And so...

she did have her Pooh lunch afterall (all prepared and photos taken by KZ). According to KZ, she fed herself for a short while (two 1/4 filled spoons) and then the rests has to be done by KZ.

It's the Pooh pasta she cooked with Alfredo sauce and some meat + Kamaboko + colourful jellies on top of her pasta ?? Oh my! I dunno what's she feeding my child!

Can I eat yet?

I said I am hungry, can I eat yet? Mum mum.... ah...........feed me!!

Adults are so troublesome, taking photos everytime. I will feed myself first. いただきます
The pastas

Chubby little cubby all stuffed with ............

rice.
He's Winnie The Pooh
Winnie The Pooh
Willy nilly silly old bear

Presenting her dinner! It's Pooh Day

As you can see nothing much is done here except the rice and I cut some seaweed to outline the brows, eyes, nose and mouth. Why did I have the patience? Coz' I delegated KZ to cook for me while I decorate, you say I smart or not?
The braised egg was done by mom so I can't mold it into Pooh (wouldn' be able to see it too coz' it's dark brown in colour )
Aricia asking for hers too, kept bugging us

In the end, she was seen biting the nose of this bear (couldn't snap the photo in time)

One of my stuff toy

So, what's keepin'

my iPhone? I didn't adhere to my Drool Factor #2, really nice to have one but surely I don't see a need for it - unless someone kindly gives me one.

I saw this cute $8 Winnie The Pooh pouch. Cheap and Good, will last me until I cannot resist temptation.

Half hearted lunch

Woke up late and prepared her lunch in a haste. Well, actually the fact is while I was cooking the rice, I so tenderly prepared her tea-break. Wah........got patience for such bor-liao things. Spread nutella and kaya in the bread, piped nutella on outline
Didn't want to bring out too many boxes for her, so used microwave container for her
But when it came to her lunch, I could have completed the whole train or transport theme (which I only thought of it later when I was in the car) but in actual fact I was so bloody hot in the kitchen + running out of patience *read this I was running out of patience just preparing lunch* so I practically just threw the fried egg and furikake without decorating. Buy those bento accessories also no use like that!!
Cannot, I must make an effort to do up a nice bento for her.
No! Better solution >> ask KZ to cook while I sit under the fan with my bum on the sofa and I'll bring it out to the dining table to decorate and she does the washing. Hee!

She finished everything except leaving a little of the rice. Eh.. it was alot, I cooked half cup of rice for her.

Setback #1

Even before leaving Sin, we're having problems with our bookings. All the emailing between the accomodations wasted my time. What's the problem? Card rejected. It's a nightmare!! It's not only 1 or 2 but 3 cards!

The main nightmare started when a few establishments emailed that the card is rejected. I thought the piano can't be the cause coz' it didn't use up half his limit + accomodations don't work out to more than NZD$3oo for each place (approx 2 nights in each place) so it can't be the credit limit. So I used his another card, same problem, then I used my own card - different merchant bank also cannot. Wah piang.......definitely not my credit limit lah! Those bentos stuffs don't eat into my limit.
I also feel very paiseh leh.. those people there are trying to help me by trying a few times on our cards to get rejected - they must be thinking "these are free-loaders" I don't know if we're worth their time, earning that few bucks from us and they have to work like shit over our stupid cards.
One lady so nicely explained to me that the cards must be rejected due to the microchip which some POS machines don't seem to recognize the card, once in awhile they do encounter it. So it's not our fault; neither is it theirs but the bank. Anyway, I called our banks last night. They explained "no problem with your cards and limit so how come they have problem?" Ehh.........like not helping me to solve the problem right? And all cards come with microchips now what, so even if I call the bank to change my cards it'll be back to square1. I commented to the Citibank staff "wah... their machine so backward meh?" she bursts out laughing while trying to compose her professionalism. Anyway, I did explain my worry to the staffs "if it's their machine, what happens if our cards get rejected there? Have to wash plates and work for our holidays."

Tonight I emailed back with another of hubby's non-microchip card (I wonder if anyone has much problem as we did) to various places explaining to them, and I can't believe I was joking with them :
"if not we'll have to swim across islands with floats; sleep in tents and..(to a thermal village) I wrote my 2 girls can do the pom pom and haka for you, they scream real loud."

Hubby assure me we won't run into problems there coz he can draw out cash there. Yah! He better, I want to be a tai-tai in this trip and not a laundry woman!!

お弁当 Books - cute overload! *re-post with MIDI in* - and I didn't buy these books..

キャラ弁ごっこ―おもしろ弁当大集合!!

AnPan Power!! Power up to a hard day's work ahead

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キャラクターで作ろうかわいいおべんとう

I like this not coz' of Hello Kitty but Pocaccho - that dog is my favourite character in the Sanrio family before I had Athena (now that I have 2 girls, I end up saying cute for everything)
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ネットで話題のエンターテイン弁当―決定版

Nice to look, but it's going to take a long long time to finish decorating the food. By then the flies would have laid their eggs on one part of the rice.
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かんたんお絵かきおべんとう

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サンリオキャラクターのおべんとう―子どもたちが喜ぶおべんとうのアイデアがいっぱい!

Kawaii!
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5分・10分・15分子どものお弁当―すぐできる、おいしい&かわいいレシピ!

simple but very pleasing to the eyes meal
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お子さまランチでおもてなし お絵かきレシピ

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あけてビックリお弁当玉手箱

what can I say? It's cuteness for such stuffs. Time for me to play with playdoh to practice. Haha!
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アレルギーっ子のたのしいかわいいお弁当 (単行本)

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お父さんのお弁当―手早く、上手に作る、体調にも合わせた

Don't say I only love my children. I don't mind doing this for hubby (don't expect me to do Hello Kitty or Pooh right?) - that is if we all move to Japan and I'll bento for him everyday.

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Let's hit it! Let's sing the お弁当箱の歌 song

This describes me now

My nightmare

My nightmare began in the morning. Nope, I didn't turn into Hello Kitty but rather I was woken up with the early chanting by Athena, which kept repeating over and over again (like a broken recorder). You know what she was chanting?

There's tune to it, she's got it right but it's the words that drove me up the wall.

She was "chanting" (goash! it really sounded like she was praying) to the beginning part of The Circle Of Life song that goes like this :

Ingonyama nengw' enamabala
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala

Ingonyama nengw' enamabala (Se to kwa)
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala (Asana) .............

She was saying (hope I type correctly)

Hai ya.....ya inibaba
Hai ya.....ya inibaba
and then I dunno what she sang but it was so hilarious.

Okay, that woke me up! We thought she had forgotten all about the whole song, until in the afternoon, after the short gai-gai she suddenly sang that in the car. Argh!

Is this your final choice?

"Yes, this is my final choice!" - sounds like contestant in WWTBAM

In this case, the contestant is KZ and her final decision is to >>> stay. Her mother still do not want her away from home but from the way KZ answered when I asked about her mother's reaction this time round, it didn't sound as strong-headed/teary as before.

Now that she's given me this last minute decision, I will have to quickly settle her things. She'll try to renew her passport while she's there coz it'll be cheaper (said there won't be any change in passport number - well I had to check just incase it hinders the renewal of work permit). The renewal of work permit will be quite fast + insurance (I think comes automatically with the renewal notice??). So I think it shouldn't be a problem to do it when she's back (but I don't like to leave things to last minute so I need her to be back at least 2 weeks + before her WP expires. Which means......*gasp* she needs to leave SIN in about a week's+ time. = to have to bring her down to the Embassy in the next few days to pay tax - Myanmese have to pay 10% of their monthly pay - before she's allowed to fly back. If that's not all, hubby have to tell me "hurry, hurry have to book her ticket already." Fed up lah! I have to bao-ga-liao everything. Think I dunno like that. All he does is talk!
Things to do :
1) air ticket. Should book her on SilkAir - $500+ or Jetstar - less than $200??
2) pay tax
3) she had to bug me with her nonsense stuffs. Ai yoh! Here I am trying to clear all my holiday planning by 30th - that's the deadline I set and she has to stress me further by asking me "where to buy camera? what brand to buy? what things can I buy for my family?" That ah-nia job leave it to my husband lah! I think we should switch role, I'm more like a man.

Sometimes, I wonder is it my life really so suay... I can't seem to relax awhile. Or maybe I've proven to hubby that I'm a highly capable woman who can do anything and everything except screaming and jumping whenever I see a cockroach, so he is lazy now. Well.... not that I'm praising myself but many people tell me so.

Trip to the Zoo >>

follow us to the zoo which ends up in Athena's gut!

You know what's the problem (or maybe it's not a problem, just that I am problematic troublesome) if you try to do nice-looking food at home?
:)
You end up having sparsely placed food coz' there's no nice small plate to put in it. Okay, I get the hint, I shall see if I can buy nice plain plates from Ikea.
Apparently this picture don't look pleasing to the eyes, so is the food.

Wanted to make use of the stencils but decided to change it to an ANIMAL DAY since the animals nori are about to expire. While preparing, Mr Postman came with my treasure, which has animals rice mould but I'm about to lose the interest in preparing for her, coz' I dunno what to prepare for her (too fussy! You'll be hearing this sentence from me now and then) and it's so hot in the kitchen!
Speaking of which, I used the Penguin cutter to cut the sausage.
Bad news #1 - the sausage's finished, no choice had to use the canned cocktail sausage.
And another I tried to cut the octopus. Umm.......either I'm really useless or impatient or stupid my octopus looks nice when it's still in the pot of hot oil but the moment I took it out, the tentacles couldn't open (so in this picture I laid it in between - making it look more like a 'isu')

On close up I saw the penguin face (not in this picture I was too overzealous and fried too long, so all wrinkled up when I took this picture). Notice one of my octopus is bai-ka (crippled)
Bad news #2 - egg is too small to put in egg mould.
Bad news #3 - no ketchup! Argh! Not that she eats ketchup but I need it to sautee that few animal pasta which are for decorative purposes. Can you believe it?! I have bento accessories but no Ketchup!!! I have lots of chilli though

Other than that, this meal is really too simple. I dunno why I'm so bloody thick-skin to put out my horrible work for the world to see.

Did she finish? No! She took way too long to finish this meal, finished all the furikake, nori, sausages, egg, pasta but left with 2 rice. Say I fed up or not? Stand inside in the kitchen; so bloody hot and she don't eat, citing tired-ness. Of course lah! Eat so slow... eat until her nap time.

Last parcel #5 arrived

The "last of the lot" parcel #5 is here

Notice lots of Kitty stuffs huh? Thank goodness I have 2 girls.
Note: the Pooh and Melody box are rather small, so if you've got a big appetite child, this may not be sufficient.

One last call

KZ's mother disapproved her staying for another 2 years with us. And so we were so prepared to send her back home.

Now, she requested if she can make one final call to convince her mother to let her stay.

Why the sudden change of mind? She wanted to stay with us but coz' filial piety she listens to her mother. But on the other hand, with her so used to running around the whole of Myanmar; not even spending time with her mother, she will find the opportunity gone forever if she had gone back. And then one month later the old self comes back or the mother ignores her, then she'll feel being sabotaged. I know what she means, I've already explained to her upteen times that with her certificate there's no other job she can work here except this and salesgirl. Then for salesgirl, she has to pay for her own accomodation; food; transport. End of day, she wouldn't have much savings.

So, what's the final final decision will have to wait. And... hor...... if she wants to stay, now I gotta try to settle her things. Argh! Preferably let her fly off a few days before us. Argh! Everytime give me jobs to do!! Then the husband neh?! Sleep; watch TV; play games. I forever so busy..........suay life!

Dinner is served!

She didn't know that I stocked up on Japanese foodstuffs and in the car she was asking to have udon for dinner. Who? My dear Athena lor!

Good! That kamaboko come in useful @ the right time. Simple fare.....what to expect from a fussy eater. Oh must stress this egg is the best egg - you know those that just pop out from mama hen - heard very "bu" (we gave all the 6 eggs for the children none for us adults. Poor us!)
As she was having her dinner, I was surfing the internet for more kamaboko pictures.........
Wah this is crazy! This is insane!! I want! I want! Apparently all available in Japan only, I so desperately want it - I want to fly there NOW NOW NOW!

Goash! Tonight I think I'm going to turn into a pui pui Hello Kitty who is hungry but can't eat - no mouth. Who is thirsty but can't talk who is going to die but can't talk. Oh! Such torture to live my last moments and I die! Argh! That's going to be my dreams?? nightmare??

Is that Miffy?

Ai yoh! They also have Snoopy. Goodness, what else do they have?

I stopped surfing after awhile coz' it'll only make me drool over it. So I went out to the living room and.............she didn't even eat it?!?!?! Said she don't like it now. Argh! In the end, I force her to eat one down, she's too fussy already!

No worries!

Hubby was saying that we should stock up on rice and oil for the children (I wanted to tell him petrol as well) coz' price increase and supply running low etc.... now I tell him - "No worries! Your children can find something else to eat."

Bought all these at Meidi-Ya, I went ooh ooh ah ah - well not everything but almost that I was tempted to buy alot of nonsense back home. Umm.... that's why I always burn out my Japan flights' allowances.

Non-nonsensical foodstuffs : Peko milk lollipop (I am beginning to like this girl); 1 big pack of snacks which are the childrens' favourite, 2 packs of MUG stuffs - cup noodles. The rests are AnPan Man's stuffs.

The AnPan Man power!! Actually it's my favourite not the childrens' so.......in other words I'm the idiot who introduced them to Japanese food until Athena likes to eat it so much and I swore off Japanese food when we kept going Sakae Sushi during my pregnancy. Remember??
Power Pack includes : 3 strips of snacks which I'll pack for her lunch or tea break in school. The big pack 2nd from left is potato - gotta fry it and below it is furikake. So cute! And we haven't even finish her Hello Kitty one, impulse buy?! No... coz' I'm not in the vicinity all the time what! Infact, there was another Hamtaro furikake with some Hamtaro bits inside; just like the cup noodles (below) I bought. Was so tempted to buy that, if I did Athena won't "eat more to look more like Japanese" but more like a hamster!!
The cup noodles, it's not going to be a full meal but a tea snack for them. I never like them to eat instant noodles at all, but these made me change my mind.

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The Princess Story

Last night I overheard Athena telling hubby (when they were watching "Junior Home decor survivor") "papa I also want a princess room. I want.... I want...." ( I am also beginning to sound just like her now)

When I went out of the room, she came over to me; gave me a big hug and said "mummy, can you make a princess room for me? I like it." (honestly speaking, it does look nice but it wouldn't last a child that long and not that we're so rich that we can keep changing decor in their rooms. So I will never do it to such great extent) "I like Ariel, make my room like Little Mermaid. Mei-mei is Snow White. " I replied (dunno why I like to disturb her) "Since when you like Ariel? I thought you like Belle?" "Yes, sure now I like Ariel not Belle." "Okay, since you like Ariel I ask papa bring you to the aquarium. You sleep in there coz' you're mermaid." Hee! nottie me!!

Pissed!

This could have made my day if not for the stupid idiot lazy Mr Postman who decided to drop the black and white Registered Article notice slip into the mailbox.

Will you be mad if you were me? I was in the whole day, he didn't even bother to come up to deliver the box and then expect me to go down to the post office? What is this?
Although I'm so excited and can't wait to open up this parcel but this is sheer irresponsibility!!!

Going to call the post office tomorrow, ask for them to deliver again if not I'm complaining to SingPost.

Delivered!

Nope! Not my big "gold nugget" from Mr Postman. But my "diamond mine" from Mr Yamaha. Delivered this morning at 10+ when I was still in Zzzz-land. My lil' prodigy (the next Mozart - somemore she's so small size like he is) one is trying out the piano. Cute to see her little hands pressing all the keys and she loves it. Which kid wouldn't anyway? Now my house looks like a music school. Yay! Maybe once I finish my illegal business of printing flashcards, I can start my illegal business of teaching kids from home - and play trash music?? Hey!! That's music you know............

One hour later, Mr EDventure came with the books I bought the other day. Goash! No more spending $$$, with everything rising I better stay @ home & bento for myself (and do online shopping instead???).

Wednesdays

I look forward to every Wednesdays >
Come Wednesdays I'll drop my 'illegal business' (one day of not printing flashcards won't kill me)
Come Wednesdays I'll forgo my home session with Aricia and make it up the next day
Come Wednesdays my gossip juices all flow out, talk until throat sore; laugh until stomach pain
Come Wednesdays is my rest day away from kids (until night time)
I need this to keep myself sane. (toilets check every 10 mins, this is sanity check every mid-week)

Great to have 2 of us meeting up; trying to lose weight (I dunno what weight she's trying to lose... always try to 'suan' me. Never mind, next Bodycombat class, I pretend accidentally kick her; punch her. Hahaha!)

She arranged for one of our batchgirl to meet up with us amidst her busy flying schedule.

It's really great to see Emily, the mei-nu in our class, still as pretty as ever. We catch up; laughed.. Ooh! Those were the good ole' days and I must be the stupid one to sit infront lah! Must have missed out alot of jokes in class. We need to have a reunion, get the big hint Moo Han?

A few photos of our beloved batch and our Papa Tan

That's me with my long hair. I changed hairstyle from short to long to bob to long to short when I was flying. Photos of LSS - Leading Stewardess training. Wah..........another torturing months of "trying to keep awake in class." Me in my green uniform - which somehow made me look very old. I heard that most of them are mothers now, I must try to get the girls to meet one day.
Goash! I was so skinny then!!
* Apparently I was told we're not allowed to post photos of the company's uniforms on websites and I even told another girl about it. But I've seen it done before by others so decide to try it out. If not, I'll bring down the photos. *

Here's looking forward to our next reunion.

Argh!

I'm just not technie savvy, I am having problem with the iPhone.

First hubby had to ask his IT staff to help me him do something coz' apparently it's all dunno what US software or dunno what when he first bought it.
Then yesterday I had problem syncronizing the phone, it just doesn't acknowledge the presence of the phone. The efficient husband today helped to ask his IT staff and he brought back a software in a thumbdrive. Somehow I managed to see the 'Sync' and then dunno what Update software or Restore icon came up..... and now my SIM card is not recognised. What the heck did I hit? Damn! Shit!

Fed up, tomorrow ask hubby to bring my phone to the office and see what to do. This wife so problematic. Hubby surprised me by giving me this phone and I gave him more jobs to do.

If only they make life easy like my current Nokia 6300, where I'll just take out the card and slot in USB adaptor and bring files (pictures & music) over. Okay better don't complain otherwise next time hubby don't buy me anything.

Parcel #2 & more

Frightened the shit out of my dear Mr Postman. He saw the big smile on my face like I was expecting a parcel of gold nugget and said "wah.. you're so happy huh?" Of course lah! Press the doorbell at this odd time is not from Yamaha so must be Mr Postman (ooh.... I love you Mr Postman)

My "gold nuggets"
Treasure consists of : 2 bento boxes-1 comes with a chopstick , 1 modern neko (cat) oshibori cloth, 3 dividers, my favourite AnPan man rice mould, 2 stencils for furikake, 1 food pick
Don't know what prompted me to open the letterbox prior to picking Athena up and one small box was inside. Small to fit our letter box but big enough to make me happy. Yay! As I went back home, another one was found. Eureka! 3 in a day, sure made me triple-tripity happy. (actually another postman came to deliver the letters, and he was late + he was slow - maybe newcomer that's why)
These are from the small box : 3 food picks, 1 divider, 2 sausage cutter
These last 2 are from the smaller plastic packed. 2 food picks to match with my dividers. So hiao....
And so I calculated the number of parcel wrongly. I am still expecting the largest 'gold nugget', which should arrive in 1-2 more weeks?? I think, I hope! Err......I think I over purchased? Not my fault leh.....my mouse simply auto-click leh!

Wah......I tell you if Athena's school serve us a notice to close the school for 10 days, NO PROBLEM! I just do this everyday for her until I die. Everyday change pattern surely not sian!

Cried!

When I brought Athena for her Berries class last Monday, she cried when we were outside her classroom. Kept hugging me and saying "I want mummy... I want mummy..."

Yesterday, she was alright in the car talking and laughing. Suddenly she stopped and told me "mummy, you can stop my bai-li-guo class already. Then put me back for violin." Huh?? I explained that I'm not stopping her for this class coz' this is for academic purposes, which whatever logical and sensible reply I gave her was not comprehendable. Started crying in the car all the way to her class. Her reason was "because you so long never stop me for the class." I don't understand what she was saying.

Thinking back, this is what Master Tan did say about her, she likes to do things halfway. Probably the excitement for this class wears down within 3 months, just like anything will wear down after 3 months for her. Argh! It did please me when I heard her interest back in violin... but is it going to be for another 3 months?

What happened after that, teacher saw me trying to glance in but was so afraid to show my face just incase she wail out louder. A few times she actioned "ok". She came out twice with another teacher, I think trying to get the reassurance that I was there. Of course I'm always there waiting for her, I have things to do (maximise my time).
End of lesson, she was the first to walk out of the class and she was smiling. Apparently teacher said she stopped after some time when she was given a task to do. Distracting to the class? Of course! Dunno if she felt malu or not.

Lil' girl

17th April 2008

Videos to entertain you :
Aricia dancing part 1

Aricia dancing part 2

Aricia dancing part 3

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18th April

Video :