Inspired Momx1

Friday, April 30, 2010

Have You Filed Your Income Tax Yet?


Location plan: LHDN'S new office in Damansara Perdana,
previous located in Kelana Jaya


If you haven't, you can log on to https://e.hasil.gov.my/ or through its official website http://www.hasil.gov.my/.

The deadlines for tax filing:

  • For individual tax payers (BE and M forms), you have 3 hours left to do so.

  • For businessmen (Forms B and M), you have until June 30 to do so.
I just went to submit mine (hehe... another last minute folk) at LHDN's new office in Damansara Perdana. I parked my car across the road and walked over only to realise that being the last day of submission for individual tax payers , LHDN had set up a drive thru' lane from 8am to 6pm for convenience of the public.
I am a person who like to run errands from the comfort of my home but this time around, I had no choice but to make a trip to LHDN due to the fact that hubby had misplaced his pin numbers for e-filing and as the deadline drew nearer, he had to resort to manual filing instead. I can't blame him for that as he had H1N1 similar symptoms the previous week and had just recovered from it.
When I was still working as a HR Executive 10 years ago, my colleagues would come to me to assist them in tax filing but fast forward to 10 years later, I don't have to because I have my personal accountant to take care of it. ;)

LHDN Petaling Jaya's Address:
Menara HASiL
PJ Trade Centre
No. 8, Jalan PJU 8/8A
Bandar Damansara Perdana
47820 Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan.

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Thursday, April 29, 2010

My New Blog Header Using Scrapblog.com

My new blog header

Templates to choose from

Sample template

Choice of Stickers to add to the template design

I had so much fun playing around and designing my new blog header using scrapblog this afternoon. I did not know it was that easy until I tried my hands on it and it's Free!

I can now change my header anytime I want it to give my blog a new look. Lalalala....


Note for future reference:

How To Save A computer screen:

  • Press Print Scrn on the keyboard

  • Press Ctrl-V on Paint to copy

  • Save!

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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Yamaha Junior Music Course (JMC) - Book 4

Text book & Workbook

Cut-out Staff cards & DVD Primary 4




I only bought the text book, workbook and DVD and omitted the CD since Book 2 as I realised we hardly listened to it when he was in Book 1.

Realising Ian's weakness in notations, I initially planned to make some flash cards to help him memorised but later found out Book 4 did come with the cards at the end of book. I had the cards cut out from the book and intended to flash them to him before bedtime. Okok, will and must get the ball rolling.... starting TONIGHT!!
Staff card before cut out (2)

Staff Cards before cutting out (1)

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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Yamaha JMC's Book 3 Mini Concert

Playing London Bridge & Pretty Bouquet

Group singing LaDiDa while Teacher Lilian playing on the electone

What's in the party box

Party pack ready to be given away


This is a backdated post. I had problems uploading the video clips and finally given up and settled for photos instead.:(

Ian had his 3rd Yamaha JMC's mini concert on the 1st Saturday of this month and that marked the completion of Book 3. Each of them played two songs of their choice from Book 3 and Ian chose London Bridge and Pretty Bouquet. All of them then sang LaDiDa together. They played with confidence after having gained exposure during the 1st and 2nd mini concerts except one girl who did not turn up during the previous two concerts cried from the start of the class, guess she had stage fright as she had to play in front of the audience for the first time. She ended up playing on the electone in front of her and with one hand after much coaxing from her mom and the music teacher. Having said that, parents participation play an important part in group learning as it is impossible for the teacher to pay attention and guide the 10 of them during the 1-hr session. The girl did not continue on to Book 4 after the mini concert.

After 1-1/2 years into JMC, having completed 3 books and less than 6 months before graduation, I personally felt that learning music in group was just not for Ian. He would sometimes bang on the keyboard in frustation during classes whenever he has had problems focusing and hear himself playing as everyone was playing. I will observe and see how things go and decide if I should let him go for private music lessons after JMC Book 4. This boy of mine has been telling me that he wants to learn flute. Well, we'll see.

Parents were briefed on the evaluation outline and urged to brush up and prepare their kids on the areas that would be evaluated end of September. I will be sharing my notes here for record purposes and future reference.

The indivdual evaluation takes 10 minutes and he is expected to:

  1. Perform a lyric song. Choose any one song from Book 1 - 4 and he is only required to sing one verse of the selected song.

  2. Choose and play any two repertoire from Book 3 and Book 4.

  3. Solfege. Teacher plays on the electone and he sings do-re-mi.

  4. Identify chords played. Teacher plays any three chords and he identifies by hearing.

  5. Play an accompaniment piece and he fills in the bass notes himself (from any one of the selected songs earlier). This is to assess their key harmony.

  6. Notes reading. Teacher points at the notes (from the 2 selected songs) and he reads them.
I find it to be quite challenging especially the notation and hearing part, where Ian is the weakest. This mommy had to crack her head hard before coming out with some plans to help him:

  1. To squeeze in 5-10 minutes every day to play the chords to him while he has to identify by hearing. Well, not an easy task for this mommy who only exposed to music the same time as the son.;)

  2. Flash staff cards with do/re/mi/fa/so/la/ti/do on both G & F Clef to him. I initially wanted to self make those cards but found the printed copies in his Book 4, saves me tons of work.;)
The JMC graduation ceremony will be held on last Sunday of September 2010 at Yamaha HQ's Festival Hall and the evaluation takes place on a Sunday before that. The evaluation is to mark the completion of JMC and to test how much they had learned in the past 2 years. Those gifted ones will go to JAC (Junior Advance Course) while the rest, JXC (Junior extension Course) if they opted to. According to Teacher Lilian, hardly anyone fails the evaluation unless you go in and do nothing, that is why it is called evaluation and not exam/test.

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Sunday, April 25, 2010

Instant Pork Porridge... Yummy!


I bought two packs of instant pork porridge, each consists of 4 packets of different brands from Big C Supermarket when I was in Bangkok last January. I first tasted it two years ago when I was on a short trip there with hubby and loved it! It is just so yummilicious and easy to cook!




I cooked myself two packets with an egg added for supper tonight. Delicious!! I can't find it here in Malaysia though.

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Thursday, April 22, 2010

Chicken Chop For Lunch Today

Homemade Chicken Chop

The boneless chicken thigh was first marinated with a dash of salt, pepper and soy sauce for 2 hours. It was then pan fried with 2 tablespoonfuls of cooking oil. I closed the lid of the frying pan to speed up cooking time.

I then cut the fried chicken thigh into bite sizes and to make the gravy, I mixed corn flour, dash of salt and pepper, 2 teaspoonfuls of oyster sauce and water and cook with french beans. My boy loves it.


My boy's lunch before heading to school.

My pot of celery soup which is super duper easy to prepare. I fry the minced pork until fragrant then celery and water to be added followed by tomatoes when it's almost ready. Add salt to taste before serving.

My boy used to love celery just two weeks ago but not anymore.*sighs* His says he gets bored eating it but there's food he will never get bored with.... the homemade burger that I make for him for breakfast everyday, YES... You hear me right! Everyday.. except on days when I run of of chicken patties or burger bun. He can have the burger every morning fuss free. *roll eyeballs*

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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

What Next After Ujian Linus


One thing I like about Ian's school is their respective class teachers will assemble with their pupils after classes dissolve. During pickup time, parents can actually come forward for any queries but not that the class teachers are available everyday as they are bound to rotate between Gate A and Gate B.

I had a brief chat with Ian's class teacher when I went to pick him up after school three weeks ago. I always make sure I talk to his class teacher on a regular basis so that my cheeky boy knows I know what he has been up to in school.*wink* His class teacher told me that Ian sailed through his Linus test and wasn't required to attend Linus classes. Those who didn't get through the test must attend special classes slotted in during school hours. I have had no idea how this is being carried out but my son told me they swap seats since a month ago during BM lessons only and that recently some of his classmates were asked to attend BM lessons in another classroom while he and the rest stayed on for their chinese lessons.

On another note, I find the BM syllabus a tad hard for a Year 1 compared to its English which was a lot more simpler. My KBSR dictionary is now my best friend as I find myself looking up for words that sound and look foreign to me at times, let alone a 7 year old.

The next move is to get Ian to speak this language as often as possible but the only time he gets to speak Bahasa nowadays is when we go eating at the Mamak restaurant. He would order his favourite roti telur and Air Limau Ais himself and that's all! One of my friends suggested that I have a daily fixed schedule to converse in the language with him but only if the mommy has such good discipline to stick to it that it might work!

He had more room to exploring this language when we were still staying in a terrace house in Puchong. Being a chatter box that he was and still is, he liked mingling with our ex-neighbour, a Malay family whose kids were slightly younger than him, who lived across the road but not anymore now that we live in a condo environment where most residents keep their door closed all the time and only a Hi or Hello when we bump into each other at the corridor or in the lift.

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Monday, April 19, 2010

Learning Thru Reading & Watching Ben 10 Series



I am glad that my boy is not too proud to ask things that he doesn't know. He also doesn't mind telling me that he gets punished for talking in class, usually ear squats for 10 times. This chatter box of mine just can't stop talking and will update me the moment he gets into the car after school.

He has started to pick up idioms like "What comes around goes around" and "No pain no gain" from the books that he reads and also from his favourite Ben 10 cartoon movie.

I was so mad with him last Saturday that right after coming home from his Han Yu Pin Yin class, I made him copy 4 pages directly from the BM activity book which I spotted lots of spelling mistakes, missing capital letters, commas and fullstops. He admitted competing with his classmates to finish the work given by their BM teacher. *roll eyes* I tell ya, the handwriting was simply horrible! He protested and whined but relented finally knowing his mother very well that it was too late to appeal and somehow he had to finish it no matter what.

While on our way to his Yamaha JMC class, he tried to crack a conversation with me who was driving to break the ice knowing that I was still mad with him.

Ian: Mommy, what's what comes around goes around? I heard Ben 10 saying this to the bad alien.
Mommy: Hmmm.... (Decided that I should throw him a question instead of answering it). Why did I make you copy so many pages this morning?
Ian: Because I was careless in my work and did not check my work. That's why you made me copy 4 pages.
Mommy: So, that's the answer, when you do something good, something good will happen to you. When you do something bad, something bad will happen to you!
Ian: *Sinking into deep thought*
Mommy: *evil grins* So, now do you understand what I am trying to tell you?
Ian: Yes, mommy. But then, what's the meaning of No Pain, No Gain?
Mommy: (I sometimes find myself struggling to feed this ever curious boy with appropriate answers but not this time for sure!) Just like the previous one, you must work hard for what you want and responsible for your own action. Just like you compete with your friends on the writing and did not focus on your work quality and you get punished for your action. Get it??
Ian: Yes, mommy. Sorry mommy. *guilty look*

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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Washable Fleece & Suede Sanitary Pads

3 baby pink fleece pads & 2 lavender suede pads

Top & Bottom

The PUL bottom

The top layer



I grabbed 5 pcs of cloth sanitary pads at a discount of 28% from Mama Patch during their recent anniversary sale. In fact, I ordered all fleece pads with only baby blue colour but received an email from Chinnee, the owner of Mama Patch informing me that they had run out of stock due to overwhelming response and offered to send me either the baby pink fleece and suede pads instead. I of course happily accepted as that would let me have the opportunity to try both.

I couldn't wait to try and write a review on my new purchase but it would have to be next month as my menses had just ended.

Well, I started reading this owner's blog since a year or two ago. Although I was aware of the cloth pads that she was selling online, I didn't give it much thought that one day I would be converted as I was skeptical about its absorbality which was my main concern due to the heavy flow of menses I experienced every month.

I was still not a tad convinced to give it a try even when the sale was on but towards the end of the sale, something changed my mind. It was a line I read from the seller's website that had changed my mindset. It said many women reported a decrease in cramping and reduction of flow after switching from chemical ladden disposable to cloths. Menstrual pain (Dysmenorrhea) had followed me since the day I first had it. It stopped after giving birth to my son and made a come back after a year. The pain was just too much to bear and it could go to the extent of not being able to perform normal routine for at least 3 days every month. That's how bad I had been suffered and tortured all these years!

Though I will only know for sure if I would ever get converted to cloth completely until my next menstrual cycle but I am happy to at least move a step forward to give it a try and it feels good knowing that you might be helping the environment every month from now on.

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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Magazines for Primary School



The exercises

I regret not placing order for these magazines during the start of school early this year as they were cheaper to get directly from the school with postage exempted. I only ordered the 3M which was compulsory.

When Ian started bringing back his 3M magazines, I flipped through the pages and found that apart from pictured stories, there were also exercises relevant to the syllabus taught in school. Ian's class teacher got them to do the exercises as revision before the start of their 1st exam. Me too, got Ian to finish the rest of the exercises at home and I found it quite helpful as a way to reinforce and comprehend what had been learned.

I had tried Kuo Liang, the distributor of the magazines for back issues but was told that they only ordered enough for subscription distribution. I then called their publishing company, Hup Lick and was told that they did accept back issues orders. They then faxed over an order form as I wanted to place order for 6 months' subscription otherwise full year subscription can be done online here. I will get the remaining 6 months' subscription through Ian's school as it will be cheaper.

The staff working at Hup Lick was friendly and helpful. She even took the trouble to call and explain to me that among all, I had actually made duplicate orders for two titles, the only difference was the language, one BM and the other English and suggested the alternatives.

The back issues came via Pos Laju a week after payment was made. Ian was so excited and couldn't wait to finish reading all of them. He would never be seen without a magazine on his hands the 1st week after getting them. He reads while eating his meals, sitting on his throne doing business and before the light is out at night! That's how much he loves reading.

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Saturday, April 10, 2010

Home Boiled Soups



Ingredients: cut old cucumber (should have left skin intact),
red dates & dried squids
Chicken Carcass

Ingredients: beetroot, onions, carrots, tomatoes
Beetroot Soup. Forgot to snap photos of the ready soup.
This photo was taken from here.

The end result: Home boiled Old Cucumber Soup

I like soups and homecooked food, so as Ian. Unfortunately, hubby only prefers soup that are clear and not cloudy or they would be labelled as dirty. *rolls eyes* I hardly do slow cooking soup on my stove to avoid having to watch fire or the pot soup runs dry.

I would usually dump in all the ingredients needed into my faithful crockpot of 15 years before I sleep and let it simmer until the next morning. That explains why my soup will always end up cloudy after the long hours simmering in the pot. My consolation is my boy still loves my soup a lot regardless of whether they turn out cloudy or otherwise.

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Fun Vegeroni Pasta Shapes

The packet of Vegeroni
My dinner



I would always yearn for homecooked food whenever I am sick. Ian didn't go to school yesterday as his school declared a day off for Cheng Meng. I am down with a cough and flu, guess I caught the bugs from Ian who had since recovered. For lunch, we bought nasi pattaya from a mamak restaurant around the neighbourhood. Although Ian polished off his and said it was yummy but I could hardly finish half of mine.

I found a packet of colourful vegeroni with cute shapes of elbows, curls and clams from the San Remo range in the kitchen wall cabinet, guess hubby bought it as I didn't buy it and decided to cook it for dinner. Vegeroni is actually vegetable pastas flavoured with carrots and spinach. I fried some minced pork and added long beans, fu pei (soya bean sheet), shredded carrots and baby corns and voila, I whacked the whole bowl of of the homecooked soup pasta. Slurps...

Ian enjoys eating it too and has not stopped mentioning about how cute and colourful the pasta shapes are while eating.

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Monday, April 5, 2010

DIY Velcro Straps - Ben 10 Omnitrix & School Shoes





I purchased this Ominitrix F/X for Ian, who is a big fan of Ben 10 last year. I had to resort getting it on ebay as I was told it was out of stock everywhere I went. The toy do what it's supposed to do, press a button, select an alien and then press the activator and the Omnitrix transform you ( if you have the small boy's imagination).

The sound effects are the same of the tv show, even it has a timer that transforms you back to a human being. It has 3 green lights that blink when the omnitrix is activated, then after 2 or 3 minutes a red light blink and sounds when the alien form it's disengaged. It's big, for a kid's wrist, even for an adult.

The whole purpose of this toy is to wear it on the wrist and act like Ben 10. Ian loves this toy but got very frustrated because it wouldn't stay on his wrist tight all the time due to its design. The rubber locks which was supposed to secure into the holes of the straps seems to slip loose easily. With the constant attempts trying to tighten the straps, the rubber locks had finally come off.

Velcro straps and super strong glue bought from Daiso@ 1utama

I got the velcro straps and super glue from Daiso@ 1 Utama this morning for RM5 each and couldn't wait to start on my DIY project upon reaching home. Here's the end result:


After DIY: The loops


After DIY: The hooks


My boy was overjoyed when he saw the modified straps and said that he has finally got his ominitrix back and thanked mommy in a very sweet voice. Hah!

The velcro straps left was also enough for me to change Ian's school shoes' which had worn out only after less than 4 months! Only the velcro straps had worn out but the shoes are still in tip top condition, what a waste if it can't be worn, rite? So, what I did was removed the stitches and cut out the old loops and replaced with the new ones. The black loops do not look weird on the white shoes though as they are inner facing. Phew! Saved me RM40 to get him another new pair.

Before

After

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Saturday, April 3, 2010

A Moony Night



MOON'S ENDING

Moon, worn thin to the width of a quill,
In the dawn clouds flying,
How good to go, light into light, and still
Giving light, dying.
By Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

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Friday, April 2, 2010

10X Points With AMEX (1 Apr - 31 Jul 2010)




I received a sms as well as an email from AMEX announcing their GET 10x Points promotion from 1 April 2010 - July 31 2010. I was like Wow after experiencing their generosity during the recent 15% Cash Back ended in end February where your cash rebates earned would be credited to your following month's statement. I am jotting down here my experience with their promotions since becoming Amex Gold Card member 2 years ago.

15% Cash Back At Selected Malls Only (1 Nov 2009 - 28 Feb 2010)
No, I am not a big spender, I have to watch every single ringgit I spend but I was estatic to the fact that when you were already enjoying 40% discount or more during sale period from departmental stores such as Jusco, you get additional 15% off from AMEX and all in all, you get 55% discounts or more! Unbelievable!

As this promotion has an exception to purchases made at supermarkets, hypermarkets, hotels and retail outlets within the selected mall, I did not benefit a lot from the 15% cash back. I bought most of the family's new CNY clothes during my trip to Bangkok just before CNY. I did make some purchases (stuff that I need) at the selected malls every month in order to enjoy the 15% cash back!

Conditions: None as far as I know. Just that you have to shop at the malls selected by AMEX and not at supermarkets, hypermarkets, hotels and retail outlets within the selected malls to qualify.

GET 8X Points for all petrol and groceris purchases (15 Apr-15 Jul 2009)I earned a lot of points from this promotion as petrol and groceries purchases are inevitable expenses and has become part of our life. I paid with my AMEX card for any purchases that I have to make and it has since become a habit for me to dig the card out from my purse everytime I make payment.
Conditions: To qualify for this promo, you have to enrol in their membership rewards programme (MRP) that cost you RM25 annually for non frequent traveller and RM50 for frequent travellers but I think the MRP has since scrapped though I am not so sure about it.

Get 10x points for all Petrol and Grocery purchases (1 Apr - 31 Jul 2010)
How I eagerly wanted to join in the game when I come to know about this promotion. But, wait, there's a big catch! You have to spend a *qualifying transactions of at least RM500 EVERY MONTH and that excludes the petrol and grocery spent.

Conditions: YES. Make sure you keep track of your monthly spending to *qualify. RM1 short, i.e. RM499, you will be out of the game but of course still get your 2X based points larr for every RM1 spent. For me, I opted out this time around and would rather look elsewhere for simpler deals than to waste my time counting if I fell short of anything. What a catch!!

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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Simple Homecooked Dishes

Stir-Fried Loofah Gourd (Petola)


I cook on most days when Ian has to attend school. I tried recently with success introducing Ian to eating brinjal and I am now getting ambitious in trying out "new" dishes. There's no fuss though getting him to drink soups, any kind of soups, so this part I am spared.

Today, I introduced yet another "new" dish to my boy. I cut the chicken breast and loofah gourd into strips and diced the tomatoes and onion. I then stir-fry all ingredients with salt, tomato sauce, soy sauce added to taste. The result, He can accept the dish as the gravy goes well with rice but minus the wow effect.

I just bought a lettuce from Tesco and plan to stir-fry it tomorrow with some "Fu Chuk" (bean curd sheets) and button mushrooms which he likes and see if my attempt to get him to eat greens would be yet another success or otherwise..

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