Life in 2021 (Before 2nd Lockdown)

 The first 4+ months of 2021 is full of actions.

The CEO who hired me retired. My president took over as managing partner and talk about busy. But in this hive of activity, I found the best work buddy I can ever ask for - my current CFO. Ever so patient and willing to teach, I sit with him daily to download challenges various offices are facing and discuss solutions. He in turn explains everything in terms of finance, audits, taxations, insurance, transfers etc. Finance has never make more sense to me before. The joy of learning… I LOVE it.

Great news. New helper is here. Bad news, her cooking skills are slightly non-existence.  Good news, after tasting variety and different flavors, she shows keen interest to explore new recipes, a fast learner too. Now she boils a mean soup and excels in last night’s sweet vinegar pork ribs. Awesome. Life is good again. Ken can pursue more soul satisfying activities than scrubbing porcelain and gathering hair in the bathroom again!

Life is rosier for Mimi who completed her knee replacement operation. All the fear inspired concerns telling her she will need bed rest for 2 months made her anxious, despite her surgeon reassuring her that she should be able to take a bus home herself after the operation. However she starts walking on Day 2 and is practicing climbing stairs on Day 3. By week 3, she was out and about and back home living her independent life again. Way to go old mother! Mountains are awaiting you after this Covid is over.

While she stays with me, she discovers Mr Morg’s enormous passion for Chinese! Bet none of you have met a kid loving 听写 so much. Introducing Morgi who finds heaven in Chinese dictionary, writing Chinese words and Chinese reading apps. All credits to his Chinese teacher – his fav!

The same cannot be said for his sister and the bizarre state of affairs of P5 higher Chinese. Bravo to MOE for finally outdoing themselves in terminating every student’s possible interest for such a beautiful language. Shame.

Mandarin aside, Megan is having a blast with Class Dojo Conundrums and Ted Ed videos. What innovative ways to build critical thinking skills! Megan also joins me to watch the online debate show “I can I BB”.

Perfect timing since P5 starts debate season with “Mac Donald’s is better than KFC”. I say there is no fight, of course. KFC is TOP!!! Apparently her whole class wants to be in proposition team except her… I listen in horror that no one in opposition brings up whipped potato when Mac team highlights the glory of French fries. You pathetic debaters!

Out of the blue, Megan exclaims that her classmates bring delicious snack boxes to school and she too, wants me make her one daily. I can imagine her “sian-ness” when her partner pulls up cold soba with tempura in the classroom, chatting casually to her while slurping noodles from the soba dip (she is only missing the ice!) while Megan sighs and bites into her nutella sandwich. My poor baby… You know what? Game on!

Went in search of snack containers (bought 3 becoz I got over-excited). One request from Megan leads to half my girlfriends embarking on this start-the-snack-box-movement (since all our kids are around the same age) and contents of group chats shifting to “can eggs last 6 hours in room temperature?”

Megan has never been more excited and happier to head to school! Ken shakes my hands and tells me good luck for tomorrow after Megi comes home on day to happily narrate classmates crowding around her Japanese bento box, going “wow”.

Art and Craft in this household continues. Morgi has the genes and Megi to my surprise, is pretty good at drawing too!

Cheap blank masks, clay piggy banks, root cut outs. Art Friend actually sells cheap items for kids to decorate and paint on. Cheapest hourly cost to park the kids away from the computer ever.

A postcard of leisurely fishing in the lotus lake.

With time at hand, I rediscover my long lost skills of watercolor painting. Bring it on, my other group of bored buddies say and they either start their own craft projects or meddle in mine.

Project Paint A CNY greeting card for the year of the OX.

Except. I only know how a diary cow looks like. What color is an ox? An ox is a male cow right? Only male have horns so I just add horns to a black and white milk cow? OMG how little I know of this animal.

LL        : An ox is the male cow but castrated so yah black and white is ok

JY         : Ox is a cow that labor for many years, like a cattle. Picture shows them yellow because  they are covered in earth and dust coz they work so hard! Their actual skin color is different…

LN       : I think burgundy is the normal color. But sure, black and white can be the new normal.

IP         : Male cow is called a bull ok… I think Ox is a different species of cow?

KP       : Actually it is the year of the golden ox. It is golden!

AX       : YY, that is a Texan buffalo, I swear.

No wonder they are my buddies… Intellectual level strikingly similar.

Exercise… Except for Ken, our attempts at keeping fit fall below the line of despair disappointment. I sign up for blading class though. Coach is wowed by my awesomeness on wheels, I am one of those 传说中的 legendary talents he professes. 

Megan rolls her eyeballs, dying to spill the beans on the evening “tuition” classes she has to administer so that her mum does not lose face. Anyway that is before I fell backwards and my 推拿 masseur wonders why I subject my old bones to this dangerous sport… Nag nag nag…. Recovery is surprisingly long… I am still in pain…. Ouch… But legends bounce back after setbacks and soon M&M will eat my dust and go “mummy is too fast, cannot catch up”.

 Oh…. 2^nd wave… semi lockdown starting today! Urgent need to pull rainbows out from my A again for the kiddos….

Bye Bye 2020

2020 would always be remembered as the year of the Covid and WFH. Knowing friends who lost their jobs, unable to reunite with families due to travel restrictions, had relatives who passed away due to the virus, we consider ourselves sailing through 2020, However with my industry being severely impacted, my end royally screwed with both hospitality and aviation hitting the longkang, for the first time in my career, I fear for my job.

 

Work from home at the dining room table was disruptive. Everyone passed by and everyone wanted something. People called and the first sentence was" oh? you are not working today ah?". Kids went "mummy where is the remote control?". "Lift up your legs", Ken would mop the floor when I most need to concentrate (but hey... kudos for mopping the floor !! I love you.)

To cope with being cooped up at home, Ken bought a new toy. I don't know how to operate it since the whole point of drinking coffee is to get out. And anything with movable parts register a broken history in my hands. Ken went YES YES YES stay away from my Nespresso....  Snacks from “values that last” apparently are great stress relievers too. 

Mental health should be given better attention this year. 

I saw a gentleman in the park suddenly moth into a raging manic stalking and verbally abusing an elderly man who refused to wear a mask. I heard upstairs neighbor screaming death threats at some random barking dog and the tirade of "i will murder you and your whole family" went on for 30 mins with a background music of smashing objects. 

Depression and sucide amongst people I know not that uncommon this year. I myself fumed uncontrollably every time that Ferrari engine revved downstairs and I wish everything ill happen to that asshole so I do not need to suffer that pretentious noise again. 

Friends told me a survey conducted in school showed that many students felt life meaningless and wanted to die. Even Megi came to me often with " I am bored/ sad/ angry and I don't know why".... well so did I when I was in Primary and Secondary school!!! Welcome to being alive!

There is nothing wrong being bored, sad, angry. There is nothing wrong to want to aim a rotten egg at the Ferrari since it is well within my aim. (I was stopped by Ken who told me I can't afford to pay for the damages)... It is what we do about it. (ok money more important)

The biggest beneficiaries of WFH are M&M. I had never spent so much time with the kids as I considered myself simply not good with young children. 2020 undo my perception of myself as Morgi grew sickeningly attached to me. 

"Mummy mummy, I want mummy" a thousand times a day and I did not roll my eyeballs and give him the death stare! I impress myself with my patience.... I leveled up! 

Even spouses could get jealous because Kenneth was supposed to be the kid's person (legend has it). Now he upped his game in Nov by introducing LEGO Technic and all kinds of Star Wars and Super Mario set that can be remote controlled by the tablet. Looks terribly fun but stand aside YY, there are movable parts... 

Fine I stick to what I do best - ART. OMG son's drawings improving by leaps... My genes are amazing!!! 

Even Megan who has never shown any interest in art surprised me with a fantastic canvas at Splatter. LX said her work looks restrained and sophisticated while mine is just vuIgar splashes of color. 

Towards the end of 2020, Morgi transferred to a new school at the advise of his psychologist. The new school had been nothing short of awesome and the amount of celebrations they organized were simply unbelievable. This is a school that knows how to have fun.  

Even 2 boxes of cupcakes brought in for kids to share at mealtime can turn into an epic birthday celebration. If we had any concerns of Morgi integrating, his cheeky smiles and all the "I LOVE YOU" from his classmates swept all worries away. It was really four months of wah WAH WAHHHH...  

 

Is this the right school? Is this a better school? Did we make the correct choice? I think these are the wrong questions. At different stages, he needed different things and we needed different support. We would be totally clueless without EIC at that time when he couldn't eat or look at people when he talked. We would not know he adapt to friends and bigger groups so well without Kids N Kins. And maybe because there were so many interesting daily interactions with friends that he started telling us about his day. 

2021, Morgi will move to a new school again (4th school). Gifted or not gifted, the amount of work to get him pass this first stage is the same. So excited for his new school... Anyway it is his journey and he is leading the way. We are all mere supporting cast cheering him along. 

Somewhere in the middle of the year, mimi gave me a fair reminder - Megan felt too matured for her age, too considerate for others and sensitive to others' emotions. I need to remember that she sees and feels my focus on Morgan plus my frustrations with many many things and this 9 years old has been sharing my burden to become part of my attention too. Hmm... Mimi is right.

Ah my little gal.... I must remember to let her know I love her so much! 

 

 

It turned out that I did not need to wait till 2022 to sit back and enjoy M&M cooking for me. These kids are fast at picking up kitchen skills but this sushi lunch took them one and a half hours to get ready and I was starving. M&M did great and MMM cooking/ baking had to be one of the highlights of 2020. 

At the close of the year, I did my favorite activity - throwing things away to make space. It was time to let these old dirty A-Z felt/ cloth books I made for Megan more than 10years ago go. I let Morgi write on them one last time and said my goodbyes. 

2020 was such a unique year. We were handed free time. We were forced to face ourselves and people we live with. Without these conditions, we would not be able to see the changing needs of Morgan. We saw. We acted on it. We should be proud of ourselves since most people will just continue lamenting and change nothing because to act upon something is scary and tiring. But looking back, all I could remember were fun and laughter, trials and errors. 

And look where we are today. 

Cheers 2020. And bye bye. 

Covid-19 Coming to the end of...

It is coming to the end of Phase 2.

It is coming to the end of Orange.

It is coming to the end of the year.

Xianger and kids over for Pizza and chill

A very risk adverse Megi grumbling non stop about the potential fire hazard of carrying lanterns and getting bitten by mozzies on night walks verses a "I must carry all the lanterns I can carry and do my mandatory walkabout" Morgi.

Halloween makes Morgi very happy 

Mogi has grown up a lot in the past few months. Taller. Cheekier. He requests to change his toothpaste from Kodomo Grape to Colgate because he is a big boy now and what is the fluoride level of Kodomo, mummy?... Where is this come from? Also,  he officially joins his sister in the lifelong collection of fallen teeth. 

In breaking news. Morgan has best friend problems. 

"YS does not want to be my best friend, I don't want to be YS’s best friend because now JP is my best friend"… his miserable friendship rant goes on daily, much to our amusement. 

Ever since finishing his sushi art work, boy has been asking us for his first Japanese food. Where is the sushi man? Points to the menu. "I want that red one, tobiko. That orange one, salmon and that yellow one..." Turns out, other than the raw salmon, he loves sushi and Tobiko is his fav! This boy is growing up to eat just about anything - curries, coffee, stews etc.  Super adventurous with food, and to think one year ago, he can only swallow bread, white rice, steam fish, pork rib soup and prata.  Now, he is making his sister look like a rabbit. Way to go, son! 

Since we are on food, I set up an IG account all about food. Tatsuya likes so many of my posts that I am sure he is secretly following me! (Why can't he just follow me? Alex says Tatsuya is big shot so I should follow him first then he will follow me back, that is how IG works.) Ha... I aspire to this level of pettiness! 

In a funny way - cooking liberates me. Knowing how to cook gives me a sense of control - that the kitchen and fridge are mine and I can plan what I and kids want to eat. That sense of control, ability to move things my way is so important for my mental wellbeing and my sense of home pride. Control, even a perception of it, is comforting. This, I believe, is why I cook. 

My patisserie chefs are both earning their keep as well. 

Massive chocolate discount inside T3 so.... 

. 

Fruit tiramisu is now a staple in the household. Chef Meg also makes a mean luncheon meat bun

Talking about luncheon meat. I was queuing up in Sheng Siong that very moment Man in Pink announced CB and people around me started to murmur "lockdown Lock Down LOCK DOWN", I quietly slipped two cans of luncheon meat from the nearby shelf into my basket.  WE WILL RUN OUT OF FOOD!!!! Ever since that day, I have been progressively stocking up on luncheon meat but we hardly ate any. I counted 6 cans of luncheon meat in my cabinet so now, luncheon meat buns feature aggressively on the menu. 

Chef Morg is proving to be the king of patisserie. Here he is, demonstrating his first apple pie with poise and ease. He wants to showcase every step including stealing the knife from me to slice the apples... No.. No... NOOOO...

The apple pie is just too delicious that Chef Meg also starts to bake the same thing! When the taste is the same, one can only level up with aesthetics. More is more. 

Government or rather some ministers encourage citizens to take up a second job for better job security... Mere patisserie is not going to cut it, M&M need to double up and show me dumplings, ratatouille and I hope more. Target 2022, I can sit easy and M&M make lunch. 

We watch the cartoon Ratatouille but Morg is so not interested that we fast forward to the scene where the rat makes the dish of ratatouille and Linguini serves it to Ego. 

Comprehension time! 

Mummy: Who actually cook the dish ratatouille? Linguini or the ra.....

Morg : Me! I cook ratatouille! 

(roll eyeballs, waste of a cartoon)

I am still upset over my failed bake-a-frog-bread. Megan suddenly produces a lego frog. Easy wat she said.... wow wow wow....  I do not take competition well so must one up her with an elephant. 

Next. Buildings. Bet she cannot beat a trained architect on this. So of course I win round. In the end, Megan abandons her structure and starts to build a story into my building instead

Roof - Aspiring actress looking for attention, waving to non existence audience on the street below. Megan takes half an hour trying different hairstyles and outfits on this character so it better be awesome. 

Level 3 - Photoshoot going on. You can see the photog holding a large camera and all the flash lights in the studio all making the model look shiny and beautiful. 

Level 2 - Megan says guy is very pale. Likely dying from covid. All is not good. But I designed blooming flowers at his window latch so evidence is showing that guy is pale by nature and waters the plant regularly. 

Level 1 - The battle between Thor and some star wars character. Treasure in the form of a flaming sword is in the bin. Think they are fighting over it... 

Morgan enters the competition too, though he is a bit off the brief. It is a landscape with tall trees and suddenly water comes and washes all the bushes, plants and people away. ok.... thank you for the morbid storyline. It is a story, nevertheless. 

Bits and pieces of Morgan's daily necessities like his comb and Dyson vacuum cleaner can be found all around the house. He copies daddy and uses his Dyson to vacuum his toys. Megan too, has high tech glasses and stuff lying around. Without Kar Kar, the house is no longer spick and span. Lego at every corner waiting to bite into our feet. 

We have not done much with the kids. Processing speed games nil. Worksheets bare minimum. The Language Fundamentals assessment book arrived but I don't even know the difference between nouns and verbs to guide Morgi so this will be Kenneth's baby and progress is at a snail's pace. 

With helper gone, the past months have seen Ken and me stretching our time thin between housework, kids, jobs etc. Activities with kids drop to a low with little time, little energy. But life without helper opens many positive opportunities and we see many things. Life is still great. 

Megan’s interest in the latest US Presidential Election is strong. She glues herself to the charts and suddenly ask me one day why I mentioned that people are more educated at the east west coast than central. You mean the beach makes people smarter?

It sparks off a whole discussion on how cities are formed and tracing old marine-time shipping routes, why certain cities grew important and powerful. How trade prosper coastal areas first, leading to better education, healthcare, intellectual and cultural exchanges, more blues (ok I am sorry) etc. How development then expanded along rivers into the inner plains.

Morgan’s globe stand really helps us visualize as we start to discuss the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, how lucky the geographic location of Singapore is and what if Thailand decides to dig a canal and cut us off… All very interesting, schools should really start teaching geography in Primary 4….. 

But mummy, why would Thailand do that? Why cut their country into half to help others cross faster? And why can’t goods move by land, then no need the Suez Canal at all, goods can travel by land to here and ships can pick up the cargo facing the Atlantic….. 

Errrr…. Hmmm.... Nice chatting with you by the way, you may refer to my sifu, Youtube for the answers....