Perfect 4

This blog is 4 years old today! Thank you to my family and everyone out there that support my blog all the way.

Everything starts with a dream, and a dream is always sweet when you turn it into reality. I realised my dream. Having a blog of my own is one of my dreams. Actually it is two blogs!

To some, number 4 is not a good number, but not to me. We are family of 4! I am blessed with a girl and a boy. Hubby and I registered our marriage in 2004 after a brief courtship of 2 years.

This year has been another amazing year for me. For instance I have been in my business for more than a year, and it is picking up. We can see some extra incomes coming in from the business as well as personal networking. And now we are in midst of planning for another venture. Hopefully it will be achieved by next year.

Hubby is doing great in his work and other ventures although some hiccups early of the year.


And after more than a year of struggle, we can finally relax and have a family vacation. Where else but shopping in KL last week?! It were my children first trip to KL, so after so much story telling about the shopping complexes to my girl, it was time to show her the real place. *wink* They having so much fun walking the whole Mid-Valley and a day trip to Zoo Negara. Maybe we can have an overseas vacation next year, if everything goes well.

Till then, happy blogging everyone! And Happy 4 years old to my blog! :)

After a tiring weekend

It is always good to be back to own home after a holiday. After 2 days rest at home from our short KL trip, I finally regained my strength and everything back to normal in shop. Kids are with baby sitter's since hubby is not free to look after them and I would be mending the shop whole day today.

Finished with all the packing of our shopping items and have the new clothing washed today. Fortunately the weather was good these few days but as usual it always heavy rains during the afternoons. No wonder many people is down with sickness.

Talking about sickness, my old car was down again on Saturday morning when I was sending my kids to babysitter. Probably it was on "mogok" because I deserted it for few days? Lol! Tried to drive it to my dad's workshop today but again, it broke down after few minutes so we decided to get my dad to pick up the car from our house. Wonder what is the problem now. Told hubby maybe it is time to get new car. Lol!

I have also made appointment for my facial this Thursday. Really need to go for one after back from KL because I can feel my face is clogged. Happy Monday and December is just a couple of days away!!!

A short holiday

I am trying to live my life to the fullest and that is what I did for the past 3 days. I came back from KL with my family last night. Yes! Four of us had a great time there.

We shopped till we dropped. After all, I seldom spend on myself (after having two kids!), so it was a great time shopping for myself. We spent the most on the kids, more than RM1000 on their clothing and shoes. Plus the kids were having so much fun walking around and eating there. What is most important is it was a wonderful and quality time with the family. And we have great time in Zoo Negara too. We spent nearly 4 hours there, luckily the weather was not so warm. And my boy can recognized bears when he saw one.

We will definitely do it again, if hubby and myself can find time and money to spare. Got to plan our next trip next year; maybe some place else. *wink*

My travelling with kids tips

It is that time of the year. With school holidays and festive seasons, who could resist a vacation right? So, we are going to have our first family trip tomorrow. Here are some tips when you travel with not one but 2 hyper-active kids. Thank god it is only few days so not much things to bring over.

1. Plan the trip well
Day 1 it will be shopping. Day 2 we bring the kids to zoo. Day 3 shopping again!
It would be good to check out any interesting activities around the travelling date.

2. Get a to-pack list
List down what you need to bring for the kids like stroller, their toothbrush, their swimming wears, favourite toys/dolls, and enough clothing. Not forgetting camera (to snap the kids) and its charger, handphone and its charger and hubby's ipad and its charger so we still able to keep in touch with what's latest and happenings.

3. Chewies for children
Soft candies and snacks for my children when in the airplane.

4. Get enough sleeps
Make sure everyone has good sleep the night before. Travelling with kids can be hectic.

5. Not forgetting the eco-friendly shopping bags as shopping malls are practising no plastic bags policies.

6. Enough cash
Yes, make sure we have enough cash (or credits) for our shopping loots.

7. Do not forget your luggage
The night before, pack everything in the luggages and place your luggages together so you would not forget them. Sometimes, you make rush to go to air port that you tend to forget this and that.

8. Enjoy and relax!
That is the main objective of our holiday!

On fire

Hubby received call early this morning around 6.15am telling him to go back to his office! And when I asked him where in the world is he going at such hour, he said his office on fire! FIRE!

But thank god after an hour later, he MMS-ing me the picture, it was just the banking hall. But hubby's office is just above, so a lot of cleaning and clearing need to do due to the smoke and dust. For time being the bank below shall be closed for investigation. Fortunately for the rain this morning, or else I think the fire could get worse.

Holiday starts

Today is the last day of schools for little girl. It is party day so all children are required to bring some food for sharing. As usual, I do not bake so I always having hard time thinking what to bring to her school party. But finally I chose her favourite snack of all times; Croissant from her favourite bakery. Easy as it is on the way to school and it opens around 7.30am.

No more waking up early and rushing in the morning. Yahoo!

Weekend Menu #17

Another cooking over the weekend.

One of my favourite beans of all times. French Beans. Shimeji mushroom with french beans.

A week

It has been a week that my Internet connection in the shop having problem. No one seem to know the problem but I am suspected the modem is the culprit. But anyway I have books to accompany me so if nothing urgent, Internet is not so important to me.

Other than my new novels I am currently addicted to monopoly board games and sudoku. Even my daughter is playing monopoly but mind you, not the traditional board but the online board games. One of my favorite past time games when I was a child was monopoly. Me and siblings love to play monopoly. The feeling of owning properties and monies when you were a child was overwhelming. Lol!

As I was saying, my girl is also addicted to virtual Monopoly games. I wonder at her age would she misses out the feeling of playing with friends or her sibling instead of with a pc player? Somehow their games are so much different from our times too. Now everything is played or done on a pc screen. One day, she even asked her dad to buy her an iPad. Faint! Need to remind her on books too as she has not been reading much lately. Every time I always catch her with iPad playing games.

No connection

Streamy has not been good to me lately. Down! So bored and frustrating at the shop, but luckily I have new novels to read or it would be hard to pass the times there.

Wonder it is only my shop connection problem or Streamyx's? Really hope the line is back tomorrow. Otherwise I need to check with Telekom on the problem. Sigh!

Logo's Hope

It was a public holiday yesterday. Since I operated my shop last year, I lost count of holidays. Every day is the same to me, irregardless of holidays or working days, so not much differences.

But yesterday hubby invited me to go to Logo's Hope as it has international book fair which will be ending on 15 November. It was a hot day yesterday. We were under the hot sun for more than 30 minutes before we were able to go into the ship.

It is Logo's Hope maiden trip to Malaysia and the first stop is Kuching! Yes! Next would be in KK from 17 November to 13 December.


As you can see, this was only the first half of the queue. Luckily I brought along my umbrella. The second half of queue was much better as it was under the canopy. The queue reminded me of an hour queue for the roller coaster in Korea last year. Luckily this queue only lasted us about 30 minutes under hot sun.

Me taking photo before the queue



Our tickets and brochure. RM1 per adult. Kids below 12 is free admission


We were briefed on the operation of the ship. The famous section of the ship would be the largest floating book fair.



An insight on the crew cabin. Hubby has an idea of a double decker beds for the kids from this! Lol!


The price are in unit, since they are going to more than 40 countries.


The entrance of the book fair. It was very stuffy in there, many people. But I managed to grab 3 novels which is only RM16 per book. We spent RM204 on books and souvenirs yesterday! We did not bring the kids along, but probably I will bring little gal over this Friday since she has no school that day. Hopefully less people.

I am reading one of the novels now. Happy reading to me! *wink*

Toward recovery

The weather is damn crazy and there is no wonder we all fall sick. Baby Jay is down with diarrhea and vomitting, while I am having tonsilitis and bad cough, and so is little gal. Luckily we are recovering from our sickness. Shooo! Go away all the sickness. We don't need you here.

I went for a facial this afternoon. One of my customers operating a facial centre at her home so thought of giving it a try for first time. Reciprocal agesture; she supports and buy products from my shop and I support and done my facial. Since my facial course has used up, so it was right time to try out new place and compare their services and pricing. Near to my shop so convenient for me and I like the personal space offered by having it done at home.

I cooked at home this evening since hubby offered to take care of the kids. Both kids are still recovering, so it would be better to have them rest at home than running around at my shop. Don't want them get sick again.


I love this simple dish. When you are running out of time and don't know what to cook, you can give this dish, I called Steamed Shimeji mushrooms with Black Fungus and Chicken a try. I knew that I would not have much time after the facial, so I prepared the ingredients and keep refrigerated in the morning.



Method
Cut the lower part of the Shimeji mushrooms and wash and soak in water for few minutes.
Soak black fungus in water till it turns softer. Cut into smaller slices.
Slice some ginger, strip the Shimeji mushrooms into smaller slices (I did not have much time, so my slices are bigger) and slice boneless chicken meat into strips.
Mix the mushrooms, fungus, ginger and chicken together, add salt and oyster sauce. Mix well. Do not add water as the mushroom will release some juices.
Place into steaming dish. Steam till chicken strips are cooked under medium fire.

Voila!

Weekend Menu #16: I cook, I eat

I counted the days I cook this year. So shameful! *wink* Anyway, got the chance to cook over the weekend. The weather has been pretty wild lately. Either it rains or shines whole day but we stayed doing nothing at home over the weekend.


Felt like drinking some chicken soups. Remember we bought some of this dried fish slices from Korea last year. The Koreans used this fish for stock in soup and other dishes. Still have some leftover in the fridge so I added some slices to my chicken soup. Taste very sweet!

I do not have much time during the day since I need to open up the shop so I rely very much on slow cooker since I no need to check on it from time to time.

Red dates chicken soup
Half chicken used
10 Red dates
Few slices of dried Korean fish
Salt to taste

I put everything into slow cooker, let it cooks for 3 hours. Great taste!



On Sunday, I cooked Fu chuk (beancurd skin) pork rib soup. Very easy to prepare, and again I used slow cooker. Simple, just get ready all the ingredients in the morning and throw into the slow cooker. After came back from mass, our soup is ready.

Beancurd skin pork rib soup
Pork rib
Beancurd skin
Ginger slices
Garlic clove
Salt to taste

Thaw the pork rib in warm water for few minute. Soak the beancurd skin in cold water till it soften, then cut to desired sizes. Wash the garlic and ginger; slice the ginger into few pieces. Pour water into slow cooker and put all the ingredients in. Let it cooks for 3 hours.



As for the kids who do not really enjoy soupy dishes, I have some luncheon meat with egg for them.



After so many trials, my steamed egg is successful. *wink* But I still like my mum's steamed egg, because hers is silkier and yummier than mine. Overall, my steamed egg not so bad. *wink*

Nov is here

It is November already? Wow!! I am so looking forward to November although it is going to be a busy month for me!

Firstly, hubby's birthday is coming soon. So going to plan something nice for dear hubby.

Secondly, school holiday is going to start soon. It means no morning rush hours and we can sleep late in the morning!

Thirdly, we are going to have a family vacation end of this month. A shopping therapy for me! Lol! Yes, a short break for us and we are going to enjoy ourselves in KL before the kids going back to hometown.

And fourthly but not last, this blog is in existence for 4 years by 30th November! Wow! I have been sharing my thoughts here for 4 years. Time really flies. Thank you everyone for making this blog a wonderful place of thoughts.