Archive for September, 2007

Yesterday I had to go to Carrefour, Mid Valley to change some stupid clothes hanger/dryer that broke even before I started using it. It was of such bad quality, it came off at two parts and the colour at the sides comes off my hands whenever I happen to touch it. Hmmm…. another case of too much lead in paints? There has been many cases of toys being recalled recently for this reason, the latest being Thomas the train.

Anyway, since I was there I decided to check out The Gardens. I only managed to go to Robinsons because it was late in the evening when I got there. Will have to check out Isetan another time. This is my impression.

With two such excellent anchors ie Isetan and Robinsons, I think The Gardens will do rather well. The other key anchor is Marketplace by Cold Storage. I think The Gardens is supposed to be a bit more upmarket compared to the older phase of Mid Valley. However, I did not get that impression. I got the impression that it had been completed rather hurriedly just in time to catch the Raya shoppers. The floors were a bit dusty (I even saw a crack on a tile) not spick and span and shiny to give it the classy look it should have for a new phase especially an upmarket one. Its completed but has an uncompleted look. My children liked the stars in the ceiling at one end of the mall.

Robinsons was nice though. At least it was spick and span and shiny in there. The staff were very courteous and friendly. Everyone greeted you whenever you walked passed and asked if they could help. I hope they can keep this up. Some of them approached us to sign up for their card. Wah! So fast. Cannot afford so I gently declined.

In the gents department I saw several men shopping for attire. Hmm… I would have thought that it would be the ladies going there in droves since everyone always seems to equate shopping to ladies. I guess men like to check out new departmental stores too, not only ladies.

Too bad time did not permit me to check out Isetan. I will have to go back another day for that. I saw in the floor layout plan that Isetan takes up 4 floors on one side of The Gardens, whereas Robinsons takes up 3 floors on the other side. Nice.

Some tenants which I am looking out for but aren’t open yet are the Borders bookshop and Gurney Drive with hawker like stalls. I do miss the Gurney Drive in Penang so I hope this one won’t disappoint. There will also be a 2201 Fashion Avenue showcasing our local designers. Interesting. Not I can afford designer wear but I can ogle can’t I? Theres also a boutique cinema but I haven’t entered a cinema in years so I am not that interested in it.

I don’t know about Isetan but Robinsons is offering a 20% discount to shoppers for purchases worth RM200 and above.

How did I get here as a SAHM? Well, after school I did a professional course in a school which offered various programs such as the ones being offered at http://www.gibbsny.edu/. When I completed that, I worked in an accounting firm with legal partners doing company searches and company registrations, and the necessary filings with the Registrar of Companies for corporations. It was BORING! Nope I didn’t want to be a Company Secretary (a corporate or legal secretary, not a personal one, the term is misleading) even though I had the professional qualification to be one.

After some time I moved on to the training line. I loved that. I didn’t do training because I don’t think I have what it takes but I organised training, in-house training for corporations, seminars and conferences. It was an exciting job. I got to meet people in all industries and levels and talk to them. I got to travel a little bit. I even had a company car. I was young, single and free! Hahaha. It was fantastic. However, you don’t move up very far in a consultation firm unless you set up your own.

After failing to set up my own I moved on to become a remisier. Now that was the most boring and most exciting job. On low activity months you can even hear a pin drop and you see bored faces sitting at their desktops playing with the solitaire card game over and over again. Too bad I hadn’t discovered blogging back then. So I did my cross stitch during those bad market days. Lots of people came and went. (as remisiers I mean). There were housewives, accountants, HR personnel, bank managers, businessmen, school leavers, army personnel, young and old, men and women. Many did not last the slow period.

On the hot market days, it was the opposite. Instead of hearing a pin drop, I remember my phones (I had two lines plus a handphone) ringing simultaneously. Everyone else’s phones would be doing the same. It would be extremely noisy like a market place. (In fact it is a market place. Haha.) The volatile share price swings is something to behold and the speed in which the price responded to news was incredible. My heart would be pounding then. Can’t afford to be slow or to make mistakes. Mistakes can be VERY costly. Phew!

Exciting though it may have been it wasn’t my cup of tea. I got married and had babies during my time in a stockbroking firm and so now here I am, a SAHM. Oh make that a blogging SAHM. Haha. I love this career too.

I love being a mum and I love to write. Now I get to do both. Thats the short story of my career line. How about sharing yours with me? You can share it on your blog if there is not enough space on the comment box.

Lack of parking space in terraced housing estates has led to innovative minds coming up with unique ways to reserve some parking space.

I’ve seen people reserve parking space for themselves by placing flower pots and tong sampahs (rubbish bins) in that little curb right outside or across from their homes. This is the most common method.

I’ve even seen one person reserve his little parking space by placing thumbtacks and other sharp little objects on the road right outside his house. Park there at your own peril!

However the most recent method that I’ve come across has got to be my neighbour’s. He has resorted to parking right outside my gate, placing a cone or his beautiful tong sampah on our shared curb whilst leaving his own porch and gate completely clear just so he could reserve a few strategic parking spaces.

Getting strategic parking spaces is very important you see. Afterall, with his multi vehicles and his family going in and out of the house at different times of the day and night, he can’t very well park his multi-vehicles in his porch as well as in front of his own gate now, can he? He also cannot park right across the road from his house for that would mean it would be difficult to reverse out of his porch. Neither can he park on the shared curb too close to his side of the curb because that would mean that it would be too hard to drive into his own porch and no, he cannot park in front of his own gate because that would inconvenience his own family members when they want to get in or out of the house.

Sigh. Some people are just so downright selfish.

Last night was a night for love. We went to the park with the kids with our colourful paper and plastic lanterns and our candles. The moon was full, the air was still, just right for playing with fire.

The park was filled with people and bursting with love. There were lovers walking hand in hand, teenagers having fun and parents chasing after little ones. What a wonderful scene. And everywhere you look, there were candles and lanterns burning. Playing with fire is not just for little ones.

How romantic it was. Much better than a candlelit dinner. Very good atmosphere for “pak tor” (dating). And how fun it was for the teenagers too who got together in groups. And of course it was enjoyable for the little ones.

My little ones decided that they wanted to blow the candles I had lighted up so I had to keep on lighting them up again and again. From their experience candles belonged on top of a cake and were supposed to be blown out not lighted up.

A very nice evening and a night of love for all.

Playing with lanterns and candle fire of course. What did you think? Hehe.

Its lantern festival today so we’ll be taking the kids to the park to play with fire. This is the only time they get to officially play with fire so they love it.

I still remember my childhood and the time I played with fire. We used to have this steel gate and we would “decorate” the entire gate with candle light. It was so lovely. Sometimes, we would walk to the park near our house with our lighted lanterns.

I don’t think our parents accompanied us. But then it was safer then. How carefree and simple life was. Now, parents live in fear and paranoia. Allowing our children to walk unaccompanied to the nearby park in the dark is a no-no. Oh, I won’t go into all that although I have many unspoken things in my mind. Enough has been said.

Its lantern festival afterall. So lets have fun, stuff ourselves with mooncake and let the kids enjoy the only time they get to play with fire.

Happy Mid Autumn Festival to those who celebrate it.

Are you on good terms with your eX? That would include your eX-girlfriend/boyfriend, ex-bosses, eX-colleagues, eX-lovers, eX-fiance/fiancee, maybe even eX-spouse? Is your spouse on good terms with his eX? If its an eX gf or eX bf are they still friends? How do you feel about it?

I’m left to ponder this as my friend gets ready to welcome her husband’s eX-gf into their home. I don’t think I can do that. If I had an ex-gf of my hubby stay over at my home, in another room, I would probably go crazy just thinking and imagining and conjuring up their past. Hahaha.

If they are nice to each other, I would think, hmmm…. how come they’re still on such good terms. If they’re not nice to each other, I would think, hmm…. why the undercurrent? Is there some left over uncharted feeling? Lol! Either way, its a lose lose situation with me. So no, I won’t accept having an eX-gf of my hubby stay over at my house. Nosiree. Come over for dinner or drinks, ok but sleepover, sorry!

What do you think of eX-relationships? Should it be dead or burried?

Psst. If I don’t reply to your comments immediately its because I’m trying to cure my blogging addiction.

Ladies, let me share with you one of the gifts I enjoyed the most. Its a magazine subscription. Lol! Thats right. One year, I managed to persuade my hubby to give me a one year magazine subscription to my favourite magazine for my birthday. That was the best gift because that meant that every month was my birthday.

I loved it. It was really nice to receive my magazine in the mail each month. Much nicer than browsing (I don’t have time for browsing with two little ones) at the stores and trying to remember to go early so that I can get the magazine early. Usually I like to get my magazine early so that I can take part in the promotions. The early bird gets the gift and this is the case for promotions and contests which I love.

This way, I also don’t get remarks from him on “Why do you waste your money on that magazine” etc when I purchase one because its delivered to my home. He always thinks that the girly magazines I buy are a waste of money but he would buy dozens of little books that the kids tear up instantly and they cost a lot more than my magazines. That man is biased!

Anyway, this year I forgot. Hmm…. my birthday is over now but I just saw this website called Magazine-Agent.com which offers magazine subscriptions for up to 80% off its cover price. Its magazines galore at the site. They’ll even mail out a free card along with the magazine if you’re buying it as a gift. My birthday may be over but Christmas is coming. Time for me to drop a big hint to hubby so that it’ll be Christmas every month. You ladies ought to try it too.

My nephew is on the crossroads of his life. He can’t decide what he wants to pursue in his studies or his career. He has completed two or three years (I’m not sure which) in psychology and now he says its not for him. He says he wants to take some time off. My sister says she is so tired of trying to steer him in the right direction. She really doesn’t mind if he pursues a career as a chef in a school like this link or a career in music but he has to make up his mind.

I told her not to worry. I wonder how many people actually knows what they want at that age and pursued it. I didn’t. Most of my peers didn’t. We just went along blindly with the crowd and when we came out to the working world, we naturally progressed on to the right profession. Most of us have degrees in something else and are now professionals in another industry altogether.

My sister says the problem with the younger generation today is an overload of information. They have so much information and so many choices that they have becomed stressed with trying to make the right decisions. No more, following the crowd as we did in our days. Is that true?

I do wonder how many people are in the right profession. Do you feel that you are? Are you happy with where you are now? I am happy with where I am now. Even though I have travelled a long and windy road to get here. And I hope that my nephew will find his way and my sister will be less stressed up in trying to support and help him find his way.

After Ratatouille, some may want to polish up their culinary skills with culinary schools like CSCA. Some may be inspired to follow their passion for food and go into the career of their dreams in the hospitality and food industry.

As for me, what has Ratatouille done for me? It has increased my sense of smell and tastes. Hahaha. Drat or should I say Rats! Now everytime I want to combine certain foods like garlic or onions or ginger, I try to think of the aroma and how the food combination will turn out.

As some of you may notice, recently I’ve started blogging about food and shared some recipes on this as well as some other blogs whereas I have hardly blogged about food at all in the past three years that I have been blogging. Thats what Ratatouille has done to me. What has Ratatouille done to you? Has it turned you into a food connoisseur or a food critique?

Which do you use more often? The camcorder or the digicam? For me, its got to be the digicam. We hardly use our camcorder after we bought it. We must have taken a few videos of the kids to test out the camcorder but that was it.

I tried to get hubby to use it more often but he said, “Why don’t you learn how to use it instead.” Its been sitting in the cupboard collecting dust eversince. Lol! I use the digicam a lot more and I prefer to use it for little video snippets.

However the kids are growing up fast. I really should get it out of my cupboard and record some videos before the outgrow the cute stage for video recording but first, I’ve got to learn how to use it!

Which do you prefer to use? The camcorder or the digicam? (Since both can also do the other’s functions).