Some Things Never Change

15 Dec

Technology today sure is amazing, changing the way we live, how we lead our lives and keeping us connected 24/7. When M1 went off to university in 2015, we were able to track her flight path live online. And we did just that with anxiety but also with comfort knowing exactly where she is. And when she came back on Tuesday night, we did the same and went through the same again.

When I flew off to college dinosaur years ago, there was nothing of these sorts or even the Internet available. So poor Mom and Dad waited anxiously for 24 hours or so until I arrived and heard from me.

With M1 for every step of her journey, we get an update – leaving for the airport now, checking in, boarding soon all via WhatsApp, see a location checked in status update on Facebook yet unaware of more updates on other social medias that young people use (this dinosaur does not use SnapChat, Instagram, Twitter and goodness knows what else) and of course track online with flightaware.com to see the flight path live.

For all these, I am thankful we live in this era now. But I still fret anxiously like Mom and Dad did. Some things never change. Technology may make our lives easier and more connected but it just cannot replace the human emotions. 

So thankful and happy that she arrived home safely and without much delay or problems.

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Anxious Parents

13 Dec

Since last night, there’s anxiety. It was a restless night but for a good reason. M1, our firstborn is homeward bound! Finally. Yesterday evening at 6.30pm, way before she headed to the airport, I had wished her a safe flight and told her we will see her in 30 hours.

Yes 30 hours. But when this is published, we have another 13 hours to go. Like her previous trips, we were tracking her flight path on flightaware.com

This trip home, she is not flying the usual flight path because she’s taking a different airline. There’s an additional San Francisco stop before Narita International but minus a Singapore Changi Airport stop before Kuala Lumpur. That’s why we are not down in Singapore to pick her up like last year.

A long journey for her – slightly more than 20 hours of flying sans delay hopefully, and not inclusive of the layover time at the different airports and change in time when crossing the International Date Line. I lose track counting with so many time zones involved. Shudder… All I know is that she started at 5.30am (Pacific Standard Time) on Monday morning and we see her at past midnight (our local time) Tuesday night.

So did I sleep well or not at all last night? Forty winks probably or maybe just 38 or 35… 

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Having A Party

12 Dec

I don’t normally cook but I do enjoy the task occasionally. Over the weekend, we hosted a birthday dinner (for hubby) and had a dozen friends over. Normally with numbers like these, we would just have a BBQ but the constant wet weather made it impossible to have an outdoor cookout. So I cooked.

I wouldn’t say it was tiring because I had help from hubby, M2 and the maid. Everyone played a role; it was good planning and timing that resulted in the tasks going smoothly without a hitch. 

And the Saturday evening turned out very enjoyable. Lots of alcohol (beer, tequila cocktails, whiskey, Riesling, Chandon Brut and more whiskey), laughter and of course food. Lots of food that was, in my opinion very balanced – covering all the basic food groups: carbo (pasta and garlic bread), fibre (salad), fruits (there were grapes and pineapples in the hor d’oeuvres), milk/cheese (ice cream and cake) and protein (ribs and chicken).

Even the weather was cooperative. It drizzled for a short while and the wind was rather strong, creating a really cool and windy night. Sitting out at the terrace was just wonderful.

The star of the night was the ribs. I searched the internet high and low and found this ‘Easy Fall-off-the-Bone Oven Baked Ribs‘ recipe from inspiredtaste.net the easiest to do. But time was of the essence when baking the ribs. I decided–to save time–to also boil a second batch of ribs (with just garlic, salt and pepper) and doused it with ready BBQ sauce to bake so that everything was ready by the time all the guests arrived. Both recipes turned out excellent, complementing the balanced basic food group menu.

We did good and had a great time playing hosts. Having said that, I wouldn’t mind hosting a party and baking some ribs again.

Top tray was first batch, bottom tray the second batch

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New Flavors, Part 2

9 Dec

Dissatisfied with the new coffee that I am on to now, I was on a mission to buy something nice for my morning cuppa. I recalled awhile back someone told me that we can now buy the Vietnamese coffee, G7 here at the local supermarket. Oohh… how enticing!

G7 is the super nice and fragrant coffee that I bought from my Ho Chi Minh trip a few months back. Obviously my regular grocer does not carry it. So we went out of the way to that particular supermarket and lo and behold, G7 was in abundance on the shelves. Yay…

I was conservative and just grabbed two boxes and a bag of 3-in-1 as I should finish consuming the bottle of Columbian that I have currently. Also now that I know where to get good coffee, I don’t really need to stash an abundance of supply away.

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Sweet Tooth

8 Dec

Lately I have been eating a lot of candies. For someone who drinks her coffee black, this is bad. Everyday in the office, I would reach for my candy containers and pop one or two, sometimes even three of these temptations to chew on.

This has been happening for a few weeks now. And this had to stop. Like now. Or until I finish them…

  

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Countdown Begins!

6 Dec

It’s exciting knowing that a week from today, our firstborn will be home for the Christmas holidays! We can’t wait. One more week to go…

It’s occasions like these that I want to will time to hurry up. Other days, I wish time would slow down for me to enjoy the children. They grow up so fast and too fast.

M1 is finishing her sophomore year at university. How quickly time has gone by. Somehow it feels like it was only just yesterday that we sent her off and now, she will be back for her second Christmas break! This year, she will fly directly into KLIA, unlike last year where we drove down to Singapore for her.

Ooooohhh… Can’t wait.

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Slowing Down

5 Dec

I’ve slowed down playing the two candy games on my iPad for two reasons lately. Firstly, it’s my iPad. Device just does not want to cooperate to launch both Candy Crush and Candy Crush Soda, it’s annoying. Secondly, I am getting kinda tired by the games. 

So I just play them on the laptop whenever I am home or sometimes offline in the car. Maybe it’s for the better that they are no longer an obsession.

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Cold Nights

2 Dec

You know winter of sorts is here when it rains daily and the air becomes chilly. Even for official pet number one, it’s cold. He would go into his little abode to sleep on the rug to keep warm instead of on the cold tiled floor.

He doesn’t usually do this, sleeping in the pad. His abode is usually his protest platform – going inside only whenever he feels like barking at us in protest over something. I think he feels that with the barriers protecting him, he can have his voice, err… bark heard. Very opinionated fella.

But with the weather changing, raining just about every day and night resulting in cold nights ahead, the pad now has another use.

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Spring Cleaning

1 Dec

It sure is nice when one does spring cleaning and stumble upon nostalgic things.

Every year, at the end of the school year, we would do a spring cleaning at home especially to gather all the school text books to give away. Usually we would pass them on to friends who have kids who could use the books the following school year. This year M2 and I decided to also clear out some old toys.

My goodness! Over the years, my two girls have acquired quite a fair bit of toys and plushies. They are much older now and hardly play with these anymore. So it’s time to give these away. I would vet through the conditions before putting them in the ‘give away’ box.

And from the nightly efforts, I discovered some of MY old toys! My Playmobil set. My goodness. I have kept them all these years, hoping my children would play with them. And they did.

It was pretty nostalgic. We had fun playing with them! And yes, we are still keeping them.

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Day of Sadness

29 Nov

Pets going to pet heaven is inevitable. The fishes that we had in the little aquarium came and went pretty fast and we never felt anything. But when the same fate happened to Luna so soon, our pet crayfish, we felt sadness and an emptiness never before. I guess it never crossed our minds that she will go so soon and rather tragically.

There was definitely a bond with Luna, compared to the Bettas. She had character and was interesting. And definitely a delight to observe.

The last time we had some crustacean pets was when the girls were younger. They had some hermit crabs and we even had a hermit crab abode for them, a crabarium instead of an aquarium. Now those critters had character too, and were fun and silly. But all had gone to let heaven.

Our pet heaven is pretty crowded. There’s Luna now, along with all the Bettas, the hermit crabs, some koi and parrot fishes, a couple of Indian Star tortoises, a terrapin and hamsters. I hope there won’t be any addition for now.

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