Bookworms unite!

I went to the Big Bad Wolf books warehouse sale last week with my daughter and had such an interesting time. If anything ever gets me excited, it's a book sale. Book sales are my retail therapy equivalent to shopping for clothes and other girly stuff. For a time I actually wondered if I'm the weird one out but last week's experience at the book sale put that thought to rest. I met many, many bookworms while waiting for the book people to open their doors to us into book heaven. You know who the bookworms are - we are the ones who are there right at the front of the gates excitedly straining our necks to see what's inside and planning all our strategies. Quite ridiculous, actually. We'd compare notes and share stories, and I was very pleased to find similar-minded people who actually thought nothing of spending huge amounts of money on books because we think it's worth it. Like they say, birds (or in this case, should it be worms?) of a feather flock together ... and there were many birds (worms?) that day. Not only that, we all practically had the same thoughts on lots of other topics too - shopping for clothes, for instance. To us, it seems that if a shirt fits - great! Now can we have all five colors of the same shirt and get this shopping over with! It's so different when we talk about books. The mood changes entirely - everyone gets excited and we're all suddenly talking like old friends. Someone commented that bookworms are not environmentally friendly since trees have to be cut down to feed our habit. That's true, but a bookworm will never give up the joy of holding the book in their hands. Oddly, we just don't find the same joy by reading a book over the computer screen. It somehow takes away a very substantial part of the fun of reading a book. We bought lots of books at the book sale but it just never seemed to be enough. We are eagerly waiting for the next sale again and next time I will be even more prepared! For the time being, I am eager and happy to just lose myself in the books that we purchased last week.

Living with dyslexia

Dyslexia is often regarded as a developmental learning difficulty but I would like to think of it as learning difference.

If you’ve been reading my blog, I would never have come across as a dyslexic. The fact is I am. I’ve had to contend with learning difficulties in school because the traditional educational setting just do not recognize the possibility of children learning in a different way from their peers. It is especially so in the Malaysian educational setting where students learn by rote. It was exceptionally hard for me, thus I am almost always among the last in class during my school years. That’s not to say that I’m stupid. Far from it, actually. I won’t blow my own trumpet and say I’m exceptionally intelligent either. It is just that I do better at some subjects, languages and arts specifically, and just can’t understand other subjects. I was always the top scorer in school for English and Bahasa Malaysia so the teachers are always perplexed by the rest of my results. I have never had to sit down and study when it came to languages and arts. It all just came naturally. By the time I was in secondary school, I was helping some of my classmates with their homework. However, being good in languages is not enough to make it in life. My parents, worried for my future, sent me to tuition after tuition in the hope that my results would improve. That didn’t work, obviously, and I hated those after-school tuition sessions fervently. It was such a surprise to everyone that I even managed to scrape through my exams.

At that time, students were put into two categories, the smart ones and the not-so-smart ones. No one had any inkling about learning disabilities then. It’s a different world today, thank goodness because my daughter was recently diagnosed as a dyslexic too. I’m not too worried about her diagnostic because frankly, I don’t see dyslexia as a disability. I see it as more of a gift because dyslexics also happen to be very creative people. At a time when everyone wants to “think out of the box”, no one can do it better than dyslexics. Can you imagine what a boring world this would be without dyslexics? If dyslexic luminaries such as Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Walt Disney, Lee Kuan Yew, Richard Branson and countless others can achieve such great heights of success, dyslexia can only be described as a gift.

When I am confronted by mothers who revel in discussing the number of As their children got in their last exam, I am comforted by what Sir Jackie Stewart said, “You be nice to people with dyslexia because one day you might be working for them”. That just about makes my day.

Friday's, 1-Utama Old Wing

Last Friday my hubby and I took a day off work to spend time with our elder daughter who has been sorely neglected ever since the baby arrived. It was a day that she got to dictate and decide what she wanted to do. And since it's a Friday, she wanted to have lunch at Friday's.

For drinks, I liked the Granny Smith Green Apple soda. It was very good!

Friday's always have such big servings which are just too much for Asian stomachs. So we took their offer of a 2-course meal for RM29.90. For the appetizer, we ordered boneless wings which are not actually wings, but are succulent chicken breasts coated with buffalo wing sauce. The chicken were quite delicious.

We ordered Fish & Chips for the main. We got 2 big pieces of fish atop french fries. The fish was very fresh and succulent! Yumm!

The Jack Daniels chicken strips was very nice. We love the sweet Jack Daniels-infused sauce and just kept dipping everything, including the fries, into it. Absolutely lovely!

Since Fridays' have the Kids Eat Free Everyday promotion, our daughter ordered Cheese Nachos served with tomato salsa. She really liked it, but then again, she likes everything with cheese.

And for the finale, we had the Mocha Mud Pie. I used to love this dessert with the chocolate ice-cream and gooey caramel sauce. It used to come topped with lots of cookie crumbs but this time it looks kind of different. So little cookie crumbs on top. Friday's is always a good place to go to when we hanker for good ol' fashioned Tex Mex cuisine. It's a fun place for the kids plus young and enthusiastic waiters/waitresses.

TGI Friday's : G203a/205/206, GF One Utama Bandar Utama Damansara, Petaling Jaya, Petaling Tel: (603) 77294822

Sushi Candy @ Shojikiya

We came across this newly arrived candy from Japan whilst out shopping last weekend. I've got to give credit to the Japanese, they sure are innovative! My daughter, who loves sushi, was so eager to make her own sushi so we got her a box.

The powdered candy is packed into 6 parts, each with a different color. Unfortunately, the instructions were all in Japanese so we had to play a guessing game on how to use it. Hot water is added into the powder to make it into a paste, then pressed onto the mould. We waited for a few minutes and got ourselves a piece of tuna. We would have been able to make more sushi if not for my daughter's over-eagerness. There were spilt candy powder everywhere.The candy sushi is fairly easy to make and my daughter had great fun. The best part for her is to eat her own made sushi .... that just happens to be sweet! The sushi candy can be found at Shojikiya outlets.

Cupcakes for Teachers

It was Teacher's Day celebration at my daughter's school last Friday. I made cupcakes for her favourite teachers as a thank-you gesture to the teachers for their dedication and guidance. I thought it was more personalized to give them home-made cupcakes than just buying something off the shelves. The cupcakes were packed 6-in-a-box. I used royal icing flowers to top the cupcakes. Don't they look pretty?

Churros

I finally made my own churros and they are utterly delicious coated in cinnamon sugar. This being the first time I've made it, it doesn't look very pretty but then again, appearances can be deceiving. The kids and adults loved it and they were gone in no time. It's really easy to make and cheap too!

Lion Dance performance by Kun Seng Keng

Here's another stunning lion dance performance that we caught in the shopping mall on Chinese New Year. This time the lion dance was performed by the Lion Dance World Champion, the Kun Seng Keng Lion Dance troupe. It isn't the first time we've watched a performance by Kun Seng Keng but they have never failed to entrall us each time.

The performance was stunning, even jaw-dropping at times. At such performances you can almost hear the crowd hold their breaths, then letting out a collective "phew" when it's over. The lion dancers were extremely agile with their footwork and jumps.As with tradition, at the end of the lion dance, mandarin oranges are placed on a tray for the lions to "peel" then handed over to the Manager of the shopping mall to signify prosperity to the mall. As you can see from the photos below, the mall is packed with spectators during the performance. Lion dances are so very much a part of Chinese New Year and people throng malls (or any place actually) with such performances.

High School Musical-themed cupcakes

These are the High School Musical-themed cupcakes that I made for a friend's daughter's birthday recently. The little girl was a great fan of High School Musical (which kid isn't, huh?) so I thought this would be a fitting theme for her birthday cake.

More Chinese New Year cookies!

I figured since I have leftover ingredients I might as well use them all up instead of leaving them to waste. Thus began my last minute scramble to make the cookies on Chinese New Year eve, no less!

The nestum cookies with chocolate coating was deliciously crispy and is my daughter's current favourite.

The orange cookies are also nice with the nonpareils sprinkled on top.

All in now I've made 6 types of cookies this Chinese New Year.

Schoolkids and politics

I came across this article from NST and I’ll have to say I’m stumped that our Education Ministry is even actually considering such a plan. One would have thought that they should instead concentrate on improving the education standards in our schools (which is what they are supposed to do!) instead of organizing such protests involving schoolchildren to gain political mileage. For one thing, I firmly believe that politics and/or religion have no place in education and should never be mixed. What kind of morals are we instilling in our children when our Education Ministry is encouraging our children to take to the streets in protest? More so when application for protests are usually rejected and deemed illegal assemblies anyway. So on one hand we will be telling our children to go protest and on the other hand we tell them it will also be illegal. Such contrasts!

Honestly, I resent the fact that our children are being used in such a blatant manner for political mileage. Instead of wasting manpower, time and money in such a hare-brained plan, I think it would do more good for the ministry to simply focus on ensuring that our schools churn out better educated students with common sense. God knows we will need such leaders in future.


Gaza Under Siege: Ministry plans huge protest by schoolkids

By Regina Lee
2009/01/09

PUTRAJAYA: Nearly all schoolchildren in the country will be mobilised to protest against the Gaza offensive by Israeli forces. Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said about five million pupils and 360,765 teachers from more than 10,000 schools would be involved.
“This is to create a wave of pressure for the Israelis to stop their violence and oppression of Palestinian civilians.”
He said the ministry would be working with the Information, Foreign, and Youth and Sports Ministries, as well as Peace Malaysia, to expand the campaign to a mega scale.
“When we protested against the US invasion in Iraq, we managed to get 200,000 people into Putra Stadium, Bukit Jalil.
“We are confident that youth leaders from political parties, including those in Pakatan Rakyat will join us in this fight against the Zionist regime,” he said after his ministry’s New Year gathering at Putrajaya International Convention Centre here yesterday.
Hishammuddin said the directive was passed in the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Asked on the danger of exposing children to such atrocities, the minister said: “When they grow up, they will have to face global issue like peace, environment and the economic crisis.”
He said he would be using the Unesco platform, of which he is an executive board member, to voice out Malaysia’s concern over the Gaza crisis.

Christmas Treats

We attended a Christmas potluck dinner on Christmas eve. I'd take any excuse to bake so I baked an assortment of cupcakes and cookies for the party. It's the first time I've ever baked and iced cookies and I thought they turned out pretty good. Needless to say, the cupcakes and cookies were a hit with the guests, especially kids both young and old!

These are chocolate cupcakes with Christmas sugar decorations. Gets the festive mood going, don't you think?

For the adults, I made a batch of carrot cupcakes.

For children (and adults) of all ages, individually packed iced Christmas cookies.