Just another manic morning.

This morning, I was as usual, getting ready the boys for school. While I wait for didi to finish his cup of water, I was standing beside him holding his piece of white bread, sapu-ed with orange marmalade. And I was getting pissy that I am such an accommodating mom.

Here I was, getting everything done for him, from getting him up, carrying him to the loo, making sure he piss and aim in the toilet bowl, brushing his teeth, bathing him, putting on his uniform and filling the cup with water and put right in front of him, it's just only that he needs to walk the few steps to the kitchen and drink to be said as doing anything at all.

As I grumpily took a plate to put the bread on and let him take his own sweet time, I hurriedly finished off every other tasks that I do each morning, get their snacks ready to bring for schoo lrecess , fill up their water tumblers, blend fruit juice for them while I was getting more and more mang jang. Grr... why do I need to do everything for them? Can't they be responsible for their own stuffs? Am I spoiling them by doing all these? Should I be? Should I not be? Are they grateful at all? Shouldn't I be giving unconditional love and support? ....

Anyway, after dropping them off at school, I came home and hugged meimei while in her sleep. At that moment, I felt how blessed I am and all complaints are wiped away. Life is just too short to be thinking of these trivialities.

Family reunion

Best day ever. Everyone in the picture, after waiting for few years now. Just that CY has half the face blocked, but that's ok. Heh!

As understandably, my parents were the happiest folks there. When they were home, CY made an enlarged hard copy of our family reunion pic and framed it up. My dad chucked away the one they took with us at the family studio aside. Tsk!

After sweating out under the hot sun at Kellie's castle, we headed straight to Tg Tualang for big headed prawns and seafood and lo sang. It was our very own family reunion meal together-gather. The place was empty and we had the whole place to ourselves. Which was a good thing as normally Ipoh eatery places would be full and crowded with people everywhere.

Where are thy books?

More than a week passed and it's the night on the eve of another schoolday yet again. After hurriedly scurrying the kids to bed at just about 9pm, I sat down to pack didi's school bag. And what a shocking surprise I had! His bag was basically empty except for his exercise books and pencil box. Where did all the rest of the books run away to?

I looked all over the house for them and not one was in sight. Only the books that he didn't take to school last last Friday were seen. Panic almost ensued.

I guess I had no choice but to pray that it's all in his desk at school or perhaps, maybe, possibly, taken by his teacher to spot check on.

This morning, I was still keeping my fingers crossed while I drove them to school. When I arrived, I hurriedly peeped into the desk he normally seated in and oh boy! my heart almost dropped when I saw it's empty. Then the girl prefect told me his seat changed and he's now right smack in front of the teacher's desk, just next to the wall. 2nd chance that the books are still not lost. And I quickly went over to peep... there they are, all quietly nestled in the safe world of its own. *whew*

So, here they are again, back to school and life is resumed as per norm. The past week had been full with happy reunions, hectic days, long faces, mahjong fees paid and lots of pictures to post.

Before xin nien dao

When I was young, we had the yearly spring cleaning of our home (normally in Dec) in preparation for the cny. It was quite a mighty heavy task, as all the things, chairs, tables, tv, cabinets, EVERYTHING! go out into the car porch and we would scrub the whole house from ceiling to the floor.

Dad would find those big leaves (don't know what it's called) and tie them up at the tip of a long pole to clean the ceilings and corners. I do believe these leaves leave some smell behind as I find that the cobwebs take longer time to form. The decorations on the big iconic shelf hanging in the living room facing the main entrance would be taken down only this once a year, and washed thoroughly, giving them a clean sparkle again.

From top to bottom, the last to be cleaned would be the floor and this is the part that my brothers and I love most. We would hold a rag both ends on each hand, then on all fours, whee~ we would be sprint from one end to another. Sometimes we have race among ourselves as well. In the end, all of us would be wet from top to toe and laughing silly, having great fun! This was what we looked forward to when my parents declare the day for the annual spring cleaning.

My mom don't pray to any God or deity so other than getting some new clothes for us and making sure the fridge is stock for reunion dinner and the days that follow, not much fuss was quite needed.

When we were bigger, we would decorate the house up with angpows or folded origami. And that would be our cny preparation every year which changed altogether after I was married.

Now that I have my own family, what do we do in preparation for cny? Seeing others busy stocking up food in the fridge, buying new year goodies, cleaning up the home, decorating up the home, some even repainting their home, I do none of all the above. Jeez! Is something wrong? The days are just normal ordinary passing days, without the mood for cny actually, other than listening to the same old traditional loud noisy new year songs over the radio and in the malls.

Coming this cny, I just received a call from CY, my 2nd bro, that he and his family will be back after all! yoohoo! It's been a long while since we had gathered together, all 16 of us. Hearing the happy and excited voices of my dad and mom over the phone, I believe all the effort from the guys to come back home just for the reunion dinner and cny celebrations are all worth it. It's really been a long while...

On the other hand, at my inlaws', it will be rather quieter this year. My sis-in-law would be welcoming the year of the tiger in US while my bro-in-law is going to his inlaw's home for the first time for reunion dinner. They would be rushing home on chor 1. Guess someone's unhappy over this arrangement....

Well, I guess other than the new clothes and shoes, I would be shopping soon for some goodies as gifts for my relatives to "soong lai" as well. Not much time left, it's another 1 weekend and we would be all jamming the highway for the balik kampung routine. Xin nian lai lerr...

The party we had for celebrating his 7th bday.

Time was indeed not enough when preparing a party, even though it was planned in advance and even though we "tapau"ed most of the food to feed the guests.

I had to ensure the food and cake was ordered few days before, the ingredients and the things needed for the bbq is listed down and comprehensive enough, as I already learned the lesson that going up and down for those things would be so damn tiring. Fortunately, I really had brought almost everything needed down to the poolside.

Then there were the door gifts that was needed to tipu the budak-budak. And some simple games to entertain them as well. And then there were the chicken wings and drums to be marinated before the day itself...*whew* All these tasks are so daunting.

By Saturday, it was just some minor "touch-ups" like rushing over to Tesco after breakfast to get the last few things that I need, going over to CK's home to borrow (or lend ah?*personal joke here*) some tables, cleaning up the sotong for the bbq, making sandwiches and salad and finally moving the things down to the hall.

Lucky my mom was here to help out here and there, I feel so fortunate to have such a great mom to help me out without even prompting.

By the time everything much was settled, my gawd, it was 6.30pm already, unfortunately, it started to drizzle and the fire was just up. I had my 2 part time maids to help me manage the bbq pit while I went up to take a shower quickly. The first to arrive was Beatrice and her kids. Then came goolypop with her son, and Lai with his family.

We went downstairs and started eating, while the clown magician also arrived.


Tapau-ed food - fried rice, hokkien meehoon, sweet and sour pork, salty egg prawn and yummy drummy drumsticks. We also had satay, sausages, chicken drums and wings, prawns and sotong from the bbq pit. I made finger food like fishballs, salad and egg mayo sandwiches too. There were really quite a lot of food on the table, but as expected, I didn't eat much. Somehow, I felt uneasy to be enjoying food, worrying that my guests would feel bored or not entertained well enough.
Lots of pressies waiting to be opened. Didi was much excited about his "loot" and kept asking me when he can open up those packages.

I let the kids on with a simple little game of "Higglytown heroes", as I called it, having them to ask the aunties around for signatories on their profession listed in the paper. I think it charges up the kids for awhile, but kids being kids, they get warm up pretty soon and were very fast running around, enjoying themselves.

The clown magician started making balloons in different shapes for the kids and performed a magic show. I wasn't there to see the show, but judging from the look of it, it wasn't very impressive and the kids lost concentration after awhile. Jeezus.. there goes my $$$.... almost wasted.

Then again, he made some really cool balloons and can hold their attention for awhile, albeit not for long. Kids nowadays are so smart, they are not easily impressed but kept searching around looking for clues or loops to find out where the trick lies in. I think they were having more fun in that part rather than in the magic tricks.

Had the honor from the teachers of preschool and the parent of didi's classmate, who also sent her son to the same preschool as him.

Goolypop who helped me to snap the pictures for me. Poor chap, the only person who doesn't know anyone around, but mostly knew who's who though.

My schoolmates, who are one of the few around to be in contact and seeing each other pretty often.

After singing the birthday song for didi, I pulled my mom out and made the crowd sing a birthday song for her too since it's her birthday around here somewhere...


Gooly playing with his door gift. Hearsay he loves it a lot. Happy to hear that!

The clown magician was supposed to hang around for 1.5 hours, but I wonder if he felt guilty or what, he stayed on much longer and lingered around making more balloons for my guests.

Passed the door gifts and the crowd started to go home. Only a few left behind for a little while longer and we chatted way till midnight. I was so tired when everyone left. Don't have any energy left to clear the clutter in the kitchen.

Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable party for me, very much exciting for didi and the kids. I was having a fun time chatting with my friends, leaving the dirty work to the maids, and having my mom to organize the leftover food for me, without me worrying a single thing. Meanwhile, there was some other who just can't help pointing out what flaws there were and that I should do this and this and that and that.. which went on for the next day as well! Imagine that! Heiz..