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
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.
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.
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!
This morning after a good ol' Indian breakfast, Gong Gong brought us all in his first Camry - the car that Vic "grew up in" to an Ostrich Farm about 20 minutes drive from Seremban. The weather was not gloomy and constantly drizzling. It didn't look like it was gonna clear up anytime soon but we took the chance and continued the short journey to the Farm. Hopefully, we can get short rays of sunshine there.
Alas, the weather was the same when we walked in and was greeted by the owner, Abraham, who runs and owns Jelita Ostrich Farm. Gong Gong brought cousins Grace and Andrew a few months back so he knows Abraham from the earlier visit. We spent some time chatting with Abraham, hoping the drizzle will stop as there are no shaded walkways, and ostrich rides are in the open.
After 15 minutes or so, we decided to leave much to the disappointment of the two kids as they didn't get to go near, touch or ride any ostriches. But we got some pictures of this visit...
Three ostriches in the background. Vic asked a question on how to identify the gender to which Abraham replied that male ostriches have darker feathers, and the females lighter.
At night, we had dinner at Seremban 2 followed by a visit to Yee Yee's house. The cousin-get-together was one noisy but happy affair of chasing each other round the house!
Steamed garoupa
Thursday, 14th February (Day 5) - To the Park!!
The next morning, the weather was brighter and we quickly left Gong Gong's house with all 4 kids (Vic, Will and cousins Grace and Andrew) and a bicycle to Seremban 2 City Park. The two girls took turns to cycle, whereas the boys preferred to run around. As it was during the weekday, the park was not crowded and we had many opportunities to snap pictures. However, it's NEVER easy to get all 4 kids to look the same direction at the same time.
Honestly, boy boy... I think you're a little too big for this!
This is a bicycle for one, not two but Vic sure knows how to "bully" little cousin sister to give her a ride.
Whaddaya know... it was coincidently Valentine's Day and I got a kiss and a hibiscus from this handsome young boy at the park. Surprise surprise! He told me it's because I was special *laaammmmm*
A little National Geographic at the park. We saw this bird with a freshly caught fish in its beak, trying to figure out how to swallow it. We observed it for awhile but nothing happened. Just as we turned away, hubby saw the bird finished off its breakfast in one gulp (well, not like its got any teeth to chew anyway)
See saw is too boring for her??
After cleaning the kids up, we bade goodbye to Popo Gong Gong and left for home in PJ.
Friday, 15th February (Day 6)
This morning the kids and daddy excitedly rode their bicycles out to Uncle Morgan's house a few roads away to visit Tai Gong. We had planned to have breakfast after this visit. Just as we left Uncle Morgan's house, Vic asked if she could speed up to go over a road bump. Daddy was a few meters ahead of me and William (I did not cycle as it was easier to supervise the kids with my two feet on the ground) and since Vic has skillfully did this just that morning, we let her go.
Big Mistake...
... because as I watched her sped and cross the bump, she suddenly lost control of her bike and fell. The bicycle went to the right, whilst my little girl tumbled on the ground at least twice, then sat there and cried. The seconds were like slow moment, still fresh in my mind and I can only thank God there was no vehicles and no head injury or broken bones.
She scraped her left elbow very badly, a centre area was deep into the tissue. The side of her left knee was also scraped and bleeding. She was crying non stop and I wish we could just turn back time so she didn't have to suffer like this.
What was supposed to be a nice morning ride to breakfast and back, turned out to be a horrible experience for Vic. Thank God Aunty Maria was around and we called her to send me and the kids back, and also loaded William's bike into her car boots. Daddy parked Vic's bike at Uncle Morgan's house, and cycled back. He ta paued breakfast for the kids too.
Back at home, Vic wouldn't let me wash her wound and couldn't stop crying. Only after Daddy came home and I fed her some noodles, then she let me quickly rinse off the small sand and dust particles from her elbow. Still, it was not good enough, and we decided to bring her to the nearest GP.
She's never seen so much blood on herself before. This is REALLY painful
Leg and arm bandaged. I wrote a letter to her class teacher to excuse Vic from PE lessons for a week. A girl unknowingly pulled Vic's injured arm this week and got whacked twice by the Teacher.
The doc gently cleaned up both wounds, applied a layer of gauze netting to avoid the gauze sticking to the fresh wound. Then he applied an antibiotic ointment before bandaging the wound up. At the clinic, I see Vic winced in pain as the doctor cleaned up her wound yet she held her tears and gave her full cooperation.
However, back home over the next few days, this girl was super manja with me.
A couple of hours later, she even managed to join us to an open house at Aunty Diane's.
For bathing, I put a plastic chair in the bathroom for her to sit. I told her to put her injured leg up on the toilet bowl to avoid water from dripping down her leg and she lifted her left arm too. A little water too near her wound and she'd give out a scream!
The doctor did another round of dressing for her the next day, before I was told to take over. I'm now officially the in-house nurse, but the first time I did it for her on Sunday was quite traumatizing as the gauze and netting got stuck to her wound during the night. She refused to let any of us take it out for fear of pain.
So after nearing an hour I think, we gave up and had our breakfast whilst Vic sat in the wet kitchen by herself. Sometime later, she came out with the bandages off which she later told me she just yanked it out when she realized she had no other choice.
I think this accident will leave a scar on her arm and leg for sometime. We are already on the look out for a set of safety gears - helmet, knee and elbow cap for both the kids.
Vic have not mentioned fear of riding her bike and I hope she will not let this hinder from taking on challenges ahead, albeit with more wisdom and safety measures. Bang Bang Bang!!!
That night, we let go of fire crackers(just as what we do over the past 2 years) and this year the kids are old enough to play some Pop Pops and hand sparkles fireworks. They lovvveeedd it!!
The leftover firecrackers didn't break up nicely... must be China quality
Home cooked steamed white promfret- nice mou? Fish still very fresh even after 1 month in my freezer, hehehe
The Monday before Chinese New Year, William came down with "headache" (according to him) and fever. Gave us a short scare as he has never complained of a headache or head pain before, and he's not one to cough up some drama to seek attention. When we first heard of this, I brushed it off as his temperature was normal, but just to be on the safe side, I let him skip school the next day.
In the afternoon I had a scheduled appointment in Mont Kiara and was stucked in the afternoon traffic jam (in fact, traffic all around PJ has been heavy since a month before CNY for whatever reason). Imagine my heart racing when my maid called to inform me that he felt feverish.
That night, we brought him to see our usual paediatrician who checked him to be normal. Possibly viral and hopefully not due to visual.
Thank God the next day he recovered and was good for school. He was happy to skip his Chinese tuition though!
Saturday, 9th February 2013 (Eve)
We locked up our house and made our way southbound to Singapore. Mama Yeh Yeh left separately from Seremban but we met up at the Tuas rest stop for a snack before passing Immigration. Traffic was generally smooth and we arrived our hotel before check in time.
This year, we decided to stay in a different hotel from the previous years. Previously we have always made Holiday Inn Atrium our temporary home in Singapore but this year, we booked into V Hotel due to its convenience of a MRT station just beneath it and independent shops and eateries outside.
I will do a brief review of the hotel later.
We managed to check in early at 1230pm into a triple room on the 5th floor but was later transferred to the 8th floor so that we can be on the same floor with MaMa Yeh Yeh and Yee Sok's family. Our rooms were in all different corners but that proof to be no issue to the kids who happily race to MaMa Yeh Yeh's room whenever there's a chance.
I took no pictures of the room, because I forgotten and also because the picture in the hotel website is all there is to see (hint: small).
We had time to bath the kids, put them to sleep, catch a quick nap myself before bathing and leaving to TaiPo (great grandma)'s place. We are having homecooked for Reunion dinner!
MaMa Yeh Yeh brought down soy sauce pork belly and pork stew. We brought down a huge frozen 7 star garoupa fish cut into half, for steaming. TaiPo showed us her "la sau" and I picked up some secret recipes. ; ) I brought down my tong sui which I aptly call, the "8 Treasure" as it contained 8 items. Sugarless but sweet enough to sweetened the Reunion. Glad everyone enjoyed it.
Sadly, as we were all busy eating, I forgotten to snap pictures...
At night, we had a Family Movie Night in the hotel room. We joined both the single and double bed together, and the four of us huddled together watching The Pirates! Band of Misfits.
Finally, a show that none of us have watched before instead of the millionth times of repeats. In this show, Queen Victoria was the "bad guy." Hehehe... a nice movie with light English accents.
Sunday, 10th February (Day 1)
We went down for breakfast at the Kopitiam (foodcourt) before doing our customary pai nin with Mama Yeh Yeh in their hotel room. Kids love this time of fooling around with the camera, monkeying around the room (applicable to William and Theodore) and of course, receiving angpows. Ahhh.... they are only this young once!
As our hotel did not invite lion dance, we headed back to Holiday Inn Atrium to catch the lion dance at 10am. We arrived 15 minutes late and hubby blamed it on the speed limit on the highway... hehe! (It's CNY but the cameras are still working, and don't play play when you are in Singapore where the currency exchange rate is 2.5 times more!)
Catching the last 15 minutes of the lion dance... it was WORTH IT!
William touched the baby lion
Something something something
Posed beside the two lions
The kids (others as well) found joy in stroking, touching, jabbing and teasing the lions on the grounds. William have no fear, whereas the sister maintains her distance
Kids enjoyed picking up gold coins. Good thing both their shirts have got pockets!
See Daddy and William's shirt? They are both the same pattern! Mummy buy one. : )
A picture with the Choy San
Our tradition on the first day every year is to visit Tai Po at her flat and spend half a day there. During this time, all the other aunties will drop by to visit with their children (now all adults). We have our usual simple pai nin of good wishes, lunch, giving of angpows to whoever still unmarried and chit chats. The kids busied themselves with ipads, iphones and tv.
Look! Vic cooking, for real ok?! She's standing on a stool and frying her very own fried rice... with help from Taipo
Why is the normally smiley boy so gloomy in this picture? I guess that's coz I paused him from cookies or ipad for this pose with Uncle Reyna in yellow (yes, Uncle, no joke!) and cousin Theodore in red.
Balancing a mandarin orange on his hand... he goes, "Look, Mummy!" and I say, "Quick, smileeee!!"
In the afternoon while I put William to sleep, Vic sneaked out for a swim with Yeh Yeh at the hotel pool. I did not check out the pool but I heard it's nothing to shout about - they don't even have a kiddy pool! At night, we went to Changi Airport for dinner and walk around.
And I'm amazed by him... how does he learn how to hold the elderly's hands?
I like this toothless pic of Vic... after 6 months still no sign of new teeth
Kids playing around the Angry Bird play area.
Monday, 11th February (Day 2)
Today we have lunch at 5th Aunt's house in Tampines. Another round of lou sang which me and the kids love (although Vic can only nibble on selected parts) and Daddy takes a little, out of courtesy because this lucky man has been lou sang-ing non stop even before CNY!
At night, we ate at the food court near Bugis area, a familiar place to TaiPo. I saw couples eating a huge plate of yee sang as their main and only course! Wow! Singaporeans are really into yee sang! The yee sang stall even had a queue of eager patrons.
Bonding time!
Tuesday, 12th February (Day 3)
Today most stalls reopen and we had a different kind of breakfast instead of the noodles at the Kopitiam. We bought some buns (SGD1.5 each) and pork chop rice (SGD2) and ate in our room so we can multitask packing.
We checked out nearing 11:30am and headed out of Singapore. For lunch, we stop over at Yong Peng and ate a hearty meal of steamed fish teowchew style, signature dish fried mee hoon, mee sua soup, etc and enjoyed their freshly blended pineapple, soursop and pineapple mix passion fruit!
Traffic was heavy after Yong Peng and not because of any major accidents, it was because of the number of vehicles travelling back into the city.
Knocked out!
We arrived Seremban slightly past 5pm, rested and then headed out for dinner with Popo Gong Gong at Kong Ming Restaurant in town, where a reservation was made earlier by Gong Gong.
We had the group package, comprising of the usual lou sang, prawns, fish, braised beancurd, etc...
At Popo Gong Gong's house, we have our very own baby lion show... hahaha!! The kids took turns wearing the lion head and peeling real Mandarin oranges.
That's all for Eve to Day 3! More to come on CNY... Gong Xi Gong Xi to everyone. Wishing you a year of good health and God's abundance blessing.
