Birthday Arrives Early for me!

Birthday certainly arrives early for me! Just receive this tonight from M1. My lovely hubby got this for my birthday. One thing, I'm an avid fan of Nokia. After using Samsung, I still prefer Nokia.

NOKIA E71

Nice and sleek E71. I had a tough time choose Red or Grey Steel. In the end, I chose grey steel for the sleek look. Seems like the red is not the Ferrari red which I wanted.

Can't wait to play around with this new baby. Love this to bits! But, I'm a little sad to change my dear N73 to this new one. Lotsa memories and it has lasted me for 2years? It has serve me well and go through with me filming Zach's birth and having so much of fond memories.

Nevertheless, Hubby is taking over my old phone. So sweet of him :).

Why do I decided to get this phone? After some survey, I wanted a mobile email phone. I was considering the E63 and E71 (lately there's another new launch on E73). The only difference about E63 is the plastic casing, 2 megapixel camera and a little bulky than E73.

So, here's E71 has:-

1) 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera

2) 3G, WLAN, A-GPS, e-mail (one-touch to access email)

3) 2GB microSD memory card

4) pocket sized QWERTY design

Ok guys, loging off to play with my new toy now...!

Hip Hip Hooray!

Today’s paper caught my eyes again. Jetstar and Air Asia is flying to Penang! Air Asia has 2 new flights which are Penang and Langkawi…Woooooooo!

Getting heated up

Yesterday was another freaking hot day! All 3 of us were hiding in the room with air conditioned and fan blasting. It was just too hot and I told hubby that I just wish that I had a pool in front of me to dip!

With this idea, we decided to head off to Sengkang Swimming Complex. It was newly built sometime early this year and heard some good review on this place. In total, the complex house 2 adults pool, 1 children's pool and 8 slides. I noticed this place is very wheel chair friendly as they are rams everywhere including the pool.

Considering the entrance fee for weekend, $2.00 for adult and $1.00 for children, it's definitely worth going. This complex has a 24hours McDonald and 7-Eleven.

When we reached the complex, I was swarmed by the many cars parking illegally by the road side. This tells me, it's going to be real crowded inside there as many people sharing the same thoughts.

As you can see, here's the children's pool, super crowded. Zach was elated to see the slides and playground and he wanted to climb up into one of the slides. Maybe next time, mummy will bring you down together.

Children's pool

Zach enjoying floating around in his float (tsk, please don't get too excited of the hunk beside my boy)

Slides! No guts to try now. Afraid my bikini will MIA halfway thru :p

View of the children's pool when dusk sets in

This is what I mean about the jacuzzi. What do you think? Feel like I'm a koi fish blends in together with the landscape.

Indoor pool with ram, friendly for wheelchair.

We swam for about an hour an half and decided to have a shower and head out for dinner.

One reason which makes me consider to come back to this place is the water pressure is BAD! I can bet you that Zach's pee is faster and bigger than the one I had in the shower room. Water were merely trickling down and I'm having a hard time choosing which body part to go first. I was so frustrated with the water pressure and I decided to go without a bath. I change into my clothing with the cholorine smell sticking to my skin.

We had Boon Tong Kee's chicken rice for dinner and we did some grocerries shopping in Giant before calling a day. Oh, another thing after 2 years of missing swimming my body was aching all over.. *ouch* (only 2 laps and that's it!)

Malacca Day 2

Sometimes, when I’m in Malacca I always have this guilt feel of not visiting the historical site despite they are easily accessible. Food is always the pull factor to me and I am more fascinated with food than the historical site. To be frank, I’m not a sentimental person where I’ll appreciate the history.

Day 2, waking up at 8:15am and brought Zach down for the hotel breakfast. Nothing to shout at. The typical hotel breakfast and is good to warm my stomach. After breakfast, we head off to Mahkota Parade for shopping and to kill time while getting our breakfast digest before we head off to Hoe Kee for lunch. Dad, sis and Stella met us there and kind enough to queue and order the food. The next door chicken rice ball, Chung Wah is as good as this but I still prefer Hoe Kee in terms of the comfortable sitting area which also comes with air conditioned. We ordered Asam Fish, steam chicken, and lotsa rice balls to go with the dishes. The Asam fish is good. Fish is fresh, big and meaty. Sour and spicy to our taste bud. Zach had his share of the chicken rice ball too. However, towards the end the ball was mashed by him. Messy!

The bill came and we paid RM156 for 2 tables of 10 pax having the same dishes (incl drinks).

Chicken Rice Ball

Half steam chicken with gizzards

Yummy Asam FishWalking down the Jonker St, we saw this lady selling homemade nyonya kuih by the road side. There's a small little crowd and I wonder if she's one of the famous seller there. Looks interesting and yummy. I bought 1 packet of Soon Kueh (RM2) and I find it so-so only.

Menu posted on the side walk wall. Wanted to try her onde onde which is selling fast. Wonder it will be the same fate as the Soon Kueh.

After a good lunch, we walk towards the Dutch building and clock tower. The usual bright and colorful rickshaw caught many attention and also not forgetting the albino snake and iguana too. I’m not the adventurous person in having the snake sitting on my shoulder. Dangle a thousand infront of me, I will not too! Though I’m consider in the same “clan” but sorry, I’m not the friendly and the odd balls out of the clan! After some photo takings and bidding goodbye to our “friend”, we decided to head for chendol!

Stadhuys

The famous landmark clock tower

Beautifully decorated rickshaw

Christ Church as a backdrop

The famous snake man attracted the locals and tourist

The "celebrities" of Malacca. Zach had a chance rubbing shoulder with the slithery one.

We head off to Lily and Donald, just a few walk away. If you go down from the OCBC bank you will see Hereen House on your right. Walk further down from the Hereen House and along the Malacca river till you see a shotlot row on your right. Turn right and about 50m down the road, Donald and Lily corner is right at the end of the junction.

While walking down the Malacca river under the sweltering sun, I spotted a man in the river. He seems like looking for some treasures which I stood there for a while to see if he has found any treasure. Dad was curious too and he ask if he's looking for something. The man replied that he's looking for coins. Initially, I thought he was panning for diamond.. :p (in Malacca river?). Never heard off!

Malacca River

Donald & Lily Corner

Glory chendol!

I prefer the chendol here as the gula Melaka trickles down the shave ice and fresh coconut juice comes with the right combination. The different about this chendol and 88 Jonker is the gula Melaka texture. Donald & Lily is more runny and fragrance where else 88 Jonker is thicker, sticky like glue and fragrance enough. Depending on individual preference.

After chendol, we head back to hotel to rest and chill out by the pool. This time, I brought Zach to the adult pool with supervision from both Stella and I. Great move! He love it!

For dinner, we head of to Banyonya. Read in internet with some good reviews on the Ikan Masak Lemak Nenas, Fried Asam Prawns and Cincaluk omelette. I ordered all three with additional of kangkung fried w/garlic and Ayam Pongteh.

Now, to digest all the good food we head to Jonker St. night market. It was as crowded as usual. The place is vibrant and lively. On the other end of Jonker walk (we started off near to the Hoe Kee chicken rice), there’s a stage set up and you can watch people dancing line dance and a choir is going on from the Teo Chew Huay Kuan. This is my 3rd visit to Jonker Walk and I guess in my next visit to Malacca, I shall skip this pasar malam.

The weather is just too hot to enjoy the walk and I was carrying Zach in a sarong and didn't have chance in taking photos.

No Limits...

A friend of mine forwarded this meaningful story to me. In today’s world, we are so busy with our career and chasing to build a comfortable life for our own or family. With all these, we have directly or indirectly build a materialistic world surrounding us and we tends to forget about the simplest things in life that all of us should step back and slow down.

Read on and with this simple message to all of you who reads this, think back and evaluate what’s happening in your life today…

While a man was polishing his new car, his 4 yr old son picked stone & scratched lines on the side of the car. In anger, the man took the child's hand & hit it many times, not realizing he was using a wrench. At the hospital, the child lost all his fingers due to multiple fractures. When the child saw his father..... With painful eyes he asked 'Dad when will my fingers grow back?' Man was so hurt and speechless. He went back to car and kicked it a lot of times.

Devastated by his own actions..... . sitting in front of that car he looked at the scratches, child had written 'LOVE YOU DAD'. The next day that man committed suicide. . .

Anger and Love have NO LIMITS; choose the later to have a beautiful & lovely life....

Things are to be used and people are to be loved,
But the irony in today's world is that,
People are used and things are loved...

Easter in Malacca

I was in the city of Malacca over the Easter long weekend. Malacca was awarded as Unesco Heritage site recently and I’m quite proud of it as I can see some improvement and development around in Malacca now. Many of us took the opportunities to travel north and as expected I was expecting long jam at the causeway but I never expect I will be caught for 3.5 @$%# hours! Zach was behaving good considering stuck in the jam and a little mishap happen on him which he had a cut on his last finger. Skin were dangling out and we did not notice until much much later to our horror. He was brawling and crying his eyes out and we were thinking that he’s just sick and tired of the jam :p.

9 of us depart on Friday morning and the rest, 5 of them join us on Saturday afternoon. We reached Malacca town around 1.30pm and went straight to Century Mahkota Hotel to check in. It was raining heavily and we decided to have our lunch at the hotel café. I didn’t manage to take any photos here as too tired and hungry. I had Baked Portugese fish and MH had the Portugese fried rice. The rest ordered ayam percik, char kuay teow, wan tan Hor and spaghetti. Most of the dishes turn out well. Even the complimentary bun tasted good and soft with some hint of cinnamon and orange peel. I can tell they were feshly baked from the kitchen.

When the rain stops, we drove to the town area for chendol at 88 Jonker. We stopped by at San Su Gong the newly open shop at Jonker st. We bought some snacks and the concentrated Liquorice plum juice is very freshing. A must try. They do give out samples to try and the hot weather does play a part to psycho us to buy. The location is good and they also portion out a dining area for shoppers who need to rest their legs. I notice there may some future expansion above the shop as they did renovate it quite nicely. The weather is burning hot and we were almost to the brink of roast pig. The queue at 88 Jonker is horrendously long and we decided to check out the Donald & Lily corner’s chendol stall. It was closed and we decided to go back hotel for chill out at the pool. The children had fun and I’m quite pleased with the kiddy pool having 2 slides, an adult pool, 1 jacuzzi and a wading pool for the kids. There’s another pool near to the hotel lobby which somehow we were not attracted to go over. I guess the landscape of the pool does make a major role here.

When dusk falls, we headed for satay celup at Ban Lee Siang. This is another rival to Capitol satay (heard it was the originator) but this place is always with long Q and somehow it’s perpetually hot. Ban Lee Siang somehow has a little breeze but still sauna hot. Satay celup is famous in Malacca. I don’t remember other states having this. I guess we had closed to about 120 sticks for 7 of us and the bill came to RM81 include drinks. Fairly reasonable.

Next, will be Day 2 with more coming food hunt!

My beauty regime

I’m slowly turning into a night owl and I have been trying to catch up some lost sleep for many many months. I have not been sleeping 10 hours straight and sleeping and waking up as I wish.

I came across in the internet spree selling eye mask for pretty cheap pack. This eye mask is made in France and it’s call France Gold Bio-Collagen Eye Mask. Sounds cool isn’t it?

It’s selling SGD1.80 per pair and I bought 10 pairs to see the effect. Yea, I’m going to join the panda clan soon if I don’t do anything to my dark circle!This mask suppose to reduce puffy eyes and more importantly to help me reduce dark circle. Besides this, the collagen suppose to help to reduce fine lines and wrinkles which and it contains some anti-oxidating properties. How effective this properties, I can only tell after a few usage.

The instruction says to leave for about 10-15 minutes but I leave for 30mins. I notice there are some liquid in the pack and I guess is the collagen water? Or just some purify water. Anyway, I threw the liquid away and here’s how the mask should look like when it’s paste under your eye bags or dark circle.
I slept after doing the eye mask. Of course not with the mask on. I woke up in hope of seeing some miracle happen on my eye bags and dark circle. Standing 2 feet away from my mirror, I can’t see much changes. If I really really go near and stare on my mirror, I can see some dark circle or eye bags reduce. Not so puffy……

After the mask...

Verdict, the effect of the teeny weeny improvement on the dark circle and eye bags are nothing to shout at. To be fair to the product, I will continue using it every week to see the impact. Will blog again if I see any miracle happen within the 9 weeks (since I have another 9 pairs to go!).

A1 Emperor Herbs Chicken

After listen to my colleague discuss on what's good and save time and enery (aunty talk), I decided to try this A1 Emperor Herbs Chicken.

I woke up around 8:45am this morning and off I go to do some marketing. Bought half chicken, thinking for the 2 of us finishing a full chicken for lunch is quite scary.

What's the rave about on this A1 is, you only need to buy raw chicken and the rest leave to A1 All in 1 Pack to do the job!. Best right?

So, here's what you need to do. Clean the chicken and put it aside.
This is how the A1 Emperor Herbs pack look like. It cost me SGD2.80 and SGD3.80 for half chicken.

That's what you have after opening the packet. This is what I mean by leave A1 to do the job. It even provide you aluminium foil and HDPE in this pack. A small piece of instruction on 3 ways how you can benefit on this pack and next is the wholesome goodness which is the Herbs and Spices!Rub the herbs and spices on the chicken throughly. Place the chicken on the HDPE and wrap it with the aluminium foil. If you like your chicken to have some gravy, add a little water on the aluminium foil. I add some wolfberry too.

The instruction says steam for 2 hours but I steam for 1 1/2 hour.

Here's the after product. Result, finger licking good and very yummy. We finish every single drop of the gravy. Will definitely cook again anytime soon! Try it and you will love it! Now, this A1 is a must have in my kitchen now :)

In Memory for Mum...

Today is Mum's death anniversary and I decided to stay home and observe a minute of silent prayer to her. It has been 4 years since she has left us but her soul is always is in my heart and I can still feel her presence in my daily life. What I mean about her presence are those motherly advice, things we always do together and there are small little things here and there which made me remind her always. Being a mother now, I always look upon mum as an example in applying to my teachings to Zach and how I care for Zach as how mum care for me. There are times I wish Mum will be here to share my joy and taking care of Zach. I know she will be a great Grandmother to Zach but God love Mum too much and He wants the best for Mum. I always know that Mum look upon us from Heaven and there are times she's an angel to Zach.

I Love You, Mum...

Potential Model

I was folding the bedsheets after washing. My little monster refuse to let me fold and he grab from me and start "modelling" on his diaper. I was observing him for a few minutes and telling him to stop doing it but to no avail. Suddenly it reminds me of the advert on Dynamo or Softlan. I can't remember which but it has to relate to some washing liquid and this little baby sleeps on the wash fluffy towel with his satisfied smile on his face after smelling the fresh washed pile.

So I grab my camera and start snapping around. Zach is willingly to model for me ...

His Little Corner

Zach hates being caged up due to his nature. He can't sit still and he needs to move or run around freely. Even, when he's watching his favourite Barney show his little fingers will busy playing with MH's leg's hair...Wuahhahahah...Sometimes, he will help him clear a few "grass". :p

We decided to dismantle his playpen and leave the bumper mat on. I bought 4 posters for Zach to teach him some alphabets, numbers and wild and domestic animals. Sounds like real....So far, I manage to teach him a few animals and alphabets still a big failure :p.

This picture was taken before the "hurricane" comes and go :p

Finally, after 3 years of lying on the floor I managed to hang all of Bro's jigsaw puzzle up! Sounds like major project to me, huh :). Even my part time helper couldn't stand me. She has been nagging me everytime she see the jigsaw on the floor and she has given up on me after a year.

These are one of the jigsaws and I find it blend so well at this little corner for Zach.

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AirAsia to Png fm Sg...? WHEN?!

This morning on the way to work, as usual and robotic manner I will grab My Paper and Today from the newstands. It's a free paper to all and I will always read them on my way and back from work. It really kills time and stop me from people watching and procastinating in the early morning.

Browsing through the news, something caught my eye! I was excited to read that AirAsia is expanding more routes in her pipeline! WoooooooooooooT! And guess what? Penang and Langkawi is one of them. I hope this materialise in end May 09 since I have my own "pipeline" travelling up north :).

Tony, I like it Move It-Move it!