Another 50 mins .....

Another 50 minutes to reach year 2010. With kids tagging along, no new year party, no celebration, can't join the crowd for count down and I missed the year whereby hubby and I watched fireworks at KLCC many many years back.

However, we did enjoyed our count down at home all this while simply because we still able to watch fireworks from our condo together with our kids. Isn't it greats!

So where are you now and how do you celebrate tonight?

Wish you and your family a wonderful and a blessed new year 2010........ :)

Bedtime Story Telling

We used to have story telling before Audrey goes to bed when she was 2 yo but nowadays this has not being carried out as frequent as last time. Audrey did complain about our laziness. So sorry my gal. With Shannen tagging along now, we gave up sometimes. She just can't be patience for a complete story telling session even I already speed up when I sensed that her concentration was low. She will then start disturbing by grabbing story book from our hand, not letting us to continue. Audrey will shout loudly towards her behaviour.

Of course once a while, we did tell story to both of them but I don't allow Audrey to pause my story telling when she got something to add on. I will only let her speak out after I've finished my task. But usually I will ended my story with "ok, the end. Time to sleep. Good night". Ha ha.... she got no chance to talk, sorry to be rude as mummy has pile of works waiting me out there.



When I'm not in the mood for story telling, we will have a role play then. Asking Audrey to do the story telling and of course her only audience will be Shannen. At the beginning you can hear Audrey was telling the story from page to page. After few pages, a loud shout will be heard from the bedroom "stop, che che not yet finish the story", next "mummy, meh meh take my book and don't allow me to continue"...... Ai yo, when only you (Shannen) will appreciate the story telling by che che, my little 'bulat'?

The Bells Are Jingle-Jangling .....

My best wishes to all of you.

Have a Blessed Christmas & Happy Holidays!
A song from me to you

Jingle Bell.............

X'mas Party

I nearly got a heart attack when Audrey told me that her school is organizing X'mas party on the night before the party. "No present, how?" I asked her. She told me to wrap anything available outside (the bedroom). "Cannot, gal", then she asked me to stop at any shop to buy present on my way home tomorrow. Finally I sneak off after lunch to Tesco to buy a present and wrapped it in my office.

In the evening, it was heavy rain out there when I picked them from baby sitter. She insisted of going to the party as I told her we might cancel the plan if the rain never stop. Just to tease her.

See how happy was my gal to mingle around her friends. Mei Mei joined them too.

Singing x'mas songs in group.

She was so happy to get a gift. Can't wait to open it and see what's inside.

It's story books, how nice! But......

We noticed the story books were old with folder mark on the edge. Worst is one of the book was being tore off (my head shaking while looking at it). Obviously Audrey has received some used story book as her x'mas present that she was looking forward the whole night. Audrey asked me why the spoilt book was given as her x'mas present?

I'm speechless.... beside having this *#%$&* feeling, from my heart I have something to say to the parents out there who prepared this gift. Hey, please be more considerate and sincere in preparing x'mas gift to the kids as we didn't ask for something expensive, 2 new pencils will keep my gal happy the whole night ........

However Audrey still want me to read her that story books before going to bed. I made a promise to her that I'll buy her new story book in our next shopping.

Happy Tong Zhi

I would like to wish all my friends, blog readers and families member, Happy Tong Zhi.

Like all previous year, I never made any tong yuan dough but will get some ready made dough either from market or from my all time supplier, my mum.

This year I make it even more simple by buying those ready made tong yuan packet from Carrefour. 10 pcs per packet, I bought 2 packets. One with peanut filling and the other with black sesame (my favorite). I don't like tong yuan that are without filling however plain tong yuan dip with crush peanut is acceptable for me.

Mum used to tell me that we must eat the tong yuan according to our age. Wow.... then I got to buy 7 packets to be shared by hubby and myself, another packet for Audrey and Shannen. Huh.... can't imagine if my stomach was full of 30++ tong yuan inside, worst case the size of tong yuan is as big as those fish ball.... :P

Exhausted Weeks Gone...

Finally our exhausted weeks have ended yesterday. Shannen was down with cough 2 months ago then runny nose and high fever last 2 weeks. I was so much worried that the fever might be caused by lungs infection. Luckily it was not.

She was so much cranky and crying so often for just a little thing. Both of us surrendered and kept on reminding each other to be patience as we almost smack her due to her unbearable demand. We have few sleepless night as she was crying middle of the night for no reason..... tension!

Feeding her medicine was another nightmare and challenge for us. How I wish in the near future, with human intelligence and technologies, oral medicine can be transformed into vapor form of medicine especially medicine meant for toddler. Just inhale the medicine for few seconds will be good enough like having 3 x 3.5ml of liquid medicine. No headache, no yelling, no screaming, no crying, I think both mummy and sick baby need this new invention.

Right after the high fever gone, her body was full with red rashes now. At first I thought it was an allergic reaction due to antibiotic but doctor confirmed its kind of virus infection named Measles. And the funny part was he told me the measles was 'fake' type, in Chinese we called it 假麻疹. Since the virus has to run its full course thus no oral medication will be given. However he gave us some liquid medicine to apply on her body to soothe her itchiness. Poor gal, she has been suffering a lot.

She still gave full cooperation for photo taking.

Hopefully we can have a blessed Christmas and New Year celebrations after all this.

A Visit To Choc Factory - Beryl's

Audrey had got the chance to pay a visit to a famous chocolate factory, Beryl's located at Sri Kembangan last week. It was actually part of her holidays programme activities. When I knew that, I was so envy as I like 'factory visit' very much. I like to see and get to know how a product is being produced.


So I asked her teacher whether I could join them and finally we were there acting like small kids, happily enjoyed the factory tour. The factory tour only took about half an hour. We were guided by a staff explaining the whole choc making process while walking through a walk way of the production section. We could see their process through a big window from each section.




From right : some of the old packing materials being kept nicely inside the cupboard. Stamping process, to make those coin choc.





From right: Packing section. Finishing section, label and ribbon wrapping before packing into small box. I saw one of the staff was performing quality check on the packaging materials as well as the packing method.


After the factory tour, we went to their choc shop. Here is where all the kids lost their control after seeing their all time favorite snack stacking in front of them. They were pretty lucky as their parents already passed some money to teacher in order for them to buy some choc back from factory. So all of them were so excited and busy hunting around.


To make my gal happy too, I let her choose what she likes but restricted to only one pcs. She has chosen a blueberry choc bar and after I get my tiramisu choc (part of the purpose of visiting this time....he he), we went out to shot some photos.


This coco statue's hole was too high for Audrey to show her face. So mummy got to bend down, held and pushed her buttock up...... ha ha!

Tjg Sepat - Morib - Jenjarom

We drove another 40 mins to Morib from Tjg. Sepat. Hubby asked me, “What is so special about Morib and what can we do over there?” “Em….. Catch baby crab, I think” with eyes rolling thinking what else can we do. We stopped there for almost half an hour only. Shannen was sleeping half way in our drive, so I just brought Audrey down to have some sightseeing while hubby stayed back in the car. After snapped few photos, we walked back to the car with a :( sign on my face. Hubby showed me his victory smile as he did told me it’s “nothing” in Morib and refused to drop by at first. But I told him since we were closed to the place already, why not just pay a visit.

Hubby bought a beautiful kite for Audrey. He was shocked when I told him I have never play kite before :P.

Hubby told me a joke when he came back into the car. After he explanined to Audrey on how to fly a kite, he told Audrey to hold the string/thread holder and stood opposite him and when he counted to 3, she must start running. Probably hubby didn't explain in full detail, guess how my little gal react after she heard her dad counted to 3? She threw the string holder on the floor and run away as fast as she could...... waa ha ha, can you imagine the scene? When I was laughing inside the car, Audrey's face turned red.

We moved on to our next stop, Dong Chan Shi (Buddhist Temple) at Jenjarom after that. I’ve been hoping all this while to visit this famous temple but again hubby said it’s quite far to just visit there from KL…..huh! So this time, I’ll never let go this golden opportunity to go there on our way back to KL.

The place is big. We spent about an hour there. I was told the temple looks gorgeous at night time with tang lung (lantern) & lighting decoration during Chinese New Year. So dear, are we coming again at that time?

Half Day Trip - Tanjung Sepat

We went to Tanjung Sepat last 2 weeks. Hubby had appointment with friend for a short meeting. So we planned a day trip there. I’ve visited there once but never have chance to taste their local food as well as sightseeing. I was down with diarrhea at that time, so do nothing but searching high and low for their clinic…. :(

I told husband we must make it a fruitful trip this round. First, must go to the recommended restaurant (by most blogger out there) for lunch then seek his friend's advice for places to go around there. After 1 ½ hour of drive, we reached Tjg Sepat and after meeting up with his friend, we headed to the restaurant that many used to go, Ocen Restaurant. Foods were not bad. I wish to highlight one of their signature dish - fried oyster, which is slightly different from ours in town, not the cooking style but the main ingredient "oyster". Their oysters are small, I think its like baby oysters and you could see they put a lot in the serving. Unlike those selling here, no doubt the oyster is big but the amount of oyster they put just within 5 fingers of counting. Flour + egg become the main ingredient in most of the stall in town ….. :P. Sorry for not showing picture as I was too shy to shoot any in front of them.

After filling up our stomach, we went for a walk to the jetty next to it. It’s half cement and half wooden jetty. The weather on that day was extremely fine, no hot sun but windy. It was just perfect day for any outing.

Later on, we went to mushroom farm which is just 5 minutes drive from Ocen Restaurant (recommended by hubby's friend). This is the place where you could see how the mushroom being planted. As usual, there is a shop in it selling all kind of product made by mushroom.

They also provide homestay to those outstation tourist.

From right : All kind of mushroom on the poster. Planting until harvesting process.



From right : Black jelly fungus and Lingzhi mushroom.

Form right : Oyster mushroom (pink) & Monkey head mushroom (like monkey head meh?)

From right : Oyster mushroom (grey & white type)

Of course we will not leave the place with empty hand. Bought some oyster mushroom (RM10 for 3 pack) + dried mushroom tidbits.

Then, we moved on to another attraction, Morib.

What is this fruit? Anyone?

Any idea what is the name of the above fruit? It looks like a mangosteen but brown in color. The rind is hard, need to use knife to open it. Size wise is slightly smaller than mangosteen. The flesh tastes something like longan but not that sweet, a little sour. Any idea? This was given by a colleague and I didn't get the name correctly.

Luk Mei Tong Shui

I cooked this last Sunday. Zero preparation as you just need to dump in all the ingredient into slow cooker with the water and turn on the switch. Then you and your family could enjoy it after 4 to 5 hours.

We took it as our dessert after dinner. But hubby complaining my tong shui (water) was too less as compare to the filing containing dried longan, pak hap, lin ci, nut, jelly mushroom and this black stuff (unknown name, refer photo below). Ok ok ok, will balance up the portion in the next cook.

This 'magic nut' is something that I was trying to explained to the shopkeeper the other day. Luckily the shop was not many customer so they could entertain me well. They only get what I mean after 15 mins of explanation using all sort of language, words and examples. I remember seeing this inside the luk mei tong shui but not all the time I got this. Sorry, I can't recall the name of this so I called it magic nut. This nut looks so hard but when you soak it with water for few minutes, the outer layer starts to turn soft and its become like the black soft jelly. Amazing right? It's tasteless so I don't understand why people putting this into luk mei tong shui..... :P

My little "Ai Ku Pao"

Shannen was acting so cranky nowadays. She will simply throw her tantrum whenever she like, most of the time she will use it as 'weapon' to get things reach her without any negotiation. Both of us feel so headache and even her che che was complaining that she is too much!

We have to think of way to distract her from crying as we need to rescue our ears from torturing by her! Her cries was loud and could last for hours.

I think this piece of orange color shirt need to be kept away as I noticed both set of the crying photos that taken in difference date, Shannen was wearing the same shirt....... coincident?

Look at her ugly crying faces. She was so concentrate in crying. Her tears coming out like those water dripping from tap.