At least I have feet...

I was feeling so down last weekend as I went in search for the perfect shoes for my not so perfect, extremely big feet... For those who don't already know, I have big feet... I used o be at size 8 and I have always assured myself that at my full-grown adult age, it would not grow anymore...

To my horror, it DID!! when I got pregnant.. some assured me that the size would go down again after I give birth... NO IT DID NOT!! It remained the same... after the pregancy with Sarah, it went up to size 9 and after the pregancy with Tasnym, it went up to 10. How do I deal with going up to 11 after my present pregnancy?? It was already hard enough to find shoes in size 9 or 10, what about 11? Thoughts of binding my feet have crossed my mind.... MANY TIMES!!

Shopping for shoes used to be a pet activity.. I have now stopped even bothering to enter into a shoe shop unless I had known already that they carried large sizes. I could not take the condescending or shocked looks or the sales staff when I asked them for the large sizes, they will then look at my feet, to stare at the montrosity and ask, your feet so big ah? One sales person I met recently started taking out shoes in size 10 as his shop had large sizes without asking me my style of preference. When I told him, I didn't like the designs he took out, he said "Well if you don't like the designs then defficult lah..." Uh you mean just because I have big feet, I have to settle for ugly shoes?

Last weekend, one salesman said in shock "Hah? Size 10? No we dun have," alamak even the other people in the shop heard and looked! Hmm... excuse me, Ian Thorpe has large feet and he has attributed his illustrious swimming career to his feet while you are just a small time sales person in a tiny unknown shoe shop!!

Don't they realise how terrible I was already feeling going from shop to shop to be met with disappointment or when I tried on shoe after shoe, not even being able to squeeze my foot halfway into the shoe. I kept being reminded of how Cinderella' stepsister tried to squeeze her feet into the glass slipper... sob... I am not mean like that stepsister you know...

When I was younger, relatives were very mean and often made fun of my feet. I remembered how my parents would talk negatively about it and how difficult it was to find shoes for me. I remembered distinctly how cousins would make fun and said that I would end up looking like Ronald MacDonalds with my huge feet sticking out or how my grandmother said how my shoes can be turned into a sampan!

Even I am amazed at how resilient I had been to deal with all these and my response was "I am grateful that I have feet as compared to those who does not" I still feel that way... and it has taught me not to make fun of those who have imperfections. But please feet, dun grow to size 11... I'll have to walk barefoot if you do!

Stop Calling ME!!

Don't you hate those pesky calls from the banks asking you to sign up for a new card, a new overdraft etc etc etc! Or worse, those that come from other slimming agencies and the sort trying to get you to sign up for some package or other... Here's several ideas I have that either I've used or planned to use whenever I receive such calls: 1) The easiest one, "I'm not interested, thank you. Bye!" and hang up. But if you do have time on your hands... 2) "Are you asking me to get into further debts? I already have enough debts, thank you." then lament on how much debts you have and how you have been having so much difficulty paying them all up... and how your baby didn't have enough to eat last month as you had to pay off all your debts... you get the gist... 3) "Are you teaching me to go into debts?" and go into indepth debate on the dangers of owning a card ... or of going into a debt... and how such methods by the bank to entice the young to have a card does not help the young in learning how to save... 4) "Before you begin, could you please send me a cheque for this phone call you are making to me right now, cos I'm not paying for this phone charge. Are you accepting the charge? Cos if you are not, do hang up now." 5) For those beauty agencies "Are you trying to say I'm ugly/fat etc? Are you trying to insult me? I won the Ms ** title in my school you know!" and then burst out into loud tears.... These are definitely no fail measures... try them ...he he... I'm sure word will get around and they'll stop calling you. Come on, if I really need their service they don't have to call me, I'll call them. For all those telemarketers, I know you are just trying to earn a living but you guys sure know how to call at all the wrong times!!

Hong Kong 2007

Everything was just wet, wet, wet

It wasn't a good trip by anyone's standards, what with being caught in the rain 95% of the time and being evacuated out of Disneyland due to the incoming typhoon... Luckily, we managed to catch a very good Disney show before the park closed but didn't get to go on any of the rides.

Captain Jack Sparrow showing off his pirated rings!!

Tasnym surprised me with her show of fear of the Disney characters, refusing absolutely to take photos with them... She ran in fright at the hotel when Goofy went up to shake her hand. She insisted that this was not the same Goofy that she sees on the Disney channel!!

But we did get some pretty good buys. Despite all the rain, despite having to don raincoats as we walked around. AND despite the bad back pains and that by night, I could barely walk!! The shopper in me persisted!! We only had a brief respite from the rain when we went to the Ladies Market one night...

The funny thing was that we didn't understand what the cyclone warning no 8 meant and had to ask the Disney Park staff what it meant and what we should do as a result. He had a puzzled look on his face while explaining, probably wondering which planet we came from!!

When we were in Kowloon, we wondered why all the shops were closed as it was only drizzling and there were no hurricane in action. No night markets too and we hoped against hope that the shops would open later in the night but no hope there as the shops remained closed. It was only when we watched the news that we realised how serious the situation was and that all the offices were also evacuated...

Tasnym was a terror on the plane, refusing to be seated and belted. The steward kept reprimanding me for not keeping her belted.... yah easy for him to say... being so non-child focused, he even tried to talk to her like she was an adult to tell her that she needs to be seated and belted....

At meal time, she went from one passenger to another and shouted "Apple Sauce!" "Chilli Sauce!" Next time, Tasnym stays home and no way am I going to take a plane ride that is above 3 hours with her until she grows older and wiser!

So proud of her!!

We were so proud of Sarah. She had been hankering to ride a horse and bugging us for the upteenth time... so that weekend we decided to go to Gallop Stables. My hubby was skeptical asking "Are you sure?" thinking for certain that Sarah would back out and not proceed.


She certainly surprised us as the more she saw the horses at the stables, the more she was certain that she wanted to ride the horse and proceeded to pay for the ticket and put on the helmet. She bravely stepped up the small stairs to get on the horse. Her face was practically frozen...


She did cry... halfway through the ride but what matters most was her willingness to step up to a new experience and take up the challenge. That's my girl!!


In tears by the end of the ride...

Tasnym's cute, Sarah's pretty

We have always been irritated when people would stop to comment on how cute Tasnym was with her curls and cuxie face... not that we are saying she is not cute cos she really is but we are irritated by the insensitivity of some whgo simply overlook that Sarah is standing by just watching the exchange and being completely ignored. Some who are more sensitive would then turn to Sarah and commen on how pretty she was but you could feel that it was not really genuine.... well at least they made the effort.

We worried that Sarah's self esteem would be impacted by this and were concerned that she would grow up in her sister's shadow tho I know that right now she does not mind it much considering how shy she is. We wondered tho what it was doing to her self esteem until we came to this conversation she had with her papa while out shopping one day...

Sarah: Papa, Tasnym is so cute right? She is sooo cute!!
Papa (very carefully): Yes Tasnym is cute. Sarah is cute too.
Sarah: No Papa, Tasnym is cute. Sarah is pretty!

Well no problems with her self esteem there!!