transposable element

and so the -ber months have started. brace yourselves folks; for some reason, the last third of the year always goes so fast for us, what with all the holidays and school breaks in between. jan’s got a week of school break this month, and then his birthday is coming up. once he returns to school, his schedule is somewhat all over the place - shortened classes, off-schedule school hours due to PSLE, and barely two monts into the last term, the year-end exams. as for mia- she’ll be starting her ballet classes this month!

the next several months will be a flurry of activities, we’ll be sending out personal and business holiday cards before we know it. i hope this year i manage to actually send snail mail ones, at least to close friends and family. yeah, call me old-fashioned, but i proudly belong to the diminishing species that keep the postman going. to colleagues and work contacts, electronic greetings are good enough, but if if could spare the time, i’d rather make the personal effort to send real cards to friends and family, handwritten text and all. kinda makes it more personal, especially nowadays when most of the writing people do are done by tapping on keyboards and touch screens.

jan is turning 9 in a few weeks and frankly, we’re running out of ideas on what to do. of course, the options are endless if you have a deep pocket, but even if we were willing to spend serious money, personally i am not inclined to do so. been there, done that: big bashes, complete with entertainers, vinyl banners, generous goodie bags. but those were in the early years.

now, jan is already at an age when he is starting to understand the value of money. while we aren’t really frugal by any means, i’d like to think we are sensible folks when it comes to spending, and this are the same values we would like the kids to learn. what good would all our yakking about saving up and spending wisely if we would allow him to think that one is allowed to forget being money-wise on cetain occassions? besides, if you ask him, all he really wants is to have some good afternoon fun with his friends, that’s it. he couldn’t be bothered on what goes in the loot bags, much less on the table setups and deco and stuff like that.

and it looks like his friends think just the same way. so between him and his pals, they’ve done futsal, muddy army bootcamp, outdoor soccer, laser tags, go-karts, plus the good ol’ bbq-and-swim-at-the-condo. what other themes are there to do for nine year old birthday parties?

awesome. dazzling. breathtaking. spectacular. all superlatives aren’t enough to describe the visual extravaganza during the opening ceremonies of the youth olympic games, and i’m only talking of images that we’ve seen over tv. i can only imagine how exhilarating it must have been on site.

it’s a pity that jan missed it as he was on a sleepover, but maybe we can still snatch tickets to some of the events. being the first ever youth olympia, and being staged right here on our backyard, it would be a pity not to take the opportunity to see any of it live. pity that taekwondo is almost over now; he’d have been interested in that. hm, we’ll see…

my first ever profile pic when i started my foray into the blogworld in 2004. jan in 2006, and now, mia.

what do they say about being chips off the old block?

jan is on a week’s schoolbreak. but as this is singapore, of course he has with homework to do for the 5 days he is off from school. and though it appears like it, am not sure if the school’s intention is really to keep the children working during the holidays. i am starting to suspect that the school feels they are doing the parents a favor by giving homework to keep the kids occupied and productive, instead of simply bunking in front of their home entertainment centers for lack of something more productive to do. after all, children nowadays are so used to receiving instructions to stave off boredom, rather than coming up with ideas on how to keep themselves busy. during the term, they are kept busy after school hours by countless extra-curricular activities and programs, if not tv. so when school breaks come, parents are also at a loss on how to keep their kids busy.

and that includes me. last year, we’ve gone on overseas trips for each of jan’s school holidays. this time, i was close to booking another trip, but eventually decided to ditch the idea. surely we can manage to stay put for a week? after all, jan has friends in the neighborhood he plays with everyday, and when he’s not out, i manage to find simple activities he, mia, and i can do together. and for those times i run out of ideas, or the weather isn’t cooperating, surely, it’s ok to be “bored” every now and then?

“mom, can i use the small computer?”

“no, you haven’t even had breakfast yet.”

“but mooooom, dad lets me!”

“well, is dad here? no. so leave it, i said no.”

“that’s not fair!!”

“(sigh) oh well, son, life is not fair.”

“no, mom! my life is fair! you’re the one who isn’t!”

no, it didn’t take me this long to recover from a bad bout of tonsilitis; the poor bugs have been flushed out of my system by the ueber-antibiotics i was prescribed with in just three days. however, hubby, who came down with the same symptoms at the same time i did seems to have either caught something else on top, or succumbed to some opportunistic bugs that have been til now laying dormant in his system. he’s still down as of writing

of course that also means that i’ve been carrying double parent duty most of last week. and i’m afraid there isn’t the end of the tunnel just yet. oh well, one’s gotta do what one’s gotta do.

ironically, i realized i’ve actually been enjoying the time i spend with jan these days. since mia was born, we somehow drifted apart a little, me taking care of mia and hubby taking care of jan. now we’ve kind of rediscovered each other, and it’s actually rather fun having him around. talk about blessings in disguise. he still drives me up the wall now and then, of course, but he wouldn’t be jan if he didn’t, eh?

but man, am i tired. wish i could take up one of those outer banks vacation rentals and whisk off the entire family for a rejuvenating holiday!

Futsal is a variant of association football that is mainly played indoors. Its name is derived from the Portuguese futebol de salão and the Spanish fútbol sala/de salón, which can be translated as ’salon football’. In Madrid 1985 the name fútbol de saló and all other names the game was called were changed officially and internationally into FUTSAL.

that was the theme of jan’s 7th birthday party. technically, it was not futsal, just indoor football, having played on grass turf (artificial, i think, not unlike some of those bushy car mats) using a normal soccer ball. we booked an indoor soccer pitch at turf city, and it was just as well because it was rainy that day and the outdoor fields would have been muddy. and if it hadn’t been raining, it could have been scorching hot even at 4pm. we also booked a coach (and we were given two) from the little league to facilitate the warm up drills for the kids and referee a friendly match. i think the coaches did a fabulous job, introducing soccer basics to kids who were mostly beginners at the game. i wouldn’t be surprised if jan asks to enroll in soccer training soon (ka-ching!).

after almost two hours in the pitch, it was obvious that the kids had a whopping good time. they came out of the pitch sweaty, tired and hungry. we ordered a halal (at least one of jan’ buddies doesn’t eat pork) high tea mini buffet from delihub and a soccer-themed birthday cake from smiling orchid, which looked fantastic and tasted great, as always. in addition tothe ice tea we ordered, the pitch also provided ice-cold mineral water bottles and 100plus (a kind of isotonic drink for athletes) as part of the package, so we no longer had to cart most of the drinks to the venue; just added a couple of bottle of sodas and that was it.

it was a good thing that we were given the seating area at the back of the office. it was directly overlooking the pitch were the kids played so it was easy for parents to keep an eye on the game without having to appear like cheerleaders, hehe. the guests also naturally overflowed to the open veranda for extra seating and elbow room, especially after the game when the kids joined the parents to jostle for food at the buffet. after a “tea break”, the boys retreated from the buffet, chose the table farthest from the parents, and played a game of trump cards (or at least that was what they were called during my time) while the girls entertained themselves with song and dance. it was a good wind down after an energy-sapping toggle with the soccer ball.

it was really a great party, if i may say so myself. it didn’t take much to organize but jan really enjoyed it. most of the planning and booking were done online and a couple of trips for the party supplies (invitations, birthday candles, serviettes, etc). the lootbags were probably the one that took most effort, small toys having been bought all the way from manila! they couldn’t fit in a regular lootbag, so i just bought clear plastic lootbags and printed a thank you note using some soccer clipart. c’mon, you think kids this age pay any attention at all to the wrapping? all together, i think it took us just about a week to organize everything, though if i had the time, it probably could have been even better– more theme-related lootbag fillers, balloons, additional games, prizes. photos(!)– but honestly, in hindsight, i’m not sure jan would have really cared.

jan had a fabulous time, spending his birthday with his pals. as far as he’s concerned, it was a score! goooooaaaalllll!!!!

so finally, the obstinate tooth was pulled out, and because the permanent tooth that was supposed to take its place was misaligned, jan is now wearing braces, also to keep the gaps between his other teeth intact until the other permanent teeth come.

on the first day (friday), he couldn’t talk properly, couldn’t even swallow, so he had to take it out during mealtimes. on the second day, his speech has improved but still needed to take it off to eat. on the third day, sunday, he was already getting used to it, with minor speech difficulties. we were considering not making him wear it in school, but that would mean that he will need to wear the darn thing for much longer than the three months estimated by the dentist that it will take for his tooth to move into its place if he wears the braces 24/7. fortunately, come monday, jan said he’s ok and will wear it while in school. i was worried that he might be laughed at in school. hubby worried that he might take it off to eat and forget it lying somewhere. but when he came back, it didn’t seem to be such a big deal.

oh well, i just hope that metal piece does it job. i swear i suffered a minor heart attack when i saw the bill. i think that piece of metal wire costs more than our entire khao lak holiday did! and it’s not yet clear whether the insurance will cover it, arrrgh! (it will probably be as difficult as claiming social security disability benefits!)

have you ever wondered why it’s called martial arts? apparently it is derived from Mars, the god of war, hence martial arts = art of warfare. and just like in any war, there are always casualties.

the report of the teen who died after receiving a kick on the neck in a taekwondo competition jarred my nerves. it is one thing when someone who has lived a full life passes away (my dad would have been 74 today), but quite another when someone so young does. and in such an abrupt manner.

but it’s not just that. see, jan is already sporting a green belt. aside from his weekly lessons, he also attends a number of compulsory sparring sessions. they don protective gears on breast, shin, groin and arm areas, and are taught to put into action all the kicks and blocks they have learned previously. on saturday will be another round of grading, this time with sparring included.

what’s the probability that such a fatal accident will recur? probably very low. probably as low as one dying from an air crash. or a bad fall. or a lightning strike. but the thing is, one never knows, eh? after all those are the stats behind term life insurance quotes.

but what to do? pull him out of training? sounds absurd. cross fingers? sounds useless. arrgh.