My mom is my greatest fan

Civic-mindedness

Always behave as if someone is watching you.

I recall coming across this advice last year. It forms a very solid basis for exemplary conduct. Think about the last time you did something commendable and public-spirited and you felt good about it. Why did you feel good?

Is good behaviour demonstrated when there is someone watching?  Or is good behaviour shaped by laws and societal norms? Does good behaviour come about if there is an award to it?

I believe that true, unsolicited good behaviour is when it is led by one's conscience. Good behaviour is a result of one's values and one's integrity.

I thought I'd just like to document 2 notable moments about positive behaviour I'd observed from my mom.

1)

I was probably in pri 5, pri 6. Mom and I were grocery shopping at the NTUC outlet at Tampines Block 107. While selecting watermelons, one of them accidentally rolled off the cart and dropped onto the ground, damaging it in the process. Immediately, mom picked it up and brought it along to inform the cashier what had happened.

I asked, "Why did you not put the damaged watermelon back into the cart (and pretend nothing happened?"

Mom replied, ”做人要诚实。”


2)

Last week, Yx was complaining of tummy ache. Mom accompanied us to the clinic.

After consultation, I was occupied with paying and collecting the medicine at the counter when yx commented that she felt like vomiting. Mom led her to the road drain in front of the clinic where yx puked out her dinner.

The mess on the drain grilles was expected and my planned action was to cover it up with tissue paper, so as to alert passers-by to avoid that spot. However, my mom had a more civic-minded solution. She went back to the clinic and asked to borrow a pail from the toilet. Mom filled the pail with water, carried it over to the drain and flushed the spot clean.

___________________________


They say parents are their children's best role model, and children learn best from observing their parents. The above 2 stories were exemplary behaviour from my mom. I hope to be able to rub off civic-mindedness on my children too.

Steamed minced pork with egg 猪肉碎蒸鸡蛋

For keeps.


猪肉碎蒸鸡蛋

- 300g minced meat
- 3 eggs + 1 salted egg
- 2 tbsp water
- Salt, light soya sauce, pinch of pepper

Steam for 20 mins or till cooked through.

An orange Barney??

So my mom started learning about Barney (plus singing along) with babywyx, cos Barney is simply babywyx's fav!

One day we caught Barney's live performance at Velocity!

After that we drove to the airport to have coffee break. Changi Airport was giving out Pokemon plushies this season and Mom saw someone holding the Charmandar plushie walking past.

Sample

Mom shot us a skeptical look and whispered, "Eeyer, how come Barney comes in this colour?"

LMAO!

My kind of Sunday

Dear Diary,

Yesterday is a sunny day. I woke up relunctantly at 7.30am and accompanied my mom to the round market at Tampines.

Upon stepping into the hustle and bustle of the market, my half-opened eyes immediately dilated to the sights, smell and sounds of the cultural melting pot. The sound of the chopper against the chopping board, chittering and chattering, the damp floor, the bright orange filament lights hanging over the fishes/prawns, the greens, reds and browns of the vegetable stall, the red plastic bags, the acquired scent of preserved vegetables and salted fish...

Mom has been frequenting the round market since I was 5 and I bet she can navigate her way inside blindfolded (yes, challenge accepted). She led me to the butcher, took a quick look and walked away to buy pork from another stall. Puzzled, I asked mom why and she replied of the first stall, "The uncle has a bad temper when he has a line of customers."

=O

So my mom ordered 2 pig trotters, 1 muscle, and 1 slab of lean meat. Pig trotters for braised pork, muscle no need chop, lean meat for frying with vegetables, my mom requested and the butcher packed them exactly the way his customers want them. We paid $23.

I've also been to this round market many times enough for me to recognise the Indian woman selling spices and curry powder, here's warning not to speak bad of her because she can understand and speaks decent Mandarin, ha!

Taking careful steps along the damp floor of the market, I followed my mom to another section to buy some dried foodstuff. We paid about $7 for a pack of assam pieces,  a ginger and a piece of 霉香 salted fish.

Also than the unique shape of the building, the round market is also famous for its cooked food - Sarawak Kolo mee, Xing Ji wanton mee, prawn noodles, kway chap, just to name a few. We headed to tabao vegetarian economic beehoon. I remember a decade ago, mom tabao-ed the same dish for our breakfast and not only did we not thank her, we sulked because it was not drizzled with curry gravy. Today, mom repeated 3 times to the stall helper, “ 咖哩chap ”.


Moving on to another corner of the market, mom stopped by a stall and pondered what to cook for lunch later. She bought bee tai mak (mice flour?), fishballs and 50c beansprouts. The stall helper tried to up-sell a pack of instant curry, "it's better than A1!" but mom declined nicely.

Finally, we bought 2 packets of 奶白白菜 and a packet of petai for $4 and trotted back to the car. Shopping all done! =D

As we were walking back, mom told me that the lady stall helper at the bee tai mak stall is married to the man who was just now packing beside. Mom even knows that she originated from Vietnam and could not speak any Mandarin back then! From the conversation prior, I wouldn't have second guessed she wasn't local.

When we got home, I washed up, made myself a cuppa G7 coffee and prepared to dig in into the vegetarian beehoon (with curry chap), and boy, it was only 9.15pm!

Read newspapers.
Cleaned my room.
Changed bedsheets.
Napped.

____________________________________________


After lunch, I made myself comfortable at the dining table and started on my first book (ref: Resolutions for 2013), "The BFG".

Hahaha, yes I've done this book before when I was in pri school, but I've plain forgotten! I thought I would enjoy the story, but the book was so easy and simple I completed half of it in 40 mins. Hmm.

Off I cycled to Tampines East CC to donate blood (ref: Resolutions for 2013)!

The last time I did so was 10th July 2012 and I think the short period of missing in action actually made me feel nervous about this, lol. Fortunately it went smoothly haha, no repeat of faint spells.


At about 4pm, Celeste and Jiale came over and I suggested playing with jumping clay!

It was gonna be our first attempt and armed only with minimal artistic talent and google images, we found it really tough to mould the dough into the shapes and sizes we desired! So funny recalling how infuriated we were when the clay wouldn't stick or when the colours wouldn't mix, haha! One thing we learnt - the smaller the detail, the more difficult it was!

We spent like an hour and a half rolling, moulding, crafting and cursing at ourselves before we presented our 'master pieces':

 

Hahaha. Not too bad a first attempt ya?? =)



And then it was dinner!!!!!

Heartwarming, filling and happy dinner :):)


And the above, sums up my kind of Sunday. :)

Happy Mother's Day

Over dinner, I was listening to my mom relating about her childhood memories - such as washing clothes at the river bank, buying noodles for 10c at the school canteen, accompanying my grandmother to help out at the rubber tree plantations, earning $100 per month as a admin girl... She also said that she always overlooked the daily school timetable and would forget to bring PE shorts and drawing block. HAHA, I remember me doing that too during my pri sch times! It would be so awkward, the PE teacher would nag at us for forgetting PE shirts/shorts... and standing one corner we would be pretending to be guilty but conducting warm up feeling equally as comfortable in our school shirt and shorts! As for drawing blocks, the getaway was easy peasy - to borrow from my generous classmates who I would always watch retrieve one whole stack of drawing block from their bags, hehe. Most of the times I would purposely 'forget' to bring, cos my bag's too small and forcing the drawing block in would cause it to crimple at the corners! I also kinda dreaded art lessons cos need to pack pastel colours, colour pencils, painting bowl (shaped like a handprint, remember?!) and brushes la... so leh cheh! I would so conveniently use Stabilo colour pencils and apply some water over it. Water colour, TADA! :D

Anyway, really appreciated my mom for leaving and preparing me a lovely dinner even though I returned home only at 10 plus. She heated up the soup and accompanied me at the dining table, asking me about work and telling me how she picked a fish otah but don't know how it turned out to be a sotong one instead haha. When she related relishly to me her childhood memories, I nodded and acknowledged but truthfully, I wasn't really paying attention to the content... I was instead capturing and trying to remember this slight smile beaming on her face, secretly wishing this familiar expression would stay with me forever :) Together with the warmth of her home-cooked dishes and the special ingredient added in, always for us, everyday. <3


Very belated but anyway, Happy Mother's Day!

I just realised.... I have no idea what my mom's favourite colour is. :(

Mom working her magic

and what impelled me to taking more of these pics:

Source: Straits Times, on one particular Sunday in April 2012.