Archive for the 'Life Observation' Category

I remember when we were dating he used to insist hint that I dress in a certain manner. (Translates : High heels and body hugging dresses).

After he got me and even before we were married, his preference for my dressing changed to relaxed. All of a sudden he preferred me to dress down rather than dress up.(Translates: Bermuda shorts, pants, shirts, sneakers.) 

Now that we are married, I don’t think he notices what I wear or even cares. (Translates: Thats married life!)

I’m curious. Are all men like these? Gals, does he prefer you to …..

1. Dress up?
2. Dress down?
3. Don’t care?

And what is YOUR own preference? Do you dress for him or for yourself? Do you prefer to dress up or otherwise?

Guys, Do you prefer your ladies to…..

1. Dress Up (Translates: Dress Sexily)
2. Dress Down (Translates: Cover Up)
3. Don’t Care? (No need translation)

During the end of last year as we were shopping for Christmas gifts, we got ourselves a voucher which entitled me to a make-up and photo session. “You only have to pay RM30 for a full-blown A4 sized photo”, they said. So hubby nudge nudge me and said “You want to try ah” and thats what led me to sit in the middle of the shopping mall and have my face all made up and then put on silly looking faux fur tops, grin and pose for all the shoppers to see. But nothing much to see, only an old aunty trying to capture the essense of youth again. Hahaha.

After the silly posing session, came the interesting photo touch-up session. “Can you make her look 20 years younger ah?” my husband asked and later on “Not enough, maybe another 10 years?” “Can you make her teeth whiter?” *kicks Mr MG* We watch the man magically erase all the lines and other blemishes away on the PC. Wuah. Shioknya.

After that came payment time. We took out our RM30 but wait a minute! “Ma’am, Sir, if you pay RM120 only, you get to keep the software plus have 4 A4 sized photos instead of one. You want anot?” Hmmm it was certainly tempting to have more flawless looking pictures of myself around but err where would I put 4 A4 sized pics of myself ler so we declined. “No? Well, then how about having 3 small sized photos in a little album plus the software. Only RM90.” Still tempting but I declined since I don’t have three boyfriends to give the photos to. “Still no? Well then how about a frame for your photo. We’ll laminate the photo for you before framing. Only RM70.” A tad bit expensive but we needed a frame for it anyway so…….

And that my friend is the price of Vanity. Our free voucher turned out to be daylight robbery. There is no such thing as a free lunch. And free vouchers are a con job to get you to spend more and more and MORE! Always read the fine print. It usually forbids you from buying the things that you really want and the expiry date usually runs out pretty quickly so you’d want to hurry up and spend again.

So, now that you all know how vain I am, would you be kind enough to hop over my other blog and Vote for me, please?

Yesterday I went to the Pavillion for the first time. They were having Chinese acrobatic dances at the stage and the red flowers decoration was up. The Chinese New Year mood is here!

I must say that the fitting rooms at the Parkson, Pavillion are really big which is the way it should be IMO. Usually the fitting rooms are so small that you would have to squeeze yourself like a contortionist just to close the door. I think that the queues outside fitting rooms would be shorter if you made the fitting rooms larger because usually people shop in groups and they like to try in groups to give each other comments. (I don’t know about men but thats what women usually do). Otherwise, everyone has to queue a mile long then come out and I comment on your outfit and you comment on mine and repeat making the queue longer and longer and annoying everyone else in the queue.

Anyway, back to the Parkson fitting room. It had an armchair, a table and a three way mirror (if thats what you call it). The two sides can be moved about (as discovered by my two kids). It could easily fit in my family of four and more. Very nice. A good place to let the kids sit down and rest while you try outfit after outfit after outfit. Hehehe.

However, for a fitting room as large as this one, you should expect to pay premium prices. The outfits can try cannot buy unless you have lots of $$$$. Funny, how they have managed to turn around. At one time, I thought the Parksons all look so run down and about to close down and now they have become so premium.  

Thats what everyone appears to be doing during the last two weeks of the year. The shopping malls were packed… like sardines. The gift shops were packed. The toy shops were packed. The book shops were packed. And the eateries were packed from all these shoppers.

Then in no time at all, the clothing department, shoe department and supermarkets will be packed again with shoppers preparing for Chinese New Year. From Hari Raya to Deepavali to Hari Raya Haji to Christmas to New Year and then Chinese New Year……..

Isn’t it fun to be a retailer in Malaysia, a multicultural country with multi celebrations? They must be laughing all the way to the bank! And I’m crying all the way from the bank.

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. 

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.

I’ve often heard of retail therapy. Got a tiff with your spouse? Go for retail therapy. Bored with daily routine? Go for retail therapy. Stressed out? Go for retail therapy. (Retail therapy = shopping=Yahoo! Yippee!)

But then retail therapy is expensive. It’ll burn a hole in your pocket. The angrier or the more upset or stressed up you are, the bigger hole it will burn. Besides for a SAHM like me, I can’t afford retail therapy so I do packing therapy instead? Whats that?

Packing therapy is packing and throwing. First you have to find the time to do it because once you get going and you build up the momentum, its hard to stop. Pack anything you like. Clear up old cupboards and drawers. Pack and give away old books, CDs, clothes, toys. Throw away old underwear (don’t give away those for goodness sakes). Remember when people were asked to donate for the Tsunami victims, they found lots of old underwear among the items, not just old but torn ones, with holes in them! Tsk! Tsk!

Yes, packing therapy is certainly much cheaper. Besides, once you’re done packing, you can sit back, relax, feel much happier about saying goodbye to clutter (for a time), and…….. pave the way for some real retail therapy. Hehe. So anyone want to join me in a cleaning and packing spree?

Yesterday I was amused to receive a leaflet from a beauty salon. “School Holiday Promotion” it said. Lol! I wonder who its targetted for. I guess the mummy as usual. Perhaps during school holidays the mum will have more time. Time away from fetching kids to and from their activities. I really don’t know. I’m not there yet.

Only $150 for a full body whitening mask, it said. Wuah. These days, whitening the face is not good enough. Need to whiten the body as well. Hmm… I guess that makes sense. A white face on a darker body would look rather odd. Hahaha. I don’t know. I’m not into those whitening products. I’m white enough. White to the point of pale. I need more sunshine.

Ah… women. When they’re dark, they want to be fairer. When they’re fair, they want to have a tan. They will never be satisfied. Lol!

When I was 12, I attended a strict all girls school. I did reasonably ok in school. I was not those top of the class kids, just average, not a prefect or anything, just average, but that was ok. I wasn’t a straight As kid. I got Bs and Cs but that was ok. I didn’t receive any pressure from anyone. Mum was no longer around. Dad was too busy working to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads to nag me about my studies so I didn’t receive any pressure.

I joined the school Choir because I wanted to, because I loved singing. There was no pressure for me to join this or that. I wanted to learn the piano but we couldn’t afford it so dad said how about learning the organ instead which is cheaper. I said ok and he bought me an organ through hire purchase spread out over 12 years. There was no pressure to learn music. I learned because I wanted to. Thanks to Dad I now can continue my music lessons years later.

I cycled to music classes on my own. It was quite far from my house. I had to go through several traffic lights and roundabouts to get there. My sister taught me how to cycle at the back lane of our house. She pushed me all the way down the back lane, back and forth she pushed me till I got my balance. There was no one to watch over us fearfully.

After reading about  yet another case of a child who commits suicides because of poor grades, I can’t help but feel that when I was 12, I lived in a much better world, a carefree world with little pressure and a safe world where children were safe to be on their own without the need to be in the watchful eyes of their parents or a guardian 24 hours a day. Sigh….

Took the kids to the KL Bird Park recently. Also known as the “The World’s Largest Free Flight Aviary” it certainly houses a large collection of birds. They look well fed too. I could see that they were feeding on papayas, corns, bananas and other fruits. Yum yum. The fruits do not look like discards. They look fresh and good.

The birds were used to tourists I suppose because they flew about freely right before our faces. Some of them were really colorful and some looked like they were wearing pretty headdresses. Now, I know where some designers get their ideas. The colors were really beautiful and striking. Bright hues of red, yellow, turquoise, blues, greens, purple and pink. There were quite a number of peacocks too and one of them decided to showoff to us, spreading its beautiful tale wide open. It was quite a sight to behold.

To my amusement, I saw a signboard in front of some green leafy plants. There was a brief description about the plant. The signboard labelled it as the Malaysian Ginseng. It was a Tongkat Ali plant. Hahahaha. Well, I guess it belongs in a bird park alright since its suppose to treat another type of “bird”. Lol!

Since its Friday, those of you who have kids and have not been there before can consider going there for the weekend. Its RM30 for adults and free for kids under 3. Can’t remember how much it is for kids above 3 but if you flash them your MyKad, you get a discount so your ticket costs only RM12 for an adult. Please forgive me if I get the ticket prices wrong. My memory isn’t quite what it used to be.

There! Done my bit for Malaysian tourism. Happy Weekend to everyone.