Assimilation

I was talking to Ruey yesterday on the phone. I'm fussy about my food.... amongst other things.

Where I came from, bread is ONLY a breakfast food, if it even makes it to the breakfast table, that is. Growing up, breakfast is usually hot food. It can be congee, soupy noodles ... etc. If bread, butter and jam were served as breakfast, us kids will know that MUM is feeling lazy today, doesn't feel like making breakfast. But we'll still eat it. As adults, most of us will even go out to the hawker centre and have breakfast before heading to work. And even if we just had toast with butter and kaya (a coconut jam), it always has to come with boiled eggs. In other words, something HAS to be cooked. LOL ... ask any Chinese family living in Singapore, they'll tell you the same thing. Maybe our parents are traditional, and hence we are too.So to me, bread or sandwiches CANNOT be lunch. I sufferred so badly when I first moved to Australia because bread is staple. I can't find hot food for breakfast! Everyday felt like a lazy day cos bread was the only option. And people have sandwiches for lunch!!! How unreal??!!

{OK... I have to first define my original definition of sandwich - 2 pieces of bread with something in the middle, be it cheese OR ham. Technically, that IS the right definition, right? I had the biggest argument with a Pommie sales manager when I used to work in Singapore as a PA to the Sales and Marketing Director. He wanted me to organise sandwiches for lunch for his meeting. I did. I gave him butter sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, ham sandwiches..... and of course, he wanted fancy schmancy sandwiches from delis and cafes. He threw the biggest fit, abused the crap out of me, and even got a bit racial. I didn't back down either. The fight attracted the biggest crowd - other managers as well as a whole gang of secretaries. My boss had to step in and split us up.... lol. Well, it was truly a cultural miscommunication. What can I say... kekeke }

Anyway, back to my early days in Australia. Some days, some of my colleagues will have a cheese sandwich for lunch, some will even have a salad sandwich for lunch.... eeeks! See, to me, that's rabbit food. It's green stuff! Which corner of my stomach is that going to fill? I need meat!!! But food is expensive in Australia... PERIOD. In Singapore, I spend $5-6 at a food court, I get HOT FOOD cooked right in front of you, and drink. Sometimes there's change for dessert! HERE??? I can only get McDonald's fast food with that money if I wanted a "meal". If I wanted to have hot food with a drink... $10... easy! And would you believe that those fancy "sandwiches" will cost about the same!!!! And that's just BREAD!!!

7 years later, I still disagree with a cheese or salad sandwich for lunch. But now, I have a new-found definition for sandwiches. I will sometimes make my own "newly-defined-sandwiches" at home. And the fillings (a cool word) can be cheese, onion, tuna, mushrooms .... or ham, cheese, onion, lettuce. And I have one of those fancy pancy sandwich grillers at home ... I've assimilated.

So this whole introduction story, just to give you a background of my post today.

I was feeling lazy yesterday. Who am I kidding? I feel lazy everyday. I asked the kids what they wanted for lunch and Ellen "ordered" a mushroom pasta. Yeah right!!!!!! I'm really going into the kitchen to make a pasta for lunch. So I said,

"We can have mushroom pasta another day. Can I make you fairy bread?"
"No."
"Why?"
"That's not food."

......

Is she my daughter or is she my daughter? I wasn't sure what to think. I'm sure she thought of me like I did when my mother gave us bread for breakfast - SHE'S FEELING LAZY TODAY!! Except back then, I wouldn't dare say NO to what my mother put on the table! I'd be asking for trouble!

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Last week, I visited Ange (Warren). We had a cuppa and chatted, the kids played. It was a beautiful Friday morning. I was talking about toilet training Phaedon. And she told me about her friend who did this magic trick with her son when toilet-training him.

Phaedon is behaving badly right now. Everything and anything you ask him to do, expect a straight NO from him, that's if you're lucky. If you're not, you'll hear him scream and cry. I try to ask him everytime I change his nappy, if he wants to go to the toilet. Of course, I'll get the most violent objection flavoured with whining and screaming.

So the trick was - to get ping pong balls to drop it in the toilet bowl. Get them to aim and shoot, and that becomes a game. I thought that was a BRIGHT idea - for grown-up men too! Might just buy a few ping pong balls, for the men in my house.

Anyways, I bought them on Monday. And it did magic! Firstly, I did not get any more objections going to the toilet. Now he wants to go, "I wanna go shoot the ball!" Afterwards, I'll either hear "I got it!" or "Awww, I missed it." Isn't that a great trick to get the fear out of toilet training boys? Now I just have to train the big boy to do the same.

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I'm sick of the 4 of us (parents and kids) having to squeeze into our one and only 2.5 seater couch. Most times, Phaedon likes to lie down and he'll occupy 1/2 the couch. That leaves no room for the 3 of us.

So I demanded a new couch.

Sunday, we went and did some shopping. Saw it. Tried it. Bought it. The 3-seater + chaise version of this ....That's it for me now. I'll leave you with this hilarious image.... go to Quiz Galaxy scroll down and type in your name, click on see your Epitaph.