Here's Chindogu For You

Took CoolTeen for his appointment with the ENT specialist yesterday because he has sinusitis and his nose was continuosly runny for the past 2 weeks. Today hubby saw a photo in The Star newspaper of a gadget that might be quite useful for his condition...

....the hayfever hat invented by Kenji Kawakami, author of the book '101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions: The Art Of Chindoku'... great for those who sneeze the whole day long!

When I looked up the internet about this hat, I came across some interesting facts. There is actually a society called The International Chindogu Society (Chindogu is a Japanese word which means 'weird tool'). Chindogu has a distinctive feature: anyone actually attempting to use one of these inventions would find that it causes so many new problems! ~ quote from Wikipedia.

The 10 tenets of Chindogu are:

1. A Chindogu cannot be for real use
2. A Chindogu must exist
3. Inherent in every Chindogu is the spirit of anarchy
4. Chindogu are tools for everyday life
5. Chindogu are not for sale
6. Humour must not be the sole reason for creating a Chindogu
7. Chindogu is not propaganda
8. Chindogu are never taboo
9. Chindogu can never be patented

10. Chindogu are without prejudice

More chindogu inventions:

Useful for the tired mom - baby wearing this special suit can help mop the floor while he crawls around

this give the words a stick of butter a whole new meaning

.....now how 'cool' is that? (pun intended)

to keep you from eating your hair while you enjoy your noodles

War of Words

Saw this in The Star newspapers...2 hypermarts competing against each other. The logos are so thinly disguised that even a kid would recognise them, haha!

On Friday this advert came out...



The next day, there's this advert...

Mom the Crazy Driver

One of my daily routines is to chaffeur my kids to and fro....school, tuition classes, music classes, extra curricular activities in school...

For my birthday this year, Miss PreTeen gave me a sign Mum's Taxi to stick on my car's back windscreen.


I added the word Crazy because my kids say that I drive terribly, very much like the video game, Crazy Taxi...so I suppose it could read as Mum's Crazy Taxi, or scarier still, Crazy Mum's Taxi!

For the uninitiated, here's a video of the game (the player drives a taxi and has to fetch passengers to their destinations as quickly as possible):



...if only my car was as indestructible!

Mom the Slave Driver

Being a home-maker (a better name for housewife) I have chosen the path of not relying on a household-help (a better word for maid). I enjoy my privacy and being alone at home all by myself when hubby has gone to work and the kids have gone to school. There's just a certain sense of peace and calm, and I could do just about anything - cook and clean, NOT cook and clean...or even sleep all day if I want (ok, that's wishful thinking!). Having another person around all the time would just be too stressful for me.



So to lighten my workload, I delegate chores to my kids. The rule of thumb in our home for the kids is that they are responsible for all that belong to them and the things they use. They put away their shoes when they come home, put their dirty clothes into the laundry basket, fold clothes after I wash and dry them, wash dishes, wash school shoes and the list goes on...and the chores increase each year. I can imagine them calling me 'mom-the-slave driver' behind my back!




Every Sunday, this is the view that greets whoever that comes to visit us...all the kids' school shoes - washed and lined up on the outside ledge of our house. They don't seem too clean but I can't complain too much... after all, it's free labour!

The Place For Young People

Saw this in Ampang today...very unusual road name.