Mothering Corner

I hope that all of you had a great reunion with your loved ones this Chinese New Year, and I am glad that we did! Even if I couldn’t be home with my parents, but we had a short reunion in December, and I’m sure that they will visit us again.

This year, hubby’s family flew here for reunion again, and it’s our 4th CNY in Thailand. How time flies! It’s great to see each other again, even though it’s only for a couple of days.

They were in time to warm up our new place, which is not totally ready yet. I don’t even have a proper kitchen sick and had to wash the dishes with vessel sink at the bathroom! Chinese believe that we are supposed to cook in our new kitchen, but then again, my kitchen stove has not been installed. *slap head*

Oh well, it’s time spent together that counts. I’m glad that we had a good time, and it’s another joyful celebration for all of us.

As for my condo, the renovation is still on going and the workers promised to install the kitchen sick and vessel faucet, and install the piping for my washing machine. Honestly, I’ve lost confidence in their empty promises and losing patience with their lack of efficiency. I would do everything on my own, including changing the  vessel sinks, fix the flooring, stick on the wallpaper and etc if I know how to do it!

Ok, it’s bad to be grumpy during CNY. I must keep my cool.

Happy Chinese New Year!

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Contribution by Kennith Griffin

Who out there loves a good movie? I absolutely love a good one- and I love even more going to the movie theatre. However, with movie prices like they are now, it’s hard for me to justify taking my three kids to go see anything! By the time my husband, kids, and I leave two hours and 16 minutes later it has cost us over forty dollars! Plus, I always want to buy popcorn and a soda which leaves you at least twenty dollars less rich, too! I never thought that just going to the movies would cost me sixty bucks! Then if my husband and I want to go and hire a babysitter it’s even more (plus we don’t get to spend time as a family). Even though it’s so nice to be able to do the whole ‘theatre’ thing every once in a while, what I’d rather do is just turn on the television at our house, turn off the lights, pop some one dollar popcorn, and spend time together at home. That’s why I went to direct tv deals for new customers to research how to get movies delivered right to our television. It’s saved us so much money, and we LOVE IT!

It’s my second attempt in creating a dragon bento, especially after my boy said that the previous dragon looked like a cow.

Due to time and space constraints, I decided to make a speedy bento with sandwich balls and quail eggs, instead of fulfilling my boy’s wish of having this dragon.

I would be out of my mind if I want to fix that dragon!

So, instead of picking a kyaraben challenge, the mom decided to do a simpler one.

Another dragon bento, with sandwich balls, quail eggs and fruits.

And a girlie dragon for my gal.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

The kids and I are down with running nose, which I suspect it’s not only due to flu bug but also the dust and mess in the condo. With the renovation going on still, the condo is quite dusty, despite my effort in cleaning up as soon as I reach home. I can’t do it during school or office hour, so the kids have to endure the mess with me, while waiting for me to clean up the mess.

I need a good edible get well present! Please send me some nice basket of fruits.

Things are not going as fast as I expected. My kitchen is still not ready!!! It’s just a hassle trying to prepare breakfast and bentos in the morning without a proper cooking area and a kitchen sink. Sigh…

But then again, my kids are still pleased with their meals, even if the mother can’t seem to do much kyaraben as planned. I wanted to fix a cute dragon with mini wiener but it didn’t turn out what I had in mind. LOL! Pardon the zigzag cutting line on the dragon as I cut the wiener with a spreader, instead of a proper knife. That’s how unorganized my kitchen is!

Year of Dragon Bento

Since the dragon doesn’t look like one, I spelled it out with cheese. LOL!

I must admit that my bento skill has deteriorated  after the long rest.

Kids have started school again after 3 months of “holidaying”! I’m back into packing after school bentos but I can’t do much kyaraben. My kitchen is not ready yet, and the renovation is way much delayed!!! As you know, millions of houses need reconstruction after the flood, so most of the construction workers are quite busy with projects, and they keep on accepting new orders without finishing their existing jobs. >.<

Anyway, I’m just trying my best to pack some food for the kids and we are still trying to cope with the new routine, new route to and from school, and our new place. Living in a condo is not that bad, except that kids don’t have a garden and playground to run around in the evening.

Their school has not fully refurbished too, but at least the classrooms are fit to be used now. I can’t check on my gal on surveillance cameras online anymore, but she should be doing fine. Kids are surely glad to be back to school.

Simple bentos

I hope that I can at least make a CNY themed bento. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that my kitchen will be ready in time!

My kids are coming back next week and we will be off to Chiangmai. After numerous trips to Chiangmai, I’m not sure which place should we be visiting this time, except Royal Flora Ratchaphruek Chiang Mai. My parents will surely enjoy the flowers.

Maybe we should visit the national park of Doi Inthanon. It seems to be pretty cold uphill, so I shall pack  fleece jackets for the kids. If I’m really out of idea, then we shall revisit the zoo, Night Safari and Tiger Kingdom again.

When I first moved to Thailand, I didn’t know much about the language, and so I had only minimum conversation with the office staffs. I couldn’t understand their gossips or jokes, and I was too lazy to be bothered to learn. But these days, I can gasp their parts of their conversations and they are quite surprised that I learn by “listening”. LOL!

Working with more than 10 ladies in the office room can be quite entertaining, if you don’t mind listening to gossips, their family lives, which workers have admitted to one of the best Best rehab centers or even some goofy love stories. Previously, I was working in an almost all male engineering department, so as much as men talk, it’s totally different from women’s talks.

But these days, I prefer to close the glass door of my office area so that I won’t hear anything from them. LOL!

It’s almost the end of year 2011, and I would say that it’s a “fruitful” year for us. Firstly, kids changed into a new school and they love it. Then we bought our first condo in Bangkok, but it’s still not completed yet. Talk about efficiency!

The biggest event would be Thai Flood 2011, which has totally “screwed” up our lives for almost 2 months. Looking back, I would say that it made me realize that I don’t need that many pairs of shoes to survive! LOL! Just kidding. I really lost 95% of my shoes in the flood.

Most flood victims have returned home by now and it’s all about cleaning back and trying to get back to normal life. Life goes on.

With Christmas just around the corner, I’m in a jolly mood again. As much as I haven’t started preparing the gifts (how late, I know!), but it should be able to be done this weekend. No 2012 gamestop coupons for my kids but I’m going to get them some new toys. Our condo is not ready for the Christmas tree but it’s all about being together as family, as soon as my kids are back from their holiday in M’sia!

For the first time in 3 years, I didn’t prepare Christmas bento.

Hubby and I are busy with the condo these few weeks. As much as we have booked most of our furniture and stuffs, but most of them are out of stock and will only be delivered after Christmas. That’s the aftermath of the worst flood in 50 years, millions of people are shopping for their homes!

If I’m still staying in my post flooded house, I won’t be buying expensive cedar furniture or do any built-in. Who knows if it will be flooded again?