese restaurant instead. Since we all still wanted to eat Korean food, daddy brought us to Seoul Korea Korean restaurant @ Taman Desa the next day. The food was really good as the chef is the owner's mother and all the food are cooked by her.

There will be a wide selection of over 10 types of delicious starters on the house (replenishable) if you order a set dish from the menu. Set dishes can be steamboat or BBQ. The starters / appetisers alone are enough to fill you up.



The Korean BBQ beef set, which was really tasty.

Some of the appetisers / starters that we had :

Deep fried cuttlefish with special sauce - very tasty.


Steam egg in hot pot, which was Alycia and Sherilyn's favorite.





The kim chi soup which was very appetising.

We also ordered a Korean steamboat set and a Korean soup noodles with pork. Check out my other blog to view more pix.

Total bill came out to around RM130 for 4 adults and 2 kids. We enjoyed the food very much and will definitely patronize this restaurant again.

Farewell Jeff and Shir Lin

Sunday School will never be the same again without Jeff Kor Kor and Shir Lin Cheh Cheh as they will be moving to Singapore soon. Jeff and Shir Lin are Alycia and Sherilyn's Sunday School teachers. What motivates Alycia and Sherilyn to go to church every Sunday are these 2 very dedicated teachers. All the kids will surely miss Jeff Kor Kor and Shir Lin Cheh Cheh.



The kids from Sunday School celebrating the farewell of Jeff and Shir Lin.


Shir Lin -- If you are reading this, all the best to you and Jeff in Singapore. Take care of yourself and your little one too!

Braxton Hicks Contractions

I've been getting quite a bit of Braxton Hicks contractions and tightenings on my tummy lately. I am 31 weeks preggers today. I hope this is not a sign of preterm labor. I've also experienced these contractions and tightenings for both my previous pregnancies but thank God, I did not go into preterm labor. When I was carrying Alycia though, I had to be on partial bed-rest when my cervix started to shorten at week 20+ of my pregnancy.

Really Frustrating

I have just published a paid post in my blog but I have problem submitting the post to the advertiser. I keep getting a message stating that the link is not properly placed in my post. I have copied and pasted the codes to the link countless times from the advertiser's website to my blog post and have even switched the mode to Edit Html but still kept getting the error message. This is really driving me crazy and I have many posts with deadline expiring today and tomorrow.

Practise Makes Perfect

Alycia finally knows how to write her name and all the numbers from 0 through 10, though some strokes are not correct and some are quite out of shape. I must thank my mum for being so patient coaching her everyday. The heavy load of homework from her pre-school also helps as there have been lots of exercises on writing from school everyday. While her writing has improved, she really needs to get down to do some exercise in the evening. Her evenings are now bogged down rushing to complete the homework from school which is quite unhealthy for a 4-year old toddler. I may ask her teacher to reduce the homework so that she has time to play and exercise in the playground.

Malnourishment Or Plain Lazy To Remember?

I am talking about my Cambodian maid. I just can't believe her forgetfulness. I wonder if her terribly poor memory resulted from malnourishment as a child in Cambodia or she's just plain lazy to remember things. I have lost count on the number of times she has forgotten to close the kettle cover after pouring hot water into the kettle. In my house, after the water is boiled using the electric kettle, the hot water will be poured into another kettle for it to cool down. From day one till today, she has forgotten to close the kettle cover - twice a day. Last night, she left the kettle uncovered and water exposed throughout the night. This morning when she woke up, this blur sotong did not even notice that she did not close the cover until I saw it and reprimanded her for her forgetfulness. From today onwards, I am going to list down the number of times she forgets things and will threaten to show the list to the maid agent, which I will. I hope this will bring her presence of mind back and make her buckle up.

Desperate Times Call For Innovative Ideas

There was a burst water pipe outside our house last week and the water supply was cut off the entire day. Since hubby's cook had cooked some chicken chops for us for lunch, we had to eat them and could not eat out. I was searching high and low for paper plates but there were none. My mum and I thought of this idea :

To line our plates with aluminium foil. With the plates all lined with foils, my maid needs not have to use so much water to wash the plates. However, we had to be really careful not to poke holes on the foil when we ate.


Alycia enjoying her chicken chop


and Sherilyn who eats no chicken enjoying her fried egg sandwich.

Beer Pong Game

Have you heard of the game beer pong? I read about this fun game from the FHM magazine that hubby bought the other day. This game is very popular among young adults and is mostly played in college parties, bars and tailgate parties. How this game works is interesting. It involves 4 people, teams of 2, where a ping pong ball is thrown across a table aiming at one of the opponent’s cups. The cups are shaped in a triangle on the other side of the table. When the ball lands in the cup, the cup is removed. The team that sinks all of the cups on their opponent's side wins the game. Originally, this game is played on an actual ping pong table but it is best played on beer pong tables.

Pregnancy Problems - Leg Cramps

People say that pregnant women are more prone to leg cramps. I think it’s quite true coz I am one of the victims. Last night, I had another attack of leg cramp, my second attack in 1 month. When the cramp attacked, the muscles on my leg (it always happens to my left leg) hardened and I could not move my leg. Leg cramps are terribly painful and each time I have an attack, I would be screaming in pain… in the middle of the night. Thankfully dear hubby would always be by my side to massage my leg to release the tensed muscles. I wonder if my body is lacking in certain nutrients.

Cool Reading Magnifiers

My dad’s eye sight has been deteriorating as he ages through the years. However, he is still wearing the same old pair of conservative looking eyeglasses with huge thick lenses that he had bought almost a decade ago. My dad is very frugal and stingy with himself but extremely generous with spending money on his loved ones. I have seen some cool and trendy reading magnifiers from firststreetonline.com. One of them is a powerful digital, hand-held magnifier that connects to the television or any monitor to magnify words, pictures, etc. I am sure my dad will love this cool gadget if I got it for him.

If Only Granny Could Stay Longer

Each time my mum is here, I get a respite from having to entertain the gals. I get to spend more time on the computer, some time to file my documents and to do other things. My mum would read, sing and play with the gals. Best of all she could coach Alycia in her homework as my mum (being a retired school teacher) has lots more patience than me. Too bad she can't stay here longer and when's back to Ipoh, I will have lesser time for myself and to blog.


The gals singing with granny



and playing 'London Bridge Is Falling Down' with granny.

Lovely Disney Cookies

When my mil came back from Hong Kong last month, she brought back several tins of cookies from Hong Kong Disneyland. The tins are really very attractive with colorful and cute pictures of Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and friends.




Even the cookies have prints of Mickey head on them and they taste good too. Not only do my gals love the cookies, even I love them!

A Chocolate Affair

Read more about this chocolately affair here.

Desserts At Toh Yuen

These were the desserts we had at Toh Yuen Chinese Restaurant @ PJ Hilton on Chinese New Year's eve :

'Lai Sar Tong Yuen' (glutinous rice balls) with black sesame filling.

Sea coconut with longan.


Mango pudding.


Deep fried 'lin koa'.

We also ordered a 'kuai leng koa' but it tasted as if it was burnt, so we have it returned to the kitchen.

There were 4 adults and 2 toddlers and we had 5 dishes plus 2 small bowls of sharksfins soup. The bill came up to a whopping RM400++. I think this will be the last time we have
our CNY reunion dinner in a hotel.

It's Only A Dream Dear

Just a moment ago, Alycia who was having her nap on the mattress on the floor jumped up and said in a panick tone "mummy, I forgot to brush teeth and wash hair!" I knew she was having a dream but I played along with her and said "wash hair to go where?" Alycia who still had a panick look on her face kept saying "forgot to wash hair, forgot to brush teeth!" I then told her that she's just having a dream and she appeared more calm and now she's gone back to nap. That was really funny.

My Mum's Going Back Soon

My mum will be going back to Ipoh soon and when she's gone, I just don't know how I am going to cope. She's been a great help to me now, especially in coaching Alycia in her homework everyday and entertaining the gals whilst I am busy on my computer. Without my mum's help, I doubt I will have the time to even type 2 posts in a day. I don't have an efficient maid anymore and my super blur and slow coach maid is driving me up the pole.

Alycia's pre-school has been giving her loads of homework to do everyday to the extent that I don't even have time to bring her out to the playground in the evening. I know it's good for Alycia since she's very much lagging behind her peers in terms of reading and writing as she had missed more than 7 months of classes last year but all work and no play is really not too good for a 4-year old toddler too. I guess we can't have the best of both worlds, can we?

Bad Habit

Sherilyn has a bad habit of picking her nose despite us threatening her that we will plaster up her nose. When she was at the hospital yesterday to have the wound on her forehead cleaned, my mum jokingly told the doctor about her habit and the doctor joked backed and said he will plaster up Sherilyn's nose if she does not stop picking her nose. Sherilyn was really scared and promised that she will not pick her nose again but back home, she started digging for boogers again.... till her nose bleeds sometimes. Do you have a good way of stopping your child from repeating a bad habit?

What's It With The Nappies?

Sherilyn has always been obsessed with nappies. At one point of time, she was obsessed with making super capes with her nappies. She still is crazy over those nappy capes but her latest craze is making 'tudung' or head scarf with the nappies like this :

Rummaging the laundry basket to look for more nappies like a scavenger.

Doing her routine things at home wearing the ridiculous looking head scarf.

Sherilyn stopped wearing the head scarf ever since she cracked her forehead on Valentine's Day and has a bandage on her forehead.

I've Had Enough

I've had enough of my temp. Cambodian maid. I called the maid agent today and told him that I can no longer tolerate her and asked him when my new permanent Indon maid will arrive. Now he is telling me that the new permanent maid may arrive only in April! I feel so cheated by this agent. When we selected the maid and paid the agency fee in October last year, we were promised that the new maid can arrive in January 08. Now, the bugger is telling me end of Feb, then March, now April! I won't be surprised if she will never arrive and I have to keep paying RM800 per month for a rejected and incompetent maid.

Anyway yesterday and today, this super blur Cambodian maid of mine really made my blood boil. She never seems to remember things though she has to do the same chores every single day. Yesterday, she had forgotten to turn off the water faucet again and left the water flowing out at full blast for 3-4 hours until we went upstairs to bathe the kids at 9pm and discovered it. She also left the kettle cord attached to the wall socket with the switch turned on and no kettle attached to the cord. I can't imagine what would have happened if my kids touched the dangling cord and this is not the first time she has done such a careless and dangerous thing. I was so mad with her that I have threatened to cut her salary and send her back to the agent. Last night, I told her to watch the kids when I brushed my teeth but she gave me another heart attack when she played catching with the kids and Sherilyn knocked her cheek on the air purifier machine and had a slight cut on her cheek. Her right cheek is now bruised and she really looks like an abused child now - a bandage on her forehead with a cut and bruised cheek.

My maid agent told me that he will send me another rejected maid (from Indon this time) next week. I have no confidence in this agent anymore and I can only pray that whatever it is, my next maid will be good.

Easy Peasy 'Lap Mei' Rice

If you are a 'lap mei' lover, here's one easy way to cook 'lap mei' rice. There is no frying involved. Just put in the washed 'lap cheong' (Chinese pork sausage) and 'yoon cheong' (Chinese liver sausage) into the rice cooker (uncut) about 15 minutes before the rice is ready. Within minutes of putting the sausages into the rice cooker, the mouth-watering aroma of the Chinese sausages will fill the house. When the rice is cooked, remove the sausages from the rice cooker and cut them into slices. The rice will have the aroma of the Chinese sausages, from the oil of the sausages. This easy peasy to cook dish is really delicious but not quite a healthy food and definitely not a dish for the weight-watchers. Anyway, I only eat this dish once a year.

Sherilyn's 3rd Birthday Dinner

Read more about Sherilyn's 3rd birthday dinner here.