PJ

The colours of her PJ is the same as the bedding.

Making Broth

 Turnip, Big Bones, Cuttlefish.

Recently, I've started making broth for KiCo's meals.
On hindsight, I should have started earlier but I'm not about to kick myself.
I have little culinary skills, sometimes I feel that I have no skills at anything at all.
But of course that is my critical voice talking to me.
So, after coming across some videos on FB, I asked my colleagues for broth making tips.
So far I've made Chicken Broth and the Big Bone Pork broth.
One batch for a week. So I do it once a week. 
Crockpot for over 6 hours. Cool, freeze. Defrost whenever needed.

Baked Chicken, Onion, Carrots. 

Letter to Marie

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Dear Marie,

I've started collecting $5 notes sometime in September after reading an article about your adventure. In Singapore where I reside, $5 are fewer in frequency; we get lots of $2, $10, $50 but seldom $5 because whatever change from $10 is normally made up of $2 notes with the rest being coins.

Nevertheless, I try. And my hubby gives me all the $5 he comes across too.

So far in September, I've got $125 in $5, while October, I've got $160. *photos attached.

Anyway, I just want to tell you that I've put a hashtag on my photographs on Instagram and I've tagged it "#savemoneyfastwithfives" (there isn't any prior photographs with this hashtag) hope this idea helps to propel the inspiration in saving small to save big. You might like to tell your fans about the hashtag idea, I think it's already a movement =)

Sometimes I worry about when the day do come when I have say-- $32,000 in $5, the bank might reject my deposit or that the volume of $5 notes I have were made redundant. Anyway, it's still a long way to go and my worry is unfounded, really. I am just anxious about having that large sum of money stashed away in my drawers. But it's a happy problem.

Grandpa & Colin

 The Grandpa says he had won $500 on 4D and has been buying himself all sorts of things. Eg: A fish tank with air pump, fishes (that have since died), a large luggage (which he has since thrown away!). He has also bought three toys for Colin. Iron man and a robot, plus a crane. One toy at a time he bought. He dotes more on Colin because that little boy sometimes goes to his Grandpa's room to meddle with Grandpa's stuff and to chit-chat. I don't know what they talk about because my father-in-law is sometimes incoherent but still, I think they can get along.

You know you're a cool mom when you let your boy leave his craft Penguin in the fridge for days just because the Penguin needs a cool place. 

See, the painting's been changed again.

Life Purpose?

What is your life's purpose? If you don't feel that you have one, does it make you feel any less?

That day, while I was walking home with Kiki from.... can't remember, oh ya, Chinese class, she was telling me that when she grows up and have a daughter, she will "do the same as you". I asked, what do you mean by "do the same". She said in a matter-of-fact manner- "bring her to Chinese, Violin, Speech & Drama, you know, just like you bring me."  For two seconds I stood there, stopped my tracks right in the middle of the NTUC driveway. I was on the verge of saying; "Noooooooo!" You don't have to do that! My gosh. That was kind of a wake-up call. What am I doing. Have I been so...... driven until I sold her the idea? That sounded like an exhausting rat-race. I'm so sorry, baby. And I am also kind of mixed up. While I still think that enrichment classes bring about vast stimulation, I have become more relaxed now. I mean, we just stick to the things we still have fun doing. Sometimes a little bit of stress is good enough to push our learning boundaries. Other than that, we are quite relaxed. I think, by me relaxing a little, we are faring better. Colin is soooo funny. You know, although he still hasn't got his numbers and alphabets in place, he can really talk a lot. That day at Isetan, he wanted a toy helicopter. So I asked what have he learned at Piano class (qualifying question to the toy). He said- FG50.  FG50??? You mean SG50?  No, FG......FGAB. Oh.....I got it. He's referring to the four white keys under those three black keys. Oh yes, alright! That's great. You learn, I learn.  So ya, back to Kiki's notion of enrichment. I think from here onward, I would have to let her know that it is fine whether a person has a specialist vocation or a regular job. Because the world is made up of some specialist professions and mostly regular jobs.  The important thing is to have a personal ethical code. Other than that, if one has the potential to be a specialist, go for it. If not, then better harness other skills like - Idea Synthesis: Combining ideas and information. Rapid Learning: short learning curves. Adaptability: adapt to changes.

Live your life. If Life calls you, answer it. If not, call it Life! 

Weekend 24th October

 Warming up at our secret stairwell before class. 

 She chose the Thai restaurant because there's a play corder with kids' toys. 

But those are toddler's toy blocks, you're not a toddler anymore 

- I said. 

There's the iPad for kids- she said. (Samsung pad)

Well, I hope they've got non-spicy dishes.  - I said.  

Sure they have, they've got Kids Menu, see? - She pointed. 

 They did. The Pad Thai Noodles are not spicy. Only the dried chilli flakes are spicy, the noodles itself only looked spicy. Tom Yam soup for myself..... tooooooo powerful. I must make a note not to take these kind of Spice-pack Oomph dishes. My stomach isn't as robust as I hope it would be. 

 OMG! It's so Spicy! 

So we went for a haircut. The hairdresser says that we've got to dry-blow the hair if we want the Bob effect, unless we want it shorter then the concave bob would be more pronounced. I think, we'll just stick to a long bob. It's refreshing and nice, I told her-- let's keep a long bob from now, it's easier to manage after swimming & shower. 

Then we went Starbucks to complete our Math worksheet. It was nice and cozy because the Christmas deco were up.

Meanwhile, Colin gets a treat. (Maricar sends me photos)

Another one bites the dust.

Another one bites the dust.

Under-utilized cards, cut. 

We're going to Primary 1!

Yeah! We're going to Primary 1!

I hope we will enjoy the learning journey. 

Tuesday Movies

 How to juggle budget while still enjoy some entertainment?  

Take the middle path, go watch movies on Tuesday instead of Friday or weekends. $12.50  X 2 (weekend ticket price $11.50 plus booking fee of $1, that's like $25 for two tickets)  On Tuesday, GV member price $6.50 (booking fee $1.50!? but if you can skip it, skip it. Just take the chance and buy the tickets over the counter since it is less crowded on a Tuesday anyway). So that's $13 for two.

Hotel Transylvania 2 is about what it takes to truly accept someone who is different from you. It's like, you know, some grandparents say that they accept that their kid marries someone of a different race, but deep inside them, they hope that their grandchildren will be "more like them" than like the other race from the inter-race marriage.

 I was in the kitchen,,, snacking and having yet another glass of red when she insists I follow her to the room as she has something to show me. It's one of the Toy Laptop that they have chucked aside since last December and it became toy-flavour-of-the-month now. She was showing me a few installed tunes, like the 999-legged worm song, Oh! Susanna, etc. She kept the surprise final-- Gavotte! Wa hahaha. The whole Gavotte, repeats included, on a low-tech toy laptop. That's so amusing, the two of us sang to it, I mean, I hummed, she sang the fingering notes ( eg: 2 3 2 1 4 3 2 A 2, 12, 3)  it was amusing and only the two of us got it.... you know, it's something common that we share.

Both Kiki & Colin can't bear to return this book (to their school), this is the last from a series. It's about the adventures that are activated by a magic key that belongs to a boy & his older siblings; magical adventures they took with three other pairs of sibling neighbours. I told KiCo not to despair because Colin will get to borrow the same set of books when he is in K2 which is in another 2 years. But they were still sad that they will have to wait for two years to read those books again. Ha ha. 

Then Kiki asked me what is the bone doing there.

What bone? I asked.

There, that bone in that spin box. She pointed.

Good eye, good eye. But I also don't know what that bone is doing there. Maybe for a lucky dog.

Rather unusual to have a bone in a toy dispenser machine even if it's a toy bone. how will it get dispensed? it wouldn't fit into the knob from the inside. 

Probably an insider's joke by the illustrator as a parting shot. You know, some artists like to embed words, signatures, symbols, messages onto their drawings or even architectures.

More about Music

Are there only four High 2As on Bourree?  Are there more?  I don't know but I am sure looking forward to the next song..... I really dig the next song that I could hear it in my head at command. 

The song's titled - "Two Grenadiers" by Schumann. I will go search from the Net about the history to that song but it sure sounds to me like an army / war / battle song. There are parts that are pompous and there are parts that are sad. I must have been a soldier a thousand times since my affinity is so strong. But no, I pray for no blood, no hatred; I pray for peace. 

 

Saturday evening - our class didn't make the pass to the auditions, so we won't be at the year end concert. Our teacher joked that she ought to volunteer to be on the panel of judges next time.

 Well, this poster doesn't sum up how we feel, it was just something I saw on FB this morning and I thought ya, it's not too bad for a positivity slogan. 

This morning, she ran after me, calling "Kiss, kiss!"
"But I've kissed you, haven't I?"  Puzzled.
"Kiss on the lips, you didn't kiss on the lips"

Oh. 

Weekend 17 & 18th October

 Saturday morning, the Papa overslept and was late for school. That was because the night before, he & I chatted until almost 3am. We were both out on our own programmes but when we got home, we still chatted.  I also can't remember what we chatted about but we finished a bottle of red wine. Half the time I asked if we still have many bottles left. I don't know, I don't keep track but he says yes. I think we must be discussing about how to get another car.
Anyway, the three of them left for classes together in the morning.

Since it was my Mom's birthday on Sunday, we met up with her for dinner on the eve of her birthday.
Simple steamboat affair at Tiong Bahru.
After which, my sis gave KiCo a car wash treat.

 shampooing the moon roof.

Sunday: Colin was all sweaty, running around, playing with his friend from neighbouring block when we came back from swim class. Maricar was finding it amusing and funny, asked Colin to show us his armpits. Lo and behold, there was black, charcoal black resins (like eraser rubber darkies) spotted all over. OMG, Maricar! I said. Never scrub armpits?  They all found it funny until I also found it funny.The thing about helpers and children is-- they at the least to expect you to get angry, (if you don't make anger your reflex) they will tell you the things they find funny, and you wouldn't want to miss out some laughs now, wouldn't you.

Random stuff from the FB

That's halloween for preggies and the funny one goes to---
Wilson the volleyball from "Cast Away".

when you go on a gossip-free diet, you may find yourself not talking at all! 

Le Week-End

This movie is about a retired British couple who went to Paris for a weekend to rekindle the reason for having married. It covers realistic themes on - being old, feeling redundant, having grown-up kids who still are needy on their parents, not liking your daughter-in-law, seeing your aged friends marrying young women, I mean re-marrying. feeling you've wasted your life/your talent or lack of talent. reviewing the mistakes you've made. high/low libido or none at all. about having no money to splurge and still might have another twenty years to live. about almost ditching your irritating spouse. about dissatisfaction in your life. about not being able to forgive your spouse. about forgiving yourself and your spouse. and also, about having to bask in your protégé's success while you try to handle self-pity and your own messed up crisis. and to know that actually, other people also have their own problems. 

You know, just the sorts of things that go through some people's lives. But that's life, really. So, just chill. and dance.

Lunchtime movie marathons.

The Terminal

 I'm on a movie marathon, I watch whatever that I can grab from the library and from the net. 

The Terminal - is adapted from a real life story about a man who lived at an airport due to complexities & red-tape of getting proper paperwork approved. However, the real life story is very different from the storyline of the movie. (Eg: real life man is from Iran and he lived at the departure lounge of Terminal One, Charles de Gaulle Airport in France for 17 years, while reel life man (actor: Tom Hanks) is from a fictitious country that was made to resemble Russia, and lived at the airport in New York for 9 months until he resolved what he went there for and eventually got to go home). 

Anyway, when they made this movie, it is reported that they did pay royalties to the real life character who was still living at the airport (in 2004) but that chap doesn't have a bank account and couldn't cash his cheques (can't they give him cash?). Since 2007, he moved to a homeless shelter. The man says that he is definitely not as happy as Tom Hanks in the movie. Although The Terminal is a make-believe movie, it brings about real life stuff, like the dilemma of being morally right, being empathizing, or being strict with the rules, when to let loose? And about how some people could never bear to be alone (they might rather be a serial dater, multiple date), and of course, about how some people are just unlucky that they are at the wrong place and the wrong time, fallen into a crack where no one could help them. But they are there. So here's my sketch---- 

A brick wall where the world rolls by while some people are stuck in the cracks.

Hunger Games - Catching Fire

 I was watching Hunger Games on my phone when I hear a familiar tune. It's Waltz! 

We've just learned that tune not long ago. Brahms' Waltz is the first song where we've learned to do the Vibrato thingy, so it's memorable tune for us. Well, at least for me. (In my layman term, Vibrato is where you quiver the fingers on the string to make a drag, vibration and enhancement of the note you plan to vibrate. It makes the tune "ghostly", or more emotional if you ask me). 

Having watched this scene, I became fonder of both the music and the movie. 

R.I.P, Peter Seymour