It Arrived, Finally!!!

The book was sent all the way from Belgium..  Now I can see the reason to the slight delay of the book arrival

I pre-ordered a copy of the latest title of Geronimo Stilton's via The Book Depository sometime in February and it finally arrived today!  Woohoo!!  

Winding back time to February, I didn't know this title was yet to hit the bookstores worldwide when my boy asked me to get a copy for him when  I told him I would be going to Popular Bookstore after dropping him off at school.   He got to know about the title from the next book release page published in one of his Geronimo Stilton's.  I did not manage to get the book back for him, of course and there's when I started googling for the title and stumbled upon The Book Depository website.  I only paid USD5.25 which's equivalent to about RM16 with free postage! I usually pay RM18 each after a 10% member discount at Popular Bookstore.

This book would be released in April, so I was told when I placed my pre-ordered copy.  I received an email from the The Book Depository on 19 March 2012 informing me that my book was on its way here.  My boy was pretty excited about it and kept asking me if the book has arrived and starting to get worried when it didn't after 10 days.  He even bugged me to write to them to enquire about the whereabout of the book.   Hahaha...

Now that the book has arrived, I can almost hear the voice of my boy screaming in excitement when he finds his favourite copy sitting on the car seat waiting for him when he gets into the car after school later! LOL... 

I highly recommend this site to all book lovers.  And NO, this is not a sponsored post, neither would I get any reward for writing this post entry.   I am merely a very satisfied customer wanting to share my positive experience with all book lovers.  

Got Into A Fight

My boy got into a fight with another boy in his class during dismissal time yesterday.

My boy was already in his usual assigned position in the queue outside his classroom when he suddenly realized his water tumbler and lunch box weren't with him so he went back in to retrieve them from his seat.  Another boy who was previously standing behind him, took over him and refused to move even though my boy insisted and demanded his place back.  

They got into an argument and this boy, better known as one of the bullies in the class, punched my boy in his stomach twice.  My boy told me later the blow was painful but he did not shed a tear, instead he attempted throwing the boy to the ground by applying the Aikido throwing techniques he learned from his sinsei. *roll eyeballs* Not quite successful I can see as he said the boy fell onto the ground while he lost his balance and landed on top of him, bottom first! Ouch!!!  imagine my almost 40kg boy with 'fleshy bum bum' landed on this skinny boy.. Wuakakaka... Ahem.. Sorry for laughing out loud.. It just kind of tickles my funny bones..  Hahahaha... but the way he related the  incident was simply funny and hilarious.

I put on a straight face immediately after the laughter and made it clear to him that violence was not a good solution and he should have reported the incident to the teacher on duty.  He said no teacher was around when the incident happened and he merely fought out of self-defense.  Frankly speaking hor, I was 'secretly' relieved that he was capable of defending himself in such a situation and not letting himself succumbed to bullies.  On the other hand, I don't think it's right still teaching our kids to fight back using violence.  

How would you react if you're in my shoes?

Sandakan - Day 1

I am blogging from my iPad so gonna make it short. We touched down at Sandakan Airport just in time to enjoy mama's home cooked lunch. I had a good time catching up with my parents and siblings while the boy was so excited to see all his cousins again.

We then went to the market to get some fruits with my mom and sister before going to my uncle's house to pay respect to my maternal grandparents.




while waiting to board the plane



The cousins having a dip in the pool in the evening.

We took the kids to the swimming pool in the evening and they all enjoyed the time together before heading home for mama's home cooked meal. :)

Paper Plate Dragon Mask

Mommy, I am a dragon! Roar!!!

The boy came home with three homework last evening, not so much but everytime when he gets his 知识画报, a compulsory magazine printed with exercises of various subjects, he sure takes at least one hour to complete all exercises in the magazine.  The weekly magazine comprises of Chinese, BM, Maths, Moral, Science and English exercises but they only need to do Chinese and Moral exercises, the 2 subjects that his class teacher teaches.  Anyway, this kiasu mommy always makes sure he finishes all exercises.  It was already 11pm when he finished all his homework except for his artwork.  Since it was over his usual 10.30pm bedtime, I told him we would do it together the next morning. 

The art craft that he needed to do was to make a mask out from a paper plate and some manila cards.  The boy should have finished and passed it up at school but he somehow spoilt his creation half way into doing it.

This morning, I googled and found this dragon mask template.  As my printer ran out of ink, I did the drawing myself while the boy helped in colouring and putting things together.  We spent 1 1/2 hours to get the things up. Phew!!  We didn't get to do a bit of revision like we usually do as by the time we finished the art craft, it was already time for lunch and off he went to school!

The end result..  

Nice or not?    I got the template from here.

Chinese Reading Frenzy

Content of the novel

I bought the boy this Chinese illustration novel when I was at Popular Bookstore two days ago.  This novel was recommended by one of my friends whose daughter also loves reading, mostly English books though, Geronimo Stilton in particular, hardly any Chinese story books.

She got this novel for her banana girl recently and to her surprise, she started flipping through the novel as it has the same funny font characters as Geronimo's, one of the strong factors why kids are drawn to the book.  As I am writing this post, the series of this novel by Odonata has just published its 4th book. 

My boy, though reads Chinese and BM story books too but he is still inclined towards English books given a choice.   I hope he will be like mommy one day who reads not only English books but Chinese and BM books too when I was his age if not older and that's how I picked up Chinese though I went to a Kebangsaan school.

Content of Geronimo Stilton books

I also bought him comics books, also by Odonata as requested by him. Yes, He requested for those Chinese Books!  Previously, he would never have asked for any Chinese books unless I bought and put them on the bookshelves, then he would read it but the priority would still be English books! 

I think he is influenced by his classmates who are mostly from Mandarin speaking families unlike his previous school where majority of them spoke English.

The content of the comics

The dinosaur comics he pre-ordered through his school.   It has become a hit among kids in his school.  One of his classmates even attempted stealing one of those books from his bag but the boy soon recovered it as someone in the class who witnessed the incident reported to the teacher, the culprit was caught red- handed. Lucky him!

And this too, to prepare him for std 4 as by then, they are required to use Chinese idioms to make sentences and write essays.

I hope by reading more books, my boy would not have to memorise those long essays they have to write during exams, it's torturing having to do all the memorising. Gosh.. And yes, now that he is in std 3, essay writing is coming real soon as the Chinese standard in his present school is higher compared to the previous one.  The boy hasn't gotten back their exam papers but he told me they already had one Chinese essay during the recent exam but much to a simplified version where some of the words were given and they're required  to fill in the blank to complete the whole essay.  

Last but not least, I must admit that he is still not quite ready to reading a 'real' novel which I bought for him at his request too.  I think this one novel gotta sit and wait on the bookshelf until he is ready. Hehehe...

A 'real' novel with no pics or funny font characters in between..

Popular Book Fair @IOI Mall (07.03-18.03.12)

I made a trip to Popular Bookstore after dropping off the boy at school yesterday.  I promised my nephew and niece that I would get them some books when we 'balik kampung' this coming Sunday. Yes!  School holidays start this Saturday and we are going back to my hometown in Sabah for a week!  Yippeeeee.... 

When I was about to march into the bookstore, I saw a banner at the entrance informing customers that they are having a book fair starting tomorrow.  Since I will make quite a bit of book purchases, I decided to hold my bullets for tomorrow but yet I still came home with a Chinese story book for the boy during my visit there.  

I got myself a tall cup of pearl milk tea from 'Dong Cha' before heading home.  Both the boy and myself enjoy drinking cold milk tea and it seems to be a trend now.  What about you? Do you like Dong Cha too as much as we do?

Pearl Milk Tea RM5.90 @Dong Cha, IOI Mall

Milk Roasted Tea RM5.90, add RM1 for pearl

@Chatime, Sunway Pyramid 

  

Happy Valentine's Day!

A double 'V' for lovey dovey couples

A single 'V' ~

for singles.. you can be just as happy as him on this special day!

Errr.. What's this??!!

(Updated: He says this is his own version of sunglasses sign worr)

Hubby is not in town so today will be just another day to us.  We will most likely have a simple celebration on my birthday which falls two days after Valentine's Day. :)

Here wishing everyone :

The 9th Day Of CNY~An Eventful Day!

It was a holiday yesterday at the boy's school in conjunction with the Jade Emperor's Birthday which was also the 9th Day of CNY.  

We had two hours' revision in the morning before heading out for lunch at the boy's favourite Chilli Pan Mee shop.  After lunch, I drove to the nearby CIMB to deposit the boy's savings from his accumulated monthly allowance.  The area was so packed with cars and I failed to get a legal parking lot after making a couple rounds, ended up I double-parked by the roadside and asked the boy to wait for me in the car with the engine running.  I was the fourth in line at the cash deposit machine but as the machine kept rejecting notes, it took at least 5 minutes to complete each transaction.  The traffic condition outside the bank was horrendous with cars honking non-stop.  I peeped from behind the glass to the direction where my car was double-parked and everything looked fined, no towing trucks, no signs of the two cars that I blocked wanting to come out and all. 

I continued to queue patiently, now the 2nd in line.  Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice calling mommy, I turned around and to my horror, I saw my boy standing beside me.  He told me I was blocking the whole road (He assumed it judging from the car honking from all directions!).  He then decided to LOCK the car door manually with the car engine still RUNNING and rush in to alert me.   When I asked if he took the key with him, he said he thought the key was with me!  Boy, I was so mad with him that I couldn't stop nagging at him.  I ran back to my car and true enough the car was locked with my handphone and handbag inside!

A young man who worked nearby saw the situation and offered to lend me his handphone so that I could call hubby.  Lucky me he was at his office not far away but then it still took him an hour to come to our rescue due to the havoc traffic condition everywhere and having to make a trip back to our house to get the spare car key.  The young man and a security guard at the bank assured me that the two cars that I blocked (I double-parked, you see) would not leave so soon as they were staff at the bank.  That brought some relief but my greatest fear was still the towing truck, they wouldn't care less what your story would be, they only know that for every illegally parked car they tow, they get paid.  Overhearing my conversation with the guard, the boy offered to pay the fine should my car gets towed.  He knows he has a 4-digit savings with the bank and he thinks he is rich!  That sparked my anger even more and  I raised my voice and carried on with the nagging. 

He then offered some solutions, one of which was to borrow the car key from the same car model as mine. *rolls eyeballs*  Only if it could be that simple... *Sighs*.  Next, he walked to the car, peeped through the car window in deep thoughts, trying to figure how to get the door open.  When he realised nothing worked, he mumbled to himself.. I am stupid, I know I am stupid.. I am stupid.. the sky then suddenly turned gloomy and started to pour.  Not raining la.. just that someone was sobbing away. :(  What a day!

A Story Behind A Mandarin Orange

I must jot this down for record before it slips my mind.  Our boy's class teacher gave each of them in the class a mandarin orange two days before the school closed for CNY.  Our boy got his with a cute tiny leaf still intact on the fruit which his pals oohed and aahed that it was indeed 'special', you know that kind of mine is better than yours among kiddos. Hahaha...  

He put the orange on his desk and went kepoh-ing.  When he walked back to his seat, he suddenly noticed that 'precious' leaf on his orange's gone!  He then sensed someone staring at him with his hand firmly pressed protectively on his school bag as though it would fly away.  Our boy quickly walked to that boy and demanded his precious orange back.  That boy refused but my boy insisted,  'Kuai dian huan gei wo'  (return to me quick) and after a while, he finally got his precious orange back. :) 

Our boy has always been a good-natured boy and will give in to other's request most of the time. I had been worried about him being bullied by his peers but I am relieved that my worries were virtually unfounded. I am so proud of him and gave him lots of praises over this incident for standing up for his own right!

A little fact about Mandarin Oranges:

Our boy's Mandarin orange looked something like the above picture,

only that the leaf was like.. errr.. 3x smaller. Hahaha..

Why are Mandarin oranges one of the must-haves during CNY:

In Cantonese, the word for Mandarin orange and gold are phonetically similar. Both are pronounced as "kam". Hence, Mandarin oranges represent wealth. When visiting relatives or friends at open house, it is also the norm to bring "kam" along as gifts. However, when giving away oranges, the number of oranges must not be odd, and usually an auspicious amount is given. 

Aikido 7th Kyu Grading Test

Grading test about to start.. Can you spot the boy from the pic?

Last round of practice before the test

Our boy had his 2nd Aikido test - 7th Kyu grading on the last day of 2011 which he passed with yellow belt.  He started Aikido classes a year ago.  We initially signed him up for unlimited classes but changed to once a week classes after 3 months.  He would have advanced faster if he had attended classes more often but we simply don't have the luxury of time.  Now with us moving further away from the dojo, he can only afford to attend classes once a week.   Not that there isn't any Aikido dojo around where we live but for now, we'll stick to the present one as the boy prefers it this way.

Other than attending Aikido and art classes, the boy is joining his 1st dhamma class in our neighbourhood tomorrow morning.  That's enough to keep his weekends occupied and for now, we have no intention to send him for tuition classes, not yet as the mommy thinks the load is still  manageable for her but of course  a SOS distress signal will be sent out when things start to get out of hand and that is the time when she has to let the outsourced tutor takes over.  She hopes this day will never come as she still prefers to coach her son personally. *fingers crossed*

2nd Day Of School

Sorry for the lack of posts.  We have been under the weather since coming back from Genting last Monday.  Blame it on the weather, so freaking hot!  I am also busy spring cleaning the house and as though that isn't enough to keep me busy, the air-cond in our master bedroom decided to opt for early retirement!  Grrrrrr....

I have been waiting for the air-cond guy to come and install our new air-cond since this afternoon but he called two hours ago telling me that he just realised he has got the wrong unit from the store and was making a detour back to change it at their Batu Caves store! What la!  Thought I could clean up the bedroom before fetching the son from school.  Looks like I'll have to work overtime tonight. Haiz.. 

The boy, though nursing a flu is happy to be back to school again.  I bought him a pair of spare shoes and 2 sets of uniform as he has outgrown the previous ones.   He is happy to have a class teacher this year who is 'capable' of smiling. Hahaha..  His class teacher was so thoughtful that she even prepared some little gifts with a note for everyone in the class.  His class teacher last year was the opposite, she barely smiled and my boy told me she would only 'smirk' and never once did he see her smile. :(  I talked to the teacher before and she did smile to me or maybe her smiles are only reserved for parents. *bleh* 

He brought back homework on the first day of school yesterday.  It was a short essay about the students' daily lives and the topic was "My first day in school".  It's a weekly short essay and they are expected to write at least half a page.  He still needs me around to input and help him out on this and I hope with lots of practice, he can gradually get the hang of it and write his own essay.  

I have to work out his new timetable together with him over the weekend and a daily routine must be in place by next week!  As he is in the afternoon session and nursing a flu, I still let him sleep in a bit in the morning but we have to get back to the routine by next week!  Flu bugs.. please please please go away. 

Oh, No! My Spaghetti!!

"I wonder if my spaghetti is ready to sell or not.."
"I wonder if my spaghetti has spoilt or not.."
"I wonder if my spaghetti is sold out and I need to cook more to serve my customers!.."
"I wonder if....................................... Please.. let me check my restaurant.. only for 1 minute.. pleaseee... *puppy eyes*

Nope, I don't own a restaurant but my boy does!  He would apply his persuasian skills and kept pestering me every 10 minutes hoping I would nod at his request to check his restaurant. *blek*

He got hooked with a FB game named 'Restaurant Story' downloaded to his iPad from the Apps store free.  A big mistake for not setting a rule clear enough and instead I let him played since the day we got the iPad, 3 days in a row!  He suffered withdrawal symptoms for two days, rushing through the exercises I gave him to prepare him for next year.. and mistakes were everywhere...  and it really drove me up the wall!!  Arghhhhh!!! 

After two days off iPad, I took him for a KFC breakfast this morning, I showed by example by taking a novel with me and he followed.  He chose 3 Geronimo Stilton to be read while we had our breakfast.  *Bliss*  He's now discharged from rehab centre, eh like a drug addict only this boy.. Haiz.. 

A rule is clearly set now:  iPad/PSP/PC are only allowed on Saturdays and Sundays are a bonus if he behaved well throughout the week.  Haiz... Being a mother, what's more a Stay at home one is ....................... really tiring!! I am still enjoying every bit of it though.. :)

More Books!!

Hubby, my loyal silent reader has been complaining about my blog being flooded with my challenge postings only and hardly any updates on what the boy and I are up to. 

Okay, okay.. a short one here.  We went to the Immigration Department nearby our neighbourhood today to renew my passport and at the same time apply a new passport for the boy, his first time owning a passport..  Gotta go back at 2pm.  I have been down with fever then followed by flu and cough.  Today I woke up to a healthier and energetic me, so I quickly rushed myself to do the priorities.  Tomorrow, I gotta go  to my apartment's management office to sort out some issues, a "gift" left behind by my tenant from hell! *sighs*

There are other personal stuff I need to sort out before our trip this month end.  Argghhh!! The sick bugs better stay far far away from me.. The last thing I want is to fall sick again.. *touch wood*

Below are the books I got from Popular Warehouse Sale the other day.

I got these books at 20% discount. 

Not too bad la, I got at least 15% more discounts for Geronimo Stilton books at the sale.  I am now waiting for The Big Bad Wolf Aftemath Sale happening in 2 days' time, on 24.11.2011!  By the way, who's going??

A Lovely Friday!

Updating my daily challenge post aside, here's some update on what we have been up to.  School is out, Yeah!  I am still not fully recovered from my flu and fever.   The boy, though no more fever, is running a flu and doesn't have much appetite. 

Anyway, we are going to Popular Warehouse Sale Book Clearance at The Summit, Subang USJ today.  Today is Popular Card Preview Day, anything to do with discounted books, die die also must go. Hahaha..  Here's the details if you are a bookworm like me. ;)

Date: 18.11.11 to 28.11.11

Time: 10am to 10pm

Location: Concourse Area, The Summit, USJ Subang.

Happy Children's Day!

My little bookworm racing against time to finish reading his new book collections. ^_^

The boy's school is celebrating Children's Day today and I prepared some chicken fingers and cocktail sausages for him to share with his classmates.  I forgot to snap photos of the food and hence no photos to share in this post. 

While in the car on the way to school just now, we had this conversation:

Ian: Mommy, I am like a delivery boy sending pizzas to school. *grins* (He was referring to the bag of nicely packed finger food he's holding in his hand).

Mommy: But those are not pizzas, boy..

Ian: Almost the same larr.

When I was about to drop him off at the school entrance, he let out a scream:

Ian: Nicole, Nicole!! *Excited*

Mommy: What.. Nicole? Your classmate eh? Where?? (Eyes searching for the girl)

Ian: Not Nicole la.. It's Vico!! (He then pointed to the direction of a Vico Truck parked inside the school compound.

Mommy : Hahaha... Have fun, boy..

Ian: You too, mom (Gives a quick peck on my cheek and runs to join his friends at the school gate)

***********************************************************************************

I must jot this down too before it slips off my mind.

Ian: How I wished I had a brother to play with.. *sighs*

Mommy: Hmmm.. but then horr. you have to share all your toys and stuff with him.

Ian: It's okay..  I will be happy to have someone play with me at home.

Mommy: But then again horr.. Mommy cannot afford to give you all my love then..

Ian: Why??

Mommy: I have no choice.. one mommy but two boys.. must split my love into 2..

Ian:  Huh, then I don't want a brother. *case closed* 

Mommy: ^_^

He Deserves It..

Guess what's this??  Scroll down for the answer!!

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A hat or was it a cap or sun visor!! ;)

The boy scored full marks in two of his test papers (BM Penulisan & Moral) with the rest of the papers scoring above 90% in his final exam.  To reward him for doing well in his exam, we took him to Popular Bookstore last afternoon and he got to choose his favourite books.  He ended up coming home with 6 Geronimo Stilton books!

He started reading those books the moment he got into the car, stopped a while for dinner and continued reading until it was bedtime! He'd have still been reading if only I'd allowed him to.. Gosh..

Despite the change of school environment and lack of information of the exam scope, he was still able to pull himself together and maintain his own grades.  I am so proud of you, my son and for that, I must give myself a good pat on the shoulder. :)

Writing Essays

The boy is required to write Chinese short essays in his current school.  That is something new to us as he did not have this in his former school which I think it's good to prepare him for standard 3 where they are expected to write more essays. 

Topics assigned  by his teacher revolve around topics on their day to day life (生活点滴) and they are expected to write at least half a page on the assigned topics. With the help of free research papers and http://www.nciku.com/, we find writing good essays not as hard as we first thought it was.  From a C, he now gets A and A+ for his weekly essay writing, not without coaxing and loads of the mother's patience though. :)  It is a different scenario when it comes to English, his preferred language.  He can spend hours churning out loads and loads of stories without being told, with cartoon drawings included to comprehend each story.  He even asked me to get his stories published so that he can earn himself some pocket money!

I hope that he would gradually take up writing as a hobby and not see it as a chore like what I did during my college days. 

Exam Starts Tomorrow..

I have been busy preparing my boy for his final term exam.  This will be his first exam in this school and I won't expect too much from him.  It is a consolation that he adapted pretty well to the new school environment. 

Unlike his previous school where a printed exam scope would be given at least two weeks before every exam, my boy came back from school every other day with hand copied and marking of pages on his text/activity books, the so called "exam tips" for some subjects but not all.  I tried pulling all the loose ends together and preparing him a little bit more just in case this boy of mine conveniently leaves out some "important" tips which is not news to me. :)

I am so looking forward for the exam to be over this Friday and start working on the itinerary of our family trip during the year-end school holidays! *Excited*

Don't Talk Bad About My Daddy!

My childhood buddy from Sabah was in town recently to attend a company training.  It was during the school holidays so I tagged my boy along and hang around at her hotel room until it's time to head out for a scrumptious buffet dinner together.

We have known each other since we were in kindergarten. Hahaha... We can talk until the cow comes home given a chance..  While we were chit chatting away in the hotel room,  my boy lashed out at me, "Don't talk bad about my daddy"! in an angry tone. I was updating my buddy on my recent busy life and how I had to wear many hats with little contribution from hubby.  My buddy and I were shocked at his sudden outburst.  He then added, "It's wrong to talk bad behind someone's back". Ahem. ^x^

On School Days...

Brocolli with bean curd skin and minced chicken, fried eggs with long bean and bayam soup:

Our lunch for today

These are my boy's typical meals during school days, 2 dishes and a soup usually.  At his request, I packed him a chicken burger topped with a fried egg for his tea break at school today . 

When weekends and public holidays come, I tend to get lazy and we eat out most of the time, sometimes make do with homemade quick and simple dishes such as carbonara sphagetti and sandwiches.

What about you, especially those with school going children?