Last day of the year...

I have a few hours left to be grouchy...

and then, it's HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!

Samsung Omnia

The Big One bought it.
I hate it.
It doesn't ring when I call him!
It doesn't even register a 'missed call' when it does that.
I hate it.

Iron Lady Again?

A friend whom I've not seen since February this year gave me a buzz - she happened to read my grumpy post - and a lunch date was quickly arranged. We went to Bark Cafe (1000 Upper Changi Road North, Changi Chapel and Museum). Catching up was great. Somewhere inbetween the mid-section of their very delicious speciality chicken wing, my phone rang. It was my iron lady. She declared, "Tonight 6:30 I come ok." I was instantly confused. "Tonight? But you just came right?". She replied, "I come iron your clothes later. 6:30pm." Did I arranged for ironing today? "What day is it? You just came this week right? Today Monday?" Honestly, at this point, I didn't know what day of the week it was. She replied, "Today friday!" I paused to think... "Arh! Friday! didn't you come just on Monday? You came on Monday right? No. No need to come today!" I honestly don't have 6 hours worth of clothes to iron per week. She went, "No need?" and hang up. I looked at my friend in exasperation. She asked, "Is she the lady who kept your curtains?" I nodded.

Struck by same-ness.

Yesterday, we were at the beach. This has nothing to do with the title of this blog but I need to get this out before I get to that. That is, the beach in front of Marine Cove ( East Coast McDonald's), there's a barrage worth of new sand there. It's lovely! Except this loveliness was destroyed by RUBBISH! A plastic bag here, there, a sundae cap here, a broken plastic rake there, socks! burnt out sparklers, light sticks, wrappers of all sorts. I got really upset... because the sand was nice. Too nice to be destroyed by so much rubbish. Anyway, I went around to pick up whatever I could into the plastic bags I had. Managed to retrieve 2 filled bags worth of litter within a 50ft radius. The big one sat on our beach mat and watched me and my self-imposed CWO aka Corrective Work Order - relieved that I wasn't grumbling anymore about the s**t around us. Btw, whatever happened to CWOs for litterbugs? Judging by the amount of s**t on the beach, we will have no problems catching enough litterbugs to make our beach a sparkling tropical paradise year-round!

Right, back to this about same-ness. I like shopping. Rather, I used to like shopping. Now, I get bored before I even step into the store. NTUC, GIANT, COLD STORAGE, CARREFOUR, JASON'S, SHOP'N'SAVE, SHENG SIONG, PRIME SUPERMARKET, ALL SAME. METRO, ROBINSON, JOHN LITTLE, TANGS, ALL SAME! WISMA, VIVO, PARKWAY PARADE, TAMPINES MALL, RAFFLES CITY, TAKASHIMAYA, CENTERPOINT, SUNTEC, ALL SAME! Even in the hawker centre, what do you get? CHICKEN RICE, BAK-CHOR MEE, FISH SOUP, ZI-CHAR... BLAR BLAR BLAR.... ALL SAME! Japanese restaurant? SHASHIMI, COLD SOBA, UNAGI BENTO, TERIYAKI CHICKEN, TEMPURA, SUKIYAKI.... ALL SAME!

I'm bored. Which explains why I need to work or go for holidays. Otherwise, I get bored. So bored I become grumpy about everything, grumpy enough to try to clean up a public beach and bored enough to blame everyone else for causing my boredomitism.

Meeerrrrrrry Christmas!

Iron Lady

She called me this morning, asking if I needed her for ironing. The last time she did my ironing was before the curtain episode. I said ok. She appeared an hour late, declared she has "finished!" in 2 hours, took what I left on the table - for 3-hours worth of ironing - and left. I counted the pieces and guess what? She managed to iron similar number of pieces in 2 hours as she would in 3!! I'm now wondering if she can magically press 28 pieces of clothing within an hour... if I paid her by output instead.

Year End Holiday

A ride in the sky - Genting Theme Park

The boy dumped an entire packet of fish feed into the pond.

When the splash-pede happened, he ran away. ( Desaru Fruit Farm, along highway 92 from Kota Tinggi - Desaru. Entrance Fees: RM18 for Adults, RM12 for kids)

...limited edition crocs for RM20. Some trivial: It takes exactly 3 months to incubate the eggs, which can vary between 50 to 200 eggs per nest. Hatchlings, once proven they can eat = healthy, are sold to farms in Singapore for USD100 each. A slaughtered adult croc can yield USD$8,000 worth of meat. (Ng's Crocodile Farm, Teluk Sengat, Desaru. Entrance fees: RM 8 for adults, RM4 for kids)

Marmite Crabs! (Jade Garden Seafood Corner, 54 Jalan Kerisi, Sungai Rengit, Desaru)

A picture taken by the boy while waiting for the Fireflies river cruise on a sampan. Lifejackets provided. (Somewhere along Kota Tinggi and Desaru intersection... Tel+60127199955 RM 15 for Adults, RM10 for kids)

Darn Hair

Was suppose to do something about my wayward strands today, since I'm on leave. i.e not working. So happen a few people came to know of it and now I'm left stranded with all their errands!!!

Job Security

Job security... hmm... what's that? The Big One and I, between us, we were fired from work once and retrenched 3 times! What's more, neither of us are even 40 yet. With our multiple retrenchment packages, we can easily explain why we may seem to be better off than some of our more permanently employed friends. ***Hahahaa! Take that with a pint (no spelling error intended) of salt please.

Anyway, don't ever try to make us believe that there is such a thing as job security. We'd just laugh at you in your face.

But having no job (security) isn't a bad thing really, and on hindsight, I'd really glad it happened to us while we are still 'young' because it made me realized some really good truths:

One. That our marriage wasn't built on money and so when we had none, we still had our marriage.

Two. That we weren't born worriers of money, nor are rainy-day specialists so these episodes of insecurity forced us to plan further ahead.

Three. That regardless of what you do, you shouldn't peg your self-worth to it. Afterall, no matter how big the bag of nuts they provide, you're still a monkey in their zoo.

There.

The end is near...

I'm almost done with the year. After today, a week off. Then I come back ( yes, I'm still bl**dy at work now) for 3 days then I'm gone again until the end of the year. Hip hip hurray!!!

School concert.

I thought he was a 'pencil' but he turned out to be a wooden clothes 'hanger'! So I kept looking and looking to see which pencil was him! Then we stared at the hanger standing to the left of the stage. He kinda looks like my kid, or a kid who looks like my kid. The big one was convinced he was the hanger. I wasn't 100% sure. It was upsetting. How could I not recognize my own kid? He came out again later as a monkey. The big one pointed him out to me. You know what? I was staring at another monkey thinking that monkey was mine! Very depressing. Later, when we were all home, the big one tried to read the ingredient list on the pack of gummy sweets that the boy received from his teacher. He tried, couldn't, then grumbled, "One cannot see far, one cannot see near!"

All in, we had a great evening. Totally memorable in every way.

Curtains II

Managed to contact the lady. We are going to get our curtains back tonight!

Curtains

My curtains have gone missing, together with the lady whom I've hired to wash them! And because she does our ironing too, our stockpile of pressed clothes in the wardrobe are dwindling, whereas in our living room, clothes waiting to be pressed are piling up! Where are my curtains?

So this lady, happily took the 'black-out' curtains that can't be sent to the laundry, together with an amount of money which my mother thinks is blackmail, and went away.

A week later, she calls to say that she has taken my curtains to the laundry ( and I specifically said it cannot be sent to the laundry and must only be hand washed) and that they want 4 times as much money to wash them! i.e HundredS of dollars!

I told her the curtains cannot be sent to the laundry, that I've tried and they've rejected it, that no, it does not cost hundredS of dollars even if they can be laundered and that my curtains can only be hand washed carefully because of the rubber backing and that she can take it back to me if she doesn't want to do it and that I don't have hundredS of dollars for her.

She quickly said that she has already washed 2 pieces nicely and that it works and that the laundry guys needed that amount because they've spoilt their client's curtains before. That's why need to charge hundredS of dollars to do it.

??? I told her I already tried taking it to the laundry and they won't do it. I've taken them to the biggest laundry shop I know, not just collection points and they told me it cannot be washed or dry cleaned! And that the pieces that could be washed or dry cleaned have already been taken care by them!

And then she tells me she has a sister working at so-and-so hotel and they have big washing machines that she can use and to do my curtains so no need to send to the laundry next time. So she can put my curtains into her sister's hotel's washing machines.

Confused!! So I repeated, "No! No Laundry! Cannot put my curtains in into the washing machine! Can only wash by hand. CANNOT PUT IN WASHING MACHINES! I can take my curtains back!"

She said, "Ok ok, I can I can wash by hand, no problems, when do you need it? Not so soon? Can wait a not?

Me, "(thinking...oh s**t) How much time you need?"

She said, "A week! And I come and iron for you on Monday ok?"

I said, "ok"

She didn't turn up yesterday.

The Big One thinks she has already spent the money I gave her for the curtains and so, cannot return the curtains to me. Me thinks she will still put them in the washing machine despite all warnings.

Crèche Pooling

The boy goes to childcare in the morning and then to his grandparents' house for the rest of the day until one of his parents picks him up. Should this arrangement fail, as it did today, then I'm left holding the kid's hands.

So I worked from home in the morning, picked him up from childcare at noon, fed him a lunch special at Waraku and then tried to figure out how to punch in more time for the rest of the day with my hands full (of the boy).

Made a call on my mobile, hoping maybe my devious plan would work. It did.

Now, for the price of a family dinner, I'm holed up at a girlfriend's parent's place, hooked to my office via my HSDPA USB Modem... blogging! ( Well, for now)

Meantime, the boy is thundering back and forth her parent's living room with her daughter while her mother is preparing dinner for us all.

Crèche pooling is simply fantastic!

Stolen

2 bikes got stolen from us this week.

Bike #1. At my parent's place. Gone!
Bike #2. From my place. Gone!

Poor boy screamed bloody murder last night from leg cramps. He had to walk home from school. Poor us got woken by his demands for leg to be massaged 3 times last night.

Stolen bikes, stolen sleep.

Right, you guys know what we need for Christmas!