My precious rings

I took this while caught in a jam on my way to aerobics yesterday.

Gifts from my hubby eight and a half years ago, the band is our wedding ring with his name and our wedding date carved at the inner side, hubby is wearing one which is identical (the source of reminder for our wedding anniversary). The diamond stud is a so call engagement ring that I requested before agreeing to marry him. He claimed it’s the most expensive item he had ever bought for a lady, I’m thinking of upgrading the stud to something more lavish on our 10th anniversary, something like this? What do you think? Hubby must be cold sweating now.

Dining at Clinic?

I saw this while venturing Clarke Quay, Singapore recently and took these pictures, it’s an eating place but the special settings caught my attention.

Everybody sits in wheel chairs, the lights used is the same as one used in an operating theater but smaller ones, for those who just want to hang out for a drink, they have these small area partitioned up just like waiting area in the hospital or clinic.

I guess they are serving Hospital like food too…. though interesting, didn’t feel like eating at such place, how about you?

Burn that fats!

I’ve been eating a lot recently, below are my eating routines:

6.30 am – wake up and drink a glass of warm water
6.45am – make a glass of supplement, I’m taking Phyto Greens
8.00am – breakfast (usually 3 slices of bread spread with jams/tunas/egg) with a cup of cereal, if not taking bread sometimes I’ll take “wan tan mee”, economy char bee hun, clear soup noodles and occasionally nasi lemak
11.00am – stomach growling already, munch on some whole meal biscuits
12.30pm – lunch, either noodle or rice dish, on Fridays I normally try special stuff…
4.00 pm – stomach growling again, snack time, sometimes I’ll make a cup of cereal, get a cup of milo from the vending machine, searching around the office to ask food from colleagues, tried to munch on healthy snacks
7.30 pm – dinner, rice with cater food (yaks, but no choice) and home boiled soup ( I boiled soup at least 4 times/week)
10.30 pm – occasionally supper treat with hubby but very rare…

And NO, “I’M NOT PREGNANT”, but one thing I realized if I’m thinking a lot and one week before menses, I sure got good appetite.

Eating too much, so yesterday I went for an aerobics session, an outdoor session with folks from all walks of life, young and old, Chinese, Indians, Muslims, uncles, aunties, children…… yeap, can’t believe it right? Well there is this park near Relau called “Taman Metropolitan”, as a community activity, the local authority conduct free “Aerobics with Rose” every Thursday evening from 6-7pm and on Sun mornings (not sure… cause I’ll be church the whole morning, can’t attend so could not be bothered of the time). I had an enjoyable time burning my fats and really sweat it out. The session was very lively with all types of numbers (Chinese, Indian, Hindustan, Malay, Japanese songs). The park has a reasonable size children playground and well maintained, I bring my girls there occasionally.

The aerobicians in action, I took this when taking my break, real exhausted!



One of species in the park, a whole lot more but they aren't blooming

Hair affairs

People around commented that I changed quite frequently, I'm still very much the down to earth person but they are referring to my hairstyle, well...... I answered, "kind of bored with my old hairstyle, so trying different hairstyle add a bit color to my life", so here you are, below are some hairstyles that I carried for the past 3-4 years, for those who knew me well before, I used to adopt a boy-cut, no-frills hairstyle for many many years, only these few years started to try different hairstyle nia.... So what say you? I personally preferred my long straight look!

Story telling

Can’t recall when I started bedtime story telling routine with my girls, I think probably when Michelle is two. One story I remembered telling over and over again (easily more than 50 times) is the Cinderella. Of course there are many other stories like Jack and the beanstalk, sleeping beauty, ugly duckling, 3 little pigs, little red riding hood, Noah and the ark, Daniel in the lion’s den, Adam and Eve, Esther the queen……the list goes on…

Whenever one of us need to travel, the girls will get to sleep with us (the whole night through), when we are back we sent them back to their own room, well being away for 3 days give my daughters the privilege to sleep in our room recently and yesterday suppose to be the last bonus night having them in our room (because I’m back). Before we all go to bed, story telling time but yesterday we did it differently, Jeh Jeh suggested that each of us tell a story then we all go to sleep, it started with Jeh Jeh, the story of a cat, a dog and a big bad wolf , followed by Mei Mei’s which is pretty long winded and quite complicated (actually we don’t know what is she trying to tell us, anyway it’s a story so we pretended that we fully understood and is enjoying it) and lastly I told mine. It’s really a fun session and I could tell they really told them out of their hearts, I was pretty tired and suggested that we all go to bed but Mei Mei’s objected saying she got another story to tell, me and Jeh Jeh raised our eye brows and in our hearts…there goes another boring long winded, don’t know what story……….

Finally Mei Mei finished her last sentence……. “The End”, we were so glad that it was finally over and we all went to bed after saying our goodnights, I love yous and sweet dreams………Oh ya…. After each of our story session, we always end with the moral of the story, so we asked Jeh Jeh what’s the moral of your story? “We must help each other” she answered, what about Mei Mei’s? Mei Mei gladly proclaimed “I don’t know” and giggling all the way. Aren’t they cute?

LV

LV - branded bags. It cost a bomb to own one, I remembered my sis in-law used to craze over this LV bags and she owns a few (real ones!) I also heard of stories people (syndicate) organizing trips to Europe, the tour leader will give the tourist (most of them aunties) money, sponsored their tickts, they in return will need to buy according to the models required and when they are back, returned the bags to the tour leader and the tour leader will sell them locally, in other words, run away from taxlah.

So the recent trip to S'pore, I went to Bugis, and saw this crowd, guess what? LV bags on sale, I squeezed myself in and a lot of purses and wallets on sale, they were kept in a deep suit case, just in case the authority came, the seller will just zip the bag and run, I guessed. "I thought Singaporeans don't buy fakes!" one of my colleague said. He he he, we gotcha! Did I buy one, nope! Maybe I'll get one from Bangkok in the night market someday!

Bears bears and more bears

My bears collection, all given by my bearie friends and colleagues during my graduation, here is an appreciation blog to them:

The twins were given by Dorene, I named them "Dolly & Molly", the purplish bouquet given by lovely Esther, I named them "Estee & Elly", the big "Kong" given by my dear colleagues, the other bouquet on the far right given by colleagues too, the outstanding pinglet given by my lunch mates (my colleagues too) and I called her "Pinky", yeah I have a lot of colleagues, they were very supportive, here's a picture of the whole gang!

School camp

I used to attend camps in my secondary school days but now my 5-year old is attending one. RM180.00 for three weeks program, 8.30 – 12.00 noon. I wonder what they do? So one day I dropped by and asked the school principal. She told me they will equip the child with some basic living skills, taught them some basic house work, a full day nature tour etc…. Okay I said, in that case I would expect Michelle to be a little bit more helpful at home after the camp like washing the dishes, mopping the floor, preparing for breakfast, put the clothes in the washing machine, hang them and fold them, attend to my garden, water the plants etc………….. Ha ha am I crazy or what?

I asked my girl to provide a daily verbal report on what she has learnt, so far her reports covered spreading jam onto bread, making Milo, drying the dishes, visiting the park and learning about monkeys and nature, planting, painting………… very enriching.. below is Michelle’s first planting project and Emily’s too, jeh jeh taught her how to plant, we are having fried salted fish bean sprouts tonight, anybody care to join us for dinner?

Surprise!

I love giving surprises to my girls! The joy in their face simply melt my heart and contentment over flow me as I watched their expression and response. Got back from S’pore this morning, they were away at school camp, won’t be back till late afternoon, so what I did was I hung the surprises up (in my room) and when they reach home, they will normally go to their room and change, get their water bottle and “chou chou” (smelly pillows and bolsters) and lie down on the mattress. So when they go into my room, they will be surprise! “How come got…. Who bought it? Where’s mummy? Wah….oh…… I wanna try them on” and they will be dancing like princesses, after all they are my princesses…. Still need to go to the office today, can’t wait to be back home and hug them…..

Sean and I

Finally Sean and I are meeting up and last Sunday we have the opportunity to share some intimate moments together. He he, you must be wandering who is Sean eh? Sexy name eh? Well he’s my ex-….

Yeap, you are right, he is my ex-schoolmate’s simply adorable 2 year old son… (what were you thinking??). Me and his mom are best friends back in our childhood days and still are, this is the first time I met up with her in maybe 5 or 6 years, heard so much about Sean on her blog and finally we shared some time together last Sunday during my business trip to Singapore, catching up with his mom, a dedicated and extremely busy teacher and finally meeting his dad, a very sporting and muscular guy (keep asking me about the wife’s previous boyfriends….). We spent time catching up, girls talk (auntie’s talk) and of course played with Sean, he is simply photogenic and loves taking pictures (for a boy!) no camera shy at all! Maybe Sean will grow up being Mr. Singapore and all the gals will be crazy over him. Sean’s mom complained he has attitude problem, not responsive, selective hearing (clever boy! Only hears what he wanted to hear), slow to speak and don’t like reading. Don’t worry I said, he will learn to do what he is suppose to do in his time, he is just being a boy, who cares what girls can do at two!

Here is my favorite picture with Sean…..

Ballerinas

I want a raise!

Year end, time for performance review, my boss is going down to corporate office for the annual budget meeting and to fight for a better increment for us this year, good boss! But she commented if we don’t see her back, then we should know the outcome! To support her, I dig all my previous economics material, provide her with the inflation rate and CPI index, a salary report from the Jobstreet demonstrating how lowly paid we are compared to the general market out there, the history of petrol price hike and also the increased price list for our necessities. Hopefully our CEO in Singapore has pity on us and approved a minimum of 20% increment!!

The recent price hike on flour resulted in everybody (the hawkers, supermarkets, restaurant operators, mini marts owners etc…) increasing their price, let me share with you their so call “suck blood” exercise:

Gardenia bread – RM1.90 – RM2.10 (up 11%)
Economy char bee hoon – RM1.00 - RM1.20 (up 20%)
Hokkien mee – RM2.00 – RM2.50 (up 25%)
Herbal tea – RM1.00 – RM1.10 (up 10%)
Milk powder – RM16.80 – RM18.90 (up 12.5%)
Cooking oil (Vecorn) – RM17.00 – RM21.00 (up 24%)

So with all these price hike nonsense, it’s logic and appropriate that we demand for a better increment this year, not to enjoy a better life but more on survival (so poor thing). One bad news is the petrol price is expected to be increased again next year and here goes the chain effect again, the price of everything basically up, up and up again. I think I need to work out with my hubby on car pooling strategy, how we can save energy, water, groceries list, how to achieve the same outcome with less, use less resources and all these without any conflict and minimum impact to the kids and mom in-law. A call for “lean home operation” mission. Just in case my boss failed in convincing our bosses ….. sign….

Can't sleep!

Can’t sleep well recently……hmm……sign of ageing, my definition of can’t sleep - tossing left and right and still being alert after more than 15 minutes on bed, well last night was one of those session. I accompanied my girls to sleep while my hubby watched DVD, by eleven the girls had slept and I tiptoed out of their room, joined my hubby for the show, by the time the show ended it was about half past eleven, we chatted over our girls and soon my hubby went quiet…… Little Emily was making some noise next door…. Wanted to wee but can’t pull herself up, so I went over, brought her to her potty, changed her pants and slept with her for a while, went back to my room again, tossed for another 15 minutes or so, Emily made some noise again, went over to check on her, this time she complained of nose block, adjusted her pillow, comforted her and soon she went back to sleep again, I’m still quite awake, stared at my elder daughter, so cute and slumber in her sleep, say a prayer of thanksgiving to God for my wonderful girls. Went back to my room again, trying hard to sleep and next I heard some sound, like someone is on the potty, this time my elder daughter woke up for nature calling, she took a peep at our room and walked back to her room again……. hubby was sleeping soundly…………don’t know what time I actually slept yesterday, waken by the toilet sound, mom in-law woke up and is getting ready for her morning exercise….soon my alarm rang and pulled myself to work this morning, felt like a zombie now, yawn yawn yawn…….zzzzzzzzzzzz, I’m not submitting any figures today, so it’s ok……….. how nice if my company has napping session policy…. I could easily felt asleep now………

4As & 1B!

How do you teach children to deal with failure or disappointments? I have 2 nieces who received their UPSR results today, one scored 7As and the other 4As and 1Bs, when I called the latter, my sis told me she is crying. I sms her telling her that we Penang folks were very proud of her, each “B” was meant to encourage us to do better next time, look at the 4As and not the B. I knew it’s easier said than done, let her cried her heart out and everything will be normal again, it’s part of growing up.

I believe for us to teach children to deal with disappointments, we as parents must deal with our own self first, sometimes without realizing we are putting our hopes and dreams in our children, when our children did well, it gives us such a nice feeling and vice versa. Next put ourselves into our child’s shoes, encourage her to express her thoughts and feelings, be a good listener and give your full assurance that it is alright to fail and basically fine to be disappointed, failure is acceptable and permissible, shared your own experience of dealing with disappointments and motivate her to move on. My hubby used to quote, “Fill our children with love, when their love tank is full, they will be free to express and their full potential manifested”.

So I hope my niece will learn to deal with her disappointment and move on……… Ah Yee (aunt in Cantonese) certainly have a lot of life experience dealing with failure and disappointments, things turn out fine after all, so cheer up Sha Sha….

My roots

I went back to Kampar specifically to check on my mom who is not feeling well. She is weak nowadays and tired easily but she is happy to see us back, some noise in the house lightened her up and her appetite improved. My sis will be back next week with my nieces to make some noise and to check on her again and then my brother’s family. I remembered my mom used to comment, “don’t come back all at once, one family at a time, I can’t cook for you all, furthermore when you all leave, everything is so quiet and it’s such a bad feeling”. Really feel heavy hearted to leave her and dad at home but life have to go on, I will just need to trust them in God’s hands. For those who are staying with your parents, please cherish them, I had to leave home when I was 19 to further my studies and every year for the past 15 years typically I only spent maybe 20 days annually at home. No matter how many children you have eventually all the birds will have to leave the nest but let’s not forget our roots.

Celebrated mom’s birthday on the 12th, I prayed for mom to be well, most importantly for her soul to be refined and her spiritual thirst quenched by the love of God. We went for a sumptuous lunch at Tanjung Tualang, a small town about 20km from Kampar, a place famous for seafood particularly the fresh water prawns and catfish. Didn’t bring my camera down… We ordered a kilo of prawns (RM55) to be steamed, a catfish (RM26) and a vegetarian tofu dish, we had a good birthday lunch, the girls kissed grandma farewell and we bid farewell to my parents who got to another car……..Here wishing mom and dad good health and joyful always, I miss my parents….

There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots, the other is wings. Hodding Carter Jr.

Proud parents

Today, me and hubby on 1/2 day leave, not to "curi-curi pak toh" but for our daughters' annual concert event. It's a big thing in their kindy and being proud parents we supported them all the way. Little Emily will be doing a group patriotic dance "Malaysiaku Gemilang" and Michelle will be performing a group "Little Angel dance", recite a short well wishes to the graduating students and sang as well.. So I'm going to be a "Ma Ma Sing" for the night, he he he. It's just amazing little things like this make us parents so proud. We bought a Kancil for my mom in-law to fetch them to school when they started kindy and I guess I have to buy an airplane for them when they reach college years...there was once an old saying, one parent can bring up 10 kids but 10 kids can't take care of one parent.....I may not enjoy what my kids did back in my childhood days, but I'm glad that I lack nothing... thanks mom and dad... now it's time I take care of both of you..

Worried

I called my mom yesterday to check on her as for the past 3 months she has been suffering from severe foot pain. A few visits to different doctors seems not able to diagnose the actual problem, some said it’s due to the inflammation of some nerves, inconsistent blood circulation, low red cell count….. Hearing from her voice, she’s under tremendous pain as the pain has now shifted to the calf and back area, now the doctor said it’s due to her bones….I’m broken hearted… I’m going back to check her out this week and was thinking of celebrating her birthday too on the 12th Nov, certainly don’t hope to see her in pain. I could not do anything except to trust the Lord to heal her and comfort her. She has been very negative lately saying it’s incurable, what will happen to dad if she goes first etc….. We will go someday, but it’s my prayer that she will go with hope and assurance that the good Lord is going to be with her if only she place her trust in Him, our life here on earth is temporal but our life in heaven is going to be eternal. Mom, I love you, stay strong.

Back and sick!

After a week silence, I’m back. If you are wondering where I have been, well 3 days at Langkawi, one day at home taking care of my sick kids, my mom in-law was sick too! One day at home recuperating (I’m sick too). Anyway thank God we are getting better. When will I learnt that holidays was meant to have rest, actually my hubby and I were planning to go Bangkok for a shopping spree next week but dropped the idea, we are learning to really rest during holidays (if the shopping bug don't bite me, he he he). I’ll blog more during my next long break, good idea?

Well mummy and daddy were guilty of loosening our rules during the trip e.g. letting our girls took junk foods, icy drinks, making their routine all upside down, taking the boat ride which was so windy (but was nice!), causing them cannot “pang sai” for two days, even mom in-law who was normally the toughest also fell sick. Hai….

Anyway the trip to Langkawi is so so only, we only went to two places (the Kilim Geoforest Park and cable car ride), the other family that went with us is all unharmed and is healthy as charging bulls, we were so “lembik”. Below are some shots that we took.

Padi field along the highway.., our primary staple food, thank God for padi farmers, can't live without rice, cause I'm a "tong nasi"


Our lunch cum dinner place near the Kuah ferry, delicious and reasonable price, I forgot to take the dishes presentation cause too hungry and we wallop everything!


The crabs before we ate them, the lady boss recommend them to be stir fried with curry powder... the flesh is thick and so very delicious, here goes my cholesterol level again..


Our chalet, 3202 built in the luxirous jungle.. Berjaya resort.. a lot of monkeys, we must always locked all the windows and doors, they came in gangs..


Me and the balcony view, spectacular giant trees and fresh air.. thank you Lord for the nature...


Some more chalet view, there are more than 500 chalets and built in the forest, we have to take the buggy up and down.. the kids enjoyed them..


Kilim Geoforest park, a 2 hour boat tour cum sightseeing...


Fish feeding, this fish will spit water onto the food to make it drop into the pond or simply jump up to snatch the bait from your fingers, so clever..


Educational session for the girls..


Mangrove forest view, look like trip to China crusing the river or not?


Crocodile cave, we are coming out from the crocodile's jaw, ah don't eat us...


Eagle feeding session, eagle feeding on chicken meat.... the Lord says, wait upon Him and He will make us soar like eagles!


Next, the bat cave... aiyah very smelly meh, once you are in there, not that bad, ee... see the bats hanging on the wall of the cave.... yaks...


What is Langkawi without going to the beach, here the girls playing with the sand...


I drew Emily on the sand, pretty isn't it?

To be continued.........