The bad thing about tuitions.

These days, I hadn't really been quite controlling my temper well. One after another, they made my blood boil and totally blew me up, like a grenade exploding. But not all without any lessons learnt. Allow me to tell my stories.

The first one deserves a mention is koko's attitude on his lessons and revision. The other day, he asked me if I could ask the tutor to teach him on Kajian Tempatan too. It's a little bit like geography, and a little bit of homeland study, something like that. Who on earth would need tuitions for that subject, you tell me? That led me to come to my consciousness that he's just too over the fence, over spoonfed.

Yesterday night after dinner, while I was cleaning up and working like a dog in the kitchen, I came out for awhile to check on the kids. To my horror, koko was just wasting his time away playing with papa's iPhone. He had his break earlier when I was away with the other 2 on their fun classes, so I was pretty mad.

When I asked him what he's doing, he told me that he was waiting for me! Waiting for ME! Can you imagine that? I just lost my cool and scolded him like a machine gun running.

After some cooling off while washing up the dishes, I asked him to come and have a chat in the kitchen. And so I began the biggest lesson of the day for him.

Seriously, when is it that revisions for exams has become a responsibility of the parent? I told him he should be taking his initiatives to learn and revise on his own, I can only be of assistance when there's anything he doesn't understand. Just like the tuitions, the chinese tutor is here to help him with chinese only. And I am helping him out in his struggle to command the BM. I provide the tools for him to learn, like buying the workbooks and reference books. Other than that, he should be the one responsible to revise, learn and read, and gain knowledge. Not me telling him on what to do now, and what to do next.

Really, this son of mine is too pampered and spoon fed. I told him I'm just gonna stop telling him what to do, but most importantly, I want to see him holding responsibility of his own future and learning to be taking initiatives. Not only taking initiative in downloading new games from the internet. Oh, that one, I surely need not tell him to, he's just too good at it.

And that was a lesson well learnt, for both of us. I wonder how much he understood what I said though. I think I can afford to let him slip in his grades at this age, if he could be learning this bigger lesson of responsibilities and be initiative, as I told myself I won't be looking over his shoulder so much to make sure he revises for his exams. And it'll be a cause for a more meaningful celebration if he does make it and excel in his studies. Hope he knows it's all for his own good.

Notis dari sekolah of coming test

Oh my! Can I believe my eyes? It's the exams again! Jeez!! Sooner or later, I'll have those blardy exams dreams again where I'll be totally unprepared and it's the big test the next day. I'll be jolted from my sleep and sweating profusely like I just had a bad bad dream. Did you already know about these dreams I often had when I was young? I think I mentioned it before, but what the heck, I'll remind you and myself about those dreams again.

Two of my most memorable ones were...

1. the watermelon test. I was given a watermelon slice like a big smiley. "Eh, got watermelon to eat one, so nice?", or so I thought. I was eating away and then out of a sudden, the examiner told me that the question of the day was to find out how many seeds there were in it. Problem was I ate the whole thing, INCLUDING the blardy seeds. So I panicked and then I woke up, perspiring all over and thankful it was just a dream.

2. The blardy Ass-Tee-Pee-Amm exam. Someone made me sit for the paper all over again, when I explained I already graduated and holding a degree! It totally woke me up, okeh?

I have several other memorable funny and sentimental ones too, but this post is not about my dreams, is it?

Now, I just can't understand why the school likes to give the students 4 exams in a year?! Can't they reduce it to twice a year? Or once a year also fine with me. So to say the education system in our country is too exam-oriented, I really can't disagree more. Why? Why? Why????

Come to think about it, I think I should stick to my principle: don't push them too much la, just let them do their best and enjoy their childhood. But yet, sometimes, I would also think, I should really ought to make an effort for them be strive for top scores and even better, to pursue a medical profession or a much secured one for their future. Hmm....

OK, cannot talk so much already. Need to start work on their home tuition jor. Heiz...

Post world cup depression

World Cup is so over. And I hadn't watch even 1 match. Well, I admit I'm not any football fan, so what?

I don't need to impress my hubs that I'm not a big fan, as he himself is not one himself too. He does bet in a few matches for thrills though. I think he lost after all these bets averaged out. Didn't bet much on it, I think it's like RM50 or so each time. Then again, a few notes of RM50 would be like so precious to me when it's lost into thin air.

We didn't subscribe to Astro channel which airs the live matches, so we had to rely on the local networks, our good ole teeveeduaaaa for the last few rounds. The signal was quite bad that it was non-apprehensible, so hubs was nagging for me to make a complain to the management office to fix it up before the semi-finals. I got it done by then, but we still didn't watch those. *shrugs*

Over the weekend at the KL hotel stay, the boys got a glimpse of the live telecast of dunno which vs. which la, and surprisingly their eyes were fixed on the game! I was thinking.. this is really kinda a boys' thing. The girl didn't have any emotions watching what was going on in the field.

So, when the last 2 matches of WC were here, korkor wanted to wake up and catch it before the next wait of another 4 years. He begged me to let him, not that I forbid, I really have no idea. I told him he can watch, that's ok with me, just don't disturb my beauty sleep. So, the boys were very excited and set the alarm for 2.30am, went to bed at 10+ on Sat night.

By the time I finished watching a movie with hubs, "17 again", btw, a nice movie to watch, if you haven't yet, I was tired and about to go to bed. Now, thinking of the consequences when the alarm rings at 2.30...

1. they would be making so much fuss and noise that I would have to be awaken too...
2. poor boys, is it good for them when they are already not having enough winks throughout the week?

I hesitated and contemplated, then I decided to do the unthinkable.

I went inside their room and cancel the alarm... oopsy..

So, the next morning, they woke up and didi had the saddest looking face. He thought korkor was greedy and selfish and didn't wake him up for the game. While korkor was scratching his head all over and came up with all sorts of possible reasons why and what happened. I went, "that's okay.. you guys were too tired..." with the most understanding expression... heh!

I guess I didn't know how much they really wanted to watch the game. Fun meh? Perhaps it's the thought of waking up in the middle of the night that excites them??!!

Anyway, last night, doing the whole round again for the finals, this time, I didn't repeat what I did. Didi even wanted to sleep TOGETHER with koko just in case. I thought that if they could really wake up and watch the game, then be it. I try to make up the lost sleep for them later.

And whaddayaknow? They really missed the game AGAIN! (ok, maybe not entirely, but...) hehe! So it's proven, with or without me messing around with the alarm, it wasn't my fault that they missed 2 god-forsaken-hours-football matches in a row.

Watch reruns la, same la...

p/s: waking didi up in the morning for school was so funny. I kept telling him to wake up to get ready for school, he didn't move an inch. Then I whispered into his ear "wake up lor, wanna watch FIFA world cup anot?", only then heard me and nodded. It was such a disappointing news to him when I said it was so over, it's time for school already actually. *grin*

An hour at the park

Today I read in the papers that KL City Hall is mulling over CCTV plan for public parks. I totally welcome this move and hoping that this would be enforced real soon, although I have no clue how effective that would be. I believe it would be better no matter how.

I love parks. It's free. It's healthy. It's no-stress. It's fun. And did I mention, it's free?

We do have some beautiful parks in Kl. We took the kids to hang around at Lake Gardens, Bukit Jalil Park and TTDI park before. But with the lack of security nowadays, those stories of daylight robberies and molestations (this one I make up one) at the parks keep haunting me. I wouldn't be so relaxed and definitely more alert of the children. It's like every few minutes, I would start looking out for the 3 of them, and the heart would be like jumping out from my body when I don't see them. Not good, not good.

But I know I need to learn to relax more. And so I try very hard.

These pictures were taken at Bukit Jalil Park some weeks ago. It's really a very nice park, we've been there for a few times and I would like to go there more often.

Come! Let's go!

Make sure your bicycle is in good working condition.

Oh, I remember. I told stories about the picnic we had in Bukit Jalil, the walk with my sil and her kids where she was lucky that evening to find a Rm50 note that day.

The boys tried to skate around here but found out it's not entirely a good place to do so. That's all the papa's idea.

Oh, look! A bruise! Nice.

Hanging for dear's life. I'm amazed of this little guy. If I were him, I already gave up on skating for a long time.

Sometimes when I am driving and listening to some catchy tunes, I would imagine I would in a group of people alike, who loves swaying their butts and flapping their hands in all directions, all in the name of fun and exercise and family bonding, having a wonderful time while sweating the stress away. That would be so fun!

Or we have a picnic on the grassland, sharing our tapau food, or homecooked food (show off!) while the kids play football, catching, badminton, frisbies. Oh! I do remember I said that in the blog once upon a time ago. And we still yet to get that moving. While the kids are getting bigger and bigger. *pout*



When you can't skate, you just get dragged.



OK, got to go to park now. See you there!

Hotel stay vouchers up for grabs.

We have hotel stay vouchers, can't use them all, so, if you are interested, let me know.

1. Le Meridien (KL Sentral), Sheraton Imperial (Jalan Sultan Ismail), Westin (Bkt Bintang), RM330 nett per night.

2. RM50 Cash Certificate Off for the 3 hotels above.

3. RM470 nett for 2 nights stay inclusive of breakfast at Le Meridien, KK, Sabah.

As these vouchers do not come FOC, there's a fee of RM20 for each (unless you are good in massaging and in exchange for a free massage)

The hot game we are playing currently

Since the arrival of the Ipod touch some weeks back, we had been engrossed in the various games applications, mostly FOC downloaded so ever conveniently.

The most addictive one is this Angry Birds, which has very cool designs and bright colors, certainly very attractive. It's mainly a simple easy game, catapulting some funky, noisy little birds for the purpose of crashing down the building in each level. When all the green cute pigs are destroyed, only the next level will be unlocked. Pretty easy, no mental calculations or rocket science knowledge to play this game. Very fun! And definitely very addictive!


As this game suits not only papa and mommy, it also does for koko, didi and meimei. So you can imagine all 5 of us fighting for it all the time. But of course, when I wanna play with it, I always get the upper hand. The Queen always have the utmost pawerrrr...

Though it brings a lot of fun and joy for us, I am more worried that it will spoil the kids' eyes when they are at it for a long long time. So, the rule imposed now is, they can only play it during weekends. Sometimes, these kids push their luck during the weekdays, but well, you just have to stay firm.

Just like an addiction, didi meanwhile, uses his imagination and creativity to get his "dose" to cure his addiction. He started building similar stuffs with his building blocks and toys like the ones in the apps with a made up catapult too. I'm quite surprised when he started doing that, and I definitely can't be stopping him playing with these toys, of course provided that he finished off his homework first.

His designs were getting better and better, and last night was a most amazing one. I didn't want to crash it down before going to bed too, very contradicting to my rule that all toys must be kept away before calling it a day. I wanted to take a picture of it but kept delaying it and was too late when the cleaner came to clean up our house.

Today was this, not as good, but he told me that this is a very tough level to pass cause some stubborn pigs are hidden inside somewhere. oh wow!



I actually prefer him to play with these blocks and legos than with my ipod touch.

Meanwhile, I'm also playing this silly game...

Planting crops of vegies or flowers, and boy! those flowers are sooo pretty. Why am I wasting time like this?

Car issue.

My car acted up yesterday in a most peculiar way. It seemed like it was almost "dead". I was wondering what happened, since 2 days ago, I was taking it for a ride and it behaved just like a good girl. Don't tell me it acted up because I didn't come over to say hi for just ONE day?!!?

Simple things like this totally irks me in the morning. Then I began to convince myself it's not a big deal and not worth pulling my whole day down because of that. After all, I wasn't stuck in a remote area without anyone in sight or I was stuck at home without any transportation either. And then I realize that my life is so simple and smooth sailing that little things like these would bother me to no end.

So I went about fetching my girl to school and my daily yoga dose. Came back home and started to work out what I need to do. But not before a guard was knocking on my door and telling me my car's alarm was ringing. I panicked a bit and quickly rush meimei in her shower and rushed down to save the distress car.

Little do I know, I can't do much with it. Tried to jump start it with someone's help, but it just didn't budge a bit at all. I supposed I can't do anything else, since the sky was getting very fury and looked like a huge thunderstorm was underway. Lucky the alarm was just not so annoying and I had to go home and find a mechanic over to see what went wrong.

I was thinking this must be a huge problem, as from past experience, even if the battery failed, it wouldn't be as "dead" as this! CK offered to come over and help me swap the batteries from the other car to it to troubleshoot, but I declined since it was really pouring and he needed to go off to his work soon. I feel really glad to have a friend like him, really.

To cut the long boring story short, it was, in the end, really the battery's fault! And I couldn't believe why it failed since I remembered it wasn't long ago that I changed to a new one.

Later towards the evening, we were on our way out for their weekly extra classes, and I thought of using that car la, since it must be missing me. Luckily so, for I found out then that the lights in it were switched on! And before I figure out who the culprit was, I assumed it was the kids who had played with it, and started nagging and grumbling and lecturing. Then while on the way, I only started to rewind the process as it really was a mystery (as what meimei put it), since I don't remember seeing them playing with those damn lights too.

Clocking slowly back to the time from the day before and then before, I finally figured out it was the smart alec who did it! I recalled he went down to the car the night then to look for something in the car and he totally forgot to switched the lights off. And the mystery of the acting up car was solved!

I called the hub who was in overseas, but knowing how stressful his business trips usually are, I didn't bark at him for giving me that inconvenience. It's just a small issue after all, and though a bit of money was spent unnecessarily for it, it's a problem with a solution, much better than a complicated one without any solutions at all.

And I thank God and him and everyone else for the good life I actually am having, that I only need to deal with small fire-fighting issues like this one.