Some people asked me why I don’t celebrate Mother’s Day? If you asked me that, you probably do not know me very well. So let me tell you why. My husband is not the kind who likes to celebrate things. I think he don’t really like to celebrate things  (or rather, he is not raised for that)… I mean, to date I’ve been a decade with him, and yet he only started to learn to celebrate special occasions and whatnot when my friends celebrate special days with me and stuff during the past two years.

Touching on Mother’s Day, my husband always remind me that I’m not his mother… so… we don’t celebrate Mother’s Day in this family, and I kinda return the favour on Father’s Day every year, since he is not my father either. So bad of me. But hey, these things are rather commercialized anyway. Eating out costs a bomb on these ‘special occasions’.

Anyway…as much as I don’t celebrate anything on my end, I ought to give myself a pat on my back for doing a darn good job in raising my kid, despite of what those judgmental and cynical people out there say. And I ought to congratulate myself for still staying sane after being a mother for almost a decade.

You have no idea how it is like to deal with a special need child 24/7 unless you’re stuck with one for the rest of your life. You don’t get a breather and you can hardly boast about any achievements or milestones at all like what other parents could do. In other word, I feel that it sucked being a mother to a special need child, but here I am, still sane, and have yet to end my pathetic, chained and shackled life.

So yes. Congratulations to myself for putting up with what not many could survive for so long.

And having said that, happy Mother’s Day to all mothers, especially those with special need children. My salute goes to all of you, for it’s easy to be a mother to a normal child, but it’s almost hell on Earth to be a mother to special need children.

Cleffairy: I should learn to have no expectation at all. Then life won’t disappoint me as much.

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Others are complaining too. The Earth is getting hotter and hotter with each passing day, and it’s all our own fault. We did not take care of Mother Earth well enough, and now, it’s getting back at us, with awful temperature, unpredictable weather as well as various natural disasters.

What can we do to save the Earth from being further harmed? Well, we can start small by being environmentally friendly. We must stop wasting resources. We must reduce, reuse and recycle. And we must stop using things polluting the Earth.

Touching on recycling, it is unfortunate that recycling does not really works well on plastics.

It’s hardly biodegradable. Made using our precious petroleum, plastic bottles takes about 400 years to fully biodegrade. Did you know that plastic bottles were only created a little over a century ago? This means that every plastic bottle ever made ( apart from the few that were incinerated) still exists and are probably in landfills or the ocean.

Since recycling doesn’t really work when it comes to plastic bottles, downcycling is the correct word to use because all those bottles you put up for recycling has been downcycled to lower grade plastic products rather than recycled into plastic bottles. But that isn’t the main concern, the process involved in downcycling plastic involves additional carbon footprint ( transportation from recycling factories, electricity needed to blend them into smaller size granule before melting them down completely). Why waste all those additional resources just to turn a readily useable plastic bottle into some cheaper plastic product?

You can REUSE your plastic bottles while buying certain products. What products, you ask me? I’ll tell you.

You can bring your plastic bottles to BYOB. BYOB stands for Bring Your Own Bottle, a concept detergent store that is promoting the 3R concepts.(Reuse, Recycle and Reduce).

Many times we hear people use those three words but how many of use actually put it to use? BYOB is now offering you a chance to do your part in saving mother nature and the best part of this whole idea – you get to save some money too!

Every household need detergents, be it for your floor, clothes, kitchen, stove, and so many more and did you know that every time you buy one from your nearest convenient store, you’re wasting money buying the plastic bottle that comes with it as well? Stop paying for plastic, bring your own bottles to BYOB and refill them with their ecofriendly detergent.

Here’s the price list, in case you’re interested:

Cleffairy: So what are you waiting for now? Go and dig out your bottles, and refill them with sweet-smelling detergents!

Note: This is not a paid post. It just happen that the author of Over A Cuppa Tea is all for going GREEN!

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Here’s Chef Wan, preparing the ingredients for the Greek Moussaka.

Raw ingredients in the pan

The base of the Greek Moussaka

How it should look like after spreading the sauce and the fried eggplants on it.

One tip to make a good Greek Moussaka is that you must be generous with the cheese, or it won’t taste nice

Final product…

Yummy looking, isn’t it? Here’s how you make Greek Moussaka:

Ingredients:

2 packets of Simplot hashbrown, fried and crumbled

2 yellow onions, chopped

6 garlic, minched

800grams of minched beef/lamb/chicken

1 tablespoon of dried oregano

1 handful of fresh basil, chopped

A few stalks of fresh thyme

A handful of fresh Italian parsley

2 cans of Leggo’s Tomato Puree

4 large table spoon of Leggo’s Tomato Paste

3 tablespoon of sweet paprika

4 large Mediterranean eggplants, sliced 2 cm thick and sauteed til soft and brown with olive oil

1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

4 cups of milk-bring to simmer with a pinch of cinnamon powder and nutmeg

3 tablespoon of flour

150 grams of butter

2 cups of grated mozarella cheese

2 cups of grated parmesan cheese

To make the Greek Moussaka:

1.  Heat olive oil and sautee the onions and garlic til soften and add the minced land/beef/chicken in the pan. Add fresh herbs and brown the meat slowly over a medium heat.
2. Add Leggo’s Tomato Puree, leggo’s Tomato Paste and season with salt, fresh crack black pepper and sugar. Cook the meat sauce until it is slightly thickens.
3. In another pan, prepare the white sauce by melting the butter and adding the flour, stirring for 2 minutes. Slowly add the hot milk and stir them to form thick sauce. Season with salt and pepper, and set aside.
4. To assemble the Moussaka, spread a layer of Simplot Hashbrowns in the bottom of a greased baking tray.
5. Spread the top of the hashbrowns with the meat sauce and arage a single layer of all the eggplants.
6. Sprinkle both mozarella and parmesan cheese, and repeat everything in two layers.
7. Finish the top later with white sauce and both cheeses. Cover the tray with alluminium foil and bake in the oven for 180 degress for approximately 30-40 minutes. Remove from the oven, and leave it to stand for 5-10 minutes to set before putting it back in to bake for another 10 minutes for the top to brown.
8. Serve Moussaka lukewam.

Preparation time: 15 mins/Cook 1 hour 15 mins/Serves 4-6 person.

Cleffairy: Have fun trying, folks.

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Bro Framestone is looking for:

• 100 Malaysian blogs whose blogger is Malaysian, and residing in Malaysia.
• Blogs with traffics of 500 unique visits and above per day.
• Blogs that’s written in English, or Bahasa Malaysia.
• Well written, content oriented blogs.
• Blog updated at least 4 times a week.
• Not tied up in a contract with any advertising agencies eg: Nuffnang, Advertlets, etc.
• Committed in working in Project 100 Bloggers.

So if you’re fit all the criteria above, and is interested to join the project, do check it out at Bro Framestone’s blog for HERE more information and you may fill up the form for this project HERE.

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I doubt not many feels the way that we feel many years back when we’re still pretty much ‘hormonal’ during first few months, or first few years of our relationship.

For most, after a decade or two in a relationship or a marriage, having sex is just another task you got to endure. It’s simply too much an effort to get movin’ and instead of having a sizzling foreplay to make each other feel good during the process of it, it’s usually just another one of those get down and ‘unload’ to scratch the mutual itch, and it usually takes what? Less than 10 minutes? No, I’d say, 5 minutes would have settled the job. It’s a quickie, they say…and it’s just plain boring!

Libido, tends to go down, down, down and almost nonexistent for most. Not just women experienced the decrease of libido. Whoever tells you that only women experienced that after giving birth, is a big liar. Men experienced it too, trust me on that.

You see, many things tends to get in the way of our sex life; mainly other commitments like work. And it doesn’t help that sometimes nuisance of kids tends to make noises when you got the mood to get intimate with your other half. Yes, I’m speaking about this through experience, and I am not ashamed to admit that if I managed to get laid at least once a week these days, I’d considered that as winning a lottery, I kid you not! I’d pretty much blame it on dumb smartphone addiction as well as the tendency to ‘make love’ with your Facebook friends through chats, stupid forums, nonsensical online community, Twitter, and so the list goes on.

Having said that, I suppose I am still lucky enough that I get to my other half’s online and Facebook addiction on my sex life, or lack thereof. Some other ladies are not lucky as that as their other half not only put them aside because they find communicating with their other half in real life is difficult to accomplish, but their other half loosing interest in them altogether because they couldn’t ‘feel’ them anymore while getting intimate. I think that is much more worst.

Some men give this lousy excuse to their wives that they could no longer feel the contraction around their penis whenever they’re having sex.

A lady whom I know, told me before that her husband refused to get intimate with her anymore after she gave birth to her baby. He said, ” I’m sorry, I can’t feel you anymore. You’re not tight anymore”.

Imagine her devastation. Yes, such things do happen, though we don’t exactly discuss such things openly. A lot of women feels apprehensive about discussing their sex life, or lack thereof, because it is considered a taboo topic in most society and community.

I don’t feel apprehensive about it, though, as I feel that sometimes, you need to highlight certain issues openly so that things will be better. Holy houses might have us believe that such things must remained behind closed doors, but I don’t feel that it should be left unsaid.

So… on the issue of men not being able ‘to feel’ the tightness of our vagina anymore after having vaginal birth, why does that happen? How it happens? And how can we improve the situation? And why urine leakage happens in some women after giving birth?

Well, ladies, do you remember my post on ‘Getting Intimate with your Pelvic Floor Muscle’? I am not sure if you remember, but in that post, I have explained that like many muscle in our body, the vagina tends to worn out too, and it needs working out if you want to maintain the elasticity.

When a man complained that you are not tight anymore… or they can”t feel you anymore during your intimate moments, that would have mean that your pelvic floor muscle is no longer strong, and couldn’t contract accordingly during sexual intercourse.

If you have any signs of these:

• Involuntary loss of urine during physical acitivities, such as coughing, laughing, sneezing or exercising.
• Sudden urge or need to urinate due to bladder spasms or contractions.
• Difficulties in achieving orgasms during sexual intercourse.

Then most probably your pelvic floor muscle is no longer strong. It usually happens because:

• Pregnancy
• Childbirth
• Aging
• Obesity
• Menapause
• Chronic cough
• Genetic disorder

And you can actually improve the situation by doing Kegel exercise.Kegel exercise (named after Dr. Arnold Kegel), consists of repeatedly contracting and relaxing the muscles that form part of the pelvic floor. By performing Kegel exercise regularly, we could help strengthen pelvic floor muscle, increase of blood flow and nerve supply to the pelvic region, help the restroration of vaginal muscle tone and improve vaginal health. Apart from that, it also helps to increase thickness to the vaginal wall and encourages lubrication after menapause. It’s great, isn’t it? Apart from that, performing Kegel exercise regularly can also prevent involuntary urinary leakage. And you’d also be surprised to discover that Kegel exercise also help improve sexual response and function.

So, in other words, if you perform the exercise regularly, you’d find that your contraction around your other half’s penis will get better and better and stronger, and he have no reasons whatsoever of accusing you being ‘loose’ or ‘not tight anymore.

The problem with Kegel exercise is that it is difficult to do. Well, at least to me it’s difficult, cuz I don’t exactly know the correct muscle to exercise. Trust me. I’ve attended Kegel exercise demonstration a month back, and I think I ended up working on my butt muscle instead and I ached everywhere, all in the wrong places.

Truth be told, Kegel devices like Vibrance Kegel device in my previous post really helps us who wants to work out the correct muscle alot. And as I promised a month ago, here’s a little testimony on whether the device in question it is effective or not:

Is the device effective? Well yes, I must say the device is effective, though I must be honest that I couldn’t really use it as prescribed, which is daily, as I don’t exactly have the privacy to do so at home with my son being at home 24/7. I had to really find time and privacy to do it behind close doors; as I need to insert the device into my vagina and it actually makes a series of funny beep sound during usage if you activated the sound guidance function on the device. The device works well. Whenever I contracted my pelvic floor muscle around it, it will vibrate, indicating that I’m exercising the correct mucle.

Basically, I started off with high sensitivity sheath and proceed with low sensitive sheath that requires more pressure.

This device is hypoallergenic, and therefore, there’s no allergic reation whatsoever, even though I’m sensitive towards latex and whatnot. This stuff is easy to take care of. All you need to do after using it is just rinse it with soap and place it in the capsule to dry.

Thanks to the Vibrance Kegel device, I can now perform Kegel exercise correctly without having to worry that I’m exercising the wrong muscle.

It made a lot of difference to me, actually, as after using this, I find that my blood circulation actually improves and I don’t feel so breathless whenever I try to contract my pelvic floor mucles anymore. And I noticed that there’s no more urine leakage problems whenever I sneeze a tad too hard.

I have been told that this device could actually help a smooth childbirth delivery too, considering that it improves the pelvic floor muscle condition, but I can’t comment on that as there is no baby on the way right at the moment, and from the looks of it, won’t be any baby anytime soon either.

In any case at all, I have to say that this device does improves my confidence and my health, and if you’re interested to get it, you may check out MyBioinfinity website.

This dvicet can be bought online through the website for Rm498 per boxset.Other than website www.mybioinfinity.com , those who are interested can also purchase this device at SHINS outlets and major hospitals. If you have any questions regarding the device, you may directly shoot it to their customer care line at 1700 -81-0321.

A note to the readers: This device is recommended for those who are sexually active. If you are a virgin, I wouldn’t exactly encourage you to use this as it’s invasive in nature. And if you’re pregnant, do get your gyne’s advice before using this device.

Cleffairy: Well, the device can help improve pelvic floor mucle and improve sexual response. However, how you improve the attitude of men towards women after they give birth is another thing altogether. All I can say, it takes two hands to clap, and women can’t be the party who tries to make things right all the time. Men needs to recicoperate too to work things out.

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Trust me, without my father coaxing, coercing and guiding me for hours every day, I wouldn’t even touch those horrifying homework. Without my father sitting with me to revise for exams, I won’t even study.

Back then, home tuition was not exactly an alternative to parental homework guidance. It was very stressful for my father to encourage and guide me as he’s not exactly good in everything.

Kids these days are lucky. They live in an era where tuition centres sprouts like mushrooms after the rain.

You can even see the ads for home tuition services being advertised everywhere, including on the back a taxi.

See what I mean? Yes, parents and kids these days are very lucky to have tuition services and whatnot to assist with academic workload. Back in my time, home tuition is something almost unheard of. There’s plenty of tuition centres in the vicinity of my home, but home tuition is really something unheard of. By hook or by crook, students who wants to have tuition will have to study in groups, and never on one to one basis. It’s not really effective, I must say.

But kids these days have the benefit of hooking up with home tutors. There’s plenty of home tuition service out there these days. looking for a good tutor can be rather tricky, but fret not…

Just look up this home tuition website, and you’ll discover that there’s plenty of professional home tutors out there.

The websites have a clean and simple outlook and you’ll find easy navigation with the search function in it. Just search what sort of tutors of what subjects you require, and the website will match it up for you.

This website is not just for parents and students who are looking for home tutors, I assure you. It’s also for home tutors who wants to offer their service. So, if you’re a parent, a student, or a tutor, you might want to check this site up. And check out this video about them too.

Cleffairy: Looking back, all I need was a little bit of encouragement and guidance to do well in school.

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I pity kids these days. Their lives are packed with schedules. Sometimes, seeing the trend and the education system, I feel that the children were not given a chance to enjoy their childhood. They’re not only made to do homeworks at the tender age of 3 during their pre-school years, but they also spend more time in front of the idiot box than playing too.

Playing is the most natural thing to do for any individual, but what you may not know is that there’s so much more to it than just having fun.

But in recent years, the amount of parents who have started to use technology as a substitute to spending actual quality time with their children is increasing at an alarming rate. Many disregard the importance of interaction or play with their children.

Playing is the best means in helping children with brain development and learning. When children can actively manipulate and explore toys in their environment, they learn best. Adults playing together with children will enhance the relationship between the parent/adult and child which is pivotal in a child’s development.

Fisher-Price, a firm believer in the development of children through play and bonding notices this trend.Through The Power of “Interactive” Play Workshop, Fisher-Price will be sharing the benefits of play through the five development stages (Sensory Stimulation, Sitting & Reaching, Speech Development, On the Go and Walker & Rider) and to further encourage adults to spend more time with children.

The Power of “Interactive” Play Parenting Workshop will exhibit the different kinds of activities and exercises that adults can have with children. It will further elaborate on the different tools that can be used to further assist with the different development stages of children.

Any mummies and daddies out there interested in this workshop? Here’s some information for you:

The Power of “Interactive” Play Parenting Workshop:

Date: 16th June 2012 (Saturday)

Time: 10.00am – 1.30pm

Location: Grand Ballroom, Empire Hotel Subang,

Jalan SS 16/1, Ss 16, 47500 Selangor.

Entry Fee: RM60 per person plus over RM100 worth of goodies.

For more information or to book your seats kindly contact 03-7803 5310/012-292 1378 or email the organizer at admin@mamababyworld.com

Cleffairy: It’s not just about excelling. It’s all about nurturing a well-rounded individual with high IQ, and high EQ.

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The second recipe was Baked Seafood Casserole with Simplot Hashbrowns.

It’s a pretty straight forward recipe, actually.

Here’s how the casserole looks like after being baked in the oven for 45 mins.

Looks good, isn’t it?

Well, it tasted really good. I had two helpings of this, in fact, and here’s sharing the recipe with all of you so that you can bake this for your loved ones too:

Ingredients:

150 grams of butter

1 large red onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, chopped

2 stalks of Chinese celery, sliced

6 tablespoon of flour

6 cups of fresh milk, heated

1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg power

1/2 teaspoon of clove powder

1 cup parsley, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped

1kg of seafood (it can be crab meat, fresh prawns meat, squid, snapper fillet, mussels)

3 large tomatoes, sliced and lightly sauteed in olive oil

1 cup sliced soft Swiss cheese

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

2 packets of Simplot Hashbrowns

Salt and pepper to taste

Here’s how you assemble the casserole:

1. Melt butter and sautee onions, garlic, Chinese celery and leek until soften.

2. Add flour and cook for 2 mins to make roux.

3. Then stir in milk, nutmeg, clove, parsley, thyme and seafood. Add in salt and pepper to taste and remove the sauce from the stove once thickens.

4. Mash up the fried hashbrowns and flatten as a base in a casserole dish.

5. Add in sliced tomatoes and seafood mix.

6. Top with parmesan, Swiss cheese and remaining hashbrowns. Sprinkle with more butter and cheese.

7. Cover the casserole dish and bake at 180 degress for 30 mins.

8. Before serving, remove alluminium foil and bake for another 10 mins til golden brown.

Happy trying, ladies and gentleman. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Cleffairy: Next post will be the recipe for Greek Moussaka.

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Remember Amanda Seyfried? You know, the girl who was boosted to fame with ‘Mamma Mia’ the movie as well as ‘Letters to Juliet’ a few years back? Well, this time around, Amanda Seyfield is no longer playing the innocent, naive girl who is smitten with her boyfriend and can’t wait to be married.

In the movie ‘GONE’, she played a role of a determined young woman known as Jill.When her sister disappeared, Jill is convinced that the serial killer who kidnapped her two years ago has returned, and she sets out to once again face her abductor.

Jill was forced to face her greatest fear in order to get her sister back. In this movie, she faced a lot of hurdle and challenges, including which she was accused of being a paranoid and delusional when she told the authorities that her sister has been abducted.

While I was annoyed that Jill was placed in predicament where she’s all alone and gets no help from anybody in the movie, I have to say that it’s quite refreshing to see Amanda Seyfried playing a rather heroic and courageous role instead of playing a sweet-natured, hopelessly romantic young woman in dilemma.

Below is the trailer for ‘GONE’. Watch it and you’ll know what I mean.

‘GONE’ is rated PG-13 for violence and will be shown in Malaysian cinema nationwide on 10 May 2012. If you’re into a crime thriller, this movie will be perfect for you.

Cleffairy: Movie date, anyone?

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