The One About Inori

Has it really been that many months since I updated the blog???

I’m so sorry.
If you are on my Facebook friends’ list, you would know I didn’t make it into Medicine. I’m doing my Bachelor’s degree in Nursing now instead.

It’s worked out to be pretty good as the schedule is not hectic and I have a balanced time-table…. where I spend some time away from the kids just for a short breather and still get to spend majority of my time with them. Also good news is that I obtain my Degree in 2 years instead of 5 years time.

We’ve been very busy lately…. we visited Singapore in February and had fun catching up with family and friends. What was NOT fun was the heat and humidity which sent me into a foul mood and angry rashes on Chubbs’ face. Both kids had episodes of nose bleeds due to the heat as well.

Obviously I do have photos to share but I will have to compress the file sizes before uploading so those will have to wait.

Please remind me to update this blog! (Comments would be sent to my email box which I check everyday.) I actually forgot I had a blog. -___-” that’s how bad my memory has become!

I try my best to reply to every comment. Sometimes I reply via email and sometimes I post a reply via the comment box. I’m terribly sorry if I missed your comment and did not reply. I do not mean to ignore you. Sigh.. I need to get my act together!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Before I explain the title of the post, I guess some of you must wonder about my uni entrance results as well as my exam results. Some of you might already know from Facebook.

I did well in my exams. But unfortunately, not as well as I had hoped to. Thus getting in to Medicine would be tough. Also, as the uni advisors gave me some misleading information in the start, I found myself stranded in a very weird entrance category where I am neither a high school leaver NOR a mature aged student…. either that or I’m both. It’s very confusing.

Anyway, I would have to wait till January till they decide what to do with me. Meanwhile I will be appealing my case and pray.

Now, lets go on to the birds.

We’ve had an affinity with birds of late. For starters, we have 2 backyard hens who are absolutely adorable. Especially Lizzy:

We don’t know her breed exactly as she is mixed but we reckon she might have some Silver Laced Wyndotte in her.

She trusts us completely and runs to us whenever she sees us around, crouches down and ‘asks’ to be carried.

See, she happily comes close to Sunshine during feeding time!

She also invites herself into our house. I don’t think I know another hen who behaves like this. Hahahaha! We love Lizzy to bits.

We also have visitors………

When I was young, my mum used to tell me that these are mandarin ducks. The one with the green neck and head are males and the plain brown ones are females.

While she is right about the gender, these are not mandarin ducks and I only found out a few months ago. -____-

For all my life I’ve been going around thinking they are mandarins. I wonder if anyone else thought the same??

These ducks are Mallards and are the most common kind of wild ducks found here.

We get visits from them almost every other day and they would waddle up to our front yard. They sometimes even fall asleep, nestled in the grass!

Sunshine loves feeding them!

A few months back, we woke to wonderful chirps from above our bed. Birds had made a nest in our roof and the nestlings had hatched.

We were okay with this at first but as the nestlings grew older, their cute chirps sounded more like “Baarrraaaaaapp!!! Brrraaaaaaaaappp!!!!!! CRAAAAAAApppPPPP!”

They were irritating and when they were learning to fly, you could hear their claws scratching against the colourbond surface. It sounded like nails on chalkboard.

Our neighbour advised us to clear out the nest after the nestlings leave or otherwise the birds would come back next spring.

Well they didn’t come back next spring. They loved our roof so much that they decided to come back AGAIN NOW.

Either that or they told their friends, “Hey, know where’s a good place to nest?”

I would think it’s also because of the weird weather. It warmed up a few months back but then became bitterly cold again. Then it warmed up a little and now it’s cold again! And we’re already in summer!
I’m not complaining though. I love the cold.

I don’t have a clear picture of the bird and neither do I know the species but here’s a picture of one of the parents:

It was about to feed its noisy offsprings.

Okay.. that’s all about birds.

I’ve been soaping and designing a cardi for girls. Taking life easy for now. I feel a little lost without homework or studies but am otherwise happy to have a little break.

My expandabags were completely sold out within days of the update. Malabrigo has been ordered and hopefully would be here by late January (fingers crossed!)

Take care!

My granny (dad’s mum) passed away peacefully last night.

She waited for my Aunt and my cousin to be by her side. She passed with her family with her. I even got to see her on livecam as my dad brought his laptop to the hospital. I don’t know if she saw me in the video or heard me calling her name.
She was very thin and sunken.

The last time I saw her was more than 2 years ago. She couldn’t recognise me and took a very long time to realise that she was Sunshine’s “Ah Tai” (cantonese for ‘great-grandmother’). Then she thought my mum and I were sisters.

My granny doted on me. In fact, both grannies doted on me. I was the first grandchild on my mum’s side and I was my dad’s first born.

I remember the nights I would crawl into her bed because I was afraid of the dark. I remember the nights when my nose would bleed (I had a condition when I was a child where my nose bled very often. I seem to have passed it on to Sunshine. ) and she would stuff herbs up my nose. I remember the nights where she would lay strong smelling herbs in my pillow. And she would go to the temple to ask for a talisman for me, sew a red triangle casing for it and slip it in my pillowcase.

I remember I would wake her up at weird times of the night to cook instant noodles for me because I was afraid to light the gas stove. I remember she would make milo for me. I remember waking her up to sit with me at the tv because I was afraid to sit alone in the dark. I remember her sewing me pajamas and how I used to love the flannel material she used. She used to bring me to the coffee shop and let me drink a little bit of her coffee in the saucer,

All these things, she did for me willingly and without a single complaint.

I have a secret which should be embarassing but yet I don’t feel embarassed about it anymore. I still sleep with a pillow that has been with me since I was 3 or 4 years old.

The one on the left is my pillow and the one on the right is a bolster which is soooo flaccid now it’s just a casing.

My granny sewed them for me. I sleep with them every night. Well. Only with pillow. Bolster is too fragile and I fear for it’s ‘health’ so I’ve put it away in case the kids fight for it and tear it into two.

I only hope it will last me till the day I die. Now the pillow holds much much more memories than before and I treasure it even more.

(Incidentally, it works great to have kids because guests come and see the pillow and assume it belongs to my kids. Haha!)

I had the privilege to live with her for a short time before getting married and moving a country. I must have driven her nuts with my dogs and then my cat. I admit I was a little short tempered with her at times (because of her dislike for my pets) but I hope she finds it in her heart to forgive me for my insolence.

I am very happy that she saw her family before she left to be with God and I really wished I was there.

I know I will see her again. And when I do, I will tell her about the wonderful things about His kingdom. Till we meet again, goodbye.

啊嬤, 多謝你多晚陪我睇戏, 煮 Maggie 麵俾我食. 我地會再見面嘅. 再見, 啊嬤. 我會自己保重.

Hehehehe… just popping by to post pictures of my new tee shirt!

I’ve been getting a lot of ‘supermum’ comments of late due to me studying, working and being with kids… although I don’t think I qualify 100% since my dearest husband helps out with the kids A LOT…… but I liked the term! And thus wanted a teeshirt with a superman logo on the front.

But I looked and looked, I couldn’t find a plain red and yellow logo on a white shirt base. So I complained (a lot) on Facebook about how it’s so hard to find a superman tshirt… and how expensive blank tees are… etc.

I finally found a store that sold blank tees at a reasonable amount (but charge crazy shipping!) and ordered from them. Then we went to get tshirt transfer papers. Nad said he would do the logo for me…

At first I was thinking… it can’t be too difficult to grab an image online and print that could it?
Well, turns out many images online are low res… so would make a crappy tshirt print.

So my dearest husband grabbed a vector drawing of it and filled up the colours in photoshop and viola! We haz high res logo! It’s little bittle things like these that makes me sooo happy to have him as a hubby.

So I asked if he could take pictures of it. He happily grabbed the camera and directed me on where to stand, how to pose, etc.

And then he showed me this:

“HELLO? Where’s the logo!!!!???”

“Oh… right! Sorry!”

I love my new tee shirt! Even my neighbour who saw it wanted one! LOL.

I’ve quite a few things to write about… so to make the post slightly more readable, I’ll put them in point form.

1. I’ve released the pattern for Ulverstone Stole on Ravelry.

This stole is knitted with Malabrigo Sock yarn and takes two skeins. I was left with about 30g from the second skein so was cutting it pretty close!

When I blocked it, it took up the ENTIRE length and width of a single mattress. Didn’t expect it to be that big! I’ve encouraged people to use smaller sized needles as the stole was a little too airy. Some knitters have also expressed interest in using lace weight yarn for the stole. I’m looking forward to seeing the projects of other knitters!

I included diagrams to help with the knitted on edging and what I hope are detailed instructions. This is my first time doing a knit on edging too so if I can do it, so can you!

I’ve offered the pattern for free until January 2011 when I will start charging a small token for it.

I was pleasantly surprised to see 431 downloads on the first day, 123 downloads on the second and 66 on the third upon its release! I had a flood of comments and well wishers congratulating me. Made me soooo happy! Thank you all for your support!!!!!

2. Fun on a pony

We’ve been bringing the kids out quite a bit!

I called up this horse riding school one day and asked if they had a pony for a 3 year old (and hopefully, for a 1.5 year old as well). He said yes, they have a pony but only the 3 year old can ride. We were so excited and thought of Sunshine riding on a miniature pony (think Shetland pony).

When we arrived, the pony is this big:

Apparently, a horse that is less than…ummm.. 16 hands (??I cannot remember how many ‘hands’) in height is considered a pony. This ‘pony’ is one hand short of being a horse.

Look at her glum face…
She wasn’t unhappy. Just a little apprehensive. I had to hold her hand the whole time we walked in the bush. If I let go, Sunshine whined and wanted me to hold her hand again. So being the poor mother I am, I had one arm up, holding on to her while walking beside the horse pony and bumped at the side by the pony’s buldging tummy. -___-

Some parts of the bush had really thick foliage and it was hard work walking beside the pony as the path was so narrow. Once uphill, I tripped on some branches and fell. -___- The things we do for our kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3. Fun at the beach

Since it has warmed up a little, we brought them to the beach.

They enjoyed playing with the sand, flicking it into our hair and eyes. Chubbs even tasted some just to make sure he didn’t miss out on yummy food.

No.. he didn’t like it at all and we had to wash out his mouth. Silly boy.

Their cheeks were really rosy as it was rather warm. Nad held up an umbrella to shield us from the strong rays. I sat knitting while enjoying the sea breeze. Granted, I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t wearing jeans!

4. Fun in the backyard.

Here are some pictures of the kids in the backyard. Chubbs is very hardworking. He sweeps the grass instead of the paths.

Am I cute with pouty pouty lips?

I love her smile.

Nad reckons they are twins. What do you think?

Our chookies. Lizzy is on the left and Penny is on the right. I love them so much, esp lil Lizzy. She lays the most awesome eggs. Penny is broody at the moment and not laying. She keeps sitting on Lizzy’s eggs. We have to take it away and lift her to the branch to try to break her broodiness. Hope she snaps out of it soon.

5. Fun at home

Some random shots from home.

They crawled into their highchair and Sunshine read to Chubbs her bible story book. SOOOO SWEET. He was listening to her too! I didn’t know until I heard her reading and turned around to see this. *Heart melts*.

Random shot.

They each have a piggy soft toy. And they love sitting in their toy box, pretending to be in a boat.

He put the headband on his head all by himself. Soooo funny.

Chubbs is the happiest with food in his mouth.

He’s pretty serious about food.

So happy that we can’t see his eyes.

6. Of Lizards

So 2 days ago, I was in the backyard trimming the bushes when I heard benji growling and emitting low barks. I took a look at what he was growling at and saw what I thought was a skink. Except it had a long tail.

It was stuck in the bird netting we drape over our pots of veges. Walked right into the net and got its head and upper body hopelessly stuck.

I came in and told Nad about it while shooing Benji back into the house. I reached for the scissors but Nad said to look up online about it first.

We found out that it was a Eastern Blue Tongued lizard. And that it makes a good pet.
Nad wanted to keep it. -________________-;;;

I said no… we do not need more pets. I can’t say I wasn’t tempted but we simply have no time!!!!!!!

Then we went out together and freed the poor fella.

It’s a fat fat lizard. Look at its waist line!!!!!!!!!

I was surprised when Nad put it in the bush. I asked if he changed his mind about keeping it. He said yes. Because he read it wasn’t advisable to keep with children under age 5 since it may spread reptile samonella. (Hence the gloves we wore while handling it).

I think it looked relieved and happier in the bushes. Don’t you think?

We think it’s a beautiful creature. Sunshine had different opinions though… but then again she has a growing list of animals she is afraid of/ dislikes. Spiders are number one on her list and flies are another. I suppose the lizard made it on the list as well.

7. Exams

Well I’m done with the pictorial part. My exams start next Tuesday and ends 24 Nov. I cannot wait to finish! Part of me wants to drop all studies and run screaming from it. It’s really really tiring. I know how hard it is to get into Medical Science so I have decided to let God decide if I should enter or not.

It’s not surprising for me to be rejected as the entry levels are really high. You really need to be one of the top students to get in and I cannot say I am one. So….. there is a high chance I might not be accepted and if this were so, I will not persue. I will stay home and be a good wife/mum. While knitting. And sewing.

I will still study hard for my exams, of course. Thus far, I am getting majority of  ‘A’s in my school work except for Biology and English. English is a tricky subject to score in. I never liked languages as a school subject! They are so subjective. Heh heh.. see what I did there?

So I guess I will be MIA again until exams are over. Then I can be a normal person again.

8. My granny

My granny who is 95 years old, had a stroke a few days ago and is now in hospital. It pains me to be miles apart from her. She is not doing very well and I hope she feels as comfortable as she can be and not in pain. She has my other family members around her, although she cannot remember a lot of people but I am relieved that she is not alone.

I feel for my sister as she is doing her major exams there now too and still she visits granny every day. She’s a good girl.

My other relatives are flying there to see her this Saturday. I don’t know if she is waiting for them or not but I do hope she goes peacefully. I do miss her at times.

Rightio. I’m going to snuggle in bed now. I’ve a LOT of yarn to dye up after exams! I’ve been reskeining some coned yarn and also dyed up a sample which I am very pleased with. Can’t wait to play with yarn again! I just look at the yarn blanks (undyed yarn) and am filled with inspiration! Soon! Soon!