Hi everyone. I have decided to take the advice of some of you to use the blogspot as my blog. So here’s the new address, (sorry old lady don’t know how to hyper linke loh) - http://leejianong.blogspot.com/. Linked me okay, I don’t know how to link people, may be will get Siew and Sharon to help when they come over.
Happy reading.
Love
Mama
Today, 16 Dec 08 marked the last day of our 2nd week in KL. We have 10 days before heading home. I am sure all of us miss home, me too, doesn’t mean a mother will not miss home, I still miss my mother who is 86 this year, I miss my 3 children, I don’t really miss my husband but I miss my dog. Funny right!
Anyway, for the past 2 weeks, all of us were trying to adjust to one anothers’ different style of living, food preferences, weired habits, the good and bad side of each others. Its not easy with 7 different background human being, who hardly know each other to stay under one roof. So the toughest is to accept each other as who we are. But I have a more difficult job, accepting all the students for who they are and what they are. Thats the problem when you are the “mother” of a group. But, I have feelings too. I can only take it up to a certain point. Sometimes students will think that we are all saints with no emotion and feelings. While writing this, my emotion is building up and if I am not in the office, I may go into my corner and cry my heart out. That will release my frustration. That will help to heal myself. Yet, I have to be strong and stay on till next week. Trying all ways and means to please each students is not easy. Well, as I said, this is life, if my life is a bed of roses, I will not have gained the experience to be shared with my students. These are all trials I think God wants me to go through. So, I will have to look up most of the time to keep myself happy.
My 6 babies in KL Time Square
Happy it will be, when I went out with them to movies, “Wild Child” and “Twilight”. Thats more than enough to bring me back to my teenage day and day dream about the handsome lead actor. Happy when shopping for gifts for my children and my mom at home, shopping for gifts for the 6 babies here with me. Still need to find one for the lady who helped us in the MYOB office. By counting my blessing, I will stay focus and happy: my health, my 3 children who Thank God turned out to be ok, my steady job, my mom is healthy, I have so many friends, I have so many students, ex and present who cared for me, I can enjoy all kinds of food, I am fat, I am looked after by God, I can sing, I can dance, I can play the piano, I can listen to beautiful music, I can hear, I can see……my oh my, the list could go on and what else can I asked for!!!!!! I feel better now, with no friends around to share my emotion, I can only put it down in writting and I am feeling better now.
Time Square - Shima and Me
I know its really boring when you are doing nothing, like me for the past 2 weeks. So I tried to get the students out of the office this Friday. In name I will bring them to visit the various banks, in reality, we will still visit the banks but may be only 2 and the rest of the day will be free and easy for all. They can do what they like and not coop up in the office. I need the break too. Of course, I did something in the office, I tried out the MYOB software and did some recording of transactions, and now I am prepared for the lessons when we offer to the students next year. Looking forward to the last weekend here in KL, need to do some last minute shopping and make sure I don’t miss out anyone.
MYOB office and Shima
Lionel, in a few days time you will be coming back to Singapore, can’t wait to meet up with you guys. Its time like this that I really miss the time we spent in KL and NYAA Camp. Those good memories, anyway, see you in 13 days time.
Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating Christmas, don’t think of receiving presents, remember the spirit of Christmas is ” GIVING“!
Pretend to be busy!!!
Left over fried rice
But, these people all slept till almot 10am and I had my lunch while they had their brunch. Of course my lunch is bread cos I had rosti and french toast for breakfast. Oh yes, forgot I make cheese french toast for each.
Cheese french toast
We did not leave the apartment till about 1.40pm. So I tell myself, I have to get use to the younger generation life style, sleep late if its weekend. Like now, as I am writing this blog they are still sound asleep. Whatever, we really ventures out by taking a KL Komuter to KL Central.
Mid Valley station : KL Komuter behind us
From KL central, we had to walk across the street to take the monorail to KL city. So another wait but we got off the wrong station where its to remote, we knew we were wrong. But its good experience and we learnt.
Wrong stop and waiting for the next monorail to come
Well, finally we were at Lot 10 and the Christmas decoration is beautiful. They had different them for different level, ground floor is silver, 2nd is gold, third is red, 4th is blue and one more floor I did not go was Pink. We took photos and bought stuff. Well, at least I got a jacket for Mei, hope she will like it.
This is the Blue tree!
When we wanted to walk across to Sungei Wang, it was pouring but luckily there’s a covered walk way. We walked into this shop that sell nothing but T shirt and the Transformer’s T shirt I bought from Malacca was 10 ringgit more expensive than here. So furious, so I bought 3 pcs for each of my children and hope to breakeven.
Nice T shirts!!!
Never walked so much, but we want to catch a movie, so we travel back to Mid Valley, the staion was full of comuters, either going home for the long weekend or out shopping. Then I noticed this weired man, he was like all beanten up with swollen lips and injured hand. Anyway, I found him suspicious was when the train come, he went in and then came out. That’s funny, the next minute he was on our side of the train. I was standing away from him cos its very crowded. When we alight the train, I saw him put a wallet into his back pocket and before we left the station, he tapped on another man’s shoulder and then board the busy train again. So, I get to see the Pick-Pocket of KL. They choose to do it when its most crowded and all of us were only thinking of getting and since its crowded, no one will take notice of him. I pitied the person whose wallet was being picked. According to Shima, he must have taken some rings or stuff like that.
The monorail,it has only 2 sections not like our MRT
Once back in Mid Valley we went to buy movie ticket, the girls wanted to watch “Wild Child” and I saw the advertisement back in Singapore, so I go ahead with them. For Tai Guan, poor boy, he sort of followed us around without buying anything. So we asked him did he knows what movie we are going? He said anything. I am glad we watched the movie, its wonderful and so fun. Must tell me children to watch it. Better still, if there’s DVD, I will buy it. When we came out of the cinema, we saw this Puma shop having sales, so Shima wanted to take a look. The “a look” ended up with all of us buying something except for Nora. Its so cheap loh, everything is either 50, 70 or 80%. I bought 3 bags, thinking of giving one away to one of the girls when we met on the 29. Even Tai Guan bought a jacket and a bag. Good for him!!!!
This bag cost only 70 ringgit!! The girls choose for me so it must be good.
7 Dec Sunday morning I decided to cook some rice, the first time it was too wet, last night i got burnt cos I was taking my bath and non of them smelled the burning rice. This morning, its a succress. I was thinking of the left over rendang from last night. I had the potato mini pie, it taste sour but I ate it anyway, its okay. These people its getting worst, they woke up around 10 plus and the one who woke up last was Tai Guan, 11am. Received a sms from Mrs Lee asking if we are alright cos there’s landslide in KL. Thank God our part of the town was okay. When they woke up they go around doing their stuff and I was kind a ????!!! So decided to go back to sleep. Leave them to decided they want to eat or not! Anyway, I woke super early cos my son sms me at about 5.35am, and I thought that was my alarm. Couldn’t go back to sleep and saw the watch wrongly, thot is 8 plus, thats why I woke up so early.
The center stage in Mid Valley mega mall
By the time I woke up it was about 2pm. Tai Guan just fried eggs for himself. About time they take care of themselves. Lukily I cooked some rice this morning. I just had the mini pie again and coffee. Did not leave the apartment till 4pm. If I don’t say leave, I think they will still laze around loh!!!
Mid Valley Christmas
Although we started late today, but I spent the most. Bought some gifts for XinYi and Wai Har’s girls. Bought my mom’s cologne, bought pants and jacket for Nicklaus. Thats it, my wallet is left with less than 200 ringgit. Lukily still have the US $100 my mom gave me before I left. This is equivalent to 620 ringgit loh.
Dunkin Donuts
Since I did not have lunch, I was really hungry so I told the girls to go ahead and I went down to the basement to look for food. Tai Guan came along, when I saw Dunkin donuts I decided to have coffee and donuts. Tai Guan said not hungry, so I didn’t get anything for him. When I sat down he decided to buy something, so angry with him cos I bought a chocolate donut for him. He said cannot tahan, I think he is still shy to express his feeling.
Chocolate dounut
For dinner, we decided on Hong Kong noodles, but I know them too well now. When I reach back, I didn’t go into action straight away, I rested and took a bath before I started cooking for them. I must say the noodle is good. Actually, for the past few days, I had been coming out with the groceries money, Nora will then calculate and divide accordingly. But this is really heavy for them, and seeing them like that, I will always but something extra for them to munch on. May be thats part of the reason why my 840 ringgit had gone down so fast to less than 200 ringgit. Will take picture of the noodle I cooked last night cos there are still left overs. Signing off now and the kids are still sleeping.
Master bedroom bathroom, additional shower on the left.
Mama
But its worth the waiting cos when we reached the apartment, it was fabulous especially the mater bedroom. I requested for that room cos I need to wake up a few times at night to go to the loo and the girls are kind enough to let me have it. The facilities in the apartment is also very good, even with washing machine and dryer. What I love most is the kitchen. So I ended up cooking for them breakfast and dinner, which I enjoyed the most. The maggie noodles was our dinner on 4 Dec.
Yummy noodles
While waiting to be briefed, taken at the reception
Master bedroom
Fooling around in their pantry
What a weekend. I have to leave for KL this coming Wednesday. Not only I have to complete the syllabus for the 1st yr so that they can take their CA with good grades, of course. I also have to try and teach the 2nd year the new topic so that they can do some work while I was away.
Well, at home, I must make sure I have enough stock for the children and my Mom. So, for the past 2 days, I had been buying stuff for the house. But I am quite glad my Maid is beginning to pick up. At least, she knows where is NTUC and where to buy the basic things. I felt so sad when I told my children I will be away for 3 weeks, and the remarks made by Nickalus made broke my heart. He said “there goes our family” I know I am the one holding on to the family and they all depended on me (not all the time though). But spending Christmas away from my children is really heart-breaking for me. So I also try to buy them the presents or stuff that they wanted before I leave. Although cash is short, I will sign card. This will make me feel better.
Tomorrow I have 2 more days to do revisions with my classes. I am not afraid for IQF cos they are all smart but with bad habit, like coming late or nor coming at all. I am really worried for IQC, cos they see me only on Monday, thats it. Next Tuesday’s CA they will either do well or sink. I didn’t really want to go to this Overseas Attachment Program but when your boss nominated you, what can you say. I am actually quite thankful for this rare opportunity to learn something from the Malaysia counterpart.
So, weekend is going to end soon. So I need to have a good rest for the next 2 days work. Looking forward to my dates on 29 and 30 December. Meeting up with Lionel and company and going to Sentosa. Hurray, I will be back and enjoy at least my New Year celebration.
So , take care all my “children”, do well in your CA and I will keep in touch with you thru the internet as I will be bringing my labtop up.. The service apartment we are staying in has internet connection. Jiayou and miss you all already!!!!
They started baking on Monday, everything goes quite well. But after the orders came in, they got panic, cos its quite a handful. So they actually stayed back on Tuesday and Wednesday to do the baking.
Starting of a business venture.
All going well on the first day of baking.
All chiping in to help
Their hard works paid off
After 3 days of working together, there are bound to be some XXX????? !!!!!!. So I started to see groups forming and its from such event that I get to see the nature of everyone. Belle its like the mother of the group, luckily she is the leader, otherwise, it may not succeed like they did. She is always calm and cool, doing her work quietly, giving instructions once in a while and advise others what to do. She is not bossy at all and I think she will definitely succeed when she starts to wrok. Jia you Belle.
Belle (on the left) hard at work!
As for Yiting, she is the quiet worker. Once a job is given to her she will just quietly carry on with her work. She doesn’t smile or chat, but just make sure she does her work. This is exactly what she is like even when she is doing her homework. So some staff commented that she had bad temper, cos she did not smiled at all. So I had to explained that she is like that. The only time she will laugh and chat is when she has nothing on her hand, as in work!!! I like her seriousness when comes to work.
Yi ting, 100% concentration on her work!
As for Siew Ling and Yi Hong, these two are quite crazy. But they did their part well. Although Yi hong is not my Culinary Club member, but she was asked to join them. Never realised she can actually cook!!!! Siew Ling is like a little kitchen maid, going around looking for stuff and helping out when needed. But—– they were quite upset on the final day, and I told them, this is life. when you go out to work, you may come across worst colleague and you have no choice but to endure and go on with your work. Its always with this group work that they end up irritating each other. But I like this 2 combination, one happy go lucky and one always “black face”, they complement each other so well. And I know by being “black face”, there’s a lot of underlying story behind it, so like I say, we have to accept everyone for what they are, black face or not I still like her. Will make her smile more often before she graduate loh!!!!
The Duo, and this is one photo that she laughed so well!!! Haha
As for Jasmine, she is also busy, always see her with the rolling stick. She is like the “baby” of the group cos she will once in a while speak like a “baby”. I am quite use to it and when she is not happy, you can see it from her face. Worst than the “black face”! But I am sure, she didn’t really mean it,, all are tired so all are easily irritated.
Jasmine and the apron sewed by her.
And Sharon, poor girl. Because she did not do her work, its so difficult for her to get approved leave. So she could only come out to help the group after lessons. But finally she had her leave approved. She did the banner and its very eye catching. Well, I must say she really “sweat” for her profit loh.
Sharon and her banner.
Well the good news is at the end of it, they are pocketed $25.60. I still felt very bad cos according to Belle calculation, they shoule be receiving $28.60, but I just could not find the missing money. They were all tired out as you can see from the photo, I think they would really lie down and sleep if they were given a bed each. Anyway, welldone girls, hope this will be a good experience for you when you go out to work.
All the tired faces!!!!
Look at Belle, she is going to sleep soon!!!!
Still folling around!!!!
Peiying, Sharlyn, Alison, Adilah and Taufik.
Wanted to meet up with Qian Ping and companies but always cannot find time. Finally we set to meet on 18 Oct at Vivo city. Too bad Megala and Amutha cannot meet up with us. Well, at least I still ge to see Qian Ping, Yvonne, Nurul and Lina. Good enough and with QP around, we will laugh until stomach pain loh. Time flies when we are happy, did not realised its almost 6. You know lah, when we are together, we took lots of photos, just like Malacca. But this round, minus Megala. My dear, when are you going to meet us eh!>?
At Harbout Front Mall
4 princesses minus Megala
Mommy and daughters!!!
Posing for the camera!!!
Going bonkers!!!!!!
One and only group photo for the day
Qian Ping stalking us!
Shopping at Vivo
Love the Jpanese Kimono
This time we stayed in Makotah Hotel, its an aprtment hotel so better for the students. They all loved to squeeze into one room. I end up with Yiting. Lucky no need to share the same room as Mrs Kwan. But this round I miss taking photos, Siew Ling and company all don’t like to take photos. I remembered when I went with QP and Nurul, we all had pillow fight in the room, we also took so many photos until the memory card is fulled.
As I said, travelling with students will let me know them better. So now I know who are the picky eaters, who are self-centered, who are helpful and considerate, and who are the matured students who will actually wait till everyone is done then they start to eat. But overall its a nice experience especially the one where we had our cooking lessons int he Le Meridian Hotel. Must say Sujuan and Zhi hui are the two “crazy” nuts, without them, the trip will be very quiet loh!!!!
Our hotel sitting room
One of the 2 bedroom
Butterfly in the Butterfly Farm
Love birds in the Butterfly farm
Loving birds!!!!!
Camel in Agro Farm
Zhi Hui feeding the camel!!!
Beautiful Water Apple in Agro Farm, just pluck and eat!!!
Ostrich egg, hot from the nest! Our tour guide took it from the mama!!
That how Sujian took photo, any how!!!
Cooking lesson 1 : Assam Fish
Cooking lesson 2 : Kueh Dada
Sharon and her Kueh Dada
Making rojaks for my
Our own love birds!!!
Bishan group
All of us :Bishan and Tampines
Colorful clogs in Jonker
Love this photo : Willy and Yiting
Have to sit like a lady when taking photo with Mrs Kwan(TP Staff).
Nicklaus Jun 08
Nicodemus and Nicolette - Hong Kong Dec 07
I had the most exciting evening today. I had dinner with my 2 sons. And guess what, Nicklaus brought me to the place on his bike!!! Old lady on a bike. I was actually more nervous than him. When he turned, I had to make sure I stay straight. Really worried we will toppled over. After all, I am not that light you know!!!! Quite fun loh, feeling the wind against my face. This was the first time after more than 40 years never sit on the bike.
I remembered the first time I sat on a scooter, its my friend’s BF’s bike. The person that gave me a ride died liao, but my friend is well and staying with her son who is a lawyer. Then, today I had my 2nd motor bike ride, but this time more scary. At one point, he speed and I had to tell him to slow time, cos turning a corner I was really scared. But, what a wonderful evening. The 3 of us had Fish head steamboat and its was a good dinner with my favourite 2 men. Will take a photo of their bikes.
Nickluas just got his motor bike licence on 4 Aug, but he had his driving licence long ago. Nicodemuc - my 2nd son had his licence in Feb this year. So, next time I must be prepared to let them carry me behind the bike to go outtings. But tell you what, the stupid helmet is really heavy. No wonder Nicklaus said its heavy to bring me around. Hahah, must go on diet , seriously.
Oh yes, although I did not received any thank you note from IQC, at least 2 boys came into the staff room to wish me Happy Teacher’s day. And that is Andy and Danny. Thanks for that little gesture, it made my day too.
3 Js and Roy’s gift:
Siew Ling and Yi Hong’s gift:
IQB’s : Catrina, Yi Ling, Li Yan, Luo Shan and Kok Wei. Worm is from Regina. Candle from Jui Juan. Card its from all IQB’s students.
Yani’s gift, very touching:
From the couple Belle and Terrance(who had graduated and still remember me although I taught him only for 6 months):
Last minute addition, choo choo and Ain visited me this afternoon, so I have more photos to add on loh!!!!
Choo Choo mouse
My darling rosesAin's roses
