transposable element

“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.

with jan on school holidays and my younger brother with us for the last couple of weeks, it’s no wonder that posts on this blog has been few and far between recently. i barely have time to sit down, and when i do, mia knots her eyebrows at me, and chooses to take that opportunity to raise her arms (and voice) to be carried, aaargh!

jan’s first two weeks at home have been relatively relaxed, and i intentionally planned it to be that way. what vacation would it be if it would still be packed with activities, eh? the school holidays is a break from work, and given the rigorous schoolwork they have here, it’s really the only opportunity to veg out for days on end and enjoy doing nothing for a change. well it wasn’t really nothing; with his grandmother and uncle around, he had enough to spice up his days.

the next two weeks, though, are quite packed. this week, jan goes in the afternoons to a theatre workshop that will culminate into a stage presentation on saturday. we’ll see if the boy’s theatrics has better use than just wheedling himself out of trouble, hehe…

i also just remembered that my brother is a seasoned tennis player and i’ve asked him to teach jan tennis in the mornings. alarms are set a bit earlier this week, as they need to hit the courts and be able to play a bit before the sun gets too fierce. i wish it had occurred to me to ask my brother to give jan lessons as soon as he arrived, because unfortunately, there are just a few days left to practice. because…

next week, we’re off to phuket for a beach break. though i’ve been to bangkok and northern thailand many years ago for work-related travel, it will be my first time visiting the much talked about holiday island. let’s see if it holds up to its reputation. and more importantly, hopefully it remains H1N1-free, ack!

when we return, there’ll just be enough days left to get jan back on school mode. i hope that by then, he’ll not only be re-energised for the second school term but also have fond memories of his first real school holidays.

we’ve made an appointment for jan to see a dentist this week. a permanent tooth is growing behind his front milk tooth, the milk tooth that has been predicted by his german dentist to fall off um, around 5 years ago. see, when jan was just a bit more than a year old, he had an accident in day care, knocking face front onto some corner. that knock not only chipped his front tooth, but also pushed it back into his gums. well the tooth grew back out eventually, was functional, even if a bit discolored. his dentist then warned us that the tooth might fall off within a couple of years.

well, good that she was earning her living being a dentist and not as a fortune teller. seems like the tooth has no plans of falling off, even in the presence of the permanent tooth that’s supposed to take its place now. it’s not even wiggling!

it might just be a simple job of pulling that obstinate tooth out, but if there are other damages, jan is covered by a kind of disability insurance paid for by the daycare he used to attend. because the accident happened within their facilities, jan is covered for his entire lifetime for any medical consequences arising from that fall.

i may have said many things i dislike about germs land, but if there’s anything i find topnotch, it’s their healthcare system.

i was already in college when i learned the utility of “old exams”. valuable sheets of questionnaires in higher chemistry, virology and statistics, passed clandestinely amongst students frantically trying to absorb information during the last week of the semester, aka hell week. the old exams, which may have been from the last semester or the last decade, were difficult to get hold of (either that, or i just wasn’t “resourceful” enough), and for some subjects, possession of a copy made the difference between a pass or a “5.0″. or at least, that’s how it felt.

of course, now that i’m older, have already earned my degrees and no longer need to sit out exams, i can put on my righteous cap and say, what an utter load of crap!

an exam is an assessment tool, with the aim of measuring how much a student has understood of the lessons and how effective the teacher (and his approach, methodology and materials) has been in tackling the subject matter. if you scored high(er) on an exam because you benefited from having seen and reviewed old exams, then you are defeating its purpose, cheating the system, the teacher, and most importantly, yourself.

so imagine my consternation as jan brought home copies of old english semestral exams from 2007 and 2008, distributed by his teacher as reviewers for the upcoming tests next week! what the…?!? oh and yes, may i reiterate: jan is in first grade.

forget barney, forget amadeus. mia’s favorite melody? the background music to western union’s “yes!” commercial.

i’ve googled til i found the title and artist of the song, and from there it was easy to find an audio file. apparently it is a remix of a song by morrocan artist hindi zahra. here’s the original:

the song has been playing on repeat mode on my pc, hehe.

speaking of music, i’ve been missing sarah g on asap, but i’ve discovererd a new favourite (hey, i now spell in british english!): i love, love, love sitti! i was especially awed by her bossa nova version of lanca perfume she performed on asap a few weeks ago. i found an audio file online, but the quality doesn’t do justice to sitti’s voice. i find her smooth operator really smooth and groovy too. heck , i love all of them. i’ll be downloading ‘em all onto my mobile phone’s micro-sd card. um, well, as soon as i figure out how to do it, hehe.

or i can borrow jan’s mp3 player. but i’ll need to use my own memory card, though; his is full of german audiobooks, chinese recordings from his tutor, and c’mon barbie, let’s go party, hehe. the last has already been there when we bought the mp3 player and he loves it so much he has even transcribed the song. but his favourite music? eddie, aka iron maiden. it’s on his y-chromosome, i suppose.

been browsing through our bintan photos again (these days, i never seem to be able to finish a task in one sitting), and so far this is my favorite of mia. our beach babe.

and this is my favorite of jan. joie de vivre personified.