LaundryAmah

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…

Woke up annoyed as usual as my maid slept in while I slept in…

Then Apah made breakfast and I had to monitor since I don’t trust his style….and yes….he did it again…..ANNOYED me to the max as he didn’t listen to simple instructions…classic answers..

…how I know your style? (we will be married 10 years by year end…)

…how I know what you are thinking? (errrr..how about asking?)

bleh bleh bleh….

Then he said something really stupid (actually this is nothing new as he always say things liddat) and got me real mad and I went on with my usual speech….soooo annoying!!

Then as we dilly dallied…(ok ok mostly my fault…) we were really late for church and when we departed the house we were already half and hour late..so by the time we arrive church mai almost over!! So Apah decided halfway to go straight to MidValley and skip church…(tsk tsk tsk….bad bad bad….).

We headed straight to Gardens as I no longer have interest in the old MidValley besides Jusco…really…

Shopping began in Isetan, then Pumpkin Patch was on sale!!!!!!!! I know I overbuy for the kids and most of the time they outgrow the clothes so fast but I really can’t help it. They are sooooo beautiful ma….

Then we proceeded to Robinsons and ngam ngam it was on the household item floor and there was a cup cake decorating session going on! So I quickly sat down and there were not many people around anyway eventhough the session already started like 15 minutes. Probably it was during lunch time. The decorating tips they were demonstrating was not interesting at all, in fact they kept decorating the same style again & again & again, which was piped butter icing into a clown sitting on the cup cake!….YAWN……..and bigger YAWN….but I stuck around as they had a decorating contest and looking at the people there, they really don’t look like the baking type so I thought I have a very good chance!!!

Contest began and I decided not to follow their style since it was only one style they taught! They were open to whatever design we like. So I decided to make a clown octopus instead. After glancing over to my opponents’ creation (including Kieran as they allowed him to join in also!!) I was sooooo confident! Hahahahhahahaha…

Then they had to call in more participants as they were giving out 2 prizes (RM50 Robinsons cash voucher each and the grand prize was some Italian plastic household item. After the next batch completed their decorating, I was still very confident! (eh eh perasannya….)

Well, what do you think? The judge took out 3 best designs out of the 10 cupcakes and of course mine was one of them. So my chances was like 2/3 probability leow! Then he took out one more and I was a guaranteed winner leow! Finally he had to choose the grand prize winner but really, it was not a very hard decision but he had to play along la….hahahahaha (me so proud…..) and the grand prize went to….

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Me! Naturally…..why? I had my kids cheering me on while I was piping the deco…

(the one on the far right is mine, sorry photo so cacat, cos Apah was the camera man!)

Then only we went for lunch at Crystal Jade. The service sucked big time, we had to search for the menu ourselves, then we had to take our own cutlery and after several attempts we finally got the attention of somebody to take down our order. I get really annoyed with such bad service as I felt the service should be at tip top condition since the price of the food is of the high high side ok! If I don’t require service I would have gone elsewhere on the lower ground floor ok!

The food HOWEVER was soooo blardy good it took our blues away…and Apah was saying…aiya forget it la don’t complain la…the food so good leh…

LB, the lormaikai was one of the bestest lormaikai I EVER had and sorry I didn’t take the picture of the before…KAKAKAKAKKAKA

slurpppssss…..

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!

I have been telling people that I don’t want to stress over Kieran’s school work and said that it’s still early bla bla bla…but after we received his school exam results and what I went through with him during the recent school holidays. I don’t think so…His exam results this time was really bad..and I mean realllllllyyyyy bad! Aunty Fiona who’s been helping him with his homework was also very disappointed with the mistakes he made, most of them could have been avoided, e.g. copying the given answers and filling in the blanks…how he went wrong? He missed out an alphabet here and there for English and BM and for Chinese, he missed out a stroke here and there..

Actually I hardly accompany him in his homework and school work until last year end holidays and even then I just bought him some extra work books and made him do without really supervising him. And during the recent holidays, I actually spent a little bit more time with him and to my horror, I found that he couldn’t recognise a lot of words, in all 3 languages, English, BM and Chinese. All these while I thought he didn’t have much problems with English as he could converse pretty well. Unfortunately, he was not able to recognise the words and couldn’t spell a lot of very simple words even…

I have bought so many books but most of them have pictures in it hoping that would arouse his interest in reading but instead he looks at the pictures instead of the words! I tried giving him a very easy book to just test him and he couldn’t read even very simple words too…

Therefore for the past few days I’ve been drilling him in reciting the “times table” and spelling while we are in the car. (time in the car also cannot waste!!) I just pick up words along the way and I remember I asked him to spell train and he went..”t…..r…a…n…”!!! OMG! I was so angry and I tried to make him think by pronouncing the word slowly to make him think instead of just letting him know the correct spelling but unfortunately he couldn’t spell it. So after giving him the correct spelling, I asked him to repeat the spelling and say the word for 5 times.  Can you believe that he can get it wrong??

He starts spelling..

K- “t..r..a..i.n, Train..t..r..a..i..n..Train..t..a..i..n…” 

Me- WHAT??? WRONG!! How come half way you can get it wrong?? Why are always dreaming??

K- *silence*

Me- Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you spell it again and please get it right?? Why must you wait for me to scream at you then only you start repeating the correct spelling?? 

K - “t..r..a..i.n…..Train..t..r..a..i..n..Train…..

Measures to counter to this problem after much thought and discussion with others..

1. To call Astro and disconnect the cartoon channel..
2. Take away his favourite toys (those he usually waves them around and make funny & weird sounds, imagining the scenes in the cartoons) 
3. To spend more time with him, make him read more
4. To buy more extra work books to give him more practice (practice makes perfect..rite? no??)

In fact I just told him that I will give him 3 more months to show me if he can concentrate in his work and should he fail I will have no choice but to send him to a boarding school far far away from us. I know he still can’t bear to be away from us as there were a few times that we asked him to stay with Apoh for just one night but he refuses most of the time. So I am using this to scare him and see if he will show any improvement..Keeping my fingers crossed….wish me all the best!

Today I had to go to Mid Valley to collect my notebook from the service centre and had to bring along the kids and the maid. I already started my screaming session in the car as the girl wants to lie down straight and refused to share the space with the brother and of course the brother cannot take it la! He shouted at her and the the lil cili padi of course fought back. I have yet to locate my missing cane…the boy must have thrown it away!

Once I parked the car, the boy opened the door and came down with the sister and of course I screamed as I know he can’t handle her and the sotong (blur) maid is of course still inside the car! Screamed at her to hurry up and then screamed at Kieran…ayoooo..

Then the girl refused to hold hands..and I had to repeatedly threaten to throw her in the big dustbin..yes I’ve been using this to threat her whenever she’s not obeying..I’ve even stopped the moving car to show her how “serious my threat is”…

I had to stop over to buy a new pair of school shoes for Kieran as the “sotong” maid washed his last dry pair of shoes before the others were dry! So yesterday he had to go to school with his sneakers! I don’t know what he does in school but his shoes get dirty like black after 2 days! So he has 3 pairs of shoes, so if he changes every 2 days, the shoes should get dry BUT only if the maid washes the shoes immediately la! Of course she didn’t as she waits to be told what to do all the time! So when I notice the other 2 pairs were not washed, of course I scolded her…but there was this last pair…but before she washed the other 2 pairs…she washed the last pair the next day!!!!! You say bananas or not??? Then I asked her if she washed the last pair..what was Kieran going to wear and she was so freaking smart and gave me a smart ass answer and pointed at the sneakers and said this, “THERE!” in very loud & confident volume. Oh yes, I’ve not told u guys that she is very bold, she answers me “YES” very loud and in that very confident manner each time, same goes with “NO” etc etc…

Back to the school shoes buying process….I was choosing the shoes and then got the size turned around…

Me-Kieran try this…

Oi? Where is everyone??? All gone leow..the boy was dashing about and of course the girl wants to run after him but she can’t catch up of course! So she’s like tripping and falling down and all over the floor! I screamed of course! What was the maid doing? Dreaming in one corner la!

The walk towards the computer service centre was not smooth either..Kieran dashed off as usual and the same process repeated..kids run, crazy mom screaming…people staring..ayoooo

Me-So what’s wrong with my notebook?

IT guy-It’s a virus..

Kieran-Blog somemore la…(in the teasing tone..)

Wah this time I really blew it leow..

Me-Do you want me to slap you in front of everyone now? (my face all screwed up and gritting my teeth at the same time)

He really tested me to the max. I quickly dragged everyone out of the shop and put in RM1 of coins in one of those musical moving cars thingy to shut them up entertain them.

We quickly made our way back to the car park and along the way of course I had to scream a few times and the final straw was when Kylie laid down flat like sleeping on the floor while waiting for me to pay for the parking!! Fainted! I give up! I really cannot take the kids out together anymore..I think I will go mad and by standing people may report me to the authorities!

During the school holidays, I will drag Kieran to the office while Kylie stays with Apoh. I can’t leave Kieran with Apoh as he will just watch cartoons on Astro non-stop! So I can’t allow that even if it’s school holidays and with peer pressure suggestion from Oscar’s Mommy, I bought a few workbooks to prepare him for Standard 2. However, I had to go out at times and couldn’t monitor him, hence we were not able to complete the workbooks. It was not easy to get him to do the work and it was a lot of screaming (worse than asking him to practice his piano) and threatening (I throw away your toy ah…).

I will usually choose his clothings for the day but there was one day he quietly changed into something else and while I was not noticing he will be playing instead of doing his work…so there was once he got so tired and ended up liddis…

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Pengsan (fainted) or not?

By the way, the position he fell asleep was right in front of the door way into my office and thank goodness we didn’t have any outsider/customer visitors coming in at that time!!

Before I get into the trip, would like to thank dear Kat for sending me a Christmas card all the way from the middle east! Wow, so surprised to received a snail mail card since it’s kinda rare with the internet cards, Facebook..etc…Thanks again!

We went to the Singapore Zoo quite late as Amah & Apoh wanted to do last minute shopping while the kids spend some time at the pool. Amah miscalculated and didn’t bring enough clothings for Kylie and brought too many for Kieran! Really last minute mia pasal (reason).

The zoo’s car park system broke down so we paid cash for the parking. It was a good thing cos remember..my Autopass cannot pay for parking (so claimed by that Autopass staff at the Causeway). We parked and got down in a hurry as we wanted to go for the animal show which the hotel concierge told us that it was at 1.30 p.m. After we got the tickets and the Zoo map & activities flyer…we realised that the show started at 12.30 p.m. instead! Shiats…of course couldn’t make it la! Then later we realised the later show at 4.30 p.m. was cancelled due to renovations in the zoo. Huh?? If they could have a show at 12.30 p.m. what’s the renovation got to do with the 2nd show? Doesn’t make sense lor…bad excuse to cut us short man!

We then walked around since the next show was at 3 pm and then suddenly realised I left my laptop in the car! So I had to go back to get it and told the rest to wait for me at the restaurant. When I came back to the restaurant, I couldn’t see the gang! Oh no!!!!!!!!! Not again! The distance for me to go back to the car and come back to the restaurant is more than enough time for them to go to the restaurant from where we parted so it really didn’t make sense why they have not reached the destination! I again began to wonder if they went to the wrong one, there were only 2 places to eat inside the zoo, but the other place is like so far away! Then I just sat there waiting…waiting…then I thought I better get some food. As I approached the queue, I saw Apoh!! Yeah!! They just arrived and were sitting the other side so they didn’t see me. They took so long as Kieran stopped along the way looking at the animals..

Food at the zoo was relatively ok and the price for the quality was more reasonable as compared to the crap we ate the night before at Din Tai Fung, Wisma Atria. We ate at the Din Tai Fung branch here at the Gardens, Midvalley the week before and found the food really bad and over priced. Then a friend told me it was better in Spore, hence I tried it and found it to be even worse! According to another friend, the Din Tai Fung at the Paragon is the best but I’m not convinced and I don’t think I wanna try it even if given a chance…

Back to the zoo…after the food, we went to the aquamarine amphitheater for the next show and it was really full. We managed to find some seats but the maid had to stand with the stroller…Halfway thru the show…it started to drizzle….pitter patter…pitter..patter…blip…blop…blip..blop….bisssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…..argghhhhh!!!!!!!!! The rain was so heavy we had to run for cover and we were stuck at the shaded area for quite some time. We didn’t purchase for the tram rides as the tickets were already so expensive…so I thot of saving some $$ and didn’t get it…drats…it was SGD5 more for each adult & SGD2.50 for the kid…so Amah was a scroodge saving money so didn’t get lor..So we just waited…and then the rain began to subside and we decided to walk on and then saw the polar bear so decided to go in to have a look but then it started to pour again and began to flood too!!

See the crowd at the covered area…then we were getting so tired and fed up and went to get the plastic rain coats at SGD3 each irregardless of size!! So cheating lor! Blek!

As we walked back towards the entrance of the zoo the rain subsided but we were all so tired and the kids were complaining and wanted to go home…..

We left and went round looking for a suburban shopping complex. Wanted to buy some stuff from the supermarket. I was told that the frozen turkeys are much more cheaper than KL so we wanted to get 2 back for Christmas! We stopped at the first one I saw not too far from the zoo, but it was a cash card payment only car park so I parked at the side of the road and told them to wait there while I go in to get the turkey. However as I was checking it out, I overheard a Singaporian couple commenting the price was on the high side. I asked them if it’s cheaper over at NTUC Fairprice and they said it was so I decided to go there instead, since it was just on the opposite side.

I drove off and saw the sign at the car park entrance indicating SGD2 per entry and no cash card payment system was indicated so I was overjoyed and made my way in. At the ticket dispenser machine I realised to my horror it was a cash card payment system! Argggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…. I had no choice but to just take my chance and stuffed my Auto Pass in and the barrier miraculously opened up! Aiya that woman at the Causeway really gave me a scare for no reason!

We loaded up our trolley in no time (almost forgot that we are not shopping at home!) The turkeys were at a steal price of SGD5.50 per kg only! So one turkey at about 5 kg was only about SGD28 or about RM65 only!! Cheap leh!!!! Here’s a peek of my shopping loot…(there’s more…couldn’t fit in la..)