Ingots

Few weeks ago, Papa-M went to Fun & Cheer, the shop which sells China imported goods.

These caught his attention, hence he bought a few packs to decorate his office.

How I wish, instead of the normal WATER rain, Heaven God Emperor will rain us with GOLD INGOTs this coming Chinese New Year! Let's pray together ya ...

Presents

In fact, Papa-M did prepare a X'mas gift for me. Before I opened the present (it was in a paper bag, reccyle but usable), in my heart, I hope it was camera, and even dreamt that he may give me a big surprise. Unfortunately, when I lifted up the paper bag, it was so featherly light. My daydream shattered like a broken glass....PIANG... PIAang...piang....!

My 25th December 2011 Christmas gift from Papa-M...a very unimaginative one for me though

Before I could even wear the bedroom slippers on myself, the young lady in the house already buat harta sendiri !


Show us her happy face somemore

Anyway, the best present we gave to Bb-G was her bedset. The deliveryman sent over to our house on X'mas day itself.

When I ordered the bedset from the furniture shop, the picture I saw from the brochure has more pink than blue, and I even remember that the apple shape drawers on the shelves were in pink. But they turned up in blue... Hmmm...anyway, it does not matter, as long as Bb-G loves it.

Ang Moh Dinner in Winter Solstice

Since lately I am on diet and never take rice, I prepare simple food for dinner yesterday. Papa-M agreed, so I made salad and a pot of mushroom soup.

Instead of the usual tofu or egg, I used prawns instead. Boiled the prawns in ginger water, took out once they are cooked and put into a bowl of ice water. Once the prawns were drained, I added some white wine, sesame oil, a bit of mayo,a bit of lemon juice, salt, pepper, parsley and unriped papaya cubes. Mixed well and placed on top of the romaine lettuce. I also baked some chicken meat pie in the oven, to compliment with the prawn salad.


The second dish was a pot of cream mushroom soup. Since Bb-G and me love mushrooms, I purposely added lots of fresh shitake. Papa-M will only eat mushroom when they are cooked in cream soup.

Bb-G's signature sign - GOOD!

We had a few slices of orange and few seeds of durian for dinner too.

After that, I prepared tangyuen in sweetened ginger soup.

I saw this imported tangyuen in Jusco, was curious of the taste, so I bought a pack to try. The yellow rice dough was from pumpkin, and it was filled with peanut and coconut shreds. Errr...I don't really like it.

My forever love - the peanut tangyuan.

Papa-M & Bb-G

Mummy-J & Bb-G

Sidetrack - till to date, I lost 6 kgs in 5 weeks, Yay! another achievement! 2 weeks ago I went for a hair cut, changed to another hair style to usher the Dragon year.

By the way, this morning, when I was driving Bb-G to nanny's house, she grabbed my shirt and said this to me , "Mi...u X'mas tree ar..."
I was like HUH? Which part of me look like X'mas tree??? I wear a brown blouse with black pants, don't even have a single hint of green ler...

Recycle ?

Yesterday was Winter Solstice. I took a half day leave, purposely wanted to go home earlier to celebrate this festival. Thought of going out for a dinner, but since I was home quite early, I decided to make dinner for Papa-M, Bb-G and myself.
When I reached home, Papa-M was already in the house. And it was only 3.30pm. He was busily wrapping X'mas presents. But then...they are all for his staffs. I asked if I had a gift as well, but he said NO. He even asked me to help him with the wrapping, but I said NO too, I told him I want to cook and went to the kitchen. HAHAHA

ANyway, I was happy to know that he actually took his time to choose different types of presents to his staffs according to their needs. Wah, I never know that he is so thoughtful to know what the staffs may require. After I finished some chores in the kitchen, I did help him. I saw he used my shopping paper bags, newspaper, plastic bags as gift wrapper. I thought he purposely want to do something creative, but actually he didnt buy any gift wrappers!

The X'mas pressie

All these from shopping paper bag, the one in red was from parkson, and that was one of my favourite ler, Papa-M...

Papa-M used newspaper to wrap the gift as first layer, then used plastic bags as second layer. He even used those plastic bag with THANK YOU logo....

This one even worse, don't even bother to wrap at all! To make the white box not so dull, I helped him to tie a bow at the side.

Camera

Life without camera is so so so lifeless….. Although my phone can be used to capture photos, I still prefer to use a camera.

I lost my camera almost one month ago….And I still couldn’t figure out where and how did it go missing. Last month my Japanese suppliers came for meeting. So colgs and me brought them to have a dinner in MidValley. While we were waiting for them (they were resting in the hotel room before dinner), myself with another colleague had a brief window shopping at the Robinsons. We spotted a very expensive slippers, RM 999 per pair! Huuuyoh! Then we quickly requested the promoter to let us try on our feet. Well, the slippers was chained. Then, colg even suggested me to take a photo to show to our suppliers. And I did. When I reached home, I noticed my camera was no longer in my bag……Phoned to Robinsons, checked with the counter/customer service and they replied me with negative news.

RM 999 slippers !@#$%^&*()_)(*&^%$#@#$%^&*

Anyway, I am now scouting for a new camera. Canon will be my choice , but I just do not know which one to choose. My lost camera was given by Papa-M as wedding gift 4 years back. I had hinted him for a new camera, but he said NOOOOOOOOO ! If I want to have a new camera, I should buy it on my own. Hmmmmmm… can’t blame anybody or the slippers. I was too careless on that day.

Bonus bonus where are you…… I am waiting for you ….pls come as soon as possible …….. mummy-j can’t live without a camera……

Bed

Two weeks ago I had started to do some spring cleaning to welcome Chinese New Year 2012. I asked my weekend-maid to clean the whole house thoroughly. She was good, without much supervision and instructions, she helped me to wash my shower curtains, washed both my balconies, polished all my windows and glass panels and dust away the spider webs at some corners of the ceiling.

As for myself, I managed to wash all the curtains. Luckily during that weekend, the sun was strong , without rain. A total of 6 sets of curtains were dried in time before night fall (Because I do not have extras to replace).
When I took out the curtains in my bedroom, I realized it was very very very dusty. And gosh, Bb-G sleeps just next to the curtains. I quickly took out her baby cot, and pushed it to her playroom. Then I immediately wet wiped the windows. I just wonder where does the dust come from? I basically never open my room windows. When I was cleaning up, I told myself, how could I let Bb- G sleep in a dusty place. Hence, I made my decision to permanently put her baby cot in her playroom, and make it to her bedroom as well. Anyway, Papa-M told me before, we should start to train Bb-G to sleep alone on her own.

On her very first night, I told Bb-G that she would be sleeping in her room, papa & mummy slept in another room. She was fine. After we said good night to each other, I closed the bedroom door. After a very short while, she called me, I went in, she said she wanted water. I fed her. Then she slept. I walked out. Another few minutes, she called and asked for water again. And this repeated for few times. Hmmm…she just want my attention lar….
Next, she wanted to pee pulak, so I took her to the potty. Then, she wanted water again. I began to lose patient, I told her to sleep immediately. Then she cried, asking for milk instead! After milk, she slept the whole night through. The second day, it was better, she still asked for water, but I told her, NO WATER, SLEEP. And she slept.

Two weeks have passed, she has been sleeping on her own. Papa-M said he wanted to buy her a bedroom set, I disagreed at first, saying that the baby cot is still large enough to accommodate her. But then convinced by him, after we went to see the bedroom furniture last week. The shop employee showed us some brochures and indeed they are very attractive. End of the day, we confirmed to get her a bedset design quite similar like this.

I am looking forward the arrival of the bed now.....

Baby Wrap

Sometimes Bb-G still has this little imagination that she is a baby, I mean a SMALL baby. I can still remember I used to swaddle her since birth till 3 months old. She couldn’t sleep when she was not swaddled.

Even now at 2 years old, she will still request us to carry her in our arms like a baby. When she is playing with her blanket, she will ask me to wrap her up. But I can’t understand how come she knows babies must be wrapped? Where did she learn this from? Hmmmm…..

Anyway,the other day when she was playing with my sleeping long shirts on the bed, she wrapped herself, then told me to wrap her like a baby too, and pretended to sleep like a baby in my arms… Haiz.....baby oh baby...

Fat Fat Go Away, Come Again NOT EVEN Another Day

Since I am working hard to put off weight and make myself smaller, I control my food intake cautiously. Usually during the weekends I love to cook rice and dishes, but now, I prefer to prepare simpler meal.
Yesterday, I made myself tofu salad and baked salmon.


My tofu salad. Lot of greens and sprouts at the bottom of the salad bowl, then I put a box of cool soft tofu on top. Spread some wasabi and mayonnaise. Taste heavenly! And it was really fulfilling.


I like to eat salmon, and normally I will panfry. But this time, I am lazy to use the stove, so I just seasoned a slice of salmon with salt and pepper, and a little bit of milk. Baked it in the oven together with some fresh mushroom.
Could be due to the milk, the fish is not dry. It was juicy.

Papa-M had the same food too. But he prefers not to put mayo on his tofu salad. Ok, guess I have to get a bottle of extra virgin olive oil to make his salad dressing in the future.

Till to date, I lose total 4kgs in 2 weeks. Hmm, weird enough, last week I had extracted out 3kg in 7 days, but this week I can only drop 1kg.

Anyway, last week I went to meet a colg in a different floor . She told me that Health Food dept has a “canggih” machine to test our body, and the machine is just behind the room she sits. With permission, she let me had a test.
I was shocked to know that I had failed, passing mark is 70, I only got 67, and it is mostly due to my EXCESSIVE BODY FATS!!!

After the test, colg explained to me that, could be due to my lifestyle and my history of food intake, I had accumulated too much fat in the body. (well, I admit…I had been enjoying food for last one year…)

Nevertheless, she was very satisfied with my lean balance reading. 100% as reference, and I’ve got myself 97.7% (right arm), 95.8% (left arm), 98.8% (trunk), 91.3% (right leg) and 90.3% (left leg).

I have a balance body. (Yah, I think so, when I gained weight, my whole body will put on, if I lose weight, my whole body will lose too. (B'Cos I know for certain people, sometimes their upper body are small, but lower part are large or vice versa). But my muscle strength is weak, and I wonder why since I constantly carry my 10kg Bb-G.
In summary , I have to work out/exercise more to gain 2kg of muscles and burn 10.9kg of fats. Colg also suggested me to take fish oil as supplements.

Resolution

My year end resolution is to slim down and be healthier. I wish and hope to reduce at least 8 kg before CNY.
Soon after the 191111 TIGS gathering, I immediately started my weight loss plan. I consume NO rice/noodles and stop eating deep fried food. Basically I eat more veges, lean meat , fish and eggs. I break my food into very small portion at each meal but eat frequently when I feel hungry. Fruits come very handy at the time when I need. I prevent myself to starve, so that my brain will stop me from craving the food with high fats and calories..I prepare healthy soup in the morning and bring it to office for lunh.
For morning, I make myself either hard boil egg or scramble egg. I eat my egg with tomoto salad (sliced tomotoes and season with salt and pepper) At night, I settle my dinner with yogurt ,soy drink, or steam chicken & vege. Strictly and absolutely NO SUPPER.
Besides being cautious with my food, I do exercise at home. Although I do not ride on my skywalker cum bike everyday, I will make sure I do it during the weekends. With my favorite drama , I can exercise in front of the TV for about for quite some time without stop. Oh ya, I am glad Papa-M starts his exercise routine at home too. He can wake up earlier in the morning to exercise before going to the office, and he can also exercise at night after come back to work. Exactly like me, he does it in front of his TV show… A very BIG THANK YOU to the person who invented TELEVISION.
Next, I also visit my usual beauty centre as often as I can. My therapist will help me to do slimming massage. She uses her fingers to push ,knead and slap my entire body to break the stubborn fats. At certain part, I feel the pain, but tolerable.

As per todate, after a week of diet, I had actualy lose 3kgs. I am really looking forward to have a lighter weight and slimmer shape in 2 months time!

Pumpkin Beancurd

This is a dish I planned to cook for my friends for dinner during the Saturday gathering, however all of them were too full, so I did not.

I cooked this dish on Sunday night instead.

Cut pumpkin into small cubes, put into blender and add some water. Pureed.
Cut beancurd into desired sized. Pan fried.

In a wok, slightly fry garlic and shallot until fragrant, put in some mushroom and black fungus. Pour in the pumpkin puree. Add edequate water, salt, pepper to taste. Before switch off the fire, put in the beancurd. Easy to prepare, healthy to eat for Bb-G and the adults too.

Pink

Usually when Bb-G is at home, I always let her dress in comfortable home wear like sleeveless top and panty. But last Sunday late noon , it rained heavily and the temperature was slightly low. I quickly grabbed Bb-G's sweater and wore on her body immediately. Never did I realise that she has outgrown this pink flowery sweater. But she still looked cute in it.

Papa-M quickly snapped some photos, and the little cheeky girl quickly posed to her best styles

Hey, Kopi-O 2 cawan

Haiya, kasi 3 cawan lar

Ooi, I am Tai-Kor, you know or not?

Want to cari gaduh is it??

Haiya.... jangan takut saya lar...

Come, let us sing Old Mac donald had a farm, eei ya eei ya ooooo

Gathering 191111

I have never expected to hold a gathering with my ex TIGS schoolmates in my house. One day, SP from Singapore suddenly emailed to me and MNHL, telling us that she would be coming to KL for a wedding lunch, and had got sone time for a meet up.
Instead of us - the mothers, went all the way to KL to meet her with the kids, might as well we had a get together in my place. And I was most happily to provide them with my homecook food.

On Saturday morning, my biological clock woke me up at 7.15am. I intended to sleep for a little while, but I couldnt't. Maybe I was just too excited and looking forward to the gathering. Since I woke up so early, I quickly made the mihun kueh dough. This time, with some kids around , I specially made a healthier version of mihun kueh. I used organic flour

Organic oil

Organic mountain salt (I cook with this salt too, prefer mountain salt than sea salt)

Permium eggs

My mihun kueh dough.

Glad that all of them loved the mihun kueh so much.

SP reached my place earler than MNHL and SL. SP and me chit chat, played with Bb-G and also watched some bits and parts from Forensic 3. By 4 pm, both the mothers with their kids arrived. Besides mihun kueh, MNHL bought us some Seremban famous siewpao and Indian rojak, SL took over some jelly made by her mom. Before that Papa-M went out and tapao some assam laksa. We really had a FOOOOD GATHERING!
The kids had so much fun playing toys together. Initially YX was very shy, but after he warmed himself up with the two younger toddlers, he became very active. Needless to say, Bb-G and her "best friend forever" Lerler, clicked at once when they met each other! With the 3 kids around, my bouse was hit by a tsunami-toysssss-wave! Anyway, by end of the day, the kids did help to keep all the toys back to to the proper place.

After the teabreak, we let our tummies relax and destressed for a while before I made them steam salted herbal chicken drumsticks, rice and radish soup for dinner.
Since MNHL had to catch a train back to Seremban, our gathering ended before 8pm.

Some photos we took at home before we left the house to send MNHL to the station, and SP to the hotel.

One 5-yo and Two 2-yo


The adults with kids

Where Are You?

Last week I attended a seminar/workshop. The hotel which organized the workshop was quite near to Papa-M’s office, and thus we car pooled. He dropped me first before he went into his office. Before we left the house, I took my usual working shoes from my car and transferred them into Papa-M’s car. I was very very sure and certain, I took both shoes in a pair.

Before we reached the hotel lobby, I quickly took off my slippers and wore the working shoes. Suddenly I found that I only had one shoe, the other one was missing! I panic. I searched the whole car and I couldn’t find it. GOSH!!
Papa-M started to get annoyed and complained. He told me to get down with my STRIKING ORANGE slippers, then by lunch time, I could buy proper shoes since the hotel is next to few shopping malls. But I couldn’t do it, I was wearing dark grey suits, if my slippers were black and presentable, I would not mind, but my rubbery slippers was those “kiap” between 2 toes, and it was orange in colour, how could I walk into the hotel and seminar hall in such a state.

Papa-M then told me his story- few years back when he went to his school alumni where Dr Mahathir was there too, his pants zip was trapped and he couldn’t zip up during the entire function, and he just left it as it is.
He proofed to me that he could do it, so he said I should be thick skin enough to wear my orange slippers to the workshop. But then I told him, he was wearing a batik shirt which was long enough to cover his unzipped part, but my case was a woman who wore orange slippers with dark suits to a workshop! And both of us laughed in the car.

I became very anxious because no 1, Papa-M was having stomachache and he wanted to rush back to his office to pang-sai, and no 2, my workshop was going to start soon. I quickly called a colleague who joined me in the workshop to ask if she had any extra shoes in her car. I was very lucky, she always keeps her sandals in the car, but her size is smaller than mine, anyway, they were used for emergency so I just bear for a while.

During lunch time, I quickly grab my food and ate soonest possible. Since there was an extra one hour before the noon session began, I quickly went to the nearby mall and searched for shoes. You know what, before I managed to buy any shoes, I already shopped for some clothes, and I bought 5 pieces of blouses in Padini. And they only cost me RM 18.80 in TOTAL !!! Soooo cheap (the outlet was having 70 -80% sales, and some of the blouses were sold at 3 pcs for RM5 !!!)

Then, I walked around to search for shoes. I saw La Primavera was having sales too, and happened to get a pair which were quite ok for only RM59. Without thinking much and with the small sandals under my feet, I just grabbed and walked back to the hotel again.

In fact until now, I can’t figure out what happened to my missing working shoe. I actually liked them very much, they were comfortable and I wear them for almost 2 years. So now, I have to wear this new heels to work, but I began to realise they were too high for me.

Usually colgs and me walk to the food court during lunch, and we have to cross the main road by walking up the pedestrian bridge. My legs became very sore until yesterday I couldn’t tolerate any further, I bought a cheap sandals and keep them in the office.

I shall wear the sandals when I need to walk during lunch. As for the new heels, I shall just keep in the office to standby, eg, meeting up with overseas guests, going to meetings/discussion or walking a very short distance to other departments ...

Same

The other day when I was taking out my hair blower, I saw this ... Somebody put her striking pink colour hair blower next to mine.

When I want to comb my hair and took my comb from my dressing table, I saw this ...Somebody put her striking pink colour comb next to mine

When she takes her noon nap in the playroom, I saw this ...She sleeps on the pillow, hugging her bolster, her "jiejie" must sleep like her too.


Today, Bb-G at 2 years 2 months 2 weeks old understand what is the meaning of "SAME"