Happy New Year 2010

Time flies... I can fondly remember the day 31st Dec 1999, people around the globe were panic of the so called 'Millennium Bug' right before we leap into year 2000. Now, we're at the end of a decade...

...year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!

Goodbye 2009

I would like to have a post on this last day of the year. Most of the time I missed it. But I don't again, to miss it. LOL!

Years back, usually I would prepared a well written new year resolutions. Then, come year end, I would examined if all the targets were met, if the resolutions are completed and if all the bad habits had changed?... I doubts if these method work for me?! What happen was, while you're preparing the resolution, it was still fresh and you had the aspiration. Come next month, I eventually started to forget what's in the paper... : P

So as I aged, instead of preparing new year resolution, I would recall what has been done for the past year, what are the things that need to be done in time to come... appreciate life and enjoying more beautiful things, perhaps...

Have a great year ahead.

Spending spree...

I'm a big spender actually, can't deny that... when it's time to add new things or replace old things, my true self unleash...

While on a working cum shopping trip, we found this frame on sale by exhibitor from China. The word is Jia means 'Home/Family'. I've been searching for this type of big calligraphy for quite some time, I can't resist it, thus immediately bought it back. To me, every home should have one that could bring everybody home and keep us together...


Also, we got some new electronic item added to our home - a new LCD tv. The searching ended yesterday after few visits to electronic store Harvey Norman to hunt for the right purchase. It's a 42" Toshiba. Hubby could uses it for display and presentation to client as well instead of an OHP projector.

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion & Penang Hawker

Some family members from Ipoh came over to visit. Brought them to a few tourist spots, also not forget to bring them to savour some of local hawker food. My long time preference still pancake! It does comes in few 'version' of Penang pancakes. The picture above, Uncle Guan's pancake is located in Burmah Road. I bought because my kids would love to have something to munch on while going for a longer travel; not really my preference : P

Another discovery of Penang, it is Baba and Nyonya Peranakan Mansion located in the central of Georgetown. No doubt that I've been living here for more than 30 years, I haven't been to this place before. And again, it's the tourist that brought me here..lol...the entrance fee is RM10 per adult. Kids under the age of 6 is f.o.c. Sorry, no photo cos' no camera inside.

Kindergarten blues...who is right who is wrong?

This is the time that I will usually evaluate the performance of my sons after a schooling year.

Sadly, my eldest, Ryan keep throwing words like: I headache to see you... more headache, no good bla...bla... I believed I didn't use these words, same goes to his dad. and that make me wondering is he picking up these from his teacher?! Then I started asking, did your teacher says this to you: "headache, more headaches"? He said: "Yes, whenever I cough." Because just these few days, yes he is coughing... (sigh)

...unlike Russell, I can catch a few new words here and there in his progress and his teacher is a better one who is a more senior. So, not much to worry about.

For me, being a teacher, the personal trait is very important. It is not smile or not smile (b'cos this can be pretended), but the wisdom within that eventually will be shown indirectly to the children in the class is important. Children tend to pick up value / charactor shown by either their teacher or parent indirectly.

As for me, the values that we need to instil to our young children should come first than merely knowing ABC and 123. As the saying goes: if you want to shape the bamboo tree, start it from the shoot.

So, should or shouldn't change the school? : P

Weekend Visit To The Aquarium

After both my sons recovered from chicken pox, we still haven't really bring them out for activity. During the last weekend, we went to aquarium - Penang Aquarium and Marine Research Centre.


Daily Opening Hour: 10am-5pm
Closed on Wednesday
Notice: It is temporarily closed due to some upgrading work.

So, we only could see pool and koi fish pond nearby...

Chicken pox disease and more sewing

Both my sons were down with chicken pox few weeks ago and the mader stayed up throughout the nights to give them medication and to sooth their itchiness... gosh! finally it was all over. For the past few weeks, their everyday food were my home cook, and I can't go anywhere besides cooking! Kind of like 'you eat what you cook'... sigh!

According to some old people, they can't take food which could cause itchiness for 4 months, that's a long way to go... But, I start to give them food like egg, some fishes like garoupa fish fillet, shark fillet, no chicken yet. So they switch between rice, porridge, glass noodles, rice noodles and instant noodles - this definitely make my life more easier : P

And i managed to squeeze some time out of the blue to make a few items out of the sewing machine, these are my sons' handkerchieves in Japanese print...


and a sun hat...
I'm a person fansy of hats, but seldom wear them. So, there will be more to come.

How to become a smarter credit card user?

Money is hard to save, it is as hard as you earn it... agree with me?
Not to mention other people, there's one here : (
Sometimes, there are just so many wonderful things that make us tempted to buy, buy and buy; especially those online store..ayerr... itchy finger, can't resist the temptation, then take out the plastic and with just a few clicks and press on the button - there you go, money gone!

Here's one article in giving us some hints as well as tips to make us a smarter credit card user...

Grade yours on a 10-point scale.

Nobody's perfect. When it comes to our financial lives, we've all done things we later regretted -- whether it's getting slapped with a $3 fee for using an out-of-network ATM or going on a Las Vegas bender and losing the house on an overly aggressive poker bet.

The key is to understand the scale of the transgression. With credit card blunders, that's no easy task -- is it worse to take a cash advance or to pay a bill a day or two late? Experts graded a range of credit card mistakes on a scale from 1 (losing a few bucks to a cash machine) to 10 (losing the house). Find out which worry the pros most -- and which may (almost) get a free pass.

Paying Late
How bad is it? 6
The details: Credit card companies are notoriously prickly about late payments -- even a payment that's late by a few minutes can pile up fees, interest charges and other penalties. Depending on how late the payment is, your card issuer may also report the problem to any of the credit bureaus, which can wreak havoc on your credit score. The good news, says Stacy Francis, president of Francis Financial, is that the error may be reversible. "You do have the option of giving the credit card company a call and asking them not to report it," she says. "If you've generally been an on-time payer, they may waive the fees and not report it."

Paying Only the Minimum on Your Card
How bad is it? 4
The details: Credit card companies love it when you pay off your debt slowly, but you should loathe it. It won't necessarily affect your credit score, but that doesn't mean it's a good practice. Sending in only the minimum payment "is definitely going to keep you in debt longer, and you're going to pay a heck of a lot more in interest," says Francis. "You may be paying twice as much -- or more -- as you would by paying in cash."

More reading here...

Girly Print Mouth Cover

I sew more face masks / mouth protectors over the past few days ... my non-cooperating younger son refused to be my model for the photo shoot. This is the best picture I got of girly print...


Also, I made a kid's tote bag to be given to my son's friend as her birthday present. Promised so earlier, so must keep the promise. I kinda loved this bag which is made from thick Japanese canvas, my creativity and idea with her name sewn... It's priceless!


Get packed and ready to be given out...
While I'm writing this post, I'm enjoying a cup of my favourite Penang coffee and this...you too, can sit back and relax :)

The World's Most Successful Dropouts

I'm not discouraging you guys from going to school, but... we have some interesting facts and news circulating around in this financial turmoil...

For your reading pleasure...

More people are going back to college and taking on huge debt to do it, despite questions about what the degree is really worth - education bubble.

Last year, the amount borrowed by students and received by schools grew some 25% over the previous year, to $75.1 billion. That's a huge amount, especially with weak, low-paying job prospects for graduates in this economy.

As we've noted, all this student loan debt is crazy. Despite the desire to see more subsidization of college, we suspect there will be a collapse in student loan debt availability and desire to take on new debt.

The pop may be starting already. As Bloomberg reports, as many as one-third of all private colleges surveyed said they expected enrollment to drop in the next academic year. And almost 40 percent of those colleges said some of their students dropped out due to personal economic reasons and a quarter said full-time attendees switched to part time. Half said families had to cut back their expected contributions as the value of college savings plans dropped 21 percent last year. (article picked from Yahoo!)

They are some of the exceptional college dropouts...read here

Hurt caused by broken razor blade

Two days ago, while hubby was doing beard shaving, suddenly the razor blade was broken. It had caused some hurt on his face...the cut was quite long and deep. We don't really understand how this could happened...



Hence, are these blades safe? you got your say... it's time to switch to the electronic motorized shaver...

One of my friend, Mei Li, she is sharing an old and practical method how his father and brothers doing their shaving job - that is take 2 x 10cents coin, put them together and pull off the growing hair of mustache and beard. This way, you can pluck away its hair root altogether. So, you won't have thickening hair growing the next batch... not bad isn't it this method of doing?!

This is my community service message...

How to Prevent Swine Flu

Associated Press/Kin Cheung
A kindergartener in Hong Kong washes her hands before entering her classroom.

Swine flu is similar to seasonal flu in its method of transmission. It is spread from person to person (no swine is involved, so it's perfectly safe to eat pork) via the infected droplets from a cough or a sneeze. After an uncovered cough, the droplets of virus hang in the air, a phenomenon that happens more easily in winter, as a humid summer tends to weigh the droplets down so they fall. When the droplets do land, they are still infectious for up to eight hours [source: CDC].

To keep the infection from spreading, you should always cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze or cough, and throw any used tissues away immediately. Wash your hands with soap and water often; alcohol-based hand cleansers will also take care of the germs. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth so that germy droplets left on objects and surfaces don't have a chance to get close. Most importantly, stay home if you're sick -- no work, no school, no errands, no trips other than the ones to your doctor. The CDC recommends staying home for seven days after your symptoms begin or until you have been symptom-free for 24 hours, whichever is longer.

While you may have only very mild symptoms, it's important to understand that the H1N1 virus might affect the people around you more intensely. You could go to work and infect a male co-worker; he might have mild symptoms as well, but the disease could be immensely dangerous to his pregnant wife. This is one of the reasons why swine flu parties, in which participants gather around someone with a mild form of the disease, are discouraged by public health organizations.

As we've mentioned, the 2009 H1N1 virus may remain mild, or it may become deadly. It's important to maintain a middle ground between panic and complacency. While no one needs to head to their underground bunker, use this as an opportunity to create or revise your family preparedness plan and readiness kit. Such a kit should contain a two-week supply of water, non-perishable food and health supplies.

Sources from here

Washable Tiger Face Mask

For the past few weeks, I've been letting my children wear face mask to school. Those that they used to wear is the disposable type which I purchased from medicinal shop cost between 50sen to 80sen each. A layman on the street like me really don't know how many ply it is for a piece of disposable face mask, what's more the merchandiser now really chopping head to make fast buck out of this swine flu outbreak.
I've been purchased a lot of this, some say it cost only RM12/box of 50pcs for a 3ply mask... it should cost only 24sen instead of 80sen each! If one really want to 'protect' himself from the virus, N95 mask is the suitable one. Others, remained little known.

Then, I decided to come out with our version of face mask - washable, durable and it has thick filter layer within...
I want to prohibit kids them from putting their little fingers into the mouth, that's why needed this face mask cum mouth protector...

Ryan's mask is bigger than of Russell...

Find out the reason why mosquito bites

I would like to share this interesting and relevant article with you... simply because we're living with mosquitoes... : (

"The phenomenon that some people are more prone to mosquito bites than others is well documented. In the 1990s, chemist Ulrich Bernier, now at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, began looking for what he calls the "magic compounds" that attract mosquitoes. His research helped to show that mosquitoes are attracted to humans by blends of common chemicals such as carbon dioxide, released from the skin and by exhaling, and lactic acid, which is present on the skin, especially when we exercise. But none of the known attractant chemicals explained why mosquitoes preferred some people to others......

Misguided Mosquitoes

"The repellents were what made the difference," says Dr. Logan, who is interested in the study of how animals communicate using smell. These chemicals may cloud or mask the attractive chemicals, or may disable mosquitoes from being able to detect those attractive odors, he suggests.

Besides delivering annoying bites, mosquitoes cause hundreds of millions of cases of disease each year. As many as 500 million cases of malaria are contracted globally each year, and more than one million people die from it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mosquitoes can also spread West Nile virus, dengue fever, yellow fever and other illnesses.

Read more here...

Blog - a good place to throw you temp.

I like the idea of throwing out our frustration here over the blogging world...
I read one this morning from Chin Nee@demoments - brainless printing job, looks like now it's my turn... : (
This is such a powerful weapon that all bloggers own if you make them mad!

I met a moron that don't like to see the official quotation stated 'Terms: Advanced Bank Transfer' which I faxed over. He said to me: "those advanced bank transfer stuff I do not which hear... just tell me which bank and account number to bank-in..." Hey, what is an Official Quotation in the first place? and why scold people out of no reason? if you're agreeable to buy from us, you got to be adhered to the terms stated la, otherwise, go get from somebody else... all extended, and extended and extended and extend......services we've been extending to him FOC, what else you want???!

I summarized this type of people as - want to get the goods and services, yet don't want to pay! He is making things like whole world of people owing to him... the last thing that I wish I can say to him is if you want to buy you buy, you don't want, get lost.

If you want to be a professional, better act as an professional. Don't be a 'chicken'.

Seaside and seashells

Ryan is craving for curry, he wanted me to cook some curry chicken for him as dipping for the homemade pau (dumpling) given by grandma. I usually buy village chicken which is more lean compared to the commercial-breed type. So, this is the treat he get...yummy...nothing beats homecook food...




Besides that, as a mom, I like to bring my kids for outdoor activities and to let them explore and appreciate nature. This is what we did over the weekend...


We saw this father and daughter team to search for some seashells for dinner...
It was a hi tide time as some fishing boats had returned to shore...

Samm's shopping bag

Wanna know how my shopping bag look like? Sewn by Samm... I'll explain more in the coming post...


continue... I has been given away my shopping bag to MeiLee, a friend of mine who dropped by my place few days ago to hand me some chinese medicated powder from her father's chinese medicine shop.

Fridge door's holder

I went to my parent's home which is not very far away from our home. And being a little bit more detail, found out that they need this... those that sold at the hypermart are of standard size which is slightly too small to fit into their fridge...


so, this is how it looks at their fridge...Samm can sew right?!..... ^_^

Hazy sky in Penang

The sky is blanketed with thick haze these 2 days. Besides the cooking lesson - teaching him to fry an egg, we did some craft at home to avoid outdoor activity. Ryan was cooperative enough to do his work...


he colored and stick on the decorative cut out...


this one, he put on the cut out that I coloured...supposed should be done by Russell, end up to be the mader's craft...

Customizeable Shopping Bag - A Greener World

It has been long time we don't play with colors and brushes. While still in the mood, I decided to be creative with the tote bag sewn recently along with No Plastic Bag campaign started recently.

In Penang, we declared Monday as a day without plastic bag - so, be a Plastic Bag Free person! I lauded the move, hope you will too. And to prove further more that I'm a pro-environmental person, I gave tote bags to my father, mother, sisters, brothers, sister-in-law....... and make sure they are reducing in using plastic bags.

This is our piece of art project this morning...




You can order this tote bag (without drawings) from me at a special 25% off from RM16 list price .
Please email to sam.premiumlink@gmail.com
and be as creative as you can be with your kids to have his/her own unique shopping bag...

Terms and conditions apply. Not for commercial purposes.

Bird Nest Soup, for you?

When people talking about bird nest, the 1st thing that popped in my mind is the hi price of it. Izzit really so nutritious since this stuff is so expensive? Well, I don't think so..... sorry.

I did some survey on this bird nest soup lately. Got things that strike me to do so... get what I mean?! The conclusion is that, if you're pregnant, don't consume much of this. Remember!

Handsewn Bag

I'm always fancy about this type of little handy bag. the size isn't big, about 8" x 5" and again I bought a lot of fabric lately. This is how it look after putting some touch up on it...and then, I can proudly called it mine ^_^

Lovely Cases, Pillow and Bolster cases for sale

I found some great fabric from textiles shop while shopping around during the weekend, and finally bought the whole lot to make some bedding sheets for kids. While they were still baby, I don't find time for shopping, don't even mentioned about sewing or tending to hobby. It's much better now, at least I can find time for myself.

These are the handcrafts that I made recently, suits my 4 and 5 years old...



It's available in 2 colors - green and pink and
difference sizes:- S for baby, M for 3 - 5 yo, and L for 5 yo & above


If you wish to purchase or custom make this to suit your pillow, email me: sam.premiumlink@gmail.com

Kerabu Timun

Well, we seldom eat out and mostly I cook. Say in a week, we eat out maybe once or mostly twice, that's it. So, it's not easy being a cook, hah... you got to crack head plan ahead and get ready what you want to cook and have enough ingredients...

But it's much easier when kids are able to eat spicy food along with us. That's because hubby and I both love chilli food. Well I made kerabu timun for dinner yesterday, my eldest son loved it most. He likes cucumber and at the same time he don't want to miss the sensation of pungency in the food. but that accompanied by 2-3 cups of water, lol.....

Zoo Visit

It was school holidays for the past 2 weeks.
We brought kids to Taiping Zoo.

The weather was hot and we took zoo pram to bring us around. We bought packets of popcorn and Ryan decided to share his food with fishes in the pond. They were mesmerised watching fishes snatched up all the popcorn in seconds. and that was the most joyous moment for them both. hmm... they should have those vending machine with fish food for young visitors who wish to feed those hungry fish, so that they don't have to be fed with popcorn...

And for me, this is something scary...

Helping hand by Good Samaritan

Waited for Russell to wake up at 10am, we happily drove to morning market nearby (Batu Maung) to get something for makan... guess what, my old van broke down in the middle of the road while waiting for the green light. with 2 kids in the van, can't do anything besides asking them to help by waving hand to direct traffic to other lane while waiting for my father to come and fix it. don't know why it run out of electricity, something to do with the battery.

this is a new experience, some interesting discovery... well, as the place is very near to cargo airport, a lot of cargo trucks passing by very fast... some even asked me to switch on the double signal... I wished I were able to do so! some even waited behind and beeped me, those're really gong one..

then come a good samaritan that suddenly "zoom" stand beside my driving seat asking me to leave the vehicle as the traffic and trucks really drive in speed and accident might happen. without 2nd thought, i grabbed my 2 kids crossed the road to a nearby space to be waited there. while the good samaritan put some leaves on stick behind the vehicle indicating vehicle down with problem ... he even asked if need to call for mechanic if I haven't do so... then I noticed that he parked his truck somewhere 200m away and came to my aid.

Sometimes, we just need the ONE to come forward when we're in needy... I would like to say a big "Thank You" to him here.

Rants, rants, rants......

The whole Saturday morning we spent at tm to get the blurdy SME package terminated after 1whole year subcription and only managed to get it done completely after more than 5 visits! stupid stupid stupid co. and staff. settled the bills which cost more than RM1200 in 5 months, another pain. can you imagine after 5 visits to the service centre get a fixed line terminated???!

just make sure that you all done fall into the trap of what what save package that bound you for 1 year, all these are just making fools of us. worst when come to their yellowp advert. and literrally couldn't be found easily from search engines... don't promote all these to me. I've had enough of all this. it's like being conned legally... sigh!

it was like making us mad when you bring along 2-restless-boy to wait for your turn. and i slapped russell twice while waiting... things are really upside down be it the systems or the people, really ugly. i cried for us malaysian.

Fatt Gou and Dumplings

Mom gave me few of dumplings and fatt gou to celebrate dumplings festival. I gave some to my son's teacher too.

My kids love 'fatt gou' that my mother made as it's less sweet and more healthy without the plastic based that being used by commercial sellers. whenever it's 1st or 15th of lunar month, mom will make more as offerings..and she won't forget my portion as well : )

More of chinese calligraphy...

My interest grew as I write with brush. I bought many of writing scripts and brushes these few day and to practice more often... my 'me gui' & 'bi'
practicing the writing really need the presents of soul besides mind and hand... this is a rare sight in the technology age...