It's a lazy friday. End of the week and my energy is almost gone. Printed worksheets for single period and scheduled tests for double period classes. Kids have been restless all week as they are looking forward to their 1 week camp at Pulau Ubin. So shall not force them to study too much, give myself a break too.
XX has been pressing on a nerve and causing shooting pain down my entire left leg. Pain to sleep, sit, stand, walk.... just no position is right to take the pain away. Can't sleep properly too. Feels so tortured and Ed had to keep sayang me while i cry miserably.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
My helper
She came to Singapore in September 2009 to work in another family but was later transferred. I took her cause she looked humble and friendly and willing to learn. QQ seems to like her too, picking her out from 2 other transfer maids.
She was humble, so much that I wonder if there is any pride or integrity in her. I cannot stand the way she bends her knees and lowers her body to a bowing, submissive pose everytime she walks past us.
She has very poor command of English and miscommunications between her and my family had caused alot of mistakes in her work. It's exasperating. I asked her to cook plain porridge but she mixed vegetables and prawns, which are meant for a separate dish into it.
She couldn't understand " boil xx amount of water, then put this packet of food inside. DON'T CUT open the bag". We understand that heating food up by immersing the packet in hot water is new to her so we gave detailed instructions and even show her how it's done. We gestured to her how much water is needed with a pot, took the food packet and simulated the "put the packet into water" action to show her, and stressed DON'T cut the packet. What she did..... boiled xx amount of water, cut open the packet and empty all the contents into the huge pot of water. Our much anticipated, brought back from Shanghai pork knuckle stew became nothing but tasteless meat soup.
Then I taught her about food preparation and the need to be hygenic -- use different chopping boards for cooked and uncooked food. I specifically show her where I store these boards, basically the cooked and uncooked boards cannot mix together. In some effort to save space and make my shelves look neat, she stack all of them together. Ok, no concept of bacteria can cross contaminate. I can accept this, science no good. My breaking point came when she used the uncooked food board to cut my fruits. Then it occured to me that she never understood the words 'cooked' and 'uncooked'.
She was humble, so much that I wonder if there is any pride or integrity in her. I cannot stand the way she bends her knees and lowers her body to a bowing, submissive pose everytime she walks past us.
She has very poor command of English and miscommunications between her and my family had caused alot of mistakes in her work. It's exasperating. I asked her to cook plain porridge but she mixed vegetables and prawns, which are meant for a separate dish into it.
She couldn't understand " boil xx amount of water, then put this packet of food inside. DON'T CUT open the bag". We understand that heating food up by immersing the packet in hot water is new to her so we gave detailed instructions and even show her how it's done. We gestured to her how much water is needed with a pot, took the food packet and simulated the "put the packet into water" action to show her, and stressed DON'T cut the packet. What she did..... boiled xx amount of water, cut open the packet and empty all the contents into the huge pot of water. Our much anticipated, brought back from Shanghai pork knuckle stew became nothing but tasteless meat soup.
Ok, maybe she is not used to our chinese way of cooking. I asked her to prepare some common Malay/Indon food. She blended 20 pieces of chilli paddis to make a little bowl of dip. Do Indonesians eat such tongue burning, spicy dips?
I gave her mangoes to cut. I assumed mango is a tropical fruit that should be common in Indonesia. She should know how to cut a mango. sigh..... First she tried to get rid of the skin by cutting it thinly, like the way we peel apples. I had to tell her to cut off more of the skin. Then she tried to cut the mango into half, through the stone and all. I give up. Conclusion: she had never seen a mango. No point teaching her, cos half the time she don't understand what I'm saying. Cut it once to show her.... then watch her clumsily try to cut the rest of the fruits.... by then I already need the fruit for cooking. So end up, I cut the mangoes myself.
For 7 months she knew to collect enough dark coloured clothings to form one washing load and to wash the whites and light coloured ones separately. Ed and I wore so much blacks that it is easy to collect one load every few days to wash. Recently I acquired 8 pieces of dark blue maternity clothings. Suddenly her routine of black-in-one-load got complicated. The programming in her mind says"dark blue is not a dark colour". So she mixed the dark blues with the rest of my whites and pinks.... QQ's sweet pink clothings are all an even shade of blue now. In defence of her actions, she told me she had put the QQ's whites in the laundry bag, meaning to say the bag can prevent the blues from staining the whites. She would have seem less idiotic if she had use plastic bags.
I think she is from the stone age cos she has no common sense of our civilisation. Ed was shocked to see her use the handle part of the wok turner/spatula to stir the cordial in my pitcher. A spoon or fork would have serve the purpose. Anyway, we rationalised that so long as she didn't use the broomstick or her arm to stir the drink, we can live with it.
She didn't know how to store my food. Cartons of fresh fruit juice and fresh milk were left in the open. Yogurt was stored in the freezer. Fresh prawns and meat which I told her were meant for lunch that day also went into the freezer. Frozen crabsticks and sotong balls that were suppose to be in the freezer ended up in chill compartment. She had gone to the supermarket with me to pick up these items. Didn't she see for herself where the supermarket store these stuff and she should probably store them the same way too?
Then I taught her about food preparation and the need to be hygenic -- use different chopping boards for cooked and uncooked food. I specifically show her where I store these boards, basically the cooked and uncooked boards cannot mix together. In some effort to save space and make my shelves look neat, she stack all of them together. Ok, no concept of bacteria can cross contaminate. I can accept this, science no good. My breaking point came when she used the uncooked food board to cut my fruits. Then it occured to me that she never understood the words 'cooked' and 'uncooked'.
I am sending her back to the agent. If I have to go down to the last detail of matching food to chopping boards for every edible items in my house, I will be happier doing the chores myself.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
malacca trip
My Malacca Trip
Date: 11-14 Jun
A&W Restuarant! Long disappeared in S'pore, I was all nostalgic about their food. Order a bit of everything, root beer float, ice cream waffle, curly fries, coney dog, fried chicken, to relive the memories again.
A shop selling chinese calligraphy stuff at the heritage site.
Dinner for 7 adults at Old Newton Hawker. We spent less than RM100 for:
Date: 11-14 Jun
A&W Restuarant! Long disappeared in S'pore, I was all nostalgic about their food. Order a bit of everything, root beer float, ice cream waffle, curly fries, coney dog, fried chicken, to relive the memories again.
A shop selling chinese calligraphy stuff at the heritage site.
Dinner for 7 adults at Old Newton Hawker. We spent less than RM100 for:- 20 sticks otak otak
- satay
- fresh fruit juice for all
- half steam chicken with bean sprouts
- claypot rice
- mixed pig's organ soup
- 2 slabs sambal stingray
- sambal sotong
- 10 BBQ chicken wings
- fried carrot cake
- chee cheong fun (this one is shiok, smooth and thin skin, with lots of shrimps and charsiew fillings)
- herbal chicken soup
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Worries
Slept too much in the day, woke up at 2am and couldn't sleep again. In the quiet night, my mind began to wonder. Then worrying thoughts conjured. Worries about...
- Money. Where to get money to raise another 2 kids and providing them with the same, if not better standard of living as QQ.
- QQ going to P1.
- School work. Poor MYE results. lesson preparation.
- Twins' development. One of them may have heart problem, can only do a proper scan at 20 wks. What would i do if there is really a problem?
- My own gynae. Continue with KK which is so rigid and inconveniently located or go back to my private one, who may not have as much experience with twins and is going to charge me more.
- QQ's enrichment lessons. Which one to keep and which to stop?
I think myself into a headache and developed gastric pain. Plus SCV TV box is spoilt. I can't even go distract myself with the World Cup.
- Money. Where to get money to raise another 2 kids and providing them with the same, if not better standard of living as QQ.
- QQ going to P1.
- School work. Poor MYE results. lesson preparation.
- Twins' development. One of them may have heart problem, can only do a proper scan at 20 wks. What would i do if there is really a problem?
- My own gynae. Continue with KK which is so rigid and inconveniently located or go back to my private one, who may not have as much experience with twins and is going to charge me more.
- QQ's enrichment lessons. Which one to keep and which to stop?
I think myself into a headache and developed gastric pain. Plus SCV TV box is spoilt. I can't even go distract myself with the World Cup.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Gums in her hair
The girl had came back from a shopping trip with my cousins insisted on taking a bath immediately rather than join us at my aunt's house to play with her baby cousin. I found it strange that she would want to bathe on her own. Usually I had to remind, scold, scream..... before she would want to bathe. But I didn't think much about it.
So girl went in the bathroom with maid. Then maid exit minutes later. Then girl's head pop out of the bathroom asking the dad to go in. Ed went in and came out immediately, exasperated, came to me:" Your girl has got chewing gum stuck all over her hair."
My cousin had given her chewing gum on the way back in the car. Girl ate, and upon reaching home, couldn't find a place to throw away. Scare to let me know that she ate chewing gum, girl tried to hide her gum behind her right ear. (She learnt this great idea from some character in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Movie. That person was on a record setting feat to chew gum for the longest period of time. But whenever she needs to speak/eat, the gum must be taken out and that's when she will stuck it behind her ear).
Some hair got stuck in the gum of course. Still scare to tell me, asked maid to help. Idiotic maid aggravated the situation. Scolded both kid and maid. Goggled for solution, ie either use ice or oil. I choose oil, seems like a faster way. Thankfully it worked. Gum came off easily when I rub large amount of cooking oil on her affected hair.
So girl went in the bathroom with maid. Then maid exit minutes later. Then girl's head pop out of the bathroom asking the dad to go in. Ed went in and came out immediately, exasperated, came to me:" Your girl has got chewing gum stuck all over her hair."
My cousin had given her chewing gum on the way back in the car. Girl ate, and upon reaching home, couldn't find a place to throw away. Scare to let me know that she ate chewing gum, girl tried to hide her gum behind her right ear. (She learnt this great idea from some character in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Movie. That person was on a record setting feat to chew gum for the longest period of time. But whenever she needs to speak/eat, the gum must be taken out and that's when she will stuck it behind her ear).
Some hair got stuck in the gum of course. Still scare to tell me, asked maid to help. Idiotic maid aggravated the situation. Scolded both kid and maid. Goggled for solution, ie either use ice or oil. I choose oil, seems like a faster way. Thankfully it worked. Gum came off easily when I rub large amount of cooking oil on her affected hair.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
haircut
Mom found a lock of snipe off hair in her bedroom. Suspected QY immediately. Who else would try to experiment hair cutting on their own?
Questioned QY. The girl denied it at first but owned up almost immediately after that. Said she did it for fun but admitted that it wasn't so fun on hindsight. I had to put on an angry front and lectured her about loving and treasuring her body, needs to be trained to cut hair blah blah blah....
I had to quickly send her out before she sees the smile that I'm desparately trying to hide. I'm more amused than anything else actually. Just cannot stop smiling because another mother once told me with great reminiscent that she cannot understand why ALL her 3 teenage sons, at some point in their childhood, had tried to cut their own hair. Guess it's one of those must-do before growing up thingy.
Questioned QY. The girl denied it at first but owned up almost immediately after that. Said she did it for fun but admitted that it wasn't so fun on hindsight. I had to put on an angry front and lectured her about loving and treasuring her body, needs to be trained to cut hair blah blah blah....
I had to quickly send her out before she sees the smile that I'm desparately trying to hide. I'm more amused than anything else actually. Just cannot stop smiling because another mother once told me with great reminiscent that she cannot understand why ALL her 3 teenage sons, at some point in their childhood, had tried to cut their own hair. Guess it's one of those must-do before growing up thingy.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
recently brought Qy to the adult section in the library and she was so thrilled to find a children's cookbook there. The book is meant for children, but dunno why it's in adult section.
She has been curious about cooking and I thought this is a good chance to get her to try making simple dishes for the family. I don't want her to grow up to become some kitchen idiot next time. Her kindergarden had let her baked cookies for some charity programme and hot cross buns for Easter. She had enjoyed the sessions and were most eager to let me taste them.
She showed the book to everyone, asking what would we like to have. Very much like a waitress with menu, taking customers' orders. We decided on a few more popular choices and last two weekends, got down to cooking them.
Dish one: Scramble eggs and toast.
She beat the eggs, added milk, cooked eggs in frying pan, added salt and pepper (I taught her how to add a "Pinch of salt"), trimmed off the bread crust, spread butter, toasted it in the frying pan. I told her presentation is important too. So she arranged the food nicely on her sets of IKEA children's plastic plates. Toast cut into triangular slices, a dash of black pepper on the eggs, a nice scoop of jam on the side. And it's ready to serve.
Dish Two: Fresh fruits kebabs.
We had a party at home and she wanted to make this for the occasion. We went to the supermarket to pick the fruits. I told her to pick 4 kinds of fruits and that we try to get contrasting colours which will look nicer when put together. she picked strawberries, pineapples, kiwi and black grapes. Back home, I cut the fruits into the right sizes for her to skewer them. Not easy for her. Sometimes she didn't get the stick in properly. The fruit ended up hanging loosely/sliding off the stick. I had to redo them, and eat up her messing, poked till disintegrating pieces of fruits. Made a mistake with the pineapples too and we had to replace it with canned peach. Finally let her pick from my collection of lacquer plates to present her food.
Dish Three: Fried vegetable spring rolls
I merely made her grate two sticks of carrots and it was already a torture for her. Within minutes, she complained of tired hands, messing carrots sticking on her hands, and got impatient. I tried to motivate her along "it's the most easy to do step", "we can only proceed when the carrots are done", "I will tell everyone that you prepare the fillings".... Didn't work and before long, she was sending SOS to Ec and Ed.
I took over the grating and delegate her to the bean sprouts; rinse with water, pick out the blackish stuff, drained... She managed that well. I fried the ingredients, let it cool and got her to start wrapping them. She helped to peel off the pieces of popiah skin, and wrap the filing in. She can't wrap so well, but improved with each piece she wrapped. She made about 10 (quite an achievement I think) while I finished up the rest of the 30 plus pieces. We brought the spring rolls to my grand's place and everyone complimented her.
These dishes were a pretty good start for her. I know she had enjoyed it cos she is asking me to photocopy those recipes for her to keep. She probably plans to cook them again.
She has been curious about cooking and I thought this is a good chance to get her to try making simple dishes for the family. I don't want her to grow up to become some kitchen idiot next time. Her kindergarden had let her baked cookies for some charity programme and hot cross buns for Easter. She had enjoyed the sessions and were most eager to let me taste them.
She showed the book to everyone, asking what would we like to have. Very much like a waitress with menu, taking customers' orders. We decided on a few more popular choices and last two weekends, got down to cooking them.
Dish one: Scramble eggs and toast.
She beat the eggs, added milk, cooked eggs in frying pan, added salt and pepper (I taught her how to add a "Pinch of salt"), trimmed off the bread crust, spread butter, toasted it in the frying pan. I told her presentation is important too. So she arranged the food nicely on her sets of IKEA children's plastic plates. Toast cut into triangular slices, a dash of black pepper on the eggs, a nice scoop of jam on the side. And it's ready to serve.
Dish Two: Fresh fruits kebabs.
We had a party at home and she wanted to make this for the occasion. We went to the supermarket to pick the fruits. I told her to pick 4 kinds of fruits and that we try to get contrasting colours which will look nicer when put together. she picked strawberries, pineapples, kiwi and black grapes. Back home, I cut the fruits into the right sizes for her to skewer them. Not easy for her. Sometimes she didn't get the stick in properly. The fruit ended up hanging loosely/sliding off the stick. I had to redo them, and eat up her messing, poked till disintegrating pieces of fruits. Made a mistake with the pineapples too and we had to replace it with canned peach. Finally let her pick from my collection of lacquer plates to present her food.
Dish Three: Fried vegetable spring rolls
I merely made her grate two sticks of carrots and it was already a torture for her. Within minutes, she complained of tired hands, messing carrots sticking on her hands, and got impatient. I tried to motivate her along "it's the most easy to do step", "we can only proceed when the carrots are done", "I will tell everyone that you prepare the fillings".... Didn't work and before long, she was sending SOS to Ec and Ed.
I took over the grating and delegate her to the bean sprouts; rinse with water, pick out the blackish stuff, drained... She managed that well. I fried the ingredients, let it cool and got her to start wrapping them. She helped to peel off the pieces of popiah skin, and wrap the filing in. She can't wrap so well, but improved with each piece she wrapped. She made about 10 (quite an achievement I think) while I finished up the rest of the 30 plus pieces. We brought the spring rolls to my grand's place and everyone complimented her.
These dishes were a pretty good start for her. I know she had enjoyed it cos she is asking me to photocopy those recipes for her to keep. She probably plans to cook them again.
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