My Life is Missing... (Part 1)

I was taken aback by my boy when he said this to me this evening after school.

Ian: My life is missing.. (long sigh)
Mommy: Huh??? Why, boy?
Ian: I just know it, I have a miserable life. (longer sigh)
Mommy: What made you say that? Is it because mommy always make you do revision now that exam is here?
Ian: No. There're a lot of rubbish in my head and I don't know how to clear it.
Mommy: What kind of rubbish? Are you saying what mommy teaches you are all rubbish?? *Getting a bit annoyed by his remark*
Ian: No, those important things are safe.  I keep them at one side of my brain.
Mommy: *roll eyes* Ok, boy.. mommy might be pushing you too hard. We don't do revision tonight, ok.
Ian: No, I want to do revision, mommy.
Mommy: *Speechless*

After coming out from shower, he's back to his usual jolly self.

Ian: Mommy, My life has come back!
Mommy: Huh, why in a sudden?
Ian: I cleared the rubbish already.
Mommy: *roll eyes*

New Addition To Book Collection

I bought my boy a story book from the Enid Blyton's collection at Popular Bookstore on a Friday about a month ago.  I talked him out of buying Ben 10 book series this time and he seemed okay with my suggestion.

To us, Friday means bye bye... homework and revisions and Yay.. a big welcome to the approaching weekends! Our favourite spot after school will be to head for dinner at Madam Lim's or Ikea and  then my boy will either be sent to Ikea Playland while I have my ME time enjoying a cuppa cappucino at the restaurant.  On other Fridays, my boy will be seen sitting on the carpet floor at Popular's kids section browing books while the mommy dashes off to her preferred book section. I know, sounds very boring... but I am a bored person.. can't help it.. it's in the blood..:P

He has since finished reading the whole book and I am happy that he is slowly graduating to books that are of minimal pictures and seems enjoy reading Enid Blyton's.  This is the 5th (or was it 6th) book he has read so far.  We used to borrow the books from the nearby library but the availability of book titles from the collection there are somewhat scarce and limited.

I can see myself buying more and more Enid Blyton's to add to my boy's book collection and why not, it costs only RM9.90 each in contrary to Ben 10 series where I have to fork out more than RM10 for one.

OUG Pork Noodles (Restoran Makanan Sun Sea)

Wonder why,

 its signboard is hung inside the coffeshop and not outside

Hubby had been wanting to take me to this pork noodles stall located in Taman OUG after having had it a couple of times with his friend.  His friend has all praises about this stall and has been a regular there since decades ago.  I was told that the stall had been around for at least 30 years.

We finally made it there on a Sunday a month ago.  After dropping off Ian at the Sunday school in Brickfields, off we went for our early lunch.  Restoran Makanan Sun Sea is a corner coffeshop located just opposite OUG Wet Market.  This pork noodles stall is in much bigger scale than the typical one with two men manning a stove each and before I knew it, our order had arrived!

Busy churning out bowl after bowl of pork noodles

My bowl of Pork "Hor Fun" in soup

with minced and sliced pork, innards, crispy lards, squid and prawns

The above was what hubby ordered for me.  In contrary to me who likes to eat  everything wet (in soup), hubby  likes the dry version but this time he ordered the same as mine.

Hmm..   I still prefer the pork noodles at Peter's Pork Noodle in Brickfields after having tried this one.  The sliced pork was overcooked thus the tough hard to chew texture.  In my humble opinion, the soup wasn't as flavourful as Peter's where Tung Choi (preserved cabbage) was added.  Next time, I must remind hubby to place order with an egg added and that can really make a world of difference!

Ian The Digger

My little digger manning his "superdig" machine

Beside the little digger is the supervisor on duty.

The Versatile Blogger Award

Thanks Adrine for having me in mind. This will be my first time doing a tag.  Really appreciate it. Muaks..:P

Rules : To accept this award you must:

1. List 7 random things about yourself
2. Share the award with up to 15 other bloggers
3. Link to each of the recipients and let them know they've won via comments on their blogs
4. Thank and bring the love back to the person you won the award from by linking back to them.

1.  I am 5'6" tall and one of the tallest among my friends.  I used to slouch until I met my then boyfriend (now hubby) and he would constantly remind me and correct my posture.  The slouching started way back in my primary and secondary school years when I was teased by classmates about my height and I thought slouching would make myself looked a little bit shorter then. How silly!

2.  I like attires that are comfortable and easy to move about.   I dislike wearing something that looks gorgeous but a physical torture to myself.  I love wearing flats now that I am a SAHM.  I only remember wearing high heels during my working days.

3.  Some of my friends call me "Ah Man" as my name ends with Mann.  Another reason was because I am a non-calculative, straight forward, no nonsense person, just like most men but physically, I don't look a bit like a man. Ahem! 

4.  I am a boring person.  I don't go window shopping and go shopping only when there is really a need.  I still remember during my working days, whenever I found myself short of working clothes, I would go on a one day shopping spree to replenish stock regardless of whether there was a sale on.  That's why, any good bargain wasn't really for me..    

5.  My ex-boss offered 3 months' paid salary as "cooling-off period" when I tendered my resignation last year. That simply translates to sitting at home and yet still get paid for 3 consecutive months while I took my time reconsidering my decision.  But no, I turned down his offer straight away.  Looking back, how hard-headed I could be at times...  Muahahaha...

6.    My most embarrasing moments was when I donned in a Sonny San's silky soft long dress, a gift from my husband, my then boyfriend  with a matching 3" high heels.  I was walking down the office staircase with my hands full of files when my 3" heel got caught on the hem of my flattering dress.  I tripped and "pukai"  shoving off few steps bottom down to stop the impact.  Ouch!!  In the process, I made a hole on my lovely dress and worse still, the heel gave way and I sprained my ankle~:(  That's why I always stick to No. 2..

7.  I love books.. and more than willing to spend $$$$ on books than branded goods, any time! 

I am not tagging anyone here but you all most welcome to pick it up.

Hawker Square, Ikano Power Centre

I had read a lot of positive reviews about Rasa Fiesta Food Court at Ikano Power Centre, Mutiara Damansara and decided to give it a try last Saturday evening but never did I realise the blog posts were dated back to at least 4 year ago and the place was already out of business. Blek!

We ended up having our dinner at Hawker Square located on the Lower Ground.  Hawker Square has four concept stalls: Yong Tau Foo, Yau Tiao franchise - I Love Yoo, Portuguese Grill Seafood and another stall selling fried rice, Oyster omelette and Fried Kuew Teow.

Photo source here 

We ordered our food from this stall except the Portuguese Grill Stingray which we ordered from the stall next to it.

Pineapple Fried Rice - RM5.90

Seafood Fried Rice - RM5.90

Geylang Fried Kuew Teow - RM5.90

The fried rice and fried kuew teow tasted not bad, the portions were generous, each with three big prawns.

Portuguese Grilled Stingray c/w rice - RM7.90

The sauce of this dish went very well with the accompanied bowl of rice though it was a bit too spicy to my palate.

My boy, being a fried rice lover, "sapu" his plate of rice clean and was in his jolly mood to pose for my camera and insisted that I upload the photo of him holding his two McD toys. *roll eyes*

Another makan place we like to frequent is Madam Lim's at the Ground Floor of Tesco Mutiara Damansara but wonder why I never got to take any pictures during our many visits there. Hmmm..

Address:

IKANO Power Centre

Lower Ground Floor, Lot LG3A & 5
No.2, Jalan PJU 7/2
Mutiara Damansara
47800 Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan

Worthy Investment

The new collection of books

When I first received the similar order form  (for 1st half of the year subscription) from my boy early this year,  I subscribed what was compulsory ie the 3M magazine that his class teacher used as revision materials, only that, nothing more.  I regretted not subscribing more magazines upon reading its contents which I found educational and inline with the school syllabus.   My boy's school had stopped taking orders by then and I had to search for other subscription source.  Do read my previous post here if you are interested to know more about the subscription.  This time, when I received the order form for 2nd half of the year subscription, I ordered more than what my son had requested. He specifically wanted Oka and Kachigo which I was more than happy to oblige as these two story titles were in Chinese.

My boy is still very much inclined to reading books in English.  If given a choice to choose the language of books to be read, his priority will always be English.  I can't blame him for that as other than Cantonese which are both daddy and mommy's mother tongue, English is the only language he has been exposed to the most in his growing up years.  He went to English medium kindy since he was four.  He did go to a Chinese medium nursery for a year when he was three but that wasn't long enough to pose any effect on him.

During his recent exam, The two subjects that he scored almost full mark were English which he scored 98%, he got 99% for Moral which was a bit to my surprise as the Chinese words used in the exam didn't appear to be easy for a Standard one (Not easy to the standard of this teacher mommy larr.. my Chinese knowledge is as good as my son or maybe slightly better lorr).   I can see  that he is slowly benefited from his love in reading.

One of the best lifelong gift we can ever give our children are by cultivating  a lifetime reading habit in them.  Don't you all agree with the above statement?

The Life Of A Blogger's Son

Oh.. No... Not Again!!

I know her well,

Nothing is going to stop her from snapping away, anyway,

must learn to live with it.

She is not going to give up until I pose with a smile for her camera

Done.. I can now have my breakie in peace ..

Playing Sports On Rainy Days..

Badminton Racquets

Table Tennis

Basketball

It rains almost everyday and we have to resort playing sports indoor these days.  There was no way I could find my old badminton racquets so I ended up buying two from the lower range.  I also got a table tennis set but haven't got around playing it. 

We had  followed our timetable religiously and went for our one hour exercise from 8am to 9am every morning until ONE MORNING WHEN...

I had a game of badminton with hubby two Sundays ago at this badminton hall that I sprained my arm muscles after 20 minutes into the game.    So no more exercise for the supposedly  2 days which I have promised my boy to nurse my sprained arm but it has since stretched far beyond that as the laziness within me creeps in after that 2 days of sleeping in till 9am. Gosh! Oh No..

Hey, mommy mommy wakey wakey... You are my mentor and you just cannot simply call it quits knowing very well that perseverance does pay off handsomely and in this case to instill perseverance and never give up attitude in your  boy.   Hey.. Wakey wakey...

Butter Durian aka Mao Shan Wang aka Rajah Kunyit

Selling at 50% off after 8pm at Jusco 1U

Movie star in the making or was it really that good?

Going Fast...

Gone.. Only seeds are left..:P

Seng Huat Bak Kut Teh (BKT Under The Bridge), Klang

Ian with yeh yeh and mah mah

My camera battery went flat after snapping the above photo of Ian with his grandparents. The photos that followed were taken from Ah Xian's food blog.

More popularly known as BKT Under The Bridge

 (Not exactly under the bridge as the name suggests, just next to it)

Last Sunday, mom in-law suggested that we went for Bak Kut Teh for dinner and specifically named Kedai Makanan Seng Huat as her target for BKT.  She had been craving for the long meaty bone after watching Ah Xian's replayed food program being screened on TV in the morning and the scene of Ah Xian enjoying the meaty bone just made her drooled.  Haha.. mom in-law is really one authentic "wai sek mau", huh..:P

Kedai Makanan Seng Huat or more popularly known as Under The Bridge BKT is one of the oldest Bak Kut Teh located in the older part of Klang.  I have heard so much about this shop from my ex-colleague who is a local there but have never gotten around eating there.

This long bone is what mom in-law dies for..

I think this portion costs us RM6.50 or was it R8.50?

The meat was tender, fall-off the bone type

Rice mixed with fried shallot for fragrant taste

The above picture shows Ah Xian holding a bone with dangling and falling-off tender meat. Simply delicious!  Guess this was the salivating scene that caught mom in-law's attention!

The soup base didn't taste as much herbal presence as the ones that we had at Yi Seng Ge Restaurant in Kelana Jaya, PJ.  You can't really taste the herbs in comparison but it tastes more of soy sauce instead which is not to my liking. Father in-law shared my sentiments while mom in-law and hubby said it was good.

Other than the long meaty bone, we also ordered yau tiao, lettuce, braised chicken feet, mixed BKT (innards, mushrooms and such) in claypot for 2, tau fu pok and tea.  All these items that we ordered other than the BKT in claypot came in individual porcelain bowls. The bill came to around RM50 for 4 adults and 1 kid, not too bad I guess.

The nearest train station (Klang station) is just less than 5 minutes walking distance away, so just hop onto a train on the day when you crave for BKT!

Location :

SENG HUAT BAK KUT TEH
9, Jalan Besar, Klang.
Business hours : 7.30am – 12.30pm, 5.30pm – 8.30pm
Telephone : 6012-309 8303.

Location Map

Puchong Yong Tau Foo

The varieties

Yong Tau Foo in soup and Yau Mak

The Fried Version

We had Yong Tau Foo for dinner one of the evenings when we went back for  a two nights' stay at our Puchong house during the last school holidays.  We had our dinner at a Yong Tau Foo stall nestled inside Taman Maju Jaya Food Court near Taman Tasik Prima.  Hubby likes coming here than the famous Batu 14 Yong Tau Foo situated not far away for he dreaded the long wait and it's just so very hot and crowded eating there.  

Before Ian came along and while I was still working full-time many years ago, I liked eating out with my colleagues after work.  Really missed those carefree days.  I still remembered one of our colleagues took us to Batu 14 in Puchong for its famous Yong Tau Foo.  It was (and still is) situated further down opposite SJK (C) Han Ming, not the one directly opposite the school but few doors away from it that claimed to be the shop selling original "Puchong Yong Tau Foo", according to my ex-colleague who hailed from Sarawak.  We ordered curry mee, pan mee and paper wrapped chicken too and they were finger lickin' good!  All of us agreed that we had infact ordered way to much than what we could consume so to dispose off what was left, we played some silly games and made those who lost ate one piece at a time.  Me, being one of the big time losers stuffed myself silly and I wouldn't want to go near anything that sound, look or rather smell like Yong Tau Foo for a good 3 months. Wuakakaka...

Mommy, Get A GPS!

I got my driving licence when I was 18 but I hardly drive out of my comfort zones knowing my own weakness in sense of direction.  I am most comfortable driving around PJ area as most of my working days evolved around PJ.  I had countless of bad experiences driving around KL, one of them found myself ended up in Genting downhill when my expected destination was Gombak, KL!  The moment I saw the toll in front of me, I knew I was in deep trouble as there was no turning back! Hahaha...

 KL would never be in my list of comfort zones, that's for sure though I am comfortable to drive around:

a)  Petaling Jaya and my parents' in-law's in KL which is at the border of PJ larr
b)  Subang Jaya where we lived for 8 years
c)  Puchong where we lived for 5 years
d)  Ironically, I now live in KL territory but also bordering PJ wor..

My boy was so concerned the moment he knew daddy wouldn't be around to send him to Sunday Dhamma school which happened to be in KL two Sundays ago, knowing his mommy's weakness well.

Our conversation while in the car:

Ian:  Are we going to Dhamma school this Sunday?
Mommy: Sure, boy. Mommy will send you there.
Ian:  But daddy will not be around.
Mommy: So..
Ian:  Will we get lost? (from the rear-view mirror, I can see worriness starts creeping up his face, hehehe..)
Mommy: Then, how eh, boy? (decides to play along with him)
Ian: (Switches to thinking mode, and suddenly his light bulb is on. Ding!) Don't worry, mommy. We can get a GPS!
Mommy: Huh.. (he was never exposed to a GPS before).  Do you know what a GPS is, boy?
Ian: Yes, a machine that can take you to anywhere you want..
Mommy: (Impressed with him and with a smile) Where did you learn this from?
Ian: From "Young Scientist" magazine!
Mommy: (Nodding her head away).. Well, boy, we don't need that, mommy knows the way.
Ian: Are you sure or not but daddy is not around, you know?
Mommy: *-*

Pesta Samadhi Vihara @ SJK (C) La Salle, Brickfields

We were out the whole day last Sunday.  We had a game of badminton and breakfast at home before heading out.  We first went to the Pesta Samadhi Vihara, a Food and Fun Fair organised by BMSM (Buddhist Missionary Society Malaysia) as hubby had some cash vouchers with him.  It was launched to raise fund to build a stand alone 2.4 acre size Samadhi Buddhist Vihara, in Section U12, Bukit Raja, Shah Alam.

Stalls lining up the field

The field was muddy with water puddles from the rain that poured the night before.  We had a hard time trying to get a parking and when we finally did, it was only 20 minutes left before Ian's Dhamma Class started.  I hurriedly went to look for a place to sit while daddy went hunting for food.  We let our boy stuff some radish cake, fried glutinous rice and "tong sui" (dessert)  into his stomach first before going to his class that would only end by 1.30pm.  I walked him to his dhamma school which I initially thought wasn't too far away but I was so wrong!  It took us 20 minutes to get from where we were to the rooftop of the 4 storied building. Sweaty sweaty sweat... *Phew* 

While I was away, hubby continued his food hunting adventure and there were all sorts of food waiting for me when I was back.. Fried meehoon, ice-cream, laksa noodles and even a packet of Myanmar noodles which hubby said was nice but I thought otherwise. 

Lion Dance Performance

This naughty lion goes round teasing kids. ;)

The place was getting unbearably hot that we decided to find an air-cond place to kill our time while waiting for our boy and we landed ourselves in KFC just across the road. 

We went to parents in-law's house after fetching our boy and the old folks suggested dinner at the famous Seng Huat BKT in Klang and before we called it a day, our boy decided that his old folks ought to pay RM20 for a small little pen part.  ;(

To be continued...

TTDI Park (Taman Rimba Kiara Park) Revisited

This is a backdated post.

I took my boy for a morning walk at TTDI Park during the the last school holidays.  We should have done this more often as coming here makes us feel closer to nature.  You get to see monkeys jumping from trees to trees, squirrels roaming about, different kinds of bird species standing on tree branches and the list goes on.  When I am tired from walking,  I enjoy sitting on the garden bench to rest my feet while  listening to the music of nature and admiring its beauty.

I shall let the pictures do the talking now:

Getting all ready

The fountain at the centre of the park

Water flows down the stream

Those monkeys must be starving to death

And resorted to digging into the garbage. :(

What a nice view from this angle!

Tai Chi

My forever Cheeky boy