Sensible whinings

Deconstructing Angry Birds... cakes

2011-12-14T16:40:00.002+08:00

These are so very cute, and not-to-be-missed by huge fan of AB like SSB.

The eyes, beak and hat are just chocolates.

The cakes look quite small from the refrigerators - they are called "minis" afterall... but they are actually not that small.

For HK$98 each, I think they are quite worth it. I prefer yellow (mango) to red (raspberry) btw.

TV Log

2011-10-19T16:39:00.003+08:00

Now watching:

- Desperate Housewives S7

- The Mentalist S3

- Medium Final season

- The Good Wife S2

- Falling Skies

- CHAOS

- Drop Dead Diva S3

To start soon:

- The Big Bang Theory S4 (yes, finished the first 3 already!!!!)

- Dr. Who S6 (FINISHED THE 2010 SPECIAL!!! now waiting for S6 to release in BluRay in Full. Note: I didn't know the special 2010 will be included in S6 complete pack... so I bought it individually.. but surprise... there's the Dr. Who Proms concert at Albert Hall included... we had lots of fun sharing the joy of Dr. Who music played live by BBC Orchestra... ) Note 2: S5 is now airing on BBC Entertainment... but well.. we finished watching that quite some time ago didn't we...

- The Inbetweeners... got it for a while already, should start or it will collect dust and form mold soon.

And sorry TVB and Korean Dramas... no more time for you...

Ms Sandy Lam is always always an inspiration

2011-09-24T23:59:00.003+08:00

Thank you Sandy for a wonderful concert. You are always an inspiration. While there are not really that many surprises in this concert, you have been an amazing role model by showing how to excel in every aspect.

Serious, how can someone who already sings crazily well still improve that much over the years?

HK Coliseum sucks big time in terms of acoustics - it really isn't an ideal venue for anything musical. Still, through those crappy sound effects, we can still hear PERFECT performance from Sandy.

OK I actually wanted to put this down on my Chinese blog because it should be more appropriate, but that ISP... well.. we all know.

Here's the run down of Day 2 of Sandy Lam in Concert 2011.

枯榮 (We actually heard 依然 mixed into this number)

心野夜

三更夜半

埃及玫瑰

沒結果之後

灰色

燒

放緃 (a few phrases mixed into a guitar solo, this is where Sandy changed the first time)

Rock segment:

心碎巷 (rock version)

愛的廢墟

溫柔的你 (first handshake session)

月球人 (half Canto half Mandarin, and yes, Jun Kung was there too...)

下雨天 (featuring Jun Kung)

This is supposed to be a mandarin new song, which I don't quite recognize)

(change clothes)

詞不達意

戲假情真

微雨撲巴黎 (mostly performed by Angelita and Silver, her superb back up vocals.. )

(change clothes)

沒有你還是愛你

至少還有你 (this was preceded by a hugging session during which Sandy asked the audience hug their companions - she then invited the sweet ones on stage to perform the song with her)

赤裸的秘密

我和你 (originally sung by Danny Chan)

海闊天空 (ok, the whole coliseum sang this together)

破曉

Anthony sang a few phrases of All by Myself and Sandy change her clothes here.

Dance Medley segment

傾斜

講多錯多

醒醒

一分鐘都市一分鐘戀愛

推搪

一接觸

逃離鋼筋森林

(Thank crew)

瘋了

Encore segment

為你我受冷風吹

寂寞擁擠 (a new number from her upcoming album)

依然 (this echoes with the beginning number)

OK photos are loaded onto puter now... here I go pick some nice ones for posting.

Thank you translators around the world!

2011-08-13T22:13:00.003+08:00

In addition to watching Korean drama in these past weeks, I've also been clearing my stack of foreign language DVDs. Have seen something in French, Japanese, Spanish and Korean just this past week.

I truly want to give my heartfelt thanks to translators around the world!! You guys rock! Thank you for not looking down on this relatively low-paid job and delivering good work so us layperson can understand something in a foreign language!

In love with Secret Garden

2011-08-04T22:37:00.002+08:00

No I don't mean the 1993 film by Agnieszka Holland , nor the Norwegian musical duo which I actually watched them winning Eurovision back in 1995, live in the UK (frankly I still like their winning piece Nocturne a lot... and not-so-suprisingly, TVB is still using that A LOT as their OST... oh well)....

I am what forumists call "c9" (married middle-aged -OK I am not middle-aged- homemakers), so it is far more likely this "Secret Garden" means the Korean drama 시크릿가든 with ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL people in it.

I ran into it totally by chance as I wasn't ready to start parts 2 and 3 of the Millennium trilogy / The Big Bang Theory nor about more than 200 hours of video on DVD... so I was flipping TV channel and now100 has them on demand.

And I just like it. No, I love it.

No, not because Hyun Bin the pretty boy is attractive (someone still thinks the world's most good-looking men are already at home, and I got FOUR of them.. ha!), but just that everything else is spot on. Casting is real interesting, scenes are extremely mesmerising, and the OSTs are crazily good! So good I decided to get it when I was up to episode 12... and I got the Korean special version.

So the next thing on my list: I want to learn Hangeul so that I can sing properly... haaa!

(don't worry that will never happen.. I also wanted to brush up my F.1 French to sing/understand Joyce Jonathan's album too... but who am I kidding... )

Wordfeud or Word with Friends?

2011-07-21T21:53:00.004+08:00

I picked the first. Frankly, the Android versions of either one are full of Ads (that's why we get them free I suppose.. and right, there's a paid version.. but I opted for the free one, cause I'm cheap... ha!). But the first one is much more tolerable.

AND I LOVE THE RANDOM BOARD!!!! It's madness but also added lots of fun.

And very likely because there seem to be more random opponents available on Wordfeud... probably people like the lightness of it? Reaction is pretty swift, comparing to Words with Friends.

Oh, no idea what I'm talking about?

Wordfeud

Word with Friends.. oh, just type these in Android market / apps store!

Both are cross platform...

And good luck finding me for a game!

Dr Who Forever

2011-07-10T12:07:00.002+08:00

As bbcenetertainment in Hong Kong has no sign of showing Dr. Who S5 in the near future (note S6 is already airing in the UK and Series 1 of S6's DVD is out like these few days), I ordered its BD a few weeks ago and started watching with kids over the past few weekends.

FINALLY DONE!!

For the records, I still like Christoper Eccleston the best in the new series of Dr. Who.

But Karen Gillan as Amy Pond is absolutely great to watch.

My favourite episode in this series is no question Vincent and the Doctor. The cast for the painter is spot on. And the story about depression and devil in the heart is so very convincing. Love it.

Time to check out amazon uk again for those S6 specials... don't think I can watch them on hte paid TV channel until like 3 years later...

Why playing nice is all wrong

2011-06-30T00:05:00.002+08:00

Sort of a twisted kind of office wisdom, but playing nice doesn't always get you any where.

Brought up in an all-girls' Roman Catholic school, I was told that being the good Samaritan will always be rewarded (?) in one way or another. The Buddhist way to explain similar ideas is karma. There is even a Chinese saying that roughly translates to sow for melons, you harvest melons; grow peas and you will get peas (don't laugh... it's past midnight after all - translation engine not entirely at work).

All these have given us the notion that a chip given out today can be cahsed some time later.

In most cases it is true. But that depends on how difficult it is for you to give out that chip in the first place.

Where did I get to that conclusion?

I had so much tasks piled up on my desk lately I need to resort to the study and staying away from my adorable children for a full 24-hour "shift" just to clear things out. Result: chaotic mess in every corner by the time every men hit their beds. Poor mom, most certainly, needs to rescue the dumpster and make it habitable. It doesn't take me long at all. About half an hour later, the apartment is basically clean like yesterday.

As I picked up the misplaced shoes, worn socks and soiled everything, I realized I must have been doing all these chores that no one is doing since time began. Shouldn't all these handsomes be thankful? Shouldn't I get some sort of recognition? Shouldn't they do something back as a gesture of gratitude? Or better, will they help me out when there is something I can't complete on my own?

Yea, reality bites. They don't do any of the above. Reason? None. Moms are SUPPOSED to do all those.

Right. Same situation in the office.

Don't think that because you help to complete tasks that no one else is doing, you will be respected. They are treating you like moms doing house chores (or worse, an au pair!) only. Housekeeping isn't specialists' work in their eyes.

Lesson of the day: playing nice can be pointless when your nicety is not respected.

Lesson of the lesson of the day: get yourself some exclusive skills / know-how that people don't take you for granted. When they don't expect you come along to offer that kind of help automatedly, but rather, they need to approach, or even beg you, to do something that no one but you know how to do it at a reasonable price, then you know you have RESPECTFUL status.

Slip of tongue

2011-06-28T21:28:00.003+08:00

What can I say... just be very careful when you're on speaker phone.. "Mute" doesn't always work.

Remember: you don't always get that lucky to have the other party interpreted exactly the opposite of what you said, which ultimately turned the situation from hell to heaven.

Mute is only temporary. Think before you speak.

(Self reflection only... )

How do you project manage?

2011-06-24T23:35:00.003+08:00

I am very lucky to have met some really great project managers in my career. They show how to motivate every one involved in the project, who in the end won't feel deprived / used as they contribute wholeheartedly for the success of the project.

I guess I must also be very lucky to have run into some really lousy ones. They teach all the worst skills on earth possible, plus those beyond imagination, through their own existence. Now, you don't see these every day. I mean, if someone works with that kind of skills / attitude / knowledge / whatever, shouldn't they have been fired before their probation?

Not in every company. It's extremely interesting that some organisations actually reward these skill-less people. In fact, I've been in places where when you don't have a specialism, you'll be appointed "Project Manager". And guess what, they usually get higher pay than those with expertise in an area. Not a wise rewarding structure, but these cases exist.

What went wrong then?

Very likely, in my own experience, is the boss of incompetent PjMs. Still don't get the picture? Well, it's a very Chinese thing (which is not something I'm any proud of), but it takes a lot of wisdom and open-mind and big heart of a person to hire someone smarter than s/he is. It's kind of a common scenario where someone high in the corporate hierarchy only appoints those who think are of little to no competition. This ensures his/her own high position.

I know, very difficult to comprehend if you have not worked with Chinese people at all. But that's how it is over here.

The real smart ones, are those who hire someone smarter and get the work done, and reward them wisely. Agree?

What's the missing link?

2011-06-21T22:23:00.002+08:00

Saw this from here. Love the title: Our Children Will Never Know the Link Between the Two.

With kids at home, I tested this with a supposedly geeky kid Mr. FB. Confirmed: he has no idea!

Should try this out with SB tomorrow as well. :)

Addict mom, addict sons

2011-06-16T21:41:00.005+08:00

I think I might be the only mom in all of Hong Kong who does not speak English to her sons, but still got compliments from sons' teachers that my kids' English is good. (How often do you get that kind of praise from a school teacher? Yes, I'm flattered.)

Indeed I got asked by colleagues, friends, sons' classmates' teachers too much on this: how have you taught your sons English (and Putonghua)?

I haven't.

(And seriously, they are not that good, at least not good according to my standard. Come on, they get on my nerves so very often for forgetting third person singular, how could that be "good" English?)

I thought hard. This is simply surreal. I never speak to them in English, unless I am joking with them - always in full sentence though. And they are not going to any of those prestigious schools. And I don't take them to tutorial classes with NET teachers... so what made others have this impression?

TV.

Yes, TV. There's a TV junkie mom at home who watches about 10 hrs of English TV / film each week. And sadly, kids have no choice but sit there, either watch with their crazy mom or just do some other things while listening to the TV.

That adds up to ~~5,200~~ 520 hours per year, or ~~31,200~~ 3,120 hours for the primary school years, and another ~~31,200~~ 3,120 hours for the secondary school years, and another ~~20,800~~2,080 hours for university years. If I also count in the preschool years, that'd be ~~98,800~~ 9,880 hours... I bet by adding in those ACTUAL class hours, each of my kids should have had ~~100,000~~10,000 hours of all English "training", or exposure to a second language by the time they graduate from uni.

~~98,800~~ 9,880 hours spent with addict mom in 19 year's time in front of the telly, with no pressure, no test, no tuition fee... you get the picture.

I think I learnt that from my mom. She's not an addict, but she's very very busy with all the housework so I was literally babysat by the TV. Honestly, if I am classified as someone good with languages, a lot of credit should have gone to the TV.

I'm only replicating what I got as a kid on my sons... and it seems to work.

* * *

Was chatting with a colleague this morning and was surprised that she considers TV too bad to be turned on for her kid, so he didn't get much of those at home. No TV at home is indeed a "norm" amongst my colleagues with kids. They think TV is full of bad taste, bad use of language, nonsense, etc. unless you watch national geographic or the like.

They have their point, but I think otherwise. Good/bad is really a relative concept, so if something doesn't exist at all, there's no good/bad. Controlled bad is good. To me, TV is controlled bad - thank you censorship. So I really don't mind TV babysits my children. Of course I don't just let them watch on their own without telling them what I think is good/bad... those conversations during TV watching bond us well. The silly plots gave us lots to discuss about too.

There. TV done with parental guidance gives your child basically free exposure to languages and culture for ~~10,000~~1,000 hours before they grad from uni. Good deal or not?

It took me almost 6 whole months for this post

2011-06-15T00:54:00.003+08:00

I kind of stopped writing here because I believe I have been a total boredom ever Mr. SSB was born. (yea yea yea... blame the baby coz he can never defend)

I no longer... workout religiously (now this I really need to pull myself together and get rid of those nasty fat); bake regularly; read a proper book, electronic or paper-based regularly...

I still keep buying new CD albums and DVDs though. But without a lot of time to spend on pretending I know about a subject, I don't think there's much to share.

In short, I don't even want to read what I wrote myself, why torture passersby? That was what I thought during my sabbatical.

So, why now?

As a "writer" by profession, I believe 6 months is long enough to stay away from a personal log. If I keep this any longer, I can officially declare adios to sensible whinings.

Keeping fingers crossed that I can push myself to throwing some word here and there again. I mean really regularly.

Writing keeps the head clear after all. And nothing beats a clear head before calling it a day.

Saying hi to Android 2.2 Tab

2010-12-31T21:34:00.002+08:00

I mean my dream tab - archos 70 internet tablet 250GB version!!!!!

For the records, it costs $2780, and I got 9% debate from credit card campaign -but no hello kitty or kuromi premiums...

hubby's getting the stuffs on his HTC onto my new love, and obviously kids are excited to play angry bird on a 7 inch screen.

Also tried out the 4.3 inch version, which cost $1780. Quite a good and more portable machine too, but I do need those 250GB storage.

Now the pink EEE can finally be restored and SB can inherit...

Last obsession of 2010, I guess.

2010-12-28T00:21:00.002+08:00

I'm still obsessed with an all-in-one, large cap multimedia player (preferably with at least wifi connectivity and runs on Android 2.2+)... then I look at the lined up gadgets, then I look at my PSP....

Haven't I already got that?

OK it doesn't run on Andriod, but what do I care? All I wanted to play on the go are already available on my PSP... I could say it does not have that big a storage capacity for me to stock ALL my music onto it, but again.. how much can I listen to in a day anyway?

Be a good girl, as you already own:

- PSP

- 1 broken Archos gmini 402 that I don't want to throw away because it's perfect except for the broken LCD;

- a new nakamichi portable PMP which doesn't show my songs the way I want to;

- a psuedo smart phone that LG GT505;

- a Teclast K6 e-book reader which is under repair in China;

- a zillion USB flash drives + portable external HDDs in almost every available form factor;

- 2 e-dicts for the boys (one 90% broken... again the display!);

- 2 netbooks... one got its firefox crashed because some silly person tried to upgrade it; the other got owned by Mr. FB.

And don't forget most of them are already collecting dust somewhere in your not-so-organized home.

SO STOP YOUR OBSESSION.

(archos 70 internet tablet 250GB model, I still want you....)

The funny thing is... I once thought that I would never want an all-in-one gadget, as I thought if it breaks, it would be disaster for me.

Now look... almost every other single gadget that I own (that is still working) begins to fall apart after some 3 - 5 (or longer) years in operation. So, why not just break one and only one and call it a day?

Perhaps I should ask someone to freeze all my credit cards first.

If you have a device with an LCD / e-ink display...

2010-12-19T01:47:00.003+08:00

Keep it away from your toddler.

I mean it. Very seriously.

My 3+ years old Archos Gmini 402, working in perfect conditions and holding most of my converted CD collection... has its LCD trashed.

My months old eBook... got its e-ink display trashed.

:~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OK, they may not cost as much as they did.... but still, that's 3k down the drain.

OK, I know I can replace them with alternatives much cheaper... but I can't keep on producing electronic junk, can I?

You know the worst part of all - there's not use to teaching / preaching / scolding, or even hitting that toddler, because he doesn't know what he did.

STILL I AM MAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Closure? No, still lost...

2010-11-23T01:29:00.002+08:00

one liner only.

I don't get it.

I'm still lost.

I need closure.

Forums here I come.

FB uses FB

2010-11-02T22:48:00.002+08:00

I could have raised one of the world's most irresponsible kids. He forgot to bring home his assignment sheet... again. And worry not, he knows how to handle - he logged in to FB, screamed for help, and someone offered a hand.

By taking a picture of the assignment sheet and uploading onto FB.

So now, I become the one and only in my family who doesn't do FB.... well, there's still SSB on my side...

Look who's talking?

2010-10-27T00:24:00.002+08:00

Babbling has finally turned into something meaningful.

Mama = moi, of course!
Baba = lui....
Poh poh = grandma
Gung Gung = grandpa
Gor gor = big brother
Da da = our pet turtle
Baby = baby!
Chi g = tissue paper
bao bao = bread
faan = rice
choi choi = veggies
bor = ball
chei = cars
bye bye = bye bye
jo san = good morning
saam = top (clothing)
fu = pants
peen peen = nappies
haai = shoes
no no no = no no no
deen see = TV
mm ho = no
jau = let's go
booi = cup
woon woon = bowl
naai naai = milk
lik lik = chocolate
da = attack
yee yee = aunt
je je = sister

And when his very limited vocabulary can't do the trick, he simply grab our hands, and lead us to whatever he wants.

Interesting tasting session

2010-09-26T20:37:00.004+08:00

I know I haven't got much to blog about (because life is pretty much the same day after day...), but today we went to this slightly interesting chocolate tasting session, and kids like it.

Here's a picture about what is there to taste from a good chocolate:

We were given about 6 samples of the plain chocs that are used for making the handcrafted chocolates and were guided along about what to expect from the chocolates. Now I do admire those who can describe all these flavours! If I wasn't given the "clues", I would never be able to tell what's there on my tongue.

I need to put up a post

2010-09-08T00:00:00.002+08:00

I'm not dead - not dead busy either.. but geeeeeeee... it was June since I last posted...

Anyway... needed to put up a post before I forget about everything that came to my mind (they're kind of important) just for today.

It was about "norm". It's kind of funny really. I was random browsing through my piled up google reader items and there was this post about tonnes of things that is not to like about Hong Kong. First thing first, I don't really have that kind of patience to read just anything most of the time, but that series of posts struck me hard. In very simple words, I couldn't understand what is there to complain about on quite many items, and that kept me reading till the end. The whole thing kept staying in my head. And I had a hard time to wipe them out... I think they have annoyed me.

Until today. I went to this formal lunch with complete strangers (seriously, complete strangers) and we discussed about everything (no, it's not a speed dating event, nothing like that). One of the guys at the table is an expat who spent some years here and there... oh, he's Brit, and has been here for about 2 or three months only. I made a connection to what's been hanging there in my mind instantly. Not to my surprise, he enjoys almost everything here - the food, the cheerfulness, the people, the city, I do trust him it's not pure patronising us Hongkies, he truly likes the place - and he's Brit. And there's another guy from Shanghai who said the same things (no, I haven't been selectively listening... both of them truly like it here than their home town).

Then, I remember the young chap who temped for me during my maternity leave - he also loves every bit of Hong Kong, to the point he actually asked his mom to come over here a few times during his short stay just to share the loveliness of the place. And then I remember there's another senior manager, also Brit, who was actually localized here. And then, guess what... the list built up... all the way back to my secondary school years. Eventually, I came to understand why I couldn't understand the writer about not liking Hong Kong.

On my list of "foreign" people that I know, almost EVERYONE, Brit or other nationalities, would be glad to stay here for good if they've been here long enough (long enough can mean a few months). So the place must have a lot of qualities, yes? So how come a person who's born here could hate it so much? I came to this conclusion - it's all about the norm.

I figure the longer you stay in a place, the easier you relate your norm to that of this place's. That particular writer has stayed outside of Hong Kong for long enough that her values have changed to the perspective of that country. Just like those expats who want to localize here... they've been here long / short enough to completely take the norm here and want to be part of it.

Another line that drew me to this conclusion, by the Brit at lunch, "Of all the places I worked in, I realised it's the Brits who complain too much."

Ta-dah.... so, the writer of that post has simply taken up that norm. She does not really hate HK, but she has taken up the norm of the Brits - to complain and whine. :)

(And I thought I was queen of whining.... not quite... should I be happy about that?)

I missed an article

2010-06-07T22:59:00.002+08:00

argh... I knew I knew I knew... "I write for AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA living"

Damn it!

Does anyone proofread before making a nonsense blog post? Perhaps I should start doing so!

(The devil in me is actually saying this: big deal... it's "a"... possibly the smallest of all visible typos... big deal, get over it and sleep!!)

I wish I know...

2010-06-07T01:43:00.001+08:00

I wish I know the trick to edit my own writing. I hate to admit it but I seldom see how wrong it is. Which is a totally bad thing. I write for living and it's disatrously bad when I can't see my own mistakes, be them as small as missing out a spacebar or as big as making a title of a big shot wrong.

I think I do need to spend more time to read.

But, where can I find you, time?

Well... for the records, I just bought a few "new" titles which I should have completed like a century ago. I do wish I know how to stop buying books, as there should be literally over 1000 on my shelves that I haven't, and probably won't be finishing.

I wish I know when to know what is a good time to sleep. This is really weird. When I sleep for a straight 8 hours, my whole body ache like hell - as if I have been doing labour work for an entire week. When I have only 4 hours of sleep, I feel "energetic"... I must have a different kind of anatomy? Perhaps I'm not even human?

Bought finally

2010-04-20T23:38:00.003+08:00

Confessions of a shopaholic... I bought that ebook reader... finally.

Raison d'etre... pas que... I just want to get another gadget... that's all.

Love it so far. Delivers whatever it needs to deliver.

Only downside: the IFU is really bad... I could jump in and make one for them! But someone no longer does this kind of writing for free.. :)

I should really take some pictures of the thing, but my G10 is now servicing - even FB can't take a camera with him tomorrow during site visit... no, I won't give him the 400D yet... NO!

For the records:

- USB connection should be done when the reader is powered OFF.
- SD card inserts the "wrong" way, and if done in the "right" way, your card can get TOTALLY stuck. And in the most unfortunate event for that to happen, get a paper clip and create something stronger than your fingernails to push from the little bit of the card's body that's protruding OUTSIDE of the reader, from both left and right, little by little until your thick thumb and index finger can FINALLY grab and take the stuck card out.
- I still haven't found a .pdb file that works on it. e-pub are fine though, so is txt and pdf and jpg... forget about really graphic magazines PDFs, they won't work well here. Remember it's 6".

I'm talking about this baby. Yes, it still cost a little over $2k, yes it's black and white, yes, refresh rate is not comparable to a back-lit monitor. BUT THAT's THE WHOLE POINT.

I wanted something portable (and yes, it's like a smaller chinese pocket book, thinner than my wallet and it doesn't weigh!) that don't hurt my eyes and can read to me when I'm on my daily commute... and it does it all. I can now pretend to be literate to enjoy all those public domain classics... (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page rocks btw!)

Who cares about wifi? e-ink is not designed for web browsing, so I think I'm happy enough without it.

SSB made his first trip!

2010-04-13T22:21:00.002+08:00

I should have put up this post a few days ago. (Someone is obviously very lazy to write / type / get organized.)

But this is really worthy of recording, because SSB made his first trip! Out of our surprise, he had zero fuss on our outbound flight. ZERO! And over the 4 days, he behaved rather well, except when we were in the book store. He enjoyed cruising around the zoo, our food and basically everything that we did.

The only down side - he didn't eat properly and now we're in big trouble.

Keeping finger crossed that his appetite will return soon enough. I do want him to become a chubby baby.

eBook, anyone?

2010-03-24T01:50:00.002+08:00

My bonus of the year just got banked in... so I can probably go splash out a bit again (only a bit... coz I already bought too many items during CNY, ref: 3k+ worth of OTO, 8k+ for digital piano... ouch... still hurts...).

So, my candidates are:

the most expensive Onyx Boox ($3350)

Arhm... kindle 2 (USD259 + shipping = too expensive)

iRiver Story (HKD$2390)

Well... there are still a few more cheaper mainland models, which I'm not totally comfortable with...

The iRiver one looks real cool... perhaps I should go check out a shop and see it for real first.

And in the end I might be able to fight these temptations and save 3000 for something else. We'll see.

Down Dog

2010-03-07T21:16:00.004+08:00

I would have thought that if a baby wants to do yoga, the child pose would be something to start with. SSB picked up down dog though! Must say flexibility is something I can't even be envying - it's something non-existent in me.

I wonder where did he learn this from?

When is it a good time for chocolate shopping?

2010-02-28T23:32:00.002+08:00

I'm talking about big family packs of individually wrapped ones. The ones that are supposed to be good for the candy box in Chinese New Year, for Easter, and perhaps for Halloween and Christmas as well.

It's right after Chinese New Year, when supermarkets are anxious to get their overstocked chocolates sold.

No kidding. Chocolates (and biscuits for that matter) are crazily CHEAP since the red holidays were over. As some of my still-single colleagues are older than I am, and most people just don't have 3 kids to collect red packets like crazy, I figured it would be great to just forgo the red packet swapping game (and myself ending up as the BIG "winner"), I suggested that we don't do the red packet thing in the office, and let's get everyone some goodies.

Turns out that if I get prepared before CNY, I could have wasted a lot of unnecessary money. This year, on my first day back to the office after a long deserved holiday, I went to Park N Shop (International branding) in search of nice but inexpensive chocolates right before I set foot onto my daily shuttle bus. And guess what I found: tens of imported chocolates on SALE!

I must say that I hate boxed chocolates, because of their excessive packaging and bulkiness. I always joke that boxed chocolates are marked higher for their higher content of AIR! So, I looked for family packs. And... here's the price: all 19.9.

No joke. 19.9 per pack, and I'm talking about big packs (OK, for snacks with that many calorie count, 200g is big).

The best part of it is: they are indeed pretty good. So good that gift recipients asked where they could buy some more.

So I went to the same International again a few days later, and of course, all of them were gone.

With the best of luck today, some of them are still available in that International nearby my home. I grabbed more of course! The craziest part is: they're now reduced to $30 for 2 packs! And next to them, I found a rather fancy Italian imported 1kg pack, selling at $39.9!!!

I am officially declaring that I am done with this year's choco shopping as my place is STOCKED with enough packs to last for the rest of the year.

Why have I done nothing in 8 days?

2010-02-19T23:55:00.003+08:00

I was meant to be using this "long" holiday for tidying up my apartment... it didn't happen. That means it probably will never happen!

DUH...

I think I've also trained SSB to become super clingy. Now when he's in that kind of bad mood, I can hardly move more than 50 cm away from him... geeeeeeeez... what have I done to make him like that?

I was also supposed to finish the 2 very boring transcript / summary, say one week ago... I still have one left.

Perhaps holidays just aren't for me. I simply put them to waste.

Why do I need a waffle iron?

2010-02-17T18:10:00.004+08:00

Because I love waffles.

Because it gives perfect results every time.

Because I don't have time to make sweet treats and this one gives good results with minimum efforts.

Week 3 2010: FB's going to camp alone

2010-01-23T00:06:00.002+08:00

In about a few days' time, FB is going to a camp with his class for 2 nights. I can't say I'm not worried, but my worries seem kinda silly.

e.g. I don't have enough uniforms for him to wear - turns out he can wear ordinary clothes; he doesn't know how to take care of himself - well.. he can do a lot at his age... so I should trust him to be able to groom while away from home??

I'll need to see if I can get him some non-cartoonie PJs tomorrow... He's grown so big that I can't get him anything from the children's department anymore... but adult men is still too big for him... can't buy him women's clothes, can I?

The 3 of them are lining up to get sick this past week. First to go down was FB, and I don't think he's fully recovered yet; next is SB; even SSB got a slight fever just now. Daddy's working night shift today, so SB so want to join us. Cruel me had to prevent him from sharing SSB's bed though, coz it really is the last thing I want SSB to get sick too... I think his vaccine shot must be acting up that's why he's got that slight fever now... Please don't get sick... mommy has some big event to work on next week and I really can't afford to stay at home to take care of you all...

Speaking of next week's event.. (sigh) I don't know what to say... seems like everyone on the project is stretching so hard, yet the one who makes the call is providing very silly input which no one dares to speak up and say: dear, your ideas suck. Well well well... not worth it to get him mad, I guess? Fingers crossed that we'll survive with flying colours!

Where's that weekly post?

2010-01-20T00:45:00.002+08:00

Well, well, well... I have all the good (or bad) excuses.

It was exam time for SB!

FB got ill these couple of days.

SSB has been very busy celebrating his 1 year old bday... btw, he weighs 9.33 on the MCHC scale the other day. A medium boy.

I've been doing silly footage editing.

And seriously... I got no energy left.

Of course, the honest and not lame excuse is: I'm simply lazy.

Guess what, I actually have a few good topics to write, but since I don't carry anything with me, all these thoughts are gone and no where to be found by the time I can actually sit down and get typing.

Ah... there was this word in news that was used so wrongly and politically incorrect that I can post.... let me start it on a new one then. This is too gibberish even to myself.

Week 1, 2010

2010-01-07T02:26:00.002+08:00

I'm writing gibberish again just to keep my own promise to myself, so here it is my "weekly" entry.

Mr. SSB just learnt how to shake his head to music. (HURRRRRRAAAAAY!)

Mr. SB is going to have his English exam and Chinese writing exam tomorrow. I believe he does not have a clue of what past tense / simple present tense is. I did try to study with him, but... (I can now only keep my fingers crossed that he can pass eventually.... all I ask for is pass, really.)

Mr. FB is growing a lot more mature, aka also becoming rebellious as he enters pre-teenage. (Geeee... he's such a big boy!) So, I need to take note on his behaviour and thoughts. I really don't want to see him going the not-so-right-way...

Year end appraisal time is near. I need to dig out what I've done well - now that's a real challenge.

Who have I missed? Oh... the one who has always slept too much... nothing worth to put down!

Dusting

2009-12-27T16:44:00.003+08:00

OK, I know there's been so much dust collected here. What can I say... my last post was about 3 months ago... so this is obviously become a quarterly thing?

Looking back into these 3 months, I have:

- sold 2 big things;
- bought 1 big thing;
- moved;
- taking kids to school on taxi every morning as I still can't get hold of a school bus vacancy!
- helped FB to get better exam results;
- planned to boost SB's exam results too;
- went to 2 weddings;
- plurked a lot;
- worked a lot;
- let my domestic helper resign;
- hired part time help;
- and left here intact.

I so much want to record something interesting / thought-provoking in my life, but having about 4 hours of sleep (not a straight 4 hours, as SSB wakes up about 10 times each night) every day is not leaving me much energy to do a lot of things that I want to do.

Say... I would love to read more, listen to more music, watch more films, bake more (OK, I did make 100+ cookies for the boys' holiday gathering)... but no, 3 boys and 1 bigger apartment is really really really eating me out.

So, here's my (I know might not be able to accomplish) new year resolution: let's see if I can keep a post a week so that I have something to look back to when I grow old...

It's bad enough I still haven't tidied up my new place after more than 1 month that I've moved in... It's also bad enough I haven't done any hand / foot prints for SSB - all his brothers got all these lovely coloured prints that they can refer to... I haven't even recorded the teeth progress of the baby, nor his weight... (what kind of mother am I now?)

So, here's a few lines for that. I think last time I checked (should be about 2 weeks ago... ) the baby is 9kgs (the smallest of them 3!) and his 6th teeth is coming out. The first to came out were the bottom front teeth; then the upper ones, then the upper lateral incisors (left first, right coming out... it's my left, not his)... and he's can stand on his own for about 1 minute now... could be walking any time... he's also said "mamamama" (1 1 1 3 in Mandarin tones to be precise) and "mamama" (3 1 1) and "babababa" (1 1 1 1) and "goh" (1) for quite a while now... so we're expecting him to be "talking" soon as well.

What else... that's really much about it to be honest... life's been pretty routinous, and can't say not enjoying every moment. Keeping fingers crossed that baby is going to sleep better soon so that I can get more things done.

Signs of aging

2009-09-29T23:18:00.003+08:00

Copied from AC:

(bold = checked... the more the older?)

1. Become hesitated to work overnight, and tend to leave office on time in some idle periods. Never stay in office for a ‘mere presence’;
2. On desk or in side cabinet there are always cereal bars, herbal teabags and vitamin tabs available, instead of softdrinks and chips;
3. Have meals regularly and say ‘no’ to midnight treats;
4. Find more and more friends showing up in reunions, and most accompanied by children;
5. The most frequent feedbacks heard from friends when ordering dishes is “I need to have something light recently”;
6. The most popular topics among friends are Chinese medicines, gyms and spas;
7. Start staying away from western meds and prefer Chinese meds;
8. Go to bed normally before 12am;
9. Start worrying about white hair, big bellies and wrinkles;
10. On and off there are news about friends getting seriously ill/ divorced/ separated/ kick the bucket;
11. Start buying CD reprints and video collection boxes;
12. Start addicted to trivias;
13. “It was better” becomes the favourite word;
14. You can’t wait to share them with everyone on Facebook once you found some stuff of your highschool life;
15. See someone on TV news who are your junior/ secondary school, or university classmates, at least once or twice a year;
16. Start to try clothings with colours/ patterns/ fabrics that never tried before;
17. Wear highschool or uni sport shirts as pajyamas (if they aren’t worn out yet);
18. Look for all those songs in 70’s/80’s/90’s when singing karaoke;

(OK, I just bought Rock Band Beatles too... but that doesn't mean I know the songs!!)

19. Start collecting some old stuffs, while throwing away more and more unfit clothings;
20. Discover that the contribution period of life insurance almost comes to an end; (Only because I bought real early!!)
21. Pay more attention to various ratings (instead of price) when booking a hotel, and stay away from backpackers’ hostels.

It's been a month

2009-09-24T00:16:00.003+08:00

... since I blogged about anything!

So what have I been up to? Why is there nothing worthy enough to put up here?

I don't know. Not the faintest idea. Perhaps I just don't have time... perhaps I can't make my words say what I want to anymore...

But, for someone who writes for a living... I should probably find time, energy and perhaps motivation to write more often.

Little feet

2009-08-22T13:23:00.003+08:00

Little feet, oh little feet,

Why are you always so sweet?

Solid foods you have begun to eat.

You really are growing like weeds!

Let's see how many I've read from this list

2009-08-07T00:10:00.003+08:00

Bold = complete; italic = skimmed version only.

01 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen -
02 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien -
03 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte -
04 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling -
05 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee -
06 The Bible -
07 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte -
08 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell -
09 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman -
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens -

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott -
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy –
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller -
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare -
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier -
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien -
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk -
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger -
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger -
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot -

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell -
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald -
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens -
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy -
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams -
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky -
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck -
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll -
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame -

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy -
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens -
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis -
34 Emma - Jane Austen -
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen -
36 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis -
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini -
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres -
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden -
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne -

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell -
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown -
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez -
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving -
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins -
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery -
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy -
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood -
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding -
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan -

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel -
52 Dune - Frank Herbert -
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons -
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen -
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth -
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon -
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens -
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley -
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon -
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez -

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck -
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov -
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt -
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold -
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas-
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac -
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy -
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding -
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie –
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville -

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens -
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker -
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett -
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson -
75 Ulysses - James Joyce -
76 The Inferno – Dante -
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome -
78 Germinal - Emile Zola -
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray -
80 Possession - AS Byatt –

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens -
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell -
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker -
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro -
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert -
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry -
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White -
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom -
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton -

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad -
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery -
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks -
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams -
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole -
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute -
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas -
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare -
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl -
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo -

Hmmm... 18 is not a real number, but I feel good already. :)

White balance

2009-07-11T00:22:00.003+08:00

I don't believe I have spent so much time on a batch of badly taken photos. I mean... come on... WB is perhaps one of the easiest setting one can fiddle with on ANY digital camera... and reading a user manual is not that hard is it? Most cameras are already doing all the calculations for you and with these fancy live view / LCD real time display, it's totally easy to look at how a change in this single setting can make pictures look 1000 times better.

BUT NO ONE CHANGES IT!

I'm talking about tech guys. Those who sit in front of puters doing programming and coding day in day out. I thought they should be techie, and techie should be able to deal with machines and cameras are machines so there should be no problem at all.

I was so wrong.

The batch I worked on came from 3 different cameras: Panny LX-2, Nikon D-90 and a Fuji I don't remember the model number... I bet that means 3 different people. The panny person sucks... only knew how to use wide angle for group photo and 1/2 of the pictures were out foucus. The Nikon person... I mean come on, it was a DSLR... why not learn to use it properly? I think that was the yellowest photo I have ever seen in my life. Fuji person, I don't blame you, the WB works terrible on my first DC.

Perhaps cameras are just like branded bags - no one really care about the design, it's the label that tells other that you have taste / money / trendy mind to use it.

I don't even want to go into photo composition...

Lesson of the day: not all those who can afford expensive cameras can call themselves photographer. Read the user manuals!

What's in my fridge?

2009-06-12T00:52:00.004+08:00

I haven't really stocked up, but here's a look at my not very tidy fridge. First the freezer compartment:
Packs of dumplings, vegetarian thingy, and my staple, haagen dazs. Yes, I actually have a few tubs in my fridge most of the time. :)

On the door are some yeasts for my breads. But I haven't made any for quite a while.

And then the lower compartment, which obviously shows nothing of me. It is NOT me.

Except for the expressed milk and the sauces on the door, or, OK, the expired beer at the bottom of the door, NOTHING is bought by me. Seriously, nothing. It's my mom who keeps flushing things that she bought and didn't want to eat in the end. If she hasn't been here this often to take care of SSB, my fridge is basically empty.

I really hate to have my refrigerator hijacked like this!

As for the wrapped up bowls... oh well... they're leftovers, which the kids are not cooperating to finish. We don't throw foods away, so that's why here's a bowl and there's another. If my mom doesn't take her liberty to buy anything at all, my calculation is usually correct and there should be no leftover whatsoever... so... mom... I know you want to help, but please... I really want to have my clean and tidy and no nonsense fridge back...

Is breastmilk really "free"?

2009-06-08T22:42:00.002+08:00

I could confirm with a big NO. NEVER! In fact, it must be one of the most expensive baby foods in the world, ever!

Supply is mainly one for one, unless there are twins or other numbered multiple births.

The mother needs to eat A LOT to keep the supply. I, the pig eater, is for one a great example - I am actually eating more than I did when I was preg. This is really terrifying! But the truth, at least with this baby, is that as much as I am eating, I'm not gaining any weight... a bit of fluctuations now and then, yes, big jump on the scale, nope. I think weight wise, I have dropped about more than 13 kgs from my peak weight right before delivery. Minus baby weight and increased blood supply, there still should be half that's got "eaten" by SSB.

And for calculation's sake, SSB should have drunk up about 90 litres of b-milk (assuming daily consumption = 600ml, or five 4-oz bottles) since birth... so, 6kg of fat (don't I wish) translates into 90L of milk. Assuming SSB is going to need another 180L of milk before I wean him, I would need 12kgs of fat to produce that much of milk. Does it mean that I can stay out of exercise and dieting and still lose 12kg? I am so longing for that!!

Back to the topic. For that 18kg of fat on me (now that is sounding really scarry... 18kg is almost 4 bags of 5kg rice!), I would need lots of food to generate them, if that bit is counted, then the milk instantly becomes costly.

Have I mentioned the pumping sessions that I spent at work? I need about 45 minutes a day just to keep up with "some" supply, and to be a very good employee, I shorten my lunch hour a bit and stayed after a bit so that I'm not using too much corporate time to make food for SSB... my 45 minutes can be quite expensive... did I mention the gear and the extra sterilisation needed?

Add those all up, who else outthere can still say that breastmilk is free?

IT IS VERY EXPENSIVE INDEED!!!

But, it's for my boys, so no matter how expensive it is, it is well worth it.

(how many it have I used in this post?)

First meds

2009-06-07T16:15:00.003+08:00

I knew SSB wasn't the usual baby since yesterday. Runny and blocked nose, a few coughs... so, his first cold is here.

I took him to FB and SB's ped, who we haven't visited since the boys finished kindergarten. That was like a really long time ago. And the ped surely has aged quite a bit (well, according to all the framed certs in his clinic, he got his medicine degree when I was only a few years old...). That didn't matter of course. We're always grateful that someone, a specialist, with that kind of experience is around the neighbourhood and not charging crazy numbers for a consultation. SSB did well at the clinic. He didn't fuss a lot, he didn't cry at all during the whole time! He even socialised with doc.

Nothing serious, but meds that can help always make things easier. Just that, for a baby who's reluctant to formula, cough / cold syrup could be a real challenge. And there are 3 bottles: one for the cough, one for the blocked nose and one for the runny nose.

As daddy suggested, we should give him these meds when he's ALMOST asleep... that's when he feeds the kid expressed milk from a bottle without too much fuss from the baby. And he's quite right. The kid just gulped down all 3 meds without making too big a mess. We're surprised he did so well.

And I could even manage to give all 3 bottles without waking daddy up the second time!

Crying over spilled milk

2009-05-20T20:55:00.003+08:00

I am literally doing so. Well, I don't have tears in my eyes, but it's pretty much the same thing.

I was worried sick on Monday as the milk supply went down very dramatically... with mom saying that the colour of the milk looking different and SSB not pooping like he used to be... the last thing I want to do is to throw away 4oz of precious milk.

And I just did that.

Because some stupid person did not look at the fridge carefully enough!

Now that precious bottle has been in the fridge for over 48 hours passing its prime... I had no other alternative but to ditch it.

ARGH!!!!!

Mark all as read

2009-05-03T22:33:00.002+08:00

I reckon this is perhaps the most useful function in web2.0. Especially when I want to pretend that I still am in touch with the world!

I'm doing this in almost all my RSS readers... and sometimes on plurk.

That button also tells a brutal truth: the world does go on spinning without me. It doesn't really matter if I take part or not, and no one actually notices whether I was there or not.

Treasure what is dearest to my heart, is definitely more sensible than lurking around without a purpose. SSB is using up most of my time at home now. He'd only be small once, wouldn't he? He deserves all my time and attention, just like FB and SB did.

I shouldn't feel guilty of not keeping myself updated at all, because IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER!

Keep marking all as read, and be a mom that my kids will love to pieces. I should really be proud of that.

Separation anxiety... (mine)

2009-04-19T22:31:00.003+08:00

I know SSB will be very unlikely to understand that I'm away at work. He's probably going to fuss a little, say an hour / shorter (hopefully less than 10 minutes), and then surrender to the bottle / sleep through... At least FB holds him well for about 10 minutes usually... and granny can almost always get him to sleep...

So, the anxious one is me.

It's not the first time I'm going through this, but I am still so very anxious. SSB hasn't been fed in a bottle since... 3 weeks old... will he find the teat too hard to suck? Is my stock going to be enough for him? Will I be able to pump enough at work? Will I look like I'm slacking if I go pump for 3 times a day? Will I miss the boys so much that I can't concentrate at work? Or will I be so indifferent that I don't miss them at all??

I'm actually already very sleepy as the kid fussed a lot last night... I really should get as much sleep as possible, but I can't.... just too anxious right now... I can't believe I can be like this. If I can't make a blog entry readable, what's going to happen at work then???

OK, enough gibberish. Try to get some sleep woman, and tomorrow will be fine. Look at how granny helped to bring up FB and SB. Aren't they doing fine now? (Yes, indeed.) So, stop worrying!

Don't I love translation

2009-04-14T18:23:00.002+08:00

I really really really love to read these with Chinese and English side by side. Always give me good laughs just when I need one!

The Avent VIA Cups

2009-04-05T16:26:00.002+08:00

I was talking about this product:

I got 2 packs from mother care before SSB was born. $69 for 5 storage cups, adaptor and a teat, not bad. And the word "presterilised" does sound tempting.

And in two weeks' time, I'll be back to work. So this is the day that I start expressing to stock milk up.

I should have known better about reading the instructions - only that I didn't see any until I took everything out of the box. So here's the story.

I thought "pre-sterilised" means I can use everything out of the box. So in went the hard earned expressed milk (bf moms will hear me when they'd EXCLUSIVELY bf for the first few months and understand how difficult it is to get EXTRA supply just for stocking... )... 50ml... not too bad for a start. And then I poped the lid as well.

Then SSB went to sleep so I thought I could try to express more... hmm... the lid got stucked, and there was no way I could open it.

So I went to dig the instructions again (thought they're on the box)... "SCREW TOP", not pop.... Does it mean that there's no way I can re-open that lid ever again then?? I didn't screw close it but pushed it in... darn it... 50 ml of hard earned milk gone...

I flipped over the whole thing out again... wait, there's a very hidden piece of paper with instructions. And I've already done these things wrongly:

1. I didn't open the bag that stores the "pre-sterilised" cups correctly.
2. Other than the cups, EVERYTHING need to be sterilised before 1st use, including lids.

BUMMER!!!!!!!

NOt that I can't open that b----y cup, the 50ml is a goner definitely!!!! BECAUSE I DIDN'T STERILISE THE LID!!!!!

I'm so frustrated now!! :(

ALWAYS ALWAYS READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!!!!

How I hate this weather

2009-03-18T07:22:00.002+08:00

Last week it suddenly dropped to 13, and today, the highest temperature stands at 27 Celcius - absolutely crazy!

SB caught a cold and I think the virus has gone to his stomach... been throwing up all morning... going to miss school again - 2nd time in this month. DUH!!!

And I'm nothing better... sleepless nights are beginning to weaken my system. I feel so dizzy... must be vestibular vertigo again... :(

Sleep like a baby?

2009-03-12T13:52:00.002+08:00

I remember when FB was a baby, I read someone posting a comment such as this in a discussion forum:

"Whoever used 'sleep like a baby' to describe sleeping well obviously has never taken care of a baby."

I laughed my heads off back then.

Baby = sleep deprivation, unless you're extremely lucky.

SSB is still waking up 2 to 3 times during his longer night sleep stretches... and I must applaud that he's such a clean baby - no poo poo during the longer sleep stretches, NONE at all. Meaning I wouldn't have to wake up in the middle of the night wiping his bottoms. That's a blessing in winter. I'm not really complaining about the lack of sleep - I knew too well how much I would be getting. I believe I hadn't had a full night's sleep until SB turned 2, that's a full 4 years. And I would never forget that during those 4 years, I did not consume any caffeine: no tea, no coffee, not even dark chocolates. And I survived. In fact, those years changed my sleeping routine altogether. I could easily sleep 10 hours straight when I was younger (before I discovered the net... back then nothing international, just multi-line BBS, don't worry if you don't know what I'm talking about). After the babies, 4 - 5 hours are enough. Having SSB waking up 2 - 3 times in the night made it beyond OK.

BUT... he's been sleeping 2 hours stretches since this morning... yes, that gave me enough time to read, blog and even a 10 good minute of lower body conditioning exercise... but I want to have some quality sleep tonight... which doesn't seem to be possible looking at how much the kid has slept already...

Perhaps now I can consider finding a good movie for overnight watching?

Letter from the High Court

2009-03-09T08:38:00.004+08:00

I wasn't expecting any letters from the government, let alone something from the High Court... Funny enough, the address on the letter is a photocopy of my handwriting... and from the bits and pieces, I can tell it's the form I submitted to the Immigration Department when I applied for the visa for my domestic helper!

I thought I was going to receive some of these as early as I turned 21... but it never happened and I thought I was never going to receive these... not that I have been looking forward to it, but that's a citizen's duty, isn't that?

And now, I'm finally on the list.

FB knew when to call

2009-03-06T18:26:00.000+08:00

The amber rainstorm was raised at around 2 pm yesterday, when FB was in a not well-sheltered sports ground. The sky was so dark all of a sudden and paranoid me of course got even more paranoid.

I tried to call FB's mobile, but apparently, being a good boy this time, he observed school rules and didn't switch on the phone. I could not get in contact with him.

This sports thing could not be carrying on in weather like this!!! So I called up his school to find out if the sports day is cut short. And I found out nothing. They left someone who knew nothing (including teachers' / principal's phone numbers... DUH!)... so I didn't get an answer.

By 3-ish, finally got a call from FB, reporting that he's already at school, waiting for the school bus to take him home.

WHAT A RELIEF!!!

And I must say that I'm so glad he knew he had to call - well, could be even better if he called earlier. Anyway, I think there're enough signs that he's probably old enough to do a lot of things on his own now...

Tomorrow will be another challenge for him, as he will need to go to school and return on his own for this last minute extra curricular activity. I now should be confident that he will just do fine.

Allowing FB to grow up

2009-03-05T09:55:00.004+08:00

I guess one of the most difficult parts in parenting is finding the right time for letting go: a time to stop treating kids like kids. Today is that time for FB.

I have very strong reasons to dislike his school. It's a Sports Day today. Other schools would have adopted a schedule that is least deviated from the usual one: same starting time for the day, at worst early leave. SB's school did it that way 2 days ago. I have no idea why they need to shift the entire day from the usual 8-ish to 11:30 and the day is going to end at around 5... provided that they don't delay... [sigh]

School buses, eventually, have to reschedule as well. And I only found out yesterday from the morning shift's driver that THERE WILL BE NO RETURN BUS FROM SCHOOL!!! @*&$^@*%$@*&@!^$^*!@&* This is utterly unfair - we paid so much every month for reliable school bus service and they always come up with this excuse and that, leaving us with a lot of trouble!!

FB did say that if he's heard right, there is still be a run of the return bus. But we have to have plan B in place just in case.

"Do you think you can get on a bus / minibus home on your own?"

"Sure."

And he was so very confident in that "sure" as he answered.

So I gave him an Octopus card for the fare, and a mobile phone for emergency calls. Let's see if he could really do this first bus trip on his own. I'm really anxious about the whole thing - there were steep slopes with stairs around his school and it has been worrying enough these past few years as he did trip a few times... there are also weird roads to cross on his way back - with no traffic lights!!

I don't want to get over paranoid and I do understand he needs to do it today or another. Just that I remember the first time I travelled on a bus on my own, it wasn't totally unscarry... keeping fingers crossed that he's going to do fine... and even better, let there be that blXXdy return bus so that he doesn't have to come back on the public bus!!

Chubbying little fist

2009-03-03T11:54:00.003+08:00

Little Mr. Grumpy's fist is getting chubbier. :)

Smile

2009-03-01T09:53:00.002+08:00

I still haven't been able to capture SSB's lovely smile on camera. My-oh-my... I can't believe he's already smiling back for real!

There used to be a few wind-induced giggling (usually during his sleep), but in the past week, he's smiled FOR REAL!!!!

Babies are so so cute and they grow so fast... I think he's almost doubled in size / weight since we brought him home - and it's not even 2 months yet... OK yes, doubling is a bit exaggerating, but he's gone a lot heavier and bigger, that's for sure.

His brothers are also identifying new skills from SSB every day. Like he now stares at the musical teddy mobile (the one that comes with the plan pen which is yet to be set up); SSB also stops his kicking and crying when he hears some nice baby-ish music. The big boys are finding it a lot of fun.

Must get that camera ready and handy... I want a pic with him smiling!

I prefer the sling with a ring

2009-02-25T08:08:00.003+08:00

Here's SSB in his new sling, which I got from here.

I originally wanted the one without a ring but then I already have one and there really isn't much point to repeat my purchases. So I picked this one that is very much alike to the Indonesian sling. And I must say, this one with a ring makes much more sense than the ones without!

Look at how SSB is enjoying it!

I wasn't so sure about the ring at first because I am afraid that it may be difficult to operate / hurt the baby. It didn't. And it's quite easy to fiddle with.

And adjustability rules!! Baby grows, and hopefully I will lose weight, so it does need to be adjustable!

So here's my verdict: go for the ringed ones.

Worth mentioning. The website quoted offers very quick delivery and local purchases are paid for AFTER goods are delivered by the postman. No, not talking about the courier man. It came from local post office and then after checking and all, I just cheque-in!

Three Vs Two

2009-02-24T07:40:00.003+08:00

Is there a lot more work with 3 than 2? I think that depends on how far apart the kids are.

My first two are 2 years apart. I believe I did quite well as everything I needed were still there - I didn't have to go out to look for baby products / revise on how to deal with the new born's navel / how to tell the different colours of baby poo etc. etc.

Baby #3 is A LOT younger. Put it this way, there will be a year when FB is in Uni, SB is secondary school and SSB in primary school! With that much difference in age, the older FB and SB are helping a lot around. I can simply make a loud cry for an extra nappy when SSB decides to do his nappy tricks; I can get myself an extra hand to hold a glass of water when I'm feeding the little one; I can also ask the bigger brothers to look after SSB when I need a desperate shower after consecutive sleepless nights.

Too much whining.

Franly I freaked out when I found out I was pregnant with number 3: I'm already so much older than when I was having the first 2. My 2 older kids are also kind of monstrous in the discipline / schooling departments - what do I do with number 3 with 2 already bad examples? The only one thing that I was less scared of is probably the financial side - I know I can afford nicer things this time around than I could in my early twenties.

Talk about the joy of having a new born and that sweet baby smell filling the house! The whole family is now putting its attention to the new star. Daddy is holding SSB whenever he can; big brother FB is learning to hold his baby brother for as long as possible; SB is grabbing every chance he can to stay close to baby boy; grannies put on their biggest smiles when they see SSB's ever chubbying cheeks and thighs; and I, the always paranoid mom, no longer complain about sleep deprivation when SSB is cooing and smiling back as he gazes at me.

I think the good thing about having more than 2 is that, I already have 2 young men in front of me and I know that no matter how difficult and tiresome these first few months have been, it will be over before I even notice. Number 3 also helps to strengthen our family ties. Say if any one is about to start a fight, we now would think twice before doing so, because we know SSB is watching and we don't really want to leave a bad impression.

It differs quite a lot between 2 and 3. When SB was born, I was relatively new to parenthood and there were so many areas that I didn't have a clue on. Not that I am a lot wiser for being older this time, I know where I could locate my resources - say I know which diaper is cheap and good; I know which breast pump I need; I know when is the real burping moment... it's almost like Bree in Desperate Housewives when she had her 3rd (actually her daughter's boy) child - she knew the rights and wrongs already and number 3 is no longer trial and error.

Sling sling sling

2009-02-21T13:19:00.004+08:00

I think I've been obsessed with searching for the perfect sling - apparently, even though I bought what I really wanted (a budget $289.9 KinArt Sling from Toys R Us) before giving birth, I've gotten the wrong size (should be S, but I went there when still pregnant, so I measured wrong and got an L... more suitable for dear husband). SSB is not sleeping in it too comfortably, despite the extra cloth did give us lots of privacy when breastfeeding in public.

So here's my wish-list so far, all can be bought in Hong Kong.

1. The Chao-U from Taiwan. I actually saw someone using this the other day and must say for HKD$368, this is like designer sling! The cloth is from Japan and I think I'd look really hip in it.

2. The cuddleme sling. This one claims to be made in Japan and I kind of like it a lot when I saw it in the nearby baby shop. But... it sells at HKD$850.... I passed.

3. A local version from a shop called Cotton Candy Kids, with this pattern. Costs only $88, and hubby can go pick up when he goes to work. I don't really fall for the cloth, but for this price, I really have no complaint. The only concern I have is its sturdiness. May be I should spend a morning / afternoon to check it out myself.

Frankly, it's just a cloth with very simple seams and measurement. I could have sewn it myself... but that means I have to go shop for the cloth, do the patterning and all of that... I really can't be that competent right now, and am pretty sure by the time I have actually made one, SSB would be like 10 years old!

Still struggling between Option 1 and Option 3...

I love my bouncers!

2009-02-13T16:45:00.002+08:00

Can't remember how I survived the early newborn days when FB and SB arrived. SSB, after a few weeks of "sticking" to me, now rests quietly and sweetly in his bouncer.

BOUNCERS are GRRRRRREAT!!!

Especially when I never succeed in burping any of my boys - the declining angle puts baby in a very comfy position so that he doesn't have to vomit, that much.

And I am not regretting a bit for splashing out (well, comparatively speaking, this is indeed the most expensive bouncer the brothers ever had, despite it costs only $4xx) when I know no one is "inheriting" - it saves my day by allowing me to type with both hands!

I think next thing I'll cheer for is the sling. :)

Cure to forgetfulness?

2009-02-11T13:28:00.003+08:00

Every time I thought that FB has finished his homework, he surprised me. Well, he's lying so much that he's believing in his own lies now... not a good sign. Anyway, he said he finished with his work yesterday, but he was still copying at 10:30pm.

"You said you finished your work."

"This is kind of a penalty... I forgot to bring my answer book the other day."

"Didn't you just ask me to write a note to your teacher, saying that I need this to check your work YESTERDAY?"

"I forgot a few days before that."

"So, what is your penalty?"

"3 texts from the Chinese book."

I was almost about to say that good lord... 3 texts, that's about over 1000 words... his teacher is nuts! But then.... oh well, I could have never gotten him to copy his texts anyway... and he does need to as he's bad in revising... so... I held, without saying a work, secretly "thanking" his teacher to force him into this terrible penalty.

At least I'm not the demon this time - it wasn't me who forced him to copy from his textbook.

And I do hope he's going to know why I always emphasise on details, and conformity... he should have learnt his lessons now. Hopefully.

Silly music tag

2009-02-10T07:24:00.002+08:00

Let's see how my shuffle works... :) Got this from mad dog.

RULES:
1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. Have Fun!

IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY?
-- 這雙眼只望你劉美君 (Original is "Can't take my eyes off you.... )

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
-- 惡攪之物麥浚龍 (Literally, someone that's difficult to deal with... too true!!)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
-- 回歸林憶蓮 (Literally, "Love returns"... this game is getting amazingly funny!!!)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
-- 上帝在哭泣王傑 (Literally, "God is weeping"... hmmm... not that kind of a good daughter, am I?)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
-- 後窗知己謝安琪 (Literally, "Soul mate in the back window"... well well well... what can I say? Yes, I think about my friends often!!! but where 's that back window??)

WHAT IS 2 + 2?
-- 再見黃大煒 ("Goodbye"... ??)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
-- 川保黎明燒著軟硬耀司軟硬天師 (OK... I'm not going to translate this, why the heck do I have this track anyway??)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
-- 孤獨的飛王傑 ("Flying in solitude".... oh wow... )

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
-- Orchids, Eric Kwok... (This is a demo track... hmm... so I'm a flower???)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
-- Let me love you tonight, Harlem Yu (HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
-- 無言的山丘黃品源 (This is from a movie... so so funny!!! The movie is in Taiwanese... )

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
-- Lesson 1 of conversational French... (this is gotta be a joke)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
-- 滿場飛楊千嬅 (Well, sort of true as I have lots of varied interests.... )

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
-- 瘋了林憶蓮 ("Crazy" - I'm laughing my _ss off... )

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
-- 找一個地方王傑 ("Look for a place"... for what? Well, it's my biggest secret, isn't it?)

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
-- Isn't she lovely?, Khalil Fong (So I want a "She"? yes... if I had a baby girl... )

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
-- 我是羊楊千嬅 ("I'm a lamb".... hmm... doesn't make make sense this one)

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
-- unhappy hour, 麥浚龍 (For some reasons, this one album got shuffled up twice in this game!! well, there's a baby crying at the background... so kind of true too... baby's asleep that's why I can post this one??)

Pig's knuckle in gingered vinegar

2009-01-29T17:52:00.002+08:00

This is perhaps one of the scariest postpartum "treat" when described in English. There's pig's knuckles, root ginger, and black sweet vinegar and black glutinous rice vinegar, and eggs.

My mom made this. The dish is the traditional nutritional supplement for new moms, eaten and given away on or after the 12th day post delivery.

I, for some reasons, never ate the "real" thing: I don't eat pork and this vinegar - heavily "polluted" by all the precious collagen from the pig skin - will never agree with my stomach. And this time, since I delivered by c-section, I'm not supposed to eat this either. The myth says that c-section delivery should stay away from this otherwise the scar will cause granulation....

I must say if it's not for the pig contents, this treat actually tastes good, particularly the eggs! My mom did make a pigless version for me. As I don't mind about the granulation (who's going to be able to see that scar anyway???), I had some.... let's see how my wound heals later on.

Disposables nightmare

2009-01-27T09:06:00.002+08:00

As much as I wanted to live green and save energy and reduce my carbon footprint, I fail miserably with the new baby's arrival.

Here's a list of disposables that I waste a lot during one single day:

- about 12 diapers per day (yes, breastfed babies do poop and pee a lot... )
- about 1 bed sheet per day (I tried not to use it, but there's a pack that the hospital required me to bring so I'm only finishing them off... anyway, changing bedsheets twice a day is NOT GONNA work!!! Who knows such a little baby has such power to make bedsheets dirty??)
- about 2 to 4 breast pads per day... (again... I can't keep washing soiled bra a few times a day... )

Well... at least I'm not doing any bottles yet, so I'm not wasting as many tins and energy for sterilising...

But then the winter / spring is cold... and I can't afford freezing cold hands... so... hot water, heater....

I'm having a terrible terrible amount of carbon emission!!!! I wonder if there's anything that I could do about it? I can't wash that many diapers... tried that when there's only FB... it didn't work... [sigh] Reusable breast pads? They're just as much of a nightmare... [sigh]

What a fist

2009-01-23T16:56:00.003+08:00

It's kind of difficult to take a good picture of this little fist.

The nail on his thumb is so sharp that our new addition to the family has been scratching his little face with lots of marks... and I finally gathered enough courage to use FB's antique nail clipper to trim that away.

Before doing the clipping, of course, I have to take a picture!

Now here's a deal that I haven't thought thoroughly over. FB is called FB because he's f_t... SB is called SB because he used to be kind of small... now that here's number 3... what shall we call him? SSB for super small boy?

Gibberish gibberish

2009-01-06T11:37:00.004+08:00

So my long vacation started yesterday... well... did went back to the office to handover / review / look into the new year for a couple of hours and spent lunch with a great work team (can't really complain, everyone's great in my team - put it this way, I can "communicate" with all of them without switching to the alien channel at least!).

Half a day went to child rearing (you know that lot: homework, pre-exam, screaming, stopping them from touching anything digital.... ) + cleaning and cooking - all of which I think I could enjoy before. Not really so now.

As much as I like to keep my place clean (which rarely happened during the past few years after I decided not to have a helper), I also hate it a lot when I realise dusts is something no one can ever get rid of! I mean, where the heck did they come from?! So I think I'll stick with dusting every other day during my "long vacation", or I would go completely mad just noting all the dusts lying around.

Cooking is something that I enjoy doing ocassionally, not so much when I have to think about something interesting to eat EVERY meal. But seriously, I am guessing that too much takeaway food and too much eatery food have made my kids more stupid than they used to be. After all, with the same amount of money, home cooking makes a lot more sense - they are healtheir, less loaded with fat and sodium and sugar and who-knows-what and taste A LOT more like real food. Will see how well I can keep up with whipping up 2 meals a day. Ah... and I have to give some work to that abandoned breadmachine too.

One thing that ticked me most is looking after the 2 boys' school work... [sigh sigh sigh... will this loop ever end?] I can't remember if my mom ever ever have to worry about my school work... I don't think so... at least I don't fail a lot (I think about 4 times in total throughout my life?), I usually hand in all my homework in time... and what else... NOTHING MUCH! I did wonder if the "gene pool" has somehow been "diluted" by my better half... ha ha... he said he wasn't like any of FB or SB when he was a kid himself (doubtful doubtful)... Keeping fingers crossed that it will make a difference now that I will be at home for quite a whilte.... I can't really see them repeating this year... If their grades / attitudes don't improve, I think I will be very very disappointed and will question if I can ever make a good mom.... now that gets really worrying.

That "goodie" bag

2008-12-21T21:48:00.004+08:00

I knew it... what a bag of crap... and no kids liked it in FB class.

The thing that I didn't expect was a lot of big and bad mouth. I finally found a Pilot Frixion pen (which costs $23 in a normal stationer's... I got a good discount from an already inexpensive shop so it was about $18...), which is not a bad gift item... given that most parents won't buy such an "expensive" pen for day-to-day use.

And this classmate of his... said... nastily: this crappy pen can never cost more than $3... Luckily, there's another kid who knows the market. He came to FB's rescue and declared that it costs well more than $20.

So there was only one kid who badmouthed.

There, I said it before.... setting a price label for gift exchange is PLAIN silly...

And that goodie bag... I don't even want to look at it... WHAT A BAG!!!! Fillers... yes, I mean fillers... i.e. colour shredded paper with some printouts for "crafts", a small drink, and a few snacks that I won't bother to pick up even when I see it in the supermarket...

They really should have stopped this nonsense.

Christmas present... how can I say no?

2008-12-18T00:15:00.002+08:00

I don't celebrate much about everything, not even my own birthday or anniversary... so Christmas is almost always out of our picture (we're not even religious, so why celebrate??). Until kids are in p-school that is to say.

FB is studying in a Catholic school, so Christmas is supposed to be a big thing for them. The one thing I don't understand about how "big" his school is viewing the occasion is that... how come they need to pay some $20 for a bunch of monkey-crappy-useless-cheap-packed-goods and then still buy a present for exchange? I had this urge last year to write to the principal and ask him to stop buying that "goodie bag" with all badies... but then... I already made enough enemies with his teachers...

Back to the gift exchange idea. I would have thought, as humble as his school always claims itself to be, this silly act should have been abandoned.

Seemingly, some people / some practices never ever improve. So this evening when I came home, FB told me that he needs to bring a present worth around 15 to 20 dollars for his Christmas party.

I brutally asked, "Is it OK if you don't join this game?"

And he said yes.

Frankly, this practice is total nonsense.

What I want to say is... whatever the present is, $15 can only get anyone something crappy. Say, if I get FB something not crappy, the chance that he receive same not crappy thing is totally slim. For example, girls always get plush... so??? And what about those completely unnecessary packaging? Talk about environmentally friendly!!!

And the buying process is kind of funny too... how would anyone buy something that he doesn't like? If he likes it, why on earth would he send it out for exchange, not knowing if the item he gets back is something that he likes? I think what happened last year was everyone unpacking on the spot (very impolite and I don't really expect that being taught at school), and then check if they can exchange that crap on hand with something not as crappy.

Now, how fun and sharing that game is?

I really really really wanted someone to speak it loud and clear: GET OVER THE STUPID ACT!!!! IT'S NOT EVEN FUN.

But seems like I'm the only one who thinks so.

At least, dad jumped in this time, saying that if I don't get him a gift, he's going to be another anti-social kid.

True... I'm so anti-social... and I don't think that's something I should be ashamed of.

But perhaps I should leave it for FB to decide whether he also wants to be anti-social.

I still hold my belief... this gift exchange idea is plain silly. FULL STOP.

In love with navel oranges

2008-12-15T22:27:00.002+08:00

SB has always been an orange lover, but he prefers the really sweet type. I think about a month or 2 ago, the only sweet variety are those from California, which cost about 4 to 5 dollars each. All I can say is, THEY ARE EXPENSIVE!!!

Well, good news is, beginning from this month, we're blessed with the "navel orange" from China. With as little as $10, we can enjoy some 6 to 8 oranges, all so sweet that we all think we're actually eating candies.

I love these cheap produce.

Speaking of the citrus family, must say I can never make sense of all the names of the orangy fruit... my first visit to a supermarket in the UK when I studied there gave me quite a cultural shock. Satsumas? Clementines? Valencia? Mandarin orange? WHAT ARE YOU??? I just want a simple orange!

Well, I don't really care about the names now... I do enjoy all these navel oranges! They're healthy, filling and after all, SO SWEET!

Induction cooker

2008-11-30T15:23:00.003+08:00

I think it's worth a whole post for sharing.

First thing first. My apt and kitchen is so small that getting rid of a double plate gas stove has always been one of my goals for renovation. I need space for my bread machine and cake making and food preparation, and a gas stove is simply too space-consuming.

As a result, I had no second thought about replacing it with an induction (and PORTABLE one). I usually only cook during the weekend, so not having the permanent presence of a stove is just right.

Another good thing about it: my mom cannot mess around in my kitchen any more - she can't make sense of an induction cooker. Call me selfish, but a kitchen should really only allow one woman to own it. :) Well well, later on when I introduce a domestic helper, the story will change.

Some other factors that I chose induction: it is much more energy efficient. Yes, because the heat goes DIRECTLY to the utensils, without much waste to the surrounding, which gas is absolutely inferior. As a matter of fact, my electricity bill, despite having gone up a lot since fuel charges rose, increased at a slower rate than my gas bill. That showed that energy wise, induction is better than gas.

However, for those who are keen on traditional wok-cooking, portable magnetic induction may not be the way to go. Too many utensils go with the plate, especially the round bottom woks, and casseroles. It suits me only because I don't do much stir fry, and the more western pans work just fine for me.

In short, it really depends on the dominant kitchen user. If s/he prefers gas, then by all means go for gas. I have no regret turning induction.

Green IT

2008-11-25T22:35:00.002+08:00

Went to this external seminar this afternoon. One of the topics was "Green IT".

Kind of cliched... started off with definition of climate change, the culprit, then the effect and impact of global warming, and how companies are working towards controlling the speed of warming up... then specifically, the speaker's organisational moves to contribute to the initiative.

Yah-de-yah-de-yah... (yawn)

Well well well... did learn something out of it, e.g. managed printing, those that print via server and some kind of verification, is in fact very very useful in cutting paper use (for those who do not use much, this move actually kills the need of printing.. ). But then for those who need hard copies for whatever reason, not much help.

Data centre consolidation is probably something that I never heard of. Can't imagine how much energy was wasted in the last millenium just to keep the machines cool enough to operate... no wonder someone always mentions that his workplace is a freezer. Now that I recall, uni days were terribly cold too. No, I'm not talking about those actually ambient cold days in good old UK, but in Hong Kong. Lecture theartres, when we measured, read something between 16 to 18 degrees Celcius!

Of course, all these have changed for the better.

Thought of the day: can IT be greener? Doubt it very much. Yes, I know lots of packaging have been redesigned, electronic parts now must be recycled... but honestly, stopping to use more than what is needed is the key.

And travelling too. Not only becuase I'm rather mobility impaired that I don't enjoy / won't enjoy travelling much any more, the guilt of all those unnecessary carbon emission does make me feel nauseous about flying... and sometimes, even riding on a non-mass transport means. But that's just me...

Zhenjiang Pork Ribs

2008-11-24T22:59:00.002+08:00

Recipe as promised. Actually, I call it no recipe, because there really is nothing magical to it! Totally fool proof.

Ingredients:

Pork spareribs, any quantity. For 3 big + small boys at home, usually need close to 1 catty, slightly more than 1 pound. I usually get 2 - 3 strips, depending on how fat / lean the meat of the day is. Tell your butcher, s/he knows what you need and if you're a regular, you'll always get the good cut, and chopped in the right size too.

Marinade: your usual. I normally use some white sugar, some dark soy and some wine. No fixed quantity really. 5 - 10 minutes will do.

To cook:

1. Sautee a few slices of ginger and / or shallot / omit when you've got none in a pan / a casserole. You don't need much oil because later, the ribs will release A LOT of grease. I was once told that never use any stainless steel ware because it stains. I couldn't this time because my home stove has turned magnetic induction.... so it has to be stainless steel... and good news is, it didn't stain a bit! So, if you have a pressure cooker, by all means use that, saves a lot of time and energy too!

2. Brown your ribs in that flavoured oil. When all surfaces are browned, add to your liking, Zhenjiang vinegar / black vinegar as some labels call it, some water and sugar to your liking, just enough to cover your ribs. I always use raw slab sugar (片糖), but I bet other types will work just fine. My family is keen on the sweet side, so usually 2 big pieces (I know, that's a lot).

3. Slow cook for 30 minutes to 1 hour, on the lowest setting of your stove top, covered. Or about 10 minutes of sizzling if a pressure cooker is used.

Done.

I didn't lie, really really no skills at all!

You may end up with a certain volume of the remaining caramelised sauce from the vinegar. DO NOT throw them down the sink. My kids usually use them on the rice. Well... if very very health conscious, I suppose you can skip that.

In the mood for cooking

2008-11-23T22:26:00.005+08:00

I don't care much about presentation. I always think that family dishes are about taste. This fool-proof vinegared ribs is one of those that looks really nothing, but tastes amazing. Put it this way, for a catty of ribs to be slow-cooked for about an hour in a wonderfully fragrant black vinegar and brown sugar that allowed caramelisation to take place, any meat will taste good.

OK, I'm not really in place to judge, cause I have never tasted my own vinegared ribs. Yes, I stayed away from meat too long ago, but because my boys love it, I keep making this signature dish from time to time.

And yes, gone in seconds.

Next time I want to make anyone fat, I'll make this one. I just can't believe how much they can finish in one meal!

On laziness

2008-11-13T23:31:00.002+08:00

There are 2 reasons to be lazy as a kid:

a. I already knew what has been taught, so studying hard is pretty much useless.
b. I won't do well no matter how hard I try.

Only in-betweens will actually go and study.

At least the above reasons and observations hold true for my entire family.

It really get on my nerves when the boys are doing any studying, even when I am right there watching them.

FB, usually is lazy because of reason a. As a person who reads quite a lot (just not in English yet), he actually knows a lot more than what's taught in textbooks. We can expect a word or 2 that is really witty from him from time to time, although he's really stubborn and just won't listen to any of my suggestions. I was checking his English workbook this evening. He left quite some blanks empty as he had no idea how to fill them in. Fair. He shouldn't have acquired that sort of instinct about word use from those less than 100 words texts in his school books anyway. So I taught him a few ways and tricks to see which word fits. After about 2 to 3 examples, he could already get most of the rest right. There's my boy. He can't be stupid. He's just too lazy to use his brains, and it's more time efficient to listen to my 2 to 3 examples than studying himself.

SB, on the other hand, is usually lazy because of reason b. He didn't study the multiplication tables by heart during summer when I told him to, and that's why he's suffering from inability to do division now. He's very frustrated, especially when he saw all the crosses I put on his assignments. But wrong is wrong. We've been struggling for about 2 weeks now on the subject of division (he's really weak in math), but stubborn SB (guess where the kids get their stubborness from?) still hadn't study his multiplication. And we were, spending evening after another to get his homework right... [sigh] He just knew he couldn't do it...

What's my say.... to be absolutely honest, life-wise, basic math is probably not that much of an essential skills when calculators are so handy. But it's always nice to have, especially when every minute counts in an exam. Knowing these by heart always always help to finish the test papers. Spending SOME effrots to know these numbers by heart, in the long run, helps one to become lazier at a later stage. But my kid is not in that stage yet, and I can't blame him for not being able to understand.

Perhaps I should again "teach by example"? (I know I don't make a good one) Show them the best way to be lazy is to work hard now, because comparing to the average life span, say 70 years, 10 years of hard work isn't really much.

3 options

2008-11-10T23:05:00.002+08:00

Called Canon's customer care finally. I don't think I could ever retrieve that invoice... found one for my PSP and my PMP though... I know it's somewhere, but hey... life is short, really.

So I've got 3 options:

1. Check again and see if from manufacturing date, my camera is not yet 2 years old (doubtful). The CS lady was glad to help this afternoon when I called. So I better remember to take the serial number with me to check again. Might be able to get free inspection and repair after all.

2. Forget about 1, and repair it anyway. The inoperable flashlight is really getting on my nerves. I do have an external one, but using it every time I need to take some shots is absolutely annoying - and VERY HEAVY. Not to mention I need to remember to charge 4 AA batteries...

3. Forget about my external flashlight, and see if there's anyone on the market that can be used without additional batteries and cost less than $300. Yes, that's the inspection fee and repair will be quoted separately.

I'll do option 1 first.

FINGERS CROSSED!!!!

Ticker of the day: lost and not found

2008-11-09T11:12:00.002+08:00

They do say stop looking and it will be found.

I bet that's so true.

I just realised that the warranty of my beloved Canon 300D has NOT YET EXPIRED! I even found the confirmation letter of my extended 2 year protection plan, every warranty card and all.

But then, the invoice is no where to be traced.

With less than 1 month left, will I make it to dig out the invoice and get my flashlight fixed for what I already paid for???

Will Canon be so kind to allow me to have this service without showing that stupid original receipt?? (I mean, come on... I know I'm a bad filer, but who on earth keeps a ___dy receipt over 2 years?!)

Parental control rules!

2008-11-05T00:44:00.003+08:00

I'm so fed up with SB's addiction to Playstation Home (OK, who's fault is it now? Mine, I know.). Apparently he met with someone "nice" and my "techie" kids just happen to learn every new trick to exploit the social platform from their newly met friends.

He's too young to be doing these!!! Who knows what kind of info he's going to leak to all these people who he has never met in his life?

So, I've tried hiding away the controlllers - they stay at home long enough and they just know where I've hidden them (again, apartment is too small to keep any secret).

I've tried screaming and begging them to stop playing from the other side of the phone while I'm sitting in an open plan and extremely quiet office. Didn't work.

I've tried banning them from using the computer or the PS3 until they've finished their homework - they just finish everything very carelessly...

THE ANSWER TO MY PROBLEMS AND WORRIES: PARENTAL CONTROL!

Yes, very simple, just set a password and don't ever tell anyone, any game without age restriction information / with an age setting will now require THE password that no one but myself know to access.

HURRRAY!!!! I win at last!!! Can't wait to see how SB reacts tomorrow when he realised EVERYTHING is locked. Now I have to remind dear husband to do the same on his computer, so that FB can't play online games anymore.

Well, to be fair, both of them finished all their work before I came home today, but still, spending too long on these things is not right. I barely have half an hour on games myself, so that can't be spoiled.

How to do it:

http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/settings/security.html#1080

How did FB end up in his current school

2008-11-02T23:47:00.004+08:00

Not so long a story. We weren't planning to pay a ridiculous sum of money for the kids' supposedly "free" and compulsory part of their education, so we went for the "lottery". He didn't get enough luck, and I didn't do enough research before drafting my wish list for the lottery, and there he went.

What I didn't like most at the beginning was the geographical location. Sometimes, maps and addresses can't tell the whole story. I only knew it was in the same district I lived, but had no idea that it's along one of those steep stairs! I could not quite hold my jaws close the first time I visit the school and could not blame myself enough that I did not even check in the first place - well, let's say I was really optimistic that after 2 rounds, he should have gotten the first on the wish list, but that's life.

The school he went to now was actually placed in the 2nd place, because, as the information sheet compiled by the school said: it has a big enough number of places, and some over 90% of the school's teachers are Graduate Masters (i.e. that have uni degrees... no offense, I always think that grads are bad enough, and if they only come from IEd without a formal degrees, the situation could be worse... ), and pictures looked OK.

WRONG!

On top of the really bad location, the school's facilities are pretty awful... no proper playground (OK, must admit that I was spoiled because my alma mater was situated in a superb location with playgrounds so big that I got lost on my first day...), desks are old, no drinking fountain on each floor, and the washrooms on each floor could only cater for one of the genders... now that's how bad it is. Not to mention the mix of students... hmm... let me put it this way, most of his classmates are at least 2 to 3 years older than he is... I think I don't need to explain why. I taught before and I know it's a nightmare when a class comprises of students with that kind of mixed abilities: the smart ones don't need teacher's attention no matter which school they go to; the weaker ones, say, about 40% of the class becomes the average and most attention goes there; FB, lower-middle, in the end, never gets any motivation to do better, as most classmates aren't doing well. The boy just turned in his latest quiz and yes, he failed again. What got on my nerves is that, he doesn't seem to care too much about failing... [sigh] May be I should just learn to live with the fact that he's just not going to do well academically....

I tried very hard not to link this with the environment he's in, but I just can't. I even wondered, if he has gotten lucky in the school place lottery, would he have become better?

Still hiding but truly flattered

2008-10-31T23:16:00.002+08:00

Both work and family have been extremely crazy this week. Best not rewind to mention / record what had been going on or I'll be feeling as miserable again every time I revisit those posts.

So, I'll have one week of blank memories here. Fine by me.

It's always surprising and flattering to know that these mumble jumble are actually read by some distant yet close encounters in the web space. I know it sounds cheeky, but I am truly grateful for all the comments left on this virtual journal of mine. I mean, look at the length and depth of all the comments left in the previous posts!

Now that reminds me of all those posts I promised to write and share but not yet happened:

- my mom and my grandma;
- how I failed to pick just the right school for my kids;
- how did I actually learn languages.

I do remember all those rain checks and am keeping fingers crossed that next week, I can start to squeeze some time to entertain these bored pages.

Closed beta test

2008-10-23T23:53:00.002+08:00

IT WAS FOR REAL!!!!

I missed out the beta for Little Big Planet, but then tried to submit for this one in the latest round.

WORKED!!!

Downloading.... should be fun.

Last minute revision

2008-10-22T23:53:00.003+08:00

I've been so forgetful lately... didn't realise FB has his English quiz and Chinese dictation tomorrow... and we were working on his worksheets to fill in present perfect tenses - to signify that "Tony" has done something mom has told him to, with 2 before and after pictures side by side.

Fair enough, not a bad exercise that the teacher picked. At least explained one very common scenario for the use of that tense.

And as monster mom, I asked FB to look up his grammar cheatsheet for the past participles that he need.

Tough luck. None of the irregular verb that he needed was there!

He needed: tidy, sweep (only 5 blanks I believe).

There was a list in his grammar book, but no, sweep and tidy weren't there.

So I tried to find a dictionary for him - only later to find out I have none that comes with THE list of irregular verb forms that were so readily available when I studied English at his age.

Hmmm...

So I went on to look at my own grammar books, and of course, they are waaaaaaaay too difficult for him (for me also sometimes... I almost flunk that grammar module when I did that MA... ha... no wait, did I take that module at all??).

I don't believe it, I don't have any list of those at home!!!!!

So here are some bookmarks for myself and FB and SB later on.

http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/verbs.htm : sweep is there, tidy not... well, but tidy isn't irregular... silly me...

http://www.theirregularverbs.com/verbList.php?page=1 <= with spanish side by side!

http://www.esldesk.com/esl-quizzes/irregular-verbs/irregular-verbs.htm <= lovely list.

On mistakes

2008-10-21T22:38:00.003+08:00

How would I deal with them?

Admit, learn, move on.

In the past, I was keen on finding the so-called root causes, identify possible ways to eliminate these and stop recurrence. Now my direction has changed.

The longer I work, the more I realise that mistakes don't recur. In fact, they mutate every single time, and that's why they happen in the first place. In other words, looking for the root causes doesn't work well, at least not for me.

So my new motto: admit, learn and move on.

Admitting is one big step to face what's done wrong. The young me would find lots and lots of excuses, which was really lame. Everyone's busy, and no one would ever be remotely interested in listening to excuses. On the contrary, rectification is what's most needed. At the end of the day, we all only want to get tasks done.

Learn. Yes, not learn from what caused the wrong, but learn how mistakes derive other mistakes and make sense of the consequences. MUCH MUCH MUCH more alerting than a checklist!

Move on. Yet something easier said than done. Two choices: drag on and grief over mistakes; or learn and move on. I'm going for the latter.

Homework struggle, again

2008-10-19T22:59:00.002+08:00

I didn't want to hide, but I can't really afford the time to write down something every day. It simply is no longer possible.

Seriously, any working mom who has two p-school kids that haven't become child delinquents deserve a Nobel prize. I mean, holding up with all the struggle to just get homework done is hard enough, when these kids are determined not to pay attention at school.

I mean, if I were them, probably I wouldn't have paid attention at school either - mom got all the answers already, I might as well just let my soul leave the classroom while the teachers are babbling. Mom won't give me all her time unless she has to sit down and deal with my home work anyway! She's always complaining about having no "me" time. I reckon since she already hasn't got any, I might just use up her remaining minutes so that I can spend time to play dumb and get all the attention I need.

Those are my kids. And I just spent my very last 2 supposedly-to-be-tranquil hours screaming on top of my lungs to sit down, correct all errors created in the past two months that still haven't been fixed.

I wonder how their teachers see me - a failure mom? A mom who cares nothing about her kids?

I really could have chosen the easiest way: give them the answer and call it a day, but then karma is definitely going to come back and haunt me for the rest of my life. I did it the hard way: taught them that they're failures at school and now I'm suffering. I made them cry for being a monster that did nothing but blaming; I made them study the whole chapter again just to figure out the theme of that chapter and then to find out what's expected in the actual homework, just to answer 2 fill in the blanks question.

And that's how I wasted 2 hours that could have been used for my own rest / relaxation.

And I still doubt if that hard way is going to yield me anything - probably they're going to loop again running the bad cycle, i.e. not listening in class and wait for my tutoring, I mean those 2 hour crash course to supplement / replace their entire day at school. Don't forget I have 2 kids... and that my day doesn't really end until 8 (when dinner's finished)....

I do wish they can understand me better so I don't have to go through this everyday.

I really don't want to introduce a tutor for them. I know I will lose track of their learning progress, but seems like that's one of the possible ways to regain my sanity?

How did I learn English?

2008-10-17T00:24:00.003+08:00

When I look at the boys' English worksheets, I couldn't help but frown. Yes, none of the answers are correct, whatever the exercises were about.

They have no concept of tenses.

They can't make sense of prepositions.

They can't make a sentence right.

Not to mention question construction.

Despite how much English TV they watch everyday, no word / sound has entered their ear canal. Not only can't they reproduce some simple words, they just can't say anything longer than 4 letters.

That wasn't nice. I really wanted them to at least write / speak / read better than I do, but from what I can see now, it's very unlikely to happen.

Must say this was kind of funny. Neither my mom / dad speak English, but here I am, an extremely weird person who finds writing English easier than do so in Chinese. At least I feel more comfortable about the whole process. At least I can make a living out of my English writing. I obviously didn't learn any of my English from my parents, but how did I make it happen?

Was it all those grammar drills I did when I was in primary school? Was it about my crazy ears that are so very sensitive to verbal sounds? Was it because I wasn't afraid of a foreign tongue? Or was it because I knew young enough that the language is important and I have to use it well to live a decent life in Hong Kong? Or was it simply because I have done well in it and people in all directions are reenforcing me to do it even better?

(I thought someone studied linguistics, didn't she?)

I really need to find a way so that my boys can master the language better. It's just so annoying to keep seeing them doodling in their taskbooks and assignments with nonsense words.

But I can't blame them... perhaps English is not that important after all these years? But then their Chinese isn't good either? May be it's a girl / boy thing?

DUH... I'm always thinking too much.

FB's best sketch so far

2008-10-13T00:09:00.003+08:00

Can't remember how many lessons he went to. This is the best one so far. I thought it was a bottle, but it's not. It's actually a Chinese dessert mold with a bird carved into it.

Not bad as a wallpaper?

2008-10-12T23:37:00.002+08:00

I love lillies. Didn't do anything to this pic, but I think I like it very very much.

6 random things about myself?

2008-10-12T00:00:00.002+08:00

1. I'm a pretty good tag starter, but then I end tags better. (See what I've done now.)

2. I don't eat any creature that has a voice.

3. I'm always worried about my weight, but not really doing enough to control it.

4. I have too many unopened discs lying in my apartment.

5. I love video gaming, but I am a real bad gamer. I need to read instructions word by word before I understand how to operate. (My sons beat me, they can play any game without knowing what's described in the cues!!!)

6. I think I've just paid the n-th time of financial charges because I forgot about my bills... :(

Built-in flash went dead

2008-10-11T22:47:00.003+08:00

Almost every time I enrol in an extended warranty programme, the product will have something not working almost as soon as the warranty expires.

Call that bad luck?

This time, is the built-in flash of my lovely DSLR. Just checked it was actually bought in DEC 06, so it's almost 3 years old now (not bad not bad.... well worth everything). So warranty expired last DEC... it's not until today that the built-in flash doesn't work all of a sudden.

Sent a mail to customer care and will see how it responds.

Luckily the connection to an external flash (is that called the hot shoe???) still works fine and I'm glad that I have an external flash ready. Just don't like the idea that I might need to bring yet another piece of peripheral every time I need to take pics... :(

1Mth visit reached

2008-10-10T23:17:00.000+08:00

I didn't notice until now.

For the records.

UK post is super speedy!

2008-10-09T22:12:00.002+08:00

I don't believe it.

Placed an order for a DVD set last Friday with amazon UK, I have it in my hands now. A total of 7 days? The dispatch mail said it went out of the store on the 4th, so that made it 5 - 6 days only.

I'm impressed!

Lesson from my bosses

2008-10-08T15:14:00.001+08:00

Say it loud and clear, without unnecessary polishing and stuff like that, when I see something's not done right.

Admit the error when that's been pointed out.

Do not try to avoid a blame - no one is interested in the root cause.

Come up with a solution and move on.

There's a first for everything

2008-10-05T21:42:00.002+08:00

Like this first trial of pretzels:

I don't quite remember when I made the batch, as promising as they look, they're hard as rock. Another reminder for myself that I should NEVER ever take any dough out of my beloved breadmachine, as I simply can't make anything work outside of it... oh well, the pizzas went well, but that's pretty much the only success I ever had with breadflour outside of the machine's tin.

And here's my first chiffon cake:
As unpromising as it looks, it tastes heavenly. Picture can't do it justice. It's so light yet so full-bodied. There's nothing but sugar, eggs, flour, oil, salt and baking powder, but the result is incredible. It took a lot of work to mix (should have used a sieve or something to save time) the yolk mixture, it needed a second bowl for the meringue but efforts well worth it.

I mean, this is, I think, the first time someone actually asked, "Did you bake that cake? It is good." Someone usually just digs into my chocolate cookies, which are sugar and butter filled and which can't taste bad. Someone usually eats without leaving any comment. Worth to record that he's actually asking and he has actually said it's good.

Time is precious

2008-10-02T21:56:00.002+08:00

That I know. But using this to boss people around is just not nice. I'm talking about I-know-who. Because his time is precious, he has to waste mine to compensate.

EXCUSE ME! Every has 24 hours a day, not a second more, how come one person's time can be more precious than another person's?

I really really hate to hear someone saying that.

If time is that precious, then:

- please don't give me crap to process, it's a waste of my time, and yours;
- please don't waste time to chase for your crap, there really is no point;
- please have the courtesy to read your emails and communicate clearly there, follow up phone calls are a complete waste of time, because you dont' know how to speak over the phone without annoying the other party.

DUH...

I sometimes wonder about the importance of language in the workplace. It just seems to me that there are quite a number of cubicle workers who don't need to speak properly, who don't need to comprehend other people, who can create crappy reports one after another, and still manage to get promoted to relatively high positions.

What have they done to deserve that?

Because they've used up the precious time of small potatoes like me?

SB has been heard

2008-09-30T00:22:00.004+08:00

Principal called Monday evening.

- She thanked us for bringing up the issue, which was dealt with positively.
- SB's case has been discussed with parties concerned.
- Principal was glad that we understood the difficulties of class discipline, but agreed that certain actions should not be taken.
- Teacher was informed about what we knew she did that day. Principal reminded her what was not right.
- Teacher understood what she can't do in the future.

That was already good enough. Case closed.

New week

2008-09-29T00:32:00.002+08:00

As expected, I was too tired to record anything substantial after that SB event. We finally wrote up a letter that SB is going to take to the principal. As written in it, we are not asking for revenge / penalty of that particular teacher, but the principal needs to know what is going on in her school.

Started shopping finally! Got most of the stuffs needed for the coming months (clothes wise). But children outgrow too easily, we're only getting the bare necessities. Plenty of time ahead really.

Also sent out some paper for the new helper. Hopefully she can arrive before 2009.

Not too bad a week. And what's greater, waking up in the morning, it'll be a new week!

When have teachers become such &@(@!&$# ?

2008-09-22T22:39:00.002+08:00

It might be just me... seems like my kids are always so "lucky" to have one or two teachers like this... still investigating what really happened, but body contact aka corporal punishment is way beyond acceptable, not to say that it is right to do, whoever the punisher is. I hate myself when I need to spank the boys.

I was shocked in misbelief about what I've heard from the boy. Apparently, that teacher who can't even get her subject knowledge right has been using sticky tapes on their ears, and have threatened to do the same to their lips if they don't stop chatting in class. The sticky tape is swiftly removed, causing even more pain when they did stop chatting. Honestly, chatting isn't a crime, and it does not deserve such a punishment. That "pat on the shoulder", as described by SB, is nothing light. I tend to believe my boy more than the teacher who rang up during office hours to "confess" that SB might come back home and tell me that he got hit by a teacher. Afterall, if she's not feeling guilty, she wouldn't have called. What's worse, SB's not the only "victim", seems to me that other "naughty boys" were treated the same with the sticky tape. This is serious. And it means that my boy isn't the one who's having emotional issues by screaming / pretending to have an asthma attack after getting the "pat", but the teacher herself.

I'm still considering what to do about her, as I simply can't take what I've heard from the boy. If he lied, then the teacher must have done some other things that had hurt his feelings so bad for him to have come up with such horrible tricks. He's too young to even have any close thought about this. If he didn't lie, then she can almost be counted as devilish.

I'm so confused now. I want to warn that very teacher about the fact that I know what she did. I need to listen from her about why she stick tapes onto children. She needs to know that is wrong. But I would sound threatening, and that means SB won't have an an easy year, unless she got sacked. I want to report to the principal directly, or even escalate further if needed, but I need proof, and proof at this stage is difficult to get. At least I need to ask if other classmates saw what happened... and since I'm not a staff member / volunteering parent at SB's school, there's no way I could go near other classmates. Calling them from home is an option, but that doesn't give me solid proof, and it would scare other parents if that's not really what happened.

I need a strategy, badly.

Magic moments of the day

2008-09-18T23:52:00.002+08:00

Kicks are amazing, especially when someone else can feel the same.

FB loves the kicks, so does SB.

I like them too. :)

To subscribe or not to subscribe

2008-09-17T23:12:00.002+08:00

I have bad luck with Torchwood. Every Monday when I wanted to record the programme or watch it live on BBC Entertainment, something happens. Either I forgot about the start time, or the recorder simply did not function for no reason.

Like this Monday, I did remember the show time, I did press the buttons, but turned out nothing was recorded.

FINE!!! I'll just set the timer for the next re-run, during midnight then. If no one's messing with the remote control, then it should be alright.

I had about 45 minutes free time this morning, great slot to kill one episode. So, on it went the recorder. All I got was...

one still scene with the Weakest Link. No sound, just one still scene.

WHAT WAS WRONG???? Halted set top box?! You can't do that to me!!!

And then I realised, BBC Entertainment, and AXN and the whole Discovery Package, was actually part of a "buy-one-get-one-free" offer given to me when I subscribed other channels. In fact, I specifically wanted the first two, but got talked out by the sales person, that it's better value if I choose these 2 to be the free ones, as they're kind of expensive, comparing to other channels.

True!

Now that when I look at the price, $35 for a la carte BBC, and must subscribe for 12 months... that'd be more than $400 for one channel, and that would mean if no good show is on, those $4xx will be money down the drain. The same money can get me about 20 movies on VCD... or more if I rent.

House S4 just finished, and there' s no other show that I want to see right now... so I'm not too bothered. But BBC... it really requires luck that I can actually view the shows I want, provided that they don't crash with other shows on other channels, that I remember the time, etc etc.

I only know that Dr. Who S3 will be on soon.... may be I should get a box set DVD for that then???

Guilt of air conditioning

2008-09-16T23:55:00.003+08:00

So my electricity bill has become astronomical... (ok, that's an exaggeration). I have the weather to blame.

I still only use the fan at night when we're asleep, but otherwise, the air-conditioner is on whenever someone's in. It was on until 10:30pm, and I feel oh so guilty. I actually felt like I'm adding another hole to the ozone by not switching that off earlier.

But then when I did my final dish washing to call it a day, I just realised I wasn't really overusing resources. With no gas on, the tap water was as hot as that we use for our shower. What's wrong? Even retained heat in the water tank on the roof can't keep it warm (I'd say hot) for that long, can it?

I'm really worried about our climate and global warming. Seems to me it's getting very very bad. Echoing with what I started, we used to pay less than $400 per month, even during peak of summer. Now, towards the end of summer (did we not just celebrate "Mid-autumn festival"?), the bill has gone up to nearly $700... that's a very very alarming message. It's not just about money, it's about everyone contributing to making mother planet hotter than ever during summer, and colder than ever during winter... situation is only going to get worse... I really need to figure out how to delay whatever harm I've been doing to the globe.

Can it rain?

2008-09-15T22:52:00.003+08:00

I don't usually like it to rain, but really can do with some rain now. The dryness is killingly uncomfortable. I can't even remember the last time I woke up in the middle of the night to get a sip of water so that my throat and nasal cavity won't dry off.

There's used to be the saying that Hong Kong's hotness is unbearable with the humidity. Now I learn. Heat with NO humidity is even more annoying. I guess every one is on the verge of getting sick with such dryness and heat... and where have all those bugs and mosquitoes and stings come from? I haven't been bitten by anything for a very long time, but my limbs and torso are both covered with insect bites (at least I guess that's what they are). Itchiness just isn't fun!!!!!

Dear whoever is up there, do give us some rain!!

Holidays holidays holidays

2008-09-14T23:42:00.002+08:00

Great that I've got 3 bank holidays for the weekend.

Festivity is so much hassle: all those cooking and dinners and washing up and I-can't-bear-the-dust-in-my-house moments made me more busy than usual.

Glad that there's still one more day left. Now I could do some serious rests. I think I can at least still till 8 for real tomorrow morning?

Keeping fingers crossed that I can stay zzzzz for that long.

Dear blog...

2008-09-11T23:45:00.002+08:00

I am not abandoning you, but sparing you from listening to my whining for a couple of days. I am just too tired.

I promise I'll put something with at least some significance later on.

Just not today.

I'm too tired.