People always ask what is my secret of staying slim after three kids. My formula would be, eat moderately + exercise + be happy = most effective diet pill

Abs exercise is very effective for me.  The above is some example of abs exercise I did with my kids when they was younger.  Pictures taken sometime in 2007.  Eat full nothing to do, this time I decided to try lifting my Teacher to see how far I can progress.  Not that she is going to sit on my leg.  Siao meh?  Lifting her is no biggie actually since her size is petite.

This is my Yoga Teacher.  The proper way of positioning the feet is to place them at your partner’s groin area.  (AND SUCK THAT ABS IN!!! Thank you.)

Not too bad except when I tried to position my arm forward, the legs started to get woobly.

And now is my turn to go on top.

Teacher is always a teacher right?  This time our hands are parallel with each other.  Let me tell you what is the feeling being lifted up there.  Performing Partner Yoga poses builds a very high level of trust on your partner and nothing else. With all confidence and trust, I managed to let go one hand.

I was very near to perfect it with a prayer pose (palms put together in front of your chest) but the non existence of  support really makes a difference!  I was terrified of height!  I was afraid of falling!  I can tell that my legs flew apart and there goes my balancing.

*phew!* Such a terrified act.  I cannot understand why my kids love it so much!  Can’t wait for Daddy to come home this Wednesday.  I’m going to try lifting him this time. muahahaha!

Namaste, everyone!

“Many, many years ago, … I had my bottom slapped by a man (or woman?) on this day.”

How many people don’t get this phrase?  It’s my Birthday la!  So sad no one wish me *sob, sob*.  (The one in FB not counted ok *sticking out tongue*)

Anyway, here are some pictures I took that night.  My Sister think I should go out patoh but after 12 years of marriage, I forgot how to patoh.  So sad isn’t it.  And I keep on rushing my food so that I can go home earlier to be with the kiddos.  It’s the motherhood instinct.  Can’t help it.  Earlier of the day when I had a conversation on MSN with Eldest Princess, she ended the line with, “See you at midnight.” Wah, so paiseh only 😳

This is my second time celebrating my birthday in The Lobsterman, SS2 PeeJay.  Since no kids around, we don’t even bother to get a cake.  Can you imagine two old couple singing in public.  Dead embarassing, ok?  Plus with Hubby’s out-of-tune singing, don’t know where to hide my face!

Since I am going patohing right after work, I have to lug my dSLR to the office with me.  This time I thought maybe I should leave home my Tamron AF 28-75mm f2.8 (longer and heavier) and use my prime lens (shorter and lighter) instead.  Almost 6 months never touch my old ‘baby’ ade.  And you know what?  I’ve totally forgotten that my prime lens had this constant ‘error 99’ appearing.  And the whole night, either I am too near to my food (cos the beeper kept on asking me to back off!) or the kanasai error 99 kept on flashing until Hubby also look at me one kind!  GRRRR!!!!  I still prefer zoom lens.  And because of the kanasai error 99, my mood was so foul I forgot to change my WB and the yellow downlight doesn’t help at all.  Hence why all my pictures looks like having jaundice!  Sigh… how I wish all restaurant use white bulb like those home decor lighting.

We ordered cheese baked lobster and porridge lobster.  The porridge is meant for the kids even though they are left over (on purpose!).  See, even when they are not around, our mind kept on flashing back to them.  Poor kids must have so much fun with their Wu Yi eating pizza at home under Mummy’s bill *sticking out tongue at Wu Yi* (Update:  They changed their mind and went for Kim Gary.  Still  under Mummy’s bill!)

Hubby introduce new food to me.

Oyster + Vodka + Tomato puree = Shooters!

One was supposed to bottoms up.  Imagine the oyster ran down your throat like a live gold fish.  I hope Hubby did not trick me on this.

Every diners will get a complimentary polaroid.

This is our 2nd take upon request!  The first shot was so badly over exposed.  Come on, ugly photo take again another shot  ma.  Don’t make us looks like albino.  That type of photo also can give people meh.

Itu je makan-makan.  One year older and one year wiser now.

… I had my bottom slapped by a man (or woman?) on this day.

This is me when I was little.

p/s:  Check out Top 100 Malaysian Blogs list and see who’s name is at the 100th 😉

Mine was good.

And they came with lots of surprises 🙂

Firstly, sawadeeka!  I received a fan mail that was sent thru my Facebook.  Read this:

Finally I know someone out there, someone REAL , actually appreciate and enjoy reading my stuff.  I’m the Hijackqueen and of course my kids are called Princess and Prince.  And here, Mintie is so observant and she know I have Princesses!  S.P.O.T. the P.L.U.R.A.L!!!  That very day, I read the mail over and over again and of course smiling non stop ler.

Secondly, one week before Mother’s Day, I was snipping nail for Baby Princess and Eldest Princess came and she said, “Mummy, cut nail for me also.”  My reaction was very fast looking toward her direction!  And next, I was screaming and squeeking and jumping happily like a college girl, “OMG, OMG, your nail!”

Fyi, I have not cut her nail for almost 5 years cos she had the habit of biting nail!  5 freaking years man!  Only three fingers had long nail, the rest, still the same.  And I ask her to show me the other hand,

…. still the same lor 🙁 .  To cut long story short, on Mother’s Day, I check both her hands and 🙂 .  As happy as ever!  Will check her again this weekend. If long nails meaning she had stop her bad habit by herself.  That was quite an achievement for her.  Don’t forget I still have a 4 years old that is sucking her index finger 🙁

Thirdly,  the kids made Mother’s Day card for me during Sunday School.  And I was rolfing when I read this:

To My Hardworking Mum.  She called me HARDWORKING!  OMG!  I thought I was the laziest Mother on Earth.  This is what she say, “Yes la.  Hardworking ma cos you make bento for me in the morning.”  Ok la, at least she appreciate.

Then she show me the card she made for Po-Po (Grandma aka my Mom):

Isn’t the word sweet? *awwww….*

These are the happiness that money can’t buy.  XOXO to all.

Before I had the chance to show off post up my bicycle pictures, it   was stolen from my house sometime in April. If you must know,  I REALLY LIKE THIS BICYCLE!!! 🙁

Ever since the petrol price hike, I have been cycling to nearby shop to get anything quick or quick trip.  I find that cycling is even faster than me driving the car to the shop.  I don’t have to worry about parking and queuing up.  And the part I love most is fetching Little MissTroubleMaker from her Kindie (nearby our house too)!  *sobing* 🙁

Mistake was, we did not chain it cos we never thought that someone will want to steal a 5 years old bicycle.  And how did that person steal it?  I think he must have jump climb over our gate and carry the bicycle over the gate. :(  Aiseh, so sad even writing and thinking of it.

Don’t know what to name this post and since Daddy is away again on one of his working trip to U.S., I decided to title this post like what you saw cos the house is really really really in a BIG mess!  The biggest culprit is Little MissTroubleMaker.  Now I have clothes hanger and toys on my kitchen top. And more clothes hanger, food crumbs, books, colour pencils, you just name it!  Each time I arranged my stuff, the next moment they are in a mess again.  At one point, I have to send her next door so that I can work in peace.  Last night, she has been eating Milo  and milk powder straight from the spoon that is in the tin.  And each time you say NO to her, she will look at you in the eye but her hand is still moving.  That makes you really wants to yell at the top of your lung.  *sigh……… ok, this is not what I want to write but I just got carried away.

Actually today I want to write about my dear Hubby that I called Daddy.  Don’t know about your Husband but if I send him out to get me a packet of sugar, he will come home with two packets of sugar.  If you ask him to buy 2 tomatoes, he will buy 5 tomates.  And I was once was told this story by BIL.  Daddy was around in his mid 20s.  The first time Daddy earned some money from the stock market, BIL ask him to belanja durian.  So they went to the stall in SS2.  Instead of buying few durian, Daddy told the man, “I buy all of them (the whole lorry)!” Wakakaka…

The not-so-recent case was:

I asked him to buy the kids gummy vitamins and look, we ended up with 4 bottles of gummies at home.   And knowing kids, they will want to finish up the whole thing in one day.  No body warned that ‘child safety cap’ doesn’t work with a 9 and 7 years old child. p/s:  Don’t buy the Spiderman brand.  They are not chewy.  Very yucky.

Oh, this one I did not ask him to buy:

If you want to eat peanut butter, buy the Skippy brand. Very famous among Americans.  At least I can rest assured that they doesn’t contain melamine!  2 x 2 liters pack.  Our ordinary pack is only 750gm.  Eat till lausai.

*sigh… I so missed Daddy now.  Fai tit come back!  Beh tahan ade!!!

1) I started going for vacation when I turned 21 years old. I did all adventurous vacation from rv to jungle trackking and never did once, I was down with food poisoning.  And finally, I got that while vacationing in Beijing.

One week after coming home from Beijing,

2) My smart tag and touch ‘n go card was stolen from my car.  I think I forgot to lock the door.

Two weeks after the stolen smart tag,

3) Our car out of the blue lost control and bang the highway steel divider.  Thanks God all of us are safe.

SIL ask me to cook mee suah & eggs for the whole family to eat.  I cooked ang chiew mee suah *slurp* minus the egg.  Last weekend I went back to my Mom’s.  She wanted to cook red eggs for us but don’t have time to do that.  So she gave me fresh eggs and a red paper.

Anddddddddddddd on Monday,

4) The daycare called and said Prince had Hand Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD).

5) At night when I hang my laundry, I noticed that my bicycle was stolen!

And you think that is all? No.

On Tuesday,

6) The kindie cum daycare  called at 12pm to inform that the Kementerian Kesihatan instructed them to close the kindie for  a week.  Looks like my son is the 7th person down with HFMD in the school.  Good thing I’ve gather enough information on HFMD from a mothering forum.

Can you believe this?  6 (666) bad luck happening to us!  I cannot imagine what will happen next.  And with the closure of the kindie cum daycare, I have to look after the kids for a week.  Meaning I am not working for the whole 7 days!  OMG!

p/s:  My BIL said not bad for 6667 = 6 disasters and 7 days off.  Kanasai!

We was driving back to KL from Johore when our car lost control (floating in the air/tyre not gripping on the road at all) at Machap before hitting the steel highway divider.  Less than 3 minutes, the tow truck appear and hurried me (Hubby was outside of his car) to get down from the car (as if the car is going to explode).  That very moment, I find the whole accident thingy is so fake and again in less than 3 minutes, aar came to bring us (if any) to the hospital.  Since everyone is alright,  I refuse to go.  I felt like it was  a planned accident.  The way the tow truck appear is so fake! The rain was starting to pour.  The kids and me was asked to hurried in to the car that arrived at the scene  while Hubby stay back.  Hubby order the guy to drop us at Machap R&R.  While in the car, I was even more frighten.  What happen if the tow car gang is bad people?  I am in their car now.  They might kidnap us or something like that.  I don’t even have the chance to tell Hubby how I felt about the whole incident.  How come Hubby never thought of all this thing.  He look very panic all the time.  Instead of arguing, I just do what was told.  I’m not happy about that but I have no choice.  But thanks God that guy really fetch us to the R&R.  I  dashed out from his car the moment he stop!

Everyone was shaken.  Carlgene was trembling all over.  I have never seen him tremble like this before.  You know that type of tremble is like when we dunk him into the cold swimming pool.  I know we need to cool down.  The four of us took a sit at the R&R.   I can see that Baby Princess had a cut on her cheek.  Suddenly it crosses my mind to ask them if they are hurt instead of inspecting them only.  Luckly Baby Princess is old enough to relate and she pointed to her ear.  I lifted up her hair and my heart just break into pieces.  And she pointed to her lips too.

I was holding back my tears as I did not want to frighten the kids further.  I assured Carlgene that everything was alright and he said, “I love my Daddy’s car” in between sob.  It’s quite funny to hear that actually.  Fyi, Carlgene is a car lover.

About 30min later, Hubby rang me on my mobile and said a car ram the tow truck from the back.   And I go, “wtf”. The kids and me just wait patiently at the R&R.  We can see the traffic on the opposite highway started to build up.  Few minutes later, an ambulance passed by.  And I thought,  there must be more accident happened on the highway.

One hour or so later, two tow trucks arrived at Machap R&R.  At the same time, BILs  (not one but two!) who work in a moving services company rushed down from JB to fetch us back to KL while Hubby have to stay back to make police report and etc.  This incident has made me, and I believe the rest of siblings realised the strength and unity of the Neo family.  It really touched my heart seeing how helpful they are.  One of my SIL (in KL) even go all the way to arrange accommodation with her in-law in Batu Pahat for Hubby to stay overnight.

Our car.  Some said, it looks like the accident is caused by our puncture  tyre.  *shrug*  The rest of the body part is not damage.  Thanks goodness!

Now back to the two tow trucks.  Our car doesn’t look that bad as what I’ve imagine but the other car was badly damaged and the women driver died on the spot 🙁 .  You wouldn’t want me to elaborate further.  If this is really a planned job by the tow truck, their selfishness has involved one life.  Only them and God knows the truth if they are the culprit.  It was a very unfortunate event for that lady.

The other car that bang the tow truck.  Our car was already on (top) the elevated tow truck.

Maybe because of miscalculation of speed and distance which resulted her to bang to the corner of the tow truck that causes her death.  And we was quite fortunate that our car was on elevated tow truck and not the crane type or else it will be a double blow for us and even more fortunate, Hubby was still standing at the road curb when all this happened.  And you know what make me add on to my speculation?  How often do you see an elevated tow truck?  They are usually the crane tow truck type right?  For those that doesn’t know, continental (BMW or Merc) car can’t be tow because the back two tyre doesn’t move (or something like that.  Maybe someone can put them in better automobile term) are ‘back shaft drive’, it cannot be towed using rear wheel on the road as it will damage your gear box  unlike the Japanese or the national made.  When you think of the quick appearance and efficiencies of the tow truck, your speculation grew even more and more right?  Cannot be ‘co-incident’ they are passing by, ‘co-incident’ they have extra car on standby, ‘co-incident’ they drove an elevated tow truck, what’s more?

We are putting the accident behind us and moving on with life.  It took me 3 days to get back my blogging mood and with the permission from Hubby, I recap them  here to serve as a lesson or reminder for those that are driving on the highway to be very very careful especially those going back to hometown for cheng beng this weekend.  Thanks God we are safe even though Baby Princess and Hubby (very big or cheh/blue black) suffered from bruises and cuts from the exploded airbag.  I still can’t understand how she get the cut that ran down to her earlobe.  In a way that the airbag save us and hurt us.  Don’t know should be thankful or sad.  And one more lesson, PLEASE BUCKLE UP BEHIND!!!

It all started about 1 year ago when I felt my monthly flow is very abnormal than usual.  They are superbly heavy with big chunk of blood clot dashing out like the tap water.  This happened usually on the first and second day. However, subsequent days is rated at medium and low.  This took me about 6 months to consult a doctor and a ultrasound scan revealed that there is a fibroid growing in my womb.  And 6 months later today, after another ultrasound scan…. the result is not looking good.

Not only the fibroid is growing, the Doctor discovered more than 3 cyst growing.  If you look at the smaller circle on the left, that is the cyst.  They are now measuring at 33.2mm.  If the cyst grow beyond 50mm, there is a need to get it remove through surgery and I am now on medication to treat anemia.  Even if the cyst did not grow beyond 50mm but the anemia has worsen, it is advisable to get the cyst remove too. Now, on the bigger circle, that is my womb.  A womb is supposed to be oval shape but mine is out-of-shape.  That is because on the bulging part, that is where the fibroid is and they are definitely growing too!

Most women with fibroid did not develop any symptom.  One out of 5 women may get this and they are genetic too.  So far in my household, my mom, one of my sis, one of my cousins (she had gone through 3 surgeries and the fibroid kept on coming back!), all of them has been a victim too. I am not writing this to get sympathy.  I just want to remind all ladies out there to learn to know your body, take note of body changes and go for your yearly check-up.   Educate yourself on cyst and fibroid, check out articles on Google.

The decision make by National Fatwa Council to banned Yoga has shocked many of us. As a Yoga practitioner, I have been following the news very closely. Today’s news send a little breather to many Muslim practitioners – The implementation of Fatwa ban was put on hold in two States i.e. Selangor and Perak. Unfortunately. Just hang on to your mat and don’t burn that books yet, Yoginis.

I am not writing to debate the details of the Fatwa. This has quoted many times by the Council that practicing yoga’s physical poses, known as asanas, without spiritual elements such as chanting and meditation is considered alright by Islamic law, although is not encouraged as “doing one part of yoga would lead to another”. Through my 2 years involvement in Yoga, I have never heard of anyone who has deviated from their personal faith, converted to Hinduism or denounced religion because they practice yoga. I am still a Christian today for Pete’s sake! Let’s just put it in a simple way. If anyone of you after seeing the below photograph thinks the poses is spiritual, then lift up your hand. Here goes:

Inverted Prayer

Standing Pigeon

Wheel & Cobra

Tree Pose

Revolved side angle seated pose

Bow Pose

Garland – Practise this to help relieve menstrual pain.

Crescent moon

Half/Crescent moon

Baby in downward facing dog

Triangle Pose – Good for relieving backache

Wide Legged Forward Bend – I can touch my head to the floor but you can’t *sticking out tongue*

Side plank – I have stronger arm than you do *sticking out tongue*

Headstand – I can stand on my head but you can’t *sticking out tongue*

Warrior I, II & III

The Crow

So tell me guys. Did you see anything spiritual? I can’t! Cos all I saw is just gymnastic and acrobats act. Can I change your perception on yoga now? It is true that if you put the three elements together i.e. poses + meditating + chanting = spiritual. For your information, there are 2 types of yoga in this modern world i.e. Traditional and Modern which already modified into physical yoga poses called asanas (in Sanskrit) which is similar to gymnastics or acrobatics. There are no spiritual elements, such as chanting and meditation involved. Religious sensitivity surrounding this issue has raised not only by Muslim but my own religion i.e. Christian and from day one, I have been very careful with what I do. And you don’t *toot* come and tell me yoga is not for Christian if you don’t know nuts about Yoga!!!!!!!

And over my 2 years involvement in Yoga, I get myself into 2 heated debate with some people that disagree my involvement in Yoga. Some of you may not know, in Christian, Yoga is deem as spiritual too and the Ministry too discouraged us from taking up the so-called exercise for health. I can go on and on defending Yoga and if I do, this post is going to be full of words.

What have I benefit from Yoga? I used to be very bad tempered but Yoga has taught me to be more calm. My backache is gone, my blood pressure is back to normal. The above 2 pics is not taught in my class. I have build up my core and my legs are strong hence why I am able to lift my kids up.Who knows I can even juggle you in the air like the acrobats! Heck I am able to stay slim without all those Hydroxycut hardcore diet pills.

You know what is spiritual? Spiritual is like when you are able to fly. I am somewhere there but not quite there yet.

Asif!