It's Earth Hour Today!

Yes! I have to agree that I have been pretty silent about the entire issue on Earth Hour 2009. My silence does not mean rejection towards the drive, it was more like observing how other Malaysians take accountability over their individual responsibility in making the earth a better place for our children and their future.

Though the drive might just require everyone's participation in switching off the power and lights for just one hour - but people... I believe we can do more than that don't we?

Many of us tend to blame others whenever a mishap happens somewhere around the globe. We do not see that WE DO play our part in "destroying" our beautiful mother earth. As the knowledge world gets wider, as people gets more technical with developments, and as individuals swarms for higher education - we have forgotten the simplest of all rules which allows us to be able to still enjoy the beautiful parts of mother nature - preservation of the basics! I tend to get the perception that as technology grows, the intellectual part of humanity dropped - technically I mean. What happened to their rational mind of preserving the best of mother nature for our future? All forgotten? Or is it unimportant?

Earth Hour is not only a drive to encourage people to turn off their power for just that one hour, BUT it is a move to initiate what is expected from each individual who participates in the event thereafter. Though our part might be little in our own perception - do not forget, Rome was not build in one day my friend. If each of us, takes accountability over our own actions and decisions, we can certainly make a different to the environment and to the people around us. Just as the saying goes "Good practice starts from HOME".

So, friends and people out there... let us join hearts and hands in taking on this drive to the next level. Think thrice before we make a decision - IF it helps to save mother nature for our next generation. The simplest and basics can start with our own daily routine and practices - save power, electricity, and use environmental friendly products. For WE can MAKE the DIFFERENCE!

New Growth

I did not blog about loosing hair after a hair appointment at a very well known hair saloon earlier. The case happened when I had wanted only a simple haircut done in one of Charlize Theron earlier styles. The hair stylist which I have pointed out to do my haircut is of a professional level which I have read people raved about his skills. His name is Eddie from Hair Perfect.

I have to admit that Eddie indeed is a skillful hairstylist given the fact that he could finish a haircut within 15-20mins in accordance to your hairstyle requirements. But, he can get pretty upset if he suggest you to do more than what you have intended for, and when you do not agree with his suggestions. This is based from my own experience.

I walked in on a Sunday morning at 11am for a simple haircut just a week before the CNY festive season. And Eddie was suggesting me to do a colour on top of my haircut, as he insisted that with my jet-black hair, and the style that I had opted for - the lengths and shape will not stand out without some hair colour *sulking*. I told him politely that I do not want to colour my hair and that my hair only needs a haircut and nothing else. And just I've said that, he said this to me in cantonese "If you want me to cut your hair, then you have to let me do as I have suggested". Boy! What a statement which did not catch me at that time as my mood was pretty patient! I did not walk out, but instead succumbed to his threat *hitting my head hard*. I am a real dumbo!

He charged me for a haircut, a hair-colour job, and a combo hair treatment - all for RM408.00!!! And me and my then stupidity and patience - paid for that bloody blood-sucking price.

Well, having said that, not only the price paid is not worth while - it was indeed the worse of all move that I had decided for him to colour my hair with what he promised to be one of the best brand of hair colour and hair care products - Keratase. My hair started to take effects after the chinese new year. It started dropping. And it is not a small volume, the volume is high which ends up a handful of fallen hair each time during each hair wash. And it was alarming!

Thank God I was blessed with a headful full of hair. At every occassion since my childhood days, hairstylist has been complaining that my hair is too thick, too much and not easy to colour as it is jet-black in colour, which indicates a healthy crown. I started loosing a large volume of hair, and up to a point where I myself felt that my head is very light and my hair is a lot thinner than what I used to feel. I went berserk... ballistic, and frantically called a friend who is an outlet manager for the L'occitane boutique at Gurney Plaza asking for advise and help. He was with a hair care products supply company before, and he had been trained well on hair textures, characters and hair care before - so, I had my emergency hair guru which I practically ran to for help instantaneously.

He explained that each strand of hair is protected by a layer which seals the strands natural colour and protects it from UV lights and other harmful atmosphere. And at each hair colouring process, hair saloon will use the white lotion a.k.a. developing lotion to "open" up this layer of protection, which thereafter will not be "closed" - just to inject the colour that we want into the body of the hair. Being an Asian, it is natural that our hair's content has the natural tones of red, and it will certainly be a lot easier for saloons to inject both brown and red tones to our Asian hair compared to other ethnic groups.

What made my hair drop is that the colour-sealing process which most hair saloon proudly advertise is "hair treatment" that they claim to seal your hair colour and to clean out the remaining chemical. All those that they say are all lies!

The agent that is being used on your hair is really a chemical agent to seals up the hair colour BUT it will harm your hair. What agent is it? It is silicone. What will the silicone do to your hair? It covers your hair with a layer of silicone, so that you will feel that your hair is smooth and silky and soft to the touch after the treatment. But the silicone also acts as a layer of plastic that bars your hair from breathing and repairing. And what's worse? It weighs down on your already weak hair after the hair colour process and thus, causing the hair follicles to give way and the hair will start dropping.

When I was briefed of all this information, I made a very clear decision for myself. Hair colouring is totally a non-value-add to my hair health, and I will not divulge myself into another phase of stupidity to colour my hair again. And he guided me on what products to use to help me with my hair growth, what to strengthen my hair, and even shared a little secret on how he make some homemade hair serum for scalp and hair care with me.

Now, thanks to Zowie, I crowning glory is starting to grow lots of new hair again.

Darling Lucas

Normally it is a custom for us to take some studio pictures of our children when they are small just for keepsake purposes, and to remind us of their baby/toddler look. We have not been taking a lot of pictures of little Lucas as our Canon Ixus camera has been giving us numerous problems with the its functionality due to infrequent usage. In fact, this is the second time a Canon Ixus camera has let us down badly. Looking at the price we have paid for both units, and the outcome of its stability and reliability - Canon Ixus is seriously a bad choice of a digital camera for us.

As for James, in fact I took a lot of his baby pictures as well as video clips when he was younger. But I do not have any to share or show as it was all been stored in my personal laptop before the entire hard disk crashed earlier last year. Now, we are left with a handful of James's baby pictures which includes a few professional studio shots that was taken when he was about a year old plus.

Now, I am not taking the risk of using a semi-functioning digital camera that could potentially fail me again nor having them saved in my laptop hard disk without a back-up disk. I basically brought little Lucas to an old but famous photo studio to snap a couple of professional shots just to capture his 6 months old look. And here it is...

Lucas looks very much like Nick a.k.a. his daddy when he was young. Most of our relatives, family members and friends has been commenting that little Lucas is the exact cookie mold of his dear daddy. And I really have to agree to this statement, especially when I dug out Nick's childhood photographs and see the exact resemblance of how Lucas looks now - there is no doubts that our dear little Lucas is the exact replica of his daddy's looks.

Detours...

Something which I have been doing for the past week whenever a tele-conference that I attends gets boring or the topic of discussion is non-related to my area - digital scrapbooking!!! *LOL*

Geez... I think I am getting pretty engrossed with digital scrapbooking lately and I have been downloading and purchasing quite a number of tools too to help with my digital passion *grinning sheepishly at my silly expenditure*

Here is the another piece I did when I was going through the teleconference yesterday afternoon. Looks simple, but the picture captured both Shawn and myself as of last month on a morning before Shawn left for school, and I left for work.


Shawn basically look very much like me in his facial features, skin tone, teeth and nails strength as we both were blessed with the benefit of having loads of calcium injected when we were both in the expecting stages. I can still recall gulping down multiple glasses of fresh milk with fresh eggs when I was expecting Shawn daily. And for myself on the other hand, my mom went for weekly calcium jabs for the first 3 months when she was expecting me. That explains why we are so calcium rich *smiles*

Down & Out

I was down and out over the past few days - since Friday till now. Reason? I was actually having a prolonged sorethroat that appears to be "now you see it, now you don't" over the last couple of weeks, and all hell broke loose when I ate glorious Thai food on Thursday afternoon when dining with some of the visitors from Bringham Young University (BYU) .

As a matter of fact, I am still having a slight sorethroat with very mild fever right now even after I have completed a 4-days course of antibiotics that started since Saturday morning. Thank heavens that I had yesterday as my replacement holiday from the last Prophet Mohamed's birthday, where I get to rest an extra day before resuming work today.

You'll be thinking how on earth I can blog while working *lol* - I am at present attending a teleconference call and finding the topic of discussion is deviating to areas which is of not my interest. So, in short - stealing bones la... a.k.a. curi tulang *LOL*

The Brothers...

Today is pretty relaxed for me as I am working on the island today for an activity on job placement organised by a MNC company. So, I am able to find a little breathing time in the afternoon for me to do some digital scrapwork for my 2 older boys.

The picture was taken about a month back when we dined at A&W at Gurney Plaza - looks peaceful here. The age gap between Shawn and James is about 5 years plus, and sad to say, they do not really bond very well. Constantly, they will be fighting or arguing over every single thing *faint*.

Usually when we arrange for an outing, it will be very hard to bring all of them along without having to settle every single one of their squabble - right from the ride out till we return. That is why, it is very exhausting to have a complete family day. And most of the time, if we were to bring both the brothers out, we can't be bringing the baby along because of the split attention required in "toddler/child-sitting" these 2 brothers.

Till age and maturity sets in for both boys, I guess both Nick and myself will be having this "challenge" till then.

He's officially OUT!

Yes! James has successfully transitioned into his baby brother's room 2 nights ago. Yea... you might be thinking what trick did we used this time to lure him out from our room. We tried talking to him that he is a young man now and that he should be just like his elder brother, where he should be sleeping in a proper bed rather than a baby cot.

And to reward him if he successfully move over to a room, he will get a little study assistant which will be a learning computer - and voila! It just happened that very night!

So... it's mission perfecto for us!

How to Peel Him Off?

James... our second boy is now entering his fourth year, and is still sleeping with Nick and myself in our room. We are now facing tough time in peeling him off and getting him to either bunk-in with his elder brother, Shawn or start sharing the same room as his baby brother.

Bottomline, none of the above seems to interest him at all! He just would not budge! He is adamant at sleeping with us and he said nothing is going to change that *faint*.

Shawn on the other hand... you can call me cruel... I had been letting him sleep on his own, in his own room since he was a baby. Yup... and that was like since he was 1 month old. I might sound cruel, but that has made my Shawn a very independent boy. He had since been sleeping on his own till now.

You might be asking how did James developed this clingy habit and why we allowed it to happen. Well, James WAS supposed to be our 2nd and last addition into our family, and he was super-clingy to his dad even when he was only 5-days old. You might be thinking that I am exaggerating, but I am telling you the truth. James did not want anyone else to carry him aside from his daddy when he was so ill with his little body completely covered with serious eczema. And poor Nick had to carry him for the whole night! Yes! hear me... the whole night right up to 5am! He did not allowed Nick to lie down either, and only wanted to be held by the daddy. Spoiled little brat right? And the father?.... yup... he allowed his little boy to be spoiled too.

Since a baby, Nick has been taking care of James every night - especially for his night feeds. That was how James ended up in our room. And I believe you might be thinking what happens to little Lucas now. Lucas is a wonderful gift blessed by the Lord in His utmost right timing. He is not clingy to anyone, and anyone who takes care of him is fine for him as he always smiles sweetly to everyone that cares for him. And he sleeps with our maid every night now (due to space constraints la...). In fact, our maid is sharing the baby's room as we only have 3 rooms in our apartment.

So, back to the topic now.... how to peel James from being so clingy with us? Both Nick and myself are still cracking our heads on how to lure him out from our room. We believe as he grows, we should not be showing any favouritism in giving him the benefit of feeling closer to us compared to his two other brothers. They are all equal in our hearts, and James should not be getting any extra. Moreover, as he grows, it is not proper for a child to be sharing room with his parents as well as I do not want the little boy to "witness" anything extra which he is not ready to know now *lol* - hey, that is speaking from several experiences which some friends had shared with me.

We tried on several occasions to let James sleep with Shawn - sharing the same room and same queen sized bed. James freaked out, wanting the elder brother to hug and brush his hair non-stop with his hand for the entire night! And poor Shawn has konked-out middle of the night due to tiredness from doing so. We figured that Shawn will suffer lack of sleep if being put together with James, and end up... James is back into our room again.

Now... while we try on other possible methods to lure him out from the room... Anyone out there that might have better suggestions, please do share with us ;)

A Breath of Relief

Finally, I have managed to "kill-off" another one of my many assignments just a while ago. It is indeed a big relief for me especially over the last two weeks I had been worrying if I could complete this assignment before the end of this week.

You can imagine the stress I went through this morning. I got up quite early to start working on my quarter-done assignment this morning. Had both my breakfast and lunch while I work through my assignment on my laptop, and only getting up to ease myself at the restroom every now and then when nature calls *lol*. I even encountered several system hang-ups during the course and it just freaks me out and causes me more tension *imagine at a point I was so frustrated that I banged my desk!* And now, boy! Am I really glad that I managed to complete the 95 paged assignment by 4.45pm just now.

As for tonight.... hahahahaaa.... I am going to relax and rest my tired brain, eyes and fingers! Till tomorrow before I embark on my next assignment, I am going to free myself off my studies and spend some quality time with my family.

Will also spend some time to update on my family developments later.

Silence for the past 2 weeks

I have been missing out on blogging almost for the last two weeks. Reason? I have been extremely busy with my work and had been pretty ill myself as well.

Work is overwhelming BUT is certainly exciting. Why would I say its overwhelming? Looking at my capabilities, strength and level of endurance - what I am facing now is really chicken feet. Overwhelming is because of the amount of stress I put on myself on completing my work tasks within my working hours and keeping my after-work hours solely for my studies.

I had wanted to complete my 2nd assignment before the mid of March, but health has been keeping me away from getting my goal accomplished. Being ill for the past 1 week plus has definitely kept me abstained from taxing my health further. Not to mention that I had to refrain from eating the normal choice of food that I prefer. All in all, it is indeed a great hassle for me to balance both my health and my commitment perfectly, like I had always wanted to take charge/control of. By the way, I am a true-blue Choleric Sanguine for those who do not really know me.

Since early last week, my mind had wanted to push on, but my body and health way screaming its way out. That's when all hell broke loose and I was down with fever on last Wednesday. Imagine, I still sent my colleague a sms at 6.30am telling him I'll be a little late as I will be dropping by to the clinic first. Guess the doctor knew it better than me, he issued me with a MC and prescribed me medication and that kept me glued to the bed for the rest of the day!

I am still not back to my good health as of now, still battling with a stubborn-and-would-not-want-to-go-away sorethroat and my on-again-off-again sinus problem. And it is because of these 2 issues... and the medications, I can't keep my eyes open to work on my way-behind-time assignments. And to make matters worse, me and my silly and constantly worried mind, is working up all the unnecessary stress for myself.

Aside from my silly attitude, maybe its also because of mind exhaustion, I get really tired right after work. I can't face my books even if I still have that 20% strength remaining in me. My mind is void of ideas and words, what more with analysing power for my assignments. So, Facebook and some blog reading have been my window for de-stressing during these two weeks.

Well folks, till I can find time to gather myself again. Pardon me for my missing-in-action updates and blog-commenting till then.