Our Sunday, 25 March 2018

We had breakkie of sandwiches with a choice of the following fillings on Sunday before church: tuna onion mayo, mashed egg avo and half boiled eggs.

This is my keto breakkie, sans bread and carbs ~ one half boiled egg with tuna onion mayo and cucumber:



This is Cass'  ~ mashed egg + mashed avo with herbs cream cheese and tuna onion mayo on a slice of multigrain bread. She ate TWO of these. TWO!!  On top of half a mango, half a nectarine and a glass of raw honey. She can eat like a piranha!


Check out the perfect avocado ~ it's from Mexico and is slightly cheaper than New Zealand ones  at only RM5 each but they taste just as creamy.  Dole avocados from Phillipines are pretty good too and are selling at RM5 each at our neighborhood supermarket. As I can source for affordable avocados from Mexico and Phillipines, we've been eating a lot of them the past one week. Bliss!

Lunch after church was with the hubs, mil and Cass at Lex Deux Garcons (LDG) @ Faber Towers (the hubs' favorite cafe).  Alycia and Drama Queen were at their weekly bible study class.

Sirloin steak for the hubs:




Classic chicken chop with portobello sauce for Cass and me; pasta for the mil


Super fluffy and pillowy pancakes for everyone and scones for the super hungry man who had skipped his breakfast to work.


Lunch at LDG was superb as always.  Dinner was takeout murtabak and roti pisang for Alycia who had a sudden craving for roti pisang!

Since Saturday, Drama Queen has been working on a paper mache volcano for her school's Library Week project. She's a librarian.  The entire living room has been turned into a makeshift workshop for her. Everyone in the house has to bear with the mess and dirt and forgo TV just because she has monopilized the entire floor in front of the TV and couch! 



The paper volcano is only 70% completed.  This morning she skipped Math tuition to work on the project. We have another day or two to bear with the clutter and dust from the papers and cut styrofoam . I have been sweeping and moping the floor till my back broke this morning, I kid you not!  I could barely bend my back and had to stick Salonpas pain relief patch.

What I dislike most about school projects is the parents have to bear the full cost of all the materials. This project may seem  inexpensive but my total cost amounts to almost RM200 from styrofoam to acrylic paints, papers, duct tape, celo tape, two gigantic bottles of glue, plastic wrappers, dry ice, et al.... including the cost of her skipping one Math class!

Thursday, 22 March 2018 ~ Day Out At The Mall With Drama Queen

Today I took a Grab taxi to Mid Valley Megamall with Drama Queen ~ just the two of us. She had a date with her school mates at the mall for a movie and to play at the arcade. Alycia and the mil were not interested to follow as the both of them had just gone to Mid Valley a few days ago.  Cass was supposed to follow us but this rascal hadn't finish her school and tuition homework and I was enraged. I had warned her that if any of her homework wasn't completed, she would stay home. And I mean what I say!

We took Grab taxi as we had left the house after 12 noon ~ at this time of the day plus it's the school holidays, finding a place to park will be like finding a needle in a haystack.  Once, we left the car park mall after I circled the entire car park for half and hour and couldn't  get a place to park. What a waste of my precious time and money as I had to pay for the parking too.

While Drama Queen and her friends had McD and watched movie, I had a full dose of retail therapy!  Bought myself another Airism bra singlet from Uniqlo. I now have an almost full collection of  Airism bra singlets in my closet with almost all the colors in all the designs!!  Just love wearing Airism singlets ~ they are airy, dries super quickly after wash and the best part is I don't have to wear a separate bra!! 💓

Then had my lunner at Pho Vietz while waiting for Drama Queen.  I ordered a bowl of slice beef and meat ball noodles, which was very yummy.  Price is reasonable too.  I ordered 2 Viet baguette with grilled pork for take-away for those at home, which was also very delish. 







If you are a fan of Vietnamese food, do check out Pho Vietz. The food is delish and reasonably priced.

The only bummer today was I discovered that the left side sandals that I was wearing was almost going to fall apart. Thank God I saw the tear while we were in the taxi. The moment we alighted from the taxi, I headed straight to Padini Concept Store and got myself a new pair of sandals 😆

Have I told you that on the third day of CNY this year, the exact same hex happened to me while I was shopping in Ipoh? The sole of my Sembonia sandals (I had only worn this pair of sandals three times) was yanked off while I was in the mall.  I stumbled to the shoes department and got myself a new pair of sandals before I continued shopping.  Jinx? How could this happen to me twice in less than 2 months?!  😅

K88 Food Court @ Old Klang Road, KL

On Saturday,  the hubs suggested steamboat for dinner, but I wasn't keen as we had just eaten fish balls and noodles for lunch and I didn't want to eat something similar again for dinner. I suggested having hawkers' food at K88 Food Court.




What I really wanted to eat from the K88 Food Court was Ngoh Jie's Apom. I had blogged about this Apom earlier this year after the hubs chanced upon this apom stall while looking for porridge. Since then, I have been hoping to drop by the stall myself to satiate my cravings again.







This time, I chowed down 5 pieces of apom!



What I really like about K88 Food Court is that it is really huge and very complete.  There are 52 stalls within the food court and you can choose to dig into your food indoor or outdoor.  Eating at K88 somewhat reminds me of eating at Gurney Drive and Northam Cafe in Penang.  I can get the best of Penang hawkers' food at K88 from assam laksa to seafood, char koay teow and even my apom!  I don't have to make a trip to Penang just to satiate my craving for Apom Guan.

From where we were seated, which was outdoor, the view of some high rise apartments and the ambience at the food court are pretty similar to that of Gurney Drive and Northam Cafe.



The foodie hubs as usual, with eyes bigger than his stomach over ordered the food.   We had Hong Kong chee cheong fun, grilled stingray, some Egyptian cuisine, roti nan, satay, curry laksa, snow white chicken + bean sprouts, baked spaghetti, fried lala, fried Oh Chien (oyster omelette), salt baked crabs, prawn noodles, Shawerma, lime and sour plum juice and apple juice (which comes in a giant mug).

Alycia and Drama Queen ordered kebab with pasta from a stall run by some Egyptians (on the right):


Ipoh ngar choi kai and Shawerma.  The Shawerma wrap is  also from the Egyptian stall.  We had a hard time asking for an empty plate from the Egyptian family as they don't understand English!




Fried lala and roti nan.  The roti nan was surprisingly good ~ very soft, fresh and pillowy. Would be perfect if more dhall was given.  As there was too much food, we had to doggy bag some of the roti nan back.  The mil and the girls had it for dinner the next day, after a few minutes of reheating in the toaster oven.


Satay (which I didn't even have the space in my tummy to try!) and baked spaghetti ordered by Alycia.



Curry laksa and Oh Chien (oyster omelette).


Of all the food that we tried, my favorite has to be the oyster omelette and apom. I like it that the egg is fried in a flat pan, resulting in a paper thin and crispy fried egg omelette. In fact the omelette comes in a big piece, very much like an oyster egg cracker.  The oysters are juicy and fresh too.

Ordering of drinks are computerized with a print out of your order stuck onto the glass.




Many of the stall owners at K88 are from the recently closed down Ming Tien Food Court @ Taman Megah and Subang Jaya food court. They chose K88 as it is big.

For those wishing to have the best of Malaysian hawkers' food, K88 is the place to go to BUT be prepared for the traffic jam getting into the food court. K88 is located next to FGA Church.  Your next worry is finding a place to park. The hubs took over 20 minutes just to get a spot to park.

The next time we are at K88 again, I am going to try the Fuchow red wine noodles, porridge and the famous Rawang steamed fish and steamed egg.   It's 11:15 p.m. now and talking so much about food is making my tummy growl!  I better leave the computer now, forget about my rumbling tummy and just get right into slumberland now.  Nite nite everyone!

Cat Eye Glasses For The Stylo Girls!

As the mercury starts ticking upward and the rays start growing stronger, our attention is steadily turning toward sunglasses. I don't know about you but I am not a sunglasses person. I find I can't see my view clearly if I have something blocking my eyes. Funnily, when I was younger, I could never leave the house without a pair of sunglasses.  Lately the sun has been blazing at its strongest and I find that I really need to get myself a pair of sunglasses for the protection of my eyes.  It's 'summer' over here where the sun is merciless.   I always think I look insanely cool with a pair of dark cat eyeglass 😎  It doubles up as my head band too 😊

Less expensive than most handbags, shoes, and clothes, sunglasses are an accessory you can wear every single day without raising an eyebrow.  Whether you are staring at a drawer packed full of sunglasses and wondering which pair to wear today, or are considering investing in something new this season, I'd like to suggest the classic cat eye frames.

The retro cat eye black frame is a great choice for women working in the business environment as they give you a smart and mysterious look that is bound to emphasize your professionalism.



Let me share with you a place where you can get cool cat eye glasses with cool discounts. Zeelool.com offers a wide range of high-fashion and high-end eyewear at affordable prices. Whether you are a student, a fashionista, a dad or a mum, you are sure to find your ideal eye glasses at Zeelool.com.

Zeelool.com is currently having a 20% discount off your purchase of 2 pairs or more of eye glasses.  Additionally, for your FIRST ORDER, you get a $3 OFF your purchase. Just key in discount code : NEW3 during checkout.

There's a look within that's sure to touch just the right chord with you, whether you like something subtle and understated or prefer things big and bold. Scroll through Zeelool.com and I'm sure you'll find your perfect pair.

'Exotic' Triple-Layer Drink

If Drama Queen and I ever open a cafe, this 3-layer exotic drink will definitely make its way into the  Beverage Menu!

This is a super refreshing drink composed of 5 ingredients:
1. Water
2. Korean fruit vinegar
3. Sunquick tropical cordial
4. Organic blue / butterfly pea + lemongrass tea
5. Ice cubes



This is actually Drama Queen's school Science experiment holiday homework. The students are instructed by their Science teacher to make a drink composed of three colors. It can be any drink as long as it's made up of 3 different colors (no Milo and Teh Tarik though as these two are already mentioned in the text book). And ice-cubes must be added into the drink.

Drama Queen chose Sunquick for the yellow, Korean fruit vinegar for the red and blue pea lemongrass tea for the blue color.

This little fun experiment shows that the ice cubes slow down the three colors from integrating with each other. With the ice cubes, the 3 types of drinks are layered, as shown in the picture above.

And the result is a very pretty sun set colored drink ~ yellow, orange, garnet, wine and purplish blue. OMG, I am so in love with the colors and taste of this drink! It's slightly sourish, fizzy (from the vinegar) and slightly sweet. And the ice cubes give it a very refreshing boost. Just perfect on a hot day.

Take a closer look!  The blue color from the blue pea flower looks electrifying and magical in this concoction. Set, we're going to include this triple layer stacked drink in our beverage menu if our plan of opening a health cafe materializes! 💪😆

Sunday At District 21 @ IOI Mall, Putrajaya

Cass attended her classmate's birthday party held at District 21 @ Putrajaya today. It's our first time at District 21.

District 21 is a first of its kind, apocalypse themed Adventure Park. This action park is located in a 70,000 sq.ft, indoor premise with a 55ft air-conditioned atrium, within IOI City Mall, Putrajaya.



Before the  adventure began, we were treated to lunch at Marrybrown's Fried Chicken.








The birthday girl baked her own cake!



After a heavy meal of fried chicken, fried fish fingers, fried fish nuggets, potato curlies, cake and sundae (BURPS!!), the kids adjourned to District 21 to have their agility, stamina, phobia and strength challenged.

The girls putting on socks and gloves before their adventure starts:




The first obstacle that the girls tackled was the Maze:



An eagle's eyes view of how the Maze looks like:




My cili padi inching her way up and down the Maze:



Next, they tackled  the Ninja Warrior course.  The course looks easy to tackle but it's not.

Cass with the birthday girl (in pink):



Then they went up the Tubby Ride. The slope is about 1-storey high and very steep. Participants climb up to the top of the slope, sit inside an inner tube and the staff push them down the slope. I was as nervous as a cat when it was Cass' turn to be pushed down the slope.  All sorts of morbid thoughts kept playing in my mind. Visions of my 14-year old school mate free falling down from a 2-storey high flying fox fun game kept repeating in my head. Miraculously, she survived with only a broken wrist. The inner tube could flip over and the participant could be thrown out of the tube and roll all the way down the slope! There's no safety belt whatsoever (how can that be?!). This cili padi repeated this stunt many times, putting me in nervous tics.








They went up the giant maze again. This bunch of girls are extraordinary ~ SO gutsy, strong and energetic!




And then to the giant trampoline (similar to Jump Street):




Thank God the kids' weight are all below 45kg and didn't qualify to do the Roller Glider, a death defying stunt (I don't trust the safety measures there) which I will never allow my girls to do.  District 21 has the world's first indoor roller glider.  Cass and her friends are all dare devils who wanted to try everything there, including the Roller Glider and Free Fall.





Me with my cuzzie Suzan (center) and the birthday girl's mum.



Dressed in shorts and sports shoes, my job as usual, at birthday parties held in an action park is to lug 2 bags and water bottle, chase after and supervise a bunch of fearless, tireless and rambunctious girls and of course paparazzi-ing.  It's tough job. Tough life as a mummy maid!

After 3 hours 'on duty', I had my lunner at a Chinese eatery:












It's funny how I never ever feel tired even with 10 hours of shopping with non-stop walking in the mall but when I have to supervise and chase after a bunch of tireless, chatty, sarcastic and rambunctious kids, I am already burnt out after an hour!  Does anyone feel this way too? 😏

Awful Day

Today the stars are not aligned for me 😪

Two godawful things happened.

In the wee hours of today, some crooks stole my credit card number and made a GBP300+ transaction in the UK. You can read about the story here.

In the afternoon, our new Teka washer was delivered to our home. The two delivery staff from Teka, blur like sotong, told me that they weren't sure how to operate the washing machine when I asked them to show me.  Their reply was (in Malay): "Don't know la. Ala, normal la, just like any other washing machine".  But I figured how to operate the washer as it's pretty user-friendly.  After the washing machine was installed, I tried one cycle without any clothes under "Quick" which is a 15-minute duration and everything seemed fine.

Fast forward several hours later.  For my maiden wash in the machine with clothes, I chose a "sports cycle" with a 45-minute duration and a 1200 spm (spin per minute).  About thirty minutes later, we heard an awfully loud crash in the kitchen followed by extremely loud 'machine-conking-out' sounds emitting from the washing machine. I was shell shocked to see the washer, toppled onto the floor (from the four legs to prop the washer up).  Everything on top of the washer was scattered on the floor. The machine was vibrating very violently, like in an earthquake scene. It sounded as if it was going to explode any time.   I quickly turned off the switch to stop it from swaying.  Several minutes later, I tried to open the door but it was still locked as the cycle had not ended. I turned on the washer again and again it shook violently, hitting the sides of the wall (and scraping off some cement) and fridge door.  Again I turned off the main switch.  Thankfully when I tried to resume the last 5 minutes of cycle, the machine cooperated, ended the wash and I could finally open the washer door to remove the clothes.

I quickly made a call to Teka service centre and told them the problem.  The first question that the service staff asked me was "did the delivery guy remove the four screws behind the washer?"  

What, how the heck would I know?  The staff were supposed to know what to do. They were supposed to even teach me how to use but they did none of these.

I ran to the washer to check the back of it and bingo, the four screws were still intact.

Oh. My. Gawd!

Tragedies could have happened because of the carelessness of the delivery guys who had forgotten to remove the screws. I dread to think what would have happened had anyone of us been at the washer when it fell off.  According to the technician who came later, the washer's weight is over 100kg.  Yup, this washer from Europe is this heavy and solid.  The screws are there to protect the drum during delivery.  When the washer spun, it was moving against force / lock from the screws, thus the violent vibration and deafening sounds coming out.

What irked me to the point that I had to cuss and threaten the service manager was when he did not reply to all my Whatsapp messages to him.  I told him that the washer had fallen off and blocking the refrigerator door. We could not open the fridge door, can't cook and it's a sore eye to see the washer blocking the kitchen floor. As it is, our kitchen is already super squeezy. Much later when I managed to get through to him, he told me that as per their policy, I had to wait for 24 hours for a technician to arrive. But this is an emergency and it is due to the negligence of their staff that this accident had happened. Do I have to suffer because of their negligence?  I demanded for a technician to be at my door step the same day OR I would bring this matter up to higher Management and even post my bad experience on Facebook.  Finally the technician arrived at 6 p.m.  and he's a super nice guy.

I later found out from the technician that the issue of the delivery staff forgetting to remove screws from the washer is very common.  I couldn't believe what I heard. How can this even be happening at such a large multinational company with headquarters in Spain and Switzerland?  Why aren't the staff briefed, trained and reminded on this?   This is totally unacceptable.




I hope that our Teka washer wouldn't disappoint me. I've used an Electrolux washer for almost 10 years and I still love it but the hubs said that it's time to change to a new one. I think I still prefer my old Electrolux.

Sunday, 11 March 2018

The mil wanted to treat us to a dinner of steaks and chops to make up for her absence during the recent CNY.  So the hubs brought us to Victoria Station, a long forgotten restaurant that we have not set foot on for over a decade.

It was a WRONG choice.  The quality of the food has dropped SO MUCH.  Had I been blind-folded and eaten the food, I would have  thought that the food is from some unknown Western food stalls at a food court.  Sorry for the criticism, but that's just how all of us felt after last night's dinner.  I am usually not as critical as the hubs but this time, I had to give a lukewarm rating on this restaurant.

Firstly, the restaurant seriously needs a refurbishment. It was how it used to be 20 years ago ~ same tables and chairs, probably waiting staff too. Never mind about that if the food is good.

When the mushroom soup arrived, Drama Queen shockingly commented "mum, it's can soup!"   What, for that price, we are served can soup?!    Never mind about that but for a restaurant reputed to be one of the best steakhouses in the Klang Valley some 20 years ago (?), they really shouldn't be serving can mushroom soup with hardly any fresh mushrooms added.  Hubs' seafood chowder soup tasted like can tomato soup.

When my grilled chicken with wild mushrooms arrived, I was really disappointed. They had used chicken breast instead of boneless chicken thigh and the meat was dry. The thick and heavy brown sauce tasted like some commercial powdered sauce mix. The wild mushrooms served were some under-cooked oyster mushrooms. No portobello. For that price, I had expected some portobello and puccini mushrooms. Not that I am a fantastic cook but I think I can definitely prep better tasting grilled chicken.

The hubs' T-bone steak was acceptable though, but nothing to shout about.

Alycia who ordered a ribeye steak with cheese wasn't too pleased with her order as well.  There wasn't the slightest taste of cheese on the steak nor the sauce. Instead, the sauce tasted very similar to the sauce that was on my grilled chicken.  LOL!

The mil and Drama Queen both ordered spaghetti and there were more complaints and criticisms coming from them. Both plates of spaghetti cooked in different styles were lacking in flavor and ingredients. The spaghetti noodles looked and tasted dry and hard as if they were pre-blanched and kept in the kitchen until they dried up.  Alycia commented that if she (a non-kitchen person) were to cook spaghetti, it would taste just how the VS spaghetti tastes like. Everything was unfinished, except for hubs' T-bone steak.


The bill came up to a whopping RM302 for 6 items. That's a total rip off for the quality of food served.  Though we did not enjoy our meal, we all had a good laugh. This meal will definitely be etched in our memory forever. The hubs said that this will be our last time to VS.

To end our Sunday night in a sweet note, the hubs brought us to Inside Scoop for waffles and ice-creams!




One of the best waffles around in KL can be found at Inside Scoop. Our waffles were served with a scoop each of cempedak and Gula Melaka ice-cream.

The Guide To Choosing The Perfect Prom Dress

Prom night is the most important dance of high school senior year. The night revolves around having a date. Most teens would rather avoid the prom altogether than arrive without a date. On prom night, the girls spend hours getting dressed and dolling up together. The guys hang out a while, and then get dressed at the last minute. Formal dress is still in, with the girls wearing gowns 👗 and the boys wearing tuxedos. When the boy arrives at the girl’s home, he is likely to be greeted by proud parents wielding a camera 📷

As the prom night is such an important night in a teenage girl's life, finding the perfect prom dress is such a big hoo-ha.  Every girl wants to look her best in a jaw-dropping, flattering prom dress and be treated like a queen.  Get started early and follow this guide to be the belle of the ball:

1. Plan In Advance
It takes time to do your research and choose the perfect gown. Plan to make a choice and your purchase about four to six weeks (or even earlier) before your prom night. You may need alterations on a dress and purchasing it in advance gives you ample time for you to have the alterations done.  Decide if you'd like to purchase the gown online, from a boutique, bridal shop or tailor-make it.

2. Do Your Research
Take cues from what you saw on the red carpet, catwalk, magazines, and what you are seeing in the stores now to find some of the most sought after styles of the season.

Start out searching for your perfect dress by flipping through magazines and online to see what kind of dress you are most attracted to.  Just key in prom dresses image and thousands of prom dresses will pop up on your screen. This allows you to see what you like and dislike about the current season’s different dress types. Start this process about three to four months before your prom date.

Some girls order their prom dress and accessories fully online. Others use the Internet for research, narrowing down styles and price ranges online before venturing out to brick and mortar stores. However you utilize it, the Internet is a powerful shopping resource.






3. Plan Your Budget And Stick To It
One of the worst feelings in the world is trying on a beautiful dress and then finding out that the price is way out of your budget. So before you even begin to look, let the salesperson know what your budget is, and if you’re doing your shopping online, filter the results so you can only see the dresses you can afford. One place to get affordable prom dresses is Dressywomen.com










4. Look For Precious Fabrics
For your prom dress, look for precious, fine and luxurious fabrics such as satin, tulle, silk, chiffon, organza, lace and velvet.






5. Match The Dress Style To Your Face and Body Shape
Finding out what your face and body shapes are will help you to match these to the ideal dress, one that flatters and accentuates all of your good features, hiding anything you might consider a flaw.

6.  Decide The Style That You Want
Once you have done your research and decided the style that you want, narrow down the search to save time.  It could be two piece prom dresses, mermaid prom dresses, long prom dress or short prom dresses.

7. Know the School Rules 
Many schools have instituted prom night dress codes. Strapless styles, spaghetti straps, plunging necklines or other sexy details may not be permitted. Additionally, the school may institute a theme for prom night and request that students’ outfits reflect the theme. Be sure that you fully understand all of the school rules and guidelines before you begin shopping.


 

Now that you have the tips to find your perfect prom dress, it’s time to get started. Remember to look for a great fit, a beautiful color that plays up your best features, a dress with embellishments if you want that extra special quality, and remember to go for a dress that you feel your best in!

Photos credit: Dressywomen.com