I was invited to go to a blog meet organised by Lin Peh, sponsored by 9393. My SIL, King’s Wife, was Lin Peh‘s favourite Si-lai (Cantonese : desperate Housewife) for this month, so I was given the honor to accompany her to this meeting.

We had dinner down in KL, in a private room. Sounds very fishy isn’t it (If I was going on my own, I would definitely chicken out, knowing what the Yamade King is capable of). Lin Peh, Wingz and May were already there when Seng Kor, King’s Wife and I arrived together. Followed by GBYeow, KL Podcast, Siao Cha Bor and then Cock-a-doodle (who did a Lin Peh’s jig trying to convince us he was Lin Peh, but his moustache was a dead give away). 9394 was the last, and had a tough time guessing who was who.

Every body was warming up to each other, joking, laughing; when I whipped out my camera, fingers started pointing, “No photos! We agreed!” (Er, Did I?). Agreeing not to offend some people who prefer to remain anonymous, I’ll just post some jigsaw pieces here.

Is the smiling eyes nicer, or the smiling moustache?

“*Sob Sob* King’s Wife isn’t anything like what I thought she’d look like!”

Straight to the meet after the bank heist.

Hands-a-roaming.

Fishing buddies’ hugs ala Broke Back Mountain

I think there’s just too much Cantonese swearing here, I’d better call backup.

I need to capture evidence here.

I had a good time, laughing until my ribs hurt; if you read their blogs, you know what a bunch of funny people these folks are.
However, at the back of my mind I was worrying about Zara at home, as this was the very first time I went out without Zara in the night

Now back home :
My plan was to stay over at King’s Wife together with Zara and Tuyam; Zara will have my nieces to play with, and will not miss me so much. But Daddy called me at 5pm telling me he’ll miss Zara and would like to pick them up from King’s Wife after work. I reminded him, “This means you have to look after her, give her her night feed, tuck her to bed. You sure you can do it?” “Of course I can” so Daddy claimed.

(updated by Tuyam)
Daddy said he would watch over Zara while Tuyam was busy at the kitchen. Instead, Daddy read his newspaper, and Zara was walking about, playing on her own. Then she whined, and ran to Tuyam. Tuyam found white sticky stuff in Zara’s mouth, and had to dig them out. Apparently Zara had gotten hold of my niece’s glue stick, and bitten half the glue out. (Daddy -20points)Daddy said he would feed Zara. His feeding technique, “Zara, nah, Daddy drink 1 sip (from the bottle), you drink 1 sip ok?” Daddy pretended to suck on the bottle, and then passed on to Zara. Zara found it too hilarious and giggled, only air went in to her stomach, no milk. Tuyam took over the bottle, and coaxed Zara to drink, while Daddy went to have his bath. (Daddy +2points for entertaining Zara, -10points for not being able to feed Zara)

Daddy tried to tuck Zara in, Zara whined and asked for mummy. Daddy passed the responsibility to Tuyam, and went to read his books while Tuyam patted Zara, calmed Zara down, and finally had Zara drifted off to sleep. (Daddy -20points).

And what did he say? He will LOOK AFTER ZARA, GIVE ZARA HER NIGHT FEED, TUCK ZARA TO BED. *sigh*

(Read here, here, here, here, here, here and here for more photos and posts about the meet)

This morning, Zara was still sleeping while I went to the study to start up my PC. I was in the midst of chatting with a good friend in the US, when I heard a faint, “Mummy, Mummy!” coming from the bed room.

Zara has awaken, she was just sitting on the bed, rubbing her eyes, calling out for me. She didn’t cry a bit (which she usually does when she wakes up and see me not at her side), and greeted me with a squeal and a big big smile. This is one of those days when I look at Zara and thought, “Woh! She’s grown so much already!”.

I went through her earlier photos, videos and was filled with a sense of achievement, happiness, and also a tinge of despair. Look at her now, from a helpless new born, she’s now walking, talking, demanding. But she’s growing up so fast, I haven’t spent enough time with her, and soon, she’s no longer be the little toddler she is now. I’m going to miss her baby-ness.

Here is a video I was amusing myself with, taken when she was 9mths +, still cruising. Look at the chubs, and the wobbly gait.

And these, the foot prints I took when she was a new born, vs the foot print I took 2 weeks back. Soft tiny new born’s feet, vs strong walking toddler’s feet.

Do you feel your kids are growing up too fast before you?

I met up with 3 very close ex-classmates on Tuesday night and brought along Zara and Tuyam.

While we had dinner, Zara was playing with Zhu-Zhu, the schnauzer, one of my friend brought along. Zara fed her bread, patted her, and followed her, calling “Joe Joe!” “Dog Dog!” after her. Tuyam then noticed that Zara has some rashes and swelling on the back of her palms. Zara must be like me, allergy to animals saliva. When my skin touches animal saliva, it’ll get itchy all over; if the rash has just been developed, normally just rinsing it with soapy water will get rid of it. It will get worse if I don’t take immediate action. I quickly got Tuyam to wash her hands, and true enough, soon after that, the red patches and swelling were gone.

Since she has this allergy, we stopped her from playing with the dog. My friend took out a box full of her son’s toys and Zara was happily kept busy by the goodies she found.

I’m an animal lover, at one point, I had 2 dogs, 2 cats, 3 kittens, 2 guinea pigs. Dogs and cats were stray whom I brought home (hid in the boot when my mum wasn’t looking and innocently said I don’t know how it got there). Cared for lovingly by my mum (whom although strict, has never scolded me from bringing stray home) and me. Back then, I always had rashes all over me, but I was ignorant of the cause, and it didn’t’ bother me.

When I was older, I realise the cause of the rashes and itch, and I started being more careful with animals. After handling any animals, I have to immediately wash my hands. No co-sleeping with animals which I used to do. This helps.

Looks like the ‘curse’ now had landed on Zara as well, whom also seems to love animal a lot. Isn’t it ironic?

Egghead, and Fantasyflier tagged me on this to find out which era I was from, here is the content of the tag

1. Name one of the actor of the old days that you missed the most
~ Danny Chan (???)

2. Name a cartoon of the old old days
~ Smurf!!

3. Name a singer/group of the old days
~ Liu Wen Zheng (???)

4. Band of the old days
~ Anzenchitai (????).
~ When I started listening to English songs, I just love Depeche Mode (still do).

5.TV Series of the old days
~ ????? (Xin Xin Zhi Wo Xing – some sob stories), ???(Man In the Net – Chow Yuen Fat debut!). Used to watch with my mum, dabbing our tears occassionally, and sometimes she got so carried away, she totally forgotten about preparing dinner!

6. Actress of Old Days
~ Cherie Chung Chor-Hong (???)

7. Fashion of Old Days that you miss the most
~ I remembered the beggers out fit, the shoulder pads, but I don’t really miss them, I think they were ugly (although back then, I too wore them to be fashionable).

8. Movie of Old Days
~ An Autumn’s Tale (?????)

9. Music Video of Old Days
~ Must be Micheal Jackson’s Thriller, I guess. MTV wasn’t popular for Chinese songs yet.

10. Coolest Song of Old Days
~ That’s What Friends Are For (Elton John and Friends)

Come to think of it, I was so Chinese huh? In fact, I was so Chinese that my siblings teased me and called me a communist (They were all sent to English schools while I went to a Chinese school).

I’ll have to list 3 people to pass this tag on (you are not obligated, just do it if you feel like it).
– Twin (must be very young huh you, even though you have 2 kids?)
– Mr Cocka Doodle (which cockeral era did you come from)
– YL (you must be very very young)

Normally I will tag Helen but I’ll spare her so that she can concentrate on finding out the true identity of this man.

I wish the 10days of staying home, feasting, resting, holidaying, playing, having fun, did not end so quickly

I wish I didn’t have 500 emails to respond to

I wish I didn’t have too many urgent requests which have today as the deadline

I wish I could freely express my emotions, just like Zara

I wish I could show this face to my boss, and throw a tantrum and then just strut back home to continue with more holidays..

I wish Zara could gracefully wave bye-bye to me, when I leave her to go to work, and not kick up a fuss

Yikes! It’s back to work…. *bawl*

I got tagged by King’s Wife, Egghead, The Diva, YL, Greenapple, on the same tag, I’d better do this quick, since this is spreading so fast, most of the bloggers I know would have been ‘infested’ with it very soon!

Here’s the tag/meme:

4 jobs you’ve had in your life:

4 movies you could watch over and over

4 TV shows you love(d) to watch

4 places you’ve lived

4 places you’ve been on vacation to

Thailand – Kok Mak, Kanchanaburi (for our 5th wedding anniversary)
and many more before Zara was born, but I chose these 4 as they gave me the biggest impact.

4 places you would rather be

4 of your favourite foods

4 of your favourite beverages

4 (or more) websites you visit daily

4 tagged

Besides going shopping on Saturday and visiting my eldest sis on Sunday, during the weekend, I spent quite a fair bit of time in the kitchen.

Saturday
After we came back from the wet market, while we were sorting out the shopping, Tuyam commented about Daddy buying apples again as we already had some in the fridge. Daddy mentioned that those in the fridge were not nice, and he would like to chuck them away.

I just read about Greenapple‘s post about double boiling apples to make a drink, so I thought I’d tried it out using these 4 unwanted apples + 5 mud-chou (Chinese: honey dates). After 5hrs in the slow cooker, a wonderful drink was produced. We all loved it, especially after it has been chilled! Thanks Greenapple!

Since Zara loved Ping’s mum’s fish porridge so much, I made Pomphret (couldn’t get Mayao/Kurau from the market, so I just substituted it with Pomphret) porridge using her method for lunch. I didn’t like it at all *blech*, but the little cat took 1 big bowl for lunch, and another big bowl for dinner! So I guess it must be good for her standard.

Sunday
After coming back from my sis’ place, I got Daddy to look after Zara while I tried to bake some chocolate chip cookies for Chinese New Year. I like making this because it’s so simple and the recipe is a hand-me-down from Ping’s Australian FIL.

While trying to get Zara to take her evening nap in the living room, Daddy fell asleep first before Zara (=.=), and Zara walked to the kitchen to kay-poh (Chinese : busy body). She was very good though, I told her I was busy, the oven was hot, and asked her to play at the dry kitchen area while I worked on the cookies. She cooperated, and stayed out of my way and the oven’s!

.

Dough on a baking sheet, nice golden choc chip cookiesI managed to bake 2 bottles (old Hollick bottle), they are very nice, just a bit too sweet (I forgot to adjust the recipe like I used to in previous years).

And for dinner, I thought I’ll make salt baked red mullet, a recipe from Jamie Oliver. The fish was stuffed with ginger, spring onion, coriander leaves (the recipe calls for fresh thyme, rosemary, lemon and bay leaf, and since I didn’t have any of the ingredients I compromised with what I could find in my fridge), laid it on a bed of course salt, covered with another layer of course salt, and then baked in the oven.

Fish before entering the oven, cooked fish with the salt cake scrapped off

I find the fish was too salty, I think probably because I pricked the skin accidentally before I baked it. However, both Zara and Daddy loved it. I chose the bits which were not too salty for Zara, and Daddy just cleaned up the rest of the fish after Tuyam and myself took a little each.

Anybody has any proven cookies recipe to share which is easy to make, and delicious? I would try to make another batch of cookies the coming weekend.

I was tagged by Helen, yet again. Since I’m such a loyal reader of her blog, I have to show some support.

The Rules: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom spot.

1. The Cosmic Abyss
2. Between Lambs & Mutton
3. The Life of An Independent Babe
4. My All
5. All About Zara

Then you select five people to pass the love on to. Here’s my selection :
1. Jasmine – what did you do before Faythe came? cooking?
2. Mom2Ashley – what do you like doing?
3. Allyfeel – life before Drs Seger.. 😛
4. Shopping Mum – shopping? shopping? shopping?
5. Twinsmum – My long lost school mate, I want to know everything about you!
(Seng Kor, see, this time you didn’t get tagged)

1. What were you doing ten years ago?
I was doing my final year in a small town in UK. Studying, working hard. However, living in the same block of flat with some gorgeous Italians, Spanish and Greeks did provide some motivation to stay in and study *drool*.

Daddy (back then just my boy friend) and I continued with our relationship long distant via weekly phone calls and the occasional exchanging of parcels. His contained Milo, Ikan Bilis, Chinese herbs; mine contained Photos (no digital camera back then), gifts, cards (and the relationship barely survived being 1 year apart, but it was still happy ending after that *phew*)

2. What were you doing 1 year ago?
I was home struggling with a new born, without a confinement lady (sent her packing on day 2); mum (who’s passed on) or MIL (didn’t offer) to help. In a way, it was a blessing. I learnt things from scratch, by reading books and from the net, I did things my way, and cared for Zara all by myself for 3 months (alright, with a little of Daddy’s help as well as maid’s but still it was My Way)

3. Five super fatty and high cholesterol snacks you enjoy:
1. Potato Crisps/Chips Lightly Salted (no can do for other flavour)
2. Keropok or Prawn/Fish Crakers
3. Curry Puffs (love them!)
4. Rich butter cookies (made with real butter and not margarine)
5. Cashew Nuts or Almonds

4. Five songs to which you know all the lyrics off your head right now:
1. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
2. You are My Sunshine
3. Sing a song of Six Pence
4. London Bridge Is Falling Down
5. Row Row Row Your Boat
and many more
Gee, soo sad, only can remember nursery rhymes. I have very bad memory, lyrics of songs I’d learnt up I’d forgotten now. These are songs I sing daily, so I have to remember them!

5. Five things you would do if you were a millionaire (actually how far can you stretch a million dollar nowadays?)
1. Get more involve in charity work (the same as Helen)
2. Buy a piece of land and build a small house at the coast of Wales, a Greek Island, New Zealand or Australia.
3. Travel the world, see the places I wanted to see but haven’t (Sahara Dessert, Ayers Rock, Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon, Santorini, Mykonos, Meteora).
4. Take years off from work, go back only when I want to not when I have to.
5. Set up a trust fund for Zara’s (or any additional kids I have) education (by then how much would have left?)

6. Five bad habits:
1. Messy and untidy (you see my desk at work, you know what I mean)
2. Quick to lash out (Daddy got the most lashing, poor thing)
3. Absolutely love anything deep fried (I have to watch my cholesterol)
4. Zara has to be cared for my way, anybody’s way is NO way
5. Day Dreaming – love to just lie on the bed or sofa and just stare into nothingness

7. Five things you like doing:
1. Spending quality time with Zara
2. Eating unhealthily
3. Reading (blogs/books)
4. Shopping (never mind if I’m not buying anything)
5. Traveling (been a while I’d indulged on this)

8.Five things you would never wear, buy, or get new again:
1. Nursing bra (once I’m done with nursing)
2. Breast pads (once I’m done with nursing)
3. Eye shadow (I looked like I’d been punched in the eye every time I apply this)
4. Red lipstick (makes me look whorish)
5. Tight fitting clothes (don’t want to be a dumpling or ham-yuk-zhong, and my body expends and shrinks so frequently I won’t know what size I’ll be next month)
Oops, but 1 and 2 I may still buy and wear and use them if I have another kid right?

9. Five favorite toys:
1. My Olympus E500 DSLR
2. My Pentax Optio 555
3. My Electrolux Oven (could have made use of it more)
4.
5.
As for toys I played when I was younger, none really ‘lived’ that long to still be with me. Also, I am not a gadget person, can’t even come out with the other 2.

There you go Helen.

2005 has been a good year, mainly because of Zara.

Nothing has prepared me for this, but
I started to realise the joy of motherhood
I started understanding the capacity to love, to care for, to nurture another individual

I saw the first smile, the first sit, the first crawl, the first swim, the first step, the first dance
I heard the first laugh, the first word, the first singing, the first phrase
I experienced her first kiss, her first hug, her first snuggle
I nursed her first fever, her first fall

2005 I fell in love all over again, this time more passionate than any other times I’d experienced with a man. I became a mother and fell in love with my daughter

2005 was all about Zara, Zara and Zara, and I know the coming years would be the same too
2005 was a good year, with Zara, everything is good

Thank you all for reading my blog, for sharing the joy and pain with me

Happy New Year to All Of You!

Since we had stremyx, most of my nights during the weekends are spent on blog surfing or blogging (if we didn’t go out).

Tonight, I wanted to post some of Zara’s photo taken yesterday when I took her swimming with King’s Wife’s kids in my sis’ appartment.

After I logged on, Daddy came in, and asked sweetly (rarely does he speak to me in such a manner) if we should watch a movie together (DVD of course). I can’t refuse those small bambi eyes can I?

So I shall try to post the photos tomorrow, and watch a movie with him (maybe Cinderella Man). Just to be a good wife occasionally. If you wonder if anything steamy going to happen after that, well, just remember the photo in this post. Unless we play London Bridge Is Falling Down later.

Oops, this is a blog for my daugther. I shouldn’t get too detail with such things, so I shall stop before I say too much.

(Just to make me feel guilty, he’s blasting All By Myself on his amplifier now. Ok ok, I should go now)