noodle boy speaks and an after school snack

sd
The district-wide speech competition was held today at a nearby rival school, and who was chosen from my classes to compete? none other than noodle boy, himself. The two minute speech about his family was three minutes short (a five minute requirement for this age and ability is ridiculous) and included such inspired sentences as, "My mother he my advertise in New York and tom yam soup clean." and "My dog will have fifteen when I..... um.. breakfast is always good." Even though their public speaking abilities are somewhat *ahem* lacking, and they can't speak English at the best of times, let alone when they're standing in front of over 100 audience members, it was great fun watching our kids compete today. Noodle boy even earned second place in his division and without a single mention of noodles!

Rewarding myself for a hard day's work sitting in a school auditorium, I bought a smoothie, of sorts, from a neighborhood woman on my walk home this afternoon. It seems to be made of blended ice, sweetened condensed milk, coconut water and some sort of simple syrup. Cool, creamy, coconutty and refreshing in the 95+ degree heat.

typical baffling Asian English-language labeling
"Hat Family!"

and when I got home, I even had some left to enjoy a couple of slammers with a package of time tams in my freezer. if you're unfamiliar with the joys of the tim tam slammer, this little girl can show you how it's done.

a delicious union:
cold, sweet coconut drink and a tim tam.
.