Tuesday 11 June 2013

Hair Cut Day

It is not easy to be a mommy. Mommy is a milk machine, a pacifier, a cook, a cleaner, a driver, a teacher etc...with the latest addition of being a barber.

The story begins when little Cedric's hair was growing longer. So did daddy mommy's anxiety level.

You see, few months ago daddy excitedly did a haircut for the boy, which turned out to be a moon-craters-creation disaster...! It ended with the poor Cedric being shaved botak. 

After that traumatizing mishap, daddy was very phobia of scissors and refused to do Cedric's hair anymore. So this time, he suggested why not we get "professional" help to make sure Cedric get a really nice haircut. 

Off we went to a Indian barber shop located at Tesco Setia Alam. I was praying that the barber would do a terrific job in giving Cedric the most handsome haircut in the world, as there are always some kids queuing n the shop waiting for a hairdo. So I assume, high traffic = highly skilled...

What is this ah neh doing mommy?

  
Are we playing something fun?

Cedric was all happy and cheerful to be seated on the barber chair. In my heart, I was hopeful, maybe there's hope to a nice haircut for Cedric after all. 

Who knows, in a split second, disaster again! The minute the ah neh turned on the electric trimmer, the sound of the machine scared the pants off the poor little boy. Cedric started crying and struggling. I tried to hold the boy's head so that the barber can do his job properly, but that only invited more struggling and screaming. And the worse part was, the trimmer accidentally created 2 uneven patches on the hair above the ears due to the struggling. 

Then the ah neh said: "Macam ini tak boleh potong handsome lah. Kita kasih botak senang."

The minute I heard BOTAK, immediately I grabbed my son and ran away. No more botak please!

Out of desperation, mommy bravely took up the challenge to do the boy's hair. 

Firstly, we prepared some of Cedric's favorite snacks. Then put the boy on his high chair with his snacks. Then....in super lightning speed, snip, snip, snip, here and there, everywhere...Voila! Amazingly we were done before the boy made noise.

The end result...not too bad I would say. **Proud**

Yummy snacks is more important that anything else
Let me help you comb
Little tail as requested by daddy
How do I look?






Saturday 1 June 2013

Driven: Mazda CX-5 Review

After driving the new Mazda CX5 for 7000km++ within 2 months, I can feel that the 2.0 liter Skyactiv engine moves it without too much fuss. There isn’t a ton of power, but there is enough to keep up with traffic without any issues. The 6-speed manu-matic helps in this regard. The engine doesn’t seem to get bogged down at low RPMs, and it doesn’t rev too high on the highway with the generous overdrive.



The Mazda also delivers in the interior department, with logical controls and nice materials.
You can find all sorts of creature comforts inside. The seats (only the driver’s chair is power adjustable) are wrapped in leather. The seats are very good for long journey drive. They have solid bolstering and support, especially for the lower back. Likewise, the dashboard is well laid out.The gauges are white-on-black and very easy to read at a glance.
The stereo is a Bose® unit that has 9 speakers and produces sounds strong which makes me enjoy my ride more.
The CX-5 does what the rest of the segment doesn’t—it delivers great handling, yet best-in-the-entire-industry-among-SUVs gas mileage of up to 600km full tank on road and approx 680km full tank on highway which comes about 8.1l/100km on highway and about 9l-9.5l/100km on city. It also features thoughtful and useful design, inside and out.

I appreciate the CX-5’s intuitive controls and high-quality materials, but its predictable list of standard features disappoint me . No infotainment system, No autolock and side mirror autofold available which I think it’s a standard in modern cars.

Push start button and a 5.8-inch touchscreen is standard fare and can be commanded by a round multifunction controller located on the console. Bluetooth and the essential USB and auxiliary connections are provided. It also includes dual-zone automatic climate control, a rearview camera which I find it useful, automatic headlamp-beam control, rain sensor etc.

The navigation system fails big time. I don’t  like the Tom Tom navigation system, it’s one of the lousiest in the market and not user friendly at all. 

With the rear seats in use, the Mazda CX-5 has in my opinion a small cargo space, and when the rear seats are folded, cargo volume increases to about almost double size. These figures don’t rank the CX-5 at the top of its class for cargo capacity, but as one of the smallest entries in the segment

The CX-5 comes with stability control and a collection of six airbags. All this helped the car achieve a five-star crash rating from Euro NCAP. Security measures include an alarm and immobiliser. 

The ride would be complete without a few gripes and could be more forgiving, and the overabundance of wind and road noise ruins the car’s refinement. 

This is a good car, a fine family SUV that will serve me well for the next 5 years or more.


Performance   4 star – slightly underpowered for a 2.0 engine
Ride & Handling 4 star – wind noise is irritating to me when cruising above 90km/h
Features 4 star – lousy navigation system and no DVD playback.
Quality & Reliability 4 star
Security & Safety 5 star
Space & Practicality – 4 star – cargo space way is small compared to other SUV such as Renault 3008, or Honda CRV