Life is very short ~ Thank You Lord, for the beautiful day

Recent sunday morning, as usual, we were busy preparing ourselves and the kids for Sunday Mass. I bent down to lift baby C from the floor to change him. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain pinning on my lower back. I immediately let go of baby C and collapsed. Poor boy, luckily he fell on one of the big pillows. I cried for DH who saw what happened. I was lying with my chest on the floor, but I couldnt and didnt dare to move because my back really hurt. He asked if I could wiggle my toes. I could. There wasnt any bruises on my back either. He then placed a hot pack on my back as a temporary relief until I was comfortable to lie on my back.

The thoughts back then when I collapsed was terrifying! Flashes of memories/images came to me, the "what ifs" questions attacked my brain... "What if I cant walk anymore?""What if I die at this point of time?".. I know they sounded silly, but it was quite scarry at that time! My mind was occupied about "WHo's going to take care of the kids if I get sick?" "what's going to happen to them if I die / paralysed". In the background, I could hear baby Cameron was crying for me, he definitely knew something happened because I was not responding to his cry, I couldnt turned my head to look at him either. I felt so helpless. Koko Christian was stunned and worried that he just sat quietly next to me, he didnt know what to do, but to stay next to me. During the time when DH was trying to comfort me & the kids, I was talking to God, to help me go through this pain. I asked him to give me strength and more time so that I can spend quality time with them. Seriously, I told Him that I dont mind dying early, but please let me spend enough time growing up with my boys. 

Like once an inspiring friend, Wai Leng said,"Live NOW and make life worth living. For life is too short to be miserable, and too precious to be wasting away in useless pursuits".

Thank God it was only muscle pulled. I went for an alternative treatment (cupping suction) for my back and was told by the chinese doctor that it happened because my body was too tired and lack of rest. Another thing that I found out was that after the suction, one's body will have red/blackish mark but mine didnt. The doctor explained that because I could be anaemic (which is true). I never go for such alternative treatment, this was my first experience as MIL brought me there. I was bed-ridden for the whole day that Sunday. My back still hurts that it limits my movement, I walk like a robot at the moment. Minimising carrying things and especially baby C. Missing them already, even they are next to me!

p/s Most of the night, before we go to sleep (and before the read books ritual), we always have a short simple prayer lead by lil C which goes like this: "Thank You God for the beautiful day, Thank you God for the beautiful night. Please protect Mama, Papa, Koko, Baby, KungKung, Pohpoh, Nenek, Ingkung and Suksuk". A short prayer but meant well from a four year old kid.

p/s2 and I thank you Lord for everyday.

No, I dont sell things, I dont even have an e-store

One day, I received few emails from friends to congratulate me with my newly opened biz.. I was shocked until I found my other email received a spam mail from my yahoo account! 

Blardy spammers!

I hate spammers! They hacked into my Yahoo! mail and sent spams to everyone in my address book list! grrrrrrrrr!!!

To those who received it, I am truly sorry! I finally managed to tracke it (its in my Vacation Response!) and hopefully it doesnt return.

*Roar*

16th September, a date to ponder

I was reading a friend's blog and it striked me about this date: 16th September, the Malaysia Day. It's one day that the politicians fight over whether to make it as a holiday or not(link 1/ link 2).

It is a very important day for it was D-Day when we Sabahans (of course I wasnt born yet) & fellow Sarawakians joined the Malayans to established a new federation: M-A-L-A-Y-S-I-A. Well, 45 years has passed, like in Susan's blog, how much progress have we made??

30 years ago, I remembered our 'dreadful' trip to Kuala Penyu visiting the grandparents. It was during our school holidays, poor dad had to put up with our laments, cries, whines for not wanting to stay at Ingkung Bundu (as we fondly called our grandpa. He lived in Kg Gana, Bundu)'s house for more than 2 nights. The shorter the trip the better. It wasnt that we were kurang ajar (illmannered) towards the elderly, but it was the condition of the place that we just couldnt stand.

First reason was the gravel, sandy road to KP. We had to wind up our car windows everytime there're cars overtook ours, or came from the opposite direction as it would cause the sand to stir up and went into our car. Air-conditioned cars were quite rare then. Rainy season would create puddles of mud, we'd be glad if we didnt get stuck in any of them. Journey to the kampung would take 2 hours if it didnt rain. The, the road into my ingkung's house, we have to go in to the jungle, up on a hilly area where those days, road were so slopey and bad that even a 4WD would have a hard time going up when it was pouring rain. At times, we had to get down from dad's car and walked up the hill under the rain so the tyres would not get buried in the mud.

Second reason, there werent any luxury, only bare necessities which depend on the generousity of Mother Earth. Public bathing at the well (I didnt have a problem until I grew up..geezz), down hill into the bushes near Ingkung's house. I swear I can get lost if I go by my self. Drinking water source was either from the well or the rain water.. It tasted horrible that we brought our own water from home. There wasnt any water pipe back then.
[added: I was on the phone with my cuz, he told me that even they have water pipes,but there are times that no water flowing in for weeks.. Too bad!]

Talk about cleanliness, there wasnt any proper sewege management.. The toilet was located 100m from the house, a place that you wouldnt want to visit at night. And while doing big business, the chickens and hogs were partying underneath.. if you know what I mean.. So, to prevent from using that toilet, we practically 'download' at home before going to KP.

No electricity, meaning that we had limited lightings at night.. Dad bought coloured TV for ingkung & nenek but it didnt work with the car battery, so Dad had to exchanged it to B&W and that worked fine. But who needs TV when we kids had fun activities as go to the corner of the house and started to tell some ghost stories or playing tapuk-tapuk (hide-and-seek). Good thing that Dad often made sure our cousins would be there too before us, so that we appreciated the trip (It was more like a bribery... Go to Bundu and you'd meet the cousins.. hahaha). Hmm... come to think about it, those trips werent so bad after all.. apart from what I had mentioned above.. but that's another story..

Our recent trip to KP for cousin's wedding. During our way home, we decided to try out the Ferry service from KP town to Kg.Binsulok, Membakut; but we got stranded for an hour due to the queue and the wrong timing as we arrived at 3.30pm, i.e. the ferry's rest.

Say Peace, while waiting for the Ferry. Lil c sneaked out from his carseat

Imagine, few years back.. yeap.. after 35-40 years of independant, only then the KP people, or I shall narrow it to my grandparents house was upgraded to better facilities. Too bad they were not around to enjoy them.

Things do progress, but I wonder does it really have to take 4 decades after independant for a development? The Sabahans who voted for Independence in 1963, many of them didnt manage to taste the better life that was promised to them, just like the fate of my grandparents.. In fact, it is very painful to know there are places in the rural area today still in extreme poverty and poor transportation...

I wondered what happened to the Sabah Baru Manifesto in 1994 where it promise to reduce Sabah's poverty level to zero in 2000?

Anyways, Happy Malaysia Day in Advance!

A Reminder!

I am always worry that I wont be able to do lots of things for/with my loved ones... We never know our future, the uncertainties.

Today, I read a note by a lovely friend :

"don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin"

Beautifully said.. I must always remind myself of this.

I am so brain-dead

I think I am having fatigue syndrome.. hehehe.. So tired + exhausted over these past 2 weeks. We were occupied with holidays, travelling, birthday & wedding celebrations, sick kids.. bla..bla..bla.. 2 weeks passed very fast! Sigh!

"Salapa" the Tatana, Kuala Penyu style welcoming guests during my cousin's wedding. Its a box filled with daun sirih, pinang , kapur and kirai.

Baby C with TaiQ (my eldest bro).

Sitting on the floor, kampung style.
Baby C was so tired that he slept soundly despite the gong beatings & the singings.

Baby Ivy (my younger bro's dd) slept too on my mum's lap.

I am just so tired.. (You must be wonderfing why am I up at 4am).. yet I just cant sleep.. I did actually, from 7pm-12am, accompanying baby C in our bed. He has blocked nose, cold & cough, poor baby.. He sleeps better when I am around. So, I am so awake now, doing my blog-hop.

Pluto the smallest planet ?

Right? Well, it was during my school years, I was told that we have 9 planets in our solar system, and pluto is the smallest planet.

Now not anymore, poor pluto has been demoted as a dwarf planet... It was said that Pluto failed to dominate its orbit around the Sun in the same way as the other planets. Therefore textbooks will now have to describe a Solar System with just eight major planetary bodies.

Bye-bye Pluto!

Lesson learnt

I saw this at kennysia.com, reminded me of the time when I was picked pocket.. Scarry! You can say what you want when you heard it happened somewhere to someone; but when it happened to you, you get the shivers. Thank God the a**hole only took my purse..


They will do it anywhere!


They work in the group to distract the prey.. (Cilakak!) [This isnt from Kennysia.com; happened to browse youtube.com]

Beware!

Would you send your children to the Local Government school?

They didnt! Read up!

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Education Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammudin Tun Hussein’s son is doing O’ levels and will be going off to the United Kingdom this coming September to further his studies.

Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s daughter, Nooryana Najwa has been accepted into Georgetown University in Washington DC to read politics and international relations after doing her IB (International Baccalaureate).

Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Tun Hussein and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s children are academically smart. However, it seems like both of them did not sit for SPM.

Before doing her IB, Nooryana had her education in Garden International School. Najib’s son, Norashman Razak had his education there too.

But Garden International School bases its curriculum on the National Curriculum of England. It teaches the English National Curriculum through Key Stages 1 to 4 and Cambridge ‘A’ Level.

Datuk Seri Najib and Datuk Seri Hishamuddin are cousins. Their Fathers were our former Education Ministers. Datuk Seri Najib’s father, Tun Abdul Razak, the second Prime Minister of Malaysia, was the Education Minister in 1955. Datuk Seri Hishamuddin’s father, Tun Hussein Onn, our third Prime Minister, was the education minister in 1969. Fast forward, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak became our Education Minister in 1995-1999.

Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Tun Hussein is our current Education Minister.Well, there goes the saying, ‘like father, like son’ Hishamuddin’s son and Najib’s kids did not follow the Malaysian Education System (so I doubt they sat for UPSR, PMR or SPM) though they come from an ancestry of Education Ministers. Both of their grandfathers were former education ministers, one’s father was the education minister and is now the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia while the other’s father is the current education minister.

So why weren’t Datuk Seri Najib’s and Datuk Seri Hishamuddin’s children following the Malaysian Education System? Were our DPM and current Education Minister trying to be kind to not let the government subsidize their kids’ education by sending their offsprings to a private school instead of national schools?

Or is it that both Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Tun Hussein do not have confidence in the Malaysian Education System because it is too crap that they had to sent their kids to a private school which follows the English National Curriculum so that their offsprings would not be screwed up by the already screwed-up education system in Malaysia?

Which is which? I do not know but I am apt to think that the latter prevails.

*SIGH* So much for being a kind and compassionate minister. If the Malaysian Education System is not good enough, then do something to improve it. After all, that is under your portfolio.

But if the education system is not crap and of quality and standard like what you and your counterparts have mentioned countless times then why didn’t your kids go through it? Why didn’t your kids go through SPM, then Matriculation or STPM before gaining admission to Uni. After all, matrics and STPM have the potential to produce Quality graduates, right?

How does the current government expect us to have faith in our Malaysian Education System when the DPM and current education Minister did not even put their kids through it?

Source BLog : written by Boon Yeng

Others

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Dont tell me, they dont trust the Malaysian Education System as well?? Think trice... I mean, even you have loads, tons of $$, if the education system in Malaysia is superb, you wont go overseas to study yeah?

08.08.08

Very prosperous for the chinese, as in their dialect the number 8 sounded like 'prosperity'. The more 8, the better!

At the same time, Beijing celebrated the 29th Olympic on this auspicious day. You can check the schedule for the sports activity here.

My eyes will be on swimming, gymnastic, athletics & tennis! What's yours?

Streamyx Damn Slooowww!

I think the snails in my garden crawl faster than streamyx... BIG Sigh!!! Anyone is KK experience the same thing? Any solution please??

A Reflection..

Reminiscing the good old days... when I was still in school, having the butterfly-in-the-stomach puppy loves *wink*, memorising lines for school drama, thrills sitting for exams, sleepless nights hanging out with friends (even when assignments were due), eating McD's icecream in Sydney's cold winter night (a stress relief remedy for the undergrads), fist-fighting online, meeting new friends and saying bon jour to old ones, the falls, tears, laughters, sadness, madness.. .. all those memories give smile on my face!

Love is the greatest thing in life.
Rule of thumb: Love yourself first, before you love others

Time passes by very fast, in a wink of an eye. Sometimes I would laugh at the silliest things ever happened, sometimes I would cry at happy events... three decades of my life (plus 2 years) has been a good one. All the experiences, silly/happy/bad ones added more colours into my life.

One of Lil C's art collection, he calls it "Silly Christian"

The statement "To be happy is a choice" by Deana-e has been lingering in my head.. Its true, to be happy IS our choice. If a lemon thrown at me, I'd turn it to a chilled lemonade drink... ahh! refreshing!!.

One of the happiest moment of my life

I thank God for giving me a wonderful life. With a loving husband and two beautiful boys, there's nothing more to ask for.. I just wanna add in my little prayer, to give me strength every day so I can live to attend my boys' wedding. (hahahaha!!! I even dread to think of them starting to date)..

Growing up with the Cs

hmmm... this mind always thinks too much esp when birthday is coming!.. Happy birthday to all Cancerian bloggers& readers (now, who's cancerian? I only know FLorence & Deana) ! that includes me too.. hehehe.. exactly 2 weeks from now!

p/s: so far, I found 3 strains of grey hair within 10yrs... Not too bad, huh? err... Dear Lord, maybe another request, a small tiny one. .. slow down the aging process, can? TQ

My dad always says..

My dad is a man with 101 proverbs (is it becoz he was a school principal before?). Whenever we siblings, feel sad / down / angry; he would come to us and say a relevant proverb to motivate and cheer us.

I remember, during school time, I wasnt satisfied with something; dad said "I complaint because I have no shoe, until I saw a man who has no feet." Of course, being very young, I didnt fully understand what he really meant. Basically, he wanted us to appreciate and be blessed with the things what we have.

Here's a video to share with all of you. Thanks June, for sharing.


As usual, I googled him. Meet the man inperson and in Wiki. Tony, you are truly inspiring. I had tears when I saw your videos.

Six (non)sensical stuffs about me

I got tagged. I hardly do tags, but this one seemed short! hehehe

1. Link to the person that tagged you - Deana
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag someone.

What is 6 (non)sensical stuffs about me ah…

1. My brain is always non-stop thinking (isnt that's what brain's for?). When I am doing one thing, brain prompts me that I need to do other things too and these to-do lists go on and on till I forget most of the things that I need to do.. A nyanyok mama!
   
2. I am a perfectionist & a workaholic, I plan things and have high hopes.. When it didnt go as well, I could gobble up a tiger!.. Luckily, after having kids, I've mellowed so much! They are blessings from above..
   
3. I love history/facts.. I can go crazy over it! (sounds like kaypohchi..?? ~ Not you ah, chi chi.. hehehe)
   
4. I love being with my kids, learning and growing with them.. I can spend hours and hours talking and listening to them.. That's why I get a part-time maid to do the other jobs that could take my time away from my kids.. (MIL always complains that my helper is inefficient about the housework.. Me dont care, as long as my precious time with the kids arent taken away)

5. My fav colour is red.. I tried not to influence my kids with my fav colour, but Lil C seemed to be infected! hehehe.. I think he is losing it tho, coz his fav colour now is PINK (& black).. I think his fav colour has faded... oh my!

6. Sleep is a waste of time..
   

I am tagging cuz AudreyST, cuz Lynn Marcia , cuz Florence, Fiona , Pang, aMY & Justine and let me know more about you..

Bye-bye

This is a vain post! hehehe.. I tried to keep my hair longer than usual.. It has been a while (4years) every since I had my hair long... Kept this hair for a year now.. but cant take it. With Malaysian's current weather, its just too hot for me.. On my way to my favourite hairdresser at Wisma Merdeka, Bobbi.

Bye Bye hair!

Guess your number

Cak!! Check this out! Click on the pix.

Undukngadau dot com

Our harvest festival, or known to the locals as Tadau Kaamatan is just around the corner!
To those who don't know what celebration I am talking about, it is the Kadazan/Dusun community giving thanks to the Semangat (Rice Spirit) after harvesting the paddy.The limelight in this auspicious celebration is the 'Unduk Ngadau' (Harvest Beauty Queen) event where the crowning usually falls on the 31st May.

Ahh.. talking about Unduk Ngadaus, check the beauties out the undukngadau.com site which is compiled by my dearrie friend, Benny Liew. He is also the owner of the Limadang.com site. A pro photographer in the making! (Jan ko lupa sya ben, bila ko jadi femes ah!)

What are you waiting for? Check the beauties-miuties of the Unduk Ngadau ~ Showcasing Sabahan Beauties!

Love the pix, ben..

Isnt she a heart-breaker? introducing Joanna Sue Rampas, Unduk Ngadau 2007

To all my readers, wishing you all KOTOBIAN TADAU KAAMATAN.

Seribu Tahun

I am not an avid fan of AF (anymore).. but this guy's voice is brilliant. The name Riz, ! I dont watch Diari, not sure why people hates him.. Dun care! His voice melts my heart... and the song lyrics... so poetic!


I agree, brilliant voice, bad haircut, hideous jacket! *Kill me if I care, but I think his voice is better than the ori singer.. muahaha!*

Imran Ajmain - Seribu Tahun Lirik
Relaku menunggumu seribu tahun lama lagi
Tapi benarkah hidup aku akan selama ini
Biar berputar ke arah selatan ku tak putus harapan
Sedia setia

Relaku mengejarmu seribu batu jauh lagi
Tapi benarkah kaki ku-kan tahan sepanjang jalan ini
Biar membisu burung bersiulan terlelah gelombang lautan
Ku masih setia

Adakah engkau tahu… ini cinta
Adakah engkau pasti… ini untuk selama-lamanya

Relaku menunggumu seribu tahun lama lagi
Tapi benarkah hidup aku akan selama ini… yeah…
Biar berputar utara selatan ku tak putus harapan
Sedia setia
Jangan putus harapan… sedia setia……

Men At Work

It is quite dissapointing when you see that people dont care about own safety, what more about their employees... I snapped this picture yesterday, when the worker was fixing the telecom line.. I believe he must be one of the kerja kontrak guys as he was wearing a T-Shirt written "Kontraktor Penyelenggaraan Telekom Malaysia".

Why on earth is he not putting on any safety gears like helmet & gloves? I dont know la, maybe it is not in their safety policy? Or maybe he thinks he is a starring that nothing bad would happen..

Today's DE headline : Tower Crashes again, 1 dead; where A TNB worker was killed and four of his colleagues were seriously injured after the Emergency Temporary Tower that being reinstalled at Kg Suang Parai Imbagu, Inanam collapsed again Tuesday..

You just never know what lies ahead...

Read more : The Star

Shopping Online Sabah-based

I have been shopping online since early 2000 with the first purchase was made at amazon.com (a bookworm!) I was so into online shopping (kira macam addict juga la tuh kan excuses as we dont have shopping malls that sells those things in KK), that when lil C was a baby, I wanted to open an online baby shop or anything that deals with infants & toddlers, be it selling products/services. A friend and myself even talked about setting up a KK breastfeeding group, to assist and encourage new moms to breastfeed their newborns. (Back then, I was inspired with Lilian's My Mom's Best)

But then, being a first time mom with no maid to assist, I was so involved with the everyday ah sau's (ahmah) job + a baby to take care, the ambitious thoughts was slowly faded away. With my limited time & knowledge (as well as confidence), instead, I took up a correspondence course, a Montessori diploma for children of 3-6 years old. (Who knows I might open Infants & Toddlers Development class oneday!)

3 years later (that's now), I noticed that more and more moms (be it WAHM/FTWM) started their online business too! And the inspiring bit is that some of them located in KK/Sabah...

I would like to list down the Shopping Online which are Sabah-based, as reference. I am proud and inspired by you! (Please inform me if there's more, would like to add them... Sabah Boleh juga bah! The Boleh-land *giggle*)

MiaBambina.com owned by Sandra Rocco. I love window shopping here becoz of the bubbly owner ;) and her green products!



"Baby, Tots & Mom" owned by Miranda. She too sells cloth diapers and other green products.



"Contemporary Cakes for All Occasions" owned by Deana Edmund.. She is very creative & I love her cuppies!



"Food & Design" owned by Faye, sister of Deana... Truly artistic! I like her design of invitation cards..



"Lil' People Boutique" owned by Joyce Tuining, selling clothes for children.



"Forever Tulip" owned by Cindy, a make-up freelance artist & a web designer! Love her design... so sweet!



"Cherished Wedding Favours", a one stop centre in finding your wedding favors delivered to your doorstep at the best price [updated by bennyliew.com]


Anymore Sabah-based Online shopping???

Satu sen!

I wanted to blog about this few weeks ago (early days of April), but baby was due around that time.. so, kinda forgotten.. But still, it bugged me and I still wanna write about it!

After selecting some things, I went to pay at the counter in one of the departmental store in CP. I saw a big sign behind the counter, "Kami tidak menerima wang satu (1) sen bermula dari 29 March 2008".. (we do not accept 1 sen starting 29th March 2008)

I was wondering, does it mean that now the amount is rounded up to the nearest 5 sen, that's why we dont need to use the 1 sen coins... or 1 sen isnot a legal tender any more... Even the ads in TV is very vague... All they explained were the value of purchased goods ($$) will be rounded up to the nearest 5sen.. That's it!

Okay, that doesnt bothered me yet... Then, when its time to pay the parking fees, even the parking fees collectors dont accept my 1 sen coins, saying they were instructed to do so. Unsatisfied, I called up my friend (you know who you are *wink*) who works in a bank regarding the 1 sen issue, she said that the 1 sen coins cannot be used anymore... I was confused, I thought only the value $$ is rounded up, but never mention anything about the 1 sen coins cannot be used.

I asked DH (I assumed he knows everything!! hahaha!) and told my encounter on that morning. He too, complained that people are confused with the whole 1 sen issue. So, to make things clear, he called Bank Negara himself for reassurance.

The bank said that the 1 sen is still a legal tender up to RM2. They advised us to report the matter to Bank Negara if there are outlets who refuse to accept the 1 sen coins... Geez!! Do you think they'll take any action on the outlets? hhmmph!

So yesterday... seeing the idle one sens in our piggy bank, we decided to exchange the coins in the bank... Good riddance! If you have further inquiry, you can call the Bank Negara Malaysia at 088-211-211 (Sabah branch).




Source : Doing away with one sen coin (The Star 2007/11/14)