Touch & Go Weekend in Ipoh

We went back to Ipoh for a short weekend stay yesterday. Within 24 hours, we managed to celebrate my 21st birthday and brought the girls to the graveyard for Tomb Sweeping day early this morning… and of course got roasted under the ferocious sun when we reached the third and last tomb to pay respect to hubs’ late dad. We stayed in Ipoh for exactly 24 hours and much as we would like to stay longer, we had to rush back to KL early in the afternoon to beat the bumper-to-bumper crawl on the highway. The girls week-long holiday has ended today.

Here’s my birthday cake from Ipoh’s well-known JJ Cakes and Swisssroll. My dad got me my favorite cempedak flavor sponge cake. But we were all disappointed with the cake this year as the quality of the cake has dropped! In the past, JJ’s swiss rolls and cakes had generous chunks of flavorful cempedak flesh. This time, all we got was only cempedak paste which definitely lacked the cempedak oomph power. I hope JJ polish up their recipe, or they will loose their long-time loyal customers.

Here’s my loving papa lighting up the candles on my birthday cake. Moments like this is priceless. My dad is 71 this year and we only get to see my parents 3-4 times in a year. My girls love going back to Ipoh to bond and rekindle their love with koong koong and granny. I pray that my girls and I get to do this for many, many more years to come.

My baby girl surely knows how to capture my heart. She knows that I love prawns and crabs but HATE the peeling job. Since early this year, she has taken over my role and she told me that I do not have to do the prawn and crab shell peeling and cracking job anymore. She does all the dirty job and then feeds the nicely peeled flesh into my mouth. These days, she will tell me “mummy, let me peel for you and feed you so that your hands will not be stinky” When she’s good, she is no doubt a God-sent angel and definitely good enough to negate all her monster torment on me!

I was totally taken by surprise when I unwrapped a shoddily wrapped present (with exercise book papers LOL!) to find this hair clip. My oddball Sherilyn made this for me using an old black hair clip with recycled bling bling flowers that she she has been collecting from dunno when! But I love it for it was made with love.

It has been a very tiring weekend for me and I look forward to a new week. As usual, I always welcome back the new school term. Though sleeping hours will be lesser, it’s A OK. What’s more important are my ME TIME, my QUIET TIME, some kids-free sane moments to re-allign my state of mind and I definitely need to reboot my daily morning exercise regimen again!

And I was just kidding. I ain’t no 18-22 or 21 anymore. Check out the number of candles on my cake 😉

Have a great week ahead peeps! 🙂

No. of times viewed = 3747

Freaking Hot Weather — Continuation From 27 March 2014

Yesterday was by far the sweatiest day of this year for me! Cooking in the kitchen for half an hour, made me sweat as if I was in a sauna for an hour! After cooking dinner of spaghetti, I was sweating buckets, I kid you not! While laboring in front of the stove, I had sweat trickling down my forehead, neck, temples and everywhere else. I wish I could just don on my sleeveless batik nightie with nothing underneath (coughs!) but the new maid was here and I forced a bra under my dress. After cooking, I had to shower the third time before zooming off to fetch Sherilyn from the enrichment centre.

I showered a total of 5 times yesterday. I could not give a dang that there is not enough water in the dams. I could feel my blood boiling inside me, caused by the heat surrounding me, especially in front of the stove. Not like my shower takes fifteen minutes to half an hour. I only have 2 proper baths in a day and the rest are normally a one-minute shower, just to wash off the heat and to feel comfortable. No soap used, as this will dry my skin. Just powder myself nice nice after bath to make myself smell desirable again.

Yesterday, my new part-time maid started work. She wore a 2-piece long and thick sleeve knitted top in dark brown with black very very tight legging! And she walked for about 20 minutes to my place under the blazing sun. Oh me gosh, when I saw what she wore, I politely told her that next time she could bring a sleeveless top or a short sleeve tee and short pants to change when she worked. But she said “tak payah, saya dah biasa”! And I did not see a drop of sweat on her face. Huh? Is she cold blooded or what? I wonder why she did not sweat wearing autumn clothing in 44 degrees Celsius weather and doing house work all wrapped up like a dumpling! LOL!

No. of times viewed = 784

Freaking Hot Weather!

This year’s drought is the worst ever for us. It is SO SO SO hot, so hot that I am sweating profusely though seated under the fan moving at full speed. It is so hot that I do not feel like going anywhere. I now hurriedly complete all the errands that I have to run before 12 noon. Once the noon sun sets in, you literally melt under the blazing sun.

Alycia and Cass are having Mandarin tuition at home now and they are complaining about the heat. But good girls are they for they know that they are not allowed to turn on the air conditioner in the living area. They know about the electric tariff increase this year and they know how much their daddy has to pay every month. I promised Alycia that she could buy some ice-creams from the mart at our condo after tuition.

Swimming class is cancelled today as the swimming instructor is feeling unwell. Thank goodness the class is cancelled, else I would be melting under the 5pm sun while waiting for Cass, roasting at a temperature of close to 44 degrees Celsius! I told the girls that I wish I could walk around the house only in my birthday suit since there is no one else in the house except for Alycia , Cass and me, HA HA HA HA!!

No. of times viewed = 1147

The New, 3rd Generation Electrolux Ergorapido Vacuum Cleaner

Did I tell you that ever since I took over the role of full-time ~~slave~~ maid, I told the hubs that I desperately needed a cordless vacuum cleaner? But the stingy hubs said NO, he ain’t going to buy a new cordless vacuum. He said that I could use his other Electrolux vacuum cleaner which is still good, which he bought a few years ago. But that has messy cords, for Pete’s sake! The other day, I finally dug out the old Electrolux vacuum and gawd did I hated using it as it is dang heavy to lug it around! After vacuuming just the living area, I gave up and assigned my daughter to keep it back in the store room. Just when I had given up hope on ever owning a cordless vacuum cleaner, my guardian angel sent me a brand new, 3rd generation Electrolux Ergorapido vacuum cleaner that is C O R D L E S S! WOOHOO! In bright love red color some more 😀 My guardian angels must have heard me whining and decided to send me a cordless vacuum for my birthday! 😀

ZB3003

The new 3rd generation Ergorapido vacuum was recently launched at Harvey Norman @ Ikano Power Center. In conjunction with the launch, Electrolux and selected Harvey Norman outlets will be running a special promotion from March 13 – May 15, 2014 under which, anyone who brings an old broom to the outlet will get a rebate of RM100 on the spot when purchasing an Ergorapido model of their choice! For the promotion-participating outlets, you can visit Electrolux Facebook page

The Ergorapido is so easy to use and so light to lug it around. Even my three daughters can help me to vacuum the floor now!

Check out the Ergorapido in love red, I think it matches my cushions too 😀 This stylo mylo gadget is now a permanent feature at the corner of our living room, sleekly attached to the wall socket for power charging.

And the suction power is pretty ‘terror’ too. In just 15 minutes, see the amount of dust, dirt and hair it has sucked!

Cleaning the filter bag and container is also easy peasy. First, I used a piece of tissue paper to wipe away the dust and dirt. Then rinsed the dust cup/container with water and briefly washed the filter with water and air dried the parts in my balcony. If you are lazy to wash, just use tissue paper or a piece of wet wipe to wipe off the dust and hair will suffice.

You can watch the video on the awesomeness of the Ergorapido vacuum…

I ♥ my love red Ergorapido vacuum!

No. of times viewed = 2332

Emotional Day

Today is an emotional day of sorts for me. The news of the ill-fated missing MH370 MAS airplane last night and what I read from today’s newspapers have been very depressing. The cover page of The Star newspapers is black today. Pictures of the relatives and kin of the passengers on board MH370 crying and wailing are already enough to well up my eyes.

Flipping the next few pages of the newspapers made me even more emotional and chilling. A mother and her 2 toddlers died in a car crash yesterday. Her 1 year old daughter (who was SO cute as shown in the picture in the newspapers) was flung out of the car and then ran over by a lorry! Oh God, why does this have to happen? In another news that I read from the newspapers, a 17 year old boy from a well known school in PJ was pinned to death under the school bus that he was traveling in, in an accident after their school trip yesterday. After reading the fourth or fifth page of the newspapers, I told my girls that I ain’t going to continue reading. They can have the newspapers all to themselves (we often fight for the newspapers). There is just too much heartbreaking news and I ain’t going to let all this spoil my day.

I turned on the TV to listen to Mix FM on Astro but all the songs that have been playing have been only slow and sad songs, as a mark of respect and solemnity. I logged into Facebook and everyone has been posting news on the MH370 airplane that is now ‘confirmed’ somewhere in the vast Indian Ocean. Postings and Tweets by the wives, children and parents of the lost passengers onboard MH370 made me teary eyed again. One woman from China screamed and wailed that she lost her entire family (no thanks to China’s 1-child policy). She lost her only son, her daughter-in-law and grandchild — her dreams, her love and her hope — all lost in an airplane 🙁

I better stop being too emotional and stop spending too much time on the computer. Dinner is not fixed yet and I have no mood to whip up anything special today. I still have to fetch Sherilyn back from the enrichment centre and stop at the mini mart to buy some veggies. I SO WISH for a maid to turn up at my door step right now!! To help me whip up a meal, wash the dishes and iron our mountain high pile of clothes!!

No. of times viewed = 798

Botak Barbie

Someone with an ever curious mind and itchy hands snipped off Barbie’s long locks. Poor ballerina Barbie now wears a crew cut and she’s so hideous!

Till now, I still don’t know which rascal shaved off Barbie’s golden locks. Rascal #2 pointed finger at rascal #3 and vice versa. The blame game is still going on and on.

Why are my girls like barbarians???! They won’t even spare Barbie’s hair! I know, they are bored to the core and it’s the school holidays. Thank God, the holiday is only for a week!

No. of times viewed = 1089

Yummy Rice Cooker Chicken Rice

Two days after Maid M resumed working for me, the lump in her neck began to nag her with pain again. Today, she sent me a text message informing me that she has to stop work and that she will only resume work again after her surgery. The last time she took a break from working part-time for me, she took a half-year break. Thankfully at that time, I found another wonderful part-time maid, but she never came back to me after she went back to Indonesia for her holiday. This time round, I guess I will be left with an even more cruel fate. I can sense that my back-up part-time maid does not wish to continue working. But I am not about to panic just yet. When life throws lemons at you, catch them to make lemonade!

So what if I am maidless? I can cook 3-4 times a week and eat out on the rest of the days. Hubster who is super anal about how his clothes are ironed will have to send his clothes to the laundrette for professional ironing. He has no problem with this. The rest of the chores, I will find a way to settle them myself with the help of the girls, whether they like it or not. When there is a domestic crisis, everyone has to pull together and pitch in.

So yesterday, I dished up something really easy-peasy yet yummy to the max! It was my first time cooking chicken rice in a rice cooker and it turned out so well! I could not believe how something so easy and fast to prepare could taste so good. My girls were pouring out praises on the chicken rice, which tasted better than Nam Heong chicken rice ^^

In the morning, I marinated the chicken with some sea salt, ginger wine, sesame oil and garlic + onion oil.

Put uncooked rice in rice pot and add water like you would to cook rice. There is no need to increase or decrease the water. Then, add in the marinated chicken into the rice pot. Add in more fried garlic and onion together with the oil. The fried garlic and onion oil will impart flavor and an oily texture to the rice, just like those oily rice from chicken rice stalls.

This is how the chicken rice looks like in the pot after it’s cooked.

Dish it out and serve with cool cucumbers and a veggie of your choice. We had stir-fried cabbage.

I used low GI Basmati rice to cook this chicken rice, so that I could chomp some down without the fat guilt 😀

The unfinished portion was kept in a glass lock and lock container to be frozen and reheated for lunch next week.

This one-pot meal is so going to be repeated in days and weeks to come until the MIL returns. I am so glad I finally tried out this dish after procrastinating for months since last year.

No. of times viewed = 1298

Easy Way To Julienne Cabbage

I discovered something that will ease my kitchen chore yesterday. The discovery popped up in my head when I was trying to figure out a quick way to wash, soak and julienne my 2 heads of cabbage without much mess and hassle. My girls and I love cabbage but I have always tried to avoid buying cabbage as I hate, simply hate cutting the cabbage into strips. I find it messy, especially in a shoe box size kitchen, with a micro mini counter top to work. But yesterday, at the ripe old age of a few days shy of 41 years old, I just realized that cooking a stir-fried cabbage dish can be so easy! LOL! It’s true when they say that you grow wiser with age muahahaha!

All I had to do was to reverse the order of how I prepare the cabbage. For decades, I used to 1) remove leaves of cabbage 2) soak them in a basin 3) after few rounds of rinsing, julienne the cabbage into strips 4) whine and fuss how messy it is when cabbage strips and water drop on the kitchen floor 5) clean kitchen floor

Yesterday, I cut the cabbage head into half (BEFORE WASHING & SOAKING), as shown in below picture…

Also, you have to cut off and discard stalk end. Remove any discoloured or wilted leaves and discard.
Cut each half in two again.

How to prepare cabbage : Photo of step #3
You will notice that there is a white hard stalk inside, so you cut that out too.
Then I julienned/cut the cabbage into thin strips. It is SO SO easy to julienne the cabbage when it is in its original form as the leaves are stuck tightly and neatly to each other, making the chopping job so much easier.

Once the chopping is done, use fingers to loosen the strips of cabbage leaves in a basin of water. I always wash 3 rounds before soaking the veggie for a few hours. I also use my fruits and veggie wash from Melaleuca to wash my veggie.

Drain water off the cabbage with a colander before stir-frying them. Yesterday, I made a big portion of stir-fried cabbage with minced pork and egg sauce. I kept one portion which will be my lunch today 😀

I know many of you already know this easy way to wash and cut your cabbage but if you are still as blur as a sotong like me and love eating cabbage, this method will help ease your cabbage cooking job a lot 🙂

No. of times viewed = 1994

Carelessness Kills!

Alycia got back almost all her first term test papers this week. If this was her UPSR exam, she would have scored all As and would be a straight A student. BUT…. both the Mandarin tutor and I are very disappointed with her marks. Why? CARELESSNESS! I told Alycia that she must have left her brain on her computer table of her bedroom when she sat for her tests in school. I told her that I will remove the D-Link router from her computer three weeks before her mid-term exam next month and she will have no more access to the internet. All her mistakes were careless mistakes and she repeated the same mistakes that she made in previous exams, which I had over and over and over again drummed into her not to repeat them! When I saw her English test papers just now, I could feel steam spewing out from my head as the mistake that she made was the exact same mistake that she made in previous tests! And a day before her English test, I reminded her repeatedly on the grammar and what she was supposed to write and what not to write. What do I know!! She did just the opposite!!

Getting all As is not a problem for Alycia but being in an elite class, the majority of the pupils score As in all their test papers and this time, she lost to many of them, though only for a few marks. For each mark lost, her position would go down by a number. I am angry not because she did not get the marks that I expected her to get. I am angry because she kept repeating the same type of mistakes in the ‘Sentence Making’ section and it’s not that I did not do my job by not explaining to her. She always feels that I am a very long winded nagging mum, reminding her of the same thing over and over again. But I know my daughter too well. Even with repeated reminders, she can still make the same grammatical mistake, not once, not twice, not thrice but many times! This I can’t accept! Totally not acceptable! GRRRRR!!

So, just now, I zeroxed a copy of the Sentence Making page of her English test paper and stuck that on the window of her room. Each time she sits at the table to do her homework, she will have to look at her silly careless mistake and seethe with regret. Hopefully this mistake will be imbedded in her head forever from now onwards! *ROARRRRRRR*!!!

No. of times viewed = 1593

Maids Issues

For the past 4 days, my back-up part-time maid (Maid H) has been unable to attend work. Last night, she sent me a text message subtly telling me that she would like to stop work. I was really disappointed after reading the message as this meant that I will have no part-time maids coming to help me anymore. My main part-time maid (Maid M) is taking a short break as the lump in her neck has been giving her pain. The surgery to remove the lump on her neck is scheduled for this month end. Today, the MIL left for Hawaii and will be away for over a month. Which means, I will have no help at all with the house chores and in the kitchen, especially on school-going days when the girls will have very little time to help out.

Ever since Dyah, our live-in maid of 4.5 years left us a year and a half ago, I had gone through many periods of despair when I could not find a suitable part-time maid. After trying out the services of hourly paid maids, which I vowed never to engage again, I went through the pains of finding a part-time maid on my own. I recruited maids from coffee shops, road side stalls and just about everywhere. I was blessed with 3 part-time maids whom I felt very comfortable with. But one of them stopped working as her husband did not like my working hours, which I only want the maids to come after 5pm.

Maid M is by far the best maid ever, with a wonderful personality, very amiable and produces impeccable quality of work. She is the one with the lump in her neck and needs to go for a surgery and is now on a break. Maid H – she claimed yesterday that her husband has Dengue fever, thus would like to stop work temporarily. I’ll give her a benefit of doubt, though I know that there is only a 50% chance that she will return to work.

After sleeping on this problem (that seems to be a problem that keeps cropping up several times in a year when the maids take prolonged leave or decide to stop working), I decided this morning that perhaps a hiatus in my online store business would be the best solution. I prayed to God for a solution. This morning at about 10am, Maid M sent me a text message. She sent her regards to us and asked me if she could come back to work after her surgery next month. I jumped at the opportunity to ask her to come back to work immediately and she agreed! Thank you God for sending Maid M to ease me out at a time when I really needed help. I am so glad that she has decided to come back to work while waiting for her surgery date. I am now contemplating to sponsor a part of her surgery. Maid M is God sent and I wish that she is able to work for us for as long as I need a maid.

No. of times viewed = 1058

Our Typical Sunday Evening

Each time we have a heavy lunch on a Sunday, the girls would tell me that they only want to have something really light for dinner, like salad, sandwiches or leftover food that we had for lunch. But each time we have a light dinner on a Sunday night, the girls, especially Alycia would feel uneasy afterwards. After walloping her light dinner, she would be searching our two fridges, to look for ‘real food’. And we would always end up with a bowl of instant noodles with eggs, sans the sachet of flavor enhancer.

Yesterday, we had lunch at Han Room @ Gardens. Three hours later, hubs brought us to Ippudo to have Japanese food. When it was time for dinner, the girls were not a wee bit hungry. We had herbal eggs that I bought from Purple Cane and Sherilyn whipped up some avocado cucumber onion salad, to go with bread. As usual, Alycia felt uneasy after dinner and rummaged through the fridges again and we ended up having instant noodles again! This time, I cooked the noodles with our leftover chicken + abalone soup which the MIL boiled the night before. I whacked in two eggs, pepper and sea salt and the 3 girls wolfed down the bowl of noodles in a jiffy, burped and said that this is what they call real food, LOL!

I told Alycia that the next time we have a heavy lunch on a Sunday, I will just takeout a packet of fried rice or fried noodles before we leave the mall coz if I don’t, we will most likely end up eating instant noodles for dinner again. Too much of instant noodles is bad, though I never use the sachets of MSG.

Our yummy Korean instant noodles cooked with chicken + abalone soup, two eggs and chicken meat from the soup sans MSG. So delish was our not so unhealthy instant noodles!

No. of times viewed = 1303

Our Saturday – 15 March 2014

On a hot and humid Saturday morning today, the girls had a Skype video call with Sarah ku ku (hubs’ youngest sis) from Hawaii.

Sarah kuku showed the girls her collection of seashells collected from the shores of Hawaii and they were all ooooing and aaaaing when they saw the huge and pretty seashells. She promised the girls that she will give them some of the seashells, which grandma will bring back from Hawaii next month. Yup, grandma will be flying off to Hawaii in a few days, which means that I will have no more help in the kitchen for over a month. Oh well, I am used to it anyway 😉

Check out Alycia doing her Caligraphy homework. I hate it whenever Alycia and Sherilyn bring home Caligraphy for homework as there will surely be dried black paint flakes flown everywhere onto the floor, which means I have to break my back to clean up. One time, Alycia spilled her bottle of ink all over the floor, with the ink splattered onto my cupboard, dining table and chairs and clothes!!

There is still no news on the missing MAS airplane that went missing since last Saturday and today is the 7th day that it disappeared into the thin air (or deep blue sea).

On a happier note, there are beautiful clouds in the BLUE skies today and the haze is gone, YAY!!! Thank you to the strong winds today. Finally we can open up our sliding door and windows to breathe in fresh air! And our clothes need not smell as if they were taken out from the chimney. Now, we have to pray for RAIN to pour on our severely dry land, failing which a Water Emergency will be declared soon!

Happy weekend everyone and let’s pray that the missing MAS airplane will be found ASAP.

No. of times viewed = 752

Crazy Weather

The weather in the Klang Valley has been crazily hot and choking. Never mind that it is hot and choking with haze as long as there is flowing water from the taps. But no. Most areas in the Klang Valley have been affected by the water rationing exercise. My heart goes out to those affected by the water rationing. I can imagine their sufferings now in this hot and hazy weather, leaving them sweaty, moody and angry.

So imagine… on a hot and sweltering day, there is not a drop of water from the tap for you to shower. All the windows in your house are shut as it is too hazy and smoky outside. You feel so tempted to touch the Start button of the air-conditioner BUT then you remember that effective January 2014, electric rates have increased!! So how? Strip off the layers of clothes and sleep on the cool floor of the house lor. If the kampung folks can live peacefully with minimal usage of electricity and water, so can we, right?!

I was waiting for the hubs to pick me up after buying lunch yesterday. The temperature was about 36 degrees C but felt like 40 degrees C. I was sweating profusely, though I was waiting outside the shops under some shade. The skies were still bluish but devoid of clouds, as shown in the picture below. Even if there were clouds, cloud seeding cannot be done now as all the air crafts have been deployed to search for the missing MAS 370 plane. If the drought continues, I think my area would definitely not be spared from the water rationing.

The haze condition worsened drastically this morning. This picture was taken at 7:45am. It smelled of smoke everywhere, even inside the house. Alycia told me last night that she felt as if she was in Genting Highlands as the skies looked gloomy.

With such gloomy weather and gloomy news everywhere, everyday, I am feeling gloomy too. It’s just 2 more days to Sunday and I can’t wait to zoom off to the shopping mall to get my dosage of retail therapy and to enjoy the free air-cond teeheehee….

No. of times viewed = 3182

My Baby Girl

Cass’ morning ritual is to drink a glass of yoghurt drink before she sits on the throne, brushes her teeth, takes a quick shower and off she goes to kindy. This morning, as with other mornings, she dilly dallied a wee bit. Before I went into the bathroom to shower, I told her to quickly gulp down her yoghurt drink and as soon as I am out, in she’ll go into the bathroom to do her morning dump on the throne. But when I was out from the bathroom, I saw her still seated at the dining table and she was clipping her toe nails. I was fuming mad as she was already running late. Before I barked at her, it suddenly dawned on me that what my baby girl was doing ain’t wrong. She was merely clipping her toe nails as I am always too busy to clip her finger nails and toe nails for her. And she did not bug me to help her clip her nails.

Cass learned how to clip her finger nails and toe nails at about 4 or 5 years old and she could do it immaculately too. I am pretty proud of Cass. She learned to eat on her own when she was about 1.5 years old unlike her two sisters who both had a kakak to feed them till they were about 3 or 4 years old. Cass could do many things on her own without my help. Mummy is always tied down with a chore and with work. So she has learned to do things on her own to meet her own needs. This girl is a fighter, a fighter in her own right. She fights for her life and has beaten all odds and she also fights like a fighter cock with her sisters!

No. of times viewed = 985

Updates From HFM :)

I just realized that there has been no update in this blog for 5 days! And I thought that it was only 2 or 3 days. Apart from my lungs and nostrils, my mind must have been choked by the dreadful haze too.

So what have I been up to?

I have been feeling a little under the weather, no thanks to hubs who has been carrying around the flu and strep throat bugs for over a week. I do not usually succumb to these kind of bugs but I am more susceptible this time, caused by the worsening haze. Inside our house, the smell of smoke has been pretty strong, for the past few nights. The acrid smoke smell has been so bad that we had to close our windows and turn on the air purifier throughout the night.

Our regular part-time maids who used to come almost daily can only work for us 4 times a week now. Thus, I will be tied down on maid-less days.

Alycia is sitting for her first term school exam this week, so I spent the weekend revising BM with her.

I also spent much of my time on Saturday and Sunday refreshing my computer screen to get updates on the Missing Malaysia Airlines MAS Flight MH370.

Despite having a terrible flu with swollen eyes, red nose and watery goo flowing out from my nostrils the whole of yesterday, I forced myself to sit next to Alycia to revise BM with her. In between, I forced my arse out of the chair to do some house chores. I told Alycia yesterday that I will be her slave until her exam is over and she need not have to do any chores during the exam period. I promised her that I will watch ’12 Years A Slave’ with her when her exam is over. I told her to compare the slave in the movie with me to see if we have got similar sufferings! LOL! I have always been telling my girls that I am like a slave to them, where I have to work over 18 hours a day with no rest days, no pay, no bonus and even have to work when I am as sick as a dog.

Tuition time with Ms M, the girls’ Mandarin tutor, whom I am very thankful and grateful to, for being a wonderful tutor with a wonderful attitude. My girls Whatsapp and call her all the time whenever they need help with homework.

Dinner was something really simple to prepare with minimal washing — porridge with roast pork. I did not even clear the dining table when we had dinner yesterday. We ate with books surrounding us 😛

No. of times viewed = 1447

Spared From Water Rationing

Yesterday I sent a Facebook message to Puspel, the water management company to seek confirmation on whether our area is affected by the water rationing. This is because our ‘Taman’ is not specifically listed out in the Water Rationing Notice. All our close neighbors are affected and listed out in the Notice. Our condo Management also called up the water management company to get a confirmation. And the replies from Puspel to us were…. our ‘Taman’ is S P A R E D!! Woohoo!! **doing the happy dance** But we ain’t going to be too happy just yet as there may be a Phase 3 (which is likely to be announced soon) and Phase 4 of the water rationing exercise, which may include our ‘Taman’.

In our home, we are all on stand-by mode, with pails and containers of water, just in case the water management head decides to pull the water switch off. Though the cloud-seeding exercise has been bearing fruit with rain for the past two days, we however cannot be happy as the rain may not have fallen at the water catchment areas and even if it did, the short rain respite is definitely not enough to fill up the dams.

So for now, we are just thankful to God for sparing us from the hardship. And I pray that the water rationing exercise will be called off very soon. I had gone through the hardship 16 years ago and I know how difficult and stressful it is, especially for household with young kids and sick ones (especially those stricken with diarrhea!). So dear God, do continue to answer our prayers by sending torrential rains to the water catchment areas everyday. Amen!

No. of times viewed = 2909