Victoria's first singing competition

On September 10th, Vic sang in front of a thousand over children in her school assembly hall.  She was one of the two girls selected to represent her class for this annual singing competition.  The song was picked by her music teacher and she only had to practice at home. 

Both daddy and I were in school waiting for Vic's turn to sing.  The Standard 3 participants went first in the morning, followed by the Standard 2s after recess and finally the Standard 1s.  When we arrived (without William so that his afternoon siesta is not disturbed), there was an Indian girl on stages belting out a long and upbeat Chinese song.  Both hubby and I initially had to squint longer to check if she was really an Indian or just a dark chinese girl.  After we've picked our invisible jaw up, we started giggling.  

We found Vic in front with all the other participants. 

Sadly she didn't seem excited to see us, nor did she came to hug us.  She was reluctant to take pictures with Daddy and only after coaxing I got two pictures with her.  She told me to accompany her to the toilet while waiting, but she ran ahead of me all the time and didn't seem to need me at all.  So I asked her why she asked me to accompany her when I seem like a crazy lady chasing her to and back?

When her name was called and went upstage, she sang well, but looking at the video I do think she was nervous.  We didn't stay for the result to be announced. 

We bought her favourite yam cake on the way home because she was hungry

Vic was informed of the result a week later - she received 8th place but between she and her classmate, she lost.  I asked her why, and she said it was because the other girl sang louder.  So yea, I guess that's a good lesson learnt as I kept encouraging her to sing louder and smile and if she can manage, pendulum her head.  

But we have pre-empted her to join with the right attitude.  Winning is nice but is not everything.  Hopefully this competition has built her confidence somewhat.

Great job anyhow, Vic!   Glad that you are not sad.   

William at 4 years 4 months old

When William was a toddler, he was so gentle, relatively easy to care for with minimal fuss and tantrums and amazing obedience!  The only complaint I had of him back then was the numerous times he woke me up during the night, easily until the age of 3.  If there was ANY reason at all, for me to cringe at the thought of caring for babies would be this, besides cleaning the poo bottoms.

But William has long stopped waking me up at ungodly hours now.   If I had any thoughts of him turning out like a polished and soft mannered English boy, they have all diminished with his increasing boyishness and passion for kungfu since the introduction of Kungfu Panda in his life.  And he has learnt to talk back! 

Remember how I used to say this boy would come around and plant little kisses on my cheeks, lip and even legs?  Well, reality of life hits me these few months as I realize that he's kissing me less and I have to asked for "it."  Daddy reminded him a few times and then he kisses me more.  I better cherish these kisses, before one day he starts becoming conscious.

William is still passionate with his drawings.  He doesn't like coloring as much, and does well in the activity workbooks that I give him.  Just a few days back, I explained to him the concept of subtraction, and showed him how to do a few elementary questions in the workbook.  With some grudging sounds and no other choice, he obliged and gave me these results:

These days he calls me Smurfette.  And with so much sweetness in it!  He insist he is Baker Smurf, and Daddy is Papa Smurf whilst Vic wants to be Brainy Smurf.

William drifts into his own world of imagination during the most unexpected moments.  He can be "baking cookies or cakes" in the car after I pick him up from school or throwing kicks and punches into an imaginary enemy, with "tomatoes" as bullets and lately, he's into Spiderman.  He does the Spiderman fingers too and has been bugging his stingy mother for a Spiderman coloring book (that comes with a Spiderman mask) that cost RM15 but I said no.

His bad side?  He easily gets upset when he doesn't get what he wants or if he feels second-place.  For example, if you accidentally say goodbye to Mama Yeh Yeh and he wants to speak to them, he cries but when you hand him the phone seconds later, he rejects it.  His famous pose is the folding arm pose, with a long, pressed sulky lips and to emphasize his frustration more, he frowns his eyebrows.

William's being "kissed" by Kami (means "black" in Korean) which is a poodle owned by our Korean friends.

And just the other day when I told him to wear his own pants, this was how he wore them. That's the cheeky boy he is!

Food wise, he is not a choosy eater although bittergourd is not on his list.  Thankfully, I have no problem getting him to eat his veges.  I'm even surprised that he likes pumpkin, specifically pumpkin soup, fried shallots and lady's fingers/okras.  He'd polished off all the fried shallot garnishing on the fish if you don't limit him and help himself to tablespoons of okras without touching his rice. 

Still likes Finn McMissle more than Lightning McQueen and thinks Daddy's greyish silver car now looks like Finn, only that Daddy's car don't have bullets and interchangeable parts. 

This boy doesn't speak much Mandarin and whenever he does utter a few words, he sounds like an ang moh.  But he speaketh English like a Chinaman, whatmore the way he sits when he does his homework - with one leg up! 

The other day he was flying the flag of Union Jack and at the same time singing our national anthem Negaraku.  That's William!!
 

All I Want For Christmas...

... is my TWO front teeth, my TWO front teeth...

... just my TWO front teeth!! 

School excursion to Rabbit Farm in Semenyih

August 30th 2012

I don't even know where to begin.

Earlier this year the school organized a field trip to somewhere I forgotten, but just as all school trips (especially kindy ones) they are mighty interesting!  But unfortunately, the younger kids in Year 3 and Year 4 were not involved.  Then a couple of months back we receive the a note in the Message Book that the school will be organizing a field trip for the Year 3s and Years 4s and limited spaces for parents who wished to join.

Yaaayyy!!  And the kids will be visiting Rabbit Fun Land in Semenyih.

Since this was PROBABLY going to be my last field trip with any of my kids, and also my first (hehehe, I'm a child at heart) I signed up for both myself and William!  Yippeess, we were going to feed some rabbits.  William apparently had "insider news" that there will be goats there too, as he was talking about it.

We assembled in school at 8am, and four big (and new) school buses were already parked in the school compound.  The kids were briefed and simple rules and parents too (do not stray, do not walk off, must follow the teacher, etc) then allocated into the buses (2 classes in each bus, kids sit with their parents, kids without parents sit with other kids).  By 830am we left the school compound.  I forgotten to track the journey time, because we were all too excited, hehe.  William and I were happily snapping pictures, chatting and munching at the back of the bus. 

When we arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to see the place well kept, with spacious parking allocated, kitchen and toilets clean and easy access to sinks to wash our hands. We were immediately greeted by the proprietors of this Rabbit Farm which is family-run. As you see, they even have their own website. Our two guides consist of a English-speaking father-and-son team whilst the mother handles the kitchen, souvenirs and food.

I will now let the many pictures do the "talking".

Getting the kids ready to visit the toilet before the journey

We were given buns and water for snack.  Kids were told to bring only their water bottles on a sling, so my handbag became the food bag too that day

It's a lonely road... with four busloads of excited kids and parents!!

As we walked in, I peeped into their kitchen and saw how clean they were.  Honestly.  The food, which we were provided later taste good too.

Part of the farm.  To me, this was a good place for an outing.  Clean, no mosquitoes, weather was pleasant and no foul smell of animal poo

The grandfather billy goat sits majestically on a platform, oblivious to all the visitors snapping photos of him

This is the picture that went on Facebook, of William and his first attempt at milking a dairy cow.  I did not think that my boy or even kids their age would pay attention to what the guide speaks in front, but he did, and when the guide said a few kids are allowed to milk the cow, I heard William told his teacher immediately that he wanted to do that.  The guide showed how a calf suckles the mother cow first, which he further explained that this was to stimulate the milk flow, so it will be easier for humans to milk her later.  

The technique, apparently is to slide and tug at the same time, so the milk will flow out.   But William did not slide, he tugged and he pulled but no milk came out.  It was really quite hilarious but I love him more for being so sporting!  He even washed his hands BEFORE and AFTER touching the cow's teats.  Hygiene mah...

Fed some free range chickens.  Also quite funny to see the chickens running away, and the kids with grains in each of their hands waiting anxiously to feed 'em chickens, and the parents (well, me mostly) making all the chicken sounds to entice the chicken to come to us...  In the end, the teacher just told the kids to sprinkle the grains on the ground so we can move on...

After the cow, the chicken, it was the goats.  The kids were given carrot sticks to feed the goats.  William grab a couple without prompting and he went off to find a hungry goat.  No scared ler...

Sayang sayang...

Couldn't resist this "family picture" of daddy goat, mummy goat and baby goat... hehehe

The goats are friendlier than the chickens, thank God. 

And finally, the star of the show... RABBITS!!  We took turns (in two groups -  4 classes in each group) to go into the rabbit enclosure to feed adult rabbits.  These are called the meat rabbits (the common ones that we see) as they are bred for their meat.  To be slaughtered.  Sadly, the rabbits did not seem to be hungry as they hardly ate the carrot sticks offered by the kids (we were the first group too).  They ran away and around and William was busy finding rabbits to feed (picking up untouched carrot sticks from the ground) and also trying to carry them.  I had taught him the theory of carrying a rabbit the correct way, so I guess he wanted to try it out.  

Aaahh, finally found a rabbit who nibbled on his carrot stick.  

And mummy went chasing rabbits just to get good picture shots.  Finally this bunny pitied me and gave me a much appreciated few seconds pose!

One with William's good friend, Eviana.  Does William look shy or what?

A little bit of education for the kids.  We were a lucky group, as there was a batch of newborn bunnies at 7am that morning.  So these here are only a few hours old.

And these with a thin layer of fur, eyes still closed, are only 4 days old.

Moving on... the 10 days old rabbits here have just opened their eyes that day. 

And William hesitates NOT when it comes to carrying the 14 day old bunnies.  He seems like a natural, taking one bunny up then another and another.  I have to tell him that's enough.  In the bus, he told me he was not afraid, and the only fear he had was crushing the rabbit soft bones. 

Adult rabbits in rows of cages.  I think they are for sale and for slaughter. 

This is a lionhead rabbit - imported breed but tropicalized.  I asked the proprietor separately if he sells them for pets, and he offered me RM380 for a pair!  Sounds reasonable, and I was contemplating on how to rearrange my small garden to allocate the 3ftX3ft recommended space for 'em bunnies, but in the bus William said he didn't like the lionheads as they were not as cute.  A quick search on the net changed my mind too, as some people were offering as cheap as RM50 for the same breed.  Huh, and I already thought RM380 for a PAIR was a bargain!  Just shows how blur I am with market prices on pets. 

We saw a 1000kg bull too, apparently the 2nd heaviest in Malaysia.  Not that the kids or we cared anyway, but worth noting lar.  Give the bull some credit.  Next to the bull enclosure was this play-thing.  Kids love them!

We were all provided lunch and food was more than sufficient.  The kids had the usual - fried rice, nuggets and rabbit meat sausages.  We adults had more choices, and I took meehoon (yummy even without the dark sauce), crunchy juicy bean sprouts, rabbit meat sausages, chicken drumstick. 

This was not part of the package.  After lunch, we had the option of a short 3 minute ride for RM3.  William says, "yeee haawww!"  on this pony.  He wanted more, but I said no, looking at the long queue.  

We left the farm slightly after 1pm.  The kids were obviously exhausted, except for William and a few boys in the bus who couldn't sleep.  William slept just 10 minutes before we arrived school.

A wonderful trip indeed.  Oh, and I bought a packet of 10 rabbit shoulders for cooking, already cleaned.  They cost RM45.  For your information, they sell whole rabbit meat too and rabbit sausages.  A few mothers and I suggested to the proprietor to delivery or open shop in PJ area so we can patronize but that's another story la...  Right now, the rabbit shoulder meat is still sitting in my freezer. 

August Break Part Two: Homework and A Funeral

Homework Challenge

Did I mention that my little girl got third placing in the recent (or not so recent, since it was held in May) and her first term examination in primary school?  I was totally distracted by the marks and did not have any expectation on her ranking in class or school.  So this was a truly pleasant surprise for all of us, and we only found out on the day the report card was given out. 

I have been asked a few times by various people on how my daughter is faring in a chinese school, we being banana-parents in particular.  My only answer is she's ok.  I can't say she's excelling, despite the favourable results in her mid term examination with only a week of revision.  I can't say she's struggling either because she doesn't come home crying nor does she dread to go to school. 

Vic has mostly good days, and some bad days.  Lately, I seem to find a lot of "bad days" because I found a homework not completed when it was supposed to have been, as she has told me that she has done it.  That's not exactly honest and I felt cheated.  On the same day that I discovered the uncompleted homework, she showed me her TingXie book with her latest marks - ZERO!  Now that is a collection of 4 zeros altogether since the beginning of this year.  I got angry because she did not even copy her TingXie down in her message book so she can revise at home, and I will be in the know.  But if it's not even copied down, how would any of us know that she has a TingXie test? 

The subject here is effort.  There was no effort.  So that got me really upset.  If she had copied them, revised for them and yet came back with a ZERO (which never happened actually) then it'd be a different story. 

A few incidence of her not knowing what she's doing in her Chinese work, and yet she did not ask her friends or teacher, despite our repeated advice.  A couple more incidence where she "forgot" to ask Mama, Popo or Yee Sam on her Chinese school work when she had the chance. 

I don't know if this is the general case for all 7 yos.  But I'm sure if I let her take her studies lightly and not inculcate the right attitude towards her studies during the first few years, then I'm not doing her justice nor being a good parent. 

Passing On...

On the last Sunday of the school holiday, we made a day trip back to Seremban to pay our last respect to Pastor Sally Foo, a dear pastor who served in Agape Gospel Assembly Church and fought the good fight against cancer. 

Hubby is closer to her as he knew her longer, but I remembered Pastor Sally as a very kind and always jovial lady who has a big heart.  She loved God and loved people and never complained.  As death is not a normal subject one would broach on, I took this opportunity to talk about it with Hubby.  Apart from some serious stuff, we also joked about what we'd do after one of us leaves.  I made him promise to let me go first, because I'm emotionally weak and eremophobic (fear of loneliness).  I even joked to hubby that he should bury me under a cherry tree or saga seed tree.  Of course, we both know that's impossible. Speaking of which, when was the last time you saw a saga seed tree anyway? 

I used to collect these seeds near my paternal Grandma's house when I was a child.  Sadly, after moving a few times, I've misplaced them.

Rest in peace, Pastor Sally.  We will always remember you for the great woman that you are. 

Life is so precious, so fragile and so sudden.  I'm not going to talk about the box of chocolate, but I guess when we lose someone, we start to think how we should start appreciating the simple things in life, and more importantly, the people that we love, before we lose them. 

August Break Part One: A Birthday, Good Food...

18th-26th August 2012

This week marks the 2nd week of being maidless whilst maid is vacationing back in her homeland.  We initially wanted to plan a getaway - maybe like a short holiday but because this was so last minute the plan did not materialize.

Unfortunately also, as I was web surfing my laptop got attacked by a very vicious and stubborn virus called the Live Security Platinum which cleverly disguised itself as an antivirus software but was actually a spy to steal sensitive information from my laptop.  Thank God hubby suspected it as it was so persistent in "scanning" my laptop for viruses and insisting that I "remove" these viruses.  My laptop immediately went offline and hubby later discovered a more problematic virus was sitting in my lappie, called the Trojan Horse.

To cut the long story short, after a week of sleepless nights on hubby's behalf, and various attempts, a reinstallation of the latest Norton antivirus software, the LSP got killed, but the Trojan Horse remained like an unwelcomed guest.

I heard from hubby that during one of his late nights working on my laptop, the virus even launched into a man's laughter in the background, and a few times it auto-played some music too.  Fortunately I was not there, as I have a weak heart this.

I've gone off track here.  Anyway, my laptop was finally reinstated over the weekend (Dad's brilliant idea) that my parents came up, and thank God for that, so we didn't have to go through the hassle of reformating and I didn't have to junk it and get a new lappie.  Hah!

So this virus problem detoured us there, and no holiday plans were made.  Just a week, might as well just bum around KL we say.


19th August:  Popo's 65th birthday

We drove back to Seremban the day before for a short 3D2N stay and also to send Mama home after her one week stay with us.   To celebrate, we had a simple Chinese dinner at Silver Dragon Restaurant.

With Grandkids No.1, No.4, No.3 and No.2.  Grandkids No.6 is outstation and No.5 is overseas. 

Happy birthday, Popo!  May you have many many more years of good health and laughter in your life! 


20th August:  Makan makan at Dengkil

MaMa and Yeh Yeh brought us to this place in Dengkil, around 20 minutes drive north from Seremban for lunch on our way back to PJ.  Dengkil is a very small town, with mostly chinese residents, and we discovered, good food and good pau too! 

We ate chilli sauced prawns, loh mee with prawn, deep fried fish, meehoon with braised pork belly and a couple of other dishes at Yew Hin Restaurant.  We arrived at 12noon, but the place was nearly full house, and by 1pm, the place was even more crowded and the waiters had to open two more big tables along the walkway.

Ate halfway then only remembered to take a picture.  This taste glorious! 

Curry pork ribs

I think this is called chilli prawns.  Fresh and yummylicious.  I'm a die-hard fan of prawns, especially those that needs a few mouthfuls. : )

Mee hoon with braised pork belly (kau yoke).  We couldn't finish this, so tapaued.

If you can read Chinese, let me know what it says.  All I know are the phone numbers. 

Then we bought some "yau char kwai" and "ham chim peang" next door.  The stall apparently just started business so I noted how clean and new its appliances are.

Then we headed to the pau shop.  This shop was also full but we manage to get a table in the corner.   I sampled some pau that Yeh Yeh ordered, and tapau some paus back.  The paus here are really nice and soft, they being home made.

Upon arriving back home in PJ, we all took much needed afternoon nap. What better way to nurse a full stomach than to sleep it off, right?  I think I did some house chores after I woke and as I could even slip on the layer of dust after being away 3 days.

I don't remember eating dinner that night,  although the kids did at one of the SS2 kopitiam.  We wanted to walk to the night market after that but it started drizzling so we abandoned plan and headed home.

8 hours after lunch and you'd think my food would have digested by then, but I still felt full.  I think the only way was to sleep it off. 


21st August:  Korean Dinner with Korean friends

I had prebooked hubby's time for today - roping him and the kids in to help with a mini revamp of my garden during the absence of my maid.  Remember the garden issue with her?  So I took the opportunity to plant my new Japanese roses (bought three new colours), and pull out the old ones, replant them, clean out all the pebbles in the garden, and added new soil and fertilizer.

The whole exercise took us easily 2-3 hours but God was kind with the weather being gloomy in the morning.  The sun came out late nearing 1030am but towards noon it started drizzling.  By then the boy was helping Daddy hand vacuum the car (and car windows) whilst the girl helped trimmed the lemongrass for me.

The feeling was great, I can't say exactly but I look forward to all my Japanese roses in full bloom, with 5-6 colors that I've mixed them. Best of all, we added in lotsa love together with the fertilizers. 

And would you believe that after all this work out, I WAS STILL feeling full from all the eating in Seremban and Dengkil.  Look, it wasn't like I was a glutton then and overate, but my stomach seemed to have gone on a holiday too, I guess, so for lunch I ate only porridge in SS3.

That evening, we met up with a Korean family, good friends from cell.  He brought us to this place in Ampang where there is still little Korean community there.  You will not miss the number of Korean eateries and supermarket catering to this community.  We had this dish that comes in spicy soup filled with various parts of the pig.  I mean, you have the fats, the intestines and other stuff in there.  I love the kim chi there and it's free flow!

The decorative walls inside.  Feel free to add your own message, but no vulgarities please. 

Name and details of the place we ate at.  Price wise, very reasonable.  RM20 per head for a very full meal.

Now we ate this during our Korea trip two years back and that was waaaaayyyy better, but this isn't too bad either.  Sorry I didn't take down the name, it's all the pig's parts, and very popular with the Koreans. 

A few doors away was a bakery run by the Koreans, and there is this special bun with filling that's deepfried which our dear Korean friend snapped up everything.  She insisted to pay and we were having a minor "tug of war" in the bakery on who to pay.  Quite funny and first time I saw how "serious" she was... better give in since I'm in their territory, haha.  Will have more chance later. 

After dinner we dropped by the Korean supermarket.  We picked up some stuff and this time I succeeded in the picking up the bill too, hehe.  We were invited to their condo for more chit chat and snacks.  The kids played with their toy poodle, and William loved it so much he kept praying for the dog days after.

Victoria and William with Kami (which means "black" in Korean).  Kami is a very playful female dog, and even licked William's cheeks too.  Still thinking our garden is too small for a dog, kids. 

To be continued...

Part Two:  Homework and A Funeral.

Music and Magic

My 7yo is in her Book 3 (out of a total of 4 books) in her current Junior Advance Course with Yamaha Music School.  After spending 2 years in Junior Music School since 4yo and one year in the Advance Course, I find that her sight reading is still poor.

That irritates me quite a bit (ok ok, wwwaaayyyy more than "a bit") as she gets "spoilt" reading my fingers on the keyboard.  I reasoned that this is partially due to her young age but I do think I was able to read notes quite comfortably after 1 year into music class when I was a child and she has SPENT 3 good years into music class!!

So where did we go wrong?  Aaahhh... the main problem is the syllabus which on the other hand, the school says is its strength.  Yamaha syllabus focus on hearing, solfege  and ensemble (group playing - each with different parts) and very little time and focus on sight reading and theory.  ABRSM syllabus however may be more boring as Yamaha advocates would claim, because the scores are from Classical and Romantic times - names like Beethoven, Bach, Tchaikovsky and Mozart are common.  ABRSM trains the student to read notes and practice arpeggios and scales.  

Practicing piano may be a chore to Vic, and she can even ask me what to play.  I'm thinking to myself, didn't she go for the class and hear what her teacher taught and yet she doesn't know what to practice???  She used to shed many tears in the previous books especially when I want her to read the notes herself.  These days, it's lesser but still the off and on unpleasant episodes.

Just this evening I wanted her to read the notes of the song she was asked to sing.  The easy way out of course would be to just sing for her and let her follow after me, but that doesn't help in note reading, does it?  It's just like knowing how to speak but not knowing how to read.

To be fair to Vic, I give her credit for being one of the better students in class but some parents and I chatted and agreed that our kids seemed to have lost the momentum in music.  For me, I'm already decided to end the course upon graduation after Book 4, then migrate her over to ABRSM syllabus before it's too late.  Looking around soon for a good teacher, preferably private so I can minimize driving around, hehe.

On another topic, I am pretty sure I have identified the culprit and found a solution to stop the cause of the horrible itch and dry skin on my two fingers.  My right pinkie skin turned very very dry in February 2010 ( I remembered this clearly as I thought it was caused by the English weather when we were in the UK) and it never healed.  Off and on, it became very dry until my skin would itch and the only relieve was to scratch it non stop until it bled... aahh what bliss just by doing that, and I would desperately resort to steroid cream.  There would be breaks in the form of lines all over my finger and it would bleed.  Sometime this year the 4th finger also got "infected" by this dryness whilst all the other 8 fingers remained moist and unaffected.  That's so weird right.

Before my maid left, I bought the dish washing liquid from Amway, which was a total coincident as I was in their HQ with a friend.  I thought I'd just try it out and what better time to pamper myself than when my maid was not around and I have to do the washing.

Besides that, I have also changed my clothes detergent from powder form to Dynamo to Melaleuca. Although I'm not a member, I used a few of their other household products like Sol-U-Guard (to kill germs and bacteria instead of Dettol or Demitze), Tough n Tender (to clean surface), Tub n Tile (to clean toilet - note:  no big deal this one) and Sol-U-Mel (to remove tough stains even stains on terrazzo flooring that is older than me).

I'm not doing any promotion or free ad here, don't get me wrong.  I'm just sharing this info as maybe it may help those who have very dry skin too.  So far, I'm into one week of heavily washing dishes and my fingers have showed no signs of itch.  Thank God for that and thank you Amway!  Hope I'm not speaking too soon, but previously it used to be very sensitive to even one touch of the normal dish washing liquid.

Also, having tried a few organic brands and natural brands of creams and oils, I'd say... DON'T BOTHER.  Just go with mild steroid to relieve those times of itch.  To me, that's a magical solution to my problem. 

Adios and happy holiday to everyone!