CNY Reunion Dinner

Yes. I know Reunion Dinner is on CNY Eve. We did have our dinner then...just didn't have the time to post the pictures until now. But still not too late as it is still CNY, right?

All the food on our Dining Table

The Must-Have Yue Sang

Fish Maw Soup in Superior Broth

(Pork Bones, Chicken Bones, Prawn Shells and Dried Scallops for the broth...)

"Sang Choy Pau"

Steamed Whole Pomfret

Fried Yue-Tiow stuffed with Prawn Paste

Fried Hokkien Noodles for Longetivity

The CNY Cake was only fried much later....when we weren't so stuffed. So no pic for that.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR to ALL!

Xin Nien Hao.

Xin Nien Kuei Le.

Xin Nien Jin Pu.

Wan She Ju Yi.

Happy Birthday S2!!!

S2 officially turns 10 today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

And these are cupcakes that I made for him to share with his classmates today.

(They are in a plastic container for easy transport)

I asked him if he needed me to be in school to help him give out the cupcakes, and he said "No. I'm not a baby!"

When we asked him the other day what he wanted to eat on his birthday, his reply "WAGYU". I was like Waaaaaah. Where did he learn the word WAGYU from? Anyway, he wanted to go to our regular Korean BBQ place. So that's where we went tonight for his birthday dinner. Only managed to take photos of the food when we were already halfway digging into it....so it's half past six type of photos. Will post another time since kinda lazy to upload from my camera...

This Weekend's Football...

Saturday's games are for the Coca-Cola League. And S2's team won yesterday's game...7-3.

Today's game was for Greenfields Cup, which is similar to FA Cup, i.e. teams are knocked-out each round. Today's game was tough. S2's C-Team against the A-Team of the American school. H actually told S2 that he will give each and every team member of S2's team USD 50 bucks if they win today's game. And S2 went to tell his team mates. HeeHee...
H was very confident and said "my money is very safe!". Bad. I know. But quite true.
This morning, before the game... S2 was still talking about the cash prize of USD 50 bucks for every team member, and H replied "Just don't lose more than 10 to Nil". Hahhaha
Did S2's C-Team surprised us with a win?
Of course not. They lost 1-10, which was not unexpected. This means that they are out of the Greenfields Cup (which means no more Sunday games).

S2's team did let in some easy goals, plus one own goal. Their regular goalkeeper is usually quite good. But today, he seemed to be in a daze.
S2 did some GREAT saves though, with his head, his chest etc. So many times... that even after the game, the referee was making comments about S2's saves with his body parts! Hahahah
These saves did come with a slight price though. After the 2nd quarter, I saw that S2 looked abit off...and then he still continued on for the 3rd quarter. By the middle of the 3rd quarter, he couldn't tahan anymore and asked to leave the pitch. Had to see the attending First Aid Officer - who gave him some isotonic drinks as well as ice-packs for his head.

S2's friend. LD played for the B-Team. Unfortunately, they lost too. 2-7. We took the boys to TimeZone on the way home....to reduce their "sorrow" of defeat. :-)

S2's 10th Birthday Party

S2 is turning 10 tomorrow!
Time does fly!
Initially, he didn't want to have a party.....but to have the MONEY instead. But did finally decide to have a Sleepover Party. I limited the number of invitees to 5....which increased to 6 and then to 7, when I got initial replies that some will come to the party but not stay over. I think the main reason was more football games the next day. All except 2 of the boys all play in the Coca-Cola League.

Party was held yesterday....Saturday, 20th Feb. The final count of guests was 6. One of the boys wasn't feeling too well after the morning's football match, and was kept home. 3 slepover and the other 3 went home after the party.

This is what we had for the party.....

S2's Birthday Cake

(Assembled to look like the number 10 using mini-cupcakes. BTW, S2's jersey number is indeed 15 which is also used as "is". I even put the white swish NIKE sign on those football boots! Unfortunately, you can't see them on the photo)

Some Soccer Noise-Makers to add to the theme...

Lucky Picks - Some are good stuff. Some are not!

(What's in them? Candies, Pencil Set, Yoyos, Bouncing Balls, Magnetic Game etc)

Some Stuff to entertain the Boys...

Didn't use those sparklers though. And not all boys wanted the tattoos.

I have to say that I got abit worried when the rain didn't seem to wanna stop. I was wondering how to keep the boys entertained...but I needn't worry as they were happy playing with their Nerf Guns (which S2 told them to bring along) and Halo on the XBox. And when the rain stopped at about 4.30 pm-ish, I got them downstairs to cut the cake, and then off to the pool. They had a whale of a time with the water balloon fight. I don't know if the kids are really soooo engrossed playing that they don't feel hungry or thirsty?

Football Pinata

(Hung in the terrace, as it was drizzling for most of the afternoon and wasn't sure if it would stop)

H said that the boys are too old for a Pinata...but I thought that kids would still be thrilled with sweets, chocolates etc and went ahead with the pinata.
And yes. True enough, they did have a fun time whacking the poor ball, and then scurrying to collect the sweets that had fallen on the floor. The boys are indeed growing bigger...after they had collected all their loot, they actually went aside to trade on things that they want/don't want.

A quick change, and the boys were back at Halo and what-nots. Dinner was Pizza from Pizza Hut and chicken drumsticks. Movie was supposed to start at 7 pm, and I intended to put the boys to bed at 9 PM....which was definitely NOT successful. Furthermore, H was asking why I was being such a Control Freak. BUT S2 and another footballer, LD does have to wake up at 7.30 AM the next day!
Well, they did go to bed at 10.30 PM....but didn't sleep till about midnight, and was up at 6 AM the next morning! Surely NOT enough sleep. No wonder the other footballers decided not to sleepover!!

Both H and I left for school with S2 and LD at about 8 AM. S1 stayed back at home with the other two boys who sleptover. Their parents collected them at a more decent time of 9-ish.

As for the RESULTS of today's football match....that's for another post.
:-D

Still 18?

I used to say that I feel like I am still 18. But not anymore. Though my mind wants to think that I am still 18, the body is a different story. I tire easily, digestive system is sluggish, hair is greying and wrinkles are so much more visible. Aging is definitely a reality. Can't deny this fact. *sob* *sob*
I think I really must resort to taking hgh supplement .....at least to slow down the signs of aging, if not totally stop them.

Had a Shock...

Yes. I did.
Had a shock the other day when I woke up and stared at my own image on the bathroom mirror. I could see two very visible lines on my forehead. I was so distraught that I tried all sorts of various "pulls" emulating a "facelift" to see if those lines disappear. I hate to say it. They didn't really. I wonder if wrinkle creams will erase those lines, or perhaps reduce the visibility. What brands do you think will do the job?

Don't you love the smell of RAIN??

I do. I actually like to sit out on my terrace when it rains. The sound and smell of rain really calms me. As it is...I am actually out here...blogging away with a hot cup of tea by my side. But somehow, the rain is just slightly more than a drizzle. It is quite of a contradiction here... on one hand, I love the smell and sound of the rain. At the same time, if I am out...as in NOT at home, the rain can really be a real nuisance....causing all the havoc on the streets - the traffic jams, the potential floods and whatever... In this traffic choked city, once it rains, it is chaos!

Okay. Now to digress. Remember the EPISODE that I had with my children? Well, I went to have a chat with the Special Needs Teacher at their school. She listened and gave some advice. Basically...

1) Stop nagging, as it's not working.

2) Using questions, rather than stating what they should be doing.

3) Have a Family Meeting with the boys and discuss our feelings

4) Be firm and consistent.

5) Home Timetable for the Boys (made by boys, and agreed by mommy)

6) Mommy's List - A list of things that will make mommy happy.

7) Rewards/Privileges when the Mommy List is met

8) Praise. Be more positive rather than negative all the time.

I agreed that I have been rather negative in my communication with my boys. Of late, I seldom praise them and have been just voicing out what they have NOT done right. I do not acknowledge the positive things. She said that a child's listening attention span is approximately (10+their age) Minutes, i.e. For S1, it should be about 23 minutes. And if my communication with him is always NEGATIVE, he is more likely to tune off faster.

The other thing is being firm and consistent. I always GIVE In after awhile. So the boys see me as giving empty threats. So once I've taken away privileges, I have to stick to it. Cannot be a SOFTY!

I've already had the "meeting" with the boys. They've come up with a rough time-table which did include homework and stuff. But S1 put in 1.5 hours of TV time each day. We negotiated it to be 45 minutes, but this TV time is only allowable when the Mommy List is fulfilled. Well, unfortunately, TV time was not allowed yesterday as S1 did not put away his homework properly NOR shutdown the computer after he's completed his HW.

She said that we have to encourage the kids to learn SELF-REGULATION, and not tell them what they should do etc etc. And one thing that mothers should NOT do is pack their children's school bags! Which I don't.

Aiya... rain has totally stopped. But I supposed it is good in a way. At least, my clothes can dry out in the sun.

Anyway, S2's 10th birthday is coming up soon. Will have a sleepover in our house on Saturday. But need to "shoo" the kids off at 8 AM on Sunday, as S2 has a kick-off at 9 AM.

No lah. The non-footballers can sleep-in and have their parents come pick them up at a more decent time. He has invited 6 kids....and 4 are footballers. One have said that he will come but will not sleepover. So basically 5 kids for sleepover (plus 2 - my boys lah!). Didn't really plan for this party, so did not really decide on a theme nor print out any Pinata Samples from the net. So when I went to see the Pinata Man, I have NO idea what to order. But he had some ready-made ones....there was a red car, a football, a couple of weird spaceships, Nemo, flowers and donno what. Rather than ordering, I just bought the ready-made FOOTBALL. What else? Considering football is S2's current preoccupation. Furthermore, he will have a football match THIS Saturday, as well as Sunday....football BEFORE and AFTER the party.

Okay. Later...

HGH

What is HGH?
HGH is actually the abbreviation for Human Growth Hormone. It is a hormone produced in the pituitary gland of the brain, and it stimulates growth and cell reproduction and regeneration in humans. The first time I heard of HGH was about 4 years ago. A friend's aunt regularly visits a center to have HGH injections. I supposed that is the reason why she looked rather youthful for her age. She was almost 60 then, and she looked like she was in the forties. I am told that as people move past the age of the 30, the natural levels of HGH reduces dramatically, and thus the aging process accelerates henceforth. I supposed this is the time that most people search for the best hgh releasers that are available over the counter in the market. I wonder.... if I should consider that as an option. Not so much for the beauty side of it, but more for the health reasons.

What happened to my Gym visits?

Don't know what's with me lately as I haven't been to the gym for ages. Yes. I know my schedule has been a little crazy in recent weeks, but I think laziness played a big part too. And to make matters worse, I have not been cutting out on my food intake. This means ADDED pounds. Pounds that this body certainly does NOT need. If I don't continue with my gym routine soon, I will certainly have to use a very effective fat burner soon, lest I won't be able to fit into my pants!

Interesting Day @ Chinatown

My girlfriend, CL has been planning to go to Chinatown to purchase CNY stuff for ages. But each time, we had to cancel and postpone the trip due to demonstrations of sorts in the center of town. It's not only the traffic congestion that we are worried about...but more of the "what if a riot breaks out". BUT finally...our trip did happen yesterday.

We arrived in Chinatown at about 9 AM. I did previously come to this part of town but because I was alone and didn't know my way, it was NOT AT ALL interesting. I basically was just on the main road. This time round, CL knew her way round and we ventured into the little side roads and little lanes. Should have brought my DLSR to capture the local colours... especially the sweets and tidbits shops...not to mention the LIVE cobras for medicinal purposes. There's a little roadside stall that sells some kind of LIVE weird bugs for diabetes and what-nots too. Really an eye-opener!!!

Anyway, we had noodle soup at a stall nearby, and bought some CNY stuff like AngPows, Fireworks, Lighted lanterns, Kuaci for H, Bak Kwa, Sweets, CNY Cake, Cak Kwe and a few other small stuff. I donno why I didn't think of buying the BIG fat Hokkien noodle from the market there when I saw them.

If I don't blog in the next couple of days...

GONG XI FA CHAI!

Heartache...

I've always accepted that being a mother is a thankless job.

I've sacrificed my time, money, effort etc willingly.... because I love my kids, and I want the best for them. I don't expect any appreciation or gratitude. But for them to be soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo nonchalant about everything and taking every single thing for granted is another story. I tell you. I am so upset and sad that I just want to give up. Give up caring. Give up worrying. Give up loving. But am I able to do that?



There are many many cases where I just want to give up. So many that I think it's beyond counting. Every single day, there would be something. Not doing homework. Or doing lousy work..just to hand it over. Not practising musical instrument AT ALL. Or forgetting to take musical instrument to school (only half hour lesson per week at school. If missed, it's 2 weeks between lessons!). Spending over USD 5 on food when they have their lunch box. Uneaten lunch box that stunk-like-a-skunk by the time they get home. LOST shoes, trainers, PE kit, water bottles, lunch boxes, glassses, library books, mobile phone, pencils, pens, calculator, swipe cards, money.... the list goes on.


But what happened on Monday takes the cake. I had told the boys in the morning that I will pick them up from school for their Mandarin lessons, and have told them to be at the Pick-Up Point at 2.30 PM. I was actually at school at 2.10 PM already, but because the school didn't allow private cars to enter until all the school buses have left, I waited in the external carpark. By the time I arrived at the Pick-Up Point it was approximately 2.40 ish.
Nope. They weren't right at the curb, which I hoped they would be ...as I didn't count on having to go down to school.
I went down, and walked along the usual place where we sit to wait for each other... NO. They weren't here. I started to get a bit irritated, and then walked all the way to the Cafe, to the libraries, to the basketball courts and to the fields. I had thought perhaps S1 had a last minute athletic training...and NOPE. He wasn't there. At this point, I was starting to panic, and called H and cried. He tried to calm me down, and said that "They are in school, they will be okay. Just get a teacher to help". I still tried to go around the school one more time to look for them.
I finally went to the Primary Office, and got the ladies there to help. I was already quite frantic and already tearing. They called different departments and asked if any have seen S2 (Yes. They know who he is....He used to always hang out in the Office. Don't ask me why). NOPE. No one has seen him. Then one replied that they thought they saw S1 awhile ago. Meanwhile, I have kept calling my driver whom had been waiting at the Pick-Up Point, to see if he had seen them. NOPE. He hadn't.
As I walked back towards the Pick-Up point, LO and BEHOLD, they were happily standing at the Pick-Up Point....at 3.10 PM. Yes. I had been running around the school panicking searching for them for a good 30 minutes like a headless chicken.... And guessed where they were? Sitting in some AIR-CONDITIONED room in some computer room which is located in god knows where??? My S1 had to cheek to tell me that he waited till 2.35 PM, and I wasn't there. MY GOD!!! A mere FIVE BLARDY minutes, and he decides to go off. I see children sitting by the curbside waiting for their cars. And if mine are sooooooooooooo high and mighty that they can't sit on the curbside, there are picnic tables and benches nearby... And this is where I would have expected them to be. As this was where we ALWAYS wait for our car. They have to find a nice comfortable place to sit. And NOT only that, they didn't even blardy bother to see if the car has arrived. ALLLLLL this while, the car and driver was RIGHT OUT THERE.
I tell you, I seriously thought that they are that dumb believing the age old phrase of "your mommy asked me to come pick you up", and had been kidnapped by some dirty 'ole driver who likes to "play" with little boys....
Boy was I mad! Screamed at them in the car....for not thinking. Not being considerate. etc etc

And you know what? Until today, NOT a single word of SORRY from either of them. It seems it is MY FAULT for not being there at 2.30 PM. In my schooltime, I remember having to wait right at the spot waiting to be picked up. Where do I dare to move away? 30 Minutes definitely waited before.

I must be such a bad mother to raise such children. And when they came home yesterday, NOT a word of "Hi Mom!" or "We are home". S2 tried to have small talk, but S1 just dropped his bag and went to his room. You say lah....this kind of attitude.
"Saanng Chai lah. Saaang Kau Char Siew, Sik Chor Hei Choong Kor Hou"!!!!

Really HEARTACHE.

1001 Things...

1001 Things to do.... 1001 Things on my mind....making me abit whacko.

Got things to do - but can't seem to do them.
Why?
1001 reasons too.
* Lazy (No.1 Problem!)
* Procrastinate (This is tied to No.1 Problem. Yah?)
* No car (Only 1 car in a family of 4.....with 4 different schedules!)
* Got car but NO driver (Like today. Driver called in sick. H took a taxi to work. Thank goodness, that there is a return bus from school for S1's after-school activity. Should he have one of those FOBISSEA training that needs the car, then I will be scuffling around to try to find transport. )
* Doing other non-essential stuff (Like blogging? Lunch with Friends)
* Decided NOT to do those things (Does this make sense?)
* Planned Demos in the City (Just in case..demos turn out to be riot??)
* No proper materials at home
...and of course the list goes on. But that would take forever at the keyboard.

Okay, what are the things that I need to do?
* Finish my scrapping of our Rome/London photos, which I am already half way done.
* Sort out the photos for Xmas/New Year Trip to the US, plus boys' Xmas with Grandparents, and then send out for printing
* Sort out photos for baby sister, V's Wedding in Melbourne and KL. Yup. From Dec 2008. And photos are still in my hard-drive. This is a hard job. Can you imagine 5 (or was it more) cameras snapping away? Thousands of the SAME image to go through! Next time. Just use a MAXIMUM of two cameras, please!! Eh...For the May 2010 Wedding. NO MORE 5 cameras!!!!!
* Plan for S2's Birthday. This is in about 2 1/2 weeks. I haven't done jack sh!#. Have been so kelam-kabut that I actually forgot about it until I saw it on the ticker above here on my blog header. Thus, haven't asked him what he wanted...
* Do "homework". My art teacher asked me to do parts of my painting at home. Am currently painting portrait of my boys when they were younger. At the rate I am going, don't think my homework will be done at all...
* Hair cut & Colouring. Out-of-shape and very visibly grey.
* Go to either Macro or Giant to stock up on the boys' juices, yogurt drinks, biscuits and whatever snacks.
* Transfer songs to my iTouch. Okay. This one is not non-essential..., I've been listening to the same ole music for like the last 2 years. Time to some additions lah....
* Buy CNY stuff. Pussy Willow, CNY cake, decor ...I wanna get some red little lantern lights. The ones that I used to have already kaput. Wanted to go down to Chinatown with my gf yesterday, but was told to cancel due to a planned student demo. Bleah....
* Buy new dining chairs. Maybe this one, I don't wanna do liow. Just give the chairs away when we leave....
*Print out cards for A Touch of Frost Cakes - Friends asking for cards so that they could give them out for me.
* Do some task for H. No. Not s#x...if that is what you are wondering.
...and again, list goes on.

Okay. Better stop blogging now and get to some work.

Crisp and Clear...

What am I talking about?
Images from a HDTV, of course.
Coming from a couch potato family, what else can I refer to?
I usually am not too fussed about the quality of sound or picture because 1) I am sorta deaf...so the best sound system will be wasted on me. 2) Usually blind as a bat anyway... but the clarity that a HDTV provides is really amazing. You feel that you can almost touch the grass on the US Open, or catch the ball in the Melbourne Cup... If it does that to me. Think what viewing pleasure it will give a normal person!

Nothing Much...

Nothing much happening....except been kelam-kabut with the boys' schedules.

We have recently changed the boys' Mandarin class from one that is fairly close to the house to one which is now really far...another 15 minutes ride from school. BTW, as it is boys' school is about 40 minutes away from our house. So our car will have to pick boys up from school to go to the new Mandarin Class now.
You must be wondering why on earth am I adding torture to myself? Well, for one, whenever I go and pick the boys from their Mandarin Class, I would hear S2 screaming/shouting/laughing away...a sign that the teacher cannot control him. Furthermore, he has been at this center for 3 1/2 years and he still can't speak. Yes. He can read and write but NADDA when it comes to speaking. If the fees were reasonable, I supposed I could close one eye... I have always dread asking H to pay the fees....because he will grumble as he sees NO improvement in S2.
Anyway, this new place is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper, like one-fifth. But with more kids per class. But my friend says this place is pretty good for her kids, plus even my Art Teacher has heard about this place. So must be fairly good lah...

S1 is trying out for FOBISSEA. He has gone through the first round. And training will continue during lunch times, Saturdays (at 7 AM!) and after-school till Week 8, where the final team selection takes place. And since some of the trainings ends ata 4.30 PM, there won't be bus service...and that means the car have to go all the way to school to pick him up. So another headache here.
S1 is one who doesn't want to do anything. Absolutely nothing. So with his keeness to try out for FOBISSEA, we will persevere and do the necessary arrangements for him to continue with this.
Even if he doesn't get into the team, at least his fitness levels would have gone up. If he does, then it would mean a trip to Bangkok to participate in this years games at Bangkok Patana School....and of course, MOMMY wants to go along!
(errrr...but then, my MIL and SIL will be coming around that time!)

And S2 is in the Coca-Cola League...practices on Wednesdays till 4 PM, and Saturday games. Last week's game started at 9 AM. I have to say that S2 is a good defender if he doesn't THROW TANTRUMS (which he did in the game before last! I tell you it was not a pleasant sight. Reprimand led to a full-blown argument between H and I over what to do with S2...etc. Long story.). Thankfully, last Saturday was a good day out for the family. The team won 4-1....and we could talk and laugh over S2's kicks. He could tackle really well...but needs a bit of work on his kicks...as he kicked right back to the guy whom he tackled the ball from. Hahahhaha

Okay..gonna rest abit before my friend comes over to pick up the 40 mini cupcakes that she ordered.