William's Love Affair With the Indian Barber

This son of mine, has always had his hair cut since his infant days at the neighborhood Indian barber.  If I recall correctly, he only had his hair cut/shaven ONCE by this same Chinese lady after full moon, who also shaved his Jie Jie's head when she was a newborn too.

It's not like William is blessed with a head full of thick, lustrous hair since birth.  In fact, it's quite the contrary because his hair is quite scarce and thin.  On my part, I did not diligently massage his scalp with olive oil but over the past one year, I think his hair does look thicker.  

So there is no Owen Wilson look, but rather a David Beckham mohawk hairstyle for William.  : )  This was always our standard request to the barber when we bring William for his monthly visit.  Not only is using the local barber very kind to our pockets, but it is also very convenient for us and this supports our local neighbor's livelihood.  

William's hair cut is a monthly affair and has become part of our fixed costs. : )

Back here in Petaling Jaya, we used to pay RM5 for his toddler head to be trimmed and shaved, then he "upgraded" to adult rate of RM10.  Our regular barber moved away to a higher traffic neighborhood a couple of years back, but thankfully there are still a few other choices around.  My favourite would be this Indian barber shop at Kelana Jaya that has a very unassuming look from outside, but inside, it is complete with a decorated waiting area, about 6 individual barber chairs with an attending barber by its side, sinks, hairdryers and vanity sets.  These barbers come in uniforms too and most of the time, they wear a hygiene mask to cover their mouths.  

Standing at the waiting area before his haircut

See the "sterilizer" oven at the side? 

William is always ticklish when it comes to trimming off the little wild hairs with a blade.  We have to keep reminding him to hold still otherwise the barber might accidentally slice his ear

Recently we discovered that Penang island have not seen inflation for barber rates, and William got a nicely shaved head for a mere RM3!!!  Beat that, you can't even order a small bowl of noodles with RM3 anywhere in PJ!  

RM3 haircut.  Not bad... can't tell the difference with a RM10 haircut

The time has come

I'd like to write about my current maid today.  No, no, I'm not gonna rant, and this is likely to be my second last post on her.... well, because she's going home.  Her home.  For good.

I'd also like to say that at this moment, neither she nor us is celebrating.  She is leaving on a good note, eventhough it was due to those few rotten episodes a few months back that led to this decision.

Like a couple in relationship, when there is a huge row, one party suggests a breakup, and after a few more times of this, the other party finally relents.  So this was the case between us, as she mentioned a few times that she wants to back out of her extension contract (she asked for a heavy increment for her extension till May 2014 which we agreed without hesitation).  "If that is your heart's desire, than I will honor it,"  I said at that time.

Fast forward now, the time has finally come.  Although I was expecting my new maid since February who was delayed due to some documentation hiccup,  I am not emotionally prepared to let go of my current one.  Yea, she may have flaws, she may have made my blood boil and tempted me to sin, she may have given me some tough, challenging days or weeks, but she was and at this time, by far... the maid that I loved the most.  The one that I cared for the most.

I couldn't bring myself to break the news to her, so I let hubby do it.  Her first words was, she didn't want to go.  I don't know if she meant, she didn't want to go back prematurely (her current contract ends in a month's time) or she didn't want to go leave us.

Whatever it is, I'll be keeping busy the next one week with settling the maid's outgoing needs.  I wish her well and I wish she stay faithful to God and count on Him at all times.  I hope the skills and values she learned during her stint here will find her a good job in her country (although unlikely she will find one so well paying as her current one now) and maybe one day, settle down with a good Christian man.

Sharing a crazy moment with the kids

In a week's time, we will bid her adieu.  I'm grateful that she's given me my freedom to move around while she handled the house chores, prepared the meals and watched the kids.  Despite our differences.  I guess it's never easy putting two ladies together, what more, from different backgrounds and culture - living under the same roof for close to 3 years. 

Till we meet again... if ever.

Good bye and God bless, Kea Net. 

Of lions and dances...

During the recent CNY this year, we have been FRUITFUL... fruitful in finding lion dances!  Although we didn't hit a dozen, which would be quite crazy but we managed to get up close and personal with some lions, had the privilege to pose with them, watched a 24 festival drums performance (totally OUTSTANDING!!), caught the world champion Kun Seng Keng lion dance performance on top of the usual orange blessings from the lions! 

Here are pictures and videos taken.  The only lion dance performance which I didn't take any pictures of was the Gangnam Style lion dance which William went with Daddy at the Icon City, PJ.  The kids were totally ecstatic every time we got to see a lion dance performance.  I hope they won't outgrow this excitement too soon, as Mummy is still just as excited even at my age... hehe. 

First lion dance we saw this year, at Bangsar Shopping Centre pre-CNY

Second lion dance - at Holiday Inn Atrium, Singapore.  Every year, these lions will peel oranges and make a 4-digit pattern out of it.  Singaporeans love it, apparently! 

Victoria with the "choy sun" in Singapore

24-festival drum performance by Nilai College and Inti College students.  They may be young and still studying, but they are truly energetic, precise and talented!  The guy in the middle... I had a chat with him prior to their performance, to find out where they were from. : )

The full 10-15 minute performance was one-of-a-kind!

Ada gaya also!

Underneath the mask is an Indian boy.  There were two Indian guys under one lion, and at least an Indian drummer too.  Looks like the Chinese is now outsourcing.  And hey, this is not any lion dance performance, this was by the famous Kun Ken Seng association.

The lions went around the show gallery, sitting on sofas and bed, posing beside the jacuzzi and even checking out the bathrooms. It was sporting enough to pose for us.  We went around, with William leading us, following the lion to each room and corner.  So obviously, we got many personal photos with the lion. 

Third lion dance in Icon Residence Show Gallery, Mont Kiara by world champion Kun Seng Keng Association.

Does this choy sun look like the same guy as the one Vic took with in Singapore?  To me, he does, but he denied. 

Fourth lion dance by only Vic and I at her friend's house - two lions and many beautiful fireworks!

Our host starting the ball rolling by letting go his supply of fireworks, followed by a few neighbors.  The whole place went BANG BANG BANG, whilst food continued to be served.  Kids played in and out of the house, turning the whole house almost upside down. 

A picture of Ming Shuen, Valen, Zoe and Victoria.

My 9th Wedding Anniversary

My husband has grown more romantic over the years.

As early as two months before our anniversary, which happen to be in the same month as the date that we first "met" and also the same month of our first date (on Valentine's), hubby has started dropping hints of what he bought for me.

Which honestly made me quite guilty as I haven't thought of a gift for him, nor did I thought of anything more than just a dinner for the two of us.  With kids these days, that's pretty hard to come by, I mean the dinner for two.  So, if I had thought of just a dinner for the two of us, that'd be a BIG thing indeed.

7th February.

Back in 1998, his final year of university and my 2nd year, I took that trip from Sheffield to Liverpool Lime Street station.  I remembered him wearing a long trench coat, with that rugged blue jeans and checked shirt waiting at the platform just where my train stopped.

That was the "first" time I met him.

14th February.

A week later he came over to Sheffield for our first date together.  There weren't many affordable restaurants there where we needn't have to pay through our nose for taxi fare or walk our socks out.  So we book ourselves a table at a very crowded Indian Restaurant in Broomhill.    

28th February.

In 2004, a leap year, we tied the knot.  The joke was he had the thoughts of wedding me on 29th instead so we can celebrate every other 4 years and save on the anniversary.

So when 7th February came around this year, I had thought that a wish and a kiss would do.

But hubby presented me with this...

A bouquet of roses in my favourite colors with a sweet romantic note. 

A surprise waiting for me in our bedroom after I came home from Vic's music class.

And the next day we had a nice, slow lunch at Genji Restaurant, PJ Hilton , admist the working lunch crowd.  Traffic was exceptionally bad that day, with many MNCs calling it a half day for Chinese celebrating CNY that long weekend.

The lobster roll was not available, but the waitress recommended this tiger prawn roll, which is simply glorious!  The prawn was deep fried, and still warm and crunchy as we sank our teeth in it.

My set of something something.

Hubby picked ala carte dishes... this is one of it. 

I didn't get to fully enjoy my roses this round as we left for the long CNY holiday two days later.  By the time we got home, it was all brown and dried.   I kept it in the vase for another week plus before deciding to put it away.

The bigger celebration was to be our wedding anniversary, and hubby taunt me almost every other day with hints on my next gift.  As if an expensive Ipad2 (to replace the 1st generation that I receive for our anniversary in 2011) was not enough, he bought me...

My first ever smartphone (yes, you heard me, I'm one of those aunties who is still using a dinosaur phone.  Even my mom is on smartphone!)...

... and it's an iPhone 5 32G!

So now you can find me on Viber, Line, WeChat, Kakao Talk, etc hahahaha

But I've not converted yet.  The iPhone is still a tablet to me, and I'm happy with my pink dinosaur still.

For our anniversary, we went for another Japanese lunch at Tao Japanese Restaurant the day before the actual day because it was a busy week for hubby and Thursday the actual day was a packed day for both ourselves.

It was such a value-for-money luncheon, as we kept ordering food after food.  We had scallops, abalone, blue mussels, salmon, oysters, lamb, octopus, etc on top of the usual fanfare.

Here are just SOME pictures of what we ate.  We ordered so much, ate so much (because you get billed for wastage) until our waiter took the liberty to order the final dish for us, WITHOUT us asking for it.  Haha.  Somehow, he knows we can eat, I guess.

Needless to say, we were the last guests to leave, also because we arrived after 1pm.  

And that night, we had our celebration together with the kids - the products of our marriage.  Haha.  Hubby had Secret Recipe custom made a American walnut chocolate cake.

Goes very well with Vanilla ice cream.

And my gift to hubby - bought just two days before our anniversary... a very thoughtful gift indeed...

To celebrate the times together... you're the perfect partner to travel this life journey with!