Child Labor

I managed to escape from the office quite early today, due to it being a Friday (4.45pm cabut time for bank employees) and my boss still on cuti. When I got home, I was struck with a sudden urge to wash my car. Mind you, it hasn't been washed in a while and was taking on a slightly dingy, crusty appearance. Practically every time my dad sees my car in the day-light he'll give me a mini lecture on the importance on keeping my car sparkling clean and polished at all times. Sometimes I feel like answering, "Sure, Babah, I understand. But not all of us have drivers who wipe and/or wash our cars practically every day." Instead, I just nod dutifully and promise to get my car waxed next weekend.

Anyway. Since I was already home, I was too lazy to drive out again to the local car wash. So I decided to wash it myself! A brilliant idea! Why not? Rather than forking out RM8 to the friendly I*ndon boys to do it at the local place, I could not only save said RMs but also get some exercise to boot. I haven't washed my car by myself in about 5 years thanks to a brother who was willing to trade for driving privileges and later my dear hubs who took over the job.

Eez was looking sad and forlorn 'cos my mom and adiks had left for PD for the weekend so I decided to let him in on the action. After outfitting him in a pair of H*uggies Swim Pants (nasib muat lagi) and a T-shirt, we dug out the necessary supplies from the storage closet and set to work. At first Eez didn't understand why my car needed a bath, but later he got the point when he saw the "yucky bubbles" slipping down the side of the car. He washed the whole driver's door, one wheel and half the bumper of my mom's Honda parked beside my car (totally unnecessary but it was a good effort nonetheless) before deciding that playing with the bubbles in the bucket was much more fun.




He was so absorbed in his task, he refused to smile for the camera. An hour later, I had a sparkling clean... well, cleaner car.

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Last weekend I bought some strawberries at the C*urve Street Market. 3 boxes for RM11, quite cheap, no? 3 days later, my finicky adiks had consumed just one box so rather than let the rest go to waste, I decided to try and make some strawberry butter. I'd read the recipe some where and it seemed easy enough. The strawberries were a bit tart ("Cuaca panas at Cameron kot!" my mom said) so I improvised on the recipe. I added more strawberries and some honey and a dash of lime juice. I was quite pleased with the result. I let it sit overnight in the fridge and proudly unveiled it to my adiks the next day. They were like, "Eeeew gross!" but after seeing Eez belasah 3 pieces of toast covered in the strawberry butter, they soon changed their tune.

I had planned to get a picture of my butter when it was all smooth and lovely and fresh but unfortunately my adiks got there first. Here's how it looked after it was attacked by wild animals:

This butter would taste fabulous on some hot scones.... But since I don't know how to make scones (yet), toast will have to do. Sedap, I tell you.... I have a new philosophy on eating. There's a world food crisis going on so I've decided to ditch any attempts at dieting and enjoy my food at all times, guilt free. To hell with the calories. Haha.

A Nite at the Theatre

Brava! Brava! Fantastico! Magnifico! Bellissimo!

All in all, whoever missed it either season... rugi rugi....

An Uneventful Friday the 13th

I'm just not in the mood to do anything productive at the moment. You ever get that feeling that all you wanna do is just sit around and do absolutely nothing? Today was one of those days.

I had a normal (read: boring) day at work. Due to some spectacular alignment of the planets I was able to balance both my MYR and JPY accounts (yawn.. don't ask) by 3pm. So I just sat around looking busy, opening multiple windows on my screen and fiddling with a bunch of papers on my desk just in case my boss poked her head over the partition and saw me. Honestly, normally I'd go look for other work to do or help someone else out, but on this particular day I just couldn't be bothered.

Hormonal? Nope, not due for anything at the moment. I'm just having a down moment. I'm a woman. I'm entitled. You know how a woman's heart is deeper than all the oceans (or something like that?). Totally. Men just don't understand. It's like that Monica song, "It's just one of them days... la la la la la la la.."

It's 10pm. Right now Ray's sound asleep. Eez is at the IL's in TM, having been kidnapped earlier in the afternoon. Hubs is on his way home from work and just called to invite me out to a late night supper. Since it's a Friday, my youngest sis is still awake and enjoying a Police Academy marathon (which we've watched a kajillion times but she still laughs at all the jokes, anyway). So I'll get her to keep an ear out for Ray in case he wakes up and go out for some Mama & Papa time with the hubs.

Hope to see you all later in a lighter mood.

Black Gold

It has begun... Prices are up everywhere. But seriously, petrol up by 78 sen??? And the price will be reviewed monthly? WTF???

Our salaries are already over-utilised as it is what with car payments, insurance, our kids' milk and diapers, grocery costs.. and by the end of the year we'll be paying for our new house and can add utility bills to our monthly expenses. We can hardly put anything away for savings! And next year Eez will be going to kindergarten, so that's at least another few hundred bucks per month.

It's alright for some people.. You know the adage, the rich get richer bla bla bla.. My parents have been civil servants their whole lives, so I didn't exactly get everything handed to me on a plate. But I try not to be bitter. Itu semua rezeki masing-masing, after all. I have to work. And for working people like me who depend on personal transportation, it's seriously bad news. My husband works in Putrajaya which definitely lacks efficient and fast public transport from outside the city. I work in KL, but to get here I'd have to take the LRT and a bus or a taxi, which basically adds up to what I pay for parking and petrol anyway.

So this means cutting down on luxuries. No more impromptu road trips. Shorter holidays and if any, closer to home. Less eating out. Less SHOPPING!!! OMG OMG OMG... how will I survive???


** I'm typing this post from my office PC which uses an ancient version of IE, so please bear with the wonky settings! **