Today my colleague treats the department to Pizza Hut. As you know the salad bowl they provide is very small and shallow. I was always designated as the salad stacker. I am not a pro but I can stack up to feed 10 hungry souls. This comes with a lot of practice and also the way the Pizza Hut staff cuts the salad.

First you have to put a thin layer of lettuce at the bottom. Start a small corner with some coleslaw. Align the cucumber in a straight line, closely with the coleslaw supporting it. You can put other stuff to support the cucumber. When the cucumbers are closely aligned in a circle, you can stack widely. Before stacking the food, leave some space for the sauce, so that it will not split. Later, you can close the sauce with some shredded carrots or cucumbers. You can begin the stack the honey dews and the water melon. If the water melon is cut in cubes, it will be easier to stack like blocks.

Wah lah….

By the way, I only do this when I am eating with a crowd. For my family, I probably will just take what I like because only 2 of us who like salad. I am not going to waste the food.

Happy Trying!!

Last Saturday evening it was raining cats and dogs which was cooling evening for my family to have bbq with steamboat. I always run out of places to eat in Penang, yeah it is true. If you come here once a while, you probably find more choices. Anyway the bbq was very good. An adult cost RM18. My children were not charged at all. They have marinated fish, chicken, seafood, vegetables, a variety of fish balls, noodles and bean curds. Free flow of barley drink and ice cream for dessert. The place is opposite of ex-Macro, near Pelita nasi kandar store.

They placed the table outside but sheltered, with cooling breeze blowing. The children were fascinated with the bbq plate. However they didn’t eat much, only noodles and fish balls, of coz they wipe the ice-cream bowl clean. After the scrumptious meal, we had to go home and shower, the oily smell really sticks on to our clothes, hair and body.

My 2 favourite dish:

The first song that Timothy learn that melt my heart was this song.

  Mummy Daddy I love you
  You know I love you
  I know you love me too
  That’s why I sing for you.

Children can do things that make our heart melt and it does not require any big effort. Emily also learns to sing while she was in school. She loves the closing Barney song and it comes with action.

  I love you, you love me
  We big happy family
  With a great big hug
  And a kiss from me to you *come around and give a big kiss on my cheeks*
  Won’t you say I love you too…

She loves to sing this as well besides the twinkle twinkle little star and bla bla black sheep.

  Someone knocking at the door.
  1 and 2 and 3 and 4 *showing the numbers on her fingers*
  Open open open wide
  How do you do?
  Please come inside

I just want to capture all these songs for remembrance.

I always want to write a Will and was thinking on it for a long time. Hey it is a piece of paper that will protect my children or at least fund their living for the rest of their lives if God were to take me home. I don’t want to work so hard and all my fortune gets stuck with the government. A Will would certainly get the legal issues out of the way. Recently my brother did a Will and he told me it is very easy to do. He told me that his lawyer friend had a template, fill in the blanks (your properties’ or asset details, your fund details, etc), how you want to distribute it, name 2 executors and get 2 witnesses to sign on it. It sounds so simple.

The hard part for me was my children are very young 4 and 2, I need a trusted guardian to be able to manage the funds and take care of them when I am gone. The question here is who can I trust to handle my children well. One of these days, I must approach some lawyer friends of mine and work it out.

How do you teach your child the difference between boy or gal? I was having that trouble and put it off until they understand. However yesterday I found that Tim can really differentiate who is boy and who is gal. Really, I don’t know how he learnt it. Emily is still struggling with it.

Mummy: Daddy
Tim: Boy
Mummy:Mummy
Tim: Gal
Mummy:Timothy
Tim: Boy
Mummy: Emily
Tim: Gal
Mummy: Mickey Mouse
Tim: Boy
Mummy:Minnie Mouse
Tim: Gal
Mummy:Pinocchio
Tim: Boy
Mummy: Peter Pan
Tim: Boy
Mummy:Wendy
Tim: Gal
Mummy:Genie (in Aladdin)
Tim: Boy
Mummy: Gu Ma
Tim: Gal
Mummy: Gu Cheong
Tim: Boy
Mummy: Por Por
Tim: Gal

As for Emily: I am a gal, kor kor is a boy, papa is a man and mummy is a woman.

Emily: Mickey mouse is a gal.
Mummy:Mickey is a boy.
Emily: No Mickey is a boy.
Mummy:Minnie mouse is a gal but Mickey is a boy.
Emily: Mickey is a boy. *want to cry*
Mummy: Tomorrow you ask papa whether Mickey is a boy or gal. *if I go on, she will sure cry*
Emily: OK. Emily is a gal.
Mummy: Yes.

Guess who is Emily copying? She is copying someone and trying to imitate a little gal who is very talented in singing with actions. After watching the video, she kept asking me to play it over and over again. While playing, I took my camera and record it down. She is not even close to what the little gal is doing. I must really ask the teacher (little gal) to teach her when she meet her real life.

You know how children are, they love to eat sweets, choc, candy, chips, ice-cream and junk food. Usually I will limit my children taking all junk by telling them, if you have too much, it can cause you to cough. They will listen to me and stop eating, or reserved it for later days.

Last week, Emily was not in a good mood because she wanted to play at the playground after church. However it was lunch time and we had to go for lunch. At the lunch table, we ordered chicken rice for both Tim and Emily.

Emily: Mummy, I cannot take rice.
Mummy: Why?
Emily: It will make me cough cough, see. *pretend to cough*
Mummy: Don’t be silly, rice will not make you cough
Emily: *pretend to cough*, got ah.

However, I did manage to feed her ½ plate of rice and chicken. When she is not in the mood, she will think of cheeky ways to make things difficult.

Timothy has been learning to trap ants. Every time he sees an ant, he will take his plastic toy cup and trap the ants. He will yell for my hubby and I to see how clever he has trapped the ant.

Mummy: Why don’t you kill the ant?
Tim: No ah, later it will bite me.

By the way, he will leave the cup there and make sure no one moves it. One night while I was working late, I saw the cup in the middle of the living room. I took a look, poor ant being trap for hours, going in circles. I took it out and fling it in the garden. I wonder what Tim will trap next.

Yes, my children are a fan of MrBean. They love to watch the Bean Cartoon. Ever since my hubby said he wants to bring them to watch the movie, they been asking and pestering us to bring them. Every time we go to Queensbay Mall and they see the banner, they will shout “Mummy Mr Bean, come come see!”

Finally today, I bring them to watch it. Generally, it was ok, nothing’s new. Most of his jokes were predictable. It is as my hubby puts it, “Accidental Hero” kind of story. He also said, the big screen makes him look ugly. Best to watch in at home.

The plot is he won a holiday to the Cannes beach. On the way there, he lost his bag, passport, money and helped a little boy lost his dad. Oh well, it was a good laugh.

Tim and Emily is in their manageable age when I do not have to constantly monitor them. They can practically play by themselves and watch TV. It is a burden off my shoulder. Then my friends will start to ask me, when are you starting your third one? I told them no thanks, 2 is enough. Yeah if I were younger I may think of it. Now I am at the age where my energy wears down easily.

Once I did dream of having at least 6 children. It will be more fun during festive season to have a big crowd at home. People yakking and having fun.

Now since both Tim & Emily have grown, I will start planning for more vacations with them. I still have 1 worry, I hope that Emily has a stronger immune system, so that she will not fall sick easily.