Our Monday - 28 August 2017

Though it's the school holidays, it's not exactly a holiday for Drama Queen and Cass yet as they have to be in school from Monday through Wednesday for tuition.  Our holiday officially starts on Thursday. With only 4 days of holiday left, this is going to be yet another no-travel holiday for us. However, Alycia has been going places with her grandma and visiting aunt from Hong Kong for the past few days and had even visited the Mitsui Outlet Park at Sepang.  Last Saturday, Drama Queen had a class trip to the National Planetarium, courtesy of her class teacher.

Counting down to the UPSR exam day from today, Drama Queen has exactly 13 more days to revise and as usual, she's still as relaxed as ever and nary an ounce of anxiousness, worry or fear in her. This girl's gonna take the bull by its horn 🙌💪 We'll see...

After fetching Drama Queen and Cass from school, off we went to the dentist's office for the girls' dental appointment.  Alycia and Drama Queen were given dental scaling. Thank God there were no tooth decay and cavities found on the girls.  My next trip to the dentist will be for Alycia to get an X-ray and teeth extraction done in preparation for her braces!  This is going to cost us over RM7,000 but thankfully, this dentist provides interest-free installments for up to 3 years.






Next up was lunch at our favorite coffee shop before we dropped by next door for a totally unplanned Cosmo Dr electroterapy session.



Since it's the school holiday and we had several hours of free time before the Mandarin tutor came, I thought why not try the much raved about Cosmo Dr electroterapy mats since it's absolutely FREE! I'm a sucker for freebies, especially health-related ones.



Plus, I was very curious to know if it really works at promoting good health and curing ailments.   The Cosmo Dr machine from Japan is able to generate an electric field through the body.





Alycia and Drama Queen sitting on the electrostatic chair pads wired to a Cosmo Dr machine. We do not feel anything when seated on the pad but static electric was randomly felt when we touched each other with our finger tips and on the forehead.






This gadget held by the speaker on her right hand will beep when it's placed on our body parts, signalling that electricity is present. We were also asked to touch the plastic sheet to feel the vibration and static electric zapping away on our skin, which felt like a brief but very sharp electric current poke.




This is the Cosmo Dr machine from Japan. When I asked the speaker the cost of the machine, she told me that it costs more than RM100k!   We were told that the electrons produced by the Cosmo Dr machine help to improve the quality of our blood and its flow. It can supposedly alleviate / treat a host of ailments ranging from insomnia to diabetes, migraine, high blood pressure, low blood pressure, constipation, high cholesterol, obesity, etc.





To be able to see and feel the effects to one's health, we were advised to sit on the electrostatic pads continuously for at least 3 - 4 days (each session lasts about half hour). Since it's free and it's the school holiday, I think I'm going to return to the shop with the 3 girls and also mil in tow to try for another 2 days to see if we can feel anything positive.

I noticed that the speaker did not talk about selling the machine but only mentioned that the company is providing free service to gain awareness to as many people as possible (in the hope of people buying it, surely!).  Those who are interested after the promotion has ended can use the machine at certain hospitals for a fee. For those who can afford, of course they can splurge on the machine. I'm still a tad apprehensive of this kind of super machines that have claims of alleviating symptoms and healing, but there's no harm trying it for free. There is no limit on the number of times you can try it as long as the promotion is on-going.

How To Style Natural Black Hair At Home

How To Style Natural Black Hair At Home? This is what most women are eager to learn - DIY hair styling at home. Going to a hair salon for a new hairstyle usually costs a lot.  Hot tools such as curling iron and straightener are usually used in salon to achieve the desired hairstyle.  However, high heat will cause damage to the hair and scalp to some extent. If your hair suffers from high heat for long time, it may become dry and lose luster gradually. That's why more and more women prefer to style their hair at home without the use of hot tools. In addition to this, some hair products such as deep wave weave and cheap hair bundles are also good tools to change your hairstyle without damage.

We have mentioned that there are two quick and easy ways to style your natural black hair at home. The first one is to use heatless tool such as flexi rod to curl your hair overnight. The second one is to use some hair products such as weave and bundles to sew in into your own hair. Next we will talk about these two ways in detail.

The usage of flexi rod is very simple and easy. What you need to do is to start with blow-drying the hair and then section your hair into four parts. Each section is divided into three pieces. Conditioner can be used to add some moisture to your hair. Use wide tooth comb to brush your hair to avoid tangling. Then blow the hair around the flexi rod; the next day, you will have deep wave hairstyle. This method will not cause any damage to your hair and  it is very easy to mange. Have a try!

As for the hair products, they have been warmly welcomed by women, especially by black women. There are many kinds of such hair products sold in Amazon and AliExpress, thus you can easily get hairs from all over the world easily. Among these hair products, weave and bundle share lots of similarities. Both of them can be used to make wigs with great versatility. If you want to sew in the weave or bundles, you need to section your hair into small pieces and braid all of them. Then use needle with strand to sew in. There are lots of tutorial about how to sew in the weave or bundles online. Most  companies provide hair products in different styles and sizes. With these products, you can achieve your desired look.

If you really do not have any time to style the hair overnight or sew in weave and bundle, you still have another choice--- cheap human hair lace front wigs. This kind of wig is made using 100% human hair, with all the hairs sewed in, which can save your time greatly. Lace is used as the material, giving you a very natural look. Maxglam is a company worth to be recommended. It provides many cheap hair products with high quality. If you want to buy some hair products to change your hairstyle, it will be a good option.

Grossed Out

This incident happened about a month back, on the eve of Cass and Drama Queen's exam.

After hanging out the fresh laundry, I noticed a little piece of something blackish + pinkish in color at the bottom of the pail. Thinking that it must be yet another piece of residue from Cass' art and craft papers or stickers, I picked up the piece of  'sticker'. With my bare fingers.

And holy cow.  At the  touch of it, the piece of 'sticker' sure didn't feel paper-ish. It was sticky but it felt squishy. I brought the piece of  'sticker'  closer to my eyes and then "WAAAAAAAAA" I screamed blue murder and flung the piece of 'sticker' away. Eye to eye with a dead reptile!! 😵  Cass  and Drama Queen who were revising at the table ran to me and asked what happened.

Me - I think I just washed a baby lizard with our clothes and it's now dead.  QUICK bring the magnifying glass, quick!!!

As quick as lightning, Cass fetched me the magnifying glass.  The 3 of us had to study the specimen to confirm that it was indeed a dead baby lizard.

Just the night earlier, I had seen a baby lizard lurking around the dirty laundry area and this confirmed my suspicion.

When the 3 girls scrutinized the specimen through the lenses of the magnifying glass carefully, like scientists, they all concurred what they saw -- the bulging eyes, the translucent skin which was PINK in color (EWWWWW!!!) and the tiny claws on the legs. Oh. My. Freaking. Gawd.

I wanted to puke. Knowing that the life baby reptile went a spinning together with our clothes just grossed me out.

I ordered the girls to remove all the clothes that I had just hung on the hangers and dump them back into the washing machine for another round of washing.

Sinful Saturday

Cass at our favorite open air coffee shop during our Saturday brekkie last week:



Last Saturday's brekkie was just the two of us as everyone else had their own activity respectively.

Instead of ordering bitter gourd pork noodles, this time I ordered a plate of char koay teow (replaced koay teow with meehoon) with extra bean sprouts and 2 eggs, which Cass and I shared.  The plate of noodles with no prawns and no cockles (Cass and I don't like prawns and cockles) cost a frigging RM8.

Then I bought some pau (for my pau crazed eldest), pumpkin Chinese muffin, black sesame ang ku and Ki Ka Ku / Xi Ban.  I call the Xi Ban 'pink sticky kuih' and I am besotted with this kuih in my favorite color even though it's nothing more than just flour, sugar, yeast, oil and pink coloring - empty calories.  But that's ok,  It's only an occasional indulgence and I believe won't kill me 😁



What's your favorite kuih?

Simple Tomyam Noodles

The last dish that I cooked before the mil's return from her 1-month stay in Hawaii was Tomyam noodles.  It's a simplified version of my Mee Siam.  My homecooked Mee Siam which everyone loves involves a lot of prep like blending dried shrimps and chopping lots of onions and garlic.  As I was rushing off  to  cook dinner to chauffeur Alycia and Drama Queen to their tuition centres at different times that day, I could only whip up something that's very quick.

I came up with this noodles as I wanted to clear the fridge before the mil's homecoming. I still had a little Tomyam paste left, a quarter packet of organic spinach yee mee, a little vermicelli and frozen kafir lime leaves in the fridge. That's how this dish was created.  I used vermicelli as it's the only noodles that I like and yee mee for the girls who love yee mee.




Tomyam meehoon






Ingredients:
Instant tomyam paste - I used about 4 tablespoons of Mak Nyonya tomyam paste. You can add more tomyam paste if you prefer it to be spicier. One packet of tomyam paste is enough for me to cook 3 different dishes as the girls cannot tolerate food that's too spicy.
Vermicelli (mee hoon) and yee mee (I used organic spinach yee mee)
Chopped garlic (about 1 bulb)
Chopped onions (about a handful of small rose onions)
Chicken breast meat, sliced and marinated with soy sauce, fish sauce (optional), pepper, a little corn flour for at least 1-2 hours
Vegetables - I used yau mak.  
Eggs
Salt and sugar to taste
Kafir lime juice
Handful of kafir lime leaves, cut into very thin strips

Method:
Pan fry the chicken breast meat.
Meanwhile, blanch the vermicelli and yee mee for about 1 minute in a pot of water.  I use A1 vermicelli which softens very quickly and does not need soaking.  Drain the noodles and leave aside.
Brown chopped garlic and onions.
Add in tomyam paste and saute until fragrant (about 5-10 minutes)
Add water and let simmer for about 5-10 minutes together with the green vegetables
Add salt and sugar to taste.
Add in kafir lime juice
Add in strips of kafir lime leaves
Add in the cooked noodles and mix them well with the sauce.
In another non-stick pan, prep the scrambled eggs.  I cooked scrambled eggs as that's the fastest to cook. If you have enough time on hand, beat up the eggs and pan fry them. Then chop / cut the fried eggs into thin strips.
Plate up the noodles.
Scatter the fried eggs and raw kafir lime leaves strips on the noodles.
Bon appetit!




Tomyam yee mee

Super easy to cook, this one is sure to become a favourite you’ll make over and over again!

Black Monday

When my right eyelid twitched all of a sudden today, I knew that something doleful is imminent. This happens all the time. I seem to have this sixth sense to sense whenever something bad is about to happen - through my eyelids. I have this uncanny ability to sense misfortunes. You may say that it's just a myth and that I am superstitious but it's true. 100% true for me. When my right eyelid twitches, something unfortunate is bound to happen and if it's the left eyelid, it's the reverse.

I had a very, very bad dream a few weeks back. It's on Alycia. I dreamt that I saw her in the hospital and she was undergoing treatment for a very serious illness. It's so bad that I can't even tell it out here. After the dream, I told Alycia to be very, very careful with everything.

This afternoon when Alycia stepped into the house, she showed me her finger. A wooden splinter had gone into her finger when she accidentally knocked her hand on a wooden door in school. She tried to pull out the splinter but only half of it was pulled out and the other half  broke and was embedded under the nail bed. It hurt badly. Her Chemistry teacher advised her to go to the hospital to have the splinter removed as soon as possible. I know that it's bad to have a foreign body in your body. Her finger would most likely get inflamed if the splinter was left inside. After sending a Whatsapp message to her tennis coach to cancel today's lesson, I immediately brought Alycia to the hospital. It was pouring cats and dogs when I drove to the hospital. See, when it rains, it pours!

At the hospital, I asked the doctor if she needed to remove Alycia's  nail whether partially or fully in order to get the splinter out. The doctor said she would try to get the splinter out with a needle first and if this failed, she would cut the nail off partially. My heart sank as it's going to hurt like hell to have her healthy nail yanked off.  But Alycia was very calm, composed and cool. Even with an LA injected and a special needle poked underneath the nail to remove the splinter, she did not yell out in pain. The doctor was very efficient. Within 15 minutes or so, the splinter was removed! I was so happy and relieved! And my brave girl told me that it didn't hurt that much after all. So proud of her.




Thank God the nail needn't be yanked off, PTL!!

Sticking out like a sore thumb!
Alycia : "what, of all the fingers, it has to be my 3rd finger!"


With 3 kids, life is always full of drama and heart-stopping moments. Just over a month ago, I was in the same A&E with Drama Queen who had a fall from the staircase in school with a badly swollen ankle. And now I am here again with Alycia. Earlier this year, I was at this A&E with Cass who had high fever. But I am not complaining. Very soon when the girls leave home for tertiary education, the nest will be empty. The house will be eerily quiet and I shall miss all these heart-pounding moments again.

Birthday Party At Kidzania

Cass attended her classmate, Kate's 9th birthday party at Kidzania on Sunday. It was Cass' first time in Kidzania. Alycia and Drama Queen had the exclusive privilege to visit Kidzania two years ago as their primary school organized an outing at Kidzania for prefects and librarians, of which Alycia was a school prefect then and Drama Queen was and still is a librarian. Why I say privilege is that the entrance fee for kids aged 4-17 is a whopping RM85 and RM41 for adults and their school had given them this wonderful treat. That would cost a frigging RM337 on tickets alone just for the 3 girls, hubs and me! Kidzania is truly every kid's fantasy.

The 15 kids invited to the party:




The birthday girl was treated like a princess by Kidzania - with a tiara, a sash and a ride on a car parading the streets of Kidzania with big fanfare, complete with songs sang by Kidzania staff, clanging of cymbals, drums and her friends cheering her on with pom poms. Such a grandeur for the little girl!  The birthday girl could choose a friend to sit with her on the parade car and she chose Cass!  Cass was totally overwhelmed and in disbelief that she was chosen.  She told me that she felt really awkward, like a fish out of water, hehe!  It was only in recent months that Cass and Kate became very good friends, through Enid Blyton as both the girls are huge fans of Enid Blyton books. There was even an Enid Blyton book and a stationery set in the party pack given to her friends who attended the party.







After some games was the cake-cutting session, followed by lunch.



After lunch was the most awaited moment - role play time at Kidzania City!

But first, the kids had to apply for a credit card and withdraw some cash from the 'bank'...




First stop was at Kurlz beauty salon, where the girls were dolled up but the girls didn't like the way they looked after their faces were made up. They wiped off the make-up with wet wipes 😁




Their favorite place was the secret agent training center, where they were trained to be secret agents!  Sorry no picture to show as parents are not allowed inside the training center.

The girls as scientists at the health institute...



The girls also 'worked' at Vitagen, as cashier at a supermarket, as nurse, doctor, etc in order to 'earn money' to pay for their games, 'car insurance', 'driving licence' and to purchase stuff.

The last stop was at a jewellery boutique where Cass made her own beads bracelet.




There were many 'jobs' that the girls didn't have the time to try out. Hopefully Cass gets another opportunity to visit Kidzania again soon so that she could finish off all her 'cash' before she outgrows her interest in Kidzania.

Today is one of Cass' happiest days and is certainly worthy of being a 'Today in history' for her 💗

My Saturday - 5 August 2017

A beautiful sky with splashes of vibrant sunrise colors greeted me on a Saturday morning.  For someone who appreciates nature and painting, I felt it was such a waste not to capture the picture of the magnificent sky in a mishmash of blue, orange, grey, yellow and vermilion.  KL Tower was illuminated in fluorescent green today (on the left in the pic below).

I used to be pretty good in poster color painting when I was a teenager as my mum got me a very talented tutor to teach me painting and drawing, so much so that I always scored an A1 for my art tests, including the one in my SPM exam.  I had painted skies in that color tone  umpteen times during my secondary school days.

When I retire and have too much time on hand, I think I'm going to spend some of my time painting again 😊

While waiting for me to hang out the wet laundry before we have breakfast together at the coffee shop, Cass took out her magic clay set to roll out her creations. This time she made some fridge magnets in the shape of miniature cakes.

Fruits of the day: cherries and super sweet peaches.

My plate is always full on Saturdays. My day starts at 5am and ends at 10-ish pm. It revolves around many rounds of chauffeuring the girls to school, tuition center and music school.   In between, I slave around the house to do chores. Saturdays are even more hectic than weekdays. This month, I don't get a day off until the last week of August as the girls have activities on Sundays, from birthday parties to marathons, on a Sunday where I am supposed to get my extra 2 hours of sleep. But I haven't forgotten about myself. Now that I know how important sleep is for a healthy body, I catch up on my beauty sleep by taking naps when the girls are in school. And I still find the time to exercise 5 times a week. I hope you will start  your exercise regimen too if you've not done so 😄

Never A Dull Moment

The big princess is a self-confessed neat and clean freak. She calls herself OCD. Too bad she's got her dad's neat freak genes and her mom's clean freak DNA ingrained in her 😆  But I'm really 'lucky' that over the years, she's transformed into an OCD coz I now have someone at home who'll help me keep the house spic and span, HA HA HA!

While one has OCD, the other 2 girls are just the complete opposite.  These 2 devils drive me and the OCD girl bonkers with their callous attitude. The things that they do are unbelievable at times.  I can never ever tolerate anyone in the house putting stuff like books, bags, iPads (these are placed everywhere on dirty school desks, oily tables and even on the road. You know kids...) and other stuff not meant for the bed to be on the bed.  Someone does just that and this always makes me lose my marbles.  I'm not going to mention any  name here as I know that they read my blog all the time.

Last evening Drama Queen stepped out of the house for just a few minutes, bare footed and then walked back into the house.  Miss OCD chided Miss Bare Footed for not wearing slippers, thus dirtying the floor that she had just moped.

Miss Bare Footed retorted "can't you see me tip-toeing into the house? Is that not enough? You want me to crawl on my hands and knees is it?"


Goodness me, that was deliriously hilarious! I was in the kitchen and suppressing my guffaw so hard that I was tearing.  She could be a fighter cock that no one could ever bully but she is dang funny too.  When she's in a cheery  mood, this little devil can make me laugh like a hyena. She just knows which spot to hit, to make me howl uncontrollably till I tear.  I'll never have a dull moment when she's at home.

Yesterday's evening sunset skyline had a beautiful splash of rainbow colors on it. Cass caught sight of it while she was doing her revision. She ran out to the balcony with my phone and snapped a picture of it 💓