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I haven’t used a vacuum cleaner for the past few years. I used an old traditional broom instead. However, I find that my elder daughter had been sneezing non stop lately. I think her nose is rather sensitive. Sometimes I see these fine particles of dusts in the air when the breeze blows in. The direction of the wind changes in different parts of the year. Now it is blowing from the north side of my apartment but I worry that it is bring the dust from the nearby construction area where a ramp is being built. I think I would like to check out stores to check out the Electrolux vacuums. These are what was recommended to me by my friend who has a daughter who is allergic to dust allergens and it worked like magic for her. I have always loved the products by Electrolux because of their streamlined and clean design. I also better check out other products that works for allergy sufferers like me.

I love the outdoors. As a family, we go out to the park or beach once a week for some activity or just a stroll at the beach. Recently I realised that I have been getting lots of problem with my skin. These are the dreaded pigmentations that I wish would go away. I have tried creams and also applied high sun protection factor lotion. Perhaps I should be putting on a hat instead. I’ve seen many people wearing hats lately, to get protection from the sun and intermittent rains. It works great if it starts to drizzle because your hair does not get wet easily. There are hats for all types of weather and styles to choose from online store e4hats.com.

I use Skype frequently when I need to communicate with family and friends in Australia, , UK, China and Malaysia. At present I use the wired headsets as the house can get quite noisy with the tv on most of the time. I envy my friend on the other side who has a wireless Bluetooth headset with her and she is able to walk around the house and do some chores while talking to me. She sometimes also places her laptop in the kitchen and I even get to watch her as she prepares dinner. Although she can be as far as in Australia, we have chats and coffee in the afternoon together often. It is so much fun and we don’t miss each other at all.

Lea celebrated her birthday in advance, yesterday (Friday). Although her actual day will be on Monday, she won’t be in school as it will be a school holiday - Youth Day. Both girls will be home so I suppose as a family we can have a family celebration together on Monday. Instead of ordering the usual large cake for my girl, I decided to bake cupcakes. I’ve seen how messy cake cutting in class/canteen can be and how much food is wasted at the end. I decided to let the kids have a cup cake each and if they don’t want to eat them in the school, they can always bring it home along with the goodie bag of treats.

I made them chocolate cupcakes with Sofiya helping out. In fact she did most part of it because I was out getting the last minute cocoa powder on the day we baked. She had done a full recipe of it and was starting on the second batch. Yes we used full recipe twice because my cake beater may not take the weight of 2x the full recipe done at once. Each recipe yielded about a dozen cupcakes or more, depending on per cup weight. Sofiya had turned up the oven a little more higher than needed to or the tray was placed too high or something along the line because  our cupcakes cracked slightly at the top. Or perhaps there was too much baking powder. I know for one thing, I needed to get a new kitchen weighing machine cos this one shows a different reading for the same item if weighed twice.

So I decided to make some butter cream to pipe at the top. But along the way, I thought a sugar paste would be better to cover the cracks. So my butter cream was converted into butter sugar paste. We used th cookie cutter and made shapes and sprinkled the colourful decors and I brushed with a little of sugar syrup because my fondant was drying, and it might roll off! Then I stuck on little marshmallow kebabs and that’s it!

I packed them into little cups for convenience. This way, I don’t have to get a large container to store the cupcakes and I don’t have to worry about transportation of them to the nursery school. The teachers were so delighted to see the cupcakes and asked all their teacher friends to come take a look. i quickly made excuses to leave as I didn’t like too much attention anyway..  And also, I wasn’t sure if they might think that is this a parent’s attempt to cut cost of buying a cake? Will they think that this parent baked some horrible looking cupcakes? To me, it was a little of each. Yes, I did too want to cut cost from buying commercial cakes because I used to spend as much as $60 - $80 for a large cake for a class. And I see alot of cake left at the end of the day. This time, I actually saved a lot cos I baked about 30 cakes for them, with extras for cleaners. I’m trying to be frugal too, no doubt about it.

I love to take photos using my handphone camera and my digital camera. However I have trouble uploading the pictures from handphone to my pc as it uses the micro sd memory card. I have been using the bluetooth connection but they are pretty slow and takes such a long time especially when it is a recorded video. I believe I will need to get a multi card adapter so that I can transfer the files quicker. The current card adapter I have only accepts limited memory card. My friend tells me that my handphone might have been bundled with a adapter but I’ve looked everywhere and I couldn’t find it. I’m sure I can buy one from memorysuppliers.com.

“I don’t Skinny Dip, I Chunky Dunk”
I was laughing non stop when I read this. This was printed on a T-shirt on a website selling funny t shirts I discovered just this morning. They have funnier slogans as well and these are the type which can be great gifts to your friends or family on any occasions. I think sometimes t shirts help to break the ice for new friends and get them chattering away. I also intend to send some of these t shirts to a friend of mine who collects t shirts as a hobby. I believe she will love them. They would do great for Christmas gifts as well. I’m sure my pals will remember me for the gifts!

My little hatchback needs servicing. I usually sent it to the workshop according to the mileage and date required. I had to change a new set of tyres few months ago because they were worn out and may not pass the yearly checkup requirements before renewal of my road tax. This time I am looking at changing both the wipers on the front and rear windows. Some of the car parts in my car also needed to be looked into as well. I hope to get original parts for replacement to avoid any danger risks. There are some good websites that provide comprehensive information about auto parts. That should be a good start for me. Perhaps I can purchase them online too.

For about 2 weeks since school reopened, I haven’t had the chance to feed my addictive game of Big Sweetland. I have been thinking about it because it is something that just grows in me lately. And I have been visiting ‘gameland’ arcade at every opportunity I could just to grab those sweets and plonk and hope for my rewards. I was going through the pictures the other day and managed to put them all together in a folder and I also have pictures of how much my sweet collection had grown. My friends couldn’t believe it, neither can I but this is just addictive!

The Game Machine

These pictures were taken whenever we got home after a visit to the game arcade. Each picture are all taken on different occasions. Somehow I get a satisfaction from the rewards, not because I wanted those toys badly.. Each session takes as little as $20 for the toys and sweets or it can take up to $60 for more tricky ones

Disney huggies

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I’m not sure what these cartoons are called..
Rae told me but somehow I forgot about the names

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These pillows came in a set of 3 when we got the jackpot reward! Nice and Soft!

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These little Mickey table lamps are great. I have it on my desk now. I’m hoping to get
a little Mickey Groom to pair up this lonely Minnie Bride in the coming weeks!

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Lots of Mickey and Minnie stuff. Lea loves them!

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Look at the Winnie the Pooh collection and more we got in a single day!

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The sweets that we have collected cannot fit a small container anymore.
Girls packing the sweets away after every session of the game

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A weird pink pillow for Rae

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Lots of bags on this single day! And some Japanese Figurines too

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Lea tries to pick it up the sweets. We did weigh them. I believe it weighed about 20 kg of sweets 2 weeks ago when I took those pictures for a friend who asked to see how much we have collected!

So what do you think? We are still growing our collection… And the sweets? I intend to put them in a Pinata and have it bashed in a party!!

My hubby brought back a little Putting Set that comes with a little putting green grass mat some time back. It is helpful for amateur golfers to practice their golfing skills at home in their room or hall. Although it comes with 2 golf clubs, it is advisable to use your own golf club for familiarity when you are out on the course. My brother in law has a favorite club he use frequently, one that he feels gives him luck. Golf is a game that requires lots of patience and concentration, with the right skill. I intend to get myself a nice set of golf clubs for my own use. I’ve been reading up about golf and found that among the popular ones, Callaway golf clubs are a favorite. My friends will be bringing me to the driving range as soon as I get my own clubs.

I’ve been pretty busy preparing for my little girl’s birthday celebration in her school. Today is the celebration although her actual birthday will be on Monday, which will also be Youth Day and is a school holiday. So, not to disappoint her, I will let her bring the cakes and goodie bags earlier.

I had decided to bake cupcakes instead of ordering a large cake this year. So every child in her class will bring home a cupcake and there is no messy cakes and used paper plates in the school classroom. I will post up the cupcakes soon, likely on my blog - http://sunnysideupfoodie.blogspot.com as I am having some trouble connecting to http://almanacqueen.com/.

I hope this issue will be resolved quickly or I will not be able to blog here in the future.. sigh. In the meantime please try not to tag me there since I have to ask for favours from my friends to help post up my articles.