This time I was not hoarding. I meant to respond as soon as I could, but the fact of the matter was that I…uhmmm…forgot!

It was only when I was writing my 2015 in Blogging Review and pointing out that responding to awards is the way to go for page views, that I remembered I had 2 to do! Yep. Two. And I’m having a very silly grin on my face because:

• Awards always make me happy. Really happy!
• I get to add more logos into my little slideshow on my sidebar
• and these 2 are the ones which I have not gotten before. 

Sweet!

It still took a while before I typed this out since the realisation that I forgot because …uhm…I forget again! So now that I remember, and just to make sure that I am not hoarding, here we go with the first one from Sandra over at A Momma’s View:

Epic Awesomeness! How epically awesome is it for Sandra to be so very kind to consider myself nominated just because I dropped in a congratulatory note to her. Too kind, I’d say! It almost feels like a shameless plugin, even though I was not expecting it. At. All. 

The rules for this award are actually pretty simple and as Sandra rightly put forth, they do feel tricky for me too:

1. I know you are Awesome, tell us why.
2. You are my friends and tell us about others.
3. Be creative. It’s alright if you can’t be.
4. I give no questions to be fully answered but let yourself go here. Thank you.

 
Eeeks! Really? How creative (or shameless) can I get when it comes to beating my own chest and tell others how awesome I am? I don’t even know how to answer that? I mean I can give you a laundry list of why I am not awesome, or go completely surreal over the top of why I think I am the most awesome (like standing on my head, juggling daggers); although the latter is harder for me.

That’s not the point of this award, is it though?

I thought Sandra did very well with her response and I was inclined to do a copy and paste. But that would be plagiarising and oh-so-unoriginal. I guess I’ll just have to give it a shot, so here we go:

 1. I am AWESOME because there are now 165 bloggers who think I am as they are following me. It is YOU, YES YOU reading this at this very moment who make me awesome just by the sheer virtue of a follow. That, to me is what makes all this bloggily love thing awesome.  ♫♪ I  have nothing…nothing…naatthhiiiiing….if I don’t have youuuuuu ♫♪

2. For all that follows, I thought I’ll share this Epic Awesomeness Award to my very first batch of bloggers who followed (still following it seems!) within the week after I put myself out there and +1, followers whom, they themselves are pretty damn awesome!

• Estelea’s Blog
• it’s a nice little wine
• iCaspar
• EAT, PLAY, CLOVE
• STEPHIEOPOLIS
• INCURABLE WANDERLUST
• Julz Craft
• Indira’s Blog
• Blisters, Bunions and Blarney
• A BEAUTIFUL DISASTER
• Orange Owl Diaries

And the +1? I just have to put in Eric, Stomper Dad here because he’s a creative dude when it comes to writing. We know he’s already awesome, one who is also highly engaging, and I’d really like to read what he could come up with on what makes him awesome, just for the fun of it!

3. Nope. I’ve got no creative juices flowing, but I’ll try.

4. I don’t have questions, but I do have a task if you are up for it:

• You see, I love food and by nature, I can get quite goofy and silly. Food maketh me. Goofy and silly maketh me a light heart.
• All I’m asking is for you to share your most epically awesome rendition of food with goofiness and sillyness all in. It could be a drawing, a quote, a picture, a story…whatever rocks your boat in your response to this award.
• Make it as epically creative as you can, and I’ll feature this part of your response on my blog. It will be epic!
• No penalties for not trying.

Now, on to #2 is an award from none other than one of my favourite Daddy Blogger Eric, Stomper Dad who puts in my name for the Infinity Dream Awards. An award which I know not of what it exactly means. If I interpret it right, it’s probably along the lines of forever dreaming. Something I can do if my logical brains would allow me to. 

What can I say apart from a very gratuitous Thank You to Eric, for another lovely nomination to add on to my bag of awards. See! I didn’t hoard. I just forgot. I second his sentiments if only awards comes with some cash flow! As with awards, there.are.rules.

Here are the rules for the award:

1. Thank and follow the blog that nominated you. Done!
2. Tell us 11 facts about yourself. See Below
   
3. Answer questions that were set for you to answer. See Below
   
4. Nominate 11 bloggers and set questions for them. I’m putting forth my most regular likers, some are silent readers. Hint,hint. Please leave some comments. Or not. No pressure. 

11 facts about myself:

1. I don’t have a driver’s license
2. I cannot drive for the life of me
3. I am short-sighted but one eye has an almost perfect eye-sight
4. I recently discovered I cannot do lasik surgery because I have a lazy eye and that cannot be corrected
5. I am doomed to wear glasses till the day I die
6. But that’s OK as I have no desire to be a pilot
7. I cuss too much. Sometimes.
8. I love Trainspotting (the movie)
9. Sometimes, I tend to break into a song I know on random things that I think of, see or say.
10. I just came to a realisation that my son may have gotten that breaking into a song “talent” from me; only he takes on a different level of turning random sentences and things he sees into a song he makes up along the way
11. According to the Chinese calendar, I was born in the year of the dragon. 

My answers to his questions:

1. Your greatest strength?
   My grit. And then getting myself into trouble. 
2. Your greatest weakness?
   Chocolates and Soft Nougats. I also suck at being a poker-face no matter how hard I try as my facial expressions give me away too easily. 
3. Your favorite season of the year and why?
   I live in a tropical country all of my life, my seasons are: hot, very hot, frigging-bloody-melting-hot, rainy days and thunderstorms. I do love the rain though and I love that fresh smell of rain. If I have to pick a season, I’ll have to toss between autumn and spring as I like both. With my mood at the moment, I love it when it’s spring. That’s usually because we tend to go on vacation during that time and it is when the flowers are ablooming, the grass is green, the birds are chirping and the weather is just swell! It’s a happy season.
4. What item would you want to save from your burning home if you could only save one?
   Our personal document folder with all of our certificates and passports 
5. If you and Bear Grylls would be stranded on a deserted island, with what would you be able to impress him?
   If he could get me edible ingredients that are not gross, I could cook a feast and we’d have a ball in a deserted island! 
6. If you’d have a bucket list, what would I find on top of the list?
   Learn how to friggin’ drive.
7. What is the one destination you would love to travel to?
   Explore Mongolia.
8. What mystical creature would you like to have as a pet and why?
   Dragons. Because they can breathe fire and shoot them out of their nostrils with their deadly poisons. I didn’t make the cut to have all that even though I was born in the year of the Dragon. Dammit. 
9. What other language than yours would you like to be fluent in?
   Dutch.
10. If you could ask one question to a very special person, what and who would it be?
    I would ask Silver Bullet why in the name of God did he not get me a pet dragon yet. 
11. What kind of ice cream flavor would you like to invent?
    What have they not invent yet? Let’s see…how does nougat and red velvet mint macaroon sounds to you? 

Here are my  11 regular Like clickers in the recent months and I thank you for your visits and acknowledgements on my posts. I promise I’ll try harder to visit your blog more often!  

1. What’s For Dinner Mom
2. But I Smile Anyway
3. A Wayward Scribblez
4. A Cooking Pot and Twisted Tales
5. Random Ramblings, Myriad Musing 
6. Send Sunshine
7.  Of Snailmail, Books and Vanities
8. S.J Higbhee Science Fiction Author
9. Smiling Notes
10. Yadadarcyyada
11. So Far So Stu

Jas over at All That’s Jas, if you are reading this and have the time, this one is for you too!

My 11 questions for you:

1. What is the first thing you do when you wake up?
2. What is the craziest thing you have ever done?
3. What is your OCD tendency?
4. Who is your favourite author and why?
5. How do you find the time to blog if blogging is not your full-time job?
6. Do you believe in ghosts and spirits? If yes, any personal encounters?
7. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
8. If you could time-travel, which era would you be in and why?
9. In 3 words, how would you describe yourself?
10. What is your favourite movie and what about the movie that stuck?
11. Lastly, because this award is related to dreams, can you share your biggest dream?

That’s it! Enjoy your awards. Please share the bloggily love and I hope to be reading your responses. 🙂

With Silver Bullet gone since Sunday morning for a trip back to The Netherlands, the force of having to be a single parent with two hyperactive kids for the week awakens. It’s the first work trip back home for him in the first working week of the year, and our first week all on our own in a brand new year.

It’s been a while since I was the one left behind as usually, it would be me abandoning my family to go on a business trip. This time, that’s not the case.

It’s a week of many firsts.

Apart from not having a car to get the kids and myself around, I do not mind it one bit.  I’m only hoping that work does not go on an overdrive in the first few days of the working week. 

After sending off Silver Bullet, instead of hauling the kids back home in a taxi, I decided that we take our first train ride from the airport to downtown Bangkok. The airport rail link has been running for several years now, and we have never bothered to ride it. I thought it would be a good opportunity to try that out. 

Besides, I was not too keen on taking the taxi back for the following reasons:

• High possibility of getting stuck in traffic
• The probability of getting a crazy-ass taxi driver who would Schumacher his way through the expressway if there is no traffic is very high
• And most importantly, there’s 90% chance of getting into a taxi with no working seat-belts on a rather long journey home

With 2 small kids, all of the above do not sound appealing to me. 

The kids were leaning towards their preferred taxi ride, but after a little cajoling, they relented. For the kids, it was a fun train ride adventure – new experience, new sights. For me, it was a case of trying to while away time as I was trying to figure out what we could do to keep these little imps at bay for the rest of the day. 

The airport rail link service was not all that bad despite having smaller seats and narrower space.  For 135 baht for the 3 of us (45 baht each or USD 1.24 each. No child prices.), we got to downtown Bangkok, including waiting time but excluding transfer to the BTS line, within 40 minutes and little hassle. It then took us another 10 minutes or so to get to our destination.

The only inconvenience was having to queue up for a ticket after realising that I had forgotten to bring Spud’s stored-value card for the BTS train. By then, I decided to bring the kids to the movies, and were in a little bit of a hurry as I was trying to secure us a mid-afternoon screening.  

It’s like the universe heard my bubble thoughts and tried very hard to screw up my well-intent plans.

Because when we started queuing up, I had the dumb luck of standing in a queue where the people in front of me stalled for a very long time as they could not figure out how to use the machine. When it was my turn, I realised that I did not have enough coins and sooooo had to turn back to get my notes exchanged for coins and re-queue again to get the ticket for Spud. Dumb.

While doing that, I got stalled again by 2 other people in front of me who were asking the lady behind the counter questions after questions. And all I wanted to do was exchange some damn coins that would take no more than 5 seconds! It always happens at the most impeccable timing, isn’t it!

We arrived at the theater slightly before noon and was in time to book for Star Wars Episode 7 screening that was scheduled at 12.30 pm. Going to the movies is still a novelty for the kids and since this was only their 2nd movie (in a theater) so far, I thought I’d make it novel for them and splurged on a sofa seat.

To keep the excitement going, I bought them a set of Star Wars popcorn to share. They both agreed on Kylo Ren. 

Technically, we were watching Star Wars because I wanted to see it. I was hoping the kids would like it too as me (I know I should use “I”, but I like using “me” in this context. Don’t go grieving me about grammar now. It’s not my best), a long time fan of Star Wars but without going crazy with all the costumes and memorabilia, been wanting to watch Episode 7.

The only thing I wasn’t so sure of, was, if they could last the entire movie. But I have my hopes up since they already knew of a few characters like the Storm Troopers, the Jedis and Queen Amidala to name a few and both were pretty excited about watching the movie.

The kids did me proud!

They were pretty much glued to the screen almost the entire time as they eat their popcorns from Kylo Ren’s head. Spud, however, was asking a lot of questions on each of the characters,  what their reasons for being were and the whys. Sometimes, they get a little loud asking questions. Good thing we were seated at the top farthest corner, too. *blush* 

While they both were so into the movie, they distracted me! I think a proper Star Wars education is in in order. 

The only other interruption was when they needed to go to the bathroom 1+ hours into the movie. One needed to pee and the other needed to poo. That took out a whole 10 minutes; luckily their urges came at the same time. When we got back to our seats and not 5 minutes later, Squirt announced that he needed to pee as he had forgotten to do so when he did his poo. Lordy.

He couldn’t wait and I was reluctant to take everything we have with us, haul the kids again down the flight of steps and miss another 10 minutes all over again. Besides, I wasn’t sure if we would make it to the bathroom in time. 

But you know what? He’s a guy and I have an empty cup. He’s a kid, he is a trooper and he aimed well. He did what he needed to do in little trickles. There was no mess and I made sure that nothing, and I mean NOTHING in that cup was spilled onto anywhere before bagging it. Yes, I made sure I brought it out of the theater with me, too. I don’t think anyone noticed. Shhhhhhssshhhh

The movie ended without further disturbances. I loved it that the kids loved it and truly glad that they both were so into the movie, with questions continuing on after the show. They got goofy-happy when they saw the life-size feature of Storm Trooper and BB-8 that they can’t help themselves with funny poses.  

Now, you didn’t think I was going to do a review on Star Wars Episode 7 by the title of this post, do you?

I wasn’t going to.

Boy! I was glad I refrained from reading ANY reviews at all before watching. All in all, I think it was a great movie but I will have to watch it again because I was distracted by all the questions throughout the movie. The experience with the kids being a temporary single parent though, was a blast!

We did more walk-about after that as the kids decided that they wanted to walk the distance from where we were to Central Chidlom. I would have thought that they would be knackered by then. But as tired as they were, they enjoyed the stroll before I took them to the indoor playground there. 

We then took a taxi home a short-ride away and in time for dinner. They have been little angels so far and I felt really good. It had been a nice day but just as I had that bubble thought in my head, all hell broke loose as they riled each other up. The floor was littered with the left-over popcorns out of Kyle Ren’s head and they were starting to hurt each other with their boisterous play. 

It went downhill after that. Soft has had no effect and I had to lose my cool before they quit their nonsense. My force was awaken with a stern reprimanding chat and they were promptly sent off to bed. It’s annoying that this has to happen all.the.damn.time. So not cool. 

After that, all was quiet. Both were asleep within seconds. It was bliss. It dawned on me I have 6 more days to go as a single-parent. Ahhh! Nothing like needing the force to get through these few last days. 

Annoying as they were towards the end of the day, we all had a good day. At least for a little while, the good force was with us.