We have clean smelling clothes! September 1, 2010
Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home , 5commentsAfter several months of procrastination, we finally landed ourselves a SWEET SWEET deal on an investment for our home:
The front-loading washer was the model we had wanted a few months back, but it was way over budget. However, after a few months of waiting, we got it for a very very reasonable price. And we got ourselves a dryer too. Hehe…oh yes, my days of overflowing laundry baskets are hopefully over! 
Some of the main reasons we chose to have a front-loading washer AND dryer are:
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Our old washer was giving us a LOT of problems: making a lot of sounds, and making very LOUD stops during the wash cycle.
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With me doing the laundry virtually every day, it still wasn’t enough to clear our laundry. There just wasn’t enough space in our apartment to hang and dry the laundry. And I hate the smell of semi-dry clothes.
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I needed a washer that could wash with hot water. It’s very useful to do the laundry with hot water, especially when laundering cloth diapers.
We’ve only used our new washer and dryer for 2 days and we’ve already seen a whole lot of advantages:
- Our clothes now smell nicer and feel cleaner, mainly because they are not hung out to dry for a day or two. Yes, when the weather is sunny, the hung clothes are all right, but when the weather is gloomy and damp, mold and mildew is bound to accumulate on clothes.
- Our clothes feel softer now, and I don’t even need to use softeners, because the steam from the dryer naturally softens the clothes. The clothes are also not so crumpled.
- I can do several loads of laundry in a day. For example, I can wash 2 sets of bedsheets and quilt covers, and 2 loads of clothes and have them all dry by bedtime.
- I have more time to fold the clothes.
One downside to owning a dryer is of course the peaked comsumption of electricity and power. So I will endeavor to hang some clothes out to dry too, on days when it is sunny enough. Hopefully that will be enough to strike a balance between power consumption and cleaner, drier clothes
The Census guys came! August 18, 2010
Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home, Thoughts & Scribblings , 3comments
Strangely enough, I do not have any recollection of any census enumerators coming to get data from my house since we moved here. Yet we have that little orange card placed on the wall just outside our house.
Hubbs took down the orange card just in time, because a couple of days later, as we were cleaning up after dinner, the doorbell rang, and I was greeted by a man and a woman, who looked pretty darn tired. The man introduced themselves by saying, “Kami dari Jabatan Perangkaan..” and I noticed the tags they were both wearing too.
I made idle conversation with them before they began asking the questions for the census. Apparently they had just broken fast (it being the first day of Ramadhan) and now they were off to do their rounds. Perhaps they were tasked with coming to homes in the evenings just so they could be sure more people would be at home after a day’s work.
Anyway, I couldn’t help but wonder why they didn’t have a formal form to fill out the questionnaire. Better yet, they could have entered all the answers electronically into a system or electronic form. Nope, all they used was an old notepad and my answers were all scribbled in pencil.
For the benefit of those who have not gone through this exercise, these are some of the questions asked. Not sure why they differ from some of the other people’s questions though…
- Number of occupants in home
- Full name of occupants, birth date and age, and place of birth
- Occupation and place of work (NO, we were not asked for our salary or salary range)
- Highest level of education, and place studied
- Number of rooms in the house
- Number of cars
- Whether or not we owned laptops
- Whether or not we owned a personal computer
- Whether or not we had a radio at home (they told me there was no need to ask if there’s a TV because it was assumed everyone had one)
The entire question and answer session took no more than 20 minutes, and just to ensure we stick the little card (yellow this time!) to denote our home had been entered into the Census, the guy even placed the double-sided tape ready on the card for us!
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
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:
- Carry and hand cream/lotion in my handbag, and apply it when I am in the car, either waiting for the lights to turn green or whenever I have my hands free. I need a recommendation for a good hand cream/lotion that is not too greasy though.
- Wear gloves when washing up, but in view of time constraints, I only do this when I know I have loads of stuff to wash. In my case, I need to wear cotton gloves first and then rubber gloves.
- Use Vaseline liberally. It’s safe for babies’ bums, so it’s the perfect solution for me since I need to be with the kids all the time. I’m paranoid about touching my kids with hands that have steroid creams on them, so Vaseline is definitely the best solution.
- *IMPORTANT*: Get hubby to help with the dishes
A year has passed… July 16, 2010
Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home, Thoughts & Scribblings , 1 comment so far
A haven of Ipoh food June 21, 2010
Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home, Drooling & Cooking , 1 comment so farFour days in Ipoh just wasn’t enough to savor all the different wonderful types of food this hometown of mine has to offer. But I did what I could in whatever time I had…I even forgot to take some photos because I was way too excited to rekindle that love when I laid eyes on the feast before me.
Anyway…one of my must-haves is the Canning Garden chee cheong fun, now relocated to Central restaurant somewhere near Hotel Excelsior. I ordered the small plate the first day and the day before I left, I ordered the large plate. Tung-koo-chup chee cheong fun at its best…it just doesn’t get any better than this.
I didn’t miss out on the dim sum either. There are so many dim sum shops in Ipoh, we were definitely spoilt for choice as to which one to choose.
And then, definitely NOT to be missed, the chicken koay teow (kai see hor fun) in Ipoh Old Town. Kong Heng probably has the best kai see hor fun around, and it was definitely a bowl to savor. I was definitely sorry when I finished the last bits of my bowl. Ipoh koay teow is still the smoothest in the world, and slurping up every bit is just plain delicious!
I also wanted to have the ever famous Caramel Custard from Thean Chun, located just right beside Kong Heng. But apparently due to rivalry and whatnot, we are allowed only to order from Thean Chun, and bring the custard over to Kong Heng ourselves. That being said, it was still well worth the effort (Thanks Mom!) and the smooth custard with the sweet-sweet caramel sauce drizzled all over it was just heavenly!
Of course, I didn’t forget to tar pow the famous Yee Hup Hiong Piah. They’ve now made it halal, and the packaging is all done up nicely, like so…yum!
Missed out several other types of yummy Ipoh food like the salt-baked chicken, beef stew, etc but there’ll be other times…
My Best Mother’s Day ever! May 13, 2010
Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home, Relax & Celebrate , add a comment
To date, this year’s Mother’s Day is definitely my best ever.
My prayers were answered, and a situation totally did a 180 degrees turn and presented itself in a whole new light which left me happy beyond comprehension.
To top it off, my little boy surprised me with a Mother’s Day card and a present which he picked out together with his Daddy. Dunno if the E stands for the brand of the bag or Ethan.
Nevertheless, I loved every minute of that day, which marked the 4th time I celebrated that wonderful day.
Bringing the ocean to my living room April 21, 2010
Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home , 2comments
We don’t live near the sea, … well, I can SEE the sea from my balcony, because I can see the Penang bridge, but I don’t get to enjoy the sea breeze in all its wonderment per se.
So we did the next best thing.
We got ourselves a brand new fan with the Yuragi function. That’s sales talk for ocean or sea breeze. I push the Yuragi function button, close my eyes, and I feel as if I am transported to the seaside…
Well, not really.
The fan is a little bit noisier than our old fan (which by the way stopped functioning a few days ago, hence the new one), but I attribute the noise to the pseudo *sea breeze*.
The new five-blader has SEVEN speeds compared to just three from our old fan, and it brightens up our living room.
Now all that’s missing is some sand, some seashells and the frolicking waves……
Why I need a new Washer March 3, 2010
Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home , 4comments
My current washer, though it does its job well washing my laundry, has been going floozy these few weeks.
- When it goes into the spin cycle, it will attempt to spin and then emit a signal telling me the clothes in the tub are uneven. So I would then have to rearrange the clothes and let it continue the cycle. This hardly happened before, as the washer was able to sort of fill up with some water so the clothes are more or less balanced out. No human intervention needed.
- Sometimes after rearranging the clothes in the tub, the washer kinda resets itself and increases the time taken to complete washing. Say for example, it shows 9 minutes to completion when it warns me it’s uneven. As soon as I rearrange the clothes and close the cover of the washer, the timer shows 31 minutes!!!!
- Most of the time, in order to make it complete its spin cycle without resetting, I have had to manually hold down the washer, just so it doesn’t spin too much out of control.
- My washer has also begun to inch its way across my dry area. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to push it back to its original position.
- My washer is getting noisier by the day.
- …oh and I also need a dryer, I think….with a dryer, I don’t need to spend time hanging the clothes, I save space by getting rid of my additional clothes-drying rack and with some dryers, I can also automatically press the clothes (read: no ironing needed!)
Anyone has any experience with a washer and dryer in one? Is that better than a separate dryer? Because of space constraints, I would prefer the former, but I would love some honest opinions.
Hunting down the bedspread February 1, 2010
Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home , 1 comment so far 
What started out as a plan to get a new set of bedsheets and quilt cover from Gurney Plaza in less than half an hour turned into an adventure that ate up a huge portion of our day instead.
After looking at all the quilt cover designs in Aussino, only one design was okayed by both hubby and me. And after we felt the difference between cotton, polyester cotton and cotton sateen, we knew we definitely had to get that design in cotton sateen. Could not imagine NOT sleeping on it, ever. It was just perfect. Matched our curtains, our walls, our personality…
Unfortunately though, they didn’t have it in KING size…. bummer. And after a phone call, we discovered only the branch in Sunway Carnival Mall on the mainland had it.
Deciding to go and get it that day itself, with the “It’s now or never” attitude, we set out. Not knowing that we would eventually end up in the *wrong* mall. No GPS and wrong directions from someone led us to Aeon Seberang Prai instead.
We finally reached Sunway Carnival Mall and got what we wanted. And even managed to put in an entry for a contest the mall was running.
Wow…the things we would do just to get the coveted quilt cover. At least there’s an interesting story behind it.
Belated but made with love January 5, 2010
Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home, Ethan, Hannah, Parenting & Motherhood , 9commentsI’m not the supermommy people claim I am.
My goal of knitting a little something for my kids kept shifting, but still I was determined to complete what I had started.
I began knitting a pair of babylegs/leg warmers for Hannah (with my Mom *correcting* some parts of the earlier stage) and planned on completing them before the wedding dinner party we were gonna attend in early December, but I only had one side of the babylegs ready then.
Still I persevered. For Christmas, I told myself. Amidst late night knitting sessions, and daytime knitting sessions, knitting in rounds with 4 nickel-plated double-pointed needles, where my little toddler would periodically volunteer to *hold your yarn, Mommy* and spin it around and around, I continued my project to fruition.
And about a week before Christmas, I finished the pair of babylegs for Hannah.
Then Ethan goes, “That’s for Hannah?” and gave me a puppydog look that would melt the stones in anyone’s heart.
I knew I had to make him something too.
So I decided on a pair of toddler tube socks. I didn’t want to work on *turning the heel* for a pair of conventional socks and opted for tube socks instead. These would fit any size too.
I knitted, and I knitted, along the way, I learnt how to do decreases too.
Two days before Christmas I finished one side of the socks, and frantically started on the other side.
Unfortunately though, no amount of late night knitting would help me finish on time. But I still continued after Christmas….for New Year, I said.
January the 1st came and went, but still the socks weren’t ready. 
And only on the 4th day of the New Year, I finally cut the yarn and weaved them through the stitches, and heaved a sigh of satisfaction.
I did it.
They’re belated presents for my kids, but they were both made with love.
Little Miracles
Our Journey of Love
