"Because I'm awesome!"

Owain's spouting lots of these little gems these days and KH thought I should put this on the blog. There's this cheeky, in-your-face, snarkiness about this boy. Unlike his sober and more restrained older brother, Owain is full of boyish playful exuberance, loves his kung-fu moves and greets me by going: "Haaaaiiii-yah!!" He loves physical horseplay and loves to annoy his older brother and sister. He says the darndest things that always threatens to make me explode with laughter even when I am trying to be stern, and he really exasperates us all because he usually has a smart-alecky comeback that leaves the other party sputtering in the conversation. I think he's very much like Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes.

He's also the only one in the family who has decided, quite firmly, what he wants to be in life already. The others are still waffling along, but this boy seems very sure and sounds determined - very cute!

This little exchange took place the other day between us :

"Mummy, I am going to be prime minister one day!"

"Yeah? Why?"

"Because I have one million burps in my tummy!"

"So? Why does that make you special enough to be prime minister?"

"Because... I'm awesome!!"

"Hey you know, prime ministers have to be elected. What if the people don't want you to be prime minister?"

"Then I'll get the police to arrest them all!"

"That's a dictatorship and the police are not going to be happy. Very likely they will arrest YOU instead!"

"Ah, then I will call the army in and arrest the police too!"

"The army? What if they also listen to the people and to the police?"

"Oh they won't! The army does not live in the city. They live far away so they don't know what's going on and so they will come when I call and they will listen to me..."

Okay by this time, I'm just rolling around laughing. All I can think of is, pity the Thais didn't have a guy like him on board. There would be none of that Suvarnabhumi sit-in rubbish for sure! We're looking at the next Big Dictator here, heh...

Malaysia trip report

Maybe because its a case of 'been-there-done-that' already, or possibly a trip that's a tad too long - 14 days is the longest we've spent in Malaysia - but I found this trip to be a bit blah. We mostly visited the places we'd been before, the exception being a longer stint on Pangkor this time.

What was more interesting for me, was to turn travel critic and critique the various places we stayed at during the trip. Either I am no longer enchanted with Malaysia and hence, am more demanding and critical, or their standards are really not up to speed. I will post the reviews on the Big on Trips site.

Accomodation and hotel standards aside, I did enjoy the food, as always, and the shopping. There was a nation-wide sale going on. With the generous discounts and the low ringgit, we had quite a lot of value-for-money purchases. I bought a cute orange and pink Baby Gap swimsuit for Trin which cost me RM19.90 or SGD$8.40. We bought original tee-shirts from Diesel and Bum Equipment as Christmas gifts and these averaged about RM24.50 or SGD$10.80 (after a 50% discount) apiece. A green hooded sweater for Caitlin was originally RM65, but after a 50% discount, it went to RM32.50 or SGD$13.65. Gillian needed wearable tees and shorts (her dad drew the line at micro-minis) and we picked up 2 pairs of shorts for RM60 (SGD$26.21) and three funky tees for RM50 (SGD$21).

After days of subsisting on hawker fare, we decided to have some sushi at the conveyor belt chain Sushi King. This was at KLCC. We took up two tables and polished off more than 40 plates of sushi. I think the total bill came up to RM160 or SGD$67. This was not unusual to us. Whenever our family eats at conveyor belt sushi joints in Singapore, we tote up a bill of about SGD$120. So at SDG$67, this was a real bargain. The people at Sushi King, from the wait-staff to the cashier, could not believe their eyes. They had to double count the plates to be sure. The cashier also commented that this was an all-time record for them - they'd never seen so many plates at one go! And this was not some out-of-the-way joint in a backward mall which might not see this kind of action - this was KLCC! I almost wanted to take a bow.

Have to say though, that I would not eat at Sushi King again. The salmon was raw, yes, but it did not look right - it looked like it came from a manufactured, long-frozen slab of fish - stiff, a bit flakey and orangey-pink.

The other meals were more memorable. I discovered a yummilicious stall in my usual food centre haunt in Malacca that fried up a delicious plate of sambal belachan razor clams. You know how it is when you fall in love, or when you get an Eureka moment? When all the elements of the universe meet and are at one for the first time in a long time? THAT is exactly how I felt when I took my first mouthful of the sambal belachan clams. I honestly felt like weeping for sheer joy! Seriously, I was literally moaning as I ate! Slurped up every last bit of punchy dark red belachan sauce with my rice. You could choose the type of clams you wanted so I had a combination of razor clams and bamboo clams. Simply fantastic stuff! And all for the grand total of RM8.00 (SGD$3.36).

Since we're talking food now, I'll just zoom through the rest of the foodie highlights.

We also had fantastic dim sum in a grungy coffee-shop in the heart of Georgetown, populated by an incongruous mix of ah peks in singlets and tycoons wearing linen and rolexes. A hearty meal of pau, har kow (fat and thick with prawns), carrot cake, and other assorted steamed tidbits which cost us RM49 or SGD20.60 for all of us!

In Ipoh the novelty of Ong Kee's silky Ipoh hor fun was wearing thin after the nth time we'd had this (which is pretty much every time we're in Ipoh) . It was as smooth as ever, sliding down the throat in a sweet, savoury chicken broth, paired with the caustic bite of green chilli padis in soya sauce. But for us, I think we were a bit jaded. The next night's meal in a nearby hawker centre called Hilltop Cafe, met with greater enthusiasm from the kids. And yes, the food was rollicking good too - we called all the usual suspects - fried kway tiao, wanton mee in black sauce, satay and fried chicken wings. The meal, as all meals at the hawker centres, never went beyond RM30 max (SGD$12.60).

In Penang, we paid homage at the usual food destinations - Lorong Selamat's fried kway teow and ice kachang (topped with creamy vanilla ice-cream and always generously coated in milk unlike the Singaporean versions where I usually have to request for more milk), Pulau Tikus corner coffee-shop, another corner coffee shop off Jalan Burmah with its fabulous Hokkien char (they pretty much fry up any type of noodle, any way you like it. But in Penang, eat as the Hokkiens do and try the traditional dark brown Hokkien version!) and of course, we like the restaurant at the Chinese Recreation Club. We had assam curry prawns, steamed tofu topped with a dark mix of minced pork, mushrooms, salted fish and chives (yummy!), roast chix, sweet and sour fish (nicely done with the batter thin, the slabs of fish fresh and generous in their portions!).

The kids had a gala time, sleeping at midnight or past one, glued to the Disney channel. We don't have cable at home, so this is their only time to wig out on cable! They also enjoyed a lot of pool or water time - pools at the resorts we stayed in, and in the waters off Pangkor.

At Pangkor, we visited Telok Nipah - nice soft warm beige sand and family-friendly beach. We also paid about RM70 for all of us to perch onto one teensy boat with an outboard motor which zoomed us around the waters to an outlying island where we saw plentiful sea urchins and sea cucumbers beneath deeply emerald waters, and then to another island where the kids snorkelled and fed fish. I had a hard time keeping Trin on the beach (not quite a beach - very rocky with lots of dead coral and unfortunately, substantial rubbish and broken glass so we had to tread very carefully). To placate her while the others snorkelled with KH, we stood ankle deep in the shallows - and even then, there were tiny fish coming up and swimming around us. The kids were enthusiastic and Cait said she spotted clownfish in the waters. KH said the water was dirty though and visibility not as good as it should be. Also, the corals are dying. I think tourism in Pangkor is killing the golden goose that lays the egg. Too many jet skis, too many tourists, too much rubbish and debris.

On Penang's Batu Ferringhi, this is the same sad story. We could not even play on the beach and forget about the kids building sandcastles because idiotic parasailers could come flying in at any minute and land right on top of you. We tried to take a walk on the beach and in less than 10 minutes, had to clear the way for parasailers landing, no less than 3 times. Each time, the handlers would be yelling at people to get out of the way or look out for incoming parasailers. The parasailing also looked dangerous to me because people didn't seem to know how to land safely. We could hear the operators yelling instructions to the parasailers who either didn't hear or didn't register the instructions because they all landed in a tangle of legs flat on the sand! You also had to look out for people on pony rides, jet skis zooming in and out of the water... It was chaotic, noisy and just impossible to sit on the beach and enjoy it. Okay, not that there was much to enjoy anyway since the water was murky brown! After 10min on the beach, we gave up and went back to the hotel pool.

Malacca as always, was a haven for us, but we could not use the pool - it had turned an alarming shade of radioactive green! But familiarity meant comfort and we always feel as if we were coming home whenever we step onto Malaccan soil. This trip though, even Malacca threw up surprises - we spotted no less than 8 monitor lizards (large ones, mind you!), fat mudskippers and an interesting brown bird with long legs (don't know the name) in the mangroves of the Malacca River, right in the heart of town. The almost 2-km walk on newly constructed board walks was a real treat. Even in Sungei Buloh, you don't get to see so many monitor lizards, so we were really enthralled by the sight of so many. It took us about an hour to meander through the walk, but after a hearty meal of wanton mee and prawn noodles, this bit of exercise was just the thing.

Okay, detailed food and hotel reviews on Big On Trips coming up.

My week as a SAHM

Lolita has returned from her 3-week long vaca in the Philippines - thank God! First thing she did when she saw me was to grin and say: "See? I said I would, and I did!" She was talking about us being sceptical that she would come back. We have had helpers before who went home on vaca and never came back to us, so understandably we were a bit sceptical about her coming back to Singapore. Well I am glad that she proved me wrong.

Our Malaysia trip took up 2 out of the three weeks that she was gone. But that still left me with one week of SAHM-dom.

To tell you the truth, I was apprehensive - could I hack it? Five kids. Laundry. Cooking. Dishwashing. Sweeping. Mopping. In one endless spin cycle. My mother shook her head worriedly when she found out I would be maid-less for a while. A good girl friend grinned and summed it all up: The tai-tai finally gets to work the kitchen - good luck pal!

The first couple of days were hard. Lots of gritted teeth with the mounds of laundry etc, especially with post-trip laundry. I tried to ignore the grotty floor initially but after the 2nd day when we'd been home, we were all going about with blackened soles, so I decided that enough was enough - cannot avoid mopping and sweeping anymore. So I bit the bullet. The first time I did it, I was dripping in sweat by the time I was done - but I felt good. Not as bad as I thought.

We also tried to eat out a lot but found that to be costly and boring after a bit. So I tried cooking. Honestly, I have not cooked for a long time but its like riding a bike - you never quite forget. I was apprehensive about burning rice though, since I can't quite remember how much water to use. But it turned out fine - soft and fluffy enough.

I enjoyed the cooking and the kids had nice things to say - bless 'em! But the killer was the washing up. My gosh. By the end of the HOUR - I kid you not - I was seriously contemplating installing a dishwasher. Never mind the higher electricity cost and the water outlay. My back was seriously killing me by the time I was done. Yes, I could get the kids to help but I also suffer from being a bit anal about processes so I'd rather DIY than risk gunky or broken crockery at the hands of the kids. That first time after that massive washing up, cleaning the sink etc, I think I suffered an allergic reaction. That night, in my sleep, my left hand itched and burned incredibly. I remember scratching and rubbing furiously in a semi-sleep.

By the end of the week, though, just before Lolita came home, I was actually falling into a nice rhythm. Sweeping and mopping on alternate days early in the morning, then enjoying the morning papers before the kids got up. Doing the laundry - putting the clothes to wash, hanging them out in the sun to dry, the fresh smell of sun-dried clothes, ironing, folding etc. There is a nice rhythm to this that I really enjoyed.

I certainly enjoyed cooking. I was even beginning to tolerate dishwashing. On one of the days when I decided to play hooky to maid-dom, I brought all five kids out with me by public bus to Parkway Parade. We had sushi at Sakuraya and then ice-cream - and we had a nice time. Trin had become used to me pottering about in the house and in the kitchen and I to her, being around, playing with the clothes pegs, pots etc. And for the first time in a long time, I had a lot less computer time but I didn't mind.

"You know," I commented to KH. "Its not so bad not having a maid around. I could get used to this."

He agreed and we indulged in a brief one-minute fantasy about what it would be like to be maidless. I would have to quit my job, and the house would always be messy around the edges, we would have our own privacy back and the kids would bond with only us and not a stranger etc. It was perfectly do-able.

Of course that fantasy evaporated in a puff by the 27th, the day after Lolita came home.

I lay in bed, the sun on my face, a warm baby next to me. And the thought came: gotta get up and sweep/mop before the kids get up. And the next happy thought hot on its heels: Nahhh....

And that, dear friends, feels so sweet!

Just catching up

It took about 14 days of being away in Malaysia for me to get some persective about the whole PSLE thing. So here I am, back and feeling more my old self.

The posting results came back and yes, Isaac was confirmed a place in St Gab's. We met several SJI Jr boys there too and Isaac discovered that about 10 of his classmates are here too, so this is good news for him. The principal seemed like an okay guy, not as firm or as dynamic as the St Pat's principal, but a good guy who seems to be doing good stuff for the school as well. They are going for autonomous school status and look likely to get it in a year or two, which will be good for the school. The Parent Teacher Support Group looks like a fun bunch of people, and I generally get good vibes. But for me, I think I am wearing too many hats already so I don't think I'll sign up as a volunteer.


We bought his uniforms, his books etc and it came up to more than $300. For Lit, he's doing Charlotte's Web and Street of the Small Night Market. For someone who now reads 'big boy books' from Garth Nix, Anthony Horowitz, Tom Clancy and Neil Gaiman, I think he might find the adventures of a pig/spider a bit kiddy. I hope that will not dampen any budding interest in Lit. I greatly enjoyed Lit classes and I hope he would too. Also flipped through his other text books - Geog and History look really interesting (though I wonder, with the Internet these days, one can get so much more out of Geog than what a mere text book can offer) and the Math made my eyes glaze over (but then it always did and I was happy to pass 'E' maths at 'O' levels with a C5!) but the Science looked more fun than it did when I was in Sec 1!

He's due for an overnight orientation camp and he's looking forward to it. I'm glad he's feeling more positive and hopeful. And I'm glad I'm feeling better and more optimistic too. As they say, just have to keep on moving forward. Looking back only turns you into a pillar of salt after all.