Little Vain Pot

Check out my vain pot! She's not even 4 years old yet but is as vain as a teenager. We were getting ready to have brunch with my parents, brother and sil from Singapore on Sunday when she happily helped herself to wearing a total of 5 bracelets and bangles on her hands. After I had commented on how she looked, she added "I do look like a Christmas tree right?" Such a witty comment, LOL!!

MIL's Bakes and Makes

Whenever my mil is around, we hardly ever step foot into a bakery for she will bake cakes, bread, buns and tarts several times in a week! Yep, she bakes very regularly and we will never go hungry when she's around. Last week, she baked 2 trays of Madeline, 10-grain bread, chocolate brownie, pizza, blueberry tarts and orange cake! I wonder what she's planning to bake this week. I know she's definitely going to make pizza again as we bought pizza cheese, bacon and mushrooms from Jaya Grocer yesterday, for another round of pizza! I saw some Facebookers who baked pandan chiffon cake last week and heck, I am craving for it too. Since the organic veggie seller gave me a big bunch of screwpine leaves this morning, I am going to place my order for pandan chiffon cake later. Hopefully my order gets 'processed' * grins *



Bakes and makes from the mil's kitchen...

10-grain bread and buns...





Blueberry tarts, which is the best in the world! This is something which I doubt I will ever dare to try to bake as the steps seem so tedious and laborious.

Happy Girls

The girls with their favorite koo por (grand aunt) who lives just a few floors below our unit. We have dinner together almost everyday and the girls dot on her. Koo Por is such a sport to have worn this bright green clown's wig with a matching pair of ginormous clown's spectacles and even sportier to have agreed to have this pic published in my blog.








Here's wishing everyone a very good week ahead. The 1-week school holiday has ended today. It's back to the grind for everyone starting tomorrow. And it's back to waking up at 5:30am for me again.

Just Because of A Darn Teeny Weeny Misplacement

Nothing can be more frustrating than having to do something that you are not hands-on with. I started this blog, which is my maiden blog 5 years ago. I was just a si-lai then. Yes I have knowledge on how to operate the PC and know Excel, Words, Power Point and surf the net but totally zilch knowledge on computer codes. But I was very determined to create a blog for dual purposes. First as an eDiary to pen down my journey with my girls and secondly to earn some moolah from it. After many, many late nights, I finally learned a great deal on computer codes, how to upload pictures into my blogs, learned that pictures are made up of nothing but a huge chunk of codes which the computer recognizes and all that jazz.

Anyway, the purpose of this blog post is to rant that I had spent almost half the afternoon on my other blog trying to add in a link to my side bar in return for some moolah in USD. I just didn't understand why my entire blog layout would go distorted the moment I added the text with link to the widget for my side bar. Then I copied the whole damn link and compared it with the codes from other links and bingo! I found where the error was that caused the distortion. It was just one very minor misplacement of the code as below...

Instead of ending one of the codes contained within the link with
/a
I ended it like this
a/

The problem was with a mere misplacement of the / which had caused me so much misery for months!

Actually this problem persisted for many months and I just did not have the time to do a post mortem on it, until today where I had no choice coz of the USD100 haha! Damn frustrating but very satisfied with my little 'achievement'!

Breakfast At Magnificent Fish And Chips, Changkat Bukit Bintang KL

On Sunday, hubs wanted to bring us to Lai Foong coffee shop located opposite Petaling Street to eat some popular delish hawker food. But we detoured when we passed by the coffee shop and saw that it was bursting with patrons. Next in this foodie's mind was Magnificent Fish and Chips located at Changkat Bukit Bintang.

So here's what we stuffed ourselves full. The portion was pretty big for most of us who are tiny eaters, especially moi who eat like a cat.

Egg Benedict - consists of smoked salmon and poached eggs on a bun, on a bed of greens. In the background is Bangers and Mash - consists of super long and thin sausage twirled on a bed of mashed potatoes with mushroom sauce. Looked kinda gross, errr like what you'd normally find in your throne, as we were all joking when we saw that plate of food LOL!





Fat Boys CBB. This plate of breakfast looks humongous but when we flipped the eggs and mushrooms away, beneath were 3 over-sized slices of toasted white bread, which made the portion look huge. Very yummy but I really think that it is over priced.



Coffee fix for the caffeine addict - Latte and Cappuccino which are part of the breakfast set...



3 happy girls with their camera and blog-shy leng jai daddy, leng lui mah mah, koo por and yours truly haha! Did you notice that Alycia and I are wearing the same top here? It's our mother-daughter Mickey Mouse singlet hehe...



A hefty breakfast bill for 5 adults and 3 kiddos. But well justified as the food was too much that we took away and ate them for lunch cum tea at 3pm. And lastly, we do not have such lavish breakfast all the time. I think we should pamper ourselves to something really nice once in a while :)

Organic Valley Organic Fresh Milk

I was shopping for fresh milk at Village Grocer at Bangsar Village and spotted a new brand of organic milk called Organic Valley being sold. It costs RM23.49 for a 1 litre box. For us, the 1 litre box of milk will last us for 3 days as only Baby and my mil drink fresh milk. If Alycia and Sherilyn were to drink fresh milk too, the 1-litre box will only last us for 1 day. This means that I would have to fork out a minimum of RM704.70 just on fresh milk for 1 month!! This amount is equivalent to the take-home salary of some lesser fortunate people.

Would you spend this much on organic fresh milk? Gee, it looks like only very wealthy people can afford to go fully organic or half organic!

Throes of Motherhood ... Struggling With A Very Difficult Child

Sherilyn is driving me NUTS! She has been really stretching my patience till the threshold level is now breached. I feel like strangling her!! Each time I do revision with her, I wonder if she is dyslexic. It seems as if nothing goes into her head. Before each revision session begins, I can be sure to get the usual load of excuses from her to stall time! First, she will say I want to pee, then I want to drink water, I want to pack my bag first, I want this particular pencil, I want to sharpen my pencil first, I want this and that... and when the actual revision begins, she will yawn and doze off mid way!

Today is bad. She shocked me with her output. After explaining common nouns, proper nouns, punctuation marks and countable nouns to her since yesterday (actually it was since her pre school days), she gave me all crap in the English Grammar workbook that I had asked her to do. Next, she whined, cried and screamed over every little issue at home. She fights with Alycia all the time. Alycia is a neat and clean freak while Sherilyn is the exact opposite, so Sherilyn's slapdash attitude irates Alycia all the time when she causes haphazard in the bedroom and around the house. Alycia is always the one who would volunteer to clean up and clear up her 2 sisters' things and mess. When Sherilyn took Alycia's Geronimo Stilton book to read just before bedtime just now, there was a big war. Now they are sleeping in separate bedrooms!! Alycia refused to lend Sherilyn the book as she said that her sister will throw the book on the floor after reading and scribble the book with a pen... which is true. I am really at lost on how to manage Sherilyn. Her lackadaisical attitude towards life and studies and her daily screams, whines and cries are driving me insane!! Does anyone have a child who is like this?

Throes of Motherhood... of Kids' Exams

Alycia came home today and told me that her Science in Mandarin test paper today was very difficult. She is the type who is always tight-lipped about how she had fared in her test papers and does not like to talk much about her test papers. In fact, she does not like being asked and will get very agitated if my concern is overly shown. But thank God, she has been doing pretty well in all her exams thus far. Today, she told me that her Science test paper is so hard that she thinks she is going to fail! Sei lor, I hope she ain't going to fail!! She has never failed in any of her test papers since her pre-school days. Is it that difficult in Standard 3? I am one very anxious mommy now. I hope that my worries will be unfounded. I hope that her teachers will distribute the test papers back by this week before the start of the 1-week school term break, else I will have over 1 week to worry about her marks. And she is only in Standard 3. I will have a long, long time to worry myself old lidat!

Big Juicy Apples From Japan

Can you take a wild guess on how much these apples from Hokkaido, Japan cost each? We got them from a Japan food fair held at Isetan @ KLCC last week. It is usually priced at over RM10 each but during the promotion, it was 4 apples for RM27. Still very costly but I could not resist sinking my teeth into the juicy apple after tasting the free samples at the booth. And oh yes, at least I will have something to blog about to add a touch of sweetness to my 5-year old blog :) The apples are very sweet, juicy and crunchy. But I think it will be the last time I am going to splurge so much on apples, of all things!

Flavours Food LIfestyle Magazine

My foodie and food caterer hubs spends quite a bit regularly on cook books for ideas and recipes and these books ain't cheap. I never had the time to read them until recently when I was coaxing Baby to drink her milk. While waiting for her to gulp down her milk, I sat next to her and glanced the newest Flavours mag that my hubs had bought. And that's when I got hooked on this Flavours Food Lifesytle mag. It now sits in the bathroom, where I will go through it when I am seated on the throne haha!






Here are 2 recipes which had caught my eyes and I will certainly try them when my MIL is away again...

Minced Meat with mashed potatoes...


Sesame Udon... easy and quick to whip up and my girls are big time fan-see of Udon noodles.

Cassandra Says The Darndest Things

Baby is getting better and better with her words. She talks like an adult at times. She out-talks me many times and I now have to be very careful with my answers to her as she will query me to the root of the basis of my answers!

Conversation this afternoon:

Baby - mummy, I love you very, very much!

Me - me too, I love you very, very much too!

Baby - mummy, do you love kakak?

Me - errr..... I love your 2 che ches...

Baby - do you love daddy?

And before I could answer....

Baby - you must love daddy you know, he is your husband!

Me - of course I love daddy! What makes you think I don't love daddy?

Baby - no, just asking hehe...


And moments later, she asked me this :
Baby - mummy, if I eat a lot of bananas, will I turn all yellow like the shining sun?

My little drama queen is so dramatic. She must have associated this with what I had told her about eating food with lots of coloring. I always scare the girls by telling them that cakes, jellies and snacks with lots of bright colors are very bad for health. Last night, to discourage them from eating the blue, red and green icing on some Wondermilk Elmo & Cookie Monster cup cakes that daddy had bought, I told them that their pee will turn blue, red and green too. This really scared the pee out of them and it worked!

It's A Torture When You Can't Sleep When You're Sleepy!

I am actually farking tired and sleepy today. I was about to doze off on my massage chair while doing some work but darn, each time I tried to get my forty winks, someone just had to startle me up! Sometimes I wished I live alone and can sleep, eat, watch the TV and do anything however I like and whenever I fancy! Oh well, anyway... but I didn't get to take a cat nap, not at all. Was really jonked out with my online store, having to supervise the renovation in the wet kitchen, manage 3 kids who seem to be 'deaf', amend an advertorial for the umpteen times (gosh, this client is SUPER fussy but I have to stoop lowly coz they are paying me pretty well!) and supervise #1 and #2 in their homework. During dinner at the Chinese restaurant just now, I had drank some Chinese tea and now, fark, I can't sleep though my head is throbbing. Darn the caffeine flowing in my blood now. I am jinxed. Oh fark! So that's why I am here typing this post at this ungodly hour where I am supposed to be in bed as I have to wake up by 5:45am tomorrow.

Food Fair at Isetan @ KLCC - 25 February 2012

We were at the Japanese food fair at Isetan @ KLCC yesterday. For those of you who are fans of Japanese food, you will love this fair and get 'drown' there. I say drown coz you'll bound to pull out a few big notes from your wallet after sampling the food at the fair, hehe.... I'll bet no one can resist the wide array of seafood cooked in a few varieties of style, ala Japanese.

An assortment of seafood cooked in a variety of Japanese styles

Wide array of deep fried seafood and fish

Baby and Alycia ate cups after cups of handmade Udon... but we did not eat for free. We bought 3 packs of handmade Udon and green tea noodles, costing over RM20 for a packet.

Just one of the delicacies which we 'succumbed' to - fresh scallops cooked in Terriyaki sauce, YUMS!

Kids Ask The Darndest Questions

During shower time last night, Baby saw a mozzie flying past her, right in front of her eyes and she wanted to smash it with her hands but as elusive as they may be, the mozzie vanished into the thin air.

Baby - mummy, why did God create mosquitoes?

I paused for a moment, thinking of an appropriate answer to give this inquisitive toddler.

Baby - mummy, I asked you, why did God create mosquitoes??

Me - God created many animals and insects when he created the world.

Baby - but why did he create mosquitoes and tigers to bite us? Why did he create animals that can bite us?

I could not give my baby girl an answer and just told her that I wanted to know the answer too! This rascal always asks me questions which I am lost for answers. Anyone can give a proper answer to this question?

Dining Trays To Minimize Cleaning Up

Do you know what's indispensable at our dining table when #2 and #3 have their meals? A dining tray!

If only I could have it my way, I would want rascal #2 to wear a bib with a food catcher but nope, she wouldn't wear it. NO WAY! After all, she's already 7 years old but a very clumsy and messy 7-year old. Whenever she has her meals, I can be rest assured to see bread crumbs, rice, bones and food scattered on the table and on the floor around where she sits. That's why each time she eats, I will place her bowl, plate and cup on a huge dining tray so that food and spillage of drinks will drop on the tray. Even Baby is not as messy as she wears an Ikea bib with a food catcher, which is her faithful and cute pink froggy bib. Speaking of the Ikea bib, I hope Ikea has replenished their stock for the pink and green froggy bib set that comes with a sippy cup and cute froggy bowl. Last month when I was there, I could not find the bib set. I hope Ikea has restocked this bib set and if they do, I'll make sure I get 3 sets when I make my monthly trip to Ikea next week! They are really affordable, durable, dries up so quickly after washing and damn cute!

And I want to get this cute and colorful Barbar tray with colorful birds too. Planning to get 2 units of this tray - one for Miss Clumsy and one for rascal #3! I'll bet they will love this birdie tray to bits!

Still Very Much A Dilly Dallier After 1.5 Months

After 1.5 months into her first primary school year, Sherilyn is still pretty much the same in terms of her sense of urgency. She still day dreams every morning at the dining table, struggling to finish her mug of milk . She still sits on the throne in a daze and moves about looking zonked out. Each morning, I need to rush her like mad, with Alycia and my mil nagging her along side me.

Every morning, I still need to dress Sherilyn up hurriedly - put on the white shirt for her, help her button up, put on the pinafore for her, comb her hair, feed her Scotts Emulsion, put on socks for her and put on shoes for her at times! If I don't do that, she will be gravely late. She does not have the least bit of panicky feeling even when it is already time to go to the lobby to wait for the transporter and she is totally not ready yet. She was late several times and I felt so bad that the entire van load of kids plus the van driver had to wait for her.

I send Alycia and Sherilyn to bed by 9pm every night but on some days, they will only fall asleep by 10pm, which is on the day that Sherilyn has ballet class in the evening or when the hubs watches TV and they are too distracted by the TV. On most days, they will have at least 8 hours of sleep.

Poor Baby is the victim as she will often be jolted up from her sleep from the commotion every morning. On some mornings, she will wake up at 6am and not go back to sleep at all. This means, I will not get to go to the gym as she will insist in following me. Not liking this at all. Hopefully things will get better over time.

Throes of Motherhood... Of Checking School Bags, Tuition Bags and Homework

During the CNY holidays, I had the time to go through the pile of books and 'rubbish' in the girls' room. During the spring cleaning, I 'unearthed' one of Alycia's Mandarin tuition Math book. After checking the book, I discovered that the last homework that the tuition teacher gave to Alycia was in Nov 2011 and that the homework was never done and the book went MIA! The tuition teacher had kept quiet and so did Alycia. It then dawned on me that this could be just one of the MIA homework books. There could be more in the past. In the past, I was too busy to ever go through the girls' school bags and tuition bags. My new year resolution this year is that I must be more involved in the girls' academic side. I must know what's going on everyday. I hate to have bits and pieces of tiny rubbish swept under the carpet, which are only discovered many months later. As I went through Alycia's school bag the other day, I also discovered some of the things that she did not show me like her weekly Ejaan, Spelling, Ting Xie and Xiao Kau marks. Not that she failed or did not do very well but did not score a 100%. Anyway, I am glad that I realized where my mistake was in the past.

I must now take an effort to check their school bags at least 2 - 3 times a week. And ensuring that their tuition homework is completed and whether the tutor had marked the homework is very important. My mum used to sent me to the supposedly best BM tutor in Ipoh but this VIP and famous tutor was so popular and busy that she never marked our homework! I scored a C6 for my BM in my SPM. My mum never checked my tuition homework back then. Hence, I must ensure that this mistake must NOT repeat itself on my girls, ever!

So coming back to the Mandarin Math workbook that was MIA. I spoke to the tuition teacher when she came and highlighted this matter to her. I then suggested to her that there must be a 'Homework Message Book' for Alycia and Sherilyn each. Each time she comes to our house to tutor the girls, she has to write down the details of the homework in the Homework Message Book. This way, she and I can monitor the girls' homework and ensure that homework given is not missed out for marking / correction during the next tuition lesson. I find this very effective. I have just checked Sherilyn's Homework Message Book and found out that she had 'forgotten' to do a Math tuition homework -- 5 pages some more! She bawled when I reprimanded her. I was very firm with her and told her " finish everything or NO DINNER!" Yes, I am quite a tiger mum and I think this is more effective on my girls.

I wonder, for you working mothers with 3 kids and more, how do you find the time to go through your kids' school bags,tuition bags and homework everyday? Do you ever do it and if yes, how often? It's pretty tough to be a good mom, isn't it?

Sherilyn's 7th Birthday

Since Sherilyn's birthday falls on a Thursday this year (16 February), we decided to have an early celebration for her at a restaurant of her choice, which was Xenri Japanese restaurant @ Wisma Elken last Saturday. Sherilyn also invited her best friend, Berlyn to the dinner. Berlyn and Sherilyn were classmates at pre-school since they were 3-year olds and now they are in the same class, goes to school in the same van and attends swimming lesson and mental arithmetic class together. The 4 rambunctious girls had a fabulous time chatting, talking nonsense, laughing and playing and drew a lot of stares... first on the noise and then on the 4 girls. We even heard a woman exclaiming her surprise that I had 4 daughters! And I am sure other people must have had the same thoughts and that they were thinking that my 4 daughters were a very rowdy lot too!






Some of the sumptuous Japanese spread that we ate...


Scallops, prawns and seafood teppanyaki...


Sashimi and soft shell crab maki...




Hello Kitty was Sherilyn's choice of character for her birthday cake but the bakery did a very shoddy job. The Hello Kitty's face looked a tad distorted and the taste of the cake was a shame too, sigh... that will be our last time buying a cake from that bakery.


Baby over-ate that night. Daddy gave her too much food without me noticing as I was not seated next to her that night. With just a tiny frame, my baby girl slurped down 1 big bowl of Udon, ate 1 piece of soft shell crab maki, had a cup of Chawan Mushi, had Japanese fried rice and popped lots of Edamame beans. All of a sudden, she gave us yet another of her 'over-ate pain in the tummy and I feel like puking' look on her face and told us that her tummy hurt a lot. This girl is very fond of over-eating and puke all her food right on the dining table of the restaurant. So I quickly distracted her and brought her for a stroll outside and then walked up and down the restaurant with her, so that the exercise will help with the digestion. Thank God it did and she managed to hold her food! She skipped the birthday cake that night.

Her Screams Can Pierce Through My Ears!

Of my 3 girls, Cassandra's screams are the loudest and each time she screams, my ear drums vibrate, though I am more than 10 meters away from her. I kid you not and I am not exaggerating. I really felt my ear drums vibrating when I heard her screamed on top of her lungs the other day... and I was about 10 meters away from her! GOSH, her screams were ears piercing sharp!! I think if there was a wine glass on the dining table that day, it would have cracked on its own when she screamed that day!
I must help her kick off her habit of screaming. She screams when she's overly excited during plays with her sisters. She screams when she is bullied by her sisters. And she screams when her whims and fancies are not met. I do not want her to grow up being a spoilt brat who gets on everyone's nerves. I admit we have all been spoiling her rotten ever since she was a baby, caused by her very difficult and painful babyhood. After her 2 surgeries, we spoiled her even more. Now, she's a spoilt brat! A very cute one that is but when she screams when her fancies are not met, stomps her feet and ignores my instructions, I get so fuming mad I feel like strangling her at times!!





My baby girl will surely konk off by 8pm if she skips her afternoon nap. We were at a Chinese restaurant on the 5th day of CNY and waited for almost an hour before we finally got our first dish of yee sang. And Baby waited till she could no longer wait and snoozed off. She slept through dinner and only had bread with butter for dinner that night!

Fashionista

Rascal #2 is truly a fashionista. Wearing fashionable clothes and anything that makes her look good is the name of her game. Games and sports is out for this princess wannabe, except for gymnastics. Yep, she has already told me that she wants to join gymnastics in the extra curricular activities offered by her school. But I have to say that at times, her sense of fashion can be rather atrocious and makes me flip at her creation LOL!

Here's what Sherilyn did to her baby sister...



I was freaking mad with her that instead of doing what I had asked her to do, which was to read her BM book (she will be tested under the LINUS government program and streamed in Std. 2), she zoomed away and played with Baby. But my anger quickly dissipated the moment I saw how she had 'transformed' her baby sister into, which was a supposedly Arabian princess LOL!!!

Hmmm, never mind that she dislikes Math and studying *self consoling myself*, I should tell myself that she still has a 'talent' in her, which is being artistic, imaginative and she has a gift of gab too. Who knows, she will be the next Melinda Looi!

Chap Goh Mei 2012

Enough of expensive lunches and dinners at restaurants and the crazy long wait during the 15-day period CNY. Enough of expensive yee sang. My hubs' aunt made her own healthy yee sang and we had homecooked food at home on Chap Goh Mei.

Hubs' relatives came over for dinner and as usual, we had a dining table filled to the edge with dishes - roast duck, steamed chicken, steamed sausages with arrow roots, char siew, onion omelette, 2 types of fish dish, veggie and soup.

Our homemade healthy yee sang made up of julienned radish, turnip, carrot, pear, parsley, lime juice, plum sauce, toasted sesame seeds, ground peanuts, pomelo, and we replaced the fattening deep fried rectangular wheats with sugar-free corn flakes. Very yummy! Everyone tossed and ate without the guilt. Yep, the restaurant type of yee sang is fattening with loads of gluey sweet plum sauce, oil and deep fried wheat rectangular chips.



There were 2 large plates of yee sang and the kids had their very own plate to toss too!

3kg of Weight Gain For 3 Babies

The CNY snacking and binging continues. It does not help that mil is around and she cooks such nice dishes every night! I find that keeping dinner the lightest meal of the day very effective in keeping weight gain at bay but how can I resist all those mouth watering dishes that she whips up every night? Braised nga koo (arrow roots) with pork, fried fish, braised pork ribs, braised Hakka pork, pork knuckles, etc... I doubt anyone can turn their head away from these dishes. I still indulge in them but take half the portion. Instead of gorging on 4 pieces of pork ribs, I only take 2 pieces, 1 spoonful of nga koo instead of 1 heapful. I stuff myself full with lots of green veggie, soup and lime or lemon juice after dinner. Rice is a NO NO, albeit she only cooks multi-grain rice mixed with Ponni rice (carb reduced).

Good thing I do not have to rush home to prepare Sherilyn for pre-school every morning now. I can work out longer on the road and in the gym. Even with an extra 15 minutes of work out now, I can only maintain my pre-CNY weight. Absolutely no movement on the scale's needle to the left. Heck, I find that as I age, my metabolic rate slows down and stamina decreases too. My weight is still hovering at 45kg. My pre-Cassandra's weight was 44kg, pre-Sherilyn's weight was 43kg and pre-Alycia's weight was 42kg. A gain of 3kg (1kg each for 1 baby) for 3 miracles is all worth it, still!

Feather Headed

I have been sitting in front of my computer for almost half a day but after the 1-week plus CNY holiday, I seem to have lost my blogging mojo. My head seems so light like a feather! An advertiser from the U.S. approached me several days ago to write an advertisement but I just don't have the urge or the urgency to reply him. This is just so not me. I used to be the one chasing advertisers during those hay days 5 years ago but now, it is the other way round. When I am seated in front of my PC, my hand and mind will gravitate towards Facebook where I will ph8t and see what my Facebook friends are doing. Though I have a review to submit, I am unable to think of something to crap about. My mind is empty. I just don't know what to write, unlike years ago where I was capable of writing up to 22 ads in a day and another 10 non-paid posts as filler posts! Just any topic and I could crap it out LOL! I have always felt that I need a little stress to jump-start my brain and body. My mind and body are now in a relax mode and needs some serious jump-starting to get the momentum again. The offer will just expire if I am still unable to dish it out by today. I NEED A BRAIN WAVE NOW!!

Restoran Tong Sheng, Melaka

On our first night in Melaka (trip was from 26 - 28 Dec 2011), we had planned to go to Portugese Settlement for dinner, as recommended by Chin Nee. But the traffic jam leading into Portugese Settlement was horrible! Cars were lining up on the narrow road to get into the Portugese Settlement and they were barely moving. After being stuck there for about half an hour with hungry kids whining away, we gave up and inched our way to make a U-turn to get out. We knew that it could take us another 1-2 hours before we could finally have some food. So the hubster called his friend who is a Malaccan to ask for recommendation for some good restaurants.

After checking out a few other restaurants, we finally settled for Restoran Tong Sheng at Melaka Raya. Thankfully we made the right choice. We loved the food. If we ever go to Melaka again (the hubster vowed never to go again during the school holidays!), we will patronize this restaurant again.

As we were all famished from the long wait and only had McDonald's for lunch, hubster ordered a table filled to the edge with dishes.

Sang har meen (big prawns vermicelli). Tasted top notch. Since this was the first dish that came and everyone was so hungry, every single strand of noodles and every drop of soup were wiped out.



Can't remember if the pic in the foreground was a pork or chicken dish but it was delish... in the background is stir fried pucuk veggie which was very tasty.






Deep fried calamari with deep fried garlic.




Some pork dish. Very tasty but a tad salty for the kiddos..



When this unassuming looking tofu dish came after all the '5-star dishes' arrived, everyone was reluctant to give this dish a try. I was the first to try a small spoonful and there was no regret. This duck's egg tofu dish was delightfully delish and it was all walloped in no time.



Crabs cooked in a creamy sauce with mayo. I find the mayo sauce too creamy for my liking. Still prefer crabs cooked in sweet and sour sauce or steamed. This crab dish arrived last and I was already on the verge of unbuckling my belt, so I just ate a claw and watched everyone enjoy the crabs :D




A menu full of appetizing dishes. If you step into this restaurant in a rumbling, empty stomach, you're bound to be tempted to over-order.





The see thau phor's pictures with celebrities hanging on the wall to boast... the pretty lady with long hair is the owner. You can check out Restoran Tong Sheng Melaka's address below...

Mini Cyclone On 25 January 2012

A bizarre and freak 'mini cyclone' happened yesterday evening at around 7pm that lasted for almost an hour. During the mini cyclone, winds were howling and moving very very swiftly. The rain was very heavy too. From the 5th floor of our unit, we could see deck chairs and dust bins flying into the swimming pool. Big, tall trees that were once rooted majestically on the ground were swaying forcefully. Windows on our unit were vibrating very strongly and I really thought that some of the windows would be blown off the window frame when the strong winds were blowing. As usual, we could hear the eerie howling of the wind very loudly followed by the loud pelting of the rain on the windows. The bathroom windows were banging fiercely back and forth on the window frames. My 3 girls who recently watched a documentary on earth quake were screaming that an earth quake was coming! The wind and rain were so strong that we could not go out to the balcony to keep the clothes. But when clothes hanging began to fall off the rail and the umbrella clothes hanger was almost blown away, I had to go out to salvage the clothes. Our clothes needed to be washed again. Rain water was seeping into our kitchen windows through the small gaps. My helper and mil had to cover the gaps with lots of rags.

This morning when I went out to jog, I was shocked to see the entire neighborhood which was in a total mess! Many trees were uprooted, some fell onto cars and I saw a Proton Waja that was completely wrecked by fallen trees and a lamp post. The nearby shop houses and business centre looked like a post-tsunami hit area with fallen trees and lamp posts everywhere, mud was everywhere, the sight of the totally wrecked car added gravity to the storm that took place yesterday. When I reached the park, I was in for more shock. The entrance of the park was blocked by a very huge tree that had fallen but I managed to walk my way in. Inside the park, there were more fallen trees. The park looked like a jungle and devoid of people. I saw many residents snapping pictures of the post mini-cyclone sight. I overheard many people talking about how bad the storm was and joined in the conversation with the people whom I knew.

Did anyone experience the mini-cyclone yesterday?

Our 1st Day of the Water Dragon 2012 Year

It's been a pretty quiet chor 1 for us. No friends and relatives visiting just yet as almost all our friends and relatives have gone back to their respective hometowns to celebrate CNY. We expect people to start coming on chor 3 onwards. As per our family's custom practiced since decades ago from my side and the hubs' side, the first day of CNY sees us eating fried vegetarian vermicelli and loh hon jai (a vegetarian dish). We do not always eat such dishes on normal days, so having a meat-free day today is well accepted by everyone. I'm really enjoying my peaceful and stress-free CNY holiday where business volume is zilch. I have the time to snack as I wish. Shelling almonds and peanuts is time consuming and I hardly have the time to do nut-snacking on normal days.... except for pre-shelled nuts. I even have the time to nap twice a day tee hee hee... How very peaceful and relaxing * syiok*

Ang pow giving ceremony...


Here's wishing all my readers a very very happy year of the water dragon!

Disappointed and Burning Mad!

I am getting really worried over rascal #2. Despite me telling her repeatedly that copying in a test is a very grave mistake, she still does it. Nope, she did not copy in her school test but in the worksheets and Math questions that I set for her. The other day, I gave her some Math questions to solve. She is very weak in sums involving a line where numbers are missing and she has to fill up the boxes with the correct numbers. I have had a tough time teaching her this and for many days, she still could not grasp the concept. Several days ago, when I marked the paper that I had set Math questions for her, she got the sums all correct. I was so happy thinking that she finally got it right and had mastered the concept. I pat her head and shoulders and praised her sky high!

The next day I gave her another set of questions, which I set myself. When I went to the table to see how she was doing (as my motherly instinct told me that this girl would still be up to mischief again), I noticed that the answers were all correct too but this little cheater is not a pro cheater. There were no workings done! The paper was clean with the answer neatly written! I immediately knew where she copied the answers from. It was from an exercise book, with the times table printed on the back cover! The Math questions paper was on top of the exercise book as she was trying to hide the book!!! I was so so so mad with my little cheater that I could feel myself transforming into the most evil mom on earth with fangs and long sharp finger nails slowly emerging from my breaking skin!. I pinched her arm and ears. I hit her hand. I was burning with anger that she still cheated despite me telling her umpteen times not to do it. I was very very heart-broken and disappointed. I was also very regretful over hitting and pinching her so hard. How is she going to fare in her school exams soon? How will she fare in her Linus test soon? I hope she will not cheat and be kicked out from school. I am so worried over this girl. I really don't know how to manage her. I have told the hubs that it's best that we send her to the daycare cum tuition center located a few doors away from the hubs' office. She is very excited to go to the daycare centre as her best friend Berlyn is also attending that daycare. I think with teachers and peers surrounding her, she will be better disciplined. It will be better for our already strained relationship. I wonder what and how I have failed in teaching her.

Lucky or Monotonous?

So many of my blog friends and Facebook friends have commented that CNY is just a week away and yet they have so much to do. I guess that I am the only one who is 'lucky' enough that I don't have to do any CNY preparations!

Pre-CNY 'chores' that most people celebrating CNY need to do:

Buy new clothes - I sell them, so I can get lots for myself and my 3 girls at the click of my mouse. So no need to make a mad rush to the mall, queue up for fitting rooms and to pay :D

Change new notes - We still have a stack of new notes from last year that were not used :D

Spring clean the house - we spring clean the house everyday, thank God for giving me a helper :D

Bake cookies - I never have to do this! This morning, the hubs brought us to our usual supplier of CNY cookies and bought 6 types of cookies and my mum is also making some. So sweat free for me :D

Planning CNY dishes for the first 3 days - never had to do any planning too as my dear MIL will be the cook. In years that she was away overseas, the hubs brought us to dine in the hotel :D

Decorate the house - my hubs and mil will normally be the house decorator, so I don't have to decorate or buy any CNY decor too :D

So am I considered lucky? Or I have a pretty monotonous and boring life? :D

Hard Habit Finally Broken!

After a little close to 7 years, she finally stopped sucking her thumb! It was certainly not easy to break this habit for she had sought so much comfort from sucking her thumb right from the start. The ultrasound scans often showed her sucking her thumb, while she was comfortably all curled up inside her cocoon, during my pre natal check-ups.

She would suck her thumb whenever she was sleepy, bored and during slumberland. She did not like the pacifier nor the boops, so her own thumb was her best pacifier and solace. I used to find her really really adorable whenever I saw her sucking her thumb when she was a baby. I still thought that it was cute when she was 3 years old and still sucking her thumb. But I did not think it was cute anymore when she still sucked her thumb when she was already over 6 years old! I encouraged her to stop sucking her thumb and made up stories that her teeth would jut out like a rabbit or monkey's teeth if she continued sucking her thumb but that did not manage to deter this willful child of mine. Yep, she has a head as hard as her mummy's head! That's why we often clash. All of a sudden about a month or two back, I noticed that she did not suck her thumb anymore when she was asleep. Her che che, who is a very good watch dog and whistler blower would always report to me if her 2 younger sisters did anything naughty or wrong. So I asked her che che if her 2nd sister had stopped sucking her thumb and she said YES! I said really?? And she resounded a YES! Finally my Standard 1 baby girl is no longer a baby. She is now done and over with thumb-sucking, which was once the hardest habit for her to break.

I wish and pray that all of a sudden one fine day, this rascal will surprise me by jumping out of her dilly dally skin and tell me "mummy, I am a new me. I don't dilly dally anymore!!" I dare not imagine how she will fare in her exams. She is the polar opposite of her che che who is more serious in her studies and she can be given an award for punctuality. I hope my rascal will again give me the least expected surprise and make me really proud of her one day.

I Love Them So Much!

Last night while surfing the net for some birthday ideas for my friend who is getting married next month, I came across this jewelry website which offers such exquisite diamonds I have never seen before. Just look at these laboratory diamond earrings, aren’t they breathtaking? I am going to share this website with my girlfriends, it would be a wonderful gift to give our friend for her wedding. Now the problem is, we might not be able to choose which eco diamonds and jewelry to buy for her… shall we start with the yellow earrings first? My favorite color is blue and the pair of blue dazzling diamond earrings has caught my attention!

En Ginza Cafe @ Tokyo Street, Pavillion KL

My foodie hubs who is in the food and beverage business loves trying out food at new places and places that he has never been to. After having known him for over 20 years, I have gone to countless numbers of eateries, restaurants, 'tai chau' places, fine dine restaurants and shack-like damn good food places with him. And our eating jaunt is still on-going... with him growing side ways and forward and me maintaining a still svelte figure *cough cough*

When we were at Tokyo Street on the 2nd day of the New Year, we had our second lunch for the day at Ginza Cafe. I told the hubs that I was not interested in another lunch but my hubby just being him, went ahead and ordered a plate of seafood spaghetti and a big juicy burger! I tried hard to refrain from pecking on the food as I was still pretty stuffed from the Ochada pearl tea, Kindori ice cream, Japanese buns from Loaf and our lunch at a Japanese restaurant 2 hours ago but the green tea bun was too alluring and stared at me. Being a green tea fan, how could I say NO to anything that is made with green tea? So I tried a bite and I immediately let out a "yUuuuuuuuuuM" when my teeth sank on the juicy beef burger. The beef burger was indeed delish! The green tea bun was a tad dry though. The seafood spaghetti (pic not taken) was also very good and was whacked in no time by my 3 spaghetti lovers.

Verdict : will definitely have a 2nd visit to Ginza Cafe! This time, we shall try the seafood green curry and tofu cheesecake. Soon, soon, we'll be there again!

Mega Busy Day Today

Today is set to be a mega busy day for me. I am expecting 4 huge bags of stock from 4 of my suppliers. Today, Unify will be coming to install broadband internet too. Praying hard that my internet connection will not be disrupted during the transition from Streamyx to Unify, otherwise nothing gets done but will only lead to a huge pile of work undone. This is a very busy week for me as I must rush out all my customers' orders before CNY, lest I see complaints written all over my FB wall or worst - phone calls from some impatient customers. I told the girls that tonight I am not going to cook dinner as kakak has to help me with the QA check of all the clothes. We will be going downstairs to the Japanese restaurant at our condo for dinner. The girls are so happy to be able to have Japanese food for dinner on a school going day, which is something that we rarely do. Wishing myself lots of good luck and hopefully everything will proceed smoothly. I am so looking forward to the long CNY break. That's the only time of the year when I can take a long rest as business is usually very slow during this period.

Room For Rent

When I first came to KL more than 20 years ago to study in a college, my mum sent me to stay in the hostel provided by the college. On the day I arrived in KL and saw the condition of the hostel, I almost wanted to run away! Gosh, it was in a pathetic condition. The bathrooms were filthy and never washed!! Being a clean freak, I volunteered to wash the bathroom. I almost wanted to puke when I scrubbed the toilet bowl and the bathroom floor. I could not sleep at night as students who stayed there were chatting loudly at night and some quarreling the whole night. I enlisted my then boyfriend’s help (now hubby) to find me another place to stay. I wanted to move away from the hostel as soon as possible! After a week, I moved out. My boyfriend found me a place to stay at his classmate’s friend’s house. It was not a choice room to rent. The owner was somebody’s mistress and I could not stand her young son who was a spoilt brat. The landlady was also very money-minded and calculative. Though the house was clean and neat, the bus-stop was located about 15-20 minutes’ walk away from the house. Each day I had to endure fear by walking past a quiet playground and some lonely alleys. Many times, I stumbled upon flashers and perverts during my walk to and fro the bus stop. Again, all these prompted me to hunt for another room to rent. But the mission was not easy as I had many conditions, mainly the price, the location and condition of the house and who the landlord / landlady is. So I stayed in the current place for 6 years and endured many frightful moments before a watershed incident in 1996. As I was walking to the bus stop from my rented room one morning, my handbag was snatched by a motorcyclist. I took it as a sign from God that I should move out as soon as possible.

I then rented a house in a new neighborhood and sub-rented the rooms. The first time I was brought to this neighborhood by my then boyfriend, I fell in love with it instantly. I wanted to live there forever and yes, I am still living in this neighborhood now but we moved out from the rented house and now have our own condo.

Finding a room for rent these days is so easy. We do not have to go to 7-11 shops to check out room to let ads or drive round neighborhoods to find rooms. Websites like ibilik.my – Malaysia’s largest room database is god-sent. You can sieve through rooms for rental at the click of your mouse at the comfort of your own home. If you are looking for a room to rent either for yourself, for your girlfriend or boyfriend, do check out the link provided above.

Public taxis with the ibilik.my ads. Finding a room to rent now is just so easy!

Hokkaido Mille Crepe Cake @ Tokyo Street, Pavillion KL

Lately, there has been a lot of hype on Mille Crepe cakes. This cake-like-dessert is actually French and the name originated from the many layers (hence Mille) of crepes and cream used to make it. My first try of Mille Crepe cake was at Food Foundry in Section 17, PJ. My hubs was addicted to this cake. At one point of time last year, he was so fanatic over the Mille Crepe cakes from Food Foundry that he would drive us to the cafe at 10pm to satiate his craving LOL!

While we were at Tokyo Street @ Pavillion last week, my Mille Crepe cake craze hubs bought 2 slices of Mille Crepe Cake from Arthur's Hokkaido Mille Crepe Cake.


Our green tea and original Mille Crepe Cake from Hokkaido Mille Crepe Cake.

Verdict : texture is softer than the ones sold at Food Foundry. The original one tastes almost the same as Food Foundry but texture is much softer. I love the green tea flavour. In fact, I love everything green tea, even my perfume is green tea scent :D
Best eaten immediately after it has been served, otherwise the cake will become so squashy that you cannot even lift it up with your fingers, like in our case where half the slice of cake was not eaten immediately and left in room temperature. It sort of 'disintegrated' and the mushy cake was just too yucky to be placed into my mouth.

Pissed Off By A Customer

I am really pissed off by a customer today when she called me today and said that I was 'action' when I told her that I do not accept orders over the phone and I do not practice reservation without any payment. My online store's policy is that reservation of clothes or for any item will only be made after full payment is made. 2 years ago when I just started my online business, I had allowed customers to reserve an item without payment but after a few bad incidents which left me with clothes that were never paid for when the customers disappeared and never replied my calls and emails, I decided to put a stop to non-payment reservation.

After my encounter with a handful of MIA customers (some were my regular), I have to put my foot down and say no more reservation and no more down payment for reservation. Last year, I had a reseller who paid me a 50% down payment for stock worth over RM500 but she never came back to collect her stock. My countless numbers of emails, text messages and calls to her were never returned but thank God, I managed to sell all the stock! Thank God for helping me out as the items that she ordered were specialized items, which not many people will buy.

Many times I had reserved an item for a customer and turned away the next customer who is interested, only to be informed by the first customer much later that she is not interested anymore. Needless to say, the second customer was not interested anymore later. The result is I had lost both the customers. Hence, I have made up my mind that reservation of an item will only be made after payment is made... and on a first pay first get basis. Ordering will only be taken if they are made through email or Facebook message. No verbal reservation will be accepted anymore.

Now back to this customer. She had re-assured me profusely that she is very genuine in her purchase but she can only pay up after 1 month! That item is not even RM40! I told her that as per our store's policy this is not possible but she snapped at me and said "you cannot be so action you know" in Cantonese... at which time I could feel my blood turn hot from my heart shooting up to my head. I tried hard not to blow up and raise my voice but told her that she cannot say that I am 'action' as a store's policy is a policy and it cannot be tweaked however way a customer wants it. I don't think any online store will entertain a customer's non-payment reservation through the phone and with payment only to be made after one month, unless if the person is the seller's good friend or relative. Customers like this really spoils my day.

Recently a customer called me up when I was on a holiday, put words in my mouth (when she did not read my earlier messages to her with all the terms and conditions of purchase) and asked for a refund. Thank you God again for helping me to settle this matter amicably. Now she wants to order from me again but I am very hesitant to accept this order. Money cannot buy happiness and money is not everything. Of course, I have good customers too. I have several generous customers who paid me tip by asking me to keep the change. On the whole, most of my customers are easy going and some are heaven sent haha! I do pray to God to send me only good customers, customers who will not spoil my day and make me to believe that I am all out to cheat them. Oh please, I am here to do long-term business and my store is not a fly-by-night store. And let me tell you, some customers are out there to cheat sellers like me by tricking me into believing that they had made payment but in actual fact, no payment was ever made!

Hectic Life Of School Kids These Days

I think most kids in this generation (Z) are stressed out kids, unlike kids my era, aka the Generation Y kids. School-going kids these days have to wake up before 6am, leave the house at 6:30-6:45am for school and only to reach the door step of their home at 2ish pm... and finally having their lunch at close to 3pm. For the past 2 days ever since school reopened yesterday, Alycia and Sherilyn have been waking up at 5:45am, leaving the house at 6:30am and only reaching home at 2:15 - 2:30pm.

Yesterday Sherilyn's ballet class started at 6:30pm. By the time this Miss Dilly Dally finished her lunch, it was almost 4pm! Yup, she will sit, talk, walk around, whine a bit, fight a bit with her sisters or the maid, KPC here and there and after much threats from me and with me removing her unfinished food, it was already close to 4pm. After her shower and more dilly-dallying, it's time to leave the house for ballet. By the time she reached home after ballet class, it was almost 8pm... and that's when she ate her dinner. Even with dinner, I have to keep rushing her to finish her food, rushed her to shower again, rushed her to dry her hair, to wear her jammies and kick her to bed by 9:30pm, so that she has enough shut eye for her brain to function optimally the next day.

This year, Alycia who is in P3 is compelled to join at least 1 extra curricular activity in school and I have encouraged her to join Mental Arithmetic, albeit she is a tad reluctant as she wants to join the Robotics Class. Both classes are fees based, not free. She is already having swimming lessons, Mandarin tuition class twice a week and I am contemplating sending her for Art class. With the extra curricular class that will start soon, everyday of her week will be filled with activities. I wonder if she will have the time to complete her homework. I don't remember my primary school years being that hectic. I only have very fond memories of playing with my brothers and neighbors every evening from 5pm - 6pm, where we can cycle within 5km away from our house, buy snacks and sugared doughnuts from the 'ting ting roti man' on his bike, fly kites, climb tree, play marbles (oh this is a game that is slowly dying!), catch tadpoles in the drains and everything that we could think of that fun can be created outside of the house! I am indeed sad that my kids can never enjoy this outdoor fun now for the outside world is no longer safe like it used to be 30 years ago. Can't belive how my mum can have the peace of mind to allow me to cycle alone to a river located about 3km away from my house and I was just 9 years old then! And I was allowed to walk alone to the nearby sundry shop to help her buy groceries when I was just 8 or 9 years old! Life then was just so peaceful and serene.


Lunch at almost 3pm and Alycia told me that she had left her purse in her classroom and dared not enter the class. So she did not eat anything yesterday. She only had a mug of milk at 6am to last her until 2:30pm! I gave her a looooooong lecture and told her what she should have done.

End Of Holidays, Yipee!

I can't believe that the 6 weeks of school holidays is OVER and I am actually looking forward to school-going days again LOL! Tomorrow Sherilyn will join her che che in the 'big girls' school'. God please help Sherilyn to be able to cope well, just like how Alycia did. Please help Sherilyn NOT to dilly dally as she has to be ready and be at the lobby at 6:30am for the van driver to pick her and her che che up. And pretty please dear God, help Sherilyn not to turn out to be the top 10 from the bottom in class in her exams. Help her to change over a new leaf and be a good girl. I like her boldness, her confidence and her gift of gab but I want her to be more serious in her studies and not yak yak yak in class. It's not helping that her best friend in kindy - Berlyn will sit next to her in class! I really hope they will remain BFF but not yakking too much while lessons are on-going as this will definitely take a toll on their studies.

From tomorrow onwards Alycia and Sherilyn will have to wake up by 5:45am to get ready, lest they are late. If 1 person is late, the whole van load of students will be late for school too! This means I have to be up first at 5:30am!! Jeez, after having the luxury to wake up at 6:45am - 7ish am during the school holidays, I have to adjust myself back to the old grind. But waking up early has its advantages too. I love running around my condo compound when it's still pitch black and breezy, before hitting the gym and by the time I reach home, it is not even 7:30am yet! Hopefully I can get some work done before Cass wakes up. I am not sending Cass to school yet, still trying to drag it to mid of this year, due to various reasons. Hopefully by God's grace, my baby girl's urinary tract will show some gross improvements. And hopefully she will not fall sick every single month like Alycia did 5 years ago, when she starts pre-school in June this year.



When we went up North during the school hols 2 weeks ago, I got a shock of my life when we were in the car. On our way to to Penang, I realized that my vain pot had smuggled her musical box, filled with all her vanity stuff in her Smurfette bag. Before the trip, I was too busy packing and clearing my work that I did not have the time to perform a spot check on her bag, like I used to. And more surprises unfolded later when I fished out an abacus and a whole bag of paraphernalia that she had taken from her room *cough and gasp*!!