I saw this in the mall and my girl wanted one. I got myself and her, a small one to start with. I like painting but I know I am not good at it. With this, there are numbers on the canvas for me to follow. Anyone can paint.

After doing a small piece, now I am addicted. I bought a med size one. Cool?

Popularity: 2% [?]

I am down with flu. My children are having a little cough but still very active. I am glad they have stronger immunity now. Hardly take them to the doctor these days. I hope they maintain it.

The other day I was just telling a friend a recipe for cough because she was having a cough for a long time. I am not sure whether I got her germs or got my children germs.

I am so glad, I got my first MC for the year. Really, it is difficult for me to get MC. I have clean bill of health records past years. I didn’t get any chance to utilize my medical leave. I have to thank God for that.

I need to get sick one in a while to boost my immunity, right?

My aunt has this recipe for cough. Just double boil orange juice with rock sugar. I tried it before but it is just not my cup of tea. I preferred double boil chicken soup.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Today is a day off for my hubby and I. It is a replacement holiday for Saturday Governor’s Day public holiday. However no replacement for school, so Tim and Emily has to go school. Yeah for us! My hubby and I went paktor in Gurney Plaza. It has been a long time since we went out without the children.

I must say that it was good but at some point, I felt it was a little quiet without the kids. Ooh guess what? They didn’t know about our outing. I can assure you if they find out it will be 101 questions time. Anyhow, I got them both transformer pajamas which they were so happy once they saw it. Both wanted to wear them immediately.

By the way, today is Monday and some shops do not provide plastic bags. This is to reduce the use of plastic bags, which is very good. I do keep recycle bag in my car. This is what I overheard yesterday from some “lau yi” (aka elderly aunties)

Cashier: Tomorrow you have to bring your own bags, we do not provide any plastic bag tomorrow. *It is a gentle reminder*

Lau Yi: Kang kor (aka difficult) with no plastic bags.

Cashier: Yeah I understand but what to do. I want to give plastic bags but we cannot. Use recycle bag.

Lau Yi: Better we don’t shop on Monday.

I meant why it is so hard for folks to carry recycle bag. Well it is a slow process but I hope the people understand that it is for the environment.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Today I went to work empty handed and came back with this. Maybe it is an early 9th year anniversary gift from someone big up there.

I was invited to a HP event in Eq Hotel. I wanted to find out the latest technology and how HP can help my company to save cost. Yes, cost cutting is inevitable. However I only like 2 of the 7 presentation that was VMWare and TCO. Technical things aside, they have a draw for the event. Three attractive prizes: 2 printers and 1 HP Mini. I was eyeing on the HP Mini. :P

I was stunt when they called my name. Wow, there were about 60 to 70 people from many companies and they called my name.

It is an OfficeJet Pro K5400dn color printer that provide network capability, double sided print, near to laser quality text and fast. A small business would use this type of printer. I don’t need an office printer at home so I decided to donate to my church and Emily Tadika. They probably have more use than me.

The winning vibes must be going around my office. One of my colleagues won a Vios car from the “shop and win” contest in Queensbay mall. He only bought RM50 stuff.

At least it gave me a happy moment.

Tim: Why your present so boring.
Emily: Your present is so big! What is it?

Popularity: 12% [?]

Today I won US30, a prize for something I entered. I cannot tell what it is until later. I am so happy although it is not much. It is a good start in the Chinese New Year first day after hearing so many bad news.

What should I do with it? I will certainly share it with my family. Maybe a good family meal in a nice restaurant.

I hope to spread my good dust to you if there is such a thing. Hope all of you have a Blessed Chinese New Year!!!!!!!!

Popularity: 11% [?]

Wow, it never strikes me until that day my friend reminded me that I will be reaching the big 40. I am not there yet but soon. No wonder now I feel exhausted easily. My friend told me as we grow older, it is very easy to grow sideways. She said, even breathing can make her fat.

I wonder will I ever need diet pills to lose weight as I grow old. It is a scary thought.

Think on the positive side, I will be retiring soon and I can enjoy. Maybe go to places I never seen before. I hope my children will sponsor me to those places. If you are reading this, children, remember mummy loves traveling!

Popularity: 11% [?]

Last Saturday I received a package from the postman. I always look forward when the postman comes because he may delivers some surprises for me or the family. :) It was for Emily. I told her and she was all excited. It was 3 beautiful dresses made by Jess.

Immediately Emily wanted to put it on and I took my camera. She loved the tang lung yellow dress. Now she can wear it during mooncake festival celebration in our taman next week, carrying her tang lung. Here they are and aren’t they beautiful?

As for me, I caught a flu bug on Saturday and my system has been down since. However still no fever still…sigh. My nose is all stuff up and feeling very tired. Yesterday I had kerabu fried taufu and I can only taste spicy. I cannot taste sour or salty. My bak kut teh tasted blend, so is my hokkien mee. I lost my taste bud. Sad hor?

Worst is I am having department team building today. We will be watching “Money Not Enough”, tell me about it.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Early morning as I was rushing out of the house, I was greeted by something strange. Usually I will wear my shoes with my half foot in and fix it when I am in the car. As I was fixing my shoes, my toes felt a little wet and cold. Now my shoes didn’t look wet. I pull out my foot. Suddenly something jump out, it was a small dark looking toad.

My hubby helped me to catch it by hand and threw it back into our garden. It felt funny, it must been looking for his princess in my shoes. Fortunately I am not frightened by it but it did give me a chill up my spine when it jumped out. At first I thought it was a dead big bug. Lesson learnt, always dust out my shoes before wearing.

Popularity: 10% [?]

After hearing comments from all of you, I am so glad that I am not an alien here. I soaked my school shoes on Friday and washed it on Saturday morning. I let it dry and apply the shoe white on Sunday.

When I was in school, I love playing netball on the muddy field. In fact I was the school netball player. After a good game, my shoe will covered with mud stain. If I do not soak my shoes, it will be difficult to get the dirty stain out. Anyway, it became a habit.

By the way, if you are from BBGS and batch of 1987, there is a reunion on 25th July 2008 in Concorde Hotel. However I will not be able to make it due to busy July schedule. :(

My School Then:

My School Now:

Popularity: 10% [?]

All started on Friday, I think it was the Economy rice. I swallowed something that smell bad. I had diarrhea on Saturday, purging 3 times. I was still alright as I could follow Emily to music class and cooked a nice herbal chicken for a friend get together dinner.

Sunday came, my body was aching and I had a bad headache. I had to leave church after the morning service. I went home, drank lots of water and slept a lot. I mean a lot. I had porridge the whole day until it was tasteless for me to eat anything.

Monday, still purging but not very frequent. I had 100 Plus to ensure that I get glucose and energy in me. I went to work but tummy was still upset. I felt like drifting in work.

I never get fever, no matter how sick I am. Maybe I should say it out loud so that the jinx will come. Nah, it never happens. You may think I am silly to want to have fever. Without fever, I cannot get MC. It is so very sad. Tummy grumbling again, I got to go.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Today I got a call from a promoter or should I call him a salesman. Anyway, although I was busy, I didn’t want to be rude and entertain him a little. Maybe I was in a good mood after my half yearly routine doctor checkup. No bad news from doctor which is good.

Back to the conversation with the salesman:

Me: Hello Michelle speaking
S: Hello may I speak to Miss Michael. *wanted to say wrong number*
Me: This is Michelle speaking
S: Miss Michael, are you free? *He was speaking in Bahasa Malaysia although I answer in English*
Me: I am Michelle, not Michael *roll eyes*
S: Sorry, Miss Michelle are you free?
Me: Not really, I am working. *I had to answer in BM*
S: I am from bla bla bla, you have been selected specially to enjoy this package.. bla bla bla.
Me: What package?
S: Insurance blab la bla.
Me: Sorry I am not interested. Thank you.
S: Bla Bla Bla..Thank you.
Me: Bye

If you want to promote something, at least get your customer’s name pronounced correctly. This is not the first time I hear people calling Michael. Even after I corrected them, they still call me Michael. How annoying!

Oh this only happen to a particular group of people if you know who I am referring too. By the way, they like to call my son Ti-Mot-Ti and my gal Em-Ma-Li. *roll eyes*

Guess what my English teacher, yes English teacher called me? She called me Mit-Che-Li in front of a hall of people. It was not embarrassing for me but for her. *roll eyes* I always wonder, didn’t tell ever hear the famous song from Beatles.

Michelle (Beatles Lyric)
(Lennon/McCartney) Lead Vocal: McCartney

Michelle, my belle.
These are words that go together well,
my Michelle.

Michelle, my belle.
Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble,
tres bien ensemble.

I love you, I love you, I love you.
That’s all I want to say.
Until I find a way
I will say the only words I know that
you’ll understand.

Michelle, my belle.
Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble,
tres bien ensemble.

I need to, I need to, I need to
I need to make you see,
oh, what you mean to me.
Until I don I’m hoping you will
know what I mean.

I love you.

I want you, I want you, I want you.
I think you know by now
I’ll get to you somehow.
Until I do I’m telling you so
you’ll understand.

Michelle, my belle.
Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble,
tres bien ensemble.

I will say the only words I know
that you’ll understand, my Michelle.

Popularity: 9% [?]

It was a great day yesterday for me because my department organized a team building event. We had Treasure Hunt in G Hotel & Gurney Plaza. We had 4 teams with 5 people per team. Basically we went around the mall looking for answers. It was difficult at first but our team got the hang of it. A good tip for treasure hunt, start with the mall directory. Most of the answers can be found there.

I had a lot of fun but a few interesting happenings:

1. We were supposed to find the price of a bottle of 100ml men CK perfume. The price was on the bottle. Some guys (as usual) went to disturb the promoter asking her for the price, until she hid from us.

2. First time I enter any shops with no “follow-me” promoters as they all knew we were treasure hunting.

3. We were going in and out of shops until the sales person look at us suspiciously.

4. One of the book we were looking for sold out!!! However some of us had great ideas on getting the answer. We had the sales person check his record for the price.

5. We were supposed to get a name of a company with 1 alphabet and get a chop from them. We thought it was G2000 and happily walk in to get the chop. The store staff told us, no chop allowed. Actually the answer was G Hotel. *roll eyes*

6. We got to the right area where all the clues fit and were suppose to look for something that promotes health. None of the surrounding shops was a health shop. The only store fits the description was a skin care, make up and beauty that uses natural ingredient. The answer was not that store because another clue state it is found in most of the public places. Guess what it is?…..It is the No Smoking Sign and our team was the only team with that answer.

Our team came in second and points were very close (1 or 2 pts) to the first team. We could have won but the last task was very ambiguous. The task was to get a 34g smarties box of choc with a picture of a bird feeding (nestle logo) its babies. The 34g box has no picture of bird so we decided to get the 3 packs wrapped in plastic with the bird picture on the plastic. One thing we forgot to do is to unwrapped the plastic and give the judge a 34g box. We were too excited. That mistake caused us first prize. Sayang. Oh well, we had lots of fun with treasure hunt and I don’t mind doing it again.

Last but least, the scrumptious meal from G Hotel, Mediterranean style. I do not have to say more for food….Oooh I loved those non-halal RUM balls.

Popularity: 5% [?]

How many of you have tasted Kandos when you are young? I remembered that I used to buy Kandos choc in school. I was a junk eater and not really interested in eating rice. I remembered my mother took me to the doc asking him to prescribe something to increase my appetite. Guess what he gave? He gave me supplements instead. He said I can get the necessary nutrition from there.

Last week, I went grocery shopping, I found Kandos. Yummy. The taste is still the same. Wow after 30 years, I can still remember the taste. It is one of my childhood memories. Kandos anyone?

Popularity: 10% [?]

Yeap, bonus is around the corner, in fact it is a few days away. However this is not the good news I want to share. Hey money is not everything you know. What I want to share is that I got back my blood test result and I did very well.

What make me very happy was that the doctor said I have a very good gen and my cholesterol level was very good. On average women my age will get cholesterol level nearing or over the warning mark. Most cholesterol problem is mainly cause by genetics. Besides this, all other test was within range.

Sometimes many of us do not appreciate the good health we are getting. We take it for granted. When it goes away, we will start doing everything to improve it. For all parents, do take a yearly health check and start paying attention to it. Cheers to good health.

By the way, I will be making another US business trip next year. I cannot wait to taste the Pho again. Yummy!!

Popularity: 7% [?]

We spend our Raya Holidays in KL and it was great. I got to meet up with my 4 good friends from my old school, BBGS. By the way, I notice that BBGS turn into a luxury mall. One of my best friends came back for holiday from Australia and we arranged for a dinner to meet up. We had fun catching up with one another, none of them change much. I also discovered that Star Hill change so much since I visited like 10 years ago.

I drove back today and we escape from the massive jam which was reported over the radio. I drove to Tapah and my hubby took over. It was smooth going to Tapah but after that, we felt some hiccups. It was raining very heavily and he had to slow down. Along the way, there was a silly car that plunged into the side drain/swamp. Not sure what happen there but it sure did cause a crawl as people are busy bodies. Thank goodness, it was only 30 minutes for us. Those who came later may feel worse.

The next one was at the Penang bridge, as usual after paying the toll the bottle neck happen. It was 12 lanes to 5 lanes and down to 2 lanes. I was glad that it took us 5+ hours to get back, just in time for dinner.

I will blog of what we did in KL in the next post….to be cont.

Popularity: 4% [?]

I got myself an Esprit backpack for my new company notebook. It was 50% off. My previous backpack zip was broken and I have wanted to replace it. My company gave me a leather carrying case but a bit big in size. I will use that for traveling.

I don’t know about you, I feel good when I get something I really like. I haven’t had that feeling for quite a while. Hehehe…I haven’t been really shopping meaning buying stuff I need. When I go shopping, my children will tag along and I hardly can spend time to look for things. I told my hubby, one of these days I must take 1 day leave to shop by myself. It is good too if I do less shopping. It means I save money. On the other hand, I must not forget to pamper myself. That’s life.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Finally I have read all through all your posts. I been away for 4 days and sitting in my Google Reader are 342 blog posts. One mummy had 52 posts within 4 days. *faint* I am glad I scan through most of them and skip through 60% of you know what posts. Hey can you gals slow down a little.

It sure beat the number of emails I have in my inbox. It took me 1 hour to clear my inbox. I don’t like keeping unread emails in my inbox. I am so glad that now I am back on track.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Ha! I got to know this from Chinnee that my blog landed in the August Malaysian Top 50 Blogger in Technorati. Some of the mommy bloggers are in the list. I feel great.

However, there is nothing to shout about because I don’t see some of the Malaysian popular blogs in the list. Why? I believe Technorati rate the top 50s by how many bloggers are linking to your blog. On top of it, you have to tag your blog as Malaysia which many do not. If you are not, go to Technorati, sign up, claim your blog and tag it.

Lastly for me, it is the best time to have top 50 in Aug where Malaysia is celebrating 50th anniversary of Independence Day (Merderka). I land on the 50th position. Malaysia Boleh! Mybabybay Boleh! Not that I am anxious to get more traffic. More traffic means I have to pay more for bandwidth. Aiks! Worst more spam! Double whammy!

Popularity: 6% [?]

Mumsgather tag me on this one. Another simple tag that I think I can do in 10 minutes.

1. I am a mother of 2 lovely children Tim & Em.
2. I am in the IT line.
3. I love traveling.
4. I love doing jigjaw puzzles.
5. Although I live in Penang but I am born in KL. Pls don’t speak hokkien to me.
6. I can sew & cook.
7. I can complete a Rubik’s cube and all colors matched.
8. I feel good if I can help people in need.

I will not tag anyone. If you like to do this tag, consider I tag YOU!

Popularity: 3% [?]

I got a tag from MyLovelyMummy. A simple tag that does not take a lot of my brain cells away. Thanks MyLovelyMummy. I still owe a lot of people a lot of tags.

Creatures I hate:

1. Flying cockroach, I am not afraid of those that do not fly. I hate those with wings. Imagine I spray pesticide on it, it fly an attack me. Yiiiiak. By the way, for those that cannot fly, I usually catch the antenna with my hand and flush it down the toilet.

2. Spiders, not the small tiny ones but the ones that has fur. In Australia, lots of spider is poisonous. When I was there, I found one fury one in my room and it really freak me out. My house mates and I had to use the Vacuum cleaner to suck it in.

3. Dead rat, they stink!

I am passing the tag to:

Hui Sia – Always requesting for tags.
Vien – You gave me a big job today.
ShoppingMum – Really like to know what you are afraid off.
Chinnee – Your filler tag.

Gbay: Cashing US Cheque

Popularity: 7% [?]