Archive for September, 2008

*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.