How we survived in Sydney

It was our very first family trip overseas and it was very exciting for us. We booked our flight about 10 months earlier and I have been counting days since. As the travel dates get nearer, I googled for tips for travelling with a toddler. So these made us survive our trip.

I brought along my carrier/sling because I know Babycakes won't want to sit in the stroller all the time and I won't be able to carry her in my arms for a long period of time. This carrier is a life saver. It can be folded and kept in the bag, it has no ring, hooks whatever thus making it lightweight yet durable. It's from pupsikstudio but I bought mine at Mothercare for only RM99. It is much cheaper than other carrier/sling that are available. Unfortunately when I bought it (when Babycakes was 2 months+), they only have this colour.

Even though it is ergonomically made i.e. it does not strain your back, one can only carry a 9kg+ baby on her back for so long. Think carrying a baby while walking from one place to the other. It eventually gets really tiring and you gotta give your back a break once in a while too. And your baby would want to run and walk and stretch herself as well.

That is when this thing comes in handy. It's called a harness. I am a sucker for all things pink and girly so obviously I chose this pink butterfly for Babycakes, which is freaking adorable. It's from Bumble Bee, btw. There are other designs too e.g. monkey, cow, bee etc. You would want to give the freedom to your child yet you have to still be in control. God knows where she would run to if I let go off her hands for just one second.

See, Babycakes was as happy as can be and she wanted to walk but you can't expect us to be chasing after her all the time, do you? It's tiring! We do get mixed reactions from the people around. Some were curious looks, some were weird stares while most were friendly smiles but we couldn't care less. As long as we have our baby close to us and as long as we can keep our baby safe, we will do whatever it takes. Of course there are times we played tug-o-war with her but at the end of the day, we won. Haha.

After all that walking and running and a game of tug-o-war, they are bound to be tired and needed their naps so you still have to bring a stroller with you. But make sure you bring a lightweight stroller, like this one. This is an umbrella stroller and it is only 3kgs if I am not mistaken. It is not bulky, it folds easily and it is durable. We bought ours from Toys R Us for less than RM200. It's Hauck brand.

There are certain places that are only accessible by stairs so you will be very glad that you bring a lightweight stroller. It makes going up and down buses, trains, ferries so easy. Don't worry, you don't have to carry the stroller down the stairs, just get your hubby to carry it. :D And do you see the bag hubby is carrying? That is Babycakes' diaper bag during the holiday. Yes, a backpack is the perfect choice for traveling. Don't bother carrying a sling diaper bag. Apart from extra clothes, diapers, wipes and other essentials, contents of the diaper bag include a thermos, a bottle brush and a small bottle of liquid soap for washing your baby's bottle. Unless you want to carry a few bottles with you, I suggest you bring a bottle brush and liquid soap. You can always wash the bottle after using it.

If you haven't been to Australia, please be informed that they are very very strict when it comes to customs check. Make sure you declare every single food item you carry with you because trust me, they will check your luggage thoroughly, especially if you have a baby/toddler/child. We already knew this so we didn't bring any foods for us, except for a few packets of 3 in 1 coffee mix. When the customs checked our bag, we showed them everything that we brought along i.e. milk powder, cereal and biscuits for Babycakes. We told them they're all for the baby. So when he saw our coffee mix, he asked, "Does the baby drink coffee too?" Not sure if he was being sarcastic or joking though. We just answered sincerely that the coffee are for us (duuh). I feel like rolling my eyes but of course I'd be stupid to be sarcastic with them so whatever, just go with the flow and move on. Since we didn't bring the most essential i.e. instant noodles, we had to buy at the supermarket. Finding halal instant noodles ain't easy but thankfully they sell Indomie. Instant noodles can never taste so good at that time. We also bought tuna, cream cheese and bread to make sandwiches.

When traveling with a baby/toddler, make sure you bring her medications too, just in case especially if there is a change of weather. When we were in Sydney, it was autumn and weather forecast showed temperatures between 17-22 degrees celcius but there are days when it gets chilly and there are days when it was just as hot as Malaysia. I brought along paracetamol, minyak yu yi, vicks baby balsam and gripe water for Babycakes. These items also went into the diaper bag so hubby got quite an exercise there. Anyway, due to the cold but dry weather, Babycakes got her nose stuffed and it was so hard to get the booger out because they were dry. She would also scream murder everytime i try to pick her nose. I went to the pharmacy and bought a saline spray. This spray literally saved our lives and kept Babycakes' nose clear. Let's not talk about the struggle to place the nozzle into her nostrils but whatever it is, I managed to spray the saline water into her nose and it cleared her nose and helped her breathe easily. I am not sure I've seen any saline spray selling in local pharmacies though.

So there you go. If you plan to travel with your baby/toddler, I hope you find this post useful. It helped me so it can surely help you too. :) Now where shall we go next?

Doing our little part

Growing up, my parents, dad especially have always taught us all to recycle. We would take turns to send old newspapers to the storeroom and on weekends, we had people come to our house to collect the newspapers for recycling. They would come on motorbikes and sometimes a van or small lorry would come and collect. Back then I didn't know the value and meaning of recycling because we get so little out of a huge pile of old newspapers and magazines. I thought it was not worth it. Why not just throw them out? Why the extra work and effort to collect, which takes space for a few ringgit?

Now that I am all grown up, I am so grateful to my parents for teaching and instilling this good habit in me and now that I am living on my own, I keep on this habit. I would collect whatever that are recyclable in one huge laundry bag. You know, the transparent laundry bag you get when you send your clothes for dry cleaning. In a way, I am reusing that bag rather than using a fresh garbage bag. I put the plastic bag in a corner of my kitchen and would put anything and everything that are recyclable. Within a month or so, the plastic bag can easily be filled with all sorts of things from shampoo bottles to sardine cans, from coffee bean cups to uht milk packet. I can't believe the amount of things that are collected in my house within a month considering there are only 3 of us.

Of course I had to get hubby to play his part too. When the plastic bag is full, I would get him to send to one of the many recycling bins that can be found all over the place like the one in the picture below. I am so glad that there are so many of this bins scattered all around my neighborhood, in fact there's one near my office. The best part is, these recycling bins are for charity so not only we are doing our part for the environment, we are also doing our part for those in need. It takes so little effort to reuse and recycle and I feel so good everytime we dump our recyclables in one of these bins.

What about you? Do you recycle? If not, it's never too late to start! Do your part now, for the future, for the environment, for those in need and for Mother Earth.

P/S: Please ensure you rinse out the bottles, cans, cups etc before recycling. Jangan la asal boleh, OK?

Blind Date

Going to the court for the first case management or mention feels a bit like going on a blind date. Not sure if today there is such thing called blind dates anymore because of social media. At least you know the name of your future blind date and also how he/she looks like, provided that he/she puts up his/her real name and his/her real picture of course.

Whereas, when you go to court for the first time (for a new case), you only know the name of your opponent's legal firm. You won't know which lawyer is attending and you won't know whether the lawyer is a female or a male lawyer. When you reach court, you would be looking and guessing which one of the many lawyers is your opponent. If you are bold enough (of course you have to be bold, you're a lawyer, duuh!), you could ask one by one "excuse me, are you from XX?" But that would consume so much time unless you are lucky and you strike at the first few attempts or when the lawyer from the particular firm that you are looking for is nearby and heard your question. Otherwise, you could just wait until your case is called and then only you meet your opponent.

To think of it, it is more complicated than a blind date, huh?

some things are beyond our control

Life, as it is, is very unpredictable. So does the morning traffic. One morning you can reach Shah Alam in 40 minutes, the next morning you can be stuck in traffic for 2 hours.

It happened to me yesterday morning. As usual, I left house at 745-750am when I have to attend case(s) in Shah Alam Court. I use the KNVE to get to Shah Alam and would exit at the Subang toll, enter Federal Highway and straight on to Shah Alam. Traffic after the Subang toll (near Glomac) is crazy and congested but yesterday, the congestion started from Bukit Lanjan. From afar I can see a lot of cars and from there on, it was a bumper to bumper crawl. It was 820am and judging the traffic, I knew I would be late so I immediately called my opponent counsel's office and asked for the counsel's phone number. I  got the number and called but it went straight to voice mail so i left a voice mail. I also sent a text message to him to inform him to stand down the matter for me as I am going to be late. I told him to stand down to 930am.

It turned out that there was an accident at KM15 near Dataran Prima and a lorry overturned or something. The radio keeps on updating the traffic condition but it didn't improve at all. Normally the stretch from Damansara to Subang is always congested (for no bloody reason) but traffic is always crawling so it was still bearable but yesterday's traffic was horrendous!

By the time I exited Subang toll, it was 930am so again I sent a text to my opponent counsel and informed him that I will be in Court in 20mins. You can imagine how fast I drove after I exited the toll. But then again, how fast can my 'CLK' go anyway. Sigh. 

I was lucky my tummy behaved yesterday morning or else I'd be really stressed and sweating trying to hold on. However, when I reached Court, I went straight to the toilet because by that time, I was thisclose to peeing and shitting in my pants. -___- It was just my day that the elevator to the main building was faulty so I had to climb 3 floors up and by the time I reached the courtroom, I was sweating and panting like a fat pig.  That was close to 10am my friends. 

My opponent counsel smiled at me and I apologized profusely for making him wait. But then again, it was beyond my control. When I went in to see the Judge, again I apologized profusely and explained to her why I was late. 

There are just some things in life that is just beyond our care and control and I am glad that my opponent counsel did not make a big fuss about it. I know some people would. And the Judge too was OK. If you were in my shoes, or if you were in the other people's shoes, I hope you will understand or at least try to understand. Yesterday it happened to me. Tomorrow it could happen to you.

And please people, drive safely because your driving affects other people on the road. I can't imagine how many people were late to work yesterday. And today's radio reported that there was an overturned or  stalled lorry at Federal Highway, in front of the KWSP building. I am glad I don't have to go to Shah Alam today.

nothing is safe anymore

Not even an umbrella, an old sorry-looking free umbrella for that matter.

Whenever it rains, I would leave my umbrella at the basement where I parked my car at our home. I would leave my umbrella opened and put it behind my car for it to dry. The next day, I would simply fold it and put it back into my car. I've done this several times. It saves me from the hassle of carrying a wet umbrella together with Babycakes, my handbag, her backpack, her food bag and my other bag up to the house. FYI I carried Babycakes into the elevator and I would only let her walk once we reach our floor simply because I don't want her to run/walk away and I'd have to  chase her and all, which is very tiring and difficult when I have tons of stuffs to carry.

Anyway, two weeks ago, I did the same for my umbrella. It was safe all along so I thought, why not? But the very next day, I couldn't find my umbrella. I was so pissed off. Who in the world would want to steal an old, sorry-looking umbrella? It's obvious the umbrella belongs to me as I leave it at the back of my car. Gosh seriously? Obviously the animal person who stole it stays in the building. Or it could be one of the security guards. So much for being security guards huh? If I ever see anyone using it, I will approach that person and ask. But if I do not, to whoever that stole my umbrella, i wish you get struck by lightning may you be blown away by the wind. I am not kidding. It may be 'just an umbrella' so why the need to steal it? The animal person was lucky it didn't rain until I get my hands on a new umbrella. And because of that, I had to get a new umbrella. I bought one at Daiso for only RM5. It's transparent with pink and orange polka dots on it but it's a bit small. Oh well it will do. For now.

Curse you, umbrella thief!

 

 If I had bought this umbrella in Sydney and somebody steals it, I would definitely cry my eyes out!

I miss you

Oh dear I have abandoned my blog for so long! I miss my blog, I miss updating my blog, I miss writing but I have been so busy since I got back from my holiday recently. I will probably share some of my holiday pics here soon, Insyaallah.

my geli keli experience

I don't know about you but I love eating ikan keli. Be it keli goreng, keli bakar, keli masak lemak cili padi, keli goreng berlada. I love them all. However, I have never ever cooked, let alone cleaned an ikan keli my whole entire life. That's why I would take a keli dish whenever I eat outside because it's the one fish that I never dealt with.

That was until a few days back. I was at Mercato supermarket trying to figure out what to buy for dinner that night. Then I saw some ikan keli and they're already cut into two, packed and chilled. Normally I see ikan keli still alive and jumping around or swimming away in tanks. I passed by the fish counter and went to the poultry section. I have a few pieces of chicken in the freezer so there's no need to buy chicken. Then I went back to the fish counter and i noticed that the Bangla guy was looking at me weird probably thinking as if I have never seen an ikan keli before because I was prodding and touching the package. I eventually took one pack and thought it would be nice to cook ikan keli goreng berlada. I also took a packet of cili giling and I'm set. I was in no mood to boil and blend dried chillies at home so cili giling is my saviour. 

I got home and started working on the ikan keli and boy oh boy. Who would have thought that they are slippery as heck? I sat on the floor, put my cutting board and took my chopper and set to cut it. It was so slippery and looking at the fish gave me a weird feeling. It doesn't help that Babycakes kept on saying 'EEEEEE (insert some baby talk gibberish here)'. She said it so many times I kid you not. I kept telling her this is a fish. I didn't say it's a catfish or she'll get confused like, wait, is it a cat or a fish now LOL. She's not used to seeing a dead fish I guess so she probably couldn't recognize it. She's used to seeing the fishes in the aquarium at our condo lobby and also posters of fishes in the elevator at our condo.

As I worked on the ikan keli, I realized that it was not cleaned yet. So I had to clean out the gut and gills and what not and the feeling is just weird. I feel so geli handling the fish, I have no idea why. Other fishes, I am fine. I am so used to cleaning fishes but handling an ikan keli is a different thing altogether. 

Too bad hubby doesn't eat ikan keli so I ended up eating it myself. I even had some leftover that I tapau them for lunch the next day, with white rice of course. I think I'll just stick to eating ikan keli at restaurants. I don't think I ever want to deal with a dead, uncooked ikan keli.

Dinner made easy

Being a busy working woman and having a toddler around, I'm all for making quick dinners and I really appreciate an easy to prepare meal or a one dish meal. After a long day in Court and in the office, the last thing I want to do when I go home is to cook a storm for dinner, unless I am really in the mood. Meals that are easy, have minimal ingredients yet complete nutrition are a Godsend. It would be a bonus if I have all the ingredients needed in my kitchen so I don't need to drop by the supermarket or kedai runcit to buy the stuffs. Again, this depends on my mood. Sometimes I would make a quick stop at the kedai runcit near our house or if the ingredients are fancy ingredients, I would drop by Cold Storage.

The other day I had a really good salmon quiche and mushroom quiche with my good friend Sara. I've made tuna quiche before and it's quite tedious as you need to make the pastry beforehand. But then I found one recipe which is so easy I could whip it up in less than 15 minutes!

I mixed eggs, milk, melted butter, flour, baking powder (the recipe calls for self-raising flour but I ran out of them so I had to improvise by mixing wheat flour and a tsp of baking powder), a can of tuna, a can of button mushrooms, sliced, frozen peas, baby tomatoes and cheddar cheese. I simply used the sliced cheddar cheese although the recipe calls for grated cheese. Whatever works, people!

I managed to whip it all without having Babycakes bugging me because she was occupied with her nursery rhyme dvd. I baked the quiche for 40 minutes at 180 degrees celcius. Timing is everything when you have a busy toddler. Once I put the quiche in the oven, I took a bath and gave Babycakes a bath and a good wash because she had pooped.

Once cooked, simply cut and serve. It would be nicer if you have a cold salad on the side but I've got the peas and baby tomatoes in it so that's good enough.

So that was our quick and hearty dinner. We even have enough leftovers for all three of us for lunch the next day. You can guess which container belongs to who.

For the full recipe, click here.

The Story of Abik

When Babycakes was small, I bought her a pink doll whom I named Pinky Polly. I wanted Pinky Polly to be her lovey, her best friend, one that she would get attached to, one that she would bring everywhere she goes. Pinky Polly did have her fair share of story.

This was when Babycakes was only 4 months old. She's oblivious to Pinky Polly's existence at that time. As she grew older, she started to have an obsession with teddy bears, whom she fondly calls Abik. We've taught her to say bear but she still says Abik so Abik it is. 

   

 This is Babycakes with her many soft toys. She has a pink bunny (we call it bunny rabbit hop hop hop), Tony the turtle which Daddy got for her in Sabah, a Harrods teddy bear, a few McDonald's teddy bear from my collection and a few other teddy bears which I used to put in my car. She received the big brown teddy bear for her birthday.

She has no particular favourite Abik. She loves and adores them all. She would pick any Abik by random and take Abik wherever she goes. This was when we went to Starhill for dinner at Jake's. Abik is just as big as herself.

This is the Harrods Abik.  Abik joined us for breakfast at Restoran Bistari, Solaris Mon't Kiara.

She loves all kinds of Abik. Big, small, brown, pink, white, red, purple. She kissed this purple Abik at Jkids Playground at Tropicana City Mall.

  

This panda bear was part of the Chinese New Year deco at Desa Park City. She literally ran and screamed "Abiiikkkk" when she sees it. We put on the safety harness on her for safety purposes but also because the park is a dog-friendly park so there were many people walking their dogs, on leash of course. I was the one who's scared when a dog comes near me. Babycakes was excited looking at the dogs that she wanted to touch them. You can guess who freaked out. I can't help but feel like I am walking my baby, with the harness on. -_- But then again, it's for her own safety so screw what other people might think!

 

This was at home. She was testing her sunglasses. I bought the sunglasses at Mothercare when it was on sale. She was barely 3-4 months when I bought it.  Now she's big enough to wear it. It's also one of those days when she doesn't mind wearing a headband. It's a Christmas headband with the heads of snowmen. A waitress at Magnificent Fish & Chips Restaurant gave it to her when we dined there sometime before Christmas.

This was at my parents' house. Abik is with her almost all the time, even when she's 'studying'. She was cheeky enough to give me that cheeky smile when I said "Mummy take your picture!" One time we left my parents' house without Abik so my Mum called me and said "Abik tinggal!". Daddy had to turn around just to take Abik home.

That's Lola with her. It's a mushroom-like doll we bought in Cameron Highland. Of course I came up with the name Lola. Now she calls her 'Lala'. Close enough.

Again, that's Lola and the big brown Abik. Babycakes would sometimes bring Abik to the nursery too. When I pick her up, sometimes Abik is not with her so I must ask her sitters "Hari ni bawak Abik tak?" I wouldn't know because hubby sends her. 

Abik followed us to Kuantan too! We followed my Mum to Kuantan on Hari Wilayah and we went to Pantai Teluk Cempedak. Abik got sand all over her. When we came back, I had to sanitize Abik by spraying some Euky Bear Eucalyptus spray.

During the Chinese New Year break, we went to the Metropolitan Park in Kepong to fly a kite. Well, Daddy did the flying while Mummy had to look over Babycakes (and Abik). There were so many people that we just had to put the safety harness on.

I dare not think how much germs this Abik caught. It sat on the road with her and it also fell on the grass. After that, we went to Tesco to do some groceries shopping. We assumed Babycakes was tired so we put her in her stroller instead of the shopping cart. As we finished paying and about to leave, I only realized that Abik was nowhere in sight. I panicked. I asked hubby, "Mana Abik?" He was like "Eh ada Abik ke?" -_____- He said he didn't see Babycakes holding Abik but I remembered giving Abik to her earlier. Believe it or not, I actually went in and literally combed the whole of Tesco including the lower floors where we went to ATM, just to find Abik. I went to each and every aisle, I looked on the shelves, in case someone found her and put her on the shelves, I even looked into people's shopping cart, in case their kids found Abik and wanted to take her home. However, I could not find Abik anywhere. I was devastated. Thankfully Babycakes do not have a particular favourite Abik so I can be rest assured that she can still sleep at night, with other Abik accompanying her. I went to the information counter and left my name and number and told the staffs to call me if they happen to find Abik.

Until today, I still do not hear anything from Abik.  Poor little Abik. I wonder where she is now.  Even though Babycakes has other Abiks, it's still so sayang to lose one. I hope Abik is in good hands.

So that is the story of Babycakes' Abik.

chocolate goodness

I really love anything chocolate, like anything, really. And I especially love a good, yummy, moist chocolate cake OMG. I just found a moist chocolate cake haven in Shah Alam.  I found it by chance one fine day. It was after court and I was looking for a place to have lunch, a place that sells a nice nasi campur, a place that is not too crowded, a place with ample parking space. I went to Section 13 and made a few rounds. I then saw a Kedai Ayam Kampung Hassan (if I got the name correct) and I thought I should give it a try. Ayam kampung for lunch sounds good. I parked my car right in front of a shop called Anis Chocolate Moist Cake. After I had lunch, I went in the shop and bought 1 box of chocolate cake for only RM4.

I got to the office and tasted it and I fell in love instantly. OMG the moist chocolate cake is just soooooooo good!! It's not too sweet and it is very moist and chocolatey and it doesn't make u feel muak after a while. In fact I couldn't stop eating it! 

The rest, they say, is history. I go to Shah Alam every other day or almost every day so you can guess how many times I've bought the cake already. They also sell red velvet cake, trifle pudding, tiramisu cake, rainbow cake, durian crepe, cookies, pineapple tarts etc. So far I have tried the chocolate cake (super duper delicious!), red velvet cake (not so red-velvety-ish and the topping tasted more like butter than cream cheese) and tiramisu (nothing to shout about but you can definitely taste the coffee in it). 

I was in Shah Alam yesterday and I bought 2 small boxes of chocolate moist cake and 1 trifle pudding, which I have yet to try.

I can finish it all by myself. They distribute the cakes to other places too. I'm thinking petrol station etc but I am not sure what the price is like outside. This small box is only RM4. Bigger ones are RM5 (in a small heart-shaped box) and RM8 for a rectangular box. If you happen to be in Shah Alam and you love good moist chocolate cake, go give it a try. I honestly don't mind promoting it simply because the chocolate cake is really good (in my opinion, that is). After all, I get to help their business to grow too, right? They deserve it. I am happy to know I can get my chocolate cake fix anytime and at a very cheap price too. Yeay!!