Home improvements

We moved into our current house in early 2007, and five years on, things are beginning to show signs of wear and in need of repairs.  There’s a whole lot of home improvement works in my list but the work has been delayed again and again.  Reason being we are planning to get the original interior decorator cum contractor who renovated our house to work on them, but he has been busy with other bigger projects so ours repeatedly got pushed back.

In any case, we started work on our small patch of lawn in the front yard with a garden landscaper.  We had previously planted Philippines grass which required a lot of maintenance.  The grass grew quite fast and therefore needed to be cut at least once in 1-2 months.  And due to different level of exposure to sunlight, the lawn had turned ugly with patches of yellow, as Philippines grass need sunlight to grow well.  We also had a giant-leaved yam plant which was growing too huge for the small garden and encroaching into the parking area.

So one fine day, the workers came and uprooted the grass and the yam plant.

We replaced the Philippine grass with the low maintenance pearl grass, which requires little cutting or watering.  The texture of the pearl grass is not as nice as the Philippines grass, but I’d trade this for the convenience and time saving.  In place of the yam plant, we planted a bonsai-like tree which will not grow sideways.

Next project for the front yard would be to get pavers to replace the interlocking paving stones at the car porch, which has weeds growing in between, to patterned tiles for easier maintenance.

More crafts work

For the past many weeks, Yiu Yiu didn’t bring home any craft work from her classes, but we knew she was working on a giraffe.  Last Saturday, she finally came home with these:

I love the colourful giraffe.

Girls pretending to ride on the giraffe.

This, another giraffe according to her, is a ring toss toy…

 …and this is a tissue holder.

Becoming 四眼妹 (four-eyed girl)

Yiu Yiu came home from school one day, informing us that there was an eye check at school, and she was diagnosed with astigmatism.  We took her to the optometrist to get it checked out again, and confirmed her astigmatism of 1.0 Diopter.  She also has nearsightedness of 0.5 Diopter.

I asked the optometrist the reason for her sight problems, and he said that most likely it’s inborn.  A quick check on medical literature confirms that the cause of astigmatism is unknown.  It is usually present from birth, and often occurs together with nearsightedness or farsightedness.  According to an American study, nearly three in 10 children have astigmatism, and the prevalence is higher in Asian children.

While adults with a higher degree of astigmatism may realize their vision isn't as good as it should be, children who have astigmatism symptoms may not be aware they have this condition, and are unlikely to complain about blurred or distorted vision.  So parents of young child(ren), if you are reading this, please schedule regular eye exams for your child(ren) to avoid vision problem in school, which may impair their performance in school and in sports.

Back to Yiu Yiu, the optometrist recommended that she starts wearing glasses, so that she doesn’t need to strain her eyes when looking at the blackboard in school.  We shortlisted these two frames – actually she chose the pink one and I asked her to consider the purple one.  No prize for guessing which one we ended buying J

And now I present to you, the bespectacled Yiu Yiu…

Yan Yan singing and talking

This girl loves to talk. Whenever I have a conversation with her jie-jie or papa, she would just throw in some words, any words, in an attempt to join in the conversation :-)

This was taken last Sunday.  It was a milestone moment for her - it was the first time the scaredy cat slid down the slide on her own.

Some snippets of her talking and singing in recent months.

@ 2 years, 8 months
We were lazing around on the bed, when she suddenly held my face with her hands and proposed to me, “You are my best friend. I marry you ah!”

@ 2 years, 9 months
I was cleaning up Yan Yan’s bag and threw away some rubbish, among others, a milk powder scoop, a KFC mashed potatoes plastic spoon and several really short pencil colours, into the dustbin in our room. Moments later, she saw those things in the bin, picked them up, and reprimanded me with her serious face:
Mummy, these are not for throwing.
It’s your fault.
Don’t throw anymore ah.

She loves watching her jie-jie kindy graduation video, but she always does not place the DVD back into its case. One day I found the case on the bedside table, again with the DVD missing. I knew she had just watched it the night before so I asked her where the DVD was.
Yan Yan: It’s in the computer la.
She watched it on the portable DVD player so I took out the DVD player from the cupboard and retrieved the DVD.
Yan Yan: See, I told you it’s there ma.

Singing in the car.

First foray into baking buns

A mixer that steams food…
A food processor that makes ice-cream…
A rice cooker that kneads dough…
A weighing scale that minces meat…
A juicer that cooks soup…
Any many more.

What am I raving about? For cooking aficionados, you would know that I’m talking about this magic kitchen appliance, the Thermomix. I attended a 2.5 hour cooking demonstration recently and within that short span of time, with two Thermomix machines, they prepared lemonade, moist chocolate cake, multi-grain mantou, chicken charsiew bun, cauliflower and broccoli soup, rendang chicken, steamed rice, steamed egg, steamed brinjal and mango sorbet. Indeed an amazingly versatile machine.

If you are wondering, I didn’t succumb to the temptation, simply because I already own most of the appliances that makes up the Thermomix, especially a bread machine that also cooks and roasts.  And since I don’t cook that much, it would be an investment with pretty low returns.

Anyway, that demonstration rejuvenated my interest with my bread machine so last weekend, I wiped the cobweb off my bread machine and set out to make some buns.  It was an easy process of placing all the ingredients in the machine and letting it knead for 20 minutes, before leaving the dough to rise to twice its size.  Then I manually kneaded for a while before dividing the dough into smaller portions and filled them up with curry chicken and sausages, and let it rise again.

Off into the oven they go, and 12 minutes later, the aroma of freshly baked buns wafted through my kitchen.  The buns turned out really well, and I have my week’s supply of breakfast.  It was a satisfying experience, and I’m game for more.

Back to the Thermomix – do I really need it? No, I don’t. Do I want it? Yes I do. If only it’s not that expensive.

El Cerdo

I have a new boss, and he’s German. He’s just 5-6 weeks into the job, and has been doing the rounds meeting with some of our key customers. We had a dinner outing last Friday with some customers at El Cerdo, located on the hip and happening Changkat Bukit Bintang. I must be the most “ulu” person in town and was quite surprised by the lively atmosphere at Changkat Bukit Bintang. Can’t recall when I last stepped foot on this street.

Anyway, back to the restaurant – El Cerdo means "The Pig" in Spanish, and as the name suggests, specialises in pork dishes.

The restaurant is adorned with lots and lots of piggy photos and paraphernalia. We reached quite early and the restaurant was pretty empty, but not for long. By 8pm, it was full. I was told that reservations need to be made at least a week in advance, especially when it’s a big group.

We ordered the Spanish ham platter and the El Cerdo Sausage Platter, a variety of home-made sausages served with mashed potato and sauerkraut, as starters.  I didn’t find the ham platter extraordinary but the ribs were really good.  Next came the German Crispy Knuckle, which was another winner. The aroma was totally appetizing, and it came with a serving of potato dumpling and sauerkraut. We also had the Oven Roasted Spanish Ribs, another winner.

Clockwise from top left: German Crispy Knuckle, Sausage Platter, Spanish Ham Platter and Oven Roasted Ribs

The highlight of the evening was its famous Whole Roasted Suckling Piglet, which was accompanied by a traditional ceremony before eating. The piglet was apparently slow roated for six hours, until the meat is so tender that diners can cut in into pieces by using only a plate. The ceremony started with knocking the plate on the wooden serving dish three times, before chopping the piglets into parts. After cutting, the person who cut would made a wish before throwing the plate into a big wooden bucket, smashing it into pieces. Apparently it will bring good luck to the diner – I think it’s just a gimmick conceived by the restaurant owner :-) Though interesting, I find that it’s such a wasteful practice, as two plates are wasted per order of the piglet – one for the staff to demonstrate, and one for the diner who cut up the piglet. I didn’t like the piglet much, as the smell of the pork was too strong. Even the vaporizer volcano can't take away the smell.


We ended our meal with two varieties of paella – Mountain Paella, which is paella with pork bacon, chicken and fresh mushroom, and Paella con Mariscos, with king tiger prawns, squids and scallops.

Clockwise from top left: Suckling pig, the bucket with smashed up plates, Paella con Mariscos and Mountain Paella

We were so stuffed at the end that we didn’t have any room for desserts.

My 30 something birthday

I celebrated my 30th something birthday on Wednesday. I took leave from work and had the luxury of sleeping in. I was woken by Yiu Yiu who greeted me with, “Happy Birthday mummy”. We went for brunch and by the time we got back, it was time to get Yiu Yiu ready for school.

Hubby and I then visited the managing director of VKA Wealth Planners, hubby’s personal friend, for a quick chat on our financial planning for retirement and girls’ tertiary education. We concluded that our current portfolio of investments is not sufficient to support our future aspirations. He will perform an in-depth assessment of our current financial status and investment portfolio, and projected amount required for the future, and propose an investment plan that will help us meet our goals. There goes my hope of quitting my job, as we will need the income to fund our investments.

We ended the day with a simple dinner at this porky place.  Hubby had grilled soft ribs, I had pork chop with country gravy, and the girls had bacon tomato spaghetti, coincidentally, the exact same items we ordered the last time :-). We also tried the pig-in-a-blanket, which was pork cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon and oven cooked. They were delicious.

The only thing I missed doing on my birthday was visiting the nail salon and spa. I wouldn’t mind trying this awesome range of nail colours after reading the julep maven review.

And when I went to office the next day, I received this – hubby had ordered it earlier, not knowing that I would be on leave.

Co-curricular activity – gymrama

Yiu Yiu started on her gymrama class sometime in mid-February, and is enjoying herself tremendously.  Her class is on every Saturday, 1-3pm, and she always look forward to it.

The class is conducted by a former national rhythmic gymnast, a multiple SEA Games gold medallist, but the newcomers are mostly coached by the assistant coach.  For the few lessons that Yiu Yiu attended so far, she and the other new students were taught the basic rhythmic gymnastic moves like doing splits, balance, turn, etc.

Here’s a glimpse of the class in progress last Saturday.

Warming up 

 How flexible is your body?

Balancing - on the toes and chin up 

That's the coach

She ain't heavy, she's my sister...no, this wasn't part of the routine :-)

This is how you lift your legs, so says the assistant coach

Afternoon tea @ Delicious, Marc Residence

Whenever I walk past Delicious @ Midvalley, I always wondered how their afternoon tea-for-two set is like. Sometime last year, I saw a deal on Everyday, now Living Social, that was offering the same tea for two set for an unbelievable price of RM35 only. I quickly grab the coupon and after soooo long, when the coupon is nearing expiry, only did I make the trip to Marc Residence yesterday with sis and the two girls :-)

I love the warm and cosy décor of the restaurant, with the artificial branches and hanging lights in bird cage all over the restaurant.

The restaurant was almost full when we arrived, and many tables had the three tier dessert stand – the restaurant must have been overwhelmed with many voucher holders redeeming their vouchers at the very last minute.

Service was disappointing slow, as expected, and the management should be blamed for not taking steps to increase manpower – they would have known the number of diners who would turn up, as prior reservation was required. Kudos however, to the waiters and waitresses for their patience, and ever smiling face when attending to each and every request. Certainly no KFC-like fiasco here!

After a long, long wait, our drinks finally arrived – I ordered the iced latte, while sis had the hot lemongrass tea, and we ordered an extra lemongrass and lychee freeze for Yiu Yiu. After another long, long wait, our food finally arrived. The girls immediately dug into the chocolate brownie with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice-cream. I managed to steal a bit from them, and it was delicious – cold ice-cream melting on the warm brownie. Aahhh…

The second and third tiers consisted of warm scones with preserves and fresh cream, strawberry chocolate dip, hand-rolled chocolate truffles, rosemary and cheese cookies, assortment of finger sandwiches and duck confit in filo pastry. Sis and I ate and ate, and still we couldn’t seem to finish the food :-) We did in the end, and ended up skipping our dinners.

Bad things come in threes

~An entry from Yiu Yiu's perspective~

I had an extremely bad day yesterday, and for the first time in my life, I experienced the adage that things happen in threes.

It started with mummy forgetting to pack my t-shirt and shorts for PE into the green recycle bag that I bring to daycare.  I only realized her boo boo when I wanted to change into my uniform after my shower.  I normally wear my t-shirt inside the white shirt and the shorts too, so I only need to remove my pinafore and shirt during PE.  I started crying because I was worried that I might be penalized for not wearing appropriate PE attire on a PE day.  Teacher Fu quickly called mummy, and luckily mummy picked up the call.  You see, mummy was having a full day training and she doesn’t typically pick up calls during training/meeting, more so from an unfamiliar number.  That’s because Teacher Fu called from the land line, instead of the mobile phone number stored in mummy’s phone.  Anyway, mummy told Teacher Fu that she would ask po-po to go to our house to get the t-shirt and shorts, and pass them to Aunty Tan, who also fetches Yihao to school.

I was still crying inconsolably when mummy called back to inform me of the arrangement.  She told me to keep the t-shirt and shorts in my school bag, and change in the toilet before PE.  I calmed down after that and went to school.  I ended up changing in the class, as Teacher Kathleen was worried that I might get my uniform dirty in the wet toilet.

Later at night when mummy came to fetch me from po-po’s house (she was late as she had to attend the team dinner), I asked to play a while longer with Yihao, Xiaoyu and mei-mei at the car porch.  We saw a moth flying about and started chasing it.  I lost my footing and fell face down, knocking my nose and getting a nasty bump on my elbow.  It was so painful I cried for a good 5-10 minutes!

When we were home, mummy quickly helped me to pack my bag as she wanted to get us to bed since it was already 10pm but I requested for Maggi mee supper instead.  Mummy decided that it was easier to cook for us instead of putting up with two whining sisters.  While we eat, she went upstairs to take a quick shower but halfway through, she had to rush downstairs in her towel when she heard me screaming in pain.  A naughty little bee decided to sting me while I was happily savouring my Maggi mee.  It was so painful that I asked mummy to send me to the hospital emergency amidst my very loud cries.  The neighbours must have thought that I was being tortured!  Mummy saw the stinger jutting out from between my toes and wanted to remove it with her tweezer but I refused to let her, insisting that she sends me to the hospital and let the doctor remove it J  Anyway, the sharp pain subsided after a while but amidst my sobbing, I still refused to let mummy remove the stinger.  Actually I was afraid that she  was gonna poke me with the tweezer (like in getting an injection) but I was reassured when I saw that the tweezer was not like a sharp needle.  Mummy also demonstrated how she would do it by removing a loose thread from the shirt that I was wearing.  I braced myself for the ‘operation’ and was pleasantly surprised that the stinger was removed in just the blink of an eye.

So there you have it, my account of how ‘bad things come in threes’ for me yesterday.  I hope today will be a better day!