Mothering Corner

I’m not a car lover. To me, it’s just a mean of transport, so as long as my car is working well, I don’t have much to complain about it. In fact, when I bought my car 2 years ago, I didn’t have any model in mind. Hubby had a budget constraint, but it’s none of my concern. LOL! I was more worried about how fast can I get the car?

The most affordable cars in Thailand are either Honda or Toyota, so we went for Toyota. Furthermore, some Toyota models are cheaper. We managed to get our car in 3 days! It’s super fast since that particular dealer had existing stock. I was sick with using cabs to fetch my kids to school, and I didn’t feel like bothering SIL anymore. Having a car is a NEED!

But if I would to get another car, maybe I will get something cute like a VW new beetle convertible. I used to know someone with a cute Beetle, and it’s not a lot in Ipoh more than 5 years ago. You could easily recognize one on the road. A volkswagen routan would be nice as a family car too, but I don’t think I’ve seen one here. Maybe I’ve missed it?

Given a choice, I would choose a MPV or SUV like dodge caliber , suzuki xl7 , Audi Q5 and etc. Hubby is driving a CRV now, so he shares the same taste in cars as me. But still, I don’t think we will get another car soon. Really no point buying one unless we are trading in my car! Or unless… I strike a lottery? LOL!

I woke up with a bad sore throat. I didn’t drink much water over the past few days, and the only drink I had was Barcadi, which is an alcohol drink. Oh well, we were celebrating CNY, so having healthy food is way out of our minds. LOL!

BTW, I noticed that going for a swim after a bottle of alcohol is a bad idea. My SIL insisted that we had our drinks in the afternoon, under the sun and by the pool. I went for a swim after some drinks and got up with a bad migraine. So, I’ve learned my lesson. No alcohol before a swim! Besides that, I’m a lousy drinker and I can’t drink much. I get drunk very easily. How lame huh? LOL!

MIL always suggested that we take some vitamin B and C before a drink. Maybe the best multivitamin pills might work too. That’s what I will ask hubby to do before he’s going for his social drink. For me, I prefer to have my nice cup of coffee, instead of any alcohol during outings.

Did I mention that we have been pretty busy lately? It’s not only about preparation for Chinese New Year, but also 2 short trips away to Koh Chang island and Hua Hin beach. We had a company trip to Koh Chang last weekend, and it’s a nice 3 days 2 nights stay with friends and colleagues. The kids had a great time on the island, as well as snorkeling in the sea. Nonetheless, I felt that the sea is not as nice as Phuket and Similan Islands, but to some of the company workers, it’s their first snorkeling trip.

None of us brought along our laptops, and I didn’t even switch on my phone for 3 days. As expected, my mailbox was full this morning, and I had tonnes of unread messages by some cell phone repeater, reminding me that the sales are available as most department stores. I’ve almost done with my CNY shopping, but if I have time, I will go for another round with my expat friend this week.

So, how’s your preparation for Chinese New Year? I hope that it’s going to be a prosperous year for all of us.

Some times, I wish that my kids can go home straight after school instead of tugging with us at the office after a long day. If I have a nanny or a helper, I would definitely send them back home after school ends at 4.30pm. They spend such long hours at school, and by waiting for us at the office for another 2 hours or more, they have missed up the whole day of being at home. By the time dinner was fixed and served, it’s almost 8pm. Just imagine if I want to tug them in by 9.30pm, they will only have a little time for home work and play.

I used to joke to them that we are not staying in a house, it’s just a hostel. LOL! Everyone just come back to Zzzz… and off we go the next morning. But we are trying to let the kids enjoy the TV and play time at home on Saturdays, which explains why I canceled their art class, and didn’t enroll them to another extra activities on the weekends. I do feel that we are not spending a lot of time at home.

I wonder if how other parents with kids tugging along at work feel about this? Are we spending too much time at the office, and how your kids feel about this? But then, it might be a good experience for kids to see how their parents work, as long as we keep them away from the manufacturing site and harmful or cleaningstains like Anilox.

My kids will be very happy if we leave early, especially when hubby is on business trip or dinner with customers. They will be so thrilled just to come home early and slack on the couch.

It’s been awhile since I last packed sweet potatoes for my kids. My boy loves it, but my gal is on a food strike, so I’m not sure if she will take her bento. She ate some of her meal yesterday, but she didn’t finish everything I’d packed. Thus, I hope that she’s willing to eat more today.

Something simple for my gal, with corn, sweet potato, strawberries, guava and persimmon.

I decorated the sweet potato as Rilakkuma.

The sweet potato was cut with Rilakkuma cutter, and the nose was cut from hard boiled egg white. I placed 2 small bits of ham as ears. My boy didn’t want the arms and legs, so I didn’t add any limb for Rilakkuma. I added a little tail for him instead, as if it’s lying on its tummy.

 I got in touch with a long time friend of mine recently, and both our first child were born in the same year. But she is still thinking if she is ready for her second baby as her first labor was quite traumatic to her. She could not urinate after giving birth for many hours, like most of us who had gone through epidural. Thus, a catheter was inserted and she said it’s a painful experience. After that, she dared not think about having another baby again.

But I guess she’s getting a lot of pressure from her husband lately, and she’s wondering if she’s ready for another one. Oh well, if hubby is asking for another one, I will just tell him to forget it! LOL!

I’m going to get my new tools soon, but I’ve decided not to buy so many of them now. The economy is getting pretty bad, and lots of people are running out of jobs here in Thailand. I think the money should be kept or spent on other important areas, such as my kids school fees! School fee is quite expensive here, considering that my kids will be in private school from now till high school.

I’m not going to invest the money into anything, including Monex. There is a lot of uncertainties right now, and cash is really useful at bad times like this. So, I hope that I won’t see any cutie bento tools too frequently. LOL!

I’m touched to see some comments from visitors who told me that they visit this site daily, and they like the bentos. I’ve never expected to see this blog going so well because I only thought of posting the bentos for my own record. But then again, it’s always great to have readers coming to see the bentos, don’t you think so?

Thus, I think I should let you know that I will have a short bento break in March because it’s my kids’ school holiday, and I need to get some rest after a minor incision. I’m not sure what’s inside, but after consulting the surgeon, it’s best to remove it and send it to the lab.

Don’t worry, it’s not going to be something serious where I need to have a lot of Medical Supply at home. LOL! But I really do need to rest well for awhile. So, if I’m not posting a lot in March, at least you know what’s the reason behind it.

In the mean time, I’m waiting for my uploader to upload today’s bentos. Stay tune!

 My kids wake up very early these days, including the weekends. With the windows opened and curtains pulled up, the morning sun rays come as early as 6.15am, so they can’t sleep as late as they used to be. Not only that my schedule and routine are disturbed, but all of us can’t get more rest during the weekends too, and it’s so tiring!

Sometimes, I feel like going for an all inclusive vacation, just by myself and give myself a very nice break. But then again, that will never happen for the next 14 years to come. I think I will only have my “freedom” after my kids go to college. LOL!

I’m glad that my workload is always that heavy. Sometimes, I have a lot of free time to get out from the office and do my own shopping. LOL! It’s like a habit to me to do a little shopping everyday, even if it involves grocery shopping mostly. But this week, I think I will try my best to stay in the office and finish my work as much as possible. I will have some guests next week, and we will be busy entertaining them. I don’t think I can do much for the whole week.

So, I better check out this Archiving Email Software now and see if it’s useful to us. A lot of our customers reach us by emails because my salesman put up our website on a lot of engineering forums. Thus, checking our mailboxes is very important to us to keep track of inquiry and product demands. We need to archive the emails too, especially those which ask for further information and we will try our best to follow up closely.

There is a free trial from Sherpa Software, so I might ask hubby to try it out. He has more emails than me, who is more about administration. Most customers will contact him directly since his email is listed on our website.