Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Early ALL SOULS DAY !!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Beautiful LYE HUAT Garden NOT KNOWN to many
Don't know what type of fish is this....coz the mouth can't close wan, hehe!!
Our recent holiday "FOOD".........
On one particular nite, even after our dinner, huby did not want to miss out eating his fav nasi kandar (sell only at night).......apparently the most famous in AS! As the first 2 days we were in AS was Raya, the stall was closed. So on the 3rd day when the bis resumed, people was like crazy queuing up long just to get a bite of the nasi kandar. And my huby was one of those crazy brat. Imagine that our stomach has to endure the below pack of nasi kandar at 10p.m. ...... u wouldn't know how the feeling of guilt nearly killed me !!! Yet, i felt satisfied & happy joining my huby eating wor....sei mou/die or not?
This time we even had the chance to eat HOME GROWN fruit. The below nangka was plucked from the back yard. FIL was exceptionally thoughtful.....as i was asking him if there was any ripe mango at the backyard (which he used to bring down to KL), he went & plucked the nangka instead. There he goes....went demonstrating his nangka surgical skill & i was there helping him extracting out the fruit which was so sticky to the hands but yummy & sweet !! Sean like it so much but not my fussy Scot though.
Finally featured was the RAYA food......boy.......i felt myself so lucky!! It was such a long time i had a chance to eat kuih raya bcoz no malay friends anymore lar!!! But back in AS, my in-laws were surrounded by malay folks. Whether they are purely neighbourhoods/ customers/ suppliers/ business friends, what i see majorly was of malay races. So in-law's house was like having raya celebration.....full of raya goodies which were gift of courtesy. Authentic ketupat with sumptuous fish & prawn sambal, rendang chicken & beef, muruku & other cookies were seen lying around the table !!!
Monday, October 22, 2007
Quick update.....Pheww, gone she was !!
Our "balik kampung" trip during Raya break !
Luckily we only went back like once or twice a year ........ else don't know where to hide our face!!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
My turn now with 'maid' crisis
Actually new maid already arrived before Raya break but we were not around so we delayed picking her up.
Thursday returned home & Friday morning went anxiously to pick up our Cambodian maid but soon we will be sending her back as we had rejected her & had already requested for a replacement!! Surprise? Sound scary, heh?
Our first exchanged of sight was already not very pleasant as she has a very obvious scarring around her neck & shoulder so huby was just afraid of any skin decease or as such.
Then we felt strange with her coz she wasn’t very “lively”….looked dumb, down & totally unresponsive even with my boys running around her but I tried to persuade my mind not to judge at that moment.
She was not used to car ride, thus she vomited which we felt was fine. But her vomiting incidents did not stop there. She continued to vomit for ALL of the rest of her car ride experiences despite only for a 5 minutes drive. It was damn bloody disgusting. How would she survive her daily routine of enduring at least 30-45 minutes car ride from Pch to P.J every morning from Mon-Fri ????
Still we thought that doesn’t justified enough as a reason to reject her.
Our main primary reason was that she was totally incapable of handling children. She was just UNATTENTIVE at all, slow in response, insensitive towards handling of children, what’s more with 2 hyperactive toddlers of mine?? Both huby & I observed her stringently on her response towards our boys & it really sent shiver down our spine……just by thinking what’s gonna happen if we were to leave our boys just with her !!!! She was not concentrating, blur with the mind always seen loitering (day dreaming) & couldn’t be bothering much in caring our boys. Despite the boys climbing & jumping around the staircase, she could still stand there looking elsewhere & not responding…..i mean really no reaction until I can’t stand & shouted at her!! I just couldn’t understand & imagine there is such human survive!
After much serious consideration & thought, we decided she was just not the right person. Sorry we just can’t tolerate any carelessness towards our boys. It has never been our intention to reject any maid, as we have been lucky with 2 of our previous maids but this time we must have been ‘blind’ as we were the one that selected her from the many photos of bio data available to us.
Furthermore, only after actually experiencing the communication problem with the Camb maid, we came to term that we had enough of the hassle & made up our mind that we should stick back to Indon maid. We can't even convey simple instruction to her coz she doesn't seemed to understand a single english....gosh! I had been like talking to the wall..........
We went back to the agency to convey our problems & requested for a replacement. The moment the agent saw us, her instant response was: really that bad ah?
Next is the list of the agent’s other comments:
-Actually when she was with us for 2 weeks training, we already could tell her behaviour.
-But we are only working here so we can’t be telling bad things about her.
-Since now that you discovered & raised the problems, all I could do is to help you minimise your loss……just pay the levi for the replacement maid lor (RM445)!
I really don’t know what luck was with us……..
Now we are like reaching nowhere…..left without maid next week onwards. Replacement will only arrive in 1-2 months time. Meantime, the only choice left to care for my boys in the day was my parents……pity & felt sorry but got to bear!
Tentative plan:
House cleaning (floor, toilet & etc) – weekly part time cleaner
Laundry – washing machine
Iron – send to dobi shop
All else – me, me, me & me lor….just treat it as part of my slimming treatment lah !!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Another marriage "ritual"..........
Did you noticed the green plant? It has a special meaning & brought good fortune according to the Hokkien and apparently according to my sis, it was a "must" thing to accompany the bunch of gifts to the bride's home.........i've never see or heard of this though !!! Then, the Hennessy..... gosh........it just shows the typical strong Hokkien's essence !!!
The groom's parents came from Labis, Johor and arrived at my mom's place about noon, did whatever required, had some brief chats (sharing both their tales of how they each brought up their children, their efforts of providing them education with bloods & sweats & how they wish/hope their life would blossom with happiness, prosperities/wealth & etc etc with the 'marriage'). Prayers were done & they left while our family continue to prepare for the 'BIG' dinner at night where they will be back again with more other family members!!
It was suppose to be a very joyous day or weekend............but unfortunately i was up with something bad at the same time besides being super busy........sigh & sob i will...... yet i'd tried my best to enjoy first & solve the "problems" later..........updates soon!!
............remember the last time when my name was "MISTAKENLY" printed on the wedding menu card of my sister's dinner reception........hahaha, NOW this time, the wedding card has been correctly printed...........no more errors, hehe !!
And the strange thing was there were 2 versions of the cards. The red was obviously demanded by mom (being the superstitious one) while the pink/purplish one for the couples' guests!!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Pingo Virtual Calling Cards with incredibly low rates.
Pingo is the last phonecard YOU ever need.
Plus Pingo has NO hidden fees & NO surprises with the best competitive rates worldwide.
For huby, once he has set up the master account, all he needs is to simply log in and use the Pingo member's page to create new sub accounts for his new staffs or to close existing ones when there is staff resigned. Huby could even set limits on sub account usage for monitoring purposes as well as auto or manual recharges for each sub account.
Selamat Hari Raya buat kaum muslimin & musliman
Next would be at the Mid Valley Megamall...........
Finally, after the above 2 awful scenes.............I'd one here that soothed my eyes at least a little if not more !! Guess, Subang Parade's taste fit me more !!
Besides the Subang Parade's.......i don't know but i just find that the other 2 couldn't go with my taste. They looked so horrible to me..........arghh........no offend but i definitely like X'mas/CNY more !!!!
For those who would be taking leave & go on a long break, have a good journey, happy holiday & save journey home !!
Will not have chance to blog coming weekend..........catch up soon with more tales from kampung!!
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
I found the present for my MAN
It has always been a challenge when it comes to hunting present for this man of mine. Unlike we woman, guys being that particular creature could not be easily complacent with gifts. I get quite upset when he commented that i'm wasting money on the gift i bought for him. To him or rather guys generally, a present/gift has got to be useful or in other words, guys are getting materialistic too nowadays.
So, when time comes to hunt for a gift for the guy in my life, i spent lots of unnecessary time running from one end of the shopping mall to the other end especially where usually things are not really cluster according to category!!! Luckily someone prompted me to a site that carries a lot of products that guys would love to get as a presents. For those who face similar problems as me with gift for guys, trust me.........hop over here, you will find gifts for him.
I particularly like the Diamond Plate Corner Garage Cabinet that look so COOL for his office. Since he has been on the look out for such cabinet, this would definitely melt his heart for the style yet durability given that this cabinet is real diamond plate made from aluminum and will never rust or corrode. You will get many years of use from these diamond plate cabinets.
Monday, October 8, 2007
A Little Task For Our Health
Then upon the completion of the entire list of screenings, our complimentary lunch was served. It was a japanese meal which was also another 'super healthy' meal....all with less oil, salt, sugar and means it less taste all in all !! But it was acceptable to me, i don't complain at all!
It was quite a comprehensive health screening i would say. The entire package cover 20 years of screenings which would include blood & urine tests on almost '100 items', physical examination, ECG test, chest X-ray, abdominal & chest ultrasound, mamogram, eye test, hearing test, pulmonary lung test, pap-smear & a ONE-TIME CT scan upon reaching the age of 40. Should you think that you do not need to do yearly check-up, you could actually pass on the entitlement to family members for that particular year of check-up. We would let our parents rotate the check-up with us. So i guess, with the increasing hazardous environment to our health couple with the equipped of health knowledges, this is only a little thing that we could do to ensure that our health is being monitored at best, if not perfect !!
After the lunch, we have to wait for the consultation session with the medical officer to go thru the screenings results. And thankfully, nothing really serious that warrant immediate attention. Again & again...........as expected:
* for both it was the weight that needs to be monitored, need to reduce both our BMI results, need to exercise more, need to cut down on unhealthy foods...............etc etc
* for me, it was the cholesterol level (despite the fact that i had inheritation to blame)
* huby needs to further his blood test on liver.
"other than that, all seemed not too bad" touch wood touch wood
Our consultation finished about 1pm & we left. Followed huby to deliver something to his customer in Shah Alam. Half way thru our journey, this man of mine said:
H: eh, in front there ahh, got one shop sell "kari mee" very very famous one........the curry very thick wan !!!
Me: oh, yes ahh.........so nice meh? but we just had our lunch only wor!!! actually deep inside me, i felt so bad to reject him........it was as if i'm splashing a cold pail of water down his face!! So, i further added, like that ahh, we share one bowl loh, how?
H: ok we share, very nice wan !!!
This was what we ate right after our so-called medical health screenings
**
Happy 62 B'day dady & gong-gong
Some of the kids are attending to themselves but definately not my boys who constantly needed to be reminded to open his mouth, spoon fed, chew on his food, swallow slowly & so on........... boy oh boy, when only will you become 'big' boy ????
The evening ended with the most awaited sessionby the kids, that is the birthday song singing & cake cutting ceremony !! What's more happy for the elderly folks than to have a bunch of grandchildren to sing them "the song" of the year heh ????
Finally, Happy B'day "lou tau".............."san thai kin hong" / with good health !!
ENOUGH for the boys..........
Notice only mumy was not having anything..........sigh sigh sigh !!!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
What's up with the weekend?
The twins seen marching into the mall with both their hands in the pockets.....gosh i thot it was such a 'lan si/gaya' look leh, just wonder where they imitated the style!!
Twins were too busy to wave bye-bye to dady bcoz they were busy attending to their "dynasaur toys"! Not long after, yi-yi arrived..... and we quickly got their breakfast finished bcoz the list of things-to-do was long ahead !!
Next was a mission to fill-up mumy & yi-yi stomachs..........We headed to 'The Garden'....... the new wing of the shopping mall! We intended to try the shanghai food (Din Tai Fung or somethg) but sorry, no fate lor......we were still too early! So in the end, we ate the Japanese food at the super premium food court !! It was fresh, oil-free yet sumptuous!! The boys tried & loved the eel rolls too!!
Then we got our ex-changed done & proceeded to Megakids.......and "booked" a party event! Yeah yeah....for the twins upcoming b'day! I didn't want any mess with party at home, didn't want to stress ourselves out & bla bla bla.......so ended up leave it the party expert. Most importantly, i think the b'day kids should be enjoying themselves MOST. So, i think at 5, it will be quite ideal to have the party at a play centre. To avoid all the social works attending to the guests (mostly would be adults), this time we only invited the kids' cousins but the number doesn't make up to the minimum headcount required (12) so few of the friends' kids were invited too!! But we definitely have to keep the number minimum due to cost factor......i'm not sure but i find the price was really pricey lor!!
Half way thru our discussion with the organizer, dady finished with his appmt & took over the baby sitting role i.e. accompanying the kids into the playground at Megakids!
The twins went craze over the place. They definitely had over enjoyed themselves & needed very much to be controlled & cooled down at times. When it was time to leave....boy......they needed to be dragged out of the place. Next, we got to rush to Concorde Hotel for the 1pm lunch appointment.
We were called to participate in the food tasting session for my sis's upcoming wedding dinner. We heard a lot of claims about how lousy & aweful hotel food was but I tell you, "food tasting" is always excellent!
There was only some 'mild' comments given on the required improvements......all the dishes 'passed' EXCEPT the following.................
*
*
*
*
First of all, it was suppose to be the menu card.....where the bride's & groom's names were listed on the card too. And for those who didn't catch the 'mistakes', please see the bride's name again........ it's Jaclyn Lai indicating ME, ME, ME & ME ahh...........i'm getting marry again ???? OH BOY......it was hillarious man !!! We all went laughing hysterically over it!! Why the mistake?? Because my sis kept asking the hotel to send invitation card design & such to my e-mail address instead of hers........and so lar !!!
Anyway.........talking about food tasting for wedding dinner held in hotel particularly, i kind of pity the industry for the 'norm/culture' whatever u call it. It clearly depict another "kiasu" side of the Malaysian's face!! You tell me, what will the host do if they eventually found out that the entire dinner meals suck?? Usually food tasting was only given upon confirmation of booking i.e. where deposit was paid. Will they cancel the dinner reservation?? I doubt so coz by then it would be too late furthermore with $$$ paid. Yes, they could ask the hotel to improve but how would that be guaranteed on the actual dinner day?? By then no one would care.....maybe only the 'ang pow' would be more of concern!! So, it was just another 'FREE makan' session that the malaysian has created & so the hotel got to attend to this request in order to survive the industry, u agree?
Anyhow, we were surprised to be asked to fill up the comment form as a matter of fact!
The food was excellent & everyone was happy. It was nearly 4pm when we reached home.
Guess what, i think you may not believe it. That night itself, we had a wedding dinner to attend. And the most coincidence fact was that the dinner was actually held at the same hotel, same chinese restaurant where we had our food tasting earlier during lunch!! ...........................hehehe, u say creepy or not, eerie or not???
It was yet another marriage of the FOO family......cousin family of my father in law. PIL didn't make it this time & so huby being the eldest son was there to represent! Since angpow was already paid, we just attend only.
Actually, i kind of both love & hate this type of event: LOVE due to good food, nice ambience, pretty 'leng lui' in elegant evening gowns....why not? HATE bcoz we were there as representatives so meaning we do not know both the groom & bride as well as their parents. Thank god we still have uncle andrew (father in law's brother) to guide us around.....ahh, this is so & so's son, daughter-in-law & repeat again again while we just nodded & nodded our head with 'fake' smiles!!
We didn't finished our dinner bcoz Scot was already fast asleep when only the 6th dish was served. See how tired he was........
Whatever it is, we ended our Saturday very fruitfully !!