Backpacking II

"Borrowed" these pictures from my brother's Facebook... and his comments too (in italics) hehehee... He's been having so much fun backpacking there and telling me how he met so many strangers who then became good friends. And that the scenery there is just awesome... wished I was there... :-)

can you imagine bright and beautiful flowers as far as the eye / camera can see!

one of the morning market place he went to... in Amsterdam... kinda cool ya?

look at that cute lil house by the river... he took this picture while waiting in the long queue to go into Anne Frank Museum

The first thing that you will notice is Amsterdam has lots of people cycling. Not the mountain, racing or bmx bike but those really traditional model. The second thing is traffic, there are cars, bus, trams and bicycles coming at u from all direction, especially the bicycles, and they have their own lane. On my first day someone almost got hit and last night someone did.

this is the cannabis college, "higher" education on all things weed

Here's at The Jardin du Luxembourg, one of the more popular park in Paris. I took this pic around 3pm, shouldn't that guy be working?

Backpacking

Nope, not me... though I do wished that hubby and I could afford to take time off to go for a vacation... It's my brother who's gone backpacking... to Europe. He's in between jobs now. Left his previous company and haven't started work in the new company yet so he decided to go backpacking. He deserved it coz he was working really hard the last few years (yes, years!).

So far he has been to Paris and Amsterdam. And loving Amsterdam apparently.

From his pictures, I could see it's such a lovely place. It's spring and neither too cold nor too hot. Will try to get more pictures when he update his facebook... hehehee...

Friend Came A-Visiting

Hubby's friend from Indonesia was in town for a short visit the previous weekend. Yup, took me thattttt long to do this post :-) Was bit busy so couldn't find time to upload pictures till now... excuses excuses.. hehehee

Anyway, this friend of hubby's had quite a number of friends here and so had a packed program. Hubby's "appointment" was Sunday brunch so we (or rather hubby... zen and I just tag along for free food...) treated him to dim sum at PJ's Jaya Palace, at Asia Jaya.

Food was pretty good and ambiance was nicely done and had a relaxing feel to it. Slightly on the pricey side but I guess you need to pay a bit more for good food. And this is fr a good friend of hubby whom he doesn't meet that often. And yes, I thoroughly enjoyed it too...

Picture of food... only remembered halfway through the meal.. hehehee

the delicately balanced teapots and jars tower...
thank goodness Zen didn't take a fancy of it and insisted that he wanted to play with them!

Shopping Too Frequent?

Question: How do you know if you are frequenting a particular shopping outlet too often?

Answer: When your lil kid's eyes light up when you mention that store in your conversations and when he can recognise the outlet name in the flyers and when he tries his hardest to pronounce the store name!

Catfight

I was involved in a catfight..... with my son!

I was playing with him and he got over excited (he tends to do that very often nowadays) and began pulling my hair and scratching me and screaming like his mummy would if she had won the first prize in the lottery! Before I could stop him, he has gotten a few strands of my hair and left a superficial scratch on the bridge of my nose. Sigh.... It was quite painful when I wash my face after that.

Am not the only victim... my in-laws had gotten them too except hubby. Hubby seems to be able to predict the lil guy's next actions... takes one to know one I guess... hehehehehehe... Meanwhile am gonna cut his fingernails short now!

Finally Using Full Moon Gift

Zen received a pair of crocs shoes (imitation ones) as his full moon present many moons ago :-) They were quite big then so we kept it aside. And it was left "aside" for very long time! Not surprising... hehehee

Until the other day when I was tidying up Zen's clothes... sorting those that he has out-grown to be boxed up and to take out those hand-me-downs that were too big previously. And I found these croc shoes.

The lil one loves them and he knew that he's supposed to take these out of the shoes cabinet when we asked him to "get your spiderman shoes" :-)

PS: those spiderman rubber thingy didn't last the week... yup, now gone-ded!

Chicken A La Carte

Got this link in a forwarded email. Normally I don't click on it but this round I did (probably it came from a good friend whom I have not heard from for a long time). Watched the video and it brought to mind that we are blessed to be where we are today. If you do go over to watch, make sure you have some tissues with you :-P

Passing of SIL's Father

My SIL's (as in hubby's brother's wife) father passed away on saturday morning. I hardly know him but had heard so much about him. Seemed like he's a very nice guy. Everyone has good things to say about him. SIL's mum is badly affected, poor her... They had a very good relationship... they were like those elderly couples that you see still holding hands when together.

He's 89 years old and I think that's quite a long life. I mean I can't imagine me living up to that age, especially with my family's history! Sigh... had been thinking about my parents... missed them quite a lot. Sometimes, I wished I didn't say or do some of the things that I did to them. Wished they were still alive so that I can apologise for all my wrong doings...

But on the other hand, they are no longer suffering and for that I'm glad... Please excuse this post of mine... was just thinking out loud... :-) have a good day...

100 Truths Tag

My dear blogger friend Wen tag me on this... I will try my best to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.... Note: please re-read the last sentence with emphasis on the word "try"... heheheee

001. Name → darling / mummy ... oh you mean my name... errr, will let you know when we meet ya *wink*
002. Nickname(s)→ sting
004. Zodiac sign → aries
005. Male or female → female
006. Elementary → a convent school

007. Middle School → a methodist school
008. High School → a catholic school
009. University → a local university (yes, I attended schools with very different backgrounds, don't I?!)
010. Hair color → black with some white ones *arghhhh!*
011. Long or short → what is?!? oh my hair...?! it's currently long
012. Loud or Quiet → not as loud as hubby
013. Jumpers or Jeans → jeans
014. Phone or Camera → errr... phone with camera function?
015. Health freak → nawww
016. Drink or Smoke? → the only beer I drink is root beer and I only smoke salmons *grin*
017. Do you have a crush on someone? → hubby count ahhh?
018. Eat or Drink → err... both? and be merry!
019. Piercings → none
020. Tattoos → none (eh... where's number 021?)

FIRSTS:
023. First piercing → not yet
024. First best friend → my invisible friend when I was 3 (can't remember name but can remember what we did!)
025. First award → kindergarten
026. First crush → when I was going to school in the school van... you should have seen the number of students being squeezed into that school van... was almost crushed to pieces)
027. First pet → rabbit
028. First big vacation → penang
030. First big birthday → 3rd (ehh... what happened to 031-048?! did you notice the missing questions? hello? are you still reading / awake?!?)

CURRENTLY:
049. Eating → erm... food?
050. Drinking → juice
051. I’m about to → go to sleep
053. Listening to → the computer's whirring sound (hmmm... it's kinda loud now that it's quiet everywhere)
054. Plans for today → go to sleep soon.... yawwnnnnn
055. Waiting for → sales... hehehee (hey, am I being tested to see if I know my 123s?)

YOUR FUTURE:
058. Want kids? → have 1
059. Want to get married? → already
060. Careers in mind → be the best mummy/wifey I can (gonna slap my super slueths cap...if you have been watching Disney Channel with your kid, then you know where this came from!)

WHICH IS BETTER IN THE BOY/GIRL YOU LIKE?
068. Lips or eyes → eyes
070. Shorter or taller - taller
072. Romantic or spontaneous → hubby is both
073. Nice stomach or nice arms → arms
074. Sensitive or loud→ hubby is both too! hahahaa
075. Hook-up or relationship → was relationship
076. Trouble maker or hesitant → hmm, hubby is more of a trouble maker!! hahahahaaaa (the missing questions mystery is baffling isn't it?...)

HAVE YOU EVER:
080. Lost glasses/contacts → yup
081. Ran away from home → oohhhh... nope but did thought about it during my teenage years
082. Held a gun/knife for self defense → nope
083. Killed somebody → wahhhh!!! for real no lah
084. Broke someone’s heart → unfortunately yes
085. Been arrested → nope
087. Cried when someone died → yup (no... it wasn't me who ate the missing questions and that's the truth!)

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:
089. Yourself → ya
090. Miracles → sure
091. Love at first sight → definately
092. Heaven → of course
093. Santa Claus → why not
094. Tooth Fairy → used to
095. Kiss on the first date → maybe not on the first date.... (yes, we are finally coming to the end of the mystery... though whether it's solved or not will be another post...)

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY:
097. Is there one person you want to be with right now → my mummy
098. Are you seriously happy with where you are in life → yes... I'm exactly where I should be in my master plan on achieving serious happiness!!! muahahaha! (gosh, I really need to sleep soon! am begining to sound weird!)
099. Do you believe in God → yes
100. Post as 100 truths and tag 20 people → seriously? will not tag anyone... did I hear a relieve sound? :-)

Yummy Egg Tarts

Recognise this box?

Yes, it's the famous Tong Kee egg tarts... Hubby bought 10 pieces the other day... ya, just for the both of us!!

I love egg tarts since I was young.. I remember following grandma to the market and she would ask us what we want for breakfast and I would ask for egg tarts. But over the years, the quality of egg tarts were not that good anymore and so I kinda stop eating them. Then I was introduced to this famous brand and passion was rekindled...

Awww.... the softness and the sweetness of the egg tart and the crispiness of the pastry.... mmmmm... Good thing it's quite difficult to buy them (they get sold out very fast)! heheheee...

what was left...
we ate 6 between us for supper and these were for breakfast!

Which Kid Do Not Like Ice-Cream?

In our family, the youngest one! Both hubby and I love ice-creams but Zen didn't seem to like it.... so far... We offered him the direct-from-fridge frozen ones and the melted ones. We gave it to him during hot days and rainy days (hey, have you tried eating ice-creams on rainy days... it's yummy!). We let him try different flavours but only one result. He doesn't like it... wouldn't even wanna take the first bite. I guess it's a good thing... so that he can have less sugar in his diet... and mummy and daddy can have the whole lot to themselves without the lil one insisting on wanting half of it... muahahahahaha!

But (yes, there's always a "but") he loves the crispy ice-cream cone. The first time he saw me eating an ice-cream in a cone, he pulled it towards him and bite off the bottom tip of the cone :-S Yes, he went straight towards the tip without going for the ice-cream. No, that's not the way either of us eat it... hmmmm.. Good thing the ice-cream didn't topple *phewww... hehehee*

"Let me show you how an ice-cream cone should be eaten..
First, nibble off some of the top part of the cone to test if it's crispy and to please mummy.."

".. then take a huge bite off the tip of the cone!"

Foot In Mouth

Was talking to my friend the other day and she told me she just got divorced from her husband. After I got over the initial shock, I inquired if she mind me asking some private questions... yes, I am a busybody sometimes. Well, if I'm not then there wouldn't have been this post :-)

Anyway, she said it's ok as it was just finalised recently and she wanted to move on. So of course my first question was what happened. And she said it was because of a third party. And before I could stop myself, I blurted out "him or you?"!!! :-S

I could knock myself on the head! But she was nice and ignored the directness of that question and told me it was her husband who has a "third party" She suspected that the husband was having an affair but he had denied it even until they got divorced. I didn't asked too many questions after that. Part of me feels sad for her but the other part understands that she must have her reasons to suspect that and insist on a divorce. She did look like she's ready to move on and so I wished her luck....

Note to self: think before saying anything!

Ants in Microwave

Got something quite funny to share... it's quite shocking too but still I think it was kinda funny...I'll let you be the judge.

It was told to me by hubby. One morning, he brought some food to office for breakfast. He was at the pantry and was just about to put the food into the microwave to heat it up before his colleague asked what he was doing. So hubby thought to himself "Isn't it obvious?!?" but politely told her that he was about to heat up the food.

His colleague then told him that the cleaner had earlier spray the microwave with Ridsect! Yup, sprayed the inside of the microwave!! Why? You see, the pantry was invaded by ants that few days and apparently, the microwave was not spared and the cleaner was trying to get rid of them. But inside of the microwave...?! *scratch head* .... I couldn't help but laugh when I first heard about it!

Good thing someone saw the cleaner doing that and someone managed to stop hubby before he put the food into the microwave! Coz there were no Ridsect smell from the microwave!

No Parking?!?

We were talking a walk around our neighbor one day (actually, were on the way to the pasar malam... hehehee) and we walked pass our friend's house.

The whole family were away for a holiday then and so, the porch lights were not switched on, only a few inside the house.

And we saw this car parked right outside their house. It's neither their nor their friends' car. Notice the home-made sign that says "No Parking"? That's because parking space in their area is limited and sometimes people just parked anywhere, including in front of other's house, regardless of whether there's a "No Parking" sign! Perhaps they are just taking advantage of an "empty" house? Hmmm....

His Lil Corner

Eating out is sometimes tough with zen along. Not that we want to leave him behind but he can be a handful for he has 5% patience... which is just enough for us to place the orders and for him to look around at what can he grab / play with!

And then the actions starts! He'll twist to get out of the high chair (but sometimes, he will sit still in the high chair... wished there were more such moments) and want to run around so both hubby and I had to take turns to bring him out to stretch his legs. And then we will point out to him, all the other kids who are so quietly sitting down waiting for their meals and ask him to do so (^o^)

We tried to bring toys and tid-bits to keep him entertain but they could only distract him for a short while before he wants freedom! Sigh, how do you keep the kid entertain when eating out?

Look mummy, this is my corner and neither daddy and yourself can fit in here!