Hop Around with Me

How to keep them off the computer?

2009-12-12T12:10:00.002+08:00

Both my boy and my nephew are addicted to the PC since my dad let them play those computer games a few weeks back. My boy will scream when ever I told him to switch off the PC or told him to do other chores. He will refused to leave and the table and even refused to eat or sleep. For heaven sake... he is only 4! I am really baffled with his behavior now.

I have told my dad to 'delete' away all those games so the boys will leave the PC in peace but they always have their ways to 'persuade' their gong-gong to switch on for them. Even the TV could not entice them any more. As my dad also needs to go online to check his stock market during the weekdays, it has been a problem with the boys hovering over the PC!

Suddenly I have the thought of getting those wii games to lure the kids away but we do not have any wii set or wii accessories. I wonder if I could loan it from a friend of mine for the time being to 'settled' the kids.

She is with us at last

2009-12-12T11:51:00.002+08:00

11 days ago I gave birth to my second child whom we have been yearning for the past 3 years. Finally we had her in our hands after the many tries over the years. She is a healthy 3.3kg baby girl and is growing well since her birth.

We have been wishing for another kid after our first child turned one but due to work stress suffered by hubby, we were unsuccessful in conceiving until earlier this year. Though we did not wish for any particular gender but we are grateful that God has blessed us with a little girl so at least we have a pair in the family.

It was not an easy pregnancy as I was sick from morning sickness for the first 4-5 months. However, I was blessed with an easy labor where it lasted less than 2 hours from the moment I discovered my waterbag burst.

Our little girl is the best present I could give hubby as Christmas pressie this year so maybe hubby should buy some certified diamonds for me as a reward eh? :P

Another trip down under

2009-11-26T13:10:00.003+08:00

Next year, we might be going to Melbourne for another short vacation. As we will be bringing our little girl along, hubby thought of renting a RV for the trip as it will definitely be more convenient as we will be traveling quite a fair bit. It will be another new experience for all of us.

Since we have not rented any RV before, we are unsure of how to handle it. We do not have such in Malaysia so we are quite ignorant how to care for such vehicles or how we can get help when we are in troubles. We just hope that in Melbourne there will be services such as those provided by www.goodsamers.com. At least with such professional help, we won't have to worry much.

For now, we can't wait for the trip to happen!

Time for spring cleaning

2009-11-26T12:59:00.002+08:00

In less than a month it will be Christmas and then the New Year and before we knew it, it will soon be Chinese New Year! Time certainly flies when one have so much on its mind... Especially for us, with the baby arriving soon, we have less time to do much cleaning this time round.

However, we still have to keep the house extra clean since we will have a baby at home now. Since we are staying very near the main road, our house often gets loads of dust everyday. It is really a chore for us to clean such a huge house everyday so most of the time we will do in stages.

Luckily we have taken out most of our carpets so we have less things to clean. Only my mother in law still has a carpeted floor in her room so she will normally use a steam cleaner to vacuum as it is much cleaner compared to regular vacuum cleaners.

When will it be?

2009-11-16T20:55:00.002+08:00

I am actually 36 weeks along my pregnancy now and in less than a month my #2 will be making an appearance. To be very frank, part of me is very excited but the other part of me is filled with worries... What if my lil' Bun decided to come early? I am not 100% ready yet!

A close friend just delivered her baby 3 weeks early and I was pretty shocked when her baby appeared to be so small in size. According to my ob/gyn, my baby's current weight is only 2.2kg (estimated) and it is unlikely she will go beyond 3kg by the time I reach 40 weeks... So if she decided to come earlier... probably I'll have a small baby too!

These kind of news really put me on my toes! I just wish I go just close my eyes and fly my mind to nassau where I don't have to think about all the complicated stuff!

Endless complains

2009-11-11T15:44:00.002+08:00

My mom complained about her kitchen sink again today. Every time the water splashed out from the sinks, she will complain about how lousy the contractor was in doing the sink not to her liking. I have been hearing about the same complain for years... so it is nothing new.

Since the house my parents has been living is not so new, my dad did not want to go through the hassle to redo most of the fixtures which my mom has been constantly complained about. After all, it will be really messy if he were to tear down all these fixtures and rebuild them and my mom will definitely complain again about the mess that she has to clean up after the reno. So, for the time being, we will just bear with them....

The weight is pilling up...

2009-11-11T15:34:00.002+08:00

Technically, I still have approximately 5 weeks to my EDD. So far I have piled up about 10kg the last 35 weeks. I have been eating normally though most of my meals consisted a lot of carbohydrates. I found that this time round I craved for carbo food most of the time and thus the extra pounds. During my previous pregnancy, I did not crave for carbo food as much so my weight was considered as 'optimum'.

I just wished I will not go beyond 15kg on the day I deliver my Lil' Bun. I am trying my best to eat sensibly but having more vegetables for my meals. I also tried having more healthy grains such as oats and wheat cereals for breakfast and not 'nasi lemak' which is a local favorite.

If all that failed to control my weight, then I'll have no choice but to look for the best weight loss pill to help me bring down my weight after my delivery...

We are on wireless

2009-10-30T09:50:00.002+08:00

A couple of months back our old faithful router finally gave way and retired after serving us for more than 6 years. Hubby was a little sad but we can't keep technology stuff forever so he finally have to get a new router. The new one was not as good (according to the sales rep) as compared the old one as it was more reliable. Well, there's nothing we could do as all new gadgets are made in Taiwan these days...

The only positive thing about the new router is, IT IS WIRELESS! Yeah, finally we can surf any where within the house and we can cut down the amount of cables and cable ties! The PC areas are neater now but since we have lots of other gadgets, we still can't run away with mess!

Some shopping in KL

2009-10-30T09:32:00.004+08:00

We'll be on our way to Ipoh later and to KL tomorrow. This time we will only be spending 2 weeks in KL as hubby is going away for a another biz trip to Brazil. He'll then come and pick us up.

Two weeks in not short or long enough if I wanted to go shopping as I could only do that during the weekends since I can't drive to all the malls myself. I don't intend to shop a lot this time round as I am starting to have difficulties walking for long hours. Will just get some of the listed essentials which I'll be needing when I delivered Lil' Bun.

I have been looking for a pair of shoes and can't decide which brand to buy. I just heard from a friend that there's a new site she found selling Naot shoes and she can get them without any sale tax. I really need another pair of comfort shoes since I only have one pair which the color I'm not too happy with.

Got to control now

2009-10-23T20:03:00.003+08:00

When I was at the ob/gyn clinic this afternoon, I asked him about the weight of my little baby. He told me it is hard to estimate now as it is too soon to tell. He told me in the next two months, baby will grow very rapidly and he could probably estimate better when I am nearer to my delivery date.

Since I can't know baby's weight now, I do not know if all those weight that I've gained in the past few months actually went to me or the baby? As I can't take any appetite suppressant now, I am having a hard time controlling my appetite! Don't know why I kept having cravings even though I am already at the late stage of my pregnancy. I better take some control before I put on too much weight else I'll be having a hard time shedding them off later!

Only 2 months to Christmas!

2009-10-23T20:02:00.001+08:00

When we were in Perth, some of the shopping malls have already started selling Christmas ornaments and decorated with Christmas decoration even though it was just late September! Normally, Christmas decoration won't be up till end of October since Halloween is at the end of October.

Since I am no longer in the corporate world, I don't receive any corporate holiday cards any more. Therefore, I don't really know how early people will start sending these seasons greetings. Last time, I used to received in early December but now with all those e-cards, probably some will send earlier or even the very last minute!

Can't wait for Christmas though!

Luckily only 1 kg!

2009-10-23T18:08:00.000+08:00

This month onwards, I’ll have to start visiting my ob/gyn once every three weeks as I am already 7 months preggy. So, today is my 2nd visit for the month. It is always nice to take a peek ‘inside’ and see what Lil’ Bun is up to and how much she has grow.

My ob/gyn is the no-nonsense type and he don’t waste time talking unnecessary stuff as he has a train long Q waiting for him outside everyday. My visits usually takes less than 5 minutes which normally include a scan. His charges is quite reasonable and is about 50% cheaper than my ob/gyn in KL. Unfortunately I still have to waste that amount when I go and see my ob/gyn in KL just so he knows I will be delivering there.

From my scan today, we finally found out Lil’ Bun’s position. She has already turned downward and not in a ‘breech’ position as I suspected earlier. Which is a real relief.
We can see that she has grown so much that the space inside is getting really small… she looked as if she is being bundled up like a ball!

And today I found out I had added ONLY 1kg since my last visit! Wooohooo! Though I have been pigging out like nobody business the past few weeks! Probably I have been eating more healthy food like cereal and bread as compared to just noodles or nasi lemak! How am I going to burn belly fat after delivery will be another headache I don’t intend to think about just yet!

Missed Perth Mint

2009-10-20T13:11:00.002+08:00

I still do not have much time to write about our recent Perth trip as I was so tied up with settling my boy in his kindy. Though I should have done this earlier but I am just glad everything is turning out fine and he has stopped crying this week, which is week three now. I'm so proud of his little achievement.

When we were in Perth, we went to quite a number of places which I have not been to though I have lived there for almost two years before. Initially my aunt has suggested we go and visit Perth Mint where we can get to see some rare silver coins but due to time constraint and the rain, we have to cancel our trip. Instead, we went for a free ride around the city on one of the free CAT buses since my boy wanted to sleep.

As it was raining intermittently, we have not choice but to find sheltered places to avoid getting wet so a lot of outdoor plans have to be scrapped. Ended up we only managed to visit Bell Tower and walk along Hay Street briefly.

Getting a MBA online

2009-10-07T19:54:00.000+08:00

Just a few days ago my brother had the sudden thought about getting a MBA. It was really out of the blue kinda thing as his working hours are pretty long. I wonder where can he spare the time to do it? Now that his wife is busy building up her career and they have a young child to mind. But life is tough these days unless you continue to upgrade so you won't be left behind.

Nevertheless, I told him about some of those accredited universities that offer quality Masters degrees online and he should spend some time checking them out. Since I've just read about Gonzaga University which is ranked number 3 in the West by US News and World Report, I told him to check it out.

Gonzaga University was ranked as one of best value among private universities by Kiplingers Personal Finance. Actually, there are very few top ranked schools which are offering online programs as many thought that online degrees lack the authenticity.

Cheaper in duty free shop

2009-10-07T18:58:00.000+08:00

Each time I travel to Perth, I will get my uncle a carton of his preferred cigarette. It is an Aussie brand which we don't get here in Malaysia. And I must say the price of these cigarettes don't come cheap. In fact it has rise so much in the past few years! Luckily he don't have a habit of smoking cigar, if not it will be worst.

This time I got him 2 cartons since I was traveling with my hubby. Each carton cost around AUD47 which has about 6 boxes of 30 sticks in each box. According to my aunt, if she were to get it out of the duty free shop in the airport, she has to pay another 40% more!

Well, maybe that was the way the government discourage their people to smoke. :)

Meals on SIA flights suck!

2009-10-07T18:23:00.006+08:00

My boy and I don't travel to foreign countries that often. Even though we do, the furthest will be to Lion City annually. Unlike my hubby who travels a lot for his work. So, when we do travel, we usually fly with SIA (Singapore Airlines).

Recently, on our flight to Perth which was a morning flight, my boy gets a kid's meal which was not given to him until I asked for it. I don't remember I have to inform the check in counter previously to get my boy a kid's meal. I was kinda disappointed when all the flight attendants pretended not to see my boy when they were busy distributing the kid's meals to other kids on board.

After my request, a male attendant brought the meal tray over but from his expression, I felt that he was kinda unhappy... for what reasons I don't know!

And these are the stuff my boy gets....

After opening the butter and bite on a piece of nugget, my boy felt uneasy as the plane was experiencing turbulence so he dosed off. Since the tray was still around when I was having my meal, I decided to try the food on my boy's tray. The nuggets were hard and the tomato rice wrapped in the egg omelette was as hard as stone! How do you expect a kid to eat stuff like that??? I could not believe that SIA actually serve stuff like that! I don't want to comment about the food I had... it was equally bad if not worst! It is not cheap to fly with SIA ok!

Then, on our flight home my boy did not even get his kid's meal! I was baffled! I don't know if that was the fault of the check in staff or an over sight from the airline. I think the airline should know that if a ticket which was printed with the title MASTER, it is no doubt a kid below 12 years of age!

It was like winter!

2009-10-06T21:24:00.002+08:00

The weather in Perth was supposed to be spring but surprisingly it is colder than before. At most nights we experienced temperature below 5 degree Celsius which is kind of unusual. It was more like winter rather than spring! Since we are not staying there, we did not get ourselves any house slippers so we have to wear socks most of the time to keep ourselves warm.

My aunt's place is 60% carpeted so there are quite a lot of areas which are tiled. She don't have any glass tiles in her house though, since it was an old house.

Back from our vacation!

2009-10-03T21:10:00.003+08:00

Geez... time flies when you're having fun!!!!

Our vacation to Singapore and Perth came to an end today. We spent 3 days in SIngapore and 10 days in Perth. Can't believe it ended so soon!!!! Singapore was hot-hot-hot but weather in Perth was perfect! My hubby is missing Perth so much!!!

Well, besides sight seeing, we feasted a lot for this trip! Particularly when we were in Singapore! I think I have more than 5 meals a day! On the 2nd day, I chomped down 2 bowl of noodles in one sitting! Scary rite? hahahahaha

Well, since I am preggy, it is like a passport for me to eat without guilt! For the time being, I won't have to search for any diet pill that works for sure!

Our family vacation starts tomorrow!!

2009-09-19T14:22:00.000+08:00

After almost 2 years, we are finally going on another vacation in another continent. It has been a long awaited trip and though it might not be a very good time for all of us to travel due to the H1N1 pandemic and I am heavily pregnant... we just have to make this trip... all because of a huge chunk of soon to be expired Kris Flyer points! :P

Our first destination will be Lion City as we are taking Singapore Airline so we need to transit in Singapore... and so we are taking the opportunity to visit some friends and relatives while we are there. Can't wait to eat all those food that I've been missing!

Next we will fly off to Perth, a place where I have not set foot for more than 5 years! I truly miss this place... clean, spacious and clear blue sky... just like heaven! :P

As we are staying with my aunt, we do not need to hire any car this time. Save tones of $$$ on accommodation and car hire! That means we do not need to worry about any auto accessories as well since we are using my cousin's car to move about.

Can wait to savor those succulent fish & chips in Freo and Conca's chili mussels and their superb garlic bread!

He wanna give away his plasma TVs

2009-09-12T15:54:00.002+08:00

With the LCD TV so cheap now, my uncle wanted to change all his plasma TV after having them for about 7 years. He told my dad he is willing to give all the plasma mounts too if anyone want to come and take his plasma TVs.

The thing is, his plasma TVs are really huge! And according to my hubby, they uses a lot of electricity hence nobody wanted them now. Actually I don't mind having the smaller unit which will be good in the room but my uncle is in Singapore and the transport fees will be so expensive I could get a brand new LCD!

Just a week away!

2009-09-12T14:51:00.000+08:00

Time really flies... and we are just a week away from our vacation!

It has been almost 6 years I left Perth and going there again will be so fun... this time round with my little family. Though we will not be doing a lot there as this is our R&R trip, at least I get to breath in some fresh air!

I really miss my life in Perth and just can't wait to see, smell and touch it again!

Too heavy to be carried

2009-08-24T14:02:00.002+08:00

My cousin has a Dalmatian and that dog has been having such a good life that his weight has been increasing over the years. He is so big now that handling him can be a huge task for anyone in the house. The thing is, he has been fed on all kinds of human food which made him falling sick very frequently too... which means more trips to the vet!

Beside my uncle and my male cousin, my female cousin and her mom won't have the energy at all. Therefore, I suggested that they go check out some dog ramps so the dog can move into and out of the car on his own.

It sent me thinking

2009-08-24T13:50:00.003+08:00

I was at the KL Parenthood Fair yesterday and bought some magazines. As I was flipping through some of it, I read about a story of a young child died of meningitis while he was on holiday with his mother in London. The boy was all healthy throughout the trip and only recorded a high temperature on the last 2 days. He did not made it and passed away there.

The story really sent me thinking. As we will be travelling to Perth later next month amidst the A(H1N1) spread, I do have a little reservation... for my elder boy as well as for myself and my unborn baby. Malaysia has been recording high community infection rate the past few weeks with more than 2% deaths ratio.

Feeling of insecurity is looming over me so I am trying to look for some insurance packages. I hope I can get some free insurance quotes before our trip and decide on a policy.

Burgers... burgers... burgers...

2009-08-24T13:41:00.004+08:00

In just three weeks in KL I have had 2 Burger King meals. I just donlt know why I have been having this crave for burgers during this pregnancy. I don't remember I have such crave when I was carrying my first born.

Also, I have been pigging on lots of carbo and protein food too especially noodles. I just can't get enough of the popular pan-mian (hand made flour noodles) which is one of the many favorites in KL. I have it at least once a week! Other than that I have been eating a lot of rice too since mom's cooking is so delicious!

Though I have yet to gain much weight but I guess I must start looking for some weight loss supplements once I delivered Lil' Bun... or I'll never fit into all my pre-pregnancy clothes!

When will I get any?

2009-08-12T17:58:00.003+08:00

Since I left the working world, I do not have much interest in all those electronic gadgets. I used to be very 'up to date' in those days and even got myself the 2nd generation of Palm.

My hubby is also not really into all these gadgets so I am quite in the dark now with all the new offerings. On my birthday earlier this year, my brother gave me a ipod shuffle look-alike but without the shuffle functions. I was curious about the actual one so I went to check out all the ipods at one of the Apple store in the mall.

I was attracted by the vibrant casing of these gadgets but just too bad I can't really afford one now. Therefore, I'll just make do with the one my brother gave me. :P