Insuring & peace of mind

Posted on March 7, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

I am amazed that up till today, insurance is still considered a taboo topic for some people.  In the days of yore, people shunned insurance because it dealt with death, which was not a welcome topic of discussion for many and which most were unwilling to face.  Today, most people treat insurance as a norm.  But, even after all the tax relief incentives given and assurances of unlimited types of plans to cater for your every need, some people just stubbornly claim they do not believe in the concept of insurance, for whatever personal reason they might have.  However, even if they do not believe in life insurance, motor insurance is something everyone has to face, whether they like it or not.  If you ride a motorbike, you get motorcycle insurance.  If you drive a car, then it’s car insurance. There are even specific vehicle insurance plans now, like Van Insurance, for example!  How cool is that!

Which reminds me of a funny video I recently saw where the man said he did not have enough money for motor insurance.  He went from driving a fancy car to a compact car to a bike and finally the solution: ride a bicycle!  Though personally I feel that cyclists should consider life insurance seriously, don’t you think so?

Posted in Rainmakers | 1 Comment

All red, all ong, yeehaaa!!

Posted on March 4, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

Although red is one of my favorite colors, I have not been wearing a lot of it lately. And this being tagged by Slavemom has reminded me of that. I don’t know why myself. Maybe I just didn’t take any photos of myself in red that much anyway. Too bad I can’t tell from photos what color underwear I am wearing though, otherwise…

Anyway, my hunt for a photo of myself garbed in red finally resulted in this one, taken sometime mid of last year. Aiya, already posted in Ethan’s blog, no need to post again, kua…? Coincidentally, Ethan was dressed to match my outfit (and so was my hubby). Yes, we like to plan these little little things… hehe…This was a red cheongsam I had tailormade for Chinese New Year some years ago, and thankfully can still fit into.

But to satisfy the requirements for this tag, I MUST put up a picture of someone in RED, yes? Ethan looks good in red…so here’s an oldie but goodie, taken when he was only 4 months’ old. This was one of his favorite rompers and I love seeing him in it.

Okay, now who’s up for more ONG ONG Red??? Must tag:

Simple American – how not to tag the birthday boy?
Rinnah – always a good taggee
Paik Ling – because I finally spoke to you today!

START COPY HERE

Here are the rules:

1. Post YOUR photo wearing red, may it be a red top, bottom, the least would be red accessories if you hate wearing red… If you can’t find one, you still have an option. Either post your Significant Other’s photo or your child’s photo, if you have one. Of course, they should be wearing red.

2. Let us know the reason why you were wearing red that particular day. Was it your birthday? Is red your fave color or was it the shirt that you first saw in your closet that day?

3. Tag 3 people close to your heart. By the way, they have to be in your blogroll. No cheating heart pleaseeeeeeee!

4. Once you’re tagged, could we please keep it going – just for this month?

END HERE.

And, finally…here’s wishing Simple American the very best birthday ever! Miss reading your posts…please make a comeback to the blogosphere!

Posted in Memes & Tags, Relax & Celebrate | 14 Comments

Chillout session at Chili’s

Posted on March 3, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

It was a really a spur of the moment decision.  The claypot chicken rice I had cooked for lunch was all finished, thanks to our lunch guests: uncle-in-law, brother-in-law and his fiancée.  So we had the perfect reason to go out for dinner last Saturday night.  What started out as a trip to McDonald’s ended up with us walking into Chili’s Gurney Place.  Would you believe it was our first visit there, since it opened so many moons ago? (well, a few months ago we *almost* ate there, but were turned off by the non-politeness of the welcoming crew)

Anyway, we stood outside and waited to be seated.  No one came for a good one minute or so, and when the lady came to ask us how many people in our party, she did so with nary a smile.  But we thought we would bear with it and see how the whole experience would turn out to be.  We were then ushered to our table and provided menus.

Hubbs ordered the lamb shoulder and I ordered the chicken monterey.  One cool thing about Chili’s is that they offer bottomless fruit juices, so of course I went for the mango juice, while hubbs went for the pina chillada (non-alcoholic, mind you.  Pina COLLADA is alcoholic, CHILLADA is not).  

By the way, don’t you think the mosaic design on the table is way cool?  Really unique.

Just like Friday’s, kids get to dine for free at Chili’s too, so I ordered a plate of spaghetti for Ethan and I was also pleasantly surprised that Ethan’s drink was on the house too.  My boy loves iced lemon tea and since it was not in the list of kids’ drinks, I requested for it and was delighted that they willingly obliged.  He finished the whole glass all by himself too!

All in all, the food was fantastic.  I especially loved the lamb shoulder and would definitely order it the next time I go, IF I go.  Service was well below par, I’m afraid.  In addition to the no-smile-greeting we had, right in the middle of our meal, someone interrupted us in a weird manner, I might add, and asked us how we found our dinner.  I notice this is something most restaurants practise these days, but unfortunately, it wasn’t done with tact, and so it appeared rather fake-ish. 

When we were leaving the restaurant too, no one thanked us for coming, unlike the jovial goodbyes we get at Friday’s.  There were no free balloons to give out to the kids at Chili’s too.  But then I suppose most Malaysians tend to overlook the bad service and go for the food, huh?  As long as there is bottomless chips, drinks and free food for the kids?

Posted in Drooling & Cooking, Ethan | 14 Comments

Five giddy tigressy things

Posted on February 29, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

Amazing how the internet and specifically blogging keeps us all in contact, so much so that a friend of mine, who recently left my company for greener pastures elsewhere, still found time to give me this friendship award.  Thanks dearie!

And if that ain’t enough, she bestowed on me another tag, one that is rather inquisitive, I would say, for it asks for five facts about me.
*drumroll please!*

 

Fact Number ONE

My husband thinks I have a condition known as hoarding, and he calls me a hoarder. I beg to differ. It’s just that I feel an emotional attachment to everything I own or anything people give me. Things I can’t bring myself to throw away include:

  • Birthday and valentine cards (I’m sentimental about these – besides, how can anyone throw away cards given personally to them?)
  • Wedding invitation cards (I started keeping these when I was planning for my wedding, just to get a feel of what kind of cards people were using. Now I keep only those beautiful ones)
  • Old magazines (don’t know how to get rid of these, and sometimes I just need to rummage around for that odd recipe or article in some magazine)
  • Clothes (they might come back into fashion someday)

And I also used to keep all the flowers I have ever received…well, up to the point when they started growing mould, of course. My hubby, on the other hand, is a *thrower*, and loves throwing things away. A case of opposites attracting, don’t you think?

Fact Number TWO

I have a penchant for good customer service, especially in restaurants where they charge me SERVICE TAX. In fact I have had rather strange experiences with these service people, the recent one being at Friday’s in Queensbay Mall.

Me (ordering food) : …and my boy will have a plate of the chicken spaghetti.
Waitress: Chicken or beef, ma’am?
Me (staring at her blankly): I just told you CHICKEN spaghetti, right?

Their “chicken or beef” response is a typical textbook response to anyone who orders spaghetti. I order it all the time for Ethan, so I know. I had wanted to cut to the chase by specifying the exact option I wanted, but obviously she wasn’t listening.

Later that night, while my hubby and I were chatting away, the same (dumb) waitress came from nowhere, dumped a plastic bag of takeaway food on our table, right in front of us, and walked off without saying a word. It was only after we had called her back that she realized it was for the table next to ours. Well, the least she could do was to say *something* when she dropped the package, right?

Fact Number THREE

I feel the need to fold every item that comes out of the washer before I use it. Be it an article of clothing, a piece of hanky or the bedsheet, everything needs to be folded first, whether or not they will be ironed and hung up later. I was brought up to believe that if I wear clothes that weren’t folded beforehand, I would end up stupid. Hey..maybe this belief bears some truth to it, you know…8A’s in the SPM? Eh? Eh?  *nudge* *grin*

Fact Number FOUR

I pride myself in successfully breastfeeding Ethan for two years. It was a long arduous journey filled with ups and downs but I can finally pat myself on the back and give myself a treat for a job well done. Nowadays, I tend to be the breastfeeding consultant to people whom I come into contact with, most recently my two sisters-in-law. I tend to be naggy when it comes to breastfeeding though, but hey, it’s something I am very passionate about…… breastfeeding, not nagging.

Fact Number FIVE

Come this March 8th, I will be doing my duty as a citizen of Malaysia by casting my vote.  Irks me to no end when I find out there are people who can’t be bothered to vote, or some can’t even be bothered to register themselves as voters!  I’m not talking about people who just hit 21, but these are 30-year olds!  All the time in the world to go for movies, shopping, clubbing, but can’t even find a few minutes to register as voters!  Sheesh!! This would mean they would have already missed out on two general elections!  SIGH…anyway…just letting off some steam here.

Oh yeah, must remember to pass this tag on. So I am tagging:

Rinnah
Paris
Sting

Posted in Memes & Tags, Thoughts & Scribblings | 10 Comments

C’mon baby let’s get away

Posted on February 26, 2008 by The Giddy Tigress

I’m back from my very short two-night escapade to KL..no..more like Damansara because that’s where we were most of the time anyway.  In short, it was a very fruitful and eventful trip, the excitement of which started even before we left Penang on that Saturday morning.  My hubby noticed the air pressure in one of the rear tyres of our car was diminishing more so than the rest, and it was a good thing that he noticed a nail stuck to the tyre right before we left.  Not wanting to tempt fate, and taking this as a sign from God, we drove to the tyre shop and had it patched.  We decided to have dim sum brunch after that since we were already hungry.

Off we headed for KL after that.  Surprisingly though, Bidor still called out to us, and we simply had to stop for a quick bite there.  The lure of the Pun Chun wan ton mee was too strong, even though it is now priced at a hefty RM5.25 per plate! The quaint little town of Bidor was already decked in election posters and banners, much more so than in Penang, I would say.

This time round, hubbs and I decided to take Monday off from work, so we had more time to spend in the Klang Valley.  It was a good thing we did, because we managed to achieve a lot of things:

  • Paid a visit to my newborn nephew, baby Collin.  He had to be readmitted for two days because of infant jaundice, but as of yesterday had been given the green light to go home.  Also met up with siblings and family members.  Remember baby Jonathan?  My, my…look how he has grown!

  • Savored some yummy Bao Bao pan mee near the hospital.  Was dead hungry, so could only muster my strength to take one miserable photo of the bowl I devoured.

  • Had a gastronomic adventure where we ate at Tony Roma’s @ Cineleisure Damansara (Sunday lunch) (service has improved since I last went there), Tu-Long @ MidValley (Saturday dinner) and Italiannies @ The Curve (Monday lunch before we left for home). Not forgetting of course, the glorious buffet breakfast spread we had at the hotel every morning.  Oh, I simply MUST give special mention to the raisin bread pudding we had at Italiannies…all I can say is, thank goodness it was just hubbs and I eating it…less men, more share ma! 🙂

 

  • Met up with Rinnah, finally!!!  Oh well, it was just a measly 5 minutes of saying hi and putting a face to a name, but it was great!  I tell you, she has such a smooth porcelain complexion and also, she and I are about the same height!  How’s that for coincidence!  Hope we can have a longer chit-chatting session next time, yeah?

  • Shopped till I almost dropped…at Ikea mainly. Bought some useful household stuff and of course, a new RUSCH wall clock to replace the one we had that had died some moons ago.  I still can’t believe it now costs a mere RM5!

  • Last stop was at Big Apple @ The Curve to buy some donuts. Curiosity made me get one of the Alien & Predator limited edition donuts, chocolatey and all.

 

Alrighty now…it’s high time for me to lose weight.  Hopefully before the polling date…

Posted in Close to Heart & Home, Relax & Celebrate | 19 Comments