Kids and politeness

I noticed that Adam ni sangat garang dengan maid. Kalau main yelah, dia suka-suka and gelak-gelak. Tapi kalau nak mintak something, dia akan panggil dengan suara yang boleh dengar the authority in it. Macam contoh kalau with me, dia nak mintak susu, he will say "Mommy, milk please" in his sweetest voice. Tapi, kalau dengan maid, "Chitah! Milk!" on top of his voice. Sounded very rude to me. Even if I asked him to say it nicer, he would only lower it a bit but still not nice enough.

Initially, I thought it was me. I don't think I sound like that when I call the maid but people say kids emulate your behaviour. When we went back to my hometown the other day, I noticed Adam used the same voice when he called out my mom's maid. So it must not be me! I did not talk much with my mom's maid and never raised my voice when I speak to her. Adam spoke politely to all other people except the maid.

What should I do now? Whenever I catch him talking to the maid in that voice of course I will get him to talk nicer but what if I am not around and later it became a habit. I don't want to be the mother who raise a rude son. Sigh~

A Doctor in the House

I have been reading this book for quite sometime but has yet to finish it :( I think I have read 3 other books in between. Don't get me wrong, I love the book. How can I not love Tun M's style of writing, straight forward, simple words, backed with facts and he cracked some jokes here and there. Feels like I was listening to him.

I think the book is too bulky and too heavy to carry around. It would ruin my handbag if I were to carry it with me all the time. I wish I can pull out chapter by chapter coz I really want to read them all. Have you read the book? Page by page?Tell me how you did it. Please...

Christian the lion

Have you seen this video? I don't know why I kept thinking about the lion as I drove to work this morning. The first time I saw it, I cried. But now, whenever I watch this video, I'll smile instead. It makes me feel happy. It's really amazing to see the bond between Christian the lion and the two men who raised him. It makes me feel that there's still hope for world peace :) Even a lion could appreciate the kindness he received from the two men so why can't we human care and appreciate others more? Read here for the full story.

Bawang Goreng dan Gula

Ni entry nak lepas perasaan. Negative energy. Don't say I did not warn you :)

Last weekend I stayed at home most of the weekend. Keluar petang Sabtu and malam Ahad saja. Biasalah, bila lama dekat rumah, banyak lah encounter dengan bibik. Bila dah banyak berjumpa, mesti adaaaaa je yang jadi.

Sabtu malam tu, after dah kenyang makan nasi ayam, and nak kemas-kemas sikit, perasan yang kat dalam peti sejuk tu ada semut. Eh, macam mana ada semut? Penuh semut dekat botol ubat demam Adam. Hmmm, buang ajelah sebab dah lama pun ubat tu. Pastu mula la belek-belek lagi barang dalam peti ais. Sekali, bila tengok belakang getahpintu fridge tu, penuh semut! So, bermulalah sesi audit peti sejuk. Masa tu dah perasan banyak barang dah tak sejuk. Telur berpelu-peluh. Menandakan perubahan suhu dalam peti tu. So, alih-alihkan barang and nampak lubang yang sepatutnya angin sejuk tu keluar macam dah di blok oleh barang-barang yang tak perlu! Barang-barang yang dah entah berapa kali dah cakap bibik tak perlu simpan dalam firdge. Contoh? Spagheti sauce yang x bukak pun lagi lid dia and botol bawang goreng! Botol tu dahla besar, isi sikit je. Dah geram dah sambil keluarkan barang sambil membebel. Masalahnya ni bukan kali pertama tegur pasal barang dalam peti sejuk. Dah banyak kali dah re-arrange kan barang2 dalam peti tu ikut category. Degil jugak. Main campak suka hati dia aje.

Tengah malam tu, turun bawah sebab rasa nak buat pavlova. Bila buka peti, rasa botol fresh milk, tak sejuk. Rasa botol jam, tak sejuk. Hati dah gundah gelana. Terus tak jadi buat pavlova dan naik atas bawak fresh milk untuk dihabiskan in case peti sejuk rosak.

Kalau peti sejuk rosak, dah barang ke berapa dah rosak sejak bibik kerja dengan kitorang. Dahlah siang tu baru beli rice cooker and iron baru untuk ganti yang dah rosak. Otak mula buat kira-kira. Barang yang dah rosak:
1. Rice cooker - Anggaran RM250-RM350 so katalah RM300.
2. Iron - RM120
3. Electric kettle - RM40
4. Washing machine - RM600 (ok, yang ni dah lama tapi still nak kira).
so, total dah dekat RM1K. Kalau fridge rosak, tambah lagi RM3k. Orang kaya pun boleh jatuh miskin macam ni.

Nasib baik bila bangun pagi, peti dah sejuk balik so hati dah kembali sejuk. Tapi malam Ahad, bila balik from Giant, nak masukkan ice-cream dekat freezer, guess what I found deeeep inside the freezer drawer. Bawang goreng! Geramnya masa tu tak terkata. Rasa nak campak je botol bawang goreng tu biar pecah. Tapi sabarkan diri. Geram sebab rasa ada usaha to outsmart me di situ. Dah kata jangan masuk dalam fridge dia masukkan dalam freezer. Urggghhh!!!

Tapi beberapa minit lepas tu, bila tanya dia eh, mana granulated sugar? (Biasanya ada dalam tuppaware sekali dengan brown sugar) Dia jawab, oh saya sudah campur dalam bekas itu (bekas yang ada casto sugar). Hati dah mendidih tapi masih boleh cakap elok-elok cuma suara lebih tegas.
"Laaaaa, kenapa kamu campur. Kan jenis lain sebab tu saya asingkan bekas lain-lain"
"Samalaa puan! Saya yang gunting plastiknya"
"Tak sama, saya yang beli, saya tahulah"
"Samaaaaa, Puan mana liat (lihat)! Saya yang gunting plastiknya. Samaaa"
"TAK SAMALAH!" masa tu dah tak tahan. Habis semua principle Dale Carnegie buang ke laut. Geram tau tak!!!!!!!!!

Memanglah gula tu sama asasnya. Kalau guna 1 teaspoon memanglah tak rasa sangat bezanya. Tapi kalau pakai 4 CUPS?! Mestilah jadi tawar or lebih manis kalau pakai gula yang salah! Even kalau tengok saiz dia though sekali pandang macam sama, boleh nampak beza dia. Bila tunjuk kat bibik suruh tengok, dia dah tak nak tengok dah.

Bukanlah masalah gula atau bawang sangat sebenarnya. Masalahnya ialah nak tunjuk pandai and tak mengaku salah! Apa salahnya, kalau dia cakap, oh, lain ke? Sorry ye. Itu aje!

Ramai yang cakap kalau dah asyik sakit hati kenapa simpan lagi? Hmmmm, dia ok dengan Adam. My friends ada yang dapat worse maid. Nak hantar nursery tak sanggup. And, kalau amik yang baru pun, entah2 lagi teruk dari ni. Yang ni at least lepas ni hopefully dah tak perlu bagitau jangan campurkan gula dalam satu bekas. Hopefully lah kan. Aduhaiiii...  Serba salah. Adakah ini masa yang sesuai untuk guna peribahasa Diluah mati emak, diludah mati bapak? Sekian pengaduan di hari Isnin.

spring cleaning

Spring cleaning is the period in spring time set aside for cleaning a house, normally applied in climates with a cold winter.

The most common usage of spring cleaning refers to the yearly act of cleaning a house from top to bottom which would take place in the first warm days of the year typically in spring, hence the name. However it has also come to be synonymous with any kind of heavy duty cleaning or organizing enterprise. A person who gets their affairs in order before an audit or inspection could be said to be doing some spring cleaning.

Feel the urge to do spring cleaning. Not so much of cleaning the house from top to bottom but more of decluttering and reorganizing my belongings. Maybe I should take leave on Friday since Thursday is a public holiday. My maid is not really good in keeping things in order hence the need of spring cleaning not only in spring (macamla ada spring kat Malaysia) but almost every 3-4 months. Partly it is my fault as I am not that strict with her. When she piled things in a corner or chuck things in a plastic bag, I did not even say a word. 

Anyway, my main objectives this round are clothes and books. As I am no longer in finance industry, I don't need my college textbooks anymore. I wanted to donate them to my Uni library but was told they only accept up to 2005 edition only. I graduated in 2004 so I am sure all of my books were written way beyond 2005. Any idea on what I can do with them? Each costs about RM100 when I bought them and they are as good as new. It would be a huge waste to send to recycling center. 

I have been holding on to some of my clothes for quite some time. They have survived a few spring cleaning just because of that tiny little hope to lose some weight and able to wear them again. With the growing number of my son's clothes that could to be kept for his future siblings, I just can't afford the space to keep my clothes anymore. And I have given up hope to fit into S and M size at least in the next 2 years. So, hopefully I won't be too emotional this time around and ended up with another round of spring cleaning on the same stuff. Do I need to buy these cute baskets? :)

My Boring Weekend

It's almost the end of the weekend. Sigh~

Saturday was spent watching Junior Masterchef. I cried and cried especially during the last 2 episodes. As I said earlier, the bond between the two sisters is soooo amazing. And all of them are amazing cooks. And the hosts cum judges are even better cooks. Imagine preparing a pasta dish complete with grilled chicken and all in 15 minutes. And they even made the pasta from scratch. If it's me, in 15 minutes, the most I could probably do is prep the chicken, let alone making pasta from scratch!

In the evening, my bother came so we went for tea at Kedai Kopi near Tasik Shah Alam. Actually he wanted to take his notes from my store room but it was too much work as we have to take everything out of the store room first before we could reach his box. My brother loves the cookies too so I gave a small container for him to bring back.

My Saturday night was spent watching Eat Pray Love. I have downloaded it for quite some time but wanted to read the book first and finally last weekend I finished reading the book. The movie was not bad but they missed alot of things in the movie.Well, it definitely took me more than 2 hours to read the book so to be fair, they have to cram everything in the 2 hour (or was it almost 3?) movie. So, I prefer the book than the movie.

This morning, I was up very early for a Sunday but just couldn't go back to sleep. Decided to cook breakfast for hubby n Adam. Initially I wanted to make pancake but hubby does not really like pancake so I decided to make lempeng instead. It's the Malay version of pancake. Much simpler I must say. Just flour, water, a pinch of salt and an egg. I threw in some sliced onions in the dough and it taste good :) As the lempeng is too plain to be eaten on its own, I made sambal sardin to compliment it. Had to make one without chilli for Adam. Happy to see both of them enjoying their breakfast.

Spent the whole day lazing around reading a book my friend lent me. Quite an interesting one as the book was written in the perspective of each of the main characters in the book. How people view things are entirely based on what they want to believe and almost always, people has a good reason for everything they do. Even if it is the wrong thing. So, that sums up my 4th book in 2011 :)

masak - masak

The good thing of having a good and reliable broadband at home is that you can download any series or movies of your choice and watch them at your convenience. Kadang-kadang tu streaming je sebab malas nak tunggu download (tp hubby kata baik dowbnload je sbb streaming makan bandwidth)..

As now is mid season break for most of the shows that I follow, last weekend I decided to download Season 1 of Junior Masterchef Australia. Baru je tengok 5 episodes so far. Sangat gerammm tengok diorang ni kecik2 lagi dah pandai masak. My mom taught me how to cook rice when I was 11. Tu pun electric cooker je. These kids started to cook when they were only 4! Sangat kagummmm!

The episode I watched last night made the contestants to bake pie with lamb as the core ingredient. They were so good! The winner was Pierre, an 11 year old boy who cooked Lamb Wellington with Spinach and Mushroom Duxcell. Even the judges were impressed with his techniques and skills. He rolled the lamb into the pastry and baked them in the oven and it cooked to perfection. I don't think I could ever bake that. This is how the pie looks like:

Apart from their amazing capability to cook great dishes, what I like most about the show is their expression. They are so young and pure. It was amazing to watch how excited they were at each round and how happy they were supporting for each other. Unlike other reality shows where the the judges could be very harsh at times, the judges and the host for this show were very encouraging and motivating. Can't wait to watch the whole season! :)

Vaccination for your child(ren)

A couple of weeks ago, my cousin's 6 months old daughter was hospitalized for diarrhea caused by rotavirus. She was hospitalized for about a week. It was heart breaking to see the drip bandaged to her hand. Last week, a friend to my friend lost her 15 months baby due to diarrhea and rotavirus, again, was the culprit. I was told the virus has creeped into her central nervous system and infected her brain. The baby had diarrhea so the parents brought her to a clinic and was given some medicine. After 2 days her condition did not improve so they brought her to a private hospital and were told the baby was already dehydrated. After 5 days on life support system, she left to heaven.

Both babies did not take extra immunisation apart from those made compulsory by the government. And both could actually be prevented if they have taken the rotavirus vaccine. The first mother was not even aware of the existance of rotavirus vaccine while the second mother thought it was too expensive. It costs about RM600 to RM750 for 3 shots. But the cost for not taking it? More than RM2k for the first case and the life of the baby for the second case.

When Adam was younger, I took the initiative to ask Adam's paed and the doctor in our local clinic for advise on whether we should take the additional vaccines. My favourite book on childcare, "What to Expect" series also listed the vaccines that are made compulsory in developed countries. That was how I learned about the importance of vaccination.

At first it was hard to convince my husband as it costs alot of money, and I had just had a caesarian which costs us alot more money. After I made my case, he finally agreed to it. My mom was not too happy at first as she said I gave Adam too many shots so to her it was like so many chemical going into that little boy's body. So I explained to her what vaccination is all about and now she is the one who encouraged other new parents to give the additional vaccines for their baby.

During vaccination (most but not all), the doctor will insert a weak or dead disease germ into our body. That is how our body will develop its own defence system (antibodies) to protect ourselves against the germs. So, the next time a real strong germ attack, our body can already recognize it and do what needs to be done to shoo them away. Some of these antibodies could remember the germs for the rest of our life. But some, needs a periodical reminder that is why sometimes we have to take the booster shot.

So, what additional vaccines can you get for your child(ren)? I am not qualified to recommend them to you but these are the additional vaccines we took for our little Adam:

1) Rotarix (Rotavirus vaccine) - at 2, 4, 6 months. It helps to fight Rotavirus, the main cause for severe diarrhea in babies.

2) Prevenar (Pneumococcal vaccine) - at 7, 8, 10 months. If your child is above 1 year, only 2 shots are needed. It helps to fight among others, pneumonia and meningitis. I took this vaccine because each time Adam had flu and cough, he will also gets ear infection apart from the high fever. Upon consulting with our local doctor, she advised us to take the vaccine as Pneumococcus is one of the common bacteria that causes ear infection in young children. So we took the chance hoping to kill 2 birds in one stone. Alhamdulillah, after taking the vaccine, Adam did not have ear infection anymore. So we did kill 2 birds in one stone :)

3) Flu Shot (Influenza Vaccine) - to be taken once a year. My colleague told me that she sent her kids for flu shot every year. At that point of time I was not aware of its effectiveness.We took this shot because Adam was about to go back to my parents' place and my brother was a doctor in the H1N1 ward at that time. So, as a precaution we took the shot. Prior to that, Adam had flu that leads to cough and fever almost every other month. After the shot, he had flu only twice. The first one affected the whole family so it might not be the common seasonal flu and the second time, the colour of the mucus was clear and it went away after 2 days without affecting Adam much. I will definitely continue to get him the annual flu shot.

Hope my experience could help you in making the decision whether or not to spend the extra money on vaccination. But of course, consult your doctor first :)

Random Thoughts

This morning, hubby greeted me with a tough question..
"If you are in a labor and I had to chose between you and baby, whom should I pick?"
"Whatt??!" I was dumbfounded. I had never given this a thought before.
Hubby said it was just a random thought. And he said he would pick the baby.
"Why?"
"So that you can die as a shaheed and will go straight to heaven" said husband with a smile.
"Kalau x belum tentu lagi masuk syurga sebab ayang degil" added him with a bigger smile. Chet!
"But if I were to have the option to die as a shaheed, I will chose it" he added with a serious note.

I hope we would never have to face this. Call me selfish but frankly, my first thought was for him to pick me. I could give birth to more babies if that is what we want. And even if we cannot have a child anymore after that, we already have Adam. And what if we already have a few children who are still very small and need their Mommy. Who would take care of them? Of course my family will give their full support and hubby could even get them a new mommy but it won't be the same right? The sadness and emotional impact on them for losing their Mommy might not be cured forever. And it could impacted more lives than it would be if the baby is the one who sacrifice for his/her Mommy. I mean, we barely know the baby.

Having said these, I haven't really make up my mind. What if I could never get rid of the guilt that will haunt me forever for being so selfish? I don't think I have the heart to live with that. It will eat me alive. Let us just pray I (and all of us) would never have to make this kind of decision.

On another note, have you thought of organ donation? I have been toying with the idea for quite sometime. Initially, just like the above, I was too selfish to give up my organs even if I am already dead. After given it more thought and read all those articles written by Muslim scholars, I felt more open to the idea. As what we read in the media, even if I have the donor card, my family are the ones who own my body upon my death. So, I need to get their blessings first.

Couple of months back, I popped the question to hubby. What does he think about organ donation? He is positive about it and has no objection to it. I haven't bring up the subject to my parents though.

Though it has been quite some time since I first thought about this, I haven't had the time (or courage) to actually go and sign up for it. Let us make this as one of my to-do list this year so by end of the year, my name would be written on one of this:

So what do you think of both issues?

P/s: For more information on organ donation in Malaysia, the process and the likes, you can visit Malaysian Society of Transplantation website.

Kitchen Gadget :)

Of late I have been spending a lot of time googling for all kinds of recipes (from curry to cookies to pancakes) and kitchen gadgets. Why? I don't know why.. It could be due to the constant reminder in FB of friends turning into the big 3 in the past few days and the fact that me too will join them in a couple of weeks. When my mom was 30, I was 6 years old and she cooked marvelous meals and cakes and pastries. As for me at 29 years and 11 months, could only managed to cook good sambal sotong and bake out-of-the-box chocolate cake. Sigh~

Anyway, I foresee my range of cooking skills to improve soon enough. I can't wait for the arrival of these two to my arms soon :)

Kenwood BM250 White Bread Maker

and

Ariete La Grigliata

Looking forward for more homemade and healthier food in 2011 :)

Project Adam 365 : 2010

Finally! After much work and effort from everybody in my family, Project Adam 365 is finally completed. I wanna thank everybody including those who commented and like the photos in my FB because all of you has given me the strength and courage to complete it. When people asked if I want to continue in 2011, without any doubt I said no. It was not easy. Especially when I send Adam back to my hometown. I have to trouble everybody to ensure they take a photo of Adam and send it to me. Having said that, I would want to take the challenge for my next child(ren) because at the end of the day, the compilation of photos showed how your child has grown throughout the year.

To my little Adam, I hope you would understand how much you mean to me and our family. Everybody played their part to ensure our little gift for you would be a reality. You made it easy for us with all your candid action and creative act in exploring the world. You inspired us by your positive atttitude and determination in learning new things. I wish you would stay as my little baby forever :) I love you son..

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year peeps!

So what's ur plan for 2011? Apart from a few personal goals that I want to achieve by end of 2011, I have 2 other goals that are not too personal that I can share here..

First, I hope by end of 2011 I could master 2 dishes that to some might be the easiest to cook, curry and masak lemak. All these while I have been shying away from these 2 dishes that has coconut milk as part of the ingredient. I just don't have the confident when it comes to adding the coconut milk in the dishes. Questions like when should I pour them, how much should I use, how much is too much, how much is too little, should I stir it or should I let it set on its own has been haunting me since I first learned how to cook. So, any one can help me with this? ;)

Secondly, just like last year, I wanna nurture back my reading habit. I used to spend hours and hours a day reading books but not since the arrival of my darling baby. I want him to read as much as I did when I was a kid and I think I should lead by example. Maybe I will put the list of books I read in the side bar to motivate me further. My target is to read at least 12 books by end of 2011. That is one book per month. I just finished one today so that gave me a good kickstart. Wish me luck!

Ramadhan

Have a blessed Ramadhan y'all!

My wishlist from Pasar Ramadhan:

Nasi Tomato

Nasi Kerabu

Bubur Lambuk.. slurpp...

Tepung Pelita

Bronok

Popiah

Yummy~~~

I am nervous

Hati berdegup kencang.

Adam 365: First half completed :)

Before Adam was born, I bought a beautiful baby scrap book with a very ambitious plan to complete it. I never did. When Adam was born, the nurse at the hospital sold me another scrap book for Adam and they even started it with Adam's foot prints and I thought I am going to complete it. I never did. After Adam was born, a family friend gave me another beautiful baby scrap book. It was too beautiful that I promised myself even if I did not finish the other two scrap books, this one I have to complete. I never did.

I was never good at follow through. I am easily excited and always have plans to do this and that. The problem is, my enthusiasm doesn't last long enough. I always ended up giving up half way through.

At the end of 2009, as I was reflecting back my past and look forward for the new year, I made a promise to myself to start something that will require my long term commitment. Something easy that I can easily maintain throughout the year. Then, came the idea to start this Project Adam 365.

The objective of this project is to have a picture of Adam every single day in 2010. There is no rule. As long as there is a picture of Adam on each day, the task is complete. Some people argue that some of the pictures were taken by somebody else. It's up to other people how they want to interpret it. I know that it would be impossible for me to be with Adam every single day throughout 2010. So, if I am not with Adam, I have to make sure and remind whomever with Adam, to snap a picture of Adam on that day.

In the past six months, I received strong support from my husband and family for this project. On days that I would be home late from work, hubby would take charge and snap the picture. The good thing is this ensures one of us to be at home with Adam at least a few hours of the day. Whenever my parents kidnap Adam back to our hometown, they too helped me to snap Adam's picture of the day and send it back to me.

I am very proud and happy with the support I received from my family. Without them, I would not be able to complete this. I am also thankful to all the comments I received from friends and family who follows the project in my FB. Their comments play a very important role in keeping me on track. I hope the support will continue till the end of the year :)

Here is pictures of Adam from 1 January 2010 to 30 June 2010..

Adam 365 : 1H 2010

kemalasan

kemalasan menyebabkan saya x berblog sepanjang february.. tapi saya masih rajin melawat blog2 kawan2.. juga rajin berfb.. cuma saya malas nak menulis walaupun banyak yang boleh ditulis jika saya rajin.. sekian..

On my resolutions..

• Project Adam 365 is still on track.. 2 months down.. 10 months to go..
• So far I managed to fast for 15 days.. another 26 days to go..
• On reading, satu buku pun x habes bulan ni. FAIL. 

kecewa

I followed my friends to Atria for lunch. Was not feeling well so opted for KFC. I don't know why but when I am sick, I always crave for Zinger burger.

I was told they only have Zinger Tower burger. Thinking that it would be the same yummy Zinger burger with some extra piece of chicken I said OK. Then my friend told me they added a piece of hashbrown to make it a tower. OK, I can still accept that. So I just ate the bottom half first (the hash brown, cheese n bun), saving the best for last. To my horror, it tasted totally different!

It's a little sweet to my liking. I just don't like it. This is what I get from Sun2Surf.

"The new KFX Zinger Tower burger brings a new twist to the classic Zinger with its juicy Hot & Spicy chicken fillet topped with hash brown, cheese, lettuce and laced with zesty chilli lime sauce - tucked between a warm Kaiser bun."

The sauce is just, urrgghhh.. Why oh why did you take away my  Zinger and gave me this yucky thing instead.. The taste of the lime sauce still lingers in my mouth.. urrghhh.. I read somewhere that the promotion is for 2 months only. Dear Colonel Sanders, please return my favourite Zinger burger!

New Year Resolutions #3

I managed to fast for 7 days before Ms P came to visit last week :p So, 34 days more! The best part is, my colleagues in the office also fast with me but with different reason of course. This makes the fasting much much easier. Thanks girls!

So far, I have been able to shoot Adam's picture everyday. Hubby also helps to shoot Adam's picture on the days I had to go back late. Thank you for the support sayang! :)

julie & julia

Just finished watching this movie. Just like Julie, most of the time I am only enthusiastic during the beginning of a new project. After some time, the adrenaline is gone and I abandon my project. To be able to finish a project is ok if it is in just a short time. But 365 days? It's a really huge task. This reminds me of my Adam 365 project. I really hope I could complete it. Wish me luck! :)

Twenties Girl

Have you read Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella?

I had just finished reading it and I love it! Her last few books was quite boring so that's why I was not very keen to read this book before.

My sister recommended it and she was right when she said the book was damn funny! The characters were well described and she told the story so well it made the story came to live. I can actually feel what the character was feeling along the way. I really really really love it..

The book made me think of what was my grandmother thinking when she saw the grandchildren wearing kebaya nyonya and all. Did we reminds her of her young self? And how is she feeling now? Does she feels like it is still the 20s when she was still very energetic and full of life? I wish I know! And how would I feel when I am that old?! I wonder..

When I told my sister that I kept imagine Jennifer Aniston as Lara and amazingly, she said she thought the same!

As for Ed, this smiley face came to mind :p

It's Denny the ghost from Grey's Anatomy or his real name, Jeffery Dean Morgan (which I just found out when I googled his pic just now ;p)!

However, if they ever film this book, I might not want to watch it. It will just spoil the lovely image I had in my head just like what they did to Confessions of a Shoppaholic. It's all ruined now. Anyway, whoever wants to read the book, I can email it to you :p