amanda teoh

Sometimes it is difficult to stay home just waiting for him to come home late at night.  I tried to stay focus and be positive, I know he is busy at work, but working till very late is crazy especially I know he is entertaining with customers. I do not know how other housewives cope with this stress. I keep myself occupied all the time: classes for Ray, exercise, watching tv, reading, social with other people, online, …. but it is especially difficult waiting for him at night, watching the clock tick every minute.

OK, the bright side:

• the exam results of Nee is very good, except chinese
• Derek is going to stay with his parents until next month
• Ray’s mandarin has improved since coming to china
• Sis’s baby is very cute
• went swimming earlier tonight with Ray and a few people from Malaysia (he did not join)
• going to Dianne’s house to make 饺子 (dumpling) tomorrow

Going to bed.

I am becoming a sporty type of woman. I enjoy jogging, swimming, and now I enjoy playing badminton.

The badminton night started off very slow, playing with him is not much fun because he is not trying hard to hide the fact that he is so much better in badminton compared to me I also played with Lina, both of us are not good and the game was not very fun either. Double is worst, it is more like me standing most of the time while watching my partner hitting the ball.

Siang invited me for a game. I said no but he insisted so we played. Playing with him is much better, he is patient and know how to give lesson. I dropped his racket two times, and he said racket is meant to be scratched. I need to get my own racket if I want to play again. My husband gave me the look when I scratched his SPARE racket. It is just a racket!!!!!! I know I’m still a beginner in badminton, I will get better when I play more often.

He and a few others are really serious in badminton. It is good to watch, but not good to play with them. They said they want to keep scores and track the ranking next time. Come on, these are friendly games, why men have to be so competitive for everything????????

The guys went out for supper. He sent me home after the game, I went to Eileen’s apartment to pick up Ray. He is already in deep sleep. I woke him up, am not strong enough to carry him to our apartment. Took a shower, and went straight to bed.

Today is my jogging day and the friday dinner day. We are going to cook fish head curry. It sounds complicated but it is easy because I’ll use the ready mix from malaysia to cook. The only thing I am afraid is the fish head (too small).

The plan:
- Ray’s swimming lesson
- take Ray to class
- go jogging
- pick up Ray
- come home to cook

Hopefully will be on time.

It is official, the guys are going to make thursday night a badminton night and friday night a gathering night.

I am never good in sports, the only thing I started to enjoy is swimming and maybe jogging.  I played squash a few times, did not like it very much.  I also played tennis before, I find chasing after the balls are more tired than hitting the ball , because I can never hit the ball cross the net.  Ping pong?  Haha, no one wants to play with me.  What else?  Football?   Haha, not a chance.

However, I plan to join the guys for badminton.  I think no one will want to play with me, but at least he cannot say no when I say I want to play.  Will try to see if I like it.  I remember many years ago I use my brother’s racket and I scratched the edge of it and he sworn that he will never lend me his racket every again.  Hopefully I will be better this time.

Time to take Ray to swim.

Speaking of yesterday, as usual, do the morning chores, and managed to get together with a few friends for the 11am swimming (more like chatting than swimming).  I was so excited about the run because my husband said he will pick me up at the destination, then go buying foods for friday night gathering.  When the rain came, I was so disappointed.

I took Ray to his 书法 class at 5:30pm, then I went to supermarket to buy foods, mostly junk foods and a beijing duck.  We’re going to Teck’s house, his “wife” is a good cook.  They picked me up outside of the supermarket.  Ray quickly showed me his “works”, I am so impressed.  Soon he will be a master in 书法.  He was so eager for tonight’s gathering.  We got home at around 7:30pm.  Got to upstairs Teck’s house at 8:30pm.  Everyone was there already, and we’re the last one in even we only live 2 floors down, haha.

As usual, after dinner, guys go to play their cards.  Those not playing cards are talking about works.  The women cleaned the dishes and chatting.  The 3 children were playing games.  Very warm feeling.  I like this very much, that is something I do not have in penang (I mean lots of friends and someone who have common topics to talk about).

He took Ray down to sleep at 11pm something.  We stayed for a while until he fell into sleep.  He went back up again.  I planned to take a shower and go back again, but was tired and slept in the living room while tv on.  I heard noise but I did not get up, must be him coming back to get wines.  After they left, I couldn’t sleep.  That’s why I’m writing this blog this late.  I just called him, and he asked me to join them, they are almost done gambling.  They want to go out to eat.  How can I not gain weight.  It is 3:30am now.  I will pass.

I should say the friday is a half disappointed day because of missing the jogging.  My new pair of shoes cannot be put into use, yet

I love soya milk, specifically my home made soya milk   I bought a soya milk maker machine last weekend, now I make soya milk every morning.  It taste so much better than soya milk you can buy from super market.  I highly recommend people to try it.  The soya milk machine I bought is about RM200. I don’t know if they are popular in malaysia, but very popular here.

You can search the benefits of soya milk on the internet.  I think most importantly it is not cow milk, which is contaminated with antibody, etc.  And it tastes really good.

Here are a few benefits:

• Soy milk contains only vegetables proteins
• Soy milk contains no lactose
• Fewer people are allergic to soy milk
• Soy milk reduces cholesterol
• Soy milk contains no hormones
• Soy milk does not cause insulin dependent diabetes
• Soy milk is rich in isoflavones

I have not updated my blog for a long long time.  It is not intentional, but just did not have much mood updating it.  And yes, I was lazy and maybe a bit depressed too. Life is never easy.

Where am I?  I’m in suzhou.  My two older children are with my parents.  What am I doing here?  My time is filled up with little things.  There is a group of “si nai” (housewives) got together every morning.   Nothing much, chatting, talking about children, husbands, school, shopping, etc.  We sometimes go for breakfast on weekend.  Sadly I find myself fit right into this group, I am getting old.  Most of them are in early 30’s, and are either expats or wive to expats.   We have more common ground.   Another thing I really enjoy is to take my youngest to swim.  I got him into swimming lessons, he is very good at it now.  He had ear infections so I limit his time on the pool.  But he enjoys swimming very much.  Future olympic swimmer, haha.  I’m also getting better at swimming.  I can do 4 laps without resting in the swimming pool downstairs.  Pretty impressive.  I also enrolled him in kindergarden (sort of), only 3 days a week.  What is good about this class is the instructors are british, they speak english to the children.

What do I do when free?  I watch TV, I cook, I shop, I talk to my two other children, I invite friends over for dinner, I go out with him, I even play computer games.  I just want to fill my time with things to do and not to get myself into thinking too much of unnecessary stuffs.

On weekends, we usually go out to eat, side seeing, invite friends over, or go to friend’s house.  The guys seem to like playing cards.  The wives and children got together to chat, cook, play, etc.  I don’t particularly like the gambling, but they only gamble small amount of money.  Eileen (one of the wives) got his son a Wii, we enjoy it very much everytime we go visit.   I even like playing the mario game, haha.

I also like to go shopping in shanghai with the wives.   I went twice with them, they are really professional shopper, they can walk for hours and not tired.

Till next time.  ZZZ time.