He prayed!

During the rehearsal for the Sport's Day telematch competition, Didi's class came in first. He was happy. So, the moment he reached home from school, he said to me, "Mummy, I want to pray to God for rain on Friday." Just when I was trying to figure out why he wanted the rain, he continued, "Teacher says we need not compete if raining on Friday and our class will be declared a winner base on rehearsal's result. Yay!" As soon as he said that, he gestured his intention by crossing his little fingers. How cute.

I thought that was cunning of him to rob in God's help. For what I know, Didi does'nt really have high regards on the Almighty. Why do I say that?

Everytime when Jiejie were to remarked how she will ask God if Didi is speaking the truth about certain things (as you know, these two are just loggerheads. They are always arguing over petty things.), Didi is always quick to chirp in that God won't reply because he has never heard God at all.

So, anyway, Friday is here. Looking at how the sun is baking the ground with a vengeance outside, I believe God has other better plans for him.

Just thrilled

So while I and husband have decided upon THE decision, I have been subconsciously weighing the pros and cons.

Can I really cope with three? Will we be financially strained? Do I really need a domestic helper in the family? Will my parents frown on my decision?

I could dig through my bookshelves searching for books and surfing the net in search of all sorts of must-knows relating to my current situation, ranging from "whether I really should have a third one" to "how to prepare my body for IT". At one point even, I could ridiculously surf for maternity wear. Who knows, I may even start buying infant wear in no time.

I really can't explain my behaviour. Minus the bad thoughts, I am simply thrilled by our decision.

The Lord leads me. Hallelujah!

Lately, I have a strong maternal urge that I do not know why. I do not know if I should go along with the flow. Afterall, I am really not young and all the risks that associate with high age pregnancy really frightens me. Somehow, I have managed to convince myself to act rationale but recently, the inward me keeps shouting to have another child like never before. I never have such a feeling so intensed. It reaches to a high point that finally lead me to surf the net in the hope to find something that can dispel my fear. I could find none.

Last week, I met my gynae. .It just happened so coincidentally that the Mirena in me was due for removal. I had to see him to get it removed and then to reinsert a new one. It was only till the gynae asked about whether I would love to have another child that I revealed to him how my strong maternal instinct had got into me and that I was too frightened to go along with it amidst the many negative facts that I gathered from the website. He laughed and shared with me all that I wanted to know. Most important of all, I felt so assured by him that I thought I should take up the challenge.

That day, I walked out the clinic a changed person. The expired Mirena was removed. As for the new Mirena,




well, you guess....

"Engrish"

After the school bus had left with my two little ones, I decided to walk to our family physician to replenish my boy's nasal spray. The existing bottle of doses were depleted and therefore my boy had not been on full dosage of sprays for days. He had to wake up several times clearing his nose last night.

Along the way, I overheard a father speaking to his child. "Where you get the money, you no working, huh?"

He continued again, "You no working. Where have money?"

Those questions had struck a chord on my head. Even now, I am still thinking hard.

The fact is, many Chinese speaking parents are very much like this father. They will rather make themselves speak "English" than Mandarin to their children. English has always been deemed as a language for the intellectual. English commands better respect than it's second class cousin, Mandarin.

This is no wonder even the not English speaking parents are all rushing to command such respect by feeding their kids with "English".

Ummm, Singlish, that is.

Could'nt sleep

I had a good ten hours of undisrupted sleep that made me energised the whole of yesterday. I definitely looked great, too. When night crept in and that my energy level had still not worn off, I knew I had to do something.

I chose to surf the net.

So, there I was. With one hand feeding myself a banana to ease my hunger pang and using another hand to boot up my notebook. And yes, did I say banana is a rich source of carbohydrate. I google-searched and was amazed how two bananas could actually provide enough energy for a strenuous ninety minutes workout. How awesome!

Quite aimlessly, I was surfing from one website to another. And from another to yet another. The whole process just kept repeating and it was in monotony. I was really really bored. I caught sight of my cookery book next to my laptop and started flipping through it and finally decided to surf for food blogs.

Again, more surfing but with objective. Food Blogs.

There were many food blogs but few was to my likings mainly of the complexity of preparing. To match my standard, I sought for simple easy cooking dishes. Finally, I stumbled across a rare find. Hochiak!Delicious Asian Food . I spent nearly a good forty five minutes depleting my energy level reading the blog and thought "This is it!"

I happily bookmarked it, before I finally set off to my slumberland..

National Flag

National Day is over finally.

The thought of having to remove the National flag outside my window is enough to kill my mood. I am staying on a high level and it is no mean joke if I were to fly out of the window during the process of trying to remove the flag!

I really don't like removing it. It is not as though I like to leave it there to show my patriotism. Being patriotic has never got to do with hanging flags. Sometimes, it pisses me that there are indeed people who think otherwise. For those who has gone to the extreme of having one stuck onto their moving vehicles, I will think they are really really over board. Bored, I say. Ahem.

ANYWAY, I JUST SO DREAD THE CHORE OF HAVING TO REMOVE THE FLAG.

"Why then did you fly the flag OUT??" Good question.

Right from the beginning, I have never wanted to hang the flag out of the window. I have just said, and let me re-iterate....................

I have never thought much about flag hanging because I do not think patriotism is really about having to declare to everybody that you are being patriotic. THE MERE ACT OF HANGING THE NATIONAL FLAG OUTSIDE THE WINDOW DOES NOT NECESSARILY EQUATES TO TRUE PATRIOTISM SO WHY BOTHER.

Let me digress.

It all started that day when I met the RC chap. (RC - Residential Committee)

He was buzzing my doorbell in the eleventh hour. I knew he had it all planned because he could not stop quizzing me if I had been distributed a National flag and that since I had the flag, why aint I put the flag out and all sorts of bizzare questions that nearly set me to a mode of shame. The questions were enough to corner me to change my perspective. As intimidating as the questions seemed, what really changed me was when I was in the midst of struggling thoughts, I cast my eyes over my neighbours' windows and I saw an almost spectacular display. Nearly all my neighbours had partaken the patriotism act of hanging their flags!

Not wanting to be seen as an outcast, I immediately complied.

and so, Yes! I complied because of the peer pressure. In retrospect, I appeared to have no principle. Sad. On the hind sight, it probably was'nt a bad idea because conforming to a norm could be seen as better than going against it.

Afterall, who would'nt agree that Singaporeans are all a kiasu lot.........

Monsters

It was 11 pm and my little boy had already dozed off at my side when out of nowhere, I heard a soft flapping sound. My little girl who was still awake heard it, too. I knew it must be that little pest for I swore that I just saw it in the morning. I thought it would have already left the room but on hearing the flapping sound had proven me that I was wrong.

The flapping sound got into my girl's nerve that she was petrified. I, too, was scared. The sound seemed to come from the back of the window blind. I had every reasons to believe that the unwelcomed pest had been trapped between the window and the blind. I aptly switched on the 2 bedroom lights. With my bravery, for I had no other choice, I slided the window near the source of the flapping sound, hoping that the pest could fly through that window opening and out to the street.

We waited.

Nothing happened.

At that point of time, the flapping sound had also ceased. With bolsters in our arms, I and Jie jie cuddled up together at a corner of the room, waiting for something about to happen.

EXPECTEDLY,

out came the pest. Yes, that medium sized ugly looking moth. It was'nt that little as I thought. Just medium sized. It flew past the room, which left I and Jie jie screaming our lungs out. Afterwhich, the ugly looking pest went on to make a few more rounds before coming to a halt. Amidst the commotion, I lost track of where it was. Not knowing it's whereabouts definitely instill more fear in me. Fortunately, Jie jie spotted it. It had landed on one of the lampshades.

Both of us felt very "unsafe" in the room that we decided to make an escape to the hall. With arms wrapping each other, we lowered our heads and awkwardly made our way out, abandoning our Di di in the room with the ugly pest. Strangely, all those while when we were shouting and screaming, Di di was still in slumberland undisturbed. In contrast, I and Jie jie were behaving hysterically like mad women. How ironical!

Just then, Jie jie reported that there were TWO moths in the room. I was wondering how could that be possible?? One was just more than enough to scare my nerve out and now she said she saw TWO!!! It was already past 11 and there were TWO moths in the room!!! I was completely horrified. I needed my sleep badly but I could'nt enter the bedroom with those two ugly monsters inside. HELP!

We were just in luck because before long, my husband came home. With only plastic bags in hand, he easily cupped the moths into the bags without much effort.

All in just a split of seconds!

Resources are scarce. That's what Choice comes about!

As a parent, I have heard enough of relentless urging from the so-called intellectual ones not to deprive my kids from attending enrichment classes, be it music, dancing, swimming, drama and basically, everything that you can think of.

I have never failed to wonder if they are indeed suggesting for the general well-being of the child or is it just out of egotism that they have to say something to put people down.

Needless to say, they always and will never give up drumming these children-are-all-so-unique-so-let-them-have-grounds-to-explore values into my already stressed ears. Oh, gosh. Spare me, please!

Seriously, do you think that if parents have the means and capabilities, do you aptly think that they enjoy their little ones not learning something extraordinary? If I can have all the resources like abundance of time and money, what makes you so sure that it will not pain my heart when my little girl begs me for ballet and painting classes, and my little boy, playing piano and karate kicking??

So, people, the next time if your relentless urge is there to share your kind thoughts, please hold your horses! Check to see if the receipient could be moi because many a times, I will simply regard your kind thoughts as just another faking concern!

Oops, no offence, I hope.

Di di's new "toy"

Finally, Di di has got his new pair of glasses.

And it's freaking WHITE in colour!

It is definitely not my first choice of colour but apparently, he seems to want that colour and nothing else.

He is not even considering colours like blue or black.

"My friends' are all of those colours! I don't want to be like theirs!", he pouted when I tried my best to have him settle for a more manly colour while we were browsing for a suitable spectacles frame the other day. He frowned at my choice of colours.

Without say, I have resigned my fate to settle for whatever that has caught his eyes. As long as that colour can give him the wee bit of pride, I have nothing to complain. I will say, RESPECT ONE'S DECISION!

So, yesterday, he worn it to school for the very first time. He even declared that he looked professor-ish with his new found "toy".

Yes, I will call it his toy because it never fails to remind me how he has always behaved each time he has a new toy purchase.

I am sure that this "toy" will very likely thrill him for just the next 3 days.

Sunday

We managed to watch the Transformers only yesterday!

My boy had been pestering me to watch that show. Yes, that Transformers show. I had promised that we would definitely watch it one day.

We were supposed to be in church yesterday but there were just too many things that ought to be done that I decided to give it a miss.

My husband needed some time to pack his luggage for he would be out of town soon. Besides, he and the kids desperately needed their regular hair cut, so much time was spent in the morning at the salon.

As for myself, I had to "catch" the slight glimpse of sunlight to dry the whole load of laundry before it started to rain again. Unfortunately, much to my dismay, the weather was'nt that cheery.

Eventually, we booked the afternoon tickets to watch the movie "Transformers" after a home-cooked lunch.

I already know he has myopia

For several months, I have long suspected my boy to have vision problem. At every TV session, I have to constantly shout at him not to sit too close to the TV set but to not much of avail because the moment when he is not guarded, he will slowly inch his way closer.

So during one of our shopping trips, my husband was completely convinced by a promoter selling the Eye Exercise Device. Without hesitation, he bought it for the family! Alas, till todate, no one shares the same enthusiasm as him in believing that the device can help to alleviate eye problem. My husband has been the one and only frequent user though I do not think he need it more than anyone of us!

Finally, when my boy has been referred to see an eye specialist by the school health administer, I know the day has finally arrived. The eye specialist at The Eye Clinic wrote him a prescription for a pair of glasses.

So, my son has indeed got myopia at a power of 125 degrees.

Both eyes.

An Evangelist

This took place quite a couple of weeks ago.

It was a Sunday and a soft spoken serious looking man was at my door. He was accompanied by a teenager. Without showing me any identification pass of where he might be from, he abruptly blabbered about the need to get along well with my neighbours and asked how I could strengthen ties between neighbours.

I was clearly puzzled. My bemusement led me to stare hard at his face blankly. My jaw dropped a little and with a slight frown, I blurted, "HUH?? Are you representing any organisation to do a survey??" To that, he went on to tell me about which church he came from and that he would just want to know how neighbours should get along with one another.

As baffled as I was in the beginning, I paused for a few seconds wondering if I should answer him. Finally, I gave in, thinking that I could just shoo him off with some brief answers. Boy, was I so wrong! He continued to ask my opinion on how God will want us to live in harmony?

Happily, I went on to declare my close relationship with the Lord and hinted him that I attended my Sunday Service quite regularly hoping that he might gave my household a miss for his evangelising work. I was so wrong!

To fast forward the incident, he continued to show me bible scriptures. He even went on to visit me the 2nd time and finally 3rd time, inwhich my patience finally wore off.

Actually, I would not have felt so frustrated but I was in the midst of my afternoon nap during his 3rd visit. Therefore, his presence acted as a catalyst. Before he even had chance to preach, I

chided, "I AM very tired now, for I've just returned from church. Will it not be better for you to share God's words with the non-believers?"

Finally, after his 3rd visit, I never get to see him at my door. Come to think of it, I may be a little harsh. He probably may have good intentions but something just kept bugging me. Why are there still people like him playing evangelist to believers?

No wonder some shops won't prosperous

My boy had repeatedly asked me to get him a green pen, for the only one that was lying at home just could'nt be found. It probably had slipped its way to the Salvation Army during the last Spring cleaning.

His reminder kept buzzing in my ears that the moment the school bus sped off with my kids to school, I made a trip to the nearest neighbourhood bookstore. Happily, I settled on one green pen after having tested the ink and I thought I might as well grapped a roll of brown wrapping paper for my girl's project. I laid the two items at the cashier's table. The cashier looked up without any hint of smile. In fact, she was frowning. "YOU TAKE IT", she said curtly.

Well, normally I would'nt mind if sales people do not know how to string their words properly but if the tone is not even RIGHT, it is definitely my right to be disgusted.

Anyway, before I could react, she continued, "TAKE IT! So long. No carrier for this. And the pen so small. No need carrier for it one "

Finally, I spoke out, "Auntie, I must put the things down first. Then, I can free my hands to get money to pay you. So, how much?"

Well, the point here is, how can a little neighbourhood store survives with little or no respect of the customer service skill. Have they not heard about the need to constantly make your customers happy? I have heard enough of shop keepers ranting and raving about the high rental and low sales turnover.

I will say, "Stop it NOW. It's all in your own hands!"

No wonder it is so difficult for a neighbourhood store to be prosperous.

Are you giving me history lesson?

Yesterday, I was flipping through the Wan Bao which my father had bought.

I was disgusted that the Xiaxue Vs Steven Lim's internet drama was being reiterated in the papers ONCE AGAIN. To me, that was not news because the whole drama had already taken place days before. Nearly half of the world had already read their exchange in the virtual world.

And for WanBao to write about it only yesterday was just so lame.

My word of advice is, even if you have nothing to report and need to resort to retrieving drama episode from bloggers' websites, please at least do it with efficiency.

And you actually think it is so easy to earn our 50cents. Or is it 60cents.

Umm, let me ask my father tonight.

Best medicine of the day

If you have not read about Xiaxue Vs Steven Lim, I bet you don't really belong to this virtual world. Come on, go click their link here:

http://www.xiaxue.blogspot.com

http://www.stevenlim.net

Or, to save you the trouble from the lengthy reading, you can get a glimpse of wats-going-on from Mr Brown's site:

http://mrbrown.com

Promise. Sure hilarious. Never before.

HIS last supper

Toilet roll

Has anyone ever wondered HOW MUCH toilet roll one can use in 1 week?

Note that HOW MUCH is used here as the pronoun instead of HOW MANY. I do believe there are people who stinged on their rolls to the extent of using maybe 1/3 out of it. So, for me to ask HOW MANY, will not be of relevance.

As we know, toilet paper has its conceivable purpose to different human beings. Other than the norm of wiping backside, you can use it as a substitute for tissue paper. So, one will likely use it to dab their face, wrap their nausal discharge and whats-have-u.

My record is almost like 1 roll in 3 days. And I am not even referring to using it as a substitute for tissue paper!

Mummy, mummy, I have a question

During breakfast, Jie jie was asking me question after question that kept me tongue tied for quite a while.

"Mummy, what causes rainbow?"

I stared at her blankly for a few tickling seconds, trying hard to have an answer. When none could came out from my brain and I was tempted to tell her about God's promise to Noah that she suddenly said,

"I think I know why lah. It is something to do with rain and sunlight. That's what the Young Scientist wrote."

"Mummy, mummy, how come we can stand still without falling huh. I thought the earth is round?"

"And, if I travel out of this world, can I still come back to the same earth again? Maybe can. Can go out means sure can come in one. Hor?"


Ummm, I think so.

Pending tasks

Tasks have been building up and I have'nt got the slightest motivation to get them done. Not that I do not have the time. I have ALL the time that I want. That is a bit exaggerating, is'nt it? I may not have ALL the time that I wish to have but I do have some time under my control.

Well, anyway, that's about me who sometimes love to sit on tasks. Looks like now I really must list them out to get things sorted.

Sigh! So many pending tasks and yet, too little time. Well, you know I'm kidding.


So, here comes my list:

Replenish facial wash, toner, mosturiser - This time I shall buy Laneige products. I've recently tried their strawberry yorgurt scrub and the result is really impressive. Highly recommended!

Stock up on milk powder - This is one thing that need to be prioritised. Children's well-being cannot be taken too lightly.


I have not finished reading newspaper dated since 13/7/07 - A must to keep myself abreast of everything, irregardless of the relevance to my life. I don't want to be an ignorant auntie.


To start reading Joseph Prince's new book - This is to feed my spiritual need.


To mark children's assessment - I normally must spend some time marking their work, without relying on answer sheet.


To confirm with husband about bringing his folks to hear the gospel - We have pondered over this but have yet got any concrete planning.


Sigh! So many to-do tasks.

Is this a lantern?

I have yet checked the calender but thought Lantern Festival may be coming soon. So, I asked husband if he could help design two lanterns for the darlings' lantern projects.

Husband and jie jie discussed and came up with an idea which they taught were brilliant.


Husband: "Very easy lah. Don't even need to cut or paste anything."

jie jie: "Yeah yeah yeah, just like that like that can lor."

Husband & jie jie: "hee hee ha ha!!"

Mummy: "What u all talking? What like that can liao?"

jie jie: "We thought of just putting the candle inside this water pail. Water pail already got handle mah. So just carry like that lor."

Mummy: "U all siao is it?? How to call such thing project?? Aiyah, I will figure out myself lah."

See, how can my family function properly without me!