Nature's display of light

One fine evening, I was driving meimei to her class amidst the after-working hours traffic chaos. Nothing unusual, every week is the same, but that day, the sky was unusually beautiful. Lucky I was carrying my camera with me that particular day. I was snappy-happy for the whole crawl.



When I saw the above, I said to meimei "look! isn't that beautiful?" She replied me "yeahhhh... it looks like a giant torchlight in the sky". I have to agree with her. :)

Toy story

Feeling proud with her expanded "family members" now, she gathered them up to take a family picture together. *roll eyes*

I think it's still cute to see her playing with her little toys, (7yo? you think I'm weird?) but seeing all her toys everywhere around on the floor ALL THE TIME is driving me nuts!!!!

I just gave her the ultimatum! I'm gonna throw them all out to "fan kai" if she still doesn't keep them when we go out or at night before bedtime!

Picnic at TTDI Park

Last weekend, a friend sms-ed me to ask if I want to adopt a new hamster (I think) as hers gave birth to a few babies itself. I declined with the excuse I was worried I would "murder" it for forgetting to feed it. She replied my sms asking me if I wanna join her for a picnic on Sat early morning at TTDI park with another friend. I replied back ok, thinking it's not nice to decline a second time, right?

Anyway, I thought I owed it to the kids to bring them out and enjoy the early morning sunshine during their school holidays instead of sitting at home, wasting the whole beautiful morning lazing around on the bed. After all, the whole week was just frantic running around doing chores and errands. They were so bored to death. Though I always tell them now(copying the principle from another blogger) that only boring people would feel bored.

As my friend asked me to bring something along, I had only thought of sausage and egg sandwiches. Then we lugged the whole prop of stuffs, picnic mat, picnic utensils, coffee, milo, bike, balls, ooh~ though simple, it was actually kinda fun!

TTDI park is a really good place to have a picnic with all the greens and shades around. We could sit there and chat till almost noon without feeling the heat so much, while the kids are safely around playing their own games and the papas hover around to attend to them. It was bliss! (though the hubs won't probably enjoy themselves that much!)

I think next time I ought to force the hubs to go jogging with the boys while I sit and chat with my friends. He surely needs the exercise!

Her first Rhythmic gymnastics classifications

After going for practices once a week for this one whole year, she was finally graded for all she had learnt. It was held by the teacher's (which was roped in by the school) club, to find their best gymnast to compete in the next level of rhythmic gymnastics between clubs.

For all my concerns, I just wanted to expose her to it and probably know where she stands after what she had learnt so far. After all, we have assessments all our lives, haven't we?

Never had I thought, it was so much more than that! There were rehearsals for the grading, it was a full day, I had to send her over early in the morning, I had to put make up for her, her hair should be all tied up in a bun, and we had to be there at the end of the program to receive the cert on stage. Oh wow! It was all so overwhelming.

What surprised me more was the enthusiasm shown by the girls' mothers at the event, all came fully prepared in full force to support their child, with the whole range of make up boxes, make up remover and ornaments, leotards, what have you!

I felt so out of place! I just hurriedly put on some simple make up for her and off we went to the event, without lugging anything along! And I think meimei also felt under-dressed! She looked so forward to own one of those beautiful leotards too, but what the shiats! It costs a bomb! A new one fetches a price for RM500+ but there were second hand ones which could probably be half the price. I had to avoid lingering around the table that lays the stuffs for sale in exorbitant prices, but in the end, gave in to a hairband for the bun at RM20!!! darn!

Seriously, it seems to me, it was getting a little bit out of hand. Initially when she was asked to join the team, I had thought, why not, since it's free and she could learn to cartwheel and somersault. But now, she told me she wants to do really well, she wants to shine, she wants to take part in competitions. (so she could don on the leotard) I think it's scary!

But am I crazy? Shouldn't we be aiming for the stars? Isn't it an honor to excel in something so beautiful? I think all the gymnasts really did so beautifully well on the carpet. They put on their best foot forward, but how much the parents are pushing them to go beyond their limits, I have no idea.

Anyway, I only hope my little girl does not pressure herself too much. She did a great job in achieving a merit score of 6.85/10, to me it indeed is. I was beaming with pride though the rest scored way better than she did.

One of the school holidays went like this.

I don't know about you, but for the first week of school holidays, I'm having FUN! Not!

It's just been hellish rushing around, chauffeuring, shopping, cooking, errands..

It was particularly crazy on Tuesday. Early morning, I rushed the kids to wash up and brought them out for a quick breakfast. Then, I got caught in the early morning rush hour traffic, miles away to a school to send meimei for her gym's exam's practice. Then I came back near home to send the boys to their classes, and off to my yoga class. Well, at least, I had my 1 hour of "me" time to relax and stretch.

After the 1 hour good sweating, I went home to grab some stuffs I totally forgotten I should have taken with me. After which, I went to the post office to run an errand. While Q-ing, the phone rang and a friend told me that she had already picked her daughter up from that school (same practice as meimei's), darn!

Quickly, I sped off to those another hundred miles away to collect her, while worrying for her all the way. I managed to call the teacher and she told me, that's ok, there are still many people around there, and she was still around to continue with the older girls.

Halfway, the phone rang and it was meimei. She called me from a friend's mom's phone and said that she was waiting for me and that she could go home already. I felt so relieved hearing her voice, and I told her I was on the way and that she should not walk out to anywhere by herself. God! How grateful I felt hearing she's ok!

After taking her safely with me (not that it was unsafe, but for a 7yo girl to be on her own, even though there were many other parents and little children around, in an unfamiliar place, it still sounds pretty scary to me) I went off to collect the boys again. Initially I wanted to take the boys first and then only to pick the girl up, but the phone call had changed my plans. It was better to leave the boys in a locked room with their teacher.

We then had our late lunch at 2pm, then we went off again to the same post office that I was supposed to be at, to post an all important letter. After it was done, *whew, that was another task ticked off the list*, we went to the library to return the books which were overdue. Paid the fine and borrowed some new books again, then off to the groceries store.

I promised the kids I would be getting some vegies only, and they knew if I had stopped to buy the fish, it would take a long time, waiting for the fish to be cut and cleaned. I took a tub of ice-cream home, for pampering myself and the kids later on. I so needed that!!

After paid and lugged all the bags to the car, I went to see hubs' aunt to collect something, and man! she kept on and on and on, ranting, talking, complaining to me. By the time we got home, the ice-cream almost melted. Eh? Another case of melted ice-cream?

And so, that was my crazy fun filled day. The rest of the days, I don't need to mention, it was running around too, either for this or for that.

Turning 7 finally!

She had been counting down to this day since like forever!

Finally, it was here and I lavished on her a little party by the pool a few days before (with guests she chose herself), and her birthday wish on ANOTHER Barbie doll again with few cute clothing to change into.

Her papa surely thinks that it's a waste of money buying toys (7 yo still playing barbie doll meh?), especially these kind of toys. To me, how many more years she would like Barbie dolls leh? She yearns for it so much, so just pamper her la. After all, it's only once a year!

Come to think of it, she reminded me of myself. I love playing with paper dolls when I was small too. But those days, we don't have the luxury of these lovely awesome beauties. We could only draw and cut them out to play with it.

I told myself, later we would sew some clothes ourselves for her dolls. Later later....

How the kids fared in school for the year.

It's the year end, and the dreaded school holidays soon. It's also when the report book would be sent back for the year's review on the kids' performance in the school. Can you hear my heart bok-bok-bok gum tiew? Surely not! As I'm cool, ok! (so fake!)

Well, I'm glad to announce, korkor finally made it to the top 2 classes next year, the esteemed, "jing ying pan", or loosely translated as "smarty pants class". Actually he could make it for this year too, but the principal reduced the number of these classes from 2 to 1. In 2012, he could only make it so, just because the principal flipped it back to 2 classes again. ha! So, it wasn't that a feat to shout about!

Anyway, I'm proud of my boy. Tracking on his progress from pri 1, he did make a remarkable improvement over the years indeed. And that is what I want him to experience... the joy of success! From his own hardwork and determination. But I could tell he's lacking again. I told him, I'm gonna be pushing him more next year, for him to see his own potential. This guy, needs to be pushed. And hearsay, the UPSR results is detrimental for some schools' entry requirements. Not that I care a lot about it, but then again, more choices is better than having less, no?

For the other 2, both of them have made an improvement from the first half of the year as well. They could have done better, but well, there are still many more years for them to do so. I feel a bit sorry for meimei though, almost all her friends are "upgraded" to smartass classes, and she would have to make new friends again. Then again, I'm not worried about that, as I'm sure that's her core! No fret about making friends for this little chatterbox! Her academic part, well, we shall have to work more on that next year!

Didi could have done much better though, his BM improved lots and I thought this time, no-die-ler! But unfortunately, his Chinese and Moral papers pulled his total marks far down, which was a surprise to me for the former (not the latter) had really been one of his strengths from the time he starts school. It was also because I wanted to "test water" and see how he would perform with a reduced tutoring lesson to once a week this year. Guess I couldn't afford that to happen. A price to pay, but well, that's ok, now that I know.

And that's the wrap up for the year. But the best thing of all? meimei learned a lot on rhythmic gymnastics and could toss and tumble around effortlessly. It's a joy to see her doing all those acrobatic stunts! And korkor was one of his class teacher's favorites and get to picked for all the experience in participating in all kinds of non-academic school activities. As for didi, he made THREE good buddies! Wow! Aren't all THAT enough to warrant a celebration right now?

A beautiful day that started like this..

I always wondered, what exactly happens when the car you are driving on a road, just ran out of the very last drop of petrol.

Last week, I finally checked that out. Even experienced it. Awesome!

My hubs have this habit of pumping in petrol after a long time the empty tank light is on, pushing the limit again and again. Somehow, this bad habit caught on with me, and I just hate it! All the time!

I do make an effort to change, unwilling to take the risk of getting into a fix, especially if there are kids in the car or worse, at night alone. But some of the times, my hubs been nagging at me when I pump in petrol way too early, for various reasons known only to him. Honestly, I don't mind him filling up the tank for me too, as I don't really quite enjoy stopping over at the gas station, getting out and doing all the hardcore, unladylike job while getting my make up and mascara messed up from all the exhaust fume around *roll eyes*!! But when I need to fill up, well, a woman got to do what a woman got to do... and even then I would try to do it without the kids in the car.

This time, the light came on on Friday and I thought I would be able to push it through to Sat, where I'll just sit back and relax while the hubs do all the job of running around and filling in air to the tyres as well.

But, he was apparently, VERY hungry on that fateful morning and told me to get some bites first. I obeyed, of course, as usual, and what the heck, before I know it, the car somehow felt "dead". I thought, "eh? why suddenly seifor?". It happened before, so I just brushed it off. Then after trying to ignite it back on again while the car was still cruising on its own, on a triple lane road and it failed me, only then the thought that the last drop of petrol ran out struck us!

At that time, it started to rain too, and hubs was all worked up! I slowly maneuvered to the left lane and then, both hubs and korkor went down to push the car to the carpark at the side of the road.

He went to check out what we had at that spot, and came back barking at us to get down to the roadside stall for roti canai first while we think of someone to SOS for help. I replied to him, I wasn't joining him until he could control his own temper and stop barking around. I was equally mad, but heck, I should be mad!

When we sat down and ordered our roti, I calmly thought about the friends I could call who stays around that vicinity. Finally, I thought of my yoga friend and she was ever so nice to be our savior! She came over and drove my hubs to the nearest gas station, which wasn't very far away, so he could tapao petrol in an empty bottle.

While he was away, I was actually enjoying the cool weather morning! In fact, I felt there were so many things that I felt relieved and lucky about.

Lucky I wasn't alone with the kids.

Lucky that didn't happen the day before while I was driving around in an empty tank light on, around in the traffic chaotic city center, with the kids!

Lucky it didn't happen either at the night before when I took the kids to their school by myself, for the concert.

Lucky it was raining, and we were spared from the hot humid weather next to a busy road.

Lucky it happened on that road where many gas stations were available.

Lucky I wasn't at the far right of the road.

Lucky when I was near to the left lane, a car vacated its parking bay, leaving me an empty slot to park my car temporarily in.

Lucky my friend was at home and able to help me out.

Am I so blessed or what, you tell me?

Then again, I pondered. Some might not be thinking of these positive things when landed in the same position. I guess it depends on what kind of person you are. It's always good to be looking at the bright side of things and finding that silver lining, even though, well, how everything just sucks! But, "this shall pass" and then, things would be fine again.

Having said that, I swore I'm NOT going to wait until the empty tank light turns on to fill it up, EVER!!!! It's a lesson learned and the risk not worth taking, the car DO DIE ON US, seriouslyl! NO JOKE, MAN!

11.11.11

... comes once in a hundred years? I'd say, it comes once in a purple moon.

So, having no reasons to fathiao, I took this darn excuse as one good excuse to put on some makeup in the early morning. After all, I need to try those products from Sephora that I brought home the other day sometime, eh? What I bought that day were just some foundation and powder, and *blink blink* fake eyelashes.

The foundation and powder are good, shall I say. It makes my face just glowed!Absolutely love it!

It's fun to color the eyelids, after getting some tips from the internet, in only a few simple steps. Believe me, I really can't make up myself well. I'm just too lazy to learn, practise and clean up. But after putting some colors on, I could see myself transformed A LOT! What a little touch up can do at this age!

Then, I went to camwhore a bit and post my pretty *ahem* face up in FB for my closer friends to see. I wasn't exactly fishing for compliments, (though some who did really made my day), but those who simply sabo just cracked me up! Really got to love them! And that started my day really well.

So much so, when I went out to run some errands, I get great parking spots, which are just right in front of where I wanted to go, in busy, double parked roads! It was just unbelievable! That's what strengthen my belief that vibes can really make a difference in your daily lives. If you bring your own mood up, you just see everything positive around you and great things do happen!

I wore the make up on for the whole day, korkor said I looked like a monster, which I laughed (the darndest things kids say) and his friend who came over thought I was about to go somewhere.

Anyway, I still prefer the "naked face" me, feeling lighter and cleaner, after I wash down all the powder and liquid. It's nice to be different once in a purple moon!

Not an everyday affair.

Today, I went for a kick-ass massage at MO hotel's spa outlet. It was so awesome that I could have signed up for their ceiling high price package if we hadn't been spending money like water these days for our home. I didn't even dare to look at the price tag, but I so wanna return to be pampered like that again.

For that pampering session, I would have given my hubs a good time tonight, if he had not been part of the reason I am stressed. Yeah, I am back to stress even after a good massage session. How not to when the work is in progress and everything needs immediate attention?

Anyway.

After the 1 hour taitai life, I walked all over KLCC, killing some spare time before doing my chauffeuring duty and eventually sauntered into KFC for the cheapest lunch deal available in that upmarket mall. Damn! Even the parking fees was more than what I paid for lunch. So un-taitai!

Then, I moved back to the 3rd floor to get a tub of New Zealand Natural ice-cream with the voucher we have. It was about time to get the hail out of there before another hour of parking applied, but the store Sephora caught my attention and I spent another 15-20 mins in there, quickly making a purchase and hurriedly go to the car before anymore damage is done.

The ice-cream was fully melted and blended from the 3 scoops of different flavors when I got home. What an ice-cream life!