The other night, Twin2 was standing in front of a full-length mirror, grinning impishly as he looked at himself in the mirror.
He’d exhale and push his tummy outwards and say, “BIIIG tummy!”
He’d then inhale and attempt to make his tummy as small as possible while saying, “Small tummy.”
He did this several times, laughing at himself. Then, realising that we were watching him and laughing at his antics, he sheepishly grinned and stopped :)
Tags: 2 years old, child development
Port Dickson is a small town some 40 minutes away by car from Kuala Lumpur. Its beaches are beautiful, its sand soft and fine, its sunsets awe-inspiring.
DH, the kids and I went there again last June, together with some friends from London. We didn’t stay the night though. While DH herded the kids into the van, I hastily snapped a few photos by the beach as dusk started to fall.
Photo taken with a Nikon D40 and 18-135mm Nikkor lens, aperture priority, 28mm focal length, F/14, 1/800 sec, ISO-400. Other than a slight adjustment on the fill flash and the addition of my site’s URL, there’s no other Photoshopping involved.
Tags: Port Dickson, sunset
It’s been a month since I embarked on my mission. I’m way behind my initial target of 2 kg per week as I’ve only lost 2 kg so far.
Despite what certain websites say, I do believe that losing weight is much harder as we start to (*gasp*) age. In my 20’s, I used to spend just 10 minutes on the treadmill each day to see some change in my weight. In my early 30’s, I used to cut my carbohydrates intake and start to feel my clothes loosening at the waist. Now, in my mid-30’s, I’m on the treadmill at least 3 times per week with my Samsung MiCoach, I’m cutting the carbs and sugar as much as I can, I eat a lot of vegetables and always include lean protein in my meals but the numbers on my digital scale have simply refused to budge for the past week or so. Could I have possibly reached a plateau so soon?
I’m getting disheartened, can you tell? But I’m not giving up just yet. After all, it’s only been just a month.
Image from fitsugar.com
My game plan:
1) I’ll start with Pilates again. I don’t have time to go to a Pilates class but I’ve got my Pilates VCD’s at home. They helped me a lot when I was pregnant with the twins and after giving birth to the twins.
2) I’ll increase the intensity and/or slope and/or duration and/or frequency of my dates with the treadmill.
Diet pills? I confess I tried them before — a little something that I got from my doctor. They worked by suppressing my appetite, thereby making it easier for me to cut my total caloric intake, and by making me thirsty all the time, thus forcing me to drink more water. My doctor did warn me they might increase my blood pressure so she constantly monitored it. In the end, my BP was fine but my hair suffered (I lost a lot of hair, perhaps from the loss of minerals, not so much the pills) and so did the people around me because the pills somehow made me irritable all the time (think: a woman with PMS every single day). That was sometime after I had RoundBoy. Sometime after I had the twins, I tried the same pills again. But they didn’t work like they once did. The only thing that changed it my age.
Protein shakes? I’ve tried them, too. They’re okay for busy mornings when I don’t have time for breakfast or for evenings when I don’t feel hungry after having had a heavy lunch. But seriously, how long can someone possibly live on a liquid diet? They’re quite costly, too.
So for now, I’ll stick to my game plan and hope to have better news the next time I give an update.
Tags: diet, weight loss
When I was new in Malaysia, I was shocked to hear people asking each other out for a drink, even in the morning. “Jom, I belanja you minum!” (Come, I’ll buy you a drink!) It’s quite common to go into an office at 10 am or so and find that person nowhere to be found. If you ask his officemates, they’d nonchalantly tell you, “Oh, dia pergi minum” (Oh, he went out for a drink).
Why the shock, you might ask? You see, the Filipino word for ‘to drink’ is ‘inom’. However, the same word can be used to mean something else — “nag-inuman sila” (they went out for a drink), “malakas siyang uminom” (he drinks a lot) — and by drink there, it doesn’t refer to just any other drink, but it very specifically refers to alcohol.
Given that most Malaysians are Muslims, they do not drink alcohol because it is forbidden in Islam, hence my confusion on their nonchalant use of the word ‘minum‘.
Eventually, I got to understand that they do mean ‘have a drink’ when they say ‘pergi minum‘ but they’re referring to the usual drinks that one gets from any restaurant and hawker centre in Malaysia, not alcohol. My bad!
The proper word in Malay for ‘drink’ is minuman. However, the word air, which means ‘water’, is commonly accepted in daily usage. So don’t be confused when a Malaysian asks you “What water would you like to drink?”. He/she simply means “What drink would you like to have?”. It’s just a very literal translation of the question ‘Nak minum air apa?’.
When you are placing your orders in a restaurant or mamak shop or roadside stall, it’s quite normal for the person taking your orders to ask you ‘Nak minum air apa?’ or simply ‘Air?’.
Image from Wendy’s Little Corner
Malaysia is, of course, well known for its teh tarik [teh tah-rî], literally meaning ‘pulled tea.’ It’s hot tea with condensed milk which is poured from one glass to another several times to cool it a bit before serving. The ‘pulling’ motion while pouring the tea back and forth has given the drink its moniker; it also makes the tea nice and frothy. Teh tarik probably had its origins in the Indian chai, introduced to Malaysia by the Indian workers who were brought by the British to then Malaya as ‘bonded labourers‘.
In addition to teh tarik, the standard drinks menu in any food outlet usually includes kopi (hot local coffee with milk), Nescafé (hot Nescafé with milk), Milo (hot Milo with milk) and Horlicks (hot Horlicks with milk). By milk, I mean condensed milk, so if you don’t fancy the stuff, ask for the drinks with ‘O’ after the name, such as teh o, which is hot tea without milk.
And if you want your drink cold, just add the word ais (pronounced the same way as the English word ‘ice’) after your drink, such as Milo Ais. Expect to pay a bit more for the addition of ice, anywhere between 20 to 50 sen.
Craving for iced lemon tea? No problem, just ask for teh o ais limau — tea without milk, with ice and a squeeze of lemon (the round, green-coloured local variety, known as calamansi in the Philippines). Sometimes you get lucky and they use limau nipis (lime), which I personally prefer because of its unique delicate scent.
Fresh fruit juice can also be had in most eating outlets, even in most roadside stalls, with fresh oren (freshly squeezed orange juice diluted with water and mixed with sugar) being the most common. Other juices can also be had all-year round, such as tembikai (watermelon), epal (apple), belimbing (star fruit) and fresh carrot juice with or without milk. In some places, you can also order laici (lychee, pronounced the same way), mangga (mango) and durian Belanda (soursop) drink. A quick word of caution for the mangga and durian Belanda drinks — better clarify from the waiter first if it’s fresh or not, otherwise, you might end up disappointed with the juice-from-concentrate variety.
If you want plain water, just ask for air kosong, which some people also refer to as ’sky juice’ (juice from the sky – get it?). And you better specify if you want your water cold, otherwise they’ll give you warm water a.k.a. air suam [ayh su-wam]. When I was new in Malaysia, I found this rather strange because warm water is not an item that people order in Philippine restaurants or food outlets. But it’s very, very common in Malaysia, believe me. In most places, air suam can be had for free but if you do get charged for it, it’s usually very minimal — something like 20 sen per glass.
My favourite drink? Air kelapa muda (chilled young coconut a.k.a. buko in the Philippines). You can usually order it in tom yam restaurants, your local kedai mamak (Indian eateries who serve roti canai, or paratha, 24 hours a day) and the more upscale restaurants. You can also buy them from the chilled fruits and vegetables section at a nearby hypermarket. Current market price per coconut is RM2.30 per piece in Tesco Hypermarkets and from RM4.00 onwards at hawker centres and restaurants.
After reading about the latest collaboration between Adidas and Samsung — the MiCoach phone a.k.a. Samsung SGH-F110 — I was crazy enough to ask the friend of a friend to buy me the whole setup, all the way from Germany (she’s a student there). You see, Samsung has no plans for now to launch this gadget in Asia. That’s why I went through all the trouble of getting the phone from Europe.
The Samsung MiCoach gear — phone, heart rate monitor, stride sensor, earphones and USB cable. Arm band not shown in the photo. Laptop not included in the MiCoach package ;)
The phone looks nondescript, at first glance. True, it’s a small and slim slider phone, but with its black colour and simple design, it’s not bound to turn any heads, unlike, say, a Sony Ericsson or a Motorola.
I’m more accustomed to Nokias and Motorolas, so I’m having some difficulty adjusting to the MiCoach’s short message system input method. I find it quite bewildering because I need to press the ‘0′ key to change the word when using the T9 method and the ‘#’ key for space.
The phone comes with a 2-megapixel camera which can also take videos. Aside from the fact that you can zoom in a bit while taking pics and videos, there’s nothing to shout about its camera.
However, Outlook users will probably appreciate the fact that it can synch with Outlook effortlessly. You have the option of synching just Contacts (which I did, for fear of overloading the phone’s memory) and/or the Calendar and/or Tasks (which I also did).
So let’s get one very important thing straight: as a phone, it’s pretty standard, but as a fitness tool, that’s when the Samsung MiCoach truly shines.
For best results, buy the phone together with the Adidas heart rate monitor (the type that you strap on to your chest) and the Adidas stride counter that complete the set. Oh, and it comes with standard USB cables, earphones and an Adidas armband with a small pocket for the phone.
Step 1: Connect to the MiCoach website and sign up for a free account. You’ll have to enter your date of birth, sex and weight. You’ll also be asked if you exercise regularly and if you can walk for 30 minutes. I answered ‘no’ to the last question. (*Sigh* I am so out of shape…) MiCoach’s website classified me as a Beginner, a piece of information that I’ve always known even without the MiCoach :P
Step 2: Download the free software that will enable you to synch the Fitness features of your phone.
Tags: MiCoach, Samsung, Samsung F110
