clairity

I heard that someone at the gym lost her cell phone the other day. She’d left it in one of the pigeon holes and gone home, only to realize oops! She called the gym immediately and was told it wasn’t there any more. Gone. for. good!

Steev lost his iPhone while he, me and the girls were peddling a rickshaw (like crazy, I might add, it was such great fun!) along this busy beach front in Monterey.

Have you ever lost your cell phone? Can you imagine losing all your contacts and personal settings? OMG, such a big headache!

We split up and backtracked, tracing our steps back along the entire length of the beach front but we might as well be looking for a needle in a haystack.

Finally, Steev decided to call his own number hoping its ringing would lead us to it. Instead a guy answered and said he had the phone and that he would wait for Steev to meet him along that same stretch of beach. What a dear soul!

So Steev got his phone back. Quite effortlessly, I might add, though we were really doubtful at first. It was a happy ending, one that we didn’t even dare to hope for.

In most cases, chances are if you lose your cell phone, you will never see it again. And you can only hope and pray that whoever’s got it isn’t using it to call the rest of this planet and beyond before you can make a report and get your number deactivated. Peace!

Just great! Just as I’m thinking, I’m going to be a good girl from now (no more playing hooky, no more lame excuses about losing the left sock or the right glove), my gym decides to close for renovations. Major renovations. For a month, maybe more! WTH!

So what’s there to do? My gym buddies are screaming blue murder. A whole month with no exercise? I guess that leaves us holding the stone sink, whatever that means ! As for the Slacker Queen, um that would be me, there is hope yet.

I’ve dusted off a couple of dumbbells I found lying around the house and put them where I can see them. Next I’m going to start imagining that I’m actually getting a workout just by looking at those dumbbells. What do you think ?

driving school

Posted by clairity 1 Response »

Mar 292010

I’ve been holding my breath all morning (well, since last night actually) in anticipation of Steev’s first driving lesson. I still can’t imagine my firstborn, my baby driving a car. Gimme some time, I need to get used to that thought .

At the appointed time, the driving instructor pulls up outside our house. Steev tells me later the car is so freakin’ small that he can’t stretch his legs all the way even with the driver’s seat pushed to the max, all the way back as far as it would go .

After the initial briefing, Mr DI allows Steev to drive round the block. Many times. The car’s a stick shift so it’s one big balancing act with the clutch and accelerator. I’m not sure who even drives stick shift any more but we don’t have any other choice. On the bright side, it’s probably something to brag to his grandkids about .

green ideas

Posted by clairity 1 Response »

Mar 282010

So we were enjoying our fish and chips at the mall and got home within minutes of lights out aka Earth Hour. Granted Earth Hour is a great idea to generate awareness but seriously, whoever’s still in the dark about Mother Earth’s predicament must’ve been living under a rock, no?

We didn’t turn off our lights. In fact, it was such a warm night we turned on the air-conditioning to surf the net. We’re already doing our bit every day and I think that’s what really counts.

We’ve been recycling old containers, plastic bags and bottles, and using energy-efficient bulbs forever. I also have a house rule that says, last person out of a room switches everything off. Lately we’ve also gotten very good at using our own shopping bags. We used to forget but we’ve gotten the hang of it now.

I’m sure there’s a couple more things I’ve missed out like recycling wrapping paper and reducing water wastage. Our recent storms and torrential downpours have actually given me a bright idea. I’m thinking of collecting rainwater for watering my plants and washing the patio floor.

What are you doing? Please share. We could all use some bright ideas so we can do more.

Okay, I can’t keep this to myself any longer. When I first noticed that my newest follower on Twitter was Martha Stewart, I thought my eyeballs needed Battery replacements. bad!

There’s just no way a big star with 1.9 million followers would be following a tiny speck in the universe like moi! But guess what? It’s a verified account so it’s really her, not some impostor. Man, I must’ve done something right. So stoked !

Here she is on my twitter page. I’m a big fan of her cooking site. Listen, if you would like to follow me on Twitter, I’d be just as thrilled .

I don’t get it. What’s this I’m reading about parents (and grandparents) out there who pinch their kids for being naughty? I think it’s pretty sad, don’t you? I thought we left these sorts of physically abusive behavior back in the Stone Ages along with the machetes and spears. Maybe not.

When Skye was in kindy, one of her teachers slapped her for being out of sync with the rest of her dance group during concert practice. I pulled her out of kindy the next day. When my kids were younger, I would constantly remind that if any of their teachers beat them, they should let me know so I can go sue their pants off !

When I was growing up, my grandmother kept a cane in the house. She never used it. She just waved it around to scare us. When my kids came along, I didn’t bother buying a cane although it’s a sort-of must-have in Asian households with kids. It was an aunt who got me one “just in case” my kids needed to be kept in line. Bah!

That cane sat in a corner for a while, then it disappeared. I don’t know what happened to it. I never used it. For the most part, my kids were regular little angels. But they weren’t robots either . They did get up to funny tricks. Like at one time, the 3 of them were pelting peas at my neighbor’s maid just for fun . I didn’t know until I heard muffled giggling every evening and found – the ingenious pea shooter they invented !!

So they got an earful from me.� That’s always been my style. Lecture, pep talk, reason, yell if I have to. Ask questions, give them a chance to explain. I will listen to their story. Ask them to think about what I’ve said and then make them apologize or wait for their apology.

Understandably we’re all human here and there are times kids can really get on our nerves. I’m okay with light spanks if talking doesn’t work. But pinching, caning, hitting the knuckles with a ruler? No way! How were you disciplined when you were a kid? What’s your discipline style?