Big OOPS! An even bigger apology! (updated with more pictures)

Oops! Big OOPS!
Failure.
I have clearly failed in my earlier resolve to do away with that extra lie-in in the mornings and to be more disciplined with my time. Somewhere along the way, my sub-conscience must have decided that after torturing my goodself with early wake-up calls at 5.45 a.m. for the last 6 months of my working life (yup! it was that early as I had an early rendevous with my Medela breastpumps before sending kiddo number 1 to school and punching in at the office by 8.00 a.m.) as well as the much-interrupted sleep that I had been enduring for the last 17 months, my goodself deserved that extra lie-in to ensure there was sufficient beauty sleep. After all, I have to keep up with Mr T, don't I?!

Oh, my beloved Mr T.
Let's not dwell on my failure.
Let us instead focus on my significant other.
I have given up counting the number of astonishing looks that people have given Mr T when he reveals his age and the number of kids that he has been blessed with! The usual remark that he gets (and oh, how he loves receiving those remarks and repeatedly repeating them to the younger-in-age Mrs T) is "Eh, you kidding me, ah? I thought you just out of college!".
I guess to be fair on myself, I should really set the scene against which these sort of exchanges take place.

Picture this...
... a sweltering, hot sunny day where the sun glistens in one's eyes, affecting one's otherwise clear vision, sweat dripping down one's forehead...
... one's eyes are somewhat feeling disillusioned under the scorching heat, under the confines of one's golf-cap...taking a breather before swinging one's golf-clubs at the next hole...
... the golfing-partners are in their 50s, hence vision may be somewhat reduced ... unable to see the fine-lines surrounding the various facial features of their younger golf-partner...
Instead, they see a younger male species in his contact lenses, dressed in khakis and a white top, with a youngish looking cap covering half his face, with an ultra-slim physique...

Sigh.....need I say more...

The "College Kid" was recently "questioned" by a new, much older colleague at work who seemed to equate that a person of management level needed to have a certain older look in order to command the rest of the troop. The colleague was a little more direct, shaking his head slightly and Mr T's youthful looks whilst asking the all important question ..."So, how old are you, ah, actually?". This time, though, I believe Mr T was a little affected by that remark.

The weekends were always a time when his stubble could happily grow and flourish to his wife's delight. A good, clean shave would normally be the Sunday night routine, just in time to wow the start of the new working week. That Sunday night, just before he drew the shaver close to his chin, he pondered aloud as to whether he should just shave off the sides and keep the fast-growing stubble growing around his chin and upper lip. He had the seal of approval to do so. After 10 minutes in the bathroom, I awaited for the cosmetic change to wow me. Instead, my beloved College Kid-Husband emerged, totally clean-shaven. 

Needless to say, he has banned me from applying any eye-cream or hydrating moisturiser for him! His reasoning is that even with all the fine lines surrounding his eyes and the dehydrated skin around the lip area, he can apparently pass off as a fresh graduate! Ironic isn't it that we ladies, religiously abide by our daily beauty routine and splash on a variety of miracle creams on our eyes, face, hands and body to retain our youth and beauty, whilst some men just have it all!

So, here i present to you my beloved College Kid-Husband, surrounded by his babes and his up-and-coming wildly-popular 17 months old competitor!

...birthday boy being fed birthday cake by young chic!

His up-and-coming wildly-popular 17 months old competitor!

Ta'da......and here's the picture that will reveal the College Kid's age!

But I digress.

The reason for my long absence is aplenty!
Here we go:

1. 2 weeks school holidays.
The recent school holidays mean that the Princesses were with me continuously for 384 hours! This meant that I had to work overtime in making sure they were fully entertained, be it in the Zoo or out in the wild. Highlights were the 5 days we spent in Singapore with my family (yes, I am the only Ling left in Malaysia...the rest have long uprooted to Singapore!) and the afternoon spent at the National Science Centre (the girls thoroughly enjoyed it). The outdoor park, which is a relatively new feature and has no admission fee, is highly recommended for parents who are desperate to find a place for their children to be self-entertained (rather than being glued to the TV or to the computer); it burns off their energy too! The Little Man clearly enjoyed his sisters' company as they fussed over him whenever they could during the holidays.

Let's not talk about the trips to Pantai Hospital on the 1st and 3rd day of the holidays as The Empress and The Little Genius suffered from yet another flu bug. Those first few days were tirelessly spent trying to segregate my zoo members to prevent cross-contamination! Sadly, it didn't quite work. The flu bug hit us all, some worse than others.

The absolutely low-point of the holiday was that we had to leave The Little Genius behind as we left for our holiday in Singapore. Her cough was so bad that we just could not risk taking her on holiday where fun was aplenty, at the expense of rest n' sleep. She had already been on antibiotics at least once a month since the start of 2011. We did not want to risk having to put her on a second dose of the antibiotics during our Singapore trip. Taking her would also mean exposing the rest of the Zoo Members to the highly contagious virus in our little automobile during the 4.5 hour journey. Rest assured, I will tell more about this drama-filled episode in a later posting.

2. Hit by the Flu Bug
The Zoo Manager was the last to be hit by the Flu Bug at the very end of the school holidays. Hence, I spent the 1st day of the school semester at the doctor's followed by some retail therapy! The trip to the shopping mall was obviously necessary to ensure that I did not sneeze and cough in the enclosed zoo. Instead, I generously spread the germs at the shopping mall! HAVOC!

The retail therapy didn't do me much good as I still took more than 3 full days to show any signs of improvement from that very destructive cough that I was having. The kids probably didn't mind too much as the very sore and itchy throat meant that Mummy could not talk (read: SCREAM) much.

As for the Little One, it simply amused him to see his Mummy wearing a mask before running off every now and then to hastily remove the mask to have a much needed fews gasps of fresh air!

I managed to snap a picture of the oldest princess trying to keep herself safe from the flu bug which her youngest sister was very happy to donate to any willing recipient.

3. Catching up on my vices!
Apart from my indulgence in chocolates, one of my other vices is reading up on Hollywood gossip. Every time I switch on the computer, my fingers automically just click onto my Hollywood gossip websites. By the time I finish indulging in that vice after a good half hour session, something would have disrupted me as I start to write my posting. Very often, it is the irresistable Little One vying for my attention. Hence, the reason for my many draft postings that take a little too long to get published!

4. Trip number 2 to Singapore
Over the Father's Day weekend, I made a surprise visit to Singapore to spend the weekend with my parents as it was my Mama's birthday too! It was also a fulfilment of a promise i made to The Little Genius that I would take her on an exclusive trip (just Mummy and her) to Singapore to visit her Ah Kong and Popo when she fully recovered from her cough. It was the compromise we made to her when she had to forego her Singapore trip during the school holidays.

5. 101 Errands to Run

As my 1st princess would always readily say, "Mummy, doesn't work. So nice, hor...noe need to get up early to go to work. Just need to run errands every day!". Aside from the regular marketing trips to ensure that the Zoo Kitchen is constantly stocked with nutritious food for its young members, and guiding them on their their homework and making sure they complete their homework at maximum speed, a significant amount of time had been spent on dealing with the issues arising from our investments at Solaris Dutamas. Though we have a pretty good tenant, unfortunately the problems arising from the central air-conditioning as well as the perennial bathroom leaks have resulted in us having to deal with a rather irate tenant. Sadly, it took 2 very long official complaint letters before any real and significant action was taken. Finger's crossed that this headache would soon be solved.

6. Buns in the Oven

For the last few months, the Zoo Kitchen has been regularly filled with the wondeful aroma of freshly baked buns. Delicious tuna buns, melting cheese buns, cheese sticks, irresistable ham rolls, chicken buns, sinful chocolate-chip buns...the latest additions are mayonaise crabstick rolls, sweet kaya buns and yummy nutella buns. In a desperate attempt to fatten up our Bony Dragon @ Our First Princess, I've been coming up with various bun concoctions to ensure she doesn't get sian. I figured that preservative free, natural flavouring, home-baked buns were the most nutritious for my fussy kids. So I happily play with my dough every alternate afternoon.

Thanks, Aisha, for that wonderful baking book that you gave me for my birthday 2 years ago. It has since been put to good use. I have played around with the various recipes there and have meshed up my own recipe for the dough. I do, of course, cheat a little as I use the Kenwood bread machine to make the dough. If anyone's interested, the ingredients are really simple:
a) 400g plain flour
b) 20g wholemeal flour
c) 250ml fresh milk
d) 55g butter
e) 25g brown sugar
f) 1 tsp salt
g) 1 Tbsp yeast

Some time ago, The Empress went round telling her school-friends that her mum is a baker and that I am opening a bakery! The Little Genius boldly went further by announcing it to her kindergarten teachers!Everytime the assistant principal bumps into The Little Genius, she drops hints that she is still waiting for her buns! The Little Genius then sulks at her poor baker mum and laments that mummy still hasn't baked buns for her favourite teachers!

Pictures of the novice baker at work...

7. Meeting the Little One's Demands

It is ironic how little ME time I actually get even though I am now a Stay Home Mum. The best time for me to indulge in my writings is during the Little One's morning nap when the Little Genius is at school, as well as during their afternoon naps (that is, if I am not baking and have completed my errands for the day).  To my dear friend, Aisha, in case you are wondering, I have only watched 2 episodes of Glee and Grey's Anatomy since you gave me the CDs in mid-May. And yes, the television is STILL hardly ever switched on, during the weekdays! In fact, the Zoo Financier has just talked about terminating our Astro subscription for under-utilisation in view of their every increasing subscription fees.

The Little One is not so little anymore. He's become quite a samseng and is very mischievous, extremely cheeky, adorable, and is fast learning to pick up quite a few words. His latest magical word is "MAMA"! He has been refusing to call Mama for a really long time. Instead, he would always cheekily say "PAPA" and wait for my reaction, when asked to call "Mama".  So now, whenever he utters those magic words, The Little Man has me firmly wrapped up in his little fingers!

Mucking around with the Little Man...

The Little Samseng...

8. Cleaning up after the Tornado's aftermath.
Big Books, Little Books, Fat Books, Skinny Books, all running havoc on the kitchen table, computer table, sitting on the dining-room chairs, on the stairs......
Sigh... need i say more.

9. Long-Winded Me!

One of my ex-bosses used to lament that I write too much...that I take 500 words to convey a message when a simple 100 words would have sufficed.

How right she was!

TRUE, I can rumble on and on and on and on ...

AND I take too long to choose the correct words to use...

BUT, I must be doing something right, cause you are STILL reading this and I hope I have managed to raise a smile or two in the process.

10. The Plain and Simple Truth.

And somewhere way, way down the list is poor time management skills.

Old habits are so, so hard to kill off.

Till my next posting, Live Well, Love Often and Laugh Always.


~ Published from the Heart
by a time-challenged mother-of-four who is sharp (and crafty) enough to ensure that only carefully selected photos of her husband are published, as the phrase "Wah, so young looking" has already been heard one too many times! Of course, she would also like to take some credit for his youthfulness as happiness and contentment surely must be one of the main ingredients for retaining one's youthfulness.

And yes, the writer will diligently work towards publishing more regularly.
Thank you for your patience!

Post-publication note:
For those sceptics out there, here are a couple of pictures taken of my beloved College-Kid husband as he left home last weekend for his game of golf with his Papa.