79 is Not 80

22 May

Mid-year exams are around the corner and motivation needs to be provided for the girls. Unlike M1 whom I am proud to say can achieve her targets, M2 needs a little bit of encouragement. So I offered my old iPhone4 seeing that the need for a mobile phone had cropped up again recently.

There was no tussle over the iPhone4 for ownership after I upgraded because I did not allow a tussle to occur. Although by hierarchy, M1 is entitled to my old phone, she is pretty contented with her hand-me-down Android phone from hubby.

But since M2 has been grousing for a phone, why not just dangle the iPhone to entice her to do well? After all, the iPhone4 is just sitting there collecting dust. All she needs to do is to achieve the 80 percent average target for all her subjects.

M2 is hesitant because firstly, my old iPhone4 was problematic (that’s why I changed) but I convinced her ever since I upgraded, the old phone seems to be okay. The choice was tough: a smartphone or no phone. The second reason being, she wasn’t sure she could achieve the 80 percent overall. So she negotiated with me.

“79? Can ah?” she asked me several days before the exams started.

I merely raised my eyebrow and commented. “79 is not 80. Does it look like 80 to you?”

She cringed. Silence.

Then she tried again.

“What if it was 79.6? Cos if you round up the point six, it would be 80!” she sensed victory in putting her mathematical skills to good use!

Hrmph. We shall see…

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Staying Connected Anytime, Anywhere

20 May

The mobile phone is truly a wonderful must-have device today, keeping us all connected 24/7. With the variety of smartphones available now and with apps like Viber, WhatsApp, Facetime and iMessage to name the ones I use, we are always connected, be it the normal telco connection or via wifi/3G. During the dinosaur era when I was 17, mobile phones were unheard of and I would be hogging the house phone for hours to continue conversations from school with my best buddies.

But of course, you don’t see that with the children of today, hogging the house phone that is. They tweet, Skype, Instagram or status update on Facebook. However, with more and more social app choices available, it is hard to keep up. All I know is my girls are using something that I am not!

When M1 turned 12, both the hubby and I decided maybe it was time for her to have her very first mobile phone. But being only 12, we felt the phone shouldn’t be very expensive yet has all the cool functions. We got her a Sony Ericsson and put her on a post-paid plan instead of pre-paid. The rational was to monitor the calls instead of capping the usage at a monthly fixed pre-paid cost.

That first year, she must have discovered the wonders of staying connected anytime, anywhere. Ten months into ownership, her bill came to a whopping figure, it shocked the daylights out of dear hubby! The amount was more than what he and me uses—combined—for a month! My goodness, you could see smoke coming out from his ears… The punishment: deductions from the daily allowance to settle the bill.

Since then I guess M1 must have learnt her lesson for whenever I try to call her, it is so difficult to get her. She hardly or never picks up or answers the call promptly and will always go to message, which annoys the daylights out of me. Everytime. Hrmph.

When M2 turned 12 last year, the thought of getting her a mobile phone never crossed our minds after our experience with M1. So we left the situation as it is although she had hinted for a mobile phone every now and then. Whenever the situation arises, and in order to justify her need for a mobile phone, I would gently remind her by asking where is the old Samsung phone that she had inherited from me. Knowing full well the reply would be “I don’t know…” it was a practical reminder to her that she is not ready yet to own a mobile phone.

Undeterred, she found a way to overcome this. Proudly she tells me she has been saving her pocket money to buy one, sharing her dreams to have the latest Samsung models or the Apple iPhone5S. I even encouraged her to keep up the good saving trait. But my child being my child, she daringly pestered me to upgrade my phone to the iPhone5S so that she could inherit my old iPhone4; thus her saved funds can be used for something else! Behind the efforts taken, she was worried the fund was very slow to grow and lamented that by the time it became sufficient, she would be looking at probably, an iPhone10! While I did not budge on the upgrade idea, circumstances had me changing my phone this year. So now I have a spanking new iPhone5S and the old iPhone4 is just laying around, doing nothing but collecting dust waiting for new ownership.

And the lure of owning a phone has cropped up again with the 13-year old M2 who aspires to stay connected anytime anywhere with her friends, more than her parents. It remains to be seen whether the old iPhone4 remains to collect dust or be adopted.

So the house phone still has its usage after all.

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Am I Italian?

19 May

It was during Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year that we discovered some very enlightening facts about hubby’s side of the family. Hubby’s uncle and cousin had painstakingly researched the family roots, tracing back to his great-grandfather, who was born in 1881 and emigrated here from China.

This means his grandfather is the first generation of the clan, hubby the third generation and my girls the fourth generation. I was awed because on my side, my only sibling and I are first generation; my Dad came from Singapore.

During the PowerPoint presentation, the whole clan learnt of the beginnings of the ancestors: how they met, when, where and all. There were even mug shots of the great-grandparents and it was one of the mugs that I commented, “Gosh! He looks European! Almost like an Italian!” to which M2 overheard and perked her up.

“Am I Italian?” she said.

Tickled by her question, I merely raised my eyebrow. She persisted.

“Am I Italian?”

I rolled my eyes and ignored her.

“Hmm. I must be because I like pizzas!” she decided and beamed.

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Oh No! A Glitch!

16 May
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See the up-down scroll arrow, on the left?

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up-down arrow appears again at a different spot!

I have come to the end of Biscuit Bungalow. Level 575 was not that difficult. Thinking that I could move on, on the laptop to the next chapter, I thought I would have to ask for tickets but alas, I could not do so!

There seems to be a glitch on the laptop as I cannot click on the ticket platform. Every spot I try to place the mouse at, an up-down scroll arrow appears instead! Oh no!

Luckily the next day, the glitch was fixed on the laptop and with tickets arriving, I have progressed on to Gummy Gardens. Yay.

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Suckered In

15 May

I was stuck at Level 566 in Candy Crush for so long that I contemplated giving up. Go back to my retired status from the game. However, the app updated last Thursday for the iPad and I got suckered in yet again.

But amazingly, last weekend proved to be fruitful. The horrible Level 566 was overcomed and I have breezed along on the iPad. I am now at Level 575, the end of the Biscuit Bungalow chapter. Looks like if I want to carry on, it’s back to the laptop as the game has another chapter in Facebook. And I might just do that because Farm Heroes has hit a snag at Level 245. Cuteness is lost with time bombs here! And these time bombs are meaner than those in Candy Crush. I am not amused.

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Everything Has a Name

13 May

M2 loves her study corner so much, she has decided to give names to the things that make up the area! (Remember Pancake the pet plant?) One evening, she told me, “Mummy, you know my Pixar light? I call it Peter!”

“Really?” I was amused.

When hubby bought her an external hard drive to store her data off the computer, she gave it a name too.

“This is Phil.” She introduced the hard drive to me one evening.

“Waa… You’ve got Peter and Phil. What next?” I asked. Which I shouldn’t have because the next thing I knew, I was introduced to her table.

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“Mummy, my table is called Bobby.”

I rolled my eyes; everything has a name. I dare not ask what will be next.

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Oh! Pixar Lights!

12 May

The study areas were created and both girls were extremely happy with the result. To top off the space, we needed to get lights for them. So I promised them after work, we will run off to IKEA to buy the lights. I was even reminded every hour via iMessage after they came home from school. Such was their excitement especially M2.

So at the lighting department in IKEA, hubby and I were debating between aesthetics and practicality. He decided it shouldn’t be halogen-based to minimize heat issues when used over a prolonged period. I pushed for those swing arm worklights that uses energy saving bulbs because I used to have them when I was in college and secondly, I thought they were the most practical. Braced to a furniture, it looks sturdy and won’t topple over even if handled too roughly but hubby thought they weren’t pretty. But in the end, my insistence for practicality won over the pretty table lamp choice that he had in mind.

When we came home, both girls waited excitedly by the door because we called ahead to announce our return with lights for them. The front door opened and dramatically, the lights were shoved forward to present to them.

“Oh! We got Pixar lights! Yay!!!” one of them exclaimed. Wow. I never even made that association and in my mind I knew it was the right choice. Without giving us a chance to have dinner, the lights were quickly assembled and put in place with our help of course. The two study areas are now complete with Pixar lights.

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Hitting the Jackpot

9 May

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I confess. Besides Candy Crush, Zookeeper Battle and Farm Heroes, I play the Jackpot in Facebook. A year ago, I decided to chase the game’s leaders and try to break into the top 50 in the world. Why? Just to test myself and see if I could do it. I figured if other Facebook users can have their names on the list, why not me? So diligently, I would spin the jackpot every single day without fail. Days when I travel, I’d enlist the girls to help just spin the wheel for me. It’s almost a crazy obsession but the key was to be constant on a daily basis.

So a year ago, I was trailing the 50th player listed by 4 million. Yes, I kept a tracker! A gargantuan task but I have been chipping into the gap consistently, slowly but surely. And you know what? Exactly a year later, two days ago, I broke into the Top 50! Yeehaw….

It feels great when you have achieved something. Persistence does pay.

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Imaginary Friends

8 May

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When I was young, I had imaginary friends who were very interesting and loyal. Way cooler than real friends, they were constantly by my side and totally understands me. I never knew this trait is also evident in my children until I was spring-cleaning their room recently.

It was a Sunday and we decided to revamp the girls’ room a little to create two study corners. As boxes of toys were moved, we had to decide whether to give them away or keep them elsewhere to create space. In the midst of this, I stumbled upon a note written by M2 when she was young.

“Oh… Shaun! That’s her imaginary friend!” chuckled M1.

“Really? I never knew!” I said.

We opened the folded note and read it.

It was hilarious!

I must salute M2, for her imaginary friend was way, way more interesting than mine! And letters… classic. I never wrote letters to my imaginary friends.

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Oh No! My Pants Don’t Fit

6 May

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You know you had a good holiday when you come home and find that your work pants don’t fit. I was aghast! I had to suck it in—not a whole lot just a tad (but still!)—to wear my work pants yesterday. Oh dear… I thought with four rounds of golf in Batam, sweating it all out under the sweltering heat, I would be fine. And it’s not that I ate excessively, my portions were normal. I didn’t even drink beer on the course on this trip.

But looking back, the four rounds was all buggy on course unlike a month ago in Chiangmai, the three rounds, we walked and walked and walked. Now comparing the stats – in Chiangmai, it was close to 20,000 steps each time at the golf course, and this is not inclusive of the before and after game walking. All in, I’d say a good 23,000 steps a day, more than the 10,000 steps quota for a day.

In Batam, it was slightly over 10,000 steps but with the before and after, I’d say it wasn’t even close to 14,000 steps each day. I remember by the third day, I decided not to wear my pedometer because the earlier stats were not very impressive and I did not want this to distract me.

Could it be the food? Or the drinking? We had hard liquor for four nights in a row, single malt and blended whiskeys: 12-year old Chivas Regal, Glenfiddich, 12-year old Dewar’s and Label 5. We drank as well in Chiangmai but that was a 4 day/3 night trip versus this recent one of 5 days and 4 nights. By virtue of an extra day and an extra bottle of whiskey, my pants don’t fit? My personal trainer would have a fit if she knew!

Looks like I have to do something about it and it’s not buying new pants nor skipping going to the office! Sigh…

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