Responsibilities, his homework.

On a side note, this morning while driving the kids to their "morning playground", didi said almost in a regrettable mood that tomorrow he would need to write weekend journal again. This is one of the school's homework for 6yos to jump start on their career blogging start writing essays, presumably. Noting his non-eagerness, I try to encourage him a bit by saying "Hey! I need journals too, y'know? And it's not a weekends only journal, it's a daily one"

I continued telling them (or myself!) that it's a collection of thoughts of what happened, where we went, what we did, how we felt, and when he's able to read more, he can dig it up and looked back on it. At that moment, I felt so good to be able to do this for them, but hey... seems like I had half abandoned my blog for sometime. It's like a "fu ji jak loi, fei ji jak hui" relationship I'm having with it. Guess I should update more from now on. (come back, come back)

On another side note, I had been sleeping at early hours these 2 nights. I'm so tired during the day but I just can't sleep. So I skipped yoga workout this morning and decided to hang out at the Oldtown for breakfast. Look! I"m blogging from here.. nice!

On one more side note, our aquarium (Oh! I haven't told you about our new aquarium yet, hoh?) is down to 4 miserable fishes now from 10. Even the cute little prawn die mai. Heiz... so sad.

Now, to my main note.

Last night I was very angry with korkor and gave him 2 canings on his palms for neglecting his homework right until the minute he was to pack his bag for next day's school, before his bedtime. I had already told him no TVs, games, toys are allowed until their work is done for the day. And he told me he has no homework, not once, but twice, after I asked him "ARE YOU SURE?" He enjoyed the whole day, doing nothing and watching TV, happy and relaxed only.

After the caning, I was still fuming mad, but I knew I need to lecture him and talk to him so he understand why he was punished. And I was telling him, all of us, have responsibilities. We, as parents have huge responsibilities to look after, and he has his own as well. If he can't handle this small little one called homework, then he won't be able to handle bigger ones as he grows up, and soon, he'll be losing trust in people, he can't go anywhere in life (woah!).... bla bla bla...

(oh! For the umpteenth time, I reminded him about sacrificing the cut on my tummy to give birth to him, and I felt heartbroken I'm rewarded with this sort of behaviour! And I was wondering if I should show weep a bit anot for more extra effect! *slap self*)

Sounds rather a "serious" topic to talk about, but I think this supposed to be the way of educating them. On another perspective, I wonder if I should be checking his work everyday or not, but then, sometimes I think it's better for him to learn while stumbling around. I believe children should make mistakes, they can afford to, and learn from it, rather than being protected from being in trouble for not completing their daily homework. ok ok, I admit I'm lazy too la..

Nevertheless, I seriously do not want to use the cane anymore on him, but how else do I tell him what he did was so wrong and unacceptable other than letting him feel the hurt and pain from it? But me yau do not want to check his work everyday laa.. Am I doing the right thing here?

Heiz... (can we go back to side notes?)

Christmas card making day.

OK laaa.. so that wasn't really the Best Mom Award I was presented with on that concert day. But I guess they wouldn't mind presenting me with that too if I had asked..

It was a token of appreciation for participating in their program called "Guest teacher Day" where we are invited to be a guest teacher for an hour or so, unpaid (what you think!) and let us have a feel of handling 20+ kids at one time. Easy peasy, so I heard myself saying. But I never did go as a guest teacher though I promised to. And they put my name in there anyway.

I didn't need to, but somehow I thought I ought to. Mainly just to make my kids happy. And so happened, came along this Hope for Gavin Card Drive word spread by Goolyahma, I thought it might just be the right thing to do with the kids. How hard would that be, anyway? Can do charity as well. So, it would be killing 2 birds with 1 stone.

Oh, how wrong I was! It wasn't easy at all planning and going through it all from beginning to the end. I was having some hard time figuring what cards I should make with those kids, 1 class of 5yo(s), and the other of 6yo, it has to be easy for them to follow but presentable at the same time.

Finally, I decided the simplest form should be some crafty work, some cut and paste jobs instead of drawing and writing. Hence, I set forth to get all the pretty pretty stuffs ready. Choosing the right papers for the work is tough call as well, and I thought if the work isn't that presentable, at least some perfumed card might be a compensation.

The kids are eagerly looking forward to that day. As for me, "huh? easy only nia.." until that night before, I was actually getting panicky! Haha..

In the end, I played along, went to meimei's class first and told them the story of little Gavin. I think they don't quite comprehend what his plight is but anyway, we started making the cards. They were very cooperative, and it concluded after 1 hour, which I thought 10 mins would be able to kaotim. Ha! Think so easy.

I hopped over to the other class. There were over 20 kids in there! And they were soooo noisy! Nevertheless, I felt very happy to be standing there talking to them. Especially seeing didi swelling with pride watching me.

This time, the kids asked more about Gavin. And I would have wanted to tell them more and show more of his pictures, but time was running out.. with that number of kids, I wanted them to complete their (and mine!) task before the school dismiss. Lucky we have another 3 teachers over to help me out, else I would really be knocked out by them.

Things were going on fine.... until....

.... when I told them to sprinkle glitters on their cards!!! Absolutely wrong move!! They went almost wild, man!

Without proper supervision, the glitters were all over the place! And after it's over, I do actually think that before the glitters invasion, the cards looked pretty good! Heiz... *sob*

Anyway, task completed and it was time to go home! I was so relieved.

These cards made by 5yo(s). Cute anot?

Well, what I would do now is to see how to "save" those cards and send them over. Now, where do I send to actually?

Picnic day at FRIM

It's Deepavali today. Instead of sleeping in till the sun shines on our butts, we went for a picnic with 2 other families at FRIM (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia) in Kepong.

Each of the family would bring some food and share among us. One of them made sandwiches and a pot of leong-sui! The other brought fried meehoon, charkoay, tarts and milo. I made 2 types of muffins, choc chip and vanilla raisins, together with some fried sausages, boiled eggs, milo and coffee for our picnic pleasure. Not forgetting the rest of the tidbits and junk food we brought along, there were TOO MUCH of food spread on the picnic mat! In fact, more than half of the mat were occupied with these food. I was so over the top when they complimented my muffins and the coffee that I made. It made all the time and effort truly worthwhile.

It was our first time at FRIM, and I found it surprisingly very pleasant and back to nature. The drive was smooth as it was basically empty on the roads, and it wasn't very difficult to locate the place. It took only about a slightly more than 30 mins drive.

There's a guard post at the entrance, passing out our entrance ticket to us. Each car is charged RM5 inclusive of the driver, and additional adult is charged RM1 per head. Quite a fair fees to pay for, which gives a peace of mind to fellow picnickers like us. We can pay at the souvenir center inside the forest, or we can opt to pay as we exit.

There's also a canopy walk somewhere and other attractions probably in FRIM. A lot of joggers were seen creating a very relaxing atmosphere.

We headed straight to the picnic area, following the sign "Tempat Perkelahan Sg. Kroh". My friend had already "chup" one picnic spot for us just a few mins before we arrived, and we get started by spreading all the food around the mat and EAT! I was so busy eating I forgot to take pictures of all the good looking food we had.

The area reminded me so much of the little stream I grew up playing in with my brothers, in my small hometown. The kids played so much of computer games, Wii, at the pools, in nice resorts, that this nature seems so very new to them, but "old and familiar" with me. I just felt like transported back to the old times of dipping in the cold stream, splashing water, playing just-don't-know-what for endless hours there. But we had fun so much so that 4 hours just passed like a breeze.

As for me, I just love taking all their pictures and looking at them over and over again when I'm home. It was pleasant knowing a new friend too, and spending a nice time on a nature outing like this one.

Carrying our picnic box. See how heavy it is? Need 2 people to carry it.

Sun shining on top of our heads but it wasn't hot as
the shade from the trees made the place so cooling.

A pool for dipping. Oh, I didn't get myself wet though, because of, umm.. "inconvenient issues".

It was unfortunate I didn't bring their swimsuits along,
as such meimei was VERY reluctant to get herself wet.
See-la, the difference between our generations.

Teamwork and hardwork gets the job done, that is to play hard.

A visitor came over to our picnic mats. Eewww.. it was so gross,
I was almost sweating in my pants as it came very near to us.

That's the crowd in that little spot of play area.

He had enough in the water, and wanted to change,

but so shy to expose his "privacy" in the forest.
I had so much fun teasing him.

Before we knew it, the whole place was jammed with picnickers like us.
So many people!

That's our territory! Half of the food was "sapu"-ed,
leaving the other half for on and off snacking.

We went up the trail upstream for a little while.

I don't mind doing this another time. Anyone likes to join me?

Year end concert again wor...

Grandmother's stories series tergendala sebentar for some important news update..

which are...

1. I finally went to Jogoya for a very satisfying time stuffing myself silly, after yearning for it for a few weeks. Perhaps I kept praying for it a lot, my wish came true as one of the thousands credit cards merchants my hub has, gave a half price off for just 2 days last week. *burp*

2. the children's graduation concert over liao. Suddenly it hits me that my baobei no.2 is no longer a kiddo, he's *sob* going to *sob* primary 1 *sob*... which means I will have an even hard time getting him up even earlier in the mornings soon! *wails*

Receiving my "Best Mom of the Year" award on stage.. (I can say what I want on my blog!)

Giving his "thank you" speech... which starts off with "First of all, I would like to thank my mommy for giving birth to me... bla bla bla.."

*gasp* I bet she wouldn't want to be reminded of this years later...

Moonwalking.... almost!
Dancing to the song "Thriller".. can recognize this step moe?
Very useful when you want to "release gas"...

OK, enough of making fun of them. They put up a good show indeed, and I'm sooo proud of them. It's time to reward them to Genting, for that's what I promised didi if he cooperate with the teacher and not play the fool during practices and rehearsal. Everything went rather well, except before the show started, their papa had to piss me off (again!) and I had my sweet revenge during the show. All I need to do was just to show him the aromatic coffee I prepared in a little bottle before we went out and I finished it off without a drop for him.. padan muka dia.

Grandmother story part 1.

Admittedly, I must say, I'm not very interested in my grandmothers' stories all along. As in my own grandmas, grandpas, their lives, their characters, my own roots.

My memory of them, are both the paternal and maternal grandmas were still alive during the childhood days. I didn't get to see both sides' grandpas.

But recently, I realized it's good to know more about them from my parents, before it's too late. So, when my dad was here, I asked him about them, and when my mom's here, I would do the same. Now, before I forget again what they told me, I think I shall write some grandmother's stories for my kids, just in case... you know.

Let's start with my father's side. Apparently, my yeye has a wife in thongsan before he came over to Mal in a boat. I was told that the wife was a samphoejai which means she was betrothed to him before she was born. They didn't have kids, hearsay no formal wedding was even held.

Anyway, he came in a boat, dunno how got to know my grandma (most likely introduced by taikamjea la) and got married, start to build a family. He started doing odd jobs, and later slowly moved to having his own timber business, and I remember us going to the factory, called Nam Loong along Jalan Lahat.

My yeye was a very strict person, without a smile on his face, but not quite the same when around his grandsons. My brothers, especially the eldest, had the privilege of being loved by him.
He doesn't talk much with my mom, my mom's recollection of him is that he's a strict but kind man.

My marmah was a a very yeh-man-nai-nai. When I asked my dad how she was in person, the first response I get was "Harumphhhh! Very yeh-man geh. Always want things her way". Apparently, it wasn't quite a nice mother-son relationship. Such a pity that there's the impression of his own mother, huh?

He said there was once he talked back on her after she scolded my mom unreasonably. He remembered how fierce she was and how she didn't talk to them for days on end.

As for me, I can only remember we used to visit her very other weekend in her home, which is now my 2-phak's home. It's a big bungalow in Pasir Puteh (I think!) with a good extra land for farming fruit trees. She was old and frail, sickly and not very the "sayang" type. My brothers and I were led to her bed, and greet her "marmah!" and can run off to play after that. I don't have that moment of "ahh.. my cute grandchild, come here and let me sayang...". Sigh!!

She died when I was still a very small child, and I attended her taoist rituals for 3 or 4 days, but without any shows of sadness, it was to us, a "get-together" with our cousins around.

And that concludes my story of my paternal grandparents. Oi! wake up lor! Now I present my grandparents pics, want to see anot?

Here.

Have you tried baking?

I'm so a baker these days. Cupcakes, carrot cake, back to cupcakes, then back to carrot cake. Ya ya, I know, I should try some other recipes. But these 2 are my favorites at the moment, and certainly it gives more push when I can look forward to eating my favorite cake after all the hard work.

So I was craving for the carrot cake I had in a hotel on my last birthday. Even spreading around the word on how good that cake was. Then I couldn't tahan anymore and I wanted to try and make it on my own.

I got all the stuffs, kept procrastinating, and finally I made my first attempt during the holidays when I had VIPs in my home for a few days. And I thought "whoa!!! This is almost as good as the one which I was yearning for!" Wow! Am I talented or what?

But it was too little among so many of us. Though not all appreciated it, but a visiting friend from Penang said it's good. I'm sure he and his wife weren't lying about it... I was pretty sure as I was scanning their faces for any hints of twitching eyes. hmm...

Anyway, I made my 2nd attempt, double all the ingredients up and enjoyed the aroma spreading to our nostrils. Mmmmm... how good it was.



It appeared too much and I don't like to keep cakes for more than 2 days. So I cut 2 portions up and gave it away to 2 of my neighbours. Ooh.. the joy on their face, the surprise feeling, it's double joy for me to know they appreciate it. I want to keep baking and keep on giving. It feels so good. The same therapy of lying down with closed eyes for a few mins, listening to your own snores, opening up the eyes and see details of things you've never really seen before, breathing in, breathing out (ah-choo! that therapy hearsay need you to be naked summore! easy catch cold la wei!)

Pangkor Island Beach Resort

We started our journey about 9am, after dropping off my parents at the KTM station for their train to Ipoh. Our target was to catch the 1.30pm boat to the island and having no time to stop for breakfast, we bought some buns and snacks for that to be munched in the car. It was quite a leisure drive all the way, I even managed to steal some catnaps while the kids snoozed at the back as well.

We reached Sitiawan 12.30pm meeting their grandma and grandpa for lunch together. Then we scurried off to the pier at Lumut. The check-in was pretty straight forward, I was happy we need not lug our bags up onto the boat and just wait to board it.

The boat was quite comfortable, it has 2 levels and the upper deck has an open area like this below.


I was happy snapping pictures away of the kids and around me. Very soon, we arrived at the pier and everyone unboarded to an awaiting bus, which took us into the hotel. It was very closeby and less than about 3 mins or so, these singers greeted us with a welcoming song. I imagine them to be the little one and his boss in Fantasy Island. (the plane! the plane! - playing in my mind)

Waited to check in and finally got the keys for the grandparents. They stayed in Garden Wing while we were booked in to Ocean Wing. The difference in price is RM80 per night, seeing the 2 rooms, I think the difference was really justified. It was such a big contrast staying in Ocean Wing compared to Garden Wing.

Next! Time to hit the beach and sand, what else! Hub was suggesting to go to town, but really, noone was so interested except maybe the grandpa. But I didn't care, I said they can go if they want to but I'm staying put.

We changed and went to a nice spot on the beach and the korkor headed straight right in, after applying sunblock lotion. The other 2 stayed on to play sand while I did some yoga. Ooh.. sheer pleasure.

We just stayed there till almost sunset, and I joined the kids in the sea for awhile when it wasn't so hot. But meimei didn't quite fancy the waves and I took her and didi to the pool to play instead. Went back up to the room and showered.

We had dinner by the poolside, the food we brought from Ipoh and KL. If you ever go there, either you pack your food along or pay for the buffet dinner. The town was too far away and it would be even more pricey to go out and eat.

At night, we walked around and stopped on one of those lazy chairs to laze around. Didi played games with the waves for a very long time while I look over him. The rest sat at the chairs over the far back. Some couples were holding hands walking on the beach, and it was quite a romantic sight indeed.

There are many hornbills there, and feeding times are observed to ensure these birds are well nourished.


This the view outside our hotel room. A sticker was on the door to the balcony saying "Please dont' feed the monkeys. Please lock your door". Those monkeys know how to open the doors and totally ransack your things. We learnt the lesson from Berjaya Langkawi.





The next day, after breakfast, we went cycling and I thought the pictures of the kids' smiles on those bikes were priceless. Really cute and happy pillion riding.

Korkor was the only one struggling to conquer the bike. But he failed as it was much too big for him. The only right size was taken up by someone else just a moment before him.

The grandparents went back at noon that day, and we spent the rest of the day doing pretty much the same thing as the earlier one. Nothing more, nothing less. Nothing to blog about.

We had steamboat dinner that night and meimei almost fell asleep before it was over. We head back straight to the room after that, saw the "Superhero Movie" on TV and went to sleep.

*yawn*

(More pictures on FB. Lazy to upload them here. FB easier)

Pangkor used to be our favorite destination for a holiday get-together with our friends when we were young. I remember much clearly of these few incidents.

1. The first time, it was to follow my brother, CY, and his friends. We explored a bit and discovered an empty beach, so we played on the sea for sometime. Soon, I saw 2 guys among the few of us who weren't in the water, whom doesn't belong. I soon came ashore and realised they were buggers who were about to rob our cash or whatever we had.

The scary thing was not that but when one of the stupid idiot who didn't know how to count, was trying to count how many of us there, and was irritated by the towel which were on us, the 3-4 girls in the group. I was practically shaking when he barked at me to take my towel off! Lucky they didn't harm any of us, and took our cash and someone's sunglasses away. We quickly rushed back to our chalets and soon happily laughing away again. I suppose nothing much can dampen teenagers' holiday mood, when noone was really hurt.

2. Then some years later, I went with my own friends but I only remembered vividly I was taking care of a guy who had a deep crush on me, having fever. And he was such a baby when taking medicine, I had to basically "tham" him to eat. (If you are reading this, can I slap you now, albeit some 20+ years delay?)

3. Ahh.. the most memorable, I suppose was the farewell break, after we know we were going to start our separate ways soon. I knew I was to go to Penang, Hui Ling to KL, Kok Lan to Spore and Wai Leng... somewhere. 4 of us went to Pangkor, had so much fun chatting, playing, dancing on the sunset beach, toasting each other good luck and many more weird and funny wishes for our undertakings. One of the best night I ever had with my girlfriends as I remembered we laughed till our sides ached.

OK, no more boring stories to share. That's all. Have a good weekend and Happy Mid Autumn Festival, you people.

2 lessons in 1 day.

The first day of school for korkor after the one week long break, I assumed school activities resumed to before and that he would stay back on the first day. So the gear was still in low and I didn't feel like cooking lunch for the 3 of us yet. After picking the 2 from the preschool, we went to had our lunch in a nearby aircon tai pai thong. Then I suen-pin grabbed some stuffs to stock up our food as I still hadn't yet to do so from the holidays.

When we reached home, I was surprised to see korkor sitting in front of the lifts, waiting for us to come home. Poor boy! He waited for almost an hour for us. I was so full with guilt, slapping myself (albeit an imaginary one) to make that assumption he would not be home till later.

And that was the time I realised why I hadn't taught him survival skills 101 on what he can do if there's such a situation. It struck before I was able to get to that chapter.

Anyway, it reminded me of the time I was out in the hot sun waiting for the doors to open too, after school. I was about 15, I think. It was an hour's wait as well. I was staying with my aunt then. At least my son didn't have to wait for me under the hot sun.

Later in the day, I received a call from a so-called florist. She asked for my address as she has a delivery to me, and it's supposedly a surprise gift. I asked who the sender was, but she wouldn't tell, insisting I would know when I get it later on. I was in a rush for something, and I didn't have the clear mind to think of the rightest thing to do. So, I gave her my street name, omitting out the unit # and ask her to deliver it to the guard post. She happily replied ok, and that her delivery man would call me when he arrives later on.

For the next 2 hours or so, I was very worried on the authenticity of the call. I find it weird, as the sender would surely be someone I knew, and would most likely know where I stay as well. Could it be my hub, playing a stupid trick? Nah.. don't think so! Certainly not! Hmm... then it might be my secret admirer from my younger days??? hehe... (as if I would have, huh?) Maybe it's the ahlong who got the wrong person and I would see red paint all over my door very soon. Uh oh... then I was recalling all the enemies I made in the past....sei-foh!

It was sit-not-stand-not-walk-not for the next few hours. I was fidgeting whether to correct the situation, but really, I can't do much, can I? I can only hope the call was authentic.

After much anxiety, finally the delivery man called and I went to the guard post to see who's the fancheong sender who gave me the few hours of trauma. Heiz... lucky all went well, it wasn't any of my enemies. Well, at least, I learnt from this mistake, never to take for granted any suspicious calls in future. I really need to be firmer. Don't be so trusting. Never know, crooks are really smart right now, aren't they?