Honey4Boyz

Everyone's talking about the haze last week. It shrouded KL so suddenly though expectedly cos we've seen it coming from the southern part. This was not as severe as the haze crisis in 1997, but who knows? We're expecting much drier weather for a few more months and the forest fires are still burning in Sumatra. For my boys, this was their 1st experience, the air was thick with haze and the sky was forever gloomy and dull. There's no school for a day, after that, 'it's up to parents to decide', said the ed-ministry!  The boys picked up a few lessons; some new terms like the API and cloud-seeding; the southwest wind; where's Sumatra; an appreciation of clear blue sky, rainy days and fresh air; it's not nice to stay indoors for so many days and gotta wear a face mask when it's so hot. We can't tell how this haze is going to develop, but I can tell when my house is gonna turn to a crisis centre if we keep getting in each other's ...

Do you feel like you always have a long ‘to do’ list? Always too rushed? On Saturday, I learnt an important lesson, and I hope it woke me up to some extent the fact that I spend too many continuous hours juggling too many things at the same time. It’s a rare occasion to have my parents and mom-in-law staying for a weekend at my place. So I tried to kill all birds with one stone, planning a flurry of activities, cooking and two birthdays. What-you-call-it? – ‘putting too much on my plate’. Parent-Teacher Dialogue & Exhibition Day By late afternoon, there were obviously signs of burning out, but I was too efficient ticking off my ‘to-do’ list to notice them. I read that people who perceive life in a 'time-urgent' way tend to be excessively worried about schedules, keeping overly tight deadlines, rushing when rushing is not necessary, doing several activities at the same time, sometimes forgetting to take time to really enjoy work and play. That described me well...

A special duet for Father's day from Jin and Wei. Their daddy was overseas but they did this on own initiative. So I think it's very sweet & the first of its kind from them.  It's the only song they learnt to play duet. Hope they'll not be mad at me for putting it in the blog for memory's sake. :)

A stream of cool, clear water strewn with boulders above the hidden Tanglir waterfall at Bukit Tinggi. No wonder there's a saying that the best things in life are free.  Simple pleasures..... Drawing on the sand Weight-lifting for a cause. Building a toilet! The hilly location that was covered with trees, now dotted with cultivated vegetable farms drawing fresh water supply from the stream. Few swiftlets were seen in the nests on the walls of the apartment buildings. The find - a millipede, curled up Amazing shades of colours. This is the fruit of the Luffa before processing that we use as scrubbing sponge in the kitchen. All-time favourite - the Kow Po Homemade Ice-cream, a well-known joint in Bentong town. Must try their coconut ice-cream (though I'm not a fan of coconut). There're also other flavours like pandan, peanut, corn, banana and the seasonal "durian". The boys preferred th...

Pit Stop at the Perak royal town, Kuala Kangsar. The 1st rubber tree in Malaysia was planted in this town. That's about all I knew about this place. Labu Sayong or water pitcher from Sayong village, known for its health value to help migraine, lower blood pressure etc due to the special properties inherent in the local clay. Before this, we didn't know much of labu sayong.  We didn't go to the village or plan this visit. Out of curiousity, we bumped into this unassuming workshop at No. 3, Kg Setia, Enggor, run by Mohd bin Harun.  Pakcik was very open and gave us a tour of his workshop and how he makes labu sayong. His warm, friendly welcoming people made a lasting impression on all of us - a trait that we've lost in the big cities. The traditional way of making labu sayong uses hands to mould the clay into the shape of a 'labu' (gourd-like vase) but this is too slow. Now, the clay mixture is poured into standard mould blocks. It's ...