When the kids decide to wake up at 6 plus in the morning and refuse to let you laze

You haul everyone out of bed, picked up their fastest wheels and head over to the jetty

..

….

to catch the sun rise over the quiet sea

..

….

and watch the early risers reel in their catch

..

….

and you thought,

ahhh, morning has got to be one of the most beautiful things in life that is free

I woke up on Monday morning fever free
I had spent the weekend popping pills and sleeping in
nursing a really bad flu with a persistent fever that refused to go

My husband was kind enough to bring the boys out during the day so that I could get some shut-eye
My body needed the rest desperately to battle the malicious flu bug

Stress and exhaustion, the perfect partners in crime
crippling the body’s defence system

It was a lousy way to spend the precious long weekend
Then I thought perhaps it may be a blessing in disguise
that we had it earlier than later

In another 48 hours or so
the pilgrimage commences

I could almost hear the mountains beckoning
Yahoooo !!!

会 is a funny looking umbrella
大 is a man standing with arms wide open, legs apart
只 is a TV set with 2 legs
头 is someone with 2 bullets on one side of his head
The hieroglyph of 家 is like 4 people squeeze under one roof

Malcolm goes to a Chinese school
The main language spoken in school is Mandarin
He enjoys his 横 竖 撇 捺 more than his A B C D
Each alphabet is like a squirmy worm whose direction often confuse him
Each Chinese character is a funny picture or an interesting illustration

It is interesting how kids learn
and it fascinates me to hear about things he sees and I don’t

We can teach a child what we claim we know
A child with an open and untainted mind
is able to teach us the unknown
only if we let them

We watched Clash of the Titans over the weekend
It was our first movie with the baby and he was such a sweetheart
He was so well behaved throughout the 100 minutes or so
He watched a good 30 minutes of the show, drank milk and slept snugly in my arms while we stuffed our faces with pop corn and coke

It was his elder brother who complained that the movie wasn’t good
I guess he wasn’t impressed with robotic scorpions wrestling men in the desert
He complained that the places don’t look as ‘old’
He had the idea that mythology should look ‘old’ somehow
And of course with his latest obsession with Middle Earth, this was nothing close

Personally, I wouldn’t recommend this show to anyone, esp kids.
The violence was senseless
the jokes were corny
the dialogue cheesy

Zeus didn’t look ancient nor godly
Perseus looked too human for a demi god
Medusa looked too cartoon to be scary

The remake pales in comparison with the original classic
It looks more like a cheap production on a tight budget

Anyhow, here’s the baby in his VIP seat just before the show starts

He doesn’t look too happy
perhaps he already knew it was a bad choice

I took up my husband’s suggestion the other day to have my friend’s part time cleaner come over to help out with the laborious scrubbing and washing.
It was a last minute arrangement.
She was a Chinese from mainland China and was in Singapore to accompany her son who was attending Primary school.
Clad in a t-shirt and cargo pants, with her hair haphazardly tied to a bun, I thought she resembles me on a normal day, except, I am REALLY doing it out of free will, out of LOVE for my family.

I showed her my cleaning equipment and was about to blurt ‘use a rag for the floor’ when a picture of a slave driver with a whip flashed through my mind.
Instead, I told her to use the mop though I really had no idea whether it was still working (see, I bought this mop for my mum during my confinement, one that can be wrung dry by stepping on a lever and I have not used it since then)

Thereafter, she disappeared into one of the bathroom and started cleaning
30 minute passed, then an hour and she was still in the bathroom
I couldn’t help but to walk over to check on her, only discreetly, as I really didn’t want her to feel that she needed to be supervised
Eventually she took slightly more than an hour to finish cleaning one bathroom before disappearing into the next one for another hour

All this while, I was hoping to get some work done on the computer or catch a nap while the baby was asleep but instead, I was moving myself around the house, dodging in and out rooms, trying to avoid bumping into her while she was cleaning.
I didn’t want to get into her way and I didn’t want her to feel that she is not being trusted to do her job.

Finally after 4 hours, she was done.
She cleaned 3 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, 1 study area, the living room, the kitchen

The moment she left the house,  I plonked onto the couch.
I felt an instant relief.
I swear I wouldn’t have felt this tired if I were to clean the house myself.
I swear I would have slept better and rested better even if I only managed to clean half of what she cleaned

The truth is, I am just not used to having a stranger in the house, doing MY job.
It is stressful when you can’t pick your nose the way you like
It is stressful when you can’t lie on your couch in the most unglamorous comfortable way.

I realized that I treasure my private space too much and I can’t imagine trading anything for it, even if it means having a neater home or a cleaner toilet seat.

Bike … $ 3 / hr

Roller Blades …. $ 6 / hr

Baby’s Car Seat …. hand-me-down

Jogger …. $$$

To exercise with a baby in tow …

PRICELESS

The last time we spent Lunar New Year in Singapore as a family was 4 years ago.
The Lunar New Year marks the beginning of Spring but for a tropical country like Singapore, it is hard to witness the beauty of this season. A season where everything living springs to life. It is a joyous occasion.

We trotted down Chinatown weeks before the actual day just to soak in the festivity, not the wisest thing to do with a new born baby. I was lucky to be slinging the baby instead of pushing him in his stroller. The crowd made me claustrophobic and to be frank, I was more worried of losing my elder son and suffocating my new born baby than to really enjoy the night. When we finally reached the end of the street, I was relieved to see the open sky and to be alive and breathing air. Having made it to and back from the busy streets of Chinatown during this time is like a milestone reached.

And to get into the mood, we went home, rearranged some furniture, took out some old and abandoned Chinese calligraphy and set up this little corner that is brimming with festivity

As a kid, I was brought up to observe the customs and traditions concerning the celebration of this day, a lot of them perhaps superstitious.  Still by observing some of these customs, whether superstitious or not, we keep alive a part of us.  It is our history and our heritage.  It was how we grew up.  It keeps us connected to our past.  It is part of what makes us unique.

I give scant regard to people who claim that we have no notable history to speak of.  Every great civilization started small.  Every little town in France is a little different, and they will balk at you if give the slightest hint that you think they are the same.  We don’t have to be big, but we can be our own.

During my stay in foreign countries, I have often asked myself what it meant to be a Singaporean.  We didn’t really fit into a pure Chinese mold.  I don’t speak or write Chinese like the mainlanders neither do I speak English like the Americans or the Brits.  I don’t identify with any of them.  I feel most at home here in Singapore.  The hot and humid weather.  My family is here.  And we celebrate, in our own little ways, Chinese New Year.

And so we celebrate and connect again, to one another and to our past.  From the somewhat meaningless lao yusheng, giving ang paos, to the simple act of wishing each other Happy Chinese New Year, we keep a part of us alive for our next generation and teach them the little little things that we so often take for granted.

Tossing raw fish and giving ang baos is our way of expressing to each other our wishes for the new year, like how the french say,”Bon Sante” and the americans say, “Cheers!”.  Paying respect with mandarin oranges may seem dated, but it is that, to show and teach respect.  Ask any kid if getting ang baos are fun.  Even the non-Chinese love it.

And so, I wish everybody the greatest ever New Year ahead, and don’t sweat the little things.  It may be superstitious or meaningless, but have fun, enjoy it anyway!

It’s easy to neglect this space

when life is as hectic as now

And the more I neglect

the harder it is to return

It’s like losing the momentum

It’s like becoming foreign

It’s like tipping the balance

a balance I consciously hold

But days passed and weeks passed

And there were more that were left out along the way

And I do miss this space

a place where I could connect, retreat, record and reflect

yet,  I have to relinquish

If, and only if,

I could bear to peel myself off them

One of the most challenging part after having the new baby was when it comes to preparation of meals.

We usually eat out on weekends. On weekdays, apart from breakfast, I usually have to prepare dinner for the family and occasionally lunch for myself as Malcolm takes his lunch in school everyday.

Before the baby, I usually take about an hour to cook dinner. This includes preparation, cooking and washing up. With the baby, I realized that having an hour of uninterrupted cooking time is close to impossible. I now aim to finish cooking within 1/2 of the time.

Each meal is limit to one stir fry dish, usually a meat dish and vegetable is usually served in the soup to reduce the amount of time I have to spend in the kitchen.

I am now a sucker for hassle free recipes. Recipes that are easy to follow, little wash up and meet our needs for meat and vegetables.

Today, we had Vegetables in Chicken Broth and Stir Fry Beef with Mushrooms and Asparagus.

The soup was prepared earlier while the baby was napping. The beef was done after my husband returned from work, just before dinner was served. We served the dish directly from the utensils to reduce the washing

Life is certainly busier with the new baby but I like the fact that we are now finding new ways to make our lives easier.

New challenges thus spur us to become better and in our case, better managers for our lives.

I get to catch the first golden streak

that lit up the sky and warms the earth

ALL BECAUSE
…
….
…..

I was up at unearthly hour

nursing, burping and changing the baby

Life has been a little hectic for the past week
My Dad had an accident
and was warded with a broken limb
the family has been commuting to and fro the hospital each day
worrying about how he can cope

I suffered a broken wrist myself a few years back
and I can’t imagine it happening to an old man
over half a century old
with the depletion of calcium already taking place

Recovery will be an uphill process
perhaps even near impossible
to grow back what that has been lost

He lay in his bed after the surgery
in a state of unconsciousness
an effect from the huge dose of anesthesia
A worn and weary face
even with his eyes shut

Saw him again the next day
the drug had worn off
he looked better
even joked about his recklessness that led him to his plight
the painkiller had done its job well
numbing his pain
thus bringing back a smile on his face

A 2nd round of surgical torment put him in a daze again
zapped off his energy and worn him out
BUT
not for long
He seems to be able to sprung back to life
the moment the drug wore off

It is only now
that I see a side of Dad
a side I’ve never seen before

The sheer amount of strength that he possesses
even when pain and wound wreck the body
Strength so immerse that seem capable of peeling off the darkest gloom
and let the ray shines through

We watched STOMP over the weekend
A non traditional dance troupe that uses ordinary objects to produce percussion and dance movements
We were often awed by the group’s inventive and fun performance on youtube videos
It was our first time catching it LIVE, IN A THEATRE

It is uncommon for us to splurge on such entertainment
My last concert with my husband was like more than 10 years ago
catching diva Tina Turner and Mariah Carey in Singapore

This time round, the impulse to splurge
was justified by our current obsession with recycling junk
The objects used by the group to create music REALLY reminds me of JUNK!

Malcolm had a blasting good time
He shaked his legs
He wriggled his butt
He bounced on his seat
and he laughed so loud that we thought his laughter tickled us MORE than the performance itself

Over all, a highly entertaining performance
but I think the kids have it more fun than the adults
perhaps it was because we measured it by the price we paid for the tickets
I think we can enjoy the performance as much, watching youtube videos at home

But the kids brought home something more than us
the lesson has been drilled deeper

that there is MORE to a piece of junk
especially when you think hard enough

that the ways to creating music
like many things in life
is only limited by one’s imagination and creativity

Somehow when Dad is not around
I felt obligated to shower him with all my attention

I let him share my bed
Even though he has long learn to sleep on his own
He sleeps better when next to me
and we woke up later than usual

We had pancakes for brunch
wholesome homemade ones

Perhaps it was the running around
Mum felt extremely tired
perhaps Dad was not around
Mum felt especially lazy

Somehow the sun seem hotter than usual
the glare almost unbearable

So we drew the curtain
cooled the room
and sprawled in bed for a game of scrabble

I love the way he focus on each letter
trying to form his words
flipping through dad’s reference books on planes
our substitute for a dictionary
for we couldn’t find one at home

Juggling numbers in his head
trying to add up his score
a good workout and simple nourishment for his little brain

Then we filled up the tub
dribble a drop or two of bath drop
threw in some toys
he entertained himself
while I soaked my aches and sores away

And then came the message
‘I’ve landed in Zurich’

It has only been slightly more than 12 hours
but we miss him already

And I thought about our little house with the little red shutters
perched at the edge of the slope
and I wonder is it too early to catch the first snow

And for the past one week
I was heartened by the sincerity of the people around me
and touched by friends who have showed their support

Friends whom I have not met for decades
Friends from the  blogosphere
whom I only know through their blogs

I talked to them for the first time
I met them in person for the first time

I even met up a mummy who bought baby slings from me eons ago
She was the first mummy blogger I knew
Her blog about her little boy was the first mummy blog I read
Her blog inspired me
and got me started writing 4 years ago

And then there were people whom are total strangers
who came forward to contribute
unconditionally, unsuspiciously and totally giving

It has only been slightly more than a week
and I know that
even if we fail to raise the targeted amount
even if we end up paying from our own pockets
It is okay
for we’ve already gained so much

For
Life’s biggest regret
is perhaps not about failing
but rather
it’s about not trying

At least we tried

And we have already passed our initial target amount of SGD 500

Thank You

Note : the list of toys that are on sales can be found at Toys for Happy Feet

It is not a rich man’s life with abundant wealth that I strive

Neither is it a poor man’s hunger for a lavish life that I crave

Nor a poor man’s ignorance that bound him to a simple life that I envy

It is the wisdom behind a rich man’s choice of a poor man’s life that I seek

and this wraps up Inspiration from the Alps