Maids...

Malaysian was facing a shortage of Indonesian maid because both country cannot come to an agreement. Lately the agreement was signed, according to the news, maids will be arriving in 2weeks time, and it cost very much cheaper, I was shock, that was even cheapest than 3yrs ago. So I did a check with a friend who it in the foreign manpower establishment. Well, it was all not true the Rm4000.00+ was not even enough for the head hunter from Indonesian and what about the agent in Batam and the agent in Malaysia? Conclusion still no maid.....very misleading. Why Indonesian Maid, some might ask? Because, there will be no language problem for us, because we share almost the same language. So...Cambodian Maid is the consolation, they are just as good only communication problem and they learn fast, shortage too at the moment. Why I am saying all these, because I was quite stress about a month ago when my super maid decided that she wanted to go home after 3yrs with me her contract end in October 2011, that mean I have to look for new maid, after a check and so..... it will cost me RM10090.00, for a new maid, can you believe it? Anyway, after a while she decided to stay for another year......phew!! it's a great relief for me, also for her because it's not easy for her to reenter Malaysia due to the incomplete agreement. Hopfully she carry on year after year after year......hahaha....

Cameron Highland...

I was invited by my cousin Theresa to join the Cameron Highland Trip with her entire family which included my auntie(dad's only sister) and the rest of her siblings. There are 18 of us altogether in 2 MPVs and 2 Saloon Cars. Steamboat, tapanyaki and BBQ was the speciality inside our bungalow, because of the cool weather these food taste extremely yummy.

For those who don't know about Cameron Highland, here is a roughly description. Cameron is a small town cover an area of 712 sq km, it's boundary touches that of Kelantan to the west, part of it's border with Perak(different state of Malaysia), with the temperature below 25degree centigrade in the day, and 12 degree in the night. You can see the lots of agriculture like flowers, vegetable, fruits and so on....

Even though it's a short 2days 1 night trip we had great fun laughter , yakking and eating.... kind of enjoying our self to the fullest.

It's a must to shop for vegetable, fruits and flowers when you go to Cameron Highlandand I bought these , nice right?

By the way, I wonder any of you heard about this traditional medicine call "Tongkat Ali" for man,

it is believe if you soak it in wine and drink it, it made you very healthy doing this.....wah..ha...ha

Lastly...Thank you for the invitation Theresa, and Thanks to all that made it happen.

Mother's Day 2011

'Mother's Day' 2011 for me was totally different from those in the past years. I was at the mountian on Sunday for aerobic after a long break. The group had grown from less than 20 people to about 50 now,(the pics below was an old one) and because today is 'Mother's Day', the organiser had a small celebration, kind of getting to know each other, and so.....our teacher "Ani", started the ball rolling by putting candle on the cake, and you know.....with candle on the cake , we suppose to sing right? True enough everybody started to sing, and I was wondering what will the song be, can you guess??? Hahaha....I couldn't stop laughing....it was so funny, using the rhythm of the birthday song, and it goes "happy birthday...Mother's day, happy birthday Mother's day, happy birthday Mother's day.....try singing it.......hahaha, anyway.... it was fun though, I had a great time chatting and laughing, sorry no photo because I didn't bring my camera not knowing about the celebration. ***** Had high tea with Tenny at 'secret recipe. Tenny's daughter just started college in Singapore, and my Jewel will be starting on a new job on Monday so no traveling, both of us had our own celebration together eating cheese cake and made our self 'fat'..hahaha (faint). No photo too. ***** I bought some chocolate to go with the " Mother's Day". I remember when my Jewel was little, how I wish that she can wish me on this special day, I can see the spark and shyness in the eye, especially those young Mothers when I gave them the chocolate and wishes. Actually I wanted to take some nice photo here, no...this time I had my camera was planing how I want the photo taken and so on.......and luck was not with me........suddenly.....millions of flying termite appear and I was busy trying put up oily bags to get rid of them, but...really too much of them the best way is to switch off all the lights and throw water on the floor, so you see, my plan spoil.. and only this miserable few shots, guess it's better then nothing right?? ***** A day like this I can't help misses my Mom, where ever you are Mom, I like to wish you a very "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY"

Easy N Yummy....

I have been missing right, ....for a reason though.......so busy experimenting a new "Blender" that I bought not long ago.

It's quite expensive in my category. This Blender is so powerful that you can put in a whole apple without cutting, and it blend so well you don't even feel the fibre while drinking, so easy to clean too, it was the easy cleaning that attracted me.....hahaha....just being lazy.....

Since than I just use it for my daily juices, and recently I started to experiment making healthy desert. Honestly, I am not those kind that made desert because it's too much work, but....with this blender everything seem so easy, so far I had tried out a few kind, like soy bean with white sesame, black bean with black sesame, peanut with white sesame, I tell you it's so yummy until a friend ask me to open a desert shop after trying it, hahaha....(blush), not much of the photo right, will snap better one the next time I made those desert. I can even blend a healthy breakfast, of cereal, black sesame, flax seed 2 slice of vegetable, a small banana and milk, very yummy and filling.

I made today, Pumpkin smoothie.....yummy, and it's so easy to made,maybe you can try it too:

1. Pumpkin, cane sugar, sago, coconut milk or fresh milk and maize.

2. Cut pumpkin and scrape the fresh maize and steam it.

3. Boil sago until clear.

4. Put pumpkin, sugar to taste in to the blender and blend till smooth.

5. After blending, add in maize, sago and milk, stir, and that's it.

Done, try it full of goodness...and yummy...

From Socks to Blankets......

After the "Socks For Japan" I am into "1 Blanket 4 Japan" by 'Rotary Club'. A friend email me to tell me about it and she want me to join her and I did, (a good course mah) because there are still some friends that I had not enough time to contact the last time, so I join in the 'Blanket", this time 80pieces of adult and children blanket from my side, overall we collected 280pieces of blanket the rest was from Khim.

As for Khim she really did a very good job, not only she pass the words around and collected the 200pieces she also got a friends who had some boxes and pack it, thumps up Khim if you are reading this..

I only pass the words around, collect $$ and buy the blankets on behalf of those who had no time to buy,and print some care note with Khim writing the donor's name on it.

Most of the photo above was from Khim, I only took a few before I pass it over to her.

I just simply love the print of the blanket, nice right.......but...only 60pieces left.

It always felt extra nice to give a helping hand to people who needed help.....

Socks For Japan

It all started over at Redbabe Cozy Corner's Socks for Japan Drive' and the rest are history. Initially, it was just that I remembered having some brand new socks stacked away in my room which I can have them courier over to Redbabe. Then I remembered a friend mentioned sometime ago that she had a bag of new socks that she wanted to give away. Called her immediately but upon checking, the big bag of socks were no longer there. Instead, she said she going to buy 10 dozens for the Japanese instead! How wonderful! And that, gave me the idea of going around asking if anyone interested to join in. To my surprise, within just 2 days, I collected 30 dozens!!

In a small town like Kluang, I believed when the disaster striked Japan, many people wanted to help but they don't know how to. So it was not really such a tough job for me. They were just too happy that I started the ball rolling. Honestly, I am so glad that I have been given the opportunity to do my bit for the victim of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Now that I have collected a total of 30 dozens + 5 dozens (Redbabe's), I decided to deliver them all personally to Redbabe and 3bittersweetlemon. Before we actually mail it to Japan, we are suppose to put a little sweet note in Japanese on each pair of sock, and Redbabe had it google translate into Japanese. We have to unpack each pack of the 420 pairs of socks, stick on the message sticker and repack them up again. No doubt that 420 pair sounds like a lot of work but we actually enjoyed the whole process and the house was turn into a temporally mini socks factory. Check out the big pile of socks. Coincidentally the label on the socks' packaging have the logo of our Twin Tower, how nice...... Many someone out there will have their feet warm and cozy soon because of all these warm hearted people out here who had chipped one way or another. I would like to specially THANKS friends and so many of you from the hawker center behind Coronation, for making this possible. Go on give yourself a big pat on the back for a good job done! :) THANK YOU

For those who want to send 'socks for Japan' here is the link:

Jason Kelly-Help Japan

Socks For Japan-Facebook

Bitter SweetLemons-Socks For Japan-Let's Do It

What I was told....

Million have been really quiet and wasn't her usual self since she came home 16 days ago. Must be traumatized. She slept very soundly on the first night. But on the 2nd & 3rd nights, she cried in her sleep few times a night. Must be having nightmares. From what I gathered thru the kidnapper's mother, Million was kept at the back of the house, on the five foot way behind the kitchen which is an open space with fence. As for Million this is the first time in her entire 7 years of life that she have to sleep outside for 17 days, with insects and rats running all over.

*

In order to sleep peacefully, she have to protect herself from the rats by catching and killing them before they bite her. The kidnapper's mother even told us that Million is a very good rat catcher, how sad.

*

Another new thing about Million since she came back, a sneeze will sent her running for cover. This is very very unusual as it never happens before. I believed, it must be linked to something that frightens her. Probably the sound of hitting a table with a cane to made a loud noise to kept her quiet and stop her barking, maybe that's the reason why she rarely bark since she came home. Not even when she sees a cat or dog. Extreme unusual.

*

Also, she is all alert whenever she hears the clinking of keys. Something new to me too .I guess the clinking could means feeding time since she was being kept at the back of the house and it requires keys to open the gate. Not only that, she now takes her time to eat unlike last time where she would gobbles down her food. Probably her food was left there for the rest of the day and she eats whenever she feels like it.

*

Now, after being back at home for 16 days, she is almost back to her usual self. Beginning to bark at cats and dogs and mailman, oh yes, even the mailman, hahaha... She started to play and eats normally, jumping when I came home too. I am really glad and happy and thankful for having my Million back home once again. I still think it's a MIRACLE.....!

*

Sometime I wonder what's in her mind? Redbabe came back with hubby and a friend to visit over the weekend and of course to see Million too. To our surprise, Million was so glad and happy to see them. This is somewhat mistifying. In the past, Million always feels intimidated by Redbabe especially when Rumba & Sunshine is back too and she would just stick to me and not go anywhere near Redbabe. But this time round, when she saw her, she just jumped all over around her as if they were old buddies like that. How surprising. We just stared at each other with our jaws dropped.

*

I just wonder what's going on in Million's head when she was being kidnapped? Was she thinking that she would never be able to see us all ever again? And now, she is finally home , she is so glad to be with us and see Redbabe again? This is a big QUESTION MARK we all have.