Out of the comfort zone

I'm dreading it.

I digress.

But I do have a comfortable life with a comfortable schedule bringing the kids up in a comfortable environment. I don't really look forward to change all that. Then again, this change has its advantages. And it would look good in my CV, just in case I do need to come up with one later. Decisions! Decisions!

I asked my hub what he thinks. He didn't answer me directly, but gut feel tells me he's not really in support of it. I think he secretly lost hope of me ever being the high profile career lady I was in his dream once upon a time ago. Or probably he loves the fact I wait on him when he comes home from a hard day's work and relish on the delicious homecooked dinner ready for him *gulp*

Or maybe he thinks it's just not worth it to be tied up. Argh!!! Do I need to be what he wants me to be anyway?? *sits in corner to ponder*

What am I talking? I agreed to it! Well, hope for the better! Life would turned tupsy turvy, but I want to make it work! I have to! I should be able to! It must be!

xxx

Going high tech

I love this iPad!!!!!

For now, I can use this iPad till the weekend, when I wrap it up in mahjong paper and ribbon to give to my dad as his 70th birthday present.
This makes my heart splitting into half about the coming weekend. On one hand, I'll be having a great time gathered up with my brothers and their families to celebrate our pap's birthday bash, on the other, *sob* I have to say bye bye to this sweetie. *bawl*

I put on my endearing tone of voice which I only use at "special occasions" to ask my hub DIRECTLY, "can I have iPad for my coming birthday, pleaseeeeeee *in the most manja voice that it made my hair stands too*". Guess what he says.

Didi has a valid good reason for us to get this beauty. He said it's so big, I would not need to nag and worry about him playing it close to his eyes and spoiling them anymore! Well said, my son! (but do I need to remind you, it would be MINE alone?)

Ohhhhh, dad, kids and I would be soooooo welcoming you to to KL or see you when we are back in Ipoh! Hope he likes this gift (or do we?? *ashamed*)

Fridays

I love Fridays, as most people do. For me, the main reason I love them is I can sleep in the next day. It's torturing to wake early when the sky is still dark. Oh, how I wish the kids can settle themselves getting ready to school and I just need to get up from bed, get changed and walk out of the door to send them to school and back again to plop back onto bed, before I am all wide awake.

But no such thing happening for several few years, I suppose. Yet, I prefer them going to morning school than afternoon. I feel their days are more evenly balanced somehow. Of course, it's not entirely true.

Then again, yeah, some (my reflection in the mirror) would argue that I could go to bed early and get the same amount of eyeshut instead. Seriously, I tried to. But there are just too many distractions, or should I say, temptations. I would be tempted to enjoy the quiet silence of the night, going online, or watching TV, or reading books (yeah, right!) or just blogging (was I blogging often last 2 weeks?)

Last Saturday night, I stayed up to watch The Prestige till 3am, after watching Armageddon with the kids. I should knock my head on the wall!

Last night, I was eager to watch the ending of the lame TVB series showing on Astro and went online instead of waiting till next Monday for the last episode and stayed all the way to 1.30am. I'm SO TIRED NOW!!!

OK, I should stop crapping and just go to sleep. Night!

*offline*

The party I will be holding soon.

When I was young, my parents used to host bbq party at our small home now and then. BBQ party used to be so much different those times compared to current times. Last time, our guests came in tees and shorts and were prepared to get dirty in work. We would all bbq our own piece of bbq marinated chicken, grilled from a skewer, over charcoal fire on a traditional clay burner. This activity alone required us to cramp closely together and whilst making our masterpiece, lots of chats and laughter were a sure thing.

I remember my mom also would cook a big pot of plain porridge, just plain boring white porridge, but goes heavenly together with the bbq meat. My mom always says that with the plain porridge, the bbq would be less "heaty" that way. I certainly have no idea how true her theory is, but it sure is delicious, that combination. So, who cared!

What I certainly missed most was the fun we had, the bonding time with our cousins and relatives. Priceless, I kid you not. And everyone worked together even in the cleaning up part, as maids were not popular that time. Very bergotong-royong semangat!

Nowadays, BBQ party is so different, at least for the ones I go to, or hosted. Guests turn up dressed to the nines and noone wanted to sweat over cooking food! Can't blame them, as I myself would feel lazy to be working when invited to a party too. Party meant to be a relaxing time for guests!

Nevertheless, I still carry this dream of reviving the real bbq fun I experienced before. For myself and for the kids. Also, I have this dream of moving into a bigger home and hosting more gatherings for my friends or relatives.

Let's imagine the vision I have in mind.

When I DO move to a bigger home, I visualize the men chatting about money, booze and boobs on the balcony over tea, some hardcore gamblers playing mahjong in a different room, bigger kids playing tennis on Wii, smaller kids hidden partially in the toys corner, and me and my girlfriends cooking some kick ass food in my brand new clean and white kitchen or even baking some cakes with heavenly aroma filling the entire home, whilst having a great time gossiping and laughing wildly as we always do all the time when we get together. And we would periodically munch and pass the food fresh from the oven around, totally having FUN! Well, some delivery stuffs of pizza and McD for the kids would be great for them, I suppose. How? Want to come or not?

(But I may charge entrance fees for the great party, since I would need some financial support to make the dream come true - posh kitchen and bigger home need money, don't they?)

Little pink swans

After over 100 classes or so, finally meimei had sat for her first ballet exam and graduated to another level, which I assumed she had passed and moved forward.

The lesson before the exam day, we were allowed to sit inside and watch their little performance, which was a delight, since she refused to show me at all and we were not permitted to watch in earlier classes for fear of "disrupting" their moods. I took the opportunity to record her not-so-graceful-but-oh-so-cute moves. Her papa hurried over from his office to catch her little performance (the first for us so far), but was rather disappointed, I guess. What does he want? Black Swan?

Eve of the big day, I was a bit kancheong too, which was a surprise since I don't think I cared that much if she make it to a real professional ballerina or not. I suppose the teacher had passed on the bug to us as she fuss over them so much. Ballerinas, whether young or old, they do take it very seriously and want everything to be just perfect.

When it was all over finally, I really couldn't help but heave a silent sigh of relief. I guess the extra classes and longer than usual last few ones had taken a toll on me. I felt so tired ferrying her to class 3 times a week, waiting up to 1.6 hours for her and braving the heavy rain on one or two of those nights to the car from the school.

That called for a celebration, for that I trimmed off her long hair to same length over slightly below the shoulder and we were rewarded for a week's break from ferrying her to and fro ballet classes. Yay!

She really looks mighty cute in shorter, neater and easier to manage locks now. OK, I might be a bit biased here, I guess we are allowed to once in awhile, eh?

Wednesdays

Are used for mopping the floor lup lup ling, and almost always, it usually does, it lifts up my mood when I consciously move my feet on its surface, feeling its clean smooth touch.

Wednesdays, I have a long day to run errands, stock up groceries, meet up people, housekeep the mails and bills, and get a whole lot satisfaction from completing all those long ago dues' tasks.

When it's time to pick the kids up from school, I would be there earlier to spot them happily trotting, jumping, skipping, somersaulting and goofing round where almost always, it usually does, brings me a wide big grin on my face and wonder how on earth I am so lucky in my life.

The hours after that would be a mad rush getting dinner done, sending each to their own respective tasks and finally settling down on the sofa with legs up on the table watching lame TVB series.

Oh, and it's time to pick the son up from tuition class, I won yesterday 1-2-zum with hub on who gets to stay and continue watching the TV.

Gold Coast Resort

On a nice Sunday around 4, 5 months ago, we ventured out away from our usual joints and reached the shore of Morib, where Gold Coast is developing and opening its doors soon for business.

It is said that it would be KL-lites next popular spot of hot destinations as we don't have any good nearby beach resorts for quick and short breakaways.

We were taken for a little tour to view the standard unit available for investment, alongside a penthouse unit which is tastefully and extensively decorated, said to be owned by a datuk.

Penthouse right on top of that building.

The kids were given a kite each to bring home and we hopped over to the beach, enjoying the light gentle breeze under the shade of these little pavilions. There were also some light food served free for the public - fried mee, cendol... I forgot what else.


The beach is wide and the shallow water goes way out into the sea. It was very murky though and didn't look very inviting at all.

The day was cloudy and windy, perfect for a leisure afternoon stroll and relaxation and flying kites in the open air.

I think it was the first time I flew a kite up by myself! The wind was strong that I need not any help at all to get the kite up. It made me feel like a little kid. We took it down and joined 2 sets of strings together to make the kite fly up even higher. After awhile, we lost interest holding on to the handle which controls the string and just tied it to a pole on the beach to let the kite continue its dancing like a bird with no freedom.

I remember when I was a child, my brothers used to make their own kites and fly them secretly when my mom wasn't around. Somehow, mom didn't like them to engage in this activity, I never understand why. My brothers would hide them in their room or when they were busy with this hobby, I would "keep watch" and notify them if mom's shadow was around the corner. I was pretty important, wasn't I?

It was a game that all kids played in our little kampung, making the strings strong and "sharp" so to cut off other strings and then running to grab hold of the fallen kite, chasing after them. Whoever get the kite was of course, the self declared "kite king"?

Those good old days where we see kites flying up in the air, we don't see them anymore, do we?

Visit to the dentist

Being a Monday special holiday from the school, we took a day off and stay 1 more night in Ipoh. Having half a day off to ourselves, we went for a good breakfast of cham ice and curry noodles (my standard of good brekkie @ Ipoh) and chee cheong fun, pan mee, fried mee....

Headed off to the bank to settle some stuff and hub went to visit a dentist to repair his broken tooth while my parents took care of the kids at home. That's one of the best thing about going home, having reliable babysitters so we could run errands without fuss.

I whisked didi off to see the dentist too, since his front tooth hasn't yet make its appearance after the baby tooth dropped for what seemed like many moons! Should I be worried not? The dentist said to give it another month as she could feel "something" is there in the gums and maybe it's just a slow one out. Else, we have to resort to x-ray and see if there's anything which is the issue.


Faitit la!!! The front tooth better come out soon!!!!

Hot day at the graveyard

We went for qing ming at the kids' thai-koong's and thai-poh's (that's great grandparents) graveyard over the weekend.

The qing ming event was rather "painful" as we left our home about 8+ and reached the cemetery around 9. The only 1-way road up to the hill was jammed and the other car of our clan called ours and advised us to just park the car wherever we were and walk up.

Being only us 3 adults and 2 small kids with soooooo many stuffs to carry, I had to take a big gulp and just follow the leader. Soon, the grandma and hub were far far away taking didi along with them, leaving meimei and I to fend for ourselves.

Taking her hand, which was holding a pack of stuffs for burning, and an umbrella, plus 2 packs of stuffs myself AND an umbrella, I had to make sure she didn't get any brush from the very nearby moving cars! *whew* PLUS, I had absolutely no-farking-idea where the rest were and where the graveyard's located among the sea of similar looking graves. You can imagine the stress I felt that time not?

In the end, I felt that it's better walking through the small paths between those graves rather than the road itself, and well, we just walked. Then the hub appeared and did he dare say anything? Surely not!

The whole works took almost 2 hours under the bright burning giant torchlight and nearly toasted us alive even though I wouldn't want to budge an inch away from under the umbrella.

Jeez! Next year, I'm going to fight for a resolution to wake up at 6 and start work at 7, get it over and done with by 9!

Durians from thai-koong's backyard

My hub's grandparents has left an old bungalow to my inlaws, which is surrounded by a huge space of land with scrubs and trees. Unfortunately, it is a very old bungalow and the land around it is not even maintained to be called a little garden. I can't help but feel how pity it is not to rebuild the house and change its landscape. The kids would have abundant of fun just running around.

But, there's a durian tree which bears fruits after more than 20 years, I am told, and during durian season, we can be rest assured there would be durians to eat from that old tree.

The day after we went back to Ipoh for qing ming, grandpa brought home 2 HUGE just-fell-off-from-the-tree durians and everyone had a good time savoring each bite.

Losing it is not fun.

I lost it!

They made me.

It's not that I never tried talking nicely, begging, pleading, reasoning, offering...

BUT it seems like the only way works best is scold, lose temper, scold, threats, scold... gah! Why? Why why???

Now what was it that made me lost it.

Firstly, korkor made me wait for him after school. It's ok if it's just like a couple of mins or so. But the wait has been dragging longer and longer. And that day I lost it, I was so damn hungry! He made me wait for like a century! Shucks!

Off I went talking like a mad woman how it's so rude that I am taken granted like this. As if being their chauffeur is not enough, I have to wait for His Royal Majesty to finish his all so important work in the school? I threaten that next time, if I wait longer than 5 mins, I would be going off and he would have to find his way home himself! Walk if he needs to! (yeah, like I would do that, huh?)

2 days later, and this had been going on for since God knows when, all 3 of them didn't want to shower after getting home from school! Korkor says it's meimei's turn, meimei says it's didi's turn, didi says it's korkor's turn... everyone of them practising taichi. I got very mad and just yelled at them! I know, it's bad, but really, they made me! I had been sooooo tolerant and patient with them all along.

Now that everyone is clean as new, let's just be nice to each other again, ok?

(p/s: pms also la, I think!)

Bunny hair of the 21st century

Every schoolday morning, apart from preparing their breakfast and snacks in a bento to school, I have to tie meimei's hair in a bun.

Major sien!

Some days, I need to work on it for twice a day, as she would have ballet classes one of the weekdays too.

Kill me already!

Best workable method so far

I used to get him write the malay words he doesn't know in a book, his very own self made kamus, so to speak, and read them every now and then.

It worked fine for awhile but as the pages became more and the list became a mile long, he grown impatient and refused to study the words anymore.

I was pulling my hair out on how to improve his vocab, until one sudden early morning as I woke up... *ding* a lightbulb magically appeared above my head. *ding ding*

It's actually not a very noble idea, but back to basics, using flash cards, just like how little toddlers learn from a young age. I used pieces of colored paper (to make life's more colorful) as flash cards.

While sitting down with him, going through his chapters in his text book, any words he doesn't know, I would write it down FOR HIM and write the meaning at its back in English. In a way, his vocab in English also improves, together with his spelling of the word (I hope).

Then, I would also derive some other words with that word using a few "imbuhan" I know and explain what those words mean.


So, everytime I would "flash" the words, like playing a game, testing him what it means. If the words he's able to tell the meaning for 2 or 3 times straight, I put that "card" aside and thus, the pile would not become a mountain, and he only needs to focus on the words he doesn't know. Those "known" words will be tested once in awhile, to make sure it isn't "erased" from his memory.



Well, this is so far, the best workable method I find so far. He's learning the new words like a game and soon, we are going to use those words he know into "practice", like joining them up to write an essay, perhaps? Well, not so advanced yet, but at least I can use them to ask him make sentences or jumble them up to get him arrange the words to make it into a proper sentence. Ain't I smart leh??? Don't just nod there! Say some encouraging words, dammit! *parang in hand*

But this method can't be applied to teach meimei, as the problem is... she doesn't know how to read English well yet. So I had to resort to some other technique to teach her. And that is another post altogether.