The Multi Lingo Kid

This is too funny.
We had visitors from Perth last weekend, my friend Joanne and her family. Joanne left for Langkawi on Monday morning.

I told Amber Aunty Joanne will be leaving the following day, very early in the morning at 7am.

We were in the car, on way to dinner and suddenly she asked :

Aunty Joanne, tomorrow 7 o'clock you chang ying ah ??

We paused for 5 seconds and digested what she said.. and had a good laugh She thought 'chang ying' ie the mandarin word for 'fly' as in insect was the same as fly as in boarding an aeroplane.

That clearly shows someone wasn't paying attention in Mandarin class. Anyways... we had a good laugh !

Enzymes & Recycling

I'm sure I'm one of the many whose left with dozens or gazillions of mandarin orange leftovers from CNY. When I was small I used to love mandarin oranges I'm always eyeing on the wooden carton of teochew mandarin orange that my parents buy for the New Year. One carton for prayers and giving away as buah tangan leaving not many for own consumption. I think they comes in sizes of 112,96,72 or 56 orange per carton. U see how crazy I was ? I can remember the # of orange per carton and boy.. the aroma of an opened carton, NICE !

30 years forward, I don't look forward to mandarins anymore. Buying a box for CNY was just for customary sake, to pai nien or as a polite gesture to return to visitors. The company gives us a carton each year. Damn kiamsiap co. all we get is a carton of mandarins and a box of mooncakes.

Anyways..... the first few days of CNY, mandarins exchanged always fresh and tangy. I'll have 1 or 2 or just a few more, the most. The rest are kept in the fridge till after new year and thrown away when they look old and shriveled..

I started making garbage enzymes last year and these mandarins comes in handy. Along with some mandarins that I've collected from my sis and my kaffir limes, I made a big box of garbage enzymes. Enough to share with my family and wash my 6 toilets.. !!!

 

Just follow the 1:3:10 rule (1kg brown sugar, 3kg fruit and 10 liters water) and leave to ferment for 4 months, you'll have bottles and bottles of enzymes and the residue makes excellent fertilizers !

See ? I do my part to recycle and pledge to live sustainably too :)

Goodies Galore !

My childhood friend from school was back to Malaysia. Her family migrated to Perth when she was in Form Two and it's remarkable that we still do keep in touch today, especially so in the recent years with the help of internet and emails, keeping in touch is only a click away. 

Sometimes I catch her online at night.. and we had a good laugh when realise both of us were whiling away leisurely on the internet coz we're waiting for our laundry to be done. Hilarious !

She brought back many goodies for me. Stuff I can't get here :

Cookie cutters :

  Shape of elephant, hippo and rhino

 

Biscuit cookie cutter with center designs.. great for jam filled cookies

Angel 3D cookie cutter 

Snowflakes

 

 Christmas themed cookie cutter

premium tomato and passiofruit preserves

and an allergy free baking book for Amber :)

Thank you very much Ka Yean. Lovely having you and yours here and soon, hopefully, me and mine will go visit Perth !

Mental Arithmetics

Her mental arithmetic class is divided to 3 sections now. 

First it's the calculations with abacus :

 

Then, mental calculations, without abacus :

I had to give many stars to keep her motivated.. and a BIG HUGE STAR when she completes the page

Then it's the mental arithmetic without abacus or books, just by listening to teacher :

 

I like the way she writes the date and the big dots between the day, month and year.

Many moms told me it's pointless to send her to mental arithmetic now as she'll learn it in school, at Std 1.  We have our own reasons though, mental arithmetic stimulates the right brain and we hope to develop her mental abilities and improve her concentration and hoping she'll be less boh-tiam ! 

She's doing well despite crying foul over the pages and pages of homework each week. Be warned if you want to send your kids to mental arithmetics. A page of homework has 48 equations and the homework can go up to 5 pages per week.

Sketches

Another sketch of hers. 

This is our house...

 

Our house has 3 windows ..

it's a sunny day...

but there's also some clouds and many birds flying..

our car is parked outside the house..

(very distorted looking car)

Wishing you a Happy Weekend and I hope to hear good nears from the disaster at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant. It has been a very sad and depressing week for all.

Little Ms Launderer

Guess what Ms Busybody is up to ?

She helped me do the laundry and handwashed her own clothes. I have the habit of handwashing new clothes. They look too pretty and nice to be sent to a tumultuous and maniac spin in the washing machine. but after 2 or 3 washes.. hantam-lah. .masuk washing machine jor !

She was a pile of her own CNY clothes for handwash and got herself busy. I let her be. Happy mommy and happy kid.

 

LLB  - look like busy...

 

but she's actually having fun getting herself all wet !

Wonder if she'll still want to help me to the laundry when she grows up ?  

I'll be happy if she can do her own laundry. My mom made me wash my own clothes since I was in secondary school. She said all girls should know how to iron and wash clothes. She also thinks it'll make me a better wife. That's the exact thoughts of my very traditional but doting mom. 

Yut Kee Moving Out

Yut Kee, the old Hainanese coffeeshop at Jalan Dang Wangi is one of our lunch haunt. I've been frequenting Yut Kee coffeeshop since my days of working at the bank nearby 20 years ago. Now, 20 years forward, my office is also within walking distance from Yut Kee. 

Hubs and I like to pop by on mornings when we are exceptionally early. We'll share a dried beef noodle and teh-si. Hubs will order an extra egg and toast. I'll pack a whole kaya swiss roll but stopped since Amber was diagnosed with egg allergy. Amber loves the kaya rolls and I'll be very cruel to be chomping down pieces after  pieces with the little one staring at me ... salivating .. :(

I saw in the Metro headlines last week about Yut Kee relocating. I'm glad they are only relocating to a stone's throw away and not moving out or worst, close shop. Read more here 

Jack, the bubbly specky guy who inherited the business from his father will be running the show again at the new location, which is just behind current Yut Kee. It'll never be the same again,even with same menu, chef and pricing. I like the current old kopitiam look, the old chairs and the crowded but airy coffeeshop.

If you are running out of place to eat this weekend, pop by for their famous pork roast with potatoes and apple sauce. Available only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for brunch.

 

Tempted ? 

I think I shall have roast pork for lunch today :)

Of Passing Away and Death

Back in January, Amber attended a wake for the very first time. Her childminder's brother passed away suddenly. Amber had fond memories of him and hubs and I thought she should attend the funeral.

We knew it's not going to be an easy night. She'll ask lots of questions, neverending whys..

I explained to her gently, her friend, Wan Teng's father had passed away.
She asked why and the conversation went like that. ..

why pass away ? he sick ah ? die already ah ?

Yes, he passed away already. Oi oi already. Cannot wake up. Very sad.

Ahhh.. I know i know ! (earnestly).. there.. you send him to the hospital ah.. they put the oxygen thing.. then cannot die lor.

No, too late already. he has passed away.
why never send him to the hospital to put the mask ? (oxygen mask)
 Too late Amber. sometimes it's too late to send someone to a hospital.

Then ah.. pray to guanyin ma lar.. she will help him.

No, not that he didn't pray or guanyin didn't help but if a person is too sick, he will pass away.

take medicine la.. cannot help ah ?

cannot..  (at this point,, I kinda regretted telling her.. her 'CPU' was processing everything I say but a 4 year old cannot comprehend death)
so how, he oi oi cannot paii ah ? (paii is wake up in our hinghwa lingo)
yes, he will not wake up anymore, we'll bring you to see him and please don't ask anymore ok ?

During the wake, hubs asked Amber if she wanted to see Uncle Ah Keong for the last time. She wanted and so hubs carried her up. The little fart was not affected at all, probably still didn't quite understand death means eternity. Eternal loss.

All went well, sent our condolences and went home. I told her Uncle Ah Keong will be buried. Buried as in dig a hole and the box .. aka 'coffin' will be placed inside.

Days later.. she asked me..

Mama, Wan Teng's papa (Ah Keong) become skeleton already or not ?

Mama, Wan Tent's papa become like the Michael Jackson song Treeler already or not ??

*SLAP HEAD*
she thought all buried humans will turn into zombies !

Such is the innocent (or not innocent) 4 year old !

This Belongs to Me !

I caught her at work one day ... writing down her name on her book..

I realised my little fart is growing up. She's very protective of her own stuff, her stationery, books and toys. 

She even knows where to write her name.

Please don't grow up too fast !

Little Ms Teacher

She was very good yesterday, at her abacus class. Did 2 page of work with little guidance and didn't want to go home. Well, she has good days and bad. Yesterday was a good day and I hope every other day is a good day too. She was the last student left when I picked her and she was playing with marker pens and whiteboard.

Teacher tested her with some mental equations.. I took some pics of her with my mobile phone. Here, she's using her index and thumb to do the mental equations.

 

Then she played teacher. Set up some equations for teacher and me.

 See how she writes '3' ?   She did it on purpose !

 and teacher taught her on long equations....so, she sets up long equations for us too.  If you notice, her equations always ends with a 'zero'....  9-9+10-10... and so forth...

 

 

I hope she continues her 'good days' more frequent.  I hate forcing her to finish her abacus homework!