Holiday Activity For Cass

This school holidays Cass is learning the ropes of cooking simple meals - from frying eggs to pancakes to cooking spaghetti bolognese.  She's learning how to cook all her favorite dishes.

She's happy learning and I'm happiest to part my culinary skill to her. Very soon, Drama Queen and Cass can take over the role of cooking while I put my feet up and chillax. I can see this day coming very soon 😁

On the job training:



Cass helped to wash and chop the onions, garlic, carrots, tomatoes, celery and mushrooms.  Now she knows that cooking spaghetti bolognese involves a LOT of work from washing to peeling, chopping and finally the cooking. But she had no complaints, though the onions made her tear up as she's the one who had been pestering me to cook spaghetti bolognese. And my spaghetti sauce is cooked from scratch, using lots of tomatoes and fresh ingredients and of course involves a lot of preparation.

Cass is starting to get the hang of cooking now.  The spaghetti bolognese that we both dished up was insanely delish!  Cass ate it for dinner for two days straight!




Below: Veggie and bolognese sauce for me sans the carbo; another portion of spaghetti for Cass' next day's dinner and spaghetti sauce in Pyrex dish for another day.  I love batch cooking  to save time and resources.



Below: next day dinner consisting of spaghetti again for Cass, reheated Hakka pork for moi (cooked by mil before she left for Hong Kong) and blanched broccoli.

Alycia's 14th Birthday

My 'precious baby' turned 14 yesterday.  She celebrated her birthday in Hong Kong with Sherilyn, grandma, aunties (hubs' eldest and second sisters), uncle and cousin.








Besides a sponsored flight to Hong Kong from her generous and loving koo ma, Alycia was treated to an impressive and exquisite buffet lunch on her birthday yesterday, followed by Korean dinner.  Today koo ma bought Alycia a Lomo’Instant Automat camera for her birthday!




The sil brought Alycia and Drama Queen shopping today and I got a shock when Drama Queen Whatsapped me a picture of the snacks that they had chosen and paid for by their koo ma.


Sugar overload - all the forbidden snacks that I would never ever buy for them back in Malaysia 😅 

I saw Maltesers in the picture and had to Google to find out what they are. OMG, the girls are so going to have a lot of sugar rush when they return to KL next week.  My manipulative girls chose two types of Oreo, something that I hardly buy for them. I rarely succumb to the girls' pleas for sweet packaged snacks. 

If you are wondering why I always refer Alycia to as my 'precious baby', the term 'precious baby' was coined to refer to ART (Assisted Reproductive Technologies) babies born to older mothers and delivered by cesarean.   Alycia is my IUI baby, where my fertility doctor informed me on the day of the IUI procedure that the hubs' 'little swimmers' were only 1% good.  Alycia is my 1% hope against hope, my miracle baby from God 💗

Preparing A Child For A Doctor's Visit

Most of us have at least some trepidation when it comes to visiting a doctor, however, kids are often the most terrified of these visits. A scared child will try his or her best to avoid a doctor visit and this can become unhealthy. This is why it's a good idea to do as much as possible to reduce some of their anxiety. Fortunately, there are a few tips you can utilize to make doctor visits less scary. 

Talk About the Reason for the Visit 
More often than not, when we know what to expect from any situation, we are less anxious. This is true for children too. The night before a visit, begin a conversation about what will take place during the doctor visit and allow your child to ask as many questions as possible. If your child knows what to expect, he or she will be a lot less anxious. He or she may even look forward to the pleasant parts of the visit. If your child's doctor's office doesn't reward children for a good visit, buy a few treats yourself. You can reward them for having a good visit once the visit is over. 



Help them with the Hard Parts 
If your child is supposed to get a shot or have a cavity filled, make sure you do as much as possible to provide support during the process. Hold their hand or bring a teddy bear. The main goal is to be as creative as possible about the coping process. They need to feel the support that you are providing. They may be going in for an endoscopy procedure. Their fear may make them hesitant to have the procedure. However, it helps to let them know a little bit about the procedure. Educate them about the medical instrument, if they are afraid. Let them know that the instruments are taken care of by an endoscope repair technician. As a result, the instrument will work properly and not harm them.

Encourage them to Ask the Doctor Questions
If your child can become comfortable with the doctor, they can become more comfortable with the visit. Encourage your child to talk to the doctor and ask questions and voice their concerns. Let your child know that it's ok to express fear as well. The doctor can provide comfort and support along with you. This should help the child to relax even more.



Doctor's visits can be unnerving for everyone. However, they can be particularly scary for children. Do everything in your power to ease the tension of these necessary visits and help your child to relax. Encourage your child to express his or her fears, ask questions, and voice their concerns to the doctor as well. This will let your child know that he or she has a voice and give them the opportunity to use it.

Lunch With My Baby Girl

Lunch with my baby girl yesterday:

Teluk Intan chee cheong fun (rice noodles filled with turnip, carrots, fried shallots and dried shrimps) for me and Hakka noodles for Cass.



Brunch with my baby girl and the hubs today:

Spinach and mushrooms omelette with toast; croissant with tuna + apple filling, at Les Deux Garcons (LDG), the foodie hubs' favorite cafe.  This cafe is located directly behind his shop and whenever he is too busy with work but wishes to have lunch with me, he would suggest this cafe.




Croissant with tuna, apple, parsley and tomato filling.



Cass is bored to the core without her two sisters around. She has no one to annoy and pull pranks on and has been targeting me. Yesterday Cass threw her  Chinese tuition books on the dining table and guess what happened? The books hit my favorite mug filled with passion flower tea and it dropped onto the floor and broke into a million pieces. I gave her a good lashing for her cavalier attitude and for throwing her tantrums unreasonably.  This girl can be very stroppy at times. This morning, Cass bugged her dad to bring her to the park to play badminton and I'm glad that he did. She released all her energy for over an hour at the park and got back feeling recharged.

Human Hair Wig For Bad Hair Days

I will never forget a bad hair day incident that turned disastrous that happened to me 31 years ago when I was just 13 years old.   I used to have really thick and frizzy  hair. I hated that when my hair was let down, I saw the resemblance of a lion mane in the mirror. My hair was that 'big'. I hated how my hair looked on my skinny and sharp face.  So one day, just before going to school (I was in the afternoon session in Form 1), I decided to take matters in my own hands.  I whipped out mum's hairdressing comb that has blades at the edge and started to thin out layers of my thick hair.  The result was a plastic bag filled with luscious hair which I stealthily disposed of without my granny's knowledge. Mum was at work then.

When I stepped in front of the mirror to look at myself, oh. my. gawd., I was shocked to tears with what I saw.  The bottom part of my hair was thinned while the top part remained thick. I looked terribly hideous. I looked more like a lion now! I couldn't go to school in that hair. I used a handful of black clips to clip down the puffy hair on my head while the bottom part of the hair was so thin now that it was as light as air.  What trouble had I gotten myself into?!  I had acted impulsively without planning how to thin my hair. But what's done couldn't be undone. I wished that I could put on a lace front wigs with baby hair on my head to conceal my ridiculous hair style. I was worried sick that I would be the laughing stock in school.  I can't recall exactly what happened in school that afternoon. All I could remember is I was so upset with my bungle and with how I looked that I would stand in front of the mirror for days and weeks to try to find ways of rectifying my ridiculous looking hair. But nothing worked. Only a natural looking wig like some cheap human hair lace front wigs for a 13-year old school girl could make me look and feel better. But alas, I went to the hair salon to have the disastrous bottom part of my hair all chopped off. It was a free hair cut done by one of those trainee hair stylists at a top hair salon in my hometown and I hated my new chin-length hair even more! I have never looked good in short hair. If there were cheap human hair bundles for sale back then, I would have pestered my mum to get me some to extend to my hair.

That mistake I made when I was 13 had taught me to be thankful with what God has given me. Whenever my girls complain to me how they hate their hair, I would regale and amuse them with this story. This story has never  failed to make them feel thankful with what God has given them.

Back to hair talk!  If you are often faced with bad hair days, don't split hairs over your hair. Head over to MaxGlamHair.com to get some natural looking wigs made from human hairs.

Cassie The Menace

Cass doesn't have her two sisters to annoy so I am now the victim. See what prank she pulled on me yesterday evening?

Gave me a total shock when I saw it 😱😵




And the rascal laughed like a hyena when she saw my disgusted face and commented that it's her best laugh this year.  She sculpted the 'poop' with a cardboard toilet roll holder soaked with water.

100% score on creativity and prank skill.

Cass : this is really funny mummy.  I am laughing so hard I can feel my bladder bursting and the stitches on my stomach exploding.  HAHAHAHAHAHA!!  This is really the best laughter I've had this year.  You laughed too, right?  I made you laugh too, yay!!

And this morning, this rascal forced me to play hide and seek with her when she got up from  bed and sent me looking for her everywhere in the house!



Yesterday on our ride back to KL from KLIA, Cass mastered the art of solving one side of the 5x5 Rubik's Cube in 2 minutes.  Previously, she could solve two sides of the 3x3 Rubik's Cube in under 2 minutes.  Her goal now is to learn how to solve all the sides of a 4x4 Cube in under 1 minute, just like how Alycia does it.

Cassie the menace. Aged 9 years 8 months.

Thursday Breakfast

Breakfast today is with Cass alone.  Drama Queen left the house at 7:30 a.m. today with her dad to attend a 2-day Ukulele camp.  The big girl, as usual prefers to sleep in. Noodles are never her kind of food. She prefers bread, pau, pastries and Western food.





We had char meehoon, Penang white curry noodles, red bean tong sui and Teh C at the coffee shop.  I think I over ordered, oops, carbo overload!! And  I've not been exercising since the school holidays started! 😜





Dinner today will be easy peasy for me to handle as I am only cooking for 2 kids. I'm going to clear my fridge and whip up fried rice.  Cass is going to learn something new today - I will be teaching her how to peel and chop garlic and onions. I'm going to make her my next kitchen assistant! I am already enjoying the fruit of my labor coz I can already sit back and relax while Drama Queen cooks in the kitchen.  With 2 assistants, I hope I can leave 90% of my kitchen chore to them very soon 😀

Happy Thursday everyone 💗

Instant Straight Or Wavy Hair

Cass used to have beautiful curls on her hair when she was a baby.  The curls at the end of her soft locks made her look like a real-life doll with big eyes and rose bud lips.  How I miss my baby girl at that age.  As she grew older, her hair grew even curlier and now her entire head is filled with lovely big curls. When her hair is let down, it looks like she has just permed her hair.   I told her that when she grows up, she never have to spend money to get her hair wavy.  But Cass prefers to have straight hair.  She asked me if she could have hair rebonding. I told her that the chemicals used are too harsh for a little girl like her. I have never liked having chemicals applied to my hair.  Years ago before I had kids, I forked over the dough at a high-end hair salon on rebonding but the harsh chemicals took a toll on my scalp, resulting in dandruff and an itchy scalp.  It took years for my sensitive scalp to heal.   I told Cass that when she starts to earn money in future, she could get long straight weave hair to satisfy her desire to have long straight hair.

My hair is super fine and limp, much like baby hair.  On bad hair days, I wish I had some ready wigs or hair extension at home, like a deep wave weave or silk base closure to conceal my hair for an instant make-over.  My erstwhile neighbor owns several wigs.  I didn't  realize that she wore wigs until very much later when I noticed that her hair would be long and straight on one day and bob cut the next day.





Would you wear a wig? Or get a hair extension? I think it'll be fun to try on some!

Our Monday, 27 Nov 2017

We went to UTC @ Puduraya in the hope of renewing our passports at about 4pm (the office closes at 9pm everyday) but were utterly disappointed when this notice greeted us at the entrance of the Immigration office.   The numbers churned out for the day had reached the maximum and we were asked to come back the next morning. What bummer!




Since the hubs had planned to spend the entire evening with us, the girls suggested going to Mid Valley Megamall as Alycia and Drama Queen wanted to get some new pants and warm clothing for their holiday in Hong Kong.  The two sisters will be flying alone to Hong Kong without any adult supervision. It will be their first ever overseas flight without their parents or grandparents accompanying them. We are not even getting them any airline escort as it costs too much to hire the service from Cathay Pacific. The cost is USD50 per child and the ticket has to be upgraded to a costlier one.  I am getting more and more worried as the day of their flight draws nearer. After all, they are only 12 and 13.  Though they look matured and sometimes act matured for their age, they are still little girls in my eyes. Drama Queen is not even a teenager yet.  Alycia will only turn 14  two days after she reaches Hong Kong. And again, she gets to spend her birthday overseas.  This girl is so lucky!

Ok, back to foodie talk!  After we left UTC, we went to Mid Valley Megamall.

While I brought Alycia and Drama Queen to shop for their clothes, Cass had tea and cakes with her dad at Alexis.




After 1.5 hour of shopping, we had a sumptuous dinner at Han Room.

The hubs ordered the RM338++ set menu:





Clay pot coral shark's fins soup:




Succulent grilled Spanish style pork ribs:



Chilled star fruit juice  accompanying the grilled pork ribs to refresh your throat after a meaty dish.




Sea clam and fresh 'huai shan' with minced green ginger.



Radish cake "typhoon shelter" style:



Braised fish maw with yam, fish and Chinese cabbage:



Crispy soft shell crab with abalone sauce claypot rice:



Dessert of chilled peach resin in snow pear:







Camwhoring time after a relaxing and sumptuous dinner.



Happy girls with bags of  new clothes for their Hong Kong trip!





Sorry for the less than perfect photos as I had forgotten to put my phone into my handbag in my haste to rush out of house.  Thankfully the girls brought along their Samsung phone (which is my old phone) to help me capture all these pix.

Thank you to my dear hubs for being extra patient with us today. He spent half a day today  and another half day with us the next day just to get our passports renewed without a complaint 💗😘😘

Ki:m Fresh Korean Seaweed, Mid Valley Megamall

I love eating crispy seaweed as snacks as they're one of the best low carbs snacks to munch on without the guilt. Seaweed is rich in minerals, most prominently calcium, copper, iodine and iron. It is also rich in protein, fibre and vitamins, specifically vitamin K and folic acid, while being low in calories and fat.

At where we live, it is very difficult to find seaweed that is free from salt and sugar. Most of the packaged seaweed products available at our supermarkets are laden with salt, sugar, oil and some with MSG and preservative. This turns me off instantly.

I was so happy when I came across Ki:m Fresh Korean Seaweed while shopping at Mid Valley Megamall.  The kiosk opened a few months ago.  After sampling the seaweed, I bought 3 packets @ a promotional price of RM10.



The sheets of seaweed are freshly rolled in a machine only when there are orders. You can tell the kisok sales person your preference, i.e. with salt or without. I wanted without salt and oil but was told that oil is a must-have ingredient.  So I settled for 3 packets without salt.










Each packet consists of 3 large pieces of seaweed.  To retain its freshness, it's best kept refrigerated.




I eat them straight from the packet on its own, cut them into strips to go with noodles, rice, porridge, bread and even yoghurt. Perfect for making sushi.  Yums, love it.  It would be even healthier if the seaweed can be prepared oil-free but I guess the oil gives the seaweed sheets the crispiness and prevents the sheets from sticking together.  As it is freshly prepared, you can be rest assured that there is no  rancid oil taste. You can test taste first before deciding if you'd like to buy.

Will definitely stock them up again before the promotional period ends.

Ki:m Fresh Korean  Seaweed
LGC-23 Mid Valley Megamall (opposite KFC)

Sherilyn's Graduation From Primary School

Today is the graduation day for Primary 6 students at Drama Queen's school.  It felt like it was only just recently that I attended Alycia's graduation but that was exactly 2 years ago.   Before I even realize it, soon it will be Cass' turn 3 years from today. Time really flies. I can't wait to attend my daughters' university graduation. How. I. Wish.!!  When will the day come?

On stage, the graduating pupils had to go through a 'tea ceremony' where each of them held a disposable paper cup with tea to serve all their teachers. The school planned to have a 'students massage parents' session too but they had to scrap this off at the eleventh hour due to time constraint.  Thank God it's scrapped off, else it would truly be awkward!   Guess this is the newest trend on graduation ceremony from SJKC schools?  I see many schools catching on to this trend.

Tea ceremony is a typical Chinese devout way to express their gratitude to parents or the elders for being raised well.




After the tea ceremony, the parents were asked to go up the stage to look for their child, congratulate and hug the child, followed by photography.  I saw some teary eyed and emotionally overwhelmed students and parents.





One with her team mates in the Gleneagles inter-school Junior Care Search Champion competition recently.  Oops, looks like someone's little brother photo-bombed the photo!


One with B, Drama Queen's bff since they were in nursery when they were both three.  Too bad they will be separated when they start their new chapter in life in January 2018. Thankfully B lives in the same neighborhood as us and it would be easy for her and Drama Queen to meet-up.



Cass and Alycia came to cheer on Drama Queen. As usual, the big girl is anti-photography with me. She hates it that her pix are in my blogs 😭  How I miss  Alycia's early growing up years when she was ever ready to give me her sweet dimpled smile for the camera. I miss that Alycia so much 😢



Tomorrow marks another 'Today In History' event for Drama Queen.  The UPSR results will be OUT, jeng jeng jeng!!!!

Our Sunday, 19 Nov 2017

Drama Queen needed a red blouse urgently for her graduation performance on Wednesday.  So off we went to H&M @ Avenue K to hunt for one.

Since we were there, I told Alycia to look for some clothes for Christmas but nothing much caught her interest except for a beanie hat. Of all the clothes at H&M, she liked none except for a beanie hat and some pullovers and jackets meant for  autumn/winter! I told her straight that there was no way I would be getting her a beanie hat and thick clothing as we won't be going to any winter countries in the near future.  She would be a laughing stock if she were to don on a beanie hat in our sizzling weather! In the end, she settled for a Rolling Stone tee. Oh. My. Gawd. I think that the tee with a tongue sticking out is so hideous and looks worn out as the color is in the shade of fading grey. I got it for her anyway. It's difficult to get clothing for this girl. She doesn't like dresses or skirts, no singlets or anything sexy. No pink or girlish colors too. Duh!




After shopping, we had lunch at Urbean Cafe located at the Lower Concourse Level (opposite The Loaf). We thought that this cafe only serves coffee and cakes but the selection of items on their menu is pretty wide.

As my tummy still isn't behaving very well lately due to the course of antibiotics, I wanted something light. I had mushroom soup, which was very yummy and soothing for my tummy.




This couscous and alfalfa sprout salad with chicken breast is surprisingly good.  A spoonful of it and my stomach was blown away.














Since our part-time helper came yesterday, Alycia and Drama Queen decided to cook dinner.  They cooked fried Mamak mee while I oven-grilled some steak that the hubs had marinated a couple of days ago.









Using a whole head of organic cabbage, a carrot, eggs, Baba's fish curry powder, lots of chopped garlic and onions and oven-grilled steak, the Mamak mee was pretty good.




I took a few forkfuls of noodles and a bowl of fried curry cabbage...




Our oven-grilled steak:


I have always wanted to try grilling steaks in the oven but most of the recipes that I  found from the internet require partial frying on the stove and then transferring the skillet into the oven. I was too lazy for that and grilled the steak for 15 minutes in the oven with a little olive oil.  The outcome was awesome. The meat is tender and still juicy, though a little well done.  We loved it.