June 2012 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Washing Delicate Clothes In The Washing Machine

This is how I wash our delicate and expensive outing clothes :

Fold the clothes and place them inside an old bolster case. Tie both ends of the bolster case and then put the bolster case with the clothes into a double layer washing net (which I bought from Daiso and 100 Yen Shop) before putting it into the washing machine in ‘Hand Wash’ mode. Even with a 500 spm spin, my clothes are still not very crinkled and even the lace do not tear. With this method, I do not need to hand wash my clothes that often anymore, albeit I still handwash my sports bras and sweaty sports clothes myself. The above method is only for clothes that are not very dirty and soiled. For really soiled ones with stains and all, you’ll need to handwash them briefly before dumping them into the washing machine for a round of wash and spin. The reason why I use both the bolster case and double layer net is just in case the bolster string is untied, my delicate clothes will still be inside the net. That’s what I call a real ‘safety net’. Not taking any risk of getting my pretty clothes damaged by the spinning.How do you wash your delicate clothes?

No. of times viewed = 738

Quirky Kids

I’ll bet no one has ever thought of drinking soup and the gooey essence inside the pig’s bone marrow with a straw! I’ll just suck it out with my mouth but my artsy fartsy rascal #2 had a better idea! Have I told you before that this rascal also enjoys eating porridge through a straw and sometimes with her hands too, like how some races eat their food with their hands? I’m fine with eating rice with the hands but runny porridge? Run of the mill daily tasks bore this rascal easily and she’s always up to funny antics and novel ideas to spice things up surrounding her and many times, to the extent of hitting my raw nerves and blood vessels!

No. of times viewed = 307

Our Lazy Sunday

It was a very lazy Sunday for me. Hubs was in Penang with his gang of basketball ‘kaki’ to take part in a friendly basketball match with some Penang basketball players. I was in absolutely no mood to cook today. So I bought nasi lemak for breakfast and made fried egg sandwiches for lunch. While Alycia was reading the newspapers in the morning, she saw a Domino’s Pizza flyer and asked if we could have pizza delivered to our home one day. I said “why not? Let’s make it tonight then!” … and screams of “YAY” and accolades filled the house, LOL!! The girls then excitedly chose their choices of flavor and I told them to remind me to call Domino’s at 5pm. At 4:30pm, rascal #2 grabbed the phone and without even asking me, she dialled 1300 888 333 for Domino’s *rolling my eyes 360 degrees*!

I was told by the Domino’s customer service staff that if I did not receive my order within 30 minutes, I would be compensated with some vouchers! I was impressed with their assurance and before I even realized it, I heard our unit’s intercom phone from the guard buzzing. The pizza delivery guy was here, how punctual!

I ordered the Dark Knight Rises Meal set which consisted of 2 regular pizzas, 1 Crazy Chicken Crunchies, 1 Twisty Bread, 1 big bottle of fizzy drink of my choice and 1 Dark Knight Rises Limited Edition glass. As I changed the flavor of the 2 pizzas and had extra cheese toppings, an additional RM7 was charged. In total, I paid RM67 for this set. I find this set meal a steal and value for money. There was even left overs for Alycia and Sherilyn to bring to school for recess tomorrow.

Check out the big chunk of mozarella cheese stuffed inside the crust of our Extreme Edge Crust… definitely a thumbs up for cheese lovers!

The girls enjoyed their once-in-a-bluemoon-home-delivered-pizza very much and they thanked me for giving them a delicious pizza treat. Getting “thank you”s from my girls for a meal is as rare as getting heavy rain during the dry and hot season here and I knew that they really enjoyed their dinner today. Talking about rain, damn it, it’s frigging hot, humid, hazy and DRY here in KL without any rain for days! Reading warnings from the newspapers everyday that a water rationing is looming in the Klang Valley is giving me the shivers. I still remember very vividly how I suffered when there was a prolonged water rationing in the Klang Valley in 1998.

That’s moi, checking Alycia’s karangan (essay writing in Malay language) on the lappie while having a good back massage on my portable OTO massage chair 😀

How was your Sunday?

No. of times viewed = 282

Getting Free Beauty Sessions From Home!

When I am too busy to make a trip to the beauty saloon to pamper myself, I can have my pampering sessions done at home, for FREE!

My 3 angels can very well give me a good full body massage (with oil some more LOL!!) and the latest, my almost 9-YO daughter has even learned how to give me a simple nail painting on my toe nails! Of course, I need to wipe off some nail polish off the skin on my toes, but heck, it’s done free, so no complaints at all! I don’t need immaculate and perfect finishing on my toe nails for I am not strutting my feet to anywhere glitzy. I just need some colors on my toe nails so that when I wear my open-toe sandals, my feet won’t look that naked. Hmmm, maybe I should get one or two toe rings too to accessorize my feet! No need nail art, which is too time consuming for a busy mum like moi.

Not bad for a first timer, thank you baby!

No. of times viewed = 328

Alycia’s 1st English Composition

At Primary 3, Alycia has not been taught how to write English composition or Karangan yet. Perhaps her school teachers will start them off in the last school term. To give her the heads-up so that it will be easier for her when the time comes, I told her to start writing her own composition based on her past and recent traveling and outing experiences. To make it less classroom style and boring for her, I told her that she could use the laptop and iPad to type out her composition and karangan. That would also be easier for me to correct her mistakes and for her to see where her mistakes are, using Word’s track changes function. Also, she could use the spell check and Thesaurus function in Word. That suggestion was certainly a good carrot for my little bunny! She was very pleased with the idea and was very excited to start drafting her first composition, which was about her recent trip to Port Dickson. Her second assignment from me was a karangan (composition in the Malay language) on her first fishing experience with daddy.

With a smattering knowledge in using Microsoft Word, my 8.5YO girl began typing her very first composition. Not bad for a first timer, with lots of room for improvement.

No. of times viewed = 304

A Picture That Moved Me To Tears

I was moved to tears when I saw this picture in my Facebook news updates today. The 2-year old girl was dying and her parents took turns to give her a last hug and kiss. This picture transported me back to May 2009 in the OT of GMC Penang. Cass was on my lap frozen with fear when the anesthesiologist administered the GA through the IV catheter on her hand. When she was completely knocked out and lay lifeless on my lap, I had to lay her on the steel table. I kissed her and hugged her. I said a prayer to God to bring my baby girl back to me. I wished Dr N good luck and walked away slowly and turned back to have a last look at my baby girl before leaving the OT. I wondered if I could have my baby girl back in one piece, mentally and physically. This happened not only once but twice as Cass had to be operated again 2 weeks later as a result of a complication from the 1st surgery. The long hours waiting outside the OT is something I never wish to go through again. And seeing my baby girl all bandaged up with tubes sticking everywhere on her body is something no mother would ever want to see.

If you are wondering why all the medical staff are bowing in the picture : in less than an hour, two small children in the next room are able to live thanks to the little girl’s kidney and liver. Put yourself in the dying toddler’s mother or father’s shoes. The sadness and helplessness that they felt are definitely overwhelming.

The next time your child causes lava to spew from your mouth and head, remember this picture and imagine yourself inside the picture and imagine that the dying child is yours. I am sure the image of the dying girl with her grieving parents crying next to her will quell any burning anger that you have. I did. And I gave my girls each a hug, a kiss and said a prayer just before bedtime just now, albeit all 3 of them caused some fire burning inside me just before bedtime. I cannot imagine the pain I’ll have to go through if I have to say a last good-bye to any of my child. I pray to God that I will never have to do that.

No. of times viewed = 324

My First Swedish Cooking Class!

When I was offered by Ikea to attend a free Swedish cooking class recently, I jumped at the opportunity to equip myself with some Swedish cooking skills. How can I say NO to such an opportunity from Ikea? Thankfully my mil was around to watch over the 2 older girls (which she had to bring along for her appointment with her friends that evening). Cass had to tag along with me to the cooking class, which Ikea and the cooking school so kindly allowed. I really enjoyed the cooking class with other bloggers, rep from Ikea and rep from the social media company that evening. All of us had so much fun having hands-on experience cooking with a well-known chef and not to mention tasting our own finished product.

For those of you who had read my earlier posts on this lucky draw to win a free Swede Cook class sponsored by Ikea, the results will be out tomorrow. If you have submitted your entries, I hope you’ll be one of the lucky few to win your way to this free Swede cook class!

Here are some of the pix that I took during the Swede cook class held at at19culinary.com :

I wish my kitchen was as spacious and fully equipped as this kitchen at http://www.at19culinary.com/, where the Swede cooking class was held.

Chef Khai explaining to us the Swede dishes that he was about to show us how to whip up…

First dish was Jansson’s Temptation. A very flavorful Swedish dish of potatoes, sauteed onions with Balsimic (black vinegar), olive oil, canned anchovies and whipping cream. In the blue Ikea bowl was canned anchovies, which was very salty — it tasted a tad like the canned fish with black beans from China.

Me at work ! We were arranging the sliced potatoes, sauteed onions and anchovies in the ramekins, layer by layer here. Then topped the dish up with some whipping cream before baking them in the oven.

Our Jansson’s Temptation just out fr the oven, bare and without the final touch and deco yet.

The easiest way to separate the egg yolk from the egg white is to scoop it up with your bare hand, which Chef Khai took just a couple of seconds to do it — no need canggih equipment or gadget! And how do you tell if the egg is fresh? The yolk will be round, intact and nice. A disintegrated / runny egg yolk means that the egg is not fresh and you won’t be able to separate it from the white with your bare hand then.

2nd dish was poached fillet of salmon with fresh salad and lemon butter sauce.

That’s how poached salmon is made. Never knew that making poached salmon ala 5-star restaurant style can be that simple!

The Jansson’s Temptation that we made, with the final touch, super delish! The packet Lingon berry drinks were courtesy of Ikea, very refreshing and tasted a tad like Ribena.

Cass enjoying her supper after impatiently waiting for me for 2 hours!

No. of times viewed = 334

Caught In The Rain Twice And Guess What..?

They say lightning never strikes a place twice but it does and in my case, I was caught in a heavy rain with Cassandra twice, unprepared! We hardly have the time to have morning walks together. About 2 months ago, we had a stroll to the nearby market-on-van to buy some veggie and meat and then all of a sudden without any warning or signs of an impending heavy rain, it just poured like crazy. Thankfully an aunty whom I meet every morning at the market-on-van offered to drive us home.

Today, Cass woke up early and I brought her along with me to the nearby coffee shops to buy breakfast. Again with no sign of an impending storm, not even a drop of rain to forewarn us, the skies just played us out again!! Actually the skies did look a tad cloudy and grey BUT it has been very hazy for the past few days, very smoggy and gloomy, so no one thought that it would rain at that hour. I just could not believe that Cass and I were caught in the rain unprepared twice in a row. Both times, the downpour lasted for about half an hour and stopped the moment we reached home! Both times, I had no brolly with me, no mobile phone too. Today, I had to borrow the mobile phone from the roadside newspaper seller to call the hubs. I had to seek shelter under a tiny umbrella for her stall. Needless to say, Cass and I were all wet from the heavy rain. While waiting for the hubs to fetch us back, I bumped into someone! She asked me “are you Shireen? I am Jxxx! I am MG!” I could not hear her clearly in the heavy rain and she introduced herself again. Then I remembered Mumsgather, aha! Finally we met and of all places and time, we met in such an awkward moment. She has a very kind and sweet face, one which you would feel very warm to be with. She has never revealed her kids and her own identity and pictures in all her blogs, not even in Facebook and I am glad that the unexpected heavy downpour which left me stranded at a roadside stall led me to meet one of the well-known early mommy bloggers whom I have always wanted to meet since 5 years ago.

After these 2 incidents, I told Cass that if we ever go for walks again in future, mummy better be bringing not only her pepper spray but also her mobile phone and 2 brollies, just in case it rains on us again!

No. of times viewed = 318

Cheap Prescription Glasses For Sherilyn

During the school holiday, I brought Sherilyn to the opthalmologist to have her eyes checked. Actually I had earlier brought her to an optician to have her eyes checked but the results produced by the computer and by manual check did not correspond. I was adviced to have her brought to an opthalmologist to have a thorough eye check up. Well, it turned out that she has pretty high astigmatism on her right eye and slight astigmatism on her left eye. She was advised to wear prescription glasses to help correct the problem.

We have not brought her to the optician to choose her glasses. For a very scattered-brain and clumsy-pot, I would not get her anything more than a hundred bucks for her glasses. I have searched the internet and found Zenni Optical, an online optician that offers a wide range of affordable and stylish glasses. I can even get glasses as low as $4.95 from Zenni Optical! Since it is so affordable, I can even get a few pairs for Sherilyn, just in case she breaks a pair. There are hundreds of chick and pretty frames to choose from, I’ll bet my vain pot will have a fun time choosing her frames. With the money saved on glasses, I can get her some of the story books that she has been bugging me to buy for her.

Do check out Zenni Optical too to get yourself some affordable prescription eyeglassesHidden FieldHidden Field You can save so much $$ when you get these really affordable yet stylish eye glasses. With the money saved on eye glasses, you can stretch your money further and spend them on other essential items.

My princess wannabe who likes all things pink chose this glasses in pink frame with rose crafted on the temples. Pretty cool eh?

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Zenni Optical. All opinions are 100% mine.

We have not brought her to the optician to choose her glasses. For a very scattered-brain and clumsy-pot, I would not get her anything more than a hundred bucks for her glasses. I have searched the internet and found Zenni Optical, an online optician that offers a wide range of affordable and stylish glasses. I can even get glasses as low as $4.95 from Zenni Optical! Since it is so affordable, I can even get a few pairs for Sherilyn, just in case she breaks a pair. There are hundreds of chick and pretty frames to choose from and my vain pot had a fun time choosing her frames. With the money saved on glasses, I can get her some of the story books that she has been bugging me to buy for her.

Do check out Zenni Optical too to get yourself some affordable prescription eyeglasses

You can save so much $$ when you get these really affordable yet stylish eye glasses. With the money saved on eye glasses, you can stretch your money further and spend them on other essential items.My princess wannabe who likes all things pink chose this glasses in pink frame with rose crafted on the temples. Pretty cool eh?

No. of times viewed = 258

My 4-Year Old Baby Girl

I guess she will always be called baby girl as she is the baby of the family and my last baby. Just like my youngest brother who is still called ‘bee’ up to today and he is 35 years old. Cassandra is now 4 years old but I still call her baby girl or baby. Lately, I find that she has grown so much. She acts very much like a big sister to her best friend, Sasha in pre-school. Once I saw her holding Sasha’s hand when they walked down the stairs after school. I also saw her help Sasha wear her shoes. She likes Sasha (who is of a different race) very much. In the eyes of kids, there is no race and no skin color. No racism. It’s all about chemistry. She told me that Sasha is very cute like a doll as Sasha is very petite and very short. Though they are all 4 year olds, Sasha looks like a 2-year old girl to me. So my baby girl treats Sasha like a baby doll.

I still remember bringing Cassandra back from the hospital 4 years ago. Of my 3 girls, she is the tiniest at only 2.75kg at birth. She was so tiny that I could bathe her in a sink that looks like an apron farmhouse sink in our old house. Our old house was a huge 2-storey house with a big backyard with 2 huge sinks that looked like some farmhouse sinks.

Of all the toys that my baby girl has, her all-time favorite is this baby lamb with beads as stuffing on the legs and hands which she calls ‘my baby’. She hugs it to sleep every night. She also brought it with her during our recent trip to Port Dickson.

Can you guess which baby is who?

No. of times viewed = 423

Farmland Porridge Steamboat

Last Saturday, we had porridge steamboat at Farmland Porridge Steamboat @ Jalan Maharajalela KL. It was my first time there and hubby’s second time. For fans of porridge, you will love this concept of cooking seafood, vegetables and noodles in porridge. We chose the spinach porridge (Jade porridge) and the pumpkin porridge (Golden porridge) to replace the soup base.

Farmland Steamboat as the moniker suggests serves steamboat, with a twist. A set for one person is RM15.90 and we ordered 3 sets plus some side raw materials like fresh Garoupa fish head, crabs, Enoki mushrooms, sliced pork, sliced beef, brown mushrooms, Udon noodles, crabs and a plate of very tasty sesame flavored jelly fish with coriander leaves.

The bill came up to RM244.40 inclusive of tax (what an inauspicious set of numbers eh?!) or roughly RM35.00 per person, inclusive of the kids (7 of us altogether). This was expected since we ordered a fair amount of food, plus the crabs alone cost RM54 and Garoupa fish cost RM48!) In my opinion, I think the price was reasonable IF you do not order crabs and Garoupa fish.

The restaurant was almost full-house, which is a prove that the food is tasty. BUT I did not enjoy myself as I was having a very bloated, colicky and painful tummy, which killed my appetite. Darn those unwelcomed PMS! I was in so much pain and discomfort that I almost wanted to buy oxycontin online using my mobile phone!

Farmland Steamboat has several branches within the Klang valley. The Jalan Maharajalela outlet is pretty new. The premises is clean and spacious and the toilets are clean too! One of the pull-factors for me to patronize a restaurant again is the loo!! As I have 3 young kids, I try to go to eateries with clean loos. If the toilets are filthy and stinky, that will be my first and last time to that eatery, though the food may be good.

We skipped the Fried Crispy “Nam Yu” Pork (RM12) as I was not feeling too good. I noticed that almost every table had a plate of that deep fried pork.

Between the two varieties of porridge, we prefer the Golden one. The Jade (spinach) has a rather raw taste of spinach which did not excite our palate, though the spinach one is pretty healthy.

I heart this plate of sesame flavored jelly fish with lime juice and coriander leaves.

Save the best for last. Towards the end of the steamboat session, after all the raw materials are cooked in the pot of porridge, the porridge tastes the best as all the essence of the seafood will be in the pot of porridge. Simply delish and sweet. Some people even took away the remaining porridge home but we did not.

Rating on HFM’s food rating scale is 7/10 and HFM’s restaurant rating scale is 7/10.

Recommended? YES. Will I go again? Definitely.

The next time we dine at Farmland Steamboat, we will skip the porridge and order the tomyam soup and clear soup. We still prefer soup based steamboats. Plus soup based steamboats are less fattening 🙂

No. of times viewed = 5735

Riblee’s Restaurant @ Desa Sri Hartamas

Alycia and Sherilyn were invited to attend a birthday party of Alycia’s classmate during the school holiday. As we did not want Cassandra to feel left out, we brought her to RibLees @ Desa Sri Hartamas for lunch after dropping her che ches at their friend’s house.

It was our first time at RibLees but the second for hubs. And we had a very porky lunch. Here’s what we pigged-out on:

Wild mushroom soup and green pea soup with a basket of toasted garlic bread. Cass polished off almost the entire bowl of mushroom soup with cream. And guess what? She had loose bowel when she was back home. I guess she overloaded her tiny tummy with the creamy soup.

Bourbon ribs

Babyrack ribs

Spaghetti Carbonara. It was such a huge plate that we could even take-away the remaining for Alycia and Sherilyn. Whenever these 2 girls attend any party, they would hardly fill their tummies with food but will be too excited playing with their friends. And they always come home ransacking the fridge for food after the party.

Rating on the food is 7/10 on HFM’s food-rating scale. Love the very flavorful ribs and they were bone-sucking good too as proven by my 3 rascals.
Rating on the ambience of the restaurant is 5/10 on HFM’s restaurant-rating scale.

The damage. So what do you think of the price? There were 3 adults and 1 toddler with a ravenous appetite. We could also take away the ribs for Alycia and Sherilyn to savor on after their party.

Riblee’s Restaurant
Wisma CKL 41-1, Jalan 23/70A,
Desa Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur
(Above Al-Rajhi Bank, Opposite Burger King)

No. of times viewed = 436

Ham Yoke Joong from New Shanghai Restaurant @ Pavillion KL

This is by far the most expensive ham yoke joong aka bak chang (glutinous rice dumpling) that I have ever bought and it cost a whopping RM25 each, exclusive of service tax! I bought 2 pieces – 1 for Paik Ling who was visiting me and 1 for us to try. While it tasted pretty good, it was however not bursting with ingredients to justify the cut throat price. The joong was bought from New Shanghai @ Pavillion KL and I think half the cost of the joong went towards the rental cost. Anything bought from shopping malls at the Golden Triangle will not be cheap, that’s for sure.

New Shanghai is a new pork free (Halal) dim sum restaurant with a wide selection of choices that has opened its doors in Pavilion. Its concept is like a bakery where you select your choice of dim sum items at the counter. You can opt to eat in or take away. For steamed items, just select and hand them to the staff and they’ll steam it and send the hot dim sum to you.

It was after tasting this expensive joong that my mil decided to make her specialty joong. You can hop over to my other blog to read about her homemade pillow ham yoke joong.

My lil’ fashionista insisted on having her pic taken with the racks of dim sum, talk about vanity at age 7YO *rolling eyeballs*

No. of times viewed = 717

Koncis Garlic Press from Ikea

In my forthcoming shopping trip to Ikea, one of the items that is on my shopping list is a stainless steel Koncis Garlic Press. I love cooking but one of the things that turns me off big time is peeling and chopping garlic as I abhor the lingering pungent smell of garlic on my fingers! I am very tempted to buy peeled ones from supermarkets but have you noticed that those peeled garlic bulbs have a tint of brownish color and they smell foul too? So no thanks. I rather wear disposable plastic gloves and peel the garlic myself. With a garlic press, I only need to peel the skin off the garlic bulbs and then put the cloves of garlic into the garlic press and with all my might, press the pincers and see the tiny bits of pressed garlic coming out from the gadget. Easy job eh?

According to the description which I obtained from the Ikea website, the Koncis garlic press can cope with unpeeled cloves as well. Wow, that’s good news. Can’t wait to get this garlic press from Ikea soon and it’s pretty affordable at only RM25.

Oh by the way, my Swedish cooking class organized by Ikea is set for tomorrow evening! The menu for the cooking class is:
– Jansson’s Temptations (can’t wait to find out what temptation this is!)
– Poached filet of salmon with fresh salad and lemon butter sauce
– Cinnamon pancake with honeyed apple

If you too would like to attend a Swedish cooking class, you stand a chance to win a free one, courtesy of Ikea and it’s easy peasy. Just get ready your camera to snap pix of food or any picture related to food and the kitchen and email it to Ikea. Just click on this link to find out more!

Wait, there’s more! Ikea Damansara is currently having a Pretty Smart Kitchen promotion where there is a 10% rebate on a wide range of kitchen items. You can do some preliminary online shopping at Ikea to see what you’d like to get so that when you are at the Ikea store, you know what to put into your shopping cart, thus saves your precious time. I’m going to Ikea too soon!

No. of times viewed = 1296

Thistle Port Dickson (2 – 4 June 2012)

The weather was kind to the kids, in fact it was way too kind, showering us with a scorching sun and zero rain throughout our 3 days in Port Dickson. It was super hot (temp shot up to above 40 degrees Celsius for the past few days), humid and dry. The kids had way too much fun in the sun, like over 8 hours a day!! While me, the ‘puteri lilin’ which literally means Candle Princess (coz I will melt under the sun) stayed under those pool-side brollies while keeping guard on my 3 monkeys. Daddy watched alone not enough. Everywhere were children. One moment you spot them, the next moment, they are no where in sight and you panic the sh*t out of yourself when you could not find them. After 3 days of being roasted by the fiery sun, I had a bad bout of headache for 2 days, which dampened my mood.

We stayed at Thistle Resort. About 5 minutes’ drive away from Thistle were several Chinese ‘tai chau’ restaurants. Without even driving out (well, we thought PD was only that small, i.e. that stretch of kampung road along Thistle), we only went to those few ‘tai chau’ restaurants to have our dinner and lunch. Those stalls were perpetually full to the brim and super hot. I was drenched in my own sweat after each meal. It was no fun for me, plus my throbbing head… I wanted to eat in the hotel but our friends, the very adventurous types were all gamed to have a seafood feast outside, so, majority rules lor.

On our last night at PD, when those ‘tau chau’ restaurants were all packed, we finally drove aimlessly around PD to look for an alternative restaurant. After a 20- minute drive, we reached PD town and then realized that PD actually was quite a modern town with a small mini market, air-conditioned small restaurants (I was beaming!) and other amenities. PD is not a small kampung as all of us thought initially, LOL! We randomly chose an air-conditioned Chinese restaurant and for once ever since we reached PD, we had an enjoyable meal without much sweat dribbling down our foreheads haha!

Here are some of the pix taken at PD and I’ll let them do the talking.

Models at work.. donning on clothes from my online store — nice or not?? 😀

Beautiful sunset at Thistle but the beach ain’t clean at all.

Hubs ordered some food but the kids had so much fun that they had forgotten what time of the day it was. No need to pee, no need to drink water and no need to eat too. I had to holler at them to get out from the pool to eat and drink.

My lil jumping bean modelling on another Jumping Beans top that mummy sells 😀

There is a play room and also a slot-machine room next to the pool side.

The kids in our trip (8 of them) watching Kung Fu Panda at the resort’s in-house cinema.

The man in orange holding a DSLR is our friend. This DSLR enthusiast had a blast snapping our pix with his canggih camera which I so drool at!

There was a pool and beach side party on Saturday and Sunday evening and the kids had a blast. Popcorns, ice-creams and fresh coconut were for sale. The coconuts were plucked from the trees in the resort compound and we were charged RM5 for a coconut. The resort Management sure knows how to make money by planting coconut trees and selling the harvest!

Cass was very good and did not whine or kick up a fuss that she was not allowed to swim in the pool. After a post-op UTI attack 2 years ago after a swim at the pool of Hard Rock Hotel Penang, I am not taking any more risk of her getting another UTI, though she has been certified free from Kidney Reflux. The pools at Thistle were teeming with kids and adults. Some people were seen blowing their noses and spitting into the water, some jumped into the pool after sea-bathing with feet full of sand and I am very sure many kids peed in the water too.

The angels with granny..

Alycia with stylo mylo granny…

While the kids had a whale of their time, I did not quite enjoy the scorching sun. The rooms were not up to our expectation. We paid double the price (over RM400++) as we stayed there during the weekends. Week day rates are half that price! And breakfast was not included too!! This will be our first and last time staying at Thistle. If we ever go to Port Dickson again, we will definitely try Avillion.

No. of times viewed = 562

Home Tuition vs Tuition Centre

Sherilyn has been bugging me to send her to the daycare cum tuition centre that her best friend, Berlyn attends. Initially I was very glad that she was receptive to the idea of attending this particular daycare cum tuition centre as many of the tutors are from the primary school that she goes to. However, later it dawned on me that it would not be too good an idea as these 2 besties may yak and yak non-stop or perhaps get themselves into some kind of trouble, who knows! When 2 mischievous friends get together the whole day, they are very capable of brewing up some trouble! So idea dropped.

I will stick to the current Mandarin tutor who comes to our home to teach Alycia and Sherilyn twice a week. I find that engaging a home tutor is so much more advantageous than sending my kids to a tuition centre. Some of the benefits that I can think of are :

1) I do not have to drive my kids to the tuition centre and drive them back home. So much time is saved for a busy work-from-home-mom like me.

2) I can monitor the tutor and my kids. At the tuition centre that Alycia and Sherilyn used to go to, Alycia used to tell me that Sherilyn yakked a lot and did not pay attention. She also played on the stairs outside the tuition centre, which can be very hazardous for a mischievous and curious child like her.

3) I was told that some older kids even ‘ponteng’ (played truant) after their parents dropped them at the tuition centre. They go to nearby cyber cafes, snooker centres and mamak stalls to have fun and to smoke.

4) Many kids (like my own) choose a particular tuition centre just because their good friends go there too.

I am glad that I have found this home tutor who is very accommodating and hardworking plus she charges very reasonably too. It is not easy to find a suitable home tutor. If you are currently looking for a home tutor for your child, do click on the link ‘tuition’ above to pick your choice.

No. of times viewed = 213