RamblingMoo

This is a back-dated post.

Remember I rant about how slow the US Visa server was in my earlier post? After spending almost 8 hours in two days (according to PiggyBeng) we finally managed to submit the application form for Glennedine. Another mommy who was trying to submit the same form spent a few days to get her in! Phews~ So glad we are done with that!

PiggyBeng made the payment a few days before so once he got the form submitted, he can proceed to book the interview time slot with the codes given. He was happy that the date and time that he booked, he was the first one in line! If I’m not wrong, it is the 7am slot.

Once we have the US Visa for Glennedine, it will be so much convenient for us to plan for our US vacation. I am not sure if we are going this year or next but there are definitely plans to visit the West Coast again! PiggyBeng wanted to bring us to visit his sister in Germany as she will be delivering her 4th child mid of this year. She has not been back in Penang for more than 3 years so it is only right that we go and visit her.

The plan is to visit SIL then either we fly to NYC or LA which is still to be confirmed. Maybe this will be my chance to check out more places which I have missed in my last trip to LA. Also, this is another opportunity to visit the Nags Head foreclosures and see if we can find something to invest in!

I can’t wait for each day to pass quickly as it is so chaotic since PiggyBeng went away on his business trip since Sunday night. It is not easy to mind two kids on my own. Though my MIL is around, having her or not do not make much of a difference since she felt sickly even before PiggyBeng was away.

For the past few days, I have been running around like a headless chicken the moment Glennedine wakes up. The first two days was hellish as I took some Ipoh White Coffee for breakfast which caused her to go cranky for most part of the day! I thought just one cup won’t be a problem but I guess she must be very sensitive to caffeine!

All these events are wearing me down and I think I lost some weight though I have been trying to clear all those CNY goodies. I don’t think the best slimming pills could make me lose weight as fast as dealing with all these events!

PiggyBeng will only be home next week which is another 7 days from now. Can’t wait for the week to pass by like lightning!!!!

Ok, whatever celebrations there are to be celebrated are over and so are those feasting that went with them. We are back to normal days once again. The tummy was not spared from the many feasting sessions the past few months so from now onwards, I am supposed to kick start my healthy life style regime… if I have the will power!

I am supposed to start with less carbohydrate meals but unfortunately everything that could give me more energy to deal with the two ‘monyet’ each day requires carbohydrate! So, now I try to cut down on fatty food but I have a few KFC vochers which kept running across my eyes and telling my mind I should go for KFC for lunch everyday!

It is so easy to pile up the kilos but to lose just a little of it takes a mountain of efforts! I wonder if taking those herbal diet pills could do the tricks? I don’t want my lose weight journey to be a torturous one!

When it comes to taking supplements, both PiggyBeng and myself will take the longest time to finish. Why? Well, we do not have the habit of popping pills unless it was a prescription by the doctor that we must complete the course.

Even during my pregnancy I did not take my prenatal vitamins regularly during the time when I have my morning sickness. I skipped quite a few weeks as a matter of fact. I don’t know if Glennie will face the consequences in the future because of her lousy mommy.

Well, this actually reminded me that I still have an entire bottle of Omega3 which I was supposed to finish up during my 3rd trimester!

Earlier this year we brought Glennedine to have her international passport made as we need it for some official matter. Now that she has her own passport, it is only right she gets her US Visa too since everyone in the family has it. Some of you may be wondering why we need to get her the US Visa so soon since we are not traveling into the US? Well, there are definitely plans else PiggyBeng won’t want to part with his RM450 for the non-refundable fee!

So, what is the first thing that we must do to start with the application? Taking photograph of course! We brought Glennedine to the usual photo studio near by our place for the job. For US Visa, we are required to have a 2″x2″ photo with white background. We are not allowed to do any editing to it else it will be rejected.

Previously when Glennedine has her passport photo taken, the studio has a blue cloth used as the background since she can’t hold up her head yet. This time, the same happened but the studio did not have any white background for her to lie on (probably it is uncommon for babies to get a US Visa). So, what did we do? Initially the photographer used a white shirt but when Glennedine kept moving her head, the cloth will move and shadows can be seen from the creases.

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We were very fortunate that Glennedine did not make any fuss during the entire session but her notti kor-kor did! He tripped over the tripod and almost fell flat on his face! I put on a collar romper for her as I am not sure if it was a requirement for the visa but it was for the international passport… so just to be on the safe side. Why not pink but blue? It was her kor-kor’s romper… She looked boyish hor?

We spent quite a while figuring how to get a crease-less and shadowless photo but to no avail until an idea came to my head… we can use a stack of papers! Coincidentally the studio also has some photocopy machines so I told them to use some A3 papers for the background. And that did it!

Glennedine was smilling as she was intrigue with her surrounding I guessed. Luckily her face is clear from those acnes too so I don’t have to use any zit remedies on her prior to the photo taking session.

Now that the photos are fine, we are facing the next hurdle… booking for an interview. The US Visa’s site is in a terrible state! The server was extremely slow and PiggyBeng was cursing and swearing the whole of last night as he tried to fill in the application form so that we could book an interview slot for end of this month at the US Embassy.

Hopefully someone in the Embassy notices the problems in the server and has it fixed else we will have to spend our precious time sitting in front of the PC the whole weekend!

After feasting for 4 days in Ipoh, we are finally home. This is the first trip we brought Glennedine along with us where she has to sort of break her usual routines. It was tiring but we had fun. In fact this was one of the longest time we spent in Ipoh!

Though Ipoh is part of my hometown, I rarely stay longer than 3 days if it is not during Chinese New Year… especially after I got married.

This time round I managed to buy the ‘famous’ Swiss Rolls which some of the mommies on the blogsphere had been talking about.

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I asked my cousin sister to recommend to me which flavors to get and she told me about this ’sie-dai-tin-wong’ or the ‘4-heroes’ which has 4 different flavors in a box. The four are Carrot Cream Cheese, Banana Cream Cheese, Pumpkin Cream Cheese and Spinach Cream Cheese. I must say these flavors are quite unconventional!

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Then I bought PiggyBEng’s favorite - Fresh Mango. The mango with fresh cream filling was pretty generous. The cake’s texture is extremely fine and it is not so sweet too which make it damn yummy!

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If you buy these swiss rolls, it comes with their promotional bags too but I found them a little too ‘Cina’ cause they plastered the person’s name and contact numbers in huge font size!

For those of you who visit Ipoh next time, you can pop by and get a few of these Swiss Rolls. The shop is located inside the Chinese restaurant (Restaurant De Mouth) at Fairmont Hotel along Jalan Kampar

Most of you know I’m a shopaholic… I just love to shop and buy lots of stuff too! Though I am being confined at home now but with the current technology, I can always shop online! hehehe… So, the shopping continue from home now!

Beside my obsessions with bento making gadgets, I am also into pocket diapers. I used to buy quite a lot when Darrius was younger but has stopped for a while when he was toilet trained later on. Now I have another reason to go back to this as I have Glennedine!

And my latest indulgence are these…

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They are the newest cloth diaper system in the market now. They are a little different when compared to the previous cloth diapers I used to purchase. Instead of inserting the inserts/hems into the diaper this Gro Baby is a snap on.  Which means, there is no pocket on the cover.

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This morning my dad called me with a very bad news. He told me my ‘ah-pak’ (dad’s cousin brother) in Singapore has passed away this morning succumbing to lung cancer. Dad told me that ah-pak only detected it just a few weeks ago and was prepared to receive treatment this week. In fact he has already booked his flight ticket to Ipoh for my cousin’s wedding this weekend.

Sadly, he will not be attending…

He left behind a wife, a son, daughter in law and 2 grandchildren.

When I was working in Singapore many years ago, I used to go to his place in Tiong Bahru as he is the other relatives I have beside my uncle. In fact I had a few reunion dinners at his place when I did not return to M’sia due to work and studies. He is a good cook and I always enjoyed talking to him and his wife (my pak-meh).

His only son (my cousin) is currently working in Shanghai so his whole family is with him. Now that ah-pak is gone, pak-meh will be alone when my cousin brother go back to Shanghai. Though ah-pak and pak-meh used to bicker with each other but I know they really love each other as they always together.

All his life he was with Singapore Press Holding until he retired a few years ago. I hope he has enough social security disability so that my pak-meh do not need to worry too much about finances… even though I know my cousin is providing enough.

I wish my ah-pak’s soul will rest in peace…

I am left to clear all the Chinese New Year goodies! Is that good or what???? Of course not!!!

You see, most of these goodies such as cookies, chips, nuts and candies are either too heaty or extremely fattening! We bought quite a bit of these stuff to serve our visitors who came to ‘pai nien’ at our place usually on the first two days of Lunar New Yea. Since I did not bake much cookies this year, we got those commercial ones from the stores so they were not ‘laku’ hence we are left with a few cannisters which need to be cleared soon else they will be espired soon.

Since I am not a cookie person, I don’t usually take them if given the choice. Darrius is still coughing so I try not to let him eat so much and PiggyBeng is not into all these tit-bits so he normally never touch them. And all the cannisters are taking up space in the kitchen so to make space I guess I have no choice but to eat them myself!

I can feel my body heat is rising and I am anticipating some volcano eruptions soon! I better get some acne medications to standby so I can quickly ‘cool’ them down before the wedding next week!

I think most of us loathe the hot and humid weather during the Lunar New Year period. Sometimes I need to take a few showers a day just to cool my body down. However, the moment I stepped out from the bathroom, sweat will start to trickle down again!

With such weather, most people will get sick easily what’s more with munching on those festive goodies which are usually ‘heaty’ based. Darrius has been coughing since don’t know when and has not recover till now. Therefore, I usually boil soup with steam vegetables or fish for our meals. I will boil cooling tea on alternate days too to entice the little fella to drink more fluid. Other than that I will cook porridge to replace our regular meals for a healthier option.

Lately I have been cooking this pumpkin with scallops porridge which is everyone’s favorite at least once a week. I added peanuts and mince meat to add more flavors to it too.

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Since we have been feasting for the past couple of days on those not so healthy food, having a bowl of this porridge is good for the body. At least it is less fattening! I’ll love to eat more porridge so I don’t have to worry about putting on too much weight and have to depends on weight loss products like relacore.