At Home « JEWELLE TAN

Breakfast With Mama

Filed in At Home | Thoughts Leave a comment

Much is said about adults who still live at home with their parents.

“Still living with his mother? How childish!“, “Not independent“, “Mummy’s boy” – and so many other judging statements that usually lean towards the negative.

Yet, this morning, when I walked past my mother in law and one of my brother in law having breakfast and chatting together, I found myself hoping to be blessed with this kind of mornings with my own children in 20 years to come.

I know both of them enjoys it, being the only time in a day for them to have a one-to-one chat, even if only for 15 mins (or less).

Living in a time where the world is smaller and people are living and working thousands of miles away from their hometown, to still have ones’ children within sight and sound most days (my mother in law has all three with her) is to me, an uncommon good luck to any mother.

She treasures her 15 mins with her youngest son and he will look back on these mornings with fond memories and know that he has played a part in making his mother’s day, just by having breakfast with her.

11Feb

Those Pesky Angry Birds

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One of the best holiday gift ideas I was asked about and approved for my kids last Christmas was this collection of 7 squeaky Angry Birds from my brother-in-law.

Being small and cute, the kids love them and those birds were taken all over the house.

They made many wild appearances during our recent Chinese New Year. One appeared in the picture I took of the reunion dinner, another on top of a basket of orange we used as prop during a family photo sessions and many others – and we did not noticed, who among my three were responsible to sneaking them into the shots.

In fact, we did not even notice those birds until we downloaded those pictures – and saw red, green and blue, EVERYWHERE!

Those birds sure made their way around the house but would have been lost in some corners in the house if I had not collected and put them on display, on some high cabinet.

In sight but out of reach.

09Dec

Farewell, Home

Filed in At Home | Brunei Life 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.

28Oct

Need Smaller Tablet

Filed in At Home | Family | Gadget Leave a comment

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*

07Oct

No Toys Required

Filed in At Home | My Daughters Leave a comment

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.

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