Archive for January, 2010

Today I shall be having my final piano class but it is of course not the end of playing the piano for me. I have learned enough to self learn from now on. Now that the boy has started to learn as well, I no longer have the time to learn myself as well as help two kids with their practises. Besides it is very expensive to have 3 people in the house all learning at the same time.

Piano Teacher has asked me to memorise my “Moonlight Sonata” and improve on “Save the Last Dance for Me” and “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”. She also gave me two new songs to learn last week. “Souvenir D’enfance” and “Les Fleurs Sauvages”. All for a half hour class. This is a very tall order indeed!

With that I wrap up 2 1/2 years of learning the piano. Yahoo! From now on I can just play for fun. No more practising for lessons or concerts though I shall miss playing together with my girl. We managed to “perform” at two of the piano school’s “concert” and it was a very nice experience to be playing with her.

Below is Richard Clayderman’s Les Fleurs Sauvages as played by HeartBtrue on YouTube. I wish I could play like that!

I have a friend who has trouble staying asleep. She has no problem falling asleep but she would get up in the middle of the night or wee hours of the morning and have difficulty going back to sleep or if she does go back to sleep she feels that her sleep is light. She does not feel rested in the morning and sometimes feel very sleepy and tired during the day.

I used to have imsomnia too when I was younger. I think it was due to my own unhealthy sleep patterns. Sometimes I could not sleep till about 4-5am in the morning. However, I no longer have sleep problems now. Usually I fall asleep easily and I stay asleep unless the spouse or the children wake me up!

My friend can fall asleep easily but she has trouble staying asleep. I wonder has anyone experienced this type of imsomnia? Apart from going to see the doctor to have a thorough health check and evaluation, I hope to hear from anyone who has trouble sleeping and how they deal with it.

These days we no longer feel safe in the streets. In fact, we are beggining to feel unsafe even in our own homes. We moved house 2 years ago. The first thing we did when we were doing house renovations was to search for a Home Security System. We were told that it is a good thing to do this during renovations in case you need to hack the wall for internal wiring etc. Someone suggested ADT. There were also many roadshows by ADT at the various House and Ownership Fairs that we attended.

We couldn’t make up our minds. We could not decide between a DIY Home Security System or an ADT Security System. The difference between a DIY Home Security System and an ADT Security System is Monitoring. The ADT Security System is a Monitored Security System. That means that your home will be monitored by safety professionals 24 hours in a day. When an alarm is triggered at your home, ADT will then call up the authorities in your area to send emergency services to your home. I also learned a bit about how ADT Security works by seaching in HomeSecurityTeam.com.  

I am currently using a DIY type of Security System and the problem is it always keeps on giving me false alarms! I don’t feel 100 percent safe because there is no one monitoring my home from a monitoring center. I also think it would be a good thing if there is a call center for me to call up in case of any problems with my alarm or security system. Is anyone out there using an ADT Security System? Can you share with me what you think about it?

Yesterday, when I was out buying breakfast and newspapers, my usual newspaper vendor got me to try some Chinese New Year cookies. They were delicious so I ordered some. That means cookie buying is settled. Yahoo! I told the kids about it and they were very happy looking forward to eating those Chinese New Year cookies and delicacies that they remembered.

I don’t normally plan my cookie buying very well. Usually, I just grab whatever I can last minute from the supermarket. That usually leaves me undesirables. So, I am happy to be able to order some in advance this year. Hopefully, they taste as good as the samples. Usually I just get the standard fare like in the picture. Those were from last year if I am not mistaken. I would get just 4-5 varieties at the most. Otherwise, if they are not finished, guess who has to finish them? Yeah, me and my expanding waistline.

I wrote on my Parenting Times blog that I am trying to create excitement for my kids for Chinese New Year. In doing so, I find that, not only the kids but I too am feeling some building excitement. lol.

I’ve never worn size S before. However I wore M when I was in my 20s and shifted to L in my late 30s. Sob.

Then horror of horrors, post pregnancy, I ballooned to XXL! Much to my dismay it stayed that way for a long time! I had to take drastic action. I ate like a bird. I exercised. After 6 months, I returned to L or occassionally XL.

I hope never to go to XXL again. Though I’m still stuck at L and I suspect I will never fit into M again, it is much better than XXL!

As for my shoe size, it has grown from 6 to 8 and it will never come down again. No amount of dieting will make it shrink after pregnancy.

So there it is. I am L with a shoe size 8. Big hor? As they say. I am in shape. Round is a shape.

What size are you? Anybody in size XS out there? You’ll look like a dwarf beside this giant. lol.