Gimme A Break

We had an absolute blast of a weekend attending a wedding at the in-laws. Yes, when the clan gets together over a happy occasion, there’s never a shortage of food and I’m sure everyone walked away with a few extra inches to their waistline.

There was such a lot of catching up to do and there seems to be an never-ending stream to new members of the family who’ve just joined us. Anyhow we met a few relatives we never knew we had and that was really fun.

• family event of the year
• weddings
• the rhythm of the mall
• they came anyways
• celebrating family and good food

by minutechaser - 1 Comment →

We have two weddings coming up. The first one is my cousin’s to which we’ve been invited, sort of. We’ve been given invitations to the lunch reception at my uncle’s house but we’ve been told specifically our teens are not invited to the banquet at an upscale hotel.

Of course I think it’s a case of really bad manners on their part, and am considering giving the whole thing a miss. But to avoid a backlash, DH and I have decided we will just attend the buffet lunch but not the dinner.

The second wedding is that of another cousin on my in-law side which also happens to be held at the same upscale hotel but to which we’ve all been invited. Strange, isn’t it, given that the in-laws always get the bad rep for being mean ?!

• yummiest coffee
• fullmoon party
• car battery goes flat on me
• fish week
• breaking the busy record

by minutechaser - 4 Comments →

It’s a beautiful morning and I’d planned to meet a girl friend for breakfast. As it turned out, my daughter is not feeling well and won’t be going to school. So I have to stay home with her to make sure everything’s okay.

It so happens my girl friend too is feeling under the weather and needed to catch up with some sleep since she didn’t get much last night. So I guess it all worked out .

How’s your day going?

• breakfast with an old friend
• drop everything, the nosies are here!
• not going anywhere?
• excuses, excuses
• scarred for life

by minutechaser - 1 Comment →

Woo-hoo, peace and quiet again! Now time to kick back a little and not have to rush around organizing lunches and fun things to do for the kids. We had a bunch of relatives to entertain over the past couple of weeks and it’s been nothing short of tiring.

Don’t get me wrong. We love when they visit. It’s just the amount of energy that goes into organizing a fairly large group and getting everyone to have fun doing what they and everyone else wants to do.

And of course, there’s the meals. I didn’t want to cook up a storm and let’s face it, I didn’t want to spend a fortune eating out either, and figuring out something in between isn’t always easy.

Well, that’s over and done with for now. Till the next time. So I’m off to chill!

• home more
• bored stiff
• you wanna charge us now, do you?
• big time cooking
• mommy burnout

by minutechaser - No Comments →

How time flies! It’s been a year since our friends migrated to Australia and pretty soon, another of our friends will be following suit with his family. I’m so happy for them and hope they find happiness in their new homeland and bring them to the other members of their family who are already living there.

Both have gone through the long process of applying for migration. These processes can sometimes be really sticky and unless you have a lot of time and the necessary knowledge to overcome some of the challenges, it’s best to get the help of an immigration lawyer like what our friends did.

At one point, my friend’s wife was ready to give up but I knew they would persevere. The grass is always greener on the other side of the meadow so I never doubted that by hook or by crook, they would try to get over there.

• nosy’s in town
• daring to dream on
• gotta keep talkin’
• his majesty
• shoo, sun!

by minutechaser - No Comments →

An old girl friend of mine is in town from halfway across the world. I’m not sure what her schedule is like as I haven’t had a chance to speak to her yet.

I’m waiting for her to call and I hope she does soon and I’ll get to see her before she leaves this weekend.

Our friendship has been solid as ball lock pins since forever. But somehow over the years, distance got in the way and we both got busy with work and kids and life, so our friendship has suffered as a result.

It sure would be great catching up to chat over old times. We did have a lot of fun back there and we used to travel and dine like there was no tomorrow.

I still think about those times we had, hanging out, laughing, just being crazy. I sometimes wish we could go back in time, you know and live those carefree days again. Do you ever feel that way?

• island days
• all set to go again!
• when the travel bug bites
• yoga tomorrow
• ridiculous days

by minutechaser - No Comments →

I met my neighbor for the first time after we’ve been living on the same street for the past ten years. Yes, strange, isn’t it? All these years, we’ve been waving and smiling at each other whenever we passed each other. But we’ve never spoken.

Like me, she’s always busy running Mom’s taxi. And so we’ve never had the chance to actually meet face to face. Until today, that is.

I was waiting for my kids to pile into the car and I waved as she was just driving by. Suddenly she slowed down, wound down her window and we started talking.

It was so cool. She’s such a nice lady but we only got to talk for a few minutes as she had to drop off her youngest son at school.

Over the years, I’ve seen her kids grow and heard about their academic achievements and football trophies from the other neighbors, and she too apparently knows a little about my kids.

I can’t wait for another opportunity to catch her and have another friendly chat. I feel like I know her just from having waved at her all this while. Ever felt this way about someone?

• talking to your teens
• no braces please
• ami-chan blogs
• the boy at school
• warm memories

by minutechaser - 2 Comments →

My friend text messaged me from Las Vegas this morning to say she’s arrived safely and has checked into one of her favorite las vegas hotels. She didn’t mention which one but I’m sure I’ll hear all about it when she gets back.

Of course, I’m all envious and everything but what can I do? It’s not like I can do like she does. As far as I’m concerned, I’m grounded till the kids are old enough to take care of themselves.

Then I might be able to join her on her travels and send messages to my other friends to tell them I’ve checked into my favorite hotel and will be dining at the restaurant downstairs soon.

• every daughter’s dream mom
• constant traveler
• tongues on fire
• the fun never ends
• fullmoon party

by minutechaser - No Comments →

I met up with an old friend for breakfast this morning. She has recently left her job and is thinking of starting her own business. She doesn’t have a lot of capital but was hoping to at least start off on a small scale.

She admits that running a business is something very new to her and that she’s a little nervous to make the jump. It’s entirely understandable. I’d be apprehensive too if I were in her shoes.

But like I told her, there’s always going to be a learning curve, and whatever she can’t handle, she should consider farming it out. The important stuff like Branding, she should probably just leave it to the experts, you know, people like the Brand Identity Guru who have been helping companies, big and small, to establish their brand.

Sure, she’ll have to budget it in as an expense but I think, in the long run, it’ll be money well spent if she can create an image that her market can associate her with. Well, I don’t know when she’ll be ready to kickstart her plans. But she’s spending a lot of time researching the market right now. I hope things work out well for her.

• two kids and a job
• if I should need a new kitchen sink
• a fun way to make money on the weekends
• one lucky girl
• constant traveler

by minutechaser - 1 Comment →

I walked past the bead shop yesterday and was reminded of this short-lived beading hobby of mine. I was so crazy about it at the time that I went hunting all over town for the tools and supplies.

Night after night, I would struggle to stay awake just to finish up one more accessory. Eventually I made so many earrings and necklaces I started giving them away to my friends.

Soon I started getting orders from them. Not big orders, just a few here and there, enough to make me happy that there was a demand for my creations.

But this little small business opportunity didn’t last long. Pretty soon, some ladies were asking for small favors. They asked me to modify the designs after they got bored with one design after a few wears. Others came to me with broken jewelry to be repaired and redesigned.

Soon I got stuck redoing and repairing stuff for free late into the night. When I couldn’t deliver on time for some event they wanted to wear the jewelry to, these witches (I would swap the “w” with a capital ‘B’ but I’ll be nice this time) gave me hell and set me deadlines!!

Hey, I was just doing them a favor. And for free, darn it!!! What ungracious creatures!! Finally it became such a pain I just gave up beading altogether.

• contemporary gold
• stretch your creativity with Aqua Dots
• trying to keep awake all night
• bedtime
• staying up late

by minutechaser - No Comments →