Use it or lose it

When I was in school, I did Malay as a second language. I even did it all the way up to my 'A' levels, and passed - not a distinction, but a pass is a pass. I could converse quite easily with my Malay neighbours, and I must say, I was pretty pleased with my level of written and spoken Malay.

However, as all my children do Mandarin as a second language, I have more exposure to Mandarin now. I have learnt to read and write some basic Chinese. Sometimes I find that I can even use some of the Chinese proverbs that I have learnt in my everyday sentences.

But I seem to have lost some of the Malay I previously knew. The only time I get to use it nowadays is when we travel (to Malaysia), when I am buying food from a Malay stall, or sharing a secret with MIL. Even when sharing a secret - when wanting to say something in Malay, sometimes it comes out in Mandarin instead!! Looks like I am more wired into Mandarin nowadays!

There are times when I say something in Chinese, and wonder to myself what the Malay equivalent is? I tell myself that it cant be I never knew the word, coz if I can write a composition at 'A' levels and even answering those horribly difficult questions to the comprehension passages, I find it hard to believe that I didn't know the word - mind you, it could be quite a basic word.

My older daughter's school has made it compulsory for those learning Mandarin to do a basic course in Malay. She came back from class yesterday, and wanting to show off my knowledge, I asked her what she learnt. I tried to test her to see if she could remember what she was taught. She knew most of what they taught but she couldnt remember the word for behind. I kept telling her it was "hadapan", but she insisted it wasnt but "ber" something. I cracked my brains for quite awhile before I realised that the word was "Belakang!!". Imagine, if she depended on me, she would definitely fail her Malay!!

Language is something we have to use it, or we will lose it. How else could my mandarin improve so much!! I am glad my daughter is now learning Malay, as I am able to put to practice what I learnt eons ago, and hopefully, some of it will come back to me!

So better use it or lose it!!

P.S. - this applies to brains as well!!

Youth day

Singapore celebrates Youth day on the 1st Monday in July, and all school-going children get a day of rest on that day.

Yesterday was Youth day. However, only little D had "school". Do pre-schoolers not qualify as Youth? Not in the eyes of MCYS - it is not a designated holiday on their calendar. However, Little D refused to go to school after she saw her siblings at home!! And I did not force her to, even tho I know she will be missing quite a bit of work, especially since her regular form teacher is back in school only today after the term break. That's my effort in loosening up and choosing my battles!!

So we celebrated it by going to the movies! Yippee!!

World's Best or Idiot Proof?

The other day my friend, N, came over for dinner. She brought a bag of mint choco-chip cookies (diameter about 4inches) for the kids. My kids always get really excited when Aunty N brings along goodies for them. You see, N trained at Le Cordon Bleu Pastry school in France for about 6 months in between her jobs. And her cakes and cookies, are oh! so delicious and professionally made!!

So I asked N for the recipe. Somehow her cookies always taste different from the ones I normally bake. She told me about how the difference in time the pastry dough spends resting in the fridge has an impact on how the cookies turn out. She said that letting them rest just 24 hours in the fridge will yield the best tasting cookies. It has something to do with how the butter interacts with the flour, sugar, etc. Keeping it for 48 hours in the fridge will yield a slightly different texture to the cookies. And with our weather, 24 hours in the fridge is really necessary.

But you know something, I am the sort that cannot wait 24 or 48 hours just for some cookies. If I make them, I want to eat them that day!! So the longest my cookie dough ever stays in the fridge is probably 1 hour. So I guess you can guess how my cookies taste next to hers. But, its ok - my kids enjoy it nonetheless. Like the Chinese say - no fish, prawns will do too!

She also advised me that when searching for recipes on the net, I should always include the words "world's best" in my search. I tried doing that, but I find that most of the "world's best" recipes are too complex for me. Being an amateur baker, I don't have all the necessary equipment (and sometimes ingredients too) and its seems such a hassle to be setting up all that equipment, and not to say, all the dismantling and subsequent washing up, just to make a cake or a small batch of cookies. Mine are all made with my two hands, and lots of L-O-V-E!! As long as it turns out good enough, its good enough for me! As for searches, I always look for "idiot proof" recipes coz I am one of those that dont like disappointments in the kitchen!!

An interesting cake

That's what my hubby told me. That he had ordered an interesting cake.

He came home with this:



Couldnt tell what it was at first.

Then, when I cut it, it was hard. I took a few bites of the crumbly bits that fell off. Left no impression on me. He said it's the red velvet cake from a shop called: "Food for thought". Have never heard of that cake nor the shop before.

Anyway, had a heavy dinner that night, so didnt think much about the cake.

Next morning, decided to do a search on the cake and the cake shop. Food for Thought according to their web page ".. is a quirky little indie diner where you can get great comfort food at a fair price, have fascinating conversations, find new friends and discover simple ways to give back to the local and global community."

"They believe in serving the community. Part of Food for Thought’s profits go into social causes that they support - including School of Thought’s Financial Aid Scheme for underprivileged students. Tap water is also served free there but you have the option to donate to international well-building projects instead so that other people may have free water someday as well. They also try to work as much as possible with local farmers, local cottage industries and collectives to support small businesses with a heart." ... www.foodforthought.com.sg

I managed to find numerous websites sharing recipes for red velvet cakes, but one particular blog that I read said something about how delicious it was eating this cake (ie the one baked by Food for thought) at room temperature.

So that afternoon, I decided to have another slice, this time at room temperature. It was ... oh! so delicious. It was no longer dry and crumbly, and with the cream cheese topping, it is a cake that you can get addicted to! Naturally, I went for a 2nd slice!

Interesting cake indeed!! And the best part, you are contributing towards a good deed when you purchase the cake!

Habits

Habits are easy to form ... especially bad habits. They take only a moment. But to break a habit, it seems to take forever.

A friend once told me that if you go cold turkey for 2 complete weeks, you will be off the habit.

I tried to break Little D's reliance on her lil Smelly bolster recently, and I took our vacation to do it. I told her that we could not pack her "lil smelly" into the luggage as it was already full and she had to try to go to sleep without it.

We were away for 6 days. The 1st couple of nights it took her a little longer than usual to fall asleep. But with the amount of outdoor activities that we did, the next few nights were no problem.

Before we left, I had told MIL to keep "lil smelly" away thinking that if it was out of sight, it will be out of lil D's mind. So upon our return she didnt have it, and she seemed to have forgotten all about it.

With the other children home on vacation, and hardly any running around for me, I was able to put lil D to her nap every afternoon after our return, and she managed fine without "lil smelly". Ditto for bedtime at night. So it seemed to me that the 2 weeks to break a habit thingey was working, coz by then 3 weeks had passed.

But yesterday, my son had his music class after school, so I had to be the chauffeur, and lil D was left under MIL's care. Guess what? She asked MIL about the whereabouts of "lil smelly", and MIL instantly went to her cupboard, took it and gave it to her!!

All my efforts in trying to break lil D off her reliance on "lil smelly" to fall asleep has now been wasted!

So the real way to break a habit is not only cold turkey for 2 weeks, but also to hide it from the grandparents!

Speak Lord, Your servant is listening

The Lord speaks to us in various ways, and I guess he has messages for us all the time. Just that sometimes we do not listen.

1st time he tried to pass me the message:
Thru my friends. We had met for lunch one day last week, and we were gossiping! The topic went to an old school mate who was the top student in school. Rumours have it that she eloped when she met a foreigner. Shocking to us coz she was really a little miss goody two shoes in school. The last person on earth that you would expect to do something like that. Then one of my friends said: Guess we should not control our kids too much, because they may just end up rebelling like her!

The next time he tried to deliver the message:
Was thru iml, when she wrote about letting go.

And just yesterday, jomel mentioned in her reply to my comment on her party packs, about choosing our battles, and the need to give in sometimes.

You see, I am a pretty "no-nonsense" Mum. My kids know exactly where my OB markers are. You cross the line and you pay for it!!

But I guess someone up there is trying to tell me:

Dont control too much!!

Let go! and

Choose your battles!

If not, why would I be receiving 3 similar messages in a span of less than 7 days!!

Speak Lord, Your servant is listening.

But I think I still need help to put it into practice!

SAHM *shakes right arm*, *shakes left arm*, *shakes right leg*, *shakes left leg*, *wiggles body* - really trying hard to loosen up a bit!! Pray for me!

What's his name??

There are only 2 children in Little D's music class, she and another boy, Daniel.

Her regular music teacher was not able to make it to class today so there was a replacement teacher.

Daniel was already in class when Little D arrived.

The replacement teacher turned to Little D as she walked in and said: "And so you must be Daniel!"

I cracked up on hearing that!!

Tell me, what's his name??