I don’t indulge in designer items - since I am a why-spend-$500-for-one-piece-when-you-get-10-pieces-at-$50 kind of shopper - but seeing it up close, it got me reading more about premium brand handbags. Obviously, it is a much more pleasurable reading as compare to say, Mesothelioma treatment unless of course, you really need to know about this illness.

Anyway, the funny thing about this bag is that, I have been seeing this particular model a lot these days!

I am definitely in the midst of ladies with loads of cash which I know many are. But I am also sure that some of these ladies are buyers at stores that one friend once told us about.

Shopper : “As these original?”. Seller : “No mam, these are first class“.

Imagine being told that the common name for 3 types of very different plants was “money plant” (or feng shui plant!).

But my book (Garden Plant : Survival Manual) is not on tropical plants so as you can guess, none of my plants in there. Still, it has some good information and even though it has none of my current plants, this book is for keeps. There is an online service where you can sell textbooks or fiction books are only applicable to the US market.

By the way, I learnt how to find the seed for this particular flower in the picture.

Spot them if you can.

Even without any exciting plans, it’s great to be able to just stay home and let the kids enjoy whatever they want to do without rushing them. Best of all - not having to go out in the sun and avoid the need to use anti wrinkle face creams a wee bit longer.

So while the kids wreck havoc in their room, having adventures that I will soon know about (and hopefully something that will not need much cleaning after) I’ll just indulge myself in a bit of tube time - before I need to resume the job that does not stops even on a public holiday.

However, I will take any plants over having no plants at all because not many things soothes tired eyes like the lush green leaves. Plus a sprinkling of multi-colour flowers and you will then understand why there are some who are content to stay and work on the garden at any time of the day.

My daughter once asked me why I always need to check on my plants whenever we are back from outings. I once wondered the same about my mother and her garden too.

Now I know why and seeing blooms in your favorite colour is very therapeutic and is probably as effective as the best anti wrinkle cream to relax tense facial expressions and beat pre-mature wrinkles.

If only I know the secret to make my plants grow faster and bloom longer.

One has already started her maternity leave and judging from on how regular her blog is now updated, we can safely assume that she is having a little too much time in hand since she is used to the busy life of a career mom.

But I enjoyed reading her latest post on her baby wish-list. I am especially keen on the portable rocking chair although the price is a bit too steep for my liking. As for the other stuffs, as I told her we are a family of hands-me-down-and-waste-it-not so we are proud of the fact that many of our baby items have been used by my all of my kids (those that have not been destroyed by them, that is).

Baby walkers, porridge thermos, baby crib, baby blankets are handed down from my eldest and are now used by my youngest.

In fact, the most expensive spending we made so far, in regards to the kids, were their delivery as I had all of them in a private clinic although I had my regular check-ups in the government clinics where I did not have to spend on organic prenatal vitamins.

Let’s hope that the next big spending would be when we pack them off to universities.

I had a brief chill down my spine but even in my half-asleep state I remembered that it comes from the slightly damaged baby chair and it has been doing that for the last few days.

And besides, although it is still dark, 5 am is not an hour associated with anything scary. Sunset at the beach is probably spookier and I know some folks who won’t visit any beaches even in bright daylight!

We could probably try our hands at repairing it, nothing to do with credit repair services, but since I got it for less than $50, the best thing is probably to dismantle the musical feature and throw it out.

Or let it play continuously until the battery runs flat.

Before I was married, one reason for my visit to Brunei was to celebrate Chinese New Year and thus, I have been joining my husband and his family for this particular tradition for 15 years.

It’s comforting in a way that even after all that years, the street where the house is located did not change much, except for a few renovated houses. The whole kampung was still the way it was since the first time I set foot on it as a mere family friend. The kind of place where nobody needs any gps system to find their way around.

But while things did not change much, we were delighted to discover that a close friend was a next door neighbour.

I used to smirk whenever she was in one of her dramatic imagination mode as I was sure that I will never be in that position to lose sleep over plants.

But coming home after being away for Chinese New Year, I was dismayed to find that a few of my flowers in such a sorry state. The worst thing was, as I was nearer to home, I was actually looking forward to seeing them, having visions of them blooming in glorious pinks and purples.

Fortunately, with some much needed water and pruning of dried leaves, they look almost decent again. In fact, some of of my pink flowers look set to bloom again tomorrow. My purples may need a few more days to revive itself and that is a picture of it in its glory days.

Now I understand the bond that binds a gardener to the garden - and if there is such as thing as health savings account for plants, it’s not a surprise that die hard gardeners would invest in one.

I console myself that I could read the many short and unrelated chapters in “Growing up in Terengganu” over as long a period as I wish without feeling lost. It’s books like the “Tipping point” that is a problem because it has to be read continuously to understand the whole concept (especially so for someone with short memory like myself) and I purposely left “Blink” somewhere I can see it everyday as a reminder to finish the other book before I should start on it. But I don’t miss not continuing with “Churchill’s triumph” and “Evening is the whole evening” because they are very easy to strike off from my list of priorities.

Still I am optimistic that I will find the motivation to start and complete my latest book, Girls of Riyadh, which one reviewer wrote : “..will tell you more about one of the world’s oddest and most closed societies than a library of books and articles by supposed western experts“.

It was a blow to my gardening confidence since just a few weeks ago, a neighbourhood cat brutally mauled one of my flower in a pot.

It was perhaps retaliating because I hid a mat it used (without permission) as a scratching pad. Insurance company like the Blue Cross NC should extend their coverage for incidents like this!

To make things worse, my daughters would nonchalantly pick the leaves and flowers of the few pots which shared their outdoor play area.

“I need leaves for my tea party”, said child no. 1; “It’s flowers for my hair”, said daughter no. 2; and “Ta-Ta!” (Translation : “I just feel like it!”), is of course, child no. 3 who is not yet articulate but no less adventurous.

I wonder how soon I could get my parents, who helped me set up my garden (only!) late last year, to come over for repair work, without appearing desperate.