Archive for December, 2007

I haven’t been anywhere near my blogs for two weeks now. Too busy enjoying the holidays. Hehe. No, I haven’t gone anywhere for a holiday. Just pottering round the house doing small things for the house like repairing the doorbell, painting old patches etc and playing silly games with the kids and their dad like making paper boats and watching them sail in our back drain in the rain.

Thank you to those blog friends who dropped by my blogs with your Christmas and New Year wishes. I had a very good Christmas indeed, stuffing myself with the turkey stuffing. Hahaha. There goes my diet! Now I’ve only got about a month left to Chinese New Year and I haven’t lost an inch!!! Malu nya!

Anyway, I just wanted to wish you all a very Happy New Year 2008. May all your wishes come true and I would like to leave you with this wonderful holiday images. December is really the most wonderful time of the year isn’t it?

Here’s a beautiful fairyland to greet shoppers at Mid Valley Megamall.

You could even get to meet fairies a dancing…..

But if fairies are not your thing, perhaps you could watch the soldiers a drumming….

Or you could simply stop to admire the Christmas tree made entirely of bread and buns!

Or stop under the toadstools to rest…

Or just take a photo or two with close friends and family. You’ll have lovely backdrops to add to your photo album.

I only managed to take some of these images at One Utama and Mid Valley Megamall because thats all the time I have for. There’s still the Pavillion, The KLCC, Sunway Pyramid etc to make shopping in KL extremely fun and enjoyable during this year end season.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008 TO EVERYONE!

Its the time of the year to look for holiday gifts. Is your man a racing fan? Have you run out of ideas for gifts for him? If you have, here’s a novel idea for the best holiday gift for a racing fan. Send him for a nascar racing school package at Dale Jarrett Racing School.

It’ll be the best gift ever and something he can proudly talk about to all  his other racing fan buddies. It’ll certainly be a lot more interesting than that office stationery set or that grooming set you’ve been buying year after year. It’ll even be better than some of the latest gadgets like cellphones, digicams etc because it will the experience of his lifetime.

Imagine that. He’ll get to experience the actual thrills and spills to be on the track itself. He’ll feel the exhilaration, the excitement of racing, the heat and the pulse. And the next time he watches a race, it will be even be more exciting to him having gone through the experience before.

One on One Instruction is available and the programs are varied. Starting from 3 Laps up to 80 Laps. Better still, purchase a gift certificate and let your man decide on the date and time to visit the racing school and the program he would like to enrol for.

There are two options for the racing school gift certificates. You could purchase from a list of packages starting from $150 for a 3-lap ride at Talladega SuperSpeedway up to a 60-lap ride. For your information, the Dale Jarrett Racing school is the first EVER racing school at the Talladega SuperSpeedway. It is also the first EVER racing shool at Speedways like the the DARLINGTON Speedway and  BRISTOL MotorSpeedway.

Alternatively you could choose gift certificates for other tracks like the LOWE’s MotorSpeedway, KANSAS Speedway, KENTUCKY Speedway, ATLANTA MotorSpeedway etc. The track schedules are ready for the whole of next year 2008 so the racing fan can have fun all year round!

The other option for the racing school gift certificate would be of course be to let your man decide. If you are not sure whether he would like it, you could start off with a 3 laps Qualifier Ride before going all out for the Rookie Adventure or the Championship Challenge. One thing is for sure though. If he likes to watch racing, he’d love to be behind the wheel of a racing car!

So what are you waiting for? This will definitely be a gift he will remember for years to come, years after he has finished using another fragrance set or years after his new gadget has become old fashioned. Racing will never go out of fashion and sending him to racing school is such a novel idea for a holiday gift don’t you think?

Gynae’s office has called up a few months ago to remind me to do my pap smear. Alamak! Still outstanding. One of the things I have to do before the year end.

Another dreaded appointment I have to meet before the year end is the, the, the, the, DENTIST! Ok. I’m chicken! I’m scared shitless. I hate the sound of the dentist drill. Help! But my daughter needs a check up and I’ve got to show her how brave I am by example. Hahaha.

So wish me luck as I make my appointment. Once I get those dreaded appointments out of the way, perhaps I will have more pleasant ones like appointment with the hairdresser, with Santa Clause etc. Now, if only I had more time. These things take up so much time. Sigh!

Sexy shoes are out for me ever since the kids came along. I’d probably sprain an ankle or two trying to walk in those high stiletto heels. Now its just plain workable, comfy women shoes for me. I won’t go as far as to don flip flops, slippers or beach shoes or whatever it is that you want to call them. I’m still vain enough to go for sandals with some heels but I have to be practical and make sure they are not too high.

One thing is clear though. No more strutting along in strappy, gorgeous, classy, pretty shoes. Sob. Sob. So what is sexy shoes? I guess the answer depends on taste. To me, they are high, strappy (showing some skin) and even nicer if they have some pretty coloured stones. Platform shoes, wedge heels, boots (which could be sexy if worn with the right outfit), clogs and pumps do not fall in the category of sexy in my opinion.

Women shoes these days can cost a bomb but the right pair can really bring out your outfit. I haven’t invested in any nice one for so long I cannot remember it. Maybe its time to get one. However, I’d have to leave it for an occassion which requires me to sit all night like a wedding dinner perhaps but what good would my lovely shoes be hidden under the table all night. Lol! 

Dear Blogger Friends,

Thank you very much for your support and ideas about what to do when someone copies and tries to make a carbon copy of your site. I just checked and it looks like my posts have been removed from the site. Yippee!

Special thanks to Klaw for his tips. Mr BengBeng, maybe you’d like to try it too for the carbon copy of your My Longkang blog.

Now, I wish someone would tell me what to do with a stalker. I have had someone who arrives on my blog by searching for the term “mumsgather”. This person is from Singapore and has been doing it for the past 2 years.

I see it on my statcounter referrals and it really gives me the creeps to see this person on my blog everyday for a few hours each day for the past 2 years. Sometimes the entry is every minute. Even I don’t monitor my own blogs that frequently. Creepy! Creepy! Creepy!

Check out this link to my stats (sorry if this link is not working for you please refer to the paragraph below) for my Parenting Times blog. Can you see that there is someone entering my blog via the search term “mumsgather” every few minutes? This has been happening every day for the past 2 years now. It happens on all my blogs but mostly the Parenting one. Creepy? What to do?

I’m sorry I couldn’t do a screenshot well and my link didn’t work. You’d have to first go to my Parenting Times blog, wait for the page to fully load, then scroll right down right to the very bottom. After the bottom border you’ll see a “View my stats” (on grey blackground). Then look for the “Recent Keyword Activity” on the blue sidebar located on the left and click on that and you will be able to see what I am talking about. (I hope!)

There are 3 people whom I admire who have a passion in what they do. They are my kids’ paeditrician, a gynaecologist I saw from time to time (not the one who delivered my babies) and my neurologist. They are extremely busy people but one common trait I noticed is they always look calm. They don’t look rushed even though they are.

Once I asked the gynae, You are so busy rushing about, I find it so amazing that you are still smiling all the time. “I love my job.” she tells me. Its the same with my kids’ paeditrician. She has a passion to help new mothers breastfeed. She really takes up a lot of her time to do so. She spent so much time supporting me, even calling me up at home to find out how I was doing and sometimes she didn’t even charge me or she would charge just a token on RM1. She did all those out of love for what she did.

As for my neurologist? He always looks calm and smiling. During my previous visit, he was rushing off to the airport to catch a flight and I didn’t even know it till he said so. He didn’t appear rushed at all.

What about me? Before I became a full time mum, I was a remisier but I was not passionate about that. I just did it for a living. Now, I’m passionate about being a mother but I’m not like those 3 people I mentioned above. I always look rushed and at the slightest provocation I yell! Hahaha.

I am also passionate about blogging but I am not sure whether it is passion or addiction. Hahaha. I think it probably borders on addiction a little bit more.

What about you? What are you passionate about? Are you passsionate about your job? your cat? the love of your life? your car? Its Monday morning. Are you passionate about going to work or you just want to stay home and snooooooze? Hahaha. 

My blog posts has been copied before by another blogger. She took several blog posts and passed it off as her own. But that was soon resolved.

And then recently there are robots or whatever it is you call them that goes around stealing posts from several bloggers to pass of as their own. These blogs would steal content as soon as you hit publish. They take posts from different bloggers on the same subject matter. Lets say its a Parenting blog. They would steal the content of several Parenting blogs and pass it off as their own. Many of my posts had been stolen that way before.

But now, I’ve just discovered that my ENTIRE BLOG is being copied! Everything. Every post. Every image. Here, take a look at my Parenting blog. Its called Parenting Times. And then take a look at the fake one. Its called Parenting Details. Its a replica of my blog content with all my pictures too including pictures of my children’s craft. I’m so upset but I don’t know what to do. I hate it that someone is trying to pass all my personal moments with my kids as theirs!

I forgot to mention. The forger has put 3 categories into the blog. My whole blog has been copied and being passed of as the Parenting Tip category. Another category is blank and the 3rd category is a copy of various Parenting news from online newspapers on the net.

Can somebody help me please???? What should I do? Can I report to Google or something? I don’t want my blog to be penalised for duplicate content. How should I do that? Anybody has any experience with this?

I would like to invite everyone to take a trip down memory lane back to the time when you were 7. Do you remember your school going experience? I remember mine quite clearly.

At age 7, when I was ready for Std One (I didn’t attend any kindergarden), I went to school on a school bus on the first day of school. I had my elder brothers and sisters in the same bus. We all wore different sets of uniforms. Elder sister in her secondary school uniform, elder brother in his secondary school uniform, second sis in her primary school uniform and second brother in his primary school uniform and me in my spanking new primary school uniform. We all attended different schools but took the same school bus.

I did not have a very pleasant time at school because I was bullied by some other 7 year olds. One of them would take away my pencil and wouldn’t let me finish my work until she finished hers first. And there were some teachers whom I was really afraid of. One of them was the PE teacher. She had bulging eyes like those of a goldfish and she was very very fierce. I was terrified of her especially when she stared at me with her goldfish eyes. I was not very good at sports so that made it worse.

I hated school so much that one day I decided to go home on my own. Now my brother was in the morning session and I was in the afternoon session. So when the schoolbus dropped me off at school, I waited till the schoolbus was ready to pick those from the morning session home. Brother was in the school next door. So I walked over there on my own and I waited for the bus. And when brother came to board the bus, I climbed up the bus after him to go home. Haha. My fear and dislike of school was so great that I, who was only 7 then, could come up with this innovative way to go home. No, I was not being naughty, I was just afraid. I was a good kid, quiet and timid but brave enough to think of a way to take the bus home on my own because of my fear.

In this dangerous age, what I did would be very dangerous indeed. I could have been kidnapped by bad people.

I want the school going experience of my children to be better than this. Not filled with fear so it is with great worry that I read this article: Caning of Schoolgirls is nothing new by V.K. Chin of the STAR especially these parts……

In Chinese-medium schools, caning would start on the first day of Standard One. …….Of course this would be done in the classroom and on pupils of both sexes, especially in the first week of school……..This is one way for teachers to impose their authority, and the cane would be used for the slightest excuse. Once pupils get the message, they tend to behave…….Some of them have developed a phobia and would become hysterical should they forget to bring a book.  (My sister came across one such poor sweet little 7 year old girl one day when she was picking up her son from school. The girl was crying with fear at the school gates afraid to go in …. because she could not complete her homeworm. “Nevermind still got time, still got time” my sister and another mother coaxed her while she continued to write frantically in her exercise book.)

There was one point in my schooling days (I changed several schools) where public caning was practised as a disciplinary action. It was a co-ed secondary school. I support those kinds of disciplinary caning for diehard trouble makers and gangsters in school but certainly not caning of very young children simply because they forgot to bring their workbook to school!

What do you think?

In another incident in school not related to caning, I was in a strict secondary all girl’s school. We had to tie up our hair and pin down the fringe. Once I was caught totally by surprise when called up by the strict principal who said that my fringe was too long and proceeded to cut it off in public. I felt totally humiliated. I was totally surprised by it too because I always abide by the rules and my hair was tight up neatly with the fringe pinned up but it must have gotten loose. It was another horrible incident which I will always remember of my school days. These incidents leave a bad taste in my mouth. I think the action by the principal was way too harsh. She could have just called me up to give me a warning instead of taking the liberty of being hairdresser.

Today I have no direction. My mind is not focussed so my blogging is the same. I shall write in random what is in my mind..

1. I just finished playing barber for the two kids. I think girl’s hair is much easier than boy’s to style. In addition, my girl who is older will sit still for me to trim whereas my boy makes it sound like I’m torturing him. “Don’t want already. One more only. Painful. Waaaah.” I had to promise him some Ribena and Ice-cream after the haircut and hairwash.
2. Sister is away with her family on vacation so Dad and her maid is here. I experience what its like to have a live-in full time maid. She is a good cook. That is the best part.
3. Dad will not bathe. Its been like this for months now. We all have a headache of trying to get him to bathe and change and… He gets up in the morning and does  nothing and says not much but sit on the sofa or lie on the sofa till its bedtime. I managed to get him to soak his dentures and brush it for him while he is asleep. I managed to get him to change so that I could wash his clothes otherwise he would wear the same clothes day in and day out and to sleep as well. It pains me when he looks at me for confirmation each time “Put this (the dentures) in here is it?” “Take out this shirt is it?” It pains me to watch dad this way. Big sister managed to get him to bathe last week but I haven’t tried yet.
4. Am having a cold war with the man of the house because he won’t attend yet another family gathering of mine. I know he hates these gatherings but we’ve only been to two this year. It is now December. I so wanted to bring the kids. I am very disappointed. I hate asking him to attend my family gatherings. I hate being hopeful and then being let down. The answer is usually no but I never learn. I am always hopeful then usually disappointed. I hate cold wars. I don’t normally go to sleep angry with the spouse but I am disappointed and I am tired. Sigh.
5. Because I am upset and unhappy suddenly all is not right with my world. Its funny isn’t it how our perception of things can change. From being content I suddenly feel like a recluse who is totally dependant on her spouse for transport and entertainment.
6. Maybe I will go and subscribe for that magazine I like. I haven’t bought myself anything in ages. I think I need some pampering, pampering by me. I look at all the wonderful fragances and other promotions for Christmas. If only I could pamper myself with some of those without giving a thought but I can’t. A magazine subscription will have to do. At least it’ll make me happy each month.
7. Sometimes he makes me feel like I’m walking on eggshells. I wish he wouldn’t do that and he wishes that I am more supportive. This is a typical  He says She says situation. We’re both thinking different things. When will we meet in our heads again? When will we find harmony again? We all need harmony in our lives. The kids can help sometimes. Kids can become a glue to a relationship yet they can also be the wall. Fortunately our set is often the glue.
8. I chatted with my friend today. She has been sick again and she still can’t decide whether to have a hysterectomy to remove cancerous cells. She sounds cheerful. She makes dark jokes. I hope she is well. I hope she will know what to do.
9. The weather is dark and gloomy, like my mood. I don’t normally rant on my blog but I guess it has helped to rant a little.
10. I feel better now.

Change starts from within and change begins from me. Remember that Michael Jackson song that goes “Take a look at yourself and make that change.” I wonder why that guy can write lovely lyrics but his life don’t reflect it but I digress again.

Anyway, I find that after becoming a parent, everything that I do no longer affects me alone. My actions affect my little ones. And if I want to change a certain behaviour or routine in the house then I have to start the ball rolling. The change has to begin with me!

I have to be the one to set the example. I have to be the one to change first, whether its a behaviour or a routine. Thats a really tough act. Its a heavy responsibility and I must take this responsibility seriously because I have young charges who are dependant on me and who look up to me.

What am I trying to change now? Waking up early! Yaawwwwn!