Adam so Rocked Putra Indoor Stadium

It's no secret (and I made no secret about it) that I am an Adam Lambert fan. Ever since his American Idol audition I have been following all his development. And when I found out he was coming to KL, I was amongst the 1st to book 2 seats.

The day was finally here, hubby and I made arrangements to have the kids taken care of at the in-laws for the evening. We came home quickly after work and after a quick shower and a quick bite, we were off to Bukit Jalil. With help from Google Map, we made our way and was there at 7 plus pm. There was a good crowd outside, we saw people of all ages. I told my hubby that thank goodness we were not the oldies because we saw plenty of ladies and uncles in their sixties coming to the show. Show supposed to start at 8pm but as expected there was a lot of waiting. One thing we noted, it was not a full house, I think it's because there was not much promos going on. I suspect it's because the organisers were afraid too much hype may cause too much attention from the conservatives and may lead to cancellation. Still it was 3/4 full, I read there was like over 10,000 people. That's alot! With 2 short opening acts, we continue to wait until 9+pm when Adam and his band came on stage. And it was a start of an amazing show!

Every song was done to perfection, he was AMAZING, his vocals is incomparable with anyone on earth (I am a little biased for Adam, can't blame me)! We were blown away, he hit notes so high that almost reached the sky. I remembered I was so awed by the lead singer of Scorpion when they came to Sunway Langoon upteem years ago. That aged little man had lungs of steel. But Adam, he so rocked us in KL. Plus he is so sexy and hot looking and only 28. And he was doing it so effortlessly, with style and persona. 90 mins of great music from the fantastic band and perfect vocals from Adam (but not so perfect venue, would be better if it was an auditorium). Only regret was I didn't get better spot in the house, he was so far from us :(. Next time, I will spend whatever to get as close to the stage as possible. Adam, cannot wait to see you live again!!

p.s. I finally got hold of his album (Tour Edition, that's the cover up there!) at the Sony Music booth, last night. Which included a free poster of Adam. Now where shall I pin him up! Geez, feel like a teenager again!

Get moving or...

I can see hectic few months ahead. One of my colleague has found greener pastures and I am happy for her. But as the new semester just started, the busiest time of the year, it will be hard to handle without the much needed help. Looking for replacement is really not that easy, especially a suitable one. I anticipate 2 months at least without a replacement. But that's life, sometimes things happen and they are not within our control, we just need to try our best.

Since I am at the topic of work, I wonder if it is an occupation hazard to sit in front of a PC all day. My neck aches so often since these last 2 years. Sleeping has become a chore for me as I need to find a suitable position to rest my neck and head. I didn't do a good job last night, so today I woke up with a stiff neck, again! My hubby is scaring me, saying it could be the onset of some dreaded illness but I think it just comes with my job. I sit in front of a PC all day and also I do no physical activity. I blame my hubby for the second, I used to play tennis regularly with my ex-colleagues in my previous work place but ever since I met my hubby, these activities just gradually diminished.

Instead, together we grew sideways together. What do you expect since our favourite past times were the likes of eating toasted cuttlefish with mayonaise. That is the problem with me and my hubby, we are too much a like. So much so that we allowed our laziness to seep into our bones. Physical activities is totally absent from our daily routines. That's why I have stiff neck so often and my hubby needs to watch his cholesterol.

We know so well we need to change our lifestyle but we have no motivation and no determination or will power. If one of us is an exercise freak, the other would be dragged out of his/her heavy butt to at least maintain some form of routine exercise. But as it is, we are too much alike, 2 fat lazy bumps that are getting fatter and lazier.

Can we change? Can we start getting our bodies in better shape? Can we eat healthier? Hubby, if you are reading, we have no choice! I hope we can motivate each other to change gradually. We need to if we want to last till our kids can fend for themselves.

Pleasures of Home Cooking

Cooking and baking for the family are really great pleasures for me. On Malaysia day, last Thursday, my brother and his family visited us at home. I decided to cook nasi lemak and thai green chicken curry with the green curry paste I bought from Chiang Mai. It was pretty good, a little too spicy because of the paste but still good. My brother and my sister-in-law seemed to have enjoyed it.

Then on the weekend, I cooked more stuff for the kids and hubby. For lunch on Saturday, we had Hot Soup (Hakka style). This is a very simple soup, made with chicken or pork slices or both. The soup based was made from anchovies. Ginger slices, 'tong choi', ground pepper and chinese celery are also important ingredients, none of them can be omitted. The result is a hot but clear soup, wonderful for clearing your nasal blockage (just my personal opinion).




For tea, I made egg tarts. I had made them previously but it had been a while. It was difficult to get the baked tarts out of the tart moulds but we finally managed to. I like the taste of it but I think I need to try a few more times to try making the pastry thinner and also find the correct technique to remove the baked tarts out of the moulds.

In the evening, we went to a close friend's house for a early mid-autumn celebration cum bday party for her daughter. Was a nice nite for gathering of my friends with some hubbies being dragged into the gathering as baby sitters, such as mine.

On Sunday, after church, we had my kids' favourite for lunch. No points for guessing correctly, yes, it was Mc Donalds. I also must admit I like McD too, my all time favourite is double cheese burger. I know they are having a promotion for triple cheese burger but I dare not order it, double is already bad enough! So I had my double cheese burger while the kids had beef burgers, chicken nuggets and fries coupled with large diet cokes (too much sugar is bad for you, hence diet coke. Fat ).

For dinner made pork belly with salted fish in clay pot (ham yu fa lum po) again and also thick taufu soup (taufu kang). Felt good that almost everyone enjoyed their dinner. I said almost because my little girl wouldn't finish her food :(. She is a picky eater but I am determine to change that, slowly :P.














Looking forward to try cooking new stuff when I can again.

Scare of my Life

Today at about 5pm, my mother-in-law gave a call on the the phone while I was still at work. It was scary news as I heard that my 2nd son had slammed the room door onto my two and a half years old daughter's fingers. My MIL described my daughter's 2 fingers were almost severed ('tuin' in cantonese to be exact). I was so horrified but I hoped that they weren't as bad as she described. I rushed home and all the way, I was super worried and tears were welling up. While driving, I was praying that her fingers will be able to heal, eventually, and they were not permanently damaged.

Thank Almight God for my prayers answered. Her fingers were a very scary sight, badly hurting but they looked to me to be no broken bones. She was sobbing a little but she was crying badly before I reached home. Her middle finger's nail was almost coming out and her ring finger was badly skinned. Her pinky had some minor bruises. I brought her to the clinic and she was treated immediately. As I expected, the finger were not broken, the kind Dr Chan dressed the wounds lightly and asked me to bring her back in 2 days to change the dressing. Some antibiotic and pain killer were prescribed to her. Her had stopped crying and seems to be taking it very well, I guess the most painful time had past. Her nail will eventually fall off and new nail will grow. I had a similar accident when I was very young and lost my fingernail but it regrew back normally. So I am quite sure there isn't any permanent damage. Thank God.

I tried to speak some senses to my 2 sons who were quarelling before one of them slammed the door that my daughter's finger were incidentally at the right place at the wrong time. They were no doubt being naughty but it was an accident. I tried to not make it a big deal, I didn't want to make them feel too guilty about it. I want to make an impression on them that they had caused much pain to their little sister and they have to be extremely careful not to slam doors in the future.

Sometimes, I am really at a lost. It seems like not too long ago I was a kid myself but now I am parent to 3 growing children. Adults don't always know what to do, but as parents, we all try our best. I appreciate that my parents also went through the same things bringing us up. They just did the best they could, that's all anyone can do really.

To all my friends who are parents, don't worry, nothing is perfect. You won't be the perfect parent and don't kill yourself trying to be one cause you will never be. Just do the best that you can, your kids will know and appreciate it when they are bringing up their own little ones. Happy parenting and I pray that God will bless all parents with the wisdom and strength to do their very best at all times bringing up their kids. Amen.

Kids' Activities, Cooking and Mooncakes

These few weeks are filled with public holidays. Upcoming is the Raya and then for the 1st time ever in the peninsular, Malaysia Day on 16th Sept. As usual, we have no plans. I think I really need to think of some activities for the kids, it's afterall also school holidays this week. Maybe a kite flying or fresbee playing will get them some exercise and fresh air. Or maybe we should go to Sepang for a half day trip which we planned 2 weeks ago but had to cancel since everyone was sick. I don't know yet but definitely we should do something out of the ordinary shopping in the mall thing.

Last Saturday, I suddenly decided to cook lontong when I saw the 'instant' ketupats are on sale in Tesco. My kids liked it very much and I also made sambal ikan bilis to add some spiciness to it since the lontong kuah is not spicy to accommodate the kids. As usual, I always cook too much. So my hubby took some to my in laws and I still have 3 packets of cooked ketupats in the fridge that will eventually end up in the trash can. My estimation is bad but I hate wasting food. I hope we can do something with the extra ketupats and not throw them away.

For Sunday dinner, as suggested by my hubby, I made 'ham yu fa lum po' (salted fish and pork belly in a pot) which turned out quite good. I even used the claypot and bought the authentic hua tiao wine for the dish. The 'ham yu' or salted fish I used was what I bought from Kuantan which is the really good quality type. I proudly give myself 8.5 out of 10. If I get a thicker soy sauce the dish will be better. So I will make sure I get 9.5 in my next try! We forgot to take picture of the dish before we digged into it, so there will be no pic of it on this post. Cooking or baking for the family is really a great pleasure. When I am in the mood, I really love trying something special and nutritious at the same time.

I was looking at the mooncake recipes but I think it might be a tough one, especially making the fillings and finding a mooncake mould. But in the event that I can get my hands on the mould, I might really try making some simple mooncakes. The prices of the mooncakes are really exorbitant nowadays and there are so many varieties of mooncakes in the market, it's really crazy. I still like the traditional types that are baked with lotus paste fillings and maybe one yolk. Plus it is pretty unhealthy stuff, I am not going to having that many slices.

Merdeka Blues?

Merdeka is fast approaching. This year it falls on a Tuesday. We haven't got any plans, probably a day to laze around at home or do some house improvement work.

At this Merdeka, I am feeling sad for our country. Alhtough much is going on outside of our own confines, majority of the rakyat are still the same. They live the same lives, work the same jobs, interact with the same people. But as we celebrate the Independence Day of our beloved country, are we proud of her achievements, are we proud of the societies that she has? Many times, I really think we have gone backwards instead of forward. 50+ years, and we are still harping about race and religion. People say these are sensitive topics and to be avoided. So we will avoid them by circling around them but never really dwelve into them. But does it really help? 50 years on, I definitely think it did not.

However, I truly believe majority of the people are peace-loving and fair people. I hope people will not be played by the politicians or the main stream media into feeling the need to bash one group in order to come out tops. It is my heart felt hope that all Malaysian should just go back to the basics, the fundamentals. We want good not evil, we want fairness not biasness, we want capable leaders not corrupt ones, we want all the needy to be assisted.

God is our ultimate judge. I ask for for His divine help, to make this country one that we are proud to call HOME, the only one we know of. Amen.

Being a Mum is not a bed of roses

Hectic week with my hubby working late. I have to manage all the kids by myself after work and they are really a handful. It is fortunate that dinner is taken care of at my in laws or I would really have no breathing space. Well, these are some of the sacrifices working mothers have to face. Not that stay-at-home mothers have it easy, I honestly do not think I can be that even if we can afford it. I think stay-at-home mothers have it worse and I really take my hats off to them.

The house may be in a mess, the clean laundry is still sitting on the sofa. But cleaning is not priority for me. I need to get the kids cleaned and fed and ready for bed. If they have homework, need them to finish it and nag them to practise their piano.

If you have me on facebook then you probably would know about my puppy going crazy and destroyed my small little pebble garden. We even set up a 3 feet fence around it but I think she was must have been really bored last night and decided to jump in and murder my plants! Now we are at a lost on how to prevent it from happening again. Just hope she will grow out of this phase SOON! Here is the mess we found this morning.

This is probably an understatement, being a mum for 3 kids and a puppy is defintely not a bed of roses! Thanks mum, for taking care of us 4 and a couple of dogs too. But as Beyonce would sing...

I'm a survivor, I'm not going to give up, I'm not goin' stop, I'm gonna work harder...