Tag: First link love in 2008

This has been long overdue... sorry to my two good buddies Sweetiepie and Dora who tagged me on this... thx gals...

I have randomly selected 5 of you below to be tagged and I hope that you will similarly publish this post in your blog. You will have to tag 5 other bloggers and just keep adding on to the list. (Do not replace, just keep on adding! Yes we hope it will be a long list!)

It’s real easy! Tag others and see your Technorati Authority increase exponentially! The benefits of Viral Linking:

- One of the fastest ways to see your technorati authority explode!
- Increase your Google PageRank fast
- Attract large volume of new traffic to your site
- Build your community
- Make new friends!

The Strategist Notebook Link Addiction Ardour of the Heart When Life Becomes a Book The Malaysian Life Yogatta.com What goes under the sun Roshidan’s Cyber Station Sasha says Arts of Physics And the legend lives My View, My Life A Simple Life Juliana RW, Hazel,Sweetiepie, Dora, Sting,

Now I am tagging Adeline, Ling, Cendrine, Raquel and Jennifer

A "Less" Day!

What a day... after being computer-less for a week, I was electricity-less today... oh, I meant yesterday Tuesday! I think its a conspiracy... someone out there do not want me to blog... (er hubby... you have nothing to do with this right?)

Well, it wasn't for very long, just that couple of hours during the hottest time of the day! And that left baby zen feeling so hot that he couldn't sleep... poor thing and he was still sniffling a little... a case of "sleepless at home". So what did I do? I mop the floor... actually I wet the floor so that its cooler for mummy and baby...

But come to think of it, I could do without electricity but not without water...

"so hot..."

Time to Change My Glasses

When I was in Standard 5, I became short-sighted... not something that I'm proud of. Before you think that I was studying really hard and all, let me tell you how I got to become short sighted.

It's in the genes!! Both my parents were short sighted so I guess it's written in my DNA. I suppose the fact that I was reading comics and story books at night under the blanket with a torchlight also contributed to it! Well, it was way after bedtime and mum insisted that I put down the comics and story books and go to sleep. Being a nocturnal creature I was then, I just couldn't sleep hence the "after bedtime stories"... and there began my relationship with glasses.

Mum used to complain how expensive the glasses were and everytime we went to the optician, I cringed as I know mum will need to fork out so much to get me another pair... sigh.. if only there was Zenni Optical: Sell Rx Glasses $8 with case! then... and these look so much more stylish than those that I had... ahh, time to change my glasses now..


Tag: Prettiest Mom

Lovely Mummy and Janice and DinoEgg gave me a pretty mom tag... awww, how sweet, sure made my day... Here's how it goes:

Once you have been hit, you have to hit 5 pretty Moms, including the one who thought of you today & sent it to you. The idea is that if you get hit again, You will know you are really pretty!

So I thought lets just turn this into a tag instead. But that “hit” part won’t work very well in a tag. So instead of giving a “hit” to the one who tag you, you add your name at the bottom of the tagged persons list, and without bumping the person at the top or bumping anyone off and let the list grow.

Prettiest Mom

Hit 5 pretty moms on your list to let them know they are pretty!

Before I was a Mom
I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn’t worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom
I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn’t want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn’t stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom -
I didn’t know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn’t know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn’t know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn’t know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom -
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn’t know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.

Before I was a Mom - :-)
I go everywhere I like without thinking too much.
I didn’t know much about parenting and breastfeeding.
I seldom buy new clothes and other accessories for myself.

Now tag 5 persons who you think is a special Mom.

Here’s the first chain of tag :

10. Sandra
12. VivianZ
13.
Sting

And this goes to the following lovely mummys: Sasha, Tammy and Tot's mom and back to
Lovely Mummy and Janice and DinoEgg

A Cool Deal in Wholesale Sunglasses

For the fun of it, we often discuss on what type of business to go into should we decide to set up our own business... there was the ever popular choices of the food business and the advertising industry... Now I think we have another option... selling sunglasses!

Hey, at the rate the sun is shinning and the harmful rays penetrating through.. it's a worthy business to go into, don't you think so? In case you think you may be needing a large capital for purchasing sunglasses to sell, don't worry... apparently purchasing your stock is not all that expensive, especially when you are purchasing Wholesale Sunglasses directly from the importer and not through the middle man or agent.

One can even purchase the sunglasses for $10 per dozen and over 300 styles to choose from! They've got fashion sunglasses, clip-ons, goggles, novelty etc. Can you beat that?! Just compare that to what your neighborhood's optometrist is charging for a pair and the choices they have...


Big Bang - World Record

Jo-N and Hazel gave me an awesome tag / challenge! Thanks ya :-)

We are challenge you, everyone, to participate this "Big Bang - World Record". Our goal is to exceed 1.000 links. Together will be reach that goal. Just make sure you follow the rules. Have fun!

*Start Copy Here*

1. You do not have to be tagged to play along. This game is simple and so are the rules.Copy from *Start Copy Here* through *End Copy Here*2. Add your site(s) to the list. Just be sure to post at each site you add.3. Tag or don’t tag, your choice, however, the more tags you create the bigger the list will grow.4. Let me know your blog’s name and url by leaving me a comment HERE. I will add you to the master list. (If you would like the scroll box code, leave me your email address and I will email it to you.)5. Come back and copy the master list back to your site, often. This process will allow late-comers to get as much link benefit as the first ones in.

1-Attitude, the Ultimate Power 2-Juliana's Site 3-Rusin Roundup 4-Grow Rich Along With Me 5-Comedy Plus 6-lynda's loft 7-Amel's Realm 8-MAX 9-Speedcat Hollydale 10-Mariuca 11-Complain Complain Complain 12-Mariuca's Perfume Gallery 13-Life Is A Roller Coaster 14-Sugar Queen's Dream 15-First Time Dad 16-Life 17-My Life 18-The Painted Veil 19-My Thoughts 20-DatCurious.com 21-Little Aussie Cynic 22-A Nice Place in the Sun 23-DatMoney.com 24-LadyJava's Lounge 25-Cat Tales 26-The Callalily Space 27- Hazel 28- Rooms of My Heart 29-Slavery Bliss 30-Shower Your Children With Love-The Right Way 31-It's All About Play 32- Magical Milestone 33-

*End Copy Here*

Hey! anyone interested? do tag it on... this is a cool way to make new friends too!

My Computer-less Week

Ahhh... back to civilization! Thanks for the nice messages and your concerns... Just got our computer back after many challenges... We couldn't get hold of our usual computer technician (got to know later that he had gone to China for holiday.. (with the amount of business we gave him, I'm sure we are sponsoring a large part of his trip!) so we sourced from another shop and as the initial quote was pretty good, we confirmed. Only after that did we find out that there were "other" costs! So we decided to wait till our technician comes back which was why the long wait...

So what have we been up to in the previous week? Well, we...

(1) did some major spring cleaning and packed some old stuff (clothes and toys) and donated to an orphanage... will post on this later

(2) went through our dried food cabinet and packed all the close-to-expiry food to be given away

(3) washed / cleaned all the curtains and sofa covers and carpets... opps, still got one more to clean!

(4) came down with minor throat infection and flu and infected baby zen... poor thing but it was a minor infection so baby zen's fever lasted only half a day which was a good thing... he is still slightly flu-ish and clingy but his energy has returned...


Sorry guys, haven't been visiting your blogs, will be soon back to my blog-a-wandering days...

Our Computer is in ICU...

Yup... the poor computer is in the ICU. According to the specialist (read: computer technician), chances of survival is slim... and may be needing lots of parts transplants... *sob sob*... the poor thing...

So where am I typing this post ya? On my SIL's laptop.. *big grin*... The blogging force is strong with me... *another big grin*... Unfortunately, am not able to use this for too long... So sorry friends for not being able to come by these few days.. Will visit you all once my computer is discharged (hopefully soon)... In the meantime, have a great week ahead :-)

Our Ailing Computer...

Arghhh!! Our computer is sick!! It wasn't feeling very well lately, being so slow in waking up (start-up) and kept acting blur blur (not loading properly)... we think some of its' organs are no functioning well (hard disk corrupted / disk errors). And we thought it could lasts for a little longer before we call in the doctor... Unfortunately, it decided to go on strike yesterday morning... sigh

Now, we may be needing a specialist instead of a GP... ya, THAT bad! Oh dear, what shall we do with my addiction to blogging and hubby's addiction to facebook? :-)

Silver Investment

Now, if you were like me, you probably would have heard about investing in gold... not the jewelery but the coins eg American Eagles and Canadian Maple Leafs. Now, what about investing in silver coins? No? You may want to give it some serious thoughts after this interesting fact.

Apparently, since 1990, the current world demand for silver is more than its supply. At the same time, the US government had been selling so much of her stock of silver to the market that she is now a buyer instead. As such, market analysts thinks that silver coins and bars are good investment opportunity. But don't just take their word for it,
check it out yourself by doing a research on the fluctuation of silver's market price over the past few years and judge for yourself.

And, if you are interested to purchase silver coins as investments, do approach a trustable coin dealer to ensure your investment is safe.

The Mom's Overture

This is absolutely, positively, no doubt one of the most entertaining video I've had watched for a long time! This lady is good.. Must watch for all mommies and daddies and kids out there and whoever who is having a tough day and wants something to laugh! Trust me... you will find yourself giving a standing ovation when she finishes...

To Lie or To Lose Face?!?

The recent exchanging of gifts during Christmas reminded me of an incident a couple of years ago. It was after dinner on Christmas eve and we were back at my BIL's house where we had our traditional gift exchange "party". My nephew, being the youngest at that time, had received quite a lot of gifts from his aunts and uncles and was happily opening all the presents.

One of these presents was a toy (on second thought, I think it was some board game) which he already had. So he waved it in the air trying to get his mum's attention and shouted "look mum, its the same one that I've got!" The aunt who gave the present was slightly embarrassed and was apologising and offered to exchange that gift for something that my nephew didn't have... My nephew's mum, equally embarrassed, quickly remarked that it was a different one and (tried to) convinced my nephew that it was different toy / game!

Kids being kids, my nephew took another look at the toy / game and insisted (this time louder!) that it was indeed the same one and offered to go get the one that he has for comparison! hahahahaha! His mum insisted that it was different one and tried to direct his attention to something else! But I'm sure we all knew the kid was telling the truth.

Moral of the story: open gifts when everyone has gone home! Just kidding! Seriously, now that we have baby zen, this has been at the back of my mind for sometime... do we teach our kids to lie in order to prevent others from "losing face" or do we tell the truth and have the other party "lose face"? Care to share your opinions?

PPP Member

When I first started blogging, I hopped around quite a bit (not that I don't now ya, I still do..) and I did notice the word "PPP" comes up pretty frequently. Feeling curious (who wouldn't right?) I decided to check it out and found that it stands for PayPerPost and like what the name suggested, they pay for bloggers to post on certain opportunities / topics, which I think is a fair deal... after all, I've been doing the same anyways and without being paid...

So, here I am, signing up with them and this is my first post with them, hoping it will be the start of a wonderful and worthwhile relationship :-) Hmm... what do I plan to do with the money I get? Undoubtedly, I'll spend it on baby zen (for bringing so much joy and laughter to us) and hubby (for being that special other half who's been so supportive, including letting me use the computer even though he desperately need to update his "warbook"!)... There's quite a lot of sites that accepts paypal so no worries there.

For those who have yet to sign up but interested to blog and earn some money at the same time, why not check them out... you've got nothing to lose! :-)



Paying Last Respect to Grandma...

Thank you everyone for your kind words. Hubby's family are doing fine and coping well to my GIL's passing.

Some of GIL's children were able to make it to her bed side before she passed away and most of her children and grandchild
ren and great grandchildren were around to pay their last respect to her at the wake, which I think is a good thing. The hearse left this morning after prayers. Unfortunately I could only be at the wake (why do they call it "wake"?) and funeral but not the burial service as I need to take care of baby zen...

In the evening, most of the relatives had a dinner together. Hubby was to be in charged of F&B, which he did. We thought the food was pretty good (sorry couldn't take photos as there were many people and they might not like it if I held up dinner for photo session!) but as with the usual case of so many people eating together, there are bound to be someone where the food did not suit their taste buds... so unfortunately there were some complai
nts... which I think is quite silly (no offense) since the main reason is to get together and reminisce and share memories of GIL (at least that's what I thought...)

A Spanish Adventure

Never consider visiting Spain? Well, this may change your mind... think festivals and fiesta, think running of the bulls, think paella, think exquisite dishes, think museums and palaces, think tropical islands, think Roman cities, think spa hotels, think nightclubs... convinced? :-)

Madrid and Barcelona are no doubt one of the two most visited cities in Spain. With a good blend of modern buildings and parks as well as cultural and leisure activities, they do attract a lot of tourists. Madrid hotels and Barcelona hotels are aplenty and suit every traveler's budget.

If dancing all night long is your passion, then you should head to La Rambla, Barcelona. Its over a kilometer long pedestrian mall filled with theaters, cafes and market stalls while at night, its nightclubs come alive, making it a happening place to be. And of course, you should book a La Ramblas hotel so you need not worry about time. And its a good thing Ramblas hotels offers last minute hotel bookings as many tourists are so tempted by it that they decided to stay a few days.

Passing of Grandma

My GIL (grandmother-in-law) passed away peacefully this morning. She was 96 years old. My MIL's household was not as noisy and cheerful as it usually is on Sundays when all her children and grandchildren come back for lunch. Even the weather was slightly gloomy. But it wasn't exactly sadness though. More like each with their own thoughts, remembering grandma... paying a silent respect... My GIL had been suffering from senile dementia (not sure if its Alzheimer's or not) and in a way, she is "released" from the suffering now.

96 years old is pretty long life if you ask me... not sure if I get to live that long! Come to think of it, I may not want to live that long.. hmmm... Why? Least I be a burden on my kid(s). My GIL was different, she has 7 living children and all are chipping in to support her. I would say she had a good life... May her soul rest in peace.

Warehousing Woes Solved

One of the major headaches of many online business as well as mom-and-pop shops are warehousing and distribution woes. Heck, even some major corporations too face this problem. There's only this much that you can put in a limited space and building or renting a separate building for storage sometimes just don't make financial sense.

This is where reliable fulfillment services is required. Imagine this... a center that provides warehousing for your goods (and in a climate controlled and secure environment, I should add) to picking-packing-shipping" these inventories to customizing to your choice of packaging. Don't that sound like a fantastic solution to maintaining receipts and sales of products?

What about purchase order processing, you may ask? Well, apparently, their team has the capability to meet this too by providing e-commerce fulfillment as well as in-house Call Center. There's a shopping cart services that one can customized and link to one's website and that's it!

The Most Extreme Tag

Awesome! This tag by KM has come back to me thru Pek Imm! Cool! Since I have done questions 1-9 before, I'll tackle those questions that I have not ya... Feel free to tag it along if you wish too :-)

***** begin copy *****

1. What’s your BIGGEST sin? ... did this

2. When’s your PROUDEST moment? ... and this

3. What’s your GREATEST fear? ... this too

4. What’s your GREATEST love? ... and also this

5. Who is your GREATEST enemy? ... not forgetting this

6. Who is your GREATEST love? ... of course I did this too

7. What is your WILDEST dream? ... yup, you guessed it

8. When is the LOWEST point in your life? ... count this too

9. Who is your favourite character in star wars? ... yes yes, this too

10. What’s your New Year Resolution? hmm.. to be a better person :-)

11. Which country would you like to retire in? Kyoto (if I ever have enough money)

12. Love, Money, Health. Which one will you give up? Money.

13. What is your BEST memory of 2007? the birth of baby Zen

KM hopes that she will find this tag in all her friends’ blog soon. “FRIENDS, JUST NEED TO TAG THREE PEOPLE AFTER YOU HAVE DONE THE TAG” KM will hop around and thank those who have passed her tag on … her FIRST tag. AND TO MAKE THIS MORE INTERESTING, THE ONE DOING THE TAG MUST ADD A NEW QUESTION TO THE LIST

***** end copy *****

Mesmerizing Mediterranean

Question : Where in the world is known as "Middle of the Earth"?
Answer : As the title of this post has given away, it's the Mediterranean, as the word Mediterranean is derived from Latin meaning the middle of the earth / land, and apparently, to the Romans, it was...

So what's so special about this Middle of the Earth, you may ask... Lots, for one, its where human civilization started. Think Mesopotamia and Egypt. Fast forward to current, with 3 continents bordering it (Europe on the north, Asia on the east and Africa on the south), it's definitely a cultural melting pot.

Which explains why tourism is big business. Like Malta for example, this tiny island the size of a city attracts over 1 million visitors in a year! Those who enjoys diving should take advantage of the cheap hotels in Malta to enjoy this dive paradise. Another popular tourist destination is Cyprus, attracting over 2 million tourists per year. Tourists usually combine flights with cheap hotels in Cyprus for a east meets west adventure in thia island. And if you are interested in Europe's ancient civilization, you should head towards Crete and yes, there are also beautiful beaches as well as cheap hotels in Crete.

Screen Them Out

In one of my previous job, my job scope include hiring employees... (it's true!) from drafting the requirements in employment ad to screening and interviewing potential employees... ya, was doing "one leg kick" (to do everything on my own.. well, almost everything). There was this one candidate whose resume looked pretty good and when I discussed with my ex-boss, he was impressed (and he's not the easily impressed type).

This candidate claimed that he had worked in one of the multi-national company and has already completed his master at one of the local university. Somehow, there was a nagging feeling on my part and I decided to check it out. Got hold of a friend who is a lecturer in that university (hehe... that's what friends are for.. just kidding!!) to do some background check and it turned out that this candidate had indeed registered for a master course but has yet to complete it (has not even paid the course fees.. for that matter!). And when I checked with the MNC that he claimed he had worked before, the new Human Resource (HR) team didn't know who he was! I''ll give him the benefit of the doubt here since it was a new HR team... but we never did call him for interview... figured it wasn't worth the trouble... On hindsight, perhaps we could have, just to see his reaction when we confront him with the "little misrepresentation" :-)

I've learned my lesson after that, it's important to conduct employee screening and pre-employment background checks. Yes, it's very time consuming but one can always opt for employee screening service. With only a few information required for background check, the employer can have peace of mind that the potential employee is as he / she claimed in the resume and not a lier or worse a criminal!

Sleeping Blues

Before we had baby zen, I've heard so much from my friends regarding how to put baby to sleep. Yup, the ever-going debate over which method to be used when it comes to baby's sleeping time. Do you favor comforting baby to sleep or do you agree with letting baby cry himself / herself to sleep independently?

We are in such a position now... we had been comforting baby zen to sleep since birth and would like to see some independence in him now that he's getting older (and heavier). By comforting him to sleep, I meant carrying him, rocking him, singing to him and also the comfort sucking way. He didn't quite take to the patting method though. We had tried to let him cry himself to sleep but did not manage to go all the way... mummy couldn't bear to hear baby's wailing then...


Dear mummies and daddies, please share your advices and experiences. If you had used / are using the comforting method, how long was it before your baby learned how to sleep on his / her own? If you are all for the training them to sleep independently, how long did it take you and what about night feedings? You see, baby zen still cry in the middle of the night for feeding / comfort sucking...

Tag: Bloggers of The World

Me got an award.. me got an award..! And many thx to Dora :-)

Let's see... and this award goes to... all my "blogger buddies"! You guys are the best any blogger can have.. thank you for sharing your stories and advices.. To me, you all are indeed Bloggers of The World! :-)

A Job In the Skies

You may not believe this but being a flight attendant was one of my dreams (please note the word "one of"... yes, I had a lot of dreams when I was younger). I actually went for the interview. This was right after I completed my Form Five. Mum was supportive, which came as a surprise to me... So what happened? I didn't even got through the first interview *embarrassed*. I still remembered I was asked the cliche what I would do if I were given a million dollars. I had to answer on the spot and foolishly, I insist that I'll further my studies, give to parents and charities and save the balance. The fact that I was wearing glasses didn't help too! Come to think of it, there's so little that I knew about being a flight attendant then...

So, for those aspiring flight attendants out there, you need to prepare yourself for the job. Try going to a flight attendant school. They have the educators and flight attendant training programs to help you fit and grow in a career as a flight attendant. According to a friend who is a flight attendant, it's not all about glamor and free overseas trip, there's more to it than what meets the eyes.

Ever imagine how to deal with difficult passengers or what to do in turbulences? You'll be sure to learn this and more from the program. One of the training method is they employ role-playing in an environment that's similar to the actual flight environment. Besides the training itself, there's also the flight attendant school blog that you could contribute to as well as learn from other flight attendants.

6 months of Joy!

Dear baby Zen,

It's been 6 months since you came into our lives... and it's been a wonderful 6 months and we wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world...

We've seen you grown from a tiny vulnerable infant to a playful & curious 6 month old baby. It's quite amusing to see you go on all fours and rock like you are trying to launch yourself forward! And feeling frustrated when you can't.. you ended up doing a backflip onto your back. We loved the way you sigh whenever there's some wind and also the way you tried to join in the adults' conversations.

You have discovered that your fingers and toes are tastier than the pacifier and have been on a mission ever since, ie getting hold of everything within your grasp and checking them out with your mouth and leaving your mark (everyone else read: saliva) on them...

You've been like a jumping jellybean lately, jumping whenever you have a chance and exhausting whoever who carries you... You seemed to posses energy that can outlast the Energizer bunny and at these times, mummy wished you had come with "sleep" and "awake" buttons :-)

Baby zen, do know that mummy & daddy love you very much and will always be there for you... So, here's wishing you ...

Love you always,
mummy & daddy

Click to play happy+6th+mths+baby+zen
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A Korokke Day

Over the weekend, we were in a cooking mood so we ransacked the fridge and pantry to look for ingredients BEFORE deciding on what to cook (ya.. this is our usual style)! There were some potatoes and onions and carrots so we decided on korokke, which is the Japanese version of croquette. All we needed was to get some minced meat and we were cooking!

An easy recipe (if you are interested) that's sure to tempt the kids (we should know.. there's 2 big kids and 1 baby here!).
(1) Peeled
and sliced about 3 medium size potatoes and half a carrot (amount depending on your preference)
(2) Chop some onions
(3) Boiled potatoes and carrot in just enough water to cover these ingredients till soft and water is reduced (stirring occasionally). This step is similar to making mashed potatoes. Add minced meat (chicken or fish... erm, do I sound like an air stewardess serving lunch?) when the potatoes and carrots are almost done. Once they are as soft as you like, remove from heat and add onions and mash.
(4) Prepare tempura batter (follow manufacturer's directions) and add an egg in this batter. Prepare another bowl of bread crumbs
(5) Scoop some cooled mashed potato and shape in anyway you like, dip in tempura batter and then bread crumbs and deep fried.
(6) Ta-da! Done-ded!

... 9 korokkes for both of us ...

... inside view ...

... the one that got away!

Tag: New Year's Resolution or Not Meme

Wen tag me on New Year's Resolution... Wow! so many resolutions.. cool.. it's quite fun to read some of the resolutions :-) However, since it's already 6 days into the new year, was thinking of not tagging anyone else (or maybe wait until Dec 2008... hehe) but feel free to continue this tag if you are interested. Here's wishing everyone success in achieving their new year's resolution!

*Start Copy Here*

When it comes to New Year’s Resolutions we seem to fall into four categories: 1) quite serious about them, 2) be flippant about them, 3) do it because we feel pressured to, or 4) do not do them.


So, the purpose of this little game is to let us know which category you are in. Copy from “*Start Copy Here*” through “*End Copy Here*” and post it. Before “*End Copy Here*” tell us who you are, your site(s) (with link) and your New Year’s Resolution, or not.

Then tag as many others as you like, from one to your entire blogroll, your choice.

If you like, create an intro paragraph to your post that also acknowledges who tagged you.


NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS:


Juliana – Juliana’s Site - My New Year’s resolutions are looking for a part time job, keep blogging, and learn to cook and bake.

Michelle - Rusin Roundup - 1. Learn to be happier and accept myself for who I am, 2. Is to lose about 25 lbs., and 3. Is to stop smoking.

Karen - Grow Rich Along With Me - My resolution for next year is to achieve $3K per month passive income by the end of 2008.

Mel - Attitude, the Ultimate Power & Complain Complain Complain - “I don’t need no stinking resolutions.” I never hold to them anyway so why frustrate myself by starting them now.

Sandee - Comedy Plus - I don’t need no stinking resolutions either. Years and years ago I did them because everyone else did, but not once did I follow through. Why set yourself up for failure?

Lynda - lynda’s loft - My resolution is to see resolve to that which needs resolution. Like Mel and Sandee, I feel that resolutions give us more stress, however, being a person who sets goals each year, isn’t that the same thing as a resolution??? Goals vs. resolutions? Goals are more general and allow for more time to complete them, a resolution requires a mind-set and immediate action, which is not always feasible… Well, that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it…

Amelia - Amel’s Realm - This is a list of my New Year’s Resolution:
1. Health: Continue exercising twice a week, eat enough veggies and fruit, have enough rest, take vitamin C regularly and women’s multivitamin during my period.
2. Spiritual: Improve my Daily Bread reading routine and my prayer life and learn more from God’s Word.
3. Financial: Continue to make money online (my goal is getting €100 per month at least), be more creative in writing posts, and save most of the money.
4. General Life: Continue to learn Finnish AND practice it as best and often as I can, try out more baking and cooking recipes, continue to maintain and share positive thoughts, continue to learn to control my thoughts, continue to learn to catch myself before I start complaining and count my blessings instead, continue to stop and cherish all the little moments in life that oftentimes go unnoticed, and continue to feed my inner child and last but not least, continue to ENJOY my life thoroughly.

Trinity - Rooms of My Heart : My New Year’s resolutions in simple and fast way will be blog less and spend more time with my children and read more good books. I want to start studying about global warming and blog it…

Max - MAX - My New Year’s resolutions are to dedicate more time to my friends; to finally be able to read “Der Spiegel” in German; to be calm when organizing my marriage; to go one last time to my favourite club and dance the night away; and continue to be happy!

Eric - Speedcat Hollydale - I love chicken. Problem is that I really never get to have enough chicken! My New Year’s resolution is to enact “Chicken Tuesday”. On this day I will eat only chicken, blog about chicken, and promote chickens all over the world. (hormone free) Join me, won’t you?

Marzie - Mariuca & Mariuca’s Perfume Gallery - My resolution for 2008 is to enjoy a healthier lifestyle and to expand my Perfume Collection.

Sindi- Life Is A Roller Coaster - My resolution is to complain less, pray more and be a little more thankful for what I have.


Judy - Sugar Queen’s Dream - My New Year’s resolution is:
To take better care of my health.
To eat better, well at least 3 meals a day, I’m lucky these days if I stop for one meal a day….
To help make the world a better place to live, I love the human race, but think there’s always room for change.
To be generous until it hurts.
To live each day as if it’s my last.
To make a book of our personal family recipes and traditions for each of my 3 my children, so that the traditions and family cooking can be passed on in my family line long after I’m gone and finally…….
To help more with the local Human society, Animals like little kids can not fend for themselves so it’s up to each of us to take care of our pets and to step in and care for all animals…..
I hope that through me I can encourage my Children to be better adults and in turn to raise the Children they have or will have, to be good people with good, sound & solid values…. Peace!


Adrian - First Time Dad - My New Year’s Resolution for 2008 is to be a better father…now I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions because I never keep them but this one I better keep! Happy New Year to one and all!

Colin - Life - New Years Resolution? No way…Better to achieve more throughout the year rather than pander to the whims of a one day ‘wishful thought’


Mauro - 1 Million Love Messages - My resolution for next year are: 1. Change my job (maybe work online). I’m really unhappy in the actual one. 2. Dedicate more time to my family and girlfriend… maybe start to get ready for our wedding :-) 3. Work hard in 1 Million Love Messages and reach 2500 Love messages (or more) in the end of 2008.


MidgetManOfSteel - Mental Poo - To get out of dealing with people who I have no desire in helping at the job I’m doing…catch the eye of someone who can see that I can write and be funny…and get my own ticket to happiness from my humor….and a Ferrari. While I’m doing this, I resolve to get a Ferrari.

Stacy - My Thoughts - My New Year’s Resolution for 2008 - Is to be more understanding to my children and to other people, Not to curse at others while I am driving, try to eat right and exercise, try to volunteer in my community, and to believe more in my spiritual side.


Jason - DatCurious.com & DatMoney.com - Although, I normally don’t do New Year’s Resolutions (because I find it as an excuse to actually do something I should’ve already been doing), this year I will plan on giving back to the blogging community, especially my audience. I’m not sure how I will do it yet, but I definitely will.

Kesa - Little Aussie Cynic - My New Years Resolution is the standard….. to finally get off the smokes and to loose 8kg…. both which are possible just difficult…..Happy New Year to you and yours….Aussie


Ann - A Nice Place in the Sun - “To let the rest of my life begin as soon as possible.”


Wen - Little Paces - I want to sleep early to reduce my haggard and tired complexion. To blog better than last year and hopefully can save money from paid post so that we can immigrate to Australia. To spend more time with my children. To be able to bake.


Sting of Magical Milestone - Would you believe if I said I've never made any new year's resolutions before? Well, I figured life's more exciting this way (excuses excuses)... I still do but if I'm asked what I would like to achieve in 2008, I guess I'll say to be a better mummy :-)


*End Copy Here*

Baby Zen Had a Fall...

Feeling a little sad and worried... Baby Zen had a fall in the morning... He had waken up and was playing on the single bed mattress which we put on the floor and blocked with pillows... well, he was throwing himself around more like it, now that he knows how to go on fours (but he can't crawl yet.. only rocking movements). His current favorite game is to go on fours, rock awhile then lift 1 arm high and do a backward flip landing head first...

I had just left him and was stepping in the bathroom when I heard a thump that made my heart stopped and then his wail! I rushed over and found him on the floor looking at me stunned! Poor thing... Didn't cry for too long so I thought everything was ok since the mattress was only about 4 inches from the floor..

Then he got this bump at the side of his forehead..

Was so worried I took him to the doctor and guess what the doctor said... She wasn't sure whether it was swollen due to a fall or insect bite so she tested his limbs' movements and gave me some cream (for itchiness). The visit took less than 5 minutes and I was given the impression that they wanted me to leave the room quickly for the nurse was opening the door before I finish asking questions (not that there's a lot of people outside.. there was only 1 patient after me)! And she charged me RM45!

Tag: Three Things

My buddy Dora, passed me this tag...

Three things that scare me
1. Horror movies
2. Snakes
3. Baby Zen falling from the bed

Three people who make me laugh
1. Hubby
2. baby Zen
3. my ex-boss

Three things I love
1. Hubby
2. Baby Zen
3. My family

Three things I hate
1. Inefficiency
2. Lies
3. traffic jams

Three things I don’t understand
1. What happened to Atlantis
2. Why there inconsiderate people allowed to drive
3. Is there any aliens out there

Three things on my desk
1. PC.
2. stationaries
3. Mug

Three things I am doing right now
1. Blogging.
2. Keeping an eye over baby zen as he sleeps
3. Reading a manga

Three things I want to do before I die
1. Guide baby zen to be a wonderful person
2. go for honeymoon number 2, 3, 4, etc with hubby
3. err.. try hang gliding

Three things I can do
1. make baby zen smile & laugh
2. make hubby feel better after a hard at work
3. save the sharks by not eating shark fin soup

Three things I can’t do
1. Sing
2. Bounce a basketball (sigh)
3. Fly (hehe..couldn't help it)

Three things you must listen to
1. nature's music
2. parents
3. child

Three things you should never listen to
1. music that's too loud
2. lies
3. Politician's promises before election

Three shows I watched as a kid
1. Star Wars
2. Transformers
3. Macgyver

Tagging Healy and Sweetpea... care to do?

Whale Hunting

No, no, no.. we're not planning to go catch some whales!! Instead, we would love to go whale watching in Maui, Hawaii. Not to mention enjoying a sunset stroll on the beaches and visiting a volcano too while we are there. :-)

Found a few interesting things about Maui... check this out:
(1) Maui is part of projecting tops of one of the largest mountain range in the world.. now, you can tell people you are standing on top of a mountain!
(2) Maui (the Valley Isle) was voted "Best Island in the World" for 10 consecutive years
(3) It has the world's largest dormant volcano, Haleakala. Apparently, this is now turned into a park and one can do many activities here eg sunrise watching, camping and horseback riding!
(4) Maui Ocean Center offers "Shark Dive Maui" program where divers can literally swim with sharks! Now, this is some holiday to tell the colleagues!
(5) It's the breeding ground for the Humpback Whale during the winter months.

Quite a list for a "tiny" island, isn't it? So, in order to get the most out of a trip to Maui, one is recommended to look for a good vacation coordinating agency which can provide good advices from places to visit to things to do to condo rentals to beach rentals.

New Year's Countdown

We had some good friends over for new year's countdown. One of whom just came back from Denmark for the Christmas holiday, so she was the highlight. Some of us have not met for years... so it was quite fun. It was potluck and we had mee siam, hokkian noodles, cantonese noodles, pork ribs, salted chicken, ice-cream soda with plum, red bean dessert, home-made tiramisu and fondue. Quite a mix don't you think so? Did I manage to get your tummy growling? *innocent smile*

Unfortunately, some had to leave early before the countdown because their kids need to sleep soon and another couple need to fly off early on new year's day. Just as the new year draw near, hubby and friends went "fireworks hunting" ie drove around looking for fireworks... pity he didn't manage to get good shots so couldn't upload here... hahaha!

...got this beautiful flowers from our friend who also made the tiramisu...

...strawberry and chocolate fondue as we wait for the new year...

Aloha!

My first introduction to Hawaii was through Hawaii Five-O when I was very young (ahh, never underestimate the power of TV)... and I remember being fascinated by the beautiful scenery and of course the theme song! Can't recall much about the actors and actresses though... :-) Later, one of my bosses was a graduate from Hawaii and he would constantly play Hawaiian music as he works (I'm serious!).. and it was from him I've got to "know" Hawaii better. And it's through him that I wish to travel to Hawaii one day, especially Maui.

Apparently, Maui was formed when two massive volcanoes emitted lava that filled the valley between them. Amazing! Which is why ecotourism is very much encouraged here. Now, while the usual traveler would opt for a stay in a nice hotel and spend the whole time on the beautiful beaches, I would most probably choose Hawaii beach rentals or Maui vacation rentals. Reason being there's so much to experience in Hawaii and the beach is just, as they say, tip of the iceberg... and I would like to go for a customised vacation to enjoy this paradise on earth to the fullest. I mean, there's so much to see and do and I am sure many of us would love to be able to enjoy staying in unique environments and customising their holiday to suite their taste, be it a romantic getaway or a back-to-nature experience. I'm no different :-)

My Dream House

One of the things that I like about Japan is their houses... quite many of them build their own houses... and by that I meant the house owners are involved from purchasing a plot of empty land to designing the home to supervising the building of it to decorating it.


So one is in control over how many bathrooms one prefers or how big the master bedroom is. There's a reason why I mentioned the bathroom... our current master bedroom and bathroom are so disproportionate, its a joke! Can you believe it, the bedroom is 4.5 times the size of our bathroom and our bedroom is not all that big, so imagine how crowded the bathroom feels :-(

If given the chance and a budget, I would very much love to build my own home. But first I'll need some house plans. So far, I have check out some luxury house plans *smiling widely*, some log home plans and even a ranch house plan. Hey, when the dream is big enough, the facts don't count, right?

Happy New Year!!

HAPPY 2008 FROM
BABY ZEN & MUMMY & DADDY
...MAY YOU HAVE A GOOD YEAR AHEAD...