What Would Puss in Boots Do?

Does this feline character look familiar to you?




There you have it, it's Puss in Boots in 3D version! For those who have been following Mommy's blog for some time, you can probably guess it's another blogging contest held by Nuffnang and United International Pictures Malaysia.


In any story, there always are the bad guys causing some havoc and chaos, and then the hero (and/or heroin) comes to save the day! Imagine Mommy in the form of this cute kitty with big doleful eyes.....

....small-bodied, yet saves the day!

The question of the day: How to defeat the bad guys if Mommy takes the roles of Puss and Kitty Softpaws (Puss' female feline partner)? Here's how according to sequence:

1. Go find the Wizard of Oz and ask for his help to make money that has magical power. The magic money is only workable on the named bad guys whereas anyone else not named will not be affected by the magic money. What magical power does the money have? Anyone named during the spell-making of the magic money will be turned into mice the moment the money is touched. If Wizard of Oz is reluctant to make the magic money, never mind, Puss can give him the big, doleful eyes look. Otherwise Kitty Softpaws can give him her female feline charm! What if Wizard of Oz still resist? Never mind, go find Merlin to do the job. What if Merlin also rejects the job? Never mind, go find the local bomoh to do it - chances are, at least one of them will fall for Kitty Softpaws' feline charm! ^_^

2. Once the magic money is at hand, just scatter them on the road where the bad guys are known to be around. The bad guys are sure to come to pick the money! Tell Mommy, who doesn't need money to use? Everyone needs to use money. Even the bad guys are no exception!

3. The moment the bad guys touch the money, they turn into mice! Voila! Then Puss and Kitty Softpaws can pounce on them and have a feast of their lifetime!

Simple, eh? Just use some wit and feline charm to do the trick - nice and clean! ^_^


Oh and by the way, Juan Or is sure to be happy and thrilled to see Humpty Dumpty in action too! Humpty Dumpty is Juan Or's favourite nursery rhymes character.

My Happiest Moment

This is Mommy's favourite photo - the photo that captures Mommy's happiest moment.

It was Juan Or's infectious laughter and giggles that makes Mommy's happiest moment - something that Mommy wants to capture forever. Well, you may be wondering now what made Juan Or so happy that made Mommy so happy too. It's none other than seeing monkeys swinging around at close range in Bukit Melawati, Kuala Selangor!

Though this happiest moment was just as simple as watching the monkeys swinging around, nevertheless, this is the story behind Juan Or’s infectious laughter and giggles.

 

Juan Or was about 1 year 1 month old when his walking ability became somewhat established. What started to be like the Frankenstein walking style.....

(animation credits from Animation Playhouse)

......improved by leaps and bound to be more and more like how a human kid walks. With his walking skill getting more and more polished, so did his appetite for physical adventure. He began to explore (and imitate) jumping, skipping and whatever ‘funny’ leg movements that he saw both on the television screen and also in real life.

One ‘leg activity’ that Juan Or particularly liked most was jumping on the bed, most probably because of the springing sensation it gave. Mommy had warned him countless times before not to get too carried away with ‘the activity’ lest he falls down and hurts himself. However, the countless warnings all fell on deaf ears. Mommy even resorted to teaching him about the consequences with the nursery rhyme on monkeys jumping on the bed which sounds like this:

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed
One fell off and bumped his head
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said

"No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"

Or if you prefer to hear the nursery rhyme in the form of song and video, here is one from You Tube. 

As if to mock Mommy, Juan Or would merely laugh out loud and parrot the nursery rhyme as he continued his jumping. Mommy wondered when he will ever learn. *Sigh!*

Then, one day, in the midst of feeling high from the springing sensation, sure enough, true to Mommy’s word, Juan Or tumbled down the bed. Crash, boom, bang! – he fell down just like nangka busuk (rotten jackfruit)! If falling down the bed (and landing on the hard floor) was already bad enough, nothing could be worse than having to fall onto a kiddy stool just next to the bed and getting a cut near the lips before landing on the floor! 

There was blood all over his mouth, both Juan Or and Mommy went panicky but luckily Mommy managed to control the situation. Mommy carried Juan Or to the bathroom to rinse away the blood stain and then used handkerchief to press on the wound to stop the bleeding. 

Many weeks went by since the bloody incident. The wound healed, but the ‘wound’ in his memory did not! Whenever Mommy read him the monkeys-jumping-on-the-bed nursery rhyme, Juan Or would cringe his face and shouted “Scared! Scared!” Whenever Mommy showed him pictures of monkeys in his kiddy books, he would give the same reaction. Poor boy! Now he seemed to associate monkeys with bad fall! *Sigh!*

Then one day, Papa took us for an outing to Bukit Melawati, Kuala Selangor. Our main reason for going there was to get up close and personal with the real monkeys, but of course knowing that Juan Or was phobic towards monkeys, Papa and Mommy kept the monkeys a secret. Instead, Mommy told Juan Or all about the tram that ferries visitors up and down the hill – the one children would prefer to call as choo-choo train! Boy was Juan Or excited to ride on the tram!

Well, we reached the part of the hill top where trams would normally stop the visitors. As expected, the monkeys came in flocks to ‘busybody’ around because the visitors had food to offer. Bold ones would openly come forward and ‘beg’ for food whereas the more timid ones would merely swing around or watch from a distance and only pick up food that were thrown to them. 

What about Juan Or? Much to Mommy’s surprise, Juan Or seemed to have ‘forgotten’ about his phobia for monkeys! Was it because of watching the cute monkeys swinging live? Or was it because of the natural beauty of monkeys that can be seen so up close and personal? Whatever the ‘magical factor’ was, what was clear was that Mommy did not do anything special to break his monkey phobia and that Juan Or was obviously enjoying watching the monkeys! Maybe something in him realized that it was not the monkeys that caused the bad fall, but rather, it was recklessness and getting too carried away. 

Whatever it was, Mommy was happy that the mental wound is gone for good and that Juan Or is able to enjoy the beauty of nature without associating it with his past traumatic experience. Seeing and hearing Juan Or laugh and giggle are the simple things that make Mommy’s life so happy, beautiful and rewarding. When Juan Or is HAPPY, Mommy is HAPPY too! 

By the way, all the photos here were taken using Mommy’s handphone camera. Mommy has long been yearning to upgrade Mommy’s photography tool. So this “Happy Photography  Contest” held by Olympus and Nuffnang is a good chance to make the yearning a reality – a chance to win Olympus’ new range of PEN Lite.....

and PEN Mini digital cameras that come with high DSLR image quality.

So here it goes:  

HAPPY Juan Or = HAPPY photography = HAPPY Mommy!

Prize from Fisher-Price

This post is actually a little outdated because Mommy is stricken with the Big Bad Wolf Books Sale fever. Nevertheless, after this and this rounds of book hunting, finally Mommy is ready to blog about the prize that Mommy got recently from Fisher-Price after participating in a contest held by My Little Sprouts.

Here's the prize which was couriered a few weeks ago......ta-dah!

Here's the official opening ceremony....

and thus reveals the Fisher-Price's Classic Doodler with 2 Stampers!

As expected, this boy can't wait to start doodling and stamping to form his own 'abstract' art.

Ever since then, Mommy introduced the 'tic-tac-toe' game to Juan Or, which he finds entertaining but he still does not quite grasp the concept and objective of the game. Juan Or won over his Papa on one occasion of the tic-tac-toe game, but subsequent rounds of Juan Or losing seems to point out that his initial win was just a fluke! ^_^



Mommy did writing alphabets with Juan Or as well (but forgot to take photos!) and found the doodle board to be a very convenient tool because Mommy didn't have to look for papers or rough book and the board cleans easily with just a swipe!


On the night the doodle board prize was opened, Juan Or insisted on sleeping with the doodle board! ^_^

Not just that, lately, Juan Or has been very possessive about his belongings. No one else is allowed to touch his things, not even Papa. See how he tried to pull away his doodle board from Papa's grasp? He even 'commanded' Papa not to touch his things, saying that thing is HIS!

Gumball Prize from Parenthots

Last week Friday, Mommy happened to log into Facebook and found an update by Parenthots (parenting column in The Star newspaper) asking who will be online at noon because there will be something up at Parenthots. At that time, it was about 10 minutes before 12 noon, so Mommy browsed Parenthots' website first to see whether there is anything to anticipate, but turned out nothing looked suspecting enough. So Mommy went on to browse other things in the Net and almost forgot to go back to Parenthots' Facebook update to check when the clock struck 12. By the time Mommy remembered, it was already 5 minutes since the quiz question had gone virtual!

Nevertheless, Mommy didn't want to lose hope even though Mommy was 5 minutes late. The quiz question asked participants to state why would you want the prize shown in the accompanying photo (it was a souvenir box containing Gumball knick-knacks) and indicate when Gumball will start, and answers had to be send via email. So Mommy quickly turned back to Parenthots' website because Mommy remembered seeing something about Gumball and then typed the answers as quickly as possible, then clicked 'Send' and hoped for the best. :-) By the way, there was only one unit of the prize up for grab and only the first correct entry gets the prize.

Within less than 5 minutes, Mommy received a reply from Brigette Rozario (Parenthots' editor) saying that Mommy is the winner! Then we communicated further to make arrangement for Mommy to collect the prize.

Yesterday, Mommy went with Juan Or to Menara The Star at Phileo Damansara 2, Petaling Jaya. Mommy registered at the receptionist's counter while Juan Or made himself comfy because the interior of the building felt like a hotel! By the way, Juan Or loves to go to hotels and showhouses because of the beautiful and classy interior! ^_^

And finally Brigette Rozario arrived with the prize!

However, once in the car, Mommy forbid Juan Or from opening and seeing what's inside for fear of him crumpling and 'destroying' the cute things inside the prize box. At least, photos of the prize has to be taken first before he can lay his hands on it! ^_^

Once home, Mommy asked him to pose with the Gumball prize.

....and then pose with the prize box opened. See Juan Or making pouty lips face even though Mommy pestered him to do the proper smiley face?

After much cajolling, he came up with this kind of face - smiley but with eyes closed! (Not quite what Mommy wanted......*slap forehead*!)

Aiyah.....so in the end, Mommy had to give in to him eagerly wanting to play with the knick-knacks inside. What are they? There's the Gumball door hanger whereby you can turn one round thing indicating your status in your room such as 'Busy Watching Cartoon Network", "Come inside and play!" and "No parents allowed", a sticker sheet, a lanyard and three hand-sized plush Gumball characters .

Want to know why Mommy wants the prize (as what the quiz question asked)? Simple reason: to make Juan Or HAPPY! ^_^ By the way, this new cartoon started since 1st October in Astro Channel 616.

Our World, Their War (Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon)

This is our world – the world of the earthlings, but the war is theirs, the Transformers – Autobots and Decepticons. It’s a war that has gone on for centuries. I would choose to be Megatron – leader of the Decepticons. 

I would execute these strategies simultaneously to challenge the Autobots and then destroy the world:

Strategy 1 - Get the Autobots to be complacent by making it economical, easy and convenient for them to frequently watch movies. For that, I would make sure each and every Autobot is given the Ultimate Movie Card, made possible by Golden Screen Cinemas and EON Bank. With the Ultimate Movie Card, the Autobots can afford to watch movies everyday till they turn into movie junkies and even movie addicts, thus the complacency and apathy to protect the world! Once their complacency and apathy reach the peak, my team of Decepticons would strike them off guard! And once the Autobots are gone, nobody’s going to help the human earthlings anymore! Hahahaha!

Strategy 2 - I would also make sure that the movies watched by the Autobots are hypnotic in nature, i.e., they go into a sort of hypnosis. And the movies’ storyline will also bear hidden agenda. What’s the agenda? To not resist any advances by the Decepticons! Because of the Ultimate Movie Card, the Autobots get to watch these hypnotic movies several times everyday and so got their ‘brains’ reprogrammed – call that brain washing! Once reprogrammed, my team of Decepticons would wipe them off clean and the human earthlings will be at my mercy! What an easy win! Hahahaha!

Strategy 3 - Over the years, I was able to watch lots of science fiction movies made possible by the Ultimate Movie Card. From there, I have learnt a lot about the potentials of cloning, stem cell culture and genetic engineering. Because Decepticons are transformable to almost anything, not just limited to automobiles unlike the Autobots, I would make use of stem cell culture to  create real human skin and fat cells to ‘wrap’ around my Megatron body transformed into the shape of human beings! I would go for the shape of a human child, because children look so innocent and adorable. I would mingle with the Autobots, playing with them like a human child. I know the Autobots have a soft spot for humans, more so a human child. There…..this is the child that I would love to take the shape of…..

I would play and nap with the Autobots, gain their trust, treat them like my own guardians. Just when their guards are at the lowest, like when they are napping, I would transform and strike! Now that’s like cutting from inside the seams. Hahahaha! 

And when the destruction of the Autobots become a reality, the Autobots will merely become history. People will merely make Autobot figurines for child’s play……

......or even Autobot suit appearances for fans to pose with, ……..

(Photo taken at Toys"R"Us, Empire Shopping Gallery on 15th May 2011)

…..but who cares, they are not for real anymore! And when human earthlings are busy enjoying themselves, that’s when my team of Decepticons will attack and destroy the world!  Hahahaha!

So what are you waiting for? Go get the GSC-EON Bank Credit Card because that’s the Ultimate Movie Card for ultimate experience and ultimate potential! Getting hold of this card is the first step to the destruction of the Autobots! *Evil grin!*

Juan Or and His Buzz Lightyear Prize Win

It all started during the Toy Story 3 craze in July 2010. Mommy learnt of Malaysia Milk organizing a Toy Story 3 Contest via their Marigold milk product. That time, Tesco was having offer price for Marigold UHT milk with 6 x 125 mL selling for RM6 which was the cheapest in the market in terms of brand and the place selling it. So without further thought, Mommy bought the milk product both for consumption and also with the hope of winning something for Juan Or.

In the contest form, it was stated that there would be 200 units of Toy Story backpacks up for grabs for early bird entries and 200 units of Buzz Lightyear figurine with remote control worth RM399.90 each as Grand Prizes. Since Mommy never have any luck before with winning any kind of grand prizes, but Mommy did have luck before in winning Dutch Lady backpacks for early bird entry, so Mommy's aim was merely for the Toy Story backpacks only. To increase the chances of winning and also the contest rules mentioned that only one person was entitled to one early bird prize, so Mommy submitted four entries, one each under Mommy's name, Papa's name, Juan Or and Juan Or's paternal grandfather's name. And guess what? None of us received any early bird prize but Juan Or's paternal grandfather's name won the Buzz Lightyear toy! Woo-hoo!

On the eve of Hari Raya (i.e., on 9th September 2010), Juan Or's paternal grandfather received the prize winning notification letter, but Mommy could only fetch father-in-law to Malaysia Milk at Section 19 of Petaling Jaya to claim the prize on 22nd September 2010. Reason? Because shortly after the Hari Raya public holidays, apparently the person-in-charge was still on leave for that entire week.

Finally the prize is in our hands already - all wrapped up in white paper. Now comes the 'officiating ceremony' to unwrap the prize done by Juan Or. Ta-dah!

But before Mommy allowed Juan Or to open the box, Mommy insisted that he must pick up all the pieces of torn wrapping paper and throw them all into the waste paper basket, to which Juan Or obediently did. ^_^

Only thing is that Juan Or still doesn't know how to crumple and compact the wrapping paper so that it will fit into the waste paper basket, so the 'mess' was left just like that at the waste paper basket! ^_^

And now it's playtime!

This Buzz Lightyear  figurine has even been programmed to speak in Spanish with one phrase ending with "Aiya!". Before Mommy started aiming the camera handphone at Juan Or, he consistently shouted out the "Aiya!' word whenever he hears the Spanish thing, but once Mommy started shooting him, the "Aiya!" word somehow became silent, instead it was only his excited facial expression lip-saying it.

Anyway, this boy was too engrossed with his new toy so much so when Mommy asked him something, all went unanswered unless Mommy persistently pushed for an answer!

As for the Buzz Lightyear remote control, Mommy won't let him play with it yet because he is still very rough and destructive with his toys (Hahaha......that was exactly what was depicted inToy Story 3 whereby Andy's toys were made to stay in the room occuppied by destructive toddlers whereas Lotso and his gang who have the upper hand assigned themselves to be played by older children who already know how to play gently with toys). By the way, Mommy also won't try the remote control yet until Mommy has the time to peacefully sit down and read the instruction manual and then learn how to use it! See.....Mommy wants to play with the toy too! ^_^


P/S: Mommy was surprised to learn that apparently this Buzz Lightyear toy prize is made by Thinkway Toys which seems the common toy company for merchandizing under-licensed cartoon characters in the US market. In Malaysia, the market for Toy Story action figurines seems to be held by Mattel. Even CIMB Bank has this Toy Story promotion (told by one of their officers) that to redeem a Buzz Lightyear action figurine with remote control (Mattel) worth RM1199, the parent has to deposit minimum RM150,000 in fixed deposit for 1 year plus maintain at least RM5000 per month (or was it RM3000? Can't remember!) in the CIMB Junior Account for at least one year. Mommy has personally seen the Buzz Lightyear figurine worth RM1199 displayed in Taman Connought's CIMB branch before and the height of the figurine is the same as the one Juan Or received for his prize. Woo-hoo! So Mommy doesn't have to think of the CIMB one anymore! And many thanks to whoever-it-is in Malaysia Milk for picking father-in-law's contest entry! ^_^

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!)
 

Cute Baby Contest

Just recently, Public Bank of Taman Chi Liung (Klang) branch held a community event - Cute Baby Contest. Any parent can submit a photo of his/her baby (below 3 years old) and the photo will be displayed at the bank. The winner is the one with the most number of votes. Mommy didn't know about the existence of this contest. It was Mommy's mum who told Mommy about it. She told Mommy that she will lobby for votes from her friends and Mommy also got to know that even her friends lobbied for more votes for Juan Or from their friends. The voting period started from 1st July and ended on 8th July. At the end of the day, Juan Or, with the support of his maternal grandmother and her friends' friends, got the 3rd prize!

This is the photo that Mommy submitted - not the best eye-capturing one (yes, Mommy admits this photo is still not the best shot of Juan Or), but one which is the most age-appropriate photo (the contest doesn't allow you to send photos that are too young of the current age) and taken with good quality resolution (unlike most cheeky-faced Juan Or captured by merely the handphone camera of low quality) and sharp in image (because many photos Papa took of him showed Juan Or moving, so are blurred).

Mommy's mum, being in frequent and close contact with the Public Bank staff, also mentioned that actually Juan Or got the highest number of votes, but because his photo is not eye-capturing enough, so the organizing committee did not choose him to be the 1st prize winner in case of public dispute. So, Mommy's mum told them to wait and see till the real baby comes to claim his prize - that the actual baby - with big eyes and long, curled eye lashes -  is handsomer than what is in the photo! ^ ^ (Mommy is quoting what Mommy's mum told Mommy!)

So on 19th July (Monday), Mommy drove Juan Or over to the Taman Chi Liung Public Bank to claim his prize in a simple and informal prize-giving ceremony. The ceremony started at 4.30 p.m. Mommy was pleasantly surprised to be introduced to Mommy's mum's close friends who had been instrumental in securing many votes for Juan Or: Uncle Jeyabalan, Uncle Francis Liew, Aunty Chin Hong and Mr. Goh.

Uncle Jeyabalan (left) and Uncle Francis Liew (right).

Aunty Chin Hong (left), who is Mommy's mum's best friend, and Mr. Goh Yeh Ming (right), who is Mommy's mum's unit trust agent.

Here's Juan Or and Mommy, waiting for our turn to be called to receive the prize.

Here's the prize-giving photo session taken together with the Public Bank branch manager. See Juan Or's crying face? When it's time to go out in front of others to receive the prize, turned out Juan Or was the only baby who was crying and fretting! All other babies were happy, calm and docile.

After the prize-giving ceremony ended, Mommy's mum treated Juan Or and Mommy, and her close friends to a dinner in a nearby neighbourhood restaurant. We ate deep-fried fish in sweet and sour sauce, a beancurd-cum0-mixed vegetable dish and kangkung belacan (water convulus in chilli shrimp paste). Turned out, only white rice and the kangkung belacan were Juan Or's favourite there. Juan Or even started standing on his baby high chair and used his fingers to pick up a strand of kangkung - showing everyone his enthusiasm for the dish!

After the dinner, Juan Or and Mommy stopped over at Mommy's mum's house, but Juan Or seems to be crying continuously, probably not used to being there and perhaps sleepy as well. So very soon, Mommy made a move home. After Juan Or drank his milk in the car, he immediately dozed off! So looks like his crying spell at the bank just now was more likely due to tiredness.

This is how the prize looks like. It's a Fiffy baby products hamper.

And here's what Mommy's mum packed for Juan Or: 2 bottles of Champs multi-vitamin tablets and chocolates from Aunty Chin Hong, Public Bank's souvenir thermal mug from Mommy's mum and Rubik's cube from Mommy's dad. Mommy's mum told Mommy that she only told Mommy's dad about Juan Or's winning a day before the prize-giving day. So that night itself, when Mommy's dad came home, he bought the Rubik's cube for her to pass to Juan Or!

As for the Rubik's cube, Mommy may have to keep it first because Juan Or is still too young to appreciate how the Rubik's cube should be played. He may even end up destroying it! But before keeping it, Juan Or can have his playtime first before it goes into storage.....