~ Love.Joy.Life ~ 爱.喜乐.生命 ~

I took a long afternoon nap with Anne (1.5 hours). After got up, we decided to go out for sun bathing and “sight seeing” beside the lake. Just would like to absorb as much natural Vitamin D as possible! Wow, it was so crowded there! Ang Moh loves sun-shine! We were the only family that sat under a tree

The view on our way back… Good weather, green plants with clear blue sky.

It was too late for me to cook our dinner. I was lazy too. Loong was forced to find a place for our dinner. We went back to the same Billy Bear Restaurant that we went last year during my birthday. Nothing so special about the food… We choose to re-visit this restaurant because it’s a children friendly restaurant. Anne was given a picture to color while waiting for the food.

Our food.

-Turn clockwise: Sauces for French-fried. Mixed Fish’ plate. Hot Chicken Wings. Double BBQ Pork (the pork were so dry and as hard as a stone!). Also not in picture: Our drinks, Seven-up and orange juice.-

Total Damaged: Euro 42.35! RM200++!! Wow!!! (Yeah, you can call me Very-Calculative-Auntie!!)

我是一个很容易受伤的人。尤其在我作为全职家庭“煮”妇之后，我手指受伤的次数越来越频繁。所以对老公来说，只要我没砍断我的手指就已经很不错。。。切伤一点点算不了什么！

今天，在准备晚餐的时候我又不小心切到我的左拇指！好痛！少了一大块的皮，流了很多血。

吃晚餐的时候，女儿看见我受伤的手指：

恩：妈咪手痛痛。

我：是咯，很痛！

恩：妈咪手坏了。

我：怎么办？

恩：去买新的！

还是我女儿比较关心我啦！可是，去那里买新的手叻？

… and mummy is not going with her

I am now at home, enjoying my peaceful moment preparing our lunch… and blogging!!!

-Bye, mummy… I go to school… Mummy cook lunch for me ah!!-

-Following Daddy…-

She went out with Daddy at 8:35am. Now is 10:10am. No call from teacher, no call from Daddy… I hope she is fine in her playgroup! I hope she enjoys herself there… My girl is growing up!!

I started to feel boring now… How?

Update (3.30pm):

Teacher said she was GOOD, as a first timer. She kissed good bye to daddy when daddy about to leave her school. After a while, she cried for 5 minutes, looking for daddy. Then she’s alright. When daddy went to school to fetch her again, she was sitting with teachers and other kids having their tea-break. Once she over-heard daddy’s voice, she rushed out. Anyway, this is a good start for her. I asked her wheter she wants to go to school again? She said: YES!

In the morning, I spent most of  my time in the kitchen. I just wanted to try new recipe that I never tried before. While Loong went out with Anne for another session of duck feeding beside the canal, I was in the kitchen preparing a very sweet dessert which I was craving for: honeydew melon & sago soup! Now I believe that: when you are expecting a baby girl, you want SWEET food!!

After that I made steamed-dumpling for our lunch!

Not very successful tho… Very ugly too When Anne was back, she wanted to kacau help also. She said: 恩长高高可以帮忙妈咪了(Anne is tall enough to help mummy liao)!

Basically I was standing in kitchen for the whole morning of Mother’s day.

Mother’s day is coming… To make me feel better, I bought myself flowers!! Yes, I bought it myself at the Saturday open market!!! Sound pitty huh…

I feel like eating something really sweet now!

When we were in Malaysia, to be more specific, in Miri actually, Anne has a new born baby cousin to play with. Baby was only 2 months old that time. Well, my mother is helping my sister to take care of her baby when she’s at work. So, I was at home with Anne, my mother and the baby most of the time. My mother just started to look after a baby after a long, long time… may be after 25+ years. I was there helping her also. When my mum was at the kitchen preparing our lunch or dinner, I need to look after the baby and the naugthy girl - Anne. At first, Anne loves the baby. She loves to “sayang” baby’s face, talk to baby and be closed to baby. After a few days, she started to show her jelousy. Whenever I carried the baby, Anne would ask me to carry her. At the end, I had to put down the baby or passed the baby to my mum.

She even hitted the baby twice (luckily my sister and brother-in-law didn’t scold me because of this, they are very 开通 :-P). First time with a big plastic spoon that we used to scoop our rice. She crawl up to sofa which is next to babycot and bang-ed the thing on baby’s forehead. Second time, more serious. She used a massage stick (those used by old people to massage their foot) and bang-ed it on baby’s head again. That time 3 women (me, my sister and my mum) were sitting beside the baby chatting happily. She just passed by and did that. None of us manage to stop her act! Must be the jelousy caused her to act like this.

With this pregnancy, I was quite worried that Anne will bully her baby sister just like how she did in Miri when she wants our attention. She was fine most of the time when playing with her baby cousin, but out of sudden she would do someting weird. Throughout my pregnancy, I always told Anne that she is going to be a big sister and baby is inside mummy’s tummy. After mummy give birth, she has to help mummy to take care of the baby because she is a BIG girl already. So far the trick work. She always requested to talk and kiss the baby (or I should say, talk and kiss my tummy).

I pray that she will love her baby sister just like how she “sayang” and kiss the baby now…

(1) Sambal Ikan Bilis

For this one, it’s easy because I am using ready made Sambal Badjak paste.

Ingredients:

• Ikan bilis
• Onions
• Sugar
• Sambal Badjak paste
• Water

Method:

1. Fry ikan bilis until it’s crispy. Take out and put aside.
2. Fry onions until it’s soft. Add in 2 tablespoon of Sambal Badjak. If the sambal is too thick, add a little bit of water.
3. Add 2 - 3 teaspoons of sugar to sweeten the sambal (original Sambal Badjak taste a bit sour).
4. Add in pre-fried ikan bilis, stir well and ready to serve.

(2) Sambal Belacan

I love sambal belacan. I can eat sambal belacan like a Malay. I get the following recipe from http://myrecipe.org/. I made smaller portion, all ingredients devided by 2 except sugar and salt with I add lesser than what is needed.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup red chilies
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon belacan
• 1 tomato
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 lemon (take the juice)
• boild water

Method:

1. Bake belacan for 2 minutes.
2. Bake onion
3. Add all ingredients (together with baked belacan and baked onion) into blender then blend it.
4. Ready to serve

I tried to cook fried rice a few times, but the outcome always too lumpy cause almost half of the rice stick on the wok! That’s why Loong always rejected my proposal to cook fried rice. Anyway, I still want to try, because 失败为成功之母 (failure is mother to success :-D)! And finally, I found my biggest mistake!

First, get all ingredients ready:

Then, cook with my new non-stick pan!

The result:

See… 粒粒皆清楚!! No more lumpy fried rice!! So, my mistake is I shouldn’t use a cheap wok to cook fried rice but to use a non-stick-pan to cook it!! Muahahahaha…. I love this new pan!!! Muak~

… that even early in the morning, I can still go out without wearing a winter coat.

In the afternoon… I can go out with my long missed t-shirt, 3/4 pants and sandals…

Best part is, I can eat ice-cream…

I can stay outdoor for a longer time… People enjoy sun-shine so much that they are willing to stand under the sun to watch street performance…. just like us…

And also, I can sit beside the canal, feeding duckling!!!

Oh, I love sun-shine so much!!!!

The weather out there is very nice. Sun-shine, 14′C in the morning and more than 20′C in the afternoon. It’s just the right season to go for a holiday break.

I am expecting my 2nd baby now, will be due coming August. That’s why I am thinking for a holiday break with Hubby and Anne before I “pop”. I do not think that I have energy to go travel within the first year after baby is born. I must make good use of the good weather now to plan for my long-hoped holiday.

When I talk to Hubby about my plan, the first question he asked me was: where you want to go? Yes, I already have a few choices in my mind. First, I wish to visit Italy. Why I want to go Italy? My reason is very simple: I want to eat tradisional cum typical Italy made - Italy pizza and spegetthi!! Rome is the main city I wish to go. But the Rome Hotels rate is not that cheap. I must plan my trip wisely so that it will not end up over our budget!

 I also wish to re-visit Paris, the romantic city. We were in Paris December 2006. That time Anne was only 1 year old. We tried not to stay out door for too long as it was winter that time. That’s why we missed out a lot of nice place in Paris. Since the weather is getting better, I bet we can enjoy this City of Light better and Anne will sure love to visit Paris’s Disneyland once again. When we were in Paris last time, we found that there are actually a lot of affordable Hotels Paris that is available. We can sure get a better rate! Eiffel Towel, here I come…

One of my church member when I was in UTM doing my degree is currently working in Dublin. When I see photos taken by her, I wish to go to that place one day. I think if I visit her, I can save my lodging fee as I do not need to find Dublin Hotels to stay in. Same goes with London. I have friends who currently work in London. When they come to Netherlands, they stay at my place. I am sure if I visit London one day, they sure offer to let me stay in their house… London Hotels can be very expensive but if their house is not convinient to stay in, I am sure I can get cheaper hotel rate for any of the city in Europe from http://www.cheaperthanhotels.co.uk/. One thing for sure is, I must plan my trip earlier.

So, where you plan to go for a holiday? It’s the right time to plan for your summer holiday now!!