Mothering Corner

I’m very lazy to pick up Thai. After almost 2 years here, my Thai is pretty bad, even worst than my kids. But it’s time to blush up my Thai so that I can correspond better with my staffs. I should be listening to the Thai Cds and ipods, instead of my favorite musics now. *sob sob*

Hopefully, I will be able to speak fluently in a year. Then, I should start learning about Thai characters too.

I hardly care much about money as hubby takes charge of this “department” in our family affairs. Even if I’m helping him at work, I don’t have my own salary due to some restrictions on hiring a foreigner here in Thailand. Our company is not running in a big scale, so we can only hire one foreigner, which is hubby.

But if hubby is passing over to me, I will be able to get my own work permit and monthly salary, if business is running well. Hopefully, he will still be giving me my shopping allowance, and the extra salary will be safely kept in my account. Come to think of it, maybe it’s time to buy gold bullion when I have sufficient amount in the account. LOL!

This year is going to be a busy year for hubby and I. He has some other plans which he likes to venture into, so I shall be taking over his existing business. I was in doubt at first, considering that I can’t speak much Thai, and I can’t read Thai at all. But if hubby can pick up the language in 6 months all by himself, I should be blushing up my Thai too.

Looking at it from the bright side, taking it over will mean that I’m owning the job and back to the workforce “officially” again.

Hubby might be traveling more frequently, and I will be busier than ever. Frankly, I wonder if we need a maid, but after not having one for almost 2 years, I’m not too used to having a “stranger” at home anymore. I will probably have less time for myself, more stress to handle, and I hope that I can face this new challenge well. Hopefully, I won’t have any outbreak and need an acne face wash. LOL!

I’ve been going through a blog diarrhea posting as many assignments as possible as for the past 2 days, and it’s quite fun. I missed the days when most of us could make money from blogging, even if you are a stay-at-home mother. The job is easy, and all you need to do is just complete the assignment. But that was more than 2 years ago!

I was rather surprised to see the assignment pouring out again, just like most bloggers. Maybe it’s just once and for all.

I hardly make much from blogging, and frankly, I’ve almost given up. LOL! My other friend is still making well, with more blogs and seo optimization software. She’s putting a lot of effort it in, so it’s not surprising that she’s doing so well.

With my kids getting older day by day, I’ve begun to think about the possibility of going back to work. Helping hubby is not as busy as before, and I’m getting restless.

If I’m still in Malaysia, I would probably start looking for jobs now, even if it’s not going be to easy under this economy situation. But over here in Thailand, it’s not easy for expats to get a job, unless you have years of experience in specified fields. Being away from the engineering world for so long is not making things easier either.

There was a time when I considered about getting an online degree, especially in teaching. There are numerous colleges that offer online teaching degree, such as Western Governors Online University. It will be easier to get a job from the international schools, if you have a teaching degree.

But too bad, I’m not interested in teaching. I just don’t have the patience! So, I guess there isn’t much option left for me, if I want to look for a job here.

It’s my first day at the office after a short break since Christmas, and I’m soooooo reluctant to get back to my busy life so soon. But then again, I’m looking forward for the next break in Chinese New Year, when most of our family members will be here in Bangkok for our annual reunion.

We have been staying in Bangkok for close to 2 years, and I am glad that we have really settled down, and my kids love this place. Business wise, it’s still a struggle and a long way to go, but hubby is working hard on it. As for myself, I try not to set any new year resolution because I might not be able to hang on to it until the end of the year. LOL! Nonetheless, I will have some short term goals, like NO SHOPPING this month (I broke my budget in December ), check out the dental discounts and see if it’s still possible to have a bracelet at the age of 32, and get back to my knitting projects which have been left unattended for 3 months.

So, do you have any new year resolution? Care to share?

This month is full of celebrations for us, so my mind is all about spending great time with my kids and hubby.

I turned 32 yesterday, and we had a great time at Hilton. Thanks to hubby for all the planning, and it’s one of my best birthday “pressie” ever. A wonderful memory and time spent will be cherished more. Of course, I secretly hoped for a nice gift, but I know my hubby too well, he’s not good at shopping. All the while, I’m the one who shops, and he can’t beat me in getting the right gift. Maybe I should just get myself another gift and let him pay for it. LOL! I’m actually checking out a few items online now. You can basically get anything including cigars online these days, what a luring trap for shopaholic like me. *faint*

Besides that, a expat friend baked me a cake last week and I’m so happy about it. It’s nice to have someone baking you a birthday cake, and it’s my first one ever! *thanks Nicole*

The weather changed slightly after Loy Krathong, and it’s windy and cool some times. Thus, most of us will just sleep without air-conditioning, and just turn on the fans and open all the windows. But yesterday, hubby read the newsletter of our mooban (gated community) and there was a burglary in our neighborhood. So far, we have heard of 3 cases throughout our stay here, but luckily no one gets hurt as the houses were mostly empty when it happened. There are security guards patrolling from time to time, but I doubt that they will do it often once it gets colder at night.

So, I wonder if we need wireless alarms now? I don’t think any of the houses in our mooban installs any alarm system!

I haven’t seen most of my friends for many years, especially after I moved to Ipoh with hubby. Partly, it’s my fault also for not making the effort of meeting up with my friends when I’m back to Penang or travel to Kuala Lumpur. Thus, when I knew that my old friend CK is coming to Bangkok for exhibition, I was very eager to meet with him. He’s working in medical equipment line, and there is an exhibition of equipments, health insurance leads and other health related products at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center.

Since he jokingly “requested” a bento, I fixed one for him.

My friend CK with his first bento.

Too bad the banana cupcake was a bit moist after 12 hours! *he’s a such a drama queen. LOL!*

I fixed the bento in the morning, and I was out and about with the pressie. By the time we met at Siam Paragon, it was 12 hours from the preparation time. So, the cupcake was moist, but my friend walloped everything. Thank god he didn’t complain.

My friend and me.

It’s great to see him again after 14 years! Ya, 14 years!!! I must say, he doesn’t change much, except gaining some weight *ahem!* He’s still the same guy I know from high school, and best of all, he LOVES SHOPPING! We had a nice dinner, and great fun shopping together. Nice to see you again, CK!

I’ve just realized that I’ve been packing food for my kids for more than a year now. It started out as packing lunch when we first moved here. Our kids tagged along with us to the office when we first started and they rejected  Thai food. If it’s just a day or 2 of eating bread and snacks, I could just let it be. But I could not see my kids eating like that in the long run, and thus I started cooking and packing lunch for them. My only bento tool was a thermal lunch set by Thermos! LOL! I didn’t do any decoration as I was too tired waking up at 5am, adjusting to a new life in a foreign land and also busy helping hubby with his new biz.

As time goes, I found a few bento blogs and got hooked in bento-ing. I started posting about my bentos as my own journal at this blog, and I’m so glad that I did that. I could have just started a new bento blog, but I was too lazy to start one, submit to web directory, and waiting for it to “grow”. Thus, I converted my breastfeeding blog into bento blog. Anyway, I had retired from being a moo. LOL!

The best thing about having a bento blog is I gradually made a few new friends who share the same interest. Too bad I haven’t got to know any reader or bento-er from Bangkok, maybe it’s due to the fact that I don’t blog in Thai. I can’t read or write Thai. LOL!