Feb 29

This year is a leap year, and today is the additional day we have in February.

Happy birthday whose birthdays fall on this day. I do think it's very special if you are born on the 29th Feb. Anyone?

Things seem to be not very flourishing lately. Dh not getting his salary increment he's expecting and plans not working out as we wished for. Sien.

So, we did something drastic to break away for awhile; we just dropped everything we were working on and went to watch a movie!

Now for the movie review. Heard of "Before the Devil Knows you are Dead"? I didn't, right before I was searching gsc.com.my for showtimes. There were a couple of selections, all of which I haven't heard of, names of stars I have ever come across, and I was lost as to which movie I should go for.

Only then I found out even wikipedia has a summary of plot, production, crew and global review of movies.

Critical reception

The film received very positive reviews from critics. As of January 18, 2008 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 135 reviews.^[5] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 84 out of 100, based on 36 reviews.^[6]

Well, that would be quite a fair indication of what movie we should look out for, right? Instead of just relying on individual's review, for one man's meat might be another man's poison and it's just not the same cup of tea for all.

As such, "Before the Devil Knows you're Dead" it was and I came out from the cinema, gloomier than before I went in.

Well, not that the movie is not good at all. The story is ironically very "real".

A couple worked from rags to, well comfortable retirement, had 2 sons and 1 daughter in the years together, kids grown up, left them independent to make their own living, retired to enjoy life comfortably. Sons struggling to survive in the dog eat dog world and ended up being some rotten apples and in the end, landed in trouble.

I think the father killed his own son at the end not for the sake of seeking revenge for his wife, but rather to end his (son's) punishment from the law. Hence, the title of the movie, which comes from an Irish saying (info taken from wikipedia) "May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead".

Well, what left me gloomy was that, I kinda, relate being in the shoes of the old couple, as I have 2 sons and 1 daughter myself, and we are working so hard now to raise them up and have a better life. I told that to dh, and he replied "Choiiiiii"

Pessimistally speaking, even though we love children, but we do think that if we can't provide for them comfortably, why should they be brought to this world to struggle for survival?

Anyway, no turning back the clock now, the 3 of them are already here, and I just hope they would be good, if not doing great, when they grow up. Catch the show if you can, and tell me what you think about it.

Eating out

Had been quite some time since we ate out on a weekend.

Sometimes, it's kinda frustrating to eat out, as we would be yelling and reminding the children the same thing over and over again, for example: "Sit down", "Don't shout", "Stop fighting", "Stop playing with that"

Or it'll be the case when the food is served, and one of them demanded to be taken to the loo.

Worse, after out from the loo, another one wants to go then.

Or worst, they want to poo instead of pee only... *shake head*

So, that's the downsides of having little children with us when we go dining. Not relaxing or enjoyable, to say the least.

Then again, we still would yearn to take them out after a long while. Else, what's the point having children when they are "caged" up in the house all the time, right? It's nice to have some family time outside and be pampered with some different cuisine, apart from having home-cooked food all day.

So, last weekend, we went out to eat la-mien "pulling mee". I was ready to capture pictures of our food when served.




Siao-long-pau came, and before I remembered to snap some pictures, it was all gone.

Shucks! I got to work harder when next dish is served.

And before I knew it again, the food came, we attacked them like a bunch of hooligans and it was all gobbled up before I remembered about my camera. Guess I never can make any good food review. Furthermore, I'm not very particular about food so much, as long as I have good company more importantly.

Things are certainly looking better now as the children are bigger, more controllable, and eating on their own. Only problem is they are eating larger portion now and we have to dig more cash out from our pockets to pay the bills. Sigh! Can't be everything good only, right?

Tag: Awards

Wow! I'm so honored. There's a series of awards passed to me by her.

But it wasn't the awards which amazed me. It's these words..

" ... of Joy of a Homemaker for sharing her adventures as a loving wife and the wonderful mother to her children"

Hear that? See that? LOVING WIFE AND WONDERFUL MOTHER!!!

Well, yeah, that's because she hardly knows me.. hehe..

Still? At least I portrayed as a loving wife and wonderful mother anyway! :P

Well, seriously, I think I do deserve that *cough* *cough*. Then again, the friends I know, be them in person or from the internet, are even more of a loving wife and a wonderful mother than I am, yes they are. So, to all the loving wives and wonderful mothers I know (yeah, you), I like to share these honor with you.

And thanks, Yozoranitesky for thinking of me.

Bathroom playroom

Last night while I was bathing with my little daughter, she asked me why I have hair on my "pet-pet". Only much later, I realized she meant the pubic hair and I just can't stop laughing..

It had became a norm from the day we became parents to take our showers or baths together with our babies, but since the eldest became older, he has been taking his own baths.

But bathing with children is really fun, it strengthen the bond, it's playtime with splashes of water and soap. I think I would miss these times when they grow big and demands to leave them alone while they bathe.

I should be in...

I'm so bored that when I hopped over to visit my friend, Dawn, I curious to know which city I belong to..

You Belong in Rome

You're a big city soul with a small town heart Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome Strolling down picture perfect streets, cappuccino in hand And gorgeous Italian people - could life get any better?

What City Do You Belong In?

I'm packing my things and migrating to Rome. Wait for me, thy romeo!

How you can lose your voice

When reasons and explanations with children become exhaustive, it's fun to divert a bit from the facts.

Like today's conversation I had with my eldest son.

His voice became hoarse last night, symptoms of an imminent sore throat and trouble broiling again. (Damn the hot weather!)

He asked me why his voice became like that, I said he must have lost his voice. "How did it get lost?" I said, "you must have dropped it somewhere, exactly how you like to drop your MC, school badge and what else. So careless of you, now you dropped your voice as well!"

"Huh?" Scratching his head, he queried further "How did I drop it?"

"You must have shouted too much la... Told you not to shout so much, that must have caused the voice to fell down!" *grin*

He gave a confused look and began to ponder deeply.....

Hehe.. so mean of me, huh?

Children books these days

We really should be taking the children to the bookstores more often.

Books these days are so colorful and interesting that the kids would keep demanding to bring them home.

If not for the RM80 vouchers we received from MPH last year, we wouldn't have bought these books home for them. This "Deep Blue Sea" alone costs RM54.50. We tried to tell Son #2 to pick another one, but he was too attracted to the pop-ups. Who wouldn't? I myself love it too.

Apart from the pop-ups and colorful pictures, there are very informative descriptions of the animals we have in the deep blue sea.

Like, the playful dolphins, long armed octopus, sharks, stripey angels, floating jellyfish, and the colorful world of corals.
They have pull-outs from the side of each pages telling about the respective animals fact file, like it's food, babies, enemies, where they live, length, weight, number of heights and life span.

I only learned about the 3 different zones in the deep blue sea classification as sunlit, twilight and midnight.
Guess we are the ones to benefit too from the children's books, surely brings out the child in us admiring the pictures silly.


Series of this: Amazing Bugs, On safari and Dinosaurs... Hello, MPH? When are you giving free vouchers again?

Frontal sinusitis

This is what I am having for this post-CNY.



The areas as depicted in the picture are inflamed, and it is causing a throbbing pain to my head like hell.

What I can do now is to take the antibiotics and pain killer and pray that this would go away real soon, but bad news I gather from the internet, this might take up to 3 weeks! My goodness, I don't want to be going through this hell for 3 damn weeks!

Pray for me, everyone, please. Thanks.

Out goes the old clothes

I finally find time to throw away the old clothes which had been jamming up my wardrobe. Those are stuffs which I never wear anymore, be it old-fashioned, or worn out or plainly no "mutual likings" between us. It's hard to convince my dh that I have no clothes to wear when my wardrobe doesn't tell the same story, right?

It's kinda difficult to pick which one I should take out for I'm one person who's rather "sentimental", yeah, even with clothes. But, I managed to put my sentimental values aside and let the brain rules for once.

Gosh, there was really one big pile of clothes, if you ask. It's good too, that I freed up the hangers to use it elsewhere for my maid was complaining there wasn't enough hangers to use as well.

Instead of really throwing it all away, I haven't got the "courage" enough to do just that yet, what I did was, I brought in the old luggage from the store room to tuck these old clothes in. Why I am still keeping clothes which I am not wearing anymore, I really have no idea. Some of the excuses I give myself...

1. Maybe the fashion would come back in trend again, and my daughter might just loves it.
2. I might have the free time to do some patchwork for my children one fine day.
3. Who knows, maybe I might need them to refresh my memory when I lost it (my memory) one day.
and couple of silly reasons enough to convince myself not to throw them away yet.

So, I took the luggage out, my 2nd boy saw me and asked where I am going. I said to him I am leaving, flying off to somewhere far away and not coming back anymore. *grin*

He immediately said "No, I don't want" and hugged me really tightly, as if I really would vanish into thin air. Poor thing, mommy giving him all the jitters. And what fun I was having then! Hehe.. Children! That's what they give to parents.

Valentine's Day, before and after.

Happy Valentine's Day to all the lovey dovey newly celebrating this wonderful-day-of-love couples. Here's a card for you.

I think it was a MRT card (from Singapore) some years back. At that time when everyone was looking for some pretty cards to give to their lovers, we thought it was special to send a MRT card instead.

The gift from my man.

...on our 1st Valentine's Day, Feb 14, 1995.

I am still keeping the antique. No wonder chinese has this saying "Old don't go, new never come", because I have not got anything else from him since then. He wanted to buy me flowers too, but everyone knows how darn pricey is for flowers on this very day every year. In the end, he didn't, and I wasn't angry at all, in fact, I was just plain contented that he, at least, thought about that. Plain stupidity, say you?

I remembered we went to this "Ship" restaurant at Batu Ferringhi in Penang, and had to wait for about an hour to take our seat even though he had made bookings earlier. The atmosphere was very un-romantic though. He paid for a lobster meal and I suppose that was to impress me.

Later that night, we walked on the darkened beach, and went back to his home for more, err..., loving moments. Took those pictures like Edison and Gill, what's the big deal....

The following years, we just give cards to each other and write some touching words inside..




This one from me to him...


For this year, he hurriedly left for work in the morning, as he normally does, and I didn't receive any calls from him whole day, right until I was in the music class with my 2nd boy. When I came home, he said "oh yeah, hoh, today's Valentine's Day, happy Valentine's Day, lou-poh".

That's it? Yeah, I'm afraid so, this the story of the before and after, the cruel and horrid story of all romantic tales. Oh well, I think there would be some extraordinary ones in this world. Come to think of it, I didn't do my expression of love very well at my part too. So, can't complain.

Anyway, most importantly, we have each other to hug to sleep at nights. I think when we are feeling contented, we could feel love, and we do not need any extravagant gifts or dinners to proof how much love there is in the air.

So, still, Happy Valentine's Day, my dear hubby. And also, to all the men I loved before.
(At least, this year, I'm doing something special for him, that is expressing my Valentine's message to him in my blog)

Chinese New Year celebrations 2008

What a hot hot spell we had for the new year celebs. As usual.

We didn't drive home in the middle of the night as planned, but the journey on PLUS was very smooth on cny eve's morning. Departed only at 8am and reached kampung slightly after 10 already. Very stress-free, apart from the yelling and howling in the car, that is.

We took the day slowly and relaxingly, even had time to bring the 2 youngest to ISC for swimming. After the reunion dinner, it was the usual mahjong session until almost midnight.

On the 1st GXFC day, we had to make 5 stops before settling down back at my parents' home to spend some quality time with my grown-up nephews and niece. It was really awful, weaving in and out of the hot burning sun during the day.


Blackjack, anyone?

My son's bettings even "keng", go by few thousands and involve properties and land!

The yearly "open house" party at my inlaws' in conjunction with my dad-in-law's birthday on 1st day of CNY. This year, we observe a "marked" improvement in the choice and presentation of food. They got a food caterer in for the first time, in my 10 years of "service", instead of the usual satay, fried beehoon and fried chicken. Those 3 items were still in the food served list, maybe it's the crowd-pulling factor, huh?

The 2nd day, I got to have breakfast with my family. Here's my youngest nephew, such a big boy now.

These drink of "cham-suet" is my favorite and a "must-have" when I'm back in Ipoh. Very addictive.
Treasured the little amount of time I get to spend with my nephews and niece, not only during CNY, but throughout the whole year as well. I used to be quite close to them when they were babies and toddlers.



We went for vegetarian, courtesy of our Han "ku-mah". Joshua fell ill from the 2nd of GXFC right up until now. So, basically, our days were restricted to home most of the time, as had to look after him. As such, it was mahjong and blackjack sessions all the way, almost, if not all.

I managed to meet up with my high school friends, the yearly gathering at Patrick's house. It's like a routine I so get used to, that without it, I felt the new year was so incomplete. The usual people we see like Wei Seong, Wai Leng, Vincent and his wife, Choo Hean, Hui Ling were there.

The absentee would be Kean Meng, who was in JB with his inlaws for the first time. And of course, Kok Lan, who hardly came back for CNY now. Really missed them.

For the first time in years, we saw Thiam Seong too, the one person whose occupation is "out of the ordinary". It was funny how they can't recognize him and he, in turn, can't make out who's who as well. So much has changed for all of us in these 20 years, older, wiser, cunning-er, what else there are.

We wanted to return home to the big city on Sunday night, but heard over the media everywhere that traffic jam is truly bad. I decided to visit my friend, Mun Yee in Kampar instead, and by far, I thought it was the best time I had for the whole of the CNY period.

We had dinner in the open air, without the hordes of crowd we see in Ipoh, so leisurely and comfortably. The children warmed up to each other within the time of a lightning speed and they were playing, running around, catching each other nearby.

After dinner, we went to buy some pop crackers, and the mini spinning fireworks. Went to her place and I shall say, it seemed like the children enjoyed themselves the most from the first day we went home. I shall try to do that again next year.

Well, that's about all and dh fell sick when we reached home, sigh, I have to attend to 2 sick persons here while I am about on the verge of falling ill myself too. Hopefully not.

Once again, Kong Hee Fatt Choy and happy back-to-work now!

Shabu Shabu experience for the children

Hey guys! Check this out A Free Meal For Bloggers!

I'm blogging about it here now to claim my free voucher, so like it or not, here I go...

This kind of personal steamboat, they call "shabu shabu" is not anything new to us, as we had "saw that, been there" kind of thing in Taipei years ago.

In Taipei, it was more of a set meal with loads of green veggie tugged in, with little or no food which we especially loved.

This shabu-shabu restaurant, called "Shabu Mix", opened its doors to customers just early of the year goes by "eat all you can, eat all you want" at just RM22 per customer, half price for my eldest son, and FOC for the 2 younger ones.

What's interesting (at least to the kids!) is the conveyor belt running across, conveying food in covered plates, making it so easy for us to just take our own favorite food as we liked it to.


The kids just had fun selecting whatever they love to eat from the conveyor belt and cooking their own stuffs in their own hotpots.

I myself love the specially homemade sauce the shop boasts about, as it's very close to the taste of my hometown food. I think the cook must hailed from there!

Furthermore, there are the fresh and raw seafood, P.Ketam fishballs, fish noodle and fishrolls which are *slurp* yummy. You got to check it out yourself to know it.

So, guys, go when you are free (and when the promotion lasts!!), we all go together with the free vouchers, yeah?

The link has their outlet information like address, location map, operation hours etc., so, you know where it is. Anyway, if you are lazy to see through the pages, come and ask me, I'll be pleased to be of help.

(P/s: Shabu Mix, there you go...please give me my free voucher now!)

Over the Rainbow

I was digging for "Renaldo Lapuz" on Youtube, after reading about him in "The Sun" paper the other day. Why was I digging for it, I hear you ask? Well, nothing particular, maybe just to check it out or to have a good laugh, as the article says he's more brilliant than William Hung.

Later, I saw this "Britain's Got Talent", the little 6 year old Connie Talbot singing amazingly beautifully, or is this already old news? Just check it out, if you haven't know, for I just can't have enough hearing it over and over again.

Another year older

It's one year older for my little darling. We had a tiramisu cake and went to Pizza Hut for dinner the night before, as his papa needed to go on a business trip on his birthday. Had a simple yet great time with everyone around. Pizza is granny's listed favorite too.

He went to school early on his birthday, and look what he got from one of his friend as birthday present....

So heart-wrenching.

I received a call from his teacher at about 11 and she told me about the little accident which gave him those 2 scratches on his forehead. No words can describe how I felt at that time, mommies would surely understand perfectly how it felt like, don't ya?

Asked if he had fought or asked for that himself, but the teacher said no, the guilty child was just too naughty and violent, while she explained to me in detail how it happened.

I wanted so much to do something back for my child, to admonish the naughty child that it's not the right thing to do or just something... but, there's really nothing much I can do, is there?

I mean, he's also a little child, and accidents do happen, just so unfortunately it's my child who was the victim that day. Well, lucky the wound is not very deep and it won't leave any scar on his face, else, I really wanted to....

Sigh.. I guess I can't do anything much though. What would you do if you were in my shoes? But anyway, when I relate this story to a friend, she felt the parent should at the very least, initiate to find my number and call to apologize to me. I thought about it, and I think it's true. The fact that the parents seemed not to bother to do just that, or offer any "compensations" at all made me feel like they didn't care, not their child who's hurt anyway, and the more "geram" I feel for the pain that my child had to endure. Well, guess I have to let go and "forgive and forget".

Happened on his birthday some more! Brand brand new year some more! Cilaka!

Later, to make myself and him happier, I went to buy ANOTHER birthday present for him.

OK la.. it's more to make myself happier. I ALWAYS wanted a dollhouse like this since young. Playing dolls used to be my favorite pastime when I was a little girl. At that time, it was only paper dolls, and paper clothes I designed and cut for the dolls. And now, right in my house, I have a doll house finally. And the children loves it too. Isn't that just so lovely?