Discovering Korean Drama Series

Lately, hubby and my kids have been following some Korean drama series on viki.com . For years I have resisted the urge to watch these dramas because I understand how addictive they can become...until the 3 of them started watching them during dinner time and I got hooked too. By the way, hubby and I never allowed our kids to watch TV during mealtimes because they were such slow-eaters, but now that they are older and can eat much faster, we have relaxed the rule a bit. 

So far I've enjoyed "I Do, I Do" and "My Princess". I know many people have given reviews on their blog about these 2 dramas so I won't review them here.  

I Do, I Do

My Princess

One thing I discovered very quickly is how a person has to literally focus all attention on the TV screen in order to read the subtitles, which means that no multitasking (for example: doing household chores, reading/sending sms, surfing the internet) can be carried out while watching each episode. Perhaps it's time to pick up a new language...Korean!

The Olympics Is Here Again

Been enjoying the 2012 Olympics for the past 1½ weeks. I remember watching my first Olympics on TV way back in 1976 when I was a little girl and  how I especially loved the women's gymnastics events. That was the year Nadia Comaneci won perfect 10 scores in gymnastics and became such an inspiration to little girls all over the world that I had even dreamed of becoming a gymnast myself. Of course that never happened, so just as there are armchair travellers I became an armchair gymnast and cheered for the gymnasts competing at every single Olympics since then.



My older brother taught me to play badminton when I was 6, probably because he was bored and had no one to play with. I remember using the front gate of our house as a net, and how I soon mastered the game and we had many hours of fun competing against each other. I found that I was good with the racquet and took part in inter-school badminton tournaments in primary and secondary school. In college I even took up squash and won 2nd place in a college squash tournament. I could play table tennis too, but strangely enough, could never master tennis itself. I lost so many balls over the fence that I eventually gave up.

Some of the sports trophies from my primary school days

Sports became an outlet for the very shy young girl that I was, and I loved swimming and basketball, but was deathly scared of getting hit by a volleyball. Growing up with 2 brothers, I could even play football and knew all the teams in the English football league. The teenagers in our church youth group would have outdoor sports activities every Sunday afternoon and I sported a tan that most Caucasians would envy (back in those days we didn't know very much about the dangers of UV rays from the sun), although now in my forties I have to pay the price with freckles that refuse to fade no matter what beauty cream I use.

Sadly, a recurrent knee problem has put a halt to many of my sports activities. So every four years I stay glued to the TV during the Olympics and now with YouTube there's even more to watch. Oh, and I absolutely LOVE the daily Google Olympic doodles, especially the interactive ones.

To play, click the link: http://www.google.com/doodles/hurdles-2012
(Use the left and right arrows to make him run, and the space bar to jump over the hurdles).

2 Decades Of Love

This is what appeared in my blog sidebar on 11th of July 2012. Yup, hubby and I have been married for 20 years, although it seems like only yesterday... 


I was 24 and hubby was 28 when we got married at the Glad Tidings church in PJ. I still remember that I could not sleep a wink the night before the wedding, running through all the plans in my mind and praying that everything would go well. 


I was supposed to have my make-up done at 8am but the make-up lady got lost and couldn't find my house even with the address and instructions given to her. That was the days when we did not have the convenience of mobile phones, so I was in quite a panic when she still didn't show up by 9am since hubby was due to arrive at 10am. Thankfully she came at slightly after 9am and was so skilled that I had my make-up and hair done in no time at all, and was all ready before the clock struck 10.


Hubby arrived on time and we had the customary cham cha which is offering a cup of tea to each of my parents, aunties and uncles before heading to church for the wedding ceremony.


The wedding ceremony in church was short and sweet, and we had a tea reception after that at the hall within the church premises.


We had 2 dinners, one on the wedding day hosted by hubby's parents and one on the next day hosted by my parents since both sets of parents had wanted to invited every single one of their friends and family, and Chinese restaurants in those days could not accommodate so many tables. It was a tiring affair - we shook so many hands of people offering their congratulations and we smiled so much for so many hours that our hands were stiff and our smiles were frozen on our faces long after the guests had gone home!


But we had fun.


And now, 20 years later with 2 kids...I must say that by the grace of God through good times and bad, we are still very much in love :)

Celebrated by having buffet lunch at Mosaic,
Mandarin Oriental Hotel KL

A Perfect Smile

My daughter. SweetTeen, has been wearing dental braces for the past 2 years since she was 12 years old. She was very self-conscious of her crooked teeth and refused to smile whenever she had her photo taken. 

After having 4 teeth extracted, enduring pain and discomfort in the mouth after her monthly dental visits, breaking countless mini toothbrushes used to clean the braces and in between her teeth, not being able to eat some of her favourite food and being teased unrelentlessly by her older sibling for having metal in her mouth...here are some shots of the progress through the 2 years:

The first day of wearing braces

Teeth beginning to straighten, spring added on the left
to create a gap for a growing new tooth

Teeth straightening out very nicely

Bottom braces added after a year and a half

 And now the final result after exactly 2 years and 2 months:

A beautiful smile!

The dentist even gave us the molds to keep for remembrance...

before

and after

It has been costly but well worth the money spent. Now SweetTeen can flash her smile without a care in the world. Anyway, we told her that she needs to pay back the RM5500 after she graduates from university and starts work, and she went "WHAT?!!"

On This Night

I'd like to think of my family as being the typical modern, average-income Malaysian household where everyone owns an electronic gadget (or two). 

After dinner we would either be watching TV together or each of us would be seated around the house using some form of communication device - a laptop, tablet or smart phone. Don't get us wrong, we still have conversations with each other...while using our devices. 


So on this particular night it was a welcome change when we did other things besides having our eyes glued to the LED monitor...well, except CoolTeen.



I baked an apple cinnamon cake, which turned out well after a previous disastrous attempt.




CoolTeen did some Maths homework then proceeded to de-stress by playing some online game...with his favourite chocolate chip cookies within reach, of course.



SweetTeen got daddy to help her with her school woodwork project. She said that the girls in her class had to fix this letter holder while the boys did needlework...strange but a good experience for them, I suppose!