Things they did

On most Saturdays, Hubby needs to go to work (although self-employed) and I am stuck at home looking after my 2 girls as my parents-in-law will go back to their home town nearby for a break.

I try not to 'work' but try to accompany them as much as possible. I will also get hubby to buy simple lunch like chicken rice or fish ball vermicelli so that I can skip cooking. Sometimes when I need cook lunch for them, they will end up watching TV and I think the time is better spent on bonding time with them.



Several Saturdays ago, I did some simple crafts with them. I helped to cut out shapes from coloured paper and Tian could do her own pasting. I would deliberately leave some details undone, in this case, the ladybird's spots so that Tian could colour by herself. After the bug was done, I pasted it onto a straw and she used it as a magic wand.



I also bought a 'pool' so that they could play with water without having to go to beaches or swimming pools.

They had a great time playing but Tao (my younger girl) could not understand why she needed to come out of water after playing for about 20 minutes and she would cry for more than one hour. Every time she peeked outside and saw the pool, she would cry again. Since then, I have kept the 'pool' in storeroom until she could understand "Enough is enough".

I know it is unfair to the elder girl as she kept on asking me when she can 'swim' in the pool again. Maybe one day, when hubby is at home and can help to keep an eye on them, I will let them play once in while.

No easy way to earn money

I have been investing in mutual funds on regular basis. Not a lot but I have a few funds that I will top up (a couple of hundreds ringgit just for savings sake) whenever I see the prices dropping in order to capture lower buying price.

The problem is whenever I top up the funds, the fund prices will start to drop so I will ignore them for a while. When I begin to study the prices again, I have missed the good prices to consider selling those funds that I should be able to make some money. Hmmph!!

I guess I can only earn money through hard work. No easy money for me.

Understanding Monthly Tax Deductions

I went to LHDN (Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri) in the city a few days ago to apply for employer income tax number for the company as well as employees' income tax number. The officer taught me how to download a software that would reflect income tax deductions from employees' salary that we would need to bring to the bank when paying for Monthly Tax Deductions.

I began to understand how salary my salary was deducted before. Employers will refer to Schedule of Monthly Tax Deductions to determine amount of tax to be deducted from employee's salary. That is why it is important to let employer know any changes of marital status, whether one's spouse was working and how many children in the family. These information will ensure accuracy of deduction so that one does not need to claim overpaid PCB (Potongan Cukai Berjadual or Monthly Tax Deductions in English) the following year when we need to submit Borang B or BE.

Schedule of Monthly Tax Deductions provided

I noticed newer generations of government servants were very polite, efficient, helpful and understanding. We do have people around us (especially older generations and those influenced by them) who will not hesitate to criticize government servants but I am sure these services from government servants will continue to improve.

Shopping Spree

I am always ready for shopping whenever my parents visit me. My family members are the only people who can tolerate my 'passion' for shopping. I could walk around one shopping centre from morning until night (resting only for meals) even when I was pregnant. I would also lug around my two daughters and my 'unwilling' hubby for shopping when there were nobody at home to look after them.

When my parents visited me last week, I brought them shopping and bought a lot of stuff. The excuse that I used was 'These are all for Chinese New Year and I will not have time to go shopping after they left'. So let's see my loot below.


For Tao, I bought 3 sets of clothes for Chinese New Year, 1 pyjamas (my kids must have new pyjamas for CNY as my parents practised this when we were young), shoes bought by my mum. I will need to buy new socks and some comfortable clothes to wear at home. This is only the minimum requirement as I always end up buying at least 5 sets of clothes for each of them.


For Tian, I only managed to buy a dress for her, 2 pyjamas and the Jusco brand blouse and shorts were too cheap not to buy so I could let her wear those at home. I will need to buy at least 2 more sets of Chinese New Year clothes, a pair of shoes and socks for her.

I bought those at Padini. I have been wanting to by a cardigan but nice ones were not on sales before. These are not considered as Chinese New Year clothes though.


I bought the blouse because it looked nice after being worn.


This pair of shoes was really cheap after discount due to no sizes left. Excuse to buy: Shoes were flat so I could carry Tao when going out. Not that I never carry Tao in high heels before. Haha.


This shirt was expensive even though after 50% discount but hubby did not like the faded effect. He would wear whatever clothes I buy for him anyway because he disliked going shopping and trying on clothes. So I will buy for him any clothes that I think will look nice on him.

I have been busy.....

Last three weeks were busy weeks for me. Florists began to orders cut foliage from me but quantity was really small and each florist would only order once every two weeks. What I had heard was that most of the florist here tend to plant some species on their own and they would only order from suppliers when there were huge orders from their customers.

I was busy not because of the orders but because I did not fix a day with them for delivery. I ended up delivering one small batch of leaves to customer A and received a phone call from customer B requesting for same types of leaves the following day. I will need to come up with an agreement with them so that I can save some petrol.

My mum came two weeks ago and my dad five days ago and both of them went back to home town yesterday. They went to Resort World Casino in Singapore with my PILs last Friday using tourist bus and it was a good deal. Each person paid SGD100 that included bus fare, SGD10 meal vouchers, SGD100 betting chips (not exchangeable for cash, one needed to place bet and only the winning chips could be cashed), some betting vouchers that needed to be topped with cash of similar value.

I planned to bring them to Desaru but the kids and my mum were not well due to the hazy condition here. We ended up going shopping most of the time. I wanted to bring my mum to buy clothes but I ended up buying lots of stuff for Tian and Tao. I saw some really pretty dresses for the kids that costed above RM90 and some branded ones above RM120!! I kept on telling myself not to buy as kids grow so fast. Only if I have more orders for leaves, then I will consider to use the extra income to buy for them.

Tao's Favourite Past Time

Free Labour for Majlis Perbandaran Kulai

Picking up leaves, pebbles, soil from the ground and stuffing them into her mouth when we are unaware

Donating Stuff to Orphanage

I went for breakfast on Sunday with my girls and hubby and there was a small sized road show for parents and kids. There were singing competition, colouring competition, story telling etc. I noticed there was an area for recycling organized by an orphanage nearby. I did not even know there was an orphanage near my house and I had never heard my friends talking about it as well. It showed how uncaring this society had become.

After lunch, I gathered my bags of old clothes and boxes of old magazines and asked hubby to fetch me to pass my stuff to the recycling committee. When I reached there, they told me it was only until 12:00pm and gave me the address to pass my stuff directly to the orphanage. It took me more than half an hour to find it.

I passed my old clothes and magazines to them. They thanked me and I had to resist the temptation to check my stuff again to ensure I really do not need them anymore. I told myself, 'For Goodness Sake! You packed these stuff more than 1 year ago and never needed to retrieve any item. Just let go and you will find space for newer things to come.'

So I said good bye to them and left, feeling good about myself. I educated Tian about orphanage and how lucky she was to have mum and dad who loved and cared about her.

I plan to do more spring cleaning and de-cluttering these coming weeks.

Hard Anodized Wok

I have never thought that I would be so happy about buying a wok. I am falling into 'auntie' category.

I have been searching around for a value for money wok. The one that my MIL is currently using is too big for my liking. I only cook for my kids and sometimes simple dishes for the family so I do not like to lug around the big traditional wok for cooking and washing.

I planned to buy Tefal non-stick pan but after reading an article about poisonous fumes from the pan when cooked under high temperature (I am a Chinese, so it is inevitable) I dropped the idea. Stainless steel wok that I found looked more like aluminium wok and the quality on the handle etc was bad.

I went to Jusco to look for anodized wok a few weeks ago but all the good quality woks costed more than RM150. So I decided to wait for member's day to arrive before I go and buy.

Last week, I saw in the newspaper the same brand that I planned to buy at Tesco at 50% discount and quickly suggested to hubby to go shopping there. Ta da......



I am so happy. The quality of this wok is good and it not too big for daily handling and most important thing is that it costs less than RM100. Hehe!

Nutritional Supplements for My Girls

It has been a month since I started to feed Tian and Tao with Multivitamin mentioned here. The effect is quite good. Both of them seldom have runny nose anymore. Even if they sneeze and cough, they will get better after taking medication once or twice (leftover from their previous visit to family GP).

The result is more significant in Tao. My MIL says she looks healthier (not that pale anymore) and fleshier but I think she is still in the 'mini size category'.

I feed them only once a day and one bottle have to be consumed in a month. After the first bottle is finished, I will stop feeding them and see how it goes. Children have to build up their immune system and cannot depend too much on nutritional supplements, that's what I think.

A visit to orchid plantation

Last Monday, I went with my hubby to visit his customer who owns an orchid plantation. After having discussion with him, he brought us around his plantation and I had an enjoyable time admiring different species of orchids.

Enjoy the photos below:

Aftermath of Car Accident

I went to the workshop last Saturday to pass some documents before the workshop can proceed to repair my car. I passed to them 'Perakuan Pendaftaran Kenderaan', Private Car Schedule (Insurance Policy) and my IC and driving license as well as my husband's IC and driving license (as car owner).

My Police Report. Private information covered with Tian's colour pencil

The clerk was kind enough to e-mail to me photos taken at the accident so that I can update in this blog and I have also got a photostated copy of my police report. Who knows I might need it to make complaint about absence of traffic light at that junction in newspaper if I have time and nothing better to do. Heh! Heh!

The damage on my poor car

The van swung 180 degree after knocked by me, bumped onto the divider and knocked the right front of the Waja on the left. Imagine how 'light' this van is and I doubt on the safety factor of this type of van and it is used to fetch children to and fro pre-schools!!

The damage on the Waja

My daughter now view me as a mum who will simply knock into cars. Whenever I drive her out and there is a car in front of us, she will quickly grab her booster seat and says, 'Mama, be careful of the car in front. Don't knock into the car, OK?' Hmmmph.

Car accident

I have always considered myself as a cautious driver but I have had a few minor accidents before.

First accident I had was many years back when my hubby fetch me to visit their family plantation quite far away from main road (tar road). He was driving along bumpy red soil road and I asked him to let me try to navigate the 'jungle road'. We came across a puddle at a T-junction and my hubby told me to drive 'faster' past the puddle so that our car would not get stuck. I listened to him, pressed onto the accelerator hard and swerved right. However, I accelerated too hard and could not go straight in time and went straight into a ditch. My hubby did not know to laugh or call me stupid. Some farmers passed by and used their lorry to pull our car out.

Second accident happened when I was driving along a long stretch of road. When I came to a traffic light, I saw the light turning yellow and decided to stop instead of rushing pass. The car behind me could not stop in time. Luckily, I saw the car coming fast towards me and I released my brake and tried to go forward but the car still knocked my bumper. The lady was so scared that she was trembling as she wrote her phone number to me. I was quite calm at that time and asked her to see if her children were injured. I recognised her as she was a teller in a bank that I always go so I was not worried about compensation.

Today, I meet with car accident again! I went to fetch my daughter, Tian from her pre-school and went to petrol station to fill up petrol. It was raining when I drove back home. As I reached a junction, a van turned despite seeing my car going straight. I honked at him, pressed on the brake and made a slight turn to the right to avoid him but his van was not fast enough and I knocked the left rear of his van. I could not swerve in time as the wheels were locked when I braked due to no ABS function. The impact of my car hitting the van caused it to bump into another car stopping at the junction. It was a funny scene as the innocent driver told me she saw our car knocking and she had already stopped her car but did not expect she would be hit as well. The driver turned out to be a driver of a pre-school as I saw the pre-school logo on his shirt (I won't dare to let my kids to be fetched by 'bas sekolah' anymore).

I quickly called my hubby to come. The driver acted blur and told me to claim insurance. I said, 'Yes, claim insurance but YOUR insurance, not MINE.'

He said he wanted to leave first because he had to fetch the children back home. Luckily I was calm enough at that time and did not panic (Maybe due to past experience :p). I told him, 'To claim insurance, you need to make police report so you need to wait.' Luckily, I did not foolishly let him go after he gave me his name card. Without police report, I would not be able to claim compensation on my car repair which I think will be very expensive looking at the damage done.

The ever-ready 'Towing service' arrived and told me to make police report with him and they will settle the rest of the bills with the driver's insurance company. So my hubby called his dad to come to fetch Tian home and went to police station with me. I made my report and the person in charge of the towing company told me they will take a few days to settle the insurance issues and will repair my car like new!!

I honestly marvel at the efficiency of the towing service. In fact, there were two companies coming to us but the guy who reached first shooed away the second guy. I guess economy is bad and people have to stay competitive in order to survive. If only every organisations are as efficient (you should know which organisations I am referring to), we would have much better place to live in.

I remembered this morning when I went out with my hubby and parents-in-law for breakfast, I removed Tian's booster seat so that we could sit comfortably. When I wanted to fetch Tian in the afternoon, I was considering to take time to put the booster seat back on the passenger seat or not. So I thought, better be save than be sorry and went to my bonnet to get the booster seat. When we left the petrol station, I remembered to put the seat belt on Tian. Otherwise she would have been hurt from the impact. Sometimes we do take short cuts when we think the distance from her pre-school to our home is so near and do not bother with booster seat when we have placed it in bonnet. After this incident, I will ensure my kids are properly strapped in car seat (for Tao) and booster seat (for Tian) every time we go out.

* Photos will be uploaded soon.

I have succumbed to nutritional supplements

I have never bought nutritional supplements because I do not trust the claims regarding the products. I do not feed my kids with nutritional supplements because I am worried some might be harmful to their liver.

Since Tian started pre-school, she started having flu and took forever to recover. Then the virus spreads to Tao who is always very cranky if she is not feeling well. Since last week, my MIL has been suggesting for me to buy some 'cod's liver oil' for the kids. I am doubtful about the ingredients used since most companies are profit-oriented and will not be so ethical to ensure quality and safety of ingredients used. However, I told her I will get something for the kids today.

This morning, I went to the shop selling organic products that I usually go to buy phytomilk powder and foods for the kids and bought RM309 worth of products! I think my hubby will faint when I tell him tonight.

I bought 2 bottles of Liquid Multivitamin (from Salus-Haus, Germany) for the kids (cheaper to buy 2). The shop owner recommended for me to buy Oligo Cal-Plus, Oligo Enzyme (from Oasis Herbs) and Natural C (from NHF) due to I am having phlemy flu for many days that I am not able to smell anymore.

I hope the kids will get flu and cough lesser after taking this multivitamins and will not spread to me anymore so that we do not have to depend on supplements. I still prefer to eat natural foods anytime. I will update on the results after taking these supplements.

It's Time to Change a New Pair of Spectacles

This morning, I left Tian and Tao in the bedroom as I went to the connecting washroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. I closed the door behind me to prevent Tao from crawling into the washroom.

I heard Tao screaming and thought the two sisters must be fighting for certain toy. When I came out, i saw this.

I reprimanded Tian for snatching my spectacles from younger sister but I knew her intention was good. She wanted to tell her sister not to play with mummy's spectables but her method used was wrong.

This is not the first time Tian broke our glasses. About a year back, she broke my mum's spec that she put on the table. When my MIL raised her voice asking her to return to my mum, she became anxious and struggled with my MIL and broke the spec.

A few months back, she broke my hubby's spec as my hubby liked to play 'wrestling' game with her. She kicked his face and broke the nose pad area due to it was bent and repaired several times already.

Also a few months back, she played with my sunglasses (old one) that I did not use anymore. She tried to put it on by herself and somehow bent the glasses in the wrong way and snapped it.

I have planned to change to a new pair of spectacles but felt that it does not have to be so soon as my spec is still in good condition and I guess Tian is just helping me to decide to change my spec sooner. I have to set aside several hundred ringgit for this. *heartache*

Overall Updates

I have not been updating this blog for long. Many things have happened so I have decided to update all happenings at once.
1) My younger sister has got married in Dec 2008.
2) I had serious bouts of morning sickness (whole day sickness, to be exact) at 8th weeks into pregnancy and recovered just before Chinese New Year.
3) We went to Melaka for Chinese New Year gathering with my husband's relatives
4) My bro moved into his new house in Kuching before Chinese New Year.
5) Due to recession, I had a 10% pay cut
6) Tian is growing up smart and full of mischief. She has learnt to pronounced longer words like 'iguana', 'butterfly', 'aeroplane', 'elephant'.
7) I went for my fourth month gynae check up and he mentioned that we are going to have another daughter
8) Celebrated my 30th birthday in a modest way at home with a birthday cake and took some family photos. My husband bought a new handphone with bluetooth headphone as my birthday present.
9) Bought a 40" Samsung LCD TV at SenHeng during a weekend sale.
10) Realised that Tian has started to exercise more control like sitting on her potty without us holding her and feeding her medication without holding her down and forcing medicine into her mouth using syringe.

Love for Daddy

We went to Melaka during Hari Raya holidays from Tuesday to Saturday last week. We did not visit any place, not even Jonker Street. We stayed at a relative's home. Her bungalow was huge with spacious yard to Tian to consume her pent up energy. We spent our time eating, chatting and the guys played 'Mahjong'.

The day before we came home, my husband fell off from a bicycle (yes, bicycle and not motorcycle) while trying to compete with his brother. The chain on the bike came loose when he accelerated. He went to see doctor and had a tetanus shot but his wound was healing very slowly.

I suggested using the painful and faster way for him. That was to apply a Chinese ointment bought at Chinese medical hall. I voluntered to apply the ointment for him (I am sadistic).
However, Tian cried two days ago when she saw her Dad struggling with pain so we had to bring her away.

After dinner just now, I helped LK to apply the ointment again and Tian cried again. She knew it meant pain as she said 'shao' (hot in Mandarin). For her, pain and hot means the same thing because she accidentally poked her finger into a lotus paste bun before and got burnt. It was painful and hot for her.