Life Love and Me » My Thoughts

Learning Mandarin Chinese

celine — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:25:56 +0000

When we decided to send Erica to a all subjects taught in Mandarin Chinese school, many of our friends taught that we were mad. Frankly, I don’t blame them. It was indeed a crazy move as both Dave and I cannot read or write in Mandarin. Despite all the well-meant you better not to it advise, we went ahead with our plan. Yeah, we are extremely stubborn, haha! How did the learn Mandarin plan come about? Why did we decide on such a “difficult” path? Dave is convinced that China would be the next big economy after the US and Erica would have an added competitive advantage if she is proficient in Mandarin. When he told me his theory I remember laughing to myself, thinking, “He watched too much CNBC!”

What about her English? Despite our “soft spot” for Mandarin, English wins hands down. We considered many options like having her home schooled by me (dh was sceptical, haha!), hiring a home-tutor to coach her, sending her for weekend English classes etc. We were not comfortable with any of the options. We felt that nothing beats the “school environment”. Anyway having a good command in English is way too important to take such risks. Just as we were about to abandon our learn Mandarin plan, we stumbled upon Chung Kwok School (CKS). This school conducts two curriculum – Mandarin curriculum before lunch and an English curriculum in the afternoon. We loved the idea but I was worried about the long school hours. My dh convinced me to give it a go and told me that we could always pull her out if things don’t work out. That decision was made four years ago and it was a darn good one, well after a few months of tears for both Erica and I.

The first two months in CKS were a nightmare for Erica, only the morning curriculum though. The English curriculum was a breeze for her and she loved it! She would come back with minimal school work to be completed for the afternoon session, but tons for the morning session. I remember spending hours looking up online translations (from Mandarin to English) to help her through her homework. At times I even had to do her homework for her because she fell asleep doing them. Poor girl!

Many people (my mom and sis included) taught that we were SO cruel having her to handle two curriculum. They tried in their own manner to persuade us to do re-consider. We were VERY tempted to pull her out of CKS even though we never admitted to anyone then. Dave and I agreed not to jump the gun but instead allowed her some time to settle-in before we pull her out of CKS. Surprisingly she started to like the school “a little” after a month. She started to smile more and came back home with some happy stories from school.

In order to “speed up” her learning curve, her class teacher advised us to get her a Mandarin tutor. I never imagined that getting a tutor would be so challenging! Most of them were only keen to coach students with a strong foundation in Mandarin. They would come surprised, shocked and even a little upset that Erica had close to zero knowledge in the language. Crazy, huh? If the kid has a strong foundation in Mandarin, why in the world would she need a tutor? We were baffled by their attitude. All in all we hired and fired close to ten tutors (each lasting at the most 2 weeks) before finding these two amazingly dedicated teachers. They patiently tutored Erica from scratch and brought her proficiency in the Mandarin language to a level that is beyond our imagination. Both of them were so passionate in teaching her and were genuinely interested in her progress. We are still thanking our lucky stars for finding them.

After a year of coaching by them, Erica’s proficiency in the language improved so much that many of her school teachers and friends were shocked. From barely making the passing rate, she consistently achieved 75% in all her taught in Mandarin subjects. She could even have simple conversations in Mandarin with her friends. By the second year she was reading story books in Mandarin and continued to have even more success in school. No words could describe my gratitude towards these two ladies who had worked wonders with Erica. Many people asked me why she needed two tutors. I felt that she would be bored spending so many hours with just one tutor. With two, she would have diversity and it would make learning much more interesting. So I hired one to concentrate on her grammar and another on her writing skills. This arrangement worked well with Erica and the tutors.

Erica will be graduating from CKS and moving on to secondary/middle school after a major exam in two months time. We are so proud of her and so grateful to all the teachers at CKS who had worked with her, as well as these two incredibly passionate tutors.

It was Memorable!

celine — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:00:01 +0000

My hubby was a little worried during my last birthday (in March). He assumed that I would be depressed as it meant saying farewell to days of being thirties. As “the day” was on a weekday and he was super busy at work, he made arrangements with the girls’ school for them to have the day off. Yeah, he actually wrote a letter informing the school that the girls needed to skip school to celebrate my fortieth birthday. Men!! *shakes head in disbelief*.

The girls brought me to the movies to watch Alice in Wonderland. They used their pocket money to pay for our tickets and popcorn. It was kinda of nice but weird at the same time. Just because they were paying for popcorn, all three of us had to share a tub – all the doing of my stingy younger daughter. She didn’t have any problems with expensive popcorn when her daddy and mommy were paying for them! Anyway Alice was nice and the popcorn tasted better than normal, haha!

After that they took me to ArtFriend, my favourite supplies shop to pick my own birthday present. Cool, huh! I got all excited at the shop, not because I get to choose a present for myself but more because my girls took the trouble of making me happy on my birthday. ArtFriend is indeed one of my all time favourite places. I spend hours there each time.

When we got home I baked my birthday cake. I don’t normally bake my own birthday cake but I was feeling so happy (and loved) that I decided to bake the family’s all time favourite opera cake to celebrate. When dh came back from work we went to our favourite cosy neighbourhood cafe for dinner plus some cake cutting. The day turned out to be VERY memorable ….. lots of bonding time with the girls and dh. Turing forty wasn’t so scary after all.

Nikki …..my little BFF

celine — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:08:37 +0000

Where have I been for the past 2 months? Have I stopped blogging but never said good-bye? I received quite a number of emails on this for the past few weeks from many concerned friends. Some were even worried that something happened to me.

Thank you so much for your concern my dear friends. I am fine, don’t worry. Yes, I am still blogging ….. its just that I was so pre-occupied with my little BFF. We spent so many hours hanging out together daily that I do not have anymore energy to blog after that. Here she is. What do you think?

I have never been a doll person. Actually I don’t remember having a doll as a kid. Not sure why I never took a liking to them, most likely its due to their plastic body and fake facial expression. I just couldn’t bond with them. Everything changed when I discovered waldorf dolls two months back. I was transformed into a doll-freak! I spent many hours researching on them and “drooling” over the creations of reputable waldorf doll makers. I like how they are made entirely with cotton and wool, and how they have very life-like facial expression.

I still find it difficult to believe that I actually own a doll. My dh is amused over my Nikki related activities. He thinks I treat her like a human being. I would talk to her, carry her all over the house, bring her out on road-trips and even hug her to sleep at night (sheesh!). I am surprised with my own behaviour too, but I am sure having hell of a good time with Nikki, haha! Everyday I would rush through my mommy’s duties, so that I can spend more time with her. Over the weekend, the girls and I would have “play doll” sessions. They are sucked into the waldorf thing-y too. They are two dolls each!

Well, this is what I have been doing for the past two months. Things have normalise a little now, so I am back at blogging, baking my girls tea-time snacks and cooking proper meals. You will definitely be hearing more from me now.

WOMAN …. Engineers’ Definition

celine — Fri, 07 May 2010 13:07:36 +0000

I received this in my inbox today.

I laughed my head off ……. hopefully you will find it funny too.

My apologies in advance if you are offended

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4 Happy April!

celine — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:58:59 +0000

[Picture nicked from my fellow bootcamper's blog www.arminbaniaz.com]

I love blogging. But I love “doing nothing” even more ……. at times.

This is what happened in March. I was in a staring-into-space-and-doing-nothing mood when my girls were at school. Why? I was depressed. I injured my left knee so NO BOOTCAMP and NO RUNNING for me. Without my get-me-up every morning I felt lost, lousy and helpless. I tried to drown my sorrows by taking afternoon naps. I felt worse. I ended up getting migraine and felt worse. I should have known cos me and naps have never been the best of friends!

Actually I have no one else to blame but myself. When my left knee started to hurt, only just a little, I totally ignored it and continued with bootcamp and my weekend runs with my Mister. The pain got worse. Know what I did? I took pain killers, and continued abusing it. I went for medical treatment only when I could not straighten my leg and it hurt so much that I could not drive. Total idiot, right? I had to endure many therapy sessions with my physio plus 30mins a day “jogging in the pool” to aid recovery.

“Rest, rest, rest, rest …..” It became the daily slogan from my physio, my Mister, my friends and everyone else. I was so tired of staying at home and doing no real exercise at all. I was bored to tears!

My physio reluctantly gave me the go ahead to do some running, after our session today. I am allowed to run slowly for 30 minutes. Can’t wait to hit the park first thing tomorrow morning.

I miss runnning. I miss drenching in “sweat”. I miss my iPod. I miss the “happy hormones” at the end of it. And the amazing surge in energy during the day is to-die-for …… I know, I know, I am being dramatic. But the fact is, I am just so excited to have my knee back, and being able to start running again.

I hope tomorrow will come sooner…….

Dinner Helpers

celine — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:05:06 +0000

When it comes to cooking, I have accepted the fact that I am destined to be a noob forever. Noob not in the same category as this ironchef-in-disguise-noob, but noob in the true sense, know very little and have no will to learn. I no longer live in denial, buying cookbooks after cookbooks dreaming of being my Mister’s Domestic Goddess. After trying at the most two recipes from the salad/entree section, I would be demoralised. Mine would never ever look and taste anywhere near that described by the book, even though I put in twice the amount of time in the kitchen. Nothing wrong with those cookbooks, it’s just me … poor execution due to “no-interest” subject matter. If I could transfer some of my enthusiasm from baking and crafting to cooking, I am positive my family’s tummies would be much happier.

Things changed (a while back) for the better when I stumbled upon these amazing food bloggers They “hand-held” me all the way from buying the ingredients to plating (is there such a word?) the meal. Most of their recipes have very few ingredients, they do not involve any deep frying (my no.1 fear), they have very few simple cooking steps and most important of all their recipes are idiot-proof.

Please put your hands together for a round of applause to these amazing ladies. Here they are in no particular order;

Don’t think Ree aka PW needs any introduction, right? I have been a “stalker” of hers way before she bacame “royalty” of the food blogging world. Initially I followed her blog mainly for Black Heels to Tractor Wheels – her love story with Marlboro Man. Slowly I became attracted to her cooking posts (sub-consciously?) too. Me, cooking? Nah! Maybe its because she provides pictures and detailed explanation for each and every cooking step . Or could it be due to her wicked sense of humour? Possibly its her down-to-earth, hilarious constant self mockery …. Oh, I don’t know. I became her faithful fan, even more faithful than having dinner daily!

I had tried many of her recipes and had lots of success with them. I can never forget cooking my first pan-fried steak ala PW, can never forget having her Asian Noodle Salad for lunch and dinner two days straight, can never forget keeping the Mister happy with a never done before homecooked meat feast.

Seriously I am so grateful to PW for making cooking less scary for me, with her awesome tutorials and how-tos series. Soon, I hope cooking will no longer be a responsibility for me. Maybe, just maybe, I might, will actually enjoy (eeeks) doing it.

She is the Ironchef in disguise that I mentioned earlier. This is Wiffy’s claim of herself, “I’m a girl who likes to cook though I don’t think I’m very good at it”. Not good at cooking? Bluff! Hop over to her blog and you will be amazed with her simple yet delicious recipes. Go on do it now.

Was it her Chicken and Mushroom Baked Rice, or Baked Sardines and Potatoes? I can’t remember. Its one of these guys (both equally yummy) that started my “relationship” with Wiffy. Since then I have been relying on her to figure out dinner. She has a 15- minutes Shorts Series (cooking under 15 minutes) which I particularly like. It is a life saver during my 4pm weekday scramble, wondering what to put on the dinner table.

The Little Teochew is another of my favourite. Ju writes beautifully. She is very generous in teaching and sharing. She comes across as a very down-to-earth person, I like her! Coupled with her fantastic shots, she keeps me captivated. Daily visits to her a blog is a must for me.

Even though alot of her recipes a little difficult for me, I enjoy reading and learning from them. One day I hope to tackle them. For now, I have tried a number of the easier ones with lots of success. We especially love her Carrot and Tuna Salad, Salmon Cakes, Pineapple Fried Rice and Sesame Prawn Toast.

Babe is the first Malaysian blogger on my google reader and she is still there after a couple of “spring cleaning”. Not sure why, but her comments on my blog seemed to encourage and comfort me in an uncanny way. I can never forget her encouragements during the height of my health problems. I have long considered her a good friend even though we have never met.

If you have not visited blog, which is unlikely, you should. She does food review on all types of food in Malaysia from street food to super fine dining. I like it that her reviews are not the typical regurgitating the menu and providing the address and opening hours type. I find them to be insightful and objective. Maybe I am biased because she likes La Bodega and Nerovivo too.

The lady is an awesome cook too. Her recipes are simple, very forgiving (hehe) and super tasty – I know, I have tried a number of them. Our current favourites are – Steamed Chicken with Chinese Sausages (hubby’s), Homemade Yogurt (Mine) and Butter, Kaya and Peanut Butter Toast (my girls would love to have this everyday).

its Camp Edward!

celine — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:23:18 +0000

To my elder girl, he is the BEST-LOOKING guy in this whole wide world. Her everything Pattinson craze has been going on for a while and I never understood why, until last December …….

I finally got curious when she was watching Twilight for the 10,000th time. I joined her. Initially I was bored but when the perfect in an eerie manner Pattinson appeared I transformed into an excited teenager and became more excited than my tween!

When the movie ended, I told my daughter, “Erica, let’s watch one more time!”.

She was beaming with the “I told you so” look.

We ended up watching three rounds of Twilight and two rounds of New Moon. I had a smashing time……. it was good fun!

My daughter asked me after New Moon, “So is it Camp Edward or Camp Jacob?”

“Camp Edward 100%!”

She did a celebration dance to that!

The next day (was too tired after the movie marathon) I googled and researched on all matters relating to Pattinson. I was stucked by my Macbook for hours …….. only taking toilet breaks, no kidding!

Once I was done with all the googling, I started reading Twilight the book, hoping for details that the movie might have left out.

I didn’t stop at Twlight. I moved on to New Moon….then Eclipse …… then Breaking Dawn.

I can’t wait for Midnight Sun to be published. It’s partial draft left me begging for more ……….

Dusting Cobwebs & Catching Up

celine — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:07:46 +0000

It’s about time I pull myself away from my “latest hobbies” and daily responsibilities to spend some time here dusting cobwebs. I need to make an effort to update this blog/journal of mine more often else my envisioned trips down memory lane in the future would not be possible.

What have I been up to since I last document my resolutions for the year?

1. Original Bootcamp, thrice weekly – this is my 3rd month and I am so hooked/addicted to it. My dear hubby thinks that I am nuts to wake up at 5.30am and rush to the field for an hour of hell. Not sure why but I kinda like the kick-ass pain, plus the released of happy hormones after each session – simply the ultimate combination that money cannot buy. Yes, yes, I am being dramatic again ……. If you would like some details about our sessions, hop over to these two hardcores – here for a male account, and here for the female version.

2. My New Toy – this was my Christmas present from my hubby. I have been spending lots of hours when my kids are at school reading up the manual while practising my sewing skills on the machine. I will blog about my craft items from the machine once it passes my quality control checks.

3. Preparing dinner - I have been keeping up to my resolution (most of the time) to prepare dinner on weekdays. I would be “scrmbling” at 3pm daily figuring out dinner. I found not 1, not 2 but 3 super-easy, fuss-free, super tasty with minimal clean-ups recipes that I have used again, and again, again ……

Roast Chicken – only 2 ingredients, but it taste super-yummy-delicious (if there is such a word). Here is a picture from the creator of this dish (mine did not do justice to it).

Thanks Ju for sharing this recipe – I love you!

Rice Cooker Chicken – another super easy brilliant recipe that I stumbled upon.

Thanks Sonia for sharing the recipe – I love you!

I did not take any picture cos I simply lifted the pot (from the rice cooker) to the dinner table. Here is a picture from her blog, I hope you don’t mind Sonia.

Arrowhead Chicken Soup – another super simple recipe that I like. My hubby and kids think that it is the best, much better than the infamous ABC Soup. The best part of it is, it is a well balanced one pot meal – chicken plus veges, thus I do not need to cook another dish. This recipe is from an “Iron Chef” who insist of calling herself a noobcook.

Wiffy, thanks ALOT for sharing – I love you!

I hope you don’t mind me posting your picture here, its such an awesome shot (as always).

4. Having fun with Fabric Topiary – I had so much fun making these for our friends as Chinese New Year cum Valentines gift.

5. Coaching My Girls – I am getting better at helping my girls with their schoolwork and projects. Here is the scene on most weekday nights, haha!

A New Decade – 2010

celine — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:41:55 +0000

I used to have a love-hate relationship with January 1st. I love that it signifies a new beginning, new dreams, new hopes but at the same I hate it due to all my un-met resolutions! Two years ago, I finally grew-up (i.e. matured) and stopped making a big deal out of the New Year, and stopped making a long list of not likely to meet resolutions. January 1st became another flipping of the calendar day. I reasoned that I can do up a to-do-list aka resolutions anytime of the year. The biggest challenge is to stay focused and get it done.

So how was past two years since I stopped making resolutions? Were they more fruitful than the ones with resolutions? Not sure but I was definitely a happier and more relaxed person without my list of to-dos. In 2008 (the first year without resolutions) I learnt how to bake cakes and bread. I started off with recipe books and very soon realised that food bloggers are a much better source. I surprised myself by not just liking it but enjoying myself so much that I do it every other day. Being someone who prefers the outdoors and likes to be on the go all the time, my indoors hobbies used to be short-lived, but baking survived till today. My mum asked me yesterday, “You are still baking? You have not got tired of it yet?”. Due to this (my baking hobby) I stayed home more and started to appreciate my life as a homemaker.

Last year I miraculously decided to cook dinner on weekdays for my family. My hubby was shocked because no cooking was my condition when he proposed. He was worried (knowing how much I hate cooking) that I was either having a severe depression, or an early mid-life crisis. I am still at the maximum four-ingredients recipes, still complaining two hours before dinner time, still looking for ways to make my already easy recipes easier but I am still putting homecooked meals on the dinner table on most weekday nights. And for that, I am so proud of myself. Those who know me personally would be proud of me too.

Not sure whether it is pure coincidence but my life changed dramatically the minute I stopped making new year resolutions. Just for the records, learn-to-bake was part of my resolutions for years. Once again I did not make any resolutions for 2010. I will continue to embrace each day with an open mind and try to live it to the fullest. Vanessa of V and Co, wrote a beautiful post on the coming decade and how she chose consistency as her word of the year. To me it was a very well written post and I like it a lot, actually so much that I decided to adopt a similar approach for the coming decade. I would like to be consistent in loving my family, to be consistent in looking after my family’s needs, to be consistent in preparing dinner on weekdays, to be consistent in my parenting approach, to be consistent in my exercise routine, to be consistent in my calorie intake, et cetera.

Happy (belated, again) New Year, and hope that it will be a super-amazing one for all of us!

Happy Bootcamper!

celine — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:05:38 +0000

I spent the first couple of days after cancelling our holidays puting up a brave-front in front of my girls. I was my usual chirpy and happy self keeping my elder girl company while she does her work, and helping my younger one with the daily crafts planned for her. When my girls went to bed I sulked and took out my frustration on my husband. The poor guy took it all in a stride …ever so sweet.

I was having so much trouble getting myself out of the in-no-mood for everything in my life. I needed something badly to get me back on track. When I found out about The Original Bootcamp (OBC) from another blogger I was convinced that it was just what I needed to get myself out of the rut – an hour of intensive outdoor exercise military style at 7am thrice weekly.

I signed-up for the OBC without much fact finding. I assumed that I would be able to handle it after having a personal trainer in the gym for awhile. From its name (military style bootcamp) I expected it to be tough, kick ass and intensive but ….. After 20 minutes into the session I was gasping for breath like a pathetic 50 years-old grandma. The intensity of the exercises was totally unexpected. I was in total shock. Me? Somehow who has been exercising regularly with a trainer, has to struggle so much? It was humiliating and mind boggling at the same time. It dawn onto me (much later) that I cannot do high intensity strength training and cardiovascular exercise at the same time. It’s either one or the other. I was just not trained to do both by my trainer (yeah, pushing all the blame to him).

The aches and pains that I had during the first week was horrible. I had so much difficulty walking up the staircase to my friend’s place (on the 2nd floor). I had to walk at an angle to lessen the pain. My friends were shocked, surprised, concerned and amused. I burst out laughing when my 8 year-old offered me her hand.

Things got better in the second week. It was still tough but I kinda got addicted to the after-session bazillion “happy hormones”. The so satisfied with myself feeling was awesome. By the end of the second week, I fired my personal trainer (while he was still on holiday) and signed up for my second month as a Happy Bootcamper, one who could work my muscles and run on the same day!