Electrical Thermos Pot-Is It SAFE?

For the sake of convenience, I bought a Kenwood electrical thermos pot around 3 years ago. It has been serving us faithfully all these years and I only switched it off occasionally for cleaning. Otherwise, it's running 24/7. One thing I like about this thermos is that it doesn't reheat automatically. It keeps the water warm and only boils when water is added into it.

Few months back, I noticed a screw on the cover came off. It fell into the pot but the screw cap was trapped inside the cover. I left it as it is because it is still functioning like normal. Then, I noticed sometimes there were white particles inside the pot. Everytime I spotted them, I scooped them up but in my heart I felt uncomfortable because I don't know how much of the thing has been dissolved in the water and how much of it has gone into our body.

Two days back, I told hubby about it and I showed him what I scooped up from the thermos. We then decided to buy a conventional flask/thermos instead of an electrical one. The next evening, while I was trying to take the thermos by its handle, this happened..

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The whole cover came off.


See the missing screw and the plastic chipping off?



The white particles

So, I wonder is it safe to use the same type of thermos again? My hubby said he wants the same thing because it is very convenient. We still need to make milk for Ethan (when he wakes up in the morning and before he sleeps at night) and hubby likes to drink chinese tea after dinner.

Happenings in May

3 years, 11 months, 2 weeks & 6 days old.....

On Ethan:

His Birthday:
He's turning 4 next Saturday. This year, it will be the simplest celebration. It gets simpler and simpler every year. We will buy a cake for his small little party at school on Friday. He told me months ago that he wanted a "BIG....Ben-10 cake" for his birthday. I asked him "must be big? cannot buy a small one?". He said cannot, his friends do not like small cake. Kids nowadays are so demanding. I don't know how big is big and how small is small. Whatever it is, it has to be Ben-10 la. Then, the three of us will celebrate his birthday on Saturday. Mum and sis can't join coz sis just had a baby girl and mum is helping out, so no celebration for them wor. Probably just dinner with a candle blowing session and a present. We're thinking of a bicycle. I want it to be a surprise for him but don't know where to hide the bike and when to buy it. Furthermore, I have to go outstation next Wednesday to Friday. We have to figure this out.

Sleeping on his own:
We have planned to move him into his own room but every time we discussed that, he got all teary and upset. Hubby said wait until end of the year wor...

Diaperless:
Some updates from the previous posts, he is diaperless now, day and night. The first few weeks were difficult as we had to bring him to the toilet in the middle of the night. There will be 3-4 'accidents' in a week in the beginning but it reduced week by week. I think it took him around 3-4 months to be totally 'accident-free'. We still have to make sure that he has his last round of milk one hour before bed time and clear his bladder before sleep. Otherwise, we have to bring him to the toilet in the middle of the night.

Brought him to watch Toy Story I & II on 25 April 2010.
The movies lasted for 3 hours and the cinema was
freezingly cold. My fingers were all numb
after the movie ended.

A video of him doing his silly dance

On Mummy:
I have just completed the 2nd semester of my study. It has been almost a year since I "dig this big hole and jumped into it". Hopefully I can complete it by end of this year or latest by mid of next year. I presented my proposal to the examiner on 7th May and the preparation was tough. I have 3 supervisors and each of them has different opinions. I can't fulfill everything they asked me to do but just did what I thought was right. I arranged for a mock presentation on 6th May, a day before the actual day and 2 of the supervisors were present. I got shot by them left, right and centre. That made me very down. It seemed like whatever I have done was rubbish. I went home and corrected my presentation, read up whatever I need to read, went through the slides again and again and pray for the best. Still, I couldn't slept well that night as I was too nervous and worried that I couldn't answer the examiners' questions. Went to bed after 1 a.m. that night, rolled around for at least another 30 minutes and woke up at 6a.m., before the alarm went off. I arrived at the campus one hour before the presentation starts and went through the slides again in the car for another 30 minutes.

While I was going through the slides, mum called and told me sis has just delivered a baby girl by C-sec. She was overdue by a week and I was happy to hear that both mum and baby are safe. After the phone call, I went up to the meeting room and waited anxiously for the presentation to start. I was the 2nd presenter. All my 3 supervisors said they will come and they didn't turn up until the first presentation started. I tried to relax and listened to what the first presenter had to say but the more I listened the more nervous I got, so I looked away, kept my mind blank and and tried to think of other things.

My time came, so I did what I had to do. Each of us were given 30 minutes for the presentation and Q&A. The first presenter stood up during the whole presentation but I knew I had to sit down coz my legs will be wobbly. If they ask me to stand, I will tell them frankly that I will be more stable sitting down. I think I finished my presentation within 15 minutes. After countless questions, I looked at my watch and there was still 10 minutes to go. Gosh, that moment seemed like forever. The examiners asked so many questions and gave some not so important comments. There was a question, which I couldn't really answer. Thank God, one of my supervisors backed me up but in the end, the 3 of them were arguing among themselves on my research. I still think I was lucky because all of them showed their support and turned up. I noticed most of the supervisors were not there and their students had to fend for themselves.

After the presentation at 10 a.m., I had a long discussion with my supervisors. Two of them left after 1 hour and I continued with the other one until 1 p.m. I had initially plan to go for a pampering session after the presentation but my head was pounding by noon, so I decided to go home and rest. Went home to sleep and less than 15 minutes in dreamland, hubby called and woke me up. After that, I couldn't sleep anymore and decided to pick mum up and visit sis at the hospital. We were greeted by this little cutie pie....

My 'just arrived' niece

My Last 3 Trips

This post is really meant for memory sake for it is so outdated- the last 3 trips my company sent me to.

Nantes, France (14-20 September 2009)
Went there to attend a conference. The journey was boring as usual but not too tiring as there was only 1 transit (KL-Amsterdam-Nantes). Nantes is a very small town but there is a nice old castle there, which reminds me of the fairy tales. There is nothing much to do there except walking around town, do some (window) shopping and simply enjoy the cool weather. I was trying to buy some souvenirs but couldn't find any souvenir shops there. Strange huh? But I bought a bag for myself.

Me and my colleague stopped by Amsterdam and visited the city for a few hours as we had a 10-hour transit time on the way back to KL. If you ever transit in Amsterdam, I recommend you to take a look at the city. You can store your luggage at the airport. The big locker can fit two big luggage and the train ticket to city centre cost less than 5 euros (if I remember it correctly). The best part is, there is a toilet with shower inside the airport. I have used it twice. It's free but they just provide the shower with hot water. You need to bring your own toiletries and towel.

Walking back to the hotel.

Told you I did a lot of window shopping.

The town centre. We hang out there eating ice-cream.

Picnic.

The entrance to the castle.

Inside a Cathedral.

River cruise at Amsterdam.

A typical building in Amsterdam.

Multi-storey parking for bicycle.

Tourists at the infamous red light district.
I saw the ladies waiting for customers. Some pretty, some not
and some are frightening.

Bordeaux, France (3-11 October 2009)
I went back to KL from Nantes on a Sunday, spent a weekend in KL and off to France again the next Saturday. So I crammed myself again in the tiny seat for 10+ hours. This time, I transited in Paris. It's crazy to walk at The Charles De Gaulle Airport. I had to walk for around 30 minutes from one terminal to the other to take a domestic flight.

Bordeaux is bigger than Nantes and there are more things to see and buy. I thought as we get closer to the year end, the weather will be colder so I brought along my thick jackets and sweater and boots. The weather forecast said the temperature would be around 15C. I was wrong and so was the forecast. It was so so hot. It's even hotter because I wore sweater and boots. The mat salleh walked around in shorts and t-shirts. I felt so stupid but it's ok coz I got myself another bag.

The street is closed every Sunday for pedestrian and some bazaar.

The Sunday market.


Spices and sauces.


Funfare and fountain.


The city train.


A hot and sunny day.


Don't know what building is this but I love the stone wall.


The Cathedral at night. We were having dinner nearby.


The place where the meeting was held.

Busy Friday afternoon at the shopping street.


The same shopping street at night.

Skelleftea, Sweden (17-23 January 2010)
This is the best trip among the three. In fact, I would say that it is the top 2 places that I will remember for a long long time to come. First will be Milan, not because of the shopping but the buildings. I just love to see the architecture and people walking around, hanging out at the sidewalk cafes, walking their dogs, etc. etc. It's just so Italian. I will remember Skelleftea for it's snow. It was my first time seeing snow and so much snow. The river was frozen and everywhere you see is white. When you are walking outside, you can just smell the snow. To me, it was really cold but to the locals, -5C is very mild weather. The third day we were there, temperature dip to -17C. I just got to know that Skelleftea has 6 months of winter!!! Wow wow wow!! I did so many new things there like walking in the snow, wearing 4 layers of clothes, riding on a snowmobile and tasted the best salmon ever. It was really a great trip.

Preview of the snow.

A view outside the conference hall. It was snowing at that time.


Another view on a brighter day. We only saw the sun for
one day throughout the 5-day stay. One thing
I learnt-the brighter the day the colder it is.


The bridge we have to cross (i.e. walk) to go back to the hotel.


It was pitch dark at 3 p.m.


On the way to the Svansele Wilderness Centre and saw
these lovely red houses. Almost all of their houses are red
and they look really nice surrounded by ice.


Moose on the loose!!


Dinner being cooked.


Dinner is ready-It's difficult to balance the potatoes on the
curved plate that is made of wood. The cutleries and
mug are made of wood too.


Moose and reindeer meat.


Great coffee and ginger bread.

Frustrated Frustrated!!!!!

WARNING!: BEE, THIS IS NOT FOR YOU TO READ.



I'm so gonna explode!! I do not know what he thinks and how he manages things even after knowing him for more than a decade. Let's get to the details.

WHO?: My 'lou kong'

WHY?:
He said he might need to go to Jakarta like few weeks ago. So, I kept on telling him go to apply passport earlier coz he is not born in P.M'sia. No, he did not do anything about it. In the meantime, he kept on saying he might need to go..he might need to go.

On Tuesday, he said "I might need to go this Friday". Still refused to apply passport and he even told me that his colleague said can get within one day. I told him a MILLION TIMES that he's not born here, so need longer time to get a passport.

Then the day after, which was yesterday, I saw the tickets so I asked him have you got your passport. Guess what......NO!! Who on earth (other than this man) will issue flight tickets without a passport. You tell me. He said he will apply tomorrow (which is today). I don't want to comment already. What else can I say right? From the beginning I told him that he needs to get his passport first. The best thing is his boss doesn't know that he doesn't have a passport! Great or not? I also asked if he knows what documents he needs to bring. I got a stern reply that he already went to get the forms and everything. Fine. I keep quiet after that. I expect he has asked everything since it's already so urgent.

This morning I got a call from him. Surprise surprise....He said he needs to fly back to his hometown this afternoon to get it. If he applies here, it takes 5 days. How will you react? Why on earth this question was not asked when he was there to collect the form??? Didn't I SAY it takes longer for him? DIDN'T I?? WAS I TALKING TO THE WALL OR WHAT?? I was totally speechless. I was VERY MAD but there is nothing I can do about it. Do you know that kind of feeling? When you are so mad but you don't want to let it out so you just keep it inside until you feel like exploding? You can't talk, you can't shout and you definitely do not want to cry. I didn't talk much, just asked when is he coming back and told him I don't want to talk already.

My phone rang again not long after. Once I saw who is the caller I took a deep breath before I answer it just to keep cool. He asked me where is his birth certificate. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Now only you're asking me that?? I managed to tell the location of the document without raising my voice and end the conversation qucikly before I lose it.

My phone rang again. I took another deep breath. He asked me if I can pick him up from the airport on Saturday evening. I said I don't know. What else am I suppose to say??? I'm fuming inside and cannot think straight.

WHY? WHY? WWWHHHHYYYYYYYYY????

What's Up

That day while I was chit-chatting with my colleague, we mentioned that how time flies this year. It's already end of July now. I realise I have been blogging less and less mainly due to work commitment. When I'm at home, needless to say, I hardly touch the laptop as Ethan will ask me to switch on Ultraman (from Youtube) for him. Once he starts watching, he refuses to stop and always ends up crying when we switch it off. I've been telling hubby that he is watching too much Ultraman already. We try to limit it and he is watching like 4-5 days a week, every day limit to 1 hour.

Talking about my work, well, I have not been anywhere this year except for Port Dickson in June and will be going to Penang, next week. I'm not looking forward to any travelling actually. Don't know why. Just don't feel like going anywhere. At the same time, work in the office has been...errr...how should I say.........manageable but a lot of ad-hoc stuff, which I don't like. A Deputy Director has left our division in April, so we have to pick up part and pieces of his work. I hate to pick up people's work. I rather handle everything from the beginning.

I have made a very big decision for myself this year. Well, I'm going back to study and is taking Master of Science now. Actually, the planning started sometime mid last year. I first started thinking about taking up a Master degree because I feel that's the only way for me to get out of this company. Not that I have decided to leave but I have a strong feeling that I should have a back-up plan. What if the company cease operation one day? or what if I get a nasty boss in the future and I couldn't stand him/her and cannot find another job? I was very very bored with my job at one point and I have tried to look for another one. After sending out many many applications, I only received some calls for jobs with lower pay and lower prospect for career advancement. I'm not a very ambituous person but if I do not get better offer, I might as well stay put. At the same time, I felt that I need to do something about it. Hopefully, after I got my Master, I would have better chances in the job market. For all we know, I might stay in the same company until I retire..heheh.

Classes for the semester started in July and I need to attend only 1 class per week on Tuesday from 6-9 pm. I will go to class after work and hubby will fetch Ethan. So far, things are working out well with the study and with my two boys. I have yet to start anything on my thesis, which is the hardest part but I just want to take things one step at a time. Before I register, I have been thinking seriously should I proceed with the plan. I even thought of giving up, many many times but felt that it's not a right thing to do. Even now, I'm not sure if I could complete my study. I know it would be such a waste to drop it especially after planning it for more than a year. Hubby is supportive about it too. But it is really tough, especially mentally, to go back to study after 9 long years. Furthermore, I have a family and job to juggle now, unlike last time when I was doing my bachelor degree where everything is taken care of. I really miss those carefree years. Things are very different now. I need to be very determined in order to complete my Master degree. Hopefully, I can complete it in 3 semesters (1.5 years).

Cluttered Mind

A few untoward incidents happened today. First of all, (d@#n the gov) I have to pay extra RM1k income tax, even after deducting the PCB. My salary is already so low and still have to pay so much tax (it is a lot to me). Why? Coz the gov is so hungry for money and has started taxing us on meal allowance that we got for travelling. Stimulus package....WHAT STIMULUS PACKAGE!! For God sake, that money was given to us to buy food! If we eat McD every day, then we might have a few extra $$ left for some souvenir shopping. The worst part is, we are not allowed to get exemption on money spent on food by showing them the receipts. In other words, if you get RM200 per day for food and you spent it all on food, the gov. is still taxing you the full amount. I am really PI$$ED!!

Secondly, the pipe in my house is leaking. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the water drips to the car park which is one floor below my unit. As it is not someone's house, no one complaints. But if it is somebody's house, we can share the cost of repair. The water mark on the wall is already 1 feet high and spreading across the whole wall in the living hall and my bedroom. We have identify a plumber to fix it but hubby said he's too busy to apply leave. So, I might have to apply leave. Worst case scenario is, the plumber might have to hack the wall/floor to seal the hole and we do not know how big the damage is coz we cannot pin point the source of the leak and where should we start hacking. After the plumber finish his job, we have to look for people to fix the tiles and paint the wall. If we can get the same tiles, then not so bad. If not, we will have different colour tiles on the floor.

Thirdly, I wanted to register for a course and need to submit my examination transcript and certificate. I lost them and went back to the University to get them. They said they will not issue another cert so they will just give me a letter to say that I lost it. I paid and submitted a form. To my surprise, they called me 2-3 days later (I thought it takes them at least a week) to inform me that the papers were ready. So, I went to collect the papers last Monday BUT they only gave me the transcript and not the letter. Fine. They said they will do it and call me when it's ready. I haven't receive their call until now. The worst part is, the line was either engaged or not answered when I called!!!! How on earth that could be? I called another no. and the guy asked to call back the same no. coz. he does not have the details. The closing date for submission is 15 April. Wish me luck.

I couldn't think anymore. Talking to people around me did not ease my frustrations either. I hope the day will be saved by some good news.

Cuti-Cuti Bandung & Hot Air Balloon Festival in Putrajaya

2 years, 10 months & 2 days old.....

Bandung, 15-18 March 09

I went to Bandung with a few of my colleagues for cuti-cuti. We bought the ticket at zero fare and just paid RM200+ for airport tax. I enjoyed the trip very much coz for the first time, I travel with colleagues for holiday and not for work. The feeling was totally different. So relaxing and enjoyable. The best thing was everything was well planned and arranged before we left for the trip. From hotel and itinerary to money changing. I just packed my bag and hopped in.

All we did there was shop, eat, spa, reflexology, shop, shop and shop. I'll never get to do all these in KL. I didn't buy lots of things but I just enjoyed shopping all day long. I haven't done this in many many years. Just imagine, 3 full days of shopping without worrying that you will be late to pick up your son from school. No need to worry what to feed him tonight. The only worry is that he will be sick at home but I called and sms hubby to check everyday. Both of them were ok throughout the trip.

I went for my first ever spa in Bandung and paid 425,000 Rupiah (approx. RM 136) for a 2.5 hours package. So much cheaper compared to KL rite? The foot reflexology is also very cheap. It only cost 25,000 Rupiah (approx. RM8) for a 1-hour session. Unbelieveable. I asked the girl twice for the price coz I was really stunned.

One thing I realised was that their chickens taste so much better than those in KL. They are more juicy and taste like ayam kampung, not ayam pasar. I better let the photos do the talking (most of them were taken by my colleagues - A&A).

We visited the crater on the second day. Nice place but have to
go there early in the morning when it's more cooling.


The crater.


What we saw from one of the viewing decks.


Rows of shops selling local handicrafts.

Riung Sari, the restaurant where we had our lunch on the first day.
Nice food, nice ambience, fair price.

Lunch at Riung Sari. The one on the right is Nasi Timbel Special. Delicious!

One of the outlets

The price list at one of the beauty salon.
This is where we did the foot reflexology.

The spa we went to.

The place for baju kurung, kebaya and kain.

Putrajaya, 22 March 09

After returning from Bandung, me and hubby brought Ethan to Putrajaya on Sunday, to see hot air balloon. We were supposed to meet a friend, her hub and son there. We all arrived almost at the same time at around 8.45 pm to find that all the ballooons have been launched at 8 am. Only one balloon was still at the launching pad and it was only opened for charity ride, i.e., for orphans, etc. We saw some balloons floating around while we were on the way there but thought that there will be a few more around. Mana tahu, only one left. They called it hot air balloon festival but there were more stalls selling food than the hot air balloons around. I didn't have high expectations for the festival so it was only a minor dissapointment for me.

However, Ethan enjoyed it very much coz he saw the big balloon and a few paramotors flying around. He was so amazed to see the 'Uncles' (he calls any stranger men as uncle) flying around and kept saying 'So many, so many'. We spent slightly more than an hour there before adjourned to Alamanda for brunch. He started to warm up with Zac, my friend's son and played with him while we ate. The kids had a good time playing while the adults had a good time chatting. At end of the day, we were happy coz the kids were happy. That's all that matter.

The one and only hot air balloon around.

So many! So many!

Looking at the paramotors with full excitement

Playing with Zac