LaundryAmah

Ok taking a break from my Europe trip and have some updates on the kids.

Took Kieran for a haircut last Saturday morning. Was in a rush so packed the kids in the car while they were still in pyjamas. We stopped for breakfast at our favourite roti canai restaurant and had roti planta. The kids were fighting as I ordered only 1 for them to share. I know Kylie will not be able to finish one, so mai share la..ok la..I gave some of mine to them also la…

Upon seeing the kor kor having the hair cut, our little girl also wanted one! But she just had her’s trimmed a few days back when my mom brought her to the salon. Kor kor was performing for a mini in-house concert in his music school (for like the mini-est part) but still he must look good ma…hahaha

That’s him in his new hairstyle and practising his recorder last minute…

Look at that cheeky face of hers…my hairdresser was of course pretending to cut la…

another random cheeky face pose…

Petting the rabbit at Bukit Tinggi one week ago…took her quite a while to gather enough courage to do that..

I again lost it in Kieran’s school yesterday. Apah was away so I had to pick him up from school. It’s so tough for me as I had to make sure I shut the office on time and then drive all the way to his school which is quite a distance. I had to drive like a maniac to beat the jam to avoid being late. (I was late one time as I totally forgot about having to pick him up and I had to get Apah’s uncle to help get him first).

The first time I created a drama was when I arrived he was nowhere to be seen. It was almost 7 or could have passed 7 and he was not waiting where he should be waiting. You know it’s so hard to spot him as the mass of kids in uniform and in that particular height makes it so difficult. I was already cooked up filled with pressure from the days’ work and not seeing him only made it worse. When we finally found him, I spanked him and screamed at him right there in front of everyone.

Then yesterday I was super early waiting in line at the school and the maid went down to get him. Slowly all the cars were dispersing and still no sign of them. I slowly drove nearer and nearer the gate and still no sign of them. After a while I lost my patience and went down. I saw them but they had that blur look.

Me- WHAT’S WRONG? (I THUNDERED..)

Maid-Cannot find bag…

Me-WHATTTTT?????? WHAT DID I ALWAYS TELL YOU? THERE ARE SO MANY BAGS N KIDS, YOU MUST ALWAYS STAY NEAR YOUR BAG SO YOU CAN KEEP AN EYE ON IT. NOOOOO, YOU MUST RUN AROUND AND PLAY, LOOK AT HOW SWEATY YOU ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I THUNDERED AND SCREAMED AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS)

K-(stared blankly at me with wide wide round round eyes…)

Me-I DON’T CARE LA, I REALLY CANNOT TAKE THIS ANYMORE, I’M GOING OFF WITHOUT YOU! LET’S GO (I gestured to the maid to go and left Kieran standing there.)

The maid being the log she is, of course just followed me and had no compassion for the kid whatsoever and Kieran didn’t even panic or cried or tried to follow me and beg me for forgiveness. That’s why I know this gangster kid is a really tough kid.

I entered the car & immediately called Kieran’s tuition teacher to tell her that I want to stop his tuition since he doesn’t seem to learn anything and she was not cheap either. Then I had to let go steam so I called Apah of course! Good thing he was not in a foreign country, just different state. I just shouted n shouted and I guess I felt much better as I did pass some stress over to him even though there was nothing much he could do.

Then I asked that log of wood maid to go down and continue the search for his bag. I can’t really dump the kid there alone right??? After a while they finally found the bag, someone could have mistakenly taken it and then realised and left it in the guard house.

I continued scolding him in the car, nagging about how fortunate he is to have the chance to go to school bla bla bla…but I guess it just goes in one ear and comes out the other ear….as I have gone through this speech like a million times and always told him to look at the maid saying that she didn’t have the chance to study and had to come work as a maid. So with a living example right next to him also cannot motivate him I really don’t know what to do la…you teach me la…how????

Life has been tough without Angie. I decided to move closer to work, ie mom’s place (since she’s away on holiday) so that I can arrive in office on time to monitor the work. True enough, it has been chaotic and my being around didn’t help much as I’ve been leaving everything to Angie to handle so that ends up in me not knowing what to do! I had to call Angie to find phone numbers even!! tsk tsk tsk….In fact there were so many outstanding issues which I don’t know about and was caught with my pants down unaware and it was so embarrassing. tsk tsk tsk again…

However, Angie has been a gem, still very involved in our operations even though she was not physically around. She has been constantly checking on how we are doing and sending emails to remind us what to do & what to follow up on. I don’t know how and when the new staff can reach even half her capacity but from what I gather so far….it’s going to be a long & windy with full of hurdles road along the way.

Just today itself I was so stressed, my breakfast was half eaten, then lunch was late and also not properly eaten & digested well. Hmmm but looking on the bright side, I MAY loose some weight!

Anyway, the kids and I are squeezing on Apoh’s bed while Apah goes back home to water the plants & also guard the house la…

Here’s a photo of the kids snuggled together while I was having difficulty to sleep blogging….

I don’t know how it’s going to be like while I’m away for 5 days from next week on….I can only hope and pray that all is well…

I was so busy I actually missed out the post on her actual birthday which was 20 May. So sorry baby…

We had a small party for Kylie at the house. This time I thought of minimising my work (since I’ve been really busy and stressed lately). I had my dearest cousin Yong to prepare the soup and marinating the meat part. All I had to do was bake the cupcakes, fry the meat & some other kids food plus prepare the salad. Easy peasy…but still ended up kelam kabut (chaotic) and was late in serving the food..again! Thousand apologies folks!

I baked the cakes the day before and to my dismay, it sank over night! Must have done something wrong. Blame it on the aparatus! hahahahaa…my cake mixer conked out on me from Kieran’s party last year and haven’t gotten round to fix it or buy a new one. So I used the food mixer and then Apah’s strong arms to mix it.

The party went on fine, I hope! Only thing, I thought the food was not enough ler…so embarrassing! I kinda underestimated the number of people coming. (good thing some ppl couldn’t turn up! :P)

This is going to be short as I have to rush off….can read about the party from here & here. In fact I haven’t downloaded my photos in my computer so I’ve selected 3 out of Sasha’s photos. Thanks Sasha for helping me take the photos.

got that ribbon from Tesco..cute huh?

rushed work cupcakes….

Kylie was so shy and didn’t want to stand in front of the cakes for the cake blowing session..

Just to wish all mothers out there a very happy Mother’s day today! Hang in there, it’s a tough journey but we are not alone!

I would also like to take this opportunity to remind myself as a mother…

Firstly…

Please do not say this when Kylie brings the book to me..

1. Tomorrow ok?
2. It’s late…
3. It’s so dark….I can’t see the words…
4. Not now ok?
5. Can’t you see I’m watching tv?
6. What?!!
7. Go away..

Me - I love to read to you more often my angel but why must you always shove the book in my face when I’m watching tv or at my lap top geh?

Kylie - but mommy, you are always in front of the tv or lap top when you are not doing other things wor…

Opps! Sorry dear…will try to read more to you ok? I love you darling…errrr….will you still give me a mother’s day kiss?

Secondly..

…when Kieran pricks me..

1. Do not scream at him
2. Do not instantly pick up the cane/hanger and start whacking
3. Do not call him names that are negative in nature

INSTEAD

Try to..

1. Talk to him
2. Understand why he acted that way
3. Reason it out with him
4. Encourage him
5. Be his buddy
6. Assure him of my love (yeah he’s kinda LOA type…)

Please remember that mummy only screams & discipline you as mummy loves you with all my heart! So, please complete your school’s mother’s day card project ok?

Lastly…

….be nice to my own mother no matter what…

It’s been ages since I’ve been up north and since my cousin from Sydney is here I drove him up to Ipoh for some good food and also to meet up with our 2 other cousins who lives in Ipoh.

We left quite late as we dilly dallied we were on our way around 10+ in the morning. We stopped over Bidor for the duck leg noodles. The noodles is very different from the ones here, crispier and doesn’t have any boric acid after taste. I drank all the soup as it was sooooo yummy! Sorry was too excited and gobbled up the noodles before taking a photo!

Arrived Ipoh at about 1.30 pm. First stop has to be Old Town Kong Heng Coffee Shop lerr…

Again I forgot to take the picture of the noodles but here’s the empty bowl…

We also had popiah also, it was so yummilicious lor…

As if not enough, we walked next door to this coffee shop called Thean Chun, it’s actually right next to Kong Heng.

We had the famous steamed egg custard caramel & egg tong sui…

Then my cousin said the kuey teow soup at Thean Chun is better than Kong Heng so I mai try lor…(yes 2nd bowl…ok ok la…not that bad cos the first bowl was shared with Apah..and so was this one..)

After that only was I satisfied! Burp…

Actually not lor…we continued our journey to search for Funny Mountain for the smoothest, softest tau fu fa. This place is just opposite the famous Foh San Dim Sum.

After that only were we satisfied to the max and off we went to visit our cousins (daughters of the uncle in China).

Thanks to cousin Yong for her excellent memory we were able to find all the food destinations and of course the Ipoh cousins’ residence

After that we left to get the famous Ipoh Heong Peah from Gunung Rapat, which is the factory. I usually buy from the shop in town but according to cousin Yong, it’s more fresh from the factory..naturally lerrrrr…There was this unique display in front of that shop, displaying the items that the Chinese traditional wedding requires. Sorry the photo is not so clear as I took it thru the window…

After that I met up with my customer as he has the jalan(way) to the sweetest pamelos from Tambun. When we arrived the shop was already closed but thank goodness the shopkeeper lives there and we were able to ask them to re-open the shop! By that time it was time for dinner and off we went in search of a place recommended by cousin Yong’s friend. We have only very vague description of the place so we had a bit of problems looking for the place. We made a few rounds and finally gave up and went to another place which again have only very agak agak (rough) knowledge where it was!

We finally found it and indeed it was a popular restaurant as it was full house!

The kids fooling around while waiting for food…

One rapper and another violinist…

By the time we were about to finish I realised it was quite late. I immediately thought I should bring the kids to my family friend’s place for a quick shower so they can change into their PJs and let them sleep in peace all the way home. I walked out of the noisy restaurant to make a phonecall and before I could end the phone call I saw the family friend’s grandma, then the mom, then the father! wahhhh we were practically squealing! They were “scolding” me for not calling them to inform that I was in Ipoh. Then I realised the whole family was in Ipoh. What a coincidence! Ipoh can’t be that small?? Anyway it was really a great reunion as I haven’t seen some of them like for donkey years as some are living in New Zealand. We quickly rushed back to the house and showered the kids in a jiffy and had some catch up time with my childhood friends but we couldn’t catch up for long as it was already 11 pm!

All in all, it was like the most fruitful trip ever to Ipoh accomplished in one day!!

We went for a short getaway during Cheng Meng as Kieran’s school had the day off and Apah too applied leave. We decided to pack up and went to Tiara Beach Resort upon reading this pretty mama’s getaway there. I was not too impressed with the place but the kids were overjoyed! Since I was told the food was not too good there I decided to cook our own dinner! I brought along a small stove.

The weather was kind to us and the rain was held back and the kids could immediately jumped into the pool. They really had a good time.

It was time of the month for me so I couldn’t get into the pool with the kids…so can you imagine how bored I was? I started cooking early as I figured they will get hungry after the swim. It was a simple dinner, fried spaghetti with eggs and the kids, especially Kieran gobbled it down.

We had bread & eggs for breakfast and again the kids were so excited to rush into the pool again. We let them swim till 10 + while we packed up and got ready to check out. The kids were so disappointed to leave but we really had to as I don’t think I can survive another day there!

We stopped over at Seremban to have lunch. I wanted to eat my favourite Teochew Kiamchai stew and as usual we turned into each street to search for that shop. I can never remember which street it was but this time I told myself to pen down the address! It has like the best kiamchai stew ever ok! We bought takeaway to bring back but the price has increased quite a lot…

For 3 days in a row he has things for me to write about! I had to write it down before I forget!

What now?

We were driving back after I picked him up from school and suddenly I saw him hanging yet another new mechanical pencil on his shirt.

Me-where did u get that pencil?

K-oops..

*quickly took the pencil and hid it*

He had the most guilty look as we have talked about this issue like a million times. He has like a million of these pencils and yet he keeps buying them! Not only pencils, he has like countless rulers & erasers too! It’s like why does he need so many? I told him he has only one had that can write, why does he need so many? I really don’t mind if he does well in his work but for the way he does his work..it’s like what for??? He doesn’t like to do his homework but he needs a million pencils….

Me-Where did u get the money to buy this pencil?

*silence and his face is turning into a more guilty look*

Me-Who gave you this pencil?

*still in silence*

Me-You better tell me and don’t lie to me as God is listening…

K-I took the money from the cupboard.

Me-Is the money yours?

K-No

Me-If you have taken something that doesn’t belong to you, what does that mean?

K-*whispering* stealing..

Me-What? I can’t hear u..

K-I stole the money..

Me-I’m so disappointed with you Kieran..how many times have I told you that you do not need so many pencils? And now you have actually stolen money to buy another! You are definitely going to be punished..I want you to kneel and pull your ears when we reach home..

The moment we reached home, he zoomed upstairs to shower without me screaming at him. Then as I was serving dinner, I suddenly saw him already kneeling down & pulling his ears! See how guilty he was! I told him to eat first & then complete his homework and then continue his punishment. I made him say “I will not steal again..” repeatedly till he got really tired!

see the little girl..kor kor kena punished and she thought it was a game!

Yesterday I actually forced myself to sacrifice sacrificed watching tv and sat together with Kieran to do his homework. If I continue to do this daily I think I will suffer from hypertension and also will need long sighted reading glasses very soon! I already bought the biggest size ever Chinese-English dictionary but the characters are still so small! Since I don’t read a lot of Chinese Characters, I have to turn to the dictionary. It’s not as easy as using a English dictionary since I have to search for the character based on their characteristics. I guess it would be easier for someone who has a bit of Chinese education background from a proper school unlike mine which was from a karaoke screen!

And he gets distracted so easily…that really annoys me maximum as I was struggling looking for the meaning & pronunciation of the characters and he was like dreaming & wasting time doing unnecessary things.

Then this morning I did some revision on his Malay.

His first excuse…

K-there’s something wrong with my hand…look I can’t write properly…

Me-JUST WRITE!

Then…

K-what is ….? what is …..? I don’t know….

I tried to make him think by making various sentences using the word in doubt. I had to make like more than 3 senstences!!! DIe or not….tested on my not so fantastic Bahasa!!

After the relatively easy fill in the blanks exercise, there was a part where he had to make sentences given a few pictures. He just stared at the pictures and I think he went to space & never came back till I snapped him out of it.

I tried helping him by prompting him but I gave up as he just kept waiting for me to give him word by word. Then I took out the sample answer sheet and asked him to copy.

K- which one?

Die or not? He was too lazy to look for the sample answer despite the fact that it was shoved right in front of him!

Me-Answer given to you and you can’t even make the effort to look for it??

K-Copy all? Here? What about this (the first sentence we did earlier)?

Me-Yes all! Just write below la…

He again just stared into space….

Me-Hey! COPY wor…no need to think!! What are you doing????

I feel so sad, it reminds me of this story about a guy who asked to learn how to be the laziest person in the world. He went to the master’s house and called out to the Master..

Lazy-Master I’m here…

Master-Just pushed door and come in..it’s open

Lazy-Why don’t u come open it for me?

Master-You are certified…no need any more lessons!

Daddy again flew off for one of his many business trips yesterday.  He actually asked Kieran to remind me like a million times not to forget to send him for swimming class. Yeah remember? I’m the slack mommy who can forget!

We went to KLCC for lunch and bought some groceries as I intend to cook spaghetti for dinner. No no..who am I kidding? Go all the way to KLCC for lunch and groceries? No lar..the real reason was that my favourite shoe store (Pedder)  was on sale..but unfortunately or should I say fortunately I didn’t find anything that suits me!

Mission accomplished, yes I DID send him to swimming class, thank God it was not raining. I quickly sorted out the groceries and got the maid to do some preparation for dinner. Went back to pick Kieran up. Usually daddy does this but since it’s me, he has to shower in the ladies!! He was not comfortable of course! But no choice la!

Dinner was great…(cheh..self praise), I made mushroom soup too but it was not that good…bleh..Kieran gobbled down dinner as he gets really hungry after swimming. Then I asked him to do some revision but he was cooking up excuses that he can’t find the book la, toothache la…got me really mad! Then as I was watching tv, he suddenly came down to tell me his mouth was bleeding but I didn’t even turn around to look at him! I was so mad and thought he was making a mountain out of a mole hill to avoid studying. Then I asked him to pack his bag then since he didn’t want to do revision. He was packing really slowly (as usual) and then suddenly he started crying as in sobbing!

Me- What’s wrong with you???

K-(in between sobs) i…i…miss….dad…dy….i…miss….him….

Me-he was away for 5 whole days last week and you didn’t cry or said anything…why suddenly now you miss him?

K-….sob….sniffle..sniffle…b…cos….he…cares….for me….

My heart dropped…must be the part that I didn’t bother to check his bleeding mouth! But being me, I just told to hurry up & pack up & go to sleep!

Then during the advertisement intermission, I went up quickly to check on him and he was still sniffling…

Me-It’s ok darling, don’t cry ok…mummy’s here..(ya right)

K-(started sobbing again)…but…but…I miss…dad….deee….

Me-come come mummy hug hug…sayang sayang…

K-sniffling…

Me-ok stop! Go to sleep!

So can you see why my kids don’t even ask for me when I’m not around?????