Color me bad

Dragon fruit is always my lil gal's favorite and don't know why most of the time my mom can only get the cheap and yet sweet dragon fruit with red flesh (the inner part I mean) from the morning market. I don't really like red flesh as it always leave my hand stained with the maroon purplish color. Even when you go to the toilet on the very next day, you'll see your "output" (big or small lah) with the same color! But dragon fruit really helps to combat constipation. If Smellybutt doesn't poop, she'll get dragon fruit buffet =)

See, this is the result of self servicing. When she was just about to finish her portion, left a few more small pieces of the fruit in her plate, aaaah.... mula lah drama dia. This time round, she rubbed her mouth with a piece of the fruit and obediently posed to my camera some more! When come to this kind of silly stunt, it is always her pleasure and honor to fulfill my wish!

I took my own sweet time to snap these photos. Then suddenly the stain problem strike my head! I was so worried that the big patch of maroon purplish stain on her face would stay there, irremovable. Muka comot how? Luckily and amazingly that the stain on her face was so easy to clean off, except her hands. Strange lah...I wonder why.

The faces of DraculaQing.....

She knows our full name

Smellybutt really has good memory power. Well, I guess that most of the children at this age are just like a sponge, absorb every single thing that they see or hear from people around them.

As of now, my 29th month old lil girl knows the full name of my family and my in laws too. Here's the listing.

My parents
My brother & sister
Myself
HubB
Herself - of course! :P

MIL & FIL
Bro in law + wife + daughter
1st SIL + husband + daughter
2nd SIL + husband
MIL's youngest sister

She's awesome!! My in laws are very surprise with her ability to say out each of our full name correctly and fluently. Oh, sometimes she tricks us by mixing up the names purposely. She giggles each time doing so =)

Pumpkin seed is very nutritious

and cheap! Pumpkin seed contains these:

• high in pottasium
• vitamin B, C, D, E, K
• beta carotene
• calcium
• good source of zinc
• unsaturated fatty acids (good fat)

Click here and here to read more about this tiny mighty seed.

My mom loves to munch on something while watching tv or reading newspaper. So pumpkin seed is 1 of her favorite. Whatever my mom eats, Smellybutt would definitely wants her share too!

The snow-white shell is not too hard but very VERY salty (don't worry, the seed itself is not salty) So we have to remove the salty shell for lil kepohchi (with high speed!) coz she will ask for it non-stop, "zhung oi...zhung oi...". To eat it is very fast, but to remove the shell for her takes time leh. Gotto handle each of the pumpkin seed with TLC!!

Kepohchi being kepohchi lah...she wanted to follow us, using our teeth to break open the shell. Sekali bite on it, she immediately 'bluuueekkk'. Hehehe...want some more or not?

Mini taukeh soh

I'm so happy to have bought, or rather rebut this set of kitchen (brand is Lil Chef) from a blogshop seller. Yes! It's a 2nd hand item and is selling like hot cake! I've missed out a few time, not fast enough to rebut it with other buyers. Hahahaha. Who would have thought of such thing is so laku leh. Though 2nd hand, it is still in good condition. Only the top rack color has faded a bit (it's red and memang red color can fade easily). In total, I've paid RM120 inclusive of shipping fee. Those new set from Mothercare or Toy's R Us will cost me a bomb - RM350 to RM450/set without accessories!! Seller used KTM service as shipment method. I've never heard before leh.

It has these features:

• build in oven
• build in cabinet (the other side of the kitchen)
• stove - both gas stove and induction cooker style! don't play play :P
• a sink with water tap (Smellybutt's top favorite!)

I first saw this kind of kitchen set from Teacher Nel's school. It is so cute and the first time Smellybutt saw it, she was very in love with it as well. I have informed my parents about this item, so they need to keep an eye on the postman. I told them that once the parcel has arrived, try not to open it first as I will assemble it when I'm back home. But I didn't know that it came without a box. The seller just wrapped the whole set with cling wrap O_O Like that also can....geng!

So...when I reached home, the bottom part of the kitchen already been unwrapped. Smellybutt was so eager to play with it, so excited with it!

Here's the happy taukeh soh, with her kitchen.

DunDun bought this mini teapot for her from the morning market quite some time ago. It is very cute actually, and now it matches the kitchen so well. We can't touch it, otherwise there will be a stern warning from taukeh soh, "Don't Touch!!".

Almost every night she will "hoi dong", start her business with our orderings - Popo wanted a cup of Latte, DunDun wanted a cup of kopi-o and a cup of barley ice for myself. But most of the time, we never get our drinks. Because half way doing it, all of the sudden she'll ask us to brush teeth, gargle and then wash our hands in the sink!!! Her favorite activity is wash hand and play the water tap. Wherever we go for our meal, her eyes will wonder around looking for a sink and water tap. When she found it, she will demand us to carry her to the sink and wash her hand. But when we wanted her to wash her hand after playing with her stuff, she refused. Pengsan or not....

See, she looks so dedicated to her job!

It came with a few pieces of masak masak tools only. So majority of the cooking tools are her own collection. There are so many other types of accessories for the kitchen set. Once I saw a big box from Toys' R Us which contained lots of mini plastic canned food, juice bottles, oyster sauce lah, etc etc. Not cheap you know, that 40 over pieces of accessories costs about RM50++ if not mistaken.

No regret of buying this kitchen set for her. It is nice and fun to interact with her this way. She gets to learn and enhance her fine motor skill, vocab and politeness whereas we get entertainment from her :P

Once she gets bored with this kitchen and really 100% ditch it aside, I can sell it out again =)

Mama Patch 1st Anniversary

It’s Mama Patch 1st Anniversary!
Check out their finest handmade at http://www.mamapatch.com
Join as a FAN at http://www.facebook.com/mamapatch

My heartiest congrats to Mama Patch!!

Time flies....Mama Patch is already 1 year old! I want to win 1 piece of her exclusive Pastel Silk Baby Ring Sling!! Oh btw, Chinnee has asked me whether My MiniB Shoppe is turning 1yr old too in March? Tssk..tssk..tssk..sendiri also lupa! Yeah, I've started it almost the same time with her too. Let's see what shall I do for MiniB Shoppe's 1st year anniversary.

I tell you, Chinnee's ring sling is very nice as I've tried wearing Smellybutt with it during a talk/demo at FabulousMom shop in Puchong last year. Talking about ring sling....I've bought a pair of nice ring from her and till now (daughter already 29mth old!!) I have yet to make a ring sling for Smellybutt. Lousy...lousy...No time lah (my ever green excuse). I hope I can win 1 so that I can use it for my New Zealand (NZ) trip in May 2010. Smellybutt is 10kg now (see, she inherits my extremely outstanding metabolism power) and although she's small size for her age, but to carry her for more than 20mins seems to be a torture for us, especially when we travel. So I need a carrier for our NZ trip! We all want to be back home sweet home in 1 piece!! I mean we don't want to break our own hands/back bone lah (touch wood!).

Sheeps, we'll meet you soon!

I wanted to write about this on Monday, but unfortunately something 'greater' took place =(

Ok...I'll put that ' something greater' aside first, don't want to think about it anymore. Shall move on and look forward to my trip visiting the sheeps! I've wrote about my coming-soon-holiday-plans 2 weeks ago. Can guess which trip is for real ka? Check out the below picture.

MYR 10,606 is the total amount for 4 of us (sista, mom, Smellybutt and myself) for a flight to..........................

New Zealand! Very glad that we have booked the tickets and it is our committed trip now. MAS had great offer for their air tickets during the recent MATTA Fair, but if we do online booking the price would be even cheaper too! Our pockets hole was so much smaller. Haha. Each of us paid a fair amount of RM2,600 inclusive airport tax for a direct flight from KL to Auckland. 2 months ago, the fair for each person was RM4K not inclusive of airport tax. Siow ar!!

This will be a 16 days trip to NZ, a totally free and easy trip. We'll rent a car, maybe a Camry and will drive all the way to the south. Since only 4 of us are travelling, a caravan will be a waste as it is a 7 seater vehicle. Estimated cost for renting a Camry would be RM1k for a total of 15 days usage. Will stop at a few places and overnight in the apartment. We can either have a 1 room or 2 rooms apartment at a reasonable price, fully furnished and we can cook for ourselves too. We need to cook, as we can't afford to have great feast 3x a day.

We are scheduled to take off on 21st May and back to KL on 6th June. The average temperature from March to May (Autumn season) is between 10 - 24 degree celcius. That's for day time Ok. Night time will be super freezing cold. Shiveringgg.....Their summer time (around December) is the best as the temperature is around 20 - 25 degree celcius, the max. But that period of time would be the most expensive time to visit NZ. Kachinggg!!!

Since the weather is cold, I need to start searching for some nice and comfy winter clothes for lil Smellybutt. As of now, I already reserved a piece of winter jacket for her, from My Mini B Shoppe. I love this piece of Gorgeous Red jacket!

And also a set of this, to cover her mini head, ears and tiny neck! She's having the orange color set. It has a 3D lady bird attached on the hat and scarf. Very cute!

I need to pump her more with Shuanghor Lingzhi and Bee Pollen, as I want her health to be on tip top condition when we travel. Actually kinda worry of her too, coz the weather in NZ is really cold in the month of May. Hope everything will be fine.

Just another maniac Monday - theft at home!

1 after another....sigh....the year of 2010 is indeed not a very good year for metal monkey, ME. Last month 22nd February, Monday my car got hit by Uncle Botak. Yesterday (also Monday!) some Chinese guy in early 30's and a lady broken into my house at around 9am+. Can you believe it ka, broad day light leh! Here's the synopsis of my Second From Disaster episode.

• neighbour heard some noise came from my car porch. sounded like somebody trying to open the door for quite some time + hammering the padlock noise.
• aunty peeped from her porch and saw a guy and a lady next to my house (an empty house for very long time) busy with something. I assumed that by the time she went out to check out the situation, the guy who hammered the padlock already entered my house.
• then later the lady pressing my door bell repeatedly. A very tall guy stood at the wooden door and "welcomed" her in, by opening the auto gate for her.
• aunty realized that something was not right. Lights were all on. she even saw the face of that tall guy. then when looked inside my house, cabinets all opened.
• soon after that, the tall guy came out with the lady holding a black hand carry bag and they sped off in a white Wira.
• estimated time spent in my house (by those morons) was less than 20min.

-THE END-

Aunty immediately called my HubB when she saw them leaving my house with all doors opened. Unfortunately, HubB was in Melaka (he has actually left the house at 4.30am) so he called me to inform me the same. It was 10.30am when I received HubB's call. I rushed back home to check out the condition. Upon reaching my house, I called my neighbour (aunty's son) to accompany me into my house.

The moment I stepped into my house, my first feeling was.....guess what?? I think maybe I've watched too much of horror movies lah. I had goosebumps! LOL! Coz I saw those drawers and cabinet's doors were all wide opened. That scene reminded me of a horror movie Six Sense, starring Bruce William. Hahahahaha.

Ok back to the story. There were supposed to have 2 padlock on my grill. 1 small on the outer, another bigger 1 on the other side of the grill. Only found the small padlock near the window and the bigger 1 went missing. Here's the damage on the wooden door.

They korek the lock and the whole thing came out.

They messed up my downstairs room (also our computer room) and also my master bedroom. The other 2 rooms plus kitchen were untouched. All the locked drawers were (easily) damaged by them.

So what did they take away from my house? Some jeweleries, a few pieces only. Also took my thumb drive cum mini player (Creative brand, a very small device, it was a lucky door gift from my office's annual dinner). Itu sahaja. All important documents were still intact. We were quite puzzled as to why they didn't grab HubB's DSLR Cannon O_o. It was kept in a special cabinet (to provide the right humidity level for the camera to avoid it from any "fungus infection"). Anyway, HubB didn't lock that special cabinet. They took it out and left it there. Pelik....pelik.... Maybe he wasn't a camera fan, or maybe he felt that it would be difficult for him to resell it. Hard to resell means no cash. No cash means no fun. No fun means waste of time =) My assumption lah.

After my story-telling session to HubB over the phone, I went out for lunch. Had my favourite pan-mee to cool down and normalize my mind :P HubB can only reached KL at around 2pm+ He told me that I may go back to the office if I wanted to. I told him "it's Ok, I can go to Carrefour for a walk first". Muahahahaha. No lah, I didn't. But I went online instead :P

I really salute them lah, acted a bit infront of my neighbour so that other people might think that they are the house owner's relative or friends. True enough, in the beginning my neighbor also thought that they were my relatives. Drama betul.

HubB and I were quite paranoid with this incident. But we really thank God that none of us were in the house during the break-in. Else, we can't imagine what other things might take place. Slash us with knife or parang?? Raping??? +_+ Scary!! And due to all this, HubB said I must accompany Smellybutt for her field trip on this Friday. Otherwise, cannot go without me. We really do not wish to have anything else happen on any of us again, especially Smellybutt.

HubB will get someone to affix an alarm system for our house this weekend. Although we might be getting our key for the new house next month, HubB said we still can remove that alarm system and transfer it to our new house later.

Let's pray for a better day, and a safer environment for all of us. Dear thieves and burglars, go find a better LEGAL job lah, before God finds you.

Field trip to the Lake Garden

Got this notice from Teacher Nel, which was attached in Smellybutt's report card. Sounds interesting isn't it?

I've tried to imagine her travelling with all her class/school mates and teachers with lots of fun there. Ok they might have the greatest fun, but for the teachers....hmmm...sure have some fun cum headache moment lah. No meh? See, they are offering this trip for student age ranging from 3 to 7 years old. It should be a big crowd a.k.a. rombongan cik kiah =)

I have just enrolled my lil gal for this school holiday trip. Teacher Nel told me that parents/guardian may follow as well, with some nominal fees lah. At first, I was kinda worried of Smellybutt to join this trip. Worried whether she will be missing out there (touch wood!), worried of her donating blood to the hungry lil flying draculas. Worried so much because this will be her very first outing without me or Popo. But on second thought, if I were to join her as well, I foresee her being mischievous and that would defeat the whole purpose. Nah, better not joining them la. If I go along, might as well I get HubB to bring us there lah. And to prevent the blood donation drive, I will arm her with mosquito repellent spray.

My prediction, which I believe will be 99.99% true:

• she will stick to me all time
• doesn't allow me to talk to other kids
• doesn't want to play with her classmates
• not following teacher's instruction

I want her to mix around with more kids (and therefore catch more virus from them!! no thanks), participate in group activity in different environment, learn to share with others (currently she's Ms Kedekut no. 1) and help each other too. You know ar, at home she is constantly telling me 'don't want to let TT do coloring, don't want to let MM play this, don't want to let Thung Thung play that...bla bla bla". At this age (2yr+), children tends to keep everything for themselves and the idea of sharing is just against their rule. This is what I read from Baby Centre the other day. Very true lah.

I really hope that she will enjoy her self to the max, eat all she can, play all she can and feed the deers kao kao. Help me to maximize the fees which I've paid, Ok? And come back tell me how you all (the lil devils) tortured the teachers! Muahahahaha.

I need to remind Teacher Nel to take more pictures for that outing. Erm....if can, just add a few extra clicks for Smellybutt, will ya? Kawan kawan punya pasal lah ni.

Here's the latest feedback from Teacher Nel, pertaining to Smellybutt's performance in the class.

No wonder lah....lately I do noticed her that half way doing coloring, she will make some dot dot dot (semi violently!) on the book. So, rupa rupanya she has mastered the skill to trace dotted lines. Well done lil fella.

Due to her condition now, at least not sniffing but still cough a bit occasionally, she still get to have some water play today. Already gave Teacher Nel a green light lah. As long as the water level in the plastic pool is low (perhaps up to the bontot), it is fine for her. Splash! Splash!

Not all vaporub suits infants and toddler

Just to share with you the info which my mom found from a children's health forum. I believe many of us have tried using Vicks Vaporub to relief cold symptom, by rubbing some of it on our chest. I did that before when I was in primary school. But do you know that such vaporub is dangerous to infant and toddler if you never use it correctly? Vicks Vaporub also contains a not-too-friendly-herb call camphor, which can be found in moth ball. Camphor is very dangerous for infant/toddler's brain . Even pregnant woman should also stay away from moth ball, as it will also affect the fetus/baby's brain development. You may want to read this and this on how Vicks Vaporub affect children if wrongly used.

Last Sunday when Smellybutt had flu and cough attack, we wanted to apply some vaporub on her chest and sole, just to ease her from blocking nose. But we dare not use any other vaporub balm found over-the-counter. I remembered that I saw an organic based balm from The Baby Loft @ Desa Park City. So I told my mom to get 1 from that shop when she goes to the morning market. But my mom saw another baby shop there and went straight to that shop. She bought this instead.

Badger, an aromatic balm which is organic based and is suitable for infant/toddler. Price wise, quite expensive (RM32.90). But never mind lah, at least it's safe for my child. So mommies please be careful with the balm you use to clear your lil one's stuffy nose.

Self reporting to her Pediatrician

Last Sunday, Smellybutt was down with flu and cough accompanied by phlegm again = ( Don't know why the attack seemed to be so frequent recently. She had just recovered from the stubborn phlegm 2 weeks ago, and now it's back.

On Monday at 6am, she had mild fever measuring at 37.5 degree celsius. I gave her the fever medicine and the fever subsided an hour later. At about 10am, my mom and I brought her to see Dr Tan, her Pediatrician. While waiting for her turn, I suggested to her to greet Dr Tan good morning! She nodded and demo to me with her chirpy voice. Then I told her "later why not you go and tell Dr Tan what's wrong with you. Ok?". Again she nodded happily.

Just before her name was called by the nurse, I saw some Bandaraya officers busy issuing summon outside the clinic. OMG! My car!! Yeah, I parked my car illegally at the yellow line. All other people did the same coz the parking space was very very limited there. I hurried out and quickly drive away. Finally I have to park my car near Teacher Nel's kindy and then walked all the way back to the clinic. It was just a 3min walk lah. When I went back into the clinic, both my mom and Smellybutt were not at the waiting hall anymore. Must have gone into the room already lah. I quickly went inside and joined them. As I was trying to tell the Doc about Smellybutt's condition, Dr Tan said to me while laughing "it's Ok, I knew it already. She has told me everything just now". Hahahaha. This was what had happened, which I've missed out!! How sad.

As soon as the nurse called out Smellybutt's name, my mom brought her to the room. The moment my mom opened the door, Smellybutt ran towards Dr Tan and greeted him "Good morning Doc!!". Dr Tan also terkejut, and greeted back to her too. Smellybutt immediately reporting to the Doc about her condition.

"ngo khat ar" - I cough ar

"ngo lau bei thai ar" - My hingus coming out ar

"ngo yao tham ar" - I have phlegm ar

Then my mom touched her forehead, and she added "ngo fat siew ar" - I have fever ar

Kakakakakakka!!! I bet she must be very cheeky while telling all these to the Doc!! Even Dr Tan also laughed and commented to her "hehe, you so cute lah. can tell me all these also".

Waaaa...I am so proud of her. She even opened her mouth very big when the Doc wanted to examine her throat. She breathed in and out heavily as per instruction, while Doc examining her lung and chest via the stethoscope. She has indeed become very friendly with Dr Tan. The last 2 round of visit to Dr Tan wasn't a pleasant 1 coz she cried even before we stepped into the clinic O_o That was 2mth ago. Now I'm truly happy with her communication skill, with the Doc!

The nurse explained to me about the prescribed medicine for Smellybutt, and she told me that the flu medicine could cause drowsiness, hence Smellybutt will be sleepy after taken it. I told her that the previous round of flu medicine doesn't seemed to effect her at all. She was still as active as before after taken it. This round, Doc has changed to another type for both flu and phlegm (coz I told him that the previous phlegm ubat tarak jalan lah!).

Smellybutt was on 'medical leave' for 3 days. Today she is back to the pre school. Her cough and flu subsided a lot faster as compared to the previous round of attack. Phlegm also not as much as before. Yay!!!

Subconjunctival hemorrhage

or commonly known as red eye. Yesterday night, I reached my mom's house at about 9pm+ and the moment I stepped into the house, my dad showed me his blood shot eye! I tell'ya, his left eye was soo soo SO RED. I was panic a bit and asked him what had happened to him? He told me that he doesn't feel any pain, eye sight was still normal, no itchiness, no dryness. Just red! He only noticed it at about 9am yesterday. In the afternoon, when he wanted to have his lunch, he went to a Pharmacy and seek advice from the Pharmacist! I mau pengsan liao when he told me so. Red eye and yet still can ignore it and went to a Pharmacist instead? *slapped forehead*. Anyway, the Pharmacist asked him whether he had any high blood pressure problem or not? Yeah, my dad is suffering from high BP, and on medication. So the Pharmacist told him that it could be due to his high BP. He just prescribed my dad with a small bottle of eye drop. No, not Eye Mo. A special type of eye drop which has disinfection function.

A moment later, my sister reached home and I told her the same story. She will accompany my dad to The Tun Hussein Onn National Eye Hospital (THONEH) for check up. Actually, my dad went there before early last year, as he complaint that his eye sight was not too clear. After the check up at THONEH, the eye specialist explained to us that his retina has shrunk, due to old age. His retina is getting more 'fragile' hence it was not as smooth as before. His retina berkedut already. If given a straight line for him to see, he would tell us that the line was crocked a bit, not straight. Coz his retina also crocked liao.

My sister and I Google about red eye and we found this website. That was where we found the term subconjunctival hemorrhage, which described my dad's eye condition. I am a bit relieved after reading about red eye from that website. At least I know that his red eye condition will subside within 1 week time and it doesn't affect his eye condition at all. I hope.

They should have reached THONEH by now. Hopefully they don't have to wait too long for their turn as that hospital is always full of people, just like at the immigration office.

Passport photo 'expired' already

My mom's passport validity period is expiring this March 2010 so she will renew it this Saturday. Saw an article in the newspaper saying that lately the immigration office is jam pack with people. Must be due to the up coming MATTA Fair lah, all rushing to renew/apply for passport to go makan angin. Then yesterday night my mom was asking me whether I need to change Smellybutt's passport photo to the latest 1. Hmm...good question. I had a friend telling me that need not do so as her daughter's passport is still with her own 6mth old baby photo, is still valid. Now her daughter is 2yro I guess. She brought her daughter to Singapore during CNY and it was alright wor.

BUT but but...my colleague just told me that she nearly got tahan by the Bandung, Jakarta custom officer coz her daughter's picture already outdated. The custom officer warned her to change her daughter's photo to the latest one. To do this, according to her it was FOC and only need to bring along 2pcs of new passport sized photo and fill in the form. I better change Smellybutt's passport photo lah, sekali sampai Taiwan kena tahan, pengsan liao.

So tomorrow we gotto reach the immigration office when the sky is still dark. Want to beat the traffic in the immigration office! But if I'm not mistaken, there's a special counter for warga emas and small children. But what if that special counter also penuh? Better be there as early as possible.

Jolly holiday on the way, I hope

MATTA Fair is coming soon, 12 - 14 March 2010 @ PWTC. Last year, we had our very first overseas trip (Guang Zhao, China) with Smellybutt, who was then 16mth old. So this year, HubB is planning for a 1 week trip to Taiwan, and if possible we shall visit Bali too. To add up the excitement, we (mom,sis,Smellybutt,myself) might be heading to New Zealand in May. Woohoo!!! So many holidays and yet so little money and annual leaves (total of 20 days of annual leave for this year) +_+

Our plan is like this:

• Taiwan - will take up full package from the tour agency. my in laws will be joining as well.
• Bali - should be full package also lah.
• New Zealand - free and easy! Which means we'll only buy air ticket and thereafter we loan a caravan and my sister will be the ultimate driver. my mom wants to harvest apple lah, grapes lah....so we will be staying in those ulu area where only greenery view surrounding us. haaaa...how peaceful is that!

Though it would (and better be!) nice to visit NZ, but the time spend in the airplane...duhh....more than 10 hours flight +_+ I have motion sickness problem, so with this long hour flight, I may need to pop another Novomin pill so that nothing will come out from my mouth throughout the journey, especially when turbulence strikes . I hate turbulence! On average, 1 Novomin pill effectiveness will last for about 6hour. I need to stock up my magic pill then, even for Taiwan and Bali trip too.

To tag along Smellybutt for each of the overseas trip is not a problem for us. She loves to travel and so far she has been very well behaved (touch wood!) during our trip to Guang Zhao and the latest was Sarawak back in Nov 2009. She has never threw a single tantrum while we were on the airplane, bus, van, car, taxi, ferry and train. See, just a single trip to Guang Zhao and she managed to be on board for all sorts of vehicle. She has never been cranky when it's time for her afternoon nap and also at night. She will always be in the high chair during each meal time even though she doesn't eat. Ok, will play with the food, spoon and chopsticks occasionally. That's fine, at least she's under control and not screaming her lung out to get down from the high chair and start wondering around. The only problem we had was during her milk time. For that past 2 trips, she has yet to attend her pre school thus less discipline. But now, she behaves better and would obediently finish up her 6oz of milk pretty fast, as compare to last time. But on weekdays attending her pre school, she's the champion lah, quietly gulp down 8.5oz of milk in less than 3min. I wish she could 'perform' the same when we travel with her next time.

Taiwan's weather in April is quite cooling, estimated temperature is 21-25 degree celsius. Oh dear, cooling means I have to pack more clothes. More clothes mean more kg. More kg means more bag. FYI, our luggage bags to Guang Zhao almost exceeded the weight limit even before we reach there!! Ya lah, have to bring thick clothing, have to bring so many Heinz jar food for Smellybutt. Not light leh those glass jar. I hope this round, if we really make it for the Taiwan trip, we'll pack lesser but better =)

So it's time to review our passport validity first before we do any holiday trip booking. Will blog about it separately.

More jigsaw puzzle

Lately Smellybutt seems to be so in love with jigsaw puzzle. Here's another new simple puzzle which I've bought from Jusco, only RM7.90. But this is too simple for her, as she can do it all by herself after we demo to her once.

Cheap though but it doesn't come with a base. So we just used a double sided tape to stick a small piece of paper at the back of it.

Yesterday, my mom saw some cute jigsaw puzzle from a shop which sells cheap stuff all made in China. Each of it only costs RM2!!! Smellybutt was with her at that time, and she was so happy to bring them back home. Each set consists of 20pcs. My mom has demo to her once, and reminded her to complete the side way first. Yesterday night, it was her turn to demo to me =) and she has managed to complete more than half of the jigsaw puzzle, thru trial and error. First attempt on this slightly larger scale, not bad at all :)

Oh btw, she said something really funny to me while she was playing with it. When she found the right piece which fitted the puzzle correctly, I said "Very good!!" and then she automatically said "ama jiak ku loot!!" (literally means mommy eats choc). LOL! I used to say this to my friends when I was younger. It was meant to tease people lah, something like padan muka awak. So, how come she knew that ayat power? It was my mom lah, she said that to her once or twice coz Smellybutt hurt herself when told her not to do the dangerous thing.

Really glad that she loves to play with jigsaw puzzle, as it is good for children. Here are some of the benefits:

• problem solving skill in young minds

• improves hand eye coordination, fine motor skills and attention

• creates self confident and self-motivated learners

Go get 1 or more for your children!

Have you tried 'kai dan wong'?

Here's a yummy dessert with this unique-but-a-bit-tasteless 'nut'. Is it a nut or what? I really don't know. In Cantonese it is call "Kai dan wong" (egg yolk). Grown from a tree, and guess who planted it? The same lui cha sifu from Ipoh =) The tree is pretty big and tall. Normally my MIL will cook this with fu jok barley. Delicious!!!

My mom already prepared a pot of barley (without fu jok) and while cooking it with low fire, we can start to remove the shell. This is how we did it. Not easy though as it has 3 layers in total. Firstly, after rinse the nuts with water (they are very clean actually coz they are from the tree) use a knife to cut on the shell. No need go round the nut, only half the nut will do. We just want to have some opening on the shell so that it'll be easier for us to peel it off later. Then boil the nuts with plain water for about 10-15min.

Clockwise from top : 1st layer, 2nd layer, and 3rd layer which is also the thickest. Sometimes I get to peel off all the 3 layers at 1 time. Need some skill here. Otherwise, just peel it layer by layer lah.

We have a big pot of these nut. Lil Kakak also didn't want to miss out this mega project. So she was seated on her high chair and happily peeling off the 1st and 2nd layer of the shell.

Once we were done with the nuts, boil them again together with the barley for another 15min....and ready to serve. The texture of this 'kai dan wong' is soft. And again, they are tasteless so we got to cook it with sweet dessert.

Barley kai dan wong

I am a big fan of Hor Por Lui Cha

Before I get to know Mr Pang a.k.a. HubB, I have never came across this type of Hakka delicacy, Hor Por Lui Cha. It's simple (to see :P), healthy, yummy and price wise, ok lah. Best for vegetarian too, if you omit the dried shrimps lah. My first attempt on this full of vege delicacy was back in year 2004. Yeah...during our pak thor time lah. He brought me to a 23hour food court, Pa Ya Thin in Taman Maluri, Cheras. Just like what people normally say, cuba sekali hendak lagi. Boy, it tastes so delicious! So how much does it cost? Tadaaaa....for a bowl of rice with at least 4 types of vege topping + some dried shrimp + some pickled vege teamed up with a small bowl of lui cha soup = RM5 kaaachiinngg!

Actually ar, to prepare this dish really eat your time (makan masa. haha) Lucky me as I managed to witness the preparation of it. One of my Ipoh mari relative who is very good in cooking, has decided to cook this for everyone on the 7th day of CNY - Yan Yat ("Human Day" geezz soli ya...too much of lousy direct translation here due to the lousy blogger).

So here it is....the making of Hor Por Lui Cha in Ipoh.

The most tedious job is to wash at least 6 types of vege and chop them into small pieces, then stir fry them separately. Also need to have dried shrimp, pickled vege and roasted ground nut.

My relative bought this special porcelain vase alike, specially made for preparing lui cha soup base ingredient. The right picture shows the gadget which she uses to pound the ingredients. It is actually a guava tree trunk. Why? Because as a result of pounding, there may be some residue/deposit left over in the pot. By using this guava tree trunk, any residue from it, will be edible! Safe to your tummy =)

Apart from using roasted ground nuts, there are some other green ingredients, for which I've no idea what do they call it +_+ but 1 thing for sure, peppermint leave is part of the ingredient. While pounding, she will occasionally add some chinese tea into the mixture too, so that the texture is not too thick. But it can't be too watery as well, because in the end, we will just take a few spoon of the greeny paste and mix with some hot water. Then it's ready to serve with the rice and assorted vege.

That's her, the sifu behind the scene :)

And the Hor Por Lui Cha buffet begins...........eat and eat and top up so many times until I couldn't sleep that nite. For once, I felt like being a cow too, coz whacked too much of vege at 1 time. Haha!

My first ever major HIT from botak

22nd Feb 2010 (chor 9), my bluest and darkest Monday ever (so far!). Putih putih involved in a road accident together with 2 other cars. Ggggrrrrrr!!!!!

Here's the playback of the Seconds from Disaster episode....

That morning, as usual I left my mom's house for work at about 6.30am. Just before I reach the T-junction road (Kepong main road), I saw 2 cars were in que on the right lane. Normally people will make a U-turn there so I thought just stop my car on the left lane instead, so that I don't have to wait as I would be the 1st car on that lane! (Ya right!! 1st car, can leave the place faster konon). Just as the main road traffic light turned red (please refer to the below picture while reading), it was supposed to be Myvi's turn, from the opposite road. Unfortunately, Alza was in extreme hurry to sign the attendance log book at HeavenHell Sdn Bhd, he beat the red light and................BANGGGGGG!!!!!! Alza hit Myvi super kao kao. I thought that was it, langgar, bangggg and habis cerita. BUT....Alza couldn't stop immediately after hitting Myvi. Alza must have tekan minyak habis habis lah wei, else the impact wouldn't be SO GREAT until Alza lost its control and then BANG MY CAR right in front of me =( It was so scary to see Alza heading towards me. I thought Alza managed to stop on time, but it didn't. My car kena pushed backward a bit and then followed by some crashing sound too. As Alza was heading towards me, in my heart I was saying "omg, the car is coming?? really coming towards me?? faster stopppp!!"Ok, Alza couldn't read my mind, so.....

Luckily there wasn't any motorcyclist in front of me. You know right, those motorcyclist just love to stop and wait in front of the cars at the traffic light. If there was 1 in front of my car, he/she will definitely be sandwiched between Alza and mine! Imagine the motocyclist kena kepit right in front of me with blood oozing out and splashing everywhere. Eewwww. Thank god it didn't happen. But now each time I stop my car at that junction, I still flash back that incident +_+

I got down and checked out my car. This is how my innocent car looked like on the spot. Ugly.....

Summary :

• Myvi was driven by a mother of 4 children together with her MIL.
  
• that MIL kept complaining of chest pain and one of the children was shaking and crying =(
  
• Alza was driven by an uncle botak, together with his wife and his son (in early 30's).
• NOBODY from Alza came out from their wrecked car for the first 30min after the accident!! How could that be??? too shocked and speechless?? I bet you are. BUT still, you don't even have the courtesy to find out whether the Myvi passengers and driver were Ok or not. I even saw uncle botak suddenly became the passenger! Why changed position with your son??
  
• Both Myvi and Alza's air bag popped out.
• Later in the morning, HubB came and accompanied me to the nearest police station to make our report. The police traffic officer told me that uncle botak already made the report, together with his son too. How impressively FAST they could be huh. Trying to give their own cerita to the police traffic dulu lah, said they didn't beat the red traffic light, just beat the yellow light wor. Cisssss. Anyhow, they kena scolded kao kao from the police traffic officer jugak. You think beating yellow light is legal and for that you all will escape from the charge is it?
• Luckily I don't have to write my own 'essay', as the police traffic officer did it for me. So all I did was to do proof reading prior signing on the report sheet.
• After completed the 'essay' part, final thing to do was to let the police traffic officer to take photo of my damaged car. I tell ya, while waiting for him to do that, I had the greatest black and white mosquito attack there. See the below picture....sekali pukul, can hit so many! So geli.
  

That's all about it. Now I'm waiting for my car to be repaired, need to wait 2 weeks leh. All the expenses will be under uncle botak's insurance claim. The mechanic has informed me that I can even loan a car and it'll be all under uncle botak's account too. Hehehehe. But I still have a spare car to drive, so no need to loan another car lah. Else can burn uncle botak's pocket until rentung :P

Moral of the story : DON'T beat the red traffic light and if possible, DON'T be the 1st in que at the traffic light too =)