The Birthday To Remember

The birthday to remember.

Nothing awesome about the figure 26. Just a number some would say. Yeah, I agree. It it 4 years from being 30 from my point of view. :p If you're the half-full kind of person. Good for you.

Honestly, I've had so many birthdays in my life but this year is it different coz I have a husband. That's the only change.
I need to have this entry to let things out rather than go ranting everywhere in the cyberspace.

Everyone who knows me well enough would know how much fun I find in singing and reading. Don't think I wanna mention shopping coz it goes w/o saying. :p This year, the project decided to hold a project dinner at RedBox. How awesome is that? As much as I wished I could join and rock out, I declined.

Why? Coz my husband booked me right away. He said "Your evening is mine." Trust me. I was so happy. I've told him that I didn't want anything for my bday this year. Not a piece of cake. Not a piece of card. But when he said that, I believe that he would have his own plan. Atleast a dinner. It did not happen. The whole day was his but he had stuff so I told him to get his stuff done. I don't mind. One thing led to another thing. Time set was 2pm so when my bestfriend asked me out for lunch, I said "Let'z go!". That was wise. Coz it was the only meal I had. 2 awesome pastas shared. 2 delicious desserts shared. ^___^
Back to the dissappointment story. Everyone knows my work eats me up. So when I go onleave, I'm REALLY onleave. ALL OUT! When a day of leave gets wasted, I will be extremely sad. I dunno which bit went wrong. Called him at about 3:43pm. He said the entire day is ruinned. I didn't get it. It wasn't even 8pm. I don't even know what was ruinned. He hung up. I still didn't get my answer. Replied his parents' bday wish to say TQ. Then turned off my phone. Tadaa!

Minutes turned to hours. No signs of anything. Everyone must have believed that I'm having a blast with my husband. Sorry guys, I didn't so if I happen to look extremely blue the next day, please don't ask me why. Was hoping to check out the sofa I found for the house but I guess he is not that interested.

Did laundry. Hung the clothes and checked out of window if there's any sense of happiness or apology coming. None. Decided to clear up the shoe rack while I was taking out the vacuum cleaner. Took out the vacuum cleaner. Then vacuumed the entire house. Atleast I didn't waste my entire time moping around for nothing. Rocked out the sound system while I cleaned. Bathed. Lathered the shweeettt Vic Secret shower gel I bought last year before I got married. hahaha Awesome shower.

Read my book. Go to my laptop to type out this entry coz I need to lighten up my heart. He came back. I told him to gimme 5mins for me to juz put a place holder; I just want the entry to be on my birthday. He said he couldn't wait. Ironic. What is 5mins when that someone has waited yonks rite? :( I wish I can keep on saying it is unfair but I don't feel like it. He left the room. Thought he is juz getting something to drink. He turned on the TV. That marked the end of me. Fell asleep. He bathed..i think. He left the room. I woke up. No pillows. Went out...he was in the living room at his laptop. 2nd time over for me. Clickety click on the mouse. It didn't end. I couldn't fall back to dreamland again. Read some more. Still couldn't fall asleep..sucks. Shut the door. Forced myself to sleep. Eventually fell asleep....ahhhhhhh it was almost 3am I think.

Thank god I have Mr.Work to turn to. I know he needs me whenever. Mr.Book, he is always very loyal and obviously accommodating. I believe he loves me as much as I love him. He wouldn't mind me putting him aside for me to have other form of fun too. Super understanding. Don't you think? ;)

Letz do a lil recap on the birthdays I remember. Btw, I can't remember my 21st birthday.

Sweetest bday gift in life
18th. I thought my family forgot my birthday coz no one said anything about it since breakfast. So..who cares rite? Not that I wanted anything anyway. The clock struck 8:35pm when I was wiping the dining table after dinner when my dad suddenly said "Eh, what is the time now?" My mom said "This is the time when she's coming out." They then wished me happy birthday.

Best birthday bash in life
23rd. My parents threw it for me and my bro. They knew that would be the only time they get to do that and they want us to atleast experience it. It was awesome. BBQ at lvl 4. Unbelievable. 50 over ppl crammed in our apartment. Even more unbelievable. Everyone sang the bday song. It was sooooo awesome! ^__^ Was really the best birthday bash ever! Who said parents are not kewl about stuff? ;)

Ice-Cream Cake Bday
25th Bday. I dunno if there are any kids out there who never wished for an ice-cream cake. I've always wanted it but it is too pricey and my family didn't have that much to be spending on a cake. To cut long story short, it wasn't quite feasible. My colleagues decided to get an ice-cream cake from Baskin out of nowhere. There! My first ice-cream bday cake. :) I got it. Happy. Don't need anymore. The experience is nice. Some wishes take some time to come true but it does come true! Work is also not juz work. ;) Colleagues are friends too :) Apart from that, my bday was celebrated everyday of the week! I got slices of cakes the subsequent 2 days. One from the William the DBA; mille crepe! The other one from Ryan the phil bookaholic. Another bday meal from Joyce; OLIO! Everyday was a bday. Celebrated with my parents over the weekends. My bestfriend took me out for a steamboat buffet.

The Chinese-Style Bday Lunch

22nd Bday. Crown Princess Hotel. Celebrated with my godmother who happened to be my training supervisor too. Other guys who are friends with me at work were invited too. That includes the other 2 trainee guys I worked with. Nice lunch. :)

The Final High School Bday
17th. And at a fast food outlet. ;) Got a huge teddy from my besties. Cake was Tiramisu. My husband(then,my boyfriend) turned up. Took our first pic together. He gave me a lil kitten which very much resembled my late daughter when she was a kitten. I wore my fav top with my fav skirt. My classmate's cousin helped to deliver ALL my presents to my hse. How niceeee :) My parents sponsored the celebration. I bought the cake from a bakery nearby my hse and carried it on my own to the fastfood outlet. 
 
Here are the stuff I did on my bday.
- Made the bed
- Had lunch with my bestest friend; the only meal I had on my bday.
- Settled a stupid personal loan at the bank.
- Refueled by car; didn't wash it coz it looked like it was gonna rain but it didn't in the end. >.< Mr.Rain is also a male.
- Did laundry.
- Vacuumed the entire house.
- Refilled the bottles in the fridge.
- Arranged my books I brought back from my MIL's place.
- Trash the unwanted shampoos from the rack in the bathroom my husband is using.
- Cleared out the shoe rack so that my husband has some space to put his shoes; at a brokenhearted point, I still wants things to be nice for him.
- Read some chapters in the book I'm currently reading.
- Reminisced moments spent with my family and wished they were still with me when my heart has been shattered. Cried. Bathed as the attempt to wash away my sorrow.
- Contemplated on whether I should head out for my own bday dinner or stay in. Couldn't decide so no dinner.
 
p/s: This post is meant to have the date of my bday this year but I failed coz I put the place holder in the bookblog instead. Dayummm!

Educating Kids...Mathematics

This post was triggered by a friend's status update on Facebook saying "How to teach a 6-year-old boy who cannot pay attention and forget what he learned the next second? Trying to teach my son maths... Very frustrated...". I wanted to reply to her thread but do not want to spam her box. Wanted to write her a message but this would be quite long for her to read. *considering the fact that she didn't ask for my opinion but I still wanna blab"

I've never had any kids but I was one. ;) I started schooling when I was 4 in Brunei. The syllabus was based on Singapore so all my textbooks were obviously from Singapore too.

Counting Numbers
How I started counting? This may be a little bit lame but I sometimes massage my mom and my dad. No. They didn't abuse me or force me to but Brunei was a little bit boring and my mom was a housewife and I'm just a little kid. They would sometimes just call me and said "Tolong picit kaki sikit" (Please massage me legs a lil). By leg, they refer to calves. I would ask "How many?" They would reply in numbers. That was how I started counting. 1 to ten was not a problem coz I've got 10 fingers but going beyond that is something else. I started to hunger for more numbers into my head coz I always want to be smart...well,honestly not just smart but if possible the smartest! Some kind of behaviour I've got but I simply want to be the best. From 10 to 20 to 30 and so on. When I started schooling, I think able to count up to 100 is a super duper smart thing so I would massage my mom and ask her what is the next number. There were times when I forgot but whenever I ask, my parents would always tell me the number again. I may be very little but I remember the day I counted til 100! I was on the bed with my mom. Massaging her calves. When I reached 100, I was sooooo thrilled! That's how I started counting! May not be the conventional and formal way but it worked!

Addition and Subtraction
As a kid, I never quite played any computer games. But the first (and possibly the only computer game) I played was a game of maths; addition and subtraction. There were apples, oranges, balloons and maybe many more but I only remember those. Some examples would be 5 - 3. The CRT screen would show 5 balloons. Then a stick would pop 3 balloons and ask for the answer. I would then count the number of balloons left and key in the answer. So kewl!(I was only 4 remember? :p) Other than that, my dad would sometimes ask me "What is 1+1?" I had asked, how to count that. He answered somewhere along the line of "What is the next number after 1?". When it is subtraction, he told me it is the opposite so I would have to count backwards. *I hated that a lot!* Guess that is not the worst. I had the worst trouble when the sum is something like " __ + 3 = 10". Urrgghhh!!! I couldn't finish my homework til late at night so before going to school, he would take me to his office for awhile and make me finish my homework. I counted and rubbed the answers a millions of times coz he would check my answer and tell me it is wrong. So frustrating. There were times I didn't even count but I guessed instead. Hahaha! He told me to minus the number. I didn't understand why I had to minus when I see the + sign in the sum. LOL! When I got what he meant, I asked which number to subtract with which coz I got clueless after subtracting a small number with a big one. *When you are so lil, you don't know if there are any numbers before 0...like c'mon, how can you visualize -ve numbers?How do you put that in the forms of apples and oranges?* hahaha After sometime, I got it and never had troubles answering those.

Multiplication and Division
When I entered Primary 1, I was 6. I was made to know the tables of 2 multiplication before I even entered Primary 1 coz my dad said I will need it when I enter primary school. Gosh! 2 is easy...3 is crazy....4 is boring..5 is lovely...10 is wonderful...so is 11. 12...I don't even want to think about it but when I learnt 12 by heart, I feel like a big kid and obviously smart! LOL! I was probably 7 or 8 when I got to 12 multiplication table. My dad made me learn the table by heart. He made me recite the tables everyday in the study room. There was once when I was soooo happy that I learnt the sequence of numbers in the table top-down. He told me to recite backwards....I went silent. He then threw me questions like "What is 3 times 4?". I would pause and recite in my heart the table of 3....haihzzz. He said "Slow!" I said I have the answer. He said he wants is on the spot. *sweat* After some time, I mastered it and answered him right away everytime he asks. Like that isn't enough, he twisted the question; "What times 3 gives you 15?". I went speechles.........If he asks the question on my way to school, he said he wants it when he picks my up from school. If I still couldn't answer, he would tell me to learn the tables again and that he wants the answer when he comes back from work. From there, we got to division. Wasn't easy but I made it. *Phew!*

Telling the Time
My parents strongly dissaprove digital watches when I was a kid. I always envy my friends and cousins who have digital watches. Whenever I asked for one, my dad would say the watches are for people who do not know how to tell the time. He told me I will have one when I could tell the time well. He bought a cardboard clock and move the hands of the clock. I was so thankful there were only 2 hands; hour and minute. On his watch, there are 3....seconds hand. 5 multiplication table was very handy! It was also my favourite table so it was cool just that when the hands overlapped, I got a lil bit confused. I would look at the clock on the wall, squint my eyes a lil to make sure I count the number right, run to my mom and tell her the time. Sometimes I got it right. Sometimes I go it wrong but I was determined to learn coz I wanna grow up so much and be smart! Duhhh!lol After sometime, I was good at it. Didn't get any digital watches but I was happy with my analog watch coz I have a watch. It was a Mickey Mouse watch. :) Did I still envy kids with digital watches? A lil coz it seemed cool but deep inside I know they may not know how to tell the time as well as I do! =)

Counting Money
Having gone to a small private school, food was provided. There was no need for any coins or purses. I never bothered about having money until when I was 7. My mom started teaching me how to count money. I asked her why she is teaching me how to count money. She said it is essential coz I will need to buy my own food when I go to school in Malaysia. She laid the coins on the study desk and showed me how to tell how much is one coin worth. She didn't tell me to count but she would say if a cake is 30cents and you gave the hawker 50cents, how much should the hawker give you back. I didn't know how she or I did it but it went very smooth. I learned without much effort. Few days we "played" the game. Was fun! *Maybe coz I didn't know going back to Malaysia sucks....*

Going Deeper
There isn't a day when there is not Maths...rite? When I was 8, we returned to KL. We used to be on the highway sometimes. Maths game started again..besides ensuring I still know my tables, my dad would tell me to look at the board on the highway. He would tell me the destination place and I was required to look at the km stated next to it. That was easy. He would then ask me (say we have 150km more to go), "We have 150more kilometers to go, we are now going at 100km per hour. How long more do we need to travel to reach?" Mine you...Singapore is quite a long journey................there were many signboards and figures *sweat* If that isn't enough, after I got my answer right, he would tell me to look at the time and tell him what time we will reach based on my calculation...sobsob...I used to tell him "I haven't got to that part in school." He told me "I want you to learn in advance." He's an engineer and his father used to be a an army. *sweat* There were times I pretended to sleep.....hahahaha The Malaysia school syllabus only got to that when I was in Primary 5 or 6.

I learnt a lot in a car. I counted. I learnt tables. I learnt how to spell. It wasn't easy but it did me good and I dare say I was a smart kid. =p When you are "stuck" in the car, there is nothing much you can do except to keep digging for answers. I hate being in the car with my dad sometimes when I was a kid but he did me a lot of favour! I'm happy...until this very moment I'm recoding this and will always be. =)

There are a lot more memories on my early education...and how I struggled. Will post at another time.

Dear Elena,
If you are reading this, thanks for triggering this post. It makes me reminisce the times I had with my parents when we were just a lil family and how my dad spent sooo much effort educating me. Trust me, even my mom didn't have a say when I was made to stay up til morning to study or understand my homework. I will write more on my early education when time permits. It would be great to capture all this while I still remember. As I mentioned in my opening paragraph, I have no kids but I was one so I hope you could find some ideas with your lil boy. Kids these days may not be the same anymore but one fine day, they will definitely be super thankful! As for me, good luck to myself. I'm not even married yet but when I have my own kids someday, I would love to give atleast the same level of concern and concentration on my kids' education. Won't be easy in our busy lifestyle and demands at work but I hope I could. =) *hugzzz*

-Ruz-

Oh so colourful!

I sometimes view the analytics of my blog..ya know..just for the fun of it. Well, why blog if it isn't fun? :p
If i could paint the week, I'll have to pick solemn colours as the week started with sickness. Was in bed on Monday and Tuesday. When I got back to work Wednesday onwards, the week simple suck....don't bother asking me why coz I don't wanna revisit the week. Hope the solemness won't linger til next week.

In the virtual world..or rather my blog, it seems to be preffy colourful. I've seen fractions of visitors' origins but maybe this the the first time I've seen this many fractions and of coz COLOURS! *Can't help wondering if they will run out of colours if there are more countries popping out*

The Very First Single Movie Ticket Bought

This may be normal to frequent movie-goers or movie fanatics. As for me, I love watching movies but I do not watch it too often coz most of the time, I'd pick reading over watching movies. To my little bunch of friends, the know that I will object to the idea of watching a movie when I've not met them in the longest time. I started REALLY watching movies in the cinema when I started dating my boyfriend. No doubt there are times I object watching movies due to time limitation; I'd rather walk around, talk and catch up. *you get the idea*

Ever since my bf went away, I seldom watch anymore movies. Guess I must have been busy or the feeling just doesn't come. I would be lying if I say that there is nothing I would like to watch but frustrations come with it when I don't get to watch it OR my bf watches w/o me. Selfish? I don't think so. I'm just so used to watch movies with him. Watching romance is a lot nicer when you have a companion. Let me know if you disagree. All these makes me forget all about movies. I barely even go to the cinema portals. *Why tempt when you can't have it rite? I don't like pulling myself down and live with frustrations!*

What I did today is what I've always wanted to do; experience watching movie alone! Odd? Ordinary? I was divided between Shrek 4 and Letters to Juliet. I picked Shrek 4 in 3D =) How I felt lining up alone? Nothing out of ordinary...maybe because I don't see couples being ridiculously annoying in front / around me. I was surround by a bunch of girls who couldn't decide what they wanna watch and some kids. The line wasn't long so nothing was in the context of toturing me.

Didn't get the center seat but managed to get a seat towards the end of the center cluster. 3 empty seats; I picked the middle one...just so that no silly couples will sit nearby! (forgodsake, I'm watching Shrek...not some Romeo&Juliet movie) Went into the cinema right away my ticket was printed. Picked up the 3D glasses alone. Wasn't odd. Went to my seat alone. No one picked up my bag to put it on the floor. I gotta say I got into the scene right on time. The moment I sat down, the dreamworks logo was displayed onto the screen.

Did I laughed during the show?
I did.

Did it feel odd being alone?
Nope.

Did I enjoy the movie?
Of coz!!! It is Shrek!!!

Would I do it again?
Definitely; IF I have the time and chance to. =p

p/s: After tonite, I wont' have to wonder how it feels to watch a movie alone anymore coz I'VE DONE IT! Not much diff compared to shopping and eating alone. It feels normal. I dunno about romantic movies but Shrek doesn't make me feel alone. *ngehngehngeh*