June Holidays

June Holidays is over. 

Not an exaggeration to say M&M each clock 10 hours of screen time daily. We squeeze in some leftover hours for other activities like:  

 

Patching

Register Mother and Daughter in a “How to Patch Holes in your Clothes” workshop at the National Gallery. Thought this is like Kintsugi, a broken object can be repaired with Gold and make useful again. Celebrate the cracks! Reality is more banal. Workshop is exactly what the name suggests, the practical skill of mending holes in garments instead of throwing them away! Oh… somehow this feels less cultural. But hey, we have no idea how to patch holes so let's do it. 

M&M wear hand me downs and my average garment is 10 years old so plenty of holes everywhere to patch. From where Megan is seated, she can even see a hole in the groin area of the jeans I am wearing!!! Is it bad? … Yah… You helping me mend it at home right?

 

Little do we realize, my jeans have two holes!!! 

It is a warm feeling walking by her room to see her mending my jeans. A typical scene should be this: 

Loving mother straining her eyes by the candlelight to mend clothes for her kids. Well done YY, I have completely reverse the scene to daughter laboring for the modesty of her mum. With Love. But tsk tsk, Megan sews really well in the class but obviously all skills forgotten once put into practical use at home. Refer the case to grandmaster and after inspecting the sewing skills of her granddaughter, declares this garment not worth saving.

Oh mum come on! Jeans are supposed to last forever and this is my third pair already!!! FINE, she says, she will take home to machine the whole area… In the meantime, buy a fourth pair! 

 

Staycation

Bought tickets for the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibition. Ally is gonna punch me for saying the exhibition is ok only… not spectacular…. But, anything to keep kids screen time within 300hrs a month. 

Ken tags a Staycation to the exhibition since “we travel such a long way to Sentosa already”.

Best Best Best pool fun ever. 

Universal Studios. Not easy to cater to a teenager who is starting to enjoy cool rides and a Morgan who needs to learn how to scream out loud in fear. I am too old. I cannot scream so I just cry. 

 

端午节 

Coax Mimi to make zongzi. 

Shopping with her for ingredients is super fun, especially seeing her call the old vegetable stall uncle “小弟”. Classic Act of the Grandmaster. 

So many things to prepare. She mulls over buying cotton strings vs twine as we are not skilled enough for bamboo strings. That is before she finds left over raffia in my storeroom. This woman hates nothing more than left over bits and pieces of stuff tucked in corners of the house. “If I buy new strings, you are going to have 2 ball of leftovers strings for the next 10 years! And what is this 7cm bit of ribbon doing here?

So raffia becomes the wrong but eventual string of choice. Mimi spends a dedicated day of boiling them to rid the chemicals and washing every blade of bamboo leaves (which allegedly is done by Morgi – so hard to believe).

Fast forward to THE WRAPPING DAY. Kids are excited. 

 

Megan, being her 2^nd or 3^rd time wrapping zongzi, is already a skilled labor.  Morgi does not need the figuring out process for his first time and goes straight for it. With courage and little hesitation, he does amazingly well, except for tying.  Amazingly well until… eating time when Ken bite into a zongzi with 90% rice. Where is the meat? Morgi did you wrap meat inside???

M&M make origami zongzi to distribute.

Meggie goes on a Dragonboat rowing trip during school camp! Morgi and me are totally left out so we can only draw with imagination. 

 

Then suddenly, June Holidays is over. Morgi says "Mummy, I am so depressed". I know he is certainly not referring to all the fun activities that are ending but that the internet hours are going to be severely cut! Back to the grind children! 

Family issues

Winds of change comes faster than my lousy mood. Was complaining about rain in the last blog and the latest trend is Hot HOT HOT. Natural air is so bloody hot that merely stepping into an aircon car or a mall send me sneezing. 

 

SEE SEE SEE! Wearing sleeveless and sneezing again! Ken concludes I sneeze when my pits are unprotected by tank tops. “Cover up! Your pits are catching a cold!” Impressive observations and such indisputable correlation causation… I like. 

My husband is indeed a person of Science. He even conducts a scientific experiment to prove his hypothesis by blowing on my pits and command “SNEEZE!”. Unfortunately, my pits dun understand English. Chinese Ed, as my mum will say…

 

I like to believe I am a person of Science too. For example, these days my feet feel heavier, am totally struggling to lift them up to walk to office. I sense Mother Earth evolving. This freak weather even exerts greater gravitational pull than usual. I share my exciting observation with Dotter. Was roasted.

 

“Mum, I think it is more likely the increase in your mass causing greater Pull of Attraction.” 

 

Burn. Teenagers can be so mean. M hurt. 

 

Ken dismisses the blatant misinformation by explaining that “gravitational pull is constant, does not increase with mass. She is using bad science to body shame you!”. Damn it… who to believe? Meggi complains that my Architecture degree is not helping her at all in school science, BUT she is not asking that Chemistry grad in the house either!!! Chain of suspicion and lack of trust… we need to re-visit some old family issues.

Studious and inquisitive me, borrow tons of library books, turn on the aircon, notebook at my side then struggle to understand Newton or the whole logic of it all, diagrams and sentences. Eventually I yearn under pressure of late charges on every single Physics library book, clocking at a whooping S$9.70!!!! 

Honestly my feeble brain can only understand Youtube videos like “computer scientist explains Zero Knowledge Proof in 5 levels of Difficulties”…. I mean I can understand up to the first 30%.... hahaha… Google and ChatGBT, you are not helping much!!

Da most beautiful face in Chinese period drama is on Netflix again… invite Dotter to enjoy the view together but watching period dramas with her is so exasperating. “Why he cant’t just tell her he likes her?!!... everyone can see through this disguise… why all the old people have so much hair?... why she….”

 

Wait a minute… old people with so much hair … yah you are right!

Ancient Chinese men figured something out… Is the formula lost? 

Because one day I reach home and puke on Kenneth’s new look. Call me Oppa. Sorry, no, Cannot look at you for the next two weeks. Why oh why? Gives it more oomph, hide the receding hairline… Yahhhhh… But so oomph that neighbor's son notice woooh and come asking where he gets his Korean perm done. Wah…

I shall spend more time with people who make me feel better about myself – MORGI, WHERE ARE YOU???

He is in the world of CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS now. And he has his first crush – Erica Wang. It is quite a serious crush because mention the name and he blushes and shy away. Then he starts asking me for her phone number. Who is she? New Chinese neighbor?  What do you want to tell her? … “I want to tell her she looks good. Her hair looks good”. 

Oh… there you are. Erica Wang…. Nice Hair…

 

And yes, such beautiful mother and son bonding session will suddenly see the other nice hair person wedge himself right in the middle. He declares himself CAPTAIN UNDERSTAND with the snap of the fingers. Tra-lah-laaah! 投其所好也不用做到那么low吧。

 In other news, I have nothing else to do in my life so I eat eat eat…Captain Understand too. 

A tiring start to 2023

I think it is a good time to blog about the past 70 days. Since I am tired, exhausted, spent… sick at home and need to rant. 

“Singapore to exit acute phase of pandemic” – MOH

 

Life suddenly plunges back to normal. And OMG do I dislike normal… 

 

Work from home is no longer the norm. The forgotten yet familiar stench of tired humans on commute launches its return assault like a persistent ghost, bestir nauseous memories as if they are worth remembering. Shoes permanently soak by daily torrents reminds of the miserable human condition: to suffer in silence with wet socks, wrinkled feet in cold damn damp office. 

 

Office moves to Cecil Street.

 

CEO says designing and renovating your own office is the worst job ever because everyone has something to say and no one is truly happy with everything. Hence, like many shitty projects, it ends up on my plate, testament of his beliefs that I am blind + deaf to needs of the masses and the multitude of first world problems would likely prove entertaining to my practiced dispassion. 

 

My undisturbed state of mind, to my surprise, is easily shaken by a small problem called Defects. Defects - something I could easily photoshop away during Covid, now, physically staring at me for a solution. Staff physically staring at me for a solution. Contractors physically staring at me for a solution. URGH…… Humans and problems, WALK AWAY…… I miss Covid already. 

 

TwoSetViolin

 

What bizarre fate would drive me to click on a classical violin channel when everyone who knows me can attest 92.4 FM gives me a migraine. 

 

Maybe Brett and Eddy (plus Uncle Roger) are too funny. Throw in Maxim Vengerov and I feel I should at least pay to watch such quality content. Soon my Spotify is taken over by Tchaikovsky, Bach and Vivaldi (no, no Spring)… Stostakovich too, but I risk streaming hot tears for no good reasons when his pieces come on. Especially awkward when I am in the train with strangers. More awkward when I realize nobody bothers to look in my direction as I demonstrate the delicate balance of angst, despair, fear of death and yet perhaps without the strength to live. 

 

Inspired. Should I learn a musical instrument now? I pour my dilemma to M&M. My good old boy tries to give me clarity:  

Yes. Win a LUCKY Ipad and $100000000000. 

No. Falls down and minus S1.

Very helpful indeed, my son. Yes, a mind map helps. I start mine: 

You ask, as a product of a Singaporean Chinese mother, how can I not have some music background? Yes, there you have it: 

Me practicing the piano during my Primary school days. Check out my happy face, how much I love the piano. Passion without talent ends up in frustration. Not enough passion and no talent, why start?

 

Interestingly, Ling Ling* becomes my source of motivation for many other things. Just thinking of the many Ling Lings out there practicing, practicing, and practicing, I feel I am in no position to slack. 

 

Let us all be sick

The number of trips to the doctors these few months is staggering. 

 

Mr Morg, takes on the legacy of his father, bitten by an insect and warded. Check out their very similar hospital experience: 

Every other week, my logistics go crazy fetching people to the docs. Convincing Mr Morg to return back to normal schedule after recovery is another level of work as he will spend his day sticking a thermometer in his mouth, collapsed in bed whining “I think I am too sick to go to school tomorrow”. While dealing with Morg’s lousy acting, there will be a Megan who is truly sick and myself who is falling sick. 

 

What a tiring start to 2023… Hope things get better… 

*Ling Ling is a fictional character created by Brett and Eddy, she can be described as a perfect prodigy violinist who defies known universal laws by practicing 40 hours a day. Ling Ling started learning the violin as a fetus and won international competitions at the age of 3. Aka, the bane of every musician, exist to make them feel simultaneously inspired and devastated. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

This year's Christmas was special because we decided to head to Netherlands, Belgium and Germany to experience winter, Christmas markets and lots of train rides. First stop - Haarlem because we are not big city people so smaller towns like Haarlem is perfect. 

There was not much tourists in Haarlem. We felt really at ease being part of the local scene. Great town...

Second stop -The Hague, since it was on the way to Belgium and Madurodam should be fun. Did not have great expectations of The Hague but what a pleasant surprise. The beach with its whimsical sculptures humorous, Legoland got the kids super obsessed, nice walks in the park, first tram rides, simple local playgrounds, charming streets cemented happy days in The Hague. 

Was never keen on Belgium after being robbed at knifepoint in Brussels during my backpacking days. But this trip, we arrived in Antwerp and I was blown miles away! Pretty Pretty Pretty!!!! Jaw drop. 

The architecture, scale of the city, vibrancy and diversity of Antwerp was delightful. The vibe electric yet chilled, everything was just nice without being overwhelming. I was in love...

And food was awesome! To die for Belgium mussels, Belgium waffles, Belgium fries and not to forget Belgium chocolate!!! Megan was so impressed by Chocolate Nation Museum - how a narrative can be presented so differently. Morgan only cared about the chocolate tasting. Fun Fun Fun...

Antwerp had much more to offer and we would come back again another year but now was time for Ghent - a city Kenneth has been raving about for years and finally I see he had good reasons. 

Ridiculously cold when we arrived. Temperature just plunged to new sub zero level again. Everything was misty and foggy and freezing. How romantic. 

We were not anticipating winter markets here but as the evening approached, the squares came alive with ...wow, our first taste of Christmas.. It was amazing. 

No matter how freezing cold we were, we were hitting the streets for churros, sausages, potatoes, hot chocolate, mulled wine and plenty of carnival rides. Happy children, happier adults (after dropping frozen kids back into bed and heading out for round two).

Got lucky catching Klefki - a uniquely French Pokemon, since we were so close to the French borders... 

Cologne's Christmas markets are famous and our whole four day itinerary was nothing except busking in the Christmas mood. We were not disappointed. I wish I was in the ice skating photos but after crashing face down onto a three year old gal in the rink, traumatising her ice skating experience for life, I decided it was safer for me to hang along the edges holding onto M&M's water bottles. 

Ahhhh... My favourite Heinzels Wintermarchen... maybe it was the house of elves, the piping hot street snacks, the beautiful crafts sold, the outdoor ice rink or the sudden snow... Thumbs up to Cologne's reputation of best winter markets. 

It was an excellent trip. Could not have asked for a better one, even with crazy disruptions on every single ICE train (hello Germans, what happened?), non functioning room heating in -2 deg, three of us catching winter flu and fever... 

Sometimes we needed a change of environment to realise how independent our kids have grown to be. Megan was the reliable big sister,  taking care of Morgi in more way than one. "No you can't do this, no you cannot do that" so often that Morgi came complaining that "Jie Jie disrespects me". 

Morgan had no problem adapting anywhere he went, his main concerns being checking toilets and demanding every stranger who stepped out of toilet cubicles to answer "did you flush?". 

This will be a holiday to remember for a long time. Time to plan the holidays for 2023!!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone...