Really need a break!!!

Wow, finally reached my mum's place around 5.35pm & found that the kids are sleeping soundly. So I decided to go Cheers to buy "hope" but the queue was too long.

Long wanted to have a hair cut, since Ivan's salon is just round the corner, so I decided to pay him a visit.

Immediately after I stepped into his shop, he got a shock "Lilian, you lost weight is it?" (So happy). Then followed by his partner, Vincent : "you never put makeup today?" (Thanks to the late night I have.) Initially was a carrot but the next moment a rod whacked onto my head.

Anyway, after his persuasion I decided to colour my hair purple & he told me he will style my hair just like Jolin. I told him "yes Jolin" with my hands covered my face (hahaha). In order to keep the Jolin's look, I get him to snap the back of my hair in order for me to post in this blog.

Last day of the quarter aka eating day

Wow, yesterday I reached office at 7.30am & left the office around 1am. Didn't even managed to get 5 hours of sleep (look at my thick eyebags), have to wake up at 7am in order to bring all my kids to my mum's place. Today is another 2359 day but luckily my teamlead suggested to do shift work, so me & Geraldine will support fm 10am while Clement, Johnny & Khim will come in the afternoon.

It is an eating day today, the moment I stepped into the office, Sandy bought fried carrot cake for all of us. In the afternoon we had KFC (from Chiang Choon) & Sushi (from Doug) as our lunch. At 3pm we start munching the fried sesame balls (from Johnny) & mooncake (from Clement).

Luckily I left the office around 5pm, if not all my dieting effort will go to the drain.

The Children Day's Party

Hippy, the magician costume has won Randson the title of "Master Masquerade".

Again due to quarterend, I didn't get to see his prize, only knew is a goodie bag. By the time I reached home I only see alot of food wrappers laying around the house.

Working late...

Quarterend, a word we hated most in office.

Meanings of quarterend :
1. No annual leave allowed on the last 2 weeks of March, June, September & December.
2. Orders will flowed in like tsunami, salesperson will rush you to log in the orders as soon as they submitted it.
3. Your sametime (similar to MSN & Yahoo messenger) will blink non-stop.
4. If you don't reply your sametime, your phone will ring or maybe your boss phone will ring too.
5. You don't have lunchtime cos lunchtime is already over for the countries which you supported.
6. You have to come in early to support your countries esp if they are a few hours ahead of us (this is not vice versa for countries that are hours after us).
7. You don't get to go home by 8pm for most of the days.
8. On the last day, you only get to go home after Cinderella's Fairy Godmother magic power is gone (however for this Sept quarterend, Cinderella met the Prince twice on 29th & 30th Oct 2006).

With the above, I became a China 国宝, the Panda Bear!!!

(Why work so hard??? Is it worth it???)

Preparation for Children's Day Party

Didn't managed to knock off on time as alot of orders flowed in today, esp around 4pm. Tried very hard to get them done by 6.15pm & realised that the Order Admin has left for home. OMG, what should I do, my bus has left the place & I'll have to wait till 8pm in order to take a cab home, but I have to finish the costume by today. Luckily my hubby managed to drive me home by 7.30pm.

Wow, got to burn midnight oil again (serve you right, people give you 2 weeks to prepare yet you gave yourself 4 days only). It is already 1.30am when the last star was being pasted onto the robe. Hopefully this costume can bring pride to Randson.

P.S. The next day, a panda asked Randson to try on the robe.

Children's Day vs Quarterend

Received the memo from the childcare centre on the 2nd week of September informing us that there will be a Children's Day celebration on the 28 Sep 2006. The theme for this Children's Day is 'Masquerade'. We are supposed to dress our child up as fairy tales, Letterland or nursery rhymes characters or sea creatures. The costume and mask worn by the children have to be made from recycled materials.

I didn't crack my head until 24 Oct 2006, 4 days before the Children's Day celebration (it happened to be quarterend whereby it is the busiest period in the office). Randson didn't know what he wanted to be so I suggested to dress him up as Humpty Dumpty but Randson didn't want to. I told Cynthia about my idea & she said that I am bad. Humpty Dumpty is cute, don't you think so.

Finally Randson decided to be a magician when we were talking about Maple Story in the lorry. I quickly sms Cynthia to check whether she has unused trashbag where she can pass it to me to make it into a magician robe.

I started working on it around 10pm in the night after I have finished the household chores. Cutting out the stars & new moon from empty chicken essence & tissue boxes. Painting the hat made fm old posters. Making a belt from the unwanted egg tray.

All done & it is already 12 midnight... to be continued the next day.

Working hard for???

Kids, did you see how Daddy work today??? Is it hard work? The smell and the amount of the rubbish? The cut on his knee? Pls study diligently & have a bright future.

Johnson cooking konnyaku

Johnson loves to bake cookies/cakes but I am too lazy to help him in whisking the eggs/sugar. He ever asked me, would he be able to attend any of the cooking classes in school just like he used to have it in the childcare centre? But I am not sure whether boys are allowed to take up Home Economics classes in the secondary school.

In order not to make him feel that this Mummy always say "cannot/no", I suggested that we made konnyaku instead cos I believed konnyaku is more healthy as compared to agar agar & jelly.

Looking at Johnson stirring the mixture over the stove & sweats started to roll over his forehead. It is really amazing, my boys can cook already, lol. Then he started asking, "How long we have to keep them in the fridge? The packaging say 3 hours, can we eat earlier?" They are too eager to eat it.

Home cooked food

I am lucky to have my mum helping out during the weekdays where my kids get to eat home cooked food & well taken care by their grandmother.

Therefore every Saturday, I will try my very best to cook for them (at least 1 meal). After reading Pamy's & Lena's blog plus food suggestions from Cynthia during the weekdays, I will never run out of ideas/recipes what to cook during the weekends (usually no cooking on Sunday for me, we would either eat at the usual coffeeshop or have pizza for dinner, otherwise my hubby will do the cooking).

Today we have a simple home cooked dinner :

1. a steamed fish with only ginger & mushroom cos I forgot to buy tomato. It is really a very big fish & I have a hard time removing its scales.

2. Vegetable fried with pork & mushroom.

3. Bah Kut Tea - abit too spicy whereby Randson drink until he perspired but Nickson really loved it, he had 2 bowls of soup.

4. Watermelon as dessert. The four of them loved watermelon, Randson was asking for water cos the Bah Kut Teh was too spicy & my hubby asked him, "why do you need water, you have watermelon". Then the whole family laughed.

It was an enjoyable dinner though the dishes are so simple.

P.S. The most happy person is the Cook, cos there wasn't any leftover today!!!

Carriage ride

My kids are playing new games with the hula hoop today. Initially they stayed inside the hoop & play "toot toot" train. Then they found that 4 of them cannot squeeze into it, they decided to change.

They started with Nickson & Allyson sitting on the office chair & holding on to the hula hoop, while Randson & Johnson stand inside the hula hoop & become the horses. They started walking around the house & enjoying themselves.

After a short while, Randson must be tired of being the horse. He decided to sit on another office chair & hold onto Nickson's chair to enjoy the ride.

The game ended immediately after Allyson fell from the chair cos Nickson let go the hula hoop & Johnson continued to pull. She landed on the floor and cried.

{The end of the carriage ride cos Cinderella fell from the chair}

P.S. No worries, she is fine.

Farewell lunch for Sandy

We have a farewell party for Sandy as she will be moving to another department. The buffet supposed to start at 12 noon but Sandy was on a concall, so we started eating without her.

While we were busy eating, we were busy taking photos too. I realised that our team were really interested in photo taking sessions, imagine 1 small farewell party we have 3 cameras going around. Nowadays youngsters (alot of young ladies joined our team) love photo taking, just like my kids, snapping on everything they see. Luckily these days we are using digital camera, otherwise will need alot of money to develop the photographs.

"Mummy, why my friend been to Genting but I never?"

I really feel sorry for my kids as I am unable to bring them for an oversea trip. Reason being financial constraints cos there are too many of us. To plan for a trip would mean I have to fork out $240 (not sure whether there is an increase in price) for 4 passports upfront, which does not include the tour package.

Johnson has been asking why his friend can go Genting during their school holidays & why he never get to go. I have explained to him & believed he do understand the situation, it is kind of cruel for a 10 years old boy to stand in his mother's shoe. This is the fact of life where there are people whom are more fortunate than us & vice versa.

P.S. Sorry Johnson, mummy will try harder to provide you the best.

Who is the maid?

Having a helper at home is so common now. The number of helpers waiting outside the school during dismissal time is greater than the number of parents/grandparents. Therefore the equation which my kids have in mind is :

Housework + Cooking = Maid/helper

I do have a part time Singapore maid at home, she works in an office in the day (5 days week) & do all the housework (excluding cooking & laundry) in the evening. During the weekend, she will work for us full time :

Housework + Cooking + Babysitting + Coaching = Singapore Maid (aka Me/Mummy)

As a helper, they do have an off day within the month but what about this poor Singapore Maid, she works 7 days a week, 24 hours round the clock (even have to wake up in the middle of the night to make milk, get water for the kids, etc). Even when she is sick, she still have to work (at least the office is better, medical leave is allowed).

Furthermore, helper get paid by their master to send money back to their home country (some even bought big houses in their hometown with these monies) while Singapore maid has to work in the office to get paid in order to satisfy her masters' needs & wants (I want to buy this, I want to buy that, I want to eat this, I want to eat that).

Whenever I ask my kids to clean the house, they will either do it willingly (for the sake of computer games) or they will say "I am not the maid" and walked away. My reply is "so your mum is the maid right?". No response but proved that the above equation is correct.

My hubby will ask the kids to pack the house otherwise they are not allowed to play computer games. There was once, the kids refused to pack the house, he scolded them & asked "daddy & mummy are your maids is it", as usual no response.

The next day, Nickson gave me a call at the office, "Daddy ask whether he & you are maids? Then we all maid meh? Everytime want us to pack the house".

What can I say???

龙生龙，凤生凤

那为什么“女佣”不生“佣人”呢？

Kid's Kampong & bad language

The childcare centre brought the children to the Kids' Kampong today. Randson must have enjoyed himself cos he kept telling me the fun things that happened there. He told me that the uncle at the kampong say, they must handle the hamster with care, otherwise if the hamster fell down will have "ba lu ku" (bruised with lump). He also caught 5 small "longkang" fishes which he kept them in a small pail & fed them with "tortoise food" (cos we don't have fish food at home).

Teacher Julie complained that Randson taught his friend the 4 letters "f" word, which Randson kept denying. She asked me have I ever heard them saying it at home? Oh... I did heard them saying it, the eldest 2 learnt this wonderful word the moment they stepped into primary school!!! I have told them several times not to use the word, but there are even more ugly words that came out of their mouths when they are angry. OMG, where are their self-control? Have we failed in their upbringings? Too many new things (good & bad) for them to learn from the macro environment & learning ABC is so difficult while the 4 letters words are so easy for them.

学好三年，学坏三天

(我倒觉得学坏三秒就够了!)

Breakfast & Lunch?

I have been taking milk shakes as my breakfast & lunch since 1 Aug 2006 (excluding weekends), have lost some weight however it is quite stagnant now. I am wondering should I stopped taking it now cos the body is immuned to the diet or should I continue in order to maintain or there will be further weight lost? Someone told me that I have lost too much in the initial month hence it would slow down now while another told me initially is lost of water content in the body & it is burning fats now which will be slower. Who should I believe as the above are quite convincing.

I think I shall continue for another month & decide should this diet to continue cos I've reached a BMI of 25 & now is trying harder to hit BMI 23 (for Asian). Maybe I am of a bigger frame so don't have to hit BMI 23.

Charity rabbit

Cynthia Lian showed us these cute little rabbits made fm small hand towel which is for sales at $2 in order to raise fund for one of the school.

I bought a pink one from her & most of my colleagues supported this act too. They come in several colours & I managed to go around to gather some photos of them.

It is amazing to see a small hand towel become a rabbit. She said that she has learnt from her friend how to make one. One of these days I am going to pester her to teach me, lol.

Motorcycle ride

My kids loved to play with all sorts of things, sometimes they can be quite creative too.

Look at the video clip & you will know :


Can you imagine, they are piling up the pillows as their motorcycle, looking at them helping each other in piling. Randson knew that the pillows are too high & helped Nickson to press it down so that he can board onto it easily. Then they will purposely fall off & laughed out loud!!!

P.S. This is a silent video clip cos I took it with my digital camera which do not have sound recording.

昙花一现 - 还是永恒？

The successful pumpkin seedling stopped growing & it was dead. But I found another small seedling started to grow next to it, hope it will grow well!!! These few days my colleagues have been telling me about their friends/relatives having cancer & with limited lifespan, it is kind of sad to hear these but look at the seedlings, isn't life like this? Either you make it or that's it, so we should live our lives to the fullest... isn't it? 只要问心无愧，知足常乐就好了!

开心不开心，日子还是这样过了。那就选择开心吧!

要爱就爱，不要藏在心里，不然谁会知道？

These reminded me of the days when my dad passed away, I was going 21 at that time, he promised to throw me a birthday party but... ... nvm, things are unpredictable. When you lose something, you will be compensated with another.

Mdm Susan Tan (my ex-ladyboss in Sam Yong), she threw a birthday party for me at her teahouse (immediately after renovation, pending opening) for my 21st birthday & my ex-JC friends are invited. It is a great birthday, THANK YOU Susan! Thinking of it, I will have to thank my dad too, cos I have quoted a very low salary request in my application letter to Sam Yong & I was reluctanted to attend the interview, dad told me "做人要有信用，答应了一定要去". Otherwise I wouldn't meet these great people, Mr Simon Ong, Mdm Susan Tan & Mr William Woo, I was treated like their own child during my 7 years of service with the company. I was given chances to learn & explore new things (setting up & operate the whole company), helping out in the teahouse just like any other waitresses, allowed me to drive their car home when they are away on business trip, etc.

Furthermore, there will always be gifts for us when they are back from their business trip & they will remember my birthday too!!! Just to name one : I was posted to the Killiney office in 1993 & Simon called me over the phone on my birthday asking "小姐，生日快乐! 你要什么礼物。" Imagine, my boss is calling me & wishing me happy birthday, I was stunned at that time. An hour later, he arrived with Susan & they bought a birthday cake (of cos with my birthday present) & some delicacies prepared by 师父 (the teahouse chef) to celebrate my birthday. The feeling is 非笔墨所能形容的。


(Wow, this is an extremely long posting cos I wanted to write down all my beautiful memories before they are gone from my mind. Poor memories these day.)

Teambuilding - a full of laughter event!!!

We had our teambuilding on Friday (15 Sept 2006), it was an wonderful event which we used to have every year since Year 2003 (except last year). This is the 3rd teambuilding which I have attended. This is our department's photo (all so decent looking):
As usual, we were divided into 4 groups & we created our own signage, logo & slogan/cheers for our group. The names of the group are Super 7, Thorn among the roses, Check & I.B.M.
I was in the Super 7 team, my groupmates are : Sarah, Cher Heong, Un Oi Lin, Xindy, Celia, Sarah & Geraldine. We were called Super 7 cos there are 7 of us (initially we wanted to call ourselves "Lucky 7" but it sounded like a cigarette brand). We played quite a few games but my favourite is the Fashion show, each team are supposed to dress one of our model up with recycled items (newspaper, magazine, etc) or anything we can find in the event hall. All teams scored full points for this event!


More photos taken on that day :

From kitchen to living room

Another set of photographs taken by Allyson. Our sauces at the sink top, her favourite watermelon in the fridge. Her little table & titbits box & our messy living room!!!

This is our cosy home, messy yet full of love & joy, lol!!!

P.S. Even her potty is in her snap, hahaha!!!

Toilet bowl?

Downloaded these from my digital camera & still trying very hard to see what they are. The last photo look like a toilet bowl however don't think it is, only Allyson knows.

Kitchen - a playground for Allyson

The kitchen is always a playground for Allyson, she loved to play the magnetic alphabets which she stick on the fridge. She even took photo of them, the service balcony, toilet & her favourite fridge.

Rabbit - a pet in Maple Story

My warrior has levelled up to 25 & it is getting harder & harder, used to get killed by wild boar cos I'm looking for wild boar tooth & too engrossed in hitting it & forgot to drink potion.

Nickson got a Maple Cashcard fm his friend & we bought a rabbit as our pet. It looks kind of silly for a warrior to walk around with a rabbit but it is cute. You can talk to your pet & feed them with food. And if you tell the rabbit to "poop", it really will "poo". This is the instructions on how to take care of the pet (now it is at level 4) :

Hands & eyes

Actually I'm thinking... since so many people posted their kids' photos to their blog, maybe I should start to do so too (though still kind of worry, dunno over what).

These are the photos which Randson took with his hands covering the lens & I felt that the effect is quite good, I like the red colour of it. And there's another with Allyson staring at the camera. They really loved to play with the camera & snapped on all kinds of funny things.

Allyson's birthday

Allyson's birthday is on 3rd Sep & this is her birthday cake. On that day, we went to IMM to deliver some renovation materials. While waiting for all the shops to close & shoppers to leave the place, we were walking around in Best Denki & I do not have the chance to get the cake.

Hence around 10pm, most of the shoppers have left the mall & we parked our lorry at the loading bay. While daddy was busy with his delivery, I ran to the cake shops with Allyson trying to get a cake. All the cake shops were closed & we were lucky to get this chocolate cake fm the Giant bakery.

We reached home about 11.30pm & celebrated her birthday (you can see from the photo, she is quite sleepy but managed to give me a wide smile when taking photos).

P.S. Happy Birthday Allyson, sorry mummy is unable to get a cake earlier as we were out the whole day for deliveries.

Johnson's bandit in Maple Story

This is Johnson's character in Maple story, he has chosen to be a bandit cos he felt that bandit is easier to train than warrior & they are able to hit monsters at a distance. Btw, he is much higher level than my warrior & his clothings are much nicer than mine, hiaz... sour grapes.

P.S. Mummy is a green eyed monster.

Can't stop loving Maple

This is my warrior, he has levelled up to 24. I was so addicted to it whereby I cannot stop playing until he has levelled up or completed the quests.

Final year examinations are coming, yet my kids are not revising their studies, what should I do???

Failed kuey? Successful seedlings?

Remembered my imperfect pumpkin kuey? I have planted some of the pumpkin seeds
to the flower pot & found that they started to grow, about 3 of them. Hippy, no kuey but hopefully have free pumpkin for future use.

Unfortunately only 1 survived & hopefully it will grow into a successful pumpkin plant. "Plant plant, you be strong!!!" I prayed.

Comparing flowers/fats???

This is Cynthia's african violet (she is the one who gave me the purple one), it started to bloom with very special white flowers with purplish lining, just like the owner (very special). I felt that she is a very generous & pretty lady but she always wanted to go on diet cos she said that she has hidden fats (lol, she never seen mine).

Got to stop praising her, otherwise she will be flying to the sky. Just like her hidden fats & mine, aren't my flowers more beautiful than hers? I mean "full".

P.S. Cynthia, after the long wait, your flowers finally appeared in my blog, happy? lol...

African violets for Marilyn

Remember the seedlings I had, Marilyn told me she wanted one of them but she was too lazy to get pot & soil. As usual, "the kind soul" aka me, bought a small pot for her. Anyway this will be her birthday present, no more present in November, lol.

Curry fish head

Cooked curry fish head last Friday (Teacher's day), cos Johnson & myself really missed it.

It is kind of simple, a fish head with a packet of instant Fish Curry Sauce, a can of evaporated milk, some vegetables & "tao pok"... ... yummy yummy, a big wok of curry fish head.

P.S. So sad, got gastric that night, maybe too long never take spicy food. Heehee, I lost 4 kgs after a month of dieting.

Candid shots

My 4 lovely kids...nice?

Guess who snap this photo?

This photo was being downloaded to my PC, I felt that it is a piece of art. Hence decided to keep it in the blog but I'm not sure who snap this? Is it Nickson?

Bigger hamsters

Johnson's hamsters have grown much bigger now, as usual they are still as greedy whenever they smell food around them, they will start looking out of their cage & waiting for us to feed them.

I bought 2 fruit sticks from the Pet Safari (cost me about $4+) as a special treat but they are not interested at all (another disppointment). In order to make them finished up the fruit sticks, I kept their usual food away from the cage & they have no choice but to finish up the fruit stick : )

Teacher's Day Present

Saw these cute little packaging of chocolate fm Sheng Song, where we used to do our Sunday's marketing. The little yellow ribbon has caught my eyes as it reminded me of the tea containers which I've wrapped for sales when I was working with Sam Yong.

We bought 7 of them for Teacher's day. Nickson's English teacher has rejected the present (so disappointing) - reason : she don't take sweet stuff & requested for red pens instead. (Guess what...there isn't any red pens for Teacher's day. It is an off day for teacher why buy red pens for teacher to work harder? lol.)

A game of cockles

Nickson & I loved to eat cockles. We will "play" with the cockles before we eat them - lol. I will leave them in a small basin & waited for them to open their "mouths". This is a game which my dad taught me when I was young.

I will take a rubberband & put it into the opened "mouth" & swing it like a swing. It is fun!!! You got to be fast, otherwise it will be closed quite immediately when the rubberband touches the cockle.

I taught my kids about this game & they loved it too. They will sit around the basin with a rubberband in their hands. Sometimes they will get impatient cos it would take quite a long time for the cockles to open up. But I believed they do enjoy playing this just like me when I was young. (Missing my dad... )

发现新大陆

I have been telling Xindy, how come Lena's blog can have different colour for her fonts, why I can't do it for my blog.

Xindy told me : "you can, it is on top of the status bar" but I told her what I can see is only "b" & "i".

While I'm updating one of my blog today, I saw the "compose" tab & out of curiousity, I gave it a click. Alamak, this should be the tab for me to update/compose my posting & not using "Edit Html". Why didn't I found out earlier??? Don't laugh hor, Xindy (you are the first one to know the joke & I can feel my ears are burning) !!!

Luckily it is not a real pet

Randson has requested to have a parrot as his birthday present cos he has fallen in love with the one which he saw at Linda's place. But I told him it is not easy to take care of a parrot.







Then a few days later, he requested for a dog (the one he saw at Linda's place). This is worst!!! So I tried to speak to him & negotiate for something else.









Finally, we compromise on having a toy dog. It can bark & run about in the house, furthermore, don't have to bath or feed it. So we got this toy dog for him as his birthday present in July!!!

Meme - 5 Things To Eat Before You Die

This is the first invite by Lena to play the Meme game (any idea what do Meme means? Is it in chinese 秘密?)

Nothing came to my mind especially I am trying to lost weight. Got to think harder :


1. Hawaiian Pizza
Actually this is my hubby & Johnson's favourite but I started to fall in love with it too. This is the kind of pizza we had when we started dating and our first child also like it.








2. Durian
This is the fruit which I loved all this while, I can still remember when I am about 6 or 7 years old, my uncle would buy 1 or 2 big brown paper bags of durians to our flat (it is a 1 room flat on the 6th floor with no lift, no division of living room or bedroom. It is a room by itself with a small kitchen & a toilet - can you imagine, there is only 1 tap in our flat & one of my Primary 4 classmates has teased me over this & I gave him a slap cos he insulted my parents. Didn't know I can be so fierce, heehee.) We would lay newspapers on the floor, fm the entrance to the end of the room & we will start our durian party (12th aunt, uncle, cousins, my parents, grandmother & me - my sis not born yet). Yummy, yummy those were the good old days.

Furthermore, my hubby will buy durians for me from the start of the season till the end of it {that's how I maintained my size all these while :)}.


3. Swensen's Banana Split
This is my favourite ice-cream!!! I had it during my first visit to Swenson with my friends during secondary school days (Beng Hwee, Hui Chien do you remember?). My hubby love it too!!!






4. Ribena
Do not know why this drink came to my mind, maybe hardly got the chance to drink this as usually will end up with cough. So before "going" give it another chance.










5. Chocolate cake (Forest Fantasy fm Prima Deli)
Ever bought this cake for my mum's birthday, it is delicious. Chocolate cake with dark cherry filling...



Wow, finally I have filled up the 5 things.