Cleffairy's Blog, page 194

The Future Door

This is the second time I read Jason Lethcoe's book. The first one was 'No Place Like Holmes' and I must say that this book does not disappoint. I absolutely love this book and I enjoyed it as much as the precedessor.

There's so much to be discovered in this book and I couldn't get the mystery out of my head when I read this book. Absolutely page-turning and I wouldn't mind reading this book again and again in the near future.

I highly recommends this book to those who loves a good juvenile mystery with plenty of moral story. Suitable for young children and teens. I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Book description:

A mystery is afoot at 221 Baker Street, but will Griffin Sharpe be able to figure out the clues before the future catches up with the past?

When Sherlock Holmes moves out of Baker Street, a new tenant moves in—a mysterious woman named Elizabeth who has long been a fan of Holmes. When she discovers that Griffin and his uncle are also detectives, she becomes very friendly. So when Elizabeth goes missing along with a special invention, Griffin sets out to rescue her. But finding Elizabeth will take them on a race against the clock that bends time itself!

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So so Korean food

I'm not really into Korean food, and the only thing that I liked about Korean food is probably just the Kimchi and Dolsot Bibimbap (Korean mixed rice seved in a stoneware).

Initially I wanted to drag my husband to eat in Muar Restaurant in Jalan Tengkat Tong Shin when we went to Low Yat Plaza the other day as I've been craving for their food for quite some time now, but my husband's friend suggested us to try out a Korean restaurant at the lower ground floor instead. And so, we went for this Korean food restaurant instead.

Don't ask me the name of the restaurant. I've forgotten the name of the restaurant. =.= Boy, oh boy,I'll never be a food blogger. I never bothered to remember any restaurant's name, food name, pricing and whatnot. But then again, I'm not interested to be a food blogger. It's not my type of thing though I do enjoy good food. You see, I've always feel that being in that line of blogging is rather… distasteful and restrictive. I always believe in eating in a stress-free environment where I pay for my food and give an honest opinion about it.

Let me tell you something about invited food reviews…some invited food reviews requires you to give positive review about their food, and you don't always get paid for doing so. Yups, you don't get paid. All you get is just eat for free and you don't always get to eat til your tummy is full as sometimes, you'll be sharing most of the food with other invited bloggers.

I don't really like that kind of thing when it comes to food. I'm quite a picky and fussy eater…so yeah… not all food will agree with my tastebuds.

Neway, these are what we had that day. We ordered a set of food to be shared among ourselves and the bill came up to Rm50++ inclusive of green tea and soft drinks.

 

The side dishes came first. The usual… white radish kimchi, cabbage kimchi and sweetened anchovies. I love the kimchi though I must say they ought to ferment it a tad longer. It's not spicy and sourish enough for me. The anchovies on the other hand, almost made me puke. Too sweet and chewy instead of crispy and have a really weird smell.

I don't know what this dish is called. I did not touch it cuz there's pork in it (I don't take pork). I supposed it's some kind of spicy ramen soup with assorted meat and vegetables in it. Not sure how it taste like, but if it tasted nice, my son would have probably gobbled up his share within minutes cuz he loves spicy Korean ramen. But he did not… so I suppose it wasn't really that nice. (or his appetite has already been spoiled by a tub-full of Pringle Chips. LOL)

Korean rice cake. It was my first time trying the rice cakes. Looks a bit like our Malaysian pasembor isn't it? It comes with loads of veggies, boiled egg and all. But it's nothing like our pasembor, and I'm not really sure if I will eat this again. The rice cake tastes like plain chee cheong fan, but they are not soft. They are kinda hard and chewy. Would go for a plate of pasembor any day than this one. LOL.

Overall, it was an okay meal. Not really my kinda thing and I regret that I did not order a bowl of bibimbap to eat instead, but then again, it was the good companionship that I enjoyed. That's all that mattered. good companionship.

Cleffairy: Give me freedom, give me fire, give me reason, take me higher…

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It's just impractical

A couple of years ago, I went to visit my husband's aunt during Chinese New Year. She had just lost her husband and was feeling rather depressed back then and someone told me that she would appreciate some companionship. And so, my husband and I went to visit her.

I was rather fond of her because she used to share the same hobbies with me and was was not really a nag in comparison to my husband's other relatives.

But unfortunately for me, my opinion on her changed when she started to ask me about so many questions that I deem really private and confidential during this particular visit. She tried to probe about my sex life and asked me if I'm on Pills, and I definitely do not appreciate that.

I don't know why she changed, but I assume that she's been mixing with my husband's other relative after her husband's death contributed to the changes. She sounded exactly like them. I stopped seeing her since that day unless it's really necessary and unavoidable.

This aunt asked me once about my relationship with my parents. She asked me how often do I go back to my parents' place during festive season, in which, I answered: Almost never and I haven't been going back during festive season for many years now. She was completely aghast with my emotionless answer to her question and immediately assume that I must have a really bad relationship with my family and our ties are somehow severed-because I never go back to visit my family at all during festive season.

Now, before I could explain to this aunt that my relationship with my side of the family is anything but bad, she started to preach and lecture me about the importance of being fillial. I wasn't impressed, because for what it's worth, I don't go back to my parents' place during festive seasons such as Eid, Christmas and Chinese New Year because I see them pretty often during off festive seasons. I do vacations with them, yes. But not go back during festive seasons as my family and I deemed it as impractical.

This aunt prattled on and on about it and I had no chance to correct her low opinions on me regarding the issue. I could safely conclude that the rest of the clans thought I was an unfilial daughter too then.

I don't understand why people must relate going back to parents' place during festive season is equivalent to being filial. I really don't understand that. I don't go back during festive season to my my mum and dad's house and yet my relationship with them is great. They still love me and they don't put a blame on me for not being filial for that. This is because I see them pretty often. They come to my place very often. We catch up on each other's life very often and we spend quality time with each other pretty often too…

I don't go back during festive season to my parents' place because it is too troublesome and not worth the time and effort since they live in a place that's at least 6 hours drive away.

My family and I…we're practical, rational and completely reasonable creature. We prefer to spend quality time with each other, and we prefer not to waste our time getting mad while getting stuck in the traffic jam or paying disgustingly exorbitant amount of money for flight tickets and whatnot just so that we can see each other during festive season.

Traveling during festive season is absolutely tiring too as we don't necessarily reach our destination in a short period of time. It can get dangerous too as the road is really accident-prone during festive seasons. My father and mother cared about me too much and they always refuse to let me and my little family travel back to their place during festive season. They don't want us to ended up stressed, tired and a few thousands poorer by the time we arrived.

To go back to my hometown just so that I could have dinner with a bunch of nosy relatives seated at the table with my parents does not make any sense to me when I can spend a whole day with them in complete privacy during off-festive seasons. It's much more stress free, I reckon.

We don't have a reason to do what other people do when our relationship is more than good and scrutinizing relatives who assume that our relationship has gone awry be damned. I am not interested in any of their opinions because I know that the truth is not what they think it is. It's all in their minds.

Commercials about going back to visit elderly parents during festive season is overrated too in my humble opinion. What good does it make if you just meet up with your elderly parents during festive season but the truth is that your relationship with them is beyond repair and you  don't really care about their well being during other time of the year? If you really care, you'd do it any time of the year. Not just festive season. Am I right?

Tell me, what good does it make to just go back during festive seasons? Sure, you'll look good in front of stereotyping relatives who thinks that being filial means going back to visit the elders during festive seasons… but come on, you know the truth and that is just trying to make a good impression among your relatives about you. It's just a pretty illusion and deception.

Cleffairy: Visiting the elders during the festive season does no equate to being obedient and filial. I know this. My parents know this too. Unfortunately for me, the rest of the world does not always share the same opinion.

 

 

 

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Fine Jewelry Is For Me Always

 

I cannot deny the fact that I love jewelry,  well, which lady does not, right?  Since I was a teenager, I have been admiring all crystal-like gems and costume jewelry.  They do not cost much then but nowadays, it is different.  I noticed that many of us ladies prefer these fine color diamond jewelry to put on, at work or attending functions.

One of them is my niece. She had just started working and simply couldn't resist not getting one of these lab diamond solitaire pendant for herself when she received her first pay.

It looks so beautiful that I wish I can buy one for myself too. Perhaps I should consider buying for myself one too, just to reward myself for all the hard work I've done all these years?

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It's okay if they go MIA

It's no secret among my good friends that I love little girls and always dreamed of having a little girl of my own to spoil and pamper to the max. I always imagined doing girly things with my daughter. Shopping for cute little dresses, playing dress up and stuff. But it will remain nothing but a dream cuz I don't have one! I only have a hyperactive and overly macho little boy who is never interested in doing all those things with me.

I'm officially deprived of the love of a little girl who will tell me that I look beautiful with my new clothes or my new hairstyle. And so, when my period went MIA for more than a month, I got rather hopeful and excited. Yes! Hopeful and excited. Can you believe it? I'm well known for complaining about my parenting woes all over the Internet whenever my boy test my patience, but I felt amazingly anxious and excited when my period went MIA. =.= (Yea, I'm quite desperate for a baby daughter)

I did not tell my husband about it. I wanted to be sure before I share any news with him, cuz it's not uncommon for a woman to miss her period even though her cycle is like clockwork. After all, I have been under a lot of stress lately, and missing period could be contributed by that. And so, I secretly bought a home testing kit that contains 2 testing kits.

They gave me this result: one pink line.

I was not satisfied. I know that to be sure, I had to get the doctor to confirm it to me. And so I did. I went to the Hospital Danau Kota to have pregnancy test and blood test done. You see, the pregnancy kit is not always accurate. They don't always detect pregnancy hormones during the early stages of pregnancy. Some pregnancy test kits does not even detect pregnancy hormones until you're further along.

It was a busy day in Hospital Danau Kota. There's plenty of patients there and I should have gone for a drink at the mamak stall next door or go for window shopping in KL Festival City while waiting for my turn, but I was too anxious to go anywhere else. You see, I'm scared of needles and more often than not, doctors, especially gyne intimidates me.

And so, I waited patiently for my turn in the waiting room and saw this video  interview of Professor Peter Davies on children and their needs of sugar as a source of energy while growing up. Professor Peter Davies  is a member of Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) who happens to be here in Malaysia for Paediatric Medical Conference. Do click on the youtube video to see what it's about. Pretty enlightening, I must say.

According to the video, it is a myth that children needs a lot of sugar during their growing up years. Many may not know this, but if extra added sugars are consumed by a child, those extra calories will simply go towards laying down excessive body fats and it may contribute towards to various health problems like obesity, diabetes and dental cavities.

Glucose syrup solids, corn syrup solids and sucrose are all added sugars. They are no good and can be found in alot of children food products, especially in growing up milk powder. Too much added sugars is definitely not good for growing children as these empty calories can lead to overweight and obesity, which can increase the risk of diabetes, heart disease and other terrible incurable diseases.

Yes, children are at risk of these disease if they consumed too much added sugar in the long run. Not only adults or the elders are at risk of these diseases, mind you. Illness like these does not discriminate, I'm afraid. So be careful of what you feed you young children, folks. The added sugars in growing up milk serves no nutritional purpose in growing up milk, and so it is okay if they just go MIA, so be sure to check the label twice for the presence of added sugar before you buy any growing up milk powder for your children.

Speaking of MIA…I did mention that my period went MIA didn't I? Well, that's the real reason why I was at the Hospital Danau Kota; to confirm on whether I was pregnant or not. I wanted to do the lab urine and blood test to confirm it.

If you're a lady and is a mother, you'd probably be able to tell through the home pregnancy kit that I was not pregnant as the result was negative. =.= And it happens that the stick did not lie. *BOOHOO*The blood test came out negative too and it happens that my period was delayed because of of stress and because my blood pressure have been rather low and the doctor simply gave me some pills to allow my period to commence again.

I was rather disappointed because I was not pregnant and the prospect of having a baby girl is no longer there, but then again, it's all right. It's not meant to be and if I'm really honest with myself, I'm not really ready to be a new mother again.Thinking back, it's quite a relief that I won't be having morning sickness and bloody episiotomy(no pun intended) again in the near future!

The urine and blood test may have burned a hole in my pocket, but I did not regret it cuz I learned alot of things that day about children and their dietary needs during their growing up years while waiting for my turn to see the doctor.

 

 

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College game tickets

Are you a fan of college games? If you are, you can consider buying game tickets from Ticketamerica. Ticketamerica.com has many tickets for the best college teams including the virginia tech hokies tickets and wake forest demon deacons tickets as well as the washington huskies tickets. Buy them now before they are sold out.

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Things that saves lives

Do you want to be a superhero but have no superpower like Superman or Spiderman? No worries. You can be a hero too even though you're just an average Jane or Joe.

You can be a hero by using punctuation. Punctuation saves lives. Consider this:

Yups… did you see how we actually saved grandma by using punctuation?  Grammar and impressive vocabulary is not the only thing that is important when you write in English.

Punctuation is important too, and I find it disappointing that a lot of my students don't really use punctuation in their compositions.

I don't know what their English teachers are teaching them in school, but it seems to me that their stories always lack of punctuation as well as imagination.

Whenever I examine their works, I feel as if the students are trained to use 'safe mode' to write where their arguments and opinions are almost the same and monosylabus. I don't know what's going on, but it doesn't impress me when I see their composition plots are similar to each other, and they don't seems to have their own opinion at all.

What really contributes to the lack of creativity? I can't be too sure, but I have a sneaky feeling that our education system is way too restrictive and exam oriented that the students are oppressed from using their creativity as well as letting themselves go whenever they write a story.

Cleffairy: If only I can tell my students that creative writing/novel writing is like playing a piano. First you play by the rules then you must forget the rules and play from your heart.

 

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Hello 2012

Happy new year, folks.It's the first day of the year. Time sure fly really fast, huh? It seems only yesterday that I just wished everyone a very happy 2011, and it's now 2012 already. I have no doubt that soon enough, I'll be wishing everyone a happy 2013 (if I'm still alive and kicking that is).

1st Jan 2012 is the day http://cleffairy.com turns 2 years old, and it's been 3 years since I started blogging. I never made a point to celebrate my blog anniversaries because I never felt like a blogger, but just someone who like to write her opinion and the things that's going on in her life. But then again, I owed it to my blog that I'm blessed with so many wonderful friends. So… yeah… happy birthday to cleffairy.com.

I ended my 2011 with a good closure. I had wonderful dinner with my loved ones during new year eve and I even gave an autograph for 2 of my novels during the dinner… so I guess it was a good way to say goodbye to 2011. I hope to have a good start for 2012, and I hope the year 2012 will bring all good things to your doorsteps. Happy new year to all of you, and may God bless you all abundantly

Cleffairy: I don't have any big resolution this year. All I want is just live for the present and have a fulfilled life, that's all.

 

 

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Looking back…

I don't think I can keep this short, but since I doubt most of you will be reading this anyway, I'll just write as I pleased. 2011 was fairly an okay year. Yeah… just an okay year. Not great, not too bad, just okay. Why just okay? Well, the year didn't start off really great, and I didn't do much thing that I can be proud of this year. I've been rather lazy, uninspired, unproductive and I think I deserve a huge kick in the butt for it. I hope 2012 will be a better year.

January- The year kicked off with plenty of unpleasant things. Misunderstandings, miscommunication as well as some blame game. Plenty to learn in January, especially about people who loves to play pretend and is hypocrite in nature.

February- As usual, there's nothing special in February, except for time and money wasted on many unnecessary things. What's to like in February 2011 anyway? If I had it my way, I would have screamed in frustration because I had to do so many things that I hardly can tolerate. This is the month where I wish certain people in my life dead… I don't care how they die… as long as they DIE and gets out of my hair!

March- *YAWN* Nothing special again, and I was kinda stressed up during that time of the year that I missed my period. I suppose I am not really people person. Whenever people that I dislike keep on stepping on my tail… I get all stressed up.

April- Had a pregnancy scare-because I wasn't ready to be a new mother all over again. Now, that's something new. Suffered the scare in silence all alone until I couldn't take it anymore and blahs it out to my girl-friends. Went to the pharmacy to get a home pregnancy test-kit. It turns out that I was not pregnant and just had an irregular cycle because I was extremely stressed. I was relieved with the result, but couldn't help but feel wistful, for I think a sweet baby girl would make a wonderful addition to my little family. (But it's okay. I wasn't ready, and it's not meant to be.)

May- Plenty of overwhelming things happened in May. Bad things happens in May. I discovered that I'm quite a gullible person and easily manipulated by manipulative and unscrupulous people who had no conscience whatsoever.  I also discovered that you can never trust people who pretends to be pitiful because in truth, they never are pitiful and they just do that to use you for their own benefit. But things also started to get better in May despite of the series of unfortunate events that I was forced to endure. I had plenty of adventures and misadventures with my loved ones and I also decided to swear off every single salon and massaging parlour on the face of the universe. (Long story, I don't want to talk about it) Overall, May is quite an exciting month, and I started to feel more relaxed with my environment and learn how to manage my constantly elevating stress.

June- June was filled with romance. I discovered my husband's cheeky and naughty side and and I don't suppose that it's appropriate for me to write about our rendezvous over here. It's X-rated. Trust me. You wouldn't want to hear any of it.

July- The most romantic and memorable month of the year. Went to many places and had a lot of fun in July. July was a fairly stress-free month. There's some bumps along the way, but it was still a very good month. Very busy month. Schedule was tight, but it's the good kind of busy. I started to swim regularly and drag my boy along with me too. It's nice to know that my son and I shared the same enjoyments towards water.

August-  August was an okay month too. And I had a really great time by the end of the month with family and friends. Lotsa great time, and lotsa food too.

September- Lots of love in September. Received the very first birthday present from my husband ever, but I was taken aback with certain things, and I feel fairly confused throughout the entire month. Luckily for me though, my husband was there to give me moral support. He was my pillar of support and I would have broken down without him.

October- Succumbed to an emotional break down and decided to build a huge wall around myself again and pulled a disappearance act by mid-October. Why? Because I was disappointed in myself for being too trusting, and I did not feel like I want to face the world just yet. I couldn't really forgive myself for being cheated and manipulated over and over again, by the same person nevertheless. I also discovered that some friends are not forever, and no matter how good they are, you must not give yourself or trust them 100% as you'll never know when they will team up with your enemy to stab you from behind. Again, I sought solace in the arms of my husband and I'm eternally grateful that he acted like the hero of my dreams. He was oblivious towards many things that I was facing, but little did he know that he made me feel that it's almost okay to face the devastating world, as long as he's by my side.

November- My family and I was ill throughout the entire month, and was really disappointed that I didn't manage to hit my personal target in November. Lost momentum in so many things and feel extremely uninspired.Well, it can't be helped since my body went against me. A very bad month for my projects and an extremely bad month for business too, especially my husband's. Wished I could do more to help him out, but all I could do was support him and just be there for him, just like he did for me during the previous month.

December- Just so glad that despite of the many problems that I'm facing, my husband remains understanding and supportive of me and dealt with various issues in a more mature manner than before. Quite an improvement and I feel blessed for that. December is also a month for me to reflect and thank God for the wonderful friends who constantly keep me in their thoughts as well.

Cleffairy: I had a quite okay year. How about you? Was it an okay year for you too, or was it horrendous for you?

 

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It's back

It's back. What's back, you ask me? Well, the stress is back to haunt me.I seriously needs a break. I feel so stressed up and overwhelmed lately and nothing seems to be able to make me feel better except for food and sleep.

All I want to do lately is just eat and sleep the day away. I feel extremely uninspired, which is not good cuz when I'm not writing, I'll be sleeping more than 18 hours per day, and I absolutely hate not being productive. I loathe myself for it and yet I couldn't pull myself together.

Not really sure what contributes to all these laziness and moodiness, but I suppose the festive season has taken a toll on my mind, body and soul. And not to mention that school is going to re-opens soon and I'll be going around like a madwoman again.

I feel like doing nothing at all and I long for a vacation, something I believe I won't get any time soon unless I manage to dig up good deals from vacationrentals websites.

Sigh… vacation rentals don't come cheap these days. Most vacation rental costs a bomb during holiday seasons.

Looks like if I really wanna go for a vacation or backpacking with my family and my cat again, I'd have to wait for the non-period time for traveling.

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