Selamat Ari Gawai

Gawai Day falls tomorrow. It is celebrated by our Dayak communities, a thanksgiving day marking good harvest and a time to plan for new farming season and activities for the year. On Gawai Day, open houses will be normally filled with endless rounds of tuak (rice wine), delicacies and cakes. Should you be visiting any long houses during Gawai Day, visitors would be entertained with traditional dances and cultural performances.

This year we would not be going to any open houses or doing any Gawai visiting. I will be flying away during the Gawai celebration. Update after I am back from the trip, ok?? :)

To all Dayak blogger friends and readers, Happy Gawai Day and Happy Holiday.

Cooling down

Cook mung bean dessert over the weekend. It was hot here, feel like in hot sauna all the time. When are we going to have rainy season? It is getting very warm. Lukily we have serviced our air-conditioner on Saturday. We spent most of our time indoor over the weekend, in the bedroom. Outside temparature too unbearable for us. Apparently the fan motor spoiled, so cause not much cool air coming out from the unit. We spent RM80 on the services, cleaning and pumping of gas.

Since hubby missed taking dessert, I cooked mung bean soup last Sunday. Usually I will mix it with some barley and sago, but this time I did not get any barley and sago, so it is plain mung bean soup. A great dessert for a hot day. :) Yum yum.

Bluer Day

I have never like Monday but today is definitely not my day. Woke up, feeling tired than usual, my mind keep debating whether today is Monday or Sunday. How I wish it is Sunday. But reality sank faster than the iceberg sank the great Titanic, I have to admit that it is not going to be a better day for me.

True enough, I nearly have an accident on the road. Some crazy guy parking his staled car on one of the busiest roads in Kuching, and everyone taking times squeezing through. As I squeezing my car through, someone in other car also squeezing through from the side. Ggggrrr! How inconsiderate. Furthermore, my petrol indicator kept blinking red, telling me that it is time to fill my car with some petrol. I was worry that I may be the next car that stopped in middle of the road!! After filling my faithful car with petrol enough to cover my 5 working days, I rushed to office.

Although today weather was gloomy without sight of sun the office temperature was rather warm. Maybe because of temperature, everyone is rather in high mood today. I developed a headache during my weekly meeting till lunch time. Not only that, by lunch time, we were so hungry that we can eat the whole horse! *laugh* Thank god lunch brought some good mood in us as we tried out new eating place across the road. Buffet lunch, RM5 per person only. Cheap right? Food was so-so, nothing fancy, but we just stuffed ourselves with what offered on the buffet table.

I thought the day was getting better but it was not. Afternoon went well in the office, and we have rain too. Monday is aerobic day so after work, I rushed to the aerobic centre. By the time I reached the area around 525pm, I noticed that the area was quiet. Waited for 5 minutes and sensing something was not right, I called the person in charge. After several calls, no one picked up the calls, so I decided that was it for the day. No one turned up and calls cannot get through. It must have been cancelled. I did not attend last week session, so I assume that they have decided on canceling today session without informing me.

Sigh! The person in charge did call me back, apologize for my time. Anyway, it was not the first time and I decided it is time to look for another aerobic centre. Oh well, at least I went home earlier today and able to catch my Chinese drama series at 7pm! Yes, I started to pick up a series just few days ago. *wink*

Alright, my headache is haunting me again, I better call it a day. Good night and sleep tight everyone.

Take Care of Your Contact Lenses Hygiene

A family friend recently told us that his wife is going to undergo an eye operation. The wife is a contact lenses wearer. She did not take care of her lenses hygiene; she seldom clean or rub the lenses with necessary solution. Soon, her eye contacted an infection early this year. She did not go for any treatment, thinking that the infection will go away. Slowly it developed into a viral infection.

Recently our friend brought his wife for check-up at specialist’ clinic. Turn out that the small infection turned into virus that attacked her eye nerve system. Meaning that she may go blind permanently. The more heart-breaking news is that she has to undergo an abortion due to the possibility of viral infection affect her unborn child. The doctor advised the couple to abort the baby as chances are high that baby will be blind from the viral infection.

So friends out there, please take care of your eyes. If you are contact lenses wearers, do rub, clean and rinse thoroughly your lenses before placing them into the solutions in your contact lenses cases. I am a wearer too.

A couch potato or what?

I am not so much in television, as I don't watch much of it nowadays. I used to follow those Hong Kong drama series and sports channel, but those were the days before I married. Staying in hubby's house with my sis and bro-in-law, I seldom have the privilege to watch tv programmes. Maybe I dont miss it too. So nothing to lose from it, I bet.

Darling hubby loves to watch those Taiwan soup opera on AEC, ASTRO channel at 6pm every weekday. How I hate it? I dont quite understand their Hokkien and I do not read the Chinese subtitle. So, a no-no series for me. Once hubby sticks to the drama, nothing can distract him anymore. All antenna concentrated on the television and external distractions are blocked out from his reception. Sometimes I enjoy watching him watching tv more than I watch tv itself! *laugh* He can sit there from 6 till 7pm, and I hardly can get his attention when it is dinner time. Need to call more than twice and clap my hand to get through him. Sometimes I leave him alone and I have my dinner by myself.

If you ask me what I watch, I only watch CSI series on AXN on Sunday afternoon. If there is any tennis matches, I will try to tune in, but usually it played in the evening. Everyone would be around by that time and we dont watch the same channels. Mostly hubby and others watch Chinese channels more. And little gal will fidget and nag to go to the bedroom for her usual play time.

Since hubby is in front of the television, I nag him to do some exercises at the same time. So he started to do his usual weight-lifting exercises. Flexing his dumbells while watching television. Now, I guess that is better than him sitting and doing nothing but watch television right?

Hubby's new tea set

My 4th posting for the day. It has been long since I make so many posts in a day huh? *wink*

Just want to show you hubby's new tea set. He bought it this morning. The whole set is around RM140.00. Wow! I think he is crazy to make such purchase. For me, it is expensive for a tea set as nothing unique about it, but hubby said usually other places selling them for around RM200 - 300 plus? True or not?

It is not really a set, the teapot and cups and saucers are a set. The tray and coasters are separate items.

If you are wondering whether this set is going to be a decorative or for consumption purpose, I don't know. Just see what hubby is going to do with them!!

Six Ways to Win Friends

I am currently reading a book by Dale Carnegie “How to win friends & influence people”. It was hubby’s book. He has always intrigued me in first place, by how he likes to buy and read all those motivational and self-appreciation books. I found them boring in the past. But not anymore.

The first book he introduced me is “Rich Kid, Smart Kid”. I believe you know who the author of the book is, right? In the past I would grab any best selling romance novels on the book shelves but now, I would browse around those business and motivational books to check out the latest best seller books in the market. I still read romance novels but I have developed reading interest on fiction, thriller and motivational books as well. Reading is a never ending process, I learnt a lot by reading and it also help to keep my brain from turning “rusty”. *laugh*

Back to Dale Carnegie’s book, I would like to share with you its tips on how to make others like you. All summarized in six points as follow. Hope you learn something from it, because I did:

Become genuinely interested in other people
If you want others to like you, if you want to develop a real friendship, if you want to help others at the same time as you help yourself, always interested in what other people do, think and say. You must be sincere.

Smile
Smile is a messenger of your goodwill. Be generous and genuine when you smile. When you meet people, a good first impression is important. Smile is a strong first impression

Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language
Name is owned by the person that we talking to, and nobody else. If you remember that person’s name, it makes that person feels important

Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
Communication is a two-way road. Remember that the people you are talking to are a hundred times more interested in themselves and their wants and problems than they are in you and your problems. So, to be a good conversationalist, be an attentive listener too. To be interesting, be interested. Ask questions that the other persons will enjoy answering.

Talk in terms of the other person’s interest
Know what the other party’s interest, may it be sports, career, family issues and food. Talk on what interested them.

Make the other people feel important – and do it sincerely
Talk to people about themselves and they will listen for hours

I need orange

You Need Some Orange in Your Life
Orange will make you feel open, lively, and artistic.

And with a little orange, you will project an aura of friendliness.

If you want bolder experiences, you've got to get a little orange in your life!

For extra punch: Combine orange with red or yellow

The downside of orange: It's too powerful and unusual for some people to deal with

The consequences of more orange in your life:You will become more creative in almost every aspect of your life

You will find humor in the most serious and dismal situationsYou will feel like life is exciting, even when you're doing ordinary things

What colour are you?

Relaxing Wednesday

As usual I woke up around 6am to the noise of my little gal next to me. She has the habit of waking up very early since she was a baby. I guess it is good thing when she is schooling, which I hope she will keep it up. *wink*

Since nothing much to do in the morning and I am in no hurry I just switch on my notebook and blog hopping. It is always great to visit all my blogger friends and check on what they have been up to lately. Wow! I did miss a lot of news from them. When I have nothing to do, I love to blog hopping around and check on all those interesting blogs.

It rained for a while early in the morning. I think it is a short drizzle, did not have much effect on the weather. It is still hot today. I am not working today, so I shall get my air-conditioner in my bedroom serviced and checked as it was rather warm for the past few nights.

Planned to bring little gal to The Spring since she has been nagging me to go shopping. She nags everyone including her grandpa who is coming over for a short visit from Kapit. Before she nags me again, I will take the initiative and bring her to window shopping. It is good idea to window shopping at The Spring with its cooling ambiance. *wink*

Time to go for breakfast with family. See you later. Chow!!

The bookmark

Happy Wesak Day everyone! How do you celebrate your Wesak Day today?

It was a hot day here. We were lazy around house the whole afternoon, taking our afternoon nap. In the morning we went for kolok mee breakfast then went to Stephen Yong road to view a showhouse. Since there was nothing to do in the afternoon and while little gal taking her nap, I take opportunity to make some craft.

This bookmark is for darling hubby since his old bookmark is spoiled.

A very simple bookmark, nothing extravagant on it, I used Chinese character and few colourful dots and pictures from used magazines. Staples for the edge of red heart-shaped petal to make it looks like primitive stitch on a flower petal.

To make it chic, simply make a hole and tie a string on one side of the card and insert into a plastic sheet.

I think I am going to make myself a bookmark too. Till then….

Household chores??

What house chore you like the most? Washing? Doing laundry? Sweeping and mopping? I enjoy cooking and washing dishes. I enjoy cooking now compared to few years ago. I do not have complain for washing dishes as I have been washing them since I was taught when I was young. *wink*

The house chore I hate the most is ironing. I never like ironing. When I was in my teens, I have to help my parents around in preparation for the Chinese New Year. Furniture to be wiped, windows to be wiped, bedroom to be cleaned and clothes to be ironed. Maybe me being the eldest in family, I have more tasks to do compared to my other younger siblings. When come to ironing, I hate to iron a pile of clothes from the family members. Hot from the heat and take long time to smooth out the crinkle of a shirt. Ironing has never been “my favourite list” even now that I am married.

Although now I am using steamer more than an iron to straighten my clothes, I never like the process.

Hot + Jam = Wild Week

It has been nothing but hot this week. Else where around the world there are earthquake, typhoon, illnesses and famines, I experience hot weather. It is extremely warm this year. Not many clouds and the atmosphere is hazy. Compared to others faced from other countries (some are really in bad shape with no food and medicine supplies), we should be grateful. I should not complain about the weather much.

Not only the weather is unbearable, even everywhere is jammed. More cars than usual on the road. I took more times to reach my destination. Maybe school holiday is coming soon? Maybe everyone is rushing for Gawai celebration since sales are everywhere now.

Maybe because of the weather and the food I ate, I have experienced some stomach discomfort. Got mild diarrhea on Tuesday, thank god it was nothing serious. After passing out few times, my discomfort gone at the end of the day. At nights, I kept waking up in middle of the night. I lost count of how many times, but I know more than twice. During those 2 times, I wake up feeding my little gal. It was quite warm at night even we are sleeping in the air conditioned room. What a wild week for me!

Ways to save

Let your children learn to save at the young age is a good idea. Teach them to save for what they want on their own will have a better long-lasting benefit for them.

However it can be a challenge for most modern parents with today’s pampered children. Patience and persistent coaching will pay off in the end.

1. Set goals
Let your children know what he is saving for, example for a new toy, new clothes, for a holiday etc. List down the goals, schedule on when and how to achieve them

2. Give allowances for chores
Let your children help in doing house chores and reward them with allowances. Giving them a chance to learn that earning money require hard work. Start them young as older children may resist helping around the house.

3. Make own piggy bank
Help your children making piggy banks, may it a colourful box or container. When they make their own piggy bank, there is a sense of “ownership” and encourage him further to fill up the piggy bank.

4. Small change from pocket
Most dads usually come home with many small change in their pockets and they don’t like to keep those coins around. So, let your children have them and keep in their piggy banks.

5. Explain long term savings
Bring your children to bank and show them how to deposit money into their accounts. Explain to him on how buying an insurance policy comes in handy when he is older or during emergency

6. Cut down on unnecessary purchases

Tell your children on saving the money for buying ice cream or new toy can be rewarding at the end of the day. You never know how much you have save then, for other important purchases

Imaginary friend

Do you have an imaginary friend when you were young? I do. Maybe I should said “I did”. I did have an imaginary friend when I was little. When I was down, angry or feeling like having an own space, I would resorted to talking to myself or rather I should said, to my imaginary friend. There is no specific feature of my imaginary friend, just a knowledge of a “presence” by my side. Felt like a perfect friend when I feel like having a friend to.

Maybe I am weird, but I do believe that most people have that moment of creating someone that you want that person to be. An imaginary friend is therefore created when you felt like that. Someone that can share your secret or problem. Oh boy, hope I didn’t scare you off. I do know that sometimes, things can get cranky when people believing so much in an imaginary friend that they lose their balance and status of mind.

Enough nuisance from me for the time being. Time to go to bed. Good night everyone.

My kind of dessert

I visited Dora today, and she has some nice desserts to share with you! Now i am too full from it! *wink* What dessert do you like? Or what kind of dessert person are you?

You Are a Cupcake

Cute and fun, you never take life too seriously.People are constantly surprised by how delightful you are.

Happy Mummies Day

Sending love to all parents around the world

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers and mothers-to-be around the world! You have the toughest job in the world yet you have never given up on your children. You are the greatest!

Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together. ~Pearl S. Buck

O Mother of Mine

There is a lot to be said about one’s relationship with her parents, especially with her mother. The relationship between mother and daughter can be rewarding, difficult, hilarious, angst-ridden and funny, all at the same time. Add the mother-in-law from hell or heaven stories, and you know the deal!!

I have never been close to my mum when I was young. I do respect her as a woman and mother of three, keeping the household well with her bare hands. Cook and care for her husband and children all those years. I seldom confide anything with my mum when I was in my teens as I mentioned before, I was never bond to her.

I know that some mothers are hysterical women (I knew some of my friends’ mothers are, over tiny matters!) and I thank God that my mum isn’t one. She was strict to us especially me when we were young. Maybe me being the eldest among the siblings. Even if I didn’t do anything wrong, I will always take the blame. I used to hate her for this and wonder why she detested me that much. As I grew up and matured, I learn to accept and understand her predicament. She only want the best for all her children, including me! I understand that she did not hate me at all.

Marriage and children took away her youthfulness and ambition. Married at age of 20 and taking care of the family at a young age, she has never enjoyed what life could offer her.

Her predicament made me strive to have a better life and repay my parents for what they have done and sacrifice for me. I studied hard and obtained my degree and eventually secured a good job offer. I believe that my mum is happy for who I am today although she had never say it aloud. Not an expressive woman, she keeps everything to herself. Sometimes I wish that she could have shared her dilemma and confide anything to me. As much as I like it, I wish that I was close to my mum when I was young. However it is never too late, thank god that we grow closer in the past years and I am happy that once a while I can call back or visit her and share stories with her, may it be parenting, food recipe or personal problems.

I love my mum and admire her for her sacrifice she has made for her family. Mum, you have brought me to this world and taught me well. Without you, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Thank you, mum. Happy Mother’s Day to you.

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Never try, never know

“Never try, never know” has been my motto all those years in pursuing my dreams. Dream by itself will never be realized if I did not put a little bit of effort to make it happened.

It is never easy nor difficult to pursue dream. I just need to take risks. Risk of failing what I want, expecting too much out of it and in the end I lose something or disappointed by the outcome are all the risks I encountered. But never mind, the most important part is that I tried it. I have tried to pursue my dreams, some succeed other fail.

Some people do not dare to take risks. They worry of rejection, failure or uncomfortable by its situation. What they really don’t know is that if they never try, they will never know what they are going to expect. If you try, at least you have been there, you try it, you know the outcome. Do not make the same mistakes or take the same step in future. If you never try, you would never know your mistakes, or if it is the right move.

Life is concentrated on making decisions. Decisions come with risks and choices. Should you buy car A or car B? Should you go abroad to pursue your dream or stay back and help your family in their business? Either good or bad decision you make, at least you try it out.

I am going to make a decision now. I have been holding it back all this while, and finally I have choices in front of me to choose from. Whether it is the right or bad decision, I do not know now. I cannot predict the future, I do not know what future holds for me. I know it is a difficult decision, but sooner or later, I know that I have to take a step in making it. Wish me luck!

What is green tea?

I started to drink tea after I finished my degree study in West Malaysia in 1999. Must be good life of being a student, I gained 6kg when I came back here. *wink*

My mum introduced me to Chinese tea as according to her, it helped in slimming and burning fat in my body. True enough (or maybe just psychological play a part) I manage to trim off almost 10kg of my body and my weight dropped to 45kg. Plus morning exercise and strict diet, it helped out too. However that was 9 years ago before I started working. I cant get back to my 45kg no matter how hard I tried now.

I drink tea occasionally when I socialise. Sorry, I am not so much of a coffee drinker. I started off by drinking those bitter and hard-to-swallow Chinese tea, then I acquired the taste of English teas. I love Earl Grey, and Peppermint flavour; they are truly refreshing to my senses. Now I am taking green tea. There was one time when my dad went to Japan and brought back some Japanese green tea. That how I started to like green tea. I don’t know about other, green tea’s taste is slightly different that other tea. It taste…..green!

I have heard so much of the supposed health benefit of green tea compared to other teas.
Green tea has said to help with everything from curing or preventing diseases (including cancer and AIDS), burning fat, reducing cholesterol and more. Green tea contains a number of antioxidants (which help in counter anti-aging effect) and it contains caffeine, although in lesser amounts than coffee, many sodas and darker teas.

If you are wondering the green colour of the tea, it is actually the way they processed the tea leaves. For green tea, tea leaves are steamed to cause less oxidation. Where for most teas, tea leaves are fermented. As a result, green tea has its unique green tint and contains higher level of antioxidants than other teas.

Darker teas are usually brewed with boiling water, where as green tea is brewed with water that is slightly cooler tan boiling, but still hot. Steps to brew a perfect green tea, just pour cold water into a teapot or saucepan. Place it on a stove, set to high heat, and bring the water to a boil. When water begins to boil, remove it from the stove and let it sits for 2 to 3 minutes, then pour it over the green tea. Let the tea steep for a long as three minutes. Either removes the tea bag, or the loose tea leaves, and you have your green tea. *



* (Source: Malaysia Entrepreneur Jul – Sept 07 issue)

In my mind

It has been many days since my last post. Sorry for the disappearance as I were busy with other priority at the time being.

What I have been up to lately? Thursday was a holiday so we spent most of our time shopping and looking at show houses. Yesterday was my off day, taking the opportunity to drive around since little gal was at the baby sitter’s house. Busy hunting down the pre-schools around the city as we are thinking of enrolling little gal to school soon. Few potential schools areunder consideration but need to really sit down with hubby to discuss on the suitable one.

Another thing is our new house. It would be ready soon, so we are also looking around for furniture and furnishing for new house. Scouting around and comparing prices and quality of furniture yesterday and today. Not forgetting looking at the interior design of show houses for some design guideline. Maybe going to check out some more tomorrow since it is a Sunday.