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.