Tradition Continues

22 Jun

Every year when the Dumpling Festival comes around, Mom would painstakingly make the effort to make the dumplings or what we call ‘Bak Chang’ in the Hokkien dialect. She would always make the Nyonya ‘chang’ for me as it is my favorite. 

But every year when she makes them, she would highlight the tedious efforts taken and declare that it would be the last time she’s making them. This went on for the last several years.

Last year with M1 still around, she taught her the skills on how to make ‘changs’. And I would just wait to eat them when they are ready. I’m terrible, I know.

This year, things have changed. With M1 away and I have never, all these years, picked up the skills from Mom to master to carry on this tradition, it looked like we would not have homemade ‘changs’ to eat. And I dared not open my mouth to request from Mom.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I learned that there are some to eat. The elder twin niece had complained that purchased ‘changs’ do not taste as good as Grandma’s recipe. And she took it upon herself to carry on the tradition with Grandma supervising her on the side.

Thank goodness for nieces, I have my homemade Nyonya ‘changs’ to savor!

  

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Ticketless Passage

19 Jun

The last two updates of Candy Crush for the iPad seems to be very generous. I have progressed on upon completion of a chapter without having to ask for tickets.

Yesterday morning I completed Soda Swamp and made it to the next chapter, Candy Clouds without the need of friends sending me tickets. Cool.

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Don’t You Want A Piercing?

18 Jun

Girls will be girls. But I guess I am not, somewhat. When M1 was six, she had her ears pierced. But it took 13 years before M2 had her ears pierced. All this while, she has been afraid and that’s why it took this long act on it. And we felt the fear and anticipation of the piercing was far more terrifying than the actual pain.

To show her support, M1 accompanied M2 and she (M1) got her second set of piercing while M2 had her first. This was last year.

Two weeks ago, M2 wanted a second set of piercing! Where did the bravery come from? But as M1 is away at university, hubby nudged me to do it, to show my support.

Did I do it? Well, I’d rather have another tattoo than having my ear lobes punched.

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Can I Skip College?

16 Jun

I never expected this but M2 recently proclaimed that she would like to skip college. I was horrified but thank goodness, I did not faint. I thought with M1 now at college, it would inspire her but no.

This came about after her stress of studying and sitting for her mid-term exams. She had been complaining and asking why she has to study all those subjects that are irrelevant to her in her life. What is the point of learning stuff that will never be of use anyway? And in college, this whole process will be magnified even more. Although she’s only 13, coming to 14 soon, this studying business does not appeal to her.

Oh dear. How to deal with this?

So I asked what will she do instead if she didn’t choose to go to college. She said she will help animals. Ah hah… An opening.

I pointed out that if she wants to help animals, all the more she has to go to college. Otherwise where would she obtain her knowledge to help the hapless animals? As animals can’t talk, it would be tough to figure out their problems.

“I can google up!” she exclaimed.

“You can’t trust everything you find on the internet!” I pointed out to her. And we left things as is for now without things getting blown out of proportion. But I can tell you, this topic is still hanging and am pretty sure we will talk about it again.

Stay tuned.

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The Oldest Thing

15 Jun

Sunday was the last day of the two weeks holiday. Having not gone anywhere the last two weeks because we had project deadlines to meet, M2 just stayed home and watched a lot of videos online. Yesterday, we decided to indulge her and brought her to the mall and watched ‘Jurassic World’.

But I was also in the mood to buy something and suddenly, I had the urge to buy a Beatles CD! I don’t know why, I guess that’s why it’s called an urge. So I told M2 to help look for it. 

She found The Beatles’ Red Album, 1962-1966 and showed me. I told her I have the album already but alas, it is in the cassette form.

“Cassette?! Oh… That’s the oldest thing I’ve ever heard you say,” she said. 

Gosh. Am I such a dinosaur? Or maybe it’s the generation of today that are not exposed to great things of the past. The cassette being one thing, The Beatles the other. The oldest thing, hrmph.

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Happy Anniversary 

12 Jun

I find it amazing that today marks the second anniversary of my blog. Two years! Wow… Two years of daily musings (except for Wednesdays) and constant blogs when I travel. I never knew I had so much to talk about.

What started out as simply my wanting to share about my children’s antics has evolved somewhat to what it is now. I would to thank my followers and readers for keeping up with me to reach this milestone.

Looking forward to many more!

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Did You Know?

11 Jun

For the first time I noticed an inconsistency in Candy Crush Soda! It is Level 375 and the challenge requirement is different on the iPad compared to it in Facebook on the laptop. Can you believe it?

There are four scenarios to pass. On the iPad, you have to save 40 bears. And you need to save 6, 12, 30 and 40 in this order to pass the scenarios to complete this level. On Tuesday night, for the first time, I realized that the same game at the same level, on the laptop in Facebook, only 36 bears are needed to be saved! Not 40 but 36.

And the sequence is 4, 10, 28 and finally 36. Hrmph… No wonder I have been stuck here for so long because I play on the iPad all the time!

King.com… You need to fix this!

So the minute I came home from office on Wednesday evening, I went straight to my laptop and attempted Level 375. And guess what? I made it pass Level 375! Finally. Yay.

 

40 bears for the iPad

 

36 bears in FB on the laptop

  

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The Breakfast Days

9 Jun

I remember when I was very young, my Dad used to bring me and my older sibling out for breakfast on Sundays. Somehow Mom never came along because she doesn’t like Indian food. We were doing the ‘Ghee Thosai/Roti Canai’ breakfast.

The shop was just opposite Dad’s office, crowded, stuffy and dirty. The one thing I remember significantly of the place was the little drain around the perimeter of the corner lot coffee shop; it was all clogged up and rather disgusting in sight and smell. And every time before entering the premise, I never dare looked down at the drain when crossing over it for fear that it would make me lose my appetite.

But the lure of my favorite ‘Ghee Thosai’ was irresistible and no dirty drain was going to stop me.

Dad insisted that we have to eat Indian food like the Indians, that is with our hands. So we ate our ‘Ghee Thosai’ with our hands. After the meal each time, I remember I always placed my ‘Dhal’-laced fingers near my nostrils to savor the aroma during the car ride home. Call it a bad habit or whatever but those ‘Dhal’-laced fingers smelled really wonderful even after washing!

Although I don’t use my hands to eat nowadays whenever I go for a ‘Ghee Thosai/Roti Canai’ breakfast with the hubby and M2, I would recall fondly of those memories and the drain!

My all time fave!

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Surely I Can

8 Jun

My last entry on my three games had me stuck but perseverance and determination saw me finally made it pass Level 951 for Candy Crush and Level 748 for Farm Heroes. But Level 375 of Candy Crush Soda has been problematic. Why?

Surely I can overcome. After all, many a time when I hit a snag in any of the three, it takes strategy and patience. But this time… Ugh. Patience has turned to annoyance.

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Summer is Here!

5 Jun

Spring term is ending for M1 soon. How time flies. It seemed like just yesterday when we sent her off at the airport. By the end of next week, she would have officially completed a term at university. But she will not be coming home. It’s too soon as she just left for the Spring term. She will have summer classes instead.

When I went off to university, I started in the Fall semester and by the time summer came around, I came home for a good 16 weeks. However, by my second summer, I took one summer class. Yes, just one – an oil painting class. It was fun. I worked at the bookstore as the in-house designer while also tending to the Counter selling art equipment and supplies, attended classes to paint daily and once a week, went off to the bar with my American ex-room mate for margaritas and buffalo wings. That was my summer.

Well, M1 will not have it so easy like me because she definitely has more classes than I did! But she will be fine and will do okay.

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