The cons though is that you pay and pay all the time cos they are always going out for excursions. Hahahaha.. I remembered that when I was in primary school, I at best had like two excursions a year.. Ace has one every 1-2 mths!:) So far, they have gone to a park, to a children's amusement park to learn about space, to watch a play (Tiger Came For Tea), to a tour on those duck tour like buses around Dubai...
And another one is that as a parent, I think you sort of have to be a little bit more involved cos they will invite you to come and be a parent volunteer to help out during lessons... they will also have homelinks.. which are projects they suggest you can do with your children in accordance with the topics in school... and they always have some sort of project going on and it is quite the norm for the parents to organize a bake sale to raise funds either for charity or to buy something the school or the children need.
Of course, these are all optional lah... and I guess it is part of the fun of parenting but as I am very kor tuk.. I usually dun get involved in all these.. wahahahahaha:) Mostly cos I feel out of place in a very ang moh environment and very self conscious of the fact that I am different... I strangely also feel some sort of asian inferiority complex whenever I am surrounded by all the ang moh mums who speak in accents I sometimes do not understand... but also because I am not very mobile without Max as my chauffeur...
But sometimes people ask for help, very paiseh not to help right? So the other day, when the grade two parents organized a bake sale to raise funds to buy a story system for the kids, I felt obliged to do something lah... Okie, maybe "obliged" is not a very good word to use.. I guess it is more accurate to say I was a little bit paiseh if I did not do anything and heck, I did want to do something and contribute too...
Alas, I am not much of a baker.. I dun like to make cakes or breads even though I have tried to do so.. I always find them too much of a hassle.. here in Dubai, I have only made pancakes and waffles and steamed a ji dan gao once. That is it! I find cakes and breads just too mafan and time consuming! Most importantly, I am not so familiar with the basics of baking and dun always seem to be doing a decent job.. plus I dun have any baking tins or watsoever with me...
I found out though that it is actually quite easy to make muffins when Ganma Karen invited Ace to her house for a muffin and ice cream party.. and have since made muffin a few times.. But the last time I made muffins would be like almost two years ago! So even though I had in mind to contribute by making muffins, I had totally forgotten how to bake muffins! hahahaha..
I spent a whole night researching (til 6am in the morning) about what to bake and how to decorate (because some websites say it is good to make something chocolate or colourful so that it is easy to sell) and finally decided to just stick to chocolate chip muffins. (What a waste of my precious sleep time..) But I spent so much time because I felt so insecure about my baking abilities and was worried I might fuck up and wanted to find a better or easier way to do it.
Anyway, right after I bought all the ingredients, I receive an email saying that there were not enough people contributing and that one could contribute using things they BOUGHT! Alamak, say so earlier lah.. then I would buy cupcakes and ask Ace to bring to school! hahahaha;)
So, since all the ingredients were already bought, I decided to stick with my original plan of baking chocolate chip muffins. The experience turned out to be strangely therapeutic... I asked Ace to help out and he was more than happy to be involved:)
When I picked him up from the school bus, I told him that we are baking muffins today and he immediately told our neighbour, Juliana, who goes to the same school as him and comes home on the same bus.. "When I am done, I will give you two ok.. one for Audrey and one for you..."
So now extra stress not to fuck up...
Ace helping to stir in the chocolate chips... he CANNOT WAIT to eat the muffins!
Finally muffins inside the oven.. pray hard tat they will turn out OK!
Muffins done and cooling on my makeshift cooling rack...
Yeah! But I counted and it seems I only made about 30+ muffins. So as to keep our promise, I gave two to our neighbour... one for Ace as reward for him helping out and also as a taste test and one for myself as a taste test and sent the rest to school.
I dunno how much Ace sold as he did not help out with the sale but judging from my taste test, should be quite ok lah:) The muffins were soft and moist and yummy:)Anyway, this experience actually made me excited to try bake another batch of muffins again soon (as I had chocolate chips leftover). I was previously reluctant to bake also because I was not confident and I did not know who else I can pass the end products to and I most certainly do NOT want to eat everything by myself!:) Now I know I can give to our neighbours IF it is edible.. hahahaha..
My friend C, who left Dubai donated alot of her baking stuff to me before she left... now tat I have stuff like baking powder, cream of tartar.. etc, I am thinking that maybe I will like to try baking pandan chiffon cake using my Happy Call Pan or my oven.. (I have chiffon cake tin) Just do it ONCE and try since Ace likes to eat Pandan cake...But I so dun look forward to beating egg whites to stiff peaks cos I think my hands will die from all the beating since I dun have a mixer here....
Keeping fingers crossed...
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