MADONNA MATERIAL GIRL

I told my father when I visited him at Melaka the other day that I like Madonna Material Girl song especially the lyric, "If they did not give me enough credit, I just walk away....". ,

My father laughed and said, "That mean that material girl said, choy lei pun sor - in Cantonese, they only offered themselves to the highest bidder."

He added, "Some man said they are prostitute, it is because they can't get her, she only offered herself to the man who can pay for her service. Because they want to earn money at their prime time, they also know when they get old, they will get rejected also eventually. Like the China women said, you feed me, ah? They are not the roadside prostitute, they can said no one, you know."

"That is why woman spent so much money on make-up, hairdo, accessories and clothes to make themselves pretty."

"But now time has changed, now man become woman chauffeur. I will not want to become woman's Ahmad (chauffeur). Like that Eurasian ladylah, (a woman living near my father's residential area), she don't know how to drive and her husband is always at overseas, (her husband is Caucasian, a pilot trainer). She called me and asked me to drive her around, she is so rich and she only give me RM10. The other day she also asked me to drive her around and belanja me eat bak kut teh. She is so kedekut, how can she take more than she give? Some more she sit behind, unless she sit in front and let me touch her."

I laughed after listening to my father's opinion and wicked intention.

I also told my father about Lady Gaga who earn a lot of money by having bad image. Also James Patterson being the highest paid author in the world where I passed a story book by him title, "Pop Goes the Weasel, Alex Cross's serial" for my father to read. My colleague donate her story books for our company charity sale but nobody buy the book and eventually those unsold books was given to our department's staffs. Only me who is interested in books and brought back the books but did not read it until one day I read in The Star newspaper that James Patterson is a highest paid author in the world. My father read the book and passed the book to his cousin to read and his cousin said James Patterson come up with another new book, "The Fifth Horseman".

My father said, " Lady Gaga is like a trend and fashion, everybody follow the trend and her fashion. Between Lady Gaga and James Patterson, Lady Gaga is easier to get known because everybody can visual her and listen to her song but not everybody can read book."

Decent Nice Food at Yulek Area

Nowadays when come to eating, I never travel far anymore, I look around my residential area and found out that there is a lot of nice decent food nearby. I will not introduce the already famous one like the Yulek Yong Tau Foo below Jalan Kas Kas flat nearby Taman Cheras Market or Restaurant Meng Shiang wantan mee with its famous barbeque pork.

There is Restaurant Palace Rice Vermicelli nearby Taman Cheras Market, where its specialty food is white noodle with wantan. The price of the noodle is also very competitive where a bowl of noodle only cost RM5.50 package with 2 minced pork wantan and 1 big minced pork wantan with shrimp. The specialty of the wantan is its minced pork wantan is bigger than the other ordinary wantan sold by other hawker and the big minced pork wantan with shrimp has big chunk of shrimp as they use big shrimp to make it.

Another one is the chicken rice and barbeque rice at Yulek area for only RM3.00, very decent price and the food taste ok also. If you want mix chicken and barbeque pork, they only charge you RM4.50, if you want drumstick for your chicken rice, it will cost you only RM4.00. If you choose chicken wing, the price will be still RM3.00.

Now I will choose to eat at restaurant that only sell their food and not mix up with other food stalls like coffee shop as I know this type of restaurant offer a better taste food. If I simply pick a food stall in the coffee shop that I don't know to eat, there is a high chance that their food is below average and not good taste.

KL Bird Park

Go to KL Bird Park today with the free tickets I got by buying a book (Essential Education by Expatriate Publisher) for RM10 from Parenthood exhibition at Mid-Valley. Despite the pricey entrance ticket, RM20 for mycard adult, there are still many parent bringing their children to visit the bird park. maybe it is due to school holidays.

Here are the pictures of the birds in the Bird Park, at least you will know what to expect from the visit. There is also bird show and air-conditioner bird gallery, where they exhibit dead bird in the gallery.

Very tiring visit as have to walk very far in the Bird Park as it is the world's largest free-flight walk-in Aviary.

Good Treats at 2nd Maternity & Children Expo

Go to 2nd Maternity & Children Expo and quite happy with their treats. Redeem a goody bag (not much things in it, only sample of anti-bacteria shower foam Shokubutsu, Ban Kah Chai stomachache pills and Enfagrow milk). Inside the goody bag still have vouchers to redeem free gifts at participating booths where I redeem MAM BPA free orthodontic pacifier for babies 0-6 months old. I also redeem a table calendar 2012 from Sweet Cherry booth.

I buy a glass Pureen milk bottle at the expo at RM12 as glass milk bottle is very hard to find at deparmental stores. I do not buy any diaper this time as unable to find cheap diaper at the expo, not like the last visit where I can get big pack of diaper for RM20. I plan to buy teats but do not buy any as Pureen booth do not sell any of them and the rest branded one is too expensive.

The best treat I get at the expo is I buy a book, essential education from expatriate lifestyle publisher for RM10 and I am given 3 adults and one children admission ticket to KL Bird Park. I have long to go to the Bird Park but the admission ticket is just too expensive.

I also redeem all my citibankcard points at the expo because there is Citibank booth at the expo. I redeem a Fisher-Price educational phone and top up RM6.20 as my citibankcard points is only worth RM33.70 and the phone cost RM39.90. It save my hassle as I don't have citibank online to redeem gift. I also plan to cancel my citibank credit card as they are going to charge me RM50 government tax next year. But currently they also have an attractive promotion for new credit card customers where they will be given RM150 cash back when they swipe their card 6 times within 2 months after receiving their card.

I already applied for Arab Malaysian credit card which I find their promotions are very attractive where RM50 cash bonus will be given if you use RM350 in 60 days after you receive your card. On top of that if you shop on Saturday and Sunday at hypermarket like Tesco, Giant, Jusco, Carrefour, Cold Storage, Mydin plus pharmacies like Caring, Guardian, Watson and departmental stores like Isetan, Marks & Spencer, Metrojaya, Parkson, Robinsons and Tangs calculated in block of RM100, you are given 20% cash back. I do shop my groceries at Tesco and Giant and buy medicine at Caring pharmacy, so the discount is useful to me as I able to save my money on groceries and medicine. They also give cash back of 20% on weekend at petrol station like BHPetrol, Caltex, Esso, Mobil, Petronas and Shell where another extra 5% for Caltex (Caltex 5% extra valid until 31 December 2011). The rest of the program valid until 31 March 2012. Also able to save petrol cost with this credit card although not as pretigious as Citibank credit card.

OCBC bank also offer their OCBC Titanium credit card for free and also RM50 cash bonus but what I want is Great Eastern OCBC credit card where I can get rebate in insurance premium and some rebate in medical bill. I cancelled my OCBC Great Eastern credit card because they want to charge me annual free and government tax RM50 although I have called them several times to waive the fee. I find it is not worthwhile, even I enjoy maximum rebate on insurance premium for my family members, I still have to pay annual fee and government tax where the rebate I get is use to pay those fee. Back to square I didn't enjoy any benefit by using their credit card. They also set a very high spending limit per annual to waive the annual fee and government tax.

I enjoy listening to Madonna song, Material Girl where she sang, "They (the guys) don't give me proper treating, I just walk away." I find all the credit cards are competing each other in term of their benefits, so just walk away if they are not giving you enough treats to continue using their credit card.

Dim Sum Buffet at Cheras Business Centre

Today I eat dim sum buffet at Restoran Janbo located at Cheras Business Centre. They have variety of dim sum selection and they offer their buffet dim sum at RM16.50 per person in the weekend and public holiday and RM15.50 in the weekday. The price did not include chinese tea RM2.30 per head and service charge 5% and government tax 6%. The total bill come to RM41.74 for 2 persons.

We ate as much as we can but we cannot waste the food as each basket of dim sum wasted will be charged RM3. Among our dim sum selection were the followings :

Siew Mai

Prawn dumpling

Yam dumpling

Black pepper dumpling

Shark fin dumpling (with corn and prawn filing)

Mushroom dumpling

Steamed chicken herbal

Sweet chicken feet

Steamed pork rib

Fried prawn roll dipped into mayonise

Fried dumpling dipped into mayonise

6 egg tarts (the egg tart is quite small but you can eat as many as you can)

Century egg porridge (quite small bowl)

Fried carrot cake with bean sprout, egg and vegetable

Char siew chee cheong fun

We ate 20 selections so that our money worthwhile spent but I can't remember all of them. I took a few photos only as after our stomach full, we started to slow down and order one by one to make sure that we able to finish the food without wasting.

There were also glutinous rice (lo ma kai) and char siew pow, pandan pow but we didn't eat that because it will make us full very fast. I can say that the dumplings, chee cheong fun and steamed pork rib were so so only but the yam dumpling, steamed herbal chicken, sweet chicken feet, fried prawn roll, fried dumpling, egg tart, fried carrot cake, century egg porridge tasted ok.

We were very full, we didn't eat our lunch after the dim sum buffet. We came as early as 9 am but were served with food only at 9.25am. At first we are the only customer there but in the end there were 7-8 tables occupied. The restaurant also selling mini claypot dishes at only RM9.90 like claypot assam stingray, curry fish, slice fish cook in variety ways, curry chicken, chicken, squid, pork, spare ribs, prawn, bean curd and vegetable cooked in variety ways, claypot braised duck and ginger duck. Maybe next time we will try the mini claypot dishes. The dim sum buffet start at 9 am in the weekend and public holidays and 10.30 am in the weekdays. There is parking fee of RM3 outside the restaurant, try to park far a bit and walk to the restaurant if you want to save the parking fee. This restaurant also doing wedding table.

We eaten dim sum buffet at Mandarin Palace located at Federal Hotel nearby Jalan Bukit Bintang but find it quite pricey compared to this time buffet. Our bill came out to be less than RM70 for 2 person after including the tea and those 10% service charge and 6% government tax not including parking fee RM7. The dim sum buffet price is RM25 per person. My husband still prefer the Federal Hotel dim sum buffet as there were char siew meat, roasted pork, duck meat and vegetarian duck meat.

Nowadays I prefer to eat nearby my residential area as there is cost of travelling to the city to eat. I always go through groupon advertisement to look for discount dining but most of them is located quite far from my residential area and located at shopping mall in the city. I have yet to find a discount dining through groupon advertisement that was nearby my place. So far only purchase one groupon to buy organic bread at organic shop at Tesco Extra, Cheras very nearby my residential area.

STAY-AT-HOME-DAD (DAD'S LOVE, PART 1)

It has been a week since my husband become stay-at-home dad. He resigned from his high pressure job in Ipoh to take care of my daughter who is slow in development because the first five years are critical years for a child development. His position as a Head of Department was not easy, the factory technicians was not easy to control, the machines was not stable and breakdown all the time, long working hours make him cabut from his job after six months. He told me that his heart was heavy most of the time and the job will shorten his life span. I don't bother much since he said his passive income from rental of his property can cover the family expenses. There is no more house and car installment to take care of, so he can throw away his rubbish job and opt to be self-employed and become freelance.

My quality of life dropped tremendously when he worked at Ipoh. I didn't have enough sleep most of the time as I had to tend to my daughter after work and also did housework. After delivery of my daughter my weight stay at 51kg but in six month when he was working at Ipoh, my weight drop to 46.8kg. I didn't have to go to slimming course or gym or diet, overwork will automatic reduce my weight. I was too busy and don't have much time for myself. I felt tired most of the time when I went to work, I napped during my lunch time.

After my husband back home and become stay-at-home dad, I feel that there is increase in my quality of life. I have enough sleep and more energetic at work. My weight increase to 48.4kg only after one week my husband stay at home. I have more time in the morning before going to work to choose the food that I like to eat for breakfast, I eat more, do less housework, more time to rest that make my weight increase.

Quality of life is not material based, if you can be thrifty and satisfy with that the only much you have, you will not be desperate chasing money to satisfy your material need. Financially literate is important, avoiding bank loan that eat up a big chuck of your salary especially housing loan and car loan that charged you interest. In the end you are working to feed the bank. When I was young, I was inclined to take housing loan and car loan, eventually I learn my lesson, I settled them off before I was 30 years old. That is lesson number one.

Lesson number two, find alternative investment rather than placing your money in the bank. The bank give you low interest on your fixed deposit, again bank is an enemy to your wealth. I started to learn about foreign currency fixed deposit in the bank, my own company product that invested a variety of funds and property investment and rental from my husband. Without bank loan and bank installment, you can invest your saving in those investments, create passive income a few years once, in the end you have enough passive income to retire early.

The only lesson number three I have yet to learn as I do not want to take risk for the moment is that take loan from the bank to invest, maybe in property, that sound much more smarter than the first two lessons that is using other people money to create your own wealth. Those are for risk-takers, their pocket are empty, why not take risk, if I win I become rich, if I lose I become bankrupt since now also I penniless, they have nothing to lose.

Like the old man gambler, they are old already, life is short, so they don't carelah, they buy numbers like Toto, if they strike, they become rich, if they not strike, continue to become like thatlah....

PRE-CHINESE NEW YEAR HOLIDAYS (MOTHER'S LOVE) PART 5

It has been more than a week my husband work at Ipoh. I learned to cope by myself with my daughter here without a maid. My Indon maid had ran away more than 2 months ago and unable to get a replacement. Eventually I got used to it without her and I started to set a routine after my husband work at Ipoh. The routine is must sleep at 10 pm during working day so that I have enough sleep and energy to work tomorrow. Bring my daughter back from my in-law house, feed her with her supplements, take my bath, I have to take my bath with bathroom door open to monitor my daughter. Then wipe my daughter, brought her to bathroom to shi-shi. Then change her cloth to pyjama and change her diaper also. Around 9pm or later feed her with milk.

If my daughter has not sleep, I just left the light on and let her play around the bedroom. My sister in-law has been very helpful, most of the time she will bring my daughter for a walk before sending her back to my house during working day. I go back first to my house and settle some housework like doing laundry, then my sister in-law will send my daughter back after a walk.

Today is a pre-chinese new year holiday, Wilayah Persekutuan holiday, this is how I spend my day. Brought my daughter to Yulek market with trolley and had my breakfast. Then went back, hang to dry my clothes after laundry and bath my daughter. Then cook porridge for my daughter, sometimes I use serbuk ikan bilis for the flavour, add onion oil, oyster sauce, soya sauce and salt. Then I steamed fish (white prompet) for lunch, put the white prompet on the a plate, put cut ginger, fried onion, oyster sauce and soya sauce. Put to steam at rice cooker for around 5 minutes, I did not cook the rice, just cook the water. Then I fried garlic and put in on top of the fish together with the oil. After that I put rice wine on the top of the fish and it is ready to serve. I ate the fish without rice but my daughter ate most of the fish. I drank Milo and ate oat biscuit also for lunch.

My brother in-law also has been very helpful driving me to HUKM for my daughter follow-up, speech, fisio and occupational therapy, must give big ang pow to him this Chinese New Year. He also offered to help me to cut the lock of my Yulek flat tomorrow because my tenant did not pass the key to me after she move out. I unable to find a spare key for the lock of my Yulek flat.

I don't feel difficult without my husband with a lot of helping hands in the family. Few days before Chinese New Year holidays give me the taste of being homemaker. After Chinese New Year my husband aunty will become my daughter babysitter, she will be at my in-law house when I am working and follow me back home in the evening. Life will be easier then.

I am working on my father's passive income, flat and shop apartment rental. Eventually it will become my passive income in future. My husband also agree to give me allowance if I am not working after his job stabilised in Ipoh. It give me a big relieve as working is no more compulsory but optional. I am looking forward to Ipoh, nearer to my hometown, Penang, a new place, a new life and a new beginning.....