Passport photos

Our kids both have their passports done some time ago. But I did have to get some new passport photos done of them recently to for membership updates, applications and other stuff.1st the boy, not so easy. He kept on looking all other directions except the camera. This was his best shot.

Then the girl. A nightmare. She wouldn't sit still. She kept on running, climbing, opening drawers etc. This was her best shot.

2nd Giveaway by SJB.

MY PHOTOPAGE.. (My Personal Blog).: 2nd Giveaway by SJB.
So here I am on a Wednesday evening doing nothing but letting my fingers do the walking on the WWW.

As I was looking through blogs I'm following, hey presto... there's some competitions going on and lovely prizes to be won.

Of course I want to try my luck and win... the G.L.A.M. bag. It would be puuuurfect for me. Its been a while since I got a bag for me (ie one not shared with my little munchkins)

Please... let it be me SJB!

KFC Double Zinger Burger

I don't cook much.

Dinner on weekends are big cheats. Usually take-outs, rarely eat-ins. Have you met our kids?

Yes, that's why.

I went to KFC just now to 'tapau' our dinner. Ordered a Dinner Plate and Snack Plate combo. Then I decided to try their "new" burger. It looked rather impressive on their posters.

Double layer of the zinger pieces on top of a really nice looking cheese. There's a slice of pineapple, salad, and oozing at the top - barbeque sauce and mayo. All these goodness sandwiched inside a perfect sesame seed bun. It's spicy, it's sweet, it's savoury. Looks yummy.

By the way, KK price is RM9.90 (before tax) for a la carte orders. That's 1Malaysia for you.

This is what it actually looks like:

Doesn't look so promising.

KFC's Double Zinger Burger. Not big. Not epic. Pathetic ain't it?!

I still think Marrybrown's Tower Burger is better, though their service is lousy.

Party Planning Mode to the Max

It's November and I've got about 3 weeks to prepare for Mia's 2nd birthday party. So much to do for such a little party.

We have decided on the theme and venue, but I'm still negotiating with the venue over the cost and what they're offering. Once this is done, then I can send out the invitations. Not that many, about 40 pax, half are kids/babies.

The theme this time is Mickey Mouse & Friends. Some of the older kids (older than Mia that is) might not be interested so much in Mickey, so I had to throw in Angry Birds as part of Mickey's "friends". Such unlikely combination, but hey, whatever it takes to have all the kids have fun together with the birthday girl.

The first thing I had to make for this party was a pinata. You know the game where the kids get to hit a a papier-mâché or other type of container that is decorated, filled with toys and or candy and then gets hit until smashed and the kids dive in to pick up the toys/candies?

Pinata can take a long time to make especially for someone like me who's never ever made one. That's why I started the pinata project last month. The result:Hmmmm, looks like Mickey went for a sun-tanning session with Tom Jones. I'm so torn now, should I repaint the face?! Honestly, Mickey really looks freaky.

Badu punya pasal (continued)

Nampak tu. Jadi instructor bah sia. So, the "badu" I got the other day was to be used to teach the ladies of our church how to make.... jeng, je, jeng, jeng.... 'HINAVA'.

It was my turn to host the monthly ladies meeting. Because our kitchen was small, and also because I still don't have the confidence to share any recipes that involve actual cooking, I decided to share a fail proof recipe. Even so, 3 days before the actual event, I asked my mum to teach me. 1 day before the event, I tried it on my own, baru konfiden sikit!

Bonus time. The night before the ladies meeting, our baby gaga did something which I thought was funny but at the same time cute. Mia had her bath, the maid helped her put her pyjamas on. We were watching tv for a bit and when we turned around, this is what we saw:

Alalalala... Mia turned her pyjamas top into a toga top. Fashionista! I think she's been spending way too much time watching the Kadarshians with me. Note Khloe Kadarshian.

Upon closer look, our fashionista had a slight wardrobe malfunction, exposed booby.

I tried to get her to put her sleeve back on, but no. She refused. So, I just let her go to bed with her toga top.

Badu punya pasal

Bagi sesiapa yg ndak kenal... badu tu biji bambangan kering yg diparut ya.

In preparation for an event tomorrow, I had to go to Donggongon's tamu ground to look for badu.

Not an easy task because firstly, I had to look for a place to park my car. That itself is a challenge on a Friday morning. Mak uiiiiii, susahnya sekali. Finally after surveying the area, I managed to park my car (creatively of course).

Secondly, buying badu mission. Punyalah susah. I nearly gave up because every stall that I asked, semua pun ndak jual badu. Ada pula yang sia offer buah bambangan terus! OMG. Takkan saya mau kupas to bambangan, ambil biji, mau kasih kering lagi, lepas tu mau di parut lagi?!

Thirdly, the language. Berputar-putar lah lidahku conversing in Kadazan:

• "Kivaa badu nu?" (Do you have badu?)
• "Padagang ko do badu?" (Do you sell badu?)
  
• "Toing, mogium zou do badu bo ti!" (I'm looking for badu)

Ok lah, bolehlah pass nyawa-nyawa ikan.

Finally, I managed to find 1 stall selling badu. Tapi mana tau, itu Inai yg menjual tersangat lah friendly mau bercerita panjang-panjang with me in Kadazan. Aduhai.... berabis mau translate in my head from English to Malay to Kadazan in order to carry on the conversation. She is a really nice old lady and I enjoyed talking to her. But man was it exhausting!

Here's the badu I bought today. A small packet costs RM2.00

Jadi, kalau ada badu tu... mestilah utk mau buat ??????? To be continued!

Feel like cooking something new

I do have another blog on Sugar & Spice and all things nice ... my cooking corner.

I haven't been updating it for a very long time. Not that I've not been cooking, just that I've been either too busy or lazy to write.

Somehow today I felt like coming out of this rut and decide to blog about what came out of my kitchen.

A simple spicy local dish:

Stir fried Squid in Belacan with Spinach. Click here for the recipe.

Converting on my mind

It's not what you think!

But I am thinking of converting: from disposable diapers to Cloth Diapers (CDs).

I practiced a bit of cloth diapering with Mia last year. Then, I gave up because it was just too much work. At the time:

• I did not have domestic help
• my father passed away and much of the days after that was spent between my mum's place and our own home here
• I got pregnant again and with no domestic help, a young demanding baby to take care of and 2 homes to upkeep... ai yai yai yai.... disposable diapers was the way to go

Back then, cost wise it did not really hit us. We were buying disposable diapers for just 1 baby.

The environment? I'm not an extreme environmentalist, but I do do my part in other ways Reduce, Reuse, Recycle; NO to plastic bags.

Fast forward a year later and we have 2 kids, both not fully potty trained and hence diapers are a necessity. One word to describe this scenario: EXPENSIVE

We spend around RM80 per week on disposable diapers alone . Why so much? We have "Gunsobuu" and "Guntaiii" ("Pee pee a lot" kid and "Poo poo a lot" kid). And it doesn't help that Mia insists on only wearing her pretty diapers at times.

So here I am, flirting with the idea of converting to CDs.

First order of the day is to add on to our CD collection:I bought 7 new ones yesterday from Nadia @ Babylowe KKshop. They're adorable and affordable. Of course I will need to try out other CDs as well.

Thanks to the Internet, the choices on CDs are just endless to suit to different needs and budget. With so many cute designs out there, decision making is so difficult.

I prefer using bamboo inserts because they're super absorbent and kinder on the baby's tushies. But then again, they are also more expensive.

So far, the kiddos are happy to wear them. In fact, Mia insists on wearing CDs at home. She wears disposables to school. Alan wears them 90% of the time now.

Will keep y'all posted on how we are with the conversion.

7 months old... yesterday!

Alan turned 7 months yesterday.

Current length: 75 cm

Current weight: 8.6kg

Teeth: ZERO!

While he usually rolls to get to where he wants, Alan is learning to crawl now. How is he progressing?
Well he can lift his bum up high. Then, with his forehead on the ground, he'll push his body forward. Pretty much like a wiggly caterpillar for now.

Like Mia, he loves to watch cartoons. Even though Mia would sometime ask for her choice of DVD to be played, our TV is more or less fixed to Disney Junior channel during their waking hours.

I've pretty much memorised the programmes and songs to the channel. Whenever I try to change channels, the 2 of them will release high pitch squeals. I'm glad that the shows on the Disney Junior channel are pretty much educational.

Cakap Sabahan bah!

I was surfing the Internet the other day and was pleasantly surprised to find this site: http://kamussabah.com. So maybe you know such site exist. Tau lah, sia ni kadang ada ketinggalan zaman sikit! But for the benefit of those who don't or who wish to know "apa bah diurang cakap ni?!" ... then go and try out the site.

There are lots of words which I used to use a lot way back when and they do bring a lot of humorous memories.

For example:

Sandi

Definisi
Teruk atau parah.

Contoh
Sandi bah c kitut, hilang bibir dia gara-gara eksiden mabuk.

Tag
Sandi

http://kamussabah.com/search.php?keywords=sandi

And something more current:

Gila SHIF

Definisi
Terma ini digunakan oleh kebanyakan pengguna laman sosial seperti facebook,myspace,twitter dan lain-lain.Biasanya untuk nama individu pengguna laman sosial tersebut.

Contoh
Om:yo!apa nama mu di FB aku mau add ini..
Yo:yaii..!!ko taip saja
ShaUnLoVemUsiCcHenTaSaMaKaMoO0sUkaGuLINKguLINKmaKANkuILapISzZ

I had a good laugh on this too.

Bah, cuba la kamu cari, santut/sansut!

Barney goes to school

A superquick update before Alan wakes up.

Mia loves to go to her nursery and I usually have no problems getting her ready to go.

This morning was not one of those easy days.

She insists on wearing Barney homeslippers to school. So, here we are driving to school. Me singing Barney's "I love you" song, and she laughing and kicking her feet in delight.

2 months to 2 years

Mia turned 22 months yesterday.

2 months from now she'll be 2 years old. Oh my, how time flies. More and more, she makes it known to me and those who dresses her that she has her own style. It could be tomboy-ish in the morning, girly-girl in the afternoon, and nerdy in between then and evening.

As of now, she doesn't really talk any comprehend-able words. Maybe she'll throw in "kai-kai" from time to time when wanting to go out. No mama, no papa, no mummy, no bye bye, no nenen, no chu-chut, nothing.

Its not that we've not tried, we have and are trying to get her to speak. She does understand when we talk to her and respond accordingly though eg: come here; ok, we're going - bye bye Mia (to which she'll run towards us or the front door), go to school, oh-oi time, sayang-sayang etc.

I am enjoying this time when my kids are just infants. I'm not too worried about her not speaking for now. She'll talk in time, and I'm sure she'll have plenty to say. OMG....the neverending "mama, WHY????, mama, what's that? mama, I waaaaant......"

Meanwhile, I'll keep myself occupied with her birthday party prep. The venue, the cake, the games. Hmmmm.

Yes, we'll have a little party for her ;) Those who were at her party last year are definitely invited again.

Perth & Beyond Vacation: Day 4 (Sun 28th Aug 2011)

Today we planned to go down to the port city Fremantle to try out the famed fish & chips at the fishing boat harbour.

As I was busy getting Alan and our supplies ready, our girl Mia was busy "dancing" in front of the TV.

We did get caught in nice traffic on our way to Fremantle.

Apparently there was a huge event happening at the beach halfway to Fremantle: "City to Surf" which is an annual marathon event. I enjoyed the view outside - wildflowers, crowds of people, and yes, he was one of the participants and one of the proud winners I believe looking at his medal on his chest there.

Once we arrived at Fremantle, we headed straight to the only multi-level parking in town and walked to the harbour from there.

Along the way, we stopped by at the park. Mia tried out the many slides. She wasn't that impressed with this one.

This one was slightly better. She still wasn't that impressed.

She did enjoy picking wood chips from the ground and putting them in her mouth. I gave up stopping her after a while.

We got hungry soon so we proceeded to the harbour.
Here we are at the famous Cicerello's Seafood Restaurant. Its a really busy restaurant and we were given pagers to hold on to while waiting for our orders to be ready. It was a really long wait.

There are a lot of seagulls waiting for customers to leave food for them. Once you leave your table, the seagulls come flying in to catch some leftovers.

My fish & chips order. Very nice indeed. Yes, they Cicerrello's do offer other dishes as well like pastas and desserts. By the way, ketchup and other sauce are not given out complimentary - you have to purchase them.

Uncle's seafood platter. Yummy!

Then we had coffee and dessert including cannoli

Once the kids started to play up and a bit too much to handle, we left the restaurant. We had to walk through the park again and Mia desperately wanted to play inside the bouncy castle. Unfortunately for her she wasn't allowed. Not even her wailing and pleading in front of the gate guy worked. So a major meltdown moment followed.

We forced her onto her stroller and walked back to town.
We had a look at the market. Hubby tried out some pepperonis and uncle treated us to huge strawberries.

After the market, we decided to continue our drive to another town - Mandurah Bay.

On the way, we noticed a car with eye lashes behind us!

Once we arrived at Mandurah Bay we went to the local park so Mia can play in the playground.

One of the more interesting things at the park - the Liberty Swing. This swing was designed to allow the handicap enjoy a ride on a swing while seated in their wheelchair. The photo I took was corrupted so I googled this image. Thank goodness for Mr Google.

Mia's ultimate favourite: the slide

She keeps on climbing up

Then sliding down. Over and over again.

Mia tried out other stuff. Its hard to get her to smile for the camera these days.

I asked her to smile, an this is what I got.

She climbed into a yellow boat. She liked this too.

While Mia was having fun in the playground, we got to enjoy the beautiful lake.

Before leaving Mandurah Bay for that long drive back to Perth, we drove around to have a look see at the beautiful luxury homes.
How would you like that for a backyard - your very own jetty to dock your boat/s! Wow. This is what I'd call livin' it up in Mandurah Bay.

Perth & Beyond Vacation: Day 3 (Sat 27 Aug 2011)

Hubby's uncle (as with most Aussies) don't work during the weekends. So, he and his whole family were free to take us around Perth.

Our first stop which is located inside Whiteman Park. This place is only 12km away from hubby's uncle's house. I'd recommend anyone visiting Australia or Perth the first time to make this a must visit place. The park (Whiteman Park) as a whole is huge. The park is named after Lew Whiteman (1903 – 1994) a prominent local figure who donated the land for conservation efforts.

There are just so many things to see and do in Whiteman Park including hiking, train rides, playground, picnic, barbeque. The main attraction I think would be getting up close and personal with the Koalas, Kangaroos, Wombats and other animals inside the Caversham
Wildlife Park.
At 10am, they have the Sheep Shearing Show. They explained the history of sheep shearing and do a live demo as well.

All this wool (in 1 piece mind you) came from shearing just 1 sheep. Such skill!

As part of the show, they get kids to volunteer to participate in the lamb feeding competition. Pity our own kids were too young to join.

After the show, we headed to the kangaroo enclosure. They were so many kangaroos and we are free to touch, feed and take photos of them.

Mia was more interested in the kangaroo feed. No, not to feed the kangaroo but for HERSELF to eat!

Then we went into the koala enclosure to have a look at the koalas. Again, we can touch the koalas and take as many pictures as we like with them. We were advised not to touch the eucalyptus leaves as koalas are really picky. Once the leaves are touched, they wouldn't want to eat them anymore.

We skipped the Wombat Show because Mia can't sit still through any show.
During the Sheep Shearing Show she got restless before the show even took off. Her father had to take her out and let her see other animals in the farm (rabbits, chicken, goat, lamb etc) until the show was over.

We went home for a while to let the kids have their afternoon nap and then we headed out to Chinatown to have dim sum lunch. Sorry, no photos. The photos I took got corrupted!

After lunch, we walked into the main city centre.

We were so lucky to meet the Vegemite bear, took photos and scored ourselves a free jar of vegemite!

Strolling down London Court. This place is really beautiful. There are a lot of souvenir shops along this stretch. We didn't shop here at all. Instead, we enjoyed the beautiful ambiance and architecture of the place.

From the mall, we walked to the Bell Tower. Perth has a very modern bell tower.

Our next stop was at Kings Park which is located adjacent to the Swan River. Kings Park is just like Central Park in New York - natural habitat filled with beautiful flora and fauna. At just over 400 hectares, this park is HUGE!

Our main intention of visiting this park is allow Mia run freely in the hope that she'll get tired. Run she did.

Followed by embarrassing episodes of her "begging" for food and drinks. OMG.

She got herself a sip of coke. Yes, we did stop her but the other park visitors insist on sharing their food and drinks with her. She was like an animal attraction in a park for people to feed. Dangerous.

She got chocolates too.

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, there was a gentle breeze, the grass clean. I could just sit there all day looking out onto the Swan River.

Mia was happy with her chocolate.

There were quite a number of newly-weds arriving in limos to take photos inside the park. I enjoyed watching them too.

There's also the State War Memorial inside the park honoring those who served in the war. When I was studying in Brisbane many years ago, we learnt about this phrase "Lest we forget".

"Lest we forget" is the slogan in a campaign to remind us of the prisoners of war or those missing in action. We are reminded to never forget the past and sacrifices made that have brought us here today.

Seeing Mia walking along this slogan made me a bit emotional and I was really glad that this photo wasn't amongst those which were corrupted. Lest we forget.

Moving on to the rest of Kings Park. As we strolled around the park I was struck by the beauty of nature. The chirping of the birds in the trees. The wildflowers sprouting from the ground. The amazing landscape of the park as a whole. I read somewhere that the park gets over 6 million visitors a year and yet it is SO clean.

That tree behind us is called the Gija Jumulu. Its about 750 years old and weighs 36 tonnes. It made headlines around the world a few years back (2008) as it was transported over 3200 km from Warmun in WA's Kimberley region, to Kings Park.

Just behind the Gija Jumulu is the canapy walk. Some parts are made of wood.

Some made of steel. But whatever the make, this is the first time we're on a canopy walk pushing baby strollers.

As we head back to our cars, we stopped by a pond to look at some wild ducks.

We watched the water fountain spurt water high up into the air.

That was fun to watch. We got wet a bit but it's alright. We enjoyed the experience.

Soon it was time to go home, take a bath and freshen up for dinner at a local Chinese restaurant near uncle's house. We had crabs amongst many other foodstuff. And yet again, I got too excited and did not take any other photos.