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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Joy and Sorrow

28 Nov

With sadness I share the news that Luna has gone to pet heaven. What?! How? You may want to know…

It was a typical Sunday morning but there was excitement as far as Luna was concerned. She was molting! The old shell was just floating and she was still wiggling. 

Never thought we would see a moment like this…

But we thought the deed was not completed as she’s acting really weird and hiding in her cave. A little bit more to shed and a bigger Luna would emerge? We were careful to be discreet so that she won’t be spooked.

Our joy turned to horror when we discovered Silly Prawn II and its accomplices attacking her. We had to do something for we can’t just let them gnaw at her legs. Without the protective hard shell, Luna was vulnerable and also weakened from all that effort to shed. So hubby fished the predators out. It may have been too late. For later that night, Luna was not moving…

And this morning, much to our fear, she’s gone. RIP my crustacean, we will miss you. There was joy when we had you, now there’s only sorrow with you gone. Sniffle…

Luna was buried in the garden this morning.

   
    
 

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Life of A Crustacean, Part 2

25 Nov

I think Silly Prawn became food because I can’t seem to find it in the aquarium. It must have become food because Luna was out from her cave two days’ ago and being silly, striking a pose of wanting to scale the aquarium height. Was Silly Prawn terrorizing her?

This morning, I spotted another silly prawn hoovering over an upside down one. Can’t be Silly Prawn, can it? And looks Silly Prawn II is in the making because Luna is back in her cave!

Between the crustaceans, visiting birds and official pet number one, life amidst them creatures sure is entertaining.

 

Spot the prawns!

 
 

Save me from Silly Prawn!

 

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An American Thanksgiving

24 Nov

This year’s Thanksgiving somehow made me recall the one we celebrated four year’s ago in the most coordinated fashion. It may be one celebration that we don’t do often but when in America, we have to do what the Americans do! And it was by far, the best Thanksgiving ever.

2012 was the year of our Great Adventure Road Trip in the US. And it was the year my niece and nephew – the twins, were studying in Kentucky. And I thought it would be fantastic for them to fly out to California to meet up with us. And their sibling – my niece, K1 can join us too, flying in from KL since she was old enough to travel by herself. And we would all spend Thanksgiving at the happiest place on earth, Disneyland.

It took me more than a year to plan for our impending trip because there were so many stops, friends, activities and lodging to consider. And this extra family get-together time in California needed more attention because the three parties were coming in from three different locations. Very exciting that it culminated with good timing and no delays.

During the Thanksgiving week, we were just wrapping up the Las Vegas stop. By Tuesday, we left for LAX to pick up K1 who was flying in alone from Kuala Lumpur. The great mastermind–me–had planned for her to arrive that afternoon and estimated that she would come out to the Arrival Hall by 1.00pm and we can just pick her up curbside if we started our journey at 9.00am. The timing had to be perfect and it was. 

When we got her, the poor child was so zombied after the 18-hour plus journey whilst we were still fresh from our pleasant unhurried drive. We tried our best to keep her awake to adjust her to the new time zone. It wasn’t easy.

Staying close to the airport at Travelodge LAX minimized the travel time for the airport runs and was without a hitch when it was time to fetch the twins; it was most convenient and sensible especially to avoid the busy highways. The twins flew in by midnight after their last class and the next day, our fun began…

We played tourist and visited downtown Los Angeles for a day excursion to see all the famed attractions. Then by late evening, we made our way to Anaheim. It was to be our base for the next few days. On Thanksgiving morning, we were off to Disneyland and had the most memorable American Thanksgiving.

The seven of us had the best times of our lives with all the rides, sights, food and fun. And although dinner was just a simple meal at Flo’s V8 Cafe, what mattered was the experience and time spent together. The crowd was relatively small, yet there were still long queues for the more popular rides and we took it all in stride.

The Disney experience continued the next day at the main park and Universal Studios the following day. By Sunday, the Thanksgiving break was over and the twins headed back to Kentucky with K1, while we stayed on in Anaheim for three more days before heading north to San Francisco via the Pacific Coast Highway.

After that awesome Thanksgiving experience, our Road Trip continued and all other Thanksgiving was never the same again for us.

   
 

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Life of A Crustacean

22 Nov

Our latest pet, Luna the crayfish has been a delight for us. But it is still very shy. From the internet we learnt that crayfishes need something to hide in or under. So hubby put a mini flower pot in the little aquarium to double up as its hiding place because we didn’t have time to get a driftwood for her.

And it’s worked out well. Luna has even mastered the art of manoeuvring into her homely cave skilfully every time she needs to chill in there by moving backwards into it; call it a reverse park if you may. So efficient and practical. 

Sometimes if we accidentally spooked her, she would reverse further in and plaster herself, back in, to the back of the pot and raise her claws as if in defense. We think this fascinating Kung fu posture is unlikely if it was a driftwood instead of the pot. Crouching mantis, hidden prawn… Hehehe.

For food, Luna eats live little prawns. There is one surviving food that has become her friend. I call it Silly Prawn and this little crustacean is quite the clown. I tried to video Luna last week and guess what, Silly Prawn video bombed my attempt! Check out this video and wait for Silly Prawn…

   

 

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Do Dinosaurs Need Peace and Quiet to Think?

21 Nov

Sometimes I think of myself as a dinosaur because the things I see today are so different from my growing up days. And I find myself reminiscing about the good old days a lot when seeing my teenager second child does the things she does these days. Makes me acutely aware that indeed, times have changed.

These last two weeks I find myself needing extra peace and quiet surrounding me when I do my work in the office. A strange change in me. Have I evolved?

Although there is music in the studio as I feel it’s necessary to mask the sometimes enormous silence, I find it especially annoying when the DJs chatter more than play music, thus breaking my concentration. And this is precisely why I prefer Michael Buble in my car over the radio.

Currently, I am working on yet another design project and this time, the need to formulate my thoughts in quietness is important because I need to ensure every aspect of the identity’s application is cohesive and covered. So there shouldn’t be distractions. Unlike projects that require music blasting to spur my creativity, now it’s quietness that is necessary. Looks like the thought process outlining the application of a design is different from the design itself. I must have evolved.

It made me wonder, out of the blue, do real dinosaurs needed the same when they were thinking what to eat? Where to go? Would music derail their thoughts and decisions? It’s a silly thought.

  

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