Hello December 2011

Should be "Hello Christmas"… which is more like it! 

I’ve just got back my laptop after having it being classified “Requires Hospitalisation” for some major repairs. I wish I'm smarter then all I needed to do would be to hook it to a life-support machine, cut it open, change some organs, prescribed some antidote...run some tests and voila! 2 follow-up checks and everything will be fine...no more amnesia!

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All I want for Christmas...

Mmmm…

”All I want for Christmas is …

something nice,

something sweet (not sugary sweet)

something personal,

something romantic,

something feminine,

something ME…something SPECIAL!

I left my latest issue of Marie Claire on my coffee-table opened on THE page with book-marker (do you need a book-marker for your woman’s magazine? … (eye-rolling!)… And, I left the browsers of my note-book opened on these pages for a couple of days now...

Not very subtle am I? But…the hints are so obvious… hehehe…let’s see if this works.

Chinese have a saying ‘ngau-pei tang-lung’ (roughly translated, leather lampshade)…sigh! I can count the number of presents under the tree…mine is still not there yet. But it’s already the 22^th!

Every year, I’ve got something practical… I’ve always been practical…yeah, (sigh!) that’s why I get ‘practical gifts’… so can I change that?

 

In the past, I’ve got cookbook…alright, cookbookS… (maybe, my cooking needs improvement?). I’ve got a dress (OK, dresses), a John Grisham’s book (not a cookbook!), a beautiful set of pyrex dish (was it for Mother’s Day?....can’t remember!), a camera-phone (my old mobile-phone died on me 10 days before Christmas – how convenient!)…

Are these nice, sweet…

Estee Lauder

Elizabeth Arden

Sigh!...

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Christmas gift ideas

I have always shopped personally, ie see, check, touch, feel, try and pay customer. Not very keen to try online purchase, for there is the fear of credit card fraud, I don’t get my goods after payment, I'm not getting my quality stuff… but there are a good many trusted sites recommended by purchasers as we can follow in forums and reviews. Perhaps I'll try some day.

For children, you may want to consider some of the followings:-

Fisher-Price’s Geo-trax is excellent for motor-skills training. I got this set for Max when he was just 1. He was able to learn to maneuver the joystick forward and back and hold it to get the “choo-choo”. It’s a bit pricey though.

Lego Duplo Explore  – Max’s 2^nd Big-set toy. The big blocks are just right for their tiny fingers to learn to put together. It’s excellent to teach them colours with these. But being tough and durable, you might want to be careful if other younger children around to prevent any sibling fights with these! It sure is gonna hurt.

Lego – Bionicles with Toa Matoro, Toa Kongu, Bogarak .... these are suitable for Age group 7 and above, but I got these for Max when he was 4. We taught him to refer to the instruction manual to put the pieces together section by section…and within an hour he has them diassembled!  They’ll need help to insert some of these small pieces which has tight fit. Please remember it’s only play with strict adult supervisions only for smaller kids. He has also taken some pieces here and there and made up another awesome-looking robotic creature.

Lego Technic - now, this is very exciting as it features various technical moves, with gears, hinges and pulley...Max is very fascinated with this set.

The return of the Rubik Cube. This coloured cube made a comeback recently and is also available in 4x4, not just 3x3. It comes in pyramid shape too. How on earth is this going to be solved!

Books, sounds boring but it’s not. It’a perfect gift. A gift of knowledge and good to inculcate a good reading habit when they are still young.

Board games, the popular ones like Scrabble, Monoploy, Snake-n-Ladder, are good for family fun.

Boggle, Boggle, a very interesting classic word games, very useful for vocabulary building for age 8-up, price @RM49.90

Mattel UNO Stacko @RM54.90 for age 7 – up

Eduscience Starter Microscope, @RM89.95.

You might want to check out some of these sites, some of which offers online purchases


TOYS”R”US, Check this out, based on gender and age, the suggested toys. 


Educational Insights offers some interesting puzzles that develop children in areas of problem-solving, logical and stimulate thinking skills. I've purchased a number of sets like the 

  

and the lastest is the River Crossing

One of the most trusted site, the Amazon has a wide collection of toys and puzzle for kids.

and I found a good choice here, Kids Online Store.

Books from MPH Online, but they were having upgrading works on their website but it’s up already. Their customer service is very good. Last year, I called up to enquire on availability of a particular book. Very kindly they let me know the price of paperback & hardcover too and availability at which outlet.

Popular Bookstore is having some kind of In-store activity with the beginning of year-end school break on Nov 20 at Ikano Power Centre and Sunway Pyramid. You may want to check out the stuff there and note the interest of your kids.

FOR HIM, 

You can get a good book or CDs or DVDs at Amazon . I was thinking of getting a "Beautiful World" by Jim Brickman...I like Jim Brickman, so we'll enjoy the CD together. :-)

Speedy Video seems they have free delivery for purchases above RM100 (valid for Msia only) but available to for sale in other currencies too.

FOR HER 

Again, I'm thinking for myself, besides getting the fragrances from the local Departmental Store and you go dizzzzzzzzzy, inhaling those fragrances...& deciding on one might be hard. Maybe you can check out her sets on her dressing table.

Amazon, availability of wide range of cookbooks, cookware & even kitchen gadgets, you can check it out, as it may make good gift your loved ones or mother or MIL (mother-in-law :-P) or even sister or aunt.

Cooking.com not only has recipes online but some pretty good deals on kitchen stuff, might be a good idea to check it out.

Emmagem’s 100 onlineshop in Malaysia. Please read and check out the boutiques carefully before making the online purchases...some are pretty reliable and have build a very good reputation. I bought a couple of outfit from Layla Walk-in-closet (in USJ Taipan), very nice and very good price too.

Have fun shopping....I'm off to do my rounds shortly, looking for nice stuff and enjoying the festive cheers.

Have a great weekend.

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Shop-eat-stroll...

Every year, starting December, we’ll do the rounds of the shopping malls to catch the festive spirits, take a couple of pictures, meet some Santas and Santarinas and of course, shopping. J

Here are some pictures,

The Gardens @Mid-Valley

Pretty Santarina & Santa, his beard seems to be growing from his nose :-)

The Carolers @Ikano Power Centre

The seahorse is celebrating too... :-)

The stage set for pictures-taking with Santa @Sunway Pyramid

Near the ice-skating rink @Sunway Pyramid

Indoor Funpark Ride (yet to be completed) @Sunway Pyramid

Uncle Clown entertaining some kids

I just couldn't resist taking a pic of this cute dragon dressed as Santa, the mascot of BBQ Plaza @Sunway Pyramid

Sunway Pyramid

One of the Best Shopping Centres in Klang Valley with Pyramid, Sphinx and Mid-Eastern decor

We had an enjoyable weekend despite only managing to get a book this time as we were so busy catching the carolers, the clown and taking pictures.

This book, I Love Butter Cake by Kevin Chai was a sold out for some time and finally I found it at Popular Bookstore in Sunway Pyramid. It seems it’s the 4^th re-print. Thanks to the recommendation of my friend, J, who gave the thumbs up after having tried a few unqiue butter cake recipes of Kevin Chai. I’m going to try a few of those recipes… Now, this book is my Christmas present to myself J.

With Christmas drawing near, shopping malls have become livelier and nosier with beautiful decorations, and huge glittering Christmas trees. As it’s the year-end school term break for most kids, it’s so nice to see many families making the most to have fun with their kids, enjoying the festives spirit. We could see some toddlers demanding to walk independently, some sleeping angels in baby strollers, some Daddy chasing after toddlers, whining kids demand purchase of toys are familiar sights... (Smile J)

When I needed to do real serious shopping, I’d rather not take the little one along. It is difficult to expect these little kids to have the patience as their Mama choose, inspect, compare and decide J. I've gotta to sneak off...

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RM150 Retail Therapy

I was in the mood for a little retail therapy today and when I heard Metrojaya was having a shopping carnival in The Summit, I thought, “Why not?”

Malaysians love a good bargain…don’t they? Ha-ha-ha, me too inclusive, of course. Lol!

I sneaked off for a very short while to check it up. I like Cape Cod, East India Co, Somerset Bay and some household stuff from Living Quarters. I just managed to get a pair of Somerset Bay linen pants @70% off the original price of RM109.90, a pair of Applemint shorts @70% off (original price RM59.90), two cotton tank-top @RM10 nett, some tableware @70% off and a cake server.

And, I grabbed all these stuff within 30 minutes. I didn’t have time to go thru’ the lingerie dept, the shoes, handbags and cosmetic depts. Not much toys, only some babies’ stuff and some stationeries

Last year, I was really into the Warehouse Sales thingy… I went to toys sales, cosmetics, electrical appliances, lingerie, books, sports-wears, AV and even J-Card days. I kinda like it as I could get good quality and branded stuff at a fraction of the normal retail price. Just that it may not be the latest in trend or fashion and the crowd is crazy, the jostling, the elbowing and the queuing!

(Smile)…it hasn’t been too bad a day, a little rain and some expected ‘after-rain traffic jam’. Ah, I sometimes think retail therapy can do lots to one’s soul and mood. J

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