Life of a Commoner

Turn & turn

2011-12-26T08:40:00.003+08:00

I manage to saw Erin turned for the first time on 17th Dec, barely few days before reaching 4 months old. Now that she's getting used to turning herself, she'll do that every chance she got, even while trying to sleep!. We need to hold her still while patting her to sleep, else she'll turn again and cry cos she won't be able sleep in that position!

Angry Bird Craze

2011-11-05T07:57:00.003+08:00

A year ago, I bought an iPad as a birthday present for my hubby. That iPad ended up being hogged by William instead, and thus he was introduced to Angry Bird. William did not even care how to play the game properly or its objective then. He just like the sound of the birds made as they were thrown out, plus saying the numbers of the levels bring played. He can even mimic the sound for each of the birds.

Now he slowly trying to play the game properly as more and more people went into the AB craze. This year alone, he receives many AB gifts from his friends at the nursery during each of their birthday celebration. My niece & nephews can be seen wearing AB t-shirt almost every day. My niece even requested for an AB cake to celebrate William's birthday which is coming in few days time. At work or visiting customers, you'll surely hear people using AB background theme/tracks as their ring tone.

When we went shopping, you'll see many kids and even adults wearing AB t-shirts as well. There was one day where my son went right in front of a guy with a big tummy wearing the AB t-shirt, point his finger at him, smile and said "Angry bird!". My hubby and myself laughed and at the same time apologized to the guy for William's action. Even the guy's wife which was standing next to him laughed out loud!.

Luckily when I asked William what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, he just replied "red" instead of AB. Now I wonder what kind of cake that I can get which is red!

Making Penang Breastfeeding Friendly Part 2

2011-10-10T10:42:00.006+08:00

The event is finally over, and there are total of 652 mothers all over Malaysia breastfeed their babies at 4pm! Woohoo!

The preparation was fun, many mothers volunteered to help out on the event. For myself including circulating flyers to my son's kindy, calling hospitals all over Malaysia to participate in the events and assist in sending streamers to Straits Quay management few days before the event. I was not much of a help on the day of the event though as William was getting hard to handle following the 1-minute simultaneous breastfeeding session. A total of 33 mothers breastfeed their baby at the event site, including myself with Erin :) Not forgetting that I also spoke to YB Betty Chew (Penang CM's wife) plus our photos being taken as well.

Making Penang Breastfeeding Friendly

2011-09-30T11:36:00.003+08:00

There's an event organized by a non-profit group that I'm associated with, Mother to Mother Peer Support Group (MMPS) at Straits Quay on 9th October 2011 from 3pm to 5pm. This event is also supported by Penang state government which will launch the beginning of Making Penang Breastfeeding Friendly (MPBF) campaign there as well. Another agenda includes simultaneous 1 minute breastfeeding at exactly 4pm in celebration (late actually) of World Breastfeeding week. Fun games and prizes to be won at the event as well. For those who can make it, do bring your family along to the event.

Erin's Journey

2011-08-28T13:52:00.010+08:00

Little sweet Erin was born on 20th August, after a two weeks alarm (red spotting) earlier that causes me to take leave from work in anticipating the birth anytime. There were frequent contractions especially late at night, but then it just stop the next morning. This just going on for 2 weeks and my hubby kept on asking "it is time, is it time".

Her birth was initiated due to sudden lack of movement in the womb. When I go for checkup, the doctor scanned everything, assuring everything was normal and suggested to go for CGT just to be sure. The first CGT result was not favorable, showing low heartbeat most of the time. I need to go for second CGT again as they suspect that it could be my stomach was empty. Though the second CGT was normal, the doctor advises to induce the labor due to the signs that I had earlier on, including the earlier CGT result. Furthermore the cervix is already at 2cm and can already feel the baby's head.

I was warded the next morning for the induction. A tablet was inserted to start the labour around 11am, but only manage to get few mild contractions and that's it. While waiting, CGT scan was done and again the result was not favorable. The nurse face was abit panicky and quickly redo the scan after asking me to move my body abit. There onward the baby was very active and everybody was relieved. There was no signs of labor whatsoever and doctor suggested to insert another tablet, which was done around 7pm. By then the contractions become stronger and more consistent. Around 9.20pm, there's already heavy bleeding and I called my husband telling that its time to come to the hospital.

By the time I was in the delivery room, it is already around 6cm. My hubby arrives few minutes later and the doctor broke the water to speed up the labour process. He then says should be in another 2 hours before the last phase of the labor comes in. But minutes later after the doctor went out, the contractions was so bad that I told the nurses that the baby is on the way out. The nurse quickly called the doctor back and by the time they get ready, the baby's head can already be seen. In just 3 pushes, little Erin was born into this world at 10.32pm. My hubby told me the doctor and nurses were having difficulty catching the baby because everything just happened so fast. I was relieved that everything was over. Erin was crying very loud. After quick cleaning, the nurse passed Erin back to me and she nursed for the first time.

Now I'm staying in a confinement centre, with Erin sleeping beside me. Even at night she's with me the whole time to establish easier breastfeeding journey. I'm happy to say that she's been breastfed exclusively and there are excess milk as well, which I'm planning to pass to William instead.

Platinum!

2011-06-10T09:55:00.002+08:00

When I got back home yesterday, I noticed a letter from RHB bank. Now we had never associated with RHB bank before, so it is quite weird to get this letter as it was address to my son as well.

When I opened up and read the contents, I just can't help but to laugh. It seems that my son (currently not even 3 yrs old yet) qualifies for platinum credit card as a principal holder, with credit limit of 500K. Even my husband and myself are not qualify after working hard and saving for so many years but my son was offered such privilege.

The letter comes with forms for us to fill in, and is requesting for a copy of my son's IC to proceed with the processing. Now it will be interesting to know what will happen if we do submit with our son's particulars. Will the Bank Negara accept it or did the banking institute change the minimum qualifications for platinum card?

I'll keep the letter for many years to come. Just priceless....

Finally a "mommy"!

2011-03-23T10:41:00.004+08:00

After a long wait of many months, William finally called "mommy" when addressing me. It first started with just a "mi" few weeks back, then evolved to "mimi", and now finally "mommy". He still uses "mimi" most of the time though, and we need to correct him once in awhile.

William is able to call "daddy" perfectly though. Funny thing is when he tried to say dolphin, it sounded a bit like "daddy". Now his daddy has become "daddy dolphin"!

Nursery Schedule

2011-03-04T17:05:00.008+08:00

Ever wonder what they teach in nursery? Well, here's the schedule of what they taught my little boy. But this makes me even more curious of what do they teach in each subject, especially moral.

Valentine Celebration 2011@The View

2011-02-17T12:26:00.008+08:00

This Valentine we've decided to celebrate it as lunch since both of us were on leave on that day as well. Reasons so that we can spend time with William after nursery plus there's no need to deal with the crowds celebrating at night.

I've been wanting to try on The View restaurant at Equatorial Hotel, but most of the time ended up in Kampachi instead since we loves japanese food so much. This year being very persistent and "demanding" from my end, we finally step into The View.

The restaurant had already make preparations and decorations for Valentine celebration, with 2 cupids by the doorway and many lovely hearts hanging down from the ceiling inside the restaurant. They were serving semi-buffet lunch then, where the appetizers and desert are buffet style and we just need to select the main course from the menu provided. The prices varies from the main course selection.

Our waiter introduces to us the promotion of the month, which are dover sole at RM118 and duck trilogy at RM128. My hubby opted for dover sole, a type of freshwater fish reportedly imported from Australia, while I ordered the duck trilogy, which consists of duck confit, smoked duck breast and foie gras.

While waiting for the main course to arrive, we helped ourselves to the appetizer first. It has many choices of salads and cold cuts, plus fresh oyster as well. My hubby is not a fan for those but I enjoyed the fresh salad and oyster a lot. When we are done, the waiter brought us our minestrone soup. Again the soup is not to my hubby's liking as he's very much a meat-lover.

Next is the main course. With my duck trilogy, I first tasted the smoked breast, it was superbly juicy and tender. In fact it was the best duck breast I ever had in my record. The duck confit was well seasoned, crispy on the outside but soft on the inside. Nicely done as well. Foie gras was very soft and smooth, but I eat it heavy heartedly with the images of the fattened goose in my mind. As for the dover sole, it was so juicy and fresh. Each bite of the meat was a heaven. But since the whole fish itself was so big, plus there's 2 side of meat to be consumed, my hubby was having quite a hard time finishing it. In fact he do not have room for desert afterward. I was also quite full and only manage to eat some light desert.

Overall the food, environment and service was really worth the money. Will definately be persistent and demanding again in the future to try out other courses as well.

Onde-onde

2011-02-08T07:30:00.001+08:00

I was talking to my mom the other day, when we chance upon an article in The Star newspaper about kuih making trades in Penang. There onward my mom was reminiscing the time when she was small and helping my grandma in making nyonya kuih. From there on only I knew that my mom knows a trick or two into making these wonderful treats.

I quickly make a date with my mom since I'm taking long leaves for CNY, asking her to teach me how to make onde-onde, one of my favorite kuih. She told me of the ingredients and off I went to Tesco to purchase the basic ingredients. I only manage to purchase brown sugar there. I was looking high and low for the glutinous rice flour but don't see any. My mom was a life saver when she said that she had plenty of those at home when I called her.

After I dropped William at the nursery, I went to meet my mom at the wet market to purchase coconut flakes. But the seller must still be in holiday mood since the stall did not open. We then had to improvise and make the flakes ourselves using electric blender with the matured coconut from my dad's coconut tree. With some screwpine leaves for its natural green coloring, and we are ready to go.

The method is exactly the same as making tang yuan ball, with addition of brown sugar as its fillings. In total we made 45 of them and I am quite happy with the results. Here's the photo that I've taken...

A True Legend

2011-02-07T19:04:00.003+08:00

On the first day of CNY morning, as I was browsing thru the channels in Astro, I stumbled a documentary shown in History Channel about our legendary P. Ramlee. The show itself was already aired half-way but the title and the narration was really catching that I glued on to the tv.

It was a very heart-wrenching documentary, and it made me cry so badly. A legend known to all Malaysian, regardless of races, was rejected by the society and died in poverty. Regardless of so many amazing contributions he had given to the entertainment industry, nobody cared to support in his times of needs. In fact he was criticized and even booed at. He was very successful during his times in Singapore, winning numerous awards time over time. Returning to Malaysia to continue on his career was the beginning of his downfall due to lack of resources, technology and inexperienced people in Malaysia. Many can talk big but unable to act when need to. I guess some can relate to this even now.

Nowadays our government in trying to retain its talents within Malaysian shores, encouraging those overseas to come back. With P. Ramlee case as history to tell, it is hoped that it will not happen to those who came back in view of contributing back to the country.

P. Ramlee, you will always be remembered. A true legend to all Malaysians...

Hello 2011

2011-01-27T09:32:00.004+08:00

This was supposed to be an early entry for this month, but with so many things going on here & there, it ended up being such a late entry :(

We did ended up 2010 with a new tradition introduced since 2009, a family karaoke gathering! Well, it was coincident with X'mas celebration as well. This round we went to Neway at QBM and booked a VIP room. The room itself can fit more than 20 people, and with attached toilet! A special thanks to my brother-in-law for organising and sponsoring this event.

William already started nursery school at since 3rd January this year. My mother-in-law was objecting this decision initially, saying that he's too young at only 26 months. But seeing how much improvement he had gained for the past weeks, she finally accepted it. However, William did cause a havoc on his first day. Running here & there, making things up-side-down. The first 3 days he was clingy but thereafter, he seems to be looking forward to go. The teacher there is doing very well compared to us in teaching him to speak new words. Even my hubby was tempted to sneak in the nursery to see how they do it.

Busy Life + Updates

2010-09-02T11:44:00.005+08:00

I had been so busy lately for the past few weeks, but mostly with routine works. Nothing much interesting happenned, even if so I had forgotten what I had wanted to blog about.

Now there's one event which is our company trip that I wanted to post here but am still waiting for some of the photos to be available before I post it up.

William is still not talking, and acting very naughtily cute. He changes his behaviour like a on/off switch. One instant he's very good and co-operative, the next he's demanding and cranky. He's picky with food when at home but happily eat any foods prepared by my mom.

Anyway I realised for the past weeks, the traffic in Penang is getting worse by the days. No, not because of Puasa month, because it started happening even before Puasa started. Road hoggers & road bullies are everywhere! Some drivers are so clueless that when you had good intention to let them get pass you, it took them ages to move. Then there'll be many cars overtake them afterwards and they will stop for few seconds each time this happenned, and ended up getting us late to our destination. This just makes us think twice whenever wanting to give way to people. It is hard to find decent drivers nowadays...

Cute Moment

2010-07-24T08:34:00.004+08:00

We need to be careful of what we are doing in front of our child, even when they are at very young age. William as of now is already 20 months old. He'll be 2 yrs old in another 4 months time, and by then off he goes to nursery. Just hope that he'll catch more good things rather than bad things while he's there.

Anyway, all these while whenever he wets the floor from his drinking water or milk, I used the nearest dry cloth I can find. And when he wets the floor in our room, the nearest grab was his clothes from the laundry basket. Sometimes he automatically used that help me dry up the floors too.

Yesterday, my mom told me that his cousin wets the floor from drinking water while playing. What William did was take off his pants and starts wiping the floor. After my mom changed his pants to a clean one, he takes it off and wipes the floor again when his cousin played with the drinking water the second time! I guess he must have thought that "wet floor = use own clothes". I will need to use a proper cleaning cloth from now on...

World Cup Craze - Not Me

2010-06-23T16:38:00.002+08:00

World Cup 2010 has started and almost everywhere you can hear people talking about it. In restaurants, radio, TV, office, customers workplace etc. But there is one place where we will definately not talk about world cup and football, that is if we do not on the normal TV station at home :P
My hubby is definately not a football fan, so he don't watch football. The other guy in the family is just less than 2 yrs old, so he does not understand what the heck is football. Then left just my mother-in-law, who is glued to chinese and hokkien drama. So for us, lives goes on as per normal at home. But then it's a different story when we interact with the outside world. Everyone's eye is on the ball!

Tears of Artamon

2010-05-24T17:54:00.006+08:00

Written by Sarah Ash, Tears of Artamon comprises of 3 books namely Lord of Snow and Shadows, Prisoner of the Iron Tower and Children of the Serpent Gate. My sister introduced these books to me as a companion to read during my monthly travelling to KL for meetings.

It took me a very long time to finish the first book though since I only read it the most for 1 hour in a month, as the story does not held on to me until the few final chapters. Now I'm into the second book and I actually tried to find time to read it whenever I had the chance. Even few minutes of reading is interesting enough, since William will come to seek for my attention almost every single moment. My hubby is also surprised why I tried to make time to read the book. I got another 2/3 of the book to complete before I can get my hand on the 3rd book.

Since I've yet to complete the whole stories yet, I can't really comment much but it is very engaging for me now. My only hope is that the ending in the 3rd book will not be a disappointing, since I'm practically hooked with it. Now to find ways to make William pre-occupied with something else...

Finally Weaned

2010-05-12T09:49:00.004+08:00

After been breastfeeding my child for 18 months, I have now successfully weaned him off during the last weekend. Some feeling still lingers a little bit inside me, missing the bonding time and touch that we had when he breastfeed. But seeing him feeding on his own makes it feel ok, knowing that he is growing up. Hopefully he will not grow out of me too soon. Now I will sit beside him and hold him when he feed, just to make sure that he feels at ease. But I guess I did this for my emotional needs too.

I must now start to take care of what I eat, since I was getting used to eating alot and not gaining weight due to breastfeeding. My breast size had shrunk back to its original size, so its time to go bra-hunting again.

Inuyasha

2010-04-29T10:07:00.004+08:00

I had now officially completed the whole series of this anime as at 27th April 2010, after watching the very first episode at almost 10 years ago! This was due to a huge gap 5 years for them to come up with remaining 26 episodes to complete the series. However, I feel the ending losses its climatic feeling after watching the heroes & heroins battling their archenemy throughout soooooooo many episodes (though there are some sub-enemy spawned from the main enemy).

In total there are 193 episodes inclusive of the recent 26. The story focuses on a girl named Kagome who is actually a reincarnated priestess from feudal age of 500 years ago. She went back to the feudal age time by chance and meet a half demon dog (dad is demon dog, mom is human) named Inuyasha, who was struck onto a tree with an arrow and was unconcious for the last 50 years. There she learned that the person who struck him was her original self as a priestess named Kikyo that died right after shooting Inuyasha with the said arrow. The story then reveals that Kikyo and Inuyasha were actually lovers that tried to kill each other due to huge misunderstanding caused by their archenemy, Naraku. By then Kagome and Inuyasha met Shippo, Sango and Miroku along their journey and joined forces in their mission to defeat Naraku.

Since Kagome looks exactly like Kikyo and being together thru thick and thin in their missions, Inuyasha starts to develop feelings to Kagome and likewise. Things then get complicated when Kikyo gets resurrected and Inuyasha tries to make amends with Kikyo.

My favourite character of the show is Sesshomaru, Inuyasha's older half-brother and is a full-blooded demon. He hated Inuyasha so much that he tries to kill Inuyasha on few occasions. But it was his cool and calm attitude that won many people over (not to mention very good looking too). He was more of a side character initially but then getting more involved in the show as the story moves on. There are many Sesshomaru's fans out there that create mini manga of his side story ;).

Trip to Langkawi Island

2010-04-21T16:28:00.006+08:00

After absence of 2 years, we've finally manage to go for a small trip of 3 days 2 nights at Langkawi. Early preparations were made for flight and accomodations. Since my mother-in-law might feel out-of-place during the trip, we bring along someone close to her as her partner. This is also a chance to convince her to use a proper walking stick instead of an umbrella by telling her stories that we can't take it into the plane's cabin.

Though the trip is of 3 days, we only manage to visit Underwater World, Crocodile Farm and Wildlife Park only. Too bad the cable car was closed for maintenance as we were looking forward for it. But I doubt even if it's open, we can find the time to go there. Reasons being we need to really make lots of time for the elderly to stroll and shop. It really took them ages just to shop for one thing, worst still they can't decide what to get. Finding a good place to eat is another issue as what we wanted to eat ended up as what they do not want to eat. And when we reached the place where it serves food that they can eat, it also took them a long to decide what they wanted to eat!

However, it is still an enjoyable trip and William is really enjoying himself in the new place and environment, and we did get many good photos for memories. On and off, William does get abit cranky due to insufficient nap time between travels but all is well when he got the chance to sightseeing.

Suffolk House

2010-04-05T16:56:00.008+08:00

In celebration of my belated birthday (*Blink*Blink*), I manage to "persuade" my hubby to go to Suffolk House for dinner last Saturday. We left William with my mom so that we can enjoy the romantic evening together ;)

Since Suffolk House is one of Penang heritage building (reportedly built by Sir Francis Light), there's plenty of signboard guiding you on how to go these from Masjid Negeri onward. But be careful though if you are going at night, it is quite dark and secluded, plus the road is abit windy. It was our first time going there, and my hubby is abit worried that we went to the wrong place. In front of the mansion there's a guardhouse. I felt abit insecure as to whether we're at the correct place as the security guard was looking at us when we walked close by. With all the signboard showing the closing time for tour of the mansion made it even worse. But since the guard never stop us, we just walk right in. The walkway is made from small pebbles, so it is abit difficult to walk for me as I was wearing high-heels.

It was a relief to see the restaurant as we entered the building. The lighting was slightly dimmed, making it look very classically romantic with European style decoration. I like the way they concealed the airconds in the room with wooden boxes and cleverly disguise it as side table for lamps to rest on. The restaurant only serve dinner sets where you just need to choose the main course. From the menu, you'll see a long listing of food upto 2 pages but there are only 5 types of main courses to choose from. So the rest of the food is made up of appetizers, soup and desert. The price ranges from RM90 to RM130, depending on the type of main course that you choose.

Ok, let me recount back what I had eaten there.

1. Freshly baked bread with butter. My hubby suspected that they bake the bread themselves. I'm not very sure but it does look and taste special, and especially hot and fresh.

2. Sun-dried tomato rolled pastry. It is superbly small that they serve it with only a ceramic spoon and you just pop the whole thing into your mouth.

3. Fish pie. Very very juicy and tasty.

4. Watercress and lotus root salad. I'm a bit skeptical since watercress is bitter when taken raw but the salad dressing really compliments the whole thing. I just love it.

5. Garlic soup and bread. Now you don't see any spoon on the table, so how are we going to taste the soup? If you notice carefully, the soup is served in a narrow cup. So you just pick it up and drink it as if you were drinking tea! How unique! The soup is abit too sweet for my liking but my hubby loved it.

6. Tomato sorbet with plum powder. Excuse my photo as I only took it after I've eaten it halfway. Just double up the portion from what you see here. The taste is refreshingly cool.

7. Finally the main course. My hubby ordered grilled cod fish and I ordered sausage wrapped with chicken thigh that comes with mushroom sauce and almond flakes. My hubby comment it right out that it looks very nice and regretted not ordering it when he saw the chicken. The waitress that served us can't help but laugh when he said that. Both of us are extremely full even before finishing the main course.

8. Coffee or tea. Both of us opt for tea.

9. Then the desert. Instead of one, we are served with 3 types of desert. There were hazelnut cake, ice-cream with somekind of pastry (I'm not sure what it's called but it is very good. My hubby called it modified cornflakes :P) and creme brulee. I really loved the top crispy layer of the creme brulee but the hazelnut cake is abit let down.

The staff is very attentive, service is very fast and the food is nice. We hardly need to wait for the food to come as we finishes each course. It just took us about an hour to complete the whole course, but we were extremely full from all these foods. I'm already considered as one of the big eater among my friends but then I had to pass almost half of my main course to my hubby to finish it up. You really need to make sure your stomach is big enough to fill in all these if you're not the kind of person who likes to waste any food.

My Poor Nose

2010-04-05T09:30:00.003+08:00

It had been week since something bit my nose, of which I'm not sure what bit me, when or where it bit me since I had no recollection of something painful on my nose. Anyway, I discovered something was wrong last Monday afternoon, and got infected two days later. Till now it has not been fully recovered yet. I need to use big chunk of make-up to cover it, but it is still noticeable (boo.. hoo.. hoo..). The more I look myself at the mirror, the more I notice my nose resemble the nose of Snow White's evil stepmother when she disguises herself as an old woman holding the poison apple.

Akibahara@Deep

2010-04-02T12:52:00.004+08:00

Located somewhere in Japan is Akibahara district, a special place for otaku. It is my husband's dream to be able to visit that place one day, not to mention mine too. Cosplays, cool gadgets, toys, figurines, games, and manga...

Akibahara@Deep is a japanese drama that revolves around a group of six otaku that forms a team to "troubleshoot" problems occurring in Akibahara. Needless to day, the name of the group is Akibahara@Deep, or @Deep for short. They also refers themselves as Akiba (short for Akibahara) Troubleshooter.

This drama consists of only 11 episodes and one special (the making and interviews with casts and members). The first episode shows how the group is formed with 4 members, and then additional 2 more members in the second episode. All the members are funny in their own way, and this is slowly revealed in each episode. Even the villians and other supporting characters are very quirky as well. The last episode is especially funny with lots of Draganball and Gundam elements ;).

Here's a sample clip available in YouTube. Enjoy...

Billy Goat

2010-03-19T10:22:00.004+08:00

On my way to work this morning, as I stopped at the Sungai Dua T-junction traffic light, guess what I saw? Few goats grazing grasses beside the road. There's one goat look especially big and plump. Hmm... I think I'll get some mutton for lunch today.

Cream of Mushroom

2010-03-11T14:15:00.005+08:00

All these while, I always bought canned mushroom soup whenever we wanted to have mushroom soup at home. The most common is ofcourse from Campbell, and I would buy another small can of button mushroom, chop into small pieces and add it in to make it more enjoyable. However, after few occasions, I noticed that I'm always thrist for water afterward. Not to mention that it is at times quite salty.

Now my hubby loves mushroom soup alot. And he said the best he had so far was from TGIF. It was very thick and creamy and have lots and lots of fresh mushrooms. He then gave me a challenge to make homecooked cream of mushroom for him. But that was many months ago, in which I did search for simple recepi from the Internet but just do not have the time to really study and experiment with it.

Just recently, I finally had time to source for the necessary ingredients and it ended up quite an expensive meal to cook due to the fresh white button mushrooms that I bought. No wonder TGIF serve with oyster mushroom instead, which are very very much cheaper. But my husband likes the one that I cooked, he even rated it better than the one he had at TGIF :D

Company Dinner @ E&O

2010-02-12T11:01:00.006+08:00

Let's do it this way:

Purpose: Company Dinner

Location: E&O Hotel

Food Theme: Japanese and Chinese Fusion Buffet

Date & Time: 10th February 2010, 7.00pm

Price: RM 74.75 per person (including tax & service charges, but ofcourse company is paying :P)

There's lots and lots of food, and lots of lots of people. This is the second time I've eaten there but this trip is the most crowdest. The ambience was spoilt with sooooo many people and soooo many noise. It feels like eating in hawker stalls. Luckily the food is nice. But........ those with cameras did not take any photo of the spread of foods on the buffet aisles.

Hmmm... fresh oysters, salmons, roasted duck, fried baby crabs, grilled seafood, lamb and beef, unagi, temaki, udon etc. Needless to ask, my fav is oysters and salmons. The restaurant kept on topping up the food, so you never runs out of fresh oysters. The choice of fruits and deserts are plenty as well. There is a 3-tier fountain of melted chocolate at the fruit bar, and you can dip simply anything there. Most popular is marshmallow... yum yum.

Since William is tagging along for dinner, I can't really concentrate much on eating all the foods available. Need to be very picky on what I wanted to eat. Really need to thank the rest for entertaining William while I'm eating.

Eat biscuits first...

Not fair! Mom get to eat oyster but I only get to eat biscuits :(

Shocking Food Industry

2010-02-02T13:12:00.005+08:00

My husband had been telling me few days back that this movie is a must watch. The title is Food Inc. But instead of a movie, it is more of a documentary. And it tells what actually went behind the scenes of our modern food industry. This ranges from fast food to bottled drinks to can and packaged food, even vegetables.

This movie shows to an extent where in US, it is cheaper to get unhealthy food rather than healthy food. It also shows how does science makes our livestock such as chicken and cows grow bigger and faster. You can really see the difference of how the chicken looks like 30 years ago at full grown size (it take about 3 months then) compared to current chicken size at just 7 weeks. From the time the chicks at hatched from egg to slaugher-house, they never seen daylight. The movie also shows how pigs are slaughtered in the meat plant is extremely shocking.

Woven between the show is a very sad story about a two-and-a-half year old boy who died from eating hamburger contaminated with e-coli 0157:h7. Being a mother myself, I was so concerned about my own son when I saw that clip. There's photo and video footage of the boy who looked so happy and healthy, and you could not imagine just how he could die just after 12 days from eating the contaminated hamburger. It came to a stage where his kidney failed and he could not drink any water when he was hospitalized, and he kept on begging for water and his family just couldn't do anything about it. Just hearing that the only word that came out from his mouth is water and imagining a little boy had to suffer this until he died just makes me cry.

To read further about the show review, you can go to this site: http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=105152916

After watching the show, I became hesitant on what to feed my family. I think in Malaysia's source of food is still quite safe but as time goes on with people striving to make more money, faster and cheaper, it will soon become like what is shown in this show. Organic food is always the better choice, but at a higher cost. Do go watch this show. It is an eye-opening.

Dragon Ball Kai

2010-01-26T11:35:00.004+08:00

For all dragon ball fans, this is a re-mastered HD version of Dragon Ball Z and it does seem shorter as well due to most fillers are being removed out. Rumours has it that the original Dragon Ball Z episodes of 291 will be cut short to only 100, besides following closely to its original comics. As of now, I've watched upto episode 33 and Goku is already now fighting with Ginryu in Planet Namek!. One interesting fact is that it includes re-recording of voice from its original casts, so every characters still sounds the same :)

The opening and ending sequence of the series had been changed as well, and you can clearly see that its characters are drawn with more vibrant colours and actions. But I still miss the original sequence since it is cuter, being nostalgic and all. The show is still running in Japan and we'll need to slowly wait for the complete series.

Terminal 1 - Bayan Bay

2010-01-25T09:28:00.005+08:00

This place is very new, opened less than a year. From the brochure and signage, it says that 'Beside Eastin Hotel' but you will never find it there. It is in fact located in the new shoplots called Bay Avenue, somewhere in the middle block of inner road.

I won't know this place exist if not for our annual Christmas gift exchange. When we first walked in, I was impressed with its interior design. The owner does spend a lot in its renovation. They were preparing menu for new year eve celebration, and from the food selection and offer package, it looks interesting. But I would see how our lunch fares first before decide to book a place for new year dinner.

The waitresses wores cute pink bunny dresses and waiter wores pilot uniform and I liked this concept very much. But the service rate is a bit slow as the waitresses need to serve 2 floors by climbing up and down the stairs. And since the stairs is in circular design and in small steps, they will need to be careful when going down while balancing the trays. During our lunch course these, we had heard at least 3 times of fork or spoon fell down the stairs while the waitress is going down. They should do a service lift instead so that it is easier for the carry the food and utensils up and down like what we seen in other restaurants of more than one floor.

We ordered set lunch that came with soup, main course, desert and a drink. Since our table is quite long and there were 15 of us, the food came to us in batches. I think the chef did not prepare enough soup as the texture and taste is really different between the 1st batch and 2nd batch. I was lucky to have gotten the 1st batch, but the second bacth was sooooo diluted. Everyone who had that complaint and ended up taking more salts and pepper to make the soup more edible.

The first batch of soup

Next is the main course and again it came is batches. This is where the nightmare began. One colleague ordered cod fish, but the fish was so stale that he can't even take the first bite and ordered for a change. The replacement came after a long waiting time, but the cod fish got even worse. We can smell it when he cut the meat open. He gave up and change the food to spaghetti instead, hoping that it won't go wrong. Luckily it didn't. Another colleague ordered tuna fish, same as me but her meal came first. It was so dry and hard on the surface but it was not properly cooked from the inside. She ended up changing her meal to spring chicken and it fared a little better than the fish. My meal came then and similarly it was dry and hard but it was thoroughly cooked though. The mistake came from the large cut of meat. They had to cook it for so long to ensure that it was cooked from the inside that the outer part of the meat became very very dry.

The dreaded Cod Fish

The waitress kept apologizing to us when we complaint about the food. Furthermore, it tooked them 3 hours to serve us all the food. Most of us gave up asking for change as everyone was extremely hungry by then. Well, they can forget about asking us to get a table for new year dinner. Heck, I did not even bother trying to take more photos of their food.

Goodbye 2009, Welcome 2010

2010-01-01T19:30:00.004+08:00

Oooo... this is my first blog of the year 2010, but I still got some posts of places I ate in 2009 which I had yet to post. I guess it will be 'makanan hari ini dalam sejarah' (todays food in history) then.

Went to a friend's party last night to celebrate the new year. But it seems that this year the party is conquered by babies. Everybody went ooh and ahh, cooing and playing with babies. My William missed out the countdown as he's already fast asleep by then. Everybody were shouting and wishing each other but his eyes is still closed shut with his head on my shoulder. It must be a tiring night for him, playing with his new friends and showing off his penguin walk.

Btw, this afternoon we had a small family gathering as well at Redbox KTV in Gurney. There were so many cars and we had a very difficult time finding parking spot. Again the KTV session is filled with children songs. Ahhhh... guess I can now officially called my time as the children age. And the year 2010 will be just that.

Now that I think of it, I did not went to cinema at all during year 2009. How I miss those free and easy times. Will need to wait for another few more years to gain some little freedom. But I also can't complain much since I also have a new joy in my life.

Sesame Restaurant in G Hotel

2009-12-22T17:32:00.007+08:00

As promised in my earlier post, it is now time to review the food that we had at Sesame restaurant. Actually there are 2 restaurants even though there is only one entrance. When you first walked in, the restaurant is known as Soy. You need to walked to the end of the Soy restaurant, and you will see a new area and that is where Sesame is located.

From the Sesame's menu, it is mainly chinese food ala-carte. You need to flip to the end of the menu to go to the set. Of course, the more you flip, the more expensive the set is. The cheapest set is RM68++ per person for 5 course meal. The rest of the set is 6 course meal and the cost range from RM88++ to RM128++ per person. The naming of the set is quite funny though. It is called "Sesame's Tasting Menu". It really gives the impressions that we're doing food tasting for wedding dinner selection :P

Both of us opt for the 6 course meal. But we were so busy eating and talking that I forgotten to take photo on some of the food. Anyway, lets start with the appetizers.

Both appetizers came with 2 items. I ordered Sichuan Chilled Smoked Duck and it came with jelly fish stuffed with tuna mayo, served in japanese cucumber ring.

My hubby ordered Nutmeg Mayo Prawns with seasonal fruit salad and crispy rolls with sesame and tomato salsa. The naming is very long, but we liked the presentation and the taste. Very unique.

Next is the soup. Basically both of us ordered shark fin soup but there are some slight difference in the side ingredients. I personally feels like it still tastes like the normal shark fin soup that we had at expensive chinese restaurants.

OK, I forgot to take photo of the next meal :(, so we'll skip that (psst... mine is baby lobster and it is very nice). Following that is fish. I had grilled cod fish while my hubby had baked tuna. Nothing to shout about for my fish but it is really fresh. My hubby liked his tuna alot because it is cooked the same way as chinese herbal chicken wrapped in tin foil. Since its fish, the meat is juicier. Yum yum...

Again I forgot to take photo (ahhhhh). If I can recall correctly, I think it's rice. Finally it is time for desert. Well, I think it is just a simple desert nicely presented. I ordered green tea tiramisu and it really goes down well with the rest of the food that we had earlier. Not too sweet, just nice. My hubby had Gula Melaka Crème Brulee, but he does not have much comment on this, so I can't really says anything about this.

In summary, the ambience is really nice and the food is great. The waiters and waitresses are very friendly and helpful as well. It is a sure recommendation.

Romantic Evening with Hubby

2009-12-16T21:10:00.000+08:00

Since my hubby is such a good dear for buying sooooooo many gifts for me from his recent trip (besides being a good and caring husband), I wanted to treat him to a nice romantic dinner for our wedding anniversary. So, with my sister's help and contact, we booked for dinner at Sesame restaurant at G hotel. Plans were made with the hotel coordinator on the table decorations, menus and a surprise for my hubby ;)

Finally the day came, and I went home earlier from work to get my hair done first (I'm bad at blow-drying my own hair). We left home about 7.15pm but only reached the hotel at 8.10pm due to the bad jam. Both of us were very hungry then.

I mentioned my name when reached the restaurant, and the waiting lady brought us to our table. On the way to our table, few waiters were standing in line and wished us happy anniversary. My husband were already surprised then. Our table were nicely decorated with some rose petals and marble stones neatly arranged on the table. There were a greeting card from the hotel in the middle of the table wishing us happy anniversary as well.

My hubby excuse himself to the restroom first. When he came back, a waiter brought a bouquet of flowers to him. To my surprise, my husband then presented the flowers to me and wished me happy anniversary. It seems that he had arranged for the flowers to be sent to the restaurant earlier as a surprise for me. But how did he knew which place we are going, since I never told him at all until the time we left our house for dinner. Later that night, I found out that he and my sister had been talking to each other as well. Ahh, the little devil... she ended up becoming the middle person for both of our surprises :p

The food is very nice and well presented. My hubby likes their creativity in making and presenting the food. From the menu, it looks like the normal chinese 8-course meal that we usually eat during wedding dinners. But when the food came, my-oh-my, it just got you thinking you're eating some western fine-dining food. Anyway, I'll do a separate post on the food later.

The waiter then brought over my surprise to my husband. It was a blueberry cheesecake, with 4 candles marking our 4th anniversary. We then blew the candles and cut the cake together. But we asked the waiter to pack the whole cake back instead of eating it there, since it is quite late and we still need to pick William up from my mother's place. Back home, I surprised my hubby again with another present. He really had a very big grin on his face that night, and I really enjoyed our evening together :)

Front and Back

2009-12-09T11:50:00.002+08:00

These past two weeks is a bad week for my car. It had two minor accidents, and both was when my car in a standstill. These two drivers that banged my car are sure "some" drivers.

First accident:
Happenned at Bkt Gambir slope traffic light (many accidents had happenned there). I was on my way to my mother's place during weekend and William is sitting at the back. We're going uphill and the traffic light went red. I stopped behind one Proton Saga. Then I notice the car is reversing down toward my car. I honked non-stop, but the car still coming down and it hit my car. When the traffic is green, we stopped by the road side. The guy driver came down from his car, and asked me "got hit your car meh?". I was so angry and scolded him. If never hit my car, you think I'm so free to stop by the road side and talked to you ah... Then the guy says sorry and explained that he did not notice his handbrake was not pulled up properly. After some careful check, there's some slight scratches on my car bumper which is not very noticable. I let the guy go after he apologize few more times, plus William is starting to cry for me inside the car.

Second accident:
Happenned yesterday evening on my way back from work, on road alongside Crystal Point going towards the big roundabout. It was the usual jam, all car stopped and suddenly the Toyota Vios behind my car banged my back bumper. I was thinking "damn suei". The driver (girl this time) came down and apologized. My license plate is a gone case. In the end, she gave me RM20 to compensate for the license plate.

Hopefully the second accident will be the last accident.

What a Girl Want?

2009-12-01T08:59:00.002+08:00

My hubby is currently on business trip to US. Well, Colorado Spring to be exact. Lots of people to came to know about this, kept saying "wah! he went at a very good time". Reasons being it's the sales season. Few sales are ongoing continuously, Black Friday sales, Thanksgiving sales, Christmas sales... Furthermore, his convoy purposely made the trip so that they had at least 3 days free over there to do shopping!

Before he went over, I told him no need to buy so many things back. Just buy one nice top for me and some baby clothes for William will do. The conversion rate is not that cheap. But then... he had shown thru video-call that he had bought lots of things for me. He said that the sales there are gila-gila, and super cheap. Discounts on top of discounts. Each time on the video-call with him, I kept telling him "don't buy already, it's more than enough and do not overspent". But in my heart, I was soooooo excited. Can't wait for him to come back next week to get hold of all the things he bought for me. I guess this again proofs that what a girl says and think are totally different thing.

Mini Lokap

2009-11-25T13:42:00.004+08:00

I would say my William is such a free baby, able to roam around the house but at the expense of our freedom. We need to keep a lookout at where he's going, what he's holding and what he's throwing. My husband is trying to teach him the meaning of the word 'No' and 'Cannot' but with little success at this moment. Our baby will just look at you, smile and turn back to do whatever he wanted to do.

So we ended up introducing a mini lokap for William. Whenever we warned him not to do, and he still do it, he'll end up inside his play pen aka toys treasure. He seems to develop some anxiety over his play pen, cos sometimes when I carry him and walked near the play pen, he would just cry out. But when he's in a good mood, he can stay inside there playing nicely and will just call out for us when he's bored afterward.

Play with Mr Pooh first

Let me out, or I'll throw more things on the floor

Let me out!!

What is Pete?

2009-11-12T12:12:00.005+08:00

Do you know who Pete is? Well, he's a Disney character that is always the bad guy or some would say, enemy of Mickey Mouse. All these while I never bothered what Pete is, and thought that he's a black bear or dog or something. The rest of Disney characters are easy to identify, eg:
Mickey & Minnie = mouse
Donald & Daisy = duck
Goofy = dog
Clarabelle = Cow

My hubby & I were watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse shown from Astro Playhouse Disney Channel with William last night when my husband suddenly says, "Pete is a cat!". I was surprised by his sudden remark, and questioned him why he says that. He replied "You see ah, the rest of Mickey's friends are animals that had no problem with mouse, but Pete always have problem with Mickey. Same like cat and mouse. And checkout his ear... is a cat's ear!". Then I said "sure or not....". Few moments later, Daisy Duck in the show says "oohh... that fat cat!". Well, I guess that mystery is solved....

Now, some other things puzzles me as well when I think about:
1. why goofy can talk but pluto can't? both of them are dogs
2. why the rest can talk in proper tone, but donald has very strong duck "accent"?

He's Finally One

2009-11-11T18:04:00.005+08:00

My baby boy is now finally one years old. This also means that I've breastfeed him for one year already. Haha... now I can claim for a Master cert in breastfeeding :)

Dunno why soooo many people today...

Although he's already one, he still only has 2 front teeth at the lower gum. The rest are still not popping out yet. In fact, we did held a small birthday celebration for him last friday night, and though he seems to be clueless about what's happening most of the time, he smiles happily when everyone sings birthday song to him. His biggest breakthrough on that day was able to climb the stairs all the way up to first floor by himself. But it has been a problem to us as now he's wanting to climb up every single minute he's downstairs... sigh...

The angpow is mine!!!!

William's first birthday cake

Ok, time for milestones:
1. eating rice now, but mostly giving him soft and easy to chew food (he has only 2 teeth!)
2. able to walk few steps without holding on to anything
3. crying out loud when people do not give him what he wanted (fake cry as do not see any tears coming out :P)
4. clapping both hands, wave bye-bye and blow goodbye kiss
5. shake his head and body crazily when asking him to dance
6. take something and put on his ear when hearing people say "hello, hello"
7. asking people for food by saying "zzzzha-zha". Not sure why he is not saying "mum-mum"
8. pull your hands towards his armpit whenever he wanted you to carry him
9. mimicking car sound when playing with cars
and ofcourse, not forgetting his latest achievement....
10. climbing up stairs

Wheee.... almost up

Little Bean Sterilizer

2009-11-02T09:40:00.005+08:00

People will say I'm crazy for buying this, since my baby is already almost a year old and I had been boiling bottles to sterilize it since my baby were born. I actually don't mind boiling the bottles everyday, but my hubby says it took so much time to do this as I used actually quite a lot of bottles per day. The pot is not big enough and that I need to do the boiling process at least 2 times. There was one time I almost forgot about the boiling process, that the water in the pot almost dried up. In the end, he took me to go shopping for bottle sterilizer last weekend and we ended buying Little Bean sterilizer and warmer.

It is the cheapest brand that we saw at Jusco. Brands like Avent and Little Pigeon are soooooooooo expensive. This only cost RM149.90, and it is able to operate as sterilizer, bottle warmer, food warmer and juice maker. I think juice maker is just a gimmick :P

Anyway, when we opened the box at home, there were no instruction manuals at all. We need to rely on the picture at the box to know which parts is used for which purposes. A quick search on the Internet helped us to understand the product better. Amazingly, it actually never shipped with manuals and many people complained bout this on the Net.

I've used it couple of times and dear me, it does saves lots of time. It can fit the number of bottles which I used per day (haha, I put in more than what is wrote on the box :P). Just put in some water on the warmer, on the power, press sterilize option and that's it. Furthermore it auto shut down when done. Ahhh... how convenient. But now I do not have much excuses to complain no time to my hubby already :P

Mommy Wang @ Queensbay

2009-10-16T15:48:00.004+08:00

This place mostly serve Taiwanese style food and so far I've visited the place 2 times. The taste is acceptable. My main complain would be their misleading menu as it had already tricked me on both of my trips.

In my first trip, I ordered milk tea and from the picture (with the same ref# as the item in the menu), it has pearl in it. I also asked the waiter whether the pearl is included as shown in the picture, he replied "yes". But when my drink came, it was without pearl. So when I queried the waiter (it was delivered by someone else instead of the one who had taken our order), the waiter replied that he is not sure and need to check with their boss. At the end, the waiter who had taken our order came to apologized, saying that he is new and did not know that pearl is not included. We'll need to pay additional if wish to add some pearl into the drink.

As for the second trip, I ordered noodle with braised pork. However, when my order came, the quantity that i got is a lot less than what is shown in the menu. Another disappointment.

Item shown with 3 big piece of pork and generous portion of sausages

The end result

Tsuruya at Times Square

2009-10-05T09:14:00.002+08:00

Oh my!! I just heard the news. Tsuruya Restaurant at Times Square had closed down. Guess must have been due to high rental and little crowd and customers. The management at Times Square better think of ways to increase more crowd.

Mushroom Fantasy

2009-09-24T16:46:00.003+08:00

This picture was taken when I was walking back to office from Queensbay Mall after having lunch there. It sure trigger some fond memories of my childhood. When I was very small, I was always excited whenever I see any mushroom sprouting from the ground after rainy days. I guess it was because of my wild imagination as a kid thinking that we're able to see little fairies dancing around mushroom. All thanks to the cartoons shown on TV.

Max Gourmet @ Bayan Bay

2009-09-24T13:58:00.002+08:00

This place is always pack during lunch time. In my recent trip over, I've ordered their version of Malaysia Nasi Lemak with Curry Chicken. I've forgotten how much is cost though. It came in large plastic plate with few compartments, and it just reminded me of eating at canteen. The rice is ALOT and though I managed to finish it all, I am extremely full.

The curry was abit too salty to my liking. But they sure not stingy with the meats and potatoes :)

Tsuruya @ I-Avenue

2009-09-24T13:20:00.000+08:00

After many years of eating japanese food, I am now able to enjoy eating cold japanese noodle. I remembered the very first time I had it in one of the restaurant at Georgetown more than 10 years ago and it was a very bad experience for me. In fact it was my very first japanese food and I just couldn't accept eating cold food unless it was a desert. I almost throw up eating it. It is definately a no-no for first timer.

Piri Kara Chicken Set - RM 17

Since I already loved sashimi, I was thinking why not give cold noodle another chance. My second try at cold noodle was at Tsuruya located in Penang Times Square early this year, and to my surprise, I liked it very much.

Chicken Teriyaki & Horenso Set - RM24, however changed the spinach (horenso) to black fungus with egg (tamago kikurage) as per our request

This is my third trip to Tsuruya restaurant located in I-Avenue, apart from one time earlier this year at Times Square. I actually preferred this restaurant compared to any japanese restaurant located in Queensbay Mall, but ended up frequent Azuma more due to its location.

Though both Tsuruya restaurant (I-Avenue and Penang Times Square) is owned by the same person, the menus are slightly different. In fact, the set lunch in Times Square is cheaper than those availble in I-Avenue. My colleague had a member card so we enjoyed a 10% discount from the total bill. I'm not sure how to apply for member card though (never bothered to ask since she's always with us whenever we ate there :P).

Tenzaru Soba - RM18

We requested some change to the dishes from the sets and the people there are nice enough to accomodate to our needs. I ordered tenzaru soba which ofcourse, cold noodle that came with tempura which costs RM18. I also wanted to have some sashimi, but the available ala-carte are just too big, so I requested them to provide the one that came from set lunch, minus the rest of the stuff (rice, miso soup and fruits) and they gladly attended to my request (charged Rm25 for my sashimi but the set would cost RM30).

Customized Sashimi - RM25

Now, if only they would open another at Queensbay Mall...

OXO Restaurant

2009-09-23T11:11:00.005+08:00

A group of visitors came to our office for training recently and we took them to have lunch at OXO restaurant, just opposite our office block. The restaurant had opened quite sometime but I never went there to eat before. Each time I wanted to go, my lunch partners will say it is not nice or there is nothing special (they've went there before).

When I walked into the restaurant, the environment is very warm and cosy. It has a very nice ambience and furnishing. In fact, the owner of the restaurant is the same guy that operates Macedoine (previously in Queensbay north zone but had closed down). From the menu, the choice of food are more and the price had increased as well. I guess that's the downside of people upgrading to bigger restaurant, able to handle more crowd and orders, but price will be higher to cater for more workers and operation costs.

I ordered a lunch set that comes with either soup or salad, main course, desert and coffee or tea. It has many choices for main course, and I've selected the one that consists of chicken, lamb and seasoned baby octapus. The portion is bigger compared to previously in Macedoine (I was never full whenever I ate there), but I would feel it is still not enough for big eater. However, the main course is a bit disappointment. The chicken was not tender and the lamb was overcooked. In fact, the only thing that is nice is the garnishing. However, those that ordered other main courses such shrimp and chicken says that it is nice.

In all, I think I would probably revisit the place again for casual meetup thanks to its cosy environment, but it will not be my first choice.

Desert of cake & biscuit

What Happened to My Post?

2009-09-10T09:10:00.002+08:00

I clearly remembered that I had posted my review on Blood+ and Full Metal Alchemist anime here before, but now these posts are no where to be found. What happened? I surely don't remember ever deleting them.

Operation Change Carpet

2009-09-09T17:08:00.003+08:00

Our office had changed carpet recently where everyone came back on Saturday to help move things about to make space for carpet laying. Besides changing carpet, we also changed new blinds in certain room, and re-use the old blinds in other rooms that previously without any. Here we also took the change to re-org some of the furnishing. Major change?? My new mini room.

Breastfeeding Certification

2009-08-28T11:32:00.003+08:00

Finally got the chance to post a photo of my certificate that I got during the World Breastfeeding Week at USM recently. Have not put in our names yet though. Now if only we have certs for our normal life achievements...

Company Trip to Pulau Jerejak

2009-08-17T11:16:00.006+08:00

Last year, our company promised of a company trip "over the sea". This year they fullfills it by going to Jerejak Island (in a way it is still over the sea with the ferry trip). Though my office is only a stonethrow away from Pulau Jerejak, I had never touch foot there before. Most of the people went there will say "it's boring", "nothing much to do", "the food is bad" etc. So when my company decided to go there as a company trip this year, those who knew about it says "aiyah, go other place also better lah... waste money and time only...". So for most of us that is from Penang branch, we never really got excited about the trip.

Finally the day came, 2 days trip from 15th August 2009 till 16th August 2009. The first day itself is very sunny and hot. A bus fetch those flew from JB and KL to the Jerejak jetty from the Penang airport while those from Penang drove and parked our cars there. Everyone met up and took the 11.30am ferry over to Jerejak island. Surprisingly, I had a very good time there. The trip is not as tiring and rushed compared to last year, we had ample time to relax and do some free strolling around the resort. The games that we had were short and sweet. We also had funs from dancing and singing.

The trip so close to Penang island is a blessing as well as I get to go back at night to be with my baby, while the rest stayed overnight at the resort. I went back to the resort the next early morning, and though I'm alone, the ferry trip was even more pleasant with its cool fresh air and wonderful scenary. As the headcount going to the resort is small, we took a small boat instead which I liked a lot (windy and faster :P).

At the end of the day, most of the staff requested to go Bali next year. Let's see what the management can do about it.

William Photoshoot

2009-08-14T10:44:00.004+08:00

Here's William first photoshoot done at our home using DSLR camera (not sure bout the brand though). Lots of thanks to Hugo and Wendy for taking these photos. I'm quite happy with the result, very much better compared to the ones I took using P&S, but the photographer is abit dissatisfied. Haha... perhaps that's the difference between photograher enthusiast and none like me. In all, I feel it is still very good in his first attempt. My hubby also impressed with the quality of the photo taken and is considering to buy a DSLR as well. Hey, think u got so much $$ ah??

Natsume Yuujinchou (Natsume's Book of Friends)

2009-08-04T08:06:00.002+08:00

Been wanting to post a review of this anime for quite sometime ever since finished watching both seasons but just preoccupied with so many other things. First to give acknowledgement to this "http://www.minitokyo.net/Natsume+Yuujin-Chou" link for allowing me to get this nice picture (lazy to take a snapshot of the DVD casing that I have). Let's start with the plot summary written at the back of the DVD casing first:

"Natsume Takashi has the ability to see spirits, which he has long kept secret. However, once he inherits a strange book that belonged to his deceased grandmother, Reiko, he discovers the reason why spirits surround him. Containing the names of these spirits, a binding contract was formed between the spirits and the owner of the book. Now, Natsume is determined to free the spirits and dissolve the contracts. With the help of a spirit cat, his days are filled trying to return the names to these spirits."

Though it is something similar with xxxHolic and Mushishi, this is more light weight and extremely funny. The main plot in each episodes are not continuous, but some of the characters are repeated in certain episode, thus you will still need to watch it in sequence to understand why certain characters behaves in that manner. I especially love the spirit cat, which Natsume fondly calls him Nyanko-Sensei. Most of the comic scene comes from the cat *love love*.

The opening and ending theme songs of both seasons is very nice as well, which I planned to get the full version soon. The opening clip of the 2nd season is especially interesting. At first my hubby miss it alot of times, until I told him that it is a repeat clip, but with spirit included at the 2nd part that he realised its specialty. The tune of the song accompanying the clip gives it more depth.

Hooray for Breastfeeding

2009-08-03T11:07:00.002+08:00

I've went to the World Breastfeeding Week event at USM last Saturday and I would say it was a very enjoyable moment. Some of the video presentations were an eye-opening to me, especially on Breast Crawl. It is a practise where straight after the baby is born, the baby would put on its mother's chest and the baby will instinctively crawl to the mother's breast to feed itself. Miraculously, the baby will not cry and instead, able to move its body and head slowly and steadily toward its food source and is able to latch on properly to feed without any help. Nature and life itself is really a wonderful thing.

In total, there are 360 mothers all over Malaysia breastfeed at the same time. Unfortunately, my William was too excited to look around his new environment too feed properly at that time. He is more interested to see how other baby feeds even though it is his feeding time. Guess seeing all these makes him not feeling hungry anymore :P. There's a newspaper clip on this as well: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/8/2/nation/4442125&sec=nation

Too bad I need to go back early, else I would have enrolled my William in baby crawling contest. Now.... to check on the photos taken posted in Facebook (that is if they already uploaded it)

Baby Sign Language

2009-07-31T11:49:00.003+08:00

Came across this in the Internet, seems to be an upcoming fave in the western countries. The videos available in YouTube also very interesting and funny. Since baby can't really talk yet, usually they will cry to get attention and we need to figure out what is it that they want by trying one thing at a time. Teaching them how to sign is a way for them to communicate what they need or want as it is easier for them to express themselves at this age using this method. I've studied how to sign for mother, father, milk, water, sleep and eat already and has started to teach my William for past 2 nights. No progress so far as he's preoccupied with crawling and standing up at this moment, not to mention little support from the rest of the family. I will persists....

Black Month

2009-07-30T10:40:00.002+08:00

This month seems to be a "black" month for me. My baby was hospitalized and even now still have running nose. I had cough myself since early this month and is still coughing even today. I really hope my baby and I can recover soon enough for the World Breastfeeding Week event and photo session this weekend.

William @ 8 Months

2009-07-27T14:10:00.007+08:00

Time sure flies very fast, in a blink of an eye, 8 months had passed. In between, he had fever 3 times with him hospitalised during the last fever which he had last week. That fever lasted for 5 days, with a high over 39 degreeC for few days.

His recent medical checkup reveals he's now at 9.1kg and 71cm of length. I still breastfeed him directly, though he will bit me at times when he is cheeky. My tolerance level when babywearing him is not as good compared to few weeks back as he is getting heavier. At times I wish he would grow up slower as I want to wear him longer. I've bought myself a new ring and attached it to a piece of cloth that I bought from Kamdar. Wearing him using that newly DIY sling is much more easier and flexible compared to the baby sling that I bought previously. It does comes handy especially when he was sick and want to be held all the time. He sleeps more easily in the sling too.

Hmm... what else to mention? Oh! He can crawl now and is learning to stand up on his own. Last night he managed to pull himself up standing straight a few times, but still can't figure out very well how to sit back properly. He now have 2 tiny teeth popping out from his lower gum and prefers porridge to cereal and biscuits. Also I'm trying to wean him off from bottle by giving him a sippy cup to drink water from, and hopefully he is able to feed himself next month. There are others that protested not letting him to feed himself yet, but I'll give it a try still. I can see that he is trying to do that when I feed him by grabbing my spoon and shove it into his mouth from his tiny hands, though the coordination is off :P

He also likes to throw things around and teaching him to put back his things now is hopeless. Telling him 'No' is also pointless. He will just look at the thing, look at you, smile, look back at the thing and just do the things he not supposed to do. I'm taking him for a studio photograph session soon and is looking for some cute outfits for him to wear on that session. Just can't wait to see how the phototaking session will be like.

World Breastfeeding Week 2009

2009-07-22T16:21:00.002+08:00

Every year the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) and UNICEF hold what’s called the World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) during the first week of August to promote breastfeeding the world over. The Mother-to-Mother Peer Support (MMPS) group in Facebook that I had joined recently will be holding an event as well in view of the world breastfeeding week.

This event will be on 1st August 2009, at Dewan Kuliah A, USM Campus (opposite CIMB bank) from 9.30 a.m. – 1.30 p.m. Itenaries includes interactive talks on breastfeeding during emergencies as the theme this year is “Breastfeeding: A Vital Emergency Response. Are you Ready?” and games for families. The significant event will be “One-Minute Simultaneous Breastfeeding” throughout the ENTIRE MALAYSIA. Breastfeeding mothers that unable to attend to this event venue may join the “One-Minute Simultaneous Breastfeeding” from the comfort of their home as well.

For more information, you may call at 016-4211782, email pgmmps@gmail.com or visit MMPS blog at http://pgmmps.wordpress.com/. As pre-registration is required for this event, you will need to email to pgmmps@gmail.com.

My Mickey Convoy

2009-07-18T10:46:00.004+08:00

Hehe... just can't resist to post my new Mickey Convoy here which I got during Transformers Convention in QBM recently. Basically you can see 3 Mickey Mouse here. One as the transformed mouse, one on top of the transformed mouse head and another behind the wheel in truck mode.

Heard rumors that Donald Duck will be next in line, being a bumblebee.

Bye Bye Old, Here Comes New

2009-07-01T09:50:00.003+08:00

Yeah... finally get myself a new fridge which is bigger and more energy saving (5 star... yes! yes! yes!)

Well, lets say goodbye to the old.....

and hello to the new.........

Bak Kut Teh - Boooo

2009-06-30T14:41:00.004+08:00

There's a new restaurant opened in Queensbay mall, claiming to be the "king" of bak kut teh. Few people I've known that had eaten there, most commented that doesn't taste like "bak kut teh" at all. One funny comment was it tasted like pork dipped in black soy sauce soup. However, being curious, I went there for lunch on my own to try it out. I opt for individual meal that comes with "original bak kut teh" with "yau char kuay", 2 appetizers, chinese tea and desert.

There were some customers having meal there as well, but I did not smell any herbs fragrance at all. When my order came, I tried the soup and indeed, there's were totally zero herbs fragrance but there's some slight taste of "bak kut teh" when I drank the soup. The portion was large, I was very full but it was quite a disappointed meal. It was missing one very important factor, nice and strong herbs fragrance. I've tasted even better "bak kut teh" at the hawker stall and at a even cheaper price.

Transformers Convention at Queensbay Mall

2009-06-30T11:24:00.003+08:00

There were 3 days Transformers Convention being held at Queensbay Mall from 26th June till 28th June 2009. There are few exibition areas where toys collectors get to show off their prized collections for public to see, and some booths for people to buy some transformers merchandizes. We ended up getting Mickey Convoy for RM155.

Mickey Convoy in action

There were only few collections that are note-worthy and most of the toys that we saw, are in fact already available in my husband's own personal collection. Funny thing is, since it's named as "Transformers Convention", it is weird to see Macross is part of the display. Perhaps there's a missing link that we are not aware of.

Macross lost in translation

Fell from Bed

2009-06-29T17:38:00.003+08:00

My poor baby fell from bed last weekend, all thanks to his dad who was too busy setting up the camera when trying to get some snapshots of him. Fickle fickle, turn head up and the baby is down on the floor. I just came out from the bath and saw my baby crying on his father's arm. We're so worried and monitor the baby closely, to see whether there's a need to bring him see the doctor. Luckily nothing happen my baby except for a small bump on his head. Somehow my baby's first fall was captured by camera as well. Here's the action, and boy, the father gets a good lecture from me...

Babywearing

2009-06-21T13:40:00.006+08:00

I came across this term from one of the group in Facebook. Curious, I went in and checkout the group and unknowingly, joined the group as well. All these while we used baby carrier to bring William around for shopping, and after reading articles about babywearing, it seems that the baby carrier that we had are not so ideal when the baby reached certain weight. Other alternatives for baby wearing includes pouch, sling, mei-tai and some mothers DIY themselves.

I attended one of their monthly meeting in 'Masyarakat Penyayang' recently and they had this 'library' where for RM30 per year, you can checkout these items to try out rather than buying it (I've scoped around, the cheapest is around RM80+). I've tried the pouch, sling and mei-tai and all of these had it pros and cons. Pouch is easy to slip on, but not adjustable should your size changes. Sling is adjustable but take sometime to put on. Mei-tai is easiest and comfortable to use, but only allow 2 types of carrying position. I prefered sling instead.

I've bought a sling myself recently but need to opt for plainer color so that my hubby can wear it as well. So tempted to buy another colorful one for myself. One of the babywearing mother taught me how to DIY it easily just by having the ring for RM20, and we can change the cloth anytime we want. Hmm... maybe I'll buy the ring during next group meeting.

My Breastfeeding Journey

2009-06-21T13:36:00.003+08:00

Initially, I never had any plan to breastfeed my baby as I am someone who is more career-minded. In fact, most of the people around me are also mis-informed about breastfeeding and I did not even bother or interested to study any further information about it. When I was about to give birth, in my mind I was thinking "ok, why not try for 2 weeks for experience sake then let him go on formula". However, everything changed when I saw my baby for the first time after giving birth to him. He looked so small and fragile. From there on, I decided to breastfeed my baby for as long as possible as I know (even with my limited knowledge about breastfeeding) it is the best thing for my precious baby.

For the first 3 days at the hospital, I manage to breastfeed my baby but had bad case of sore nipple due to improper latching. I told myself not to give up and ignored the pain. After discharged, I went to confinement centre. Once there, the nanny there asked me to choose formula milk to feed my baby but i insisted that i want to fully breastfeed and did not give them any brand name of the formula milk. Things went well but later that evening, my baby keeps on crying and no matter how long i feed him, it is just not enough. The confinement lady kept on saying "breastmilk is not enough", "in hospital they secretly feed with formula", "all mothers also supplement with formula initially", blah blah blah till I was convinced that I had no choice but to supplement with formula.

A day later, my baby was admitted to hospital due to jaundice. It was then I was introduced to Spetra 3 breastpump, a unit provided by the confinement centre for mothers to express their breastmilk. When I first use it, it was only a mere 1oz, but as days passed i notice an increase of milk quantity and i knew then that the this pump is really suitable for me and is able to help in stimulating for more breastmilk production. Slowly my baby takes less formula milk supplement as I'm feeding my baby directly during the day (though he gets hungry every 1/2 hour), while express using the pump at night for the nanny to feed from bottle. By the third week, i am able to get 3oz and it was then I was introduced to Melissa from BabyParadise in order to buy the breastpump. While meeting her, she gave me valuable advice as to how to increase my breastmilk and how to breastfeed successfully. Her stories inspired me alot and I tried her advice at home after leaving the confinement centre. Furthermore, I took the chance to study more information about breastfeeding and milk storage from internet during my second month of maternity at home to better equip my knowledge. When I'm back to work, I still supplement my baby with formula for about 2 weeks and then onwards, it is breastmilk exclusively till now.

So far I've managed to balance my worklife and motherhood successfully. There are people around me who have mis-conception about breastfeeding and I gladly took the chance to explain to them with whatever knowledge that I have. It really take times for some people to understand but it is worth the effort as you will end up having more people supporting breastfeeding.

Damn Viral Fever

2009-04-09T15:38:00.002+08:00

This seems to be a common sickness that happened for the past few weeks. My baby caught the virus (poor thing) and had a high fever (recorded 38.3 Celsius). Though he manage to recover from the fever the next day, but was infected with a very bad case of ulcers on his throat. Due to that, he do not want to feed directly perhaps it is more painful as he need to open his mouth more compared to bottle-feed. But before we sent him to see the doctor again, I thought he started to reject me and was abit depressed. The doctor prescribed an oral gel that can help to soothe the pain, and he started to direct-feed again after few days (to my relief).

However, soon after he recovers, I started to have fever and similarly ulcers after the fever. Now I had fever before but never felt so dizzy and weak before. My whole body ache very much. As for the ulcers, it was extremely painful and I really pitied my baby for having to suffer that. My husband boasted that he got good immune system and that he won't get infected. But few days after my fever, my husband caught the virus and his fever was the worse (39.2 Celsius). His condition was so bad that whenever he make the slightest move, his body ache all over and he feels his brain is banging against the skull. Now it is his turn to suffer from the ulcers.

Ang Mo Koay Teow

2009-03-21T21:45:00.003+08:00

Since the knee operation, my mother in law do not have any appetite to eat anything at all. We need to force her eat during each meal in order for her to gain back her energy and for her body to replenish her blood loss. We suspect it could be due to the medicine that had been prescribed to her.

Due to her appetite loss, I decided to make something light and simple for her to eat. All these while she does not fancy pasta as I usually makes it creamy to my hubby's liking. To make her interested into eating pasta, we called this "Ang Mo Koay Teow" and purposely bought fettucini for this meal. For me, I think I will call this Aglio Broccoli Fettucini :)

Ingredients:

Lots and lots of garlic, some broccoli, grated parmesan cheese, sliced chicken meat, some olive oil, 1/2 of chicken stock cube and some salt. Oh... don't forget fettucini lah...

Step 1: Cook the pasta as per packaging instruction. Drain the pasta but save some of the water for later.

Step 2: Heat some olive oil and add in garlic. Once you smell the sweet garlic fragrance, add in broccoli.

Step 3: Once broccoli is almost cook, add in the chicken meat and chicken stock cube. Pour some of the pasta water that you have saved earlier to simmer all the added ingredients.

Step 4: Once all the ingredients are cooked, add in the drain pasta and stir well. If there is not enough olive oil to cover the pasta, add in more olive oil and keep stirring. Make sure the pasta are all properly covered with the olive oil.

Step 5: Serve onto plate and sprinkle with some grated parmesan cheese. You can add some salt to taste if you prefer it to be more salty. Another option is to add in the chili flakes or pasta garnishing if you want more spice and herbs.

My mother in law quite like the taste and manage to finish it all :P

As for my husband, I kept some of the cooked ingredients aside b4 adding the pasta and do the creamy version for him.

4 Months Now

2009-03-20T16:06:00.006+08:00

My William is now 4 months of age already. Time sure flies quickly when you have a child to take care of. But he still look super small in my eyes. I still breastfeed exclusively though occasionally do feed him with formula when I leave him with my mother overnight whenever I travel outstation.

As of now, William can already turn and take his head up high. He also makes funny "emmk emmk" sound whenever he poo poo on his little potty (yes, we potty trained him already!!). Yesterday he manage to wave his hand "bye bye" to his grandma and cousin brothers when I fetch him home from my mother's place. He still drools alot and enjoy sucking his hand and fingers with "choc-choc" sound. Due to that, he's now famously known as "Choc-ky" whenever his daddy is around. Versions of his "Choc-ky" nicknames are:

1. "cowboy choc-ky" when he rides on his daddy's tummy.

2. "pilot choc-ky" when he sits on his baby-walker

3. "ninja choc-ky" when his daddy takes him on mimicking ninja jump

4. "super choc-ky" when we hold him up high and he stiffen his body flat like flying

Pilot Choc-ky on the job

He's currently learning to hold his own bottle. But most of the time he can't control his hand ending up pushing or popping the bottle away. His favourite past time now is blowing his wet lips, making noisy "brrrr brrrr" sound.

As for me, I'm losing hair like there's no tomorrow. Strands of my hair are everywhere. I think it is enough to make a new wig. Just hope that I won't become bald. Another thing to add is that baby likes to surpise you with their funny antics and they changed their habits very fast. The moment you are familar with their habit or trends, they changed and you have to relearn it again.

Weak in Knee, Weak in Pocket

2009-03-19T16:24:00.002+08:00

My mother in law just have a total knee replacement surgery last friday. Even though she had been discharged, she still needs assistance to get around the house as the prescribe medicine are still making her drowsy and weak. Her knee had not been completely healed yet too. According to the doctor, on average it will take about 1 week to recover.

Good news is that after the surgery, she does not feel any pain when walking around so I would say the surgery is a success. The bad news is that she does not have any hospitalization insurance. Even if she wanted to get one now, she already passed the final enrollment age (60 years of age that is for those who don't know). The bill itself almost reached 14K. From the itemised billing, hospitals are bloodsuckers. This burned a very big hole in our pocket. Another bad news is that I can't even buy hospitalization insurance for my parents as well it they also passed the final enrollment age :(

Quick Pasta

2009-02-19T22:50:00.001+08:00

I was in the mood to cook pasta for breakfast last Saturday while the baby is still sleeping. While in preparation, I remembered my camera and quickly took some photos during each step. I'm not sure what to name my pasta though... perhaps Sausage & Mushroom Pasta. For this meal, I used angel hair instead of spaghetti since it cooks faster. Can't afford to spend own sweet time cos to the baby can wake up any time soon :P

Step 1: Dice some fresh mushrooms, sausages and chop some garlic.

Step 2: Some other ingredients needed are some creamy herb and mushroom sauce (available in all supermarkets), olive oil, eggs and pasta. You can use any type of pasta that you like.

Step 3: Boil some water, put pinch of salt and few drops of olive oil in the boiling water. This helps to keep the pasta from sticking to each other when cooked. Put the pasta in after that.

Step 4: Heat one tablespoon of olive oil into pan and stir in garlic and mushroom.

Step 5: Once the mushroom is almost cook, add in sausage.

Step 6: Continue stirring and once the mushroom and sausage are cooked, add in the pasta sauce and let it simmer. Keep on stirring while simmering to prevent the sauce from being burnt.

Step 7: Drain the pasta and add in the eggs. Quickly mix into the hot pasta and allow the heat from the pasta to cook the egg. Do not switch on the stove while doing this else the egg will dry up and becomes scramble egg instead and stick onto the pasta. We want it to be creamy...

This is how it looks like after the egg is cooked with the heat from pasta.

Step 8: Pour in the cooked pasta sauce and mix well. You may on the stove in slow heat.

Step 9: Serve onto plate and sprinkle with some black pepper and parmeson cheese.

Step 10: Time to yum yum...

New Hair Cut

2009-02-17T16:55:00.002+08:00

With the baby around, it is quite troublesome to keep my hair long. After few rounds of discussion with my husband, I manage to persuade him to keep my hair short instead (he prefers me having my hair long).

Thus, last Sunday I went to cut my hair. In just few snips, my hair which I had kept for many years became extremely short (bob style). Somehow it makes me look like when I was still studying secondary school. My husband says my new haircut makes me look more innocent :P

Poor William

2009-02-17T10:51:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was William's 3rd immunisation schedule at the clinic. When we reached there, he was in a good mood and was smiling to everyone that he sees. Due to that, one the nurse there brought him for sight-seeing and all the nurses took turns to hold him and hug him. One of them even kissed him and left a lipstick mark on his cheek.

A quick check shows that he's weighing at 6.4kg. By the time all the nurses had played with him, he was getting tired and sleepy. When wanting to get his shot, he started crying and was struggling alot because he does not like being hug in a feeding position whenever he is sleepy. That's how he got his shot with a hardened muscle.

Few minutes after the shot, he was smiling all over again and cooing with the nurses. By the time we reached home about 4pm he was sound asleep. However, soon enough he started to feel a very bad pain on his leg and began crying loudly and would not stop crying no matter what we did. He looked so pity with so many tears flowing from his eyes. His thigh looks so red and swollen and we can see that he does not dare to move his leg. Luckily the swell starts to ease few hours later but he still wants people to hug him for comfort till he sleeps. Poor William. I wonder if he will be scared of going to the clinic again next month for his next shot.

Thick Face for Ang Pow

2009-02-03T10:03:00.003+08:00

I would say all children and some single adults are eager to receive ang pow during cny since sometimes it could sum up to quite large amount of extra spending $$. However, for the past few years, I notice a lot of public workers asking for ang pow as well, regardless whether they are already married. From their faces, you will certainly know that they are married.

The most common public worker asking for ang pow is the garbage collector. Now they would get lots of ang pow as they will ask from every chinese household that they passed by to collect garbage. When I was still staying at my parents house, the garbage collector still have the decency to only ask for ang pow by only coming during his offday and even gave 1 oranges to every household. But now they will simply ask for it, and will not leave until you gave them. This year, several garbage collectors came to our house for ang pow and we notice is due to they from different garbage truck. I wonder what would happen if we insist not giving them any.

Today I heard from my in-law saying that now even the postman are asking for ang pow. Now they are already getting paid for doing what they are supposed to do, and is it right for them to ask for ang pow from every household they passed by? Are they doing the same thing during Hari Raya or Deepavali? Luckily this still have not spread to our rotiman, newspaper man etc...

And Then It Came Back

2009-02-02T17:22:00.004+08:00

I've been experiencing dry season for the past few weeks lately when expressing breast milk for my baby to drink. Previously from 4-5 ounces to merely 1-3 ounces. I even drank more liquid than normal but it does not help. I'm not sure why but my baby also does not seem to have same appetite as last time. He was able to finish 4.5 ounces each time during his feed, but recently he stopped after 2-3 ounces. Perhaps he knows mommy not able to produce enough recently :(.

Anyway, to prevent the milk supply from diminishing after trying for 2 weeks, I went to buy Fenugreek which supposed to help increase its production. I bought it for RM50.30 from GNC after 20% discount from credit card promotion (the original price is RM62.90). But before I manage to consume any of it, my milk supply came back as normal. However my baby's appetite still have not recovered much but at least he is now able to finish up his previous intake in certain feed. I just hope that he won't lost much weight from all of these.

First Chinese New Year

2009-01-28T22:42:00.002+08:00

My baby celebrated his first Chinese New Year just after 2.5 months of age. Coincidently at stroke of midnight, he woke up for his feed and we took the opportunity to give him his first "ang pow". Here's the photo of him with his "big ang pow".

Happy Being Confined

2009-01-21T12:13:00.005+08:00

I stayed at Sunrise during my confinement period for 1 month after delivery. For me, the stay is quite enjoyable as we get to share jokes and parenting information with all the mothers that stayed in the centre as well. Another plus is that there's an ex-nurse working there as well, so she is able to give valuable tips especially for new mothers on what to do. The ex-nurse is also the one that gives funny nicknames to all babies so that they are able to identify them should the parents brought them back to revisit the caretakers and nannies. I'm not sure why, but the nickname given to my child is "Attap Chee" as in attap seed.

Here's the group photo of all the babies that stayed in the centre during November 2008 month. Guess which one is my William :)

First Day Into the World

2009-01-20T22:32:00.004+08:00

Finally I have some free time to download the pictures from my camera (I let my mom take care of my baby for the night :P). Here's some of the shots taken on the day that my precious William is born.

Ahh... eyes can't open yet

Small small knows how to "dig" ear already

Getting some peaceful sleep

Sleepless Nights

2009-01-02T22:23:00.002+08:00

We are having many sleepless nights ever since the baby is back in our house after confinement. It seems that the baby biological timeclock goes haywire. He sleeps throughout the day and do not want to sleep at night. We tried to make him awake during the day but it seems that he was so sound asleep that whatever we do did not bother him. At night, he could stay up for many hours and both of us need to always try many methods to make him sleep or not crying.

The worse case that happened was when he was wide awake from 8pm till 5am. Since my husband need to work the next day, I had to manage the baby on my own from midnight onward. I only had 2 hours sleep before he wake up again for his morning bath and feed etc. With the cleaning and washing and feeding during the day, I started to having headaches after few occasions.

Many people that we talked too says that this usually ends when the baby reaches 3rd month. I really hope it does that I won't be able to manage if this goes on when I started working.

New HP Laptop

2008-12-30T18:04:00.002+08:00

I just got my new HP laptop and was so excited to install all the necessary software for it to run. It was preloaded with DOS only and I planned to install XP OS instead. However, it came down to many problems because XP do not have the hardware drivers preloaded in the installation disc. We had to download the drivers one at a time from the internet. But not all the hardware has XP compatible drivers due to push to support Vista. According to the HP support staff, we'll need to use Vista instead for my new laptop as not all hardware drivers are available for XP. If wanted to use XP, need to inform HP before purchasing any laptop so that they can recommend the model which is XP compatible. This is because all new models only support Vista due to the push by Microsoft. Curse Microsoft...

Party Party, Xmas Party

2008-12-22T13:31:00.004+08:00

We had a Christmas party at our office last Friday where everyone chipped in by preparing food for lunch, except for myself :P. My goal of going there is to makan what they had prepared and join in the gift exchange. Everyone was supposed to wear either red or green for the Christmas celebration theme but since my body is still bloated, I was excused... haha

Wah... so many gifts

Chicken instead of turkey... budget problem mah...
Group photo before opening presents
So who got what?

Full Moon Gift

2008-12-15T11:49:00.004+08:00

For the baby full moon, we went for 3 things:
1. traditional tumeric rice and curry chicken for relatives
2. KFC voucher for colleagues
3. gift set box for close friends

The first 2 items are very common. As for the 3rd item, I actually assigned my younger sister to prepare the special gifts to be distributed to close friends. After weeks of sampling and research, she manage to create very beautiful item which she made it herself which I liked straight away. Note that almost everything is handmade by her which are the brownie cupcake, cookies, poem message, envelope and the gift. Everyone who receives the gift box loves it very much, especially girls :P

Botak Head

2008-12-15T11:32:00.003+08:00

My baby's hair was shaved to bald in preparation of full moon ceremony. Here's some of the photos taken during the event. I feels that he looks cuter with his hair instead. Need to wait sometime for it to grow back again...

hey... is it time for my feed?

What's going on my head?

Ah... I'm feeling some cool breeze...

I want my hair back!!!

New Arrival

2008-12-10T13:37:00.002+08:00

I've finally delivered a baby boy last month. In fact on the same day where I wrote my previous entry here, i encountered some bleeding few hours later and the doctor says that I was in labour. Instead of being admitted to the hospital, I went back first to clear some things and only went back to the hospital around 9pm after feeling more frequent contraction. We went for induced labour as suggested by the doctor and the baby is born on 0056 the next morning (9th Nov 2008). Delivering a baby is extremely painful.

The baby is 1 month now and I was unable to make any entries here due to internet unavailabiliy during my stay in the confinement centre. Even back home now is extremely busy trying to cope taking care of the baby whole day and night. Will only post some photos later, I am super tired...

Still Waiting

2008-11-08T08:25:00.002+08:00

2 weeks had passed since the doctor says I can give birth anytime soon and I'm still waiting for my baby to come out. My husband suggested to go for induced labor but I would prefer waiting for the baby naturally. But then again my husband warned that if opt for it to come naturally, the water may broke at someplace inconvenient or giving birth during time where the hospital rate is doubled or tripled. What to do... what to do... :(

Extra 16 Kg

2008-10-26T08:20:00.002+08:00

In total now, I've gained additional 16kg for throughout my pregnancy. However, according to the doctor, the baby is currently estimated as 2.7kg only inside my tummy during checkup yesterday. Ahh... with so much excess, even my fingers and toes as swelling. My husband is having a good time calling me funny names at this moment ;)

Even though the due date is next month, the doctor says it could come out anytime soon. In fact I did fell some minor contractions for the past few days.

Recycling & Charity

2008-10-24T22:37:00.005+08:00

We received an email recently stating that the Silver Jubilee Home for Old Aged is short of rice to eat, and is asking for the public to donate some rice over. Thus, my husband and I decided to donate some bags of rice and made a phone call to inquiry when is the best time to deliver the things over. However, the person on the phone answered that the article was 2 months ago and that they had plenty of rice instead. But they are short of other household materials such as detergent, cleaning products, cereals, cooking materials etc. We already went shopping for these items and will pass over to the centre this weekend. Note that they do issue receipts for item received which you can used for income tax exemption.

Also, while preparing for the baby's arrival, we've packed many old stuffs that need to be thrown away such as books, magazines, old computer parts, bottles etc. But since most of these items can be recycled, we've arranged for Eden Handicap Service Centre for collection instead. These items will be donated to them for recycling purposes, thus you'll be doing some help to the environment as well. For those who are interested to donate their old stuffs away for recycling, you may call 04 - 644 2912 and look for Ms Peggy. They'll come to pickup the items at your preferred location and time.

New Baby Girl

2008-10-01T09:12:00.002+08:00

My sister just gave birth to a healthy baby girl, weight as 3.2kg this morning. Hoho... it seems that it's a Hari Raya baby as well. I wonder whether the hospital will give something nice since it is Raya celebration as well. Better checkout the newspaper also to see whether this is also reported :P

Taiping Zoo

2008-09-12T18:21:00.006+08:00

My husband and I purposely took leave (I need to clear my leave anyway due to the coming maternity leaves) to go to Taiping to visit the zoo. It has been more than 5 years since we last went there, and it was quite memorable. In fact, we prefered Taiping Zoo compared to National Zoo in KL and Singapore Zoo as the track is easier to walk and animals are easier to see, though this will translate to being a smaller confinement area for the animals which would be unhealthty.

Most animals are in the shades to avoid the rain

Too bad our visit was cut short as it was raining in Taiping throughout the day.

Shirt Eating Dog

2008-09-12T18:15:00.000+08:00

We saw a cute t-shirt in Jusco for pets, super sharp pink colour with wording "Must Love Dog" and bought it so that Tanzie can wear it. It costs about RM28 if I remember correctly.

That night, we dressed her with the T-Shirt, and she looked so adorable. Since the color was so stricking, we can see her running happily around the house compound in the dark. Thinking only to remove the t-shirt tomorrow so that we can save it for her to wear during CNY but it was too late. The next morning, we can see pieces of the t-shirt lying everywhere on the ground.

Pet as Food?

2008-09-11T23:08:00.003+08:00

There's an episode of the The F Word shown in the Asian Food Channel in Astro recently, where 2 pets (which are pigs) of Gordon Ramsey was slaughtered and cooked as food instead. Since these pigs were pets, they were given names as well. In fact, his children are happy when eating the pork and knowing that it was their pets. I'm not sure whether this should be a normal reaction, feeling happy of eating your own pets after loving and taking care of them for so long.

Lorry Drift Gone Awry

2008-08-18T17:47:00.004+08:00

Last Saturday, while on our way to Equatorial hotel for a lunch treat by my husband, we encountered a lorry which somehow manage to crash on its side at the Yeap Chor Ee junction. The lorry driver must have tried to perform some of the scenes that we see in Tokyo Drift movie at the junction.

Apollo Wafer Biscuit

2008-08-11T16:50:00.003+08:00

It has been quite sometime since I last had Apollo wafer biscuit. In fact it was about 1-2 years back since I had it, and it costs about RM2.15 then for a dozen pack, with 4 wafer sticks in each pack. The reason why I never had it for such long period is because it is very hard to find these being sold in supermarkets.

Last Sunday when I went shopping as Jusco in Queensbay mall, it was there on the shelf again. The price had increase upto RM2.85 for a dozen pack, but since it is hard to come by, I bought 2 dozens instead. When I reach home and open 1 pack to eat while watching tv, somehow it feels different, as the wafer seems to finish more quickly than I remember for my enjoyment. After eating few more packs, then only I realised that instead of 4 sticks in a pack, they had reduced it to 3 sticks in a pack. Now this is really bloodsucking. Not only they increase the price, but reduced the quantity as well!

4D Scan

2008-08-04T13:36:00.002+08:00

Last Saturday I went to the hospital to undergo my normal monthly checkup of my pregnancy. One of the scheduled item for the checkup was 4D scan, though they did not reveal how much it will cost me later on.

The 4D scan consists of 2 monitors, one so that the mother can view it while lying down on the bed and another which is attached to the machine controller is for the doctor's usage. My husband was so interested in the machine that he stood there beside the doctor to see what he is doing the whole session. This trip, we brought along my mother-in-law so that she can see how the baby looks like.

First, the doctor will zoom to see the baby's heart and monitor the heartbeat, and we could hear it very clear from the machine as well. From there the doctor further explained the organs that had developed as well. The baby is kicking the whole time during the session. We can even see the baby yawn inside my tummy.

After the routine checkup, we moved on to see the baby's face, but the baby was so shy that it kept blocking the face with both hands. The doctor then gently tabbed on my tummy in effort to make the baby move its hands away. When the baby finally did, everyone in the room knew that the baby looked exactly like my husband from the first glance due to its nose.

One Piece

2008-07-31T11:03:00.002+08:00

I've started to watch this series if not mistaken for the last five years and I've just watched upto episode# 354 last week. Will still need to wait for a long long time till the story actually ends. One nice thing about this series is that it always gives you surprises in each episode. Furthermore, there had not been any boring moment throughout the whole series when compared to other long running series like Dragonball, Naruto, Bleach, Inuyasha etc. (hope i did not offend anyone by saying this.. haha)

While it is always full of funny moments, there are many touching episodes that makes you cry, especially when revealing the dramatic past of each characters concerned. It even manage to make the audience felt very touched when their beloved ship burned down and sink into the sea. The writer must have really thought of the storyline very very well, as the recent episode that I had watched in fact is very very much related to previous episodes way way back, also many years ago :P

The story is about a group of pirate, each with their own agenda at first but soon developed a strong commitment and bond to stay together and see thru their adventure in venturing thru the great ocean to find the ultimate treasure called One Piece (though each will still want to achieve what they had wanted when they first joined the crew). Though the long running series, they still did not have a complete crew yet of a pirate ship and yet, they are powerful enough to fight with other group of pirates and make enemy with the world government while rescuing one of the crewmate in the earlier episodes. In fact, the recent episode that i watched was actually in the process of wanting to recruit a new member into their crew, which is a skeleton musician and will then make the total of 8, along with their idiotic caption, senseless first mate, sexy navigator, lying sniper, pervert cook, gullible doctor, smart archaeologist and a cyborg shipwright.

Refer to this link <<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Piece>> for more information of the stories and characters, as the story is running for soooo long, it will be tiring to re-write the whole thing again. My favourite character??? Well, it all of them! But I think you really need to watch the whole show to really understand what I mean.

Company Trip to Melaka

2008-07-23T14:27:00.005+08:00

There's a trip to Melaka held by our company on 19th July and 20th July where all the staffs from 3 branches (JB, KL and PG) joined together for fun and games. In total there were 45 of us Visualians hogging the Mahkota hotel. For those from PG, the 7 of us started our journey from the Penang airport at 8.15am and reached KLIA LCCT terminal at 9.15am. From there, one of our management staff from KL pick us up with his Avanza and drove us all the way to Melaka. The rest of the staffs were already at the hotel eating their buffet lunch while waiting for us.

Show your love to the World

This is how you should pose with Company T-Shirt

One of the main event was the team-building activities. There were lots funny moments during the whole team-building event. To capture the group photo during team-building was very challenging but the photo came out very nicely.

After dinner, all of us went to Jonker Street to experience the night market environment in Melaka. We even manage to try out the "Gula Melaka Ais Kacang" and fried oyster ("Oo Chien") Melaka style. It was indeed a very memorable experience and our company did promise that we'll be able to go to a better trip next year. So to all Visualians, let's work hard and play hard!

Karaoke Hall at Jonker Street

Dog from Space

2008-07-15T12:21:00.002+08:00

My dog was sent to the vet to be spayed yesterday. When she was discharged today, the vet told us that she will need to wear a plastic cover to prevent her from licking her stitch wound and wear a t-shirt as well to prevent any dirt from touching her wound when she is sleeping as we do not have a cage in our house.

When we reached home, i took one of my old t-shirt and wore it on her. As it was abit loose, we need to tie some part of the clothing with rubberbands. In the end, she looked so funny that we called her "The Space Dog".

According to the vet, our dog is so strong that he need to give her 2 dosage of anesthethics, and even then, it is very hard for her to fall asleep for the operation.

Sweet Cupcakes

2008-07-14T12:01:00.002+08:00

My younger sister baked some cupcakes recently, and from the result, it is clearly shown that she is a better at baking than I am. However, since she bought the ingredients needed from departmental store, her costs per cupcake is quite high but it tastes really good. She even had the time to make some icing to complement her cupcakes.

It's a Baby ???

2008-07-10T16:30:00.001+08:00

According to the doctor, I'm currently in the 20th week of my pregnancy. I've felt the baby moving inside for the past few weeks though, and must always sleep on my side rather than on the back. I'm starting to feel back pain again :(

The doctor had revealed to us on the baby's gender, and now my husband and I are trying hard to figure out a name for our baby. Just hope the doctor's guesses are right else we may need to rethink of other names when the baby is out.

It was the 80's and 90's

2008-06-23T12:30:00.002+08:00

My husband & I was in the mood of the good old times and thanks to the Internet, we manage to dig alot of those things out. We started by downloading some songs from the 80's and 90's and when I heard some of these old songs, it gave me such a nostalgic feeling that tears just came down. Luckily my husband was asleep then and did not see me in such state, else he would have just laugh at me non-stop.

Next we watch some clips in YouTube of some the 80's and 90's cartoon opening songs, and each of us kept comparing "hey, i watched this before" etc. From there on we realized that most cartoons from the 90's are quite bad and not as good as compared those that we watched from the 80's. It was like the downfall of the cartoon kingdom and Disney took over with their range of series created from their cartoon movies. Now we ended up downloading some of the old cartoons from the 80's.

Mushishi

2008-06-10T15:24:00.004+08:00

Similar with Girl From Hell, it was the live-action movie that prompts me to purchase the anime version. However suprisingly, I prefer to watch the live-action rather than the anime version, perhaps because it had a closure to the main character's past rather than the anime version. Though the story is not that scary, but it is very chilling and touching to certain aspect that I had disturbing dreams (can't really categorize it is a nightmare) for few nights after watching the anime version. The manga version is still ongoing though, perhaps that's why the anime seems incomplete.

The story is about another type of living creature that exists in the world known as mushi. However, only limited number of people is able to see mushi. Those who able able to see mushi may understand what these creatures are while some mistaken it for evil beings such as demons or ghost, or even god. A majority of people that is unable to see these creatures will also treat that those people who are able to see them as crazy or even accuse them as the cause of disaster or strange events that occured in their live. Ginko (the main character) is a mushishi (mushi master) that researches different kind of mushi and helps people in dealing with mushi along the way. In the live action, Ginko's clothing is more forgiving but in the anime, his clothes are too modern for the era that the show is based on (though as a child, his clothes does match the time period).

In my opinion, the live action explains more than the anime version, and makes it more easy to watch. However, I can't really comment which one is closest to the manga as I have never read it before. It may be possible that the closure to the live-action is made-up by the movie producer as I do not see these in the anime version at all. It is a recommended show. In fact I finished the whole anime series (26 episodes) in just 2 nights.

Petrol Price Hike Announcement - Traffic Jam

2008-06-10T11:29:00.003+08:00

The recent petrol price hike annouced by our government recently really makes the traffic very bad. I've asked around and especially places where there's a petrol station, we are sure to find jams and long queues. My friend on her way back from work, usually reach home at about 15 minutes, only reached her home 2 hrs later as she's stuck in the jam with all the people trying to get their petrol saving for the last time. I was lucky as I left the office early and manage to squeeze through the jam and reach home 1/2 hour later, thanks to the size of my car.

As on the same night I need to go to my parents house to get something, I need to drove a longer route which does not have any petrol stations that can hinder our journey. This is when "lorong" knowledge came in handy.

But if you think rationally, do you think it is worth the time to spent hours in the jam just to save few ringgit (for my car case is RM20 which will finish up easily if "makan ho liao"). Not to forget that your car also consumes petrol as well while waiting for your turn. In Penang where everyone likes to cut queues, imagine the heat and frustrations as well. Mother Earth also took a big impact from all these. Most important is if there are any emergency cases and with all these jams, how can one travel to get the help needed or for the help to arrive?

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-13T11:01:00.004+08:00

This year, we celebrated mother's day at Hainan Restaurant located in Bukit Jambul (just few doors down the famous Kayu Nasi Kandar). This year there are total of 12 persons joining the celebration on the same table. My mom commented that next year there will be 3 additional baby chairs stuck between, and will need a bigger table to fit everyone. My hubby suggested to throw all the kids in different table instead :)

Some of the highlights:

1. my oldest nephew loss of his baby tooth at the front, and you can see one tiny hole whenever he smile :P

2. my youngest nephew demonstrate how a body should react whenever you say 'I love you' in English and Mandarin (so cute).

3. we did not manage to drink any wine during the course of the dinner as the one and only wine bottle opener belong to the restaurant broke while trying to open our wine bottle (we'll save this bottle for Father's Day instead)

4. Each mother are presented with boxes of lovely cupcakes, courtesy of Hainan restaurant.

This was the first time that I ate at the restaurant, and the food is quite wonderful. But note that most of the recommended foods are quite spicy (due to it's Hainan and Nyonya origin) thus it may not be suitable for kids. However those that really handle spicy food will says that it is not spicy enough. Not sure about the total price as I'm not the one who's paying :P

RM 206.00 vs RM2.00

2008-05-13T10:31:00.002+08:00

The laptop that I had been using for more than a year started to give some problem for the last few days. The letter 'N' on the keyboard had pop out. Even though i had insert it back, it will pop out again after few hours.

I've called Dell support to ask for services, but since it was already out of warranty period, they sent me a quotation instead:
RM 37 for the whole keyboard replacement
RM169 for the onsite service to replace the keyboard
thus a total of RM 206 for the whole work to be done.

Instead, i bought a super-glue that costs less than RM2 and glue-back the key. Now it is working fine and fit as new.

Vanishing Twins

2008-04-08T16:58:00.002+08:00

The recent ultrasound result only shows a baby instead of two, and the doctor says that one of the twins did not make it. Though the doctor says that this is quite common, we're kind of sad when knowing this as was already mentally prepared in having twins. I've did a search on the net before in preparing myself for the twins, and get to know the term for this kind of situation is known as vanishing twins. People are telling to look on the bright side, that is ease on the $$ and childcare, but it is still a life.