September 2015 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Water Rationing At Our Condo – Day 2

This morning the water did not come back at 6am as promised. Not a trickle of water from our tap and I was fuming mad! The stored water from one bathroom was finished off really quickly. A lot of water was needed to flush toilets. The girls were fighting to use the other bathroom which had more stored water. We were super late but thank goodness, the transporter was late to arrive too! I guess she must have spent her pre-dawn morning carrying buckets of water as well. At 6:15am, I sent a Whatsapp message to the condo manager and asked him why there was still no water yet.

At 10:30am, the condo manager replied my Whatsapp message and told me that Syabas has resumed water supply to our condo and the water rationing has ended! What?? After they made me skip my morning exercise so that I could use the time to rush like a mad woman to store water, wash dishes, wash toilets, clean the floor and shower myself, I was told that there is now water. I was happy yet angry! The water rationing notice stated that there will only be water supply from 6am to 9am and from 6pm to 9pm today.

Everyone thinks that the new condo manager over reacted by imposing a water rationing. The clever Japanese builders that designed our condo designed the water tanks big enough to store water to last the residents for 3 days in the event of water cuts. In our 7 years living here, we have never once experienced a water rationing at our condo albeit our neighborhood had water cuts and water rationing.

This morning, I had to dig out more containers to store more water coz yesterday, the water that I stored was not enough for everyone. Every basin, pail, water tumbler and mini pail that I could find was used to store water. Now that the water rationing has ended abruptly, I will have to use all the stored water to flush toilets.

Almost every available space in our bathroom had pails filled with water to the brim. I even used our waste paper baskets to store water!

Because of all the rush and stress, I had headache the whole morning. I have just downed another packet of Izumio hydrogen water and the headache seems to have gone away! But not the haze. The skies are still gloomy and smoky. How is the haze situation at your end?

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Crazy Hazy Waterless Day

Today has been a day filled with various obstacles for me.

First, we are affected by the 2.5-day water cut in certain areas in KL caused by an inlet valve replacement at one of the major water tanks in KL. Living in a condo, we have always been spared from the brunt of water rationing or unscheduled water cuts as there are huge water storage tanks at our condo to last us for 2 days should there be a water cut. But this time, the condo Manager has to ration our water supply as the inlet valve replacement job involves major works and he is worried that the water cut will be extended.

Under this water rationing imposed by the condo Management, we will get water for 6 hours a day from 6-9am and 6-9pm. For a clean freak like me, that is so not enough! We clean ourselves after every pee and poo job alright. And my dear Aunt Flow just has to come today right smack on the day the water rationing starts. Remember I have a uterine fibroid and my AFs are super heavy? Great! My bathroom is a disgusting sight now.

Since last night, I have been busy filling up water containers. I filled up every container and water tumbler that I could find in the house with water.

After swimming this morning, I hurriedly did all the chores that require water usage. When the girls returned from school, the stored water was depleted at the snap of a finger! Water is just like money. It’s so hard to earn them but it takes just seconds and minutes to exhaust them all. No wonder money is called ‘sui’ (water) in Chinese!

Lunch was take-away food and dinner was at a nearby restaurant that was not affected by the water cut.

Next problem was the darn lifts at our condo. One of the lifts is out of order due to replacement of new lifts for the entire building. The other lift also conked out since last week, got repaired and conked out again. I walked up and down our unit on the fifth floor more than 10 times since yesterday!

In the evening, we were stuck for over half an hour in the horrendous traffic jam when I picked Sherilyn up from the tuition centre. When we got home, it was already close to 7:30pm and this meant we only had 1.5 hours to bathe, clean the bathrooms, boil water, wash the girls’ water bottles, lunch boxes and store more water!

I am now having an achy back and sore arms from carrying pails of water and having to contort myself in our squeezy bathroom that’s placed with pails in every available walking space. Tomorrow will be an even tougher day for me. God help me please!!

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Our Very Hazy Saturday – 26 Sept 2015

The haze is back and it’s back at full choking force! This morning I woke up at 7am to the smell of smoke in the bedroom. By 11am, it got worse. My nose has been itchy the whole morning and felt ‘dirty’ inside the nostrils. The dust monitor on our Sharp air purifier has been in red and yellow mode since this morning and it doesn’t seem to turn into green.

Just a moment ago, I stepped out to the balcony to snap this picture. My eyes became watery after just 3 minutes outside.

KLCC and KL Tower are normally seen in the backdrop, behind the block of condo in the middle but today, they are totally invisible!

It looks as if the API will shoot up to 300+ just like our neighbor, Singapore. My friend from Singapore brought her kids back to Malaysia two days ago for a respite since schools are out caused by the haze.

We have been gulping down packets of hydrogen water to keep ourselves protected against the hazardous haze and I’ve been popping 6 caps of Super Lutein a day to keep my immune system and eyes in top form.

While I attended piano class with Cass in the evening, Alycia and Sherilyn followed their grand uncle to the supermarket for grocery shopping.

We had dinner at the girls’ grand uncle’s house and later the girls played lantern and lit up candles in the garden.

Tomorrow will be another hair-pulling and throat-shattering day for me. It’s exactly a week away from Sherilyn and Cass’ final exam and we are staying home to revise. While the 3 of us would stay in torture chamber, Alycia gets to enjoy a movie date with her grand uncle at the cinema before he returns to New Zealand. The other 2 girls are green with envy and I promised them that after exam, they’ll get a movie treat to watch Mount Everest in 3D.

Happy weekend world!! 🙂

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Precious Bonding Moments

Precious bonding moments pictures of the girls with my parents and younger brother during my mum’s 69th birthday celebration in KL last week (18 – 20 September 2015)…

The girls played Monopoly with their koong koong for 3 hours on Sunday! 2 hours in the afternoon and 1 hour after we came back from dinner.

Cass with Roy kau fu (my younger brother)…

Koong koong brought them to the pool area to play lantern on Saturday night…

Playing lantern by the pool – only a doting grandfather would do this at 10ish pm!

And accompanied the girls to Borders to shop for books …

Cass with her best buddy. That’s what she calls her granny and my mum calls Cass honey bunny 🙂

On the day that my parents were to return to Ipoh, Cass was in a very foul and crabby mood in the morning as she dreaded the day that she had to bid goodbye to them. She pleaded with her koong koong and granny not to go back to Ipoh. She hugged her best buddy and refused to let go of her…

Till we meet again in November dearest papa and mummy. The girls and I can’t wait to see you and spend our holiday in Penang together again! Cass is already counting down to the days 🙂 🙂

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Mum’s Birthday Celebration At Hiong Kong Restaurant, Pudu Plaza

It would take other people three to four weeks’ advance booking to secure a table on a weekend and the order had to be placed at least three days prior to the actual meal, specifying the dishes and number of diners, so that the chef could shop accordingly. But for the hubs, he booked a table only a week prior to the dinner as he is a regular at this small-based restaurant. Plus he personally knows the owner of the restaurant. Mum’s 69th birthday this year was celebrated at Hiong Kong Restaurant @ Pudu Plaza, KL.

This might sound like an exclusive restaurant in one of the city’s finer dining spots, but it wasn’t. It was a most unlikely location, a small ‘tai chow’ stall located in the basement of a mall in Pudu Plaza, downtown Kuala Lumpur. There are probably only about 10 tables (about 4 big tables only). Foodies have long known about Hiong Kong Restaurant and the chef who turns out dishes worthy of a five-star Chinese banquet hall. Hubs had patronized this stall several times with his bunch of basketball mates but it was my first time there.

The first dish that arrived after a long wait was the yam basket lobster combination. It composes of a large lobster (meat steamed and mixed with salad sauce), deep fried yam basket, fried prawns, jelly fish, century eggs and various accompaniments. I noticed that the other 2 big tables also ordered the same dish.

Next was an exotic fried boneless ‘chicken’. It’s a combination of fish and chicken dish where the thin layer of meat is actually fish paste. The outer layer is crispy chicken skin.

Next was fish maw soup and sauteed Hong Kong ‘choy sum far’ (pictures not taken).

And the not to be missed Longevity Noodles.

Desserts were pretty unique. We had bubur cha cha boiled in whole coconut shell and cooked yam in a caramelised sugar shell.

The bubur cha cha sweetness was not overpowering like most ‘tong suis’ are. There were generous amounts of gingko nuts.

An unusual dessert of cooked yam in a caramelised sugar shell.

We were so full that we had to bring the birthday cake back and even planned to cut the cake the next day. But we went to the next venue – Les Deux Garcons to have coffee, tea and cake cutting session. Mum said that since everyone was around, she wanted a picture with her complete family, thus the cake was cut and everyone had a small slice of cake 🙂

HIONG KONG RESTAURANT
Hiong Kong Food Square, LC5
Lower Ground, Pudu Plaza
Jalan Landak
Pudu, Kuala Lumpur

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Our Malaysia Day Holiday – 16 September 2015

On Wednesday, which was Malaysia Day holiday, we stayed put in our neighborhood. Everyone was wary of the shirt rally in the heart of KL and avoided going downtown.

After brekkie at the coffee shop, hubs suggested massage at our regular massage and reflexology center…. again!

The lady boss, who is a Chinese national acceded to hubby’s request for a free foot reflexology for Cass since we are regulars at her place. And Cass got a 15-minute soothing and gentle massage on her feet complimentary! But she was really shy to be massaged by a man, as you can see from the picture here.

While we were having massage, Alycia and Sherilyn spent the day at their grand uncle’s house, where their grand uncle gave them a tutorial on how to make lasagna.

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Still Hazy – 17 September 2015

This morning, I had to skip swimming and brisk-walking outside as it was drizzling plus the air was just so so so choking bad!! The moment I woke up and opened the sliding door, I could smell smog!

The picture below was taken at about 7am.

The dust monitor on our Sharp air purifier showed RED which signifies high dust particles in the air.

I quickly hopped over to the Official Air Pollutant Index site to check the readings but dang it, the readings were not updated. I also hopped to the Ministry of Education website to see if there was any announcement on school closure again but there was no update.

Today should have been declared another day of school holiday. I am so worried for all the kids out there breathing in smog and having their lungs choked. The past few days, the girls and I have been downing packets of Izumio hydrogen water and Super Lutein to clear our lungs and to stay healthy and thank God, we are still fine and dandy with no sore throat, no eye irritation and no flu. The 2 girls at our block who join Cass for swimming are down with sore throat and flu again and Cass’ swimming class had to be cancelled yesterday. Several kids in the school van including the van driver are down with flu too.

How’s the haze situation at your area? Thank God tomorrow will be the last day of school before the 1-week school term break begins, YAY!!!

If anyone of you wishes to try hydrogen water or carotenoids supplements, do drop me an email at shireenyong@gmail.com. Check out my new batch of Izumio stock above 😀

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One-Stop Mobile Shop For Buying And Selling

The other day, the mil was spring-cleaning the kitchen cabinets as they were bursting with containers. She fished out a stack of cute lunch boxes and water bottles that have been sitting inside the kitchen cabinets for yonks. They were mostly gifts and some were purchased by this shopping queen via impulse buying 😀 She asked me to give those containers away since she has never seen anyone of us using them before. I told her that I will sell them online. Too ‘sayang’ to give them away as they are mostly brand new. So yup, I now have to find some buyers for my stash of cute lunch boxes and water bottles.

Coincidentally, I just found out about this mobile marketplace called Shopee designed for both buyers and sellers to enjoy fast, smooth and safe transactions. All I have to do is to snap pictures of what I want to sell and post it on Shopee, that easy!

I have just installed the Shopee app onto my Samsung android phone. And I can start to sell anything that I want at the touch of a few buttons! Shopee Guarantee ensures that the seller ships only after the buyer has paid, and the buyer’s payment is transferred to the seller only after receiving the product. Shopee aims to create a simple and secure mobile marketplace for everyone to buy and sell, anytime, anywhere.

Benefits Of Selling & Buying On Shopee vs Instagram
1. Free for all
Shopee app is free for all smartphone users (Android and iOS) to download and use. Shopee does not charge in any way, it is a platform for sellers to explore without having the concerns of payment.

2. Privacy Matters
With the “Chat” function, conversation is kept within the app and personal between seller and buyer. Does not require the seller to expose personal contact details to buyers.

3. Easy payment
i. Buyers can make payment for all items via credit card and online banking. No hassle of having to go to the machine to make payment.
ii. Sellers can avoid the hassle of having to cross check all bank transfer/payment made via credit card or online banking for their items. Shopee will do all the matching to ensure all payment is correct.

4. Shopee at your service
Shopee customer service is always a call away to provide support for all matters regarding Shopee service from payment, to delivery status right up to product quality.

5. Expand your horizons
With Shopee, as a seller you will be able to widen your customer base while for buyers, experience great deals and shop anytime, anywhere.

6. Social media
Share your favourite items or your own store with your friends and family on social media.

How to get started?
First step – you can download the Shopee app via

http://www.shopee.com.my/download?pid=OrganicA&c=blog_blogger_content

Goodies especially for my dear readers…

You can now shop on Shopee with the given discount voucher as listed below.
i) Code: ILOVESHOPEE

ii) Code Value : RM10.00

iii) Usage : Shopee marketplace – storewide

iv) T&C : Minimum spend of RM30, valid for one-time use only and applicable to all items at the Shopee marketplace.

Promo code must be entered at the Checkout page.

Applicable to payments involving Shopee Guarantee (credit, card, online banking & bank transfers only)

Further information can be found at the following sites:
1) Official Website: http://shopee.com.my/mobile/
2) Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShopeeMY
3) Official Instagram: https://instagram.com/shopee_my/

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Our Tuesday – 15 September 2015

Today is an emergency government declared holiday for schools in several states in Malaysia, caused by the haze. Coincidentally, it is also the girls’ school anniversary holiday today. When we went to the coffee shop for breakfast this morning, we saw many kids still in their uniform having brekkie. Their parents were obviously not aware of the holiday, which was only declared at midnight! Yup, we have a bunch of jokers up there but I ain’t going to elaborate further lest I get myself into trouble… you get what I mean? Anyway, today’s haze situation ain’t as terrible as yesterday, thanks to the rain. Yesterday was horrendous!

After breakfast, we segued into Les Deux Garcons to have coffee, cakes and salad.

Then we went shopping and Grandma bought Cass a My Melody lantern. I am going to miss seeing my last baby playing with a lantern. I am pretty sure that by next year, Cass will be past the stage of lantern-playing, just like her 2 che ches.

At home, holiday mood filled the air and the girls ain’t perturbed by the hazy air at all. The 3rd term school holiday begins this weekend and they are so looking forward to having koong koong and granny here!

Tomorrow is yet another public holiday (Malaysia Day). We will be home-bound and staying away from town. News (hopefully rumors) have it that the Shirt Rally may turn chaotic. So we will just stick in our neighborhood. The girls will be at their grand uncle’s house to get a lasagna cooking tutorial from him 🙂

For those living in the Klang Valley, stay safe and stay healthy. Let’s pray that the haze situation improves and that the Shirt Rally will be anything but peaceful.

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My First Diamond Coral Gold Water Filter

H20 consists of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. This substance also known as water, is one of the most essential elements to our body and all living things in this planet.

Water makes up more than two thirds of human body weight, and without water, we would die in a few days. The human brain is made up of 95% water, blood is 82% and lungs 90%. A mere 2% drop in our body’s water supply can trigger signs of dehydration. This is why clean water is so vital for our body to stay healthy and to function optimally.

This week, one of my wishes finally came true! I had long wanted to get a water filter for our wet kitchen so that we can wash and soak our veggies, rice, grains and raw meat using filtered water. Currently, we only have one water filter (using electric) in the dry kitchen. We collect water for cooking and boiling from this water filter. I have always wanted to wash and soak our veggies using filtered water but it’s really inconvenient to be doing all the washing in our dry kitchen, which is pretty cramped. So with both eyes closed, we have been washing our meat and veggies with regular tap water.

I have lots of qualms over the quality of unfiltered water at the place where I live. Our toilet bowls often have mud-like stains though we wash them every day. Our white clothes turn yellowish over time. This is evidence that our unfiltered water is indeed adulterated with rust from old water pipes and other contaminants and dirt, which cannot be immediately seen by the naked eyes.

With many many thanks to Diamond, the world renowned experts in water filters, they have given me one of the best gifts this year by loaning me their latest water filter model – the Diamond Coral Gold! The duration I get to use the Diamond Coral Gold water filter will be for 1 year, after which I can either return it to them OR take up their High Value Trade In offer. I shall explain more on the High Value Trade In campaign in my next post.

This is how my Diamond Coral Gold water filter looks like – full of elegance and efficient in filtering our drinking water.

Diamond Coral water filters use 100% natural purifying materials such as as diatomite, coral calcium, coconut shells and bamboo charcoal base activated carbon. This system can purify harmful elements over a hundred times and it can get rid of radioactive elements found in the water while keeping intact the minerals vital to the human bodies.

The filtered water can be consumed without boiling. However, if you have young kids with sensitive tummies, you can boil the water to have a peace of mind.

The Diamond technician who came to my place was a jovial chap who knew his stuff well. I bombarded him with a long list of questions on the water filter and he patiently answered all my questions 😀 He was also very punctual on the appointment day and gave me ample notice (by calling me on my phone) before turning up at my place.

After slightly less than an hour, my Diamond Coral Gold water filter was finally installed! Before Mr Diamond left, he snapped a few pictures of newly installed water filter and asked my mil to stand next to it. She was reluctant to be the model but finally gave in since Mr Diamond was such a nice chap LOL! This is a requirement by the company as proof that the machine has been successfully installed at the client’s home.

With a water filter in our wet kitchen, cooking is now made easier. The mil and I don’t have to carry our pots and pans into the dry kitchen to fill them up with filtered water for boiling soups and cooking rice.

Diamond Coral water machine is the world’s few water filter machines that passed over 200 performance measurements and safety testing. They are awarded NSF42 and 53 Gold Seal by the USA Water Quality Association (WQA).

As I am typing this post, my MIL is busy whipping up a storm in the kitchen. Now she does not need to walk in and out of both the kitchens to get filtered water.

Water filters are not a want, they are a need, a necessity for better health. If you do not have one yet, well, you can consider Diamond. Do hop over to Diamond website to check the models and the packages.

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Giveaway – Cute Hello Kitty Bags From Ensogo!!

Hear ye, hear ye fans of Hello Kitty!! Here’s a chance for you to win a super duper cute and unique Hello Kitty bag in the Ensogo Shop And Win contest!

From 15 through 30 September 2015, you can partake in a Shop And Win contest organized by Ensogo, Southeast Asia’s premier online shopping portal. The 3 prizes would be 3 super duper cute Hello Kitty bags, as shown in the photos below:

Here’s what you have to do in the Ensogo Shop And Win contest from 15 through 30 September 2015,:

Shop at online shopping portal
As soon as you have received your product/order from Ensogo, snap a picture of the item.
Post your item purchased from Ensogo in your Facebook page and state “Love my xxxxx (your item) ordered online from Ensogo!”
In your Facebook posting, link the word Ensogo to the Ensogo website: http://www.ensogo.com.my/ and state how easy and convenient it is to shop online at Ensogo.
Email your Facebook posting link / URL to Health Freak Mommy at shireenyong@gmail.com
The 3 winners of the Hello Kitty bags will be announced in this blog by early October 2015

Best of all — there is NO MINIMUM amount of cash to be spent in your shopping at Ensogo! Awesome pawsome right?

So what are you waiting for? Quick hop over to Ensogo to start shopping now!! You can also download to shop on the go. For those of you looking for baby strollers, Ensogo is having a now.

Ensogo is also starting off an Offline Event for the contest to win Hello Kitty products today (Tuesday, 15 Sept 2015) at the Kelana Jaya LRT station from 2pm-5pm

Details: Ensogo Malaysia Quiz
Location: Kelana Jaya LRT station, PJ
Time: 15 September 2015, 2pm-5pm

If you are available today, head over to the Kelana Jaya LRT Station to stand a chance to grab Ensogo cash vouchers and exciting Hello Kitty goodies!

All the best!!

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Our Saturday – 13 Sept 2015

It’s the first Saturday post UPSR exam. Alycia finally gets to join us for breakfast and then grocery shopping. For the past 9 months, her Saturdays were spent in school from 7am till 3pm. Life was grueling for these 11-12 year olds. They were drilled to score straight As. I don’t like this kind of army-style grilling. The past 9 months of her life centered on just school books, piles of workbooks and worksheets, memorization, purging of what was taught, tests after tests and more tests.

Alycia’s first real battlefield is now behind her. I think Miss Cool Cucumber has fought very calmly as I see no fear, panic or distress in her at all! From the teacher’s own marking in school, Alycia has a ‘B’ for her Chinese paper. But she is not really sulking over a ‘B’ as the UPSR Chinese paper this year had questions meant for SPM (Form 5) takers! The questions were found to have been extracted from a SPM Chinese workbook and junior high textbook in China. There’s been a lot of media on this issue for the past few days. Horror!! Our hope now is that the passing and scoring marks will be lowered for that matter. I think it’s fair.

Here’s the article from The Star:

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2015/09/13/Wee-SPMlevel-text-used-in-UPSR-Comprehension-passage-taken-from-secondary-school-workbook/

Shopping after our breakfast on Saturday.

Both sisters were in a very cheery mood. At Alycia’s request, I bought her a second tub of Sunnyside Farms ice cream and 3 boxes of Magnum Gold ice creams. She’s been eating chocolates and ice creams everyday for the past 1 month to de-stress! I can see the exam stress lifted off her shoulders now and she’s chillaxing with more ice creams and an overdose of iPod at home, for the loss of playtime for the past 1 month, HA!

We had dinner at Sun Kam Kee restaurant @ Pudu.

After dinner, hubs brought us for cakes and soft serve ice cream at Red Kettle.

I will have many battlefields and hurdles to grapple with and cross together with my daughters for the next 15 years. I pray that God will bestow me with guidance and strength to guide them well with none of us going into a mental breakdown 😀

We will now have to wait for 2 months before the UPSR results are out. In the meantime, I’ll let the big girl enjoy her 3 months of freedom before she starts junior high school!

Happy Sunday world! 😀

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Cocky Maid

Crap of the day from the drama queen part-time maid today…

She called me this morning to inform me that she would like to start work again. I told her that I have already found a new part-time maid. Nonetheless, I will still be calling her whenever the new part-time maid takes leave. I then asked her if she’d like to work today (Saturday). I don’t normally engage part-time maids for the weekends. But I know that this maid is desperately in need of money to pay her pile of debts in Indonesia and I wanted to help her earn more money. But this fella had to cheek to ask me whether washing shoes is still part of the chores!! Of course it is! If I can do it myself, I won’t be engaging her to help me! I pay my part-time maids RM800 a month.

She had the cheek to tell me this “saya take suka cuci kasut. Cuci kasut sangat susah payah la. Kalau mau cuci kasut, saya tak mau kerja”

Translated from BM to English: I don’t like to wash shoes. Washing shoes is very difficult. If you want me to wash shoes, I don’t want to work.

WTF??? I. could. not. believe. my. ears.!! Not that I am asking her to wipe the windows on the ledge of the windows from the 5th floor!

From day 1, she has been pleading with me to let her work. In fact, she forced her niece, who is my most liked part-time maid, to stop working for me so that she could take the job to repay her debts. She was literally begging me for work and told me that she could do anything and could work on any day that I wanted her to. And now, barely 2 months later, she has turned around 360 degrees into a cocky and picky-picky play-hard-to-get maid.

Fine, you can very well drown in your pile of shitty debts la. If I have a choice, I will never ever call you to work again. And hello, you still owe me money! The money that I gave you to see a doctor last week.

But I did not say that to her. I don’t want to burn my bridge yet knowing very well that it’s the maids’ market now and it’s dang hard to find a part-time maid now.

I just ended the call abruptly by telling her that I will call her if ever need her again.

I still can’t believe that she said such things to me.

Moral of the story is: don’t be overly nice to anyone and do not let your staff / worker / maid feel that they are indispensable. They will one day turn back and climb up your head and control you!!

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Freedom At Last!

Alycia’s UPSR exam is finally over! Today, she brought back some of the UPSR test papers marked by her anxious school teachers while the answer sheets have been sent for marking by MoE appointed teachers. Now we roughly know how many As Alycia will be getting!

Did you read the article from Sin Chew Daily today which reported that this year’s UPSR Chinese test paper is way beyond the level for Year 6 pupils? It reported that the questions were of similar difficulty level with SPM (Form 5) Chinese test paper! Now they are considering lowering the minimum mark for scoring ‘A’ for this year’s UPSR Chinese test paper. And I am feeling hopeful! 🙂

Though Alycia still needs to sit for her school’s final exam in three weeks’ time (for subjects not tested in the UPSR exam), we will enjoy our freedom first! Today she told me a list of things that she wants to do. She has a couple of school trips to attend and her bunch of besties will be having another get together at our place again. Next, she wants to buy a new pair of sneakers. It’s been almost a year since I last bought her shoes.

I don’t like buying expensive shoes for my kids as they outgrow them really fast. Sneakers that are of Alycia’s taste are pretty expensive here. Thus, this time, I will buy them online from malls like Taobao. The only problem would be I have never shopped directly from China retailers and I am a pure yellow banana who does not know Chinese. My friend who does online shopping from Taobao regularly referred me to a taobao agent who will help us to do the ordering.

Check out this funky sneakers. It’s a steal at RM12.08 only and available at Taobao.

I’ll need a few days to browse the Taobao website as there are tens of thousands of products listed there. I may want to get some household stuff too. I hope my first experience shopping at this Alibaba owned website will be pleasant without any fuss.

Have you shopped at Taobao before? Would love to read your comments on your experience shopping at Taobao 🙂

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UPSR Exam Week

This UPSR exam week has not been good for us. It was especially jinx on Monday, the eve of the first day of Alycia’s UPSR exam.

On Monday, everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong. Darn Murphy’s Law!!

Here’s the sequence of jinx that transpired on Monday, 7 Sept 2015…

When the mil and I got back from the supermarket in the morning, the moment we entered the house we heard a loud unusual sound that sounded like a waterfall or something burning inside the house. I ran inside to find the bathroom flooded. The hose connecting the water cistern burst and water was shooting out at high pressure. Dang it, we could not use the toilet for 1 day and had to manually fill up the water cistern to flush.

Next, my worst nightmare came true. My most trusted and best part-time maid sent me an SMS informing me that she wanted to take leave to rest for an indefinite period of time. This is the maid who went for a surgery to remove a lump in her neck last year. Some unusual lumps are now growing again on the same area of her neck. She took more than half a year of leave last year to recuperate.

I thought I could still rely on another part-time maid who is a big drama queen (I kid you not, she’s dang good in drama!) but this drama queen injured her toe when she came to work at our house last Saturday. She dropped a collapsible metal bed on her toe and now wants to take long leave to rest her foot.

This drama queen came up to my place on Monday night and created a drama with sob stories, telling me how painful her toe was, blah blah blah. She didn’t want to leave my house and just sat on the couch. Finally, I drove her to the clinic in a thunderstorm (see, when it rains, it pours!!) and gave her RM60 to see the doctor for her injured toe.

When I got home from the clinic, the door stopper on the front door jammed up and the door could not close. I spent another half hour trying to fix the jinx door but like they said, when it rains, it pours. The door could not be fixed. Hubs came back and removed the door stopper.

I. could. not. believe. my. luck!!

I spent the remaining night washing dishes and cleaning up after dinner.

Jinx to the max!

On the eve of Alycia’s major exam when I thought I could help go through BM Tatabahasa with her, all these unfortunate things happened. As a result, I had no time left to do any revision with her. Plus I was physically and mentally exhausted. I left everything to the girl, who actually preferred to study on her own.

On the first day of the UPSR exam (Tuesday), Alycia gave me a heart attack when she told me what she wrote in her Karangan (BM essay). The girl could have written out of topic!! Alycia chose a topic on ‘Perayaan’ but wrote about ‘Hari Merdeka’. I googled thousands of sites and while a few sites talked about Hari Merdeka as a perayaan, the other sites only mentioned the main festivals like Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, Deepavali, Christmas, etc. as ‘perayaan’. So this topic is very subjective and now it all depends on how the test paper marker views Hari Merdeka as — i.e. is it a ‘perayaan’ or a ‘sambutan’. Dear God, pretty please get a lenient and kind teacher to mark Alycia’s karangan paper!!

Despite the fact that she could be flunking or perhaps get a borderline pass mark in her Karangan paper, Miss Cool Cucumber could still sing a song about herself flunking the Karangan paper and she was so blase about it!! Good or bad?

Whatever it is, what’s done can’t be undone. And I am self consoling myself that at least she did quite well in her Chinese essay paper yesterday. From what the girl told me about what she wrote, I think she has written a well-covered Chinese essay topic. But then again, it all depends on the teacher who is marking the paper. Dear God, pretty please let the test paper marker be a teacher who is in a real good mood at the time she/he marks Alycia’s papers!!

Since last Friday, we have been without a part-time maid and I think I have overworked myself. This morning, while swimming my usual 22 laps in the pool, I sprained my neck and shoulder blade. My muscles have been really tired, taut and achy. Now I feel shittier with a stiff neck. And I am so sleep deprived. I can’t wait for the 1-week school holiday in a week’s time to catch up on my sleep. And I look forward to my parents coming to KL next week. It’s been a while since we last got together.

Today, a new part-time maid will be starting work. I pray that she’ll be a good helper and will be here to stay for as long as we need her.

For those with kids sitting for the UPSR exam this week, how did your kids react to the test papers? Today is the last day of the exam and both Alycia and I are celebrating our real Merdeka Day today. Finally, we can sleep in again on Saturdays. I miss doing this since the beginning of this year. Now it’s time to pay back the sleep bank my sleep debt but I would have to wait until the school holiday coz my very own Miss Drama Queen needs me to chauffeur her to school by 7:30am this Sunday for some dunno what camp!

Blessed is a mother who would give up part of her soul for her children’s happiness 🙂

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Our Sunday – 6 Sept 2015 (Eve Of The Eve of Alycia’s UPSR Exam)

The big girl is finally a little kan cheong and enthusiastic to do an eleventh hour revision today. She’s revising in full steam ahead today. In the morning, she insisted on staying at home to revise while we went out for breakfast and grocery shopping. She usually needs a 2-hour nap in the afternoon but today she skipped her nap. After a day of revising, she’s now taking a one-hour break and watching a movie on You Tube.

I quickly snapped a picture of her messy study area when she went for her toilet break 😀

While Alycia locked herself in the room to study, the other 2 girls busied themselves with making yarn balls (pom poms). I told the girls that the TV will be out of bounds until Alycia’s UPSR exam is over next Thursday.

With help from You Tube, Cass made her very first yarn ball. But she was a tad disappointed with the yarn ball as it ain’t as puffy and fluffy as Sherilyn’s.

Then Cass had an idea and tied the yarn ball to her hair clip! And the flat and dull looking yarn ball transformed into a pretty flower on her hair!

How’s it? Pretty? Cass told me that she will perfect the yarn balls and make more yarn flower hair clips to sell to her friends! Seriously, would you pay RM2 for this hair clip?

She made this pink hair clip for her granny, for her coming 69th birthday.

Sherilyn helped to iron everyone’s clothes, though she totally failed daddy’s shirt!

Happy Sunday peeps. For those with kids sitting for the UPSR exam next week, I wish your kids all the very best!

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