Singapore Trip Pictures (16 Decenber 2013)

The residential area  that we stayed at in Marina Cove @ Sentosa Island  during our stay in Singapore at our friend's house reminds me very much of Beverly Hills in the US.  The bungalows are built just next to the sea.  The majority of the residents are Caucasians and some of the eye-catching, excessively and fancifully designed units are owned by Malaysian, China and Hongkie tycoons.  Even cars parked at the front porch can be transported to the basement at the touch of a button, just like an elevator!  Every unit of bungalow has a private pool. And almost every owner has a private buggy parked at their porch. Maids walking very well-fed and well-groomed pedigree dogs throughout the day is a common sight. Even the maids look very well-fed and dressed.

Cass, Alycia and I went for a morning walk by the beach on the last day of our stay in Singapore. As I was walking past these mansions and admiring them, I knew that the hubs and I would never for the life of us be able to own one unit. Not even a unit of the apartments there. At least, not in this life of ours haha!

 




 









 



     

I wonder who on this earth owns the below unit...

   



Are you drooling already over these mansions? :P

Dong Zhi Festival 2013 In Ipoh

The girls have been pestering their granny to roll tangyuan balls with them since yesterday.  Though some people said that Dong Zhi festival 2013 is on 21 Dec 2013, many still insist that Dong Zhi 2013 is on 22 December 2013, which is today.  Thus, my parents are only celebrating it today :)

So here they are... my monsters from Monsters Inc., with their granny, rolling tangyuan balls.


 


My dad is now boiling a pot of ginger syrup. Next, my mum will blanch the tangyuan balls, then soak the balls in ice water for 10 minutes before removing the balls and serving them with ginger syrup. The house is wafting with the aroma of pandan ginger syrup now. Hmmmm, smells heavenly and beckons good vibes and warmth to a happy family :)

Our tangyuan balls are rolled plain and some are stuffed with my mum's home-made mung bean paste.
 


Significance of Tangyuan (extracted from Wikipedia):

For many Chinese families in mainland China as well as overseas, tangyuan is usually eaten together with family. The round shape of the balls and the bowls where they are served, come to symbolise the family togetherness.

 While tangyuan was originally a food that people would consume during festivals, it has become a dessert consumed year-round rather than simply a festival food. For instance, tangyuan is traditionally in white color. Yet, in order to cater to consumers’ needs and changing tastes, dessert specialty shops create new flavors or colors of tangyuan by substituting the traditional filling with chocolate, mashed potato and pumpkin paste. Thus, tangyuan has already evolved into a dessert that is consumed by Chinese from time to time throughout the year and is no longer limited to festivals.

Pictures Of Singapore Trip (14 - 16 December 2013)

Here are some of the pictures taken during our  recent stay in Singapore from 14 through 16 December 2013.

It was by far the 'bestest' holiday for the girls as they had their buddies to play with throughout the trip.   And our friend's bungalow in Sentosa Island, situated just next to the sea was just too awesome -- with breathtaking view and top notch hospitality from our friends (the birthday guy and his wife).

Can you beat it that though our friend's house is located just minutes away from Universal Studio, the kids did not want to leave the house and did not bug us to bring them there? We actually did not visit Universal Studio! They were madly in love with this infinity pool, which has a transparent glass below (see 2nd picture).  Below the pool is a garden that is next to the sea and there is a hammock hanging between two coconut trees. In the evening, the kids would feed bread to the fishes in the sea.  The kids could not get enough of this place.  When it was time for lunch, all the kids vetoed against going out to eat and opted to stay home to eat home-cooked spaghetti that our friend's maids cooked.  We adults went out for lunch sans the kids then!  Our friends' maids helped us babysit the kids.










Below is the birthday guy's garden-themed birthday cake, which was scrumptious!



View from the 3rd floor balcony of the bungalow, overlooking the sea.



Activities with our friends...
From left, clockwise : playing games at night, breakfast, cake-cutting ceremony, the guys playing basketball.




Our friend was a wonderful host who made all of us feel so warm and welcomed.  Food served and hospitality were top notch, like from a 5-star hotel!



You can read the surprise birthday party on board a chartered boat and view more pictures in my other blog :)

Cool Party Favor

The social butterfly of the family received this very pretty jar of jelly beans as party favor at her friend's birthday party last week. The theme of the birthday was Hello Kitty. Along with this Hello Kitty jar of jelly beans, there was also a mini bottle of mineral water, with a Hello Kitty label affixed to the bottle.

Miss Social Butterfly had a swell time at C's birthday party, together with all her buddies.  What can really make her happy are parties, fun activities and loads of  crazy moments with her besties.

Chicken Adobo For Dinner Again

Since I still have a pot of leftover sauce for Chicken Adobo (a Filipino chicken dish that uses Apple Cider Vinegar) in the fridge, I made Chicken Adobo again yesterday. This time, I used chicken drumsticks and chicken wings.

Of all the dishes that I had recently cooked, this dish has got to be the girls' top favorite dish.

From the time the dish was placed on the dining table until the time the dish was all polished off in a jiffy, my girls could not stop telling me how delish the dish was!! :D :D

The way to Alycia's heart is definitely through delish food. Her smiles were all over her  and  she was in a very cheery mood during dinner yesterday. And she kept saying "this is the best grub ever!!", "this grub is so delish and awesome!!"  

Cass and Sherilyn followed suit with praises of "mummy, this chicken is REMARKABLE!"  and "this is the BEST EVER!"

Now, being buttered with such flattery compliments from Alycia, my fussiest and most critical daughter, this chicken dish must be damn good! 

Sorry, I did not manage to snap a picture of the dish yesterday as the 3 rascals could not wait to grab their share of chicken the moment the tray of chicken was placed on the dining table. And what was left for moi was only 1 miserable piece of tiny chicken wing!  To look at the brighter side, it is rewarding to have hungry and greedy kids as they eat your share and you don't have to eat that much, thus you remain svelte :D

There is still some sauce left in the fridge and very soon, I'll dish this up again.  This is one of the easiest chicken dish to prepare. I promise you, it is oil-splatter free and mess-free.  Busy me won't cook anything that involves splish splash of oil, lots of preparation and lots of scrubbing.  Go to my other blog to read up the recipe ya!

Birthday Wishes Via Skype

Today is the mil's birthday.  Last week, I told the girls to each make a birthday card to show their grandma via Skype video call.

This morning, Alycia reminded me of the Skype call to grandma. She had since last week prepared the card but this morning, she could not locate it, shiaks! After searching for the card at every nook and corner, she finally found it!  She then logged in to Skype to send her birthday wishes to grandma  in Hong Kong.

One by one, the three musketeers sent  their sweetest birthday wishes to grandma, showed grandma the cards that they made and updated grandma  of all the happenings  for about half an hour.

Our Sunday - 8 December 2013

Cass and I had a pretty quiet Sunday today.  This morning, Alycia and Sherilyn followed their grand-aunts and grand-uncles in an entourage to Kuala Selangor for seafood lunch and to buy seafood from the fishing village.

Cass and I stayed home. I spent my morning doing my online work and then mopped the floor.  Sundays are off for my part-time helper.

For lunch, we went to Casa del Coco, my favorite fusion Italian restaurant that serves pretty healthy food cooked using fire wood.  Their pizzas are baked in a huge round oven using fire wood.

Check out the X'mas tree, stacked up using wood blocks. I've never seen a X'mas tree quite like this before and it is pretty sui generis. 


 


My choice of food today was mushroom soup, an assortment of stir-fried fresh mushrooms, grilled chicken and hubs ordered a lasagne.







For dessert, we had Affogato with vanilla ice-cream. The hubs and I being coffee lovers, love this dessert.  I find that the Affogato served at Antipodean Cafe too strong for me and I had an overdose off caffeine when I ate it at Antipodean recently.

Casa del Coco's Affogato was just right - loved the strong coffee on the vanilla ice-cream and it did not cause my head to throb and heart to palpitate.  Even Cass could eat it without getting high from the side-effects of the caffeine. I can't wait to have my next coffee fix with Affogato at Casa del Coco again! 



 

Awesomeness From A Bunch Of Siew Pak Choy!

Nature's awesomeness...








Well, in case you want to know how I got this cute little baby veggie sprouting out from the veggie head, I just snipped off the bunch of siew pak choy head with a pair of scissors and tadaa... a baby inside!

Lunch At The Magic Wok Restaurant @ Damansara Jaya

Cass went for her 4th electromagnetic accupuncture session today. There was no drama from her as usual and the Master praised her sky high again for being such a brave girl.

After the session, hubs drove around Damansara Jaya to find something to eat for lunch. Finding a place to park at Damansara Jaya during lunch time is always something that we hate. Finally after driving around for more than 15 minutes, the hubs found a nice place to park his car. We got down the car and walked  along the corridor of the eateries to see what looked interesting to eat and spotted the menu outside The Magic Wok Chinese restaurant.  The pictures of the dishes stirred and excited our appetite and we all agreed on The Magic Wok.

Sorry, there are no pictures taken of the food today. Why?  Honestly, the facade of this restaurant did not really look like it was some kind of restaurants that serve good food but we were wrong. This unassuming restaurant serves really good Chinese food. The toilet are clean too. I would give a rating of 8/10 for the taste and quality of the food and pricing a rating of 8/10.  In fact, I think the taste and quality of the food are comparable with up scale Chinese restaurants.  The foodie hubs was very satisfied with the food and as usual, he added a few more dishes when we were already almost finishing our lunch!

The black sesame filled glutinous rice balls in ginger tong sui was very good and has the standard of those served at fine dine Chinese restaurants.

We will definitely be returning to The Magic Wok to try out new dishes in their menu.



Check out Cass in the picture - she was looking sulky and refused to smile as she was in a foul mood.  She forgot to bring her water tumbler down the car and refused to drink the plain water that I ordered from the restaurant.  This rascal has a queer habit of refusing to drink from cups that are not hers.  Whether the cups are from a glitzy restaurant or a friend's house, she just won't let her lips touch the cup! Grrrrr, that's a very bad OCD to have!

Ramen Ten Japanese Restaurant @ Jaya 33, PJ

Yesterday we went to Ramen Ten @ Jaya 33 for lunch as I was craving for Japanese food. Yeah, Japanese food again.  I must have been bitten by the Japanese food love bug. I do not seem to get enough of Japanese food of late.  Seriously, I really do not mind having Japanese food every single day!  Well, it may be partly psychological as my brain tells me that raw fish is almost fat free and grilled fish is tasty yet low in calories and low in carbs.  Most of all, I love the taste of Japanese dishes.  Suddenly, I have lost some interest in Chinese food and Western food. It seems like Japanese food is now my new found love!  I must have been a Japanese mamasan in my past life haha!

Yesterday was the second time we had lunch at the newly opened Ramen Ten @ Jaya 33.  The first time we had lunch at this restaurant was about a month ago.  The girls and I were totally smitten with the Ramen noodles - the broth had the 'oomph' factor and the noodles were springy.  We were very happy that we found another Japanese restaurant that serves reasonably priced and good food. That gives us another alternative besides Zanmai Sushi, which is perpetually full to the brim.

The pictures in this post were taken on 2 occasions when we lunched at Ramen Ten. I have procrastinated blogging about this restaurant as I find posts on food review and restaurants very time consuming and tedious. I need to get the facts correct and I cannot be overly critical and negative about a restaurant, lest I land myself in a pot of hot soup like what happened to a blogger (or was it Facebooker?) recently for writing false and defaming information about a mamak restaurant. Anyway, if the food at a shop is below my expectations, I will not blog about it.


 


Kyu Dragon roll has always been our all-time favorite maki.  We love the combo of soft-shell crab, avocado, seaweed and mayo all rolled up into a very flavorful sticky sweet rice ball.

The tofu salad with unagi was also good.





Sukiyaki with salmon, an assortment of fresh mushrooms, tofu and veggies.  The soup was a tad bland - not salty and quite natural. It would be perfect for those who want something that is soupy, low in fat, not oily, not salty and almost free from MSG.







Grilled mackeral fish, an assortment of sushi and Japanese salad.  The raw fish salad was what I ordered yesterday. I love the salad dressing that came with it. The next time I lunch there, I must get the name of the sauce and get myself a bottle.





Our favorite bowl of chicken teriyaki zaru with volcano eggs.




Ramen Ten is opened side-by-side Shin Tokyo and they are sister restaurants. Patrons can opt to sit at either outlet and order from both sides to enjoy the sushi from Shin Tokyo and ramen from Ramen Ten. Both restaurants are brands from Singapore.

Shin Tokyo Sushi & Ramen Ten are located at:
Ground Floor, Jaya 33
Petaling Jaya.

And as always, after a good lunch at Jaya 33, I went grocery shopping at Jaya Grocer.

Miss Social Butterfly's BFFs

Ever since Sherilyn attended after-school enrichment classes at the centre (some call it day-care centre or 'an ching pan') some three months back, she has been a very happy girl. Being a person who likes to be surrounded by friends so that she can get crazy with them after the serious business (studies) is done, the enrichment centre is the perfect place for her to be.

Sherilyn made an about turn in her discipline recently. From one who could not be bothered with waking up early, she now wakes up ahead of her 2 sisters every morning during the school holidays. By the time I return from the gym at 8am, she would be ready - washed up, dressed up, hair tied up, cup of water gulped down on her own without me nagging her, fruits eaten - she cut it on her own. She will then pester me to shower and bring her to the enrichment centre. I am really surprised how this girl whom I have almost given up hope on her discipline and punctuality can make a sudden change into one who is so impeccable with her punctuality. Her marks for her test papers had improved for the final exam, as with her class and standard position. I am really glad I made the right decision to send her to this enrichment centre and hopefully she will continue to thrive positively in her behaviour and in academics.

I copied this picture from Sherilyn's BFF's Facebook page. These are her BFFs from the enrichment centre. She talks about her BFFs all the time. These girls are always planning parties, catwalking, modeling and doing everything fun and girly. I hope that Sherilyn will remain good friends with her bunch of BFFs forever.

I Almost Jumped Out Of My Skin!

Today, I had lunch with Alycia and Cass at a nearby coffee shop.  After lunch, we walked back to my car, which was parked a few steps away from the coffee shop.  After helping Cass and Alycia get into the car and closing the door for them, I walked to the driver's side of the car. Just as I was about to get in the car, I heard a man shouting from my right side. I turned around and saw a man with helmet on a motorbike. He said something like "HEY CIK...!!" (he mumbled something) and he was driving his bike towards me.  I almost jumped out of my skin.   Stories and news of people attacked outside their cars by assailants are menancingly rife these days. 17 years ago, I was a victim of a snatch theft, by a SOB on a motorbike.  Since that fateful day, I have developed a phobia of the sound of motorbike, when I am on the road.

Anyway, back to my frightful moment just now.  When I saw the burly man on the motorbike talking to me, I quickly tried to get into my car. Then he talked even louder. I then looked at his face and saw a familiar face.  He quickly reached out a Skynet parcel to me to tell me that he was from Skynet. And then, phew.... I realized that he was the regular Skynet delivery guy and he was trying to tell me that he was from Skynet.  He told me that he had just left my parcel at the guardhouse of my condo.  Before he rode his bike off, he told me "Jangan takut ya" but I was still in a fright, thinking that I was going to be a victim the second time.

What seems so creepy is how on earth did the Skynet guy know that I was at that location having lunch?? And how the heck did he even see me on the road?  He had a helmet with a visor on. And I was about to get into my car.  I did not tell the guards at my condo that I was going to have lunch at that location. So how in the world did this guy know I was there? C R E E P Y!!

The Guitar Teacher

Alycia's guitar teacher teaches guitar on a full-time basis. On top of teaching guitar, he is also a freelance guitarist. He gets paid to perform with his guitar at weddings. He also performs at orchestras. His voice quality is that of a singer too. He reminds me of Emil Chau, the Hong Kong born Taiwanese singer. He was once my favorite singer and actor. Whenever the guitar teacher teaches Alycia, he will sing and strum the guitar simultaneously. Luckily he does not have a Hugh Grant look. It would be very distracting to have a hunk with good looks and good voice in the house every week haha! And oh yes, the way he holds and strums his guitar with bajo sexto strings is with style too. No wonder he is married at such a young age and has a 4-year old child. He must have swept his young wife's feet off with his voice and charm years ago.

Rose bud From A Bundle Of Siew Pak Choy

Today I discovered something amazing by accident.  After I cut the stems off the bundles of siew pak choy and was about to bin the stems, those cute flower-like stems caught my attention. At a closer look, they looked like rose buds!  Very intricate vegetables rose buds that looked exactly like a real rose bud.

Check them out...
 

I quickly salvaged them, washed them clean and used them as deco for my Chicken Adobo dish!
 

Here's how I discovered.  Lazy me always try to find shortcuts to do my chores. To save time having to pluck off the siew pak choy, leaf by leaf, I always use a pair of scissors to snip off the end of the stems (the right side of the siew pak choy, as shown in below picture).  Once the stems are snipped off the bundle, the siew pak choy will come off leaf by leaf.  I do not even bother to cut the stem off the leafy part. After washing and soaking the veggie a few rounds, I will either blanch them or stir-fry them with a meat, to make it a one-pot dish.



If you buy 10 bundles of siew pak choy, you will have 10 pretty green rose-buds to decorate your plate of dish. Or you can use the rose-buds to decorate other dishes. I briefly blanched the rose-buds, so that they will not turn soggy.

SS20 Fish Head Noodles @ Damansara Kim, PJ

After Cass' second electromagnetic acupuncture session early this week, I told the hubs that I craved for some soupy noodles with fish. My foodie hubs then brought us to SS20 Fish Head Noodles @ Damansara  Kim.

The moment I stepped foot into the restaurant, I knew that I had gone to the right place! The restaurant's facade, the kitchen and the toilets passed my stringent cleanliness requirements.   The food the restaurant serves looked like MY kind of food too.  They have noodles with a choice of Soong Fish or  Haruan fish.  You can also have side orders like fish slices and fish paste. This shop also sells cendol, ais kacang (ABC ice) and fruit juices. We ordered a bowl of ais kacang.

We ordered 2 bowls of Haruan fish noodles. Each bowl had about 6 pieces of fish - 3 pieces non fried and 3 pieces fried. We loved the fish texture and taste. I love the soup too, albeit I find it too salty for kids.


 


We also ordered a bowl of haruan fish and a bowl of fish paste with no noodles.  Each bowl came with a very HUGE portion of spinach.  This is the kind of meal for weight watchers as the meal is high in protein and fiber.  Thus, I love it!

We also took away a portion of fish paste, which I used to prepare noodles for the kids at home, with my own made anchovies soup and lettuce the next day.

     

I foresee we will be having lunch here again as we will still be bringing Cass for her acupunture sessions this school holidays.

 SS20 Fish head noodle is located at:
Gerai 20, SS20/10, Damansara Kim, 47400 Petaling Jaya
Tel : 012-628 8896
Situated 5 minutes away from Tropicana City Mall and at the same row as Extra Super Tanker Chinese Restaurant.

Dancing Class

One of the things on my 'To Do List' is to sign up for dancing classes. I think dancing is a good form of exercise. When you dance, your whole body moves vigorously. Running can be pretty boring at times, as with working out in the gym. But dancing is so much fun as music is involved. When Cass goes to primary school in a year's time, I will have more free time in the morning to engage myself in my hobbies. One of the things that I plan to do is to sign up for a hip hop dance class. There is a dancing school in my neighborhood that is pretty good. I heard that the teachers from that school are very good - just like the dance doctor of los angeles. My daughters like dancing as well and I can see that they can dance pretty well. When Cass gets over with her bladder issues, I am going to sign her up into a modern dance class. I know she will love it. I can't wait for that to happen.

Friday Evening Rendezvous

Today Alycia had her mummy all to herself in the evening while her sisters were in art class.  After guitar class, we went to the pasar malam - just she and me, and she was really happy.   We ate fish balls at the 'look look' van, ate apam and sweet corns. She helped me to pick the fruits at the fruit stall.  Back home, she bragged to her 2 sisters and gloated to them about what she ate and they could not.   Now, she can't wait till next week for our pasar malam rendezvous together LOL!

3-Mushroom Prawn Pasta

Today has been a super crazy day for me. All because of my 2 dot com blogs who have been acting up since 2 weeks ago.  Last night the blog host 'pulled the plug' off my blogs and during the time they went 'dead', I felt as if I had lost something very, very dear to me.  When my blogs were finally up again after the Wordpress had been uninstalled and reinstalled again, everything went haywire.  I sat in front of my desktop computer from 7am through 1pm to tidy up both the blogs. I did some google searches too, to get compatible themes for both blogs, to find out how to instal plug-ins, how to enable comments and all that jazz.  Wordpress  is such a huge confusion and so not user-friendly.  6 hours on the computer made me queasy and dizzy. I did not have the time to cook lunch, so we had take-away food.

For dinner, I cooked something simple to dish out which the 3 fussy-pots love...

3-mushroom penne pasta with baby shrimps.

Ingredients used:
1) 1 punnet fresh button mushrooms, 1 packet shimeiji mushrooms and 1/4 packet of shitake mushrooms.
2)  1 punnet fresh baby shrimps. I bought de-shelled ones.
3)  1 whole bulb of garlic, chopped
4)  2 small onions, chopped
5)  Sea salt to taste
6)  Mixed herbs and dried parsley
7)  3/4 can of evaporated milk to replace whipping cream.  The reason why I used evaporated milk is because it has longer shelf life and I can buy it way in advance before cooking a creamy pasta dish.  It costs a fraction of the price of whipping cream too!
8) A little water
9) Black pepper

Method
Boil pasta al-dente in a saucepan. That will take about 10 minutes.
Brown onions and garlic.  Add in shrimps. Stir-fry for about 10 minutes.  Add a few shakes of black pepper and the dried herbs
Add in the 3 types of mushrooms and toss in pan/wok for about 10 minutes
Add in 3/4 can of evaporated milk. After the milk has bubbled, add some sea salt to taste. If the consistency is too thick, add some water.  Taste the sauce. If you want it saltier, add a few pinches more of salt.
The milk thickens pretty fast. Once it has bubbled, you can turn off the fire.
Mix the pasta and sauce together in the wok or in separate plates and serve immediately, while still hot.

I was quite tempted to get some bacon or sausages for the pasta but was successful in refraining myself from buying sausages, bacon and deli meat yet again! :D   I do not allow my kids to eat these unhealthy meat. We only eat them once in a blue moon when we dine out.  And as I walked away from the deli meat section of the supermarket, I picked up a punnet of fresh shrimps. Nothing beats fresh food.

My recipe can  yield 3 kid portions (big eaters) + 1 adult portion.

Stir Fried Young Lotus Root And Pork Slices With Miso Paste

Earlier this week, I cooked a somewhat new dish - stir fried young lotus roots and lean pork slices with miso paste.  We normally cook this dish with oyster sauce. The girls love eating young lotus roots as the texture is crunchy.  Since I still have a big box of miso paste sitting in the fridge, I decided to use some.  And the dish was yummeh!

There is still a lot of miso paste left. I think I am going to google search for recipes that use miso paste, so that I can finish off the paste before it expires. Do give this dish a try. It goes well with rice or porridge. I ate it sans rice and have always been eating dishes sans rice ;)

Sick Kids And Sick Computer

Hubs and I bought a new desktop computer so that my old desktop computer can be moved to the girls' room.  What do I know? My new 'baby' gave me a whole load of problems the day she came home!  From a physical problem on the CPU to internal problems, within a week, my new baby had to be re-admitted into the 'hospital' for observation and treatment. And I suspect that since the computer was not yet installed with an anti-virus software, some malicious virus infected both my www.healthfreakmommy.com and www.healthiswealth.healthfreakmommy.com blogs as I did access my blogs using the new computer.  For a week, the blog host has been trying  to restore my blogs but to no avail. I am so down now and disappointed with the host. Though they are quick in replying my emails and pretty helpful, they are however unable to find a solution to the problem. Now, both my dot com blogs are inaccessible :( 

Fortunately I still have this blogspot blog to update blog posts.

Alycia and Sherilyn are getting better from their sicknesses and they managed to get well enough to attend their last day of school for this year yesterday. But Cass is now having an ear pain since yesterday. Gawd,  with sick kids to tend to, a sick computer that is affecting my rice bowl, Cass' ongoing bladder issues and family matters to grip with daily,  life is tough for moi!  But I am certain I will be able to surface up the water and swim to the shore safely, albeit slowly.

Lunch For The Sick Girl

Alycia has been telling me that everything that she eats tastes bland. Besides, she has zilch appetite. When a person is sick, his/her body needs to rest. The internal organs need a rest too. The best type of food to serve a sick person is fresh fruits and veggie.

So here's what I served her for lunch yesterday...

Jackfruit, avocado and a piece of organic wholemeal bun with grated coconut as filling.  And of course her favorite comic book to help remove all the queasiness and discomfort from her!  Alycia keeps telling me that reading her comic books and watching TV seem to make her feel better! I told her that it's all in her mind - her mind is controlling her feelings - mind over matter! LOL!!



Today, the fever is under control but she has developed a runny nose, cough and lots of phlegm, which is irritating and gagging her throat, thus causing her to throw up and the nauseousness. And today, Sherilyn got bitten by this most vicious bug too! When it rains, it really pours. Now I have 2 sick pups to care for. I'm praying hard that Cass won't be the next victim. And me too, I pray that I'll be protected from the virulent bugs. The household will go haywire when I am down too and there is no one else to help me!

Post-School Trip Illness

I thought Alycia was the second kid in her group who had fallen ill after the school's day-trip to Sekinchan on Saturday. What do I know? Yesterday, Alycia told me that almost everyone who went on the school trip in her class had fallen ill and were absent from school. With so much walking under the killer hot sun in the afternoon in the paddy field, fishing pond, kampung and visits to other places that were exposed to the scorching hot sun, who could have gone unscathed by the sun-grilling aftermath? I know I will never be able to survive a trip where I will be exposed to the hot sun. My destiny is such that I will either have a massive migraine, a fever, throat infection or general feeling of malaise if I am exposed to prolonged hours under the scorching hot sun. I shudder to think of what's going to happen to the girls and me next month as we will be making a trip to Legoland - the land of long queues under hot sun, waiting for rides! After Legoland, we will be heading to Universal Studio in Singapore - another land of grilling humans under the hot sun. I am going to arm myself with huge brollies and bottles of water. My duty as the kids' slave will soon begin and I am dreading it!

Yesterday, after Alycia returned from school, she looked really jaded and her body was still slightly warm. After a lunch of chicken porridge, she lay down on the floor of the walk-in wardrobe and dozed off. I woke her up and asked her to shower. After her shower, I blew dry her hair with the hairdryer. As I was blowing her hair with the hairdryer, I realized how much grown up my precious baby was. I cannot even remember when the last time was that I helped her to dry her hair. I think it was before Cass was born and that was over 5 years ago, gawd!! As I was helping her with the hairdryer, she started to chat with me and told me all that had transpired in her school yesterday. All of a sudden, I felt like I missed this big baby, who has grown up to be so independent as a 'tai kar cheh' (big sister) figure, yet would sometimes go hungry for my attention and TLC, just like what I am giving to Cass now.

Did I tell you that on a few occasions recently, Alycia insisted on sleeping with me on the bed in my bedroom and refused to sleep in her own bed? She argued that if Cass could do so occasionally, why couldn't she do it too? And the hubs and I had to allow her to be wedged between us the entire night, just so to please our very precious first born, the baby whom we yearned to have for years and wanted so much to share our bed with.

Lunch at Nutmeg @ Bangsar Village KL

We brought Cass to see the Prof. Dr at UMSC on Friday to review the ultrasound scan report of her urinary tract and kidneys. This year, we have to do the ultrasound scan in KL as Cass' surgeon in GMC Penang will be away during the school holidays.  I am glad that all looks normal with her kidneys and urinary tract. The one thing that we must work on is to get her to do the therapy exercises to strengthen her sphincters, which are weak.  Gosh I tell you, I hate the stress and anxiousness that I have to go through every year around this time. And I have 7 more years to worry.  Cass needs to do an ultrasound scan of her kidneys and urinary tract every year until she turns 12.

After the appointment at UMSC, we went to Nutmeg @ Bangsar Village for a lunch. Food and shopping have always helped me to destress and I needed some good food that day to calm my nerves after weeks of anxiousness lol!

That was the second time this month we lunched at Nutmeg as we were really satisfied with the food the last time we went  to this cafe about 2 weeks ago with my parents.


My baby girl certainly deserved a good meal. She is the toughest little fighter I have ever met.



This chicken with raspberry sauce on a waffle was delish!


Mouth watering Lasagne for take-away for Alycia's lunch.



My little tough cookie enjoying her desserts.




We will definitely be visiting Nutmeg again very soon and this time to bring Alycia and Sherilyn along, as promised.

Alycia's First Primary School Field Trip

The day that I dread to let go of my 'precious baby' to go on a school field trip finally arrived today. Many people asked me why I am so paranoid of allowing my girls to go on school trips, especially relatives who live overseas. Firstly, as I have just mentioned, Alycia is my 'previous baby', the baby whom I went to great lengths to get. Secondly, if you live in Malaysia, especially in the Klang Valley, you would already know how unsafe it is to live in this city where cases of kidnap, murder, rape and robbery happen every single day. Just yesterday, a toddler was kidnapped in the affluent Bangsar residential area. Thirdly, who trusts express bus drivers now after umpteen incidences of horrific fatal bus crashes? Tell me, if you were me, would you feel at ease letting go of your soon-to-be 10-year old daughter to go on a school trip?

Alycia was pretty excited over this trip that she had been waiting for, for almost 2 months. This morning she woke up at 5:45am on her own without me jolting her up. By 6:30am, she had left the house with her daddy. Initially, she told us that she should be back in school by 4:30pm but later she told us that the bus was only expected to reach the school at 6pm. At about 6pm today, I received a call on my mobile phone. It was Alycia and she told me that they were still in Sekinchan, the place of visit and the return journey would only begin at around 6:15pm. I was told that they would reach their school by 7:15pm. By the time she reached home safely to me, it was already almost 8pm. The moment she stepped into the house, I saw that her cheeks and neck were as red as a lobster! She was grilled under the hot sun! My heart ached as this forgetful mummy had forgotten to give her sun block lotion and a cap, BUMMMER! How could I have been so forgetful?! This is a lesson to learn for me, that for my daughters' future school field trips, I should always apply sun block on their face, neck and hands!

I had been thinking and worrying about Alycia the whole of today, wondering what she was doing, wondering if she would be left behind by her teachers or the school bus, wondering if she had drank enough water, if she had peed, if she had eaten a proper lunch and if she was safe. The hubs knew that I was worried and he brought Sherilyn, Cass and me to Mid Valley Megamall for lunch and shopping. Honestly, I am still paranoia of letting go of my daughters to attend future school trips. If Alycia wants to attend her next school trip, I will make sure that the hubs and I tail the bus from behind and join in the trip discreetly, kekeke...

Mushroom Omelette Sandwich For Lunch Today - 6 November 2013

Here's another lazy meal prepared for Cass' lunch today.

Fresh button mushroom omelette sprinkled with seaweed to go along with bread with herbs and  Surgers butter. As usual, she will have a cup of color-free strawberry yoghurt drink, fruits and today I gave her a packet of Multi Vitamin Gummy as dessert.

 


Normally I will take-away food for lunch or reheat what I had cooked for dinner the previous night for Alycia and Cass. If I prepare homemade meals for lunch, it would normally be sandwiches. Dinner will always be a proper and well-balanced meal :)

Shopping Burns Loads Of Calories Too

Today I skipped exercising in the morning.  It is partly because of laziness (I wanted to catch up on my beauty sleep) and partly because I had no time.  Our part-time helper does not come on Sundays, thus I am extra busy on Sundays.  Nonetheless, I have had more than enough of exercise today as we spent about 6 hours at 4 shopping malls. I think I stood and walked for 4 hours today. It is a slow-paced marathon of sorts for me -- in the comforts of air-conditioned malls :D

First we spent over an hour at Tesco to get some household stuff.  Then we went to Pavillion for lunch at Tonkatsu Japanese restaurant.  While hubs entertained his angels with more food at Tokyo Street, I darted across the road and walked for 15 minutes to Uniqlo and then to H&M.  At these 2 outlets, I paced hurriedly to get what I wanted to get. I did not really trust the hubs with handling 3 rambunctious monkeys, especially with Cass. He can be very careless and not vigilant enough. He has had previous encounters with losing sight of the girls and nearly losing them at some theme parks while I went shopping. 

I spent an hour each at Uniqlo and H&M.  After a satisfying retail therapy session, I hurriedly walked back to Pavillion under the scorching hot sun.  I think I burnt over 500 calories doing all these brisk walking haha!

Whilst mommy had a mad mad retail therapy session, the girls had some crazy eating therapy with ice-creams, cakes and juices at Tokyo Street. To keep them still later, hubs brought them to TIMES book store in Pavillion where he sat with Cass at Espresso Lab cafe inside the bookstore and bribed her with a blueberry muffin while Alycia and Sherilyn quietly shopped for more storybooks.

For dinner, we had take-away fried rice and pulled noodles from Din Dai Fung and hubs bought Annie's pretzels too. I better be more disciplined tomorrow morning and must pull myself out from bed by 5am for my morning exercise to burn more calories before I pile up more calories on Tuesday - which is another holiday for us :D Oh yes, tomorrow is also a school declared holiday for Alycia and Sherilyn.

Whittaker's Almond Gold Chocolate Bar

Years ago, Whittaker's chocolate were only available in New Zealand and at international airports in our country. The MIL used to bring back bars of our favorite Whittaker's Almond Gold whenever she returned from New Zealand.  Those were precious bars and we would hide our stash of Gold Bars, lest the kids found them and gobbled them all.

Now Whittaker's are available at local supermarkets.  I was excited when I saw my favorite Almond Gold bars on display at a shelf at Jaya Grocer last Sunday. The hubs who is a chocolate fan was just as excited and he bought a large Gold bar at only RM20.90 :D



This Gold bar is now stashed in the fridge. It's my best stress-buster and I know some rats have also been secretly nibbling on it bit by bit everyday, judging by the size of the bar now!

Who's also a die-hard fan of Whittaker's Almond Gold bar?

Our Sunday - 28 October 2013

It was the last Sunday School class for the girls for this year. 

In Cass' class for pre-schoolers, the dedicated volunteer teachers did a photo collage with the hand print of all the Sunday pre-schoolers.  The kids were also given farewell gifts by the teachers.

 

Cass' photo was taken by the teacher and printed on the spot yesterday.  See how IT-savvy these teachers are!

 


After  church, we went to the newly opened Ramen Ten Japanese restaurant @ Jaya 33 PJ for a sumptuous lunch and then went to Jaya Grocer to do our weekly grocery-shopping.  We will definitely be back at Ramen Ten to try other items on their menu.  We loved the food at Ramen Ten!

Next, we went to KFC to take-away fried chicken for dinner. I promised Alycia that after her exam, I would buy her KFC. 

Yesterday was our part-time maid's off day.  As I was busy doing house chores, I assigned Sherilyn to do revision with Cass. Cass will be sitting for her final exam in pre-school today.  Though Alycia has finished her final exam, she is still required to sit for the Math and Science test papers in English today and tomorrow, for formality purposes.  Marks are not included in the calculation of position though.