A little something......

The school holidays are here again! After a gruelling week of cramming and revision, Ruth completed her mid-terms last Friday. With all the hard work and extra efforts, hopefully she will do better this time round. The results will be announced after the two-week break. Meanwhile, she enjoys snoozing late, surfing the internet, watching her favourite cartoons and reading. Her teacher assigned a history project, which will have to be handed in when the coming school term resumes. It's also a "busy" time for her!

With the Gawai festivities only days away, the supermarkets and malls are fairly crowded with last minute shoppers and housewives getting all their stuff ready for the celebrations. So the greetings of " Selamat Hari Gawai and Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai" reflects our state's rich cultural diversity and heritage.

Hubby's sister-in-law and niece will drop by Bintulu on 31st May before continuing the journey together with us to Sarikei. We will be attending hubby's uncle 80th birthday celebrations. The octogenarian had his life full with all his children, grandchildren and great-gtandchildren attending the birthday bash. Born to poor chinese immigrants from Fujian province, China, his family settled in Sungai Baji, Sarikei, where they eke out a living as rubber tappers and pepper planters. He lost his mother at a tender age of 10 years, and had to fend for himself by working as a rubber tapper for the other more well to-do settlers. He came a long way through years of hard working and long-suffering before he could retire in comfort as he is today. All his 10 children are doing well with their own businesses and careers. It's a celebration of the goodness if life.

There are times..........

Mum and John dropped by Bintulu over the weekend. As usual, mum cooked her favorite herbal chicken soup for us and we enjoyed some real warm family ties. Sort of belated mother's day celebration. They then continued their journey to Mukah and thereafter she will fly back to Sibu. She will be leaving for her tour of Russia in a week's time, so there will be some last minute packing and finalization of tour details. .

Ruth is in the middle of her mid-terms and busy with last minute cramming and revision. As an incentive for her to work harder, mum promised her a reward of RM200.00 if she could retain either one of the top three position in class. Hopefully, this will encourage her to put her best foot forward and do better this time round. She is also looking forward to the mid-term school break and visiting her cousin Jane in Mukah.

Work at the office is getting more demanding and at times really exhausting. It's good that we'll be having a 4-day break during the coming Gawai holidays to recuperate. After working for close to 24 long years, there are times that I wish that it could call it quits. And enjoy early retirement.

Personal glimpses

Phew! It's a relief that Ruth finally made a full recovery after her recent episode with allergic rashes. She's more vigilant now, unlike before when anything edible gets "pop" into her big mouth faster than you realised it! I must say that she's slightly obese at the moment and I have been telling her to go some exercise. Whe she is in the mood, she calls everyone for a game of badminton, but at times she can be a real couch potato.

With her mid-terms just round the corner, she's busy with her revision and hopefully she will do better this time round. Hubby promised her a trip to Mukah and Sarikei during the coming school break and she's looking forward to them.

Hubby and I just got back after a week end trip in Kuching to settle some family matters. It's more than a year since I last visited the "Cat City" and it's a refreshing change from Bintulu. Dropped by hubby's cousins place and we even managed to drive down to Bau to visit the famous "Tasik Biru". It's not much of a local tourist attraction now and most of the amenities are poorly maintained. We also visited some shopping malls and bought two VCD's for Ruth. She's a great fan of Mr.Bean and had been pestering me to get his latest "movie". Sometimes, a get away will do wonders!

Pots and pans

It's been quite sometimes since I updated my blog. Ruth had been down with flu, cough and allergic rashes for the past week. The rashes covered her whole body, even up to the toes and ears. She could not help scratching due to the terrible itch and had difficulty concentrating on anything. I took her to consult our family doctor and he dignosed the problem as a food allergy. She's down to a basic diet of porridge, fruits and plenty of water. She's missed her fried chicken wings, vegetables, cheese sausage and had been complaining and grumbling on just about anything. Poor girl! With her mid-terms just around the corner, she cannot afford to be sick for long. She's on medication and hopefully, will make a full recovery soon.

Sickness aside, it's a busy time at the office. With several on-going projects on hand, the work had been piling up. Sometimes, I wish that I could just take a long, long break and get away from things. When I heard that mum's going for another tour, this time Russia, I was really tempted to join her. But, with work and family commitments on hand, I just could not get going. Sigh........................ What a lousy time!

Hubby, as usual is busy with work and travelling. He's just back from KL on Saturday and will be going for another meeting tomorrow. Ruth and I hardly get to see him. It's just like those "Touch N Go " stuff.


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Potpourri

Hubby's back, safe and sound after his 10 days tour of Southern China including visits to his ancestral village at Ming Qing County, Fujian province. He bought a book on "Cats" for Ruth, some preserved olives, silk quilt and preserved razor blade clams. Ruth was delighted with her new book, showing it around and comparing the photographs of cats in it with our Angel, Trickles and Whitey. He's also back to real life on the run and busy clearing the backlog of work on his desk.

Ruth's gearing up for her mid-semester examinations which will be held sometimes towards the end of May. She's got a lot more to revise this time round as the exams will include the first semester 's syllabus as well. She had been pestering me to get her a hamster as an additional pet and I brought her to visit the new pet shop near our place. Sure, that's plenty of pets on display in the shop including the lovely and cute persian cats, puppies of different breeds, rabbits, monkeys, squirrels, guinea pigs, hamsters even lizards, snakes and tortoises. Ruth was delighted with so much variety and I told her to make up her mind on which one of the animals that she would like to have as her new pet. But, there is a catch here, with the condition that she does well in her coming examinations. Let me be the judge of that!

We might be taking a break during the coming school and public holidays in June to visit my brother John in Mukah. Ruth had been looking forward to see her cousin Jane, so that's plently of catching up.