Ichiban Ramen

Lyn's birthday last week. Let her choose where she wanted to go for dinner. Finally after much thinking, we ended up here...Ichiban Ramen. She loves Jap n korean food. This is the only Japanese restaurant that we have not tried.

The place is so narrow and packed. Four of us shared a real tiny table. Felt so squeezed.

Lyn ordered an eel bento. We love eel cooked this way. She seems most satisfied with it.


KC had kimchi noodles....very tasty. A bit milkish...or could it be santan?

I had seafood ramen....see the top is covered totally with vegetables and two large prawns. To my surprise when I got to the bottom, it was actually yeemee!!!! I expected something Japanese; didn't know ramen means yeemee. Ok la....kind of flat the taste after trying KC's noodles.

Dan had some sort of rice and chicken with eggs. He said it was the best ever!! As long as it is rice and not spicy; he is happy. Didn't manage to get a picture as he was already digging too far into the food.

We had an interesting discussion on what we prefer if given a choice of noodles and rice.....the kids will definitely choose rice (but Lyn will have any rice except fried rice and chicken rice). KC and I prefer noodles.

When we paid the bill, we were pleasantly surprised to have a twenty percent discount when we swiped the CIMB credit card.

Teacher's Day 2011

A yearly affair...teacher's day celebration. It's almost the same every year...games, followed by presentation in the hall and end with makan. After 19 years of teaching; kind of immune to all these celebrations. Think I would be happier if the teachers are given a day off. Anyway...I was pretty sporting this year. I played 'galah panjang'!!! I hated the game as a kid because I will always be the first one to 'die'. Really....I was dead within seconds!!

As usual, students will shower us with presents....I do appreciate their thoughtfulness but I feel very bad that they have to spend money to get these stuff. I have taken pictures of some of them; left some in school and some pictures didn't look too good. I think the most touching present was when Taty (my Form 1 student) came up to me to hug me. I always scold her and if she look blur, I'll ignore her because I just don't know what else to do with her and don't have the patience to help her understand. (She is extremely weak in her English and most of the time she can't follow me). After her hug, I felt bad for being impatient with her. Sigh...a reminder to me that she needs my attention more than the others.

Below are some cards and presents which the girls gave....

Thank you girls for all the lovely pressies...there are many more that are not here. Totally appreciate them. Next year maybe I'll make them get As for me as present....what about that????

exam fever

First it was Dan...preparing for exam seems pretty simple for him. Just take his book, read (or pretending to read??) and at the same time talking incessantly to the sister or whoever is around him. When the clock shows 8.30pm, his revision is done. Pack his bag and ready for bed!! After each paper, no worries...all done with.

Then the sister's turn. It was stressful. I felt stressed looking at her. Locked in her room; sometimes carrying the book to and fro, looking for a conducive place to study.... Her busyness with the choir pracitices had taken a toll on her study time. Her reaction after each exam varies from frown, smile, mutterings to tantrum.... I think the worst was her History paper. Sometimes I wonder if she's being to hard on herself just because the mother is a History teacher and thus she has higher expectations of herself.

Dan received his report card early this week. Grades dropped especially Maths. I had to take drastic actions. No more TV, computer, nintendo till after UPSR. Every evening after dinner, it's Maths practice till bedtime. Well, if this does not help I don't know what else to do.

The sister will have to wait till after the holidays. I will brace myself for more temper and tantrum...she has given me sufficient warning that her grades may drop too. Did threaten to confiscate the ipod if it happens.

Sigh...it's not easy watching over teenagers' academics. Why must the mother always do the dirty job???

board games

Playing board games is one of the ways our family spend time together. In the early years of our marriage, KC and I would play Scrabble. We have a travel set; so it's easy for us to carry it with us everywhere without the seeds toppling all over.

Later we taught Lyn the game. Dan wasn't interested as it has to do with spelling; something which does not interest him.

Monopoly is more of his game. There is Mad game too; which we will bring out when friends' kids come over. Not forgetting the game Cluedo. A game on investigation...which I am still blur about. An all time favourite is the card game; UNO.

Recently Risk has come back to the scene again. After watching the most impressive WW2 powerpoint map, Dan is in the war mode. Both he and KC have been challenging each other over and over. It's a wonder how they are not bored.

Playing games like this helps in family bonding. Unfortunately, most of the time we are preoccupied with our own activities like study, reading books, onlining etc. Thus we just lose interest in playing such games with each other. Everything needs effort; this is one effort which I've to remind myself to make; while the children are still with me and whenver the window of opportuinity is open.

The White Queen

I have read and attempted to read quite a number of Phillipa Gregory's books on the English monarch. After checking my blog, I found that I've only made review of two of the books. The Constant Princess http://siamooi.blogspot.com/2011/02/constant-princess.html and The Other Queen http://siamooi.blogspot.com/2010/07/other-queen-by-philippa-gregory.html.

Just recently KC found a few more copies of her books. I decided to read The White Queen first (I saw and read the first part of it in Phuket last year). I read and googled, read and googled, read and googled and talked.......took my quite a while to finish the book because there was so much facts to google and check for. Really mind-blowing. The facts are almost accurate; therefore it goes to show that the English monarch that era was immoral, savage, cruel and what have you. Power and wealth makes man greedy and they will never have enough.

Back to the story, it's a power struggle between the House of York and House of Lancaster but at the the end of it; it was taken over by the Tudors. The story is narrated by Elizabeth Woodville ( a widow from the House of Lancaster) who managed to catch the attention of King Edward IV (of York) and became his queen. Bore him 10 children and she had two sons from her earlier marriage. This king is portrayed as a womaniser (which I checked is true; even his favourite mistress is mentioned). 6feet 4 inches; probably the talled king in England. Elizabeth is supposed to be a very beautiful woman (I checked her pictures, could be true but her forehead looked rather bald).

Then there is the character; Earl of Warwick...who is the kingmaker. I mentioned to KC and he exclaimed...that's him...we visited his castle in England; oh ya...the Warwick Castle. Such complexity as Warwick who was for the king finally went against him and plotted to dethrone him etc. Again...the facts are totally true; what Warwick tried to do to the York and Lancaster family. Such wickedness and power craze.

Edward and his brothers...George and Richard also were sort of involved in power struggle one way or other. George was finally killed for treason against his brother the King. Richard actually made the Parliament declare Edward's marriage to Elizabeth void because it was done in secret. So that makes Edward's sons bastards and Richard was able to become King Richard III. It's really quite complex but the way it is written makes it interesting and worth spending the time reading all the way to the end.

I am real glad I bought the deck of cards when I was at the gift shop at The Mews; Buckingham Palace. These cards are making more and more sense to me now as I read Phillipa Gregory's books. Here are pictures of the kings mentioned in the story.

Henry VI (1422 - 1471)

This poor sad man from the House of Lancaster lost his throne to Edward IV from the House of York (the main character of the book). They are actually cousins. He became crazy and did come back to power again for a short while through the effort of his power craze wife. To get rid of him forever so that his wife or supporters will not think of putting him on throne again; he was finally murdered.

Edward IV (1461 - 1483) ...the main character
Married Elizabeth Woodville (the narrator) who is 5 years older than him and a widow. Warwick who played an important role in making him a king had other plans for him...thus the enmity begins. He fought many battles and won many but the way he died was so unexpected and disappointing.....I just couldn't believe it when he died like that...and at such an early age!!! (Find out for yourself why he died). His wife outlived him by about 10 years.

Edward V (1483)
He was the Prince of Wales and 12 years old when his father died. On his way to London to be made king; he was abducted by his uncle Richard who was supposed to be his protector. He was imprisoned in the Tower. According to history, there were two princes of the Tower; Edward and his younger brother Richard (9 years old). But Phillipa Gregory thinks otherwise. Finally the two princes disappeared and up till today it is still sort of a mystery. This is the saddest part to me as the narrator is the mother herself. Elizabeth had only three sons (Edward, Richard and George who died young) and she lost all three of them. One of her sons from her earlier husband was also executed by Richard.

Richard III (1483 - 1485)
A picture paints a thousand words. What does this face say of the person? He was said to be of small stature in comparison to his older brothers Edward and George. He was pious. He was quite a warrior on the battlefield. His brother; King Edward IV named him the protector and guardian of his heir at his deathbed; but what did he do to his nephew(s)? Why did he do it? In the story, Phillipa Gregory spinned her tale where he had sexual intent on his own niece (Edward's eldest daughter Elizabeth who later married Henry Tudor and became his queen). Not sure how true this is.

Henry VII (1485 - 1509)
While all this family feud was going on, this man who is a Tudor was in exile in France. According to my card, he was also the head of the House of Lancaster through his mother. He returned to England through Wales and killed Richard in a battle. Thus he became King Henry VII and married Elizabeth of York (Edward IV's eldest daughter); uniting the House of Lancaster and York.

Going further down the line, Henry VII's son became Henry VIII (the scandalous king with many wives). His grandchildren are Bloody Mary and Elizabeth (the virgin queen).

Wow...I think I know English monarch better than the Malay Sultanate now.

words that rhyme

Today we did an exercise on words that rhyme. We started with :

song

long

kong

thong

dong

wrong

strong

pong

wong

Thong and Wong happen to be the surname of two of the girls. As we went down the list; we started to remove words that are not English. Lo and behold....I learnt quite a few new words today. The only non-English word is wong.

Here is the meaning of some of the words :

pong - an unpleasant smell; stink

dong - a deep sound like that of a large bell

kong - strong whiskey; illicit whiskey.

Then we decided to make silly sentences that rhyme:

Once there was a wanderer,

who works as a fruiterer,

He was actually a murderer,

who killed the emperor.

Bong sang a long song

While drinking kong

And released a strong pong

that sounded like dong

which was wrong!!!

What fun we had laughing at the silly rhymes we made.

haze

Seremban is shrouded in haze for the past two days. I walked in the house today and was hit by a strong smell of smoke. No one is burning but the house smells so smoky.

In school, my throat feels dry and my nose is blocked. All I could smell is smoke.....

When I was a kid I watched a very depressive show on TV about the world coming to an end. I remember the ending scene showed a man walking alone in a deserted place that looked hazy. It made an impression in my mind as I was frightened that I will face such a situation one day. I think I am not far from it now.