Month: November 2008

Blame It On The Rain

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It’s 3.00am now and I’m still awake merely to let my hair dry before I can go to bed. Nop…neither did I just came back from a late night movie nor clubbing nor just finished spring cleaning my house nor because of I just managed to settle down a crying baby. All because of the RAIN! Sometimes rain could be a blessing to us, sometimes rain can create disaster. This time is the latter!

There was a heavy downpour yesterday in the whole of Klang. Not too sure about other places. It started to rain at around 7.30pm. Getting heavier and heavier until at 10.00pm, the thunder alerted Darling’s car alarm. Darling went down to check on his car. But suddenly, he called out for me and at the same time, my sis next door gave me a ring to check on my kitchen. So I went downstairs. The moment I saw my kitchen, it was flooding and the water was filling up almost 1 inch, reaching my living room.

Grabbing whatever cloth that was around, I tried to save the water from running up my living room. But the water speed was faster than me. The water ran underneath my staircase and everything there was wet.  I can’t be bothered of that anymore but to think of a way to prevent more water from coming into the kitchen. Luckily I have a sliding door in between the kitchen and living room so it helps a little. The water was coming thru the squatting toilet bowl and overflowed the bathroom then to my kitchen. The only thing I could do was to prevent more water from flowing in by scooping out the water. Sis even throw a sandbag into the toilet bowl to prevent more water from flowing out. The whole thing was so DRAMATIC. When situation were under controlled, we could still joke of it just to release our tension.

Surrounding the house, the water level was around knee high. The water only started to subside around 12.30am. It’s still raining now but not that heavy. The whole housing area got affected. BIL almost got stucked in the middle of the road as everywhere was flooded. Our area is prone to flood but this is the worst in 6 years of my stay in this area. Some of my neighbours just watched the water flowing into their house as nothing much can be done to stop the water.

And now, all of us are suffering from backache, muscle pain, sore fingers and lack of sleep. Blame it on the rain!

p/s: Too busy with the scooping job so no time to take photos.

Alphabet Tag

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Was tagged by Agnes on this one. A, B, C,…,Z!

A. Attached or single? – Permanently attached.
B. Best friend? – Not really, merely just friends.
C. Cake or pie? – Cake.
D. Day of choice? – Saturday. Can sleep till the sun shining at my buttock.
E. Essential item? – Mobile phone. Can’t leave home without it.
F. Favorite color? – Blue. That’s my wedding theme. But getting to like champagne colour.
G. Gummy bears or worms? – Gummy bears of course. Don’t ever come near me with a worm.
H. Hometown? – Famous of seafood…Sitiawan.
I. Favorite indulgence? – Depending on my mood.
J. January or July? – January.
K. Kids? – Oh, you mean how many I have now? Visit my Cyberhome and you’ll know the answer.
L. Life isn’t complete without? – My Darling and my kid(s).
M. Marriage date? – 22 January 2005
N. Number of magazine subscriptions? – None. I don’t like reading.
O. Orange or apple? – Orange, provided they must be sweet.
P. Phobias? – Lizards, frog or any reptile or slimy thing.
Q. Quotes? – *Ask my Darling. He’s very good in quotes.*
R. Reasons to smile? – Everyday when I arise from bed and see the sun shine.
S. Season of choice? – Autumn
T. Tag 5 people – Guess most have already got tagged so not tagging anyone here.
U. Unknown facts about me? – Drop me a note if you want to know anything unknown.
V. Vegetable? – My fav is kai lan’s stem.
W. Worst habit? – Eat and eat and eat…junk food most of the time.
X. X-ray or ultrasound? – Ultrasound…less risk.
Y. Your favorite food(s)? – Pork ribs.
Z. Zodiac sign – Aries.

All I Want for Christmas is…

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All I want for Christmas is my……Ooopps! Not for me but for my not-so-old man and no-more-a-baby boy.

Thinking hard on what should I get them for Christmas. Both are not an easy task. Putting on my thinking cap in figuring out on what will make them happy and what they really need.  Of course Darling has hundreds and thousands of stuff (or gadget) he wish to have. This second he would say he wants this then another second he saw something else he says is a necessity. Old man Darling quite troublesome isn’t? 🙂

It’s so much easier when it comes to Jonathan boy. He don’t mind (or don’t bother) what is in that colourful wrapper. As long as Mommy likes it! But old lady Darling can be a nuisance too. Undecisive and want everything under the sky. Hehehe… I can’t make up my mind on Jonathan boy’s Christmas gift.

A car? Obviously it’s not the real adult car we are talking about here nor it’s the miniature toy car. We spotted a battery operated car in one of the toy shop here in Klang selling at a very cheap price. It can be controlled with a remote control too. Jonathan boy can sit in it and let the car bring him around with us maneuvering the steering wheel by using a remote control.

A train set? I can imagine him catching the train while it goes round the track and wouldn’t let it go. Or maybe a big moving toy train that can make chuckling choo choo sound. He has lots of cars and busses but not train.

A LEGO set? Since he has mastered stacking skill, the new level is building and making things up. But I think ended up Daddy will be the one who will get hooked to the LEGO set.

A pair of shoe? Since he has started walking, I can get him more shoes and of course to be prepared for Chinese New Year.

A drawing board/mat? We came across Rainbow Aquadraw drawing mat. It is a waterbased drawing mat. Simply fill the special markers with water and draw. When the mat dries out the pictures drawn will disappear and the fun can begin all over again.

What else do you think he likes? Or should I say what else do you think he will have longer interest with? Remember the Malay proverb, “Hangat-hangat tahi ayam”? I just don’t want the toys laying there collecting dust.

So any suggestions from the floor?

What Jonathan Boy is Up to Now

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I decided to stop posting on Jonathan boy’s monthly update as he is 1 year old now. Nevertheless, I won’t stop posting on his new achievements or milestones from time to time as I won’t be able to remember so many things with my deteriorating brain.

His upper left and right first molar has fully erupted. Now I can introduce more food to him. I no longer need to mash or grate the porridge ingredients. Just dice into smaller cubes or break into smaller pieces. And instead of leaving the porridge to cook for 45 mins, I reduced it to 30 mins. Soon, I will substitute porridge with rice.

His new fond play item is the toilet bowl. He tend to put his hand into the toilet bowl to reach for the water. He will grab a toy and drop it into the toilet bowl. When I instructed him to pick the toy up, he will do so. Jonathan boy, do you know the water in the toilet bowl is so dirty? One day, he may climb into the toilet bowl. Yiiiicks….

He is very good in manuevering around the house with his Thomas scooting train and Mr. Tolo scooter….moving forward, run through a bumper, go astern, turn left and right.

Like I mentioned before, he inherited my character and personality – SHY. He refuses to wave goodbye or smile. He will pull away when someone try to hold his hand. He will turn away hiding on my shoulder.

The greatest of all, he has started to throw tantrums. Just yesterday, I refused to give him the box with a broken toy in it. I grabbed it away from him worrying that the broken toy may hurt him. He then tried to pull the box from me and was yelling and screaming and crying. He is being demanding too. During meal time, if you don’t let him hold his own spoon, he will cover his mouth with his arm and hide his face down trying to get the message accross to Mommy that, “If you don’t give me that spoon, I won’t eat! It’s either you win or I win.” He just want to play with the spoon. Once you gave him a spoon, he happily let you feed.

From gliding to crawling on four and now walking on two. Just last weekend, he was still clenching to our palms while wandering around. The next day, he is letting his hands free in the air. How long will he hold on to our hands?

Jonathan’s Meal #3

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Darling loves bitter gourd so he thinks his Junior has too favour bitter gourd like him. He has been pestering me to let Jonathan boy try out bitter gourd. I was a bit reluctant cause from the name you already know it’s bitter so do you think a baby would like it?  I, myself don’t like bitter stuff. I only take bitter gourd if it is cooked with scrambled egg, tau chu (fermented soya beans) or deep fried (for banana leaf rice).  They say bitter is good. That’s the reason all medicines are bitter especially chinese medicines.

So here, I bought the baby bitter gourd. I cut into thin strips so that at least if Jonathan boy dislike it, I can put aside the bitter gourd but give him the porridge only instead. I put in some diced carrot and wolfberry for the colour. I also added red dates to give some sweetness to the bitterness. Since this is a first try, so no fish is added otherwise some fish or meat will provide additional nutrients.

I tasted the porridge myself before giving it to Jonathan. Bleeek…it’s bitter. For that moment I thought the porridge will go to waste. First try…give him the porridge first and he swallows it. Second try…give him the bitter gourd and he chews it. Lastly…he finished everything as though he has lost his taste bud.

Since Jonathan boy can accept the bitter gourd, I chopped the bitter gourd on my next try so that it mix well with the porridge and I added some fish too.

I read from some articles that to reduce the bitterness, the bitter gourd is salted and exposed to direct sunlight for few hours. After few hours, its salty, bitter water is reduced by squeezing out the excess by hand. Then rinse with water a few times. I’m going to try this method on my next cooking. So, happy trying!