About a Boy

1)       is it just me or does anyone else find that ella ella ella song super annoying? Dah lah ella ella ella, she just has to continue with eh eh eh lepas tu. And it’s ilhan’s top car-karaoke song now. Di tangga kedua ialah Hey Hey You You I Can Be Your Girlfwiend, and these two has overtaken To The Weft To The Weft (something by Beyonce). Sometimes he requests for Siti Nayiza, and then the occasional Old McDonald/Pak Mamat (Pak Mamat tu farmer eh ibu?). of course, I’m the sing-on-demand jukebox.

2)       Overheard:

“Listen to me! Don’t make me angry ok!” plus wagging his finger at Bob The Weeder (or any toy) who refuses to co-operate in some Lego project. Aku macam pernah dengar line ni.

3)       Lepas kena marah….

Ilhan: I’m angry (frowns).

Me: Why? Why are you angry?

Ilhan: Because you are angry and me (he mixes up ‘at’ ‘and’ ‘with’ just like he confuses ‘dan’ and ‘dengan’).

4)       Auntie Bina says he’s been a good boy so far. He meets Nicholas (4 yo) and Eddie    (3 yo) twice a week at Auntie Bina’s house, and she says he’s the most active among them and he leads them in games and activities. And the poor boys listen to him.  I think, in teacher-speak, it might mean ilhan tak tahu duduk diam and he’s very bossy. *sigh*. But she also told me that on days when the other kids don’t come and ilhan’s on his own, he’s more focused on whatever he does and can spend hours playing lego. I so dread parent-teachers meeting when he starts school.

5) Meet his current best fwiends: T-Wex, Twi-cewatops, Stegosauwus, Pawasophowophus, Vewociwaptor and Petri (this last one aku carik nama tak jumpa so he calls it Petri after the flying-dinosaur character in Land Before Time. we got these figurines for 50cents each at the Good Sammy charity shop – can’t seem to find any small dinosaur figurines in any toy shop. As i struggle to even pronounce their names, he memorises them the first time round. i'm happy to say that i now know the names of 5 dinosaurs.

 Ok, this entry is slightly incoherent cos I’m pooped this week cos I had to teach 4 days tue-fri. i came to class on Tuesday with a few new students (on transit, on exchange, whatever possible mutations you can think of) – Jinho from korea, Thanaphat aka Boss from thailand, Arie from jogja, Mai and Mayu from Osaka, and funny ‘Professor’ Bo from China (not a real professor, just so serious and lurus).  And I’ll be doing 4 days too next week. Been sleeping at 2am every night…zzzzzzzzzzzzz…….

Kawaii

What happens when you goyang kaki for half a year and then you start work?

Fwah penat ah!

My first week as Mr Brown was a whirlwind. Classes were packed from 9am-4pm and basically you spend Week 1 assessing the level and aptitude of the students. The class is pre-intermediate, but I’m dealing with 4 different types of needs here.

 There’s the Kyoto University students here on a study-holiday so they aren’t in class after lunch. 7 kawaii girls who look like dolls, gothic dolls and harajuku dolls with their fishnet stockings and shorts. and yes, it’s still winter now.

There’s 3 the Shanghai Uni lecturers who are in their 40’s and are on a different wavelength.

There’s Saori from Tokyo who paid her own 1-month immersion here. There’s Tom, the jolly rich kid from Taiwan whose parents paid for him to do the 1-month English here.

There’s Minh and Thang, the Vietnamese. Thang doesn’t understand me and I don’t understand him.

And then there’s Fawaz from Saudi, who’s got the Arab-speaker traits all ESL teachers love and hate – he speaks well and confidently, but his grammar and speilign is teribel. Oh, and by the way, Fawaz lives in Makkah (!!!) and walks to Masjidil Haram for subuh and zuhur (!!!!). like wah!!

I have to do a lot of grammar and pronunciation for Thang, Minh and Fawaz cos they need to do a year of English before starting on their degree courses.

The kawaii girls-szu think-szu their Engrish is-szu aredi very good-oo. Plus they’re here for only 3 weeks so you can understand their mindset. So they-tzu think-tzu they aredi know the thing-tzu that I teach. Hence I get The Mirror Girl (aka Suzuka who flips open her mirror to study her blackheads) and The Face (aka Kayo who, well, gives me That Face). And I thought Asian girls are sugar and spice and all things nice.

But the rest of the Kyoto group. Sweet girls like Asuka and Tomoko and Mayumi who are really nice and willing to learn.

My celta coursemate cynthia’s joining me here in ECU this Monday! Ole!

She came on Friday to get some materials and we had lunch in the sun. I was starving, and with limited breaks. All I had for that 30-min lunch was a mushroom pie from home. I was a quarter way thru when a blardy fat and rude magpie swooped down and grabbed my pie!!!! But it was too heavy for greedy him so it fell. ANGRY kan? I was so hungry! And I had no time for lunch. And I can’t find halal food on campus, and that was my only sustenance.

Question is, hypothetically speaking,  if I were to tiup-tiup that pie and eat it, will I get bird flu?

Spidey meets Fairy Floss

ilhan and I were driving home from a barbie when we saw a carnival at the City of Bayswater Civic Centre (it's like our town council). so we stopped by, Ilhan morphed into Spidey, met Fairy Floss for the first time (he didn't like it), I had my first Fairy Floss in years (pun tak suka, too sweet). but it was good simple fun.

Demi Negara Yang Tercinta

sempena mengenang Hari Kebangsaan Singapura yang ke...berapa eh?....42, di sini ingin aku rakamkan apa yang sangat aku rindu tentang tanah air.

1. KFC hot and spicy, zinger
2. McDonalds Quarter Pounder (kat sini McDonalds baru buat satu burger baru yang sangat2 menggiurkan, namanya Nameit Burger. That's right...it doesnt have a name yet and they are getting the public to suggest. How about making some modifications and naming it Yes! It's Halal burger?)
3. Burger King's double-cheeseburger-with-bacon

Ok, now that I've got all the junk food out of the way, I shall start with the real stuff.

1. Abok-abok nenek aku buat (tell me where on earth can you get abok-abok nowadays?)
2. Masala thosai kat tepi Blk 627 Senja Road. da best. juga prata, putu mayam dan murtabaknya. in the last few weeks of being pregnant with ilhan when i was on bed-rest-leave, every morning i waddled to the stall to buy thosai and prata eat them while watching Oprah.
3. Banquet Jelapang Road. top of the list - fishball mee pok, prawn mee, hokkien mee, popiah basah, nasi ayam.
4. mee goreng, wantan goreng, home-made iced-lemon tea Cahaya Far East Plaza.
5. chapati dan keema di pasar tekka. mesti  kedai yang dua atok tua pakai songkok haji putih jaga.
6. pancake hijau letak kata-butter kat kedai roti china
7. Al-Ameen/Al-Azhar kat bt timah bila lapar malam-malam buta.
8. teh-tarik, milo-dinosaur (ini tak sangat lah, boleh buat sendiri)
9. nasi campur kat gerai makan melayu choa chu kang interchange sebab dia punya sambal-tempe-ikan-bilis-kacang yang kering-kering manis-manis tu sangatlah sedap dan walau macam mana aku cuba masak sendiri kat sini pun tak jadi jugak.
10. nasi lemak makcik di No. 9. aku rasa nasi lemak changi village overrated.
11. passport singapura yang membolehkan aku pergi....
12. Singgah Selalu bila tengah lapar malam-malam buta.
13. makanan laut di Senibong dengan keluarga.
14. ikan bakar kat Umbai

dan tak lain dan tak bukan, mak, ayah, brader and thithter, ChiChi Omok, nenek, atok, mak long, uda, andak, alang, busu, mak lang, mak eton dan semua sepupu-sepipit  (hahaha..kata ganda baru) dan kawan-kawan aku.

Majulah Singapura.

 

The Search is Over

i got a job. alhamdullillah. went to 2 interviews the week after celta, and now i'm on the relief pool at uwa english centre and a casual appointment at ecu. so i'll be working tue wed fri from 9-4pm teaching english to a group from shanghai and kyoto exchange students. that's one thing i like about job options here. part-time and casual positions are available for jobs at any level, creating space for family life/time.

and The Hasbern surprised me with a sponsored shopping spree at Harbourtown yesterday to get some work-clothes. thank you b :)
so anyway, we are now presented with the problem of child care. malangnya kat sini takde makcik-makcik melayu yang nak jaga budak. at least not that i know of. and even though we are at the same uni, we are on different campuses, and both campuses punya childcare centres are FULL....haiya. after taking into account The Hasbern's timetable, we still have to send him on wednesdays and fridays. we spent a week childcare-hunting and we found out that:

1) child-care is super expensive here, with centres charging between $55-$69 per day. being non-citizens, we are not entitled to childcare benefits and will have to pay the full amount. do your maths for month, boleh pengsan kan?

2) most of the centres we visited were full. those which had a space or two looked grimy.

kesian ilhan being dragged from one centre to another. at every centre he wanted to get down and play with his 'friends' and i had to keep telling him "not yet".

upon further investigation however, i discovered this thing called 'family day care'. it charges lower fees ($40/day or $7/hour) and is flexible with the timing. it's very much like the babysitter concept back in singapore, only more organized. you register to be assessed and accredited to be a babysitter - come up with your policy, have them come over and check that your house is safety-certified, plan a daily routine/educational programme and come up with a nutritionally-balanced menu.

so i went to this centre and asked if they have any muslim day-carers around my area. unfortunately takde, but she gave me the number of a Mrs Bina Das, an Indian vegetarian who lives a few streets away.

we went to her place to check it out and we liked it; spacious home and garden, variety of educational toys, posters and books. and Bina's a maternal middle-aged lady who's very like
the mummy-jee in hindi movies. besides, she's ok with cooking fish for ilhan, and i hope she'll weave her magic vegetarian wand and get ilhan to eat more than just carrots and broccoli :)

all that said, we still miss Cik Ani very very very much. Cik Ani was Ilhan's babysitter back home, and she and her family love Ilhan as one of their one since he was 3 months old. she cried on the last day i sent Ilhan over to her place. can't wait to see them again in december!