Monthly Archives: June 2018

2018 Week 25 Update

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School holidays have ended and the children have gone to school for term 3 & 4 this morning. The house feels a bit empty this morning after being filled with their voices for a month.

This week we also managed to get their passports renewed. I could not get an e-appointment to pick up the passports, so we decided to just walk in. We had to wait for around 45 minutes, but this being Singapore, it was done very efficiently and quickly. The passports now have retina scans and fingerprints for the children also.

I also received notification from the ministry of manpower that my helper R’s contract is expiring in two months time. I am now in a real bind and don’t know if I should renew the contract or not. Without full-time work, it makes no sense for me to have a helper at home, especially since she does not have much to do now that the children are older.

One option is to wait for a couple of weeks to see if something clicks in the job front. If that happens, then it’s back to status quo and I don’t have to have any difficult conversations with R. Otherwise, I need to have to the difficult ‘it’s not you, it’s me‘ talk and ask her to look for other options. I will then become a SAHM for the next 16-18 months till the children complete their ‘O’ Levels and then look for full-time positions. We will not have any helper at that point since the children will be out pretty much the whole day. I will probably get some part-time helper to come help once or twice a week for the more intensive chores, but yes, that will be it. In the meantime, I am going to see if I can get some part-time work which I can do when the children are in school or some freelance work from home.

Anyway, let’s see what the future holds for us and me specifically.

Have a good week everyone!

2018 Secondary 3 Week 25 Update

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School holidays end for BB & GG today and they start term 3 of Secondary 3 tomorrow.

Schools here have new timetables for the second semester and this is a chance for them to make changes depending on the class strengths and weaknesses.

BB’s school has listened to parents feedback and now has incorporated a lunch period for the days when they do not have CCA. This means his class ends around 40 minutes later each day. This does not include any supplementary lessons or extra classes like the Maths Olympiads.

GG’s timetable also has been released and the timings are pretty simple to the previous semester except on one day when she has an extra period of physical education.

The holidays have ended quite quickly and these terms will be quite short. Before we know it, it’ll be the end of the school year and the children will be in Secondary 4!

In My Hands Today…

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Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer – Cyrus Mistry

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At the very edge of its many interlocking worlds, the city of Bombay conceals a near invisible community of Parsi corpse bearers, whose job it is to carry bodies of the deceased to the Towers of Silence. Segregated and shunned from society, often wretchedly poor, theirs is a lot that nobody would willingly espouse. Yet thats exactly what Phiroze Elchidana, son of a revered Parsi priest, does when he falls in love with Sepideh, the daughter of an aging corpse bearer…

Recipes: Spicy Vermicelli Upma

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This is another staple dish in Tamil households which I tweaked slightly this week to make it different.

Spicy Vermicelli Upma

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup vermicelli, dry roasted
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 carrot, chopped
  • 1/2 cup frozen peas
  • 1 tsp minced garlic
  • 1 tsp minced ginger
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1/8 tsp asafoetida
  • 1 tsp red chilli powder
  • 2 tsp pav bhaji (or garam) masala
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds
  • 4-5 curry leaves
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 tsp oil
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • Coriander leaves to garnish
  • 1 tbsp ghee (optional)

Method:

  • Heat oil in a pan and when it warms up, add the mustard seeds and let it pop.
  • When the mustard pops, add the curry leaves, asafoetida and turmeric powder and stir for a couple of seconds.
  • Add the onions and saute till translucent. Then add the remaining vegetables and saute for 1 minute.
  • Season with salt, chilli powder and pav bhaji masala and let the vegetables cook completely.
  • When the vegetables are done, add the roasted vermicelli and stir well.
  • Add enough boiling water to the vermicelli and cook it well.
  • When the vermicelli is cooked completely, check for seasoning and adjust as necessary.
  • Add the optional ghee to the dish and switch off the gas.
  • Drizzle the lemon juice over the dish and garnish with coriander leaves.
  • Serve hot.

Notes:

  • Instead of pav bhaji masala, you can also use garam masala or any other masala lying around.
  • To make a Jain version of this dish, omit the onions and garlic and cook as above.

In My Hands Today…

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The Waiting Years – Fumiko Enchi, translated by John Bester

177404The beautiful, immature girl whom she took home to her husband was a maid only in name. Tomo’s real mission had been to find him a mistress. Nor did her secret humiliation end there. The web that his insatiable lust spun about him soon trapped another young woman, and another … and the relationships between the women thus caught were to form, over the years, a subtle, shifting pattern in which they all played a part. There was Suga, the innocent, introspective girl from a respectable but impoverished family; the outgoing, cheerful, almost boyish Yumi; the flirtatious, seductive Miya, who soon found her father-in-law more dependable as a man than his brutish son…. And at the centre, rejected yet dominating them all, the near-tragic figure of the wife Tomo, whose passionate heart was always, until that final day, held in check by an old-fashioned code.