I'm a full-time mummy

I've been reading a lot of articles of issues happening in my beloved country, Malaysia. Racial issues, religion issues, laws, amongst many. Saddens me to read all these. When I was young, I remembered reciting our Rukun Negara everytime we have our morning school assemblies.

** Image credit: Google

I would strongly urged my fellow Malaysians to read and remember back these philosophies, the following which contains excerpt (in italized paragraphs) taken from Dept. of National Unity & Integration website:

Kepercayaan kepada Tuhan (Belief in God)

In Bahasa: "Bangsa dan Negara ini telah diwujudkan atas kepercayaan yang kukuh kepada Tuhan. Sesungguhnya dengan nama Tuhanlah, Bangsa dan Negara ini diwujudkan sebagai sebuah Bangsa dan Negara yang berdaulat. Islam adalah agama rasmi Persekutuan. Agama-agama dan kepercayaan-kepercayaan lain boleh diamalkan dengan aman dan tenteram dan tindakan membeza-bezakan terhadap seseorang warganegara atasalas an agama adalah dilarang."

In English: "The People and Nation were established based on our strong faith in God. It is indeed in the name of God that the People and Nation were established as a sovereign People and Nation. Islam is the official religion of the Federation. Other religions and faiths can be practised in peace and harmony and the act of discriminating a citizen in the name of a religion is forbidden."

 

Kesetiaan kepada Raja dan Negara (Loyalty to King & Country)

In Bahasa: "Malaysia adalah sebuah Negara yang mengamalkan pemerintahan beraja yang berpelembagaan dan Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong ialah Ketua Negara yang Berdaulat. Selaras dengan kedudukan Yang di-Pertuan Agong sebagai seorang Raja di bawah Perlembagaan, maka demikianlah juga sisitem beraja akan berlangsung dengan Baginda Raja-Raja sebagai ketua Negeri masing-masing. Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Raja-Raja dan Gabenor-gabenor merupakan lambang perpaduan oleh itu, Baginda berada di luar politik. Kesetiaan yang dikehendaki daripada setiap warganegara adalah menumpukan sepenuh taat setia yang bener-benar jujur. Selain itu mereka yang menjadi rakyat Raja-Raja hendaklah juga menumpukan taat setia setia kepada Raja masing-masing tetapi dengan tidak mengurangkan taat setia mereka kepada Yang di-Pertuan Agong dan Persekutuan. Kesetiaan ialah jiwa bangsa kita. Kesetiaan dari hati sanubari kepada Raja dan tanahair inilah yang menyatukan kita semua daripada pelbagai kaum menjadi satu Bangsa yang bersatupadu. Kesetiaan kepada Negara-negara lain adalah bertentangan dengan kesetiaan yang tidak berbelahbagi kepada Negara ini."

In English: "Malaysia is a Country which practises constitutional monarchy and His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is the Head of a Sovereign Country. The monarchy system is in line with the status of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as a Constitutional Ruler, whereby Their Royal Highnesses the Kings are the heads of their respective states. His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the Kings and Governors are symbols of unity therefore, His Majesty is not involved in politics. Loyalty is demanded from the citizens through sincere devotion. In addition, the Kings' people must also be devoted to their respective Kings and not compromising their devotion towards the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the Federal Government. Loyalty is the soul of the nation. Sincere loyalty towards the Rulers and the nation is that which unites various races into an integrated Nation. Loyalty towards other Countries is contrary to the undivided loyalty towards our Nation."

 

Keluhuran Perlembagaan (Supremacy of the Constitution)

In Bahasa: "Kewarganegaraan member seseorang itu taraf keanggootaan sebuah negara. Perlembagaan member kepada seseorang warganegara hak-hak dan keistimewaan tertentu; Perlembagaan juga meletakkan padanya tanggungjawab dan kewajipan-kewajipan tertentu terhadap Bangsa da Negara. Setiap warganegara wajib menghormati dan menghargai kandungan, maksud dan latar sejarah Perlembagaan. Latar sejarah inilah yang telah menyebabkan termaktubnya beberapa fasal dalam Perlembagaan seperti yang berkaitan dengan kedudukan Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong dan Raja-Raja, kedudukan Agama Islam sebagai agama rasmi, kedudukan Bahasa Melayu sebagai bahasa kebangsaan dan bahasa rasmi, kedudukan istimewa orang-orang Melayu dan kaum-kaum asal yang lain, hak-hak yang adil bagi kaum-kaum lain dan soal pemberian taraf kewarganegaraan. Tanggungjawab mulia dan suci seseorang warganegara ialah mempertahankan dan menjunjung Perlembagaan."

In English: "Citizenship endows one a sense of belonging to the country. The Constitution grants certain rights and privileges to a citizen; the Constitution also places certain responsibilities and obligations toward the Nation and Country. Every citizen is required to respect and appreciate the content, meaning and history of the Constitution. It is the history which has enshrined a number of clauses in the Constitution such as those pertaining to the status of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the Kings, Islam as the official religion, Bahasa Melayu as the national and official language, the privileges of the Malays and other native communities as well as the granting of citizenship. It is a noble and solemn responsibility for a citizen to preserve and uphold the Constitution."

 

Kedaulatan Undang-undang (The Rule of Law)

In Bahasa: "Keadilan diasaskan atas kedaulatan undan-undang. Setiap rakyat tarafnya sama di sisi undang-undang. Kebebasan asasi terjamin bagi semua warganegara. Kebebasan ini termasuklah kebebasan seseorang, perlindungan sama di sisi undang-undang, kebebasan beragam, kebebasan memiliki harta benda dan perlindungan daripada dibuang negeri. Perlembagaan member kepada seseorang rakyat hak mengeluarkan fikiran, hak berhimpun dan hak menubuhkan persatuan. Hak-hak ini boleh digunakan dengan bebas asalkan tidak melanggar sekatan-sekatan yang dikenakan oleh undang-undang. Hak-hak dan kebebasan yang dijamin oleh Perlembagaan itu tidaklah termasuk hak menggulingkan Kerajaan sama ada dengan kekerasan atau dengan cara-cara yang tidak menurut Perlembagaan. Kedaulatan undang-undang terjamin denga adanya sebuah badan kehakiman yang bebas serta mempunyai kuasa bagi memutuskan sama ada sesuatu perbuatan pemerintah itu sah atau tidak dari segi Perlembagaan undang-undang."

In English: "Justice is based on the sovereignty of the law. All citizens are equal in the eyes of law. freedom is guaranteed for all. This includes individual freedom, equal legal protection, freedom of religion, freedom to own assets and protection against banishment. The Constitution provides the right for a citizen to speak up, the right to assemble and the right to form associations. These rights can be exercised freely provided that it does not contravene the restrictions imposed by the law. The rights and freedom guaranteed by the Constitution exclude the right to topple the Government either forcibly or by unconstitutional means. Sovereignty of the law is guaranteed with the existence of an independent judiciary body and the power to decide whether the conduct of a ruler is legal or otherwise in accordance with the Constitution."

 

Kesopanan dan Kesusilaan (Mutual Respect & Good Social Behaviour)

In Bahasa: "Setiap orang dan setiap golongan hendaklah menguruskan hal masing-masing dengan cara yang tidak melanggar tatasusila. Tatasusila ini membenci dan mengutuk tingkah laku atau perbuatan yang angkuh atau yang menyinggung perasaan sesuatu golongan. Seseorang warganegara tidak boleh menyoal kesetiaan seorang warganegara yang lain dengan alasan bahawa ianya berasal dari keturunan tertentu. Tingkah laku sopan juga mengandungi suatu darjah kesusilaan yang tinggi dalam kedua-dua kehidupan persendirian dan kehidupan awam kita."
 

In English: "Each person or group of people is required to handle their own affairs by ways which do not contravene morality. Morality condemns arrogance or conducts which offend others. A citizen is not supposed to question the loyalty of another citizen based on his/her ancestry. Being courteous also carries a high degree of morality in our individual and public lives."

Growing up, I don't remember my parents teaching me to differentiate one another by their race, religion, skin color and so on. Everyone is the same. You are born into this world, make sure you make the best of it and give your best for it. No discrimination, no self pity, no intolerance, no comparison.

As a parent now, I am doing the same to our kiddos as what my parents have done for me. Even though our kiddos are still young, never have I once uttered anything about race, skin colors or religions to our kiddos. To them, everyone is the same. Nurture humility, no one is more superior than the others.

Oh parents, do not complicate a child's innocent and pure mind.

Look above our differences as underneath we are all the same, just plain simple human being.

Skin color different? My blood is red, how about yours?

Religion different? I belief in God. And my God teach us to be good to one another, to love one another. How about yours?

Race different? I'm of human race, how about you?

** Image credit: Google

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I'm sharing this experience after reading an article on how 1 word can make kids more helpful.

Early this year when we were renovating our house roof, there was a stretch of about 3-4 days where I would bring our 3 kiddos to hang out at my sister in law's house during the daytime. We will go home when hubby finishes his work and fetches all of us home. One time, my SIL was cooking lunch and I was carrying our few months old Carolyn (who is really fussy and cries the moment I put her on a bed so I ended up carrying her most of the times) and I nudged our then not yet 5 years old boy to help out his eldest aunt. I told him to ask big aunty whether she needed any help.

To be honest, I can see her really busy doing everything alone and she hesitated when our boy asked her whether she needed any help. Then, she immediately passed some plates to him to put on the dining table, followed by cutleries and cups and etc. We were a bit worried as he carried those fragile plates from the kitchen to the dining area but he did it. With each tasks completed, she praised him for being such a good helper.

I was so happy to see him getting more excited and proud to be able to help out. Since that day, we uses the statement 'You're such as good helper!' It works, everytime and I'm glad this is working.

** 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.

One of the reasons I love being a blogger is getting to do food review with my family. A few weeks ago, I received an invitation for a food preview session to try out IPPUDO's Parent's Day package. I have been to IPPUDO once in March this year to celebrate my birthday so it was nice to be given the opportunity to try out their food with my family. Without further ado, check out my review below...

About the company:

"IPPUDO was founded in 1985 in Japan’s ramen capital of Hakata by Shigemi Kawahara, the internationally renowned Ramen King and CEO of Chikaranomoto Company, which encompasses some of Japan’s finest restaurants. There are over 65 stores in Japan, and globally in places such as New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Shanghai. IPPUDO has become the most popular ramen restaurant over the years."

We were greeted with an enthusiastic welcome by the restaurant's staff and then directed to our table. The supervisor in-charge, Mr. Alfred promptly introduced the Parent's Day package set to us and helped us along as we ordered our fruit juices (kiwi, orange and tropical) and ramens. I'm happy to know that we can actually request for the ramen's texture (soft, normal, hard to very hard) so we settled on 2 harder texture of ramen for hubby and myself while our kiddos' ramen (Benjamin and Alyson shared a bowl) will be the softer texture. 

The first appetizer arrived shortly - Buta Karaage, which is a set of deep fried juicy pork loin with special homemade sauce was immediately devoured by our kiddos. I am pissed as hubby and I only get to eat 1 of the crispy pork loins each! Our kiddos whacked the rest of them all! The deep fried pork loins are crunchy on the outside and yet remain tender and chewy inside, yummmms... it is delicious to be eaten as it is also!

You can see the pictures below of our 2.5 years old Alyson, she is a really picky eater. I can say she is a food critic hahahaha... if the food is not good, no matter how you bribe or scold her, she will not touch it. At first you can see her apprehensive face as she holds one of the deep fried pork loins with her training chopsticks (I always brought them along for our kiddos to use), then when she took her first bite, she goes on her silent mode... and then she drops her chopsticks and uses her fingers to shove the deep fried pork loins for faster consumption hahahahah...

The Nikumiso tofu salad arrived after that and hubby and I immediately tried it out. It is good! At first hubby's impression was 'Heh... white tofu, what is so special?!' and then he took his first bite and went 'OOoooooooo... this is goooodddddd!!!!!!' The miso paste brings up a nice flavor when blended in with the veggie salad and as a person who does not eat much vegetables (ehem, that's me! Whooopss!) I can honestly say I am happily eating all the veggie salad in the plate! 

Our 3 ramens arrived after that - I am so sorry for not able to show you the pictures of our ramen - I did take them but the pictures does not do justice to the yummy ramens, so I am using the picture from the website instead.

The 3 ramens that came with the package are:

1. Shiromaru Motoaji - IPPUDO’s original tonkotsu broth served with ultra-thin noodles, pork loin, bean sprouts, kikurage & spring onions. Classic Hakata-style ramen.

2. Akamaru Shinaji - IPPUDO’s original tonkotsu broth enhanced with special blended miso paste and fragrant garlic oil. Served with thin noodles, pork belly, kikurage and spring onions. A refined, modern-style ramen.

3. Karaka-men - IPPUDO’s original tonkotsu broth with special spicy miso, cashew nuts & ground pork.

Also I need to share that from this point onwards, our 7 months old girl started her fussy stage (her sleep time) and despite continuous attempts to divert her attention by letting her play with tons of stuff in my diaper bag, she still fuss and make noises, so much that I had to take her out for a brief walk for change of atmosphere. So I missed out on taking pictures of us enjoying the ramens.

Our 5 years old boy said the soup is delicious and even drinks the soup of the ramen! He only says that when he drinks MY homecooked soup so as jealous I was at hearing that, I feel at ease when I know that only rigorously selected ingredients go through the innovative processes of creating the Tonkotsu broth, which is refined over the years. It takes more than 15 hours to extract the essence and to achieve the perfect emulsion. We were also told by Lucas, the Head of Operations that most of the ingredients are imported from Japan if it cannot be sourced locally.

I would like to thank the numerous staff who helped changed the cutleries (spoons and chopsticks) that our 7 months old girl keep dropping to the floor - boy, the staff are so quick that I have not even started sighing at the drop of the cutleries and the staff just swooped right in and changed a new one for me. Embarrassed but totally impressive!

Our honest opinion of IPPUDO's Parent's Day package? The menu selection was good and from the family point of view, the package is value for money instead of ordering separately. I mean, 3 ramen, 3 drinks and 2 big portion appetizers, definitely value! And the best part is the food is delicious, I'm sure anyone would be happy to pay for something as long as the food is delicious and made of the good quality ingredients, so the awesome point of getting to eat delicious food and knowing it is well worth the money spent for is just fantastic!

Hubby's comment aside from the meals being delicious is it would definitely be the icing of the cake if the package comes with a scoop of ice cream or some desserts for the family with young kiddos. As for me, I would say this package is even worth to go as a couple, I know if given the opportunity, hubby and I would be happy to order this same package for ourselves and share the 3rd bowl of ramen together... of course, hopefully minus our 3 kiddos being babysit elsewhere hahahaha...

Thank you Ippudo Malaysia for inviting us to try out your Parent's Day special promotion set.

We enjoy it very very much! Thumbs up from our family!

IPPUDO Parent's Day promotion starts from 9th May and ends on 22nd June and valid in Pavilion KL and The Gardens Mall KL outlets only.

You can find out more at http://www.ippudo.com.my/

Do note that I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products 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.