Oldest siblings are likely to be FAT

Photo by ALAMY

Found this funny and interesting article in The Daily Mail newspaper Daily Mail - Oldest siblings likely to be FAT about a research done by some UK researchers. It stated that first born has higher chances to be overweight and have chronic diseases such as heart problems, diabetes and high blood pressure. But, unfortunately the research didn't specifically said the cause of the concern. I guess there's some truth in it as I am the fattest one in the family beside my mom. My younger sister is tall and slim while I am short and overweight (my BMI  is still borderline overweight). I have always struggled with my weight since I was a teenager. Being 5"1 does not help either. It'd show even when I'd put on 1 kg. My small frame just can't take the extra weight. I can feel layers of fats rolling underneath my baggy shirt. I am trying to lose weight now by consuming Herbalife. But, I was not that religious in consuming it so the effect might be slow. I do go to gym 3 times a week now. But again, it has only been 2 weeks so no dramatic result as yet. At least, I am doing something positive about it instead of slumming it on the sofa and watch Korean drama on the TV (which I love to do right now!) 

So, instead of minding my diet, I am at a Starbucks with my Venti Vanilla Latte and Nutella Butter Cake. :-) Have a nice evening everyone!

My perfect way of 'chillaxing'

If you need to weigh yourself... #WeighThis

This video really touches me and made me think about what's important in my life right now. I've not always concerned about money before. I've always had enough to live-by and afford some luxuries along the way. But, since I was unemployed recently, I understand the feeling of restlessness of whether I'll be able to pay next month's bills. My family used to be my money crutches but now no more. Everybody is feeling the pinch from the poor economy condition right now. My dad had too downsized the car and monthly expenses since his retirement. I used to be happy just because I just got a new handbag or shoes and I'd be miserable if my friend had things that I don't. My happiness were measured by how much money I have and whether I had the expensive handbag. But since I lost  that power, I did feel a bit depressed. I was in emotional darkness but thankfully, I have God and my family to help me go through it. 

This video from Lean Cuisine channel is supposed to be about food and weight issue but for me it does have a different dimension to it. I did put on some weight as well due to depression.  So, watch the video and ask yourself how much does once happiness weigh. Is it based on your weight or other things that are more important?

What's in my bag?

Saw this FB post from Hitz.FM and I quickly have a look into my shopper-like handbag. It does looked a little bit a black hole, but it wasn't so bad. My husband used to complain to me that he can't find the keys or my mobile when I asked him to get it for me. He'd rummaged through the bag to find things which annoyed me as I have specific place for certain items. Haha, as if!

This is how my handbag looked like right now.....I don't have fancy purse organiser, just chucked everything in.

Things that I must have in my handbag:

1. Purse

2. Mobile phone

3. My Samsung camera

4. My small makeup bag 

5. Tissue

6. Ladies things - panty liner, sanitary pad

7. MP3 player

8. Something to read (Kindle, iPad, or my trusted reader's digest)

My mobile phone has a short lifespan hence I couldn't use it to hear music or be on social media for a long time. Need to save some batteries for emergency calls or whatever. So I always need an MP3 player, camera and things to read to occupy my time. My bag would be a bit heavier but I like it that way. I just don't like having everything in one gadget, call me old-fashioned but it is more of a risk management for me. 

See that Readers Digest there, I've been subscribing it for the longest time. I used to read it in school when I was in my primary school. It's where I learn and improved my writing skill. It has lots of short stories which are easy to read. I still kept my old copies of the digest, and the one in the picture is from 2013.

So, there you go, that's what I have in my 'black hole' bag right now. Sometimes, there's also protein shake bottle or water bottle hitching a ride :-)

Malaysians... where art thou manners?

Today marked one month since I came back to Malaysia. I was quite happy to be back mostly because I missed the food and of course my mom's cooking.  But there's one thing that irked me the most since day one. Malaysian drivers are more rude and impatient compared to last I drove here. Even up to the point of scolding me for following the road rules!!

Living in London where its public transportation is one of the best in the world, means I don't have to drive to anywhere. Just hop on the tube or bus to get to where I need to be. It was stress-free as the only thing that I have to do is to get off the right stop (which I did messed-up a few times). 

But back in Malaysia, I need to drive myself to go to everywhere, even to the grocery store down the road. It is just not convenient to take public transport and it seems nobody is walking anywhere (perhaps hot weather is one of the reason). 

This happened to me today.

I was driving at 60 km/h as per the speed limit and was in the slowest lane. The fast lane was quite empty but the cars were moving more or less the same pace as mine. But all of a sudden, a car behind me keep honking at me for whatever reason that I don't understand. Well, I'm not going to go faster just because someone asked me to! I was going to turn to the left soon anyway so might as well not   let that creep to pressure me to speed up. He then passed my car and suddenly slowed down his car in front of me. WTH? Luckily I was driving quite slow and able to avoid hitting his car. He then speed up and left the scene. I was quite spooked and quickly find a place to stop to calm myself down. Was I just being road-bullied just now? The only thing that I don't understand was I to be blame? Did I not follow the road rule? Was I wrong to drive at the speed limit indicated?  

I do have a feeling that Malaysians in general are unhappy. With the current political and economy condition of our country, no wonder we are throwing manners out of the window. We have no respect to each other. We just abandoned reasons and lead emotions rule our heads. 

~Being rude is just not cool~

Song Minguk... Oh My God!

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Herbalife Shake Diet

Syawal was a month of indulgence as almost every other day, I'd be invited to Raya gathering or open houses. No matter how big or small the Raya gathering, there would be plenty of food around. Me, a self-confessed foodie, could never say no for a bit of ketupat, rendang, sate and my all time favourite pineapple tarts. So, of course, I'd be putting on weight more than what I'd lose during Ramadhan. Wait, did I lose weight during Ramadhan though? I can't fit into my jeans anymore and all my fats fold are showing through my tight shirt. I really need to do something about it and fast!

So, I thought why not try Herbalife shake diet to kick start my weight loss. It worked for me before. I was on Herbalife diet 3 years back and managed to lose 10kg in the process. But as usual, I got sloppy and fell back into my old eating habit and piled on the pound again. But, this time it was different. I'd put on weight in weird places like in my chest area and hips compared to before. My doctor hubby told me it might be due to hormones and ageing. Wait, what? AGEING? Well, excuse me, I'm still young ok!

So back to my Herbalife shake diet, I picked up the starter pack where it have one bottle of F1 powder (vanilla flavoured), one bottle of F3 Protein powder and 100 gram green tea. It all costs me around RM4XX as I am eligible for member price (yeay!). I started taking Herbalife shake twice a day on Tuesday, and today is Friday so it has been only what, 4 days? I don't feel any differences and I haven't weigh myself yet. My starting weight was 62.5kg (yes, I am that heavy) and goal weight is 52kg. Let's hope I can achieve it.

I chose Vanilla flavoured F1 powder because you can add anything to it. You can add fruit juices  in your shake to spice things up. But, I'd always use cold water with my vanilla powder as it tasted like vanilla ice cream (yumehh!) with no sinful calories (score!)

It's not all diet for me as I love food so exercise is a must. I joined a gym in Ayer Keroh to complement my Herbalife diet as well. Will update on this fantastic gym in my later post. Can't wait for weighing day tomorrow to see if I'd lose or gain (gasp!) weight this week.

Herbalife vanilla shake with grape juice

Laundry Bar di Bukit Baru, Melaka

Dah nak dekat seminggu la akak duduk dekat hotel di Melaka ni nak menunggukan rumah kuarters yang belum diapprovekan lagi. Baju pon dah bertimbun sebab satu hari 2-3 kali tukar baju. Yelah, satu set baju buat lasak-lasak dekat rumah, satu set baju gym, satu set baju tidur and then baju gi jalan-jalan. Tu dah lebih 2-3 kali tukar bajukan. So akak pon pergi la survey-survey cari kot-kot ade tempat laundry layan diri di area hotel ni. Alhamdullilah, terjumpa satu tempat dobi layan diri like 5 minutes dari hotel akak ni. Kedai dobi layan diri ni dekat Bukit Baru, nama dia Laundry Bar (wow!) just opposite Hadramawt Palace. Nampak dari luar macam quite new juga so apa lagi terus corner baring masuk simpang. 

Tengok jam baru pukul 9 pagi, awal lagi ni sebab tu macam lengang je tempat dobi ni. Dobi ni guna token instead of guna syiling 50 sen macam dekat KL nun. So kena tukar duit dekat mesin token tu.  Mesin token tu boleh masuk duit RM1, RM5 and RM10, duit RM50 tak boleh masuk ok! Ada price list  just above mesin token tu. So agak-agak la kan berapa nak tukarkan. Satu token = RM1. 

Akak nak basuh 10kg guna air suam so total charge RM6 sekali basuh. Ok la kan tu daripada dobi di hotel yang mahal sangat. Macam biasa, load baju dalam washing machine and bila nak masuk sabun tetibe nampak sign kata tak payah masuk sabun & softener sebab sudah disediakan. What??? Sabun FREE? softener FREE? Terbeliak jugak la mata akak ni baca sign tu beberapa kali. Siapa yang tak suka benda free kan, akak suka! Masuk token lepas tu tekan start, mudah kan? 

Display dekat washing machine tu kate kena tunggu 25 minit, so melepak la akak kat situ. Tapi tempat tu sangat open dan dekat dengan main road. So takde rasa takut sangat la, tapi tetap  kena berhati-hati yer semua. Sambil-sambil tu kita tengok-tengok around kedai, snap-snap gambar hrmm kalau owner tu tgk dekat cctv mesti tertaya-tanya apa la budak ni tengah buat.

Kedai ni ada sijil halal for its sabun dan softener, wow! tak pernah jumpe dobi yang claim halal ni. Good job Melaka! Washing machine ada 3 jenis, yang 10kg, 14 kg dan 28kg pon ada. Tapi masa akak pergi tu gambar washing machine 28kg jer yang ada, machinenyer takde pulak nampak. Dryer machine ada 4 biji, cukup la tu kan nak guna, tak payah berebut-rebut.

Nah, akak belanja gambar tempat dobi ni ok.

Mini get away - Johor Bharu

My brother and his family were in town last week, so we decided to take a mini family get away to Johor. There were 7 of us so we need to rent an MPV. Yours truly was in charge of booking a suitable MPV. It was my first time trying to rent an MPV and I was overwhelmed with the choices online. I used mudah.com.my website to find a suitable rental firm. I decided on Exora as it can fit all of us comfortably plus luggage.  I booked the car quite early, almost a week early. The rental rate is  pretty reasonable of RM180/day for 2 days and their pick up point/office is quite near to my house which is a plus point. So I happily thought everything was settled but the night before the trip, I received a call saying that my car was not available due to engine failure. They offered a replacement car,  Alza, which is a class lower than Exora and the rate remained the same. I was desperate so I had to agree. But in my heart I know that I've been duped. I guess it's a tactic they used on unsuspecting and desperate customers like me. I tried to be positive and believe that the original car was really not available. But I don't want the car drama to ruin our getaway so I put it behind me and tried to enjoy the rest of the trip. Apparently, the car was not that bad but poor hubby had to squished at the back with the luggage, sorry honey!

The day was nice, not too hot nor raining, so it was perfect for a road trip. We took our own sweet time, stopped at two rest areas along the way. We arrived in Johor Bharu at 4pm and headed straight to Plaza Angsana as my mom really wanted to eat the famous Mee Rebus at one its food court stall.

We had bowls of mee rebus, yong tau foo and rojak singapore and the prices were reasonable. But I don't get the hype for its mee rebus, though. I had better mee rebus here in KL and my mom's of course.

Then, we headed to our uncle's house who was paralysed from a stroke he suffered months ago. Looking at him lying there helpless made me sad as he was a bubbly person. At that moment, I was thankful to Allah that I still got to enjoy my mom's non-stop lectures and my dad moving purposely around the house, Alhamdullilah. You have to be thankful for those little moments as you'd never know when it will be taken away from you. 

We stayed at Hotel Seri Malaysia Johor Bharu for a night. We checked-in into the hotel quite late, around 8pm. But the reception just fell short of my expectation. I know it was late and maybe the receptionist just had a long day but I was quite put-off with it. But I had a long day and the only thing I wanted was a hot shower and a bed. The room was clean and a reasonable size but there were water leaking from the room above in the shower room. I hope the water was clean and I don't want to imagine where it comes from.

Started the next day with a hearty breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast buffet spread was good with variety of options of food such as nasi lemak, fried noodle, curry noodle, noodle soup, porridge, & toast. Yes, there were a lot of food and they did re-filling it non-stop during the serving period which is from 7am to 10am.

We checked out from the hotel and the process was quite fast and fuss free. So, no complaint there. We planned to visit Legoland, Hello Kitty Town and Johor Premium Outlet, so off we go. 

It was a 25 minutes ride from JB, perhaps it should be shorter but we did got lost a bit trying to find our way out of the city. The parking lot was a long walk from the entrance. Luckily, there was a covered walkway otherwise all of us would have fainted from the heat. It was so hot that I feel like my face was melting (my makeup did come off a little bit, time to buy new makeup I guess).  We didn't go into the theme park as we have not time. But the entry price was quite steep, RM170 for both theme and water park for adult. By looking from outside the entrance door, there were not many attractions/games that would interest me as I don't have any kids yet. Perhaps its target market is more of family with kids. But the pricing is too steep for a normal Malaysian family. It was quite empty even though it was a weekend. Maybe it was an off-peak season :-)

Next, we went to Puteri Harbour where the Hello Kitty Town was. It was just a 10 minute drive from Legoland. Again, we did not enter the attraction as I guess it was for kids and the entrance price is RM80/adult. My nephew is too small to appreciate such thing so we ended up taking pictures and off we go.

We were supposed to stop at Johor Premium Outlet (JPO) next, but missed the turn and too late to turn back. So we head straight to Melaka to have an early dinner there. When we say Melaka for dinner, of course it must be Ikan Bakar! Our favourite ikan bakar place is at Alai, Melaka. The price was reasonable and only cost us less than RM200 for 7 people. My favourite dish are mussels cooked with chilies and grilled stingray. After all that delicious seafood, it's time to head home. I slept like a baby in the car and woken up when we reached home. Wow, what a day! But favourite part of the trip  is the food we ate along the way. Oh oh, time to hit the gym!

Rambling of a jobless housewife with a Monday blues

I am back in Malaysia and I'm unemployed. Being unemployed here is really no fun at all. When I was in London, I really didn't mind being job-less as there were lots of things to do that interest me. I love history and museums and London has lots of it. I love to eat and the city has various kind of food from all over the world, you just name it.

I am struggling to find a job that I like with the pay that I used to enjoyed before. I am beginning to feel the economic downturn that everyone is talking about. It does make me sad and depressed a little bit, but I'm trying to boost my morale up by writing and taking care of myself (i.e. massage, working out, mani & pedi etc.)

Since, I had nothing better told do all day, I google up about being a successful blogger. I stumbled upon an article titled 'So you want to be a blogger?" It was so honest that it made me laugh. I did think about being a full time blogger/writer but that article made me think twice. I don't have any sort of reader fanbase now so the idea to be a full-time blogger just flew out of the window. I think writing should only be an outlet for my creative thinking and not as a profession.

So, what next I think? A baker perhaps? I am a decent baker. I could whipped up basic cakes like chocolate cakes, butter cakes, Victoria sponge cakes and muffins. But I do need to up my game in terms of cake decorations. I saw lots of talented cake decorators on Instagram and Pinterest. It does intimidate me a little bit but I think with a little bit of training I could be one of those talented bakers. Perhaps, I could give baking a try.

Next, the one that I'm trying to avoid, the Multi Level Marketing scheme. You know like Herbalife, Shaklee, Premium Beautiful and other companies. I hope I'm not offending anyone. I am amazed with people who are successful with these businesses as I am not good at it. I tried to do it once but I am just too shy. I am more of a writing kinda lady instead of talking. 

So what should I do? I need to do something. I am just so restless when I'm not doing anything. I pray to Allah everyday to show me the right path and hoping for the best, Insya Allah.