Baking stunt

I love baking and I think I am ok at it, if I may say so myself! Cakes, cupcakes, muffins, pizzas, cheesecakes..I've tried them with notable success - cake decorating included!

Then I thought, Jam Rollettes. Looks quick and easy..not too complicated. I do have very fond memories of baking "bahulu gulung" at school during Home Economics, which btw was 21 years ago!!

The other day, Fast Ed from Better Homes and Garden showed how easy it was to whip one up ..in 15 minutes! So armed with this assurance and my baking tools, I quickly whipped one up this afternoon. I followed the recipe to a T and 15 minutes later, voila, I was done!

That is done for today! Trying to get my Jam Rollette to look like this because mine turned out nothing like it! In fact, I don't think it even turned out right...My son..bless his soul, still paid me a compliment"It's yum, Mom..I don't see what's wrong with this!"

I will try again next time...after I stock my pantry up with more fresh eggs! Anyway, I am a Mom. We are equipped by the Almighty to do all things well!!

Pride & Prejudice

I came across these photographs and found it absolute charming - pictures of the "characters" and the "real" people!!

In Pride & Prejudice (1995 version, being the BEST one!) Jane Austen, writes of a middle-class heroin, Elizabeth "Lizzy" Bennet (Jennifer Ehle) that defied the conventions of her day - that is young girls must secure a good match in order to secure a good future, by marrying a man of good connection and good consequence. Bonus if she loves him! Lizzy maintains she will only marry for affection and will not settle for anything else. Yes, this girl is a girl so self-assured, stubborn yet very sweet!

In comes, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy (delicious Colin Firth), a handsome yet hard, stoic and proud character but very rich with good connection (I think he is richest of ALL Jane Austen's heros) and also well respected. He has a prejudice against "people with poor connections". Yet, he unexpected "against's his better judgment" falls in love with her . When he confesses "how ardently he loves and admires" Lizzy, she tells him appropriately WHERE to go. He goes away dejected and angry but remains in love with her!

Ironically, in the end, it is Lizzy's character that experiences a turnaround, realising that she was the one blinded by her stubborness and pride, that behind this stoic and hard man, is the warmest heart of gold. Lizzy learns that while he did not sweep her off her feet, he had demonstrated true love in action. As with all JA's novels, its a happy ending. They marry!!

For the longest time, PP95 was my favourite JA movies! I admired the self fortitude (or was it her pride?) of Lizzy Bennett. And , wait for it, Mr.Darcy's arrogance (or was it his prejudice?). I started noticing Colin Firth, from then on! Yes, I love Colin in as Mr. Mark Darcy in"Bridget Jones Diary" too...

Who is your Jane Austen Hero?

Hmm? Could you live on nothing but love? Are you dangerous, practical or prissy. Do you value friendship first in a relationship, or crave the grand passion? Discover your suitability to Austen's heroes in this short quiz!

Take it here!

This was mine...

What Would Jane Do?

well didn't think they would reply my email but they did...this was their response:

Hi,
Fake names are a violation of our Terms of Use. Facebook requires users to provide their full first and last names (i.e. no initials). Impersonating anyone or anything is prohibited. Nicknames can be used in the form of FirstName 'NickName' LastName, but only if they are a variation on your real first or last name, such as 'Bob' instead of 'Robert'.
If you would like to use this profile again, just get back to us with your real name, and we will reevaluate your account status.
Thanks for your understanding,
Kyle
User Operations
Facebook

I was wondering how they came to this conclusion? well....when you send an email signed as the REAL you, they will start to question why this email address points to a different facebook profile! d'uh!

Being a principled person (yah right! wouldn't be in this mess if I was my real self on facebook to start with!!), i told them that my "sister" was the predominant user of my facebook acct, but lately i have taken over active use but never thinking to correcting my profile name. BUT since deemed "disabled" a few days ago, I have created a new CORRECT account. How's that for a principled-person...

Anyway, if Facebook has black-marked me due to this, I will probably be gone for good!

hmm... What Would Jane Do?

Mrs. Wentworth

This I likkkkeee...

Mrs. Darcy...

Made me laugh..

My NEW facebook account

Yesterday in the flurry and excitement of messaging to my long-lost now just-found uni friends and ex-OCFers, I was suddenly kicked out of facebook! To my embarrasing horror, my account was rendered "disabled" and I could no longer log in...

i was naturally miffed at first, as i had made lots of reconnections with old friends from years gone by. then, remembering that facebook is, afterall, a free service, it was no big deal!

Out of curiosity, I wanted to know if there were other victim falling prey to this facebook security feature and also to find out how long it would take me to recover my account - if ever! This was my finding...

How I came to be "disabled'? Well, apparently I was sending too many messages too damn fast, thus deeming it SPAMMING...err..SPAM-SPEED?? never did i imagined that my speed..err efficacy, could ever cause me trouble of this sort!

Will I ever get my account back? hmmm.....some says, after many many emails, begging and pleading, they finally got their account back. Others says when pigs fly!

anyway, following their instructions, i emailed (and begged) facebook to re-instate my account

meanwhile, i am now just "sandra gadalon"...

yay...

Amazed - Part Deux

ahh....I finally figured how or rather WHO designed all those blog designs/templates...and yes, it was a "paid" service...

I love mine!

Amazed..

An old friend dropped by this morning, needing some help with her assignment (Golly, no one's asked me EVER to help with their assignment - even at uni!). We talked about her assignment as well as chatted about old-mutual friends until about mid-day. She was then off to uni...

As she pulled out of the drive-way, I suddenly remembered that the balance payment for our plane tickets are due today - packed the kids up in a huff and scurried over to Flight Centre. Turns out that Royal Brunei is doing something really stupid with their flight schedule, which I imagined is going to be quite an inconvenience for me and the kids on our travel BACK to Perth!! Anyway, they say they are sorting all that out ....yet RBA still wanted my money first..pfrrr...

Anyway, what's amazing to me was this...

After all that, I decided to surf the net just checking out other blogs. Alot of them are absolutely beautiful. And I don't know how they do it...gosh! I find myself wishing my blog was as beautiful. My guess is, their blogs are not designed for free...right? If that's the case, I like mine just the way it is....

I am such a miser!

Shopping with the Kids

Our food supplies needed replenishing over the weekend but was too unmotivated to do the grocery shopping. Was just one of those days, I suppose - bad weather, cold day, didn't want to wriggle out of my comfy jammies...yeah, you know what I mean.

So today, I had to visit Woolies before evening - else, no dinner, unhappy kids and an even unhappier hubby. After work, I kept Megan from falling asleep in her baby-seat during the car-ride and dragged them to Bullcreek Shopping Centre. Oh goody. Just so happened that Target was having a shoe sale. Quickly ducked in there, grabbed a new pair of school shoes for Joseph and some new jackets for Megan. Out of there in half an hour.

Finally Woolies. Megan didn't want to sit on the trolley anymore, so I said she could walk - closely - by the trolley! Earlier in the car, I had pep-talked them about listening to me at the shops - you know, don't ask for anything, don't touch anything (pretty lame instructions to give kids in a shop, I know!), no shouting, no running - the standard drill..else, it was their bottom's appointment with the wooden spoon. My 3 year old, knows this down-pat.

Anyway, it was good for 5 minutes and then all the pep-talk effort blew up in my face. After much frustration and even more reprimands to not touch anything, I made them put their itchy hands in their pockets. They gladly followed and I was happy...

Until... they decided to "touch" things with their shoulders, knees and head...funny? yes, only kids can come up with such ingenuity! I was not impressed though. The check out chick (she was more of a matured-age chick tho) was amused at my-hands-in-pocket-kids and commented that all moms should follow my lead! aha! $200 worth of groceries later, we were out and comfortably home again. Then my headache started......

Now its Lasagna for dinner....

Shirk...

definition: neglect a duty or responsibility...

I have a splitting headache...again. I am thinking it could be that cup of coffee. Oh dear.

Anyway, today..was interesting, to say the least. Arrived work and sort out a few things before my assistant goes off to visit a sick relative overseas.

The discussions today with management, got me really thinking about alot of issues, on many levels. One that really sticks out like a sore thumb is the issue of execution of duties/responsibility and shirking. Where do you draw the line? When a 2IC is given a directive from a higher authority, when is it that 2IC is shirkings by merely "pushing" the directive down the line not really caring where that directive is given - as long as it is out their hand? It then means that they have "done" their duties and now someone else's problems...? This irks me, especially when I have given them the benefit of the doubt that the y DO know protocol...

Really gets my goat, really does....

DVDs killed the Videos...

well not quite...

recently i decided to upgrade my favourite movie classics from VHS versions to DVDs...Pride and Prejudice, got a once over a few months back ..

now its Anne of Green Gables turn..

I will scrapbook now, as I re-enjoy this movie..the movie that inspired the naming of my baby girl MEGAN....

Body Shapes

i was once a size 6/8, flaunting the 50kg frame..for many many years...

never would i image that my girlish, svelte frame, would cease to exist after kids arrive.

yes, yes, i know - there are those of you who THINK that you still have that girlish body (BUT you DON'T), believe me, moms with girlish bodies are a freak of nature and definitely not intended to be!! Admittedly, there are many moms out there, who definitely look better than me, at the moment.....

i am always disgusted at these breed! they KNOW they look better than the normal breed of mothers. You know, they know it! Yet, they flaunt..yes, FLAUNT their size 30 inch tummy size (mine's close to 50!!) , their so-called flat boobies at 36 inc (mine's close to 25!!) and with all of their false-humilitiness , cry " tis so unfair and too cruel"....

you know they want to be oogled and praise for their "curvy" figures by the other whale-like mom, me in particular!! makes you want to go over and slapped them to eternity and beyond!

then, i look at my kids - my beautiful, confident, smart and healthy kids - who are totally indifferent to my whale-like body (especially my baby girl - who would snuggle up in my fats to keep warm in winter!). Granted, they don't know any better and it makes me think...

"its all worth while, after all.."

plus, unlike many shallow-unappreciative hubbies, mine don't care for my flabs......

or so he says....

hmmmm......

Lil Einstein

Last night a rep from an educational company, claiming to not " sell you anything cos i am on a wage" came for a visit. as we expected, she ended up trying to sell us their $6K educational software that is almost certain to produce lil einsteins!!

She preceeded to "test" my son and got rather amazed at how "clever" my son is (pullleeezee, don't i know that already??) and not forgetting little megan, also got her to "test" their pre-school pre-reading program. admittedly, it is a good program - maths, english and perceptive skill building program - we would've purchased one for the kids, if we haven't one already - we got joseph this similar maths program (which is still under-utilised at present!!) years ago.....

anyway, the interaction between the rep and joseph was simply entertaining to say the least....

rep: now joseph, tell me who you think is the smartest kid in school?
joseph: *hmmm* what?
(you could see that THAT question did not make sense to my son!)
rep: its not a trick question, love. who do you think is the smartest kid is your class?
joseph:*looking over to me, bemused*...err....
rep: i am sure you know who the smart ones in your class....can you name someone?
(at this point, i KNEW what he was thinking and he was going to say it!!)
joseph: (with all the confidence of a 7-year old!!) I AM pretty smart you know
rep: *embarrased*...oh yes, of course you are! it would be YOU!

ode to joseph....

Jane Austen

Just found out that the shops are selling the Jane Austen Masterpiece DVDs now. There is the Billy Piper "Mansfield Park", Felicity Jones "Northangher Abbey" and Kate Beckinsale "Emma"...but no Sally Hawkins "Persuasion" yet to be seen around..

I guess I may just duck out on Monday, head to David Jones to grab these and delete all my YouTube versions of the movie....

Then again, maybe I wait for "Persuasion 08" to come about first....

So hard a decision...

but c***p, I have to go into work on Monday instead....prrffff

My goat is got...

when people have no idea what they are doing but want to be seen as ABLED. because they are incompetent to begin with and stuff up , u STILL cop the shit!

another is when people take you for a free-ride...take on your ideas as theirs..obviously using you major!

and me being the dumb-ass that i am, just take it on the chin....

prfff....

piss me off royal!

Honesty...

you know if someone asks me now, if i posses this virtue, i honestly (no pun, intended) couldn't answer that right off the bat.

ironically, i appreciate honesty, i really do BUT from the people i trust and love ONLY. for other than those within my circle of trust, i have no need for their honesty on any opinion no matter how well intended they are. their unwarranted opinion, where directly or indirectly given, is resented with utmost passion.

therefore, i guess i reciprocate that way too. if i don't think i trust/like/love you or no LONGER trust/like or love you (and i know when THAT feeling is mutual), i deliberately holdback my honest opinion of you.... in other word, i will lie to you without batting an eye-lid...

that's how it goes for me...

Knit Picking

(Gosh, just realised that i have not touched my albums in weeks..nevermind, i will sit there tomorrow and finish a pack of photos!)

I finished knitting Megan's sweater vest yesterday, and poor abang quipped "Mom, u know that blue sweater you knitted for me 2 years ago? It doesn't fit anymore. Can u knit another one for me?"

Anyway, i picked out a bunch of yarns yesterday from Spotlight and started on HIS sweater vest last night, during Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal. My goal is to finish it in a fortnight. Why? Because my darling hubby also has been requesting a sweater vest for YEARS now.

(Talking about photo albums, bring smiles to my face when I see my kids go through their albums and marvel at how cute they are!! keeps me going with my album/scrapbook project)

Part-Time-Moms

I had an interesting chat over coffee, this morning, with a pest-control company representative. It was a she and we had a nice chat on that ever so delightful subject of motherhood and children. She happens to be a grandmother working part-time at this rep job and also works from the home as junk-mail distribution centre.

Talking to this nice lady, it suddenly dawned on me that part-time working moms are actually very busy multi-tasking creatures, charging through the day on pure adrenalin!! So, nothing is more irksome to me than when someone says.."oh, you're working part-time. gives you something else to do and keeps your brains active"

what?? did you fall of nest when God Almighty was passing out brains? golly, the reason i work part-time is because i have so much to do.....like i would lack "something else to do" and as if being moms are brain-dead jobs! oh get serious and walk in my shoes and then tell me who needs something to do to keep your brains active and then some!

prffff.....