Tuesday, July 24, 2012

He is awesome

This was posted on 5 June 2009 in my previous blog.  Here is a reposting.


I couldn't believe the effort he is taking to help me promote my venture among his classmates in school. If only he put such effort and talent of his in other areas such as his studies, I think this guy will fly. But, ....

Never have I taught him to use such method to publicise this. He did it when I was not aware of it, using the little home 3-in-1 printer, scanner and photocopier to photocopy his home-made flyers complete with coloured graphics of his favourite anime (which are not related at all to what I'm doing). He was too selective and cautious with the people that he was going to approach. So, I explained to him the law of 'the more you approach, the higher is the success rate'. He seems to understand it. 


As I am writing this now, this is the defiant teen of mine now. Wasn't he angelic? Mothers of teens will understand what I mean. How an angel can turn into someone as 'devilish' as to break all possible rules. Well, maybe some mothers out there are fortunate and are able to have obedient teens, but certainly not me.


For the record, he managed to secure one customer who has been with me for almost 3 years now. 

Saturday, July 21, 2012

My teen always gives me surprises

Unfortunately, they are mostly the shocking ugly truths which always never fail to send my blood pressure shooting sky high.


You see, he has been attending Kumon since December last year.  It is his choice to go for this class. Hence, he should be giving all out to make sure he does well, isn't that logical?  Once, I caught him 'breaking' the first rule of the Kumon routine.  He didn't record down the time he took to complete the set he was doing which receive 'hoo-hah' from me. Upon interrogation, all he said was something that didn't make much sense and not even worth my remembering.  


In another instance again about Kumon, he was seen copying answers of the worksheets he was 'doing' from his previous completed worksheets. How 'creative' is this fella in making shortcuts? 

Catching him clicking away his handphone while he was supposed to be revising his work is already quite common scenes nowadays. It ended up with the custody of the phone taken over by me which always got rebutted by him or getting an earful from me.

How about some of his non-academic books under his reference books? Not unusual.  Oh, how I hate to step into his room all because of the fear of discovery of some shocking truths!  Believe me there are worse things that had taken place in that room!

The number one rule about coming back home after school was long broken by him.  He is supposed to come back home straight from school and if he ever needs to stay back at school, he has to call back home. Not only he doesn't do that when he stays back at school at some occasions, he even came back late when he promised earlier to be home for lunch or on time for Kumon class. Again, his replies to my queries show that he didn't bother much to keep his promise ie to come back on time. Further questioning will reveal this difficult teen's indiscipline.  This is the typical Hoe!

" I hung around in school because I want to join my friends..." or "I played basketball ..."
"Why couldn't you come back by the time you promised even if you played basketball?"
"I didn't keep track of the time..."

What do this tell about Hoe? Blatant ignorance to comply to rules! Sigh...

Not only he wasted the lunch cooked for him, he also had to miss the Kumon class as my schedule does not allow me to send the kids for Kumon too late in the evening.  Having to wait for Hoe means Wyng will also miss Kumon, something that I don't want to happen.  Putting all these 'losses' aside, what is disappointing is his failure to see the negative implications of his defiance and laid-back attitude.

"Why? What's wrong?" These words uttered by Hoe each time an 'offcence' is unfolded are enough to drive me up the wall.

Mom's lessons are many to be learnt and I just wish the pain of learning to cope with my teen is lessened.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Press charges against neighbours

Staying in this neighbourhood is becoming stressful with the presence of certain 'hooligans' who choose to disturb the peace of the residents for their own pleasure.

I'm beginning to realise the disadvantage of staying in a house where there is a small area right in front of the house.  This area is being abused as a football field! Not because there is low traffic but this is just a walking distance from where the hooligans stay.

You can see ball flying as high as the height of a double-storey house. The impact of the ball falling on any unlucky car is enough to cause a damage.  Pray hard! That's all I can do, most of the time.  Telling them off doesn't work, that is how they got their names, hooligans!  So, what happen to the parents of these hooligans whose age range from middle primary to early secondary kids.  I believe either they don't give a damn because the area is safe from their own houses and no damage will be suffered by them. Or, they are also no different from their offsprings. 'Like father like son' holds true most of the time.

Come most evenings, whenever I hear balls bouncing, I start to panick.  Can't blame it as I slowly develop a phobia to balls.  If my car is parked outside our home,a great chance it will not be spared.

Breaking a car window (happened to my next-door neighbour when they just moved in), breaking a car bonnet (which belonged to one of the hooligans), flower pots, banging gates, hitting cars parked by the roadside are just common.

Wyng, sensing my annoyance and I believe he too disturbed with their stubbornness, suggested an action that I should take.  It happened after the ball banged my new gate.  A great thud ensued but upon interrogation, none of them admitted kicking the ball to my gate.

"Mommy, ask them to pay la if they break our things."

"How to do that when they don't admit doing it?"

"Press charges against them la..."

I guess even Wyng can't stand the hooligans' notoriety.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Burger for dinner

Nothing unusual but it's a first for the family by the roadside!  Where else if not at Wangsa Maju's Kaw Kaw Burger.


RM10 for a meal set consisting of a burger, 2 sausages and a drink, still not too costly la.. But, if you ask me to stand in the long queue to wait for a meal, I'm afraid my hunger pangs cannot beat my impatience.

Hoe gave a 'best' rating for this meal. Wyng? I believe, it's ok for him as he was already half full after taking the 2 sausages.  Grandma who was with us (but did not take burger) commented that he should not have eaten the sausages first for they filled his stomach too soon before he even savoured the juicy burger.  Grandma only had char kueh teow, Malay style for dinner, available at a nearby stall which hardly had a single customer.  The serving was too small for her and it was for a RM4. A burger is better only if I can convince her to take this forbidden food.


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Reliving the tradition

This was posted on 18 September 2008 in my previous blog.  Here is a reposting.

With the presence of the grandparents, the tradition of gathering for a dinner during mid-Autumn festival (or commonly called Moon Cake Festival) is still alive. What about when they are not around? I'd like to continue with the culture of eating mooncakes and having the kids playing lanterns. For the story of how this festival comes about, go to story of 'Woman Of the Moon'.

I still remember when I was young, our family used to have a mooncake party at the car porch after dinner. Delicacies such as the must-have moon cakes (during the day, moon cakes are shunned by everyone due to the overfeeding of this cakes prior to this auspicious day), pomelo, ground nuts, fruits, 'bulls' horns' (can anyone tell me what's the name for this food?), jelly, and chinese yam are generously placed on a table for everyone in the family to savour.

We invited our neighbours to join us and they too had their own table full of food, we basically exchanged food. We didn't tire of telling stories of the moon (concocted by us just for fun).

This tradition has since stopped since the departure of my father. I wish to relive this sometime in the future.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Mommy is out of earth!

This was posted on 14 October 2008 in my previous blog.  Here is a reposting.


Wyng drew the earth. His circle was almost perfect. Patches were added (he was drawing with a pencil without any colour pencil with him). I tested him the colour each of the patch signify.


Next, he drew the face of Mommy. He then wrote 'Mommyoutofearth' with no space in between the words. I corrected him and subsequently he wrote it the correct way on another line.


He was elated after completing his drawing and kept chanting 'Mummy out of earth'. I really couldn't manage to get the meaning of his drawing. 

Monday, July 2, 2012

I can't believe Mom is sewing


It's eye-straining, it's finger-pricking. Something I don't enjoy doing now at my age. I can't even thread the needle as easily as how I used to do it 5 years ago. I'd rather leave this mountaineous task (I mean just the needle threading part, to Hoe).  It's not about saving a few ringgit to get his pants altered just because it's too long.  It's about convenience at the right time.  This is always required urgently on weekends when the next day is a school day. Somehow, holes always must be mended on weekends and not earlier.  So, it leaves Mom with no choice but to fulfill this motherly responsibility. If I have a choice, I'd rather have a heart-to-heart conversation or a revision session with the kids than doing this sewing stuff. It's best left to the expert who can just do this in the blink of an eye, effortlessly.



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