Desperate to play pingpong

Desperate need calls for desperate measures.

Dui dui mien

In Central market, along Old Klang Road, there is this little eatery hidden in a little corner beside the side door of the aircond wet market. It's one of our favorite joints for a different type of pan-mien.


When I first tried it, the appearance of its sticky sauce already put me off, as I don't quite prefer sauces like these, similar to those mee jawa kind.

And I saw lots of other condiments in the noodle, which I abhorred. Weirdly, I eat a bowl of noodles plainly for its noodles, normally leaving most of the other "stuffs" intact. For example, for a bowl of laksa, I would savor all the laifun among the whole bowl of fish meat and other whatnots.

But this dui dui mien.... I found myself cleaning up the whole bowl of it on my first try! It was so good. We came back again and again and again....

There are rendang and curry chicken sauce to go with the pan mien, but I would prefer a plain bowl and add the dried chilli and green chilli sauce in it. Yum yum!

We were sold!

As good as new.

Remember I mentioned some time ago about a new camera that I might need? And it's because both of them which I owned are KO-ed already?

I took the Sony to repair as the center is nearest to me and was told later that the repair costs RM350, even when under warranty! I was so mega pissed, so I asked hub, he said no, and I told the guy no, and it's still in the center waiting for me to be collected.

The Canon service center is way much further, located in Subang, near to the old airport. I finally made a trip there and left it there. 2 weeks later, today, I received an sms in the morning which told me that it's fixed and no charges applied, that I can come collect it anytime. Yay!

I zoomed over again to the place and laid my hands on it. It's a good camera, I can tell you so. Good as new. This really made my day. But I was told they didn't do anything much with it, just cleaned up the contact point of the battery compartment. Oh well...

I took it with me and had been happily snapping away pictures of the kids. In school, at home, dinner outside. Everywhere. I was taken aback that my folder of "Pictures 2011" consists only 5 miserable pictures up till just now. Oh boy! So guilty that I hadn't been freezing their growing up moments. Do you have this problem? Taking lesser and lesser pictures of them as time slides by?

I can still remember hub bought a brand new videocam when korkor was born. And we recorded his firsts in everything. Digital cameras wasn't so popular yet, but we do have a few of them using hub's company's digital camera with a lousy resolution.

Then when didi came, the vids and pics became lesser.

Meimei's pics became even lesser than didi's.

And now all 3 of their pics also become scarce.

BUCK UP! BUCK UP!

For the moment, here are 2 of them I took today.

Welcome to the world

... to this lil ninja turtle.

This lil girl is a very strong-willed girl, I telling you, coz she fought a battle of wits with the world even when she was still in the womb and she won the fight!

(p/s: no need bertaubat liao, ban lifted, jom!)

Goodies from ashore.

The recent business trip seen hub buying back a whole load of stuffs for us, which is very different from the past trips. He went to Sydney and I suppose, delighted with the change of scenery from the normal SEA countries he'd been to that spurred him on a shopping frenzy.

When he unload everything onto our big round dining table, he said "most of the stuffs are for you". I was excited like a little child, smiling with glee. And so I checked out each one of them. If you knew him by now, you would know how he exaggerates. Guess I wasn't surprised to find, like, 10% of the things there is for me. Chiu! He defended saying the bulk of the expenses were for the things he bought for me. yeah yeah yeah...

Knowing I use SKII masks, which we bought 10 pieces in CP flight the last time we flew to Taiwan, he bought another 20 pieces for me from Changi airport. Woot! I can totally savor every piece of it slowly. Another item is the cleanser and a lip gloss. My eyes opened up, as I really think it's the first time he got me a lip gloss. Elizabeth Arden, dunplayplay.

Apparently, there was this promotion where 40 bucks voucher would be given to every 400 bucks spent. So the story goes that he ajak the man beside him at the counter to combine receipts to grab that voucher and that man agreed. But after combining it was still 10 bucks short, so he quickly go and grab the cheapest item he sees and pay for it. The man was in a hurry and in the end, just go "wtf" in the head and gave him his receipt. My hub was of course a happy man, and ended up buying that cleanser with that voucher.

I opened the lip gloss and wtf, it was bright pink! I told him, he can asks the beautician to put that color on my lips when I became a corpse. Sigh! Dunno laugh or cry, really.

But glad he's home, somehow. It was a quiet and unusually uncomfortable weekend without him around indeed.

Birthday party of an 11yo girl

Last night we attended my good friend's eldest daughter's 11th birthday at their home, which was a good timing as hub wasn't around for the weekend on a business trip to Sydney.

Their home is a spacious 3 storeys semidee which I had a part in designing once upon a time and is really good for any parties to be held there with the amount of vast space in and out of the house.

There were easily over 50 children last night, and a number of adults who are friends of my friend. They served spaghetti with finger food for the kids while the adults were served separately with a homecooked chinese meal with 8 dishes and a soup. I have to add, it's amazing! How her mommy did all that by herself with the help of her maid and her mother-in-law! Maybe the dad helped a bit as well, still, it's to me, LOTS of work there! The last time I did the big party for didi, we tapau-ed the food! *head hang in shame*

Not only I could see the amount of work preparing for the party, there was major work needed in running the whole show! Replenishing the food, recycling the utensils, filling back the drinks, clearing up and cleaning up... OMG! I can't see myself doing all those work for my kids! And I feel so guilty, should I be actually?

Two teenage girls were there to facilitate some games for the children and they didn't stop playing right until way over midnight! Not all stayed till the end, the crowd slowly became smaller as the night inched nearer to midnight and it was more manageable and fun.

My kids didn't have this privilege of having a party with all their friends over yet so far. As much as I wanted to do it for them, thinking of all the work involved already put me off. I can manage with a handful of guests, just like what we had done before. Maybe some day, I would just make it up to them by treating them a birthday bash with their own classmates when they turn 12, before the party of booze and ecstasy is what they want.


We went home at 12.15am, and that was really because meimei's battery really on very low level and needed recharged.

Taking care of myself at 16

My life took quite a drastic turn one fine day when I came home from school to find my mother sprawled still on the floor. I remembered that day as I was so worried, but relieved to find she was still breathing, thank God, only with swollen eyes from too much crying and looked very very sad.

I was still very worried and asked her what was wrong and please tell me, then I was told that our dad had left. My mind was racing with thousands of questions what she meant by "left", anyway, to cut a long long story short, apparently, that was the day my dad left Ipoh secretly to find a job elsewhere in Sabah as we were pretty hit hard by the 80s recession. He had left secretly because he knew that my mom wouldn't approve if he asked her to discuss about it.

My brothers were going on to tertiary education and my dad hadn't been receiving any salary for months. Both of them turned to pretty bad habits eventually as they had too much free time in their hands and the pressure was building up. I really have to give it to my dad for being our hero, the responsible father to face it up and find a job elsewhere to feed his family of 5.

It was also the day I suddenly had to mature overnight and took it in my stride to take care of my mom myself. Mom eventually stood back up and said since my dad was so responsible, she would also do her part.

And she went on a hunt to look for a stay-in domestic helper job in Ipoh, with the criteria that she could bring me along to stay with her. Mother and daughter, just the 2 of us to help take care of each other.

The first job she took up, was a babysitting job. The pay was good, unbelievably very good, and the employer agreed to have us both in. We wondered where the catch was. Apparently, we soon were to find out.

On our first day (not even a night!), as we lug our luggage into our room, the new young mother to the little infant stayed with us in the room. We were NOT encouraged to go outside of the room and we wondered why. All those questions in our heads, can you imagine? Pretty drama, if you would allow me to say.

I can only vividly remember the 4 of us stayed in the room for like hours, which seemed like eternity and were not told of WHY we can't go out of the room! Soon after, we heard loud banging noises coming from right OUTSIDE our door! and a guy shouting, vulgar or not, I can't recall but that definitely scared the shit out of both my mom and I!

The young mother started to shiver and held on to her baby and my mom and I looked at each other wondering what the shit was happening and NO WONDER why noone wanted this scary shit job! Soon after, we got an explanation alright.

Apparently, this guy shouting outside was the young girl's brother and he didn't like his sister giving pre-marriage birth (I think) and he was threatening to kill her and the baby (or am I dramatizing it a bit? aiyah.. it's something like that la, ok?)

Then this young girl with baby asked us to stay, trying to convince us that this only happens at that time of the day as he comes home back from school and he would be alright when his fierce dad is back. MY GAWD! Of course, we fled right away! And that was our very dramatic episode of our first adventure in the once employed as "STAY IN DOMESTIC MAID WITH HAWT YOUNG DOTTER (that's me, btw)" in the late 80s.

She found another job very soon after and I followed her again. This time no crying babies, banging doors and crazy guy shouting.

The bungalow is a very big and cozy home with a vast garden outside. It was a very beautiful home and I can remember myself amazed at such nice big houses there are! Our room was, sad to say, not at the upper floor, but at the little room at the back of the house, next to the kitchen. What do I expect, we were live-in maids. Well, I didn't expect anything actually, in fact I didn't feel any regrets or remorse for that experience I had when I was 16.

The bungalow was quite near to my high school, and it was only logical I cycled to school at that time. And so that started our life differently a bit. I would go to school in the morning while my mom worked at the employer's home, cleaning, washing, cooking. I come home from school, helped my mom to sweep and mop the floor and prepare dinner.

Everytime I sweep its floor, I would look at the details of its rooms, the curtains, the decors, the antiques. I wondered if I can ever stay as a master of a house like this one day. I knew that my life at that phase, shall past, it wouldn't stay like that forever and one day, one fine day, our family would be reunited again.

Surprisingly, the employer wanted us to have dinner with them and so, we would all be eating together every evenings. Once, my mom told me not to take my sweet time to enjoy the food there as it wasn't very polite since we were only the workers there. From there on, I gobbled my food and excused myself to do my homework while they continue eating. When they were done, I would help to clean up so my mom could rest for the day already.

After 3 months or so, I could tell, mom wasn't feeling very happy and she was also mentioning that her finger nails had been getting pretty bad from the harsh washing detergents. I encouraged my mom to quit this job and join dad, while I would be able to take care of myself. After this talk, she did just that and I moved back to our own home's back room while the other 2 rooms rented out to 2 couples.

I was alone to fend for myself.

Where I go to do my revisions last time

When I was young, I was crazy enough to join the crazy teens in Ipoh to wake up bright and early on weekend mornings, take the public bus to the main station in Medan Kidd and walk all the way from there to Tun Razak Library just so to be one of those early birds before it opens. That happened for like, 2 years? I think?

The walk was so blardy far! And most times I would be carrying almost all my text books, that would be, say, 9 subjects for SRP exam? And I didn't see myself doing any better in that exam either. Shucks! Really dumb, I would say!

BUT, I have to admit, of course there were other agenda.

One of them was just so to enjoy the aircond. Free aircon wor! Where to get? Most of all just plop our heads on the desks to snooze, especially after lunch.

Secondly, I have to admit, I was there to ogle at a Leung-Chiu-Wai-lookalike. He really was almost 80-90% similar, no kidding! He was so so handsome, and studying the boring subjects seemed so much more... inspiring!

Of course he didn't know that I secretly admire him from afar. But he did know my brother. I was too timid to approach him. When he was nearby, I would have butterflies fluttering wildly in my tummy. Once I even followed him when he went out for lunch. It was so exciting. I dared myself to join him at his table when I saw him alone eating his lunch but I chickened out. In the end, when I did, he finished his lunch and gave me a smile as I went near. Awww.. that totally melted my knees already. And I kicked myself in the butt for not having the balls to just do it earlier.

And usually, most of us, these studious and cheap bookworms, would spend the whole day from 8am, before the the library even opens its doors till it closes, I am not sure at what time. I usually call it a day before night falls. Isn't that crazy? Now that I think about it, I think it's insanity!

Wonder if anyone still does that in that popular public library of Ipoh anymore? Memories....

First term test results

And so that's a week passed since school starts. The dreaded time comes, those marked test papers. As expected, the boys didn't perform excellanteh in it, but no red marks so far, thank God.

Korkor's karangan came back surprisingly with rather good marks, over 70! I read his piece of work titled "Aku sebuah kereta" and deduced this malay teacher has been very "generous". LOL! His contents of all his autobiographies are ALLL the same! Anyway, not that I'm complaining.

Didi's first test paper came back marginally passed! That's very good, considering he only done 3 out of 5 pages of that paper! I ran through with him on those blanks, apparently, he does know the answers to them! What an absolute waste! I acted out dramatically how he must have been like when doing that first piece of test paper for the year, how he must have either been daydreaming, or fussing about his mechanical pencil, or staring blankly on the first page, or ogling at the girl sexy butts with a short pinafore seated in front of him.

Anyway, all in all, I'm not sweating over their poor performance. Told them it's the coming one in May I would be more interested in, as I want to see improvement rather than anything else. And we shall be pushing the gear into fast gear to see to it. And that's what I had been busy about in this week.

Looking forward to a relaxing weekend for the hardwork we had all put in.

2 of us over dinner and movie night.

Earlier, before I executed the 3 dates plan, I would have thought korkor probably preferred to stay home and play computer by himself, well, maybe wouldn't have mind going for a meal outside with me, but probably NOT preferring to do anything else together.

Proves how wrong I was!

He seemed to me that he was looking forward to our "date", though he had almost a wholesome day otherwise without me barking at him at home to stop staring at the computer screen, watching porns. He even napped for around 2 hours in the afternoon!

As we walked out of the door, meimei bade us farewell with "Have fun! Have fun!", making this seemed like the day had been equally special not only for them but for me too.

Being next to him, I sometimes can't believe he's standing almost up to my ears now! And he's moving into being a teenager fast. I had to change my tone and voice slightly, in fact, quite moderately, when talking to him. This is a guy I need to be careful with in building a rapport. I wanted so much to be his friend, so he would come to me when he has any doubts or questions when being enveloped by puberty's emotions later.

Firstly, where to eat? He briefly muttered a buffet way earlier, but he had asked for Tony Roma's. I asked him why the change of mind, wouldn't he wanted a buffet, to which he replied no need la, saying TR would be good enough. I can sense that he thought it's way too greedy to ask for and that made me proud of him.

After some discussions, he decided on Sushi King anyway and off we go! To the same mall (for the 3rd time that same day! OMG! Crazily xiao, don't you think?)

He rattled off in the car on the computer games he is currently playing and I had to feign interest listening to his eager voice. Oh man! Can we have some serious discussions on feelings, girls and xes yet? Oh well... boys! What was I thinking?

Over dinner, bits and pieces from our chats :

- both him and meimei thinks that my favorite color is purple, judging from the purple color I chose for my Mii. For which I think I don't have any particular favorite color actually.

- he remembers papa and I started off with something to do with a hiking trip.

- he knows EXACTLY what to get me for my birthday, if he has the money. Haha! I'm thrilled already!

- he gave me a score of 90% on being a mother, of which I was giddy with happiness, and upon seeing that, he slashed it immediately to 85%! I said, once given, he can't take it back! Tee hee!

- on the score of 1 (being cranky) to 10 (being happy), he says i'm 4 most of the time. He saw my disappointment in my expression and he jacked it up to 7 right away!! Haha! I said there is no right or wrong to his answer and I appreciate his feedback and I would try my best to be a happier mom from now on. He was delighted, giving me his sweetest smile. Truth be told, I always feel he has a very sweet smile, which I think would attract girls later, if he plays his cards well.

I asked him if he knew what I love about his dad. I said though it seems to him that I would be always scolding papa, I do love him and rattled on the 4 BIG NO-NO(s) that he doesn't have. And that he is a very responsible husband and dad whom korkor should learned to keep up to. Of course, it would be good that he doesn't have his bad habits, but who's perfect anyway.

His appetite was really huge! I gave him part of my bowl of rice to him, and he had another serving of plain rice, and 1.5 plates of sushi. Burp! He was so satisfied with dinner! Burp! burp! burp! I was enthralled with his sweet smiles throughout the night.

After that, we went to shop for some stuffs to feed the guests coming over, that's today, and then to the bookshop where he wants to have Diary of the Wimpy Kid, its fourth book. He kept on saying what a pity didi had only had McD and to the bookshop for this special treat. Wasted! So wasted, he continued.

We scooted off to the cineplex at 9 and impromptu bought 2 tickets to watch the just newly screened "World Invasion" at 9.35! And it was sooo cold in the cineplex, we were totally under-dressed for that!

Seriously, I was a bit worried as the night inched nearer to midnight. I'm a "Cinderella" by nature *ahem*, I don't like going out at nights and it's certainly the first time I took my eldest son out till so late. When the credits started rolling, I hurried him to move on quick with the crowd and walked briskly back to the car. He wanted to pee and I told him to hold till we get home. We were home safe and sound, back in the comfort of our beds very soon after.

And that concludes our very special day today. Though it was so so exhaustive, but I had a very good day. Gotta love it!

p/s: Thanks to the anon Befriender for your support and idea!

3 dates in one day! What a day!

Today is certainly a day worth blogging and remembering for. I took the kids out separately on 3 different times, all in a day's work, allowing them to choose what they want to eat at all and to accompany them what they want to do at all.

Truth be told, after last nite's post, I felt very guilty. If it had been a good day, there shouldn't be any tears, angst and jealousy in those 2 little flers, should there? So many ways I could have done better to ease the feelings pent up in them, and letting them have a nice day, albeit spending it differently. And I failed to plan it right. Failed miserably in being a mother!

So after talking it over with a Befriender, I woke up eagerly to put our plan to action! Even though I had only slept too late the night.

I was afraid the kids would be fighting over who to go on which slot and how I were to make it fair for them, but seeing korkor suggesting from youngest to eldest, and didi volunteering to go in the middle while meimei absolutely thrilled to just jump on the bandwagon straight away, I realized my worry was for nothing.

So, I took meimei out first for brekkie and before she thought about what she wanted to eat, korkor jumped on it and said she surely would ask for hakka mee! And that she did! There was nowhere else she wanted to go. Bad korkor!

It was closed for that day though, and she was easy going in settling for something else at that same place. *whew* I didn't want to drive over the town looking for things to eat! We chatted about simple stuffs, about her friends, about the playdate she had the day before, about what she wanted to do after that. Whilst she talked, I fed her as well, and it was a very happy morning time.

We settled on sand art after that, as she ruled out movies, shopping, fish spa, library. Those were my ideas since she had no idea at all what she had wanted to do.

When we reached the mall, we saw other painting stuffs which I prompted her to try. We took something like an hour to get the picture all done up, totally giving her all the attention she deserves. She was happy, with a colorful bright princess picture to bring home for the special day, and I was double happy seeing her cheerful little face.

We met up briefly with my Befriender who was nearby coincidentally and we parted ways for my next adventure (or shift).

Back home, didi was waiting patiently for his turn. Not the kind of excitement I was hoping to see though but well enough. Meimei had enjoyed herself so much that for a moment she felt a bit teary-eyed and kept hugging me and saying "I miss you" and almost like, putting up a scene to insist in following us on. I said to her we had a deal, and this was our plan so she should cooperate and not cry. She nodded and very bravely said "bye-bye! have fun!" and saw us to the door.

Being alone with didi, his hand in mine, the feeling shifted amazingly. From accompanying a little girl's feeling and enjoyment, it was then an entirely different sort of thing altogether. He said he wanted to go Old Town initially and I was taken aback. I asked him what he wanted to eat there, and apparently, he just wanted the ice cream float! But after thinking that there's nothing much else to eat over there, he said he wanted to go McD! Of all places, McD???? I really could hardly believe my ears!

YES! He insisted on McD! And he wanted a whole cheese burger with sesames on the top all to himself! And fries! And nuggets! AND ICE CREAM! My gawd! How badly I knew my little boy! I felt so awful! But I suspected a little that he could have been influenced by korkor and when prompted, it sure was! Bad korkor again!

Anyway, since I promised him that he can have what he wants, McD it is then!

He chomped on the food so happily. I was seated beside him and just looked at him. I asked him if he wanted to do this exercise again, he said yes. Maybe he could have one on one session with papa, I said. He replied that he would liked it and he thinks papa time would be even better. My eyes opened wide as I heard that and asked why. He said papa let him try on anything. Anything at all. Why, I should really think about what a control freak I have been then!

At one point of time, I brought back the day before's event again, and I asked him why he was so mean to his sister when we came home. He said she didn't want to play with him in my friend's house. I explained to him that I knew he felt hurt, but meimei has no girls to play dolls with and she wanted to enjoy the time playing them with another girl. She has her own life to live, and own friends to make but that didn't mean she loves him any less. And he needs to learn to deal with it. He nodded as he chomped on the fries. I wonder how much info he really digested, but at least it's an attempt.

It rained heavily by that time, and we had no other choice but to hang on around until it subsided a bit. He sat on me while he hungrily and enjoyably gobbled all the food up and I just can't mention enough how warming it felt just hugging him and looking down at his charming eyes. This little fella is such a challenging son, yet I feel he has such potential and good qualities that might just be undeveloped fully under my wing. I always feel so awful guilty I'm just not doing good enough.

Again, he had no inkling what he wanted to do next, and after being thrown a few options, he wanted to go to a bookshop and source for an origami book together. Again, I drove him to the same mall I been to in the morning.

On origami, he has been working very passionately in every free time he has, apart from playing Wii. This origami book I bought must be the most used and worthy book among all the rest. He has been folding and making all the few favorite ones of his over and over again, till he knows by heart how to fold a rabbit and a dinosaur without looking at it!

The rabbit and dinosaurs are not simple, for all I know. There are over 60 steps in each and yet, he conquered them all. He recently made this triceratops which looked really really awesome, I thought. And he uses them to decorate up his room, he said. It's all so cute.

Seeing his interest in origami, perhaps I thought it would be nice to throw him even more challenging ones to do. Yet, I scanned through each and every origami book there is in there, and couldn't find any which is more challenging than he already has been achieved so far. He saw one and kept pestering me to get it for him though, even I looked at it, it's nothing compared to those cool dinosaurs and abstract art that he has been making already, I bought it for him anyway, since I said it's his day. We went home, him feeling contented with book in hand while I was so pooped!

I plopped myself on the bed and very soon, passed out and awakened rudely about 10 mins or so, by meimei who wanted to read a book. Argh!!! I wanted to throw a tantrum already, but seeing the day had been going so good so far, I didn't want to waste that and forced myself up to read Little Miss Fun to her.

The date with korkor is such an eye opener that I MUST note it down, worthy of another post altogether. In the end, we came home at midnight and I can't wait to blog it all down, in case my memory fails me. I so love this day.

Learning the skill to make friends.

Today is a frenzy driving round town day for me.

Right from the early morning, I drove korkor for his tuition class, then to bus station for my mom to go gaigai, and back home again to let the other 2 kids shower and have breakfast before jetting off to my friend's home in TTDI to drop meimei for her playdate session with my friend's dotter.

Before I knew it, it was time to pick korkor up and I drove mad crazy with didi on tow, as it wasn't so nice to leave him with my friend's for she would have her hands all tied up with a little small baby to handle. I suppose the 2 girls would leave her alone playing with each other. And they did.

I came back home with the boys to get some chores done before going back to my friend's home for her very delicious spaghetti lunch and spent some time chatting with her and cradling her very cute little 4 mth old baby boy, Ian. He really is sooooo cute. I felt very "motherly" all over again having him in my arms. It was so lovely. BUT no way I'm gonna have another one for the sake of that. I guess if I need to feel that way again, I just go to her house and help her carry her bb for a couple of hours or so. Nice!

As we almost wanted to go home, didi was getting very restless and wanted to play. Something. Anything. As I forbid him to play with anything i or phone, he went on to disturb the girls who were happily and quietly playing together with their Barbie dolls. After awhile, I stepped in and told numerous times for him to leave them alone on their own. He was very uncooperative. I had to sit in with him alone for sometime, on the 2nd floor to have a small talk.

I said they wanted to be left alone, and he should respect their decision. He asked me why. I said it's her house and her room, no reasons needed for that and that is exactly why I wouldn't want to leave him alone for a playdate with anyone at this moment of time. That's because he wouldn't want to listen to anyone, not even to ME, and he would have to learn to do that! And when the time comes he proves that he can listen and obey instructions, he would be having playdates too if he wants to. His eyes got all misty. I asked him if he understood what I said, he mumbled a soft yes and I told him now I am asking him to go downstairs. He obeyed without anymore fights.

Back home again, he showed his displeasure that his sister "betrayed" him by uttering mean words like "I don't want to friend you forever" and purposefully used her Mii to play badly in the Wii fishing games. That made her gone bonkers and she ran crying her eyes out to me.

I was sooo tired, I just wanna take some eye shuts but there she was, shouting right next to my ears whilst bawling away! I then talked calmly to her that I would not discuss anything with her if she's crying like that. And I would NOT take her for anymore playdates with my friend's dotter next time since this is the way she behaves after a playtime like this.

I reasoned with her that her brother felt very rejected by her at her playdate and he was feeling sad. She hasn't been quite nice to him either and she had a very fun time all the whole 5 hours there. So, what she could do now is to make it up to him and say sorry and offer some kind words for his pained heart instead. She said he's making her Mii losing her points, and I said that was nothing. She didn't lose anything at all, just let him be and be kind and nice to him back.

After this talk, she mellowed down and in no time, all are back to norm. These kids. Really tires me out.

So much so till I felt no mood to cook, and so I took them all down for a dip in the pool, showered, went all out for dinner instead. We had a very quiet and peaceful time alone, it was very worthwhile spending the time talking to them like that today anyway. Is there some other way I could have handle this situation, I am thinking....

Dear God

Observing a time of silence to pray and pray harder it would be this time.

Enzyme, enzyme, are you good?

Just this beginning of March, I finally started on a little project in making kitchen enzyme. Now I know, it was "hot" years ago, and though I knew it then, I was purely lazy.

Then last year, korkor explored it in a science project in Science Club but after a few days, we had no idea where it ran off to! It was nowhere to be seen! I think either my mom or the helper had thrown it away seeing it's so un-appetizing.

I wanted to try it as I had been throwing lots of fruits' skins away every morning. Early this month, I did it. Finally. And in fact, I made TWO big bottles.

But unfortunately, it didn't exactly turn out so well. One of them kept expanding and with a little space left inside, it always explode everytime I let the gas out! Even though I do it like twice a day. I was very frustrated.

The other one looked pretty ok, with NO explosions. One day, however, *horror* I find it leaking! Dammit! I had to clean up the whole place! It was so messy and the smell...oh gosh, it just lingered on for a couple of days.

As for the other bottle which kept exploding, I transferred it over to a pail I purposely bought from Jusco and I just keeping my fingers crossed this one would turn out successful. Boy! What a ride it has been so far. Hoping this would be harvested into something that is really really good and useful. Target month: June 2010.

My typical weekday mornings.

Did I already tell you before? Well, whatever...

My day starts at 6.20am when the alarm from my handphone rings, sometimes earlier on my own if I sleep very well or early the night before. Wake the kids up from their sweet slumber and head straight myself to the kitchen to prepare their breakfast and snack for them to bring to school.

Breakfast would be, usually a slice of bread with jam, orange+apple+tomato juice and instant cereal mixed with hot water and cold fresh milk. Snack in their tupperware consists of 2 slices bread with jam, or occasionally different fillings like egg or sausages. Other than that, there would be some little treats like biscuits or cookies or banana or rice cracker.

When the kids are bathed and changed to their school uniform themselves, breakfast would be ready for them and I would tie meimei's hair up in a bun. When will she be able to do that by herself, I wonder.

1 hour later, we are ready to leave the house, usually accompanied by "faitit la! faitit!", and most times hurrying them, especially didi. He's ALWAYS the champion, being the last one out and being rushed. I would hate myself all the time for yelling at his face after seeing him off at the gate though. He's just dun-care-less! What should I do with him??

When I'm home again, I must fix a cuppa and bread for my own breakfast, so enjoying them and in the peace without any disturbance. When the last drop of coffee warmed my tummy, the urge to "meringankan badan" would come, very effective, and it is so satisfying after releasing all the toxic, unwanted stuffs in the body. Then! Only I would brush my teeth and have my shower.

Some of the mornings, I would go for yoga workouts, followed by chat and coffee with the friends I made there. Other times, it would be breakfast with some other friends. And groceries. Running errands. Home alone. Till the time I make my way to take the kids home from school.

I feel guilty though. Having a good life whilst the hub working his pants off. And this feeling drives me to play nice with him in the evenings. *wink*

Chosen lucky one.

After the 2nd time attending gym class in school, the instructor asked me if I would like to allow meimei to join the school team. Of course, I was elated! Well, for one good reason, it's FREE! And well, for another, she loves those time spent in the gym room! And to me, I always feel it's an honor to be selected in the school team, something I never get to do when I was a girl.

She spends another day of the week for 2 hours practising her stunts with 9 other girls of similar age and that means, I have another longer day off! Still ain't sure what the boys gonna do, but they are begging me to let them stay in the library to wait for their little sister. I am not too sure about that, but I ain't not likey making 2 trips to the school under the hot sun to fetch them to and fro.

I took a peek at her first practice and found out, it's serious practices for them, rather than the usual run and goofy around. Meimei has not complained a bit though, shows how much she loves it. I read the letter which I needed to sign and return back and only figured it's not play play, eh. Really need commitment to attend their practice lessons and no excuses are allowed to skip them. And without any good reasons, she's also not allowed to pull out from the team. Aiks! I hadn't thought of that before, but I believe, that shouldn't pose any problem to us, should it?

Just last week, she came home and told me excitedly that she learned cartwheel that day! How cool! Of course she can't do it yet, but I am so looking forward to the day she conquers it. I always think it's so so cool to do cartwheels, it never fails to make my eyes open wide and jaws wide seeing those little girls in her school cartwheeling around.

Meimei is so lucky! I'm jealous! *smile*

Coming 1st test of the year.

I do silently wish that the school NEVER give any notice on the impending tests so that the kids can be assessed on their learning and coping right there and then. After all, this is the true meaning of assessment, no?

Revision shouldn't even take place a day before tests, as the kids should have been absorbing and digesting the information and knowledge they gain from school every day. Why do they need to revise for?

I'm complaining because I feel this is a punishment to ME instead! I can't relax on the weekend before their test that's going to begin tomorrow and I feel awful guilty taking them out almost ALL day yesterday and even letting them watch movies with us at night, at home! *horror*

Well, I reasoned with myself I ought not feel guilty even slightly, since it's only *ONLY* the first test of the year and I would be able to judge where they are and how much work we need to do to propel to the front line at the end of the year. That would be an even prouder moment for us all as we see their vast improvement later of the year. Yeah, there are, let me count, around 7 more months to catch up on the final exam of the year. Ample time to study laa...

Washing school shoes on Sunday

Their school shoes, their responsibilities. Do you think it's ok to rinse and spin the shoes dry in the washing machine?

A scientific discussion with korkor.

Korkor asked me this morning, why do we feel itchy at that spot where the mozzie bites? I shrugged my shoulders and I then proceeded to tell him how when we get a wound, the bleeding comes, and the blood would hardened up, forming a shield to keep us from bleeding away and blocking bacteria and dirt from entering while making sure the new layer of skin is safely formed inside, then when it's almost ready for the new skin to emerge, we would feel a tad bit itchy around that area and it's unsafe to scratch it as the "shield" might break free and it starts bleeding all over again and the process repeats?

And we wondered... is the story relevant to his question? *gazing into the air*

Do you know why it's itchy when the mozzie comes and strikes?

No canes!

One day, as I went to school to fetch the kids home, korkor pointed to me quietly to show me how didi kicked meimei's bag together with a little boy. I was so pissed that I just wanted explode right there!

On the way home, korkor who knows to read my body language and facial expressions, asked me "didi is doomed, right?". I just kept my cool and continued on driving. As I was driving, I was thinking how to teach that little fella when we get home.

Truth be told, I was really so mad that I just wanna cane that fella up. But the drive home, albeit a short one, cooled me down a bit, and it gave me some time to think about the point in doing that. I read in a mama's blog that it's SO not right to cane or spank a child when he/she did wrong as they are so vulnerable. Guilty as charged. *head hanging down*

Trying as hard as I may, I pushed myself further to think of other alternatives to punish him for that wrongdoing of his. I ought to refrain from laying a finger on them, as I promised to myself. And then, *ding* a lightbulb moment appeared.

Once back home, I told the other two to get their showers while didi was to wait for my instructions. Took out all the stuffs in ALL 3 bags, and passed a wet towel to didi, telling him to clean them up! He quietly and obediently scrubbed meimei's bag while I ran around the house doing other chores.

On and off, he would yell for me to check if the bag is cleaned up yet. When I went to check, I started my lecture on why he was being punished.

Lecture on life's choices and the consequences that he has to face. He chose to kick and dirty his sister's bag when prompted by the other boy. I asked him it's the right or wrong thing to do. He answered that it's wrong. I asked him again what he could have done. He replied he didn't know. I told him to think about it while he continued scrubbing.

After some 2 mins or so, he told me he has the answer. He said he could have NOT kicked it. I asked him, then what else could he have done. He tried with "tell you?". After a few Q&A and prompting, I said he could have told the other boy off for even suggesting to kick and dirty his own meimei's bag. So, in fact, he had done 2 wrongs for the day! I asked him if he understood what I mean, and he nodded his head and said "yeah..."

His eyes went misty and I wondered if he had indeed learnt his lesson or just felt pissy with me for punishing him like this. I then told him to scrub korkor's and his own bag and get showered.

This certainly felt much better than giving him a good caning on his butts, whether or not it's more effective or less. And I pondered to myself, a moment of cooling down and thinking makes a whole lot difference than doing the impromptu of getting hold a cane and showing him the pain of his action right there and then. So, it just takes a little effort to learn to control our own temper when it flares.

Next time, when he's done anything wrong again, I would pass him a wet towel and get him on all fours to scrub the floor for me.

That way, I get the floors cleaned! This time, I have 3 awesome clean bags!

About the missing post..

Really one... I wrote the missing post earlier..

It's about the trip I made to the trafik polis to make some "driving lessons" fees, and though it wasn't that quite drama, but the post was to dramatize it, so my hub will know later how much trouble I went to run that errand just for him.

Anyway, I'm so very glad that I did, reading the news on how bad the situation was on the last few days before the discount offer expired yesterday. Malaysians sure like to procrastinate till the last minute, don't they? *mata jeling*