Full

My bank book cannot be considered full but there are a myriad of other things in my household which could be described as such. The kitchen sink for instance is always full of dirty pots, pans and dishes. The laundry basket is overwhelmingly full of soiled clothes, linen and so forth. My apartment is full of noisy laughter and at times full of tearful tantrum hissy fits. My letterbox is full of crappy ads and monthly bills that incessantly arrive. My basement is full of needless crap that our family has accumulated over the years.My kitchen is full of useless gadgets. My pantry is full of sugar hits for my sweet cravings.
Sometime my home resembles a battlefield that has been hit by bombers and is certainly full of chaos and disorder.
The most important fulfilment is that at the end of a tiring and thoroughly exhausting day I do feel that it is full of love. I do want my children to feel that eventhough their mum might have lost her patience with them that ultimately she thinks that they are worth the sacrifices that she has made -career wise and otherwise and that she loves them in all earnesty.

I do want my children to be able to read this blog one day and feel proud of their mum. They need to know that no matter what their mum loved and loves them wholeheartedly.

I had a tendency to be much more optimistic before having children but the older I am the more pessimistic I have become. I think idealism has been unfortunately quashed by harsh reality. I do however believe that children need to follow their own paths and pursue their dreams...importance lies in trying and giving it your all. The end result sometime can be disheartening but being resilient and resistant enough to go on is what differentiates a doer from a nay-sayer.

Shrek's new title

Shrek has a new title to add to his impressive list : that of IRON MAN.

hehehe

Revelation

I have long known that this blog is my personal web space and that the only audience I have so far is Shrek. sob sob

It was intended to be my semi-personal journal which would showcase my capacity and potential as a writer but I have discovered that most of the time I am just rambling as I am in no mind to formulate 'something that would appeal to the general masses'.

I have asked myself time and again what separates the merely personal and boring blogs from those that end up with book deals.. (be it a memoir, mostly memoir or foodie)

The answer is I truly do not know. The quality of writing on some of these blogs which have secured book deals is questionable at best. It comes down to the circumstances and luck of the draw. Although it helps if one pretended to be more illustrious/scandalous or have some attributes such as being repressed and finally blossoming into a social butterfly. Although I have noticed that people often mistake commonplace embellishment of scenarios for wit.

A while ago I registered as a writer on essaywriters.net. Soon after I realised that it was in fact where people could pass off/plagiarise others work as their own. One offer ones services as a writer and one gets such projects as 'essay on history' or law...in short actual university and college papers where the clients want to purchase an essay written by writers on essaywriters.net and put their names on these works and submitting them to profs and teachers. I soon lost interest. I wanted to be freelancer not someone paid to do others homework.

I also submitted some original poems to poetry.com.
Imagine my naive jubilation at the fact that all the poems I submitted were selected and awarded the prestigious 'Editors Choice' as well as included in the next publication 'An anthology of poetry' . I realised that anyone who submit any poem will be awarded with an Editors Choice and be subsequently bombarded with invitations to attend the supposed International gathering of poets worldwide as well as ads to buy the pre-published anthologies, plaques, etc etc...in short a scam to sell stuff. I lost interest and stopped hoping for my chance to shine with a few published poems to my name.

I have also registered for such hideous parasites as hits4paid.com or emailcash.com.au

Most of these give the impression that one will make money with no capital invested, no work involved just a simple click on an ad and one will be awarded with 'points'. It is a big waste of time as the time invested in these useless and inane activities will render the actual measly gain a futile effort. It is not worth a damn!

My point in venting about all this is that I have many a frustration with all the scams and crap out there. I have learned a thing or two and will be the wiser for it. Although I did fall for these tricks I have not been a hapless pigeon because I did not actually lose anything valuable other than some time....which to Shrek is worth more than money,,.Time is money. Woe woe woe is me

My favourite time-wasting activities

I have a few activities I indulge in when I manage to put the kids to bed and have a bit of time to veg out.

I used to watch completely trashy reality-TV on MTV. I am ashamed...but it passed the time and I did lobotomise after a hard day at the day-care (more like the war-zone) juggling 3 under-6 warriors.
I admit that I find it more and more irritating and annoying and my level of tolerance for such rubbish is at an end.

My new found activities include facebooking (it's so bloody trendy nowadays) and surfing 'celebrity/people' watch sites.

I have had a bad influence on Shrek as he shares this same passion: surfing the 'people' sites....complete rubbish but it makes us feel warm inside to know that without make-up artists, plastic surgeons, beauty salons, stylists and pro photographers who meticulously photoshop these celebs, they look rubbish too...Some of them manage to look worse than hell even with plastic surgery, make-up and money and fame.

My favourite surfing pasttime involves ogling food porn and uhmming and ahming and all the while learning new techniques and tricks of the trade. It has been insightful to discover new ways to prepare the same old ingredients.



Otherwise Shrek is a die-hard techie fan and he reveres airplanes. He is very passionate about airliners.com a site dedicated to people like him who like plane watching and spend time discussing all aspects of aviation and aerien travel.

I also look at ordinary people's blogs who post mundane daily meanderings because I can relate to them at some level. It is amazing that with the age of technology people all over are reunited by special interests or just pure curiosity. I read these blogs much the same way as I would scan down a celebrity site because the chance of me ever crossing these people in real life is minus zilch. Somehow I feel rather connected by the commonalities, a sense of belonging to this cyber community and disconnected from reality at the same time. It does not foster any relationships but nevertheless it brings some moments of comfort and serenity when strangers are as self-deprecating and dead-pan humorous as I am.

Minuses

One of the many reasons why I dread living in Geneva in winter is its grey sky, absence of sunshine and lack of fruits save the nightmarish apples which are either sour or mushy/powdery. I as well as my offsprings all love fruits, exotic fruits in particular.

My mum who lives in Sydney has not missed any opportunites to rub salt into my wound of missing out on FRUITS glorious FRUITS by nonchalantly dropping hints that she is able to enjoy boundless bounty of cherries, luscious mangoes, sweet apricots, grapes, plums which renders me green with envy. She has not even started on all the exotic loot such as durian, mangosteen, jackfruit, rhambutan and so on and so forth.

If I see another apple, orange or banana I will literally go ape or bananas !

My ever burgeoning list of dispensable kitchen appliances.

I have a list of semi-useful kitchen appliances and gadgets/tools. I am more than certain that all of these purchases seemed like a good idea at the time and it was in no way impulsive buying. Scoff scoff...

Below is the non-exhaustive list:

1. The icecream/sorbet maker - I was really eager and excited when I received this as a gift. There were so many ice cream recipes I was inspired to try but the motivation has been replaced by fatigue and other priorities. I have yet to open the carton/packaging which goes to show how useful this machine has been to me.
2. The donut maker: I have not opened the packaging and it is not high on my priority list to do so either. The plus is that is it supposed to be a healthy version of donuts as it does not involve deep-frying. Although the deep-frying sometime is indispensable to the tasty factor.
3. The rotiserrie grill : I recuperated this from my aunt in Vietnam,apparently it consumes a lot of electricity and she had only ever used it once. I myself have used it occasionally since the
4. The bread maker: I have used this sporadically since its arrival in my kitchen. As always it was an acquisition I was very excited to finally secure but it has been sitting dormant in the corner for a little while waiting to be revived. I have not been altogether satisfied with the results it has yielded so far hence my reluctance and hesitation in attempting to give it some more workout.
5. The juice extractor: In theory very healthy and so forth but a bit unwieldy. It is a budget buster as well because it's pricey to extract fresh juice from fruits and veggies. The juice yielded cannot be preserved very long either. I have used it to extract apple and carrot juice but have not been adventurous enough to try with exotic flavours...
6. The Charlotte : A multi-function mincer that minces, shreds and slices and is so versatile it has become Shrek's newest best friend.. He is enamored with it.
7. The coffee machine : Solely Shrek's wake-up call because he is unbearably stroppy, lethargic and utterly unfathomable before coffee. Coffee is his drug.

The next acquisition will have to be essential because the kitchen is becoming crowded with all these needless or semi-useful appliances.

My lack of green thumb

I see the sorry state of the indoor plants that I have and wonder why I prolong their suffering. I do really want to revive and keep them until spring which is a long 3 months away from now. I am pathetic ! Two measly plants... and they are dying on me.

Shrek has been busying himself relentlessly slogging away at his day and night job so my endeavour to entrust him with the caring for the plants is to no avail.

It is getting rather desperate...all the more so when I feel like I hardly have time to do anything other than occupying and entertaining and feeding and general upkeeping the 3 and a 1/2 kids I have.

I will refrain from posting actual pictures of the pooor poor things. The real reason is I would have to take photos, upload and that takes precious time away from my other main activities.

Green thumb

I received a plant for my homewarming back in November and another one end of December. I am hoping that they will last until spring at least. Given my track record at keeping plants so far the plants do not have a very likely chance of survival. I do not have a green thumb though I do think that one does not really need to be to keep two plants from lasting 2 months. I even eschewed the likelihood of wilting from water shortage by spending luxuriously on a pressure sprayer. It is impressive as only enthusiastic gardeners can claim to have this tool.

Plants are complicated and seem high-maintainance: too much water- they die, not enough water they die, too much or too little sunlight they die, exposure to frostbite-death ...the list is endless. I cannot vouch for all their neediness..


I will bestow this all important duty of caring for the plants to my beloved Shrekkie.

Oyster Opener

It is no secret that I love seafood and in particular lobster, scallops, oysters and abalones. Shrek has been spoiling me by opening dozens upon dozens of oysters (at very affordable prices) and only eating nominally leaving me and Petite Suissesse to enjoy the fruits of his labour.

The bowl cut

Shrek thought it was a good idea to figuratively put a bowl on King Minimoy's head and cut around it.

It sure looks cute !

King Moy will have fond memories as the bowl cut has been captured on camera.