Zaky’s OLE to Bangkok, Part 1

Nana went for her 1st overseas school trip when she was in P5 to Brunei. I am not sure what is so exciting about Brunei but she had a blast. She said that it was the companion, even when she was made to partner with a girl whom she didn’t know before the trip. After the trip, they became BFF for a while. I thought it was quite cute. 

Come Zaky’s turn, he was totally not keen for an overseas school trip when he was P5 bcos he doesn’t eat vegetables (for real). He didn’t have a chance anyway bcos Covid hit. 

Bcos of Covid, Nana lost her chance for the school overseas trip in secondary school. Instead, Zaky got his chance. While he still doesn’t eat vegetables, he is older now and will figure a way out. 

There were a few choices and his class was eventually selected to go to Bangkok. I saw the itinerary and it is a very cultural Bangkok trip. It actually looked funny to do so many cultural sightseeing and museum tours in Bangkok. There is none of the shopping or the night market. Zaky also lamented about it but it is what it is. 

His flight was on Monday, 1pm. I had assumed that he will make arrangements to go to the airport with his friends. Then I realised that it is probably the 1st overseas trip for many of them without family, and parents would probably be over zealous in sending their kids. In the end, Daddy Lim dropped him at Buona Vista MRT while otw to work and he took the train with his luggage to Commonwealth to meet his friend. His friend’s mum then drove them to the airport. I did offer for Grab to meet his friend or directly to the airport but he rejected. Ok lah. He ended up waiting about 20 mins at his friend’s block bcos he was too early. It is ok. I remember feeling like I have a lot of time too when I was a teenager. Hoho. 

He looked so big and tall in the picture bcos he intentionally stand tall. Lol. With his new haircut, he looked so much like Daddy Lim. 

He arrived at the airport early for MacD bfast when they only had to gather at 10am. He had originally thought that he had to stick to his assigned buddy, G, for the entire trip and wasn’t too pleased bcos G isn’t part of his usual group. It turned out differently and he got to stick with his usual gang. I cannot imagine how rowdy they would be. 

The school has set up a platform for photo sharing. 

Time must passed so quickly when they have companion. Soon, it was time to board and he was very glad that it was a SQ flight, complete with meals and entertainment.

Zaky said that the flight was uneventful. He had a gluten free bun instead of the normal one bcos the school was worried about his nuts allergy. Hmmm.. I duno how gluten free will help but Zaky complained that the bun was less tasty and he had to steal some of his friend’s bun. Lol. 

All safe and sound in BKK. 

I have no idea what was the itinerary for the remaining day bcos the next time he texted, it was dinner time. He didn’t even remember to take pictures of dinner and I took this from the picture uploaded by his teacher. 

Soon after, he texted to say that he has checked into the room. He said that he didn’t see any banana prata when on the way to the hotel and dinner with ok only and would be indulging the snacks packed. I don’t think he has enough snacks to last him the 5 days. Hahahaha. 

Mummy Lim

The Bread Maker

I love bread. I can go on for a long time without most carbs but have a super soft spot for bread. Zaky inherited my love for bread, in addition to his love for other pastry. 

Ever since I saw the bread maker in Auntie H’a house years ago, I thought of buying one and imagined myself in a house with the smell of freshly baked bread. However, the kitchen in Centris and LV were “not mine” and we barely had space in the kitchen for additional appliance. 

We had been throwing leftover Gardenia bread loaf since we shifted to BP. Daddy Lim and the kids (even Zaky) are no fans of Gardenia bread. Without Popo’s help, there is no way that we could finish the loaf within the validity period. I switched to wraps instead but some things still just goes perfectly with bread. Ah Yee recommended that we freeze the leftover bread and toast as needed. We are unfortunately lazy and so continued to throw leftover bread. It always take me a long time to consider before buying bread. 

Finally, I got down to buying my bread machine. Hoho. I got it via Shoppee and after discount, is about $130. 

The instruction manual comes with some simple recipes. I opted for the simplest white bread and was super happy to see the delayed start option. 

The manual says to put the wet ingredients at the bottom, followed by the dry ingredients and with the yeast on top. Then, set the correct program and time and wait for the machine to do its work. 

On Friday morning, I woke up to the smell of fresh bread. So nice! 

I even bought a bread knife. 

Daddy Lim and I each brought a thick slice to work. The rest were left for the kids. 

When I tried the bread in the office, I thought it was a little dense but am still happy with home made bread. I was proudly showing off to the aunties on how easy it is to make bread. Then, Auntie H pm me to tell me that the bread didn’t rise properly. Is it? Lol. No wonder so dense tasting. 

She was then telling me that I had to troubleshoot. Maybe it is the water or the salt or the yeast. I then realised that there is a lot of 学问 behind when and where to put the yeast. Yeast cannot touch water 1st especially for delayed start, yeast and salt cannot interact too bcos they “counter”. Alamak, I measured the salt and yeast together in the same bowl and pour them all in at the same time ah. No wonder my bread didn’t rise as needed. Lol. Nevertheless, the kids finished the remaining 4 slices of bread so no wastage regardless of whether it had risen or not. 

Daddy Lim asked when I will make the 2nd loaf. Today seems like a good time. Hoho. 

Is it better? I don’t know actually bcos I only got to eat the crust slice the last time. This time, the inner slices do taste fluffy. I also learn that bread should only be sliced after they had cool down, after I had sliced off the 1st slice. Lol.

The good thing with the bread maker is that we have fresh bread when we wanted. However, I think we will end up eating a lot of bread. Auntie H said that the bread is softest on day 1 and needed to be steamed/ toasted by day 3. Leftovers need to be frozen thereafter or they would turn bad on day 4. Zaky said that we should make bread everyday. I think we will grow fat. I do want to try to make bread with raisins ah.

Mummy Lim

Not so Stress

Nana is almost a free soul! She has completed majority of her papers yday!

The O level paper planning is so bad. She has 2 more paper 1s (chemistry and physics) to go and those are taking place next Friday. I duno why the long break. In between, there are papers for Chinese, higher Chinese, higher Arts.. yada, yada… Why can’t they just let the mainstream students complete the papers 1st? They should suffer together as a cohort? 

Anyway, Nana has already tasted freedom. She was busy scrolling yday and into the late night. She has downloaded tik tok and seems bend to catch up on lost social media time. I was so tempted to invite her for supper simply for celebration but I withheld bcos we both needed to watch the waistline. She then drew her curtains and proclaimed that she will sleep in this morning. While she said that she would continue doing practices in prep of her last 2 papers, what I heard this morning and afternoon was the TV and the videos on her phone. Lol. She does deserved a rest. 

Zaky is even less stressed. He has started his school holiday last Friday. He said that he wanted to sleep in on the 1st day of school holiday but eventually went for his Aggro skating class and had such a spectacular fall while attempting a 540 jump. 

From the pictures, he did a great leap, aided by the slope and his speed, then lost focus of what he wanted to do while mid air, did some crazy gibberish before falling at great height and landed on his butt. The impact was so great that he was stunned (and so were the people who witnessed his fall) and he took a while to recover. Other than a blue black on his butt, the impact hurt his leg and he had trouble walking for a couple of days. Luckily he wasn’t otherwise too badly hurt and had been very much enjoying his holidays. 

Mochi seems to be better too. The doctor had suggested Feliway, which is supposed to help calm cats. At 1st, we were very skeptical about Mochi being stressed. With what ah? Whenever we tried applying the cream on his bald spots, he would start licking those exact spots and we can only pray that the cream doesn’t kill him. We ended up giving him catnip to sooth and distract him. 

A very high Mochi. 

We finally bought Feliway and it really improved the situation. He started hiding less, walk calmly around the house more and do his usual “flop anywhere as and when he likes”. More importantly, he started rubbing our legs again and purring more. The old Mochi is back! 

We also tried to give him boxes to hide. He isn’t the biggest fan though. 

He is still grooming, like all cats do and did look like it is slightly better. The big nasty bald spot at his tummy seems to be recovering. At least he isn’t licking it as much. Just now, we saw new spots on his leg. Zzzzz.. it will take time; he will get better. 

As to why he is stressed, the only suggestion is the his favourite person was very stressed over O levels. Now that she is better, he should too. Lol.

Mummy Lim

Mochi is Becoming Botak

Probably about more than a month’s back, we spotted red angry spots on Mochi in a small area at his lower torso. They must be itchy bcos he ended up grooming that spot a lot and there was a tiny bald batch. We got some spray from the pet shop and it helped. The bald spot soon recovered. 

After that episode, Nana commented that Mochi seems to be grooming a lot more. Over grooming is not a good sign. We then saw new bald spots that are rough to touch and suspected ringworm or fleas. FYI, ringworm is a type of fungi infection and not actual worms. To eliminate flea (or to kill them if really fleas), we have been faithful with the monthly medication. The over grooming persisted and the bald spots continued to grow. 

After our attempts failed to curb the disease problem/symptoms, we reckoned that it is time to bring him to the vet. Daddy Lim had the honor to bring Mochi alone bcos I was stuck at a work event, 

They came home with a couple of creams and sprays, costing us $157. Zzzzzz. The doctor said that it *may* not be ringworm bcos ringworm glows under UV light but his doesn’t. If it is fleas, the medication that we gave him would have killed them. It could be allergies (again? To what?) or stress?!!! I duno why is Mochi stressed, we didn’t change anything drastic to his routine, he doesn’t go to work or school and not taking the O levels. Lol. 

In other words, his botak condition is just as mysterious as his leaking eyes, which still persist today but fortunately more good than bad days. Why did I think that it is easier with cats than dogs? Zzzz. We joked about how resilience the strays in the neighbourhood are and maybe we should send Mochi downstairs to learn from the strays for a few months. 

The doctor had suggested that we do more to relieve Mochi’s stress, like increasing his hiding spots, or this diffuser that is supposed to calm cats. Ok, shopping time. Some articles said that all cats like boxes but not Mochi leh. 

Anyway, maybe Mochi is really stressed, we found him hiding under the table, away from us, a lot more. 

When I scratched him this morning, he wasn’t purring too. Then he continued to over groom. 

I bought him a collar, but he hated it so much and managed to wiggle out. Maybe it will add on to his stress and so I didn’t insist that he wears it.  

We found a new big bald red patch yday, on his tummy. 

Poor Mochi, poor us. It will take time. Maybe bcos we haven’t been spending enough time with him recently and he is revenging against us. Sob.

Mummy Lim

Happy 14th Birthday, Zaky!

Zaky turns 14 yday. In a normal year, this would be a fantastic time for celebrations with EOY exams done and school holiday right around the corner. 

Unfortunately, there is no big celebration. It is not him, it is Nana, who is now right smack in her O levels papers and mugging away. We did have our ceremonial cake and dinner though. 

We got him a cake to bring to Youth. Why did he have to bring his own cake? His youths bought him one the previous week but he skipped Youth, opting to go sleepover at Auntie H’s house with T and feast over BBQ. Hoho. 

He said that he did the bday song, the candle blowing, the cake cutting and they had a small piece of cake, intending to bring the remaining to round 2 at one of the Youth’s place. Then, mysteriously, the cake went missing. Zzzz. At least they have done the ceremonial stuff. 

We had a good dinner on Sunday bcos Nana said so. The one who is undergoing the major exam has a bigger say than the bday boy. We went to Colin’s. 

I had imagined the portions to be bigger but the cheese burger looked so tiny in Daddy Lim’s hands. We ordered enough to fill hungry tummies though. 

We can’t help but to compare the father and son bcos of Zaky’s new hairstyle.

Same, same or different? 

Last evening, we did the cake cutting. 

The family picture. The one with Mochi is with Zaky’s phone. Mochi must be 赌神 bcos he wriggled so much to escape the picture taking.

Happy 14th bday, Zaky! May you continue to grow in the Lord and also to grow tall and strong (physically). May your hair grow too. Lol. We love you to the moon and back. 

Mummy Lim

Oktoberfest @ Paulauner

This time it was Auntie YF who jio-ed. I have never been to an Oktoberfest and am not anywhere near a beer lover. But, why not? Uncle C and Daddy Lim were invited too.

Oktoberfest must be a big thing in Paulauner bcos the place was full despite the event running over several weekends. Auntie YF kindly helped us made a reservation for 6.30pm. There is a minimum spend of $40 per person accumulative. 

I had an appointment earlier in the pm for a corporate headshot picture taking, paid for by the company. The experience is….. tiring, more tiring than work. Lol. I was given a full makeup and get to keep the nice makeup for the dinner date. 

Taking full advantage and 多拍几张.

Auntie YF and Auntie S ordered a pint each, Auntie H bought a litre of beer to share with Uncle C. Only Daddy Lim ordered the unlimited beer package at $48. He can have free flow beer from 6 to 8pm and had to drink 3 pints to break even. What did I have? Coke. Muahahaha. I left the food ordering to the aunties bcos I left my glasses in car. Hoho. 

The beer was served 1st. 

Daddy Lim said that it tasted like barley. It only tasted bitter to me. Cheers! 

It was a long wait before the food was finally served. There was a lot of meat and very yummy. I like meat.

The band played their 1st set in the main restaurant on the 2nd floor. Our table was on the 3rd floor. Despite the band playing duno what German songs, the crowd, especially those in the main restaurant, was 自high-ing. 

We left the restaurant at about 9pm. Did Daddy Lim break even on the beer? Yes! Especially with Auntie YF’s help. Overall, it was a good experience and the food was good. We spent about $75 per pax, which is fairly expensive for a dinner IMO, luckily we didn’t bring the kids. Hoho. 

Mummy Lim

Zaky Cut His Hair for the 3rd Time

Zaky didn’t get his hair “repaired” on Monday. It was pushed to Wednesday and he lived with his messy durian head for another 2 days. 

On Wednesday, he went with his friends to a home barber manned by a 17 YO, who is the friend of a friend of a friend. He paid $10 for this. 

Ah yes said that he should just gone to one of those QB houses and paid a few bucks more. Or consider buying his own shaver to do this himself with YouTube. Zaky argued that QB house doesn’t know how to do fades. Huh? What fade? Lol.

Anyway, Zaky now looks so much cleaner and neater. I don’t know how much maintenance this look required. I don’t think I want to buy a shaver. Can he just utilise those gel and hair spray that we already bought? Haha. Don’t waste.

Mummy Lim