My curly Sue

Who would have thought that our lil girl will be having curly hair! Both me and my hubby was surprised that her hair turned from straight to curls!

She had beenhaving less hair since birth and that wasn't a surprise for us as both of us were hairless or had less hair when we were small.

And her hair so far was straight since birth. Only a couple of months back did it turned into curls.

Anyway, it's in the gene which inherited from my hubby's side. It seems that this hairstyle skipps from one generation to another generation.

All of my hubby's siblings have straight hair. But the aunties and uncles have curly hair.I didn;t occur to me in the 1st place as a few of my BIL's children are having curly hair. In fact my 1st SIL does have curly hair. So it's natural for me to think that those kids got it from their mom. However, it only hit me that my daughter got her curly hair from her tok ummi once her straight hair turned into curls ...

Strangers have been asking us whether we permed her hair..I can't blame them for thinking like that as me & her baba have straight straight. But it's so weird why some parents would permed their less than 5 year old children's hair or even did rebonding or whatever la with their kids hair! I pity those kids as their hair is natural and in great shape when compared to adult's hair.

The weirdest comment we ever encountered was from the hair stylist. We brought Arissa for her 1st salon hair cut..I know other kids her age have been hundreds times to hair salon. But for Arissa, the need never arrised as her hair was always less and fine too since birth. And we only need to cut it at home.

Back to the hairstylist. Wanna guess what he said after cutting our girl's hair? He said that our daughter can do rebonding or hair straightening when she is big.. Aiyoh! That is still so far ahead la...

Anyway, what she will do with her hair once she is all grown up is all up to her... But I don;t think I will allow her to do all those things to her hair when she is still in school. What's important is that for her to keep her goldilocks in good healthy clean shape.

It’s sure different the 2nd time around

Yeah, I’ve been told that it would be different when you are pregnant again. And how each pregnancy would be different from one another and for different woman too.

So here I am, 10 weeks into my pregnancy . And boy! Things are absolutely different from my 1st pregnancy… Who would have thought I would be having a restless sleep during week 4. Yeah, I was finding it hard to have a good nite sleep. Suddenly sleeping in one position wasn’t that comfortable at all.. I was tossing from right n then to the left side then back on lying flat on the bed.. And somehow standing for a good 10 minutes or 2 minutes of squatting down had me feeling tired so much.. This was week 4 & 5 .. Reason why I squat is because I have to wait for my daughter doing her pee pee & poo poo in the toilet ;) It’s dangerous to leave her unattended in the toilet as she might slip and fall on the floor. Alhamdulillah , now all is ok in this department..

I’m experiencing the same symptom with my taste bud.. Again , the sambal dish and oily food and berempah food doesn’t taste nice nor looks appealing to me.. I’m in the stage of not having a craving for food. Not one particular food. All food ! I’m used to be craving for ice blended, or Mac D’s burgers & sundae or ice creams. But those are not within me at the moment.
Thus, do I eat? Of course la..I have to eat for the lil fella who is growing inside. These days I eat for the sake of the baby. Not for the pleasure of eating!

Alhamdulillah, I gained back some muscle and lost weight after hitting back the gym since last year. I’m still going and planning to go for my aerobics classes. Will only stop when my tummy is too big.. I need to keep myself in good shape and have enough stamina for labor. I’ve seen the benefits of exercise during my 1st pregnancy. Thus, I just hope I’ll able to do it again this time around.

There are so many things to prepare with our baby’s birth. But I’m still not doing a single thing. I haven’t even look at all Arissa’s old baby clothing. Part of me still thinks that August is still far away. And that I can always do it when I’m in my 6 month pregnancy. HAHAHAH..

However, I have started doing some research on electric breast pump. Prefer double pumps as two pumps can save more time. Plus I will be able to express more milk too. So many things to buy in these department too.. Will need to look out for special sales or discount on these from various web sites & shops too.. I do realize that electric pump will cost more than a manual one. But since I’m 100% pro-breast milk, money is not an issue. As long as I can get a better bargain for it, that would be fine for me..Dah la 2009 is recession year!

I have to say that my mood and feelings are not like what I had gone through when carrying Arissa. Maybe because of the tiredness that I feel now and then.. Feeling tired can easily spoil my mood. I get irritated easier. Sometimes I lose my patience with Arissa..Which I shouldn’t be too as sometimes she is just being a kid.. All these give valid reason for me to keep on exercising!

Baby name? That will have to wait…

My Bandung trip with the DH ladies

I went to Bandung last Friday Jan 16… Came back on Sunday night . Thanks to the normal and typical of 1 hour delay with AA flight. So how was my Bandung trip with my DH ladies?
Oh! It was a full 3 days of shopping for us! Alhamdulillah, we managed to squeeze in some time for spa as a treat for our tired bodies!!!

We took the morning flight from LCCT. And boy! We really didn’t waste any of our precious time once landed safely in Bandung’s soil… What did we do? Go shopping la!!!!

We went to Rumah Mode. I have to say that Rumah Mode is a must place to go for any shopper who comes to Bandung. Do not avoid nor forget to shop there! It is the best place to find branded clothing under one roof. Burberry, Gap, Esprit, LV, Hugo, Hermes. Just name whatever expensive brands u can see in KLCC or Pavillion and it’s all there in Rumah Mode at a very unbelievable cheap price. A price u would not see here in our country…

Yeah! The prices are dirt cheap that u just can’t help not to pick & buy whatever that your eyes can see and your hands can’t help not to pick up!!!

But be careful too , as they do have unfamiliar brands and even Bonia or Bossini brand or Marks & Spencer brands there too..

What if I tell you that a Hermes collar T-shirt IDR95,000.00 will only cost you about RM30 ? Yes, that was the price in Rumah Mode in Bandung. Do not rub your eyes! Murah , murah!!!!

Thus, u can easily spend around IDR1 million in Rumah Mode. Just pray hard that they have new stocks for u.. Like for me, there were not many choices for my 3 and half old girl.. there were no nice jeans for her!

And I think u will need almost one day of shopping there. A half day of shopping is not enough in Rumah Mode.. Apart from that, the place do have nice restaurants too. They even have a shop similar to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf or Starbuck there.. I think it was Java Coffee..

2nd best place to shop is Pasar Baru . It’s like that pasar in Terenganu and Pasar Siti Khadijah in Kelantan. However, here in Pasar Baru, u have abour 8 floors to shop and bargain. Yes, do bargain if u wanna get the price cheaper than the already cheap price. U can get nice variety of telekung bersulam , lace, chiffon , imitation handbags, batik lepas, tudung, kain baju kebaya bersulam , snacks and many more ..

Other factory outlets worth to shop will be Heritage, Cascade & Paris Van Java .. The rest of F.O’s are worth visiting if only you have spare time to kill.

Food wise, there’s a lot of good eating places to eat. Best & safe to stick to restaurants rather than those hundreds of stall by the road side… The stalls are everywhere. This Bandung scene is utterly different from Malaysia. We don’t dare to eat from those stalls for hygienic reasons. I didn’t see watertap at all.. All I saw were pails for water.. They wash the used & dirty plates & cups from a pail of water.. And we can’t help not to think , was the food were the leftovers from yesterday as there are just too many stalls. The stalls are next to one another…

For 3 days we had Sunda & Padang food. We did not try Pak cik Met ikan bakar in pasar baru foodcourt. But we did try the Simpang Raya restaurants ( they have so many branches in Bandung ) , Arum manis ( nice view but pricey) and Istana Ayam Pop . The food is delicious but some are a bit sweet & salty too.. The drinks except tea are so sweet. I guess Bandung people like their food & drinks to be sweet & salty.. Imagine there’s a teaspoonful of sugar on your plate of kuihtew goring.

Their orange juice is different than here as they don’t use the Sunkist type of oranges. They uses the kampong type of oranges.

One thing that makes Bandung special is the accessibility of mussola/surau . It is easy to perform your prayers at any public places . All FO's and restaurants have it. And it's comfortable too.

The must buy brownies from kartika sari and Amanda. We did go and buy them( not me). And bandung people buy their brownies like us buying goreng pisang panas for tea time. Both have their own buildings and restaurants/ café. Food & prices was ok too..

Not forgetting, spa. If u have ample time, go for a spa.. Like us, we went to a full body spa which only cost us below RM100 . And some of my DH ladies even did ozone hair treatment . That is why it is best to put aside around IDR1 million for top to toe spa treatment . As for me, my Strawberry Spa treatment cost only RM130 ( tax included) . The same spa treatment would cost here around RM300 !

What else to share? As this was a shopping trip, therefore we did not go to Kawah Putih/Tangkuban Perahu . Maybe I would do that with my family...

Is IDR4.5 million enough for shopping in Bandung?

So, is it enough? I would say that the amount is enough for prudent shopper like me. But not to a shopaholic. They would need around IDR10 million when shopping in Bandung. I will tell u why after this…

In Bandung, u can find all the expensive brands that u see in KLCC & Pavillion. LV, Channel, Hermes, Burberry, Hugo Boss, Old Navy, Gap , Gucci, etc . And these expensive brands are so cheap, way much cheaper in Bandung compare to in Malaysia. The prices make you feel like you are paying for Renoma, Bossini, any Isetan Brands or Jusco brands or any brands we normally find at Jusco and Isetan.

An LV belt for men cost only IDR150,000 . So that would be around RM48 ( rate 320 ). A Hugo Boss Jeans is around IDR190,000.00 which is around RM61 … As for kids clothing u can get below IDR50,000.00 (RM16) …

Based on the above, any shopaholic would go ga- ga seeing these unbelievable prices. Thus, these people wouldn’t mind to get another pink T-shirt with the big printed Logo on the chest when they already have a pink t-shirt under brand like Renoma.

And if u really buy all those brands under IDR100,000.00 , you can really get a LOT with just shopping money of IDR4 million or IDR5 million. Mind you, these exclude food & lodging & transport and aiport tax. That u will need to put aside around IDR500,000.00 . Airport tax is only IDR60,000.00 . But be prepared for excess luggage cost. U may end up paying more for this. But then, there is always way to avoid paying for the excess luggage ( u only get first 15kg FOC with AirAsia).

The trick is not to use your trolley luggage which is already 7-10 kg in weight without things inside. Thus, best to use any non trolley bags! Just use any good durable canvas & fabric bags that have good zipper! For my recent Bandung trip, I managed to avoid paying for excess luggage as I used canvas bag.. U can get a lot with 15 kg of clothings! Jeans & telekung are heavy !!!!! And canvas bag saved my day!!!

Are those clothings or stuffs there are rejected items? Maybe 0.5% . I only found one pile of Old Navy T-shirt that have collar baju yg terkoyak sikit.

Back to the question earlier, based on my recent Bandung trip ( I just got back last nite) , having shopping money of IDR 7 – 8million is just nice for any average shopaholics. But for a prudent shopper like me, IDR4 -5 million is ok..That’s include a 2 and half hours of spa at Roger’s Spa in Jalan Dago!!!!

Lucky to be in love with my best friend

Oh yeah! I'm definitely lucky to be in love with my best friend. Who else if it's not my darling hubby. Mr A-1!

I'm soooooo into this songs by Jason Mraz " Lucky" featuring Colbie Caillat..

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend

Lucky to have been where I have been

Lucky to be coming home again

Oooohhhhoohhhhohhooohhooohhooohoooh

They don't know how long it takes

Waiting for a love like this

Every time we say goodbye

I wish we had one more kiss

I'll wait for you I promise you, I will

When I listen to this song, I can't help not to think of my teenage nephews & nieces .. Why? Coz they too will soon go through this phase of life. Insya Allah. Being in love is such a special life experience . To be found love, to be loved and love others is a gift from Him above, that not all of us are sometimes lucky to have.

Them having blogs does make it interesting too as I get to read what's going on in their lives. It's like watching some tv programmes . I guess what make it interesting is that I have been that stage of life before. And somehow it likes walking down memory lane for u...

It's exciting to watch how their lives will evolve . Each one of them are going through an exciting phase which normally starts from their teens life. I'm so impressed and proud too when one of them learn how to play musical instrument on their own. No class. Just from internet ... I think I will always have a crush on piano.. Don't know why. Maybe it started from when I myself was a teenager too.. I still hope that one fine day I'll get to learn playing piano. I guess each one of us will always have that something we never get to do but still put on hope with .

Do I have my worries for them? Of course I do . But then, all these will be part & parcel of life. Fall in love. Confusion. Break up. Heartbreak... I can only pray to God that when they do go through all these love phase, they will be guided by Him .