Conversations with a 4yr 3 mth-old

This morning, while getting ready for work and school, Nadya patted my tummy and said:

"Mama, you wear this dress, cannot see your belly. Hehe."


zzzzz.....
Ok noted my darling, I should wear this dress more often then... haha.

frustration is .....

when you are sick and are woken up by your fussy kid a second time within one hour. And when your kid is crying and kicking and refusing to listen to you. And when your kid insists on you fanning her back to sleep because “it’s very hot”. And when your kid then says after 3mins that “it’s very cold”. And when you start crying out of sheer frustration and anger. And when you feel as if your blood vessels are going to burst. And when you beg your kid to sleep through the rest of the night and stop waking up, while you sob uncontrollably. And when your kid finally does go back to sleep but your mind is now so fucking charged up that you can’t get back to sleep even though your body wants to. 

Yakkity Yak

It's been a lot of talk today. Abit too much for me lol. This introvert needs a break from all the talking and socialising.

The day started with a breakfast meeting with an old and close friend from the industry. An hour and a half of talking.

Came back to the office thereafter and immediately had a 20min discussion with the boss. Cleared a little work....

And then I had a lunch meeting again. More talking for another hour and a half. Came back to the office and had a 15min discussion with a colleague....

Bah, too much talking liao hhahaha...I think I'm done for the day...I don't want to talk anymore and shall hide in my cubicle till the end of the work day lol......

My sore throat wasn't doing too good last night....It still hurts now.  :(

Imagine

It was a fleeting image but it brought me warmth and anticipation. 

I was walking back to the inlaws place yesterday evening when I saw a mother with 2 primary-school-going daughters. The older girl was probably 10 years old and the younger one was 7 or 8. The two girls were dressed in long cotton nightgowns. One had princess characters printed on the front and the other I couldn't see clearly but I guessed it would have been similar princess characters too. 

And then an image came to mind. It was fleeting...but it made me warm and fuzzy and brought a smile to my face. 

It was me with Nadya and Alyssa. They both had hair past their shoulders. We were all dressed in pyjamas. We were huddled together on a bed and it was a rainy night. Each of them were curled up in the nook of both my arms...and we were reading a storybook together....Nadya looked about 8 in the image, which means Alyssa would be around 6. 

*love* 

I wonder how they'll grow up to be...:)

woozy

Had a sudden but split-second wave of dizziness on Tuesday while buying lunch. My colleague was with me and I grabbed his arm instinctively. It was over in a split-second but I felt a little odd thereafter.

I've been lightheaded on and off since that day. Today's Thursday. I think I'll go see the doctor tomorrow....hope it's not low blood pressure or anything though some of my symptoms point to that...

Presentation to the Minister

Did a presentation to a Minister today. It was a short session peppered with small quick discussions here and there. All in all, the session lasted only 20mins. He was rather quick-witted and could grasp things easily.

Oh the amount of preparation that went into it....the clearance and number of emails that went into getting the slide deck ready...the number of calls I had with my counterpart in the Ministry.....the nervousness I felt for the entire day yesterday (which thankfully dissipated when it was time to "perform")....All these did not commensurate with the duration of the session....just 20mins lol.

Am just glad it went well. Partly it was because the Minister himself was a friendly and approachable person. Very affable and no airs about him. He made jokes here and there as well and was generally very easy to talk to.

Glad this is over!
Good experience...

Chilli

I grew up in a Peranakan household. And of course, chilli and other spicy stuff were a part and parcel of life. I can't recall when I learnt how to take spicy food but I do remember eating prata and curry when I was in P1 or P2.

Even when my granny could no longer cook and my mum took over, there was usually at least 1 spicy dish each day or every other day. Otherwise my Dad would get upset and complain that the food was bland haha.

Ever since I moved out of home in 2012, I've been eating mostly at my inlaws place where food is usually lighter and not spicy. Curries or vege lemak were occasional treats. :)

Recently, I'd developed a craving for sambal and chillies to add to my rice. My MIL gave me a bottle of green and red chilli sambal that they had made. A recipe that they accidentally stumbled upon when they ran out of red chillies and made do with green chillies. The sambal turned out great....and yeah, I made my liking for it known and voila....I was thus given a bottle of it haha.

I think greedy me took too much of it yesterday....I'm poo-ing more today....and erm...my intestines feel spicy....:(

3 Jan

My first day back to work in 2018.

Before I even stepped into the office, I received a frantic call from one of my registrars and spent the next 45mins looking into an ops issue of theirs.

Sibei busy day.

More discussions to come later....Just finished my dabao-ed lunch!
Back to work!

p/s: about lunch.....made the mistake of ordering fried rice instead of getting something lighter from subway....boo.

2 Jan - Decluttering & Packing

I refused to work on the first official working day of the new year. Heh.

I took leave and spent the entire day packing my room and bits of Nadya's room and running errands. Managed to squeeze in a nap and a short walk/jog as well. It was a tiring day...but fulfilling too.

I cleared my desk, cleaned out 2 drawers as well and re-jigged some stuff in the bathroom. K sorted out the entire kitchen and all the storage cabinets there. He found a roach and many roach droppings in the process too. :( Need to step up hygiene levels and nag at the helper to do so too.

We threw out 3 big black bags worth of rubbish.

There will be more to come when I start working on the girls' old, broken toys or those with parts missing here and there. And maybe even more again when I decide to shave off part of the mini garden outside and when I take a look at what we have in the storeroom.

It'll be an on-going project de-cluttering the whole house...
One area per weekend? Take another 2-3 days' of leave to do so? I dunno....see how....

Jiayou to us!

2018 - Less Junk, Less Gunk

Happy New Year!
May 2018 bring to everyone more good things! Huat ah!

For me, my theme, or motto, or mission, or whatever you call it.....for 2018 is "Less Junk, Less Gunk".

Yup. Less junk and less gunk in all aspects.

Work
- focus on the key items
- see if I can speak to the boss and throw out the melodrama associated with ops
- minimise interactions with toxic colleagues

Relationships
- focus on those who matter
- weed out toxic relationships or at least minimise interactions with these people

Home
- throw out or donate unnecessary stuff (glad that I've donated at least 3 bags' worth of kids clothes to some village in Myanmar already...)

Body/Health
- eat better, eat cleaner, eat lighter (I've let loose over the last 2-3 years and it shows....both in my blood tests and my erm....wobbly belly...)
- more fresh air!