Utter Madness!

The siren sounded incessantly as Mr T and I were about to leave home to have dinner at Grandad's house early last week. The Whining Queen insisted on taking a cane to school! 
"Whatever for?!", was my immediate reply. Apparently, her class teacher had instructed each of her students to bring a cane to school, with their respective names clearly labelled on it so that she can use it at her pleasure when they misbehave. Utterly ridiculous! Though English-educated me has come to accept that Chinese schools have no qualms on using the cane indiscrimately to ensure discipline and to punish those who find it hard to zip up their mouths in class, or those who misbehave, or do not complete their homework or bring their books to school, etc, I sometimes find it unacceptable that the teachers are allowed to just rampantly use the cane on these young children to inflict fear on them when education is supposed to be fun!

Yes, some Primary 1 students may need a little more discipline than other students, but this particular class teacher's addiction to resorting to the cane just goes way over the limit! To Teacher X, every little misdeameanour warrants being caned! If the class is noisy, every student gets caned even if he or she did not contribute to the noise! That to me is insane! And when Teacher X canes, she really canes. It is not a slight tap on their hand. The Whining Queen had on occasions related to me the times when she had to rub her hands to soothe the immediate pain away or to run to the toilet to pour cold water over her hand.

I mentally prepared myself for a showdown with Teacher X.

It was just as well that the Whining Queen fell ill with a very bad throat infection accompanied by a very aggresive fever and was unable to go to school the next day. When I met her class mate, Wei Xin, the next day to collect her homework, he told me that almost the entire class had brought their individual canes as instructed by Teacher X. Like us, his mother refused to get a cane for him to bring to school. I was shocked to hear that this resulted in the class teacher caning him for two consecutive days using several of their classmates' canes! Utter madness!

The Whining Queen had to stay home the rest of that week as she continued to have a raging fever of 104 degrees, despite being on antibiotics. Dr Chin, our paediatrician, recommended doing a blood test on her on Day 4 as her fever just did not subside. He wanted to cross out dengue fever as he commented that in certain cases, dengue may be camouflaged by some other infection if the patient was unlucky enough to be suffering from both ailments. Thankfully, the test came out negative and her fever subsided the day after.

Sponging my little patient with ice water in
our fight against her very stubborn high fever!

Feeling marginally better on Day 3...
"Thanks Mum and Dad for the many
sleepless nights that you had to endure."

By the time the Whining Queen returned to school, Teacher X had appeared to forget that she had yet to get a cane from us! A blessing in disguise really, as Mr T was already gearing himself up to have a chat with the Teacher X had she still demanded for one as even he felt that she was unable to control her addiction to caning.

When one overuses the cane for even the slightest thing, it serves little purpose as through the young child's eyes, he learns that to get what you want, one must inflict fear and violence. Where does this then lead to? I do not believe that is what the education system is about. Education is not just academic, but it should also focus on teaching children on how to cope with the ups and down of life and how to react and cope when a group of friends suddenly decide to "unfriend" you, and so on.

Another recent example of Teacher X's shortcoming was when she recently let go a smelly "bomb" during one of her lessons. One of the Whining Queen's classmates innocently commented "Peeee-uuuuu.....what is that smell? Who farted?". Though Teacher X admitted that it was her, the way she replied the student wasn't quite the sort of exemplary behaviour that one would expect a teacher to have. Instead, of just apologising for it and seeing the lighter side of things by a simple "Oops! Sorry, it was me - not sure how it escaped me!", Teacher X retorted "It was me. What? Haven't you farted before?!"
Sigh......
When my almost 7 year-old princess re-enacted the scene for me, I had to correct Teacher X's behaviour lest she learns from such deplorable behaviour.

Aside from Teacher X, the other teachers of their commando school are really pretty good with some outstanding ones. And so, as Mr T and I prepare the Whining Queen for her upcoming exams, we continuously motivate her to excel in her studies so that she can move to a higher-tiered class in Standard 2 and escape the cane-wielding hands of  Teacher X.

~ Written from the Heart
by a blessed mother-of-four who is fervently hoping that her Little Empress will do well enough in her upcoming exams to escape the clutches of Teacher X next year. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed.

Time to get some toy guns in this house!

13 April 2011

A couple of nights ago, after the girls had all been tucked into bed, Mr T and I were spending some quality time together in the living room, with the Little One playing by himself amongst the many toys that we have accumulated over the years. Out of the blue, the Little One searches and gets hold of the little manicure set that Grandma Ling had bought for the girls a couple of years ago, and creeps up to his unsuspecting father and starts giving him a pedicure! The way he went about painting his daddy's toe nails were quite spot on! He must have learned the tricks of the trade on how to give a good pedicure from his ever so reliable San Jie (i.e. the Little Wizard)!

Needless to say, the manicure/pedicure set was immediately confiscated by Mr T who declared that it was TIME TO GET SOME TOY GUNS IN THIS HOUSE!
So guess where we'll be heading this weekend...

An update...
A trip to Toys R us, bore little fruit. The toy swords and guns were far too advance for the Little One. Instead, we have recharged our old remote-control car and dusted off the dust from its bonnet. During my recent trip to Singapore, I managed to get the Little One his very own remote-control car with flashing lights and disco music too! He was very fascinated, though very frightened, by these very fast 'creatures'. Now his little fingers are getting pretty good at the remote control though there have been a couple of minor traffic accidents at home. But all is good.

~ Jottings by a blessed Mother who continues to diligently segregate girly toys from the more neutral-gender type of toys and who is happy to note that the Little One currently enjoys reading books and is inseparable from Barney.

     

Editor's note: Due to an oversight, this draft post was actually first written on 13 April 2011, but due to an oversight never quite made it to publication until housekeeping went in today to clean up all draft postings.

 



Latest Happenings at the Zoo - Part II

Zoo Member#2
Ahh….Zoo Member#2.
Our little adorable monkey!
It took Mr T and I more than 15 months of hard work, heartache and anxiety to conceive her, but when she finally arrived, she was a beauty! On hindsight, it does seem rather ironic that it took us almost a year and a half to conceive her whilst Big Sister came unplanned, Little Sister was conceived on the 1st attempt and as we all know, Little Brother was a totally unexpected, unplanned blessing (and this, despite taking the necessary precautions!).

When our First Princess was approaching her third birthday, she passed by the neighbourhood park and saw a young mother pushing her baby in a stroller. Very innocently, she asked, "Can we buy a baby? I want one too!". That immediately brought tears to my eyes as Mr T and I had already been working hard at it. Constant temperature checks early in the morning to check the precise time I was ovulating, trips to the fertility doctor to ensure that all was right for Mr T and I, painful tubes inserted here and there, prodding around.... I even had chicken essence soup boiled specially by my father-in-law who was growing rather anxious too. Out of the blue, he made the soup for me three times in that particular week. Like a magic potion, it worked miracles as we were pregnant at my very next cycle!

Our beloved second princess finally made her long-awaited entry in 2004 as a very fair-skinned, big, bouncy 3.1kg compared to big sister who was considerably smaller at 2.6kg. Not surprising, considering the amount of soya bean I drank and the nasi lemak i consumed for breakfast courtesy of my ex-colleague who used to pamper me.  Of course the Coffee Bean tuna puffs that I used to eat for my dinner (as that was just about the only thing that I could eat before my evening sickness came on!) added onto the baby-fat!

Her grand arrival was abit of a midnight drama. I had been put on medical leave by my gynaecologist as I had been experiencing spotting a week before my due date. I grew rather impatient after 3 days of waiting, so on day 4, with a huge protruding tummy, Mr T, our First Princess and I went walking and walking (truth be told, it was more like a a gigantic penguin wobbling) around One Utama shopping centre. I can still recall this elderly lady giving me one of those up-and-down dirty looks as I wobbled my way up the escalator from the car park. I was hoping that the walking would accelerate the labour process. And it did!

Just a little past midnight, I felt sharp contractions. Excitement filled me as my better half snored away next to me in bed. I decided to let him enjoy his sleep before waking him up at about 3.00 a.m. as the contractions became more painful, and more frequent. We then gave a wake up call to the Grandparents down the road who trotted over in their pyjamas to watch over our First Princess before making our way to deliver our Second Princess. The delivery was relatively smooth...no high blood pressure and thus, no need to prick the water-bag (the process of which caused excruciating pain during our First Princess' grand arrival).

The Little Empress - as i used to call her due to her ability to make everyone fall for her just by staring into her marble eyes - was, and still is, absolutely adorable, cheeky and such a cutie with a million-dollar smile to match her big, round eyes. However, unlike her parents and her siblings, she has this uncanny ability to metamorphose into a living, breathing fire engine! It is amazing how she undergoes the transformation with such great ease. When she is unhappy or does not get what she wants, she goes on autopilot and whines, and whines and whines till one gets so fed up and reluctantly gives into whatever she is whining about.
She really is THE Whining Queen.

Once the “ee-yor, ee-yor, ee-yor” siren flares, it really flares! My big brother who labels her as the Fire Engine, had at one stage threatened to evict her from the "Shangri-Ling" resort in Singapore if she did not stop the unnecessary sounding of her siren during our stay there. The peculiar thing about this Fire Engine is that she can quite easily cease the wailing and flash her award-winning smile the very next instant. She just has to flash that smile at her dear Uncle and all is forgotten and forgiven.
Mr T labels her the Oscar-winning actress in the making!

The Fire Engine never really switches off the ignition!
Here are some old images of the Fire-Engine sounding its siren!  Seeing is believing...


Award-winning smile before the transformation



But I want it! ...
The Little Sister looks on in awe.



I'm going to sound my siren NOW!



Here it comes...engine starting...

The Whining Queen in action.
Little Sister is oblivious to the sounding of the siren!




and on and on and on it goes...



The aftermath...

This photo will definitely scare off any potential suitors!

The smallest thing can set off the whining siren! In recent months, her ignition is most frequently set off during our drives home from school. It starts off with a simple request for her to take a short nap as i sieve our way through the traffic. Mid-way through her negotiations to wiggle out of having to take a nap, there would be total silence followed by the distinct sound of someone snoring, sound asleep. Funnily enough, I do find the snoring somewhat more peaceful and pleasant sounding, in comparison with the loud sirens of a fire-truck!

Fresh-faced in school...

still chirpy!

a short while later...recharging her batteries

Alighting from the car is a real problem. Despite her promises to her long-suffering mum and sister that she will not whine and throw her temper-tantrums after her short naps, that is exactly what she does! And it goes on and on and on after we reach home. Her body will go limp in the car and her eye-lids will go on a huge strike when I try to wake her up.  After numerous attempts, yours truly here would normally give up and the old recording would play..."Okay, you sleep in the car ok....Mummy is going in the house already....can't wait anymore...byeeee ". As soon as that old recording plays, there would be this horribly painful wailing sound as the Fire Engine blares its siren to the entire neighbourhood as Mummy and Big Sis escape indoors. 
The blaring siren is often accompanied by what looks like forceful, involuntary movement of the sleeping Empress who starts doing her kungfu kicks in the air! This continues as the Fire Engine finds her way into the house and throws a big tantrum there too! This temper-tantrum throwing goes on for a further 5 to 10 minutes as everyone around her just goes on with their own business, before the Fire Engine eventually runs out of petrol and winds down at its own pace.

Aside from her whining, the Whining Queen can be a real angel if and when she wants to be. Her smile, her words and her actions can really steal your heart away at times! Many have fallen victim to her smile and affectionate ways...only to run off in the other direction when the siren wails!

Since starting commando-style training at her primary school this year, she has coped relatively well  with the long hours and volumes of homework. Her initial language struggles with the Malay language and Mandarin has gradually improved. Very gradual with lots of work in progress.
Somehow, "bersih" and "besar" sounds the same to her and thus, mean the same thing!
And so do the words "kotak" -v- "kotor", "emas" -v- "kemas" and "suka" -v- "sukan"!
To give her credit, her Bahasa teacher did compliment her for her enthusiasm to learn. If only she could remember the words without first having to repeat it for the hundredth time...

Here's a prime example of her struggles. She just sat for her Malay writing paper in school this week. When I met her for lunch in school, she gave me a little note that she had written...

Needless to say, Mummy was blamed for not teaching and drilling the word "memotong" into her during our preparations last weekend. Sigh....

A couple of years ago, as the Little Empress was still learning to grapple with the English language, the following exchange of words took place.
Mum to Princess #1 (with The Little Empress in the background): Is it still raining?
Princess #1: You BET!
The Little Empress promptly butts in and says: No, Mummy is not BAD! She is good.
Ahhh.......her sweet innocence.

I've encountered many lovely little surprises packing her school bag in the evenings. She would leave me notes here and there especially if something particular has bothered her during the day.
Here are some examples...



upset over being teased and bullied by her classmate

upset over being teased and bullied by the class samseng

This is what 7-year old kids get up to these days!
I love the beauty of pen and paper;
you wouldn't get this on your i-PADS, would you?!

"I have feaver because Mr Cheok caugh infot my face"

Ahh...didn't we all suffer from this same
predicament during our childhood days...

A Three-in-One note.
1. A note of complaint at being caned by the teacher.
2. A thank you note for her new toothbrush.
3. An apology for claiming that she had been finishing
all her water in school for the week, when she had actually
been pouring her water down the toilet bowl at school.

My all time favourite!

Apart from these little messages from the heart, the Little Empress has given me a present that no other person has ever, and will ever give me in my lifetime. At the young and tender age of 3, she bestowed me with three little gold nuggets, each the size of a grape. It was in the early hours of the morning when this prized "possession" was handed to me in my sleepy state. At that time, the Little Empress was sleeping in a cot that was placed next to my side of the bed. She gently poked me and called for me. As I got out of bed in my sleepy state, my hand instinctively reached out to her hands as I could see that she wanted to pass something to me in the darkness of the night. I took it from her and for some odd reason, decided to smell it to see what it was that she wanted to give me at that unearthly hour.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!
Those weren't valuable gold nuggets!
Those were self-made dark brown little nuggets with a very distinct smell and a rather dry texture, often as the result of not consuming enough water during the day! The Little Empress had apparently scooped up those nuggets from her pyjamas as the discomfort had clearly interrupted her sleep.
It was like winning a lottery! Just that this was a different kind of lottery ticket!

Though those gold nuggets were immediately flushed down the toilet bowl, i do treasure the memory which always makes me chuckle whenever I think of it.

Here is our Little Empress through the years....

Chubby cheeks at 8 weeks

Enthralled by the Little Empress

Loving the limelight at 6 months!



Finding her favourite companion in Osaka, Japan
Aged 3+ years



Super manja with Daddy
~ taken at Tokyo Main Train Station

Cute and cuddly at 3+years

The Princesses in 2008

"Let's drive Mum crazy!"
Taken at 'The Zoo', in 2008

Twins?

In full concentration...
entasked with the resposibility of feeding little sister

At the bird park for Ta Jie's birthday party
~ July 2009

He ain't heavy... he's my brother!

Looking cool with Ta Jie and Uncle Ling
Langkawi, December 2010

See the resemblance?

My toothless grin

I love the chaos!

Just how we like it...
a home full of love, laughter and chaos!

Er Jie, is this how I should pose for the camera?
I saw you posing with your eyes
and mouth wide open in the other picture.
Note the proud father in the background,
seemingly oblivious to all that chaos!

~ Written from the Heart
by the lucky lady who was chosen to be the mother of the Little Empress and who impatiently awaits for the day when the whining comes to a complete halt. Both she and Mr T continue to hope and cross their fingers that this metamorphosis process is not contagious as the Little Man observes the very different ways of his 3 jie-jie's.

And it all came crashing down!

Sigh. It's been a rather challenging couple of weeks lately.
Very challenging.

First, my gastric problems paid me an unwelcomed visit.
Then, yours truly suffered from bloating and flatulence. Big time.
Started popping my Histac pills, chewing Maalox and ingesting good bacteria to get my gastro-intestinal tract in good working order. At one point, my stomach was so bloated that my eldest girl literally blew me away when she questioned me recently:
"Mummy, do you still want another baby?!"
The immediate response was" Arghhhhh....No! I am already blessed with four. It's enough! Thanks."
And her response...."Oh.....okay. I was just wondering because your stomach is like so big!"

Sob. Sob.
(I do prefer Mr T's kinder words...his moniker for the extra bulge and stretched skin is "your badges of honour"!)

Just as I was back in good working order, our investment at Solaris Dutamas decided to cause us further major headaches and heartaches.The perennial bathroom leaks that I lamented in one of my earlier postings appears to have since been solved (fingers crossed). Our agent had already warned us of the possibility of the floor and wall tiles popping up in the unit as several of her clients had experienced the problems. Apparently, the tiles pop up as a result of insufficient cement being used when laying the tiles. We were hoping to be spared of the problem as we already had more than our fair share of problems at the condominium in the last year. Apart from the bathroom ceiling leaks, we've also had problems with the washing machine, the air-conditioning system.
It was more than enough.
Or so I thought.

Alas, that was not to be.
Initially, it looked as though it was just 8 kitchen floor tiles that had popped up.
As I stood in the kitchen staring blankly at the wall tiles wondering "WHY US?", a continuous crack of about 50cm stared back at me from the edge of the wall. An instant reflux reaction saw my knuckles automatically knocking on the wall tiles. What greeted me was a horrifying hollow sound that has since seen Mr T and I gone through a very draining 2 weeks.

A thorough check revealed the following defects:
1. Kitchen: 75% of the wall tiles were hollow i.e. insufficient cement underneath the tile i.e. high possibility of the tiles popping up in the future.
2. Utility room: 80% the wall tiles needed replacement.
3. Guest Bathroom: 90% of the wall tiles needed replacement.
4. Master Bathroom: 15 of the wall tiles were hollow.
5. Living Room and entrance:  8 floor tiles needed replacement.

There is apparently no impending warning of when the tiles may pop. The only way one can tell if the tile was poorly laid is if you hear a very distinct hollow sound when you knock on the tile with a steel instrument. Before our nightmare began, our agent had warned us of the potential problem as one of her tenant had recently returned home from work and was unable to open his front door. When the door was forced open, the tenant was greeted by 50 pieces of floor tiles in his living room that had popped up whilst he was at work, causing the front door to be jammed!

That Friday, 5th August 2011, was a black, black friday for Mr T and I.
The anger, frustration and disappointment that I felt towards the developer, who we had believed to be a reputable developer that would deliver top quality products had failed us miserably, reached boiling point.  The days that followed on were equally dark days as we had to deal with a couple of ***holes along the way. Obviously, love letters were written by yours truly to the developer with threats to publish their poor quality and service to the newspapers if immediate rectification works were not taken. Such was my anger and disappointment.

To add to our woes, we then had to break the news to our tenant who needless to say, was not too pleased with having to move himself and his belongings out. A long and painful story cut short, the developer agreed to offer our tenant alternative accomodation in the form of a serviced apartment in the same vicinity.

Guess what!? As if to prove us and our tenant right that the quality of the developer's work was truly questionable, even the serviced apartment had its own problems. The brand new washing machine leaked out water on its maiden adventure! An extremely unhappy tenant was adamant in moving out and straight into a hotel...at our expense. It was basically a ransom case of "pay for my hotel and laundry bills or I'm terminating the tenancy with immediate effect". The nightmare just worsened. 

As the tiles were ripped off, the walls hacked and the sound of constant drilling filled the atmosphere, I felt suffocated.  The sheer volume of dust and debris that filled the entire atmosphere just threw me further into despair. Aside from my daily routines, my days were filled with sprinting over to the condo to check on the works to ensure that they could deliver the unit back to us on time, as well as doing major PR work with our tenant. There were exceptional trying times when I had to deal with certain individuals who were just plain ***holes! Excuse my language, but there just is no other polite way to describe such individuals. The workers appeared to emphatise with me and have more sympathy for us after witnessing my bust-up with that particular ***hole. It is sad to see that the higher one has climbed the corporate ladder, the bigger the err-hem...hole!

There were days when I struggled to balance myself rather precariously on the edge of an enormous pithole that had a long and dark tunnel. I made a conscious effort to constantly remind myself that I could not afford to fall into that deep and dark hole. On many days, I was totally drained out...both emotionally and physically.
So was Mr T.
His facial expressions and body language spoke volumes. When he was down and busy balancing himself on the edge of that enormous pithole, I somehow managed to keep my spirits up; likewise when I was doing my damnest to balance myself on the edge of that deep, dark hole, he would be the one helping me to balance and stay off the edge of that deep, dark hole.

The one thing that did manage to keep me sane and put a much needed smile on my face was our little bambinoes! They would somehow know if I had a particular bad day and would shower me endlessly with their kisses and wrap their little arms around me. The Little Genius was particularly sweet when I came home all upset on that black, black friday. She told me she had a surprise for me and enthusiastically asked me to close my eyes. I did as I was told. As I closed my eyes, I felt her soft little butterfly kisses all over my face as she showered me with her love.
That did great wonders in lifting my spirits up that day!

This entire nightmarish experience has left me wondering whether business people have any conscience as it is apparent that the issue of cost takes priority over quality and service. It makes me wonder even more that if this is a high-end development, what happens to those in low-cost housing? What happens to innocent buyers who use their hard-earned money to invest in a roof over their heads only to be cheated by unscrupulous businessmen who are out there to make a quick buck? Who cares for them when their walls come crashing down on them ... when what was supposed to be their safe haven becomes a nightmare...

Where it the fairness of it all?


Flashbacks of our nightmare.....

Redoing the kitchen floor tiles

Walls being stripped naked
...where our kitchen cabinets once stood



Completely naked!

 

All messed up!

 

Washing machine and dryer
moved to the living room area

A depressing state...
... fridge next to our sofa

 

Bathroom stripped naked...literally!



Slowly getting there...




Kitchen cabinets are back on




"Blessed" with two-toned tiles!!
...sigh...

Like our two-toned wall tiles?



DUST-mania!





  

And here is how it was, when it was still a dream....

~ Written by a deeply disappointed and frustrated investor who is working hard at retaining an optimistic outlook at any possible future investments.