Playground

In the United States, all the shopping mall is ready with a “children indoor playground” corner like the above pix shown. All the items (including the tree, the trunk, the floor etc) in the playground are made by one kind of “soft” material that can avoid children from getting hurts while they are happily playing around.

Although it is just a playground, but it is built with a “concept” and also the “material used” is what we have no chance to explore it in Malaysia.

Ceiling Fans

I’m not sure did any one of you notice that our current ceiling fans are old model and looks a bit outdated? Right now in the market there are many types of new design fans to purchase such as
Casablanca ceiling fans.

I found this website through search engine and found that this Farreys Company actually has selling a lot of popular ceiling fan brands such as: Casablanca, Craftmade, Ellington, Fanimation, Hunter Fan Company, Luceplan, Matthews Fans, Minka Aire, Modern Fan Company, Monte Carlo, NuTone, Quorum and Westinghouse. They are not only selling fans but also selling a lot of house-appliance products. But I like the fan most because they are so special and stylish in design.

After discovered their website, I gain the knowledge that fan also have sizes range from 42” to 52”. I like most the Natural Palm Leaf Blades because it is beautiful and perfect. If I’ve a new house in future, I will sure to purchase from this website. What do you think?

"Soft-shell" Crap

Last Saturday, Amy and I went to have our dinner at one of the restaurant where located near Penang Jetty. We ordered 3 dishes for ourselves and one of the dishes is “soft-shell craps”. Above are the photo and it is delicious. This restaurant is quite famous and I suggest the time to dine there is about 6pm – 6:30pm otherwise it will be full.

Benefits Of Blogging

In fact I started to blog since November 2007 but all the while I just blog for fun. Until recently, I was motivated by my wife that blogging makes a consistent and steady extra income for her in the past few months and I started to get paid to blog from month of September 2008. And it’s no jokes; I get some extra income on the following month which is October 2008!

Well, blogging advertisement is an easy way for me to earn money. Just write an article or review and post it up to my blog, consequently I will get paid. How wonderful! All the money is pay through Paypal.

There are many companies that willing to pay us to blog and today I get to know one more company which is payingpost.com from my wife. I get myself registered with them and after a few hours my blog get the approval and the most fun is that, I manage to grab a job opportunity right away and it is with a good offer price!

I highly recommended to those stay-home-moms, students and retire-personals to take part in get paid to blog. And to all bloggers that happen to read my article, let’s started to blog today and now!

Dot Magnet

Last month when I was on business trip to Oregon, USA, my colleague in Penang is asking me buy something for her. I really don’t know what to buy and during my shopping I stumbled on this nice “Portland Dot Magnet”. It comes with 4 beautiful views of Portland town, Mt. Hood, Coat and City of Rose. So, I decided to buy this magnet for her as it is so meaningful as well as resemble the States that I purchase this item for her.

Gardening

My wife likes to do gardening but too bad we have no land for her to own her garden due to we stay in an apartment. So, she can only plant potted flowers and some potted vegetables like chili, tomatoes and edamame at our balcony.

I still remembered, in year 2005 my wife and I, we have a business trip to United States, we visited Goldsmith Seeds. At there, the flowers are blossom beautifully turns the whole atmosphere so colourful. There are so many types of flowers that we never seen before like the plant species that growing in low temperatures and we both were so attracted by those flowers. We are resides in tropical country – Malaysia, so tropical flowers are not really attracts us anymore...hah!

My wife wanted so much to buy back some of the flower’s seed but advice from my friend, it is better not to buy because we might get stuck in airport custom check point. Not to worry because now we can purchase the seeds online.


My wife potted flower blossom recently.


This is the flower at Goldsmith Seeds (US) - Year 2005.


This is the flower at Goldsmith Seeds (US) - Year 2005.

Wallpaper

I’d like to share with all my friends about “Island-view” wallpaper. These are my dream – the places that I wanted so much to visit to! Hopefully, my dream will come true one day. I still remembered, few years back Lor Mee and I went to Redang Island, East Malaysia. It was a wonderful trip. We were snorkeling on the crystal clear sea water with 15m depth. We can see all those beautiful and colourful fishes, turtle and corals.

Candles with scent

Do you encounter before that your house will have a smelly smell especially in store room? I think this is a common problem that we faced. I like to light up the candles with scent power to get rid of the bad odour. These types of candles actually come with large array of styles and scents. The candles are not only smell incredible while burning but they also "burn clean" so that there is virtually no waste! I have accidently found this website and they have a very active message board where customers can interact with each other and talk about their favorite scents. You may share your experience as well in the message board. Hope you enjoy it!

Keeping Cut Flowers Fresh

How to keep cut flowers fresh? Here are the dos and don'ts on how to keep cut flowers fresh.

1) Do use coloured-glass vases, not clear ones. The darker the container, the harder it is for that unsightly, smelly slime (actually algae) to grow. Be sure containers are scrupulously clean.
2) Do cut dried stem bottoms immediately before putting them in water.
3) Do use a commercial floral preservative. Homemade concoctions don't work as well.
4) Do clean the vase, completely replace the water and add new floral preservative every three days.

5) Don't shock flowers with cold water. Cut stems respond best to warm water (about 43 degrees).
6) Don't put flowers near a bowl of fruit, especially apples, pears and plums, which emit ethylene gas that causes wilting.

Flight Rules

For safety's sake and to ease your way through the airport, remember the following:

1) Check your flight status before you go to the airport - schedules change more these days.

2) Allow at least two hours for check-in on domestic flights, three for international trips.

3) Fly mornings - takeoffs are less likely to be slowed by earlier delays.

4) Bring a photo ID - a driver's license or passport is a must.

5) Paper tickets are preferable to e-tickets if you nee to rebook your flight - especially o another airline.

6) Check heavy stuff. Assume carry-ons will be scrutinized. The less you carry, the faster you'll get through.

7) Don't wrap gifts. You may have to unwrap and show them to security.

8) Leave knives, scissors, nail clippers, tweezers, screwdrivers, knitting needles and toy guns at home or pack them in checked luggage.

Family

Researchers at Australia’s University of Newcastle found these 8 habits are the secrets of strong families, there are:

1) Communication.
The best type of communication in families is positive, open, honest, and in some cases, laced with humour.

2) Togetherness.
Strong families shares an "invisible glue", giving them a firm sense of belonging.

3) Sharing activities.
Strong families choose to play together.

4) Affection.
Members regularly show each other they care.

5) Support.
They are comfortable offering or seeking support.

6) Acceptance.
Members value, acknowledge and tolerate each other.

7) Commitment.
The wellbeing of the family is a high priority.

8) Resilience.
Reacting to challenges in a positive way is essential.

Putting The Home In Homework

Parents shouldn’t just tell our kids to do homework but we have to help them but how?
Here I’d like to share some ways to help our kids get their homework done.

1) Set up a quiet, comfortable study area away from the television, loud music and telephones.
2) Pay attention to what your children are doing. Even if they don’t need help with homework, they will appreciate knowing that you are interested. Praise them for a job well done.
3) Never use homework as punishment, or refer to it in negative terms. Make it one of the most interesting parts of the day.
4) If your child has a heavy workload, break it up into smaller tasks, giving praise and rest time between each assignment.
5) Keep in contact with teachers to make sure that all homework is being brought home and done properly.

Hope these few steps will help you up anyway.

Do Your Children Need To Lighten Up?

To all parents, do you agree, nowadays our kids need to carry a very heavy school bag to school? Do you think your children need to lighten up?

Children carrying more than 10 to 20 per cent of their weight risk neck and back problems, doctors say. Here, I’d to share some tips for young backpackers:

1) Use both shoulder straps to avoid muscle strain and curvature of the spine.
2) Get backpacks with abdominal belt, which distribute weight evenly.
3) Keep heaviest books closer to the body and arm straps comfortably snug, so the pack sits five centimeters above the waist.
4) Bend using both knees – not at the waist – when wearing or lifting a pack.

How To Talk To Anyone

This article is from Reader Digest too. Please take a few minutes to read on. Be a social success at every party - try these tips from Leil Lowndes, relationship expert and author of Always in the Kitchen at Parties.

Never give one-word answers.
If you're asked what you do, expand on your response so it can start a conversation, for example "I'm a social worker and I work with adopted children."

Leave out "uh-huh."
Encourage people to keep on speaking by asking questions about what they're saying.

Choose the right questions.
Try to avoid "where?" or "when?"– These words tend to promote one-line answers. Use "why?", "how?" or "tell me more."

Sound "dazzled" even if the conversation is dull.
A great conversationalist makes everyone feel appreciated.

Body Language

I read through Reader Digest and found this article is quite interesting and I'd like to share out here.

They say the eyes are the window to the soul. What secrets do other body parts reveal about you? A University of Alberta study found the shorter a man's index finger is compared to his ring finger, the more likely he'll be physically aggressive. There's a correlation between finger length and the amount of testosterone you are exposed to in the womb; more testosterone may mean a shorter index finger.

Studies show, for men, a long ring finger and symmetrical hands indicate fertility. Women are more likely to be fertile if their ring finger is shorter than their index finger.

From the time of Confucius, Chinese doctors have used face reading as a diagnostic aid. Their findings include deductions that people whose eyebrows are thick are more driven and may be more aggressive, while people with thin lips tend to be workaholics.

So, what's yours?

Delicious foods

Most of the weekend, my wife and I will have our lunch and dinner outside. I’d like to show you another restaurant that selling quite delicious foods. This restaurant is located nearby Queensbay Mall. We went to dine in here for twice already, and we will never missed the "bun with curry"...it is fantastic, yummy, delicious and tasty!

1) Shrimp Dumpling

2) Bun and curry (for dipping)

3) Small bun (小笼饱)

4) Chee Cheong Fun

5) Sorry I forget what this dish call...

6) Egg tats (sorry no photo).

Weekend Dinner

These are our last weekend dinner. My wife and I dine at one of the seafood restaurant with the nickname as “Under the Tree” near Penang Jetty. Well, foods that we ordered are soft-shell crabs, Fried broccoli and Fried Spicy Clam. Yummy! It is delicious.