Archive for May, 2008

The other day I saw a man dropping his daughter off at kindy. He drove near the kindy. He couldn’t get right up to the front gate because there was another car ahead of him. The girl who was sitting at the back opened the car door herself and walked a short way to the gate on her own. She is my daughter’s classmate.

So far I have not seen any other parents do this. Most of them get down, open the door for the kid and walk the kid to the gate. I do this too. I do this out of my own fear because of a few near misses when it comes to car doors.

As a result, I do not allow the kids to open the car doors on their own. The car doors have child locks on and I open the door for them to enter and exit the car. Let me talk about the near misses.

1. My sis was on the driver’s seat of her MPV and she had swung the automatic back doors to close. It almost closed on my girl’s hands had I not jumped in on time to pull her away.

2. I was quarrelling with hubby over some dunno what small matter and I was still arguing while we were unloading our boot of groceries and then I slammed the boot door onto my girl’s fingers. I slammed really hard. We had to unlock the boot door because her fingers were trapped. Fortunately her fingers were caught in between a gap! My heart stopped that moment. I don’t remember what we were arguing about now but I will never forget that heart stopping moment. Thats why they say when in a fight, stop and think. Is this really important 5 years from now? If its not, forget it. Obviously its not because I can’t even remember what we were fighting about now but it almost caused my girl her fingers.

3. My boy had put his fingers in the space in between the door hinge and my husband almost closed the car door without realising it.

Coming back to car doors. As a result, I do not allow the kids to open or close the doors on their own. I am afraid that they may accidentally close the doors on their own or each other’s fingers.

I wonder at which age will it be safe to allow kids to handle car doors on their own? I wonder am I being over protective over my kids sometimes, raising molly coddled kids. I wonder is the man whose daughter got out so confidently and walked on her own to the kindy gates raising an independant child or is he being foolhardy?

I had so neglected my kitchen that a rat found its way into it and lived there for 3-4 days! On the first day, I thought I saw it but then I dismissed it as a shadow, a figment of my  imagination, or a rather large lizard.

On the second day, my husband saw it scampering past and again we thought it was just a shadow or a large lizard. It was too fast for us.

On the third morning, I woke up to a very serious faced husband who said “Its confirmed hon, its a rat! I saw it and it has nibbled your coaster.”

I went to inspect my coaster which was for hot pots. I had placed the coaster under my used oil pot and the rat and nibbled it to shreds! Eeeeeyeeea!

And then…….. I saw it! It ran down my sink, then sat on my shelf and looked at me arrogantly (or so I thought). “I’ve taken over your kitchen.” It seemed to say. And no, it didn’t look a bit cute, not like the rat in ratatouille. It just looked disgusting! I kept on imagining it having a field day running around in my kitchen and I was beside myself with the thought. I closed the kitchen door silently and went to play with the kids. No way was I going to tackle the rat on my own.

When hubby came home later that day, we armed ourselves with an insect spray and a badminton racket each. Then we each stood on a kitchen stool ready to do battle with the rat. Lol. Just imagine that, two big people afraid of one wee rat.

We sprayed and shouted at it and eventually manuevered it out of the kitchen. Phew! After that, I had to scrub the whole kitchen. Everything had to be washed with soap and rinsed. The floor had to be flushed out with more soap and water.

I have no idea how the rat got into my kitchen. I do not leave food lying around and my rubbish bin is always covered. Food items are usually neatly and nicely tied into separate bags before throwing into the bin. There is nothing to eat which is probably why the rat had to nibble at my coaster under my used oil pot which was probably quite tasty from the oil that splashed over it. Eeeeyeeea!

Now, I dare not open my kitchen window or door or go out to the backyard. The other day, I saw another bigger rat running about in the backyard. Eeeeeyeeea!

Thank you rat. My kitchen is sparkling clean now.  But I am not finished with my rat stories yet. Will write more about that another day.

Now, I’ll have to think of how to get rid of the lizards in my kitchen. Sigh.

May is a very busy month for me. I’ve been so busy, my last blog post was last week. Unthinkable! Hahaha. There is a backlog of blog posts in my head. Funny. Whenever I am busy I will have lots to blog about and no time to blog it. Then when I have a bit more time to blog, I write nonsense because there is less to blog about. Its a chicken and egg situation.

I’ve been so busy, not only my blog has been neglected, my house has been too. Neglected to the point that the other day we discovered a rat in our kitchen! Horror of horrors! It was so horrible but I will write about that in another post. No time today. I’ve got to clean house.

Speaking of cleaning house, this middle aged aunty had her 5 minutes of limelight the other day. Thanks to Sheila Rahman, consultant of the new Malay Mail, lil’ ole me was featured in the BlogSpot page in the Malay Mail on Tuesday May 20, 2008. I was bursting with pride to see my avatar and graphics of my three blogs put side by side plus a 3 quarter page write up. Probably the only other time I had my 5 minutes of fame was on my wedding day! Hahaha.

I proudly showed my husband my blogging milestone ie the Malay Mail page which was online. I can’t link it since the Malay Mail is updated daily. You’ll have to look for the print version if you want to read more about me. *wink wink* or you can view the .jpg picture here. You’ll need a microscope for that though.

Later on when we were out hubby asked me to buy the papers for him. I was so happy that he remembered to ask me to buy the print version so I could keep it for keepsakes but then he asked me “Eh, how come you bought the Malay Mail? You were supposed to buy the Star for me.” Hehehe. There goes my 5 minutes of fame and glory. Lol! Now that my feet is firmly planted on the ground again, its time to think about what housewives are supposed to think about ie… housework.

I really must stop writing now as my house has been grossly neglected. So I’m skipping off to do my house cleaning now. Theres the toilets to clean, the floors, the laundry and I promised my girl that I will make more flowers for her teachers. There will be no time to bloghop yet (Boo Hoo Hoo. Been missing out for a week, so much to catch up on.) and I will have to write about the rat in my kitchen another day.

Time flies. Its almost a year now since I started taking my adult pop piano classes. “How come  you’re still not playing any pop songs?” asks my husband. 

Well, I’m trying to learn Mariah Carey’s Hero now so he should recognise that one. I am happy to be able to play Beethoven’s Fur Elise and Baby Elephant Walk now.

My playing is not fantastic. Its offbeat, and does not have enough “feel” (I’m just playing notes and it doesn’t sound melodious or like a song.) Still to be able to play is an achievement enough for me. I’ll work on the “feel” slowly.

And sometimes, I’m lazy. I’d try to guess the notes instead of looking at them properly and I play on my own beat. My teacher would laugh at me. “You ar… just simply play.” she would say.

Its wonderful to be able to realise a dream. Simply wonderful. You are never too old to start learning anything. I wonder what I should learn next. Yes, yes, I’d love to be able to bake but then I don’t have an oven nor the space for one.

“I’m stuck all day in the house with the kids. There is no adult conversation. Only whining. I have no time for me. There is so much to do. I feel so tired from it all, day in and day out. Its the same everyday. Taking care of little kids 24/7 is really tiring. They are so demanding. In the evenings I have another kid to take care of. I feel so overwhelmed. So tired.  I wish my spouse could help out but he is so tired after work he usually falls asleep right after dinner! So I have to carry on even though I am tired too.”

 “I’m so lucky to spend so much time with my kids. Its really great to be with them when they wake up, during mealtimes, when they get back from school. Its fantastic to be able to be there for them, to play with them and listen to them. Sometimes they have so much energy, much more than me! The kids and I look forward to when their dad gets home. I miss him all day so its nice to pamper him at the end of the day too.  I am happy that I can be so close to my kids. I am happy to have a wonderful supportive spouse who tries to help out even though he is so tired most days he will sleep right after dinner.”

They’re both me. Hehe. So which do I choose to be? The second more positive person of course. The only time when I revert to the negative person is when I am mad (so one should always try to control one’s anger - then I get into a negative downward spiral and the thoughts spin and spin downwards negatively). The other time when I think negatively is when I don’t take care of myself enough. So I always try to take care of myself first. Then and only then will I be able to take care of others. When I feel deprived (of anything, whether its time or whatever) thats when I get caught by the downward negative spiral again.

So postive or negative? Its up to me. And I choose Positive. What about you?

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

You make me laugh through most of our days,
That is surely one of the best ways,

I love the way you appreciate small things in life
I am very lucky to be your wife,

I love the way you are positive about everything
To tide us through all that life may bring,

I love that you are such a special father
And the way you bring our family together,

I love the way you take care of us
It saves me from a lot of stress,

I love the way you organize our stuff
It certainly helps when the going gets tough,

I love the way you share things with me
Even though I may sometimes disagree,

I love the way you put up with my forgetfulness
You are surely my other half with your decisiveness,

I love that you help me with the grocery shopping
How you turn it into our family day is so adoring,

I love you for making my dreams come true
I think of that each time I sit on my piano stool,

My dear this is the 7th year of our marriage
I hope that we can be together as we age.

Are you a Horror movie fan? Do you like to watch blood curling movies with lots of gory scenes and lots of scare factor? I am a horror movie fan but I haven’t watched one in years. I think they seem to be making them scarier and more and more spooky these days. The horror movies of the old days seem meek and tame in comparison.

If you like scary movies, then you’d want to check out Frontier(s) which is out in select US theaters on May 9.  Be warned that this movie is not for the faint hearted and definitely not for children since it is unrated and uncut. Just watching the trailer spooked me big time. I normally enjoy horror movies but this one looks a bit too scary for me. Its got a lot of sadistic gore and violence. I’m afraid I can’t stomach it. I’m getting chicken hearted in my old age but I can imagine that the true horror movie fans will enjoy this.

Its about a couple of young thugs on the run from a bold heist who hides out in a seemingly peaceful inn not realising that they have stumbled into something more terrifying than anything they could ever imagine.

If you are not chicken hearted like me you can make a beeline to the theater but if you don’t think you can handle it on the big screen, you can always wait for the DVD release which is just 4 days later on May 13th. Then you can watch it at home curled up in your own bed with pillows at hand to cover your face when necessary. But I’m not sure if you would be able to sleep afterwards!

 

Remember I wrote about the upmarket Gurney Drive in KL at The Gardens, Mid Valley? Well recently we took Dad there to savour some of his favourite Penang food and were pleasantly surprised to see that the prices had been revised downwards.

The first time I went there most of the hawker foods were priced at RM15 per plate. This time I saw that most of them were priced around RM12.50++ for large portions and RM8++ for small or single portions. They are smart to reduce the price in this manner. Previously the single portion costs RM15 and there were no large or small portions. 

Lets compare. In our previous visit we ordered Sar Hor Fun, Ark Tui Mee Suah, Satay (One Dozen) and Prawn Omellette plus warm water all round. The meal came up to a whopping RM70 plus.

This time round we ordered Sar Hor Fun, Penang Hokkien Char, Koay Teow Th’ng, Curry Mee, Penang Chee Cheong Fun (which is very different from the KL variety in case you don’t know), Lobak, Chendol and Bor Bor Cha Cha. The meal came up to RM60 plus.  We got much more food than the previous visit plus dessert too at a lesser price. It is still expensive but not exorbitant like before.

And its great to see a price reduction somewhere with prices rising everywhere. Even my wholemeal bread costs about 20 cents a piece now!

With prices coming down to about the same as what you would get at a food court, it is much more reasonable now. This place looks very much like a food court actually but you don’t go to the individual stalls to order. You order from a menu and the food is served to you like a restaurant.  The food plus which place or road it comes from in Penang is listed beside it ie whether it comes from Pulau Tikus or Green Lane or whatever road. Apparently 16 cooks were brought here specially. There is no need for self service. So with better service and about the same prices as most food courts makes it worth a visit now compared to previously.

Before we left, hubby pointed to the pile of stones at the signage outside and told Dad that they had been brought in from Gurney Drive, Penang. That made Dad smile. And that makes it even more worth the visit. Its hard to get Dad to smile these days. Most days he is rather quiet and answers in monosyllabus.

I don’t have pictures but if you want to see pictures and read more about the Gurney Drive in KL at The Gardens, Mid Valley, you can go here.

Yup! These things can only happen to me. The first time I want to hire a maid, she fails her medical and gets sent back.

Now, the first time I use a cash deposit machine. It eats up my money!

I had keyed in my account number, slipped in my dollar notes and then a message came on, something about a mechanical error and next thing I knew, the machine read “This machine is out of service.” OMG! Its not a cash deposit machine. Its a money guzzling monster and it ate my money!

There was no bank staff or even a guard around who could help. Fortunately there was a good samaritan using the next machine who looked for the bank’s telephone number on her receipt slip and gave that to me to call. So sweet of her. She could have just ”pretend dunno” and walked out but she didn’t. There are still nice people around.

It was Sunday evening but the number was a customer service number so fortunately there was someone who could take my call. The customer rept told me that she would do up a report for me and send that to her HQ. Later on when the bank branch does the reconciliation with the HQ they would be able to trace the transaction and credit the money into my account if there is no discrepancy. I gave them my location, time of banking, amount, account number and some other verication of identity. I was told it will take 3-7 days for the issue to be resolved. Phew! Hopefully there is no discrepancy and thank goodness I didn’t kick the machine. Hahaha.

So, the next time if the same thing happens to you, take note of the time and call the bank immediately so they can trace your money back to you.