The Force of Star Wars

Life at home for the boys has recently taken on a new 'force'. A new Star Wars fan has been born in my household, my 7 year old son. The force is mighty powerful. Thanks to KK, Hubby has rekindled his interest in the movie and we've been renting a DVD of the series every weekend over the past weeks. As for XX, he's just a blind follower of his elder brother but even he knows who is Count Dooku and Yoda. Right now, they're re-watching some of the exciting scenes from Star Wars Episode 2.

Ardent Star Wars fans out there please don't read this paragraph as I'm gonna say I don't really understand what all the hype is about. *yawn*. I fell asleep halfway through Episode 1 and for this latest one, I half-listened to it as I chopped up beans, capsicum, onions, garlic and beef for chow mein. I never complete the entire movie once. This is something that "girls don't get it", isn't it?

Anyway, KK's Star Wars journey started with the Lego Star Wars game on his Nintendo DSLite. Then he started asking for a "Star Wars sword" (light sabre) for his birthday present. It is THE only present he wants and he tells that to everyone and anyone who asked him what present he liked for his birthday. Interestingly, he didn't receive it at all during his birthday and he was pinning his last hope on his Yiyi in S'pore who promised to give him a belated present when we go back. However, we managed to find a very reasonably priced light sabres at The Reject Shop the other day and bought 2. Now the 2 young jedis (and occasionally the old jedi as well) have been fighting it out almost daily with their blue and green 'laser' swords, in addition to that on the electronic game.

KK did receive a Lego Star Wars spaceship set for his birthday. With his daddy's help, he managed to put it together over a weekend. It's a good effort from him, following the instructions step by step and I think he's pretty proud of his completed starship. He bought it to school for his Show & Tell session and he made sure his classmates didn't break it apart.

Well done, little jedi!

Nasi Lemak

Was missing Nasi Lemak the other day. This popular malay dish is readily available in Malaysian/Singaporean restaurants around Glen Waverly and Doncaster, but that's 1 hour's drive away from where we live now. Anyway, I had on hand a kilo of chicken wings, half a packet of Seah's fried chicken spices, some dried anchovies, a can of coconut milk and most importantly, a jar of Nasi Lemak Sambal chilli that has been sitting in the larder for a long time, compliments of my sister in S'pore.




So some oily frying of chicken wings and sambal ikan billis with onions later, I have made myself a simple Nasi Lemak dinner!





The lemak rice is actually quite easy to make, just add the coconut milk (165ml to 2.5 cups of rice for me) and a teaspoon of salt into the rice, top up with water to the usual level, and cook in rice cooker. I added some veggies into the meal with a tomato omelette as I know the children would not take raw cucumber and tomatoes.




The dish brings back memories of S'pore's hawker culture, except the weather is not quite the same. I remember eating Nasi Lemak in Changi Village, feeling hot and sticky outside but warm and yummy inside. Nevertheless, the husband and I enjoyed the meal tremendously. I was quite worried about the rice as I actually 'hum-tumped' the proportions, but it turned out just right. Unfortunately, both the kids didn't like the lemak rice... :( I guess Nasi Lemak is just not good without the sambal chilli, ya?

Goodbye Winter

I cannot believe that winter is almost over. The shopping catalogues are already advertising Spring clothings. That's the unofficial way I know when a season is nearing its official end...haha. But seriously, I was still thinking it will get colder. We can't have reached the peak of winter. Where were those nights where I have to wear 2 layers of pyjamas and bedsocks to sleep? What about those chilly winter mornings where I have to warm up my clothes on the heater before I can put them on?



I swear this winter is warmer than the last but the husband thinks it's more like I've become acclimatised. Maybe he's right. I remembered I used to curl up like a prawn when I sleep, my muscles all squeezed up trying to keep warm. I don't even dare to move my leg in case my feet touch a cold part of the bedsheet! And I'll wake up whole body aching. But these days, I'm sleeping much more comfortable and relaxed. My hands also don't feel and look as dry as I remembered when I first arrived. On days of about 17 degrees, I can go outside with just a t-shirt and a knitted pullover.

Another possibility is, I've become smarter at surviving the cold, I now don't feel the 'damaging' effects so much. I wear rubber gloves whenever I need to wash the plates or touch the ice cold running water (except when I brush my teeth or wash my hands). And I've changed my quilt to a woollen one for winter and even got flannette bedsheets. That really helps.



When it comes to tolerating the cold, the children do much better than us adults. My sons doesn't feel cold wearing thin t-shirt pyjamas in the house whereas I'm constantly wrapped in a fleece gown. They run around the house bare feet but I need my slippers to step onto the cold ceremic tiles. They have adapted to the cold so much faster than us.

The howling wind banging our garage door outside is the one familiar thing that brings back memories of our first days in Aussie land. Initially, I couldn't sleep as it sounded like the wind is gonna blow the house down but these days I've gotten used to it although I wouldn't be surprised if I wake up one day and find one of the windows or outdoor roof blown off. We had never felt winds so strong before in our lives back in S'pore. Days like these, better to stay indoors and turn on the heater.

A significant memory of this winter for our family would be the flu. It was very obvious that once winter came, the children all started falling sick and it was one flu after another. Some serious, others milder. XX got it worse. Today he's still fighting a runny nose, this one compliments of mummy.... :-(

Goodbye winter and shoo, shoo, sniff, sniff.

Kiss & Tell

That night he turned 7, KK made a hilarious statement. But he also showed us that he's really growing to be more perceptive.

After a brief show of affection between husband and wife in front of the children, moments later, while lying in bed and getting ready to sleep, KK suddenly said very seriously, "I'm really scared. Next time when I grow up I have to kiss a girl when I get married."

Luckily Papa has a good response. He asked him back, are you scared when you kiss us? He said no because we are his family. Then Papa explained that when you kiss your wife next time, she'll be your family so you won't be scared. That assured him enough.

LOL. I really have to record and remember this one. On the day he gets married, maybe 20 years later, I'm gonna check with my shy son if he's still scared to kiss his wife.

J-Mania Part 2 - Jungle Mania

Sunday was KK's birthday party at the Jungle Mania indoor playground.







We arrived there slightly after 12 noon and some of his friends were already there. We were happy to see that the Tarzan & Jane room had been set up with cups and plates as well as a plate of chips and fairy bread. All I had to do was greet some of the parents and take care of XX. The kids? No need for formalities, they were already lost inside the jungle of pipes and maze of tunnels.

Periodically, they'll appear, all flushed and panting, to quench their thirst and fill up their tanks with the chips, fairy bread, nuggets, cocktail sausages and fries. Lots of oil, salt and sugar, I know. But with the amount of exercise they're having outside, I guess it should be ok once in a while. Anyway, I don't think they care. We also ordered a bit of food for the adults as we know some of the parents would stay around.

All the 4 party rooms were booked that day and there were so many children running around that I have totally no idea which were KK's friends. Some of our guests also brought along their cousins, brothers and sisters so in the end I think we had 12 to 14 kids around for the cake cutting. At one stage, we found a boy at our room eating the food (and even licking the thongs!) and Hubby suspected he don't look like any of KK's invited friend. It turned out he belonged to the party next door....lolz. In the end, his embarassed mother came in to 'arrest' the little 'party bandit' after Hubby heard her looking for him.











Cake cutting was scheduled at 1pm and I don't know how, at that time, the kids magically all came back to the room. The host appeared with plastic bowls and spoons and helped to light the candles. KK sat in his special Birthday Chair (with XX squeezed in together) and looked kind of shy as the birthday song was sang. His birthday wish? "To play Wii everyday"....and we don't even own a Wii at home!





After I distributed all the cake, I was told to take the gifts and the kids shoes out the room by 1.30pm so they can prepare for the next party at 2pm. The children can stay to play for as long as they want though and the adults can hang out in the cafe too.








It was about 3 plus when we returned home to open his presents. KK's friends seemed to know him quite well and he was delighted by many of his gifts. Or maybe these are all 7 year old boys' favourite things? There was a Lego Star Wars set, a Lego Bionicles, a Fisher Price Batman vehicle (which XX also likes). a Bart Simpson stationary set and a Monopoly game, amongst others.

The experience has been quite good with Jungle Mania. I don't have to do anything, the organisers did everything they promised in the package and were very accomodating to extra drinks requests and were quick to mop up spillages and clear the table. It was a short and sweet Sunday for us.

A Very Chocolatey Cake

KK turned 7 on Singapore's 44th National Day. This year, we decided to hold a party for him at an indoor playground, inviting 10 of his friends to celebrate with him. At his age, this kind of party suits him best - except for the cake and lollie bags, I don't need to prepare anything else and there's no mess to clean up afterwards. More about this place in the next post!

KK is a chocolate lover and he requested for a "very chocolatey birthday cake". That was easy enough, thank God! If he'd requested for a "Star Wars" or "Transformer" cake, mummy would have to wave the white flag. I have on hand a tested and well-received Australian Women's Weeky Rich Chocolate Cupcake recipe. I just had to try to bake it as a whole cake and see if it worked.

It did and so KK got his chocolatey chocolate cake with homemade chocolate hazelnut spread as a filling (which I'd made earlier), topped with chocolate ganache and decorated with chocolate balls, chocolate shavings and chocolate fingers! I had imagined how to decorate it days before and I was so excited when it was finally time to decorate it! This was the most fun part of making the cake.

KK absolutely loves the cake. I love the sparkle in his eyes when he saw the completed cake in the morning. At that time I hadn't decided to write the words yet and when I asked him, he said he wanted it. So I practised a bit before writing these 'maiden words' on a cake! Not too ugly, ya? The smiley face was also a special request from my silly son. I'm very happy with the final look. Most importantly, I'm glad that it also tasted moist and super duper choco-licious!

Happy Birthday KK!

J-Mania Part 1 - Jump Mania

The husband brought XX out today to fetch KK and finally, I get an undisturbed stretch of monopoly over the computer, so I better blog this before anything....

The last weekend has been nicknamed "J-Mania Weekend" by KK. For the first J on Saturday, we went to watch "Jump Mania" at the Rod Laver Arena in the city. This is my first visit to watch anything spectacular since coming to Melbourne and also my first time watching a live show on monster trucks and motor cross stunts. A girlfriend was surprised that I'm even interested in the first place. But why not, I've been playing enough computer simulated monster truck and motor cross games with my sons and it's not everytime we get to see real big monster machines up close perform stunts.

Waiting to pick up our tickets

We were excited enough walking up the steps as we entered the arena. KK had so looked forward to this day for the whole of last week and XX too was pointing excitedly at the giant poster, saying "Look, Mama, monster trucks!" But were we disappointed.





The show was supposed to start at 6pm. We didn't have any dinner before that as it was too early and we thought we could catch a late dinner at about 8pm when the show ended. But the show lasted 4 hours and ended at 10.15pm!! And what a draggy 4 hours. They started 15 mins late, took their time introducing all the machines and vehicles, had 2 intermissions in between 3 segments and had a guy who could sing and make sound effects entertain the crowd for 15 mins each time they restarted.

Had to cover XX's ears to protect against the deafening noise

Each segment was similar to the previous and featured the various monster trucks rolling over the same 2 rolls of cars - over and over again - until they became flat metal sheets. Hubby said it reminded him of the sugarcane juicing machine, you put the sugarcane through over and over again, until there's no more juice left. I laughed like crazy. That's exactly what the organisers are doing, desperately trying to squeeze every bit of juice out of the show.

This is at the beginning when cars still look like cars

Some kids on motor bikes came riding out in every segment, doing nothing but silly things like trying to knock each other off their bikes and throwing things at each other. Some people were laughing at their antics but I'm not very amused at their unruly behaviour. An odd looking tank/car came out making a hell lot of noise. That was KK's favourite but again there were no stunts, just noise. The kids on bikes tried to play soccer with a giant ball and then in the next segment, some cars tried to do the same. That was quite funny, to see them go forward, reverse, go forward, reverse, just to push that ball to the goal post. But is that considered skills?

Cars playing soccer

My real treat was the motor cross stunts. The 2 motor cross riders did dangerous stunts like arched their backs, took their hands off the bike, stood on the bike and did back flips with their bikes in mid-air. My heart will jump every time they did their stunt. There's so much skills and precision involved. If they don't do it correctly, things could go fatally wrong. That is what I call good entertainment. But even good stunts can get boring if you repeat it too often. I have to admit that by the third time I saw their stunts, my heart didn't jump at all. I will try to upload a video of the stunts as the pictures didn't turn out too well.






The finale was a "destruction" segment where cars knock each other until their bumpers fall off, their boot fail to exist and basically cannot move anymore. The winner is the last vehicle 'standing'. That sounded promising. There's something sadistically exciting about vehicles crashing together :-P But as it turned out, given the small arena, the vehicles were crashing into each other at relatively low speed, so it took forever before the winner emerged. And there was no explosion. Meanwhile, there were plenty of exhaust and dust generated. I almost felt nauseous.





The organisers would have got a much better review from me if they had cut off half the crappy, time-wasting, cheapskate, repeat performances (so I still have time to go for dinner) and concentrated on packing in some real kick ass stunts. And an outdoor venue would have been better for such noisy machines that gives lots of exhaust and kicks up plenty of dust.



We were very tired by the time we reach home at 11pm. I must compliment the kids for behaving very well during the whole night, even though they must be exhausted. But nothing will ruin our mood, for the next day is KK's birthday celebration!

The Computer Generation

This generation's children are so at ease with technology at an early age that even before they master their ABCs and 123s, they're taking pictures with the mobile phone and surfing the World Wide Web on a mouse. It's almost intuitive for them.

As a true child of the generation and following in the footsteps of his brother, XX has progressed from pressing buttons on mummy's mobile phone to using the stylus on the Nintendo DSLite. Touch the screen with your stylus or finger and move things around. Easier than 123. His favourite game on the DS: Cooking Mama.

And after months of not getting it, XX finally caught the "mouse" on the computer last week. Suddenly he realises that if he moves the mouse, the arrow cursor on the screen moves in tandem. He can control where it points and can also "left-click" using his index finger. So now, he can navigate the LEGO website on his own without having me sit next to him. While I celebrate the psycho-motor achievement, I'm not looking forward to the additional competition for my laptop. Already he bugs me to let him play on the computer everyday and he can sit there for a long time, clicking away, though he has no idea where it leads to. It's getting harder to tear him away from the computer now to play other things.

Best Guest Behaviour 101

We recently heard yet another horror story about a friend's guest experience gone sour, proving once again the wisdom of the old Chinese saying "相处好, 同住难" (meaning: getting along is easy, staying together is difficult) is true, even amongst the best of friends and within the family.

I believe it is very common for Singaporeans living in Australia to invite visiting friends and family every now and then to stay in their house. I know most people welcome the reunion and additional company, even though it comes at the expense of privacy and adjustments to daily routine. All's well that ends well if one's guests are "automatic" (自动) and a pleasure to live with. But ever so often, it is inevitable that differences in habits and lifestyle could pose potential sources of conflicts and create tensions between the host and the hosted.

Now, there must be some misunderstandings. Which guest in the right frame of mind would come stay with their hosts with the idea of antagonising them intentionally? We all want to be that "pleasure to live with" type of people right? Perhaps some guests don't realise that there's such a thing as the "right" behaviour? Maybe their parents never taught them and they didn't learnt it in school? How nice if there was some course that people could take before they become someone's guest?

I don't claim to be the expert in courtesy and I do hereby apologise if I have upset any of my previous hosts despite my best efforts. But I do feel pretty inspired by all that I've heard and experienced to far to write in my humble blog some insights on "How to be a guest that will be welcomed again". I'll call it "Best Guest Behaviour 101".....cool?

Here are some tips....

1) Show your appreciation. Your hosts have opened up their house and probably saved you lots of money in hotel accommodation. The least you could do is tell them "thank you" and buy them a good meal before you go.

2) Make yourself at home. This means keeping the house clean and tidy as you would like yours to be. Pick up after yourself and don't draw the line when it comes to doing the dishes. Offer to help with some housework if your stay is longer than 1 week, unless of course your host can afford to have a live-in butler or chambermaid. Offer to cook some of the meals if you eat with them most of the time. If your cooking skills are lousy, offer to buy dinner on some nights.

3) Respect the house rules. If your host don't smoke in the house, then do the same. If your host don't wear shoes in the house, don't step in with yours. If your host doesn't allow his child to eat biscuits at the sofa, don't allow yours too. Take the cue from your host. If neccessary, ask for exemptions.

4) Offer to share expenses. Your host may not take your money but will definitely appreciate the gesture. Take turns to pay for groceries or share the bill. If you stay longer than 1 month, it would be nice to offer to chip in with the household bills as water, electricity and gas all goes up with additional people living under the roof.

5) Save money for your host. This includes conserving power (like using heating/cooling sensibly, turning off lights, appliances when not in use) and not wasting water (when you wash the dishes, shower etc). Some people may not be aware that Victoria is in the middle of a drought and there are water restrictions being enforced in many places. So water is very precious here. Many people are also not aware that the internet usage here are capped with a limited amount of data transfer, unlike Singapore where it's often unlimited. Some telcos charge a bomb for every MB when the cap is exceeded. Others penalise you by reducing your internet speed. So do check with your hosts before you start to download that blockbuster movie.

6) Don't leave your mess behind. Clean up the litter in your room, remove the bedsheets and fold the blankets when you check out. If there are some things that you don't wish to bring with you, dispose of them or check with the host if they mind inheriting. Don't reciprocate your hosts' hospitality with the inconvenience of dealing with the aftermath of your behaviour. This also includes settling all traffic fines and debts so your host will not be hassled 3 months after you leave with police summons.

There are probably another 101 nitty gritty things that we should take note of when staying under the hospitality of others. Feel free to add on. At the end of the day, I think these "good guests" acts all boils down simply to Respect and Consideration for others. Putting yourself in the shoes of others and treating others the way you would like to be treated. For the sake of harmony.