Big Apple at Mergong Tesco Finally Opened

Big Apple finally is opened in Alor Star!...in Mergong Tesco to be exact!

The two girls were very enthusiastic about going when I went to pick their bro up. So we decided to check Tesco out after depositing the boys at tuition. The crowd was quite big but still we managed to get a parking. Lots of people were about. My aim....Big Apple. So, headed there and I could see that they've already had quite a healthy number of customers...though I won't say those donuts are the healthiest food for us! Bought 2 dozen; 1 dozen for RM17. One box for the Lohs. Our box already habis...all 12 of them.

Theirs looked like this.....cut all into quarters so that everyone could have a taste of all the different flavours we managed to get... 8)
Anyway, we didn't manage to go into TESCO hypermart yet..today we only wandered around the shops. Maybe tomorrow we'll go in...today's was just a quickie cos I was short of time.

Random thoughts...

Have been mostly away from my workplace the last 2 weeks. I still go to work, just that I was away. I always kinda like this time of the year cos I get to meet up and work with friends. It's a nice welcomed change. Takes the monotony out of the routine. Tomorrow I go back to face my charges again...thankfully the exams are on. Don't have to immediately go back and start chasing the marginal people I deal with at work.

Tomorrow is also a big day for Alor Star... TESCO is opening. We're planning to go and bersesak with the people. Not that I enjoy jostling through the crowd but this time around, I think I shall do something not in my nature for a change. I think in this rather laid back city, many people will definitely be making their way there. See how an opening of a store this can stir up such excitement. Kesian us, folks here, yah?

And tomorrow too, exams end for my kids. Merdeka! Not them! Me! Exams can be rather stressful, especially on the moms. The dads don't seem to be very affected. They and their one track mind...work...work...work... Mothers usually bear the brunt of it all. And it tends to get to you!

Anyway, my main goal would be to try out Big Apple and Coffee...see whether there would be the signature queue they have been so well known for at each opening. More tomorrow if I have the time.

Stress in the month of May..

Why stress??? For those with school going kids, it's exam season, mid-year exam. School is stressful for parents, not just the kids...some more, for parents like me, a banana, who sent their kids to a chinese vernacular school. What to do? Kiasu! Then at the same time don't want to be caught in the madness of tuitions....tough act, but my resolve may crumble soon.

Coach her myself for Mandarin now....for BM and English, there's Ling to do it but soon she will be going to college. I think I am going to miss her lots cos she has been good for my gal. But at least those 2 subjects still can tahan. They are not lost on me. It's Mandarin that has been a tough act to maintain.

This is really one time when I thank my parents for making me attend Mandarin lessons in the afternoon when I was in primary school. You see after normal school in the morning, my parents made my siblings and me attend afternoon school in Chinese. It was for about 3 hours where we did most of the subjects in Mandarin. However, most of us took it quite lightly. I think I enjoyed climbing the trees with my friends during recess more than the lessons. The stunts that we pulled off those days; I don't think I'd ever let my kids do. But 5 years of attending the school enabled me to make a bit sense of the language. The one year I didn't go was the year I sat for my Std 5 Assessment Exam.

But now, the one gadget that has made it possible for me with my half baked Mandarin to coach her is the electronic dictionary. It reads out the words for me ... and there are many words I don't know (my ignorance shows), tells me the number of strokes for each character, the 'bu-sou' (see, now I am getting a little hang of it). The best part is it translates the meaning of the word into English. It's worth the $$$ I paid for it. For now...I think I can go sit for the Standard 1 Chinese Paper too.

Mother's Day

My 7-year-old planned this for Mother's Day.... came up with the idea on her own. Endearing.....
I thought her papa had put the idea into her but no...she got him to 'pakat' with Ling and Siah to surprise me with it. Papa forked out the $$$ for it, of course. Older kid is oblivious...too concerned about his own things, own world and feelings. 2 kids and 2 emo. The sort of balance that I need in my insane world now.

My Experience with Coffee Addiction

I was never much of a coffee drinker. When I took coffee, it was not because I liked the taste or the smell (I know how people gush about the aroma, etc) but because it gives me the extra boost for me to get through certain tougher days. That was until recently....

Was facing some problems and I started to sleep less. In the mornings I still had to go work and I couldn't function very well since I was so tired. So, I turned to coffee. My cuppa became my saviour cos it would keep me awake and alert through the day. Before long, I needed thicker and stronger coffee...coffee was giving me my CPR - Coffee Provided Resuscitation. 8(

Then I went to Langkawi. Was just talking to my friend how tired I had been feeling and how much I needed coffee...me a non coffee drinker....just to stay functional. Something she said made me think...something to the extent of it's a sad state when one who is not a coffee drinker becomes a coffee junkie. When I got back that day, I decided that something had to be done...but still for the next one week, I had to have my usual cuppa.

The following Thursday after my trip, I decided to quit cold turkey. For the first 2 days I had this splitting headache, migraine like, cos my eyeballs felt as though they were splitting...and I felt really agitated. By the 3rd day, the headache was still there but it became more bearable. Today is the 11th day I've gone without coffee. In between those days, I had 2 cups of tea. Yesterday night, I didn't sleep really well again and this morning I had the urge to take coffee. I did not, and right now I have this little nagging headache, not so severe as to feel like it's splitting my eyeball but it's there. I am not saying I won't take coffee ever again, it's just that I don't think I want my life to be controlled by it..... I'll still take it, just not now. I want to take coffee as one of the simple pleasures in life.

I got this somewhere...

Most a.m. coffee drinkers don't realize it, but their morning cups of coffee set their bodies up for a rollercoaster day of highs and lows, only to bottom out at the point of exhaustion. Just a few hours after consumption, when the artificial high dies down, many people may reach for more coffee or something sugary to get another lift, leading to daily fluctuations in energy and alertness, and possibly to eventual chronic adrenal exhaustion.

Coming Up! Mergong Tesco

Saw this advertisement in The Star yesterday. This Tesco is supposed to be an eco-friendly store. Not bad!So after being reminded by the paper, we went to have a look at Tesco to see its progress. The familiar TESCO sign is finally up!

Though it was quite late in the evening when we passed by, we could still see many workers there. Machines, people...construction sounds were everywhere, even though there was a drizzle.

The trees are up, instant of course...the gravel road is now tarred. The opening looks set to be on. After the drive by, we went to Pacific to shop for groceries. Pacific was actually quite crowded...parking lots were quite full. At the cashier, I noticed that they have this RM1 cash voucher for every RM30 spent promotion. Felt happy, of course. Free money, mah! Went to the counter and claimed my vouchers. Then I thought we'd spend it immediately since I didn't want to clutter my brain with the need to remember those vouchers.
So I happily went to the counter clutching my vouchers to pay only to be told that the voucher is only valid from 17 May to 23 May. Looks like they want people to remember to go back to Pacific cos that's the week Tesco is opening. People are going to Tesco and the rest will be ghost complexes... it was like that the last time Giant opened!

What do you make of our BN MPs?

I think many of us are aware of Ibrahim Ali's(the independent MP from Kelantan but supposedly aligned to BN) comment about Karpal Singh during the beginning of this present Parliament sitting...something about Karpal needing permission from the Speaker to be seated, and you don't have to be a genius to know that Karpal Singh has been in the wheelchair since his accident. Anyway, it was an insensitive and silly remark, something the BN reps are very good at. And they make themselves look so silly. How to hormat a Yang Berhormat who cannot hormat other people, especially the OKU?

Anwyay, it never amazes me how silly the BN MP or those BN allied MPs always seem to come across as arrogant, insensitive and feudal. The lawyer for the disabled body who was at the Parliament to meet Ibrahim Ali to seek an apology over his remark said it is very mysterious to him why the MPs who say such insensitive remarks always happen to be BN MPs. Maybe BN does not know how to choose the right reps?? or could it be that once power gets into the head of the elected MP, he becomes the feudal lord. There is a video about the meeting but you have to subscribe to to it, which I think is very worth it.

When will the BN MPs learn? And at this age of internet, these MPs better learn some decent behaviour. If one is caught on video like this Ibrahim Ali guy, it's like committing political harakiri. Come on, don't tell me it's nice to portray himself as an obnoxious guy, so full of himself and acting so ungentlemanly. He would have scored big time if he has just apologized, plain and simple...exhibit a little humility. Goes a long, long way. Then maybe people like us will start thinking different about the BN reps. And MP Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin also stated that he (Karpal Singh) “as a disabled should act like one, but his mouth is not like a disabled”. What did he imply? If you are disabled, you are a lesser mortal?

The PKR has been able to use the internet and technology to their advantage... The BN still seems lost. Somehow they have not learnt how to connect with the people. Maybe too long being the feudal lords, already. These same people call bloggers with all kinds of names then promptly joined in the bandwagon. When they make mistakes, they deem it beneath them to apologize. Kinda authoritarian and dictatorial in a way, isn't it?

But then again, Malaysians are also a forgiving lot....we've still re-elected people like Bung Mokhtar Radin (the bocor guy) and Badruddin Amiruldin. That's why these people still behave as though the rakyat owe them something.....not the other way around.