making salted limes

Trying my luck at making some salted lime.. using calamansi lime. 

Keeping them to 'jaga pintu' in case of sore throat.

Salted lime makes good remedy for sore throat and for heatiness

Batch 1-4 combined for group pic

And another group pic

And the salt we used red for coarse and green for fine

 

One eye monster easy breathe

For some time, I've been having nose block at night. Sometimes to the extent of affecting my slumber time. So to ease my breathing, he made me essential oil blend after doing some research. Thank you dear for the 'one-eye monster easy breathe' Now I can grin like it :D 

Reading challenge 2020

 

24 more days before we come to the end of 2020.

24 more days before I'll know whether I'm able to accomplish my reading challenge of reading 20 books for year 2020.

One would have imagine that with the various variation of MCO this year, I shall be able to complete my 2020 reading challenge ... well, let's keep fingers crossed.

I'm burning midnight oil catching up on reading. Haha, don't get me wrong, I'm not reading for the sake of completing this reading challenge. I'm reading because I want to and because it help me to relax. Reading challenge just give me that extra boost and motivation especially when I'm a little lag.

To those who loves to read, let's celebrate the joy of reading this Christmas ...let's spread the love of reading to our younger generation. A book can really open up a child's world. It can do wonders.

Here, a big thank you to local bookstores (ie. Big Bad Wolf, Popular) for bringing us affordable books and enable this reading hobby to prevail. And to a friend, NDC who introduced us to Z Library which help to fuel this reading hobby.

To my children, mama hope the reading seeds I have planted will continue to grow with you and be your support in time of need. 

Morning walk

To be honest, I want to do it every day but in actual fact, I consider myself lucky if I ever get to do it 2 times a week...haha

It's like the best time of the day ..

• me enjoying some me time, 
• enjoying the cooling fresh air, 
• soaking up the tranquility that allow me to think (or rather not think about anything and just enjoy the present), 
• checking out what plants they have in my neighbourhood and what plants can I add to common vacant area / park. 
• meeting with old folks who exercise more diligent & consistently than me.
• exercise a little sweat a little

Like this week, I told myself to wake up early, go for a walk before I cook simple lunch for lunch @ office. Ended up I snoozed my alarm clock for the 2nd or 3rd time with just enough time to do fried rice. I guess the problem is with me..not enough will power and just plain lazy...blame it on the lack of sleep people suffer nowadays due to the stress technology brought us. 

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against technology (well, maybe a little due to the stress it brings and that it make people a lot more impatient). 

Got to go ... else how am i going to wake up for my morning walk tomorrow? 

feeling serai (read : sir-ray-ee)

For a person who do not have green fingers, nothing beats the satisfaction of harvesting own fruits roots of labour.

Capturing the mess, the grass and the roots of serai (lemongrass)

The end product which distributed among relatives, neighbours and colleagues

play house *home sweet home*

Last night, I saw this after shower.
I was secretly happy. I love this kind of free creative play in children. 
Everything is possible. 

Arial view of their house

The entrance

Side view ... I forgot to ask them if it's a cornerlot / semiD ... haha

用尽一生的爱

张克帆 - 《用尽一生的爱

Couldn't describe how happy I'm to be able to catch them playing this song on radio this morning (with the song title & singer details).
Love this song to the bits.

Put 2 version here, 
1st more for the lyrics
2nd more for visual

watching The winter the wind blow' in summer

I've just finished watching this korean drama 
'The winter the wind blow'
One's of the best for me by far. 
Good sad story, good love story, handsome actors, beautiful actresses, and a 动人OST
Sypnosis (from wikipedia)
A melodrama about a man and a blind woman, who doesn't believe in love. Oh Soo is an orphan who is left heartbroken after his first love passes away. He leads a goal-less life as a high-stakes gambler. Oh Young is a lonely heiress who feels she that must look after others and herself, after her parents got divorced and she finds herself becoming visually impaired. The two learn the true meaning of love after meeting each other.

source : youtube

our work in progress

I love gardening since young, 
but I do not know when I really fell in love with growing plants.
having said that, I however does not really have green fingers, 
but I never give up easily ... I will try and try and try.

I've tried to preserve the small piece of green in front of our home and gradually start growing edible things.
At our backyard, there is a piece of vacant land.
Previously it was managed by my neighbour but seeing my passion for growing things, aunty decided to let me grow plants behind. 
I couldn't thank her enough as it had always been my dream to grow my own edibles fruits and vegetables.
I do have dreams that every taman (housing estates) have their own organic farm.
and every city to have fruit forest / park concept. 
Last year, I went to the extend of putting in a feedback to DBKL for them to ponder over planting fruit trees in place of the normal decorative trees.

Although we may be far far away, at least I can do what I can do.
In fact I think we Malaysians are quite a green lot. 
Try walking around your neighbourhood and you'll realised that about 85% of houses will have at least some kind of plants. 
The heart warming thing is that we despite not with many spaces available, make full use of it. I see people planting sugar canes, papaya trees, banana trees, nangka trees, mango trees, pandan leaves, serai, mulberry trees in that little piece of land outside the gate, in between our house & neighbour house.

Here's my work in progress 
hoping my little farm will grow and flourish.

my collection of pandan, lime, mint leave, serai, ladies finger, aloe vera

Newly planted sweet potatoes leave vegetables, and tiny papaya tree

little banana tree inherited from aunty

 

some sugar cane inherited from aunty

the holes are planted with ladies finger & long bean.
Thank you to the uncle & aunty that helps us with the backyard.

 

From far top : newly planted pineapple, aloe vera, pandan leave, lime tree, serai

inherited this nangka / cempedak tree (I dunno which is which)

 

the tree in the middle is custard apple tree ... again inherited from aunty

these are ladies fingers freshly picked from our front garden

幸福不难

志在四方 The Dream Makers 

currently I'm watching this singapore series. 
Our neighbour do produce good quality series with good stories.
And with equally good theme song as well.

Killing 2 birds with 1 'series' 
Learn mandarin & learn about life...

Meanwhile, enjoy the song =)

expose n explore

It has always been a want for me to expose my children to experiences, those simple, affordable yet enjoyable ones.

and we did humbly for the past 2 months did quite a bit =)

including :

• humble 'tumpang' trip to Morib + water fun
• visit to stadium merdeka after praying at temple on Guan Yin Dan day
• to the zoo 
• trampoline jumping @ garden + farm pretend play
• trips to nearby playground + running up and down slope + curi curry leaves plant

secretly looking forward to have more 'suprises' for them

@ the zoo 

 

 youngest ah bi playing water @ morib sink while gor gor jie jie having fun @ pool 

had the whole stadium to ourselves ... glad that their NBTD mama pestered the guard to allow us in...LOL

(memorable since it was during the world cup season but the kiddies didn't know a thing) 

taking turn having fun on trampoline. poor papa!:p

exploring the playground and nature, 
running up and down slope shoeless..
I want them to know that life can be simple yet fruitful. 

colourful things that can go into the mouth

Ever since what happened to us (my family) last year, 

I've learnt the importance of health 

and is more careful with what we put into our mouth.

I like colourful things so I assume my kiddies like them too ...

so I learn to make our own snacks.

I love making these for them.

They love these their mother make for them.

I couldn't have ask for more =)

the 4 jars of dried fruits were gone in less than an hour =D

The process :

1. Cutting and slicing the fruits. Treating some with lemon juice if required (to reduce oxidation)

2. Arrange slices of fruits according to similarity of texture (ie. time needed to dry). Mine is more of trial and error basis.

So we have

• kiwi
• mango
• dragon fruit
• pineapple 
• nangka / cempedak
• green & red apple
• guava

 3. stack up the tray and on power ... then we just wait. I prefer to do it at night after they sleep.

4. When they reach desired dryness, we off the power and let the fruit cool down before canning them in clean airtight container (preferably glass).

5. Give the kiddies some suprises. Enjoy!

some cheers for year end, or are they not?

I received an email from ocbc bank a few weeks ago.

It says that 

(a) we can get BBWS RM50 voucher for opening any type of savings account

(b) another BBWS RM50 voucher for opening any type of FD deposit 

during the promotion period.

* BBWS : Big Bad Wolf Sales - the biggest and baddest book sales in Malaysia offering new books @ a fraction of retail prices.

Here's the catch : 

(a) min RM1k for opening savings account

(b) min RM5k for opening FD account

(c) max per pax is RM100 voucher per person. 

(d) applicable to selected customer who receive the email. (apparently their criteria for the mailing list is customer who only has credit card with them. They want to bring in your deposits)

But here's the cheers 

(for me la) :

1. Getting RM100 voucher for BBWS is very worth it (if average RM8 /book, I get about 12 books free literally). It's the kind of voucher that's definately not going to be ended up not utilized for me.

2. In term of returns, about 5% for savings account (RM50/RM1000), 

1% for FD account (RM50/RM5000) on top of the existing p.a interest rate. 

Mind you, this is not even per annum rate calculation basis. 

3. the returns in item (2) is given upfront / immediate, upon opening of account (ok la, upon collection and usage of voucher). In other words, we don't need to wait for month end / year end / upon maturity for interest calculation and crediting.

4. There are no bonding / tie in period. Literally, it can mean you can withdraw the money you bank the moment / after you collected the vouchers. But then again, don't think anyone will do so right? FD withdraw prior to maturity will have penalty/ no interest.

5. I just discovered OCBC has a very attractive savings account which they call 'Smart Savers Plan'. It allow adult to earn interest rates like children account provided there are no withdrawal. It's good if you plan to use it for REAL savings and not day to day operating account.

provided no withdrawal, deposit of 

RM0 - RM49.99 interest rate 2.4% p.a

RM50 - RM999.99 interest rate 2.75% p.a

RM1000 above interest rate 2.90% p.a

(refer pic2 below)

help me see...did I miss any catch here? (since I think I'm blinded by the BBWS cash vouchers) 

ps. this is not a paid post. 

the above post is just the opinion of the writer.

 

they reminded me that ...

@ work, fingers have been pointing, accusations have been hurling around when system errors occur after the major project cutover.

Being a tester, we are most of the time the most vulnerable group irregardless of whether you have done your due diligence.

To avoid further unnecessary stress, I decided to just let those pointed and hurled at me to take place without struggling to put up any defense. 

It was after all very meaningless to me. 

However, to say that I'm not affected at all is telling a big fat lie through my teeth.

Somehow God decided to remind me that admidst all the 'you have not done .... / you have done it wrong' that have been hurled towards me, that Saturday, through my ah bi(s) I was reminded that ....

perhaps I've done something really important ... something that matter more ...

that day the elder one told me he love me and offered to help me wash the dishes (all of sudden) and later that afternoon he helped me fold most of his own and sister clothes. 

In case you're wondering how they reach the sink, look at the 2 fella tip toeing. 

I was happy when he told me he love me, happier when he offered to help me wash the dishes, happiest when he solved his own problem (taking the stool when he can't reach the running water) and the little one followed his example. 

(and to satisfy your curiousity, no, they didn't thoroughly rinse all the soap from the kitchen utensils ...haha, but to me they are already doing a great job =) 

* ps. sorry for the exposed skins, she was getting ready to take bath when she decided to join the fun.

   

Maybe after all, I'm not as bad as what they say.  

and that I now know very clearly that I live for myself ... 

it has been a long week

Working for full day yesterday (on a Saturday), I felt very tired. 
I'm getting old these days. 
But despite the exhaustion I'm glad I managed to slot in some personal 'achievement'
I managed to tidy up my office space (some 50%) 
I managed to finish up to 50% of the book (My favourite wife) I'm currently reading
I managed to eat something that's heavenly ... Sago with santan & gula melaka


So despite the gruel of working on a Saturday, I managed to turn it into a more pleasant one...
So it's true that they say : Every cloud has a silver lining. 
It's just that sometimes we have to look harder.

pics from google images

one door closed, another door opened

Since last month, I've gradually lost 3 of my breast pumping session companions.

(Yes, in case you're wondering, we do it TOGETHER in a room the size of a toilet cubicle ... i bet it does reflect how close and intimate we are)

1 transferred, 2 resigned 

So here I'm down to 1.

For the 1st few days, I was not used to it. 

I felt something was amiss ... it's like a part of me is missing. 

I'm not used to having the small little space all to myself.

However, I guess it takes time to get used to it.

Recently, I started discovering again 

(1) the wonders & pleasure of reading 

...i hardly have time to read @ home but over the past 2 weeks, i managed to finish a book!

(2) the wonders & pleasure of being alone 

... to wind down especially during stressful times. 

(3) the wonders & pleasure of listening to radio 

... Ai FM (chinese radio station) in particular ... can learn chinese, learn about topic of discussions and get to listen to real nice songs)

(4) the wonders & pleasure of escaping from gossip 

...you know what they say that you can't escape from the grapevine when you put a few 'ah so' together. 

Since I'm the only one left ... I always do get asked

"Now left you 1 only ah? So how?"

"Now left you 1 only ah? so cham?"

so much so that I've just got to smile and say : 

"What to do? 4 people together or me alone .. my baby still need drink milk everyday"

其实你不懂我的心

其实你不懂我的心 ... favourite song from childhood. 
I always listen to it to fall asleep during afternoon nap @ babysitter home. 
Last time, to put me to sleep, all my babysitter had to do is just to play some songs and I'll automatically pull & unroll the tilam & doze off... =D


This is another version by a vision impaired contestant in one's of singapore talent show.
The original singer is 童安格