We missed the opening ceremony of the Olympics. All because our Astro decided to give up on us just days before the Olympics opened. Perfect timing.

My girls had been so looking forward to it. They had such fun cheering the last Olympics and were so-oo disappointed when it ended. I remember telling them it’ll be on again in 4 years.

Well, they waited 4 years only to miss a whole 10 days of it. Poor us have been watching bits of the games at the large screen TVs at the mall. Can you imagine that’s where we got to watch Michael Phelps swim a few laps? How sad!

I called Astro and after listening to their usual mumbo-jumbo, we were no closer to finding out exactly what was wrong. I mean what kind of serious troubleshooting do you really expect to come out of a script?!

After a couple of weekends of running around with our decoder to try and isolate the problem, it turned out that’s not where the problem is. DH figures it has to be satellite dish! Aaargh, the girls and I fainted - almost !

So how? We have to get the service guy to change the whole thing?!!! That’s going to take another two weeks by which time, it’s bye-bye Olympics for another 4 years!

Luckily DH had a better idea! He surprised us by coming home early, throwing his power tools up on the rooftop and fixing that darned problem. Yay-yay-yay! We got our Astro back, no thanks to Astro *blek*. The girls and I were dancing around the living room while Steev was helping his Dad with the ladder and stuff.

Mr Fix-It has outdone himself again and deserves a big wet kiss (bwahaha!) from his girls! We’re so thrilled we will get to watch the closing ceremony at least. I’d better get the popcorn ready!

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Let me look into my crystal ball. Ah yes, I can see some school holidays coming up… very, very soon. And I can definitely see me doing less driving and cooking and staying home more.

Skye will be preparing for her P6 exams and Raine her F3 exams. They’re all done with the school’s additional classes for the exams, thank goodness. So I don’t have to bring food to them after school any more. That sure is a relief.

Their tuition classes are still on during the school holidays but it’s minimal. Raine goes to tuition for 2 subjects and Skye only 1 subject. I don’t believe in too much tuition. If I can help them or they can handle the subjects on their own, that’s good enough.

The countdown to the exams are on. There’s a flip chart at school reminding the kids how many days to the exams. But the kids these days aren’t like us. They hardly worry about their exams. They’ve been having trial exam after trial exam so they’re already very well prepared (I hope! *bites nails*).

In fact, they can’t wait for the exams to start so they can get it over with sooner. Ya, neither can Mom so she can stop worrying .

My kids want these

But we’ve got these

I really don’t have the time or the inclination for pets. Puppies are cute but they’re a lot of work, and a mom with 3 kids and a ‘taxi’ to run don’t need two more ‘kids’. Honest .

The two beagles in the photo above belong to a friend and were from the same brood. The male puppy went missing more than a month ago and has never been found. His sister is very lonely and has since put on weight. Worry can do that to you .

The fishes are leftovers from Skye’s school project. Skye’s Dad decided the fish deserve a better home than that small square plastic box Mom got them. So he got them a ‘castle’ with piped-in fresh water and an underwater forest to play in. Mom’s just thankful fishes don’t have legs!

I got an earful from the ‘auntie’ next door yesterday who, how shall I put this?, is such a nice, well-meaning person but who talks a bit too much, at the wrong time. Ever met one of these people?

She popped her head over the fence just as I was rushing out to pick the kids up from school yesterday. And yesterday was the day I was seriously sleep-deprived after my 24-hour blogging marathon and 2-hour workout at the gym the morning after.

So it was definitely not a good day to be trying to start a conversation with me. Guess I can’t blame her. I was wearing sunglasses so she couldn’t see those dark circles under my eyes!!

There she was, going on about how we should prepare ourselves for the worsening economy by maybe buying gold or silver bars. Who knows when money is going to become obsolete? she moaned.

And I was going, okay, auntie, I’ve got to run! for the sixth time. Um, maybe you can go to Monex.com and do some homework on precious metal investments while I’m gone, okay?

Or better yet, go cook me your yummy beehoon (rice noodle) soup and leave it beside the fence like you always do. Please, can I go now? I really need to go now. Please???

Duh!! The dark rings under my eyes just got darker!

What a laid-back weekend! We were out only for a couple of hours yesterday to go on a hamburger binge. We’ve been so hamburger-deprived all last week, you wouldn’t believe! No fast food during the school week because I cook at home.

Since Skye has extra classes after school and I need to drop off her lunchbox, I prefer her to eat a wholesome homemade lunch. She says her classmates’ moms bring them McDonald’s and KFC every day and I’ve only brought her McDonald’s once.

Steev has his lunch at college and I’m constantly on his back to eat more veggies at dinner. My poor baby seems to have lost weight since he started college. But he insists he is eating the same amount except maybe less carb.

Since there’s only Raine and me eating lunch at home most days, I usually whip up something simple like sandwiches, pasta, pies or grilled chicken and potatoes or something. We’re not big fans of rice and Chinese dishes anyways, so I don’t bother cooking up a storm.

I’ve always been the family hairdresser. I don’t have any formal training in cutting hair but when the ‘job’ fell on my lap, I picked it up and ran with it.

So I didn’t have the stress of making any of my kids sit still at the salon and praying the hairdresser doesn’t put out their eyes with her scissors! It also saved me lots of money because no matter how little they cut or how quick a job they do, they still charge you.

Over the years, I’ve gotten so good at cutting different styles of hair that even Steev, now almost 17, still trusts me to cut the modern spiky look for him. For the girls, I do the layered cut. All without training .

Oh, and DH is the most demanding. He always changes his hair style. Hey, I’m no Vidal Sasson, okay? So I have to crack my head a little. But he looks good enough to go to the office and even to those stuffy power meetings.

I also cut my own hair but only the front. Unfortunately I don’t have eyes in the back of my head. But hey, if there are salon jobs available at Beauty Jobs, you reckon I should moonlight ?

I recently dug up an old piggy bank we’d totally forgotten about. When I poured it out, I was pleasantly surprised to find it contained coins from the countries we’ve visited.

The kids were thrilled and immediately started sorting them out. Some of the coins in there are no longer in circulation. I wonder if they can be considered rare coins.

I’m not sure what certified coins are or if rare coins can be certified and sold for a higher value. But those are the few coins we get to boast about, not enough to get us anywhere, I’m sure the rare coin consultants will tell us .

My eyes are getting tired. My eyelids are growing heavy. I’m starting to feel sleepy. No, I’m not under hypnosis. I’ve been up since 5 this morning. I’ve been running around all day, and it’s beginning to show.

On days like this, I wish I could just wish myself away from the rush hour traffic and the incredible heat and humidity.

What I need right now is a steaming cup of coffee the strength of kava root. Such an exotic name for a herbal supplement that grows in the volcanic regions of Hawaii. It’s guaranteed to revitalize me instantly because it’s so potent.

The last weekend before school reopens is always crazy busy. I took the kids for their haircuts. They were starting to look like heavy-metal rockers. Then there’s always the last-minute stationery supplies which somehow seem to run out right on the day before school starts.

This time, there was the added hassle of trying to buy up some essentials in bulk. I already have 5 bags of rice, two 5kg bottles of cooking oil, toilet rolls, toothpaste. I wasn’t sure if I should stock up on Milo as well since I still have like 10kg from my last bulk run .

I’ll probably grab some more stuff this weekend. But frankly, if fuel prices are going to go up every month, there’s probably only so much you can stock up. I always buy in bulk anyways so I guess it’s a matter of looking around for the best prices without having to drive out of my way to get them.

Skye rescued a little bird that got stuck on our window ledge yesterday. Birds chirping outside our window every morning is the norm but yesterday’s chirping was louder than usual.

I looked out the window but saw nothing. I didn’t have time to think further and went out on my errands.

When I got home, Skye told me she heard the chirping, went to investigate, found the little bird and freed it. She said the bird didn’t fly away immediately. Instead he stood on the roof of a neighbor’s house telling his family and friends about how Skye had saved him.

How sweet!