Just Wait

I was told this morning, "It's the nature of my job. You don't like, then boh-bian."

Really? I boh-bian?

Ya, maybe for now I boh-bian. Just wait. I am waiting. Waiting for my sons to grow up. Then I will correct the wrong I have done. Then it will no longer be I boh-bian.

Maid = Solution?? *pui*

This morning, M said to me that it is about time to get a maid. She said she is very tired already.

That she is tired, I can understand. Tired of marketing, tired of getting WF ready for school, tired of cooking etc etc. I can accept this. In fact, I have been telling her to stop marketing, stop cooking, stop doing this and that, but she would not listen.

What I cannot accept is all her protests and arguments when I disagree to engage a maid. And her yelling at me because she thinks that I will 'retaliate' by sending WF to a student care.

Based on my experience, having a maid makes more trouble than there already is. Maid is not a solution for me. Why?

I have neither time nor patience to train and train and train the maid to do things as I want them done. It has never worked out before, and it never will. I ended up previously getting all agitated everyday, so much so that I was just a hand away from hitting the 1st maid. The 2nd one drove me up the wall similarly. You don't know what a relief it had been, when we were suddenly maid-free.

Everyone at home had assumed that I was the fussy one. That I was the difficult, miserly and mean employer. All the time, they 'good-intentionally' told me to close one eye here, another eye there and to lower my expectations/standard etc. I did. I really did, but it still didn't work out. I was going crazy, relapsing into the hyperthyroid thing and getting headaches every day. Why?

Because not only did I have to put up with the maid's nonsenses (which was quite a lot, too), I had to listen to daily doses of complaints and complaints, loads and loads of them. Earful after earful at the end of a long day's work, everyday. Cannot believe me? It's because you haven't tried this yourself.

Actually, now that WY and WF are much older than before, there should be even less reason to get a maid. Afterall, we never allowed the maid to handle the children nor marketing nor cooking because we don't trust the maid to do these properly and to our preferred standard. All that the maid did was laundry, ironing and washing up the dishes. Oh yes, and mopping the floor. That was all.

These days, WY's schedule is such that he will be out of the house even before the sky turns bright, and won't be back until the sky darkens. So where got need to get a maid to attend to him? Maid can coach him in his studies, meh?

And WF? He now knows how to shower and dress himself. It's only that if he 大便, then he needs some help to clean the buttocks and wash up. He eats by himself and loves to make his milk all by himself. He packs his school bag in the evening, so there's minimal that he needs to do to get ready for school. So how will the maid help? Coach him in his studies?!

Marketing? Cooking? I don't trust the maid.

I seriously don't think getting a maid helps in any way for me. Maids are, to me, a great liability and source of frustration. I was lucky to have been spared those nightmare of eloping maids, prostitute maids, lover-maids, voodoo maids, torture-kids maids and killer maids that we hear about both in the media and from our colleagues experiences.

The solution, as far as I can see it, must be a resolution of the problem itself and until the problem is acknowledged, there will be no solution. There Never Will Be.

Have I told anyone how my kitchen has ceased to be mine? How I cannot squeeze a few apples into the fridge because it is already packed? How I have to spend one hour or so everyday washing the dishes after dinner, scrubbing pot after pot? Bliss, you say? And I chose this?

Good Morning!

Starting from the 1st day of school this year, I have been coming in to the office at about 7:40am everyday. Only on Fridays, I arrive about 8:30am.

That's much, much, much earlier than I have been arriving at the office last year and the years before that. Then, it was common to find me in the office only closer to 9am.

A typical school/work day will start off when my alarm clocks rings at 5:15am. Once up, I wash up a little, then set about cleaning the table, boiling the water and getting the boys' water bottles ready etc. Then I wake R and WY up when breakfast is ready at about 5:45am.

As R and WY eat breakfast, I go for my shower. Then it will be time to settle the lanudry (sometimes it is to put the clothes to wash, sometimes it will be to hang them out to dry). By this time, R would (have to) finish washing up the dishes and be in his shower. WY would also have been shoo'ed into his shower.

By about 6:40am or so, everyone would be dressed up and ready to set off for school. We only briefly check that WF is ok (still sleeping soundly on his bed), then we would dash off to the lift.

The journey to school via PIE is generally quite alright with only an unexplainable slow-down just outside Kallang Swimming Complex. The challenge comes when we exit at Whitley Road.

The crawl from Whitley Road to the junction where The Equatorial (which has been morphed from Hotel Equatorial) is, will take an average of 15 minutes. During this time, I will watch the dark morning sky slowly cracking up to a new, soft glow. The process seems no faster than our crawl on the jam-packed road.

When we finally turn into Bt Timah Road, the going will be a little smoother along the stretch just outside NIE. But once we hit the Bt Timah Road / Farrer Road junction, we will have to slow down once again.

Starting from Coronation Plaze (where a long line of cars waits to turn into King's Road, presumably for NYPS), it will be a slow crawl until Gate 2 of the school. In between, there will be many cars inching in from the left to the right, and from the rightto the left....

The ride up to WY's classroom block is a great relief from the jam on the road outside the school. In fact, it is nice to just look over the field and tracks, where some runners will be jogging on. What a contrast to the crazy jam just on the other side of the school fence.

After WY alights from the car, we will proceed slowly to exit at Gate 3 where the wait for our turn to go out to the main road will take an average of 5 minutes. Then to get to the U-turn and actually making the U-turn into Dunearn Road will take another 10 to 15 minutes.

All in all, we will be on Dunearn Road by about 7:20am - 7:30am. Our ERP-less ride (ERP has not been switched on yet at that time, phew!) to the office via Stevens Road, Scotts Road, Orchard Road, Penang Road and then Havelock Road and South Bridge Road (or sometimes we use Temple Street in Chinatown for this part) takes about 10 minutes.

It's refreshing to be the 1st person around my work station to arrive in the office each morning. I am still not very used to it yet, but I think I will soon; the guards at the lobby always sound very loud as they cheerfully greet me, "Good morning!" :)

Back To Reality

Starting from 1 June 2009, I had stayed home full-time and away from the office for 6 months.

The 6-month stay at home had been a mix of everything - marketing, cooking, household chores and general 'aunty-ing'. There had been lots of studying, worrying, cajouling, scolding and even some yelling. Then there had been some games and other exercises. And much laughter and joy.

There just hadn't been much time for much computer work though, and hence the blogging drought (save for a few posts).

But fear not! Yesterday, I returned to the office. And so, there should be a little more time for more regular updates starting from now. I only need a little more time to sort out the boxes of stuff sitting in my work station (we moved recently to a temporary office space whilst awaiting our new 'open-concept' office to be ready) before the updates can be done. (I almost couldn't locate my stationary yesterday!)

Also, we haven't had time at home to organise the photos that we had taken on our Taiwan trip. So the travel stories will have to come later. Suffice it to say for now that it had been a good trip, both educational and entertaining.

Why else would WF's questions at the beginning of our trip like 'Mama, why did you choose to come to Taiwan?' morph into questions like 'Mama, when can we come to Taiwan again?' at the end of our trip? :)

It's been a long time since we last went to Terminal 1.

We'll see tonight how things are there now.

And we are excited to be travelling!

We'll be back in a week's time. And so, till then!

Bye! :)

BICEP Graduation Ceremony 2009

Yesterday, all the pioneer batch of BICEP students graduated from their SHHK BICEP course. The graduation ceremony was held at Tao Nan School.

After we reached the place about half past 9, we looked around. I liked the couplet by the sides of the stage. The exhibition booths were also rather colourful and attractive. I saw WY's photos, too.



The guests were requested to sit by 9:45am, but the Guest-of-Honour didn't appear till some 40 minutes later. R commented that maybe he was held up because of Apec, but I didn't think so and suggested that he probably lost his way to the school. Or, perhaps, he had just woken up.

It was so ridiculous when the student MCs requested everyone to stand to welcome the GOH. I flatly refused to stand (to the surprise of some other parents nearby), and saw to my amusement, that the slow-strolling GOH kept the 乖乖 standing parents on their feet for a good 5 minutes!! His stroll into the hall was surely much longer than the march-in of a newly-wed couple! Hahahaha....

The President of the SHHK gave the Opening Speech in Mandarin. Then the GOH gave his address - guess, in what language? Aiyah, of course he could not speak Mandarin, lah! In English, lor!



It was especially embarrassing, I thought, when the student representative presented the English-speaking GOH a Chinese couplet which the student had penned using the GOH's name! We all had expected the recipient to read aloud the literary work (as is usual when a guest is presented with such a scroll), but alas, how to expect him to read when he couldn't even speak the language?! *tsk* *tsk* (Shame on him!)

The concert began soon after the embarrassing scroll presentation. The 5 SHHK affiliated schools each presented an item, including poem recital, a sketch, a rhyme and a 相声 performance. WY and 4 of his classmates represented his school in its Diabolo (扯玲)performance.

(KHS' photo pending)

After the show, there was some photo-taking. I don't know why boys, when they grow up, seem to hate taking photographs. Look, see how sulky he looked in this photo!

After that, the GOH and his gang of followers were invited to view the exhibitions put up by the various schools. It was clear that there had been much collaboration and cooperation in planning and setting up the exhibits, for the different schools showcased different aspects and components of the BICEP course the children had undergone for the last 3 years. So, our friends at KHS also busied themselves and got ready for their booth to be 'graced' by the GOH.



But alas, when the GOH finally reached KHS' booth, his non-appreciation of the Chinese language and culture was, once again, a clear fact seen by everyone. It seemed clear to me that he was not at all interested in the KHS display. He did not even bother to look at the pictures accompanying the many, many Chinese characters on the exhibition panels! At the invitation of the principal, he quickly autographed one exhibition panel, but barely a second after he was done with the autograph (and before everyone could say anything else), he had already moved off to the tea buffet waiting outside the hall for him!

I felt a little sorry for both the teachers and student representatives, who had been so eagerly waiting to explain their exhibits to these 'supportive VIPs' but were left standing wordless at his sudden and lightning-speed exit. What a letdown, right?!

That GOH really had an attitude problem and was so rude to hurry off like that! It wasn't as if he had another important event to rush to! It was merely a buffet, leh! Right outside only, what! Maybe he was really starving? But even if so, he should have shown (or at least, pretend to show) some appreciation to the staff and children, right?!

I think inviting him to grace the occasion was probably the single, big boo-boo for the entire otherwise near-perfect event! What a shame.

Nevertheless, the 5 students who were handling the Diabolo remained an attraction to the other 'non-VIP' guests like ourselves. Some curious parents and students from other schools also came to ask to try the Diabolo, which WY and the other KHS boys shared enthusiastically.

As we had to send WF to school, we let WY stay on at Tao Nan with his team. We met up with WY after the teachers had brought the students back to KHS.

On reflection, the BICEP course is indeed an excellent initiative. For WY, it helped arouse his curiosity and I suspect, pride, in the Chinese culture. I am sure he will always remember the various BICEP camps he had attended (茶艺、书法 etc), the various games he had played (三国演义 cards etc) and the reading materials he had enjoyed during the BICEP lessons. I agree with WY's 感想 as displayed on the BICEP exhibition panel.



The only regret about the course was that WY had had to miss the immersion trip to 西安 because it was just barely a fortnight from the Sichuan earthquake (and everyone at home was reluctant to let him take the risk of facing the aftershocks - M, especially, was dead against letting WY go on the trip).

WY had told me that he understood our concerns, so he was 'ok' with giving the trip a miss. But I know he had also felt that it was a real pity to have missed the trip. So, we have agreed that we will definitely visit this ancient city one day, so all his research and getting-up for 西安will not go to waste. So, this city has since been put on our KIV list of places to visit.

Now that the BICEP has come to an end, we are not sure how WY can continue to attend such enriching courses. If he does go to SOTA, I guess he will be able to further his knowledge and interest in the Chinese culture only through his own hard work reading up and finding out. I hope the interest and curiosity sustain.

SHHK Family Day 2009

Yesterday, we spent about 4 hours at the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan Family Day 2009 held at the Singapore Expo. CP was with us.

As WY and his 文化艺术团 troupe had been scheduled to perform at the event, the teachers arranged for transport from TP to the Expo. So, WY arrived at the venue with his 文化艺术团 friends. We managed to catch him for a photo but the grumpy boy was looking so glum that I think it's better not to share the photo here.

Once we were inside the hall, we proceeded to collect our goodie bags. Oh boy, they were so heavy! But fortunately, they were no longer backpacks (which was what was given out at the previous SHHK Family Day).

After that, R went with WF for his 'longkang' fishing while CP and I looked around, lugging the 5 bags with us. Initially, we felt a little 'lost' because we didn't know where to start from. Then, CP caught sight of the stall with a gigantic 'Provision Shop' (杂货店) decor!

So, we joined the snaking queue and collected some 'old-fashioned' titbits like preserved olives (橄榄), 三渣饼, 'Marie' biscuits and 'satay fish sticks'! These titbits certainly brought back some memories.... Believe it or not, they even offered the 'Ken-Ken' brand of cuttlefish! Also, check out the Milo tin on the pulley behind the shopkeeper!



As we moved off from the 'Provision Shop', we were offered some 'tikam' games, too. CP collected one token whilst I managed to tikam 10 of them!

Then, as we shoved some of the goodies into the bags, CP and I went on to try games at the other stalls. We tried out some 'simpler' games and won for ourselves some more tokens. We also tried our hands at some of the special stalls which were focussed on learning about the Hokkien culture and specialties. Even at these stalls, we managed to win some tokens.



The hall was not exactly crowded that day, so whilst we moved from stall to stall and area to area, we spotted R and WF, and WY and his friends, at the various stalls, too. Everyone seemed to be having fun one way or another! WF couldn't miss his favourite (yes, still favourite!) train ride. The older boys sure looked hard at how WF had aimed at the Catapult station!



There were some other games which looked familiar - Hopscotch! And Pick-Up-Sticks! (using canes, leh!) And also some other dice-throwing game on the floor. And many others, which I didn't photograph anyway.



As we approached 6pm, CP and I started to feel a little tired. And hungry. And thirsty. So we decided to exchange our tokens (we had a total of 81 at that point in time) for the small gifts (mainly food such as Meiji biscuits and a can of Coke because all of those for 60 or 90 tokens - see 1st 2 photos - had already been snapped up).



Then, we proceeded to redeem our food coupons. R and WF also joined us. We had steamed yam cakes, fried rice and some soya bean milk. We rested our feet and arms at the table. CP went about taking some photos of the food area.



Later, we went closer to the stage because WY's perfomance was about to start. He and his troupe performed a dance; a smaller group of the members also performed a 快板comedy. But the video clips are too big a file, so cannot upload here. This is a picture of part of WY's group (he wasn't in this photo).

In the meantime, WF located his friends and started to play with them, running around and laughing heartily. CP and I sat and watched the rest of the concert while R and WY (who had re-joined us) checked out the stalls for redemption of the remaining coupns and tokens etc. I also gave R our tickets to check if any of them had been picked in the lucky draw.

R was gone for a long time. When he returned, he shoved to us an envelope which read '67th Prize'!! So, we had won $50 worth of NTUC vouchers! Not bad, hor?

The concert went on for some time and then concluded with the lucky draw for the top 10 prizes. Then, with the conclusion of the lucky draw, we also bade some fellow-文化艺术团-parents goodbye and left the hall, feeling tired but happy nevertheless.