I Went Too!

Went where? To the much talked-about book sale -- the Big Bad Wolf sale. Since Friday, I saw many posts about the sale in FB. I also ' beh tahan' already so I applied "leave" from hubby today. I brought XY along while CE stayed at home with PaPa. We went after lunch, reached the venue at 2+. It was very easy to find the place using GPS. Along the way, I saw many "wolf" signage too.

Good thing I've read about others' experience, so I knew we had to wait for the shuttle bus to bring us to Hall A (where the sale is) from the parking lot. When we reached Hall A, there was a queue but I think we waited for about 5 minutes only. We headed directly to the Children's section. We "systematically" covered the whole section. As expected, some of the tables were quite messy. I think we spent almost 2 hours at the Children's section. Then I wanted to look for my books. But they are quite difficult to find, unlike those advertised in their website and bestsellers. There are so many tables for General Fiction and they don't seem to be arranged by author. I didn't see any Dan Brown books and the John Grisham book I bought, I just picked it up from a non-related pile. :-)

After 3 hours in the hall, the damage to the pocket was only RM106. Felt quite out of place coz other people's boxes or trolleys were filled to the brim. hehehe

~ RM3 each ~

I like the toy clock coz it looks quite "durable". I've bought educational clocks made from paper and wood before. The paper one got torn very soon and the wood one, its minute and hour hands can be moved separately. This one, it's like a real clock. You wind the button behind, it'll move the minute hand and the hour hand will move accordingly. CE immediately "played" with it when he saw it. He has always been very fascinated with time. He likes to keep track of time. He moved the toy every 1 or 2 minutes, to be the same as the digital clock in our living room. The problem is, he finds it a bit tight to wind it from behind, so he moves both the hands on the face. Thus making the hour and minute hands go out of sync. :-|

~ top : RM5 each, bottom : for hubby (RM15) ~

~ RM8 each ~

This being my first time to the BBW book sale, the experience was very pleasant. The place is air-conditioned. It didn't feel hot at all although there was a big crowd. There are many payment counters so it didn't take long to pay. I've waited much longer in Tesco. :p And for a public place, the toilets are very clean. *thumbs up*

Note : I'll go MIA again (what's new eh? :p) as CE is having his exam starting tomorrow and XY's will start the following week. Here's wishing "All the best!" to the children who'll be having their year-end exam.

There's Always A First Time

As a SAHM, I hardly buy new clothes, especially when there isn't a need. But I do make sure I have at least SOMETHING new to wear during Chinese New Year. :-) Shopping for clothes at the malls is just too troublesome with kids in tow. You can never shop in peace when the kids are running all over the place or complaining and whining because you're looking at something they're not interested in.

Although there are many online boutiques, I've never shopped for clothes online because... I just don't know how to. I'm very small-built and petite (with spare tyres at the wrong places *blush*), so it's actually very difficult to find clothes that fit me perfectly (especially dresses) off the shelves. So I'm wondering how can I actually purchase clothes without trying them on?

When I heard that Malaysia Online Boutique - Irenelim Fashion is giving out free dresses for bloggers and website owners, I knew I had to grab this chance. A real-life practice. I pick what I like (from their huge selection), imagine how I look in it, make sure the measurements fit and then wait for the delivery. I get to go through the whole process, WITHOUT paying for it (just need to pay for postage)! Cool, eh? Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to continue browsing their catalog.

Cheaper Airfare

Kakak will be going back to Indonesia in August (for a month) to celebrate Hari Raya with her family. She's been with us for 2 years already and we've just renewed her contract. Every time I think about her long leave, I'd be wondering how I'm going to survive a whole month without her. I know, I know, I'm terribly pampered. :p Too dependent on her already. Anyway, I'm sure we'll be fine. Definitely more work to do than usual but it's just for a month. Sure can survive one. :D

She told me the nearest airport to her kampung is Semarang but AA doesn't fly there. Based on my "research", there's no direct flight from KL to Semarang. She'll have to transit Jakarta. I finally decided on Garuda Indonesia. It's better to get the ticket from one airline, just in case of delays. When buying from different airlines, if the first flight is delayed, causing her to miss the second (or connecting) flight, the ticket is considered burnt and she'd have to buy a new one. And there's the risk of the tickets being sold out.

Garuda has a special fare for Indonesian passport holders. I've checked with a tour agency, for the same flight, the price was very much higher (more than double). With the special fare, it's also cheaper than buying from 2 separate airlines. Purchasing the ticket is hassle free. I don't have to go to their office to make payment or to collect the air ticket. I made the booking via telephone and given 3 weeks to make payment (bank-in or transfer funds online to their Citibank account). After payment's been made, just fax to them the payment slip and they'd e-mail to me the e-ticket. So simple.

By the way, this is NOT a paid post. Just want to share this with you. So if you plan to buy flight tickets for your Indonesian helper, do check out Garuda Indonesia for comparison purpose.

Very Suay

I brought CE to consult his paediatrician this morning. He has some rashes on his neck, chest and abdomen after a one-day fever on Monday. His runny nose is just clearing up and I thought might as well check to see everything's alright with his ear and throat. Luckily no further infection. Also, there's a red itchy patch on his body that didn't go away after a week (I applied Hydrocort). It has dried up a bit but it seemed to have enlarged. Doctor prescribed Foban-H, a cream that contains antibiotic.

~ red patch on his right side (stomach area) ~

The suay thing that happened was I got summoned for parking without paying. Why I said suay? Because I was prepared to pay. I knew I didn't have any coins in my wallet so before I left the house, I 'stole' 50 sen (20+20+10) from the kids' musical coin box. But when I put in the coins, it didn't accept my 10 sen coin. Then I realised it's a SGD10¢. As CE and Kakak were waiting at the paed's clinic (I dropped them in front of the clinic earlier), I didn't bother to go change the coins. Moreover, I only have RM50 notes. I was secretly hoping that I won't get summoned (it's quite common around that area). I was gone for about half an hour (max 40 minutes). When I got to the car, there was a piece of paper stuck to my wiper. *sigh sigh sigh* So instead of paying 50 sen, now I've to pay RM30. Thanks to that SGD10¢. *arrrgh!!*

Impressive Service

Remember the card I asked hubby to send for me? Which I missed out the postcode when I wrote the address? Well, I was very sure it's not going to reach my mom. Or even if it does, it'll be way past her birthday. So I sent another card (different design) by courier the day before her birthday so that it'll reach her the next day.

When I called mom to wish her, she told me I gave her a scare by sending TWO cards. She thought I was so absent-minded that I forgot I've already sent a card, thus sending another one. :-| She didn't realise about the incomplete address. I told her I'm quite blur at times, but not to the extent of forgetting what I've done. hahaha

I'm really impressed with our postal service. Even without a postcode, they processed it as normal, without any delays. So this year, mom got double the wishes. :-)

McDonald's Delivery

This weekend, we didn't go out for any meals. As PaPa isn't feeling very well (coughing now), the Korean food would have to wait another week. Yesterday, he was supposed to go out to pack dinner for us (he's going to eat the leftover meatball porridge from lunch) but he fell asleep on the sofa. So I ordered McDonald's delivery.

I included a Happy Meal, just to get the FuWa mascot. It's the Olympics season, how can we not have at least one mascot at home? hehehe It came with Yingying (Asia). And I didn't realise before this that it has a stamp (in the shape of the continent). So XY was very happy with her new toy and started stamping away after she finished her meal.

~ Olympic Games FuWa mascot, Yingying ~

McD's delivery is not as effective as Pizza Hut's. They took 50 minutes to deliver my meal and the expected time is 45 mins, where as Pizza Hut's just 30 mins. Imagine you've to wait almost an hour for your food. And McD's delivery charge is more expensive too. But it's still worth paying when you think about the petrol spent to purposely drive out to the fastfood outlet.

Lesson Learnt

Last Sunday, we went to Jaya Jusco in Equine Park for dinner and to do some shopping (for me, mainly). I got myself a pair of Levi's jeans and another pair of sandals. Hubby bought a 20-inch trolley bag for his short business trips.

There was a shoe shop next to the luggage shop. After buying the luggage, I went next door with XY while hubby went to Jusco with CE to get the red packets. Kakak sat at the bench outside the luggage shop taking care of the things we've just bought. While I was trying on shoes, XY was walking around the shop, busy examining some shoes. Then suddenly she was nowhere in sight. I thought she was sitting on the floor where I can't see her. So I looked around the shop but didn't see her. I started to panic a little, especially with so many recent news of little girls gone missing. So I quickly ran out of the shop and saw her in the luggage shop, looking for me. I was so mad at her. I've specifically told her to stay in the shop to wait for me but she just couldn't sit still and went roaming about herself. I can't imagine what'll happen if she's really gone missing. The thought of it sends shudders down my spine. Thank god nothing happened.

I got a good lecture from hubby and obviously, I deserved it. After that incident, I'll definitely be more careful and keep her in sight at all times. It's better to hold her hand all the time. Not just for young girls, we should protect our boys just the same. We should never be careless, especially in such a situation.

Impressive Service

Yesterday was the last day to redeem the Anakku points. I knew I have 200+ points but I wasn't sure how many points would expire if I didn't redeem it by 31 Dec '07. So in the morning, I called up the outlet in Metro Kajang to enquire. I didn't have my card with me at that time so I gave the girl (a very helpful CikM) my name and IC number. She said she'll call me back after she's checked it for me.

Later when she called me back, she told me how many points I have but not able to find out how many would expire. The computer would not have that information but I remember they have a printout which was sent to the outlet with such details. She said my name's not there and probably they missed it out or something. So I asked if there's any way she can find out, maybe check with their HQ? She said her supervisor would be there after lunch and she can ask her about it. And she promised to call me back again.

At 5 in the evening, I got a call from her. This time with the information I wanted and I've got 200 points expiring. It's not easy to accumulate Anakku points as I don't shop there often. So 200 points is quite a lot to me. As CB was working yesterday, I thought I'll ask him to go over to redeem the gift for me after work. And CikM said it's alright if he didn't have the card with him. CB hates it when I do last minute thing like that. I know it's a very bad habit. But... but... but... no need to give excuses lah. I'll try my very best not to do it so often okay? (Can't ask me to stop completely immediately, right?) :p

So what did we redeem?

~ a pink Minnie Mouse watch for XY ~

An Unlucky Day

After we were back from Singapore, CE developed some rashes around his neck. It was quite mild, his skin just a bit rough and it looked very dry. I thought it was because we were sleeping in an air-cond room the whole night (at home, we normally just switch it on for awhile at night). So I just apply his Balneum lotion as normal but it got worse. He started scratching on Saturday and yesterday, the rashes got really bad, especially the area under his chin.

So I brought him to see the paediatrician this morning. Doctor said it's mostly caused by allergy. Aiyo... now I cannot track back what caused the allergy coz he's taken quite a number of new food the past week. I wasn't so cautious this time in introducing new food to him (although he's quite prone to allergy. I'm just cautious about seafood - how careless of me). Let me see... he had chee cheong fun (with sweet sauce), biscuits (Tiger and Lexus) and wantan noodles. Hmmm... it could be chee cheong fun coz it has dried shrimps in it. I've separated them but maybe there were still traces of that seafood in it. I seriously hope it's not the biscuits coz he likes to eat biscuits now, as compared to bread. Doctor prescribed Hydrocort cream and oral medication for his allergy and itchiness.

Then when we left the clinic, a little accident happened. I was reversing my car from the parking lot and suddenly "Bang!" Sh*t!!! I swear I didn't see that car, don't know where he came from. I only saw a stationary car at a distance, waiting for parking. Upon seeing that it was a place with many people (mamak stall nearby) and nothing fishy, I got out of the car to inspect the damages (to both cars). Must be very careful these days with so many incidents of car hijack and robbery after a little accident. The other guy's car was scratched lightly (but it's obvious) at the front passenger door. He suggested that I pay him 100 bucks. Immediately I called hubby and let hubby speak to him. After a long chat (he kept asking hubby to ask me to pay him, don't want to waste time lah, scared we run away lah, bla bla bla). Then I checked my back bumper. It was scratched badly too. Only when I wanted to take some pictures at home that I saw the bumper has dislocated a little. Anyway, he agreed that he'll wait till hubby's back from work to settle with him. Now I'm very sad coz I've scratched my car again (yes, again) and we've to spend extra to pay for the other party's damages too. :( Thank god no one was hurt. That's my only consolation.

~ a big patch above and scratches at the bottom ~

~ the dislocated bumper ~

Mishaps aside...

Wishing all a Merry Christmas
& a very Happy New Year!
And happy holidays too!

SMS Blunder

Have you ever sent an sms to the wrong recipient? Well, it just happened to me today. I wanted to send a belated birthday wish to my SIL. After sending the message, I got an sms from CB which read “Y send to me? Bodoh.” Aiyo... I’m such a ‘big head prawn’. I had to ask him to forward the message back to me coz I’ve deleted it from my phone. Then I resent it to SIL. Sigh... just to get one message across, 5 sms-es were required. How effective. :-|

How about on the receiving end? Have you ever received an sms which was not meant for you? I recently got an sms from an unknown sender with the message in Chinese, “I am going to Dragon-i to eat.” In my mind I thought, oh how nice for you, but I don’t know who you are! I wondered how that person could’ve made the mistake as I don’t recognise the number. So it’s not likely that I’m in the phone contact list. And rarely these days we’d key in the phone number when we make calls or send sms-es. Till today, it remains a mystery.

Lost and Found

P and I were childhood buddies. We were primary schoolmates. We spent lots of time playing together as we stayed very near to each other. After going to different secondary schools, we hardly kept in touch. I remember I invited her to my 18th birthday party. Then we totally lost contact. Her whole family has also moved. So I couldn’t drop by her house to ask for her contact number. I have never thought of doing a people search then.

One fine day, I received a forwarded e-mail from my Uni-mate (WL). I just busybody browse the CC and BCC list. And one e-mail address caught my eye. You see, P has a very unique surname. So I checked with WL if that’s the girl I know. Yes, they’re colleagues. I’ve found my long lost childhood friend. Unbelievable!

What’s the moral of the story? Being busybody is not always bad. hahahaha So the next time you get an e-mail with a long list of addresses, do look through them. You may get a pleasant surprise.