School exams

I used to hate exams cos I just hated having to study for it. I went through it though and survived well.

I had to laugh till my tummy ached when I got some "interesting" real life situations of some genious trying to prove their capability in answering some physics & maths questions. Seriously, are these kids really trying to test the teacher's patience or are they just simply asnwering what they think the answers should be?

Gosh, I'm keeping my fingers crossed my kids will never pull such stunts on me, or the teacher!

You go figure these out yourselves :-) Just simply amazing...oh, and funny too!

Tagged : Genies visited my blog

Got this tag from Leoni and I do hope that my blogs will not be filled with tags! hehe

** Start copying now **

Rules:
1. Write a short paragraph about your visit by the two Genies and include a link to the blog that passed on the Genie Symbol to you.
2. COPY the Rules and ENTIRE List below and post it on your blog.
3. List down your wish.
4. Place your name below the last name on the list and pass on the Genie Symbol to at least 5 other bloggers. 5. Please put up either one (or both) of the Symbols of the Genies on your blog to show that the Genies have visited your blog:

Genie King and Genie Princess

The Genie King, the Genie Princess and their trusty Genie Buddy have visited:
Mariuca would like to wish for happiness and success.
Adrian would like to wish for good health and happiness.
Emila would like to wish for happiness and success.
Trinity would like to wish good health for Jan’s brother and Yah and Wan success

MPG would like to wish for love and peace
Jean would like to wish for stress free work environment and happiness
Cbenc12 would like to wish for health, happiness and luck for my family and friends and me too
Paris Beaverbanks would like to wish for more publicity! Hooyah! (taps swollen head)
Giddy Tiger would like to wish for longer weekends and never-ending holidays!
Shooi would like to wish for peace on earth, love, good health and happiness.
Chinnee would like to wish for happiness and good health forever!
Hui Sia would like to wish for love, health, wealth and happiness.
Chew Lee would like to wish hubby for a successful business venture in Singapore.
Anggie would like to wish for dream and wish come true.
Pek Imm would like to wish for eternal love and health for her entire family.
Babysmooches would like to wish for Good health, wealth, happiness, peace and love.

Welcome aboard the Magical Flying Carpet for the Ride of your Life!Alakazam!

***End Copying Here***

I won't be passing this on to anyone else as well cos I think there are too many tags from me lately.

5 Posts link to Keywords

Got tagged by Wendy.

This is simple :

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Post 5 links to 5 of your previously written posts. The posts have to relate to the 5 key words given below.
2. Tag 5 other friends to do this meme. Try to tag at least 2 new acquaintances (if not, your current blog buddies will do) so that you get to know them each a little bit better.
3. Don’t forget to read the archived post and leave comments.

************************
Link ONE must be about FAMILY: "Poh-Poh goes back to Kluang"
Link TWO must be about FRIEND: "Banana Man"
Link THREE must be about YOURSELF: "Tagged"
Link FOUR must be about YOUR LOVE: "Setting Goals"
Link FIVE can be ANYTHING YOU LIKE: "Childhood Games"

Tag goes to
Rina
Chanel
Chooi Peng
Sue
Shankar

Food! Glorious Food!

I'm a food lover... I can eat and eat and eat... But lately, I've been cutting down on rice at night cos my tummy is getting flabby.

After I stop breastfeeding Eryn completely when she turned two, I notice my pants and skirts were getting a little tight at the waist. Dear hubby wasn't of any help... His friends complimented that I still look slim but he seems to take joy in highlighting on the spare tyre that I have!!

With weddings and buka puasa dinners and a recent house-warming party that I've been going for the past few weeks is really putting some pressure on my spare tyre! I'm not the type who goes on diet for 2 simple reasons... I get gastric when I'm very hungry and secondly, I love food!

Then , there's the open house on Raya day. Mind you, I've been cleaning the house and rushing here and there and yet that spare tyre just doesn't seem to get firm.

I need to exercise but first, I'll need to get my leg down from the bed on Sunday morning for the overdue jogging.

Big waves coming!

Yes, the big waves are coming my way, and I'm happy and at the same time so kan-cheong going through the waves.

It's coming to year end and there's so many things to do out of the sudden. I have to help manage the current freelance project which I'm doing while managing my own personal consultancy business. While doing these, I'm assisting in the planning of my sis' wedding in December. Our new house has just finished renovation and now there's the painting, the cleaning, the buying of items for the house, moving and then there's my brother's open house.

Gosh, the feeling is so overwhelming... and surprisingly, I'm kinda enjoying it. Over and above all these, there's other family matters we're attending to as well.

I feared having to go through a calm period, like a radarless boat, wanting some action but couldn't move. Now, the waves are coming and I know I wanted this... It's a tough journey having to see to so many things at one time... but at least I'm doing it happily now without any feeling of stress, except for the occasional screaming at the kids....

Eryn's bags

Eryn simply loves bags. Big bag, small bag, cloth bag, paper bag and even plastic bag! I’ll always not let her get hold of any plastic bags in sight though as it’s a dangerous thing to do. I also forbid her from touching my handbags and my wallet, though she’ll try to peep into my handbag to see what’s inside. If she can get hold of my wallet or DH’s wallet, she’ll carefully open it and see what’s inside.


After work, Eryn likes spending her time scribbling on paper, cuddle up to me when I’m watching TV, riding on her little car, playing masak-masak, dancing and singing or holding all sort of bags in both hands, on both shoulders, and putting them in her little car.

She used to love taking bags out whenever we go out, but now we try to avoid that, after losing one nice little bag.
Her favourite bag will definitely have to be the little doggy bag specially bought from U.S. for Eryn, as seen in the picture here. It was a gift from one of DH’s aunt. This tiny doggy bag is made of clothe and wool and when you press its nose, it’ll make a cute little sound. Her other favourite is one small knapsack which is not seen in the picture here.
Recently, I’ve been trying to get rid of my light brown TOD’s bag (it’s an ORIGINAL fake. Hehe) which used to be my favourite. I left it on the floor by the door, waiting to be given away. Eryn saw it and loved it so much and said “this is Eryn’s big, big bag… It’s so cute seeing her being a makcik carrying all her bags around.


She just loves stuffing things into the bag as well – not just her tiny toys, but my name cards, tissue papers, hankerchief, bits of papers she’s scribbled on, pen, etc. When I can’t find something, I first thing I head for is her bags!! As seen in the picture on the right here, there’s her balls, little watering can, hankerchief, paper, etc.
That’s Eryn and her bags.

My little sister

My little sister is getting married! She's my one and only sister and now she has grown up.

I am one of those people who used to see and think that my little sister is still my little sister. To me, she's that little girl, who is just simply naive and has more to learn. I refuse to give-in to the fact that she's a grown up adult until now.

My sister is my best friend as well. We share some funny moments together and share many things as well. She's very calm and patient and has great personality who always thinks of her family and friends.

As a baby, she was very weak and was warded to the ICU ward. There wasn't much hope for my parents at that time until a few days later when a miracle happened. Anyway, that is a story for another day.

She was always the baby of the family and in school she always did the best to catch up in everything. It was a big surprise to us when she wanted to take her Masters in Economics and passed with flying colours, being in the 2nd place in the whole of her university, losing only to a lecturer. She presented her case in front of many deans and lecturers from Malaysia, Asia and NZ and was also offered a partial scholarship from a Australian dean.

Though having a Masters in her hands, she is never one who shows off and willingly starts from the bottom in any company that she works for. Her desire is still to become a teacher in the secondary school. She is very humble and definitely is a big blessing to the husband she's going to marry.

I'm happy on the day I found out about her up-coming wedding in December that I cannot sleep. It's like how a mother would be excited for her daughter who is getting married.

Much love to my little sister...

8 random facts about my mum

Got tagged by Wen and it made me thought a lot about my mum.

These are some of the things I can immediately think now of as I write about my mum.

1) My mum is 58 years old. She was born in the Chinese lunar year of the cow and she is a Taurus. This simply shows in her as she is a very hardworking woman and is never one who laze around doing nothing as she will also make sure she has things to do. Of course, she enjoys her short afternoon nap as a treat.

2) My mum helped me to take care of Brendan and she’s the best mum you can have. She makes a better mum than me in caring for Brendan. She’s always on her toes, and always ensure that Brendan eats his breakfast, lunch and dinner. They must be healthy, home-cooked food too.

3) My mum is not well educated, but she does lots of self-improvement and she reads lots of books to improve her knowledge and her grammars. She knows many things about herbs and plants and all health-related issues. In her past 20 odd years, she has taken a liking to cut out interesting newspaper articles on health, diseases, personal improvement, up to BGR, motivating stories, and many more. She’ll paste them on her scrap and there’s lots of them at home. In one of the scrap book, she wrote a short letter to us, her children, to teach us some of the important things in life, should she die early one day.

4) She loves going for her daily, very early morning walk to breathe in fresh air and to improve blood circulation. I’ve join her in her walks and for a person her size and age, she can walk very fast and very far. Walking is her favourite exercise. She also like learning about massage, acupressure points and accupuncture.

5) My mum mingles around easily with people. Before I had kids, I didn’t know many of my neighbours around the current place where I am staying. After I had Brendan, she helped babysit Brendan in KL for a while and during her stay here, I joined in her quest to know my neighbours. She’ll tell me that my right neighbour is good in sewing curtains and the auntie downstairs is a confinement lady and another auntie in the other block was bullied by her hubby and she’s all alone. They love chatting with my mum too.

6) My mum comes from a big family of 13 children. She’s the 7th child in the family of 8 girls and 5 boys. Being in such a big family means that the older children have to work while the ones in the middle will have to take care of the younger children as her parents comes from China and work daily in their own bread and biscuit factory from morning to night. Hardship was written on all their faces then, during the Japanese Occupation. They stayed in a big kampong house in the outskirt surrounded by rubber trees, plants, domestic animals as well as wild animals like monkey, squirrels, owls, etc.

7) Coming from a poor family also means that they survive of their own plot of vegetable and fruit plantation, as well as rearing lots of chicken and ducks and pigs to feed 15 in the family the factory workers. She used to help cook and go to the swamp to collect earth worms with her bare hands to bring it back to feed the pigs. Whenever she thinks of this now, she’ll squirm and not touch any worm. She also couldn’t imagine doing then in her younger days.

8) My mum was a very good runner in the school days. She was so good in sports that the teachers used to pick on her to represent the various sports categories in school. But having to work after/before school, cook and taking care of her younger siblings means that there is no such thing as going through sports practice for her. She’ll just turn up on sports day and run for her life.

I could going on writing more things about my mum but I guess the above 8 items are good enough.

Gifts from India

Sometime late last year, I got to know a friend through work and he comes from India. He is a very bright and smart man, having a few businesses in India and could be quite an influential person in the industry that he worked in.
He had a certain interest in wanting to guide me in my career and always gives me encouragement to do the things I like to do. He has a certain fondness in me as a very good friend, not in that relationship sense but he seems to have some connection with me. It was very scary for me to hear that at first, but gradually I came to know that he has helped many people achieved their own career in some ways or another.

He’s around 60+ of age and is quite a health-conscious person. He’s extremely knowledgeable and is very persistent in the things that he wants to do. He has a lovely wife and his son recently got married to a very beautiful woman India whom I think is a Bollywood actress. He lives in a big mansion and is very down-to-earth. He wears branded clothes and all but is never one who shows off.
He’s like a mentor to me and is like a guidance to me. He can be quite pushy in getting things done, but it is this determination that rose him up to where he is now.

He will also call me occasionally to ask about me and my family and about the friends that we both know in Malaysia. He’ll sometimes just send me an sms to wish me a beautiful day, to tell me about the festivals going on there, to send greetings on festive seasons as well as on friendship day or just to tell me of his latest experience in securing a business alliance.

In his recent trip to Malaysia 2 months back, he presented me with a very lovely cream-coloured Pashmina shawl and 2 very beautiful traditional Indian attire for my two children. The attires are still a few sizes too big at the moment. He bought a nice cream-coloured costume which looks like a Khurta / Sherwani with a shawl for Brendan and for Eryn, an elegant, traditional red Chaniya-Choli dress with an eye-catching design.

I introduced him to one local university here where he managed to secure a business partnership for a few years contract. The local university will set up a few branches in India and my dear friend will be overlooking in building the business and in strengthening the Malaysia-India bond. He had wanted me to be the Malaysia partner in working in such alliance with him – be it education, furniture industry for the huge hotel boom in India, or simply some smaller business partnership.

I never take up his offer in attending his son’s marriage in India, or allowing him to guide me into setting up my own business and be a top-notch entrepreneur. I haven’t also accept his invitation to visit India under his family’s warm hospitality.

All I can do is extend him my sincere friendship and know that he will be one foreign friend who has inspired me in some ways.

Thanks for your kind thoughts and many well wishes and most importantly, your very kind friendship, Anand Sandil.

Fire Drill

I happened to go to the office yesterday where I'm currently working freelance and had to undergo a fire drill! When the siren sounded, all the staff were ordered to follow procedures in using the staircase down to the open car park. And there we were, all staff of ntv7, standing under the hot, scorching sun!

The bomba people were there and there was a real water spraying onto the roof of ntv7. Hmm... I do wonder why the water were brown in colour. Some of us joked that the water came from the toilet. It could be that the tank has not been in used and had probably turned rusty or something.

Anyway, there was the loooong demonstration and talk on fire prevention. Some staff were asked to give a hand it putting out the fire. One thing I learnt from the drill was never to pour water onto a fire caused by oil as this would make the fire get bigger!

The "woos" and the "wahs" and the clapping were quite an amusing sight. Factory workers from the surrounding factory lots and passer-bys stopped their car by the roadside to join in the "fun".

Come to think of it, how many of us do actually know what to expect and not panic in facing a real-life situation, in being caught in a fire? I don't think I would know about not pouring water onto a fire caused by oil, nor would I know the proper way of holding a fire extinguisher.

Speaking of fire drills, I'd better get one small fire extinguisher for the house to be on standby.

Nice Matters Award

It's so sweet of Chanel to extend me the above award.

As mentioned in Chanel's blog, the award is intended for “those that are just nice people, good blog friends, and those that inspire good feelings and inspiration! Those that care about others, that are there to lend support, or those that are just a positive influence in our blogging world!” by the originator of the Nice Matters award .

I shall pass on the award to 7 of the first few bloggers (exception of Janet) whom I've known before I started in the blogsphere. Well, I wish I could pass on to all bloggers too.

Chanel (yes, definitely back to you)
Rina
Jazzmint
Janet
Tracy
Leoni
Chin Nee

Tagged

tagged by Chanel. Well, she wants to give me "something to do", so here it is (Hey, I do have other things to do you know, hehehe)

INSTRUCTIONS:Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, as below :

Kiasumum
LemonJude
Sasha
Chanel
Babysmooches

Choose 5 people to tag:

Janet
Kee Tat
Rina
Jo
mummy to Alycia & Sherilyn

What were you doing 10 years ago?

• 10 years ago, in 1997, I was probably working in a new company with an increment. I was also probably dating and enjoying life - watching movies, reading, going out with friends, etc, basically things I don't have much time to do now with kids around.

What were you doing 1 year ago?

• I was looking forward to get the company VSS and in view of things.

Five snacks you enjoy

• Ice-Cream
• Chocolate
• Yogurt
• Cookies
• Junk Food

Five songs that you know all the lyrics to

• Twinkle Twinkle Litte Star
• Rain Rain Go Away
• Humpty Dumpty
• Sing A song of Sixpence
• Give Me Oil In My Lamp

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire

• Buy a land and build my own personal house on it
• Invest, Invest, Invest to make more money
• Travel
• Send kids to private school
• Charity
• (I also want to give money to my parents, siblings, build a daycare centre, buy a brand new MPV, handphone, shopping, etc).

Five bad habits

• Can be quite complacent
• Getting quite lazy to clean and cook on weekdays
• Time management?
• Not as brave as I want to be
• When someone betrays me and makes me hates him/her, it is very hard for me to forgive that person.

Five favourite toys

• Handphone
• My notebook/PC
• My kids
• My books
• My piano

Five things you like doing

• catching up on sleep
• watching my favourite TV shows
• reading
• logging on to the net
• catching up with friends over tea

Five things you would never wear again

• my flowery old fashion dresses
• braless tops (no no no)
• those over skimpy g-strings (getting fat on the bum)
• bikini (my tummy!!)
• Spectacles (I wish for this. So, gotta start planning for lasix)
  

Sarawak Cultural Village

The Sarawak Cultural Village, also known as a living museum, features some of the main 7 ethnic groups of Sarawak in one location - the long house of Bidayuh, Iban, Melanau tall house, Orang Ulu, the traiditional Malay house and the Chinese Farm House. These are the original and traditional tribal houses built within a 7-hectare site, with the various ethnic groups featuring their arts and culture in harmony.

Prior entering the village, each one were given a "passport" as our entry pass. We are encouraged to get chops from all the respective 7 houses as part of our visit to the places.

What used to be a different tribes of enemies, these ethnic groups have now foster close friendship amongst each other. We were told by our very chinese looking Melanau tour guide that there are no more Melanau tall houses in Sarawak except for the one built in this village as all the other Melanau tall houses has been torn down as they are more than 100 years old and are not safe to live-in anymore.

First time visitors to Sarawak should make the visit to the Sarawak Cultural Village a big must-see, must visit. The cultural experience to the village is what Sarawakians would consider it to be the unknown side of Malaysia.

I proudly inform a few of my Sarawakian friends of our visit to Kuching prior to the trip and each and everyone of them will say "You must visit the Sarawak Cultural Village". I'm glad I was there and I'm suprise to see for myself what I've always seen in pictures and read in magazines. It was really captivating.

It was a very hot and humid weather though and it is advisable that visitors are equipped with hats and lots of water through the walk in the village.

The diverse culture, lifestyle, wood carving, the very fine and delicate handicrafts such as the beading and the pua-weaving, legends, performances, colourful traditional attire, and the many stories of the beheadings, killings and other captivating highlights were simply unique.

For the kids, Eryn was very active and exploring the inside out of the houses with daddy while Brendan was not really pleased with having to walk and walk under the hot sun. He was also quite afraid to enter the houses. Brendan enjoyed the blowpipe display by a Penan man and watching the spinning gasing display - very boyish interest.

Eryn was an all-rounded girl, enjoying the cultural performances, checking out the items on display in all the houses, looking at the how swords are being made, mixing around with the beautifully dressed Bidayuh women, entering the skull hut, and walking from house to house.

A visit to the Sarawak Cultural Village is a must for first-time visitors.

Sarawak trip (part 2)

Day two of our vacation, was basically a visit to the Sarawak Cultural Village and some of the attractions in Kuching town.

After breakfast, we headed to the Sarawak Cultural Village which was just approximately 10 minutes walk away from our resort. The village highlights the main selected ethnic groups of Sarawak and shows the richness in the many authentic heritage and tribal histories that shines through the various racial groups existing in Sarawak today.

I personally found the Sarawak Cultural Village to be an interesting eye-opener. I shall highlight more of that in my next post as I found that the Sarawak Cultural Village to be just simply enchanting.

The tour around took started with a visit to the local Satok market, Cat Museum, then the Pavilion, a handicraft shop, the pottery centre and finally to the Sarawak Museum. It coincides with the Sarawak Regatta event, but due to time constraint, we didn't had the chance to go to the riverfront.

The kids enjoyed the Cat Museum and the Sarawak Museum which is deemed to be the third best museum in the South-East Asia region.

The Sarawak Museum was something the whole family enjoyed. The kids were more into the animal, fish and boat displays, while daddy was all over the place and mummy here was paying attention to every other thing like to artifacts, the ethnic and cultural display, the photos and others.

The Cat Museum was basically filled with cats - more than 4,000 of them in pictures, statues, displays, etc.. Brendan and Eryn just went meowing around the museum, amazed by the big cat statues there.

Other than that, we enjoyed shopping for a few items - the famous pepper, some smaller souvenir items and my very long-awaited pure teak wood (kayu jati) mat. When I first saw the teak wood mat at a friend's house last month, I was so interested in it and asked where she got it from. When she told me she bought it in Sarawak 5 years back, I made up my mind to get one when we get to Sarawak. There were many other crafted potteries and display items that both hubby and I wanted to get. However, it was quite a handful carrying the huge mat and other stuffs. So, we got the contact of the shopowner in case we would like to order items directly from the shop to be mailed over to KL.

The second night wasn't a good night sleep for me as Eryn was suspected to have a mild food poisoning. She vomitted on the bed 5-6 times throughout the night and had mild fever. Over breakfast, we heard that a few others had the same symptoms as well. We gave her fever medicine and she was up and about again but wasn't having any appetite to eat at all.

Otherwise, everything would turn out perfectly well.

Here we have, right in Malaysia, an exotic and beautiful place which I believe a lot of my friends have not visited before. I have visited Phuket and Bali but never stepped foot in East Malaysia. A Sarawakian friend once said to me that I should take the initiative to visit Sarawak and I will be surprised at the many offerings that Sarawak has. How true is it when I finally had the chance to be there.

I would definitely encourage friends, esp. Malaysian friends, who has visited many other countries to visit Sarawak. Do divert your next holiday destination to Sarawak if you've not been there.

Hubby and I plan to visit Sabah and other parts of Sarawak like Miri in our future holidays when the kids are much more grown up.

Sarawak trip (part 1)

Hubby's company organised a company family trip to Kuching over the 3 days Merdeka break and we took the 2 kids along with us. We've always wanted to plan for a trip to Sarawak and the opportunity arised, and it's free!

We had to get up before 6am to get ready and reach hubby's office in Shah Alam by 7am. From there, we are to take the bus to the KLIA airport for our 11am+ flight to Kuching. Upon arrival at Kuching, our tour guide brought us to Satok town for a short lunch break before heading to our accomodation place.S

Our tour guide did a very good join in briefing us on Kuching and the many beautiful tribes that exist there. With the many legends and histories of Sarawak, the place gives me the impression that it's mystical, enchanting and very exotic.

Though "kuching" is the malay word for "cat", the tour guide told us that Kuching was named after after a town where one of the relative to Brooke used to stay. It was also believed to be named after the mata kucing fruit.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Damai Beach Resort. The resort is situated in Santubong, which is around 40 minutes drive from Kuching, and is surrounded by lush tropical rainforest with a view of Gunung Santubong.

We were allocated a very nice and comfy family room chalet by the beach, overlooking the South China Sea. The kids were practically thrilled riding on the bus to the airport, getting on the airplane, riding on the bus again, jumping on the beds and running all over the place!! Boy, looks like we parents and the kids have different views at this vacation and definitely different view in addressing our term of a "quiet and peaceful holiday". hahaha

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...

Fireworks

A few days ago, we went to the top of a hill at Bandar Puteri, Puchong, to see the fireworks in Putrajaya. After hearing about it from my neighbour and reading about it in the papers, we decided to head up there to see for myself the wonders of the fireworks.

Attempts to plan (ya, just planning alone) to go to Putrajaya was quite a problem when the jam from Puchong heading to the toll towards Putrajaya was just simply crazy.

Hubby got a call from his friend to inform us to not bother heading to Putrajaya and instead told us to meet he and his family up the Bandar Puteri hilltop to see the fireworks.

We could already see so many people waiting for the fireworks to start. The show that night was the fireworks performance from Germany, if I remember it correctly. When it started, everyone was excited - and I meant, everyone - big, small, old, young... The "ooooos" and the "aahhhhs" was really amusing.

Despite seeing the fireworks from afar, we could still feel the wonderful experience of a gathering of people sharing interest in the performance. THAT - reminded me of the thought of what UNITY means. And with Merdeka just one day away, this one unique gathering opened my eyes to how much more UNITY meant on the day we achieved Independence.

Suicide

Gosh! last Saturday, I found out that Eryn's nanny's new maid has hung herself from the bathroom window and has committed suicide!

The nanny takes care of Eryn and another 4 year old boy. That Saturday, the boy was sent to the nanny's place but the nanny had to go out to do get something around 10am and the boy was left alone at home. At about 12noon, the nanny called home and the boy picked up the call.

The nanny asked the boy to call the maid and he went upstairs to call the maid and took sometime before he answered the phone once again. He told the nanny that the maid was "tied-up", not knowing how to describe it. The nanny panicked and called a nearby neighbour who went to the house and saw that the maid's body was already harden.

The police came and the nanny was in a traumatic situation. The maid only started work 5 days before the incident and it was suspected that she could be in a deep depression. The worst thing is the thought of how the nanny and the boy will carry this at the back of their mind.

I took care of Eryn on Monday to give the nanny a break as she had to make a police report. The police has classify the case as a sudden death.

That suicide, happened one day before the ghost month prayer day or something like that...

Brand new house

2 months back, we took the opportunity to bring the kids to JB for a short break as their favourite uncle (my brother & his wife) has just shifted to their new home.

It doesn't matter if that holiday is in JB, or even in KL, as long as they get out and have fun, they're happy enough. There goes the afternoon naps, and the running and jumping around, the snacks and food that seems to be never-ending, and late nights....

I remember that a kid, I too was happy wheneverwe get to go for holidays, even if it's just a one day trip to an aunt's place. For us, it's the fun and joy of the get-together.

The short break was a welcomed, but the "after-effect" is really overwhelming, with the clothes to wash, and the sleep to catch up on.... zzzzzz......

Brendan & pre-school

It's been a wonder how kids just tend to develop so fast at their own pace... I tried to get Brendan down to writing his "A", "B", "C" and all, but he just refuse to budge.

As my mum was getting quite tired with Brendan whining at home, I decided to send Brendan to a pre-school sometime in April this year. And surprisingly, within 2 weeks, he could write A, B, C, etc... and write his own name!! Gosh, either I can't teach, or he picked things up real fast in those 2 weeks.

Now, it's been approximately 5 months, and he could write so many words, read, speak in BM and Mandarin. So naughty, so stubborn, so tiring and yet so smart, so attentive and so full of surprises!

He'll be coming up to KL soon to start his year 5 pre-school next year. I'm now just cracking my head to think of the options available. And speaking of that, it's also the year where I have to register him for primary school! Dilemma dilemma dilemma..... Chinese School? National School? Hmm.....

How Vain am I?

Haiya, Vichelle wants to know how vain am I. Well, I don't really go with the latest fashion, nor do I spend hours and hours dressing up. I don't stare myself at the mirror all the time..

Here's the summary of how vain I am :

You Are 46% Vain

You're a little vain, but more than anything you have a healthy amount of confidence. Thinking the world of yourself is great. Just don't think less of those who aren't as pretty as you!

How Vain Are You?

"What happened?"

I was on my notebook while DH was reading newspaper and watching the TV. 2 years old Eryn was sitting in the hall, playing with her toys and flipping through her storybooks.

ntv7 was showing the LIVE EARTH concert and Sarah Brightman was on stage singing a song, in a very high opera voice.. Suddenly, Eryn stopped doing her stuffs and asked, "What happened?"

Here goes the conversation :

Eryn : What happened?
DH : What happened what?
Eryn : What happened to Auntie?
Me : starts laughing
Eryn : What is Auntie doing? with a 'what's going on' look on her face.
DH : Auntie is singing lor..
Eryn : Terrible.
DH : Terrible??
Eryn : Terrible hor...

Hahahaha.. that was so funny....

Little Drummer Girl

About 3 months back, we took Eryn out to the Meadjohnson Smart Camp at Midvalley. We had the special privilege to enter the place at 9:30am before the opening launch to the public. There were activities organised for kids in the area of music, education and creative play.

There was a self-made set of drums, made of pails, plastic covers and with a wooden 'spade' as the drumsticks. Eryn was enjoying herself and playing the drum when a camera was set on her. She looked so cute on the drum set and later that night, Eryn was seen featured on the national news playing the drums.

At home, she takes out whatever she can get from the kithen and create her own musical world, hitting on a pot, clashing some plastic bowls, hitting on the colanders, spoons, etc.

Here goes the little drummer girl...

Lake Gardens again

Had a get-together with some of my mummy friends at Lake Gardens again.


2 weeks in a row.... Eryn was just so thrilled! She's been asking to go out to the park on weekends and now that she's been given the chance to go, she's just enjoying herself to the fullest.


I went to fetch a friend this time, and so, got company throughout the drive there. Here's Eryn being cheeky with her poses...

Just mummy and Eryn

It was Mother's Day. I didn't go back to my hometown but chose to stay in KL. DH was away in Germany for 3 weeks and thus, I decided to spend Mother's Day alone with Eryn all alone. Brendan called early in the morning from my hometown to wish me Happy Mother's Day and he said that he's eating cake and would be going for a sumptous lunch!!

My brother and his wife were planning to take my mum out and that, to Brendan, meant going out jalan-jalan and makan-makan.

Anyway, I took Eryn to Lake Gardens for a 2.5 hours outing. That was only my 2nd time there and I was kind of surprise that it is such a fun place for kids.

Eryn just loved playing there. It gave me a moment of pleasure, thinking of days when I was a kid. We were just happy going to the playground with only 2 swings, a see-saw and a merry-go-round. Kids these days have so much things to look forward to..

Half day trip to Genting

I was given 4 complimentary tickets to watch the show "FLY" in Genting. I gave the tickets to my mum, sis, brother & sis-in-law to watch the show while DH & I took the kids to the indoor theme park.

On that particular day, the kids knew we were going out and didn't take their nap the whole afternoon. By the time we arrive Genting, it was around 4pm+ They were too excited to sleep and was amazed at the huge, colourful playground around them. Their heads were turning here and there and they were jumping up and down.

By the time it was dinner, the kids were extremely tired and sleepy, but still wanted to play. They sat in most of the rides, going round and round, walking here and there, stopping to see this and that, and by the time my family came out from the show, it was almost 11pm.

Gosh, upon entering the car, they slept immediately, all the way back home.

As it was an Easter weekend, all rooms were fully booked. So, we've got no choice but to drive back on the same night.

Boyz II Men

Quite recently, I had the opportunity to meet Boyz II Men up close and personal. I loved their older albums and their songs are part of my favourite collection - A Song for Mama, End of the Road, I'll Make Love to You, On Bended Knee, One Sweet Day....

I don't have any specific favourite singer or groups and mostly go for songs that I like. I've met a few artistes and singers but meeting Boyz II Men is like a dream come true.

Open your mouth

"Show me how you laugh", I said, and the kids laughed and then freezed with their mouth open wide! They love doing this and I don't know what's so interesting about showing what's in your mouth. Hmm..... since it's quite difficult checking their teeth and tongue, maybe taking photos is a way for me to make a clear analysis on how clean their teeth and tongue are!

CNY in Kluang

Brendan and Eryn are usually in their old clothes. So, it's always nice to see them when they're dressed up quite presentable for the camera.

They seldom wear socks and wearing socks is like being so "cantik". They would proudly parade around the house and stare at the socks on their feet! But it doesn't last long cos the heat would make their feet all sweaty and uncomfortable and they would asked it to be taken out.

Eryn wearing mummy's old dress

My mum will clean and rearrange her cupboard once in a while and 4 months back, while cleaning the cupboard, she took out 2 cute little dresses that was once worn by me more than 30 years ago. My mum kept a lot of our baby clothes, and she has sewn many lovely dresses for me and my sis, but somehow most of it disappeared, or got stolen, when she left it at my grandma's place.

Here's Eryn in one of my baby dress - photo taken about 4 months back when Eryn was 16.5 months.

This is when I wore it many many moons back!

Here's another one of Eryn wearing my dress.

My late grandparents' house

In one of my trip back to my hometown last year, I took my mum and kids to my late maternal grandparents' house just to 'see-see-look-look'.

The house brought back lots of memories and was very nostalgic especially to my mum. This was where my grandparents brought up 13 children. At that time, it was the only big wooden house in the middle of nowhere. There were trees and vegies everywhere - rambutan, durian, papaya, coconut, ciku, pineapple, lime, lemon, even rubber trees and those red biji saga trees (not sure what it's called in English) and many kinds of animals and insects - very filial dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, 2 geese, cobras, pythons, huge biawaks (they feast on the chickens), big fat buzzing bumble bees, monkeys, owls, squirrels, etc.. We love the rambutan season cos the grandma has one particular rambutan tree with seedless rambutans and another with yellow rambutans. In fact, all the rambutan trees (and the papaya trees) bore sweet fruits.

My grandparents were from Hainan. Their marriage were arranged. My mum said that grandpa was a very handsome man and many families tried to match-make their daughters to my grandpa, but my grandpa had eyes only on my grandma. They were married at a very tender young age and grandpa left for Malaysia and set up his own bread factory in Kluang (now taken over by my uncles). Grandma later came to Malaysia and together they settled down in this little town.

It was during the Japanese occupation and things were rough. I used to hear stories of Gurkhas in town and how the Japanese imposed a curfew to avoid any mishaps.

Cooking were done in another section of the land, in a custom-made kitchen as big as the hall in my apartment, using firewood and charcoals over a big wok as big as a tractor's wheel! Ya, grandma and aunts had to cook for the factory workers as well.

There's around 43 grandchildren (or more) and about 12 great-grandchildren now. I am the 10th grandchild and we, the older grandchildren share some fond memories of our childhood at my grandparents' house. We loved playing there, sometimes climbing the mango and rambutan trees, or go searching for "bao fu" (spiders), or simply walk along the big, huge longkang looking for fishes and tadpoles... We played lots of our childhood games here - galah panjang, hide-and-seek, police & thief, etc....

Sometimes, we go under the house, digging to see if we can find some old coins. I used to keep some odd-shaped coins and some with a hole in the middle but have misplaced them. We didn't know how valuable such coins would become.

It's sad seeing the place in ruins now...

Raisin-lover

Actual post dated 30th Oct. 2006

Oh, gosh! Eryn just loves raisins. She'll ask for raisins in the morning, in the afternoon and at night. The moment she spots the Sunmaid raisins on top of the shelf, she'll ask and ask and ask until she get her raisins shot.

She'll happily munch her raisins on her own and the satisfaction on her face shows it all.

Despite it being sugar-free and preservative free, I'm wondering if it's actually safe for consumption on a daily basis.

Munch munch munch

Actual post dated 23rd Oct. 2006

Eryn loves munching and she’s always asking for food to much, despite being so small-sized. She doesn’t really have a big appetite and doesn’t eat a lot but she just loves munching. Every hour or so, she’ll ask for biscuits or bread and for bites whenever we have our meals at the moment. She’ll munch on grapes, raisins (one of her favourite), pear, apple, prune, carrot, etc.

Hmm….. maybe because she’s born in the year of the goat….

Piano Duets

Actual Post dated 20th Oct. 2006

One pretending to be Beethoven, one pretending to be Mozart? All I know is there love banging and banging and banging on the piano.

Ahem! Mummy here is a good pianist and they’re trying to take after mummy, I guess. For now, I just have to bear with the “lovely” tunes that come under their little, fat, fingers…..