Medan Kota

my eldest son, Jadon.. who is now in primary 1.. and is just 7 yo… he has been saying stuff that left me speechless..

on the road one afternoon… he asked mr hubby..  “papa, when I get to secondary class, are you buying a car for me to drive to school?”.. we both got shocked but were half laughing at the same time and me replied him: ” NO, you are too young..” which he then went on to explain how he saw several big kids drive sport car to school.. with ‘4 exhausts’ he claimed… and went on to say…“papa, you are so… ‘aaiiiiiiii yah’ (he couldn’t find the right word) .. those koko drive a sport car to school and you are only driving a Honda CRV…“… huh?.. he’s only 7 yo and he has the guts to say that to his dad!!.. but of course we explained and cleared up the matter..

GoKart! it’s his first time .. but he drove like a mad boy.. was not afraid.. and even drove so fast that the car spinned.. (which he claimed that he was simply cruising) .. my mum and dad almost had their heart attack seeing this grandson.. but heck, he came off the track with a big wide smile on his face…

then last month… at the end of 3rd term.. we went to take the school report card… after the Bahasa homework incident and exam madness… I asked his Mandarin tutor to do an hour of Bahasa with him once a week.. which lead him to getting an A* this term (mind you it was always either B, or D)… though he was real happy, he was also curious… on the car he said.. “mama, I don’t really understand what Ibu (his Bahasa teacher) said in the class and I know very little of Bahasa.. but how come I still got an A.. “.. honestly, I thought so too myself..

next, while I was trying real hard to think back of my childhood days when I was my sons age… to see if I have a “puppy crush’ on anyone from my class.. and darn.. I don’t think I do… why?.. lately, both my boys are talking about boys-girls relationship almost everyday!!!… like this who likes who … and this who wants to marry with who .. and this who has so many girlfriends… etc.. I can understand that it’s a growing up thing.. but I disapprove this sort of conversation at home..

and with me not able to take any more of this nonsense hearing, I came up with a way to put a stop to all these silliness… how?.. I told my boys straight to their faces… “you guys are not having any girlfriends!! .. mama will be the one who will find the right girlfriend for you both!!“.. and somehow Jadon funnily said this back out loud .. “so Elson (my young son), if anyone asked us if we have any girlfriend.. we just tell them NO, coz mama said she will choose for us”.. and of course with a grin on my face.. I replied..”you are absolutely correct”.. and it kinds of kill off the topic from then on…

with both boys growing up at a rate too fast for me to handle… I find being a mum involve lots of patience and understanding, guidance and planning… and most important of all, the endless love they both constantly seek from me..

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This may sound real crazy for some.. but I began reading to both my sons while they were both still a foetus.. sometimes around 5 months pregnant.. I remembered borrowing one of those Disney story books from my nieces and began reading a story a day.. and when they were born.. by about 6 months old.. I will lied out beside them both and read to them all sorts of books.. and yes both my boys love it…

Some 3 years back.. I got hold of a book called “Gruffalo”.. bought it at the Takashimaya’s Kinokuniya bookstore.. and from the moment I read to them both.. it has since been their favourite book of all times.. I remember clearly how this awarding book became their nightly reading for some 2 months.. Elson will give me a real grumpy face should I went against his wish..

I have heard from some friends how some kids are not into reading.. if that is so.. please do try this one.. it’s of the BEST children’s story book that I know in the market.. the author, Julia Donaldson has been well awarded.. the story book have sold millions of copies, and its been turn into a live play with sold out tickets.. and surprisingly.. you can even get a DVD of it from Sun Plaza, Medan!! .. I have bought the DVD too and it’s just as good .. it’s from the corner CD shop on the top floor of Sun Plaza that is opposite the Fountain Café.. just can’t remember the shop name though..

it’s a real must read..!! and with some practice, both my boys can recite the whole story for you all to hear!!

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My eldest son, Jadon will be sitting for his first primary 1 school examination on 16 November, lasting 4 days. The school, Piaget medan was kind enough to inform us the parents very early on… when I received the notes and the guidelines… I have a rather mixed and confused feeling … part of my little voice is saying…  ‘hai yah… he is ok… not need to worry… his only problem is carelessness..’ … but honestly, another part of my little voice is praying rather aggressively hoping for the best…

I am writing this because… I can’t think what is right or what is wrong any more… you see… raising such worries and concern with any husband… these men replied will be.. ‘don’t worry too much, our child will be alright…’ and when the result is out?.. they start interrogating the wife (instead the son/daughter) of why the result is such and such… and what tuition are the children put on…

for me… I never bothered to ask the dearest daddy… he knows I am the fussy one.. so no matter what he said… the final decision is up to me anyway…… with Jadon.. for all his class tests, his results were always above the 95%… the errors that he made were mostly carelessness… in addition to the fact that he has really bad writing skill… as a mum… what is right?.. should I scold him on his carelessness? but knowing that it is not big deal…? so why should I make his life miserable at such a young age… knowing that getting 100 or 95 or 80 right now will make no difference to his adult life… BUT on the other hand… knowing that he knows and that he should easily scored full marks? … he does deserve some  punishment dont you think?…

so with 2 weeks to the D day… I don’t really know what to do with him… should I choose to grill him?.. gosh… I am definitely jeopadising the mother and son relationship …. which I really don’t want to… but should I choose to do it in moderation form… seeing the end result will not make us very happy… which with Jadon’s personality, he will develop that… ‘it’s ok… my mummy is happy go lucky kind’... coz right now… whenever he came home with the silly mistakes… he will always casually replied me… ‘it’s ok mama… I know the anwser but I didn’t see it properly’….

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I was going through old clothing …. and somehow at the back of the cupboard found hubby’s old Versace jeans, shirts etc… I was not slowly picking the pieces out one a time.. instead.. I was sweeping it all off in one go .. straight from the shelves landing directly onto the ground… and I saw this…

many of the more ridiculous ones have been donated to the 2004 Tsunami victims….

I stared at it… shouted out loud and asked him to come over and looked at what I just did to his ex-treasure… he gave me that shocking look… and I said… ‘do u really think you will still want to wear these colourful jeans!!!…’

these jeans with holes… imagine my lovely then boyfriend managed to wear it during the UK winter season and yes… it’s see through and yes… it was freezing cold… and it came in different types of holes too…

I remembered the Versace era extremely well… it was around 1995/6… I came over to Medan for a quick visit during the school break… and it was my first time here as a non-tourist… on my first Saturday here… my now in-laws decided to take us out to watch a movie… I was about 20 yo and thought … ‘wow, hubby got cool parents‘.… we changed… I was in my typical teenage outfit… capri pants and t-shirt… while his parents were in full designer gear… I remembered whispering to hubby saying.. ‘it’s Saturday afternoon.. aren’t we supposed to dress casually?’.. well, he explained and I acknowledged with ‘ooohhh’…. ‘aarrrr’ …. ‘I see’

so it was lunch then over to the Medan’s Hottest and most Happening place to hang out at that era.. ‘the cinema at Sinar Plaza’…. we arrived at about the right timimg… what I saw was a ‘Versace’ fall/winter as well as spring/summer collection all in one…

no matter which angle my head turned… many young and old..and for some, the full family troop were dressing from head to toe in Versace gear… guys were wearing shirts in loud print and coloured jeans.. while the ladies were not only in the silky shirt with matching bottoms  etc  … but belt, bangles, earring… accessorizing the body were all glittering with Merdusa Head…

from then on… I began to understand the term ‘Indonesian are extravagant’… and yes.. I was badly influenced by hubby… I remembered buying a pair of ‘knee high boots’ from their Haute Couture line  which cost about USD 1900 at the then value… and yes.. I worn it like 4-5 times… when my mum saw me wearing it… she wasn’t mad at how ridiculously I was spending her money… instead she find it amusing seeing me in one…

the boots look similar to the pic shown except that it has the Versace trademark on… and I bought coz friends were saying like… ‘Vic… if you wear.. people will know it’s Versace’…  that was about the last time I ever spent so much on a pair of shoes… it’s still around somewhere in my BKK home cupboard though…

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It has been many many years since we last applied for a credit card… we hold the HSBC and Citibank.. and is given to us since we have accounts with them… the application for the cards were applied on behalf for us by relationship manager or the RM which is safe and sound…

anyway, about 3 weeks back… we had lunch at Taipan… as we were leaving the restaurant, we were approached by the Mega credit card people… 2 youngsters who definitely have no appeal as a banker at all… came to us… saying “ko.. cie.. free first year and now with Mega cc, it’s 50% off at Taipan”… hubby looked at me… father-in-law turned and said “50% off leh…“… so I said to the salesperson and asked..” how do I cancel it should I want to discontinue the service after the 1st year”.. (after that BCA incident… it’s gonna be my first opening question to all these people..)… anyway… I am not that keen…and I didn’t want to manage another account… but the in-laws and hubby went ahead…

First they asked to fill in the standard information on the form that has the usual empty dotted line for address, billing address, income etc… next, copy of the personal identity card.. which obviously we don’t carry the copied version… so they ended taking out their handphone and capture the ID… Third, asking for a copy of the credit card that we already hold… and again, since none copying machine insight, again both guys used their mobil phone to capture the front and the back of our credit card…

I was sitting nearby and seeing how the whole thing being process…. something striked me that could these people be a fraud?… darn.. they took all our details!! …including our credit card details for both front and back!!… as an online person… what we gave them is more than enough for them to go online and have a big shopping extravagenza!!!..

I seriously didn’t feel right about the whole thing… so I turned to Hubby… explained my whole concerned .. and asked them both if they are those freelance credit card salesman employed by the Bank? or the full time employee…. well.. they replied ‘No’… which was not a relieved to be honest…. whether they are one or the other… they definitely have more than what is needed to be known….

somehow… hubby went ahead with the application… he just received a call about further verification… and frankly… this will be our last … the more I think of it, the more I feel unsecured !!!… well.. do take precautions… Medan does has scammers… actually in all places around the world… but it’s the way they do things here that make it worst… and the law does not protect the credit card holders like how it used to be…. so watch out…

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