Skype Chatting With Granny

My mum has finally installed Skype and a webcam to her desktop computer. Now, she calls us to chat with us regularly. She would also show the girls what she had bought for them or made for them. But each time she calls, I need ear plugs and some Panadols for my headache as the girls will fight and holler in order to get the best position to see and chat with granny!

She Ain't Heavy, She's My Baby Sister

Alycia often asks me why her baby sister is so 'weird'. When I asked her why she called her sister weird, she told me "because she does not talk like a baby. She talks like a 6 year old girl"! She told me that she wished Cassandra is still like a crawling baby and will always be cute LOL!!!

Just now while tucking them into bed, Alycia revealed her 'secret' to me... which touched the pit of my heart.

Alycia - mummy, do you know that every morning before going to school, I will lie down next to Cassandra? I will pinch her cheeks like "eeeeeeshhh" (and showed me how 'geram' she pinched her baby sister's cheeks) and kiss her cheeks.

And as she was telling me her 'secret', I was wondering if they were twins in their past lives. I am really touched and amazed with Alycia's love towards her baby sister. I know she misses her baby sister a lot while she is at school.

Alycia also revealed another secret to me... that she has been secretly carrying Cassandra whenever I am busy and not looking! I have always forbidden Alycia from carrying Cassandra, lest she drops the fragile little thing onto the floor. But how am I to be angry to see such strong love and bond between these 2 sisters?




She ain't heavy. She's my baby sister! I love pinching her cheeks and carrying her to bits!!

After-School Socializing

For the past 1 week, my 6.5 year old girl has been telling me to pick her up late from school. School dismisses at 12:15pm but she has been instructing me to pick her up at 1pm instead. Once her daddy picked her up at 12:15pm on the dot and she came home bawling and whining for a good 1 hour!


Sherilyn - mummy, tomorrow pick me up at 1pm ok? Don't come at 12:15pm ok?

Me - WHY??

Sherilyn - you always say that I give you lots of stress mah....so you come late and pick me up, less stress for you.

Me - and what else? Why do you want me to come late?

Sherilyn - so that I can help Ms P (her principal) stack up chairs and I can finish my homework there. I can also play with my day-care friends.

Me - so do you want me to send you to daycare? (Since last year, I have been contemplating sending this girl to daycare in the hope that this will help discipline her)

Sherilyn - NO NO! I don't want daycare. I just want you to pick me up at 1pm. Please don't come early OK?
(Today she reminded me countless number of times to pick her up at 1pm again tomorrow.)

And so this social-butterfly comes home a very happy girl everyday ever since I gave her 45 minutes of after-school play-time in pre-school, for her to mingle with her friends, complete her homework and to feel good helping her teachers :D


Top model at Old & New Stuff For Sale...

Our Saturday

We were invited by Shir Lin and Jeff to Joshua's 3rd birthday party @ Sierramas club house on Saturday. Shir Lin and Jeff are the girls former Sunday School teachers and they have now migrated to Singapore. The last time we went to Joshua's party at the same place was exactly 3 years ago for Joshua's full-moon party. How time flies and it really did seem like it was only recently that we attended his full-moon party.

While Sherilyn and Baby enjoyed themselves, my soon-to-be 8yo girl told me that it was boring. I guess my girl has outgrown birthday parties with clowns, balloons and toddlers. She has now graduated to the next level, to the tween stage or red alert stage ?? I hope not. My precious baby is really growing up too fast!

And now let the pix tell the rest of the story of our party. Thank you Shir Lin for inviting us and see you again at B's full-moon party perhaps?

Do You Have An Insurance Plan Yet?

My friend’s husband was brutally attacked in a robbery a few years ago. While she was Skype chatting with her husband one night, the connection was cut off all of a sudden. An intruder had entered the house of her husband, who was working and staying outstation. During the scuffle with the robber, her husband’s arm was almost severed. Somehow, he managed to rush himself to a nearby hospital and the arm was saved. He was however on prolonged medical leave and got a large sum of compensation from his insurers. Many of my friends do not have an insurance plan for themselves or their children. Do you have an insurance plan yet? If the answer is no, do check out www.wholesaleinsurance.net right now.

Fong Lye Taiwanese Restaurant @ Gardens Mid Valley, KL

One of our favorite Chinese restaurants whenever we shop at Gardens is Fong Lye Taiwanese restaurant. We were there again recently and this time, these are what we ordered:


Deep fried sweet potato balls. I find the balls a tad too chewy, which suggests that too much flour is used. I prefer the ones sold at our pasar malam, which are softer and has more sweet potatoes. Nonetheless, we noticed that almost every table has a plate of this deep fried 'bombs', which look really alluring and too hard to say NO to.


A meal at Fong Lye will never be complete if we do not the 'sam pei jie' chicken dish. This dish is cooked with basil leaves, Chinese cooking wine, ginger and garlic. On the right is 'mein seen' in red wine soup.




A set of fish slice cooked with tomato sauce and fried egg, a dish that most kids will heart...




Chicken cooked in rice wine set - my favorite dish. I almost never got tired of this dish during my 3 confinements. During my confinement, I could finish every single drop of the wine soup served to me, as no salt was used to cook the broth.




Jar Jiang Mien set. Tasty but I think I can cook a better one for the kiddos. I think this one is too black and too salty for my kiddos.



If you are planning to have lunch at Fong Lye @ Gardens Mid Valley, you better be there early, to beat the peak-hour periods. There is always a long bee line outside this restaurant on weekends and peak periods.

Sherilyn And Cassandra

Baby and Sherilyn make good play mates. While Alycia takes her nap on most afternoons, my 2 other energizer bunnies will be playing. Sometimes Baby will take her nap too. But for Sherilyn, she hardly ever naps in the afternoon. She will play and play till no end. But sometimes when she's an angel, she will obediently bring her homework out from her school bag to do without any coercion from me.

Here, Sherilyn and Baby are in a playful mood. While Sherilyn is practicing for her spelling, Baby climbs onto the same chair.... and Sherilyn gives her a hug and calls her 'my bolster'. If only they can be such loving sisters everyday and not fight and squabble.

Painful Nape and Shoulders

I have been having this nagging pain on my nape and shoulder blades lately. I think the pain is caused by spending too much time sitting in front of the computer. To relieve the pain, I use my loyal OTO Hans machine to give me a good electrifying shock to loosen up the veins, nerves and muscles on the achy parts.

So here I am - typing and getting my treatment in front of the PC. Being a multi-tasker, I also mark the work that I give to Alycia while getting my treatment :D



And oh yes, nothing beats the massage from warm, little hands from my 3 angels. I bribe them for a good massage everyday ahahahaha!!

Bribing My Kids For A Good Massage!

Lately I have been having stiff and achy neck and achy shoulder blades, a result of working too long on the desktop computer. Sometimes I will 'electrify' my neck and shoulders with the OTO Hans machine to loosen up the nerves and sore muscles. But what I really love and need is a good massage - with human hands! So I have to rope in my girls to do it but the only way to get them to do it willingly is with bribes! And the TV is the reward. "NO TV if you don't massage me!!" How pathetic eh? I need to bribe my kids with kick backs to get them to give me a good massage! But the bribe is all worth it. My girls, especially Alycia can really do a good massage job, at the right points on my neck and shoulders. After each massage, I feel really good. I can feel my stiff muscles, veins and nerves all loosened up after the 15-minute massage session from my girls :D

Down Memory Lane

As I was going through my pictures folder on the computer desktop, I found some old pictures of Alycia and Sherilyn taken several years back. Looking at the old pix brought me back in time to the year 2005 and 2006. Gosh, can't believe how fast time is zooming past us. It really felt like it was just yesterday that I was at the coffee house of PJ Hilton having buffet lunch with my hubs, Alycia (who was then 3YO in this pic) and Sherilyn (who was then 1YO+) ...


I can still remember vividly that day when this picture was taken.




and that's us in May 2005 @ Genji Japanese Restaurant, PJ Hilton, when Sherilyn was only 3 months old and Alycia was 17 months old.

I can also remember crystal clear the events that transpired on that day. Good times will always be etched in our memory, don't they?

Funny Conversation With Baby, My Assistant

Funny conversation with Baby yesterday:

Baby is normally topless at home as she sweats easily. As I was bringing her to the bathroom to pee, I can't help but notice her protruding guitar-like bones on her body.

Me - Baby, you are so so skinny, like a skinny stray dog...

Baby - Then you give me some of your fat ok...

and then pretended to 'transfer' some of my fat to her own body with her tiny hands, LOL!!!

I was like huh? This 3YO girl talks like an adult. Where did she learn to say that?


2nd scenario

Whenever Baby sees her Sherilyn che che straying away at shopping malls, she will yell out to her che che, " hey come back Kay Yi!! Bad people will catch you, then cut all your hair, change your clothes, chop off your hands and legs and you will never see mummy again! Come back Kay Yi!!"

She is also a very good monitor. Each time we get into the car, she will remind her #2 che che to lock the door if daddy forgets to press the door central locking. She knows that her 2nd che che is very mischievous and she never fails to remind her che che to behave LOL!! I think she will make a very good class monitor in future.

Vitagen Ice Lollies

Good quality ice creams like Haagen Dazs, New Zealand Ice Cream and Baskin Robins are very costly. My hubs like to buy these ice creams and I think it's such a waste of money to splurge on branded ice creams. I will never buy them for sure for I am an el cheapo! My girls love ice creams and so does everyone else in the family. Since I don't know how to make ice creams and don't have the time, I made the easier and faster version - ice lollies... with Vitagen, Ribena, yoghurt drinks, red bean tong sui and freshly squeezed orange juice. They are a hit with my girls and cost way cheaper than expensive branded ice creams.


Ice-lolly moulds from 100 Yen Shop costing RM4.90 and 4 bottles of Vitagen... total cost is less than RM10... cheap and nice!!



And my girls love them just as much as the 5-star ice-creams. So why not? Make my own el cheapo ice-lollies LOL!!

Japanese Kindori Ice Cream @ Tokyo Street, Pavillion KL

Our last stop at Pavillion was at Kindori Ice-Cream. Kindori Ice-Cream uses 100% blast frozen fresh fruits, 100% fresh milk, no colouring, no preservative and made on the spot! It's the ice-cream for health freaks and diet freaks as it's not very sweet. It's my kind of ice cream, iLike!






My strawberry + pineapple Kindori ice cream, very Kindorilicious!





Website : www.kindori.com.my

Reading Spree

Lately, Alycia my 7.5YO has gone into an explosion of reading as a hobby. Initially, she only liked to read comics, sports news and celebrity wedding news. But lately, she is obsessed with Geronimo Stilton books and books on adventure, mystery, humour and ghosts! She can go on reading continuously for 6-7 hours reading 1-2 thick books, resting only to take her shower! I have tried introducing her to Enid Blyton books but this fella is only interested in books that I mentioned above.

The Loaf @ Tokyo Street, Pavillion

Our first stop and purchase at Tokyo Street, Pavillion was at The Loaf. Hubs had heard about the tasty Japanese-style bun, Oyaki which is a cross between bun and doughnut with fillings. There were 5 flavors on display that day, namely green tea, lemon cream cheese, chicken mushrooms, chocolate walnut and almond with cheese.

Oyaki can be found in most of the bazaara in Japan and outside Japan during the Japan’s Festival celebration. The Loaf has modified the traditional Oyaki to The Modern Taisho Oyaki by using Butter Roll Dough stuffed with more than 10 varieties of sweets and savories ingredients each to bake in oven instead of using the frying pan.


The Loaf kiosk @ Tokyo Street, Pavillion...







Our pick - all 5 flavors, which entitled us to 1 free piece.


Verdict : very tasty indeed! Sure tastes better than doughnuts and buns. Very unique and not too sweet. Because of the petite size of the bun, I can easily chomp down all 6 for my dinner and if I did that, that would corrode me with a fat guilt and send me into an insomnia spell for I would be raring to hit the gym the next morning to run away all the calories!
My favorite is the green tea and almond flakes with cream cheese. Will surely get another half a dozen the next time we go to Pavillion.

Singing Jigging Sisters

2 potential singers in the making...



Baby is taking after her #2 che cheh as she loves singing too. Lately, she has been creating her own lyrics for songs about anything and everything... a song when mummy is angry, a song when she gets scolded and whacked by mummy (these 2 songs never fail to put a smile back on my face whenever I am angry with her), a song about holiday, a song about taking her bath and the list goes. This fella sings all the time. I am indeed very impressed with this 3YO rascal! With good vocal training, I am pretty sure that these 2 girls will be very promising singers in future :D

Mummy's Little Helper

My little earnest helper who will help me on mornings that I have parcels to be collected by the courier guy. I have taught her how to separate the consignment notes and to place them in 2 separate stacks. She can do this job pretty well! Well done baby girl!




My skinny 3Y 4 M girl, who looks just like an Ethopian baby when she's topless.

Our Raya Holiday In Ipoh

The girls, all set for their journey back to Ipoh yesterday, to meet koong koong and granny over the Raya holidays.







We are now back in Ipoh and enjoying all the good old Ipoh hawkers' food. We went to Kwong Heng and Chun Tien in Ipoh Old Town for lunch today. But the queue and wait were horrid. The coffee shops were a sea of people. Even bowls and cutlery were not properly washed. And #2 and #3 did not behave themselves. Pretty stressful for me and I told my hubs that the next time we go there, we better go without the #2 and #3 so that I can enjoy my food.


Logging off now to enjoy a massage on my mum's Gintell massage chair and then my 2nd round of jogging to burn off some fat, before digging into a sumptuous dinner tonight!

Do You Allow Your Kids To Read In The Car?

On most Sundays, my girls will each borrow a book from the church library. Once they get into the car, they will enthusiastically read the books that they had borrowed. I think that reading in the car is better than having their eyes glued to the 2 screens watching DVD in the car. I don't like my kids to be such TV addicts.

Though I had told my kids many times not to read in the car, lest they get dizzy, they keep telling me that they are just fine! No dizziness or motion sickness. I can't believe that they are fine reading in the car coz I am one lousy fella who will surely have a bad bout of nauseousness if I ever read in the car. I remember one incident. I was 8 years old and had read a book that I borrowed from the library in the car, all the way from my school back home, for a good 20 minutes. When I got home, I got really nauseous and then developed a fever that left me puking for many days! Maybe it was just mere coincidence but that incident had developed a phobia in me reading in a moving vehicle.

Do you allow your kids to read in the car?


Pix of my girls reading in the car, taken today, after church... on our way to Xenri Japanese Restaurant. My girls read their books for 20 minutes in the car and were fine. No motion sickness and no nauseousness! Thank God! I would have puked!

My Kind Of Breakfast

While most Malaysians prefer to dig into a packet of nasi lemak, char koay teow, porridge, fried noodles, chee cheong fun and kuih for breakfast, my kind of breakfast is pretty simple and wholesome. I still prefer bread (strictly no white bread. Only wholemeal bread or multi-grain or multi-seeded bread) or the occasional whole wheat cereals.

Here's my kind of breakfast : a mixture of tuna with hard boiled egg, raw onions, a squeeze of lime juice, chopped spring onions, mayo and ground pepper... spread on a warm toasted wholemeal walnut bread. Yums!! And a big mug of hot green tea to wash away the fat and to jump start my metabolism.