We’ve just had a lovely four days of fun with visitors from London. Keira’s boyfriend,  “Nee nee” and family were here visiting and staying with us!

Keira had someone to play with the moment she woke up till the moment she slept, and she loved every minute of it. The kids had a great time playing all over KL.

Us parents probably, (actually definitely) would have had a better time without the kids. What with juggling their nap times, meal times, fussy times, nappy changing times etc. the only enjoyment we had was squeezed into the few measly seconds when a kid wasn’t running around, or being naughty.

But I found great pleasure watching the kids play together. And we managed to take our guests to quite alot of places.

Here’s what we did in pictures, featuring Sydney and Keira - there wasn’t a chance to take a photo of us adults at all!

This is at the Curve where we ate Nasi Lemak at the kopitiam and the kids played on the small merry go round afterwards.

At Mid Valley, and Keira and Sydney went “kai kai” holding hands. It was the sweetest thing I ever saw!!

At KLCC, where we had California Pizza Kitchen for dinner (their Peking Duck Pizza is delicious!) then went to the park to see the twin towers at night.

At home, having breakfast.

And at night in their nappies after they’d had their bath and were getting ready for bed. We had Greenview’s Sang Har meen for dinner that night. As good as ever.

And on the last day, monkeying around in a changing room at Jusco, 1 Utama.

I forgot to take pictures of us at the park where the kids fed bread to the fish. That was one of the times when I actually managed to relax for more than a few minutes. I mention this because I haven’t felt like that in a long, long time.., it has been months since I’ve had a chance to just stop and smell the roses. Months and months. I can’t even remember the last time…

It was a lovely breezy evening that day, and the park we went to was beautifully landscaped and maintained. I hope when we go back there again I can re-capture that feeling. It’s so hard to come by with a toddler who’s really embracing her terrible two stage. She’s having a field day screaming, crying and throwing things at every opportunity.

Sigh, speaking of which, time for Keira to wake up from her nap now.. here I go to face the hurricane again. She’s sweet, she really is, but she’s still a noisy, destructive force of nature who just never ever stops!

Please let the Terrible Twos go by fast. Please!

I’ve been reading alot lately. Alot more than I’ve been doing since Keira was born.

I think I’m averaging a book a week… this is alot for me these days considering I only have about an hour a day to read. But back in the good ‘ol days, I used to finish a book a day.. yes, I was that much of a bookworm.

Now I have re-discovered my collection of sci-fi books, which we packed up into boxes two years ago.

My memory is so bad that I don’t even remember the storylines of each book, so it’s like I’m reading them for the first time again, and wow, they’re good.

Even after experiencing the practical realities of motherhood, I’m defintely still impressed and inspired by fantastical futures and worlds beyond our ken.

I started with Jack McDevitt’s Omega. Got hooked and quickly followed with his Cauldron and Nebula Award Winner Seeker. He is a true STORYTELLER, which is what I like best in an author. There’s adventure, mystery, well paced dialogue and absolutely fascinating explorations of alien cultures and encounters.

I couldn’t put Omega down. From the discovery of an alien civilisation to the mission to save the aliens from the world destroying Omega Clouds - it was a smart rollicking space adventure.

I then moved on to Connie Willis’ To Say Nothing of the Dog, a time travel comedy of errors which amazingly combined science fiction with another of my favourite genres - the historical romance, Jane Austen style.

To Say Nothing of the Dog (full text in google books) is densely packed with references to key historical events, personalities and books, so at some stages I’d go “Huh?” since history isn’t my strongest suit, but the attempts by Ned and Verity, our pair of intrepid historian/time travellers, to fix a potential rip in time by making sure a certain young
Victorian lady meets the love of her life sure was entertaining.

Now, have just finished Idoru by William Gibson. This is science fiction in a whole different direction - the cybertech future.

A pop star has decided to marry a virtual reality celebrity, the repercussions of which drag Colin Laney a guy with special research abilities and Chia McKenzie, 14 year old fan to post earthquake Tokyo, where they become embroiled with the Russian mafia and the Otaku (cybertech fetishists).

This was a neon-lit read featuring nanotech buildings, virtual cities and really cool computers. Fairly intense but still accessible, it teases you with the beginnings of something radically new and slightly disturbing. The way all good Sci-fi should.

And now I’ve just started Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, the 2005 Hugo Award Winner. Keira picked it out for me at Borders. Well she was taking books off the shelves and throwing them on the floor and I was tidying up after her. This book wouldn’t have caught my eye otherwise!

Looks very promising, about how suddenly the moon and stars disappear from our skies because “something” has captured the earth and frozen it in time.

I’ve read the first few chapters and am looking forward to reading the rest of it. I just love it when I have that kind of book. You know, something you can snuggle down with and transport you far far away at the end of a tiring day

Over the weekend we had a little party at our house.

It was my first opportunity to break out the one and only non-essential item I bought from London. A chocolate fountain.

It was quite a hit. We all got a thrill out of dipping strawberries, bananas and marshmallows into the rich chocolate sauce.

Chocolate coated strawberries are heavenly!

Keira loved it of course. She actually just wanted to eat the chocolate by itself. So I dipped a spoon in and let her lick the spoon. You should have seen her face when she finished.. chocolate ALL over.

Keira loves Mickey.

The other night at the shopping center, she spotted this huge Mickey Mouse outside a shop, “Mou cub cow! Mou cub cow!” she yelled pointing at Mickey, and in her tumbling run, headed straight for him.

“Mou cub cow!” She said as she worshipped at his feet.

All this is because her favourite show on TV is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She can name all his friends - “Mee mou”, “puto dog”, “goopy” and “do duck”. And when Mickey asks everyone to say “cheers”, she says “tear!”

Everyday I reserve her TV watching time for when Mickey is on, and she literally sits there, with 100% focus, eyes glued to the TV for the entire show.

And I think he’s teaching her what comes after the number 10. Heard her trying to say et-teen, nine-teen the other day, I never taught her that!

Keira is starting to like TV a little too much tho, sometimes she’ll ask for it and cry if I don’t turn it on for her. She is definitely becoming a crybaby.. you should have seen her at Gymboree today, totally recalcitrant! I’ll have to rant about her fear of new things another time.

But back to watching TV.. I am trying to limit her TV to one hour a day (which according to experts is already too much for kids under 3 years), but sometimes, especially at the end of the day when I’m tired and just want some peace and quiet, Mickey Mouse is the only thing that can save the day. And my sanity.

ps. Keira’s birthday is coming up in 2 months, guess what the theme is going to be?

Made a batch of cheese biscuits last week.

Got the recipe from here, Gertrude’s My Kitchen Snippets, excellent recipe! And really easy, even without a food processor I managed to mix the dough with just a wooden spoon.

It was also a fun activity for me and Keira to do. The girl had a whole lot of fun helping me - eating the raw dough, the cheese and the butter. haha. And I made the biscuits into lots of different shapes for Keira to identify.

Instead of paprika and cayenne pepper I used black pepper and some mixed Italian herbs. Came out yummy and cheesy, I liked it but Keira preferred the uncooked version!

Thanks Gertrude!