Spymama @ Mamakshop

In case you haven’t noticed, school vacation has started. Kids are happy, the roads aren’t as jammed and the buses aren’t hogging roads. Bus lanes are free to run without buses and cars coming into the way to drop kids off. School security guards are also more relaxed and offices in school are quiet. No kids, no shouting, no arguing, no crying in the school compound… what a big difference.

The school is slated to do some painting and upgrading works since the holidays will be for a month. No kids to disturb them and lower risk of accidents. Great.

On the best thing is that no more cars waiting and parking outside my house each morning and afternoon too! No one to trample my little grass and no ice cream and sweet wrappers littered here…hahahhaha

But. I miss those kids’ laughter and their joyful unreserved chats, and smiles…

I want to print some namecards for my friend, as a gift for her new business. She is going to start a boutique selling beautiful clothes for big sized women and men. I figured this business is a great idea as we all will grow bigger, errr usually after childbirth or as we aged and not really taking care of fitness and diet as much. Also, men do put on weight after marriage because… hmm simply because of their wives progress in cooking! Don’t you think so? I guess I must go and ask those local business card printers if they can give me a good deal and what I need in order to print a namecard for my friend. Some of my friends say that it can be done in a day or two for simple ones and up to a week for more complicated ones.

I hope they have some samples for me to grab some idea… or should I give her a voucher from the printer itself?

I am crazy over claypot chicken rice lately. I don’t know why but I suppose it’s a craving that suddenly hit me. I went on a hunt for this yummy meal and found a few, but not to my expectations… I want to taste the original claypot rice that they actually cook over a charcoal stove slowly. You can smell the fragrant charcoal infused into the rice that is moist and flavoured with chicken chunks, egg, Chinese sausage, some bits of salted fish and mushroom…mmm they are really yummy.

So, to make sure I get what I want, really want, I am now on the hunt for claypots… so that I can cook them over my charcoal stove. I need to satisfy my cravings soon!

Anyone tried those purple clay pots that is now very popular for slow cooking? Not for stove but I was wondering if they are useful for home cooking..

Older means Wiser… well, that is what my best friend told me when I quipped that I can’t hear what she was saying when I said I’m getting older, and my ears aren’t that great anymore… what a compliment, especially when a couple of middle aged women goes shopping and talking at the top of their voices as if we were standing right in front of those beautiful Roland Amplifiers in the music shop nearby… Well we always love to go to this mall because it is occupied by mostly musicians and band players and the music bars are just popping up everywhere in the basement. People who teach and play a musical instrument come here to meet up, share ideas, shop for their stuff or just to play and strut their instruments with their own groups. It’s cool. We can get free live music when the band plays or practices. We would grab a nice latte or iced coffee and sit nearby and listen to them. Free booze on Wednesdays’ Ladies Night… well well well, why not.

Vesak day is about 3 weeks away. I haven’t celebrated Vesak day for many years. I am thinking that I should. I used to follow my mom to the temple more often as a child and now that I am married and many many years later, I think I should have adopted what mom used to do.

Maybe because living away from home is my excuse for not doing all these. I could have called her or other elderly to find out about the cultures but then I am such a lazy person… I guess growing older makes one sober and wiser, if I am.. Anyway, I shall give mom a call and see how she is…… I miss her dreadfully. sigh.

Wish there are more holidays… I need breaks. Time off, Spa hols, Massages.. oh well. Keep on dreaming, yours truly…

For now I heard that Gold prices has gone down. Is that good news or bad? For people who bought gold when it was expensive in the past year or two, not too good. But for those who had been eyeing that piece of pretty piece at your local goldsmith, then, it is the right time to buy one, or two.

I know I once set my eyes on gold eagle coins because I wanted to invest in gold after hearing from my friend who has been investing in gold and other matter as a living. He drives a taxi and invest in some gold company and gets a pretty good amount of interest monthly.

But before one can even do anything like that, a capital is of course needed. Well, if I had that sum of money, I’d go for a holiday..which I need, badly..hahahah

The politics in Malaysia looks like it’s gonna be exciting. It’s going to be a 50-50 chance, I believe. Many people I know wants a change and I’m not sure how exactly how the result is going to turn out. How the people feel will decided how the country fall on.

Whenever I am on facebook, I see a my friends being very active posting YouTubes and articles on both sides of the political party and their promises should they be selected. All in all, the people will decide and the results will show what the people want.

On the other hand, in Singapore here, news are abundant too. And many people are really talking about it. Will a change be good? Will it affect the current status? Will life be better for the people? How chaotic will situations become? But I do know one thing for sure, which ever party that wins, life needs to go back to normal after the voting and results. Business will be ongoing and we definitely will go on our daily life as it is. Kids will go back to school, people back to work and business remains in operations.

Don’t you think so?

That is something that is on my mind. A friend of mine recently attended a talk or some sort of seminar about rehabs for people who have a problem with alcohol. Or rather, addiction is more like it. He had been trying to cut of his addiction to this for a long time and I am really glad that he is doing something about it. He had woken up one fine day in a back alley and totally forgotten what happened the evening before after he had a drink or two or too many… He lost his personal belongings and had to report his missing car.

I know I have read about Newport beach rehab centers in the US that does good job with not only alcohol abusers, but with other addiction like drugs as well. But sometimes I can’t help thinking that if we were to put all these addicts in one place, wouldn’t that be encouraging them to make friends and indulge into their ‘enemy products’ even more? Perhaps the facilitators play a very important role for that matter…

I know, the last post was on mosquitos… But seems like this issue has been bothering me, a lot. Well this is what happened. My niece went for her first girl guide’s camp for this year. She is a first year and not yet a fully fledge guide yet. Among the stuff she has to do is to take some tests and also go for camps. During the hols, she had a 3 day camp at one of the campsite in the west. And although she had brought along her repellent spray, it did nothing for her. She had so many mozzie bites on her legs and arm that counted to more than 30 but prob less than 50 ‘marks’ all over… I was really in shock that my niece basically went there for the mosquitos to ‘feast’ on her.. There were other girls who had bites too though not as bad as my nieces.

My worry is that why is the place chosen if it is an obvious breeding ground for insects… and why do we send the youngs into such place, waiting for something to happen? What if these mosquitos were carrying dengue virus so aren’t we purposely bring dangers to the children? And how do we tackle mozzie issues if they doesn’t seem to be repelled by repellents now?

I keep getting mosquito bites.. I wonder if its because of my sweet tooth.. I cant believe that in a group of friends, I am the only one getting them! Ugh. Or perhaps my blood is just too comfy warm for them to have a nice dinner meal? As long as they arent the Aedes mosquitos, I don’t feel so panicky about being a mozzie’s meal.

Maybe I should just apply some anti mozzie lotion next time but i really don’t like those oily or stuff on my legs… and what about my arms, neck etc.. can’t imagine spraying too much stuff on at all!

If I’m home I like to light up those retro coils that my dad and mom used. Like a joss stick except that it is curly wurly and needs to be attached to a metal stand then light up and the smoke and aroma will deter mozzies.