Impending Water Rationing In Klang Valley!

The most dreaded news by me finally made headlines in the newspapers today. For those of you who had gone through the 3 months of hardcore water rationing in 1998, you will know what I mean. But there is still a glimmer of hope that in the event of a confirmed water rationing exercise to be carried out, it will only be for several hours in a day instead of a cut every other day. Living in a condo where space is limited, it will be a challenge trying to fit the huge containers of water into the bathroom and kitchen. How many containers can we place inside our unit?  We need at least 2-3 huge containers of water to bathe and can only limit our bath time to once a day instead of the 2-3 luxurious showers a day during this hot and humid season. On my part, I have started to instil in my 3 girls the importance of not wasting water and the terrible inconvenience should a water rationing happen. My daughters have a tendency to let the water run from the tap whilst brushing teeth, despite umpteen reminders from me not to and taking their own sweet time having a long shower in the bathroom.

 I have also started to cut down usage of water and to recycle water in our household through:

1) Always have a small pail / basin in our sink to collect 'not so dirty' water after we wash our hands and rinse cups, plates and cutlery with the clean water from the tap. The recycled water will be transferred to another bigger pail in the bathroom, to be used for flushing the toilets and washing the bathrooms.

2) Filtered dirty water flowed out from the second outlet of our Panasonic Alkaline Water Purifier is now stored in a pail, for washing dishes and flushing toilets. In the past, the filtered dirty water will just flow onto the sink and into the drains.

3) Place a small pail inside the shower area. I have taught my girls to put the pail next to them and to rinse their body and hair as close as possible to the pail, so that the shower water can be collected in the pail. The recycled water from the pail can be used to flush the toilet.

4) Instead of a 1.5-hour washing machine cycle, I have since 2 weeks ago changed the mode to a 30-minute cycle, so that lesser water is used and electricity can be saved too.

5) No more washing of the balcony until there is no more water rationing. We just have to bear with the dust and dirt. We can always sweep instead of wash. Just have to close 2 eyes to dirt and imagine we are living in the 'kampung' !

6) Instead of flushing the toilet after every pee, I make my 3 girls pee one after another, followed by me and then I dump the pail of recycled water into the throne! Half a pail of water for 4 pees LOL!! Pressing on the flush button is now only reserved for big business!

7) Cut down on rinsing the cup with water before each use. How dirty can the cup be right?

8) In the event of a water rationing, I will have to resort to using disposable paper plates for meals. I know that this is not environmental friendly but heck, when there is not a trickle of water from the tap, you need to find alternatives and measures that will not add more stress to your bag of stress. And this is only temporary until God decides to let the skies shower.

9) I can only exercise on the days when there is water flowing from the tap. There will be no luxury to bathe twice a day on the days when the taps are dry. So I can only take a shower at night, just before bed. Again, think kampung-style living! LOL!

10) Use wet wipes to replace water for cleaning.


Please add to my list of measures to cut down on water usage if you have any good ones. It will be good for everyone who reads this post.



Pray tell that the water rationing exercise will be cancelled and that some better alternatives for the Rakyat will be in place by the government. Water is a necessity and cutting its supply will cause severe inconvenience to families with kids.


 

 Filtered dirty water from the water purifier second outlet is now collected in a small pail, the water of which will be used to flush toilets.

The Importance of DHA And Gangliosides To Your Growing Child

Have you ever wondered why some people who keep going on a frustrating diet and never seem to lose any weight? Or why is it that some people who keep engaging themselves in sports and exercise and yet have a body weight that seems stagnant? This is because they are not doing both together. In order to lose weight, you need to control your calorie intake and exercise together. A healthy diet and exercise work hand in hand in losing weight. When these two virtues are in place simultaneously, they synergize and bring about the desired body weight loss and help to maintain a healthy body weight.

Likewise, in order for a young child’s brain to develop and function well, DHA is a very important nutrient needed by the brain cells. DHA is a key building block of brain cells. But DHA alone is not sufficient. For optimal brain development and function, other very crucial nutrients are needed. One of these is Gangliosides, a nutrient that is involved in the formation of brain cell connections. The more connections, the faster a kid learns. The functions of DHA and Gangliosides are complementary in that they work in synergy to deliver a better outcome. Having one without the other just cannot be as good.

Do you want to know which GUMP (growing up milk powder) that has both these important ingredients in combination? This GUMP is also the only brand that has no added sugar in the local market. Stay tuned. I will let you know soon ;P

Pasta with Homemade Pesto Sauce

Before the MIL left for Hong Kong, she stocked up the freezer with lots of meat and seafood, baked several loafs of bread and made 3 big jars of Pesto sauce enough to last us until her return a month later. That's because she knows that I will be too busy to whip up elaborate dishes for her 3 beloved grand-daughters.

This is one of the girls' favorite lunch menu - Pasta with grandma's homemade Pesto sauce. This pasta dish can be whipped up in under 20 minutes. Just cook the pasta noodles al dente, drain the water, drizzle with olive oil over pasta until they do not stick and clump together and mix the pesto sauce to the noodles. Easy peasy, fuss free, wholesome and super yummy too!


Grandma's homemade Pesto sauce cum bread / crackers spread consists of 3 packets of fresh basil leaves, garlic, toasted pine nuts, sea salt, olive oil and cheese.

Alycia's Art Work #3 From Art Class

This is Alycia's art work done on her 3rd art class.  I think she has improved by leaps and bounds even after the very first art class. I am very satisfied with what she's learning from the Art teacher, money well spent!

Cassandra's Fetish

My 4YO baby girl has a fetish with my nighties! She loves putting them on and pretends to be mummy. She loves smelling them too, telling me that they smell so nice. Last week, she asked my permission to hug one of my nighties to sleep. I allowed. Since then, she has been hugging one of my nighties to sleep every night. Even deep in her sleep, she would be clutching on to the nightie. My baby girl still misses sleeping with me. From birth to about 3 years old, she slept under my arm pit, seeking comfort from those boobies. I miss having her next to me too at night.


.

Cassandra's First Sports Day Event

I remember very vividly that Alycia attended her very first sports day event in pre school in June 2008. It was held on the day after Cassandra's full-moon party. Only the hubs and my dad attended Alycia's sports day, along with Sherilyn, as I had to care for a newborn baby. In the past, I had never attended any of Alycia's sports day event, pre-school concert and ballet presentation (I am ashamed!) and only attended one of Sherilyn's sports day event and pre-school concert as I was too pre-occupied with Cassandra's health issues since her birth. Ever since Cass recovered, I vowed that I have to try to attend all my daughters' school events to give them moral support, albeit I really hate to be exposed to the sun (those who know me well will know that I will literally melt in the sun!) and I find all the school speeches before any concert or competition so boring that I can doze off right away!

Cassandra attended her very first sports day event in pre school yesterday. Her friends and she had been practicing marching and practicing their respective class events very hard for the past 2 months. Cass was really excited yesterday and she darted off from bed immediately the minute I woke her up in the mornng (which is something that is very rare for this dilly dallier). Cass did pretty well in the marching and bean bag event for her class. The hubs, who is the ever sporting daddy, took part in the family event as usual. It was an eye opener for Cass and she was very proud that she received a trophy from her school. She has been telling everyone  "I won this GOLD in my sports day" LOL!!! We took many pictures at the sports day but I ain't going to post any pix here for my kids' safety as everyone was in the school uniform. And nope, my Facebook ain't going to have any pictures of my girls in their school uniform or in their school as well. Kidnap cases are too rampant these days and there are thousands of pyschotic paedophile out in the w.w.w. lurking around. So I better be safe than sorry.

Have a great week ahead everyone!

Throes of Motherhood... How To Raise Kids To Be Obedient?

My kids, especially no. 2 and no. 3 are not the obedient type, not the type who would do as told, NO!  I tell them  "NO, DON'T DO IT" nicely, they seem to be deaf on both ears.  I repeat the same words and they reply and say "OK" but still continue doing what they are not supposed to do.  I holler the same words and add "I will CANE you right now!!"  Suddenly, their ear drums seem to work again and they stop short of what they are told not to do and look at me. 

Why do I need to threaten them with the cane all the time? Most times, the cane did end up on their skin, at times leaving marks.  Sometimes I am too tired of hollering and threatening and it seems like THE CANE REALLY HELPS ME TO BE SANE, no pun intended!  Sometimes I have thought of stashing a cane in my bag when I go shopping, so that I can control the 2 smaller rascals, lest they get lost and never to be found again. 

I wonder what is wrong with my teaching. Why wouldn't my kids listen and be obedient?  I wonder if disciplining them would be more effective if I don't work anymore and spend more quality time raising them up with my utmost best effort. Perhaps I should try.  Just like a young creeply crawly plant. If  the plants are not straightened  with an aid, they will creep and crawl all over or perhaps grow up crocked or slanted.  Plants can be assisted to grow into all types of shapes that we want.  Same goes with human.  With the proper guidance and aid at a young age, they will grow up to be the kind of person whom we want them to be.  This is yet another issue that's playing wildly in my mind lately.  I have to sort this out before all 3 of them become wayward. Regret and tears are too late then.

Ravenous Appetite

My 4YO baby girl has an appetite as ravenous as a tiger. If I don't control her food portion and what she puts into her mouth, she can very well balloon up to double her size in a matter of months. She's got her daddy's foodie genes. Give her a chicken drumstick or an animal rib, she will gnaw on that piece of bone and wipe out every single visible strand of flesh off the bone, leaving the bone shiny and clean, as shown here:




Many  well-meaning friends and relatives would tell me to let her eat to her heart's content but my mil and I think otherwise. They think that Cass was deprived of all the food that she should have taken when she was a sickly baby for over 14 months of her early life.  I still think that one will have more illnesses if she/he is overweight. Have you ever seen a living 100-year old mean mortal who is overweight? I have not. Each morning when I jog around the neighborhood and park, I see a handful of 80 or 90-something year olds who look pretty fit and healthy (physically) strolling too and they are all lean. Also if you are overweight, this will put a heavy toll on your knees as the knee caps will 'wear out' sooner than it should if the top is not overweight.  So my take is that I will let my kids eat wisely, emphasizing more on proteins and fibre and cutting down on carbs, sugar and processed food.

Homemade Seafood Spaghetti

Just before the mil left for Hong Kong, she whipped up this seafood spaghetti for her 3 beloved grand-daughters. And it's bursting with aromatic flavor of homemade tomato paste and sun-dried tomatoes, with generous amount of fish fillet, squids, prawns, garlic and red bell pepper. Super yummy and wholesome and in my daughters' case, it's plate-licking good too!

 

Bad Day Today! Hoping For A Better Tomorrow

Today is not a good day for me.  Problems seem to be sprouting from every aspect of my life -- with customers, with suppliers, with advertisers and some ads with tough requirements (but pays pretty well), with the kids as usual (never easy to be a WFHM), with personal issues and I have some very hard to make major decisions to make that will affect my life and that of my kids and hubs.   I feel like writing out all my frustrations and sorrows here BUT no no, the world is reading this post right now.  Many of whom know me, including my customers and the advertisers.  So shall keep all my troubles to myself.  Only I can make the decisions myself.  Hubs said "all up to you"... He gave suggestions but sigh, his suggestions are not practical sometimes.   So here I am, feeling stressed up to the max.  I can feel that my head is about to explode and about to have a blood vessel or two that will rupture too.  Because of all these pent up stress and troubles to tackle, I am very tacky and blow my top very easily. I sound like a delirious mother yelling her lungs out, sometimes with very hurtful words and words that I should never have said.  I pray that my kids will not pick up this foul temper of mine and the absolute impatience.  I hate these 2 weaknesses in me.

I have to pull the bull by its horns and face the current trouble and impending ones.  I am not one who gives up easily and throw in the towel.  So I am going to be brave, pray to Him above and face my troubles calmly and bravely, like a soldier who walks into a war zone.  I can already see a battle ground ahead of me now but I am not going to chicken out as I am one responsible mother, blogger and online store owner.  I will soldier on!  Dear God, please help me to win the war with your help, Amen.

Roast Chicken With Purple Sweet Potatoes and Pumpkin... With A Drizzle Of Truffle Oil

Roast chicken with purple sweet potatoes and pumpkin -- that's the first dish that I cooked in almost 5 months yesterday!  That's how long the mil has been staying with us and taking charge of all the cooking, leaving me free to do other work.  Now that she's away in Hong Kong again, the kitchen's back in my charge and for a moment, I felt like I have lost touch of my culinary skill!  For a moment, the thought of stir-frying dishes is such a hassle and time consuming.  So I whipped up something that's really tasty and will definitely get the thumbs up from my 3 fussy girls plus I do not have to stand in front of the oil-splattering wok  I love cooking but not  having my body and face coated with oil after each cooking session. Not to mention the kitchen floor, stove and kitchen tops.

With whatever sauces that I can find in my fridge, I marinated the chicken drumsticks and chicken ribs with Terriyaki sauce, soy sauce, Lea & Perrin sauce, some pepper and mixed herbs and set it aside for about 3 hours in the fridge.  Then I drizzled the pan with some white Truffle oil and lay the chicken on it.  While the chicken was cooking in the oven, I cooked the pumpkin and purple sweet potato in the microwave oven for about 5 minutes to soften them, before spreading them onto the pan together with the chicken and roasting them for another 5 minutes.  All in, it took 20 minutes to roast the chicken.  

Apart from this chicken dish, I also made a chives omelette for the added protein and fibre.  My kids enjoyed their dinner very much and it was evidenced from the chicken bones that were gnawed clean without a trace of chicken meat left on it and a squeaky shiny plate with nothing left but bones :D

Restoran Loon Sing @ Nilai

During our recent trip to Port Dickson, one of our friends who is an absolute hard-core crab crazed bloke, craved (no pun intended) for crabs and durians all the time.  He brought us round PD to eat durians by the roadside on sweltering hot afternoons where temperature shot up to 40 degrees Celsius. I enjoyed the durians very much but definitely not the weather as we were roasted under the sun!  He brought us round PD to search for the best crab dishes.  On the last day, he wanted to bring us to Seremban to have a feast on the famous Seremban baked crabs but all the crabs were sold out in both the well-known restaurants.  We left both the restaurants after finding out that there were no more crabs and it was already way past 2pm!  With his unwavering desire to feast on crabs, he tried his luck and brought us to Nilai - to the well-known, multiple award-winning Loon Sing Restaurant. By the time we reached there, it was close to 3pm.  Crab luck was not on his side that day.  Since it was late, we ordered other dishes minus crabs.  That was by far the best meal we had during our 3-day 2-night stay in Port Dickson.  The food at Loon Sing was above par and food presentation was top notch too.

Award-winning Dongpo pork with mantou. Totally whets your appetite and went very well with the plain and slightly sweet mantou.  This dish is however not in favour of those on diet.






This Flouder fish was by far the tastiest fish I had tasted. The flesh was super smooth and easily detached from the bones. There was not a  tinge of fishy odor and the sauce was top notch. The fish was so fresh and addictive that we ordered another one!  Simply bone licking good!



 Stewed Chicken Fuzhou with red wine in claypot. Simply lip-smacking, love the taste to bits!
 


 Signature Salad Prawn Balls.  Kids will surely love this very huge in size prawn ball which has crispy strands of coating.

 


Braised sea cucumber and fish maw in superior sauce with brocolli.

 


Besides the above dishes, we also ordered some dim sum. We were quite disappointed with the dim sum though as they did not taste as good as we expected them to be.

If we ever make a trip down south to Nilai again, we will definitely go to Loon Sing again to sample other award-winning dishes.

Food rating on HFM's food rating scale > 8/10
Restaurant ambience and cleanliness on HFM's restaurant rating scale >  9/10

Address : PT2484, Kawasan Perindustrian Nilai 2, Block D, 71800 Nilai, Negeri Sembilan.
Contact 06 799 7787

Website : www.loonsing.com.my

New Shoes For The Girls

Alycia was grinning from ear to ear when I gave the nod of approval to her daddy to buy this pair of Puma shoes, which is by far the most 'ladylike' sports shoes that we have spotted after checking out several sports shops. Getting this girl a pair of shoes is a chore and it has never been easy finding her a pair of shoes that she really likes. I can skip the ballet flats or Mary Jane shoes. Nothing fanciful or girlish for her. For someone who is very sporty, she obviously only fancies sports shoes or sneakers. But the ones that we had seen earlier were all too bulky and 'masculine' for her. So when I spotted this pair of Puma shoes from a sports shop at Pavillion, I did not have to think about it too much. Though this pair of shoes cost double the price of my Scholl wedge sandals which I bought on the same day, I who hold the position of Home Minister gave the approval to the hubs to buy it for her haha!  After all, this pair of shoes can be handed over to Sherilyn and hopefully to Cassandra too. That's one of the advantageous of having 3 girls. Clothes, shoes and books can be recycled, thus putting all the expensive clothes and shoes into good use LOL!!




The youngest of the lot was not left out too. I got her this pair of Disney Princess sneaker from Parkson @ Pavillion and she loves it to bits and wore it in the house and was reluctant to remove them.

By the way, rascal #2 was not left out. In our previous shopping trip, I had already bought her a pair of pink clogs/sandals from one of those kiosks in Gardens Mid Valley.  So everyone in the family has  new shoes to strut around now :D

Ichiban Boshi at Publika Shopping Mall

2 Sundays ago, we had lunch at Ichiban Boshi at Publika Shopping Mall @ Solaris Dutamas. We had wanted to have lunch at another restaurant but that restaurant was packed to the brim. So we walked up and down Publika Shopping Mall to search for another eatery. Finally after a 20-minute walk with complaints from everyone, we settled for Ichiban Boshi as the restaurant was not packed and the kids were so famished that they just wanted a restaurant that they could grab food from the conveying belt and chomp it down immediately. No regrets doing so. We enjoyed the food there very much.

Here's what our tummies feasted on. Before these food from the ala-carte menu arrived, we had also feasted on about 6 plates of items from the conveying belt to nurse our growling tummies.

Mummy says the camera has to 'eat' first so everyone has to pose with the food before they are allowed to eat and this has been the norm, since 5 years ago haha!

 Udon with half cooked egg and fried chicken - hubs said it's delish but not me, the no-carb freak.
 



 An assortment of sushis
 


Steamboat cooked on a fire-proof cooking paper. This is something that's pretty unique and this seems to be the trend for Japanese steamboats now.
 


Sukiyaki...
 .


 



 Unagi with fried egg rice, specially requested by Alycia.



The soba at Ichiban Boshi are handmade and there's a transparent window for patrons and passers-by to see how the noodels are made and pulled.


Food rating on HFM's food rating scale = 7/10
Restaurant rating on HFM's restaurant rating scale = 7/10
Will I go again? YES!

Publika Shopping Mall,
(Level G3) Lot 25, Publika,
Solaris Dutamas, Jalan Dutamas 1, KL.
Tel: +6 (03) 62032271
Email: solaris_ib@res.com.my

Kids Say The Sweetest Words

Just want to pen this down before I forget.

My 4YO baby girl loves giving me wet kisses and big hugs while telling me "you are my bestest mummy ever! I love you so so much mummy!"

Isn't this the most loving and sweetest thing to hear from your child? And I wonder if she will still say this to me a few years down the road or perhaps when I am old. I wonder...

Interesting Question!

Recently, some refurbishment works were done to the adult as well as kids swimming pool at our condo. The water was all drained out from both the pools to facilitate refurbishment work to be done. After 3 weeks, the pools were ready to be filled up with water after they were cleaned up. My kids and I waited and waited for the water to reach the brim of the pool and finally...after the long wait, the water hoses were removed and the cordon-off strings were removed. We were so happy after staying off-limits from the pool for almost a month. Now the interesting question! Anyone wants to make a wild guess on how many hours or days it took to fill up the adults swimming pool with water?



Tip - it took almost half a day to fill up half the kids pool with water. How many hours or days do you think it took to fill the adults pool up to the brim with water? Water from almost 4 tap sources were used to fill up the adults pool.

 Answer :
1) about 28 hours
2) about 40 hours
3) about 52 hours
4) about 60 hours
5) about 4 days

Back To School

School has reopened finally and I must admit that I am uber glad!  I now have back the 3.5 hours of sheer bliss and peace in the morning when all 3 rascals are in school.  No more rowdy, roister and rollick in my home all day long, what a relief!  And I have the time to update my blogs and to do some online work without much interruption.  Last night, I submitted an advertisement to the US advertiser in the nick of time.  I saw the advertiser's website clock ticking 15 minutes 00 seconds to 11 June 2012 (the expiry date) and that was how much time I had on hand to whip up an ad and submit it across. I managed to submit the ad just when the website clock rolled to 00 minutes and watched the date changed to 11 June 2012 US time HAHAHA!  That sure was an adrenalin pumping assignment and I did that just before bedtime.  I was really sleepy but could not sleep as I had a very, very bad colic tummy the whole night.  Darn the PMS!!

Got to pick up rascal no. 3 back from preschool now!

Our Homemade Ham Yoke Joong / Bak Chang (Dumplings)

My mil makes very tasty ham yoke joong / bak chang aka dumplings. Her dumplings are very big, has lots of 'liu' or ingredients and is so filling that my 3 girls and I can share just 1 joong for our lunch or dinner. Ever since the kids came along, she has not made them. For 9 years, I have been waiting for her to make them. In some years, she was away in Hong Kong or New Zealand. In some years, she had do babysit Alycia and Sherilyn (when I saw still working full-time). And in some years, she just did not have the mood to make them. But this year, the timing was right and she was just gamed to make her tasty ham yoke joong! Preparation was very time consuming and tedious. If you have no patience and time, you can never make a tasty ham yoke joong. She had to fry the glutinous rice grains, soak the mushrooms, de-skinned mung beans, lotus seeds, black eye peas, separate the duck's egg yoke from the white, wash the leaves, fry the dried shrimps before pounding them, fry the Chinese sausages, etc. She did everything on her own. When it was time to wrap the joong, she asked Alycia and Sherilyn to help and the 2 rascals had a lot of fun messing up   lending a helping hand.


2 future Junior Master Chefs at work...




All the 'lius' aka ingredients...


Fried Chinese sausages, black eye peas, dried Chinese chestnuts, soaked and de-skinned mung beans, fried glutinous rice, all waiting to be wrapped in the fragrant leaves...



MIL wrapping the joong. You need to have really good wrapping and tying skill, else all the ingredients will escape from any unwrapped 'holes' into the pot of boiling water.










A joong that I can eat without any qualm or fear that it will cause any detrimental effect to my health and that of my kids. If you had read the newspapers last year, it was reported that most of the ham yoke joong sold in the market had some sort of chemical in them, that may cause kidney failure if ingested in large quantities.  After reading this news, I had avoided joong, though I love them very much.




Gigantic pillow joong bursting with ingredients. And they are low in sodium and free from food additives and preservatives.

Quirky Kids

A 'heong peng' sandwich with chilled cucumber as filling on top of the sweet sticky maltose!  This quirky snack idea is from the most creative and whacky of the three!

Port Dickson Trip @ Thistle Port Dickson (2-4 June 2012)

Just realized that I have neglected this beloved blog of mine for almost a week! Time is always not in my favor during the school holidays as I spend a lot of time with the kids in outings. So very little time is left to do my online work. As I am typing this post, I still have an advertorial that I have promised to submit to the advertiser since early last week but just haven't really gotten the time to work on it. Instead of a long write-up on my trip, I'll just post some pix of our PD trip here and let the colorful pix do the talking hehehe...

Thistle Port Dickson...



Cassandra's good friend at Thistle -- Bobo the clown.  Whenever she sees Bobo around, she will run up to him and request for a sculptured balloon.



Sunset at the beach @ Thistle PD



Beach and pool-side party held on Saturday and Sunday evening.  The kids had a blast...




Scenic view of the beach and hotel compound...




Granny showing her 3 urban kids who have never seen crab holes in the sand...