Sickness and birthday

As I had mentioned in the post before this one, the weather's been bad and this week is no different. Caitlin had high fever (40 deg C)on Monday but by Wednesday, the fever broke. We celebrated her ninth birthday a day earlier on Wednesday which coincided with the Deepavali public holiday. Family came over, we had lunch and did the customary song and cake at home.

She felt tired by evening and took a late nap, woke for a later-than-usual dinner.

Yesterday (Thursday 27th) was her birthday. We had planned for her to go to school and at lunch break, I'd bring a cake to celebrate with her classmates. But since she didn't seem fully recovered on Wednesday evening, we decided to let her skip school and luckily we did as her fever, although mild, returned when she woke in the morning (37.5 - 38 deg C). Her usual morning sneezes and stuffy nose due to her allergic rhinitis condition was more pronounced and her stuffy nose seemed worse than usual. I took her to the paediatrician who said she has mild flu and her nose allergy needs to be managed again with a nasal spray. She seemed a bit better by afternoon but went back to lethargy by late evening but fever appeared under control without paracetamol.

This morning she seemed fine when we went to the hair salon to get a trim (she asked for temporary curls too, and the stylist was kind enough to use her curling iron for free since she found out her birthday was yesterday). But by lunchtime, she felt tired again, with a slight temp, and is now asleep.

Sigh, I hope this viral fever will come to pass soon and I hope it's nothing else. She's not attended school or any other extra classes this whole week. I hope she'll be able to go to school next Monday. I'm glad exams are over and they're not doing much in school other than going through their exam papers and practising their performances for the Speech Day in two weeks' time.

I hear a number of kids in her class have also been absent due to fever or sickness...

Bad weather

The weather has been quite bad lately. We read about bad floods in our neighbouring country Thailand. And here, it's scorching hot in the mornings and afternoons but come late afternoon and evening, it starts to pour very heavily. Sometimes the rain can continue into the night for hours.

With such weather, I'm sure the doctors are getting good business with more people getting sick. Week before last, E caught the flu. He had traveled to East Malaysia for work for a few days. Couple with lack of sleep and stressful work, his immunity let its guard down and he caught the flu. Then last week, it was my turn. I caught a cold and till today, some remnants of it is still lingering.

This morning, C woke up to get ready for school and told us her head felt hot. She has a fever and has skipped school. I guess we'll keep her at home tomorrow as well. Wednesday is a public holiday for Malaysians as it is the Hindu festival of Deepavali or Diwali. We will be celebrating C's ninth birthday on Wednesday with lunch at home with family.

C's actual birthday is on Thursday. I hope she will be well by then to go to school as she wants me to bring a cake to school at lunchtime to celebrate her birthday with her classmates.

My Cheeky Girl

Me: What essay did your teacher ask you to write?
Her: 'My Father' or 'My Mother'
Me: So which did you choose?
Her: My Mother (Me - feeling the pride rise in my chest :D)
Me: What did you write about me?
Her: That you're 46 years old
Me: Aiyo...I'm not that old! What else?
Her: At the end I wrote that I hope my mother will live a long and happy life with me and my father.....but I bet you won't.
Me: Why???
Her (giggling and sniggering): Because I'm so naughty and give you so much stress!

This week, C is having her final exams at school. In her three years of formal schooling so far, she has yet to be nervous or afraid of exams. During exam season, she continues life as usual, reading her story books and watching TV.... and after my nagging she would revise by flipping through the pages of her books, reading its contents cursorily. One to two weeks before the exam, the teachers would do revision with them in school so I guess if one is confident enough, one can get through the exam without studying more or cramming at home.

I remind her that although she knows her work, she should study so that she can remember what she has learnt and can do better. So far she's been scoring A's and B's, except for the Malay language which she finds too hard. I think that the standard of Bahasa Malaysia is quite high now compared to my time. During my time, we leart 'simpulan bahasa' (idioms) and essay writing when we were around Standard 5 or 6 (11 or 12 years of age). Now 'simpulan bahasa' is taught in Year 1 (7 years old) and in Year 3, they are already writing essays, informal and formal letters. It is hard to do well in these if your BM vocabulary is weak.

While I nag and keep reminding her that she should study, I've also made her aware that she will ultimately be responsible for the consequences or outcome of her choices. I can only lead my horse (her Chinese zodiac is the horse coincidentally!) to the water, provide her with the necessary books, reminders, words of advice. I can attempt to force the horse to drink but in the big picture, it will not be effective..

So for now, we are letting her learn in her own way. Success is not measured by milestones the world sets for you to achieve, the strings of A's one has collected, the tons of facts one can regurgitate, or the x-figure salary you earn. Of course, there are people who measure success in those terms but I prefer not too.

Dolphin Tale

Movies these days are jumping into the 2D and 3D trend bandwagon. There's a new movie that's just been released (in the US that is...) that has been reported to even top other new ones this season.

The movie I'm talking about is a family-friendly one, based on a true story about a dolphin that was rescued. The dolphin lost its tail when it got injured and infected from being caught in a trap, but was eventually fitted with a prosthetic one (amazing!), all these in the backdrop of a budding relationship with a young boy who was very attached to it. The actual Dolphin named Winter stars in the movie alongside one of my favourite singers who also acts -- Harry Connick Jr., and Ashley Judd, Kris Kristofferson and Morgan Freeman.

I'm looking forward to catching this movie with my family when it opens in Malaysia. Caitlin would certainly love it as she loves animals and animal stories. Some of her favourite animals are dolphins, cats, dogs, tigers and other big cats.

Here are two trailers for Dolphin Tale.

Busy, busy, busy....bump! and dent!

This is a rather long-winded post.

Time flies when you're having fun, they say. I agree with the first part about time flying. As for the second part about having fun, I'm not too sure. I've just been busy, busy, busy. And sometimes when you're busy, busy, busy, you forget to have fun. Or even if the busy, busy, busy bits are related to fun events, you're just too tired to have fun because you had been busy, busy, busy earlier. Am I making any sense? Aah, these days, things just seem to go round and round like in a carnival where many things are happening at the same time - there's music, there's jugglers, stiltwalkers, clowns, magicians, side shows with loud announcements, all the kiddy rides blaring their own music etc, all going on at the same time it makes you dizzy. Busy and dizzy - they rhyme.

On weekdays, I have the daily routine of waking up, preparing breakfast, doing laundry, going online for various reasons, feeding plants, dog and fishes, cleaning/tidying house, going to the wet market/supermarket, cleaning and putting away groceries, preparing food and cooking, chauffering, supervising, nagging etc etc etc.

Meanwhile, the past weekends have been activity filled too. Besides the usual chauffering duties on Saturdays for music lesson and Sundays for Sunday School, we've attended two birthdays and one full-moon do, and this weekend, two reunions with old friends.

Yesterday was a crazy day. As I was merrily sitting in my car at standstill at morning 8.30am peak hour traffic on my way to the market, listening to an interview with the great David Foster (anyone has free tickets for his upcoming concert in KL?), I was suddenly jolted out of my world by a loud bang. Someone had rear-ended me. So I got out. Our cars were on the fast lane but I was oblivious at that moment to the jam we were causing. Ms Myvi had hit me because the car behind hers, Ms Peugeot, had hit her. My back hatch door was dented and the bumper had a few scratches.

It was about 'Breakfast'. You see, Ms. Peugeot who started the chain accident had somehow lost control of her car (yeah, in standstill traffic, sheesh...) because she had reached down to get some food (found that out from Ms Myvi two hours later). She must not have had her breakfast yet so she decided to eat while driving.... She hit Ms. Myvi so Ms. Myvi hit me. Luckily, I didn't hit the car in front of me. Poor Ms Myvi's front and back were smashed. She was Sandwich-ed.

It's strange how each of us just got out of our cars and started calling someone, more so the other two ladies....I had started out wanting to get the whole thing settled asap but since they got preoccupied on their phones, I decided to do the same. In between phone calls, we decided to move our cars to a side road nearby to sort it out.

About 45 minutes of my time was wasted talking, discussing options, wondering which police station to go to if we were to make reports, getting distracted by some workshop guy offering his services, waiting for Ms Myvi and Ms Peugeot's husbands to come and 'rescue' them as their decisions affect me... As for me, hubby was available only via mobile phone but it was no sweat.

Ms Myvi and her husband decided to settle upfront with me, no police report about her hitting me. She didn't want to lose her no-claim bonus from her insurance. So I led her, again through the peak hour jam, to my workshop so that they could quote the repair cost and they paid for it (RM450). By the time I got to my original destination of the market, it was another hour later. I was somewhat relieved that I could move on with life. I bought my chicken, meat, and other stuff and drove home. Just as I was about to reach home, my phone rang and the circus started.

Ms Myvi said Ms Peugeot's insurance can pay for Myvi's repairs (of course!) and MINE as well (really? but Ms Peugeot didn't hit me so why would her insurance pay me?). So the phone calls between the three of us started going around again. I was trying to confirm if such is true and how now that Myvi has already paid my workshop etc etc....

To cut the long story short, I finally had to go to the police station later in the afternoon to make a police report to enable Ms Myvi to claim insurance from Ms Peugeot and to allow the former to get her refund from my workshop. I also had to make the report to avoid getting a fine since Myvi had reported she hit me (in an accident, it is required that the other party(ies) involved make a police report too within 24 hours if one party does so). I told Ms Myvi she had to deal with my workshop herself to get her refund. And my poor workshop has to now go through the hassle of the paperwork to claim the cost of my repair from Ms Peugeot's insurance. I've yet to send my car in to be fixed.

By the time I got done at the police station and got home, it was time to hit the kitchen to cook dinner. By the time dinner was over, I was totally exhausted, having been on the go with my juggling act all day.

I'm thankful the damage to my car was not too bad compared to Ms Myvi Sandwich, and that other than the hassle I had to go through and time wastage, I'm still in one piece :)