We bought some decorative Chinese New Year Lime trees this year. When the man from the nursery put the pots in the car and we drove back with them, the car was filled with the most lovely citrus aroma.

The kids wanted to know if we could eat the fruits. The man at the nursery had told them that it was poison. Thinking that he was just kidding them, I told them that it should be fine but it is very sour, not nice at all. It is only nice for making a drink with. They thought it was mini mandarin oranges because they look very much like that to them.

My husband said we should err on the cautious side and not take them. I was not convinced so he drove back to the plant nursery to ask the lady. The lady said “No, the fruits are not edible because it contains a lot of chemicals and pesticides. You should wait for another round of fruiting first.”

I found an article which confirmed what she said. Here is the article “Deadly fruits of decorative lime trees” You should read it too. It is very interesting. It says that the fruits are so laden with plant growth hormones or enhancers, chemical inducers, insecticides and fungicides etc (just so to make sure the plant would fruit around the Chinese New Year period)  that if could be fatal to eat them and they should not be consummed in any form! You should also watch out for unscrupulous traders who put this fruit for sale at the supermarkets at the end of the Chinese New Year period.

If you want to know what the lime tree or “kumquat” represent, you can read this “Auspicious plants for Chinese New Year”. In short, it symbolizes prosperity and abundance. Here is another post from the same blog on the many uses of calamansi, limau kastari or “kat chai”. However, in using them in foods or drinks, be sure to use them not during the Chinese New Year season unless they are from your own garden and free of pesticides.

I can’t believe that in the mid of this year, our helper will be with us for two full years. I remember I was so full of apprehension about bringing a stranger into our house. With all those horror maid stories, it certainly scares anyone from thinking about having a maid.

At the end of the day, we find that having a maid has been a great help to us. Though she does work a bit slow and is often dreamy and not careful enough at times, she is not forgetful, is intelligent, quite safety concious (probably because we drum this into her often) and does not have an attitude. She is also used to our household schedule by now. We are thinking of asking her to stay longer. Does anyone know

• What is the process of renewing maid after 2 years?
• How much does the procedure to renew maid after 2 years cost?
• What are the pemits, health checks, passport permits etc that is required?
• How do you ask your maid to stay?
• Do you send her home for a month or two or is it better to persuade her to stay on? I have been told that it is better to request that they stay on with compensation, otherwise they may change their minds after they get home
• How do you persuade her to stay on?
• If you don’t renew after 2 years what is the procedure? What is the cost?
• If your maid agrees to stay, how much do you save in agency and other cost? (This information is useful in order for us to decide how much raise or compensation to give her for possibly not returning home)

Help. Anyone?

The other day it rained the first heavy rain after my roof was “fixed”. Yes, eventually, the third ( was it the 3rd, I lost count) contractor came in. The one who said for only RM300 I will give you a guarantee. If your roof continues to leak, call me anytime. I will come to fix it again.

Well, it rained. Parts of the roof continued to leak. Some parts were ok just to give “credit” where it’s due. When I told him about the continued leak, he said. “Oh, that part of your roof is very dirty. It requires a lot more work.”

“But you said you will guarantee??!!!!” was met with “No, no, I only guarantee small leaks. Not big work like that.”

When I asked him what he suggested next, he said “I will have to come and look at your roof again before giving you a quotation. I can’t come now. I have too much work. Chinese New Year is approaching.”

Imagined that! Whatever happened to guarantee!!!! I thought he had had a look at my roof the other day and had fixed it with a promise to come back if it leaks again! What a liar! Whatever little faith I have left in contractors has vanished POOF! into thin air. I will never trust another contractor EVER again! GRRRRRRR! *Grumble grumble grumble*

Today I shall be having my final piano class but it is of course not the end of playing the piano for me. I have learned enough to self learn from now on. Now that the boy has started to learn as well, I no longer have the time to learn myself as well as help two kids with their practises. Besides it is very expensive to have 3 people in the house all learning at the same time.

Piano Teacher has asked me to memorise my “Moonlight Sonata” and improve on “Save the Last Dance for Me” and “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”. She also gave me two new songs to learn last week. “Souvenir D’enfance” and “Les Fleurs Sauvages”. All for a half hour class. This is a very tall order indeed!

With that I wrap up 2 1/2 years of learning the piano. Yahoo! From now on I can just play for fun. No more practising for lessons or concerts though I shall miss playing together with my girl. We managed to “perform” at two of the piano school’s “concert” and it was a very nice experience to be playing with her.

Below is Richard Clayderman’s Les Fleurs Sauvages as played by HeartBtrue on YouTube. I wish I could play like that!

I have a friend who has trouble staying asleep. She has no problem falling asleep but she would get up in the middle of the night or wee hours of the morning and have difficulty going back to sleep or if she does go back to sleep she feels that her sleep is light. She does not feel rested in the morning and sometimes feel very sleepy and tired during the day.

I used to have imsomnia too when I was younger. I think it was due to my own unhealthy sleep patterns. Sometimes I could not sleep till about 4-5am in the morning. However, I no longer have sleep problems now. Usually I fall asleep easily and I stay asleep unless the spouse or the children wake me up!

My friend can fall asleep easily but she has trouble staying asleep. I wonder has anyone experienced this type of imsomnia? Apart from going to see the doctor to have a thorough health check and evaluation, I hope to hear from anyone who has trouble sleeping and how they deal with it.

These days we no longer feel safe in the streets. In fact, we are beggining to feel unsafe even in our own homes. We moved house 2 years ago. The first thing we did when we were doing house renovations was to search for a Home Security System. We were told that it is a good thing to do this during renovations in case you need to hack the wall for internal wiring etc. Someone suggested ADT. There were also many roadshows by ADT at the various House and Ownership Fairs that we attended.

We couldn’t make up our minds. We could not decide between a DIY Home Security System or an ADT Security System. The difference between a DIY Home Security System and an ADT Security System is Monitoring. The ADT Security System is a Monitored Security System. That means that your home will be monitored by safety professionals 24 hours in a day. When an alarm is triggered at your home, ADT will then call up the authorities in your area to send emergency services to your home. I also learned a bit about how ADT Security works by seaching in HomeSecurityTeam.com.  

I am currently using a DIY type of Security System and the problem is it always keeps on giving me false alarms! I don’t feel 100 percent safe because there is no one monitoring my home from a monitoring center. I also think it would be a good thing if there is a call center for me to call up in case of any problems with my alarm or security system. Is anyone out there using an ADT Security System? Can you share with me what you think about it?

Yesterday, when I was out buying breakfast and newspapers, my usual newspaper vendor got me to try some Chinese New Year cookies. They were delicious so I ordered some. That means cookie buying is settled. Yahoo! I told the kids about it and they were very happy looking forward to eating those Chinese New Year cookies and delicacies that they remembered.

I don’t normally plan my cookie buying very well. Usually, I just grab whatever I can last minute from the supermarket. That usually leaves me undesirables. So, I am happy to be able to order some in advance this year. Hopefully, they taste as good as the samples. Usually I just get the standard fare like in the picture. Those were from last year if I am not mistaken. I would get just 4-5 varieties at the most. Otherwise, if they are not finished, guess who has to finish them? Yeah, me and my expanding waistline.

I wrote on my Parenting Times blog that I am trying to create excitement for my kids for Chinese New Year. In doing so, I find that, not only the kids but I too am feeling some building excitement. lol.

I’ve never worn size S before. However I wore M when I was in my 20s and shifted to L in my late 30s. Sob.

Then horror of horrors, post pregnancy, I ballooned to XXL! Much to my dismay it stayed that way for a long time! I had to take drastic action. I ate like a bird. I exercised. After 6 months, I returned to L or occassionally XL.

I hope never to go to XXL again. Though I’m still stuck at L and I suspect I will never fit into M again, it is much better than XXL!

As for my shoe size, it has grown from 6 to 8 and it will never come down again. No amount of dieting will make it shrink after pregnancy.

So there it is. I am L with a shoe size 8. Big hor? As they say. I am in shape. Round is a shape.

What size are you? Anybody in size XS out there? You’ll look like a dwarf beside this giant. lol.

Yesterday we had water disruption so we could not cook dinner. We had received the McD brochure earlier on about its Prosperity Family Feast. We thought the size of the meal was just right for us so we decided to call for Delivery.

In the brochure it said Only 38.80. Regular Price 47.81. That sounds like a bargain right? Well, not actually. In the fine fine print it says prices subject to 5% goverment tax. Oh, and we must not forget about the 3.00 delivery charge must we. (which is also in very fine print in another part of the leaflet). At the end of the day, the price (plus rounding up) came up to 43.75. Hmm….

Oh well, one should always read the fine fine print. Anyway, the meal included a Chicken Burger. I wanted to cut that up into 2 for the kids to share. However when I tried to cut, the knife could not slice through the meat pattie. I had to rip it apart with my hands. It was so thin and hard! Definitely unedible. The nuggets and curly fries look a little fried too but at least those were edible.

I called up this morning to make a complaint. I think the outlet manager of the outlet concerned should be made aware. I felt anything but “prospering” after that meal. Thumbs down. Anyway this is our first bad experience. We’ve taken McD for years with no bad feelings accept to our pocket and guilt for taking food less healthy.

I have a very young voice over the phone. That is not a compliment because I sound really young over the phone. Young as in like a little girl young and not young as in a sexy young lady young.

My good friend Serene, says that I sound like Daisy Duck. Quack! Quack!

Once, I called up my credit card company with an enquiry and the gentleman on the other end asked me “Are you calling on your own behalf?” When I said yes, he told me “I have to check because you sound very young. I have to make sure that it is not a child making a prank call.” A child!!!

The other day I was lamenting in FB about being called “Silai”, then I was happy for a moment because the gas delivery man had called me “Amoy”. As it turned out, he only called me “Amoy” because I was speaking to him over the phone and not face to face. Hmm…… not happy about that.

Tell me my friends, how do you sound like over the phone? Do you bark, growl, whine or quack like Daisy Duck or Minnie Mouse like me? Do you have a low sexy purr, a large growl of a voice or a tiny weeny soft one like me when you speak over the phone? Do you think your telephone voice matches your real one or  your looks and personality?