Ill

When things are not going smoothly, the body suffers too. What started off as a very mild cough has progressed to a full-blown one. I am kept awake at night by my own constant coughing, the type which makes you feel as if you're coughing your guts out and until your stomach is cramped (I hope it tones up my tummy muscle). It's bad during the week when I don't get enough sleep and have to wake up early to prepare the girls for school and then to work. For the past few days, I have been giving the girls early dinners and they went to bed at 7pm. It's easy when they don't have to wait for their dad to come home and I needed that time in the evenings to unwind too. Then last night, as if the cough's not enough, I started having a temperature. I get the chills even when I'm all wrapped up. It doesn't help that the temperature is taking a dip and snow is on it's way. This morning, I stayed in bed for longer and left the girls with the childminders (aka TV and toys) after giving them their breakfast. I felt really lousy. Suddenly, I'm like a tiny person in a very big room....felt very, very lonely. Where is the support I needed? Who can I turn to?

The good and the bad

I'll like to think that when one does good deeds, have a kind heart and is generally a righteous and honest person, one will be protected from the iniquitous. But I'm beginning to lose faith in that. No matter how many good people, how many angels there are out there, lurking amongst them are the evil lot. I just can't understand why some people simply have no conscience, how they can take advantage of a situation to try to get some money out of it, why make up stories to get what they want? To say the least, I'm embroiled in a very undesirable situation which I'm at no liberty to discuss right now. Like my father-in-law had told me, life is full of ups and downs which I agree totally. But I've never, ever, at any point of my life, encountered so many bad incidents all at one go. Please say a prayer for me. Thank you!

Adversity

Much to my dismay and anguish, the saga of bad luck continues.

Down on luck!

I seem to be in a spate of bad luck! Things' been happening to me the past few weeks. First it was the washing machine, then the car accident, the unknown internet disconnection, just to name a few. The latest is I just lost my parking permit and one for my courtesy car. I'd been placing the paper and my own car permit (quickly ran downstairs)

I haven't even finished writing this post and yet another unfortunate thing happened. I'd forgotten I was reheating my Bubor Pulut Hitam and the pot of gooey black rice was blubbling away and had overflowed onto the stove. Luckily it wasn't on high heat. Sadly, I'd just cleaned the stove before going out earlier. My dessert wasn't burnt, there was just the mess to clean up. Argh! Oh and not forgetting I was (again!) reheating some braised ribs in a pot for A this evening and had conveniently forgotten about it and went out until I was on my way home and I rang back to ask if he had turned off the stove. He did, after he'd finished his dinner which meant he didn't know about the ribs and so didn't eat them.

To continue with what I'd originally set out to write, the piece of paper and car permit had been placed on the dashboard for the past week with no incident whatsoever. The last time I saw them was when I came home after picking Louisa from school. Earlier, I had loaded my father-in-law's luggage into the boot and A came home, I went into the house to take a few pictures, thinking it'll be very fast, father-in-law closed the door to prevent the draft from coming in. We happily took pictures and then I got out again and realised, much to my horror, I'd left the boot wide open. Thankfully, the luggage is still there. I then drove my father-in-law to the airport.

As I was about to reach home, I suddenly remembered I had to renew my courtesy car parking permit tomorrow. Before I got out of the car, I reached out to the side compartment for the permits when I realised they weren't there. I started to panic. I searched the whole car umpteen times, searched the roadside, the house, EVERYWHERE! But they just couldn't be found. I gave up searching outside as it was raining. Had they flown out when I was at the airport? Did someone nick it while we were taking pictures in the house? This is the first time I didn't appreciate the central lock. Otherwise, only the boot will be unlocked and not the whole car.

I just wished I will not be penalised for replacing my parking permit. When one's down on luck, everything seems to go wrong. I hope it will turnaround soon, like RIGHT NOW!

One down

Exam over, should be able to pass. One battle down, more battles to fight.

Can't concentrate

I've been trying to revise for my exam this coming Tuesday all evening and is finding it really difficult to get things into my head (the reason why I'm taking a break to blog). So many things are on my mind. Each time I read one sentence, I will think about something else. It goes on and on I am getting very frustrated! What can I do to get myself detached from all the emotions I'm having? How can I get myself to concentrate? It's going to be very hard. This time it's going to be very, very tough.

A dedication

I was on my way to pick Louisa from school when I heard this on the radio - Bette Midler's 'Wind beneath my wings'. It's one of my all-time favourite and as I sang along, I thought of my 3 sisters in Singapore. Couldn't help it but started tearing. This is for you, Cat, Jean and Qi.

Demise

Adrian's paternal grandfather passed away early this morning in Hong Kong. He was 93. May he rest in peace.

Sigh

One bad news after another....... How I so dread it when the phone rings in the middle of the night.

Latest update

1. My washing machine, which broke down just before Christmas, has finally been replaced yesterday.
2. I got involved in a traffic accident early yesterday morning but luckily we weren't injured in any way.
3. Internet was down yesterday for no rhyme or reason but had been fixed earlier.
4. Car was taken to workshop for repair today and we got a 3-door courtesy car which is going to be very troublesome but it's auto!
5. Lavigne has been posted to Louisa's school, yay! One less thing to worry.
6. I'm not in the mood to blog properly. In fact I'm in a very foul mood now. *ROAR*!

CNY soon

This year's CNY is too early! I've yet to 'recover' from the Christmas revelry. Last week as I took my festive carton from the loft to keep all the X'mas decorations, I brought out the CNY ones but they're still sitting in my lounge untouched. I don't have the mood to decorate. Don't even remind me about CNY baking. I have to but I can't summon enough energy or interest to do so (why why why?!) and Chu Yi is less than 2 weeks away! I've invited my colleagues over, friends will be visiting and Louisa had asked a few of her friends to come and play too. I am so NOT prepared for it.

Oh, something to look forward to though and the countdown has begun! Friday - THE day! I can't wait!

Pandan Cake Again

This is my second pandan cake in a week. I baked one for my sister to try using this recipe. As it was meant for a 18cm cake tin, my cake (didn't take picture as I was rushing about cooking and baking) turned out to be pretty flat as the tin I have is 25cm. I didn't adjust the quantity of ingredients as I've not tried this particular recipe before and wasn't sure if it'll turn out nice. Compared to the recipe I'd been using, this is more straightforward and easy and in my opinion, produces a better texture.

Late afternoon after cooking dinner, I set upon baking another one and this time, doubling the quantity of ingredients required. I remember being told one has to stick to a recipe to a T and not adjust the quantity in order to get it right but I went ahead nonetheless. I didn't use any food colouring as the pandan paste is green enough. This time I made sure I top the tin with a piece of foil so that the top will not be burnt before the whole cake is cooked. As it was such a big cake, I baked it at about 160 degrees for 1hr. It could do with another 5-10min in the oven as I feel the cake is still a tad too moist to my liking. Perhaps it'll be drier tomorrow morning. But overall, the texture is fluffy and by far my best attempt. Most importantly, it is a very simple recipe to follow. I'm going to ditch my old recipe.

Did I see what I saw?

Was checking the weather for the next few days before I go to bed when I got a shock!

Farewell - the aftermath

So she left. I had psyched myself for the moment so there were no tears except for when she asked me to call home if I needed someone to talk to and not to bottle things up. I looked away and blinked my eyes furiously. Other than that, as I walked to the carpark, I didn't feel the awful sadness I had felt previously after bidding farewell to my family members. I do feel a little down somewhat but that was it. It must be because I know I'll be seeing her in 6 months. Upon reaching home, I walked into the girls' room. Then it hit me that my sis had gone home. I don't see her lying on the mattress on the floor. It was tucked into a corner. No more luggages in the room, none of her clothes can be found hanging together with the girls' behind the door, her toiletries had been removed from the top of the chest of drawers and the smell of her cream lingered on. Suddenly, I feel very lonely. As if my pillar of strength is lost. I wonder how will Louisa and Lavigne react tomorrow morning when they wake to see that Tingyi is no longer sleeping in their room. I wonder if I will have the s0-called 'withdrawal effect'. I am not looking forward to tomorrow to find out.

See you in July!

Soon.....

As I will for the hands on the clock to move slower, it seems to do just the opposite. In a matter of hours, I'll be sending my sister off to the airport where she will return home to Singapore. Had she been here for 2.5 weeks? It certainly didn't feel like it. We spent so much time talking and sharing tales of our lives. To put it simply, catching up with the time lost. Of course not forgetting the intensive retail therapy we both enjoyed.

Before she came, I was very apprehensive about the timing of her trip. But I'm very glad she did as she helped to take the edge off an otherwise a very stressful time of my life. We closed one eye on checks of our movements, braved the bitter cold and crowd to hit the shops and took the girls to London. It had been one of the best X'mas and New Year I've ever had.

Dearest Sis,

Thank you for visiting us in UK. We had thoroughly enjoyed your company and hope you had a great time too!

Thank you for all the gifts you had brought and bought.

Thank you for helping to look after the girls when I was busy.

Thank you for listening when I needed someone to talk to.

Thank you for all the advice you'd given me.

Thank you for being my sis (well, actually you didn't have a choice, did you? :p).

Love,

cheh

Girls' 1st Sleepover....

....at the Ongs. It was the first time for them at a friend's and they had such great fun! About two weeks ago after the X'mas party at their place, L wanted the girls to sleepover. So V and I arranged for one before the children start their Spring Term. We (girls and I) went over yesterday, had lunch and took the tube to the Natural History Museum which is a place they all like to go. Actually I love the museum too. The best part is it's free. Even after a few visits, we have yet to cover the whole place so we keep going back. I'm so glad the girls get to go there as my sis and I didn't manage to bring them there on Monday and they were very disappointed. Unfortunately, the museum was very packed. V and I were knackered at the end of the trip after having to repeatedly ask the children to take turns with playing with the exhibits, to behave, to stay close to us, to...... It wasn't a good day to go but the kids were happy. That was the most important part.

We dragged our tired feet home and V prepared a simple but nonetheless very yummy and satisfying burger meal. I don't know where the children got their energy from. They didn't show any signs of fatigue and continued playing after dinner. L played with them the very fun 'balloon game'. We had to stop the game halfway as it was getting late and there was still charade to play and dessert to eat. Oh did they have Duracell batteries in them? If not for us chasing them upstairs to have a wash and changed them into their jammies and got them into bed, I'm sure they'd gladly play till midnight. After I had finished reading the bedtime story, L's eyes were still big like marbles. While A stayed with them in their room, V and I had a good long chat over a soothing cup of green tea before climbing to bed close to 1am.

....to be continued.

Sis' advice

I don't usually have any new year resolutions. But this year, I'm going to have one. One which will do me alot of good. Since her arrival, she'd been telling me 'Don't sweat the small stuff'. I think it's easier said than done. Especially if the 'stuff' doesn't happen to her. But it's a good advice afterall. I shall bear that in mind all the time. Whenever I get angry/upset/offended by something or someone, I shall just take a deep breath and tell myself to just leave it. Life is too short for me to be bothered about and fret over everything and everyone. It's just not worth it.

My sis should be in mid-air now on her way to visit her friend in Germany. Good for her. I shall miss her while she's gone and can't wait for her to come back on Monday. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to spending time with the Ongs. *V, the girls can't wait!*

Happy New Year to all!