Changing phone

I'm thinking of changing my handphone. The one I have has served me well for two years. It has all the features I need in a phone. But again, there is always aspiration for something better. My phone is still in a good condition although recently showing signs of wear and tear. I recently cracked the screen (housing only) when I accidentally hit the screen with my ring. A good excuse to change the phone and so the search begins. I searched online for THE phone to get.

What I will like in a phone:

1. Keypad which is easy to use, especially for sms.

2. A good camera and video camera for that Kodak moment with my kids when I do not have my digital camera with me.

3. An inbuilt MP3 player so I can listen to music when I'm doing cardio exercises by myself in the gym. Going on the threadmill for 20 minutes is super boring! I would rather go for a walk outside. All that walking and not going anywhere *yawn*

and I have narrowed down my search:

Nokia 6288
Sony Ericsson W810i

The Sony Ericsson seems to have better camera features and also it's a Sony ma, so definitely better music features. However, I've been using Nokia phones recently and they are so user-friendly. Many years ago, I had an Ericsson phone which drove me bananas. Looking at the two, I'm partial to the SE which costs less and has more features. However, I am partial to the user-friendly features of Nokia phones.

So.... how ah? Nokia or Sony Ericsson???

Year of the Boar

This is the 2nd day of The Year Of The Boar. If the rest of the year is anything like the eve and the first couple of days, I say bring it on!

What has become tradition in our family is our friends coming over for New Year's Eve reunion dinner. These are friends who are like family to us. Here are some of the dishes prepared for that day.

A special request by friends and family every year is TAU YEW BAK, which is braised pork belly in soy sauce. PT's eldest daughter called on New Year's Eve to make sure I'd saved some for her as in the previous two years, our guests had polished everything before their visit. This year, I doubled the portions and saved some especially for family visiting on the first day of New Year. That meant cooking 4kg of pork belly and shoulder!

Jew Hoo Char (jacima beans/sengkuang fried with shredded cuttlefish) is a dish which is special to me. Chinese New Year reunion dinner is not complete with this dish. A dish which symbolizes abundance as cuttlefish sounds like "always have" in Hokkien. I can eat this alone with lettuce and forego all the other dishes. This dish reminds me of CNY's of my childhood in Ipoh.

More auspicious sounding dishes were lotus root soup for longevity, "ho see fatt choy" (dried oysters with hair fungus) for all good things and prosperity, emperor chicken so we all live like emperors, "ha ha tai siew" (prawns) for lots of laughter throughout the year, "nien gao" (steamed sweet cake with grated coconut) for promotion and advancement in our career, stir-fried sweet peas for a sweet year ahead and of course "loe sang" for obvious reasons. I believe we have all the important things in life covered!

The reunion dinner ended about 5am, with most of our friends crashing at our place. By late morning, the party started again when we got up and our family joined us. My brothers and their family, PT's daughters and family and our friends who stayed over. It was a noisy house but I love it! Kids were playing, adults were chatting, lots of cooking and buzz in the house.

In the evening, I suddenly realised I've not heard Adam's voice for a while. I found him sprawled on the sofa, fast asleep!



After his power nap and a shower, he was playing again. Here's the biker chick and biker dude!



Today we visited PT's 80+ year old aunt and we visited my aunt too. Most times, holidays and family getting together are portrayed in a negative light in the movies. Dysfunctional family members fighting over dinner and not getting along. I am so happy that that doesn't apply to us as I love visiting family and I love having family and friends over.

I've not come to the best part yet. Even with all the excitement and being super busy, I have not missed a single day of gym! Yes, I've been going to the gym! More of that in another post in the near future!

Happy New Year!

Here's wishing everyone a Happy Lunar New Year!

*Sigh*

It is quite amazing - to me anyway - how my day can be spoiled by just a look by someone close to me. What has been a fabulous weekend of baking, decorating and parties and a euphoric high of appreciative comments can come crashing down just like that. In that split second...

On that note, I'm going to bed now. No worries as my optimistic self will emerge again after a good night sleep.

Growing up

My little girl is growing up fast! Laura has just started Std 1 this year. Where has the little baby gone to? Today, she came back with a puncture on each arm. Enoculation in her school, follow up of BCG and I don't know what's the other one! She was very pleased to have shared that experience with the rest of her schoolmates.

I remember going through that when I was in Std 1. We all queued up to wait our turn with the nurse. Some girls cried. Most girls chatted until it was their turn. I remember feeling a little scared as I approached the nurse. A little pin prick which was more like an insect bite and it was over.

Sure we could have taken Laura to see her paediatrician to get that done but then she wouldn't have had that experience in school :D

In case of emergency

Something happened today which got me thinking. At about 6.00pm this evening, the fire alarm in our condo block went off. The alarm going off isn't that unusual as the system is rather sensitive. This time, there was smell of smoke! PT and I stayed calm and thought we had better get out of our building. PT went out on the landing to see what the situation was. I made sure Adam stayed close to me while I went to get our important documents and some valuables. Then we calmly walked down the stairs to another block for safety. One of our neighbours had just got home. She rushed upstairs to get her younger daughter and helper down. The fire department was called and they took more than 10 minutes to arrive. There wasn't any fire. It turned out that one of the neighbours upstairs from us were burning newspaper which triggered off the alarm. This incident raised a few questions in me:

1. Why the FUCK was the guy burning newspaper in an apartment block? What was he thinking that dumbass! The BOMBA officers and some neighbours went to the guy's apartment to tell him off. Let's hope he won't do it again.

2. Are my important documents within easy access if we need to grab and run? Even though I have made sure our documents are kept in a safe place, I didn't manage to take all of our important documents. I had missed out my children's birth certificates! Now I make sure all important documents are together, within grabbing reach.

3. Will our helper know what to do if there was really an emergency? The fact that my neighbour's helper stayed indoors with her younger daughter made me realise we need a plan of action in emergencies. That is most important as both PT and I may not be home if and when there is an emergency.

4. How fast can the Bomba respond to a fire emergency? Took them almost 15 minutes to get to us. By which time, if there was a fire, a lot of units would have been burned.

After the incident, I went through with my helper what to do in an emergency. However, she needs to remember that the children's safety and her safety are the most important of all. Documentation and valuables can be replaced. Human life... NOT.