What I'm talking about is not the usual hiccup babies or us get sometime, is the hiccups we face in life at times. One moment I was happily planning for my no pay leave, overjoyed that it was approved, the next moment I was devastated that my dept was going to be CLOSED DOWN!
Heard of some rumor about it but it turn into fact overnight! What a joke they had cracked on me. I was even happily planning to move nearer to my working place and was thinking that if I could settle down, maybe I may cut short my no pay leave! Ha! people is coming to view my house this weekend and I even sign the contract to buy over my friend place. What is happening now is really what we say in mandarin "人算不如甜算"My partner and I was called for a short meeting with the administrative head to break the news to us. Luckily our HR manager did sound us off the night before and we was quite composed during the meeting. But I broke down and cried when they mention the fate of our precious equipment if nobody adopt it, CONDEMN ! She is still in great condition even though she is not that young, is not that she is not working and no one is using her! For 10 LONG YEARS, she (we always refer our dear machine as a "she" as "she" was quite temperamental like a woman) I'm sad to leave my colleagues who has accompany me for the past 13 ++ years, but this machine has accompany us hours and hours for the past 10 years from the first day she was send to us, she is a baby to us both.
We have our hay days and of course frustrating moment with her. I almost felt that she would cry if she is with us now...it seems like the composition we used to write in our younger day, the" biography of something". The composition would start with either "I am a book "or a doll or even pets.. it would be well love and care when they first came, and when they are old, it would be dispose as a piece of old rubbish... I almost can hear my machine whimpering in silent... behind the buzz and hum...
Is not that the machine is not functioning well, is not that no one from the company is using it and in actual fact, it has been churning some income to cover the overhead and maintenance cost. The reason of closing sound kind of lamed, "keeping it is not feasible".???? Till date we can only make some wild guesses what is the real reason.
Our poor HR manager was so upset, I don't blamed her, she is really hand tied, there is really nothing she can do actually. Fighting for better benefit for us is out of question. Actually quitting was in mind before I took my no pay leave, is her who had suggested to take no pay leave first to keep my position. Permanent staff in the market is as rare as White tiger now. When the opportunity came that my colleague Mr Sleepy want to sell his place, I felt that maybe is really a way out for taking no pay leave, I could stay nearer to my in law place and could go back to work. I can settle my move during my no pay leave and try to go back to work if things work out. What a wonderful plan. Too bad, this is not going to take place but still, I will move back, this time the reason will be a good school for my sons ;).
That same evening both of us received the official letter to tell us the machine will be close in 1 month time. Our fate? My partner, Tonic, who work in this company for 14-15 year will have 1 month to transfer out of this company to other "branches" . My fate? I will have to call them 1 month in advance before my no pay leave end to ask if they have a post for me if not...... what do u think? Ha! No compensation was being mention in the letter. We did suggest to the management about retrenchment but was turn down. We start to wonder what is the use of us being the permanent staff? what rights do we have as an employee? Who can protect us as an employee? The most ironical thing on this whole event is that the decision maker for this closure and our fate came from a person where his own country always cried out for HUMAN RIGHTS ! What a great joke.
All our colleagues are shock over the harsh treatment, some mention we should seek higher authority...After some soul searching and brain storming.. we knew is going to be fruitless fight. Even the highest authority of the country could not do anything about it. Why? It will be too big a trouble if they sided us, they are also in a difficult position. Well, I'll leave some imagination over this matter, I may get into trouble if I go into further detail. I am almost out of job now, I won't want to have more trouble. Anyway the option of quitting was in mind if my no pay leave was rejected, so it does not matter now. That is how a typical person would react if they face this kind of problem in my country. Complain to friend and family about it, weep a bit and cool off. Now I am withdrawing my no pay leave, why wait for a year to face the same fate, I may as will face it now. 长痛不如短痛。Well, I'll closed down the dept together with my partner for my past 13++ years, is the dept we set up together and is time for us to close it together. Maybe it will be the last time we work as a team...if she took up a new post found by our very concern colleague.
To Tonic if she read my blog: Thanks for being such a great partner for the past 13 + + years, there are time we quarrels and don't see thing eye to eye but I soon realized that you are the greatest partner I ever had. We shared so much happy moment as compare to those downtime: our first skiing trip...the ohs and Ahs at keukenof garden.. the bazaar days..shopping trip....ZZZZ time and many many more. I'll keep those fond memories in my heart. Thanks for everything.
That's the realistic side of the working world... so the solution? BE MY OWN BOSS! :)
This is a fiction, all names and places are cooked up. I am learning to cook as well as cooking up stories! Maybe I want to be a writer one day. Thanks to all who read my story today.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Sorbet
My 1 year no pay leave has been approve! Is a relief but was kind of worrying too. Wonder will I be able to cope as a SAHM. You know is hard to have personal space and time when u have 2 kids around.Although I have a maid but she does not cook our local dish very well. We can't make ourselves eating Indonesian food all the time. So most of the time I have to do the cooking myself. Anyway, I love cooking and now with the maid I can mess up the kitchen without worrying to clean up later :) Thus, I must make full use of this period of time when I have the maid.
I love cooking for family and friends and I love to make dessert coz I have a sweet tooth. My hubby and Sam love sorbet but is so expensive to buy outside, 1 small ball will cost S$2.50 ~ $3! so, I decide to make it myself. Here is a recipe to make sorbet for those who may be interested. This recipe come from various source, some from the cooking program I had watched and some from the blog I came across. I make some changes here and there and viola. Is healthier as compare to ice cream.
Mango Sorbet
Ingredients:
2 big mangoes
50ml water
40-50gm sugar (depend how sweet u want it to be)
2 tbsp lemon juice or lime juice (add more if u prefer it to be more sour)
1. Boiled the water and sugar till sugar dissolved. Leave it aside to cool.
2. Puree the mango and add in the sugar syrup and lemon juice, blend the mixture.
3. Pour into a flat tray. the mixture should be 2-3cm thick.
4. Freeze the mixture.
5. Used a fork to scrap the frozen mixture to crumbs. This will create the sorbet texture.
6. Used a plastic bag to cover your hand and knead the crumbs to balls. Do it fast coz it melt easily
Ready to serve. If u like put a mint leave to decorate it .
Monday, June 2, 2008
Shopping Queen
STUFF FROM SPREE! I always has been a shopping Queen. I gain this title when I travelled with my colleagues years ago. I love the feeling of buying load of stuff. Even buying grocery makes me happy! I believed in shopping therapy, is a way for me to unwind other then the other method, baking therapy. Before I was married, I love to travel and shop. I could get thing that is not avaliable here. There is alway excuse to get another pair of shoes and another blouse.. But as the more I buy, I realise that I do not have so much storage space. Soon, I don't even bother to buy things when I travel. Maybe just a magnet to put on the fridge for remembrance. So I find buying grocery is a better way out. At least the whole family can eat away the stuff I bought :) No need to worry about storage space.
After I get married and have a house, I tend to buy lots of thing to decorate the house. My husband and I even bought a elephant craving from ChiangMai during our honeymoon. Is kind of crazy coz is so heavy and huge. After I have kid, I started buying for my son. I learned to shop online for stuff or join bulk purchase and spree from oversea. In that way, I can get unique clothing, books and toys for my son at lower cost. I don't even need to spend time going out to shop. Well I do agree being able to feel and choose the stuff you like is a total different experience from shopping online. But you get another kind of thrilled when you received your parcel and opening it! Just like getting your birthday present. Is great for SAHM. All mummies should know how tough is to shop when u bring your kids along. They need to eat, need to pee, need to nap, even need some time to throw tantrum! For mummies, when comes to sales, food and tiredness is the last thing in the mind. I am very paronoid that someone might kidnap my son who love to run about when we go off guard.
There is even a point of time my husband suggest maybe I could organised spree or bulk purchase full time when I don't work! He offer to write up a program to do that. Ha ! is a crazy idea. Is so tough to organise spree and the return is not much. There is so much coordination involved and when thing goes OSS (Out Of Stock) u have to inform people and get replacement item. Some people may delay payment and ask you on hold. Sometime suppliers will send the wrong things and we have to absorb it or sell it at the forum. So much problem involved and too much of a hassle. What's the fun of doing shopping for people when I have to keep worrying that i cannot deliver the stuff and got scolded by people.
I do buy second hand stuff from forum too. No one can denied that time is getting tough now. All prices form stuff goes up and if we can save a bit why not? Anyway some of the thing like bumbo chair and stroller is not for long term usage. We can get quite a reasonable condition one from the WTS (want to sell) site in the forum. I do get to meet some nice mummies. Of course, I manage to sell off thing I need to clear from my store room to other mummies in the forum too :)
For mummies who come across my blog and interested in shopping, here are some of the website which I visited often to do my shopping and selling :)
I do buy second hand stuff from forum too. No one can denied that time is getting tough now. All prices form stuff goes up and if we can save a bit why not? Anyway some of the thing like bumbo chair and stroller is not for long term usage. We can get quite a reasonable condition one from the WTS (want to sell) site in the forum. I do get to meet some nice mummies. Of course, I manage to sell off thing I need to clear from my store room to other mummies in the forum too :)
For mummies who come across my blog and interested in shopping, here are some of the website which I visited often to do my shopping and selling :)
Thursday, May 29, 2008
No News = Good News?
There is a good piece of new today, Matthew finally poo after 5 days! Maybe his pooing pattern is once a 5 days. My hubby's colleague email my hubby on this pooing issue and it really set my mind at peace. For those total breast babies who encounter this problem, here is a link :~
So mummies, do not panic if your babies did not poo.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
The Making of Elixir
Went back to work on Monday and has been busy. Busy applying for no pay leave, busy making my claims. Now trying to claim whatever I can before I go on no pay leave, every cents counts now.
I read about using the placental to make to chinese medicine quite sometime back ago even before my elder son was born but it never cross my mind to keep it. Furthermore, I pledged to donate the cord blood to KKH so did not went to any more research about it. Anyway, my first delivery was a kind of a rush, water bag burst, being a first time mum I was so panicky that my mind was blank most of the time. Thus, forgot to ask my gynae to "Tabao" the placental back.
Ok , here is some background on Placental. The chinese name for the dried placental is 紫车河. 胎盘既非草木，又非金石，世上也没有紫河，何以命名为“紫河车”呢？其实，这名字的来历带有浓厚的神话色彩。据《本草纲目》解释，“天地之先，阴阳之祖，乾坤之始，胚胎将兆，九九数足，胎儿则乘而载之”，其遨游于西天佛国，南海仙山，飘荡于蓬莱仙境，万里天河，故称之为河车。母体娩出时为红色，稍放置即转紫色，因此，入药时称为“紫河车”。
What is it use for ?
功用] 补气，养血，益精。 [主治] 虚损、羸瘦、咳血气喘、劳热骨蒸、遗精等症。
I read alot about it and a chinese sinseh even kept her son's placental in the freezer for years and scrap a bit to let the son eat when he had a cough or ill. Some even say is good for mummy's complexion and cooked the placental with Spaghetti! :P . Well, the thoughts already irks me. No way I'm going to cook the placental as a meal. My elder son, Samuel is very proned to cough and so I thought, why not keep Matthew's placental and both of them can eat! It will be better then to get the one from the chinese medicinal hall where the source of placental is in doubt. I asked around and post on forum and I found a lady who got a friend who does it for people at a cost. Now they set up a web site to do it. It was kind of expensive, $100 plus. For those who is not comfortable to DIY and willing to pay can look up at this web site. http://www.freewebs.com/mommycozyhaven/
Please note that I don't know them at all and have no share in this business and I am not advertising for them. Just put it here to share the info.
My hubby is also not comfortable with this idea so I end up looking for the recipe to DIY. For those mummies who are interested, I had attach the recipe below :~
Placental Capsule Preparation
For washing the placenta, use salt sparingly, because salt will actually make the placenta 'cold'. You can also use a can of coke to clean it. Wash away all the blood. Instead of steaming it, buy some 金银花 and 甘草, boil them in water, afterwards, put in the placenta and boil it for 1/2 hour. This will get rid of the 'fishy' smell.
Slice it to thin slices, the thinner the better because it will be easier to dry. My hubby cut it so thick that I took a long time to dry it.
Sun it like you would with chinese herbs. Put it out in the sun, bring it indoors to keep. If the weather is bad, bake it in the oven till crisp. Watch your fire coz I burned mine a bit. DO NOT put into the fridge because this will cause moisture deposit on the placenta.
Grind it to powder and get empty capsule from medicinal hall to put the powder in.
Use a piece of clean baking paper and pour the grinded placental powder.
Open the capsule and press onto the powder, press a few time till it filled up with the powder. Depending the size of your placental, it will make around 150-200 capsules.
I have already taken the powder TWICE! Taste…. hmmm, don't know, i swallowed it with a big gulp of water. Gave Matthew a bit as he cannot poo, so i was hoping that this helps. He did poo once after taking it but after that back to sqare one, he dun poo anymore. I do not feel that my skin is better or more radiant, maybe I did not take enough. For those mummies who had try please share your view point on eating placental with me :)
I read about using the placental to make to chinese medicine quite sometime back ago even before my elder son was born but it never cross my mind to keep it. Furthermore, I pledged to donate the cord blood to KKH so did not went to any more research about it. Anyway, my first delivery was a kind of a rush, water bag burst, being a first time mum I was so panicky that my mind was blank most of the time. Thus, forgot to ask my gynae to "Tabao" the placental back.
Ok , here is some background on Placental. The chinese name for the dried placental is 紫车河. 胎盘既非草木，又非金石，世上也没有紫河，何以命名为“紫河车”呢？其实，这名字的来历带有浓厚的神话色彩。据《本草纲目》解释，“天地之先，阴阳之祖，乾坤之始，胚胎将兆，九九数足，胎儿则乘而载之”，其遨游于西天佛国，南海仙山，飘荡于蓬莱仙境，万里天河，故称之为河车。母体娩出时为红色，稍放置即转紫色，因此，入药时称为“紫河车”。
What is it use for ?
功用] 补气，养血，益精。 [主治] 虚损、羸瘦、咳血气喘、劳热骨蒸、遗精等症。
I read alot about it and a chinese sinseh even kept her son's placental in the freezer for years and scrap a bit to let the son eat when he had a cough or ill. Some even say is good for mummy's complexion and cooked the placental with Spaghetti! :P . Well, the thoughts already irks me. No way I'm going to cook the placental as a meal. My elder son, Samuel is very proned to cough and so I thought, why not keep Matthew's placental and both of them can eat! It will be better then to get the one from the chinese medicinal hall where the source of placental is in doubt. I asked around and post on forum and I found a lady who got a friend who does it for people at a cost. Now they set up a web site to do it. It was kind of expensive, $100 plus. For those who is not comfortable to DIY and willing to pay can look up at this web site. http://www.freewebs.com/mommycozyhaven/
Please note that I don't know them at all and have no share in this business and I am not advertising for them. Just put it here to share the info.
My hubby is also not comfortable with this idea so I end up looking for the recipe to DIY. For those mummies who are interested, I had attach the recipe below :~
Placental Capsule Preparation
For washing the placenta, use salt sparingly, because salt will actually make the placenta 'cold'. You can also use a can of coke to clean it. Wash away all the blood. Instead of steaming it, buy some 金银花 and 甘草, boil them in water, afterwards, put in the placenta and boil it for 1/2 hour. This will get rid of the 'fishy' smell.
Slice it to thin slices, the thinner the better because it will be easier to dry. My hubby cut it so thick that I took a long time to dry it.
Sun it like you would with chinese herbs. Put it out in the sun, bring it indoors to keep. If the weather is bad, bake it in the oven till crisp. Watch your fire coz I burned mine a bit. DO NOT put into the fridge because this will cause moisture deposit on the placenta.
Grind it to powder and get empty capsule from medicinal hall to put the powder in.
Use a piece of clean baking paper and pour the grinded placental powder.
Open the capsule and press onto the powder, press a few time till it filled up with the powder. Depending the size of your placental, it will make around 150-200 capsules.
I have already taken the powder TWICE! Taste…. hmmm, don't know, i swallowed it with a big gulp of water. Gave Matthew a bit as he cannot poo, so i was hoping that this helps. He did poo once after taking it but after that back to sqare one, he dun poo anymore. I do not feel that my skin is better or more radiant, maybe I did not take enough. For those mummies who had try please share your view point on eating placental with me :)
Friday, May 23, 2008
Bridge over Trouble Water
Trouble, trouble and more trouble. Baby still did not poo regularly. Yesterday mark the fifth day that he never poo! My friend Angela suggest maybe I should start taking the placental capsule which I made. (this will be my next posting) so my breast milk will contain all the goodness of the placental! I give Matt a bit on his tongue also. Viola! Not too sure if there is too much stool or was the wonder of the placental powder, Matt poo a bit yesterday afternoon. I was so happy. You would naver imagine someone can be so happy that a baby poo. This morning we are woken by our maid. More bad news, our tap cannot be closed! the water is flowing and flowing non stop. My god! Our utility bill had already double this month! It was so early in the morning that my plumber did not even bother to on his hp. We have to shut the main water system after collecting some water to wash out face and brush our teeth. After trying in vain to reach my plumber umpteen of time, I decided to call my contractor to get another plumber to do the job. We are actually going to change the sink and table top next week and the stupid tap died at the wrong time. Luckily i contact my contractor ( my colleague's sister) and she suggest her plumber to bring me a new tap to replace the old one and use the new one to fix to my new sink next week. Problem solved, at least I don't waste money buying a spare one first. The down point is cannot go to shop for a nice tap :( , no choice, life is miserable without water. Can you imagine how the people suffered when cyclone wiped out Myammar and the earthquake in Sichuan, China. Maybe this is a gentle reminder for me to appreciate what I have.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Baby Matthew still dun Poo :(
My second son Matthew has not been pooing frequently recently. He went to see a GP and now upgraded to PD but still the problem has not been solved. He also has reflux problem and was getting better after the medication from the PD. Today marks the 3rd day his poo still remain in his bowel and refusing to come out. I was very worried. I have try all kinds of ways to help him, massage him, pressing his acupressure point, drinking more water, I drinking all the jamu my Indonesian maid made for me.. eating the fruits I hated most and never touch in my 33 years of life ...papaya. Luckily I was having flu now and I escape the horrible smell of the papaya....etc. Strange nothings works! What beats me is that he is a total breast fed baby and should not have this problem. Alot of people told me is ok not to poo for a fews day for a breast fed baby but he is showing sign of discomfort, crying more, eating less and letting out alot of smelly gas. The previous record for the stubborn poo hiding in his bowel is 6 days! And he only manage to poo out after the PD put gel into his anus :( my poor baby. Being a mother is really not easy. My elder one poo too much and this one don't poo at all now. U never guess how happy I was when he poo! Hahaha that's the thing with mummies, a little action from the kids bring them so much joy, even thing like when the son finally poo.... what a adventurous journey as a mum.. tough!
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