Chloe and Dylan...snapshots

Some pics I took of Chloe and Dylan today. From top - Chloe playfully asked me to let her sit on the sofa's arm rest which I did, so she was happy and contended, even posing for a rare smiley v-sign pic! Later after shower, she took her hanky and emulated Esther by "wiping" clean the TV set and table. At 1-Utama's Maybank broadband lounge area resting with Chloe whilst waiting for Esther to finish her shopping...at MPH bookstore, refusing to let go all the cuddly toys she had gathered...Dylan, like his sister, gave me a rare opportunity to take his pic whilst laughing away before putting him to bed.

Chloe...on mobile elephant.

Esther, Chloe and I went to 1-Utama shopping center as the sale was still going on. Here's some pic of Chloe on a mobile elephant at the children's park which she adamantly wanna get off from even though there was still enough time...perhaps she was afraid of the park warden whom admittedly, did look abit stern...nevertheless I reckoned he was pretty friendly as he offered to "steer" the elephant towards my cam, but scaring Chloe off in the process!

Favourite apple strudel..

This is perhaps the tastiest, best of the best apple strudel Esther and I had tasted in years...Ah Kuan, my stepbro, had just came back from Perth after completing his finals at Curtin, so what was it that he should bring back for Esther and myself? Apple strudel from this shop in Aberdeen St, Nightbridge! Esther and I spent our tertiary education in UWA, so amongst the best memories are apple de la strudel...can't help it cos there are many donuts shops opened here but no apple strudel. Esther mentioned about a branch in Spore but she reckoned the taste (she had tried it) not the same as the original store in Perth...

Christmas Tree 08...decoration.

Esther and I bought some decorations for the tree. Put it up today. Sometimes the decorations itself costs more than the tree! Esther said that in most cases, decorations were selected carefully as it would be passed down from one generation to another. Hhhmmm....that would be an interesting idea. But alas, I had overstretched my budgets thus no limited editions glass globes nor fancy dancing Santas for this year...yet.

Monkey Cups - Crickets...released

Released all the remaining crickets bought for me monkeys into the garden. Why? Cos of ants. I hate ants. Especially the fire ants. A trail of it creep all the way into the plastic container I kept the crickets cos couple of it apparently died and emitted a really awful smell...I cleaned everything and drowned those bastardos with Morten. Couple of days ago, I noticed that they (the ants) had built some nests on the garden. And I panic-ed cos Chloe, Suetch and Leo loves to be around in the garden. So I grabbed my gear, the El Morteno and carpet bombed the entire area. On top of that I hosed those ants' "palaces" down with waters, and double coated the area with another round of Morten. Apparently it was not effective cos those bastardos "moved" their nests to outside of the compound and me grasses went dead for a couple of acres...oh well.

Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music.

Now the party's over

I'm so tired

Then I see you coming

Out of nowhere

Much communication

in a motion

Without conversation

or a notion

~ Avalon.

Tell her I'll be waiting

in the usual place

With the tired and weary

and there's no escape.

To need a woman

you've got to know

How the strong get weak

and the rich get poor.

~ Slave To Love.

Nothings last forever

Of that I'm sure

Now you've made an offer

I'll take some more

Young loving may be

Oh so mean

Will I still survive

The same old scene

~ Same Old Scene.

I reckoned I could listen to some "glam rock" and some adult contemporaries for a day. I had been listening to these two collections since yesterday. Bryan Ferry, former lead singer of Roxy Music, had some hits and misses during his solo career. His perchance for "ready made", his term for interpreting songs done by other artists, may not strike a chord with everyone, but in The Collection, although not even "barely" a selection of songs from his solo albums discography, allowed me to get re-acquainted with the lounge fly, cool cat Ferry, all-time favourites include the unforgettable Slave To Love, Girl Of My Best Friend, Let's Get Together, The In-Crowd, Tokyo Joe. The Best Of Roxy Music was another selection of hits compiled during Bryan's time as the lead singer for Roxy Music. Together, they had been credited as one of the pioneers of "art rock" a sort of "glam rock" with "progressive" influence, whatever that means. Arranged in reverse chronology, I preferred their later works like Avalon, More Than This, Same Old Scene. From the Siren's derived single onwards like Love Is A Drug and so-on, I found myself struggling to appreciate their earlier works.

Dylan...smelling great!

Dylan smells great...I mean literally. I love to smell babies especially between 0 to 6 months old. After that, the "baby" smell sort of gone away...I never miss opportunity to smell Dylan whenever I could...and with Suet Nee and my sister coming over to my place for a while since the babysitter contract is up, I could have opportunity to smell 2 babies heh! Suetch also came over, so Chloe and her have opportunities to fight each other and play together as well. Vocal decibels in the house has gone up several hunderd notches though...mom and Esther were also watchful of me cos of any case of nicotine smells still sticking on me...

Monkey Cups...crickets for monkeys.

Bought 25 live crickets for me monkeys this evening, costing me MYR1. That's alot of crickets. And crickets need "maintainence" to keep them alive too...the manager of the aquaria shop, Ah Hau said that in future should I need crickets, he would be glad to just give 1 or 2 for free to me...I shared with him about my new found interest on raising monkey cups...I chopped (more like tearing...it's a sad action, I felt sorry to those poor crickets) 4 crickets for all the new monkeys (which honestly is abit of overkill), except for Elvis and Hooky. Hooky's pitchers are too small to fit the the pincer which I used to grab and hold the crickets whilst Elvis' lone developed pitcher has turned blacked and "kaput" (only 2 days!). I actually shifted Elvis to a greater shaded area from the rest, however, I noticed that a new stalk is forming...so I am crossing my fingers...the rest are fine...Venus is stalling though, the growth I mean...there are new leaves/traps forming but at a very slow rate compare to the rate the existing leaves/traps turning black...its been raining and drizzling for most of the weeks, so the low lander I reckoned should be fine, its the highlander which I am worried about.

Chloe...tantrum again

Came back from work today and mom said that Chloe had been crying non stop. According to mom, it began when Chloe wanna have a bread bun which came in a wrapper, Siti the housemaid helped her to open it and that's when all hell break loose...she intended to open it by herself only. When I reached home, she was still crying and I tried to pacify her by giving her an ice cream but I failed and in the end, mom came to the rescue by gently but firmly pacify her by diverting her attention through "promises" of bringing her to the nearby garden later. She also took this opportunity to bath Chloe as she was in a mess with all the ice creams over her (and me). When relating this incident to Esther later in the evening, she said that this is normal and that's why they call it "terrible 2" (Chloe is about to reached 2 yrs old early next year). But man, it was an awful and heartaching experience, to see Chloe crying all that...so kesian!

Monday morning blues...back to work.

Well, after a week annual leave break, I am back to work. Every Monday morning of the working week is a set routine for me. Wake up at 6am (sharp...unless too sleepy or alarm clock doesn't work). Take a ciggie, brush teeth, shave. Deposit "waste" matter from body to Alam Flora to be recycled. Cold/warm shower. Dress up. Comb hair. Take a peek at both precious. Say bye to mom, Esther. Reverse Esther/mom/dad's MPV/car, depends on who is blocking mine in the porch. Go to Restaurant Ehsan at USJ2 for breakfast. After breakfast, endure massive traffic jam in front of Summit USJ. Take Kesas highway, detour into Elite and exit at Meru junction. Reach office. Make a 2nd "waste" deposit to Alam Flora. Get into character for the "rat race" until 5pm. Usually no lunch ("lunch for wimps" - Wall Street ;)). Endure rain or eye blinding super shiny setting sun. Endure more traffic jam and crazy drivers ie change lane without signal, hogging the middle lane by driving at 20km/h, driving at 200km/h on the third lane trying to force you offroad or bully you into submission by tailgating especially continental cars with single or double digit plate numbers, lorries, nissan liteace drivers, express buses...rally driver wanna-be type weaving in and out of all 3 lanes at insane speed and creating near misses...hmmm maybe the one week break really made me forgot all these routines, "traffic insanities" and as a working stiff for a while.

Pin Pin.

My nephew, Pin Pin and his (older) sister, Sasa, had been looked after by my mom since they are babies. I used to call them AC/DC due to their rather mischievious personalities. Now, I suspected Chloe might be influenced by Sasa and Pin Pin's behaviour...I hope I can still change that. Here's a pic of Pin Pin with his toy 18th Century gun his parents bought for him from Jonker's Street in Malacca (somehow that pix reminds me of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver heh...Pin Pin posed as I asked him to...I reckoned his parents weren't too please with me on this...).

Chloe and Dylan's Full Moon Celebration.

And these are couple of pics on Chloe's and Dylan's Full Moon Celebration. Both precious have sure grown up! Sniff..sniff. I was thinking how fragile both precious looked! Certainly far removed from who they were now.

Suet Nee's Full Moon Celebration.

Esther, Chloe, Dylan and I attended Suet Nee's Full Moon celebration at my sister's place in Puchong. According to one of the Chinese cultural tradition, all babies "reach" 1 month old ( calculated according to the Chinese Lunar calender ) must hold the celebration above. I could not remember the reason for such event. Mom ordered catering but I think she did not account for the rainy weather, causing quite a number of invitees to cancel attendance at the last minute. As a result, a lot of foods had to be "tar pau" by guests. The menu is as usual, fired beehoons, chicken nyonya style, stir fried vegies, fried spring rolls...mom cooked "nasi kunyit" with curry chicken, and sister's parent in law brought some vineger laced pork knuckles for the occasion.

Japanese pranks videos...

...and as a followup, another favourite, Japanese prank videos. Crazeee...

Funny Bollywood Movie Clips.

Yesss..., I finally learnt how to upload YouTube videos...as a start, these are amongst my favourite video clips...these are classic tummy tickling scenes from Bollywood...

Daorae, USJ Taipan.

Esther, Chloe, Dylan, Siti and I went for dinner with Sim Yoon and Choo to Daorae, our favourite Korean restaurant at USJ Taipan, which in turn, were introduced by an ex-colleague of mine and his wife. Chloe was afraid of Choo, and kept crying. She was finally pacified by Sim Yoon who offered her some M&Ms. Not a good practise but at least she stopped and managed to be persuaded to tuck in her dinner. Chloe tends to fear strangers whom she haven't met or remember. Seeing Chloe crying, Dylan too joined in. So it was a chorus of cries in the restaurant but its alright. As usual, the dinner was great. After being pacified, Chloe seemed to enjoy the foods as well. Dylan fell asleep soon after we pacified him but woke up towards the end of the dinner. Daorae has great atmosphere and service. The Korean proprietor was very personable and helpful as usual, even to the extent of personally greeting and saying goodbye to all his customers.

Nepenthes Jamban

Here's a pic from the web on nepenthes jamban aka "toilet bowl" nepenthes indigenious to the Barisan Mountain on Western Sumatra, was first officially described as recent as 2006. Sigh...I wish I have the spare "mulah" to go for a pot of this toilet bowl shaped beauty...The one I saw at Fauzi's stall looked about the size of the pic with greenish pitchers.

Monkey Cups Pics.

Here's some pics for record purpose. I have named them accordingly, N. Hookeriana = Hooky, N.Rafflesiana = Raffy, N.Bicalcarata = Becky, N.Veitchii x Fusca = Vicky, N.Ampullaria = Larry and the notoriously difficult to cultivate N.Rajah = Elvis (cos there is only one King 'kay?). As a start, I decided to re-positioned them under the pine, a I weren't too keen on putting them on the Ikea side table after the catastrophy. Also Leo is pretty much an unstoppable juggernaut. When she's hungry, there is no stopping her from advancing...

Monkey Cups...Restarted.

Dropped by Subang Parade this morning to collect the ordered nepenthes from Fauzi. The following species were what I had bought : a) N. Hookeriana b) N. Rafflesiana (Brunei Giant Clone 99) c) N.Bicalcarata d) N. Rajah e) N.Ampullaria (Red Speckle) and f) N.Veitchii x Fusca. On display and for sale are some really nice 1 year old Hookerianas, in particular, its pitchers. Also I had the opportunity to enquire about N. Jamban (literally means "toilet bowl" in B.Malaysia and B.Indonesia) which I managed to read about in Wikipedia co-incidentally only last night (because the name really "stands" out). Apart from the numerous "toilet" related humours which I can think of about the name itself, the price of this "beauty" is not a laughing matter. Fauzi himself jokingly (I think..) wanna charge me couple of tens in ringgit just for a "sneak preview". Yes, I was lucky because Fauzi happened to have with him a small specimen at his stall for one of his client. And I reckoned this client of Fauzi is probably one of the most hardcore, ardent fan of pitcher plants..because the cost of that specimen I saw (Fauzi did not charge me for the sneak peek and I dare not bring up the subject heh) get this, retail on the upper, uppest range of the hundreds (I know the actual number but if anyone interested, should contact Fauzi directly). And I would imagine if a fine large size "tandas" er I mean "jambans" would probably guessimated to be in region of thousand plus ringgit. Whew!

Christmas Tree 08.

I love Christmas and New Year celebration, from 24th Dec to 1st Jan. I am not a Christian, but yet, there is something about that particular stretch of the week which makes me feel "mellow" and "joyful". Maybe its because when I was young, mom used to celebrate informally the yuletide seasons, with Christmas trees and all...also because I reckoned my birth date lies smacked inbetween those 2 dates. And I like those Christmas songs which they played in those malls and radios. Anyhoo, Chloe and I successfully essembled the Christmas tree bought from Ikea last night (1st successful personal "assembly", I am a DIY phobic). She wanted to use the penknife herself but that's a big no no. Will start planning with Esther on the decoration aspect after this.

Ikea outing

Continuing our hunt for a Christmas tree which was within our budget, Esther, Chloe and I went to Ikea, Mutiara D'sara to have a look after Esther spotted the item amongst the catalogue. Before that our tummy need to be filled, so Esther whipped up some asam prawns, stir-fried pak choys and kapitan curry chickens for dinner. It had been awhile since we dropped by Ikea, not since Esther and I bought some from them for our marriage about 2 years ago. Chloe seemed to enjoy herself the most. We got what we were looking for and on our way out, we bought some curry puffs, an ice-cream and a hot dog for a quick munch.