the fine things

Sunday today, the 1st of November!  Another 2 months to go before new year. The evening weather was wonderful! Daniel and Ian had fun at the swimming pool while I jogged at the  nearby park.  It was rather odd that while jogging,  I thought about  how I have exhausted this year’s leave entitlement so soon.  Of all the things to think about !  As of today, I dont have any more left!!  With a limited amount of vacation time in a year, I normally scatter a day or two vacation days across my schedule (with longer ones in between) which is normally planned weeks or months in advance.  I always try to  stretch things out as much a possible before surrendering any of the precious days,  still it seems  I didnt quite do a  good job of seeding the breaks across the calendar this year!  Here I am … so in need of breaks for Christmas and New year! 

Wednesday  Came  across some old pictures of countryside sceneries that I really like.  Thought I’d post them here to share ( again!).  I had them stored in my one webshots.com e-albums which I have thought of closing but finding it rather odd … feels kind of like ending a friendship!  I have  afterall had this account for more than 3 years!  This prompted me to thinking about the various  ways that we could share our images these days.

There’s a selection of community based image hosting sites online - we have flickr, webshots, picasa etc.  These image hosting sites come with forums geared towards critiques – it is up to you to have as much or as little interaction with other users.  Then, there are also photoblogs…

 from Mom’s garden

My last week was quite hectic, that I just wanted to chill-out at home and be lazy!  Good that we have this long Independance Day weekend!  Decided to look thru the photos of our recent trip again – 100s of them!  I actually love taking macro shots and of sceneries but looks like I need to spend more time  learning the how & what of d90, complicated technology we got ourselves into!!  I don’t mind attending some hands-on workshops  or something! So, I wondered what to do with all these pictures and came up with a solution – a scrapbook! (not digiscrap). We anticipate more family getaways in the future so I thought a scrapbook would be good, tag it according to places or destinations, why not!  I’ve seen real nice scrapbooks by some bloggers  - perhaps create something like those?!

Visited Mom & Dad over the weekend – as usual, good chat (all included, pleasant and not so pleasant) - it’s nice to be ‘home’!  Dad has asked me earlier on to buy him a camera so I gave him our Nikon Coolpix.  Infact, he has asked me to look around for binoculars too; he has apparently developed interest in watching things upclose (bird watching I think heheh ) I haven’t looked it up yet.  He’s busy with his chores - the latest one I find quite interesting is the encroachment of villagers’ owned land by one on-going project developers to turn an 80-acre piece of land into a resort and spa,  in the area!  Can’t quite remember all the details but some chalets, spa, some entertaintment areas or parks, etc.  This new development would be good for the kampung, don’t you think?? 

As usual, Mom asked about everyone who are currently out  of sight but close at heart and I always tell her everyone’s doing fine:) It’s hard to keep up these days, with each and everyone busy getting on with life, well,  perhaps the distance adds to it too.  Since her garden is currently in bloom, she gathered she can now relax by taking out the sewing machine which she has ignored for so long and come up with another set of curtains and sofa covers! 

Dropped by at Dolly and Inik too for a chat!  Dolly works at the airport on OT most  weekends - this kind of schedule has apparently kept her quite busy. Seldom meet her boys - they are BIG boys now … Victor going on 17 and  Rayner going on 15!!

Sometime ago, Nik mentioned that Debra has refused to go to school and the pattern is still persisting til today.   It’s a worrisome of course as UPSR exams are coming up, infact next week!  I think something must have happened at school. Being a good student, she must have been pushed by her teachers to a limit whereby she cant take it anymore or even worse, got ‘reprimanded negatively’.  I’ve nothing against chinese medium schools infact Ian will be attending one next year, but I know this is happening especially the ‘pushing’ of students to perform in order to maintain the excellent passing rate (for the school!).  She’s OK with everything else but just refused to attend classes.  What happens is she would get ready, but upon reaching the school compound she would just simply freezed, and refused to get off the car. How do you explain that? 

It’s now 530am, I better stop rambling and get things ready for the day, hope your weekend was fun! 

1. Feed your head
2. Keep the scale in your corner
3. Boost your body’s defenses
4. Guard against ovarian woes
5. Build better bones6. Prevent blood-sugar trouble

It’s Sunday today and I still have loads of stuffs to do.  I somehow can’t focus on contempleting tasks.  With deadlines just around the corner, this sure is awful   BUT I can post an entry!! Now why is that?   One thing that’s comforting, Ian finally is back to his usual self after taking his third round of medication.  Well since i couldn’t concentrate on writing or researching, I decided to do my usual round of spring-cleaning.  A good thing …I had the opportunity to take a closer look at all the wine and liquor that we have gotten over the years, either as gifts or bought for pleasure.  Even took pictures!  We used to have our own little wine collection (sort of), not an extensive one but we did have quite a number some years back– a few bottles were gifts from friends, while we bought some ourselves.  Arent quite sure what happened, but a few bottles either went missing before or after our house renovation was completed – surely went missing during those ‘transition period”!! I probably drank most of it at some point LOL.   I admire the different bottles designs from different countries. We ocassionaly drink wine. No doubt, we can enjoy wine taken with some delicious dishes, it never really ‘registered’ with me what goes with which.  The basic things like white wine works well with fish, while red wine with meat is easy to remember.  If in depth details is required, it is likely that I scramble for information!  

12 August 2007@ 24 months

I bumped into a friend who thought I’d never become a mother and that motherhood was not likely fo me! ?!?!  She asked this question, “Eeiii,! Are you doing OK? (while looking up & down!). Apparently, she has heard I now have a son.

This friend actually believed conceiving only happens in the 20s and that the moment you reach 35, your life is over! Not particularly wanting to be engaged in a deeper conversation, I simply replied, “good”, and asked to be escused for something urgent. It was a very brief ‘hi & bye’ thing.  Well, the truth is, I was also somewhat offended by the way she looked at me! 

Don’t we all have this type of friends who are just interested in knowing only a particular part of our life?  Dead interested and asked seciic questions like, “Why aren’t you marreid yet?” or “you got married so long already, why no kids yet ah?” or “OMG you gained soo much weight” ( while checking you out up & down!). IF a friend of the same wavelength asked ”how’s motherhood?”, I would probably drag that friend to Coffee Bean or something to have a long chat over a cup of Café Latte.

Answering that question is not as easy to answer as some might think it to be. There’s no short answer to it! There are days of frustration and of feeling helplessness, but I would no trade those moments in for anything in the world! One of the things I still struggle with is scheduling. Even if i make a schedule, it doesnt seem to work. It’s a real challenge planning on being somewhere on time. (Now that we have decided not take in any more live-in maid! ) Don’t ask me how many times have I been late for work!

I plan my own outings as in going to the hair salon, for facial treatment, etc around naptime, so spontaneity is almost out of the question. When I shop these days, I always tend to shop for two. There were times upon returning home only did I realized that my shopping bag was full of Ian’s stuff, instead of mine! The wonderful part is knowing it still puts a smile on my face; that I stil lfind it amusing!.  I’d say to Ian “You know what happened to Mommy today? Bla bla bla….”  In return, he awards me with his cute chuckle and repeats the words he picks out of my blabberings!!  

Motherhood has taught me about loving life and appreciating the things I do and what surrounds me. I marvel at how Ian has changed the way I look at things. He has made me become the best I can.

Motherhood has taught me to live more in the present moment;to stop worrying so much about when the laundry could be done, when the floors could be vacuumed and mopped, or simply what housework gets done and what doesn’t! 

Motherhood has made me realize how self-centered we human beings can be. Being a mother, I have to (I think I should be saying ”I want to;) set aside my own wants and needs at times, and focus totally on Ian. 

Yes, I still work. But I must admit I’m ‘preofessionally’ derailed by motherhood.  Daniel and I decided to arrange to send Ian to a child care center, but there were times (many, many times) while at work that I think about my son’s smell!  I have to use every ounce of my discipline to keep myself from running home or sneaking to the child care center just to make sure that my son is OK!!  I love motherhood.  Now that Ian is talking, I have never had so much fun talking to someone (sorry Dad!). What he says somtimes is a mystery, he has his own language of communication but that’s what makes it fun!  

I now have another friend for life :)