Our Saturday - 18 February 2017

It was an activity packed Saturday for me. My day started at 4:45 a.m..  Alycia and Drama Queen had to attend full day school. Since the transporter does not provide service on Saturdays for Drama Queen, I had to Uber her to school. Back home, I hopped back onto bed for an hour of shut eye. Then woke Cass up and off we went for breakfast and grocery shopping.

At 1:30 p.m., I sped off to school to attend a briefing on 'Hari Penepatan Target UPSR'.  It is a compulsory briefing for parents and students. With the entire briefing by the principal in Mandarin, I could only comprehend less than 50% of what was being said and tried really really hard to keep my eyes opened 😴😴




The principal's target for this year's students sitting for the UPSR exam 😱




Year 6 students taking their oath that they will endeavor to do their utmost best in the UPSR exam, followed by the parents taking their oath that they will endeavor to nurture and provide all the support to their children...



After the briefing, I hit the gas to reach home, took a quick lunch and then rushed to send Cass for piano lesson.  After dropping off Cass, I brought the big girl to get a gift for her friend. She was to attend a friend's surprise birthday party the next day.

Back home from piano class, I hustled our bustle and got us ready to leave the house at 6pm to attend our friend's house warming party at Kota Kemuning.

Below - Cass playing board games with her friends...




We left our friend's house slightly after midnight. After a 45-minute ride home and our late night showers, we only hit the sack at 2 a.m. And as usual, I was up by 8 a.m. on a Sunday. It has been another sleep deprived week for me and this weekend will be yet another seriously lack of shut-eye week for me. I am joining Cass and Drama Queen in their school's jogathon this coming Saturday morning. *feeling excited yet exhausted* 😦😰😴 Thankfully I have my most trusted Izumio and Super Lutein to keep me energized to ride out my hectic week.

Our Valentine's Day 2017

The hubster and I had a very lowkey Valentine's Day celebration this year. To come to think of it, it wasn't even a celebration.  He was busy with work plus didn't want to break the bank on a dinner, which would surely have been very costly on such a date.  So we had breakfast at our usual coffee shop.   While the man had 'char beehoon' and wanton noodles, I had tosai.




I love this tosai served with potato dhal curry, beans dhal curry and onion chutney. This tastes like a million dollar yet only costs a paltry RM1.50!  To our American friends, that would only cost them no more than 30 cents.  I wonder if the owner even makes a profit. I will definitely be back to this newly open Mamak stall to try their new curry dishes and to support them.




Valentine's Day is not about splurging on the most expensive flowers, gifts or food. It is a time to celebrate romance and love and kissy-face fealty. 💕💘

Part of the reason of not splurging on a glitzy dinner is because we will be celebrating Drama Queen's birthday in another 2 days. We could instead kill 2 birds with just one stone and have a more celebratory dinner on her birthday instead 😁

How was your Valentine's Day?

Indulge Moderately But Take Precaution

The 15 days of Chinese New Year celebration is finally over.  For those who celebrated, I am sure you had a hard time trying to resist sinking your teeth into those irresistible cookies, arrowroot chips, crabstick crisps and dried meat. And those back-to-back high fat and meaty meals with family members and friends with no opportunity to even rest our innards.  Even 'lou sang' is the baddie with such ingredients as super sweet gooey plum syrup, oil, fried crackling crisps and fried vermicelli colored with an assortment of bright food dye added into the plate of fruits and vegetables to make the dish look colorful and palatable. Thankfully I didn't gain any weight despite indulging in such high caloric food while skipping exercise for one week during the CNY school holidays 😊

To keep your weight in check, never starve yourself, skip meals or go cold turkey on your favorite snacks. That will only make you crave more for the forbidden food.  Eat everything you love in small portions and in moderation. I like to satiate my crave but never overdo it. Never ever overeat on anything. Below is my favorite 'nin ko' prepared in the humblest way - steamed and coated with freshly grated coconut. I have been craving to eat steamed nin ko with grated coconut throughout the 15 days of CNY but only get to satiate my craving today 😋 And nope, I didn't gorge on it.  A few really yummy pieces managed to satiate my crave. Till then, I'll wait for another year before I get to taste nin ko again 😀





While it's okay to indulge occasionally, it is very important for us to ensure that we are doing our best to take good care of our health.  Even if you’re eating a healthy diet, however, white flour and sugar raise your risk for diabetes as well as many other diseases.

The production of white flour involves stripping away of the most nutritional aspects of the grain: the germ and the bran. It also includes the addition of lost B vitamins and iron, and bleaching it with a chemical bleaching agent to make it appear bright white. The flour itself is devoid of the fiber which aids in passing easily through the large intestine. A person following a diet that regularly includes eating white flour as well as sugar or products made with the ingredients, increases their chances for weight gain, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

I am glad that I have Izumio and Super Lutein to keep me healthy. After sinful indulgences, I always drink an extra packet of Izumio and pop extra Super Lutein. The same goes for my girls.  I cannot tell you how effective these products are in keeping our immune system strong, thus preventing us from easily falling sick.




What are you doing to ensure that your health is protected?

For more reading on Izumio and Super Lutein, you can click here.

Cutting Down On Green Tea

I love drinking tea, especially green tea.  I used to drink at least 2 cups of green tea a day until my total blood count test shows that my iron level is very low.  With its bounty of antioxidants and relatively moderate levels of caffeine, tea is one of the healthiest beverages around.  But drinking tea is said to block the body's absorption of dietary iron, potentially causing a deficiency.

Thus, I have reduced my consumption of green tea, though not going cold turkey on it. Why? Well, green tea is still beneficial to me.  According to a study published in 2010 in the “American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,” a substance in green tea appears to significantly shrink the size of uterine fibroids.  So yeah, I am still drinking green tea but reduced significantly to say maybe about 3-4 cups in a week.

I have now replaced green tea with peppermint tea, lemon grass + pandan tea, Misai Kuching tea and lemon myrtle tea, on top of my red dates + black dates tea which I drink daily now. I also drink 2 packets of Izumio everyday.

Below is my cup of "all greens tea" consisting of everything green -- a sachet of organic 3 mints tea consisting of peppermint, spearmint and fieldmint, freshly plucked basil leaves from my little garden and fresh pandan leaves.  I had sips of this tea while tucking into all my mom's home baked CNY cookies 💗😋

Carelessness Or Jinx?

This looks like someone who had attempted suicide by cutting her wrists but it's pure accident, thank God not a freak one! But there was a pretty deep cut on my left wrist and some superficial cuts on the right wrist.




I had wanted to wash a bowl and while bringing it to the sink hurriedly, I accidentally tapped the bowl against a bottle that was sitting on the counter top. It was not a hard bang but the bowl broke into half. Maybe there was already a hair line crack on the bowl, which no one realized, else it wouldn't have broken into half so easily.  As I was trying to catch the two broken halves of the bowl from dropping, the unforgiving sharp edges of the broken bowl cut both my wrists.  There was blood  seeping out.  Cass who heard me screaming ran to the kitchen. She screamed too on seeing the blood on my wrists. She then darted to the bedroom, took a piece of tissue paper with Melagel antiseptic gel and three band aids and came to my aid.  She wiped off the blood, applied the Melagel on the wounds and helped to put on the band aids. Then she said this "luckily the bowl didn't cut your veins, else you will bleed to death mummy. You already don't have enough blood!"  😲😨

Super proud of my baby girl.  👏

This is the second time in a week that I had broken something.  Last week as I was cleaning the kitchen sink, my elbow nudged a tall glass off the counter top and it broke into a million sharp pieces!

What is wrong with me?! I am usually very careful in the kitchen and hardly ever break things. Perhaps I have been working too hastily to accomplish more but this is definitely counterproductive.

Note to self - I really need to SLOW DOWN, smell the roses, live in the moment and not rush off each day trying to over achieve my targets. 😵

Light Meals

After stuffing myself with rich and meaty meals during the first five days of CNY, all I wanted to eat was something light and vegetables-centered. After sending my car to the car wash center, I walked to the food court to have brunch alone.   Inside the food court, I walked around for about 15 minutes. Nothing seemed to excite my palate.  Most stalls were selling noodles and I didn't want to put carbs into my body. Other stalls were selling chicken rice, nasi lemak and Bakuteh.  Certainly not for me too. One stall was selling porridge and Hakka 'lui cha' and voila, I found something that I liked. But I was really disappointed when the 'lui cha' arrived as the broth was really awful - too salty and oily!  That will be my first and last time to patronize that stall.




After the disappointing bowl of 'lui cha' with a bad aftertaste of MSG lingering in my mouth, I walked around the food court again searching for the least unhealthy lunch for the girls but none met my criteria  😷 I left the food court empty handed. Back home, I prepared crispy toasted bread for the girls. When the girls were back from school, Drama Queen volunteered to cook scrambled eggs to go with the toasts. The girls were very contented with their crispy egg toasts with mayo and sliced cool cucumbers. Cheap and yummy, the egg toasts were way healthier and satisfying than some hawkers food 😋

For dinner, I whipped up a big pot of droolicious porridge with chicken drumsticks, minced meat, carrots, pumpkin, dried cuttlefish, freshly peeled groundnuts and seaweed. The porridge was so tasty that it was finished to the last drop that night.  The mil was away in Ipoh to attend a funeral and dinner was mine to cook.  I also sauteed a head of organic cabbage with carrot, garlic and egg.

Porridge is  one of the easiest meals to prepare and it's both tasty and nutritious. You could add in lots of vegetables too for added fiber. The 2 younger girls and I don't mind having porridge 2-3 times in a week.  But the big princess is no fan of porridge. She would sulk each time porridge is served. But this time I told her that I ain't cooking or buying something else for her. She gets no special treatment anymore. She either eats the porridge I cook or help herself to whatever she could find in the kitchen 😐

She ate the porridge 😁



Porridge cooked using organic baby millet, quinoa and rice. Super smooth and yums. iLike it!

Shopping Queen

We had a lazy and relaxing day in Ipoh on the third day of Chinese New Year, after a super hectic day the day before, where we took the 8:30 a.m. train from KL back to Ipoh to attend a reunion lunch with my relatives. Everyone slept in except for my dear parents who got up early to send off my brother and his family who returned to Singapore. We spent the third day of our CNY lazing around at home and enjoying my mum's home baked cookies, bonding with my parents, visiting friends and shopping! Nothing makes me happier than shopping. I can find bliss just from shopping for groceries, which makes me so easy to please 😄

While the kids, their grandma and dad spent their afternoon at a good friend's house playing card games, I went shopping! You wouldn't believe what I bought!

I bought a new bikini, like the one shown in the picture below!!










Nah, just kidding.  But I did buy a new 2-piece swimsuit (not as sexy as the bikini above😆  ) as I had bought a wrong size of swimsuit about 2 months back and now Drama Queen is the proud beneficiary of the old but still new swimsuit.

I also bought 2 pairs of shoes and had to discard the boxes and discreetly stuff them into my luggage coz someone had to lug my luggage bag up and down the train,  up and down escalators before we took a cab home from the train station in KL haha 😆💪

I almost bought some dresses too but had to try hard to refrain myself from doing so as I didn't want to stoke the suspicion of the someone lugging my super heavy and bursting luggage bag!

Anyway, I can always shop for new dresses from online stores at my finger tips and within days, the dresses will reach my door step.  I am already eyeing a black dress and a shift batwing kimono top from StyleWe.com










I have been telling myself that I have more than enough of shoes and clothes to wear but unless you are a shopping queen who finds pleasure from buying clothes, shoes and bags, you wouldn't exactly know the ecstasy you get when you do so 😁

Second Day of CNY 2017

On the second day of CNY, we took the 8:30 a.m. ETS train from KL Sentral to Ipoh.   We had to be in Ipoh for the Yong family reunion lunch.

I jumped out from bed at 5 a.m. despite only going to bed way past midnight the night before. After doing the laundry, I woke the girls up and hollered repeatedly to them to get ready before I called Uber for two cars to bring us to the train station.

We reached KL Sentral at 8:10 a.m.  Hubs brought us to McDonalds to have a quick bite while he went to Burger King to get some takeaway burgers. Holidays are the only time when the girls get to indulge in junk food.




In the train, Cass had another round of breakfast... with me putting the brake on her appetite before she stuffed  more nuggets into her mouth!





On the fourth day of CNY, we took the 9 a.m. train from Ipoh back to KL.  On arrival, someone requested for Burger King again! 😰😳  That's it, the girls had used up their fast food quota and they will have to wait for at least another half a year before they get to eat fast food again. 😈





Below - a picture taken with my favorite cuzzie, Suzan, her daughter, my niece Raelyne and my 3 angels. This was taken at our reunion lunch in Ipoh on the second day of CNY.

Appointment With Cardiologist

Yesterday I met with a cardiologist at a private hospital in Subang who is the hubby's family friend.  I know that my heart flutters are caused by my extremely low blood count / low iron as our body needs red blood cells to bring oxygen throughout the body. The lack of blood may cause shortness of breath and heart flutters and in extreme cases, even heart failure. My gynae had warned me of heart failure if I do not increase my iron ASAP!

But the hubby wanted me to see this cardiologist, just to get a second opinion.  So off we went  to the hospital yesterday morning. The doctor had asked me to fast from 12 midnight. I had my last meal at 8:30pm. By the time I had my first meal, it was already 12:30 noon, a fast of 14 hours.  Surprisingly, I didn't feel hungry as I drank lots of Izumio :)

Anyway, no test was needed and my fasting was in vain. Never mind.  Good news is there does not seem to be any problem with my heart.  The only problem is my low blood count and of course the fibroid in my uterus that's causing the heavy menstruation.

I left the hospital feeling relieved that I am not a heart patient as feared. I have to continue with popping 2 Sangobion iron tabs each day with lots of iron-rich foods. The doctor mentioned medium rare steak with oozing blood! Oh. My. Gawd.  I am not a lover of beef and definitely not a sucker for anything with blood oozing out!  He also mentioned pork liver.  Another Oh. My. Gawd. food which I absolutely abhor!

What choice do I have?  Eat these blood rich meats or risk collapsing!

After we left the hospital, the hubby brought me to tuck into my favorite bitter gourd pork noodles. This time, I ordered extra pork liver, eeeewwww!  And ate the bowl of noodles as if it were some kind of Fear Factor yucky stuff.





Back home, I forced myself to eat more meat and had char siew and chicken, washed down with a mug of red dates water that the mil boiled.




Tonight I will be having double boiled chicken essence again.  Gosh, this is really starting to feel like confinement minus the baby!  My doctors have advised me to indulge in beef, lamb and pork liver to my heart's content and forget about the cholesterol. When your body craves for blood, it will be able to accept all the rich food without causing much problems.  And I think it's true. I feel great these few days and can even run without feeling breathless anymore. My exercise session each morning has increased from 30 minutes to 45 minutes 🙌  And the heart flutters have lessened a lot too 😊

Breast Cancer Risk Scare

I had a '3% breast cancer risk' scare early this week. After my yearly check-up at my gynae's clinic at PMC last week, my gynae referred me to a breast doctor at the Breast Care Center  and to another gynae (oncology gynecologist) to handle my uterine fibroid.  After a very stressful time last week of having to deal with the diagnosis of having severe anemia (reading of 6 g/dL.  Normal range is 12 - 16) caused by heavy periods contributed by the fibroid, I have to face yet another stressful week this week with work and another two appointments with doctors.  The damage to my wallet last week was over RM1,000 and this week's damage is another RM1,000.. holy crickets!!

On Wednesday this week, I met up with the breast surgeon on referral by my gynae.  She had a look at the ultrasound scan images and commented that while the cyst did not look round with a nice shape like it should (round and nicely shaped means benign), other markers did not suggest any malignancy.  The radiologist indicated a BIRADS III grading.. which means 'probably benign'.  She told me that while it is not malignant, there is a 3% cancer risk. My doctor's words were a sucker punch and I felt like I was slapped with a slow death sentence.  She ordered for a Mammogram done immediately.  For those of you who have had experience of doing an MMG, I am sure you feel really 'exploited' as your boops are being manhandled by 2 female imaging staff. That's really a very unpleasant feeling, not to mention the pain of having your boops squashed.

The MMG report further confirmed that the cysts are benign with a BIRADS II rating, oh thank you Lord Jesus!!  However, I will have to see the breast doctor in 3 months to have another ultrasound scan done to monitor the cysts. The 1 hour+ waiting time for the MMG report to be out was painful and tensed.

The BI-RADS assessment categories are:

• 0- incomplete
• 1-negative
• 2-benign findings
• 3-probably benign
• 4-suspicious abnormality
• 5-highly suspicious of malignancy
• 6-known biopsy with proven malignancy

My mum used to be very prone to fibrocystic breasts too during her pre-menopausal days and had undergone several open surgeries and fluid aspirations. In fact, she still gets lumps in her breasts occasionally now, at the age of over 70.  However, ever since she started consuming Izumio and Super Lutein, the products seem to be helping to shrink the lumps.  I am now taking extra dosage of Izumio and trying my best to keep my stress and anger level in check.  These two emotions are a big culprit in causing free radicals and intoxicating the body.  No matter how much Izumio I down, how healthily I eat and how much I exercise, anger and stress will negate the benefits of all these good stuff that I put into my body.

The stress hormone, cortisol, is public health enemy number one. Scientists have known for years that elevated cortisol levels interfere with learning and memory, lower immune function and bone density, increase weight gain, blood pressure, cholesterol, heart disease, cancer... the list goes on and on.

For the past few days, I have been telling myself not to sweat over the small stuff. Shouting and screaming at the kids have been reduced significantly, cussing and complaining have been kept down and I am learning to forgive and FORGET.  And I feel good about it. Practice makes perfect.  😊

Mykōri Dessert Cafe, Taman Desa

On one of the evenings during the school holidays in December last year, the hubs brought us to a newly opened dessert cafe after dinner.  Mykori Dessert Cafe is a purveyor of Japanese snacks and desserts with a twist. Their signature items are their array of taiyaki (fish-shaped cake) with different fillings in both sweet and savory options - the cheese croissant version is high on their list and cheese lovers will love the cheese filling taiyaki to bits.  We ordered one cheese taiyaki initially but one was definitely not enough for 3 adults and 3 kids, so we ordered another one later and sure enough, it was gone in just seconds after it arrived 😛  Another of  Mykori's most popular choice is the Melon Kakigori which is very refreshing and light. Generously topped with fresh melon balls on a bed of finely shaved and soft ice, the Melon Kakigori is just perfect on a hot day.  The ultra soft shaved fruit flavored ice reminds me of the ice-cream sold at 100 Yen Shop, which we would indulge in occasionally in the past when 100 Yen Shops were still operating around KL.


Source: http://www.buro247.my/lifestyle/food-and-drink/5-new-dessert-cafes-around-kl-to-visit-in-october.html




Melon Kakigori and Strawberry Cheesecake Kakigori







Taiyaki (fish-shaped cake) with lots of oozing soft and melting cheese hidden inside. The chewy strands of cheese can be pulled high up. Fans of cheese will love this savory dessert.









Mango yoghurt kakigori...












Recognize this handsome chap? He's our regular 'makan' buddy.  You may have seen Alan Yun in TV commercials, magazines and local movies.



Mykōri Dessert Cafe, Taman Desa
No 28, Jalan 2/109E Desa Business Centre
Taman Desa, Off Jalan Klang Lama
58100 Kuala Lumpur

Jalan-Jalan Cari Makan In Ipoh - 28 December 2016

We had one full day to amble around Ipoh today.  Ipoh is my beloved birth place as well as the hubs. Driving around the streets of Ipoh always makes the both of us feel mawkishly sentimental. It brings back waves of our sweet childhood memories and we have so much to talk about when we are traipsing in Ipoh while hunting for all our childhood favorite food.

Our first stop was at Hugh Low Street where all the biscuit shops are located. We went into three biscuit shops and ended up over a hundred Ringgit poorer... just on Ipoh-made biscuits 😒










Next, we went to Ipoh Old Town to 'Jalan-Jalan Cari Makan' while waiting for the mil to buy some dried food provisions from those decades-old pre-war shops. These are the shops that my late maternal grandma used to patronize before Chinese New Year to shop for all her dried food stuffs and waxed meat. It sure brings back lots of fond memories walking past these shops.







Below - I think this toy shop has been around for over 30 years. I remember going into this shop with my mum before Children's Day each year to shop for toys and snacks for our Children's Day celebration in school. That was in the early 1980s.  Our girls stumbled upon a 5x5 Rubics Cube at this toy shop and were so excited. But I didn't manage to get it for them as it was about to pour heavily and we had to run back to our car.  The next day, the hubs went back to this shop and got them the 5x5 Rubics Cube.  His princesses were SO happy!




A shop that sells a panoply of exotic dried food stuffs -- starfish, snakes (EWWW!!), sea horses, sea lions, gigantic sea shells, etc. etc.














Then we made a pit-stop at the ever popular Sin Yoon Loong to enjoy a cuppa Ipoh white coffee and desserts.







We had initially planned to make a stop at the Ipoh Stadium food court or Mushroom Hut (Tung Koo Teng) at Ipoh Garden to tuck into some hawkers' delight but alas it poured heavily. So we headed home, had a short rest before adjourning to our next destination for dinner - at Wah Chai Seafood Restaurant in Menglembu to tuck into some delish dishes. I'll save the pix taken at Wah Chai for my next post 😊

Our 2016 Christmas & Boxing Day

Our Christmas 2016 morning was spent worshipping in the church.




After church, we spent our afternoon indulging in sumptuous Japanese food at Lot 10's Isetan Japan Store. There was a whole jing bang of us - my parents, my younger brother Roy, my older brother Ray and his family, the mil, hubs and our 3 girls.

After lunch and tea, everyone had a rest at home before the onslaught of Christmas dinner at the hubs' aunt's house. While everyone rested at home, I quickly did a quick clean-up of the house as our part-time helper was on leave for several days.

As with previous years, our Christmas dinner has always been pretty traditional with such retro treats as roast turkey with stuffing, cold ham, grilled sausage with bacon wrap, roast lamb leg, Christmas pies, Christmas pudding, Panettone bread, an assortment of salads, spaghetti, pasta and fruits.






















Our yearly Christmas dinner always ends with  gift exchange and unwrapping of gifts towards midnight along with lots of camwhoring 😄

Below - my mum with her 2 youngest grand-daughters - Cass and Raelyne.




On Boxing Day, we had desserts of ice-cream and waffles at Inside Scoope. Below is a charcoal waffle 'injected' with salted duck's egg atop, GLORIOUS!  This must be the latest food trend that cafes have caught on. It sits well on all spectrum - sweet, savory, crispy and cold. It's so very scrumptious!







My baby girl and me 😍 and this little girl with an appetite bigger than her tummy was reluctant to share her 2 big scoops of ice-creams with me 😡