still alice

I read this book last week and finished it in two days..couldn't put it down..very riveting and obviously well written. Hubby bought me the book, he just randomly picked a book (actually he bought two..the other one casual vacancy by jk rowling..oh my! that book was a bore..she should just stick to harry potter) and I was glad he picked that one. It was about a woman discovering that she has Alzheimer's disease and how she was dealing it with, trying to figure out how to handle the changes this disease brings into her daily life. She was a professor in linguistics so you can imagine her feelings when she started to forget words. In our society, we always assume that most old people are just being forgetful or "nyanyuk" but little that we (or at least I) know that it is actually a disease that can be delayed if caught early. Even though there is no cure yet for it, by understanding more about this disease would help us in dealing with it especially when it involves our loved ones. After finishing the book, I decided to watch the movie. The book was way better. Acting was bad except for Julianne Moore. Even worse, the director or whoever in charged of casting, decided to take that Kirsten gal from Twilight as Alice's youngest daughter. Big mistake! That girl doesn't have any expressions, maybe because she has been with vampires for way too long. Anyway, it was sad to see Alice deteriorating and losing her abilities to do easy daily tasks. At the end of the movie, she could barely talk. Before she became worse, she made a video to herself reminding the old Alice of how smart and wonderful she was (in the book, not the movie which took out quite a few important events) and her kids and husband also did a memory video of her. This book reminded me to be grateful and not to take things for granted. Stop whining and start doing and appreciate what I have as it can be gone by tomorrow.

Monday blues?

Do housewives have Monday blues? When I was working, donkey years ago, I did have the sad kinda feeling when Monday arrived. Actually I had that when I was in school too. That kind of depressed feeling when you woke up in the morning with that annoying sound (the alarm of course!) and realizing "dang it! It's Monday! Where did the weekend go?". Now, since I don't go to work, do I have Monday blues? No, I don't!!..Haha..the perk of being a housewife, I guess. Yes, I still have to wake up early and wake the kids up and make sure they get ready on time, but that is not a problem. In fact I know that some moms really look forward to Monday because that means the kids (and the husband) are out of the house which equals to some peace and quiet after the maddening weekend! Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy weekends with my family but hey! who wouldn't want some me time after the "have you done your homework for the weekend? Weekend doesn't mean you can watch tv all day! Can you please go and take your bath already? and so on and so forth." After a long school holiday, you really can't wait for school to open but after the havoc of getting ready for first day of the new school year (making sure the kids are getting up early after two months of sleeping in is no easy task, let me tell you that!) and after the kids have been safely ferried to school and you came back to an empty house, some degree of "Monday blues" will kick in. You could almost hear their voices saying "I am bored or I am hungry (ten minutes after having lunch) or Mommy, Abang is bothering me and of course Abang was just sitting there watching tv. And you can't wait to pick them up from school and hear their stories. It would be good to let them know that you missed them. I told me kids that recently after the first day of school and it was nice to hear them say that they missed me too. But of course they just had to spoil the moment by adding "We wish school holidays are longer!". What? You had two months!!! Go to school already!!!