Hubby is leaving early Sunday morning for Lawton, Oklahoma .. for a month. Well, ALMOST a month. He gets back on the 23rd of Nov. He'll miss his 35th birthday but will make it back in time for Calista's FIRST on the 30th of November.
It would've been nice to accompany him on his trip ... not that I've always wanted to visit Oklahoma, but he'll be living on the base and not in a hotel so if we went, we'd be pretty much on our own the whole time. And seriously, I'd rather NOT be stuck alone with ALL my girls ALL the time .. with no maid.
Yes, I am dependent on my helper. Actually, I just need SOMEONE to help me .. 3 young ones to wash, feed and dress EVERYDAY ain't easy AND with the housework, the cooking and the dogs *sigh* ... and I realized that a helper is the best option as opposed to family cos you can INSTRUCT a helper to do things the way you want it done but not so much with a family member. LOL!
Speaking of helpers, I sms-ed my ex-maid in Indonesia just to ask her how things were ... and she has been really busy in the fields she said ... and that it's really tiring and that she felt like fainting everyday. I replied that I would've keeled over and died right there in the fields had I been a farmer. seriously. Or rather, a farmer's wife.
So anyway, back to hubby ... I will miss him LOTS. Plus, it also means that I will be the only one on driver duty while he's gone. Aw man ... I feel tired already. I have prepared a list of things he can buy and bring back ... but this time around, he won't be anywhere near the factory outlets *dammit* Nevermind, there's always TJMaxx .. lol !
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
In my past life ...
I can say with some certainty that I wasn't a fisherman or a fishmonger.
Last night, my brother-in-law dropped by and gave us 4 fishes he had caught fishing at the reservoir .. ie they were fresh water fish. He had called me in the evening to tell me that he was coming down later that night to pass them to me .. so at about 7pm. my maid was instructed to go downstairs to meet him with a empty pail.
She put the pail on the kitchen counter .. and man, I hate the smell of fish. I knew without asking my maid that she had never cleaned fish before. SO obviously, the unpleasant task fell on me to do it. DAMMIT. I told her to stand with me so I could show how it's done. Actually, it was a needless exercise since I ALWAYS buy fish from the supermarket .. all nicely descaled and cut and packed on nice styrofoam plates. Even if I did buy fish that needed cleaning, errrr, I usually ask the Cold Storage fish uncle to do it for me.
So ... I haven't cleaned a fish in YEARS. There is a reason for that. I hate doing it. I hate the smell, the icky stuff that comes out of them .. and later the stink that is left behind in my kitchen sink (not really, but I am sensitive when it comes to smells) ..
But this time around, there was no way out. I had to do it. I cursed my brother-in-law in my head while my maid lined the sink with a plastic bag and tipped the fish out into the sink. UGH!!! Plus what made it worse for me was knowing that barely a few hours ago, they had been ALIVE AND SWIMMING. AAAAAAAAAH! .. At least with the supermarket fish, I KNOW THEY HAVE BEEN DEAD AWHILE but these fish, who knows when they died. I'm betting it was under 2 hours ..
All, I can say is, thank goodness for the rubber gloves I had bought at Carrefour last week. It really helped a lot knowing my fingers weren't going to smell horribly after cleaning the fish out. My girls of course, were fascinated with the fish .. cos they were unlike any of the fish we had bought from the supermarket. Of course, for one thing, they were in ONE WHOLE PIECE, head, tail and all .. and for another, I've never seen this particular fish in ANY MARKET (ok, so the last time I went to a wet market was when I was 7) ..
I hope to high heaven they taste good when my maid fries them up tomorrow.
And yes, I'll take supermarket cleaned fish ANYTIME.
Last night, my brother-in-law dropped by and gave us 4 fishes he had caught fishing at the reservoir .. ie they were fresh water fish. He had called me in the evening to tell me that he was coming down later that night to pass them to me .. so at about 7pm. my maid was instructed to go downstairs to meet him with a empty pail.
She put the pail on the kitchen counter .. and man, I hate the smell of fish. I knew without asking my maid that she had never cleaned fish before. SO obviously, the unpleasant task fell on me to do it. DAMMIT. I told her to stand with me so I could show how it's done. Actually, it was a needless exercise since I ALWAYS buy fish from the supermarket .. all nicely descaled and cut and packed on nice styrofoam plates. Even if I did buy fish that needed cleaning, errrr, I usually ask the Cold Storage fish uncle to do it for me.
So ... I haven't cleaned a fish in YEARS. There is a reason for that. I hate doing it. I hate the smell, the icky stuff that comes out of them .. and later the stink that is left behind in my kitchen sink (not really, but I am sensitive when it comes to smells) ..
But this time around, there was no way out. I had to do it. I cursed my brother-in-law in my head while my maid lined the sink with a plastic bag and tipped the fish out into the sink. UGH!!! Plus what made it worse for me was knowing that barely a few hours ago, they had been ALIVE AND SWIMMING. AAAAAAAAAH! .. At least with the supermarket fish, I KNOW THEY HAVE BEEN DEAD AWHILE but these fish, who knows when they died. I'm betting it was under 2 hours ..
All, I can say is, thank goodness for the rubber gloves I had bought at Carrefour last week. It really helped a lot knowing my fingers weren't going to smell horribly after cleaning the fish out. My girls of course, were fascinated with the fish .. cos they were unlike any of the fish we had bought from the supermarket. Of course, for one thing, they were in ONE WHOLE PIECE, head, tail and all .. and for another, I've never seen this particular fish in ANY MARKET (ok, so the last time I went to a wet market was when I was 7) ..
I hope to high heaven they taste good when my maid fries them up tomorrow.
And yes, I'll take supermarket cleaned fish ANYTIME.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
recycling ....
The last time I was downstairs around my condo taking a stroll, I noticed that the management had finally decided to put up bins for recycling .. glass, plastic and paper - so now, I feel slightly better .. I use enough baby wipes on a daily basis to cause deforestation somewhere I'm sure .. lol .. so it's nice to know that I can do my little part by recycling other things .. like Coke bottles and Heinz glass jars and paper ... of course, my maid is the one making these trips to the bins to chuck them in .. lol ! ..
Speaking of whom .. it was her birthday on Monday .. she turned 20 .. I got her a small cake for the girls to sing her the birthday song and I gave her an angpow cos I didn't know what to get her .. the girls love celebrating birthdays and sang her the birthday song happily. I'm really glad that they have adjusted to her quite easily and enjoy her company and at the same time, they do respect her and treat her as an authority figure somewhat. She is still Miss Blur Queen .. I still don't ask her WHERE things are in the house but she does her work fairly decently and I have no complaints there. I don't want to vacuum and mop the house myself. EVER.
lol :p
Speaking of whom .. it was her birthday on Monday .. she turned 20 .. I got her a small cake for the girls to sing her the birthday song and I gave her an angpow cos I didn't know what to get her .. the girls love celebrating birthdays and sang her the birthday song happily. I'm really glad that they have adjusted to her quite easily and enjoy her company and at the same time, they do respect her and treat her as an authority figure somewhat. She is still Miss Blur Queen .. I still don't ask her WHERE things are in the house but she does her work fairly decently and I have no complaints there. I don't want to vacuum and mop the house myself. EVER.
lol :p
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Why I haven't been blogging ..
This has taken over my life. Lol. I kid u not. It's a game on Facebook .. and it's addictive. Well, I am addicted. Actually, there are a few games on Facebook that I am playing currently. Pet Society, Country Story and now, Cafe World. The games have sort of taken over my life .. so in between helping Claudia to revise and taking care of Calista, and managing Lauren and Emily, I am now glued to these games.
sigh. Who'd have thought I'd be a gamer of sorts. Lol !!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
My happy weekend ...
*sigh* ...
I fully admit I love shopping. While I do enjoy window shopping, there's NOTHING like BUYING things to add to all the other stuff you already have at home .. lol !
And yes, I love a good bargain. You don't get that a lot here. Here the prices are marked up before they are marked down during a sale. It's horrible. I love shopping while I was in the States ... u get good bargains all the time. There was this one time, the departmental store in our town, Dillards had a massive clearance of their ladies' shoe dept. It was AWESOME. My friend and I almost went into a frenzy .. I think I bought more than 10 pairs of shoes including 2 pairs of BOOTS .. lol !! .. One ankle high and another pair, knee high .. this was AFTER winter so they were going for guess how much ? ... US$14.99 EACH !! Both by the brand Mudd ... really well made. Still have them .. aw come on, I think I would get LAUGHED at wearing them here in sunny Singapore. *sigh* My friend and I visited that shoe dept in Dillards everyday for a few days straight cos they were clearing out everything and we didn't want to miss a thing. My friend picked up a pair of Cole Haan pumps which unfortunately were too big for her and too small for me .. we sat there for a full 10 minutes wondering who on earth we could buy them for .. but seriously, how many of us can actually say we know what size shoes our friends wear? .. lol !!
So yes, I love good bargains ... and last week, an ad in the paper caught my eye. Shoehaus was having a clearance sale at Orchard Plaza .. I remember walking into their store at Suntec some years ago ... their shoes were nice .. from Germany, but expensive .. all at least $160 and above. What I liked about them was that they came in BIG sizes .. My shoes size is 10 (US) .. and it is a PAIN shopping for shoes here. For the longest time, I could only buy shoes from Marks and Spencers and the brand Rockport from World of Sport cos I couldn't find shoes in my size ANYWHERE ELSE. Even the branded ones went up to max size 8 or 9 but the cutting would be on the small side. These days, it's much better cos I can just buy online .. and I still have a TON of shoes that I brought back from the States that I haven't gotten around to wearing .. lol.
ANYWAY ... we went down to Shoehaus and I got 2 pairs of leather sandals ... AWESOME !! They are so comfy ... one is a Josef Seibel pair and the other .. Romika and they were going for so cheap ... 70 bucks per pair !!!! .. I was really happy !! ..
sigh. I love shoes ... GOOD shoes.
I fully admit I love shopping. While I do enjoy window shopping, there's NOTHING like BUYING things to add to all the other stuff you already have at home .. lol !
And yes, I love a good bargain. You don't get that a lot here. Here the prices are marked up before they are marked down during a sale. It's horrible. I love shopping while I was in the States ... u get good bargains all the time. There was this one time, the departmental store in our town, Dillards had a massive clearance of their ladies' shoe dept. It was AWESOME. My friend and I almost went into a frenzy .. I think I bought more than 10 pairs of shoes including 2 pairs of BOOTS .. lol !! .. One ankle high and another pair, knee high .. this was AFTER winter so they were going for guess how much ? ... US$14.99 EACH !! Both by the brand Mudd ... really well made. Still have them .. aw come on, I think I would get LAUGHED at wearing them here in sunny Singapore. *sigh* My friend and I visited that shoe dept in Dillards everyday for a few days straight cos they were clearing out everything and we didn't want to miss a thing. My friend picked up a pair of Cole Haan pumps which unfortunately were too big for her and too small for me .. we sat there for a full 10 minutes wondering who on earth we could buy them for .. but seriously, how many of us can actually say we know what size shoes our friends wear? .. lol !!
So yes, I love good bargains ... and last week, an ad in the paper caught my eye. Shoehaus was having a clearance sale at Orchard Plaza .. I remember walking into their store at Suntec some years ago ... their shoes were nice .. from Germany, but expensive .. all at least $160 and above. What I liked about them was that they came in BIG sizes .. My shoes size is 10 (US) .. and it is a PAIN shopping for shoes here. For the longest time, I could only buy shoes from Marks and Spencers and the brand Rockport from World of Sport cos I couldn't find shoes in my size ANYWHERE ELSE. Even the branded ones went up to max size 8 or 9 but the cutting would be on the small side. These days, it's much better cos I can just buy online .. and I still have a TON of shoes that I brought back from the States that I haven't gotten around to wearing .. lol.
ANYWAY ... we went down to Shoehaus and I got 2 pairs of leather sandals ... AWESOME !! They are so comfy ... one is a Josef Seibel pair and the other .. Romika and they were going for so cheap ... 70 bucks per pair !!!! .. I was really happy !! ..
sigh. I love shoes ... GOOD shoes.
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