Hard Habit Finally Broken!

After a little close to 7 years, she finally stopped sucking her thumb! It was certainly not easy to break this habit for she had sought so much comfort from sucking her thumb right from the start. The ultrasound scans often showed her sucking her thumb, while she was comfortably all curled up inside her cocoon, during my pre natal check-ups.

She would suck her thumb whenever she was sleepy, bored and during slumberland. She did not like the pacifier nor the boops, so her own thumb was her best pacifier and solace. I used to find her really really adorable whenever I saw her sucking her thumb when she was a baby. I still thought that it was cute when she was 3 years old and still sucking her thumb. But I did not think it was cute anymore when she still sucked her thumb when she was already over 6 years old! I encouraged her to stop sucking her thumb and made up stories that her teeth would jut out like a rabbit or monkey's teeth if she continued sucking her thumb but that did not manage to deter this willful child of mine. Yep, she has a head as hard as her mummy's head! That's why we often clash. All of a sudden about a month or two back, I noticed that she did not suck her thumb anymore when she was asleep. Her che che, who is a very good watch dog and whistler blower would always report to me if her 2 younger sisters did anything naughty or wrong. So I asked her che che if her 2nd sister had stopped sucking her thumb and she said YES! I said really?? And she resounded a YES! Finally my Standard 1 baby girl is no longer a baby. She is now done and over with thumb-sucking, which was once the hardest habit for her to break.

I wish and pray that all of a sudden one fine day, this rascal will surprise me by jumping out of her dilly dally skin and tell me "mummy, I am a new me. I don't dilly dally anymore!!" I dare not imagine how she will fare in her exams. She is the polar opposite of her che che who is more serious in her studies and she can be given an award for punctuality. I hope my rascal will again give me the least expected surprise and make me really proud of her one day.

I Love Them So Much!

Last night while surfing the net for some birthday ideas for my friend who is getting married next month, I came across this jewelry website which offers such exquisite diamonds I have never seen before. Just look at these laboratory diamond earrings, aren’t they breathtaking? I am going to share this website with my girlfriends, it would be a wonderful gift to give our friend for her wedding. Now the problem is, we might not be able to choose which eco diamonds and jewelry to buy for her… shall we start with the yellow earrings first? My favorite color is blue and the pair of blue dazzling diamond earrings has caught my attention!

En Ginza Cafe @ Tokyo Street, Pavillion KL

My foodie hubs who is in the food and beverage business loves trying out food at new places and places that he has never been to. After having known him for over 20 years, I have gone to countless numbers of eateries, restaurants, 'tai chau' places, fine dine restaurants and shack-like damn good food places with him. And our eating jaunt is still on-going... with him growing side ways and forward and me maintaining a still svelte figure *cough cough*

When we were at Tokyo Street on the 2nd day of the New Year, we had our second lunch for the day at Ginza Cafe. I told the hubs that I was not interested in another lunch but my hubby just being him, went ahead and ordered a plate of seafood spaghetti and a big juicy burger! I tried hard to refrain from pecking on the food as I was still pretty stuffed from the Ochada pearl tea, Kindori ice cream, Japanese buns from Loaf and our lunch at a Japanese restaurant 2 hours ago but the green tea bun was too alluring and stared at me. Being a green tea fan, how could I say NO to anything that is made with green tea? So I tried a bite and I immediately let out a "yUuuuuuuuuuM" when my teeth sank on the juicy beef burger. The beef burger was indeed delish! The green tea bun was a tad dry though. The seafood spaghetti (pic not taken) was also very good and was whacked in no time by my 3 spaghetti lovers.

Verdict : will definitely have a 2nd visit to Ginza Cafe! This time, we shall try the seafood green curry and tofu cheesecake. Soon, soon, we'll be there again!

Mega Busy Day Today

Today is set to be a mega busy day for me. I am expecting 4 huge bags of stock from 4 of my suppliers. Today, Unify will be coming to install broadband internet too. Praying hard that my internet connection will not be disrupted during the transition from Streamyx to Unify, otherwise nothing gets done but will only lead to a huge pile of work undone. This is a very busy week for me as I must rush out all my customers' orders before CNY, lest I see complaints written all over my FB wall or worst - phone calls from some impatient customers. I told the girls that tonight I am not going to cook dinner as kakak has to help me with the QA check of all the clothes. We will be going downstairs to the Japanese restaurant at our condo for dinner. The girls are so happy to be able to have Japanese food for dinner on a school going day, which is something that we rarely do. Wishing myself lots of good luck and hopefully everything will proceed smoothly. I am so looking forward to the long CNY break. That's the only time of the year when I can take a long rest as business is usually very slow during this period.

Room For Rent

When I first came to KL more than 20 years ago to study in a college, my mum sent me to stay in the hostel provided by the college. On the day I arrived in KL and saw the condition of the hostel, I almost wanted to run away! Gosh, it was in a pathetic condition. The bathrooms were filthy and never washed!! Being a clean freak, I volunteered to wash the bathroom. I almost wanted to puke when I scrubbed the toilet bowl and the bathroom floor. I could not sleep at night as students who stayed there were chatting loudly at night and some quarreling the whole night. I enlisted my then boyfriend’s help (now hubby) to find me another place to stay. I wanted to move away from the hostel as soon as possible! After a week, I moved out. My boyfriend found me a place to stay at his classmate’s friend’s house. It was not a choice room to rent. The owner was somebody’s mistress and I could not stand her young son who was a spoilt brat. The landlady was also very money-minded and calculative. Though the house was clean and neat, the bus-stop was located about 15-20 minutes’ walk away from the house. Each day I had to endure fear by walking past a quiet playground and some lonely alleys. Many times, I stumbled upon flashers and perverts during my walk to and fro the bus stop. Again, all these prompted me to hunt for another room to rent. But the mission was not easy as I had many conditions, mainly the price, the location and condition of the house and who the landlord / landlady is. So I stayed in the current place for 6 years and endured many frightful moments before a watershed incident in 1996. As I was walking to the bus stop from my rented room one morning, my handbag was snatched by a motorcyclist. I took it as a sign from God that I should move out as soon as possible.

I then rented a house in a new neighborhood and sub-rented the rooms. The first time I was brought to this neighborhood by my then boyfriend, I fell in love with it instantly. I wanted to live there forever and yes, I am still living in this neighborhood now but we moved out from the rented house and now have our own condo.

Finding a room for rent these days is so easy. We do not have to go to 7-11 shops to check out room to let ads or drive round neighborhoods to find rooms. Websites like ibilik.my – Malaysia’s largest room database is god-sent. You can sieve through rooms for rental at the click of your mouse at the comfort of your own home. If you are looking for a room to rent either for yourself, for your girlfriend or boyfriend, do check out the link provided above.

Public taxis with the ibilik.my ads. Finding a room to rent now is just so easy!

Hokkaido Mille Crepe Cake @ Tokyo Street, Pavillion KL

Lately, there has been a lot of hype on Mille Crepe cakes. This cake-like-dessert is actually French and the name originated from the many layers (hence Mille) of crepes and cream used to make it. My first try of Mille Crepe cake was at Food Foundry in Section 17, PJ. My hubs was addicted to this cake. At one point of time last year, he was so fanatic over the Mille Crepe cakes from Food Foundry that he would drive us to the cafe at 10pm to satiate his craving LOL!

While we were at Tokyo Street @ Pavillion last week, my Mille Crepe cake craze hubs bought 2 slices of Mille Crepe Cake from Arthur's Hokkaido Mille Crepe Cake.


Our green tea and original Mille Crepe Cake from Hokkaido Mille Crepe Cake.

Verdict : texture is softer than the ones sold at Food Foundry. The original one tastes almost the same as Food Foundry but texture is much softer. I love the green tea flavour. In fact, I love everything green tea, even my perfume is green tea scent :D
Best eaten immediately after it has been served, otherwise the cake will become so squashy that you cannot even lift it up with your fingers, like in our case where half the slice of cake was not eaten immediately and left in room temperature. It sort of 'disintegrated' and the mushy cake was just too yucky to be placed into my mouth.

Pissed Off By A Customer

I am really pissed off by a customer today when she called me today and said that I was 'action' when I told her that I do not accept orders over the phone and I do not practice reservation without any payment. My online store's policy is that reservation of clothes or for any item will only be made after full payment is made. 2 years ago when I just started my online business, I had allowed customers to reserve an item without payment but after a few bad incidents which left me with clothes that were never paid for when the customers disappeared and never replied my calls and emails, I decided to put a stop to non-payment reservation.

After my encounter with a handful of MIA customers (some were my regular), I have to put my foot down and say no more reservation and no more down payment for reservation. Last year, I had a reseller who paid me a 50% down payment for stock worth over RM500 but she never came back to collect her stock. My countless numbers of emails, text messages and calls to her were never returned but thank God, I managed to sell all the stock! Thank God for helping me out as the items that she ordered were specialized items, which not many people will buy.

Many times I had reserved an item for a customer and turned away the next customer who is interested, only to be informed by the first customer much later that she is not interested anymore. Needless to say, the second customer was not interested anymore later. The result is I had lost both the customers. Hence, I have made up my mind that reservation of an item will only be made after payment is made... and on a first pay first get basis. Ordering will only be taken if they are made through email or Facebook message. No verbal reservation will be accepted anymore.

Now back to this customer. She had re-assured me profusely that she is very genuine in her purchase but she can only pay up after 1 month! That item is not even RM40! I told her that as per our store's policy this is not possible but she snapped at me and said "you cannot be so action you know" in Cantonese... at which time I could feel my blood turn hot from my heart shooting up to my head. I tried hard not to blow up and raise my voice but told her that she cannot say that I am 'action' as a store's policy is a policy and it cannot be tweaked however way a customer wants it. I don't think any online store will entertain a customer's non-payment reservation through the phone and with payment only to be made after one month, unless if the person is the seller's good friend or relative. Customers like this really spoils my day.

Recently a customer called me up when I was on a holiday, put words in my mouth (when she did not read my earlier messages to her with all the terms and conditions of purchase) and asked for a refund. Thank you God again for helping me to settle this matter amicably. Now she wants to order from me again but I am very hesitant to accept this order. Money cannot buy happiness and money is not everything. Of course, I have good customers too. I have several generous customers who paid me tip by asking me to keep the change. On the whole, most of my customers are easy going and some are heaven sent haha! I do pray to God to send me only good customers, customers who will not spoil my day and make me to believe that I am all out to cheat them. Oh please, I am here to do long-term business and my store is not a fly-by-night store. And let me tell you, some customers are out there to cheat sellers like me by tricking me into believing that they had made payment but in actual fact, no payment was ever made!

Hectic Life Of School Kids These Days

I think most kids in this generation (Z) are stressed out kids, unlike kids my era, aka the Generation Y kids. School-going kids these days have to wake up before 6am, leave the house at 6:30-6:45am for school and only to reach the door step of their home at 2ish pm... and finally having their lunch at close to 3pm. For the past 2 days ever since school reopened yesterday, Alycia and Sherilyn have been waking up at 5:45am, leaving the house at 6:30am and only reaching home at 2:15 - 2:30pm.

Yesterday Sherilyn's ballet class started at 6:30pm. By the time this Miss Dilly Dally finished her lunch, it was almost 4pm! Yup, she will sit, talk, walk around, whine a bit, fight a bit with her sisters or the maid, KPC here and there and after much threats from me and with me removing her unfinished food, it was already close to 4pm. After her shower and more dilly-dallying, it's time to leave the house for ballet. By the time she reached home after ballet class, it was almost 8pm... and that's when she ate her dinner. Even with dinner, I have to keep rushing her to finish her food, rushed her to shower again, rushed her to dry her hair, to wear her jammies and kick her to bed by 9:30pm, so that she has enough shut eye for her brain to function optimally the next day.

This year, Alycia who is in P3 is compelled to join at least 1 extra curricular activity in school and I have encouraged her to join Mental Arithmetic, albeit she is a tad reluctant as she wants to join the Robotics Class. Both classes are fees based, not free. She is already having swimming lessons, Mandarin tuition class twice a week and I am contemplating sending her for Art class. With the extra curricular class that will start soon, everyday of her week will be filled with activities. I wonder if she will have the time to complete her homework. I don't remember my primary school years being that hectic. I only have very fond memories of playing with my brothers and neighbors every evening from 5pm - 6pm, where we can cycle within 5km away from our house, buy snacks and sugared doughnuts from the 'ting ting roti man' on his bike, fly kites, climb tree, play marbles (oh this is a game that is slowly dying!), catch tadpoles in the drains and everything that we could think of that fun can be created outside of the house! I am indeed sad that my kids can never enjoy this outdoor fun now for the outside world is no longer safe like it used to be 30 years ago. Can't belive how my mum can have the peace of mind to allow me to cycle alone to a river located about 3km away from my house and I was just 9 years old then! And I was allowed to walk alone to the nearby sundry shop to help her buy groceries when I was just 8 or 9 years old! Life then was just so peaceful and serene.


Lunch at almost 3pm and Alycia told me that she had left her purse in her classroom and dared not enter the class. So she did not eat anything yesterday. She only had a mug of milk at 6am to last her until 2:30pm! I gave her a looooooong lecture and told her what she should have done.

End Of Holidays, Yipee!

I can't believe that the 6 weeks of school holidays is OVER and I am actually looking forward to school-going days again LOL! Tomorrow Sherilyn will join her che che in the 'big girls' school'. God please help Sherilyn to be able to cope well, just like how Alycia did. Please help Sherilyn NOT to dilly dally as she has to be ready and be at the lobby at 6:30am for the van driver to pick her and her che che up. And pretty please dear God, help Sherilyn not to turn out to be the top 10 from the bottom in class in her exams. Help her to change over a new leaf and be a good girl. I like her boldness, her confidence and her gift of gab but I want her to be more serious in her studies and not yak yak yak in class. It's not helping that her best friend in kindy - Berlyn will sit next to her in class! I really hope they will remain BFF but not yakking too much while lessons are on-going as this will definitely take a toll on their studies.

From tomorrow onwards Alycia and Sherilyn will have to wake up by 5:45am to get ready, lest they are late. If 1 person is late, the whole van load of students will be late for school too! This means I have to be up first at 5:30am!! Jeez, after having the luxury to wake up at 6:45am - 7ish am during the school holidays, I have to adjust myself back to the old grind. But waking up early has its advantages too. I love running around my condo compound when it's still pitch black and breezy, before hitting the gym and by the time I reach home, it is not even 7:30am yet! Hopefully I can get some work done before Cass wakes up. I am not sending Cass to school yet, still trying to drag it to mid of this year, due to various reasons. Hopefully by God's grace, my baby girl's urinary tract will show some gross improvements. And hopefully she will not fall sick every single month like Alycia did 5 years ago, when she starts pre-school in June this year.



When we went up North during the school hols 2 weeks ago, I got a shock of my life when we were in the car. On our way to to Penang, I realized that my vain pot had smuggled her musical box, filled with all her vanity stuff in her Smurfette bag. Before the trip, I was too busy packing and clearing my work that I did not have the time to perform a spot check on her bag, like I used to. And more surprises unfolded later when I fished out an abacus and a whole bag of paraphernalia that she had taken from her room *cough and gasp*!!

Baked fried rice in whole coconut

Tried something unique at Kao Lee Dim Sum restaurant in Ipoh Garden when we were in Ipoh recently. It's fried rice baked with cheese in a coconut. The rice was very flavorful with the aromatic taste of coconut. Dim Sum served in this restaurant was quite good too but the rat incident and the long haggle between my dad and the restaurant staff over the issue of over-billing us left us with a bitter taste and we vowed not to go there again.

Our 2011 X'mas

After morning church service today, we spent our X'mas day at Sunway Pyramid. First at Tony Roma's for their delish ribs and later spent the next few hours at the mini indoor theme park of Sunway Pyramid located on the ground floor.


Picture taken on X'mas Eve... Cassandra's X'mas pressie from daddy, which is a princess set in pink, including the klik klok clogs, which she adores to bits but is however a tad hazardous for her to wear.















The girls' maiden ride on the ferry's wheels. They have never ridden on one before, can you beat it? haha!




The bumper car rides are the girls' favorite and they spent almost an hour in total queuing up for 4 rounds of rides. Each person is charged a whopping RM6, though only one car is rented. Hubs spent over RM100 just on all the rides. The owner of these rides must be laughing all the way to the bank throughout the 6 weeks of school holidays as the mini park was teeming with kids and all the rides ain't cheap.

Dong Zhi Reunion Dinner At Han Room @ Gardens, Mid Valley City

We had our Dong Zhi Reunion dinner at the Han Room restaurant last night. This Chinese restaurant is hubs' favorite Chinese restaurant and he even has membership at this restaurant. He often brings his customers to dine at Han Room @ Gardens, Mid Valley and has tried many of the dishes on the menu. After a few recent lip-smacking and finger-licking moments with the Spanish Pork Ribs with his friends and customers, he ordered a huge portion of this dish for us to try last night.


The Grilled Spanish Pork Ribs is the chef's specialty. The pork meat was very juicy, uniquely flavorful and indeed bone licking good, really down right tasty till the bone! Would give a double thumbs up for this dish, which does not come cheap. I choked when the hubs told me the price for that place of porky dish! Quickly asked for the left overs to be packed back for our lunch today!




Double boiled fish maw, sea cucumber, dried vegetables (choy kon) and mushroom chicken soup in a pumpkin.


Butter prawns - another lip smacking dish which will surely have you lick the platter clean! Love the deep fried shredded eggs.



Stir fried Chang Loong Choy with fresh lily bulbs - a common Chinese restaurant veggie dish.



Braised tofu with crab meat and crab roe... and there was also a fried rice, which is Alycia's favorite. She is the 'fan toong' of the family!





Plain tong Yuen with ginger syrup, which was on the house. I never liked plain tong yuen and as a child, had trouble swallowing the starchy balls down my throat. My later maternal grandma would sort of force us to eat them on each Dong Zhi festival hehe. The number of tong yuen you have in your bowl signifies your lunar year age. So I had to eat 15 balls when I was 15 years old! I prefer tong yuen with black sesame and peanut fillings.

What's In That Pressie?

The hubs carted back a really HUGE X'mas pressie late last night. When the girls saw the pressie, they thought that it was yet another pressie for them but no no, it's mine, haha! I am itching to know what is beneath the gift wrapper. Could it be something that I have been eyeing from Ikea? I have penned down a few items that I want from Ikea and have been bugging the hubs to bring me to Ikea to grab them with my gift vouchers but my man is always bogged down with work. But he likes to give surprises hehe.

I hope the pressie is either a little side closet next to our big closet, to put Cass' clothes. I am also hoping that it is the clothes hanger I told him about. And I am wishing that it is this water-saving tap too. Our kitchen tap now gushes water out at a really heavy flow at the lift of the lever. I think half a liter of water is used just to wash a spoon that is not oily! Our water bill is shocking at almost RM100 a month! Piped-in gas another RM120 and electricity bill another RM400+!! Horror!

This water-saving water tap from Ikea comes with a flow control function, thus saving us flowing amount of $$! I snapped this picture when we went to Ikea last month. In fact, I have taken pix of all the stuff that I want from Ikea so that I can go straight to the section to check it out when we go to Ikea next.




Can you spot the BIGGEST pressie? It's MINE, HO HO HO!!!



Here's also wishing everyone happy Winter Solstice festival, Merry X'mas and flowing happiness throughout 2012!

Down Memory Lane

I was going through my pictures folder to save some pix into my thumbdrive when I came across this pic. This picture was taken almost 4 years ago at our old house. Can you recognize the cute little girl seated next to Alycia? Barb - I almost forgot that you came to visit us 4 years ago :D

Sherilyn was seated on the lap of our previous Cambodian maid. She was not even 3YO then.

Orange Sorbet @ Hai Nan Town, Tg City Marina, Penang

Our first stop for lunch when we reached Penang for the past 2 trips was at Hai Nan Town Nyonya & Hainanese Restaurant @ Tanjung City Marina, between QEII and the ferry terminal. We like this eatery, though it is slightly more expensive than Sin Kheng Aun (which is also the hubs's favorite eating place for decades) because the ambience is more conducive, cleaner, has air-cond and the toilet is a far cry from Sin Kheng Aun's pre-war one. Our favorite dishes are pomfret fish assam, braised chicken for the kids, jiu hu char (braised turnip) with fresh lettuce leaves, deep fried spring rolls and pan fried prawns. This time, we tried their orange sorbet for dessert :


10/10 for presentation, 9/10 for taste and 7/10 for price. Will definitely try this again next year, when we make our year-end 'pilgrimage' to Penang :D

Lazy Bum!

After a visit to the hair saloon just now, we stopped by a road-side stall selling fresh coconut to quench our thirst on this sizzling afternoon. When we told the man that we wanted 4 packets of coconut water, the seller told us that he does not provide service to chop off the tip of the coconut and pour the coconut water into bags. When we requested him to do it, he told us arrogantly that he does not sell coconut water in this manner. He then pointed to the soya bean milk stall next to his and told us buy from the soya bean milk seller instead, as though telling us "too bad I won't sell to you. Drink soya bean lar, it's more convenient"! Most people would find it very troublesome to lug home 4 huge and heavy coconuts, spend half an hour chopping off the tip of the coconut to get the coconut water and flesh, and messing up the kitchen, just to have a glass of refreshing coconut water to drink.

Wonder why some people are so lazy when it comes to earning money. Money is hard to come by. Make hay while sun shines. I'll bet he will earn double or maybe even more if he sells not just whole unopened coconuts but also fuss-free coconut water. No wonder that bugger has such a gigantic beer belly, lazy bump!

Cute Things She Says

During shower time just now...

Baby - when I grow up I will buy you many things and sayang you. I will go to the market to buy you lots of food. I will spend a lot of money on a big bungalow for you too.

Me - what will you buy me from the market?

Baby - yummy mushrooms, fish, 'char siew', hanger, panties, (and then named out a long list of things that she will buy for me in future.... when I am OLD, LOL!!)

Baby - and I will buy maggie mee for daddy because he likes maggie mee. But I won't put a lot of salt for him when I cook. I will put LITTLE bit of salt on his maggie mee and some vegetables, just LITTLE bit salt only.

Me - will you take care of me when I am old?

Baby - yes. I will also take care of che che, er che (sister no. 2), koong koong, granny and everyone. I love everybody.


My sweetie pie at 3 years 8 months.

OMG, Neglected For Over A Week!

OMG, just realized that I have neglected this first 'baby' of mine for over a week. Have been away in Penang for a few days and am still in Ipoh with the girls and my helper. After our trip from Penang, I felt a tad under the weather and feel slightly better today.

You can hop over to my dot com blog to read updates. Meanwhile, here are some pix taken in Penang.

The girls in the jaccuzzi @ G Hotel, Penang





Check out my hau por model wannabe LOL!



Night view of Gurney Drive from the 14th floor of the Executive Lounge @ G Hotel



Surfing the net at the Executive Lounge



My not even 7YO daughter, who is always dressed up to the nines in necklace, bracelet, headband and hair accessories. She is always the fastest to pose whenever my camera is fished out from my bag.






Sweet splash of freedom for Baby! Her surgeon said no problem to go swimming, yay!


A crabby lunch at Tg Tokong before heading to Ayer Itam to tapau asam laksa for my dad.

My Precious Baby Is 8 Today!

10 years ago, I stayed at the maternity ward of SJMC (Sime Darby Medical Centre now) but not for the delivery of a baby. It was for a Laproscopic Ovarian Drilling of both my ovaries so that I could conceive. A year later, I stayed at the maternity ward of PMC but did not have a baby too, but lost a pregnancy. That was the saddest and most painful day of my life. Staying in a maternity ward twice and hearing cries of newborn babies but leaving empty handed is a very painful experience. The following year, I stayed at the maternity ward of SYMC. This time, I was the happiest woman in the ward. I had a beautiful baby to cradle in my arms. That was 8 years ago on 5 Dec 2003. That day will forever be the happiest day in my life. Thank you very much dear Lord for Alycia. May you bless her with many more happy birthdays and grant her good health and happiness always.


Pic of Alycia at the same age with Cassandra now - 3.5YO

Funny Conversation With Cassandra

I had wanted to jot down this funny conversation with Baby last night but I was so sleepy that I dropped all my work and went straight to slumberland.

I was feeding Baby her before bedtime soy bean milk and we were watching SpiderWick (a thriller for kids on goblins and unruly creatures) ...

Me - baby, what if these monsters entered our house and climbed up your bed? Scary eh?

Baby - this is NOT real.. this is only a movie, it cannot be real, YOU SILLY!

Hmmm, my 3.5yo baby girl out-talking me yet again!

After she had finished her milk, I stroked her hands and legs...

Baby - why are you touching me mummy?

Me - why? You don't like me to touch you and sayang you?

Baby - is it because I am C-U-T-E?
and then gave me her cute smile :D

Cassandra at 3 years 7 months