Sakae Sushi @ BVII

We got some pretty good deals for the house yesterday. There was a warehouse sale at Better Living - just across the road from church. Bought a Johnsson Suisse w.c. for RM284 (discounted from RM734) and 8 cartons (16pieces each) of 1'x1' Niro Granite black anti-slip tiles for the bathroom.

After making 10 trips up and down from the car to the new home carrying the super heavy tiles and w.c., Daalin was really tired and I thought he deserved a treat.

So we went to Sakae Sushi at Bangsar Village2 for dinner. I had told Joseph about this place where you can place your order via the computer and the food just appears at your table and he was really excited.

I'm not quite sure why but Joseph seems to have developed a liking for sushi. So once we got our booth by the conveyor belt, he pointed our this thing that he wanted.

To my surprise, he took a pair of chopsticks and said he wanted to try using it.

At first it didn't quite work...

So he tried using one side in each hand.

Then out of frustration he put his mouth to the plate.

After a while, he managed to balance a blob of rice on the chopsticks.

Finally he was able quite happy to be able to actually eat with it! I sure was proud of him.

Daalin enjoyed the temakis. We had a total of 3 unagi temaki and 7 soft shell crab temaki. It's buy1free1 when you pay with a Citibank Credit Card.

This is Joe's all time favourite - the Chicken Katsu Don.

The father and son sometimes go to Sushi Zanmai (The Gardens) for their father-and-son-time and they always have a Chicken Katsu Don and the Tamago sushi.

This is the other Citibank offer - salmon dunno wat.... one pair is free. The other 2 are RM1.30 (discounted from RM5.90).

Towards the end I realized I hadn't taken any photos of Joy. And she knew it, I think. Coz she suddenly opened up her 4oz bottle and drank up all the water like from a cup, and said, "Mama, can you please take my photo?"

Since she was next to me, I had to pass the camera over to Daalin.

Then she posed again...

Joy didn't eat any sushi. She's was happy eating Quaker Oats at Sakae Sushi!

The Citibank offer is valid till 31 December. We'll probably make at least another trip there to take advantage of it.

E&L's Wedding

I've known Uncle E for at least 10 years since KongKong's last posting in Bentong. His dad came all the way from Bentong to Seremban for my wedding 8 years ago. So it was with much anticipation and joy that we attended Uncle E's wedding to Aunty L, a very sweet and pretty lady who is Joe's guitar teacher.

We didn't make it to his church ceremony because 9am was a bit too early (and stressful) to get the kids ready.

Joy wanted me to "put the pink thing on my eyes" for her. She sat still so obediently and gently closed her eyes for me to work. Yes yes....I know...vain like her mother.
Joseph got a little bit upset because he couldn't join in the girly stuff. But he soon decided that it was better to be a boy when I told him that men don't have to be pregnant and don't have to wake up at night to breastfeed.

On the way out, Joe asked me if he was having guitar lesson that day. When I told him no...he was a little upset. And I had to explain to him that it was not possible for Aunty L to give him a lesson that day because she was busy getting married!

The luncheon at Oriental Pavillion Jaya 33 (how convenient for us!) was absolutely delicious!

First dish - roast pork, roast duck.....so appetizing! And then I loved the pan-fried tuna fillet (no bones!!!) in pomelo sauce. They also had a dish of soft shell crab!!! I've never had soft shell crab at weddings before. The food sure beats any hotel wedding dinner!

It was a good thing we were seated towards the back because there was a lot of space for the children to move around a bit and we could enjoy the food.

After the lunch, we went through back to church and stayed on for Children's Church, followed by Celebration (whereby both kids napped in the respective caves, I mean strollers).

Busy, busy, dreadfully busy...

Joy can sing the Veggietales Busy Busy song.

I have been running around so much that I didn't realize I lost some weight and now weigh merely 46.5kg. Well it hovers around that to about 47kg.

We've finally finalized most of the renovation details and paid a deposit to the contractor. Hacking begins on Monday!

Provided there are no delays, we should be celebrating Christmas in the new place. Now I'm wondering if my 3ft-tall Christmas tree will look tiny in a 2500sf home.

Veggietales Dance! Dance! Dance! and a marathon weekend

Another marathon weekend....I survived!

Saturday morning - Nana went out to church before 8am for Prayer Track and Daalin went out to collect the sink, tiles, taps etc that I bought the evening before and sent them to our new home.

Ah Mah's yummy 5-variety of nuts mooncake

As soon as he got back, we went out to church. Daalin led worship for Children's Church and then I was on duty for Little Lamb. Thank God everything went ok even though I had quite the bare minimum number of helpers.

After church, Nana and the kids came home while Daalin and I went over the our new home to meet another potential contractor. We got home only at past 10pm.

Next morning - woke up and went out to church again for 2nd round Little Lamb.

After church & lunch in church, Daalin had to stay back to lead worship for KIDS ministry while we came home to put the kids to nap.

In the afternoon, Nana then went out to pick Daalin and they went to pasar malam for the weekly grocery-shopping.

And then when Joe woke up.....he got to try out our new toy....the Veggietales Dance Mat!

Thanks to Goh Yee Teow who brought it back all the way from USA after YeeYee bought it for USD19.99 instead of the usual USD49.99.


Joe loved it! And I love it too!



I bought two dance mats so we can do duet or duel when the other mat comes back sometime next year.

And the new stroller wheels arrived as well....all the way from USA. It cost USD32 (including shipping to USA address) to change all 4 instead of RM80 for ONE that the Combi store in Midvalley wanted to charge me.
The wheels were badly worn out, unevenly....I believe due to the excessive wear and tear while we were in Melbourne last year. Now it looks good as new.

Sunday evening - we went out to Atria after lunch to buy more bamboo mats for church. At the same time, I checked out Sleep Factory's new outlet on the third floor. We bought 3 pieces of Queen-sized latex mattresses - soft yet firm. Just the way I like it. It supposedly has features like negative-ion, anti-dustmites and a 10-year warranty.

So it was quite a marathon busy weekend. But very fruitful and fulfilling! Daalin and I agree that even though we spend just about our entire weekends in church., there couldn't be any better place than to be in the house of God!

Dinner & Blessing

We had dinner at New Paris Restaurant in SS2 last night. We = myself, Daalin, J+j, Ah Mah & Ah Kong, Nana & Kong Kong, Ah Ku & KimKim, Ah Chor, Pastor Nancy & Uncle Nat.

I've no idea what we ordered because at chinese restaurants, I leave the ordering to my in-laws while I just enjoy the food.

The tau fu (which seems to be their specialty) was good and I particularly liked that thing in the watermelon bowl which I thought was pork and was gonna finish up the last scrawny piece until Daalin pointed out that it was only chicken skin left.

We had tu kha as well. This one is good to eat. The other tu kha I have is nice to squeeze.

We polished everything off....

But Joe preferred bananas (BYO) to the pig's leg.

After dinner, we proceeded to our new home for a time of prayer.

Daalin led in a short time of worship and then Pastor Nancy prayer over the house for cleansing before we walked through the entire place from room to room praying.

Now I'll be busy meeting contractors, deciding on which one, shopping for appliances and mattresses and maybe praying that money falls from the sky.

Yes, I've been busy...

Someone commented that I must have been super busy lately.....because the blog has not been updated. Well, someone is right!

I've been busy packing. And when you pack, you come across a lot of stuff that have been idle for ages.

Maybe everyone should do this every once in a while. Declutter.

I realize that I've never lived in any one house for any more than 7 years. Seven seems to be the magical number - in the Bible, in DUMC and for me.

I lived 11 months in Ipoh, 4 years in Seremban, 3 years in Raub, 3 years in Segamat (in 2 houses) and then 9.5 years in Penang (in 1 house and 3 apartments). Then I came to KL for further studies - one year in 6th College UM, one year in University Tower, 2 years down the road from UH in a rented room, 6 months in a rented room in Damansara Utama and then I got married and lived one year in Pantai HillPark with my sister-in-law.

This month is about exactly seven years since we moved into our current home, a year after getting married.

We got the keys to our new home last Friday, 1st Oct 2010. The entire legal process is actually not quite completed yet but the vendors have graciously handed over vacant possession.

So I've been busy meeting designers and contractors. I made a few random calls and also engaged a few friends in this line to give quotations.

In the mean time, the children have been rather cooperative. They make no fuss when I pack their toys and books into boxes. And they have a blast playing with all the boxes.

Joe is particularly excited. Because his father promised him an aquarium where they are gonna feed the fish with dead mosquitoes!

My PJ Old Town

Ever since I discovered one gem of a shop after another in this area, PJ Old Town has become a favourite for me. It's not a mall where you can hang out for hours. But it's great. Let me tell you why...

On Jalan1/14, there's a glass and framing shop where I just went yesterday to get my cross-stitch work framed.

Next door is a post office. A few doors away is a book & stationery shop.

At the corner of 1/14 and 1//19, just outside Watson's sits a cobbler who mends shoes at a dirt cheap price. Crocodile-mouth Timberland sandals get stitched back for merely RM7 per pair. You can also replace the rubber soles to your favourite shoes for about the same amount. He's usually sitting there until about 4pm.

On Jalan 1/19, there are two shops where I go to for all my craft-making accessories. Ribbons, tulle, baskets, elastics, thread etc etc etc.

In between those two shops are a chinese medicine shop and Cherry Cakehouse.

The chinese medicine shop is where I go to get the Lam Pak Hang (I know...it sounds like a bad word), kat peng and etc to boil for Joe's cough.

Cherry cakehouse is operated by a nice lady from PJ Trinity. It's halal and is very popular with the lunch crowd. The Nasi Lemak Rendang Ayam on Thursdays and Mee Jawa on Tuesdays are pretty good. Apart from that, I like the Fresh Durian Creme Puff (RM5.50 for a pack of 8 pieces), the Chocolate Banana Cake (RM5.30 per loaf) and the Kaya Puff (RM1.10). The mini chocolate muffins (RM1.00 for 4 pieces) are also pretty good and a very nice size - you just have to open your mouth one time to put the whole muffin in. **This applies to people like me with an average mouth size. People like my brother can probably fit at least 4 muffins in at one go :-)

Around the corner on Jalan 1/12 are two toy shops that sells all sorts of stuff. Hewson has more stuff (don't forget to go upstairs - the stairs are hidden by the side) but LianHin is more friendly. I find Hewson boss very cocky and bo chup. Last year I bought 100pieces of maracas from Lian Hin and last week I bought the lanterns from them too.

Next to Hewson is where I buy the rotans from. Only 50sen for the small ones. Bigger ones cost more.

Between the two toy shops, you will find a myriad of other very useful shops. I think there's a car repair shop, a hardware shop, some printing shop (also makes customized memorabilia), a clinic and a shop that does car cushion refurbishing.

Further down the road is the famous chee chap chuk. This opens at about 4pm till late.

There are a few banks in the vicinity (Public Bank, Maybank), several other bakeries (King's, Baker's Cottage), pharmacies (Guardian, Watson's) as well as Secret Recipe, Focus Optometry and OldTown White Coffee outlets. So this is a very busy place in the day.

Parking is not too bad since the turn-around is quite fast. I usually avoid the lunch crowd and go at about 2pm when everybody is going back to the office.

At night, there's the popular HengKee Bak Kut Teh and also the mamak (corner of Jalan Othman and Jalan 1/21) which makes good Milo Shake. We used to frequent this mamak when Daalin and I were pak-tho-ing. It's been a long time since we've been there because kids and late night mamak visits simply do not go together.

Another battle won

Joy has just recovered from another round of a battle with a nasty virus. Her voice started to turn hoarse exactly a week ago last Tuesday and then she started having a runny nose and fever on Friday morning. The last few days have been rather messy since my children have the tendency to puke when they cough.

Experience is the best teacher. We walked around with the chui kong and empty ice-cream boxes are strategically placed all over the home.

In spite of the many battles, she has grown - a LOT!

On Saturday morning, she threw up some gross-looking yellow stuff which I later learned to be stomach acid.
We took her to see Dr Ling Shih Gang (all the way in USJ) because I knew that if we were to go to Dr Koe's, it would be a whole morning spent there and we could not afford that time.

She weighed in at 17kg (95cm tall) at the paed's and Dr Ling said that she grew 4.5kg in the past one year (based on past records, she weighed 12.5kg a year ago) and that was A LOT! But he said she didn't look fat so it's all good.

Last night was the first fever-free night after a few nights of having to wake up to feed her medicine and sponge her.

This princess has grown a LOT not just physically but in every other aspect as well. Even while sick, she exasperates me!

The night before, she gave me a whole lot of nonsense from 1.30 - 4.00am!

I was awoken by her laboured breathing and felt she was feverish. When I asked her if she wanted her medicine through her "mouth or buttock???" she said, "MOUTH!!!!"

So she obediently took the medicine herself (this round - no more crying and fighting), from the little cup, like how we take Holy Communion. I then sponged her for about half an hour till she felt not-so-hot. When I tried to go back to sleep, she started to climb on top of me, clap her hands, sing some songs, make funny faces, turn upside down, pull my pants and in her words, "bla bla bla" - a phrase she learnt from Veggietales' The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything Movie.

For the next hour or so, I tried to ignore her. But she persisted...

Mama, can you geli my leg.
Mama, I want to go outside.
Mama, I want water.
Mama, I want some more water.
Mama, can you put lotion here.
Mama, scratch her.
Mama, I want to shee shee.
Mama, can you check my temperature.
Mama, another ear.
Mama, can you sponge me.

Then when I was totally exasperated, she hugged my arm while sniffing it and went, "Hmmmm......"

Frame for Joe's Class Photo

Joe brought home his class photo taken some time earlier. It costs RM6.00. I asked his teacher why it's so expensive when I can get a 5R photo printed for just RM0.50 at eoe online store. She replied that they engage a professional photographer who is familiar with taking class photos. So they have to factor in the professional fee and also for all the touch up.

Joe told me, "Next time you go out to pak tho, please buy a photo frame of this size for my photo."

Nana suggested we make one instead. So I found a box that I was going to throw out, which was an exact fit. It even had a window that was the perfect size for the photo.


So I cut out the sides of the box, folded it in and glued the back flat against the front. Added some ribbons to the top and bottom and stuck on some stickers.

He's quite happy.

And as I anticipated, he stood at the back so it didn't matter whether he wore white shoes (as instructed by the kindy), black shoes or no shoes!

Our Mini Lantern Parade

Last night being the mid-autumn festival, we brought the kids down to the poolside for a mini lantern parade last night. I'm not the kind who observes these traditions and not crazy about mooncakes (except in particular the 5-nut variety that my mother-in-law makes) so it was just all for fun for the kids.

I did ask them if they knew what the lanterns were all about and to my surprise, Joy told me, "when the moon come out then we all carry lanterns and walk walk walk.... like Kai Lan!!!"

So thanks to Kai Lan (Lan should be prounounced with the eh sound as in apple and not ah sound) they were pretty excited about having their own lantern parade.

The moon was very big and round and bright!
I had to take the shots without the flash to see the moon. But children naturally have this inability to hold still so most of the shots came out blur.

Evan and Marissa joined us in the lantern parade. I think they were all quite happy to have company. The more the merrier!

After sometime, the candle in Nana's paper candle burnt to the bottom and burnt the lantern itself as well.

I tried blowing out the flame but it was too big and my very cautious son started to panic and almost wanted to call the fire brigade.

I'm quite glad I bought the lanterns even though I didn't intend to earlier.

The blue dinosaur one was a last display model so the guy kindly discounted it for me from RM6.90 to RM4.50.

And the little pink fish lantern cost RM3.80.

So they walked round and round and round the pool and I kept having to replace candles and relighting the flame.

But they had fun, and slept very quickly and soundly last night!

Doctor in the House

Joe skipped school on Monday. He had fever since Saturday night and still had it in the wee hours of Monday morning so I decided he should stay home.

We didn't make a visit to the doctor. Instead, we had a 'doctor' check him at home.

Joseph was a very compliant patient.

And after that, he felt much better and had a round of golf with the 'doctor'.