Cassandra's BFFs

Half my Saturday was spent at the Bukit Kiara Golf & Country Club last week to accompany Cass who had a birthday party at the bowling alley of the club.

Cass' bestie, C only invited two of her best friends to her birthday party. You read it right. There were only 3 girls at the party, including the birthday girl but the 3 girls had a swell time.  It's not the quantity but the quality that matters 👍

Cass with C:



C is one of the sweetest, most polite, friendliest and unassuming girl I've met. She is a Math genius and top student since Primary 1. And I just love her dimples!








While the 3 girls played bowling and had lunch at the bowling alley, I had lunch with their mummies at another restaurant in the club.   The girls were watched by C's helper.




It's my hope that Cass, C and D will be best friends forever.  I love the girls and get along well with their mummies. Sadly, I doubt this is going to happen as C and D will be leaving the current primary school for international schools latest by mid of next year.  Hopefully with Facebook, Whatsapp and video calls, the girls will keep in touch with each other and have an everlasting friendship.

Friday, 27 July 2018

Today is the last day of Cass' mid-term exam, finally! Hurrah! 😁

Cass did not put in her 100% in revising for this exam, not even 30%.  I told her from the very start that she would have to be prepared to accept mediocre or even poor grades if she didn't try her best.  I don't even want to think of her grades now.  I want to enjoy my weekend before another hectic week begins.  I'll just let Cass face the music from her teachers and get an earful of unpleasant comments from certain critical relatives.  Next week is going to be an anxious week for this girl as she and her classmates get back their marked exam papers.  For now, I'll let Cass enjoy her play date cum bowling birthday party with her two besties tomorrow... with me tagging along as usual 😛

This is Cass' breakfast today ~ a Portugese egg tart and Izumio.


I'll let Cass enjoy a few workbook-free days before tuition begins with homework and all again.

Just a moment ago while on the way to fetch Alycia back from the tuition center, I had a glimpse of the super huge blood moon! It was really huge and reddish-yellowish in color.  I couldn't take a better look at the moon as I was driving. But the sight of the humongous Moon against the black backdrop of the sky was indeed a sight to behold  and Insta-worthy. If only I wasn't driving, I would have tried to steal a picture of the Moon. I didn't even know that today is the longest lunar eclipse in 100 years until Alycia told me.

The longest blood moon in 100 years is taking place today (Friday), giving stargazers and the general public the chance to see something pretty special. Starting at around 9pm on Friday 27 July, people will be able to watch the Moon turn the colour of blood red in a phenomenon that usually takes place once every few years.  Blood moons may be fairly common, but the sheer duration of this spectacle will give the best chance yet of capturing the perfect photo.

YIANNIS KOURTOGLOU / REUTERS

Happy Fri-yay peeps and have a great weekend y'all!

Wednesday, 25 July 2018

Today is shopping hump day! I really needed to de-stress after a stressful week revising with a vomit-blood inducing kid for her exam.

My main intention of going to the mall is to shop for a gift for Cass' classmate.  Cass has been invited to attend a bowling birthday party this Saturday at a private golf club. And only 3 friends will be at the party, including the party girl 😁  It's an exclusive invitation for the 3 besties.  I'm really glad that Cass has two classmates who have been her besties since last year.  Sadly, the two girls will be leaving the current school for international schools next year. I wonder if this is one of the reasons why Cass has lost her mojo to study since last year when she found out that these 2 friends will be leaving.  It's like Cass has lost her meaning to remain in this class as her 2 besties will no longer be there next year 😥 I know how she feels as I had gone through this when I was 13 years old when one of my best friends, YY had to leave MGS Ipoh for KL when her dad who was a bank manager then, got transferred.  But YY and I remained good friends for many years, communicating via snail mail and later emails. YY was at my wedding 14 years later and  I was YY's bridesmaid when she got married.  We are still friends till today but only on Facebook, though she's been really silent and rarely updates her Facebook page. I must take the bold step to send her a message one of these days just to find out how she's doing now.

After shopping, I wanted to have lunch at Pho Viet but my Handy Girl (think I will change her blog name from Drama Queen to Handy Girl!) begged me to go to Nana's Green Tea instead.  Guess what's attracting her to Nana's Green Tea?

The Matcha Latte is the bomb!  Nana's Matcha Latte is the top drawer and this girl claims that it even beats those that she's tried in Hong Kong hands down.



While waiting for her crazy mum to shop, my Handy Girl did her homework at Nana's Green Tea while enjoying her lunch and Matcha Latte. What a luxurious life for a 13-year old huh?



Fruit box of the day for the girls today : organic tomatoes, sweet cherries bought from Aeon Supermarket, blush pears and avocado for Cass.  Alycia and Handy Girl had avo sandwich in the morning.

As some parts of the UK face one of the hottest summers on record, we in Malaysia are also experiencing billy boiling temperatures soaring above 30C and basking in perpetual heat wave.  But spare a thought for Japan, where temperatures have hit a staggering 41.1C in Kumgaya, northwest of Tokyo, a new record.

Weather in KL today ~ 32C but really feels like 38C:

First Month On Braces

It's exactly one month since Alycia started to wear dental braces. She went for her first month dental appointment to have the wires and rubber changed on 19 July. This time she chose Tiffany Blue for the rubber, which looks almost the same as the first color, blue.



Thankfully there isn't much pain with the new wires on and Alycia can still eat normally.  She eats everything now, including  chowing down hard crispy Muruku, nuts, messy chocolate chip cookies and sticky 'Heong Pneah' that grandma bought from Ipoh.

Mangosteens and duku langsat are Alycia's favorite local fruits. She didn't eat what her grandma cooked for dinner last week as she had a heavy lunch at school. This fruit-lover ate almost 1kg of mangosteens and duku langsat for dinner.









Avocado is another favorite fruit of Alycia. Avos are a staple in our kitchen and this girl puts avo into almost all her food, in the weirdest of combo. Her latest avo combo frenzy is with 'char siew pau'!

Alycia's breakfast on a Sunday yesterday ~ 'char siew pau' topped with avocado with a handful of brown rice butter crackers and a good book.


Afterwards she spent half a day at a nearby supermarket with 3 of her classmates to work on their PT3 History project.  And my job on Sunday was to be a full-time driver to Alycia and Drama Queen and full-time BM tutor to a vomit-blood inducing 10-year old kid who's sitting for her exam this week.

Honeymoon Year

One of the best years of my life were those when I was 13 and 14 years old in 1986 and 1987.  We moved into our new double storey house when I was 13. It was a little girl's dream came true for me to be able to live in a semi-detached house with stairs and attached bathroom. We had rambutan, guava, mango and papaya trees in our garden.  My mum painted my room pink ~ pink walls with pink bed and pink dressing table.   It was also in that year that I finally had a puppy, given to us by our neighbor. But sadly, the following year, my much loved puppy was ran over by my older brother's school bus when he left the gate open and Ricky ran out to follow him.  Till this date, I can still remember Ricky frothing when I carried him into the backyard. With tears streaming down my cheeks, I ran to my papa who was in the bathroom prepping to get ready for work and begged him to bring Ricky to the vet to save him. Sadly, the vet couldn't do much and Ricky had to be  euthanized the next day.  I will never forget that sad fateful day when papa fetched me from the ACS swimming pool after swimming practice and brought me to the public vet for me to say my last goodbye to Ricky 😭

When I was in Form 1, like Drama Queen,  I attended school in  the afternoon session.  Form 1 was my 'honeymoon year'.  There wasn't that much exam or tuition pressure yet and I enjoyed every bit of being in Form 1 with my besties.  I remember we had a chapel / singing class period once a week, where we  had to sing old English folk songs, Christian songs and even nursery rhymes! 😂  Some of the songs did not make much sense but my besties and I enjoyed singing and laughing over the nonsensical nursery rhymes.  Has anyone of you sang "Ten Green Bottles Hanging On The Wall" before?  We had to sing from 10 green bottles, down to no green bottles giggling away like hyenas before our singing teacher, who was also a fierce disciplinary teacher reprimanded us.  It was also in that year that my besties and I caught a flasher flashing his fiddle to us. It was our first encounter and we were totally freaked out and traumatised.  Next to the toilets were a piece of vacant land with banana trees and that no-shame flasher was cat calling us while pointing to his fiddle.  My friends and  I screamed blue murder and ran for our dear lives back to our classroom. Our English teacher summoned other teachers to chase after the flasher.  He escaped. We really thought that we would be caught by the flasher and assaulted hahaha! We were really a bunch of dramatic crazy girls. 

I had the most laughter and giggles with my besties when I was in my early teens. I truly miss those years and wish that I could turn back the clock and relive those days all over again.

Seeing how Drama Queen is enjoying her "honeymoon year" in Form 1 now reminds me of my own, though my enjoyment and happiness back then (32 years ago!) and hers come from rather different sources. Her happiness now is being able to sleep in till 8-9am everyday, the liberty to have her own mobile phone to chat with her friends and having long lunches with me at different shops almost everyday.  I guess my middle child is luckier as she doesn't have to help to do the laundry everyday.  My mum delegated my first house chore to me when I was 13 and it was the laundry department. After breakfast each day, I would have to help hang the laundry.  At night, my brothers and I had to fold the clothes. We even washed bathrooms and mopped the floors but with a small fee from mum 😁

Today's lunch with Drama Queen was at Coffee Box, with the hubs.:


She had beef balls spaghetti and pandan barley and the hubs had char koay teow.  I was still stuffed to my throat from a heavy double breakfast consisting of an egg, dimsum fish ball (from Ipoh), granola and later, freshly opened organic durians delivered to us from our usual organic vegetables supplier, right up to our condo basement. It was super delish and I am now very, very tempted to sneak into the kitchen to have another helping 😋

Friday ~ 13 July 2018

Fridays are always very hectic for me, having to rush from one place to another. On some Fridays, my chaufeurring duty only ends at 10-ish pm ~ and this interferes with my strict bed time at 10 p.m. I could hardly open my eyes wide while I drive at 10+ p.m.. It's a torture for me.

Today while taking a super quick bite of dinner that I cooked (the mil is in Ipoh), I told Cass that I only had 10 minutes to eat as I would have to rush back to school to collect Drama Queen's report card. I was at her school at 5:30 pm, got a number and realized that the parents were taking an average of 15 - 20 minutes to talk to the teacher. When I was there, the teacher was talking to a mother with the no. 14 and I was no. 27.  It calculated the time needed before it was my turn to see the teacher and decided to go home, finish off cooking and do another round of laundry before going back to school in an hour's time.  From school, I braved through the horrendous Friday evening traffic crawl to fetch Alycia from the tuition centre, then walked to the nearby night market to get some fruits and organic vegetables before heading home.

Over dinner just now:

Me - my life is so hectic. I can never relax. I am always rushing everywhere like a driver. I can't even eat my dinner in peace everyday.  I am always swallowing down my food hurriedly without enjoying it. I hope that in future, you and your sisters can afford to hire a driver to chauffeur you and your children around.

Cass - NOPE, I don't want a driver. With a driver, I'll be such a lame. When my driver is on leave I won't even know how to drive! I'll be so reliant on him.

Me - that's why you also need to know how to drive.

Cass - NOPE. Having a driver is not practical. Having a maid is more practical. I want a maid.

From my practical 10-year old Cass who sometimes thinks like a middle-aged aunty 😁

Petty Crime At Home

Someone left this glass pitcher with this much of lemonade in it in the fridge.





I was looking for lemonade to drink this afternoon and what I found in the fridge made me wanna strangle that kid.

It is SO obvious why this was done, right?

Because she didn't want to wash the pitcher. And she knows that I will wash it. Or grandma. As she would have already been in school by the time her crime is noticed.

Lazy girl.  Had she been around at that time, I would have made her wash it till it's squeak clean inside out.

This happens not only to the pitcher but to the ice moulds and wrappers of chocolate and biscuit with zilch content inside left inside the snack drawer and empty punnets left in the fridge. Can you believe it? And no one would admit their crime. When caught red-handed, they give me a cheeky grin and an apology. They know that their only punishment is that they will have to throw the empty wrapper / punnet away or refill water into the ice moulds. I must think of a harsher punishment now!

Risks Of Eating Raw Sprouts

Raw sprouts were once my favorite kind of rawsome vegetables to feast on. I loved all types of sprouts. Sprouts are nutritional powerhouses. For starters, they’re rich in many nutrients. They’re also said to improve your digestion and blood sugar levels, and possibly even fend off heart disease. But after I read from the newspapers recently on the health risks associated with raw sprouts, I decided that I should not take the risk.





Like any fresh produce that is consumed raw or lightly cooked, sprouts carry a risk of food-borne illness. Unlike other fresh produce, seeds and beans need warm and humid conditions in standing water to sprout and grow. These conditions are also ideal for the growth of bacteria, including Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli.



What is the source of the bacteria? 
In outbreaks associated with sprouts, the seed is typically the source of the bacteria. There are a number of approved techniques to kill harmful bacteria that may be present on seeds and even tests for seeds during sprouting. But, no treatment is guaranteed to eliminate all harmful bacteria.

Are homegrown sprouts safer? 
Not necessarily. If just a few harmful bacteria are present in or on the seed, the bacteria can grow to high levels during sprouting, even under sanitary conditions at home.

What can consumers do to reduce the risk of illness? 
* Children, the elderly, pregnant women, and persons with weakened immune systems should avoid eating raw sprouts of any kind (including alfalfa, clover, radish, and mung bean sprouts).
*  Cook sprouts thoroughly to reduce the risk of illness. Cooking kills the harmful bacteria.
*  Request that raw sprouts not be added to your food. If you purchase a sandwich or salad at a restaurant or delicatessen, check to make sure that raw sprouts have not been added.

Sharing My Cakes

The Taiwan traditional cakes from Yuan Taste are my kinda cakes. I love this kind of cake that's light, fluffy soft  and mildly sweetened, unlike butter and chocolate cakes which are heavy, greasy and can make me feel cloy and nauseous at times.  My favorite flavors are pandan and chocolate.  If I want to, I can nosh down half the cake on my own in one day. Of course I won't torture my body like that.  I could afford to eat  like a wolf when I was younger. I eat so much lesser now than I used to when I was 20 years younger. Wish I could still eat like that and not gain weight and don't have  to worry about the elevated cholesterol level. I was once a hardcore carnivorous 😈 with a sweet tooth but not anymore. Not one bit now.


Each time I have cravings to sink my teeth into this pillowy soft sponge cake, I will buy it on any of the day that Cass' Mandarin tutor comes. I will then share 1/3 of the cake with her.  The rest of the cake is shared with Cass and our part-time helper who has been with us for over 5 years.  Alycia and Drama Queen don't really fancy this cake. They prefer stodgier cakes ~ Alycia loves the latest 'Messy Cake' that's all the rage now and Drama Queen loves chocolate brownies. Thus, the reason why she bakes them these days.




The more decent looking portion goes to the Mandarin tutor.

The remaining cake is usually gone by the next day. I don't like keeping it in the fridge as the taste and texture change once it goes inside. For just RM15 for a cake, I am one very happy camper and so are the Mandarin tutor and our part-time helper 💗 

Happiness is all about sharing your carbs 😆

MGS Ipoh's Century-Old Rain Tree Is Gone!

The Rain tree above is over 100 years old but today its life came to a sad tragic end.  This Rain tree  had stood majestically at my alma mater, Methodist Girls' School Ipoh and had been the school's emblem since the beginning of time.

The school's committee decided to have the iconic Rain tree axed to make way for the construction of a new hall. When my ertswhile classmates and school mates found out about the axing of the tree just today, we signed a Petition to save our beloved Rain tree but it was way too late.





My fondest memories of this grand old Rain tree is of assembling under it with my classmates every afternoon before class when we were in Form 1. We created so much happy memories under this shady old tree ~ giggling, goofing around, creating friendship that would last a life time and at times did our last minute cramming before exams. On some days, we had our PE, practised marching and played under this tree. Many of my Girl Guide outdoor activities (cooking competition, bamboo structure assembling, etc) were carried out under this tree.

When we found out today via our Whatsapp chat group that the tree had been axed, we felt as if our close and old friend's life had been snatched away.  Way too soon. 😭😭😭😭 This Rain tree had created so much fond memories to tens of thousands of girls for over 100 years.  MGS was founded in 1895 by Reverend William Edward Horley.






And this is our beloved Rain tree today, axed. Soon it will be completely uprooted.




I started my early education at the Methodist kindergarten when I was 6 years old, then moved on to the Methodist Primary School where I spent 6 memorable years there and finally spent 5 glorious years of high school at the Methodist Girls Secondary School.  Though at three different buildings, the three schools are  housed in the same vicinity.

Mum was a teacher at the Methodist Primary School upon graduating from the Teacher's Training College until she retired at age 55 years.

Good bye our beloved Rain tree. Our hearts bleed and cry for you.  Hopefully the relevant authority will have the sense to put your branches and sturdy trunk to good use. At least you will not be demolished to ash. You have definitely imprinted a legacy in our hearts, forever 😢

Lemon Pie / Tart

Drama Queen's final baking project during the school holidays was a huge lemon tart/pie measuring 77 cm in circumference. It was super duper lipsmacking ~ can't believe my 13-yo daughter baked it with zero help from me but with free tutorial from You Tube! I only helped to buy the ingredients.





She spent many hours Googling for the easiest recipe and finally found two from You Tube. Both the pie crust and filling are from different channels.

1) Pie crust from Topless Baker ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEdbuJceBxo

2) Lemon filling (French style) from Tasty ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E55gHIOXZEU



On Friday evening after she got home from a party with her classmates, she decided to bake the lemon pie. It was already 8 p.m. and I told her it's too late to start baking but she went ahead and got the pie baked within 2.5 hours, including Googling for the recipes. When the pie was done, I couldn't resist popping a small wedge into my mouth, though I was already about to go to bed.

Maybe I shouldn't call Sherilyn Drama Queen anymore. I think Baking Queen would be a more befitting stage / blog name for her now, though her sisters and I think that she is still as dramatic as ever 😂.  One thing's for sure, she's got talent and passion in baking and cooking. She'll definitely go far in future should she pursue a degree in this field but this girl is very adamant that she will not make a career out of this field. She has something else in her mind 😀

Sherilyn's Holiday Baking Projects

Apart from a trip back to Ipoh to visit their grandparents and several shopping sprees at the mall to get books (again!), the girls spent the rest of their two-week school holidays at home. Drama Queen spent most of her time googling for recipes and in the kitchen whipping up surprises for us!  Alycia had her dental braces fixed. My poor girl has not had a proper meal since last Wednesday, the day that the braces were fixed.

Drama Queen's first baking project was chocolate walnut brownie. Her second project was two batches of chocolate chip cookies, using different recipes, baked on the same day. She baked them on the eve of Alycia's B day, so that her che che could stuff herself silly with the cookies. Alycia's wish was  to eat all her favorite food before her B day, as she won't be able to enjoy them for a long time once the braces are up.

Once Drama Queen started baking the cookies, she couldn't stop the momentum and after cleaning up the kitchen, she decided at the spur of the moment to bake another batch of chocolate chip cookies, using another recipe!







After baking two batches of chocolate chip cookies, Drama Queen proceeded to cook  baked Mac N Cheese.  She sneaked out her grandma's Le Creuset French oven to use as grandma had gone on a holiday at Ipoh and Penang with her visiting daughter from Hong Kong.


While she cooked Mac N Cheese, I did a quick stir fry of broccoli and cabbage with egg and grilled curry and turmeric chicken.




Killing two birds with one stone in the oven...




Two days later, Drama Queen worked on her next baking project ~ minced beef and pork pie for her grand uncle who had just returned from New Zealand.



The plan was this : Drama Queen to work on the pie dough while I cook the filling but darn an annoying PMS headache, I told her that I'd take a cat nap and cook the filling later. When I got up from my nap 30 minutes later, the aroma of sizzling beef and cumin in the wok was wafting in the air! Surprise surprise! I almost drowned in the aroma!



Drama Queen's baking and cooking skills are getting better by the day. She started to bake when she was 10-ish and those initial baking days were really MESSY! Though the kitchen still gets messy and dirty, it's not as bad as it used to be. And her speed has definitely improved.


With the remnants of the pie dough, my creative 13-year old chef created a small batch of mini cheese puffs which were incredibly yummo and addictive! Within half an hour the cheese puffs were removed from the oven, they were wolfed down by her hungry sisters and crazy mom.






Later in the evening, I brought the pie to the girls' grand uncle's house and ate the pie together, sipped on Japanese matcha and munched on green apples that he harvested from the apple trees in his backyard in New Zealand.

Drama Queen's final baking project before the school holidays ended was lemon pie / tart. This will be in another post. Stay tuned 😊

Father's Day Lunch At CawanMu Restaurant @ The 1969 Business Suites Boutique Hotel, Ipoh

For the first time in many years, we celebrated Father's Day with papa and the hubs in Ipoh.  The hubs booked a table for the celebration at CawanMu Restaurant @ The 1969 Business Suites Boutique Hotel, a hotel owned by the hubs' childhood friends.




The two fathers in my life ~ my dear papa and loving daddy to my daughters.



Chocolate cake specially baked by Chef Chu, the hubs' long-time friend.




Papa and mum, loving as ever. Papa lost his mobile phone during his recent trip to Eastern Europe (he had lost it in Poland).  Back in Ipoh, he inadvertently locked both sets of the car keys in his car and had a flat tyre while driving to the wet market to get coconut water for us.  Hopefully our presence and celebration with him this Father's Day lifted him out from his doldrums 💗



One look and you'll know that these fancy schmancy picks are from the post-millenial girls:


Mushroom soup and Nasi Briyani:


Prawn noodles and grilled salmon:


Seafood pasta and lamb shank:










Tiramisu (which comes really close to the ones from Alexis, sans the alcohol and strawberry sauce) and hot latte with chocolate chip cookies:


Food is superb with 4 to 5-star presentation. Love the ambience and the tip top cleanliness. Price will certainly not hurt your wallet too. This is one restaurant that I will look forward to going back to in my future trips back to Ipoh. Great place for long catch ups with old friends.

After our delightful Father's Day lunch, we walked next door to the 1969 Business Suites Boutique Hotel to view the hotel's wall. What's so special about this wall is the fact that  it has just made it into the Malaysia Book of Records for creating a permanent backdrop in its lobby out of 53,592 1 sen coins. That's about RM535 worth of coins.  The coins were glued to the wall one by one to uniquely display  the hotel's name "1969 Business Suites" which won the hotel the title "Biggest backdrop display made of one cent coins" as reported by The Star.







The wall which measures about 5.73m by 2.62m is the brainchild of the hotel’s founders. Two weeks were taken for project coordinator.

For those visiting Ipoh, this hotel is worth visiting and the wall definitely Insta-worthy.









CawanMu Restaurant
No.1, Jalan Lapangan Siber 3
Bandar Cyber
Ipoh, Perak
Tel: 05-313 1969