Tuesday 22 May 2012

My Little poet

Exam is over.  Lessons has slow down a lot in school, teachers are busy marking and compiling the results.  1st semester is almost come to an end in a few days time.  My girls are bringing back a new batch of text books and work books from school.

Having a free time during her computer class lesson yesterday,  Crystal lets her inspiration flow and became a little poet, sketches of drawings and poems for Pearl, Mummy and Daddy.  She showed her works to me last night, instead of giving her complements, I questioned her instead. Questioning her where did she copy the poems from.   Because the poems are too nice for me to believe that they were written by her at this age.  Her poems go like this:

[To Pearl]
When I am down,
and maybe frown,
You always help me before dawn,
You have the crown,
The crown of love,
and may the Holy Spirit come to you as a dove.


[To Mummy]
You really love to cook,
Take your apron from the hook,
You know how to read cook book,
But I only know how to read a story book.

[To Daddy]
Please do not give up,
I'll help you fill your cup,
With the help of a job,
we can finally not mob.  
{not mob??  what does it mean?? She said she was trying to figure out the last sentence, but couldn't make any sense out of it, hahahaa...]

I especially like the one for Pearl,  it shows how appreciative she is towards her little sister,  when she is down Pearl is always there to cheer her up,  it shows the closeness between the two of them.  How sweet!! Keep up the good work my little Poet!!


  

Saturday 19 May 2012

Throw up after drinking Stale Milk

Our local government has been giving out free milk to the pupils since I was in Primary School, I do not know whether other States in Malaysia doing the same or not.  We appreciate the good gesture from the government in providing nutritious milk to the students over the years.  
However, milk is a very perishable item, it turns bad or stale easily.  It will do more harm than good if the cartons of milk turn stale due to improper handling during storage and logistic.  

Our girls like to keep these free milk in the fridge and consume them while cool.  There were two occasions that Crystal have had diarrhea for no reasons because we were having the same food, why only her having stomach upset??  After chit chatting with parents at school, I gathered that the free milk from school was the culprit.  I have since stopped my girls from taking them altogether since last year.

It was reported in the News today that 100 pupils throw up after consuming the free milk from school, it was no surprise to me as my girl has suffered from it twice before.   

The pupils are suffering from stomach pain and vomiting, all this can be avoided only if the parties handling these milk are sensible enough to make sure they are kept fresh as required.  I have seen a normal lorry truck delivering milk to the school, these milk will then placed at the corridor in the school for many days before they are distributed to the pupils.  The Health Ministry should consider having these milk be transported by a refrigerated truck and distributed to the pupils as soon as the cartons milk arrive to the school.

Pearl was asking for our permission to drink this packet of milk last night which she brought back from school and kept cool in fridge,  we were glad we stopped her from drinking it, or else she could be suffering from stomach upset too.  I showed to my girls the news so that they are aware of it.

Monday 14 May 2012

The Nutrition Benefits of EGGS

My girls always ask for Scrambled eggs as one of the dishes in their meals, they will eat more rice and finish their meals faster if there is scrambled eggs.  I was worry at one point I tried to skip cooking eggs even they asked for it.  I told them that we can not eat eggs everyday, too much eggs would not be good for health, I remember ready an articles about it.

Today, I checked on one of my emails, I received this so called the nutrition facts about eggs :

Malaysia's top nutritionist on eggs, Very Important, EGG is good for cancer too. Dr JB Lim is the current TOP Nutritionist in Malaysia .

Dear all, Thank you for asking me. Sometime back someone asked me the same question about eggs and its effect on health. I have already written and replied to him or her in a lengthy article supporting the nutritive and health benefits of eggs. I also gave scientific updates on more recent findings some of which are correctly given here as sent to me. However the author of the article need to give at least some references of papers published in scientific journals to support the claims even though they are right. But to super-summarize what I wrote last time in just 13 lines without me having to go all over again explaining the complexities of physiology, biochemistry, nutritional pathogenesis related to eggs and waste time and effort again, below are the yes points about eggs in human nutrition. But I have to leave out some minor no points since the positive benefits far outweigh its negative values.

1. Eggs and milk are among the best foods for the body especially to a growing child.

2. Eggs do not cause an elevation of blood cholesterol

3. Eggs do not clog up the coronary vessels as once thought. In fact the opposite is now true

4. Eggs are low in energy value, and is a factor to consider in the formulation of a caloric-restriction diet 

5. Eggs protein quality is extremely high, and has a very high nitrogen-retention value. Hence it is extremely useful in post-surgical care, trauma, and in post-management of hypovolemic shock against negative nitrogen balance

6. Eggs contain vitamin D in its natural form. The benefits of vitamin D require several chapters on human nutrition in medicine to discuss. And I refuse to repeat

7. Eggs are cancer-protective, especially for breast cancer

8. Eggs are very rich in sulfur-containing amino acids methionine which is a very crucial amino-acid in blocking damaging free radicals. These are directly linked to the pathogenesis of heart disease, cancers, DNA damage, all degenerative disorders, and accelerated aging.

9. Eggs protect against fatty liver, slow growth, macular degeneration (degeneration of the macula area of the retina in the eyes. This is responsible for central vision for reading, face recognition and detailed vision), edema (water retention), and various skin lesions

10. Eggs promote healthy growth of nails, hair and skin

11. Eggs are rich in tryphophan, selenium, iodine, and riboflavin (vitamin B2)

12. Eggs selenium content is cardio-protective against Keshan disease, cardiomyopathies (diseases involving the heart muscles, cardiomegaly (enlarged heart), myocardial dysfunction (poor heart function) and death from heart failure.

13. Eggs are protective against Kashin-Beck disease (osteoarthropathy), myxedematous endemic cretinism (mental retardation)

14. The list goes on…on! Regards, and ask me no more on eggs. I have lots of other questions awaiting answers.

jb lim 4:35 a.m. 24 August, 2010

This is one of those articles that may make one go to extreme and consume too much. Remember -- anything that is consumed too much is bad for your health. Do everything in moderation.

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Malaysia First Day Covers

I used to collect First Day Covers whenever there were releases some 10 years ago.  I kept them in a box like a treasure, these collections are meant to be for my children.  After many times of shifting, I could not remember where I have placed them, I will have to search for them from the boxes in the store, hopefully they are still as good as new.

Due to frequent to the main post office lately, I have come to notice the issues of First Day Covers. I couldn't afford to queue like most people do as I need to rush to work after I have posted my mechandise, what I did was to ask from counter on the very next day to see what's left.  They usually have some stock left but the chances of getting the complete set is slim,  so long there is cover envelope and stamps that's good enough for me, and I am allowed to use the First Day Cover stamp chop all by myself, stamp as many and however I want to.

Here are the First Day Covers I managed to get in the recent months.  I am selective of which First Day Covers to collect, I do not collect all the releases :D
Yes to Life, No To Drugs, released on 27.02.2012

 Underwater Life, released 21.03.2012



 Malaysian Antarctic Research Programme, released on 08.03.2012


Monday 7 May 2012

Tissue papers in the laundry!!!!!

I do most of my laundry over the weekend.  I thought I could finish them off and take a nap as soon as I can, as I need to "recharge my batteries" on weekends.  Upon hearing the pip sound from the machine telling me that it is done for me to hang them up to catch the bright sun light.  I got stressed out when I saw this..... 
tissue papers sticking on the clean clothes, on every single piece of cloth and pants.  Meaning I have to remove the broken pieces of tissue papers off from this bunch of laundry.    
Can you imagine how troublesome it is to remove them?  
At the end I took more time than usual to do my laundry.  This packet of tissue could be from one of my girl's school uniform pocket which I gave them to bring to school, did not realise that it is still in the pocket, I should have checked every pockets before putting them to the machine, my fault :(

Sunday 6 May 2012

A trip to Desa Cattle Farm at Kundasang

During the school holiday in December last year, we made a day trip to Desa Cattle Farm in Kundasang.  The last time I went there was in my high school year, it was a school outing. As far as I can remember the place has not changed much in the last 20 over years except having a bigger building now. 

On a uphill not far from Tamparuli town, we stopped by an orchid farm. The orchids are well grown, looking at those orchids, I can't believe they are all real, just too perfectly grown to my eyes.  The price are very reasonable too, but I did not buy any because I don't think I have got the time to care for it.  

We have taken a lot of photos so let the photos do the talking.













 the owner of the orchid farm serving tea 

 entrance fees needed to enter to Desa Cattle farm, this is the little pondok collecting entrance fee
 It was a public holiday, the farm was very crowded with people and traffic was congested 
 The milking area

 The milking cows look skinny

 Fresh cow's milk for sale.  Exactly what we get from the supermarket, there are only two flavours, plain & chocolate
 we bought 2 cartons
 souvenirs are sold here 
 the road leading to the farm from the pondok entrance
 the place is cool and refreshing

Friday 4 May 2012

Our Dog named Lucky

One fine weekend some 6 months ago, Clet found a puppy that he likes, we named him Lucky.  Our girls loves to have dog just like their daddy but still need to learn how to take care of them .  Our dog, Lucky is too playful and adventurous for our girls to handle him, they have to run away from Lucky all the time to avoid him from biting their legs. 

Lucky is very attach to us, he would be the first in line to come inside the house when we open our door, Just like any puppy, he likes to bite shoes, pull the plants down, dig the flower pots, bite anything that he can reach, scratch the car, and even open our shoes racks to pull our shoes out, bite the floor mat and many mischievous acts.  He always find the opportunity to zoom out from the gate whenever we drive our car in or out, we have to call him and sometimes chase him back, we were not pleased when he did this during the rush hours to school in the morning.  I also realised that we have become a nuisance to our neighbours when make so much noise early in the morning.

Lucky is trying to force himself out from the gate. He is a cute little dog whom always greet us at the gate when we come home, he is just too active to be handled.

Well, Clet finally decided to place Lucky at the back yard, he arranged to carry a big dog house from my sister house for Lucky 2 weeks ago.  It took 4 men power to get it placed at our backyard.   Though he would not feel as comfortable as he was at the front porch, we do feel more relax, less stressful and no longer a nuisance to our neighbours anymore.  It is time for him to guard our backyard.  Be good Lucky!!

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Total Black Out in Kota Kinabalu

The electricity supply was off at 3am in the morning for the whole of Kota Kinabalu areas, I was also told that other districts like Labuan, Tawau also having the same problem.  


I came into the office in total darkness yesterday morning.  This is my office desk.  We haven't got any emergency light installed, even if we have one, the power would have been exhausted after 2-3 hours. Nothing much can be done in the office as most of my work is highly rely on computer. After many hours of waiting, the power only resumed at 11am at my workplace.  Some areas got their power restored as early as 7am, I believe Tanjung Aru area was the last place to get their electricity supply back.  

We do not know exactly what happened, I hope this will not happen again, as it has caused so much inconveniences, the traffic was terrible without traffic lights, all of us could not get enough sleep due to stuffiness, just imagine life without out electricity supply for hours.