Bags of nerves

I am a bag of nerves right now.  Have been browsing the event's website all week long, getting myself psyche up for the day. Although we may not be in the same event, it was good for me to know that there will be family members on that day?   Looks like that is not going to happen.....




The man just told me he is not feeling well.  :(











That makes two of them - the animal lover is already down with fever....

That may just leave me with the twitter fanatic who may bail out in view that the man and animal lover are not going....

There is still the glimmer of hope of....

The lovebirds who are scheduled to return tonight for the day's event .....







When the day comes, I'll have to subscribe, to firmly ingrain Lucretius' quote

"Constant dripping hollows out a stone."

Night out with parents

My younger teenager woke up with a severe pounding headache.  Despite that she managed to go for her drum lesson.  Amazing!

The previous night we had dinner with a group of close friends.  Fantastic home cooked Thai food.  And great chicken wings.  Then the wine came out followed by beer.  My younger teenager wanted to try drinking and to me, what better time than this when she was in the company of family friends and her parents.  To top it all, the great host had her favourite Belgium beer – Hoegaarden. 

I let her drink to her heart’s content thinking that she would stop after two bottles.  How wrong could I get!!!  I had forgotten she had her parents’ genes.  The good news was that she could hold her drinks but not her bladder!   So it was multiple trips to the toilet and some trips in not so straight a walking line…..

She had thought she would feel out of place being the only teenager in the company of her parents' friends.  Her parents' friends are after all over 50 years of age.  She found to her surprise she enjoyed herself immensely.  Yes, she had fun and the jokes though were odd to her, she managed to understand and had many good laughs.

It was especially hilarious when one of the ladies demonstrated the dramatic Chinese hair flick……

 

discovering that her father, in his heydays, was a part of the "Freakos" group and had attempted the "Night Fever" dance moves ....

and the highlight - when the host went on a rendition of “George of the Jungle”

Yes!  She discovered being in the company of her parents' friends could be fun after all. To quote her telling her sister :

“It was the best night ever.  So fun!  The host was so funny.  I had so much fun!”

Driving experience

The unpaid driver that I am, I am expected to know the destinations, to reach there on time and to fetch my teenagers on time.

Last weekend, one of my teenagers took a driving class lecture that lasted all of six hours.  What do you know – this teenager of mine now thinks she knows all there is to know about driving.

Instead of enjoying the rides like she used to, now I get to hear :-

“Look out you’re driving in the middle of the road!”   Not that I am, her eyes are.....

“Watch out, you’re going onto the kerb!”   Not that I am, her eyes are....

I’ve been driving for more than fifteen years with no problem.  Now with just six hours of driving class lecture, someone wants to teach me how to drive! 

The Chinese phrase  "我食盐多过你食米” literally meaning "I eat salt more than you eat rice" - used to describe someone who is younger or less experience applies here?

Ice-skating

Yesterday my two teenagers informed me that they would like to take their brother to ice-skating. That was a pleasant surprise announcement to me.  As their brother is much younger, a 9 years and 11 years gap for my respective teenagers, he can sometimes be a handful. 

Not one to loose out because of his age, he would argue with his sisters to get his way or simply make his stand.  They do find him an annoyance at times – so for them to want to take him ice-skating and just spend time with him, that was really nice of them.  I was touched by my teenagers' gesture.

This afternoon they went off happily ice-skating away.  I simply could not resist the temptation calling to check up on them.  I was a bit concerned in case he annoyed his sisters so I called my elder teenager only to be told off!  The announcement came that he had totally forgotten how to ice-skate and had to learn all over again.  I was so tempted to just go and see he was doing fine but I resisted it.  Well, I have to have more confidence in both of my teenagers taking care of their younger brother.

Four hours later, I received a call from my younger teenager exclaiming that her brother was soaked to the bones.  I was to bring him dry clothes to change as her younger brother wanted to continue ice-skating!  Apparently his teeth were chattering and that he needed dry clothes immediately.  I immediately dropped everything I was doing, pack dry clothes and made a hot chocolate to go.

Wet clothes notwithstanding, I found my son to be fine and dandy.  But my two teenagers, they were tired out!  My son took a number of tumbles but he totally enjoyed himself ice-skating with his sisters. 

It was a day well spent!  I am so proud of my teenagers taking their time off to spend it with their younger brother.  It was a good bonding time for all three of them.

Saturday - no plastic bag day

No plastic day – this has been in practice in the state of Selangor for some time.  As much as I try to practise recycling, I do find it hard sometimes.  Thus I try not to shop on Saturday.

Yesterday, well I simply forgot it was Saturday!  After sending one of my teenagers for her get-together with her friends in Putrajaya,  I had a long peaceful drive back into the city. 

So peaceful it was that I decided to blast my radio.  My teenagers would find this hard to believe but it was true, I was blasting my radio and singing away on top of my lungs.  It felt good!

At the last minute instead of turning home, I decided to go grocery shopping.  I bought lots of stuff – the trolley was full and threatened to spill over.  Reaching the payment counter, I realized to my horror it was a Saturday!!!!  No plastic bag day!!!!!

But I am not going to put all those things back!  After paying and getting to my car, I was so relieved to find in my car trunk (which has a lot of “just-in-case” items) lots of recycling bags that my teenagers insisted that I try to use.   

Packing the items into these recyclable bags really felt good!  It would have taken about 15 plastic bags but I managed to get in all into just 5 big recycling bags!  And the best part is – these bags can be reused!!!  Yes, I am happy using recyclable bags and will use them again.