To Tell or Not To Tell...

Came across this question on Babycenter forum today which goes like this - "Is it really true that you shouldn't tell anyone that you're pregnant when you're in your early stage of your pregnancy? and that you should wait at least until you are 2 months pregnant before you can share your joy with your loved ones?"

And so I replied "I told my hubby, our family member & my closest friends the instant I saw the home pregnancy test turned positive. Then followed by telling my colleagues at work the next day. I'm not sure about other races, but if you are a Chinese, it is one of the superstitions that you should not tell anyone about it until you are at least 3 months pregnant. We don't believe in these sort of things (and many other Chinese superstitions) and I honestly believe that good news like this should be shared. "

I mean... how could you keep such a good news to yourself? How could you contain that euphoric feeling? Well unless you are still studying or that baby is unplanned or out-of-wedlock kind of case, I seriously cannot comprehend how can we just zip our mouth shut and pretend like normal - all in the name of fearing something will happen if you tell people about it?

Wouldn't you want people to be happy for you and bless you as well? Below is my true story and how I learnt from my mistake to not keep things to myself for fear of superstitious things like this...

Here goes... (rewind back to 11th July 2008)

I still remember the nervousness I had the morning I woke up and planned to buy the home pregnancy test at work during lunch and how I thought of the scenarios on how the testing should be done, what will the results be, how should I react if it's positive or negative etc etc.

During lunch, I actually went to the pharmacy in front of my office block and circled the whole floor - 1st time just catching a quick glimpse at where they place the pregnancy test items. Then 2nd round, walked passed the items and sort of trying to catch a glimpse of the price, praying that no one was nearby or the staff did not approach me and asked me what am I looking for. In my mind, I was thinking "Silly me.. I'm a married woman and here I am, sheepishly trying to browse the pregnancy test products and still want to look cool by pretending to look at other products (which coincidentally are condoms of all sizes and brands... gaaaaaaaaaa!!)

Anyway, I left the pharmacy without getting anything. Then I stopped outside the pharmacy, take a deep breath and walked back in. This time, I just stood in front of the pregnancy test products, and check each one out. Comparing the prices and what it does, how to test, and so on. I bought the cheapest one (RM10 for 1 test) and hurried back to office since I was 10 minutes past my lunch time. At work, things resume to normal as if nothing happens but I was a nervous wreck.

At home, again, everything was normal as it was. Then I took my bath and did the pregnancy test in the bathroom. Read the instructions few times and follow the steps slowly (I mean, I can only test it out once, if I do it wrongly, I have to buy another one again!!) Then I waited... and waited... and then...

I am speechless... after 3 months of trying and getting disappointed - now... there's 2 blue lines there... I am PREGNANT! I wanted to jump and screamed in the bathroom but then stopped myself, scared hubby will break the door fearing I might have accidentally injured myself in the bathroom or something. So, I keep my cool and dispose of the box and the instruction. Cleaned up test sticks and all and got ready.

Then I walked out, hubby was nowhere in sight. So I lie on the bed, with the pregnancy stick hidden under the blanket, then I waited for hubby to come to the room. When he did, I called him over, told him I want him to see something. He came over, with a worried look (cos I covered myself with blanket) then I took out the pregnancy stick and waved it at him. He take a look at it and went 'Eh?'.

I said 'We are going to have a baby!' Then hubby said 'I'm going to be a daddy?' Then we were both smiling and just happy to know this is real... God's time is never too early, never too late. This is finally our time.

I immediately SMSed my brother (my parents both passed away the year before), followed by my best friend. Then hubby told MIL, and the next day at work, I told my colleagues at work.

I mean, seriously, how can one withhold themselves from such exciting and happy news? By now, I've already regretted and dreaded enough trying to hide from everyone about my pregnancy test - which is kinda silly actually. So I wouldn't want to repeat the same mistake when the news is confirmed!

From the lesson above, I think I understand why people have this superstitious thinking of not telling anyone for the first 3 months of pregnancy. Because this is the delicate stage where there are chances the baby may be miscarried and if things are kept quietly and no one knew about it, then it will save the embarrassment for all parties involved. Same as the time I kept quiet about doing the pregnancy test.

But don't you think that if people know about it, they will be praying for you as well? I think if you fear that people will laugh at you, then that person is not worth being a family/friend with, right? So, since that pregnancy test incident, I told everyone I know that I am pregnant and was happy throughout the time - it was such a joy and I think some of my colleagues are even worried about me being so open about it. Anyway, I am glad I don't keep my pregnancy news to myself and fell for the superstitious thinking anymore...

Genesis 22:15-18 - The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

Psalm 121:7-8 - The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Psalm 127:3-5 - Behold children are a heritage from the LORD. The fruit of the womb is His reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.

Luke 2:40 - The child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.

McDonalds!

I am such a McDonald's fan :D

From school time (every Friday after school, I'll be at McD Jln Silang, KL with my best friends to study and hang around while waiting for bus home) to working part-time after college (joining the crowd to buy those Snoopy, McTeddy whatever toys that comes out every week so that I could buy it and give it to my niece), to working full-time (still buying toys that comes out every week for my then 2 nieces), to being pregnant with Ben (eating 2 McD value meal sets + choc sundae every time) to now... a full-time mummy (sort of as a treat)

Came across this article on the "Unusual Items from McDonald's International Menu", below are some of the excerpts of the items that I too, find unusual... hahaha...enjoy!


Vegemite In many countries around the world, breakfast starts with spreading something on toast. For many Americans, it's peanut butter or jelly, but not both. That's lunch. For Europeans, it's often Nutella. And for Australians, it's Vegemite. Vegemite was invented in Australia. Made from the extract left over after yeast make beer, the stuff is salty and the color of shoe polish. But Vegemite is packed with vitamin B and is often one of Australian children's first solid foods. At McDonald's, you can order Vegemite with your English muffin. Oddly enough, Australian Happy Meals don't include Vegemite. Instead, they serve something called the Pasta Zoo. No koalas or kangaroos here, just vegetable and cheese ravioli in the shape of zoo animals, served with a side of "Zoo Goo," made of tomato, fructose, thickener, vegetable powder, animal fat, coloring, preservative, vegetable gum and more. We'll take the yeast.

The McVeggie (I would definitely not touch this with a 10 feet long pole since I don't eat veggie hahahaha...!) Where's the beef? You'll soon notice there are no beef burgers at McDonald's in India. For Hindus, who make up about 80 percent of Indians, killing cows and eating beef are against religious rules. But in McDonald's, as in the rest of India, that makes room for plenty of vegetarian food. You can try the McVeggie -- a rice, bean and vegetable patty that McDonald's treats predictably with breading -- or the McAloo Tikki -- a potato-vegetable burger.

Spinach and Parmesan Cheese McNuggets Italian flavors infuse even the McNuggets in Italy. At McDonald's, you can order nuggets stuffed with spinach and Parmesan cheese, a limited promotional item. The dessert menu, too, sounds a little like an Italian bakery's. You'll find cake slices dusted with powdered sugar, not frosting, which is an authentic Italian treatment. The cakes are carrot and peach, but also torta della nonna, a Tuscan cheese tart, and torta caprese, a chocolate and nut cake that was born on the island of Capri.

Molletes If you eat breakfast at a Mexican McDonald's, you'll notice one item that has no equivalent on the U.S. menu: molletes, or rather, McMolletes. These are three English muffins, each topped with refried beans, white American cheese and a little salsa. If you fold two of them together and wonder who forgot the top to your other bean McMuffin, you're missing the point. Molletes are supposed to be open-faced. But traditional molletes, unlike McDonald's, don't include English muffins. The bread is traditionally a bolillo, a homemade roll that's crusty on the outside and soft on the inside, and is better at soaking up sauce than the muffins used in McDonald's trademarked egg sandwich. In addition, instead of processed American cheese, the cheese is typically a fresher white cheese like Monterey Jack. For the sweet rather than savory types out there, you can also find "dulce" molletes, but so far McDonald's hasn't added them to its menu in Mexico or elsewhere.

Hmm... interesting! Bon appétit!! :D

My darling...

Took this after Ben woke up 1 hour ago from his nap. He crawled towards me when he saw I was holding the camera.

So so so cute!!!

Ben, mummy & daddy loves you so much!!! :D

Hosanna...

Was lullabying Ben to sleep and he was still clutching on to the collar of my blouse, eyes wide open but hands and legs are pretty much asleep already (he is sleepy but don't want to sleep yet) so went on to youtube and search for Hillsong's "Hosanna". The song came with the lyrics so I sort of sing a-long while I try to lull Ben to sleep.

Though the song sounds kinda rock-and-roll (especially at 12 in the midnite!!), Ben was slowly drifting off to sleep and when I quiet down, his eyes opened again, so no choice... my #1 fan wants his mummy to sing on... hahahah... when the song ended, Ben was asleep, in his baby-land.

I was especially touched by this part of the song:

"Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you, have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to, Eternity..."

I hope to love Ben like how God loves us all... unselfishly and unendingly... and I hope Ben does that to us too. Amen... :D

My lunch outing at Carcosa Seri Negara...

My iSeries (formerly known as AS/400) sifu from UK came down to KL with his girl friend (21-23 Sept) and we went out to meet them for lunch.

I met John long time ago, about 8 years ago, back when I first started working in IT line and was going through the search400.com website and I posed some questions to him (he was one of the iSeries experts) and from then on, we exchanged emails and became friends.

He and Dian (his girl friend) touched down in KL on 21st Sept 09 around 8pm, so we decided to meet the next day for lunch at Berjaya Times Square. Treat them to a sumptuous dim sum meal at Dynasty Dragon restaurant and we brought Ben along as well. Didn't take much pictures cos we were busy eating and talking and at one point, I had to go away to nurse Ben (there's only 1 baby room in BTS, which is on the 3rd floor at the other end of the restaurant)

After the lunch, John asked us out again for another lunch before they fly back to Jakarta where Dian works and stays. So, today (23/09/09) we met at Carcosa Seri Negara (click at Carcosa Seri Negara KL). It was a lovely lovely place and we had our lunch at The Dining Room.



I didn't managed to take the starter & main course pictures (a bit shy lah! :P), anyway below are the desserts we had: I had this super yummy white chocolate dessert.














Hubby had "Cheese Platter". I was too engrossed with my white chocolate dessert, forgot to try hubby's desserts... aiiiiiiikkkkssss...












The lovely view in The Dining Room...


















Me taking picture of John, who is busily taking pictures of me taking pictures of the desserts... hahahaha...


I would just like to thank John for the lunch treat and I hope that he & Dian had a great time down in KL. :D

Magical Moment... Ben's first stand & attempt to climb!

Wow... another milestone from Benjamin!

Next to our King size bed, we placed a single bed mattress in case Ben rolls off ours. So yesterday, he was playing on the single mattress and then he rolls to a sitting position and he pushed himself up, standing still (of course still holding on to the edge of the bigger bed but he did it all by himself) and when we placed one of his favourite toys on the bigger bed, he proceeds to climb up to the bigger bed.

After about few minutes of trying, up and butt shuffle, then adjusting his position again and then rolls back to sitting position we decided to stop it (scared he gets tired and also worried not good for his legs, too much exercise at such a young age not sure good or not.. )

Anyway, more to come, more to come!! :D

2 Die 4 Jewelry...

I have been busy recently and at long last, 2 DIE 4 JEWELRY, which is my online jewelry store is finally UP!!!!

Please feel free to drop by and recommend to your friends (by my experience, if I love the stuff, I'd keep it to myself and wouldn't share out the info hahahahah!)

Below are some products sold on my jewelry store:


Chic High Heel Phone Strap




















Crowned Heart Stud Earring

















To celebrate our store opening, we are giving away free gift (worth RM10) for our first 50 customers (with minimum purchase of RM30), as our way of thanking you.

So hurry up, what are you waiting for??!

Mouthy-tasking!

Yep... my son, is able to multi-task (ehem ehem... like his mummy! ) or in baby-speak ~ mouthy-task... take a look at the picture below taken 2 days ago:

Hahaha.... he was mouthing 1 toy in order to get another... he is just such a cute clever boy! :D

Another one below was taken when he was going to turn 4 months old:

He was mid-creeping/crawling on the bed and suckling his fingers... hahahah... cute cute!!

What's in a name?

Was reading this article from Star online on "Name Tag" - of course, being a parent, I'd go straight to the list and scout for my baby's name hahahaha...especially seeing the first category was the naughtiest names list... wouldn't want my son's name to be in that list! hahahahaha :P

Of course, jokes aside, when we were thinking up a name for our baby boy, we are not even looking into any top list or following any trend or celebrity (honest!).

Hubby wanted a name with 3 syllables, don't want common name (like Christoper, Jonathan, William etc), don't want names with funny short nicknames (like Pete for Peter, Bill or Willie for William etc), so we ended up with 3 options: Benjamin, Nathaniel or 1 more which I can't remember now (suggested by our Aussie cousin)

In the end, we opted for Benjamin, not too common, and its' short name can be Ben (I'd strangle anyone who called him Benji :P) and has a biblical meaning to it - "son of the right hand" :)

Of course initially, we get people who will tell us "But Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin u know?!!!" Then hubby would replied by saying, "If we avoided a name just because someone died giving birth to that person with that name, then a lot of names have to be avoided already. "

And I would wonder, why so superstitious and believe in all this nonsense thing?! Benjamin is a good name, and we're glad we chose that name.

We hope Ben would live up to this name, to be the son of God's right hand, do things in His favour and pleasing to His eyes, live up to be a God fearing and God loving child and bring joy to the people who meet him and serve as an example of Christian living. (fyi, this is my prayer for Ben ever since I'm pregnant with him)

Enjoy the article below from Dilbert on names:

Performance Appraisal...

Heck... woke up this morning with an incomplete dream of me in the midst of a performance appraisal session. It was obviously a dream because:

• the person appraising me was my primary school teacher
• I was told to stand up in front of everyone (I presume that would be in the classroom) and say out loud all my KPIs for the year and my accomplishments and all
• I actually wrote "Participated in a Jogathon" - to which someone in the dream classroom objected saying it should not be included inside - to which I retaliated with "Its something out of my jobscope which I volunteered in to promote our company's image".... anyone who knows me will know I'd never participate in any sports... not since standard 6 after I broke my right arms 3 times (that would be another story in a future blog post if I can remember to blog this down)

I was actually holding a stack of the printouts listing my KPIs and my achievements and was about to hear what my primary school teacher said (who coincidentally was the teacher who sent me to hospital after I broke my right arm back in Std 6) when my handphone rang... bahhhhhhhhhhh....

Anyway, dreams aside. Just to share on some of my & ex-colleagues' past performance appraisal experiences. Some bosses will give you a template and ask you to fill up your accomplishments and your score, while some bosses will fill up everything, even the scores and forward you a copy and to review and revert if you don't agree with their appraisal scores.

So far, mine has been the "give you a template and ask you to fill up your accomplishments and your score" which I will also include in my joblogs which I recorded all the things I've done for the year (as a proof cos 1 ex-boss actually challenged me to provide such documents to prove my work which I gladly did and for that I got additional 1.5 points to my KPI)

Then during the appraisal session, me & my ex-boss will be sitting in a discussion room and review each KPI and feedback and debate out the scores. I have heard of "the company don't allow point 5 type of scores. It's either 3 or 4, no 3.5 one...", "if this year you think you deserve a 4 for this KPI then be mindful that next year you need to achieve higher than 4 (note that 5 is the max and we can't put in 4.5 and if I put in a 5 that would mean I'm a superwoman)

If only we could appraise our own bosses... wonder how they would be?

But that is better than this type of bosses:

I'm glad I don't have to go through this KPI process now that I'm a full time mummy... but I do miss the bonuses that resulted from the appraisal. But then, with the economic downturn at these times, companies have been forced to cut cost in every possible ways they can think of.

Anyway, nothing can beat the experiences to be with your child watching him grow up and discover new things every day. :D

My phobia...

OK, I told someone (you know who you are.. ) that I will blog about my phobia... I am absolutely terrified on being stalked or that strangers know about my personal details. Like where I stay, how I look like (well, thank God I am not a celebrity... :P)

I have and is still a very-very trusting person, easily can trust someone and can tell anything they asked of me (can say I'm naive and stupid also :( )

So, now, I tried my best not to participate contests simply (unless its valid company organizing it), try not to simply put my personal email address online, or any personal particulars online, even tried not to post much of my & family photos online - yeah yeah, I am such a freak whatever...

Anyway, what happened was this incident long long ago....

When : One fine afternoon, when I'm in my teens (around 13-14)
Where: My old government flat in Cheras
Who : Me... alone at home... dad at work, brother at work, mum away for grocery shopping
Event : The house phone rang and I picked up enthusiastically. Conversations goes something like below (after translation as it is originally in Malay)
(** Note: MG = Malay Guy on the other end of the conversation)

Me: Hello...

MG: Can I speak to your dad?

Me: My dad's still at work.

MG: How about your mum?

Me: She's out shopping.

MG: So you are home alone?

Me: err... ya... who is this?

MG: I'm your father's friend.

Me: If you're my dad's friend, how come you don't know he's at work?

MG: I'm just asking. So now, no one is at home but you?

Me: ..... (in my mind, :Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t!!)

MG: I know where is your place. I'll come look for you now, you wait for me. I come and ****** you (Note: ****** is a Malay word which actually meant masturbate / sexually harrassed or something)

Me: NO NO NO! My dad is coming back. My mum also is coming back. Don't come!


And then the Malay guy hung up... leaving me scared sh*tless, fearing for my life... and there's still like 1 hour+ to go before any of my family member is back...

So I did the most sensible thing I could think of... (at the tender age of 13-14...)...

I sat next to the locked door with a big knife, clutching it and getting ready to slash the Malay guy if he ever did come to my house... and I sat there till my mum came home an hour later... obviously shocked at seeing me clutching a big knife....

Magical Moment... Ben's first sit!

OMG OMG!!!! I managed to take the picture of my now 6 mths old baby boy sitting up by himself!!! After taking off his shirt & diapers, I left Ben on the bed while I went to the bathroom, preparing for his bath He was creeping on his tummy and crawling as usual when he suddenly rolls sideway and uses his arm to push himself to a sitting position!

Let me just savour this moment for a while... This are the sort of moments I'm glad I quit my job to be a full-time mummy...

Thank you God for giving us this precious bundle of joy and for giving me the chance to be the first to catch it!

Long quiz to answer...

Got tagged in Facebook by a friend (name is Zoe) to answer this super long quiz... anyway, copied (noticed a few numbers missing though) & paste it out here to share:

1. PICK OUT A SCAR YOU HAVE, AND EXPLAIN HOW YOU GOT IT?
A V-shaped cut scar on my right hand, thanks to my uncle cutting it with a plier (he's actually trying to cut off the plaster of paris on my hand due to broken arm & my uncle is a Chinese sin-seh so, pretty much no sophisticated tools to crack open the plaster hahahaha..)

2. WHAT IS ON THE WALLS IN YOUR ROOM?
A small noticeboard with some baby recipes, WWF mini calendar and some pictures of David & myself.

3. WHAT DOES YOUR PHONE LOOK LIKE?
Still look as new :D

4. WHAT MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO?
Lite.fm the whole day long...

5. WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT DESKTOP PICTURE?
Ben's half face while hiding behind his bolster.

6. WHAT DO YOU WANT MORE THAN ANYTHING RIGHT NOW?
More money so that David can spend time with us at home and more time for me so that I can sleep more hahaha...

7. DO YOU BELIEVE IN GAY MARRIAGE?
Nope.

8. WHAT TIME WERE YOU BORN?
6am I think...

9. ARE YOUR PARENTS STILL TOGETHER?
They have both passed away but I do believe they are back together in heaven now :)

10. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO?
Ben's wandering around in his walker, touching and grabbing stuff.

11. DO YOU GET SCARED OF THE DARK?
Nope, I think...

12. THE LAST PERSON TO MAKE YOU CRY?
Ben - after he was born...

13. WHAT KIND OF HAIR/EYE COLOR DO YOU LIKE ON THE OPPOSITE SEX?
No dyed/Mohawk hair, eyes must look honest and sincere.

14. DO YOU LIKE PAINKILLERS?
Nope, although was dying for one when having contractions.

15. COFFEE OR ENERGY DRINKS?
Neither.

16. FAVE PIZZA TOPPING?
Chicken?

17. IF YOU COULD EAT ANYTHING RIGHT NOW, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Double set of Medium McChicken meal + choc sundae

18. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU MADE MAD?
David... hahahah...

19. DO YOU SPEAK ANOTHER LANGUAGE?
I speak English, Malay, Cantonese, Hakka, broken Mandarin...

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST GIFT SOMEONE GAVE YOU?
I can't think of one right now...

21. DO YOU LIKE SOMEONE?
I love my family!

22. ARE YOU DOUBLE JOINTED?
Huh?

23. FAVOURITE FRIEND?
A few

24. WHAT'S YOUR DREAM CAR?
Used to be RAV 4 but now, don't really matter.

25. DO YOU BELIEVE IN AFTER-LIFE?
Nope...

26. DO YOU BELIEVE IN MARRIAGE?
Yes

27. WOULD YOU FALL IN LOVE KNOWING THAT THE PERSON IS LEAVING?
Hmmmm... once fall enough how to stop?

28. WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO TELL SOMEONE HOW MUCH THEY MEAN TO YOU?
Say it.

29. Say a number from 1-100.
8

30. BLONDE OR BRUNETTE?
Black?

31. WHAT IS THE ONE PHONE NUMBER SHOWS UP ON YOUR PHONE THE MOST?
My brothers number.

32.WHAT ANNOYS YOU MOST?
Ppl with no manners

33. HAVE YOU BEEN OUT OF THE U.K.?
Nope

34. YOUR WEAKNESS?
Choc?

35. WHAT WAS THE LAST GIFT YOU GAVE?
Just bought something online for sis in law's coming birthday.

36. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE HOLIDAY?
HK was a great place, but if going with David, it'd have to be Sydney

37. EVER DONE A PRANK CALL?
To wake up an ex-colleague who's sleeping during office hours

38. WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE THIS?
Checking my emails & feeding Ben baby cereal

39. IF YOU COULD GET PLASTIC SURGERY WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Nothing

40. WHAT DID YOU LAST GET COMPLIMENTED ON?
Err, my handsome & cute big eyed-like-mummy's baby?

43. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF ALCOHOL BECAME ILLEGAL?
Nothing, never drink so doesn't matter.

44. WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY?
Nothing... it's just another day

45. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
Nope.

46. DO YOU WISH ON STARS?
Nah, I just thank God for the pretty awesome stars when I do get to see em'

48. WHICH FINGER[S] IS YOUR FAVORITE?
None

49. WHAT UNDERWEAR ARE YOU WEARING?
The comfortable cotton kind.

50. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
Love it! I'm so vain! :P

51. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE VEGETABLE?
Hehe... I don't eat veggie...

52. ANY BAD HABITS?
A lot...

53. WHAT IS YOUR MOST EMBARRASSING CD ON THE SHELF?
MLTR?

54. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Sure!

55. HAVE YOU EVER TOLD A SECRET YOU SWORE NOT TO TELL?
Ehhhhhhh...

56. DO LOOKS MATTER?
Nah...

57. HOW DO YOU RELEASE YOUR ANGER?
Soak it in...

58. WHERE IS YOUR SECOND HOME?
No 2nd home

59. DO YOU TRUST OTHERS EASILY?
Yes.

60. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE TOY WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE?
This yellow pillow I had up until teenage years

61. ARE YOU AFRAID OF GROWING UP?
Nope

62. DO YOU USE SARCASM
Sometimes...

63. ARE YOU RELIGIOUS?
Yes

64. DOES 11:11 MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU?
It means time to get Ben to sleep!

66. DO YOU GET ALONG WITH YOUR PARENTS?
Yes, and I seem to be getting along with MIL too :)

67. WHAT IS THE MOST PAIN YOU HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED?
Giving birth... nothing could top that, when you only have the gas & air to rely on and no painkillers...

68. DO YOU UN-TIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Nope. In fact, it stays there until it hardens (means time to wash it laaaa... gross...)

69. LAST THING YOU SPILLED?
My drink

70. DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS?
My guinea pig Benji died June this year, other than that no time for pets.

71. WHAT IS THE LAST FURRY THING YOU TOUCHED?
Nothing

72. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE COLOURS?
Black, purple, red

73. WHAT'S THE LAST BOOK YOU READ?
Max Lucado's latest book "Fearless" - got it FOC as part of a blogger review programme

74. HOW MANY WISDOM TEETH DO YOU HAVE?
3 tiny ones not yet poke out fully, actually I still lack of 3 more teeth excluding my wisdom teeth

75. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS?
(Copied Zoe's answer) Yea, it'll be fun to read.

76. WHAT'S YOUR DREAM VACATION?
(Copied Zoe's answer) Oooo... anywhere I haven't been is a dream vacation.

77. LAST THING YOU ATE/DRANK?
Bread with butter & plain water

78. LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
David

79. WHATS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ON THE OPPOSITE SEX?
I look for the eyes

80. DO YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT?
Nope

81. FAVOURITE THINGS TO HATE?
Rude & inconsiderate ppl

82. FAVOURITE DRINK?
Soft drinks

83. FAVOURITE ZODIAC SIGN?
My own

84. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SPORT?
Never been a sports person ever since I broke my right arm back in Std 6

85. WHAT IS YOUR HAIR COLOR?
Always black,in fact had received compliments from stylists that it is very black.. didn't notice that until I heard it.

86. EYE COLOUR?
Dark brown.

87. TALL OR SHORT?
Shorter than David

88. SIBLINGS?
1 elder brother

89. FAVOURITE MONTH?
That would be March now, since I shared the same birth month with Ben

90. DO YOU LIKE SUSHI?
Does the Sushi King's golden balls count?

91. LAST THING YOU WATCHED?
Some funny clips on Youtube

92. FAVOURITE DAY OF THE YEAR?
Can't think of any

93. ARE YOU TOO SHY TO ASK SOMEONE OUT?
Yes

94. SUMMER OR WINTER?
I love rainy grayish weather

96. RELATIONSHIPS OR ONE NIGHT STANDS?
Definitely relationships.

97. WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS
I don't think there are anyone who is as free as me hahahaha...

98. WHO IS LEAST LIKELY TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS?
Everybody.

99. IS ANYONE IN LOVE WITH YOU?
I think so..

100. BIGGEST FEARS
No food left except veggie...

Book Review - “Fearless” by Max Lucado

As a book review blogger for Thomas Nelson, I immediately request to review a copy of the book when I received an email for review invites. I am so glad I chose this book and all I could say was “Incredible!”

I love the way Lucado dispenses out his points and how he put things in perspective, how you feel as if he’s there talking to you face-to-face! I find myself nodding in agreement at almost every page when reading his book. 

There are so many statements in the book that are so inspiring and true.

I’ve even started telling my friends and family members to get this book as it is so applicable in our daily lives!

Go get this book now and you will not regret it! 

I hope it made an impact in your life!

Gross stuff found in food & drinks...

I suddenly remembered back some old memories of having discovered (and ermm… ewwwww… eaten) some weird and gross stuff in my food and drinks long-long ago… I figured I just gotta blog this down and see whether how many more people have encountered this before and wondered whether they might have better or worse experiences than me… :P

**Caution: DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU JUST OR ABOUT TO HAVE YOUR MEALS... :D


Gross story #1:
This happened long ago back when I first started out dating with my then boyfriend (and now hubby), David. I was working part-time at a shopping center as a sales promoter and he was in his 1st year college at KDU.

He will occasionally drop by to accompany me for lunch after his classes and one of our favorite lunch spot was at “Spices” - then a small sized air-conditioned food court at the top floor of Sungei Wang mall. (This food court has been closed down several years ago and was replaced by another restaurant)

So anyhow, we will always be buying this ever-delicious chicken rice from this corner stall managed by an elderly husband and wife (about 40-ish). I guess we would’ve been eating that chicken rice meals for like half a year or more when one fine day, a gross discovery of something in the chicken rice turned both of us totally OFF forever from that stall…

On that fine day, we could still remember blissfully munching our chicken rice chatting happily when I was down to my last spoonful of rice of that oh-so-delicious chicken rice and saw to my horror… a dead (not that it matters whether alive or dead) baby cockroach strategically positioned to flaunt its body right at the top of that small remaining heap of rice in the spoon that I’m holding…

And I was starting to feel grossed out that I had to find this out right when I’m down to my last spoonful of rice… and then I was thinking, this spoonful of rice came along with other spoonfuls and bowlfuls and platefuls of rice…and I stared straight to the chickens that were left, looked slowly up at David who then looked at me strangely (cos I’m just like holding the spoon with a totally grossed out look) and he looked down at my spoon and realized what caused my grotesque face… and dropped his spoon and we both just sat in silence…

After we both snapped out of our stunned encounter, we went to the chicken rice stall holding the plate with the remaining spoonful of rice and that baby cockroach and told the auntie about our discovery and all she could do was looked at the baby cockroach and told us “Oh… this is normal… how can we be able filter all this? u see our big pot of rice (showing us their big rice pot which grossed me out more!) I give you another plate of chicken & rice ok?” we just told her no thanks cos we were down to that last spoon of rice and walked away from the place and not been there anymore…



Gross story #2:
This happened back when I was working around Bukit Bintang area and my juniors (I used to train a batch of fresh grads in AS400) and I will often be lunching all around the area scouting for cheap food to save some money. Back then, most of us were working as contract programmer and while waiting for projects to come in, we will be going to office as normal doing office work and practicing with more programming exercises.

So one day, a group of us decided to go down to this famous chicken rice shop (what have I done wrong to chicken rice?!!!) which was located along the Jalan Imbi stretch. It was those old house turned into shop type of set up and it was really popular judging by the fact that everyday during lunch, the place will be jam-packed with ppl waiting for their turns to be served.

Some have to wait for a while to get empty seats and we managed to get some place in the shop and proceeded to order the ever famous chicken rice.

Now, this happened to one of my junior who was down to his last few bites of rice and discovered something in his rice. I was sitting next to him and happened to glance at his plate and saw him pondering about something. So I asked him what’s wrong and he showed me his spoonful of rice.

I saw some whitish thing on some of the rice grains. I was thinking maybe it was those rice grain that were not properly washed and cooked and hence still look white and sort of uncooked… I was about to tell him to stop being so scared of stupid things when that whitish thing MOVED…yeah, u hear me right… it moved and wiggled slowly…

Then we both stopped and went ewwwwwwwwwwwww…it was MAGGOTS of course!! He threw the rice to the floor and stepped on it… we stopped eating and waited for the rest to finish theirs. We didn’t tell them what happened… I mean, we paid RM5 for each plate of the chicken rice and couldn’t bring ourselves to spoil their mood and we didn’t want to cause a ruckus…

It was years later that I went to eat at the shop again, of course, eating slowly after quality checking every spoonful of rice… it was still delicious and jam-packed though… :P



Gross story # 3:
This happened last year when i accompanied my mum for her monthly medical check-up at one of the government hospital pharmacy outlet. The appointment was for 2.30pm and we arrived earlier than expected and decided to have lunch 1st. We ordered our foods and drinks. Mum had asam laksa and barley drinks while i had curry noodle and my favorite drinks, Milo ice.

I was sipping my Milo happily watching mum eating her noodles when i felt something in my mouth. Too darn lazy to take it out to have a closer look, i just used my tongue trying to 'catch' the thing in my mouth. It felt like barley skin and i was giggling to myself thinking 'hah! I get extra stuff in my drinks... not only am i drinking Milo ice, i also gets to eat barley which is what mum was drinking'.

I chewed and chewed at the 'barley skin' and still the texture and shape remained unchanged. It felt kinda strange as i would believe by now, the 'barley skin' would've been shredded to pieces by my relentless chewing.

Reluctantly, i spat out the 'barley skin' to my palm and to my horror (and trying my best to keep my puke down) i saw that in fact it was not 'barley skin' at all... nothing close to it... what it was, well, totally turned me off Milo ice for at least half a year (even now when i tried to order Milo ice, i would remember back this incident...)

So anyway, that 'barley skin' was in fact an EMPTY COCKROACH EGG POUCH... u heard me right... a cockcroach egg pouch... so freaking gross... even if it was empty, it once housed hundreds of baby cockroaches!!!! gaaaaaaaaaaaaa..... total horror!!!!

From that day onwards for at least half a year, i ordered drinks that are transparent and easy to see the contents for fear of having chew something like this again...

G-force!

I can't wait to see this movie! Having more than 10 years experience in rearing guinea pigs (since I was 15 years old) I'd love to see how real the animations are this time compared to the real thing!

My dad bought me my 1st guinea pig after the death of 2 hamsters (ok, I'm not good in taking care of hamsters, plus I don't really like hamster anyway :P). My 1st guinea pig was Fa Lui (means Flower Girl for the different fur colours she got) and after about 2 weeks, my dad bought a male guinea pig to be Fa Lui's companion which I named Fa Cai (Flower Boy)

I had more time then as it was just after exams so I trained up both the guinea pigs. They would crawl up after me everywhere in the house - kitchen, balcony, my bedroom, living room and we let them out every night to wander around. They would sleep 4 legs facing up on my tummy. They eat everything I eat - rice, noodles, fruits, roti canai...

And then they start to breed. In 2 months time, we welcomed FaFa and FiFi (I don't know what's with me by naming them all with the letter F...) Right after birth, Fa Lui licked her babies clean and they could already move around and had fur and can see (unlike hamster). Then the brood expanded... we had:

• Fa Lui & Fa Cai
• FaFa & FiFi
• FoFo & FuFu
• FlimFlim & FlamFlam
• FlomFlom (aka Panda boy cos it has black and white fur only) & FlumFlum
• FlipFlip & FlapFlap
• FlopFlop & FlupFlup
• FlutFlut & FlitFlit
  

I can't recall the rest but at one point we actually have 24 guinea pigs in our house! As we were staying in government flat, my dad had to sell away some of them (not enough space and their food is getting pricey!) We sold off 6 of them for RM36 then.

The rest lived until they died of old age - around 4-5 years old. My last guinea pig was Benji (kinda inspired my baby Benjamin's name hahaha...). Benji was about 4 years old when it died early June this year.

I no longer rear guinea pigs now since I'm pretty occupied with my own baby but I do miss the times I had with my guinea pigs. I hope they are all happy in heaven with my dad & mum.. :D

Anyway, picture below from the movie...