A Christmas gift for you?

I really enjoy creating comic strips at stripgenerator.com, and I would love to make a strip for you. For Christmas 2010! Just send me a short story of how you want your story to be told. It can be something funny, something touching, something interesting....No strings attached just as long as you allow me to share your strip freely. You can use it in your greeting cards, gift tags, desktop, cd cover, book cover, diary cover, scrapbook, etc....

A friend told me this story of his experience when he was a cabin crew more than a decade ago.
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He made sure his passenger got more than he had asked for. Yup, he went heavy on the alcohol. And the poor passenger was knocked out for the rest of the 12 hour flight! Don't worry, he has quit long time ago....which means you will not be served by him by any chance :D

Send me an email eileen@budgetestore.com . Will accept last request on 15 Dec 2010. Hope to hear from you soon, cheers!

Honesty, the best policy?

This happened earlier this year when the primary threes are choosing their CCAs for the year. Being unathlete Jonah avoided the sports. Uniformed group was too much commitment just in case he didnt enjoy it in the midst of it so he opted for clubs. The comic below tells the rest of the story....
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Poor baby was too afraid to tell the truth so I coaxed him into writing how will the Gradening Club benefits him instead. After attending almost a year of gardening, he has learn to pull out weeds, prepare a pot for planting chili seeds (yes, the chilli plant is still alive seating in our corridor :)), attempted many tasks like leaf pressing, make a dried seeds collections, poster, making a silly poem about plants, he was awarded a Young Botanist Badge organised by the Science Centre Singapore!

So I asked him if he would like to switched to another club next year and he said he's happy to stick to this one :)

Daddy Long Legs

Our bookshelves are bursting with books! It was time for me to clear some but I found it hard to lose some of them like this one by Jean Webster.

I won this in 2nd prize for my school's geography quiz in the secondary one category back in 1982! Yes, truly a long long time ago :) I left the other books lying on the floor and went into reading this one all over again. Typical story that teenage girls would love and it tickled me all over again. I felt like a teenager during that couple of hours reading by the terapin's pond. It would be nice to be able to share it with a daughter, I guess, I'll have to wait for a grand-daughter in the future. The book is so old and yellow already, actually more brown than yellow.....I hope it won't fall apart when the time comes.

Do you have a book that is sentimental to you?

Sex and the Kiddy

Yesterday I attended the third lesson in the Parent Facilitator Course. It's a 40 hour training for parent volunteers which empower us to facilitate the running of SFE programmes and the formation of parent support groups. It's subsidised by MCYS and module 1 covers topics like family life cycle, developement stages of tweenies, how marriage can affect parenting, challenges of teenagers and family wellness. I learn something new about parenting and my children on every lesson. Yesterday we touched on a topic most parents avoid discussing with their children. Yes, it's about sex and not 'that thing'! LOL....As for me, I'm pretty comfortable talking about it with my 2 boys since I started reading them books about where do babies come from when they were just toddlers. "Mummy laid an egg" by Babette Cole is one of my favourite. It's funny, factual and very frank.

Whenever the boys ask any questions concerning sex, hubby and I would try to answer them as honest and factual as possible. I remembered when I was in preschool, I asked my mom about how did I come out from her tummy  and she said through her armpit! That led to another question of how was that possible and she said she had actually found me in the toilet bowl! I knew she was kidding because she was giggling but it puzzled me for the longest time. What kind of other silly answers did your parents give you when you were young?

But I guess some questions are hard to answer like this one from Russell when he was 10.
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Elder Wise

I respect my mom-in-law. She's great at time management and is a fabulous cook. She could babysit 2 toddlers, clean her home and make 3 warm meals a day for her family of 5. She could even find the time to read the papers and scrutinise the property market. Through her encouragement, savings and hard work of moving from a HDB  flat to a HUDC apartment to a terrace house, both my parents-in-law eventually sold their landed property to become millionaires and now living happily in an EA flat with little to worried about. She is a wonderful mom-in-law and we get along very well. Although I respect her a lot, there are times when she's a tad old fashioned in her thinking, well to me at least....

So when she whipped out this advise on how to be a good housewife, I thought it was joke until I heard my hubby mentioned a conversation they had on a guys' night out 2 days ago. I was stumped and my mom-in-law's words slammed into my head at that point. The sequence of the actual event wasn't really like that in the comic below but the words are real.
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LOL! Well, my fellow homemakers, how about you? Do you try to finish your chores before the hubby is home or do you start only when he gets home? Maybe I shall surf Bloggers until hubby gets home before I start sweeping and mopping that darn sticky floor! hee...

It's a Ferrari or something!

Last Sunday, I went to pick Russell and his 3 friends up from their Junior Youth Group meeting. It was my turn to send the boys home and I was driving my van. This was the conversation they had....

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Of course it's not a Ferrari! LOL! Gotta love kids : D

He's so going to Swenson's

Couple of months back, I received a parent letter from school requesting that the Primary 3 children to take an International Competitions and Assessments for School (ICAS) conducted by Educational Assessment Australia, UNSW Global Pty Limited.. I sent an email to Jonah's form teacher to inquire if it was necessary to put the kids through another 'exam'. He explained that the kids would enjoy the challenge as the questions would be very interesting. Jonah said he would like to try it out so I consented. Later on, another letter was sent out to parents to remind us not to give undue stress to our kids for this test so I just let Jonah take his test without any kind of 'training'. In fact I'd totally forgotten about it until he came home one afternoon telling me about the test. He said the Science paper was pretty tough.

Yesterday, he came home from school looking very tired after Chinese remedial class and the Health & Fitness program. He flopped on the sofa for awhile before telling me excitedly about his day. The children received their results for the Science performance. The results were graded as Participation, Credit, Distinction and High Distinction. And he recieved a Certificate of Distinction! In the result's letter, it stated that his score was in the top 11% of Primary 3 Participants in Singapore. WOW! Top 11%!

Needless to say, we are very proud of his achievement. He was smiling from ear to ear and did a little jig when I said he was so going to Swenson's! LOL! Ice-cream is his favourite and he loves eating at Swenson's, which we go only on such special occasion.

I've also framed up the Certificate and put it in our glass shelf  'Hall of Fame'. Every year he received a little laminated certificate of encouragement from his form teachers for doing well in his school's exams. Most times, he's nonchalent about it but this time, I can see he is very happy with this little achievement. It's a joy to watch him glow in confidence :)

My kind of Therapy

Most people enjoy clothing shopping but I prefer browsing in furnishing stores. I can spent hours looking at stuff and it's therapy for me. My all time favourite place is IKEA. It's very casual, no one follows me around the store and yet I can always find someone to help me when I need it. I get to touch and test out almost everything I see. Then when I get tired or hungry, there's a cafe with yummy Swedish meatballs and free coffee or tea. I was delighted when IKEA opened a branch in Tampines. It's just 5 minutes drive from my home and parking is free because of its location. The products are priced reasonably well and I love their slogan, "You don't have to be rich to be clever." .

Every year, every household in Singapore will receive their latest catalogue. Just a couple of days ago, we received our 2011 catalogue. So I've been spending a couple of minutes here and a half an hour there flipping through it. I enjoy looking at their simple designs and I keep every issue. Yes, I do take them out once in a while to get inspiration one way or another. Did you know that I even have their catalogue dated 1988?

Are you an IKEA fan too?

My Water Babies

The first time I took Russell to the pool was when he was just 6 months old. I could tell that he loved it because he was splashing and kicking happily sitting in his floatie. We took him to our friends' private pool  at least once a month. Pat and Rodney have two boys and they love playing with Russell eventhough they were a few years older.

Then one day I chanced upon a book; Water Baby: A First Fun Book of Water Skills by Lauren Heston. It has lots of beautiful pixs of babies swimming and their eyes were opened wide in the water! I was fascinated and bought it. It has clear guides and steps on teaching your babies to hold their breadth automatically before dipping their heads in the water and how we can help them gain confident and freedom swimming on their own. After reading it I was so excited because instead of just dipping in the pool and lazing around watching Russell play, I could actually do something useful and fun.

Well, it was fun indeed. Especially watching him enjoy our 'lessons'. When he was about 18mths old, we bought an underwater disposable camera and took precious pixs of him in the water.

Unfortunately, we didn't take the same kind of photos of Jonah. But Jonah is a 'dugong'. He can sit in the pool daydream all day if I allow him to. He loves the weightlessness and cool feeling that the water gives. He enjoys sitting in the pool, jaccuzzi, the inflatable wading pool, in the ocean by the beach and even tried to cover the shower room drain with a cup to fill it up with water. If we have a bath tub, I bet he'll want to sit in it all day long.

This photo was taken when Russell was 10 and Jonah was 7. They love dipping in the pool so much they won't get up until their palms are all wrinkled and pale as ghosts!

Reading

I love to read. But it didn't start till I was 11years old.

My first book was by Enid Bryton given to me at age 10 by my cousin Doreen and I fell asleep after the first page. LOL...in fact I had phobia looking at Enid Bryton's books after that!

When I was 11, I went to live with my brother and granny in her employers home. There was a wicker shelf filled with their older boys' old and forgotten comics and storybooks in our bedroom. The room was very small and the books are always in my face so I picked them up to read when I had nothing to do. That was it, I was hooked. I started borrowing classic stories and Nancy Drew's collection from school.

When I became a teenager, I giggled over paperback love stories. I was lucky that granny's employer has a daughter just 2 years my senior. We were 2 giggling teenage girls who were nuts over the paperbacks. She received generous amount of pocket money from her dad each week so I got to read the books for free after she was done.

But after high school, comics became my thing. The Adventures of Asterix were my favourite and I hunted down every series at Bras Basah Complex. There used to be many 2nd hand bookstores there but the number has dwindled down to maybe 2 or 3 now. Garfield comics were my favourite too. I could read the comics over and over again and still laugh every time!

When I was a flight attendant, I had lots of time in my hands when I was cooped up in the hotel of a foreign land with eyes that could not sleep due to jet lag. I would spend my time reading fictions and non fictions alike. When I read, I feel totally absorb in it and sometimes laugh aloud or cry softly. I can feel intense, excitement or relief as the story goes. And I enjoy being in my own world while reading.

My boys have been reading since they were born. From Eric Carle to Eric Hill to Todd Par and Roger Hargreaves when they were babies and toddlers. I used to pick books for them at the stores or library but now they pick their own. They particularly enjoy informative and stories with big dose of humour in them. Unlike me, they enjoy Enid Bryton's series by the way! They also enjoy my Garfied comics and Asterix Adventures. At 9 and 11, they've read so many many books between them. Recently, Russell received a gift from his school's library for being one of the highest book borrowers in school.

The boys would borrow books from school with each other on their minds! How cute is that?! They would tell each other excitedly about their finds and how they know that the other brother would love them too :)

Since becoming a parent, I enjoy reading inspirational, motivational and self help books. I've been introduced to The Law of Success by Napoleon Hill a month ago and it inspired me to teach my kids what I've learned from the book. It's a very thick book and it has 15 sest of laws that everyone should know and learn. And these laws will be very effective in helping anyone to be successful in whatever the person wants to become.

What are you reading now?

I'm a lucky girl

It's not any special day but over the weekends, dear hubby made breakfast, lunch and dinner. Oh, how I love him for that :)

Cooking is not something I enjoy. I learn to make omelete and instant noodles when I was 9. My cousin taught me that in case no one was home to make lunch or dinner. She also taught me how to cook rice and my main duty was to pluck the roots off the beansprouts every weekend and I hated it! I cringed every time I see her buy beansprouts from the wet market.

When I was living with my granny, she was chief cook. The only time she ask me to help in the kitchen was to wash the dishes, clean the stove or pound the chillies, dried shrimps ( I hated pounding). She's a great cook by the way. I love her 'loh bak'(soya pork stew), 'mi hoon kueh' (flour dough soup) and 'mi suah teng'(rice noodle soup) and many, many more.

Later when I moved in with my Uncle's family, I realised how lucky I was to have granny in charged of the kitchen before. Uncle's wife was not very good when it comes to cooking. They are mostly very bland.

And then I met my dear hubby. We were 18 and I was invited to his mom's delicious home cooked food very often. It was in his parent's home that I learn how to prepare more ingredients and a little more cooking skills. My mom-in-law is not only an incredibly good cook but also a very patient teacher. Alas, I do not have the patient nor talent in that area but managed to learn the very basic stuff. I'm just lucky dear hubby inherited his mom's talent and has the passion to whip up great tasting dishes every now and then.

I cook because everyone at home has to eat. Dear hubby cooks because he is inspired. The boys and I are very lucky indeed :) We get to eat all types of cuisine gourmet meals right in our home.

Even breakfast can be special in our home, like having the 'Toad-in-the-Hole'. BTW, it didn't only looked good but also tasted so, so, so fabulously yummy!

Recycle your Tank Tops

I was going through my clothes in the wardrobe and weeded out some short tank tops. Once upon a time when my tummy was still flat, I loved them. Now, the extra ' fatties' flopped out when I put them on and it's kind of obscene to me wearing them at my age. They are still in good conditions and I can't bear to throw them away. And then suddenly, an idea hatched and I became obsessed in turning them into bags :)

1) First remove tag from old tank top.

2) Turn top inside out and line the 2 sides together. Pin the bottoms together on the dotted line.

3)  Sew straight through the bottom.

4) Turn it right way out and ta-da, you've got a new casual hand bag!

You can add a brooch or sew an applique of your choice on it for a different look.

I've turned 2 more tank tops into bags.

Try it, it's SO easy!

Teacher vs Russell

I've been busy with volunteer work in the boys' school again. I help out with the weekly Math Mom and Learning Mentor programs. I enjoy motivating the children and watching them improve academically and emotionally. I also help out in ad hoc programs like chaperoning on excursions and manning the booths during Chinese New Year period and will be helping out with Racial Harmony Week next.

I started volunteering when Russell was in primary one. His teacher gave the class a form each for their parents to fill up if anyone of us wanted to be parent volunteers. Russell was excited at the idea of me getting involved and I thought maybe it would helped me get to know the school and teachers better. Whenever we were in school together, Russell would not fail to tell his friends (whoever we walked pass) and teachers that I'm his mom and I'm a Parent Volunteer! LOL...so cute right?! I know most of his teachers pretty well and they gave me feedback very often too.

I stopped volunteering when I started working part-time in the children's library across the road from my home. The teachers and I communicated less and trouble started brewing during Russell's Chinese lessons. When he was in primary 2, he had weekly Chinese spelling test. He was supposed to learn about 8 -12 new characters each week. There was a time when he told me there weren't any spelling test after school on test days. And that went on for about 2 weeks. On the 3rd week, I was waiting at the school gate for him when I bumped into his classmate. I told him how lucky he was for not having spelling test for so many weeks. He looked at me with a puzzled face and told me they had Chinese spelling test every week! I was shocked and surprised that the Chinese teacher didn't inform me why Russell hadn't been doing his tests. I met up with her the next day and she told me why she stopped demanding work from my defiant boy.                                   *Pls click on pix for larger image.

He really scare his teacher with that crazy move! Russell feels embarrassed about his action now when I retell this story. But it made Jonah laugh whenever he remembers it.

School Day's Blues

The June school holidays is gone! Waking up before sunrise has resumed for me and the boys today. Jonah was struggling to get up this morning. Hubby who is the night owl has turned the whole family into nocturnal creatures and we didn't wake up till after 10 am during the holidays. From tonight, the boys are going to bed early again :) But I know they will still struggle to wake up the next morning....as usual....

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Why is it that the boys are up and about at 6.30am on the weekend but struggle to wake up on school days! I asked the boys this same question when their chatters woke me one beautiful Sunday morning and their replies were, "I don't know mom, I just wake up and can't go back to sleep."

Maybe the thought of schoolwork makes them tired but a whole day of fun ahead keep them excited. I guess I can't blame them because I remembered those days, feeling really tired the moment I changed into my flight attendant's uniform and wished I didn't have to work, LOL!

Coach is the new shade

Russell loves computer games, playstation games, reading and playiung with lego when he was only 5 years old and still does. He prefered not to participate in physical activities and I felt it was not very healthy. I spoke to him about why we must do different kind of activities to be healthier in our bodies and minds. And he agreed to pick one physical activity to do at least once a week. I gave him a list of things he can do at the nearby community centre and he chose mini soccer. Honestly, when he told me he wanted to try soccer, I was surprised because neither hubby and I are soccer fans. But I went along and signed him up. We got him the shoes, socks and shin guards.

It rained heavily on the first lesson so the coach directed the students and parents to the indoor basketball court in the community centre. There, they got to know each other and did some kicking around the cones exercises. From 2nd lesson onwards, it was conducted at a nearby school field. We were lucky to have sunny morning every Sunday. First half of the lessons were usually on tackling and learning new kicking, footing techniques. The school building provided shade from the sun onto the field. 2nd half of the lessons was match time which most of the kids loved. The preschooler group was smaller and looked so tiny and cute running after the ball in the big field. By this time, the sun would have risen higher and the shadow from the school building did not reach the field any more. Every weekend was the same, but the first time it happened I thought he had disappeared.

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It was quite amusing when I spotted him squatting behind his coach. His coach was looking high and low for him while he did the duck walk following the coach's shadow. When I asked him why he did that, he said the sun was too hot for him! That went on every Sunday until the basic course ended and I took him off soccer. Next, I signed him up for basic swimming lessons and hoped the sun was less hot for him. He did better but it was amusing watching him do the swim test. It puts a smile on my face just remembering it :)

Lost again....

Since we lost and found Caramale in April, we've been very careful whenever we open our front door. Sometimes he still managed to dash out in a blink of an eye but most times, we are able to spot him and bring him back. This time round, no one saw him sneaking out and he is gone since Friday night. Jonah cried very badly and Russell tried to cheer him up eventhough he is sad too. Hubby and I walked the 12 storeys in our building to look but didn't find him. I put up a notice at our lift lobby at the void deck and told which ever neighbour I bumped into about it. So far, I have not heard from anyone yet. Sigh....

Wrong button?

I'm not a racist. I have friends who are Chinese, Malay, Indian, Caucasian and other inter racial mixed race. But whenever I had any Indian sector flight on my flight roster that month, I would always shudder at the thought of it! And I was not alone. Every other flight attendants I knew felt the same way. Most would report sick on that day and someone on standby would get called up. I had never reported sick on these flights, however, was called up many times for such flights. It's almost always full on these flight. I don't know why but passengers on these flights in the economy class were very demanding. They wanted everything that we had on board and many are drinkers.

Usually, there will be drink cart service after take-off. The first time I did Singapore-Madras(now known as Chennai) flight, I was warned to be vigilant and keep my eyes out for quick hands. True enough, once I was in the cabin, every passenger would speak to me at once asking for this drink and that. And when I turned back to my cart after serrving one passenger, one of my bottle of wine or whisky would have disappeared.

After that, dinner would be served and the passengers would again asked for more alcohol. And after dinner service, they would continue to ask for more drinks. Be it for coffee, tea, soft drinks, alcoholic drinks, playing cards, pens, post cards and plastic bags, no crew would be spared in the economy class. We practically walked all the way to Madras! It was exhausting running in and out of the galley and cabin attending to passengers' requests. It was tough to keep smiling whenever we were in the cabin throughout the 4 hour flight. But there was one incident that happened on my flight which made me smile voluntarily whenever I thought about it.

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Once we reached Madras, we would transit at the airport for an hour before returning home with another full load of passengers. As this was a late night flight, most passengers would doze off after supper. But there would always be someone asking for things and drinks non-stop! There was one drunk passenger on the return flight who wanted to have a fight with me! I will tell you more another time.....

Uninspired

I feel uninspired to blog recently. My laptop died on me and all the datas I've created  collected over time are gone. Before that, our family PC was busted too so I was internet free for a week. Finally, sweet hubby bought us a PC over the weekend but the break sort of stumped me. I've also lost interest in updating and redecorating my restaurant in Restaurant City in FB which I loved previously. Playing scrabble online doesn't seem that fun any more. Fortunately, there are many blogs to read. Recently, while admiring paintings in Kira's blog, I stumbled upon a link. You may have noticed my awesome new background which I got for free at Shabby's Blog :) There are so many beautiful ones to choose from. Go on, choose one and let me know when you get a brand new look. I want to see it too!

Tomayto, tomaato

Yea, you know the song that goes, "you say eether, I say aither, you say neether, I say naither"... My name is Eileen. Just reading the word, some would pronounce it as Ee-leen, some would say Ai-leen. I respond to both but will let the other party know it's actually Ai-leen. My son Russell has been called Roo-sell before. But the funniest one I've hear so far was when I did a flight with the Leading Stewardess who pronounced the Chief Steward's name over the PA system.....

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I'm not perfect either and had my fair share of wrong pronounciations too. But hearing others saying it out loud in the cabin was quite funny actually. Once there was this young stewardess who went to every passengers in Business class asking, "Would you like some pa-ra-lines?". She was offering pralines on a tray after lunch service. By the time I heard her, it was kind of too late. She has already asked 3 quarters of the passengers before I corrected her in private. I've also heard the story of a stewardess asking passengers if they like a choice of bread roll or "baa-jel". No wonder they ran out of bread roll with plenty of bagels left over after breakfast service.

How about you? Heard of any hilarious ones?

Motion sickness

 I can remember as far as when I was 3 or 4 years old, whenever my parents take me for a train ride to visit my paternal grandparents, I would throw up over board. It was a single car train and the click-clack movements on the track made my tummy wrench. And I remember my dad telling me to focus my eyes on the big rocks and blue sky but it didn't work very well. My head was spinning.

My first training flight from Singapore to Perth as a flight attendant, was head spinning! Plus the bad air turbulence, I actually saw the whole cabin spin in front of me and I had to throw up many times! When I reached my hotel room, I flopped in bed and told my batch girl that I wanted to resign. If it weren't for the 1 year contract that I've signed, I would truly had left after that first spinning flight. For the rest of my flying career, I relied on my trusty marzine (airsick pill). I needed one before every flight otherwise I would feel sick and the passengers would have to take care of me instead!

Reading on moving vehicles are definitely out of the question for me. Don't ask me to help look into road maps and directory while the car is moving, I will feel as if oxygen is suddenly cut off from my surrounding and I will feel giddy after that. I felt more tired than relaxed after our bus trip to Genting, Malaysia, a few years back. I'm really terrible with long winding rides, my head will spin.

A couple of months back, my hubby took me and the boys to watch Avatar in 3D. After an hour, I felt stuffy and my sense of smell became very sensitive to the snacks other patrons were eating in the cinema. When I took down the 3D glasses and looked at my hubby and boys, I knew something was not right. They were watching the movie intensely and didn't look like they had any trouble with the air-conditioning. And then I felt my tummy turn, the smell is nauseating and I needed some fresh air. As I was walking out of the cinema, my head began to spin and I felt something travelling up my tummy into my throat. I ran towards the direction of the toilet but it was too late. I threw up in a corner onto the carpet of the corridor before I could leave the cinema's lobby. No one was around as the other movies were still in progress, and I decided to clean myself in the toilet first before informing the cinema's staff about the mess I made. When I returned to the spot where the puke puddle was, it was gone! I didn't see it anywhere.....Hubby said maybe it wasn't the first time someone did that during a 3D movie so perhaps someone was watching the place just in case. Awww...it's so embarrassing!

Hubby took me and the boys for a vacation in Krabi, Thailand just recently. Our friend lives there by the beach. He bought a boat a few months back and invited us to join him. It was a beautiful, beautiful place. And Janejira was a very comfortable boat and the boys enjoyed fishing, swimming and feeding the fish at the island. I did too except for the boat rides. Even after taking the seasick pills, I still wasn't able to fully enjoy myself. Especially when they anchored the boat to fish. The rocking movements just made me want to lay down and close my eyes. Watching the trees in the nearby island is like looking at a 3D poster. Where the graphics seems to move about and form a hidden picture. The trees seemed to move that way to me too. Fortunately my boys didn't inherit the imbalance chemicals genes from me. They even breezed through a storm that we met during the trip. It was pretty scary and yes, my head was spinning!

Can you spot me on the upperdeck? I'm the one half hidden and lying on the comfy beanbags.

Maybe..., maybe not...

When I was a flight attendant, I was lucky to have travelled to many parts of the world. Besides international flights, I was also given turn around flights within the region. Turn around meaning, I fly to a nearby city, transit for an hour and then fly home. The shortest flight was the one from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur(KL) or KL-SIN. Flight time was usually 45mins but due to stronger tail wind, it could just be 30 mins. On these short flights, we only had time to serve prepacked juice, coffee or tea and flights were usually full. So speed was essential here. No frills unless, of course, if you are seated in the first class. You'll get light refreshment of satay, champagne and the works. The passengers on this short sector were usually quiet and took whatever we serve them without questions. But on one of those flights.....
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Maybe he was in the first class before or maybe he thought it was a good chance to show off to his friend next to him, I couldn't tell. Whatever it was, I was glad it calmed him down. He was begining to talk loudly at me and everyone was looking at what I was going to do next. I knew that if I were forced to get a can of beer for him from the first class cabin, the rest will follow the same request. Then we'll never land with the trays up on time! Speaking of landing with trays down, that nearly happened on one of my flights within Europe. But that's a story for another time.....

8 lives left

Ever since the snake head started eyeing Caramale whenever the cat is near the tank, I've requested hubby to close the top up part in case the fish jumped out to attack. Besides, I've also seen the stupid cat doing the pull-ups trying to have a closer look by hooking it's paws on the ledge of the tank. All that's left opened now, is a palm-sized hole on the side of the cabinet for us to feed the fish. As you know, snakeheads are ferocious fish.

While I was surfing the net yesterday morning, Caramale was loitering near the tank. Suddenly, he lept into that palm sized hole! I literally jumped towards it but could only grab it's tail. It slipped off my hands and I heard a splashed! I screamed and ran to wake hubby who stumbled out of bed in shock. I cried while telling him what happened and we both ran to the tank. I was expecting struggling in the water and nasty inerts floating around but we saw Caramale outside the tank instead, partly wet! I was really frightened for him and I wonder how he got away. He was really lucky to escape without a scratch. I guess cats do have 9 lives after all.

Look at the price!

I've been calling vets around my neighbourhood to enquire about their service and charges. I was in Tampines recently and walked into one to find out more. The clinic was full and all visits are by appoinment only. I looked at the price list on the wall and was a little shocked at the pricey fees, then I realised why.....to the right of the list was the vet's certificates and he's from Germany. Okay....abit too upperty for my pocket.

After several other calls, I realised that most clinics have similar fees and charges. Just as I was resigned to the high fees and wanted to make an appoinment to bring Caramale to be neutred, one of my friend told me to call a vet in Geylang. The charges are half of the other clinics and it is also run by proffessionals!

It's a quaint little pet clinic with minimal renovation done, so the savings are passed down to customers :) The receptionist and doctors are proffessional and friendly. Well, it turned out Caramale is only about 4 months old and is too young to have the procedure so we had him vaccinated.  He was also given a deworming pill and told to return when he is about 6 months old. Total charges, only $21! They didn't even charge me for consultation fee. How wonderful is that!

Do call them if you are looking for a vet. Clinic for Pets: 67451337

The tooth

Some weeks ago, Jonah complained that the roof of his mouth felt weird. I looked but could not see anything peculiar. He quit complaining after I didn't see anything out of place the few more times. 2 nights ago, my hubby was playing with him, tickling him which made him throw his head back and laugh out loud. And that's when hubby saw the weirdest thing. A tooth is growing out from the roof of Jonah's mouth!

He has gone to see the dental nurse in school today and she gave him a letter to have an x-ray taken before deciding how best to remove it. Appoinment for x-ray is in a month time. I asked the boys if they have ever seen an actual Alaskan Bull worm before showing them this pix! It's our private joke. But if you have watched Sponge Bob Square Pants episode: The worm, then you'll know what I mean....LOL!

Have you come across anything like that before?

Acting like a damsel in distress

I met all sorts of passengers onboard the aircraft. Nice, friendly, polite, helpful, undestanding ones and the rude, unfriendly, drunk, lewd, take you for granted ones....really...all sorts from all walks of life and different countries. Once, there was a business class passenger who came onboard the aircraft, dropped his bulky garment bag at my feet and flopped onto his seat.

                                  * Please click on pix for larger image

We were taught to never say no to a passenger. No is an unacceptable word. That's why 'we are a great way to fly'. So we need to think on our feet how to get out of sticky situations without appearing rude, unfriendly and unhelpful. Being a petite Asian in that demure looking uniform, I used the damsel in distress method. In this case, he was too embarrass not to help especially with other passengers watching him. Hmmm....I wonder what made him, who was twice my size by the way, think I can lift a bag that he thought was heavy for him.

Caramale picked a winner

My apologies for this late post. I wasn't feeling too well yesterday and it slipped my mind about the hairband giveaway. I feel much better now after a good rest :)

Anyway, I wrote the names in scrap papers and scatter them on the floor. At first, Caramale just watched them with curiousity from on top of a chair. I was starting to wonder if he would help me pick a winner....After awhile he jumped down, sniffed the papers and started playing with one of them. It's fun to watch him play, he's just so adorable....

Back to the winner...it's.....MamaJ! MamaJ takes beautiful pixs especially of her little one.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

It's the thought that counts

Very early Mothers' Day morning, I was awaken by Jonah. He was whispering something to me which I couldn't really hear. We didn't want to wake my husband so I got up and went out of the room to hear him out. Rubbing sleep from my eyes, he told me what happened.

                                  *Pls click on pix for larger image

I went into the bathroom expecting the worst scenario. It wasn't as bad as I had expected because he hasn't had breakfast yet! But I appreciate his intentions and thankful for the thought :) It would be a pleasant surprise though, if his stomach hasn't played him out.

Learning Japanese

I like doing comics strips because I'm poor with words. I'm actually not very good at explanations and descriptions so discovering the comics strip generator here is the best thing ever :).

This happened to me when I was working onboard a flight from Christchurch to Singapore. The Japanese lady passenger was really determined in getting herself the right drink and I learn a new Japanese word in the process! I'll always remember it :)
                                *Click on the pix for larger image

Good ol'charade :) Does the job every time!

Hairband Giveaway

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon a blog that shows how the writer made her hairband out of scraps of cloth. It's easy to make and quite pretty too. So I went around looking for old clothes and some of my friends donated theirs. In a short time, I made 5! I love the idea of making stuff out of old things cos I think the 3Rs are so cool. I'm thinking of making more and give them to friends who have donated the old clothes. I've given 2 to my neighbour's daughters and hopefully they'll use them. My hubby is wearing one to keep his wavies back too! LOL...he's so supportive :)

Would you like one? If you are interested in receiving this hairband and some colourful ones I mentioned here, then please leave a comment on this post in the next week. I will draw a name next Wednesday, 19 May. Thanks!

Love this pan

think vegetable is one of the hardest thing to stir fry. It was a skill hard for me to master to get them soft to eat and still green when cooked. Not anymore :). About 15 years ago, my mom bought me a set of Queen cookware as a house warming gift. She didn't tell me that they were special and I used them like ordinary pots and honestly, I was quite hopeless when it comes to cooking. Until about 4 years ago when I attended a cooking demo in my neighbour's home, I couldn't believe I actually own a set of wonderful pots that do miracle cooking! Let me do a demo here....

1) Wash, drain and cut onions, carrots and brocolli.

2) Put pan on medium fire, put in some cooking oil and cut onions, then cover it.
     *Note: you do not need to wait till pan is hot before putting oil and onions.

3) When you can smell the onions flavour, uncover the pan. Stir the onions and see if they are soft. If not, cover pan again. If onions are soft, throw in brocolli and carrots. Cover pan.

4) When you can see bubbling at the edge of the cover, spin the cover. If it spins around easily, uncover pan. See video.

5) Stir the vegetables then put in a table spoonful of chicken stock and few dashes of pepper.

6) Cover the pan again and turn flame to low. *Note: you don't need to stir the vegetables after adding the seasonings.

7) When bubbling appears and cover can be spinned, turn off fire. Mix the vegetables with sauce already in pan and serve.

And VOILA! perfectly cooked stir fry vegetables. Soft to eat and still retains its colour. The pan uses the vegetables natural moisture to cook so no water is needed. Plus while I wait for the bubbling, I'm able to finish washing up the preparations before cooking is done. Besides cooking vegetables, I use the pan to make cakes, tart, roast and grill. How wonderful is that!

I made a cat collar

Caramale is growing well and my husband suggests we neuter him soon before he starts some undesirable behavior. I will make the appoinment after 2 weeks when the boys' exams are over. Friends told me that cats can be very loving and I agree. He follows me whenever I move about in my home except when he wants to nap. When I'm at my laptop, he'll cuddle up on my lap or sit on my shoulder and watch me type away, teehee...so cute right? Sometimes, he'll come up and lick my cheek and nibble on my ear, LOL.....I know some people find that terrifying!

This is Caramale sitting on my shoulder when I'm online.

He likes it when we watch him eat and would stop and gesture us to pat him before continuing with his feeding. Anyway, Jonah wanted to get him a collar with a bell so we can hear him when he moves around. We went to the pet store but all the collars the shop has are too big for him, even those for cats. So I decided to make one instead. I use a shoelace which I have lost the other half. Sew a bell and velcro to fasten it around Caramale's neck. He didn't seemed to notice the collar at all and wore it without any fuss! I think he likes it.

Took this pix when he was alseep.