Where Do All The Mooncake Tins End Up?

Marriage quote of the day: "I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me."

For dog lovers and owners out there, you probably know this. Apparently, this is one of dog's favourite chew thingy.


GROSS!! Yikeeeewwwwwgross!

PIG EAR. The latest canine rave. I heard there is also cow's ear.

***

I have this thing bugging me for some time now, it's one of those 'awakening' that gradually grows on you. Like a resolution, an answer to all the questions you've been asking yourself, the answer to all the anger and frustrations you felt.

Everyday, I think of this. A life of simple things. A life back to basics. A life based on needs, not wants.

I feel I've had enough of this fast-moving, money-hoarding, time-chasing, shopping-frenzy, tired tired tired kind of life.

I want to minimize. Desire less, buy less, need less, WASTE less. I'm tired of choosing. There are too many brands and variety of products in the market today, from everything under the sun. Spoilt for choices aren't we. Choosing is tiring. I think shopping is mentally draining because you have to make choices and decisions all the time.

I want to slow down. And smell the roses. Just sitting by the porch, feeling the breeze, listening to the windchimes, and being thankful.

At this point, I feel I have everything, if not, more than enough. And I want to stop here, and enjoy what I have.

***

Here's a good story.

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said,
"Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like."

The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one, and the holy man
looked into a room with a large round table in the middle. In the
center, on the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled so delicious
it made the holy man's mouth water. Yet, the people sitting around the
table were thin, sickly, and appeared famished. They were holding spoons
with very long handles strapped to their arms. Each found they could
reach into the stew-pot and take a spoonful, but with the handle longer
than their arms, they could not get the spoons close to their mouths.
The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering and
the Lord said, "You have seen Hell."

He then opened the second door. The room was exactly as the first one,
with the large round table and large pot of stew, again making the holy
man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons
strapped to their arms, but here the people were well nourished, plump,
laughing and talking.

The holy man said, "I don't understand."

It is simple," said the Lord, "and requires but one skill. As you see,
they have learned to feed each other, while the selfish think only of
themselves."

***

SuperJaded

Marriage joke of the day: "Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to
a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music
and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays."(Henry Youngman)


I did it again. I jam-packed our weekend with things to see, touch and remember. Why do I do this when hubbie not around? I try to be Supermom and Superdaughter and now that made me Superjaded.

On Saturday morning, after hubbie left for KL, I thought, since we're up this early, might as well see some animals. So off we went! The Saturday morning causeway jam was quite alright, maybe half an hour. Then it only took us 10 minutes to reach the Mandai Zoo after clearing the Singapore customs. I must admit, I was more excited than he was! I can say that it's the first for the both of us. I've never felt so bonded with him!

We took tram rides from one stop to another to catch the different 'animal kingdoms' and some animal shows.



We managed to catch a bit of the Splash showtime, which featured tricks-performing seals, which was so crowded. I actually had to carry him high enough to see the show, for a whole 15 minutes. Ouch, my arms. Then off we went to catch the elephant show. Honestly, as an adult, even for the first time there after 5 years, the show was rather boring. Maybe it's because elephants move slowly. A bit draggy la you know. But nonetheless, the little one was fascinated, especially when the elephants 'blew' water into the audience.


You can tell he is concentrating on the elephants' slow motion movements.




White tiger. BEAUTIFUL. Two sleeping. One pacing up and down. Picture a bit low standard. Hands a bit shaking. Daniel is not light.


I told him to stand there, in the sun, for this shot. He obediently walked to that spot. He look pitiful. Ha ha ha.


It was pretty surreal for him, I can imagine. I guess it's like knowing that The Matrix exists. All this while, he sees his animal toys, he sees the animals on TV, and then, one day, Mommy brought him to see the real animals upclose. I'm glad we made this trip. I decided not to complete the entire trail though, because it would be tiring, and I had already set my mind on this trip being the 'introductory'trip for him. We'll save the rest of the trail with papa. And then, we'll do the Night Safari!

It was a good thing I made the trip short and sweet, so that we'd still have energy for the well-deserved Ben & Jerry's ice cream! He wallop the whole cup, and some of mine. That parasite.


For the rest of the weekend, I split it into 3, for my dad, my grandma+uncle+auntie+7yearsoldIvan, and of course who can forget my mommy dearest.

THAT is why I'm so jaded today.

"Yoyee"

Marriage joke of the day: "My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met." (Rodney Dangerfield).

My boy, that clown, said "Yoyee" to me, because he broke a baby einstein DVD, and I was mad at him, and he cannot pronounce 'S' and 'R' yet. Oh, that sad puppy eyes he had. Then he wants to hug me. So cute.

It rained the whole afternoon yesterday, which is perfect for napping, and we all did, Paul, Daniel and I. For 3 hours plus. A quiet home, with only the sound of rain outside. A still home. No loud TV, no banging and clattering of toys, no screaming toddler, no movements, nothing. Pure peace. It's funny how parenthood makes you appreciate every moment of such rarity.

We were still bright-eyed wide awake at 11pm that night. Hahahahha.

On that same day (apologies for the poor sequence), we brought him to the children's clinic for him long-overdue influenza and polio booster jab. This time, he cried for 5 seconds. Before our turn ( wow, great sequence here!), we waited for slightly more than an hour which is quite the norm due to the number of little patients, on a Sunday. The clinic is closed on Saturdays, hence the crowd on Sundays. So, what people usually do, is get to the clinic to register your little patient's name as soon as you wake up, then go for breakfast around that area, and come back to wait.

That clinic's waiting area was filled with what could be possibly 20 plus people. All waiting. Very normal in that particular clinic. There was this Malay family, the kid maybe 3 to 4 yrs old had a kool-aid pad stuck to his forehead, and was walking around and looked quite alert, like a normal kid la you know. They have been waiting as well.

The Grandpa, who looks like the fatter version of Gandalf, maybe more of the Royalty look, came up to the counter and asked in a commanding tone, "What is taking so long? We came here 2 hours ago, and you said there were 6 patients more, so we decided to wait. But it's been 2 hours!". He looked intimidating even without speaking.

The receptionist nurse explained that there was one emergency case that was allowed to cut queue, and ONLY one. The rest are all according to appropriate sequence. I might've thought it was their first time in that clinic, because it IS possible to wait that long especially when it was as crowded as that day. Summore, I think they didn't go for breakfast la, just waited in the clinic.

Then, The Gandalf kept quiet, and continued staring at the busy receptionist, giving the intimidating look.

Names after names was called but it still wasn't their turn. I understand how that feels.

Then the whole family, the very mad mother, the kool-aid kid, the appeasing grandma and Gandalf, all at the counter with the mad mother raising her voice to the receptionist.

The receptionist could only repeat what she had explained earlier. Then the mad mother yelled, "SO, WHAT QUALIFIES AS AN EMERGENCY CASE HERE, HUH? HUH?! IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO MY SON, YOU WILL BE HELD RESPONSIBLE!"

Then they left. Gandalf left his intimidating message in the Menteri Besar style. "You better be careful you know".

Please, don't do anything to my favourite paed!

What a comotion. I'm sure every adult in that clinic heard it. But surprisingly, the children were still rather oblivious to what happened. Nobody cried or became scared. It wasn't as if the whole clinic suddenly became silent, as the children were still running around. Daniel was watching his baby einstein on Paul's phone the entire time, and we were just in front of that angry family. Is there something wrong with the children? Or just naive?

Also, at this point, I conclude that I cannot be a receptionist. This would've been my answer. "Is this your first time here? This is the normal waiting period on Sundays. I am going according to the list here, first come first serve. If you think that your child needs an emergency medical attention, why didn't you say so?" Man, I would cause that clinic or ANY businesses to close down. I'm not very unreasonable-client friendly am I.

That's my exciting out of this world weekend. How about yours?

China, The Big Fat Lying Giant

I can assure you, right now, every mother in the world is cursing China.

When it comes to our children, we will curse anything that harms them. I'm sure as I type this, someone somewhere is setting up an activist group to tell the world about China's little or lack of human rights. Just as my friend, Angeline has mentioned in her blog.

Although I don't own any of the toys in the list released by Mattel, but it's enough to set an alarm on the fact that I have bought MANY other toys that are made in China. Cheaper ones even!! And I bet those are even more dangerous since it's not an international brand, thus lacking global standards in child safety in toy manufacturing practice.

From now on, I am boycotting all products made in China, directly or indirectly ( even clothes made of fabrics from China). Those bastards need to wake up and learn that money isn't always everything. Those money-faced, corrupted fuckheads.

So, what do I do now? Get Daniel to have a full body toxicology test? It's useless. Whatever that's in his body, is already in his body. Some chemicals are accumulative, which means they stay in your body for the rest of your life.

Think about cosmetics and food made in China.... *shiver*

CoolMint Shampoo

Marriage joke of the day: "Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them." (Dumas)


You gotta hand it to the Koreans. They make good shampoo and good gimmick. It all started when I went to this bodycare salon just a walk from my office during lunchtime. The hairdresser boss, bless her, changed my parting and gave me a lot of information about my hair, scalp and how I should take care of them. Turns out, I had dandruff, but very fine ones, so fine I never notice because I'm a working mom. The dandruff is a result of a dirty scalp, from the pollution around me.

So, me bought Coolmint Shampoo to give me good hair, good scalp and good FEELING!

True enough, my hair starts to fall less. So COOL!

4-Days Weekend (S'pore National Day)

Marriage joke of the day: "You know what I did before I married? Anything I wanted to." -Henny Youngman

Phew! I survived! I survived the long weekend! I survived Daniel! Actually, his terrible twos syndrome ain't so bad now. I was all armed and armoured for the battle, thought I should set the foundation right for the long stretch of full days I have with him, but he was such a goodie. Maybe next time. Never know when he'll be a monster again...

So, I gave my IXUS400 a last chance. I charged its battery full, and tried snapping for a while. So far so good. And my lappie could detect it. Perfect for now. So I can show-and-tell what I've been busy with when I have some time on my hand.

This is my little project workshop where all my ideas and inspiration are executed in the form of glorious papers and knick-knacks.


A closer look at my new organizer. Nothing but a combination of cheapo Ikea cardboard chest drawer, transformed into a rojak of colours and design.




A couple of scrapbooking books that I had to import from the US of A. I like the authors scrapbooking style, but there's a lot of writing, a lot of quotes, story-telling and journalling. And they are simple, which is something I like too. But then all my patterned papers will be wasted. And I'm not really inspired to write a lot abou one photograph.. just yet.


Some scrapbook albums I bought. The smallest one is from a kit. All the pages and papers are provided, so you basically just need to paste according to the instruction manual. Of course, the cover design is all up your work, and there are extra stuff you can add to your pages.







It does look very pink huh. Fact is, there are kits for different themes, like baby boys, baby girls, home, grandfathers etc. Hehehe, no prize for guessing which I kit I picked. But not too bad wat, got blue and browns too. There are more pages but not shown here. I'm trying to finish some of the scrappages for the 12' x 12' album, then there'll be more show and tell! It looks quite different from the kit.

So, there. I do have a life. I preserve memories. There's more to scrapbooking than what you see here. Really.

The Terrible Twos

Quote of the day: Learn to think like a winner. Think positive and visualize your strengths. -Vic Braden

I found myself yelling at Daniel the whole Saturday. I never yell. That was when it struck me. He has begun the terrible twos syndrome.

He is like this wall of bricks. Bricks made of strong solid concrete stuff that no one can get through.

He doesn't understand 'No' anymore.

He gets impatient.

He whines more than ever.

He wants his way, only his way.

I'm going to die of a heart attack.

And he is going to trample all over my lifeless body.

On a better note, he woke up one morning and actually said Good Morning after I said it first. He's such a dear when he's happy after waking up. All babies are, aren't they. And he's such a laugh when he imitates adults like walking around the house and meddling with something while on the phone. Yes, he does that now. Paul and I do that. We pace up and down the hallway when we're on the phone. And there are many more expressions I wished I could've captured for memories.

Now where is that dream camera of mine....