Reservation about the brand name.....

 

At Gurney Plaza, last November, I picked up this pair of shoes without hesitation. A jeans wearer I am, they will be amply matched!

My appreciation was short lived though! Within the day of wearing, flakes of paint came off!

Aghast at the thought of being shortchanged, I took the shoes back to the counter and demanded an explanation. 

"The paint will also come off your car bumper should you knock it against anything!" said the supervisor, sarcastically!

That very statement infuriated me! "Hello! Look here!" I exclaimed, and gently peeled the coat of paint off a new section!

"See this???! This is, without a doubt, a defective product. Whatever it is, if nothing favourable arise out of this, I will take the case to the Consumers Tribunal!" I threatened!

Weeks later, a directive came from their head office to have the pair of shoes replaced with another design. Why not the same design? Obvious, right??

I compromised, and settled for the sandals depicted below....

It wasn't until March 2012, that I started to wear them to my belly dancing and yoga classes. There, at the classes, we go barefooted!

The sandals have never been exposed to dampness even on rainy days, as my car sits right under the car porch and bays at Penang Swimming Club are sheltered!

What can one conclude from the adhesive wearing away so easily???  

Preparing for the dumpling festival!

A hands-on workshop organised by the Yoga group at Penang Swimming Club demonstrated by our instructor, Mrs Lim.

Try as I would, I was not able to get the dumpling moulded into shape with the leaves.

Yeah, it was fun laughing out loud at each other's butter fingers! 

Despite claiming that I wouldn't be partaking the dumplings as I watched everyone kneading and digging into the fillings, I nevertheless finished off a whole dumpling earnestly, the minute the dumplings were removed from the steamer and distributed to us!!

Whatever, we each got to savour two different kinds of dumplings...... Nyonya chicken in glutinous rice and, in brown rice and rolled oats!!   

Misfortunes never come singly!

 

sob! sob! sob!... I did it again! sob! sob! sob!... And, at the same spot!

Call it superstition...but I really hate it when my brow twitches on the right! It twitched last week and again this morning!

It was only last week that the Camry was etched and now, the Estima!

Gosh! will I ever learn from my misjudgement? The phobia of going up and down the ramps is somewhat holding my confidence in captivity NOW!!!

All ye out there not wishing to be bulldozed, give way to cars bearing numbers XXX 65 heading towards ye!!!

Maids dilemma .....

Language should pose no deterrent in the hiring of maids! If Indonesia is being arrogant, then source elsewhere!

I communicate with Tham, my maid, in Cambodian. So where's the problem? And how did I manage to do so? Learn through YouTube, lah!! 

Since my previous maids, an Indonesian and a Cambodian, made off together, I vowed to speak her language for selfish reasons......so that she won't be able to communicate with people around her, especially the scavengers, the road sweepers.... and stage a runaway!!

Today, I've left home entrusted solely to her on many occasions while I traveled. Come beginning of August, her two year term ends and I am fretting now!

She had agreed to renew her contract. However, she's sceptical now, since the recent call from her brother, sharing that maids assigned to Hong Kong being very much better paid!!

Tough still not to my expectation, who would be, huh?.....being the perfectionist, I am??, it is nevertheless  better than to train another!!

You bet, going through the process of educating them especially in the area of HYGIENE is horrendous as is seen in Tham!

Despite almost completing her term of service, acts of opening and closing doors without first washing her hands after the clearing of defecation of my pooches, still persist!!!

Good or bad, I have become too dependent on the maids and can't imagine life without them!

Hoping off the bed each morning to find the entire home sparkling clean provided you do not look into the nooks and corners, itself is a bonus!  

But then again,  given the worst scenario........being the adaptable person I am, as with whatever the situation, I trust I'll be able to iron out the maid dependence over time......

Pleeeease help mend my broken heart....

Aye..wasn't that my beam light thrown on the divider?..I wondered as I was about to manoeuvre the bend down the ramp to level 5 at Penang Swimming Club this morning.

Just as it struck me that I had forgotten to off the beam lights the night before, after rendering moral support to our zumba instructor, Lisa, for her performance at Straights Quay, both my driver and passenger doors were etched by the corner of a standing wall!!!

 And, oh no! in my haste to reverse to minimize further damage, my side mirror which could have been adjusted close, was scratched!... aggravating more damage!!  

No doubt anything which can be resolved with money ain't a problem, my confidence, however, in improving my driving skill will definitely be marred by this incident! 

See the earlier mutilation through no fault of mine! 

Below, pictures of some events at the Health Fair organised by the Star at Straits Quay yesterday. 

The Zumba Party 

Rather go to waste than to waist??!

The fine print in the advertisement determined the thickening of my waist-line as I was not prepared to foot the surcharge of Rm10 for every 100 gram wastage.

Just before I left for the buffet at Haven's Delight, I took my weight. It read 60.2 kg. My weight has been see-sawing since my feasting indulgence caught on me from a record low of 59.3 kg on 09/03/12!

The buffet served here is similar to how it is served at Tao, the Japanese restaurant. Food is freshly prepared and served as per requested orders.

I specifically asked the waiter about the serving size and was told that the portion is small.

I tested a few dishes - the daily steamed fish, spicy orange chicken and agedashi tofu. Hmmm....yummy.. Indeed small serving sizes-6 bite sized fish fillet, several bite sized chicken and 2 bite sized tofu.. ideal for two, myself and Leslie!

As I noticed the crowd building up gradually, I hastily scribbled close to ten dishes that I was keen to savour.

Then, the interesting moment! Every dish that followed fed at least 4 persons! Imagine my orders?!!

Before I was able to put a halt, the dishes were all laid before my eyes!! Gosh! Those were too much to stomach!!

"Hey you...." I called out to the service boy I spoke to earlier. "Surely these feed more than 4 persons?"

"Sorry, ma'am, I forgot to inform you that certain serving sizes are larger than the other...."

"Whatever, take these back!" I gestured towards the four huge rolls! "Don't you exercise discretion?"

A young couple besides our table, grinned at me. They too, were taken aback by the serving portions! And I had thought they must have a penchant for Japanese food when I saw their table, heavily laden with gigantic sized rolls!

By the time I vacuumed cleaned the dishes, the thought of tickling my throat to throw out the food into the toilet bowl flashed through!

The young couple however stalked off with all the leftover on the table!

All Souls' Day.....

A yearly affair to commemorate the departed......

Roads leading to the cemeteries and columbariums were choked with vehicles as relatives and friends streamed to the graveyards with their offerings.

My thoughts went to my mom...at 74, she is still so robust and I am glad to have fulfilled my promised trip to Hong Kong with her!!!

My commitment to the pet shop then, had put a restraint to her persistent reminders and I had harboured fear that I may live with GUILT and REGRETS!!!

Mom, I love you........