Hope

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My heart goes out to all on board MH370 and their families. Praying hard that the search and rescue teams out there are able to find the missing aircraft with all the passengers safe and sound.

Bits of Bliss

I've been having quite a lot on my plate at the moment, from late nights, last minute schedule changes to the overall fatigue and frustration with all the uncertainty that has been going on. I have always been a worrywart, so the recent amount of stress is creating havoc. I don't know how to tune out, how to de-prioritise and everything just seems a giant, tangled up ball of worry.

 

In a bid to get out of this funk, I dropped by the Lighthouse soup kitchen with a bunch of team mates to help out. Its central location in town makes it a popular spot for the homeless and needy to fill their bellies with some warm food and a safe place to rest during the hot respite of the afternoon sun. It was truly a humbling experience to see how much I've taken for granted when there are others struggling to feed themselves from day to day. The volunteers told me they don't ask any questions and all are welcome to dine, rest and shower there. For those that are willing to work, they are paid a daily allowance and are given jobs at the Lighthouse bakery where baked goods are available for sale to the public. They've also set up a stall selling economy rice which is popular among the city workers for weekday lunches.

I've also tried introducing more mini green spots inside our house. Hubs has a horror of bugs so anything with soil was ruled out. Air plants died on me because of the insufficient light indoors so I was trying to figure out what would work. My office cube mate gave me a cut off from her money plant so I've placed it in a jam jar, here's to hoping it thrives.

As much as I can't live without the Internet, when it comes to reading, nothing beats the satisfaction of curling up in bed with a thick book, inhaling the scent of the pages, feeling the crisp texture of  paper between my fingers. I'm halfway through reading the Golem and the Djinni and it's reminiscent of a fairytale.

Magna Tiles Madness

I am eternally grateful to Sue and my boss for lugging back two heavy sets of Magna Tiles for me all the way from the US. Magna Tiles have quickly become one of Bub's favourite play things. They snap together very easily and you can form all kinds of 2D and 3D structures with them.

I've been using Magna Tiles to teach Bubs about shapes, pattern formation and basic math. Bubs is on a building kick at the moment and has been building castle-garage hybrids.

 Plus the jewel toned shades look awfully pretty as well :p I left Hubs alone with Bubs and when I came back, I found this in the living room. Hubs swore that Bubs built this all by himself though I still am very doubtful. Hmmm ...

Anyone knows where can I find these locally?

The 2nd Penang Bridge

Less than 24 hours from now for the 2nd Penang Bridge to open!

I asked around and so many of my friends in the mid 80s have fond memories of standing at the mid span of the original Penang bridge under the iconic arches for a photo. That was way before the crazy increase in traffic and at that time, you were still allowed to stop your car at the side.

Last week, we went for a peek at the tip of the bridge. There's a security barricade to stop people from wandering in because it's not yet opened but you're allowed to photos just right at the entrance.  As Hubs said, here's to creating history and hoping that Bubs now has the same fond memory :)

Super Bubs

Bubs has been on this super hero kick; he is in awe of Spiderman, Superman, Iron Man, Captain America (or rather Emerica as he calls it) and Batman. Whenever he role plays, he puts on an even deeper (we get told a lot that he already has a very deep voice) and aggressive tone.

We were having our weekly staple of roti bakar and iced coffee when I spotted a stall selling kids sized superhero outfits. They weren't anything fancy and obviously not the licensed merchandise but would obviously delight a certain someone. After asking Little Mr Indecisive what he wanted, "I want Spiderman, no wait, Superman, uhhhhh ... no, I want Iron Man" I decided to just pick out one myself.

Being the Asian mum I am, I buy clothing for Bubs in bigger sizes so they last him for ages and I get more bang for my buck that way. Since the stall owner ran out of Spiderman outfits in larger sizes, I settled on a Superman outfit with a sewn on cape. I initially cringed from the gaudy colour and plastic-y ironed on logo but Bubs was so excited, hugged the outfit to his chest and kissed it. Awwwww ... the look of sheer delight on his face more than made up for the cut throat price.

After a stern warning about how donning the Superman suit does NOT enable him to fly and that I'd confiscate it if I caught him doing superhero stunts in it, Bubs was thrilled to bits to tear around the house in it. Hubs talked Bubs and me out of the idea of wearing the full suit out to the mall ("This isn't Halloween") and just wearing the top with a pair of chambray shorts.

Super Bubs out on his mission to save the world :)