everything under the sun

Blogger’s Picnic

I know I am supposed to continue with the holiday posts, but will take a break and post on the bloggers picnic instead, since its a shorter posts and won’t need memory recovery. The holiday to Hong Kong seems a long time ago now. Haha. Speaking of which, I am also roughly 2 weeks behind in bento posts. haha. Will catch up on them as soon as time permits.

Anyhow, on the 7th day, Yan Yat of CNY, Laundry Amah arranged a picnic. Wasn’t that fabulous of her? On CNY no less.

It was Kimberly’s and Ashley’s first picnic ever !!

We almost didn’t make it, cos Ashley was throwing up the whole night. I was changing bedsheet after bedsheet and p.j after p.j. Phew. anyhow, by 11 am, she seems fine when she woke up, so I thought we can make it to the picnic after all.

It was at Taman Rimba at Taman Tun. It was a long time ago since I went there, and with my first visit, I had followed someone’s car. So I had a hard time looking for the place and end up at the other park across the school. This one is the one across the Indian temple.

As Ros from My Mom’s Best’s forum ( a breastfeeding forum I used to frequent) said before, this park is one of K.L’s best kept secret.

Following Jacss’ style, I am just going to post the pics.

This is a group photo. I had needed to get these from Annie and Laundry Amah.

More group photos

The 2 Ashley’s.. Chumsy’s Ashley and my Ashley… both thirsty kids. haha.

Kids in the park. That’s Kimberly and Kieran playing badminton….Kylie taking a stroll, and Chumsy’s Ashley walking towards the group. The two little hensems are not fully visible.

Fearles showing off his catch. Is that a bug???!

Annie in action.

Barbara in action.

Jacss and one of her hensems.

Jacss and me.

With silver bells and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row.

Actually, with muffin cups and chicken wings, and pretty moms all in a row.

It was a great picnic.

Peggy bought lor mai fun. and ridsects and insect repellents, I was told. *grin*, Jacss bought dim sum, Barbara bought char siew pau-s , Annie brought chicken wings and I got us a basket of fruits. Cos with Ashley like that, the food was the last thing on my mind that day. For food pics and more pics, go Barbara’s blog, ok?

We had the picnic around 11 am, but I got there late about twelve. Come 1pm, the rain came and we all scattered for the safety of our cars. Not before everyone exchange angpows though.

I didn’t remember to pack angpows for the kids in my haste that day. Lucky there were some angpows not distributed over CNY from a few days before left in my wallet *embarassed smile*

So that’s Kimberly and Ashley’s first picnic ever. Being their first picnic, they don’t eat much. I think they probably took one muffin each and some jellies and then scoot off to play.

But it’s a great way to spend Yan Yat nevertheless. Good company, good food. Here’s happy CNY to you guys, whatever is left of CNY. haha.

Have a great day today !!

Kids !!

It just struck me how many other stuff kids experienced away from our sides that we are not aware about.

Ashley found a comb and proceed to brush my hair through with it. As she was combing, she commands, “Say, Owieee…Momma ! Say Ow !”

She has her own hair washed at daycare by the school’s kakak and blown dry by the teachers everyday before naptime. I guess the brushing must have hurt.

However, I didn’t think that my kid would have “expected” brushing to hurt and accepted it as a daily routine of life.

I was also thinking about how quirky kids can get.

Just the other day, Kimberly was chatting to Ashley on our drive out to Renaissance Hotel for long buffet lunch. Ashley was hanging on to Kimberly’s Enopi blocks cos we left right after picking up Kimberly from her Enopi, and Ashley wouldn’t let go. She said she wanted to bring it to school (ie. kindergarten)

Kimberly then proceed to explain to her in her best chieh chieh tone that it isn’t done to bring toys to school.

“You get punished if you bring toys to school” Kimberly said.

Ashley looked at her chieh chieh without comprehension.

“You know what is punishment?” Kimberly asked her baby sister, leaning across from her car seat to Ashley’s car seat as close as she could.

Ashley shook her head.

“Punishment is where you go stand in a corner and be quiet” She announced in a know-it-all way.

“Ohhhh…” Her baby sister exclaimed with widening eyes and bopped her head up and down, showing understanding.

She then proceed to return Kimberly’s Enopi blocks to Kimberly’s receiving outstretched palms and smug grin.

Haha ! Aren’t kids just so refreshing? You get glimpses of these every now and then and it makes all things worthwhile.

And haven’t so much have changed since our time, subtle or otherwise?

These pictures were taken at One Utama sometime last month.

As I was clicking on the shutters, both Kimberly and Ashley yelled in unison,

“Ben 10 !!!”

These here were taken at The Gardens.

At the bird cages, upon taking pictures, I said,”Say cheese !”

Kimberly yelled, “Birdie !!!”

At Ikano, I told Ashley, “Say Cheese !”

Ashley yelled, “Christmas!!! ”

What happened to our old fashioned, “Cheese !!!” ??? Things have sure evolved from our times, hasn’t it? Ha ! Ha !

Just in case I haven’t got a chance later, to all readers who celebrate Christmas, may you have a wonderful wonderful Christmas !!!! Happy Holidays !!

Cupcakes for my little ones !!!

I love visiting Yozoranitesky’s blog. Sometime last week, Yozora put up some pictures of the cupcakes that she decorated for charity sale.

Kimberly had gazed in rapt attention at the pretty pastels butterflies and flowers decorating those cupcakes. Then she asked her sister, “Baby, which one would you like? I choose this one” and Ashley would participate and say, “Ah want pink one” and Kimberly would go, “No, Ashley , you like yellow, remember? !” ha ha.

Every so often since then, she would ask to see the butterflies and the flowers, and I would oblige. I wish I could buy them for her.

So, I drop a comment off at Yozora’s blog and ask if I could buy these off her. The gracious lady said that she would bake them for my little ones only if I would accept it for free !!

She is such a wonderful person, to offer to bake for 2 little girls she has never seen before or know about. I was so touched by her offer. Yozora also says not to let the girls know till Sunday cos “waiting can be such agony”. Isn’t that such wonderful foresight and consideration?

So come Sunday, I finally told Kimberly that we are going to pick up those butterflies and flowers that she like so much.

She dressed herself up in a jiffy, and got Ashley to dress too. She is such a big help these days, I can’t help but realize that my little girl is growing up every day !!

I mean, she is slowly going away from pinky pink to favoring rock star black now ! This is a picture taken last week. She is now shopping for her own clothes and nothing I say could persuade her to a more demure colour, although my girlfriend, an ex-model turned lawyer keep telling me not to be such a prude.

Who would have imagine that my blog name were in courtesy of her, and I started this blog because of her, she loves allthings purple !! and in all shades of pink !!

Anyhow, we drove over to Yozora’s place. When pretty fair skinned Yozora came out of the building to pass the kids the boxes of cupcakes, you should have seen the grin on Kimberly’s face ! Well, she still loves pink and purple floral cupcakes anyhow !

The cupcakes were gorgeous !!!

I pass the container of fondant butterflies and flowers to Kimberly and have a quick chat with Yozora.

In the midst of chatting to Yozora, somehow, Ashley manages to pry the container of fondant flowers off Kimberly’s hand and was hogging it all. ha ha.

These are the leftovers fondant flowers and butterfly, which Ashley was willing to let go in exchange for one of the cupcakes.

None of my pictures were half as nice, so, took these pic of Kimberly and Ashley’s cupcakes from Yozara’s site instead. ha ha.

Weren’t they absolutely absolutely beautiful?

Before making a hasty departure so that those icing won’t melt under the hot sun, I took pictures of the cupcakes in the car first. I have a feeling those cupcakes wouldn’t last too long.

Took this one quickly before it end up in Kimberly’s tummy.

Between the 10 minute drive from Yozora’s place to home, the kids has already polished off 4 cupcakes.

That was a lovely day for the kids that day.

We deposited those cupcakes inside the fridge first before heading to Ikea to get the kids their lunch.

These are taken after lunch.

It was so crowded at Ikea , since it was a weekend, that we left soon after that.

Tea time - too simple?

These were taken before the days of bento. It’s the kids tea time food.

Even during those days itself, my kids like their food seperated cleanly. They were never the type who eat fried rice because to them, the food is all messed up. The only mixed up, not cleanly seperated food they contend to is pies, and that’s probably because the top is nicely covered up.

They wouldn’t have any rice but white rice, even though I much rather they take brown ones. But since young, both would have constipation issues if given brown rice, so we stuck to white ones since then. Recently though(as in the last 7 days), they consented to rice with green furikake and onigiri with scredded carrot.

Sometimes we had these kind of food for lunch and I wondered if my kids’ lunch is too simple. I am sure other kids had substantial food like rice for lunch. I, however, only cook a rice meal once a day, that is, in the evening.

During the daytime, we have relatively fast meals, or noodles.

Seen here is garlic bread, baby shark fritters, slices of cucumber and cherry tomatoes.

What is missing from the tray are what they are eating right then or have eaten. I took these pictures too late, cos it wasn’t much to look at in the first place.

Here, the garlic bread is missing from the tray because it had been eaten.

Sometimes all they had are tuna sandwiches, apples and yogurt.

Tell me I am not the only one who has simple tea times food, even if it’s for lunch. Okay, I think I am not the only one, cos I read about Montessorimum’s post once and I remember telling her how happy I was to read that particular post. Misery loves company. Ha ha.

This here is Kimberly’s portion. Same food as Ashley’s.

Those were pre-bento photos. You can see a stark ommission of kawaii foodpicks, food cups, dividers, etc. Ha ha. The only bento accessories I had then were just this Hello Kitty bento box and some adult bento boxes.

How about telling me what you guys give your kids for tea? That would be fun. It would be interesting to know what other food other kids prefers. Mine usually goes for sandwiches and pasta for tea.

not the norm… teenagers

I like to think that teenagers today are somewhat responsible young adults, and reading those newspaper articles about how youngsters painted orang asli’s long house, do work for charity, do sounds really encouraging.

I rather think that teenagers of our days are responsible adults, since most of my friends, including myself had needed to help out at home or at our parent’s small businesses after school and during holidays.

When we were young, I had like to sleep in during the holidays, but we were never given the luxury. During school holidays, my dad would wake us up by phone if we are not up by 9am. He would then set tasks for us to do. Mind the store, send delivery, attend to customers,  sweep the dusty floor, do stock check, etc. All of us had to go about sweeping, doing stock checks, while the coolies sat out front, smoked and chatted.  My dad says we had to because its our own business and this is what clothed and fed us. While I do not understand when i was 12, as I grew older, I know where he is coming from.

Yesterday, we brought the kids to Sunway Pyramid, to the new wings. There is a small play area in Jaya Jusco with the cursory swing, slide, table with leftover blocks, and two plastic see saw.

3 female teenagers about 17 years old or so, came giggling into the play area amidst loud laughters and gigles. Then they set about to conquer it. As soon as a little boy got up, they sat on the see saw, its a wonder it didnt collapse under their weight. Although they then collapsed upon each other, giggling and laughing and knocking a toddling little boy in the process of their “antics”. The little boy’s mother quickly run over to rescue her little boy, while one of the teenagers shook her head and rolled her eyes heavenward.  Then her friend lost her balance and knock over another little girl, and her friend too, roll her eyes heavenward. Almost sounds like she is thinking, “fools, why can’t they keep their balance?”

While I was watching these, I had wondered why other parents are not saying a word.  I think a lot of Malaysian are just not confrontational. Even when faced with a queue jumper, most of us will just let it go. I am probably the only person that I ever know of who would speak up and ask the queue jumper to go to the back of the line. And then, of course, all the stares from the queue would be transfered from the queue jumper to me.   And I almost understand why most people let queue jumper get away with it.  They dont like the stares to be transfered to them.

Just then, the father of the toddling baby came forth and ask the girls, “Do you mind, these are for kids”. 

The girls threw him a annoyed glance, laughed with each other, and left.

Most certainly, we, the old school, as young girls, were never allowed that much time with our friends by our parents, save for the old fashioned Girl Guides activities and basketballs etc.  Most of our parents (as I am aware, looking at my cicle of friends around me) made sure our time are fully utilised.

Bringing up a kid takes a lot of understanding, patience and hard work.  Sometimes I wondered if I should have taken more effort in raising my kids, whether I should be taking all those approaches that those books lining the bookshelves of The Border and Kinokuniya taught us.

In reality, most of us would like to be good parents. But in the midst of everything else that prevail over these, like working full time or part time to cloth and feed the kids, setting stern rules to caretakers/MIL/maids so as to oversee the safety and hygene of the kids, we cannot go the way the expert thinks.  Certain things will have to be compromised.  I simply cannot be a perfect person in my quest to oversee other things that are more important my kids, like hygene and safety.

Parenthood is a long journey.  And we all know that being a parent is never an easy job.

Anyhow, Just my musings. Thanks for bearing with me.

My new blog !!!

Welcome to my new blog !!!

I have been wanting to have my own domain since forever , but havent time to get it up and running. I still havent figured out a lot of things with this new one yet (like how come the photos in the gallery all got “kepala chopped off” one?, but will get to it eventually.

I have transfered old posts from my old blog here but posts from today onward will be different posts from my old blog. I will be writing from both sides.

Thanks for dropping by, guys. And please link up my new blog to yours !!!

If you can’t find what you want under the categories at my side bar, like posts on cloth diapers and the missing numbers in the bento posts, etc, it’s at my old but existing and active blog at www.allthingspurple.blogspot.com, okay?

Hope to see more of you soon !!

An incredible love story

My husband forwarded this mail to me and I thought I should share it with my fellow bloggers as well. I thought their love story is so touching to the heart. And I like to record this so that when my children grew up, I would like to show them this simple and beautiful story.

An Incredible Love Story

An incredible love story has come out of China recently and managed to touch the world. It is a story of a man and an older woman who ran off to live and love each other in peace for over half a century.

The 70-year-old Chinese man who hand-carved over 6,000 stairs up a mountain for his 80-year-old wife has passed away in the cave which has been the couple’s home for the last 50 years.

Over 50 years ago, Liu Guojiang a 19 year-old boy, fell in love with a 29 year-old widowed mother named Xu Chaoqin..

In a twist worthy of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, friends and relatives criticized the relationship because of the age difference and the fact that Xu already had children.

At that time, it was unacceptable and immoral for a young man to love an older woman.. To avoid the market gossip and the scorn of their communities, the couple decided to elope and lived in a cave in Jiangjin County in Southern ChongQing Municipality.

In the beginning, life was harsh as hey had nothing, no electricity or even food. They had to eat grass and roots they found in the mountain, and Liu made a kerosene lamp that they used to light up their lives.

Xu felt that she had tied Liu down and repeatedly asked him, ‘Are you regretful? Liu always replied, ‘As long as we are industrious, life will improve.’

In the second year of living in the mountain, Liu began and continued for over 50 years, to hand-carve the steps so that his wife could get down the mountain easily.

Half a century later in 2001, a group of adventurers were exploring the forest and were surprised to find the elderly couple and the over 6,000 hand-carved steps. Liu MingSheng, one of their seven children said, ‘My parents loved each other so much, they have lived in seclusion for over 50 years and never been apart a single day. He hand carved more than 6,000 steps over the years for my mother’s convenience, although she doesn’t go down the mountain that much.’

The couple had lived in peace for over 50 years until last week. Liu, now 72 years, returned from his daily farm work and collapsed. Xu sat and prayed with her husband as he passed away in her arms. So in love with Xu, was Liu, that no one was able to release the grip he had on his wife’s hand even after he had passed away.

‘You promised me you’ll take care of me, you’ll always be with me until the day I died, now you left before me, how am I going to live without you?’

Xu spent days softly repeating this sentence and touching her husband’s black coffin with tears rolling down her cheeks.

In 2006, their story became one of the top 10 love stories from China , collected by the Chinese Women Weekly. The local government has decided to preserve the love ladder and the place they lived as a museum, so this love story can live forever.

Now isnt that a rare and beautiful story?

Maids !!

I have been without maids on and off since my maid of 3 years, Atin, left in April 2007. And I have been so comfortable without maids for so long. Never mind that 3 maid agency company still owe me maids for not replacing those that I rejected.

Just before CNY, we got ourselves a new maid. (a replacement for one we rejected sometime last year)

After 3 weeks of treating her like one of the family but discovering that she has been dishonest to us right from the start, I got so disappointed. AGAIN !!.

With my foolish high expectation of this maid that she should reciprocate our kindness to her, (I never ever learn !!!) I got so cheesed off that I send her to FIL for the rest of the term.

Despite sending the maid away, one week out of every month, when MIL came over to help out with the kids, she would bring the maid along. That, I could tolerate, because the maid’s presence is short term, but I definitely wouldnt be able to stand her in the long term.

However, after 5 months of maid being with FIL and MIL , MIL is now complaining that the maid is a whole lot of burden. So she is sending the maid back to us to see if the maid would change for the better.

She had to keep having to check on the maid’s dishonesty and her disobedience. One of her nightly before bedtime routine is to check whether maid opened the backyard despite repeated instruction that she is forbidden to do so because maid always forgot to lock the door back.

MIL also has to check that maid did not leave tap water upstair running overflowing the tub for hours cos she does that all the time, the last time being 5 hours of running open tap water and mighty high water bill;

Or leaving the fan switched on in those unoccupied bedrooms upstairs, the worst being 24 hours for 2 months running continuously. All these are despite repeated reminders that she is never to switch the fan even after mopping the floor.

And mind you, this maid has it easy at MIL’s place, okay? There’s only 2 persons in the whole house, that is, MIL and FIL. And they both go out with friends all the time, leaving maid at her whims.

Maid even had the luxury of taking naps from 2 to 5pm and going to bed at 8.30pm. Clothes are machine washed (as is in my place, and food are cooked by MIL (and at my place, cooked by me).

Some would watch Astro whole day and night just because my instructions was not to do any housework at all but to take care of Kimberly fully and absolutely. Of course, they took advantage of that as well. With one particular maid whom we treated really really well, when my then 10 month old Kimberly asked for ‘nai-nai”, the heartless one would say impatiently, “ya !! ya!! Nai nai !!” but continue watching tv till Kimberly cried herself to sleep on and off from 10 am (my first feed to her before I left for work) to 6 pm. Many a days, when I got home at 6pm, Kimberly would toddler to me with happy tears in her eyes, crying, “momma, Nai Nai !! nai nai !”.

Even an adult cannot go through the day with just a cup of milo in the morning. What more a baby whose main supplement in food is just milk? to think that a baby go through a whole day from 10 am to 6 pm without milk, that really broke my heart. No wonder she sleeps through the whole day. She has no energy and maid has it easy !

And unsuspecting me did not think of any ill treatment ocs in our presence, she was oh-so-attentive towards our daughter.

That was 8 years ago, but this incident still haunt me to today. And I still fail to trust any maids at all. Cos with the CCTV, time and again, they prove to be dishonest in everything they do.

So, sigh..gone is my peace and quiet at home. Now its back to rolling my eyes heavenward at the blatant lies and the incredulous things they come up with.

Well, looking at the brighter side, at least there is someone to wash the dishes (never mind that she take 2 hours to wash 8 plates and 2 cups), even if I dont trust her to mind my kids, or feed them, or bath them, or cook for them; or us (in a clean manner).

And at least there is someone to mop the floor, never mind that she is too lazy to move the furnitures to sweep beneath them and insisted “sumpah saya sapu bawah kerusi, ma’am”.

Wish me luck. Definitely, I need lots of it.

copycat on my posts???

Aiyoh…. I never knew that my post also got copycat wan.

I mean, parenting experts like Montessorimum and Mumsgather okay lar, I understand. But me, with no page rank and no traffic and I only blog for pleasure… also want to copy,meh?

her blog is at http://annesweethome.blogspot.com/2007/12/10-reasons-i-marry-my-guy.html

Okay , this is an extract from her blog done in 17th December. It is pertinent to note that my tag was way back in April

I wonder how her husband would feel if he knew that she even made up stuff and/or lie about how she feels about him….sigh.. macam itu pun boleh..

This is what she copied from me

copy no. 1

My post :

anyhow, the 10 reasons why i married my fella… :

3. He is smart and intelligent (in my book) and he endeavours to excels in whatever he does. I look up to intelligent men, people like Donald Trump, politicians (certain ones only), surgeons, Yang Arif Gopal Sri Ram, etc.

Her exact copy :

anyhow, the 10 reasons why i married my fella… :

3. he is smart and intelligent (in my book) and he endeavors to excels in whatever he does. i look up to intelligent men, people like Donald Trump, politicians (certain ones only), surgeons, Yang Arif Gopal Sri Ram, etc. *muhaha*

Note :
??? Okay. Now this one I dont understand????. I am a lawyer and I admire Yang Arif for his amazing exemplary judiciary capacity and his landmark written judgment but does this Anne know how this judge’s intelligent surpassed others in comparison? If she is a litigator, I have never seen her in court before. In my 11years of practice, I know I have not seen this face in the courts.

The only thing thats original in this extract copied from my post is her “muahahaha” ..LOL

Copy no. 2

This is my post

4. He always keep his cool. I thought I was the cool one, but he beats me to the record ie. when Ashley or Kimberly hurt themselves and we need to rush to the emergency ward, I would go frantic, the cool head that I was. hee hee. I am cool in most situations, save where it concern my kids. It sure is a cosy feeling to have someone you can rely on.

This is her copy

4. he sometimes blows his temper but sometimes quite cool… i thought i was the cool one, but he beats me to the record ie. when our kid hurt herself and we need to rush to see the doctor, either me or he would go frantic, the cool head that we were… hee hee. i am cool in most situations, save where it concerns my kid. it sure is a cosy feeling to have someone you can rely on…

Note :
She got nothing nice to say about her husband off her head,meh? Okay, there are 10 things that my husband annoys me about but I sure can find 10 things i like about him off my head.

Copy no 3

This is my post

5. He doesn’t want his wife to have a hard life and wanted me to quit working so that I could spend quality time with the kids. I am still working on it, whether to be a full time stay at home mom or go back to the workforce (got head hunted twice last month and couldn’t take up the offer) or work at leisure.

This is her copy

5. he doesn’t want his wife to have a hard life and wanted me to quit working so that i could spend quality time with the kids. i am still working on it, whether to be a full time stay at home mom or go back to the workforce (got head hunted twice last month and couldn’t take up the offer) or work at leisure… *as if we had a steady financial, my hubby is able to expense everything… and i would claim that i am SAHM so far to take care both of kids as well as working from home… *

Copy no.4

this is my post

6. He is from a small hometown and is down to earth and easygoing. If its one thing I cant stand, its arrogant males.

This is her copy.

6. he is from a small hometown and is down to earth and easygoing. if it’s one thing i can’t stand, it’s the arrogant males.

Copy no.5

This is my post
7. He loves me more than I love him

This is her copy
7. though he loves me more than i love him… and i love him more than he loves me… ha ha

Copy No. 6

This is my post
8. He is not a control freak. I am THE control freak of the family and there isn’t room for two.

This is again what she copied word for word.
8. he is not a control freak. i am THE control freak of the family and there isn’t room for two.

Copy no. 7

This is my post

9. He doesn’t mind that the house is in a shambles, he cleans up instead without a word. (i should add that was when the maid was with Kimberly and Kimberly was living with her grandparents). He doesn’t complain that I have not cooked for him the last 7years (we both worked late and the kid lives with her grandparents). Early this year however, I took it upon myself to learn cooking from cookbooks and trials and errors (my mom never cooked and i never knew how) and started cooking him home cook meals and casseroles, quiches, pies and roasts, which passed his test of approval. (that was hard, man, his yardstick for measurement is his mom, my dear MIL !”

This is the bits and pieces she extracts

9. he doesn’t mind that the house is in a shambles, he cleans up instead without a word. he doesn’t complain that i have not cooked for him the last 3 years (we both had just moved in and sometimes worked late and the kid lives with her grandparent in three years ago… ). early this year however, after moving into the new place, basically we take away either the lunch or dinner for last 4 months ago before started cooking myself by this early of September this year i took it upon myself to cook! and i cook the food which passed his test of approval. (that was hard, man)

copy No. 8

My post
10. But most of all, he brings out the best in me.

Her copy
10. but most of all, he brings out the best in me…
okie dokie….

Note :

even the closing speech “okie dokie” oso must copy okay?

Can you imagine? Doing a tag on your own husband also dont have anything original to say about own husband. Like that what for write a tag about him, isnt it?

I think I am going to take some tips from Mumsgather’s post on how others copy her blog and conteng conteng on the copier’s blog,if she does it again. Hee hee hee *evil laugh*. That should be fun ! Although Mumsgather’s copycat is worse, man. That woman (I assume its a woman) copy her whole blog!!!

Anyway, Mumsgather and Montessorimum, this is the same person who copied your posts, ar?