Hanging out » Hip to be Mom

I’m done with classes. I can’t believe today went that quick. It’s such a relief but I will miss my students for sure. Some came up to shake my hand. Some said they hope I’ll be teaching them next semester. A few said they wanted to take me to try the food from their country.

I really enjoyed this bunch of kids. Well, technically not all of them were teens, I had students in their 20s and 30s. Just some really nice people to work with and a few naughty ones too but I will miss them just the same.

Anyhow I came home, dropped off my bags and took the girls straight out to lunch…

… at Nando’s, one of our favorite places where we even have a table we call our own. We haven’t been there in like months. Love their grilled vegetables and peri� wedges.

What the girls and I really enjoy is the luxury of just sitting back and having a leisurely conversation over an unhurried lunch. This is probably the best time of the year for us to be able to do that. The holiday season is truly just that for us, the holidays where the girls are completely free from anything to do with school and homework.

I’ve never ever signed them up for any holiday classes or school camps of any sort. Come on, don’t be ridiculous, I would never do that to my kids ! The holidays are for kids to be themselves, to hang out, to do the stuff they’re too busy to do during the school year, and to pursue new interests if they so choose.

Such as canine psychology which Skye is so into these days, and exploring fashion and nail art which is Raine’s area. As for me, I’m giving my girls baking lessons at home even though I’ve never attended a single baking class myself, ho ho ho! Stay tuned for where we went after lunch.

I’m not one for numbers but 11.11.11 does look pretty cool… and just for the heck of it, I’m going to post this at 11.11 o’clock since this date only rolls around once every 100 years. As for what’s been happening in the days leading up to today, read on.

First off, my pocket PC decided to give up the ghost. It crashed once, twice, a few more times and that’s it, pretty much! So I’m officially disconnected from the whole world. Have been since last Friday. What a lonely place to be! Never thought I’d say this but hee-lp, I need a new phone – bad – considering the amount of texting that goes back and forth to synchronize our (Raine’s and mine) college schedules.

And that new phone I’m looking for -right now, it’s a toss-up between the iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S (which phone do you have and what do you like about it?), both of which are, by the way, out of stock right now.

What a bummer! To sweeten things up, the girls and I stayed up one night to watch a French movie. It wasn’t supposed to be a funny movie but it cracked us up so much the neighbors must’ve thought we’d gone completely off our rockers. I’ve not laughed so hard – in a long time. We couldn’t understand a single word of it but the incredibly stupid subtitles (which made no sense whatsoever) sent us ROTFLMOAO. Watched a foreign movie lately?

Oh, remember I mentioned I won’t be attempting NaNoWriMo this year? Well, guess what? My girls have ganged up and sweet-talked me into joining them, and after 3 days, I’ve only managed to crank out a measly 1,038 words. Raine has raced ahead to 21,855 and Skye has 5,738 words to her credit. I know, I’m in trouble . My story isn’t even much of anything right now. Expect me to be sitting here into the wee hours of the morning (aka 10:30pm) trying to cough something ~~intelligible~~ out.

Today did not start out well. I dropped the girls off in the morning as usual. As soon as I arrived home after being stuck in rush hour traffic for an hour, I received a text from Raine saying she wasn’t feeling well and could I please pick her up again?

Oh, great, I thought, I’m meeting my Scottish girl friend for breakfast at 10 at a mall that’s in the opposite direction. She’d flown into town yesterday and I didn’t want to be late. I texted my friend that I was running late, then jumped right back in my car and headed out to get Raine.

Traffic had eased somewhat and I got Raine home at a quarter till, still enough time to make it halfway into the city without being overly late. I’d been so looking forward to our breakfast meeting. It was just like old times. We met at our usual place and sat at our usual table.

So it all worked out. My girl friend who’s been living in Vietnam for the past couple of years had lots of stories to tell, all intriguing to me as I’ve never been there. An hour and a half was obviously not enough to catch up on 2 years’ worth of chitchat and gossip. But I had to cut it short to pick up my girls from school/college.

Still it’s always great catching up with an old friend. I felt happy for the rest of the day. She has another year in Vietnam so I guess we’ll save round 2 for next summer. Maybe. She still doesn’t know where she might end up living after that. Such is the enviable life of the jetset!

Do you dream of living life in distant countries experiencing far-flung cultures? If so, which ones? Or would you prefer to live in a familiar place close to home?

In the days of old, pirates made their prisoners walk the plank. Wonder if they ever thought to make them walk the pebbles instead.

This pebble path running through a small scenic garden is specially constructed to feature protruding pebbles. Looks harmless enough, right? But have you tried walking on the pebbles – barefoot?

Don’t be fooled by these innocent-looking pebbles. They are thin and sharp and they send bolts of pain shooting up through what doesn’t even feel like your feet after a while. Yup, they make you dance around in pain and make you wish you’d never stepped on them with your bare feet. Yikes!

My girls are always game to attempt this Walk of Pain. They think it’s fun waving their arms and going ouch, ouch, ouch all the way down the pebble path like it’s some kind of ancient war dance.

Me? Not so much. I rarely even make it a quarter way down and that’s all the punishment I can take. Give me Lady Gaga or Justin Beiber any time! (I never thought I’d actually say that but yeah.)

Apparently having the nerves of your bare feet stimulated in this way is good for blood circulation and health in general. I tend to look at this as some sort of medieval punishment even worse than walking the plank .

But that’s just me. Have you heard of, or tried this pebble walk or something similar?

And so because we had a little drama last week, Skye, my feisty 15-year-old, decided it was time to cheer me up with a couple of little surprises.

And let me zoom that up so you can see the words on this cute little strawberry bookmark.

We bumped into my Dad at the mall and decided to mosey on over to Coffee Bean for a cuppa. And when I came back with coffee and cheesecake, Skye presented me with this origami lily in full bloom which she folded while I was in line. Isn’t it the prettiest?

What do your kids do to cheer you up?

You all know the girls and I love Japanese food. On a whim, we decided to do lunch at Mizu yesterday. It’s tucked away in some obscure corner of a nearby suburb, way off the beaten path. We didn’t even know the place existed.

Strangely there was no starving early bird of a Sunday crowd that we’ve come to associate with buffets, which was good. Up flights of tiny narrow staircases and we were in a cozy (read: small) place with a rather limited spread.

Skye and I were giving each other the puzzled look – this is it? Apparently there’s a menu checklist that you can check off items that are not on the spread and those will be served to you. Let’s just say that if I have to order off a menu, it’s not a buffet in the real sense of the word now, is it?

We weren’t particularly thrilled about that. We like to walk up and down, survey the spread and discuss what’s good to try or discreetly hoard the stuff we love. I mean, that’s half the fun of a buffet right there. You sit down, take a few bites, chat a bit and then you’re ready to go grab something else to try.

Salmon sashimi is my favorite-st that kept me going back for seconds, thirds and fourths! The slimy raw oysters weren’t for me, eww!

Pregnant fish. No way my girls and I would touch this. As a mom, I definitely couldn’t stomach a pregnant anything! It would just be wrong.

Teppanyaki salmon and scallops from the list. Loved this and the mackerel which I chomped down before I remembered to take a picture.

Chawan mushi which my girls love. I just like the pink spiral.

4 types of ice cream from the list. The cement-colored one in the foreground is a roasted peanut flavor. Pretty good, that!

So yeah, we love the idea of buffets (if only it weren’t so anti-waistline). But they’re so not worth it for us because we’re picky and not particularly big eaters. I know of folks who starve themselves ahead of time so they can binge and make it worth their money. If we did that, we’d only end up with tummy aches and not be able to eat much either. Either way we lose. So forget about it!

Still we ate a lot, by our standards. I think the word ‘buffet’ has a way of taking your brain down the dangerous path of telling your tummy that it’s got way more room than it really does . When we got up to leave, I swear I could hear the floor boards creak under our weight. In case you’re wondering, yes, we ended up skipping dinner altogether.

So when was the last time you had Japanese? Anything you wouldn’t touch? Any favorites you can’t resist? Any interesting buffet stories? I’m all ears!