My first Bento..(many moons ago)

My very first attempt in creating a bento and this is the closest I can get! Some fried sausages, cheese & nutella sandwich in cat & the island of Australia’s shapes plus cut kiwi fruit.

Kieran’s first reaction while I was preparing his bento.. (took me almost one $@&#* hour to prepare this ok!)

K – Mum..what are you doing?

Me – Preparing your meal for recess…nice or not??

K – (screwed up his face) Why are you decorating it?

Me – to make it look more interesting la!

K – (walked off..not impressed at all..)

It was like you know…pua pua pua pua……(music indicating disappointment…) all my effort he’s not even bothered!

Then I packed the box with this sheep band…

Just before we reached his school, he wanted to start digging into his food. He took off the band and shoved it back to me…

K – Nah..no need…

Me – Why? Put it on la..nice ma..

K – (chomping on his food) no need la….

When he came back from school..

Me – So did you finish your food?

K – Yes

Me – Oh great..did you show your friends your lunch?

K – (looked at me as I was some alien) Nope!

I attempted another bento for him a few days later…

K – Mom…can you STOP decorating my food??!!

M – FINE! I will not decorate anymore! Blek!

My lil vain pot is 3 years and 4 months old..

She loves going to the salon to get her hair “fixed” thanks to APoh la. She will bring Kylie along with her and the hairdresser will comb and tie up her hair. That day she actually requested for a hair wash!! See la..

See how relaxed she looked…tsk tsk tsk…spoilt brat! Alamak..eek…I spot her drool!!!

Then proceeded to cut her hair (bluff bluff again…) FYI she asked for another haircut yesterday..

She has been requesting to go “tai tai” (“kai kai” = going out ) lately and refused to stay at APoh’s place. When I bring her to the office she will cry each time I walk out of the office. Like today she insisted to follow me as I went out to pick Kieran from music class. So I brought her along. Kept repeating in the car, “I want tai tai..” like a broken record.

Each time she follows me out, this will happen lor…

This pic was taken one day after visiting the doctor..sometime last month I think..she was playing with the goggles and then ter-fallen asleep!

Picked up Kieran and off we went to SS2 McDonalds to get their lunch and something from 100Yen shop.The moment they saw their happy meals, they pounced on it..not to get the food but that stupid toy! I threatened to take away the toys unless they start eating.

Kylie has this very bad habit of saying this too…”I WANT….” everything also “I WANT….” Quite annoying lor..

She has been with me at the office lately as I had to rush to be on time, so no time to drop her at APoh’s place. She will be bringing her Elmo VCD and shoving it into the computer and say, “I want…I want Elmo…” Sometimes I get too busy and I will snap at her…feel so bad after that…

She has been asking me about school lately just because her cousin goes to school…she packed her bag and insisted I bring her to school a few times ledi…kept telling her it will only be next year..

She’s toilet trained in just one – two weeks which was quite some time ago..forgot to mention as it was not to my credit!  Was APoh & APoh’s maid who helped toilet train her. However, she gets lazy, as she still sleeps in diaper, she will wee or poo in the diaper even though she’s awake! Bleah!

Her speech is still not as good, but she’s able to get her point across..

In Loving Memory of LaundryAhKung

9 years have passed since you left us. I miss you…terribly still. Especially now, with the situation in the office. I know what has happened in the business will definitely break your heart but I can’t control the situation. I didn’t ask for it to be this way. With God’s strength I will persevere, with memories of how you pulled thru all those years, I will hold on to as my motivation to go on..I really don’t understand why this has to happen and for 3 generations in a row..is this some sort of a curse or what? I rather not think of it that way…

The kids came along to visit your grave. Kylie of course has no idea what’s going and just thought it was a normal outing, only thing the sky was still dark when we left the house. We had to stopover at McDonalds as the kids were making noise asking for food. Mom and brothers arrived first and cleaned up the place (I don’t understand why as it’s already quite clean and well maintained but mom insists..). Kylie climbed up and stepped on where you were laid to rest, jumping up and down! I took pictures but my younger brother didn’t like it and said that you would be angry with her…I don’t think so lor..remember crazy horse? You used to give me crazy horse rides on your thighs? I would always say faster faster…it was so fun…remember I used to rub my face against the stubbles on your cheek? I am sure you will remember that!

We all miss you very much…till we meet again….

My poor distressed boy…

See this sad looking face? Well it’s been like that lately. He has been really putting on the most miserable face ever, especially during meal times. Apoh gets really worked up and nags n nags about how fortunate he is to have such good food (that’s what she thinks, but I reckon her cooking is eh..hmm…not quite appealing to especially these fussy kids’ liking..) She kept forcing him to eat the fried tofu skin which she stuffs with fishpaste (homemade of course) but she doesn’t understand the fried tofu skin can be quite chewy and the kids can’t handle it.

Besides choosing the food, I know he’s been overworked lately. Tuition starts at 8.30 am (we have switched tuition teacher as we found he didn’t improve at all, failing his Chinese main paper in 3 exams in a row!) and he gets back to Apoh’s place for dinner around 7+pm. He starts dinner around 7.30pm after scrubbing shower and starts slaving doing his homework around 9pm. He attempts to complete completes hopefully by 11pm! By that time his double eyelid is so deep, as if his eyes have sunken in the eye sockets! Therefore, I leave him at Apoh’s place during weekdays as we will never be able to make in on time for his tuition should he goes home with us.

I now feel so detached from him, I try to give him some attention and love but there’s basically no time for that! I am not sure what is happening now is good for him..but I don’t want him to have any spare time if he ever goes to private school, I know he will be so spoilt. He’s sort of protesting against what he’s going through by picking up fights with other kids in tuition class.

I stopped his piano lessons at that majorly expensive so called prestigious music school as I tried to make him practise his piano one day and he refused. So I made him kneel and pull his ears. Guess what? He rather kneel down & pull his ears than practising! NMFL!

Backdated – Singapore 2

This is another trip down south as I had to train a new customer in JB. Since it was school holidays I brought along the kids, Apoh and Apoh’s maid. However, I did warn them it’s no 100% holiday as I stopped at Melaka, Muar, Batu Pahat and finally JB. I only managed to visit the important customers as time was limited.

It was like the longest drive ever and Kieran kept asking if we arrived in JB at every single stop! While I was talking to the customer he would keep bugging me, “Mom can we go??” This brought back memories to me as I remember we used to tag along with my dad during his business trips all the way down the south, only difference, there were more stops and there wasn’t a North South Expressway! We used to complain a lot in the car too and I remember I used to sing in the car and that tortured everyone and my dad named my songs “lai si kor”..go figure what it means! Bluekkkkkkk…ok ok

We finally arrived at JB in time for dinner. We found a place not too far from the hotel and had a quick dinner and the kids were quite cooperative and ate pretty well. After dinner we checked in the hotel and ahhhh finally a good rest! The hotel room was big and comfortable as there were 3 adults & 3 kids! The kids were running around and then suddenly Kylie came up to Apoh and said this…

K – Apoh..apoh..where I-lie (Kylie) sdtipper (slipper) too (two)?

Apoh – huh?

Me – “laughing like mad”

K – where I-lie (Kylie) sdtipper (slipper) too (two)?

Apoh – what you talking about? (in impatient tone, as usual la..)

Me-Aiya she’s asking where is the other slipper..’

Kylie was holding on to one side of her slippers and she couldn’t find the other which was kicked under the bed.

Training the next day so a good friend who lives in JB came by the hotel and drove Apoh & gang to lunch and they had more swimming at their condo. The kids really had a good time. Training finished at 5 and managed to beat the after hour jam to get back to the hotel and freshen up before I join the gang for dinner. It was good catch up time and the kids were really cute. They had a fight towards the end and Kieran was a brat, kept calling Sweepea names! But Sweepea was really gracious and forgave Kieran in the end. How sweet.

Saturday we drove down to Singapore. The crawl started at the Woodlands checkpoint. Thought I could send Apoh to get the Autopass done but she was sent back by the cops! Cannot simply walk around lor..hahahha As usual the guy processing the Pass was rude and arrogant. I didn’t check the receipt details and didn’t realise that he actually entered my car registration worngly! He called me the next day only and I was already back in JB! Result, the autopass is useless and I have to endure the queue and application process again! I am angry not because of the cost of getting another pass, angry is because he was arrogant was talking with air and didn’t concentrate in his job and got it wrong.

It was bad weather all the way. We were still unsure where to go first land had to look to the sky to decide. After we crossed the border, the rain subsided and we decided to to Jurong Bird Park. The moment we arrived, it started to rain again! Ayoooooo…since we were there, no choice, bought the tickets with the monorail rides. We went up the monorail. Good thing after one round of monorail, the rain stopped.

After Jurong Bird Park, we drove towards town as I wanted to visit Vivo City. I missed the turning and ended up in Marine Parade! So I turned to look for a 7-11 to top up my AutoPass. After that I called my friend and he gave me directions to go to Vivo City. We found the place and parking was good, right in front of the elevator.

First stop was Marks & Spenser, bought a few tops cos they were really cheap, SGD18 – SGD22 per piece! Next was Mothercare. They have different stuff there, much more variety than here of course. Next was Daiso, the SGD2 shop. I went in for so long, Apoh had to come in to fish me out as it was close to dinner time. The queue to pay was like super long also! Check out my raid!

Sunday was the only day I could watch the kids swim. After breakfast, we went to the pool. It was quiet until this family with 5 kids came along…Kylie didn’t like the crowd and refused to play in the water. She just stood there in the pool! So unsociable, tsk tsk tsk…

I noticed Kieran improved a lot in his swimming. I was so proud of him and was snapping photos of him swimming.

After the swim, I went up to take a nap as we were leaving later. Need to get some sleep to recharge. It was a good drive back.

Backdated posts – Singapore 1

Remember my training in Singapore? It was quite a trip. I took the Aeroline bus down. It was quite a comfortable ride and I was quite pleased with their service. I left in the morning and arrived in Spore by noon! The location of the laundry I was visiting was very close to Tuas so I figured it would be stupid to stop at Vivo City (the original final destinaton of the bus) which was right in town. I asked if I could stop at the Checkpoint and make my own way. They told me there was a public bus that stops there and there were no taxis. I asked if I could just walk out to the main road and look for taxis and they said no. It’s ridiculous but I dare not take chances since it’s Spore, the “fine” city…

I waited for the bus and it came not too long, but the driver said this bus goes only to Woodlands and cannot stop anywhere else! No way! I aint going to Woodlands, no difference from Vivo City! I tried explaining that I just need to go somewhere nearby and just stop where I can take a cab. He told me to hop on and said I could hop off when he stops at the traffic lights about less than 50 metres away. I was like what? Why I can’t I just walk over there??? I could see where he pointed me to stop ok! It’s so close by!! So I asked how much should I pay him and he just shrugged his shoulders and said he doesn’t know either! I didn’t feel like asking for a free ride either so I just dropped SGD2 in the box. I know bloody expensive for a 30-seconds ride but that’s was the smallest change I had.

The moment I walked down the bus I saw a cab waiting nearby!! It was like a miracle. Weyo? That is some God forsaken place ok! It was another 10 minutes to the laundry and the moment I arrived the whole team (various representatives for the chemical brand I represent) were standing in front as if they were welcoming me! No lar…they were just waiting to go out for lunch! Wow! What great timing! Can you imagine Iarrived just a few minutes later and I will be so lost cos nobody in the laundry will know who the “toot” I am ma! Wakakakakakaka…The angels were definitely watching over me! Hallelujah!

The Sporean reps did say how lucky I was as they can’t believe I got a cab from that place. It was amazing. Lunch was at the Yacht Club, beautiful environment but the service sucked big time. I took some time deciding what to order and finally settled for a set lunch thinking it should be fast but guess what???? My food came last! Bluekkkkkkkkkkk…

The training was really good, was really impressed with the laundry as it was family run, all the brothers and sisters working together and the business was really successful. Oh they said they do fight and can be really ugly too but they all had the understanding that no matter what, the business must move on! That should be the spirit. Really admired the founder as he’s still working like one of the workers in the laundry and nobody told us, we will never know he’s the owner!!

It was work work and late dinners so there was not a chance I can sneak anywhere to shop! I stayed at a friend’s place as I was a miser the hotels were too expensive and another good thing was the Sporean associate lived quite nearby and he could give me a lift to the laundry. Double $$ saver!! Yoo hoooo!!! He was such a good host and offered to give me a ride to the bus station the day I left. I had like about one hour to walk around but I was worried for my staff as he was at the laundry and joined me later. I did manage to grab some stuff from the supermarket, my usual grabs from Spore, the Nissin instant noodles & biscuits. Not to worry as I knew I had another trip to Spore the following week! ngek ngek ngek…