Kids can sense anger

Last weekend, Asa had some work to do and I was upset because I had my plans and I had to scrap it because of course his work takes precedence. but somehow I was feeling moody all day soooo... I didn't like talking when he got back.

Anyway.. I didn't scowl, I didn't yell.. I was just moody and when I was putting Azalia to sleep she suddenly said

"Mak jangan geram dekat Abah ok. Abah sayang Mak"

I was surprised and wondered if Asa told her I was angry.

The next morning, I was feeling much better and so I was talking again. Asked Asa if he said anything about my mood to Azalia and he said no. Nevertheless he was flattered that Azalia defended him.

Note to self: Control your temper. She's watching you.

Of Queen and Princesses

We were playing Dora and the Snow Princess on NickJr.Com and we had this conversation

Alia: Alia nak game princess

Me: Ok. Dora princess ke dlm ni?

Alia: Ye.

Me: Alia princess ke?

Alia: Taaaak. Alia queen (dengan selambenye)

Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, 2010

Yeah we were there!!!!!!!

Arrived around 8am on Saturday the 20th and already the tics for the balloon rides are finish. But it was a great sight watching the balloons take off.

Azalia was asleep when we arrived and she immediately had a huge smile on her face when she saw the balloons. In her head she must be thinking she's in her favourite movie, Up.

I was excited when I saw in the map there was a petting zoo but when I went to the site it was so pitiful. The animals are in a small tent and I could hear the goats mbek-ing. Didn't go in because there's no way I'm supporting having those animals caged in such a small place.

Was hoping there's a horse ride for Azalia. Sigh. Never mind. there's always Tasik Titiwangsa and it only cost us about RM1.50 each for the ride and that's dirt cheap ok. Plus the horses are well kept too.

Anyway the event is worth waking up early and driving all the way to Putrajaya. Only wish they have a real hot air balloon ride around Putrajaya and not the tied down balloons

Me Time

Took last Monday off to have my much needed me time,

Asa ran some errands and I told him to pretend that I'm not around and NOT to invite me to join him.

Th whole morning I did no chores except tidied up Azalia's play area and did what I miss most (channel surfing) from 8am-Noon. Yes I did stop for breakfast but thats only like half an hour.

Arnd 1.30pm I walked to the LRT stn(since Asa had the car and it's only 5 mins anyway) to return my rented book at Amcorp Mall and pick up a new one. Then I scoured Popular, BookXcess for magazines and bought 3 imported cooking magazines with pictures of desserts that is to die for. I am determined to make french macaroons one day.

Then I read the magazines with a glass of chocolate drink and just lazed there for about an hour.

Aaaaahhhh around 5.30pm, it's back to being a mother when I pick up Azalia at the babysitter's

I should do this once every month.

Hehe.

Success

The potty training is finally over.

At first I thought of easing her into it. This is mainly due to the failure of the previous training a year ago.(when she was almost 2)

So I started by putting her in diaper pants and told her to tell me when she wants to poo and pee. At first she only told me when she wants to poo and then after a few times she told me when she wants to pee as well.

I have to give credit to her babysitter for her being diaper free during the day. And then just last week she insisted (yeszzaa she had to insist because I DID NOT want to deal with any 'spills' in the middle of the night because it's a work night) be diaper free at night too. So we tried it and alhamdulillah, till this day, there's no 'spills' and no more diapers!!! (well except that one time when we were out and I couldn't find a toilet and she said she wants to pee so I quickly put on her diaper pants)

So yeah... finally my daughter is potty trained!! and seriously I only initiated it but she was the one who is determined to finish it. YEAY!!!

Trouble sleeping

I am having trouble sleeping lately and I think one of the reason is because I am not happy with work right now. Well not actually work but more off the people at work.

Actually there's only 2 in particular. One... it was my fault.. I definitely went overboard and terasa lah hati org tu. I apologised and now the ball is in her court. But the other one... only distance can help me with this person.

So mcm mana ni. I need to grow up.. and just swallow my bitterness towards this one particular person and be civilised.

This is going to be hard.

Update Project Dapur Berasap

To date I have baked....(Bake ok.. bukan cook..yang cooked malas nak list down kan..tak byk pun but nothing special. Sister is at home often now so Ayahanda dan Bonda lagi teruja nak masak sebab kesian tengok anakanda yang sorang tu kurus kering duduk luar. Tapi yang bertambah montel adelah anakanda yang sorang ni dan menantu(eh menantu bahasa istana ape ah??)

Anyway.. back to the list.

1.Baked Eggs twice for breakfasts

2.Bread Pudding twice, 1 for Dina's Babyshower and the other for the whole family

3.Cheesecake for Dina's Babyshower and twice sebab teringin nak makan

4.Brownies (ntah berapa kali dah.. I lost count)

5.Pizza (the fastest way...using off-the-rack naan bread)

I bought the ingredients to make a blueberry muffin but the cost of the blueberries stopped me. Maybe next time when the cost is much much less.

Paris, with love.

No..no.. not the movie.

I'm the midst of helping my sister out with transportation and accommodation in Paris and London..(Oh did I tell you she's going on a EURO TRIP which includes SPAIN, GERMANY(munich, salzburg and vienna), LONDON and PARIS!!!

JEALOUSNYE!!!!!!!

You see, every semester her course has a trip to see buildings (yes they are doing architecture) and since this is their final semester, they've decided to go all out and do this trip. (No sponsorship laa.. sendiri2 punya)

Anyway.. when I was going through my sister's accommodation choices in Paris it got me reminiscing about the time Asa and I was there.. Although we did do all the touristy stuff but what I enjoyed most was when we strolled along the Sienne one afternoon and explored Paris on foot and discovered some lovely cafes.. such blissss...

I lost it... AGAIN!!!

UWAAAAAA

I lost my pendrive AGAIN!!!!!!!!!

Ini semua gara-gara ada payung dlm beg. Confirm tersangkut and terkeluar dari dalam beg tatkala(Geram punya pasal terus guna TATKALA!! HAHAHAHA) mengeluarkan payung bilamasa( eh ade ke word ni??) hujan.


ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Oh and plus.. it's not even mine in the first place. It's actually Asa's and he gave it to me. Time pinjam je ok plak. Time dier isytiharkan I can have it.. terus hilang..

Double ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Sob Sob

It's tax season!!!

YES IT IS!!!

This time around I decided to file my taxes in the first week e-filing is open and guess what... I GOT MY TAX RETURNS ALREADY!!! That was super fast!! only 2 weeks and already I got my cheque.

I guess I'm back in black this month!!!!ka-ching!!!

ARGHHHHH!!!!!!!

I curse those who put disgusting pictures on facebook and tag people on it. You are practically forced to look at them. Argghhh!!!!!

Principle of indemnity

Did you know that if you have a medical card(insurance or takaful) and you are covered by your company you can't claim from both parties for your treatments. You can only choose to claim from one, or if the company only covers part of it you can claim the other part of it (provided it is under your coverage).

Apparently this falls under the principal of indemnity in insurance and takaful.

What is principle of indemnity

Definition(quoted from my notes):

"Indemnification henceforth is the restoration of an insured persion to his or her approximate financial position prior to the occurence of the loss".

Basically the insurance/takaful that you take will only cover you up to the point of your financial position that you have lost. So lets say you spend RM10,000 on some operation and your company only covers you up to RM5,000. You can only claim from you medical card another RM5,000.

Another example is your car. If you are involved in an accident and you need to get some spare parts for repair. Unfortunately that particular spare part is no longer available and only the upgraded and enhanced version is available and at a much higher price, so under the principle of indemnity, you will be covered only up to the price of the old spare part and the rest, you will have to pay. Unless of course if the company wants to waive it.

So, next time you're looking for any coverage ask your insurance agents to explain further about this. If they can't then they don't know their products well enough. Hence you should ask yourself, do you want to buy something from someone who don't know what they are talking about.

Think, think, think (Darby, My friends Tigger and Pooh)

Term takaful

My knowledge on takaful is rather limited. Yes I read materials on the products and etc, but I couldn't find a takaful agent who thinks about my pocket rather than his/her own pocket. That is until a few days ago.

Asa and I see that takaful should be treated as an expense, hence we did not want to sign up a investment-linked or a savings-linked( the term is standard takaful in the industry). However, due to our lack of knowledge before, the first takaful we signed was an investmet-linked takaful.

After further readings we realised what we actually wanted was a term insurance. It provides protection and none of the savings(maybe only a little) or the investment element. We tried asking for this product from a few takaful agent but they rejected our request saying they do not sell it, or they don't have it. Apparently, a friend, who is also a part time takaful agent told us that the product actually gave agent very little commission hence their hesitance of promoting the product. Well boo hoo... thinking about their pocket and not ours... well to each their own I suppose. Fair enough.

Anyway, I attended a personal finance course the other day and the lecturer was a takaful agent. So I took the opportunity to ask him about his company's term product under the pretense of asking for the sake of the course and not for my own. I knew I would get a straight answer because this was a course and he was not trying to sell me his products and indeed I got a straight answer from him.

Apparently, term conventional insurance for individual are available BUT for takaful it is sold as a rider. Finally!!! the answer I was looking for

So after class I told him my situation and asked him about the product further and he told me what he could do is he could sell me a standard insurance (savings-linked) but with min coverage but insert a term takaful as a rider with the most coverage he could give me.

Why do we want term insurance so much..??

Ok here's the difference.

With a standard takaful, we would have to pay RM4k for a RM1 mil coverage (not that I want a RM1 mil coverage.. this is just an example)

But with a min standard takaful + a term takaful added as a rider we would only have to pay RM1k for a RM1 mil coverage. How this works is the standard takaful would cover RM250k and the term insurance would cover RM750k. U see.. the contribution that you have to pay for standard takaful is more that term takaful.

Now comes the difference between a standard and a term insurance

The contribution in a standard takaful would be portioned to your protection account and a savings account. This portion will change according as you grow older. It's the savings part that's expensive. It's like you're hiring your takaful company to invest your savings. (same goes for investment linked)

With term insurance/takaful, the contribution would mostly go to the protection account and only a little would go to the savings account. Yes after 40 years the amount in the savings account of a term takaful will be less than the amount if I'm taking standard takaful but since we have the capability of investing our own savings and getting better returns thus the main reason why we want a term insurance.

So.. yeah.. I finally found a takaful agent I can trust. Now it's only the matter of introducing him to Asa and discuss what is most suitable for us. YIPPEE!!!

Being creative

A song that Azalia sang much to our surprise (and she sung this when both of us were staring at the computer and basically ignoring her..she really knows how to get our attention). It goes

(tune dier lagu ABC mcm biasa ok kawan2 and nyanyi dgn suara kecik comel tak naik suara pun and of course with some cheekiness add to it)

A..B..C..D..E..F..G..mak marah alia jerit...HIJKLMNOP..alia jerit pastu mak marah.. QRSTUVWXYZ.. habis dah..(finished with a cheeky smile on her face)

Nampak sgt mak dier selalu marah but she didn't seem bothered by it. I think she got that trait from Asa.... sigh.

Errr..what do you say to that!!!

Azalia is now in a stage where she's learning to use our words against us.

Scenario 1.

I would usually switch of the telly and tell her it's time to go to bed. So one night, while I was watching my show, she told me she wanted to go to bed early. I told her to wait until I finish my show. She went to the telly and switch it off and said

"Mak tutup TV pergi tido sekarang. OK. dah night time. Jangan tengok TV.cukup.cukup"

Scenario 2.

One time when Azalia felt lazy and wanted us to pick her stuff up. Asa said to her

"Alia ada kaki kan. Alia pergi amik sendiri"

Last night, when we were preparing to go to sleep, Azalia wanted Asa to get her storybook in the living so Asa repeated the above to her and her come back was

"Abah ada kaki tak? Adekan. Abah pergi amik k"

Scenario 3.

Azalia has a habit of unleashing her geram towards me to Asa everytime I scold her. When she does that I would usually tell her that she shouldn't talk like that to Asa because that's her father.

Now whenever I am angry at Asa and started sulking and raising my voice. Azalia would say this to me

"Mak jgn marah. Abah awak tu (refering to Asa). Mak pergi duduk tengok dinding (her naughty corner)"