On This Day (15th Mar) - #Reminders from FB#

15th Mar 2023

Another day of night time cooking 😂

Wonder why I have energy slump in the daytime.

Energy all boosted up after dinner usually.

Wish me luck on my compliant __

15th Mar 2023

14th Mar -

Sakura latte and soufflé pancake in Suntec for che-che

15th Mar 2023

* added 6 photos and a video to the album 14th Mar - Sakura 1

14th Mar

Most trees still quite botak, as expected.

Was a last minute decision to drop by so didn't bring the big cumbersome camera.

Video : https://youtu.be/1p-wX1XxjNM?si=iSkn5A0UsGDOCFo1

15th Mar 2021

When the girls wanted their jap after orthodontist, I hv my own quiet time in my own place.

2 staffs checked on me if I needed sauce, one even thought I was gluten-free S. Yah...I love their sauce but ....no choice

15th Mar 2021

When lil' girl's trip to the toilet in the building entails a trip on higher level to a very familiar place. Rmbr the friendly ppl there.

15th Mar 2019

It's that time of the year again where we can only hanami without sitting under the blooming cherry blossom trees.

And to many more years of hanami

I know this sound crazy going to GBB twice in a day.

The girls and I went at the timing where 从还没开灯 take picture until 开灯, which proves to be a big task for me.

15th Mar 2016

好美哦！

Colourful. Got pink, white, yellow and I think something else 

My Allamanda!!! This plant hasn't flowered for ...months.

5 - 6 months? Iwas still wondering if I needed to do IVF (DIY pollination). Haha! No flower do what IVF?

15th Mar 2014

Just witnessed a quarrel between 2 siblings - a teenage boy n his prob 11-12 yr old sis.

I thought my girls fight bad enough ...theirs is worst.

Boy hit her but girl also chilli padi kept instigating him that's y he hit her. Neither one give way, girl ran to mom to complain.

Mom sided young one, I feel for the boy. He wasn't happy abt biased treatment n yes he was wrong also to hit her.

* remind to self: thank goodness my girls only verbal quarrel n somehow will back down after a while. If my kids fight …... Hv to listen to both sides but like how to see right unless I install a camera on each other's head.*

15th Mar 2013

Overhead the conversation between two mothers behind us earlier on.

M1: I like Princess Belle. How come I nvr see her?

M2 : Is it just now that blue colour one? (Blue n white simple dress)

M1: No, that one is Cinderella. Correct girl (talks to her dd)? That one is Cinderella right?

M1: Then who is the Beauty n the Beast? Which princess is that?

Omg!! I rolled my eyes.

After some time.

M2: This one is Cinderella's godmother.

M1: Oh is it?

My eyes rolled off the floor!!!! M2 was pointing to Princess Tiana, who's obviously dark-skinned. And they were playing those reggae fast-beat song.

Lucky thing, she didn't say those men will turn into horses or pumpkin. Duh!

Disney on Ice

15th Mar 2013

Swisscard - checked!

Photocopy of passport - checked!

Chargers - checked!

$$ - checked!

Phone roaming - checked!

Medicines - checked!

Athena Ting ready to go? - no need to check. She can't wait.

15th Mar 2012

Argh! Too slow to snap pic. Che-Che's soba

15th Mar 2011

Playing back old video. My unglamorous girl. Can hear an older Aricia speaking in the video I was taking while playing back this video “mummy are you taking a picture?”

On This Day - (14th Mar) #Reminders from FB#

 

On This Day - (12th Mar) #Reminders from FB#

 

Found funny stuffs

Was doing some housekeeping in the phone and didn't realise some deleted notes are still in the icloud (?)

My calendar always have so many dots dots reminders. Just too many reminders. Means if I lose my phone I mati liao, brain also lost!   

I found some reminders on tuitions. So funny! 

Then i saw some other cute reminders on what I needed to find out for my educational blog. And what I needed to teach the girls. OMG! They all date back to primary school!! I'm just so glad those days are over. My educational blog is just there in its private settings, only accessible to the kids. Maybe they can open up for their kids next time “your grandma painstakingly prepared this for us when we were younger.” 

Keto makan

Bulk cooking or batch cooking helps when one does not want to spend time cooking, messing and cleaning up the kitchen. I should do this more often.    

23rd Feb
Arrabiata pasta (sauce bought in US, should have bought more) with scallops. This is good for 4 servings  

26th Feb

Keto char kway teow which I fried using keto black soy sauce, lakanto sweetener and some curry powder. I used the pork sausages which I bought in BKK. Wanted to add fried eggs but wasn't sure if it can lasts. This is good for 3 servings 

2nd Mar

Cooked the whole 2kg boneless chicken thigh. My keto lemongrass chicken. I love this! But this time I put too much water as I was trying to cover the whole batch of chicken in the hugeass pot. 

I usually portioned out my cooked chicken (usually only cook 2 meals but coz I was in a rush the other day after grocery run that I put the whole packet of thigh in the freezer without portioning them out) in the glass container. That was the reason why I bought glass containers to make my fridge and freezer look neater. However they're no where near being so neat. Maybe only if I had a fridge of my own?

Since I have no space for glass containers, I will -->     

Seal them into these bags. Finished packing at 2am. 

6th Mar

Wanting to finish the bottled arrabiata sauce and the konjac noodles sooner, I decided to do this again. This time, I cooked with a new packet of pork sausages (they have short shelf life as no preservatives added) and finish the last pack of portioned scallops. 

This is only good for 2 servings.   

There are just so many food I'd want to prepare in a huge batch. Maybe mushroom soup is next in my menu? But I just have things on my mind now - the mini renovation. 

Goodbye Parents Gateway

They finally kick us out of Parents Gateway 🤣

I rmbr at some time this year lil’ one was telling me her classmate who had proceeded on to Sec 5 asked her where she was. Perhaps the school didn’t get any updates (did it mean she pontang-ed school for more than a month?) 

Now she’s updated to be out of school, out of Parents Gateway. 

A solemn farewell to PG app. Thank you for keeping me updated on the things going on in school. Now that my girls are old enough, I don’t have to take note of any academic stuffs. 

Reunion with the batchgirls

Background 

Batch 421 formed on Feb 1995. 17 (10 girls and 7 boys) of us blur sotongs joined the best airline in the world; to be the best flight attendants the world talked about. Newbies who all looked so toot (obiang in other words) with that red lipstick, everything was very new very exciting for us as we went through months of training together. We studied modules (only to be told air larder may be put in different compartments on board. Duh!) , we jumped into the water climbing into rafts, we learnt to put on make up and tie our tight char-siew bun. 

Our lives went on different routes as we all graduated. 3 of them completed the bond and left. The rests of us sometimes we may bump into each other in Control Centre but usually can't have a proper talk as someone is usually rushing off for briefing. 

28 years since we graduated! Some we haven't seen for at least 26 years! My batch girl S and I were in the same LSS batch, another girl H was supposed to be in the same batch 07/01 with us but she had to tender her resignation letter with a baby bump. Most of us left without the others knowing, I left the airline not long and attended MH's wedding. My batchies were amongst the first I shared that I had just tendered my resignation letter, not in my first trimester so the elderly will say better not divulge any pregnancy news but I did because I know I won't be seeing the flying crew family any time. 

It's amazing, I was in constant contact with MH for the longest, our youngest kids grew and played together since young. And we've been so close that I totally forgot we were batchgirls. Haha! 

Still jetting

Out of 7 guys, 4 still flying. Amongst the girls here, the one who said she will resign soon turned out to be the last standing one. SHE LIED! 

The long awaited reunion

All become aunties liao. All are mummies except the one still flying.

We had so much to talk about in that short time. I hope we won't have to wait long to meet again. 

Here's to all my batch girls. Thank you for making memories with me when I was 20. Love you all!  

 

The day she panicked 😂

Lil’ one, in her always carrying so many things, had unfortunately left her shoe bag in school the day before. She only realised she didn’t have her bag with her in the night, but nope it’s not in the car. 

Luckily (or maybe not) she has another pair which I realised we actually still kept it after her Limelight. 

At 8.35am (school starts at 9am) she called me. “Mummy, my shoe broke!” 🤣,  “my shoe broke in half”. Being the non-sympathetic mother I asked her to go to office for help to either tape it up; use rubber band whatever or ask if they have slippers to lend her. She must be panicking like crazy. An overtly anxious girl, her mind must be in a blurry state. 🤪 Coz I told her that she calling me now won’t help, look for help closest to her. 

Yes, her mother is still not sympathetic to her plight and won’t rescue her immediately. What?! Expect me to stop drinking my teh and rush to her? Shops are not even open now. Or did she expect me to drive home to pick up a pair of sports shoes? It’s not a life threatening thing that requires me to make myself inconvenienced. She’s got to learn how to handle it herself. Not sure if she’ll find her shoe bag in the CCA room or in the Lost & Found but I’ll definitely get her another spare pair since the Limelight pair broke.  

This will teach her a lesson to be responsible for her things and to always turn back and check before leaving a place. Apparently she thinks the 20pc nuggets is more important than her shoes. (then again if she left the nuggets behind, she’ll get a scolding from me too. 💸💸

The LEGO - dismantle into different parts 🤣 condition of the shoe. I didn’t know it was that bad. I even suggested her to put back the shoe parts and then drag that feet around. It’s totally beyond help. Thus she came into the car barefooted. 

Thursdays

Lil’ one’s school is really weird. Everyone; every faculty has the same lunch break daily. Made it worst when the cafeterias are also opened to the public! As such she hasn’t been able to have a nice ‘sit down at the table meal’ since school started. Queues are often long too so many times they find a stall that has the shortest queue, buy and eat at the stairs. 

This term, knowing that I’m in OTH for exercise, like clockwork every Wednesday she’ll pout lips and grouch no food in school etc.. hoping that her mom catches her hint. Only twice I made the effort to pack food for her at OTH then rush down to drop food. I didn’t want to do it all the time, didn’t want her to think her mother is a slave to her. Oh well….. I am a slave….

Today I packed nasi lemak for her, her special order - LIHO and at the same time do a motherly act by buying 20pc nuggets and 2 shaker fries for her 4 friends. Hopefully they’ll finish everything. 

Thermie #6

Getting the hang of using it now. But I still don’t get the chance to cook on a more daily basis. Coz it just always happen that it makes more sense to pack dinner home then for me to rush all the cooking in less than 1hr. With lil’ one started on her therapy, most appointments end late at 5+, 6+

I’ve successfully attached the butterfly whisk. Had to triple check, 4x 5x check to make sure I’m attaching it correctly before I turn on Thermie (worried if I’ll spoil it in the process)

Really easy, but it didn’t taste that nice coz I think it makes a difference in slicing finely and anyhow cut ginger - brings out the smell better. I cut huge chunks coz the girls don’t like it and they always pick on pieces.

Rice so fluffy and nice. 

I didn’t use Thermie to cook this, used the pot as I needed to heat up the leftover basil pork. But ikan bilis were just airfried today

Airfrying

Sometimes I just want to find time to do some bulk food prep prep eg. chicken stock; pork stock; etc… But the school dismissal timing doesn’t permit me to do so. (Perhaps I should really make lil’ one come back home from school herself. It really takes away one job for me. It helped that the period of time when we were only left with one car and the man took it. She had to bus back from KC to home until our second car arrive. I was at home cooking and the moment she stepped into the house, the food is piping hot and ready for her to tuck in.)

Today, at last minute lil’ one told me she needs to stay back in school to do some work with her classmates. Happy like crazy! 

I airfried the crab stick n then was still thinking about using the Thermomix to fry ikan bilis. When it dawned upon me that I can also airfry ikan bilis what?! The brain is not thinking 🤣. So now I fry more so I can pass to mom. Roles reversed, to think that she used to fry ikan bilis for my girls. But I tell you they are very fickle-minded, they didn’t want to eat anymore for the last few times she gave us. 

Looks different from what she gave us. She uses the wok and fry them. But …. taste wise would be slightly different from what she used to give us (coz I think she added a little sugar) so I hope she don’t mind my lazy way of frying the ikan bilis. At least I’m trying to let her lessen her workload with her concurrent problems. 

Initially decided to do a bulk fry for myself too but I think better not coz I don’t even know when my kids later will eat or not. So I shall “fry” as and when I need. Thermomix and my airfryer will come to the rescue. 

Next up, I will want to do sambal tumis ikan bilis in the Thermomix. 

 

 

Keto RE-START

13th Feb

On a slow re-start. Finished my last 6 non-keto siew mai for breakfast. 

Lunch - couldn’t prepare in time coz I forgot to bring down the frozen chicken fillet into the fridge last night. So had my first kopi keto style :

Dolce Gusto + monkfruit sweetener + whipping cream

It’s been so long since we used the machine, since early October? The last time I used was to prepare for lil’ one when she had 2 papers in a day. 

That smell ….how to describe? Smoky? Bitter? 

This re-start will be one that is beef-less for 2wks. I hope this re-start can last longer than the last when I had to stop when it was vacation after vacation 🤭. 

Gebe mein Bestes!

The unexpected world of photoshop

I simply don’t understand why would people want to over Meitu or photoshop themselves? So much so that when you see their unedited photos, it’s really OMG 判若两人!  

So I get it why they edit their photos, they want to look good in their posted photos. In that case, might as well don’t put their photos in FB or Instagram to show the friends. 

And almost instantly one can tell that the photos are edited when suddenly so many people know how to glitter their under eye. Have that nice blushered cheeks; nose abit sharper and eyes suddenly all so big and not forgetting flawless skin.

I’m a “what you see is what you get” person. I don’t edit my photos at all. Well….even if I had wanted to, I need to photoshop in alot of areas - the face, the arms, the fat body. To make it simpler for myself - don’t post! At least I’m not fake! 

Award ceremony

Was a little sad that I wasn’t present for lil’ one’s award ceremony as the date clashed with the SSO Concert (same timing some more 😭). 

This year they didn’t hold the ceremony in our Function Room, I wonder why. But as the covid restrictions was just lifted days ago to pre-covid days, I guess the early 2023 ceremonies are still held with slight restrictions? In 2021, they only allowed one accompanying person and this year they allowed two. I’m not sure if today’s ceremony was done the same way as in 2021. Where basically the kids get their certificate then leave. No one is required to sit down to go through the whole ceremony for all recipients. Still, I’d prefer if they held it in our compound. 

Last year was a horrible year. She had bad anxiety issues, FT and school counsellor talked to her. She was under stress; she was unhappy; she had sleepless nights. Then we found out there were some problems. With the last minute AA made just in time for her prelims, we were able to see the results improving. And her mood was a little better; I kept company and tried to give her so so much love assuring her. Gave her massages coz she was tired sitting down too long. Gave lots of positive vibes. Found the correct way to make her sleep better. And for her finals, she came back with the unexpected results 😄.

And this award is an attestation of a job well done, my lil’ one my lil’ warrior. 

Hubby was tasked to bring her for the ceremony. And I’m sure he’s just as proud of her as I am. 

Closing the IJ journey chapter

 

Lil' one dons on her school uniform for the last time today (for the anward ceremony) and I'm closing the chapter of my two girls' IJ journey. Whenever there's a closing; there's another reopening (my grandkids?).

I know they always say they hate school and can't wait to get out, I believe they only meant getting out of the education system not the school. For the school not only holds memories but virtues that they are taught and shown moulding them into better women for themselves; for the family and for the society.

May my girls continue to treat others with respect and sincerity. May my girls overcome any difficulties with confidence and be humble. May they continue to have the friendship with their friends for life.

Here's me signing off ironing the white blouse and blue pinafore. 

One set of uniform and PE attire is already in the top cabinet, sealed and kept for her. The only physical items I kept for my children individually. 

#ijgirls# #maytheyshareschoolhauntedstorieswiththeirdaughtersnexttime#

Igard appt - timeline

First consultation with Functional Vision Evaluation tests 22nd June 22 @ 1pm

2nd consultation to brief me on what’s happening, how to help her and was given the letter to be submitted to SEAB on 14th July 22 @ 2.35pm 

After that explained to Dr Yap that we can’t start therapy as we are so pressed for time with tuitions 4x per week; school homeworks; tuition homeworks etc etc.. for now. I’m rushing to get the report for AA. But I will definitely will start her coz we need to help her, it will affect not only as a student but if she’s in the workforce as well. 

Fast forward to 5th Feb 2023 @ 2.57am I messaged them on how to book the sessions. I can’t remember which is the website to go to 😆. Messaged again the next day and they replied me : 

7th Feb 2023, Dr Yap asked me why I’m here 😂😂. I think they double booked the timing as what Dr Yap told me later, but no choice they had to attend to me since I’m already there and it’s not like I came without appointment. He did tests with her again and is happy with her progress. Even without therapy, with the prescribed $480 glasses he could see the improvement. Still she needs the effort to read but it’s definitely faster than before.

He told me to book the dates first. Aiyoh! That’s what I want to do right? I will need the appointments fixed and have it written down on the calendar. No need to tell me lor……

Will need to book 20 sessions with them, I only managed to book 10 first as I have no school time-table after March.  

First session booked on Valentine’s Day. I really hope 20 sessions is really all she needs coz it’s not cheap at all

元宵节

Last of CNY. As with tradition, I boiled the ready made peanut filled tangyuan on this day for the family. 

Everyone have their own way of eating this sweet round delicacy. 

Che-che’s preference with peanuts 

Lil’ one don’t really like all these glutinous rice snacks, but in order to eat this on this significant day she obliged with “ONE ☝️ ONLY!”

The adults prefer with ginger gula melaka soup. I’m nursing a phlegmy cough so all the more I want a hot soup with my tangyuan. Somehow I’m glad I’m off keto now, otherwise there is no way I can indulge in this now.  

 

                    ***************

Technically CNY not over yet but I’ve removed 3 decos, majority are still on the wall; sliding door; PES

Removed this cute rabbit deco on our main door. (This year I hung the leek inside the house at our door, removed it on the 3rd day coz it was giving off a bad yucky smell.)

Removed this in our dining area mirror. Lil’ one is relieved I removed this, she says this is ugly 😅

Washed the coffee table runner. Will be kept in the decorations storage box in bomb shelter for next year’s use 

 

Will do the rests tomorrow or day after. I need to 💤 now, really need to sleep away the irritating cough