Spymama @ Mamakshop

Ever since I started using the internet in the 90s, it has been an ongoing effort to resist the temptation doing online shopping from the massive websites available in cyberspace. One of the most items that I have bought online over the years are books, especially cook books that I can never find in the local bookstores here. And the prices are also reasonable too. I guess my diet of cook books never wavered. The only peculiar habit that I have is that I will buy 2 copies of them because I must confess that I have this habit of collecting books in their mint condition so one is used for browzing while, one is for keeps.

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Guess what? I found this useful thingy in the store lately. It is a Hot and Cold Gel Pack. This is similar to those cooling gel pack you can use when you have a bruise or need to cool down your head or other parts of the body. They come in other sizes too but I decided to get this one which is not too large and can fit our shoulders or head.

The instruction says that to chill it, you can place it in the freezer for an hour or more. I think it should be good for those that are down with fever too. Saves money getting those cooling gel, eh. This can also be heated up in the microwave about 1 minute or less.

Want to do like the model in the picture. Cool it and place over my eyes.. aaahhhhhhhhhh

The weather is getting colder lately. It’s been pouring. This is all part of global warming, I guess. Some places flooding, ice and glaciers melting. And extreme weather conditions.

But WAIT!!! It’s not all that Bad.

Spymama has a Special Soup for YOU!

I made Minestrone Soup with lots of Vegetable and some little bits of Alphabet Pasta. So if you happen to drop by here and find me not sipping Teh Tarik, please help yourself to a bowl of soup.

Hope it makes your heart warm and fuzzy for a Great Weekend. Don’t forget to smile and make a stranger happy. It could be me that you bumped into! *grin*

In local context, ‘bird-man’ is not a comfy word. Why? Because for chinese, in particular, it is used when someone is labelled as a ‘jerk’ or ‘jerk-ass’. Some chinese prefer to use this word by adding ‘blue’ before ‘bird-man’ towards the same gesture. Of course when I am explaining this context, it is used in the dialect ‘Hokkien’ and not in English. It is an insult to scold or to be scold ‘bird-man’ but some times there are some who fooled around too. It is a language commonly used more in a vulgar form. Those who are from the countries in Malaysia and Singapore will probably have heard of it.

But then, Spymama also loves to visit this kopitiam where the ‘bird-man’ is usually hanging out. And when I meant ‘bird-man’, I don’t mean someone vulgar, nor do i mean someone who is a jerk-ass of course. Because this fella, is none other than the real ‘bird-man’. He has 2 parrots with him most of the time. He frequents this local eatery and lives in this town. Spymama sometimes gets the honour to sit on the next table and with darting eyes, from my plate of Chicken Rice, Laksa, and Wantan Mee, looks at this green earthling that is also looking at my plate. A grey one sits on his shoulder.

A star of the place, sometimes can’t be help, these birds gets some stares, kids’ pointing fingers, ladies trying to get fresh with the owner. ( okay, i don’t think they were trying to get fresh, just asking about the birds). Not perturbed by them, all it wants (the green parrot) is something from my plate. Sometimes I thought of giving it an occasional Chye Sim from my plate but I don’t want a reaction from the ‘bird-man’. Spymama is quiet and keeps her movements slo-mo throughout so it doesn’t ruffle it’s feather and flick that bits of feather to garnish my meal.

But for once this time, Spymama took a picture of it. To keep ‘bird-man’s’ anonymousity, no face is being shown. I swear it was just staring at me.

Yesterday, Spypapa and I brought the family out to IMM shopping mall. We love this place because it is big and has almost everything in there.. There are many retail stores but we don’t really spend walking the whole mall except for the few places we usually go such as shopping for grocery and fruits in Giant, IT peripherals in Challenger and Best, some clothings, cheap and unique stuff from Daiso, lots of food outlets and also go outdoor to the playground.. We like to spend at least half a day here because we don’t have to pay through our nose for car park. First 3 hours of car park is free, a rarity in Singapore!

We bought lots of Longans yesterday.. the supermarket crew unloaded new cases of it. So I went to grab some put them in the plastic bags and went to the corner to slowly pluck it off the little twigs. It cost about $2.90 per kilo so We got 2 kilos of it. They were very sweet and juicy.

Spypapa got some cable ties, laptop cooler and a laptop slip on bag. He also got himself 2 pairs of trousers from a sale that costs only 9.90 per pair. That was pretty cheap. Spymama might drop by the tailor tomorrow to get her to alter the length of the trousers so perhaps can do some Spymama Work!

I also bought 2 pairs of pants at $9.90 for my girls too because it was a Buy One Get One Free offer.

I think malls are now clearing lots of stock to make way for new stocks for Christmas. It is only August but usually by end September and October, many malls starts end of the season sale.

I wanted to rant about this for the longest time. What else can I say. It’s about Spypapa of course. Spypapa has had a quite stressful pace of work for the past decade. There is no escape from the corporate world. If you have watched Singapore’s movie by Raintree Pictures - Just Follow Law, you’ll probably know how office politics are. Lots of arrowing around. But that is not what I want to rant about. It is about how office life has moulded Spypapa.

In the office, he has to make decisions quick and not look at pointing fingers. Business is always risky of course. When there is a problem at work, he will need to come down to the level and see how solutions can be solved. Very efficient, of course. BUT.

Have you ever come across when your second half comes home and solve your problems the way he solves it at work? I have and sometimes it can be irritating of course. Especially when all Spymama wants is just an outlet to rant? Lets look at how Spypapa responds at these rants! 3 actual examples.

Spymama told Spypapa: Aiyo our fridge for the 3rd time, is not cool at all. I had to clear the stuff, turn it off few hours and back on then it will be cool again. bla bla bla..
Spypapa: What is the root of the problem..
Spymama: *rolls eyes and shakes head*

Spymama text Spypapa: Hey, the kids are going to have holidays soon. Perhaps we could take a short break away and bring them to a resort to have fun?
Spypapa text Spymama: Noted
Spymama: sigh

Spymama text Spypapa: Mei Mei not feeling well. Her lips turned blue tis morning, so i rushed her to see Dr Tan. (I purposely didn’t want to tell more)
Spypapa text Spymama: Pls Update Me
Spymama: sigh sigh sigh (don’t want to update liao)

What a tiring day today. I was out from late morning till evening. My AL wanted to collect some free vouchers that he got from the credit card company for doing some balance transfers few weeks back. We headed to town at a large mall. The place was packed being Sunday, of course. With my girls and maid tagging along it was of course a family day for us. After that we had lunch and went to the Atrium to check out some food festival. I saw some Thai desserts. I have a weakness for Thai food. They sold the Sticky Rice with Mango at a box of $5.00 which is pretty cheap. Then I bought the tako desserts which is my favourite too. The girls had some yoghurt ice cream bars. It was yummy, they said. We went up to the kids’ level and let them play on some horsey rides and they got some candy floss too. Every Sunday, they give out free Candy Floss and balloons.

After that we went to games arcade, played some. The peak of the day’s activity was when we went down to check out the Computer Roadshow. AL checked one particular configurations and decided that I should get that. I’ve wanted a laptop for a while but never got to buying one. I had other more important things to buy. Like stuff for kids. So AL said I can pay it using instalment free plan which works out to about $75 per month for 24 months. That seemed ok. And I got it. I thought it was quite fast decision but to heck with it. AL wanted the free notebook that I was suppose to get in a week’s time. It’s as small as an UMPC but it belongs to the mini notebook category. Besides it is only more for email and chat purpose and I cant do much blogging there. So this one he suggested to me is a better option.

The only thing I dreaded was setting up the laptop.. Arrrgh.. i’m no good with things like that. And I’m pretty tired too. sigh..

I’ve got the antivirus installed and the bluetooth mouse working. The rest.. tomorrow… yawn.. i am tired. Goodnight. I’m pretty mixed up now. Guilty cos I scolded my little girl earlier. She’s asleep now. I always feel guity after scolding her. I love her dearly but she sometimes can be just too stubborn. And when she is like that, I get really angry and I’m shouting at her at the top of my voice. Now I am guilty. God help me. I shall be a better momma tomorrow. Amen.