May 5, 2011

Sencha Silver Flower tea

Category: Food

I love my tea as much as I do coffee, and can be quite the tea addict. While coffee is more for a perk me up in the morning or after lunch, tea for me is a comfort late afternoon or after dinner “aperitif”  “digestive”.It is more comforting in a relaxed kind of way, reminding me of weekends at home with my parents when I was still living with them. Typically, I do like to end my evening with one before I go to bed

Although I am a no tea connoisseur, I do know what I like and what I don’t like. I love chai and Darjeeling and chrysanthemum to name a few, but I can’t stomach earl grey (they make me feel nausea), I hate green tea, and I generally avoid jasmine like a plaque.

So, when my mother-in-law introduced a new blend of tea with jasmine in it, I was surprised that I liked it. It is called the Sencha Silver Flower tea sold by a retailer in Holland called Simon Levelt. It is essentially a blend of jasmine, rose and chamomile. I liked it so much that I probably may have just shamelessly finished off her stash of those Sencha Silver Flowers by having them several times a day while we were staying with them!

The blend smells heavenly and taste really good. I loved it so much that we bought some home. Indeed, it is one of the loveliest teas I ever tasted. After years and years hating jasmine, I surprised myself by actually falling in love with the blend.

I just made one for myself. I wish you can smell its glorious scent and taste its unique blend from where you are.

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May 4, 2011

Learning to be parents

Category: Being Parents

Remember when we first started out with Spud’s first swimming lesson, I said that I’d rather Silver Bullet pick up my slack given my not-so-high-level-of-confidence when in the water?

Well, well! It appears that I have come a long way since.

Believe it or not, I have actually managed to take Spud to her swimming class for a make-up lesson not only just once, but twice now. And, all by myself!

Yep. You read that right, my friends. TWICE. On.my.own. That’s just me, the ever hyper-active and unpredictable Spud, her tote bag and the swimming gears.

[OK. To be fair, Silver Bullet has already claimed that first credit of taking Spud to her swimming lesson by himself when I was away in Singapore for the weekend a while back. I did suggest he take the Nanny along to help, if it makes it easier for him, but he was adamant to want to try it on his own. And he did. And at that time, I have no doubt that he’ll be OK. He will be frenzied and exhausted, but he will be OK. And he was. They both were!]

I’ll be honest and admit that I was jittery in having to take Spud to her swimming class on my own for the first time — a make-up class for when we were on vacation over Songkran. I mean, despite knowing how to swim, I am still crap at having to deal with water in the pool and having to handle a potentially crabby baby while in the water and then, having to clean the BOTH of us up after that , does NOT sound like a good combination in my mind! Like me, Silver Bullet suggested that I could always ask the Nanny along. Like him, I just wanted to give it a go by myself and felt the ‘high” that I, too, like most parents, can do this without any external help. So there we were: Nervy me trying to act cool, unpredictable Spud with her curve balls, and then there’s this other little me praying for my own sanity that:

a) Spud is not going to be super cranky, leaving me to deal her extremities in public,  and
b) My lack of confidence is not going to get the better of me when handling Spud in the pool

So yes, I think I have come a long way. Slowly I’m gaining the confidence of handling Spud while in the pool.

Spud goes underwater!

I guess as Teacher Turtle pointed out, the swimming lessons are not always necessarily for the babies, but essentially teaching the parents alike on how to properly handle their babies in the water safely. And typically, in doing so, gain more confidence for the child to get better at learning how to swim confidently.

Ahhhh….such is life learning experience.

I am definitely getting better at this parenting thing.

Or rather, I’m definitely getting better at looking super collected and cool while attempting to mask that lack of parenting skills!

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May 4, 2011

An ode to those in Advertising

Category: Ads

This has been going on the internet for a while, and I had lifted this off an acquaintance’s notes she posted on FB. This gives me a bit of a chuckle, and I thought it is an appropriate ode to those who were and still are in advertising!

She used to work in Advertising, She’s done her time in Hell!

Last night as I lay sleeping
I died or so it seemed,
Then I went to heaven
But only in my dream.


Up there St. Peter met me
Standing at the pearly gates,
He said, “I must check your record
Please stand here and wait.”

He turned and said “Your record
Is covered with terrible flaws,
On earth I see you rallied
For every losing cause.”

I see that you drank alcohol
And smoked and used drugs too,
Fact is, you’ve done everything
A good person should never do.

We can’t have people like you up here
Your life was full of sin,
Then he read the last of my record
Took my hand and said “Come in.”

He led me up to the big boss and said
“Take her in and treat her well.”
She used to work in Advertising,
She’s done her time in hell”.

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