A Mother’s Monologue

T1 came home this week singing an unfamiliar song to a familiar tune. It is quite clever how her school teaches them to remember by making them learn the facts through songs, since children are naturally predisposed to learning musically and it works!

Although T1 (being her father’s daughter, his ambition was to be an astronaut and so he has taught her everything about space) already knew the planets of the solar system since she was very young, she didn’t know the configuration in which they were placed. But now she does!

Allow me to share the song the school taught so your kids too can benefit. It is about the planets sung to the tune of the nursery rhyme, THIS OLD MAN.

MERCURY, NUMBER ONE

IT IS CLOSEST TO THE SUN

CHORUS: WITH A ROUND, ROUND, GO AROUND, PLANETS ROUND THE SUN, SING ABOUT THEM EVERYONE!!

VENUS BRIGHT, NUMBER TWO

MORNING AND EVENING ‘STAR’ WE VIEW CHORUS

PLANET EARTH, NUMBER THREE

WE LIVE ON IT, YOU AND ME CHORUS

PLANET MARS, NUMBER FOUR

NAMED FOR A ROMAN GOD OF WAR CHORUS

NUMBER FIVE, JUPITER

COLOURED CLOUDS AROUND IT STIR CHORUS

NUMBER SIX, BIG SATURN

MANY RINGS AROUND IT TURN CHORUS

NUMBER SEVEN, URANUS

IT LOOKS BLUE AND GREEN TO US CHORUS

NUMBER EIGHT, STORMY NEPTUNE

TRITON IS ITS FROZEN MOON CHORUS

NUMBER NINE, DWARF PLUTO

FARTHEST FROM THE SUN, YOU KNOW CHORUS

Have you ever been there?

When they first started, I used to hang out here having breakfast with friends (read T1′s friend’s moms) as I was always too lazy to drop T1 off at school, go home and then pick her up again 3 hours later. Instead, I’d spent many hours chatting about the Earth and the Sun and the Moon in this modernesque kopitiam.

We’d try all the local coffees they offered and every single dish on the menu. I think it was more that we were just addicts of Dewi’s Corner that automatically drew us to that same corner lot! The quality of F&B used to be a lot better but lately, it has deteriorated somewhat.

When my cousins were in town from Oz, we went to Chawan every day!

Half boiled eggs with kaya toast.

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Nasi Lemak with deep fried chicken. Apparently, the chicken was out of this world. It possibly brought your heart out of this world too!

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More kaya toast, anyone?

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My favourite – plain packet nasi lemak.

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Ever since the lack of consistency at Chawan since my cousins left, I have not gone back. Out of 5 times I’d been there, they just couldn’t get their teh tarik right. It was different EVERY SINGLE TIME. Eventually, I got fed up and bored of having to send it back. I’d still go for the food though. Not great but enough to satisfy a craving.

These are the chairs at the Digi outlet where we did the big crossover. T1 and I loved them chairs because they were stylish, multi-functional and comfortable. Digi really is the telco of the future.

T1 said she could use the chair as a desk whilst she eats her favourite Yow Char Kuay.

And use it as a normal chair.

I must say, in the 3 times that I have been to various Digi outlets in town, service has been first class. And just so you know, the Digi guy in the Solaris branch was real cute. They all speak impeccable English and were able to answer all my questions. I had to go to enquire what would happen to my Blackberry services when I travel and was kindly warned that I should TURN OFF my data connections when I arrive (or rather before I arrived) because I would receive tons of welcome messages and emails and whatever else into my email and I will be charged international rates accordingly. VERY EXPENSIVE. Apparently, they had a client who didn’t turn his Blackberry services off and when he landed, all his emails came in through the foreign telco and his bill ended up being RM18,000 plus. No kidding. Data services are VERY expensive abroad.

They do have a package though that will give me a connection for RM36 per day but I’m not sure I even want to go there. I will probably just keep my data services on my phone OFF throughout the trip. I can live without the internet, can’t I???

Or, can I?

After being with Maxis for the last 13 years, yesterday our entire family moved over to the bright side. If we had moved over to Celcom, I’d have called it the dark side. Sorry, Mr Celcom.

The move was fast, simple and painless. We went to the Digi outlet at the Pavillion and told them we wanted to move over. Funnily, the Maxis outlet was directly opposite the Digi outlet and was a lot more busy than the Digi outlet.

For the last year, we’d Mmm…ed and Aaahhh….ed, wanting to switch just because whenever an enterprise gets too big for its boots, they need a bit of competition, ya know? But the uncertainties held us back. I had confidence in Digi because their foreign counterparts had been my clients when I was working at the twin towers and they had not only paid BIG BUCKS for their office space, they were very clever people. But the Hubs just wasn’t a stickler for change. Since he lost his job however, he was FORCED to get out of his comfort zone for Digi was a whole lot cheaper.

To cut a long story, we’ve been on Digi for more than 2 weeks now and our bill came up to RM78 versus RM290 with Maxis. Granted, it is only a half months bill pro-rated but still! For us, there has been no difference in line service. My Blackberry works just as fast for internet and we’ve not had any call drops yet. In fact, for one third the price of the green telco, I’d expect less! But so far, they’ve been fantastic! Who says cheap is worse?

I’m LOVING our new yellow telco!

NB – if you want more information on rates and our package, email me. It really is worth it but I believe this special promotional price ends by mid September after which they’ll probably get more competitive again. So catch it whilst you can!

We have tried practically every cereal on the supermarket shelves in making T2 eat her darn cereal!!! She just doesn’t seem to like cereal and the only cereal she seemed to have eaten the most was the tin of organic cereal from Bangsar Village which costs almost RM30 per pop. She started with that (given from a dear friend) and seems to like that the best. Nothing else has worked. She’d eat up to 10 little baby tea spoons and she’d be done. Where as when we first started her on that organic cereal, she’d eat up to fifty spoons and finish her bowl. Are your babies fussy about cereal brands and cereal flavours?

I’d say her next favourite if at all, would be the fruity multi-grain cereal by Nestle.

Here’s one cereal that we haven’t tried yet though because I noticed a defect within the packaging even before I’d opened the plastic bag with cereal in it. I first saw an insect inside the box, then some eggs, and then at closer look, the cereal was moldy and wet inside. EEEEWWWWWEEEE!!!! It cost RM17.90 and is some organic cereal but EEEWWWEEE!!! I’m so glad I noticed it before serving it to her. We got it exchanged but they could only give us back a new box of that same cereal so I’m still not sure if I want to make her that cereal. It is rather telling of their QC at their food factory!!! I might just chuck it in the bin. YUCK.

When I was a teenager, I used to frequent the famous Soong Kee beef ball noodles on Jalan Silang, near Kota Raya, as I used to take the public bus to school (and other places…..). I didn’t have a driver all my life, despite common misperceptions! And after I started driving my own car, hardly went back there as parking was a real pain.

I was pleasantly surprised then 20 years later that they still exist and are now in Lot 10! It has been ages since I went to Lot 10 but when I did, there was a whole new food court that served all the famous hawker fare that we are all familiar with. My first food dive had to be Soong Kee’s famous beef ball noodles as I hadn’t had it for years!  It was good, but not as good as I’d remembered it. Perhaps they are now more commercialised in an upmarket shopping mall and quite possibly lacked the flavours of public bus exhaust fumes lining the roadside cuisine. That made all the difference.