Important lesson for people prone to maniacal behaviour

A house is only a home if it is lived in and incidentally will have messes, dirt and dust.

A home is not a museum to be admired or an altar to be worshipped.

Incidentally if a home is lived in it will contain objects, junk and in general will be occupied, i.e. it will not have a whole lot of empty spaces, given that it is best if a home is not too cluttered but nevertheless it needs to be reiterated that I do not consider a house that is empty save for a few essentials a home. If the kitchen is always spotless one must wonder if it is ever used for cooking at all, if a living room is spotless then is it ever 'lived in', if a bed is perfectly made and it is covered with plastic to prevent dust from settling is it ever 'slept in'. If no dust ever settles then is it a home where people are living or is it dead space that is perfectly calm, perfectly devoid of all traces of life.

Life is not about having no clutter, spotlessness, cleanliness and emptiness. It is about spending quality time with others and interacting with your wife or spouse or companion and kids or by extension family and friends while one still can.A house that is orderly, tidy and neat without a single hair out of place is not a celebration of life but a celebration of stillness. Once we are gone it is already way too late. Time waits for no man. If we waste our time worrying about inessentials like how we can better improve our homes or surroundings but not our relationships with people around us then is all that fretting and worrying over trivial and trite things really worth it ???

If you insist on having a perfectly clean, spotless house then consider living in a museum. I challenge anyone who is game to try it. I am directing this at a certain somebody who shall remain unnamed. They know who they are...

High

Shrek is rather addicted to participating in auctions. I have an explanation as to why that is the case.

First of he loves the atmosphere, the ambience and the buzz surrounding auctions. He has his eye on several prizes and he is overcome by an adrenalin rush whenever he scores his prize for a ridiculous price (much similar to my scoring a bargain whenever I go bargain hunting). All of this to put it simply that Shrek is an avid auctioneer who is learning the ropes as he progresses from debutant to a seasoned pass holder. It is not even acquiring the goods or getting a cheap deal, it is simply being there and absorbing and breathing the aroma of all that an auction entails. He is becoming a usual suspect and familiar face amongst the attendees of auctions.

Shrek is an auction enthusiast and I incidentally do stand to profit from some of the gains he makes in the process.

Read update

Petit Suisse is well on his way to reading. He is reading rather impressively considering a week or thereabouts ago he was barely making out words.

I am so very proud of him having achieved this milestone.

Next step is for him to read on his own...maybe that is putting my hopes up and raising the bar too high.

The teacher in me rejoices !!!

My continuing love affair with all things dairy

I love love love dairy : yoghurts, dairy-based desserts, crèmes of all sorts and double crème, cheeses. I have come to become dairy dependent and have no qualms almost subsisting on a diet of dairy products and by products alone except when I have product overload and become sated hence nauseated by queasy sensations brought on by surfeit.

This is another non-exhaustive list of cheeses I have had the pleasure (and sometime disappointment or deceit and disgust) of trying

Montasio : on the fence.

I have given myself a rest from over-indulgence and thus have not degusté new cheeses as of late. My palate is being cleansed with an abundance of vegetables mainly carrots and zucchinis interspersed by salads and capsicums, bitter melons, Asian squash aka winter melon and okra.

Oranges, clementines, apples, persimmons and pawpaw rounds out my fruits intake.

Luckily our supply of Perles de Lait is coming to an end. That is our consumption of it for at least three months til the next big purchase coinciding with the big SALE.

Physics lesson

This simple Physics lesson is reserved for Shrek


Real big boobs are prone to sagging, drooping and pointing South.

FAKE BIG boobs are not prone to what real big boobs have to endure. They are pockets of gravity-defying, men attracting and human made fruits/balloons/bazookas (whatever analogy tickles your fancy) meant to mislead and propagate/perpetuate the myth of the breasts as forever frozen in time and space (upwards).

Shrek is like most typical men a breasts (and to not a lesser extent) and ass man.

What astounds me is the fact Shrek is supposedly a shrew and wise sage that knows most of the Physics principles that govern our existence yet he seems to have this little bit of 'no real breasts' can ever defy the laws of gravity flown right over his head : perhaps deliberately allowing his reverie to rule his judgments.

Breakable

Melanine ware dropped from a height of more than one metres will shatter and break into a thousand pieces. I made this astounding discovery thanks to Baby Taz who has broken one melanine presentation plate and an IKEA coffee mug (which has been the recipient of thousand upon thousand of coffee refills.)

R-e-a-d

Petit Suisse's reading prowess is progressing at a slow tortoise pace of an hour per page. It is a patience tester but I do see the progress however small or insignificant it might seem to outsiders. He is actually reading words with some prompting. So I persist and hope to see a breakthrough performance. My eyes light up in anticipation of such a milestone whenever that takes place.


On another note of training I think I am abandoning toilet training Baby Taz for now. I will try again this springtime when the weather is warmer and I am less house confined thus inciting me to attempt feats that I just do not have the energy for right now.

Chestnut season

The chestnut season so far has proved to be dissappointing beyond belief.

It mirrors life in Geneva : in theory full of promises but fails to deliver and ultimately falls flat.

Petit Suisse so far has not requested chestnuts because the ones he has had thus far have been rotten or thoroughly below par. Let's hope that we will enjoy a few batches of roasted goodness soon.

Time to move onto greener pastures elsewhere.

Geneva is becoming less and less appealing if that is possible and lower and lower in my esteem.

Shrek's romantic gesture

Shrek has been making a big effort lately. He vaccuumed, wiped the floor and tidied the kitchen to the best of his ability last night. On top of all that he even cooked a wonderful dinner from scratch, i.e. did not provient from a package or ready-made section of the supermarket.

He made rack of lamb accompanied by mash potatoes agrementée by spices and coriander.

We shared the intimate dinner by candlelight with a bottle of red Beaumes des Venise 2001 and ended with Lindt Pralinés Intense Noirs.

This morning I had a bath, mud mask and painted my own finger and toe nails. Shrek cooked eggs Benedict and petits pains and a filling brunch was had by us.

That is a weekend to remember.

Now Shrek can widen his arsenal and learn some more recipes to woo me.

Thank you Shrekkie for all your efforts and gestures !

Judge and jury

As a mum of four kids with ages of 6 and a half, almost 5, almost 2 and a 6 months old baby I am constantly faced with the dilemma of being judge and jury.

They play harmoniously but then have bouts of disagreement and can tear each other apart and fight like the worst of enemies. Petit Suisse and Lil Miss N bicker over trivial things like any other siblings and add to the mix Baby Taz who does not speak as yet and thus cannot express himself. He can certainly defend himself though as he has a piercing scream that can wake the entire neighbourhood as well as a deadly pinch and scratch.

I constantly have to break up fights, normal and nothing out of the ordinary or the least bit unusual.

When Petit Suisse and Lil Miss N bicker and have little spats over absolutely everything and anything and sometime nothing at all I will have the privilege of settling the score and refereeing. I am in the middle and they usually point the finger and blame the other party of having initiated the whole ordeal or started the fight etc

They will play and then one will feel the urge or need to tease or annoy the other and there will be retribution and I am called upon to judge. How to be fair and not play favouritism when I am not even sure who the culprit is because the question is often met with the ambiguous response of 'She started it.' but 'No, no no, he is the one.'

In short I have the most difficult position of attempting to be just and fair and not to interfere into the realm of kids play.