“Studious” Mom

I can still remember vividly when we sent Heather off to Primary 1 at my alma mater in Jan 2003. It only seems like it wasn't too long ago and here we are at the threshold of secondary school.





Last day in Primary School



6 years of primary education and together we slog through BM . Mind you.... BM is tough for me especially since I only studied it as 1 subject in school. I had virtually forgotten many of the words let alone simpulan bahasa. The dictionary was our constant pal. Thank God when Heather started Pri 1 she had Science and Maths in English. God knows beforehand that this poor mom would not be able to cope teaching her everything in BM.

We spent many hours studying together in the afternoons. It was like a journey back in time for me as I tried to recall all that I had learned all those long years ago. Now with Heather starting Form 1 in Jan, I still have 5 more years of primary education with Jordan. Second time around, my BM has certainly improved....if I might say so!!!!




Jordan hitting the books.




Having this opportunity to teach both my kids is certainly an eye opening experience for me. It shows how IMPATIENT I can be. It reveals to me my kids character and their learning styles. On top of that it was also a revelation for my kids... that mom doesn't know everything.

So now school's out and the hols are in full swing. I get my well deserved break from all those studies and exams. YIPPEEE!!!

Of Wine, Cheese & Fruits

An evening of wine , cheese and fruits with good friends. That's an invitation too good to pass. So there we were and as usual our host and hostess outdo themselves. The long table was beautifully laden with 2 bottles of wine (white & red, no idea of the name!!!!),a bottle of Baileys, wine glasses, strawberries, grapes, apples, cheese (feta, gouda, camembert, smoked cheddar ) and crackers ,ham, salmon etc etc. It was gorgeous!!! The setting is somewhat like what you get when you open one of those very “angmo” magazines.
Then came along these group of not so ang mo friends. Adam kicked off the evening with “Who farted?” (yes.... indeed what a shocker to begin with. But you must understand. We have been friends sooo long that a question like that means the perpetrator has to own up without being offended). Bill was quick to add...that he was looking around for a corner to hide ...to avoid the smell. That shocking statement was met with indignant looks from especially the ladies. The ladies are more well informed. It's the cheese ,silly. Yes, the perpetrator is the camembert cheese. From thence it lost its name. The rest of the evening, it was known as farty cheese or “chaochao” cheese. But it taste GREAT with the biscuits!!!!

The white wine was easy to open but the red wine was the problematic one as the cork was brittle to begin with. So the usual wine opener failed....and many other apparatus were engaged and finally the solution was to poke it with a chopstick and filter the wine later as none had the desire to eat cork for the evening. The filtered wine was then served from a metal mixing bowl!!!! The ultimate in class!!!!

As the evening progresses, conversation flowed freely from loosened tongues but you hear none of the refine language used to describe wine. No one said about it being dry, or the bouquet was excellent or it had a fruity finish. The best we could do was “yes this is good or ya this one is drinkable.”

Other hilarious comments were “There are certain wine which after you drink it, you feel its like someone stabbing you in the throat with a knife” or the difference between good and bad wine is this: when you drink the latter, it sends your body into convulsions and in the midst of this spasmodic attack you know that in future this is the one to avoid.”. All these comments came with very graphic visual demonstrations which have been clearly imprinted in our very sober minds.


Wine connoisseurs will certainly be horrified at our total lack of class but we had absolute fun and no one was drunk. All names have been changed to protect the identity of our friends so that they will still get invites to high class wine tasting sessions. In other words no one will think they have no class !!! Ha ha.