I'm a full-time mummy

I have been sharing some of my favorite angpow pieces on an angpow collectors group in Facebook and some members have been telling me to continue sharing my memorable stories and so I thought, why not write it down, that way, our kiddos can read about it when they grow up next time, eh?

For those of you who are not familiar or never heard of the words 'Angpow' (also known as 'ang pau', 'ang pao', 'angpau'), here is a quick definition:

Angpow = Red Packet (filled with cash inside) given during festivals

So for today's angpow story, it revolves around these few angpows:

What do they all have in common?

Hibiscus.

Malaysia' own national flower.

The red one that is. There's a light pink one which is South Korea's national flower. The red of the petals symbolizes the courage, life, and rapid growth of the Malaysian, and the five petals represent the five Rukun Negara of Malaysia.

I remembered back when I was in primary school (no Internet, no Google, no Youtube, heck not even PC), we rely on natural resources whenever we were assigned with homework. To bring a type of flower, to bring a type of spice, to bring a type of plants, to bring a type of fruits and so on.

I remembered asking my late father to look for flowers for me. Something different from the usual ones that my classmates brought. They brought bougainvilla (bunga kertas), orchid (which my late mum planted but was not flowering at that moment), bunga tahi ayam, kemboja and don't know what else. He rode his motorbike around our old neighborhood (terrace houses where there is small plot of garden for people to plant stuff) looking for these beautiful flowers. I was so happy when he brought home some!

So I brought hibiscus. And very happy to be the different one.

Till today, whenever I see a hibiscus flower, I will remembered my childhood memories. And I will make sure to tell this story to our kiddos, so that he knows and be proud of our own national flower. (refer comments for the few designs)

** 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.

Ever since I started kindergarten at 6 years old, I have been attending public schools (main language is Bahasa Malaysia) and during my earlier years, I mixed around with a lot of Malay friends and even spoke Bahasa with my elder brother at home (he also attends public schools), even to this day. So Bahasa Malaysia used to be my main language other than Cantonese and later on English (brushed up more when I met my hubby then boyfriend through snail mails, I had to practise and brush up my English as he doesn't speak Cantonese) Anyway, I think it is fun to be able to practise back and sharing what I know with those of you who are interested.

And so, here goes our next lesson: Sick / Healthy

For those of you who are more often on Facebook, you can also find the tutorials on my Facebook fan page. I have created a "Let's Learn Bahasa & Cantonese!" album to store the phrases. Enjoy learning!

 ** 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.

I came across this article which I must definitely share with you guys as I'm very interested to know your thoughts on this. For your convenience, I have copied the excerpts from the article here:

"At first glance, the icon looks like a run-of-the-mill calculator, but when you open it and type in the correct passcode, it will open a treasure trove of hidden pictures and files that don’t appear anywhere else on your device.

It’s a good idea to check iTunes and/or Google Play for these apps, typically billed as “photo vaults,” to see what other shady apps may be hiding under your nose."

I did a little bit of investigating and checking out on the AppStore and found these few. You might be able to search more by checking the related apps. But nevertheless, it is quite worrying to see such apps being made available.

As a parent to 3 kiddos with age range of 2 to 6.5 years old, I've still got years ahead for me to worry about them being able to install apps and/or owning their own smartphones/tablets and so on. I do hope we will be able to forge a relationship where our kiddos are able to come to us for anything, and not hiding any secrets from us. With that, whatever apps or temptations will not succeed to sway them away or make them resort to such apps to hide things from anyone.

But I guess for my stand and to put myself in this situation, I will definitely be monitoring what our children have on their smartphones when they do own one and only with our permission will they be able to purchase or install any apps. Or perhaps, another way is to let them use one of our old smartphones when necessary, that way, our permissions/passwords is required before they can install anything. But that's just my personal opinions.

How about you? What do you think?

** 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.