YES or NO as simple as that

I was reading about the fantastic move that the Health Ministry is doing in trying to curb obesity issue in Malaysia. Various measures are being proposed to keep our children healthy including to list the BMI result in their report cards, banning some unhealthy food, recommending healthy food etc. I totally 101% support the move as both Ethan and Eli will eventually be going to school and I do worry about the kind of food they will eat in school as we will not be there to monitor them.

But what irk me most is when I hear things like this morning over the radio. We now know that the Government plans to ban Nasi Lemak from the school canteen and as I would  expect there are of coz protest especially from the Nasi Lemak sellers. Understand they will grumble especially if that is their main source of income. Anyway, upon hearing the complains and how it will affect a group of people's livelihood, I heard over the radio that there is a proposal to still allow the school canteen to sell Nasi Lemak twice a week. At that point in time I was like, what the heck are they doing??!! Ok, let's say that is allowed, for those who just can't resist Nasi Lemak (btw I do love Nasi Lemak!) after being deprive from it for a day or two he/she may want to not only take 1 pack but perhaps 2 or even 3 packs (breakfast, lunch and tea time) of Nasi Lemak in a day!! So tell me how does tht help to prevent obesity in our community??! It is the same concept as when you are very hungry u tend to eat more to ease your hunger...Why can't thy set a rule that sticks to the MAIN objective which in this case is to prevent obesity. IF they really are serious about it why can't they propose instead of allowing Nasi Lemak to be sold in the school canteen twice a week, please give the sellers a new list of healthy food that thy can prepare and sell instead. HELLOO.... please think out of the box and be creative, smart, forward looking and positive okay...when there is challenge why can't we sit down, discuss and think of a better way to solve the problem before we open our mouths instead of acting 'gabra' and talk nonsense and embarrass ourselves! Come on we're are better than that right?! Double BIG sigh...

Red red wine

I believe most people will have their one particular favourite colour. But if you ask me what is my favourite colour, I won't be able to tell you what exactly it is as my favourite choice of colour varies depending on my mood. I love all sort of colours especially the bright colours e.g. orange, baby blue, apple green, lilac etc (joy, happiness, love, children etc), pastel colours offwhite in any tone e.g. blue, green, pink and cream,  (soothing, calm, peace, harmony..), earthly colours e.g. brown, beige, earthly green (natural, keep feet on the ground feeling), and bold colours e.g. red, black, silver, bronze (firm, all out, strong, bold, determine, elegance, maturity). And no, don't ask me I should be able to pick one from those many colors as my fave as I will not be able to do so...like I said, it all depends on the mood I am :)

So you may ask what is my fave colour now? Well, currently I'm into RED! Yes, red since end of last year from Xmas to NY to CNY till now red has been my choice of favourite colour... I'm not sure how long this will last but at the moment I'm loving RED :)

Hubby bought this handbag (I was really tempted to get this but luckily I felt in love with this one especially with the 50% discount and it is 10 times cheaper!!)  for me before 2010 ended but I only started using it on Saturday..was too busy to unload and clear my old handbag...show how much rubbish I have in my handbag hehehe... Well, I think most people will know especially my hubby, mom and MIL how heavy my handbag is ;p

and yes of coz I need a matching wallet ;p

and a red bag organizer too...

and thank goodness my lappy, mousy and hp are already of the same tone ;p

and I have a matching shoes as well ;p (oh please ignore the dry wrinkly feet and without colours on me nails...I used to be diligent in applying lotion on my feet before bedtime but am too lazy to splash some lotion on them after my first pregnancy ;p)

of course I don't  forget my 'ang pow' boys :)

and I've been wanting to use this pic but was too lazy to blog about it but thought it is perfect to use with my red red wine entry ;p This group photos was taken during our annual dinner committee member photo shoot last year...I love that the red colour brightens up the photo ;p

Siaran tergendala sebentar...

Sorry folks as you will see my blog in a bit of a mess right now...please bear with me while I try my best to sort it out okay ;p It's all due to me upgrading my blogger and yes with a new header thanks to Cindy again ;p Later peeps!! :)

Backward step?

Recently there has been a great debate on whether science and maths subjects should continue to be taught in English or back to Malay language. And due to great protest from various parties, the government has bowed to the protesters and decided to reinstate Malay language as a teaching medium for both subjects from 2012.

Some of the reasons given are: it undermines the effort to modernize mother tongue; and poor academic performance on those two subjects especially students in interior areas.

I began my schooling days (from kindy to primary 6) in a Chinese school before I went into a public school for my secondary years with Malay language as a teaching medium. From there I moved on to a college in KL to pursue my A-Levels before I furthered my studies overseas. Now, from my own personal experience I must admit it was not easy to study in different languages (Mandarin during primary school, and English during college and uni years) other than the language that I speak at home which is Malay. I struggled but I managed and in the end I would say I've certainly gained especially in terms of language skills hence no regret (though during trying times I did swear and curse hehehe). Though my Mandarin and English are not perfect but there have been many a times where it gave me some special advantage ;p For instant, I've always use mandarin language when bargaining with Chinese sellers of which I always tend to get more discounts ;p I was also able to avoid some insincere sellers (I could understand their conversation in Mandarin of their intentions...).

Anyway, back to the issue, if one intends to further his/her studies whether locally or overseas, he/she is bound to end up having to study from English textbooks anyway. So what better way than to start from young. I struggled quite a bit when I was studying my A-Levels and even during my uni years as I spent quite a bit of time just searching for meaning of words in the dictionary instead of studying and finishing up my assignments/ projects. It was definately a great challenge especially during exams time..imagine the situation where you are unable to answer the question just because you don't quite understand what it meant!!?? I could perhaps have done better academically if my English proficiency was better. That was why I am pleased when English language was introduced to teach both science and maths subjects in schools. It was a very good start coz to me it will definitely give Malaysia that competitive edge in the long term. Personally, I just can't see how teaching these two subjects in English will undermine mother tongue as the rest of the subjects are still taught in their own mother tongue. As for the interior students, I supposed a special syllabus or extra classes/ tuition can be offered to help them cope with the language. Besides, if previously our ancestors could embrace English as a teaching medium during those British colony time, why can't we now? It was even harder for them as they had to study all subjects in English but yet they survived. This include those from the rural areas. Both my parents are certainly not from the city and they were English educated too. But never did I once heard them complaining about it. And if you really look at it, you will realise that most of our parents who came from that era have better English proficiency than some of us. Moreover, I do believe kids nowadays are smarter too. But if we keep on spoon feeding them and always giving them easy ways, I wonder how are they gonna cope with the big jungle out there?!

If you ask me, I would certainly say no and will not change the policy simply because it is just making us Malaysia becoming more backward than anything else. Why backward you may ask, well, for a start how are we to achieve the much talked about Vision 2020 if half of us can't even speak proper English when it is an international language? Furthermore, Vision 2020 aspires Malaysia to be at par with the developed countries and for us to become a knowledge society. You and I know that most of the high quality non-fiction books/ materials including text books, reference books, journals, research papers, patents, articles, magazines, websites/ webpages etc are written in English. So how are we to compete with those big guys in that great big jungle out there if we don't get ourself prepare from now? So please don't just look on the surface but take a good deeper look yo!

Anyway, if you would like to express your say in this matter in a subtle way, you could cast your vote here.

The preps

I didn't spend much preparation time for Ethan's birthday as we have already planned to have it at one of the halal Chinese restaurants in KK. Hence not much preparations were required. Nevertheless, two weeks to Ethan's birthday, both hubby and myself discussed about the venue for the party. We short listed the venue to 3 i.e. Dowish Seafood Restaurant, Golf View Restaurant (near Tong Hing) and Masakan Sedap Restaurant. After looking at their menu, price and venue we eventually picked Masakan Sedap Restaurant as we feel the price and food is reasonable. On top of that it has strategic location being quite in the centre for most of our invitees and parking is not a problem. Besides I heard the service is good too and after seeing the function room and talking to the lady boss we made our mind up ;p

Next I thought about the theme... Well, I didn't intend to impose the theme on the invitees but rather more for the cake :) And since Ethan is so into Mickey Mouse, I've decided to ask Deana (she baked Ethan's 1st birthday cake too..)to bake and decorate him a Mickey Mouse cake :) I did a search on the net just to get some Mickey Mouse birthday cake ideas which I stumbled and decided to go for this design and asked Deana if she could do a replica for me which she said yes :) Next, I was contemplating whether to prepare goodie bags for the kids or simply give away cupcakes. In the end I've decided to go for a Mickey Mouse cuppies and ordered them from Deana too. It's much simpler and easier for lazy ol' me as I won't need to hunt for the goodies and bags and no packing is needed too ;p And as usual it is a common practice or a tradition to have red birthday eggs during birthday celebrations. I however dislike the thought of using colorings thus I've decided to use decorated aluminium foil to wrap the eggs after stumbling upon this Mickey/Minnie Mouse aluminium foils from this online shop while looking at some cookies mould/cutters. And finally as I wanted to distinguish the birthday boy and the main table from the rest, I've asked my friend Jurra to put embroidery wordings on his plain top and decided to tie a helium Mickey Mouse aluminium balloon on our main table ;p So what do you think of the outcomes? Am I allowed to say its simple but not too bad? ;p

Look at the absolutely cutely decorated cake and cupcakes...I was delighted indeed! ;p

Top view

One happy lil' customer indeed! He cried and said "no, no, no" and tried to push the waitress from cutting the cake for distribution! That's how much he loved the cake Deana!! hahaha...

Oh talking about the cake, lil' princess of Sandra i.e. Maya, didn't want to budge at all from her seat coz Sandra said she is afraid the cake and the limited purple Minnie Mouse cupcakes will dissapear!! So kudos to you Deana for a job well done!! And oh did I mentioned that the kids were so eager and rushed to the front when I invited them!!?? hahaha...They must have loved and really impressed with your cake and cuppies Deana...not only the kids but the parents too :)

Oh I added the Mickey Mouse "thank you" note on the cuppies :)

The birthday eggs :)
The back says, "Ethan's is 2 today!"

And the front says, "Birthday Boy!!"
His helium Mickey Mouse baloon was a hit too...the other children were playing with it till it got untied and stucked on the ceiling. Luckily one of the waiters was kind enough to help bring it down and tied it back on the chair ;p

Been lazy and busy

Hi ya...sorry for the long silent...I've been just too lazy (or rather not in the mood..) and busy to update my blog lately...but worry not as I'll be back soon! ;p

Tough days ahead..

We all have heard of the shrinking economic cake...some are saying that this time it might be worst than the 1997 financial crisis and that it may continue for the next 2 years. Some companies have started their cost cutting exercise (which where I am attached to now is no exception..) while others have prepared their retrenchment list....you have heard of the stock market swings and the oil price instability too...then there's Singapore announcing its intention to retrench Malaysian employees should they go into recession.....due to all these, it has also been predicted that many properties will go on auctions and hence perhaps a plunging drop in properties price...I guess there will be less economic activities as people will not be willing to spend due to lower purchasing power as well as afraid of the unexpected...although I won't be surprise there might be some opportunists and the risk takers that will take the opportunity to buy properties and unit trust at a much lower price?? Just hope that they will do their homework well before making that decision.

We in Malaysia have not felt the full impact of this yet but it is predicted that the recession may hit Malaysia next year... obviously it seems that the world is going through another cycle of world economic downturn...So that leads us to having to be prepared and spend only if its necessary...easier said then done but I guess if that's where the world economy is heading then we have no choice but to relook at our priorities and do the necessary so that we will not be in dire need of cash when it really hits us...

On a similar topic, I absolutely agree with this columnist on how he sees things with the current situation...have a read and what say you? ;p

Sunday November 2, 2008

The Star Online
Please grow up, will you?
ON THE BEATBy WONG CHUN WAI

With the United States slipping into recession, our politicians should spend time re-evaluating the situation and re-strategising how to ride out the storm instead of squabbling over a shrinking economic cake.

LET’S not lie to ourselves or let the politicians tell us otherwise. Malaysia, like all other economies that depend on international trade, will not be spared from the effects of the global economic turmoil.

Already, private sector employers are adopting cost-cutting measures before the full effects of the financial tsunami are felt next year.

That means no new recruits, reducing business travel, spending less on entertainment, lowering operating costs and even downsizing or retrenchment in some cases.

The reality is that most businesses expect less revenue next year. In order to stretch the dollar, clients are now taking a longer time to settle their bills.

The outlook for next year is not good at all. The general perception is that the effects of the global economic turmoil will run long haul. You don’t have to be an economist to foresee that the problems will not disappear overnight.

To keep their operations afloat, businessmen are keeping a tight control of their budget while seeking new revenue-making avenues.

Ahead of the bad times, Malaysians are looking to our politicians for leadership and assurances – which seem to be lacking.

We want to hear more about the measures that will be taken to soften the blow. It should not just come from Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. What have the others to say?
We are still squabbling about the 30% bumiputra equity under the New Economic Policy even when the cake is shrinking fast. No one seems to be talking about how Malay­sians, regardless of race, should work together to expand the cake.

What’s the point of quarrelling over how many slices when the cake may disappear soon?
For the vast majority of Malays – from wage-earners to traders – their needs will be greater in the months to come.

Surely, it makes sense for a policy to address the needs of those who are truly disadvantaged; and need rather than race should be the criterion.

There’s no legitimate reason to help those with political connections – regardless of whether they are Malay, Chinese or Indian – to become richer and more powerful while the majority stays the same.

It is equally baffling that there should be a controversy over the decision of the Penang state government to use more languages on a handful of signboards in tourist areas.
It’s not something new. Signages in English, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic are already prevalent at the KL International Airport.

Soon, we may even see Russian signages as the country’s new rich begin to travel extensively. Already the Russian market has been identified as the next “frontier”.

In Kuching and Miri, signs on main roads are in Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese and have been there for decades.

Certainly, the identity of the national language will not be threatened nor will the dominant position of the Malays.

We can choose to believe those politicians who spew racist and narrow nationalistic remarks to win votes in party elections or we can be pragmatic and open-minded in a world that has become more competitive and connected.

It is no secret that some of these hypocritical communal champions prefer to holiday in London and send their children, even at primary school level, to study in Britain or Australia. At the same time, they extol “the world-class standard” of our education system.

Fifty years after independence, many politicians, whether in government or the opposition, are still talking about the same issues that have either been resolved or are no longer relevant.
All of a sudden, we have to look up the history books to learn whether the social contract was cast in stone. Worse still, those who brought up the subject do not know much about it.

There seems to be a vacuum for fresh politics. Some of our more youthful leaders are parroting their elders, either out of reverence or for self-preservation. The result is we are getting more of the same.

The sad, if not frightening, part is that many of our politicians do not realise how detached they are from the New Politics of Malaysia, where the minds and hearts of the electorate have so radically changed after March 8.

With 2009 weeks away, Malaysians have to prepare to face a year of uncertainty.
By March, a new political leadership takes over. There’s hope and opportunity if the country is led along the right path.

The results of the general election show that Malaysians have grown up, yet many of our politicians have not.

It’s time they change or be changed.

The government will be announcing their measures on how to cope during this trouble time tomorrow so stay tune for that and see if they have grown up ;p

Here we go again...

This morning as I was doing my environmental scanning I came across this article about the The Malaysian Artistes Association (Seniman) chairman complaining about Shar Rukh Khan (he is so gorgeous!) being conferred the Datukship during the 70th birthday of the Yang Di-Pertua of Malacca. He continues on saying that he does not deserve to such award and that many Malaysian especially the local artistes are well deserving then the good looking Indian actor. Well, you know what, he is probably right but at the same time why should Datukship be given to artistes? Like I mentioned before, why can't there be like in the west where there are special awards for artistes, singers, sportsmen/women etc. In the west, you'll find Grammy Award, Oscar Award, Music Award, Nobel Prize Award and many others. All prestige awards given to well deserving people in the right field. Unfortunately, perhaps we Malaysians are not creative enough or too lazy to come out with such awards...or probably we don't have the budget to do so? If it's budget or financial standing is the culprit, am sure there are plenty of sponsors who would be willing to part with their money and able to claim nontaxable income....the sponsors don't have to be local organizations...am sure there are foreign organizations that maybe willing to do so...it is just the matter of getting things organize....like they say, if there's a will there's a way isn't it? Anyway, if the Seniman chairman thinks that the local artistes deserve awards why not organize a special award especially for our local artistes..why wait for Datukship as recognition...besides Datukship is not an appropriate title to be given to actors/actresses as mentioned in my previous entry...I just wonder why can't we have our own initiative rather than waiting for someone else to do things for us...maybe that is why we are lacking behind in almost everything coz we are so lay back and always the follower never the leader...sad but it is true...just my 2 cents worth on this Tuesday morning...

Laughing stock - are we?

I can't help but to comment on the recent ISA arrests especially after the release of the poor reporter. What humour me more was the reason given on why she was arrested - to ensure her safeness!!?? Hahaha...I thought ISA was for national security purposes???...Are we born yesterday??? hahaha...and as blogged by Marina Mahathir, can't she be granted protective custody for that matter??...Gee...I wanted to keep mum about it but I just can't stand how things are being handled recently...Another thing that have been bugging me at the back of my mind is how Datukship is being awarded lately...I don't know about you guys but for me there should be special awards like sportmanship award for sportsmen/women rather than giving them a Datuk title..and am sure a special actor/actress awards can be created for Malaysian who have made it big in Hollywood .. or special singer award for singers who have made it big in the international market...being the first Malaysian to have stepped on the moon doesn't qualify you for a Datukship too ..well at least in my humble opinion...Although I am very proud of them but I don't think they are entitle to earn Datukship as they have no direct contribution to the citizen at large... to our country in general, yes of coz they have as they definately have put Malaysia on the map and make us more visible...but I do feel that the Datuk title should be awarded to someone who has directly made contributions to the community as how it was previously done ... you know like those who have donated millions of money to start education fund for the needy, or those who have formed some kind of community association to help the unfortunate etc etc...it makes me question about the quality of our Datuks nowadays...the MPs who are on so-called "study trip" to Taiwan with their passport being securely kept is another amusing story...hmmm...I just hope we will not become the world's laughing stock...or maybe we already are??...with the way things are... I am honestly not surprise...

The wonder of talcum powder

I guess some of you may have already known this useful tip (I learnt it from my dear mom few yrs back and have been using it ever since hehe..) but nonetheless I just want to remind you to keep a small bottle of talcum powder in the office or in your handbag if you do carry around with you a huge handbag hehe...I can tell you that it will definitely be very useful if you're a clumsy person like how yours truly have been the past two days...I don't know why but I seem to be spilling either water or juice or even the oily beef macaroni that I had for lunch on my dress or top the past two days...I had to grab a small talcum powder from the supermarket yesterday afternoon just to clean up the oil stain on my "baju kurung" yesterday...and what do you know...I did it again this afternoon on my top...so if you ask me if it works...see these pics for yourself and tell yourself to get that talcum powder in your office drawer as you never know when you gonna need it ;p

Oil spill thanks to my beef macaroni and my clumsiness :(

But worry not coz I have the talcum powder to the rescue!! Just put some powder on the oil spill and use your finger to put a little bit of pressure...normally I'll put some powder till I don't see the oil sipping through the powder...

After a few minutes....just dust the powder away and tadaaa....the oil stain gone with the wind! Magic isn't it!!?? Haha...

A short hello

I know, I've been neglecting my dear blog for over a week again...I'm still around just a bit tired to write any blog entry lately... Anyway, it has been good long weekend for the past two weeks...tiring but fun all the same especially when we were able to spend some family time with our precious lil' E :) I'll be back again with more updates and photos from my "bufday" till how we spent our Merdeka break recently ;p

BTW, my thanks to all those who have wished me happy birthday via sms, leaving comment(s) in my blog and in my Facebook. Appreciate your thoughtfulness :)

2008 - 1971 = ?

Fill in the blank and guess what it means ? ;p Have a great weekend everyone!! :)

This is what happened...

... when you have cheeky friends at work...I found these pics in my SD card when I was uploading photos to my laptop...


So Missy (you know who you are..) don't blame me if I don't lend you my digi cam the next time you ask ya! ;p

What's left of Servay :(

Remember I mentioned about the Hypermarket Servay caught on fire yesterday which was in fact burnt to the ground...here are some photos courtesy of my friend Richard L. for the sharing (pics were taken using Sony Ericson mobile phone). Apparently I was told by a witness that though the firemen came in less than 5 mins but they had to wait for about 10 mins for water supply...I do hope that is not true coz 10 mins would have made a lot of difference in fighting with the super fierce fire isn't it!!?? Anyway, there goes one of my favourite places to shop for some baby stuff :(

What's going on here???

Ok, is it happening only to me or are you having the same problem as me when it comes to the widget especially by the VO5 adverts from socialspark.com??

If you notice, every time I put up the widget for that particular advertiser, I get the "oppss forbidden" icon. I just can't figure out what when wrong as for all I know, I just copied and pasted the exact html coding onto my blog. It's getting on my nerve to get these error messages and it makes me reluctant to do the adverts for Vo5. Sigh...Anybody can help me out here pretty please?? I'll be most grateful...

Up up and keep going up

Yes, everything seems or going to be more expensive nowadays...just this morning one of my colleagues shared with me that the price of tyres will go up soon ...and another colleague read to me from today's paper that the charges for repairing cars and car towing will rise soon too...sigh...having a "sickly" car is indeed going to be an even more expensive affair soon...so make sure you look after your car with lots of tender loving care folks...and hopefully the gov would give some serious thought on providing good public transport...seriously...

This is just for my own record, I spent RM30 to get my car aligned and RM3 to patch one of the tyres this morning...wonder how much it will cost me to do these stuff next time...hmmm...

Meet the twins of JLo & Marc Anthony

I was blog hopping and saw Cindy's entry on the famous JLo with her twins!!! Yes, finally, I am able to see a picture of Maximilian David and Emme Maribel!! I am excited coz I've been waiting to see the twins pics for quite a while now...I even thought of posting an entry asking if anyone managed to get hold of the twins photos...coz I was hoping someone out there might have started forwarding email with pictures of the twins...but I guess you need to have $6 million (as rumoured but PEOPLE denied...)in order to get an exlusive photo session with JLo's and her twins ;p

Doesn't she looks fabulous even just a month after the birth of their twins...

Anyway, if you're curious to see more pics of the twins, PEOPLE magazine (19 March) is featuring 12 pages of the two superstars showing off their bundles of joy!! I'll most probably grab a copy myself too!! ;p

.com gone bust??!!

I don't know if its only me or there is something wrong with all the .com bloggers' sites...I was trying to do some blog hopping just now to cure my sleepiness (thanks to Ethan for having to wake up 3 times last nite and early this morning...) but it seems many if not all of the .com bloggers' sites that I tried to visit have gone 'dead'. In other words I just can't access to their blogs :( Oh well, probably there's something wrong with their hosting servers or its something wrong with our server here?? Hmmm...I'll just have to try and fight this sleepiness and get back to my paper works then...yawn.....sigh...later folks! Oh ya, sorry for not updating my blog recently...wasn't in the mood for blogging after a let down over the weekend :(

Maximize your rights!

Don't forget to cast your vote tomorrow for the general election 2008 folks! ;)

It's gonna be a pretty exciting & interesting weekend don't you think? Have a great weekend all!! :)

This is what happened when...

...my facial appointment was cancelled due to staff annual dinner and I wasn't informed and on top of that I had 2 hours to kill during the long lunch hours on Friday...
If you asked me if it hurts? Absolutely NOT coz it ain't the real thing hehe...it's a non-permanent tattoo on my left ankle for the next 2 weeks hehe...I normally go for henna tattoo previously.. so this is the first time I'm having a sprayed tattoo :) So how do you like it? hehe... BTW, it only cost me RM6 for this one..

Well that is as far as I would ever dare to come close to being tattooed simply because I'm such a coward when it comes to pain. I'll probably cry a river or even cry a sea if I do really go for the real thing!! But having said that, surprisingly I managed to go through labour pain.... now that is one pain one just can't describe with words! But like all moms will say, the pain will be totally forgotten once you see your precious little one in your arms :) Too bad I couldn't see my little prince straight away as I had to go for an emergency c-section in the end though I was already 10cm dilated :( But nothing could describe the joy and happiness that I felt when the nurse brought Ethan to me and him opening his eyes (he was asleep then) and looked at me when I first called out his name :)