Earlier this year, I decided to join the home and school committee since this is the last year of Junior school for my daughter – it’s my way of giving back to the school for helping all my kids go through all their learning years with ease. Having said that, I also have another selfish reason because everytime I read the minutes that the home and school have – I cannot help but wonder why certain things are done the way it was especially when it comes to buying things with the funds collected from various fund raising by the students over the years. So this year, when they needed sport trophies to me made – I decided that I would volunteer and look for a supplier that can offer quick, good and inexpensive services. So wish me luck and help me prove to them that it really doesn’t take that long for stuff to arrive after it had been ordered and paid for.
I’ve been in Canada for so long – this must be the mildest winter ever. We didn’t have a lot of snow like other places around Nova Scotia and I’m not complaining at all. In fact, I’m hoping that it will continue to be spring weather right up to it is ready to change to Spring weather now that would be perfect. We did get freezing rain and slushy the other day but not bad, bad weather, if you know what I mean.
While my youngest wants some snow – so that she can go sledding with her friends and classmates – we hope not. We hate to disappoint her but who wants them all stuck at home with no school due to bad weather right?
The March break is just round the corner, the spouse and I decided we should stay in Canada and drive to PEI instead of going to Cuba or Mexico with the kids. Why PEI ? because there is just so much history there that I wanted my children to learn plus we haven’t had a driving trip for a long time. I think with our new tomtom gps we will be fine arriving there, we’ve come to learn that having a GPS is one of the best investment one can have – because you save so much time. The GPS shows you exactly how to get to your destination at the shortest time. This trip the spouse seems a lot more confident because of having a GPS in our car.
Chinese New Year is just a few days away and I was thinking of eating some sticky rice cake – aka Nian Gao in Chinese. You have to make a flour and egg batter for it and then fry it up and serve and eat it hot. I haven’t eaten these for ages – more than 20 years I think and it does bring back lots of memories. You see, my mom used to fry them for us when we were kids during Chinese New Year – I never liked it – till i was older and can appreciate it.
The taste is sweet and if eaten hot – it’s crispy as well. We didn’t have very much to eat when we were kids and not a lot of luxury for anything. While my kids are brought up with love and a lot of hugs, we were brought up to feel like we owed our parents everything. Never would we dare raise our voices at my parents – else, we would be smacked on the face so hard or get caned till we can sit down properly for a day or two. Fear was the word with my parents – there were no warm feeling there for them when we were kids.
But on the other hand, I too wonder, are we being too lax with our kids? For they too like to raise their voices if they weren’t happy about something. I try never to raise my voice at my kids – so where are they learning this from? I don’t cane my kids – maybe I should when they were younger eh but if I did that I would be the one crying because of all the times when we were hit when we were kids and the humiliation from it. I vowed never to teach my kids this way but didn’t they say something about spare the rod and spoil the child – and they will end up to be bad? well something like that – so where is the balance here? You can’t keep threatening them that you would run away if they were being rude to you – they do grow up and realized that you ain’t going to run anywhere.
Yes, food sure brings back lots of memories – memories that I don’t really want to revisit and think that what my parents did for us when we were growing up were right – because it cannot be right to hit your kids and call them in bad names to shame them? can it?
Sunday nights are game nights for the entire family, there will be no cleaning, no cooking and no laundry, just gaming night for the entire family – a chance for us to get together and do something together. This had been going on for a year now and the reason why is because I decided that we all have got to be in the same room at least once a day doing the same thing and enjoying each others company – in another word – bonding. It’s an attempt on my part to stay close together and since the spouse is very much into gaming when he is in town, I made the kids get into gaming so that they cannot complained that their dad don’t spend enough time with them. Currently, their favorite is the call of duty modern warfare 3 xbox 360 game and even though it’s a mature game – my kids are aware that this is just a game and not to be acted upon in real life.
So what about the cleaning, laundry and cooking that day – well, my housework is done on a weekday and so is the laundry, as for the food – we order a pizza or some Chinese take out on the weekends since the kids eat in every day during weekdays. So does the kids enjoy gaming on the xbox 360 with their dad, yes – very much and even though they mostly don’t win, they do enjoy gaming with their dad and that’s the best part of it.
Well, sometimes! because online friends can turn scary on you. Can you have real friendship with your online friends? I truly don’t think so – I think online friendships are pretty platonic as far as I am concern. I had this online friend who would complain about just anyone who was doing better than she was and would try to sabotage them. At first I trusted her opinion and even followed her blindly and dislike the people she dislike. Little did I know that the online friend had a secret agenda. And of course, I had another online friend who seems quite an honest person but I was wrong, she kept writing to me asking me to loan her money. Not that I don’t have any money to loan her and not that I cannot afford to lose the money but boy! the hounding for money every couple of weeks for a year can get quite scary. So for those who have online friends, I strongly suggest you stay platonic as long as you can – you never know what the other person is thinking on the other end of the computer – for all you know that person may have horns and you can’t see it coz’ you are just online friends.
I’ve always loved Bak Kua even when I was living in Asia and now that I’m not in Asia, of course I craved for it when the Chinese New Year season is round the corner. I think moreso during the festive season, for the Chinese New Year is a huge festival in Asia. Someone asked me the other day if I missed home and I have to say that I missed the food more than the place. If they had a mini Hong Kong or mini Asia in Canada, I think I’m all set.
Bak Kua comes in various flavor and sizes – many varieties to choose from and during the Chinese New Year season, folks would queue up for hours at the most popular Bak Kua store and wait for a few boxes of Bak Kua for gifts and personal consumption during Chinese New Year. Lucky for me – the spouse travels a lot around Canada and United States, so I got my munchies for the new year from Vancouver and they are certainly not cheap at all. about $25 for 1Ibs of meat jerky – my grandmother would have flipped. Not everyone is as lucky as I am to be able to afford something so small and so expensive, I am really grateful for my life here in Canada and a good spouse.
Yes! the party is finally over and it’s time to call our favorite carpet cleaning apex nc for a good clean up to start the new year. I prefer to get the professionals to clean my carpet after a huge party because they do a really good job and they are affordable too, I find carpet cleaning on your own is too time consuming and you need to have the right weather to dry up your carpet if you don’t have the equipment to do it. But with a professional carpet cleaning service they have the huge heater to dry up your carpet after cleaning up – therefore, you won’t be left with wet carpet which in my mom’s opinion can get one sick if they are not dried properly.
I’m exhausted after hosting a christmas dinner with the family and then a new year’s party for the spouse and his friends – so I’m glad we have a carpet cleanign pro to come help us with the carpet cleaning else I won’t know where to begin with the cleaning. Time to get back to the daily routine after the carpet cleaning and putting away all the party stuff.
It’s funny how a simple dessert that I’m used to having since I was a kid is so missed by me – now that I’m staying abroad. Never did I ever think that I won’t be having this dessert at anytime I want. My kids don’t like soy anything at all even though I tell them it taste great and silky but they refused to try it at all. They say the texture is just too squishy to enjoy – I guess they are like any American kid who loved their burgers and meat.
I remember when I was young and my parents would send us out in the evening with a bowl in our hands and 50 cents to buy a big bowl of Tao Foo Fa for my grandparents to enjoy. We would not have any till my grandparents and aunts had enough – what a difference with this generation. Our kids are always taken care of first and the adults later and even though things were quite different for us when we were kids – it sure beats eating just burger and fries. The Asian culture is way too rich to ignore.
I look around at my kitchen and then I look around my house today and realized that I take my grandmother’s words pretty seriously – for she was the one who taught me that presentation was everything. One don’t need to be dressed up in expensive clothes or having expensive things to show that you are rich – just as long as you pick quality stuff. For example this corning ware pot that I picked up from a yard sale – it was only $10 but the color and everything of it looked so good and so expensive that when I cooked for my kid’s teacher one day during a teacher’s appreciation day – they all thought that it was a very expensive or vintage corning ware item. But it isn’t – and they cannot believed it when I told them it was $10.
Now I wonder if it’s because of all the money we give in donation for the school that they think that we are well-to-do or even rich that they assume that whatever we have must be expensive? But my grandmother was right- presentation counts a lot – it doesn’t really matter if I was the best cook – but as long as they are in pretty dishes – they would taste better. I know it’s wrong to judge a book by its cover – but it sure doesn’t hurt that you can get pretty good admiration for your food – because someone thinks you put some thought into what your are cooking.
So can you imagine the spouse of mine – interviewing someone and he was dressed in a t-shirt? sure it’s a technical job – but still – it is a job interview right? just like the mayor of this town – he is so sloppy dressed – sometimes I just have to shake my head and wonder – what he was thinking? he looked really fit when he was trying to be elected – but as soon as he got elected into office – he must have forgotten that presentation is important even when you go to your office daily – and not just when the Premier is in town.
