Final Post For The Year

How time flies! 2009 is zooming past us and very soon it is the time of the year again to celebrate as we usher in the New Year. Have you already decided where to go for countdown celebration tomorrow night? No matter where you go or even if you had planned to spend the last evening at home, I hope you will have a wonderful time with your family.

Before I end this post, I leave you with some of the photos taken during our trip to China last month.

Have a Happy New Year, everyone!!

Moments before boarding the plane. The 2 girls had fun running back and forth the travelator. I've lost count the number of times they went on the travelator.


The girls were seated together and I was just next to Jasmine. Sharlene was rather excited after boarding the plane. She kept turning to the back and chat with daddy who was sitting behind her. They even brought their old maid and donkey cards along and insisted that I play with them. We played a few rounds and stopped just before their dinner sets arrive. Sharlene didn't like the food, she only took the snack.


It was pretty chill during the first 2 nights. I’d to constantly remind Sharlene to zip up her coat and put on her gloves. This gal liked to remove her coat and kept saying she's not feeling cold.


The different night scenes in Guilin.


Mountains and river in Yangshuo.


My first time seeing a real panda. The one and only panda there. Ohh, she was really huge. Hmm, I didn't know that panda likes to munch on carrots too...


The gals with their new friend, Ivy. She is a year older than Jasmine.
3 of them were seen together most of the time.

Once again, wishing all of you a Happy and Prosperous 2010!!

We're Back

Hello everyone!! It has been almost a month since my last post here. Hope you guys have not forgotten about me and my little girl ;) Thanks to those of you who dropped by and left your comments while I was away.

Here's a short update on us...
=> After much thought, we finally decided to visit China together with sil and family, hubs’ aunty who’s 75 years old and her eldest daughter. We visited Nanning, Guilin and Yangshuo during the first week of school holidays (22 – 29 November 2009). The trip was so-so only, very hectic and tiring especially for young kids and the elderly, not much time for shopping and the food…. hmm, quite okay although it was a tad oily. We were served with almost the same food everyday...fed up or not, you say? Sharlene didn't consume much, she survived mainly on her milk! She was downed with fever on the 5th day and vomited twice. Once in the bus and the other time in a room whilst we were listening to someone yakking about certain product. Thank god, she was back to normal after 2 days.

=> The week after we came back, all of us (the 8 adults) fell ill with bouts of diarrhoea, vomiting and runny nose. Both hubs and I only had diarrhoea which lasted for a couple of days. The 3 kids were spared.

=> I started playing various FB games a few months back and it has becomes my addiction ever since. I’m sure to log on to FB to check on my farm, restaurant, café and fish tanks the moment I’m in front of the pc. This addiction of mine has left me with very little time to update my blog. As a result, I’m beginning to lose momentum in blogging. Nevertheless, I will still update my blog from time to time.

Next week, we will be going to Penang for a short holiday. This time around, my sis is coming with us. Sharlene can't wait to play by the beach and to wear her new bikini. Heheh, as for me...I simply can't wait to sink my teeth on the hawkers' food again. :)

She Wants To Look Pretty Now

Yes, she’s into this stage now and really likes to put on hairclips and hair band everyday, without fail :D She would stand in front of the mirror, comb her hair, put on her fanciful hair accessories which majority of it belong to her piao cheh and smile at her own creation after that. Her nanny said nowadays she would do this routine everyday before she goes to school! So vain hor?? But I think its okay lah...after all she’s a girl, right? ;P

At one time she disliked all these hair accessories and refused to let me put on for her but she's so different these days.

See, she even wants to look pretty in her pyjamas and right before her bedtime. *shake head*


A closer look at her creation. I will surely freak out if she wants to go out like this.

Side view

Experience with Water Colour

Sharlene had her first experience with water colour about 2 months ago. Bought her the necessary stuff i.e. a box of watercolour, an art block and a palette to get our project started. I found some old paint brushes at home, so she just used that to paint.

We have done quite a few paintings together for the past few weekends and here are some of them:


Straw painting, which was pretty easy for kids. Just get them to aim the straw at the paint and blow! However, Sharlene still needs my assistance from time to time and usually when she’s out of breath. Hmm...not that simple after all.


I gave her the idea and with my help she completed this under the sea theme. The little fishes were done via finger painting. But it doesn't look quite like fish though.


And here's her creation of an orange tree with some black birds on top of it.

Cooling Cucumber

Sharlene loves to eat fresh cucumber. Give her a plate of sliced cucumber, she would happily munch down all of them. But recently, she has found a new way of eating her cucumber. That is to add some salad dressing on top of it. Ever since she saw us dipping our vegetables on thousand island dressing, she has been requesting for this sauce to be added on her cucumber.

She's no longer interested in this plate of 'bland' sliced cucumber.


Now she likes it this way i.e. drizzle with lots and lots of thousand island dressing.


Enjoying her cooling cucumber

Our very own 'Little Red Riding Hood'

She still loves to play the role of Little Red Riding Hood from time to time. That’s why I am still keeping her jacket, which she can hardly squeeze in now. The jacket is meant for a 2-year old. So you can imagine how small it is for her to wear but this girl really like it so much. She thinks she looks really like Little Red Riding Hood after donning it :D


Whenever she wants to be ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ (usually after reading to her the story before bedtime), she would fish out her jacket from the cabinet, put it on and after that carry my bag and walk into the bathroom. At the same time, she would tell me to lie down on the bed and pretend to be her unwell grandmother whom she’s suppose to visit. She would start her play when I’m ready on the bed by walking out from the bathroom and then pretend feeding me with 'food' that she has in her bag.

I do enjoy the fun moments with her but sometimes she would go on and on with it until I have to say ENOUGH, LET’S GO TO BED NOW!! Kids, they just don’t get bored doing the same thing over and over again.

She Is 5

Sweetie, today is your 5 T H B I R T H D A Y ! !

Here’s wishing you happiness and good health always…

Daddy & mummy LOVE you very, very much!!

Lollipop Treat

Daddy came home one day and surprised her with a lollipop. It’s her favourite orange flavour Chupa Chups. Her attention was diverted to the lollipop straight away.

That’s how happy she looks when she’s given a sweet treat. Daddy surely knows how to pamper his little girl :D But I always remind him to do it sparingly...not very healthy to eat so much sweet stuff, right?

She was hooked on the TV in this ‘siew cheh’ position while sucking on her lollipop. She normally doesn’t sit like this. It’s only when I tell her to sit properly and to sit like a young lady, her legs will automatically cross over….haha.

And here’s what she’s supposed to do after her lollipop session.

My Helpful Girl

My little girl is very helpful at times. She will gladly do the things that we ask her to do. For example, to take something for us from the room or kitchen, to throw unused papers or wrappers into the waste paper basket, to switch on and off the TV, etc.

Of course, there are times when she’s not so co-operative. Sometimes, we have to repeat our requests many times and if this fails, we have to do it ourselves. Now I know...never get her to help when she’s in the midst of doing something, e.g. watching TV or playing toys. Chances of getting her to budge are very slim.

Sometime ago I taught her how to set the dining table. Now she can do the job very well. Whenever I ask her to help me to set the table, she will eagerly run to the kitchen drawer and slowly fish out the chopsticks and spoon. She will then take the cutlery to the dining table and arrange them neatly.

Here's my little helper, helping me to set the table for dinner.


She also helped to pour the soya sauce onto the sauce plate.

A Slice Of Cheese And Some Crackers

Sharlene loves cheese. One day while she was having her slice of cheese, I gave her a cookie cutter and some crackers. Ever since then she loves to take her cheese with crackers :)

Firstly, I showed her the way to use the cookie cutter. She was thrilled and wanted to play with the cutter straight away.

Needless to say, she did the rest of the work!

After that, she placed the cut cheese onto the crackers.

Yums! she loved it and even chomped down the odds and ends of the cheese.

Hari Raya Holidays (Part 2)

There is a slight delay in putting up Part 2 (the continuation of previous post) due to my computer problem. I’ve not been able to access to Internet since Monday. How frustrating! The problem was attributed to a faulty splitter and we finally got the connection back last night after changing a new splitter.

So now back to Part 2.

We proceeded to walk around the mall after our sumptuous lunch at Kinsahi Restaurant. We ended up at Jusco, as we didn’t want to miss out on the last day of sale on that day (2nd day of Raya) . My parents and I went separate ways to shop while Sharlene enjoyed herself at the game arcade inside the children department of Jusco. Got my sis to accompany her and that allows me to shop freely…heheh. Grabbed a few stuff (blouses for myself, socks, pajamas and some cute flowery panties for Sharlene). She is obsessed with dress type of pajamas lately so I got her 2 and 1 for her piao cheh.

Sharlene was halfway doing her sand art when I went over to look for them. Ah Yee helped by peeling off stickers and suggesting what colours to put.



Then she wanted to try her hands on basketball. Daddy carried her up and she happily threw the ball a few rounds until she got tired.


She went to this machine later and dunno what she did?....she spoilt the handle *shake head*
Here she’s trying to fix it back.



We left the mall and drove over to a nearby hypermarket, as my mum needs to get some fruits for juicing. During our stay there, my mum made everyone a glass of fresh fruit juice every morning.

We had dinner before we headed home. We were exhausted after a day out but this girl of mine is definitely not feeling weary at all. She was playing and eating the whole night!

Look! She was having a whale of a time with Ah Yee who was watching TV at the same time. Guess Ah Yee wasn't having fun at all with Sharlene disturbing her, climbing and rolling on top of her :D


Next, she played with koong koong’s rocking chair.


Then she ran to the kitchen (my aunt was cutting fruits) and she got herself a slice of pineapple. Her first time trying this fruit and she liked it. Probably, it was sweet. She wanted another slice but I said no...heheh. Offered her papaya but she refused.

She chose bananas instead, one of her all-time favourite! See how she enjoyed her fruit.


Aunty Jane (my mum’s younger sister) and her younger daughter came by later. As usual, she bought some toys for Sharlene, one of which is hula-hoop. While I chat with aunty, she had fun with her new toy.


The whole family went out again the next day, this time to 2 shopping malls. Shopping and eating again…haha. Well, what else to do in JB besides heading to the malls! Oh, we went hunting for ice-kacang and rojak too! Found one recommended by my sis but unfortunately the shop was closed. We then went to another one. We ordered so many items there until we were so stuffed. But we still went out for dinner later :D

After a good lunch prepared by my aunt the next day, we loaded our stuff into the car and said bye-bye to everyone.

As usual, our car boot was stuffed to the brim

In the car she fooled around with my shawl. She asked me to decorate her head with the shawl and here’s what I did. How’s that? She’s satisfied and gave me a big smile. Oh, I so love her smile!! :D


We truly enjoyed our stay and look forward to the next trip, hopefully before the end of this year.

Hari Raya Holidays (Part 1)

The week long holidays for us are coming to an end soon. Sharlene will be back to school and I will be back to work again next Monday. I think after this festival holiday, we won’t be having such a lengthy break again this year. So, where we went this time around? Hmmm, no where in particular, just took this opportunity to visit my parents again :)

We travelled back to my hometown last Sunday, leaving the house as early as 6.45am. Driving from KL to JB was a breeze...guess we made the right choice by travelling on the first day of Hari Raya. Sharlene slept through almost the entire journey there. I did wake her up earlier but she dozed off to la la land again when she’s in the car. Good for me as I got to rest too.

Sharlene was very well rested when she reached por por’s house. We then went out for an early lunch together with my parents, sis and aunty. Here’s Sharlene enjoying her chicken rice.


My aunt’s simple home-cooked food which we had for dinner on the same day. Fried fish in soya sauce, stir fried kai lan with fishcake, seaweed soup and yong tau foo, which were simply delicious!

The next day, we were out shopping the whole day. Sharlene enjoying her dose of computer games while waiting for us to get ready.

We reached Jusco Tebrau City at about noon time. After a brief walk at the mall, we decided to go for Japanese food at Kinsahi Restaurant. Here's what we had:

Udon for hubby

My set of udon that comes with a variety of sushi

Udon and sushi set for my mum ; and

My sis's Tom Yam Ramen

Once again, thanks sis for the fabulous lunch! :D

~ to be continued ~

Food From Bazaar Ramadan

~ Backdated post ~

We have been patronizing the bazaar Ramadan nearby our house for the past few weekends. We were already there to survey the stalls on the first weekend of Ramadan. Didn’t get much stuff on that day, only some malay kuih, roti john, murtabak, etc for tea time.

Murtabak which was so so only.

A mixture of malay kuih. All were delicious, not too sweet. And my favourite is seri muka!!

A few more types of kuih

My niece ordered this, it's called roti john and she didn't even finish half of it.

We did the same thing again last weekend. Aunty YK wasn’t at home and both SIL and I were too lazy to cook. So, we declared kitchen close and went to tapau some food from the bazaar for dinner. We had nasi lemak kukus last Saturday and on Sunday, we tapau-ed nasi briyani .