To delete or not to delete

I shared something on my FB account, and others commented on it.

Some tried to give reasons for the situation. Of course, some of this is quite sensitive as it relates to the situation some others are in. But they made the comment not knowing it, in good faith, and it could jolly well be the cause of the "situation".

As it is sensitive to "others", it was suggested that I should delete some of the comments, since the original post was mine.

The question is: Should I?

I think I shouldnt, coz there is some truth to it. It is unfortunate that "you" are part of the group that caused the situation. Also, wouldnt deleting it amount to censorship ... then where is the freedom of speech? Also, the person who made the comment may be offended that I deleted his post and not the rest (tho the rest was not sensitive).

But then, would not deleting it be insensitive on my part? Honestly, I dont know if I should. My original post was neutral , but the comments tried to analyse the situation and attribute a cause for the situation.

So how? What would you do if you were in such a situation? Maybe the professionals (Yan?) can give their professional advice on a situation like this. Thanks!

Man's Toy of the Year is finally here!

Yes, the man's toy of the year has finally arrived on our shores. And all those testosterone driven beings were all out in full force on friday morning waiting patiently to get their hands on their new toy. Yes, I am talking about the ipad.



After a 4 month wait, the ipad was finally launched in Singapore yesterday, and scores queued from the early hours of the morning to get their hands on this coveted piece of technology. Some had already gotten theirs when it was launched in the US. But many other hundreds had to wait, and wait until yesterday, for they were not willing to pay the premium to buy from some enterprising resellers that had brought them in.

Even this morning (Saturday), there was a long queue at the Epicentre (Apple Store) at the ION, mostly men, hoping to get their hands on an ipads, as many of the shops had already sold out their consignment.

My husband was no different, except that he didnt have to queue as he managed to pre-order and had it delivered to his office for him. Needless to say, he came home with a BIG smile on his face and spent most of the night (and maybe even into the early hours of the morning) playing with his new toy.

I dont know why, but each time I saw him press the button on his toy, I heard a distant "ker-ching" sound. I am not sure if it was just my imagination or maybe it was actually Steve Job's cash register ringing.

Over Generous

Can a person be over-generous? I think so.

My son's classmate X is one such person ... or rather X's parents.

At the end of term 2 when the class had a end-of term party, everyone was to contribute party food. Naturally, I did my share and sent in some snacks as requested by my son. But when my son came home from school, he told me what X's mum had sent to school for the party: 11 giant pizzas, MacDonald happy meals (chicken nuggets, hamburgers and fries), a few carton of drinks, a few cartons of potato chips as well as some home-made noodle dish for the teachers!! And in addition, she sent the maid along to cook the noodles for the teachers in the school!! I thought that was a little over-board. Naturally everything which anyone else brought paled in comparison, in the eyes of the children, especially if it was "healthy" snacks.

2 weeks ago, X invited the whole class and all teachers to a movie for X's birthday. My son was not able to attend that movie screening as he was playing in a soccer tournament. The very next week, an invitation was again extended to those who were unable to attend the birthday movie to watch another movie with X, with dinner thrown in. That was the one I mentioned in my previous post, which my son attended. However he chose not to stay for dinner which was supposed to have been at a Tonkatsu restaurant.

Yesterday, my son came home from school and said that X has now invited the WHOLE class to go to Universal studios on 8 August. Naturally the children in the class are all excited and want to go. My son was equally excited and was begging me to let him go. Initially I said "yes", but after thinking about it, I discussed the situation with my husband, and we are considering NOT letting him go.

Why? You see, I think X's parents are just too generous .... and we do not want to take advantage of it. We really cant let someone else pay for a $52 ticket for our son. And imagine how much that is going to cost the family if the whole class decides to go!! Some $2000!!

We are considering alternatives for him to have that same fun with his classmates - letting him go, but insisting that we pay for the ticket ourselves. But then, our family has not been to USS yet, and I am sure my other two children would want to go as well .... and it would be nice if we went as a family.

Also, we do not believe in over-indulging our children. Treats, parties, etc have to be earned .... not served on a silver platter every other week.

Sometimes I wish people werent THIS generous, then I wouldnt have this dilemma!

Can you un-invite someone?

After inviting someone can you "un-invite" him?

Well, my son was invited to watch a movie last weekend by one of his classmates X. Thereafter, he got a call from another classmate, B, to say that he had taken over X's movie invitation, and now he was the host of the movie date and they were going to watch the movie at an earlier hour at XYZ cinema instead.

My son did not believe B, as he had just left school barely half an hour before B called, and had been with X who had confirmed the movie details. So he just ignored what he had told him.

Well, the next day morning, apparently, B's mum called X's mum to say that they have decided not to host the movie date anymore! (Mind you, this was barely 12 hours from their decision to "take-over" someone else's movie party.) However, they were not able to get in touch with my family to notify us of the cancellation of the movie date!!

Well, anyway, we proceeded to cinema ABC to wait for X at the original appointed time. They were late arriving coz they had gone to Cinema XYZ at the earlier time to see if we had gone there instead. And due to the rain and traffic, they arrived a little later than the agreed hour to meet.

I felt so bad to have put X's parents to so much trouble ... but honestly, we didnt know about all these "change in plans". All I can say is X's parents are super responsible, whilst B's are .... I dont know what to say!!

Can you un-invite after you have invited? And can you just let it go and behave as if nothing happened, if you are not able to notify those whom you have already previously invited?

Rainbow Friends

We are all made different. I would like to think of us all like the different colours of the rainbow - some are red, and yellow, green and blue , etc.

We have our different values, beliefs, likes and dislikes.

But when we all come together ... we are like the rainbow lapis - a local cake that has the colours of the rainbow in it, hence its name ... and it tastes soooo yummy.




So when I met up with some blogging friends ... it was like the rainbow lapis coming together ... a group of ladies, all so different - from different parts of the world, of different age groups, of different beliefs and family backgrounds, but blending so well together ... which was why I chose that as my meeting gift for them. Trust they enjoyed it.

Thanks Ladies for the meet-up. It was my pleasure and blessing to have met and gotten to know ALL of you.

Parenting angsty teens

Teens are angsty, and I know that! I have one at home and a tween that is just as angsty!!

So how do you deal with them?

I for one, dont have the answers. Every child is different and different parenting methods work for different children.

I had breakfast with some former school mates last week, and we were discussing this problem. They, of course, have more experience with this issue coz most of my friends have kids older than mine (I started late).

Me, being a type A character, will always want things MY way, and sometimes I try to prove my point to them. Doesnt always work ... in fact hardly works with teens!! But it is very hard for type A to change their behavior, thats why so much tension in the house between me and my tween.

My friend swears by her method. I call it the Little Bo Peep method. Huh? What's that, you say? Well, it's the "...leave them alone and they will come home.." method. She believes that if they are not doing anything that will threaten their lives or hurt anyone else, then you let them be and let them do what they want. Never mind if it means more work for her, never mind if it means less family time together, never mind if it means house rules are broken, never mind if it means that the child will be up way past his bedtime and will not be able to wake for school the next day, you know what I mean. She says that once the phase passes, they will just come home to you, doing what you want, the way you want it ... and there is ABSOLUTELY no tension in the house.

I salute her for that. I dont think I could do it, BUT ... I am going to give it a try. I may not succeed everytime, I may not be happy with it when trying it out, I know I will end up with more work on my end ... BUT I will try to clench my teeth and try it ... and hopefully something positive will come out of it.

Pray for me, and wish me luck. But if you know of a less painful method (for me) please share! Thanks.

Another year older, and hopefully wiser.

Guess what? You were all not too early in sending me birthday wishes!

Heh, heh, celebrated my birthday over the weekend - 47 years young!

When I was young, I couldnt imagine the year 2000 when I would be 37, but that has come and gone with the blink of an eye.

The celebrations started off with dinner with the in-laws on friday nite at a Steak restaurant - Bedrock. One of the better steak restaurants in Singapore. We havent been there for awhile (last time was in Aug last year - coz they are quite pricey!), and I think there has been a change of chefs. Food was not quite as good as previously, but still good nonetheless.

It being my birthday, I did not bake myself a cake, so the cake from the restaurant was my birthday cake for this year, which if you ask me, was big enough (we each had a small bite of it)... I dont want to be putting on too much weight.



The next day, we celebrated it with my parents at a Japanese restaurant, the usual one which we frequent. Later that night, we had Thai food at one of the top thai restaurants in Singapore - Thanying. The red duck curry was excellent, as was the mango salad, and tom yang goong ... all my favourite dishes. The other dishes were pretty forgettable.

I guess, being a typical Singaporean, that's the way we celebrate .. with food, food food, and more food! Burp! (please excuse me!)

Can a person forget his/her birthday?

I didnt think that was possible.

Well, I wrote to my ex-colleague this morning wishing her a Happy Birthday and this is what she told me:

She woke up yesterday, and said a birthday prayer for herself, thinking that it was her birthday. Then she got up, got dressed and went to work. She was wondering why no one said anything to her nor wished her happy birthday. Then she realised it WASNT her birthday ... yet!

So, in her reply to me, she wished me a happy birthday. If she couldnt remember her own birthday, what were her chances of remembering mine when the day actually came along. So better be early!!

I thought that was so funny!!

So all of you out there - HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!

Nice but not nice.

That's what has been said about the cakes I bake.

They taste divine: rich, luscious, decadent.

But they look horrible!!

How did I get them tasting so good? Well a friend told me that if you put in "good things" how can it come out horrible. So I use the best ingredients - for my choc cakes only the best dark chocs go in: Read: Valrhona, even for the cocoa powder! I use the expensive eggs - the no cholesterol, dark yolk kind, high in Omega 3 kind.

So far my cakes have got the 2 thumbs up from many friends.

But in the looks department, it sure doesnt look great. My cakes crack, erupt occasionally, and are uneven (when I am not careful when putting it into the oven as my oven is at a low level - I have to squat to use my oven!). And I am really bad in the decorating department too!

Hubby asked me how I can improve the "looks" of my cake?

Cake decorating classes, I suggested, or maybe even baking school!! Hmmm ... Le Cordon Blue in Paris? The American Culinary Institute? L'Ecole Culinaire? I had to stop myself from dreaming - there is no way I can go to any of these baking schools - at least not until my little one is maybe .... say in secondary school, and that is a long time from now!! She hasnt even started primary school yet! Even local cake baking classes I cant attend, coz the timing just doesnt allow it. None of these schools run early morning classes for when my kids are at school. So I guess I will have to depend on feedback from you gals out there. So what do you say?