Archive for the 'About me' Category

There are traditions and there are family routines. Tradition may be brought down from generation to generation but I believe that family routines can be created by your family and then enjoyed from year to year.

The kids are older now and our Chinese New Year routine has been established. Before, when they were younger, we did not have any routine but we thought that it would be very nice to have a family routine that they can look forward to each year. Now they know it well and look forward to …

1. Shopping for Chinese New Year Clothes. We limit our shopping to once a year only (unless necessary), then we go all out and have a shopping spree for Chinese New Year and everyone looks forward to having new clothes. We figured out that if you buy new clothes throughout the year, Chinese New Year would not feel any different.
2. Chinese New Year Cookies. Mummy does not bake so she will order the same cookies from the same place and when she brings them home the kids gape and go ooh and ahhh when they see the familiar cookies that they only get to eat once in a year. Then the kids will say “Please, please mummy can we eat them now?” and bad mommy will say “No, you will have to wait till Chinese New Year.”
3. Haircuts. The whole family goes to the salon and  have a haircut together. It kind of breaks the bank a little but its nice to go together. On normal days, sometimes mummy gives them home haircuts but for Chinese New Year, its off to the salon we go.
4. Chinese New Year Decorations. Now that the kids are older, they can help out. They love clipping, stringing and making homemade angpow decorations and I love listening to them work as a team in deciding where to hang each decoration. Usually, I will ask their opinion and let them decide so they can really get in the mood and contribute.
5. Spring Cleaning for Chinese New Year. Mummy gets to do most of it of course but on the eve of Chinese New Year, the kids will be roped in to wash the car and the porch. How they love the water and soap splashing fun.
6. Reunion Dinner. Usually its just the four of us because parents in law are no longer with us but we still cook up a storm anyway and everyone dons new pyjamas after dinner. Then we pack money into the red packets that will be given out as angpows and mummy and daughter will do their nails. Then mummy and daddy will give the kids their angpow and they will put it under their pillow to sleep on. Everyone stays up late and at midnight we will turn on every light in the house to welcome New Year.
7. First Day of Chinese New Year. Everyone gets up bright and early and have mee suah (vermicelli) soup then put on their brand new clothes and shoes. Then we go to the temple to watch the lion dances. After that we may go visiting or just stay home to relax and pack for the next day’s journey.
8. Balik Kampung. We will usually go back to mummy’s home town from the 2nd to the 4th day of Chinese New Year. We visit mummy’s aunties and see more lion dances, we play by the beach, go to more temples, pay respects to mummy’s mummy, play fireworks by the sea and send lighted lanterns into the sky.
9. Middle of Chinese New Year. Sometimes daddy invites his friends over and mummy cooks for them and the kids get to play host and hostess to other kids.
10. Chap Goh Meh. On the 15th day of Chinese New Year or the last day of Chinese New Year, its time to meet mummy’s brothers and sisters to have a gathering or dinner and exchange angpows with all the nephews and nieces.

That’s it. We do this every year to create a routine and tradition for the kids so that they look forward to Chinese New Year and in doing so, we enjoy our Chinese New Year very much too.

Kids, when you are grown and have your own families, we hope that you will remember fondly and continue with this routine and tradition that you have grown up with.

Technology has made me lazy, not only lazy but confused too. My new toy, my Samsung Galaxy Ace has a Swype technology keyboard. This means, I don’t even have to type. I just use my finger to swype the words, sometimes it even finishes or guesses the words that I want, even if I swype erroneously.

We used to call up friends to chat, but now we sms or write updates on our facebook walls or twitter which limits our words. We don’t have to say much anymore and we can send greeting cards to many in a click.

Then we have the ipads and many other tablet computers and eBook readers. Life has become simpler, paperless and it has made me lazy and confused.

Sometimes, I look at a device and I am not sure whether to tap it, swype it, tilt it or type on it! It takes a momentary moment, a short lapse of time for my brain to figure out how the device is supposed to work. Maybe its just me. My memory is getting worse and worse. I read in a recent research article that onset of memory loss or dementia may start as early as 45 or something to that effect. Perhaps that explains my confusion over the devices that is supposed to make life simpler but is making me lazy and confused instead.

This year, 2012, Chinese New Year falls on 23 and 24 January 2012. That is quite early. On the first day of school, the kids were given a notice about Chinese New Year holidays and replacement Saturday class dates. They will be in school for just two weeks before having a long break again for Chinese New Year plus there will be another long weekend in early February because of the Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday and Thaipusam public holidays.

Since school has just begun, we planned and completed most of our Chinese New Year shopping at the end of last year, during the Christmas and New Year holidays. It felt funny to shop for Chinese New Year while listening to Silver Bells playing softly in the background.

The retailers that were savvy and quick enough tore down their Christmas decorations almost immediately after Christmas and replaced them with bright red Chinese New Year decorations the day after Christmas. It was amazing to watch the almost instant transformation.

I noticed many others taking advantage of the holidays to shop for Chinese New Year as well. We were a bit early, so some places did not have free angpau packets and other freebies yet. Too bad but never mind. No angpau packets, No freebies but most importantly, No rush!

Now, all we’ve got left to do is haircuts for the whole family, clean up the house a little, decorate the house for Chinese New Year then collect our cookies and Chinese New Year 2012 here we come.

Last year I folded bunnies but this year will usher in the Year of The Dragon. I’m afraid I don’t know how to fold origami dragons and I don’t have the time this year so its store bought decorations for us this year.  I love Chinese New Year. Makes me feel like a kid again.

I am coming out of hibernation today. It sure has been a long time. I’ve missed my blogs. Well, not really come to think of it. I haven’t had much time to think about it.

With the kids at home during the school holidays and the spouse on year end leave, I’ve had almost no free time to myself. That is the part I miss the most. Sure, I love my family lots but everyone needs a little time to themselves every now and then.

Now, its the beginning of a new year and back to school, back to work and back to routine. So, I’m going to have to wake all my blogs up. I have lots to write about but they are mostly in my head. Perhaps I will let some of them stay in there.

Well, its time to wake some of the other blogs now but before I do, a few quick New Year’s Resolutions.

1. Remember to exercise in the mornings
2. No going anywhere near the computer from afternoon onwards. PC time is only in the mornings and that includes blogs, squidoo lenses, facebook, twitter etc. (Phew! That’s a tough one)
3. Cook some new dishes for the family
4. That’s it! Lets not keep it too long or it’ll be hard to keep up

Time to go. After all, I’ve only got the morning to exercise and blog and make lenses and I must go wake up the other blogs now. That’s not a lot of time but since I can blog in 10 minutes its not so bad. Its only the squidoo lenses, they take at least half a day or more each but in terms of personal satisfaction, blogging is better but squidoo beats blogging in monetary terms so I guess the time spent is justified.

I haven’t had much time to blog since the kids are home for the holidays. However, I have tried to do some tweaking and maintenance over at Squidoo because it is the holiday season. Can’t afford to be too quiet over at Squidoo during the holiday season and miss out on all the action can I?

I’m having a good time at Squidoo. Yesterday, I received a Giant Squid 50 Level Club Member Trophy. That means I am now a Giant Squid with at least 50 quality lenses. At the same time, my Popular Kids Book Series lens received a Purple Star.

Holiday sales are starting to pick up a little bit too. Yesterday I had 2 sales directly on Squidoo as well as 5 other Squidoo related sales on my own Amazon Affiliate account. Hope to see more sales soon. It was pretty quiet last month.

No time to write more but I’ve got some udpates over at Squidoo which you can read. If you want to check me out at Squidoo, here I am over at Squidoo - My Squidoo Profile. If you want to read more about my Squidoo Journey, you can go here – My Squidoo Log.

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