FrogAsia - A one-stop shop for all your educational needs

Hear ye hear ye everyone with primary and secondary school kids in Malaysia's public schools! Your kid(s) may have already told you about this educational website but if they or you have not already known yet, let me introduce you to FrogAsia.

FrogAsia, a YTL company, is the first company in the world to connect an entire nation through a single, cloud-based learning platform. You and your child will not be charged any data costs while accessing Frog on their network, so everyone can enjoy unlimited access to their world of learning anytime, anywhere!

Through the 1BestariNet project, FrogAsia is bringing the future of education to every student, teacher and parent in Malaysia. Combining high-speed 4G internet access, a world class learning platform and access to ‘best-in-class’ resources and technology, Malaysia is the first country in the world to bring its entire education community together on a single converged network designed specifically to meet the needs of teaching and learning.  1BestariNet is a project initiated by the Malaysian Ministry of Education in line with the government’s vision of providing quality, Internet-enabled education for all.  Over 10,000 government schools around the country will be equipped with this awesome solution, bridging the digital divide between rural and urban students.

I first got to know about Frog Asia when Alycia and Sherilyn came home from school one day some time early this year and told me that their teachers had instructed everyone to log into this website. The students were required to explore the website and try out the apps and features at www.frogasia.com.

Your child will first need to register at the FrogAsia website. For Alycia and Sherilyn, they were given a set of log in data by their school (they are in a cluster school).

The website is pretty kids friendly. It is Sherilyn, my drama queen who taught me how to navigate around the website.  And boy was I impressed with what I found in there! Everything that is available at the FrogAcademy is on the left side bar of the Frog Store from resources to documents, books, images, videos, audio, question banks and much more.

Your kids can even gain access to their school text books at the FrogAsia website! So worry not if your kid has forgotten to bring home an important text book for revision. She/he will be able to read the text book by hopping into FrogAsia.

Here is a sample of how the eText book looks like...

Alycia and Sherilyn have added over 50 e-books into their 'My Library' at the FrogAsia website. They can read them on their iPad or lappie during their free time.

This is how the eBook looks like...

They were jumping with excitement when they found Diary of a Wimpy Kid from the Fun Brain app, in eBook form!

Interesting eComics are also accessible for free!

Parents can buy questions for their child to work on from the FrogAcademy at a minimal cost of only a few Ringgit per subject. Since the Question Banks is still at its Beta stage, only Form 4, Form 5 and SPM questions can be purchased at the moment. But very soon, questions for primary students and other levels will be readily available for purchase. You can pay via M2U or credit card. There will soon be sample UPSR questions for purchase as well.

Parents can check their kid(s)' work from the questions that they have bought from the Question Banks and monitor them, as shown below...

Educational videos can be added to your 'My Library' and they are free to view!

Under the Resources category, you can add flash cards, free images, free sounds, Funbrain (my girls love this category) and much more to your 'My Library'.

FrogAsia has a partnership with Google, which means that your child can assess to a buffet of interesting education materials from FrogAsia, which will bring them over to Google Apps to assess the educational materials. So make sure you or your child has a Google Chrome account as well.

FrogAsia is probably one of the best and most comprehensive local educational websites that I have come across. If your child's school has not been introduced to this website yet, you can help your child register now and start letting him/her explore FrogAsia today. This is definitely a must have website bookmarked in all your electronic devices!

Someone Just Killed My Blogs!

Some SOB killed my www.healthfreakmommy.com and www.healthiswealth.healthfreakmommy.com blogs today!

Early this morning, two of my dear loyal blog readers messaged me in Facebook, informing me that my blog has been infected by virus and sent me this message:






FULAT! I quickly hopped over to my two dot com blogs and shiats, I got the same message too.  They are both hosted by Exabytes and both my 'babies' are gone! 

From the moment I discovered the tragic fate of my 2 blogs, I have been feeling queasy and emotional.  As of  today, they are both over 7 years old and in just a matter of hours, both have been taken away from me by some assh*les who tried to inject malicious malware into my blogs to infect others.  They were still alive yesterday night.

I have notified my blog host of the problem but I have not heard from them yet.  Some of my advertisers are trying to review the ads that I have just posted but can't access my blogs.  One of the ads gets me a high payout. If my blogs are still not revived, not only are they dead, I will be dead too! They are a part of my life.

This year has been a pretty tough year for me, health wise and work wise, with stumbling blocks one after another. My two dot com blogs keep getting plagued by various problems since the start of this year.  I certainly need loads of luck from the universe and divine intervention as well to help me counter all the negativity around me. MAY THE FORCE BE WITH HEALTH FREAK MOMMY!

Chilli Espresso At Nexus, Bangsar South

The foodie hubs brought us to Nexus @ Bangsar South to hunt for something new and nice for lunch yesterday.  It was our first time at Nexus.

We walked up and down Nexus to see what would excite the man's taste bud.   Finally he settled for Chilli Espresso for some local delights.  He scored again for making the right choice.  We enjoyed the food at Chilli Espresso very much!

Here's the interior of Chilli Espresso, decorated with vibrant paintings by an Australian artist.

If you happen to be hungry now, I am sure you will end up  with a rumbling tummy craving for some local food by the time you finish reading this post :P

This is our 'The Lot' set.  Hubs is a sucker for Western breakfast set.

Sherilyn is not in the picture as she was at her school trip.

Boneless Percik Ayam.  Everyone loved the grilled chicken covered with fragrant lemon grass  and spicy peanut sauce.  Trimmings on the side are papadam chips and acar mango.  The sauce is not too spicy and even the girls could stomach the spiciness.  It reminds me of the boneless chicken chop that I had recently grilled with the satay sauce from the hubs' catering kitchen.  If you are a reader of my other blogs, you would have read my post on the grilled chicken chop with satay sauce.    This boneless percik ayam set could have tasted even better had the rice been cooked with coconut milk.  The saving grace for this dish came from the rich sauce on the grilled chicken, which exuded intense flavor to the entire dish.  The acar mango was also very refreshing.

Fried kuay teow.

My order of Chicken Jicama Salad, which only costs RM12.50.   Love this oriental salad, that comes with a piquant sauce, which is not too heavy. The combo of ripened sweet mango slices with juicy julienned turnip along with crispy puffed tofu is very refreshing. I am definitely going to order this again if we are here again.

The Chicken Jicama Salad is dressed in a sauce that reminded me of our rojak. The salad is composed of shredded sengkuang (turnip), crispy puffed tofu (tofu pok), ripened mango, cucumber, pea sprouts, cherry tomatoes, celery, red salad leaves and pan-fried chicken.

Margherita pizza for the pizza-crazed girls.   And why are they so obsessed with pizzas lately?  No thanks to  Ninja Turtles!

Anyway, the pizza is good, with thin crust and chewy cheese on top. And it is sans ham, pepperoni and bacon - the items banned in the house by the health freak mommy :D

The last dish that came was the Three-Egg Omelette.

Check out the pulled-cheese from the omelette.  The girls love this kind of omelette and it comes with mushrooms and veggies wrapped inside.   This was very yummy and wholesome.    And ideal for low-carb dieters like the hubs and moi.  Well, in fact everyone in the house except for the kids are on a low-carb diet now.

Chilli Espresso is definitely the place to go to if you want delish local and Western meals (with top notch presentation too) without burning a hole in your pocket.  Definitely a bang for your bucks place for your meals!

Chilli Espresso
Unit G-6, Ground floor
Nexus @ Bangsar South
No. 7 Jalan Kerinchi
Kuala Lumpur
tel: 03-2242 2632.

Egg & Cheese Burger By Chef Sher

Yesterday, we had brunch of fish ball noodles before noon.  The mil bought it after her marketing at SS2 market.  By 4ish pm, Miss Drama Queen announced her hunger pangs loudly and annoyingly. She kept bugging me to allow her to fry some eggs. She said there was NOTHING to eat at home but eggs!  Yeah, those biscuits in the drawer and yummy kaya swiss roll cakes that grandma bought ain't edible to her ok. Sometimes she would ask me if I care if she died of hunger!   She's this dramatic la.

I said no cooking to the drama queen as we were about to go to Alycia's school to fetch her back from a day trip. And I had just finished mopping the floor and cleaning up the kitchen. But this melodramatic queen promised me everything that she could think of - that she would make it quick, she would wash up and she won't cause a big mess.  How could I say no to her?   I should have said NO!  Coz I ended up mopping the floor and cleaning up the stove!  I always have to clean up after her.  But all the anger soon sizzled away when I took a bite of this egg and cheese burger that she had prepared.  Bliss...





She cracked up some eggs and tossed in a whole load of spices (I think about 10 types of spices and herbs!) that she could see in the kitchen cabinet.  Her sidekick was Cass.  The 2 sisters added the spices into the egg mixture like they were playing masak-masak!  There was also milk and garlic bread seasoning in the eggs. Then she cranked up the stove and lightly fried the eggs. Next, she halved up some oatmeal burger bread and pan-fried them.  Did you know that by lightly pan-frying your bread, you will bring out the full flavor  of the bread?   Plus the bread will be crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Lastly, she spooned some Chinese chilli sauce (leftover from the fish ball noodles) onto her burger and walah, she made an amazing egg and cheese burger for everyone! 

Mousse Treat From My Celebrity Chef Wannabe

My drama queen, also the celebrity chef wannabe fixed me something cool on a wet and cool morning today! When you see posts like this one, you'll know that only the drama queen will fix me a meal. I can never expect this to come from the older girl but can expect something like this from the littlest one - but made from her blue tac :D

Chef Sher's healthy black sesame 'mousse' with green tea Oreos and cashew nuts.

Composition of Chef Sher's healthy black sesame 'mousse':

1) Skinny sugar-free yoghurt (we buy Farm Fresh)

2) 1 tablespoon of organic sugar-free black sesame powder (we use Bio Green)

3) Baked cashew nuts (sugar, salt, oil and MSG-free)

4) A few scoops of strawberry flavored Calciyum yoghurt, just to splash a hue of my favorite color to the mousse :)

5)  Mini green-tea oreos (grandma brought back from Japan)

So whatcha think?  Does she deserve a 10/10?  I'd say YES to taste, presentation, initiative and choice of ingredients used!  It was  very yummy and  oh so healthy too!  :)

Our Wet Saturday - 8 November 2014

Today is a Saturday but it ain't any rest day for me. I got up at the same time at 4:45am.  Tomorrow the same thing will repeat.  So this week is strictly a  NO REST DAY for me.  Life's tough being a mum huh? On the bright side, I am looking forward to the year-end school holiday soon.  The kids will be having a 6-week long holiday in 2 weeks!  I can repay all my sleep debt during that period :D

Alycia has gone on a school trip today.  This trip is a treat for the school prefects.  Tomorrow will be Sherilyn's turn  to attend the treat trip for librarians and to the same places as the prefects will be visiting today.  As I am typing this post, I am feeling worried and thinking about Alycia and the entire entourage in the trip.  It has been drizzling non-stop since 7am today.  How are the kids going to enjoy their outdoor trip in such a wet weather?  Thankfully Alycia listened to me this time and has included a foldable umbrealla in her bag along with a cap and an extra change of shirt.  But still, how are the kids going to enjoy their time at a park and then adjourn to Farm In The City  in such unfavorable weather condition?  I can imagine that all the animals will be snoozing in their dens and coops and the kids would have to get wet walking round the farm with mud stained sneakers and jeans with nothing much exciting to do. Oh well, the kids will still have fun just being with each other at a new place, I hope!

Breakfast I made for the girls today, using my Blendtec blender -
Orange smoothie and avocado milk shake.





The avocado milk shake (this is REALLY smooth, rich and yummy!) is composed of half an avocado, orange smoothie, low fat fresh milk and a toss of chia seeds. I had meant to down the cup of avo milk shake all by myself but when Cass and Sherilyn tasted how good it was, my milk shake got taxed and I was left with only a quarter cup!

HFM's Lunch - Salad

I shared some steamed paus with the MIL this morning, thus was still feeling bloated by noon.  So I whipped up a bowl of refreshing salad for myself as I really needed something light and easy to digest.

Here is my bowl of high fiber, high protein and super low carb salad for lunch today...





HFM's salad today is composed of organic alfalfa sprouts, crisp and cool Japanese cucumbers, raw pumpkin seeds, toasted almond flakes, seasoned Korean seaweed, a boiled free-range chicken egg and chunks of low-sodium mozzarella cheese, drizzled with Japanese citrus salad dressing.
 
This salad tastes so good and knowing that only wholesome food goes into my body makes me feel happy :)

What was your lunch for today?

Nuts Over Coconut Milk And Everything Coconut

Did I mention before that I have this craze over santan (coconut milk) and everything coconut?  I love to eat santan in all forms.  I drink it neat, as in how I would drink regular cow's milk.  I love to add santan into our rice.  I love it in tong sui (sweet soup) and absolutely love cakes and kuih that have santan in them.  Once, I convinced the tong sui seller to sell all her remaining coconut milk  to me.  She had a jaw-dropping moment when I told her that I drink it neat, just like that!   She thought that I was crazy to be gulping down coconut milk, haha!  Now she knows me well.  She would always invite me to buy all her left-over santan and I will gladly accede.

Last week, I bought 3 packets of fresh coconut milk from my regular veggie and meat seller.   I drank half a packet and used the other half to cook rice for the girls.  The other 2 packets of coconut milk were deep freezed.

Yesterday, I added a quarter packet of half thawed coconut milk into my red bean tong sui.   Half thawed coconut milk tastes very much like coconut sorbet.  So imagine having coconut sorbet in your chilled red bean tong sui.  Ah, such bliss and gives me an instant surge in serotonin (feel good hormone)!

My mug of chilled red bean sweet soup with ice coconut sorbet.    A cup  of this goodness can give me the same kick as an O, ha ha ha!

Food For Thought:

Weight Loss
New research has revealed that not eating enough fat can actually make you fat. According to Bruce Fife, N.D. in his article "The Fat that Can Make You Thin," people who include more healthy fats in their diet, such as the medium-chain triglycerides in coconut milk, eat less than those who don't get enough fat. While all fats help the body feel full and satiate the brain receptors that control appetite, the fat in coconut milk may increase metabolism and perhaps increase weight loss on a reduced-calorie diet.

Healthy Skin and Hair
Coconut milk is highly nutritious when ingested, and these nutrients may help fortify and condition skin and hair as well. The fatty acids in coconut milk are a natural antiseptic and may help treat dandruff, skin infections, wounds and dry, itchy skin. Furthermore, the high fatty acid content in coconut milk serves as a natural moisturizer for healthy skin and may help repair wrinkles and sagging in aging skin.

Cakes vs Biscuits

Swiss roll cake vs chocolate chip walnut cookies. Which one is more of the junkie, in your opinion?

To my soon-to-be 11-year old, she tells me that cake is not categorized as junk food but cookies and biscuits are. Apparently, her teacher told the class that cakes can be brought to the children's day party tomorrow but for biscuits... preferably not! What??! Aren't cakes and biscuits almost the same? They are cousins and composed of almost the same ingredients, isn't it? *scratch head*!!

The class has been told to bring such preferred sustaining food as noodles, spaghetti, fried nuggets, fried chicken, sausages and pizzas. But I ain't going to wake up at 4am to cook such food nor drive to the school to deliver the food. You can call me lazy but time is just not on my side... for now.

Last night, my 11-year old asked me to buy a box of swiss roll cake for her children day's party in school to be held tomorrow. When I told her that swiss roll is not suitable as the cream (made from milk) may turn bad, she said never mind, just get her a swiss roll cake as her teacher says cakes are ok! I don't buy that reasoning ok. This morning, I went ahead and bought her a box of 'superior' chocolate chip cookies with walnuts from our favorite bakery. I said 'superior' as they are freshly handmade and do not contain preservatives. But the girl went ballistic when I told her just now that I bought cookies and not cakes! She said she ain't bringing the 'junkie biscuits' to school coz her teacher said "cannot bring biscuits!" WTF!? Amusingly, sweets and candies can be brought to the party and she asked me to get a packet of sweets! Is this a joke or what?! LOL!

Anyway, when the girl saw the nicely packaged cookies that certainly do not look like any off the shelf biscuits, she changed her mind and said she is bringing them to school as well! That is the joke of the day for me, from my 11-year old!

The below pix were taken 3 hours ago at our condo when I picked up Alycia.  It rained cat's and dog's shit, resulting in a mini waterfall  from the roof gutters.

We stopped for a moment at the lobby to enjoy  the strong wind blowing at our faces, sound of torrential rain water (water is SO precious to us these days!) and chilly weather just now  :)  I  imagined a dam full of water now, thus putting an end to the Klang Valley water woes forever! *wishful thinking*

How I Almost Burnt The Kitchen Down!

And so this is the story of how I almost burnt down my kitchen on Monday morning.  What perfect way to start off my new week *roll eyes*!

The drama queen had promised me that she would get up 10 minutes earlier to heat up some pizzas to bring to school.  We had some leftover pizzas from Itallianies from our Sunday dinner.

As I had expected it, the drama queen was moving too slowly and still in a zombified state that Monday morning.  So I helped her to reheat the pizza in the toaster oven.   While the pizza was in the toaster, I went about to do other chores.

About 10 minutes later when I opened the toaster door, fire was spilling out. I was shocked!!  There were BIG FLAMES!!  My instant reflex action was to blow off the fire!  And I jumped and blew, jumped and blew like a delirious woman, while screaming out FIRE to the drama queen.  I asked her to wake her daddy up.  After a few blow jobs which obviously did not put out the fire, I quickly scooped out 2 cups of water from a pail that is in the kitchen and splashed it into hungry flames.   Thank GOD the fire was quickly tamed and then it died off, PHEW!

And guess what the drama queen's first few words were after the fire?  "So I guess I have to bring the bread and seaweed to school after all, huh?"

I had already packed bread and seaweed for her but the drama queen wanted something more fancy for recess and promised that she would reheat the pizza herself.  And so, she still had to bring her bread to school after all the trouble that I had to go through, ha!




I quickly cleaned up the kitchen and got the drama queen to help to clean up too.  What a way to start off my Monday morning!

And the moral of the story is:
Never ever ever use grease-proof paper in the toaster oven.  I think what  ignited the fire was that the piece of grease-proof paper was too big and part of the paper touched the sides of the inner toaster oven.   I had hurriedly tore off a piece of grease-proof paper that morning to line the toaster tray.

So peeps, learn from my mistake.  Use only aluminum foil for your toaster oven and if you only have grease-proof paper at home, do tear off a piece that is just fitting the toaster tray. Make sure the sides of the paper do not touch the sides of the inner toaster oven that is burning hot.

And check your toaster closely. Do NOT ever leave it turned on while you attend to other chores and forget all about it. 

An Opportunity for Doctors to Expand Their Practice

There is currently a growing opportunity for doctors wishing to participate is telemedicine and the specific area of weight loss is showing a tremendous demand. People all over the country are looking for information or a quick consultation from a licensed doctor to help with their obesity problem. Much of the work needed to help a patient lose weight can be done by a physician’s support staff, so this leaves a short initial consultation from a doctor at the beginning of the treatment.

The best way to participate in telemedicine
By joining a telemedicine organization, doctors can spend only a few minutes of their time each working day with a patient, and this will help to increase the business in their medical office. Obesity is an epidemic in the United States, and there is no need to explain to a medical doctor the number of health issues that obesity causes. Weight loss is the single most effective way to increase a person’s health. By joining a national telemedicine team, you will be helping others and creating a more profitable business.

There are several organizations that are offering telemedicine jobs for physicians and are doing so across most of the 50 states in the country. All that is required is one visit to their website and leave a name and email for additional information. One example of this type of company is the Dallas based Absolutely Thin Independent Medical Associate Physician organization.

Manic Monday - 3 Nov 2014

My Monday today started off really really bad in the morning. I almost burnt down the kitchen while reheating some pizzas for the drama queen in the toaster, I kid you not!! It was the first time that I saw a mini inferno in the kitchen!! I shall write about this in my other blog when I have the time to. Because of all the cleaning up I had to do in the kitchen, I had totally forgotten to pack Alycia's lunch box, bummer! Have I told you that many times when I was with the drama queen or doing somefink for her, some really dramatic and unforgettable events happened? They were mostly hilarious and some were heart-stopping like the one that happened this morning. Pure coincidences I guess ha!

In the lift with Alycia just now, she announced to me that her class position has improved in her final exam! :) Her standard position has also climbed up a few notches but she is not happy at all! That's because she will now be transferred to the top elite class next year, when she starts Stardard 6. She is now in the 2nd elite class and feeling very comfortable there. In their school, there are 2 elite classes for each standard. She pleaded with me to write an appeal letter to the school principal to allow her to remain in the 2nd elite class next year. But what excuse am I to give?! Pray tell, what reasonable excuse I am to state in the letter? That my daughter is thankful that she has been promoted to the first elite class but she is not ready to accept it as she does not wish to be in the fierce competitive environment? Or just omit stating the reason and just thank the school for the 'promotion' but reject it? The girl has been bugging me non-stop for the appeal letter ever since she reached home but I am not typing it out just yet. I shall crank up the stove now to prepare an early dinner for everyone as the drama queen has to have dinner by 6pm. She has hip hop dance class at 7pm. And I am a tad glad that my stint as chief cook in the kitchen will officially end today. The mil will be back from Hong Kong tomorrow! :D

All About The Drama Queen

The drama queen has proven her prowess again.  Early this year, she told me with resolute that she would strive to get to the top three in the Program Nilam (Nilam Reading Program) carried out in her school.  NILAM is an intensive reading program planned for all pupils in public schools, carried out by the MoE.

To help her reach her goal easier, she volunteered to be a school librarian.  She was elected and has been a librarian for a year now.  She would go to the library every day to read and then to fill out the Program Nilam book.  Fast forward ten months later.  She came home one day and announced that she has emerged the third prize winner in the Program Nilam - state level!  There was a letter from the MoE to the school and she was given a copy of the letter.  Last week, her teacher brought her  to another school to receive her reward, which was RM50 cash!

Last Friday, the drama queen told me nonchalantly that she would be taking part in a Malay story telling competition to be held in school on Tuesday this week.  I was shocked!  For someone whose BM language is not strong, how could she be taking part in a story telling competition?!  But her weakness is not a problem to her.  I asked her if she was nervous and she said "NO?  For what?!"

The drama queen is a sucker for taking part in competitions.  Whether she is good enough for the competition is besides the point.  She loves taking part for the sake of being on stage and facing the crowd!  Winning would be a bonus.   I wish I had her guts and chutzpah.  Since pre-school, she has taken part in numerous competitions from singing to talent time, drawing, reading, Math (and she is not even very good in Math!) and her love being story-telling.

Since last night, the drama queen has been reciting a short story in BM.  She asked me for suggestions in perfecting her introduction.  I wish her the very best and though I know she would not come up tops, I am nevertheless very proud of her initiative, courage and determination.  She is indeed a drama queen and I hope that some day, her dream of being a real drama queen or singer will be realized :D

Life at home will never ever be a bore with a real life drama queen living with you.  And you know what?  Today a scary drama in real life happened and it was because of the drama queen.  It scared the shit out of me.  I will tell you this drama in my next post, so stay tuned! ;)

High Maintenance Panasonic Water Purifier

We have been using this Panasonic PJ-A36  water filter  since October 2008.  It cost over RM2k when it was bought.  The cartridge has to be changed once or twice a year and each replacement cartridge costs around RM270.  This water filter can  produce non-electrolyzed water, alkaline water and acidic water.







A few mornings ago, I saw drops of  gooey gunk on our kitchen top (under the water filter). I thought a 'rat' stole honey or chocolates when everyone was in lalaland!  When I checked the base of the  water filter, it was leaking stinky gooey gunk!




Hubs sent the water filter to the electrical shop where he bought the water filter from to have it fixed.  He was told that a spare part is faulty and it costs  RM500 to fix it!

I have always find that this water purifier is high maintenance.  We never had problems when we used a regular Panasonic water purifier that costs only a few hundred Ringgit each. Of course, the regular Panasonic water purifier has no such functions as turning water into alkaline water or acidic water and all that jazz (or bull shit?).  The cartridge is also way cheaper than its high maintenance sibling.  I find that using this alkaline water purifier is like driving a Porsche vs. driving a Kancil, which is low maintenance with low cost of spare parts.

Question :  would you spend RM500 to fix the high maintenance alkaline water purifier?  Or would you buy a brand new water purifier (regular filter or fancy one)?

Hubs paid RM500 to have our 'Porsche water purifier' fixed.

Come on, tell me what  you would do!