I'm a full-time mummy

Yes people, this awesome mummy blogger that you have been following for a while has just achieved another blogging milestone!

From an ordinary IT girl who quit her job to be a stay-at-home mum who then finds her passion in blogging (also to keep herself sane!) and then dabbling into book and product reviews... and now,

Ladies and gentlemen...

We are turning over a new LEAF...

For 6 weeks, we have been appointed by Nissan to be one of their ambassadors to test drive their electric vehicle, Nissan LEAF! To be precise, my husband and I have been appointed as the couple ambassadors for Nissan's 2nd batch of Nissan LEAF test drive program.

I for one, am glad that my husband is included as well as I believe his knowledge and background in car mechanics and all things related to cars (his family operates a car workshop long ago, his eldest brother is in regional sales for car auto parts and his second brother is the chief-on hand in a workshop in PJ area) will help to give tremendous input towards our feedback when reviewing this car.

As for me, I'm going to give my feedback from a mummy's point of view. Whether this car is good for a mummy to drive around with her kiddos, whether it is safe, practical and easy to use, and of course, blogging about our experience and journey in this 6 weeks!

Just in case you are wondering what's the big hoo-hah all about, please sit still while I explain to you what is so freaking awesome with this car (only 4 of this car in Malaysia for public to test drive and review!!!!) and why you should be jealous of me! Muahahahah! *evil chuckle*

Firstly, Nissan LEAF is the world’s first mass produced, all-electric and zero-emission Nissan Vehicle in Malaysia. To put it in easy to understand term, it simply means you don't ever, ever, ever, ever, need to pump petrol for this car. Because this car runs on electric. 100%. Just plug and charge. All at the comfort of your own home sweet home!

I don't know about you, but I get giddy legs whenever I see my car's petrol mark dipping towards E because I really dread going to petrol station to pump petrol. With 2 koala kids to lug around and not to mention seeing enough horror CCTV's clips on crimes occuring even at petrol station, it's really putting me off going to petrol station to pump petrol. So I tried my best to erm... delegate this task to my dear hubby heheheh *more evil chuckle*

So yeah, people! No more petrol pumping! Woohoo!! For 6 weeks anyway but that's good enough for us!

And of course, there are a whole lot more awesome features in this car (else I wouldn't apply to be the ambassador OK?!) and I'll share some of the major ones with you guys for now such as:

~ The ability to time the car to start cooling off at a specific time before you need to use the car meaning if you plan to go out at 10am, you can time the car air-conditioning unit to start at say 9.30am so that the car will be nice and cool when you hop in with your koala kids.... nice....

~ The awesome LCD screen that you can see at the front, my mouth went a big 'O' when I saw what's behind the car as we reversed out of our parking during our tutorial with the car. I love this feature because as a parent, I read a lot of cases where parents and family members accidentally reversing their car and knocking over their children. With this feature, it easily helps avoid such cases!

~ The airbag features for the front passenger seat is awesome! Will share more with you guys later on this!

So anyway, like I mentioned earlier, we get to see the car during the tutorial (we had to be briefed on how to drive and operate the car and also how to charge it as well).

Pictures shown below are taken during the tutorial:

Top Left: The electricians came over to check our house and prepare to install the EV charger station.

Bottom Left: The Nissan LEAF as it pulled into our driveway! Gorgeous right?!

Right side: The Nissan LEAF parked in our porch... ahhhhh...

Top Left: Meter showing 361.8kWh

Bottom Left: That's me posing next to the meter...

Right side: That's the EV charging station, pretty plain station to recharge the Nissan LEAF.

So, do stay tuned for more updates and pictures from us as we journey along with Nissan LEAF for this 6 weeks!

A few months ago, we went on a weekend holiday with our brother and sister in law and their family members. We stayed for a night at Avillion Resort Hotel Port Dickson and it was the first time my kids get to see so many boats at close-up range.

I remembered thinking to myself that all these boats were harbored at the jetty and most of them are not being used, heck, I think most likely these boats are being used only when the owners are available to take holidays or rest days to use them...

Now I don't think I'm qualified to advice much since I don't own a boat but I think if you are not using your boat, the owner or caretakers should at least cover up their boat right? In Malaysia, we get sunshine and rain all year long so I think the benefits of getting your boat covered up is to prevent mold and mildew which can be damaging to the boat's interior and decreasing the overall value of the boat as well. And also salt water is corrosive so long-term exposure to the boat can also result in serious damage to the boat's motor.

I was just browing around and came across the EmpireCovers website and noticed the many selections on EmpireCovers which one can look through before deciding to purchase a boat cover to protect their boat. I think this is a cool website as you can actually shop for the boat covers by the model, make, year and so on.

Do you have any tips to share on this topic?

** Disclosure: This post is in association with EmpireCovers. All thoughts, opinions and words are 100 % my own.

I knew I had to review this app when I saw the video trailer of it showing a bear being bitten by a flea, rolling on the ground, scratching its body trying to get rid of the flea. My first thought was my 3 years old boy is going to have fun watching this. Anyway, my review as below...

* Title: The Very Itchy Bear
* Price: $5.49
* Category: Books
* Updated: Sept 11, 2012
* Version: 1.1
* Size: 70.9 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: We Are Wheelbarrow PTY LTD
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Description from the product page:

"Bear is back again and - uh oh! He's STILL cranky!
In the third book of the beloved Bear series, Flea tries to say "Hello" by biting Bear high and low...

 'Itchy Bear' is another fun & humorous book for young readers by authour/illustrator Nick Bland. This is the third app Bear stars in - Nick's books 'The Very Cranky Bear' & 'The Very Hungry Bear' have already been adapted to popular apps for the ipad,iphone and ipod touch! Even so, Bear hasn't let stardom go to his head - he is just as lovably gruff as ever. A character that is truly bought alive by voice acting from the equally loveable Australian actor, Angus Sampson."

What's good?

* It is very engaging and I love that we can also touch the objects in each page on the screen and be amazed at the cute animation that appears!

* I could tell that my 3 years old boy is enjoying the animation effects where we can zoom in and out to look at the flea. I also used the opportunity here to teach my boy on sizes comparison (big and small) and what a flea does.

* I like the storyline where it tells how the Bear trying to get rid of the flea that bit its body and then realises he's all alone and what the bear did to be with the flea together in the end.

* There are some pages which got Ben's attention and reactions such as the page where the Bear swam and swam and swam to rescue the flea. I think this is partly because we have been going to our health club and Ben loves swimming in the club's swimming pool so I think he finds it cute and he can relate himself to the Bear when it swam.

Room for Improvement?

* I would prefer if the flower looks nicer. The one shown below actually creeps me out the first time (when I accidentally touched it without realising it's a flower!). The red flower looks like an alien's head!

* I noticed that the paging is a bit slow, as in when we turned to the next page, it takes a few seconds before we can go to the next page.

* I also think the price of the app at $5.49 is a bit too pricey.

You can purchase the "The Very Itchy Bear" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"