SD Tiara Apartment

Last Sunday my tenants handed over the keys of our very first apartment. They finally moved away after 8 years. Actually J and I bought the apartment when we were getting married. By the time the apartment was completed, we already had Baby Wei, and then we found that the apartment was too far for our family needs, so we rented it out.
The condition of the apartment was dirty to say the least. The wall had watermarks and paint was peeling off. And it looked like the tenants had not been staying there for some months already, they were just slowly moving the things out while they stayed at their new home.
Since they handed the apartment 4 days early, we quickly took advantage of the 4 days to repaint the house. J and I couldn't do it ourselves, because during month end it is almost impossible to take leave from our companies. So, we decided to find professional painters and pay them to do it.
I went through many phone numbers before I found my painter, Faizul and company. That is because he was sincere enough to want to view the apartment condition on Sunday night itself, and gave us an offer on the job. The rest of the painters cannot be bothered to reply my SMS for quotations.
Faizul came and gave us a quotation and J negotiated with him. Finally we agreed on a price, and the painter promised to finish the job in 4 days (Mon to Thurs). Sneak peek of the paint colour coming soon!

Happy Birthday, Papa

On J's birthday, we both had to work. No way of taking the day off! So I told J to come home a little bit early, I would buy a cake and we'll cut it with the kids. The kids are always excited when they get to sing a birthday song and share the cake, no matter whose birthday it is.
It turned out that J came back very late. Wei and Yuan were excitedly waiting for him, and then they ran out of battery..... Wei lay on my bed to rest, and then I couldn't find him after that. Somehow he ended up at the side of the bed beside the wall, fast asleep and all snuggled up in my comforter.
When J came back we had to wake him, so that he didn't miss singing the birthday song. His eyes could barely open for the photo session.
After the birthday song, he ran back to his bed to continue sleeping. Yuan was still ok and awake and got to eat a little cake. Wei would have to eat his for breakfast the next morning.

Online Scam

Mudah.my is a useful website to buy and sell things in Malaysia. However, lately I noticed there are false purchasers using the website as well.
Usually this happens when you want to sell used mobile phones. Earlier I wanted to sell one, and I got 3 emails from overseas, purportedly from UK, wanting to buy the mobile phone from me. Of course I didn't entertain since I wanted to sell to Malaysians only, and I didn't think much about it. Then lately I wanted to sell a cooler bag, one that is used to keep cold drinks for picnics, and I got an email from someone supposedly named "Dr Sarah Smith", wanting to buy. I thought, maybe it's a foreigner in Malaysia who wanted to buy, so I responded to the email, naming a place to meet for COD (cash on delivery).
I got a reply email from her and she said she is from Scotland, but she would like to buy it for her son who is now in Nigeria. She asked me to ship to Nigeria by Poslaju. In the email, she also asked me to reply to her the price including shipping, my full name, my bank account number, handphone contact number so that she can transfer the money to me. I immediately reported the email as spam, and deleted it.
A few things made me very suspicious:
1. The "Dr" in the email. Usually if you want to buy something you wouldn't even tell the seller you are a doctor or whatever. This person uses a Dr title to improve her credibility.
2. She is supposedly from Scotland, but the English grammar is atrocious. She wrote: "I awaits your reply..." I remember the last time I also got an email from another guy wanting to buy my handphone, who is also from the UK with an English name, but the English was terrible.
3. Asking elaborate details of full name, bank account, handphone number- all these details are needed for bank verification when you call in to do banking transaction.
So, be very careful with all these personal details, especially when dealing with foreigners. For all you know these people are already in Malaysia, otherwise how would they know about Poslaju? And I am just thankful that I didn't fall into their trap.

TM Unifi e-bill

After the free installation of the Unifi on 11 Aug, I got my e-bill on 8 Sept. If you opt for e-bill to be delivered to your email, it is free. If you want the hardcopy posted to you, then they will charge a fee.

In the bill, there is a stamp duty charge of RM10. Besides that, 2 months of service is charged. The first month, Aug, is prorated from Aug 11 to Sept 6. The 2nd month, the service fee is billed from Sept 7 to Oct 6. This internet fee is prepaid every month.

Once the e-bill is sent to me, I will send it to the email of my "chief tenant". He will then collect the shared amount from the other housemates and remit the fees to me. I will then make a bank transfer through Maybank2u. If you want to do that, make sure you select the payee as TM Sdn. Bhd. - Unifi.
I like the e-bill because:
1. It is green. We save paper.
2. I get to see the bill and ensure the payment from my tenants. If the paper bill is sent to them, they may not pay immediately, and I may risk having an accumulated utility bill for a few months. In this way, I have one less utility bill to worry about.
I wonder if you could ask for the Streamyx bill to be emailed instead of posted to you, too.

Are you moist enough?

My hubby, J, had never struck me as the type of guy who is sensitive and modern. Back in our dating days, nothing moved him; he was and still is, practical, pragmatic, no-nonsense. I had never seen him shed a tear. A true macho man. A true china man too - non-romantic and non-passionate, and yet I married him.
So it totally surprised me to see his transformation when he held our first baby. Moisture in his eyes. Rationally, he thinks it's the paternal hormones inside him, breaking free. Emotionally, I knew deep down inside that he is moist enough. He had realized the responsibility and the sacrifice he could make as a father. This had happened with every baby. Only that it's been so long that I had forgotten, until our latest addition, Baby Xin. I am falling in love with him all over again, seeing the SNAG (sensitive new-age guy) that he can be.
Of course the photo here is not him. Nobody can beat Baby Xin's skin now. J is now moist at heart, he spends time taking photos of our little dear here.
And gentlemen, if you believe you are not moist enough, wait till fatherhood. You'll be one extra-lovable man, totally moisturized at heart!

Coffee Maker for J

Last Oct, J bought some Starbucks coffee beans. These were sitting around for sometime, not doing anything because he realized later that we need to brew the coffee, unlike instant coffee. Being a non-coffee drinker, I didn't know any better.

So I thought it will be a good idea for us to get a coffee maker. I bought a new Philips coffee maker, from a friend who got it from a company lucky draw, but she never even opened it because she doesn't drink coffee. I got a >30% off the retail price, my friend got some cash for her "lucky" draw, and J got an early birthday present. Hehehe, never buy kitchen appliance for your wife as a birthday present - but it's ok to buy for your husband instead ;-)

So we were all excited about finally opening the pack of Starbucks coffee, and finally being able to brew the coffee. I read the instructions carefully, J put coffee beans in it, poured water into the compartment and started the machine. We waited, but only weak coffee water flowed into the jug. It smelled good, but certainly not drinkable.
Then I read the instructions again. Alamak, it says put ground coffee, not coffee beans. So I went to the internet to check, how to grind coffee. This time there are even more "canggih" machines to buy to grind coffee beans. First we bought the cow yoke, then the cow, now we've got to buy the cart? (Old chinese saying).
Unwilling to spend any more money, we tried grinding the coffee with a good old mortar and pestle. J's mom uses it to grind chilies, so we made sure it's washed carefully first ;-)
So now, 2nd try on the coffee machine. Yeah, successful! J now enjoys a good homemade cappuccino from Starbucks. We'll share a cup or two with friends when they drop by. No fun drinking alone, definitely.

Art project with Wei & Yuan

Last Sunday I came home from Tesco's with some groceries. After putting them away, some cardboard boxes which used to contain tea were carefully put away for recycling.
Oh by the way, I bought a lot of tea, because of the free mug that they were giving with the twin packs. I got 2 mugs like the one below, haha.

So the cardboard packaging which was left over, was quickly snapped up by Wei and Yuan, saying that they could do something with it. I had no idea what they would make.
Then on Monday,when I came back from work, they showed me 2 dioramas that they made with the cardboard. A world of their own, in black and white.
I asked them why they didn't colour the buildings. The plain answer was that they were lazy.
So I told them that we would do an art project together on Malaysia day, a rest day for all of us.
And here are the results:
Wei's world


Yuan's world

The colourful dioramas are filled with buildings and people entirely from their own imagination. Condominiums, police station, schools, houses, banks etc. are all thought up and positioned by themselves. I only helped with a bit of the colouring.

It was a fun project and the kids are very proud of their work.