Is this a dream?

How beautiful this is. Autumm Kochia Hill in Japan.

Reminds me of the forest in The Lorax.

Moody Cause

A little psychoanalysis. I noticed I get moody every week. Since April. I get a little depressed and loony, especially with the husband, sometimes for no apparent reason, not for what he did, but what he DIDN'T do. EVERY WEEK. It's crazy I know, and I'm kinda fed-up with myself. Do you know how emotionally tiring it is? I'm this happy chirpy girl who has to be angry every week. What gives, girl?

There must be a reason of some kind, I thought. A possible cause?
I'm filling my void with emotional junk. Yes, that's it. I healed physically, but I may not have paid much attention to emotional healing. We went back to our lives as if nothing happened. We never talked much or deeply about it. We never had any memorial of some sort. It was just too emotional for us, at least for me until now. He worked harder in the meantime, and had gotten stressed out at work, while I needed more attention. But I couldn't express it because I was clueless. I was just this occasionally-loony wife crying in the dark, mad at her husband, mad at herself and completely out of control of her emotions. Did I say I was clueless?

Thank goodness, I have my craft station.

Married to Smartphones

This has been brewing in my heart for a long time now (uh-oh) and I often feel sad and disappointed in the way things are nowadays.

What happened to the good old ways of hanging out together, communicating, cuddling and such in a home that was once filled with physical connections, lots of personal affections and trivial casual chit-chats. Those were so natural, like subconscious reflex. Now, the subconscious reflex is to reach for your smartphone regardless of whether there is a message alert beep or not.

Why is he whatsapping so much? Why is he playing games instead when we have a rare chance of lying in bed together just to chat after the kids are asleep? And if he's looking at his phone so often, why can't he reply a small favour I texted? Why didn't he texted me back? Why doesn't he call me during the day just to hear my voice? Why doesn't he leave me sweet-nothings messages?

The smartphones have taken away the romance. And I am miserable. I am genetically a romantic person. I am also a Piscean. I thrive on dreamland and affections. That is just who I am. My subconscious reflex, is to hug. I'm a hugger, a kisser, a tickler, a smoocher, a pecker, a holder. That is why I adore children because I could do all these so naturally. But when smartphones arrived in my home, I no longer felt I could be myself, the hugger. I want to, but I don't want to, why should I always be the romantic one? Resentment grew each day. It is miresable not being able to be yourself.

I even prayed. Daily. For God to give me abundance of love, for patience, to accept, for strength to be a loving wife amidst being chopped liver. But Samsung won (alongside the newspaper and the Golf Channel).

And what I'm most mad at is that he doesn't 'get it'. He doesn't sense that I need attention too. And the romantics HATE to have to spell it out loud. There was no way I could simply say, "Hey baby, put the phone/newspaper/remote down and have a chat with me, please?". Because that is NOT. ROMANTIC. And after being together for more than ten years, I expected some sensitivity towards my.. you know, body language, expression, and most importantly, what I'm NOT saying. I know, romantics are very hard to be with.

Then it struck me. As naturally as I am a romantic, men are naturally wired to be addicted to gadgets. It's the same as watching TV, especially if it's a good movie, your eyes are fixated on the screen and you just can't move away. It is also the same as driving by an accident scene on the road. We are all 'wired' to look. Darn it then why can't men be wired to be mutually romantic?

Doraemon Melts Hearts...

Couple of weekends ago, we popped over to City Square JB to meet Doraemon to celebrate his -100th Anniversary. HOW CUTE IS THAT. Minus 100th. Why?

Because he's from the future. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. Get it? Get it?

OK.

The meet-and-greet sessions were held at the ground floor atrium, together with stalls and stalls of mooncakes. And of course, there is a Doraemon mooncake stall. LOVE the Honey Jackfruit and Mango Tango ones. OH SO DELISH. Buy four and you get a free adorable bag! (will take pic)

When Doraemon and his gang come, they bring along the huge collections of souvenirs ranging from clothes (babies and adults), pillows, quilt covers, bedsheet sets, stationery, food containers, water bottles, lanyards, soft toys, room slippers, the whole caboodle!

AND YOU WANT TO BUY THEM ALL. The blue is hypnotic I tell you. It tells you to splurge.

The whole gang. Like Smurfette, Shizuka is the only girl that hangs out with them.

The free bag that came with 4 mooncakes.

Photo print of the meet-n-greet session. RM25.

IKEA Swedish Meatballs

Easy dinner.

What you need to buy from the IKEA food section:

1 pack of meatballs. Serves 6 gluttons. I assume there are 60 balls in the pack. The ones in Singapore are made of beef and pork I think.

A jar of MUST-HAVE Lingonberry jam. Condiments to the entire meal.

A packet of the sauce powder.

Whipping cream. Or cream for cooking/whipping. Bought mine from Giant.

Potatoes. Peeled and boiled, and halved.

Protocol:

1. Heat the meatballs in a single layer on a baking tray. Bake the frozen balls directly in a preheated oven at about 170 degrees Celsius for 15-20 minutes.

2. Make the gravy by boiling 280ml of water, then pour in 70ml of cream. Empty the packet of gravy powder and stir while boiling. The powder clumped a bit so I had to 'press' the clumps against the pot to dissolve them completely. One packet serves 4.

3. Serve ten meatballs per pax on a plate, pour gravy generously on top, along with 2 halved boiled potatoes, and 3 spoonfuls of Lingonberry jam at the side.

Easy peasy!

Handmade Ring Cushion

I made this for my sister-in-law who is getting ROM-ed this Saturday.

Materials: White/cream soft cotton linen fabric cut approx. 7" x 7". White cotton lace. Red embroidery thread and needle. Alphabet stamps (bought from Kiang Trading). Versacraft black inkpad for stamping on multi surfaces.

A friend gave me a copy of Clover embroidery pattern where I traced the birds from. The couple's names are hand-stamped below the birds.

To tie the rings, I attached a silvery grey satin ribbon folded in half, adorned with a crystal brad.

The back of the crystal brads look like this.

When the design is done on the cover, I stitched the front and back fabric with the lace in the between, right side of fabric facing each other (I had sewn a love later on to complete the design. Then it was turned inside out, and filled with polyester filling.

Done!

McDonald's Petronas Skudai... NOT lovin' it

I had the worst service experience on Sunday 23rd of Sept 2012 around noon.

Mr. Pozali was serving at the counter I was queueing for. He was serving a patron before me, preparing his orders, and he spent quite a lot of time waiting for the kitchen to pass him the orders. This is what he does:

-Waits at 'kitchen collection point' for fried chickens. Places fried chickens on tray.
-Goes back and wait again for McChicken burgers. Places burgers on the tray.
-Rushes to pack fries, places them on the tray.
-Goes back to kitchen collection point and waits for another burger.
-Pours drinks into cups, and places them on tray.
-Passes the tray to patron and says 'Enjoy your meal!'

During all those times he spent waiting at the kitchen, why couldn't he take my order? I assumed it is their system ie. 'focus one by one'. FINE.

When he finished, he then took my order which is ONE bowl of porridge, I made payment, and he prompted the kitchen for the porridge. But this time, he didn't wait at the kitchen like he did previously. It wasn't 'focus one by one' anymore.

He suddenly became efficient and went on to take the next patron's order! WHY DIDN'T HE DO THE SAME FOR ME?!

And dear next patron took his sweet time ordering.

Patron: Mmm... ayam goreng dua
Mr. P: OK.. lagi?
Patron: Mmmm.... mmmm... burger ayam set tiga..
Mr. P: Ya.. lagi?
Patron: Mmm... nugget satu... tak, tak... eeerrr, nugget dua
Mr. P: OK... lagi?
Patron: Mmm... burger daging satu
Mr. P: OK... lagi?
Patron: OK, tu je.

(all this while, I am waiting like an idiot and fuming. Waves of angry heat is radiating from my scalp. Forget about me, I'm chopped liver)

Payment was made etc, and Mr. Pozali proceeded to assemble HIS tray with some of his orders first while my ONE bowl of porridge is still sitting in the oven, not retrieved.

WHAT. THE.

I was clearly very upset and very angry at his inconsistency in service.

NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT lovin' it.

Motherhood.. and McDonalds

Motherhood changes a woman, whether she likes it or not. Some of these changes are good, the rest, bad. Take me as an example. I was a timid, non-confrontational insecure girl who lived in her own world made of dreams. Cannot blame me, I'm a Piscean. Pisceans make the worst friend so they say, and they pick their noses when they drive. I have never read a horoscope that described me so well. And they tend to be distracted or diverted somewhere else, like the time I bought shoes instead of ... oh fish divert again. Pisceans swear a lot too (self declare).

ANYWAY... motherhood has empowered me. It has given me the strength and confidence I never knew I could have. The experiences I gain being a mother can never be compared to the ones I gain at my workplace. It also gave me an immense capacity to love. When you have that capacity, your whole world changes.

Now, the bad. Motherhood also gave me a scalp that could radiate these tremendous wave of heat and anger in mere milliseconds. And children, regardless of age, can see this angry heat wave because they have special vision. I think. The natural reaction is to scold. With great capacity to love, comes great capacity to holler. Even if it's running upstairs to your bed, covering your head under the pillow and shouting it out. A mother needs to let it out sometimes ya know. Children, how adorable and joyful they are, can also ignite the most fearsome fury in their mother's heart.

After years of being pushed to the limits, I have learnt to NOT tolerate unfair services. Like one rendered to me at McDonalds Petronas Skudai. I will elaborate this next because it deserves a post on its own.

SO, motherhood is a wild ride. It's awesome and can be tiring sometimes. No, I take that back. It IS tiring but you don't hear all the mothers admitting that, because deep down, at the end of the day, it's just love.

The Police Force; JB vs Singapore

Having worked in Singapore and living in JB for more than 10 years, this is how I feel about the police force in the two nations.

Traffic police in JB makes traffic worse. Singaporean traffic police mostly will ease congestion or direct traffic appropriately.

I feel scared when I see a JB police although I didn't do anything wrong. I feel safe with a Singaporean police even though I did something wrong.

JB traffic police hide between the bush at the PLUS highway with speed cameras, pointing at traffic's direction (shoots the rear of your car). Singapore traffic police sit safely and clearly on overhead pedestrian bridges with speed cameras, pointing against traffic's direction (shoots the front of your car).

JB police are nowhere to be seen when they are needed the most. Singapore police appear almost everywhere even when they are not needed the most.

Why JB, why?

Sweet Pastel

Just some of my pastel products.

A Saturday Afternoon

To play with a kid, you gotta be a kid yourself. And I think a mini 'house' is every kid's must-have. I used to make one out of the cardboard box that came with my new fridge. Truth is, boys LOVE to play house too!! I made an interesting observation whenever I bring the boys to the Kid's Park at JUSCO where children can play with arcade games and there is a soft playground for younger kids. One of the attraction in there is a mini kitchen and supermarket (at Bukit Indah, Johor Bahru's branch). It's made of very thick cardboard I think, those industrial ones, and it's pink. Guess what, I saw more boys playing in it that the girls! They would cut up the toy vegetables (two halves held by velcro, isn't this a genius idea) and go around the kitchen like Jamie Oliver. I find this so endearing :)

This observation led me to another observation. I realize that the only things I remember about kindergarten is the mini playhouse and the playground. Play. I was the happiest there.

So, this colourful one is a hand-me-down and it matches his toy car. Darren has played in it now and then but only very recently, I created a real mini home for him. A cooking set and a little sleeping corner are all it took to magically transform it.

I taught him how to 'play pretend'. We'd go to the market (our kitchen) in his little toy car, and he'd buy a box of toy fish from me, then he'd go back and cook the fishes, and he'd serve me and we will have a little fish party.

I am tempted to get a REAL stove cooking toy set. But they are all in pink :(
So, there went my entire Saturday afternoon! Domestication Lesson 101.

Quickest Pizza Recipe Ever

Sometimes I run out of ideas of what to pack for my 7 yo's snack to school. And then recently, someone awesome shared this quick recipe and I just had to try it. Everyone loved it!

What you need:
1. Pita bread. Your express pizza base ready-made, wa la. I got the regular sized (15cm diameter I think), and the mini sized for the kiddos (around 11cm diameter).

2. Cheese. Mozzarella, cheddar or the mixed pack like the one I got from Cold Storage. Shredded.

3. Tomato paste.

4. Toppings of your choice. I use ham.

What to do:
1. Preheat oven at 150 degrees Celsius.

1. Pan-fry the ham with a little bit of oil. Cut it into strips, or squares or heart shapes if you are free. Set aside.

2. Take a pita bread out and spread tomato paste nice and even on it, like kaya on toast. Sama-sama.

3. Spread shredded cheese all over. Be generous.

4. Lastly, scatter the pieces of ham on top.

5. Bake this in the oven for about 15 minutes, until the cheese melt.

6. Let it cool a bit before serving the kids.

Enjoy!

A Little Basket of Handmade Goodness

The other day, I needed a cool wrapping paper fast. I had some scrap kraft paper left from fillers so I pattern-stamped it with different stamps.

My dad's birthday gift. It was also the day I lost my iPhone4S :(

The popular vintage style Good Morning towel, zhnged!

20 Pillow Talk Questions For You And Your Child

Daniel and I have our regular pillow talk before bed, and it is a great, if not perfect, way to bond. Sometimes, I'd run out of topics, then I found this link. How inspiring!

1. What do you like to dream about?
2. What is your best memory this school year?
3. Who is your hero? Why?
4. How would you describe your family?
5. If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be?
6. What are you most proud of yourself for?
7. Who is the kindest person you know? Why?
8. What do you like most about your best friend?
9. What is one thing you would like to learn to do well?
10.If you were an animal what one would you be and why?
11.When is the last time someome hurt your feelings? How did you react?
12.Do you know someone who is going though a hard time? How can you help them?
13.What is the scariest thing that happened this year?
14.If you could keep only one thing, out of everything you have, what would it be?
15.Who do you think is really successful? Why?
16.What’s the best thing about your teacher this year?
17.When do you feel misunderstood by grown-ups?
18.What three words best describe you?
19.What’s something that makes you angry?
20.What’s the best compliment you ever received?

I think he may be too young for some of the questions, so I'll keep them for another few years.

Letters To My Boys: A Beautiful Advice

To do anything well, you must first care. Passionately. And be enthusiastic. Be hungry. Stay hungry. Be proactive. Do more than your job description. In fact, create your own job. Understand that receiving criticism is the quickest way to improve. And that sometimes being fired, or not getting what you want, is absolutely the best thing that could happen. Be a team player. Give credit where credit is due; ‘we’ is always stronger than ‘I’. But if something goes wrong, take responsibility, stand up and be counted. Love your life outside work – it’s the only way to stay sane, and that’s more important the higher up you go. Know your physical limits, but never stop dreaming. Never mock another person’s dreams. Don’t be a quitter. If you believe you can do something, you’ve already done the hard part. Be curious. Stay curious. Rules are overrated but respect is everything. Play for win/win scenarios. Don’t ask permission to succeed, just get on with it. If something hasn’t been done before, it doesn’t mean it’s not possible. In short, dream, believe, do! But be prepared to work bloody hard, over and above expectations. Never cheat. Don’t gossip. Have a moral code. Enjoy the ride. The aim is to screech to a halt when you finally get to those pearly gates and say wow, what a blast! Not oops, I forgot something.

Taken from here.

Top 10 Things You Tend To Say To Your Young Children

1. DON'T do that.
2. DON'T play with that.
3. WHY did you do that to your brother/sister?
4. STOP jumping!
5. DON'T run here.
6. I said PLEASE. DON'T. RUN. HERE.
7. Can you STOP that.
8. DO your homework NOW.
9. Why are you angry? / Why are you crying?
10. SLEEP NOW!!!

Of course, I do say other loving things too, and I tell them bedtime stories, but when you have rowdy boys, you are never far off from the list above.

Oh, another one, GIVE ME BACK MY PHONE.

The Boys' Current Favorite Books

Daniel's current favorite. This book is a combination of several puzzle stories which also comes individually. What he likes most about this book is that it is fun! As you read along, he gets to play different puzzles in each stories, like find a clue, find something in a picture, go through a maze, solve simple mysteries etc. It is engaging for boys!

If your child is learning to read, the Peter & Jane Keywords series is highly recommended. It uses a system of key phrases and words devised by teacher William Murray back in the 1950s. Starting with book 1a, a budding reader of primary school age, from 3 to 5 year old, is introduced to brother and sister Peter and Jane, their dog Pat, their Mummy and Daddy, and their home, toys, playground, the beach, shops, buses and trains, and so on. The first book uses the 12 key words which are used repeatedly ("Here is Peter", "Peter is here", "Here is Jane", "Jane is here", "I like Peter", "I like Jane"). Additional words are introduced gradually, page by page, to expand the reader's reading vocabulary, with the new words on each page set out in a footnote. You can find out more about it here.

These are a couple of Darren's current favorite. Because he is 2 plus, active and can't keep his hands still when doing anything, these books are great because he gets to slide and flip individual covers and flaps on each page.

Eric Carle's books are awesome! I just love the artwork and colours of every book.

Dear Zoo

Lift the flap!

I have not seen these in local JB bookstores or even the library (except for Peter and Jane series). But these books (and so much more good ones) can be ordered online. By the way, I feel that there is a lack of well-written English story books for children in Malaysia. I have a few at home, but I couldn't bring myself to read them to Daniel. You will see why in my next post or so. In the meantime, we shall be content with a few good ones (over and over again). Happy reading!

DIY Stencil Pillowcase

I never knew the obiang blue alphabet stencil could make a statement pillowcase like this. All you need are a piece of plain fabric large enough to make your pillow case (you can use the plain white case from IKEA),permanent markers/fabric markers, a large stencil, ruler and fabric chalk/vanishing pen to mark the layout.
Tip: Using the stencil, draw the outline of the alphabet first before filling in the colour.

Idea from here.