Croc-choc or Choc-croc

At Silver Sands Factory Outlet, Destin, we stopped for a little snack of a white croc-choc chosen by the little one.


The milk choc-croc's head is bitten off by a grinning bigger alligator...

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Mardi Gras-Haha Parade

It was a Sunday afternoon, and the children's mardi gras parade was about to take place at Cottage Hill and Sage Avenue. The little fella was unhappy and grouchy. I hate parades, I want to stay home blah blah blah so he stood in a corner away from the madding crowd just to prove his point that the parade was not his idea of fun.



But soon he realised that this parade was not scary or threatening as his brain cells had told him earlier. So my little fella decided that he can join in the merry-o-making with all the other children. He now moved with the crowd catching the goodies that were thrown out to the little people on the streets by the kids paraders on the floats.

It was no wonder many children came with little plastic bags, so that they can grab whatever they can and put their stuffs in the plastic bags. After some catching, here are some stuffs that my little fella managed to get and he was beaming happy ha ha ha with candies, cups, whistles, coin, chains.

So the day ends with my little fella looking much happier than when he first started out. He realised that this kids' mardi gras parade was actually fun and told us that he wanted to go for another. That's my little fella, he panicked first not knowing what it was but now he knows.

It's a day of lurrving.

With all the cliches and commercialism that's associated with February 14, you did nothing to think or talk about it until you step into Walmart, and everything pinks, reds, hearts, flowers, chocolates and balloons greeted you like a big dollop on your face. I almost shudder with the over-decorated Walmart. No, I'm not taken in with this blatant advertisement, but maybe that chocolate looks amazingly delectable. Oh and how beautiful the roses are but more than double overpriced! I'm not taken in, anyway.

But Afzal has been talking about Valentine. It was because there were some school activities associated with this V-day. So I asked,
"I don't know what's valentine. What's valentine Afzal?"
"It's a day of loving."
"Loving? Loving who?"
"Anybody."
"Anybody? Like who?"
"You can love nenek. You can love anybody."
"Oh ok. So can I love you?"
"Yes, you can. You can love ayah also."
"Do you love me Afzal?"
"Lovelah."

And then he decided enough of this love-talk.

"Mummy, later I want to make you a card. You close your eyes ok."
"Ok."

So here's Afzal's lurrve card to me.



The front cover with an orange flower. And the word 'mama' on the priceless flower.


The insides of his card. A heart and a house with a chimney. "It's mama's house and it's in Atlanta." So said Afzal.


The back cover. Two hearts. One ayah and one mama. How sweet.



Another heart with a teddy that comes with a sash "My Valentine" and a card. I guess dear hubby got the hint when I browsed the delectable chocolates so I got this from him. Not that I want to and we don't celebrate V-day anyway, but a box of chocolates does not hurt, right? Melt...


And what did I do in return? Cook for lurrve... Nothing fancy. Just my very own baked lasagne and oven-fry chicken for dinner.

Style and writing

"Style is not how you write.
It is how you do not write like anyone else."

* * *

"When you write for children,
don't write for children.
Write from the child in you."

Charles Ghigna

Skateboarding terms

Afzal's uncle and aunty in Singapore want to show him some skateboarding tricks and here's a glossary of skateboarding lingo.

Skateboarding
These are the different parts of a skateboard: trucks, deck, wheels,griptape, hardware, bearings,risers(optional).

How to do a :

Kickflip. Put one foot on the tail and the other foot on the bolts. Kick down on the tail while sliding your other foot up diagonally. If you did it right the board should flip once and then land.

Olie: Put one foot on the tail and the other foot on the bolts. Stomp on the tail and slide your other foot straight up. If you did it right it will rise of the ground.

Shoveit: Olie but instead of keeping your feet straight you move your left foot back and your right foot forward. The board should spin counter clockwise.

Heelflip: To do a heelflip you just flip the board the the opposite direction as the kick flip.

Backside boardslide: Olie, do a 180 onto a rail or curb and slide down. When you reach the end of the rail jump of and do a 180 back into your riding stance

Source: skateboard

Afzal's crafts

Afzal had the white paper where you cut and fold to make into a paper bag, so we transformed it into a 3D paper bag. He was so intrigued that he asked to make another one, so I draw a similar one on the orange paper. And he want a picture taken with it.


The 2D nets were transformed into 3D paperbags. So here, he proudly snapped a photo of his self-made crafts.

As part of my early childhood math assignment, I created a curriculum using 3D boxes and opening these boxes up to see flattened cardboards (ie. 2D nets).

Here's a snippet of what my professor, Dr Patricia Willott of Early Childhood Math, Wheelock College had to say:-

"The extension of using 3-D boxes and making the connection to 2-D nets incorporates powerful mathematics in an area that is often neglected; we sometimes forget the 3-D aspect, and looking at the nets is a good concrete and relevant introduction to the concepts of perimeter and area. Your activities show that you are committed to making maths relevant for children, and that you are conscious of the important role of the teacher in maintaining high standards for learning."

Afzal and his skateboard

It was the coolest gift from a grandmother. Yes, it was nenek who gave Afzal a skateboard for his 5th birthday because he asked for it.


It was not nenek who chose the design, nevertheless, it was a cool gadget for a 5 year old to have... for now.

For more of his moves, click here

The view

This is the view of our apartment from our balcony on a clear day.



This is the same view from our apartment on a foggy morning.



This is the view from our front doorway in that foggy morning. See our red Malibu parked right in front.





Really foggy and cold morning.

The Snow Experience in Narita

We were unprepared to be stranded in Narita, but we did not want to miss the opportunity of experiencing some real ice and snow there. Snow blanketed the garden just outside Narita Excel Hotel.


Ayah and Afzal, in newly bought jackets, posing in the snow-laden garden. Though our jackets have an inner fleece lining, it was not enough to really keep us warm and withstand the icy cold. We did not want to buy more gloves and hats as we already have these which of course, we did not have them with us at that point.


Afzal tried his hands at making snow balls.


Beautiful shot of Ayah and Afzal on a little bridge.


There was a sudden gust of wind and the ice hit our faces. Afzal freaked out and ran haphazardly. Here, Mama is trying to hold him and asked him to cover his face on Mama's coat. Look at the car's roofs all covered with ice.

For more pictures, click here

Overnight at Narita

My dear Afzal sleeping on the cold seats of Narita Airport with a Cathay Pacific blanket courtesy of a kind passenger. Even hubby Tahir has put up and crossed his legs on the seat. See his shoes facing his left.

I wish I could snap pictures of people sleeping in the sleeping bags but it will be infringing into their privacy, so I did not do it. However I saw a caucasian man who did that, and his camera is a professional one where you can take pictures in the dark without flash. The next day a picture came out in Japan Times on the front page.

The dirt on the airlines

Having had the experience of flying on American Airline, Delta, Northwest, Continental and United, it is no wonder that the US Airline Industry is in a tailspin.

From the time I was born till the age of 24, I had the luxury of travelling only on Singapore Airlines. Not that I was of some Royalty lineage, I would then have my own private jet. And it's not that my family owns the airline, but I was lucky that my father was a pioneer at Singapore Airport Terminal Services and he and his family (that's us) are able to receive complimentary flight tickets annually to anywhere in the world on SIA and we would use the tickets if we have the money to travel or else it will just be to KL.

So I have no basis for comparison. And anyway, at most times, I have nothing to complain about SIA.

Until I couldn't receive anymore complimentary tickets, so I have to save and scrimp to travel and I have since travelled on Thai Airways, Mauritius Air, EVA, ANA, Korean Air, Japan Airlines, Emirates, Virgin, Qantas, British Airways and all of the above US carriers.

Frankly speaking, everything on the US carriers really sucked. Big time.

From seating space, to inflight entertainment, to quality and customer service of flight crew and even the baggage unit, hospitality, food ...everything failed miserably.

Seating space is crammed. You can feel the front seat right smack on your face. And I mean really right smack and even more so if the passenger in front had adjusted his seat to lean backwards. Your knees will touch the seats that it will be hell to just move out to the loo especially when you are on long flight and have a kid with you. So it's better to get the aisle seat.

Inflight entertainment. When most flights have upgraded to touchscreen monitor and have continuous and uninterrupted entertainment, the US Airlines in general, expect us to watch the movies at their own timing, not ours. When I thought that Americans are technologically more advance, their aircrafts, however, are behind many Jurassic years away. The remote control at the side is not covered unlike JAL so most often our arm would have pressed onto the keypads and accidentally change the channel or volume. This can be irritating not only to you but if you unknowingly pressed on your neighbour's remote. The aircrafts do not even have games to entertain those who do not want to watch the movie or listen to the radio. At least, with games, it will help to keep kids entertain on long flights. Talking about kids, they are not very kid friendly. They don't provide complimentary toys or games or snacks for the kids much less smile at anyone of them or assist to make a crying infant and a stressed passenger comfortable. I sense that kids are more of a pest than anything else to the crew.

Quality of crew. First thing, you don't really get good-looking stewards or stewardesses but that does not matter if you can work but if you are also overweight and really old and does not look like you can stand for very long, it is a wonder whether you are of any help. One thing for sure, unlike other airlines, the crew on the US airlines do not offer help with your luggage. To hell if you are struggling, they will not bother. Usually, during boarding, the crew are hardly in sight or you may spot two of them happily yakking or gossiping together while a passenger is struggling with his or her luggage.

And I can tell you I have met many downright RUDE airline crew from American Airline as well as from the other US airlines. With the exception of one or two smiley crews, perhaps the ones that I encountered are those who are either waiting for retirement, or the work is no longer enjoyable to them. To these crew, may I suggest that they should just get themselves grounded or work in a non-customer service department. Without them, at least the flying experience will be much more pleasurable.

Once on a Continental flight, after having made my halal food request a few days earlier, this particular stewardess said rudely that I did not make the request, she does not have anything for me so point blank, she told me that it's either I eat or don't. And to think that the airline that I took before that connecting Continental flight, which is United Airline had my halal food so I was surprised that Continental could have blundered that and blamed it on me. On top of that, they did not even offer an alternative until I suggest whether my son and I could have some roll and butter.

At another time on another US airline that I cannot remember which one, this steward was stumped when we asked for our halal food, because according to him, he had asked us earlier and we told him that we didn't want to eat. My husband and I looked at each other and wondered when did he ask us. He was upset and I don't understand why and went to the galley to get our food at the same time complaining to his colleague loudly about us.

On American Airline, I heard this rather rude stewardess speaking in high tone to a passenger who could hardly speak English. In a very loud and sarcastic voice, she said, "I cannot understand WHAT you are talking about." Opening the foil on the food, "You want this or this?" "WHAT?" "WHAT?" "YOU DONT WANT TO EAT?" "FINE!!!" and she stomped off. Is this the way they treat passengers or is this the way they treat Asian passengers? And I can vividly remember her name.

Again on AA, my husband was asked by a stewardess, "We have pork. You either eat it or you don't." Mindless people! Clearly, she had served us our halal meal earlier so I think she is probably suffering from selective amnesia. Then there is something really wrong with their recruitment strategy.

Another time on AA, another stewardess kicked my leg twice and at both times without apologising. Something was on the floor but she couldn't just pick it up and yet she just brushed it off with her foot and kicked my leg instead while I was snoozing.

And the food is downright miserable, deplorable and horrible. When halal food is available, it is often the same white pita bread, weird tasting curry tofu, sour tomato eggplant and some bland yellow rice. Sometimes some "grass" is included. For heaven's sake, we are not vegetarians. The US airlines forgot that when we request for halal food, it will mean that all our food on that flight whether breakfast, snacks, tea or dinner will have to be halal as well. It only happens on US airlines somehow. Most often the snacks given to us are not halal as these would be the same snacks given to every one else and these are usually pork, chicken or beef sandwich. I think this is a case of blatant ignorance and total insensitivity on the part of the airline management to cater to the varied needs of their passengers.

Most of the other airlines fare much better than any US airlines, that's for sure. For now though, I believe Emirates will definitely give SIA a run for their money. While I find that JAL and Korean Air have rather good inflight entertainment and "dainty, polite" crew, I find that SIA crew is a bit "crass" these days, but food and hospitality is still the best. The crew on Air Mauritius is rather "snooty" but Virgin's crew is "hilariously weird" or is it "weirdly hilarious" while Qantas and British, are "politely snobbish".

US airlines better buck up or maybe not...