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?