0 Penang's Sunday Flea Market and Old Skool Handphones.

I had to be frank that I was not all excited about going to Sunday's flea market. Steven forced me to go with him. This Sunday's flea market located at the parking lot of the City Stadium in Jalan Datu Keramat, Penang.  But, this definitely not my average any flea market. At least to me because I had no imagination beyond cheap clothes , food stalls, traditional handicraft products when it comes to flea market.

People in Peninsula Malaysia called such market as Pasar Karat and sell their items from the trunk of their vehicle usually vans and old motocars.

I guess this is ordinary view in any flea market in Asia.  Cheap and copycat branded watches are everywhere.

 And even branded football jersey... that Steven were so interested in when going to such market.

I mean , look at this. I think all of those figurines contains all the 12 Chinese zodiacs. Sorry they might not be so clear in this picture. These are made from copper. If you noticed on the ground , lower right corner of the photo, they even sell the 'stone age' 's iron!
 Interesting huh?

For snake's fan..

These are called periuk belanga  if I am not mistaken... and few copper made dishes. They can be precious for people who like to collect old stuff and put it into home's decorations. 

There were just too many things sought in this photo. I believe all of these were transported from the maroon van by the man in white.

 The only colored stuff sought in this flea market besides clothing.

Oh la la... look at what this man selling. I think he sells the most beautiful copper made stuff.

Interesting how they hang those shoes under the  canopy. 

These classic homey stuff, the kettle sold at RM20, quite cheap right for a kettle looked this errr ...fine. And the phone! I really wish that the land telephone design will go back to look like this. I feel ever victorious when pressing on those buttons to dial.

Now I know where to find spare parts for my table fan if it ever broken. The problem is , these hardly broke. The fan motors do broke more often if a fan broken.

Tell me what can you see in the above photo?

Old skool handphones for sale. Uh, even tv remotes! I can't tell you by the way if they were still functioning. These  handphones sure were nostalgic for  the human race. Reminds me of my dad's first handphone which I always felt despair of how it was so hard , almost impossible, to get connectivity to any mobile operators many years back from our home. That's unless if you lived in the town or near one. Dad's hand phone was always hanging by the window to ensure connectivity with mobile networks. It was seldom rang but, we, the children never forget to hang it there every time. I am not kidding when I say we did not know if we were expecting anyone to call. We do not have the necessity to talk to our friends like 24/7 like we do now on any given social networks we have nowadays. But we never failed to stay connected.  If you remembered these can't play mp3 songs! We had to compose some codes to play melodies in monophonic or polyphonic. If your hand phones could play polyphonic sounds, it was good enough man. That was back then.

So, going to the pasar karat  was not that bad at all. At least it bring back memories of the big and thick hand phones we used to have a decade ago. Who am I trying to kid? I saw people in the street talking to a phone that is one and a half size of their heads every now and then. Way bigger than the humble Nokia 3310.

But, how we still never missed a thing even without social networking back then leaves me in wonder. I can't recall how. Newspaper? I never read about my friends on the news nor the tv.

0 Maintaining Digital Perm

Well I got tired of my long straight hair I really got myself into reading so much about digital perm down from the procedureS, the aftercare as well as styling it everyday. There or quite numbers of good reviews on digi perm and each of them delivered them differently. So, each individual has different hair,I supposed.

l got my hair digital permed for about a month now. You probably think why late with this entry, it is because l am adjusting to it since Caring and maintaining  digital permed hair definitely different from other types of curls. This is not my first time getting my hair permed, been straightened and permed again and again but never had hair shorter above my shoulder. And l had digital permed hair once when I was in college back when I stayed in Labuan but, l really did not have any idea how to maintain and style them nice. Instead I only have it for like a month and for the rest of months ahead I remembered I had bad hair days everyday and people might had thought that I was so broke I cannot even afford a hair comb. But seriously I don't know. That was until I got my hair back to silky straight . Since then, my hair had been straight like for ages until I graduated. Huh, that explains monetary situations though. It seemed like straightened hair saves the pocket more. 

~~~~~~Back to the digital perm story~~~~~

The procedures took about 3 hours including preparing the hair like washing and conditioning,before chemicals were added then the hair rolled with medium sized roller and plugged with A machine that is especially invented for digital perm. I think. The hair would be washed again before Styling them with mousse and bIow dried with diffuser. Tadaa! You are out from the Saloon before you know it. Hah!

Despite what all the reviews say,that one should not wash the hair for 24-48 hours,the hairstylist told me that it's okay to wash it,but she said,"why wanna wash it right away? Your hair has been washed twice today probably thrice." That made sense to me.


 As for styling , I have to say that it is not as easy as managing the silky straight hair. You do not have to comb permed hair but, you have to style it. Make the curls bouncy and defined with products. I like to spray hair lotion from Lucido, which is formulated to make curly hair soft and bouncy, after washing my hair. But during humid day, the hair tends to become frizzy so, sometimes before I go out I would damp my hair before combing the hair with my fingers closed to each other running through the hair strand with mousse from Wella Proffesionnel that I bought from the saloon which did my perm, Patrick's Saloon in Centrepoint Kota Kinbalu.

After conditioning the hair in the shower, while the hair felt slippery I would comb it either with wide tooth comb or with my fingers. Then after the hair half dried with towel, I will partitioned the hair into sections and roll them with fingers before spraying it with the hair lotion. Next morning , the hair will have defined curls and all I need to do is the spray the lotion just to damp it, scrunch them and I am good to go out with the hair. These just take up 5-8 minutes on my morning routines so it is not that complicated to style permed hair.

Permed hair could lasted 3 months or more. The great thing about this kind of curl that it looks better by time, so when considering getting digital perms I think it is better to ask for medium size roller as the curls would loosen up by time.


That's my reviews and my shares on maintaining digital perm hair. Thinking about getting short hair but, I am still in great doubts scared if I would regret it. There is ways to get longer hair quickly now but, I am still thinking about it. How about you? Do you have certain hairstyles that you long for but, still haven't done it?

0 Great thing comes in tiny packaging: Holiday in photos

This is the holiday that probably all Malaysian's teachers looking forward to after two months of school. Erkk... oh, I am alone in this. Okay. Those two months before the holiday were filled with new academic assessment systems, bad internet, gossips and tragedies, and of course few unfinished business were finalized too.

So, the final week before school break I felt like I almost couldn't dress myself to school and even wear outfits that I would wear to clubs at night. Ha ha ha-.... waking up to work was dreadful at that time. By the way, though I was still ever an enthusiast when I am in front of my students. This is what I do for life . Now.

Not that I have planned too many for the holiday,but I do have things that I would love to do. Stuff that I was too lazy to do when I was juggling time between work and family. Nevertheless, my holiday is prioritize for spending quality time with family.

At the Tanjung Aru Beach. This is the first time Christian went to see the sea as close as he can.

Poring Hot Spring can be the ultimate fun swimming in Ranau but, during Hari Raya, it was jammed pack. Locals probably were only us and few other families, the rest were tourists and immigrants. I took this photo is despair, sit down on the bench outside the changing room, cursing with Steven and mom then out from the park heading to Kundasang again.

These tourists were fascinated by the praying mantis. I don't understand their enthusiasm with insects, but they were all taking pictures of it. With all their phones might, macros and whatever. Probably end up in the Instagram or Facebook right away.

This picture proves it. They were in awe with the little praying mantis.

OMG, seriously? Steven too? Ha ha ha ha..

Okay, smile. This is such a dull yet memorable family portrait.

I don't remember what is he saying, but dad sure was all entertained by this little man.

My bundle of joy. Enough said.

Ain't dad enjoying some peaceful time here?

During our way out  from a souvenir shop in the Memorial Park, they got this beetles hanging right on. They were alive. Careful if you are insect-phobic person. He he he. But, nice job it is a tiny beetle but, like the praying mantis just now, they got everyone's attention. especially those who are crazy with the macro functions on their camera phones.  

As to wrap up this rather pictorial entry, I came up with a list of places I want to go before I turn 30. I allowed myself for some room of time span extension by the way, in case I could not go to everywhere on time.   1. Borobudur temple in Jogjakarta 2. Great Wall of China, Beijing 3. Opera House , Sydney Australia  4. Rome 5. All over Paris 6.Taj Mahal India 7.  Halong Bay, Vietnam      

1 Good Alternative Primer, M.A.C Paint Pots

Oily eyelids ? That could only mean that you would have a line of clumping eyeshadows on your crease at the end of the day. This is what happened to me as well and  can be embarrassing too.But, I always make myself feel better by telling myself that the creasing just happened when I was on the way home, driving. Hahaha... 

Eventually , I came to my senses that there are good eyeshadows to prevent such incident in the end of the day or if I was out under the sun or sweating too much. They won't even last til afternoon. I blame on the excessive sebum. Did countless searching online before I gave it for MAC's. MAC I think has the most reputation of long lasting cosmetics and of good quality. It was quite pricey compared to drugstore's cosmetics but, all I need is a good primer to hold my eyeshadows from creasing. It is not like we can put face powder onto the lids to keep it from nine to five. I was not a MAC at heart girl but, I decided to give it a go. I got myself the MAC Paint Pots in Groundwork and Painterly.

 I think these two can make  soft smokey brown that I typically wear on daily basis to work and even chilling on weekend. Painterly can also be worn for other particular looks that one wants to achieve since it is quite nude on the eyelids. It lightens up the darker eyelids while functions as a primer.

MAC Paint Pots in Groundwork is between the soft brown and taupe which is very nice as a base eyeshadow to create smokey eyes for the night. For daytime, I like  using the Painterly as the base eyeshadow to put on the whole eyelids, while the Groundwork is only for the crease alone and even to nose shading before   a darker shades of powder eyeshadow applied to the corner end of the eyelids to create a deeper eyes effect.


They are cream eyeshadows and I like using brush to apply them. It dries and lock quickly on the lids and after the cream, I use any brown powder eyeshadow for the crease and the corner of the eyes. I tried it for two types of eyeshadows which are from Za  and Elite on top of the cream eyeshadow , both are drugstore's brand and they lasted a day ! Boy, I am happy I found this cream eyeshadow from MAC. I do not have to apply primer anymore instead now I only used these cream eyeshadows as the base.

The pros:
It lasted from nine to five.
Creamy yet dries up fast on the skin.
Smudged proof.
Packed in a sturdy glass and a classic matte MAC plastic cap.

The cons:
Groundwork can looked a bit chalky if over used.
Painterly still could crease in the end of the day especially on a sweaty day . Maybe due to my oily skin. It creases on itself however, the other eyeshadow does not affected at all.

I know that these pots could last a very long time. I heard from most MAC lovers that they last long but, I certainly will re-purchase them. I just fell head over toe for these products!

Do you have any suggestions on which Paint Pots that also makes good alternative primer or other brands and, and which eyeshadow do you pair it with? If you have any suggestions, share it on the comment box.

Have a nice day, dolls!

2 Tutorial: Fixing Uneven Eyebrow

Uneven eyebrow can hardly be noticed most of the times. You have to look closely at ones pictures then you may noticed it. Usually we simply ignored it simply because it is way too common especially in Asians. This may  rarely affect on Westerners. However, the good thing is uneven eyebrow never make anyone less beautiful. 

Uneven eyebrow can be caused by asymetrical face structure,  uneven bone on the eyesocket or maybe simply caused by faulty during shaving or picking your eyebrow hairs. 

One can fix uneven eyebrow by drawing beyond the natural eyebrow hairs or removing the extra hairs or performing them both. But, asymmetrical face structure can only be done by surgery under doctor's advise. 

I have all of the above. You name it. But, I learnt to embrace my flaws and make the best out of me to still look at least decently okay and fresh. (Not looking crazy with obvious uneven eyebrows)

I have the asymmetrical face structure in which my right side face eye socket is slightly bulged to the front  and my right cheek looked like it was flattened quite flattened compared to the left, the cheek bone shows and a slimmer jawline. I think that my best angle would be from the left side of my face which I often refer as my ideal face. So, I tried to make my right eyebrow to looked as symmetrical as possible to the left one. 

First up, by using eyebrow pencil, I mark on my right eyebrow where it would be on even height with the left eyebrow. Then, I draw the outline of the eyebrows upward UNDER the natural eyebrow hairs right until one third of the eyebrow then back on the natural eyebrow hair after that right until the tail.

On the left eyebrow , I draw the eyeliner ON the natural eyebrow hair all the way up to the arch and down to the tail. Since the left one is the ideal shape for me , then I do the same for the upper side of the eyebrow. 

For the right eyebrow, I need to mark again the height of the arch and the distance between the end of the eyebrow to the arch. Then, draw it accordingly, even I had to draw it beyond the natural eyebrow hairs. 

Fill them with my favorite eyebrow powder for a more natural look.

Finish up with eyebrow gel to set the  eyebrow hair.

I think the eyebrow gels make the eyebrows looks more soft.

Product I used:

KATE eyebrow pencil in BR-1 , natural brown

In2It Waterproof Eyebrow Colour

KATE eyebrow gel in natural brown

Though I knew this trick , still there were days where I just could not make it right. There are days where my eyebrows makes me looked like I had a symmetrical face because the eyebrows frame the face , sometimes they came out looking too bushy and thick and even too dark. There were days where they looked simply uneven. I thought about getting embroidery eyebrows but, I haven't done any yet. I do believe that practice makes perfect too. Eventually, I might get to draw the perfect eyebrow for myself. Whatever it is for now, I am enjoying grooming my eyebrows and it actually takes up  more time after shower than doing anything else when I am getting ready in the morning to work.

Okay, beauties. That's all from me today. Until my next entry. Chaww!

0 Walking down the Waterfront Kuching

Waterfront is the most famous walkways in Sarawak. It is along the Sarawak river where you can see almost all historic monuments and building from here. Walking around while enjoying the sunset is  good to shed that extra calories and those guilty pleasures from eating in the town of cat, where food generally are cheaper here.Well, walking could never been this fun without small children. I think that my son was the one who really really excited whenever we are going out. And a happiness of children is undeniably contagious.

 

He preferred to walk on his own than to be hold.

Obviously, my son has no idea what that black barrel sticking out from a black box does that his mom and dad hold all the time like their second baby. If we tried to do close up shot, he will tried to touch the lens!

That's what I am talking about. My son like to walk on his own where a lot of strangers walking by as well, and he liked to walk ahead of us too. I can't say that I was not worried  even a little by this.

We weren't going for the river cruise, but, Steven insisted that I took his picture with it behind him. Well, he looked good there, and apparently a lot darker than his background.

 Never seen mom and dad so happy together. 29 years of marriage. Salute to mom and dad. Without them, despite all the quarrels back home when I was a teenager and yet now, I am nothing.

And I feel blessed to be married to this loving man. Thank you, Steven for never turn your back on me, never run away from me even when he saw the worst in me.

Obviously, this picture shows that  I was the happiest woman alive until now and hopefully, forever.

My son is really a show stopper kind of guy. Whatever moves he had, he just made everyone around him,  smiled. We could not stop hearing people saying, this boy is so adorable when he walked passed them. When my folks were tired , I can't imagine how energetic a 21 months old kids could be that it seemed like he showed no sign of slowing down.

The traditional 'bot penambang' .

There's a lot you can do actually here rather than walking by. Waterfront is the ultimate sightseeing place you could do in Kuching. You could river cruising here either with a cruise or the 'bot penambang' , the traditional boat to cruise along the river near sunset. There are stalls where people sell the pickles , fruits, and beverages, youths singing along street gigs. There were also boys who sang on their own with their guitar....well they sing nicely. Enough to get my son noticing them and get him dancing.

 Well, my son stole the crowds with his dance moves. Hahaha...I cannot forget the moment, I think that it is one of the best moment in my life. I don't know why, I almost broke into tears because I was so amazed by his vivaciousness , proud at the same time. By the way, I can't recall if I was picking my nose in the public or if I was going to cup my mouth in awe. Or maybe it was just my lips felt itchy. Disturbed by this shot. This is the most natural shot we had all together, while Steven took the picture, but I looked like I was picking my nose?!

 

Show simple courtesy by giving out small change into a container after entertaining himself. Mom had to get him outta there soon after he dropped the money to avoid him  from picking up the whole container afterwards.

An innocent post by Christian before we leaved the Waterfront for dinner. Don't we looked all content? And ohhh..!

He ran on his own again afterwards! We were all outta breath when reaching the Life's Cafe for dinner after walking down the Waterfront. Thanks to this little rascal, we chasing up him for another half a mile ,as I recalled.


 

0 My Top Five Food Encounters in Kuching

The title of this entry could somehow give you the hint that I might be a diet control person, whom always avoiding herself from food, seeing food as the enemy of being slim. As fit as it sounds, I have nothing against food. I love to eat. Why I chose such brutal entry is only because I thought that food are cheaper in Kuching. There's no cheap (or close to reasonable ) food in Sabah that taste decently good. No. There's none. I am quite cruel to my opinion on this because a plate of simple noodle fried with six slices of chicken breast meat could cost you up to MYR6 if you are in a restaurant. Fragrant rice or plain rice served with, few 6-8 slices of steamed or roasted chicken or crunchy three layers pork could cost you up to MYR 6. I don't mean to sound such stingy jerk on food but, I was in shocked to find such rice in a coffee shop in the middle of Kuching only cost MYR3.50. I hope you are shocked too if you're from Sabah. Please act shock even if you don't. Because that could only mean that you are just been there too or I am in the same shoes with you right after reaching Kuching.

Being in Kuching for  four days, none of us had ever complained about food. We were full like all the time and I had gained 2 kg during my stay here! Or perhaps the weighing scale in the apartment went crazy after my son banged it over and over to the floor. He did not do it purposely though neither will I let him do such vandalism act. He was trying to move it around the house so that, everyone can had some sense of how much we consume food a day during the vacation. Poor boy, the scale is too heavy for him hence, it fells off his tiny hands many times. Good intention, huh.

So, I have  came up with my top five restaurants that could serves the best cuisines either of Sarawak or influenced. If you're looking for seafood and crowds for dinner, I would go to Top Spot food court. There were a lot of stalls that served from Malay's , traditional native cuisine, chinese, western and coconut drink as well sugar canes drink.  We had to wait for good 35 minutes to get our dinner ready. No i didn't mistype the 35. It is indeed thirty five minutes. It was a lot of people having dinner here while food price for seafood was reasonable, so it made quite a sense why people are still coming. I mean, the reasonable price combo with good food and wide choices? Who would've complaint about the wait? By the way, I was too afraid that my son would be too tired so, we asked our dinner to be packed and we had it in the apartment instead of eating in the middle of chaos. It was chaos in there probably because of Gawai holiday.

Take away dinner from Top Spot. We ate til we dropped actually. All in the plastic to save water to wash dishes. Yay!

 A famous hang out place that i would suggest for lunch is Kopi O Corner which is situated at Pekan Satok and another one is at Kubah Ria. The Kubah Ria branch was developed into more food court like. We love the ayam penyet  so, we did go to both branch at Satok and Kubah Ria at two different days. However, I wasn't familiar with grilled ayam penyet which you can choose either to have the fried one or grilled one. But, I always go for the unfamiliar one. Taste as good as the fried one, only it taste to almost like the Mang Inasal's BBQ chicken in Manila, only lacking the ulam and sambal while Mang Inasal served it with plain rice and a small bowl of sour soup. They also have the most famous Sarawak laksa but i decided that it is best to hunt for the famous Sarawak laksa  at other place.


If you find yourself hungry in the midst of shopping spree in The Spring malls, head to Food Bazaar food court. Well, basically we went to The Spring just to have lunch here. It is a quite clean food court, I would've given 3.5 out of 5 star rating for the cleanliness. I could understand maintenance for such big place can be really hard. By the way, you could feast up your table with all kind of food , I mean cuisines from all over the world though not everything will taste as good as what you saw on food tv channels. They got Malay, Chinese, Korean, Mexican, Sarawak's signature noodle cuisines, Western, Japanese, you name it. They've got it ( almost ) all. Well,  I choose to have my Sarawak laksa here, one has to get it from the Malay corner. It is not something that I have never had. I have my choice of Sarawak laksa back in Sabah but, not having it here , where it is originally came from is like a sin for me. Exaggerated, I know. First glance, I don't really put such high hope that it would taste off way better than I had in KK but, I was all wrong! This Malay corner in this food court served serious GOOD Sarawak laksa.  It has a punch to every taste buds that it was supposed to hit on the tongue. I thought that every ingredients served in the right proportions in a perfect size of bowl. I will foreverly dream about it.

If you craved for taste of Indian, Lyn's Thandoori Restaurant is the place to go.  It is situated right in the center of Kuching and within our walking distance from the hotel we stayed. I never taste beef cooked this perfect. Never! The boss who runs this restaurant was also very nice and friendly and really makes us feels like we belong there. My family and I had the best dinner there. Price also is quite reasonable considering the good food, service and the ambience of the restaurant was all perfect. Shame on me I fell in love with Indian food, especially with the Northern Indian because before this I always thought that Indian food was all about naan, roti canai, papadom , everything yeasted and everything sugary and spicy before that sweetness has to come by. Man, I was wrong. If I were to visit Kuching again, I definitely will find this restaurant first to have my dinnerthough actually Lyn's Thandoori was kinda out of our list to-go-restaurants. But, I am thankful that we chose this place for a dinner during our stay in Kuching. Bravo to Steven. He was actually the one who craved for Indian food after we spotted it when we were walking to a supermarket for some groceries.

You saw only a small bowl of nasi briyani there? The bowl has serious depth and all we could do is ate til you dropped. Steven saved himself from the wrath of fullness by taking the carbs from naan bread. However,  the rice was fragrant and deliciously cooked.

I never taste beef this good. It was so tender that you thought it is going to melt in your mouth. Perfect Bombay beef!

One afternoon after a sightseeing at the Waterfront,it is only natural if we looking for good restaurant to soothe the feet. It was tiring enough to watch every step my son made. He would chase other kids and even turn the spotlight to him from a quite outstanding street musician by dancing around the man. So, back again to food hunting around the  Main Bazaar , it is walking distance from Waterfront actually. Waterfront also had number of restaurants I knew but, we decided to try the authentic Chinese food particularly Sichuan's. The ambience of the restaurant was really calming, with fake bamboo plant at the centre of the shop and the restaurant's staff was also very friendly to us. Friendly and sweet at the same time as the time , we were not charged for a broken bowl. My son accidentally dropped it to the floor when he was enjoying the lotus soup. He felt guilty at that , I felt pity for him.He kept saying, "jatuh...jatuh...."(fell....fell). Well, who can blame a little kid. Even if they were mad, they will only say it at our back.  By the way, I have to apologize for not having pictures for the food from the Life's Cafe . Well, I was uneasy to take photo after that bowl fell to the floor.

After all my food encounters around the town , I think if you're a Malaysian , and going to Sarawak few times or maybe at least once, you know you can't go back to where you belong without "kek batik". These finely layered cake will entice your tastebuds like no other cake. They have wide ranges of flavors and I was overwhelmed by them to be frank. I tasted almost everything there and became undecided of which to buy. Of course  if I could , I would've bought each of every flavors but, it's not possible since I only had 45kg of luggage limit for cargo. And mom had too many stuff to be brought back to Sabah.

There were tonnes of testers here. These are just the one tenth of it. 

Heard of ikan terubuk masin ? Apologize I do not know how to translate it into English. 

 Another great food souvenirs from Sarawak would be the ikan terubuk masin. It was actually a salted fish but they are wet. Not like other salted fish you found in Malaysia, they were usually salted then dried under the sun. This fish can also be found at other place in Asia like Thai but, they said Sarawak's terubuk is the best. Well, this ikan terubuk masin tasted as better as the usual salted fish and actually tasted better! They still have the unbearable smell to most Westerners when they are deep fried but, the tasted makes me addicted to it. I could swallow the entire plate of rice with only this deep fried kinda salted fish and sprinkled with soy sauce.

They generally wrap it individually with old newspaper before packing them into boxes. It was unhygienic I know, so right after reaching home unpacking the boxes, I immediately rinse the fish with tap water before freezing it.

Okay fella. I think I had to stop now and start to mark students' exercises book. I do not really remember when is the last time I handed those exercises to them. Ha ha ha. I don't really know what's better way to end an entry in a better way than this. But, I really hope that you enjoy this entry of food hunting in Kuching and that you will find your way to these great food encounters too when you landed on Kuching.