Hoping For Gloomy Skies And Rainy Days

I have this idiosyncrasy in me where my mood is determined by the weather. Yup the daily weather. When I see dark skies with a looming thunderstorm, my mood is instantly lifted up and I feel really happy LOL!! When the big bright yellow sun is out and the skies are bright, I actually feel down. Weird eh? I guess that's because I cannot stand hot weather. I think I will be happy if I lived overseas in a cold country. Today the skies are dark and cloudy... I can anticipate rain coming, woohooo.... I am happy hehehe!!

Canton-I Restaurant @ Gardens, Mid Valley

We had lunch at Canton-I Restaurant at Gardens, Mid Valley yesterday. Canton-I serves very good dim sum and Hong Kong cuisine. The food is supposedly MSG-free, pork is free from beta-agonist, only low cholesterol eggs are used and rice bran oil is used. Well, this is what was written in their menu.

We ordered our favorite 'lau chup pau' (once broken, hot duck's eggs custard will ooze out from the purple pau) and this Hong Kong style layer cake.

Sei kwai tau (Four-Season beans), iLike this dish. Deep fried crispy anchovies are stir-fried with the french beans.

Roast meat with salted peanuts...




Roast goose drumstick (siew ngor pei), wanton mein and yau char kwai. The yau char kwai was very crispy and went well with the abalone-prawn-chicken porridge. I love the porridge as the consistency is super smooth. I think the porridge was blended to get such smooth consistency.

Siew Mai...

and there were also a plate of seafood fried rice, HK style chee cheong fun, a big bowl of seafood porridge and a plate of stir-fried lobak koa (stir fried radish). Food was so much that we could not finish and had to take away the left over, which we ate for dinner.


Canton-I's business philosophy on food freshness and quality...

Canton-I is located near Din Tai Foong, which is also our other favorite Hong Kong style restaurant.

I would rate the food at Canton-I 9/10. Be sure to go there early, otherwise be assured to join in the long queue outside the restaurant.

Do You Keep Your Cards?

I hardly ever keep greeting cards and postcards that I receive. Oh well, maybe I will keep those exceptionally nice ones like those postcards with photos of my friends or photos of their babies printed on them. Some of my friends are willing to spend their money on postcard printing so that their friends and relatives can keep those cards or frame them up. My hubs always complains that we don’t have enough storage space in our condo, so we are forced to throw away and give away many things. Do you keep greeting cards and postcards?

A Crazy Week

The past 1 week has been a crazy week for me. My 3 girls have been down with purging and fever the whole of last week and that's every mum's nightmare when all their kids fall sick together. After Alycia's exam had ended, next in turn was Sherilyn's. Her exam is still on-going and will only end tomorrow. As fate has it, my stock from my suppliers always arrive at a time when I am the busiest. And offers from advertisers also always come together when I am the busiest with my online store. I can't believe the impeccable timing and coincidence of things and events that have been happening to me all these while. Gawd, I am so terribly burnt out! While I had to spend time to do revision with Sherilyn, I could not just let the pile of stock sit in the living room. One, it is such an eye sore to have a mountain of stock in the middle of the living room. Two, my customers' will be chasing me and inundating me with "when can I receive my things?"

Last night, I only had 3-4 hours of sleep. You can read the story in my health blog, Health Is Wealth.

No Way To Stay Slim This Way

There are still chunks of cheese, tubs of sour cream and a packet of digestive biscuits in the fridge. I think my mil will bake a cheese cake one of these days. Oh I can’t wait for her to bake again as I love cheese cakes. I have also put in my request for almond cookies. My mil’s almond cookies are awesome too. Gosh, if I continue gorging on carbs like this, I will have to start reading lipofuze reviews since I don’t have the time to put in extra minutes to work out everyday.

A House Of Temptation

My mil made some blueberry tarts yesterday. They were the most sinfully delicious tarts ever. Simply lip-smacking and I can polish off 2 at one go. She had spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen to produce about 10 tarts and all were gone in just a day. I could see that the process and method of making the tarts were really very tedious and complicated and only a person who loves baking would be patient enough to sweat it out in the kitchen to produce such lovely pastries. Today she made banana walnut muffins again. If she continues to whip up such sinful treats so frequently, I may have to rely on the best fat burners to help me stay slim.

Opposites Attract

My hubs and I have polar opposite characters. I am a very disciplined person while he is a very relaxed person. I am a chronic worrier while he is carefree. I am a health freak and religiously pop my vitamins everyday while he will only pop his vitamins, including his chondroitin glucosamine msm if I feed them to him every morning. If I forget about his vitamins, so will he! Well, they say opposites attract! The only thing that we have in common is probably the fact that we both love to eat good food.

Panda Eyed Me

My mum commented once that she thought I had applied grayish eye shadow on my eye lids and under my eyes when she saw my pictures on Facebook. That’s because I hardly apply eye shadow ever since I left the corporate world. I then told her that the gray color ain’t eye shadow but dark circles! That’s how sleep deprived I am. I look like a mama panda all the time. I seriously need to google search on remove dark circles under eyes to get the best solution to rid those dark circles.

Panda Eyed Me

My mum commented once that she thought I had applied grayish eye shadow on my eye lids and under my eyes when she saw my pictures on Facebook. That’s because I hardly apply eye shadow ever since I left the corporate world. I then told her that the gray color ain’t eye shadow but dark circles! That’s how sleep deprived I am. I look like a mama panda all the time. I seriously need to google search on remove dark circles under eyes to get the best solution to rid those dark circles.

My Daily Dose Of Apple Cider Vinegar With Psyllium Husk

An unhealthy physical appearance may reflect unhealthy guts. If you have acne and a protruding belly, suffer from constipation and are gaining weight, chances are that there is toxic buildup in your body system. But help is at hand with colon cleansers like colovexus. For me, I gulp down a glass of apple cider vinegar with psyllium husk every morning and I think that’s the best colon cleanser for me. It tastes awful but oh well, I am still ok with it as long as it can help me feel and look good.

Men’s Clothing Next

Several customers suggested to me that I should also carry a collection of men's clothing in my online store. I had actually wanted to bring in some men’s clothing at the beginning of the year as my relative is a men’s clothing wholesaler but have to shelve my plans. As it is now, I cannot cope with the sales volume and I have no help at all. I am running a one-man show here. If I hire a part-time helper, I will definitely consider bringing in men’s clothing, bags and accessories.

Homecooked Dishes

My mil cooked these for dinner several nights ago:


Fried fish with tomato sauce and big onions....

Blanched broccoli with egg sauce (eggs and fresh golden needle mushrooms)...

Japanese cucumbers with Japanese salad sauce (sesame & Yuzu citrus dressing). This Japanese salad sauce goes very well with all type of greens ...

Vegetarian fragrant fried rice. This flavorful fried rice is made up of all the fragrant plants - chopped lemon grass, chopped 'fhat foong kum yeep' (fragrant lime leaves), 'keong fah' (chopped ginger flower), maize, diced carrots and shallots. Very nice!

And there was a pot of good soup boiled using pig's big bone marrow, lotus root and lotus root seeds...

The meat from the bone marrow is very very tender and flavorful and my girls love sucking on the bone!

Coliseum Cafe, KL

Last Sunday, hubby was in the mood to bring us to the most jam-packed place in KL - Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman (TAR). I cringed when he announced that he wanted to revisit Coliseum to have steak and Chinese style chicken chop and fried noodles. I never like going to that place. I rather stay home and eat bread than to go to Jalan TAR on a hot sunny day. Talk about Jalan TAR and memories of my days on the pink Mini Bus no. 10 that ply the roads of the perpetually jammed Jalan TAR will come flooding. Those were my college days and my room mate (Cheng Cheng) and I would be on one of these sardine-packed pink mini buses on our way to college, while listening to the blaring 'Joy Ride' music played on the mini bus every morning.

Anyway back to our trip to Coliseum. This restaurant is by far the oldest restaurants in KL. The restaurant is over 90 years old and I tell yer, the workers there are as old as this restaurant. The waiter who served us was over 70 years old but still looking strong and alert. The rest of the staff were all over 45 years old. This restaurant is not a place where everyone would love to go to but yet, it is always packed.

Here's what we had:

Ox tail soup...

Chinese style white bread with chunks of butter...

Fish and chips...

Chinese style chicken chop...

Hokkien style fried vermicelli, which iLike...

Frice rice, also yummy...

T-bone steak...

Inchi kabin chicken... I find the chicken a tad tough and really nothing to shout about...

We also ordered lamb chop.

Overall, I would rate the food 5/10. After lunch, we headed to Lot 10 and then to Restoran Sari Ratu (an Indonesian restaurant) along Jalan Sultan Ismail for Indon desserts. After a day's pigging out, all 3 girls were down with purging and high fever, one after another....

Darn Tired

I have been feeling really really exhausted, lethargic and burnt out for the past few weeks. While I am happy that business at my eStore is good, I am nevertheless sacrificing my sleep and time with my 3 kiddos. I should have done more revision with Alycia and Sherilyn to prepare them for their exams but I just can't squeeze out the time in a day. What's with the 3 kiddos down with purging and high fever for the past 5 days, I am really jaded now. For the past 5 days, the girls have been pooping almost every hour of the day (and night!) I have been washing their pooped out bottoms every hour of the day, checking their temperature, feeding #2 meds, spoon feeding Baby (she now screams on top of her voice in defiance whenever our helper tries to feed her) and all that jazz that a full-time mom has to do.

At 11pm when all the kiddos are asleep, I will creep out of my bedroom to have some really quiet time to do stuff related to my online store and to complete my online assignments. But my eyes would droop as my fingers tap on the keyboard. It's really really dangerous to work when your mind, body and soul are shutting down. Once, I wrote a customer's address wrongly and suffice to say, the consequences was costly. Another time, I sent out a customer's order before all her stock arrived. Again, it was a costly consequence as I had to send the remaining stock to her later. Once bitten, twice shy... I will never repeat these mistakes again. Sigh... well having said all these, I think this arrangement is still better than me being a working mum. Not really regretting but just need to rant out all the frustrations in me.

Testing Our Patience

Baby has been testing our patience with her mischief. For the past 2 weeks, she has been throwing stuff out of her sisters' bedroom window. First she threw down some books, papers, Alycia's watch and toys. We reprimanded her and she looked repentant. The next day, yet again she threw 2 Dr Seuss books off the window, which landed on the ledge. Several days later, she threw out some hair ties. Though we had reprimanded her and hit her hand (very lightly though... didn't have the heart to hit her till she cries), this fler is still testing our patience with her monkey business. Now, we have to lock the windows to prevent this rascal from throwing more stuff down! Can't wait for this rascal's Terrible Twos phase to past. Hopefully it will not accelerate to Terrible Threes and Fours and Fives... just like rascal #2!!!

The 2 Dr Seuss books resting on the ledge.

Jade Pot Steamboat And Dim Sum Restaurant

2 Sundays ago, we had lunch at Jade Pot Steamboat and Dim Sum Restaurant. We had a little dim sum and ordered steamboat too. The food was good, restaurant is new, cozy and clean. Price is quite reasonable too.

Here's what we had:

An assortment of Dim Sum...

Love the Hong Kong style cee cheong fun (flat rice noodles with prawns)... very smooth, tastefully and uniquely served.

... and steamboat

Rascal #2 enjoying the Udon from the steamboat.. Yup, totally no table manners. Have chided her many times but this fler just won't listen wan, sigh....

I would rate the food 8/10 and would definitely return there again. There will be a 10% discount if you lunch in during weekdays.

Jade Pot Steamboat Restaurant:
Location:
DSH branch : No.5, Grd Flr, Plaza Prismaville, Jalan 19/70A, Desa Sri Hartamas.
OKR branch : No. 413, Batu 5, Jalan Kelang Lama, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Phone: DSH : 03-6201 1918 / OKR : 03-7987 9918

Mon - Sun:
11:00 am - 3:00 pm
6:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Jade Pot even has a Facebook fan page and I noticed that some of my FB friends are fans of this restaurant!

Check out their FB page here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Kuala-Lumpur-Malaysia/Jade-Pot-Steamboat-Restaurant/85092482613

Alycia's Final Exam Finally Over, Phew!

Ever since Alycia's final exam was over yesterday, I can feel a big bag of burden off my shoulders. I feel more stressed up and tensed than her. Alycia is super cool and has no sense of urgency or discipline when it comes to doing revision for her exam. During last minute revision with her, the second I leave the table to do something else, this fler will zoom to the TV and get hooked on it. Can't really blame her too as there's too much distraction from her 2 younger sisters. You will say why don't you keep the TV off limits during exam time but if I don't allow the 2 younger brats to watch TV, there is no way I can have a one-to-one revision with Alycia. Baby would be all over me and targeting my boops and Sherilyn would be inundating me with loads of questions.

Today Alycia got back almost all her test papers. I really thought that she would fare very badly as I hadn't done enough revision with her and have in the past did not do much regular revisions with her. But she made me really proud of her. She scored 90 marks and above for all her test papers. If it weren't because of her careless mistakes and failure to double check her work, she would have scored 100% in her papers. This girl of mine can be very very forgetful. I have been drumming into her head to DOUBLE CHECK YOUR WORK, DOUBLE CHECK YOUR WORK but she never checks her work, AAARGH!!

Little Thief

I have a little thief at home who would forage for forbidden food and junk food whenever she seizes an opportunity... like when I have just turned my back on her or when there is no one at the kitchen. That's when this smart little opportunist would hurriedly grab the Ikea stool or push the dining table chair to the kitchen, quickly climb on it, grab the forbidden food and shove it into her mouth at lighting speed and then she would smugly say "mummy, look..." with her mouth full of kuih, chips or crackers!

We have learned our lesson. Now, we can no longer freely put food that we have just bought on the counter top, dining table or anywhere that's within her reach. We have to hide it or hang it on the highest level of the kitchen cabinet door. Having said all these, I still think that she looks absolutely cute with her mouth stuffed with food (so stuffed that she could hardly move her mouth LOL!!) and both her cheeks protruding side ways, complete with the cheeky and smug look on her face!

What’s Your Choice Of Color?

When it comes to choice of color for clothes and bedding, I prefer colorful ones. I find that my mood lifts up when I don on bright colored clothes or sleep on a bed that has lively colors and designs. I never like dull or plain colors, as it would make me feel like I am in the hospital. I have a friend who would only buy white or cream colored Luxury bed inens. She finds colorful ones too gordy for her eyes! What’s your choice of color for bed linen and clothing?

Natural Growth Stimulator

When I was a teenager, one of my ambitions was to become an air stewardess. But I lack the height to be accepted into certain Airlines. I was obsessed with wanting to grow taller. My grandma would boil soup with peanut roots to help me grow taller. Well, that was the Chinese believe – that the roots of peanuts can stimulate growth and height in kids. I don’t know how effective this is but I was eventually successful and was accepted to be an Air Stewardess. This is the natural way of gaining height. Some people would resort to hgh releaser.