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Nobody Nobody but YOU July 30, 2010

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Relax & Celebrate , 1 comment so far

Is it a bad thing that I am totally hooked to the dance moves of this song?  It’s infectious…

What’s Smooth and Jiggly? July 29, 2010

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Drooling & Cooking , 1 comment so far

steamedeggs1

Yesterday, I attempted to cook something new for my family.  It was my first try at making the “Three Emperor Steamed Eggs” dish, something I’d first eaten back in Ipoh when I was a little girl.  It’s called “Sam Wong Tan” in Cantonese, a dish that sounds VERY royal, but is very very simple to cook indeed.

Last weekend, the owner of the organic shop I frequented gave me one century egg and one salted duck egg as a “sample” to try, so I figured I might as well cook this dish.

I consulted my Mom and also checked the internet for tips and tricks to perfect this dish.  The most difficult part was to get the mixture smooth and just the right texture, not too hard and not too soft.  And of course, even more tricky was to get my picky eater of a toddler to eat it.

Anyway, here’s what I used:

steamedeggs3

 

First I whisked the chicken eggs, and then according to the tip I got from Flavor Explosions, I added in hot water to the mixture, while still whisking it.  I then sliced the century egg and arranged it together with the duck egg in the steaming bowl (I used my Corningware dish because I do not have a stainless steel plate).  Next, I poured the minced pork at the base of the dish, followed by the egg mixture on top.

The mixture is then steamed on LOW heat to ensure even steaming.  Before serving, I garnished with fried shallots.

For my first attempt, I would say it is very satisfactory.  The texture was very Japanese-tofu-like, and very smooth.  Most importantly, my *guests* all gave their thumbs up! :)

 steamedeggs2

Have you cooked this dish before, and do you have any other tips you’d like to share with me?

Look what happened… July 28, 2010

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Thoughts & Scribblings , add a comment

key

Have you ever seen anything like this before? 

Well, this was what my car key remote looked like a few weeks ago.  The unlock button had already shown signs of wearing out for a few weeks, but being the procrastinator that I was, I didn’t do anything.

Until I accidentally dropped the whole set into a puddle of water.  And then somehow, the lock and unlock buttons could not function anymore.  I knew the battery was still fine because the button to unlock the trunk of the car still worked.

So I brought it back to the car manufacturing service center and they replaced the cover of the remote (price: RM34.90). They could not carve out the shape of the key though, so I had to bring it to a key duplicating shop to do it.

Felt like performing plastic surgery on my car key remote…haha.

Why are they doing this to me? July 26, 2010

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Thoughts & Scribblings , 4comments

platinum

I received this platinum credit card in the mail today, apparently an upgrade.  But I fail to understand why I am supposedly given this “privilege”.  It’s not like I need it.

It’s not like I’m spending millions or thousands of ringgit every month.

It’s not like I’m raking up a lot of interest too, since I pay my credit card bills in full every month.

So is the bank opening up a brand new market for SAHMs with platinum credit cards?

Backseat seatbelts a farce??!! July 23, 2010

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Thoughts & Scribblings , 1 comment so far

 
Photo credits

As I was waiting for the traffic lights to turn green today, I was distracted by some motions going on in the car beside me.

When I turned to look, I was horrified to see two kids, who could not have been more than 2 or 3 years old jumping around in the back seat of the car, totally oblivious to the fact that their lives were in danger.  There were two adults in the car, one was the driver, and the other the co-driver.  And from where I was, it appeared that the two kids at the back were *attacking* the two adults.  Kid number 1 wrapped her arms around the neck of the co-driver and kid number 2 pulled at the driver’s hair.  When the car started moving, the kids did not stop their antics.  In fact, I saw the kids’ legs dangling high up in the air while he/she grabbed onto the headrest of the co-driver seat.

I hate to think what could have happened if one of the kids did something to distract or disturb the driver.  What if the driver was *accidentally* strangled by the kid, or (shudder) what if one of the kids suddenly decided to cover his Daddy’s eyes?!!

Whatever happened to the ruling for ALL backseat passengers to “buckle up or else”?  What on earth happened to the enforcement of this ruling?

True, those kids would have been too small for the seatbelts to fit them, but surely they could have been in toddler car seats?  Many parents cite costliness as the reason why their kids are not strapped into carseats, which leads me to think that our dear government should give this serious thought.

How about tax relief, or better yet, tax rebate, for infant/toddler seats in cars?  Come on, Mister Prime Minister, we ALL know very well that the RM1,000 tax relief per child is not sufficient!  The government should do something about the child car seat *problem* pronto…something that would *entice* the citizens of Malaysia to look at safety for their kids in a different light. 

What good is the tax relief for purchase of books (to cultivate the reading habit amongst our future generation) and the tax rebate for purchase of computer (to promote information technology awareness in the community), if the lives of the future generation is in jeopardy?

I shouldn’t feel entirely guilty but… July 21, 2010

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Thoughts & Scribblings , 1 comment so far

…I still feel that it’s partially my fault.

SIGH.

You see, as I was mopping the floor today, my mop hit the skirting of my timber stripped floor, and onto the floor jumped a very tiny black lizard.  It didn’t crawl away quickly like what I would have expected of a lizard, instead it lay there on the floor, looking quite stuck.

I figured it could be because the floor was damp, from the mopping, and the lizard was waiting for the floor to dry before it made its escape.

I turned on the fan and allowed the floor to dry.

But even after the floor had dried, the tiny lizard still lay there, motionless.  I wasn’t even sure if it was alive or dead.

Since I am terrified of lizards, I thought I would use a rolled-up newspaper to sweep it out of my house.  So I rolled up some old newspaper, opened the main door of the house, took a deep breath and touched the lizard gently with the newspaper. 

It moved a little bit, which showed it was still alive.

Then I swept it towards the door a little bit more.  Took a few sweeps for it to move, really.  Poor little guy must have been hanging on tightly to the floor.

At times, the lizard flipped upside down and looked like it was going to escape.  I screamed a little, then it flipped itself back upright.

Slowly I swept that lil fella out of the house.  But then I noticed it became quite motionless.

That’s when I thought it had died.  And then the guilt set in. :(

But it was something I had to do.  Rest in peace, little lizard…


Photo credits

Saving my ten little fingers July 21, 2010

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home, The Fairer Sex , 1 comment so far

dermatitis

I have always been prone to eczema and skin problems on my hands and fingers.  And everytime the problem presented itself, I tried many methods to heal it.  Creams, band-aids, abstinence from washing detergents, changing my diet, …you name it, I’ve done it before.

Several months ago, my hands and fingers started to crack very badly again.  Sometimes my skin would crack till it bled, and I had to use a band-aid to make the pain more bearable.  Many a time, you would see me with almost all fingers covered in band-aids.  Not a very sightly thing indeed.  Over-the-counter creams worked for a while, but it was only a temporary measure, because soon after, the problem recurred.  Strangely enough, the only finger unaffected was my ring finger on my left hand…which led me to believe that I should probably wear rings on all my fingers. :)

In addition, I sometimes had to do away with cooking for a few days in a row, to minimize my hands’ contact with water and detergents, resulting in the need to “tarpow” food for our meals.  I was also very sad that I had to resort to using disposable diapers instead of cloth diapers, for fear of aggravating the condition of my hands.

Well, anyway…when I was in Ipoh for a holiday about a month or so back, the problem became so unbearable that I was forced to go see a skin specialist.  The skin specialist took one look at my skin’s condition, and proclaimed it was contact dermatitis, which meant it was the detergents I was using that was causing the problem.  Using rubber gloves did not help much too, because according to the specialist, I might be allergic to rubber gloves.  So I was told to get cotton gloves and THEN put the rubber gloves on over the cotton ones.

The visit to the skin specialist in Ipoh cost RM175, and included a whole array of medicine!  Twice a day, I had to soak my hands in a dilluted solution of water and Potassium Permanganate (the purple solution used to oxidize wounds), which acted as a very mild astringent.

Then, there were three different types of cream and ointment to apply on the affected areas: one each for morning, noon and night.  On top of that, I was to apply vaseline as often as I could throughout the day, to maintain the moisture in my skin and prevent cracking.

To stop itchiness when necessary, the doc prescribed tablets; two different kinds to be taken morning or night, depending when the itch happens.

She also wanted to prescribe oral antibiotics, but changed her mind when I told her I was still breastfeeding.

Oh yeah, I’m not supposed to eat any beef, eggs or seafood too.  SIGH.  So no more steak and beef koay teow for me.  I’ve still been taking eggs though, but only the ones from free-range chickens.  As for seafood, I am only steering away from shellfish.

So how did all this medication fare?  Well, after a week of diligently following doc’s orders, my skin has shown marked improvement.  At least some semblance of my original skin is showing…But often times, I have forgotten to follow the regiment, and so sometimes I do find my fingers slightly dry.  Thankfully, I can now resume my use of cloth diapers little by little and I truly pray my hands and fingers would be back to normal soon, but sometimes it’s very difficult especially since I need to cook, clean and look after kids too.

So here are a few pointers I keep in mind and practise:

A year has passed… July 16, 2010

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home, Thoughts & Scribblings , 1 comment so far

specialplace1

 specialplace2

Hit and Run in the Morning July 15, 2010

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Thoughts & Scribblings , 4comments

Just a small accident, really…but the shock of it all is appalling.

See…this is what my side mirror SHOULD look like:

sidemirror2

It has a nice chrome shell, that gives my car its unique look, i.e. can spot a mile away.

But this morning, as I was driving my boy to school, I used my usual route…I drove along Green Lane, and right about reaching the area of the *gostan* flyover, a motorcycle appeared out of nowhere, sliced so ridiculously close to my car on the driver’s side, hit my side mirror and bent it outwards, causing the chrome shell to go flying onto the road!  My son exclaimed, “Mommy, that motorbike HIT your car!”

Now if you know Green Lane in the mornings, it is very congested with traffic.  There was no way I could stop.  The only thing I managed to do after recovering from initial shock was to mentally note down the bike’s number.  Yes, he bent my side mirror and rode off in a hurry.  Come to think of it, it’s a good thing he didn’t lose his balance from the impact and fall off the bike!

So after the incident-accident, this is what my side mirror looked like…all botak and unappealing:

sidemirror1

I wasn’t even sure I could get the same chrome cover to replace it, and I wasn’t confident of retrieving the chrome shell that fell off.

But on the way back, as I was driving in the opposite direction, I spotted the chrome shell placed on the side of the road.  So I purposely drove over and took the shell back.  One of the hinges was already broken, but I managed to fix it back on my side mirror anyway.  That should do for now.

Thank goodness there was a good Samaritan out there who took a risk and picked up my chrome shell and placed it at the roadside.  Thank you, whoever you are… :)

A Career in Nursing July 15, 2010

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Rainmakers , add a comment

A dear friend of mine once told me she wanted to take up nursing as a career.  Her demeanor and personality was that of a very caring person and because she always puts the needs of others before herself, I believe nursing is a very suitable profession for her.  I did not ask her further, but I think if she really wanted to pursue it, she would need to register and apply as a Certified Nursing Assistant first.

Besides being able to draw a very generous salary, there are many other benefits of being a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA).  Programs for cna training are offered at colleges and vocational schools, and the fees range from $400 to $800 or less.  In addition, financial support may also be available for qualified applicants.

Regardless, the role of a CNA is a very noble one and very high in demand.