Archive for the 'Life Observation' Category

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.

I learned quite a few lessons on life from …. an umbrella. Yes, an umbrella, an inanimated object.

The other day, I queued behind an umbrella. Yes, an umbrella, this inanimated object. I was queuing to take my child to see the doctor. Since that was our third visit and I didn’t want to spend the whole morning at the clinic again, I went to the clinic very early in the morning to queue…. behind an umbrella.

There I was bright and early, standing in queue behind an umbrella. How strange.

Lesson On Life #1: People aren’t always what they seem to be. 

The normal couple who was enjoying their breakfast nearby had thought it fit to put an umbrella as a stand-in for them in the queue. How very strange. Normal couple also made sure they managed to register first when the clinic doors were opened.

On that same day, it was raining heavily after school. We were dismayed to discover that we had left behind two big and lovely umbrellas at the school. We searched everywhere and asked around but of course, it could no longer be found – two such lovely and big umbrellas.

Lesson On Life #2: If you don’t take care of your own things, somebody else might just take it!

We asked the sweet foreign worker at the canteen. She said she had not seen our big and beautiful umbrellas but later on she managed to get us a battered and torn one to use. If she hadn’t we would have been stranded in the rain for longer.

Lesson On Life #3: Help comes in all sorts of disguises

Lesson On Life #4: If you ask for help, sometimes you will get it

Lesson On Life #5: Even though something is old and battered, it still has its uses

Now, let us travel back further. One day, it was raining cats and dogs and a lady who was desperate to get to her waiting child, asked me whether I had a spare umbrella. “How can I return this to you? I don’t know you.” she said. So I gave her my daughter’s name and class but she never returned it and I never saw her again. I presumed that she must have forgotten the information that I gave her.

“Mummy, why did you give away our umbrella? It is so wasteful. We bought it with money.” my children asked.

I told them that it is just a small thing and that we should try to help others in need whenever we could. It feels nice to help others. Besides she did say she would return it.

The funny thing is that even though she never returned it, very soon after, we got back 3 umbrellas in return.

I had won a prize at a contest and during the prize giving  ceremony, we were given door gifts which included an umbrella. Somehow, I got the venue mixed up and arrived rather late for the prize presentation. As a result, there was a mix up and they forgot to call me on stage to receive my prize.

The organizers felt very bad and were very apologetic. They gave me my prize plus a few more door gifts including two more umbrellas!

I reminded my kids about….

Lesson On Life #6: If you give without expecting anything in return, sometimes you get back more than what you ask for. Give and you shall receive.

Well, that is the end of my long winded story. A result of 4 days missing from my blog. I am still feeling a bit drugged. I am currently taking the antibiotic Augmentin for my flu and it makes me feel floaty, nausea, and gastric.

Recently I had to upgrade my refrigerator because the kids have grown and we have run out of space. Each week, I had rearrange my fruits and vegetables to make sure they all go into the fridge.  I actually had to push them in to make sure they all fit in! The fruits and vegetables were not getting any breathing space at all! We do a lot of juicing so we buy a lot of fruits and vegetables each week. So we had no choice but to buy a new fridge.

My old fridge which is more than 10 years old was a National Tanto brand. In all of the years which we used it, it has never given us any problems. Not even one day. Not even when we moved it around when we moved house. It is an excellent fridge. Unfortunately none of the retailers we visited would allow a trade in for an old fridge.

When we asked them what to do with the fridge, the standard reply was “Just pay $10 or $20 and ask the lorry driver to get rid of it for you.” Imagine that! What a waste. It was a perfectly good fridge in perfect working condition and everyone asked me to throw it away! Not only that, I had to pay some money to get it thrown away!

I think that people these days, are getting more and more wasteful. Don’t want an old phone? Throw it! Your old tv is outdated? Throw it! Upgrading your fridge? Throw it!

Then I remembered Pertubuhan Amal Seri Sinar. Several years ago, when I was moving house, I had called them to help me take away my bulky items including sofa sets and other used items including boxes of books and old clothing for recycling. Persatuan Amar Seri Sinar or P.A.S.S. is a self-supporting NGO formed in 2003 to educate the public to recycle for charity.

What can you recycle? Wearable clothes, shoes, bags, toys, newspapers, magazines, plastic, glass, aluminium, electrical items, usable furnitures…

I immediately called them up. They told me that they will help take away usable bulky items. All one has to do is call them up and they will come the next day. Lovely. I didn’t have to throw away my perfectly good old fridge after all. I could recycle it. So we had kakak clean up the fridge properly. We gave the inside and outside a good wipe but we didn’t call the recycling company for two weeks because we felt rather sentimental parting with it. Well, its finally gone now, donated for charity and  I hope it will be put to good use now, the way it served us for more than 10 years.

If you have any bulky items, no make that bulky usable items that you want to recycle for charity, you can contact:

Pertubuhan Amal Seri Sinar

Lot 754, Jalan Sungai Tekali, Batu 14, 43100 Hulu Langat, Selangor

Tel: 03-9021 1888

Where can I buy Massimo Bread?

No worries, it will hit your regular bread vendors very soon. I got mine at my usual newspaper vendor who sells bread as well. You will probably have seen the advertisements for Massimo Bread in the local newspapers. So what is the big deal?

Well, to me the big deal is, at last we have got more competition within the bread industry. Yahoo! Previously whenever Gardenia raised bread prices, I had to swallow my complaints along with my bread because there weren’t many other brands out there accept for High 5 bread.

How does Massimo bread compare to Gardenia bread in taste?

What about taste? How does the Massimo Bread taste like? To me, the Massimo bread wheatgerm variety (in green packaging) which was priced at RM2.50 during the introductory period (till end July if I am not mistaken) loses out to the Gardenia wholemeal which seems more wholesome although the Massimo probably turned out better in terms of taste.

Both are the same height but one is cut into 12 pieces the other into 14 pieces

As for the Massimo white bread which is in a blue packaging, I think it tastes better than the Gardenia white bread. The price is the same. RM2.40. Massimo bread tastes better because it is more fluffy and fuller in taste. I don’t think the fact that the white loaf is cut into 12 pieces while the Gardenia one is cut into 14 pieces has anything to do with it either. They’re both of the same height and size exactly apart from the different number of pieces. So you essentially get the same amount, just different number of slices. Unfortunately you can’t see that in my picture as I forgot to take it before we ate some.

Which bread will I buy?

Massimo or Gardenia or High 5? I’ve never gotten used to High 5 since it has always been Gardenia for me. I guess I will buy both Massimo and Gardenia now that I have a choice. Each week we eat about 3 loaves of bread. 1 long loaf and 2 small loaves. I’m just happy that now I have more choices.

Let us face it. Our children are now living in the digital age where everything moves at a faster speed and is less tangible than before.  When before we need only be concerned with telephone usage and tv time, now we have to worry about iphones, iPads, twitter, sms, many other handheld gaming devices and Facebook. All of these things are addictive and though fb etc are social media, they sometimes bring out the anti-social in us. “I’ll update you on my fb. Bye….” I couldn’t agree with this article on social networking and  poor grades more.

Which brings me to my question. When should kids start having a facebook account? What age is appropriate? Should a preteen have a facebook account?

My 9 year old has asked about facebook several times. FB has a above 13 year old age requirement ruling and yet most of her classmates have an account, some from as early as 7 and with several hundred “friends”. The other day, she asked me “Mummy, can I have one of those things, you know like you have, where you write and people write to you?” I think she meant my blog.

So far, my answer to her has been “No.” I  don’t think that telling her “No” at this age is restricting her or keeping her in the dark in this digital age. Some people say that you should not restrict your child because what one should do is to allow them to explore because it is inevitable. They say how will they learn if you don’t give them the freedom to try? They say if you prohibit it then the child will sneak behind your back which is worse. I agree with the fact that it is inevitable and with allowing children the freedom to explore but I don’t think the time is right for it now, at least not in my home. This decision is personal and this is how I feel about it though I know that many people feel differently. In time my girl (and my boy who hasn’t asked yet, he is 7) will have a facebook account and tweet and may even blog but not now.

To me, now is the time for her to learn other social skills and other forms of communication. Now is the time for her to learn to read and draw and run around kicking balls and skipping and play imaginary games when she has the time rather than spent it hunched in front of the pc updating status and looking for more “friends”. Social media can wait. There is plenty of time for that and she will not be a “katak di bawak tempurung” (backward) for being later than her peers. Afterall, she will have me as her teacher and her guide. In time, I will teach and guide her along but for now, even I do not have the time to guide her. (We are much too busy with homework and piano work alone).

Since I do not have the time to guide her, I cannot risk allowing her to explore on her own. (even though all she may do is logon and play games and chat with classmates.) She will only be allowed to explore once, she is taught about the good and the bad of it, about privacy etc and only when I have the time to supervise AND when she is older and more mature. At the moment, homework fills up all of my time and hers! It is hard to even find the time to make sure she gets some exercise and sleep. Why should I have to worry about facebook in our limited time!

“But mummy, my friends say fb has a lot of games. They play a lot of games on fb.” And we all know how addictive those games are don’t we? So, “No.” My girl will not be backward or left out or behind her peers simply because I say “No” to social media now. She may miss out a little and she may be a bit left out when her classmates share on fb but she will not have to deal with bullying and being left out on facebook itself. (like writing mean things on the wall or defriending or blocking etc). I have seen how some kids can be rather nasty online. If she wants to talk to her friends she can talk to them face to face. She sees them daily in school. As for relatives, a phone call is more personal and better. She will catch up in due time, easily and very quickly too and I am not afraid that restricting her now will make her rebellious. I will also not give in just because everyone is doing it or has it.

I think she does not need facebook in her life now and she will be better off without it and I have better things to do than checking her facebook regularly to monitor her friends and other activities but the time will come, the time will come ……. only it is not now.