Invited!

We had a great pleasure of being invited over to J's house, to get our 3 kids together for play & for the mothers to gossip. You'd be surprised how much S and I managed to catch up, usually she'll rush off to do her errands after she brings J for her class. We should do this more often for the mummies' friendship and the childrens' friendship. Photos (not much coz' was busy talking)

So fast?

Athena came home with 2 booklets of Catholic Welfare Tickets. So fast?!?!

I bought one booklet from her, and asked her to try to solicit for business for the next booklet. She stared at me with pouted lips (she was hoping that I'd help her buy everything). Nope! Still have more to come in the year/s to come.

And to make sure she don't "spend the money", I put them in a ziploc bag.

She looks blur, dunno what the heck is going on. But oh well, she'll get the hang of it.

Funny!

On Wednesday, Athena told me "mummy, I am the monitor and leader." My reaction was rather sacrastic. I didn't say anything but laughed. I thought "huh, her quality also can be a monitor?" I know you'll say I think too negative of her. Well.........I know my daughter better than anyone, so I was surprised with her ah-nia-nia quality she still can be a monitor?!?! But nonetheless proud of her lor..her mother wasn't even a monitor at all! Then I started my preaching about how her teacher must have liked certain qualities of hers to select her so she must prove that she do a good job etc....

She was so proud of it and then I called to tell my family. Later in the night, after we got back home. Hubby asked her and her reply was "yah....until this Friday." ?!?!?!?

Friday? That means the monitor takes turns? Wah! Make me preach to her for nothing!!

A

A, is my secondary school classmate and I met her today. We were talking about our school days (she was from IJ Katong Pri) and she mentioned she had a fun time in school too.

You should see her reaction when we both went to fetch Athena. The moment we were at the main street, her feelings were aroused and she brought out her camera to take pics of the school. I can understand how she feels when she kept asking me "can go in? can go into the school?" Then when she saw the school uniform......... ha! should tell her to quickly give birth to a daughter.

Thoughts

It's 9.12am now and here I am hoarding a 4 seater table in Macs trying to complete the long-winded 三字经 (Three Character Classic) flashcards.(apparently Athena was taught this in N2 or was it K1 so I hope to teach Aricia.)
It's the second time I'm doing flashcards here, I think they will start recognizing my face n kick me out the next time they see me. I see a Wireless@sg logo right infront of me. Maybe next time I shall try to bring my lappie n use their plug? Allowed? Afterwards *poomf* whole Macs blackout?!?! I get my pix plastered in all Macs across the island. *instant fame*

All the rubbish talks, its interesting to see what happens on weekday mornings (when all the while I had been lazing in bed for so many years at this time). I see ah-mas n ah-gongs exercising and then they come into Macs. Here in Macs, I see people from all walks of life except young children/toddlers who are either in school or at home sleeping. Students gossiping; students doing their work chats. Next to my table is a group of JC students from TJ and VJ. They talked about childish things (well not childish to them). They sounded so young and innocent and I feel so old....and I am only 33 *gasp* 34 this year!!!! Shit! Hitting mid 30s soon.....

Mind wondering about now as I am wasting time to meet A later.
>> I wonder if next time my children will also pontang school without our knowledge??
>> Recalling my old school days I am thankful that I have two girls in walking through the same "those wonderful days I had". (I'm not going to talk about my 'kept pontang-ing 1st 3 months attachment' where we could hardly hear what the A. Math teacher was talking about. Where I struggled with my hopeless Chinese, where I almost hated GP until one paper we did was about our Education System - oh boy! I really wrote well for that paper of mine - was very critical about it. Haha! And I decided that although my grades permitted me to go JC, I refused to go in to suffer and probably fail.)

Beginning with my secondary school in KC. (though I hope my childrens' grades will put them in a better secondary school) We always have Book n Music Week, which probably explains why the school nurtured so many successful journalists, newscasters, TV artistes. And of course not forgetting the people who really stands out are the best actresses of them all - the Singapore Girls. Yes, I mean our SQ girls. You'd be surprised too how many KC girls there are inside.
In school, I was in the school choir - soprano ( so that's where I got my 长 气 and loud voice from) so we also had to put up performances. We were involved with SYFs too! Can be enjoyable coz we have the excuse to skip lessons for rehearsals etc...

At one year too, we had this mass IJ school performance (think it was for SYF?) where all the IJ schools come together in a performance. With that huge amount of students, it was a massive performance of fairies. I think it must be awesome for the spectators. We couldn't see it, we just ran in when it's our turn. And I really wonder how I managed to see... we had to go spectacle-less and I was as blind as a bat!! Lucky thing I didn't trip and fall.

We have mass twice a term, or was it once? After being exposed to masses for so many years, i know the sequence n of course hubby was surprised when I knew what to respond, I only don't receive communion otherwise I can be mistaken for a Roman Catholic. Then it also means I have perfected doing the 'sign of the cross' it will take some time for Athena to do it properly too. Now its hilarious to see her poking herself everywhere. When it came to mass, I like it coz I'll be singing to my hearts content or talking.

We clean up our classroom before the last month-long term starts.

We didn't have lockers until I think it was my last year, n its not 1 for 1. Can't really recall how those people got it. Pay $? We can't leave textbooks inside lockers coz the teachers do spot-checks. We left our books under the table (I think the teachers knew n closed one eye). For me, I'll do my homework in class while waiting for the next teacher to come in n leave it there. My schoolbag is really light. Once there was a surprise spot check going on during recess time. Good thing some of us hang around in the classroom at that time, our classmate the Vice Head Prefect came in to tell us. Wah piang eh..... Everyone panicked like crazy, help to throw ours and the rests of the classmates' books somewhere and everywhere. And boy! We had a hard time retrieving it later. Some came back blur didn't know what happened but we were really united if u think back.
And I remember too we had to change to PE T-shirt when it's PE time and change back to our blouse after our PE. We'd close the doors and draw the blinds. We all mastered the art of stripping quickly. Once dunno which idiot classmate screamed "ahh...man!" We all screamed. Siao eh! I don't think it was the man (cleaner or teacher) deliberately looking at us.

Celebrations : All work n no play makes Jills dull girls. We seem to celebrate this and that. And I love Teachers Day, we put up performances for teachers. In return our teachers performed hilarious skits for us. We had Mrs Norris (God bless her soul) who is really good, and we had male teachers exposing their hairy legs donning funny costumes. Oh my! We had the most sporting teachers! Wolf whistles and all, real boisterous lot of KC girls.

Haunted stories? I don't think there was any coz' we were in the new premises.

2.4km run : Run around the place and hopefully spot for any handsome VJC boy. Hahaha! And I don't know what "hide in the bushes" thing some girls in Facebook were talking about. Duh! How come I don't know?!?! Stupid me run the whole 2.4km until shorts dropping; hair dropping; panting like siao!

Ohhhh!!! How can I forget this!! The famous lovebirds of KC girls and St Pat's boys and the LOVE BRIDGE. Whoever started this stupid naming?! I hardly used that bus-stop coz' it's really crowded. I'd walk to the other " No love at all bridge" bus stop, better chance of me getting on the bus.

Many things to share; too much to write here.

***********************************************

On to Primary School, it was on that steep hill up Jln Khairrudin. Every morning I worry for my dear life when we have to go down that steep slope down from Siglap Road, it's like SFO's Lombard Street. Down and up the hill, every day we go through roller coaster ride.
There's a roundabout we have to go through which is lined with frangipani trees. And then kids starts telling ghost stories about pontianaks appearing next to frangipani trees etc... sometimes I am forced by mom to alight there instead of the main area and oh boy! if I am in the morning session.. I started saying Hail Mary even though I'm not Catholic and start running for my dear life.
That building is old and spooky and maybe those ghost stories were made up, but even if it is fake - the spookiness of the building was scary enough. Freak! We seem to have ghost everywhere (kids just tell stories) - the music room; the toilets; the field; the ...??? We're practically studying alongside ghosts. The scaredy cat me tried to wait for someone to raise her hand for permission to go toilet and I'll try to go. If I can't hold, I make a dash in/out of the toilet. Didn't even dare to look into the mirror. So now I don't even want to tell Athena about any ghost stories for fear that she'll not want to go toilet alone.

I had my books flung out of the windows eh.... dunno how many times. Geez... I think the teachers are not allowed to do that now. (And FYI the teacher who did that is still teaching in the school).

I wasn't a class monitor (how to be when my books fly out of window?) but I was a responsible cleaner! Every day my mom comes to pick me up from school, I'd run out to her to tell her to wait for me coz' I have to sweep the floor; throw the rubbish away. Then she'd ask "how come it's always you." Ahem.. yup sometimes I'm rostered sometimes not but... think about it I was really honest (dunno how to run away from duties) and responsible. And so this time round, when Athena came to tell me on Wednesday that she's a monitor and leader, I told mom & mom's response was "is she going to clean the classroom too?" I bursts out laughing.

Yah yah not a monitor but I was a librarian. And the teacher in charge is Ms Rabot (still teaching). I remember how this friend and myself would go "Sshh....silence please" when our voice is louder than the students in the library. Fun! It was real fun. Stamping the date to return on a slip of paper in the front page of the book, take out a card from it and slot it in the students' card holder and place it in the library folder. Stamp and stamp, this time round also stamp and stamp. ( stamp "Excellent" , "Good Job" etc.. in her assessment books)

During recess time, I love to hang around the bookshop (which I'm sure Athena does that sometimes too..otherwise how can she ask me for increase in allowance at 2nd week) and see/touch the erasers; pencils etc.. Other than that, it was off to play zero-point, yeh-yeh, five stones, run in the huge field (only to have some stupid idiot screaming "Japanese soldiers" and we run back screaming.) or sometimes we can gather the twigs and make a house for ourselves on the ground.

There's also the time we all have to squat infront of the long drain to brush our teeth. And once in a while we have to pop the red colour tablet (I hated that so I always bring it back home for my sister) into our mouth.

Performance :
Once we had a celebration for ?? maybe it was our School Anniversary? All of us had to put up performances, if I'm not mistaken I was P3. And I was doing a coconut dance. Whole time dance at home (so excited mah!) until I break the coconut. And then mom had to go to the market to get another coconut shell for me and did the painting for me.
On the night of the performance (note it was night time), we had to dance barefooted and it had rained earlier. So the field was wet and soggy - yucks! Once we finish our performance we had to leave the field by running to the end of the field and go up the walkway, so the next performance can come in. Some children were screaming "eekkks...worms worms." And all of us were scared and making alot of noise, and also we knew we were nearing the end of the field. And the break came when some stupid idiot child screamed "Japanese soldiers!!" That was it, we all screamed even louder and ran like siao. Quite a mayhem but it's really funny when I think back.

Donations :
We always have to sell things to raise funds. Catholic Welfare tickets, paper weights and dunno what nots. I wasn't good in money, or should I say I was rather forgetful. Everytime I get payment for the sale, I put the money somewhere and then forgot about it. One fine day, dig my pocket and then happy like crazy, tell mom "mummy, you see I found money." And then I went to spend it away. Ha! Guess who had to top up the money for me. I must teach Athena how to handle when the time comes, I don't want to top up the $$ for her.

I had such fun time in school and now that Athena tells me she loves school, I am :
1) relieved. No worries of a clinging girl clinging on my fat thighs, pulling my blouse
2) happy. Coz' I'm sure she'll tell her children next time how much her school brings her fond memories.

I'm tagging Mel & Yvonne!!

Sick Tooth-Fairy!

During a tussle with KZ, Athena playfully dropped her head to the cushion and out pop her tooth. The tooth that was hanging for 'dear life'. OMG! She cried so loud I thought she bumped her head or had her finger chopped off. It was that dramatic!

In the night, I asked hubby to help to put the $$ under her pillow. I was too tired to move, I had been having diarrhoea since Tuesday so was so weak. His question was "how about the letter?" Wah.......I'm so tired how to type??

This morning, she didn't look under her pillow. It was only in the evening that she showed me the $10. When we asked if there's any letter, she said "Maybe she was rushing off for her meal, so she didn't have time to write me a letter." ???? Whatever her excuse for the tooth-fairy aka me (the lao-sai tooth fairy), she believes in tooth-fairy. As what F told me, it's good that you continued this make believe, don't kill the thrill; never tell the truth to your child. They have told their children that Santa don't exist and now that she wants to relive the childish fantasy Santa Claus with their children; only to be snapped off "don't be ridiculous mummy. There's no Santa."

Would you continue a make-believe for your child for long?

CNY

Day 1
Left the house at 12pm for PILs place. As usual they're entertained by lil' girl.

Then we headed to mom's place, not before dropping by Marina (River Hongbao - only to see it closed). Nah! Hot sun .....

Too tired to blog more, photos will do the talking. Aricia was so funny, everytime she receives an angpow, she'd come to us and ask us to open her bag (hanging around her neck). She refuses to remove it too!

Day 2
Spent the time with Athena on the piano, doing her work. Ex-colleague dropped by for a visit. I haven't seen her 2 girls for so long, almost couldn't recognize them. So sweet of them to pai-nian.

My parents came by, as usual. Very comical... it's like a tradition thing too that my family will come over to pai-nian with me (not that I've fantastic NY goodies for them)
The children played, can't do much too coz' it's working day/school day the next day.
Hmm........in the afternoon, hubby told me he actually took one day off tomorrow but then he needs to be back in the office and now he has some meeting .... "tao yan, my leave wasted!" Actually poor thing, I noticed he was working over the weekend.

Aricia

The cutesy lil' girl likes to imitate her sister. This afternoon, they were watching しちだの森de wakuwaku 右脳ウ while eating and when the song came on, they started shaking their head from left to right and vv. Comical!

She's been very naughty lately too! She's been throwing things all the time. Argh! Telling her to stop; smacking her hands etc...doesn't seem to help. As what KZ says of her 'precious one',"she not stupid, she very smart. Go one time can recognize place very well. She understand everything but how come she don't understand 'cannot throw' this word?" Yah....I fully agree with KZ.

Home session - I'm so proud of her. When I tried 10 cards with her last year for LM, she flipped the cards all over the place and didn't want to pay attention. I started to get a little worried, thinking it might take her 'many months before she finally realise she has to do 10 instead of 6', by then she'll be close to 3 yrs old. Then these days she proved to me that she can do it, but I must admit she does get a little confuse coz' I'm doing 2 different sets of stories with her. But once she hears the start of the story, she knows.

I don't know what to say about her speech. She's speaking well but she's not pronouncing her words well for me. Argh!!!! Today, she showed daddy how to turn on the computer (he's surprised) and then guess what my girl said? "Window!" and pointed to the icon. Haha! He was even more surprised that she recognizes the word.

Our Reunion Dinner - counted?

Collected our dinner from Crystal Jade at TM in the afternoon. This year, my PILs won't be coming over to our place for dinner so we had our own reunion dinner.... with my mom and brother one day early at mom's place. Haha!
Ordered 金装鲍鱼盆菜组合 Golden Reunion Package for ourselves. When hubby showed me the brochure the previous week before (when we were there for lunch), he pointed to me "we should order this. No need to cook.." I didn't pay attention to what was inside coz' I was more interested in the Treasure Pot Mixed Fruit Cake and Prosperous Cupcakes. But I did notice it was for 10 pax and we don't even have 10 pax?!?! He said we can keep it for days to eat.

After we collected the food, he suggested going over to mom's place for dinner there so more people can help to finish the food. Huh! What more people? Only mom and brother are at home at that time.
When mom saw the food, she mentioned something about "this is 盆菜." I had no idea what it is (yah...I didn 't pay attention to the brochure), I just said "it's claypot what?!" Dumb bimbo's talking!!

Later on, I came across an article in Xinmin Ribao on 盆菜 and the meaning :

十全十美 (completely perfect)
美美满满 (blissful)
团团圆圆 (reunion)
盆满生意兴隆 (prosperous/thriving business)

金装鲍鱼盆菜

The Meat Platter

FOC : Fish gao (x2)

Che-che who just stared at the thing..

After our dinner, we proceeded to Giant to do our shopping. Our grocery-shopping for the week. Ai doh........I'm just not in any mood for CNY this year. (Firstly, I didn't decorate the house as red as possible. I bought this "discounted" Mickey Mouse banner and another Mickey & Minnie Mouse holding onto two scrolls with words on it. It was probably discounted coz' Year of The Rat is coming to an end, they will have to wait for another 12 years to bring it up ...but by then the design is old-fashioned already. I bought it coz' my children liked Mickey Mouse and you can imagine their excitement when they saw it, and started singing the Mickey Club House song. Secondly, I didn't have the time to do shopping for the kids. I will let them wear the clothes they received from mom for Xmas. Thirdly, we didn't even buy any NY goodies until hubby came home with 3 containers of goodies + my 2 bakes. Every year we end up with alot of wastage and discard them so didn't bother to buy any. Didn't even bother to buy BBQ pork, we don't fancy that so much now that we're older.) We don't really know how to cook food with auspicious meanings, so what's the use of buying fish maw or oyster or ...? In the first place, I don't even eat those stuffs!! So our shopping is really grocery-shopping for the week lor! CNY's a time for us to relax at home..

It's close to midnight and I'm printing some things, trying to save space on the lappie. Hubby just left for his friend's house for some card games. A tradition they've been doing for so many years, only once it was held at our place. That time Athena was still small.....I used to join them for 2 years until I found it difficult to bring her along with us and preferred to stay at home. And I didn't even watch the countdown!!

Happy New Year to all!!

Phew!

This week Ah-nia is not as teary... all because of bribery. I hope I don't give her the wrong message but I shall work on her 'too much emotions' slowly.
After a long long long time of coaxing which turned to almost 'want to explode' on my part - coz' I kept asking her the reason and I will try to work on it but she simply refuse to open her mouth. She finally did when KZ intervened. Her reason was "I am very tired."
Being very defensive and argumentative myself, I cited her reasons for tired is ridiculous. Coz' at 5pm every other day she is so wide awake and playing and she's unusually tired on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Nevertheless, I try to work out something.

Wednesday :
I gave her little work to do, and asked her to rest. She was still playing and I gave her a warning that she has no excuse to complain that she's tired later on. She continued her light playing and then we left the house.
I bought her something to bribe her - a Hello Kitty make up set from Watsons - and I will only give it to her if she didn't cry.
It worked! She went in to the classroom by herself.

Thursday :
I asked KZ to help me pack easy lunch for Athena so that I can let her eat in the car without any spillage (no soupy dish). So she spent the time eating in the car, didn't have the appetite to finish everything so I left it at that.
When I reached HHub, all I did was to feed Aricia her lunch, she refused to eat during the 1hr wait for Athena so I let her sleep.
Gave Athena light work to do (again), and then gave instructions for her to take a nap. If she choose to run around the school again playing (like what she did for 2 weeks), she has no excuse again later on for being tired coz' I'm giving her the chance to rest which I normally won't.
When I came out from the class, I saw one girl sprawled on 4 chairs in the main lobby area. Haha! Imagine, she'll be doing this throughout.
Asked her to rest in the car which she didn't. Choose to look at things outside .. buay tahan her.
Bought her her favourite bubble tea which I'll let her drink after her class "provided you don't cry" and showed her something else I bought for her.
She almost cried, and hugged on to me. Didn't want to go in but it's definitely not as bad as before.

I hope this method works!!

Guilt stricken

Goash! I can never forgive myself!! I've neglected mei-mei.

I brought her in to school a little later today coz' I brought her around for a walk and exploring the place before going up to her school. The time was close to 8am and I saw one boy in the traditional costume, commented "so cute......." looked at teachers who are dressed up as well. Oh no! Teacher Rin said they're suppose to come in traditional costume and further added, "I left a note in the journal......." Obviously I didn't read, I was too engrossed with Athena's journal and making sure her schoolbag is packed; homework done; revision done etc..... I DIDN'T EVEN FLIP ARICIA'S JOURNAL SINCE WEEK 2!!!! Argh!

Ignore it or try to make up to her. I decided to make it up to her, though she may not understand or feel awkward being the odd one out but I'm so guilty for not paying much attention to her. *sob sob* And lately, I don't even have time to celebrate both childrens' monthly birth-month. Two days ago I suddenly remembered and exclaimed "yesterday's 19th?? I forgot about mei-mei's birth month." It was unintentional and because of that I thought I had better try to make things alright for her.
I called KZ to pack the clothes for me, not new clothes but che-che's old dress. Headed towards KPE and was caught in jam. With jam on both sides, it took me close to an hour to head back to school. But I don't feel so guilty anymore.

The sweet thing she said to me when she saw me "mummy, nice nice (points to her dress). Kool Bag 2 oleng (orange)"

Emotional & rubbish talk

I was surprised when I received 2 calls from S (J's mummy) and 2 "mummy, nobody there" messages. Called her back almost an hour later.

When I checked with S on J's sudden desire to call and talk to A today, she said she was getting emotional after watching the graduation video. And she bugged her mummy to call almost everyone in her class.

Funny to hear the 2 of them talking on Tuesday night (when I thought they could have chatted tomorrow, which is today before their music lesson), I have one monosyllabic girl who didn't seem eager to talk coz' she was probably fed-up with her mei-mei prior to the call.Well, at least J is highly EQ. I worry about A, she has slight traits from her daddy.

We all know that bringing up children is not only on feeding and changing diapers. Like every parent, I want my child to grow up to be a smart child (in all areas - IQ, EQ, CQ and dunno what other Qs). Naturally I nag at her more often. I have been helping her to bring her friendship with all her friends closer by organising playdates, suggested to her to buy something for her buddy for her help. At least now, she has an older friend in school. I am not finding excuses for her indifferent attitude when she picked up the phone, I hope it's the reason stated above and not coz' she's insensitive. Well, at least I know J is highly EQ.

That reminded me what happened to my girl on Sunday. She woke up from the wrong side of the bed and was sulking at everything, locked herself in the room, lie down on the floor and throwing tantrums. Very emotional
She went on doing that for the next 7-8hrs and I ignored her.And next minute I knew she got tired from sulking the whole time and fell asleep on the floor, with her legs sticking up and her lying on her tummy. Wah.............

And then I have another emotional younger girl, whom I didn't bade a proper goodbye before leaving the house. After I went out, she turned to look at KZ (all these are by KZ) and said "mummy bye bye....(pause) Ah Yet (runs to phone) call mummy.......mummy bye bye..call call phone........(bursts out crying inconsolable).
I was sad to hear about that but happy too that she missed me

Loves school
Keeps talking about her classmates to me; keeps singing her school song (which I kept correcting her the words and she keeps insisting that she's correct) wrongly; keeps singing hymns until she got so confused with the song "Shine Jesus Shine", she started singing "Fly Jesus Fly" - I burst out laughing while driving. And the funny thing is she was trying to make the sign of the cross "In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" - she got all her words jumbled up and funnier, she "tok tok" her fingers everywhere (like Chinese martial arts freeze/still action they show on TV) with her left hand???
I'm going to leave that correction job to SIL

Loves to do assessment books
Can you believe it? I was in Popular looking at books and she asked me to get her more books to do. Good to hear that she love to do assessment books but ........ there's a limit to it and I'm the one who sets the limit.(Ha!)

I can leave her alone to do her Chinese assessment books, seems like she's stronger in Chinese (of course lah! Attends Berries). So, on days when she's unsupervised (eg. Mondays and Thursdays), I can leave her alone.
English? Depends on which book she's doing. If she's doing Composition & Comprehension, she does need help sometimes.
Maths? Although I keep harping on her "18-12 = 12" silly mistake, I think she's quite alright with her Maths (but of course must admit when I see the silly mistakes she makes, makes me want to strangle her and say "why you didn't pay attention to mummy?") And to think that I've also coached her on the P1 syllabus, which is almost the same as K2's using the WOL books and other materials, I think I can relax this year. (during the Parents' Talk, they mention about parents should try a little with some revision at home for Maths. I looked at hubby and told him "I covered last year so I can take a break this year already.")

Today, she declared to me "Mummy, I love Maths." - which I am happy to hear. Serious! You gotta love Maths to excel in Maths and Maths needs alot of practice. And why am I happy?? Coz' yours truly was an A1 student in Maths and Accounts - I was good in figures until I lost my 'figure' now naturally I hope she'll be in the same shoes. But I hope my daughters will be far more successful than I am - better don't be a lazy bummer like me.


Parents' Talk
At the Parents' Talk last Friday, had a better understanding of the various subjects' syllabus. And I don't even know what small flashcards they're talking about for Chinese. I don't have that! But maybe my GD cards are far much better. Hmm......logged to check on the titles and will check with Popular tomorrow. I have this urge of getting her the Higher Chinese textbooks for home use - I think I'm over-dosaging her!
And they have the CL banding after CT1-mock exam in Term 2. 7 classes thereafter for CL .For the best students, the first 2 classes will cover both Core (核心)and Enrichment. (深广) The next group of better students, 4 classes will cover Core (核心) and the weaker students in one class will cover Bridging (导入) and Core (核心). She better be in the best class! Now I'm telling her that she has to study hard to be the Top 3 students. Call me crazy but at least I'm being really honest here.
I think before she goes crazy with the pressure I'm putting on her, I'll go crazy myself.
English - must cultivate good reading habits with her. Imagine me bringing two kids to the library....end up screaming at the two kids; leave the library sore and frustrated.

Bribery
She had always wanted a make-up set, the surprise gift - Hello Kitty make-up- came from me today with the condition that she should not cry when she goes in for her music class. She didn't though acted a little unwilling and kept telling me "to wait for me outside". Ehh........I left for a drink with J. Oh please, I hope I don't end up bribing her every lesson. I'll go really broke + Toothfairy should be 'making her trip soon'.
Heng ah....I'm so worried if she'll cry. Mr Cane gets to stay where he is (hanging by the window grilles)
Brace myself for tomorrow, as I try to make some slight adjustments so she won't C-R-Y

The smell is kickin' in

Is there such a thing that pineapple tart tastes better the next day?

The tarts didn't seem to taste nice to me that day, but yesterday I tried again, I get the nice buttery taste. Ooh........can start a business. Hee!

CNY Baking 2

Tried mom's 'estimated measurement' kueh bangkit. Guess how good is her estimation - 两粒 coconut. And when I asked her how big is it?? The answer I get is 你自己看. Never mind, I am prepared for disaster.

Mistake 1 : I was too distracted by the children making too much noise at home that I continued pouring the coconut into the mixture and then it gets too liquidy. Argh! I thought mom used alot of coconut coz' she always tell me she never stinge on ingredients to get good taste *blah blah*.... So I had to re-fry another portion of flour. Frying the flour was easier than I thought, but with this 'hair ka hair qiu (in dialect) tor qui (left handed)' girl who hardly lifts a ladle to cook... I get flour on the stove area, table top etc.. so probably the flour proportion is wrong already.Hee! Don't laugh... anyway I think you would if you were present.

Mistake 2 : Just couldn't get that pandan taste in the flour. Mom thought I put in too little pandan leaves, but I put in alot. Maybe mom fried the whole pot of pandan in last time? And she didn't want me to surpass her skills?????

My disastrous work using the cutters meant for bento-ing

With the first tray successful in looks, so-so in taste (no pandan taste) despite me tweaking mom's recipe. I went on doing Pooh and HK for the children.






I still have around 220g of flour left, I will try again coz' I'm so close to getting the smell (I think). Texture wise it's the same.

成功 or 失败 ?

half 成功

The life of a Camper

I hate camping! I hate the outdoor! And guess what my life is all about now? Camping! Every day I camp, not good for my reputation as a tai-tai wannabe. Now as I am posting this entry, I'm camping out.(thank God for IPhone that I can go into Internet ,now cannot curse and swear over this phone.... Luvvvv this phone. smooch)

My life - Everyday I drop Athena in school at 7.15am. After that I go over to Aricia's school. Most of the time I will stop the car somewhere first, so she can nap longer or spend some time playing with her. If she's napping, I'll be doing my things. Once I drop her in at around 7.35-7.40 on most days or later(depends). The rest of the time till 12pm is my free time. Running errand not forgetting the time the mall opens around 10.45-11am, reminds me that my dreams of being a tai-tai shopping or pampering myself was just bullshitting. Truth is how the heck am I going to go for facial which is 2 1/2 hrs with my beautician in Simei and be able to pick Ari?? Shopping I managed so far just covering 2 shops and that's about it. I'm such a pro in camping out that I bring things out to do,optimising precious time.(how I wish I could bring my lappie out with me and prepare flashcards. N all I need to do is to print at home. But no......no Internet connection n before I worry about Internet, gotta think where to charge my battery-old lappie battery life short) I've tried pasting papers on flashcards in the car, only to have the clumsy me struggling in the small work area-my seat. Gave up and went to MacD, hogged a seat for 2hrs and completed everything, went window shopping thereafter.

I can also gym, which I will resume back in Feb. Nowadays I do head back home more often coz I am trying to do some housekeeping in my lappie, post the children's outdated blog entries, print Ari's things. By then 3 hours is up ( very short)and I leave house to pick Ari up at 12.15-12.25pm.

Camping starts again!! Normally in the morning, KZ helps me pack snacks like bread, bun for the children. I pick Ari up, and immediately now she asks me for "bread bread", eats with the HK tray table. I drive to nearby MSCP to hide out. I drive by Marine Parade Rd n sees cars lining up the side gate as early as 12.25pm under the hot sun. I wonder if they ever left their engine running- I don't! Wasting $ n supposedly sometimes I do close my eyes for 15mins , I worry if I'll oversleep n die of Carbon monoxide inhalation and....its so hot out there! I must hide out coz I do have to think of Ari.
Like clock, she finishes her snack n asks for pacifier. I dont even have to count to 20, she's already in her kuningland. Then free time for me, i keep myself occupied. At 1.30pm sharp (10mins more) I start my engine n pick Ath up. She snacks in car, we head back home and that's another story which I live to tell complain.

I thought with the children in school, I should be able to accomplish alot. But fact is, no. I get busy with the kids till they sleep. Then I go online n before I can really print things hubby wants to sleep. So i end up bookmarking more ideas for materials while still struggling to do housekeeping n end up not printing much. I can't sleep early, tried but can't but end up insufficient sleep.Most times before the lappie auto shutdown, my brain shuts. End up with sleepless nights (insomnia) n exhaustion. Shucks! Maybe I may need to take a short hiatus to blogging... U think I can do it?

Ok, time's up. I've spent my "camping time" on blogging today.

CNY baking

Spoke to mom a few days ago about baking her "tasty and wholesome Pineapple Tart". When asked for recipe... she could only tell me a little, then told me that she estimated the ingredients. "pinch here, pinch there." Huh?

Maybe she is trying to hide her recipe leh........ she makes nice teochew kueh, carrot cake, yam cake, nonya dumpling, pineapple tart, kueh bangkit, 卤汤 (something like kueh chap) etc... she makes really nice food. I don't say it coz' I've grown accustomed to her cooking but it's coz' she puts in lots of good stuffs inside, sometimes she even put in herbs.

Anyway, back to the topic. I searched for a recipe in one of my baking books. I was a little confused when I compare with mom's recipe. I thought the book's recipe will taste better coz' the ratio of flour and butter is lesser than mom's. I was rather pissed and told mom "not nice also dare to write book?"

At the end of the day, I couldn't smell that same aroma from mom's kitchen so the taste is different. Mom was rather encouraging and said it's okay since I'm trying out for the first time. I didn't see the same brownish colour. So what's the problem? Mom cited that I probably used glassware to bake and my heat distribution in the oven is not from both above and bottom so my tart didn't brown at the bottom.
She started bragging "I used alum tray to bake last time. And then I do my own pineapple paste (yah, that I remember), I put in pandan leaf ...blah blah blah.....So mine taste nicer."

In 5 hours, all I had was >>
This container and another smaller container. Wah........... tiring leh! Can't imagine those homebakers who sell goodies at this time of the year. Or perhaps they're not as unlucky like me who can only bake one tray each time (and it's not that as if each tray is big)
Not that tasteful (in my opinion) but the girl loved it.
Tried the last bits of dough wrapped around pineapple.
At the same time did some chocolate chip cookies.

Packed some for mom and kept the rests for ourselves. It's one week to CNY and we haven't bought any NY goodies. Hmm.........no mood? We always buy very minimum at home (coz' nobody comes to pai-nian with us) and most the time we end up discarding them. Wasteful! So this year maybe I should bake?? Ha! Hubby has high expectation, he surely wouldn't like it.

成功 or 失败? 失败 coz' I didn't get the mom's taste. Might want to try Kueh Bangkit (with mom's estimate recipe). Hopefully I don't make it into a disaster coz' it's not easy to fry the flour.