Corners of my house #1

I think SouleMama hit the sentiment on the nail when she started her 'Corners of My Home' Flickr group. We tend to forget the tiny details of our homes as years pass us by. Especially for people who move around. Like me. I've stayed in various locations in Singapore, and currently I am in the Philippines, without even any guarantee that I will stay here very long.

There are indeed times when I missed our old apartment in Singapore, on which the Husband and I spent so much effort beautifying and homifying (if there is ever such a word), and alas, there were so little pictures of the various corners where we spend a lot of time. The Husband's hobby table, the kitchen tops, the always filled to the brim sink, the puny toilet at the back.

I really should make an effort to go around and capture this place the is our 'home for the moment' just so the memories are not lost. I don't know if I will join the Flickr group, but at least here, in my own blog, I should keep those corners alive.

An added benefit, this kind of postings should come in handy when life simply does not allow me to ponder and write pages of wisdom. Such a brilliant idea, indeed.

So, without further a due, I present, a corner of our current home.

the hallway between the master bedroom and the Kid's bedroom upstairs. See the Teddy bear at the corner? One of our best investments for the Kid. She loves running away from Daddy and Mama, across the hallway and straight into the Teddy whenever we want to do things that she does not want, like putting her in her clothes or getting back Daddy's phone. Taken from about 30cm above the floor, this must be her view of the hallway. a lovely view indeed.

Tired

I need a holiday.

Not just a few hours break from home and the kid kind of break, but a REAL holiday, with the following criterions:
- I don't have to cook or clean the house
- Don't have to feed the kid or at least no need to COOK the food that I would feed the kid
- Don't have to chase a horny dog to the neighbour's house at midday at the height of summer
- Can sleep till afternoon without interruption
- Can have LOOOong decent conversation with my husband without interruptions (kid needs to wee, dog wants to go out, kid spills her drink, etc)

I am whining, but man, even thinking of those criteria already made me tired again.

But seriously, welcome to my weekend, which ended only this morning when Solly (God bless her!) came to the rescue and started picking up the pieces of my weekend.

Oy, focus! Positive!

Anyway, I guess I am cranky because of lack of sleep. Despite her previous progress with regards to her sleeping pattern (she managed to sleep through the night without bothering me), ever since we started her potty training she seems to regress in her sleeping. She would wake up many times, cry for milk instead of getting it herself, even gets up from bed and move to the parents' bed!
It does not help that she hardly eats real food nowadays, except for sugary goodness of Oreo, ice cream and such. Which makes her hungry at night and drinks more milk. That's bad for me cos then I have to prepare more than 1 bottle of milk plus a change of pampers.

The Dog is another problem. She is having her period, which means not only she mess up the house with her 'spots', she's also forever eager to get out of the house to 'visit' this chap that caught her fancy, some mixed breed dog of the neighbour's. I have to make a few trips uphill under the scorching sun just to get her back home. And to top it all, of course she also does not eat the stuff that I give her.

Holiday, holiday. I need sleep. I think I am gaining the weight that I just lost, which is bad.
Lack of sleep is really BAD for you. BAD, BAD, BAD.
You have no self control, you don't think straight, then you make bad decisions, you eat crap, you act crazy, and so on and so on.

I should stop now. I really want to write good stuff here, like the blogs that I found in my trawls over the weekend, the inspiration, ets? Alas, my brain refused to co-operate.
So I am just trying here.
Trying hard to stop the urge to munch something,
To stop the inclination to shout at the Dog and the Little One (the Husband, lucky him, is out, working)
To do some clean up and cooking
To still go on with the daily life
To remind myself of how lucky I am with the life I am having, even with the warts and all,
(and through the haze of lethargy)

Just one last point before I go back into the fray,
The photo in this post?
Well, I just went out and.... it was so hot!
I am not normally an umbrella kind of girl, especially against the sun,
But today's sun really scorch you with vengeance, I have to get some protection.
With the sporty sandals that I wore, I think it was just a good picture of contrast. Haha...

Hope you had a better weekend, peeps!

Language and Local knowledge

Last weekend, during one of my trawls around the net, I actually went back to Untwisted Vortex for some light reading and found this article about being multilingual. Then today I found this article on The Economist's blog about the importance of local knowledge and language for the success of any venture (specifically in the article was the military operation in Afghanistan). I just have to write something about them. 2 articles in the span of days, it's just meant to be, even if I don't have any picture or illustration about the topic.

Despite having known each other for many years, I did refuse to get married right after finishing college (university aka getting our bachelor's degree, his only 1 year after mine) until he got himself a job.
And I did help him, still on boyfriend status then, to find a suitable job, a great girlfriend that I was, and still is. I have to say that I found it so much easier to 'sell' him rather than to 'sell' myself through CVs and cover letters. In any case, I did find an opening that really suited him to a T and proceeded to process his application.

The job was for a research co-ordinator for a multinational
commodities company, and it required some traveling to remote areas in Indonesia and Vietnam as the commodities producing area. I remembered emphasizing in both his CV and cover letter his years as boy scout (useful for traveling to remote areas) as well as his being an Indonesian as valuable assets.
Of course, I hit the nail on the head, he got the job, and everything that I mentioned in the CV indeed became very useful asset.

Speaking the local lingo, he managed to coordinate his travels well, communicating with ease with the local farmers and various authorities, plumbing the depth of available resources in the local government offices (information sources that was utilized by neither his predecessor nor his successor, as it was), and so on, and so on.

Well, his status got changed to be my husband before he went for his first trip (cos with the job in hand, his application for marriage finally got my approval), but through his years in the company doing the job (not very many years, but still), I really felt like a proud mummy.
Silly, isn't it?
But I guess I'm just happy to really recognize his good points, sell them to his employers, and see them really being utilized. My husband being happy with the challenges and bringing home the bacon are perfect icing on the cake.

But back to the 2 articles mentioned at the beginning of the post, I guess the point that I am trying to make is that if you were ever to organize any kind of venture abroad, it's good to have someone with local knowledge firmly on your side. You can hire a translator, but... that's a huge minefield in itself, isn't it? Just take the example from the Economist article, what if the translator is not as good as he claim to be? How do you check for credibility? And then of course you are only as good as your translator. You might have a good idea of which government agency you want to go to, but if the translator never heard of such an agency, you're kind of fried.

I don't think I am explaining things very clearly. Hmm.. yeah, improving my writing skills falls under the category of reasons why I want to keep a blog.

In any case, from comparison between my husband's experience and stories of his predecessor (who was quite a foreigner in Indonesia), I think the amount resources that my husband managed to gather was remarkably more than what his predecessor had to do with. There might also be the difference in capabilities, but I like to think that my husband's local knowledge did help.

What do you think?

Weekend and The Week

I think I have written somewhere that, unlike most people, I don't like weekends.
Weird? Well, maybe it has to do with the nature of my job last time. Working in the restaurant, I don't get weekends off like most people working in the office (which was the majority in Singapore, I suppose).
But that did not bother me as much as the workflow during the weekend itself.
The company I worked for being situated strategically at the busiest shopping area in Singapore, business considerably picks up during the weekend.
I can tell you it makes for a pretty stressful, tiring weekend.
And it affects me so much that I even do NOT enjoy having my off days during weekend as places are generally more crowded, public transport is also more crowded, people's temper are shorter, etc etc etc.

Now that I do not work, I still don't like weekend.
I prefer the quiet, the ordinariness of weekdays,
The fact that most services are available (government services, cheap health services, even discounted spas), my helper is here to relieve me from babysitting.
I find that I can rest better during the weekdays, both in the past and now.
Well, actually my helper does come on Saturday, but that's only because I have classes on Sat nowadays, and classes do not really count as rest, ya?

In any case, it did feel like a pretty busy week, and I can share you quite a bit about it if you want.

We called up the real estate management to prune both the coconut trees in front and at the back of the house since the Little One loves to play outside now. It won't do to have a coconut falling around, or (God forbid) on her while she's playing, now would it? I did not manage to take pics while the men were working, but here are the results:

A bunch of coconut in the drying area.

I know you can actually use them to make coconut milk, but I don't really cook those stuff, you know. My helper might take them. Our neighbour's gardener actually helped us to cut the young ones with the juice and tender meat, and we feasted on them that day. Well, me and the Husband, that is. The Little One puckered her mouth after a sip and refused to have anymore.

They also cut some of the old leaves and ALL the baby coconuts, anything that is likely to fall, I guess. The pruning leaves the coconut trees looking somewhat bald and diminished, poor things, but it's better them looking like that than having a potential disaster hanging over my daughter.

The best part of the pruning process is yet to be revealed: the Dog found toys!

Some of the coconut actually fell with a bit of bark on top. You know the stringy bits that connect all the coconuts together. I think they developed from the flower stems. (I'm sorry, I haven't done my homework research on coconut, so I'm still as ignorant as the guy next door, figuratively)

You see the Dog with her prize?

In fact, she got quite a few coconuts for toys, some for chewing, and some really old but small ones for playing fetch.
Even the Little One got really excited when I threw the coconut and the Dog ran to fetch it.

Of course, it is possible that the Dog was not really fetching it to me as much as fetching it for herself to be chewed on. I just happened to intercept her as she tried to bring the coconut into the house.

Of course that was the Little One in the background. And these are her shoes on the right.

As mentioned before, she loves playing outdoor nowadays. That means calling for her shoes to be brought first thing in the morning when she came down from her room. Thank God for our outdoor furniture, at least sometimes she would let me sip my coffee in relative peace as long as she can run around outside.

The Dog? She would be out too, sunning herself. And I thought only cats do that. Hmmm....

I have not done much crafting this past week, except for a tiny weeny bit of sewing and crocheting a new pattern. Remember the yummy colored yarns in the last post? This is the pattern that I am trying, plus a little bit of sewing done while watching the workmen prune the coconut trees.

Hihihihi....

I'm really glad that the sheep turned out pretty well, and by that I meant it was recognizable by the Little One. She said, BAAaaa....

So it was good.

I guess there was probably a time when I tried to do fantastic looking drawing, a creative concept, or just some complicated craft. Today, I go for something recognized by the Little One. It's my one lofty goal nowadays.

Well, I know her vocabulary is still limited. It's OK, so I can practice to draw sheep, flowers and balloons better before moving on to more complicated stuff. Hahaha...

Anyway, just some final rambling before I have to go back to the needy Dog and the ever demanding Daughter, I have been spending the weekend looking through blogs. Not quite blog-surfing as reading the older entries of two of my frequent reads (Thank you SouleMama and Attic24 for providing me many hours of pleasure reading as well as so many encouragement and inspiration).

Encouragement, because realizing that they have been in the blogging racket for many years, they did evolve from something that I hope pretty achievable by your truly over here.
Inspiration, in the things that I can do for my family as well as ways to better my blog.

I am currently toying with some ideas for the blog, an About page (still not quite sure what to write in it, and if it is worthwhile because a good one would have to have regular updates), maybe some blog reviews of blogs that I enjoy, features that I want to incorporate....
Hhh.... there are endless ideas, but only limited time during which I still have to filter the ideas, fine tune the concepts, organize, execute.......

One by one, one by one. In the meantime, be patient with me, ya? Thanks.

Blogging

I don't know how it is with the rest of you, but it takes me FOREVER just to get a post up on the blog. It's really a bugbear in me blogging. There is no lack of ideas, quite a number of pictures to work on, but it takes so long to do them all. I just did a post on my other blog (I maintain at least 2 working blog, more about that some other time) and the whole sequence of choosing pictures, writing the post, adjusting the layout and some final editing took me well over 2 hours! I need to do this better. I am not too sure if this is a problem with the tool I am using (the Blogger features; I am convinced they used to have a better tool for the text and picture layout), or simply my own unorganized nature.

Whatever it is, I am determined to get this post up before my time ran out. I suppose it's going to be a short one, though, just a few things that made me happy (and 1 that made me slightly unhappy).

Spotted this flower during my walkies. I suppose it's a hibiscus of a kind, but it's quite different from the common hibiscus that I usually see. In fact, this is the first time I see such a pretty twist to the hibiscus. Usually they don't face down, and look at the petals! Aren't they cute? All the flowers on the tree are hanging in the same way as the one shown on the picture. The effect is very much light a very pretty lantern of a flower. I really WANT this one in my own garden. I wonder if they grow if I just cut a branch and plant it in my garden. Quite a few of the plants here do reproduce that way. I really should try, now if I only be thick skinned enough to go for walkies carrying a pair of gardening shears, cut a branch and walk all the way back home with my 'trophy'. Hahaha.....

I really should do it. I really want that flower. I covet!

My fridge door has the Little One's drawing on it!
Can't believe my excitement about this one. I mean, my fridge surface had always been empty. I don't even collect magnets!
I was cleaning up the other day and... I just don't feel like throwing away these pieces of paper, you know? Abstract art by the Little One. Hmmm hmm... just can't wait to have more of those. These are the best so far, although the big one did have some Mummy's hand in it. (I started first, then she added her 'additions'). The small one was purely hers, though.

Aw, just look at those colours! Scrummy, I think that's what Lucy from Attic24 would say.
I wanted to do a hexagon blanket for myself as a companion to the blanket I'm still currently crochetting for the Husband. I saw these colours and they were sooooooo lovely, slightly pastel, not quite so... harsh. I am thinking of some flowery hexagons. I think I spied some lovely African flower pattern while trawling through crochetty flickr galleries the other day. I will let you know how they work out once I tried them.
These are still in trial, so I only bought these 3 balls so far. These are cotton cos I just wanted a light blanket. I was thinking of doing the flowers alternating between yellow center, red petals and red center, yellow petals, with the green as edging for the flowers. Hmmm......
Can't quite wait to see the result. Still have to find a good pattern though. Not quite ready to design my own pattern yet. Haha....

I know it's really BAD to leave WIPs around, but I'm kind of stuck with this one.
Hmm... put it this way, given the constraint in our monthly budget, I don't quite buy my yarn in bulk, and currently they ran out of WHITE! AAaaaaa!
How can they run out of White! I mean, I really prefer to have white to lighten the colours of the blanket, you know.
As one first huge project, this is my first, so... let's just say it's kind of haphazard in design. But I still would like to finish it.
Hhh.... I wish they would stock up soon.

Dumping ground...

My usual dumping ground, the bed

This is a real bad habit, I know, especially when the bed is shared, as it has been for quite a number of years now. But I can't help it.

The bed is just THE perfect dumping ground, especially a double bed. 

It's big, it's flat, it's within reach without having to bend down to far (like when I dump stuff on the floor)

I remember when the Husband used to travel for work, days when he was not around would be marked by the presence of all kind of stuff on the bed, leaving me just enough space to sleep comfortably, but not much else.

Those were the days when I worked as well.

Right now, I have no excuse for not cleaning up, so I do try to clean up once I'm done, or rather, once my me-time is up and I have to go back to my role as a mother and wife.

I don't really have much time to write at the moment, I still have to prepare dinner pretty soon. 

But just let me give you a tour of the dumping ground. 

The photo actually shows the things that I 'packed' for my me-time, that is when Solly is around and I can hide in the bedroom while I do my stuff away from itchy little hands.

Starting from the left, almost to the top, the note book and the papers on the clipboard.

I am currently attending a part time course in management. Trying to pick up some useful skills for life. I do hope to be able to either work or at least earn income sometime in the future. So... those are my study materials, my notes and some hand-outs.

The huge, ugly plastic bad contains my crochetty stuff: my meagre stash of yarns, Work in Progress (WIPs), my 2 very precious needles.... Yeah, I think that's about it. 

I really should get a better bag rather than a plastic bag, but I still have 2 WIPs currently, I don't think adding another project is justifiable, even if it were to be a normal sewn fabric bag rather than a crochetted bag. Ah well...

The blue and orange pouch... I actually can't remember what it contained. It's such a flexible pouch so.. I don't really designated anything to it, just use it as I see fit according to my need. Sometimes it will contain whatever WIP I feel like carrying in my bag, sometimes it's my electronics (cables, card readers etc), sometimes even my medication, you get the idea. As when I took the photo? I'm really not sure. It could be either one, but most probably some WIPs I took to go out previously.

The digital camera... ah.. my precious. It's not really fully functional, the LCD display no longer works (thank God it was an old model that still has a viewfinder, most of the newer point and shoot cameras no longer has one). The cable further up is actually the one that I use to download images from the camera to the computer.

Water bottle, for rehydration.
The blue book is my accounting textbook. I think it was being used as background for my crochet, rather than being read.

And lastly, of course, me beloved computer and the small card reader.
I am currently learning another new thing, that is Photoshop. The Husband had installed it in the computer and when I have the chance, I tried to learn how to use it. It's a slow process, not least due to the difficulty in finding time blocks to spend in front of the computer. Also... I am teaching myself through trial and error.

In any case, is there anything new that you do today?

Workflow

It's been crazy 2 weeks.
Not that we have a lot of activities, appointments or what nots.
Just lots of rain. And rain and rain and rain.
And the Little One can't quite go out to expend some extra energy (she got LOTS of them!)
And so Mummy needs to entertain her, entertain the Dog, entertain the Husband,
Take the Dog for daily walkies, rain or shine,
Cook meals for everyone (different meals, different timing.... arrggh... I really make it more difficult for myself)
Etc etc etc,
So much so that even when Solly comes around (that's my helper, bless her), the only thing that I do is simply recuperate from the rigors of 'entertaining'

Did I manage to get my excuse past you? No? Haha.. here's another one, then.

Maybe you would not care, but this blog is not my only one
It's just the one that I want to do seriously and well
Which, by my standard, means some quality writing, something which is hopefully interesting to read, and of course, some pictures to make it even more interesting.
I don't think it's too high a standard
Still, I am still struggling to get it done efficiently

Maybe I'm not a naturally neat person, so my stuff are scattered all over the place
So.. sometimes I have ideas for content, but no pics to illustrate
I think that seems to be my biggest bug bear at the moment
Followed closely with me not having quite decided on everything else about the blog
Whether I want ALL my pics watermarked (it's still quite a lot of effort), whether I'm satisfied with the design and layout, is my blogroll a good representation of my reading list (it's definitely not, not by a long shot), etc etc etc.

Yeah, my ideas are scattered everywhere, but I still want to share whatever I have so......
I guess I'll just have to work on the workflow
Hopefully as time goes (and more post got published, on the blog, that is) I can get the hang of it

In the meantime, here's some pics that I have, just some things that I have been doing....

Unfinished Ripple placemat

Crochet! (oh, and re-reading my book)


My sister came for a visit in May, and I asked her to teach me how to crochet.
Either she must have been a really good teacher or I am an exceedingly brilliant student with natural inclination for the subject matter, I got into crocheting in almost no time.
Well.. she was really great, she actually bought me 2 double ended crochet needles (that's 4 sizes!) and 2 balls for yarn for starter.
That's not the white and green yarn pictured, by the way, I bought them myself because this was already like the nth project. I was learning about turning, and also trying the ripple pattern from the lovely Lucy at Attic24. She is quite my inspiration, both to crochet and to blog.

Round coasters

The picture beside here is actually 2 of my first few projects. They were made using the yarn that my sister brought. 

(My sis actually does not know the technique to change colour, she just crochet occasionally. I believe that was why she bought such yarn, but please don't tell her that.)

It was a quick, easy project, perfect for beginner. Too bad we don't really use coasters over here.

I like to think that I am practical. If I were to have a hobby, why not make something useful out of it? That's why I did a headband for the Little One using the ripple pattern. It turned out pretty well (on second try, first one was way too big for her), too bad after sometime wearing it, and looking pretty, she got bored and started pulling it off. Hhhh.... there goes another useful Mummy-made craft. Still, it was pretty and I made another one to give to the LIttle one's friend next door.

Pink Ripple headband

In deciding for another project to do, I was really determined that it would be definitely useful. So... ambitious as I was, I decided to make a blanket.

Whoa... the newbie crocheter is actually tackling a blanket!

Again, armed with inspiration (and great photo instructions) from Lucy, I went of to buy some yarn and started with my granny square blanket.

It's been a while, but it's still not done yet. Hahaha... But at least it's starting to take shape. Small shape of a blanket.

The grannies...

Another granny

Oh, I forgot. These are not quite the traditional granny square. I basically use the pattern that Lucy used for her Big Blanket, but with different colour combination. I am just experimenting with the order and colour combination. Am hoping that there will be no 2 square with exactly same design. Haha...

I did manage to join the squares, again using Lucy's method of joining, as I crochet another layer of border around the squares. It's fun, and pretty addictive. But I think it's still quite sometime to go.

The Little One likes it too!

I do believe that the Little One has mixed feelings about me crocheting. Sometimes she does not like it. Sometimes, she'll ask for my needle and start trying to crochet as well. I do appreciate the gesture. Maybe when she's better coordinated we can crochet together. At the moment, I just give her the other needle, and some yarn to play with, or some square-in-progress so that she can pretend to crochet, even if she only poked around the square. She's cute like that.

Watercolor


Did I mention my stuff are scattered everywhere?
The scattering apparently also applies to my interest as well.
Ever since I started this blog it's like my mind's been on overdrive, and I keep looking for things to learn.

The watercolor was originally for the Little One.
Maybe she was too young, though, for it ended up as my toy, rather.
These are the set, the brush and the sketchpad, and some of my 'art'. The water jar was originally a kimchi jar. The Husband loves it (kimchi).

(I am getting tired. I should doze off soon. But in the meantime, enjoy the pics, and leave me comments.)

The Tools

Color experiments

A Tree

Wall

Little Girl