Tag : My Plan on 08 08 08

Another fun meme for me from Montessorimum and Chin Nee. I guess on that day, which is a weekday, I'll most probably not even realize that it's 08 08 08 until I read the newspapers. I'll most likely be doing the routine tasks like getting Alycia ready for school, preparing breakfast, preparing lunch, blogging, doing paid posts, etc etc.

Well, I hope that by then, I'd have earned enough money to go for a vacation with my family to Hong Kong Disneyland or New Zealand to visit my sil and her twins. Most importantly, I hope and pray that 08 08 08 will be a fruitful day for me and that all my loved ones and I will be in excellent health, safe, happy and be together.

I'd love to hear from these wonderful bloggers their 08 08 08 plans too :

1) Mummy to Chumsy

2) Rambling Moo

3) The Imperfect Mom

4) Momsie Tales

5) Big Pumpkin


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Instructions :

**Start Copy**

Proposition: My plan on 08.08.08

Requirements: Share with us your plan on 08.08.2008.

Tag Mode: 5 bloggers

1st - You leave their blog and post link and add to the list below.
2nd - Let the blogger you want to tag know they been tagged by comment in their blog or etc.
3rd - Leave me a comment so that I can compile all your links in a final list on 08.08.2008.

What They will do on 08.08.2008

Xilly want to create a list of 08.08.08 plans.
Chooi Peng was at Hokkaido on 08.08.08
Jazzmint will pass the day blurry on 08.08.08
Dragonmummy will run the normal SAHM task on 08.08.08
Healthfreakmommy will pass the day doing daily routine tasks and hopes to go on a vacation.

Covered Calls

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North Indian Cuisine

Last Saturday, DH brought us for an unplanned lunch at Saffron Restaurant, a restaurant that specializes in North Indian cuisine located at Sri Hartamas. The food are all home-cooked, using loads of spices and are very tasty, even my fussy food critic hubby enjoyed the food. Here's what we ate :



Fish Kofta - fish with potato patties



Butter chicken - boneless chicken braised in creamy almond and butter sauce. Very tasty and rich.



Bhoona Gosht - mutton braised in a highly spiced gravy of tomatoes, onions and herbs. The mutton was tender and the gravy was very flavourful.



Saffron rice



Pumpkin Rai - cubes of pumpkin flavored with ginger and mustard seed.



Paratha bread - layered wholewheat flat bread - everyone's favorite. Tastes like sweet roti canai



Thick dhall with lots of herbs and chick peas.



Chapati


We had a dessert of home-made almond ice-cream and durian ice-cream but I find the ice-cream a tad too sweet for me.

Overall, the food was good and the bill came up to RM103.

Hotel Reservations

Hubby and I are planning a trip to Hong Kong to visit my in-laws. They have been asking us to bring Alycia and Sherilyn to Disneyland in Hong Kong. Our plan to visit Hong Kong will most likely materialize as I’ve almost saved enough money from my paid posts to purchase myself an air ticket. Since my sil stays in a condo and there are not enough rooms to put us all up at her place, I told hubs that we should book our hotel rooms online through this awesome travel website, Hotel Reservations as recommended by my friend.

Hotel Reservations can help to create a vacation package for you. All you need to do is to key in your choice of destination, departure date, arrival date, number of adults and children and in just a few seconds, voila… you get a few packages of different hotels, motels and resorts with rates to suit one’s budget. For those who want to drive around for sight-seeing, they can also rent a car through Hotel Reservations.

There are great discounts on-going now at various hotels linked with Hotel Reservations world-wide. For example, I just found out that L Hotel Nina et Convention Center in Tsuen Wan Waterfront, Hong Kong is offering a discounted average nightly rate of only $93.51 for the period Sep 2 through Sep 10 2007. That’s pretty cheap for a hotel located in the center of Hong Kong.

Another reason why I would like to make my hotel reservations with Hotel Reservations is because there are hotel discounts known as ‘Special Internet Rate’ booked through Interactive Affiliate Network where the hotel rates are guaranteed to be the lowest one can find. If there is a lower rate available for the same dates and same hotel, one can contact Hotel Reservations within 24 hours of booking the ‘Special Internet Rate’ and upon verification, Hotel Reservations will at their discretion match the lower rate or cancel the reservation without a cancellation fee.

If you are planning a holiday abroad, look no further, log in to HotelReservations.com and you will be spoilt for choice with the wide selection of hotels, motels, resorts, vacation packages and rentals at really affordable prices.

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Petai Dish

I love Petai or 'chau tau' in cantonese or it literally means smelly beans in English if translated from cantonese. I love Petai stir-fried with sambal belacan (prawn paste and chillies) but since my 2 gals also eat them, I normally stir-fry the Petai with diced chicken meat, soya sauce, garlic and shallots. Petai is like the Durian, they smell horrible before you cook them and you will have a bad after-taste in your mouth after you've eaten them but when you eat them, they taste really delicious. Petai is also known to have medicinal values, especially in treating high blood pressure, diabetes and other ailments.

IRateMyDay.com - Microsoft Zune Contest!

Do you want to win a cool Microsoft Zune media player? If yes, all you have to do is to participate in a contest organized by IRateMyDay.com. I Rate My Day is a micro-blogging site which allows you to share your feelings with the rest of the World in total simplicity.

Do hurry up to sign up for the contest as the inscriptions for the contest finishes on 31 July 2007 and the contest ends on 31 August 2007. To find out more about I Rate My Day and this Microsoft Zune contest, do check out their cool website and register for a FREE account. I have just registered my account there too!






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A Saucy Fish Story

Sherilyn is finally weaned off from blended food, for over 1 month, hooray! However, she still doesn't like to eat chicken meat or any other meat except fish balls, fish paste and steamed fish BUT she has to eat her steamed fish with this special sauce made up of organic soya sauce, olive oil, garlic, shredded ginger and fresh spring onions all stir-fried together. She loves the sauce very much and insists that the bowl of sauce be placed next to her during dinner time everyday. I tried cooking sweet and sour fish or pan-fried fish but nope, she wouldn't eat the fish and spat them all out. Since she doesn't eat any other meat, I try to steam fish for her everyday with the special sauce of course.


The special fish sauce that Sherilyn is crazy over.


And this is how Sherilyn eats her dinner everyday. I've asked my maid to dilute the sauce with some soup when she cooks it so that it will not be that salty.

Beard Papa's Cream Puff

That's my favorite food, Beard Papa's Natural Cream Puff which DH bought from Mid Valley Megamall yesterday. He bought a box of 5 cream puffs. I gave one to my maid and the gals and I gobbled down 3 yesterday and 1 today. It's best eaten fresh on the day you purchase it, else the pastry will turn squidgy the following day. If you haven't tasted it yet, you really got to buy 1 to try, really delicious! There are 3 flavors - original, green tea and chocolate and i like the original one best.

My $$ Is Finally In!

Woohoo.... the 2nd batch of my hard earned money was finally transferred from my Paypal account (in my brother's name) into my brother's bank account in Singapore several days ago. The $$ will no longer be see no touch as my bro will pass me the cash soon. I shall transfer the 3rd batch once the amount reaches SGD200 so that the transfer fees will be waived. With the 3rd batch of $$ coming in, I can even purchase an air ticket to Hong Kong for myself. Hopefully DH and I can bring the gals to Hong Kong Disneyland come year end, keeping our fingers crossed.

Qoo Forum

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In this ad revenue sharing program, active members are entitled to 50% of the Google AdSense revenue generated by the threads they have started. For many bloggers, you would already know what Google AdSense is. The Ad Revenue Sharing System at Qoo Forum uses the Google AdSense network to monetize the forum and it is a system that shares advertisement revenue made by the forum to its active members.

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Tag : Creatures I Hate Most

Thanks Chin Nee for passing this tag to me. You know I need to do more tags to help increase my PR eh? Since I don't have much time, I shall write a a short post on this tag. I also have another 2 tags outstanding from Montessorimum and Big Pumpkin.

The creatures I loathe and fear most are :

1) Cockroaches. I hate any insects and bugs that emit stinky odours and have wings. I especially hate cockroaches because they really stink the hell out of me when I accidentally step on them and I hate the black liquid that these pests squirt out, eeeewww..... really disgusting and stinky!

2) Rats. I hate them because they are filthy. I hate it most when they crawl over my legs when I don't notice them and all of a sudden I feel something hairy and warm resting on my feet. Eeeeyou....... so geli!

I'm going to pass the fear factor baton to :

1) Scibbles For My Angels
2) Mummy In Vain
3) Mommy to Chumsy. ... good filler post for you!

Blue Black Cheek

Sherilyn is always bursting with energy, ideas and mischievous. She climbs up and down the sofa, climbs up the tv cabinet, puts her potty inside the drawer and then sits on the potty, jumps on the sofa as if she's jumping on a trampoline, hops up and down the stairs of the split-level at our hall and pretends to be a frog, yanks off drawer knobs and safety gadgets, touches forbidden items and the list goes. Several days ago, she knocked her cheek on the wall whilst she was jumping on the sofa and got a blue-black mark on her face, just below her left eye but that still did not stop her from jumping again less than half an hour later. Sometimes I just don't know how to discipline and tame this little monkey for she doesn't really fear anything, not even the whip.

Durian For Breakfast!

Alycia enjoying every bite of the durian whilst Sherilyn was enjoying her perssimon and grapes for breakfast.

It's the durian season now and since I love durian so much, DH would buy me durian from the pasar malam every Friday. It's not only DH and I who love eating them but both Alycia and Sherilyn have also developed a strong liking for the king of the fruit.

Normally DH would buy enough durian for me to savour for 2-3 days and I would keep them in the fridge and eat them for breakfast for 2-3 straight mornings, without any signs of boredom. Yesterday, I decided to give 1 seed to Alycia and she enjoyed every single bite of the flesh. I just hope she won't get heaty after eating them as she had also eaten some petai the day before.

400th Post

I can't believe I'd already reached my 400th post in my blog yesterday and my blog is only slightly over 3 months. Just can't wait to announce that I've reached my 400th paid post very soon.

Modem Conked Out

One of my greatest fears came true this morning when my modem conked out. My computer has been running really slow and the internet connection has been unstable for the past few days. I thought there were some probs with Streamyx or a bug has hit my PC. The modem was still ok at 2am but when I tried to turn it on at 6am, there were no lights, not even the 'power' light was blinking. I panicked and knew I had to wait a few days for the TM Net technician to fix it as it is the weekend. I called TM Net and was told that I had to wait for 2 working days. I told the guy I had to get the modem replaced ASAP as I'm running a home business and can't afford to have any downtime (must exaggerate a bit lar) but the guy told me no, I have to wait for 2 working days. Not satisfied with the Malaysian 'no attitude', I called again and this time, I wasn't Miss Nice anymore. I tried to exert some urgency and raised my voice a tad bit and it worked. The guy promised to send me a technician by today.

By 10am, the technician was still no where to be seen and I called again. This time, the 3rd customer service guy told me the same crap - "no Mam' our technicians don't work on a weekend". I gave him a piece of my mind and told him I want to see a technican first thing Monday morning. 1/2 hour later, I saw a TM Net van outside my house. When I saw the technician outside my gate, I was happy beyond words. The technician found out that my modem's adaptor was faulty and got it replaced. I was so happy and thankful that I gave him quite a big tip albeit it's FOC.

Alycia Fell Off The Bed

Several days ago, Alycia was playing on the bed with daddy and Sherilyn when suddenly, she fell off the bed and landed head down (back of the head) on the floor. I knew it was quite a painful fall from the sound and tone of her cry, the one with the "waaaaah....." followed by a long pause kind of cry. When I touched her head, I was shocked to feel a huge 'bungalow' immediately after the fall. Daddy and I frantically shuffled her hair to check her scalp and we saw a huge red hump or 'bungalow' like this :

I rushed to get some ice cubes from the kitchen, wrapped them on a hanky and began rubbing them on her scalp. Thank God, she didn't throw up after the fall, even slept through the night and when she woke up the next morning, the hump had almost subsided.


All smiles again after daddy put cold compress on her head.

The next morning, daddy went to Safe n Sound at 1U to buy another bed railing to attach it to our king-sized bed. However, the size was not right and daddy had to bring it back to Safe n Sound the following day to get it changed but daddy didn't complain. He would never complain of anything done for his 2 princesses.


The new Safety 1st bed railing on our king-sized bed.

Charity Tag : Darul Izzah Orphanage of Boys

Thanks Big Pumpkin for this meme. I love doing charity, sorry I took quite a while to complete this assignment.

For each 17 out of the 27 items here listed completed by a blogger, RM127 will go to the Darul Izzah Orphanage. When you’re done, please go to Idham’s comments to let him know you’ve completed it. Here it is:

1. A person is only as good as …………
2. Friendship is always…………about give and take.
3. To love is to………….be blind to a person's flaws.
4. Money makes me…………happier and have the ability to do more charity.
5. I miss…………..my childhood days.
6. My way of saying I care is by………….doing something special wholeheartedly, for that person.
7. I try to spread love and happiness by………….trying to help and give as much as I can without expecting something in return.
8. Pick the flowers when………….they are at their full bloom and smell them.
9. To love someone is to………….make sacrifices for him/her without complaining or expecting something in return.
10. Beauty is………….in the eye of the beholder.
11. When I was thirteen, what I remember…………I was carefree, happy and was infatuated with one guy.
12. When I was twenty one, I remember………….I went to Bangkok and Hong Kong for a holiday with my mum.
13. I am most happy when…………..I have a fruitful day and everything seems to go my way.
14. Nothing makes me happier than………….seeing me and all my loved ones healthy and happy.
15. If I can change one thing, I will change…………my impatience and hot temper.
16. If smiles were banned…………I would feel wierd and miserable.
17. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could………
18. If you want to ask me to smile while taking my picture……….
19. Money is not everything but…………almost everything needs money to buy.
20. The most touching moments I have experienced is……….
21. I smile when………..Alycia and Sherilyn say something funny.
22. When I am happy, I………..thank God for it.
23. If only I don’t have to………..
24. The best thing I did yesterday was………….
25. If I ever write a book, I will give it this title…………
26. One thing I must do before I die is…………to travel to at least 3 countries. I can use up all my money then.... who cares coz I am going to die soon!
27. Doing this meme, I feel like………..I'm answering some subjective questions in an exam.

I'm now passing this charity meme to :

1) Baby Shern
2) Hipncoolmomma
3) Janice Ng

Purple Flower Plant

Since I'd received requests from many mommies to have the picture of the purple flower plant taken, I went to the playground near my house early this morning to have the pic of the purple flower plant snapped.



Sorry, I don't know the scientific English name of this plant and I'm not sure if this plant grows in any other country besides tropical countries. You can do a google search to find out more about this plant.

I was advised that the leaves of the plant can also be boiled and I normally put in 2 blades of leaves to boil together with barley for Alycia and Sherilyn to drink. Another benefit of drinking water boiled from the flowers and leaves of this plant is that it alleviates constipation. It works for me and my 2 gals in relieving constipation. In fact you will have a real smooth 'business' after consuming this drink and it doesn't cause any tummy discomfort.

*Disclaimer - this is not intended to be a medical advice*

Bid4Prizes

Ever since I quit work to become a SAHM, I’m very much into cheap sales, getting freebies and entering competitions to try my luck in winning some cash or prizes. I can now win cash prize , Sweepstake and free gifts from a BMW 3 series to a Dell Inspiron laptop, a Home Theater, designer bags, an Apple i-Phone to many more great prizes at Bid4Prizes, a great website for you to bid to win prizes and the LOWEST one wins!

It’s easy peasy to play. This is how : if more than one person bids a penny, then that penny is no longer the lowest unique bid and 2 cents is the new low unique bid. If more than one person bids 2 cents then 3 cents is the next lowest unique bid. And so on. The winning bid could be anything, it could be a penny, or $2.88 or even $888.33. Whatever is the lowest UNIQUE bid wins the prize!

All you have to do to bid is enter your cell phone number and amount to bid and click ‘bid now’ and you’ll receive a text message to see if your bid is the lowest unique bid. If it’s not, you can bid again. There is even a 2-minute video at the Bid4Prizes website which shows you how to play to win prizes.

If you win a prize at Bid4Prizes, it is absolutely free. Bid4prizes even pays for the shipping but as with winning any prize taxes may apply.

Why not try your luck at Bid4Prizes today and you could be driving home a BMW 3 series or get richer by a few hundred dollars to one million dollars. Click here to join Bid4Prizes today.

Purple Flower, A Natural Anti-Oxidant & Remedy

I had promised earlier that I will blog about this 'Phong Far' (as the chinese call it in cantonese), a flower with purplish, greenish petals and tiny white flowers inside the bud. This flower has been known for a long time to be a natural anti-oxidant and remedy for various ailments and diseases. The leaves are pointy and long and also purplish and greenish in colour.

My late maternal grandma used to boil the flower with either pork or raw yellow sugar whenever my youngest brother had eczema decades ago. My mum is now drinking this purple flower water boiled with raw yellow sugar to treat her goitre and fibroids.

When I went for my pap-smear and annual medical check-up a few months ago, my gynae had detected a very tiny fibroid of apprx 1cm in size in my uterus when he did a trans-vaginal ultrasound scan. Naturally, I was alarmed and stunned. My gynae was however very blase about it and said I don't need to take any action and said that fibroids are prevalent among women (1 in 5 women has it) and normally would not turn malignant.

Some time last year, when my mum went for her routine medical check-up, her gynae had also detected a fibroid in her uterus. My mum's friends then advised her to boil 'phong far' with raw yellow sugar to shrink the cyst. Miraculously after months of consuming the 'phong far' water, the ultrasound scans showed that the cyst had vanished. My mum's friends who had cysts in various parts of their internal body also drank this flower water and swear by the miraculous healing properties. One of my mum's friend's surgeon also recommended this flower water to his patients with cysts.
I plucked these flowers from a bush next to a playground near my house.

I add 1 tablespoon of raw yellow sugar to approximately 4 cups of water.

Put the flowers and yellow sugar into a pot of water and boil for approximately 1 hour.

Washing the flowers is quite a onerous task as I have to open up the petals of each flower and wash out the soil and dirt under running water. It takes me half an hour to wash 2 handfuls of flowers.

The 'phong far' drink. It has a sweet fragrant flowery taste.

I have been boiling 'phong far' with raw yellow sugar for myself, Alycia (for her eczema) and Sherilyn for her swollen lymph nodes for the last 2 months and have so far consumed it more than 20 times. Sherilyn has no problem drinking it, in fact she LOVES it. A few days ago, when I touched the lump below Sherilyn's jaw, it had reduced in size and not so tender anymore.

* Disclaimer : this is not intended to be a medical advice*