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.