Archive | August, 2013

Carrots are Good, Part 2

20 Aug

The carrots are being dangled again this year! I figured if it worked last year for the girls with the reward being ‘The Great Adventure Road Trip to USA’, this year we will do a regional destination for its city and the islands. I love this Asean country for its food, golf courses and shopping. Both M1 and M2 have never been there but I think they are old enough now to appreciate the culture and the food, besides the shopping and sights. Also this time, I dispensed with secrecy and let it be known where and when. So the girls know what is at stake and what they have to do in order to enjoy the reward, pocket money for spending included!

The current August school holidays has ended with two weeks of staying put and not much excitement on the homefront. M2 has exactly three weeks to her big UPSR exam while M1 has the year end to show her results. She promised she will not be watching anymore ‘Friends’ until the year-end exams are over; I hope she keeps to her word.

Having made all these exciting travel plans with the children, suddenly a curve ball was thrown when we were summoned to Singapore for a year-end wedding.

Both M1 and M2 are really enthusiastic about Singapore as well but hubby is a little bit concerned. Three destinations. Uh-oh… so much traveling, so little time!

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New Blood

20 Aug

Our house guest’s name also starts with an ‘M’, so I shall call her M3. M3 comes from Fukuoka and shared with us, last night, an interesting video about the prefecture besides showering the family with gifts. Very thoughtful and polite. Both M1 and M2 were pleasantly surprised and delighted with their unexpected presents.

M3 was to sleep in the guest room and although the room was prepared for her, the mosquitoes had other plans! The new blood was a feast for the darn mozzies! A new flavor, a young delicacy unlike grandma (who uses the room whenever she sleeps over) and her old blood, poor M3 had another taste of our country. But I must say this is not the usual environment.

Tonight we shall make further reinforcements to prevent another uncomfortable experience for her.

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Playing Host

19 Aug

I went to the school today after lunch to attend the Cultural & Educational Exchange Program whereby M1’s school hosted some Japanese students for a week long visit. M1 gave a very confident, warm and welcoming speech. I would have stuttered and err-ed and umm-ed my way through.

We are playing host family to a bubbly 17-year old student who will stay with us for 3 days to learn more about the typical family in our country. Unlike playing host for a party and having friends over for dinner, this is a totally new thing.

But this experience brings back some good memories of when I was 15 then and went on an exchange program myself. I stayed with an Australian host family in Gloucester, Australia for two weeks. That was a fun time dinosaur years ago.

Nonetheless, I hope she will learn a thing or two in terms of food, language, culture and lifestyle while we should seize this opportunity to brush up on our hosting ability.

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Can You Wake Us Up?

19 Aug

Whenever there is a school holiday break and we don’t go away, the girls would tend to sleep in because it is, well, the school holidays. But sometimes it irks me because they would sleep in until it is almost lunchtime. I would have to remind them constantly not to practice such lazy habits. So they tell me, “Wake us up then, ok?” “Sure,” I said.

The next morning, I would open their room door with much fanfare and go, “Rise and shine! Wakey… Wakey, Rise and shine!” in the most boring and irritating monotonous drone, there would be groans and resentment towards this wake up call.

“C’mon girls, wakey! Wakey! It’s nine already and I am going to the office soon!”

“Mummy, you’re so noisy!” M1 accused. “Must you do the ‘Rise and Shine’ line?”

Well, excuse me….

But as the school holidays are over and it’s back to school today, thank goodness they managed to wake up this morning despite sleeping late last night out of their usual habit over the last two weeks or possibly, out of excitement they will be seeing their friends again.

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A New Addiction

16 Aug

Candy Crush has me addicted to it early this year when I downloaded the app out of curiosity. I don’t normally follow trending apps and fill up my iPad with top games that half the world is playing but I guess this one caught me. It could be worst in my addiction but thankfully I am not like some of my fellow Candy Crushers who would message me on the phone or Facebook to send them lives.

Since then, I have completed the Saga twice and ‘retired’ twice (read: stopped playing temporarily) from the game. The ‘retirement’ was simply due to the fact I could not progress beyond because the app on the iPad stopped at Level 350, hence the first retirement, then an update to Level 365 and the second retirement before the latest update to Level 395. Unlike the same game on Facebook where it goes on and on, the iPad app ends here for now.

Currently, I am stuck at Level 394 and contemplating yet another retirement but sensing a déjà vu, I am at a cross road here. Should I go on or not once I reach 395? M2 tried to play the game to understand my addiction but gave up; M1 just doesn’t even look at it.

In the middle of all this soul searching, I stumbled upon a new game and the girls call it my new addiction, Zookeeper Battle. I just completed my 500th battle yesterday. It’s pretty fun, mindless and quite destressing in its own way. So my full time candy crushing status may change… we shall see.

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Let It Breathe

15 Aug

I used to tell the girls that whenever they have an injury, cut or abrasion, they should not have a plaster covering it overnight suffocating the rejuvenating skin cells. “Let it breathe,” is what I normally advised. I think it’s just logical to allow the skin to breathe as the body is resting (sleeping) and therefore the injury should not be covered.

Recently, I had a horrible case of one gigantic acne just at the right side of my face, near the ear. For some unspoken reason, I needed a plaster and asked for a small round plaster from M2, who is currently obsessed with plasters and has the whole box next to her bedside.

“Let it breathe, mummy,” she told me, giving me back my dose of advice!

I guess what goes around, comes around!

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Carrots are Good, Part 1

13 Aug

I like carrots, not for its vegetable goodness but what it’s suppose to represent: rewards, as in the saying, dangle the carrots in front to get the results you want, you know.

M1 and M2 are both very carrot-, I mean, rewards-oriented. I think this is very good to spur them to dream big, study hard and do well in school. Little exams with good results will yield little rewards and big (main) exams yield a bigger windfall, it’s very clear cut.

Last year was a critical year for M1 to sit for her mid-high school exam, while M2 was to meet the target of staying in her current class. The big fat carrot: a trip to USA to visit the many places that they have only seen in magazines and travel documentaries: Disneyland, Universal Studios, Sedona, Sunset Crater, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, LA and San Francisco, just to name a few.

It was very inspiring to me to see them so motivated in their efforts to achieve what has been set out for them. There was icing on the cake as well! They get to buy whatever they fancy with their pocket money earned. Indeed a good deal for them, that is.

The big plan was set in motion early last year and the trip dubbed, “The Great Adventure Road Trip to USA”. However, in June, there were hiccups, dissatisfaction, anger, threats and tears as setbacks were encountered; targets were way off! Plans had to be restrategized to recuperate from the shock and disappointment. But the two young adventurers persevered again with their efforts and finally, determination and hard work paid off!

M1 did very well and M2 met her targets, in short. And so, in November last year, our big fat carrot was savored and brought many happy moments and memories for all. Looking back at those priceless moments, I would do it again without hesitation, that is, to plan another carrot-incentive trip to spur the girls on.

Well done!

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The four adventurers!

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Caught Coming Home!

12 Aug

It was one of those days when I got tired at the office with nothing doing and decided to go home early. And as I opened the front door at 4.30pm, they must have heard me because immediately, M2 called out, “Mummy! You’re not supposed to be home yet! Why are you home??!!!”

Gosh. It doesn’t matter what they were doing but am I not allowed home early? So I said, “Ok, pretend I am not home then. I will go to my room and nap till 7pm before coming out to greet you two again, ok?”

“OK!”

My own home, not allowed to be home. Eeesh.

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Some Goodness in Friends

9 Aug

Thursday kicked off a long four day weekend and I had a lunch appointment with a girlfriend who came back from Singapore. The hubby decided to chauffeur me to the mall, along with M1 and M2 in tow, so that they could go have lunch at the mall too on their own while I have my catch-up girl-talk luncheon. The plan was to also go to the bookstore to buy some books so that M1 has something else to keep her occupied during the holidays other than the many seasons of ‘Friends’ that she has been watching. She’s at Season 6 now. As for M2, it is an excuse from her revision regiment.

Two hours went by quickly and all things accomplished, we came home. Then routine kicked in: M1 in front of the computer watching more ‘Friends’, M2 at the dining table back at her revision, the hubby doing forty winks and me, well, crushing candies.

That night, M1 proudly showcased her book purchases again. “Oh my God! You bought Pride and Pre-Juice?” M2 asked incredulously.

“Pre-Juice? Duh! it’s Pride and —‘Prej-uh-dis’—… Prejudice,” M1 pronouncing the word clearly for the giggling M2. Well, it is a big word for M2. There were other titles too that M1 acquired, A Tale of Two Cities and Peter Pan, to add to her collection of other classics.

I was in their room then and it made me curious why would M1, at her age, has chosen such classics to read for I did not read these until I was much older and in college. I remember we had to read and dissect ‘The Great Gatsby’ (which M1 has also read) with in-depth character analysis, storyline analysis and a whole bunch of other analysis in the Literature class. So boring!

Well, she revealed that in ‘Friends’, they talked about some of these classics and she wanted to read them. I guess being addicted to ‘Friends’ is not so bad after all! Looking at the bigger picture, it’s a good headstart to tackling Literature classes when she is college-bound. And way much better than her, occasionally mimicking Janice spouting out the trademark “Oh.. Mah… Gawd!” or breaking out the neigh “Chandler BING-G-G-G!!!” to no one in particular.

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Your Daughter’s Mother

8 Aug

During her early years, M1 had interesting conversations with us. It was her way of expressing her knowledge of relationships. M2 was probably an incommunicado baby then.

A typical conversation would go along this line when I call home and she’d pick up the phone. “Can I speak to daddy?” I‘d ask.

“Ok” and I can hear the phone piece dropped to the floor and her yelling to her daddy, “Daddy! Your daughter’s mother wants to speak to you!”

Other times, it’s “My father’s wife is on the phone” or “My sister’s mother is calling you.” Roles change if it’s the hubby calling home asking for me.

Do note none of these were taught by us.

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