chilli crab

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noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:56:00 +0000

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Lolly hop

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:24:00 +0000

Lila keeps saying lolly hop instead of lolly pop no matter how many times i've tried to correct her. Aga's response: it's ok, mommy. When she grow up she WILL say it the right way.

Potty training is going well. She actually does it everytime i ask her to go potty, unlike last time when i had to sit patiently for an hour next to her waiting for the inspiration (read: wee) to come.

ICT Sweet

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:53:00 +0000

Agastya: We went to ICT sweet (=suite) yesterday and today.
Me: (although I already knew) What is an ICT sweet?
Agastya: Uh oh there's no sweet in ICT sweet mommy. There are only hundreds and thousands of computers.
Me: So what do you do in this ICT suite?
Agastya: You play games in the computer, and click it when you get it right. You also help other kids that don't know how to do it. I helped Ryan yesterday. Today I helped Thomas.

I kept smirking thinking how disappointed he must have been the first time they all went to this ICT suite. NO SWEET?!!! Oh that's so misleading! :D

Things he learns from school

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:55:00 +0000

Madagascar theme is on this week apparently. He's in Melman team. With Georgia and Ryan. Nuno is in Gloria team. Digi is in Marty team. It's something to do with tidying up. The best team get points. Or something. But he didn't win, because there were soooo many papers on the table.

When he wanted to write 'careful' he asked me if the kuh (c sound) is the curly kuh or the kicking kuh. What? Did he say kicking kuh? Turns out curly kuh is c, kicking kuh is k. Make sense huh?

Randomness this week in January

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

1. Agastya: mommy, some people don't have kids.
Me: that's right. Some people don't.
Agastya: but you have two. And daddy has two.

2. Nagi was reading a book to Agastya. It has the word 'palace' in it so Nagi asked if he knows what it means.
Aga: yeah it's the one that looks like a castle. Where the king and queen and princess work.
Nagi: dunno about work, but yeah that's right.

3. I have a habit of saying 'is it?' to comment on what others say, including him. I mean to say 'is that so?' but most of the time i say 'is it'.
Aga: look mommy. There's a difference. If i say 'the tv is on', u say 'is it?'. But if i say 'i went to school yesterday', you say 'did you?'. You don't say 'is it?'. Because it just doesn't make any sense.
Me: is it? *smirks*
Agastya: mommy!

Haha.. Yeah he's now correcting my grammar. I better not show him this blog because he'll start checkspelling it too.

A letter to Santa

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:16:00 +0000

Dear Santa.

This is from Agastya. I promise I did not help even a bit. Just provided the pencil and paper. Thank you for taking your time off to read this letter, I know you're awfully busy with the gift-giving season and snow-induced chaos in traffic. I pray that your reindeers don't get affected by it.

Monica. (Agastya's Mom - in case you're confused)
PS: Please remember that I've been a very good girl too.
PPS: Please tell your impostor from Spain that his Swarte Piet used to scare the crap (excuse my language) out of me.

For those who are confused about the PPS, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas - this is the version of Santa I grew up with. He's from Spain, not from North Pole. He's always flanked by these terrifying bodyguards called Swarte Piet.

Read the Swarte Piet part. It's scary I kid you not.

Sinterklaas and his Black Petes usually carry a bag, which contains candy for nice children and a "roe," a bunch of willow branches used to spank naughty children; in actuality a chimneysweep's broom. Some of the older Sinterklaas songs make mention of naughty children being put in the bag and being taken back to Spain.

Trust me. Spain was never in my list of holiday destinations until recently. Going to Spain means a punishment from Santa. Come to think of it now, ugh why was I never a naughty girl??? I'd love to go to Spain!

Cat dump's heaven

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:21:00 +0000

My back garden is like the neighbour cats' place to relieve themselves. It's the cat dump's heaven. I bet it came with a flashing neon sign viewable only by cat eyes saying 'Toilet' with arrow pointing down at my grass. Maybe it also comes with a voucher to introduce a friend and get your poo session free. Poo lover card holder gets free dump after stamping 5 paws.

This morning it's like there was a line. One after another in a span of 3 hours. One even looked like it has constipation. Poor cat. So long as it's not diarrhoea. Eew.

I want to be a cat! Oh but cats don't get presents from Santa!...

Lila's 2.5 year review today. Weight 12 kgs (I'm very happy with this!), height 92 cms (tall!).

Ribbit! Ribbit!

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 09:43:00 +0000

Today they're frogs.

Ribbit! Ribbit!

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4jwmlJtx1U

Oh, I also have a video of Agastya singing Five Little Speckled Frogs.

There.

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RaB6IU_6lE

Things they like lately:
Watching Phineas and Ferb (both). Nagi encourages this because he loves the show.
Playing Lego (Agastya - will upload more pics of Lego creations in separate post)
Scribbling on papers (Lila). When she's done with one she'd say 'I did it!', then twirl the paper around the house saying 'Up up and away!'.

High school musical

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:34:00 +0000

I just watched a little bit of HSM 2 with the kids (we only survived the first song). Here's a few things Agastya noticed:

1. He immediately says he likes the main girl in it. I'm too lazy to google her name.
2. He also likes the blonde in it.
3. He thinks the piano girl looks like Rhianna. And he likes her too. My boy is not picky.
4. And the guy who wears pink all the time looks like Joshua.
5. When I told him I like Zac Efron (obviously, mom), he said Zac looks like his cousin Dylan!

6. He said pink is a girl's colour but he likes pink for no particular reason. Doh.
Cousin Dylan is of course 100% Indian, but he's sure about the similarity because I asked him many times and he's still saying it.

Sing a song time

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:43:00 +0000

With my new Kimchi, I'm making videos again now :D

The quality is sooooooooo much better than using my previous one. Thumbs up, Kimchi!

This is Agastya singing some song I don't know what it is. Clap clap woogie woogie. Thumbs up, Aga!

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO3MqylfS6g

Second day of playgroup. Mommy forgot Lila's bookbag but was forgiven. :D Lila was happy to leave Mr. Teddybear in Agastya's car seat and was immediately searching for Manuel once she got out of the car.

I stayed for 15 minutes before Wayne kicked me out. :D He said she seems like she's getting along well so he'll call me if she's really distress, which he didn't. There was a photograph day today at playgroup and she was apparently posing for the camera, and doesn't want to get off the scene. She kept on saying cheese all the way home in the car when I told her what she did today in school. That's my model-wannabe girl.

Lego boy

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:15:00 +0000

Agastya has been having fun with legos lately. He used to make only a looooong stack of tiny legos saying it's a gun, but now he's been better at it. He'd spend some quiet time doing it then show it to me saying "This is for you, mommy.".

A flower.

A dinosaur.

The last pic is using my brand new camera! Yes, the husband came back from Korea with a camera. It's like my previous camera, but better. Canon Ixus 980 IS. 14 mega pixel, baby! Best of all, yes brace yourself - it's RED in colour! :D

My new baby.. I named it KIMCHI. Because it's spicy red and it's from Korea. :D This one better not die on me!

Lila's first day of school

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:45:00 +0000

Today was Lila's first day of school. I know, I know. How quickly time flew by. I was nervous thinking how it would have gone. Would she be fine, would she cry her eyes out, would she be clingy?

She got out of the car with stroppy mood because I didn't let her take her teddy bear with her. I told her that he'll be safer in the car and will be waiting for her when she comes back from school. She wasn't happy about it but soon recovered because she saw she WAS actually going to the same school that Agastya went to. She got excited and Manuel held her hand going inside the classroom.

From the word go she was fine. She found where they hid tiny beads and was playing sorting out beads. That took up at least half an hour. Put some in her pocket, and the beads were everywhere when she jumped. Manuel showed her around and held her hands most of the times. She was fascinated with the glue for the arts and craft. Didn't really care much about sticking stuff on it, just playing with the glue mostly. Then it was time for snacks and she put a piece of banana, a piece of apple and some bread sticks. Ate the bread sticks but none of them banana and apple. Always excited about washing her hands, mostly happy because she didn't even need a step stool because the sink was low enough for her.

I even heard her copying what the other kids said when they did some activities in the classroom.

She only cried once because she got a bit of sand in her eyes when she played outside in the sand box. Almost ate some sand too. Played with the bike for a bit, then it was time to go home! She wasn't that happy when she had to give up the bike.

I told her that she's an extremely good girl with two thumbs up. She smiled and copied my two thumbs up.

Thanks to Manuel for making her first day easier! I think she was fine mostly because she keeps seeing Manuel was there. Familiar face that she's used to. Hope she'll be even better on Wednesday.

I felt like I've accomplished so much today. But it was all her doing it, not me. Strange feeling, that is. I need to stop rambling and tearing up.

Silliness

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:41:00 +0000

Nagi's been having a wave of silliness lately.

He bought a pack of winter hats for himself last week, and I kept telling him that's a little bit too small for him. He said no this is how it's supposed to be. Hats aren't supposed to cover your ears. Right. Fine.

Then when we went to Tesco together, I noticed that the exact same pack he bought was actually from the boys section. Yep. My husband obviously still think he's a little boy. I directed him to the appropriate section where mens' hats are. He said "Ah, maybe that's why the hats didn't cover my ears!"

Yes, dear husband.

Yesterday, he came online complaining about his back pain which he had been suffering since he arrived in Korea. He arrived on Sunday and had said nothing about back pain. He then said "I've been taking small amount of paracetamol since I only brought a few with me and I hope that'll last through tomorrow since I would have nooooo clue how to say paracetamol in Korean."

Worrisome. Indeed.

I told him yeah that would be difficult if he has to go to local pharmacy to get something. The pack might be all written in Korean and stuff. I'm a fan of Korean drama but saying paracetamol is beyond my knowledge of Korean language. I could only say hi, goodbye, mister, miss, etc. Oh I can say I love you in Korean very well!

But I asked him, "Have you tried asking the hotel staff to get some for you?" He stayed in a five-star hotel so the staff should be able to converse somewhat fluently in English, and that should have been the first thing he should have done, right?

"No, wow that's a great idea! The hotel people can speak English, yes!"

Grrr... He just went through a few days of back pain because he's been too stingy in using paracetamol, which could have easily been avoided!

Whoever said men have better logic than women must be.. men. And, I shouldn't be suprised when Agastya has his wave of silliness, and just blame half the genes he's got.

The kids and I miss him when he's away. It's Friday and I'm on my last strain to keep up with the kids' energy level. Does energy come in bottle? I wish mine came with rechargable plug.

Bonjour!

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:11:00 +0000

Out of the blue, on Friday evening after dinner when I asked him to say goodbye to my dad on Skype, instead of saying goodbye, Agastya said, "Bounjour!"

When I asked what he meant, he smiled again and said, "Hola!"

I figured it was something he learnt from school, but I thought it was cute. When asked what other greetings he knew, he said, "Howdy, partner!", and -listen to this, Tosha!- "Giddy up, cowboy!"

Fantastic stuff.

So I added "G'day, mate!", "Apa kabar", and "Ni hao" to his list, which he gladly copied from me, which then set Lila off to say "Ni hao!" over and over.

My living room is slightly more organised now with the plastic drawers I purchased from Argos on Friday. Emphasis on the word 'slightly'. Agastya did all the sorting and putting the selection of toys into particular drawers. He made sure I touched nothing because he was sure he could do everything, although he asked for my opinion often. Even Lila helped when she caught on what he's trying to do. Whoa... I was almost in tears.

Hmm... when can he start washing dishes? ;)

Sesame Chinese Restaurant: FAIL

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:53:00 +0000

For those who knew me, my birthday is coming up soon. I've been organising a night out with a bunch of friends on Friday, and had decided to do it at this Sesame Restaurant and Bar (Chinese) in Hills Road, Cambridge.

Albeit never dined there, I felt confident from the good review from LocalSecret website. I had never managed (even now) to get anything out of their website (http://www.sesame-restaurant.co.uk/). All I get is just some chinese characters I obviously can't read, and empty boxes of different sizes. The deciding factor was the fact that they have private room we could use for karaoke.

I phoned the restaurant for the first time to enquire and book about four weeks ago. The guy (manager) who handled my booking explained that all I had to do to 'qualify' to use the private function room was to exceed £50 but I have to stay for a minimum of 4 hours. That did strike me as very odd, and had a laugh with my friend Tosha afterwards who was there when I phoned the guy. Since I wasn't very convinced of my thorough understanding of the situation, I called the place up again, the same guy answered and confirmed my understanding. Total of £50, minimum of 4 hours, we can even bring our own karaoke dvds. Great, so I thought.

About two weeks back I went to the restaurant to check on the venue, the private room, and confirmed the booking. I meant to pick up a copy of their menu too, but the lady who showed me around said she would have to print the copy for me since they don't have enough to use at the restaurant if she give one to me. She asked me to pick up the menu the next day, and I said yes, but I called her up later asking her to email me the menu instead, and they did.

I was satisfied with that, and thought everything was ready for our Friday night out. How wrong was I.

Yesterday (Tuesday 4pm, 3 days before the aforementioned night out), I received a call on my mobile from the restaurant. It was the lady who showed me around, as I recognised her voice. She said she called because she found it odd that I booked for 6 people for the private function room, and she had a feeling that it was due to the previous manager's fault for not explaining the terms properly. The guy who booked me was the previous manager and had now just left the business. She told me that to book the room for Friday night, I have to spend at least £50 *PER HOUR* and must stay for a minimum of 4 hours. Doesn't that make sense now why the guy said a minimum of 4 hours? She completely blamed it on the guy who took my booking that he didn't explain things properly to me and now have left me (and her) in a difficult situation.

Now, £200 pounds is not something I was willing to spend on, nor would I be comfortable in asking my friends to chip in. It's just not right to spend that much money. It would make more sense if there were more people, but this wasn't the case.

I offered her a solution which I thought was a compromise for both of us. I said I was willing to pay £150 and stay for only 3 hours. Which doesn't break her £50 per hour rule, and it would be in her good business gesture to forego the 4 hour-minimum rule. She blatantly refused.

I asked her to give me a few hours to decide since I thought I need to tell my friends if we should go ahead, cancel the plan altogether, change the date, or do something else. After talking to them, (and how sweet they were in supporting me) I decided to cancel the booking. When I called the lady up again I told her that I was cancelling, and I also told her what she had done was utterly unprofessional. She literally forced me to cancel the booking, only 3 days prior over £50 and leaving me with no booking for my night out. I promised her I was going to tell all my friends about this and she again defended herself rudely that it wasn't her fault but the previous manager's fault who had left. As far as she's concerned, him and his faults are none of the restaurant's business anymore. She hang up on me and did not apologise even once for the sour situation she had put me into.

Well I am writing it here to make sure that it would still be their business. You can say it is out of spite and bitterness, but I think the public should know that the way they do their business was completely unprofessional, and you can't blame me for being so disappointed.

There's so many things you can do to advertise for your business but nothing beats the word of mouth. I will make sure the words spread around. I haven't even tried their food so I have nothing good to say about them.

Travel note: Weekend in Leeds

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:04:00 +0000

A combination of winning a Harpic toilet challenge and birthday present, I got myself a treat to go to Leeds all by myself for the weekend, leaving the kids in the care of their dad.

I left by train at 3pm from Cambridge. One changeover at Peterborough and two and a half hours later, I arrived in Leeds, greeted by smily face of Mita. It has been a while since we saw each other and she hasn't changed a bit. Still as pretty as she was in highschool.

We walked to her 2 bedroom apartment which is only 15 minutes away. She lived quite in the centre of Leeds itself, which is quite handy.

Dinner was lavish. I was treated like a person who had been in the brink of starvation.
Starters: Pandan cake
Main Course: Ox tail soup (my favourite!). She cooked it so well. Correction. Her husband cooked it so well. Served with Onion & Prawn crackers.
They had cheesecake for dessert but dessert isn't my thing.

As soon as I reached her house, I felt I was coming down with something. Runny nose to start with. But a little runny nose didn't stop us to catch up on the goss until about 3am in the morning when we finally felt droopy.

I couldn't sleep well that night due to my blocked nose and the tick tock noise from her wall clock. I'm silly like that. Tick tock noise always drives me mad. And my biological clock always thinks it's time to wake up around 7am. Stupid, persistent, body clock. I slept on and off until 10am, woke up with a sore throat.

After the late breakfast (leftover soup from last night), we talked about anything and everything. Mita played me classical music on the piano. By the time we bothered to check the time, it was 3pm. There went the plan to go window shopping. We decided to stay at home until dinner.

Late lunch menu: Salmon head soup, gudeg (young jackfruit + egg dish - difficult to explain), fried chicken. All absolutely yummy, thanks to our dedicated chef, Imam (her husband).

We had dinner at Little Tokyo, a Japanese restaurant in the city. It was very good. I shared Unagi (chargrilled eel) bento and Seafood ramen with Mita.

I slept better that second night. No sore throat and no tick tock.

In the morning we went to church (very late!), meeting another Mita. This other Mita is my youngest sister's friend while she was in Singapore, and my high school friend's sister too. Small world. We had dim sum for lunch at Tong Palace. I introduced them to the delicious wonder of deep fried cuttlefish cake. They have tripe there. Not as good as the one in Shark's Fin (Melbourne, Australia), but satisfied nevertheless.

I had to wait for 1 hour in Peterborough but all and all it was a fantastic weekend. I came back with cold and exhaustion, but it's so worth it. I miss her already.

Book I read on the train: The Secret Mandarin by Sara Sheridan.
I haven't finished it, but I have only a little bit left. It's good. A bit slow at the beginning but picks up its pace before the middle of the book and I couldn't put it down.

On a side note:
Agastya has been surprising me a lot with his manners lately. When I accidentally took away his colour pencil, he said politely, "Excuse me mommy, I was still using that." No fret, no raised voice.

Whoa. My little gentleman.

At the park (2)

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:06:00 +0000

More videos from the park: [Sorry for the low quality videos. I've now up notched the setting in the phone camera. Let's hope we've rectified that problem for next time.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-EuMqi0wqg - this is from today - Tosha blowing bubbles. (for the record, I could never do that!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtsNsJFZj6Y - Aga & Lila & the swing (from last time we went to the park)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5yktplWiB4 - Lila saying 'leaf' (from last time)

Calligraphy per request

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:33:00 +0000

As requested by Opa Wiwiek (aka my dad):

Finally found..

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:09:00 +0000

I finally found ONE THING that Aga dislikes but Lila likes. POMEGRANATE! (Bahasa Indonesia: buah delima).

We all know the boy loves almost absolutely everything, and she's the picky one. Agastya has always been a fan of pomegranate juice so I asked him if he wanted to try the fruit and he said yes. He put a couple in his mouth and said no to the rest, so I tried giving one to Lila. I was expecting her to throw a fit and spit it out, but she said 'yummy'! Cue shocking mother hen moment.

I told her it's pomegranate, and she said "Yummy hanas!" for every mouthful.

At the park (1)

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:08:00 +0000

There are a few videos I did today..

This is one of them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-uJcfKv7nA

Mushroom

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:27:00 +0000

Agastya can read and write 'mushroom', and Lila can say 'muhroom'. I'm one happy mother hen.

Not on these pictures below, these were taken in August, I just didn't have time to upload then.

Btw on the 2nd pic, he wrote kiol (Kyle) and noono (Nuno).

Pee pee in the potty!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:53:00 +0000

Lila finally pee pee in the potty!!! FINALLY.

Do you know how long the process has been? Numerous accidents without her even wanting to sit in the pink throne?

This afternoon (after taking off her nappy after lunch) I was determined. Yes. I kept the potty (and her) next to me at all times. Even when I had to go potty myself.

A few tries on getting her to sit in the throne when I thought she was due to, failed. I kept insisting, and kept a few toys next to her to get her entertained, and voila! One pee pee in the potty!!!

I think Agastya was even more proud of her than I was. He kept on saying 'good girl' over and over to her and congratulating her for not wetting her trousers and the floor. He gave her lots of soft toys until she was buried under them. She kept on saying 'seey Aga,... seey mommy' (silly Aga, silly mommy) looking at how ecstatic we were over her wee wee, no doubt. She did look so darn proud of herself, nevertheless.

Let's hope this is a start of a good routine, not just pure luck.

My precious salted duck eggs

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:45:00 +0000

After an excruciatingly long wait with the side effect of bucket sized drooling moments, a packet has finally arrived this late morning.

You'd think I'll be so excited about getting Sophos anti-virus software, huh? It's better than that, folks. Waaaay better than that.

It's.... *drum roll*

My precious salted duck eggs!!!! Courtesy of my best friend Mita from Leeds. Actually she just escalated her status from being my best friend to my precious-angel-one-of-a-kind-always-there-when-i-need-best friend!

All this word vomit and I haven't even tasted my preciouses!!!

Later, folks. You know what I'd rather be doing... *orgasmic squeal*

Video: Shoo fly, shoo!!

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:40:00 +0000

Warning: *not suitable for work/library/school, because it might induce giggling. *

Hmm.. I should have put a warning for the last video too..

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOXkFKYc1Xc

Lila: Vocab Update

noreply@blogger.com (Monica) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:47:00 +0000

I just need to note it down here so I can look back and remember how proud I am today.

List of words she can say (non-exhaustive list):
apple, boat, hat, shoes, fish, car, flower, butterfly, bee, kangaroo, turtle, cake, cookies, biscuits, shoes, balloons, bear, pig, bird, mouth, monkey, girraffe, baby, clock, eyes, cheek, nose, ear, hair, water, duck, ball, train, box, socks, star, orange, banana, yoghurt, door, booboo, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, McQueen, Thomas, Wubzzy, all the characters from In the night Garden, Holly (from Ben & Holly's little kingdom), Peppa Pig, Dora, Boots, Pocoyo (and his friends),.. okay now I'm just going to list TV shows, haha.

She can say usual phrases like: "Where are you going?", "What's that?", "Let's go", "Thank you", "Here you go", etc.

Her annoyingly favourite one at the moment: "Aga, MOVE!"

Today is Agastya's first day in school! *cue instant teary eyes* I can't wait for him to go home and tell me all about his first day,... and he's not even gone to school yet.