Merry Xmas & Happy New Year 2009 in advance!

Its just a few more days to 2009, many of us will look back to summarise the events and move on.Why not make a list of your very own event for 2008? It will be very special as everyone’s list will be pretty different.

In short, this year is a major year of change for me.

Jan-Mar:

• Received a booklet on Primary Registration given by the Kindergarten teachers to all pupils going to Primary One the following year.
• A good video on Why We Keep On Buying.
• My boy’s first school trip – To the Airport & Clarke Quay. (Finally!! I will not explain why, should not wash dirty linen in public.)
• Celebrated my boy’s birthday with his favorite double chocolate cake.

Controversial: On Going Green

• My first effort to bring my own mug to buy homemade drinks at my office canteen was slapped with having to pay more, but my mug really contains the same amount with the disposable CFC cup that they use….

Apr-Jun:

• I opt for a no birthday cake for my birthday this year.
• My first experience in buying dresses from an online shop.
• My girl’s first school trip to Tanjong Pagar Railway Station. (Yay!)

Jul-Sep:

• Resigned and become a full time mum at home.
• Sold my mobile phone on ebay for some cash on hand.
• Set up my very own blog on the internet.
• Celebrated my baby girl’s one year old birthday.
• Bought a raincoat via ebay for my girl for her school trip to the zoo.
• My boy’s second school trip to a Primary School – to understand how primary school is different from kindergarten.

Oct-Dec:

• 2 occasions of lunch with my ex-colleagues.
• Bought sweet looking mini-cupcakes for my girl as birthday cake.
• My dear Grandpa passed away.
• My brother came back for the funeral from England.It has been 3 long years since I last seen him.
• Attended the primary one orientation with my boy, and am impressed with the school.
• Bought school books, uniforms for my boy.
• I noticed that the Recycle Bins gets filled up Very Very Fast, Its a Good Sign that more people are going green!!
• My baby girl was walking by herself at times! but still prefers a holding hand.

Coming up will the first day of primary school for my boy. Hopefully everything goes well.

 

I was running through my accumulated mails this  morning found a leaflet from Reader’s Digest on Salt. Its pretty useful as a household tip. Usually people forget things that they read after sometime, or even fail to act on it. I am guilty of it too.

I was thinking, since I got a blog, why not I blogged it down and refer to it time and again, so that I will not forget?

You know, keeping it ain’t good enough as you will be too busy or lazy to retrieve it. At least that applies to me. :p

63 Amazing Uses For Salt

AROUND THE HOUSE

1. Clear flower residue from vases.

2. Clean artificial flowers.

3. Hold artificial flowers in place.

4. Keep wicker furniture looking new.

5. Make brooms last longer.

6. Ease fireplace cleanup.

7. Make your own brass and copper polish.

8. Remove red wine stains.

9.  Clean grease stains.

10.  Remove watermarks from wood.

11. Refresh sponges.

12. Relieve stings, bites and plant allergies.

13. Keep windows and windscreens frost-free.

IN THE KITCHEN

14. Deodourise sneakers.

15. Make your own scented air freshener.

16. Give goldfish a parasite-killing bath.

17. Clean aquarium tanks.

18. Repel fleas.

19. Keep ants out.

20. Freshen refuse disposals.

21. Remove baked – on food.

22. Soak stains off enamel pans.

23. Keep oven spills from hardening.

24. Scrub off burned milk.

25. Clean greasy iron pans.

26. Clean discoloured glass.

27. Clean cast-iron woks.

28. Remove lipstick.

29. Brighten up cutting boards.

30. Clean the refrigerator.

31. Speed cleanup of messy bread dough.

32. Erase tea and coffee stains.

33. Shine teapot spouts.

34. Clean coffee percolators.

35. Remedy bitter coffee.

36. Prevent grease splatters.

37. Make water boil faster.

38. Shell hard-boiled eggs easily.

39. Poach perfect eggs.

40. Test egg freshness.

41. Shell pecan nuts easily.

42. Wash spinach thoroughly.

43. Keep salad crisp.

44. Revive wrinkled apples.

45. Stop cut fruit from browning.

46. Whip cream and beat eggs better.

47. Keep milk fresh longer.

48. Prevent mould on cheese.

49. Put out grease fires.

50. Wipe up spilled eggs easily.

ON WASH DAY

51. Clean an iron’s metal soleplate.

52. Make a quick stain pre-treatment.

53. Remove perspiration stains.

54. Preserve the colour in new towels.

IN THE GARDEN

55. Stop weeds in their tracks.

56. Get rid of snails and slugs.

57. Clean flowerpots without water.

IN THE BATH

58. Treat dandruff.

59. Soften skin.

60. Exfoliate.

61. Freshen breath.

62. Open hair-clogged drains.

63. Remove spots on bath and sink enamel.

-end

I personally know only a few uses for salt other than cooking, didn’t know it can used for so many other things…

I found this leaflet at my door recently. One side is in chinese and another in english. I happen to glance through the english side and found a glaring translation error.

One of the words read as,

“menstrual women not transferred”

I was like, “What the … ?” and flip over to the chinese side, I found the original text to be “妇女月经不调”.

The correct translation to english should be

“irregular menses”…

Seriously, try not to save on translation costs, it only does more harm than good.

Last night, as usual, I was telling my kids a bedtime story.

But they sort of sidetracked and began jumping, walking about in bed.

I was most certainly unhappy, rather grouchy recently as I began to realise stay at home mums do have their fair share of troubles, anyway, I stopped talking about the story, and urged them to stop all the walking and jumping.

They quickly got down and wanted me to continue. I decided to teach them a little lesson. I refused by telling them I do not want to as nobody listens to me anyway. My elder girl cried, as usual, she loves to use tears on practically anything. But for miloboy, he asked me to continue, nicely.

I said, “ok, but on one condition. If you can tell me where did I stop, I will continue.”
Miloboy said, “ok, you were saying about servant girl earlier.” (I was telling them the story of Cinderella, as requested by my elder girl.)

I replied, “Wow, you’re right!”
“I’m the Greatest.”, says Miloboy….

Didn’t know my boy was so cool….hahaha

I remember when I was a kid, my mum was the one who introduced the Computer to me. I can still remember the times when the computer only displays blue background, white words or black background, green words, and we used to meddle with the computer using DOS.

She would always go to a store that sells softwares, buys them, and reads them at home. The software at that time is contained in squarish soft plastic, inside, is a round flim that is about the size of our CD media now.

One blogger blogged about how he is “bombarded” with support calls from his mum on using the computer.

As far as I can recall, my mum has NEVER stopped learning. She never received any form of encouragement either. But I do know she likes to ask me english words that she do not know.

Neither does she give up on how to use the computer, seeing how technology develops so fast, she still tries to keep up with times, dealing with the whole new world of the Internet, trying to figure out how to surf the internet for information, although she is not good with her english. (My mum’s chinese edcuated)

She even found a website that publishes romance stories for free reads. And she loved it so much that I worry she doesn’t have enough sleep. Fortunately & Unfortunately, (mum, not that I am gloating over it) that site is infested with viruses, so she has to keep away from it. She visits a variety of websites for her daily reads, some I do not even know of. I really am amazed with my mum.

Another blogger I found on the internet says his mum is an expert with new gadgets.

She tries her best not to call me up on problems she encountered with her computer by reading up lots of materials that she can self-help on. It really touches me. Recently, I installed MSN for her so that we can keep in contact easier. Well, I just went on MSN not too long ago too, so it couldn’t be a better time now. And I feel closer to her than ever, although I am physically not by her side.

Hmm, when’s the last time you had dinner with your mum?

Or when’s the last time you had a chat with her?