Our Sunday, 25 November 2018

Today I woke up without feeling the nagging pressure on my lower abdomen and the urge to pee every 10-15 minutes. Today is the 4th day since I had a UTI attack, which is my first in over 25 years.  I am SO thankful and glad that I trusted my guts feelings NOT to go to the hospital to get antibiotics for a fast relief (but with a nasty aftermath) for the horrible and painful UTI attack.

Today I feel 99.9% as right as rain. Praise the Lord!
🙏

Since I was feeling good, I brought Cass to church for Sunday School.  The two older girls have no more Youth Sunday School for the rest of this year.  After church, we went to Mid Valley Megamall for lunch.

Almost every restaurant was packed to the brim with long waiting queues. We waited for over 15 minutes for a table at Din Tai Fung, which wasn't as bad as I thought would be. I was famished by the time the food came. I lost my appetite on the day I had UTI and today I finally got back my appetite. So happy!



Every dish tasted superb to me today. I was hungry the entire day. I have not had a proper meal for 3 days and was only surviving on vegetables, sweet potatoes, pomeloes, apples, avocados, bananas and very little meat. My tummy was bloated with liquid ~ Izumio, barley water, coconut water, Ural and D-Mannose + water. The only way to remove the bad bacteria from my body is through pee. Thus, I had to drink like a fish and camp on the toilet seat the whole day.



Dessert after lunch was X'mas candy cane for the girls. Cass got them from her Sunday School teacher. I don't always allow the girls to eat candies. But since candy canes are only available once a year, I gave them a rare treat ~ a few licks only of the candy cane. They hardly have the chance to finish an entire candy. Candies are still junk food. Empty calories with sugar and food additives.  Fans of candies, my sincere apologies if I rained on your parade.  I am not going to list down the ingredients of candies ok.
 😬 

I remember Alycia pestered me for days to get her some candy canes when we were in New Zealand exactly 4 years ago. I stuck to my guns and didn't get her any. Her doting aunt got her some 😁

After lunch, the mil went shopping with Alycia and Sherilyn. They only got home at 7pm.  The hubs, Cass and I didn't want to shop. So what's there to do with the foodie hubs?  What else?



Dessert of cakes at Alexis. The hubs ordered a Banoffee pie and a Tiramisu.  Alexis sells the best Tiramisu in the world.  I would have chomped down the entire Tiramisu myself if not for the UTI. I am on a low-sugar and low-acidic foods diet to starve the bacteria. Sugar and meat are both on the stay-off list as these are acidifying foods which E.Coli thrive on. The key is to create an alkaline environment in my body and the bad bacteria won't survive.

The Christmas deco at the Gardens Mall this year is beautiful; too beautiful not to capture some photos to store in my Google Photos album.  I love browsing at old photos during my free time. But Cass has been extremely resistant of me taking her pix lately. She's just extremely difficult to deal with the past one year. She's got mood swings. Dang the pre-teen hormones. It was only through a 'deal' with her that she agreed to these photos being taken. Can you beat it? Can you?

🙄 








Check out that sour face!!

CUT.......!  Daddy was not pleased with that face and we made her smile and take many, many more pix!

🙄

I had to force her to smile for the camera, SEE!
 


Just can't stand this girl of mine. What happened to my cutest, most smiley and most cooperative baby girl who used to model for my online store? I feel like I've lost my chummiest closest sidekick 😭

Cass At 10.5 Years Old

My schedule the past two weeks has been stuffed to the gills. Though it's just days away from the 5-week school holidays, the girls are still busy as ever. Well, except for Alycia who has already started her school holidays since a week ago. She works at her dad's office and kitchen on some days to earn some pocket money but on most days, she's as free as a bird, slothing around and without doing a stroke of work!  I've also been busy with my online work, with the girls' activities and welfare and not to mention, chauffeuring.


Alycia and Drama Queen were both down with fever last weekend.  I spent half a day at Pantai Medical Centre with Drama Queen last Thursday (to get an X-ray done for a swelling on her back caused by a fall during dance practice) and today, it's with Cass at the same hospital, for a frigging 6 hours for her yearly ultrasound scan of the urinary tract! I may have to be at the hospital again some time this week with Drama Queen again and get stuck at the Imaging department again! I. Hate. Hospital. Visits! I. Hate. Waiting!

At 10.5 years old, my baby girl has grown so much the past one year. She's now much taller (standing at 141cm tall as of today) and her feet are as big as mine! She's another big foot in the family.  Hopefully she'll be the tallest of the three sisters.  It looks like none of my girls will be as tall as me, though I am considered a shorty at 158cm. But hey, at least I passed the minimum height requirement at MAS and breezed through the interview to be a flight stewardess with the Airlines some 20 years ago. Till today, I still have regrets of giving up my dreams to be a  flight stewardess with free travels around the world.

But I am sure I'll have the opportunity to  travel the world when our girls have all graduated and it's my turn to be as free as a bird!

This is Cass' latest picture taken at  our close friend's son's wedding at St Regis Hotel yesterday. It's really rare that she's willing to pose for the camera without bribery.   And she has now outgrown all her cartoon dresses and tees, as well as princessy gowns 😥  She wants to have nothing to do with princess, pink and lilac colors, frilly ribbon dresses, gowns, tutus, headbands and cutesy hair clips anymore 😭



Cass' ambition has got something to do with an aircraft too. Nope, not a flight stewardess but a pilot!  A female pilot!  Sounds like a half-baked idea? I shall see...

And Cass' latest rage and craze is Harry Potter. She has almost the entire series of Harry Potter novels and is now waiting to claim her final exam reward for another Harry Potter book.

In this picture, she's browsing Lazada for some Harry Potter magic wand but I told her no way, Jose! Such a waste of money.

🙄 

Homemade Burrito

For days, Drama Queen has been telling me that she'd like to make Burrito for everyone for dinner. That's fine by me as long as she cleans up the aftermath in the kitchen. She finally made a big batch of Burrito yesterday since it was her day off in school due to fifth formers sitting for their SPM exam. And her Burritos are made from scratch. No Mission wraps are used as I don't buy them. Try reading the ingredients label of Mission wraps if you've got the chance and you'll be shocked to see the list of long names of chemicals and food additives used! Simple rule is if a packet of wraps can stay on the shelves of supermarkets for over a year, imagine the chemicals added into the wraps to preserve them 😲🙈

While Drama Queen prepped the salsa, guacamole and kneaded the dough for the tortilla, I grilled the chicken drumsticks and boneless thighs that I'd marinated a day earlier.


The flour tortillas are pan-fried sans any oil.  They taste like naan.  Though plain, they are nonetheless pretty addictive to chew on.  Cass had half a toasted tortilla for breakfast this morning, eaten plain and she loved it.

Recipe was taken from Chris Scheuer's cooking blog, https://thecafesucrefarine.com/best-ever-homemade-flour-tortillas/


Then Sher dished up a very delish mixed vegetables dish for the wraps composed of organic broccoli, carrot strips, fried potato cubes and lots of garlic and onions. She seasoned this dish with turmeric powder, cumin and smoked paprika.




After working on her babies for close to two hours in the kitchen, we (with rumbling tummies!) finally got to taste her super yummeh Burrito.





Even my very persnickety mil loved the Burrito.

All these from a 13-year old! Well done my Sherilyn! Your next project shall be an old fashioned flour-less orange almond meal cake for your crazy mum and perhaps another meat pie 😚

Cherry Apples

Have you ever seen a cherry apple?



I saw cherry apples at De Market and the size is slightly bigger than a cherry, with a long stem, making them look almost like a cherry. At RM25.99 a punnet, these cherry apples look stunning and exotic but I am not ambitious when it comes to buying exotic foods. Exotic does not mean delicious.  I tried Googling for cherry apples but  can't gather much information on it, except that cherry apples are also called crab apples and  they are usually used for preserving.




Has anyone tried cherry apples before? I am curious to know what it tastes like.

Cass Irons Her Clothes

Annie, our new part-time maid does not iron clothes. She does not have enough time to do this job. She leaves at 8:30 p.m. on the dot after 3 hours and if I want her to do more, I have to pay her OT, unlike Maria my part-time maid of 6 years who is ever willing to put in more hours at no extra charge.  But it's ok. I'm happy that there's someone to come in the evenings to help wash the dishes and clean up after cooking.

Without kakak Maria, the girls would  have to iron their clothes themselves. Most times they are lazy and wear crinkled shirts to school. Cass says she has a pinafore over her shirt, so who cares about her crumpled shirt?  Sometimes she only irons the sleeves.

 😆

But for her outing clothes, I have to remind her to iron them. She does them hurriedly though, as if it's a waste of her time. This is the first time in my brat's life that she's ironing her own clothes!  Good training for her.

🙄 



As for me, I hate ironing!  I hardly iron clothes as I buy only clothes made from wrinkle-free fabric.  The hubs irons his clothes and sometimes the mil irons for him.

How to Commemorate a Girl’s Birthday Ever Year

When you know that there is going to be a little girl born into the world, you want to think about how to commemorate not only her birth but every birthday thereafter. Disney birthday figurines can be used in fun ways to accomplish this.



Choose a Theme
You can choose a theme for the gift that you’re going to give her. For example, with Disney birthday figurines, you can give her a different princess every year. The year that she’s turning can even be included on the figurine. This way, she’ll get one each year that has the year so she knows when she got each one. By the time she reaches 10 or 12, she can have a full collection.



Give a New Figure Every Year
When you have a theme, it will be exciting to add a new figurine every year. Once she identifies what the theme is, such as Disney princesses, she’ll be wondering what the next one will be. Plus, you can make sure that you always know what to get her because you will want to maintain tradition with new figurines.



Make the Presentation Special
The presentation should be extra special. Be sure that you have her display what you have given her. It may be a good idea to get a shelf specifically for the figurines. Then, make a big deal by giving her the figurine and letting her add it to where all of the others are from years past.

By keeping the theme year after year, the special girl in your life will look forward to every birthday to see what you’re going to give her next. It will be something that she can enjoy for years and, potentially, pass down to future generations.

Part-Time Maid Update

This week will be the second week that our 5th and hopefully final temporary part-time maid, Annie has been working for us. So far I am pretty pleased with her work. But still I have not found another maid as good as my most trusted part-time maid, Maria who has gone back to Indonesia to get married. She's my trophy helper who has been working for us for 6 years and I hope that she will come back to work for us as promised.

Annie has a very amiable personality and is efficient. The only downside is she can only work for 3 hours in the evening, which is not sufficient for her to complete other chores like ironing and other cleaning. But I am contented. As long as there is someone at my house from 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. from Monday through Fridays to help wash the dishes and clean up after dinner, I am one happy camper.  I am usually out on my 'Ahmad' duty at night, thus do not have the time to do the dishes and clean the kitchen after dinner.

Annie has work experience as a house maid in Russia (3 years) and Singapore (2 years). She can speak English and even Russian language! Pretty impressive work experience for an Indonesian lady who is now engaged full-time as a cleaner at our condo.

In exactly two more weeks, my beloved Maria will be back working for us. The girls and I miss her so much. I'm counting down the days every day! 😁

Dinner on our Sunday yesterday was at Koyaku Japanese Dining And Grill @ Faber Towers with only the hubs and Cass. The two older girls  preferred to stay home to enjoy their takeout pizza from Ben's Independent Grocer.  One is hooked to her Korean dramas and the other, her English dramas from Netflix.  😕


And the littlest brat is hooked to her novels.





I was still feeling very cloy after a heavy lunch of pasta, burger, mushroom soup and cakes from Huckleberry Food And Fare, thus only ordered Chawan Mushi.  The Chawan Mushi from Koyaku is supersized (I love!) and costs RM12 a bowl.

Grocery Bill

Several years ago, I only needed to spend RM50 each time I did my daily grocery shopping.  Then came the implementation of GST and that RM50 was not enough anymore. From RM50, the shopping bill went up to RM80, then RM100 and over the years, it went up to at least RM120 per grocery shopping. Our household grocery bill can run up to RM5k a month! That's the reason why I still need to work😏


This is my grocery loot on Monday this week:


Most vegetables and fruits are organic.  And the bulk of the bill comes from the fresh organic produce. What made my budget exceed was the S&B Japanese Golden Curry which I badly wanted to try as the kids love Japanese curry.

How much do you spend on groceries each time you go shopping? What's your monthly grocery bill like?  Please share 😊

Fighting Queen

This was Sherilyn's dinner last night after Muay Thai class:




She had a big fat portion of meat: roast chicken from Aeon Supermarket, KFC drumstick, tomato omelette and sauteed organic spinach.  She needs really high caloric meals to fuel her for very active lifestyle. These days she prefers rice piled high with dishes vs. noodles which she once loved.

The mil has been down with Vertigo the past one week and not exactly fit to cook. So I  bought 3 huge grilled Chipotle chicken thighs from Aeon and a box of 5-piece KFC after shopping at Mid Valley Megamall yesterday.  Girls were beaming with joy as I rarely buy fast food. I think this must be only the second time I ate KFC this year!  But Cass wasn't overly excited over KFC as she's had an overdose on it ~ she had 4 meals of KFC within a short span of 2 weeks this month!  Three times in school (year end parties) and one time at home. 😬  She really needs a detox!

Our Fighting Queen just received her green belt!  Give her another 1.5 - 2 years, this fella would have earned her black belt in Taekwondo. As for Muay Thai and Kickboxing, these two martial arts are to fill up her time productively (vs hooked to her phone) besides helping to develop her strength, flexibility and endurance. She scored a perfect 10 in her flexibility for her green belt grading recently! Alycia will join Sherilyn in Muay Thai and Kickboxing classes this week on top of taking Ninjutsu lessons! Again, it's to fill up her time productively and healthily too. It makes my blood boil seeing them hooked to their smartphones.


Trying hard to avoid her paparazzi mum as usual.

🙄 

Friday, 26 October 2018

My littlest brat had a massive tummy ache this morning and had to clear her bowels.  The first time it wasn't  completely emptied and she was still having a tummy cramp. She asked for my Peppermint Essential Oil but I could not find it, dang it! Can we ever find the things that we want when we are in a hurry? Hell no!

It was already time for Aunty Jane, her transporter to be at the lobby to pick her up. I hurried her to go to the loo to dump for the second time, saying that she could still make it on time. It's OK for Aunty Jane to wait for 5 minutes. I didn't want to skip my morning workout session ~ my me time, my solace and my quiet time. NO way was I going to skip that!  But she quickly fetched my phone and begged me to call Aunty Jane to tell her that she wouldn't be following the van.

Can I resist a pathetic pup begging for help?  Hell no!

So I skipped what I love most to fulfill my motherly duties.

Cass admiring the sun rise view:


This morning has been hectic for me. After chauffeuring Cass to school, I got home, had a shower and fetched our Dancing Queen to tuition. Then went for a breakfast myself, bought takeout lunch for Dancing Queen and Cass, shopped for groceries and in between doing all these, had to make an urgent appointment for the mil to see a cardiologist and booked Grab for her to go to the hospital in Subang Jaya.

After picking up Dancing Queen from the tuition centre, I dropped her at the hubs' office for him to bring her to the physiotherapist for a third and hopefully last round of treatment on her lower back for an injury sustained during dance practice for a competition.  Dancing Queen had to eat her lunch in the car.








Chocolate bread with butter for breakfast for Cass;  2 slices of chocolate bread for Alycia's snack box and chicken rendang puff for Cass' snack box.




My parents will be here any time. There are here to attend my cousin's baby's fullmoon party tomorrow. On Sunday we will be celebrating my parents' 48th wedding anniversary!

Have a great weekend peeps!

Of Maids And Healthy Breakfast

Today I tried out my fifth temporary part-time maid! Annie is my fifth part-time maid whom I engaged in a short span of 9 days. None of the four previous maids worked more than two days.

The first maid stopped working as she was afraid to walk home at 9 p.m. at night. Her flat is about 15-20 minutes walk away from my condo. The second and third maids didn't work out as I could not  accept maid #3 who looks like a thug and has strong ciggie breath. Maid #2 insisted on bringing her friend with her to accompany her back after work. I like Maid #2  but she got offended that I  did not allow her to bring her tomboy friend along to work.

Maid #4 was pretty efficient and I didn't have to train her much but her rate is too high, i.e. almost double of what I am paying to my current part-time maid who has gone back to Indonesia to get married. Maid #4 called me back the next day to reduce her rate by a paltry RM10 but it still exceeds my budget.

The fifth part-time maid, Annie seems OK. But she is pretty calculative on how much time she puts in and told me  before leaving today that she can only work for 3 hours tomorrow and not 4 hours as she is also afraid of walking home at 9 p.m., though her flat is located just a few steps away from my condo. Annie is a cleaner engaged by our condo Management. I'm praying that Annie has no problem continue working for us until Maria returns from Indonesia. If she continues to be good in her work with no attitude issues, I can keep her as my relief maid whenever Maria goes on leave.

So much with part-time maids. I am totally enervated hunting for a maid, training one after another maid only to end up being disappointed with the outcome after 1-2 days.

OK, back to foodie talk!

🍽 

Have I told you that my parents make the tastiest pumpkin kaya in the world?


I finished this bottle of pumpkin kaya all by  myself in less than a week!


I slather thick luxurious layers of  pumpkin kaya on my toast and crackers or simply chomp down a few tablespoons like I would with ice-cream. So yummo!

It's pretty simple to make pumpkin kaya.  First puree the pumpkin by steaming and blending it. Then add coconut milk (santan), a little sugar (optional as pumpkin is naturally sweet) and pandan leaves and cook / stir in the pot till smooth. Plus point is this pumpkin kaya is vegan and very healthy.

After a healthy breakfast of pumpkin kaya on toast, I sipped on organic lemongrass + pandan tea  with blue pea flowers from my parents' garden.





Sometimes I toss a teaspoon of goji berries into my organic herbal tea. Most days I chew on a tablespoon of goji berries.


My breakfast of mil's homemade yam cake seasoned with Korean seaweed and mum's homemade chicken floss.

OwlSmarter Shop And Cash Back App

Online shopping is the future of retail.   More and more products and services are moving into the digital world and it's no surprise that there will come a time when shopping will become a totally digital experience. Not only is online shopping convenient, these days there are cash back apps to help you save money during your online purchases. One of the cash back apps out there to help you save money is OwlSmarter.

OwlSmarter money saving app is committed to make it easier for smarter consumers to earn cash back on everyday purchases. At this premier destination for rewarded online shopping, deals on a wide variety of products like clothes, shoes, bags, cosmetics, wig, digital devices, pet-supplies, home items, jewelry, etc., are offered by their partners from leading brands and retailers, ultimately helping you to save a big deal of money.

OwlSmarter savings app is available for IOS and Android.  It's free for download and has some really good reviews from users. It's a pretty good app for getting your cash back after purchase while shopping with your favorite shopping apps.

It works in a way where you can check OwlSmarter before shopping for the products that you want to purchase like women and men apparel, footwear, pet supplies, home items, home and furnishing and more. OwlSmarter works with top brands and after supplying the app with order number and review url, you can get a  nice amount of your cash back.  OwlSmarter helps you to earn back some money with each purchase!





I am sure you love online shopping as much as I do. With OwlSmarter cash back rewards app, you will even love shopping online more. You get to make money doing the thing you love. It's money management in a way as you get free money when you shop.


Here are the links where you can download OwlSmarter for your IOS or Android:

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.owlsmarter.mobile  

IOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/owl-smarter-shop-cash-back/id1414811717

Or visit https://www.owlsmarter.com/ for more information.

Have fun shopping with OwlSmarter!

Friday, 19 October 2018

Today is FriYay cheer for Cass as it's the last day of her final exam!  She sat for the History and Math papers today.  And this marks the end of exams for this year for my rat brat. YAY!!

👏  👍

What's next now? Shopping for me, ice-cream for us, TV for her, thick Harry Potter books and more novels for my rat brat. In the car, Cass kept reminding me to release the TV remote control and all her confiscated Harry Potter books and novels kept in the highest cupboard in my room.

😆


A Ramen egg for Cass' breakfast today. Cass loves this texture of soft boiled eggs.  The eggs are placed in a pot of water on the stove left to boil.  Once the water bubbles, the flame is turned to its lowest and  the eggs are left to simmer for 1.5 minutes (or 1 minute if eggs are kept in room temperature) before being removed from the pot.

Cass had to stay back in school today for a Ukulele Children's Day performance practice today.  She wrote a note for me to fetch her from school at 2:30 p.m. as she didn't want to wait until 3:30 p.m. for the transporter's second pick up time. I even reminded her in the morning that I would be coming to fetch her.  But this forgetful girl forgot that I was coming to pick her up.  Already rushed off my feet as I am now maid-less and had to pick up Alycia from tuition later, I had to hunt the entire school for the brat!  Fortunately for the Hello Kitty key chain with the annoying cutesy sound of a bell that Cass clipped to my new handbag, she heard the jingling of the bell and the familiar sounds of her mum's rushed foot steps on flip-floppy sandals, she peeped from the glass library door and found me hunting for her!



To cut the boredom from revision, Cass snapped this picture of the rainbow with my phone two days ago.

I'm going to be super busy this weekend as the hubs won't be around again to help with the chauffeuring of the girls. He'll be in Ipoh for an old school boys reunion dinner.  I'll be stuck with our Dancing Queen the whole of Sunday at a dance competition event. Can't wait for the weekend to whiz by quickly. We have another hurdle to face next week.  Alycia will be sitting for her UEC exam and Sherilyn, her finals.

Happy weekend peeps!

Eve of Eve of Final Exam

Two more days to the final exam and my 'tidak apa' child is still a chill pill as always. I am nagging as usual but keep telling myself that I should leave all the exam prep to her. She's already 10 and should know how to revise and should know the consequences of not working hard for her exam. I am trying really hard not to get rip-snorting mad each time I see this chill pill of a girl burying her face in her novels instead of her revision books.

But, sigh...

This is just Cass.

Cass' Sunday School teacher told me that her sister gives 99% freedom to her kids~ no stress, no nagging and no hollering. On the eve of her niece's UPSR exam, the girl was still playing with Cass and the rest of the kids after Sunday School. No need revision. Her sister said let the kids experience failure, let them be responsible over their actions; they will one day somehow mature, study hard and work hard. Maybe I should try this?

This is going to be a  short post. I am supposed to move my butt off my chair right NOW and should instead be zooming off to fetch Alycia back from school but the thought of driving into the busy roads in town is making me lazy. The traffic jam, the hot afternoon sun, the almost one hour of traveling to and fro school. I shudder thinking of it. I. Hate. To. Be. A. Driver.

Did I tell you that I had a bad dream early this week? I dreamt that I was involved in a car accident and injured my liver. Oh. God. Please don't let this dream come true.
🙅‍♀️

And liver? This part of the body has got to do with my emotions. Yup, I should keep my anger and emotions in check!  Red flag. 

🚩

This is Cass on one of the school mornings this week, crouched on the chair and had zilch appetite to eat anything at 5:30 a.m.. I heated up just a quarter of an almond Danish pastry for her but she wasn't interested in it. She ate it anyway.  But the next day, she went to school on an empty stomach, with only half a packet of Izumio. I didn't have the mental energy and time to persuade and entice her to eat anymore.

Questions Before Visiting The Dentist

When it's time to visit your dentist, there might be a few questions that you have pertaining to what you can expect. The exact services that are provided will depend on why you're going to the office. If you're going for a routine cleaning, then the dentist will examine your teeth, clean them, and likely talk about ways to keep your teeth and the rest of your mouth healthy.

Routine visits to a dentist you trust and are comfortable with are important so that you can stay on top of any issues that could already be present, such as a cavity. There are a few signs that you should see a dentist in Wheeling IL. One is that your teeth are sensitive to hot or cold foods and beverages. While some extreme temperatures can cause sensitivity for a short time, you shouldn't' experience sensitivity each time you eat certain foods or consume certain beverages. If you have any kind of pain in your mouth, you should visit a dentist. Persistent bad breath is also a reason as to why you should visit a dentist. If you notice that your gums are bleeding or that there are other issues with your gums, then you should make an appointment to get your teeth examined.



Even if you don't have any prominent symptoms, you should still visit your dentist at least twice a year so that you can stay on top of your oral health. While you're at the office, you need to provide your medical history, especially if you have had any injuries to your mouth or if you are taking any medications. For most people, going to the dentist twice a year is sufficient. However, if you know that there are dental issues present, then you might need to go more often.

The Rat Brat

Cass the little rat is a real brat. A pest sometimes. And she's born in the year of the rat. How apt!

She made me flipping mad last week when she flipped and folded almost the entire NEW Karangan book that I bought for her just a few hours ago!  The book is a frigging RM20!

Can you feel the steam spewing out from my nostrils?! Look at the picture of the book.

That brat brought the Karangan book into the bathroom to read while she did her business. I didn't suspect anything initially when I heard crisp sounds of paper flipping but when the pages flipping got louder and didn't stop after 15 minutes, I walked to the bathroom and lo and behold, the brat was happily folding the pages into a book Origami!

I felt like swallowing the brat up! 😡😡

I asked her if she had left her brain in school and forgot to bring it back with her. Sometimes I say really mean things to my girls when mentally challenged by them, especially when they answer back arrogantly and rudely with total disrespect for me.




Despite the blood-boiling moments Cass throws at me throughout the day, she can redeem herself when she's in a good mood. She gives me the best head, shoulders, hands and legs massage. She even does a very good filing job of my cracked heels and toe nails!

Halloween Costumes And Wigs

What is it about Halloween that makes October 31 so popular? Perhaps it's the mystery, or just the candy? Perhaps the excitement of a new costume? Whatever the draw, Halloween is here to stay.

The word Halloween literally means the evening before All Hallows Day or All Saint’s Day, celebrated on November 1. Halloween is also the shortened name of Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Evening and All Saint’s Eve which is celebrated on October 31. The origin and meaning of Halloween is derived from ancient Celtic harvest festivals, but more recently we think of Halloween as a night filled with candy, trick-or-treating, pumpkins, ghosts and death.

Another tradition is the  belief that during the night of November 1, demons, witches, and evil spirits freely roamed the earth with joy to greet the arrival of "their season" - the long nights and early dark of the winter months. The demons had their fun with poor mortals that night, frightening, harming, and even playing all kinds of mean tricks on them. The only way, it seemed, for scared humans to escape the persecution of the demons was to offer them things they liked, especially fancy foods and sweets. Or, in order to escape the fury of these horrible creatures, a human could disguise himself as one of them and join in their roaming. In this way they would recognize the human as a demon or witch and the human would not be bothered that night.

On Halloween, kids and adults attend costume parties, make lanterns out of big pumpkins, visit haunted locations, tell scary stories to each other, play pranks and also watch horror movies. People light bonfires to ward off all evil spirits and ghosts.

Over time, Halloween has evolved into a community based, children friendly celebration. Activities like trick or treating, dressing up in various costumes and having Halloween theme based parties have now become the norm. Even adults become a participant in costume parties. Trick or Treat has become customary for kids. Children, dressed in costumes, go from one house to another asking the question ‘Trick or treat?’ The treats given to children can be various candies, things to eat or sometimes money. Tricks would include the children playing some kind of mischievous prank on the owners of the house. Tricks would be done if the owners do not give any form of treat to the children.

Are you looking for costume ideas to prep you for Halloweekend?  I am pretty sure you don't want a costume that makes you look like you have run into one (or ten!) of your twins at a party.  There are tons of awesome and creative ideas for Halloween costumes that you can look up from the internet.  Whether you are aiming to be scary, funny or a combination of both, you can get creative by making use of everyday items that you probably own already.  For example, you can DIY a simple and inexpensive skirt made out of newspapers, paired with a white top stained with blood (red paint) and Cosplay wigs for Halloween.











If you don't have the budget for an expensive Halloween costume, a long funky wig along with the most beautiful, eerie or flat-out scary Halloween makeup are all that's needed for a scary transformation. You can then craft your DIY Halloween costume by checking out online tutorials. Most times there will be Black Friday Wigs Deals offered by online wigs stores.

You can also use Wigsbuy Coupon Code to purchase your Halloween or Cosplay fun wigs.

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What To Do If You Lose Your Phone's Password And Need To Unlock Your Phone

Nine out of ten people will probably tell you now that one of their worst nightmares is that they forget the password / pattern to unlock their android phones. Their phones are their lifeline.  Admit it, we can't live without our phones, right? Right?  Tell me, what's the first thing that you do when you get out of bed? Be honest.
😉

I'm not one who likes to keep changing passwords to my phone or desktop computer. But I have a terrorizer at home who keeps snitching my phone from me the moment I turn my back on her or are busy with my stuff.  And this terrorizer is so 'terror' that she could even remember what my password is though I thought that I had typed the numbers fast enough to confuse her. When it comes to telecommunication crimes, this little terrorizer has a photographic memory in registering the pattern and numbers of all our phones. She can hack any phone. If only she can hack all the exam questions with such precision! If only!




And this terrorizer has her finals to sit for in a week's time but she keeps snitching on my phone. So I changed the password to my phone yesterday to deter her from playing Clash Royale with her grandaunt. This game can be played with your opponents remotely. After changing the password, I didn't know that I had to wait for a while before I can try to log in.  When I keyed in the new password to my phone, my not very smart smartphone did not recognize the new password. Thinking that I had keyed in the wrong new password, I tried another password, and another.

That was the beginning of my nightmare!!

After more than two dozens of tries, my phone locked me out. This is one of the security features of most android phones. Even Find My Phone  cannot unlock my phone.  Google recently replaced the Android Device Manager with 'Find My Phone' and the "Forgot Password" option has been removed so that hackers cannot get a new password.  You can now lock your phone but NOT unlock it with Find My Phone. I found out after reading it from related forums. I spent my entire day reading up for solutions to unlock my phone without having to wipe out the data.

And it looks like the ONLY way to unlock the phone is to perform a 'factory reset', which means wiping out all user data, i.e. every single app, message, photo, video and phone number will be deleted. After resetting, the phone will be like a brand new phone from the factory with no data. There is a way to backup the data by connecting the phone to a computer but the problem is the phone is already locked out and my two desktop computers could not read the files. Another alternative to unlock the phone is to purchase a software from some US companies which is a big NO NO for el-cheapo me.

I was fuming mad and stressed out. Because of this 10-year old terrorizer, I am about to lose all my phone data and money.  I discussed the problem with the hubs and he advised me to bring my phone to a phone clinic to have the resetting properly done, which means having to spend some money to recover my phone.

This morning, I told the hubs that I wanted to save the money by performing my phone's 'factory  reset' myself. It looks pretty easy from You Tube.  Moreover, the phone clinic is located a a place which I have no frigging idea how to go to and the hubs had to rush off to an event and couldn't help. Five minutes after the hubs left the house, he came back and said the sweetest thing to me - "quickly pass me your phone. I'll bring it to the shop later after I return from my customer's office".

Awwww, so sweet of him to do this favor for me, which meant wasting several hours on his busy day.  Sometimes he can be the sweetest white knight that sweeps me off my feet 💔

Good thing all the data on my phone is synced to my Google account. I only found out today that all the phone numbers that I stored on my phone is synced to my Google account. Yay! My photos and videos are synced to my Google Photos too. The only data that I lost are all the apps, Whatsapp, Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, etc which the guy at the phone clinic helped to re-download into my phone.  Once my baby was discharged from the clinic, I had to re-download other frequently used apps and reset my alarm clock and other features in Settings.  Previous Whatsapp messages were all wiped out too and I had to re-download Whatsapp Web onto my desktop computer.

And the damage for restoring my phone is  RM80.  It is a pretty simple job but a tad time consuming.

Moral of the story is:

1. Always, always sync your phone's data with your Google account. Or perform a backup regularly by transferring the data from your phone to your computer / laptop via a USB.

2. Download Whatsapp Web on your desktop computer or laptop. If your phone is locked out, you can still Whatsapp from your computer (must have internet). You can still check / copy all the contact numbers from your Whatsapp Web and later key them into your phone.  But if you sync your phone with Google, then you will not lose any contact number.

If you ever lose / forget / mess up with your phone's password / pattern, chill. Don't panic.  Go to You Tube to watch how to do a factory reset and then spend an hour or two to re-download the apps and programs and resetting it back to its original settings. The reset will also do a clean-up of your phone and this will help your phone to clear up some space.

Your phone will never be the same again after a factory reset but at least you have it back and most importantly, you can recover most of the data if you take the above steps.

Monday, 1 Oct 2018 ~ First Day of PT3 Exam

Today is the first day of Alycia's PT3 exam. Three more days to go and she's still not free to enjoy her MERDEKA yet! While all the 15 year olds from National Schools will be free on Thursday, my poor girl and all those from Chinese Independent High Schools will have to sit for their UEC exam in 3 weeks. And this exam is even more important and tougher than the PT3.  Some Chinese Independent High Schools do not require their students to sit for the PT3 but the UEC is compulsory.

Drama Queen doesn't have to go school for two days due to the on-going PT3  examinations. Yesterday we went to Mid Valley Megamall for some retail therapy and happy time!  Just the both of us.

Before we dug into the noodles and 'Bursting Balls' from Go Noodles, we said a silent prayer to God for guiding Alycia in her exam. Just the both of us with eyes closed and hands clasped. People were staring but I wasn't bothered.

I am terribly saddened after reading news that a 15-year old girl  jumped to her death from her condo just hours before sitting for her PT3 exam  early yesterday morning. Inability to handle the exam stress, expected grades and anxiety were what pushed the girl to her suicide.  Sometimes I think it's a blessing in disguise that my girls don't push themselves to excel in their studies.  I am the one who always nags and pushes these three 'tidak apa' slap happy girls. Alycia is still her usual jovial and cool as cucumber self during exams😀 My role is to get her all her favorite food and feed her well, give her a little pep talk and give her pre-exam reminders which I'm sure she already knows. She does group study with her friends in school and revises on her own 👌

Our Saturday, 29 Sept 2018

Breakfast today was with Cass only.  We had our favorite Tomyum noodles, cooked by a Thai lady married to a handsome Chinese man who is a super nice guy.

Today is the eve of the eve of Alycia's PT3 exam. It's her first major high school exam.  She stayed home the whole day for cramming, leaving her room every two hourly for short breaks and cut down on her gym time. 





Saturday is a day of chauffering for me. After dropping off Alycia at the tuition center, I dropped off the Fighting Queen at the gym for taekwondo. Today is her grading for the next belt.  After the grading exercise, she was informed by her Iranian master (who also teaches her Muay Thai) that she passed. Woohoo, welcome green belt!



Fighting Queen always avoids her paparazzi mum!  Pisses me off when she does that.


After fetching Fighting Queen back from the gym at 4 p.m., I dropped her home, picked up Cass and then attended piano class together.  After piano class, I fetched Alycia back from the tuition center, popped by the supermarket to get sushi for Alycia as she wanted to stay home to revise while we go out for dinner. It's frightening to step foot into this supermarket at our neighborhood. It is so complete with fresh groceries, imported products and new products that I always leave the supermarket at least RM50 - RM150 poorer, though my original intention was only to get sushi!  I go there 5-6 times a week. 😁





Dinner was at our favorite neighborhood 'tai chow' restaurant.  Dessert was ice-cream and waffle at Inside Scoop.




October and November will be two very difficult months for the girls and me. It's their finals, Alycia has to sit for two major exams in October (PT3 and UEC), Sherilyn has to attend a dance competition on the eve of her finals and the worst unimaginable event is that my most helpful and trusted part-time helper of 6 years will be going back to Indonesia to get married!!  For a frigging 5 weeks!! Will I ever see her again? She's been telling me YES and she even has plans to bring her new husband to KL to work. She even planned for her new husband to work at the hubs' kitchen. But will this materialize? I can only pray hard to God that she will come back to work for us for the next 20-30 years. I can't live in peace without her. She's God-sent and we all treat her like a family member 🙏🙏🙏