She reminded me

Can't imagine what Athena reminded me the other day, just one day after we got back home.

"Mummy, it's time for you to prepare our birthday party."

Huh? Frankly speaking, I'm so tired just wanna give this year a miss (and she remembered it and reminded me) but it's fun planning no doubt but..... whole life I am kept busy; there's not a free time for myself. Maybe should keep it small, but everytime I say small it turn out more are included in the list.

Haven't been updating

I don't know to say I'm lucky that I'm down or not, when I'm down I'll be sleeping and sleeping like nobody's business and throw everything to helper.

For no reason, I had diarrhoea on Tuesday late evening and so I was extremely exhausted the next day from lack of sleep from the visitation to my Mr T (toilet) and excessive coughing. Wednesday, left Aricia at home. Brought Athena to school, saw the doctor and slept and slept in mom's place. Woke up for lunch and went back to sleep. Woah! If only I can do this when I'm fit, I'll be considered a fat tai-tai.
Had to bring Athena for her music lesson in the night, she missed two lessons and her class progression is very fast and well that it'll be difficult to catch up with the rests if we miss another lesson. True enough! At one time, she simply stood there and stared at her friends when they were doing solfege. (think she was tired, she's been complaining tired at around 6 plus each evening - she hasn't really adjusted back to the timing) Teacher Peggy looked at her, "Athena you look at your friends like they are sheeps. You see too many sheeps already, now your friends become sheeps." Everyone laughed at that remark. Thursday (today) - Brought Athena to school (forgot to bring her medicine yesterday so can't stay overnight at mom's place) with all her medicines and then proceeded back home to rest. Tired still, but not as bad as yesterday. Now, trying to backlog my blog but so lazy.

So what's up?

Tuesday - Athena stayed home with me and I promised her we'll bake. (oh! that's before the diarrhoea thing so my family is spared from the germs) With the ingredients we have at home, just nice to bake Chocolate cupcakes. Recipe copied out, and goash! it was all in cups measurement. I've been using my weighing scales and I didn't have the conversion tool without logging on the internet. So it was really based on my estimation, I have the cup measurement. But I thought the water and sugar was way too much and the butter. Chocolates - too much I don't care, the more the better. So I did my own adjustments.

Cupcake turn out good, not that sweet so maybe the sugar should have been more. But oh well, nobody knows it except my sister or brother who's reading this now, after they've swallowed all the cupcakes days ago. Hee!
I took another recipe from another book to do the chocolate icing. And the icing made up for the lack of sweetness in the cupcakes.

Here's my girl happily posing for photos, she's excited. So excited that she remembered the recipe called for 3 eggs and she put the whole thing inside. Okay.......just kidding, she knows I'm suppose to crack the eggs; kept asking me to let her crack the eggs. No, no she'll be adding in the eggshells as well if I allow her to do it.
Initially it was alright, asking her to read the recipe and do the measurement. We spent alot of precious time on that and I was so bloody hot (how to turn on the fan?)

She helped mainly with the beating / stirring. That I had to take over coz' worry too much air with her wrong technique of 'stirring'.
Mom told me I can bake from home to sell next time. I think after seeing the pictures, nobody dares to order from me. First I use illegal child-labour, next my labour was sitting on the floor - eeks! hygiene. Heehee!
Ai yoh, this kind of standard cupcakes, how to sell?
Did the recipe indicate how many cupcakes it was for, coz' it was endless scooping up the batter into the trays? Actually I made more smaller ones coz' the children likes the small ones better.
2nd row pictures : chocolate icing and halved cupcakes decorated. Athena helped a little with it, I didn't want her to end up throwing heaps of quins on them so I did mostly myself.
When I was almost done with the baking, I remembered that brother was on one week leave. I was still thinking of asking him to come by in the evening after his work to pick it up. Anyway, I tried my luck to see if he's outside painting the streets red , and then he can come by to pick up from my place.
Wah pieng eh...........dunno if it's worth his trip down to my place. I dunno whether to say my family is lucky or not, having to try to show their support by gulping down my horrible bakes.

They came down with Iggy (I've seen him 2 days in a row, 3 days since we got back) and he kena slap from my naughty girl. Aricia is sometimes an angel, she knows to sayang him when he was crying (and an incident, when she was trying to sayang him but his head was far away from her, she kindda grab his hair towards her bringing the head and she'll sayang him), but she can turn devilish too. For no reason, once she went up to him and slap his face with both hands. Ouch! He cried and she sayang -ed him (??)
Iggy finally took revenge on her. The children were playing on the piano when Iggy decided to bring down the cover. And......in the process my little musician prodigy got her knuckles hit. Ouch! If my girl can't be a prodigy I'm going to sue my brother!! Hee!


Thursday -
This is Aricia's My Melody dinner.
Last picture, very sim-tia to see the rice destroyed in less than 5 minutes.

What is your definition of 'Holiday'?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia says :

The words holiday or vacation have related meanings in different English-speaking countries and continents, but will usually refer to one of the following activities or events:

• A general leave of absence from a regular occupation for rest or recreation
• A specific trip or journey for the purposes of recreation / tourism

My definition of a holiday is to see as much as I can in a country, which means I always 'chiong' like there's no tomorrow. For me, a sightseeing freak, places of interest are places which I will cover. And in my holiday planning, it's like those organised tours kind, just that we do it our way and our time. In the end, usually we do have to get up early too to start the tour for the day. That also explains why then I will go for cheaper hotels or B&Bs since I'll only need it in the night.

This time round we felt we were more exhausted with 2 kids, one who is old enough to know what's going on & kept challenging/taunting us until we scream and scold her. The other who is so playful and knows what she wants - throws tantrum when you carry her away & worst still - the feeding problem.
She felt that things would ease when the children are old enough to take care of themselves, but then it also means that they have minds of their own and everyone might end up doing different things. And that's when my talk with mum came about, I cited that every one has a different definition of their holiday. Some defines it as "own time, own target, nothing to do, just think when we're there." Some would rather rent a house or apartment and vegetate inside, only going out to grocery-shop in supermarkets and they'll cook in the house or apartment. And throughout their holiday is to eat, sleep, watch TV, read or whatever they've brought along with them. Well, my definition calls for more 'on the go' kind, 'take as many photos to put in album' kind.

Perhaps my definition of a holiday will change once I'm old and can't walk much. But I still think it'll be nice to have a R&R holiday in the nearby countries once in awhile, so as not to give myself high-blood pressure from all the planning and late nights.

I couldn't believe myself when I told hubby "maybe we should try to go Club Med one day, throw the kids somewhere they have activities for children." Will we go? I don't know since we both don't really like the sun or do those sun/sea/sand activities.

So, share with me. What's your definition of a holiday?

Sick!

I am falling sick, the children are coughing too!

Will bring them to see Dr Lee straightaway, no more doctor hopping. Get them cured fast.

Seeing a doctor myself too, I have a headache as I got up this morning. Runny nose... yah yah... with the sudden change of weather. So, why am I not resting? I slept very early last night, my standard - 10pm. And now, I have to burn all the photos into the disc so I'm logged on. Blog first; burn later.

I hope I will be better before Wednesday, so that I can gym with MH. Fat this trip? On the contrary I don't think so, I didn't have much appetite to eat, was busy making sure that the kids had their meals. And which means getting angry at the older girl for taking too long; Aricia for sweeping the food away with her hands. Chocolates overloaded? Nope! I didn't eat much even though I went to the Cadbury Factory.

Life is short

Brother told me a bad news as he was driving us back home yesterday.

The wife of my parents' good friend in Indonesia has passed on 2 days ago (which makes it 3 today). She was a really nice, pretty and funny lady who makes very nice kueh lapis (even nicer than Bengawan Solo's). It comes as a shocking news to me and I'm sure to anyone around us coz' she did seem very healthy to me.

I had always remembered what she said to me once, it was a very good advice that even my mother agreed with her wholeheartedly.

My condolences are with the family.

Just as I think about a woman who is close to our parents, I saw another lady's face in the obituary page today. I don't know her personally but I've seen her many times before in the coffee shop near my mom's place. What made me notice her was the fact that she is a striking resemblence to my shifu, and she's left to be with the Lord too.

Life is short, cherish every one around you.

Holiday

Flight into Christchurch (CHC), I met 2 familiar faces. The Chief Steward and Inflight Supervisor, we chatted a little. As for junior crews, considering the fact that I have left 6 years ago, even the Leading crew can be someone new to me. The children managed to sleep, it's a night flight - thank God. I managed to sleep too, CS helped me by letting us know where the empty seats are, so mom had 3-seater to herself; Athena had 3-seater to herself and we didn't have the bassinet fixed for Aricia. When Athena decided to go over to sleep with mom, we simply let Aricia sleep in the 3 seater behind us. It was an easy flight apart from the food which my children don't really eat (what to do. fussy kids!) And we bump into the CS at Lake Tekapo the next day.

The holiday is fun, it was fun until the older girl had to make everyone angry with her stupid nonsense. I'm not going to spell out every detail whatever nonsense she had to come up with, but it really made us fuming mad at her for scolding her at almost every half hour. If you think it's because of my raging hormones that is causing it, nope! even my meanopausal mom can feel the frustrations and kept asking "why is she so stubborn?"

Apart from that, I tried not to let that girl spoil my holiday. We travelled alot, I mean alot. In total more than 3500km, goash! we don't even ill-treat our Nissan this way.
Our car ahem 7-seater comes with a personalised "car alarm". Everytime my husband turns off the engine or if he opens the door, the personalised car alarm comes on - the little girl from behind will cry "mummy..........ma...mie......." Really it's no joke, obviously during this trip she leached on me so she thought I was going to dump her (in reality, I'm more keen in dumping the older girl). All I wanted was some extra time for mum and the older girl to come out before I can go in to carry her from the car seat, but she starts crying the moment the engine's turned off. What I'm worried about is the cold air getting into her lungs (when older girl was 3 and started crying out in public while we tried to put on clothes for her... in bitterly cold winter.. she came back with pneumonia when we were back in Singapore. So you can understand why my kan-cheong-ness when it comes to the little one crying out alot this trip)
I saw rainbows!! I don't mean to be some suaku person, but how often do we see rainbows in our highly clustered country and......how free can I be to be looking out the window? The last time I saw a rainbow, I remembered mom said "it means good news" and it was good news coz' I didn't know I was preggie then. But nope, this time I saw 3 rainbows and no good news. Phew!
I saw the beautiful sky with twinkling stars and I was trying to see if I can make out anything. And then I told Athena about constellations. And that girl, went on with "mummy, you see I join this star to this star I saw a rocket, a bird in the sky." Hmm......frankly speaking I have no idea where she's pointing.
Athena learn alot this trip, I told her so many things on geography. On plates, and what happens when I rub them together. She can tell me "earthquake", if I crush them "volcano". I think I must have taught her before then. Okay, why the heck I was telling her all these cause we were first in Rotorua, and then back in Wellington we were in Te Papa Tongarewa and there was an exhibit.
As for Aricia, she sure sees alot of sheeps. If she's not laughing to the music, she is looking out of the window and "baah-ing" at every mass of sheeps she sees. Ahem, the population of sheeps is even more than the human population, so you can imagine how many times she "baahs". Too much that hubby said that she even "baah" when she was sleeping. Haha!( I didn't hear it coz' I was fast asleep)
A few interesting places we went but I'm not going to say anymore.

A picture says a thousands words : how true can this statement be? The camera's overworked with a total of 1200++ digital pictures + 200 over in the video camera. I think I video-taped around 7 or more hours of video? Speaking of which, I think there's a problem with the video, twice I had to re-save the videos when I was prompted with a "Video Management File broken" and just as I was returning back, I couldn't zoom the camera. The moment I turn it on, it's already zoomed and whichever way I adjusts, it blurs. Darn! Okay, I don't think this has gotta do with being over-worked. I think there's a problem with the camera. So now, I have to quickly record in our DVD player and then I'll send it for repairs.

Flight back, the Leading Crew did look familiar she found me familiar too. I was able to chat with her and another guy for a short while, didn't want to interrupt their work. A newer crew, a Taiwanese girl, talked to me kept saying that Athena looks like a Japanese. (So many times she's been mistaken for a Japanese liao!) I found out that the Leading's cousin is actually my LSS batchgirl. Small world huh? Got both numbers and will keep in contact with them. She's also a flying mother, son same age as Athena.

Okay..... and here's the story which I LIVE to tell my friends and the whole world who's reading this.

On one leg, we were departing from Queenstown to Punakaiki (that's a long journey) so we set off much earlier as the day starts. On our way, we were to stop by in Wanaka for Puzzling World coz hubby didn't want to do it the day before, saying it's going to duplicate the drive route. Queenstown to Wanaka is less than an hour drive away and it takes us through Cardrona. Well logically that's the shorter route but we ended up...
Skiiers will know Cardrona is a ski area, okay so perhaps I forgot all about that, and having travelled in those curves and up/down slopes etc... days before I thought this is going to be the same.
At some point, we saw ice on the ground and was showing Athena. As we drove further, we were admiring the whites, and even told her we were driving through a mist. It was damn cold! Okay, the girl got excited we were happy going on with the journey. We went up and up and ..oh oh..we saw snow on the ground but we didn't stop. Then it was snowing and freak! The car skidded a little. Thank goodness the wheels were more sturdy so it wasn't that bad. And we stopped. Nobody seemed to be driving through, I thought OMG we must be a bunch of stupid idiots going up the slopes today and everyone else knows the snow is heading this way so decided to sit infront of their fireplace with a cuppa hot piping coffee.
Soon, more than 2 cars pass but nobody seems to stop for us. Logical - coz in that situation you can't brake. Then, one vehicle was coming up and it skidded too - worst than our situation. The driver stopped, another car behind stopped too. Now, there are 3 vehicles stuck. Okay, so we weren't idiots afterall. At that time, we took out our snow chains figuring out how to fix it and we needed help with fixing the snow chains more than anything. It was snowing!! And at that time I wasn't even in the mood to ask Athena to see the snow flakes or whip out my cameras - hubby will take the snow chains and chain me up instead.
Then we were also worried about the condition further up the remaining journey. One guy said he didn't have snow chain and he's going to be up there awhile (I think he's a photographer) and will go down later. The driver of the last car said he called his friend from Wanaka who's coming to rescue him.
Throughout our conversations outside, I dunno what was going on in the car, I asked mom to help take care of the 2 girls. But mum said that at one point when we had the car door open, Athena was complaining "the snow touch my leg, the snow touch my leg."
I sounded more kan-cheong than anybody else. Of course lah! I was the only woman there and honestly I dunno if hubby was as worried as I am or he was just trying to act cool. I asked them to help with snow chains (they have no idea themselves too) and then in my more kan-cheong than anything asked them " we don't have snow where we come from, so in this situation what are we suppose to do. We can't brake, or ... what?" Until one guy told hubby to go on Low Gear (huh? whatever that means. He better understand-that's his job. My job is to act the damsel-in-distress.) Hmm......okay that's just some advice we needed from them who experiences this kind of situation more than we do.

We managed to fix the snow chain on one tyre (which apparently turned out we were wrong in fixing it. Gotta take out the whole tyre from the car to fix it), we couldn't even open up the other snow chain. And so our decision is to go down and go by the long way to Wanaka since we have no idea how the situation is further up and when the snow scrapper vehicle is coming.
3 vehicles drove a few metres further up, there's a look-out stop ahead and we'll make a U-turn from there. Hubby made a comment, yah.. feels so much grip on the wheels. As we did the U-turn the guy from the 3rd car came down and told us "your snow chain dropped off." huh?? Imagine if we had continued driving on thinking we still had that snow chain on and worst still - returning it to the car rental company with one snow chain short. Haha!
The guys were really helpful and we didn't even get their names.
One last advice from the guy from the 3rd car, he told us to drive on the wrong side of the road. Ahem.... the more he said that, it makes me think if he thought or knew we were going to flip down the cliff. Choy!

And so our journey down the slope began. Hubby's hands were tight on the wheels, I was the turtle trying to keep a lookout since my view is not blocked to see on-coming cars. Just then, the scrapper vehicle came up. ??? How to make another U-turn? Okay, we're not to risk it all.
Hubby honked the car, like all the Indian drivers in India do, to warn oncoming car our presence. Aricia laughed at every honk. Athena kept asking "why are we not going up? Papa papa, why we not going up?". Mom was chanting, I couldn't make out what were the words but coz' she was whispering it did sound "pssf ashhis...". I was looking out, eyes popping out more than the Maoris can do (okay, just exaggerating) and wondering if I'll live to continue my baking (many more recipes to try) and bento and ....
Okay, it was a tense; silent (not exactly silent since we had noise behind hubby and myself) journey down. Once we passed the snow, we heaved a sigh of relief. I only managed to laugh about the scenerio in our car after that. The children - one laughing at every honk, one yakking while we're worried she's more concern in seeing the whites. The mother - the chanter. Me - the worrier.

And so, I live to tell my story. I guess next time we're more prepared. Huh? I don't think hubby wants to drive in that situation where all lives are in his hands.

**Photos will be up when ready ** keep your eyes open and don't worry, you don't have to honk

Am back sweating out!

It's 12+ now, everyone's asleep (the children couldn't open their eyes longer, coz' technically their body clock is still 4 hours ahead of local time) - so why the heck am I still awake?
Even hubby cannot take it, fact is he even managed a nap in the plane while I couldn't. Well.... I tried and almost made it to la-la-land until the announcement for preparation for arrival comes on. Shucks!

Yah yah, I'm still here coz' I had to unpack the bags and put things back where they belong etc, It's just me! I can't see things lying around; I just need to finish unpacking before I can really settle down to sleep.
Yes, the 'super-on and never leave things to last minute' me had all done, I even managed to clear my mails and my emails.
As for laundry, I double washed one set. The children's clothes will have to be scrubbed first before running in the washing machine twice. I think it'll be too much for KZ to handle this sudden 'overload' work after vegetating at home for 3 weeks and never saw a human soul for days until my kind (and poor thing) sister pop by to see how she is. And KZ kept talking and talking non-stop.

Post on holiday will be up next

In Picton

Am in Picton now. Everyone's snoring away, I am playing with hubby's phone.
Heading towards North Island tomorrów by the ferry. It means too that our holiday is coming to an end soon,back next Saturday.
I live to tell my story...will tell when back.

Tia Ora!

Greetings from New Zealand!

Am in Dunedin now, the place with lots of prestigious Universities. Let's hope I'll leave this place smarter. Hee!

Everything is fine and fun. The weather is Brrrr.........COLD!

Will leave for a short tour around this very quaint place and then drive off to Otago Peninsula.
Meanwhile, keep your eyes open to see if I'm logged on.

Take Care!

Ready to go

Sayonara!

Overheard

Can't believe my ears. I overheard this mother (who don't speak properly - probably those uneducated aunties) telling her daughter, who looks like in her 20s to me.

"mei(2) you(3) zuo(4) gong(1) you(4) zhe(3) me(2) yang(4)? You(4) bu(4) shi(4) jian(4) bu(4) de(2) ren(2) de(4) shi(4)."

The daughter mumbled something to her she said "bu(2) yong(4) jing(3). You (4) bu(4) shi(4) jian(4) bu(4) de(2) ren(2)."

Wah.... in my mind I am thinking she's such an encouraging mother, so encouraging enough to tell her daughter it's alright to be a bummer.
I'll kick chase my children out to work, not for monetary gains but for their self-worth.

Nursery?

First I was so head-strong to say that "Aricia's going to child-care next year" without second thoughts. Of course I get queries why since I'm a SAHM. My idea was to get the 2 kids out and rotating between them for my personal coaching.

Then, guilt-stricken I thought maybe half day should suffice. Since I'm always complaining that I do not have enough time to do things with Athena now that she comes home so late. And how to have the "sleep early; wake up early" habit if they're busy doing their work?
I can pump in more home sessions, get her to be more involved. Do crafts and more hands-on stuffs. I still feel that I'm not doing enough. Hee! Crazy mother!

Now, as I check with Berries their N1 curriculum. It's what I'm teaching her now, so is there a need to put her in there? No.
And perhaps next year, I can start a little later with Aricia in her school? I think to have two kids starting school at the same time is overwhelming for me, I doubt I can cope. Let Athena settle in school first then I'll start Aricia. Or maybe keep her home with me and make her go crazy for the next year and start her in N2?

What will you do if you were me?

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

Sidetrack to Athena :

She's going to finish her English vocabulary assesment books and I'm so 'accurate' that she's going to start her Comprehension & Composition work in June. Going to prep her for P1.
Sigh... no wonder hubby say "my poor Athena"

The Nanny

Turned nanny for the day, mom has her doctor's appointment so came over to help "over-see" Iggy. Aricia was with me coz' I needed to bring her for her follow-up with the sinseh and so I roped in KZ to follow me.

Normally I don't stay that long in mom's place unless I need to use brother's computer. And so, brother asked me if I could go over while I "use the computer". Funny! I don't need the computer much today - coz' I found a little 'free time' so, yesterday quickly launched myself to finish another sets of number - up to 30 for Aricia to practice her writing. (I think what MH said is true, I can't keep myself free) Today, all I needed to do was to bring the things over to do.

The children fell asleep (I don't have to do anything, just be the supervisor. KZ takes Aricia, Fatonah takes Iggy, I prepare the materials.
I brought Aricia's homework and wanted to read her a book. I asked Fatonah to put Iggy on her lap and me be the teacher instead. I thought I can do it; I thought I am a talented teacher; I thought.......I never thought my girl would keep standing up and interrupting the "class" while Iggy sits and look at the book. Conclusion : I can't do it with another kid, must do a 1 : 1. 失败!
I can't believe myself, I was really bored.........didn't know what to do with 2 kids + 2 helpers who'd wonder what am I up to and probably thinking to herself (Fatonah since KZ knows my style) can't I just put him to sleep then everyone can go back to doing their own things? Ai yoh! If at my place, sure can do alot of things.
In the end, got them out to the corridor and blew bubbles. Iggy don't seem to enjoy it as much as Aricia, he kept looking at the soapy floor instead of the newly blown out bubbles. Sigh........ Then got the kids to blow bubbles, umm.........think should give Iggy some time coz' he probably is new to this.

I completed my job at 5.30+pm, 30 minutes of overtime - so my family please take note of this amount owed to me.Hee!

Will I do it again? Maybe yes, provided I don't have anything to do (which is very unlikely considering the fact that I've put up my TO DO list right infront of my lappie for my post-trip and it's alot!) + it must be in my home coz' I have the toys and study materials. I'll welcome Iggy with big open arms to make him join our league - the crazy people. (why? Aricia crazy too? Coz' she loves to do homework. ?!?!)

Photos :

Aricia

Forgot to write this down, must quickly write this down before I forget again.

Last Friday, after Aricia's class. I was talking to Sensei Sheryl who came by to see the kids, and then Aricia disappeared out of my sight to the toilet. When I went over, Shirley told me that Aricia had asked her to "wash" her pacifier. Once done, she popped it into her mouth. Hee! So cute!

I never know she can say this word, she usually say "dar.... ty (dirty)" or say "tu tu (pacifier), where? Where tu tu?" and moves her hands and head.

A second chance

Brought Aricia for breakfast at Macs this morning. But she's only interested in Hash Brown, took a few bites of her pancakes (we tore off portion by portion for her)

Quite wasteful, so I decided to give the pancakes a second chance - by doing something and give it to Athena (she loves pancakes) instead.

Cute? A girl with a ponytail. I play cheat, used marker to write on the box coz' I don't have my piping bag here and can't write using the Nutella

She told me she had it for lunch not tea-break (huh?) and she finished everything! I suspect it's the chocolate that made her finish all, normally she can eat only 1 1/4 or 1 1/2?

Goal!

I'm never a football fan - infact blur hubby (then boyfriend) and me went for one local match and we were so bored and cheered for the wrong team. Haha! But now.......I will have to pray hard the team "I betted on" wins. Bet? Why?

Went down to Audio House to get a video camera, can't repair in time for us so will have to do it when we get back. Despite the fact that I hated those hard-disk kind, called hubby and he said to buy that, I was still keen to go for the old-fashion way. How to delete certain portion of a frame? Mini DV tapes just rewind and dub over, this one?
Anyway, the deal was we have to guess the winning team for Euro 2008, should we win our prediction, we can get back the full amount. I called my 'life-line' - KZ who's a football fan, telling her to give me the answers "you help me win, I buy you a camera." Haha! Very bad huh? She feels so pressurized to give me the answers; kept hesitating until I told her "it's okay.. wrong answer you don't get any camera." Hee!

Ai yoh.........first time I'm so keen in soccer

Mother's Day

This, would have been my bestest Mother's Day present, only setback is I won't get it at all. No wonder hubby, the HR personnel, kept his mouth shut on my worth. I'm going to sue him for all the wages that he owes me... not a penny less!

And so, in celebration of me getting my wages soon, I decided to treat mom tonight together with my brother and sister. Next in the pipeline will be LV bags, First Class seat on A380 around the world.

Sent her flowersyesterday. Not the usual red or pink flowers but I remember mom likes purple flowers and I thought she liked orchid. Well, this is not orchid but iris and it does look a little like orchid so......try something different for her.

We met for dinner @ Grand Park Plaza's : Park Palace. The children were noisy, Iggy was so well-behaved; sitting down

whereas my barbaric Ari was standing on table top of her highchair - Georgia of The Jungle .

Athena was starving coz' she refused to eat finish her lunch (good! let her have an idea what starving is like. See she wants to be so choosy or not?)
I was presented with a card, a surprise card coz' it has my kids' lips on it. And they did it prior to dinner under my nose.

All thanks to brother who bought the card. Thanks for the nice gesture, bro!

Woah! If only I'm that well-endowed!! But really cute + notice what my brother wrote. It doesn't make me a SuperMummy but a Super Evil Mummy

Athena's hand print and their kisses (oh well, Ari's unwilling kiss - as usual! what can i expect from my unorthodox daughter!)

The children played, Ari got jealous when Athena hugged Iggy. I tried to get the shot but too
slow and got this instead. And yes, my Ari did try to sayang Iggy some time before that. They look like lovers (heehee!)

Dinner ended, and mummies were all presented with a bag.

*The staff asked how many mummies, we teasingly pointed at sister, I cited a single mother. In the end, when it came to the time when the staff presented the bag, KZ said "I Godma!!" She has a bag in return for being so thick-skinned.

Parting shot :

Thanks for your prayers

KZ managed to call her brother in Kachin (her hometown), and apparently he did say that it's difficult to get through to their sister in Yangon. But - everyone is safe and sound. Yes, the township they are in is affected, not as bad as those near the river. Thank God! Dunno why WV (World Vision) told sister that it's affected, I was confused whether to tell her the news or not - which fortunately I didn't.

And, what can I say informations and news over there are all filtered. Her brother didn't know the number of casualties, was surprised when told.
I don't know if I did mention this before. Once, KZ and her sister were in their hometown, while the rests of the family were in different parts of the country. Somehow their place was flooded, after some time KZ called her sister in Yangon to inform "don't worry, we are fine...." The reply they received was "huh? what happened?" Goash! Imagine if the flood was bad, they would have died and nobody knows.
Umm........really I do not want to write politics in my blog so I shall not say anymore but it does really gets in my nerves when I was reading this. (Christians in their country are shunned, passed over when it comes to promotions etc..) Read this on History.

Thanking all who had been praying for her family. A very big thank you!

Oiishii! 美味い

Kayoko, my Japanese neighbour, brought over 日本茶 jelly with some dunno what milky syrup and red bean. Yums!

Ready to tuck in? I am and I've helped myself to it 3 times today. It's really delicious.
Talk about having Japanese food right at your doorstep, my expert native cook is just next door - I'll just "ding dong ding dong"

よりもっとよりもっと!!

Ps. Must ask her to teach me this. Umm....speaking of which I really haven't cooked my Katsu-don for a long long time already.

The childrens' gift

In the day time, the school gave the children rose to be presented to their mummy. Aricia (surprisingly) listened to instructions and gave it to me (I expected her to whack the table with it)
When I picked Athena up from school, she told me so excitedly "mummy..I make a bookmark for you. I write 'I love you mummy from Athena ............' " she was telling me word for word what she wrote.
She saw the rose in the car and asked me, so I told her "mei-mei gave mummy flower. You didn't give me flower." She was smart enough to tell me "my present better." "why?" "because flower will die. My bookmark, you can use before you sleep. Then another day you open up your book again to read."

Ai yoh! I don't need any present. All I want is them to be good children.