Future Laugh Therapy

Since yesterday, I have been noticing a piece of yellow scrolled up  paper on the floor. I was just walking over it each time I walked pass it and was too lazy and tired to bend down to pick it up.  Just now as I was sweeping the floor, I picked it up. I was on the verge of squashing it but decided to open it  up to see who the culprit was who left the paper lying there.

After reading the Father's Day 'card', I wanted to burst out laughing.  Check out the date at the bottom of the 'card'.  Cass must have asked her Alycia che che to help her write the words on the 'card'. After writing over the words with magic color pens, she wrote the date before scrolling up the card and inserting it into the decorated bottle that she and her sisters made at the Art Class the week before Father's Day last month.

So yup, it's for keep now. I have placed this piece of paper in a clear folder that I keep all the cards and notes that my girls made for me.  I'll bet my hubs and I will have a laugh therapy 15 years down the road flipping through and reading the cards and sorry notes from the girls. And that's when I will  miss their mischief.




And she also inadvertently wrote her name wrongly lol!

Temporary Part-time Maid

I have engaged a Pinoy lady who has agreed to work part-time for me until the end of July this year  She has been offered a job as full-time nanny and housekeeper (with very light house work to do) to one mat salleh and she is to start work in August 2013. She told me that the mat salleh is offering her RM1,800 a month!. You see, these days, Pinoy maids with work permit in our country are really smart.  They work part time at a few houses everyday and earn a few thousand Ringgit a month, which is more than what some fresh graduates are getting! 

This Pinoy maid, Laila started work yesterday. She came by taxi and returned with a taxi too!  The agreed time was from 6pm to 8pm, Monday to Friday with a pay of RM600.  But she was pretty slow (albeit quite detailed in her work) and by 8pm, she had not finished moping the floor, washing the toilets and washing the dishes. So I extended her time to 9pm and paid her RM70 for 3 hours.  There were a lot of dirty dishes, pots and woks to wash yesterday as the MIL cooked a tad more than on other regular days as we had some relatives over for dinner.  As she had no time to wash one of the bathrooms, I had to let her go at 9pm and I  washed the bathroom myself . She had no time to even iron our clothes too.  In short, I paid Laila RM70 to mop the floor, wash 1 bathroom and wash a pile of dirty dishes. 

Today, Laila will be bringing her friend for us to meet. If she likes the work, she will be Laila's replacement for us. Laila did tell me yesterday that she liked working for us and would like to work for us full time from 5-9pm with a pay of RM1k a month but she has to find a replacement for the mat salleh employer whom she has agreed to work for. I am hoping and praying that either Laila or her friend would agree to work for us part-time everyday (with Sundays off) with the agreed salary of RM1k a month. That would save us quite a bit on agency fee.  Wish me luck in my search for a good Pinoy maid :)

Reunion and Bonding

The girls' 2 little uncles (hubby's cousins) from London are here and they are having lots of fun time bonding with each other. The last time they met was 3 years ago. In 2 days, the girls' cousin from Hong Kong will arrive to join in the merriment. The Yaps will be having a mega reunion of sorts in KL, which is quite a rare occasion. Too bad Alycia will be sitting for her exam in a week's time and has to limit her time spent with the 2 boys.


After a day spent with her 2 little uncles, Cass is already starting to speak in British accent when she talks to the 2 boys lol!

My Chilly Morning And Some Great Grabs!

Finally, after a long, long wait, it poured this morning, at around 4ish am.  The winds were strong and it blew off the deck chairs at our condo into the swimming pool! It rained until 9ish am and this morning has been pretty chilly, with a temperature of 23 degrees Celsius. Finally, we can have a respite in the hot and hazy weather and hopefully it will stay this way for months to come :)



As it was raining and I could not run to the nearby mobile market, I drove to the nearby mart after dropping Cass in school to get some veggie. What I discovered was amazing. This mart is now having an 'early bird sale' on all their vegetables where each packet will be sold at only RM1 from 8:15am to 10am. From 10am onwards, it would be priced at RM2.50 a packet. I bought 4 packets today which brought me an amazing savings of RM6! Totally happy with my healthy loot this morning and there will be more of such early morning shopping for me from tomorrow onwards!  Mumsgather -- you can PM me for the name of this mart ;)

Daycare For Sherilyn, Perhaps

Sherilyn has been pestering me to send her to this daycare that her best friend, B attends since B was in Standard 1.  This daycare provides daily tuition as well. Most of the teachers from this daycare are from the school that Sher and B attend. B has been a top student in her class since Standard 1.

Sherilyn scored an A for all her subjects except for her Chinese language papers during the recent Mid Term Exam. She scored B for both the papers. Because of this, it has pulled her position to a really pathetic placement as the majority of her classmates scored an A for their Chinese papers. Every mark counts in the positioning system. A loss of 10 marks will pull your position down by 10 placements.

We have a tutor who comes in to teach the 3 girls Mandarin 3x a week. This teacher would focus on Alycia more as she has more exams to sit for (4 exams a year vs 2 exams for Sherilyn) and much more to study for.

Every lesson without fail, Ms M the tutor will be reprimanding Sherilyn as Sherilyn is the type who simply cannot sit still and does not have as much interest in academics as Alycia.

Sherilyn is one who will jump up from her chair the moment the house phone rings and the door bell rings. She will walk up and down to while away time, just so she does not have to sit at the table. Mandarin bores this girl to the core but her daddy is still adamant that she should be in a Chinese school as he has a very bad impression on SRK government schools.

Chinese schools are well known for their strict discipline and dedicated teachers. The school that Alycia and Sherilyn go to is a semi-government, semi-private school. We parents have to contribute towards the expenses of the school.

Thus, I strongly feel that if Ms M focuses more on Alycia and Cass while Sherilyn goes to the daycare to get tuition daily, it will benefit all my 3 girls, though this will mean that the hubs would have to fork out an additional RM530 per month on Sherilyn.

I am gamed to try out this arrangement for one month. Sherilyn is the type who will flourish when she is with her peers, in a fun environment. She is the sociable type who learns better if she can also talk, laugh and play. She is definitely not the type who will thrive in a strict classroom environment. I will bring Sherilyn to check out this daycare cum tuition centre today. Hopefully this arrangement will benefit and make everyone happier. I know Sherilyn will be happier as she gets to be with her BFF even after school and will have more friends to socialize with while learning.  She was beaming with joy when I told her yesterday that I may consider sending her to B's daycare centre.

Polishing Her Reading Skill

Cass was eating chicken rice for lunch today when she saw a  colorful Tesco flyer on the table. As usual, she opened it up and then read out to me the prices of all the things that interested her.  Seeing this as a good opportunity for me to teach her some new words, I pointed out to the words of the items that she was interested in.  I could go on and on reading to her the names of the products and the price as she is pretty hooked to this sort of flyers. I used to do the same with Alycia and Sherilyn too when they were Cass' age.  It is a good way to teach them new words and to repeat old words to refresh their memory.


I can also foresee that this rascal is going to be another shopping queen, just like her mummy :D

Pure Coincidental?

The other day, during one of the quiet me-time mornings that I have, I suddenly realized that 3 of my  suppliers have the same surname as mine. These 3 suppliers are by far my most trusted and reliable suppliers whom I have worked with for over 3 years.  The Chinese have this superstitious believe that the people who are close to you like your spouse, parents, siblings, business acquaintances, etc. are perhaps related to you in your past life.  Nah, I do not really believe in this sort of supernatural philosophy.  The Chinese old folks also strongly believe in reincarnation and all that jazz.  I used to believe in all these too, as a result of being influenced by my late grandmother and from watching those TVB serial movies that I used to go crazy over before the kids came along. But this school of though is not in the Christian's bible and I am a Christian.

Now, how do you explain such coincidental incidences in my life then, that my closest business acquaintances all share the same surname as me?

RM8,000 Fee To Hire Indonesian Maids!

Finally the official news is out today, albeit this has been the fee charged by maid agencies for the past one year. The RM8k fee is NOT INCLUSIVE of the maid's 6 months' salary in advance! To summarize it all, we employers have to cough out AT LEAST RM12,200 to hire an Indonesian maid and even more to hire a Filipina maid. I remember that I only needed to pay RM3,000 as non-refundable agency fee to the maid agent about 10 years ago to hire our first maid. Those were the good old days which are now a part of the Malaysian history. We can no longer hire maids freely and easily.

Actually I do not mind paying the RM12,200 once-off payment to hire a maid. I know that a live-in maid can bring some relief and help to me and would enable me to spend some quality time with my kids.  But what if the maid runs away after the 3 months guarantee period? Or if I am given a maid sent from h*ll?  There are many unscrupulous maid agencies around who would abet with the maid to run away after the 3-month guarantee period.

Since our money does not come by freely and easily, I'd rather take on the maid role myself and see how the maid situation turns out in the months to come. If you have been following the on-going maid issue, you will realize that the situation is fluid. Policies keep changing. And the agreements between Malaysia and Indonesia   keep ending in a deadlock. My option is still not entirely closed.  I may still consider hiring a maid when the right one comes along at the right time. You know, there are really such right timing gifts in life. I just have to wait for it to come.

Would you spend over RM12,500 to hire a live-in maid? I know some families have no choice but to bite the bullet and employ a maid to help take care of their kids or aged parents while they are at work.

Here is the news article extracted from The Star website today:

ANOTHER amount has been proposed for the contentious hiring fee for Indonesian maids, with the Government putting it at RM8,000. 
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who chaired the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Workers and Illegal Immigrants, said that the new rate was decided after considering all costs from both Malaysia and Indonesia.

“The RM8,000 was decided after considering the cost of training for at least 200 hours, documentation, food and accommodation before transfer to the new employers, travelling cost, medical check-ups as well as payment to the respective government agencies of both countries,” he said at a meeting at Parliament House yesterday. 

It was reported under the Memo­randum of Understanding (MoU) between the Malaysian and Indone­sian governments in 2011, the cost to recruit Indonesian maids was set at a RM4,511 – where RM2,711 was paid by the employer and RM1,800 was paid by the domestic helper. 

Muhyiddin said the changes of the structural cost would be brought for further discussion by both governments. 

“The details will be explained by the Human Resources Ministry after the approval from both sides,” he said. 

He said the new revised rates was considered reasonable compared to the other countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong who were paying Indonesian domestic helpers at higher rates. 

Muhyiddin added that the salary of Indonesian maids will not be bound by the Minimum Wages Act 2012; and will instead be based on the current market prices and the employer. 

The Government, he said, will also fully suspend the Journey Perform Visa (JP Visa) in October this year. “Previously, the Immigration Dep­artment had allowed the issuance of JP Visa due to problems of supply of Indonesian maid based on a case by case basis, where only 290 were successfully recruited,” he said.

Floor Cleaning Gadgets For A Clean Freak Mommy

Of all the brooms that I have tried, I must say that I LOVE the roller type with sticky papers the BEST (picture below)!  I do not have to use dust pan, I do not need to turn off the fan when I sweep, I do not need to wash the broom and dust pan after the dirty job is done and I do not need to keep chasing flying hair and dust when I am sweeping the floor!  And it is darn therapeutic to see those hair and dust get stuck to the sticker... confessions of a health and clean freak mummy muahahahaha!!  

Most of all, after the dirty job is done, I can just peel off the sticker and dump it. My girls find it therapeutic too, to keep rolling the floor and seeing dirt stuck  to the sticky paper.

I have an array of brooms in my house so that the girls and I can do the moping together.  Aly and Sher will be sweeping and moping the room floor and I will be cleaning the living room. Cass will help to roll the floor with stickers haha!    I like the roller broom with sticker  (the one in front, on the right) and the Kao Magic Mop (in front, on the left) the most. The cheaper version of Magic Mop (the one behind the blue Swash mop) is only RM5 and I bought it from 100 Yen Shop. We do not like it as the stick always dislodges from the mop holder and it is very difficult to fix it back.  The Kao magic mop costs nearly RM40 each.

The MIL bought the roller broom and the refill sticky papers from Hong Kong.  I have seen similar ones selling at 100 Yen Shop and Daiso here but I am not sure on the quality and how effective the cheaper versions are.

The blue mop called 'Swash' is also pretty good. I mop the floor with it after sweeping the floor with the roller sticker broom. The cloth for the 'Swash' broom can then be put into the washing machine to wash after use. The Swash broom is also over RM35 each.

I am not a vacuum cleaner person for I do not like lugging, pulling and pushing it around during use and absolutely hate cleaning the bag and machine after use. So I have resorted to these gadgets with disposable papers and washable cloth so that my dirty job gets done in a faster and breezier way and my sensitive hands are free from wringing and washing ;)




Everyone just loves to stroll and roll with this rolling sweeper! :)

Yoga Mats

The other day, while looking for my new shoes in the store room, I fished out 3 rolls of thick yoga mats that I bought 5 years ago. I bought them for our little Baby C who was just learning to crawl and creep. We used to place the bright pink yoga mats on the floor and she would squeal in delight creeping and crawling on them, to reach out to her toys and her 2 older sisters who would play with her. I miss playing with Cass when she was a baby (she was simply adorable and not yet a rascal lol!) but I do not miss those traumatic and painful days that she had to go through during the first 14 months of her life.

Lunch On A Hazy Wednesday - 26 June 2013

This is what we are having for lunch today on a gloomy and hazy Wednesday, which is making me feel really lazy.

Sweet potato porridge (with leftover pan fried salmon from last night) and 'tau kok lup'.  'Tau Kok Lup' is a stir fried dish composed of long beans, diced carrot, diced preserved veggie (choy po), diced prawns, diced chicken meat or pork and crunchy peanuts. It is normally eaten with plain porridge.

What are you having for lunch to beat the haze blues?

Europe Tour

I always wonder when I can ever leave the kids behind and go on a tour without them. I am still alright with leaving the 2 older girls with the MIL or a relative as they are old enough to care for themselves but am still half-hearted leaving Cass with someone. For those of you have been reading my blog regularly, you will know that she still has a minor unresolved medical issue which requires a lot of care from the one who will be looking after her if I am away. I have thought of bringing Cass along with me to the tour but…. sigh! Too many ‘what ifs’. I have to overcome my list of ‘what ifs’ first. Recently, my brother, SIL and their 1.5YO daughter went on a tour to Europe. It is nice to see pictures of their luxury paris vacation rentals and beautiful sceneries in Europe. I just have a feeling that I can only tour the world upon my retirement :(

Avocado bread spread

The other day, I cut up a half ripe avocado. I wanted to spread it on my bread but it was pretty hard and a tad tart in taste. So I whipped out my Shimono food processor, cut up the avocado, add in 1 tablespoon of milk, 1 tablespoon of maple syrup and pulsed the concoction for a few seconds and voila.... I had a very yummy avocado bread spread to go with my low GI bread!

Worsening Haze -- Schools Ordered Closed

This was how the KL skies looked like yesterday, Saturday, 23 June 2013 at 7ish am, taken from the 5th floor of our condo.  It was by far the worst in the past one week. A jog to the nearby stalls to buy breakfast for my family resulted in itchy nose and a very uncomfortable feeling in my chest.

After breakfast, we headed to The Gardens Mall to seek 'refuge' from the terrible haze.

At 5pm yesterday, my friends were sending me Whatsapp messages, informing me that the Government has directed that all schools in the Klang Valley be closed until further notice.
 



Here is an excerpt of the news taken from The Star website:

PETALING JAYA: The Muar and Ledang districts in Johor are now under a “haze emergency” after the Air Pollutant Index (API) readings surged over 700 in these areas. Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the emergency status would remain until further notice. “However, it must be clarified that this does not involve a curfew and there will not be any change to the existing system of the ruling state and federal governments. 

“All related ministries and agencies at the federal, state and district levels must plan and take action to ensure the safety and health of the public,” the Prime Minister said yesterday. 

He urged the people to abide by the emergency guidelines issued by the National Security Council (NSC). Under the guidelines, aimed at ensuring public safety and health, federal, state and district level natural disaster, management committees must advise the closure of schools and childcare centres, government and private sector offices and other work premises, including factories, plantations, construction sites, quarries and earthwork sites. However, services related to water, electricity, public health, safety, radio and telecommunication, transport and finances are exempt. 


The windows at our house are now 90% shut and I guess that we will have no choice but to turn on the air conditioner in the living room too during the day under such emergency situations. Well, if the hubs has given the green light for the air conditioner to be turned on during the day, I'll gladly abide so that our sweaty, hot and smoggy days will not fare that bad after all :)

Crazy, Hazy, Sizzling Weather!

Today is yet another crazy, hazy and sizzling hot day here in KL. At about 4ish am, I woke up upon smelling smoke in my room. I knew it wasn't a fire in our house but was the hazy air outside.

It has been very hazy for the past few days and many parts of our country have recorded unhealthy air levels.
As of typing this post, I had just finished hanging out a load of laundry and I think I got half grilled by the scorching sun rays. Though I had just taken my shower an hour ago, I had to take another quick shower as it is just impossible to sit comfortably at my work area with a sticky and sweaty body.

Yesterday, I showered 4 times and I think today will be 5 times!



Temperature at 10am was a freaking 35 degrees Celsius!  Note the hazy skies and the blurred vision of the KL Tower.

I am certain the temperature will climb up to 37 degrees in the afternoon. Gawd, I am so tempted to shut all our windows and enjoy the air conditioner in the living room but the thought of seeing a RM500+ figure on our Tenaga bill puts off my desire.  With 2 air conditioners turned on throughout the night plus usage of the usual electrical items, our monthly electricity bill is an average of RM400! Crazy!!

A Wacky Girl's Seaweed Craze

Sherilyn's love for seaweed has now gone a few steps deeper. She now requests for seaweed sandwiches in her school lunch box at least thrice a week.  The other day, she added seaweed into her hard boiled egg, which she had with her sandwich for dinner, as shown in the below picture.

Sher used to love eating hard boiled egg but I guess too much of something ain't too good as she now frets whenever there is hard boiled eggs.  I forced her to eat her 'brain power food' (this is what I tell my girls eggs are) anyway and she  obediently ate it, but with some seaweed and a dash of pepper in her eggs.  And guess what she did to her sandwich?  She concocted a cream crackers cheese sandwich by  adding 2 slices of cream crackers on the bread, then topped it with a slice of President sandwich cheese!  This girl is always up with wacky ideas to satiate her wacky tastebuds!

 

That's what she had for dinner, after a very heavy lunch at a hotel earlier.

 
 

Yeast Bistronomy @ Bangsar

The hubs had wanted to bring us to Yeast Bistro @ Bangsar for months but never really got to it due to a variety of reasons. Finally we made a trip to Yeast Bistro last week, on a week day during the school holiday.

When we stepped into Yeast Bistro, we were a tad disappointed as we expected something more than just yeast centered food. On the glass displays were cakes, pastries, breads and everything yeast. The kids wanted pastas and spaghetti very badly while I wanted something more filling like some chops but none of these were in the lunch menu. The kids were very disappointed and urged daddy to walk over to our favorite Aussie bistro, Antipodean to check on a table but daddy came back with tail behind the legs. So we had no choice but to flip the menu at Yeast and order something to eat as everyone was famished.

I was really glad that Antipodean was packed and we were 'forced' to have lunch at Yeast, as originally planned. Though everything that we ordered were yeast based, we nevertheless enjoyed our French lunch very much.


Yeast is a newly opened, chic and cozy bistro that offers unique French cuisine.  The founder of Yeast is a French man and his  Malaysian-born wife. Yeast, specializes in traditional Artisan French breads. I heard that their breads are made using home-grown and natural yeast, which gives the breads a better texture, perfect crust and flavor. 


The first dish that arrived was green pea soup with a slice of artisan bread.  The kids with rumbling tummies polished off the bowl of soup in a jiffy and daddy had to order another bowl.

 



Mesclun Lardons. This is a french salad with egg and tiny chunks of bacon.  Not sure what style the egg was cooked though but this salad dish was yummy!




Spinach quiche set.  The girls polished off this set too and daddy ordered another quiche set, this time Salmon quiche set (not in picture)

 


 
Egg Florentine - love the way the eggs were cooked and I love this kind of healthy and crusty artisan bread with seeds and rye flour.

 


For someone who loves everything almond, I ordered this almond croissant with a generous filling of almond paste, yummae!

 



Egg Ben Turkey. What I love about this French bistro is the way their eggs are cooked.




The Cappucino which I shared with the hubs, which has a swirl of pretty foamed-shaped  swan on the coffee.  But the caffeine in the coffee was SO potent that I felt giddy and heavy-headed immediately!   This seldom happens to me but if I drink really 'kau' artisan coffee, I will get a caffeine overdose, with such symptoms.




For dessert, we ordered a Round Cala Passion Tart and a slice of  Moka Choco cake.  I love the Moka Choco cake while the Cala Passion Tart which has a slightly sourish lemony taste was nothing to shout about.




The bill came up to RM207.64 which is pretty steep for a lunch but for the number of items that we ordered, I think it was reasonable, considering the location of the restaurant and the quality of the food.

Would we go there again?  Most definitely and this time, to try their dinner menu.

Girls' Play

During the recent school holiday, on days that we stayed at home, the girls entertained themselves. Alycia, my TV-addict would be glued to the idiot box and the younger girls would play with each other whenever they were not fighting with each other.

Check out what they did with their soft toys...

They dolled up their soft toys with their hair accessories LOL!  I can see that these 2 vain sisters are very creative and imaginative.  I love the pink hair tie on Cass' 'baby'. Cass said that it was her baby's tutu skirt.

 



And on days when the 2 older girls boycotted Cass, she played on her own.  Her favorite was making food from blue tac.  I got Cass a pack of blue tac which comes in not only blue color but in an assortment of  bright colors.  She will 'take orders' from me and then 'cooked' the food.  She rolled the blue tac with a rolling pin and then cut them into 'cookies', 'doughnuts', 'mushrooms' and just about any type of 'food' with a pair of scissors :D

Coffee And Sinful Indulgence At Ficelle

The day before my parents returned to Ipoh, we brought them to Ficelle Boulangarie to have coffee and desserts after lunch. 

If you have a weakness for pastries and cakes but are on a diet, stay away from Ficelle!!   I succumbed to the temptation and chomped down quite a bit of sinful delights!









I was very, very tempted to grab a piece of Madeleine and Financier but to pay RM2.50 for a minute piece enough for one or two mouthfuls? NO!  I put them back on the tray. The mil said that she will bake them.  She bakes very tasty Madeleines.





Spoilt for choices, it was pretty hard to decide on which to order. Here's our sinful loot and I liked the chocolate cake the best.

No-Frills Hair Cut In Ipoh

Our girls have their hair cut at least 4 times a year, during our trips back to Ipoh.  Their hair cuts would be at this village style hair saloon called Orchid located in a village.  They will have their no-frills but very neat hair cut done by the owner of the saloon. My mum has been patronizing this hair saloon for decades.

The total cost for 3 no-frills hair cut was only RM22, which is not even enough for one hair cut for Alycia at a glitzy hair saloon back in KL. Her hair cut normally costs RM36 with NO wash.  Being a school prefect, she is very, very pernickety on the length of her hair as a school prefect has to be exemplary. She gets her hair cut once every 2 months.

Do check out the silai on the left -- she was engrossed playing with Candy Crush on her iPad whilst the hair stylist worked on her hair! These days, everyone seems to be engrossed with Candy Crush. Some people always complain that they have no time for this and that, yet they have time for Candy Crush LOL!  I suppose this game can CRUSH away their STRESS! I don't know, perhaps I will also get obsessed with this online game if I were to try my hands on it.

 


#2 and #3, looking fresh after their hair cut :)