When the going gets tough...

have a break, have a kick kat!

No, don't worry, this is not some advertorial ;)

My husband bought this box of kit kat at the Narita Airport on his way home two days ago. He was back home for a mere 21 hours before he was off to another part of the world. He had planned to stay till the weekend, but was called to go to another place when he was still slogging away in Yokohama. I told him we were like 牛郎织女 a Chinese folk story about a couple who could only meet once a year on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month ;)

Even though he was home for less than 24hrs, I was glad that at least he managed to have a good rest. He had been working till 1am every night at the overseas office for the past whole week. It doesn't help that it was scotching hot over there and he came home looking so 'red' and heaty! I had to drown him with herbal tea to cool him off. For once, he finds our local weather here, lovely!

When I told some of my friends that he is taking up a long term assignment, I could detect the envy written across their faces. To most people, they equate overseas postings with a nice, fat pay package. Well, this is certainly not true for his case. Everything remains the same and he would even have to suffer some form of pay cut due to the currency exchange rates and the employee benefits that he would get to enjoy back home. He is not even given a choice, it is a matter of take it or leave it (the job). The irony is, just three years ago, he had made a decision to leave his former employer of seven years just so as to avoid being relocated to Down Under, and to cut down on the frequent travellings. He was promised a 'desk-bound' job. But things didn't work out as planned. Eventually, he even lost his desk in the office as they have adopted a 'book-a-desk' kind of work arrangement! The current organisation lost the local contract last year, and the market here is so small for the industry he is in, they have to look beyond this little red dot...to 'a wider region within seven hours flight radius' from our island.

It is not easy to get a new job over night at our age. So, for the time being, we could only try to adapt to this work arrangement. He will be away longer this time, and won't even be home on the seventh day of the seventh month! He promised he will buy a ticket to come back for the mid autumn festival, I hope no one will stop him from doing so by then. I am blessed with two kids who are very understanding and easy to take care, and yet there are times when I wish he is around especially when small things seem to start to grow into a big issue.

Ok, enough of my ramblings, I have digressed!

One of my pals has always shown great concern about the size of my brain cells when I became a full time housewife. She worries that my brain cells will shrink over the years since a housewife's world would only revolved around the seven things in the kitchen...柴米油盐酱醋茶(fire wood for the stove, rice, oil, salt, sauce/soya sauce, vinegar and tea, in a traditional Chinese home). So, I do make it a point not to lose touch with the outside world by reading, blogging, surfing the net, so as not to become a frog in the well.

Here's one new thing that I would like to share with fellow SAHMs, since we are 'home-bound' and hardly gets to see the 'outside' world. (Pardon me if you don't belong to this category, or feel insulted by my words. I don't mean to imply that all SAHMs are isolated from the outside world. I hope you understand where I am coming from because I have received unpleasant remarks and comments for being a SAHM.)

Unless you understand the Japanese language, I don't think you will be able to guess what the flavour of these kit kats is. Green tea, you may guess, but no, they are wasabi flavoured kit kats! Correct me if I am wrong, I don't think this flavour is available here? I have had wasabi coated nuts but not wasabi chocolates. These kit kats taste like white chocolates to me, sweet, and there is only just a slight hint of wasabi. You can forget about getting the real kick from tasting the real wasabi. Those wasabi coated nuts fair better in providing the burning, searing sensation in your nasal.

I won't be too surprised if anyone tells me they had baked something with wasabi....wasabi cakes, cookies, muffins and buns?!

Have a great day, and am I too early to look forward to a great weekend ahead??