Mum's coming

I've finally asked my mum to come over to help out for a while. She'd been hinting of lending a hand for the longest of time but I'd always declined. Adrian, too, was always telling me we should get her to come over. I mean, who wouldn't jump at the chance to get some help, right? For me, I have many concerns. Both my mum and I have strong characters. I don't want to get into bickers with her over domestic and childraising matters here. She's an extremely tidy, neat and organised person while I'm not. She's afraid of cold so the weather doesn't really suit her. A born worrier, she gets jittery easily whereas I'm more laid back.

Adrian told me these 2 months are going to be very crucial for his work. The reason we came here was for him to work on his PhD and complete his research ASAP. It's tough for an unmarried person to study for a PhD, let alone one who has a family to look after at the same time. I totally understand his difficult position and circumstances though he doesn't think that I do. We've come this far and I certainly wouldn't want to delay him or see him fail. These are certainly the last things on my mind. So I thought long and hard. Since the priority is for him to finish his work, thus getting his PhD before the money runs out, I've asked my mum to come and she'd agreed. She's terribly excited right now. The plan is for her to come end of next week and she'll stay for a month. As she's giving tuition, she has to get back before the mid-year exams, hence, can't stay any longer than that. My dad has just retired and feels quite lost at the moment so I've asked him to come too. He told me he can't stay longer than 2 weeks. He's not one who can be away from home for too long. He's got his fishes to look after, he loves the local food, the Chinese newspaper and Mandarin TV programmes. The only thing he can do here is gardening and cook, which he loves. I'm worried about him being alone at home when my mum comes. But he feels it's a waste of money to come if it's just for 2 weeks.

Now to the bright side of things. When my mum comes, I can work on my computer in the day and not feel much guilt. She'll be able to teach the girls some Mandarin though I doubt they'll learn much in a month. Being a good housekeeper (my mum, that is), my house will always be neat and tidy, spick and span. I won't have to cook all the meals as she'll be more than happy to share the chore. Not having to worry about waking up early in the morning with the girls, I can go into a scrapbooking frenzy at night (I'm a nocturnal person). If Adrian bullys me, I've got someone behind me...hehehe. And if we ever get on each other's nerves, she can stay with my sister, Jean, for a day or two in order to let us calm down. Oh! I'm such a bad daughter, mother and wife.

This thing called 'Love'

It's strange how our mind works sometimes. Adrian's not been wearing his wedding ring for quite a while now. He said for some reasons, he found it uncomfortable. This morning, I found the ring in a drawer and asked Louisa to pass it to him. Surprisingly, he put it on and it's still on his finger. Now that he's wearing the ring, I seem to feel a sudden 'connection' to him. According to tradition, the wedding ring is worn on the left ring finger because the vein in the left ring finger was believed to be directly connected to the heart, a symbol of love. Funny though since he should be the one feeling it and not me.

It's here!

The highly anticipated present is here! Half an hour ago, my new mobile phone arrived..woohoo! It's Nokia 7373 from the L'Amour collection and Adrian's belated wedding anniversary present for me. The delay was due to the loss of my credit card (hence his credit card was blocked as well) and his laptop had crashed. It's truly a blessing in disguise because due to this delay, I got the phone that I truly love and want. If he'd ordered a phone for me in time for last week, it wouldn't be this model as there wasn't any promotion for it. But! Few days back, an offer came online and now I'm the proud owner of a pink swivel phone with elaborate and embossed finishing ('very me' as my sister had put it). This girly phone has a 2 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom and video recorder, FM radio and MPEG4 player, how handy! Oh, did I say it's a belated gift? Today's the anniversary of our customary wedding so it's not a belated present afterall! Thanks, Mike!

CNY goodies - airflown from USA

I've just returned from Royal Mail after picking up a small parcel. Been wondering the whole of yesterday who had sent me the parcel after receiving the note for collection. I'd thought it could be a belated Valentines' present from Adrian. We were looking at some mobile phones earlier and I had decided on one and I thought this could be it. To my great (pleasant) surprise, it was from my sister, Aiqi. She had sent us a box of homemade CNY goodies all the way from US. I was so touched! Thanks, Qi! You shouldn't have sent it, the postage was exorbitant! But we appreciate it alot. Don't worry, they're still edible.

10 years as One

1o years ago on this day, Adrian and I started a new journey together. Two hearts, two lives, began as one. It was this day we exchanged our vows and rings at the Registry of Marriage. Like all other couples, we had our ups and downs. In those years, we came to UK together to study and enjoyed the most amazing experience, holidayed at many different countries, went through a very rough patch, had 2 kids and moved back to UK. A decade as man and wife doesn't seem that long, neither is it short. But to me, it is definitely a milestone. Any celebrations? None. Was going to make his favourite Nasi Lemak for dinner but we're all heaty and having a tickly cough and Nasi Lemak is not Nasi Lemak without fried chicken wings. So there goes our 'special dinner'. Happy Anniversary anyway!

Money's always the root of all evil

I'd never really understood why people are always getting at one another's throat over money. Friends, business partners, family etc. Relatives actually fall out and become enemies over inheritance and loans. Why? Is money so superior it surpasses kinship? Whenever I read in the newspapers about family fighting over inheritance, I can't but shake my head with disgust. The so-called people who are dearest to you will resort to all means in order to fight for more or even worse, fight for what is not meant for them. Some people actually ended up with no roof over their head even though they were the owners of the house. Then there are others who hound after widows/widowers for valuables left behind.....jewellery, savings and even belongings such as bags, clothing and shoes. Before they are able to bereave, these widows/widowers are dragged into court cases to fight over inheritance that is rightfully theirs but the greedy relatives want a share. It's hard to fathom why these people places more emphasis on money rather than relations. I know one cannot survive without money but is money everything? So what if money is gained but a relation is lost. Siblings who become sworn enemies. Relatives who stopped all contact. Parents and children disown one another. Such are downright disgraceful!

Then there are others who has more money and think they can rule over the rest as if having a bigger bank account entitles them to 'speak louder'. I know of 2 sisters who'd rather pay for a maid to look after their elderly mother at their brother's home than look after her themselves in their own homes. These highly educated and highly regarded professionals think that as daughters, they are married 'out of the family' and no longer responsible for their mother. Even though they each have a maid and live in landed properties, they have the mentality that it is the responsibility of the sons (their brothers) to look after her. If this was the case, what will happen to those without sons?

First snowman

We woke up this morning and it was winter wonderland outside. Not only was everything covered in thick snow, it was still snowing unlike before. As Adrian had to go to the train station again, I had no choice but to drive. It was my first experience driving in such conditions and I had to be very cautious, in case the car skids or someone else does so. The roads were covered in blackened slush. I took Lavigne to the garden to build a snowman. It was my first attempt and hers too. She didn't want to join in the fun and kept wanting to go back into the house but I kept her distracted. Soon, she started gathering snow from the ground and helped me with the building. We took about one hour to complete. If it wasn't lunchtime, we'd continue and beautify our creation. I made the wrong decision to pick Louisa from school by foot. It was hard to maneuver the stroller on the snow which had started to melt and become ice. The girls made another snowman when they came home.

Remember I used to say the earthworms here are very long? Here it is.

(It's actually longer than this as part of it was in the soil)

Heavy snow and a credit card

It's been really cold this past week. I used to wear short-sleeve Ts and shorts during the cold months and Adrian would say I'm 'not human'. Well, not anymore. I don't seem to have that super ability to withstand cold now. Perhaps I'm getting old, maybe it's really cold or probably both. This morning before sending Adrian to the train station, I poured lukewarm water on the windscreen and windows as the car was covered with frost. It was so cold that as soon as I poured the water, it would start to freeze again. I think I'd use the ice-scrapper the next time. Though time consuming, it works better. The weather forecast for tomorrow is 'heavy snow'. So far, I've only experienced very light snow. If it really snows heavily tomorrow, I'll bring the girls out to the garden to build a snowman. Adrian's been complaining about the cold so this evening, I moved our mattress to the girls' room (they share a much bigger room than ours) and the whole family can bunk in together. It's more cost efficient to heat one room than two.

I realised I'd lost my credit card today. I know that's very careless of me. The last time I used the card was on Sunday. We went to Tesco to do our grocery shopping. Then to it's cafe for lunch. That was the last time I used it. I remembered struggling with 2 trays of food, one keypouch and my credit card. But I'm quite sure I put the card back into the keypouch. It might have dropped out since then. I didn't know I'd lost it until today when I was checking my purse before going out. Both Adrian and my card have now been blocked. Luckily, no transactions had been made since Sunday and thank God we now use pin numbers for credit cards instead of signatures.

New Look

I desperately want to change the layout and design of my blog. Valentine's Day's round the corner and mine has still got the X'mas look. OMG! I'd better get all my stuff backed up fast if not I'd never be able to install Photoshop.

History repeats itself

This was not meant to be the first post after being away for so long. Well, I finished writing an extremely long post 2 nights ago and was proof-reading it when my stupid foot accidentally kicked on the plug and electricity was cut off. Of course, everything was gone! I saved it as a draft once when I started writing in the morning but couldn't finish it off as Lavigne was constantly trying to get my attention. So I left it to when everybody went to bed. It was an emotionally-charged post and I was pretty down after writing it so you can imagine my rage after what my silly foot had done. I swore! Yes, I did! Spending more than an hour writing and then losing it was one thing but to rewrite everything and experience the emotions again? To make the matter worse, I was worried sick when I realised the computer couldn't be rebooted. Adrian would get really mad at me as he'd just finished formatting it and installed all the softwares for me.

The following morning, I told him what happened and I could see that he was quite upset. I was very apologetic and it was an accident afterall. I don't understand why the computer always end up like that when there's a power cut. He found out later that the motherboard's battery had gone flat but I still don't understand the connection between the two. The inevitable had to be done - to format it again. All my files which were saved in an extremely organized way the past few days were gone in the process. Sigh!