Easy-as-pie Apple Pie

No. 2 made an apple pie last week. She has helped me before but this time, she did it all on her own. She took a mighty long time in doing it too but I won't embarrass her by saying just how long. It was an accomplishment that she got it done while I was out of the house, with an SOS phone call in between.

This is the recipe. It's easy to make and tasty, especially when eaten warm with vanilla ice-cream.

Ingredients
6-7 green apples
1 small box black raisins (the type that kids love)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tabsp sugar
3 tabsp water
1 sheet ready-made rolled out puff pastry (available from supermarkets)

Method
Peel and cut apples into one-cm thick slices. Put them in a pan with the sugar, cinnamon powder, raisins and water. Cook over medium fire for ten minutes. Arrange the slices in a round pie dish. Place the puff pastry on top. Trim excess and arrange them on top of the pie in any pattern you like. Scallop the edges with a fork. If desired, brush egg yolk on the pastry for a shiny finish. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice-cream.

Mmm.. mmm...

Rush to Death

This is in The Star today :

The bad weather and bad habits on the road took 15 lives on the first day of Ops Sikap IX, the festive season's accident-prevention drive.

Twelve of those who died were speeding motorcyclists. A pillion rider, a van driver and a car passenger make up the total.

In yesterday's Star :

PETALING JAYA: Accidents do not just happen by accident. They are caused by carelessness, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy.

Chan, who wished everyone a safe journey during the festive season, said 95% of errors made on the road involved the driver or rider and urged road users to change their mindset and accept responsibility for their carelessness instead of blaming others when accidents happen.

“The word selamat is said daily in our greetings but its true meaning has faded away. It means safe rather than its common perception as ‘good’, happy’ or ‘merry’.

“If we recognise the true meaning of our everyday greetings of Selamat Pagi and Selamat Petang,then we do not need to undergo a safety change process.

“All we need is a safety ‘realisation’ process as change can only occur with ‘realisation’,” he said in a special message in conjunction with next week’s Deepavali and Hari Raya celebrations.

On Tuesday, 12 people died – nine motorcyclists, a motorist and two pedestrians.

Chan said this was an “unnecessary tragedy as grief and pain can be avoided if all positive action is taken to change our behaviour when on the road.”Of the 95% of errors, Chan said 67% was caused by human error and 28% was a combination of human and contributing factors while the remaining 5% was due to technical or mechanical factors.

“In most cases, the problem is due to the driver or rider. Therefore, the solution lies with us and with our attitudes and behaviour.

The way some people drive, especially motorcyclists, it would appear as though they are rushing to their death. When will they realize that humans are not invincible? That a collision can result in loss of life? That accidents don't just happen to "other people"?

Every year the traffic police launch Ops Sikap during the festive period but the accident statistics don't seem to abate. This operation is aptly named because it boils down to our attitude (sikap), doesn't it. Treat the road like it's your grandfather's and that you're an indestructible machine, and you may just end up being a statistic.

Selamat Jalan.

What's your blog worth?

My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

I just found out my blog is in the same league as Jeff Ooi’s, TV Smith's and Eyeris’s. Our blogs are worth $0.00 according to Dane Carlson’s little test. This test is based on Tristan Louis’s research into the value of each link to Weblogs Inc. I'm quite the technophobe and I don't know the ABCs of how this thing works but I'm only interested in the bottomline.

Being the KPC that I am (writers must have a healthy dose of nosey-parkerness), I wasn’t content to check out the value of my own blog. So I keyed in the urls of the blogs that I frequent and those that I know are ultra popular. Here is the result.

kennysia.com is worth $1,016,736.54
minishorts.net is worth $298,077.12
www.chanlilian.net is worth $152,990.34
www.kakteh.blogspot.com is worth $50,808.60
mumsgather.blogspot.com is worth $40,082.34
www.thebookaholic.blogspot.com is worth $39,517.80
clouded-moon.blogspot.com is worth $27,662.46
adiejin.blogspot.com is worth $22,581.60
www.mayakirana.com is worth $6,209.94
trulymarsha.blogspirit.com is worth $2,258.16

www.eyeris.blogspot.com is worth $0.00
jeffooi.com is worth $0.00
www.mycen.com.my/duasen is worth $0.00
www.lydiateh.blogspot.com, is worth $0.00

As you can see here, Kenny Sia is a millionaire whereas Eyeris, Jeff, TV Smith and I are paupers. I’m truly devastated. I know that the readership of my blog is quite miniscule but I tell myself it’s okay : at least there are some faithful readers. Elmo will be happy to know that this “borriiing” blog as he described it has a zero value.

Maybe it’s time to take some blogging lessons from Kenny Sia if he offers it FOC. After all he’s a millionaire, can afford to give hand-outs to paupers like poor me. Now excuse me while I go lock myself in the bathroom and wallow in self pity.

I'm big already

A conversation with no. 3 recently :

I : Your test is coming up. Bring your books and we'll do some revision.

No. 3 : I'm big already. I can study on my own.

In my heart, I was yelling, Yippee!! No more sitting down with him and going through his Chinese, Science in Chinese and English, Maths in Chinese and English, BM, Moral. Freedom!! but I didn't vocalise it. Instead...

I : No, you're not too big! Bring your books! (Two reasons for saying this : This is what hubby would expect me to say and kiasuism rearing its ugly head.)

No. 3 grumbled and stomped off to get his books.

Next year he'll be in Year 3. I think I'll get some deliverance then because Year 3 Chinese may be too tough for me to handle. It'll take me ten minutes to look up a word and probably an hour to go through a short paragraph. Not the most efficient of coaching methods. I think I'll pass the buck over to no. 1 and 2. They've had six years of Chinese education.

Freedom! Until no. 4 goes to Year 1 in 2008. Then the cycle starts again...

Do you have a book in you?

Read what Margaret Atwood had to say about this in her book, Negotiating with the Dead - A Writer on Writing.

There's one characteristic that sets writing apart from most of the other arts - its apparent democracy, by which I mean its availability to almost everyone as a medium of expression...

To be an opera singer you not only have to have a voice, you have to train for years; to be a composer you have to have an ear, to be a dancer you have to have a fit body, to act on the stage you have to remember your lines, and so on...

As for writing, most people secretly believe they themselves have a book in them, which they would write if they could only find the time. And there's some truth to this notion. A lot of people do have a book in them - that is, they have had an experience that other people might want to read about. But this is not the same as 'being a writer.'

Or, to put it in a more sinister way: everyone can dig a hole in a cemetry, but not everyone is a grave-digger. The latter takes a good deal more stamina and persistence. It is also, because of the nature of the activity, a deeply symbolic role. As a grave-digger, you are not just a person who excavates. You carry upon your shoulders the weight of other people's projections, of their fears and fantasies and anxieties and supersititions. You represent mortality, whether you like it or not. And so it is with any public role, including that of the Writer, capital W; but also as with any public role, the significance of that role - its emotional and symbolic content - varies over time.

Yes, having a book in you doesn't mean you can write it. That's what ghostwriters are for.

Yvonne at Traxx and Borders

Join Yvonne Lee, former stewardess-turned-author of "The Sky is Crazy---Tales from a Trolley Dolly" as she shares candid views on being a stewardess, flying, travelling trivias and book writing.

She'll be interviewed on The Morning Mixx Show on Traxx fm (Radio 4) this Saturday 22nd October from 10-11am. Listeners can call in to win 3 copies of The Sky is Crazy during the show.

Yvonne will also be at Borders Bookstore, Berjaya Times Square, KL at 3 pm on the same day for a book chat and signing session."

Ucapan Takziah to our PM

I heard the news on MixFm while sending my kids to school. YAB Datin Seri Endon Mahmood passed away this morning at 7.55 am. She lost her battle with breast cancer three years after she was diagnosed and a year after her twin sister, Noraini succumbed to the big C. Though I've read in the papers that her doctors had advised Pak Lah to spend more quality time with her, the news was unexpected and shocking.

Did I hear wrongly? I turned to the other radio channels. They were playing instrumental music and Traxx FM was airing a prayer. It's true then.

The sky was grey and it was raining outside. Inside my car, no. 3 and 4 were chatting happily away. No. 3 was describing the magic show he watched during Children's Day celebration at school yesterday. I urmmed and aahed at him, but the tears were forming in my eyes. He didn't notice when I grabbed a tissue to wipe my eyes, he probably thought I was just wiping off some dust.

I've never met Datin Seri Endon or Pak Lah before but I've read of their love and devotion for each other. My heart goes out to her family who must now cope with their grief, especially to our PM who still has a country to run while grieving for his beloved wife.

On my way home, the radio was playing an instrumental piano version of Love is Blue. The words played in my mind and I thought how apt the lyrics are for Pak Lah.

Blue, blue, my world is blue
Blue is my world now I'm without you
Gray, gray, my life is gray
Cold is my heart since you went away.

My deepest condolences to Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his family.

Here is the link to The Star's article.

Congratulations, Nicole!

I am so happy for Nicole Ann David for being the first Malaysian to win the British Open today. This 22 year old has come a long way indeed. I distinctly remember a picture of her in the papers a few years ago. She had just lost a tournament and the pix had captured her dejection so well that I could almost feel it.

Nicole has bounced back like a rubber ball and is now at the top of her squash career. The British Open win is the fifth championship she has chalked up this year.

Just a couple of months ago, a group of us Famemas members went to cheer her at the CIMB Malaysian Open. Armed with kompang and the Jalur Gemilang, we cheered her to victory. Of course the cheering was only a teeny-weeny contributing factor but Nicole was gracious enough to acknowledge and thank the crowd for its vociferous support.

Having got to know Nicole during the Olympic Torch Run in Greece last year, made me jubilate all the more on her behalf. She is a friendly, down-to-earth and humble person and has absolutely no airs about her at all. She's currently World No. 3 and I hope she'll climb up to the top spot soon.

Nicole should be an inspiration to our sports people. Malaysians can make a mark in the international sporting arena. We need not be Jaguh Kampung. Nicole is proof of that.

My favourite sport is badminton, so that's about the only game I'll watch on telly. Whenever I see our shuttlers crumbling under pressure, I'm dismayed at their weak mental strength. Compare that to other players, the Danes for example. In one All-England tournament, the Danish double players were down against their opponents (Indonesian or Chinese, I can't remember). It looked almost certain that Denmark will lose. However, in the face of defeat, the Danes coolly fought back point by point and emerged victorious in the tournament. That's the spiritlah!

Fight till the end! Aiyo, I remember one game where a Malaysian shuttler was so badly affected by the umpire's biased decision that he lost his concentration after that. It was a fast downhill ride from there. The Malaysians lost that match. When it comes to fighting spirit, especially in badminton, hats off to Foo Kok Keong. His never-say-die attitude will long be remembered.

In fact, all of us, whether sportsmen or laymen should take a leaf out of Foo's book. Don't give up without a fight.

Which was what Nicole did. Go, Nicole, go!

The Best Cendol in Klang

That's Cendol Klang for you. The owner, Munusamy used to operate from a motorbike. He parked his mobile stall along Jalan Nanas, in front of a row of shops where a friend of mine had his dental practice. Customers sat on red plastic stools placed on the five-foot way, some just stood around while others parked beside the stall and slurped the cool cendol in the comfort of their air-conditioned cars.

I never found out when Munusamy's off-day was and some days I was disappointed by his non-appearance. After going away cendol-less one time too many, I figured out a way to check his availability. I called my friend's dental clinic to ask if the cendol man was there. The amused receptionist gladly answered my query. For all I know, she might have approached Munusamy for a commission.

In the year 2000, the best cendol in Klang moved into a shoplot, at the very same location where his motorbike stall had operated for twenty-over years. Whether sold from a bike or from a shop, the cendol still tastes the same : thick creamy santan with plump cendol, red kidney beans and thick gula melaka syrup. But the price has gone up. In the nineties, it was a mere fifty sen; now it's RM1.20. You can have the cendol with pulut or ice-cream but I prefer mine ORI. The shop also sells rojak but most people go there just for the cendol.

There's also a Cendol Klang outlet in Bayu Perdana. I went there once but it was a big let-down. The standard was nowhere close to the Jalan Nanas shop.

If you're in Klang (and I know you or you're a regular commenter here), drop me a note and I'll give you a cendol treat.

Note : wanted to post some mouth-watering pix here but for some reason I can't, so you'll just have to imagine the sweetest, coolest and creamiest cendol you've ever tasted, and drool.

Eh Poh Nim's Education Terms

The Star, 14 October, 2005

Did you see The Apprentice 3 which concluded recently?” Eh Poh Nim asks her colleague, Jane. They are making coffee in the office pantry.

“Yeah. I was rooting for the street-smarts team. Too bad Tana lost,” Jane says.

“I was for the book-smarts all along. So glad Kendra from Magna won.”

“Kendra got the easier job, okay? Organising the Best Buy Video Championship is kids’ play compared to Tana’s NYC2012 Athlete Challenge. What kind of name is Magna anyway? I think the street-smarts’ team name of Networth is tons better.”

“You’re right, Jane. Magna isn’t that good a name. The book-smarts should have named their team Summa. You see, there’re three types of Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction in a degree. Cum laude means with academic honours, magna cum laude is the second-highest level of academic honours, and summa cum laude is the highest level of academic honours.”

“Oh, it’s like good, better, best. Eh, did you graduate summa cum laude?”

Eh Poh Nim blushes. “No I didn’t. But I was a valedictorian in my A Levels.”

“You were very what?”

“Valedictorian. Best student with the highest academic ranking in a graduating class.”

“Wah, that’s great. Which college did you go to?” Jane asks. “I’m scouting around for a good college for my son.”

“Ah, my alma mater ... I haven’t been back there for a long time. Wonder what it’s like now,” Eh Poh Nim says in a wistful voice.

“Your Ah Ma’s name is Martha? What are you talking about?”

“Alma mater, the college that I attended. That would be Summa College. You have your own alma mater too, the school that you formerly went to.”

“Oh, I see. How’s this Summa College? Good or not?”

“It’s one of the best around. You can check it out on the Internet yourself. Here’s the url of the Summa Alumni Association,” Eh Poh Nim says, writing down the web address on a kitchen serviette for Jane.

“A-l-u-m-n-i? Is it short for aluminium? What’s it got to do with the college?”

“Alumni are graduates of the college. The Alumni Association is a non-profit organisation consisting of former graduates. If you check out this website, you’ll find out about the various successful people who have graduated from the college. By the way, the singular of the word is alumnus.”

“Okay, I understand now. You’re very long-winded, you know,” Jane says.

Seeing the hurt look on Eh Poh Nim’s face, Jane apologises. To appease her, Jane asks, “How was your college days? Anything interesting happened or not?”

Eh Poh Nim brightens up.

“Of course. When I was a freshman, that’s a first-year student, I was ragged so hard that I fell sick after the first week at college. The seniors were quite mean. Made us bow to them each time we passed by them. Forced us to run errands for them – photocopy notes, borrow books from the library, buy food from the canteen and so on. Then just as we collapsed on our beds for some well-earned sleep, we were woken up at three in the morning for a round of jogging around the campus.”

“Wah! That’s terrible. I didn’t know ragging could be so bad. I never went to college.”

“You say that’s bad? Wait till you hear about that incident called the Serdang Heli. It took place many years ago at a local university. The seniors tied a string to a junior’s wee-wee organ and tied the other end to a ceiling fan. When the fan moved, he had to run to keep up with the fan.”

“Really? So horrible! Maybe I won’t send my son to college. Quite scary, all this ragging business.”

“Don’t worry. Nowadays ragging is under control. Students don’t do crazy things like dunking a freshman’s head in the toilet bowl any more. Anyway, we got our revenge during our sophomore year. That’s the second or middle year of college.

“Some of my course mates were quite extreme. They confiscated the freshies’ cellphones for five days. It so happened that one of the freshies’ father had passed away during orientation and when the family couldn’t contact her on her phone, they drove all the way from Kuantan to KL to fetch her.”

“With all this ragging, where you all got time to study?”
“We don’t rag all the time, Jane. Anyway, the final year students usually don’t get involved. They’re too busy with their dissertations.”

“Oh, I know what’s a dissertation. In my previous job, I helped my colleague type one for his business degree. A dissertation is a long essay written for a university degree, right?”

Before Eh Poh Nim could answer, the boss’s secretary pokes her head into the pantry.

“There you are, Eh Poh Nim! Boss is looking for you. Hurry!”

“Right, Jane. Got to go!”

Rubbish is Money

But not the perishable type. Not unless you use them as compost and save on fertilizer money.

Those scavengers that come and dig in your rubbish bin do it for a reason. There's money in rubbish. Aluminium cans, scrap metal, old cardboards can translate into $$ at the scrap dealer's.

My 13-year old microwave oven recently went kaput for the third or fourth time since I've had it. As I already have a Europa convection oven, I decided not to repair the poor sod. Instead I bought a small basic unit for reheating purposes. My sister told me of a besi buruk (scrap metal) dealer near her shop. I lugged the old oven over there and got a measly RM15.70 for the oven which I paid RM1,700 for. Better than nothing. It's good for two MacDonald value meals.

I don't know if the 55 sen per kg I got for the oven was a fair deal as I had no basis for comparison. If you have any old pots and pans, don't throw them out. Bring them to the besi buruk vendor and earn some money for your rubbish. In these days of rising commodity prices, every bit of money comes in handy.

Here's the quotation I got from the Sg. Rasa dealer :

RM/per kg
Copper - 11.50
Aluminium - 4.50
Brass - 7.00
Steel - 4.10
Iron (grade 1) - 0.80
Iron (grade 3) - 7.00
Light scrap - 0.55

Now you know why those thiefing vandals steal our manhole covers, drain covers and whatever can be turned in for good cash.

Getting down to business

I'm in a spot of trouble. With blogging, that is. I started blogging less than two months ago. Everyday saw a new post, sometimes two. If you'd told me a month ago that I'll run out of steam, I wouldn't have believed it was possible. Now I do.

One reason why I'd been able to spend so much time on blogging is this : No. 1 was busy studying for PMR and we banned him from the computer for the last six weeks. So with the main competition out of the way, I practically had a monopoly on the computer. Tomorrow is the last day of PMR. No. 1 will be back shooting aliens and clobbering funny cartoon characters with a vengeance.

Now here's the numero uno reason : Time meant for serious writing was eaten up by blogging. By serious writing, I mean writing stuff that can earn dollars and cents. As it is my output is already diminishing. On top of that, the novel that I'd been working on has been on the back-burner. I had managed to write almost 70,000 words from March to June this year. July and August were spent dilly-dallying over how to rewrite the crappy first draft. Late August saw my foray into blogging which spelt bad news for the work-in-progress.

Now with Nanowrimo fever heating up, I felt some urgency to rework my novel. I don't intend to sign up for the one-month novel-writing stint. November is not a good month for me as it's school hols. Besides, I don't want to start another new work.

Today I'd been thinking hard about curtailing my blogging. I don't feel like giving it up altogether as I'd come to enjoy the camaraderie that exists among bloggers, some from halfway across the globe. Being a write-from-home mum, I have limited contact with adults from the outside world and blogging has certainly widened my circle of online friends.

I really should spend less time on blogging and manage my time more wisely. I should be writing more instead of blog-hopping and agonizing over my blog. To the prolific bloggers who have kept the words flowing and still manage to do whatever it is that you do in your vocation, you have my respect.

J.K. Rowling speaks

In BBC's Authors on the Spot feature, J.K. Rowling offered some writing tips for children. The advice is good for adults too, so take note, all you aspiring novelists. (Note to self : get off the Internet now and go plan out your novel! Don't forget that cup of tea.)

Any tips for kids who want to get started as an aspiring author?

The best way to learn about style, characterisation and plot construction is to read as much as you possibly can.

You will probably find that you start to imitate your favourite authors, but this is a good learning process and your own style will come eventually. Always plan your work; writing aimlessly sometimes throws up a good idea or two, but it is no way to produce a whole story.

Write what you know: your own interests, feelings, beliefs, friends, family and even pets will be your raw materials when you start writing. Develop a fondness for solitude if you can, because writing is one of the loneliest professions in the world!

And finally: perseverance is absolutely essential, not just to produce all those words, but to survive rejection and criticism. However, the utter joy of seeing a book you wrote sitting in a bookshelf is a prize worth striving for!

How do you get your inspiration for your writing?

The ideas just come; I don't really need much external inspiration. Just give me a quietish half hour, and perhaps a nice cup of tea, and I'll probably be able to dash off a paragraph or two.

Winning Tips

Due to popular demand in the blogosphere, ahem…, here are some general tips to put you on the winning track. Thanks to Mumsgather who's busy promoting my blog to her online cronies.

File up the forms
Don’t chuck one form on top of the piano, another on the kitchen table and yet another on your bedroom side table. Put all of them in one file so you don’t have to go hunting for them when the deadline looms near. Helps keep sanity intact instead of screaming at the kids, “Whose the wise guy who scribbled on the milk powder entry form?”

Send in your entry early
By early I don’t mean three days before the closing date – that is dicing with danger. One week allowance should be good enough but don’t wait till the eleventh hour because you may just forget about it until the deadline had lapsed. A frequent winner, Eric, begs to differ. His strategy is to send them in at the last minute. He thinks last minute entries stand a better chance of winning and he says it’s a proven technique for him.

Don’t be brand loyal
If Detergent Sparkle is having an ongoing contest but you’ve always used Detergent Shiny to wash your dishes, there’s no harm in giving Sparkle a try. Who knows, you may get to win an all-expenses paid holiday to Phuket. Besides Sparkle may dazzle you with its cleaning abilities that you’ve wondered how you’ve ever cleaned without it.

Send in more entries
The more you send, the more you increase your chances of winning. As they say, the more the merrier. But no need to go overboard. Imagine the disappointment if you send in one hundred entries and you get zilch. I’d rather go for less, that way even if I don’t get anything, the low expectation level guards against heartache.

Do your homework
What is the product being promoted? What are its qualities? What is the company’s philosophy? Find out these information from websites, brochures or the product packaging and use them to write the tie-breaker.

Put yourself in the judges’ shoes
What do you think will appeal to the judges? Imagine yourself going through thousands of flat slogans and signatures. Then challenge yourself to come up with something different. Having said that, judging is a very subjective matter. What may appeal to one may appear mediocre to another.

Compile winning entries
Collect press clippings of winning slogans and signatures. They will give you an idea of what contest judges look for. You can also modify them for future contests. Try not to copy wholesale. If another person also copies a particular slogan bulat-bulat, that means there’re two of the same. Not original. It will be dumped. If you dare take the risk, by all means go ahead. There are cases of contestants using slogans from my book and winning prizes with them. I know because readers wrote in to the newspapers to complain about unoriginal entries winning contests.

Concentrate your effort on hard contests
Easy contests are harder to win, hard contests are easier to win. Easy ones are those that don’t require any work – the 10, 000th entry gets to win a bike, that sort of thing. Hard contests are those that require some sweating over slogans, signatures or puzzles. Think about it, you have more control over hard contests in that the quality of your entry increases your chances of winning. So concentrate on those but if you prefer the easy way out, by all means go for the easy contests.

My comping philosophy

I don’t go for “most entries win” contests. Ever. The way I see it, the only winner in this type of contest is the organizer. It’s a blatant promotion of consumerism.

Usually I concentrate on slogan-writing contests as I can put my writing skill to good use. Now, please don’t ask me to write slogans for you, okay? You see, I sprout five gray hairs every time I sit down for a spot of slogan-writing, and I really don’t want to age prematurely. I’m hopeless at art, so I steer clear of signature contests.

All the best!

G

It was my husband who introduced me to G a few years ago. You can ask him anything, he said.

And so I did. At first our liaison was irregular. Once in a while, I'd look G up for something or other. However, in the past couple of years, we have become closer. Now not a day passes by without me calling on G.

I mean it's not like I could call hubby at work and ask him inane stuff like "What are the symptoms of Bell Palsy," or "Who was the third American president?" He'd go ballistic and say something like, "I'm in the middle of a meeting with my big boss. Will you stop asking nonsense?!" Not that he'd know the answers anyway.

So he can't blame me for getting so close to G. And when you're close to someone, you feel for him when he's in trouble. You see, G's got into some sort of legal entanglement. While I feel sorry for the other party, I also emphathize with G. He's been so helpful to me that I just can't turn on him and say "Serve you right!" I hope things work out well for both sides. I want to continue to court G and will not give him up for anything, not unless someone better comes along.

Want to know who G is? Click on the Comment box to find out.

Conspiracy

I went to bed at 2.30 a.m. the other day. Just as I laid my head on the pillow, hubby got up. He went downstairs. Maybe he was getting a drink of water.

For some reason I couldn't sleep. I waited for him to come up but the minutes ticked by, and still there was no sign of him. "Was he having trouble at work that's keeping him from sleeping?" I thought to myself before eventually drifting off to lala land.

A few days later, I asked him, "Why were you up at three the other day?"

No. 1 replied on his behalf, "Watching football."

I should have known!

"And how did you know? Were you watching too?"

Father and son smiled deviously. And this is the same father who's badgering the son to study, study, study for his PMR. It's also the same father who threw dirty looks at mother and daughter who stay up till midnight to watch The Apprentice.

Huh!