Silhouette in the middle of the night

At around 2:00am this morning, I awoke to the sound of thunder. It was raining heavily and the wind was howling outside the room window. I got up to close the windows in all the rooms and went back to bed. 

As I drifted back to sleep, a bright strike of lighting flashed in the sky followed by a deafening sound of thunder and car alarms ringing through the air. The power tripped.

And then, I saw a silhouette. I wasn't wearing my spectacles and was wondering if my eyes were playing tricks on me. I glared hard. I notice it's a human-like shadow on the wall, swaying very gently. My heart was beating faster. I couldn't tell if there was someone standing outside the window or if something is in the room.

I lay still for a while, observing the shadow and was wondering whether I should jump out of bed or stay still or start screaming. I tried to remember whether my golf stick was beside my bed.

Hubby was snoring beside me and I didn't dare to turn. I quickly calm myself down and said a  quick prayer. I decided to just sit up straight in bed and to confront my fears.

It was Eryn, standing by the foot of my bed, staring at me. She gave me a fright. She said in a hushed tone that her back ached. I knew it was just an excuse and could have been frightened by the sound of thunder. I gave her a back rub and then she went back to bed.

Hubby got up and went downstairs to check on the circuit box. I went back to bed and closed my eyes. Once again, I had a big fright when there was this face right in front of me, with eyes wide open and whispering in a slow voice in Mandarin saying that the power has tripped. That was Brendan, speaking slowly and whispering so as not to fighten me. Sigh!

This kind of experience is definitely not for the faint-hearted. I remember the older folks used to have a chinese saying : "frightened by a human being can cause a fright to death where else frightened by a ghost can still be overcomed".

This is not the first time that Eryn has given me such fright. She has always stood there quietly and very straight and looked at me, always careful not to disturb me - while I'm cooking, while I'm in the toilet or while I'm watching TV or working on my pc at night. 

She's not always like that though. She likes to come up to me and snuggle and hug me but cooking time and toilet time are a big no-no. When it's bed time, she's not to come downstairs too. So, she'll just stand still and look. 

During such times, when I noticed a silhouette, I would normally turned very quickly, and there stood Eryn, looking at me and then breaking out in a wide grin. 

What would you do if you encounter a silhouette in your room?

Cup Bangle?

On school days, my mornings are the routine of waking the kids up, showering them, preparing breakfast for kids, wash their water tumbler, ensuring their bags are properly packed, washing the dishes and then sending them to school. In-between, there's the constant nagging to get them to hurry up cos they like to take their own sweet time, dilly-dallying here and there.

Anyway, this morning. I did the usual routine, and then this happened!!

While I was washing this particular glass, the bottom just broke and in a split second just before I realised the bottom was broken, I pulled my hand back in and had various cuts all over my right hand, plus one on my left hand too. The one on the second finger on my right hand is really deep. I put on soap and tried to pull my hand out gently. There were blood all over the sink.

The kids started screaming! "No! Mummy! No! Don't do that!"

Sigh! Had to get Brendan to bring the hammer out. Wrapped my hand in towel and smashed the cup away.

 I can feel my whole hand throbbing with pain right now.

Damn!! A domestic goddess I'm not! Not domesticated, and definitely not a goddess. So, you see, my days are NOT filled with pleasant mornings all the time.

I don't know what is more comforting. Brendan taking this photo for remembrance, or Eryn saying "Mummy, don't die! Who is going to take care of us?!" or the kids suddenly became so grown up and concern and started taking their bags and stood at the door without me having to open my mouth.

Oh well, just another day in paradise........not!

Thinking like a child

Children always see things differently, and as they grow, their beliefs and values are being tuned through the influences of family, friends, social medias, books, schools and the environment - the things they see and learn, the things they experience, the life they try to adapt and get accustomed to.

Sometimes, as adults, we think too hard and at times, we are required to think out of the box. However, just going back to basics seem quite logical in some areas of our lives too, don't you think so?

Below here is an illustration of what I mean.

Apparently, the "maths" problem below is easily solved by pre-school children within 10 minutes, by programmers in an hour and needless to say, those in higher education??

I got my answer in pathetically, 45 minutes last night after thinking too hard and then tried to get back to basic and cleared my mind with complicated stuffs and started thinking like my kids. What say you? What's 2581?

"My Generasi" : Generation X

For a while, I felt like a school girl again while looking at this lovely video which brings me warm memories. Produced by JinnyboyTV, the video titled "My Generasi" (My Generation) truly highlights some of the basic stuffs we used to do many, many years back. It brings out mixed emotions, it made me smile and laugh at all the fun and things we used to do.

We didn't need handphones, computers, facebook or any of the current technology to keep us entertained. I remember running and sweating it out under the hot sun before our afternoon school session starts. I remember the five stones and cepers which used to entertain us during breaks. I remember just simply staying back in school to train for my sports training or just hanging out with friends in school.

We played "belon-acar" (galah panjang), police and thief, hide-and-seek and the traditional games back then. There were no computer games for us, at least not for me.  Calls were made from house phone or public pay phones. There was very less TV too. Video tapes rentals were a luxury.

These are just some of the nostalgic moments. What were yours back then?

You are not safe online

This is scary, looking at the potential treats going on with the increasing growth in the use of internet and social networks, through the pc or your mobile.

It's playground for data miners, hackers, phishing mails, spams, etc.

It feels like we're all being watched closely.



Created by: OnlineMarketingDegree.com

TwoPixels anniversary giveaway

"A picture paint a thousand words", especially with photos, which brings tons of sweet memories.

I first came across Two Pixels when it first started out.

TwoPixels was started by Jazz and Sue, two wonderful women I know through the mummy blogsphere, who self-taught themselves to take superb photos through their special touch and very attentive details. They're so specialised in taking beautiful photos, focusing on babies, children, families and even pregnancy. I remember a friend, Caitlyn, telling me that Jazz and Sue are just so patient, creative and they're very good with babies.

TwoPixels is giving away three photo sessions and I just have to participate in this contest. I simply can't resist a photo session with the two lovely mummies. The only time I had a real photography session was for my wedding album taken about eight years back I think. Our family has also not taken one before.

TwoPixels creates a memory for a life through their natural shots, made to pefection in their self-learnt skills which I've never seen. So, I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be one of the chosen one (^-^).

Happy anniversary to you, TwoPixels! All the best in the coming years!

Reaching for the stars

This was taken in our recent outing with our overseas guests. The pictures were courtesy of Andreas Dejok, engineer from Germany, who is also into photography, sports and also is a kite enthusiast who even flew his kites in the dessert of Egypt, near the Pyramid.

Hubby once air-mailed a huge wau bulan from Kelantan which was one of it's kind in the world. This particular wau won an award from one of the wau bulan flying competition. It's now in display in his shop.

Garbage Enzyme

This morning, a friend told me of a garbage enzyme workshop workshop which contributes to a better earth friendly environment.

I was my first time hearing of such thing. With the changes in the climate and the many waste thrown into garbage, I was listening attentively to her, when I found out that we can contribute to the climate change through a simple DIY formula using kitchen waste (fruits' skin and unwanted vegetables).

This not only helps in protecting our ozone layer and lower global temperature, but actually provides a natural and environment friendly way to use the enzyme liquid as a household cleaner, air purifier, laundry and floor detergent, shampoo (yes, shampoo!!), body care, car care and or course as an organic fertiliser.

It removes odor, molds and grime, it's antibacterial and anti-viral.

It's all natural, and in fact, it doesn't even smell and actually acts as an insecticide as well!

The dilution ratio for usage is approximately 1:1000 to use enzyme as insecticide, 1:100 for pesticide, diluting it 200X to be used as air-refreshener and 500x as hormones for plants to get more fruits or flowers.

1 Tbp of enzymes for 1 litre of detergent water/dish washing liquid/shampoo (or 1tsp for 500cc) will help reduce the side effects in chemicals and enhance the nutrients.

The ratio of making this would be mixing 3 parts of the unwanted fruits and vegetables to 1 part of brown sugar (not sure whether this is gula melaka or that special brown sugar for making desserts) with 10 parts of water.

Keep these in an airtight container and leave it unopened for 3 months. After that, you can pour them into individual containers for your daily household usage and personal care.

Little mousey gone

Further to my earlier mouse story, I do wonder where the mouse has gone to. The last I saw it, it was hiding behind one of the pails in the downstairs bathroom. I quickly locked the bathroom doors and didn't open the doors for 2 days, waiting for DH to come back to catch it as he was outstation.

When DH came back and opened the door, the mouse is nowhere to be found! One of my friend mentioned that it could have climbed out of the window, which was actually locked. He also said that it could have the tendency to swim through sewerage, so I'm wondering whether it took a swim down the toilet bowl into the world of shits out there.

I noticed that the mouse could have gnawed at the rubber piece at the bottom of one of the door. Still, I wouldn't think that it's possible for it to squeeze through the very tiny hole, which again, my friend mentioned that it could actually flatten its body to go through tiny holes. Eeww....

It's totally gone.

I found out that burnt sotong makes good bait to catch mice. Something I learnt while experiencing the little mousey situation at home.

Here, mousey-mousey

There's a little white mouse in my house! Well, it runs so fast I don't really know if it's really white. I thought it was light brown. DH says it is white and I'm beginning to wonder whether they could be 2 mice in the house.

Well, I first saw it last Friday when it ran from the kitchen to the toilet and to the backroom. I tried to find but it's nowhere to be found. Is it supposed to bring me luck on this year of the rat or what? It better be!! Otherwise, I'm gonna trap that mouse and throw it for the cats my neighbour keeps. Speaking of cats, those cats are so damn irritating. They climbed on my car and comes to my garden. So far, I've not seen any shitty business otherwise I'll throw them to the 4 noisy barking dogs another neighbour is rearing. And speaking of these 4 dogs, they bark and bark day and night. I'm not really bothered with them UNLESS they start pooing in the garden outside my house!! I wish owners would collect their dogs' poo instead of putting unwanted fertiliser on my little garden. I use my bare hands to do gardening sometimes, pulling weeds and picking little garbage, probably thrown by some little children (or maybe adults?). So, getting up close with those poo can be disasterous to my already horrible ugly looking hands..

I used to walk my auntie's Golden Retriever and my aunt will make me carry a few plastic bags with me to collect the dog's poo, and of course I do it! Imagine the tons of poos on the road if we don't go collecting our own dogs' poo!

Well, back to the little mouse. I'm wondering whether I should trap this little active mouse. I keep my food properly in the shelves with doors and I've avoided leaving food in the open. My garbage can is now closed too.

I overhead Eryn saying this to Brendan last night, "Kor-kor, don't go to the kitchen, afterwards the mouse jump out from there (from under the cabinet which has space only for the ants to go through)".

Brendan replied, "How can the mouse kemek its body to enter down there? Piak!! (with his hands clapping together) Like that meh?"

Anyway, if it's hungry, it would run somewhere else right?

Err.... right?? Please say YES!

Patriotism

With so stories and articles in the papers on the Malaya's road to Independence really made me wonder what patriotism really means to each and everyone of us.

Merdeka Day to me has always been known as a public holiday to me and the day Malaysia achieved Independence. What does it really, really means? We are in the era of a new development, of not knowing the hardship and availability of resources in our parents' generation.

As a kid, I use to think how my parent's and their siblings, together with their own parents, lived through the day by day life during the Japanese occupation, in the presence of Gurkhas in their surrounding areas. I was told many stories about how one big family of 15 (my mum's side), survived on livestocks, planted tapioca and tapioca leaves, farming their own vegetable plots to feed not just the 15 of them, but the workers at my grandfather's bread and biscuit factory in Kluang, Johor.

We are now in the generation where everything seems to be available. And we are spoilt with choices. Do we really understand the true meaning of Merdeka deep down in our hearts? I read with much awe the many write-ups and had always understood that Merdeka for Malaya then was more than an Independence for the country - it's total freedom, complete unity, happiness, hope for a better life, life for a better generation, search of happiness, experiencing the moment which meant history for development of this country.

We are really spoilt with choices. We take things for granted. We complain about not getting enough of this and that... and we forgot the spirit of freedom and living life to the fullest....

Selamat Hari Merdeka to all Malaysians...

Babysmooches in Her World

I've just received a surprise email on BABYSMOOCHES blog being featured in the May 2006 issue of Her World's magazine. Oh, how honoured I feel.... Thanks for the highlight, Her World...

Aura Cleansing

I happened to chat with a friend on the directions in life when we came to the topic of aura cleansing.

I was then introduced to this person who does aura cleansing as well as healing sessions. I was told that aura cleansing is done to "fine-tune" the energy level in a particular person, getting ride of unwanted negative energy. We contribute to our own happiness and we are to think positive at all times. However, certain circumstances causes the accumulation of negative energy in one's life.

I was told that this aura-cleanser (or whatever you call it) has done healings and cleansing for many people, including cancer patients, sick patients, infertility problems to things like bankrupcy in life and things like that.

Well, I tend to think a lot, and now, I do wonder if I should go for aura cleansing. How it works and why it works, is a mystery to me. Maybe I should just check it out.

D-Paradise Tropical Fruit World & Aboriginal Native Village

I took a drive to Melaka this morning to attend the opening of D-Paradise, a Tropical Fruit World and Aboriginal Native Village which has the World's largest collection of tropical, sub-tropical and continental fruits of over 800 types in a 168 acres of lush, undulating, tropical terrain at Lee Garden with the largest canopy walk in the world at 9km long.

D-Paradise has a diverse range of exotic wildlife, with rare species of flora and fauna. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of these attractions. In fact, I was looking forward to see the tribes which seems to be one of the main cultural attraction in that place, specifically the Padaung (Ring People) from the Philippines and the Agta tribe.

The Padaung tribe wear bronze rings around their neck and apparently, the ring makes for a whispery voice and those who wear them cannot yell. The rings are also worn on the arms and legs. The Agta are dark-skinned, kinky-haired pun nosed and thick lipped people who are less than 3 feet tall. They go bare footed. The men used to wear G-strings without shorts.

I would love to be in the presence of a swarm of dragon flies but did get the opportunity to visit the dragon fly sanctuary. There seems to be so many places of interest that I'd like to see such as the world's largest cactus collection, the pangolin sanctuary, mushroom farm, the mesmerizing bamboo garden, man-made bird-nest sanctuary, up close at the Crocodile Park (reminds me of Steve Irwin), the kongkang sanctuary (the so-called Malaysia's koala) and the everything else, but time didn't permit. I learnt that some of the animals will only come sometime next week in time for the launch by our very own PM this coming 15th November.

It wasn't really a fun trip this morning coz I didn't get to see what I was looking for. I got bitten by mosquitoes and the waiting time for the transportation was slow coz' the buggies haven't arrived yet. But was pretty happy to receive a basket of passion fruits which I love very much. (A good friend of mine used to stay in a farm and I love drinking the passion fruit juice which was simply refreshing!) PLUS a 2D 1N stay each at the D-CEO Village Resort which we were told valued at RM1,000!!!

My conclusion : it would be quite an educational trip for children and for those who loves nature, especially non-kampungnites. It's quite an expensive affair too coz the entry fee is RM49.90 for an adult and RM29.90 for kids age 4-11. Rental of a buggy for the whole day is at RM89.90. You definitely need a buggy to go round coz the area is extremely big. Though you can go cycling there, the hilly terrains can be quite a daunting task for some people. Accomodation : I'm not really sure, but at RM1,000 this seems to cost more than some of the 5 star hotels in KL. It's an interesting affair for foreigners though.

I think people like me shouldn't expect too much. My late grandparents used to stay in a kampung house (well, minus the 5 star treatment though) surrounded by lots of wild animals, pets, fruits and vegies. So, I can't comment much.










one of the Aboriginal Village

nicely decorated
wood carvings








The performance
theatre / stage
of the aboriginal tribe.







Bones, skulls
and more...







Entrace to the
gourd and melon
plantation.











Gourds






Monkey Cup
Pitchers
> a rare and exotic
insect-gobbling
carnivorous plant
in this World's Largest
collection of monkey
cup pitchers








Malaysia's very
own red berries..













Passion
Fruits













The pathway..














Some big,
long, red
chilli plant









Lone ranger : a pumpkin!!
D-Paradise has the World's
largest collection of pumpkins
which come in different
shapes and colours.

Datin Seri Endon Mahmood

Gosh! I stepped into the office about half hour ago and my colleague informed me that Datin Seri Endon Mahmood, our PM's wife has just passed away approximately one hour ago!

I've been following her news when she underwent treatment for breast cancer in the states.

I've always look upon her as that lady full of courage, feminism, passion in life, gentleness and also her showcase of the nyonya kebayas. I love her book, The Nyonya Kebaya. The book somehow show me the beautiful person that she is and the love she has for such traditional but beautiful things in life. I'm especially touched by the perfect couple that she and our PM is. They seem to be ever sooo in love with each other after all these while.

In memory to one of the most beautiful woman in Malaysia.....

Malaysian Idol and the power of SMSes

I've always loved American Idol, but am not a follower of Malaysian Idol season 2. In fact, I've only watch 1.25 episodes of Malaysian Idol 2. 1.25 episodes because the first time I saw one of the episode of Malaysian Idol 2, I was appalled by the types of participants that were selected! My viewing lasted only for a few minutes. The 2nd time I watched Malaysian Idol 2 was when my hubby tuned in to watch the finals on TV.

I was playing with my two kids when I heard Daniel's voice. I asked dear hubby if that was one of the finalists and he said yes. Gosh! We're talking about Malaysian Idol, man! How could he ever be one of the finalist, I debated! All of us in the household (my mum, my maid, my hubby and myself) agreed that he doesn't qualify to be one of the finalists, let alone being the winner. And when Jacklyn Victor came in somewhere at the end, it was a far far cry on who is the best.

Nita can sing, but her voice can be quite unstable at certain times. She's got this habit of pursing her lips which can be quite irritating. She's tall and definitely a head-turner I would say.

It was pure entertainment for us all when both Nita and Daniel performed together. hehehehe. Quite a funny sight, one tall lady with one short guy....

Well... well... well... it was a sudden surprised when I realised that Daniel won, and winning by more than 65% of the total votes seem to be even more surprising!

Daniel mentioned something like he was chosen to be the winner because of his talents!! err...... talents? Actually, I don't really know what he's singing leh.....

He also mentioned that one parent called him up to say that he makes a good role model for the younger generation or something like that. There you have it! It's the power of the teens and the young adults that generate the SMSes for him!! These are the youngsters who have the purchasing power, the decision to decide who should win! Come to think of it, Daniel is quite charming and confident of himself. No doubt the teens will vote for him. He's probably got that "x-factor", that seasoning that will push him further.

Ha Ha Ha... the telcos are making big bucks out of all the SMSes. Ha Ha Ha... Daniel has the final laugh as well. He won, and he deserves it. You must have fans to support you, or else... down you go. So... congrats Daniel. and to you too, Nita. All the Best!