I'm a full-time mummy

Last year, I wrote about a look back into my home-cooked journey so far. Then shortly before the end of 2014, I wrote a post on my preparation when cooking. Then I thought, "Why not snap a picture of before start cooking and the final results after cooking?"

So, here you go..

Top part of the picture is the ingredients all ready to be cooked on 23rd March 2015. From top left (clockwise): Chicken cut in small strips marinated in sweet soy sauce and sugar, broccoli cut into small florets, 3 eggs, pork marinated in sweet soy sauce, salt pepper and sugar, a bowl of curry powder + water + sugar + salt pepper, about 4-5 cloves of garlic cut into thin slices, a bowl of oyster sauce + water + soy sauce

My dinner dishes for that day? Click on the dish name to check out my recipe.

• Stir-fry Chicken with Broccoli.

• Pan-fried Spicy Pork.

• Fried eggs (not shown in picture)
  

In case you are interested to view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

If you’ve been shopping around for a vacuum cleaner you’ll probably have noticed ‘energy-efficient’ labels stuck to the body of the machine. These environmentally-friendly cleaners are designed to use less energy to do the same job as traditional models. This should result in reduced household energy bills, which always gets a thumbs-up!

Many countries have now banned the use of powerful, energy-sucking household appliances and this includes vacuums rated above 1600 watts, but are there real benefits to low-energy cleaners?

A manufacturing challenge

The introduction of eco-friendly vacuum cleaners has obliged manufacturers to find innovative ways to create a product that allows people to hoover but uses less energy to do so. As a result, they’ve actually started creating models that required only 1000 Watts and even 800 Watts to clean thoroughly and efficiently. For the consumer, this meant their machine produced the same results but used much less energy to achieve them. Ultimately, this means another household appliance has been introduced that is not only kinder to the environment but will also help to keep utility bills down.

Performance through design

Thanks to the rise in home electronics, we’re consuming more energy and this is one of the reasons why it makes sense to use low-energy products. But manufacturers know that the design of the product, not the actual energy consumption, is what makes a difference to performance. To this end, some manufacturers have gone back to the drawing board to produce quieter models that feature a higher pick-up rate than traditional cleaners. There are also models that offer turbo features for deep cleaning, including pet hairs, which are hard to pick up.

Additional features

The new cleaners do come with some excellent additional specifications, including filtration layers to remove particles from the air when cleaning. This has been designed to help people who have allergies. New, 3D dust bags are also part of this process. Charcoal filtration is available on some models too to absorb odours such as pet smells, which can become ingrained in carpets. The features available will depend on the brand of cleaner and there will be price differences depending on the technology involved.

In some countries you now have no option but to buy energy-efficient vacuum cleaners. However, low-energy cleaners make financial sense when it comes to a cost-effective household purchase that’s also kinder to our planet.

** Image by Photographing Travis, used under Creative Commons licence

Every weekend whenever possible, we will plan for some family outing and if can, we bring along a niece and a nephew with us. Our 3 kiddos love spending time with their cousins and we enjoyed their companionship as well, so our latest outing was to a Chocolate Museum! I have previously mentioned this to hubby but he rejected my idea and I tried again for 2nd time and because of my nagging persistency, he relented hahahahah...

We fetched our nephew and niece from their place and went for our lunch first. Once done, we navigated our way towards the Chocolate Museum using the location I found on Waze which I sent to hubby's mobile. We reached the museum around 1pm+. Parking is ample, there was a female security guard pointing us towards an area for visitors' parking.

When we first tried to go in through the main entrance door, hubby couldn't get in. There was a group of about 10-15 people at the entrance listening to a staff explaining to them about the history of cocoa etc. We ended up going in through the Museum Cafe's side door which passes through the Museum's entrance.

According to their website, it is the latest, most interactive, one of a kind chocolate museum in South East Asia with interactive displays, etc. I am still scratching my head wondering where and what do they mean by that. I guess you will need to experience for yourself just in case you don't believe me. After all, I made the same mistake after googling around for other bloggers' reviews on their visit to the Chocolate Museum. All giving happy glory-mory feedback with around the same ol' same ol' pictures.

If by interactive museum they meant this display board with some LED lights blinking, I am utterly disappointed. No kidding. Never mind the visit we made to the museum, but I am expecting more from what I read on their website.

There are some machines and exhibits which you can read - about cocoa, how do you process them to become chocolate, who are the pioneers in the chocolate industry etc.

As a parent, I'm always on the look out for things that might pose a risk to our kiddos. So imagine when I see my niece and nephew playing with one of the machines in the museum (this is not barricaded or have any signs cautioning anyone). You can still pull or spin the lever/handle but still that means it can be operated on and is working. Now look at the picture below at the arrows I'm pointing at. I hope you can see from my point of view why I was concerned with the risks here. Imagine tiny hands or fingers slipping in while someone gives this machine a spin. *horror*

After going through the exhibits area, you will head towards an area with clear window around, where at certain times, you can actually see staff in the room making chocolates. Facing this chocolate kitchen is the Chocolate Galleria (aka where you shop for chocolates!) There is only 1 tiny Tripod Turnstile entrance and 1 tiny Tripod Turnstile exit in the Chocolate Galleria. You need a bit of dexterity and good handling of your child stroller to get into the Chocolate Galleria but we managed to get our stroller in and out.

When you exit the museum, you have this feeling of being the subject of a 'good riddance' thing, it's like you are not welcome there and quickly ushered out towards outside.

 To sum up our review on Chocolate Museum @ Kota Damansara:

PLUS POINTS:

• FREE entrance fees

• You get to buy chocolates!
  

BAD POINTS:

• The entrance and exit are BADLY done. Limited space and no connectivity. Normally when you go to an establishments or places of interests, they will position the exit together with the souvenir shop or cafe so as visitors can browse and shop for some souvenirs etc. I'm not saying there is no shop in the museum, it is just that it was not nicely connected.

• Museum Cafe is bland, snacks sold is really pathetic looking and lack of options (sorry didn't bother to take picture)

• Machines (that you can play with) poses a risk - children who do not know the dangers and risks of operating it might get hurt.

• I'm not sure about other amenities like restroom or baby changing room as we did not need to use it during our short time there.
  

Definitely NOT going back there!

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.