Crêpe-tastic

Shrek definitely needs to consult the wonderful world of food blogging. He is in desperate need of reinvention as a cook.

I have requested that he dabbles in referencing some recipes from food blogs so as to improve his culinary skills.

His one dish that he mastered was instant noodles and crêpes and now I am beginning to have real doubt in his ability to successfully churn out delicious and scrumptious crêpes as his latest batch was a miss. He has been having more misses than hits lately. Time to hit the books or web pages eh Shrekkie.

Little Miss Stroppy

It does not take much to ruffle Lil Miss N's feathers these days. She seems to have a kerfuffle and throw a hissy fit/temper tantrum over the most miniscule things. She is a sulky and insufferable cry baby at least once if not several times a day.

She loves to throw around

'T'es méchant(e)' depending on the sex of the person she is talking to.

I was bed ridden and she blamed me for not having surveyed her 'make believe cabane' which she had concocted out of a blanket and some of her knick knacks... and allowed Baby Taz and Ben to destroy her fortress.

She went on and on and on for a good half hour screaming and hurling
'T'es méchante, je comprends tu n'a pas voulu surveiller...etc'

She gets upset over games that she deems too complicated or unwinnable for her. She is an especially bad loser.

She is just going through a difficult phrase as I do not condone the continuing of this reckless misbehaviour.

Weekly menu plan

Monday night : left over bu'n ma(ng ga (Vietnamese rice vermicelli with chicken broth and dried bamboo shoots)

Tuesday night : jasmin rice with Vietnamese stir-fried beef

Wednesday dinner : rice with stir-fried chicken fillet and broccoli and carrots

Thursday night : fried noodles with chicken breast and mixed veggies

Friday night : Vietnamese chicken curry with sweet potatoes, carrots served with crusty bread

Saturday lunch : Vietnamese chicken noodle soup Pho*? ga`


Sunday brunch : Shrek's way too salty crêpes and whipped cream
Sunday dinner : Pho*? ga` and chicken curry

Project 52 lament

My lamentable Project 52 sadly still has not even got off the ground yet. I am feeling a bit uninspired, lazy and unmotivated.

I do hope to start next week. I thought that the weight and burden of Project 52 was manageable. It is and isn't at the same time.

Anyway I should just shoot a few photos, upload and post...what can be so damn difficult about that? Now if I can find a camera that can shoot, upload and post photos that I tell it to all by itself...ha I can dream

Eti 'HAD'

Etihad is an airline which will have to prove its worthiness to me. I feel that I have been 'had' and 'had' being the operative word. I may be naive in believing that their call staff (who hail mostly from Bombay India) know what they are being asked and respond correctly to questions/queries/enquiries without ambiguity misinformed and led me down the path of headiness. In short they led me astray and their way of dealing leaves much to be desired. Shrek will attest to it all being my fault for being pathetically naive. I have also been agressed by their idiotic call staff in Geneva.

I do hope that my impression of them so far is not an indication of things to come and their inflight service exceeds my expectation and restore my faith a little.

At the moment my opinion of them is not very high but I will leave them the benefit of doubt and reserve my negative opinions and feelings and formulate my complaint upon my having actually flown on their flights.

Things kid say

Lil Miss N has a habit of unintentionally mangling the French language. Take the example of her constant and frequent usage of the phrases

'C'est plus pire', C'est plus bon or C'est plus mauvais

which means it's more worse, it's more good or it's more bad

She can count from one to thirty in French except she manages to stumble onto 30 by declaring vingt dix au lieu de dire trente.

She is cute regardless

My exceptional 31st celebration

I have a great birthday celebration that cannot be rivalled.

On the eve of my 31st anniversary I ate something sticky and nasty as did Petit Suisse which resulted in stomach cramps for me and projectile vomiting for Petit Suisse. Petit Suisse is especially susceptible to food poisoning, stomach bugs and viral infections much like Shrek. If there is even a hint or trace of it Petit Suisse and or Shrek will surely catch it. The worst part is that Petit Suisse can be projectile vomiting for several days and be lessivé by the bug of the worst kind. It is quite spectacular and I dread his episodes of poisoning/stomach bugs.

Needless to say that my 31st birthday was spent quietly cleaning up vomit and taking care of two cases of food poisoning, one more violent than the other. Add to the mix a bored toddler namely Baby Taz with a tendency and penchance for wreaking havoc and chalking up mischief and naughty behaviour. He has successfully drawn on walls, chairs, bedding sheets, blankets, pillows and himself with a texta. He likes to play with his food and refuses to be spoonfed leaving a mess under his high chair. He also managed to spill and pour pepper all over the dinner table and floor.

I do not have much to do except to clean up after messes and Baby Taz is exceptionally good at creating jobs for me. I will never be jobless and I cannot call in sick ever or take a day of leave.

Things kids say

One of the most often heard sentences coming out of Lil Miss N's mouth is
'Je vais tout dire à mama!'
This is a threat and an offensive weapon that Lil Miss N is armed with and it's quite effective as her rival for the most part Petit Suisse immediately surrenders unconditionally.


'Oui ou non, dire avec ta bouche.'
Petit Suisse is none too happy with a simple nod or shake of the head, he wants to hear the word yes or no uttered without any ambivalence or ambiguity.

Tentative project

My ambition or intention is to create a Project 52

I thought that I did not possess the patience and could not carry out the task of posting a photo a day as stipulated by Project 365.

I have opted for a slightly less ambitious and personalised goal of posting each week a photo or several or series of (depends on what gets me inspired) and a short anecdote or story or lesson or whatever strikes my fancy.

I am already late and will have to motivate myself. I have missed the first month of January. I propose to catch up with February which will be a more realistic step.

SO to me and my personalised 52 week Project which I will start off with week 5.

Message for my kids !

People who have more money than you are not necessarily smarter or richer (in the all encompassing sense of the word) or better in any way. They simply have more money and as a result may possess more material stuff than you.

It is not material things that will make anyone happy. We all need basic necessities and we need to also feel loved. One needs to have grounding and to feel grounded and balance. We all strive for success and material things but that will not necessarily fulfil us nor should it define who we are. One needs to keep in mind and be mindful of what the most important priorities in life are.

To love and be loved alone cannot feed our mouths, it only feeds our souls. We need material things in order to fulfil our physical beings but to overwhelm our beings with material gain and consumerism and to always seek to attain bigger, moreish and to keep up with the Joneses will render us ultimately unhappy.

To cite a case of the hapless poor little rich girl: a heiress of J&J dynasty died alone, friendless and with only rats as her companions. She died a lonely, wasteful and pointless death because she was crying out for attention and all the money and associated fame that was bestowed on her brought her downfall because she did not need to work for a living, did not need to earn her keep hence was infutilely partying her way and drugging herself to death. This is a reductionist theory and perhaps an oversimplified version. Life is much more complex and complicated than that but I simplify so that one can draw conclusions and life lessons from her example.

Work is sometime underestimated. One needs to feel useful by contributing in some way and to nurture and nourish our propensity to yearn and reach for a higher place but lest we forget where we came from and what makes us whole.


The moral of the story and the ultimate lesson I want to pass on to all of my four children is that having honourable work ethics is important. We need to contribute and participate positively and to feel that we are indeed useful and relevant and self-sufficient and having everything handed to you on a platter will only spoil you from the core. Having all the money and material objects in the world should not be one's lifelong goal. One should strive for a balance of having access to money and living comfortably (noone can define exactly what this level of comfortableness should be) and it differs for different people and yet maintaining our personal relationships with others around us and most of all preserve our self-knowledge and to always be proud of where we came from and what makes us whole.

Mummy and daddy love you all always and we hope that you our children will grow up to be self-sufficient, proud, positive contributors to society and happy adults who will in turn raise more full and well rounded individuals (perchance the case may be).

Croquant

"Notre sœur est craquant/croquant * "

Our little sister is impossibly cute. The direct translation is actually cracking or crunching.

Petit Suisse and Lil Miss N were overheard saying this lil phrase over and over again in reference to and in awe of Petite Baby Ben. She really is adorable and can melt ice with her smile. I am definitely biased because I am her mum and mums cannot help but be enamoured with their munchkins.


* I think both are applicable in this case. This is also in reference to the character 'Croque-Pomme' who is 'Charlotte aux Fraises' aka Strawberry Shortcake's adorably cute little sis in the animated series of which Charlotte aux Fraises is the heroine.

Papercrafts

River of Babylon,

Ehhh ehhh

There was a river of tears as Lil Miss N and Petit Suisse discovered that I had thrown out some bent paper airplanes and an Indian headwrap that they had fabricated.

Petit Suisse has a knack for folding paper planes...tens of them. I told him that we don't really need so man planes lying around but he was adamant that I had to safeguard them and not trash them.
Lil Miss N was also mightily upset and threatened to tell her teacher on me. The Indian headgear decorated with a paper feather was a crafts project she did in class. I was shaking in my boots.

Shrek is supposedly more discreet when it comes to throwing out waste.

I am taking out a page from Shrek's book.

At their impressionable age they do not get it that we can fabricate and fold paper planes or any other paper based craft time and again over and over... it does not matter really because to them each one is a chefs d'oevre d'Art. They are budding artists and I am not all that sensitive as my sensibilities have been dulled by reality.

I will attempt to be more mindful of such reactions in the future.

I felt like a villain tonight. :(