11/2012 | Blog with Yan

2012-11-29

Trip to Perlis

After coming back from yelling in excitment, wiping sweat and feeding juice, I suffered from bad UTI (Urine Tract Infection), due to holding my urine for too long and cutting down in water intake. It was a nightmare for me to visit the toilet at the place that it held the event. I don't even want to think of the toilet now.

April was playing in the team, the double and also the individual games. Altogether she played in 5 matches. She won in 2 matches and lost in 3 matches. I had taken a few videos, butI have yet to upload in Youtube. I am proud of her result. Although I don't know when she will get herself her first medal in Ping Pong, she has now gained herself valuable experience and exposure in her first national game.

Picture on top is a hall called Wawasan 2020 that held this Ping Pong tournament. Picture at bottom is the banner of the event.

We left Perlis early on Sunday, as my husband needed to go to KL for his course on Sunday evening.
April was the only one not witnessing the closing ceremony with her team.

2012-11-26

Winners of Giveaway Contest on Monster High Doll Assortment

Many thanks to those who submitted their slogans in the comment box of the Giveaway Contest on Monster High Doll Assortment. I was overwhelmed by so many creative and nicely written slogans. The sponsor, Mattel has come out with the winners at the end.

They are,

Nory Agnes
Slogan:

My favourite Monster High character is Venus McFlytrap because she has a personality that is like her style, bold, loud, and in your face. She has bright green skin with hot pink and green hair shaved one side. She also has multiple teeth protruding from her mouth which is likely to suggest a carnivorous plant and has vines entangled around her arms, neck and ankles. Her style is described as punk rock with a touch of pink and green.

Wilder

Slogan:
My favorite Monster High character is Jackson Jekyll because he is a lad with a brain. He might be bipolar at times, but boy, does he try to stay at his best for the sake of his friends. If that's not a noble gentleman, I don't know what is. Mad as he can be about science, he also plays sports to keep his athletic body in shape. You can tell that he's a decent guy by the way he dresses, neat and plain but down to earth. He's the type of student that every kids should look up to. Monstrously smart, not to mention cunningly sweet. He's MORTALFYING, as the ghouls would say.

Hizzy O.K.

Slogan:
MY FAVOURITE MONSTER HIGH CHARACTER IS DRACULAURABECAUSE:

I simply adore black and cheery pink
So Draculaura is my favourite in a wink!
With an umbrella in one hand and a Bat pet in another
She exudes personality as a vampire like her father
Although Draculaura and mirrors aren’t friends
It does not affect her fashion sense
Practice makes perfect when it comes to styling
No doubt, BF Clawd Wolf is definitely approving
Once again Draculaura is my favourite ghoul,
I’d give anything to be her GFF at school!

Congratulations to Nory Agnes, Wilder and Hizzy O.K.
Please email your name, blog link, contact number and address to asha@gocomm.com.my for prizes collection purposes.

If you don't win this time, you still have a chance to win on my next month giveaway after my review on the Create – A – Monster set.

A sneak peak at Create-A-Monster

Dying to know more of this Create-A-Monster set, visit http://www.monsterhigh.com/

2012-11-22

Steamed Sarawak Kek Lapis

I thought that I would have a hard time blogging from Perlis. I was so happy to find out that the hotel I stayed in Perlis providing WIFI in every floor. The connection speed is even more excellent than my house streamyx.

I have saved a couple of photos and a recipe in draft post, before I left home.

I saw a few of my blogger friends baking their own Sarawak Kek Lapis. I was bitten by their baking bug too. I finally took out my courage to try baking my own Sarawak Kek Lapis last week.

I was satisfied with my first attempt of this recipe. It tasted perfectly my kind of Sarawak Kek Lapis.

When it was ready to be served, my girls and I took a few pieces as supper. Omg! Fat!

Then I packed the rest into 2 containers to share my fat with my colleagues and my husband.

Everyone gave me very good feedback. Even my husband who doesn't really like eating cakes, he also said my Sarawak Kek Lapis tasted good.

Here is the link I got the recipe.

Steamed Sarawk Kek Lapis (Cocoa and horlicks flavour)

250g butter (I used Buttercup and 1/4 tsp salt)

1/2 cup icing sugar (I used Castor sugar)

5 large eggs

200g sweetened condensed milk

70g horlicks

30g cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup hongkong flour

Heat up steamer over medium heat, wrap the cover with clean cloth
Grease 20cm round pan and line with baking paper
Beat butter and sugar til creamy
In low speed, add in eggs one at a time, add in vanilla essence and mix well
Gradually, add in sweet condensed milk alternating with hongkong flour til well mixed
Divide the batter into 2 parts, one part mix with horlicks, the other part mix with cocoa powder (use spatula)
Spread a layer at a time in the pan (I scooped 5 heaped tablespoons for each layer), and steam each layer for 6 minutes
After spreading the last layer, steam for further 30 minutes

This recipe is worth trying and it tastes really good. I have not much complain over this attempt, except I should have cut the cake in more equivalent size.

2012-11-20

Yelling in excitement, wiping sweat and feeding juice

I will be going on a short hiatus, as I need to accompany April to Perlis for Tunas Harapan Ping Pong Tournament. April had gone through a few aggressive trainings in Ipoh. She is now ready for the category under 10 female. I don't think that she is undergoing any pressure, as this is her first year taking part in this tournament.

Just in case you are curious of what I am going to do there. Mind you, I will be April's biggest supporter. Other than yelling "加油, 加油, 加油,....." and clapping my hands really hard in excitement. I will help wiping her sweat and feeding her juice too.

All players were listening to briefing from their coach.

Group photo with Ping Pong Association Committee members, trainers and ping pong players.

Female under 10 ping pong players, April is the youngest one among all.

This is just a short post. Sorry for not able to do much blog hopping in these few days. I promise, I'll be back soon. You folks stay happy.

2012-11-17

Poly the Santa Claus

When April entered her primary 1 in year 2011, I made some survey on school bag and finally decided on the pioneer bag manufacturer in our own town - Poly Pac. I got her a pink Poly Pac Smiley school bag that time. This bag lasted for 1.5 year. One of the wheels finally torn off from the bag in her mid year of Primary 2.

I got April another blue Poly Pac Smiley school bag (as shown in left picture) to replace her first school bag. As for May, this small Poly Pac school bag was being used throughout her kindergarten years (as shown in right picture).

I have actually forgotten that I mentioned in that entry, wishing for the Poly Pac Management would read my entry, and give me some discounts as an appreciation for my support. Little did I know that Poly Pac Management found and left me a comment.

They asked me a favour for snapping a few pictures of my girls carrying their school bags, be it going to school or going for outdoor games. They wanted to feature my girls' pictures in their 2013 table calendar.

I was more than happy to do that, as my girls could be a kid model for Poly Pac school bags. I submitted a few shots for them to choose. They came back to me with a sample copy of the table calendar where they featured April and May along with my testimony in my blog.

In return, Poly Pac Management wasn't giving me any discount for purchasing their school bag in future, but they gave April and May their 2013 latest collection school bags.

We are overwhelmed by their kindness. The Poly Management got the new school bags delivered directly to my doorstep. This is the biggest parcel that April and May had received so far.

April and May's new school bags have 4 compartments each, and both sides have big pocket to hold the water tumbler. I always satisfied with their very practical design and good material quality.

April is in Standard 3 next year, it is so thoughtful of them to give her a bigger Poly Pac trolly school bag. Whereas May is in Primary 1 next year, they give her a Smiley trolley school bag too.

Both my princesses are overjoyed at their new school bags. We would like to express my most sincere thanks to Poly Pac Managment, Miss Carmen Ang and Miss Canjy Ang for your opportunity and kindness.

Papa and Mama save around RM200 this year from getting new school bags from Poly the Santa Claus.

Note: This wasn't a sponsored, nor a paid post. Everything is prompted by my own view.

2012-11-15

April and May's achievement in 2012

I remember I did April and May's achievement posts last year. Hence,I must also pen down their achievement this year, just as a review on their performance in schools every year.

Let start with April. Same as last year, she has got herself 13 prizes in her school. She also got 2 prizes from colouring contests that held by other societies.

I want to do a comparison for each of the categories that she took part.

1. Chinese making sentence from pictures - 2011 Champion, 2012 Champion

2. Chinese written test - 2011 Champion, 2012 Champion

3. Chinese story telling - 2011 7th, 2012 First runner up. (Leap from7th to 2nd)

4. BM puisi (reading) - 2011 7th, 2012 7th.

5. BM ejaan- 2011 3rd runner up. 2012 First runner up. (Leap from 4th to 2nd)

6. English spelling - 2011 Champion, 2012 Champion

7. Mathematics contest - 2011 First runner up, 2012 Champion (Leap from2nd to 1st)

8. Art (drawing and colouring) contest - 2011 First runner up, 2012 First runner up

9. Chinese songs singing contest - 2011 3rd runner up. 2012 3rd runner up

10. Sport day 50 M female run - 2011 Champion, 2012 (80M) Champion

11. Inter school sport day 50M female run - 2012 2nd runner up. (New category)

12. Computer knowledge contest - 2011 Champion, 2012 Champion

13. Standard 1 examination - 2011 Position 1/96, 2012 Position 1/96.

14. Chinese pen writing - 2011 Champion 2012 no prize, as she is out of top ten. (Fall from 1st to out of top ten)

Out of 13 prizes, there are 7 trophies of champions, 3 trophies of first runner-ups, 1 trophies of second runner-up, 1 trophies of 3rd runner-ups and 1 trophies of number 7th.

Where as for May, she won herself 5 trophies from her kindergarten and 3 trophies of colouring contest that held by other societies. She won in best colouring, best drawing, best hand writing, best student and champion in singing competition trophies. She got almost the same trophies as last year, except one extra winning in singing competition. As for academic, she was actually at 3rd position in her class.

I hope April and May can continue to do their best in the coming years, as they grow, the competition is getting tougher and tougher.

Here is the video of the prize giving of standard 2 Top 10 students at April's school concert.
It wasn't easy for her to retain the position of number 1 in the whole standard. Last year students at position number 2 and number 3 were all fallen out of Top 3. She was working hard to make sure she maintaining her excellent result of all 6 subjects with 100% score. Way to go, April.

2012-11-12

{Closed}Giveaway Contest on Monster High Doll Assortment

I am so excited, as this is my 2nd giveaway contest on Monster High Dolls. When my girls were playing with these Monster High dolls, they kept giving me feedback like, "These dolls are imperfect but they are so unique.....", "We like these Monster High dolls, as they have very cutie pets.....", "They are more flexible than Barbie, all their joints can be twisted, whereas Barbie has very limited hands and legs movement..." and etc.
Even I myself have learned a lot new things from Monster High. Before that I didn't know much about Werewolves, Zombies, Dracula and etc. I believe that Monster High will soon make a hit in our country.

I am sure by now you have known Frankie Stein, as I have mentioned about her here, here, and here.

You have also met Draculaura, and I talked about her here and here.

As for Abbey Bominable, her stories are here and here.

Now, please meet Ghoulia Yelps, daughter of the Zombies. Ghoulia's pet is a baby blue owl named Sir Hoots A Lot, who is as eloquent and intelligent as his owner.

She is Operetta, daughter of Erik, The Phantom of the Opera. Her pet, Memphis "Daddy O" Longlegs is a purple spider with Elvis Presley-styled hair, named after Memphis, where Elvis Presley grew up.

Spectra Vondergeist, daughter of the Ghosts. Spectra's pet is a purple ghost ferret is named Rhuen. Rhuen's lower half is fairly translucent, and she wears a dark purple bow over right ear.

Can you tell me who are they in this picture above? Don't worry, this isn't the question of my giveaway. I am just testing whether you are following Monster High so far.

Here, you stand a chance to win a Monster High core doll. The 3 winners will get a character that will be chosen at random by Mattel.

If you are a Blog With Yan's reader who live in Malaysia, please answer the following question and complete the following slogan in the comment section of this post.

Question: What are the names of Draculaura's and Abbey Bominable's pets?

Slogan: My favourite Monster High character is _______________ because _______________________

(Please visit www.monsterhigh.com/bios to choose your favourite character)

The contest starts now and ends on 19 November 2012, Monday, 8 am (GMT +8) .
Winners will be announced in this blog on 26 November 2012, Monday.

Please also leave your email address when you place your answers in the comment section below so that we are able to contact you should you be selected as one of the lucky winners.

2012-11-10

Batik painting, Roy the lion and Celebrity Glamour

Woot! woot! School off and more relaxing days for the next few weeks. I can sleep for more hours, I can iron less clothes, and I can temporary forget about their Ting Xie, Ejaan and Spelling. Shiokalingam!

Since I am in happy mood, I must blog about something happy too. I received gifts from 3 blog sphere friends in the past few weeks.

I was one of the top commenters in Wenn's blog for the month of October. So generous of her to send me a soft toy and a 2013 table calendar. At first, I wanted to give this baby cub to lil May, but April wanted it so badly. May, always being a sweet mui mui allowing her jie jie to own the toy. Anyway, I see both of them now sharing and playing with this soft toy together. They call it Roy The Lion. It is definitely a nicer name than SK's Fing Fing, no?

After April being the owner of Roy The Lion, I gave the batik painting set from Aunty Kathy to lil May. She hearts it very much. She can't wait to open the set and lay her hands on this batik painting immediately. I asked her to wait till I am free to do it together with her.

This is the gift from SK that make me want to blog about it almost immediately, as I worry that I will forget about the fun my girls had last night. SK sent me a DIY card with the theme of Celebrity Glamour, Angry Birds stickers and Assorted Cookies erasers. When I opened up the gift, my two girls had a good laugh at the card. This was what they said, "Uncle SK is such a funny person." Then, they kept humming those bubble talks that Uncle SK designed for them. The whole evening, I could hear them talking to each other from living room to bathroom, from bathroom to their bedroom.
May: Daddy calls mummy bebe yan yan so geli.
April: Mummy calls daddy bebe jin jin lagi geli.

Upmteen times, SK. Yannie faint.

Thanks Wenn, Kathy and SK.

2012-11-08

Weekend trips to Ipoh

I have been attending school concerts for two continuous Fridays, and I have also been to Ipoh in two continuous Saturdays and Sundays. It is because April has qualified herself to represent Perak for the Tunas Harapan MILO Ping Pong tournament female under 10 （乒乓青苗赛）, which is going to be held in Perlis this month end. Meaning, I am travelling to Perlis in next 2 weeks.

April in her Butterfly shirts. If she wasn't playing Ping Pong, I wouldn't know that all Ping Pong players must wear Butterfly brand shirts and pants. It isn't like other games, most players are wearing NIKE or ADIDAS to tell people they are doing sport.

Well, you may not know this person whom I met at a food place, which located at the corner opposite Foh San Dim Sum Restaurant. He was one of the contestants of Astro Classic Golden Melody Singing Competition2012 (Astro经典名曲歌唱大赛 ) AEC (CH301), 8.30pm Saturday. I only dare to take his picture from far ( the top picture) , just for the sake of showing Yvonne. Then, a parent of another ping pong player who accompanied me to go for the breakfast walked right up to his stall, and asked him for a closer shot. She also ordered his curry mee for me to try.

While April was having her training, I had nothing to do except taking pictures of my girls and chit-chatting with other parents. I would bring Galaxy Tab, story books and snacks to occupy May's time, who tagged along me every time.

On the weekend when my husband was around, after dropping off April to her coach, we could go for better food and also shopping at Jaya Jusco afterwards. Last Sunday, my PIL tagged along and together we went to the dim sum restaurant at Bercham of Ipoh, located directly in front of the new Giant hypermarket.

I am a dessert person, I would left those heavy meat dim sum for my PIL and husband. Then, I would order myself some "kuih" like in this picture. The top green colour "kuih" had banana filling and the bottom one is tasted like agar agar with water chestnut and pineapple. Slurp!

Chee Cheong Fun, Century Egg porridge, and King Dumpling (Sui Kao Wong) soup.

This glutinous rice(Sang Chou Loh Mai) is very nice, I like it very much. This restaurant is called Hong Xing Dim Sum. I find its dim sum better and cheaper than Foh San. This is solely my personal opinion.

We also ordered fish balls, prawn dumpling (har kau), siew mai, xiao long bao, loh mai kai and a pot of tea from new, clean, spacious, cooling and good service Hong Xing Dim Sum restaurant. The bill for 4 adult and 1 child is only RM75.

RESTORAN HONG XING DIM SUM
No 35 & 37, Bercham Bistari 3,
Medan Bercham Bistari,
31400 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
Tel No : +605-545 3779
Business hours : 7am – 2pm daily, Closed on Thursdays.
Estimated GPS coordinates : 4.625041,101.118066

2012-11-06

April's Primary School Concert 2012

After attending May's kindergarten concert, we attended April's primary school concert on last Friday. Next year, May is joining her jie jie in big school, they will have a same concert and I can do a single post for their concert.

I really appreciate SK's feedback on May's makeup. His comments has allowed me to do it much better on April. After the make over, even I myself couldn't help obsessing at my own daughter. She is definitely more beautiful than her Mama Yannie. If you don't believe, see this slide show photo album.