faizis

arshad fell ill over the weekend. nothing very serious. it is the pesky viral infection again. i checked the bottles in the fridge; dated april 08, june 08 and now he is getting it again august 08! what is this? i am not sure if sending him to childcare is making him sick, but the pattern seem to start before he went to childcare. plus he fell ill, for the last two times, in june (after samui) and last week after having too much fun in the waters! so i would like to think he’s not exactly a water baby, or simply it’s his immune system working it out, and that we have been really slack in feeding him with the fish oil.

when he got sick, we camped out in the living room during the day and let him lie down and watch tv when his temperature hits really high..which is every 6 hrs after the bufren dosage has run out! the rest of the time, he is running about, you wouldnt know he even had any temperature! but when his temperature gets high, it is like going to war. most mothers will know this. it practically is for me especially arshad hates to be sponged. heck, he practically hates to be ‘manhandled’. except for times when he is asking for a cuddle or in a good mood, he hates it. he had even kicked the stonefaced pd we used to see who was trying to put the stethoscope on his chest. and the medicine taking, bad trait he inherited from me!

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6 days childcare leave up from miserly 2!
1 week unpaid infantcare up to 2 years of age for the kid.
and additional 1 month of paid maternity!
and did i hear greater childcare subsidy?

and many more.. details from the population policy comittee next week, so watched out for it mommies!

it was also pretty nice that the session was wrapped up by a few singapore stories. as cynical as i am sometimes, it’s still heartwarming to hear some (i particularly like the nyp to cmu boy story!).

i am not a good cook lah..really. i just think i am an avid food experimenter. these days due to work and the boy, it is prefered that the things i experiment with dont take up too much time or require too much of sweat and tears in the kitchen..heh..

there are some things for the life of me, i think i dont have much aptitude for. like baking! the complicated stuffs like cakes etc. leave that to the professionals!

and for that reason too (my laziness), you dont see a lot of malay fare on this blog. because my mum, mum in law and the makcik at my favourite stall do them rather well. so again, i leave that to the pros…altho one day, i expect that i need to get going with blending rempah and roasting blachan.

anyway, here’s our latest experiment;

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this is one of my fav food, especially if i am looking for something light and fresh-tasting. the vietnamese summer roll.

i have not done it for some time. although it is very easy, these days i dont have much patience and it can be quite time consuming (the rolling/wrapping)..plus i am not good at wrapping up rolls or popiah. anyway, if you like such things, this is how you do it.

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these days, my soon to be 2 yr old seems to epitomise the duracell bunny. we think he is quite an efficient machine..like a wound up spring, he comes to life almost instantly when he wakes up, zooms around, bouncing off surfaces and throwing things around half expecting that these will bounce off as well and running like cicak kudung (lizard that has lost its tail) …when all the energy’s used up, he dozes off dutifully.

so what does it mean when we have half-days from work and holidays? there is so much he can do running around the house, playing with his toys and watching tv. he knows know to say “yayeee /nenek/mak/ ayah wear shuuuus (shoes)!” . a cry which means he wants to go out and sometimes he waits at the door.

i didnt really plan for anything this holiday weekend, so i found myself..err..with no plans..so had to make last minute plans!

friday half day leave, i got the transport so we trotted down to bambini playgroup. it is under the same management as the bambini at demsey, but this one is much smaller. it is more centrally located tho at kallang leisurepark.

we met adriana and arissa at the playclub

girls are made of sugar and spice, and all things nice. really true!

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we had a gathering last evening, and each of us shared how we spent our national day holidays in unpatriotic ways. well, i at least managed to watch the parade. that seems to be the only part we enjoy watching as part of the celebration. someone said it is very interesting we liked watching parades and enquired ‘why?’ i was too busy eating and enjoying cake..i could not find any good answer then to why i enjoy parades. maybe it’s because i just like to see men in uniforms

anyway someone pointed out that in all the GOH contigents, with the exception of the one with the man in blue, the rest are almost 100% made up of sepet men. i have nothing against sepet people. truthfully, my closest friend at work is one, so are a number of my closest friends since my school days.

coincidentally, we had a screening of s.epet as our celebration last week. i think they enjoyed the show very much. there was this part of the dialogue that had the whole lecture theatre laughing:

“Kiong: Not every Chinaman is a cheat,
Orked: True
Kiong: and not every Malay is lazy.
Orked: Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. Every Malay is lazy.”

i guess even the kids are mature enough to take it as a joke, for some of us to laugh at ourselves. not all chinamen are cheat, and i do know a lot of malays who are damn hardworking lah.

anyway, it was also a surprise but perhaps a sign of confidence..that the population is mature enough that the following article was published.

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all is not lost tho.

i still love the life here, and feel truly blessed eventho things are not all rosy here for this island-worries of inflation, income disparity etc

for the things that matter are still close to me. and it’s so worth it. as the nation debates on how to increase the birthrate, we already made up our minds, that no matter how messy, tiring, inefficient, it gets in having and raising one or many, we love life. children as messy and troublesome as they get sometimes, represent life. having one makes me re-examine my life, many times.

and the joys, i can only half believe it before, but you have to have one to know.

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happy holidays to all. we are going to have yasm.ina.hm.ad (her movie screenings-i know she’s malaysian, but we are more interested in the themes of the movies) for the celebration at work tomorrow!
i am so not complaining.

this one is an old favourite..

some time back, i had dinner with a friend and we shared pear, walnut and blue cheese salad. in the end, i think i wiped out most of the salad myself. all the different contrasting flavours come together very nicely and i had ever since wanted to recreate the salad.

i dont think i’ve got it exactly right yet to match the delectable one i had, but i pretty much enjoyed this quickly assembled one;

1 pear sliced (the sweeter and softer the better), salad greens with arugula and oakleaf (bought the premixed), some amount of roasted walnut, and some blue cheese to be sprinkled over. toss with vinagerette. there are many recipes available online to go with the pear, walnut and cheese combi, but i didnt have much time so had it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. if you look closely, i was also too lazy to peel the skin off the pears.

but this one is still a winner, so i’ll try it again!