Longest in Quarantine

This was a conversation we had a long time back. I think I had forgotten to record this down in our blog.

Evelyn: Mummy, do you know there is someone who is in quarantine longer than us?

Mummy: Who would that be?

Evelyn: Rapunzel

That is so true. It's interesting how you can come up with such observations. 

And I guess if she could last so long in quarantine with not much complain, who are we to complain. Time to reevaluate our lives.. 

Funnily Rapunzel was the fairy tale character you picked last Children's Day

Weekend Dinner at Home

Tonight's menu is a simple spaghetti carbonara. We started out abit later than usual since we know quite well to time the cooking for dinner to be served just on time at 7pm. But after cooking up the meat, we had to turn off everything since Ah Kong was still in his condo management AGM. 

At 7.20 we started up the flames again as it was late and we could not wait for Ah Kong anymore. So here is our dinner:

As for Ah Kong, he had to eat his carbonara and wine in his room while attending the AGM (*whispers* it's supposed to end at 4pm!!).

Today we also made Milo ice-cream which needed to wait for a day to freeze before we could try it out. I also made waffles to freeze so that anyone can have it when they wanted. to. 

Daddy tried out a waffle, complete with whipped cream and vanilla ice-cream. 

What the kids have been up to.. till now

Up till today, Mei-mei has managed to do about all the items listed in your holiday calendar tasks. And I realised that you are sending the pictures to Miss Anna too. She has been very encouraging to you on keeping busy over the summer break.

Here's one of the items we have bought in preparation for the holidays: Batik Painting:

Ta-da: My artwork and yours too

And another on your list is to water the plants:

And on one of the nights you also decided to paint your nails.. while watching movies on your tab!

As for Ko-ko, the first thing you have cooked is spaghetti carbonara. Not bad. And you also found that it was a simple and quick dish to cook:

Today, Ko-ko will be cooking his lamb and we will be having movie night per Mei-mei's holiday calendar.

MCO Summer Break

Sumer break begins today. And this was the final CCA assignment you had prepared with Miss Anna. A loooonggg list of what you plan to do every day in the month of August.

As for Ko-ko, your plan seems to be just sleep, eat and play computer games (and PS4 games), and maybe throw in a few days of exercise. So I have added a task: for you to learn to cook something for the family at least once a week. 

End Year Examinations

The End Year Exams for the both of you starts this week. Mei-mei begins today, while Ko-ko begins tomorrow. Here is the little one getting ready for the first exam, Music. We had to set up a table to place the mirror for the invigilators to be able to see your hands during the exams via Zoom.

This was the same set up for Ko-ko last exam, but this time his is with a second device. So you got to use his mirror while he uses the tripod with his phone connected as a second device. 

For Primary, there was trail/mock exams to instruct the children on how to have the exams and also to check if there would be any issues before the actual exams. While for Secondary, there was one briefing from your homeroom teachers last Friday with the necessary instructions (including the need to wear school uniforms!) before exams starts. 

I got the shock of my life as 10 minutes after the exam started, you walked into my room and said that you had finished the paper. I asked how many questions there were and you said 50. Faint.. can you even read so fast? But it turned out everyone in your class completed the exam within 20 minutes. Phew...

Then came paper 1 for Science, you also finished within 30-40 minutes. And again for Science paper 2, you even told me that you had read through your answers 2 times and you completed in less than 30 minutes. Oh well.. I hope you were not careless. 
*Be strong, my heart.. this week is going to be a stressful one!

At the Carwash.. at home..

Being stuck at home is no fun. And worst still since Mei-mei is below 12 which is not encouraged to leave the house, we had to come up with things to keep you entertained. Today daddy said his car needs a wash.. as it is filthy. So of course we roped her in to perform the task. 

As usual, she played with water more than helping out, but she did have fun.. all dressed up in her (Ko-ko's) swimsuit. 

Water Gun Fight

Today was a public holiday. We all just lazed at home (What else is there to do, since we're now on Full Movement Control Order?). Just before my usual Monday online session with Henri, Mei-mei asked if I wanted to have another round of water gun play with her. I said, ok but we'd have to wait for my PT to finish. She also asked daddy and Ko-ko if they wanted to join us. Daddy said he'd join us after his jog while Ko-ko didn't want to. 

So after my session, we started our play. Daddy got back just in time while Mei-mei had gotten all the things we needed ready before my session ended. 

Filling their "weapons"

Guess what the two of you were up to.... 

Lying in wait for a "victim"

Aha! The victim is within sight! Yup! It was Ko-ko jogging on the road 

After attacking Ko-ko we resumed play... 

Under attack by daddy

Ok, then play time was over. Time for a warm shower then dinner:

Ah Ma cooked Lor Mai Kai for dinner

Japanese Night

Daddy picked up some slices of beef when we went grocery shopping on Friday. So we had another night of different food for dinner.. Japanese night!

I cooked the dashi and then re-used the filtered ingredients to make sides. 

Fish n Chips Night

As it is MCO, we are cooking dinner even on Saturday nights. The menu for tonight has fish (grilled or fried in batter), potato (chips of mash), very large prawns, grilled french beans and garlic bread. On top of that we also made brownies for dessert.

Here are the tow of you helping out:

Having fun Beating the eggs

Taxing Measuring the ingredients

Daddy was in charge of the grilling of the fish and prawns. Early in the morning he found a shop selling salmon. He found the shop as Mei-mei kept insisting that she wanted to eat salmon, but we did not want to go to Mount Erskine market to buy it.

Skin looks dark?

Daddy adding his flame thrower to it!

Ko-ko was asked to make the garlic bread, but as he was busy playing on the PS4, Mei-mei took over the task. Good job!

Finally dinner is ready. Yummy...

We finished dinner with the brownies. 

Busy Chef

Our MCO dine in menu today is Spaghetti Carbonara.. or variations of it anyway...

Daddy had to cook 4 versions: 

1. No cheese, no egg: for Evelyn

2. No cheese: for Ah Kong

3. Beef bacon: for Kakak

4. The works (complete with heavenly smoked pork and parmesan cheese): for the rest of us!

Evelyn's sample sized plate

Our pasta

Daddy has been cooking this dish so often, like Ah Ma says, he can cook it with his eyes closed! It took him under an hour to cook all 4 versions.

Today we also had garlic bread which was made by Evelyn. Ko-ko was supposed to make it but she offered, so Kakak just watched her make it (in case she needed help) and it was perfecto!

It is still MCO so we could not go over to BM to celebrate Grampy's birthday with him. So I arranged to have some food and also a cake to be delivered. Ee-ee and Teo-teo also joined in the celebration. For the cake cutting and singing session, we also joined in via WhatsApp video to sing the birthday song.

Happy Birthday, Grampy!

A Day Out

Ko-ko had plans to meet up with his friends in Straits Quay today. As it was so far and it was to finish at 6.30, daddy decided that we'd all go out and have dinner out tonight. 

After dropping him off then picking up my contact lenses, we headed to Chapel Street Café to a little tea-time/dessert. For Mei-mei, it has been a long time since you last left the house (other than going to school). While Ko-ko would occasionally follow us out even for a car ride, Mei-mei did not want to go out much. 

So today we decided to while some time away in the less crowded café and you were treated to ice-cream while daddy and I had a drink each and a shared a "biscuit". Then we headed to Gurney Paragon for grocery shopping and then another round in Cold Storage before heading to pick up Ko-ko.

Dinner was at The Barn for another round of Tomapork and ribs. As we were leaving, daddy remembered that we needed to get Mei-mei sandals and slippers. So we headed back up to buy her slippers (could not find nice sandals).

On our way down, Mei-mei asked to have a picture taken with the Christmas decorations. 

Love this picture. Ko-ko allowed you to hug him tightly in this picture

The Nutcrackers also needs to wear a mask

So did the ginger breadman...

*Daddy realized that this is the first time you got to see Christmas decorations other than what we have at home

It was a fun day out.

I'm glad you both got to get out of the house abit. 

CMCO Again

On Saturday evening, it was announced that Penang along with many other states in Malaysia (excluding Pahang, Perlis, Kelantan and Sarawak) would be placed under CMCO again as a result of the spike in Covid cases again. 

This meant that schools will return to being online and increases in restrictions again. It's a good thing that I am still working from home. Or else, I'm not sure how Mei-mei would behave during lessons (Ko-ko too!).

The reaction from the both of you on the CMCO:

Evan: Forever on movement control! There goes my youth!!

Evelyn: I like and don't like having online school. 

On Sunday we headed to school to pick up books. First we went early in the morning for Evelyn as daddy and I had planned to go to Tesco but abandoned the plan as the queue to enter was so long. Then we bought groceries and lunch. After lunch, we headed to school with Ko-ko to pick his books and then went to the hairdresser for both Ko-ko and daddy to have a haircut. 

One good thing (for everyone) would be that we all do not need to wake up so early to get ready for work/school. 

Today Mei-mei woke up early.. perhaps it is her "internal alarm clock" and was all ready before lessons began at 8.00am.  

As for El Sluggo Ko-ko had to be woken up. He refused to wake up earlier so he just ate his breakfast then sat on the throne and finished right before Assembly started at 7.30am.

Here is a picture of Mei-mei having lessons next to me. 

We have a long, long 1 month to go. Thank goodness you will both be on a 1 week break starting this Thursday. 

2020 Christmas Tree

As usual, we get ready to put up our tree early in November. After all the hard work to put it up, might as well have it up as long as possible. 

The original plan was to just have daddy bring up the box containing the tree. Then the plan changed to have just the tree set up. Then since I had brought down all ... we ended up setting up the whole tree after all.

The two of you put on the ornaments after Mei-mei finished with her ballet lessons while I wrapped the dumplings. Of course, I had to remind the both of you "NOT TO ARGUE" as you put up the tree. Ko-ko suggested to go with red and gold. And I could hear him exclaiming, "Is this red or gold?" "Isn't this blue?!"

Oh well, the both of you worked hard and did a great job setting up the tree. 

Last Day of Online Classes

Today's lessons were Music followed by Science. While I was feeling sad that this would be the last day you'd be sitting next to me a few minutes later, you made me feel happy that you'd be going to school.
Why? Because halfway through lessons you decided to abandon your post. Yup... first you were rolling on the floor and next you had your feet up on the table.
Sigh.. so out came to "tin-nah" and whack. You had teary eyes for the next 10 minutes of the lesson before the "monkey" came back out!

Lunch: Butter Chicken and Flat Bread

As there was leftover chicken from the Chicken Parmigiana, I decided to cook Butter Chicken. after my marathon training session in the morning, I cooked the chicken. Mei-mei wanted to help so I waited for her to finish her online art lessons before we cooked/fried the flatbread.
I had mixed the 3 ingredients ready just on time for her to roll them out to be cooked on the pan.
Here is my assistant hard at work to prepare lunch:

Rolling out the dough 

Look at them odd shapes!! 

Frying on the pan 

Our lunch: Flatbread and Butter Chicken 

Enjoying lunch

Back to School

Today is the first day back to school for Ko-ko after studying from home for more than 3 months. House feels a little more empty, a little more quiet. First daddy went back to work full time (since last week) and now Ko-ko then next week Mei-mei... and I will be all alone during lunch time.
Hhmm.. I wonder if this is what the "empty nest" feels like... 

Chicken Parmigiana

I was looking at the recipe on Pinterest for a while and coincidentally, Nat Kor-kor shared a recipe which she said was very nice. And since today was a day off, daddy became the chef *grin*. 

Breaded chicken all fried up

And this is our plated lunch: Chicken Parmigiana with Mashed Potatoes.. yummeh! 

Ice-cream Day

We didn't have plans to go out today. But since it was such a hot day and we had vouchers for Haagen-Dazs we headed there for some ice-cream.

Here are the both of you waiting for our ice-cream:

And here is it:

Look at her dirty face:

A good and fun Sunday outing.

Saturday Dinner Out

While we originally planned on eating at the club, we changed plans and made reservations at the Wine Shop in Pulau Tikus. Ah Ma did not join us as she had her own plans and so we booked a table with no worry in case were given a table with bar stools. 

Dinner was amazing. It has been too long since we last went to this shop (even before MCO):

Our platter

And both kids really enjoying their food: