Hostels and dorms.

My hub took kor with him on a joyride today to Melaka with his dad and one of his uncle who, together with the wife, sends his youngest child to further her studies in a polytechnic.

When they were back home, hub told me in the car how awful rundown the hostel was, it looked like a very low cost flat. He describes the floor only cemented, just a dirty plank with a torn mat as bed, old and worn out tables and cupboards for 4 pax in a room.

I haven't seen it myself but I told him that's what we get for old hostels in varsities too. But I was a very lucky gal, I got a room in a brand new dorm when I started my days at USM and everything was brand new. It didn't occur to me that some dorms could be so old and worn out till I saw some of my coursemates' room in those.

Kor said I was really lucky then and you won't miss that shivering tone of his when asked if he would like to stay in those dorms. Boy! I wonder if pampered kids these days would be too spoilt and refuse to stay in these dorms when the time comes.

A boringly lazy, very lazy Sunday.

I guess I was really pooped for the past 1 week, more than I had imagined. The whole day today, I did nothing much, babysitting the younger 2 at home while hub and kor are accompanying kungkung and some other relatives to Melaka.

We had fried egg sandwich for breakfast and hang around doing our own stuffs, meaning surf net, play games and tv watch. When lunch time came, I was contemplating of eating out or home, and settled with instant noodle with scrambled eggs and kailan. Then we were back to "doing our own stuffs" again. My eyelids were so heavy that I went to lie down on the couch and soon, I was zzz...
It was a damn feel good power nap I haven't had for a long long time.

If there's anything else I ever did today, I boiled a pot of gingko-barley-soya and the daily normal laundry routine. The kids, were they bored? I feel so sorry for them.

With recharged energy from the good nap I had, however short it was, I'm going to cook dinner for tonight. As I'm sure hub and kor would be very exhausted from a field trip today and I feel sorry for hub to have eaten out almost the whole last week.

The school holidays so far..

I just checked my calendar and realized what, only 1 week gone? Officially, that is. Somehow, the days seem to be longer without their dad around to irk me, probably because I seem to be tied to the kids' limbs day and night.

We celebrated meimei's 6th birthday before papa flew off to Indon. A whole troop of Ipoh popo, 2po, che-che(s) were here to cut and blow cake with her. Then we whisked them to Jusco for some "forced" pressies which came in the form of some new gaigai clothes. (Ooh.. and she has a new bikini! Though I disapprove sexy skimmy little 2 piece swimsuit, but this one...So cute! Thanks to her future mil) Hub took them home after awhile whilst I stayed on to wait for kor who was attending a friend's birthday party at a karaoke joint! What can I say? Kids these days have real fun starting real early. McD no more!

While I waited, I looked around for new clothes for meimei and grabbed a few more! That could only happening without hub around. It was sooo pleasurable and satisfying. Of course, that was also due to the fact that meimei is almost growing out of her CNY clothes she has this year.

On Monday, I took them to the kids room while I still able to work out. That was really awesome! But I had a earful from my kids when I came out 2 hours later from the gym. PP, a friend from yoga class, sms-ed me to ask if I would like to join her and her 2 boys for KFC lunch nearby. I thought why not and from then on, next thing I knew we were on the way after lunch to her place as well!

We yakked till most of the afternoon was gone. Got home and went out again in the evening to a choice of meimei's foodie in conjunction with her 6th bday, as papa would be away soon. But it was closed and we had to drag her to another food joint.

The next few days whisked by too, let's see, a date with a friend, Megakidz fun for the kids, more fun at acroyoga jamming, watching "Unstoppable" with korkor... till I had to say 'stop' to myself and spend some time staying at home, eating my very own homecooked food, and practically doing nothing for awhile and the kids' playing games at home and doing their holiday homework. I think I am not the person to be on the move all the time, since I know coming up soon would be the holiday in Spore and another weekend at Fraser's Hill with one of my close buddies and her family.

What can I say? School holidays are so fun! Right? *panting breathlessly*

The beginning of the year end.

Here was the table before the decluttering process. Now it's left with 3 piles of books and some other bits and pieces of stuffs.

The study is also arranged proper for a better "view". It was such an eyesore before this. All these work took a whole afternoon to complete, segregating the books, files, rubbish etc. I now want to find a book shelf just for the children. That shelf shall accommodate books meant for reading pleasure.

I really need to work out a holiday program for them to follow. Else, they would be playing computer game, Wii games all day long. Other than that, it would be the TV. How boring! What's left made up of the 3 piles of books are the workbooks for them for this year's syllable. Trying to encourage them to finish up whatever leftover exercises there might be in them. Then, maybe they would be rewarded with an aiskling. How exciting!

I thought I would be able to replenish all the sleep I lost over the last term, but what the heck! Last night, it was about 4am when I went to bed! Now I'm all groggy. And considering last night was such a wonderful cooling night to snuggle in the bed under the covers, fantasizing some romantic one night stand with my ngau-jeong, I totally wasted that! Blame it on who? Blame it on the hub la! Cilaka, he was doing a TVB series marathon until I had to tell him to go to sleep! More silai than me, really.

Christmas around the corner

Not something great to shout about, but I do love these pictures. Looking at them, they are all so grown up now. Must continue to snap more pics of them, with them, anything to do about them.


I'm so lucky to have these pretty and charming kids. *ahem*

My proclaimation to my hub that night.

One night not so long ago, without the fiery thunderstorm and pitter patter of the falling rain, I snuggle close to hub on the sofa while watching TV. Then I turned to him and said, just so he knows, if IF in the event he's not here with us anymore *touch wood*, I have made up my mind that very day while I mop the floor that I won't remarry until at least my kids are all independent and have their own families. Just lack the act of holding my right palm up and bersumpah. But I do mean it.

He rolled his eyes, of course and guffawed. But I told him that I mean it, and I know I can do it. He said 1 year, 2 years.. maybe can, but anything might be possible la, after that. I told him I have my own reasons why I reached that decision that very day.

1. Do I want to trouble myself taking care of another man in my life? Men! They just want someone to take care of them in the end and have a quick easy way to settle their lust in the middle of the night, don't they? After all the great love profess and what not, that's what the "happily ever after" means, no? Be realistic, that's what I would tell myself.

2. I have 3 kids. I don't think any stepfather or stepmother would provide the same kind of love as the real parents would, somehow. (not to offend any step-parent here, just so you know first) And meimei would grow up and the bosoms would blossom too. I would be totally insane someone not her own father staying so close seeing that process. That would so kill me if he harms her in any way. No way, I can't take any chances.

And so, if IF this happens to me, I would need to be the dad and mom for them, and they would be my entire life until they don't need me anymore.

Do you think he's touched when he hears that?

*guffaws*

Sex education getting tougher.

Of all questions kor asked me so far, today's one was the most difficult one to answer....

"mommy, your tummy still have any more sperms inside?" *faint*

wahlau.... i was really dumbfounded! should i tell him i'm not very sure if those left by his dad 2 nights ago were still in there or already flushed out? *raised 1 eyebrow*

i'm not very sure why he asked me that question actually, so i asked him why he wants to know. i have a feeling he wanted to have a little baby sister. this kid, he sure adores cute little babies. but meimei is too big and getting more and more annoying for his liking.

this time, i really have to "jar sor pan moong" on his question. but he persisted, and i annoyingly told him i don't know!! (which was the truth) and i said sperm has a lifespan of between 2 days to a few days. sooo.... that left him quietly to think about my answer.

*whew*

Extraordinary measures, the movie

Hate those movies which made me cry buckets followed by bedtime and the next morning, I would looked "ngan joong joong". How not to cry when it touches my heart so much? A mom's heart at that. *pull Kleenex tissue* Thank God for making my kids so perfectly formed, healthy and pretty.

A lousy movie I haven't watched for a long time.

Over the weekend, we went for a hotel stay and took the kids across the road to watch a movie. Saturday night. Simple pleasure family time. A reward for kor for his satisfactory improvement in his report book. Dd's not too bad as well. Both positions leapt from 3 digits to 2 among all their peers. I'm very proud, I must say. (Do I get some credit for that too? Well, what the heck! Good job, mommy! *pat pat on own back*)

I suggested to hub 2 movies to choose from, highly recommended from a newspaper critic and the other, a good friend. But he chose neither and went for "Skyline". Major disaster!

We bought 4 tickets, purposefully leaving an empty seat right beside the aisle, hoping no loser would buy that aloof seat and then, we could have it for free. Bugger! There's really such loser, I kid you not. On a Saturday night?? Get a life! (ok, I'm not talking about you, don't be so sensitive, ok?)

As we happily made ourselves comfortable in the cine, waiting for the story to unfold, man! I was so bored to death watching it! It was just feeling a high anticipation on how the aliens looked like, then watching fear among the few roles in the movie, then run, then hide, then scream, then shout at each other, then run again, and I was thinking... "just go die, will ya?". And when it finally happened, I was so relieved, getting ready to get up liao when the scene went to the inside of the alien spaceship. I muttered "dammit! Still not yet the end ke?"

And all of a sudden, THE END.

Totally wasted my Saturday movie night and 40 bucks. Don't watch it, ok! Don't even bother buying its DVD.

Dinner tonight with a twist.

The rice bucket ran empty today, I just realized. Shiats! I should have asked the hub to come home early and we go eat out in conjunction with the public holiday tomorrow. But the soup was already cooked and the fish paste was all ready to be made yong taufu. What to do?

I update my FB status about my condition and some kind hearted souls actually suggested me on some ways to re-org the dinner with bread and noodles, rojak style. As usual, I replied with some uncanny replies and it may sound rude and unappreciative of me if the other party does not have the same sick sense of humor. Anyway.

At the end, I drag my butts out of the house and went nearby to buy a blardy expensive 5kg of rice pack for dinner. I believe my hub would feel weird to be eating yong taufu with bread and soup, as he's pretty much a typical chinaman fler. Came back and fixed dinner which took rather lots of hard work. But I must say, the yong taufu I made from scratch was mighty kick-ass! So much so that I wanted to give myself a Best Chef award. Though it may be me the only participant, but who's counting. And I feel my hub is such a lucky fella to marry me. *drown myself happily in self appraisal* L.O.L

Back to school yet?

Whoopee! Time to switch the alarm off and have the luxury of sleeping in till the body says 'wake up'. Then again, for some unknown reason, I had been waking up in the bloody early hours of the morning since the last few weeks. God knows why! Please let me have my beauty sleep non-stop 8 hours straight, if possible, again.

With the kids all to myself now at home, I have to start working on the holiday program with them. First thing first, we need to re-organize the whole book shelf and the pile of books, and I mean piles and piles of them on the round table right now. I took a picture of it, I would upload it later to prove my point.

Weeks ago, they had already brought home their books for next year and *thump* all those books sat right there on the table, occupying half the space and made the house looked more messy.

Today, I told them to clear all their school bags and out they go to the rubbish dump. Out comes the books for this year, the home workbooks I bought for them, the bits and bits of paper, the exam papers etc. What do I do with them? I am really scratching my head. It's such a headache.

While I sort things out, some other things have to go from the study room to make way for these books and while we are at that, I would need to look how to clear the mess in the study room as well. Big sigh!!! Looking at it already made me want to close both eyes and go to bed.

I guess this is a natural phenomenon - homes gathering clutter of things as years go by. I think I won't want to step into the maid's room, now the store room, if there's no apparent good enough reason for it. If possible, I really would like to throw all the things away and make the room for some other purpose, like yoga room, or guest room, certainly not a JUNK room. It's major headache to see what we have inside there.

So, hurray for the school holidays! Aren't we all excited? The coming Singapore trip, X'mas holiday with CK and family, Wii and computer games all day for the boys, and no more mornings just for myself (at least for the rest of the year). So, visits, breakfasts jamming, all have to be onhold. Sigh....

I was introduced to acroyoga

After going for daily yoga workout for 1.5 years, the instructor introduced a fun variation of yoga to us, called acroyoga. It's a combined name for acrobatics and yoga, using different elements in both.

The part I love most is the working out with a partner, "borrowing" energy and strength from him/her, conquering the fear and feeling total satisfaction when finally acquire the pose.

I had a 3 days straight of acroyoga from the instructor, "flying" from bird and totally enjoying it. Then I went to a workshop for 3 hours, one of the 4 sessions of the whole workshop for 2 days. Do I need to say it was awesome? I should have gone for the whole of the 2 days!




My instructor suggested me to do this at home with the kids and I did. Well, they so loved it. Everyday, they are now demanding for me to "fly" them, especially meimei. Sometimes I play along as it's good bonding time, I feel, but sometimes I feel so darn lazy. As for their papa, he can't even straighten his legs!


I think I might wanna go for more yoga workshops from now. Addicted.

Another pastime for silais.

It had been nxz years since the last facial pampering session for me. I can't even remember when.

As we passed by a promotion desk for a facial and body massage (2 separate sessions) for only RM68, I paid 30 bucks as deposit to buy the offer.

The other day, I went for the facial session. It was bliss. I had almost forgotten it felt so good.

The reasons I kinda gave up going for facial sessions earlier were...

1. the squeezing blackheads part! I hate that! So blardy painful and make my face all red and swollen all the time, without fail.
2. the backache from 1.5-2 hours of a damn lousy bed
3. chatting away from the beautician, condemning my badly taken care of face and promoting their different miracle products.

This time, all 3 didn't happen. That's also because I told her I didn't want the painful squeezing of my face in the beginning. Then, I had sort of relaxed in the darkened room and felt wonderful sensation being massaged on the face. It did feel very very nice. And the girl attending to me just left me alone enjoying the peaceful time, working on her hands and fingers very professionally. I loved it! And I paid their package for another 7 more sessions! Woohoo~

That balik kampung weekend.

The weekend we spent back at our hometown, I was very satisfied that I managed to do a few things I had liked to do, other than spending the whole entire stay playing mahjong with my inlaws. (They make me play, I normally not the one to initiate it).

When we arrived on that Friday night, we headed straight to Low Wong nga choy kei and stuffed ourselves full with a big big plate of smooth steamed chicken and another big big plate of fat juicy nga choy. That was the first thing I had wanted to do.

The next day, we went to Ming Court for dimsum, my hub's absolute favorite! It was so much easier looking for a table this time, as the giant dimsum king Fohsan is just across the road and helped diverted the customers away. We ate to our hearts' content. Very happy!

After that big and satisfactory breakfast, we went to visit my 2poh who's almost 80+ now, I think. She is one heck of a lady, but had grown very frail and old lately. When kor was only 1yo, I used to stay at my own parents' home at times and my 5th aunt (who passed away some years back) and 2poh would join us too. One fine night, I taught them how to chor daidi and from then on, we played all day, all night, all the way into the late night. We had lots and lots of fun!

My cousin sis and her daughter came over too and we chit chat until about 1+. It was time well spent!

Later, the kids were left at home while the adults played mahjong in the afternoon while I drove to visit my bestie girlfriend from Form 6. Then I dropped by at another schoolmate whom I haven't seen for 20 over years and we just talked like those missing years never exists. That was really so enjoyable.

Rushed home just in time for dinner and my mil had cooked a nice one for us. It took a short while to sapu the food away and in no time, 2 mahjong tables were set up for another round. I was in the game this time, but no winning luck. Pay for mahjong lessons la, abuden?

I wanted to take the kids for a jog at Pologround before we balik kampung, and initially planned to meet my schoolfriend I mentioned above, there instead of her home. But it started to rain at that agreed time, so that was why the change of plans. That Sunday morning, I dragged myself up from bed and kept my promise to take them to the park early in the morning, before half the household was awake.

Reached there by 8am and boy! were there lots of people around! It looked like a mega party was going on there. I found a carpark bay a little bit far away but still ok. Walked 1 round, allowed meimei to play in the playground while I played badminton with dd. It was a beautiful morning.

We headed straight for breakfast immediately after, meeting the rest of the family there. A few more hours later, we went home. Yes, I felt very happy on that short trip home. One fine day, I would like to take my kids to hike up our Kledang Hill and view the scenery from the hill above when dawn breaks. That always give me a very nostalgic feeling. And I always wanted to share that special moment with my kids, though they won't understand how I feel.

I'm gonna design my home this way next time.

The only time I always wish we stay in a smaller house is when I clean and mop the floor. I guess it's a mutual feeling between us silais (except those who have reliable domestic helpers). The time for me to just mop the floor for 3 rooms, the hall and the kitchen takes about 2 hours each time. And a lot of complaints and wishes that there are less stuffs to move around and about.

I could have just close 1 eye and leave those space underneath the sofa, cabinets and everything with a little space under to be just the way it is. Who would want to touch those surfaces anyway? It's going to be dirty soon anyway. All the excuses I come up with to just cut the task short. But sometimes I just can't do it. I HAD to move them away to complete my task anyhow.

Now that I know what works and what not, I already had in mind how my new home gonna be designed. Everything shall be either sitting on the floor leaving no gaps for dust to gather OR hanged from the ceiling without touching the floor, like those hanging waterfall in Avatar. Ahh... mopping floor would takes less than 30 mins then! I might even mop the floor twice a day.