blurpenguin

worry... anxiety... and just plain "out of your hands" feeling...

sigh... our 2 gals are sick... Hannah fell sick on sunday... with a raging fever. Her whole body was hot throughout the day, eventhough with doses of childrens panadol. So on monday i took her to the clinic and even the doctor was surprised how hot her whole body was... not extreme temperatures but her whole body was eminating heat... diagnosed with cough - antibiotics and flu medicine... on tuesday... was chearful again... so the worst was over for her...

ALAS! Phoebe got it later that night... so yesterday evening... we noticed she was warmish... temps at 38, kinda hot for babies... + she was kinda lethargic...and off to the doctors again...

I guess it was Hannah that passed the bug to her... even our maid is showing signs of impending cough... sigh... a "sick" family... :p

Still monitoring Phoebe... if her fever doesnt break by tonight... we will have to bring her in again for a second diagnosis... pray it wont reach that.

UPDATE : WOO HOO! PTL! (PTL - Praise The Lord!) looks like Phoebe is out of the fever zone... and looks better too... ! Hannah's all up and cherrie, jumping up and down and back to her usual cheeky self...

WAH!HA!HA!HA!... saw this today... as I was window shopping in ACE Hardware... couldn't resist to buy and try. I think Ju blogged about it before... not sure... but I think i heard a favourable review... so i splunked down RM9 and we shall see...

a question to ponder admidst all the mess the world is pouring around us nowadays... a very touching song...

p/s: if you want to know the origins and how to play this song... go HERE!

"oi mai lui lian mou?" asked the durian seller, just as we stepped out of "alex" shop after lunch.

I am an avid durian eater/lover... so sure! why not... and he soon showed us his fruits... we have mo sang, xo, belanda...
blah blah... types of durian... OK lah! still hungry for durian,
even though less then a week ago we had just bought 2 durians to eat...

OMG! i had just bought 5 durians... and it weighed at 11kg! at rm9 per kg... it was going to cost RM99!!! blink... blink... "make it rm100 lah" says the durian seller and, "and i add this 3 not so keng durians"... as i had chosen a mixture of XO and mo sang... hmmm... no lah... too much... "Aya! can lah" ... ok lah.. can... we closed the deal... (the dark side is strong...)

they even had guys to take the durians to my car... wow! good service... they even had great packaging - a nice paper sack... something like the cement kind... tough and had an inner strong lining... + the durians also looked nice...

I WAS CONNED!

Bleh!... WHAT mo sang and XO... most of them were more like "fan seui", the mo sang variant was barely edible... sheesh!CONNED!CONNED!CONNED! even the 3 not so keng durians tasted better... ARGHHHHHHHHHHH! CONNED!

sigh!... a truly sad day...

NEVER EVER BUY FROM THE VAN OUTSIDE ALEX SHOP CLAIMING TO GET THEIR STOCK FROM PAHANG! NEVER!!!!
I will stick to the Old Post Office ... make-shift shop in the car park one... opposite "Deen's" nowadays...

the nice packaging... for durians...

nice looking durians too...

the aftermath...

most of the durian ended up in the tupperware...
where we hope after being chilled it will improve the lackluster taste...

arghhhhh!!!! why did i put the thing in the freezer!!!!! duh! i just wasted my 1/2 hour toil in the kitchen to cook up a serving of konnyaku jelly for a pot bless

Sunday morning... woke up to do some konnyaku for a friends farewell pot-bless... we were to bring some, as part of our portion... I took upon myself to do those nice wobbly pieces of jelly. in theory not exacly jelly... unlike gelatine... or normall agar-agar... konnyaku is kinda chewy...spongey...

anyways... i made my first mistake... i put the darn batch into the freezer! my mistake... it turned out bad... the mixture had frozen separating the water content and the konnyaku so it was horrible... had that for lunch...

observe the horrible mess of frozen konnyaku jelly...

all frozen up with ice on the tops also

semi melting when defrosted... unlike normal konnyaku

so after lunch... i drove by Giant and bought another 3 packs of Konnyaku prepacked mix. After the first round i discovered... u didnt actually need to boil the water in a pot... then stir the mix and water for 8 minutes... according to the instructions on the box... its all messy and such...

So i went on to do it MY STYLE! use a water container... pour in hot water... pour in mix... stir... then pour into the molds... chill... DONE! Ta-dah! Super EASY!

needs 3 packets for 48 jellys - each packet makes 500ml, add longan for added taste!

My STYLE... use a water container to easily pour into molds

see easy to pour! elevate to not break your back!

no more freezer this time round...

all packed and ready for the pot-bless! Woo-Hoo!

Hannah's birthday's around the corner and we had promised to buy her a proper bicycle... poor thing... we had said that 1/2 a year ago when she first asked for one...

her current bicycle looks like this - only mostly plastic!

u would think... caring parents should buy their kids stuff immediately, but no... we opt it as a birthday gift... so she has waited for approx 6 months...

anyway, we went window shopping yesterday... and wow! bicycle prices have gone up eh... even a kids bicycle would cost us rm180!... wow... anyways... we saw this nice sized red one for her but duh! her eyes caught on to a smaller pink version... but it was too small for her already but the "pink" overruled her judgement... sigh!...

anyway we will still be searching and hopefully we will overcome the pinkness this time...

deadline approaching though... :p

yeah... shocking eh! the title!

sigh... I can't stand cries... 1 minute... 2 minutes is fine... 1/2 an hour... it almost was too much...

yesterday was really bad... Julie was having her chinese tuition and i was in charge of taking care of phoebe for 1 1/2 hours... she had just passed Phoebe to me and she woke up! Don't panic... it's fine... she can be happy and be awake for some time... so we happily played... cooed... laughed for a good 25 minutes! Then noticing smacking lips... i asked Hannah to go ask the maid prepare her a bottle of milk...

ready with milk in hand... i hoped to be able to feed her prior reaching the danger zone! alas! the minute the bottle reached her lips... the crying began! When the crying starts... nothing but her mom's milk will suffice...

so began my 1/2 hour torture of patting and trying to get her to quiet down... she was tired and wanted some soothing and sleep... but for a whole 1/2 hour of soothing... and still it went on...

ARGHHH! Why! Why! aren't i carrying u so nicely... aren't u comfortable enough... didn't i try to give u milk but u rejected it... why can't u stop crying... ARGHHH!...

the window was suddenly very inviting... open... throw... and no noise anymore... ahhhhh!

needless to say... i didn't throw her out... only came very close... very very close...

she quieted down about fourty minutes of crying... partially due to exhaustion i presume... then nicely sleept on my chest... why oh why cant she just sleep of quietly... or at least tell me why... sigh... another 2-3 months of torture... before it begins to get better... i h o p e . . . :p

i ponder again... how did i forget how bad this was... when Hannah was 2 months old... & also ponder when will this end... rantings of a dad

The Resort Julie's meeting was held was the Shangri-la Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa, situated at the Batu Ferringi Beach about 20 minutes from Penang town, Malaysia. (added due to comment)

unlike the previous post, the room we got looks like this :

The room was huge... i think area wise ... almost as big as our entire first level in our house!... that means the dining + living + kitchen and even our maids room. The room was split into 5 areas... first is the luggage and cupboards area, the sitting area, the bed area, a balcony cum soak pool, and the toilet. All.. Huge areas by itself. The first hotel i have been into with the now obligatory LCD, not so hot wired internet access... the wireless connection is only at the lounge... (but i guess u would rather work there, with all the free drinks and food they serve)

cool eh!

Here julie is contemplating which bath we should take later...

By far... of ALL the resorts we have been... yep... this has been, bar none the BEST & a most spectacular 2 nights stay! the Shangri-la in KK (Rasa Ria) where we stayed 2 years ago isn't as posh as this... but was similarly charming.

the welcome drink we had... chinese tea! with a note on the health benefits...

The "Bath" all prepared... we chose "Relaxing Lavender"

The resort itself was beautifully landscaped... great swimming pools (3 all together) and a very nice beach... the newly designed landscape also had a super venue for a garden wedding.

If u stay at the Rasa Wing, u get free unlimited drinks at the lounge from 7am-11pm. Alcoholic beverages are served from 11am - 5pm!. U get hi-tea from 3-5pm. Breakfast is included... u can either take a buffet breakfast at the Spice Garden or an ala carte breakfast at their Ferringgi Grill and breakfast is from 7-11am.

the hi-tea I had... "english" hi-tea... it was... with coffee!

At the lounge for snacks before leaving

my first ever champagne & ala-carte breakfast at Ferringi Grill

so... in short! yes... it was worth the "suffering" we had to endure... & if u are ever in the place to spend on life's little luxuries... don't let the rm1000 per night rate put u off... One Rasa Wing room can easily accomodate a 2adults+3kids... comfortably... + u get all the free perks... a venue well worth coming back!

Hannah enjoyed herself ... Phoebe... well... cried less...
and we ALL throughly Enjoyed our stay!

Ohh... Darn!... I miss gaming... specifically playing Final Fantasy XII... been up in Penang since Wednesday... of course during the stay "THERE"... truly enjoy la...

But now, stuck in Julie's parents place... i'm beginning to feel the pull to head back and start gaming again... truthfully... the game is kinda scary...

It's HUGE!... so far the locales and immenseness is simply overwhelming...

• If u just stick to the main story line... you will miss quite alot of extras.
• If u try everything... it's way too much... really!
• I just want to try as much as i can... which so far already passes the 40hr mark!

The story... is filled with twists, mind whacking "what was that" scenes & overall solid storytelling + voicing! The range of cast and characters is mind boggling...

The graphics... impressive... bear in mind it's a 8 year old machine/tech...

The fluidity of u playing and how the game moves along as u play is unsurpassed...

My mom was down with us for 10 days prior to our trip to penang... and was asking "why my game was playing like that one"... she meant how come got story - aka. movie/cutscenes... her idea of games are simple hack/slash and brainless romps... she had never watched the beginning intro nor had not followed my progress thus far... so all was all a blur too her... but she was nevertheless impressed... :p

If you want more info u can check at the wikipedia... or a game review at IGN. But believe me, you owe it to yourself to play this game if u have a PS2/PS3 console... go borrow/buy one if you don't have one...

ARGHHHH!... can't wait to get home to play...

Soon... soon...

Woo Hoo! tomorrow... we journey to the unknown!

haha... not that dramatic... but hey! it's not where we are going... but the preparation and planning prior ... and the anticipation of what we will have to endure...

we will be going to Penang for julie's work-meeting and it's the first time where we will be out in a place with both hannah and baby phoebe for 2+ days.

the Preparation :
- enough change and diapers for baby phoebe.
- enough wet wipes, powder and change mat for baby phoebe
- enough empty bottles to keep expressed milk for baby phoebe
- milk, toys & books for hannah
- toiletries for both...

(fooh... so much for just 4 days... )

the mental Preparation :
oh oh... be ready for splitting cries througout the journey
oh oh... might be sleepless nights at the resort!
oh oh... can't pass baby phoebe to anyone...
oh oh... no maid to help around!
oh oh... must steel self to "why oh why" questions!
oh oh... be calm ... calm... think happy thoughts...

OK!... we shall see how it goes... but ahhh... the reason why we took the pains to go through such an ordeal... the place where we are going is the recently refurbished Shangri-la Rasa Sayang Resort. Super 5 Star!... pray... it's good enough to warrant such "torture"!

the resort hotel room (no idea if ours is like that yet)

p/s: whoops! forgot our own packing... haha!...

got lots of NEW stuff for the New Year...

first is the birth of our 2nd daughter... phoebe... (theoratically born last year.. but still!!!... she's currently at the stage... where her cries are ... WoW!... super loud)

then we got our new TV... after months of watching a blank reflective glass box... (hannah misses the mirror effect though)

and a new fridge... our current one has reached its limit in space for our family usage. (we now have way so much space, hopefully enough to meet 2 generations needs when the time comes)

so... New Stuff... Pray! too we will have greater revelations, greater expansion (abeit minus the suffering), greater vision... for this NEW YEAR!

p/s : blogging is also a new thing for this year... kinda stopped for 1/2 a year... wanted to try again, and it seems Blogger is the most simplest and nicest... so here i go again trying to blog...