Thank you, please come again.

My 6 and a half years old son, Brendan, can read very well and he likes reading signboards, posters, names of shops and anything that captures his razor-sharp eyes whenever we are out for meals, shopping, or merely window-shopping. And yes, that includes receipts too!

The first time he saw a receipt with the words "Thank you, please come again", he said that we should go back again to the shop we were visiting. He kept insisting and reminding us to go to the shop again until daddy got fed-up and told him to just keep quiet. He then showed us the receipt and said that we really have to come back again as what was mentioned in the receipt (see pic below).

Nowadays, he'll still continue telling us that whenever he spots the words on our shopping receipts and then asked why would they want us to go back again?

Last night, we went to Tesco to do some grocery shopping and Brendan started screaming, "Mummy! Mummy! We must buy this and this and this and this!!" Oh well, of course I said "No" but he kept pushing for me to buy the various types of frozen food in the freezer and went on showing us what was shown on the freezer. The words "Must Buy" were pasted on it! Eryn quickly ran to the freezer and started spelling out the words loudly and joined in the chorus with her brother, "Must buy! Must buy!" hahahaha.

Brendan, ooooh Brendan!!

Pizza making afternoon

We spent a few days in my parents' place in the recent school holidays.

One of the evening, we went to one of my aunt's house to make pizza. We got the dough from one of my uncle who owns a bakery. The dough was left-overs from making bread and there were so many of it that we actually made almost ten trays of pizzas, big and small.

A few years back, my brother bought some Formaggio reggiano cheese and Napoli salami direct from Italy during his one year working assignment there. The cheese had a strong smell but was quite nice when eaten, while the salami, flavoured with peppercorns was a tad too salty and a little chewy.

Together, my mum, two aunts, one cousin and me made our versions of pizza which was basically salami and the cheese, spreaded with tomato puree and topped with green pepper, button mushrooms and big onions. and another version with sausages, big onions and mix vegetables and another version in a big tray with added canned pineapple.

Turns out pretty, don't they? They taste yummy too!

before

after

Brendan and value of money

DH and I don't believe in pampering our kids too much especially when it comes to toys. DH's friends gave us a lot of lego sets and lots of little cars as their sons have all grown up. Brendan loves playing with those toys and masak-masak with his little sister as well. Eryn is comfortable playing those little boy's toys with Brendan, but mostly love dressing up her Barbie doll, also a hand-me-down, or playing house with another baby doll.

Last night, I saw Brendan staring and looking at a tiny lego brochure and started asking me what are those toys for and the difficult pronounciation of the names of some of those toys. After a while, this is how the conversation goes ;

Mummy : Brendan, which one is your favourite in this brochure?
Brendan : Hmm..... I think this one.
Mummy : Ok, what if mummy buy one of this for you?
Brendan : It's ok, I don't want one.
Mummy : Well, I can buy you a small one, but you must take good care of it.
Brendan : No, lah... Don't want lah, I scared afterwards you got not enough money to use.

Well, I'm stunned. I wonder where did he get that kind of idea?

Another scenario in Toys R Us ;

Eryn : Mummy, I like Toys R Us, they have so many toys. Can we stay here longer? I like this one, mummy.
Mummy : Oh! This is so expensive! You all can see but don't ask me to buy. I'll get what I want to get for you all.
Brendan : Mei-Mei, don't simply buy lah. All these toys very expensive one. Afterwards you spoil it then wasted only. We go home and play cars and masak-masak k?
Eryn : I don't want!! I don't want!! I want to stay here longer!!
Brendan : Come lah mei-mei. Mummy wants to go to work already lah. We stay here so long already.

And another scenario;

Brendan : Mummy, how much is a car? I got a lot of money here. RM10 enough or not? Your car so old already lah, I buy for you ok?
Mummy : haha... RM10 only? Where got enough? You need a lot a lot of money.
Brendan : How many zeroes you need?
Mummy : At least 4 zeroes. Maybe one 8, and 4 zeroes.
Brendan : Which is more expensive? Car or house? I buy a house leh?
Mummy : House even more expensive. You need 5 zeroes.
Brendan : But house no need to pump petrol. It should be cheaper.

Sigh! That's my boy and his occasional money talk. Kind of reminds me of my brother when he was young.

Berjaya Hills

It's Brendan's official first school term break. We have no plans to go anywhere since hubby is away for one whole week in Germany.

However, we went up to Berjaya Hills (previously known as Bukit Tinggi) on Saturday evening, reaching there at almost 5pm, and came back the next morning as hubby had to rest and then pack to leave to the airport on the same night. It's a short getaway, but nevertheless, a fun trip for the kids.

For the kids, most outing, no matter how boring for us adults, would always be fun for the kids. There's nothing much to do there and we managed to take only 2 hours to walk around Colmar Tropicale and to the Japanese Tea Garden. There's some games stall, a kids play area, some restaurants, a tower for the full view of the Colmar Tropicale area and a nice pond with two white swans and two black swans. The kids enjoyed watching the swans very much.

I love the serenity at the Japanese Garden. We could hear plenty of birds and there were lots of bird-watchers and professional photographers up there, at 3,500 feet above sea level, trying to catch a glimpse and get a good photography shot of the birds there. It was 20 minutes to closing time. We had to quickly climb up the very steep hill just to see the Japanese Garden. We took a quick 20 minutes walk and after that, as we were halfway down the hill to the car park, it began to pour!! The rain just came so suddenly that we got ourselves wet.

We took a drive down to Kampung Bukit Tinggi for dinner. The claypot fish was our favourite. Hubby loves it so much that he's already planning for another trip with a few friends just to go there to eat and enjoy the fresh air.

A super-short getaway, but a fun and nice one.

a baby and her sixth sense

5 years back, my article appeared in The Star papers about Babies and Sixth Sense. Click HERE for the link. Once again, this prove to be amazing!

One morning last week, my brother woke up with excruciating pain and was not able to move. He was so lucky that his SIL was at his house. She immediately called her sister, my brother's wife, to come home and they both sent him to the hospital. He had a slip disc and an urgent surgery was needed and was scheduled in the evening at 6pm.

My mum called to inform that an interesting day had happened. My mum is currently babysitting my niece (my brother's 4 months old baby) and the poor little baby, more than 100km away from daddy, was feeling uptight and crying. At 6pm when the surgery was doing on, my little niece started crying and crying and behaving wierdly, as though she knew something was going on. She's only 4 months old, and she could sense something was happening to her daddy more than 100km away.

My mum had to pacify her and calm her down. 3 hours after the surgery, my brother was safely out of the operation theater. That's when my mum talked to my niece and explained that her daddy is out of the operation.

By God's grace, everything went well, and the funny thing after my mum spoke to my 4 months old niece, she immediately calmed down and went to sleep.

Wierd but amazing!

me and my big blunder

I bumped into an acquaintance this afternoon while waiting for a friend. We started chatting when I noticed a lady walking slowly towards our direction and looking at me. I didn't give much thought to it until she stood beside me. It was then that I realise that she's my friend's wife.

I thought that she has that tinge of jealousy in her and he introduced both of us to each other. I extended my hand and shook hers and started a conversation with her so she won't misunderstood me unnecessarily. She began to warm up to me and we chatted for a few minutes.

I noticed that her tummy was a little big. It was not like the bloated look or flabby look. It just looked like she's around 5 months pregnant or so. I asked how many months pregnant is she and then that's when she kept quiet and my friend, her hubby, intercepted and said that she's not, and that her tummy just look exceptionally big.

Oh dear! Oh dear!! I dropped a bomb and I just felt like vanishing right there on the spot!! I turned to her and apologised. Luckily, I was not punched on the spot!

I don't normally ask such things like that to people cos I too have a flabby tummy. I know. I made a BIG blunder. I deserve to be shot dead there and then. I'm quite upset over my stupid blunder.

Please forgive me. Stupid stupid me!

swollen eye

Eryn woke up crying this morning and complaining that one of her eye cannot be opened.

I took a look at her and saw the her left eye was quite swollen. She had been having a tiny bulging dot on her left eye for almost a week. DH had put a drop of eye gel when it first swell and it was ok for a few days before it swells morning. Could be because we didn't continue giving her the eye gel.Her first reaction was not wanting to go to school at be at home with me. Good excuse, and so I kept her at home with me.Took her to the kindy for a while though cos the lion dance troupe were at the kindy. She didn't want to step into the kindy and I had to carry her. She buried her face in my shoulders and didn't want to see the lion dance, her teachers and the classmates.

When her friends start calling her, she pretended she didn't hear. This little girl of mine is so cheeky.

Anyway, it's nice to be home with Eryn today. Gotta go give her lunch and am taking her out to visit a friend. hehe

Words Twist

My boy likes to disturb his little sister by immitating her in the things she says and do. He's also got this tendency to twist sentences and words around which irritates us at home. He finds it funny but stops short for a while, when daddy scolds him, before continuing the words twist in whispers.

Here's just some of the things he says :

Case 1 :
Eryn : Mummy, can I go to jie-jie's house and play Barbie doll again?
Brendan : Huh? What? You want to play with pig doll? You play with a pig? hahahahahaha

Case 2 :
Mummy : Brendan, you better eat some herbal chicken. It's good for you. You're too skinny.
Brendan : I don't want purple chicken.
Mummy : It's not purple chicken. It's herbal chicken.
Brendan : No, it's not herbal chicken. Just give me the purple chicken.

Case 3 :
Poh-Poh : Brendan, don't play and eat faster. You "bi3 sai4" (mandarin for compete/challenge) with mei-mei and see who eats faster.
Brendan : HAHAHA (super loud). " Pi3 sai4" (hokkien for those dried snots, or whatever you call it, in your nose). Mei-mei, you want "pi3 sai4" ar?
Eryn : NO!!!! MUMMY!! Kor-kor want me to eat tahi!! (malay word for faeces)

Now, on the other hand, Eryn is a big whiner. When Brendan does this thing with those words and disturb Eryn, she will start whining and complaining and sometimes cry, and it goes something like this :

Eryn : (singing) I said hey..... Ah be gun-duh-dere..... la la la ah be gun-duh-dere
Brendan : Mei-mei, you sing it wrongly already.
Eryn : Eeeeeeee...... You don't say ar.....
Brendan : (singing) Hey.... Ah be gun-duh-dere....
Eryn : Arrggghhh!!!! Mummy!!!! (whining and complaining) Kor-kor follow me talk!!
Brendan : hahaha... Mummy!! Kor-kor follow me talk!! (immitates Eryn)
Eryn : (starts crying and stamps her feet)

Sigh! People say that my girl talks non-stop and my SIL says that my house must be really noisy with these two fellas voices. Tell me about it

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Wishing you and family and happy and blessed Chinese New Year, filled with abundance of good health, wealth and prosperity!

GONG XI FA CAI!

"kutu" mission

I'm going crazy thinking about head lice, or more commonly known as 'kutu' here.

Two nights ago, I noticed Brendan scratching vigorously in his sleep and the first thought that came to mind was that he must have been sweating and have not washed his hair. So, the next morning, I washed his hair, but noticed that he still continue scratching and scratching his head later in the afternoon.

Oh no! Must be 'kutu'. I checked his hair and I think I see nits on his head. I can't seem to find that stupid kutu. Make me so stressed the whole day yesterday thinking about that stupid kutu. He must have gotten it in school quite recently. I normally spend half hour to an hour reading books in bed, with Brendan beside me, and I didn't notice him scratching much before that, until two nights ago!

So last night, I beh tahan liao, after spending an hour trying to take out the nits and looking for any live kutu last night, I decided to drive to the pharmacy in the rain, with my two kids in the tow. I got a kutu comb (like the one on the left below) and a kutu shampoo (apparently, it kills the live kutu and nits as well). Drove back home, and immediately try to comb Brendan's hair. Stupid comb, doesn't work cos it's not that fine. Some more say, 100% guaranteed. Blah!

I checked Eryn's hair. Perfectly clear. I tried to check my hair, but seems clear also, but I can't help feeling itchy all over just thinking about the stupid..... yes! K.U.T.U.!!!

Couldn't sleep the whole night, thinking about this stupid.... K.U.T.U.!!! This morning, again, I drove to the chinese medicine shop to look for the wooden kutu comb (like the one above right), and it's equally lousy. Can't comb anything out at all. sigh! The uncle told me that it's common for school kids to have kutus and its spreads easily. He even says he used to have lots of it and have to comb it out all the time when he was small!! Eeewwww.... GELI!!

So, washed Brendan's hair with the kutu shampoo. He's scratching less now, but still scratching, and I did some reading and realise that the itch may still continue for a few days before it totally stops. The nits are still there, apparently, dead, and I can't stand the sight of it each time I checked.

I washed all bed sheets, towels, clothes, combs and took out the pillows and bags out to sun in the sun cos kutus are susceptible to high head. kah kah kah... Die! Die! You kutus!! Die!

So, again, I took out my two books, "Herbal Home Remedies" by Jude C. Tood and "Debug your home the natural way" by PAN-AP.

My good faithful books give me some tips on how to remove kutus the natural way. One of it is to pour boiling water over tobacco leaves (apparently, tobacco from cigarettes with the papers removed also helps) and strain to use the liquid to rinse over hair at least 15 times into a basin. Reuse the water. Then leave it on for a few hours before shampooing out.

Coming with a solution of one part vinegar and one part water makes it easier to comb the nits out. Other natural uses are neem oil, oil-based shampoos and hair dryer (for adults only).

One comment I read on the net states that the mother uses Listerine mouth wash and leave it over night and white vinegar for the nits later.

I'll wait for a while to see whether the scratching is still there. Otherwise, I'll drive out to get myself a pack of cigarettes for the tobacco rinse.

For more reading on head lice, you can click here, here and here. I found a home remedy suggestion too here.

Butt Exposed

I was having breakfast with a friend this morning when this two beautiful girls sat near us, but I almost choked on my coffee when I saw two rounded apples peeking out from one of the girl's pants!!

The photo might not be that obvious but when she was near us, I could see the deep 'longkang' there for all to see. hahahaha

One Malaysia?

It was a disturbing day for me when I read news of the attack on churches. We've come this far and yet, being a country known, or claimed, to be multicultural and multiracial, we see idiotics acts like this being done. What a total shame and a total disgrace. Haven't these people search deep into their roots of their own moral and social beliefs before resorting to such action?

I have many friends of the Malay, Indian, Eurasian and even East Malaysian races, and never once I've encountered any racial or even religious tensions among ourselves in school or at work. Well, I do remember the time when I used to have an old primary 2 school-mate who was sentenced to death for bombing of a shopping mall in Jakarta 9 years ago. He and his group were claimed to be involved in the bombing of two churches before that incident in Indonesia. He also lost his legs because of one of the bomb blast. I remember him to be a loner who used to mumble to himself. We never knew where he went after primary 2 or 3, until news of him appeared about 20 years later.

What had happened recently shows that some people are pathetically ignorant. Their actions are only detrimental to their own being and peace. As the late Mahatma Gandhi puts it, "Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary".

It is still a good understanding to know that there are many people out there condeming the attacks and wanting a real One Malaysia peace as written here , here and on many other websites and blogs.

Peace to all fellow Malaysians...

Primary One

I'm joining in the bandwagon to blog about Brendan's first day of school.

He managed well, having two of his friends from kindergarten in the same class and a few other friends in other classes. The teachers in the kindergarten has prepared him well for primary school, just like the principal has promised.

Brendan was surprisingly quite enthusiast about going to school. I met a mummy friend I know from a mummies group whose daughter is also studying there. I also bumped into a client and a few neighbours whose kids are also studying there. It's such a small world to know some people in the school.

Things were so different back then when I was in primary one. I remember playing and playing only, and I had wonderful teachers who were extremely experienced in teaching. Nowadays, we have to be careful of our kids' well-being and all.

I've put Brendan on the school's food programme at RM80 for two months. Don't think I can prepare food for him everyday and decided to go ahead with the food programme which have quite different variety of food every single day, inclusive of a drink. Brendan takes his lunch at 11am which means by recess time he'll be so hungry that he'll chomp down on his food. He only reaches home at 7:30pm which means he'll be hungry.

It's the start of the year and big challenges are coming ahead. Get ready to rock-and-roll!

A decade in pictures

Some fond memories of my kids from the time Brendan was born in October 2003, followed by Eryn in June 2005. I'm getting older.....

Brendan proved to be quite an alert baby but was quite a difficult baby to take care as he tends to wake up at night and cry. He started speaking a little later though, compared to Eryn who would start speaking at age 1.

Brendan was under the care of my mum in Johor and I used to travelled every weekend to see him from KL to Johor, transporting frozen breasmilk in a cooler box in the KL-Johor bus. The breastmilk stopped at around 6 months and I continued my weekend visit, travelling alone most of the time as hubby was busy working until I was 8 months pregnant with Eryn. Brendan is actually quite a matured kid for his age, but can be quite mischiveous when he's with his maternal grandparents or his little sister.

Eryn was a very smiley baby and was so much easier to care for. Eryn was under my care and with the help of a maid, it was time for Brendan to be up in KL together with us as a family. I'm so grateful to my parents for their great commitment in taking care of Brendan in the first one and half years. Eryn was lucky to be breastfed until one year old, before supplementing with formula partially until age two where she only suckle at night.

Eryn can be quite cheeky and is quite a messy girl, compared to Brendan. She started walking at 10 and a half months, compared to Brendan who started walking at 12 months plus. She loves posing and can really dance so naturally with her soft body movement.

Together, Brendan and Eryn makes a perfect sibling companion, playing masak-masak together, toy cars, combat, and many more. However, sibling rivalry is always there. It's always a case of 'I first, you second' or 'He/She disturbed me', or 'This is mine, not yours', etc.. Well, you get the idea.

A decade has passed and it has been an interesting one, with the birth of my two beautiful children, a great gift from above. They stressed me up, I screamed at them, they whine and fight, but they're still my love and my sunshine and their surprises never fail to bring a rainbow on after a rainy day.

Happy New Year 2010!

It's a brand new year and we are now moving into a new phase as Brendan is entering standard one and I'm starting all our in a career that will be me more time for me and my family. Life is getting interesting.

We didn't celebrate new year eve in a grand manner but went to join our housing area's New Year Eve party, organised by the residents and the association on top of the hill overlooking the township, with tons and tons of hawker food available, and lots of prizes for lucky draw. There were performances by a lion dance troupe, a cheerleading group from some secondary school, lots of other performances including a singing group from some club. Great night and beautiful fireworks at the hilltop and the surrounding township at the stroke of midnight.

We also chose not to have hawker food at the residents' party and opt for our small family dinner at Sakae Sushi and for the kids, it was something fun and interesting, as long as they get to jalan-jalan, as usual.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010! May this year bring you lots of wealth, health and joy!

School Orientation

It was Brendan's school orientation yesterday morning. He took it very well and was pleased to have two or three of his kindy friends in his class as well as a few other kindy friends in other classes. The demand for the school is so high that there are 8 classes consisting of 50 students each and the headmaster was announcing that he'll stretch it to 11 classes.

We have opted for a chinese school. Though I didn't like the idea of sending him to a chinese school, I had to change my mind after scouting around for a kebangsaan school which really pulled my confidence down with the standard of teachers dropping in the few kebangsaan schools that I went to check out. Pathetic. It's therefore not surprising to see quite a few Malay and Chindian kids in the school.

It will be a tough challenge with tons of homework and with strict discipline a but it will prepare Brendan for  later years I hope. Brendan's kindy has prepared him well and surprisingly, Brendan doesn't find it boring, at least for now. If things doesn't turn out well, we'll have to find other alternative. (cross fingers).

The number of textbooks and workbooks are crazy, just like when Brendan was in kindy, but for him, it looks too easy as he had done all these work while he was in kindy. I hope he can still say that when he reaches standard 4-6 and secondary school. We'll have to wait and see.

Lost World of Tambun

It's been a quiet school holiday for me as this month I haven't really been working as my mum was in KL and the kids were at home with me, making lots of noise and making it impossible for me to make business calls when they would come calling "Mummy,........" or they would start bickering.

Hubby has been busy with his work as well even though he was on leave for 2 weeks. We only went for a local break in Penang and Ipoh while some of our friends are travelling to Thailand, Australia, Indonesia, Disneyland, etc.. We have to be prudent in our spending and I too didn't want to spend so much on a holiday this time round.

It was a pleasant family day we have at Lost World of Tambun and for the kids, it didn't really matter where they go as long as it's fun, fun, fun! And boy, did they have tons of fun in the sun and water from morning to the late afternoon when it began to rain a little.

Dinner that night was barbeque buffet which was sumptuous and delicious. It was a good time together with other families and my business associates. It's been tiring, and we are all sunburnt, but it's time well-spent after those month long of 'babysitting' the kids :-)

Short visit to Penang

This holiday, we didn't make earlier plans to take the kids anyway except for my company's family day in Ipoh. So we decided to head up to Penang first prior to the family day and visit my sis there. Ever since she had her baby, we only get to see her once in a blue moon. Our visit to Penang is always about food and of course spending time with my little sister.

Seafood and other Penang local food are always a must, though this round we didn't have time for muar chee, cendol, ice kacang and many more. Due to time constraint, we go to our usual asam laksa place at BB near Sunshine Square.

The kids remembered the fishes and the turtles at the aquarium and so we took them there, only to find out that the place is under renovation. The turtle and huge aquarium was still open though and I don't understand why the kids just simply love watching the turtles swimming around. It's a pathetic sight though when we see adults and teenagers acting like hooligans, touching and even hitting on the turtles and disturbing a tiny little alligator there. Was really pissed with these uncivilised people.

On our way to Penang, we stopped at Bukit Tambun for dinner and on the second day, we ate at Teluk Kumbar. It was a satisfying meal and the price was pretty reasonable too. I would say that the food at Teluk Kumbar or the one somewhere near Batu Maung is so much more better than Bukit Tambun.

A special seafood laksa in Bukit Tambun (can't remember the restaurant name, but it's not very deep inside the road), which is cooked in tom yam soup. This is very nice dish.

Crabs with a tinge of tom yam taste. I personally still prefer sweet and sour style, chilli style or kam heong style. It's still good, just that my taste bud was yearning for something else. hehe

Steamed prawns at Bukit Tambun. Very fresh and nicely done

Never tried this style before. Clams in some special cili and lime sauce. Kinda nice, but again, I was dying for the clams in ginger and wine sauce or chilli clams.

Everybody's favourite. Perfectly done, and not so rubbery like some places. The kids love this.

Assam laksa is always a must in Penang.

Brendan and Eryn sitting on the swing by the beach while waiting for our food to arrive at Teluk Kumbar.

It's year end already

In just a few days' time, it will be another brand new year. While I try not to think too much about it and enjoy my December break, it's now back to reality.

Anyway, Christmas this year was a quiet affair for us as we had to skip a Christmas lunch and headed to Penang to visit my sis there.

Christmas set in when we took the kids to Midvalley, Sunway and Curve to see the decorations. The constant bickering at home is already driving me up the wall this holiday season, and their frequent pestering to go 'kai-kai' to see Christmas decorations is just those little delights for the kids. Just having the opportunity to step out of the house to go 'kai-kai' for them bring so much joy to their little faces.

The kids were moody at Sunway except for the second time when we sent to Sunway Lagoon night park where they were beaming with joy.

Eryn loved her photo with the 'golden angel' taken above.

Midvalley was packed with people but I personally loved the ambience there.

Gardens was more quiet which makes it more soothing.

Dentist visit

I finally took the kids to see Dr Priscilla of Pristine Dental yesterday.

It was a surprised that Brendan took it so calmly and sat with his mouth opened wide without a tinge of fear being shown. He had two patches done up in his baby molar and it's due to accumulation of food particles between two teeth on both side that caused the little cavities. It was a difficult place to brush and hubby and I only started flossing the kids teeth in recent months.

Eryn, on the other hand was an even bigger surprise when she threw a tantrum before going in to see the dentist, and didn't want to go on the chair, unlike her previous visit. All this was due to us asking her to stop seeing the root canalling magazine. sigh!

After seeing her kor-kor having his teeth done, she then quickly climbed up onto the chair and opened her mouth wide. While Dr Priscilla was cleaning her teeth, she started giggling non-stop. She had one big hole on her bottom right and a very tiny small one at the top right. The patching could have caused a small pressure on her tooth, I think, that she started crying after her bouts of giggles. She refused to open her mouth to get the second one done and used her hands to cover her mouth. Though the doctor says that that can be done at another time, I decided to get it done once and for all. It took a few minutes before we manage to persuade her to open up with much difficulty. double sigh!

The bill came up to RM260 for both kids for both molar patches each. A little pricey, but worth the trouble and the TLC shown by Dr Priscilla.

Scary, but just had to get it done. triple sigh!