December 2018 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Goodbye 2018, Welcome 2019!

It’s the last day of 2018 already? I can’t believe how fast the year zoomed past us like a bullet train. Time is really like a thief! How I wish I could freeze all those good times. This year has been pretty good to me and my family. Health-wise, all started well until the very end. I am now down with flu, a bad throat, a throbbing head and lost my voice. Throw in an eye flu (Conjunctivitis caused by the flu) today and I am quite down and out. We were supposed to meet up with our besties again in Klang for seafood dinner but we’re going to have to be stuck in our neighborhood, having a simple dinner (with no fried, spicy and oily stuff) at our usual tai-chow Chinese restaurant. The birthday boy bought Musang King durian last night to treat himself and all I could do was to watch everyone in the house savoring and licking the fruit 😷

All I want to do now is to climb into my bed, do nothing but have an uninterrupted sleep until 8 tomorrow morning. Forget about counting down and all the merriment welcoming the new year. Sleep is all I need now to heal. Tomorrow will be the last day I get to sleep in.

I am glad that school is starting again. My exercise regimen resumes and I get back my sanity and my me-time at home when the girls are in school. The only thing I miss about school holidays is my 2-3 hours extra sleep each day.

Today I took the big girl for an eleventh-hour hair cut, then the both of us had Korean again for lunch. We had dinner at the same restaurant 3 nights ago, with my parents. This girl can never get bored of K-food, K-pop and everything K. While she digs into her Kimchi, I had steamed egg in claypot and downed a bottle of green smoothie.

I saw this cute little New Year note on Facebook today and thought I’d share it with you (edited):

To all my lovely blog readers,

The Boarding on Flight 2019 has been announced! Hope you have checked in only the best souvenirs from 2018 in your luggage?

The BAD and SAD moments if carried, must be thrown away in the garbage on arrival!

The flight will be for 12 months long. So, loosen your seat belts, jingle and mingle.

The stop-overs will be :

✳Health,
✳Love,
✳Joy,
✳Harmony,
✳Well-being
✳Peace.

Refueling will be at
👍Giving
👍Sharing
👍Caring
👍Forgiveness

The Captain (God) offers you the following menu which will be served during the flight…….

✅ Cocktail of Friendship,
✅ Supreme of Health,
✅ Grating of Prosperity,
✅ Bowl of Excellent News
✅ Salad of Success,
✅ Cake of Happiness,

All accompanied by bursts of laughter…
But remember, you will enjoy these meals and the journey better if you talk, share, smile and laugh together. Sitting silent and sullen will make the flight seem longer.

Wishing you and your family 👪 an enjoyable trip on board of flight 2019…..

💥✨💫💃🏃👫💑👯❤💖💌💍☔⛄🌊🌈🌁🌴🌹🌷🍀

Before the Flight 2018 ends,
Allow me to thank each and every one of you reader who takes the time to drop by my blogs, whether it’s just for a minute or a few seconds just to catch up on the happenings in my life, whether it’s just once a week or month. The fact that you checked on my blogs makes me feel loved. It makes the maintenance of my 11-year old triplet blogs all worthwhile.

I hope that you all will be blessed with an awesome and healthy year ahead.
😘😍💝🎁🎊🎉🎈

Love and joy,

Health Freak Mommy

xoxo

No. of times viewed = 76

Excursion at Sunway Lost World Of Tambun ~ 23 December 2018

The dreaded day came. This ‘Puteri Lilin’ wasn’t really looking forward to bringing the kids to outdoor theme parks in our hot Malaysia weather. Hell no! It’s a totally different experience spending a whole day at Disney Land or Ocean Park in winter vs. a whole day under 38C scorching sun in Malaysia. But it’s the school holidays and I can’t be a party pooper. And we had promised the girls that we would bring them to the Lost World of Tambun. So we got up early on our Sunday morning in Ipoh, had a quick breakfast and packed our 3 girls along with my niece into the MPV and off we went to Sunway Lost World of Tambun.

But on a Sunday during the school holidays on the eve of Christmas eve? We’re in for trouble! We waited for almost an hour just to get the tickets! The crowd was just CRAZY! And it was hot! Double whammy for the ‘Puteri Lilin’!

The hubs got us the X-press ticket on top of the regular ticket to enjoy shorter queue and free access into the Haunted Chambers and Adventure Park’s Zipline.

For X-press tickets, there were staff to help us wear the wrist tags!

As you can see from the photos, it was really scorching HOT on that day. The 2 older girls went gallivanting together and went on every ride at the theme park. Hubs, my niece, Cass and I went on the Viking boat ride only, which wasn’t really that terrorizing as the one that hubs and I went on at The Mall’s indoor theme park yonks ago. Nonetheless, I got a tad woozy after the ride. I can never get on a roller coaster or any similar ride without getting a dizzy spell afterwards as I have motion sickness.

At one of the souvenir shops, which is the very first place that visitors step into upon gaining entry into the theme park:

Cass was eyeing a brown monkey plush toy at the games stall and she begged her doting dad to win it for her!

Notice Cass’ hair under the sunlight? It’s almost blond and it’s natural!

You think daddy won the monkey for Cass?

Sure he did! He’s a sharp shooter basketball player! Cass was SO happy!

Tsk tsk, daddy spent almost RM30 on tokens just to win the monkey for his princess!

The only problem was Cass had to lug the fury stuffed animal on her shoulders and back the entire day we spent at the theme park! And it’s like putting on a fur coat over your shoulders under the 38C sizzling sun! At the end of our excursion, the monkey was drenched in sweat and rain water. Cass had to hand-wash her precious monkey when we got back to KL 🤩

We had hamburgers (photo not taken), fried chicken and fries for lunch, purchased at the amusement park. Food was totally disappointing and yet expensive, especially the burgers and fried chicken. The fried chicken smelled foul (like the odor of rotten chicken!) and we discarded 2 pieces.

Outside food is not allowed into the Lost World of Tambun. At the entrance, all your bags will be checked by the personnel and outside food will be confiscated and returned to the owners during exit. Water bottles are allowed though.

The next time we visit Lost World, we would have our meal at the Dulang Tea House @ the Tin Valley instead. I think the food sold there is more decent than at the amusement park.

After lunch, we covered the Tiger Valley, Haunted Chambers, Petting Zoo, Tin Valley and Zip Line. The Haunted Chambers was surprisingly pretty spooky. My just turned 7-year old niece was so terrified that she clung on to me and Cass.

Petting big, fury and cuddly cats at Catopia. These cats are housed in an air-conditioned room. Such good life these cats have!

Alycia did not enter the Catopia enclosure as she has Ailurophobia aka fear of cats. Yup, I only recently found out that she’s terrified of cats coz whenever we are out eating at an outdoor place and if a stray cat comes near our table, she will start to put her legs up on the chair 😞. Not only does Alycia fears cats, she does not like any kind of fury animals too. Weird, as I love fury animals and so do Sherilyn and Cass! Thank God Alycia does not have a phobia of cockroach coz Cass and I are horrified of it and we need someone at home to help us catch them cockroach. 😬

Next was Swan Lake, which is next to Tiger Valley. Here, you and a partner can lazily paddle the darling swan boats around a lake. Fishes aside, we saw a crocodile in the lake too!

Feeding fish at the Swan Lake. Fish feed can be purchased at a Ringgit a packet.

While the girls paddled lazily under the burning 3pm sun, I sought shelter at a small hut meant for storing life jackets, next to the jetty, dabbing sweat with a towel and wishing that I could leave soon 🤭

After the swan boat paddling, everyone was sweating bullets. We walked to the Tin Valley and petting zoo. By this time, the sun had gone down a little and the weather was much more bearable. We love this part of Lost World the most. The scenery of natural limestone hills and greenery is just breathtaking.

Feeding carrot sticks to deers:

Up-close with Juwita the giant female hippo and a humongous crocodile:

The highlight of the excursion for our girls was at the adrenaline-filled thrilling Zip Line at the glamping site.

Tents under trees at the beautiful glamping site:

At the Zip Line site:

The last part of our excursion was at the petting zoo but it had to be truncated as it suddenly poured cats and dogs. We had to run into a souvenir shop to seek shelter from the rain. When there was no sign that the rain was going to stop, we had to buy an umbrella.

By the time we reached the entrance of the park, it stopped raining! Dang it! It was already 4pm and everyone was tired, so we left.

The girls, especially Cass enjoyed themselves very much. The park is pretty well maintained and naturally beautiful with lush greenery, limestone hills and soothing background. Even my very persnickety hubby had positive things to say about the park.

Will there be a second visit? YES! This time, we will go in the evening to cover the night park, night safari, luminous forest, hot springs & spa and exhilarating Flaming Percussion show. This time we missed the hot springs & spa, which is the place that I looked forward to the most because of the dang rain, which really did rain on our parade and ruined our visit. We’ll definitely be at the Lost World of Tambun again and this time, only in the evening. We can skip the amusement park and the sun.

No. of times viewed = 61

2018 Big Bad Wolf Book Sale

Drama Queen and Cass have been badgering hubs and me to bring them to the 2018 Big Bad Wolf (BBW) book sale since the sale started on 7 December. BBW is the world’s biggest book sale, with a 75% – 95% discount off retail prices for all their books across all genres. But I was reluctant to bring them to the sale as I have bought the girls quite a bit of books since the school holidays started from Popular and MPH.

But our Drama Queen had a crafty plan cooking in her head to get herself to the sale. First she got her friend who was going to the BBW sale to help her get some books. With that, she qualified herself to take part in the BBW KL 2018: Book Haul Contest. In this giveaway contest, 20 daily winners with the most creative entries (photos) will get a RM50 BBW book voucher. Our Drama Queen submitted two entries on the last 3 days of the BBW Sale and both her entries were selected!

These are her winning entry photos:

When Drama Queen won the first BBW RM50 voucher, I told her that I was still not bringing her to the sale. I told her that it would be penny wise pound foolish to spend over RM50 on Grab to bring us to MIECC @ Sri Kembangan just to utilize the RM50 voucher and I was certain that she and her sisters would surely trick me into spending another RM100 or more. But she wasn’t giving up hope yet. She submitted more entries the next day and continued badgering me to bring her to the sale. I finally agreed to bring her to the sale on condition that she has to win another RM50 BBW voucher to make our trip worthwhile.

Lady luck was certainly on Drama Queen’s side. She won another voucher the next day, which was the last day of the sale! And I have to keep my words of bringing her there. But I was still really reluctant to go all the way to MIECC as it was already past noon when the results were announced. And at that time, our dear Drama Queen was busy in the kitchen whipping up some organic nutty butter (Almond+Brazil+Cashew) as gift for her granny when we go back to Ipoh on Friday.

Drama Queen encountered a glitch with our Blendtec blender whilst blitzing the nuts on the last day of the BBW sale. The blender got overheated and auto-shutdown! And we didn’t have enough organic grapeseed oil at home. She had to remove the nutty paste from the blender, let the motor cool down, clean up the mess the kitchen before we left the house by Grab at 5:15 p.m. She only managed to fix the nut butter the next day.

In KL, any time from 4:30 – 7 p.m. would be the worst time of the day to go anywhere as traffic will be at its peak. But we had no other choice as it was already the last day of the sale and it would be a waste to bin the two RM50 vouchers.

So I had to take the bull by its horns and be prepared to get stuck in the jam all the way to MIECC and all the way back home. We only reached home at 8:30 pm and had a really late dinner.

Jamming all the way to MIECC from KL:

And jammed all the way back home after a heavy downpour. In the Klang Valley, traffic gets monstrous after a heavy downpour, especially at peak hours in the morning and evening.

Two very, very happy larks:

Checking their treasure. Our girls love their books more than they love me 🙄

Towards the checkout counter, Cass found a big piece of treasure ~ a super thick and huge Sherlock Holmes book at only RM18!! Normal price for this book should be above RM100.

The BBW Sale this time was really good, better than the one we went to three years ago. All the adult novels were selling from between RM10 – RM18 each. Drama Queen and Cass found what they were looking for. But Cass was a tad disappointed that all the Harry Potter books were sold out. I got workbooks for Cass at only a Ringgit each. I could have hauled more but it was already late and we were all hungry.

Behind the scenes of the winning photos:

As both Alycia and Cass helped in the photography, they get a small share of the vouchers too! 🤩

No. of times viewed = 39

Daily Exercise For Cass

Another activity added into Cass’ daily timetable is exercise. I make her do simple exercises like rope-skipping and floor exercises everyday. Sometimes she does skipping rope challenge with her Alycia che che, who is a pro rope skipper. Alycia can do over a thousand times of rope-skipping in 10-15 minutes.

After skipping rope, Cass has to do at least 15-20 minutes of floor exercise, targetting her pelvic/abdomen area to strengthen this area. She does straight leg raise, scissors, slider pike, mountain climber, heel tap, sit ups, planks, etc.

When I have the time, we do the floor exercises together. Our trainers will be from You Tube. We watch it from our internet TV 🤩💪

Cass needs daily exercise to beat constipation, to stabilise her cholesterol reading (she’s got borderline familial hypercholesterolemia or genetic high cholesterol. No thanks to my bad DNA 🙁 ) and to strengthen her pelvic floor.

It’s tough to get my ‘tidak-apa’ kid to do these exercises as she finds them boring. She wants to go to the gym with her Alycia che che but she’s still underaged and needs adult supervision. I don’t always have the time to accompany her to the gym. Now Cass can’t wait to turn 12 as she will get the golden ticket to go to the gym on her own unsupervised once she reaches this age.

No. of times viewed = 51

Unexpected Places Modern Technology Benefits Human Health

With today’s obvious examples like smartwatches and online pharmacies with integrated apps, you can appreciate high tech’s positive impact on human health. Still, tech plays roles that are not initially apparent to consumers considering the subject for the first time. The following modern-software implementations may surprise you.

Laboratories
Every person who has experienced a wait for lab results can appreciate tools that shorten that wait. Laboratory information software stands among those tools. Produced by businesses like ASPYRA Clinical Software Systems, LIS solutions help lab technicians manage their workflows and improve their efficiency. Such improvements let patients get important information faster, which can help them consult with their healthcare providers and move forward with important decisions sooner than before such software existed.

Wastewater Treatment Facilities
Imagine a poorly managed sewage system. It is an unpleasant idea, and it can lead to human health issues. Top municipal wastewater treatment facilities keep their systems flowing in the right direction with customized software that helps plant workers monitor tanks and know which buttons to push at specific times. When properly deployed in a well-maintained facility, this tailored technology makes the facility’s community healthier.

Dreamland
You probably know about clock apps and meditation apps, but you may be less aware of sleep-monitoring apps. These can enhance your health by tracking your sleep cycles and letting you analyze the data alone or with your physician. Features in this app category include white noise, sleep-apnea tracking and alarms that only ring when you are in a shallow sleep cycle.

Now that you know the above examples of today’s technology improving people’s health, you can take a new look at your surroundings. Surely, you will find other places where tech positively affects your life that previous generations would not have predicted. Future generations will benefit in ways that nobody has yet imagined.

No. of times viewed = 41

Where To Look For Caregivers

Caregivers play an important role in providing care for your sick, aged or disabled loved ones.

A family caregiver is a person who provides any type of physical and/or emotional care for an ill or disabled loved one at home. Loved ones in need of care are aged parents, those suffering from a physical or mental illness, disability, substance misuse or other condition. In most cases, the primary caregiver is a spouse, partner, parent or adult child. Caregivers often take on the responsibilities of the patient while still providing for themselves and other family members.

However there will be times when we are faced with circumstances rendering us unable to care for our aged parents or sick / disabled loved ones.

When I was 18 years old and in college, my much loved maternal granny had a stroke. Consequently, she lost her memory. Both my parents were still working at that time and mum had to make a tough decision to send granny to a nursing home. Granny hated staying at the nursing home and would try to run away from the home. It broke my heart into a million pieces each time we visited her at the nursing home. When it was time for us to leave the home after our visit, granny would run to the gate, pleading with us to bring her back. I will never forget the scene when her caretaker had to quickly lock the gate after we left, leaving my frail granny at the gate in tears, waving to us at our car and pleading for us to bring her home.

It was this heartbreaking scene at the nursing home each time we visited granny that mum decided to hire a full-time maid and brought granny home. The maid took very good care of granny but sadly she passed on about a year later. In those days, caregivers were difficult to find, much less in a small city.

These days, people are more inclined towards hiring caregivers to care for their loved ones vs. hiring a full-time maid. Caregivers work in the home and help their clients with daily activities, such as bathing and bathroom functions, feeding, grooming, taking medication, and some housework. Caregivers help clients make and keep appointments with doctors, help the patients keep track of prescription, provide or arrange transportation and serve as a companion for their clients.

One good website to find caregivers is at CaregiverAsia. CaregiverAsia is an online aggregator of health and caregiving services. Through its award-winning platform, CaregiverAsia has created an online marketplace leveraging on a shared economy of Careseekers and Caregivers. Careseekers can access on-time, trusted and transparent home care services; whilst freelance Caregivers and healthcare professionals can practice independently with full control of their schedules and terms of services. CaregiverAsia also specializes in healthcare recruitment and the placement of healthcare professionals and locums into leading healthcare institutions.

Services at CaregiverAsia can be booked via their website or via the Caregiver App which you can download from Google Play Store or App Store.

CaregiverAsia gives instant relief to Careseekers by allowing them to search and book for respite, step-down and at-home care in a transparent and affordable manner. Booking confirmation is instantaneous and is available 24/7. Caregivers listed on the platform are certified/ accredited/ experienced in their service specializations and Careseekers may search and browse Caregivers’ service offerings and the certifications and experience they have. Post service, Careseekers and Caregivers are both invited to review the care session.

For more information, please visit https://www.caregiverasia.com/.

No. of times viewed = 17

Cassandra’s Follow-Up Checkups

Cass needs to do a yearly ultrasound scan of her urinary tract, especially the kidneys until she turns 12 years old. In the initial years after her surgeries, we used to go back to GMC Penang to have the scan done but her surgeon has given us the green light to have it done at any hospital in KL.

We brought Cass to UMMC once to have the ultrasound scan done, and then to HKL (Hospital KL). And in the last 3 years we’ve had the scan done at Pantai Hospital. Cass’ pediatrician has advised us to go back to the nephrologist and urologist at HKL as he’s of the opinion that Cass will be in better hands under the specialists there as he is only a child specialist and not a specialist in the area of nephrology and urology.

So I guess that this will be the last year that we see Dr Eric. Next year, we will have to go through all the inconvenience again when we go back to HKL to consult the nephrologist and urologist and for the ultrasound scan and blood works to be done. This would mean camping at the hospital from 8am through 6pm for 1-2 days or possibly even more days. 😖😭

I hate getting on an ambulance with Cass to go from one department to another at HKL. From the specialists’ clinics building, we have to wait for an ambulance to ferry us to another building to the radiology department to have scans carried out. Payment is sometimes done at the Accident & Emergency Department, which is the department which I shudder going to. One will always be greeted by lots of gory scenes at the A&E.

I. Hate. Government hospitals!! It’s a nightmare for me.

The only advantage is we get to save lots of $$$$ if we have everything done at a government hospital.

Cass having an ultrasound scan of her urinary tract at her latest checkup at PMC, Bangsar.

No. of times viewed = 70

Three Tips to Being More Mindful and Productive at Work

It’s normal to have days where you want to do absolutely nothing when it comes to your responsibilities and obligations at work. And that’s okay. You only need to worry when one of those days becomes way more, like three to seven days of the week. If you feel like you don’t want to do your job anymore, you should look into how you can be more mindful and productive in the office before you quit the position you have.

Side note: When you feel less than productive and attentive to your job, don’t make any impulsive decisions. You don’t want to be stuck with no job because that opens up a whole new can of troubles.

Commit to Personal Work Goals and Work on Accomplishing Those for Yourself

At work, you probably have both personal work goals and team projects. Both should be focal points of your attentions, but the personal work goals are typically the most pressing with a deadline. Ergo, pinpoint those and work on them for at least half of your workday. You should be able to leave work feeling accomplished because you worked on things that mattered most in your business.

Make a System of Productivity that Allows You to Focus on Work During Work Hours—But Don’t Bring Work Home

Work is often based on routine and systems, both of which can be stressful. This makes it hard to be productive because there’s so much that you could possibly stress over, especially if the project is a difficult one. Hence, the reason you should leave work at work. Don’t bring your stressors home because home and family are your sanctuaries.

Ask Yourself if This Job is What You Want—No? Then Make Plans to Change It

Sometimes productivity is affected by your love for your job. If you have zero interest in being there, then you might want to consider a career change. When you do things you love, you have a better chance of remaining productive and positive throughout your workday. Start with slow changes. Don’t quit immediately because you still need some level of income, but definitely start looking for something else to satisfy your career goals.

Perhaps you should look into going back to school to better your chances of a more fulfilling career. Look into Gardiner scholarships Tampa for ideas on where to go, what to earn, and what you can be.

No. of times viewed = 12

Guang The Movie 2018

I can’t remember when was the last time I watched a movie at the cinema. I think it was Avengers a few years back. And I slept half the time in the cinema. I always snooze off partway during the movie, especially if the movie is a fantasy movie or a cartoon. Movies like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Avengers, BumbleBee ALWAYS lull me to sleep! I remember sleeping through the Harry Potter movie many yonks back 😴

On Tuesday I brought the girls and the mil to the mall for a movie marathon. After lunch, the 2 older girls and the mil watched the cartoon Ralph Breaks The Internet: Wreck It, while I went shopping with Cass. I joined them to watch Guang later.

I did not even know that movie tickets are now bought from e-Kiosks stationed outside the cinema.

And instead of having tickets printed out, only two receipts are printed out from the e-Kiosk, no matter the quantity of tickets bought. At the entrance of the cinema, one of the receipts with the bar code will be scanned.

So canggih now!

I am really living in the dinosaur age! What do you expect from a middle-aged aunty who has no interest in movies, right? 😆

Guang is perhaps the only movie that I’d watched in a decade that managed to make me stay awake from start to the very end.

Guang tells the story of Wen Guang, a young man who struggles with autism. His brother keeps coercing him to find a job so that they can share family expenses, and he does go looking but it’s an extremely difficult process fraught with a lot of stumbling blocks. Unknown to anyone, Wen Guang who has perfect pitch, has a gift for music. The film is loosely based on the real life director’s brother who is autistic and is musically gifted.

Source: 'Guang' The Movie Facebook page.

Be warned that this movie is a real tear-jerker, so do bring lots of tissue papers. Some scenes are hilarious though. Guang is an excellent movie with an excellent cast.

Guang was nominated in four categories at the Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) Asian New Talent Awards – Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress .

Source: cinema.com.

Guang is a well-crafted debut that goes beyond the telling of the intimate struggles of a familial relationship. The plot presents a platform that questions on the issue of the treatment towards people of different abilities especially in the working environment and further mirrors the society’s approach on the matter.

Our girls loved it, especially Cass, who says that she does not mind watching it again. We are all hoping that a sequel will be in the making soon to tell how well Guang is doing at his new job at a piano shop and whether his loving younger didi will be in a relationship with Sue Ann, the kind-hearted kindergarten teacher at a special needs school.

Here’s another activity for your kids this school holidays. Go watch Guang with your kids and support our local film industry. HFM says you’ll love this movie as much as she does! ☺️

No. of times viewed = 41

Three Ways Your Toddler Benefits from Independent Playtime for Hours at a Time

When it comes to toddlers, nature usually wins over nurture. How so? Some children are born a little clinger than others, whereas some children are rambunctious and fiercely independent. Whatever the case may be for your own cutie, there are significant benefits to allowing your kiddo to play independently.

Sure, you can start out with half-an-hour, but encourage those 30-minute intervals to become several hours of independent playtime throughout the day. Why? Because independence is something your children need and there’s no better time to allow them teach themselves how to fight through being bored.

Independent Play Encourages an Active, Engaged Imagination
When your child plays independently, they have to rely on themselves to come up with something fun and engaging to play. Giving them a room full of wooden toys, puzzles, and books, or simply sending them outside to the fenced-in backyard, encourages them to engage their active imaginations.

Tip: You could even encourage active imagination with an indoor infant toddler swing. They’re supervised, of course, but they can bounce and play without relying on you for entertainment.

Independent Play Teaches Children How to Combat Boredom on Their Own
This is the era of instant gratification. Everything is literally at your fingertips at all times, but boredom can be a great learning tool. When children are faced with boredom, they come up with new and interesting ways to pass the time.

Note: Independent play encourages children to find hobbies, passions, and things that interest them. For example—you could provide crafty things, like paints and glitter. Let your youngster have the run of craft tables. This is where their imaginations thrive.

Independent Play Eliminates Heavy Reliance on Others, like Parents, for Constant Entertainment
While attachment parenting can be an awesome tool in its own right, children shouldn’t need their parents, or anyone else, for constant entertainment. Independent play shows them that they can have fun and do things for themselves, regardless of who is around.

Tip: If your kiddo is constantly underfoot or scared of playing alone, set a timer for 15 minutes and tell them that their task is to play independently until the timer goes off. It might take a few tries over the course of weeks, but kids usually discover how much they love simply using their imaginations to play by themselves.

No. of times viewed = 17

Sherilyn’s Holiday Baking

The Baking Queen in the house aka Drama Queen aka Sherilyn has embarked on some baking projects to kill time during the school holidays. This is the best activity for her to distract her from all the electronic gadgets in the house.

Here’s what she baked over the past 2 weeks:

Homemade pizza with the dough that she made from scratch:

Pizza toppings ~ mashed avocado, cherry tomatoes, overnight sauteed broccoli with fresh mushrooms, overnight ‘unwanted’ chicken breast from dinner and mozarella cheese. She ‘recycled’ leftover dinner into a yummo pizza!

Pancake using the Japanese pancake mix that her doting koo ma from Hong Kong gave. Sherilyn mixed the pancake mix with dried blue pea flowers tea from her granny’s garden. She was so delighted to have finally made a blue colored pancake using natural blue coloring 💙

Organic sweet corn fritters with kafir lime leaves (everyone’s favorite!):

A loaf of banana bread with pecans. I love this. This has a tad room for improvement though in that more bananas should be added and lesser flour used. She made this with only 2 leftover bananas in the kitchen and whipped it up in under an hour. But it tastes like an expensive banana bread sold at some fancy cafes. This is off-the-charts delicious when it’s lightly toasted in the oven the next day. You’ll get crispy exterior and spongy interior. Stays good in the fridge for over a week.

Nope, these are not coconut candies, though they smell like it. These are a work-in-progress project. They are bath bombs made using baking soda, extra virgin coconut oil, lemon juice and essential oils. Sherilyn’s still experimenting these and they are not saleable / usable just yet.

Lemon meringue tarts, which is another item that you’ll find in a fancy cafe costing over RM15 each.

The other day we were at Antipodean for breakfast after Cass’ appointment at the hospital. The hubs asked if I’d like to takeaway any of the cakes and tarts at the cafe and I told him that his Baking Queen could bake all those items ranging from chocolate brownie to oversized chocolate chip cookies, lemon tarts, banana bread and carrot cake. So thanks and no thanks. Our Baking Queen bakes the best cakes, tarts and cookies 😁

Evading the paparazzi again 🙄

The lemon meringue tarts are such a hassle to make. There’re 101 steps and our baking queen spent the entire afternoon in the kitchen to whip them up.

She baked a large round tart and several smaller ones to give away to her dance teacher and to her beloved kakak Maria.

Chocolate molten cake baked in the microwave oven for Alycia’s 15th birthday on 5 December 2018.

And these cookies were baked yesterday. A batch of butter peppermint cookies…

… and a batch of chocolate (using organic cocoa powder) peppermint cookies. She used my Peppermint Essential Oil from Young Living. She used 4-5 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil for each batch of cookies.

Sherilyn’s next project will most likely be gingerbread cookies for Christmas! And probably another meat pie which everyone loves.

No. of times viewed = 35

Cassandra’s Blood Test Report

Today is Cass’ blood test report collection day at the hospital. Dr Eric’s comment as usual was “not too bad”.

On the 36 types of allergen test, Cass has no allergies, though the test shows that she has a slight allergy to dust mites. The units of antibodies shown (24) are so minimal that she is not even categorized under Class 1.

The blood lipid test shows that she’s got borderline high cholesterol at 5.3 mmol/L, which is expected as she’s inherited my bad DNA of Familial hypercholesterolmia (genetic high cholesterol). Even with a sustenance of plain water, fruits, vegetables and very little meat with exercise 5x a week (till I was severely anemic last year), my cholesterol reading is still hovering at 5.8 – 6.

But Dr Eric ain’t very concerned and commented that no further test is required until Cass reaches adulthood. He has seen younger kids with double digit total cholesterol readings as both parents have genetic high cholesterol.

Dr Eric is the only pediatrician whom I trust. He’s been treating Cass since she was a sickly 6 weeks old infant and knows Cass’ medical history. He does not prescribe drugs and antibiotics to Cass unless extremely necessary, like in the case of a chronic UTI attack.

Remedial actions will be a diet similar as mine, which is a diet that’s low on high fat foods, reduced food portions (what? She’s got a bottomless pit!) and Cass will have to engage in more sports activities. This gives my ‘tidak apa’ girl a New Year Resolution for 2019 to work on and hopefully she will have a steely discipline to stick to it. I’ll see…

No. of times viewed = 126

Saturday, 1 December 2018

We spent the first day of the last month in 2018 away from home almost the entire day. It was a daycation of sorts as we were at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel from morning through midnight to attend the wedding of our very close and dear family friend, Jess’ daughter.

The theme of the wedding was a traditional Chinese wedding. Jess’ daughter, Kheng married her sweetheart of 11 years.

Jess is on the extreme right. I’ve known Jess since I was 17 years old. She’s my mil’s godsister’s daugther. Kheng was only a toddler when I first met her, cute as a button and is still cute. So happy for her that she found her soul mate who gave her a magical proposal that any girl would have dreamed of.

After the morning tea ceremony at Mandarin Oriental, we had lunch at KLCC before we headed back to the hotel for some camwhoring fun. But only Drama Queen agreed to pose with me 🙄

So I syiok sendiri alone first 🤩

Check out the samseng girl’s legs. It’s her first time wearing heels and she hijacked my new Alain Delon slip-on heels.

The wedding dinner was held at the same hotel. It was a grandiose affair with Tan Sris, Datuks and celebrities in attendance.

Old-time Hong Kong superstar, Seong Tin Ngor was engaged to perform at the dinner. This is the best photo of her that I could capture with my dying phone. When she came to our table, my phone died on me. Again! It’s time I ditch my 2-year old Huawei and get a new phone!

Recognize this celebrity with Cass?

Alan Yun is one of our closest and dearest friend whom the hubs and I have known since he was only a teenager and worked part-time for the hubs before he launched his stardom career and is now a successful entrepreneur. We will be attending his wedding next month!

Recognize this couple? 😉

No. of times viewed = 45