Coffee, Tea or Baabooo

Nurturing The Winner & Genius In Your Child

2010-12-06T13:50:00.002+09:30

For many, being a parent is part and parcel of married life. Parenting can be said to be one of the most difficult as well as rewarding job that a person can have. What makes parenting even more challenging is the fact that the majority of us are never prepared for how our kids will turn to be. In life, we do not have a school that we can go to and graduate as a parent. Many times, we learn to do things through trail and error or follow the footsteps of our own parents. Nevertheless, we find that parenting, much to our horror, is not only about providing food and shelter for our kids but also about nurturing them to be better than who we are. It is here that many of us as parents meet our biggest obstacles as our kids never seem to understand the words that come out from our mouth even though we speak the same language call English.

No doubt many parents face this problem as their children grow older. The gap in communication becomes wider and wider with age and we find that out kids turn to their peers more than to us as parents for counsel. The upside of things is that parenting need not be an uphill struggle between your child and yourself. With the proper strategy and right frame of mind, we as parents do have the power to help shape our children lives positively. The key lies in being able to communicate with them coherently and I find the book by Adam Khoo and Gray Lee called “Nurturing the Winner & Genius in Your Child” an extremely helpful and informative book in this respect.

Adam Khoo, a best seller author and peak performance trainer, and co author Gray Lee, a certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming™ (NLP) trainer and an MBTITM accredited facilitator have put together an excellent book that helps explain why our children behave the way they are. Together, these two highly qualified individuals have trained and empowered over 350,000 people to change their lives for the better. Their highly successful Superkids™, ‘I Am Gifted So Are You!™’,‘Patterns of Excellence™’ and ‘Wealth Academy™’ programs have already been adopted in several countries in South East Asia.

Nurturing The Winner & Genius In Your Child

This book was written based on the premise that the positive development of a child is built upon on mutual active participation between the parents and the child. This is where this book differs from most of the other books regarding child development. As a parent myself, I have to confess that at times, due to the stress of modern life, we tend to overlook the emotional needs of our children because we took it for granted that they understand the adult world. I also have to admit that the time I invested into reading this book did indeed enlighten me about several aspects of parenting which never crossed my mind. One of the most powerful concepts that I was able to grasp was that in order for us to successfully develop our children mindset positively, is that the changes have to come from within us first. Adam Khoo calls this concept “Reframing the Mind”.

“Reframing the Mind” basically refers to changing the negative mindset and perception of a child to one that is positive in order that the child can be empowered and grow in self esteem. And this takes place at the contextual and as well as the content level of a particular situation. The book was able to clearly illustrate how this reframing of the mind works on both the parent and the child. For example, on the parental level, when a child complain that it is useless to further his or her studies and he or she prefer to start working early, our response as parent should not be to ignore their emotions and give them a typical response like “Are you crazy?” Instead the book advices us as a parent to first reframe our mind and approach the situation differently by recognizing and respecting the perception of their world.

In addition, the book is also filled with exercises that help parents to unlock the potential in their children mind. For example, in Chapter 2 of the book, it explains how we were all born with the innate potential to be geniuses and using the transformational exercises contain in the book, we can actually “unlock” our children learning potential. The book also uses Adam Khoo when he was young as an example. Using techniques like ‘Whole Brain Learning’, ‘Accelerated Learning’, ‘Mind Mapping’, ‘Brain Optional Learning’, ‘Super Memory Techniques’ and ‘Speed Reading’, he transformed himself from being a slow learner into a gifted student.

Overall the book is well written and well laid out. The concepts and philosophy put forward are explained clearly. And written with a personal tone and at times humorous, it is easy to relate to what the authors are trying to say. This is not surprising as the book also reveal the authors own personal challenges and experiences in their lives making reading this book all the more interesting and enjoyable. At times, I cannot help but laugh at what the book pointed out to me as a parent especially when it comes to the ways that we had reprimanded our children.

Our world today has changed tremendously from what it used to be. The ways we communicate with each other have also changed in ways that we could not even imagine 20 years ago. During our childhood years, we were playing with diecast toys or stuffed dolls for the girls; children today have computer games that are networked all over the world. At a single click of the mouse, they can reach out to almost anyone on the internet. Yet, despite all the conveniences of modern communication technologies, we find ourselves drifting further and further apart from our children. Ask yourself this, does your child spend more time on the computer or with you? This is one of the key issues that this book did point out me to me while I was perusing through it.

Computer games addiction is a very common theme among youngster nowadays. We adults can never fully understand why as we have never experienced the kind of “stress” that children nowadays go through. Chapter 1 of the book helped me to understand the reason behind the allure of computers games to children. One of the reasons is that, children used computer games as a form of regaining control of their lives although sadly within the confines of the virtual world. And this in turn, teaches children that instant gratification is the norm of life today. Unlike before, we were taught appreciate the principle of delayed gratification. With the exercises laid in the book, we can actually discover the “root” causes of the problems faced by our children and deal with them accordingly.

Unless we as parents take the first initiative to learn to understand our children better from their point of view, we will never to able to bridge this communication gap. We cannot use the methods which our parents brought us up with and impose them on own our children. The world then as we know it is no longer as it used to be. With that, we ourselves must realize that the old ways of parenting are no longer applicable in our modern world. To nurture the development of our children positively, we ourselves need to, as Adam Khoo says, “Reframe our Mind” first. And that first step starts by reading “Nurturing the Winner & Genius in Your Child” and learning new strategies for effective parenting.

From Adam Khoo's parenting resource.

Of husbands and frustration

2010-11-23T18:37:00.000+09:30

To be married to the hero (not too sure about that at this stress point) of my dreams for 15 years (holy moly, I had no idea it's that l-o-n-g already) or to be continually frustrated up the wall by my hero's idealistic (yes, definitely read idiotic here, I was being polite) projects?

Ahhhh, tough question that.

Does frittering away oh, say about a couple thou quid on a sporting hobby seem okay? Well let's say, it's his interest, his thing, nothing to do with me. Heck, fine. But what if that entailed me having to put up with not one but two guests over 10 days, who are hygienically challenged and have oddball eating preferences? Oh, maybe stuff me straight away into the nuthouse would be a safe option for him.

I cook, I clean, I launder, I clean up some more ... it gets better. I get criticised by the guests still for my lousy cooking! And on top of that, I have to suffer having to entertain (read more cleaning and serving) the guests of our guests twice ... that really threw me ... into the pits of raging depression.

Hands up if anyone has a dorkier hero than mine?

Take 45 mins of solitary bliss

2008-03-28T09:39:00.002+09:30

The irony of it all. Even with my newfound emancipation ever since Rhian has graduated away from toddlerhood and is now in full time schooling, it has NOT been easy to find time to write. Whenever I get a spot of time away from the mad rush of drudgery, I just flop and space out. And wonder of wonders, I realized that I have been succumbing to catnaps in the afternoon. A door is opened!!!

I don't know if I should be happy or worried about this. Perhaps my age has dawned on my ignorant body and is telling me to watch it. I'm no spring chicken. What a terrible thought.

Like I keep telling my newfound Japanese comrade in motherhood battle, an "obasan"!

Again, I can't dally as long as I like. When my sandwich is munched up, and my tummy fortified to allay morning rumbles, there's vacuuming to be done, laundry to fold and clothes to iron. This is now almost half past nine in the morning, and by the time all that load is done, I'm probably just in time to do a little lunch. Or not. Depends on how zesty I will tackle the housework this morn.

And I haven't forgotten that I'm down to a quarter tank of fuel, and it needs filling up. I'm nervous about making another trip to the petrol station. I know I have to do it this afternoon before the kids are back, so the car is topped up for the long trip to their Chinese classes tomorrow morning ... but I really don't feel like doing that. really really don't.

I have been out all morning yesterday - shopping! There. The ugly truth is out. However, it's on an important mission. Hey! It really is! My sis will stand testimony to the fact that I'm no shopper. I have been faithfully wearing her hand-me-downs all my life and will continue to do so. She's the one with The Eye. Incidentally, she's the one making me do all the running because I have to coordinate my kids' clothing with hers. Coordinating children's wear across a continent is no mean feat.

My sandwich is gone.

I don't want to go but I have to. My bottom may atrophy onto my carpet if I let be.

Independence Dayzzz

2008-02-29T14:12:00.003+09:30

R has started Pre-School already and I'm rewarded with 5 full days of unnatural emancipation for 6 whole hours to do whatever I like!

Awesome.

The first day Rhian went to school, I was left feeling a little lost though. The house was so quiet. So very quiet without her incessant chatter. Hubby says I ought to make a recording of her voice and play it during the day to make the day seem "normal".

That seems like an idea. I kept wondering at intervals what she was doing at school, and if she was fitting in okay.

The very next day, the second day she was due to attend school, however, the teachers went on semi-strike. They all stopped work for a half-day to conduct a meeting. It looks like they are fighting for good reasons though, which I'm sort of in favour of. I'm still of the firm belief that teachers belong to this very noble group who willingly dedicate their lives towards the education of little terrors. I mean, I'm really up to my neck, and I probably sink many times, so what is my two little ones compared to their class-full??? It's an awfully heavy responsibility to mind and teach them. Not everyone has the emotional mettle to be a good teacher.

So, here I am with a bit of time again. And I decide to start writing a little again. I'm ambling ... I haven't really gotten my mind round to the fact of my 6-hour liberation for 5 days at a stretch! Besides "penning" down my thoughts now and then in this blog, I haven't a clue yet about how to structure my time. In a constructive manner as opposed to my spacing out.

Someone broke into my car!

2008-02-13T13:31:00.004+09:30

We were all trooping back merrily to my after B's Jujitsu class at the Melville Recreation Centre. And me being forever, a Blur Queen, got into my seat, reached for my GPS, and discovered that it was not in the compartment. Still, I continued to calmly rummage around for it at the front. I thought B had stashed it elsewhere for me. So, I got out to get round to to the back. Then, I see this big hole in my side panel window .......

oooh .... my .... god ....

There were shattered glass shards and splinters strewn all over the back seat.

What a baaaaaaaaad way to end the day.

I lost my trusty GPS, the in-car entertainment set for my kids which was 2 TV screens, remote controls, game consoles, and the player itself ... On the bright side though, my lovely boy and girl were not the least bit concerned about losing their back seat entertainment. Instead, they exclaimed, "Oh, poor mummy! How will you get around without the GPS? You will get lost???"

That's me. I'm so hopeless and my kids are so wonderfully aware about this. So, despite the unlucky hassle of not only losing stuff, but having to pay to replace lost items, and not to mention, the nasty cleanup in my car, it does soothe the shaken senses when your kids care more about you than their "toys".

2008

2008-01-30T15:00:00.000+09:30

Glitter Generators

Come and Join Me in Australia!

2008-01-21T15:53:00.000+09:30

Hey Everyone,

Australia is in serious shortage of skilled, experienced engineers for the Oil & Gas sector here. I'm working with a bunch of great guys, or should I say, 2 great guys. Mmmm, sorry girls, these guys are taken. Mine including. Keep coming back and I will unravel the mystery.

Come over and check out Novexx, a niche headhunting firm, with a global recruitment outlook for the energy and resources sector.

Are you game to switch to ...

a happy balance between family and work,
earn a darn sight more,
live on your own land and not some hole in the sky,
have great outdoor spaces and activities for your kids,
to actually believe and watch your kids absolutely enjoying schooling and to realize you're not beset by any exam jitters at all,
best of all, and this one is my personal favorite, to see my husband back by between 5-5.30pm, Mon-Fri
that your husband is fully participating in your kids growth as much as you
your bank savings are earning decent rates from 6% onwards
no silly societal and peer pressure here, so ...
no need to strive for 4Cs anymore, and keep up with the Joneses (or Changs, Durais' or god knows what else may come up!)
no shame in being a bricklayer or in a hard labour trade which rakes in big, big bucks here
no shame in working at MacDonald's or being a cashier ...
no aspiring to climb the corporate ladder because a welder may be earning twice as much as a manager, and yet have less than half the worries ... I really like this as it is such a twist on allthat Machiavellian conniving so rift in the corporate world, nyyyaaaahh! So, basically, a person can say, "B*lls to you, who cares if you're some high-level managerial *ss if you're getting worse ... so don't you stick your snotty nose up at me ..." (me personal opinion and no offense intended, just wanting to highlight the funny but realistic side of this) - cool eh?
almost left this out, the equivalent of CPF here is the Super which totally belongs to you and is yours to manage if you have the experience to do this. You are also free to invest it in a wide-ranging selection from property to stocks, australian or international, lots more - yes, not quite so narrow-minded here it seems. You do not need to have one leg in the grave to touch your super. Just the usual age eligibility of 65 will do. And the government here will not mess with your super or stick their fingers into it.

Now, let's turn to the papers here, in view of this shortage of skilled professionals, to show I'm really not B*llsh*tting.

A look at today's news headlined an article titled, Unconventional recruitment winning, (click to read full article). The following has been excerpted from the article.

According to the RCSA survey, engineers are in the most wanted category, closely followed by business professionals.

Interestingly, the skills shortage top 10 list includes, you wouldn't believe it!
- Receptionists and telephonists !!!

Do drop me a line and give me a buzz if you want to take up this challenge.

Yours truly,
Jas

Lotterywest Australia Day Skyworks Celebrations 2008

2008-01-21T15:07:00.000+09:30

City of Perth

We'll be heading down to Langley Park to have a family day out and watch the kids go wild with all those activities galore starting from one end of the Swan River and swinging right around to the other side. This is a one BIG MOTHER of an event!

Yo people, check out this bursting menu of activities at the Skyworks Event 2008!

And we'll head back to our cosy suburb and nestle down by a good spot at our riverside and watch the fireworks spectacular far from the madding crowds. Bring our trusty picnic mat, picnic basket and we're set to wind down for a lovely evening dinner with a fantastic live dinner entertainment of pyrotechnics!

Cheers mates!!!

We buzzzzz ...

2008-01-21T14:37:00.000+09:30

Merry Christmas! and Getting back in tempo

2007-12-17T10:18:00.000+09:30

Our suburb

Wishing everyone a Very Merry X'mas!

We're finally up and running with the internet after a hiccup-fraught application which took many calls back and forth and 2 failed applications before it took off. Woo! Nothing but the f-word will describe that slow-moving agony ... nope, it's frustration!!! What were you guys thinking of?

Anyways, I believe my blog will stay neglected for a l-o-n-g while because there's too much to do and so much life to catch up on over here, back in Perth, and in a most picturesque suburb imaginable. It's north-facing, our townhouse is north-facing and we're very near the water - the Swan River - so, it's all plenty good as far as SL's career path feng shui goes. I was worried that we would only be getting the tail end of the fair weather after heading back here, since Dec brings back the heat slowly but surely. It's all good so far however, because, there have been cold fronts coming in and keeping the heat at bay. It's now a cool 16 degrees as I type this at night ....... so very lovely and cold ... what more could we ask for? So, before I lose myself and gush you all into yawning boredom, here are some pics to perk you up!

Jacaranda-lined streets make for pleasant walks

Thanks to this beautiful suburb, you find us outdoors an awful lot. The tree-lined streets with their purple over-hanging branches frames the street scape makes walking very pleasant indeed. Top that off with the cool weather favouring us at the moment, and it's BLISS!

My kids love cycling along the river. If we're out around 4pm or so and there are gusty winds coming in, you'll be greeted by fabulous views of the kite surfers with their huge, colorful kites dotting the air pulling the surfers beneath them over the waves. Fantastic sight! It's a popular spot for kite surfing on account of the strong sea breezes. I'm crossing my fingers that lovely, strong sea breezes will keep the summer heat at bay, and hold out all the way until it gets cool around April or so ...

One of our many cycling forays along the Swan foreshore just behind us

Our after dinner sunset strolls

If my kids can't get out cycling, they do it around the back yard. The roses are also coming into season and the terrors have been thrilled with the bursting colours of the blooms.

Mucking around and Roses we picked from our backyard

Flower-giving ceremony for the old folks
at the Fo Guang Shan Temple
where B+R became flower girls and boys

Claisemont Cove, Royal Street at East Perth
where we love hanging out. Now, the picture does not do it
justice but it's absolutely woweee when you're down there in the flesh.
Trust me, this is not your crowded, noisome UOB Boat Quay,
Clark Quay gala. It's much quieter, genteel and family-friendly!
Oh, there's a family pub there too but the noise level is tolerable.
If you don't like that, you can always stroll further down towards the park lands.

Well, that's our little update for now. As it is, we're still finding our feet here, and yes, we're taking our own very sweet time over it. Which, I might add, is very pleasant! Must be the Christmas season lulling us into a slower pace too I guess. There are parties to attend, places to go and to simply soak in the beautiful surrounds.

And until then, please ...
Have a Very Merry Christmas!

Transitional limbo

2007-11-09T13:37:00.000+09:30

Queen's Park, East Perth

Desperation. A feeling I can do less with. I'm glad we got over this. It's been a frustration-filled two and a half week's worth of house hunting. The houses get snapped up so fast. Just gone in a blink ...

There was an open house we went to at 11am. It was advertised for 11am. We planned, we reached, a minute or two before 11am. And when we walked through the open door, we were greeted with

sorry, but it's been leased out ten minutes ago.

Leaves you speechless.

We changed options many times, looking at other areas, other choices. Bought the papers, scoured through the listings faithfully, and went to many home opens, drove by, and around many suburbs to get a feel of the areas - it was a lot of effort. Checked up the real estate website everday, we probably boosted their page views by a fair chunk. Instead of our usual screen savers, you saw the real estate home page. It was that bad, that frustrating, and that desperate.

It's all over now. I'm left curiously deflated. A hurdle crossed. But, curiously, empty. Aimless even. Nothing to solve, nothing to research for the time being. Tell me that again. That humans are strange and contradictory. Maybe it's just me.

At another crossroad

2007-11-05T09:01:00.001+09:30

Good Morning!

Here we are safely ensconced in Perth once again. Happy smiling faces all around. It's good to be back. That's for a million times sure. Internet connection here has been tacky (as usual ... is there ANY place in AU where the connection is not? Since the whole thing is under the whimsical monopoly of Telstra). I have had trouble logging into my blog account. But, since this is a complimentary service that comes with this accommodation, it's still GREAT - yaaaay!

At least, we still get to do a great many things online. Here are some pictures of this terrace we're putting up at. It's a neat little place. Bedrooms, toilet, bathroom are upstairs. Open plan kitchen with full mod cons, dining and living are downstairs. A little breakfast baloney out front, overlooking the pool below - although the pool is closed at the moment ... place is also secure. Entry by keycards, one for the apartment and one for the parking area. Everything hunky dory as far as transitions go. The next step though has proven to be rather ... tricky, to er, put it mildly and to avoid getting my emotions up.

Location is convenient. Riverside is across the other side of the road. I walked to Swan Bell's and the Barrack Jetty with my kids in the bracing coolness. Wonderful!! How we have missed that in Darwin. Brandon was so happy,he kept yelling, "ooh, it's nice and cold! I love it!" We love walking in cold weather. You don't even work up a sweat! How fantastic is that? A pleasant, non-sweaty, cardio workout that you can enjoy together in tandem with your kids!!

YES, we have been walking to our heart's content, everywhere!! Queen's Park is just behind with a beautiful family of cygnets and lots of other water fowl, except you have to watch out for the bird poop. Otherwise, it's a beautiful, postcard perfect park. We've chosen to walk to the Murray/Hay street malls instead of hopping onto the CAT services, since it's not that far, and I wanted to just soak in the city sights along the way.

And oh! the scrummelicious food is pure heaven to get back to! SL is definitely back into his element here. He's been in food heaven ever since. And to sweeten it all, prices here are also wonderfully cheaper than in Darwin ... by jove, it's GOOOOOOOD to be here again.

We've forgotten that stuff in Perth is so much cheaper than in Darwin. Petrol is also cheaper @ 1.28!

What else is different for me?

Well, there are LOTS of vehicles out on the roads. I haven't gotten my nerves up to really drive about here yet ... if I can get them straight in the first place. Maybe, it's because we're smack in the midst of the CBD and that we've to go over the freeways each time we need to go into surburbia. It freaks me out. Too many lanes, too many exits clustered together, and too many roads telling you no right turn here, left turn only ... it's a nightmare gone berserk for a greenhorn like me!

The other royal headache has been the house hunting. It's been an extremely, insanely mad raceto get a rental over here! You can probably guess that it's been a frustrating hunt thus far. Rents have also gone up a fair bit since we've been gone and supply has shrunken to a pitiful trickle. We've been to a fair few viewings but have not turned up anything suitable.

We've just spent the weekends and at least 3 evenings driving about, looking at houses, suburbs ...

It's been tiring for the kids but something we've needed to do. Tiring for my poor man too ...

On happier notes, my kids have been reacquainting themselves with King's Park, and loving it.

They love the lovely lawns and running all over the grounds.

From the high vantage point, we've been able to enjoy leisurely but spectacular views of the Red Bull Air Race. The planes were zipping and somersaulting overhead and we could watch their aerial acrobatics over the river.

Great picnic outing.

So, of course, we did it again the very next day!

Water Garden.

Walkway with Glassed Bridge overlooking the Old Swan Brewery.

We're now starting out our 3rd week here ... and many more to come.

See you again next time, that is, if I can login in ...

Cheerio!!

Versions of Mum,Mummy,Mom,Mommy,Mother ...

2007-10-10T12:29:00.000+09:30

I have just discovered from chatting to one of the preschooler's mom (to Rhian's classmate) that she is working a 20-hour week from home, whilst still breast-feeding her 10-month old baby, and caring for 2 boys, a 4-year old and 6-year old! Wow! It's amazing ... I can't think of any amongst my peers who can juggle it THIS WELL on their own! We'd be screaming up the wall and have regular visits to the psychiatrist or crying for our mum's help, or maids ... ! On top of that, I see her smiling all the time, and she's kissing baby very often too. She's with IBM by the way, and still needs to fly into Sydney on occasion for meetings. Of course, there's a great deal of self-sacrifice there. She does work into the nights, stealing some quiet hours to work when baby's asleep but I still say holy moly ... and I still see her a very normal mum, well-adjusted, no sign of paranoia anywhere.

When I start to grumble I'll have to think twice. Getting your degree does not prepare you adequately to be a great mum. Nobody teaches you that. I don't know which is the worse off. That I'm not working, and have only 2 to deal with - what's that compared to her? Or to actually choose work over having to look after your own kids because you can't cope with full-time ie.,using work as an escapist strategy? Or to choose work over kids for the sake of having more money to pay for the maids, private daycare, extra classes for the kids, keep a bigger car and then grumble about not having enough time with your kids? Some mums are really, really strong! This is what I've been observing and learning here. An absolute sense of independance. No falling back on grandparents, or maids, or childcare. I keep seeing many cases of mums who are totally self-reliant, and hey! I'm learning something everyday. To be with your own kids 24/7 forever and happily after, requires patience of the highest order. This is a level of tolerance and patience which tests me daily. Sometimes I set new records, sometimes I metamorphose into a demented virago. Many times I wished to be single at my most depressed, or at least enjoying a kids-free twosome with my hubby.

Which brings me to this article I found as I was surfing around desultorily wondering why I'm a housewife. Yep, me and my mood fluxes. I'd been reading this article below about how an old couple managed to retire in luxury on $2,000 a month. Now, that cuts through like a shining path of real hope!!

If they can do that, then, anybody can do that!

Crawling along

2007-10-08T09:08:00.000+09:30

Wooooh ... it's just 7.14am and the mercury is rising. It's already warming up outside! Another HOT, HOT, HOT day, and the start of the last school term for the year. Back to school for my kids today. And we're down to 11 days only before we fly. And escape before the cyclone season hits.

Somehow, it feels like I'm going back to "work" today. Have to make 3 tinkles today about our vacating this place and to pass on another challenging task to our removalist. Have to call the pest people. And one very important personal call. Oh, and I have to check my lottery tickets too! That's ultra important too.

Nothing eventful at the moment, nor yesterday. The days are just too hot to be outside, risking skin cancer and gallivanting under an UV radiation level of 14 ... you don't see any kids at all, nobody at the playgrounds, nobody cycling past even at 4pm. It's really too hot. With no social appointments yesterday, we were all snugly at home on a humdrum Sunday, and made chocolate chip cookies. Except for Brandon who got lucky. C - his classmate came over with his Dad to invite him to go for a movie with them. Since, Rhian had no invites, she was stuck with us, but, she gamely proclaimed that it was okay and she could finish up all the cookies for Brandon!

oops, gotta go hustle them to school now.

9am. Golly, almost missed some comments, since my laziness.

First off, a great big thank you to Healy for tagging me. Ummm, you've just tagged an almost hermit, so I've run out of people (bloggers). But if you want me to tag (recommend) books, now that's different! Okay, I've got one overiding wish.
Oh, please keep us midge-free forever. Those are nasty little buggers. One of my friends told me it'd take about 4-5 years for those scars to fade.

And I've to say sorry to Healy. But, my mind is preoccupied with our move at the moment. I've got my mother's gene for worrying. I won't stop thinking about it until it's over and done with. So, this is about what I can come up with ... sorry.

I hope to back online in a more active way when we're settled though.

It's my life ...

2007-10-06T17:24:00.000+09:30

... a new chapter. "It's my life!" that's one of SL's all-time Bon Jovi favourite. Curiously apt for the way we've been going about our lives' business. We've been walking where we have wanted to go instead of having society dictate our steps. I'd rather see it as being for good, since, our happiness factor has been steadily rising up the meter. Guess we must be doing fairly okay so far. In any case, there's no looking back, only forwards, and we must go on.

My apologies for letting this blog vanish off into the ether. My usual, poor banalities on offer here ... tired, hectic, gently making goodbyes, throwing away some stuff that's gotten old or have simply become redundant, a little packing, organizing ... okay, okay, I've been really LAAAZZZy!!!!!!

Had my place sprayed over to rid ourselves of the nasty bugs and crawlies. Chlorinator casing had its final days and cracked under the strain of the sun's heat. Water leaked out and was a potential hazard. It was a 2-week delay before the cell was replaced whilst the pool got dirtier by the day. But thank god, it's fixed by now! Only, the vacuum hose for the pool had to have a last laugh at us, and decided to break itself into 3 separate sections. So, we ended up in Bunnings hunting for the proper hose before we could get the *$#%*&@ pool vacuumed!

It's a burning 35 degrees now in the afternoon. I've got the ceiling fan on and my air-con at full blast. The spiders and midges have reappeared with a vengeance for young blood. Most notably, my kids' blood, marking their victory with many little scars! I'll never forget that one great, big, horrible scab which formed on Rhian's leg, the size of a 20-cent Australian coin (the AU 20-cent coin is nearly the size of a SG 50-cent coin btw). Both of them are sporting many battle scars on their legs. There's a secret society of spiders lurking about somewhere in my house. As soon as the cobwebs are swept off the corners, new ones spring up overnight ... and boy, do the crickets love my place. They're kicking it every night zinging their kind of music. Man, it's a daily battle with the creepy crawlies.

And, according to the news today, things are going to take a turn for the worst!

Horror cyclone season feared

If you've read that news link above, it looks like things can get really, really bad ... Meteorologists here are forecasting at least 3 to 4 cyclones when La Nina hits the Top End. The first cyclone may hit as early as in late November of this year.

Eh, things don't look so bad for me after all. At least, we're going to be well out of the way before any cyclone mischief! It's just under 2 weeks and we'll be flying off. Will probably wrap up the internet service here by next weekend. So, this blog'll take a backseat for a another good while yet. Until I find my feet back in Perth.

Well, another new suburb, new neighbours, faces to get used to, and running the whole, mad cycle again. The intention is to stay longer, but you never how the tides of change will flow. Righteo, my cogwheels are a little on the rusty side here. So, this'll be a short one. I need more gas to fire up my fossilizing grey lump up there. I really must get a move on and exercise it more. Finding it a bit hard to get my thoughts organized ...

Everything's sort of in transit at the moment for me. I'm trying to use up all the perishables in the kitchen. My poor family will be eating lots of spaghetti over the next week because there are 2 jumbo bottles of the sauce waiting to be used. I'm fine with it since I eat to live. But it will test my better half's appetite severely. Spaghetti once a month is just about his limit. But 3 times a week is really asking him his life! May be good for him though. He may go on a voluntary diet for the whole of next week.

Probably have to plonk in a meal at our favourite restaurant here to compensate for the spaghetti, now and then. We've discovered this great eatery run by a Taiwanese boss, who's also the head chef himself. It's not just his superb cooking but it's been very satisfying to be able to converse with someone in Chinese mixed with Hokkien! And - Waaaaah, simply great Chinese cuisine! Never have we tasted such great Chinese cooking. I mean proper, authentic Chinese style cooking. Here, most of the so-called Chinese restaurants are serving mock Chinese food that's been heavily westernised ........................ you can imagine how depressing that's been for the past 12 months we've been here.

Onward ho!

Loose Ends

2007-09-13T15:38:00.000+09:30

Whoopeee! There's a $20 million lottery jackpot this Saturday! Anyone wants to have a potshot at this? Sure would save anybody from the PAP's recent price hike on everything from hospitals to bus fares and anything else they can come up with. Oh, oh, almost forgot the "annuity" component they just slapped on the CPF nest egg. Not that it would be much of a nest egg after that ... Oh, and I've still got prized possession of a virus which sure is, taking its bloody sweet time to clear off.

It got my spirits down to the level where I wanted to can this blog because I didn't have the energy to write anymore.

So, there still is a humongous demand for experienced Oil&Gas people here in Australia. You don't need to contend with a pesky SG government who keeps poking their fingers everywhere into every aspect of your lives. Very low cost education here for the kids who will probably never want to study in a SG school again after having attended just one lesson here. Still affordable property here relative to SG's hole in the sky. You get it landed on at least 500-600 sqm worth of land. Paying a crazy 600K for a pigeon hole in the sky? Why not consider something here? Very nice cars for just $30K a piece with no irritating COE to bugger you, and they all at least 3 litres and above. For that matter, you might be able to afford 2 cars. You are free to manage your own Super (equivalent to SG's CPF) once it hits 200K and over. Invest it in property, stocks, whatever with your own full responsibility. The AU politicians aren't going to nanny you over your money like this. The Unions will be swarming them over if they ever have any funny ideas like this. The Unions are damn powerful here. You seriously don't want to see one at your door. And because of them, everybody works decent man-hours here. You will likely be at home with the family by 5pm.

There are no various petty fees lying in wait for you here and there. The roads are free for your use, any time of day. Except that you will have to pay for parking in the CBD areas of course. Yep, no ERP here. Otherwise, most parking is free. You've got your own garage, so no worries about car park price hikes. The CAT buses plying the Perth CBD area are all free.

No maids here. You are responsible for your own housekeeping, gardening and lawn mowing. At least, that's what is expected of a matured adult. You're probably not going to live in a mansion. 200-300 sqm of space isn't going to kill you, so, it's still manageable by me. You can still have housekeeping services if you can afford it of course. But don't expect to get a live-in, 24 hours service maid hanging around you here. Labour costs are a LOT higher here. I would expect anything from $60-100 onwards per hour.

Yet, despite the high tax, you do accumulate savings very fast. Due to the DIY lifestyle here, you are pretty much in charge of your own life. And depending on how you live, a debt-free lifestyle is definitely within reach.

Just one Kakadu National Park covers almost 20,000 sqkm relative to Singapore's 704 sqkm. So, there's is plentiful land to explore. Go up North for the whales, down south to Bunbury to see the dolphins, Gold Coast is on the eastern seaboard, a varied Sydney is also there to add a cosmopolitan touch. It's going to take you like, a year to go around Australia.

Oh, and Perth is also fairly near to SG, so you can fly back at least once a year without too much hassle.

Any takers out there?

Going ...

2007-09-09T16:33:00.000+09:30

Bugger this lingering cough.

We've got 6 more weeks to go ...

Back to reality

2007-09-07T11:52:00.000+09:30

So much news I've missed out on. So little time. Lots of reading to catch up on to make up for the time I spent mooning in bed. So many things happening everyday, all at once. Time waits for no one, many lives go on and many events keep taking place ... like ...

There's a poop smear on the wall this morning, courtesy of Rhian. How on earth she did that, I'd rather not know. Her brother has no idea how she did it too. The squabbles have also begun afresh after days of quiet solitude as comrades in illness. Brandon bit Rhian on her fanny for some reason too. Well, at least, it tells me they're OK now. But they're both grounded at their desk doing some paperwork for dishing out their nonsense before the day has barely started.

Aussies are finding it harder each day to juggle daily finances on top of rising property prices and rising interest rates, whilst the Australian economy keeps riding new highs on the crest of the China boom. Meanwhile, $55 billion worth of business deals has been inked between Australia and China. The latest is a deal worth $45 billion between Woodside and PetroChina. At the other end of the scale, there's been this very funny bit of Singapore news that still gives me the giggles. The headline reads (drumroll please), "Watch out Google, here comes SPH Search"! Click to read the article's boldly worded non-event. I still cringe when I see it.

It's hilarious isn't it? I can only imagine that the journalist must have been holed up in a well in some ulu part of the swamps in SG to make an audacious statement like this. Either that, or he must be very junior. Geez, don't they know how massive the international competition is outside??? If that's the way the younger generation's mindset is going, it doesn't bode too well for the future. Singapore might be one of the 4 Tigers, but it pays to be mindful and aware and be respectful of the larger economies out there. Bearing in mind our various disadvantages, and a decreasing proficiency in Mandarin ... it's all too easy to get left behind. A $2 billion investment in our country is a mere drop in the ocean, on the global platform. Thank God, Google is so gigantic that it isn't even going to bother with a little flea bite. Or mouse fart, as one of my ex-bosses would put it very aptly.

Resident Evil : V is for virus

2007-09-06T13:26:00.000+09:30

Haven't been to my laptop in ages with one medical crisis after another surfacing at home. It wears you down pretty fast. I've lost some of my precious weight which I'm now having a hard time regaining since my appetite doesn't want to cooperate with me. But that's small sacrifice. My big relief is seeing my kids on the road to recovery at long, long last.

Both SL and I have been battling the devil of a virus that's been hopping from Brandon to Rhian and moi! It started with Brandon first. It spread to Rhian through her own greed. They were both having lunch and Brandon had soup since he had fits of vomiting. Of course, Rhian wanted to have some of what he was having, since she is not one to be left out. She had plopped her spoon into Brandon's half-eaten bowl and merrily slurping and helping herself when I had my back turned to get something else for the table. That did it!! She contracted a fever that very night. By the following day, she had a scorching fever zinging between 39 and 40 degrees!! We had to keep hosing her down with cold water to bring the fever down to less dangerous levels. We were sponging her down through the night - make that 3 nights. She was prescribed the standard dose of antibiotics, Amoxycillin, which she's still on at the moment.

Between Rhian and Brandon, that had to make a drama-filled blood, gore and vomit story. The coughing fits usually triggered a vomit or a nose bleed. That's why my Nose Bleed post below. The bloody sheets, soiled clothes, blood-stained hankies were piling up into a veritable mountain in the laundry basket. I was changing the washing the bedsheets for 3 days, yep, counting today, since I am washing yesterday's mess.

That was pretty bad. There was no song and dance left in her, and she was really, very, very quiet and so still, it was nerve-wrecking for me. Since, I was the main caregiver, I contracted the virus as well since, she was coughing into my face every so often. Involuntarily that is, which is ok by me, since she can't control that. I went down (at last) one night, and SL had to take leave to care for all 3 of us ... the poor man. He wasn't spared either with all of us so highly diseased. Luckily, he only got the tail-end of it which was quickly fought off with a couple of flu tablets and plenty of water.

I'm a little woozy now even as I type this as I've just had my medication. My babes are in my room watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

During my brief periods of bed incarceration, I thank my stars for great Taiwanese varieties, 超级星光大道 where we discovered this great Taiwanese singer, 萧敬腾 who could be the next big thing. 超级星光大道 is like American Idol. Only thing is that I find it even more exciting and challenging than the original! The other one is this fantastic, hilarious Taiwanese talk show, 康熙来了. Hosted by Kang Yong (well-known celebrity author) and Xu Xi Di (of Asos fame). I love their rapier sharp wit and repartee. They sure helped lift up many a dull moments.

萧敬腾背叛

Nose Bleeds

2007-09-06T13:21:00.000+09:30

My kids had blood gushing out of their noses from the distress of coughing, and it scared them pretty bad. It does get pretty frightening for the kids when they see all that blood dribbling out from their noses. It turns into a panic situation when they yell and the blood goes into their mouth, which makes them splutter, cough some more, and the nose bleeds out more! So, I'm jotting these home tips here for reference.

NOSE BLEEDING : Self-Care at Home

A small amount of bleeding from a nosebleed requires little intervention. A common scenario is when a person with a cold or a sinus infection blows his or her nose vigorously and notices some blood in the tissue. Avoiding any more vigorous nose blowing, sneezing, or nose picking is usually enough to keep the bleeding from getting worse.

How to stop a nosebleed

Remain calm.
Sit up straight.
Lean your head forward. Tilting your head back will only cause you to swallow the blood.
Pinch the nostrils together with your thumb and index finger for 10 minutes. Have someone time you to make sure you do not release the nostrils any earlier.
Spit out any blood in your mouth. Swallowing it may make you vomit.

What to do after the bleeding has stopped

Once the bleeding has stopped, try to prevent any irritation to the nose, such as sneezing or nose blowing, for 24 hours.
Ice packs do not help.
Exposure to dry air, such as in a heated home in the winter, can contribute to the problem. Adding moisture to the air with a humidifier or vaporizer will help keep the nose from drying out and triggering more bleeding. Another option is to place a pan filled with water near a heat source, such as a radiator, which allows the water to evaporate and adds moisture to the air.

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/nosebleeds/page6_em.htm

Pages from my Princess' Dairies

2007-08-23T18:31:00.000+09:30

Princess told me she couldn't wait to get back to Perth cos' she was scared of the "insects and creatures" (in her exact words) which seem to have a preference for her flesh.

She had a bunch of nasty midge bites which degenerated into very bad sores which haven't healed yet. It's been more than a week already. When I look at her wounds, it worries me but the King says they're nothing to get worked up about. They'll scab over and drop off themselves, no need to go into a panic attack and bring her to doctor's for a needless antibiotic jab over some bites and blah blah blah ...

She's not happy, just cranky and real grumpy.

Easily said but the King's not a mommy. My job is to fret over stuff, big and small. But I do agree I'm not in favour of her getting dosed with antibiotics over some bites.

Still, they sure are taking a l-o-n-g time to heal over. Each time I look at them, I want to pick up the phone and arrange an appointment to see the doc ...

Solved the crankiness with a bag of chips!

Her teacher was worried about them too and was wondering if they could be infected. She was sort of hinting to me that maybe I ought to get them checked out by a doctor and if I'm using an antiseptic cream on her. She must think I'm too lax and switched off ... Hmmm, I'll just hang in there awhile more because it does look like they are drying up bit by bit.

Jas' Stingy Footnote

You know when you have milk that's about to expire soon but there's too much to finish off within the day?

Freeze it!! That's right, freeze it. Get it out from the freezer when you want to drink it, at least a half hour beforehand. When it's half-thawed, give it a good shake-down! Voila! Creamy milk shake!!!

We all love it, especially my kids!

The Lollipop Lady I saw today

2007-08-22T12:50:00.000+09:30

It's so impressive. The regular, volunteer traffic warden for the school wasn't available this morning. And who do I see personally manning the traffic post the whole morning? The school Principal herself! She must have been there since 7.30am until when I left the school at 8.15am, she was still there faithfully keeping an eye for any late-comers.

Wow.

I frequently see her walking about the school grounds before and after school, stopping this or that running student with a firm "Excuse me, but you do not run here! You walk!" or "Will you please get off that ledge, you should be on the ground!" As far as I'm aware, there isn't a discipline master. Once upon a time, ages ago, I had a Discipline Mistress at my school. I don't know if this role has continued its legacy in our Singapore schools. There isn't a critical need for Disciplinarian roles here. The school has Behavior Rules in place for each class, and a Bullying Policy firmly in place. Brandon is also assigned an older Buddy from Year 4. There is a fixed Buddy session each week for the younger kids to spend an hour or so with their Buddies. They spend the time reading books together, and a little Q&A chat session. This is supervised by the participating class teachers.

So far, it's been VERY GOOD! The kids in Brandon's class are all very well-behaved and I do not see any problematic kids. The problematic ones are immediately identified (well, they would be very easy to spot!) and quickly set up with the school's psychotherapist, after consultation with the parents. I am convinced thoroughly that they have a very systematic and comprehensive protocols for tackling any schooling issues!

Incidentally, Brandon's (and Rhian's) school supports education for physically disadvantaged children. Ping more bells on my satisfaction scale!

And Brandon is officially 7 years old as of yesterday!!!

His classmates have been asking him if they could come to his non-existent birthday party since last Monday. But mummy here has fallen very short! Ooooo ... I'm tied up with arrangements for our relocation and have been madly sorting through the documentation for our income tax filing. I have to check, a statement missing, contact, request for statement reprint, gather the receipts. Get hubby's stuff and mine together. It seems like a whole lot of papers when you're in the middle of going through all that!! But I've finally mailed the file out today to our accountant so very gladly, it'll be his baby to handle from hereon! Waaahoooooooooo! One more item to strike off.

And I'm left with a fair bit of guilt over Brandon's non-party. I did buy chocolate donuts and custard tarts for his class though. Sigh ... his classmates would prefer to come to our place for a great big party play for which I'm in no state to handle at the moment. I'll try and think up something with Brandon's teacher though towards the last week of our stay here, to arrange a mini going-away gathering in his class. Golly, Brandon is going to miss all his friends and his teacher, Mrs Strong here BIG TIME! And they have to find replacements for my volunteer tasks in school. I do reader duty on Mondays and Thursdays for Brandon's class, and help make ice-cups for Rhian's preschool class on Thursday afternoons.

Beggars can't be choosers, we have to go where the projects go.

Take 5 - A Holiday Suggestion

2007-08-20T18:54:00.002+09:30

Oooh-la-la! I can see it! It's getting closer and closer after each day!

The December Christmas break is coming up over the horizon. I'm going to have my own daydream especially after a harrowing week.

Imagine and fantasize. A little, cozy trip with your beloved to le grande Paris!
Let's traipse down the Champs-Élysées on a little French rendezvous.

Arc de Triomphe, Place Charles de Gaull

First, we shall check into a luxurious hotel room in the Hotel Moliere, Paris, furnished to elegant perfection. Is that a heavenly bed to lose yourself in or what? Don't fancy that? Something smaller? No worries! Just take your pick of quaint and cosy little hotels to stay in here! Just stroll around and simply enjoy the fabulous chateaux and their famous vineyards which originated famous brands like Champagne and Bordeaux.

Click here to find the best, the cheapest hotel deals in Paris.

Ever since I read Dan Brown's, The Da Vinci Code, I wanted to visit that grand dame of museums, The Louvre. The semantics of the word "grand" is embodied in that institutional icon, which it captures so majestically and timelessly.

The famous glass pyramids in front of Le Louvre

Virgin and Child painting in Le Louvre. Or go and ogle the Mona Lisa painting!

Stay around one of the most famous streets in the world, Champs Elysees (Avenue des Champs-Élysées) and soak in the elegance of the landscape. There are cinemas, cafes, lots of specialty shops selling the most luxurious goods to salivate at. Lots of hoity-toity haute couture and French perfumes to gawk at. Sit down at an alfresco French patisserie, enjoy the well-known pastries, its baguettes and watch the colorful scene in front of you.

Champs Elysees

Towards evening, perhaps some night entertainment? Hop over to the Lido for some exotic (even topless, gasp!) action. Le Lido is a cabaret house on the Champs Elysees. Its shows are said to rival those in Las Vegas!

Le Lido

Oooooh la la!

Feeling ticklish? Itching to do something? Then, go get your travel deal by email now! If that doesn't satisfy, I don't know what will.

In a Boondoggle world

2007-08-17T11:01:00.001+09:30

As my 2-year old nephew will say, when he pulls out every tissue from the tissue box and leave them flying about when nobody's keeping an eye on him, it's a "Mess up!" That gets my lil' sis screaming blue murder at him, since she will be the one picking and chasing down the merrily flying tissues. Secretly, I think tots do it for the fun of it, to watch mummy's reaction.

With the stock market rort, the world has become crazier in an already crazy mess. My book haul from Amazon has landed at my doorstep. They were ordered during the July economic highs, when the Aussie dollar was scaling new boundaries against the greenback. Thus, it became so that it was actually cheaper to buy them in US dollars from Amazon than to get them from a local Australian bookstore here! And that's including shipping charges!!!

Our new library additions from Amazon.com

The Dandho Investor by Monish Prabai is retailing here at AU$41.95. SL bought it from Amazon at US$18.45. The Dorling Kinderley Children's Illustrated Encyclopedia at an just US$28.25 which I would normally have to pay at least AU$50 or more for a huge hardcover like this. Last I checked this encyclopedia is retailing in Singapore for S$40. And we saved on the combined shipping costs.

No wonder Amazon shares have been climbing up.

Rough Day

2007-08-15T18:56:00.000+09:30

Been a rough day and I'm trying to dissipate some of my tension by writing it off.

And that is a great drink I just had. Stone's Green Ginger Wine. Here's a nice recipe to try.

STONE'S GAELIC COFFEE
Make coffee in the usual way.
Put a measure of Stone's Original Ginger Wine in a cup, top up with coffee, add sugar to taste, stir and then add cream to the top.

Unusual and pleasantly different.
Click here for the weblink and more cocktail recipes.

To finish it off after my drink ........

It all started when I awoke with a rough pain in my head. Then, my housewife was late. We got cannibalized in traffic for a day, which made me tough for my meeting with Harry Potter. I apologized ridiculously to him, which seemed to make things high-octane again. But then the meeting turned into sheep, with him yelling and screaming. I went nuts when he dozed off. On the way home we passed a mess of a family. Suddenly the marriage oozed in the road and my housewife had to fighting to avoid it. In the process, I was maddened from the Baabooo, landing on my butt. I was covered in Orange juice from hair to leg. Could this day get any more naughty? My housewife pressed me back into the Baabooo and we made our way back to the kids. I went straight to home. I was bananas!

...

My "Holiday" Scorecard

2007-08-15T14:54:00.000+09:30

So, Brandon's still having his mild fever which comes and goes, and a very bad throat which doesn't stop him from yelling at his sister. Rhian has a cold and bad sores on one little leg which also doesn't stop her from climbing over the lounge and anywhere else. Let me just rehash the things "sick" kids can get up to around the house.

A Face-off (major scolding) with Brandon for swatting his sister.
One Corner stand-in for Rhian for lying to me that she brushed her teeth.
One clean-up after a party hat craft session covering 80% of the toy room. Ok, this wasn't too bad. I didn't faint.
Another mini clean-up not half hour later by Rhian who pulled out all the pom pom balls from the craft box, found her brother's craft bag which Brandon had been saving up to make a paper puppet from, and she snipped that up into gazillion pieces. That led to a screaming brawl. Which, leads to ...
Corner stand-ins for BOTH, a telling off from moi, and they need to submit a piece of written work to me. If they fail to deliver that written work ...
Add one more page of work!
Nags : millions and millions and millions that go in one ear and right out the other ...

And it's just half a day gone by.

Do they sound sick to you???

Commonsense tells me to send them back to school. But the heart is weak. I've learned a new word today which sums up perfectly what my kids are "suffering" from, at least, the acting parts. Valetudinarianism, quite a mouthful of a word, meaning the state of being sickly or infirm. More specifically for me, it just means you're not extravagantly sick, but you're milking your condition for all its worth! Sound familiar?

Lastly, here's some

Extremely Bad Advice for Parents

On a working holiday

2007-08-14T18:47:00.000+09:30

Yep, Doctor Mum is IN today and perhaps for another day or two. Brandon has triumphantly caught the flu virus from his classmate, and is now having a mild fever. They're both on leave from school for while until it goes off, and it is a holiday. Me? I'm on a working holiday (their holiday, mind you, not mine).

I know they're both secretly pleased because they get to be pampered, the little brats. Kids are very good at sharing everything, especially viruses and their mother's age. The virus has also made a stopover at Rhian's. And she has been acting it up with dramatic sniffles.

Kids are natural oxymorons. We feel down when we' re sick, but kids seem to enjoy it! It's a kiddy conspiracy.

On a positive note, those bottles of children's panadol, cough and cold syrups that I bought so long ago will get used at last ... that's my fiendish stinginess talking - not me.

I leave you with a quote by Steve Wright,
Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.

Amen.

Where Angels Fear to Tread

2007-08-13T23:07:00.000+09:30

So boldly goes my heading, the title from one of E.M. Forster's well-known novels, Where Angels Fear to Tread. It's an apt analogy for my feelings about the stock market turmoil that's arising from the US subprime toxic ooze. It's just one more example why the classics are so great in their timeless portrayal about the fallacies in human nature. Despite their temporal gap, you can still find relevance in today's societal madness. Specifically for me, the stock market madness. From the stock bubble in China (and China stocks) to its screw ups in safety with regards to the "made-in-china" label, rising emotions for clean or alternative fuel, and even down to the property bubble right in Singapore, it applies so relevantly.

Irrationality has scaled new heights here. Despite the fact that there are so many warning indicators of bubble formation in-vigorous-progress, just as many are blithely ignoring the warning signals, and sweeping them aside.

As I type this post, I have half an ear on Warren Buffett's talk to MBA grads at the University of Florida. This is a one and half hour talk that you want to set aside for. Incidentally, Nilma bear is beside me, who is one of Rhian's cuddlies, keeping me company. Such ironies co-exist side by side. My daughter's simplicity of good feelings I find symbolized by Nilma that she has thoughtfully left beside me and the complex intricacies of mad reality I find symbolized in the market madness around me.

SL has been reading this old Chinese story centering around a Chinese idiom, San Ren Cheng Hu, 三人成虎 (literally, three men create a tiger) to Brandon. Again another timeless example about human nature. In a nutshell, it's about rumor mongering that becomes self-fulfilling once it gets repeated often enough. The story dates back to the Warring States in which a wise minister tells his king, the Wei Emperor, a story when he is tasked to accompany the Crown Prince to Zhao Country as a hostage. Before he leaves, he asks his king whether he will believe in a rumor that there is a tiger in the city from one person. The king replies no. Then, he asks will the king believe a rumor if there were two persons purporting this same story, and the king replies that he would start to having an amount of credulity to the story. The wise minister then continues to ask if his king would start to believe if there were three men now rumoring about the tiger story. And the king concedes that if he heard the same story from three men he would believe it.

Thereby, the Chinese idiom of San Ren Cheng Hu, 三人成虎 is used to describe the groundless fallacies which gain credibility upon repeated re-telling.

Wouldn't you agree that this applies so pertinently to the utter incoherence of behavior that's dictating the market when it goes up and when it goes down. All it take is for one panicked reaction to get to another ear that "oh my god, the market is falling, we have to sell to cut our losses!" and it snowballs into a self-fulfilling prophecy. The same thing happens in a melt-up (upward trend). One person says to next,"Oh you have to get into this sector/this stock, it's sure to rise!" and it turns into another self-fulfilling prophecy. This herd mentality simply continues to bubble up until it bursts into a a grand mess. Whenever a hyped up stock isn't backed by strong fundamentals and balance sheets, it will not weather the upheavals and will be crushed or reduced. That's a reality Mr Market will not deny you.

I have just finished going through the news on Bloomberg, CNN Money about unprecedented levels of cash injection to prop up the crisis. We never learn when it comes to greed I realized. We succumb so easily (pitifully) to greed.

On account of our irrational fears, we are in for bumpy times ahead indeed. A clear case of an inversion on the bildungsroman progression. (My apologies for the sarcasm.)

Which sector is there the most fear now? Where angels really fear to tread? Now, that's an area I will be keeping on my radar and will zoom in for the kill once it hits or goes below my price valuation.

This may be the turning post in my blog, and begin a new chapter, Desperate Housewives Investing 101 ...

Beginnings ... starting my chickens in Singapore

2007-08-10T08:39:00.000+09:30

We were all up early this morning. The weather was cool and I thought, let's walk to school. We haven't done that for a very long while. I used to walk my kids to school back in Perth. Lovely weather in Perth. Since the temperature was just right for walking, we walked today. I love walking.

Had a good talk with Brandon yesterday about his last-minute nonsenses before leaving the house every morning. He finally bucked up this morning and was up before me. Naturally, I got lorded over it by him.

I read a little later into the night yesterday. I was reading up Peter Lynch's book, Beating the Street. Just trying to educate myself on working out a mutual fund strategy for the Singapore market. That is one good book to start your foundation on because it gives an insider's view to the world of fund managers and how they operate (and mess with your money). There are not many good mutual funds in SG for that matter. Also, I can't have my CPF funds sitting there idling away at a piddling 2%. Singapore is extremely conservative still compared to AU in this area.

Market should be heading south today for the financial sector in Singapore, since BNP has gotten itself into a mud puddle. Banking sector will be affected in SG too I guess. Market correction was not we had hoped for to make value buys though. Here we go round the mulberry bush again ...

One more down, more to go ...

2007-08-09T10:18:00.000+09:30

Okay, I finally nailed down a nice little place yesterday. It's Russell's on the Terrace. Woohoooo! Walking distance to the Murray and Hay Street Mall, AND within walking distance to SL's office HQ. It's also within the free CAT services around the central business district. We may not even need a car rental! We can just wait for our cars to get shipped down nearer the time and just use one of them to hunt for a more permanent place to stay. Another great plus is we get complimentary broadband access to boot! I'll have some more photos put up after we're there.

Russell's on the Terrace

This link for holiday accommodation, relocation and short-stay purposes is also up on my sidebar.

Just received an email from the property manager! Goody! This means I can iron out and smoothen the finer details of the vacate procedures soon.

Our Moving Checklist

2007-08-08T09:53:00.000+09:30

It was most frustrating this morning. Despite my heavy-duty nagging, Brandon has been LATE for school two days in a row! Somehow, there's always a last-minute emergency. He has to go do some business in the toilet just we are stepping out the door. Or, I catch him day-dreaming over his socks ... a last scramble to put his reading file in his bag ... aaaaaaarrrrgghhhh!

I guess I am a little uptight too because I can't seem to get a booking for place to stay in when we head back to Perth come October!!!!!! Everyone seems to be booked. Or there may be vacancies here and there but the dates don't gel!

Okay, I may have more luck today. I'm going to list down my list of to-dos so I can stay sane.

Air Tickets : Booked and Confirmed.

Airport Check-In : Do that online nearer the date (I better imprint this in my memory as there's a real likelihood it's going to slip my mind towards the last stage of moving nerves)

Temporary Stay in Perth : Bloody difficult to book a block of 1 month as it seems everybody else has pre-booked!!!!!!!!!!!!! Still trying. Anybody who has a good place (fully furnished, self-contained, at least 2-bedrooms) in the Perth CBD area (walking distance to business district), please get in touch with me!

Temporary Car Rental : To arrange when we're there in Perth.

Postal Redirection : Not done yet. Have to check with a friend if it's okay to redirect to his place, otherwise, I have to apply to do Mail Holding AND Redirection.

Removalists : Contacted. Arrange for late Sep inspection and final quotation. Will get them to ship off the cars too.

Final Inspection : Waiting for property manager's reply.

Service Disconnections : Not yet. Power, Water, Gas.

Telecommunications : Not yet. Landline and the Internet.

Suburb to move to in Perth : Still looking around. We can't confirm a place remotely anyway. We have to sight the place as the properties usually look better in photos. Identified Maylands and Rivervale though. Near the Swan River and fairly close to the CBD. Nice looking suburban landscaping too.

Schooling : Hmmmm. International or State - don't know yet. Intention is stay put for 5 years this time and stop moving around so much. State curriculum can't be followed through in a different country, but an International curriculum will ease some of the transitional difficulties for our kids. Since, we've been to Australia, we've been shifting every 6-7 months. In fact, Darwin is now our record-holding stay at 1 year come Oct! Beyond that, we hope to relocate to a really permanent place, somewhere else. Not Singapore, not Australia. We'll see.

Hot Sale! Hot Sale!

2007-08-06T20:24:00.000+09:30

In case you've been burned by the stock market falls, stop panicking and click over to the following article link. Read this article about the falling sky to restore some measure of sanity back to yourself. It was a hilarious read for me. It made me glad that I did my homework.

With this drop, I am beginning to understand the gurus' stance about erratic, irrational herd behaviour creating strong buy opportunities. Your gut reaction is to sell off to cut your losses. But if you calm down and recap why you have chosen that particular stock, the research you have done, the reports you went through, your own number crunching, I think we should all have confidence in ourselves eh? It's actually much like the bargain-picking process we go through when we rifle through all those supermarket brochures or advertisements to check and compare which has the best deals. If we can penny-pinch to the level of cents for a hunk of meat, we can surely do that for a ticker that's going to cost us a 5-figure sum huh.

Take Foolish steps now to become a savvy Motley Fool investor. This is a good website as a starting base. It's very tongue-in-cheek and very readable. The website's eyebrow-raising moniker is a reference to the Shakespearean court jester in his play, "As You Like It" (this link brings you to an online copy that I found!). They are anything but fools of course! The other would be Investopedia.

There is a great difference between investing, and speculating. Buying shares based on a couple of news or analyst reports does not an investor make. I realized this at this fine old age, after 5 investment books, and 6 websites later. On hindsight, my early investments in my early twenties were made based on the aunties' and rumor-mongering grapevine which is the worst sort of investment decisions to make. That means, you're letting someone do the thinking for you instead of working it out yourself whether the numbers make sense that the company's shares will compound your money for you. I used my hard-earned money to buy based on someone's call. And then let them go in panic when the share price slithered down. By definition, those buy and sell calls were NOT investment calls, but trading and mere speculation ...

With age and more sense (I reckon?) there's only so much damage I can do with SL's money. Then, with my trusty ol' partner beside me, nagging me at times, we have worked out our financial goals, determined our stash of free cash that we can safely afford, identified our risk appetite and how much we can stomach, plus an all-important time horizon. We'll be holding them all for at least 5 years, ideally, 10 years. Our benchmark's were the bond rates in Australia, set at 6%. If the companies are not able to meet this (why should we be putting our money in something that makes less than 6% anyway, it'd make more sense and less risk to put it into bonds or fixed deposits wouldn't it?), we move on and look at the next and the next ... it's been heavily tedious and lots of googly-eyed staring at balance sheets, company news releases, following up on leads ...

Now, with the market getting like cranky old bear, there's no better time to get yourself ready and sweep in and whack up all those undervalued bank stocks! And please don't jump in the deep end without doing your own due diligence!!!!!!!!! There've been some prime bank stocks on our wish list that we're eyeing but were over-priced before since most stock markets around the world were trading at above PEs of 20. Now, with this market correction, it's brought them down closer to their real value. Hopefully, with the downturn, all those over-priced, hyped-up stocks will be flushed out of the system, and we can get some real value.

And I hope I have not bored the socks off you. If a mere housewife like me who has a deep aversion for figures and financial mumbo jumbo can figure out how a CDO (collaterized debt obligation) comes about, then I really reckon, everyone can too!

Post Note: SL who rarely reads my blog (he thinking it's all hogwash) has deigned to read this and has made the rare suggestion that I put in the following quote.

Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.
~ Warren Buffett

Carpe Diem

2007-08-05T08:59:00.000+09:30

We slept in today. When we woke up at half past 7, we went out to find that Brandon had made cheese sandwiches for our breakfast! And he's not yet 7. Well, he'll be in another month's time. Still, it's a WOW from me!

Not to be outdone, Rhian served up a "breakfast" of eggs sunny side up, cooked in her toy kitchenette and placed it proudly in front of us together with a little vase of paper flowers! That scored another WOW from me!

It's liberating.

I doubt that Brandon's breakfast could have materialized if we had still been safely cocooned in Singapore. His doting grandparents would have put a stop to that. Or the convenient kopitiam breakfasts would have put a stop to that. He'd be treated like a king and be spoiled silly and both SL and I would have been subjected to an earful that we are sloppy ...blah blah blah.

Since we've made our first bold move, it's been quite a journey of not just self-discovery, but self-growth for all of us, my kids included. They're part of our team and have been dragged from country to country together with us, and have had their share of tough spots. It's been amazing how self-reliant my kids have grown in the absence of pampering grandparents (or maids). We all miss our folks back home but things have turned out quite well in the kids department. So far so good.

It does take a great deal of courage to pluck yourself out of your comfort zone and plunge everyone, big and small into an entirely unknown territory. You do your due research but that's on paper, or the internet, and you don't really know what to expect. The prospect of change and its attendant hassles are all too scary and too much the more you keep mulling over it. So, yep, it takes a lot of guts to psyche yourself that you can all pull through together as a unified team, come what may. The rough patches have made everyone stronger. We know there's no one to fall back on and that we have to rely on ourselves. This has also built up an increasing spirit of independence which I hope will armor us well for future challenges ahead. I think it's a strong family that fights and sticks together.

And why I'm able to go on like a rambling ol' windbag is because Rhian is helping me fold my stack of washed laundry, whilst I'm sitting back plucking at my keyboard! Naughty me.

Why is it liberating? Because we know now that we have the ability to face up to changes in our life and survive in most places - that is, excepting places like Iran/Iraq and the like ... we're adventurous but not THAT crazy!

Oh, and the internet really blows all boundaries apart. You can google out EVERYTHING you need to know about ANYTHING!!!!!! Even Brandon is used to harnessing the power of the internet. Anything I can't give an answer to, he'll tell me that we should check it out on the net.

Funky

2007-08-04T16:04:00.000+09:30

PhotoHunt

I thought these presents from Brandon and Rhian's Santa Clauses (my mom and my sis) in Singapore are FUNKY!

Bears and the Stock Market

2007-08-02T13:00:00.001+09:30

My friend, George from the US, forwarded me these pictures from someone, which were supposedly taken off a newspaper. P.S. he does not endorse this as bears are really creatures of the wild!

Still, you have to admit these photos are nothing short of amazing.

Crazy Alaskan Man and his Bears

On the topic of bears and craziness. Lately, the markets have suffered from the sneeze which started in US, and they've gone bearish for a while. But, the markets have all come round after having the weeds trimmed off. That was good. At least, the price will be shaved nearer to a company's intrinsic value rather than an inflated one. The inflated values being something we've had to contend with for so long. Anybody done any bargain picking?

I have been thinking about re-casting this blog from another angle. This blog has been a journey of growth for myself, as I live and experience and put down some of my life snippets into words. Recently though, I've realized that my need for expression has taken a backseat in my list of priorities. More and more, I find that a goal we have set for our family is taking on increasing precedence. Also, it might be more constructive for me to try and use this blog to digest and refashion the concepts learnt from the investment books into bite-sized morsels for myself. Might as well make myself more useful since I'm at home, using SL's money everyday huh. Might as well try and grow the egg bigger myself too. Or at least to keep it from shrinking!

Hmmmmmmm ... I don't have that much brain juice left over after the day's activities ...

Looks like the markets are recovering slowly but surely again. Here we go trying to keep steady on the train ... with help from my three pillars : Reuters, Forbes and Bloomberg. And lots of others just screaming to be read.

8 Random Facts about Myself - Playing Tag

2007-07-31T17:20:00.000+09:30

Eastcoastlife has tagged me, Thank you!
so here goes ...

The Rules of this tag:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
3. Tag eight people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blogs.

8 Random facts about Myself

1. I am an introvert, bordering on reclusiveness. Living away from home has forced me to be more forthcoming, since, I will need help and information along th way, and I'm asking a lot more questions than I did in the past. I still need to "recuperate" after a bout of socializing, and recharge. A 3-hour long engagement taxes my limits ... this also explains why I keep my circle small and cosy, and manageable.

2. I write to give a bit of perspective to my musings, and as a form of release from my full-time mothering mission in life. Sometimes, I imagine I'm walking through life with 2 little monkeys clinging onto me, and it does feel rather heavy every now and then. Blogging is an ersatz replacement when SL does not want to entertain my mood swings. Reading blogs and getting to know a blogging friend or two has alleviated loneliness in a foreign country.

3. This is my very first time doing this tagging thing, and I'm finding it difficult talking about myself like this, and I'm struggling.

4. I love my Golden Retriever, Yuski. He died of heatstroke last year-end. It was a heart-rending, irreplaceable loss for all of us because he was a part of our family. We tend to think of him as Yuski not as a dog. He was also one of my babies. If we could turn back the clock, it would be to wish him back. He was a huge dog, he dug huge holes in our yards, chewed up just about everything he could sink his teeth in, extremely STRONG, he was a one big headache when it came to destroying stuff, but he was also extremely adorable and beautiful.

5. I deeply believe in the health-enhancing benefits of traditional Taijiquan, and I want to toot about it here. I'm glad SL dragged me into Taijiquan, back in 1998. It has kept me uncommonly healthy and I truly believed it helped me a lot with the birth of my 2 kids, and has helped me recover very quickly after the labours. Both by natural delivery. Our style of Taijiquan, is known as the Chen style, or Chenjiagou Taijiquan as we prefer to be distinguished. This is a direct lineage from the Chen Village (Chenjiagou) in Henan province, China. The training is heavily focused on internal tuning with a physical emphasis on the waist and hip areas. Very good for keeping in shape! Click on our link above to find out more. And my photo testimonials below ...

Me with Brandon, 2-months old.

Me with Rhian, 1-year old.

6. I am still trying to overcome my fear and nervousness of driving. It's unlikely that I will ever enjoy driving. I cannot rid myself of the fact that each time I get behind the wheel, I'm basically in a potential killing machine ... If this sounds phobic, it probably is ...

7. I find pleasure whenever nature drops by our doorstep, and in the abundance of wildlife everywhere. Just not the venomous ones!!

Green Tree Frog found resting on our trash bin. This is a climbing frog.

8. I love reading but I am finding it harder and harder to scratch out some time to read. The last book I re-read (a John Saul novel), I couldn't get past page49 for 2 weeks! because I kept getting interrupted by my kids or SL, so I chucked that away. I only managed to finish it one night, after EVERYBODY had gone to sleep. And I purposely had a lot of coffee in the day just to keep myself from falling asleep too early! It never used to be so desperate. Lately, though, my reading diet has changed to financial and business news, since we started a US portfolio, and I'm really struggling to continue reading all those new investing books I started on - really, really tough!

That's it.

I'm tagging ...

There! That does it I guess.

Thoughts on Education

2007-07-30T17:55:00.000+09:30

I have received a School Performance Report from the Principal of my kids' school together with their weekly newsletter. I find it impressive that the school takes pains to churn out a newsletter every week without fail.

It is not merely a one-way newsletter. It does a lot more than that. It communicates the daily events taking place all throughout the school at different levels, it seeks to bring mums together for a Friday morning cafe in the school's courtyard, it aims to foster parental reinforcement of its policies through reminders and parent-teacher meets. Now, these parent-teacher meetings are on-on-one and are even scheduled! The class teacher shows you their work, brings up a customised learning plan that they have mapped out together with your child and encourage you to critique and make suggestions to further improve it. At a more personal level, I know some personal details about Brandon's teacher, since, we do have little chats here and there. So, I know a little bit about their teachers on a personal basis. I think there is a gap not just between students and teachers in Singapore but also, between parents too eh? My guess would be that things have not really improved much and there is still a communication gap between the teachers and students in Singapore. If I buy Rhian a new pair of shoes, the next day, she'll be wearing them and showing them to her preschool teachers, that's how close the rapport between students and teachers here. There is a personal level of individual interest in each student that I have not seen myself when I was in school nor from what I'm reading of my friends with kids about their worries and frustrations with the schooling in Singapore.

All I ever hear about is the endless tests, streaming, studying for this or that exam. How they need to coach their kids after school, the extra tuition classes, or they have a swim test!!! It all sounds very stressful and unhappy to me. Not just the kids, the parents too! A high price to pay to stay on top of the educational system in Singapore. All good and fine and kudos to Singapore's impeachable educational standards of course, providing the students (and parents) hold up under all that stress, and don't have a breakdown along the way. Suffer the poor kids when they do not make a grade ... gasp! then it'd be a great scandal and loss of face or some such hoo-ha, wouldn't it? I think the psychological damage is a lot worse than a failed grade. It robs them of their self-esteem, which is already brittle from the battalion of tests and god knows what else.

I think the main difference lies in the focus of the educational system in both countries. In Australia, the system has a very real human face, with an intense empathy for the student, hence, it is very much student-centric. In Singapore, it is, as always, so very meritocratic. The Singapore school cares very much about its scoring. It uses a one-dimensional, hard, uncaring scores to determine a student's aptitude, when it is a lot more than that. You can be exam-smart but not street-smart. The latter, you've got to learn from the school of hard knocks and being independent from a young age. I would prefer my kids to be a level-headed, independent survivor than a very clever but pampered softie who needs a maid (I hope grandparents have not been reduced to maids as well) to wait on them.

Even at Year 1 here, every kid in the class is rostered with a class duty, so they start learning about responsibilities. There are so many things I could go on about but suffice to say, that these are the intangibles you do not get to learn from books, no matter how many textbooks you read.

I'll just share with you 2 pages of the report. For sure, there is a marked difference in academic standards. But wouldn't you rather have your kid in a school which actually bothers to get to know you than just be another common statistic in the other?

To get my last word in, that piece of paper with academic accolades doesn't guarantee one a well-paid job. There are a helluva lotta tradesmen here with just their certificates who earn a darn sight more than the average graduate over there. For that matter, there are many towkays who don't have a degree either. Again, it all depends on your ideals. Whether you want to be in a government job your whole life or to simply find your own niche and do what you want rather than what the government wants, or what you want rather than what your kids wants. What any parent wants being a relative subject ...

Just my 2 cents, don't get offended, you are free to walk your own path for your kids still ...

My Photo Hunt

2007-07-29T08:40:00.000+09:30

Kids made a rubber cubby from their foam play tiles.

Photo Hunt

Who Let the Dogs Out?

2007-07-27T14:03:00.000+09:30

Every Friday from 5.30pm - 9.30pm, Frances Mall, Palmerston
(Dry Season only : May - Oct)

Picnic @ Palmerston Night Market
Having a picnic is a lost art amongst many of my fellow Singaporeans (I think, or at least, it will soon belong to one of those vanishing activities) ... they'll be more likely found seated on chairs and stools at a hawker center than sitting on the ground in a park, no matter that I think Singapore has extremely beautifully landscaped parks, beautiful enough to be a backdrop for any resort. Make that an air-conditioned food court? That's what I'd choose too sometimes if it gets downright humid in the little red dot. 365 days of unchanging hot, stuffy weather can be a drag on your mood.

Not for them, such a leisurely, relaxed past time as simply sitting back, sprawled on your mat, watching the kids having fun as they run about the green. Luckily, there's a Dry Season here at the Top End when temperatures go a tad cooler, so it's rather pleasant to be out in the evenings enjoying the weather and light breezes. If the weather were otherwise, that is, hot and bothersome, we might be driven back into our old, Singaporean fetishes for shopping or eating for want of something better to do, or the most boring of all, to be holed up at home watching the idiot box. It's good for the heart and soul to be out and about doing a free activity I must say! Lucky for us, we can still find loads of things to do that doesn't cost us any pain in our pockets.

This alley had stallholders selling their own garden fresh produce.

We parked outside the library, just outside where all the action was. Yep, parking in the suburban areas are still free in Australia, unlike Singapore. Thank god for small mercies! We're so used to parking for free that we had a minor culture shock when we were back in Singapore and were rudely reminded by the huge parking signs telling us how much it would cost us to leave the car there. I had to wait in the car while SL went out to quickly locate a shop selling those parking coupons. Anyway, that was an irritation we were glad to leave behind.

Brandon bought some onde onde (glutinous rice balls with brown sugar filling,
coated in shaved coconut). Not as good as the real thing in SG of course.
But beggars can't be choosers. I've been asked to mention that this particular stall
sells the best paw paw salad!

Back to happier, and free things. We were there by 6.15pm when the sun was setting. We walked about awhile getting a couple dollars worth of Chinese veggies, and some bananas. Then went round the food stalls, bought 3 take-away containers of beef noodles and wonton noodle soups. It cost us $17 for the lot. The kids shared 1 container of noodles. Looked for a good spot on the lawn. Spread out our picnic mat, and started tucking in. The music had also started which enhanced atmosphere. There were many families already spread out on the green, lounging about in their lawn chairs or sprawled out on their mats already.

Meanwhile, Rhian decides to entertain us with some dancing.

my cheeky buggers

Usually, there'll be live entertainment starting around 7pm onwards. That evening, it was the night of the Clowns. Just for kids! The kids get prizes if they put up a good show together with the clowns. Rhian won herself a big, blue doggie soft toy forher dancing that night. That made her very, very happy for the rest of the evening.

Fishy Business

2007-07-27T06:36:00.000+09:30

It's a Public Holiday today up here in the Northern Territory. The Royal Darwin Show starts today. It's a very, B-I-G event, so big that the opening day of the show is a holiday. Click over here to read more about this show. We're preparing to go as sacrificial lambs to the slaughterhouse tomorrow, since this is a MUST GO event for every kid here. I heard from the grapevine, one of their teachers, and my friend who's been here 8 years that it's not uncommon to blow anything from $500-800 per day at the Show. From the moment you buy the tickets and step into the Show grounds, it's green GO lights all the way from your wallet until you're drained well and dry.

On less scary notes, I've got some photos of SL's fishing expedition last Saturday. I don't know how many nautical miles they went out to sea but they nabbed some pretty big jewfish that day.

Look what she caught!

And another equally BIG one ...

Now this one below, as you can see is half-bitten. Apparently, there was a tiger shark prowling the territory. When this was hooked on the line, it decided to play a little tug of war with the boys. It didn't go away empty-handed. It got half of the fish, and what you see is what's left of the fish after the shark had its fun.

The Tigress is IN!!!

2007-07-25T12:30:00.000+09:30

Kids come up with smartass comments now and then, don't they?

My hubby comes back from work, and the kids are happy and yelling. But I'm nowhere to be seen. I'm holed up in the Toy Room, plonking away at my laptop.
So, he asks Brandon where I was. And what was Brandon's reply?

"The Tigress is at her laptop doing her tiger work."

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Image created by Brandon, June 2007

One night, we were watching a movie, Charlotte's Web together, Daddy asks Brandon,"Would you like a pet pig? They are very cute!"

Brandon,"No, we already have a pig in the house."

???

"It's Papa!"

Finding Beauty

2007-07-23T12:23:00.000+09:30

My good friend will probably have my hide once she sees what I've written in the following article link. She's in the beauty industry and I am not exactly a fan of spas and salons and such. I feel awfully weird having to strip down to my birthday suit with just a towel, flashing myself in front of a complete stranger, even if it's a female. I'd flash for my hubby with pleasure but a person I don't even know? Hmmmm ... no thanks, I'll pass.

Anyways, she'll kill me once over, maybe twice, but she'll come round to it and we'll continue to be best friends. That's what friends are for. To take you and your crap and resign themselves to it.

This is my bit of criminality ...

How to stay young and LOOK YOUNG - the natural way!

I swear my Taijiquan training has kept me uncommonly healthy to the point that I sometimes wish I can really fall sick, just so I can get pampered by hubby and my kids. It's sick (pardon the pun) I know. But, I have never been down with a fever for a very, very, very long time. I can't afford to actually. If I'm down, I don't have a replacement on standby since we're out here alone, no kith, no kin - just us. Sure, my kids have passed on their little flus and colds and coughs along the way, but they have never been able to get a foothold on me. They simply go off after a day or two. The worst I had so far was after our trip back to Singapore last March. Came back with a sore throat that ended up in a cough after my food binge there. Still, it wasn't bad enough to bring a fever down on me.

Many of my fellow disciples and our teachers all look far younger than their actual ages. I guess it's because of the internal regulation and the circulation due to Taiji practice. Keeps the internal machinery going strong and well-oiled.

P.S. I've taken out the web design contest voting, because after I had a look at the contest standings, I don't have a hope in hell.

Practice your writing and get paid for it!

2007-07-20T17:09:00.000+09:30

Have you always wanted to improve your writing skills but didn't want to attend a class for various reasons? I have friends who want to beef up their English fluency but were too tied up with life, family, or simply didn't want to waste anymore time commuting to a class. They'd rather be home getting mauled by their kids.

I suggested to them to take up blogging as a form of writing-to-vent practice. Then, sign up for a Pay Per Post account. You can also write-to-vent-your-work-woes. It's rather cathartic and keeps you saner! You can do this at night after the kids are packed off to bed, or whenever you have a spot of free time. Whatever it is, it's extremely flexible. You make your own time. And how wonderful it is when you eventually get paid for it?!!

There is no better opportunity than to keep practicing your writing through blogging, and getting paid for your posts. I strongly encourage you to sign up for Pay Per Post as I did, if you have always been a closet writer and want to improve your writing skills.

In any case, there is no loss to you as the sign up is free. You are simply ensuring that you will get some money paid to you, in case you happen to come up with a great post on of these days.

Just get down to it, start writing, start sharing, meet other bloggers, get paid, and enjoy a whole new virtual world.

word of mouth ethics

Day gone a little the bananas way ...

2007-07-16T14:08:00.000+09:30

Breakfast today was banana-flavoured pancake, made my humble way. Quick and dirty as is my style. Patience has never been my virtue. Moms these days don't have a whole lot of time to be dallying over their cooking with a family to feed anyway.

1. I pre-cooked 2 pieces of banana in the microwave and melted 2 tablespoons of butter along with them. Bananas cameout nicely cooked and mashed. Not satisfied, I mash them up some more. I throw in the lot together with the flour. Gave it a stir.

2. Added in the butter which I almost forgot, since I was engrossed with mixing in the flour thoroughly into a smooth mixture.

3. There. I thought that it looked OK to me. I could have kept beating it up a bit more but my tummy has gone into a serious rumble ... and screaming for a food refill. It just had to do. Alright, so I got up a little late - that's why the mad rush.

4. Slap 2 big dollops onto my sandwich press. Couldn't quite control the size and spread of my dollops. Well, at least they came out rounded, nevermind that one is slightly oval ...

5. My yinyang pancakes. One, banana-flavoured and the other just plain, topped with hazelnut sauce.

With our tums solved, I herded my kids out to do a little morning grocery, and I parked in the underground lot. So, when that was done, I turned my car out into the nearest exit, which was not my usual exit, and ... I was lost! It was a rather big parking lot, I found myself going round in a convoluted loop. Did I mention I have absolutely no sense of direction? I'm chronically directionless. I stopped in a lot and turn on my fool GPS, which refused to pick up a signal. I wait two minutes and oh heck, I decided to try and get out of that carpark maze on my own. So, I did about 2 foolish circles before I managed to loop out.

Okay, we unload our grocery and my mum calls. My mum wants to talk to her darling grandson. I pass the phone over. And once Brandon had the phone, what does he do but spill the beans on me about my sorry carpark fiasco! You know, kids will tell on you, especially those embarrassing things you want to bury in the closet. Of course, Grandma had a hoot over it.

Not a couple moments later, his dad calls. And I'm too late to the phone. Brandon has it jubilantly against his ear and I swear, he relishes repeating that $%&^^*@#$%) incident, and is just smiling from ear to ear.

I'll never live this down. I've truly sabotaged myself.

Getting drunk on Milk from these CoWs

2007-07-15T09:01:00.000+09:30

We must have overdosed on milk lately. I found myself stocking up on my 2nd 3-litre bottle of milk in just 5 days. It's been a free flow of milk everywhere. Into pancakes mixtures, my teas, laksas and curries. This is has been a woozy milk post for The Cow mooguls. The tongue-in-cheek, flipside face to the other mogul.

Maybe it's the milk but I broke my own rule for the kids. It's suicidal. From here on, I'll be hearing them ask me to let them watch a movie in their room. Righteo, I'll cross that bridge when it comes round again tonight.

Things got very lighthearted and playful last night that I wanted to let this feeling carry on for them for a little while more; okay, okay it was at least another one and half hour more ...

I am a shocking mum. It was a no control, no holds barred day, yesterday. We were playing ourselves silly the whole freaking day. We decided to stay home and chill out instead. Everyone was allowed to do their own favourite thing. It's just shameful of me, but I didn't even try to cook. Ahh, cooking is not really a hot fave of mine. Hubby cooked lunch and we heated up frozen food for dinner. Then, we all picnicked in our room, and watched a movie length manga whilst eating. Tsk, tsk, I can hear that going off in your minds .... what sort of parents are we?

I even let the kids over-soak in the bathtub. With me. My daughter showed me her hands.

"Mum, my hands are wrinkly. Am I a prune? Am I getting old now?"

I'm just shocking.

My favourite photo

2007-07-13T11:07:00.000+09:30

When I saw this contest, I didn't just want to put up one photo. I want to put up all her cute photos! I can keep looking at them over and over again ... and never get bored.

This was taken during her 4th birthday. It's one of my favourite cheeky shots of her. She may not be smiling but she was captured in her natural self-expression!

It's just how I like her.

Last night, I had a case of food poisoning and I was a drama mama over it. I went zipping into the toilet. When I came out, I saw her waiting on my bed for me. And she had a look of serious concern on her baby face.

"Mummy, is your backside painful?"
"Are you okay now Mum?"

Well, she has the afflicted anatomy part wrong but her concern is most touching and I forgot about my bad stomach pains at once. What strong medicine the little ones have. Beats the doctor ...

Please do continue to vote for me on that voting button at the top right, for a site makeover - thank you!

My give a little Gift Day

2007-07-12T19:48:00.000+09:30

I was tidying up stuff today and came across a sweet, littlest book which I have have kept all these years. Now, I think it's time for me to pass this along to the next mum-to-be.

If you know of anyone who might be in need of a little encouragement, or having a bit of the blues before the birth, I will gladly mail this to her, and say it's from you. It's just an itty, bitty book but it does offer you some support.

Here are some pages to enjoy ...

Finally, please keep voting for me, as you drop by this little site. You are allowed to vote everyday. Thank you!

Pure Vanity

2007-07-11T19:16:00.000+09:30

This post is all about vanity. I have discovered the perfect shampoo and conditioner for Rhian's hair, which I'm intending for her to keep at just above waist length. They are not only cheap but they work so very well on her. They are so gentle, they can be used everyday and you can even use it too. It was at an unbelievable $1.79 when I last bought them at Woolies. They are the Fruits range of shampoos and conditioners from Nature's Organics. There's Apple Fresh which smells so fresh and fragrant, that I use. And Wild Berry for Rhian and Brandon who protested against me using girly stuff on him .... boys can be regular fusspots sometimes. I guess I will have to convince him that Peach Delight is quite a boy thing. They smell so wonderfully fruity and refreshing! Best of all, they are so affordable and they work!!!!!!!!!!

To top it all off, the company,Nature's organics is all about using environmentally-friendly, natural ingredients. Works for me!

Wild Berry Shampoo and Conditioner duo.

I'm telling you, it works!!
You know it takes a lot more effort with longer hair,
but this stuff is a life-saver.

For myself, and my friends who know me, know that I have the most unruly, natural curls which are impossible to tame. My hair has been subjected to Japanese Thermal Reconditioning in the past to a short-lived 6 months of straight hair bliss. My feisty hair rebounded with a vengeance after that. Worst, I have very thick mop of hair which I would willingly donate to anybody in need of hair. So far, all the stylists and shampoo girls I've met, seem to have a telepathic affinity when it they had to deal with my hair. They all came back with the same response, "Woah! You've got a lot of hair huh!" or "Wow! So much hair!" ... you know ... and the like comments. Anyway, I had to sit through 8 hours of salon treatment which was UNBEARABLE to say the least. People with average hair volume might need maybe 4-6 hours, that should tell you how much hair is on my head. There's no way I will ever do that again because there's no way I could ever get 8 hours of kid-free time. It's already some kind of heaven when I have a block of 2 and half hours to myself, much less 8!!!!!!!!

So, the conditioner has to be working its magic because my hair is lots tamer now. And I think, I've gushed enough about that.

Like my unruly hair, I think my blog is getting sort of cluttered. That's why you see this little logo on the right. Please keep voting to tell the organisers, LifeBlue, that my website is seriously in need of a stylish makeover. The more votes I get (to show that my website is just terrible), the better my chances of getting a free makeover. Please vote for me!

If you think you would also like a makeover, please do click over to this link to join in the contest to get a free site makeover. I found this little tidbit on the dot com mogul, John Chow's website. That is a whole, new, unexplored territory for me. As it is, I'm hardly over my greenie blogging phase yet.

Vote 4 Me!

It's looks like a pretty long road ahead.

What happened today

2007-07-10T20:29:00.000+09:30

Chilli crab, chilli crab, wherefore art thou?

This is what happened to that magnificent mud crab specimen.
From this ...

To this ... and after we're done with it, it's history!

Also, don't you find it amazing how loose with our money when it comes to our kids? I'm such a miser when it comes to buying stuff for myself but, my stingy filter goes out the door when it's something for my kids. Think of all those MacDonald's Happy Meals. We buy them docilely although the food that comes with the toys are nothing more than crap. Amazing what adding a single toy to a combo meal can do for the popularity of a food item. The desire of our kids buries our normal hesitations about ingesting junk food with them. We have also fallen victims to the effect of a mega Toy Sale at BigW and KMart over the weekend. There were toys, toys, and more toys brimming over onto the aisles cramping them even further. Throw in a toy sale for kids, and you have a blooming crowded mall! Everyone was there. Many had a heaping trolleyful of toys ...

So, we came back several hundred bucks poorer.
But, Brandon was 1 bicycle richer. Of course, we had to get the biking accessories!
No way the kids would let us off that easy.

Brandon had a happy time though helping Dad to fix up Rhian's pretty bike.
That kind of compensated some more for the bad pocket burn.

And they're off on their new bikes.

Now, I just need to save up until the next toy sale hits us. I see it looming over the horizon during the pre-Christmas season yuletide, buying spree madness. Squeezing up a close second after that will be the Chinese New Year in early 2008. And that will be my horror story to deal with later on.

A friend is moving ...

2007-07-06T08:50:00.001+09:30

My friend, a very good friend I've made last year will be moving back to another country soon. It's not as if I will lose her for good or anything as final as that. Somehow, it still sinks in as a loss.

Now that we're not going to be in the same country together, it lessens the chance of us getting together, and the distance between us is exponentially increased. I mean, we have to fly to visit each other even within the same country. When you think think flying OUT of the country, that'll probably be a big trip over many days, or weeks even, rather than a mini domestic trip somewhere. So, that means, very probably, it'll be 1 trip in a year, or two, or three ... it all sounds so spartan, and unlikely ... and I probably have to try and coincide the trip with hubby's leave schedule, and you know ... there's usually a gazillion details which pop up that you have to get into order.

I've got this sudden urgency to go flying to Perth to visit her before she moves off ...

This is flat-out ridiculous!!!

2007-07-04T20:39:00.000+09:30

I almost choked on my Bacardi when I clicked over to the article below just now. It's almost 9pm btw. This has got to be a bloody joke!! I have to get this out of my system. It's outrageously insane.

Asking price: $780k for this Tiong Bahru HDB flat
(A Headliner from the Straits Times, 4th July 2007, Singapore)
You have got to click the link above to read the madness.

You have to be kidding! If I showed any of my aussie friends or foreign friends, their eyes may just pop right out of their heads. This is embarrassing (to put it mildly). Jeeeeeeeeeeze, this is plain crazy. Asking for more than half a million for a HDB beehive unit in the sky??? For something in the sky that's just 99-year leasehold and you don't even own the land it's standing on??? Is it so stressful in our pressure-cooker society that people are giving up and dumping their brains into the South China Sea???

I keep reading that SG economy is doing well (although our quarterly GDP picture tells a different story). But, surely that it no excuse to behave mindlessly when it comes to property. Singapore is land-starved but this is ...

I am just speechless.

Fireworks and a Mud Crab

2007-07-04T08:38:00.001+09:30

It was Territory Day, 1st of July, last Sunday. The Northern Territory (NT) and Canberra (ACT) are the only 2 states where you are allowed to set off your own fireworks. Ad-hoc stalls popped up last Sat morning and started selling fireworks. We bought a modest $60 pack. Considering that we have never set off fireworks before, I don't think it wise to be too adventurous. I would have gone for just the smallest they had ... but boys will be boys! They had firework packages ranging from $30 onwards to over a $100.

So, we're only allowed to blow up everything on that Sunday evening, from 6pm till 11pm, legally. You could here explosions everywhere you went. People were sitting outside on their lawns enjoying the home fireworks popping out everywhere around us.

Here's one of ours. The kids were absolutely thrilled by it. Best to keep them a safe distance from where you're lighting up as some of them are "chasers", and do make pretty big sparks which literally chased you!

And I just had to show off this gigantic Mud Crab from my neighbour, Mick. He goes down the creek nearby our place and nabs all these humongous crustaceans! It's asleep in our freezer now. I was so impressed, I actually went and measured the thing. The pincers were over 30cm long, too long for my short ruler actually. The body also went beyond my short, classroom 15cm-long ruler! It weighed over 2 kg! SL is practically salivating and can't wait till weekend to make a chilli crab meal out of it - drooooool!

Sleep

2007-06-29T15:24:00.000+09:30

It's one of those awfully rare occasions when I'm feeling tired enough to nod in the middle of a story with my daughter. I decided to steal forty winks. And I do so with Brandon's blessings who hustles me into bed and even tucks me in!

Not five minutes under my covers and "MUMMMIIIIEEE!" yells Rhian. It's loud. Really LOUD. I battle between ignoring her and getting up because I really want to nap for once in my life, in the day, yes! - after I had kids. She wins (as always) because I decide it sounds important. Mums are such suckers.

I drag myself out to be at her beck and call, whatever it is this time ...

I'm reminded once more, why I have never napped in the afternoons, ever since, I retired from the working world to home base to be a full-time mum.

My regular beddy byes AT NIGHT will have to do.

Never in the day...

You can't catch me because ...

2007-06-29T12:28:00.000+09:30

I'm the Gingerbread Man!

We made a little too many gingerbread mans actually and
had a difficult time trying to polish off the little buggers over a few teas! :-P

Gosh, I've been busy. School hols now. The kids are keeping me busy looking for lots of projects for them to do, and to avoid having them turn the house upside down and sideways ...

Brandon also had this penny pocket allowance project that has got me busy setting it up together with them. I've been keeping a couple of late nights now. And boy, am I seriously bushed!!!!!!!! Most of the nitty gritties been ironed out and hopefully, the processing will be finished in 24 hours time. Then we can roll that off and show (tomorrow?)!

If there's some way mothers can do an energy transference with their kids, that will be an all-time hit with mommies - the next MacDonald's miracle for mothers! I can do with all that energy bursting out from them.

Now, SL's contract here is also coming to term in another three months!, and he's been asked to extend. A major question sitting on our shoulders here is to stay or not to stay???????????

Joining the Viral Tags bandwagon

2007-06-25T13:54:00.000+09:30

I'm succumbing to the Viral Tags bandwagon ...

———copy and paste the Viralink and instructions below this line———

Below is a matrix of 120 stars, I have already added a link to my blog onto one of the stars, all you need to do is copy and paste the grid into your blog and add your own link to one of the other spare stars, and tell others to do the same!

Viralink

********************
********************
********************
********************
********************

When I receive a ping back once you have added the Viralink to your site I will add your link to this grid, and each person who copies the grid from here will also link to your site!

Rules
No Porn Sites
Only 1 link per person (i.e don't hog the viralink!)
Please don't tamper with other peoples url's
Enjoy!

———copy and paste the Viralink and instructions above this line———

============= Copy and Paste below this line ===============

Instructions:

1.) Copy and paste the matrix of “ViralTags” below courtesy of Founders Cafe (to support Jimmy’s quest of launching his own Internet Startup with a shoestring budget, please consider subscribing to his Full RSS Feed to see his triumps and struggles in real time).

2.) Substitute the Host Tag and one of the “Viral Tags” in the matrix with your anchor text of choice with your blog’s URL. Please keep anchor text to a max of 3 words to keep the matrix size manageable.

3.) When you get a ping back from someone that has your link in one of their “Viral Tags”, practice good karma by copying his/her Host Tag’s anchor text (automatically the associated link will also be copied) and paste it over one of your “Viral Tags” below.

4.) Encourage and invite your readers to do the same and soon this can grow virally.

Host Tag: Coffee,Tea,Baabooo

Important: Once I get a ping back from you (I promise to do the best I can), I will add your anchor text and the associated link you designate as “Host Tag” here, replacing one of the “ViralTags” from the matrix above. As more and more bloggers copy and paste this matrix, the more backlinks you will have with your anchor text. If everybody who copy and paste from your blog does the same, pretty soon this will spread and go viral. So, the sooner you participate, the more links with anchor text you will receive.

=============== Copy and Paste from Above this line =========

KATHERINE - Edith Falls (Leliyn)

2007-06-22T16:25:00.000+09:30

Last leg of our trip in Katherine. Edith Falls. There are over 100 kilometres of walking trails in the Nitmiluk National Park alone! And there are two popular walking trials, rated easy to moderate at Edith Falls. We did the Leliyn Trail (Edith Falls loop walk) which is a 2.6 kilometre loop walk that climbs to the top of the escarpment and then down to the upper pool above the falls. It took us 2 hours to return all in, snapping pictures and taking in the gorgeous scenery, enjoying it on an easy pace.

We were very tempted to tackle the Edith River to Sweetwater Pool (8.6 km return). However, we decided not to, since that might be stretching it too far since we were with two kids, and it would talk well over 4 hours at least, if we were to have a picnic break and a swim, which we didn't have enough time for.

Click here for the fact sheet about the two walks above.

There is also the Jatbula Trail - most challenging 66-kilometre bushwalk from Nitmiluk Gorge (Katherine Gorge) to Edith Falls that takes in diverse scenery, plunging waterfalls and Aboriginal rock art. This is a trip that will take you 4 - 6 days to complete! And overnight walkers and campers have to obtain a permit. There are many other very interesting walks around this area. And they all form part of the Southern Walks. Click here for more information about the various bush walks available.

Leliyn Trail (Edith Falls loop walk)

Starting by going over the stepping stones which thrilled the kids!

First fall we saw there.

Setting off on our rocky trail proper. Notice the little arrow flag in the background.
The kids enjoyed looking for and following the arrows. It made them feel like going on a treasure hunt,
which it was in a sense. A treasure hunt for fantastic scenery!

Made it to our first lookout point.

Cheeky Brandon pretending to have a snooze.

Second lookout point.

Here we are at the Upper Pool in Edith.
We had a sip of the water which was very clear and sweet!

At the other end of the Upper Pool.

Photostitch of the Upper Pool area. Click to see larger image.

Katherine is just simply beautiful! We will definitely be heading back there again!!!

KATHERINE - Manyallaluk, the Dreaming Place

2007-06-18T12:45:00.000+09:30

We were ready and waiting for the mini-bus by 7.45am that morning, eager to go off on our Manyallaluk Cultural Tour. It was such an eye-opener! This is one of those, one-in-a-million must-try tours!!! Click here or the title link above to get more information regarding tour charges and details.

The Aboriginals of Australia have a very deep, spiritual connection with their land. They believe that the landscapes we see today have been sung into creation by their ancestors, as they traveled on their epic journeys. Manyallaluk is known as one of the dreaming places. The "Dreaming" refers to the time of creation, and in local Jawoyn language, is known as "Burr". Manyallaluk lies along one of the songlines which their ancestors walked and sang. Along the way lies sacred sites, watering holes and meeting places. Our guide coordinator, Jeff, has pointed out big, blackened rocks on the road towards Manyallaluk which are symbolic rocks left behind by the ancestors, and they are usually shaped like a sitting frog. So, Manyallaluk is also the "Frog Dreaming". Fascinating, isn't it!!! Manyallaluk itself is a small Aboriginal community situated about 100 km, east of Katherine.

First, we are shown their handmade didjeridoos, and we are given a most impressive demonstration of how it' used to make its haunting melody. Then, we are given shot at it, which is not at all easy!

Brandon & SL diligently huffing and puffing away to no effect ...

Having warmed up, we are taught basket weaving, using the Pandanus plant. Oh, this is really tricky. We had to separate the thorn-ridged Pandanus leaf into 2 separate leaves. As the leaves are so spiky, you can imagine, we all didn't make much progress. Ouch!

Pandanus plant.

Our Aboriginal lady guide was doing it so easily!
The rest of us were just struggling through our first leaf!

After having tolerated our pathetic attempts, it was time for our bush tucker trail. We will be shown which plants are used for bush medicines, which root plants can be used as natural dyes, bush plums, bush potatoes ...

Eagerly setting off.

John, our Aboriginal guide is showing us the Quinine plant,
which is very poisonous. If a piece of this gets into a river,
the fishies are history!

He has found a bush potato, and is digging it up.

Slicing it, and letting everyone have a taste!
Tasted very nutty and crunchy.

Green ants which is good for sinus. John crushed the entire leaf of ants
so we could have them. They tasted quite sour actually. But it was tolerable.

Meanwhile, as we were enjoying our bush tucker walk, the other guides were busy preparing our lunch.

Freshly chopped kangeroo tails for lunch!

Kangeroo tails being prepared.

And onto our plates! There are 2 tail sections at the right of this plate, beside the sausage.

Tucking into lunch.

After a hearty lunch, time for a little spear throwing workout.

Gathered around John as he shows us how Aboriginal art is drawn.

Kids having a go at it. They loved it! Notice that Brandon is
grinding the red clay stone to get the color out. They don't used acrylics
but natural dyes for their painting. How special and traditional is that!!

Jas and SL's creation. Bet you can guess who drew which!

Next up, we are shown how they make fire. Everyone had a go at rubbing the stick. John says fire-making should be a team effort. Everyone had a good arm workout I can tell you! But it was very satisfying indeed to see the fire bursting out at last!

Finally, we are taught how to make fire! It is hard work, and takes some skill!

The glowing embers of the wood shavings from our rubbing are then
mixed with torn slivers of dried paper bark used as tinder.
And our young trainee guide blows on the glowing embers to get it fired up.

Woohooo! A fire is born!!

To round up the tour, we had a look at their art gallery where you could browse and buy the handicrafts if you wished.

We went back very satisfied indeed.

KATHERINE - Nitmiluk Gorge ...

2007-06-15T10:50:00.000+09:30

Nitmiluk Gorge

The Katherine River has carved no less than 13 magnificent gorges carved into the sides of the sandstone bedrock there. You can go ...

~ Gorge cruising
~ Canoeing
~ on a Helicopter Flight.

We didn't do all that since the kids wouldn't be very interested for long on a 2-hour cruise. They kept asking to go back during the other cruise we did on the Yellow Water, at Kakadu, since they did nothing but sit there listening. That wasn't half as good as the Dinner cum Croc-feeding up close cruise we had here.

So, we decided to skip this.

The Helicopter flights were out as Rhian is still underaged. The canoeing which we wanted to do quite badly is out too because she was too small ... so, no go there ... double shucks! So, we took a walk instead.

It was a pretty steep slope ...

But the scenery was beautiful ...

Guess who we saw on the way back? Wallabies!

Chilling out. Over and out!!

KATHERINE - Mataranka

2007-06-15T09:19:00.001+09:30

Good Morning !
And breakfast is almost ready.

Getting some food in our belly and heading off for 2 spots that day. We're going to Mataranka, about 106 km down south of Katherine, for the Bitter Spring and Thermal Pool. And finish off the day with a trip to the Nitmiluk Gorge, 29km northeast of Katherine.

My brood chomping down on breakfast.

MATARANKA

Click here for more information about the Mataranka Bitter Spring and Thermal Pool. They are found in the Elsey National Park.

We stopped by Bitter Springs, but it wasn't suitable for Rhian, and also that there was a fair bit of weed floating about. So, we headed up to the Thermal Pool instead. And that seemed to be the right choice!

Relaxing in the clear, warm waters of the Mataranka Thermal Pool.

On our way back from the Thermal Pool,
we saw something interesting.
Can you spot the Laughing Kookaburra?

Barramundi Feeding at the Territory Manor

Before we went off to Nitmiluk Gorge, we stopped by the Territory Manor to catch the barra feeding action. And we're all very glad we did because everybody who was watching it with us went,"Ahhh!"or "Wow!"

This is an awesome sight not to be missed. And it is FREE!

There are 2 feedings everyday at 9.30am and at 1pm at the Territory Manor. The Manor is just 5 minutes away from the Mataranka Thermal Pool.

Here a barra has just caught on to the bait that our guide is holding in his fingers.

Here's he has caught it firmly by the mouth. He is able to do this because they don't have teeth, but, instead they crush or mash their food.

It looks easy in the photo. BUT, it is anything BUT easy. The Barramundis are really fast!!! And I believe they are quite heavy to lift up, especially with all that swishing and struggling going on.

Here's a sporty volunteer taking on our guide's challenge to have a go at catching a barra and lifting it clear of the water.

This guy is GOOOOD! And that was his first try!!! Everybody was asking if he'd done it before!

And I gotta go off now ... Nitmiluk Gorge is a post for tomorrow.

KATHERINE

2007-06-13T13:06:00.000+09:30

On the way to Katherine. See the bush fire in the far distance.

A very BIG helloooooo!

We're now back home after one of the best vacations we've had so far. Hong Kong and Macau have just dropped to second place in my list of travel faves.

Katherine can be summed up in a word = AWESOME! Click here to find out more.

The kids loved the entire trip from the moment we rented that campervan. Here's a link showing you the details of the fabulous Maui Spirit 6 motorhome we used on the trip. From there on, it was just pure enjoyment ... sigh ... we all wouldn't have minded dallying a long while longer there. If only SL could take a couple more days off. It was also the spiffy campervan which contributed a great deal of value and excitement for my kids. It was easy travelling because, the inbuilt Playstation, and the movies kept them busy while we were on the roads. And when they dozed off, I packed them off to the back to have a little sleep on the bed. Campervaning around is fantastic!!!!!!!!!! We should have done it so, so long ago. I can't understand why caravan parks are not an option in Asian countries (at least those with a big expanse of land)?? It's loads of fun and the kids really, really, really love it! The weather helped too. It turned cold the night before we set off and it stayed cooler and cool all throughout our trip. And best of all, it looks like it's gonna stay that way for at least a month. Ooh, happiness is when we can have cool cool temperatures.

Kids are kept busy watching the telly behind us.

We gotta do it again. Hopefully, towards the end of the year ...

We stopped by the Katherine Tourist Information Center to get the information we needed and managed to book ourselves on a dinner cruise to feed and see the freshwater crocs that first night. The good thing about touring Australia is that it's extremely travel-friendly. You can probably find a Tourist Information Center in just about every travel-worthy town. There you'll be able to book accomodation, tours, get road directions and get information on just about everything you need about the area and its attractions.

Then, We headed for the Katherine Low Level Caravan Park, which is also one of the Big 4 Caravan Parks of Australia. The amenities were all very clean, and well maintained. The sites were well shaded, and it all looked very pleasantand inviting! We took a good couple of moments to get ourselves hooked up to the power, the waste pipe connection, and replenishing our water supply.

Our niche at the caravan park and settling in.

Since, we had about 3 hours or so before the Dinner Cruise, we squeezed in a visit to the Katherine Hot Spring for a refreshing soak. Well, it wasn't really hot at the time, although they are said to be a constant 32 degrees. Maybe after, we had "cooked" ourselves in a series of hot springs in Zhuhai, China, this was a nice, mild temperature! Believe me, those hot springs in Zhuhai were very HOT! They should be around the high 30s, near 40 degrees, so you come out looking like a boiled lobster. Click here for more pictures and information.

Katherine Hot Spring, more like lukewarm actually... but it was good anyway!

After a good soak, we headed for the Springvale Homestead where the cruise starts off from. Springvale Homestead itself is a historic site as it was one of the first pastoral properties to be builtin the Northern Territory. It has a information board with lots of photos of the 1998 flood and how badly affected it was by the flood. Click here for more photos and information about the great 1998 Katherine flood. That wasn't the end of it. Katherine was hit by floods in 2002 and just last year in April 2006.

At 6.30pm, we were rounded up for the cruise. Each of us was armed with a big torch and herded over to the pontoon. The tour brochure and the office advised us to wear a light jacket but it was freezing that night and it went down to 12 degrees!!!!!! Nope, not light jackets, heavy winter wear would have been more like it as most of us were chilled to the bones. Still, despite my chattering teeth, I managed to enjoy the cruise. The kids enjoyed it too since they could flash their huge torches into the night, along the river bank searching for crocs. We stopped by a nice river bank to have our BBQ dinner with wine. Very, very cold but lovely! Our guide tried to tempt a croc or two up our river bank with some juicy steak whilst our dinner was being BBQ'd. We sipped wine and watched the action.

Our dinner on the BBQ - yum yum!

And here comes a freshwater croc ...

Luring him in with a juicy piece of steak.

That ended our fabulous first day in Katherine.

Bunking down. Good night!

My obsession with organizing, recycling and tidying

2007-06-08T21:11:00.001+09:30

JunBoxes07 001,
originally uploaded by Jus-A-Min.

I love boxes of all shapes and sizes. They get recycled as my tidy boxes, and prettied up with help from my kids paintings and drawings. Don't throw them away. You can have a tidy box for personal files and you decorate that and label it if you want. You can have another for your envelopes, postcards, mailers and stuff. You will not have an excuse to be messy anymore ...

A motorhoming we will go ...!!!

2007-06-08T20:41:00.000+09:30

What a busy day!

And we're back with the nifty motorhome we rented. We're gonna stuff it this evening, and away we will go early, early tomorrow morning!

The kids were so thrilled, they wanted to sleep in it tonite! They wouldn't leave the motorhome so we literally had to haul them out. This is a 6-berth (sleeps 6 persons actually) motorhome, fully self-contained, with external awning, TV, DVD and playstation even! It comes with Navman which is fantastic! It's not just the kids but we're both awed by the amount of facilities you can stuff into a bus. There's toilet/shower stall, kitchenette, mini-fridge, microwave, cutlery, crockery and cooking pans. A teeny little wardrobe with hangers, 2 dining tables, yes, 2!!!

Oh yes, we rented this from Brtiz campervans.

We are heading for Katherine this time round. Earlier on, I was feeling rather defeated. It was a feeling which carried over from last nite. See, I was looking at the currency chart for SGD VS AUD. It's very worrying to know that your SGD dollars are sitting in a bank, losing value everyday. Nope, that doesn't make your day bright.

But, this trip WILL bring some sunshine back into my life and er ... I'm supposed to just forget about the fact that SGD is seems to be happily rolling downhill ...

Do it

2007-06-07T10:03:00.001+09:30

A Boxy Bus for Kids

Here's a popcorn box turned inside out, with windows and a door (other side) penknifed out, then taped back into a box. Rhian helped me with decorating the bus. She traced out the wheels and stuck little pink circles on them. She glued on silver gems for the headlights. She cut out a the bus sign and wrote her name on it, so her brother will know it's hers, and that he's not allowed to play with it without her permission first. I helped her add in a border of glitter glue. For the wheels, we used our saved plastic milk caps and stapled that to the bus with a big, sturdy stapler, and covered that up with the wheels that Rhian traced. You could use hot glue too. She loved it and uses it ferry her little dolls and ponies around inside.

And, here's another fantastic site I want to introduce to all mommies. Super chunky with activities and lesson plans with many, many themes to choose from. It'll save you having to rack your brains for something to do with your kids. Just swing by and pick out a theme and get them busy. There are online jigsaws accompanying the alphabet learning which is great fun. Lots of printable worksheets, colouring pages, little booklets to make, activity ideas. Just go and help yourself to some of the goodies!

Head on down to First School!

Hope you all like this.

Easy, No mess, Savoury Mashed Potato

2007-06-06T10:57:00.000+09:30

I'm no master cook but ... Here's my own little recipe contribution for the school.

A fairly quick snack you can rustle up for the kids, or you can keep it in the fridge until hunger pangs start gnawing, and whip it out to solve little greedy fingers from reaching out for candies or cookies instead.

Savoury Mashed Potato

Ingredients:
5-700 grams potatoes, peeled and diced for easier mashing
Quarter of an onion, minced
Small stalk of spring onion, or you can replace with chives
Do adjust the amount of onion and spring onion to your own preference.

1. Peel and dice your potatoes, and put in a microwave steamer. Microwave this on high for 15 minutes. I'm using a 1200W microwave so you will need to adjust for one on lower power.

2. Whilst the potatoes are cooking, chop and mince the onion and spring onion (or chives) and set aside.

3. When the potatoes are done, pour away the water. Add in 2 tablespoonfuls of butter. Throw in the spring onion and onion. Mash and mix with a fork.

4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Voila! Savoury Mash Snack.

May I have your favourite Recipe?

2007-06-05T09:46:00.000+09:30

My kids' school is organising a Recipe Book fundraiser. The NT government has promised to match the school's efforts dollar for dollar. The funds will be used to purchase additional resources and equipment for the children.

It will be collated and sent to print next term, and sold in Term 4, the last term of the year to be ready as Christmas gifts! They are hoping to gather lots of recipes, the more the merrier, to give the book as much value as possible.

Please help if you can!

Please send an email to rhian at chen-taiji.com or jasminebu at chen-taiji.com (please replace "at" with "@") with your recipes, pictures and your name so your recipe can be credited. If I could have some recipes in by this weekend, that would be fantastic!

THANK YOU!

Who's more dangerous - females or males?

2007-06-03T16:34:00.000+09:30

The battle of the sexes. Looks like we'll be fighting until the end of time ... it's the thrill of the challenge which gets us going?

I came across an interesting website called Peculiar Poetry. And I found a little gem which gives an insightful overview of what married life entails. It speaks out to almost everybody (who is straight that is!) and you will probably find portions here and there that throws some clarity and relevance to your relationship, no matter what stage you are at. Even for dating couples, the soon-to-be-wedded, the already wedded, or old fogeys like me with kids and the whole works, there is tongue-in-cheek humor and the very real, harsh reality to be found here. Getting married and staying together is totally a different world from the simplicity of dating life without kids.

Enjoy.

Another

Our first year of wedded bliss
Then a second year united
Another year notched up
Yet one more year in concert
Another year together
One more year in partnership
Another year with you
A year of dull and sunny weather
The ninth year still bonded
Another year together
One more year of companionship
Another year of just us two
A year of sad and happy days
Fourteen years now coupled
Another year together
One more year of friendship
Another year chalked up
A mixed year of good and bad
Nineteen years now joined
Another year together
One more year of togetherness
Another year on the sentence
A year of nag and nag and nag
Twenty four long bloody years
Another year together
What did I do to deserve this?
The punishment didn’t fit the crime
Not even the great train robbers
Had to serve this much time
Paul Curtis
Courtesy of the Patrick Winstanly of Peculiar Poetry. Thank you!
Click for more interesting reads about the other face of poetry.

And lookee here, another 360 degree take on the whole relationship game.

How to Pick Up Women

by Dr. Payton Kane, Featured Sexuality Columnist, SeduceandConquerShow.com
The Seduce & Conquer program that I have developed, teaches you how attract, meet, date and seduce the most beautiful women in the world.
AND
It teaches you how to make every girl you meet fall madly in love with you.
Read more here ...

Girls beware ... And try not to get pissed off after reading it. At least, we will know what sort of tricks they can get up to eh? I wouldn't go so far as to call them techniques.

Choose your path, and tread carefully.

My learning fridge

2007-06-02T17:56:00.001+09:30

My trusty old fridge serves a dual purpose on top of its original use to keep food. I have charged it with the additional responsibility of keeping my kids busy whilst I'm busy rustling up meals in the kitchen. Then, cross my fingers and hope it'll keep the busy until I'm finished preparing my ingredients.

It has all sorts of fridge magnets which I made together with my kids. You know those free fridge magnets that sometimes comes through your mailbox? Well, they get cut up and stuck behind our cardboard creations, and proudly displayed on our fridge. I've number eggs, fractions, shapes and shape words on mine. I also have a teaching calender held to my fridge door with more of those free magnetic ads. I get Rhian to cross out each day to familiarise her with 2-digit numbers, the day of the week, and the months of the year. There is also a blank magnetic note pad for her to get creative on.

My internet connection has been acting up on me and it has been very frustrating to get online these past 2 days. It's only a bit better today ...

And, Rhian's birthday is coming up ...
TOMORROW!

She's dying to open up her presents but has to hold off her curiosity until tomorrow morning!!

Bedtime Companions

2007-05-29T09:17:00.000+09:30

A unicorn night light and a glowing piggy clock are my kids' bedtime companions. The ones they hug are Baabooo and Barney.

A glass of red wine to sip while watching a movie on the laptop, with munchies on the side of course. That about sums up a regular evening. And no prizes for guessing who I use as a teddy bear.

How do you spend your evenings?

In no particular order ...

Plop onto bed with hubby and watch a movie together on his laptop. My laptop is for my own use only. Best done with some accompanying alcohol and tidbits.

Next night (of the next if need be), have another go at reading the book till the end.
Bugger hubby and pester him into bedtime conversation with me. I get a better success rate when I ply him with alcohol and some delicious snacks.
Pore over financial reports together and surf financial websites like Google Finance, Yahoo Finance, Investopedia, Motley Fool, Guru Focus ... blah blah blah, in search of the next seven or ten-bagger.
Get raunchy ... O_O

===> I'm in danger of turning into an alcoholic and into a yawning bore!

Funnily, I don't feel an urge to blog at night mostly, since I prefer to spend time buggering my hubby ... :-D Rather I prefer spending time doing something together with him rather than to tinker about on my own. I tinker around alone enough during the day alone as it is.

Coming up Roses, please!

2007-05-28T13:26:00.000+09:30

I did this today with Rhian. A mini-project before I packed her off to preschool. It's really easy to make. Get her to stencil out the a large flower shape on a coloured card. If you don't have one, just make your own from thick cardboard, in any shape you like. This shape is tricky for her little fingers so I had to help her. Snip off some pretty pink yarn and sticky tape to your flower. Glue a large circle over the yard. Voila! a pretty bookmark that your little girl will be very pleased with. Rhian wanted to put it around her toy horse as a necklace instead of using it as bookmark. That's a different way of using it too!

Instead of yarn, you could use colored pop sticks. Easy peasy as that. Flowers brighten your day don't they? Especially the home-made types done by your kids!

I have been feeling under the weather lately (again). Yes, my monthly hormonal swings. Have been crossing my fingers, and toes to strike the lottery last Sat .. it was a non-event.

On a sunnier note, my daughter's birthday is coming up this Sunday! My little girl is going to be 4!!! Wow. It's a funny feeling because on the one hand, you're glad they're getting bigger but on the other you're hanging on and hoping that they'll stay small and cute forever ...

Just yesterday, my friend was asking me why I always lugged my digital camera with me. So, I told her it was to capture as many moments of my kids growing up days. I will be able to look back at them when I'm old and wrinkly. I will show them their pics, and enjoy their embarassment (I'm kidding but it will be fun to note their expressions). That camera was bought 2 years after Brandon was born and is still working dandy up to this day. It's a Canon G2 Powershot. I'm quite ashamed to admit that I haven't fully mastered all the features that it has and it's been what? donkey years since!

Making the grade

2007-05-27T19:34:00.000+09:30

I'm happy, happy, happy!

And smug, at least, for now, after it dies down and reality sets in. I was checking in on my stock performance, which I hadn't checked since a month ago. My stock portfolio has outranked my hubby's. And my little toes are singing wee, wee, wee all the way home! I've picked out 2 singular, performing stocks. Both did more than 10%, the other is clocking in close to 20% in return. I don't have much to lord over my hubby about. He being the breadwinner and a real VIP.

Too bad, mine is just a play portfolio in Google finance ... :-(

This morning, SL was just merrily (if not quite smug and jubilant himself) that his portfolio has gone up a notch higher again. He decided to check this morning because of an article which came out in the news. Yes, we check our portfolios only when something is being reported about one of our tickers. It'd be kind of stressful to have to keep checking on the stock market everyday wouldn't it? The market will always be going up and down and no analyst in the world can forecast which way it will head in a couple of months. If they could do that, they would all be giving the stock market gurus from Warren Buffett to Peter Lynch and George Soros and the like, a an extremely tough run for the money. They would be billionaires themselves by now.

Speaking of which, the fund management fees charged in Singapore seem unevenly balanced against fund performance, when placed on a regional platform? Whilst an SG fund size averages within the millions sector (mostly tens of millions ...), top funds in AU and further ashore operate in the region of billions. I've just read today that the top fund manager in AU, Kerr Nielson who manages a fund size of $22 billion gets to charge a "privileged (imo)" 1.5% management fee. The top hoodoos charge a premium of 1.5%, the rest charge far less. And I see that Singapore fund managers who manage a melon seed-sized fund portfolio relative to Kerr Nielson's gargantuan slice, also get to charge upfront anything from 1.15% to 1.80%, and gasp! some private ones even charge 2%! One Temasek-backed CitySprings apparently got slammed for paying itself too much. What can one say? What a great way to make money huh. But then again, the stock market capitalization in Singapore is one of the smallest on a regional arena.

Each time I read Bloomberg, my eyes stray over to the Asia indices on the right. Singapore happens to be one of the small fries. The numbers speak a clear picture. Then it starts nagging you. It makes me worried about our competitiveness on a global playing field. How much of a chance have we got to keep retaining our economic scores from falling into the red, and to sustain it way above the rest of the madding crowd? We rest on precarious laurels without any natural resources to back us up, no land (negligible that is, we're just the tiny red dot remember?), just a fairly efficient government who also happens to pay itself quite well I might add, trying to nurture a knowledge-intensive resource hub on our city-state. And diligently working hard whilst surrounded by sensitive Muslim neighbours ALL around. Does any country have it better than us? Read disadvantaged.

Oh, as of last Sep 2006, John Howard's salary topped just over $300,000 AUD. And he's a Prime Minister to about 20.6 million people. So, I have been a bit behind Singapore news. What's the latest on our Singapore Minister's pay to govern 4.5 million people? Ah, $2 or $3 million??? Is it to account for the extra 2 million we plan to add to beef up the demographic stats?

Just call for service

2007-05-24T19:57:00.000+09:30

It's very easy for my husband to call me up and ask me (he does ask nicely) to do this and that, and hang up in confidence that I will settle whatever he needs within the day itself. Then, I give him a status update when he gets back home.

Simple as that huh. Not. When you are trying to arrange something over the phone or trying to file or transfer stuff over the ether, it's like doing it in a noisy war zone sometimes if the kids happen to be on a high, in play euphoria.

It's manageable but it gets somewhat irritating when he just blurts out that, oh you know, I wanted to do this last night but I was so tired and expect me to pick up on his hint, and get cracking on it the next day. I know, he's the all important breadwinner, VIP yah, so I must take care of him carefully ... blah blah blah ... jeeze, I get tired too you know. Some of those items will just have to be KIV-ed until I'm good and ready to tackle them.

Isn't it amazing that despite being an ordinary housewife-homebody with mundane duties, it can sometimes feel like you're still working from home, handling paperwork and attending to emails? It does give a little balance to domestic chores I guess.

OK, I'm consoling myself that it keeps my mind active and still functional.

Then again, one less hat to put on is very tempting too ... mommies should get flashier labels than "homemaker" ... matriarchs of management m.o.m, ooh, matriarch sounds positively fossilized. Alright, I give up, mom sounds best.

I = vknet8y23unb[q4835205nvdleb

2007-05-23T12:52:00.000+09:30

While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.
~Angela Schwindt

Yes, all that and so much more. They barge in on you in the middle of a bath to ask you something about your window blinds for instance, which was what they wanted to ask me today whilst I was halfway into a lather. It doesn't matter how many times you tell nicely, you yell at them that if it's a question which can wait, could they please wait until after I'm bathed and dressed? It never works. They've been doing it unfailingly, tirelessly whenever I forget to lock my bathroom door. I've taken to locking it, but sometimes I forget.

I have to constantly stop and take five, zone out, time out, in order to muster up energy to face my kids again. I mean, the challenges they throw at me. Like talking at the top of their voices whenever I'm on the phone. They have an uncanny knack for doing that when they see me pressing the phone desperately to my ear to catch what the caller is saying.

Also, my kids take perverse pleasure in correcting me. Rhian told me she made a new friend, and her name was er ... whatchamacallit ... I couldn't catch it. And my daughter scoffed,"Ah, Mummy, you just can't say it!", with a smirky grin.

Then, Brandon pointed out to a picture of a sperm whale we were looking at and pronounced that they're not predators, as they only eat krill. So, I'm impressed and I asked him how he knew that. He said,"cos' I'm a smartypants!" Don't know if he was trying to be cheeky but ...

And thank god (here I go again irreligiously, an unapologetic free thinker)! Wow ... it has finally turned cooler today. Gosh, I really miss stepping out into a cold, crisp morning, not that it has gone that cold. All of us wouldn't mind it going down several notches more.

And I'm relieved that they're in bed. Sugar and spice and everything nice, so true when your kids are sleeping especially.

My nights are precious. They're my favourite time. I am task-free for the rest of the night. I am free to do anything I want. I can flop down in an unsightly position, I can count sheep, I can do n-o-t-h-i-n-g!

tata!

I could just tear out my hair

2007-05-22T19:19:00.000+09:30

This was a photo 2 Kalgoorlie truckies took with their lives on the line when they made a pit stop to take this awesome shot! You can read about their dare-devil photography exploit here.

This was also how I felt today when I had just emerged from a most relaxing soak in the tub, and walked into my kitchen to find soil strewn all over the floor. Dig this - there was soil, mulch, and little pebbles scattered over every tile in my kitchen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had just cleaned the kitchen floor that very morning.

OK, maybe it was my fault. I had moved Rhian's little plant, a single stalk of bean sprout that she grew in her school's garden patch which she brought home, from the coffee table onto the kitchen bench. I did that because I didn't want them knocking over the little plastic of plant soil since it was a pretty low table whilst they did their daily chase around it. So, I went off - naively - to soak myself, confident that there would be no accidents. I had also explained to my girl that, on no account is she to touch that plant on the kitchen bench.

So much for the warning. I should have expected her stubborn streak to kick in, warning or not. Of course, she moved it and spilled it since it was a rather tall kitchen bench. I remember her barging in on me in the bath, but I shooed her out before she could speak, since I wanted to finish my bath in peace. Bother ...

I spent an hour cleaning up the new mess. yippeeeeee.

Rhian stood in her corner for 3 minutes, and I made her write out a page of the small letter "a". I had been meaning to push her to practice more on her small "a" anyways. So, this was a good opportunity. I have also confiscated her Baabooo (her comfort pillow).

She is now kissing me goodnight and has turned her cheek for me to kiss her back. Which I do. Naughty or not, I cannot resist her chubby cheeks. And she has the cheek to ask me if she can have her Baabooo now?

No, I said. But she still smiled and skipped back into her room. What do you make of that? Any mommies out there with similar frustrating experiences, which I'm sure, happen to all of us, regularly, no matter how carefully you plan their day ... there's just no avoiding it.

I can't sleep now!!!! ----- Dark Angels in my memories

2007-05-21T20:22:00.000+09:30

I'm adding to this as I can't get to sleep!!!!!!!!!!! This is bad. Major distress call. I gotta wake early tomorrow. I'm still in the midst of a school week. I have resorted to a glass of port :P
I really have to fall asleep soon. Like very soon. Make that 3 glasses.

This is how I envision a dark angel to look like. A Dark Prince Charming. Handsome and aloof but dangerous. Quite frivolous now that my dear one is sleeping beside me, and my two, very real little ANGELS are also sleeping soundly in their own bedroom.

I picked up a book, an unforgettable story of forbidden romance which captured me and burned into me a love for gothic imagery, and an enduring, haunted love that was never to be. That was like donkey years ago when I was a mere teen. I couldn't have been more than sixteen then. It was a book I borrowed from the local library. I kept renewing it until I couldn't anymore. I scoured the bookshops for a copy but couldn't find it anywhere. I kept looking for a very long time it seems. Then, I grew up, matured, dated, married and it was swept back into the attics of my memories. But I never forgot. I forgot the author's name though! It was the tenacity, the futileness of an extreme love which got me. What a tale. It's pure romance fleshed out superbly. I'm ranting for sure. But I still love it. It's brutally romantic. I'm sure every female, from pipsqueak to hormonal teen to nubile nymphet to married old hags like me cannot help but fall in love with a story like that.

Here's a snapshot of the book cover.

It's a story about a servant girl, Aeriel who fell in love with her vampire master. The crux is built up over an agonizing decision she must make. To destroy her dark prince for his evil deeds or to save him for the spark of goodness she has seen in him.

It's written by Meredith Ann Pierce. If anyone out there has got a copy or better still, the entire trilogy, I'm keen to get it off your hands if you're willing to part with a gem like that. Also, I do recall that it went under the title of Vampyre which was why it made my search so frustrating since the title was changed!

It was also why I am a zealous fan of the TV series which got axed off in its second season, Dark Angel. So, happily, I tuned in wondering if it could be a dramatization of my dream book. Too much to hope for I guess. Where my book was couched along mythological lines in the mists of time, this one is set in the future.

2019 to be exact. An electromagnetic pulse detonated by terrorists in 2009 had plunged the world back into a bleak, third world existence. There were many dark scenes, dark costume sets which accounted for my relating it with goth. Back to the story. There was a secret military project, termed Manticore, which researched and bioengineered a next generation of soldiers, humans in the quest to create the perfect soldier. Max, the female protagonist was one of them who eventually escaped with a group of her "siblings", who birthed from the same test-tube batch of babies. She tries to eke out a low profile existence even as the military tries to hunt them all down. Then, she meets an underground cyber-journalist, Logan Cale, who ignites in her, feelings of love and friendship, and gives Max something she hasn't had in a long time - an ally.

It's cultist I'll admit. All the right ingredients are there, topped with lots of eye candy. Still, it can't beat the nuances and sheer imagination, embellished with your own matrix of life experiences and feelings that makes a good book so magical.

By now, you would have realized I'm such a sucker for fantasy. I love having my head in the clouds. Escapist? Yes, but it's a nice place to be ...

What a post! I couldn't have indulged in such prolonged peace if they had all been awake. Having a family makes you appreciate a whole deal of finer points of feeling in life you never noticed before when you were a swinging single!

Who Will Win in the 21st Century? ... Don't compare

2007-05-20T15:51:00.000+09:30

What a tiring past week I had. I've been hobnobbing with a new friend and her friends. It's taken its toll on me since I'm not too sociable. My facial muscles almost cramped at one stage from too much smiling. Not that they were boring or anything, but I am quite the introverted wallpaper. I can't keep up a flow of conversation for a length of time. One hour is my threshold. Beyond that, it really stretches my socializing fortitude, and I tend to lapse into silence. I have never been much of a talker, and my enthusiasm really plunges. Unless, it's about a subject which engages me. Like how to invest and double the money in my bank account :-D

I had three social engagements in this week, which was a feat. Two of them with just myself and my daughter, and the last, yesterday actually, with a distinctly fidgety hubby in tow. SL went along as babysitter to seven kids - woohoooooo! Steady man!! They were all packed into the cinema to watch Spiderman 3, whilst three of us ladies went off for a relaxing cuppa at a cafe. I must admit I worried whether he could handle it. Six girls and a boy, my son. However, a full two and a half hours later, they emerged from the cinema, happy and eager to tell the story. That went quite well didn't it?

A Libertarian Ode to Coffee, tomgpalmer.com

Well, it had been an interesting week for me, although mentally exhausting. My friends are very nice, although they tend to slide in and out of Hakka which I cannot really understand at all, except for snatches where I can detect similarities to Mandarin. Okay for me since it gives me brief respites now and then from replying ...

One of them has advised me, us, that we should get a property in Darwin, as the price will likely go up. Hmmmmm ... we're not really keen on buying when things seem to be hotting up, whether it's the stock market or properties in hot zones. Stuff do tend to get over-priced in the face of such an enthusiastic buying furore. We don't want to be left holding an overblown mortgage on a devalued property when the property price corrects, or have our share value whittled down to a mere quarter of their value when it eventually bursts.

I was reading Business Week's article, Who Will Win in the 21st Century? Very timely article since we are starting to muse over where we should finally settle down. All this buzz over a retirement property and what not. It does get to you. Big brother, Uncle Sam is in first position as usual, as the country with the strongest global score to make it successfully into the 21st century. And coming in close behind, in second position is Singapore! Hong Kong makes it to third position. Click over here to check out everybody's report card. Sadly, Singapore ranks 53rd in terms of the happiness factor. Malaysia, holds a place ranking at 23rd position, but has a high happiness ranking of 17, well above Singapore's 53rd unenviable scoring on the happiness scale. Malaysia also has a retirement program in place, aptly named, Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H). Very attractive program indeed! Not a bad choice to keep on the radar eh? Just an interesting aside, an article in China Daily has reported an influx of Chinese investors who are turning their heads to Malaysian property. Food for further thought and a shovel and a good dig into this huh?

Woooooopsie. How did I get here? I was on auntie talk and social rounds, and now to property news hound?

Alrighty, I'm going to indulge a little more, and I just have to share this. No more economics. Just daily nonsense. Anyways, I was glued to my laptop chasing up some article, and it was 5pm, almost time for Papa to appear at the door. Kids were outside watching a cartoon, when I hear the door click. I shouted out to my kids if that was Papa? And it gave me quite a fright when they yelled back,

"Nooooooo!"

Oh my god! Could they have opened the door to a stranger? Or worse ...??? I dashed out in double time, just as my kids yelled again.

"It's a carrot!! It's a carrot!"

What in high heaven are they yelling about? It was this ...

He was too lazy to change out of his safety overalls after his site inspection that day. Yep, that was his gear when he has to do his walking rounds in fire-retardant overalls. Brandon and Rhian just loved that walking carrot.

Falling out of love

2007-05-15T13:15:00.000+09:30

When things happen, they never do so singly. They happen in twos, threes and all at once. A world can just come crashing down.

You know, I have never thought that a person might ever fall out of love. I have always felt that it's not that a person has fallen out of love, but that a love was not chosen well. Maybe both parties just didn't see past their rose-tinted shades, and maybe they've just been in love with a perceived image of someone they want to see, instead of seeing a person for whom they really are.

I'm not talking about me. My life is pottering along as usual. Although there are times when I feel like battering someone's head with a pot.

There are people around me, people I know whose married life have gone down the drain ... sometimes, it's an amicable parting, sometimes bitter, sometimes, one has outgrown another, so many reasons. When a person becomes a part of your personal circle, and they leave, it takes away something, and always, it leaves sadness behind. I think, mostly, sadness.

It's a lot more messy, and decisions become harder, when there are innocent children in the picture. It affects me when something like that happens. I have resisted that marriages with problems cannot be solved. It must be because both parties are just too stubborn to give it a go at resolution. There's a good number of years worth of feelings in a relationship, a marriage. Surely, there's enough there to be worthwhile salvaging? I guess this is when there is still love and affection between two persons.

But, when love dies ... to one, to both ... what do you say? Is there something I, an outsider no less, can even do to help?

Then again, what point is there in maintaining a marriage that's a farce if both can't even stand each other? And they're together solely on account of their kids? Either ways, the kids lose out. It's really hard to tell which course of action will result in less of a negative impact on the children.

Damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

Hard knots to untie ...

"Bean" thinking about you ...

2007-05-12T15:31:00.000+09:30

Card by Rhian. Made with Love, 2007.

Happy Mother's Day to all mommies out there!

And Brandon has told me he's giving me a surprise gift today. I have not the slightest idea what he's bought for me. He's already made my day with just his thoughtfulness, and his eagerness to please me. That is present enough for me.

And the hubby? Playing like a demented addict on a new racing game, complete with a steering wheel and pedals set, and pulling my son down into gaming miasma with him ...

You have to wonder ... is it a sadly male-dominated malady? yeesh, I'm alliterating. I've been re-reading Jonathan Swift. It's all getting to me.

Soaked in Breathtaking Beauty - Ha Long Bay

2007-05-11T15:44:00.000+09:30

Thought it might be interesting to juxtapose the fantastically beautiful images I captured of Ha Long Bay with the Yellow Water cruise photos below ... Incidentally, Halong Bay is also a World Heritage site. And er, no Singapore is geographically too insipid to be nominated onto this list.

One of the sight-seeing boats

Floating hawkers who pulled up beside our boat

Having lunch on board. Yes, eating wherever we go ...

Random images from Nha Trang.
This is Lu'oung, a siklo driver whom we met who brought us to all
his "number one" places. We enjoyed his company so much, we booked him out for the whole day!
Truly, he is a most cheery fella, and so happy to ferry us
here and there to this "number one ice-cream" spot, or "number one restaurant" ...

On a beach in Nha Trang, besieged by the many food peddling aunties.
Even though, we didn't buy from all of them, they were very happy
to sit down with us to eat and chat together, in fact!

How do you like the waves?

Cruising down Yellow Water

2007-05-10T11:32:00.000+09:30

The sign below is ubiquitous throughout the various watery arteries sprouting about Kakadu National Park. This sign I snapped is found at a private boat ramp just outside the family lodge room we were at.

I quote herein a little paragraph sub-heading the section introducing the East Alligator area, and a note in red text at the end of that page.

Please be alert at all times as crocodiles can be found near the waters edge and sometimes near walking tracks by the river.

Please read the crocodile information on page 25.

Gets your goosebumps up a little bit eh?

And here we can see a guy fishing for a catch at a stretch of breakwater
somewhere on the East Alligator River!

Not quite as daring as the chap above, and that we don't know how to fish for nuts, we settled on a Yellow Water cruise. Click link here for rates.
The 1 and half hour cruises are cheaper by $5, so it wasn't much of a difference between the full 2 hour cruise or the shorter one. The cruise we booked lasted 2 hours which was a bit too long for the kids but we got to see a beautiful sunset! But at which point our camera battery petered out on account of hubby's trigger happy fingers. awwwwww! That was a letdown! We were recommended the very early morning cruise at 6.45am or this sunset cruise. I think we made the right choice!

Heading for the cruise boats.

Magpie Geese which are common around here.
We weren't quite able to get a close-up of the Jacana bird.
It's a small water fowl which scavanges atop the lily pads in the
floodplains, so it has these huge feet.
Sometimes, they are even called lily-trotters!
Click the link here to see some pictures of it.

Basking croc spotted on a swampy bank.

And, Boh Boh (pronounced bor bor) as they say in an Aboriginal language variant known as Mungguy, which means good bye.

A Rocky Impression

2007-05-08T08:25:00.000+09:30

One of the rocky outcrops at Ubirr
(Click to see a larger image, this blog-shrunken size doesn't do it justice ...)

The Kakadu dream time experience is one fraught with rocky impressions of ancient giants.

First off, it is a World Heritage site which is managed by its traditional Aboriginal owners and the Australian Government. It spans almost 20,000 square kilometers. That would accommodate the island of Singapore how many times over??? 28 times! Mind boggling huh.

There are 7 visitor sites to explore so 3 days is just too short. On account of the fiery midday sun, and with 2 little tykes, the most we could do was to cover 2 attractions per day, fortified with - at the very least - a litre of water per person. The heat is blistering and you are immediately aware of its sting on your skin. Strong sunscreen and insect repellents are an absolute MUST if you want to survive and tackle the trails! Some of the trails can be quite challenging, especially to little ones, so they will need little stops here and there to keep them going.

And the very best way to explore now that we've completed our trip? On hindsight, by 4WD with a camper trailer! The accommodation rates there can get quite expensive if you're going to spend more than a week there, poking around. The family lodge room we booked was A$220 per night by itself. But we took the Bed & Breakfast package at A$250 since each accommodation precinct site was spaced at least an hour's drive away from each other! The Gagadju Cooinda Lodge we were putting up at was about 50km away from the town of Jabiru. There are many places with spectacular landscape accessible only by tough and sturdy 4WDs. Also, there are sections of floodways with water levels of up to 0.2 metres which make it a little dicey for 2WDs!!! There were at least 2 sections on our way up to Ubirr which were floodways. One of them had water coming up to 0.2 metres which SL had to zoom through at high speed to avoid the wheels getting stuck halfway. But it was thrilling for the kids since they got to see instant water fountains gushing up around them!

Of the 7 visitor areas below, we only had time to explore parts of Nourlangie, Ubirr, Yellow Water. Mind you, we weren't able to cover everything in the area! Just little parts here and there. The lodge we were staying at forms part of the Yellow Water area.

South Alligator Area
Jabiru Area (town)
East Alligator Area
Nourlangie Area
Yellow Water Area
Mary River Area
Jim Jim Area

Now, for some pictures which, they say are worth more than words ...

Nourlangie Rock which we were heading for on our first day.

One of the many Aboriginal rock art found on the rock walls.

The rocky structures were nothing short of amazing.
Just how amazing, you can see for yourself
when you look at the pictures me and SL took at Chong Rocks
(yes, hubby's namesake!), Nha Trang, Vietnam ...

Chong Rocks, Nha Trang, Vietnam

Anbangbang Billabong, somewhere behind Nourlangie Rock.

Views from the top of the Nourlangie lookout point.

This ends our Nourlangie tour!

Now, to tackle the Ubirr rocks!

More rock art.

And ... Rhian's paper art ...
(figured I'd sneak in her work as well)
Immortalized in my blog instead of time-capsuled in a school project!

"Scaling" up!

Almost there ...

Views from Ubirr Lookout.

Panorama of the Nardab floodplains from the Ubirr Lookout point.
(Click to see a larger image, this blog-shrunken size doesn't do it justice ...)

Well worth the climb!!!!!!!

A scare yesterday and FUN today!

2007-05-04T09:06:00.000+09:30

Brandon nearly gave me a mini heart attack yesterday morning. He'd gone and swallowed his Vitamin C tablet accidentally whilst squabbling with Rhian over a spot on the lounge. They're so territorial. Well, he gagged and was stuffing his fingers down his throat to get it out.

Naturally, that sent me into panic mode. He was coughing and spluttering and tearing. But he was breathing normally except that he was in histrionics and just stepping up the panic intensity a notch higher than necessary. The tablet hadn't gone down the windpipe but had been swallowed WHOLE into the oesophagus, so that was alright ... It was just a tad too big and hurt his little food tract. He was crying himself into a fit and screaming that his throat hurts. It was a battle to get through to him amidst the noise, and calm him down. It was hurting because he was yelling his tonsils out and it was just aggravating the the raw area. Lots of warm water and honey, and it seemed to do the trick. Anyhow, I whipped out my all 3 of my medical bibles for kids and checked through under the "choking" entries to see if I had missed out anything.

Brandon asked to be excused from school. He was told that he still had to go to school, and he mumbled a very teary, and defeated "yes". I'm so useless, I couldn't go through with it. My defence had already crumbled way before he had even asked! I played along a while and pretended he still had to go to school. When I saw how well he was cooperating, I let him off but laid down my condition. 3 actually. He had to do 3 subjects with me throughout the day at home, English, Maths and Mandarin. He agreed. I'm in the habit of getting my kids to earn their requests with a task in return. A page of exercise or a little chore around the house.

Managed to find this little picture of Hector the Cat mascot!

And we all walked to school today. It is a national Walk Safely to School Day (WSTSD) today. It was very fun! The kids were treated to a pancake and maple syrup breakfast at school. And they had Hector the Cat, who was the mascot walk around greeting the kids a cheery morning! Rhian enjoyed it very much, following Brandon and his classmates about, tagging Hector. There was such a happy, bright atmosphere this morning. Smiling, happy little faces everywhere. I was lovely! I very much wished that I had brought my camera along to capture the gaiety that was bursting out everywhere.

Off to Kakadu National Park

Gunlom Falls lookout

Pool above Gunlom

Twin Falls

I'm so happy I managed to get a weekend booking for Gagudju Lodge Cooinda at the very last moment! See, it's Labour Day next Monday, so we have a long weekend starting tomorrow!!! How FANTABULOUS!! What luck! It's really lucky because usually you won't have much chance of getting any accommodation with such a late booking request.

So, we'll be off early tomorrow! This will be our 1st recce in Kakadu, 3 days is too short to explore its majestic vastness, but we're thinking of caravaning it or motorhoming it for the next round. Really looking forward to that!

From sweet(?) girlfriend to chronic nag, complain queen

2007-05-01T09:08:00.000+09:30

I don't know why I felt so down last night. It's my hormones maybe, it's that time of the month ... I don't know. It just got so eerily lonely. Where we are isn't exactly hunky dory. Actually, that was severely understated. I don't like it. I'm trying so hard to like it here. My kids seem okay and are happy enough. Schooling is a BIG plus. Weather is the blazing pits. SL is happy with his work environment. Who am I to be such a wet blanket?

I'm the main problem. Can't understand it myself. I didn't used to have so many complaints or things to say. It was a lot easier being a girlfriend than to be a w-i-f-e! Then, I didn't have too many things to worry about. Just had fun dolling myself, and planning to have a good time out. So different now. Back then, it was all me, me, me. Today, it's my kids, kids, kids (and the hubby too la!). Just that I've pushed myself so far into the background that I forget to live for myself now and then, and it catches up to me?

It's always what can I cook for the kids today? What to do for dinner for my lord and king? What shall I do with my kids when they're back from school with A GAZILLION VOLTS of energy? How can I keep them busy?

Guess my predictable routine has got to me. It struck me last night. I feel very small and insipid.
My little world is defined by my family. Period. My entire social and physical environment has been condensed to 3 intertwining circles. The home, the supermarket, and the school.

Woohooo.

But I feel a little better, having grumbled here.

It's 10am. Time to prepare a little lunch for Rhian. She needs to be in school at noon, really odd time huh.

Way to go. Funny how I wish I had my mum here to NAG me out of this now!

A Path less trodden

2007-04-26T13:08:00.000+09:30

In our quest of exploration with the kids, we did a trek through the wetlands of Fogg Dam.

ready to go

Water birds at a meandering stream.

Off into the swamp ...

forest stretch

smack in the midst of nowhere

what we came for ... the water lilies!

The internet connection has been really, very, very s-l-o-w these past couple of days and it's so frustrating!!! Everything takes forever to load ... aaaaarghh! We've maxed out! So, tomorrow begins a new month, a connection speed reset and easier surfing days ...

Until tomorrow ...

Of bras and mice

2007-04-24T20:18:00.000+09:30

You really have to watch your actions around growing kids.

I decided to soak my bra (one of those handwash only type) in the kids' bathroom sink, whilst watching over my little daughter soaking in the bath. After Rhian got out, I followed her out, forgetting all about my errant bra.

It was only later tonight when I sternly sent Rhian packing into her bathroom to brush her teeth, that it got brought up. I went off into my room, pleased that she was doing as she was told without too much fuss. When, she suddenly yelled for me.

"Mommeeeeeee!"

Daddy, "Yes? Why do you need Mommy now?"

Rhian,"I'm calling for Mommy, not you!"

So, I had to come out before she yelled the place down.

The minute she saw me, she shot off her mouth,"Mommy! I told you not to leave your bra in my sink!!! How am I going to brush?"

How embarrassing ... Suitably chastened and humbled before Rhian's reprehensive glare, I apologized to her and quickly fished my offending thing out of the basin, and whisked it off into my room. This should teach me to stop trying to do two things at the same time, which I'm frequently guilty of. And I should stop flashing my unmentionables in front of Rhian, not so often anyway. Although, I'm of the opinion that mothers and daughters should be open and natural, as far as they can. It seems easier to bare your souls to each other later on this way.

She is growing up and I'll lose her one day to a boy. The only way we can stay connected will rest on the strength of our bond eh. So, I better build it up good.

Oh yes, the Hot Dog poem is by Sonja Dunn, a popular Canadian poet for kids. Her poems are widely favoured in English curricula.

Here's a nice mini-project to do with the kids,which they can eat as well! With a bit of imagination the recipe should serve as a good after-dinner dessert too. Instead of shaping the mix into mice, you could shape them into little hearts and flowers, and decorate them as you like. It's also very easy to do, and requires no baking. Definitely, an idiot-proof project that kids will love. This is a recipe from Usborne's Big Book of Things to Do, which we found very useful! It keeps the kids busy and constructive.

I'll just list down the ingredients and steps here.

COCONUT MICE

250g icing sugar
175dessicated coconut
200g tin of condensed milk (believe you can substitute this with Carnation's Light and Creamy Evaporated milk, if you don't want it that sweet)
red and yellow food dyes
red liquorice bootlaces (or just replace with a gummy snake sliced thinly)
silver cachous
sweets for ear (I'm using mini M&Ms)

Mix icing sugar condensed milk. Stir in coconut.
Add a few drops of yellow dye to a dessert spoon of the mix.
Put the rest of the mix in two bowls. Add a few drops of red dye to each one.
Stir in the dye. Add a few more drops of red to one of the bowls.
Dip a clean tablespoon into water and let it drip. (Use smaller spoons to make smaller mice).
Use the spoon to lift out a big spoonful of mix. Pat smooth on top.
Turn spoon over onto a piece of food wrap.
Pinch a nose at the thin end. Add sweets for the ears and silver cachous for eyes.
Push in your liquorice bootlace or gummy tail.

To make the cheese:

Make a ball of the yellow mix then flatten it.
Use a fork to punch holes into the yellow cake.
Cut your cheese cake into wedges.

Usborne's Big Book of Things to Do