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Goodness, I have not cooked for a LONG time!!! You can tell by the lack of cooking post can’t you? :D  Bad wife…bad bad wife!

So for lunch yesterday I decided to whip up something easy and my all time favorite go-to dish when I crave for spaghetti: Spaghetti Chicken Bolognese. Admit it, it’s a favourite dish of yours too What’s not to like about this Italian dish.

Here’s the recipe:

One whole white onion, chopped

6 clove garlic, chopped

Half carrots, chopped

Quarter green capcisum, chopped

1 packet Maggi Spaghetti Bolognaise sauce mix

1 tray minced chicken

1 big tomato can (I used Hunts as I find it not sour)

2 tablespoon tomato paste (Hunts)

1 tablespoon tomato sauce

1 tomato, chopped

Parmesan Cheese

Monterey Jack Cheese

1 tablespoon sugar and a pinch of salt

Black Pepper / Basil / Oregano seasoning

Italian Parsley

Directions:

1. Boil spaghetti until soft, set aside

2. In a pan, fry onions and garlic in olive oil until slightly brown. Add in carrots and capsicum and fry for another 2 minutes. Add in minced chicken followed by the maggi spaghetti sauce mix powder (this is just for added flavor!) and fry until meat is cooked. Throw in a can of tomato sauce followed by half  can of water. Add in tomato,  tomato paste, tomato sauce, sugar, salt followed by all the herb seasoning.

3. Let the sauce thicken and add in more water, black pepper and herb seasoning if you like. Throw in Italian Parsely and let it boil for another 10 minutes. The thicker the sauce, the better. And the longer you leave it out on the pan (I made the sauce first then only boiled the spaghetti) the more tastier it becomes. Add in a little parmesan cheese to the sauce.

4. Arrange spaghetti on plate, throw in the awesome sauce, add more parmesan cheese and top it up with some monterey jack cheese cube (I found this single pack serve in Cold Storage in Parade for just RM3!!) and wala – a simple yet luxurious yummy meal! This tasted just like mom’s cooking which is a VERY good thing in my books.

Excuse the large cubes,  I told the husband to cut it smaller but he never listens….the monterey jack cheese went so well with the sauce.

Mmm all ready to dig in.

Yum yum let’s fatten me up!

Oh oh oh, and if you happen to pick up this months’ HER WORLD magazine, see if you can spot my lil review in the magazine I was hoping to score the spa package review that was featured two months ago in the magazine but got this instead, hmpf. I’m still thankful though coz I got to keep the product which I’ve since given it to my mom

Meanwhile you sooo gotta try my chicken spaghetti bolognese recipe, just saying

So this 8 day trip with Sairah has been our longest time being with her 24/7 granted both of us work and since I went back to work after a 2 months confinement.

Sad eh? But that’s the truth with working parents.

It’s been one heck of a ride, chasing after our 18 month old where ever she goes. She’s in a phase where she absolutely won’t sit in her stroller, refuses to be carried for a long period of time and wants to walk on her OWN. She won’t even want to hold your hands sometimes and when we’re in the supermarket, she walks off on her own and can’t be arsed even if you call her a million times to follow you. That is why one of us would have to do the shopping (usually me of course) while the hubby guards and watches over her with his life!

That little one has a mind of her own.

During our trip, she even had a fight with her father on two occasions. I know, at 18 months! It was our first time witnessing this and we’re not sure if it was funny or something we should worry about.

One of the occasion occurred when we were getting out from the car. I had put her down on the road to walk. But then her father picked her up coz it was getting chilly and in a flash she pinched his cheek!

Naturally I was the one who shouted at her (coz I’m the disciplinarian between the both of us, ahem) to stop that behavior telling her it was unacceptable and she was to hug her father to apologize to him.

Instead of being mad at me, she continued to wriggle her way out of him and cried for me to carry her instead. She didn’t want to look at her father or let him carry her. She clung on to me for the longest time!

In a way it was pretty hilarious.

Her father had to coax her to let him carry her and she just refused!! She clung on to me like a lil Koala Bear and I thought it was rather funny since I was the one who shouted at her.

She probably felt betrayed by her dad since mommy shouted at her coz she doesn’t like being yelled it. Everytime I scold her, she’ll cry her head off. Of course, she’ll eventually rectifiy whatever mistake she made while crying but she hates to be yelled at.

She did eventually go up to him and hug him when we got back into our room And all was fine and dandy again.

No doubt she finds way to bully that man. Because she knows he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. Her mother on the other hand has no qualms in hitting her hands when a mistake is commited.

Infact, I got scolded by my husband when she kept touching the dustbin in the hotel room. I had warned her many times, and she continuously defied me so I ended up giving her one light smack on her hand! The hubby of course reprimanded me for smacking his precious kid.  

Ah well, we all can’t be the ‘good’ parent now can we?  

But with all that drama, it tickles me funny to see these photos of baby and daddy cuddled up.

She was watching a cartoon and was afraid of something and quickly went up to him for a cuddle.  

There is love among these two no doubt.  And based on my own previous experience with my father, father-daughter arguements will ALWAYS be there. It is how we eventually make up/ammends is what matters the most.

She also bullies her dad into giving her a massage…..something her mother also makes him do when we’re watching tv late at night

How that’s for having someone wrapped around her lil fingers.

 Baby-Daddy love in the park. I super heart these photos.

I can tell what she’s thinking: Hah, like mom I have him wrapped around my fingers!

And to think these two had a ‘fight’ a few days ago, haha.

Nestled 30 mins away from the city lies Burns Beach, which is close to Joondalup!  This is a high end beautiful neighborhood that has a beautiful beach right next to it. The best word to describe it is of course BEAUTIFUL

To be honest, this is where we’d like to set up our home when we move to OZ. But it doesn’t come with an affordable price tag, naturally.

My husband was the one who researched this place and booked us into Burns Beach B&B. Now B&Bs to me doesn’t strike as being fancy. But this place proved me wrong!

We arrived to a huge looking house that was literally a 5 mins walk to the beach.

Prue, the owner (she lives upstairs) and her grand-daughter invited us in and what followed next was a series of ooooh this place is sooo beautiful!

We were ushered into our room and it looked EXACTLY like pictured on their website. I LOVE the black-grey color combination of the room, makes it look so comfie and posh. It felt like a 5 star hotel but at an affordable rate :D

Hallelujah – this bed is SO comfie!

My baby is such a drama queen But she’s right, the bed in the previous hotel we stayed in (Perth Ambassador) in the city gave me a BAD back!! Avoid at all cost! Only good thing about that hotel was the central location but still….

She hardly ever used the playpen at home but here, she was in it willingly. Wonder why?

Explains alot eh? Check out the HUGE tv in front. Sadly it was playing alot of cartoons only.

After staying in the shit hole hotel in the city (hubby paid AUD160 per night), paying an extra AUD10 per night to stay in this place was a total bargain!! I wish we could have stayed here the entire week and travel into Perth. It was worth every penny.

 OMG ma this is luxury!

Staying here felt like we were staying in a rich’s aunt’s house, heh. The owner Prue was very accommodating. She and her partner had worked so hard at doing up this place and all their hard work has certainly paid off.

 Bathroom

Dining area (3 tables coz there are only 3 rooms to be rented here, and to be honest, though the other rooms were booked I never once saw any of them, the house felt like it belonged to us!). B’fast is also included. Just let Prue know what time you’d like to have it, roll out of bed and wala b-fast is served! There’s a coffee machine among other drinks at your disposable. How thoughtful is that?

The anneh helping himself out to the freebie

The gorgeous outdoor that comes with a spa! Never got to use it thanks to some third wheel, lol.

Grocery time! One thing I LOVE about Perth is, all suburbs come equipped with their own supermarkets for convinience.

The beach nearby our B&B.

Sunset oh sunset, how I’d kill to own a property here.

It was really windy too.

Little one was all eager to walk and run around. She loved their huge park.

We sat down, ate a yogurt while watching the sunset.

 I LOVE this shot of her, she looks like a lil chuckina here, hehe. Wonder what she was plotting in her lil head.

Okay do I run to the left or right? Decisions decisions

This was the day we moved out to head back to the city again. Her sad face says it all. Even mommy and daddy were sad too

Do dolly and I reallyyyy have to move from here?

Don’t worry baby girl we’ll be back there one day, hopefully. Meanwhile, anyone wants to buy us a property here? Will be eternal grateful.

And if you’re ever looking for a place to stay in Perth, then I HIGLY HIGHLY recommend this. Do check out reviews on tripadvisor here.

Now that baby loves her pak, park! I’m guilty of depriving Sairah of her parks here in KL. Mainly because we don’t really have good parks around us where we stay. And it has a lot to do with our stinky hot humid weather too. Besides when was the last time you saw yards of greens within KL city? Every corner seems to be developed into some sort of commercial development by greedy developers.

Anyway during our trip to Perth, we were amazed with the amount of parks Perth had to offer. There would be a HUGE park in every corner, esp in every suburbs and it’s nice to see mothers out with their little ones just having a good time. Lots of people would also gather in the parks, just to have a picnic and to just chill out. Perth-ians (heh, if I can even call em that) are the most laidback bunch where they have a huge sense of work-life balance.

We first visited the King’s Park on a bright Sunday afternoon. King’s Park is dubbed the LARGEST park (in the world!) within a city. This park is just 5 minutes away from their city centre!

This place was absolutely perfect for our little one to go berserk. And that she did. She ran at every corner and just seemed to love the open space. We were amazed with the amount of energy she had, but no doubt the parks were the happiest place to be for her. She slept SO damn well those nights in Perth.

There was no stopping her.

I’m SO happy!

Must-run-and-go-crazyyyyy

Well except for her yogurt break. Every park we went to, I’d pack a Nestle Ski Vanille crème yogurt (best yogurt everrr!) and we’d sit down and share it.

See the one finger up? That means, it’s goooood.

Ooo la la I love the breeze on my face and hair as I eat my yogurt!

Yogurt monster.

She even chased a baby bird and seem to have some sort of obsession with birds. Check out the video here.

The second time we visited the same park, it was in the evening. It was windy and chilly and was absolutely perfect. This time I packed us a chocolate mousse. And we had a ball of a time watching her run and just watch the world go by.

I’m sooo HAPPY!

Kiss for daddy amongst all that running

There was a prom that took place there, check out the fancy hummers and stretch limo yo.

Naturally we also posed for the camera

Perth at Sunset

Now this was in a park in Burns Beach, in Joondalup which is about 30 minutes away from Perth. We stayed here for 2 nights and I’ve fallen in love with this place. My husband has high hopes of buying a land here but until we strike oh let’s say AUD1million, that’s not really gonna happen :(  Will blog more about that, but for now the park that was just a minute away from the beach!

Open space for kids is akin to an open bar for adults, heh

Do check out the video here. She attempts to say OZ.

Now this is the suburbs of Waneroo.

We hate being confined to a certain area so we rented a car and drove around Western Australia. We were on our way back to Perth city from Burns Beach when we spotted a park and decided Sairah would play there. It was close to 12pm and there were mothers and kids out playing.

Another yoghurt break

There’s a story behind that bruise on her forehead.

A nice session at the playground

My daddy’s manly enough to sit on this swing with me, hmpf!

Chasing after her old man.

And that is a tour of the park-visits we made. Now I swear, if I see another park I”m gonna just lose it. Kidding! Nice to see how Sairah just loved the open space and greens. We’re gonna attempt to find parks around here and hopefully it will give her that same happy feeling she had in Perth.

I’m not afraid to admit that I spent a huge amount of time picking out Sairah’s outfit for the trip. I OCD a lot when it comes to that, heh. I packed alot of comfie tees, pants, shorts, panties, a thick jacket which she never got to wear, extra clothes in the diaper bag for an emergency, the whole works I tell ya!

We were going to some place that was hot with low humidity which can get chilly in the evening so I wanted her to be in comfortable clothes.

Day 1:

Our flight arrived at 5.20 a.m in the morning (that’s right!) and we couldn’t check into the damn hotel until 2pm. We stayed in this CRAP hotel for the first 2 nights in the city – oh I will rant about it later.

You’ve seen this before, only because it’s a pretty comfy get up. She slept on this on the way and was in this until we finally checked into our hotel.

Yup, we were in the shopping mall area when she decided to break out into a little dance. Under the hot sun. In public! She looks like a lil busker girl, hehe.

 Day 2:

Spent most of our time in the park so I wanted her to wear something comfy. I got this outfit from Manila. The quality of this 2 piece amazes me coz she has worn it a few times and it’s still in good condition. Helps that it’s thick too. Long pants on a park trip is essential as it protects the legs from boos boos if a child should fall.

Walking like a BOSS!

Day 3:

A visit to the zoo requires minimal clothing. At least for the little one. I love this orange thin strap top and shorts combo that I got from Manila (again!). It says if you think I’m a spoilt princess, wait till you see my mom.

Word.

That evening, it got a little chilly so I threw on this grandma like cardigan (which was bought by her grandmother anyway) from Jusco. This retails under RM40 if I’m not mistaken. A great cardi to have in a diaper bag for those chilly moments

 Day 4:

We visited the aquarium to check out the marine life so I thought a nice tee-skirt combo would be nice. A skirt on a toddler makes diaper changing a whole lot easier, heh. She previously won this outfit from Petibisou when she was 6 months. It’s nice to see her fitting into it so well now. An old lady even commented and said her outfit was just gorgeous :D  And I totally agree. Do check out Petibisou here.

 In the evening, we made another visit to the park! And I decided to dress her in something neutral. Is that a boy? Or a girl? :D  These dungarees were bought by my aunt from Pumpkin Patch when she went to Melbourne a year ago.

I got the black pooh tee from Jusco and I think it matches the outfit pretty well

 Anneh, satu milo kow!

 Day 5:

Headed to yet another park so a nice PINK polo tee matched with pink leggings it was.

Oh I just spotted a cute blonde boy! For the record, little one kept calling out to all the blondes, BARBIE. Didn’t matter they were fat and not so barbie by standards, they were ‘barbie’ to her. Too cute!

Yet another dance in public!

That evening, we changed her into this dress. Super heart this dress! Got it from Ebay US. I believe it was a second hand one, the kid had only worn in once, or claims the seller. I love how this dress frames Sairah well, it moves so beautifully too. And if you ask me, orange is the perfect color for a sun dress, esp during the summer.

Ooo laa laa I feel like Marilyn Monroe

I also got her this gorgeous jacket from Jusco for under RM50. It went perfectly well with the dress during out trip to the park in the evening. Shit never knew Jusco would have some nice picks, I guess if you look close enough, you’ll find some interesting outfits there!

Day 6:

It was market day, under the hot sun so again minimal clothing was key. She wore this pink thin strap mickey mouse top and relaxed pants which I bought from Ebay Us.

I LOVE this shot of her. Check out her rosy cheeks, or rather her dry burnt cheeks, poor baby.

 Day 7:

Forgot to take a photo. So I’ll leave you with this hippie tank top I bought in a market. For the record, that’s how she’s usually dressed at home – a tee and diapers/shorts with no diapers

And ocassionally we roll this way!

Day 8:

Unglam jammies as we wait for our 7am flight out! This photo was taken at 5 a.m! I love how she knows we’re heading back which also meant the end of our trip! BOO HOO!

So yea, think I covered every type of style here and it was fun, at least for me. Now if only I can get a job that requires me dressing up lil kids. Any takers? I won’t ask for much, promise