Wind Warrior Blog Tour Giveaway (1st-30th September 2010)

Cynthia Roberts, author of her debut historical romance, Wind Warrior has something pretty darn dynamic for all of Adventures of Juan Or and Mommy blog visitors, friends and subscribers ... one of the largest blog tour promotional giveaways ever attempted.




Breaking into the world of romance fiction is a challenge unto itself but more so, when you’re a newly published author. (name of blog) is excited to participate in this venture with Cynthia and help introduce Wind Warrior to the world of romance readers. The bonus … every one has the chance to compete for not one, but five pretty extraordinary prizes which will include:



1. Romantic Two-lid willow picnic basket with deluxe service for two ~ $125.00 value

2. Succulent Godiva Chocolate Tier ~ $75.00 value

3. Exquisite Pearl & Crystal Necklace ~ $50.00 value

4. Amazon Gift Certificate ~ $25 value

5. Amazon Gift Certificate ~ $25 value



To view the gifts & read further descriptions visit her website at http://www.romanceauthorcynthiaroberts.com/.



Contest rules are as follows:

1. Leave a comment at the end of this post.

2. Tweet the following text: Wind Warrior by Cynthia Roberts A story of longing, wanting & a love so strong it conquers human evil. On sale now at Major Book Retailers.
3. Post the same tag on your Facebook and/or Myspace Profile.

4. Become a fan/follower/subscriber of the blog you visit.

5. The list of participating blogs are registered on Cynthia’s website and you may enter to win on every one, however, only one family member may do so in a household.

6. Open to ALL countries, not just the US & Canada (Yay!).

7. Each participating blog will randomly choose five entrants to compete for the grand prize pool where the final 5 winners will be randomly selected.

8. Winners will be chosen on Sept. 30th and notified via email by Cynthia Roberts.

9. All finalists must provide their email, name and official delivery address at the time of finalist selection to Adventures of Juan Or and Mommy blog.

10. All prizes will be shipped no later than Oct. 30th 2010 directly from the distributor.

11. The steps above will be checked to determine your eligibility.



Wind Warrior ~ The Iroquois Series ~ Book One

Leslie Michaels is a visionary, and only those close to her know of her special gift and the visions that come when her mind and body surrender to sleep. Fate has a way of righting many wrongs, and for Leslie it is a destiny that changes her life dramatically. But not before she is forced to flee into the wilderness to escape a murderous trapper bent on claiming her for his very own. Faith and a strong will to survive are her only companions, until she encounters Winnokin, the handsome Seneca war chief who first came to her in her dreams. Not only does he prove to be her rescuer and protector, he teaches her that tragedy can breed happiness and the passion to live and love deeply once again.



Wind Warrior plunges readers into the intimate depths of a relationship that unfolds like a live drama before their eyes while painting an insightful and intriguing portrait of Native Indian life in the 1800s. It is a story of longing, of a wanton need to survive all odds, and a love so strong it conquers human evil. Wind Warrior expresses with cunning words the simple, raw human emotions that hold readers spellbound and captivates their hearts.



On Sale Now at Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Nobel ISBN# 978-1-61663-162-8. Read more than a dozen reviews on her website at http://www.romanceauthorcynthiaroberts.com.

Potty Hat!!??

This is an outdated post dating back to 26th June 2010.

Juan Or was up to his antics again, this time by using the potty as his hat! Your first reaction might be,"Yucks! He has shitted in there before and now he is putting it on his head!?" Don't be mistaken, the potty was actually a brand new one. Because it was brand new, Mommy allowed some leeway for him to play with it (since he loves playing with it so much!) since he has never peed nor poo-ed in it. Otherwise if he has done any of his businesses in there before, Mommy won't allow it at all.

By the way, some time after this video was taken, Juan Or has finally urinated in that potty. So one day, after he has urinated in it, Mommy put the potty aside and asked Juan Or to lie down on the floor so that Mommy could wipe his private parts and put on a fresh diaper. You know what he did? He somehow forgot that he had just urinated in the potty, so his hands reached out for the potty to try to put over his head and the urine poured onto his face! A lesson of a lifetime for Juan Or! ^_^

Mommy's Lucky Win!

Somewhere around the second half of July 2010, Mommy spotted a "Rasa-rasa Semenanjung (Flavours of Peninsular)" recipe contest while browing Tesco Malaysia's website. For the contest, no prior purchase is necessary but participants need to be  Tesco Clubcard members. As for the recipe requirements, Mommy recalled seeing 4 conditions of the recipe, but at this time of writing, Mommy could only remember two - (i) ingredients must include either herb and spices, or flavourings/seasonings/stocks or canned food items, or some other things that Mommy couldn't remember and (ii) the recipe must be original, but if it is not original, at least 4 of the ingredients must be modified. Also, the recipes would be judged for the aroma, taste, colour, creativity, originality and ease of cooking. There were three categories of recipes allowed: main dish, cake/pastry/dessert, and drinks. The prizes? 3 Grand Prizes each worth RM1000 of Tesco vouchers, and 70 Consolation Prizes of RM100 Tesco vouchers each. Tesco also mentioned that only the 20 best recipes will be compiled in a recipe book to be published by Tesco later.

So Mommy submitted this recipe (for main dish category) that Mommy came up with (and is Papa and Mommy's favourite) ever since shifting into the new house:


Hot and Spicy Tom Yam Prawns

Ingredients:

400-500 g prawns

1 Thumb-sized ginger (sliced thickly)
1 big onion (sliced)
4 cloves garlic (chopped)
7 red chilli padi (slit)
1 green capsicum (diced)
6 limau purut leaves
2 1/2 tablespoons tom yam paste
3 tablespoons cooking oil
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
400 mL water


Method:

1. Shell the prawns (except the tail) and devein. Do not discard the shell.

2. Boil water (400 mL) in a saucepan and add in the shell only to boil (10 minutes). Discard the shell and set the prawn stock aside.

3. Heat cooking oil in wok, stir-fry garlic, then ginger, big onion, chilli padi, green capsicum and limau purut leaves till fragrant.

4. Add tom yam paste, then add the prawn stock. Stir and let it simmer. Allow gravy to thicken as desired.

5. Add salt and a little sugar to taste.

6. Add prawns and stir-fry till cooked.



Serves 2

 
 
Then on last week Tuesday (17th August 2010), Mommy received a phone call from Tesco Headquarters announcing that Mommy's recipe won the Consolation Prize of a RM100 Tesco Voucher! The Tesco personnel then asked from which Tesco store would Mommy like to collect the voucher from to which Mommy indicated Tesco Puchong.
 
So Papa and Mommy went to the Customer Service Counter at Tesco Puchong last week Saturday (21st August 2010) to collect the prize. Then while waiting for the Tesco staff to prepare the voucher, Mommy managed to see Tesco's list of winners meant for their internal circulation:
 
 

Mommy thought there should be 73 winners in all (i.e., 3 Grand Prizes and 70 Consolation Prizes), but how come there's only 20 winners (3 Grand Prizes and 17 Consolation Prizes)? Or maybe Tesco didn't receive enough number of recipes? Can't be because Tesco received about 150 recipes (you can read about it here and here.)
 
 
And finally the Tesco staff came with Mommy's RM100 Tesco voucher! Yippy! Free RM100 worth of groceries for Mommy (and Juan Or and Papa too, of course!)
 

Juan Or Attending Little Sprouts' Birthday Party

The Little Sprouts (Juan Juan and Ah Xuan) held their birthday party on 15th August 2010. And Juan Or, being their paternal cousin was invited to the party.

We arrived at their home at around 11.45 am. The entrance of the house was beautifully decorated with an arch of balloons. Mommy got to know that the party setting (except for food catering) was all do-it-yourself by the Little Sprouts' parents (Mommy really salute them for the wonderful effort!). So that means the beautiful arch of balloons was a masterpiece of their parents! Wow!

Before the food-eating session starts, Juan Or was busy playing around with the pool of balloons with Juan Juan and of course, as usual, fighting for attention from their paternal grandparents.

There was also a moment when Juan Juan starting messing the balloons around so much so the balloons flew out of the pool. On seeing the fun of messing around, Juan Or joined in as well, so now two toddlers were messing the balloons around while their paternal Grandma diligently picked the balloons one by one to be put into the pool again - here in, there out! ^_^



There were party games for children as part of the party's progamme. Juan Or was the first and earliest to 'register' for the games, but when the time came for playing the games, somehow Juan Or started fretting and crying whenever Mommy tried coaxing him to join.

The first game was ice-cream eating competition. A gobletful of ice-cream was given by Juan Juan's mummy to Juan Or, but don't know, somehow he just started fretting and crying even though during normal times, Juan Or loves ice-cream. Funny boy! So in the end, Mommy had to 'wallop' the ice-cream on his behalf (but not joining the competition to rival the other kids, of course!)

The next game was 'Treasure Hunt' whereby the kids had to hunt for 'treasure' in the pool of balloons. Mommy was actually eager for Juan Or to participate in this because he showed his enthusiasm for messing the balloons around earlier. However, his paternal Grandma wanted to use the toilet upstairs and Juan Or insisted on following her too. So Mommy was actually disappointed that Juan Or deliberately missed this game. Ah, never mind. Then came the third game and Juan Or was still not downstairs yet. So Mommy went upstairs to check what he was up to and turned out, he was lying down on the mattress laid on the floor hugging an adult bolster, the air-conditioner turned on,  and with his Grandma entertaining him! Mommy coaxed him to follow Mommy downstairs but he refused to budge. Mommy guessed he had probably got himself too comfy with the mattress and air-cond already! So in the end, Juan Or missed all the party games but Little Sprouts' mummy was kind enough to still give Juan Or consolation prizes (conical goody pack with teddy bear key-chain, pencil with cute figurine and jigsaw puzzle) for all the games even though it was a zero participation on his part.

After the cake-cutting ceremony, Juan Juan's mummy packed us some cake and we packed home some of the catering food to be eaten for dinner. We were among the earliest to leave the party because Juan Or seems to become fretful and restless. At one stage, Juan Or saw Juan Juan's Thomas and Friends' train, grabbed it and refused to let go. Any attempt in getting him to part with the train resulted in him screaming, shouting and crying. At one point also, his doting Grandpa even took out a RM10 banknote from his wallet to exchange with the train (Juan Or loves money!). Juan Or allowed the exchange but soon he realized that he was 'tricked' into parting with the train and started crying, screaming and shouting again! So in the end, Mommy had no choice but to ask Juan Juan's mummy to lend us the train for the time being and Mommy returning it during the weekdays when it went out of Juan Or's sight and mind.

After leaving the party, we managed to window shop briefly at Giant Bandar Kinrara but soon we noticed Juan Or seems to be getting fretful again and by the time we were in the car heading home, Juan Or had already dozed off.

Here's wishing Little Sprouts a Happy Be-early Birthday! (Actually the party was held earlier than their actual birthdates for convenience purpose). And here's Juan Or thanking Little Sprouts' mummy (who is the Third Aunty) for generously giving out the goody bag and consolation prizes although it turned out to be zero participation.

"Happy Be-early Birthday, Little Sprouts!"

Girls' Shoes and School Children Shoes at Startriteshoes.com

Mommy loves to shop for shoes for Juan Or, just the same like how Mommy loves to shop for clothes, books and toys for Juan Or (see the blogposts on all the kids-related warehouse sales that Mommy went to previously) . Mommy thinks probably this is a norm for most mothers, .i.e., mothers love to shop for their children, mothers want their children to look good, mothers want their children to have all the good things in life that they can afford to buy, mothers want their children to be comfortable in every possible way, mothers want their children to be at better edge, mothers want their children to be healthy, happy, smart, intelligent and most of all mothers want to provide the best they can for their children! Don't you all agree? :-D

When it comes to buying shoes for children, one important issue to consider is the fitting of the shoe. Children's feet are continuously growing, so buying shoes of the correct fitting is important so as not to affect the foot health for years to come. Just like the jelly slurry being pourred into the mould, the baby's feet can take on whatever shape they are forced into. So the shoes' shape should always match the shape of the feet. And the fact is that the shape of children's feet are continuously changing since infancy. So it is important that children wear shoes of the correct shape according to the natural shape of their feet and this practice rightfully should start when babies already start to crawl and take their first tentative steps. Choosing the right fit of shoes should still continue even during the child's schooling years.

This is Juan Or's right foot when he was 5+ months old.

For that matter, Mommy found this interesting website of a specialized manufacturer of children's footwear - Start-rite. This company has a long history of making footwear dating as far back as 1792 in Norwich. The company did not start making children's footwear until around 1900 to 1930 when the public became increasingly aware that children's footwear need to be of a different shape from adults' footwear. That was when the company made children's footwear that fit the natural shape unique to children's feet, yet allowing room for growth. In 1952, the company took the bold step to stop manufacturing adult footwear altogether and concentrate on making only children's footwear specialized for children's needs. Today, the company is a well-known manufacturer of superior quality children's footwear and has even received the Royal Warrant twice from England's Royal Family. Children of the Royal Family have been fitted with over 1500 pairs of Start-rite shoes to date.


After browsing through Start-rite's website, Mommy is spoilt for choice of children's footwear. The collection boasts of footwear of various shapes, sizes, colours, width-fittings and designs for both boys and girls and for every stage of the child's development and activities ranging from the pre-walkers to the first walking shoes, to non-school shoes, school shoes, canvas, sandals, boots, trainers, slippers, wellies, and English classics - you name it! Mommy is particularly attracted to Start-rite's children school shoes and girls' shoes (yes, you may be surprised even though Mommy doesn't have a daughter yet!). Why the school shoes? Simply because Mommy loves the classic look of Start-rite's children school shoes! How about the girls' shoes? Well, the thing about girls' things is that they come in so many interesting, varied, colourful and even fanciful but beautiful designs and styles unlike boys' things that usually come in so-called styles that don't differ much from each other. That's why the girls' shoes prick Mommy's interest even though Mommy doesn't have a baby girl yet. But again, maybe, one day when the right time comes, a baby girl will pop out! (Papa, are you reading this!?) ^_^


By the way, Mommy found this interesting tutorial in YouTube on how to measure your own children's feet using Start-rite's programme called Click 'n'  Fit. By using this programme, you can accurately measure your child's feet, determine the footwear size appropriate for your child and make your order from Start-rite. Yes, it's that simple. Easy-peasy.





And perhaps for mummies (or daddies) out there who feel they have the lucky aura, they can enter a draw at Start-rite's website for a chance to win free shoes for a year! Mommy has entered the draw already. Have you?

Free Mooncake Giveaway at Aunty Cynthia's Blog!!

Woo-hoo! Mommy just saw this giveaway in Aunty Cynthia's personal blog, luckily just in time before 31st August 2010 because that's the closing date of the giveaway!

So what is this giveaway all about? To be entitled to one (1) entry, you have to click to be a Follower of her blog. And for two (2) more entries, you will have to help her promote her blog by writing whatever you want in your blogpost (hopefully it's about something good!) and link up with her blog. After that, you will HAVE to leave a permalink of the link-up blogpost at her comment box.

Aunty Cynthia will pick the winners via random.org or she will let her Princss Breanna do the job. There will be 6 prizes up for grabs, whereby one of the prizes is a Grand Prize of a box of homemade mooncakes (yes, Aunty Cynthia's own handwork!) consisting of 4 different flavours (single egg yolk lotus plaste, pure lotus, red bean and five nuts). The remaining 5 prizes are 5 mooncake boxes each containing four mini mooncakes of either ping pei or bake. Aunty Cynthia will deliver all prizes to the winners (in Malaysia and Singapore) before Mid-autumn Festival which falls on 22nd September 2010. So hurry before time is up - the giveaway deadline is 31st August 2010!

This time, Mommy is not going to miss the chance to taste Aunty Cynthia's homemade stuff! It was Aunty Small Kucing who recommended Aunty Cynthia's homemade birthday cakes to Mommy. Last time, Mommy wanted to order cake from Aunty Cynthia to celebrate Juan Or's 2nd birthday, but too bad, Aunty Cynthia could not take the order because her Princess Breanna sticked to her like glue so much so Aunty Cynthia cannot do anything else. So if Mommy managed to win something from this giveaway, consider it as Aunty Cynthia has baked the 'compensation cake' that Mommy had wanted to order for Juan Or! ^_^

Here's a photo of Juan Or and Mommy on his 2nd birthday (12th May 2010) to remind Aunty Cynthia of the 'compensation cake'! (*wink*)

Juan Or's CIMB-Toy Story Coinbox is Finally Here!

This is actually an outdated post dating back to 9th August 2010.

Remember Mommy opening a CIMB Junior Account for Juan Or just to get the Toy Story stuff? Well, the CIMB-Toy Story coinbox wich requires at least RM500 deposit for 1 month after opening the account, is now in Juan Or's hand already! Actually Mommy wanted to go to CIMB to claim the coinbox on 30th July 2010 which is exactly 1 month from opening the account. However, we went to Cameron Highlands that day, so Mommy had to postpone claiming it. Then the following week, Mommy went to CIMB to claim it, only to be told that all the coinboxes had gone out of stock, so all CIMB branches were waiting for the headquarter to send a new batch of the coinboxes. Then, finally on 9th August, Mommy received a phone call from Taman Connought's CIMB branch to ask Mommy to come collect it. So now, here it is with Juan Or playing and fiddling with his coinbox:

P/S: The thing that you see him putting into the coinbox is not a coin, instead it's his foam bullet from his toy gun!

After that, Mommy asked Juan Or to pose together with the coinbox, but with a smile. There you go.....

.....which seems to look more like a forced smile, but the smile quickly turned into......

.......a cheeky face!

And here's the back view of the coinbox.

Overall, the quality of the plastic coinbox is good, unlike some free coinbox (that Mommy got before as an incentive for signing up for a credit card) whereby the plastic feels thin and brittle. Even Mommy's close colleague who managed to catch sight of the coinbox before Mommy brought it home also commented that this coinbox's quality is better than Maybank's pencil-shaped coinbox whereby its picture design has some sticky feel to the touch.

By the way, after this playing and fiddling session, Mommy has to put a stop to Juan Or making contact with the coinbox because this boy is getting very destructive! The coinbox is still brandnew, but Juan Or has already left an 'imprint' of a visible (and ugly!) scratch on the front see-through layer, much to Mommy's dismay. He even used his Buzz Lightyear miniature figurine to repeatedly knock and scrape the surface of the coinbox! So Mommy quickly grabbed the coinbox away from him before further damage is done and kept it in the glass display cabinet! Phew! Looks like the coinbox still has to wait till Juan Or is old enough to appreciate it.

Juan Or's First Time at a Wedding Banquet

This is an outdated post dating back to 1st August 2010 (Sunday).

The owner of the music centre where Mommy is teaching piano held their wedding banquet that day. Mommy planned to bring Juan Or along just to test out this boy's adaptability in such event. There's something in Mommy's heart that Juan Or might be ready for this, but of course Mommy was mentally prepared to deal with a fretful Juan Or if he really turned out like that, whereas for Papa, he thinks that there's no way Juan Or could adapt himself there.

The wedding banquet was supposed to start at 7.30pm, so Mommy made sure Juan Or had his nap in the late afternoon and drank his milk just before going. By nearly 6pm, we starting making a move because Papa wanted to stop by at an electrical shop in SS2 which is quite nearby the place where the banquet was held (the banquet was at a Chinese restaurant near Rothmans Roundabout and on the way to Sea Park, Petaling Jaya).

At the electrical shop, Juan Or was well-behaved. While Papa was enquiring about some television set, Juan Or and Mommy got ourselves comfy by sitting on some high-stools watching animation trailers. There was only one very short Toy Story trailer, and that immediately got Juan Or excited so much so when the trailer ended, he kept on begging Mommy to show him the Toy Story trailer again. Hahaha.....this boy seemed to think Mommy has to authority to do anything even in other people's place (*shake head*). So Mommy told him to ask the nearby Uncle (the shop's staff) instead and much to Mommy's suprise, Juan Or, without any shyness, said,"Uncle, ai (want) Toy Story!" But the 'Uncle' paid no attention and was probably not even aware that Juan Or was talking to him!

After the electrical shop, we headed for the restaurant and reached there by 7.00pm. Turned out, this restaurant is the worst Mommy has encountered so far because patrons have to pay to park in the restaurant's own compound! The dinner did not start until 8.30pm, so we had a lot of time to kill. When we first got ourselves seated, Juan Or appeared apprehensive towards the guests who were already seated at the same table as us. To counter his apprehensiveness, so Mommy put Juan Or to sit at the suitable spot where he would be furthest away from the guests. Soon his apprehensiveness ceased, and he kept himself busy playing with the chopsticks, fork and spoon, cake door gifts, and plates. Mommy even asked the waitress to give a plastic plate instead but the waitress said there was none, so Juan Or had to settle for a ceramic one. But luckily the floor was carpeted, so even if the plate fell, it wouldn't break! ^_^

And this boy also went ahead to have his drum-jamming session! First he did it with the chopsticks (but too bad, Mommy didn't manage to capture that!), then later with the fork and spoon.

Along the way, Juan Or couldn't sit still and kept on pestering Mommy to bring him to walk around the place. Finally, the dinner started at 8.30pm. The first dish was the four seasons type of dish and the only item Juan Or knew how to eat was the seafood beancurd. Then by around 9.15pm, Juan Or's eyelid became heavy. On seeing that, Mommy became worried on whether he might end up fretting for not being able to settle down to sleep. Turned out, Juan Or was a very good boy that day - he settled down to sleep by himself, no fret, nothing, just like that. And seeing him sleep in such a crooked position in the baby high chair, Mommy decided to use a cloth bag that Mommy used for carrying his toys, snacks and his smelly towel as his 'pillow' to minimize his crooked sleeping position. So happen Mommy put the handphone camera into the clothbag as well, so Mommy didn't have the chance to capture a photo of Juan Or sleeping without risking him waking up being fretful.

Later, at near 10pm, came the yam seng (cheers) session and Juan Or was already awake (though not fully awaken) by then. Luckily also, the loud and noisy yam seng sound didn't bother him at all. Finally, by 10pm, Papa wanted to make a move already because Papa needed his beauty (or rather 'handsome') sleep to keep awake for tomorrow's working day. And leaving at 10pm meant only finishing 5 dishes out of 9 dishes which left Mommy feeling half-full only!

We reached home by around 11.30pm. Papa dozed off to sleep immediately after that, Juan Or was awake but later went to sleep as well after drinking milk and halfway in the midnight, Mommy had to go downstairs to eat some chocolates because the stomach was growling already!

All in all, Mommy considers this wedding banquet outing to be a success for Juan Or, so Mommy won't hesitate to bring Juan Or along next time! ^_^ By the way, Papa did mention to Mommy that he would faint if Juan Or does not fret and cry during the banquet, so looks like Papa has to faint for Mommy to see! ^_^

Destressing Mommy!

This is a paid review blogpost.


Ever since moving out from the in-laws' house (since 4th April 2010) to live on our own, Mommy has to do almost everything -  household things especially - all by herself. And things can get pretty stressful when household things such as laundry (plus the ironing), cleaning, caring for the baby of the family, cooking (or even buying food), and even buying groceries (Papa tends to get impatient with Mommy's style of shopping, so Mommy prefers to shop alone or together with Juan Or only) plus the unpacking and storage of groceries, all has to be done about single-handedly almost all the time. Compounding to the stress level is the fact that Mommy is working full-time outside, so work stress (remember the MQA documentation thing that gave Mommy mental stress for 7 long months?) plus traffic-jam stress are factored in as well.

To offset the stress level a bit, these are the steps that Mommy took:

• Wash clothes only twice in a week, usually on Thursdays and Sundays. For that matter, Papa and Mommy bought a big washing machine (10 kg load) to solve the problem.
• Iron clothes only once a week, but that also is usually done by stealing some time here and there.
• Stock up on perishable groceries on a weekly basis or fortnightly basis. If it is fortnight, Mommy made sure the vegetables are those kind that can stand a substantial storage duration with the use of special 'fresh bag' type of plastic bags.
• Cook dinner only on weekends or public holidays or if Mommy is able to leave the workplace earlier than usual. Other than that, Mommy merely buy economy rice for dinner on those usual working days.
• Cleaning the house only occasionally (*shy to say, but that's the truth!*), maybe something like once a month or when Mommy goes on medical leave.
• Turning a blind eye to the mess created by Juan Or, i.e., the scattered toys found all over the floor, behind and under the bed or anywhere that looks like a gap) until the next house-cleaning session or until the next scolding of Juan Or.

And this is the timetable of Mommy for today (which happens to be a washing-clothes day) which Mommy finds stressful:

• 4.10am - woke up from sleep; went downstairs to wash clothes
• 4.20am - Juan Or woke up from sleep unexpectedly; called for Mommy when about to start washing clothes; Juan Or refused to go back to sleep and wanted to come downstairs with Mommy then requested to wash Thomas and Friends on Mommy's laptop
• 4.30am - prepared Campbell mushroom soup for breakfast; Mommy started washing clothes (combination of hand and machine wash)
• 5.10am - finished washing clothes; drank the mushroom soup and milk
• 5.30am - prepared milk for Juan Or; supervised Juan Or in drinking milk because this boy has tendency to do 'funny things' when not being watched; Mommy accidentally dozed off while watching over Juan Or
• 6.15am - decided to cook bamboo shoots (bought from Cameron Highlands) before further spoilage, certain ingredients were already prepared from last night
• 6.45am - finished cooking, washed containers, basin, etc; aliquot some bamboo shoots to be given to babysitter, washed wok, clear and pack up rubbish (both dry and wet rubbish).
• 7.05am - hanged clothes to dry
• 7.30am - packed things and dressed up to go to work, then detected foul smell coming from Juan Or's buttock
• 7.45am - cleaned up Juan Or and put on fresh diaper, packed things (and Juan Or) into the car, checked the house for switches, lights, windows, curtains and then locked the house
• 8.15am - drove off from home; encountered traffic-jam
• 8.55am - reached babysitter's house
• 9.15am - reached workplace
• 5.20pm - left workplace
• 5.40pm - bought economy rice
• 5.45pm - picked up Juan Or from babysitter's house
• 7.00pm - reached home, 'entertained' Juan Or
• 7.20pm - eat dinner, 'entertained' Juan Or
• 8.30pm onwards - take bath, rest a bit while 'entertaining' Juan Or, ironed clothes, 'entertained' Juan Or while watching TV, 'entertained Juan Or again (and maybe dozed off somewhere in between), sleep (maybe at 12.30am or even 1.00am)

Next day wake up at 5.00 or 5.++ am and a similar routine starts all over again.

Because this kind of routine happens 5 days out of 7 days in a week and repeatedly week after week, Mommy is actually very tired - tired as in everyday lacking in sleep (even though Mommy has already taken steps to minimize housework). So perhaps one day Mommy must consider pampering herself with massage therapy to destress and rejuvenate. Mommy saw this website about Massage San Diego and Massage Hill Crest. These two massage centres are run by massage therapist, Eric Sjoberg, a Holistic Health Practitioner, who has been in this field since 1993. He is an expert in many modalities of massage such as deep tissue, circulatory and craniosacral. Now, how Mommy wish Eric Sjoberg runs his massage centre in Malaysia too! ^_^
              

Fedora Hats! Anyone?

This is a paid review blogpost.

Everyone knows what is a hat and how a hat looks like, but Fedora hats? Probably not many people know this type of hat known by the name 'Fedora'. Perhaps you have seen a Fedora hat before, it's just that you never knew all along that it's called 'Fedora hat' (well, Mommy is one such person! ^_^). You probably refer to it as just a hat. To give you a hint what are Fedora hats, remember the famous King of Pop, the late Michael Jackson? Remember the kind of hat that he normally wore? Yup, that's the Fedora hat.

(Photo courtesy of Emeryn)

You may be wondering then why the name 'Fedora' for such kind of hats. It all began when this talented actress by the name Sarah Bernhardt played the role of Princess Fedora in an 1882 stage play. Well, nobody even remembered about the stage play, but what stood out most was the actress herself and the hat that she wore (now known as Fedora hat)!

For Mommy, wearing a hat was not part of Mommy's fashion, but more for practical purposes. For Mommy's case, it's to protect the already headache head from the scorching sunlight. Mommy remembers buying Mommy's first hat from a hawker at the foothill of Kek Lok Si Temple in Penang Island (that was some time back in year 2005 when Mommy was still courting with Papa). That time was already afternoon and the sun was very, very hot (blame it on global warming!). Mommy's head had already been exposed to the sun for quite long (the sun was already very bright since 10+am) so much so by noon, the headache appeared. And too bad, Mommy didn't bring any Panadol to relieve the headache. So what's the next best option? Buy a new hat, of course! Luckily the place where Papa and Mommy went to is a tourist spot, so most likely you will see a hat on sale. So Mommy bought one and it has been with Mommy till today. The hat has been left in Papa's car so that Mommy can use it whenever Mommy go for outings that expose Mommy to excessive sun.

This is the photo where Mommy wore the hat at the Kek Lok Si Temple.

Can you imagine how hot the sun was? Not only did Mommy have to put on a hat, Mommy still had to carry an umbrella!

Later on, when coming back from Penang Island and heading back to Klang Valley, we decided to stop by at the Lata Kijang waterfall that is somewhere before reaching Tapah. At the waterfall, Mommy decided to put on the hat again. The sun was not very hot then but Mommy decided to put on the hat anyway merely for fashion purpose (*Ahem!*) (No, mommy was not having a headache either!)

Now when looking back at this photo, Mommy thinks Mommy will look better and nicer in a Fedora hat! Now that Mommy knows the existence of this online Fedora hats store (known as 1001FedoraHats.com), Mommy knows where to source for fashionable-looking Fedora hats to match the clothes that Mommy wear and the events or occasions that Mommy is in. This online store offers Fedora hats for women, men , unisex ones and even for kids (no wonder the company puts the number '1001' in the website's name)! Hehehe....now Mommy knows where to look for Fedora hats for Juan Or should Mommy want to take Juan Or for kid's studio photography next time! ^_^

For readers out there, even if you do not plan to shop for a Fedora hat yet, still, browsing over articles about Fedora hat's history, interesting facts about its history, celebrities who wore Fedora hats, interesting pointers about Fedora hats for men and women, how to select a Fedora hat to suit your style and personality, its popularity, and the first male to ever wear a Fedora hat make interesting reads during your past time and also as general knowledge. So, what are you waiting for!? Hop on now to 1001FedoraHats.com! ^_^

Trip to Cameron Highlands (Part 2)

This is a continuation of Part 1.

After the Lata Iskandar waterfall, we headed up to Cameron Highlands. On the way up, Mommy could see many Orang Asli stalls along the road side selling petai, honey and bamboo shoots. Mommy wanted to buy petai and bamboo shoots from them but Papa asked to do it only later because it would be too troublesome to stop the car halfway. Our first stop was at the Bharat tea plantation. We merely parked at the road side to snap some photos, enjoy the scenary and fresh air - no stopover to drink the tea whatsoever! ^_^

Our next stop was the Sam Poh Tong Temple at Brinchang. This temple is supposedly dedicated to the Chinese Muslim eunuch and admiral of the Chinese fleet, Zheng He (Cheng Ho), according to this website. Pictured here is Juan Or and Papa walking towards the entrance of the temple. Mommy's not in the photo because Mommy was busy trailing them from behind to snap photos.

Basically, this temple feels just like any other temple - nothing outstanding about the architecture or the ornate decoration. We didn't spend a long time at the temple, but just sufficient time to snap some photos for remembrance.

Typical scene at the temple.

Here's Juan Or getting himself comfy while waiting for Papa to come out from the washroom.

After the temple, we headed straight to the vegetable market in front of Kea's Farm - Mommy's favourite stop at Cameron Highlands simply because Mommy's loves to buy vegetables at bargain prices! Sorry, no photos were captured at the market because Mommy was too preoccupied with looking out for good bargains of vegetables! ^_^ Here's what Mommy got from the market:

Cherry tomatoes (4 packets of about 400g per packet for RM10) and strawberries (4 packets for RM10 - 1 packet is about that much that you see in the small basin).

From left to right: Shoots of a gourd plant unknown to Mommy (3 bundles for RM5), asparagus (iinitially was 3 bundles for RM10, but later the seller gave Mommy one more free bundle!), and choy tam (8 packets of about 200g each for RM5).

Our next stop after the vegetable market was a cactus farm, but Mommy has already forgotten the name of the farm. Many types of cacti were displayed for sale, even pitcher plants were offered.

The plants are the main attraction of this farm, well, at least for the adults, but for Juan Or, his main attraction at the farm would be.....

.......the kiddy rides!

There was also a small plot of strawberry plants at the back of the cactus section.

After that was time for lunch, so we decided to stop over at a popular Chinese restaurant which Papa googled in the internet before but Mommy couldn't recall the name of the restaurant. We found the restaurant but too bad Juan Or was already asleep, so we decided not to have lunch at Cameron Highlands because we did not want to wake Juan Or up from sleep and end up having a fretful and crying baby! So we went on to exit from Cameron Highlands via the Simpang Pulai way. On the way down, Mommy reminded Papa to make a stopover if he sees any Orang Asli stall, but distance after distance, we couldn't see any stall and Mommy's heart began to sink. Finally, after quite long, we spotted one stall and Papa immediately made the stopover to buy for Mommy.

Petai in 3 small bunches for RM5.  

 Six pieces of bamboo shoots for RM5 (very cheap!).

Once at the lowland, Papa decided to stop at a Chinese restaurant in Kampar for lunch. We have eaten at the restaurant before in a trip long time before Juan Or was born. Once there, again our heart sank to see the restaurant closed. So we went on down towards Bidor's direction and found many restaurants closed along the way. Finally we stopped at Bidor and was glad to find at least a Chinese restaurant open. By then it was already something like 2pm already. This was what we ate there.

Mantis shrimp cooked with salted egg yolk and sweet potato leaves in belacan.

Fish slices stir-fried with spring onion.

Papa also bought tau sar peah from the restaurant - 3 packs for RM7. This restaurant's tau sar peah has a limey taste to it.

We reached Kuala Lumpur again by around 4 or 4-plus pm, just in time before the traffic-jam started (we went on a weekday, remember?) and stopped over at Haji Samuri's satay stall at the KESAS highway to buy satay for dinner before heading back home to Puchong.

Overall, how successful did Mommy consider of this trip? Mommy would consider it a 98% success because Juan Or was able to withstand the long distance with minimal fretfulness (fretted when we stopped at Bidor in the morning), plus Juan Or did not vomit at all nor show any sign of dizziness. In fact, during the journey up, Juan Or teased Mommy by saying that he wanted to vomit, but he laughed after that, so Mommy knew he was trying to pull Mommy's legs! Since Juan Or has passed his first long distance trip test, so there will be more long distance trips for Juan Or in the future! Yippy!