Doubting Children

It's her birthday again, time she wonder the most, hopefully her dad will remember this day. What she didn't know was her daddy always remember this day, and Only this. Daddy, although he didn't carry himself as one, but to her, daddy is daddy no matter what had happened. She is big hearted.

When she was small she always wonder why both parents aren't stay together. She was place in parents' on alternate basis.

 

"Sometime I don't know where I'm when I wake up from bed", she said. I felt bit heartache to see what she went through. I was helpless. Really.

"Why both of you aren't staying together". Her wonder mind begun. She felt heartache to have beloved parents not be with her, altogether.

"We had many differences and we fought a lot, so it's best to separate". I answered with full of empathy.

"Can't both you just stay together, I want to see both of you together?". She rolled her eyes and beg. It does triggered the thought to jump back to the family.

"We feel that it's best to stay apart so you could live in peaceful environment". I tried to put her in the perspective that we still love her. " Plus you can still see your dad every weekend isn't it?". I try to fill her blank.

1 year later.

"See, there are many other kids in single family". We were watching movie, kids from single family lived healthily apart from missing one parent. I tried to lead her to see that she's not alone.

Soon, she realize she isn't the odd one.   

"My friend also doesn't has mother". She said when her school teacher ask about family background.

However, she still yearning to have both parents when she saw parents are around for their kids when we were out in the mall or restaurant.

"It's stressful for you to live in a chaos conditions". She keep asking me the same set of questions and I always try to reiterate what we did was the best for her.

"Not every family is happy with parents around", "In fact, when both daddy and mommy had unreconcile differences, things went bad, it going to hurt you even more. In the long run it affect you." I said. Many kids rebel as a form of protest, elude from home, stray on the street etc so I feel good that we don't keep the rotten apple.

"You're a good girl and you're always our treasure". I reassured her that we love her. 

She is fine over time, happy, cheerful, appreative.

"This statement might give bad repercussion over her undertaking of marriage". Said a friend of mine.

"Well, I told her the pros and cons, I just don't want to paint her a fairy tale story. Life is full of surprises and not ALL family will turn out bad". I said it with affirmative.

When things happen and kids have to stay apart from a parent, subject to their age, try to

1. keep the complicated adults matters from them

2. keep them emotional stable in whatever circumtances with whatever measures best

3. make them feel secure with your present, be with them all of your time as much as you can

4. Reassure them they are NOT the cause of these arguements

5. Above-all nourish them with lot of loves

Think from positive facet, separation is not the bad solution afterall. When things turn out bad, it's best to stay apart to think about the next course of action. Most importantly they are your first priority in all your undertaking.

Remember, there isn't a perfect solution but to keep the damage low.

The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises or Dark NIGHT Rises? Lol. I almost got it wrong until I blog about this. Then again, the preset key words in google shown Dark NIGHT Rises when I hit on "Dark", LOL again. Well.

We went to watch this movie on a very odd occasion, it was actually a movie therapy session for a stressful friend of mine.

I'm not a fan of Batman frankly, it didn't seem appealing to me as compared to Superman and Spiderman. Plus the shootings on its premiere at Aurora Colorado does turned me off a little.  Needless to say, I've very little knowledge about this movie or Batman series as a whole. C'mon, it's a boy thing.

So well, we proceed with this because there isn't any other movie meet the time and interest at that point of time. Wait, we tried to avoid it in the first place as it seems a bit intense, anyway, it turn out to be "I'm lucky that I didn't miss this!", this movie is awesome!! I feel a bang on my head and follow with blushing because in my eccentric perception movie industry is dead.

I'm quite picky when come to movie (fine, you can call me Bitch), I pick on scenes, scripts, casts, story (as if I'm a movie director ==), but Not The Dark Knight Rises. I felt so overwhelmed by the entire show, it aroused my emotions like a roller coaster, from thrilling, sobbing, admiring to cheering, I enjoyed every bit of it!

The starring scene was awesome featuring a plane being hijacked. The plane was lifted dangling in the air invertedly, for the first time I saw people enter into plane like sliding into a cone, lol. New tactic, New Awesome! The director, Christopher Nolan carries the adventurous mind.

Did I tell you how much I like about Christian Bale in this role of Bruce Wayne? Oh, a young heir billionaire, philanthropist, cripple but charismatic, a handsome man. Cute when he smiles, masculine when he fights hard, gentlemen in suits, loving-kind when he weeps, heroism when he rises for Gotham City. Great cast and renditions.

The Batman mask suit him best, just I wonder how did he make the time to draw eye liner? LOL. I like this thin lips appear outside of the mask. Sultry and assertive.

Remember how people mock about superhero's cape? I do wonder why the stupid cape is needed other than to complete the elements of Bat (got wings mah). Imagine it get heavier when it's wet, it's long and cumbersome. It get stucked or stumbled on easily. This dawned on me when Batman was fighting against the villain, Bane in the dark, wet underground drain. I was even looking forward to see him stumbled on his own costume (Evil, I know) haha. Anyway, I like Batman.

 hhhh..he has Polo Raph Lauren's look!

I seriously quite enjoy the elegant catwalk of Selina Kyle featured by Anne Hathaway. Her super solid-curvy figure wrapped in sleek body-hugging suit complemented her super arrogant catwalk. Her acrobatic- spiderly long legs were showing off the whole time. What a joy! 

This Batman story isn't just mundane Heroism, the story in the Ancient Prison was thrilling and inspiring. In the high-wall ancient prison, under the well, prisoner see no day lights other than the airway, the only entrance and exit of prison. Any jailbreaking require to  climb the slippery bricks wall and leap through two far distance platform with bare hand and foot, only those witheld desperation of survival could make to the success. Hundreds of history of prison, only one has made it through. 

Bane's mission - Rob the wealth and aid the poor somehow come acrossed my mind. It was a great mission, however on a second thought, we harvest what we sow, the world is fair. 

Oh not to forget other casts, I think a few cute guys featured in the movie worth noticing too, see the casts list.

Porto Romano

Perhaps I 'm a bit old-fashioned, I like quiet place, enjoy companies, talks and laughs. I chose Porto Romano.  It attached to one of the residences in Mon't Kiara. I discover this place after moved into my new house. You might missed it when you passby as it's a small shop next to Wendy's but the regulars know where to find good food:).

So it has become one of my regular restaurants for dinning. Wait, I couldn't afford to dine here regularly but it's definitely first choice when comes to Birthday Celebration, dinning, and ...dating (Grins).  

My friend happen to be one of the "founders", so I'm lucky to get to listen the story beneath this great place. The cozy and warmth interior make you at feel home. A series of fine Oil Painting captured the beautiful sceneries from a country namely Republic of Armenia.

"These were painted by the wife's father, it illustrates scenes where she lived. Perhaps something to fill her yearning for home". Said Chris.

As you look around, you will be attracted by the collection of vintage posters (which is what I like most) populated everywhere in the restaurant.  Gentle embience and friendly gestures make you feel at ease as you walked into the restaurant. I particular like to walk up the stairs as you see arrays of vintage posters and variety of sea shell in sizes and shapes pinned against the wall. Will upload more pictures in due time.

Ever wonder what Porto Romano means? Flashed back to 13th century when Marco Polo imported noodles recipe from China, a man who was one of the pioneer explorer to the world. Port Rome became the transit point for many travellers to Europe and other continents. Variety recipes were shared around the region which enriched Port Rome to be the "hub" of good recipes. The restaurant was then named as Porto Romano. Beautiful name. Beautiful history. 

Today, Porto Romano brings the rich, variety unique Europe recipes which you might missed elsewhere. There were mixtures of cuisine from Portuguese, Spanish, Italy and perhaps some Armenia etc. Scrumptious!! 

If you opt for a glass or two, the mini bar served the purpose. You can have a glimpse of the vintage posters depicted below, that passion of the man who run this restaurant. Look out from the window, you'll see few tables displayed for those who love sun and fresh air. I like enjoy a few beers when the weather is breezy and chilling. 

Oh, I haven't shared what do I see up the stairs, have I? There is lot more to shows when I get to snap a few pictures. 

                              



Facebook Page Like

I received quite a few requests to 'like' certain pages in Facebook and I alway entertain as I do think any initiative and efforts should be supported. Some pages are fashion, some public figures etc, although I have not even heard of it and most probably I won't browse as i mentioned i 'll help and hopefully a button away is helpful. Most of the time, the person who requested wasn't the owner itself, poor friend who has to go around to approach their circle of friends.

I, myself did it once. No, not for blog, that is way too paiseh for me to do. I was on a facebook game call City of wonder, COW in short (most of the Ally knows about it [wink]). It was my first Facebook game and for all you know, once you are in, you are stucked! You know the beauty of Facebook game is it links you to friends whom you hardly or never talk to request them to join the game, by adding more friends, you gets more counts or points etc.

So on the state of desperation I went all out to ask me friends to join. Of course without saying you get only limited responses. Why? Well simple, some people just don't like playing games, some got hooked and try to avoid, some just didn't want to associate to things which doesn't represent them. I finally got accessed to a community page which I could find hell lot of people sharing the same interest like me - playing City of Wonder!

Needless to say, I had fun with the game to the maximum until I got bored one day and give it all up,. I made few friends along the way whom were my ally, mainly South Korea and United States. I find it fascinating, life lead us to path which you never expected. But this post is not about life.

So here is the thing people went around to request [Like] from others, it's a favor, it's a request, people who finally agreed to help are not genuinely [Like]. It's been of "too proactive" I would say and ultimately, you dont get the resonance pe say.

I believe in true friendship, just like I believe in true readership, so I won't request the [Like] from anyone of you.

"You sent us invitation to [like] le", you might be thinking. But hey that's what a Facebook page offers to popularize your page, if you didn't response to that, Thank You, I know you don't like it. So rest assured I won't message you to [Like]. Haha. For those who like my page and blog, I truly appreciate. Thank You. Tadah, today I got 6,000 pageviews.

Oh P/S, I decided to post this without pictures and spelling check, so you know I'm rambling again whilst waiting for my unpunctual friend!!! Hmpppmmm...and with Guinness ^^.

...............Also it's kind of hard to type so many words on iPad k. Chill ^^/

Ben's

I'm a lost touched city women towards these happening cafe/restaurant. I find it mere marketing gimmick and not worth the money (Ok-lah, I'm getting old ==). Other reason is as a parent, you will slowly stay away from this lifestyle-happening-not value for money restaurant, which means you tend to be more practical on spending for the children sake.

So what am I trying to say? well the story goes like this.

I planned a birthday dinner and my city friends told me about this happening place name Ben's. A food chain restaurant run by former Delicious boss etc. As Delicious was somehow a good place to hangout and dinning, I opted Ben's located in Publika.

I called up for a reservation however booking was full, the Assistant Manager ask me to walk in instead which would required to wait for like 30 mins or so. Well, I proposed Marmalade but my city women friends prefer to Ben's, and for all you know, Marmalade is another food chain restaurant has this theme in yellow but do not accept booking, anyways it was closed for a private function. What? private function on Saturday? Are restaurant owner made so well to forgo business on Saturday? Oh Well.

To avoid waiting too long, me and TT went early to queue. We dressed up for Party (me and TT) happily walked into Bens. It was 7pm. Restaurant was full house, holy cow! We were late for the dinner, there were already a handfull of families in the queue, it appeared to me everyone was on the waiting list. So I get TT to wait at the line and I walked into restaurant to look for someone to put our name in the list. Everyone was busy, some even just try to ignore my eye contact!! I got someone finally to attend to me, came from back restaurant, look like he just seated a guest.

"Please queue up!!" He is an Indian in ethnic, dress in jeans and some color shirts, . He shouted at me and try to push me to the queue whilst taking down the table orders, I find it annoying. Then I realize everyone was awaiting for queue number!!

Well, since TT was in queue I took sometime to look at the cakes displayed at the cold storage.

" Please go to queue, miss!!" . The same Indian guy shouted at me again!! Well I was quite "Paiseh" (embarassed) over the shout made direct to me publicly, I find him rude and quite upset but I didn't want to take it personally to jeopardise my BIG DAY! What the hell if I would queue later? It doesn't hurt right?

The dinner went ok, food was satisfactory, something fusion  - I ordered a softshell crab in Pita Bread, it taste fusions ha. I guess this is the selling point - something extraordinary to offer than boring fix cuisine based menu.

So how do  I find overall services rendered? The food served pretty promptly, we didn't have to starve even there were over crowded orders, except it was pretty warm sitting there when the air-conditioner was on. I looked out from the restaurant, holy shit, the restaurant was really packed inside out!!.

Firstly I hardly hangout on weekend, I find it crowded especially places in down town (another sign of getting old==). Secondly I hardly spend on food like this, did I tell you I pledged for home cook? Oh well. I'm a person don't like eating out because I'm quite sicked of exotic cruisine and menu basically similar everywhere (Sounds like I've been to many expensive restaurants huh). Having said that hanging out once in a while is fun and good, with good companies of course.

If you ask me, I would prefer to "Porto Romano" or "Marmalade" or "Aliyaa", places less crowded where you could enjoy the ambiences and scrumptious food and great company!

I don't want to share "Porto Romano" as it might gets crowded one day (I'm not saying I carry such influence power, but I believed if you find it good, so does others, I'm a little selfish, blah). Anyway good stuff is meant to be shared, this place is really worth going.

Porto Romano served scrumptious food, price more or less as compared to Ben's. It's mid-level fine dinning restaurant but less crowd, sounds like a good deal. You can really enjoy quiet dining and company within. I guess, the positioning is bit differed from Ben's as the latter targetting hopping-to-be-seen young generation (ok, fine, don't reminder....old ==). So you can choose embience you would prefer to. 

Nonetheless, I celebrated my birthday at Ben's. Thank you, gals^^.

China Women

She didn't aware that I was watching her. I was writting this post whilst watching hr at the same time pondering^^. Well, not exactly writting about her I guess but she triggered into this post.

I was at Cafeteria, KLIA. Right before opening my laptop,  a lady came in with a tray of food. She wore jeans, a bit peggy and white Baby Top with heels, hazel colored hair, fair skin, she looks quite decent. I managed to pick a photo which able to illustrate how she look like^^.

The cafe was crowded, she picked a marble table right in front of me at the centre of the cafe, table populated with 4 round sitting chairs. 

She pull the chair slightly outward, put tray on the table and prepare to sit. What caught my attention was she swing one of her leg over the chair with balance of the other leg on the ground.

No, don't get me wrong, women swing her leg over chair can look stylish, but when she is a bit plum, wear something like the grunge with straps Heels! What's more, it's public!

Grunge

I burst a smile when I saw her moves. She look quite decent but her act just now stunned me a little. Experience tell me she comes from China. I'm not depising Chinese women from China and this doesn't implying ALL.

Many a times, they do look attractive with their fair looking skin, however it got dampen from the way they walk, talk or move. Some walk with legs spreaded widely, some talk very loud.

Moving Agricultura Industry to Manufacturer Industry, China developed rapidly in an amazing pace. They literally finding ways to survive, how much more we could expect one who grew up from a poor farming village to look after their postures? 

Anyway, China has got a lot of drop dead gorgeous women other than the renown one below.

                                                                             范冰冰

                                                                              巩俐

                                                                                     

                                                                               杨幂

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2012

It was my first half Marathon and I appreciate Standard Chartered KL Marathon brought me with good memory.

First and foremost, there were sufficient notifications from payment, confirmation till collection of goodies bag. Cost of this run 58 dollars come with a dry fit New Balance singlet and guide book. The guide book consist of sponsors, event orgarnizer, the route disciplines, parking, starts and finishing timeline. There were also baggage handling service, titan pacers, routes map, timing device etc. It's a comprehensive guide for runners, it was really informative.

I woke up at 5am unwillingly as I finished my drama till 4am =P. Many roads were blocked to facilitate the running track, I was bit panic as I was 15 minutes to the scheduled run time. It was drizzling. Few other cars stucked at first roadblock but I was lucky to talk through the duty policeman to break the roadblock and enter to City Parking. I drove in swiftly, it was quiet and dark. After alighted from my car, I run my way to reach the first volunteer not too far away from the parking spot as I didn't want to risk my life in this circumrances being kidnap etc. I felt a bit relieve the moment I reached the first volunteer, get the direction, I spent 5 minutes running to reach the waiting point - Dataran Merdeka (Merdeka Square).  Thousands of runners aggregated at the starting points eagerly to begin their GO. They were getting excited. The spirit is high and the morale are great.

I spent my time to do a little warm up at the nearby fountain whilst waiting for my friend, she were late. 6am sharp, I heard the gun shot, run has began, everyone wiggle through the pack of crowd to make their space and pace. I'm still waiting patiently. 6.15am, she finally came.

We reached water station at first 4km, plenty of drinking water and isotonic drinks. The next water station filled with banana as an energy supplementary and wet sponges. These definitely a plan from an experienced orgarnizer. Runner drink and thrown the paper cup everywhere, some literally make an effort to dump it at the prepared dustbin (Impressive!), as a matter of courtesy I think everyone should do the same.

There isn't anything special whilst running, it can be kind of plain except you see funny messages on the shirts of runners. Some "Run for Carina", "Run for Diabetes", some wore funny costume with angel wings (This is awesome!). I especially mark color shirt as my pace, I move on to another once I over take them (smart huh!). It was quite fun actually when you reach a certain "target". The run comfort by a "cool zone" with mist diffused from a synthetic tunner, cool facility indeed!

There were distance board at almost every other 1.5km for half and full marathon runner. I love to see these boards as it reminds me that I'm 1 mile ahead, each mile passes like an energy booster to push me run at my greatest strength. I never run out of breath nor too tired as I did at my own pace and enjoy myself. My recovering time was max three days,  and I'm glad that I did 2 months training relentlessly.  

The most remarkable scene of my entire run was there were many cheering volunteers station at 1km before the finishing line. Some interesting cheers like "Run faster my hand is tired", "Tired legs are Sexy" and many more.

"What's on my head the moment I reached the finishing line?" I told myself no more running for the next 6 months LOL.

Nevertheless, I felt so proud to have joint the 28,000 participants Marathon.

What's my ranking?

"Your ranking is 778 from a total of 1290 participants in the Honda Half Marathon Women Open category"

"Thank you" 

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2012 ^^

Healthy Lifestyle

I noticed a change in my body figure one day and I thought it was my second puberty ==". I didn't take much notes until my weight gain gradually, my complexion getting worse and skin feeling drier....it's health alerting. So if you noticed put on weight lately or have been putting on weight past few years. It's a sign of aging, in another word, your metabolism strength has gone down or weak. Is this a natural process? Yes and No. It's natural process but can be overcome^^. Essentially this post isn't proposing new remedy but merely a Reminder.

Let me bring you back when you were 8, puberty begins. Your parents fed you with meals on time, plenty of nutritious food supply, ensure sufficient sleeps, imparted healthy and positive mindset, keep you regular outdoor activities. Your lifestyle is practically HEALTHY.

Now, to live up with the stature everybody does, you work doubly hard. You offset regular meals, rest/sleeps, excercises for material desires. On top of these, STRESS aggravates the situation. I don't delved into Stress Management here. So let's see what all these unhealthy life style and stresses led to an unhealthy you. Often time you feel fatigue everyday, more rest/sleep is demanded however never satisfy your needs, health begins to deteriot and illness starts kicking in. Let's don' talk about illness, gaining weight is already a signal of your health condition. Don't accept Aging as a natural process, in fact we need to defy the human reproduce process - To Live Younger each day.

So your choice of taking care of your health or wealth. If you chose to manage your health, read on, otherwise, close this window by all means.

1. Check your Internal Organ Age. You could find it with Herbal Live or any other health care centre could provide. The result reveals whether your Organs are healthy.

2. Stress-Free. Take challenges positively and keep things easy. Smile away when your emotions being challenged.

3. Be happy. Treat yourself well and reward good.

4. Balance Diet. I'm sure you remember what you ate when you were ....8.

5. Drink plenty of water min. 2 litres a day on top of any soda and fancy drinks. Water is still the best for your health.

 

Tupperware 2 Litres Tumbler

6. Eat plenty of fruits daily, self made fresh juices is ideal no sugar added and 100% fresh fruits. I opted for self made Citrus Fruits. ^^

7. Take necessary supplements.  

8. Have enough of sleep and rest 6-8 hours a day.

9. Regular exercise.

"Aiyo, too many things-lah" . I can understand if you find it dreadful because I felt the same way. Essentially, healthy lifestyle is very much about Habit, thus adding one element at a time will lead to a healthier you. Simple steps to begin with:

1. Don't embark everything at one go but one at a time.

2. Set your mindset to a "Healthy Me", where there's a will there's a way. It's a bit cliche but works all the time.

3. Take on one element at a time. Once you're comfortable move on to another.

Above all are common elements of heathy lifestyle but do notes Healthy means glowing and radiant. So ladies and gentlmen, Stay Healthy Stay Young and Stay Slim. 

Did I tell you how to stay slim? hmm..essentially, when you stay healthy, you will be able to revert to your figure before. If not, look out for my next post "Stay Slim".

Kechara Soup Kitchen

What's your perception about the homeless? drugs addict? Beggar? Mental illness? Or they are just indolent people. They sleep on the streets, benches, public toilet, mosque/temple, under the bridge. To them, hardcore tiles are their bed, bridge are their roof, carton box are their blanket. That's their home.

Whilst some perceived aiding the homeless is a form of encouragment, I found values in this decent act.

Ever thought who doesn’t wish to live like an ordinary human who has a job, home to live, plentiful meals. They are just unfortunate folks who bounced to bad influence, being abandoned/lost. We hope someday the drugs addicts will back to society to live like human, government able to provision a better shelter to the beggars, and mental illness being taken care of, whilst hoping these will be happening, the least we could do – give provision to their hunger.

Kechara Soup Kitchen enable more findings on the unnoticeable facet – some chose to be homeless. Whilst we live in comfortable shelter, these people just want to save their rental and food for family not once but for more than 10 years. Whilst some old folks abandoned by the own kids to old folks home, they chose to live within their means resentfully. Whilst some left home to get a better job unfortunately being robbed in a foreign country. There are varied races, age, nationality on the streets but all you could find is – dirty and stink.

Do these people have a choice? Yes they do, they could choose to revert to original state living own home but with limited means, they could adhere to their kids to lead a "discipline" life in home care, but these people wish to live a better one by taking a chance in their life. Fortune isn’t strike on everyone. Whilst we hope they would live life better one day, we merely aids them when needed.

Everyone knows hunger suppressed morale, induced depression, aggravated loneliness, by aiding with food, we resolved their least necessity. We show them - HOPE.

..and… This is our values.