Assam Jawa (Tamarind)

Tamarind or Assam Jawa (the Malay word) is widely used in cooking. Besides that, it can also be eaten raw.

A friend bought me some recently and here's how it look. All you have to do is to peel open the fruit which contains a soft acidic pulp and many hard-coated seeds. The pulp when eaten has a sweet after taste and it's either you love it or will not touch it again. And it was such a coincident that I stumbled upon an Assam Jawa tree that afternoon; could not resist a photo.

Eat Out: Marmalade Cafe

This time around, me and colleagues decided to be a bit healthy and decided to have lots of veggies, instead of meat. Our choice, Marmalade cafe @ Mon't Kiara, nearby our office. Food was fantastics, esp. the apple crumble !! The quiche and salad were superb. It's also reasonable priced and it's a great place to chill on Fridays. I ended up buying the carrot cake as a takeaway since I could eat no more !!

Chinese Soup

Being a Chinese, soups is very much part of my diet. They are considered to be nutritious and easy to prepare. The only tedious thing is that you have to let it boil over slow fire for 4 to 5 hours.

Because of this, I will only be able to cook soups during weekends. I am now seriously thinking about getting a electrical red claypot as I think Ryan and papa is not having enough nutrient. Besides, it will be a good supplement apart from the catered food. Before this, I have tried using the slow cooker but somehow it's not as tasty. My neighbour agreed to let me tried her red claypot and hopefully, we are ok with the end product. If everything goes well, we should be getting one soon.

Also, nowadays, there are a wide variety of prepack ingredient to choose from. All you have to do is to buy the meat and chuck everything in. A friend is recommending this "Uncle Sun" bak-kut teh mixture and I shall try it this weekend.

My Swollen Feet

This is among the many, many downside of being pregnant - swollen feet and mine is so swollen that I'm now 2-size bigger. I have to chuck away my heels for the time being and pray that I can somehow squeeze into them again!!! For now it will be size 9 flip-flop flats.

Pregnant - 6 years ago

Here's a photo of me when I was 8-month pregnant with Ryan, taken roughly 6 years ago ~ and how one changed physically. I looked so much younger then. Argh...the toil of being a mummy!!

I'm not sure whether is my tummy bigger now compared the time I had Ryan because I did not take any measurement and one cannot really tell from the photos.

Looking back, I was clueless about being a mummy but I read and read as much as I can. All I know then was that me and hubby will do our best to bring him up and give him all our love.

Six years later and one month away from delivering my second child, I can say that I'm now a little wiser; I know exactly what to expect (sleepless nights, colic baby etc) and me and hubby will do our best and give our children all our love. We know it's going to be tough as baby needs attention and Ryan is now DEMANDING for his share as well but somehow, we will survive......... like so many parents out there !!! and I will age further.

Inspiration from other Bloggers

Besides "maintaining and updating" my own blog, I do read others, especially women bloggers and I find them to be very inspirational. These writers are so witty, creative and full of energy. Their sites are colourful, interesting and every now and then, they take the effort to introduce new designs to further enhance their already awesome sites.

How I wish I have their skills and can be half as creative?
Well....I might not be in the same league but I do have fun reading their blogs and at the same time, draw inspiration from them. I've also decided that from time to time, I will embark on "mini-projects" to learn new skills. There's so much to learn once you open your mind!!!.

Drinking Milk Straight from the Bottle

Here's Ryan after drinking his chocolate milk from the bottle.
He's such a messy eater!! Argh.....

Ryan's Swimming Lessons

We have taken Ryan to 2 trial swimming lessons as the previous arrangement with the private instructor did not work out. The first was at EC Swim, located in PJ, while the other at the Sunway Swimming (SEAL), Sunway. Both have different set-up, objective and hence different pricing ($$$).

We have not commit and I will let hubby decides on this as he will be one taking Ryan to all his lessons while I will be fussing over the "little one". And hopefully, we will not take too long to decide so that Ryan will at least know how to "float" by the end of this year.

Garden: 5 July 2008

Latest flower from my ginger shell plant. Simply beautiful........

34+ Weeks: That Guilty Feeling

Went to the doctor this morning and as usual he did a scan. Baby is growing well and she was having hiccups; it was really funny listening in. She's 2.3 kg and the only disappointment for me, personally is that she is still facing downwards, just like the last few visits. It's nothing, I guess, but at this point in time, I'm anxious; I just to know and get some assurance that she's okay.

Why the anxiety? When I was pregnant the first time around, I was very naive and as the saying goes "ignorance is bliss". Back then, I was concentrating on having my first child and that was it. Work was not so hectic, my general was not an issue and I did not know much about "what-can-go-wrong", "pregnancy risks" etc, even though I do read up. I did everything with so much enthusiasm. Now, I'm always tired at the end of the day, I have not prepared anything and I always ended up having this guilty feeling.

Guilty for:
- not treating her the same as Ryan (when he's in my tummy)
- somewhat neglecting her due to my current work and other family commitments
- not spending enough time with her and tell her that I love her and looking forward to see her
- not taking good care of myself while carrying her ( feeling stress throughout the pregnancy and I'm not sure how this affects her)

I have to work things out and come up with a solution as I'm at the final stage of my pregnancy. I need to make amendments and I'm taking positive steps.

Hubby's Chinese Remedy

Hubby have been going for foot reflexology once a week, for the past few weeks and he finds the sessions rather painful but useful. The lady who does the foot reflexology also advises him to take some traditional chinese herbs to help him improve his overall well being.

The formula:
- take equal amount of barley, huai shin & fox nut
- get the shop to grind it until it's powder-like (see picture)

To eat, you can either:
- put 2 spoonful and mixed it with lukewarm water, then bottom up and it's tasteless; or
- put 2 spoonful, mixed it with water and bring it to boil, cool it before eating the cereal-like mixture and it's still tasteless.

Hubby is fond of the latter and he's happy with the result so far and I'm happy that he's happy.

No Easy Way Out

Once a week, I will drop by a local organic shop near my house to pick up hubby's weekly supply of wheatgrass. It is also a sort of a treat for Ryan as we will go to the shops nearby to buy titbits and on special occasion, pokemon cards. Without me realising or rather, I have been taking the easy way out, it has become a habit for Ryan to ask for pokemon cards on every visit, so much so that he has now accumulate quite a number of cards. The habit has also turned into expectation as he expects to "get" a fresh deck of pokemon cards every week.

It's time for some serious parenting. So today, I explained to him why I'm not buying him any more cards. I also explained the value of money and the fact that he has loads of other toys and cards to play with. He will get treats/cards only when he truly deserves them.

In the end, he cried and cried and cried; silently at first and thereafter he started his threats. Throughout this, I kept my cool. It breaks my heart but I need to do this, I have to. I need him to understand and accept the fact that life is not a bed of roses, and that he cannot get everything he wants and also the value of money.

Although he's 6, I think it's the right time to start. I do not want him to turn out to be a spoilt brat. The earlier he learns this, the better. Parenting is a difficult task and there's just no easy way out.