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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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!

After numerous trips back home by boats, we have had an idea how many stuffs which we manage to save, and what else should go straight to the trash bags. The only thing is, garbage trucks can’t come in easily to our neighborhood, so cleaning up is not as easy as it seems.

Nevertheless, I’ve managed to wash and sterilize my first batch of bento tools, even if I’m not sure if I will use them again. Maybe I will regain confidence in using them after batches of steaming and sterilizing!

In the mean time, we hope that our condo will be ready before Christmas so that we can move in and start all over again. Like most Thais and expats whose lives are affected by the flood, things might be tough for the next few months but I’m sure that we can cope and overcome the hardship.

A lot of businesses struggle to survive, so we should work harder for time to come. I’m glad that I don’t have to resort to finding Resort Clerk Jobs or getting a new job now, but just work on my biz.

Hopefully, I will be able to get back to bento-ing in January.

We have a few Malaysian friends here, and even if we hardly meet up, we still keep in touch once in a while. Some of them even invited us to stay over at their places at difficult times like this. We are so touched and blessed. In fact, we spent a weekend with friends in Ban Chang, near Pattaya. Thanks for the hospitality and it’s nice to receive Christmas and Christening Invitations from you guys, maybe we shall meet again after a month.

But since we are just fine here at the condo, we turned down their offers. Our new condo should be ready in a month, and we should be able to move our stuffs out from the flooded house as soon as the water subsides. It might take a few more weeks, but by then, our condo should be ready.

I can’t wait for our lives to be back to “normal” again. In the mean time, thanks to all of you who have called, SMS, text messaged in FB or left comments on my blogs. We are doing fine, really. In fact, we are living too well as we don’t have much to do, except eating and confining in a small condo. Oh boy. That explained why I’ve just gained 2kgs!!!!

I honestly can’t wait to get back to my busy life, which I might have taken for granted.

Under normal circumstances, I would be planning for a few year end celebrations like wedding anniversary, my boy’s birthday and also Christmas! But this year, I’m not so sure if we will have any celebration. Even if we do, it would be a small celebration among ourselves and in moderation.

I wish that I can organize a nice birthday party for my boy, which I have already planned in mind. I have already picked the venue, and the theme, and even plan to design some birthday vinyl banners. It would be nice to have his friends around to celebrate his 7th birthday, but right now, it’s too early to tell if anyone has the mood to attend.

What we really want to do now is looking for a temporary office for our business. We can’t possibly pull a halt on everything for a month, waiting for the water to subside. Yes, the flood might take a month. I might have to look for a temporary venue to run the biz, and print some business banners first.

After that, I might have time to think about celebrations. For the time being, it’s about staying safe and living in moderation. Millions of people need to work hard to rebuild their lives after the flood. By the way, it will take 2 to 4 weeks for the water to subside, so it’s not something that will go off in a few days. We must stay strong.

I’ve been so busy lately that I’m glad I hired someone last month to help me out. She’s a fast learner, and she needs minimum guidance on account and document management software. I’m totally clueless about the software so she’s on her own by asking other staffs or calling the accounting firm.

Hopefully, I can manage to find another staff next month. This time, I need someone who has some technical background so that I won’t have to train too much.

I’ve recently started reading some novels again, after stopping for years. Even if I’m pretty busy, but I can still read during lunch hour as I mostly eat alone and it’s the best time for me to read. I’m reading Sophie Kinsella’s Swimming Pool Sunday now, and I can’t wait to see how the story ends. I’m at the part of the little girl injured her head and was poked with wires and a patient monitor. I hope that the story is not a sad one though.

So, any good books to recommend?

I must say that I didn’t know much about Bersih until 709. I’m ashamed as a Malaysian, who didn’t even check out if there is any Bersih activity in Bangkok until it’s over. It was all the updates about the road block in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, and an MSN beep from a friend that evening that caught me into reading up more about Bersih 2.0. I hope it’s never too late to know more about this:

1. Clean the electoral roll
2. Reform postal ballot
3. Use of indelible ink
4. Minimum 21 days campaign period
5. Free and fair access to media
6. Strengthen public institutions
7. Stop corruption
8. Stop dirty politics

Look, I’m shocked that our election is not being done fairly, and if something is not done about it, there goes our homeland, Malaysia’s future.

I’m so proud of those who had taken part in the rally, let it be in Kuala Lumpur or other parts of the world. You guys rock!

As we all know by now, some were injured, The late Baharudin Ahmad passed away, and over 1600 were arrested including children. It’s sad to see how a peaceful rally in KL ended with tear gas and chemical water, but it only triggers us not to be “tak apa” with our country’s future anymore.

If a 65-year-old Aunty Annie could do it for the sake of the anak-anak Malaysia, why can’t we?

From now on, I will follow closely about the movements by Bersih. But most importantly, I must do my best to go back to vote. I hope I can make it!

I hardly wear rings after having kids. When my gal was a baby, I accidentally scratched her face with my diamond ring when I was carrying her, so since then, I put most of my accessories away and hardly wore them anymore. Now that my kids are growing up, I’m digging out my jewelry box and starting to wear them to work. I don’t have fancy rings with big stones, but only a few that brings sentimental values to me.
I’ve always love to have more fancy rings, something like those shown at amakemypromisering.com or by Tiffany. But I won’t pay for them with my own money. They have to be paid from hubby’s wallet! LOL!

It’s been awhile since I had some retail therapy. With my kids tagging along almost everywhere I go, I really don’t feel like walking into the changing room and try out the clothes. Besides that, my kids can be pretty playful!

Once they have gone back to school, I shall try to squeeze some time during lunch hour to get some shopping done. Maybe I will get rocawear jeans for hubby too, he doesn’t shop for himself and it all depends on the wifey to buy him clothes.