Bali, anyone? Pls share ur experience.

Thought of going to Bali for my 5th honeymoon after married for 10 years, this coming school holidays.

Any good reviews? Pls share. Or do you have any better recommendation?
Dont intend to bring kids though it's gonna be school holidays. Mummy & daddy needthe break more. Ha Ha.

Hi Happy Labour Day bloggers out there!

I'm very positive this labour day wont stop you all from blogging..in fact have more time to blog for those getting a day off on 1st May, right?

Anyway have a good break and enjoy this public holiday!

Cheers!

I-Kad for my Indon maid

Took half day off today. Went to a deserted place in a kampung area where there was this JKR quarters with so many Malay young staff at the so called Immigration Dept doing I-Kad. Those of u who have maids, I'm sure u notice we were used to be given a blue card for our maid called the "foreign worker card". For the past one year after my intake of this current maid, I've not received that card. When I enquired from the Immigration dept, I was told they no longer issue those cards anymore. Now they have what they call the I-Kad. Very simple to get.

You can do it before or after you renew your maid. I did it after sending her for medical check up with FOMEMA. Then I took her to the I-Kad dept to get the Kad done.

This is what you need:

1) Your maid's thumbprint
2) Maid's passport size photo with WHITE background
3) Her original passport.
4) Free of charge

The processing duration varies but was told about 4-5 months. They will call the employer to go and collect from the I-Kad dept once it's done. The new I-Kad has a microchip. Unlike the old blue card.

Next week gotta bring her for renewal of her permit. I used to let my agent do the renewal but since many friends told me that it's quiet easy and cheaper to do it myself..this time I'm giving it a try. actually quite easy. First go Fomema ..pay RM190.00 in the form of Wang Pos..then select the panel doctor we want. Take maid to the doctor where the blood test will be taken and also the XRAY.Nowadays you can get the results as early as 3 days. Go FOMEMA website or call them for the results. Once results OK..proceed with the renewal at the Immigration Dept. Pay RM30 per month for the levi. One year is about RM360 plus some service charges..Since my maids' passport expire sooner than her permit..I gotta renew until the passport's validity instead of a one year renewal.

At first my maid's XRAY report was doubtful and the FOMEMA quarantine her as they find something which looks like a metal stuff near her neck. When I called to explained that she forgot to remove her earrings, they review the report again and give greenlight to proceed with renewal. THank GOD..otherwise I will need to take unpay leave while sourcing a new maid.

Maid oh maid. Nowadays they are necessity no more luxury!

Rainy season, frogs mating in my garden!

As we all knw, nowasdays it rain almost everyday and due to the rainy season..I guess it's ideal for frogs mating, too.

Past few days have been a great adventure for my hubby, my maid and I outside our garden..past sleeping time.!!

Why?? Because they were frogs croaking in my garden beside my koi pond. Their amplified croaks waked my whole neigbourhood and disturbed sleeping. I was so shy when my immediate neighbour called me when I was still at work to inform me that there were frogs croaking since afternoon till night and they can't sleep. I told her actually my hubby has caught 3 frogs that day but there were still some more.
Then my maid caught another 3 frogs the next afternoon.When I got back the next evening, they started their orchestra again. I caught 1 , hubby caught another 1 and another 1 just after we drove out to free the frogs at a nearby playground.Just a while ago, we found a pair mating and one just staring at them. At last we caught all 3 and dump them near a drain at a nearby playground.

This is the latest ones we caught mating in the pond and already got tadpoles swimming inside the pond. The big fat one is female and the one riding n top is male almost 1/2 size smaller.




So have you calculated in total how many frogs we caught in the past 3 days? Winner will get to cook "frog" porridge for dinner . Ha ! Ha!

Yes the answer is 1 dozen frogs. My hubby will buy empat ekor tomorrow . But thinking of it we caught 12..frog number is 3 digit . Then it will be 5 ekor not empat ekor. By the way, what is the number for Frog for those of you who buy numbers??

Do u know how bird nest is produced? Not sure if this is true.or just a hoax to spoil the bird nest market.

Birds' nests which are just taken down are very dirty and smelly.
Nobody will think of consuming them at all if they see the condition. Now let me show you how the birds' nests are processed so that they are edible.



The workers are getting rid of the fine feathers, grass and dirt.



After getting rid of the feathers and grass, the birds' nests are cut into smaller pieces for further cleaning.



Then they are soaked in water for other smaller particles to float to the top.



Then they are soaked in a kind of bleaching agent for them to turn white.
The bleaching agent becomes cloudy after reacting.



After bleaching, hot boiling water is used to get rid of the smell of bleaching agent.
The parts of the birds' nests which cannot be bleached will be taken out.



Now it's the time to mould them into shapes




After moulding them into shapes, they are dried.

After drying them for one day and one night, the birds' nests are ready.




Malaysia and Indonesia produce at least 800-2000kg of Cao Yan and Mao Yan.

In these birds' nests, only a small amount is edible (the saliva of the bird), but they are very dirty and almost black in colour. No one would want to consume it.

So should we just waste it like that? No, there is of course a way of turning them into attractive products, which is bleaching. Some suppliers use H2O2 to get rid of the smell of second class birds nest. H2O2 is a rather poisonous chemical, and it might cause cancer.

Only some food contain small amount of SO2 and SO3 (not more than 0.00000002%) In Japan the amount of SO2 and SO3 in all sorts of food must not exceed 0.00000001.

Before this, the nutritional value in Cao Yan and Mao Yan is already very low. After processing using chemicals, the nutrient in the birds' nests is totally destroyed. Therefore, the nutritional value can be said to be lower than Pek Bok Nee... have you eaten before?

The birds' nests which are bleached have lost its original shape. So, businessmen turn these birds' nests into different kinds of shape. The most common shapes are leaf-shaped, strips and round shape. There are also those who dye the birds nest into yellow/ red colour, and cheat the unknown consumers by selling these birds' nests to them as Xue Yan/Jin Si Yan.

The nutritional value of these birds' nest is gone and totally worthless after processing them with lots of chemicals.

Do you think what was shown above is a true picture? Why people still willing to pay so much for something so harmfully processed ? Mayb gone were the days when genuine bird nest were produced.

The above was sent to me through email. I've no intention to jeopardise the bird nest manufacturers but just putting up this post for exploration of thoughts among bloggers.

Have u tried eating Jagung raw?

Hub bought back some jagung(corns) from Cameron Highlands. The initial price was RM2 each. Really big and sweet. But due to the non stop rain that morning before he and the golf kakis came back, the farmers sold it for RM10 for 8. That was a very good buy. You knowlah guys never would knw how to bargain. If not because the farmers were desperate to close the sale, i guess we wouldnt have had the chance to enjoy those sweet corns. Hub brought them back and told the maid to cut them into round pieces and to be eaten raw. Believe it or not...they were so crunchy, sweet and juicy..emmmmm wish he could have bought more.So far praise God no one complain of diarrhoea Hub also bought some giant oranges. Also very juicy and sweet. Can't wait to go to Cameron Highlands again on 10 May to enjoy a retreat with my Mind Science kakis to do a meditation cycle at the Boh plantation as we hike up. Will buy more corns and oranges then. Will blog on that in my vacationphysiomom.blogspot.com later.

Day out with mom and dad at the pet shop!

Today hub and myself on leave. Supposed to renew maid and take her for medical check up. Unfortunately, her Tai Yee Mah came (having menses) and we had to postpone the event.

Took Jasmine to the pet shop when her sister and koko were at school.

She had a great time and all the attention mom and daddy gave her.

She saw many many hamsters, rabbits and roasters. The pet shop coincidently ran out of animal stock. So laku..mostly sold out. waiting for new stock.

Saw a lady who was there to buy some hamsters to resell at her shop.She was determining the sex of the hamsters by blowing the fur at the prvate part. I find it quite interesting and wonder how could she differentiate the sex when the hamster is so darn small.

Boys with their creative games again

Last Saturday nite when hub stayed overnite at Cameron Highlands for golf, the kids were restless and didnt knw what to do. So I told them to sit around and be quiet for once and practise Mind Science meditation. Then my second twin Dennis the menace came out with this idea of putting torch lights to pretend as candles and started influencing the rest of his siblings to meditate and go into "Alpha".
Unfrtunately, that didint last more than 5 minutes..then there they went with their hyperactiveness again. Boys will be boys. Dont u agree?

My girls behaved like angels when I was at the hair saloon for 2 hours

Last Saturday, hub went to Cameron highlands with his gang to play golf. So I took the girls along with me to my hair saloon since they insisted. I thought it was good to give heir kakak a break too.
To my surprise, both the gorls behave like angels occupying themselves playing with Barbie doll and her wardrobe of clothes changing, while I was having my hairdo.

Take a look...that's the difference between having girls and boys. If my twin boys were around, i bet they wont even sit still . Those of you who have boys and girls do you feel the difference, too?

Our little Juliana is a copycat of her mum & dad when punishing her

My hubby and I used to use rotan to cane our twin boys when they are really beyond control but nvr on his precious little girls . I knw it's double standards but what to do daddy's girls mah. Anyway as the boys grw we chnage our strategy as the cane no longer wrks on their pachyderm (thick skin). So we make the boys do push ups or pumping. This will toughen them up. As for the girls we make them stand corner. I think this has an impact especially on Juliana (3 yrs old). Yesterday I caught her playing with Barbie Doll and a Tesco doll where she scolded Barbie for beating Tesco doll and she punished Barbie by putting her to stand corner just like the way we did on her when she was naughty. Take a look at this video. It really tickles me:

Mummy finally appear on the blog in her convo robe.

Well, due to special request by some aunties who faithfully visit mummy's blog..now you can see our mummy in her convo robe. She wore a long dress made of Saree cloth, orange in colour. How does she look? Too bad my naughty Kokos couldnt join us in her photos. That shows how strict mum and dad can be when it comes to discipline. That's also the secret of success to mum's degree course. Never do last minute work. Be consistent with studies. Mummy used to wake up arnd 12 midnight to study till 3-4am when we were all soundly asleep.

Any plans for the coming school holidays in May?

Well, after the convo I kinda feel very lazy and just looking forward to go for a vacation. Initially thinking only with my hubby just to give ourselves a break. But since next month May will be school holidays, planning to have a family vacation. Yet that would strain the pocket.Already spent so much by self sponsoring for my studies, really hurts to spend for coming holidays.

What are your plans for those of you with school going kids? Or any recommendation on where to go for family holidays? Better still cheap and nice and not too far.

Hooray! I finally grduated and the Convo was great!

It was a very touching moment for me when i reflected how hard it was for me to do my studies while pregnant with Jasmine anad drag on until after confinement. Anyway, i thank God for his great blessings for the great family and friends' support, a great dissertation supervisor as well as a reliable maid whereby I could study with peace of mind while leaving my kids at home with her.

I do hope I've made my parents proud on that night. My hubby, my parents and my little girls were there for the convo and dinner. Initially the twins boys were supposed to be with us but they were curfewed at home for misbehaving at the very last moment. So they stayed with their 'kakak' (my maid) instead their sisters got the chance to go with us.

Besides myself feeling excited on that night look who's more excited....monkeying around the stage after dinner.




Took many pictures but shy to put it on the blog. There was an advertisement of Congrtulations by my University Of Teeside, UK in The Star 5 April, 2008.
Guess which one is me on the list?? Hint hint I'm one of the only two graduates with 1st Class Honours graduate in Applied Rehab.Not bad hoh..sudah tua tua baru nak study.

mummy's convo..dont knw what to wear?

Yup, tmrw is my convo. At last ...after extending 1 extra year from the time I did my degree in Applied Rehab ( when I was pregnant with Jasmine my youngest of four kids. It really feels like AGES.

Feelng very "kan cheong" and excited. Bringing my parents and kids along for my convo to make my parents proud and my kids to look up on mummy as role model.

But dont knw what to wear. Some say better wear pants..more profesional and formal. Some say wear collar blouse, some say wear gown .!
The requirment is wear national costume.

Anyway took few suits of clothings to see which will suit the robe. What did mummies out there wear on their convo?