Lucky Strike

I can't believe my last post was dated October 25th! Just when I thought my blogging momentum was picking up, and then disaster must struck, of course! What disaster, you ask? Well, to begin with, Della the lappy was hit by some kinda virus, which wiped out most everything. And then it took a couple of weeks for it to be repaired, and it came back without Microsoft Office installed, and that, took more than a month to be done up. On top of that, just when Della finally came back to me, a week or so later the modem got struck by lightning and I'm out of touch again. -_- And when a new modem was replaced, it took forever for me to install the damn thing, even 2 calls to TM's service center at 2 in the AM, reset everything that can be reset and it didn't helped! And then the whole install, uninstall, reinstall, troubleshoot, retroubleshoot, install and uninstall and reinstall, and sent the modem back to the vendor and install again, and here we are, ladies and gentlemen, the problem, says the high and mighty of the techie world, lies in my phone line, please call your ISP provider kthxbai. @$%^*&(%^I&UTYT%%&^*&(*OIUTYGHJKU
-_______________-

Oh since I'm on the subject of disaster, might as well throw these bits in! Exciting!

In between the happenings of my lappy breaking down and modem getting struck, my new phone's 3G, without notice nor explanations, couldn't connect for a week, our car's battery died on a weekday morning, followed by punctured tires, or was it the other way round? /taps chin/. Anyways, during the process of the whole modem-installation-and-uninstallation was happening, just last Sunday, one of the car's tires got punctured by a darn nail. Again.

And yeah, I think that's about it! Pretty awesome huh? And just for the record, my internet connection issue is not solved yet, and it's a complicated situation on how I get to come online now, so let's just not exhaust ourselves getting that part explained.

BUTTTTT all these crazy mishaps aside, life went on - some days more awesomer than the others - and I'm practicing this whole positive thinking (so, hush!) and I'm surer than a heart attack that for every bad thing that happened to me/us, a hundred more good things' gonna happen, like, anytime now. Really.

And a quick report and record on my black-out month (that's November, where I was outta connection, remember? Z), I kinda organized a first tea party/meetup for a group of SAHMs, who mostly were only online friends before the gathering! I was crazy nervous about the whole thing, I mean, I'm not exactly a PR kinda person to begin with; and I got a little ambitious about trying to get sponsors for door gifts, just to make the participants happy. I sent out a million emails and only one company had the manners to reply me, though the response was negative. But still! Does letters sent without a company letterhead render us worthless? Such spirit breakers, these corporate players!

Anyhoo, the gathering came and went, and I can safely say the ladies had fun, and our objectives of having a little me-time with only girl-friends are met!

Oh and a week before that I was in Bangkok yo! Or erm, to be precise, Ms. Kate and I were around the Pratunam area, for the entire weekend. Yeah. How exciting right? I know! We were just such shopping noob lah! We didn't bring enough money in the first place, and then we got too excited and thought we overspent on the day we touched down (our first 4 Thai hours, uhm hmm), and so we got depressed on the second day and lost all mood to buy anything at all. And then on the third day, we realized that we, in fact, did have a little more kachings than we thought we did, and that we shouldn't be all so glum and go home empty handed, and so we speed-shopped in 3 hours and bought all that we could, before packing up and left for the airport at noon. How's that for noob travelers? Hehe!

Anything that happened before the trip my brain remembers not. And I blame this on epidurals! OHHHH BUT JUST BEFORE ANYTHING (erm, obviously after all the grandmother stories above there), I have an exciting "news" to share!
What? NuuuUUuuu. I'm not pregnant! -__- But that  my next post is gonna be a happy girly post somewhat a review article of an awesome blogshop! Cliche much? Well, the only two reasons I write about a brand/business is either a) it pisses me off, big time; or b) it's pretty awesome and worth a mention. And trust me, I do have a list of brands/businesses that seriously pissed me off the roof that I so want to rant about, but then the thought of it alone just saps my energy and makes me tired, and in the end, count it their lucky day as their names are safe from being tarnished, for yet another day. We'll see when it ends. We'll see.

Right, urgh, lotsa digression (yes, the epidural!), so yeah, obviously this is a matter of b) and not a)! On top of that, the blogshop owner (ok actually yeah, she's somewhere in between an acquaintance and a friend!) is actually sweet enough to offer a little promotion for my readers (chewah sound so important! Just ok, please, no need to say the obvious, just play along ok and give me that 2 seconds of erm, importance -.-)

So yuppers, stay tuned!

Meanwhile, life in pikchas!!! :)))

My clingy lil bub finally started walking!

ootd! Ever since I received an iphone for our wedding anniversary, I've become this shameless camwhore haha :x

case in point.

Frap drew this and said, "mommy, me!" I was reduced to a teary pulp.

After the cut and the dye job that failed.

Primary through High school friends!

Went back for touch-up and had an accidental dip-dye job instead.

Frappy pre-haircut

Nipped this pic from Melly. Love our group pic!

This was taken before oli started walking on her own. Frap was helping her walk.

Bought this without even thinking if I'd wear it because it was that cheap!

noob travelers are meant to travel together haha

These cheeky+ghetto faces greeted me on the phone when I was away in BKK.

Green-tea tasting honey cake.

 

See my lilac skinnies? SEE?!

Frappy practicing her ABC scribbles. I'm impressed that she recognizes quite a few letters!

Love this drama pic! Haha Also love this floral number from Asos. Taken during the mommy gathering!

Our not-very-dainty tea party!

And people think sahm are ah sohs/aunties? Eat my dust! (HAHAHA! Totally irrelevant, I just want to say that!)

Midnight book shopping @ Big Bad Wolf Book Sale! Reached home at 3am x_x

If you can't beat them, join them. This crazy galloping fever. Z.

No Show

My lappy crashed! URGH THE HORROR! T__________T

I've been going on what seemed like ages without getting in touch with my online world, rather uninspired - blogs, fb, and whatnots - when I have a long list of to-do's to be checked off; and then when I finally picked myself up and vomited an article out to be published, made that arrangements for a tea party, thank god I got my translation work done (and invoice sent!!!! Oh thank You Lord!!!), and then my lappy (or rather the virus) just had to shut down on me, bit by bit, making sure I watched it delete every piece of file, and so deleting a big piece of me :(

So now I'm laptop-less (so wrong! Haha!) and wahey, I'm so inspired! To blog! To make announcements for the parties! To write! To edit photos! To basically do everything online! -_- I'm just truly amazed with my sense of priorities.

Oh never mind me. I'm using Jason's lappy btw. And also just to share with you a piece of something I posted over at friendlyfashion's. So do pop by and give me a yay, if, it's erm, yay-worthy. Haha. I'll have more articles coming up, both here in this blog and there at ff.my's, been bitten by the DIY bug lately! Hehe!

So yeah, bonne nuit you guys! Gotta crash or I'll auto-crash. Nite y'all.

Ham & Spinach Pizza

Uhm hmm, the title came to be because I need to salvage a can of near expiry canned tomatoes /satisfied

It's super easy to make and super tasty to eat! So there's really nothing to not like about it. Here's the lowdown:

Ham & Spinach Pizza

Ingredients:

1. Store-bought pizza base (in the absence of a pizza base, you can always use wholemeal bread, pita, baguette, etc. But I'd suggest to use breads that are hard enough to hold the fillings up.)
2. Ham, diced/pulled/chopped/however you like it
3. Spinach, roughly chopped up
4. A clove of garlic, roughly smashed up
5. Canned tomatoes
6. Grated parmesan and/or mozarella (I have neither, so I used a piece of cheddar)
6. Dash of olive oil
7. Sprinkle of salt

1. Preheat oven to 230 degrees Celsius. Line the tray with baking sheet and place your pizza base on it.

2. This is the fun part, there's no right or wrong, just do it your way - scoop the tomatoes from the can and smear it thickly over the base, distribute the mashed up garlic, layer on the spinach and the ham.

3. Drizzle the olive oil, sprinkle a little salt and the cheese over the pizza.

4. Send it into the oven and baked for 12-15 minutes, until the spinach is wilted.

5. Loudly proclaim bon appetit the Julia Child way and dig in!

Yum!

The Diva Is Officially One!

Dear Oli,

Today (ok, 1.5 weeks ago), you turned one! Imagine that! All grown up and ready to conquer the world, you! And we didn’t even see you growing! But despite the fact that we can’t lavish you with our full attention, please, please know that we are always, and I do mean always, always proud of you, precious!

Right this moment, you have cut 8 teeth. The double eyelid on your right eye is more apparent now (phew!). You can crawl on your belly and your knees with the grace and speed of a snake. You can stand supported and are showing signs of wanting to stand on your own already. You love to eat. You don’t like to drink water. You still wake up one time at night for milk (pfft, which is pretty annoying lah girl please just sleep through lah can? Zzz). You are climbing anywhere and anything like a pro, and giving us that smug face when you succeed. You know how to wave goodbye, blow kisses, kiss on the lips, and do that layan cheek-brush when you don’t want to lip-kiss, or smack people’s face away when you don’t feel generous with your kisses (mommy does have divas for babies!). You are making the mama/mum mum sounds already! You loved to be tackled and tickled, especially by your jie jie. You love “reading”. You love imitating us when we talk on the phone, by clasping your ear with one hand and go, ah! Ah!. You clap hands when asked to. You clap hands when you see your sister achieved a task or danced or sang or being praised by the grownups. You put away toys. Yes. Let me say this again, you put away toys! How freaking cool is that?! This, my dear, makes mommy so, awesomely proud! Honestly, I really think you’re a genius. I have you on videos putting away toys on various occasions. Genius. Nuff said. 

You love to laugh. You love to cry more. You’re crazy active. You have the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen, the type that just freeze you in the moment and you pretty much turn me into a blob of messy goo. You also know how to sucker up to me when I’m angry with you – by gently resting your head on my chest/shoulders, then slowly and lightly plant a kiss on my cheek, and keep silent till I give in and bear hug you. You go to sleep in a jiffy if it’s papa who put you down, but you’ll go all demanding wanting to hold my hand/fingers to sleep when it was me. You still drink 6oz of milk. You have curly hair! You dance when you hear music. Did I mention that you love to laugh?

Oh that laughter is just glorious. It’s the most carefree, hearty laugh. The best thing to happen in a day is to hear you and your jie jie laugh. Together. So if there’s one thing you can keep, my baby, is that God-given laugh. No matter what life brings you, just laugh that hearty laugh. And you’ll see, no problems, no heartaches, are bigger than God, you hear me baby?

You are a fast learner, Oli. And your jie jie is your ultimate partner in crime; she’s always so supportive of all the mischief you have up your sleeve. I do hope you both will stay close that way. Just tone down on all those mischief, especially those targeted at me, alright love?

We didn’t manage to celebrate your birthday in a fast food outlet with the mascot and lavish novelty cake as planned. But we did plan out a weekend full of activities for you and your jie jie. It was so tiring for both mommy and papa but looking back at the pictures now, it’s worth it. I wish we had done more for you. 

On your birthday morning, we had brunch with jie jie Rachel and Beatrice; and your birthday meal was a butter sandwich toast. Ain’t it awesome?! And that butter toast was just a starter baby! You have thus begun a relationship with oily food yo!

After taking a nap, you woke up and watched your favourite Madagascar (erm, I just made that up. Actually all animations can hold your attention). And later when papa came home, we brought you to McDonald’s! Haha! I was so excited I ordered the entire kitchen, I mean, we’re talking about celebrating your first birthday man! Bring on the fast food and the wicked black liquid (erm, coke?)! We had wanted to let you roam the playroom, but decided the boys in there were too rowdy (your jie jie got kicked in the face by them when coming down from the slide. Now, do you still think you want a brother?). So, you ended up in the high chair most of the night, chomping on fries! I’d say that’s a pretty awesome birthday already! 

And then! On Saturday, we got ourselves tickets to… wait for it… tada!

Hi5 baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

But then we were late by half an hour. As usual, because your papa did not listen when I told him a million times that the show starts at 3.30pm! Grr. And of course your jie jie was sleeping forever! So yeah. But still, we made it! Totally all out of breath. No matter, because they were awesome! One of the cute Hi5-er did the gagman style dance to the roaring applause of the crowd parents moms, actually. /shifty eyes 

Anyway! That was Saturday. And Sunday was your big day! We decorated the house a bit (I just love that old school accordian streamers that I made! That's right, I did craft! Hee! I wrote about it at friendlyfashion.my), changed the lighting, catered food, oh and I bought you a beautiful cake! And your jiu jiu made the most amazing cheese dip for the party (for your jie jie’s fullmoon party too. Well he has this foolproof, sure-win cheese dip recipe that will get him any girl, or aunty, that he wants, if he wants; you just have to get it from him later ok?) 

don't you just love the gradient? heart!

We invited your closest family and friends to celebrate the occasion with us, it’s a shame though your grandma from Melaka couldn’t make the party, but we will visit her soon so you can tell her how awesome the party went. 

OHH! And you were dressed in the most adorable ballerina costume! I’m talking about legit doll-face adorable with all the multiple folds all over your tummy and arms and legs! If only I can have that moment with you in that costume forever…

sorry doll, it's once size too big. hah.

Baby Olivia, darling, thank you for coming into our lives, into my life. Your arrival reaffirms that I can be that strong woman I’ve always seen in other mothers and thought it crazy impossible to be like that. You, have helped me to be strong, to be that mother that I never thought I could be. I may not be the best mother on earth, far from it actually, but I’m learning. And I truly thank God for you and your jie jie everyday. I mean, what are the odds for ordinary persons like mommy and papa to be entrusted with the two most beautiful girls in the entire universe?! Man, it’s crazy! Ahh but let’s not get sappy now, shall we (because it's one in the AM and ma eyes oh ma eyes are burning sleepy!!! =__=)?

Baby here’s wishing you a very blessed first birthday, my darling! I hope this first will propel you to greater heights in the many years to come! And may God continue to keep you in the center of his Will and Love!

Now go out and break some hearts kick some butts! 

Love always,
The One Who Gives You Those Good Genes 
a.k.a Your Mom