Hidden Dangers of Soy?

Yesterday night after our shopping trip at Midvalley, we brought Ben to his paed clinic for a check up and during our conversation, the topic of feeding came up. I actually asked the paed what sort of milk we need to get for Ben if one day I stopped producing breast milk (of course I intend to breastfeed for as long as I can!).

You see, since the 1st day we brought Ben back from the hospital after birth, there has never been a speck of formula milk in our house before... so it's kinda silly for us to be asking this but I had to, just as a precautionary step I guess... the paed told us to hold off the fresh milk until Ben is around 2 years old and to get the infant formula milk instead. The reason fresh milk is a no-no is because of its high protein content - now, fresh milk from cow is actually meant for its calf... not human babies...

(image taken from http://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1pks-UzG5OlWynTHuKzVkkYsj3d0H6if49pnugfXGdMWA5PSxiWtCZzYe-Q2q8qeG-)

Then we asked what about soymilk. The paed's wife (who helps out at the reception counter) told us not to give soymilk as the paed association recently issued an article on the dangers of soymilk. She couldn't locate the article that time and told us she will let us know once she found the article.

Of course, I was curious, so decided to snoop around on the Net and found the following:

• What Are the Hidden Dangers of Soy? - "Too much soy in your diet can cause symptoms such as nausea, bloating, gastric disorders, unusual weight gain, palpitations, shortness of breath and lack of energy. oy can cause thyroid damage, infertility, low testosterone in men, hair loss, digestive problems, early puberty in girls, and the development of breasts in boys."
• Soy Milk Dangers
• The Truth about Soy (check out this website for some other links provided for further reading)
  
• Phytoestrogens & Your Baby - "The fact is that soy formula fed infants appear to be at real risk of long term thyroid damage."
• Soy Hidden Dangers - (check out this website for some other links provided for further reading)

Of course, the keyword here is "TOO MUCH".

I personally drank soybean milk about 2-3 times a week when I was pregnant with Ben and to date, occasionally have it as well (about once a week).

Now what is your take on this?

Baby Room Review - Jaya Jusco, Midvalley

Ben and I followed hubby for his appointment with a client at the Midvalley shopping mall. After I fed Ben with his solids and I had my breakfast at the cafe in the bookstore, I proceeded to push Ben in his stroller and start our shopping trip.

So, anyway here is the latest review of the baby room we had visited while I was shopping for Ben and my stuff...

When: 27th January 2010
Why: Mummy & baby shopping trip (to shop for Ben and mummy's shoes and stuff for the coming Chinese New Year on 14th Feb)
Location: Same floor with Kids department.
Description: The baby room is right next to the Ladies toilet but it is a very clean and quiet area , separate section actually from the toilets in which the baby room is only for nursing your baby. There's only 2 rooms for nursing / sleeping and 1 separate room for diaper changing (with about 2 diaper changing station and 1 sofa inside). Right next to the nursing room and diaper changing room, there's a toilet for parents with children. Not bad...

MY FEEDBACK
============
Location of the baby room:
I'd give it 8/10. There is proper signage once you are in Jaya Jusco and you can just follow the signs which will lead you to the baby room. I can actually nurse Benjamin happily in the individual room which is very spacious.

Facilities:
I'd give it 7/10. Dustbin, a power outlet, a small cushion stool (maybe for the daddy or other family member to sit while waiting) a comfy sofa for nursing mums and a baby crib in case your baby needs a place to sleep for a while.

I'm not quite happy with the baby crib as one of the section is taken out, leaving it not fully enclosed. A bit worried that a child may roll off the bed and fall on to the floor. What I did was I pulled the baby crib close to the sofa where I was sitting.

Comfort Level:
I'd give it 9/10. The room has a nice setting and is comfortably lit, spacious, cosy, a bit cold for me (well at least there's good air circulation come to think of it) but I guess its OK for Ben cos' he sweats easily.

Ben slept about half an hour here until I was freaking cold bored with nothing to do (we were just out shopping for about half an hour when he starts fussing to have his nap time.

So I gently carried him and placed him back in the stroller and he continues sleeping for another hour and a half while his mummy go crazy with shopping! I managed to buy Ben's new shoes (size 5), my new sandals, some new panties, baby wipes, a baby & toddler home made healthy recipe book (since I'm starting to run out of ideas on what to make for Ben's solids)

What I don't like:
The baby crib which is not fully enclosed - really not happy with it. Oh, and the sofa is quite low for my standard. I mean, if you have to carry a 10kg baby while breastfeeding and then need to stand up or something, it will feel very very heavy and tiring if you are seated quite low.

Summary:
But suffice to say, I would go here again anytime since I feel very very at ease with the baby rooms, just that I think any mothers who plans to let their baby sleep in the baby crib need to be very careful and keep a close watch on their baby just in case they rolled off the crib. Or you can do like what I did, pulled the baby crib closer to the sofa so that if baby does rolled off the crib, they will just land on your lap. :D

Finger Pointing is Dangerous...

The other day I saw Ben holding on to a toy and then he dropped it on the floor. Then he grabbed another toy and I decided to try out an exercise with him (which our paed said to expect this milestone in these few months). I hold both toys with my hands and I showed them to Ben, asking him to choose which toy he wanted by pointing to the one he wanted.

After a few seconds, he POINTED to one of the toy! Woohooooo!!! I was so excited with that - so much that I posted it to my Facebook status... Then after the euphoria has gone, I sat down calmly and think again...

Great... actually finger pointing is dangerous! (Well aside from the real world where you get to see sh*t happens and somebody is being blamed or the buck is being passed around by finger pointing)

So, anyway, as I was saying, finger pointing is dangerous!

Now imagine the picture here and these few situations (which I'm thinking far ahead...):

#1 - "See Daddy/Mummy, I told you SO! This is the LAST time I'm telling you!" (finger pointing to you who are already full of shame and embarrassment)

#2 - "Daddy/Mummy, I want THAT toy! (finger pointing to the most expensive toy in the toy store)"

#3 - "Daddy/Mummy, I want to go there! (finger pointing to the direction of the toy store)"

#4 - "Daddy/Mummy, I want to eat THAT too!" (finger pointing to the yummy-licious food you have been waiting to eat all for yourself for so long...)

#5 - "Daddy/Mummy, ONE more round in THAT pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...!" (finger pointing to the merry-go-round/game rides)"

#6 - "Daddy/Mummy, ONE size more! You CAN'T fit into this size since last few years remember?!" (finger pointing to you who are already full of shame and embarrassment-again...)

So ladies and gentlemen... I do think finger pointing is dangerous... ;p

Octomom....

Following a blog post by Debbie, a commenter on my blog, I dig in further for more news regarding the Octomom, Nadya Suleiman who had last year caused quite a commotion by giving birth to EIGHT babies...

And now, 1 year later, she is back on the news (with her curvy body) where she claimed she had lost 120 pounds naturally (as in without plastic surgery)

Read more from the following articles from the Net:
* Doctors only half-believe Octuplet Mom
* Octomom Back with New Body After 1 Year

And here is the before and after image for your info.

Seriously... I really doubt her body can be so perfect and good looking 1 year after EIGHT kids...

Yes, I have lost all my pregnancy weight (11kg or about 24.2 pounds) and this is all due to breastfeeding. I am still eating tons and tons of food, more than hubby's portion and yet, I am still skinny as ever.

But I'm talking about her skin and stretch marks and all....

My butt behind still have my stretch marks... and it's almost 11 months after ONE kid... Seriously... I really really doubt this...

What say you?

When Blogging Makes Me Mad...

I love blogging! I've posted my pledge to blog with integrity and now, I think I would like to post on things that makes me mad when it comes to blogging...

#1-Imperfection (as in blog designs and layout)
Typo or grammar mistakes aside, I am really mad when I realized there is imperfection on my blog. And yesterday, I just noticed something not right with my blog design and layout.

You see, I had just added in the HTML codes to my blog sidebar which shows a slide show of the icons and images links to other websites and blogs I like and decided to test it out. (btw, thanks to sneakymommablogdesign for the codes!)

It looks real nice as it scrolls the images of the websites/blogs upwards and when you hover your mouse over the image, the slide show animation will stop - waiting for your action.

If you move your cursor away, the slide show will resume, else if you decides to click the image, it will launch you to the appropriate websites/blogs which is tied to the images.

Anyway, it looks real nice (I don't know about you guys, but I love it!!) as I view it using Mozilla.... and then I read one of the comments posted that it can't be viewed from Internet Explorer (IE)

So, I proceeded to load my blog from IE as well and crap crap crap... The slide show works perfectly fine as it does on Mozilla but I noticed some other things not shown in IE!

This is my blog loaded from Mozilla browser.

Noticed under the "My Recent Posts" sidebar which actually shows some preview of the recent posts in my blog?

Its actually one of those widgets you can add in from Blogger. It will display your recent posts titles, the initial description (depending on how long you want to display), the date and number of comments for the posts.

Anyway, I love this widget as it gives a quick view to me and hopefully my blog readers about the latest posts in my blog and they can just click straight to one of these recent posts instead of having to scroll down or look it up in the archive options.

Now, here is the same thing but loaded using Internet Explorer. Noticed there's nothing shown under "My Recent Posts"??!!!

How crappy!! Gaahhhh... I'm so furious! I'm sorry I didn't noticed about this as I've been using Mozilla for sometime now (love it!) and I didn't really want to remove this widget as it works perfectly fine in Mozilla!

So, I'm apologizing to all my blog readers who are using IE - sorry if you're looking at empty slots under the "My Recent Posts" - please note that it's not me... really... you can try to use Mozilla to view my blog and you know I'm not sh*tting kidding you...

Please understand that, when it comes to blogging, I have very very very high expectations of how my blog looks like to others. Ok, wait... let me rephrase that.. I have very very very high expectations that my blog MUST look absolutely nice and perfect to me before I publish out anything to others to see. So, I hope you understand my frustrations on this imperfection.

#2-Blog Slackers
When I said blog slackers, I mean they slack off from me from 1 source instead of going to the Internet and scout for designs, widgets, post ideas etc themselves.

Believe me, I get mad really annoyed knowing how others happily take my blog ideas - be it layout, widgets (which I spent lots of time looking and testing it out) or blog posts ideas (which I also spent lots of time cracking whatever that is left of my shrinking-brain-cells-which-I-blamed-on-breastfeeding).

It's really nasty, lazy and rude not nice that these blog slackers just happily took a look at my blog and happily applied it to their blog (minus all the hassles I've gone through).

All I want to tell these blog slackers is:
"Please stop parasiting (if there's ever such a word) from my blog.

If you have the time to go looking at my blog, you can make time to search the Net for the many many wonderful and awesome widgets and ideas around. Don't be lazy! Have some initiative to do some info searching and testing work instead of slacking off and parasite from my blog.

Yes, I don't own the blog design and widgets but we own our brain. The least we can do is use it to search for stuff ourselves instead of taking the easy way.

It's your own blog, so treat it like your own baby and nurture decorate it with your own ideas instead of looking at how others raise nurture and care for their babies blogs. Be creative and play around. Experiment. Don't just copy blindly. The joy and satisfaction is so much more gratifying when you see the results after your OWN creativity and hardwork."

(Btw, I've just added some HTML codes to put border in the images posted in my blog (tips from here). Rather than following the exact codes blindly, I experimented around and end up with a dashed style border, which is same like the separator found in my blog. I'm not a web designer but with a little bit of tinkering around and experimenting, it's very satisfying to see the end results of my own hardwork. I hope you do the same too!)

#3-Spam Comments
I've blogged about crappy commenter recently. 'Nuff said.

Thank you for reading my rants. I'm off to cool down now...

Back to School...

Yes!!! It's finally over! I was just blogging about how nervous wreck I was about attending this theme dinner (which is "Back to School" btw) function with hubby and I'm so glad it's over!!

* A note of thanks to Wei Yun - you make me feel welcome and at ease... thanks and congrats for winning those awards btw!

So below are some pictures I managed to snap in my midst of me happily gobbling up all the foods being served my shyness...

In case you can't read it, it's Hilton Petaling Jaya. It's about 10-15 minutes ride by car from our house if there is no traffic jam.

This is the place where the dinner function is held... it's actually the front cover of the menu for the dinner...





And this is the menu for the dinner. The sea bass dish is nice, and so is the stewed broccoli with black mushroom & "Tau Kan" (kinda like those flatten up soft tofu skin).

Below is a quick snap shot of the tables around us. Not sure whether you can see the people here wearing their school costumes but they are a cool bunch of people...

I mean, some of them are already like 40-50 years old but they wore those primary school clothing!

And I can see some of them are even sporting enough to buy new uniforms just for this dinner!

Anyway, what happened during the dinner were:
- speeches
- talent show contests
- award presentations
- eat, eat, and eat

So, as you can see, there's no need to mingle around with people other than those from your own table and I can say I had a pretty good time tonight!

FYI, we didn't finish the whole course - we left after the "Stir Fried Seawater Prawns Szechuan Style" dish as it's already 9.30pm (we left home at about 7pm) and we're kinda worried about Ben terrorising and bullying and MIL. Hubby was saying he's getting full and had to go off already and I was like 'Whaaaaa.... I'm just starting to enjoy my food, and I think my tummy is feeling happy now and you want to leave?!!' but then, when I think about my little monster Ben at home with MIL, ok ok... time to go...

On the way back, hubby got a call from his client asking him for help with some documents in PDF.

I suddenly saw my favourite cake shop, Secret Recipe and I flapping my hands up and down pointed out excitedly to hubby (he's still talking with the client btw) and he made a U-turn and stopped by the cake shop so that I can order a slice of my favourite Choc Mud Cake for take-away!

Oh!! Look at that glorious piece of heavenly cake! Yum yum!!

(Picture from http://www.secretrecipe.com.ph/cakes/choc_mud_cake.jpg)

What a nice way to end the night... :D

I'm a Nervous Wreck...

It's exactly midnight here in Malaysia... It's now Thursday, 21st Jan 2010.

By 7pm on this day, I will be accompanying hubby to a dinner function.

I am so nervous now as it has been some time since I attended a dinner function (other than those held by my previous companies). My last formal dinner function was in December 2008 when I was still at my previous company, and I was about 6 mths pregnant with Ben... and I don't have to worry about getting costumes (they are kinda lenient towards pregnant women I guess...)

I don't do well in socialising... seriously...

I am very very shy when it comes to meeting strangers and people.

I don't mingle around much and I don't drink and I don't smoke. So, what else could I do other than stick close to hubby and close friends / colleagues??

And this year's theme is 'Back to School'...

Grrrrrrr..... reat... I've already managed to borrow a school uniform from hubby's cousin who has just finished her high school. Thank God with this theme I don't have to worry about getting make up and stuff, since, well... yes, I don't do make up as well... I am such a low maintenance woman come to think of it!!!

Anyway, school uniform - check... sling bag (which is actually Ben's old diaper/travel bag) - check... shoes - hmmm... just going to wear my sandals... so shoes - check, books... maybe I should bring some stuff to read... meal plans for Ben - check... hope I didn't miss out anything...

Hmmmm... I hope I get through this dinner smoothly...

It's Only Words...

When I was small (like errmmm in my early teens), I go crazy over this game: Yes, its the hidden words puzzle.

I still remember the first time I got to know about this game was when I was 12 years old. We had taken our year end exams, and all the students have got nothing to do while waiting for the teachers to mark the exam papers (took about 2-3 weeks for the results to be published), so we were allowed to bring in books and games from home to school - so long as the games and books are educational and does not cause any harm.

One day, a classmate of mine brought this 1-inch thick book of Hidden Words puzzle. In the beginning, being shy as ever, I just hovered at the back peeping at my classmate playing with our English teacher - they were kinda like racing who can find the most hidden words.

As time goes, I slowly speak out, helping either one of them to locate the hidden words and soon, I got closer and sat next to them and before you knew it... my English teacher asked me to take over his position and I was so happy and excited when my classmates told me to go ahead and play the game.

After a while, my classmate got bored of the puzzle book and told me I could go ahead and scribbled all I want to solve those hidden words puzzles. And guess what? I solved the puzzles within that week.

Looking back at the time, I do feel guilty now cos my classmate bought the puzzle book and I solved the puzzles myself :P

And now, they even have this games ONLINE! *Drool * Drool * ... :P

Oh wow...!!! How exciting it is to relive all my childhood memories and interests again! :D

My strategy in this game is to cover the sides first... normally the longest words hidden are always located at the 4 sides. After covering all the sides, I will look for hidden words with double spellings.. for example "ACCOUNTANT" - in this case, I will scout for double "C" letters. My next strategy was to look for unique letters such as "Q", "X" and so on...


Tried this one and can only solved in 9.5 minutes.

Well, you've gotta forgive me cos its 3am here in Malaysia and it has been a decade plus since I last played this game! ;p

I Made Fire! (Not... I Just Fixed The Keyboard...)

Wow! As the title suggest, I felt like made fire!!!

Ok, ok... yes yes, all I did was just fixed the keyboard (well, one of the keys actually hehehe..) but the accomplishment of that its of epic proportions... kinda like making fire!!! :P

Well, what happened actually was, Ben was on my lap facing me (his back to my laptop), playing with his spoon while I was replying an email and all of a sudden, he just turned sideways, took a look at what I was doing and I can only see his left hand goes 'swoosshhhhh' and off flies the "function" key from my laptop.

I am speechless as I stared at the now empty slot of what used to be the "function" key position...

I have no idea how he did it but on my table lies the "function" key and a layer of plastic pad thingy which is supposed to make the key bounced nicely when you type on your laptop.

When I brought the parts to my hubby (he was in his office next door), his mouth just went 'O' as he stared to and fro between the key parts and his 10 mth old innocent looking boy...

Hubby came over and took a look, fidget around and said the parts are broken. It seems that one of the minuscule hook are off and not seen anywhere... and then hubby looked at Ben again, speechless and just plonked back the "function" key to its position on the keyboard and he went off as he's rushing for an appointment.

After about forever few minutes of fidgeting and trying to understand the mechanism of those puny little keys on the laptop, and with my ever puny little gentle fingers, I tried to fix back the key and its component.

The picture on the left is from a website - an example of how a laptop keys looked like when its dismantled and taken out of its position... and they had to use this sharp tweezer to put it back and I am only relying on my puny bony fingers!!

So anyway, I snapped the components together and voila!! It fits back perfectly and no more swaying here and there...

I felt like Tom Hanks in his 'Cast Away' movie when he managed to make the fire... kinda like a major accomplishment for me since I've never been the type of person to fix and touch all this gadgets and stuff...

Now off to gloat about my accomplishments hehehe...

Video-Bowling...

I'm sorry if it seems repetitive that I keep on posting funny videos...
But I just found another funny video forwarded from a friend a while back..
Totally cracks me up when I watched it again and I feel that I really should not be selfish and keep it to myself.
So here goes... Enjoy!! :D

Video-Toilet Prank...

Got this from an email forward... Japanese people are such good jokers...
Of course, I wouldn't want to be the person being prank!
Enjoy!! ;p

Buzz Off Crappy Commentors!

I am starting to get annoyed with some of the comments I've been receiving lately.

Ever since I joined SITS, I have met a lot of wonderful blogger friends and my blog followers has also increased.

Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate the comments I received from bloggers who dropped by (hopefully they bother to stop by and read my posts before leaving a comment tho'...) but apart from these wonderful comments which I really really appreciate and love, I also get some anonymous comments...

I am tired of being happy to get these comments only to find out its a crappy spam on my blog posts. Among them:

• Found on my post entitled "What Happened During My Maternity Leave?" which said "I just found the website who reviews about many home business opportunity" (and also the anonymous fella left a link to his/her website which I'm not going to post in here)
• Again found on my post entitled "What Happened During My Maternity Leave?" which said "is porn the only winner during credit crunch?" (Is what the winner during the credit crunch?!!!!)
• Found on my post entitled "Men are just happier people..." which said "Hi there! I would like to burn a theme at this forum. It reminds of financial piramyde, but in rare cases one may happen to meet a company that really pays up to 2% daily not on invested money, but from real profits. For several years , I make money with the help of these programs. I'm with no money problems now, but there are heights that must be conquered . I get now up to 2G a day , and I started with funny 500 bucks. Right now, I'm very close at catching at last a guaranteed variant to make a sharp rise . Visit my blog to get additional info." (And yes, which part does it relates to my post on men being happier people??!!)
  
• Again found on my post entitled "What Happened During My Maternity Leave?" which said "I will not acquiesce in on it. I think warm-hearted post. Expressly the title-deed attracted me to be familiar with the intact story." (I almost choke reading the sentence... sounds like it has been copied paste from different lines of stuff...)

Since day 1 of starting this blog, I have opened up commenting options to all including anonymous people but all the comments must go through my approval before it can be published. And ever since I started getting these 'lovely' home opportunity + porn + make money + acquiescing on expressly title-deed comments, I have decided to take out the anonymous commentor options.

So from yesterday onwards, no anonymous people will be allowed to post comments into my blog.

I am sorry but blame it on these 'wonderful' people who is starting to like spamming my blog.

I love comments but it must be relevant and meaningful and from the heart. Those comments like the ones shown above are irrelevant, meaningful only to the person who post it and its not from their heart.

To those who honestly leave their heartfelt comments in my blog posts, I really do appreciate them from the bottom of my heart. Just in case you guys didn't notice, I do reply each and every comments I get (those that ever get published), at least to thank them for visiting my blog and hoping they do enjoyed reading my blog posts.

I wonder who is so free to sit around scouring for honest people's blogs and spam their blog posts??!! So to those of you who have nothing better to do than going around spamming people's blog with your crappy home opportunity + porn + make money + acquiescing on expressly title-deed comments, please, please go away! Stay away from my blog!

STAY AWAY! BUZZ OFF!!

Wordless Wednesday (Ben with creepy reindeer)

(*psst... did you notice the creepy reindeer behind peeking at Ben?)

In Remembrance of My Beloved Mum...

Today is 11th January 2010... 3 years has gone since my mum passed away.

Lots of things have changed in this 3 years... I've moved out of our family house (where I spent 2 decades living there), got engaged, got married (after almost 10 years going out with my now hubby), got a better paying job, shift back to the previous job with a much better paying offer, got pregnant, delivered a boy, quit my job and now a full time mummy...

All this happened just in 3 years and my dearest mum is not around to see it... :( So here goes a list of items I remember about you, mum…

* I remember… how delicious is your fish dishes… till today, I still can’t find anybody who can cook the fish dishes as good as you…
And NOW, I regret… not learning how to cook it when you are still alive…

* I remember… you waking up early to boil eggs or made me lime juice whenever I start to have sore throat symptoms…
And NOW, I missed the times when I see a mug with steaming hot lime juice or or boiled eggs waiting for me...

* I remember…when I was 12 years old and my broken right arm is healing and you waited for me to finish school so that you can bring me over to Big Aunt’s house for my weekly dose of Chinese medicine and you wrapped my arm with the 4 straight sticks wrapped in cotton cloth to protect my arm.
And NOW, I don’t mind having to drink and having my right arm bandaged with the dried insects and Chinese herbs medicine just so that I can relive all these memories of you taking care of me again...

* I remember…breaking my right arm AGAIN at home trying to climb up the double-decker bed and you thought I saw cockroaches on my bed… and your horrified face when you saw my arms broke AGAIN (this time with the privilege of seeing how it looks like when it broke!)
And NOW, despite the pain that I had then, I wouldn’t mind breaking it again just so that I get to ride a cab at night (a luxury during those times!) with both my parents fussing over me and rushing the driver to reach my Big Aunt’s place ASAP!

* I remember… when I was in primary school, the countless trips I had with you to your hometown (an ex-coal mine area called Batu Arang) during school holidays and how I slept on your lap throughout the journey...
And NOW, it has been years since I last go back to your hometown... there's nothing left there to go back to anyway...

* I remember…when I was small, how I used to follow you to your friend’s house and watched you guys played mahjong...
And NOW, I can proudly say I’m quite a good mahjong player though I still can’t figure out how to add the points (cos I was used to watch how people play and too young to understand how they count the points)

* I remember... having you tying my hair into cute braids... even when I’m already old enough to tie my own hair... its just that you tied it so well and nice...
And NOW, I hope… I can do the same for my daughter(s??) next time…

* I remember…getting scolded by you when I got carried away with my karaoke jamming session in my own room.. ok, ok, I ain’t no Kelly Clarkson or Sarah McLachlan or Dixie Chicks…
But NOW, if only I can hear you scold and nag me again…

* I remember…during your last few moments on earth, I get to tell you how much I love you , how much you’re loved by all of us, how you’ll always be remembered by us, and I get to thank and ask for your forgiveness for all these years..

* I remember… how shocked I was when I found out you had said the sinner’s prayer cos I never thought it would happen… and how happy I was that you choose to be saved and realised that before its too late…

* I remember… that hubby (then boyfriend) and I told you bible stories when you were in hospital…and how awkward it was because I’m good in speaking Cantonese but being a new Christian, I am not very knowledgeable and hence lousy in interpreting the parables and hubby was the opposite of me (lousy in speaking Cantonese but good in interpreting the parables)…

* I remember…how we both struggled just to tell you how Jesus was born, baptised, the hardship, crucified, etc etc…
But at the end of it all, I remember how ecstatic we were when we ended with prayers and hearing you saying ‘Amen’… and getting to tell you that Jesus loves you and will not let you suffer any longer...

Mum, I never would’ve wished for any other mum but you… I thank God that I had a great mum like you!

Please take care of dad and watch over us from heaven... I love you both... ALWAYS... and I pray that we'll see each other again in heaven... Amen...

Is It a Bird? Is It a Plane? Its....

This morning, I was out at the front porch with MIL and Ben just having some fresh air. And then, I looked up and saw this...
Can you see what is it?

What? Can't see it clearly? There's something hanging up there...

Wait.. wait... let me zoom closer with my Sony Cybershot camera... OK, here you go...
Now one final really-really close up look at it...
Yes... now can you see clearly what it is?

It's TWO happy clingy bats loitering around in my house porch. We used to have only one of it but it seems that this morning, our little batman (or woman) has found its own partner and decided to bring him/her back and stay together.

I am not superstitious but according to this website, having a bat in the house could mean both good and bad luck.
It is lucky if:
* A bat falls or hit you.

It is unlucky for:
* Having a bat in the house is a sign of death in the family. (Eh?? Touch wood touch wood...)
* Seeing a bat in the daytime. (Oh great!! I even took snapshots of it and post it up in my blog! Oh horror!!!)
* Killing a bat shortens your life. (As if I even bother to kill it... though MIL has been threatening to use a long pole to shoo it away...)
* Bats flying around a wedding ceremony.

Anyway, this bat has been around our house for sometime... Since we moved in 2 years ago, we started noticing it coming and sleeping throughout the daytime about a year back. We don't really bother with it (except MIL again...) even though it has been causing some problems to our car. You see, our car is parked directly underneath it (cos there is shades) and our dear little batty friend here will go out at night, look for fruits and stuff and eat it while hanging upside down in its happy place up there... and dropped all the fruits skins and seeds onto the car bonnet and the floor. It caused quite a mess and sometimes the dirt sticks on to the car and we need to scrub quite hard to remove the stains.

And now, it brings back a partner??!! Whoaaaaa...

What should I do?

1. Poke it with a pole hoping that it will fly away (and not attack me) but then if it fell or hit on me, I'll be LUCKY!!! :P
2.Put some oil or grease on the pole where he hangs so that he won't be able to grip onto it any longer...
3. Leave them two love birdsbats alone (and hope they won't start breeding and have bat babies...)

Any other suggestions?

Me and My Weird Eating Habits...

No, I'm not going to repeat about my anti-vegetarian habit. I will also not repeat on my habits of chewing my food at least 24 times before I swallow it...

Today, I will share with you all on my other weird eating habits so that you can laugh at me get to know me better...

#1 - I am terrified of prawn's head
Even searching and posting this picture up brings me the chill. Brrrrrrrr....

When I was very young, I only eat prawns if somebody has already removed the heads for me. Else, no no no no. Not touching it with a 10 feet pole.

I'd rather eat white rice with soy sauce :P

Why am I so very terrified of prawn's head? I guess maybe it's because of its innocent looking eyes and the mouth...

Seriously... I can feel my hairs tingling up just thinking about this prawn heads... And it doesn't help after watching the "District 9" movie with the aliens looking really a lot like prawns... :(

#2 - And yes, no prawn legs too...
I mean... why doesn't anyone else share the same sentiment with me in finding the grossness of prawn's legs?

Its like such a small creature and yet it has so many legs and it looks like caterpillars (oh don't get me started on this as well... No, I don't eat caterpillars, but yes, I am also terrified of them as well...) So again, unless its legs has been removed, I will not touch it as well...

Luckily, nowadays, if the prawns are cooked and presented real nice, I have more courage to rip off and remove the heads and legs myself.

Which is why I love eating tempura instead! :D

#3 - I hate blood in meat
The meat I am eating (chicken or fish for example) must be cooked until there is no trace of blood.
Yes, if this is the case, what about steak? Ermm...
I don't eat steak.
I don't do beef.
I don't do lamb either.

Yes, I am really really really that weird... and yes, if there ever was any audition for Vampire Idol, I'd fail miserably in it... I think maybe its because of the perception that blood = raw (yes, yes, I don't even do sashimi) so raw = cannibals germs still alive and kicking. So if I ever see any trace of red / blood in the meat I'm eating, I'd stop and go on to the next dish.

#4 - No animals' internal organs please...
Liver, hearts, stomachs, whatever they have inside an animal.. please please don't serve it to me. No matter how cooked and no blood it is, no no no. Chinese people have dishes served with internal organs of animals from cow, chicken, pig etc...

#5 - I don't do abnormal food
My meaning of normal food means chicken, fish, vegetables etc. You know, things that people would normally eat. Abnormal means, frogs, snakes, tortoises, dogs, monkeys, insects, etc etc.

I remembered when I was in my early teens, we had a Chinese New Year dinner with my dad's younger brother and his family. And I had this crunchy tangy meat. And I later found out it was frog meat after we reached home that night.

It did taste like chicken meat but errmm... ignorance is bliss and I'd prefer not to be told / know that I'm eating abnormal stuff...

#6 - The eggs I eat MUST be thoroughly cooked!
I love eating eggs! Hard boiled style, fried egg style, mashed and served in sandwich style...

If I am being served with this dish 1 year ago... I can guarantee you, I will only eat the bread and maybe the sides of the eggs. I mean, look at that runny eggs!! The yolk and the white jelly-like texture of the eggs looks raw to me! Gross... Nowadays, I'd just cut off or removed the yolk and/or the whitish jelly-like portion and pass it to hubby to eat.

Okie... I guess that's about all I can think of now. I am already having a headache just looking at all this gross foods... Call me a weirdo but I call it having good food/eating ethiques :P

So, do you have any weird eating habits?

Things We Know Now...

Came across this article about the "50 Things we know now that we didn't know this time last year" and realized that some of them are really interesting and are an eye-opener. I've selected some of the interesting ones to share out here. Here you go, enjoy!

#2. Grumpy people think more clearly because negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking. (Agree!! I think it's because when a person is grumpy, all they can think of is the cause of their grumpiness, kinda make them stay focused :P)

#5. One mutated gene is the reason humans have language, and chimpanzees, our closest relative, do not. (You mean we could talk because of our one mutated gene??!!!)

#9. Babies pick up their parents' accents from the womb, and infants are born crying in their native dialect. Researchers found that French newborns cry in a rising French accent, and German babies cry with a characteristic falling inflection. (Oh wow! I'll just have to wait till Ben can talk one day to see whether this is true or not! ;) )

#10. Surfing the Internet may help delay dementia because it creates stimulation that exercises portions of the brain. (Hooray to Internet! Who says I'm wasting time doing nothing when surfing the Internet?!)

#19. The calmest place on Earth is on top of an icy plateau in Antarctica known as Ridge A, several hundred miles from the South Pole. It is so still that stars do not twinkle in the sky because there is no turbulence in the atmosphere to distort the light. (Wow! According to this article, the air is 100 times drier than the Sahara and the winter averages -70C (minus 94F), which also gives Ridge A the accolade of the driest and coldest place in the world. Brrrrrr...)

#20. The thrill of driving a sports car makes the body produce more testosterone. The findings suggest a biological explanation for why some men buy a sports car when struck by a "midlife crisis." (That is not an excuse to splurge your retirement savings money!!)

#23. A massive, nearly invisible ring of ice and dust particles surrounds Saturn. The ring's entire volume can hold 1 billion Earths. (Wow! 1 billion Earths?!! I am already thinking our house is big enough, let alone the city, country and the Earth!! How awesome!)

#27. Women who revealed about 40 percent of their skin attracted twice as many men as those who covered up. Any more than 40 percent and the signal changes from allure to one indicating general availability and future infidelity. (Now how do they get to the 40% figures??)

#37. Differences in body odors produced by people who are more prone to insect bites show they have lower levels of fruity-smelling compounds in their sweat than those who are resistant to mosquitoes.

#50. Watermelon is more efficient at rehydrating our bodies than drinking water. It contains 92 percent water and essential rehydration salts.(Oh really??!)