22 November 2005
“Mama, look at mei-mei!"
This happened during the Raya holidays.

One afternoon my girl woke up from her nap and was sitting on the mattress while watching me undress her brother for bath. As usual, my boy whined and refused to go into the bathroom, stood by our bed near the mattress. As I turned around wanting to coax my boy into the bathroom after putting the dirty clothes into the laundry basket, I was amused to see my girl’s hand almost reaching for her brother’s birdie!!! Kids and their curiosity… *holding laugh and roll eyes* I quickly got hold of her hand and carried her away from boy, while telling her she should not touch koh-koh’s jiao-jiao. My boy eventually went inside the bathroom after I told him his sis is gonna come after his birdie if he doesn’t. Heheh! *wicked look :P*

I related this incident to my family over dinner a few days later; everyone had a good laugh. Apparently this is not new to them. They had their share of amusement by my girl’s similar antique already. You see, my girl loves bathing as she gets to play with water, while my boy prefers to play than getting cleaned-up (sigh…boy!). When my Papa asked my boy to bathe, my girl overhears and will run to the bathroom first wanting to bathe as well. So Papa ends up having to bathe both of them together.

When both of them were naked in the bathroom, I guess girl’s curiosity got the better of her. She wanted to pull/grab koh-koh’s birdie. That’s when my Mama held her back, taught her the term jiao-jiao and what she ought not to do (have to thank my mom for the very early biology lesson). Now my girl knows she’s not supposed to grab/pull... the birdie, but being a cheeky little girl she is, will point whenever she sees her brother naked (while changing or after bath) and say “Koh-koh’s jiao-jiao!”, repeat n-th times until you acknowledge her. Sometimes she’d even walk up to her brother, hands extended, pretending (I hope she is!) to want to pull! LOL! My boy would then quickly cover his birdie with both hands and run away from his cheeky little sister, screaming “Mama, look at mei-mei! She wants to grab my jiao!”
 
posted by domesticgoddess at 11/22/2005 03:38:00 pm | Permalink | 20 comments
15 November 2005
领成绩报告册
上个星期六去恩的幼稚园领成绩报告册和与他的班主任讨论他下半学年的表现。

你可能问：哇唠！才幼稚园喔… 要考试和有成绩报告册的咩？

对，没错！好象很可怕呵？！连幼稚园都要考试！我第一次听到时也是蛮震惊的。可能这是为了吸引那些比较注重课程提纲及功课的父母送他们的孩子去的吧… （嘿，我不注重考试的喔… 而且最好回家没功课。但是由于这间幼稚园最近了，才把他送到那儿去）虽然起先觉得有点怪怪的（指去领成绩报告册），但倒回来想，其实不错嘛，证明老师除了只是教书，还要了解各个小孩的进展，潜能以及弱点。尤其在同龄团体里的表现，并不是在家里可以观察的。所以我开始庆幸幼稚园有主办教师与家长的交流。

老师给我看恩的考试式卷。其中两科老师说他因情绪化没有心做；因为一科复习和考试时都没专心听，另一科则空着一张没做，结果老师隔天批改时发现才给他重做。老师还问我，是不是接近考试时没有特别教他或跟他复习。*脸红* 哎！那时我恨不得有个地洞给我钻进去！

老实说，真的没有好好跟他复习咯… 因为根本没什么时间嘛！再说，我不要在他那么小给他施压力（哈！好像有点“美其名”）。幼稚园时因该尽情游戏嘛… 更何况童年应该有个美好的回忆。幸亏，老师说以他本身的实力考到酱的成绩已经是很不错了，还赞他其实是很聪明精灵的喔…。*笑不拢嘴* 嘻，有哪一个家长不喜欢听孩子被赞的啊？

我本身不会特别在意他的成绩啦… 因为他到底还只是个孩子嘛（今年是幼一，但因生在年尾还没到五岁）。最重要的，是他的学习态度已经有改进了。从年头一句华语都听不懂，到现在在这科目里拿甲等，我已经很欣慰了。再者，上半年时还拿了英语诗歌朗诵第一名呢！你说我这妈妈能不感到骄傲吗？

只是，进步还进步，是时候开始慢慢训练他不可以那么情绪化了。*唉，头痛*
 
posted by domesticgoddess at 11/15/2005 08:50:00 am | Permalink | 12 comments
14 November 2005
New Spectacles
My frameless spectacles was broken by my girl last month. She likes to grab it when I carry her; of course not everytime. There are times I manage to hold on to my specs and a game of tug-of-war ensued! LOL! Or I will lower her and sway my head back as far as I could to avoid her hands reaching my specs. Normally I can tell when she's going to grab my specs; she'll sort of look into your eyes and focus on the spectacles, then without warning her hand comes quickly to snatch the specs off my face.

She didn't throw the specs last time, however not on that day last month. She was very quick and when I wanted to snatch the specs back, she decided to throw it on the floor. Usually the specs would break so easily because the lense is plastic. However due to it being frameless and has screws on the sides, it's more fragile. So one side of the lense broke. Luckily I had managed to find my previos pair to use in the meantime 顶住档！

Of course I could've just ordered the lense and have it fixed over the existing frame, but I thought I might as well get a new pair with frame again (more lasting if my girl decided to grab and throw again *roll eyes*). Here's my new pair of specs.

Nice or not?

After a year plus of wearing the frameless specs, this new pair feels very heavy on my nose bridge! My youngest brother said this specs makes me look like Lizzie Mcguire's mom! *rolls eyes* Also have a colleague who said this specs makes me look very OL wor... *shrugs* Don't know whether that's good or bad!?!

 
posted by domesticgoddess at 11/14/2005 04:15:00 pm | Permalink | 11 comments
11 November 2005
Food and Childhood Memories
This simple woman tagged me again for a meme regarding food; I still owe her one on the routine check thingy… but that’s gonna kill a lot of me brain cells so I’d conveniently forget that for now. :P

Ahhh… my favourite food *think, think, think* It’s going to be a problem listing them all down because I simply have too many! This just shows what a glutton I am huh? Instead of listing each dish, I’d probably put them into categories. Also, I’ll blog about foods that are associated with childhood memories but may or may not be my all time favourite.

Durian
This fruit seemed to be on everyone’s list! The unique taste and texture aside, what I reminisce most is how the whole family converged at the dining table to open and sample durians from different trees while chatting away. We’d even go out as a family to buy durians during the peak season, walking from stall to stall to get the best. All the branded durians e.g. D24, ang heh whatsoever weren’t heard of. We’d simply settle for small kampung durians, as long as it tastes good. There were times my uncle 小舅bought baskets of durians and invited all his siblings’ families over to his house to eat durians. For us children, it’s always fun to fill water into the shell and drink. Apparently it’s supposed to help cool the body as the durian is heaty. Then there washing our hands by scraping the inner of shell; purportedly remove the smell from your fingers better than any soap! Even now I’d still prefer to eat this fruit at my parent’s place as it is more jolly热闹.

Four-Angled Beans (Kacang Botol)
We used to grow this along the fence separating our house with neighbors in our previous residence. The plant would creep along the wire fence, bearing big and juicy beans. It can be eaten as ulam with sambal belacan and pounded dried shrimp, or stir fry with sambal belacan. Mama would ask is to pluck the beans from the fence when she run out of vegetable to cook.

T’ng Tuk dishes served in traditional wedding eve dinner (lao tneah meh)
Most of the dishes served are my favourites. They include lor bak, too tor th’ng (Pig Tripe Soup), kiam chye ak (Roasted Pork Trotter with Salted Vegie Soup), jiu-hu-char or hu-chi-char, curry chicken, nyonya acar and stir-fry mix vegetables. My aunt 大姨 would especially make her special kerabu to add to it. There were many wedding occasions during my childhood, from aunts and uncles’ to older cousins’. Mama and her sisters would wake up very early in the morning to cut the vegetables, prepare the ingredients and cook the dishes. Naturally we (my sis and I) followed her, and we’d play with our cousins (when we were younger and couldn’t help much) or watch the adults. Later on when we were old enough to help out, we helped cut the vegetable, peel onions/garlic, or even wrap the lor bak. It was fun to work together and listen to our aunts telling stories of their time, gossips or even cracking jokes. That’s a good time to learn about the earlier generations’ stories.

Spaghetti
We were introduced to spaghetti since young, when there weren’t any spaghetti sauce available in supermarket. Mama would cook the sauce from scratch by using tomato puree and some dried herbs bought from supermarket. She’d put sausages, bacons, onions, celery and sliced hard boiled eggs in the sauce. After the spaghetti was boiled to al-dante and drained, she added it to the sauce and let it soaked in the all the flavours. Normally she’d cooked enough for lunch and dinner. It’s kind of a wholesome meal with carbo, protein and fibre all in one dish.

Toast and Eggs
Breakfast was is always an important meal in our family. My Papa would get the morning paper and read it while eating breakfast. Our breakfast was mainly bread/bun/biscuit; the spread can be anything, from simple butter/garlic butter/jam/peanut butter/sugar/milo, to a little more luxurious egg/ham/bacon/spam/sardine/corn beef etc. Occasionally we were allowed to cook instant noodle. My favourite was to have toast with egg sunny-side-up, with a dash of Worchester sauce, some pepper and chilli sauce. If have bacon, even better. Mmm… simply yummy! Another version would be to have half boiled egg with toast!

Assam Laksa and Popiah
Assam laksa is our all time favourite. Once in a while we’d pester Mama to cook this dish. Although a lot of work to be done, especially cutting vegetables and separating the fish bones from the flesh, we would happily do it because we get to eat laksa to our heart’s content. Sometimes my uncle 小舅 would ask the sisters to go to his house to cook laksa and popiah; after the cooking and eating they also enjoy mahjong and/or jin-rummy games. We are a close-knit family!

Chicken and Roast Duck
Steamed/boiled chicken 白切鸡 and roast duck are still my favourites. We get to eat both together whenever there was praying session to the ancestors. Mama would boil the chicken and buy the roast duck from the market. After prayer session, she’d chopped the birds up and we will have a meaty feast heh!

Wow! Didn’t realize I’ve written so much! Must have killed some brain cells there trying to recall those memories. 晓玲, 下次回来大马时记得请我吃一顿大餐补番数呵！:P

Oops, before I forget, I'm tagging sexymama, belacan, loopymeals, fish fish, mama bok and msau. Ok lar, I'm not forcing you to do it, but I'm really really curious what are your 5 favourite foods that are associated with childhook memories lor. You can have more than 5 too heeheehee...
 
posted by domesticgoddess at 11/11/2005 04:52:00 pm | Permalink | 7 comments
08 November 2005
What I did during the holidays...
Before the holidays, I had listed the things I wanted to do here. Since I am too lazy to think of something to write, might as well share whether I stick to my plans or not.
1. brings son to his concert
It was on Deepavali day, very rush in the morning because my boy has to arrive at 9am even though the concert will only start at 10am. To make matters worse, he refused to let me put make-up on him!! And the teacher had stressed to me to have him heavily made-up. *roll eyes* Anyway, the concert was very lively; I especially like the Banana Boat Song dance, very well choreographed. My boy's dance was the last dance, a chinese dance with the girls waving satin ribbons and boys do some kung-fu like dance... some of the boys can even do somersalts!! Can you believe it? They are only five-year-olds! FIL, Papa and my 2 brothers came. My girl became quite restless after a while and wanted to walk around the hall without anyone holding her hand.
2. do my hair -- hahah, the vain me kicks in again!
Went to have my hair permed in one of the hair salon in Gurney Plaza on last Monday. The result was OK la... just found it very expensive for an ordinary perm loh. And hor... my hair wasn't styled to what I had expected; the hair dresser claimed that very curly style will me make look too mature for my young face wor... a bit dissapointed in that sense. Sorry Lrong, no photos because I have a no-show-my-face policy heheh...
3. go try Korean restaurant in Gurney Plaza
Had lunch there (Seoul Garden) on Wednesday. Didn't realise the place was having such brisk business! We arrived there at around 1pm, and there were 4 groups ahead of us in waiting list! We were asked to leave our cell phone number and name behind so that they can call us when there is a table available for us. So we walked around the plaza for approximately 20 minutes and then head back to the restaurant to see if it's our turn. I didn't like the way/raised-tone the waitress responded to our queries... as if we do not understand they will call us when table is available. Hey I happened to be starving already and there were not many things I wanted to see since I just shopped there on Monday; so thought want to try my luck and come down to ask how many more was ahead of us! That waitress certainly didn't impress me! Back to the food, I'd say nothing spectacular, just buffet-style BBQ & steamboat... even though they have lots of prawns and meats. They must have put lots of MSG because we felt thirsty even in the evening! I'd say this would be my first and last time here... because it's not cheap after all, came up to about RM28.25 per person!
Coincidentally, there's also a Korean restaurant by the same name, situated in Sunrise Tower (not far from Gurney Plaza). I don't know if they are from the same management; this popular Korean restaurant was here since 80s or 90s (or even earlier?) and serve A-la-carte menu. The food here tastes better and more authentic, can be quite pricey, but is definitely much more worth it than the one in Gurney Plaza basement. Who says Korean food is not good?
6. bring kids to youth park for cycling
Went to Youth Park twice. 1st time we brought the bicycle and tricycle there but upon seeing the playground both want to play instead of cycle. Anyway, we let them cycle for a few rounds before letting my boy play on the slides etc... end up we have to keep an eye on the bicycles and tricycles. *roll eyes* 2nd time around, we only brougnt the tricycle for Jean. Ian was happy playing on the slides and seesaws for so long so he didn't fuss when we told him it's time to leave.
7. bake cheesecake
Yummy yummy... details in the previous post.
9. shopping -- find something that suits the theme of the upcoming annual dinner if possible
I shopped on Monday after my hairdo. Bought 2 blouses from PA, a pair of heels from Vincci, a chiffon-silk dress from Phenomenal for myself, and a long-sleeve shirt from PA for hubby. Have to mention that the chiffon-silk dress was such good deal, only RM50 (originally RM200+)!!! Last piece too! Can you believe my luck? But I really took the risk la, because it's a no-try item due to reduced price. But now I have to seriously look for a one-piece lacey-satin lingerie the goes with this dress as the silk was really really thin!! Sort of can see through like that.
On Wednesday, before I fetch Ian from school, I went to this boutique next to Shell station along Jln. Masjid Negeri and another next to Caltex station. Bought a flowery (a-la-Hawaii) halter neck dress for RM29 from the former store, just nice for the theme of the annual dinner. Also got myself a white blouse with green embroidery for RM19.90 from the latter!
Didn't manage to take photos at the marina and bring kids to swim because it was raining on and off the past week. And hoh, obviously I didn't have time to update my blog since no update until yesterday heheh :P
 
posted by domesticgoddess at 11/08/2005 05:00:00 pm | Permalink | 12 comments
07 November 2005
Baking Cheese Cake
The plan to bake cheese cake is actually to use up the Tesco digestive biscuits I bought sometime ago. The biscuits are good on its own, except that the chocolate on top of the biscuit has sort of melted. It’s quite messy to store in room temperature, so I put it in the fridge. Turned out that now all the biscuits are stuck to each other, there’s no way to separate the biscuits without breaking them. Yeah I know… my mistake! *sigh* However, thanks to my mistake, now we have a cheese cake to eat! ;)

The recipe is as follow:

For base:
1.5 cups digestive biscuit, crushed
125g butter
For filling:
250g cream cheese
75g sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
100g Toblerone chocolate
For the base, melt the butter and mix evenly with biscuit. Spoon the mixture into 23cm tin. Press on to the base and then chill.
Use electric beater to whip cream cheese and sugar till light and creamy. Add eggs gradually; beating well after each addition and then sour cream. Lastly fold in Toblerone chocolate.
Pour filling on to base and bake for 45 minutes at 160 degree Celcius.

As the intention was to use up all the biscuits, I didn’t bother to measure it precisely. As for butter, only about 70g was used; just nice to hold the crushed biscuits together. I asked hubby to help pressed the mixture to the base of the baking tin while I work on the cream cheese. Job well done or not?


The cream cheese was cut into smaller cubes so that it’s easier to work on. This part you have to give me credit for beating the cheese and sugar manually with a whisk ala-chef style! *bow, bow* Didn’t want to wake others as I was baking my cake 11:30pm, mind you! :P

Now let the photos tell you the story…

1. Add sugar to cream cheease in a big bowl and beat with preferabbly an electric mixer. My arm ached the next day after all that action. *roll eyes*

2. All creamy and nice. See, my kung fu not bad eh?

3. Crack egg in to batter and mix evenly before adding next.

4. After folding in the sour cream, add chopped Toblerone chocolate to batter and fold it in.

Last but not least, pour the batter into the baking tin with pressed crumbs that was chilled earlier. This is how it looks before I shove it into the oven.

Tang Tang Tang Tang ...

The tergendala paragraph was taken out... obviously because I can continue this post with the uploaded photos now.

Updated 8/11/2005 with more photos:

Rising nicely in the oven...

Out from the baking tin...

Side view...

I was quite happy with the taste on first mouthful, subsequently thought it's a tad too sour (may be a little too much sour cream as I didn't get the measurement accurately). Hubby commented about the sourness too but he ate most of the cake anyway hahahah... I brought half to my mama's house for them to try. My brother said it was quite nice except that the base was too hard to cut. Guess hubby pressed too hard... I explicitly asked brother what he thought of the cream cheese part, was it too sour? But he said no wor... So, not a total failure but there's room for improvement.

Want a piece?

 
posted by domesticgoddess at 11/07/2005 11:54:00 am | Permalink | 14 comments