1st birthday already!

That's My cake!

What's with the candle mama?

This is actually an over due post. But with running around behind Owen and having grandpa over for the weekend, I hardly have time to blog. Owen is 1 last Wednesday and we had a small party for him on Saturday. And it was the 1st time grandpa ever get to cuddle Owen! :)

Sorry birthday boy alseep already....

For the party, I didn't even bother to decorate our place since he'll be more interested in the food than the deco anyways. And besides, he's the only kid around since our friends has yet to have children of their own. I bet that there's gonna be more birthday parties when he grows older and has the ability to actually "appreciate" a party! Let's hope that these parties will not be on a full scale bankruptcy for both of us! I'm praying now that his future kiddy friends/invites are nice kids, but then again I'm keeping stakes to high here!

From left to right: Azni, Dominique, Tony, Cheryl, Yanina, Shirley, me and grandpa.

We wanted to have an out door barbecue but as the weather wasn't co-operating, we did it on our balcony. No not that charcoal barbecue, although I'd love to have one of those. We had to use our electric barbecue set, which emits less smoke since we're living in an apartment building. As it was a potluck thing, our friend from the Philipines came with Embutido - Filipino style meatloaf - which was delicious! The others came with nasi impit, some great suasages for grill, kimchi, pandan agar-agar; while I made orange fried rice, prawn & veg skewers, char siew pork ribs, satay sauce to go with the nasi impit/cucumbers/onions. As usual I didn't manage to take photos of the food but a video of it. Must be from the fact that its been so long since we get to meet up with these group of people that its non-stop chatting for all of us until I forget! :D I will up load the video here once I manage to convert it.

It was like yesterday when he was born! Owen at 1 month old with grandma

As for the pièce de résistance AKA as the cake, we've ordered a strawberry cake. Believe me when I say strawberry, I mean whole strawberries and not the slices. The berries were actually sandwiched in a very light textured vanilla mouse. I was really happy every liked the cake as it wasn't too heavy to stomach nor too sweet to taste. Hubs had to blow the candle for Owen as he's already asleep by the time we get to the cake part. I actually baked him Winnie the Pooh pattern cake on Wednesday to share with his play group. It was an egg less banana cake as I wasn't sure which kid can or can not eat whole egg, so better to be safe than end up in the hospital! eeiikkksss....

My eggless Winne the Pooh cake! :D

Owen trying to crawl at 5 and half months....

How time does fly! It was just like yesterday when he was born, 10 days late that is.. hehehehehe.... All of a sudden, this little guy is rolling over, smile to you (finally) after having to make funny noise/faces (come one, which parent doesn't?!) in attempt to make him smile, trying to make the 1st attempt on all fours, crawling, cooing, giving you his hearty belly laughs, the midnight "alarms", the 1st jabs at the doctors office, etc etc... Its these precious moments that we're going to cherish forever in our hearts and minds, coz he's growing up and has only 1 babyhood.

Fuel prices....

has increase once again in Malaysia. According to mum, its now at RM2.78 per liter. Well the increase is every where around the world. Well... except the middle east of course. Why? Because I still think its the only place on earth where oil is DIRT CHEAP! Perhaps cheaper than a bottle of Coke! But hey, what do I know, right? I've never been to the middle east before.

But any ways. After reading some online news, seems like the government will be doing something about it. Doing what? Cutting costs on government functions, reevaluating mega projects, improving the public transportation system, and assisting poor and single mothers.

Why I high lighted cutting cost in RED? Coz it will not do a lot of good for the people in terms of cost cutting. If they really want to cots costs, shouldn't they be considering ministers not travel in "style"? How about cutting out on fancy luncheons/dinner/galas that ministries has the "privilege"? How about NOT "burning" our tax payers money this coming 31th August, Merdeka celebration with fireworks? How about monitoring corruption, cutting out unnecessary government staffs who's doing nothing and getting paid? I seriously don't think a director needs to have 2 extra kaki and tangan (legs and arms) on the left and right when he/she already has the thousand "Buddhas' hands" and their own legs and arms, right? What do I know?

The high light in GREEN: Man, I've heard and read what the government wants to do, but seriously do they need to do it now and what is the purpose any way? And BTW, what happened to all the profits from Petronas? Shouldn't Petronas be giving back to the people in times like these with all the profits that they are making a.k.a. fuel hike? Oil that is found and "drained" in Malaysia belongs to the country and its people. Why can't we Malaysian's enjoy at least some benefits as an oil producing country like our neighbour Brunei? OR is our oil slowly drying up and the national oil company a.k.a Petronas is keeping us in the dark? Why? Its because Malaysia is currently importing more oil and exporting it. But then again what do I know?

On improving public transportation. Not enough bus lanes, how to move during traffic jams? We've got 4 lanes in some areas and 3 in most. I'm pretty sure by allocating 2 lanes for public transport, people would just give up driving their cars since its just going to be jammed up any way. hehehehe.... BTW, its been 2 years since the last time anyone monitors what the government said about building more LRTs, having more buses and trains in the country. And ever since I've been back in 2007, NOTHING has changed!! No work has even started up till today for new routes/rails etc. We don't even know where our new lines/routes are going to be built or where it goes through as there's such silence about any rail projects. At least our neighbour knows where their rails are going to be built for the next 10 or 20 years. Again, what do I know?

And what is this about taxes for importing spare parts for buses/trains? As if we are producing them locally, (which is NOT at the moment!) tell me how does the bus companies up keep our already running buses and keep the cost low for users?

Man, already the electricity is (or has already) going up, food prices (especially RICE!) that is already high will be even higher with this fuel hike. I'm thinking now, how does the average Joe/Muthu/Ah Beng/Ali that earns just enough to cover rent and food for the family is going to survive ah? Haiz.... And being a senior citizen, mum is getting very worried about this increase as we Asians tend to spend more on filling our stomachs with rice.

And then, the government comes out with this rebate thingy. COME ON MAN! You can not be serious!! I think the government needs a new accountant-lar, RM625 annual rebate is really nothing. Can not even buy a kopi-O at your local mamak or a Coke from the machine man! Double haiz.....

Then someone somewhere told us Malaysians, your average Joe here, to change your life style/attitude. Man, how to change when we're already living in a very thrifty lifestyle. Change our attitude towards public transportation? YEAH RIGHT! Look at the state of it, there's just too much demand and not enough supply. Why don't you Mr/Madam/Encik/Puan minister take the bus/LRT/Kommuter/bicycle to work? Has anyone of you notice the safety, accessibility irregularities of our public transport system? I can't blame you being chuffed around in your spanking new Mercedes/BMW/Perdana/SUVs. So tell me, why can't you change yourlife style sir/madam? Once again, what do I know?