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29 January 2011

Gong Xi Fa Cai! It's a Rabbit Year!

29 Jan 2011

This morning, when Jared and Jaden woke up, they hugged and caressed each other. That was so sweet, especially when both of them were wearing the same pyjamas too.

Later in the morning,

Jaden said "Daddy, can you play with me?"

Daddy answered "I'm busy."

Jaden told me "Mommy, can you don't give Daddy so much work?"

I asked Jaden "Why?"

Jaden replied "Because I want Daddy to play with me!.

That was so cute.

Chinese New Year is just a few days away. Hooray ... my maid and I have finally completed the entire house spring cleaning. Has started spring cleaning bits by bits since December.

In the evening, I made these almond cookies. Auntie Jenny gave me the recipe when we visited her in Penang. My 3 boys love them and I decided to make it.

The biscuits are very easy to make and the recipe only made these 2 cans of biscuits. I hope I can find time to make more tomorrow.

I love CNY decoration too. I've been doing simple CNY decoration at home since I was a little girl. Maybe, I'm in the wrong line and should be in interior.

This is the first time that I bought orchid. I saw this pot of orchid in TTDI market and bought it a few weeks ago for RM50, after some price negotiation.

At 6pm, Hubby drove us to Sg Buloh nursery to buy flowers. I bought this orchid at RM25 only, without any price negotiation. That's so cheap as compared to what I've paid earlier. This pot is for my office. I'm going to put it in my office and hopefully, it will bring some colours and joy to the office.

Aren't they sweet and pretty? Jared loves this photo.

Jaden loves the orchid too. He smell the flowers.

During CNY, I like my house to have lots of flowers. They add colours to our house and brighten up our days too.

I paid RM8 for this pot of flower.

I paid RM36 for this pot of flowers. I brought my pots along and asked the nursery to transfer the flowers to my own pots.

This pot of flowers cost RM19.

Tomorrow, I will go for manicure and pedicure. My fingers and toes have been showing me a "grumpy" look and that they too needed a fresh makeover.
I am looking forward to the CNY, to see my family, relatives, school friends, ex-colleagues, dancing school friends and the more the merrier.

Finally, I made a promise that from next year onwards, I will not change new notes for Ang Pow purpose. Who are going to deny their Ang Pows just because they are old note? We are going green and we should stop more trees been chopped just to print new notes.

Wish everyone a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. May the year of Rabbit brings us Joy, Good Health, Peace and Happiness!

04 January 2011

Baby Names and Translation from English to Chinese

4 Jan 2011

My colleague will be a father soon. I'm so happy for him. I remembered attending his wedding dinner last year. Both him and his wife love to travel, the adventurous type of travelling. I've been reminding him to enjoy it while it lasts as once they have their baby, the type of travel will be totally different, with stroller, nappy, milk powder and bottles, etc, at least for the first few years. He was frightened by me ... hahaha.

Today, he sat next to me in our hugh conference room. He asked me for nice, suitable baby girl's name ending with surname "Khoo".

I used to browse thru internet to get ideas for my sons names. This famous baby names website is useful. They provide most popular names for male and female, by ranking. They also provide the meaning of the names and their origin.

The other useful website is baby name translation from English to Chinese. We can obtain our Chinese name based on the chosen English name and also find out our sign in the Chinese Zodiac. The name recommended also take into consideration what kind of characteristics we want to be expressed in the name, gender and birthdate.

Hopefully, others will find them useful.

At the point of writing, my colleague has shortlisted "Natalie Khoo" and "Cassendra Khoo". I told him for his next baby, if it is a boy, to name the baby "Nat King Khoo". hehehe

Happy Naming!

01 January 2011

Goodbye 2010

31 Dec 2010

How time flies. It's the last day of year 2010. It has been a mix of ups and downs, especially today.

Today is the last working day for my capable finance manager. She has been a good assistant to me at work and a truly good friend and companion too. She transformed my thoughts and ideas into powerful powerpoints and reports. We had lunch together, went for yoga classes together, we exchanged DVDs and cakes that we baked, etc. I particularly miss our cha cha dance session in Hua Hin and shopping spree in Bangkok.

Recently, she started baking and cooking. It seems to be the trend for working with our company ... somehow, staff will start cooking or baking no matter how little we cook or bake. For her farewell, I got her cooking utensils presented in a lovely pink polka dot with ribbon box. I bought 2 pizza trays, pizza cutter, pastry roller, whisker, meat temperature, potato masher and a spring form pan. Hope she will think of me whenever she bakes or cooks. As much as I would like her to stay on with our company, I am happy for her next endeavour.

Fei Yin made me a photobook which was very nicely done with attention to details. I'm missing her already.

Although today is a sudden declaration of public holiday, it's not a rest day for finance personnel who have to close company's year end books. I decided to buy cakes for office staff. It's new year eve and they have to work to meet dateline. Fei Yin and I went down to Coffeebean and bought 12 slices of varieties of cakes and a Latte for my boss, which made him a happy man as he does not like sweet things and he loves coffee.

Looking back to 2010, I've been promoted to Finance Director, a milestone achievement for me in my career. I'm taking my career one step at a time. To me, being a wife and a mother does not mean we can't have our career. It's not easy but it's not impossible, especially if you have a supportive spouse. I'm glad my Hubby understands what corporate life is all about and he is happy if I am happy at work.

In Jun 2010, Hubby and I had our first holiday trip without our kids to Macau, in conjunction with our 8 years wedding anniversary. It was hard for me to leave our kids behind while we had good times. I am happy to have an understanding mother in-law who offered to take care of our kids while we were away. She encouraged us to have time off from kids once in a while to rejuvenate our marriage and love. It was nice that Hubby could pay 100% attention on me and held my hands when we walked.

In 2010 also, our house construction kicked off, after more than a year of planning and designing the house plan, meetings, obtain approval, tender, etc. Luckily, Hubby is handling this project.

In 2010, there were unpleasant happenings too. 2 of my close friends and relative were diagnosed with cancers. There were also a few marriage complication among family and friends. These reminded me to take care of our health and pay attention to our spouse. Somehow, we always neglect our spouse once we have our kids. These also made me realise how important family and friends are to me. They are part of my life.

Today, my boss told me that 2011 will not be a good year for me ... after I bought him a cup of Latte. There will be significant outflow of cash. I hope this relates to our house construction and not any other cash outflow. I also pray that our house construction will progress smoothly without major obstacles. This is Hubby's dream and I'll be happy to see his dream comes true in 2011.

My new year resolution is very simple. I want to spend quality time with my family ... my kids, my Hubby, my parents, my siblings, my friends and family members. They need me and I need them too. I should not take them for granted. They need my attention and care. After all, why do we work so hard? To provide a better and quality living to them, isn't it?

During work day, I spend a significant of my time at work. I am someone who needs "me time" every night before call it a day. I will browse through my emails, Facebook, reading blogs, etc. I also bake quite a bit. Baking is a good stress reliever and I am happy to see my family and friends enjoying my cake. I know I need to hit on to the gym more often to lose my weight and attend more yoga classes which is good for my health. I also like scrapbooking and update my blog. I am not a superwoman and everyone only has 24 hours in a day. With all these activities and hobbies, I've seen myself starting on a project and stopped half way and not getting them done. There were 2 mini album workshops that I've attended and the mini albums were still half done.

I need to live a balance life. An extreme of anything is not good. I need to stay focus too. Else, I will end up nowhere and never do well in anything that I do. It will always be an average results.

I need to pay more attention on my family lifestyle. Live as stress free as possible as stress is bad for health. The one most simple way to achieve this is not to wait for things to be done on last minute. Get things done a head of schedule.

Yes, today my best friend Christina asked me if my Hubby and I are interested to join them for eating, massage and shopping trip to Bangkok in mid 2011. Kids are not allowed and the trip has been booked. Hooray!

Auntie YC invited us to her house for new year eve's dinner. She roasted a chicken, the Jamie Oliver's way.

While Hubby and kids were swimming in the pool, I roasted another chicken, my very first roast chicken. I followed the recipe that I learned from Paul of Food Studio ... rub chicken with salt, pepper, paprika and mustard.

Hubby preferred the chicken roasted by Auntie YC, as a comparison, not that my chicken tasted bad but I've put too much salt that the chicken was salty. Jared ate a lot for dinner and he's weighing 20kg today, whereas, Jaden's weight is 15.2 kg.

Roasted potatoes, carrots, garlic, etc prepared by Auntie YC.
Onion cooked with butter, sugar and red wine. Goes very well with my roasted chicken.

We watched movie and TV at Auntie YC's house in Mt Kiara, while waiting for fireworks to countdown to new year 2011.

View from Auntie YC's balcony.

My simple new year wish ... good health, success and happiness.

By the way, Jaden said "Don't get angry. Be Happy!"