Bento #133

I was mass producing bento-s this morning again. 6 in total. 4 for my students, 1 for Clement and 1 for myself. I was pressing for time in the morning and hence Clement took these pictures for me.

I copied the idea from a bento making book by making these little onigiris little hoods using inari skin. To save time, I fried the luncheon meat and hard boiled the eggs the night before. I bought some Japanese pickles too. Guess what? It goes extremely well with the honey cherry tomatoes! I put the pickles in my mouth and it was too salty. I popped in a tomato at the same time and the taste was marvellous!

Clement said his photos didn't do my bento-s justice as he felt that they were the nicest one I have made so far. Hmmm... but I felt that I could do better if I had another half an hour. WAIT! That means waking up at 4.30am~~!!! NOOOooooooo~!

Little Miss Chatterbox

Not much has changed insomuch as this girl's storytelling abilities is concerned.

She still chatters on and on, despite the lack of any real audience.

She still uses a prop book, drawing the slightest of inspiration from the contents for the concoction of her tale.

She still favours the use of hand gestures, which she liberally employs to spruce up her storytelling efforts.

As for the listeners, it is still the greatest challenge, or perhaps the silliest, to attempt to make sense out of whatever she is blabbering on about.

THEN

NOW

YOG Torch Relay

This is really once in a life time thing! How often do you get to cheer for the Olympics torch relay??

Our school made a lot of preparations to cheer for the torch bearers as they would be passing by our school today. More importantly, these 2 torch bearers who would be running pass our school are our students!! So proud of them!!! By 10.30am, the entire school was lined up along the road where our students will be running to get ready for them. You can really feel the excitement in the air!
Even the little children from the neighbouring nursery were lining up to witness the special moment.

Finally, the moment arrived!

The torch bearers were on this red bus. They alighted at their assigned destination to get ready for their relay.

Sponsors distributing fan, coke and other souvenirs to our students.

The boy in orange t-shirt is the torch bearer from our school.

We returned to school at 11.40am. I am glad I witnessed the relay! This is perhaps my only involvement in the YOG~~:D

2010 NDP Gathering

It's our monthly gathering again and this time Viv was doing a story telling cum steamboat dinner cum pledge taking at 2010hr on National Day!

Viv told a lovely story about a magical garden. The children participated spontaneously in the activities!

The children creating their own magical garden!

The delicious and healthy steamboat dinner Viv and Jacky prepared for the guests. Yummy yummy!!!

The children loved their dinner! Noodles seems to be every child's favourite staple.

Busy serving the little ones. Only when they had eaten then we could sit down and have a peaceful meal.

We came in our national colours! We were prepared to take the pledge at 2010hr!

I bought some koniyaku. See, I chose only red and white jellies for the occasion.

However, the 4 of us had such a good time chatting in the room after dinner (and oblivious to the children's screaming) that we missed Jaimie's loud calling for us to take the pledge. By the time we realised, we missed the moment. Well well...

We realised that Ultraman might be a Singaporean...

We couldn't believe this! Viv's homemade durian puff!!!!!!!!! They were better than the best in Singapore!!!! We just attacked them the moment she stuffed the durian fillings into the custard bun.

Although we missed the pledge taking moment, it doesn't mean we are less patriotic. We love our little island because this is where our families and friends are! National Day is best spent with best friends!

Thanks Viv and Jack, for orgainsing the gathering!! We had a great time!!!

Bento #132

Clement had one of his wisdom teeth extracted yesterday. Being a loving and caring wife *ahem ahem*, I planned a soft diet bento for him -- japanese egg roll, steamed tofu with minced pork and shiitake mushrooms, and broccoli. To his pleasant surprise, he suffered no pain nor severe bleeding! Great! So I added in extra shiitake mushrooms for him to chew!!

This is my lunch. Big lunch! I had the same bento as Clement, plus a big serving of fruits. My school is very nice to teachers. Towards the end of each term, the principal and vice principals will give us a small treat to show their appreciation to us. Today we were treated to a bowl of soya bean curd each. It's not the food but the thought that counts. And my lovely colleague bought me a cup of nice cold barley so that I could quench my thirst after my consecutive lessons.

Little things like this make the workplace a happy one.

I planned to eat my lunch during my half an hour lunch break. By the time I came down from the classroom, 5 mins had passed. Ring ring, a call from a concerned parent. 10mins gone. 10mins to eat my fruits and tofu and 2 spoonfuls of rice. 5mins to get ready for the next lesson. By the time my lesson ended and I went back to my seat to complete my meal, it was 2.30pm.
This is quite "normal" for a teacher!

Bento #131

My first vegetarian bento. Fried spaghetti with oyster mushroom, golden mushroom and shiitake mushroom. Added on the pasta is heart shaped/ star shaped cheddar cheese.

It's my first attempt to cut grids on the apple skin. I failed horribly so I hid the apple under the other fruits. Once again, it is proven that I am hopeless in craft work.

Bento #129, Bento #130

Bento #129:
I brought 5 students to take part in the Read! Singapore 2010, Reading Comes Alive competition on 31st July and we were the champion team! YIPEEE!!!! So I made bentos as rewards for them. Apparently they were very thrilled (more thrilled than receiving the champion trophy! Hahaha~~) when they received the bentos!




Bento #130:
Nobody could tell it was a sheep with pink fleece. OH! So sad!!

人生的第二课：负责任与赔偿

那天，媛媛上了关于撒谎的课。今天，她学习了人生的第二课：负责任与赔偿。

媛媛喜欢带她的玩偶一起出门，可是，每次玩偶都落在我的包包，或者是我在遗忘了玩偶的地方把它们捡起。讲讲讲，念念念，都没有用。

今天，媛媛带了咸蛋超人Zoffy出门。Zoffy是媛爸的最爱。果然，媛媛又把它遗忘在某处，我静悄悄地把它捡起放在包包里，不动声色。

逛街休息吃茶点的时候，媛爸问媛媛：“爸爸的Zoffy叻？”

媛媛看着我，觉得我会把Zoffy拿出来的样子。我说：“我不知道，不是你照顾的吗？”

媛爸立刻七情上面：“媛媛！Zoffy是爸爸最喜欢的Ultraman!不见了怎么办？？”

我立刻加入演员阵容：“是啊！Zoffy不见了，爸爸很伤心叻！如果你的七仔不见了，你会不会很伤心？”

媛媛点点头。

“那，你要赔给爸爸了。上次你要求爸爸买chocolate egg，stretchy worm还有unicorn给你，对吗？现在爸爸要用买这些玩具的钱去买Zoffy了。不能买这些东西给你了。”我说。

媛媛的眼眶立刻红了。“我要unicorn,chocolate egg...”“不行，你弄不见了爸爸东西，对吗？所以你一定要赔给他。”“我要我的stretchy worm...”媛媛看起来就快要决堤了。

“好，这次是你第一次弄不见东西，我帮你。这三样东西，你一定要放弃一样。不够的钱，妈妈帮你。”

媛媛挣扎了好久，讨价还价了很久。我一再解释什么叫“负责任”，也说明她为什么一定要放弃一样自己心爱的玩具。

媛媛终于含着泪选择放弃stretchy worm。我从裤袋里掏出了刚买薄饼和咖啡找回的三毛钱，放到媛媛的手里，说：“这些钱原本是可以买stretchy worm的，现在你要赔给爸爸，因为你弄不见了他的Zoffy，这些钱要买一个新的Zoffy。”

孩子走到她爸爸的身边，把钱放到他手里，然后痛哭。

痛哭是好事。这表示她明白了“割爱”，也尝到了弄不见东西的代价。

我把她抱起，安慰她说，我们存够了钱，就可以买stretchy worm了。但是不是今天，不是明天，是每天存一点点钱，因为我们还要用钱吃饭、买衣服、搭车...媛媛点点头。我趁机说，不只是爸爸的东西弄不见了要赔，别人的东西弄坏了、弄丢了，一样要赔的。赔，就是不能买自己要买的东西，而用那些钱买弄坏了或弄丢了的东西赔给人家。所以，我们在用东西的时候要小心、要好好照顾。媛媛渐渐止了眼泪，继续点头。

在继续逛街的时候，媛媛还是试探着说：“买stretchy worm...”。我们就说：“不行，那个钱是要买一个新的Zoffy还给爸爸的。”媛媛也没有闹情绪或继续要求。

真是一个好孩子！希望这次的教训，可以让她更加爱惜东西，也更有责任感一些。

做父母真不容易啊！逮到机会，就要赶快进行机会教育！