Alenamilli

This morning when dropping Milli at school, as usual, I saw one girl getting out of the car. She looks like Hannah, but it could not be. Usually Hannah will have her hair tied nicely, but today this girl has quite a messy hair. But shortly after the next girl came out of the car. Oh my goodness it's them and Bernd, their father. I had to walk away faster to prevent me from crying. But after a while, Milli wanted to wait for Hannah. Milli refused to hold Hannah's hand, so I said then we just walk together. After the Forum, I said "Bernd, I always drop Alena and pick up and if you want me to help picking up the 2 girls after school to play with Alena please let me know especially when you start working" Then he started to ask where we stay. I tried very hard to hold my tears, to keep my voice in a stable condition. Berned asked Hannah whether she wanted to play with Alena, but she shook her head. So I told them we could do it some other time.

While we went down the stairways, Milli mentioned that Hannah did not wear the sport cloth which she is supposed to wear today. I was overwhelmed with sadness. I had to rush and dropped Alena in the class. After turning away, I was just crying..... Bernd looks exhausted, his cloth was quite dirty, the kids looks not-well groomed. I just simply cried....as if I know Zarina. I did not know her at all, I might see her once or twice. I could not even recall her face.

During the mother meeting on how to help Hannah's family. I was the only one who sat there and tearing. Am I over-sentitive? I could not help thinking the two little girls in the house and want to stay in her mother's arms, they wants to be cuddled by their mother. They might be so lost, all of the sudden they did not have their mother any more.

Aliah and Hannah even though your mother is not around any more but there are many mothers who will give you hug........hope your have strange to keep on with your lifes.

On Thursday Auntie Rebecca told mami that there would be a breakfast gathering at one cafe on Jalan Jurong Kechil. She asked mami whether we had anything on of which we did not have and it is a good idea also to join the team.

So after dropping Milli at school, we went to Bukit Batok Park for a walk before we proceed to breakfast. Middle in the park, it was pouring. We were running to look for shelter. Fortunately there was a pavilion. We saw a man was jogging in the middle of the rain. How brave he was to do something like this in the middle of the thunderstorm. We waited for 20 minutes, then Ah Kong asked to run back to the car. So we did, but after few minutes, the rain got heavier and we had to look for another shelter. Now there was no seat, we had to wait for half an hour until mami decided to run to the car. Ah Kong did not like the idea because he was getting wet and afraid to be wet more than this. But it was so boring and mami was very hungry. So mami had to call Auntie Jane and canceled the breakfast. After 5 minutes of having left the park, the rain almost stopped!

We took shower and we have breakfast after that, guess: it's mami's favorite fried kangkong.

Yesterday, NMS yahoo administer, Benedict sent us that there would be cinema tonight at NMS. Wow, mami likes this outdoor cinema very much. It really reminded mami of those days that mami always went to Ah Lao Kong's house at Sathupradit and would bring the mat along to watch 3 movies with Ah Lao Ee. Sometimes we just fell asleep there.

The movie is the Sound of Music which was shot in Austria in 1965 but showed the scene in 1930s. Recently milli has been watching the Do-re-mi VCD, so mami thought it is a good idea to bring Milli to see this movie. And when Do-re-mi song came with the 7 kids, Milli was very happy.

The other popular songs in the movie are Edelweiss, and something like "good bye, good night, it's time to go to sleep"......

Ah Kong disappeared for 10 minutes and again, Ah Kong did not understand the movie which was in English.

Jean, the curator at the Baba House, offered the docent the free tickets to the ballet performance at the cultural centre of the NUS as a reward for being volunteer

Papa had to drive 5 hours directly from KL to arrive at home at 7 pm and picked us up to pick up the tickets. And mami saw in the tickets that children below 7 are not allowed. what are we going to do? Anyway, we pretended we do not know anything. But we were stopped at the entrance and was explained about that. But an officer allowed us. So we managed to get quite a good seat.

Milli had fear when we entered the hall and kept on saying that she is afraid. But when the Ballet started, she was really fixed to the seat and the most attentive all the times. Papa suddenly showed sign of boring, Ah Kong did not show anything but mami could tell that Ah Kong did not understand about this dance or did not enjoyed it. Maybe the Chinese opera would be more appropriate for Ah Kong

The show lasted 1 1/2 hour with 15-min break in between. Surprisingly that Milli was not sleepy at all and still asking today to watch Ballet

Ah Kong was laughing when he saw Milli in the kitchen helping Papa preparing food. Papa would peel off the vegie and put it in the bowl with water. Then Milli would "wash" it and put back to the plate. Sometimes Milli would also wash fruits. Once she took out each pieces of grapes and washed it.

Milli also could scrape the cheese already. Milli enjoyed helping very much but since the adjustment of the sleep and dinner timing, Milli could only help Papa on Friday and Saturday...

Milli also loves washing cloth, so recently she helped handwashing the sensitive cloths...

Today Mami was watering the plants downstairs, Milli shouted from upstairs that she wanted to help. So I left the hose for her and went watering in front of the house. When I finished and checked what she was doing, I was laughing, because she had already turned off the tap and was rolling back the hose.

So the orders from Mami will be increasing : Milli, get Mami a glass of water please. Milli, tell Ah Kong to get dressed.

Ah Kong requested to visit Mustafa. So after dropping Milli at school and after my swimming exercise, we had a bit of chit chat at the canteen and some newspaper reading before heading to little India.

Once I turned the car to Serangoon road, Ah Kong said that he could smell the "Indian smell". I asked whether it was my perfume? He said "maybe"

At Mustafa, Ah Kong went straight to his only favorite section - watch. Then I realize Susanne asked the kids to dress up next Thursday because of the Hari Raya. Unplanned, but I walked to the cloth section and found the kebaya. She tried it at home, but did not want to wear it. Let's see if she will wear it next week.

Ah Kong wanted to hang around at Mustafa instead of waiting at NMS. So I bought him the breakfast set and left for the NMS.

The day that Josephine mentioned about this Oktober Fest, Chris also talked about this in the evening. Mathius and Sherane could not make it because of the guests from Hong Kong.

We sent Milli to bed as usual at 7.30 pm, but as if she knew. I dropped by every 10 - 15 minutes, and she was still awake. Finally at 8.15 pm, she finally fell asleep. Ah Kong was assigned to stand by, but had a lot of concern if Milli woke up. So I trained him to press the phone to reach us. Chris did check his phone twice when we were at the Swiss Club, but fortunately there was nothing.

Wow, I really felt like I was in Munich 8 years ago, when we all attend the Oktober Fest after our marriage function. Mom and Sii Ee could not stand the wet and cold, so they waited at the underground station. Pot was dancing with his unique funny style : the funny face and sticking po po! We danced on the table with the popular song : Hey Baby, I wanna know oh oh oh, if you'd be my girl......

The aircond inside made the atmosphere better. The blue and white tent really gave the Bavarian feeling, the strong-man corner, the food, my goodness, weiss wurst, brat wurst, sauer kraut, leber kaese, kartoffeln salat,, oh my goodness... plenty..

I bumped into 2 friends from FOM. Khun Montathip joined us and gave us a good advice on buying house/condo. When the hey baby and Anton was playing, we just stepped on the table and danced.

I had to leave at midnight because of the smoke that was getting stronger. Josephine took the ride. So we left the 2 men behind. On the way home, Frank called and said that they fell down. Josephine went back to pick them home. While Chris was fine, Frank had a fracture at the elbow.

The next day I was so sick that I slept almost the whole day. Ah Kong asked why I slept so long and said that I would stay back the whole night, but Ah Kong was wrong! I went to bed at 10 maybe

Recently Milli comes back with her own art and craft pieces. At the moment she likes using scissors. So sometimes she just came back with cut-pieces of paper with some lines. So I just sent them to the recycling area at the back of the kitchen.

Today when I was at the kitchen, she came in and in her hands she had these pieces of paper. She said "Mami don't throw away, these are for you". I was so touched and felt guilty. My dear girl, thank you so much. Ok mami will keep it. But all your 2 art&craft files are already full!

Yesterday with the assistance of my dear friend, Jane, to pick up Alena from school. I managed to run 2 museums.

The presentation of Chain at NMS was very interesting. I am happy that I chose "Double Happiness" instead of the depressed "Chain". How can these people be chained like that? Do they feel anything at all? Or they are just too insane to feel anything. Unfortunately I could not stay till the end. I left the team and took a pleasant walk from NMS to ACM. The giant fences that are put up for the Formula 1 made me feel like there is a circus in the city or is it a detention area???

I waited for Khun Zuly at the South Asia Gallery. She led the group in and when she saw me she talked to me in Thai "Chern Kha"! Once she started her talk, I could not help but crying. This lady is so warm and kind. She has been sharing with us soooooooo much. I never enjoy reading since I finished my master degree, but Khun Zuly inspired me to buy books like crazy. Some I have already forgotten where I bought when I cleared my shelf few weeks ago. She made me visit the National museum in Bangkok after 30 years. She made me feel pity for the people who call themselves Thai and are still quarreling. This foreign lady said she falls in love with Thailand and she keeps on saying Thailand is her second home........

At the end the training team gave her flowers and said goodbye, I was tearing again!

Khun Zuly Kha, thanks so much for everything and have a good and safe trip home kha.

Alenamilli was really looking forwards to going back to school. Not because she missed school, but she missed her good friend, Joanne. Despite the night before that Alenamilli went to bed at midnight because of the excitement, the next day she got up at 7 am. Alenamiili asked mami what Joanne would wear today, short sleeve or no sleeve. Mami did not know and asked her to check by herself at school. After dressing up, Alenamiili disappeared into her room, came out with a necklace, a handbag, and a sunglass!! Mami had to hold on not to laugh and pretended that everything was normal. Alenamiili went into the car and got out of the car when arriving at school. Mami had to ask whether she really wanted to wear sunglass into the school. After few seconds, fortunately, Alenamilli decided not to..

Once passing the gate, Alenamilli kept on calling Joanne and peeped into the class. The teacher said Joanne was on the way, then Alenamilli started crying and did not want to enter the room.

Late morning mami got an SMS from aunty Jane that Joanne won't be at school. Oh my goodness, Alenamilli must have been looking and waiting for Joanne : why Joanne took such a long time to reach school But aunty Jane and uncle Swee Weng were very kind enough to bring Joanne and Ker Ker Josept to our place and some more with a present for Alenamilli.... Thank you so much, Jane, for your caring and your thoughtfulness...