Category Archives: At Home

Farewell, Home

Posted by Jewelle Tan on December 9, 2011 2 comments

 

Golden sunset over the whole neighbourhood

This will be my last post from our current home.

It feels like only a few days ago when my husband called to tell me that he had found a house that he was sure I would like and which I did, from the moment we turned in our junction and I caught sight of the house.

Reminiscence of my parents’ house was all around and that instantly made me feel at home. The big grassy lawn, trees all around the neighbourhood and that small forested hill behind our back block are everything that I want.

But it has been two years and now we have to bade farewell to this house.

Oh, the things that I will miss about living here. The proximity to stores and restaurants, easy accessibility to the highway – even the sounds of the police sirens and helicopters!

And how can I forget the best albeit elusive (I’ve seen it only twice) gift of nature to this neighbourhood. The most amazing sunset that the whole area would turn bright yellow. It looked so surreal that the first time it happened, I actually checked the sky if there was something up there that casted such glow – because it cannot be JUST the sunset!

I will miss this strange sunset, the house will miss my children’s laughter (and cries) but we will always remember the memories of joy and happiness we had in this house.

Good bye for now, dear home and thank you for looking after us.

Need Smaller Tablet

Posted by Jewelle Tan on October 28, 2011 None comments

Having only recently added a tablet to our list of electronic devices, reading e-books with it is still a novelty.

In fact, reading via our approximately 10″ x 8″ sized tablet is not done often, despite having several e-magazines and e-books in our e-library collections. Not to mention loads of children e-books downloaded for our equally books-loving kids as we spent a fortune on their reading materials and their bookshelves are already bursting at the seams.

Besides, after trying to read – as I like to do – in bed or on the couch with only one hand, reading with a tablet of our size is a little difficult and trickier.

Actually after finishing one book (worth 600 pages for several late nights resulting in tired eyes and even tired-er arm) I am kind of losing the interest to read with our current tablet.

But of course I must still read and I have e-books I am dying to start reading.

So I want to get either one of these tablet that is smaller and lighter which I will use mostly for reading i.e. a bb playbook (7″ x 4″) or a Samsung Galaxy Tab (7″ x 4″).

Question is, which one.

*Click for photo source*

No Toys Required

Posted by Jewelle Tan on October 7, 2011 None comments

Once I stayed with a family with two young mild-mannered kids.

The most impressive part of their home was a play room which was filled with the most interesting toys any kids could ever wished for.

I remember thinking that when I have my own children I would like to give them that kind of heaven too.

Well, that was before I realized that I have high-spirited kids with imagination and sense of adventure that overpower anything they held in their hands.

Innocent-looking dolls are regularly stripped naked for baths, one just had her hair shorn and don’t even asked how many had their faces and bodies painted on.

Pack of toy-terrors are just describing them mildly.

That ends the dream that I will have a magical toy room with dainty princesses having elegant tea parties.

These days, our reality is noisy adventures with pirate ships from empty boxes or a relatively quiet camping sleepover in a kind of Nemo Losi Tent where they read and tell stories to each other – no toys required.

Short Is Back

Posted by Jewelle Tan on August 10, 2011 4 comments

One of my husband regular gripe is finding long hair on the floor, everywhere around our house.

It’s hard not to since there are four females here and all four have long hair.

And it’s not that we did not think that our kids – especially high-spirited ones who are never calm and serene for even five minutes unless they are asleep - should have hair at decent length i.e. short.

But the eldest – who endured two years of her kindergarten years with a short and foxy cut  - insisted that she never wants to have short hair anymore. Ever.

Naturally, her younger siblings followed suit.

What’s more, I am not on a first name basis with any hair saloon, so it is very easy to let our hair grow long.

Not anymore though – at least for me.

From now on, any long hair found on the floor is not mine.

Engineers Talk

Posted by Jewelle Tan on July 11, 2011 None comments

With two engineers at home, their conversations are sometimes discussions about work.

Although they are from slightly different engineering fields, they work in relatively similar industries and so the discussions will revolve around one engineer getting technical explanation about certain mechanical aspects with the other engineer learning about the complexities of work in a certain industry.

A win-win scenario for both.

However, they are not the only one benefiting from these discussions. My understanding is half of what was discussed (and when they speak jargons with the likes of industrial bearings, I will be completely lost).

But I was happy to know – thanks to listening in to one of their conversations – that a neighbour’s water pump will break down sooner than the crooked-about-to-break ledge it was sitting on.

And I was proven right soon after.

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