Free money – Earn money with your MRT travel using your EZ-Link Card!

by BZMOMMY // June 1, 2015 // 2 Comments

Have you heard of Travel Smart Rewards? If you have not, read on!

I thought this was a “scam” when I signed this up last year. The reason was because there wasn’t any money credited back to my EZ-link card even though I received emails and report summary that I had “earned” a certain amount of money.

Just a week ago, I realised that I had been missing out those money which I “earned”, all because I went to the wrong machine! There wasn’t much information on how the redemption should be done, so I am going to show it here!

How this rewards works : You earn points by taking train trips all day during a weekday (Monday to Friday) using the EZ-Link card registered in Travel Smart Rewards. If your trip is during the designated off peak hour, you will get more points. Weekend and bus travel does not count. You can read up more in their FAQ.

So in simpler terms, you basically do nothing much in order to earn points. You can follow your usual travel patterns and likely to get some rebates back.

As for how to redeem the money, this is what you can do. Based on my personal experience, the money rewards will be ready for collection on the following month. For example, amount accumulated in April 2015 was ready for collection from 16 May 2015.

Go to the TransitLink Machine – these are those standalone machines, which are not the same as those big ticket machines. You will see the screen as below when you approach the machine. There will be a “INSINC Reward” button on the screen.

Place your EZ-Link card on the designated area and click on “INSINC Reward” button and it will bring you to the next screen. If there are no rewards to claim, it will simply prompt that there are none. Otherwise, the following screen will show the total amount available in the card.

You can click on “Proceed” if you want to claim the reward and it will top-up into the card.

$6 as a rebate and for doing nothing extra – is indeed a good reward. And I have pending $10 for my May travel!! Not bad, right?!

Try it if you travel frequently by the train on weekdays! Sign up here!

Disclaimer : I get referral points if you sign up using the links I had provided. It is a nominal amount but it does help to motivate me to provide more useful contents in future. 🙂

My Priceless Mother’s Day Gifts

by BZMOMMY // May 26, 2015 // No Comments

Dawn hid her cards and little gift while I went to shower. It’s still a nice feeling to receive a surprise when I stepped into my room. 😀 Her messages on the cards are so sweet!

Eva made a big sunflower (she said so) and a card in school and came home with “Mama, for you for you..happy mother’s day!”

Seriously, what more can I ask for?

Singapore National Primary School System : The Middle-Class Bias of Educators

by BZMOMMY // May 20, 2015 // No Comments

Dawn came back on Wednesday night and asked for some family photos to be printed. She said it was for a homework that was given by her teacher and it has to be handed in on the next day – Thursday.

I was puzzled with the teacher’s request because it seems to assume that all the students in the class have ready-printed photos or a printer at home.

Nevertheless, we asked Dawn to choose the photos and assisted her in printing them because we have a printer at my home office. The homework was completed close to 9pm, just before the children bedtime.

My child came back from school on Thursday and she told me that some of her classmates were not able to complete the homework. I continued to ask her how did the teacher react to those who did not print or bring the photos, she said that the teacher pointed at the page and said to the student (interpreted by Dawn in such a manner) – your family is a blank page?

Now, I was not there in the class to hear the exact remark. There’s a possibility that the remark interpreted by my daughter is not what the teacher had intended. It could be just an exclamation, or an expressed thought and mean no harm to most of us.

The requirement for students to follow teachers’ instructions on homework deadline is important. It’s a form of early education for children to learn the values of accountability and responsibility.

The key issue that struck me, however, is this: the homework was given a day to complete. The homework requires parental involvement. It requires photos of family members out for an occasion (outing). It requires more than 1 photo. It requires physical copies of photos and are to be pasted in the given box in the workbook.

The given timeline for this piece of homework has suggested, in my humble opinion, a middle class bias. The assumption of how each student should have the minimal of what the majority has. But is that really so?

Assumption 1 : All families have a printer.

Is that true? We don’t have one a year ago. We wouldn’t have bought one if I had not need it for my home office.

Must every family be able to afford a printer?

Assumption 2 : All families print photos, and have excess of them to use for homework material.

I did that, many years ago. My last photo album was for my wedding. With this digital age, my phone is my photo album. Sleek, mobile, free to add more photos and easy to delete ugly ones.

Do we still print excessive copies of photos nowadays and have them laying around? I don’t and I am not sure about the others.

Assumption 3 : All parents are always free every weekday night.

Don’t we have parents who work night shift?

Don’t we have parents who leave the children under the care of grandparents during weekdays because of whatever reasons?

Don’t we have parents who work and only reach home after the child is asleep?

Don’t we have parents who reach home at 7pm after work, prepare and have dinner, house chores and bath, only to be in a rude shock about the child’s homework requirement at 9pm, with no printer at home and printer shops outside are closed for business?

Assumption 4 : All families are complete.

Do all children have the opportunity to go for happy outings with their families?

Do all children have the opportunity to take happy photos with their families?

Do all children come from complete family?

Are there no children who really come from a family that is of a blank page?

Maybe I am reading too much into this. This short timeline for completion of a homework that requires parental guidance or special material is not an isolated case which I had experienced ever since Dawn started her formal education. There were other such instances or even requests to bring a certain stationary (example of a drawing block or a red pen – which was not included in the required list of items to purchase at the start of the year) on the next day of school.

This might have been my own misinterpretation of the whole incident, but if the recipient of the remark from the teacher falls into any of the above, the message may not be well received. The child walks away from the lesson feeling wronged, alone and blamed. While it may be important to ensure that the children are task-focused, it is equally important to allow the child and family an appropriate amount of time to react to the requirements of the homework.

Growing in my balcony – the beginning

by BZMOMMY // May 9, 2015 // 1 Comment

I had a short stint in gardening when I was in primary school. We had a small little garden beside the canteen where there were maizes, cai xin and a handful of little chicks in a corner.

I didn’t quite enjoy that experience – it was hot, sweaty and itchy. I had bad eczema when I was young and the sun was my greatest enemy. My face was red after the sun, and the skin itched because of the heat and the poking from the leaves and grass.

I thought I will never touch or groom the greens ever again. I was so wrong.

I had my own roof a year ago and a great sunny balcony. It looked pretty bare and wasted without the greens.

My first 3 pots were from my parents-in-law – Pandan Leaves, Curry Leaves & Pomegranate. My in-laws grew the plants to a good size before our shift, and when the plants moved into our new place, they are already easy to be taken care of. We now have our own supply of curry leaves and pandan whenever we need them for our home-cooked food.

Pandan Leaves

Pomegranate

Curry Leaves

I bought a few packet of seeds, pots and soil and wanted to grow something from scratch by ourselves. It’s also a way to get the kids to do something on a weekend.

They prepared the pots with soil, wet the soil and sowed the seeds.

This is what we planted for a whole morning under the sun. There was Parsley, Lemon Balm, Chives, Tomatoes, Red Chilli, Sunflowers, Coriander & Lettuce

And we waited…for days and weeks…

This is the beginning of our gardening journey. Though I don’t have 100% good results for all the seedlings which sprouted, it’s still fulfilling once a while to see some turn to bountiful pots or bloom flowers and fruit.

I will share on my successful pots the next round – sunflowers, red chilli and mint.

My Little Pony Craze!

by BZMOMMY // May 7, 2015 // No Comments

The girls watched and played too much My Little Pony! They are playing how the Ponies are playing!

Hijiki Salad

by BZMOMMY // April 19, 2015 // No Comments

The first time I see and know about hijiki, was in Ootoya Restaurant. They served (and I think they still do) Hijiki Seaweed Rice and both hubby and myself fell in love with it. We can go all out just to dine in this restaurant, because this special flavored rice is not readily available in other restaurants.

It also seems that hijiki is high in nutrition and you can read more about the nutrition value of hijiki.

When I was trying to find recipes for Hijiki Seaweed Rice, Nami’s recipe for Hijiki Salad came out from the search. I tried the recipe and we love the result! Please do go to her page to view the full recipe.

Hijiki Salad

Author: Adapted from Just One Cookbook

Cuisine: Japanese

Ingredients

30g dried hijiki - I bought from Daiso
1 carrot
1 part of lotus root
A little oil
3 cups dashi - I used instant dashi powder

Seasoning

6 TBSP mirin
3 TBSP sugar
6 TBSP soya sauce

Instructions

Soak hijiki in water for 30 minutes. Water to cover all hijiki.
Drain the hijiki after soaking. Wash the hijiki under running tap. Set aside.
Remove the skin for carrot & lotus roots and shred them into thin slices - I use a normal manual vegetable shredder.
Prepare Dashi and set aside.
Heat oil in a pot and add carrot & lotus root. Do a light fry.
Add hijiki into the pot and mix well with the carrots & lotus roots.
Add dashi and let it boil - make sure dashi cover most of the ingredients in the pot.
Once boil, add in all the seasoning and mix well.
Simmer with cover for 30-45 minutes.
Remove the cover and let it continue to simmer. The aim is to reduce the sauce until you can see the bottom of the pot. Once this is done, it's ready!

I use a shredder for the carrots & lotus roots instead of cutting them into thin slices or strips because it’s so much faster for me. To me, the shape of the carrots or lotus roots does not matter much as after 40 minutes of cooking, it will just “blend” into the pool of hijiki 😀

This dish can be kept in an air tight container and into the fridge. We usually keep it for about 5 days. We add this into our lunch box, or to make hijiki onigiri or to mix into rice to become hijiki seaweed rice!

Example of my simple lunchbox – hijiki and korean fried fish cake.

How about some hijiki onigiri? 🙂

Eva is 4!

by BZMOMMY // April 15, 2015 // No Comments

I never had a birthday party during my childhood. The first party I had was when I turned 21 years old, in the then famous chalet at Pasir Ris. And I told myself that was the first and the last party that I will have for my birthdays (yah, even when I get to live till 80 grand birthday).

Birthday parties or celebrations are rather common for this new generation of children now. I got a little shock when Dawn came back from the childcare centre with bags after bags of party favors. That was 5 years ago, and my journey of jumping into the trend began.

Besides the celebration in schools, it is also our family practice to celebrate children birthdays in a larger scale (than a family affair) at the age of 4.

Why 4? Because that’s the age that they will remember the party, even when they grew up. It’s not meaningful if they cannot remember about their own parties, right?

Why only 4? Because both parents (aka hubby & me) think that it’s too extravagant to hold such celebrations every year, plus the child will not likely to remember anything from the age of 1-3 years old, plus both of us do not feel good to ask our friends to spend money on gifts or their precious weekend. And most importantly we do not want our children to grow up thinking that birthday parties every year from age 1 is a norm!

Eva had her 4-year-old birthday celebration in a small cozy function room on a Sunday noon. It’s a simple affair with no frills – no magician, no games, no special sweets table that wow the guests. But the kids are equally happy, and their smiles are still genuine.

Both Eva & Dawn woke up early that day and baked muffins to thank their guests for attending the event. It is also a way for them to be involved in this preparation of the celebration.

I ordered the birthday cake from Pine Garden. Because of license issues, they no longer collect the cartoon figures from customers, but leave the décor on the cake empty and let us express our own creative on the cake. This cake is design by me – including the placement of the beetles, butterflies and the flowers. Pretty?

When asked 2 months before the actual day, Eva said that she wanted a Daisy Duck themed birthday. Knowing that there isn’t much Daisy Duck decoration available in the market, I tried to ask her for other choices, and she went on saying, Groofy, Donald, Pluto…almost everyone of them except for Mickey and Minnie Mouse! I had to “convince” her that the theme will be “Mickey & Friends”. 😀

I love this photo of both Dawn & Eva. How many of us parents know that siblings can fight and quarrel behind the scenes (aka at home) but their hearts are still close?

The décor is not anywhere near extravagant. In my opinion, who will really see, be bothered and pick with such things? 😀 The balloons are from the neighbourhood store, and the Minnie balloon is still floating after 3.5 weeks!

The food was from Casserole Catering. Till now, still cannot forget the delicious Chicken Curry.

Vegetarian Bee Hoon
Pineapple Rice + Chap Chai
Vege + Signature Ngoh Hiang
Delicious Curry + Prawn
Honey Dew Sago

Birthday Song

I wish…..

Blowing the Candles

Cut Cake

Sweet Birthday Girl with the muffin which she made together with Jie Jie.

Eva’s presents from many aunties and uncles. Thank you so much!

A group of my colleagues bought presents for Dawn as well – so that she doesn’t feel left out or that all attention is on Eva. Very sweet of them! 🙂

Presents galore….

The happiest moment for the birthday girl – opening presents after presents.

I asked Eva to pose with the balloons, as like how Jie Jie done it 4 years ago.

On the actual day of Eva’s birthday, we brought the cake and goodie bags to her school. She chose this Strawberry Shortcake design because of her favourite colour – green!

Eva gave out the goodie bags to her classmates. I had to tell the kids that auntie (me) doesn’t want to give out sweets & chocolates to little children without their parents agreement, so auntie (me) only put in art and craft item inside the goodie bag. I know the kids will be kind of disappointed, but well, for the good of the children, even though they are not my kids!

This sums up on Eva’s 4-year-old birthday celebrations. These 4 years had been a fruitful time for every aspect of my roles, whether as a parent, mom, wife, daughter, employee, boss etc. The smiles and the things Eva says and does are so priceless that I will not change it for any other things. Simply wish that her kisses and hugs to us will continue as long as we hope for.

Kitchen Fun Time #6 – Chocolate Chip Muffins & Walnut Muffins!

by BZMOMMY // April 6, 2015 // 1 Comment

We celebrated Eva’s 4th year old birthday with a celebration like what we had done for Dawn. As a way to thank those who took time and their precious Sunday to attend her celebration, we decided to bake some muffins for them.

It’s certainly show more sincerity when the kids bake the muffins themselves, right?

So it’s time for our fun time in the kitchen!

Here’s my favourite muffin recipe – not too sweet or dry like some other muffins I had tasted before.

Muffins - Chocolate Chip, Walnut, Banana

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

Author: BZMOMMY

Recipe type: Bakes

Serves: 9 muffins

Ingredients

170g Self Raising Flour
100g good oil (Rice Bran Oil, Sunflower Oil) > can be substituted with melted butter or use 50% oil & 50% butter
100g Milk (I use Meiji fresh milk)
90g of fine white sugar
0.5g baking soda (omit if do not have)
1 TSP Vanilla Essence

Flavors Ingredients (add quantity according to your preference)

Chocolate Chips
Walnuts, break into small pieces
Banana, cut to slices and mash it

Instructions

Combine Eggs, Oil (butter), Milk and Sugar in a Mixing Bowl. Whisk until ingredients are mixed well and most sugar is dissolved.
Add in Vanilla Essence
Combine Baking Soda & Self Raising Flour and sift into the mixing bowl.
Use a hand whisk to mix the mixture. Do not over mix or the texture of the muffin will be dense.
Mix in the chocolate chips / walnuts / banana and do a quick mix.
Preheat oven to 180 Degree Celsius
Pour the mixture to muffin cups to about 80% full.
Bake for 20 minutes (do skewer test if necessary)

Dawn & Eva had much fun taking turns to make the muffins. Eva made chocolate chip muffins while Dawn made walnut muffins.

The proud little bakers >>

And we decorated the muffins with wrappers and toppers, and placed them on a princess castle cupcake stand.

Is it pretty? 🙂

Passing of LKY and a mother’s struggle

by BZMOMMY // March 30, 2015 // No Comments

The past week was quite a gloomy week for us. Emotions at home was not at it’s best. The man in the house was also deeply affected by the passing of our Founding Father. We just seem to lose the energy to do anything else, except to mourn together as a nation.

I thought a lot in the past week, not as if I didn’t before (and the increasing white hair agree on this), but more so on the “What” for my remaining years to come. I probably have live half of my life, and the mystery remains for the next half. What do I want to do? What do I want to achieve? What do I want to do to impact? What will I regret at the end of the journey? What?

I followed my heart last week and I am glad that I did. The constant news about the long queues at Padang did make me shiver and at times waiver at the thought of being there. But I was so thankful that I was there on that Friday afternoon. The 5 hours of waiting and walking seems like a “meditation” session for myself, and each step that I took was my heartfelt thanks to Mr Lee for what he had done for my family and I.

Now that the week of national mourning is behind us, it’s time to continue his good works, in our very own capacity. Each of us have our own roles, be it in driving the economy through our jobs & career, or as parents who nurture our children. Whether we are working mothers or stay at home mothers, or mompreneurs, we have an important calling for our next generation. Whether we are childcare teachers, the next-door nannies or educators, we have a responsibility over the children who are placed in our care. Teach them not just academic requirement, but most importantly, teach them the importance to know how to differentiate what is right and what is wrong from young. Teach them to speak and to behave responsibly even from a young age.

I have concerns that my children will be swayed by the digital influence once they are exposed to social media on their own (yes, I say this with reference to the 17-year-old’s YouTube video and blog post). I am not left with many years before Dawn comes to that independence. Something that I dread, but cannot stop and restrict her from.

Probably it seems clearer as the gloomy week past through, with the “What” that I needed to do – to ensure that my children are guided to my best ability. This would also mean giving up on some things which are currently important to us as a family. It will be perfect to be able to have best of both worlds, but that’s not likely to happen given that I have the same 24 hours as everyone has.

It’s a painful struggle.

I’m very determined. If I decide what something is worth doing, then I’ll put my heart and soul to it. The whole ground can be against me, but if I know it is right, I’ll do it. That’s the business of a leader. (Lee Kuan Yew, “The Man and His Ideas,” 1998)

The context of the quote could be on a higher level than my current struggle. No doubt about it. But it gives me courage to face what’s in front of me.

The “What” that is worth doing. The “What” that I hope one day I will be glad that I followed my heart.

Thank you, Mr Lee

by BZMOMMY // March 23, 2015 // No Comments

It’s not easy to wake up early for a working Monday.

It’s made worse with the news of passing.

Hubby came in to the room when he heard I woke. “He is gone” was his whisper. But I knew what he meant despite in the state of sleepiness.

Though I was kind of prepared for this, but it’s still hard to sink right into the heart. The heart broke, sour with tears and my head hurts. It’s like someone who is so close to me had passed away.

I had never see him in person, nor had a privilege even to glimpse a close look. No handshakes, not even a word that was spoken to me in person. Yet, I grief like I have lost someone significant to me.

This place which I proudly call MY home MY country, is a place that was built painfully; with nothing much in physical economic resources but his foresight, his courage and his boldness.

Sometimes I wonder about the sacrifices I have made for my children and family – the loss of ME time, the loss of possibly early financial freedom & retirement and the time to smell the roses. It definitely takes a bigger heart, a bigger person and a bigger human capacity to make sacrifices FOR a nation.

I do feel helpless now, trying to cope with my overflowing emotions that made my eyes welled up with hot tears. He must have felt the same, if not worse, at the time when he had to address the nation with the painful news back in 1965. But the pain and tears he shed then was the fuel that drives us, up till this day.

In his last days, he still show me a valuable lesson – to believe social media in the correct context, and to be someone who is responsible for the words spoken through mouth and by writing.

This very morning before we leave for work and school together as a family, I reminded Dawn to be respectful when conversations of the passing strike among her friends and classmates. While we may excuse the much innocent talks and reactions by Primary 2 students, I want to educate Dawn with something important that our Mr Lee has educated us.

This is for now, something that I can do, in the capacity as a nurturing mom.

Thank you Sir, for the sacrifices that you have made. For without those sacrifices, we may not have a home and a country that we can call our own. For without those sacrifices, we may still be living like how my parents lived in the 1970s. Thank you.

http://www.rememberingleekuanyew.sg/

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