Ryan Tostobil

Seriously who is this Ryan and how the heck did he manage to woo my son into an obsession??

Ian is really getting to my nerves with this Ryan Toys Review business. I mean, it's bad enough that Ryan makes millions out of sheer advertising alone, but does he really have to be so addictive for small kids???

Anyway, ever since Ian found out that we can show YouTube videos on TV, he's been asking for "Ryan Tostobil" all day long. If he doesn't get it on TV, he asks for it on our phones. If we don't give it to him, he doesn't throw a tantrum or stuff like that. Instead, he either waits for us to get distracted and then 'steal' our phones from under our noses, or tug on our heartstrings by giving us the 'puppy eyes', pretend to merajuk or ask sadly "So what do I watch? You're watching TV... so what do I watch, ha?" *chuckles* I've tried everything to distract him; physical play, colouring, even baking! But he still ends up pining over darn Ryan. (That sounds so wrong, but you know what I mean.)

When we went to Europe, we hid the tablet and lied to him that we sent it to the 'shop' to get it fixed. The exciting trip was an excellent opportunity for him to forget about the darn tablet without the withdrawal symptoms... but just today he asked, "Why is my tablet so long?" (Why is my tablet taking so long to be fixed?")

Ryan Tostobil, please give this poor mummy a break! *sigh*

The adorable addict.

Longggg Holiday

Some say, it takes another holiday just to recover from a holiday. The past 5 days of public holidays have been awesome, but I wish I had another 5 days of leave to use to recover from the extended long weekend.

We kicked off our long leave on a high note - attending the Sea Games closing ceremony in Bukit Jalil. We decided to park at Glenmarie and take the LRT to Putra Heights and then the stadium. Bad choice, the LRT was so slow I was whining and grumbling the whole way. Should have just drove to Putra Heights instead.

We took pictures like tourists that day!

So semangat - we arrived super early to get good seats!

On the flip side, the concert was amazing. We paid ten measly ringgits to hear some of Malaysia's powerhouses on stage. I couldn't have dreamt of a better way to celebrate Merdeka midnight. Kudos to Hubby for his effort in securing tickets early. However, Aiden and Ian were slightly disappointed as they expected a colorful affair similar to the opening ceremony. (Ian kept asking "Issit finished? Can we go home?" after every song!)

They loved those Milo noise-makers.

Merdeka midnight!

The next day, we took full advantage of the zero traffic in KL and went to four (I repeat four) shopping malls. We started with Paradigm Mall for some salmon sashimi, then to Bangsar Village and Empire to check out BBQ sets and finally to Gamuda Walk to pick up our newly purchased BBQ pit!

Hari Raya Aidiladha was a somewhat quiet affair for us. The boys recycled their Eid baju melayu while I wore an outfit that I had sent to the tailor for Eid but never got around to wearing (we were galavanting Europe)! No pictures of us as a family, not because we didn't match, but rather the circumstances of the day. We had to attend a funeral of a relative so we left the kids with my in laws. While we were away, Ian started vomiting, so bad that my SIL brought him to the clinic. His first time to the clinic without his parents! *cries* Back home, Hubby started feeling loya tekak as well but it got better in the night. Unfortunately, my helper was next in line as she started vomiting the next day. Bad timing cos we had planned for a BBQ that night with my in laws. Thankfully my SILs took charge of most of the clean up afterwards, so my helper could recuperate in her own time.

The BBQ was great fun! The weather was good, we officiated our new BBQ set, we had a white screen in our garden showing Ola Bola and then Istanbul Aku Datang, and of course - food was scrumptious and plentiful. I made fried mihun, beef lasagne and brownies. The brownies was especially a hit - must remember to share the recipe here soon. Everyone went home with their tummies full that night.

Scrumptious marinated lamb, chicken and even salmon. And of course, hot dogs for Aiden.

Hubby bought the white screen for the SEA Games football finals (see - so semangat!) but now we can use it for our BBQ nights too.

After a late Saturday night, we slept in on Sunday. My helper was still out of action, poor thing. Hubby got me hooked on a new series on Netflix - Narcos. So we ended up having a Narcos marathon during the day. In the afternoon, we burned our calories at FlipOut; a trampoline park merely 15 mins away from home. Ended the day with dinner at Jibby and Co and dessert at Food Foundry. *drool*

I'm probably slightly late on the bandwagon, but Food Foundry's salted caramel mille crepe is really good.

Monday - the last day of the holiday rolled in. We managed to pry our eyes off Narcos and dragged out feet to Sunway Pyramid. Hubby wanted to service his car while I wanted dessert. We ended up in DipNDip - chocolate overdose!

Pancakes and fruits drizzled with dark Belgium chocolate.

Just what I needed as comfort food at the end of a long holiday.

It was quite obvious that none of us were looking forward to heading back to work, because we started planning our next holiday. Told you, we needed another holiday to recover from the last! So we ended our day on another high note - by booking a holiday for this upcoming weekend. Just three workdays away!

Oh weekdays... please be kind. Thank you in advance! *chuckles*

Sickly

Hello peeps. Sorry for the quiet few days. I've been out of action. Flat out, zero action.

Started with a few sniffles on Friday night which turned into a full blown fever on Saturday. (Such a waste of a weekend.) The weird thing is that even with paracetamol, the fever didn't seem to want to kebah. Low grade fever persisted the whole day. Same thing on Sunday. Come Sunday afternoon I decided to go to the clinic. They suggested that I take a blood test but I negotiated (sempat lagi tuh). Penakut jarum kan. Promised the doctor that I'll come back the next day if my fever doesn't subside.

Next day came rolling in and of course lah, demam the whole day. At that point I felt like throwing myself off a cliff or something. (Dramatic much??) Letih tau demam tak kebah kebah. It's like your body is constantly aching for three days straight. While I was down in the pits, memang teringat sangat sangat dekat arwah my Mum. Her cancer journey was 8 months long... but I can't even handle 3 days of fever. *sigh* Finally went to the doctor and serah diri for a blood test. It wasn't dengue, but rather... It was viral fever. No wonder antibiotics didn't work!

Yesterday the fever went down slightly but I was still coughing and aching. I was so confident I had pulled through the worst so I rescheduled all my meetings for Thursday. Confident habis that I only needed one more day to rest. Wishful thinking... That night the fever spiked up again - back to square one. This morning I woke up with a dull ache at my rib cage. Pening kepala macam nak muntah. Eeeehhhh macam macam lah. Seriously I'm not even sure whether I am fit enough for work tomorrow.

Anyway, doakan that I recover fast, please. Dah tak larat sakit lama-lama like this. *sakit itu penghapus dosa*

Viral

Just last week, Harith Iskander was at an event in my office. Something he said resonated in me. He said that nowadays, people 'celebrate' idiots by making them viral.

Let me clarify. Have you noticed that most things that have gone viral are typically things that are done by fools? In the past (way before we had Instagram or Facebook Live), everyone acknowledged that there were idiots that lived amongst us but we chose to ignore them and live peacefully. But now, we celebrate them by taking videos of them, which in turn instigates keyboard warriors which in the end promotes negativity and chaos.

We can always agree to disagree, but heck, food for thought.

Anyway, here's something viral that is nowhere idiotic at all. Viral plates or more affectionately called #pingganviral.

I am quite the perfectionist. I love things that match, which translates to matching sets of plates, saucers, serving dishes, cups and even teapots. I only have two collections in my house; my Corelle Simple Lines/Sketch for my daily use. And my Noritake Crestwood Gold for my formal dining use.

So when this pinggan viral thing came about, I wasn't hooked at all. Mismatched plates??? Not in my books!

However, slowly but surely I started warming up to the idea. I found myself admiring the distinct pieces that people scored and shared on their Instagram feeds. I started loving the contrasting pieces and the quirky flat lays. In the end, I couldn't deny myself anymore. So here's my catch:

Despite my excitement to embrace mismatched designs and colours, I somehow still gravitated towards matching sets. See how the orange saucer has a blue rim which matches the blue rectangular platter? *I am such a freak*

I told myself that I would only get a set sufficient for ONE Instagram flat lay. No buying for the future possibilities of "Oh I need this bowl in case I want to serve Tomyam" or "Oh I need more plates to cater for additional family members". And Alhamdulillah, I kept to my word. Damage for the day? RM60.

See, one Instagram square!

Update: OK, I did not keep to my word. I did a second round today, and discovered that I can still fit more pieces into one Instagram square. I promise, no more!!!

See?? Still one Instagram square!

Now I can sleep peacefully at night. No more viral shopping for me, please!

I'll just continue expanding my Corelle empire... *giggles*

Such a soothing thing to see for fellow OCDs.