When we decided to send Erica to a all subjects taught in Mandarin Chinese school, many of our friends taught that we were mad. Frankly, I don't blame them. It was indeed a crazy move as both Dave and I cannot read or write in Mandarin. Despite all the well-meant you better not to it advise, we went ahead with our plan. Yeah, we are extremely stubborn, haha! How did the learn Mandarin plan come about? Why did we decide on such a "difficult" path? Dave is convinced that China would be the next big economy after the US and Erica would have an added competitive advantage if she is proficient in Mandarin. When he told me his theory I remember laughing to myself, thinking...

My hubby was a little worried during my last birthday (in March). He assumed that I would be depressed as it meant saying farewell to days of being thirties. As "the day" was on a weekday and he was super busy at work, he made arrangements with the girls' school for them to have the day off. Yeah, he actually wrote a letter informing the school that the girls needed to skip school to celebrate my fortieth birthday. Men!! *shakes head in disbelief*. The girls brought me to the movies to watch Alice in Wonderland. They used their pocket money to pay for our tickets and popcorn. It was kinda of nice but weird at the same time. Just because they were paying for po...

Where have I been for the past 2 months? Have I stopped blogging but never said good-bye? I received quite a number of emails on this for the past few weeks from many concerned friends. Some were even worried that something happened to me. Thank you so much for your concern my dear friends. I am fine, don't worry. Yes, I am still blogging .....  its just that I was so pre-occupied with my little BFF. We spent so many hours hanging out together daily that I do not have anymore energy to blog after that. Here she is. What do you think? I have never been a doll person. Actually I don't remember having a doll as a kid. Not sure why I never took a liking to them, mos...

I received this in my inbox today. I laughed my head off ....... hopefully you will find it funny too. My apologies in advance if you are offended :) PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 ...

When I saw Ashley's Graffiti Shoes Tutorial, I couldn't wait to make one for myself. I did, yesterday, while the kids were swimming with their friends. I had a fantastic time playing with paints. I didn't realise that I miss painting and creating a mess  so much. It was therapeutic turning a MYR5 plain-looking black canvas shoes, into cool graffiti art. Thanks, Ashley! My girls were jealous when they got home. They made me promise that I will paint them each a pair while they are at school tomorrow. I was stunned when David told me subtly that he wouldn't mind having a pair too! *shaking my head in disbelief* I was wearing them all of today, eve...

[Picture nicked from my fellow bootcamper's blog www.arminbaniaz.com] I love blogging. But I love "doing nothing" even more ....... at times. This is what happened in March. I was in a staring-into-space-and-doing-nothing mood when my girls were at school. Why? I was depressed. I injured my left knee so NO BOOTCAMP and NO RUNNING for me. Without my get-me-up every morning I felt lost, lousy and helpless. I tried to drown my sorrows by taking afternoon naps. I felt worse. I ended up getting migraine and felt worse. I should have known cos me and naps have never been the best of friends! Actually I have no one else to blame but myself. When my left knee ...

When it comes to cooking, I have accepted the fact that I am destined to be a noob forever. Noob not in the same category as this ironchef-in-disguise-noob, but noob in the true sense, know very little and have no will to learn. I no longer live in denial, buying cookbooks after cookbooks dreaming of being my Mister's Domestic Goddess. After trying at the most two recipes from the salad/entree section, I would be demoralised. Mine would never ever look and taste anywhere near that described by the book, even though I put in twice the amount of time in the kitchen. Nothing wrong with those cookbooks, it's just me ... poor execution due to "no-interest" subject matter...

To my elder girl, he is the BEST-LOOKING guy in this whole wide world. Her everything Pattinson craze has been going on for a while and I never understood why, until last December ....... I finally got curious when she was watching Twilight for the 10,000th time. I joined her. Initially I was bored but when the perfect in an eerie manner Pattinson appeared I transformed into an excited teenager and became more excited than my tween! When the movie ended, I told my daughter, "Erica, let's watch one more time!". She was beaming with the "I told you so" look. We ended up watching three rounds of Twilight and two rounds of New Moon. I had a smashing time....... Â...

It's about time I pull myself away from my "latest hobbies" and daily responsibilities to spend some time here dusting cobwebs. I need to make an effort to update this blog/journal of mine more often else my envisioned trips down memory lane in the future would not be possible. What have I been up to since I last document my resolutions for the year? 1. Original Bootcamp, thrice weekly -  this is my 3rd month and I am so hooked/addicted to it. My dear hubby thinks that I am nuts to wake up at 5.30am and rush to the field for an hour of hell. Not sure why but I kinda like the kick-ass pain, plus the released of happy hormones after each session - simply the...

I used to have a love-hate relationship with January 1st. I love that it signifies a new beginning, new dreams, new hopes but at the same I hate it due to all my un-met resolutions! Two years ago, I finally grew-up (i.e. matured) and stopped making a big deal out of the New Year, and stopped making a long list of not likely to meet resolutions. January 1st became another flipping of the calendar day. I reasoned that I can do up a to-do-list aka resolutions anytime of the year. The biggest challenge is to stay focused and get it done. So how was past two years since I stopped making resolutions? Were they more fruitful than the ones with resolutions? Not sure but I...