In the name of science

Dd had obtained a recipe sheet for igneous rock lollies from her science teacher so she could do it at home with me. I had to buy one of the ingredients so when I was ready one fine morning, I mixed them in a pot to dissolve them and boil. Dd disappeared to her room to watch her fave TV program so I was left to carry on the science experiment on my own. When the mixture was ready , I had to add a bit of baking powder to half of the mix, then pour onto the baking tray. Dd had finished watching Pokemon by now and had come back to the kitchen to resume the science experiment with me. The lolly mixtures supposedly had similarities with real life volcanic lava and pumice... (Gosh, I wished my science classes at my old secondary school were as interesting as dd's).
This morning I thought I'll try some crispy waffles instead. I had bought an electric beater and waffle maker so am experimenting with some recipes all in the name of science (home science that is).. Plus this is the only way to get dd to eat some decent food too.

Roast Chicken

I didn't get to bake any cakes when my sis was staying over. She was in shopping mode and I had to drive her almost everyday to the mall so she could get something on her shopping list. On the weekends , we drove her to the tourist attractions and theme parks, what have you.
I only managed to cook a special roast chicken on the night of her departure. She was commenting on the day that she had gone to SIL mother's house for our niece's b'day party and SIL had made a tasty roast chicken by smothering lee kum kee oyster sauce all over the bird. I had to frown and say "Hey, that's not roast chicken , that's asian chicken". I asked sis if she made roast chicken before and she said she always marinated chicken with all kind of sauces for her bbqs but nope, technically no roast chicken in the very sense of the word. (Incidentally she almost finished my previously unopened and unused lee kum kee oyster sauce during her stay). By golly, we had borrowed cooking books by Delia Smith from the local library, the author of whom, sis claims she had learnt the correct cooking techniques from (ie via Delia's cooking shows when sis was just newly wed and living in London in the late 90's) .
So I volunteered to show her how to cook the real mccoy/original roast chicken to her. It just needs some olive oil , garlic and some herbs and wallah! Roast chicken. (No sauces necessary!). Sis made some crunchy roast potatoes and I added some spinach on the side.
To my pleasant surprise (lol), sis said the roast chicken was the highlight of her stay, apparently beating her photo session with the dashing Robin at Movie World. (Batman gave her a piercing cold look as batmans do). She probably forgotten that we had had lunch with a friend who had cooked an insanely tantalising and heavenly sumptuous Afghan spread for us with pilao rice (divine!) , Afghani bread stuffed with spinach (double divine!), kebab burgers and lamb stew(triple!), a week prior. And what about the talk by Michael Palin, hmm.. I had a lil cold then, otherwise I would have leaped up and queued for his autograph during Q&A sessions like some people did, after which, there was no point in queuing later as it was so dang looong. (*sob*).

I'm off

I'm going to be laying off blogging the next couple of weeks as my sis is coming to stay and I probably won't have the time (or privacy) to blog.
Mental note: HAVE TO MAKE EFFORT TO TIDY HOUSE. Even mop as usual contractor (aka dh) is far too busy at the moment to mop despite frequent reminder. (He says I'm no good at mopping). But yes, I had just mopped the kitchen with a steam mop.
Mum is probably gonna ask my sister casually at some point if I have maintained the house well and kept it tidy. (Mum actually prefers housekeeping to cooking. I'm the opposite).
Oh yes, absolutely no baking of muffins/cakes or anything that has any sugar content either. (Mum absolutely abhors anything with a sugar content even the innocent honey). Well, maybe I'll bake once or twice to show sis what a pro I am at baking now!

Kitchen Gadgets

Dh was outstation for most of this week so I was cooking western to appease my kids appetite. I cooked black pepper steaks and lamb chop with mint sauce . It didn't really turn out as I had hoped. The recipe said fry the steak a few minutes on each side for rare , add a few more minutes for medium and more for well done. It didn't happen like that. I was cooking on my really old tefal pan and I was wondering was it time to buy new pans? My mint sauce didn't happen either as my made in china knife was soo blunt . So I went to the mall to get the knife that you can rock from left to right , right to left to slice up fresh herbs (what's it call? I saw Nigella use it once). I found one in a shop that specialise in kitchenware. It was originally $19.95 but reduced to $11.95. I used the herb slicer yesterday to slice fresh dill and oregano for scallops with dill butter sauce and spaghetti marinara. My kids loved the seafood , I would have to do this more often.
I was also looking out for some new pans. I scouted Myers dept store for Tefal pans but could not find any. Even though they had 30% off kitchen utensils, the branded pans were insanely priced from $119-$199 per item. I didn't know the price of cookware could be so dear!
I was scouting again one day and suddenly by chance I found a Breville cast iron cookware that had red price tags on them. One griddle pan had be reduced from $139 to $83. The color was being discontinued. It was my fave color ie light blue so I thought I would get it. They gave an additional 30% so I only paid $58 which was a bargain I thought for cast iron cookware. So now how and what do I use the pan for?

Zany dd

Me: Who wants noodles for dinner?
Dd: I do.
Older son: I do.
Dd to her brother: We love noodles so much we want to marry it.

10 things about toddler

My baby son has turned two so I can't call him my baby anymore. *sob*
Here are some interesting facts about him.

1. He weighed slightly more than 4.5kg , just an ounce less than 10 lbs at birth.
2. He still needs to breast feed , well at least before he goes for naps.
3. He likes to eat cooked prawns or whatever food is in his siblings' hands.
4. In the morning, whenever everyone is getting ready for work /school , he volunteers to take off his PJs and showers with his siblings.
5. Whenever he sees his dad clutching car keys, he hurries to find his shoes to wear and follow dad (coz mama is so boring doing housework all day). Twice, he had his shoes on and was ready to go, only thing is he was stark naked.
6. He likes cats and almost bashed a black cat blue in kl.
7. He likes to play feline with his brother. Older brother being the cat and he stroking his pretend cat's head.
8. He likes toy cars.
9. He really likes toy cars.
10. He really, really likes toy cars.

Eid Mishaps

I thought I'll blog about some mishaps on Eid for a change.

1. The queue at the women's section for the rice and curry after Eid prayers... what can I say... we queued unsystematically left , right and centre. The plates was placed on the left. We queued on the right. queue on the right.. no plates... people not queuing grabbing plates and cutting the queue. And one poor lil girl got poured with curry on her head! At that point, I left the queue and relied on dh's ability to get us a plate at the men's queue. Incidentally, there was an eid celebration at my kid's school today and I was amazed that the kids can queue in a straight line to get the sweets, cakes and stuff (as compared to us adults).
2. Went to the chemist to get some stuff. A thin young African security guard looked like he was sort of following me. It was probably my fault as I have this bad habit of spending too much time reading the ingredients on the label of the skincare products to see if it is compatible with my sensitive skin, so they probably thought I am a suspect to shoplift. (Actually, I gather, it is okay to touch and read stuff in Oz or KL, but people expect you to grab and go pay in UK). I told dh about the security guard later and he said that the guy might have thought I'm from some African tribe . It was Eid and I had just a tad too many shiny beads on my pashmina and clothes...
3. Asked dh to take some eid photos of me near the swimming pool before I changed into my mundane clothes. Dear 5yo son had just changed into a new spiderman shirt and pants that I bought him for eid when he was walking and... while he was looking at me in my black jilbab with toddler son doing our photo shoot, he tripped and he fell in the pool in his best clothes.......

Eid Gathering

I cooked for a lil Eid gathering on Sunday. Dh's M'sian friends and their family wanted to come over for the obligatory ziarah/visiting. So lazy me had to cook some food for them. It was all a last minute affair. Dh had to go out in the morning as I've decided to make barbecue seafood as we could not get any meat from the muslim butchers as they weren't open on Eid weekend. Dh took the whole morning getting the stuff so when he came back , we had only a couple of hours to stick the seafood on the skewers . Initially , I wanted to marinade the prawns but dh bought cooked prawns instead of uncooked , as per my instruction. So I made a last ditch attempt dill sauce (which didn't have any dill in it) and a sweet chilli sauce to go with the bbq . I also made some prawn salad and salad nicoise to accompany it. Plus there was some beef rendang which I made a day earlier (it took 4 hours to make) and ketupat nasi and lemang courtesy of Nona/flora food co.
The guests came at the alloted time and were ready to eat while we were still figuring out where to put the electric bbq thingy. They soon ate to their hearts content and were really bowled over with the bbq seafood and beef rendang. One lady guest actually came over to me when I was busy in the kitchen to extract the dill sauce recipe from me. She took me by surprise and I only repeated the general ingredients of the sauce that I could retrieve from my memory. There was about 90% butter in the sauce so I think it is more appropriate to call it butter sauce and I used coriander leaves instead of dill.
My friends ie the postgrad and her single housemates also came by later and they also liked the spread (or what was left of it). They also wanted the recipe for the dill /butter sauce which I gave willingly from a cookbook, and the beef rendang recipe. I can't really remember recipe for the latter as it sort of evaporated like the coconut milk (which is one of the main ingredient required), just as soon as I finished cooking it. Each year I have to phone my mum to jog my memory a bit of the specialised Eid cuisine and some of the ingredients are not easily obtainable like fresh galangal and tumeric leaves so I have to improvise the recipe according to what is available.
All in all, the gathering was sort of a success . Dh was very pleased that his friends went back home contented. I'm sorry I can't cook for his friends more often though. I'm naturally born lazy lol.

The Art of Baking

These past weeks , I've been attempting to bake cakes. I have this recipe book I bought from Angus and Robertson bookstore called "Cooking, A Commonsense Guide" which is quite good for newbies at baking like me. Baking cakes isn't really my family's tradition. I never can recall my mum baking a cake for us! So naturally, I never felt the urge for baking. We were very much a savoury sort of family anyhow, so the main course was more important for us. Fresh fruits like slices of mangoes and oranges would do fine for dessert. To my mum's credit though, she is a great cook when she cooks for us and dh thinks she is the best cook in the world.
Mum used to make the most outstanding traditional Malay kuih (sweet cakes/desserts/snacks) like kuih talam, seri muka, apam, lompang, currypuff (the pusing/circle type), rosles & kuih cara etc when we were little in London. I 've never tasted anyone's who could make kuih as good as hers from any traders, except from La Cucur where you have to pay a premium price. Unfortunately , mum didn't make much kuih when we came back to KL. I don't think she likes cooking desserts much. She later told us that she had to make the kuih in London for the M'sian VVIP /head of state's and their entourage who came to visit London (probably more so for the LIP( lesser important people) in the entourage).
I digress. Coming back to my baking attempts, I felt compelled to bake something for dd. She sometimes bake cookies etc at her school and she would often inquire or ask me if I could bake her something. I started out baking muffins for her as they were the easiest to make whereas most cookies and cakes I assume would require electric mixers. Yes, I don't own a electric mixer as yet!
Last week , I thought it was high time I tried to bake a chocolate cake. There was a recipe for a chocolate mud cake in the book and it didn't require an electric beater. I had all the ingredients in the pantry so I mixed them up accordingly and pop the cake mix in the oven. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out well. It was on the dry side coz the oven temperature was too high. I had earlier baked a tea cake and 12 mini pizzas at 220 degrees, hence, the oven did not cool down to the required 160 degrees. (So I guess I better made sure I do not bake any pizzas in the oven beforehand next time hmm).
My second attempt yesterday was okay and actually looked and taste fine despite that I put extra chocolate in the mix as half the bar had melt in the midday heat so I could not estimate properly, lol. I am feeling confident that perhaps I could maybe bake a cake for my MIL family when we are back in KL. ( Just perhaps)
My in law's family are totally the opposite of mine. Whereas mum would order tasty kuih raya (eid cookies) from a relative or someone else, MIL and her four daughters used to put in a lot of effort baking for eid celebration and make heaps of cookies and fry heaps of kerepek, (traditional malay flour based crisps equivalent to junk food ) weeks prior. My SILs often attempt to bake different type of cakes which sometimes turn out great or not so great depending on the season, lol. Not only do they make cookies and all, they actually enjoy finishing them off as I noticed that there wasn't any left when I visited them 1 and 2 weeks after Eid, whereas at my mum's place would still have plenty of leftover cookies that could be carried forward to Eid ul Adha.
My friend's used to send me Eid cards and the usual question would be "Dah buat kuih raya?" ("Have you made any Eid cookies yet?) and then the question would later evolve into "Dah beli kuih raya?" ("Have you bought any Eid cookies yet?) or to that effect. Whatever it is, bought or baked, I hope you have a Happy Eid everyone!

Langkawi Trip

[I really don't have much time to do this since kid's holidays coincide with Ramadan. I'm afraid they spend quite a lot of time in front of PC (more than me) now while I still have to churn out more food and food for their tummies.]
So I think I'll do it point form. Check out links below for more info.

• Day 1 :Arrived at Langkawi Airport. Before landing saw a mountain peak that looked like a man's face from the side view. Found out later it was Gunung Machinchang. Rented a car at airport and headed to Hotel.Check in hotel and dh and kids went straight to frolic on the beach. In the evening, ordered expensive room service food as everyone was too tired to go out. Holiday Villa
• Day 2: Had a quick breakfast at the buffet . Left dh and ds to have an extended breakfast while dd and I and toddler got ready to jump in the pool. The hotel had a ladies only indoor pool but we opted for the outside pool so that I could swim backstrokes while looking at the clouds above which was awesome. Then we got ready to go out. Specifically , to visit Underwater World. The first part of the exhibit , a lush tropical jungle room was the only thing I liked there. The seals in their tanks looked bored and sad. One was spinning continuously in the water. I exited while dh brought 2 older kids to the 2D show. Toddler and I waited at the cafe at the exit for them but they took ages and toddler accidently fell asleep on the table after his meal. I didn't eat anything there. It was oily and unappetising. I was surprise it was managed by the same restaurant famous for great seafood and steaks.
• Went back to Hotel to freshen up and had a quick lunch at a surprisingly tasty place called Restoran Haji Ramli. Barbecue fish and cockle salads were great. It would be added bonus if the staff could smile a little for their customer even though it was a hot and humid day.
• Went on a cable car ride at Gunung Machinchang. The view was awesome. Dh discovered that the mountain was the 3rd mountain created 500 million years on earth after the tectonic plates shift. I'm afraid I can't elaborate more as I left my book detailing the thingy in KL. (Dh inquired about this from a vendor selling drinks at the top of the mountain). The mountain is now a UNESCO heritage site since June 2007. Perhaps they could have written it down on a poster and stuck it somewhere for visitors to read. Langkawi Geo Park
• Went back to the Hotel after take away KFC for dinner . Dh commented that the KFC restaurant had the best harbour view in the world.
• Dh and kids went swimming at the hotel.
• Day 3: Went on a wild goose chase looking for batik sarong for MIL. Finally, found a place where they print exclusive batiks at 4 times the price of batik indon. Bought some in case can't find any cheap ones for MIL.
• Went to Mahsuri 's grave/tomb site or commercially known as Kota Mahsuri. Dh wanted to teach some history lessons to our kids. Learning the sad story of Mahsuri from their dad , our kids were a bit scared to go as they were afraid that the villain in the story, an evil prince would still be there. Learnt from the old lady who is the maintenance worker/keeper of the toilets, that Mahsuri's grave was moved from it's original grave site to the current so that they could develop the site further into a little complex. (The pretty Mahsuri house wasn't really her original house too).
• Went to Pekan Kuah for lunch and bought the elusive batik sarong for MIL.
• Headed to Sungai Kilim for the highlight of the vacation. A boat trip on the river to see Gua Kelewar (Bat Cave), Gua Buaya (Crocodile Cavern) , Floating Seafood Restaurant and fishfarm and also, possibly see eagles feeding on the river.
• Had dinner with our boatman cum tourist guide at the floating restaurant. Nice guy and the lad was quite well informed of his stuff. Hole in the wall Restaurant
• I would advise people if they were to take a boat ride on the river to wear the life jackets even it is not compulsory. Our boat hit a jutting stone cliff as our boatman was sms-ing somebody at the crucial time. Dh had to tell him at the last seconds before it hit. He stopped the engine so the impact was lesser than it could have been. Otherwise , it would have made greater damage to the boat .
• Dear son was afraid to go into the Bat Cave initially,however he braved it in the end. There were many bats inside and they were all sleeping fortunately.
• In the Crocodile Cave, the boatman was really enthusiastic telling dh that one of the stones looked like a crocodile ,that everyone was leaning on the port side of the boat. I had to tell them that the boat was almost tipping before they realised it.
• We watched Brahminy eagles/kites feeding on chicken skin floating in the water. All in all , it was an awesome spectacle. There were 40 or more of them . The boatman said if we went in the morning , there were more eagles around, possibly in 100s.
• Day 4: Caught our flight back to KL. It was delayed for more than an hour as torrential rain fell. Dh managed to capture images of Ajaz Ahmed, one of the tallest men in the world as he arrived at Langkawi airport.
• Arrived back in KL.

More info on Langkawi places of attraction , go to Langkawi Geo Park

Recondition

I just came back from KL and am reconditioning myself back to living as a nucleus family in Oz. I hardly did any cooking in KL. Someone else did it at my mum's or we can go out and get some cheap and delicious food. Now I have to cook for the family again.
Did you know dd actually ate rice and chicken at her granny's house. I ask her why she ate rice in KL and not in Oz. She said that she was spoonfed by the maid. Do I have to really spoon feed her here to make her eat rice? Hmmm.. maybe I 'll try to sometime.
We went for a wonderful trip to Langkawi and enjoyed it's natural beauty. I'm glad it still retained some of its natural allure . The beach was still looking pristine since I last remember visiting it which was while I was a kid accompanying my mum to visit one of her aunts. That was waayy before the tourism boom. Now I think there are more footprints showing on the sandy shores.
I''ll write more concisely about Langkawi in my next entry and what we did there, insha Allah.

Carrots & Zikr

I dare say I can look at a carrot the same again. I had sent a bundle of my kids' clothes that no longer fit them to a friend's house , ie the Afghan family with 6 girls. The mom was peeling and slicing carrots at that time. She invited me in. I said I had to run errands at the post office and also had to make it in time to attend my son's special hat event that afternoon. However, I went in just the same after she insisted a couple of time. Besides, drinking tea without sugar and munching almonds wasn't going do much harm.
After she brought out some tea, raisins, almonds and sweets for me on a tray, she continued to peel carrots and slice them up julienne style, sometimes chewing raw carrots in her own mouth, sometimes handing them out to her youngest, a one year baby and my toddler, while her second youngest , a 2 year old toddler was sound asleep under a blanket. She said she was going to cook the carrots with some rice for her family. I think she was preparing a bag of them , about 10 or more carrots for dinner that day. I've never seen anyone peel that much carrots for an entire hour with such zest. In fact I've never seen anyone peel carrots before except myself . But I will only chop up one carrot (or two) in under a minute to cook them for my toddler who seems to be the only member in my household who likes to eat them. While this family in front of me took to carrot like fish to water. I watched her concentrating on the carrots , shifting through the sliced up carrots in the colander to see if everything is sliced up and slicing any remainder left that hasn't been, while we conversed in rudimentary English about daily matters on the floor of her living room. Her patience undertaking this kitchen chore on the sprawling Persian carpet, amazes me. I could only liken it to seeing the serenity of one making zikr with his/her tasbih/prayer beads on a sejadah, completely oblivious of his/her surroundings.

Continued..

Dd had her numeracy test yesterday and she told us her mind was thinking about the story book in her desk that the teacher said she could read after she finished her test.... Hmmm.. Hope she did okay though.
Her school and another school won for best project and presentation. Dh told me their booths were really informative and very well presented. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that they share the same science teachers who teach at both the schools. Anyway, I am pleased that they beat another school nearby with the much larger pupil population and great amenities ( including a swimming pool). Wicked huh!

Dd's Test Preparation

Dd will have a big test next week. I keep asking her to practice and do some mock tests at home which has fallen on deaf ear. She keeps reading books. Story books. My fault. I kept on buying her story books by Roald Dahl and Andy Griffith for the past weeks.
May I add that she also has a science presentation on the night of the test. The teacher says she will be fine. (I hope so).
Oh well she 's only 8. Who cares about test at that age!

In Search of Good Books

As I darted my eyes across the shelves laden with books , I came across "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho on one of them. I bought it along with some other books for dd. I haven't read a fiction for ages but gave it a go before bed, reading about 40+ pages. And the next morning , finished the 170+ pages in between making breakfast for the family. It was a breeze reading the book, quite effortless, fluid.. The words flowing easily as they were simple and manageable. The backdrop was also one of my fave places; The Sahara Desert.
I checked the library catalogue if any of Paulo Coelho books were available to borrow. Unfortunately not. So I went to the bookstores to find some more books to read. I chose "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and "The Kite Runner" both by Khaled Hosseini, "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne and "Like a Flowing River" by Paulo Coelho which I read of his thoughts and reflection. I tried reading a few pages of The Kite Runner at the same time. It was descriptive and I found it initially difficult and not as fluid to read as Coelho's books. However, Afghanistan history/culture intrigues me. I had watched the DVD of "In Search of an Afghan Girl" the previous week about the refugee girl with the haunting sea green eyes on the cover of National Geographic in 1985. (I used to collect Nat Geo magazines monthly issues since I read an article of Ibnu Battuta in 1991. I still kept some of them}.
Once more , I gave "The Kite Runner" another try and finished it in one day. Then I gave "A Thousand Splendid Suns" a try and finished it in a day today. Compelling stories. How could people endure them?....

Dd's Birthday Bash

[It has been almost a month since we moved in our new residence. I have been busy the first few weeks unpacking and tidying stuff . Dh had packed all my kitchen stuff, cutlery and crockery into bubble wrappers and then into boxes (thanks dear if you happen to read this) but for the most part I had to do the unpacking myself since it is the co FYE and his mind set is at work mode this month. We still got boxes of books and kid's stuff to unpack and organise. I'm waiting for dh to sort that out and get some extra shelves for the rumpus room downstairs. ]
I managed to organise a lil birthday bash for dd and her friends at a bowling centre last week. At first I planned for dd to go to the movie with some of her pals. I asked her the names of her pals and she came up with names that sounded that they were boys. That wasn't going to do so I thought I'd plan a bowling theme party instead with some families with kids from her school.
It has been quite a while since I organised a party at an outside venue for her since her third birthday at McD in KL. It was a relatively last minute plan but Alhamdulilah for the most part, all went relatively smooth and dd and her friends seemed that they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I'd say as smooth as a party with 15 active children can be! A party host was allocated for the kids but at some point or another, dh and I had to take care of a couple of boisterous toddlers while the mums nipped out to the shops. (I realised later they went out to get some last minute gift shopping).
The kids had to play bowling for the first hour and some of the younger kids were already feeling peckish and complained to me. I could understand their feeling as we went to a a kid's high voltage gymnastic theme birthday last year and we were wondering when it was all gonna end and when it was time to eat. I had to give them some potato crisps for them to satisfy their hungry pangs. Dh also bought extra chips and calamari to fuel them to play til finish. However, when it was time to eat the party food , I was wandering why some of the kids had not entered the room where it was held. It turned out that they were playing at the game arcade as dh had bought tokens and distributed it to them. Games certainly distracted the kids from their hunger pangs!When they all came in to eat , dh said it suddenly turned quiet as everyone was soo hungry and happily tucking into their meal. After the ice cream birthday cake came and disappeared into every one's mouth and they received the party bags dd made for them , the kids left the rooms again to finish their last token in the game arcade. They seemed very eager to accumulate tickets and win some small prizes there.

We're moving..

to another house this weekend insha Allah. Still haven't finished packing our stuff in the boxes/bags. Kids are at home for their school break so doubly busy. Probably won't be updating blog next week til dh change our acc details.

Ds can ride a bike?

I sent ds and dd to my friend's house for an hour of play last week. When I picked them up , ds said his friend (who is the same age as him) taught him to ride a bike. I didn't really think much of it as he doesn't have a bike at home and his older sister is possessive of her small bike with the training wheels. On Saturday, he was pestering his dad for a big bike without any training wheels and his dad caved in to the pressure and bought him a bike much bigger than dd's. They had to assemble it first which took a while and his dad had to go out and buy a specific tool. Then I didn't get to see him in action outside as I went upstairs. Well, today the dad and kids team were all geared up with their bikes to go to the park while I went to a local store hoping to buy some halal meat. However, it turned out that my fave store with the friendly family staff had closed down. :( So I went back to the park to see dh and the kids in action. I asked dh if ds could really ride a bike and he said yes. It was funny to see ds riding a bike which was a lil big for him. His legs were too short to push start it so we had to help push it before he could ride it. Dd on the other hand, was riding a bike which was meant for her when she was around her brother's age. I am amazed that they could do it at their age and especially ds to learn how to ride a bike from his 5yo friend who I think just got the hang of it recently (but whose siblings seem to be quite proficient bike riders as I sometime see them either walking or riding a bike to and fro school.)

Coldest Days

The days were very cold this week.. I think during mid week, the wind was so blustery .. I could hear the wind howling outside the window ..It reminded me of my years in England.. The news confirmed that it was indeed the coldest day in 18 years in Queensland. (Darwin also suffered miserably at 23 degrees, Poor Darwin).
I went out to buy some winter clothings for my kids especially my toddler who has outgrown his jacket which I bought for him a few months ago. He is growing up so fast. He is on the chubby side so I usually have to get 1 or 2 size larger than his age group.
Despite the cold mornings, dd refuses to wear her jacket and would only carry in her arms. I asked her dad to ask them to wear their sweaters. They usually obey their dad for some unbeknown reason. Yesterday, I wanted her to wear her school jacket before I drove them to school and I explained the word hypothermia to her and the implications. She relented but when I picked her up at school , the weather had turned slightly warmer again and she had stuffed it in her backpack.

All Geared Up

Dh is car shopping for me. Insha Allah, he is getting me a car so that I can send the kids to school if we move to a house a little further than where they are currently schooling. He is asking me what type of car I like??! Actually , I have no clue what car I like.. really.. As long as it's engine is fine, it can move from one place to another and the most crucial criteria .. it is easier to park than his ford falcon, I don't think I mind what type it is.... Car shopping . Dh is all geared up but this is one shopping trip I'd prefer not to go to really. (yawn).