Photos by Adik

Adik loves to take photos using my phone. Initially it started out as a distraction tactic, I think he was getting antsy at a restaurant one fine day, but after awhile he really got into it.

Here are some samples (obviously I've deleted those of, say, his foot or worse still, my foot):

The last one was taken last Saturday when we had lunch at the club. The restaurant overlooks the 9th hole on one of the courses and it was a nice day for photo taking.

I thought they were rather good!

I'll post somemore when he takes more bloggable photos.

A Tiger He Ain't

We took Abang for his regular golf lesson last Sunday and it turns out the coaches had organised a little competition for the juniors. They were chipping and putting and had to go from the markers to the hole in as few hits as possible.

Each child was supervised and coached by a senior golfer ("senior" being relative, in this case the club's junior team players who are teenagers; not senior golfers as in senior citizen golfers). We noticed Abang's senior seemed to be giving him really good coaching.

It was a very bright and sunny afternoon and Abang was a little sunburnt by the end of it. But the best - and surprising part - is that he won 2nd place! Even the coaches were surprised! Admittedly there were only about half of the usual kids who turn up, but even then I would not have put him in the top half of the class, let alone the top 3.


Of course no one is more pleased than Abang himself, seen here showing his prize - a set of 9 brand new golf balls which, according to Atok, retails for about RM45 (dunno how accurate that is, but who cares).

With this new found confidence, he has been raring to practise at the driving range. Yay, Abang!

The Middle Ages

Apparently, the life expectancy of a female in Malaysia is something like 75. (It's amazing what you can find on the internet; or, as Abang says, "The internet has everything!")

So technically that would make me "middle aged" which in itself is a scary thought, eh.

Until yesterday, I never felt old. Sure, I'm closer to 40 than 30 but hey, age is just a number, right?

Daddy helped me change all that yesterday. We were having lunch at TGIFriday's at Plaza Damas and I noticed that the wait staff were mostly Filipinos. I don't have anything against foreginers making an honest living here - or anywhere else - but I did wonder why local youngsters don't want to do it.

I made the mistake of wondering out loud.

"Why don't local kids want to do this?" I asked Daddy. "I mean, it's not dirty or demeaning at all and certainly not dangerous. Right after I did my SPM, I worked at Pizza Hut for a few months and I thought it was great fun! Get experience, plus a bit of money, learnt about customer service, meet lots of people ... what's wrong with kids these days anyway..."

He just shrugged while I continued to rant, "Ok-lah, admittedly it is VERY little money, I'm sure the wages haven't gone up very much since I was doing it. But that was just ... uh ... oh. That was ... AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ... 20 years ago!"

That's when he dropped the bombshell (thanks, dear).

"So biologically," says my dear husband, "that waiter serving us could be your son! AHhahahaha..."

Pause.

Very long pause.

"That's a scary thought," I said.

And in one fell swoop, Daddy stopped my ranting and raving.

The Art of Waiting

I was getting ready to go for a cousin's wedding recently when I had this conversation with Abang. Presumably he was getting a bit impatient because he was ready to go and his Mummy seemed to take forever to get ready.

"Mam-meeeee, come la, why you take so long to get ready?" was his innocent question.

"Because I'm a girl," I told him objectively, "Girls always take longer to get ready."

"Why?" he asked, obviously puzzled at my answer.

"I don't know, maybe we're just like that," I shrugged.

"Aiyo ... why la ... quick la Mummy ... I want to go ..." he continued to complain.

So I bent down to his eye level and told him, "You know, Abang, you have much to learn from Daddy. Daddy never rushes Mummy when Mummy is getting ready."

"Why not?" Now he was even more puzzled.

"Because Daddy knows there's no point. I would still take this long to get ready. It's not like I lengah-lengah, it's just that I have more things to do to get ready.

You see, Daddy learnt a long time ago that there's no point in trying to rush Mummy. So this is what he does - while Mummy is getting ready he does other things like work, or watch TV or whatever. When he sees Mummy is a-l-m-o-s-t ready, maybe 3 minutes from being ready, then only he starts to mandi, pakai baju, etc. That way, we're both ready about the same time! No complaints, everybody's happy."

He didn't answer me - probably couldn't think of one - and just walked off with an expression that looked like he had seen the light, yet at the same time was wondering whether I was being sarcastic.

I wasn't. Really!

Our Silly Cat

Harun is such a silly cat!

He's been letting other cats in the area eat his food and then he complains to us (by climbing up on to the garage roof and meowing to his heart's content right outside my window) that - you guessed it - other cats ate his food and therefore - yup, you smart reader, you - he's starving.

Aaaaaaa .....

In fact, one of the kittens from the back alley has been particularly aggressive. Just this evening, I threw a chicken bone out the kitchen window, intended for Harun. I was reasonably confident that he would get it because I could see him and no other cat.

However, as soon as the bone landed on the grass, Harun froze as a white and black kitten appeared from nowhere, hissed at him and tried to grab the bone. Harun seemed to not know what to do.

So I shoo-shooed the kitten and sprinkled some water at it and it ran off. As soon as the kitchen window was closed, it came back. This little scene repeated itself several times. Finally, it made one final dash for the bone.

It came to Harun, hissed at him again and this time, Harun looked up at the kitchen window I assume because he was expecting some help to shoo away his opponent in this game of Feline Chess.

Unfortunately for Harun, quick as lightning, the kitten just picked up the bone in that split second that Harun looked up at the kitchen window and ran off with it.

Poor Harun looked so dejected! I guess it didn't help that I berated him for not being able to fight off a smaller and younger cat / kitten. I mean, look how big he is compared to Adik:

I suppose I'll be paying for that tonight when he meows away outside my window.

Embarrassing Moments

As a mom, I occasionally get 'treated' to embarrassing moments. And you know it's only embarrassing when it's in public.

The most recent one involved Adik. We were at Guardian Pharmacy and I had already made payment and was putting away my change. The cashier, who looked like she'd rather be somewhere else, had already walked away to restock some shelves. As I was picking up the plastic bag of purchases, I heard a somewhat loud crash.

Concerned that something may have happened to Adik (even though I knew he was milling about my legs), I looked around frantically, calling him.

Only to find out, at exactly the same time as the cashier who now really, really wanted to be somewhere else, that Adik had brought down a rack full of mints and chewing gum. Luckily no breakables!

Adik was getting rather upset, and while he tried to prevent more stuff from falling he was also trying to pick some off the floor, failing miserably. And that made him even more upset.

By now, our sunshine-radiating cashier decided to make the right decision and told us, "It's ok, it's ok" and gesturing for Adik to just let go and let the rest of the stuff fall to the floor. I had to pretend-scold Adik on the way out to save whatever face was left.

That's Adik.

For Abang's story, I need to give some background. Like other parents, I try to teach my children the value of money, how it's not easy to come by, blah blah blah, "Daddy works very hard you know" yadda yadda yadda. I make it a point to say no more often then yes when they want me to buy something for them.

Once Abang was quite upset and said, "You have the money you just don't want to buy for me." So I replied, "Yes that's absolutely right. Just because we can afford to buy something doesn't necessarily mean we should." And I proceeded to explain to him the need to put money aside in case of emergencies, e.g. like the time he was hospitalised, etc.

I especially dislike buying things like balloons which a) cost money, b) are a nuisance, and c) they fight over even when they have one each. So one day, we were at a mall where there was a clown making balloon animals and I thought, aiyaaa ...

Still, I managed to distract them enough with something else but Abang made his way to the clown to have a closer look. He came back, running very excitedly asking me, "Mummy! Can I have one of those balloons?"

I was just about to start my well-rehearsed answer and, in anticipation of MY well-rehearsed answer, he quickly said (in a VERY loud voice), "It's ok, Mummy, IT'S FREE!!"

Uh-huh.

Another Mini Holiday

Similar to last year's mini holiday, we had another one over the weekend and at the same place!

The four of us plus cikgai and Cuz headed to Marriott Hotel Putrajaya for an overnight stay. We arrived in time for lunch but Adik was too busy running around instead of eating so I guess that must have tired him out. Good thing he could relax on a nice, huge, comfortable bed:


While waiting for our food to digest before heading to the pool, we let the boys play in the rooms (adjoining rooms so they kept running / chasing back and forth):


After which I had enough stomping and decided to just herd them to the pool anyway:

After about 2 hours in the pool - with Mummy too, although I took a short break to take photos of the boys - we called it quits and went back up for a shower. For a low key activity before dinner, we put the media player on for the boys to watch Transformers the movie (yes, we brought the media player in addition to other electronic babysitters like the Leapster, the Nintendo DS AND Abang's notebook as well):


As to be expected, Abang and Adik got bored after only 20 minutes and created their own entertainment (although Cuz happily stayed in the other room to watch the movie):


In the meantime, I washed everyone's swimsuits and hung them out to dry so that they could be used the next day (hanging, from right to left - Small, Medium and Large!):


It was decided that dinner would be room service since everyone was tired. After putting the boys down for a super early night, i.e. pre-8pm bedtime, Daddy and I nipped downstairs for a bite while Cikgai stayed to watch three sleeping boys.

The next morning, it was breakfast ...


... and then, off to the pool again for one last round:



Everyone had their shower and when Daddy and I noticed that boredom was starting to set in, we took the boys for some snacks at the lounge before packing up and checking out.

I've often wondered how come 2 days of holidays translates to 5 days of laundry. And with these rainy days, it takes even longer to dry!

As I always say, I need a holiday to recover from this one...