Things are hunky dory ...

now that I'm not nauseous OR ill ... I'm happy and in a good mood ... I've even contemplated having another baby or 2 after this one .. much to my hubby's HORROR ...

lol. Seriously, in Singapore it's really not a good idea .. firstly, you'd HAVE to buy those minivans that the kindergartens use .. like Kinderland, to ferry your brood around .. your Estima or Odyssey just ain't gonna cut it ...

Next thing is, you have to get a bigger home eventually when the kids are bigger .. sure they can all share rooms .. but I think 2 to a room is just nice - any more, and you'd have a mutiny on your hands .. so 6 kids .. that equals to about 3 sizable bedrooms for them .. then there's the master for you and hubby - so obviously you'll need a BIG house. With 6 kids, you'd probably also need 2 maids instead of one .. life is already hectic with 3 kids ... I think my maid will be the first on that plane home if I had SIX kids instead of 4 (come Dec)

There are a MULTITUDE of other reasons to NOT have another 2 babies ... mostly financial .. lol soooo ...

So yes, even though I turn 35 this year end .. and can probably squeeze another 2 babies out at least before I hit 40, I think I have to agree with hubby ..we will stop at 4 ..

too bad .. i love being pregnant .. :) now that I'm halfway thru it ... I have this feeling that I'm not really done with it .. that's usually when I am alone and the girls are asleep and the house is peaceful and quiet ...

Usually, when they're awake ... you'll hear someone or the other saying, "That's mine .. !!" followed by crying and yelling or both .. then you wonder why you had kids at all ...

Dogs are so much quieter ... cats too ... or hamsters ... or mice .. hahahaha !!

eh .. that's so not cool, UNCLE ...

We were headed out to town on Saturday morning ... as we approached the SLE, a saloon overtook us and as it went past, we could hear the music blaring from it ... it was pretty loud, considering he had his windows up and so did we ... guess UNCLE thought he was beiing cool ..

He had "Brother Louie" blasting from his stereo system ... WTH?!!!!

Come on, you know the dudes .. "Modern Talking" .. they were BIG here in the late 80s ...

Of course, then I was about 9 years old .. and my friends and I also thought the song was cool and catchy ... (eh, we were NINE ok?!!)

UNCLE driving the saloon looked older and obviously was still trapped in some time warp if he thinks "Brother Louie" is a cool song to have blasting from your car streo system.

*SHUDDER*

Lunch with girlfriends in town ..

Now that I'm not sick or nauseous anymore, life seems to be happier. It's hard to feel chirpy when you feel ill and have no appetite .. lol. Been busy meeting up with friends for lunch this week ... we had a grand time eating and laughing ... and then walking around a bit.

Today, I met up with my bunch of girlfriends that I have known since our US days .. when we all lived together on the air base .. we were happily reminiscing about our days there .. and the Mexican and Tex Mex food we liked to eat ... lol. We always went to this quaint, rustic place called Guadalajara ... it was sooo cheap .. a taco for US$2 or so .. and the taco was sizable btw .. sighhhhhh ... those were good times ..



It was so cool .. I would park right outside the restaurant :) -- it was located right next to some railroad tracks so it was really an out of the way place ... but my friends and I loved eating there :)







Lauren when she was a few months old I think .. 2 if I'm not wrong ..











-- heee heee .. Claudia, such a cutie pie :) ..

Yes, I am trying to make up for lost time (since I've been ill the last few weeks .. bummer) AND also squeeze in as much time with my girlfriends before Dec ... I know I"ll be stuck at home initially cos I have this policy about not taking the baby out within the baby's first month ... too many SICK people around ... plus, my philosophy is, town will always be there .. it can wait awhile .. when baby is bigger and not so fragile ... she'll be lugged all over town with me in her Quinny Buzz no less ... lol. I also have a habit of NOT using the breastfeeding rooms in the shopping malls cos most are disgusting or small or both ... I'm quite adept at breastfeeding discreetly and can do it almost anywhere ... the food court, some bench somewhere .. etc .. lol.

Please, if the malls have no decency to provide nice family rooms for us nursing mothers, I'll take my shopping money elsewhere ... LIKE ONLINE for instance .. or nice malls with NICE facilities for nursing moms ...

I seriously need therapy ...

sigh.

I gave in to my urges ...

I bought a new stroller .. well, not today ... recently ...

Hubby nearly had a heart attack ...

Cost me nearly 1k.

I'm a happy chicky.

Methinks if I had 16 children (like some of those people I've seen on Channel 70's Home and Health Channel) .. I'll have MORE strollers. But then again .. with 16 kids, I think money will be too tight to spend so much on a stroller ... lol :)

I got the Quinny Buzz

If women are from Venus ...

then men are from another solar system ...

The euphoria of hubby being home from Australia after 6 long weeks ... lasted all of 3 days. lol. By Thursday, I was wondering when on earth this man was going back to work. I think if he were to retire now (if we win $10 million in TOTO for eg) ... I would go mad. I love having my hubby around ... but not ALL the time. For all you newlyweds, PLEASE .. you don't know anything yet ... for us, we've been married 10.5 years, dated for 6 years before that ... so I KNOW BETTER ... lol. Trust me, as much as you love seeing your hubby the WHOLE BLARDY DAY AND NITE ... after being married so long, it's nice that you don't have to see each other the whole day ... especially when you have kids ...

I noticed that once you become parents ... there's another thing you realize you differ on - parenting styles and ideas. What is acceptable or ok for one of you .. may be not the best solution the other would pick when faced with a baby/kid related issue.

I am not a spontaneous person. Many people in my life can attest to this .. Haslynda for one and also my hubby. If we're going to blardy Sungei Buloh for example ... you'd better blardy tell me in advance so I can wear appropriate shoes and NOT tote my Coach bag to the god forsaken place. Funny thing is, as aware as these 2 people of my NON-spontaneity, I still get asked or made to do SPONTANEOUS related activities ... ie the stupid Sungei Buloh trek (yes, as you've figured it out .. I am still bitter over that) .. lol.

SO when I choose to take my girls to the beach or park or the zoo, you can bet that I am well prepared. I have drinks, extra clothes for the 2 young uns, snacks ... towels, insect repellant ... etc. I may LOOK like a slack parent ... but I just PROJECT that image ... I still like to be at least minimally prepared. That doesn't mean I lug around a big diaper bag when I go to town .. that's different - it's an air conditioned environment, drinks and snacks can be gotten anywhere and generally, you don't need insect repellant there at all. So anyway ... I was at my computer yesterday evening and my maid was cooking dinner in the kitchen. Suddenly, I hear the front door close and then SILENCE. I realized that my hubby had brought my 2 younger girls down .. presumably to the playground ... I thought for sure he'd just be there a half hour or so .. but NOOOOOOOOOOOO, turned out he decided to let them play for a good ONE HOUR AND A HALF. It's been a long time since he's taken them to the playground for a such a long time, and it just didn't occur to me that he had brought NOTHING with him.

NOTHING.

No water bottles for the girls, no towels to dry their perspiration .. he didn't even change Emily into at least a pair of capris so her knees woudn't get skinned IF she fell ... the the worst thing is, he didn't bring Lauren to the loo before leaving the house ..

SIGH.

When the girls came back later, they were gulping down GALLONS of water .. they looked really tired and Lauren managed to tell me that at some point at the playground, she actually needed to go pee ... but she just held it till they got back ...

Later that nite, Lauren had a sore throat and Emily had a fever and then fell ill ...with some viral thing.

Of course, I blamed hubby for it.

I asked him WHY he didn't at least take their water bottles with him ... his rationale - when Lauren asked him, "Daddy, did you bring my water bottle? I'm thirsty" ... his response -- "If you're thirsty, then let's go home ... " .. he was going to use that as a ploy to get them to leave the playground .. he underestimated the LURE of the playground .. that kids being kids, they would rather die of thirst then go home to have a drink ..

SIGH. Like I said, men are from a different SOLAR SYSTEM ...

Nevermind, he's going back to work soon ... just a few days more. I CAN DO IT ....

Got paid ... YAY!

Yes, the marketing company presented my work to the client and they liked it! As a result, I got paid 25% more!! I was thrilled to bits .. ! -- of course because I got paid more and that the client liked my work. I was kinda worried there for a while cos it was done over 2 nites and I would've liked to do more if I had more time ... but they had to get that newsletter out as it was WAYYYY overdue ... well, as long as they liked my work :)

The marketing company's permanent copywriter has started work so while I don't think I'll be seeing work from them on a regular basis .. like I said earlier, I'm not keen to be working full-time anyway ... The Director says she'll definitely be calling me on a project basis ... but it'll probably be occasional ...

NO WORRIES ... I am the happy SAHM ..

Now ... what can I spend my paycheck on? lol :)

SIGH .... Work Pass Service Centre Part 2

ok ... here it is ... we went down today to get my maid's new work permit.

SIGHHHHHHHHHH.

Where do I start? Hubby came back from Australia yesterday (YAY!) ... It was a very happy day for me and the girls .. we haven't seen Daddy in 6 whole weeks .. ! We all missed him terribly ... while he is the disciplinarian with the girls who are terrified of him, he also loves them dearly and they love him a lot too ... Daddy takes them to the playground and does the stuff that Mummy will not do ever .. like take the girls kite flying ...

Anyway, so this afternoon, we made the trip down to Tanjong Pagar .. with my maid and the 2 younger girls ... since we were planning to go to Suntec City after that for a late lunch and some shopping. I had already COMPLAINED to him big-time about the whole experience at this work permit place last week via the phone ... and to my maid too ..

While hubby was parking the car, I grabbed the necessary documents and went ahead first ... Imagine my absolute HORROR when I walked into the Service Centre and found the place virtually empty. The air con was blasting and the place had NO smell at all ... it seemed brighter and nowhere as awful as it was LAST WEEK when it was packed to the brim with those male foreign workers ...

SIGH.

I knew what was coming THE MINUTE my hubby and my maid and the girls walked in 5 minutes later.

My husband took ONE look around the place and called me a LIAR ... lol. It was hilarious .. there was nothing for me to say ... NOTHING. My maid was also laughing when my hubby told her that "MAM BOHONG, ya?" .. ie .. I LIED. hahahahahahaha.

So because it was empty ... we collected her new work permit within 15 minutes ...

Hubby just looked at me and said, "wa ... so fast, huh?"

BLARDY BLARDY HELL.

Collecting your maid's work permit is a PAIN

IN THE ASS ... first off, the place is all the way at Keppel Road ... at the Tanjong Pagar Complex .. Secondly, you will not believe how crowded the place is with male foreign workers ... not that I am saying I am such a babe that they were all ogling me while I was there ... FAR FROM IT .. but the place actually REEKS of body odour.

I swear I nearly passed out there on the floor .. only thing stopping me was the fact that IF I had passed out ... 1) WHO would be able to life my heavy ass off the floor? and 2)The floor didn't look very clean ... Both were very compelling reasons WHY I SHOULD NOT PASS OUT RIGHT THERE ON THE FLOOR OF THE WORK PERMIT COLLECTION CENTRE last Friday.

LOL.

As it turns out, I didn't have the renewal notice with me ... I swore and cursed when the lady pointed out that although I had renewed my maid's work permit via the internet, I was supposed to STILL bring that renewal letter and have my maid and myself SIGN the back ... I hadsn't realized that there was signing to be done and so hadn't brought the darn thing with me.

So anyway, the lady told me to come back today ... Monday to collect the work permit. I was quite pissed off ... I had driven all the way there specifically to get the damn blasted thing, paid ERP at the Havelock Road gantry .. I had my maid's passport, the notification to collect the work permit, the insurance cert, my ic, what the hell was the problem? Is my maid's signature THAT important? GOOD GRIEF.

So, I deduced one thing .. renewing your maid's work permit online just achieves ONE thing. They take your money from you FASTER. You still have to do everything else. All you did was cut out ONE simple procedure .. which is PAYMENT.

Anyway, the minute she told me that I needed to come back with that stupid renewal letter all signed etc, I was out of there. I couldn't breathe properly by that time. The smell of unwashed bodies was frankly quite nauseating.

UGH.

Yes, it's Monday today .. I'm draggin my feet about collecting the blardy thing. I will update u all on my next visit to that dreadful place.

This baby keeps kicking ..

I can't remember the other times I was pregnant (yes, I am THAT forgetful) but I'm fairly certain that this is the most active baby I have so far ... I am constantly feeling her KICK me .. like almost all the time. Darn, I need to go pee now thanks to all the kicking ...

lol :)

Making use of the ole noggin ...

Ah yes, so the housewife FINALLY has to use her brain for something other than domestic stuff .. I'm not saying that being a housewife is a BRAINLESS thing .. it certainly is not, I'll have you know .. you have to have some semblance of organizational and managerial skills to run a household efficiently, but when you actually have to focus on something other than the usual run of the mill everyday stuff .. then it kinda takes a toll .. LOL. Suddenly, I realize that while my standard of English is decent enough ... copywriting is not as easy as it looks.

First off, let me say that although I find it a delightful challenge to do this copywriting gig ... I don't ever want to be a copywriter FOR REAL. In fact, I realize that I am perfectly happy to NOT have to work. Well, yes, I do have my work at home and although it is a 24 hour one .. where I am constantly on call day or night, it beats rushing to meet deadlines at the office and being at the beck and call of a boss.

Here, I am the boss. If I say we're all eating CHICKEN tonight, then we all are. LOL. If mummy says, we can't go to the playground cos it just rained and the playground equipment is wet, we all don't go. If mummy gets up on a Saturday at freaking 2pm .. that's ok as well.

SIGH. The life of a SAHM .. you gotta love it :) I've been one for 10 years now and if there is ever a need for me to go back to work, I'll be the first in line off that cliff. LOL.

Me, the COPYWRITER???

I received a call a few days ago from my friend, Alex. His cousin owns a printing company and they were in dire need of a copywriter to finish off a project for a big client. Their newsletter as it turned out. I was fine helping him out and the next day, we met up with their client to discuss what changes were to be made.

God knows copywriting is not just about creating content that is grammatically correct. The previous copywriter who initially completed the project did a decent job I thought .. but it lacked the "soul" they wanted to portray.

sigh.

I now have 2 days to completely almost redo the whole thing .. my friend better be DAMN grateful.

lol :)

Oh yeah, I'm getting paid too!

I tried my best to turn up at the office looking NON-aunty. I decided that I wasn't going to wear a maternity top since I could still get away with it ..

Harlow harlow ...

I decided that it's better if I create a separate blog for all the other stuff I want to have said ... no point cluttering up my daughters' blog which is just about them ...