Drama Melayu Sekarang

 There is something really disturbing about the quality of Malay drama nowadays. It is worrying up to the point of I am banning the kids from ever watching them. Why? Because of these reasons....

1. The reflections of the Malay society.

Balik-balik cerita Datuk, Dato', Tan Sri, Datin-datin. They are the extremely rich Malays, who live in big bungalows, drive super cars, wear expensive clothes and dine at luxurious restaurants. They have nothing to do but force their children into marrying other anak Datuk so they can save the company or something of that sort. Memang memanjang jela storyline tak berubah. Macam orang Melayu kejenye dekat office je, anak datuk, waris syarikat mak bapak. What about those from other line of works? There are also Malays that work as doctors, firefighters, nurses, lawyers, engineers, shopkeepers, salesman, clerks, etc. And even if the characters came from these various backgrounds, you will be amazed at how little did the scriptwriter made his/her research on the characters job scope alone. Then, tertanya-tanya, eh ade ke doktor perangai macam tu? or cikgu apa ajar macam tu? Kalau engineer or architect tu balik-balik with the yellow hat, bukak plan and tunjuk itu-ini dekat site. 

Credit: Buasir Otak

2. Force marriage

I don't deny that this happened in the society. But to have that shoved in your throat every single time a new drama comes out is a bit too much. I mean come on. Parents nowadays are more open minded so why don't you portray that too. Ok lagi kalau force marriage or arranged marriage sebab atuk/nenek tinggal wasiat or nak selamatkan bisnes or sebab nak suruh anak kahwin dengan ustaz ke but what about cerita pasal those who were forced into marriage sebab she was raped or tangkap khalwat. Now, that sure open a big can of worms. Why? What are they suggesting? Is it ok for you to be married to people who raped you because at the end of the day, they will fall in love and live happily ever after. No, it is not ok and I don't want the younger generations to ever feel that it is such a righteous act. 

3. The dominant male 

Bila kene kahwin paksa, look at how the male characters in the drama treat their wives. They use harsh words, aku kau dengan bini, derogatory remarks like bodoh, bongok etc, ask their wives to do things against their will tapi sebenarnya sayang. And the wives pun ikut je, pasrah like they don't have voices at all. The female characters look so weak and helpless, which is why I don't want my daughter to ever watch these dramas at all. Heck,, I don't even want my son to ever feel that it is ok to ever disrespect women like that at all.

4. Same storyline

Bila dah baik laki bini, then adalah orang ketiga keempat. They are either their ex-boyfriends or girlfriends, their officemates etc. The exes then berkomplot nak rampas balik ex masing-masing. Yang laki bini pulak tak trust each other. Then, adelah pelbagai coincidence mcm the next point ni which brings conflict to their relationship, again. Nak bercerai bagai. And you, as the audience will be like, apa yang susah sangat, be frank je lah with each other.

5. Coincidence?

Banyak sangat coincidence nye? I mean, Malaysia might be a small country, tapi tak pelik ke setting kat KL tapi boleh pulak terjumpa bini dengan ex pakwe dekat Langkawi tengah makan. Or bini terjumpa laki dekat shopping mall tengah jalan dengan officemate. Tahu tak berapa banyak kedai dekat Pavillion or Mid Valley tu?

I truly believe that there are a lot of scriptwriters out who are truly honest and serious in their work. They wanted to present Malaysia as it truly is but they were not given the right incentives.Please lah stop adaptasi dari novel-novel ni and janganlah mimpi terlanggar dengan anak-anak datuk yang hensem dekat kedai kopi, kahwin, gaduh and live happily ever after. Cinta tak semudah itu.

Child Sexual Abuse

 I am having trouble sleeping after following the recent sexual abuse claim  involving a minor. The case has been getting public attention as it happened in a maahad tahfiz owned by a celebrity ustaz and one of the perpetrators is the ustaz's son. The parents of the said victim have contacted the school but they were told that they shouldn't trust their own kid. Feeling helpless the parents contacted Wardina Safiyyah and Syed Azmi, both are very vocal about kids sexual abuse cases and through FB, the case went viral and people start paying attention. You can google if you want to know more about the case.

I am not here to take sides since the case is still under investigation. But reading the comments really break my heart. Why? 

1. The blame the victim game. Accusing them of slander and trying to tarnish the ustaz's name. Saying things like the kids have discipline problem, but even if it is true, will that justify the heinous crime made against the kids?
2. The netizens who are still saying things like the issue should be made silenced in the name of religion. Haven't they heard sexual abuse cases involving the church before? How is this different? 
3. Those who are sharing their sexual abuse stories and how it affected their lives even when they are all grown-ups.

We need to educate the kids. They need to know how they can prevent it from happening. What we can do is:

1. Talk to them about their body parts and make them identify their private parts. Tell them that only you (mom/dad) can see them naked. People outside the house can never see them naked except the doctor and even then, mommy and daddy need to be there with them.
2. Teach them that no one can touch their private parts. Tell them also that they can't touch people's private parts.
3. Explain to them that they should run, scream and quickly inform other grown-ups if they feel that they have been violated.
4. Tell them that they will never be in trouble if they share anything with you because most perpetrators will use threats and secret-keeping to ensure the kids keep quiet about the abuse.

As parents, we need to listen to our kids and we need to be aware of any changes with our children, no matter how small they are.

No Sew Eye Patch

AZ woke up today with her left eye all red. She was all ok about it except the itchiness that was starting to annoy her a little bit. I had to tell her to wash her hands every few hours. Once a while, I need to gently clean the gooey green discharge from her eyes. But that still didn't stop her from rubbing the infected eye. I was scared that it might further inflamed the eye so I made her an eye patch. 

 
It is quite easy really. No sewing skill needed. You just need to have fabric glue or a stapler, really. The rest are scissors, elastic, a piece of fabric (I just use my extra charm square) and a felt (in my case, I used my baju kurung shoulder pad). Basically any fabric that is soft so it won't irritate the eye.

First, measure how big do you want the eye patch to be. Cut out two semi circular shape with rounded edges. For the front part, I used the charm square and the soft shoulder pad at the back.  Glued them together and you are halfway done. 

Then, attach the elastic to the patch. I used fabric glue but you can just go ahead and staple them together. 

I used pegs while waiting for the glue to dry.

And you are done! 

I Really Need to Travel

Whenever I feel so confined in my own house, I will normally take out my travel book and scan through the pages, remembering all the places that I have visited and loved. I wasn't and I am not that organized (nor will I ever be), so the travel book never really function as my travel planner or organizer. I just love to keep and record any things that I might find interesting. 

I kept bus tickets, tags, entrance tickets, boarding passes, pressed coins, maps, stickers, cards, house keeping notes, postcards, magazine articles etc.

During my travel to Japan, I'll make sure that I collected the train or Eki stamps at their every train station. In Japan alone, there are 9000++ train stations and that is a staggering number for a small country like Japan. Most of these stations have their own unique stamps. They are normally a picture of local attractions or something that the area is famous for. The stamp above however was not from any train stations, but it was from a very famous toy shop called Kiddyland in Harajuku. Mind you that most buildings or landmarks in Japan also have their own formal stamps. 

 

I also have this habit of drawing the room plans of any hotels, apartments that I've stayed. Somehow I feel that it helps me to be able to remember the experience later on. 

When I told you that anything goes in my travel book, I really meant it. I also let the kids draw and write things  that they like in my travel book. The drawing above was while waiting for our orders to arrive at Tokyo Pancake Cafe in Kamata. This was the time when they always brought along their dinosaurs during most of our travels. Kinda miss that moment when most of our photos of the kids, will include their best buddies too.

Suddenly feel like the need to book a ticket and just go. 

 But first, I need to do the laundry and pick up the kids from school...

Kids Need to Watch This: Fresh Guacamole by PES

This short film was nominated in the 2013 Oscar. 

If your kids love deep sea creatures, they would probably want to watch this also:

 

The Danger of Online Shopping

Don't you just hate it when you got this in your mails?

Yes, I'm guilty of spending hours browsing through the dresses and pants and scarves and bags and then putting them all in my cart with the intention of hmmm...I'm probably going to purchase all of them....NOT. And just like that I logged out. And I forget about them until I receive mails saying things like:

YOU LEFT YOUR SHOPPING BAG BEHIND

Don't worry we saved it for you! Take 15% off and grab it now!

or

 

HI. YOUR SHOPPING BAG IS WAITING!

or

 

YOUR SHOPPING BAG ITEMS ARE ON SALE 

or

HI. WE MISS YOU!
Have you seen our latest styles?

It is complete torture. Now, I have to go back and browse through all over them again. I'll probably buy them and other stuff as well just so I don't have to be reminded time and time again that I made the wrong decision of putting items in the cart and not buying them. And now that the items are on sale, what's the harm in buying them, right? 

Thanks, but no thanks.

I Yelled at My Son

Have you ever had a day where everything, everything went completely wrong? Yesterday was that day for me. I woke up in the middle of the night for my routine toilet break and noticed blood spots on my underwear. Since, this was not my first incident, there were no reasons for me to be alarmed. I laid down and did the kick counts and I just knew that I was probably too tired from the other day. I decided to put aside all my plans for that day and try to get as much rest as possible.

With that being said, I still need to send AZ to school and AM to his class. Since AM is still on his school break, I decided to enrol AM to a 5-day programme where he will learn some sort of survival skill in a jungle near KL with four other kids. There is an orang asli who will be their guide and teach them all these interesting activities. I just have to pick up the kids at their respective schools at 3 pm. Ample time for me to rest....or so I thought.

I received a call at 12 pm from AM's teacher telling me that AM has been misbehaving. She was being all nice about it asking me whether AM had a different expectation about the program. Of course I said no, telling her that AM was so excited about it as he loves everything related to nature. After that conversation, there was no way I could go back to rest and came 3 pm, you bet, I was already at the front gate of the school, waiting.

I interrogated AM and yup, I snapped. I yelled at him. I knew I shouldn't do that. I wish I didn't let my emotions took control over me but I was really mad at him. Although the teacher explained that AM might have been misbehaving because he was playing with the other kid, but I just blocked everything out. It didn't help either when I learned from his story how he was being disrespectful to everybody. Oh, he had his punishment I tell you. And later that night, I let The Dad took over because I knew if it was me, nothing good will come out of it. I was just too tired and too stressful to begin with. AM apologized to me before going to bed that night and this morning he seemed to forget everything that has happened yesterday. He gave me his usual morning hugs and greeted me with his widest smile ever.....which made me feel more guilty. Children are so forgiving, don't you think?

I am such a bad mom. Haishh.

Kids Felt Sewing Kits

Lately, I have been doing some cross-stitching projects and AZ has been pestering me to have a project of her own too. So, I was at Mr Diy the other day, looking for AM's table fan and I saw this. Went straight ahead to purchase it.

The kit contains all the pre-cut pieces of felt, thread, plastic needle (so you don't need to worry about them little fingers) and decorations. It is also complete with simple step by step instructions to make this delightful fabric shoes. Basically, everything you need in bringing the design to life.

I gave AZ full confidence to do everything on her own. I gave assistance only when she needed it. And to see her so engrossed in her project was so amazing. I also love the fact that she chose to decorate the fabric shoes without being too dependent on the illustration.

The project seems simple, but it involves a lot of hand and eye coordination which can be a little bit tricky for kids. Maybe after this she can move on to a different project with much higher level of complexity.  In the meantime, she is enjoying her self-made fabric shoes.

This is a great project for one of those rainy day activities. It is cheap and you can easily find it in the 5 ringgit store like Daiso, Mr Diy and even bookstores like Popular and MPH. 

Kids Need to Watch This: Papermeals

Penne Meatballs by yelldesign.

My kids love stop motion videos. Here's one just because.

Kids Water Bottles

I don't know about you moms, but the one thing that I've been restocking constantly is water bottle. We made it a habit for the kids to have their water bottles around with the hope that they'll stay dehydrated all the time. So far, it proves to be  a success. They do not only bring the water bottles to school, but to the park and the balik kampung trips.  We'll make sure that the water bottles are within reach especially through their midnight wakes.

Drinking lots of fluids tend to help the kids a lot especially AZ as she is less heat tolerant compared to AM. She gets really sweaty and red-faced when she has been playing outside and it doesn't help either as the sun can be really unforgiving in KL at the moment. Her lips will also be dry and chapped and it can be rather painful. So it is important that she has to get used to drinking water regularly.

These are just several water bottles that can't be used anymore. You'll notice that they have had their fair share of TLC, probably months before. Some of them are without lids, missing straws and broken spouts. I notice that although the straw spouts are less likely to cause injury to the child, its biggest disadvantage is the time and energy spent in cleaning the straws as well as the assembling and disassembling processes.
And just when you thought the hard spouts are sturdier, they too are not resistant to chewing and biting damaged especially when you have 'persistent' children like mine.

 

Some spouts are accumulated with dirt and debris and they are really impossible to be cleaned.

There are also a few water bottles which are not leak-proof, so I ended up using them instead. The thing with all these water bottles, you don't know whether they are leak-proof until you have bought and use them. Even when you thought that you have properly closed them, they'll end up leaking in the kids' backpacks, on the floor and worse, in the car. And no, the more expensive they are does not mean that they are not prone to leak either.

Still, I don't have the heart to throw away  all these unused water bottles yet. The kids and I have made plant pots out of these water bottles before so I am keeping some for further projects with the kids. You never know when all these might come in handy....says every hoarder.

Free Kids Activity: Bicycle Rides

I have to admit, I've been all cooped up inside my house these past few days. Too lazy (and heavy) to do anything. But, when the kids are home, they are constantly eager to play and do stuff. But, there is one thing that we all agreed we need to do, at least, once a week, and that is riding bicycles at the park.

On average, we always spend roughly 20 to 30 minutes of cycling, but there are never complains from the kids. I guess, they are more than happy to be able to cycle rather than fuss over unimportant stuff. Which is unlike us adults. We tend to overthink and prioritize quantity over quality. Then, we worry and resort to self-pity, which is rather sad.

I think it is time to take off AM's trainer wheels. He seems fine without it since forever now. I keep on procrastinating to do it. Haishh.

They were chasing after a balloon which suddenly came out of nowhere. It was a really windy day. So, there were lots of laughter and giggles as they race to catch the balloon.

I decided to just sat at the corner watching them having a blast. Once in  a while, AZ came to kiss my belly and decided to have private conversations with the baby. What more can you ask for as a mom?

I guess, the kids are telling me to take it easy and just chill.

Batik Painting With Kids

We first visited Kompleks Kraf Kuala Lumpur during one of the art exhibition early this year. It showcases a variety of authentic products such as souvenirs, interior decorations, costume, jewellery, latest fashion textiles, garden and landscape decorations as well as everyday use products. You can buy all these stuff at their Karyaneka Souvenir Shop and to purchase corporate gift products made of silver, copper, pewter, wood and crystal, you can visit the Karyaneka Corporate Shop. But I guess, the most amazing part of this one-stop art centre is the Craft Village. Here, visitors can get involve in the art of making batik, bags, wood carvings, ceramics, metal, pewter and costume jewellery. You also get to talk to the artists and ask them as many questions as you want about their artworks.

The Craft Village that houses local artists.

Since AM and AZ have been requesting to do some batik painting, we decided to go to Batik Conlay. There are quite a few Batik artists there, so you don't have to worry if certain places seem full of visitors. There are ready made canvas of different sizes and images to choose from. They are mostly those of animals, flowers, dinosaurs, local landmarks and cartoon characters. You can also bring your own artwork and the artist can transfer it to the canvas, ready to be painted. Price will vary according to the sizes and the complexity of your artwork.

The staff provided brushes, dyes, pots of water and tissues for the kids. The kids love it because it is so easy to do as it is so impossible to mess up with the colours as the lines are traced with wax. Really, there is no artistic skills needed to do this. It builds the kids confidence as it doesn't have to be perfect all the time. Even if you make mistakes, you can cover them up easily.

AM chose the beautiful koi.

AZ was more attracted to the T-Rex. I really loved it that she decided to go for red, instead of green or brown  for her T-Rex.

Once done, you need 1to wait for ten to 15 minutes for them to dry. You can opt for your batik artwork to be framed and just pay extra charges. Don't forget to take nice photos with your beautiful artwork!

 Look at the bold colours.

The kids were really happy and they were so proud of themselves. To think that all these cost us RM40 only. Moms, you really need to bring your kids here. The parking spaces are plenty. In fact, if you are lucky there are certain days, where the parking is free and there are not many visitors. You'll have the place all for yourselves.


Address

Kompleks Kraf Kuala Lumpur,
Seksyen 63, Jalan Conlay 50450 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 – 2162 7459
Faks: 03 – 2161 2622
Emel : http://www.kraftangan.gov.my/

Kids and Grolier

So our Grolier products came yesterday. We purchased it at the TCE baby expo last week. Did I tell you we did really well at the baby expo? Didn't buy any unnecessary stuff at all. We were there for two hours only, which were pretty impressive.

I've known the product for quite some time. AM and AZ were introduced to it in their weekend neuro class. They loved it. Once in a while, I saw Grolier opened their booth at Tesco or IPC mall. But I never had the chance to really investigate. Most of the time, I was always in a hurry. So, when I saw Grolier's booth at the expo, I knew I need to stop, what more with my 'personal banker' next to me. We ended up purchasing the Logico series and Fun Thinkers. But because of the expo, of course they had to give lots of freebies. So, on top of that, they gave us their A Story a Day collection, mini encyclopaedia, a guide book, with the title, Raise Your Child's Self-Esteem: 99 Things to Do, plus, a book shelf. All for RM2.2k, which is a bargain.

These are the books from the mini encyclopaedia set. The kids haven't started on any of them or the other books yet. But they'll devour all these within days, make no mistake.

The award-winning Logico series actually came in three; Primo, Piccolo and Maximo. We bought Piccolo and Maximo as they targeted children above six, suitable for AM and AZ more. AM and AZ have done the Primo series at their neuro class, plus we could save our money to buy the Fun Thinkers instead. Logico basically provides a tool to foster a whole brained learning experience for the kids through their Brain Development, English and Mathematics series. Basically, their learning tools are made up of an answer board and game books with a series of learning cards.

The answer board. So colourful.

There are 10 buttons of different colours in the Piccolo answer board (there are more buttons for Maximo). So you can shift these buttons up and down. To start the game, you need to ensure that all the buttons are at the bottom.

So each activity card, will have their instructions and questions. On the left side of the card, are the questions and images, each marked with a spot with different colours. The right side, is for the answers. To play, just match the question with the correct answer by moving the corresponding colour button on the board up to the groove next to each chosen answer. When you have finished playing, flip the card and slip them back to the board. If the colour sequence of the buttons on the board is corresponding to the colour sequence in the card, all the answers are correct, like this:

All correct!

Basically, the kids are using their minds and hands simultaneously. I feel that this game let the children become more independent to explore and solve problems. They are able to develop good learning skills as they conduct their own assessment and they are more positive and interested to keep on trying until they find the right answers.  It also helps that I get extra hours to do my own thing without them constantly bugging me.

This is also a great learning tool for the home schoolers.

All busy playing. They really wanted to finish the first set.

For Fun Thinkers, the concept is pretty much the same. Instead of an answer board, you have Match-Frame Box, with numbered tiles at the front and coloured tiles at the back.

All I have to say is this game will buy me at least a month of my sanity. I don't have to feel guilty for not forcing AM to do enough exercises now that he is in his school break. Go ahead and play, son! 

Sewing Mojo

So I was back in the store room again and probably this will continue on until I have all things that I need prepared for the new baby. One box caught my attention. Inside was my old sewing patterns. They are mostly McCall's', Kwik Sew, Lisette, Simplicity, Burda, Make It Perfect and some that I purchased from the craft market back when we were in Australia. Most patterns are of tunics, blouses, dresses, hats, bags, and kids' projects. I have done most projects but there are also some that I have yet to attempt and once my sewing mojo is back, there will be no looking back.

These are some of my sewing projects years ago.

Dress for AZ

Tunic for me

T-Shirt for AM

It is interesting to note that, it used to be difficult to find sewing patterns sold in the shops. Most of the time, we had to resort to the crafters community online. Now, with the existence of Spotlight, things are a lot easier.

I really need to embark on more projects. I think AM and AZ both need new hats. I could throw in new pencil rolls for them to keep their colour pencils. I might sew library bags too while I am at it. The new baby is going to need quilt blanket and pillow cases too. I still have the charm packs somewhere. Just need to keep on trashing the store room until I find them. In the mean time, let us all hope that this is not my pregnancy hormones kicking in (which often time proves to be quite temporary in nature).