Sunday, September 28, 2008

Selamat Hari Raya

Here's wishing all our Muslim friends Selamat Hari Raya, especially to my "feel good" ex-colleagues (you know who you are) and my old classmates whom I've not met for the past 15-22 years, until Facebook came along and connected us all!

Also, drive safely to those who are travelling and Happy Holidays to everyone!
Oh, and these are the two little chinese kids in their indian costumes wishing our Malay friends Selamat Hari Raya!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Milk scandal?

I was just reading a piece of news on babies in China being given formula milk since they were born!!

Oh my, don’t these mothers know that a mother’s milk is the BEST that one can give to their child?! And the ‘first milk’ called the colustrum is probably the super-nutrition food for newborns.

No offence to anyone, but I believe all mothers have the capability to breastfeed their newborns, given the right advise in latching and of course, feeding by demand before a routine and milk supply is established.

I don’t believe in a mother having no milk, no time and worst of all, having the belief that formula milk is better.

It’s au natural, with DHA, vitamins and minerals not found in processed milk. I know of a relative from my in-law side who even insisted on giving goat’s milk to her infant after getting jaundice, with the belief that goat’s milk is more superior than mother’s milk!!

Oh well, I’m a strong supporter of breastmilk. So, I just want to bring this out. Breastmilk is the BEST food for babies. In fact, I believe that it doesn’t cause a baby to fall sick so often and even if the baby did, he/she will not be so badly affected and will recover very fast. I noticed that with my daughter.

In a baby warehouse sale a few months back, I was shopping for some baby products for my pregnant sis and saw a demonstration by a lady selling a breastpump. I stood there watching and was literally pissed off with some of the instructions given by the saleslady. I wanted to tell them to just throw those pumps away.

My mum asked me to ignore them and I just regretted that I did, fuming inside that getting a lousy product that doesn’t do a good job will actually cause less milk to be produced overtime. I’ve tried a few pumps and I will give two thumbs up to the manually operated Avent breastpump - efficient and quiet. I heard Spectra is good as well.

Easier said than done? Well, let me share with you
my breastfeeding journey. Those who know me, will know that I'm not busty at all. So, "how come I got milk ar?"

I berastfed Brendan until he was 6 months, but by 4 months, I had to supplement with formula milk. Brendan was staying with my parents in Johor. I pumped every single day, freeze the milk, and every Friday night I will take a bus from KL to Johor, carrying a cooler box FULL of frozen breastmilk. Thus is my determination in wanting to give Brendan the best. Yes, I did that every weekend.

No one imagine the tears in my eyes and the trouble I went through.

So, when no. 2 came, I was more determined than ever to give Eryn 100% breastmilk for at least 6 months. And yes, I did. In fact, Eryn was on 100% breastmilk until she was 1 year old. I gave her solid at 6-7 months to supplement her diet. No formula milk at all. She was still on breastmilk, partially, before she goes to sleep until she turned almost 2 years old.

There was once, when I was using an extremely noisy battery operated pump in the ladies toilet and when I came out of the toilet cubicle, there was this group of ladies going, “coming out already!! Coming out already!!” I turned to look at them and all of us started laughing cos they were feeling scared and thought there was some weird person doing some weird things in the ladies toilet!! Duh!!

Then, there's another time, when I had a letdown at a press conference!! I had to carry a file throughout the press conference and avoid shaking hands with clients so my wet blouse won’t show.

Pumping became easier when I did it in the comfort of my own office room, with the doors closed and I put up a long piece of cloth to cover the windows. Even the guys in my office always knew that it’s ‘milking time’.

I was in the media line, and we have meetings and appointments and proposals to do. Time was a constraint, but I always try to maintain my pumping time and pump 3 times in the office. My colleagues all know about it. I am actually thankful for their understanding.

So, reading about the sick babies in China due to all these stupid milk scandal really got me stirred up. And to even think that newborn babies were not even given breastmilk at all right from the beginning!!


Those poor babies shouldn't even ben affected so much. What a shame..

Monday, September 22, 2008

Made in China again!!

All these made-in-China stuffs just seem to be giving some problems or another right? From toys and food. I wonder what's next.

In a Singapore news yesterday, it was stated that Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) says its latest laboratory findings show that the "White Rabbit Creamy Candy" from China is also contaminated with melamine.

Oh, my favourite sweets when I was young!! I just loved it! And it's banned? Well, I wonder what else is in danger...

I received an sms this morning which states that the following items have been recalled due to the china's milk situation : M&M's Snickers, Mento's Yoghurt bottle, Dove Choc, Oreo wafer, Monmilk, Dutchlady sterilised milk, Wall's all natural mango, Mini poppers ice cream, Magnum ice cream, Moo sandwich icre cream, mini Cornetto and Youcan ice cream.

Are these made in China? Are these rumours? Should I just ignore it or just follow suit? With so many claims here and there, what should we actually do?

Well, looks like I better just watch my labels more carefully, made in China or not..

Blog Tag

This is really such a sweet tag I got from Martini. I never really thought whether anyone would like my blog at all :-)
I just have to add that Martini is really such a wonderful mummy from Medan whom I find to be a very independent and kind mummy.

Rules:
1.The winner puts logo on her/his blog.
2.Link the person you received your award from.
3.Nominate 7 other blogs.
4.Put links of those blogs on yours.
5.Leave a message on the blogs of those you’ve chosen.
I hop around now and then to a few blogs here and there and would have many to nominate. So, randomly, for today, I'll now present this award to : Jazz, Rina, Wen, Sue, Pek Imm and Louise (I love your 'travellogue' stories time to update ur blog friend :-D).

Monday, September 15, 2008

craving for kueh chap

The first time I tried kueh chap was in Penang, and that also because my dear brother-in-law purposely ordered a bowl for us to try. Before that, we had just had a very satisfying and fulfilling seafood dinner by the beach when we decide to explore more food.

It was simply yummy.

So, during the Merdeka weekend, I had the chance to eat it for the second time in JB. This particular shop in JB (can't remember the name of the shop cos I don't remember seeing any signboard in front of the shop) has very yummy kueh chap which I've not tried before. I have to say that this is actually better than the one I tried in Penang.

It's like the kueh teow version of bak-kut-teh but the taste is slightly different. We order side dishes to go with it. My kids actually enjoyed it too.

Since then, I've been wondering whether there's any kueh chap stalls in PJ area cos I've been craving for it for the past one week! No, I'm not pregnant. It's one of my occasional crave for yummy food. Any recommendation?

Mid-autumn festival fun


Saturday, September 6, 2008

Mooncakes

Mooncake festival is around the corner... Eryn's nanny makes a wonderful cook and baker. She made mooncakes and gave us so many to try. Her mooncakes are biscuits are really yummy, with just the right texture and not too sweet.

We also ordered 3 boxes of mooncakes with some animal-shaped mooncakes.

Brendan's and Eryn's favourite are the animal-shaped mooncakes. I like her yam filling, with a nice and fluffy pastry on the outside.

Nothing beats home-made mooncakes..

A lovely dinner

I'm not really a 'blogaholic' and therefore, haven't been posting a lot of things I've wanted to post. I wish I'm one though, but I've been focusing on other things which require my attention. Here's a delayed post.

Just have to post about a lovely dinner at hubby’s aunt’s place some time last month, with lots of food prepared for the guests. It was a fusion of food and guests. Fusion of food, cos there’s Japanese food and local food and fusion of guests because hubby's aunt had guests from various countries. I thought it was the usual family dinner and I wasn’t well dressed for the occasion and had only turned up in a singlet and short pants. The children were quite well dressed and hubby wore his jeans.

Dinner at Kor Poh Ai and Granduncle Nishida’s (as how the kids address them) place was always superb. It was always a local meal cooked by our aunt’s maid, Yatmi, or by a relative who hails from Kelantan. Our favourites are the Nasi Dagang and the authentic Nasi Kerabu, cooked in plants and vegetables that come all the way from Kelantan.

Anyway, dinner last night was simply superb. Hubby and I started with the sashimis and sushis, before we proceed with steaming white rice with sambal petai and one of my favourite dish from Yatmi called sayur lodeh, cooked with chicken, daun salam, nangka puteh (white young nangka), tempe, long beans and some other stuffs. This is served with the lovely sambal belacan. This was accompanied by the tasty miso soup with bits of tofus and fresh seaweed.

The kids enjoyed their rice with fried chicken cooked by Yatmi.

After the sashimi meal and rice meal, I can only take a small portion of the Kelantan laksa. Cooked in a gravy of coconut milk and other ingredients, it is normally added with a handful of other fresh and raw vegetables, all finely chopped, such as long beans, bunga kantan (lotus flower), cucumber, taugeh (beansprout), and daun kesum.

For dessert, we had smooth and Japanese ice-cream and the best durian cheesecake I’ve ever eaten, made by hubby’s aunt’s friend. A nice cup of freshly brewed jasmine tea gave a good ending to the awesome meal.





Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The kids and dogs

Brendan and Eryn are not really fans of dogs except for our neighbour’s tiny little dog which doesn’t really bark and one of hubby’s aunt’s golden retriever dog.

The kids called our neighbours dog the “disco dog” as it can dance on its two hind legs, but with the help of its owner.

Hubby’s aunt has two golden retrievers, Murray and Musha. Musha is a very friendly dog and loves children. He will come near you and sniff and lick you, which makes the kids extremely terrified of it. Murray, on the hand, doesn’t really bother anyone, probably of age and loves to lie down for the rest. The kids are more fascinated with Murray as they can go to him up-close without having Murray suddenly giving them a jumpy surprise.

Once a puppy chased after some children at a nearby field. All the children were laughing and running around, and enjoyed having the little puppy running around them but Brendan screamed and yelled at the top of his voice! Gosh, that's how terrified he can be..

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