A few more hours before boarding my flight en route to Budapest and I’m saddled with a very annoying decision of what I should and would do on a 15-hour flight journey:

• Reading a book (the old-fashioned way, yes!)
• Watch the endless movies available in-flight
• Draft blog posts to schedule them for the next few weeks
• Do some honest work so I can beat my deadlines
• Get some well-deserved sleep, because after all it would be 3 bloody a.m. in my time-zone.

Doing some work is obviously not my top priority after a 10-hour day of being mind-fucked, but knowing that I’ve got my plate full and need to clear some of it because I will not be in the office for almost a week is nagging at my conscience.

The problem is, I want to do the rest on my list too. And what better way to get things done when I  have no kids in tow to distract me! What to do…what to do!

Realistically speaking, the juice on my laptop would only last for a couple of hours, so technically, that means I either squeeze in some blogging time or just focus my thoughts to get on with work. The latter doesn’t sound very appealing.

See the problem? Too many things I *want* to do, too little time in a day to do it all. I get conflicted on things like that because if I choose one thing to do, there is this little voices in my head telling me that could be doing the other things. But hey! At least I don’t have to think about what to cook this week. (Actually…that’s not true because the moment I wrote that, I’m also mulling about what to cook when I get home)

The point of all this is that, in actuality, I’m just distracting myself from over-thinking about the fact that I’m flying. Just because it’s just something that I tend to get quite nervous about these days. (This flying anxiety hasn’t always been the case)

I wish I could be tele-transported. Poof! I’m there.

And by the power of poof! I managed to do all of the above on my list with a blink of an eye.

If only.

Alright. I’ll be off the radar for a couple of days from the blogosphere as I’ll be cooped up in some hotel’s conference room. Hopefully, I’ll manage to squeeze in a little blogging time.

See you in Budapest!

One of the perks about living in Bangkok is the convenient access to Day-Markets that sell a lot of cheap stuff. From street food, to clothes for both kids and adults to household items, you can find them all!

These Day-Markets usually operate in the vicinity of office buildings, between 10 am – 2 pm, and if there are office buildings nearby anywhere in the city with ample open spaces, rest assured that there would certainly be a Day-Market lurking around!

They are, most times, mobile little pop-up stores located in make-shift empty spaces. No two days are the same as there would be different sellers every day, which means that one is likely to see different things being sold on a daily basis.

I like browsing through the day market surrounding my office after lunch. Sometimes I find nothing, other times I have always found a *need* to buy something and spend unnecessary money after my lunch break.

But, these are not outrageously expensive items or anything like – they are mostly useful every day stuff with 20%-30% off retail prices. My purchase vary – from the daily necessities like toothpaste, toothbrushes, liquid hand soaps and snacks…to kids clothing (occasionally mine, size-permitting – both reasonably cheap, sometimes good quality stuff, too) and little knick-knacks or toys for the kids as presents that would cost almost nothing.Call it my Mommy-Guilt, but sometimes, I just could not help myself even though I know darn well not to pamper the kids with too many spoils!

We have, thus, unsurprisingly accumulated quite a bit of junk and old clothing along the way from my wayward lunch-time browsing activities. During our home spring-cleaning about a month back, I have told the kids that we needed to give away a lot of their stuff to unfortunate children who have nothing. I told them that I think they have too many toys and that there are other kids who probably would need it more than them. I then told them to pick out clothes and toys which they could kindly give away. They both were a sport at it and I am only too happy to be able to de-clutter our home!

Fast forward a few days back, I went on my after-lunch browsing again. I had bought a few pajamas for both kids and as soon as I got home, I presented them to the kids. I just love seeing their eyes light up when they see me coming back home with little surprise knick-knacks for them. It makes for a much funnier sight when both Spud and Squirt would come running up to me, naked as hell as they scrambled off from the bathroom right after their shower!

This time round though, Spud looked a little apprehensive. Although she seemed happy with her new pajamas, she had a forlorn look on her face as she scrutinized them. Rather unexpectedly, she then looked up at me and went,

“Mama, I think you should stop buying presents”

Me: Oh?

Spud: You should stop, Mama. There are other people who needs it more.

Me: Uhmmm…you are right. Absolutely right. What should I do? Should I give these pjs away then?

Spud: No, no, no. I like this. But, no more OK!

Me: Ok. No more.

I think my head spun a little bit. Whoahh! Where did that come from? I hadn’t expected that.

With that she gave me a smile and ran off. Not 5 seconds later, she came running back to me as I got busy dressing Squirt up. With her face really close to mine, she then quipped with a little whisper before running off again,”
“Oh! I forgot to tell you. You have to stop buying for Squirt too!”

I had to throw my head back and laugh at the hilarity of it all. Yes, I think I should stay away from the Day-Market, too.