Prepping For Another Dance Competition

Week 1 of the 6-week school holidays just whirled past us. Alycia spent most of her days with her friends at their homes, cinema and malls. It's her last 'honeymoon year' in high school before her SPM next year.  Cass has been spending her days with her face buried in her novels, drawing papers and watching videos on You Tube. And I spent two days this week sitting at the dance studio for over 2 hours each session waiting for Sherilyn to learn a choreographed routine from a dance instructor from a well-known dance studio in Subang Jaya.  Our dancing queen will be competing in Asia Junior Got Talent this Sunday and this reality show will be screened on national TV soon!  This Sunday I will be camping at FINAS (National Film Development Corporation Malaysia) the entire day to give her my moral support.

First session at the studio:



Second and final session at the studio:


After 2.5 grueling hours of dancing non-stop on both days, we walked to the next road @ SS15's Bubble Tea Street for boba tea treat. I may be a  health freak but my ultimate kryptonite are 'kuih' and milk tea (sans the pearls) 😁 Almost every shop on that street sells bubble tea and we were left with the boba bombardment and couldn't decide which shop to walk into. At a glance, there are more than 15 bubble tea shops within walking distance from each other, vying for dominance and I wonder how each shop can stay afloat with such fierce competition. I wonder when the bubble tea bubble will burst.

On the first day, we settled for Black Whale and second day - Pin Tea.


I ordered a Milky Yam with no sugar and less ice from Black Whale while Sherilyn had milk tea (less sugar) with pearls.  With over 2 hours of dancing non-stop, she can afford the calories from the pearls. But I don't always allow her to order pearls with her milk tea.




Patrons will be given a free clear plastic transparent mini tote bag for take-away drinks, which keeps the cups in an upright position and ease of carrying. A single cup will be placed in a cutout paper carrier. I guess this feature gives The Black Whale the edge over other boba shops.


After the second dance class, we walked the Bubble Tea Street again and this time chose Pin Tea.
Pin Tea isn't exactly considered bubble tea as they don't sell pearls.  Sherilyn and I weren't exactly looking for milk tea, but for something healthier.  Pin Tea sells a wide selection of fruit teas using fresh fruits, they even load up their drinks with fresh fruit slices. Their drinks are packed with antioxidants, fibre, and Vitamin C.  I ordered Citrus fruits with jasmine tea (no sugar) which is very refreshing, not cloy unlike milk tea and has lesser calories.  Sherilyn ordered a strawberry milk shake.


I've signed up both Alycia and Sherilyn for a dance workshop scheduled to be held in 2 weeks' time at this dance studio and they can't wait to attend the workshop, conducted by competitive dance instructors from Singapore, Malaysia and Phillipines.

Do let me know if you or your kids are interested to attend this dance workshop and I'll PM you the details.

Sunday, 24 November 2019

My Sunday today didn't start off quite well.   In fact, everything seemed to go wrong.  At about 9 a.m, the water faucet in the wet kitchen suddenly 'exploded' and was yanked off from the wall by strong water pressure (see pic below), resulting in water gushing out in extremely high pressure, like something you would see when there's a burst water pipe on the road. I was drenched and the kitchen floor started to flood. The previous smart alec contractor removed the water switch from our kitchen (don't ask me why) and the water supply can only be turned off at the Water Meter room outside our unit, which is under lock and key and the resident needs to call the guard to come up to unlock the door to turn off the damn water switch. Dang it!  My mind was blank. I didn't know what to do to stop the water from flooding the kitchen floor!


I grabbed a pail from the floor to collect the water but the pressure was so strong that the water was shooting everywhere and the pail could not even contain the water as it was filling up to the brim within seconds and over-spilling everywhere really quickly. I quickly ran to the room and woke up the hubs, who nonchalantly (and rather cheesed that I woke him up from his much deserved beauty sleep coz it's a Sunday!) dragged his feet to the kitchen in a zombified state.

Hubs positioned the pail in a way that would stop the water from spilling onto the already partially flooded floor while I called the guard to come up to turn off the water switch. After the guard turned off the water switch, I realized that everyone still needed water to wash up and clean up.  The washing machine was also running in progress. The water cannot be turned off just yet; so I summoned the guard to turn the switch on again.  After I'd calmed down, I went to the Water Meter room and controlled the switch to lower the water pressure. Then I called our usual handyman, Ah Fai for SOS help.  I think he was still in bed and he only reached our condo some 3 hours later as he had to eat breakfast and had to buy a new water faucet from the shop.  Over the years of being our handyman, Ah Fai has become our good friend. Though he has survived a nasty fall from the second floor of a building recently and is now hobbling around in pain with a metal in his swollen leg, Ah Fai quickly obligated to come to our condo.



The figure on our water bill will surely double or triple this month!!  It's already very high at over RM120 every month.

When everyone had cleaned up and the washing machine completed its cycle, I turned off the water switch, then sent the girls to Sunday School in church.  The girls were already terribly late for Sunday School and the next stumbling block greeted us at the lift.  Both the lifts were not moving!  Great!!  So we used the stairs. I was praying that my car would not break down since Murphy's Law can be such a pain at times. 😂

Ah Fai came at noon and fixed the problem in under half an hour.  After he left, I had a major cleanup of the kitchen before rushing back to the church to fetch Cass back.  As Sherilyn was still at an outing with her Sunday School friends (last outing for this year), I told her to get Grab back home later.

And the next problem greeted us.  Both Sherilyn and I could not get a Grab driver after trying for over half an hour. Finally she got her classmate whose a Malay to help her and she succeeded in getting a driver from MyCar at an even cheaper fare (RM10 vs RM15).



When Sherilyn met us at the Japanese restaurant for lunch later, she told us that the MyCar driver, an Indian man, was feeling dubious over the pickup order. When he saw from his app that his customer was a Malay but the pick up was at a church, he was worried that it's yet another prank. Why would a Malay be at a church he thought?  And when he saw a Chinese girl getting into his car instead of a Malay, he couldn't refrain himself from asking Sherilyn a ton of questions.  Earlier in the day, he had received several strange and prank orders and one was from an old lady from the East Coast.  We all had a good laugh over this hilarious encounter that the Indian MyCar driver had today with Sherilyn's order.😂



Dinner was at the girls' grand uncle's (hubby's uncle) house.  Uncle J has just returned from Christchurch for the year-end holidays and called us over for dinner.  Cass and I got our dose of pet therapy and we brought home homegrown bitter gourd, curry leaves, kafir lime leaves and bananas that we plucked ourselves from the garden 💓

Baking And Cooking Frenzy

Our baking and dancing queen (no longer calling her drama queen as she's prohibited me from calling her this moniker in my blogs, though she's still very much a drama queen 😆) is already starting to feel bored of the 4-day long SPM-so-no-school holiday.  So she started baking and cooking again. Though it's music to my ears that she's volunteered to cook lunch and dinner today and baked yummy tarts, I'm not too enthusiastic with cleaning after her aftermath.  So I let her be. Let her practise her culinary skills now.  I'm sure one day she can whomp up a storm for all of us or even build a successful food business empire in future. And I'll be the one reaping the fruits of our labour together. Once in a while, I love to build castles in the air and imagine it materializing 😇


Two days ago, out of a whim, our baking queen sauntered to the kitchen, took out all her grandma's baking apparatus and started to prep the dough from scratch.  A day earlier, she asked me to buy sugar-free dark chocolate for her bakes.  I wasn't too happy that she started baking at 3 p.m. as she's got dance class at 7:30 p.m. and knowing how a dawdler she is, I was nagging her to hurry up the entire afternoon. I knew she was not going to make it on time for her dance class and I quickly roped in Cass to help with the baking. This type of tart is pretty tedious to prepare as the tart shells have to be baked with beans atop (to prevent the tart shells from puffing up). And filling the tart shells with beans can be very time-consuming. 






When she got back from her dance class at 9 p.m., she quickly prepped the chocolate ganache with dark chocolate and cream. When she realized that there wasn't enough ganache, she used Whittaker's Almond Gold chocolate that her daddy bought (his favorite dessert). This tart is really costly!




Filling up the tart shells with chocolate ganache and salted caramel (which she made earlier for her grandparents' 49th wedding anniversary cake):


Cass also helped to poke holes on the tart shells. Can you spot what motif this is, coming from a Harry Potter devotee?


Tarts in different mould shapes:




The chocolate tarts are SO good, they taste like a million dollars!  They taste like something that you would find from some chi chi glitzy cafes. The tart shells are crispy, buttery and insanely addictive. I could just eat these plain tarts without any filling.  And the chocolate ganache are needless to say sensational, coming from Whittaker's Almond Gold; it's not sweet as no sugar is added. The only sweetness comes from the sugar from the Whittaker's Almond Gold and salted caramel.  One bite and I know that this recipe is a keeper.





Our baking queen asked if she could sell her tarts at our neighborhood Facebook group but I said no. Would you spend RM7-8 just on a chocolate tart? I know the hubs would but the majority of the people whom I know would not, unless the tarts are for some special occasions.  I told her that she could start selling her bakes after her SPM, while waiting for the results 😊

Fenix Chinese Restaurant @ KL Gateway Mall

Our Saturday evening yesterday was a wet one.  As hubs is recovering from a cold, he reckoned that having dinner at a mall with covered car park will be the best so that no one gets wet from the rain.  Hubs likes to drives us all to a lunch or dinner venue without telling us where he'll be bringing us to. He likes to spring surprises on us. So when we found out that he was turning into KL Gateway Mall, we were all pleasantly surprised, especially me cos after dinner we could shop at H&M! 😆

This is not the first time that we've dined at Fenix Chinese Restaurant. When my SIL from  Hong Kong came back for a holiday last year, we went to this restaurant for lunch. My SIL who's persnickety when it comes to food was very satisfied with the food at Fenix and she went there again a few days later.

Gohtong Jaya's well-respected Loong Kee restaurant opened its first outpost in KL in March 2017. Fenix is a worthwhile entry in a city with no shortage of Chinese eateries. The culinary offerings at Fenix are backed by a team with 42 years of experience in local oriental specialty dishes.  Each dish is prepared by highly-skilled chefs using the freshest locally sourced ingredients such as vegetables delivered daily from Bukit Tinggi to ensure freshness in both presentation and taste.



Fenix’s signature dish is steamed fresh water fish which is a definite “must have” for customers who pride themselves as foodies.  Hubs ordered a steamed Patin fish, as recommended by the chef.  There are two types of Patin at Fenix: wild Patin caught from the river and farmed Patin. The wild Patin is obviously costlier.  Hubs ordered farmed Patin.

Patin steamed to perfection - fresh and no fishy odor with tender flesh.



Stir-fried crunchy water spinach (Kangkong) in claypot.



Sauteed jumbo squids with chives and big onions.



Pat Po (Eight Treasure) chicken.  The filling inside the chicken is reminiscence of 'lo mai kai' (steamed glutinous rice with chicken) as similar ingredients are used.


Asam prawns and squids with fresh pineapple wedges, ladies fingers and lots of big onions.


Double boiled soup



We'll definitely be back at Fenix soon to sample other dishes that look mouthwateringly good.

Fenix Chinese Restaurant
LG1.02, KL Gateway Mall,
Jalan Kerinchi,
Kampung Kerinchi,
Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-7931-3889

After our sumptuous dinner which left me filling really stuffed, we had a good 1.5 hours shopping and walking around H&M and by the time we reached home, I was feeling hungry again. Hubs bought Burger King for supper but I didn't eat any.   I'm doing really well on a 12-hour intermittent fasting / time-restricted feeding based on my circadian rhythm and I'm seeing excellent results in terms of better immunity, increased energy and weight loss and I'm not going to screw it up with fast food for supper. I have steely determination when it comes to my health 😉


My samseng girl trying on some killer heels which left me in stitches when she tried to balance on them. Alycia and Sherilyn couldn't find any nice dinner dresses at H&M and we're trying our luck again this week at another mall. We've got a wedding dinner to attend on the first day of 2020.  And the next day will be the first day of school for the girls!

Singles' Day 11.11 And Tips To Earn From Your Shopping Addiction!

I spent almost the whole of yesterday sitting in front of my computer, online shopping!  If you were to ask me what I am really good at, I'll tell you brazenly that it's shopping ~ fishing for the best deals! Shopping has the magical touch of making me really happy ~ it melts away some of my woes and lifts me up from my doldrums. Only shopping fanatics will know how therapeutic retail therapy is. 😁

My loot on 11.11 are a set of 40 pieces Copic Touch Cool markers for Cass, organic tea for myself, lingerie for the girls, quilt and quilt cover. All these came with free shipping, additional coupons from the sellers, earning of Shopee coins as well as redemption from the coins and cash back from ShopBack!  I wanted to shop for some nut butter, clothes and more stuff but there's only this much time I had on hand. It was such a tensed moment during checkout time as both the banks that I use were unavailable ~ I think caused by the 11.11 congestion.  I had to use my credit card as alternative, something which I am not too keen on ever since my card was compromised by some crooks last year.

Sharing is Caring! What is ShopBack?
If you do not already know, ShopBack works by giving customers a percentage of their purchase money each time they make a transaction with its partner merchants through its website. Merchants do not have to pay to get listed with ShopBack but only need to pay a cut to the site if customers buy something from them.

So if you're a regular online shopper, do register at ShopBack.  I registered at ShopBack last year and have todate 'earned' over RM60 from cash back from all my petty purchases, with 7 more pending payments to be made from my recent purchases! Recently about RM40 was credited into my bank account by ShopBack.  If you buy big items like air tickets, electrical items and holidays, you'll earn even bigger cash back from ShopBack.

Had I enough time yesterday, I would have grabbed even more unbelievable great deals. At 9:30 p.m. when I was about to shut down my computer, I saw ankle socks going at 11 SEN a pair from a seller in China (with 5-star ratings). I quickly added 10 pairs into my Shopee shopping cart but my computer acted up and decided to 'hang'. As it was already my bedtime, I had to forgo the deal. I saw the socks selling at RM1.60 a pair today 😥

My next online shopping frenzy is on Black Friday on 29 November!  For now, I'll take my time to leisurely shop and add stuff into my shopping carts (see 's' after cart?😁 ) and checkout on 29 November 😜  And if I miss out the 29 November sale, I have the 12.12 Sale held on 12 December!  And if I miss out on 12.12, I can still shop at the year-end sales which starts on 16 December and ends on 3 January the following year.

Hope you'll take note of all the shopping dates to help you save some kaching 🤑. You can start shopping for Christmas presents during the Black Friday and 12.12 Sales.

Singles' Day or Double Eleven is the world's biggest online sales fest, held on 11 November every each, since 2009.  Sales for this annual shopping blitz even dwarfed Cyber Monday in the United States.  Did you grab any deals yesterday?

Niu Niu Kulai Beef Noodle @ OUG, KL

Today's brunch at Niu Niu Kulai Beef Noodle was totally unplanned. I'd sent my car for a wash and to kill time, hubs brought us to OUG.  We circled the morning market area for about 15 minutes, undecided on what to eat and then I chose Niu Niu Kulai Beef Noodle as I wanted to use the bathroom badly and chose a more decent looking restaurant vs. run down coffee shops. 😁



Hubs had 'lai fun' with soup with an assortment of beef spare parts while I had dry vermicelli with minced pork and ordered a side of minced beef balls (2 pieces).  As I'm used to eating the slightly watery kind of 'kon lo' noodles, I wasn't used to the Southern 'kon lo' which is sticky and starchy. I didn't even eat a quarter of the noodles.

What's good were the beef soup and beef balls. The next time we go there again, I'll just stick to vermicelli with beef soup and beef balls. No spare parts and no beef meat for me.  Hubs can feast on the assortment of beef cuts.





After brunch, we went marketing at the OUG indoor market, which was also totally unplanned... and ended up spending over RM200 on pork, chicken, fish, vegetables and fruits. Good la, now I don't need to do anymore marketing for meat for the rest of this week and next week except to buy more fruits and vegetables😄

Thank you to my darling for helping this silai carry all the heavy stuff to the car park and then went up again to the market to look for me 💖

Address:
Niu Niu Kulai Beef Noodle
44-58, Jalan 16
Overseas Union Garden (OUG)
Kuala Lumpur

Harry Potter T-Shirts

I finally found Harry Potter tees for my hardcore Harry Potter devotee, from Cotton On! The tees are selling at RM59 each and RM80 for two. I got her a size XXS, which is still slightly large on her.  Cass loves the tee but loves the Hedwig clothes tag even more. Hedwig is Harry Potter's pet snowy owl. She now wants me to bring the Hedwig tag to the stationery shop to have it laminated so that she could use it as a bookmark when she reads her Harry Potter books 🙄

Have I told you that Cass re-reads all her thick-like-Bible Harry Potter books at least 6 or 7 times? And she plans on re-reading book #1 again (for the 8th time!) when she finishes re-reading all the other books.  That's how much this girl loves the Harry Potter series 😵

Tuesday, 5 November 2019

Hubs is on a diet (hopefully he can persevere eating just 1-2 meals a day) and Sherilyn was idling away at home and refused to go out with me, so I had a quiet brunch alone at the kopitiam this morning. As you can see, my meals are  often very low on Carbs. Today I had 'chap fan' sans the rice, comprising  of Chinese cabbage, egg plant with minced pork, two small pieces of Nestum chicken and 1 tiny piece of fried tofu.  I have not eaten soy products for a long, long time (not going to get started on the dangers of soy products) but today I felt really tempted to dig into just one minuscule piece to satiate my craving 😁.  I do like unhealthy stuff like sausages and spam meat and I don't go cold turkey on them. Once in a purple moon, I do indulge in them just to satisfy my cravings. 

Lunch of low carb dishes with sugar-free barley water + pumpkin while people-watching as I tucked into my food 😆 Today I saw a group of fifth formers having lunch at the kopitiam. They've just finished sitting for their first SPM paper today, which is BM. And I thought to myself - in exactly a year's time, Alycia will be sitting for her first SPM paper!  I shudder to think of next year as all 3 girls will be sitting for their major exams respectively!

Stroll Down Kwai Chai Hong @ KL's Chinatown (29 October 2019)

After our as-always-very delightful lunch at Restaurant Pik Wah (MABA) with my parents on Tuesday (Deepavali school holiday), hubs brought us to Kwai Chai Hong, which is just 0.5km away from Pik Wah.  Dad has read all the rave on Kwai Chai Hong from the media recently and just in the morning, he asked hubs where this place is.

But before I get down to Kwai Chai Hong, let's take a look at what we dug into at Pik Wah!

'Toong Por Yoke' (briased pork belly) with fried mantou buns.


Yam basket and steamed chicken with minced garlic sauce.


'Kar Heong Jai' (vegetarian) and stir-fry vegetables.



'Wat Tarn Hor' and anchovies fried rice.

Ok, now let's talk about Kwai Chai Hong!

Kwai Chai Hong is currently the best-kept secret in the Chinatown area in Kuala Lumpur, with the lovingly-restored pre-war buildings in the history-rich lane.  This lane, which is pretty similar in nature to Ipoh's Yi Lai Hong aka Concubine's Lane, is set to be the latest tourist hot spot in Kuala Lumpur.

Chinatown is virtually synonymous with Petaling Street or Jalan Petaling, which stretches beyond the mega arches of Chinatown.  Project Kwai Chai Hong involves 10 restored shophouses — six fronting Jalan Petaling and another four units along Lorong Panggung, as well as a delightful laneway tucked between the two roads of Jalan Petaling and Lorong Panggung.

Why the name Kwai Chai Hong?

The origin of the Kwai Chai Hong moniker is, however, not supernatural in nature, with at least two credible theories floated regarding this name.

One is that migrant workers from China who settled here used the colloquial slang of "kwai chai" (ghost children or little demon) to refer to mischievous children running around Lorong Panggung.

Another theory is that Kwai Chai Hong's past as an area filled with gamblers, drug addicts, drunkards and those engaging in vice activities led to its nickname, while another story claimed that Lorong Panggung was the hideout of the "Dragon Tiger Clan" whose boss would call his members "Little Ghosts."

Enjoy the photos!  I could have snapped more photos but it was sizzling hot that day (around 2 pm) and I was on the verge of melting. I had to take random snapshots before running to find shades for shelter 😂  After our stroll down Kwai Chai Hong in billy boiling temperatures, we had to run back to the car as the skies suddenly turned dark and ominous, suggesting another frog-choker and flash flood.





Alycia with her Sarah ku ku with a delicious coconut soft serve ice cream.


Hubs and I 😆



Our dancing queen.



Lovely wall mural.


Century-old lamp post, which is one of the oldest in Kuala Lumpur.


Tucking into something cold and refreshing at Tang Ge Kopitiam @ Kwai Chai Hong to cool down.


Second round of dessert at Bubble Bee Cafe to try their specialty - egg waffles in the shape of bubble wrap!  This cafe is a green-themed environment-friendly cafe to enjoy coffee, desserts and all day brunch.  I had coconut shake, made with fresh coconut water and flesh. It's sugar-free and very refreshing.












Photo credits - Malay Mail


Photo credits - Malay Mail

Benefits of Wearing Shapewear And Bodysuits

In the most recent years, shapewear and bodysuits have made a large presence all over the world.  These women's essentials have hit the shelves in a myriad of colors, styles, types, patterns, and shapes.  Shapewear and bodysuits can perform wonders to a woman’s bod, including giving her a boost in confidence.

Bodysuits

If you're looking for cheap black bodysuits, FeelinGirls.com have a neat collection to choose from.  These are some of the benefits of wearing bodysuits:

1.  Tucked in. The most obvious advantage of a bodysuit is what they were designed for: they stay tucked in!  There is no need to worry about your blouse or singlet popping out and having to thrust your hand down your skirt or pants to tuck it in place.




2.  Seamless look. Because they stay tucked and attached underneath, they can stay smooth. Even if your tight tank top stayed tucked into your pants or skirt, it can still shift and bunch. A bodysuit has a better chance of staying sleek and snug.

3.  Sexy.  There's something really sexy and sassy about bodysuits. Perhaps it's because they are body-hugging, low cut, smooth or sheer.

4.  Snaps. If you’ve ever worn a romper or pantsuit, you know the inconvenience of having to undress completely in order to use the bathroom.  With a bodysuit, the snaps underneath allow you to unbutton easily to get your deed done.

5.  One piece. A bodysuit is easy to wear because you can wear it as a blouse and underwear in one. This makes it easy for someone to wear something over it – a skirt, jeans, or anything else.

6.  Style. Bodysuits are trending right now, so there are some super stylish options out there, like from FeelinGirls.com

Shapewear

The most obvious and common use for shapewear is a slimmer appearance. Shapewear like a slimming tank top, shapewear legging, butt enhancer panty and waist trainer are designed in a way that helps to eliminate any unwanted bulges or lumps of fat, ideally sucking it all in.



Many women have a hard time losing weight through diet and exercise, so shapewear like high waisted shaping shorts and shaping camis are a way to boost their confidence. Shapewear have been created to help give women a more natural shape, and is an option that could help to a certain degree.



If you’d like to cover up those minor imperfections and give your body a more natural shape, a women’s shapewear or bodysuit added into your closet of arsenal attire might give you just the boost of confidence that you need. Along with a healthy diet, exercise and proper shapewear, you will be on your way to achieving a permanent hour-glass figure 😉