Say No To Plastic Bags

Photo courtesy of www.eco-local.org

Starting from July, Penang is on No Plastic Bag Campaign every Monday. More than 20 hypermarkets, supermarkets and even minimarkets participate in this campaign. So, remember, if you happened to shop on Monday, please bring along your recycling shopping bags. Otherwise, you got to pay extra 20 cents for each plastic bag.

In fact, all of us should support the reusable shopping bags. It is exchangeable for a new one after wear and tear. We just pay once to use the recycling bag for life. So, why not? This is the action to reduce the unnecessary usage of platic bags to save the world. Let's participate the campaign not only on Monday, but everyday.

Some Updates

This blog is abandoned for almost 10 days. Sorry to my dear blog. I have no idea what to write.

Anyway, I recall what I've done since the beginning of April:

I've picked up a habit. I spend some time each night to read on nutrition, health, recipe, and religious books.

I followed a natural detox program for the first time. Although I just shed off a few kilos, but I managed to fit into my old jeans and slacks. This is a good start, and I swear I will do the detox on regular basis.

I will try my best to exercise at least twice a week for 30 minutes.

I also spend some time to study on healthy recipes. I introduce more fresh vegetables, fruits and whole grains in our daily diet.

My goal is to maintain a healthier life and to be as slim as before married. :P

What a Shocking News!

It's really a shocking news to me. 阿桑, the Taiwanese singer passed away because of breast cancer. She's just 34 years old!

Lately I read on a few English and Chinese nutritional and detoxification books. I learned about how dangerous if our body failed to detox naturally. I gained some knowledge on the effects of the accumulating toxic in our body. Besides, there is another study explains on how the oxidation stress damage the human body.

We got to take care of ourselves by eating the right food. Taking an adequate amount of reliable nutrition supplements as antioxidant is very important. This is the better way to prevent chronic degenerative diseases. It'll be good if you able to follow the natural detoxification program on timely basis.

Experiencing The Magic Cooker

I bought a 5L Magic cooker last week. 60 minutes Earth Hour will never end. This is one of our action to support the campaign. Instead of boiling soup in slow cooker for 6 hours a day, hubby & I are slowly shift to using this magic cooker instead.

The magic cooker consists of 2 stainless steel inner pots (2L & 5L) and an external pot as thermal pot. The 5L inner pot can be used to boil soup, dessert and porridge, while the 2L inner pot can be used to steam rice, fish and other stuffs. The contents of inner pot(s) is bring to boil under gas stove for 30 minutes before transferring it into the thermal pot. After that the soup will be kept warm for the next few hours.

My first experience in cooking peanut soup with this pot was not successful one. I followed the instruction as per the user manual to just boil the soup content for 10 minutes. So, ended up I had to continue simmer the soup to get it thoroughly cooked. I learnt the lesson. For the 2nd time, I cooked a pot of dessert for 30 minutes, then transferred it into thermal pot. After 2 hours, I reboiled it for another 15 minutes and kept in the thermal pot until time to consume it. It turned out great! Yes!


Yesterday was hubby's turn to boil soup for our dinner (I'm the one who prepare the ingredients). Tada....here it is. It turned out as nice as boiling in slow cooker.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua

Photo courtesy of www.iwatchstuff.com

These days we are crazy over the high definition Blue-ray converted DVDs. We use the PS3 to play DVD instead of playing games, LOL.

Just last Sunday night, we watched the Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Chloe is a Beverly Hill Chihuahua who owned by Vivian. Chloe get a life which lots of ladies are desperate for. Vivian pampers her so much. She is brought to shop for latest fashion. She is put on nice clothes, booties and gorgeous jewelry. At home, she enjoys her time for swimming and sun bathing. She owns her own private garden, swimming pool and sun bathing bench. Oh, what a wonderful life she has.

One day, Vivian has to go on a business trip and Chloe was taken care by her niece, Rachel. The exciting part begins when Rachel brought Chloe to Mexico. Poor Chloe was kidnapped and put into a dog fight with a Doberman dog, named El Diablo. She was fortunate to be saved by a German Shepperd, Delgado. Both of them went though a hard journey to find a way home to Beverly Hills. They met a group of Chihuahuas. There's where Chloe learns how to bark and the Chihuahua's slogan "Tiny but Mighty".

Not to forget about Papi, a gardener Chihuahua who plays an important role to save Chloe. They fall in love eventually, hehe......

"Tiny but Mighty", don't let my Tiger Chihuahua hears about it. I would prefer he stays as what he is right now, "Tiny and Timid". :)

Fun Time With Jimmy

My nephew, Jimmy turned 14 this year. He’s now in Form 2 secondary school. He is almost my height, but his mindset is still very childish, cute and innocent. That's what I love about his character, cuz he won't lie to me.

He stayed with us since when he was full moon. My mum babysit him until he graduated from primary school. Then he went back to his parents. I took care of him and I played with him everyday after school. He used to be a chubby and cute baby. A baby who loved to laugh a lot.

I'm happy that he's willing to spend his shool holiday at my place. He likes to watch me cooking and doing house chores. He helps me too. At home when he is alone, he cooks simple dishes for himself before he goes to school when my sister is away. He knows to fry egg, stir fry vegetables, fry rice, and noodle. Besides, he takes good care of his things . From what I look at him, he is quite independent.

We brought him to Chow Tian Yang, the aquarium and pet shop. He enjoyed the trip. He loves to watch the puppies, kittens, parrots, fishes, aquarium design, etc. We spend some time watching those puppies when they were having the grooming session. Shih Tzu is the most obedient dog from what we observed. Then we walked past the Fish Spa section. Jimmy took a voucher and read through it. Then he explained to me in detail. :)

After we bought 8 Guppies, 4 male and female each, then we headed for our dinner. I could see Jimmy enjoyed the day.

Jimmy's School Holiday

The school holiday starts. Although it is just a short break for one week, but my nephew Jimmy anticipates for his holiday since a month ago. I invited him for a stay at my house. Of course, I promised to let him play PSP, to watch HD cartoon DVDs, and to play with Tiger. I'll bring him jalan-jalan and makan-makan as well. He's super excited. Finally, the holiday is came. :)

How old is this little boy? Can you guess?

No Fun

After a couple of months of super hot weather in Penang, here comes the heavy down pour. This is so great, especially on Sunday. I can just staying at home doing nothing, but just relaxing.

However, this weekend is damn bored for me. Hubby is away since yesterday afternoon to attend his coursemate's wedding. Due to the house renovation, I need to stay at home to watch out the house. With the renovation tools at my kitchen, and all the mess and dust at every corner, I'm not able to have a good rest.

Not to forget about the extra task to do. I have to hand wash all the laundry. Ah, this is a tiresome job. I sweat a lot. Perhaps this is a good method to burn fat. :-)

Dust Everywhere

Photo courtesy of www.jigsawjungle.com

Our house is in a mess now. Dust is everywhere. Our renovation project has started. I feel extremely uncomfortable. I'm sleepy, moody and I can't have good night sleep. Hubby and Tiger are not sleeping well too. Especially Tiger, he ran along our bed and crying for help whole night long. He is not familiar with the new environment, and ask for companion.

Got to tahan for at least another week or two. Hmm....:(

Home Cooked Food

It has been almost 3 weeks since our last dine out. This is unbelievable! :) Not only save us a lot of money, but most importantly is we got our precious home cooked meal. Home cooked, home cooked and home cooked, that's what I'd like emphasize. Home cooked food always contain less food additives, and high in nutrition value.

I choose to consume more fresh vegetables and organic food. Organic brown rice, organic noodle and extra virgin organic olive oil become essential at home. I apply simple cooking method like steam, boil, and stir fry. Not even a single deep fried dish, cuz I replace it with pan fry. :)

Of course I have to sacrifice some time for cooking after every long working day. I fall in love with my hobby - cooking. I find that it is one of the efficient method to relief my tension. :)

Feng Shui

We were honoured to invite a Feng Shui Master to our house this afternoon. I purposely apply half day's leave to go home after lunch. The Feng Shui Master is my sister in law's uncle who is based in KL. My brother intents to buy a new house, but he wants to seek for some Feng Shui advice before he made up his mind. I'm glad that the new house is great in Feng Shui. :)

So, now you know. I just "tumpang" my sister in law. Got discount, hehehe...If based on the normal consultation fee, it's too expensive for me. My sister in law brought her uncle to my house. After going around the house inside out, from downstairs to upstairs, I learned a lot from the Master. Our Chinese horoscope and lunar birth date are the factors to be considered when talking about the bedroom. Not to forget about the home office too.

Ok, the conclusion is, we'll continue for the bedroom project make over, but will have to delay the plan to renovate the kitchen and main door. I've settled this with the contractor. He has no negative feedback. Whatever item that we don't want to do at the moment, he'll minus off the cost. That's it. Another positive comment for the contractor. :)

Superstitious or not, it depends on individuals. There's no right or wrong if you believe in it.

MSN Chatting

Lately I have been chatting with one of my niece through the MSN. She is my eldest sister's daughter. My sister delivered her when I was in Form 2. If you read my previous post, you'll know that I became an aunt since I was 1 year old, haha...

My niece, Patty was babysit by my mother when she was 2 months old. I spend my time playing with her and take care of her. She stayed with us till she completed her primary school. Since then, I've not seeing her often. We just meet up during the special occations. She is now in her Form 5 secondary school. Wow, time flies.

During the CNY, we met up at my in law's place. You must be wondering why, no? My hubby is her cousin, haha...see, our relationship is so complicated. Ok, just forget about it if you found this is difficult to understand. We spend time to chit-chat and to play with Tiger. She loves Tiger so much! We exchanged MSN ID, and she added me immediately after she went home.

From then, we started our communication through MSN. She is such an adorable girl. Although our conversation is just the normal topics, but I feel happy chatting with her. She contributed her simple opinions and comments, which I think it's very frank, cuz she tells from her heart. She is a kind girl.

Just want to say that, it's nice chatting with you, Patty!

Reunion Dinner

Last night, I created a new record in my life. I prepared a steamboat as reunion dinner for the whole family by myself. I used to help out mother in law and grandma in law preparing the dinner since the last couple of years when I married to hubby. But, preparing the dinner alone is my very first time. Now, I'm responsible for the reunion dinner since granny getting old, and mother in law still suffering from movement difficulties since she was diagnosed with stroke.

Fortunately I'm a good planner. I prepared some of the tiny things up front at home, packed and brought back to in law's place. Things that should never forget for steamboat are garlic oil, bird's eye chili with lime and chili sauce. Then for those fresh vegetables, mushrooms and assorted fish balls, I get them washed, cut and packed nicely to bring back. On the other hand, I reminded father in law to buy those fresh raw food like fish, prawns, squids, pork bones, chicken,...and so on.

Things turned out pretty good. Everybody enjoyed the reunion dinner. Even MIL ate up quite a lot. She never have such good appetite in these few months. So, mission acomplished. The cleaning job? Just passed on to the Indon maid. :)

Happy 牛 Year!

Moooo.......Ox Year is coming. Happy 牛 Year to all. For your information, 牛 is cow, just in case you can't read Chinese words.

So, as usual Chinese New Year is the season to have an excuse for eating to our heart's content. Yippee! I'll go to my parents place to have reunion lunch and then rush back to Sungai Petani for reunion dinner. I'll be the chef to cook dinner for in laws family. I wish everything will be fine. Just simple steamboat will do, hehe...... Also, I'll do my last minute baking. Plan to bake one butter cake for hubby & myself, then one margarine cake for my parents and parents in law each. Phew.......looks like I still have lots of task pending.

To all my readers, wishing you a very Auspicious New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai!

I Feel Better

Dear fellow friends, thanks for your concerns. I feel much better now. As planned, hubby brought me to Pragin Mall this morning. I went back to my previous reliable hair stylist Fion. I was her first customer of the day. We had a nice chat and she's so glad about the confidence I have on her skill. :) I told her how disappointed I was on my hair cut, and I let her know how I wish it could be. She truly understand my requirement and she did a very good job to save my hair. Yippy! Now I have a totally new hair cut, which I like it very much. No longer the "old grandma" look. I look pretty modern and stylish! :D

After coming back, I enjoyed my time to shape my eye brows, to do a facial exfoliating treatment, and to put up deep cleaning mask, followed by a peel off mask. Hehe...All these made me feel so great! :)

Another good news. About the running nose, it is getting well. In fact it is not so serious. I just took higher doses of Vit-C to ease it. No medicine! I prefer natural food supplements than drugs.

Things Go Wrong

I'm not feeling well these few days. I have running nose, sore throat, and stomachache. I purposely applied one day off to rest at home yesterday. I took my time to sleep.

With the current increase of work load, my time is fully occupied at work. I take up 2 additional products under my belt. Which means, I eat up my other colleague's portion. I extended my job responsibility. I have the bigger cake now. I know this will secure my job at this moment. This is the result from the re-organization.

Also, I'm not so satisfied with my new hair style. I've made up my mind to get another style. Sigh...why everything is become haywire? Why everything comes in one shot?

School Re-open Headache

Photo courtesy of www.targetwoman.com

Tomorrow is the first day of school for the year 2009. There are 2 schools located at the main road outside our residential area. Every year on this day, the traffic condition will turn horribly bad. Tomorrow, I plan to go to work before the clock reach 7 am. I know this is the only way to escape the traffic jam.

Reach the office early is better than late, especially during this period. Got to behave at work. You know what I mean?

Happy New Year 2009~~

Just started working yesterday and now going to have holiday again! Company just announce shut down this Friday so I'll have a long weekend ahead. Happy new year everybody!
☆╭┐┌╮☆°．﹒
╭┘└┘└╮∴°☆°
└┐．．┌┘───╮∴°
╭┴──┤HAPPY ├╮
│ｏ　ｏ│牛YEAR │●°
╰┬──╯ │ ∴°﹒
☆ | / /∴☆

Hubby and I plan to go for seafood dinner tonight :) I want big crabs and prawns, I wan I wan :P

House Make Over?

Photos courtesy from www.games.co.id

We visited my eldest sister's house in Butterworth on the 2nd day of Christmas. Yes, if you follow my blog all this while you'll know my eldest sister & I have a very big gap on our age and she is also my 婶婶. Her family just moved into a new house. She spends a lot on the house renovation. I really like her house design. The interior design is much more modern than my house in Penang island. Although we have the similar type of house, but renovation makes a huge difference.

I guess my sister spends at least RM80k on the renovation. The plaster ceiling, the galvanized auto gate, the beautiful grand lighting, new furniture, and the super deluxe kitchen. Wow! Really envy. Of course money is the main factor. 4 years back when hubby & I moved into our current house, we spend just very little on the renovation. We are fortunate to have FIL paid off the house. We just add the skirting to down stair flooring, get the house painted, and our bedroom furniture. The rest are all dedicated by FIL. He bought us the sofa, the dining table, the kitchen cabinet, the fridge and the guest rooms' furniture. My parents dedicated some electrical products, and MIL bought me some cooking utensils. Hubby & I just started working at that time, so we were really tight in cash. Sounds so pity hor? :( Only a year later we spent about RM10k to building up the gate and the tiling the car porch.

After we visited our sister's new home, discussed with FIL that we wanted the house opposite to ours (we shared to bought it over recently). It would be easier for us to renovate an empty house rather than our current occupy house. Basically there's no objection from FIL. It's up to our decision. But after thinking of the renovation cost that would incure, we are kind of giving up. We doubt we have the capability with the limited cash we have. If we will to move over to that house, we will have to renovate the car porch, the gate, the kitchen, the upstair's grill, some furniture and electical products...So many things. How can we afford it?

So, hubby and I sitting down to make some calculations, we are now thinking of just to upgrade our current house. I still have the very basic kitchen till now. The space is big, but I have limited place to prepare my meal. Sigh...I think it's time for us to make over the kitchen. I don't think I need the super expensive granite table top for the kitchen like my sis's, just the normal tiles will do. We really have to minimize the cost. Besides, I want to make over my master bedroom's bathroom and also get the empty space at the back build up become laundry area. Also, I want a better quality main door. Our current door looks terribly old and ugly.

Which plan sounds more reasonable? I'll get advice from my parents. :)

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Dear my friends and readers, I would like to wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May the new year bring us lots of good happenings! :)

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way...wish all of us have a healthy and pleasant 2009!

New year is approaching, any one of you plan anything for the upcoming year yet?

Hubby and I went shopping these days for new clothes...in Parkson Sungai Petani, Gurney Plaza, Queensbay Mall....new year, new dress a must, hehehe..

My sister is moving into her new house tomorrow, so I'll be visiting her new home this Friday.

Stay tuned... and once again Merry X'mas and Happy New Year!