Well done, my girl!

The books and worksheet of my son & youngest daughter. I warn them to get good result and not to let the trees sacrificed for nothing :-)

My youngest daughter loves to do workbook, word search and sudoku. When she was younger, she loved to read instruction manual. Her elder brother & sister said she is weird (怪胎).

But actually we know she derives joy and satisfaction from learning. 

And she enjoys taking part in competitions. 

This year she is one of the winners for the English story telling and story writing competition again. 

Best of all, she loves to help others (her class teacher adores her), and gets along well with everyone.

I am glad she enjoys her primary school life very much, and ends it with a high note 

by scoring 7As in UPSR!

Well done my girl. I am proud of you.

I am thankful that you are able to study independently without my coaching.

And you have saved me a lot  of money on tuition fees too. (Having only taken BM tuition)

Keep working hard and deriving joy from learning!

Her Poem, My Art

When I was a teenager, I loved to draw based on inspiration derived from song lyrics. Never knew that one day I would pick up my paint brush and pen because of my 15 year-old daughter's poem.

Life is simply beautiful and full of sweet surprises. It is more than what we expect.

MORE THAN

Nobody ever gave her a second look.
with lips a pale pink;
plain green eyes,
dull brown hair piled atop her head,
who would?

she was always bundled up
in her sweaters and knits,
she always had
her nose in a book.
Her glasses fell to the tip of her nose
As from her coffee a sip she took.

But if you took a second glance you'll see
that her hair is of a rich mahogany.
Her eyes filled with fire and passion, an emerald green.
her lips moving as she blissfully recites a passage,
the string of words she uses so eloquently
only entices you so wholly.

When she stands up straight you'll see,
she imposes the regal posture of a queen.
As her long tapered fingers flips a page of a book
or tinkles the ivory and ebony keys,
you'd realise she's so much more than it seems.

I intentionally added her hipster glasses, fashion bag and a cup of her favourite Starbucks Coffee.

And below were what she wrote when she was very young...

My little girl's graduation day!

Today is a memorable day!

My little girl has graduated from primary school!

How time flies. I'm glad i recorded her 1st day in Kndie and primary school.

2 Jan 2007 (1st day in Kindie): 

She was very cheerful and received lots of praises from other parents. One parent commented that she was the happiest student in the class. Everything was fine until she went to toilet and wet her underwear. She started crying. Her teacher gave her another pant to wear and I was told that she eventually calmed down. But on the 2nd day, she started to cry and yell early in the morning: “I want Kakak to stay with me...”, “I want mommy to stay there for so long...”, “I want to stay at home...I don’t want to go to school...” She experienced separation anxiety and we suffered with her for a few weeks.

5 Jan 2009 (1st day of Primary School):

She was very "manja". With teary eyes, she complained that the hall was hot and stuffy. We pulled her out to get some fresh air and her daddy offered to let her "play" with his Blackberry. I stopped him because she was in the school! During recess, we brought her elder sister to school to give her some "Canteen Survival Training".

TZ's 1st Day

Fortunately she is not spoiled & pampered. Today, she is cool, independent, disciplined and confident and ready to embrace her secondary school life in 2015!

Well done my girl!
And congratulations on your "graduation"!

Birthday wishes for a loving dad

On my hubby's birthday in November,

My son wrote a simple poem & whatsapped him:

To all the deeds you've done,

To all the times we had fun,

Here's wishing you happy birthday,

We'll love you even when you're old and grey.

My elder daughter emailed a poem to him:
I really love this poem written by her. It sums up his dad's character so well.

Dad;
You don’t seem
Like a sentimental person,
So I’ll hold that in esteem.

I admire
Your quiet strength
Your unyielding patience,
You really are supreme.

I appreciate
The way you keep up
With my favourite foods
Til’ the point it’s extreme.

I’m amazed
By the person you are,
You deserve only the highest praise.
With pride I beam.

Happy birthday dad,

I love you.

My youngest daughter made a card for him:

She drew 2 red eggs on a plate and a bowl of mee sua on the card cover.

As for me, I cooked him a bowl of his favourite Mee Sua (his sweet childhood memory, in which every birthday his mother would cook him a bowl of mee sua with boiled egg)

We love him!

Son, you should be glad you did not drop Chinese subject!

In Jan 2013, I wrote about my son who got a D for his Chinese subject in PMR had requested to drop  his SPM Chinese subject, and I notice it was viewed by quite many people - "Mom, my friends are going to drop Chinese subject!"

At that time, I mentioned :

I have decided to let him take up the ICGSE Chinese subject (which seems to be less tough as compared to SPM Chinese). He will sit for tuition to prepare himself for it. It seems to be a good compromise, in which he will get a SPM cert plus a ICGSE Chinese subject cert. He agreed on it.

Perhaps some may be curious whether was he able to sustain?

Since he was in form four last year, I let him take private tuition for Chinese subject once a week. I am glad he sat for the ICGSE exam for Chinese as the First Language a few months ago (there are another 2 papers - Chinese as the Second Language or Foreign Language but those are way too easy and I did not allow him to sit for that).

Yesterday, I collected his result and he got a B (78 marks)!

By comparing what he got for his PMR, I could see the improvement. Of course I must say that certain parts of the PMR Chinese subject are much harder than this ICGSE paper for him, especially the former has 文言文 and 明句精华。In short, more memorisation for PMR Chinese subject.

I am glad he has accomplished the mission - Continued to learn Chinese subject until form 5, besides  obtaining an extra certificate for himself.

As for my daughter whom is in form 3 now, she is facing more challenges because PT3 Chinese Subject requires even more memorisation (She does not have a strong foundation and it is tough for her)

I have decided to let her follow her brother's step by dropping SPM Chinese, but continue to learn Chinese subject through private tuition and will sit for ICGSE Chinese subject.

End of the day, I want my kids to embrace this beautiful language and I am very sure when they grow up, they will appreciate it and benefit from it.

The men whom have coloured my life

There are 3 art files on the bookshelf that are very precious to me. 

When I was in the secondary school, my dad would buy me issues of "The Art of Drawing and Painting" each week, and I managed to collect 72 issues! 

My dad supported my hobby not only through buying me art stuff, but also constantly sending my paintings for framing. He even handmade a wooden palette for me!

My dad has given me a wonderful and colourful childhood, and that carries into my adulthood...he has coloured my life with his love!

This Rowney watercolour set was a gift from my boyfriend about 20 years ago. 

That boyfriend of mine became the father of my children, so I used that watercolour set to paint our 3 children's portraits.

Our elder girl who was once punished by me for doodling on the wall when she was a toddler, has grown up to be an art lover, so I passed that gift to her.

It is pretty amazing how lasting that watercolour set is! (It was also because I treasured it very much and used it sparingly all these while)

Through it, I've witnessed how a wonderful man has coloured the life of his girlfriend, wife and daughter.

I am thankful to have these 2 wonderful men in my life.

Happy One Year "Maidless" Anniversary!

This month marks my family's One Year Maidless Anniversary.

To celebrate this small "victory" of me surviving a year without a maid yet didn't go mad (in fact living happier with new found freedom & decided to make it a lifestyle choice), I designed a simple infographic to record how the gadgets and machines have replaced my maid (of course I have to acknowledge the contribution from my hubby & kids + part time domestic helpers who come in once a week)

I am so thankful for technologies. My hubby calls it "Automaidtion".

Long life all great inventors out there!!! （guess I can live longer too)


In fact, in order to fit the dishwasher into my kitchen, my hubby and I decided to renovate the kitchen and utilize the extra 5 feet of land. Some may thought we were crazy because there's no maid to help cleaning up the house during the renovation period.

My old kitchen.. or rather...my maid's kitchen

Somehow it is a blessing in disguise that my ex-maid cheated on me and never returned from the Philippines.

Times flies...those days of playing "MASAK-MASAK" are over and now my kids are cooking REAL food. Last time the maid refused to let them "buat kacau" inside her kitchen. Now I give them total freedom to cook & experiment with food. In life, what's more important is passion and the willingness to try.

We got crazier... in the middle of the kitchen renovation, we decided to renovate the maid room cum piano room as well. Below was the result...

Instead of paying thousands to custom made a book shelf, we used back our old white Billy bookcase from Ikea 

and added some new ones. It saves us lots of money :-)

I somehow thank my ex-maid for not coming back... it is a Blessing In Disguise indeed. If not we would not have the chance to enjoy what we are enjoying now. 

Nothing is better than being self-reliant and not having a stranger at home.

So near yet so far...

Once a senior couple told me that their daughter who migrated to Australia was uncontactable for 2 weeks.They were worried sick & constantly feared for her safety. When they finally got hold of her, their adult daughter told them she was too tied up with her work. 

I remember when I was having a family vacation in Bali a few years ago, I received a surprise call from my dad and he simply asked me how's my holiday and I said it was great. Only later I realised he saw the news about earthquake in Bali. I feel bad to know that while I was having a great time, he was in fact worrying the whole time.



Being parents, we don't have a radar to monitor our children's every move (they can decide to keep their phones in silent mode). But it is the children's responsibility to be contactable at all time, for parent's peace of mind.