Ten years ago

An old friend dropped me a message in my fb which reminded me about how fast time has passed yet again.

What I was doing 10 years ago:

It was 1998, I was all of twenty three and in the middle of my time in Stamford College taking my CIM; life was simple, but I didn't realize it then. i had a bunch of girlfriends, all of whom I am no longer in contact with Ramona, Nivashini and Yasmin; which is a crying shame actually, but I guess we just grew apart and the differences and circumstances that cropped up later are keeping us from each other.

I also worked part-time in The Body Shop for some extra cash; made a couple of friends there Ika, Chocka and Fida, regardless of the ridiculously low salary, it was a measly RM4 an hour but I loved working there, coz of its simple pleasures I get to play with the makeup palette and be creative, I got to try on different perfume oils everyday so I smelt different every day of the month, I got freebies like showergels and shampoos and other toiletries that I wouldn't be able to afford on my pay if I weren't working there. My job was rather routine but I loved meeting with customers who talked passionately about TBS products as did I. I loved everything about BS products, and how politically correct it was. The motto was Reuse, Reduce & Recycle which stands until today.

After work, I went home and watched tv for hours on end and then have my dinner and prepared for another day at school the next day, I revised and read my text books, get bored and do something else. I wore Doc Martens and my Nicole overalls and my choice of bags were from United Colors Of Benetton, I practically lived in my trusty Levi's that I bought together with Ramona at the Levi's Store in Lot 10. I listened to Babyface, Bon Jovi & Mr Big and checked my emails at the local cybercafe everyday. I was madly jealous of a pair of twins in school because I thought that they had everything, from good looks to being the popular crowd. But I was happy, I was happy with my group of friends, we spent time in the library and ate at Stamford's cafetaria which serves the best toast and economy beehoon. The cafetaria was in the middle of the complex and had a sunroof and the sunrays gently danced on our hair as we sat eating and drinking iced tea.

Ramona and I spent so much time in Uncle Chilli's that the waiters knew us by name and gave us free food & drinks off and on, of course most of the time we paid for our food but whenever there's a freebie it sure made our day .. and the freebie will usually be something really huge and YUMMY, compliments of the junior cooks in the western kitchen :)

I learnt that everything happens for a reason. And no matter how hard life seems to get, but when the going gets tough; the tough gets going. And yes, that was also the same year I went steady with my husband to be. Ten years ago indeed feels just like yesterday.

A Pop Up Book

Who here loves pop up books, I do!

As a kid I loved them, maybe because it was my first introduction in 3D designs :)

I dropped by Book Culture yesterday for a lookee look and found a new pop up fairytale book, which I pomptly bought for Niki, the tale of Little Red Riding Hood. It's illustrated by John Patience whose name I've seen in many other children's books. Needless to say being a bookworm like me, Niki loved it and made me read it to her quite a few times, it put me to bed too coz I did doze off halfway through.

Today I went by and bought another one, this time the all time favourite The Wizard Of Oz.

Gonna read to her this one later tonight before bedtime :)

Laksa Maker I

ta da! my first assam laksa!

Well I'm sure everyone knows about my undying devotion to a noodle dish called Assam Laksa. Eating Assam Laksa is a love affair for the senses, the smell, the taste, the texture, how it feels in your mouth and the satisfying aftertaste which is usually a bit fishy and oniony. However, I do admit that eating Assam Laksa takes some acquired taste, and some people I know wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole but for me, it's a food affair, I do love the Assam Laksa, and for someone who loves to eat it so much, to tell you the truth I do't know how to make it. And so my quest for yesterday was to learn to cook the Assam Laksa, I found the recipe surprisingly from a most unlikely source the Jusco J-Card member magazine "Pearl" May edition. The recipe was sent in by Chef Ahmad (I think) from the Concorde KL's Malay kitchen, at first I thought to myself, .. hhmmm it's hotel laksa then .. and was actually afraid it may taste bland and combined with my cooking .. I was just afraid how it might all turn out, well all that second guessing couldn't top off my cooking skills or shall I say lack-off .. and yes, the recipe was easy enough, the process required included only boiling, blending and boiling again to make the broth.

Next it only involved the mis-en-place for the garnishing and boiling the laksa beras (I used this instead of the usual glass noodles type, coz I'm from Kedah, so Laksa Beras just does it for me)

Boiling the broth took around 30-40 mins, and then it was salt to taste and voila it was ready to served :)

For a first attempt I must say it was rather ok, and I'm as pleased as a peach! Of course, I have to thank both Vicky & Ammu for helping out and for cheering me on while I cooked, coz like I said I'm not much of a cook, and need all the help I can get :)

In my excitement I forgot to take photos *slaps forehead*, but there's leftovers so guess what we're having for dinner tonight .. *grin*

Now I can make my own Assam Laksa, I'll probably won't attempt Amy Beh's more complicated version of the Assam Laksa recipe but will stick to Chef Ahmad's recipe coz it's just so easy and my cooking skill still remains in the novice category, and I don't see it improving anytime soon.

But hey, yay!! I can cook Assam Laksa *skips off while singing a ditty*

Mama mia Pizza!

The pizza was yummy & huge :)

Niki the mischevious

Mama Mia

PJ State, quite a bit of memories there

I'm beginning to think that most of the time we're always eating; seriously I was clearing some of my old picture files so to make more room in my pc's C drive, and most of the old files consisted of makan haunts. And so to keep the tradition going here's a look at what went in my tummy yesterday.

For lunch, we were in PJ State; hence since we have some time to kill before we proceed on with our next engagement I suggested that we go to this new place called Mama Mia, it's at PJ State facing PJ's main Jalan Tengah, and located in between AmBank and Poh Kong. It's a bistro slash restaurant with a slight Hong Kong feel to it in terms of the menu. I had the Special Toast and Tung Ling Mat (honey lime juice) while Vicky had the Oriental Chicken something with their Longan, Mango & Banana smoothie. The drinks were fine and so was my toast but the Oriental Chicken was a bit disappointing in portion, I could actually count the number of fries on the plate and the salad .. don't even get me started, it was coleslaw with halved cherry tomato, yes its singular. Pretty kesian la! And they served the food on plastic plates, which is a bit of a turn off coz the pix in their menu showed otherwise. We were not expecting expensive china but plastic, c'mon la .. see, the reason being is the place looks pretty poshy and well I feel it does defeat the purpose of the neat decor when the food comes in melamine ware.

Like I said the place looks pretty poshy .. the ambience itself was nice, decor was contemporary with comfy chairs; however all this couldn't save what happened while we dined there; why you ask .. it is because one of the diner there had problem controlling his accoustic while talking into his mobile. We heard every single word said during his extremely long and irritating conversation and the thing was he was sitting on the other end of the restaurant :(

Thankfully dinner was much more pleasant; we had it at Pizza vs Satay, yeah the name's pretty interesting :) Since it was their first day of opening; dessert and coffee & tea were on the house; which was an added bonus *grin* We ordered the large hawaiian pizza which came with a very generous amount of cheese, chicken and large chunks of pineapple, the NZ baked mussels and their signature Chook satay. One word says it all YUMMY. Their prices were reasonable and the ambience and decor was really nice and cosy, which me likey... they also have assam laksa in their menu which I will definitely try one of these days.

Down Memory Lane

the curry leave in my pot

and the sweet smelling basil with pretty white flowers

We were again at the AmCorp Weekend bazaar *grin*

And again while meandering around found some stuffs worth buying.

I *beams* got myself 2 types of herbs; one the humble Murraya koenigii (the Curry tree) and the Ocimum basilicum (basil)

It's really exciting, and somewhat unsure, me tettering down the domestic lane, since I'm not much of a cook, the least I could do is plant some herbs to help with the cooking right :)

Also bumped into two old friends; Sri and Wan; whom I have not seen since the early nineties, it was really nice to catch up but in my haste & usual absent mindedness I totally forgot to get their number; however that goodness Sri asked for my callcard which I did pass to her. They have a lot there at the bazaar selling "big boys toys" as Wan puts in; all types of bikers paraphenelia for the harley fan in you.

AI and the sky

Caught AI yesterday, and was visibly upset coz I can't believe that David A didn't win it .. if you caught the showdown DA really brought it in all 3 of his performances -- if AI was based on that performance only, I guess DA would have won it hands down.

But I guess like everything else today, it's just not that simple, I guess it also boils down to how marketable they can be.

I, personally have always preferred DC over DA because I know deep down I'm a rocker chick, and prefer some edge rather than the sweet saccharine croons of love ballads. I guess the 12 million margin felt the same. So DC wins it and Simon apologized for being too "Simon" which I thought was ridiculous.

I've just started eading The Sky Is Crazy by Yvonne Lee and it's so entertaining, it's a light read but it is so funny :-) Will review it here once I'm through.

Update & book review

Ok I finished the book over the weekend and while it was wholly entertaining it did nothing to boost any of the important Q's; it was just a fun read. Actually I was expecting more out of the book truth be told and so I hope the writer continues on her journey as a writer and comes out with her second book which I hope can literally blow my socks off; I still have faith that Malaysian writers can write and ultimately delivers thought provoking and compelling novellas.

Anticipation

Anticipation is a funny feeling, especially if you've anticipated an event for about 15 years or so. Looking forward to the day when finally, finally you can put the saga together. And that's when you give even the shaky start the benefit of doubt .. but when it progresses and finally the finale of it all .. rather than a bang, it goes out with just a whimper that's when you feel the full feeling of disappointment, *bluek*

Lunch after two

We were out for an appointment yesterday around Sunway area and happened across this cosy looking eatery by the name of Wendy's Bistro. It was way past lunch hour and we were feeling really faint from well, lack of fuel. True to its name its bistro-ey .. and I love that they have their meats and hungarian sausages all decked out in the preview fridge; it looks especially good if you're famished which was so in our case. As an added bonus there was movenpick icecream as well.

The kitchen is right in the bistro itself with clear glass so one would have a clear view over how one's food is cooked, which is kinduf a glutton's (meaning me here) idea of cool. I had the Potato Soup & Bacon Cannelloni with Sauteed Tomatoes Pasta while my other half had Pork Ribs cooked to perfection by the chef.

Lining the bistro were some work of arts by a Ms HS Nedermeyer; burst of colours with fusion of eastern flavour .. which very much echoes the ambiance of the bistro .. smooth ..

Weekend bazaar at the Amcorp Mall

We trawled a local bazaar yesterday.

Sunday mid morning was spend at the Amcorp Mall.

OMG, we found so many fascinating bric-a-bracs & knickknacks, everything was so absolutely nice to look and be held. And the musty smell that accompanied most of the items I held was priceless. It is a bazaar afterall and there were lots and lots of antique type items on sale, everything from all gramaphones to records from the P Ramlee and Sarimah era and of course the evergreen Beatles and Nat King Cole. The sweet croons hanging in the air as we go from one table to another. Eveything looked so colourfully interesting. It's pretty much more interesting than the one at the Curve really.

Well not everyhthing there was quaint, there's alot of new stuffs too like plush throw pillows, pashminas and handbags and colourful beaded slippers galore (I was in heaven with this one!!) .. and then there was the cupcake table, at two ringgit a pop it was well worth every cent spent .. I got half a dozen and chomped on them while we meandered around. Vicky found some real nice stuffs too, it's illegal to mention here so I'm not gonna .. boys and their toys (go figure!) .. There was an Ocean's 12 movie poster on sale too but it was about Eighty not eighteen ringgit, we figured it's abit too much to spend on a poster even if it was a two sided one, moreover if we framed it being two sided wouldn't matter would it?

We became really hungry by about two and discovered a gem of a thai restaurant call Rak Thai there, it was pretty authentic in terms of the decor and stuffs but the food there was heavenly, really Thai-like .. it was so interesting that Vicky even requested the shop girl to replay Sabai-sabai. After lunch it was back to the bazaar, grabbed some cute knick knacks and an baroque antique bedside lamp before heading home happy :-)

Heroes Are Not Born, They're Built!

Totally unplanned.

It's been so long since we last went for a movie in a cinema.

It's been too long since I had the caramel popcorn from gsc which I really like.

It's caramely and its sweet, so it's not that hard to resist.

It was a toss up between Iron Man and What Happened in Vegas, Iron Man won hands down, so we caught the 9.50pm show and I was "wow-ed" .. I mean I'm not a huge fan of Marvel comics but this movie is actually quite good, I was pleasantly surprised, the characters were well flashed out and surprisingly Robert Downey Jr makes a pretty good Tony Stark/Iron Man but I have to say Terence Howard do tend to steal the show sometimes, too bad he had so little screen time.

If you're an engineer, then this is totally your movie!

Here's the trailer :) and there's the ending with Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury after the credits roll, so stay and watch the whole thing .. just a little bite of what lies ahead after Iron Man .. to Marvel buffs .. the word Avengers might ring a bell!

A surprise post of slides

Today's post is brought to you by Ammu; Niki in slides :-)

33 Here I Come!

After the funnest Mother's Day ever, it continued with the best 33rd birthday ever!

Vicky whipped up my birthday dinner; and topped it with chocolate mousse cake. The food was utterly scrumptious. Vicky chef de extradoinaire made lemon tangerine with milk fish (which I found out to be a wheat-eating fish imported from Taiwan); spicy mediterranean tiger prawns and "lala" and butter grilled veggies and for dessert which was my birthday cake; the always yummy chocolate mousse.

Here's the video and photos of that special evening .. I was so stuffed by the end of the evening, and could only waddle .. :) which was the best present I could ever wish for :) and yup .. the beautiful feeling of seeing my Niki carrying my birthday cake while singing Happy Birthday .. it was magical! And oh, the cake says "ur the best" *ahem!*

I then planted a wet one on the cameraman, well which was off camera of course *wink, wink*

The funnest Mother's Day ever!

Ok, I've only been a mum for 4 years plus (incl of the pregnancy) so I'm pretty green with the whole mother's day celebration, which means it's a BIG deal for me, and the best thing is Mother's Day is just the day before my 33rd birthday, yes folks I turned 33 on May 12th, thanks to everyone who texted me and wished me, you guys know who you are .. *hugs & kisses*

On Mother's Day, we all slept in until mid morning and out of the blue Vicky just said "let's go to Genting and spend a night there and have two whole days of fun..Niki sure didn't take much convincing and was already ready with her ski cap and jacket which was pretty cute.

So off we all went to Genting for two days..the weather was divine, it was about 14-15 degrees celcius and dipped abit more come nightfall. We spent most of our time in the indoor theme park and Niki had so much fun on the rides, and so did we :)

Words can't even begin to describe the fun we had .. and we stayed over in Resort Hotel, Aznida who was the front officer who checked us in gave us a room on the 18th floor which was the highest and that night brrrrhhh ... it was cold! And the room was great too since it was newly refurbished.

Like I said, it was the funnest Mother's Day ever! The credit goes to the father & daughter team who made me appreciate how much I love both of them. I love you guys so much xoxo.

Niki Cycles!

Niki is now cycling!

Many many moons ago we bought our little daughter who was then about 2; a yellow tricycle; it looks like an easy enough toy; coz well you just cycle or experiment until you get it right. See, the thing is Niki is not too worried about cycling the "right" way, she's quite happy using her legs to move the tricycle or lets her bear bear sit on it while she pushes it, and as the doting and supportive parents that we are (ahem!) we just gave her encouragement to do what she feels comfortable doing.

Then suddenly about 4 days ago, she took out the old yellow tricycle again, which has been untouched since she was 2+ and started paddling it right. We were enraptured and we were overjoyed! It was unbelievable, our daughter can now cycle..and then..as if we were not impressed enough the next evening she took out her training bike that her tata got for her for her third birthday and started cycling it properly ..at long last!!

This deserves a big woop .. so WOOPIE!

We just wanted to share this happy news with everyone!

Quik Dessert for Niki

Read the papers today, and horror of all horrors another student died while in NS (National Service) camp today, and this time from as suspected case of constipation. And I was like wtf??!!?? How can something like this happen. Nobody dies from constipation, it’s utterly unacceptable, I mean..what?? I felt disappointment ache throughout my body as I read the article.

And just this morning Niki herself was telling me that she’s got a bit of problem on the potty, I told her not to worry, we’ll just drink more water and mommy will make her a fruits dessert tomorrow. It’s such an easy solution, it’s not exactly rocket science, when a kid has constipation what do you do, you ask the kid to consume more fruits of course. I mean what were the medics at the camp thinking? How can something so tragic happen?

And so to whoever out there who’s feeling our tropical heat at this point of time, it gets pretty warm and humid here nowadays and sometimes weather can be a scorching 40 deg Celsius. Here’s what I’m planning to whip up for Niki tomorrow, give it a go, it’ll definitely aid digestion

My Alternative to Pinkberry : Yogurt, Fruit and Cookie Dream
Prep Time: 10 min
Makes:2 servings

4 jars of Fernleaf’s strawberry yogurt, two jars for every serving, other flavours available are grape, mango
1 cup each: blueberries, raspberries and sliced fresh strawberries or canned fruits also can
OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, chopped or any other cookies that you have in your cookie jar; it could be cornflake cookies, bran cookies anything at your disposal la
4 serving glasses (medium ones or if kids then plastic cups will do)

Crush the cookies into small bite sizes into the serving glass
Empty two jars of Fernleaf into your serving glass
Top off with a generous amount of fruits, I usually like strawberries or peaches or even dragon fruit can also do

Creative Leftovers
Use whatever cut-up fruit you have on hand. Try melon, pineapple, peaches or any of your favorite fruit or whatever which in your fridge
Or you can also add Strawberry Whipped Topping.

Niki's Milestones at 3.5

I got this checklist from Mumcentre; it's a milestone chart for kids of 3½ - 4 Years

Does your child refuse to hold still? Give him/ her plenty of outdoor outlets to expel this burst of energy. (Check)

What to expect from your child:

Physically and mentally

Has better balance (girls usually achieve this quicker than boys) - Check, also likes dangling from grills etc and scaring the *&%$ out of her mummy
Has intentional ideas about what to scribble or draw - Check, I'm especially proud of this coz just this morning she drew me a bed and a house
Shapes scribbles into semblance of alphabets or even short, misspelled words - Check!
Catches ball thrown directly at him/ her - Ok not so much here, why because she gets all princess-y on you
Rolls play dough into balls and puts them together to make shapes or people - Ok time for mummy to buy her play dough

Language and emotions

Uses longer sentences - Check, very long winded as well, mummy literally zones out sometimes
Recognises and reads short words such as own name and cat, dog, etc - Check, also Barney, High Five, toilet
Empathises with characters in stories - Check, gets very emotional about Mary's Little Lamb

Sleep

Nightmares are very common at this age. And so is fear of the dark. Ease your child’s night-time anxieties by giving him/ her a nightlight, flashlight and/ or a comfort object such as a favourite toy - Check, ya of recent .. tends to suffocate poor bear-bear

Ideal toys for this age

Intermediate-level jigsaw puzzles - Check on this one
Simple board games - check this one too
Scooter and tricycle - just got it right last night, oh boy!
Early-learning computer games - Check .. whiz at this just like Daddy, and can play x-box too
At this age, a child should be allowed to choose his/ her own toys - check

Useful tips

If you haven’t already, emphasise good etiquette and manners now itself. Teaching children to say “please”, “thank you” and “I am sorry” from a young age helps them grow into conscientious adults - check, check and check!

Too Cool Not to Post

Add Glitter to your Photos

This is courtesy of Niki's Ammu-ka .. and it's just so way cool.

Thanks my dear!

Auntie Daphne's Birthday

Niki & Ammu sings Happy Birthday

the birthday girl blows the 2 candles on her brownie cake


A birthday shoutout to

Auntie Daphne .. who turns a year older today :)
Happy, happy birthday and have loads of fun

xoxo from all of us



Update : here we are at Auntie Juliet's Garden Cafe celebrating last evening

Not an Idol in making

I love to singing but I've never been good at it, I do wish I'm better at it though especially since David Archuletta does make it seem effortless doesn't he, I remember way back when in school, us students had to audition for the school's choir or rather it was Ms Tan's choir .. and I remember how I bombed at it .. to be truthful I seriously sucked. The thing is, when we were in school being in the school choir was indeed a big deal, as I grew up I came to accept the fact that I was and never will be a whiz in karaoke, and shall stick to singing in the confines of my bathroom. Even that, I'll reconsider since walls are paper thin and I may probably scare my neighbour who's quite the karaoke enthusiast. And till today because of Ms Tan's choir .. I can still remember the lyrics to Whitney Houston's "The Greatest Love of All" and that other song which could have dated back to pre-WW1 days "Roses of June"

And then sometime back a friend of a friend was telling me how usually a talent .. be it singing, dancing or anything artistically inclined is evident from a young age. So if you got it, you got it at birth .. and then genes also do come into the equation, and Niki definitely does not fall far from the tree .. still it was a really cute effort (check out the video below), and I know one day when she's older she'll tell me to take this down but until then .. here it is .. my daughter singing "Westlife's I Have A Dream" .. and I'm spelling out the title of the song so that it'll help you recognize it :) since Niki well kinda did put her own signature to it .. and made it truly malaysian.

A time for discipline

When is a good time to discipline your child.

Till yesterday, we've never actually gave a serious ticking off to Niki.

That was till yesterday of course.

The first time she accidentally spilt her milk on our bedroom carpet, we told to be more careful and not to spill on it coz it's a wall to wall and it would be extremely difficult to clean. To top it off the smell of expired milk is none too pleasant as well. And so I had to dettol the area quite a few times before I managed to reduce the pungent smell and God knows the amount of febreeze I had to use to snuff the smell out totally and to number of times I had to sun our bedroom.

Of course, being a child, and drinking from the cup there were a few more slip ups but we only told her to be more careful next time, realizing that they were accidents.

Yesterday evening with her evening bottle she purposely watered our tv room carpet, that was when she got the shelling of her life, we punished her by telling her to go sit by the corner and expressed our disappointment in her actions followed by a long session of telling off. Of course, she bawled her eyes out but we did not give in this time and sent her off to bed soon after.

This morning, we reminded her again on her actions and how wrong they were; I'm sure she has finally learnt her lesson this time and most importantly we told her that our feelings for her can never change and we can never love her less, but even so we as parents; we too can get really angry; and we can feel disappointment.

Though the lesson that she learnt yesterday was difficult for us but we feel it was necessary nonetheless. Disciplining a child is something that needs to be fostered from an early age and consistently reminded throughout their childhood. Not something that we can implement on a whim or as we feel like it. In the end the one to suffer this consequence is often the child. Spare the rod and spoil the child may be a bit harsh in this day and age; but if we always rather not take on the child head on and confront them on their actions fearing that we may scar the child somehow, then more often than not we'll end up with a brat instead of a child; and we rather prefer the latter. Hence, there must be a time for the right amount of discipline and it is something that we as parents have to follow through for the sake of our children. Let's not shortchange our children; yes it is sometimes easier to take the shortcut; but let's not.

Day by the Beach

ultraman & his faithful sidekick

daddy asking niki to strike the ultraman pose

(l-r: lei, joey, yanu & ammu)

siva, joey & kids, ammu and vicky & niki

sun-kissed (l-r: zach, vicky & me)

It's Labour's Day and we're on the way to the PD beach.

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Well just reached Pantai Chermin (Mirror Bay) and it's quiet & nice; we're more or less the only ones there, there's another small family who set up their beach stuffs about a hundred meter away from us. Unlike Cape Rachado and Teluk Kemang which is usually full to the brim with people; our beach was quite the opposite.

The kids are all wading in the water; the sea water here is actually not too bad; compared to the other PD beaches around, Niki is running up & down the beach alternating between making sandcastles and wading in the water and yeah freaked by the sight of some seaweed entagled with shells.

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Next on our to do list is to head over to Tiara Beach.

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Well just arrived and parked the cars ..before we can say "hey kids, lookie there the children's pool" .. they were already splishing and splashing in it .. Niki is now quite red due to the blazing sun, somehow I get a feeling that the spf 50 sunblock won't be able to hold much even if I keep reapplying it every hour. We were soaking, paddling and wading in the free pool for most of the lazy afternoon ..

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It's after six now; and we've all taken our baths and are pretty fresh and sleepy ..the kids wanted ice cream so we took them to the ice-cream shack for some .. Niki finished a whole Tropicana all by herself; it's the first time I've seen her devour a whole stick .. must be hungry from all that swimming, and she's quite brown .. I likened her to an "ikan bilis" :) quite a naughty thing to say but it's quite true ..

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At Jom Makan for some Malay seafood fare; we're catching an early dinner before our journey back .. there's 5 adults and 4 kids but the food we ordered I reckon is enough to feed double the people there .. but you know what being Malaysian; of course we can manage. The steamed cockles (kerang) was absolutely divine .. so was the two grilled fish..so was the tomyum .. & everything else we ordered .. After stuffing ourselves silly it was time to head back home .. all of us pretty tanned .. & obviously very stuffed as well!