I know, I know.. I haven’t been updating my blog.. Was helping the kids in their exam preparation.. then Little J caught some viruses and was vomiting severely.. 2 days later, Big J caught the virus and was having diarrhea and vomiting severely for several days, missed his exam.. few days later, I caught the virus! Although I did not vomit nor having diarrhea, my stomach was bloated and I didn’t had any appetite for few days nor enough sleep. It didn’t help that hubby was overseas and no maid to help out and my internet line was down for several days.

Every thing is ok now, and it’s back to blogging. Really looking forward to the long school holiday….

No, don’t get alarmed by the topic of this entry. I am not been abused, at least not by another human being. My hands and feets have been “abused” by the washing detergent. I have the roughest hands and feets which I have never had before in my life. My heels crack and peel so badly and my hands have turned so dry and rough.. The soles look so awful and so dirty despite scrubbing them with body scrub every day). Well meaning friends have recommended all types of washing detergent which claim to be gentle to the hands and feet, I have tried a few and yet to see any good results.

I was thinking hard on how to heal my cracked heels and rough hands. My tai-tai friend recommends me to go for regular hand and feet spa, but I have no time at all. Out of the blue, I remembered a couple of years ago, Big J’s feets were peeling badly after swimming. Then, my sister recommended to soak his feet with dead sea salt and amazingly, he recovered within days.

Aha.. the thought gave me an idea to come out with a home remedy. I did a bit of google search on cracked heels and came out my own remedies. First I would scrap away all those dry, flaky skin on my feet. I would use a very moisturising shower gel and scrap using the pumice stone. After that, I scrub them gently with a body scrub. Then I soak them in a warm dead sea salt water for about 20 minutes. After that, I apply a 100% Petroleum Jelly all over my feet and put my socks on. I do this before I sleep. I would use the pumice stone twice a week, soak in a warm dead sea salt water every alternate day and appy the 100% Petroleum Jelly every night. It’s the same remedy for my hand, except that I do not scrap it with the pumice stone. Believe it or not, I see immediate result! I do not endorse any brands. I am using the pumice stone from Guardian,  Johnson 5.5pH Nourishing Body Wash, Secret Garden Body Scrub, Cosway Dead Sea Salt and Vaseline 100% Petroleum Jelly. They really work wonder on my hands and feets. I can now enjoy “abusing” my hands and feets with any types of washing detergent. Haha….

I started getting bloody discharge two nights before. The next day, I went to see my gynae. It was 3 weeks before baby was dued. She checked and told me that everything was ok, no contraction, no dilation and sent me home. I went to work as usual, the bloody discharge continued. Then I gave my elder sis a call and told her about the bleeding. She told me that baby was definitely eager to come out, though 3 weeks early. She told me to admit to the hospital immediately. I listened to her. But I didn’t go to hospitally immediately because there were some jobs needed to be done in the office. I called for a meeting, dedicated the jobs and tidied up my desk. By then, it was already after office hour.

I called hubby and told him what my sis said. He agreed that we should go to the hospital. Back home, I took a shower, packed my stuff and waited for hubby for dinner. After dinner, off we went to SJMC and I was admitted. The bleeding got worse but there wasn’t any contraction. The nurse checked and found no dilation as well. She told me that my gynae said I had to be induced the following day. That night, I started having very mild contraction. The gynae visited me about 7am. She checked me, broke my water bag and told me to expect labor in 12 hours time. About 8am, contraction intensified. I called hubby and told him that if he wanted to see his son’s birth live, he better came to the hospital right away. By 8.30am, I asked for epidural and got it at 9.30am and hubby arrived. By 10am, I started to push and my gynae was nowhere to be seen. 10 minutes later, the gynae appeared and Big J was delivered safely.. The date was 13.10.2000.

I remembered vividly the scenario in the labor room, the atmosphere, the emotion… it feels like yesterday. And Big J turns 9 today. Happy Birthday Big J!

During the Hari Raya holidays, we drove back to Penang for a few days break. On our way home, we stopped by one of the highway rest area where there were tons of traders selling all kinds of tropical fruits, our favorite being the guava and the “jambu merah”. My conversation with hubby went like this..

Hubby : Wow..my favorite guava, look so fresh and your favorite “jambu merah”, let’s go and have a look..

Me : Yeah.. let’s go..

2 minutes later..

Hubby : How much are those? (Pointing to the “jambu merah”)

Trader : 1 kg RM12.

Me : Aiyoh.. so expensive.. (whisper to hubby).. I can buy at only RM7 per kg at pasar malam lah.. don’t buy, so expensive one..

Hubby : Aiyak.. pasar malam where got so fresh one… (to trader) bagi saya 1 kg guava, 1 kg jambu merah..

Me : ………………….

Ha… being a typical housewife, I tend to compare prices and would even hop from one place to one place just to get the cheapest price… and hubby would just buy whatever on the spot as long as he likes it.. He just can’t understand why woman will drove 5 km just to get something which is 50 sen cheaper.. Guess that’s why Men Are Martians and Women Are Venusians…

Ever since my maid went back to Indonesia for good, I engaged a house cleaning service agent to “spring clean” my house weekly. On the first day, 2 Indonesian cleaners came and I wasn’t satisfied with their work. They washed the toilet without any brushing, just poured water and that’s it! They wiped the cabinets leaving behind strands of wool, sweeping the floor without sweeping under the tables and beds! I almost fell off the chair as I observed how they worked! I kept quiet, in fact I didn’t make any comment / complaints. When they finished their work, I gave them 2 packets of biscuits and made 2 cups of milo for them. When their employer came to pick them up, I told her that I want the same cleaners to clean my house the following week.

The following week came. Same cleaners came. I just sat back and observed them. To my surprise, they worked diligently, much, much better than their first visit! I chatted with them as they worked, found out about their hometowns, their likes and dislikes, their families etc. I literally “make friend” with them. Before they left, I gave them cookies and the following week, their work got better and better! I believe that had I complained to their employer, or had I requested different cleaners and expected them to do a better job, I may still have to “endure” their “chin-chai” cleaning attitude. Their job gets better each week. I guess my little “bribe” pays off after all!

Wow! Just came back from a long breakaway and my blog is spammed! Tons of spam comments, wonder how they “found” my website.. will update soon.. stay tuned..

It’s the holiday season..again… Yahooo… we are going to “balik kampung”.. with no worries about applying for annual leave and the leave being not approved.. ha.. Those days when I was working in a giant Japanese multinational, all leaves will be frozen, no one is allowed to take any leave before or after the festive break…

Looking back, I remembered almost all senior management staff hardly took leave. Everyone will leave office as LATE as possible. The later you leave office, it showed the more hardworking you are. I knew some managers will leave office on the dot for some break, makan-makan or run some errands for a couple of hours, then came back to the office and punched out at 10pm!! Sadly, the working hours were reflected on the annual appraisal! And if you had taken any emergency leave before or after festive break, you were bound to be blacklisted for any promotion or upgrading. And if you had taken any maternity leave in that particular year, your hope for any promotion or upgrading would be dashed even if you had worked extremely hard and had been productive for the 10 remaining months!

Frankly, I wouldn’t blame the management for those hardworking ”culture”. In my early years, I was shocked to find out that some Managers would not take leave because they were worry that their staff would “take over” their responsibilities. There were no empowerment and Managers had these inferior complex. They won’t even groom successors and always put down those talented staffs resulting in high turn over of young, talented staffs.. Of course there were exceptional one or two managers who were result-orientated and rewarded their staff handsomely for a job well done.

I used to rant about the management’s “policy” to hubby. Hubby’s advice then was to take it or leave it. If you wish to stay in the company, you need to adapt to its culture, otherwise leave.. I chose the later.. To date, I still can’t understand the culture.. what’s the big fuss about taking leave when even Prime Minister takes leave to go for holiday!

A friend called me the other day and told me that a friend of hers bought 3 pairs of genuine Croc sandals at RM25 per pair. I was like.. huh? First thing that came to my mind was those must be either fakes or stolen goods. But didn’t she say they were authentic? It smells exactly like Croc, my friend was saying and she told me where to get this so-called authentic brands at a very, very cheap price.

To me, luxury items would not come cheap, unless they are fakes or stolen goods. I was “conned” once many years ago. I ordered a so-called authentic Kenzo perfume, from ebay at 75% cheaper than market price. When the good arrived, its packaging look exactly authentic and when I opened up, I knew I was conned! The smell of the perfume was horrible, the stem of the flower (Kenzo trademark) wasn’t alligned properly because the bottle cap doesn’t fit the bottle well.. That’s was my one and only purchase from ebay, though a few friends do claim that they bought 100% authentic branded items from ebay at a very reasonable price.

That left me pondering, why would anyone carry a fake LV bag, wear a replica Gucci shoes and an imitationChanel gown, just to feel good?  What atonishing here in Malaysia is that you see people would carry, wear fakes luxury brands every where! In fact, someone I know actually bought a Grade 1A replica LV bag for RM400+!! I was like.. wow! For RM400, I would rather go for a genuine Guess or Sembonia handbags!

The thing is luxury items come with class and style. Money may not be an object when it comes to buying luxury items, but you needs to wear them with style and class. A wealthy tai-tai I know carries a genuine LV bag, but talks so loud and shouted to her children and even digs her nose and ear in public! Another rich tai-tai I know carry a normal bag from Parkson store and looked so elegant with it!

Oh yes, back to the story about Croc sandals. Apparently, those are from a genuine Croc factory but categorized under rejected items. Again, would you buy a authentic, rejected luxury brands?

This is a long overdued entry. Well, it is better to be late than never….

I must admit that we went to the Convention with a high expectation. It was officiated by the Selangor Menteri Besar, so I thought it was to be a very huge event. The convention hall was only half full. It was my first time to hear Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim spoke and I was taken aback by his English language.. There were numerous time where I couldn’t tell if he was talking about his daughter or his son cos he looked like a bit confused with he & she, you know what I mean.

Ok, back to the convention. I was a little bit disappointed. It was more like a preview and promotional campaign of the organizers’ programmes and their seminars. Why do they call it a Kids Leadership Convention when 95% of the talk was targeted to the parents? 

The kids enjoyed the Convention though. Learn some new tricks and I was surprised to see Big J & Little J patiently listened to Adam Khoo. He is afterall a cool guy..ha! I managed to catch Adam as he was leaving the hall immediately after his talk and got him to sign 2 books, “I am Gifted, So Are You” & “Nuturing The Winner &  Genius In Your Child”. I strongly recommend all parents to read these 2 books.

Well, I doubt that I will attend the Convention again next year. It doesn’t worth paying RM200 for an adult and a child just to listen to some previews, which are normally free. Speaking of seminars, would you send your child to attend a RM4K+ motivational camp? Those camps which promise to produce star students and turn around low grades.. Me? I won’t.  Will share my thoughts in my coming entries..