Super Pissed Off!

Some of my suppliers are sent from the gates of hell. I have ditched about five of such suppliers in the last 3 years. Currently, I am facing another of such supplier from hell. This supplier has zero customer service and acts high and mighty. When he was unable to meet some of my requests, he told me that I am a creator of problem for his shop and that he did not need such customer (implying ME!) and told me that he rather lived poor than to have customers like me who creates problems for him!! WTF, go to h*ll! The next thing that infuriates me is that whenever I have detected mistakes (whether minor or major problems) that they had made, they will just brush it off without an apology. Worse still, they do not even want to reply my emails! That's it, I am so going to write you off my list of suppliers. I rather go poor than to have a supplier like you, you read me?

Do You Take Vitamins and Minerals?

If you google search on whether you really need to consume vitamins and minerals, you will get contrasting and contradicting information from the internet. Some websites will extol the benefits of consuming vitamins and minerals while some website will say that vitamin and supplement consumption is unnecessary, and many products could be a waste of money and potentially harmful. How do you make a decision then?

I think that if you eat a well-balanced diet everyday consisting of fruits, vegetables, fiber, protein, calcium and good carbs and stay away from junk food, you do not really need supplements. Including exercise in your daily regimen and exposing your skin to the morning sun to get your daily dosage of Vitamin D is beneficial too. But the truth is the majority of us are unable to follow this healthy regimen on a daily basis due to a variety of reasons, including myself.   I do consume calcium supplement and a good brand of multi-vitamin and minerals supplement everyday. I remember I used to suffer from pain in my heels and ankles as well as on my knees a few months after giving birth to Cass. After switching to a good brand of calcium supplement, the pain was contained and up until today, I have no more pain on my legs.

If you are suffering from certain disorders, you may need to consume a higher dosage of the required vitamin and mineral to counter the problem. My former colleague was prescribed by her doctor with a high dosage of Vitamin E to counter the outbreak of severe acne on her face. Another friend was prescribed with magnesium oxide as she had some kind of muscles and nerves disorder.

If you are in doubt and need clarification on whether you or your children need a supplement in their daily diet, you can always consult your physician.

Alycia's 9th Birthday Pressies

Months before her 9th birthday, Alycia had already placed her birthday pressie wish.  Tintin comics was her top choice, followed by story books by her favorite authors.  And her birthday wish was granted.


This Tintin comics is from granny and koong koong




Geronimo Stilton (again!!) from granny and koong koong as well.  I have been telling her that she has way too many GS books but this is still her first love.  I allowed her to get them for the last time as it's her birthday.  She should venture out to other authors this year.






Enid Blyton The Wishing Spells and Helen Moss' The Mystery Of The Invisible Spy from mummy dearest.





Funky Things To Draw. I chose this book for her. This book teaches beginners how to draw a whole range of funky stuff from animals and fairies to princess, dragons and all that jazz. Alycia has a strong passion in drawing, just like her daddy and can spend the whole day drawing without leaving the table and chair for breaks. This is from granny and koong koong too.



This is a step by step instruction on how to draw an elephant calf.





Last week, daddy brought her to Borders and got her more Tintin comics and story books (not in pic).  Now, we really have to get a new book shelf to house the girls' collection of books!

Choosing The Right Flooring

Today the girls have been very good. I gave them a pep talk and they all roped in to mop the floor, cleaned up the rooms in addition to their compulsory task of doing the clean laundry. Alycia cleaned the wall-mounted shelf in her room, where she displays all her lego collection and manga figurines. None of the part-time maids wanted to clean this shelf as they were worried that they would not know how to place them back to the original display. Plus, the figurines are fragile and the lego assembles will break up once they are dropped on the floor.

When it comes to the kids mopping the floor, they are always given disposable wet papers as these papers do not leave the floor wet and slippery. The floor of our living room is marble, with a slippery surface. When the floor has too much water on it, anyone stepping on it is bound to slip and fall. The kids have slipped and fell many times when our previous live-in maid mopped the floor with water. I have slipped and fell several times too and thank God no bone was broken. The worst to happen to anyone is a fall resulting in back injury which would render one wheel-chair bound for life. This  happened to my art teacher. She fell when the maid was mopping the floor. The fall has rendered her paralyzed in one leg. She had to stop teaching in school but she was strong-willed and resilient. She turned her large garden into a tuition class of sorts and conducted art classes for secondary students in her garden.

If we ever move to a new house, apart from turning the kitchen into my dream kitchen, I will change the floor tiling of the living room to tiles with non-skid features. I like hardwood flooring and I think it gives the living room a very rustic and warm feeling. You can learn more on flooring at baycarpetsflooringamerica.com.

My Choice

If you have been a regular reader of my blogs, you may be wondering how I am still thriving without a live-in helper, despite the fact that I still have an online business running, online assignments to write and have to cook for the kids everyday and manage them.  The fact is that I have engaged a part-time helper who comes in for 2 hours everyday in the evening to help me clean the house and wash the dishes.  I know some of you will probably say that you'd rather save the RM30 and do the work yourself but for me, if RM30 can buy happiness and keeps me sane, why not?  Or some of you may prefer to eat out everyday or have catered food delivered to you to save the hassle of cooking and washing up.  But I want my kids to have homecooked food, even if it means more work and stress for me.  Some of you spend RM30 a day on luxuries like a cup of coffee and a slice of cake from coffee boutiques or on a nice nail art or on a stylish coiffured hair-do.  I can live without those luxuries and be happy without them.  Having them is icing on my cake.  I prefer plain cakes as a matter of fact ;)

My choice is that I have decided to keep my online business running and continue with my online assignments.  To see the figures in my bank accounts growing  everyday gives me a lot of self-satisfaction and security.  And I know I am just not cut to be a full-time housewife who cooks, washes and drives the kids around for activities. This is just too mundane for me.  I need a certain level of stress to keep my brain alert ;P

Chiropractic To Overcome Back Pain

Some time early last year, I injured my lower back and was in excruciating pain for 3 days. I think I had sprained my lower back when I lifted Cass up. That was the most painful episode of back pain I ever had. For 2 nights straight, I could not sleep at night and had to be in an upright sitting position with my back propped up by pillows. It was so painful that even a slight cough or sneeze would bring tears to my eyes. The hubs could not sleep too as he was hearing me whine and cry in pain the entire night long. I really thought that I had suffered from a prolapsed disc and was all ready to head to the hospital to visit the orthopedic for an X-Ray on the third day. But thank God, the pain subsided after the hubs used the OTO e-Cell electromagnetic gadget to treat the injured part of my back.

Had I really suffered from a prolapsed disc last year, things will go hay-wire at home as the mil was overseas during that period and the hubs was as usual busy with his catering business. I always wonder what the hubs will do if I land myself in the hospital and am rendered immobile? Perhaps he will then realize all of a sudden how peaceful his life had been when the captain was maneuvering the ship. When there is no captain, the ship will stray and disaster looms ahead.

If you suffer from a sudden back pain or have been suffering silently with back pain, you may want to seek chiropractic treatment. Do select a good chiropractor, like the well-known Stockton chiropractic specialists.

Can't Wait

Alycia and Sherilyn have been going to bed way past midnight almost every night this school holiday.  I know it is pretty bad and I have to start training them to go to bed by 9:30pm again, starting from end of  next week.  School will reopen in 2.5 weeks' time, YIPEEEEE!!!  I CAN'T WAIT! LOL!!    I find that I have lesser time on hand to do my things when all 3 of them are around.  The house is forever noisy with their chatter, bickering and sound of TV blasting away -- they are watching The Voice most of the time.  And I hate it that I can't even listen to my favorite radio stations on Astro as they are hogging the idiot box all the time, aaaarghhh!!!

A Complete Metamorphose

This year has been an overall pretty good year for me in every area of my life.  I thank God that all my loved ones are pretty healthy and are not inflicted with any life-threatening illnesses including myself, though I did suffer from a bad fall on the road while jogging and I injured both my palms pretty badly. Career wise is also pretty good for my hubs and me, albeit we have been under a lot of stress from work the whole year through.

I am also glad that I managed to have a chance meeting with two of my erstwhile colleagues this year. I have been thinking about them occasionally all these while and wonder how they are now, as we had worked together very closely more than a decade ago and had gone through thick and thin in the company. But I just did not know how to look them up until the two separate chance meetings.

When I bumped into this erstwhile colleague of mine recently, I could not recognize her for a moment. She has doubled up in size and looked totally different now. She used to be very slim and had an hour glass figure to die for, but her body has now metamorphosed into a pear-shaped figure and her neck could barely be visible. This is probably due to her perpetual good appetite, irregular and late meals and zero exercise. I think that if she continues with a sedentary lifestyle with more input of calories than output, her health is in for trouble in time to come. She should really do something about it before it is too late. She should go on a diet, take red cell press to suppress her appetite, goes for a lap-band or even better, exercise and control her calorie-intake simultaneously.

Kids Say The Darndest Things

Just a moment ago during the girls' Mandarin tuition class at home, Alycia jokingly said this in Mandarin to her tutor : "Miss M, I know why you still don't have a boyfriend... because you always dress up like a boy! HAHA!"   Gosh, that was a real embarrassing moment for her teacher. Alycia can be very forthright in her words to people whom she is very comfortable with. Many times, she will highlight the weaknesses of the person directly to the person, without first processing the words in her head, thus causing embarrassment to the 'victim' and to me, if I were in the picture. Though I am seated just next to the table where the class is on-going, I pretended that I did not hear what Alycia has just said. I am too embarrassed to even reprimand her. If I were the teacher, I would feel hurt with the comment, albeit it came from a 9-year old child. I better reprimand Alycia when the class is over, lest she says something similar to other people next time!

The Clown Ballerina

Today my princess wannabe attended her ballet concert organized by the dance centre that she goes to.   For second grade ballerinas, their dance was entitled "Fun" and is a clown dance of sorts as the graceful ballerinas were all donned in clown costume LOL!  When I first saw Sherilyn after the make-over in that costume, I could not recognize her for a moment.  And I was thinking why on earth did the ballet teacher dress her students up like a clown? Like ridiculing them.  Initially I did think that the ballerinas look really hilarious in the clown costume but when I saw how they performed, my point of view changed.  The five graceful 'clowns' danced really well, were very vivacious, very confident and they received the loudest cheer and applaud from the audiences.  I was uber proud of my little clown. Well, she did clown around but she did it really well this time without putting a frown to my eye brow, LOL!

And my little clown made me even prouder when the teacher announced that she scored a Merit for her Grade 1 ballet exam which she sat for in May this year.  For RM170 a month, now I am starting to feel that our hard-earned money on this rascal's ballet lessons is money well spent :)

Finally Clearing My Wardrobe

I managed to clear my wardrobe the other day. Clothes that I hardly wore but was feeling a tad heavy-hearted to part with were finally given away after keeping them for years! And I gave them all, including some of the husband’s custom military shirts to the part-time maid who came as she is the only person I know of who is smaller size than me and could fit into my extra small size dresses and pants. She couldn’t be more thankful and wore them to work the next day. And I couldn't be happier that my clothes fitted her so well!

Wacky Taste Buds Too

Another wacky moment from my princess wannabe. Yesterday during breakfast, while Alycia dunked Oreos into her cup of cold fresh milk, Sherilyn followed suit BUT she dunked the Oreos into her mug of Manuka honey! I would never put such stuff into my mouth. Is that even palatable? NO, it does not look palatable at all to me but this wacky princess claimed that her combo tasted good *rolls eyes"! Sherilyn is always going against the grain. Well, I'm hoping that this girl will stand out from the crowd and will make me proud of her in future.

Another Year Older

The hubs will turn another year older in less than a month’s time. I still remember attending his birthday party 23 years ago! It was my first time to his house in our hometown. He is a classmate of my elder brother. Did you know that he had already set his heart and eyes on me back then and even years before that? Time flies. I did not get him a birthday gift back then as we were still not very close with each other. The best birthday gift for my basketball fanatic man is still some basketball gifts or an unforgettable night....in private of course, ahem! LOL!

Wacky Fashion Sense

My princess wannabe has a wacky fashion sense at times. Today, she made my jaw drop when she wore her new leopard print skirt under a sexy short beach dress. I told her that if she wore that outfit to the hotel for her ballet concert, everyone will call her CRAZY! How could she have thought of wearing a skirt under a dress? That's fashion nightmare! And she told me "I don't care!" I screamed at her and ordered that she changed her clothes into something more decent, which she did reluctantly. Another shake head and hair pulling moment with this pig-headed girl of mine, sigh...

Slacker In My Exercise Regimen

I have been a slacker in my exercise regimen ever since my live-in helper left. Instead of exercising on a daily basis, I have now gone down to two to three times in a week, especially during the school holidays. But I am not gaining weight either as engaging in household chores burns calories too. I can still indulge in ice-creams and desserts without gaining weight though I do not work out on the air walker or use the theraband band loops anymore. I do miss exercising and sweating it out every morning. I am still hoping that the right live-in maid will appear in our lives very soon.

Of All The Things To Forget...

Can you believe that in my entire life,  I hardly ever cook rice?  Before the kids came along, I've always had my meals outside after work.  After the kids came along,  I've had a maid who would cook for us for over 10 years and even after she left recently, the MIL would cook rice. Never me to cook rice.  So naturally, cooking rice was never my forte and it was hardly in my to-do list. I would even feel helpless each time I cook rice and would get worried that the rice would either be too soggy or too hard or not thoroughly cooked.

So... today I made a big boo boo.   After the 3 girls had gone for art class, I was enjoying the peace at home and quickly did all the work on my PC that needed thinking -- churning out invoices, writing my ads and replying my customers' messages.  I told myself that I could just reheat one of the dishes that the MIL had cooked and frozen just before she left for Hong Kong.  And I would blanch a veggie when the girls returned from art class.  Watercress soup is already prepared in the afternoon and already sitting nicely and warmly in the magic pot.  When I picked up the girls from art class, Alycia was announcing that she was freaking hungry. I said, no problem, dinner will be served in a bit but....

When we stepped inside our house, Alycia ran into the kitchen to check out what was prepared for her and then she asked me worriedly,  "MUMMY, WHERE IS THE RICE???"  O_o  I said "Shiats, I FORGOT to cook rice!!" and then burst out laughing foolishly at my forgetfulness!  How could I have forgotten to cook rice?  Rice of all things, great!  I told the girls that since they were so hungry, I might as well just cook some spaghetti noodles which would just take me 10 minutes.  But my rice pot Alycia insisted that she only wanted rice and nothing else!   This fan thoong girl of mine  would go to bed feeling really uneasy if she did not get to eat rice for dinner,  sigh!  Then both of us thought of the same thing at the same time.  Haha, great minds think alike, deng deng!!  So off we went downstairs to the Japanese restaurant to take away Japanese rice which cost me a freaking RM6.70 including tax.  What the heck,  a mum has to do what a mum has to do when her 3 babies are famished.  LOL!  And my 3 babies enjoyed their Japanese rice with homecooked food and soup for dinner tonight :D

Lowering My Standards

In the last 10 years that I have had the privilege to hire a live-in maid, I have to say that in terms of cleanliness and paying attention to details, none of my live-in maids met my expectation. From one who is very pernickety with cleanliness, I have to lower my standard. I used to come home after work to check the table tops, windows and floors and would question my maid if I spotted dirt on the places that the maid was rostered to clean for that day. This gave me a lot of stress, as well as to the maid. And over the years, I had learned to close both my eyes to the maid’s slip shod work. I have learned to accept the fact that I can never expect too much from a maid who has to work long hours. As long as she does the laundry, mops the floor, puts meals on the dining table and washes the dishes, I have to be contented. I cannot expect my live-in maid to produce 100% satisfaction guaranteed work, like those cleaners from CommercialCleaningUT.com or other well-trained cleaners from professional cleaning companies.

If I want 100% satisfaction guaranteed work from a maid, whether live-in maids or part-time maids, I might as well do the chores all by myself. That would save me a lot of money, albeit this would put a lot of stress on myself too. Well, I cannot have the best of both worlds.

Epilepsy

When my girls were babies through toddlers, I would have to go through sleepless nights each time they had high fevers. I would sleep on the floor with the child who was having fever, on a mattress. Next to me were an alarm clock, a small bucket to retrieve vomit should my baby threw up, plastic mats to line the bed just in case they puked, a digital ear thermometer, a small tumbler of water, wet towels to sponge my baby’s body and suppositories! I would wake up at every hour to check their temperature, sponge their body and to force feed them with water and at times to insert suppository. Those were the nights I wish I never have to go through again. Having a baby is indeed a joy and a gift from God. But raising children is the toughest job God has ever created too. 

High fevers in young children can cause epilepsy and damage to the brain. I have a friend who almost lost her son when he suffered a bout of high fever. While she did not loose her son completely, she lost half of the son. Most unfortunately, the son suffered a brain damage and is now in a vegetative state. I also have friends whose young children suffered from febrile epilepsy resulting from high fever.

Epilepsy has a lot of causes, ranging from brain tumors to infections. Sometimes, a sudden, high fever can also trigger a seizure. Known as febrile seizures, they usually occur in very small children who have a viral infection. Epilepsy can be a very scary experience for the child as well as for the parents or caregiver. While febrile seizures are rare and usually do not result in another seizure, there is a small chance that these children may develop epilepsy later on in life. Do you have a child who has had an episode of epilepsy recently? If you do, it is advisable to bring your child to an epilepsy specialist for consultation and check up.

Sherilyn The Menace

This rascal not only drives me nuts with her ever mischief and clumsiness. She has driven my parents bonkers too during our week long stay in Ipoh. Yesterday, she made my dad blow his top when she :

1) At Tesco, she placed her tumbler on the moving escalator's hand rail to see if the tumbler would drop. Of course it dropped and it landed on the floor beneath  where the coin-operated kids rides were. Thank GOD no one was downstairs, else the heavy bottle of water could have injured someone's head badly and could possibly kill a toddler if it dropped on the toddler's head! My dad had to run downstairs like a mad man to retrieve the tumbler. He was enraged. He is hardly mad with the kids but this time he was fuming mad.

2) Moments later just as we were about to get into the car, she dropped her tumbler again and the tumbler rolled underneath the car!

3) That evening, while playing cushion-war, she threw a cushion onto a ceramic cup on the table and the cup dropped and broke!


4) In the evening, she pushed the dining table chair and hurt Cass' toes and made Cass wail in pain.

5) That night after her shower, she ran out of the bathroom in her birthday suit to look for her towel. She stepped onto the mattresses on the floor with her wet feet and wet the entire floor and mattresses. I was boiling mad! I had just bought her a pair of expensive and pretty Barbie ballerina flat and gave her a pep talk and thought she would be good but...

Sherilyn oh Sherilyn, why are you such a trouble-maker and making everyone so terrified of you? When will you ever be more considerate and keep your mischief contained?

Jooi Hooi Cafe, Penang Road

After the anxious wait and consultation with Cass' surgeon at GMC Penang, I told hubs that I needed to have some street food therapy to de-stress.  Next to retail therapy, good food can be very therapeutic for me too lol!  My suggestion sounded too good to my foodie hubs and without hesitating a wee bit, he inched his way around Penang town to bring me to Penang Road for the well-known Teochew Chendol.

During our 3-week stay in Penang in May 2009, whilst I waited stressfully in the hospital, the hubs went food hunting round Penang,  Now, he is very familiar with all the well-known makan places in Penang!

The Penang Road famous Teowchew Chendol and Ice Kacang outside Jooi Hooi Cafe.




Whilst I only suggested Chendol, the hubs took a step further. As usual, this ambitious hubs of mine ordered a plate of 'kar liu' char koay teow (with about 4-5 really huge prawns) @ only RM6, a plate of fruit rojak, a bowl of assam laksa and a bowl of ice kacang.  My tummy was already a quarter full after chomping down 3 hot Ah Guan apom (my no. 1 favorite food in Penang!) on our way to GMC.  By the time we finished these yummy hawkers fare, I felt like puking and told the hubs to ditch the plan of eating seafood for dinner that night.



 The Penang Road famous Chendol is stalled just outside Joo Hooi Cafe, at the side. 

Picture taken from http://www.journeymalaysia.com/MI_penangfood.htm

But guess what, after a light dinner at the Executive Lounge of G Hotel, we walked to Gurney Drive and digged into some popular Penang hawkers food and ate under the drizzle !