Archive for September, 2008

My friend has experienced a situation where she was robbed by men with parang in the porch of her house. This was several years ago. It was late at night. She had gotten down to shut the gate but the men were hiding in wait.

My sister in law has been robbed in front of her gate before as well, after walking her daughter from kindy and while she was trying to open her gate.

I installed auto gates at my house not only to protect myself from the rain but as a safety measure as well, so that I don’t have to get down to shut my gate manually. That makes me feel more vulnerable. Staying in the car makes me feel a bit more protected.

However, recent cases where women were robbed in their porch even with auto gates installed has taken away this false sense of security. In both cases, the robbers ran into the porch after the women drove into the porch. It is not safe anymore. Not even in the porch of  your house. Not even with auto gates.

A neighbour informed us to be careful recently after his son in law got down to check his auto gates when returning home in the night. The robbers had tied the gates together so it would not open. This made the victim get down to inspect the gates and thats when they struck.

So, don’t ever be lulled into a false sense of security. Always, always be on the alert for any strangers who may be lurking or hiding in bushes etc. And if your auto gate does not open, be extra alert.

Speaking of auto gates………… this is an unrelated rant, I do wonder why my neighbour who has auto gates installed, has to honk her rather loud horn several times each day to get her maid to open her auto gates for her. Hmmm…..

Hari Raya is just a week away. The kindy will be closed from Wednesday to Friday so it will be a very long weekend for us. Hurrah!

I want to take this opportunity to wish all my readers Selamat Hari Raya and Happy Holidays. I used to have a number of Malay readers but I don’t know where they are now. I noticed in a blog community, birds of a feather tend to flock together. I do not think its because of racial divide. Its just that most people identify better with a blogger when they speak the same lingo.

Well, there is a lot of talk on racial divide going on lately. I am sad to hear it. I personally do not feel it but I hear a lot of talk on it, at least on the blogs and in the papers. Some of the words used on the blogs are very strong too.

I do not feel this “racial divide”. I feel nothing but respect for my friends of other races. I remember when I was in school, I had a lot of friends from other races. During Hari Raya, we would cycle from one friend’s house to another to have our beef rendang, and ketupat and lemang. The same goes for other festivities of the other races. I looked forward to having marukus during Deepavali and I am sure that my friends from other races were happy with the Mandarin oranges and kuaci that we served.

While I was working, I still had many friends of other races too. I used to work as a Conference Organiser and whenever we had a conference or seminar during the fasting month, we would provide dinner vouchers to the muslims who could not join in the other participants for lunch. That is how racially tolerant we are and how respectful we are of each other. We enjoy each other’s foods (accept for those which we can’t partake in for religious purposes) and we often have open houses for friends of every race during festivals.

I remember once, one muslim colleague invited us back to her kampung together. We drove there, spent the night at her house and went visiting with her. I was entralled by the beautfy of one of the kampung houses we visited. We had Muslim, Chinese and Indian friends among us. None of us felt any racial divide. We were just a bunch of young girls laughing and enjoying ourselves.

And now, all of a sudden there is talk of a racial divide. I think its silly isn’t it?

Hopefully, when we have finally settled down politically, all of this talk will blow away and we will be back to being peace loving, racially tolerant, proud Malaysians again.

In the meantime, Selamat Hari Raya and be careful on the roads.

I stare at my open refrigerator door twice a day to crack my head on what to cook for lunch and dinner. “Why don’t you have a  fixed menu. Cook the same thing every Mon, Tue, etc?” suggested hubby.

Yeee. Boring. I like to try new things. But then I find that I end up cooking the same old things. Haha. So today, instead of cracking my head daily, I shall post up the menu for my entire week! Heheh!

Day 1
Lunch - Fish Porridge
Dinner - Steamed Taufoo, Stir Fried Siew Pak Choy, Braised Potato with Minced Meat

Day 2
Lunch - Fish Ball Tong Hor Soup with  Braised Wantan Mee Noodle
Dinner - Sweet & Sour Fillet Fish, Stir Fried Choy Sum, Hot Dog Omellete, Old Cucumber Soup

Day 3
Lunch - Meat Ball Porridge
Dinner - Chicken Kurma, Grey Oyster Mushroom fried in Cucur Udang Flour, Stir Fried Baby French Beans

Day 4
Lunch - Pineapple Fried Rice
Dinner - Kunyit Fried Fish, Homemade Steamed Siew Mai, Stir Fried White Cabbage, Tomato Soup

Day 5
Lunch - Steamed Brocolli & Carrot, Readymade Deep Fried Fish Fingers
Dinner - Pan Fried Egg Taufoo, Stir Fried Mixed Vegetables, Braised Chicken with Ginger

Day 6
Lunch - Eat out (Yahoo!)
Dinner - Steamed Chicken Rice, Eggs Sunny Side Up, Stir Fried Long Beans with dried prawns

Day 7
Lunch - Egg Sandwiches
Dinner- Sweet & Sour Fish, Joo Hu Char (Stir Fried Carrot with Sengkuang, Steamed Egg with minced meat

Now, I just have to reproduce this and paste it on my refrigerator door. Hahaha.

Seriously, planning a menu is no easy affair. You have to think of the likes and dislikes of every person in the house and try to include a dish that everyone likes. If someone is sick, you must make sure your menu has simple foods for that person too. For example, my girl is sick so instead of making fried wantons for the kids, I’ll make steamed siew mai instead using the same ingredients.

You have to think of how to make use of the leftovers too. For example, if I make soup, I will make a lot and use the leftovers as stock for my porridge or soup the next day. I must also make sure that I have the items or ingredients at home so that I don’t have to rush out to buy them last minute as I shop just once a week. I have to think of the kids too. For example, they will gobble up the cauliflower if I make cauliflower fritters and leave it untouched if I stir fry it as a vegetable. So really must crack head.

After meals, our “dessert” usually consist of fruits, either apple, oranges, papayas, watermelon or mangoes etc. 

I am happy that so far, with the maid, my dream of providing healthy wholesome, nutritious, clean food for the family is coming true. The maid does not cook. She just helps me prepare and wash up but that is a tremendous help.

Previously, I could not cook like this due to lack of time and also due to my condition which makes cooking in front of the open fire with no other adult present a bit more challenging. So, lunch and dinner usually consist of porridge, sandwiches, or my one pot foods, ie steamed rice with everything thrown inside the rice cooker pot or microwaved baked beans, and reheated store bought ready made foods or tapau rice and dishes from nearby shops.

This is a very pleasant change. I am happy. Now, you know why I’ve put on 5 pounds? ;) 

Its coming towards the last quarter of the year. A very busy time. The girl has all sorts of activities. She is going to be one of the emcees in her kindy concert and its a tough act. There are 5 pages to memorise and she’s got to speak in English, Malay and Chinese together with the other little emcees. The words they are using are big big bombastic words. Some of them are really hard to pronounce. I think they would sound more natural using plain simple language but no, I suppose the kindy wants to show off what a great vocabulary the kids have trilingually. So its tough.

Then theres the piano concert. I’ve got a solo piece and a duet piece with the girl. More practise. Plus theres her year end assessment at the kindy too but I’ll leave that to the teachers.

Oh and I must not forget about the poor boy. He feels left out in all our practises. The other day when I went to see the paed because we were all sick again, she wanted to refer us to a psychologist (to find out if he is dyslexic) because of his mirror image writing and because he can’t read very well yet. We decided that we should wait for another 6 months to see his progress.

That means I must spend more time with him now. He’s been sorely neglected. Its only 2 months to the year end school holidays. That means I can only have 2 months of one to one time with him in the mornings. I better utilise that time to teach him.

I’ve been meaning to do that for the whole year now but it hasn’t materialised. Bad momma. How quickly the time has passed.

Next year the girl will be entering primary school and the boy entering kindy. Gotta prepare them both for it and myself too. Again the girl has extra practise learning to read Chinese at home with me. I’ve got to spend more time with the boy!

And then I’ve got to work on losing those 5 pounds I gained and more.

What does that mean? Less time for momma of course. Less time blog hopping. So if you don’t see me on your blogs, its because I have to force myself to press “Mark all as read” on my feedreader. Sob. Sob. Thats very hard to do. (for a self confessed blogaholic).

The kids had been waiting for this event all week. We had got their paper lanterns ready, the candles were there, ready to be lit. They even went to nap in the afternoon like good little children because they wanted to wake up fresh to play lanterns.

And then……… it rained. We had wanted to take them to the park like last year but it was wet and still drizzling after dinner. So we went to pump petrol and the petrol station instead.

So, I decided to call second sis to ask if it was drizzling at her place. It was too but she had the space in her house to play lanterns and she had some of her in-laws with little kids there. She said she had wanted to call me too but wasn’t sure whether we could make it last minute. That was great. “I’m on my way” I said.

And thats how I gate crashed a lantern festival party. Eventually my second bro turned up with his kid too. So the kids had a delightful time playing lantern with other kids despite the drizzle. And I ate too much mooncake again. Burp!

*steps on the scales gingerly*

AAAAAHHHHHHH AAAAHHHHHH WAAAAAHHHHH!

Its a case of one step forward, two steps back. Remember I said I lost 3 pounds after the maid arrived because I could control my food better?

As it turned out, I controlled my food so well, that I started making nice teas etc for the kids and ate along with them and then…….. Not only did I regain my 3 pounds, I added another 2 pounds making a total gain of 5 pounds. 5 POUNDS! *Sobs*

My tummy is back with a vengance. My arms. Oh my arms. They look so aunty. (Well, I am aunty but don’t have to look like aunty wut!) And not to mention those elephant thighs. And the double chin thats reforming. HEELLLP!

Ok. Ok. Calm down. (tells self). Remember your self professed double it half it diet? Just double  your veges and half your rice and DON’T EAT THE CHILDREN’S LEFTOVERS!!!!!!

And forget about teas and suppers with the kids (still telling self). Just prepare the food for them then walk away and let them enjoy it. No need to sit down with them and chat and EAT.

But then mooncake festival is on Sunday. I just gotta have some mooncakes at least. Its just once a year. So how? Nvm, nvm, don’t be so hard on yourself, lets start after Sunday then shall we? Aiyah, like that how to lose weight friend!

Some more want to bake. Better forget about baking for now. Otherwise sure grow fatter trying all the muffins and cakes that nobody else wants to eat when it doesn’t turn out well. Gulp!

How lah. How lah. 5 POUNDS is a lot. How to take it off and take some more off. Its going to be such hard work and self discipline. Right, I should go and do some exercise now. Sitting around blogging isn’t going to help me lose weight. Cheerio…..

Have a happy weekend and don’t eat too many mooncakes (telling self again). Happy Mid Autumn Festival and Happy Playing Lantern with the kids for those of you with kids. For those without, you can pak tor with Lanterns too. Very romantic.

Hello Everyone. I would love to be able to bake my own cakes but I don’t know where to start. Can all you experienced bakers out there tell me where to begin?

First, would be the equipment of course. Please keep your suggestions as economical as possible. Can you tell me what I need to start off? Please start from scratch or zero. At the moment I have none.

Will I need a mixer? What type should I get? Is it very costly? An oven? Can I get a portable oven? A really small one to start off with? Just in case I am not successful? Haha. I don’t want to buy the best only to have it collect dust afterwards. At the same time, thinking long term perhaps its wiser to invest? Space wise, I have very little space left for any oven. I have a convection microwave oven at the moment. Can I use that? See? I’m really a novice in this. Please help.

I do know how to bake from school days but that was a long time ago. I think that was back when I was in lower secondary school and we had homescience classes. I really enjoyed those classes. I remember cycling to my friend’s house to try out our baking skills whenever we can. Oh those were the days. Ok, enough reminiscing. This is not about my homescience classes. (I’ll write a separate post about that another day. Hehe.)

Thanks for any suggestions. I may not be able to take up the suggestions immediately or run out straight away to get the items and start baking but this is for future reference as something I would like to do when I have more time. Otherwise hubby will “scold” me for trying to take on too much. Really got a lot of things up my sleeve at the moment and baking will have to wait but I still like to dream.

The other day I met a friend from long ago. I was happy to find out that his kid was attending the same Chinese school as the one my girl will be entering next year. His kid is attending Std 1 in that same Chinese school this year.

However, much to my dismay I learned from him that he is now checking out private schools because he wishes to pull his kid out from that Chinese School next year.

His reason? Not the workload because he had already expected that. He has a supportive spouse who sits down with the boy and teaches him everynight even though she does not know Mandarin herself. He invests RM1,500 in an electronic dictionary and teaches the boy how to use it to help himself in his work. At the same time, they also send him to British Council once a week to make sure that his standard of written English remains good. Even though they speak English at home, he is worried that his standard of English will deteriorate if he is not given the practise. According to him the British Council is packed and there is a waiting list to get in.

His reason is because he thinks that Chinese School is turning his boy into a reserved kid. According to him he does not know how to mingle and he is afraid that he will either turn out square and reserved or rebellious as he retaliates from the stress of going through the culture of fear day after day. He is afraid of this even though they are supportive parents who give their boy lots of support in school.

He sent his kid to Chinese School because he felt that he had no choice since he has totally ruled out National School. No Choice. Sigh. Why do we have such a screwed up Education System? I am still wondering whether I am doing the right thing to send my girl to Chinese School.

At the moment, she is a bright girl who loves school. She is not afraid of her teachers. She loves to ask questions and she communicates with them well, IN ENGLISH. However, I am worried that all that will change next year. Will I see her shrink into a quiet, frightened little girl who does her work because she HAS to do them and not because she loves to learn the way she is now? Oh well, we’ll see.

Someone suggested that I planted some Marigolds in my little garden. So I did a little search on the internet on the Marigold flower.

I found out that in pre-hispanic Mexico it is regarded as the flower of the dead and is still widely used in the Day of the Dead celebrations.

In India it is regarded as a sacred flower and is offered to deities or made into garlands as decorations during religious celebrations.  In Western tradition, however, Marigolds are associated with sorrow and the offering of sympathy.

Early Christians named the Flower Mary’s Gold. Marigold Flowers were offered to the Virgin Mary by the poor who could not afford to give actual gold coins. It was told that Mary used the blossoms as coins. A legend says that during the Flight into Egypt the Holy Family was accosted by a band of thieves. They took Mary’s purse and when they opened it, marigolds fell out.

It is also the October Birth Flower. Anyone born in October?

The Marigold Flower has many meanings from affection and health to cruelty, jealousy and grief and despair.

However, I could not find what the Marigold Flower means to the Chinese. I only know that it is widely sold in pots during Chinese New Year. I have no idea why? Can anyone enlighten me? Is this the same flower that is used for prayers and the same one that is used for offerings to ancestors as well? Does anyone know?

Just a small, humble flowering plant and yet it has such a wealth of culture and symbolic meaning. Amazing isn’t it? It also has many other uses as a herb but I won’t go into that. And its supposedly fed as chicken feed to make the egg yolks more yellow for the consumers. Its also a good natural insect repellant for other plants. For example, planting it next to your tomato plant will keep your tomato plant free from pests. Those are some of the botanical secrets I read.

However, in this post, I am more interested in the symbol and meaning of the plant. I am not that “pantang” but I think I’d rather not plant a flower meant for the dead in my garden. It seems so morbid.

So can anyone tell me what the Chinese usually use this plant for? For the dearly departed or for Chinese New Year?

No, I’m not talking about my maid woes. She’s fine so far. I’m talking about my sister’s maid woes.

Second sister’s maid’s tenure of 2 years has ended. Not wanting to renew it, my sister went to apply for a new one about 2 months ago. She timed it so that the new maid would arrive in time to replace the new one. Almost near the time for the new maid’s arrival, she was informed that the new maid she had picked had changed her mind about  coming to Malaysia to work and preferred to go to Hong Kong instead so second sis had to pick another new maid. Hmmm strange that they are allowed to change the mind after being picked and processing halfway.

By this time, the old maid’s time was up so second sister is left with none. She now has to take in a temp maid at a daily rate till the new maid that she picks arrives in another 1-2 months time. The temp maid is a reject Cambodian maid. The employer’s whom she was supposed to work for rejected her because of language problems, because she did not know how to operate a washing machine and because she did not know how to lay out a table. “I hired a maid to help me out not to give me more work!” Thats what the employer said as told by the agent.

My sister thinks the temp maid is ok so she has decided to keep her. This means that she has to apply to transfer her from the other employer to herself. The process takes about 2 months. In the meantime she has to keep on paying the daily rate.

I think the agent benefits from the entire process. They do not lose out at all. They benefit if the maid that they promised fails the medical or changes their mind after being picked (like dat oso can). Why? Because then employers are in a quandary and those who are in urgent need, have no choice but to pay more (eg: pay a daily rate). They benefit when those employers take in a temp maid. Imagine paying a higher daily rate for a maid that someone else rejects. This way you “train” the maid for 1-2 months while waiting for your new maid. Mind you, you have to “pay” to “train” ok? And the agent probably gets to recycle this temp maid or inform the next employer that they have a well trained maid for others who need them urgently. And then as in my sister’s case, if you decide to take in the reject maid, you pay a daily rate while waiting for the transfer.

Well anyway, back to sister’s Cambodian maid. She looks like a sweet young girl with a smiley face but she doesn’t speak English or Malay. She does not understand what is breakfast, lunch or dinner. And she has no previous experience so sister has to teach her everything. Looks like second sis is going to be very very busy in the next few months. Training a new maid plus she has a kid who is taking PMR and another doing SPM and another Std 5 kid. Two major exams. Boy oh boy is she going to be stressed. Poor sis.