School Mums

Since Lily and her 'entourage' moved into our house, our daily routines have changed a bit.

We try to accomodate and help out whenever we can in order to ease her workload, which means that I often voluntarily fetch the ''kiddo's" who are under her care from school (between 12.30 and 1pm).
I reach the school gates at around 1pm, just before the bell goes off and it always amazes me that there is really such a being as 'school mum'. Sure enough, I've heard about 'soccer mums', 'tennis mums', 'music class mums'......but these are mums who accompany their kids to their leisure activities. But 'school mums'? Heck.

Well, the routine of these 'mums' is generally the following :

1. fetch their kids to school in the morning and before class starts, coach them with their spelling, homework in the canteen




2. afterwards perform chores like buying fresh food at the market or performing home duties




3. cook lunch and package it in a lunch box and basket




4. go back to school and set up the 'lunch' table at the canteen together with likeminded 'school' mums




5. diligently wait for the bell to ring and announce it is lunch time




6. give their kids their lunch, and if need be, feed the rascalls themselves




7. pack things up and go back home and perform daily chores (there are even mums who just stay at school after lunch, and bite their time with gossiping till school finishes......geezes, aunties!!)




8. go back to school to pick their kids up when school finishes




9. *and I'm pretty sure that most of them have tuition few times a week, so ofcourse 'dear mummy' will drive them from here to there and vice versa*

I'm pretty sure you can find this 'scene' all over the world, mums tending to their kid's needs, especially ladies who either have given up a career to take care of the 'household' or even ladies who don't know any better and have been 'house wives' all life long.

Many of these mums I've seen are only in their twenties, majority in their thirties and even a few late bloomers. Now from a twenty-year old mum I would expect that she would know that there is a life besides 'household'.....like having a 'career', duh, 'cos she would have been born in the 70's or even 80's, and those are not the years of back dated, old fashionisnm, are they?

Do these children realize what their respective mums are going through day in, day out? Would they appreciate this kind of perpetual attention from their mum at home and also at school, which means in effect they are only 'free' from their mum during class. Moreover, are these kids being spoiled for better or worse with all this 'pampering' and will it have an effect on their social attitude when they grow up?

Hey, I don't want to sound negative towards these kinda 'mums' because they should deserve some kudos for giving up on a 'career' and devoting themselves to their offspring. 'Career mums' should take note of these 'school mums' .

It's a compromise, ladies.....juggle with daily chores, love thy dearest and enjoy your own life.

Construction yard

A bit of background history first :

We moved into our new house, April 2007, which was just completed in a newly developed residential community. Which meant that back then, we were one of the first inhabitants of our street with barely any neighbours (almost like a deserted city). Ofcourse slowly but surely the other occupants moved in. But it's a trend here that before moving in, nearly each and every owner has his or her own idea of his/her ideal house, which means that parts of the 'new' house have to be demolished and reconstructed (we also did it by extending our kitchen a few feet further back towards the back alley, just some minor works). Still can follow? (One might wonder why go through all this hassle, buying a mint, properly-built house with hard-earned money and reconstructing it with more hard-earned bucks, the logic of this is a bit mind puzzling, 'cos with the money that some dudes have spent on reconstructing their property, they could have purchased themselves a bungalow).

Currently : Up until a month ago, we didn't have neighbours, but ofcourse this was sure not to last. One of the houses next to us finally found a buyer and the dude looks friendly enough and as expected he intended to do some 'works'. Fine by us.
Doh, 'works' he said?! They've been at it for 2 weeks already, and it is slowly turning into a massive face-lift if you ask me. Which also means all kinds of imaginable, loud noises associated with a construction yard. No wonder that my blood pressure has gone up, enduring frequent bouts of headache and as a result of all that a temper on a short fuse, don't know 'bout the rest of the 'family' here but it certainly isn't health promoting.

And coincidentally a few weeks ago we received a flyer from the management prohibiting peeps from performing renovation works on Sundays and Public holidays and also prohibiting 'workers' from sleeping at the 'premises'. But this is Malaysia, where rules are meant to be broken.......and ofcourse the guys next-doors do work on Sundays and public holidays and they do stay overnight. Should I report this case to the 'authorities' or should I act as if my nose bleeds? This dude is going to be my long-term neighbour after all, I better swallow some panadol and keep my mouth shut.

Phew, luckily we're off for holidays in a few weeks time, and hopefully by the time we come back, the 'noise' will have abated by then. Just let aunty Lily and the maids bear the brunt of the noise, poor them.

Give peace a chance

Sent my kiddo to her music class at Desa Park City today and whilst I was about to read the newspaper, a 'mum' stormed into the premises with her two girls trailing behind her.

What the heck, she enquired......no scratch that.....she demanded in not overtly subtle tone to provide her 'darlings' replacement classes 'cos they had been absent for a specific period of time.

Mind you, if I am the shop-assistant or shop owner, I would do my best by double checking the attendance roster and trying to come up with a suitable agreement for both parties involved, 'cos after all customers are paying for a 'service', be it already rendered or not.

But fuming like a pre-meno pause infected, fireballs spitting fury on heat with her arms wielding as windmills gone berserk won't do anyone any good. Suffice to say that in no time, all the attention was centred upon this discussion. And by God, I didn't want to have part in this tirade of hers, but sadly earplugs were not a ready option. Even her daughters took the wise option and went out of the shop. I sure bet they were too embarrassed themselves with their mum's behaviour.

I'm wondering why sometimes people have to behave so rudely and violently, thinking they can get away with this and make things happen.....whereas just a little bit of politeness and respect for eachother can get things done much more smoothly (I am not referring to civil bureaucrats, 'cos these peeps know how to stretch the red tape and get our blood from under our fingernails, albeit there are some exceptions).

My daughther's class lasts for 30 minutes and by the time she had finished, the discussion at the reception desk wasn't finished yet. I'm pretty sure there won't be blood flowing from this ugly scene.....but heck m'am, give peace a chance.

Holiday 2008 part 2

Woopie.....as I've confided to you in an earlier post "Holiday 2008 part 1"....there would be an extension to our holiday itinerary.

And I can proudly announce to you all that after our Hong Kong trip we will be flying off to Belgium, my 'motherland'....

Oops...with 'we' I mean 'Laetitia & me' only....Jessica isn't going along on this trip as someone has to earn the bucks. Too bad as it's been a while already that she went to Belgium. But we'll try to make up for that in the hopefully not-to-distant future (with a trip to her beloved Scotland countryside, fingers crossed).

3 weeks Hong Kong, 3 weeks Belgium and back in time to celebrate Christmas and New Year with Christmas. You sure won't see me complaining. Now, what should I buy Jess for X-mas? Definitely something one can't find here in Asia....quite a challenge, but I'll do my best, rest assured.

Belgium....in a nutshell, just a small country. So small that it has no native language of its own, because it had been invaded by its neighbouring countries so often that the locals have adopted those lingo's as their own, namely Dutch (or Flemish), French and German. If one would ask somebody to sum up what Belgium has to offer......most probably the answer would be 'Chocolates!!'.

Come on, it's not only chocs that makes this country famous.......highly cut diamonds trading (if you wanna know whether they are 'blood diamonds', I can neither confirm nor deny it), headquarters of NATO and European Community, Antwerp's port which is only second to Rotterdam in Western Europe regarding container traffic, ....... renaissance painters Rubens & Van Eyck, the sexy saxophone instrument is invented by a Belgian, Adolphe Sax.......battle of Waterloo, battle of the Bulge,.....and almost forgot.....BEER!!

'Beer?!?' you are asking.....yups, BEER.....home to countless, small and historical breweries distilling a wide variety of tastes........ and since not so long ago also home to the largest brewing company of this planet, INBEV. Yupperdeyups, a small country selling beer to each and everyone in every corner of the world. Take that from a small country!! Haha, who's laughing now.

As for our itinerary, shop around, indulge ourselves with Belgian food, sightseeing and most importantly......spending time with my mum, Laetitia's grandma........Past 12 months were kinda hard on her, and hopefully we are able to cheer her up a bit with our visit.

Organizational hopscotch

Did you realize that managing a football team takes up quite some effort and time?

I didn't know it....until now.

Let me run you through the checklist that I need to do for these weekend's fixtures

• book the field : check


• book the referees : check


• send out sms to our players, informing them bout the game and asking them to confirm their participance : check


• and if they do not reply ; RESEND : check


• arrange the starting line-up (taking into account each player's abilities, but foremost their limitations, lol) : check


• make sure the balls have the right air pressure (if not, pump, pump, ...manually ofcourse) : check


• prepare the first aid-kit (and if need be re-stock it)....and believe me we do need this kit : check


• for the guys who don't possess our team outfit, take along the training jerseys (luckily they are of a matching colour) : check


• bring along the digital camera to record the event : check

The above are the tasks before the game, and if you thought that this is the end of it, you can forget about it. Below are the tasks for after the game

• match-report with final score line and names of goalscorers


• jot down the names of the dudes who played (attendance record)


• check the countless pictures and appropriately delete and save them


• put all the aforementioned on the website

Did I forget something? I kinda have a feeling that I've forgotten something...anyone else game for this stuff? Somebody's gotta do it. And the one who is writing all this down is either a 'control freak' or an 'insanely football-loving dude'. Your pick!!