Letter of resignation

Dear Minister of Finance a.k.a. Hubby,

Letter of resignation.

Of late, your children nos. 2, 3 and 4 have been demanding a lot of attention. First, there was the Swine Flu Disaster, which just about drained the life out of me. And now, not three weeks later, after child no.2 has just recovered from yet another bout of fever and sore throat, children nos. 3 and 4 have decided to follow suit. This high temperature situation has caused me much emotional stress, not to mention the physical exhaustion resulting from sleepless night shifts.

Due to this sudden and prolonged increase in workload and the lack of supporting staff (only one at the moment), I am, in my own highly-esteemed medical opinion, on the verge of depression and/or psychosis, whichever comes first. In other words; Supermum has exhausted her super powers. I have therefore decided, in the interest of my well-being, to tender my notice of resignation from the post of Supermum.

I might however, be willing to reconsider if presented with some incentive packages. I have herewith so generously enclosed a list of ideas for your perusal:

1. annual 12D/10N holidays (preferably with scuba diving options) (oh yes, also, sans kids)
2. weekly spa sessions (full body massages compulsory)
3. weekly off-days (inclusive of ample shopping allowance please)
4. or, in lieu of the above options, jewelry of equal or exceeding value is always most welcome. (I accept all precious metals and gemstones)

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to your favourable reply.

Yours truly,
Minister of Home Affairs a.k.a. Supermum

Japanese World War II ship wreck

The whole gang.


Saturday I went for my first wreck dive. According to our diving instructor, it was a Japanese World War II warship named Katori Maru. It sank in 1941 and is a good wreck dive site because it is not too far off the coast and is in pretty shallow waters; 20+ m deep.

Love it when hubby 'spoils' me :)


The ship was a grand sight because of it's enormous size. Most of the time I did not know which part of the ship I was looking at though! Added to that, there was plenty of sea life that had declared the wreck their home, so there was lots to see. Unfortunately, the visibility was not so good. Coupled with the fact that during the second dive, an angry storm started while we were under; it was too dark and blur to take good photos.

So, here I 'stole' some photos which our diving instructor posted on Facebook:


The bow of the ship.


Scary sky...


Anyway, I hope we get a chance to return to the wreck during better weather. I would love to take some nice photos there.

Oh yes, and Sis no.2 and 3 went out on Sunday. Sis no.3 has passed.. Hooray! and Sis no.2 is halfway there...

Three birthdays and a baptism (oh yes, and swine flu)

It has been another extremely long week. My perpetual eye bags are now beyond 'cabin-sized' and nearing 'check-in luggage' proportions!

First, the festivities:
Big Sis with Grandchild no.15 came back from Singapore for his baptism. So, Sis no.4 with Grandchildren numbers 5 and 8 came along, and since Little Brother was Godpa, obviously he had to come back too! So the whole gang was here, thus the festivities began...

Baby Benedict's baptism.


There were 3 birthdays to celebrate: Sis no.3's and Eva and Solomon's as well. Then there was the baptism of course, and lastly, since every grandchild was present, the was a photo session with Grandpa.

Sis no 3's birthday.


Eva and Solomon's birthday.


All the young models waiting for photo shoot.


Then, we get to the less fun part:
One by one kids no.2, 3 and 4 get sick. So, I had stay home and play nurse (the grumpy, sleep-deprived, over-worked, underpaid type) for a few days.

The paediatrician at a private clinic was not too worried, maybe because not being in a hospital setting, she's not in the loop on the latest developments with H1N1. Only when I brought Solomon to the paediatrician at a private hospital, did I find out how rampant it actually is. Out of every 10 patients whom he randomly swabs, 9 test positive! So, without even bothering to test, he declared it was most likely H1N1. Yes, you heard right, the dreaded Swine Flu.

Big Sis says WHO thinks that by September (that's only next month), there will be herd immunity, meaning majority of the population would have developed immunity, meaning most people would have had it already! So I'll bet some of the customers I have coming to my shop to buy face masks because they're worried about the swine flu have already unknowingly had it themselves!

Anyway, thank God Claire is totally recovered and Eva is only left with a lingering cough (which is pretty normal for her). Solomon also seems to be past the worst. His throat still sounds quite bad, but at least there are no more fevers. The fevers were pretty scary, with highs near the mid 39's! It was hard to bring down; even with Voltaren suppositories and sponging, it took an average of 1 hour to bring it down below 38 degrees Celsius!

Well, at least there's now one less thing to fear. Next in line will be H2N3! I suppose the regular emergence of flu mutations is unavoidable and just something we have to learn to live with.

Volume control

So last night Claire was 'talking' real loud (like they all usually do), when Solomon was trying to sleep in the other room. I've told them time and time again that they have to learn to speak softly;

Mum: Claire, you really have to learn to control your volume.
Claire: I'm not a TV.

Mum at a loss for words...

Beat the heat

It's now the dry season and days can get swelteringly hot! Here are the top 5 ways to beat the heat:

no.5
Stay in the shade...



no.4
Drink plenty of water...



no.3
Go for a dip...

no.2
Our favourite; ice-cream...



no.1
Get a haircut...

Claire's 4th birthday

We celebrated Claire's birthday last Friday. First of all we delivered her birthday cake and gifts (packs of sweets and goodies) for her friends to her school during their break-time that morning. They sang the birthday song for her, then she blew out the candles and beheaded the Hello Kitty model I made with much gusto!


Later that evening, we had a barbecue at the condo poolside. It was a small affair. The kids had fun in the pool and the adults had fun eating!

Here she is butchering the second cake!

Presents are always the best part...

Top of the world

Hubby has pretty slim legs and ankles (so unfair), compared to the size of his body, so he has always perceived himself as ungainly and rather far from graceful! There was a point in time when he said that he would never attempt mountain climbing; what with his lack of agility, he was sure it would end up badly!



Therefore, I'm so proud (he's even more pleased) that on 21/07/09, he reached the summit of Mount Kinabalu. It is the highest mountain in the Malay Achipelago, with it's highest peak, Low's Peak, measuring 4,095 m (13,435 ft) above sea level. It is located in Kinabalu National Park, which is a World Heritage site in Sabah, Malaysia. (Wikipedia makes it so easy to sound smart!!)


gorgeous sunrise at the top

here's where he had an encounter with the unknown... (think 'Sixth Sense')


beautiful natural bonsais on the way up


good food after hard work... (looks like snails with algae growing on them if you ask me...)

Grandpa's 70th birthday

Grandpa celebrated his 70th (according to the Chinese calendar which adds a year to the conventional age) birthday on the 18th of July at Toh Yuen Restaurant at the Hilton Hotel.


The kids had great fun over the weekend with their cousins who came back from Vietnam and Miri. Their great-aunt also celebrated her 70th birthday the day before.


Since everyone was around, the whole Ng Clan went to have our extended family portrait taken at Alvin Leong's studio. It was a lengthy, sweaty affair, with cranky babies thrown in. However, I'm sure that in the future, we'll all be happy we took the effort to document this moment in our busy lives, which seem to pass by all too fast.

Hybrid word inventions

Claire has this knack for inventing new words by splicing and merging two words of similar meaning together:

1. plick: (verb) a combination of 'pluck' and 'pick'. Eg: Mum, can I plick this flower?

2. splace: (noun) a combination of 'place' and 'space'. Eg: Move over!! I have no splace to sit!!

This one took me a while to figure out:

3. backstan: (adverb) a combination of 'backwards' and 'gostan' (a Malaysian slang derived from the English phrase "go astern"). Eg: Look mum! I can walk backstan!

up Mt. Singai

On Thursday afternoon, we brought the kids to Bau, to climb Mt. Singai. It's a relatively mild climb, but definitely still tiring, with steps provided all the way to the church at around 1/3 of the way up.


It's beautiful and peaceful there. There are quarters, a cafeteria, an amphitheatre and a grotto complete with fish pond.

Annie had school till 3pm, so dad went to bail her out at lunch time, with some bogus story about having to do her passport!! *tsk, tsk, tsk*


Solomon obviously enjoyed himself the most, what with the good excuse that he still cannot walk!

The small ones were rather tired but Alaena didn't once complain! Claire however, was grumbling most of the way!


Eva fell asleep on the way down so dad had a real good workout!


The reward at the end of the ardous climb was... SUNNY HILL ICE-CREAM!