The Concert - A little goes a long way

Amber's kindy concert was held almost nearing end term. This year, she danced Korean pop - Sorry Sorry by Super Junior. 

Excited, she was, as I am. Woke up early, showered and applied powder over her body to make her more comfortable as  her costume is the itchy, pokey type. She pestered for makeup and I applied some lip gloss on her or else we'll never hear the end of it and never leave home.

 

The kids had to go to school first and leave for the concert venue by bus whilst us parents made our way there. 

When I saw little fart at the venue, I was surprised with her matured Korean pop look :

A little makeup goes a long way.

Teacher Jo, the principal gave a speech and  part of her speech is a gentle reminder to us, parents.

Love your children more .. 

and love is spelled as T-I-M-E !!

This concert is the last for Amber, she will not be graduating from the kinder next year. We have changed her to a chinese syllabus based kinder.

We've made many good friends from her kinder and we'll keep in touch with some of the teachers.

Adios Kinder D and we'll miss you !

Anniversary Weekend

 Last weekend was our 10th Anniversary.  10 years passed in a flash and our proudest moment is being parent to this little fart..

We didn't do much of a 'celebration' except for a quick lunch, just the 2 of us at our 'pak-tor' jaunt - Ma Maison at Ampang Hilir. Year end is always such a busy period and we didn't think much of a celebration to be had.

We checked in to the hotel where we were married, sorta like a reminiscence of a sequence of event happening on the same day, 10 years ago. 

Hubs taught Amber to play chess and of course got into an argument later.. Amber whined "Papa don't let me play".. and Papa whined.. "You cannot play until you learn the moves"..

I'd stayed out of the argument and left them both to battle. I can-never-play-chess-so-don't-ask-me !!

 

We took a monorail to Bukit Bintang and the train ride was already an adventure for her. Kids just love train rides and the RM1.20 fare goes a long way to her make happy :D

Saw Santa Claus, Santarina and carollers at Fahrenheit. This Santa is very generous, gave us a pressie- free coffee and cake from Pacific Coffee.

Had dinner at Hutong Lot 10 - the Jalan Imbi meat ball noodle, which i'm very sure is egg-free, mushroom-free. Have to be more diligent now and only go to stalls which I'm 110 % sure.

Went back to the hotel and our annivesary gift from Amber was a body massage. Macam macam style ada...

 

The following day.. caught up with Arthur Wee who was also staying in the same hotel. We checked out after breakfast and a swim and  did another touristy thing. Went up KL Tower. First trip for Amber and me.

Nothing much.. and we couldn't spy our home, blocked by another tall building.

Amber took the pony ride and we also went for the 6D motion master *very exciting* but can't take any photos.

 

and that... was our Anniversary Weekend.. ......

My kitchen wall

... been invaded adorned  with her art pieces.

but.. never mind, it makes the house more 'warm'

Here's what she has pasted on the wall :

 This is a King.. but sometimes she'll tell me it's Daddy ! too funny !

 

She drew this at school, during her spare time. I love how she hung those ketupats up...

 and this is part of a school craft, in the spirit of Merdeka.. they made a paper hand glove

 I like this best . .. how she accentuates the pouty lips and blushing cheeks.. and this is Amber .. 

This is a colorful house. 

 Another school craft .. the elephant trunk is a toilet roll.

writings to tell me she's been good and practising her handwriting..

Momentoes.. a bit here and there.. maketh the house warm. :)

My Little Helper

When I took this photo.. I was half dreaming of her baking a whole cake.. beating the butter, knocking in the eggs and such... With her egg allergy back, baking will take a back seat. She wants to help me as much as I want her to BUT.. baking your cake, wafting the aroma and NOT being able to eat, is cruel eh ?

I let her do little stuff like here.. doing the finishing touch on my tiramisu

 

She loves kitchen work, this girl will make a good kitchen helper/wife/baker !

One day.. one fine day..

Allergy Update

Amber had her allergy checked 2 weeks ago. I suspected something amiss when skin between her toes started itching and cracking.

Readings :

Dairy -0

Dust mites -5

Colorings - 0

Latexx - 0 

Candida - 0

Eggs - 0 

My heart sank. I freaked. I felt cheated. I don't care much about the dust mite allergy. I cannot eliminate dust mites.. they're like.. everywhere and hello??? I can't walk around with a vacuum cleaner but I did put in 200% to make sure she abstain from eggs ! Edgy eggs ! I hate E-G-G !! Just short of 6 months to complete the whole allergy cycle, she had to come into contact with eggs. The poor girl has to start all over again, another couple of months or two to total elimination , no trace of eggs in her body and another 12 months countdown before we can introduce eggs to her.

there goes.. the dream of baking her a proper birthday cake with eggs, butter and all

there goes ... our longing to bake together... cookies, cakes and such.

BLAH !!!!!

I couldn't figure out what she had eaten. We've been very careful at home and she hardly eats out except for very specific food. I Love Yoo's porridge, Nyonya Colours kuih lapis, McDonalds fries and fried chicken and Madam Kwans fried whole leg and nasi bojari. We zoomed down the possibilities to Madam's fried chicken. I've asked the staff before and they've said it's egg free but it's really hard to say. I'm pretty sure McD is strict with their food preparation and when they said no eggs..they mean it. So..we've axed Madam's fried chicken from her list of permissible food.

I feel very much for her. I wished I am bearing the brunt of food allergies and not her. If I could make this Christmas wish come true, I would. 

BAH !!!!!!!!!

Amber's passport

Sometime last month, we brought Amber to Jabatan Imigresen at Putrajaya to apply a passport for her. It was for her first trip out of the country, to Singapore to visit my sis, friends and to do a little shopping.

 

With a passport now, little Missy is asking for more trips abroad. She wants to go Germany to visit Malaika, Australia to visit her friends, Lauren and Owen and to Philippines to visit her kakak's family.

Hang on girl.. slowly eh.. slowly.. Air Asia just increased it's surcharges !

Little girls are made of these....

Last night, I went out with my besties to celebrate a birthday. Amber was jealous to miss out all the fun and lamented on how she never had a birthday celebration. Not a proper one at least, with party and surprises and such. She was supposed to have one this year and something happened and was called off, she still remembered, with bitterness in her heart.

 

Our friend Joanne suggested we light up some candle and cake for her. I brought out 2 cupcakes from and lighted candles and sang birthday song in 4 languages - English, Bahasa, Mandarin and Cantonese and let her blow the candles all over again.

Her mood lifted immediately and was a happy girl.

Little girls are made of.. sugar, spice and birthday surprises.

Love this photo of her.. with lights off, at her request !

Sigh.. so fast ??

Amber called me 2 minutes ago :

Mummy.. my front teeth is moving..

I bite the mentos wrapper and it's pain.. I can move the teeth.

I was just telling hubs that I noticed her jaw is bigger now.  There's space in between each milk teeth, as in preparing for permanent teeth's arrival. We also noticed a permanent molar sprouting out in her lower jaw.

I told her not to panic and I'll go back and check

Can you not touch so hard ok ? Promise ? I scared pain..

Sigh.. such is the fear of a 5 year old losing her front teeth. Coujple of years ago when she lost her front tooth in a fall, I couldn't wait for her permanent tooth to sprout, giving her a complete set of front teeth. Now, I miss her baby-ness and please don't grow up too fast !!!

Winekaki - 22 October 2011

The winekakis... or shall I say, wine-keteers gathered again last Saturday at our home. We haven't been hosting for a long time since without a domestic helper and this time, we graciously played host to our fellow wineketeers.

No particular food theme, just the usual bring-whateva-you-like pot luck.

 Our fellow wineketeers brought KFC, braised chicken wings, Kajang sate, salad and braised duck feet (not in pic)

I prepared bacon aglio olio and prawn spaghetti for mains and the olive and cheese chunks are for nipping into while sipping wine.

The piece de resistence.... Roast pork

I finally got it right this time. Not blowing my own trumpets but hubs said this roast is the best and the mother of all roasts dished out from our oven. I tried a very simple and fuss free method of blanket-ing the rind with rock salt and roast.  However, X-factor here is to choose a good piece of meat.  I go to the the butcher at Taman Tun Market - Lee Wah Trading for a perfect cut of meat. Belly is the most expensive part of the porcine and I want to make sure I get the best to. Lee Wah's  pork is absolutely fresh, clean and odorless. This piece of has even layers of meat, fat, meat, fat and meat and fat.... simply divine for roasting pork !!!

I made tiramisu in a cup, in perfect serving proportions.  I find digging into a dish of tiramisu totally yucks. The first slice is always nice and the remaining pieces gets sloshy and sloppy. Tiramisu is such a delicate desert and I want my guests to enjoy their servings. I used the little drinking glass I got from Ikea.

I also baked a french almond cake.  

 

The 4 wineketeers who was present.

The selection they had.

Good food, good company and good wine. The wineketeers are already talking of another round to wrap up 2011.  :D

'Competition'

Amber's mental arithmetic teacher enrolled her for a district competition. I was skeptical as we've just enrolled her to UCMas 3 months ago and she had to undo what she had do-ed in her abacus program. To cut the long story short, Amber was following some Taiwanese method using only right hand and 3 fingers to manipulate the beads. She (or rather, US!!) found it difficult to manage bigger digits and tends to make mistake easily. We decided to change her to UCMas and was thankful to have met a teacher who understood why Amber kept making mistakes and she was willing to 'undo' what she has learnt and start her all over again. And so, she went... learning abacus all over again, a different method, using both hands and two fingers on each hand, the UCMas approach and which I found to be more systematic and less prone to errors.

Teacher encouraged us to send her for the district competition for exposure. It was a good experience for her, having to compete among the champions and having a feel of how it's like to ready-get set-go upon hearing the starting whistle.

 

Up and early at 8am, her teacher pinned ID sticker on her uniform

   I didn't expect the competition to be such a big event .

Her competition slip and she has to stick on the back of her exam paper. 

 Hubs giving her a good luck high-5 !!!

Pasting the sticker on her exam paper. The girl seated next to her was kind to teach her what to do.

 Jeng ! Jeng ! Jeng ! Competition begins !!!  Parents were allowed to stay along the side of the hall and wait and fidget nervously.

The competition was over in 8 minutes. They had to complete 100 equations (or more.. and I'm not sure but heck, she's only here for the experience).

While waiting for results, we were treated to Magic Show and lucky draws. Amber batch was the last to receive prize and luckily we had our ipad and Sunday papers to keep us occupied.

She didn't win any top prize but only a consolation prize. We were very happy for she completed the competition. Initially we were worried ...

.. that her eyes will be itchy and she'll be crying

..  that her body will be itchy

.. that she'll wanna go 'shee-shee' during competition

.. that she'll feel too cold

.. that her pencils will break

.... we're just like 2 fidgety parents, worrying anything and everything under the sun ! Silly me n silly him !

After a long wait.... it was her turn to receive a consolation prize..

 My little girl, on stage to receive a prize , no big prize but we are sooooo proud of her !

Amber and her dedicated teacher. She  said Amber needs more time, at least a year, to compete at International Levels. 

We praised and rewarded her with a gift of her choice. She went to Guardians and chose a Lip Ice lip gloss.

Competition is not all about winning first, second or third. Just being there and doing her best, she had already won :D

Allergy Update - 27 August 2011

We went for another follow up visit on 27 August 2011. It's really not necessary to visit Dr Wong so often but hubs, Amber and I are on our toes, all the time and we want to double triple make sure she's clear of her allergies.

We're counting down to 'Butter in February' and we're determined to make it.

My heart beats very fast when Dr Wong tests her allergies. With each test tube that he runs, I'll be praying with all my heart, fingers and toes crossed that she's clear. I don't want her to be bummed down to square one again.

She's clear of her allergies except for house dust mites :

House Dust Mites  -  7
Eggs        - 0
Dairy       - 0
Yeast      - 0
Colorings E110 and E103  - 0


Needless to say, we're happy beyond words, our diligence and her sacrifice paid off ! We forgot to test her for latex but that's not as important as getting her clear of the food allergies. I suspect her reading for house dust mite went up as she has itchy eyes and especially bad on days when she attends reading class. The school is fully carpeted and.. dusty. It's mission impossible to be rid of house dust mites. It's everywhere and I can only do what I can do and she can also only do what she can do. She wears long pants and long sleeves to the reading class to minimize her exposure to dust mites.

Anywayzzz.. the  follow up check gave us reassurance Amber is on track to recovery.


Hip Hip Hurray and 4 months to taste a dollop of creamy salty BUTTER again !!!

Old Notes of Malaysia

I have a quiet hobby of collecting old Malaysia banknotes.


I keep  a lookout for old currencies whenever I scour the Jonker Street. You'll never know what you find there and in the early mornings, especially at Jalan Hang Lekir. Stalls are up as early as 7am or earlier but I only discovered the little surprise as I traipsed out of our hotel around 10am on a Sunday. The peddlers were already wrapping up but I managed to get some old coins. 



My father collects some old notes and he has kindly shared some with me.

This is a RM100 not-so-old note but it's never been used before and smells new.

I remember receiving these as angpows, when I was in still single. RM100 is a hefty sum and I remembered feeling very 'rich' when I received these ang pow tokens

This 1941 ten cents is my favourite piece. I was so happy to receive this from father. He was only 7 years old then and he must have got it from his parents.

Unstained and in perfect condition, a Thomas de la Rue production, this is 70 years old !!

I shall treasure and safeguard my note possession with care.




Anyone into collecting old notes too ?

The Best In The World ?!?!

Whenever I cook for Amber, I always get the heart melting praise from her :

Wow.. Mummy, your cooking IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD !!

Always.

Until recently, she asks who cooks, before complimenting. If it's kakak's cooking, she'll hold back her compliments.. tsk tsk tsk

One day.. I cooked her instant noodles and she said..

Thank you Mummy.. Your cooking is THE BEST IN THE WORLD !!

All I did was boil hot water and dunk in the noodle. :(

LOLOL... kecil kecil pun dah pandai bodek !

Amber does a double Hula

 

The ever hyper Amber surprised us one day with a double hula. Our helper can even hula around her neck but I forbid Amber to follow. I watched in awe.. my little girl doing the hula.. whilst I can't even manage one hoop !

Amber does the hula

Amber loves hula. She's been practising for some time now and she finally got it right.

The single hula (check the background voice... her #1 supporter)

I'm so happy for her. I'm still struggling with the hula. Been picking up hoops more than swinging. :D

The Best Coffee Jaunt in KL

Hubs - the coffee addict, as all his friends know it, is extremely fussy over his coffee. His favourite is black, plain espresso with hot water. He is so fussy, I'd let him add his own water. Too watered down, he'll complain, overroasted , complain again.. Haih.. hard to please this fella. Lucky I don't serve him coffee at 

home. He serves me instead :D :D

He's found He's found this jaunt - Spazzio's at Pavilion KL, and he's hooked. Spazzio serves illy beans and Rohit, the  barista makes a perfect cuppa with passion -  americano, espresso, cappuccino, latte, you name it, he presents every cuppa with excellent showmanship. Here's to show what he did with our servings of cappuccino and latte we had :

 

The beautiful froth doesn't go down after a a few sips. A cappuccino can only be perfect if the foam is firm and not watery. Milk foam is created by steam and milk and it takes skill to get it right. Too much steam will cause milk to be watered down and tasteless and lack of steam doesn't bring up a good foam. So, it's really a balance of skills and Rohit does it so well

 

Rohit makes a mean and thick latte, creamy, milky and with sufficient caffeine to jolt you back to reality, unlike some latte which tends to make me fall into la-la-land. Latte makes me sleepy, except this one.

 

I had a cappuccino and a latte.. and oh.. have I mentioned ? They are running a promotion now , from opening till 6pm, you get a free pastry or another cuppa coffee with every coffee purchase. Good eh ?

Rohit says 'hi'

So, if you yearn for a good cuppa, go to Spazzio and look for Rohit. Spazzio is at Level 3 Pavilion, exit Tangs Department Store from the Ladies Dept and you'll see Spazzio right across.