KaPow!

My life so far...

2008-08-08T18:12:00.003+08:00

So many things happening that I'd like to blog but got no time....arrggghh... Feel so verbally constipated - all the thoughts in the head but no time to put it down in writing! Some things I may blog about if I have the time...
- My kids' room - as well as the other renovations of our "new" home. Actually we've moved in for more than 6 months, already nicely settled in. Everything's fine fortunately. Immediate neighbours are nice, no sign of aedes mosquitos (touch wood! this was hotspot area last year), place is quite private even though we are along common corridor.
- My new hobby - growing carnivorous pitcher plants! haha
- Cheryl's recent birthday celebration
- etc. etc...
Stay tuned...

Simple Pleasures

2008-07-17T16:20:00.003+08:00

I'm back!

I wrote this entry simply because it's one of those simple things that make me smile. This is a picture of a small potted plant we have outside our flat. I've never really kept plants because I always think they attract all kinds of funny insects. We got this plant when I signed Cheryl up for a plant workshop at the Botanic Gardens during the recent June holidays. One of the activities was to do some planting in a pot and they could bring their plant back. Cheryl's pot had a combination of two different common household plants. I don't know what they're called. I've already removed all the decorations (some colourful pipe cleaners). We never really paid much attention to it, just water and spray it once in a while. But apparently it appears to be thriving quite well. Just about a week ago, something like a bud appeared. While waiting for this one to bloom, we actually discovered another tiny flower nearby that was also blooming. Then about 2 days ago, the bud bloomed. So now we have two tiny pretty red flowers! Actually makes me want to buy some more plants... (I'm looking for low-maintenance-but-with-nice-flowers kinda plants :oP)

Miracle!!! Sorta

2007-10-21T23:09:00.000+08:00

Got to record this down cos I think it's a miracle, even though the event was really trivial.

Today was my stipulated day of rest... a day where I could get a kiddie break for some hours to do my stuff. I really don't know how long since I've really had time to myself to do my own stuff. TT gets to play his badminton once or twice a week, so I demanded that he gave me some time "off". I have been feeling really shacked out at work and at home for the past weeks, more so after the kids' bout of fever last weekend.

So this morning I had an early breakfast of yummy foccacia bread, melted cheese over ham and fresh mushrooms. Then I took a bus to Blessed Sacrament Church for mass at 9am. TT was still asleep. After mass I headed to Holland Village where I wanted to check out the sale at Lim's Arts and Living, see if I could get anything for our new place. I got 2 mirrors for the kids' room.

Meanwhile, TT brought the kids to East Coast Park for a picnic with my in-laws. Then I realized I had forgotten to bring my house keys!! Aaarrgghhh, how was I to enter my own home without my keys? Nobody was home! I tried to call my mum, she was my last hope. No good, she didn't switch on her handphone...

Never mind, I decided to have lunch at the Holland V market. I ate nasi lemak using chopsticks and plastic spoon. This silly stall didn't have any proper eating utensils... hmmmm! All this while I tried to call mum, hoping she'd suddenly remember to look at her handphone. I guessed she might be in church and had switched it off. But I figured the 10.30am mass should be over by now... still can't get through to her. Mum sometimes goes back to my place after church. Tried calling my own home and her home, nobody picks up. I'm done with lunch, so walked slowly to the bus stop. What should I do now? Two buses arrive, one heading to my mum's place, the other to my place. Should I go back home? Or should I try to search for her at Sheng Siong supermart? She sometimes goes there after church too. Or should I go to her place and wait for her to come home? In a split second, I decided to take bus 61 which goes to her place.

Then this was when the miracle happened... As the bus stopped at one of the bus stops along Tanglin Halt Road, who should board the bus but my mum herself!! I thought it was freaky. I thought I might be lucky enough to spot her walking around the vicinity, but for her to actually board the same bus I was on... She sat in front and I got up and sat beside her. She was a little surprised. I asked her about her phone, and she took it out and yes she had forgotten to switch it on. Whatever it was, I felt really glad. I almost felt the day had been ruined because I had forgotten to take my house keys. I had wanted to go home to settle do some stuff, and I thought I had wasted my time. Was really in a foul mood, but seeing my mum really made me feel great again.

We alighted at her bus stop, I got my home keys from her and from there I made my way home, while she went her way. Anyway, it was just a 2-hour respite at home before the kids came back. Didn't really get to do much at home, I just didn't know where to start in the packing! But thinking about how things worked out today, can't help feeling blessed...

Sad state of Blogging affairs

2007-10-19T18:21:00.000+08:00

Slacking in my blogging entries again... so decided to do something drastic.... write summaries!!! hahaha!!! Hence the summary topics below categorised by month. Some of the entries may seem very cryptic, so stay tuned, it's just the skeleton, I need to fill in the meat, put in some pics. Not that anybody's interested wat I've been up to all these months, but it's for my own personal record. Time flies like crazy these days, I myself dunno wat I've been doing... so tired. I wanna die. Gotta write my will soon.

September 2007 - Summary

2007-10-19T18:20:00.000+08:00

Sep 2 - Went to Spectrum for house warming
Sep 16 - Isaac's bday
Sep 17 - Goodbye pacifier
Sep 22 - Oli's bday
Sep 25 - Lauren struck by dengue!

August 2007 - Summary

2007-10-19T18:19:00.000+08:00

August 1 - Aunt passed away
August 4 - Attended funeral, got another vertigo attack.
August 9 - National Day - Had BBQ. Day after neighbout moving out.. sad.
August 15 - ENT review at NUH... triggered vertigo again. But doc says he's satisfied with wat he sees!! duh
Sis and 2 nieces got stomach flu... stayed away
August 17 - Check out the progress of renovations for our new home.
August 17-18 - Fireworks celebration. Perhaps the last fireworks we'll see from our window...sad
August 23 - School Excursion

July 2007 - Summary

2007-10-19T18:17:00.000+08:00

July 11 - registered Pr1 for cheryl at St Anthony's primary school
July 16 - 2nd hdb appt, finally got keys to our flat at Bt Gombak.
July 22 - Visited Dorinda's new place at Toa Payoh, small bday celebration.
July 23 - First attack of vertigo. Mc for 2 days.
July 25 - Visited ENT doc.
July 27 - Cheryl's birthday, celebrated in school and after dinner.
July 31 - My birthday! Had a respite from my vertigo. Felt almost well, so treated my lunch mates to lunch. Also contractor started some renovations. Had small celebration at home

June 2007 - Summary

2007-10-19T18:15:00.000+08:00

Jun 16-18 - Short Trip to KL
Day 1. We decided to go somewhere else besides Genting this time during the school hols, so we went to Mines Resort in KL with our neighbour, Sean and his family. Drove up and reached KL at the mid afternoon. We stayed at the chalet style rooms during our stay. We took the mandatory water taxis that took us around the area. Didn't go out to KL as it was already in the evening.
Day 2. We had a taste of KL's trains as we made our way to the Petronas Towers by public transport. No chance to go up though as all the tickets were taken up. Thereafter we went to Times Square where kids had fun at the theme park while ladies shopped.
Day 3. Before heading back home to S'pore, we made a trip to the Eye on Malaysia, the big ferris wheel in KL. It wasn't as big as I expected, after having seen the framework for the Singapore Flyer. But it was good enough for the kids. We had the ride all to ourselves, which was good and bad... good becos there was no queue, bad bcos the ride ended sooner as it did not stop to load up passengers. Got a good aerial view of KL and as usual we took lots of pics.

Jun 25 - Isaac starts preschool

As Isaac was a September baby, I decided to delay his pre-nursery class for 6 months instead of January this year. Perhaps it wasn't Isaac who wasn't ready but me... I didn't want to let go of my baby yet! I accompanied him for 2 days and he was on his own from the 3rd day onwards. Of course there were tears, but the teacher told me some weeks later that he had settled in very well. I could see he really enjoyed the activities in school like singing and colouring. Even in his second day, his teacher commended on his meticulous painting skills which I think he picked up from his big sister. Well, my baby's all grown up now... Here's a pic of the kids in their school uniform.

Let the Games Begin ... again

2007-09-07T00:16:00.000+08:00

In case you didn't already know, I also have another blog where I put up cartoons I've drawn for my church bulletin. I've not updated for almost a year because I've been so busy. Finally got down to doing it. Will be updating some each time till I catch up to the current month. Click here to go to that blog.

Vertigo

2007-09-03T08:11:00.000+08:00

Some of my friends actually asked me why I haven't updated my blog for so long... It's heartening to find that there are actually people reading my mundane blog!! So, dear friends (you know who you are, thanks for dropping in once in a while to check), I will try to put up some entries so you know I'm still alive and not fallen into a drain or something. I've been somewhat destabilized (read on below) recently, that's why I'm MIA...

My world is in a spin .... literally. I have been having vertigo attacks for more than a month and they're getting me down. I went to a GP in July but when the situation didn't improve the next day, I got an appointment with an ENT specialist that afternoon. In line with my own diagnosis after trawling the internet for vertigo information, he expectedly diagnosed me with BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo). At least the word "benign" itself is comforting in times when I feel like the world is coming to an end. Occasionally though I wonder if something else is wrong with me. The ENT doc did the Epley manoevre on me and there was some slight improvement, but I still feel wobbly. The problem's with my left inner ear, the doc said. He told me not to lie flat when I sleep for the next 3 days, but sleeping in an inclined upright position caused other problems like neck and back pain.

During those dizzy spells, I can only sit still and close my eyes. Perhaps this was the only way God could get through to me to get me to talk to Him again! There wasn't anything I could do except to pray! Oh God, I don't want to live my life this way! Perhaps my body is trying to tell me something? Perhaps I shouldn't get so worked up over everything? This condition forced me take it easy these few weeks, which was extremely difficult especially when I was home with the kids. The best thing to do was for me to remain still and close my eyes to shut out all that extra movement. But this was nearly impossible with the kids around. They would come round frequently to talk to me, or pester me to play with them, or they would play and jump around on the bed. I felt guilty for not being able to do many things with them, but I had no choice. I tried to convince them to bother Daddy instead. But as a result, they got really sticky to Daddy and wanted him to do everything for them. I even had opportunities to watch crappy Ch 5 programmes in bed!

Fortunately there were days when I felt almost well, and even managed to celebrate Cheryl's birthday at school or go out on a school excursion with the kids. As of today, the problem has not gone away, but it has been reduced to moderate imbalance and displacement, which I still find slightly disturbing. I think I'm only functioning at 80% of my optimum level and that's on good days. And there's so much I have to do!!! Work, the kids,renovations!!! Argghh, bad timing for the vertigo to strike at this time! I really hope I can get well again really soon. I'm wondering why it's taking longer to recover this time, as I've had such attacks occasionally in the past. I'm not sure if it's the cause or result, but I've also been getting neck and back aches and sometimes headaches too. And living life as if I'm perpertually on a ship is ruining my appetite too. People tell me I've lost quite a bit of weight, so I've been trying to stuff myself whenever I feel well enough.

Will keep everyone updated if the situation improves...

Death of a Blog

2007-05-05T01:28:00.000+08:00

Ok, maybe not death, howzabout coma?

It's been more than a month since I last blogged! Who's reading and keeping count anyway... As I mentioned in my last entry, things at work have been crazy. I'm back to doing technical writing, so re-learning all the tools and processes all over again. Things are settling down and I'm getting into the groove of things but overall still a little messy with this re-org thing.

Being rather brain-drained after every work day, I just don't have enough energy to turn on the notebook, let alone blog... Well I have to get my priorities right, so it's time with the kids as soon as I get back. They're a demanding and whiny lot and I'm trying very hard not to lose my temper on most days. I usually shut down as soon as my head hits the pillow, but somehow not today... maybe the brain knows it's Friday! That's why I'm here blogging dead into the night.

We have also been caught up with house-hunting, and finally got a catch. Yes we're moving... to Bukit Gombak, to be near the primary school we're gonna put Cheryl in - St. Anthony's Primary... TT's an old boy. Have been gently suggesting to him to put Cheryl in nearby Queenstown Primary. It's always been my intention to put my kids in a Catholic school if I can, but having a girl and a boy wasn't such a good thing afterall... If Cheryl goes to CHIJ Kellock, where should Isaac go? I'm not sure of his chances in SJI Junior. I know the value and convenience of having your school just next to where you live, and having both kids in the same school. Just cursing that the only 2 co-ed catholic schools in Singapore are way off at the west (the other being De La Salle School at Yew Tee, yikes).

I'm rather reluctant to leave Queenstown to move to some "God-forsaken" or "ulu" place in the west, but I'm getting used to the idea. I've lived in this neighbourhood all my life. I sure hope it was the right decision. Probably will rent out this place as the rental market is crazy. Better take advantage of it while we still can. The new place is actually a 20-year-old 4-room HDB flat that really needs to be done up totally. So on top of the busy-ness at work, I'm also busy thinking about renovations and interior designs. We have so much junk, I dunno how we're gonna squeeze everything in.... sigh...

Of Beaches, Bugs and Buildings

2007-03-17T23:46:00.000+08:00

I have been very busy at work over the last week because of a major restructuring and reorganisation exercise our company is currently undergoing. I've been spared the axe, but some of my colleagues were not so fortunate... It'll be a couple more months of this madness before everyone settles in properly into these changes... bosses, processes, seating location, roles and functions, ...all affected. Changes are always hard to swallow once you're in your comfort zone for far too long, but I think it's a step in the right direction. We'll have to rethink how we can work more efficiently.

Because of the things happening at work, I couldn't take leave during the March school break to bring the kids out or something. Cheryl did mention that she had wanted to have a picnic at the beach, so this morning, the whole lot of us (our family, my sis and kids, neighbour Sean & family) trouped our way to (where else?) Tanjong Beach at Sentosa. Unfortunately for us, there was some company family function being held there that day, so we had to "share" the beach with a whole lot of other people... But we managed to find a nice cool spot near the sea. The kids had fun playing in the sea water, and with the sand. Isaac's wearing Cheryl's previous swimming costume, that's why it's pink! I'm trying to get him to wear another one but he insisted on wearing this one...

We adults just sat back, watched the kids and enjoyed the sea breeze. We stuffed our faces with snacks. The weather was perfect. In fact it threatened to rain, but finally it just remained cloudy. We had sandwiches for lunch.

Soon after lunch, Sean had to go back for his swmimming lessons, so the rest of us remained in Sentosa and we decided to visit the Butterfly Park. With the Islander card, we got a 20% discount from the usual $10 entrance fee. It's interesting but I think it's not something we or the kids would want to visit again anytime soon. We're generally not insect lovers! TT & I literally went on a photo-taking frenzy. Many of the preserved (dead) butterflies and insects on display were extremely beautiful. The live fluttering ones, on the other hand, were quite a let-down. I managed to take this closeup pic of a live black butterfly.

This is a picture of rows and rows of live dangling butterfly pupae housed in a viewing cage. Several new-born butterflies had already broken out of their pupae and simply waiting for life to flow into their wings.

Got the kids to take this pic in the butterfly enclosure. Notice the interesting bug stools they were sitting on. The look on all their faces were pretty candid as well. Lauren was being spooked by a nearby fluttering butterfly while the rest looked on! I think the offending butterfly is that blurry brown thing at the bottom of the photo.

The park also houses many species of bugs and beetles. If you're squeamish about creepy crawlies, avoid this park. My sis and I were like going "Eeeeeewww..." at practically every live bug/worm exhibit. Look, this beetle's actually enjoying fresh orange juice, using his proboscis as a straw!

This live exhibit of some massive green stick insect thingy scored one of the highest points in our Eeeewwww-o-meter. Just compare it with TT's finger.

A preserved exhibit of some horny stag beetles! Let's give them some privacy... Hey, wait a minute, they're dead! Can almost hear the male beetle protest, "I swear I didn't do it!!"

A preserved exhibit of some not-so-lucky "fatt-fatt" (88) butterflies!

It was around 4pm when we decided to head back home... Isaac was too tired and fell asleep in the car. However on the way back, Sean's dad called us and said they were heading to the Singapore City Gallery at URA Centre at Maxwell Road. Sean had found out about this place from the book "Fun Singapore!" my sister had given him for his birthday. It's really quite an interesting place to visit. Lots of models of the city and urban landscape in Singapore, as well as other exhibits on Singapore's city and buildings. Here are the kids looking at the map of Singapore. We even managed to find the buildings we lived in! And below is the model of the IR and Singapore Flyer (Ferris Wheel) at Marina. Cool stuff! Unfortunately Isaac slept through the whole thing and we left him in the pram. Definitely will be bringing him here again some other day. I'm sure he'd love the place.
The Gallery closed at 5pm and we proceeded to the nearby Maxwell market for an early dinner. Isaac was rudely awakened by a lion dance troupe that was trawling every stall in the market. Hey, isn't it way past the Chinese New Year already? What's more I think the whole troupe consisted of non-Chinese members! Anyway, we had to tolerate the noise for a good 30min or so while we ate. Would have enjoyed the food more if not for the migraine-inducing din. Well at least Isaac finally got to watch a lion dance (or what he terms a "tong-tong-cheang") really up close. Here is the lion near a goreng pisang stall (btw, the pisang was good!).

National Orchid Garden

2007-03-11T23:40:00.000+08:00

Another tiring and program-packed day...

11:00 - 12:30 National Orchid Garden (Botanic Gardens). I had a voucher for free entrance into the Orchid Garden, so we decided to go there today. TT had to pay the entrance fee of $5! TT just bought a Fujifilm FinePix camera from the IT Show, so all of us took many pictures of the orchids, including Cheryl and Isaac (with his plastic camera!). We looked like a family of fanatic compact camera photographers!

12:30 - 3:30 Make way to Tampines, have lunch at SIL's place.

4:00 - 5:15 Cheryl's Art Class

6:00 - 7:00 Swimming at Seletar Country Club. The kids had a good time swimming and playing at the slide in the pool. TT & me managed to cool down at the pool too.

7:00 - 8:00 Dinner

8:00 - 9:30 Kids' Playroom. After dinner, the kids went wild in the playroom and ball-room. I was afraid Isaac would be trampled by the older kids! Being the protective mother that I am, I was rather busy ensuring he did not get hurt. Fortunately there were no accidents, and the kids really used alot of energy and had lots of fun today.

You can guess how I felt like going back to work on Monday...

Haven't got time to sort out the pics.... just too many, now that we have 2 cameras...

Sean's Birthday

2007-03-10T23:32:00.000+08:00

Today is our neighbour Sean's 7th birthday and instead of a having the same old kind of party year after year, his parents let him plan his own itinery/excursion for the day. Cheryl, Isaac and my nieces were invited to be his guests for the excursion.

I won't bore you with the details but I shall just give you an outline of the program for the day. BTW, Sean's family also has an Islander card, so no prizes for guessing where we went...

12:00 - 1:00 Lunch at Earl's Swensen restaurant in VivoCity.The kids enjoyed their lunch of fish & chips and pasta and Sean blew out his candle from a slice of ice-cream cake.

1:00 - 2:00 Took the Sentosa Express to Imbiah Station.We then took the escalator up to the cable car station. On the way the kids got distracted by the props left over by the Sentosa Flowers Exhibition.

2:00 - 2:30 Round-trip cable car ride. Sean's mum, myself and all the kids crammed into one cable car. The kids really enjoyed the ride, shouting "Hello!!" at every cable car they passed by. Nearly went deaf. Took the cable car to Mt. Faber and back again.

2:30 - 3:15 Calsberg SkyTower. TT escaped for his badminton game while I continued on with the outing. Isaac finally got his chance to take the Sky Tower. Nothing too spectacular.

3:15 - 4:00 Took the bus to UnderWater World. We crammed into a crowded bus to the Underwater World, but over there Sean's mum managed to convince him to skip this item, to my relief. The entrance fees were crazy and the kids were tired too. So we took a bus back to Imbiah Station.

4:30 - 4:30 Took the Sentosa Express back to VivoCity and drove home. Headed home. Isaac took his afternoon nap.

4:30 - 6:00 Break. While the adults took a rest, the kids (except Isaac) played in Sean's room.

6:00 - 7:15 Kite flying at West Coast Park. As Isaac was still asleep, we left for West Coast Park with the older kids for kite flying. The wind was quite erratic, so we weren't too successful in getting the kites up. But the kids had fun running about. I wasn't spared either. I think I ran at least 600m back and forth in the field... pant.. pant...

7:15 - 8:30 Dinner at Pasta Fresca along Pasir Panjang Rd. TT got back from his game and he met us at the restaurant along with Isaac, who was refreshed from his nap. We had a nice meal of pizza and pasta and the kids were very noisy.

9:00 - 9:30 Back home.The night ended with the kids playing sparklers downstairs.

A tiring but fun day for the kids. Needless to say, I was exhausted.

Merlion Walk

2007-03-04T23:49:00.000+08:00

Our love affair with Sentosa continued today. We wanted to go to Botanic Gardens, but decided to try a different park. We didn't have enough time to cover the Merlion Walk during the Sentosa Flowers exhibition last week, so we decided to give it a try today. We drove in and parked at the Beach Station carpark.

I don't quite know how to describe the Merlion Walk but it's a 120m long colourful mosaic walkway with a shallow stream flowing through it. The kids love wading through it. Initially they were reluctant to go in, but once they were in it, they found it quite fun. I'm not sure if it was initially meant for people to wade in, but it was allowed. The kids walked in the stream with their Crocs shoes and tried not to get the rest of their clothes wet by avoiding the jets of water spouting out at regular intervals. But in the end, they got wet anyway, and poor Isaac lost his footing at a slightly deeper end of the stream and got totally drenched. Luckily TT rushed in to fish him out quickly. He looked a little bewildered but did not cry. We changed them into a fresh set of dry clothes (which I had brought along, or else I would have never allowed them into the stream). Then it was mandatory to take the Sentosa Express train to VivoCity where we had lunch at Food Republic before heading back to get our car from the Beach Station. Below are some of the pics of the Merlion Walk. Of course the colourful mosaic got me into a photo-taking frenzy again...

At night, we decided to risk the crowds to catch the fireworks at the Esplanade bridge. There was one last display to mark Chap Goh Mei, the last and 15th day of the lunar new year. Because it was already about 10min before 9pm, TT dropped us at the bridge while he tried to find a place to park his car. I carried Isaac, and Cheryl followed closely while we made our way to the middle of the bridge. We managed to find a good spot between two photographers' tripods. Fortunately for me it wasn't as crowded as it was during National Day and there was a slight cooling sea breeze. The fireworks started before TT could join us but at least he managed to catch it. I got a little tired carrying Isaac while waiting and during the display. Decided not to take photos this time so that I could just enjoy the fireworks. I couldn't anyway since I was carrying Isaac. The explosions were pretty loud and heart-thumping, especially for the large fireworks, but Isaac took it well. We've already prepared him beforehand, and he did say he wanted to see the fireworks up close. I remember it was quite frightening for him and Cheryl to watch fireworks for the first time at close range. This round he just stuck his fingers into his ears. So did Cheryl.

After that we had a closer look at the small merlion and I bought some ice cream while waiting for TT to drive the car back to pick us up. Tiring, but at least we got to see the fireworks live.

Kelong Trip

2007-03-03T23:33:00.000+08:00

TT and my BIL Mel, made an overnight fishing trip (Fri-Sat) to a kelong near the Sibu Islands off the coast of west Johor. From the jetty they took a speedboat to one of the kelongs located in the middle of the sea.

I've been there before once while I was 6 months pregnant with Isaac in June 2004. Yeah, a heavily pregnant woman riding on a speedboat! This is a pic of me fishing then! Looks like I caught something! Actually it's the first time for me doing something like this. Using a string of about 4 baitless hooks, me & my sis managed to catch a good number of small fish so that the guys can use them as bait for larger catches. The guys enjoy going there for fishing. So my sister and I magnanimously allowed them to go for the fishing trip themselves. Fortunately, Isaac didn't miss TT too much for that one night and didn't give me any trouble while I was putting him to bed.

They went there in the hope of catching a good number of ikan parang, which was supposed to be in season. In the end, Mel managed to catch only one ikan parang, while TT caught a respectable-sized unidentified fish (see pic) which we steamed and ate for dinner on Saturday when they returned. The rest of the catch consisted of smaller fish like ikan kuning.

A Shot at the $10 Million Toto

2007-03-01T23:48:00.000+08:00

I am one of those who firmly believe that it is a pure waste of time and money to "invest" in lottery like 4D and Toto. But I guess there is nothing wrong in a person holding on to the hope of winning big one day. But I still believe if you invest wisely (you don't need a lot of money to start with), you can be assured of returns instead of simply relying on pure chance.

The last time we did this so-called "investment" was after my dad's death. We bought a couple of 4D numbers using his niche number, death cert., etc. Nothing. Since Toto was $10million this round, no harm trying, TT said. So on Thursday night, TT took out our toy bingo set (which my sis gave as a Christmas present), removed numbers above 45, and we let the kids give the tombola some spins. We let the kids do 2 sets of 7 numbers each, TT and I rolled one set each. The kids had a lot of fun doing it, but we had to stop them because it was past their bedtime! Anyway, didn't win lah... or else I wouldn't be still here blogging about my mundane life...

Curse of the Sentosa Flowers

2007-02-25T23:38:00.000+08:00

Friday (23 Feb) - The Sentosa Flowers Saga Part I
At the rate we are visiting the sunny island in the south, I told TT we should try to get a unit at Sentosa Cove.

My SIL offered to take my mum and the kids to see the Sentosa Flowers Exhibition around 4pm today. The adults were excited about seeing flowers, the kids just perk up when they hear the word "Sentosa"!

Presumption #1: My SIL presumed that the Flowers exhibition would be held at the garden and fountain area near the former ferry terminal as in previous years. But... this year it shifted to Imbiah. With plans of the IR (Integrated Resort) on the way, the ferry terminal area is now like a ghost town.

Presumption #2: We presumed my SIL knew where to go and what to do when she offered to take them to Sentosa. She sounded so confident over the phone, so we didn't ask. We didn't know that SIL was under Presumption #1.

It was a case of the blind leading the blind. My SIL drove into Sentosa with my MIL, my Mum, the maid and 2 kids. My SIL didn't even know that the Sentosa Express was up and running! And all the while my two kids were saying "Wanna take Express, wanna take Express..." My SIL parked near the ferry terminal and the entourage trudged all the way up to Imbiah.

In the evening TT picked me up from work and we were wondering where to settle our dinner. We thought why not meet my SIL and gang at VivoCity, so we called them and that's when Presumptions #1 and #2 became apparent. With the old folks tired and kids hungry (it was about 7pm), we decided to drive into Sentosa to pick them up. Darn, I had passed our Islander card to my Mum earlier so that Cheryl could enter free. So now we had to pay $6 to enter Sentosa.

Trying to find the entourage in Sentosa was a saga in itself. It was looking a lot like an episode in The Amazing Race or something. TT told them to wait at the musical fountain. But when we got there, they were nowhere to be seen. They had moved somewhere else. I called my mum on her handphone.

Presumption #3: I presumed my mum's definition of "near" was within 10m. She said, "We are near the Waterfront Station, you know the station that is still not yet opened." Got it. I know where that was. So TT drove illegally into this deserted pavement that got us at Waterfront Station. Where were they?? I walked around the Station which was currently being cordoned off. I called my mum again. She said, "We are at the clock tower lah! Very near the station what!" That was like 50 to 100m away! Anyway, we were finally reunited, and we headed to VivoCity for dinner. After dinner, we brought the kids for a round trip on the Sentosa Express (yes again) before heading back home.

Sunday - The Sentosa Flowers Saga Part 2

We took Cheryl for a badly-needed haircut this morning while Isaac played at the nearby playground at the market.

Before lunch I managed to convert one of our off-white IKEA rugs into a hop-scotch rug. We had bought three of these rugs when we first shifted into our current home, but eventually we rolled them up because the kids kept spilling food and staining the rugs. Now we only unroll one rug as and when needed (esp. on chilly days). So the other two were left to collect dust. At least now we've found some use for it. The expensive permanent coloured markers I bought for Cheryl's art class also came to good use for me to draw the numerals on the hop-scotch rug. Will take a pic of the rug if I can remember.

We had TT's colleagues over for lunch today. Mum had cooked my favourite Buah Keluak and Kiam Chye Ark soup. Because we were having guests, we decided to let Cheryl "ponteng" (skip) her art class in the afternoon.

When Isaac woke up from his nap, I suggested going to Sentosa because it was the last day of the Flowers exhibition. My mum wanted to tag along too because there wasn't enough time to see everything when she went with my SIL on Friday.

Our original plan was to park at VivoCity and take the Express to Sentosa. But the queue at the counter was so bloody long we decided to drive in instead. The Flowers exhibition certainly did not disappoint. The flowers were beautiful and extremely colourful. A photographer's paradise indeed. The theme was "Rhymes in Bloom", and so they installed large displays of characters from nursery rhymes such as a shoehouse, animals, etc. As expected, the kids did not really appreciate the flowers. They were quite bored and kept hounding us to take the Sentosa Express again.

We took many, many pictures of flowers, setting our camera mostly to macro. Didn't bother to take many shots with the kids because they were so uncooperative. We let Cheryl use our old digital camera to take some photos. I took a shot of her using the camera here. The whole place was fairly crowded, enough to irritate me. Everyone was snapping away, posing here and there, blocking the way (ourselves included!). Luckily the weather was relatively cool, and it even rained for a short while. Here are some shots I took. Click the thumbnails to get a better look.

To end off the outing, we had to board the Sentosa Express at Imbiah Station just to satisfy the kids. Previously when we took the Express, the staff did not allow us to do a round trip at VivoCity without exiting.

Presumption #4: I presumed that this policy had not changed since the last time we took the Express... and that was just 4 weeks ago?

But my mum insisted that we could, because they just did it on Friday. Frankly I didn't believe they could change their policy so quickly, so I thought they only allowed this on weekdays. My mum was adamant that she was right, and so was I. I decided not to push it further since we had the Islander card anyway. In the worst case, we could just get tickets again at VivoCity. I just feared that we needed to queue.

Lo and behold, the policy had indeed changed! Now passengers were allowed to take "joy rides" up to VivoCity and return to Sentosa without needing to exit at VivoCity. We had to disembark the train at VivoCity, make a U-turn round and enter the train again. Silly, but it was allowed (they should just allow us to remain in the train). We disembarked at Imbiah Station where our car was parked and we drove home for dinner.

Thus ended our Islander weekend. You can't believe the number of Express tickets I have amassed...

Chinese New Year!

2007-02-20T23:25:00.000+08:00

CNY 3rd Day (Tue)
This was a really long day for us... and we were supposed to be mourning...hmmm...

1st Stop: Our aunt or who me & my sis call "Ma Kor". This our Dad's only surviving elder sister. Thought we should visit her while she's still alive. Being the eldest, my aunt was the matriach of the family and she wielded alot of influence in my dad's family circles. My sis and I simply did not want any involvement, so we simply laid low. My aunt is still very fiesty but she has mellowed down a lot because of age and illness. The kids had a mighty fine time playing with my cousin's kids who were also at her place. We had a nice simple home-cooked meal of macaroni soup for lunch there. This is a nice shot of my aunt and all the kids.

2nd Stop: TT's badminton kaki's place. This is one intriguing home. His friend did the interior design himself and hired and fired a number of contractors along the way to get the job done. All the cabinets and compartments are cleverly consealed to keep the clutter away from sight. His home is a total opposite of ours! haha! As much as I admired the ingenuity and neatness, it wasn't exactly what I would wish for in my own home. Perhaps...I may do it while we were still childless, but no way I could design such a home with the kids around. I'm more practical than I am anal! But I would certainly want to borrow some storage and space-saving ideas. Still, it's an impressive and tasteful home worth applauding.. clap-clap-clap! I've not taken photos for fear of copyright infringement! Anyway, we managed to watch the movie Ice Age 2 projected to a big screen in his darkened living room... yeah, just like in a cinema. These are the kids playing downstairs at the playground after this visit.

3rd Stop: Another of TT's badminton kaki's place. The whole gang from the 2nd Stop went over to another kaki's place for dinner. This time it was a 2-storey house in the East. This other friend has 4 boys. Three of which are 4-year old triplets! TT spent the evening gambling with playing cards with his other kakis while the kids entertained themselves around the house. To put it mildly, I was quite bored. I had to signal to TT a few times for about an hour before he stopped playing. By then it was already 9.45pm and the kids looked visibly tired.

Poor Isaac could only take short naps while travelling from one place to another. But I think he enjoyed the visitations. I had a mother's foresight to get both kids take a bath at the home of our 3rd stop. Can't imagine having them sleep through the night in the whole day's sweat and grime! Isaac was knocked out on the way home in the car. We only had to put on his diapers and long jammies when we carried him to bed. Cheryl slept in the car too, but we managed to get her to change to her jammies before she actually went to bed.

CNY 2nd Day (Mon)
We visited TT's aunt in the morning. Originally we thought they were "pantang", and were planning not to visit her. But she said as long as we were not wearing those little mourning taggies, it was ok to visit. Oo..kay... whatever...

We originally wanted to go to VivoCity for lunch but there was a terrible jam on the way there, so we detoured to Safra Mt. Faber taking our chance of the restaurants there being open. They were, so we ate at the Chinese restaurant there. Weren't actually planning to have an expensive meal, but ended up eating one of the CNY set meals costing $188. It was just perfect for 4 adults (me, TT, TT's mum and my maid) and the two kids. Even though the food's not halal, there wasn't any pork dishes, so my maid could take all the dishes. We had shark's fin soup, abalone, chinese mushroom and lettuce, steamed fish and ee-fu noodles. We packed the yu-sheng.

In the afternoon, TT's family came over to our place to visit. We asked to help us eat our new year goodies, including some yummy gourmet bak-kwa! TT had booked the badminton court for 2 hours for my nephews. We just cooked a simple dinner of fried rice, ngoh hiang and fried vege for everyone.

We managed to catch the fireworks again tonight.

CNY 1st Day (Sun)
In the morning we got the kids dressed up. Cheryl in a yellow dress, and Isaac in a blue Thomas the Tank Engine T-shirt. He chose this over some chinky orange red T-shirt! So young, so fussy! I decided not to dress them in traditional chinese garb this year, 'cos it's only worn once and such a waste of money... Didn't really have time to buy too because my Dad passed away.

We got the kids to "pai nian" to me with oranges. Boy, it wasn't easy to get Isaac to do this for the camera! We ended up with a pair of bruised oranges after a series of abuse by Isaac (rolling, throwing, even kicking the oranges!) In exchange, I gave them their ang pows together with their piggy banks. Below is family shot taken by our maid after about 8 attempts.

Then it was off to my mother-in-law's place. I gave out red packets to my nephews since my in-laws didn't mind. This is pic with my MIL, SIL and nephews. My elder SIL's family is not in the picture.

We stayed till mid noon before returning home. We would be having our reunion dinner with my sis family that evening. My mum decided to hold it at my place since most of the food was in my fridge. We had pseudo steamboat... my mum precooked all the separate ingredients in advance, so that we could pick and choose what we want into our soup. I much prefer it this way, not so messy and the food cooked to perfection. I never quite liked traditional steamboat, everybody dumps everything in and in the end it gets all fished out together in one big unappetizing mess. Worse if someone cracks an egg in the soup as well.

I gave out the red packets, orange and green piggy banks to Lauren and Oli. We managed to catch the CNY fireworks from our window at 9pm.

CNY Eve (Sat)
We did more spring cleaning today. This is Cheryl helping to wipe the TV (like real). Mum cooked some sweet longan soup soup with sweetened ginko nuts which we ate before midnight...hmmmm.. couldn't wait for the new year lah! The kids went to bed before midnight, so only TT and I managed to catch the fireworks from our window at midnight.

CNY Reunion Dinner (Fri)
We had our reunion dinner for TT's side early this year on Friday evening. Our company didn't give us any half day, so I made my way to Tampines after work while TT brought the kids there a little earlier. We had steamboat, which was the reunion dinner option for the past few years, since my aging MIL did not really have the mood nor energy to do anymore major cooking.

Festive Decorations

2007-02-15T23:43:00.000+08:00

For the past few years my CNY decor was actually our Christmas tree re-adorned with chinesey ornaments! Yes, really! Silver balls and snowmen replaced with little fire crackers, tiny red scrolls and plastic mandarin oranges. I was simply too lazy to pack up the christmas tree, so I just redecorated it... So clever right, I thought... Yeah, but apparently it was a sight too disturbing to take in for some of our visitors.

This year I decided to abandon this because the tree was just taking too much space in our living room. I reverted back to normal festive decorations, and Cheryl has contributed some too, thanks to her art and craft sessions at school. Cheryl painted this word "chun" (spring) in school and we pasted it upside down on our front door. I think her writing is not bad for a pre-schooler. The couplets I bought at $1 each. They were the only ones I could find that were not too gaudy or chinky.

This lantern was also done at school with the help of her teachers. Using the square red packets given out by DBS Bank this year, I made another 2 more lanterns. It uses 6 square red packets and it's not difficult to make, I'm sure you can figure out from the photo.

With Cheryl's help, I hung various CNY ornaments on the shelf above our TV. These are some of the ornaments I usually decorate the Christmas tree with in previous years.

This coming year being the year of the pig, I decided to give my 2 kids and 2 nieces a piggy bank each together with their red packets. I managed to get these at $4.90 each at Guardian Pharmacy. Yellow for Cheryl, Blue for Isaac, Green for Oli, and Orange for Lauren. I think the kids will like them. I managed to find red packets that will fit into the transparent plastic container for the pigs. I also put two $1 coins into each piggy bank so that the pigs won't go hungry!

My CREATIVE MP3 Players Collection

2007-02-15T15:13:00.000+08:00

Just for fun, I decided to take a pic of the collection of MP3 players I have. I've bought other models for friends and family, but these are my own. The first three are MuVo TX FM players of different capacities (Silver:128MB, White: 256MB, Blue: 512MB). The one with an orange dial is the ZenV Plus 1G, and big square one is the MuVo2 FM 5G. The MuVo TX FM players are rather old models and slight bulky in today's standard, but I like it because I can just pull it out to use as a thumb drive. They also have FM and I can do FM recording. In fact all the models I bought with FM because I listen to radio more than to ripped MP3 music.

The range of prices that these players cost me is also something quite interesting. These are what I paid for them in ascending order:
1) $1
2) $8
3) $29
4) $60
5) $124

Can you guess which player matches which price? BTW this is a trick question, so don't bother to try...hehe...Here are the answers:
1) $1 - ZenV Plus 1G. Yes!! I kid you not! Actually all staff were given a $150 Creative Store voucher during our 25th Anniversary last December and I decided to buy this player which was priced at $151. So in effect it costs me $1 lah! This is one of Creative's current players with radio and video playback.

2) $8 - MuVo TX FM 128MB (Silver). Just bought this from our recent CNY Staff sale because it was cheap. Capacity a bit small though. Maybe let Cheryl use it next time for school? My colleague also had the idea of buying these $8 128MB players (there were other models) and put them in red packets and give them as gifts during Chinese New Year.

3) $29 - MuVo TX FM 512MB (Blue). Also just bought during the CNY Staff sale. Will probably pass it to TT.

4) $60 - MuVo2 FM 5G. Bought during the CNY Staff sale. I will be using it more like a portable hard disk, storing larger files like videos and photos. This is an old model, I think not available in retail stores anymore.

5) $124 - MuVo TX FM 256MB (White). Bought this in May 2005, almost 2 years ago and have been using it till now, esp. for file transfer and radio listening. I like it, that's why I bought the other two MuVo TX FM players during the CNY sale. Look at how much it cost me then!

A Romantic Valentine's Day Not

2007-02-14T23:47:00.000+08:00

Aiyah, see what married life with kids can reduce Valentine's Day to...
Our original plan was actually to eat the famous Still Road black pepper crab with my sis and Mel (without the kids) on Thursday (as shop is closed on Wednesdays). The four of us are all suckers for crab... But decided not to because we feared the price of seafood could be jacked up during the CNY period. So we just decided to meet up at Chinatown with the kids. In order to avoid the hassle of feeding the kids dinner outside, we had them take dinner at home first.

On the way to Chinatown, we got unwittingly held up in slow traffic, so we made a detour and ended up in Tiong Bahru market. So TT & I had an absolutely unromantic dinner of prawn noodle soup, char kway teow and chwee kueh! haha

After that we managed to meet my sis and family along the crowded streets of Chinatown. My guess was the crowd was not at its peak, but even then it was enough to put me off. Especially with two kids in tow. Didn't buy anything, just didn't have the mood. Since there was school the next day, we didn't stay long there anyway. So that's how we celebrated VD. I'm sure we'll make up for it with black pepper crab another day...*drooling*

Sunny Sunday

2007-02-11T23:41:00.000+08:00

In the morning we headed to East Coast Park while we waited for TT who had to visit the temple to perform some prayer rites to his own late dad and brother. The kids rode their kick scooters and played with sand. I guess they sorta missed the outdoors since they were pretty couped up at home during my dad's passing last weekend. To my dismay, the sun was scorching! Kinda wished for the cooling wet weather we had in Dec/Jan.

For Cheryl's art class, they were made to draw some pigs (see pic). Pretty cute. Put it up in a prominent place in the living room as CNY decorations. Did more spring-cleaning and packing. Nothing else exciting happened this weekend.

Spring Cleaning

2007-02-10T23:32:00.000+08:00

We spent the whole morning packing up stuff from my late dad's workplace and also from where he was staying.

Also did some spring cleaning in preparation for the Lunar New Year. Because of my Dad's death, we will supposedly not be celebrating CNY in "full force"... This is not by choice, since we're not superstitious. But certain relatives are, so we were told not to visit, since we would be bringing along "bad vibes" into their homes if we visit (or something to that effect). Along the same vein, we're also not supposed to be giving out red packets or "ang pows", Yippee!!! But I guess I can still give ang pows to my nieces and visit my mum and sis since the bad vibes will be flowing internally anyway! haha... And anybody who doesn't mind bad-luck-infused ang pows, I will willingly give!

At night we brought our kids and nieces for a car ride through Chinatown just to soak in the sights. The light-up was totally unimpressive and the place really crowded. Being crowd-phobic, we never stepped out of the car. Saw crazy people queueing for bak-kwa... By the time we brought the kids back, they were asleep, except for Isaac who had a nap in the afternoon.

Rest In Peace, Papa

2007-02-07T23:27:00.000+08:00

The last five days really whizzed past in a blur. It all started on Friday
morning (2 Feb) when I got a call at the office that my dad had a heart
attack while he was at his desk. He could not be resuscitated and was already
dead when I reached the hospital (SGH)'s A&E. To cut the story short, it was
non-stop frenzy of rushing from one place to another: hospital, morgue, my
dad's place, casket, his workplace etc; answering and making many phone calls
and messages from both my own and my late dad's handphone; making all the
wake, funeral and cremation arrangements; receiving relatives and friends at
the wake, putting up obituary ad, getting miscellaneous paperwork done.
Frankly, there wasn't any time to feel sad and mope. We're all shocked at his
sudden death because he was always fit and active. Nevertheless he was
actually already quite old (71 years old). We're comforted by the fact that
he didn't have to endure prolonged suffering and pain before he breathed his
last. Everyone, including my mum, is holding up fine and the kids do not
appear to be too affected by his passing. They still don't quite understand
what death is.(Will fill in with more details and some morbid pics (just kidding) later.)

Now with those things out of the way, the sense of loss and the reality that
he is truly gone is slowly creeping up on me, especially when I'm sorting out
his personal stuff like his bag, wallet, medicine, driving license, ez-link
cards etc. There was some cash in his wallet and I unconciously left it in
there...as if I had expected to one day return the wallet back to him again.

Papa, we will miss you...

Day 5 - Collection of Ashes and Columbarium

2007-02-06T11:22:00.000+08:00

So what should we do with our dad's ashes?? I expressed my dilemma to the Franciscan priest who did my dad's funeral mass and he suggested that I divide the ashes into two. One half can be put in the columbarium and the other half to be scattered in the sea. The reason why ashes are kept in a columbarium is for loved ones to have some place to come to to remember the deceased. Afterall, the spirits of the dead have gone elsewhere. On Resurrection day, all ashes will gather from all over and believers would be whole again. Well at least that's what we believe. I already know that, but just needed assurance from the priest that a sea scattering would be OK too. So... we finally decided to put him in the columbarium because I guess we still wish to remember him in some tangible way. It's not that we want to go against his wishes... we hope his spirit is in a better place, no matter where the final resting place of his ashes may be.

So in the morning, we picked my sis up and we had breakfast at Clementi Central hawker centre. I had malay nasi lemak topped with some yummy sambal cockles! Thereafter we went to the St Mary's columbarium to make arrangements for a niche there. My dad's ashes will be placed in a niche beside his other deceased family members. We bought a marble urn and and then rushed to pick Oli up from school and dropped her off at our place. We had lunch at ABC market before going to Singapore Casket to get my dad's ashes. They had collected the ashes from Mandai Columbarium on our behalf.

Then went back to Clementi to pick Lauren up from her school bus. We went to Alexandra Village where Lauren had her lunch while I tried to close my dad's bank account. I had to get some other things done before I could do so, so it will have to be done another day. We brought the urn back to my place for a while before we proceeded, kids and all, back to St. Mary's columbarium at around 4.30pm.

A Fransican brother was present to do the rites and prayers for the urn to be placed in the niche. The niche would be temporarily sealed until the inscription of the plaque is ready. Here you can see Bro. John preparing the niche, and the marble urn with my dad's ashes is on the table below. While we were doing the prayers, the kids were rather naughty, messing around with the pebbles and water features around the serene columbarium surroundings. Luckily the Bro. John was very nice.

Phew! Another mission completed today! I hope we made the right decision... If not, my sis and I are expecting dreams and visions telling us otherwise! Will post blog if we have any supernatural encounters...*twilight zone music*

Day 4 - Funeral Mass & Cremation

2007-02-05T23:48:00.000+08:00

In the morning we got the kids changed up. Had some trouble finding something suitable for Cheryl to wear for the funeral ... her wardrobe was mostly cheery pink! Finally I found a long sleeve shirt which just had a little unnoticeable red star. We reached the casket about 10.15am. Since there were no visitors yet and the kids were quite bored, we let the kids play some games with rubber bands near dad's coffin (see pic on the right).

We took turns having lunch at the nearby Lavendar food centre. Isaac was cranky by noon time, which was unusual, and so he took a short nap. Which was just as well, because then he managed to be awake for the whole funeral thingy. At about 1pm, the Franciscan priest from St Mary's, Fr. Jivan, came to say some prayers. At 1.45pm, the coffin was closed and we had a short procession behind hearse before the guests boarded a chartered bus which would bring them to St. Mary of the Angels Church at Bukit Batok. The kids wanted to take the bus, so we allowed them to do so with our maid. Apparently Isaac enjoyed the bus ride (I think that's all he remembered of the funeral).

The rest of us drove in our cars behind the hearse. The Funeral Mass was at 2.30pm. This was my first time at this church since its renovation. I read first reading and responsorial psalm while my cousin did the rest. Unfortunately TT didn't manage to take any photos at the church. After the funeral service, again we followed the hearse a short way along the driveway as if we were sending my dad off somewhere. Again the kids took the bus while the rest of us drove to Mandai Crematorium. This is like one big excursion for them!

This was my first time at Mandai Crematorium. Everything was very clean, automated and efficient. Almost impersonal. We had a short service and thereafter guests were allowed to put flowers into the coffin before they closed it for the last time. We were then led to the viewing gallery where we could see the coffin being trolleyed automatically towards the furnace. We said prayers as the coffin proceeded slowly. This was certainly less dramatic than having people heaving and shoving the coffin into the incinerator at the old crematorium at Mt. Vernon. So this is it... this is how it all ends...

The chartered bus was going back to Lavendar Street, so Isaac was disappointed that he could not take the bus back. On the way back home the kids were tired and took a nap. Later we all had a dinner of pizza at our place. That night we finally managed to get a good rest, but poor TT had gotten a cough and runny nose from all the running around, lack of sleep and funeral palour air con...

Day 3 - Funeral Wake

2007-02-04T23:42:00.000+08:00

The kids didn't follow us to the wake today, they just stayed at our place with our maid and mum to play. We opened the palour room at about 10.30am and received more visitors today. Here's a pic of the funeral palour. We met up with many relatives and old neighbours and friends whom we hadn't seen since we were kids. It's a pity we only meet up in occasions like these.

In the afternoon, TT took Cheryl for her art class and at the same time fetched my mum to the wake. We catered dinner of fried bee hoon and red bean soup for the guests at the casket. We reached home after midnight. The kids were already asleep. Lauren and Oli slept over at our place again tonight.

Day 2 - Collection at the Morgue

2007-02-03T23:35:00.000+08:00

Had to wake up early this morning about 7am so that we can reach the morgue (SGH Blk 9 along Outram) at 8am to claim my dad's body. Cheryl also woke up and we told her we were going to "collect Kong Kong".

TT, being in the police force before, warned me that there might be "kaypoh" reporters and photographers to hound the bereaved families at the morgue. However when we reached there, we found that it was longer like that. There were signs saying that the press were not allowed at the premises. There were several other families there too. I met the Investigating Officer assigned to me and passed him my dad's medication. We had to wait a while and then the family members had to identify the respective bodies. One by one, we were taken to a room and I was able to see my dad's body through a glass window, a bit like doing a criminal line-up identification. This took less than 10 seconds. TT said it was much better now because previously he remembered that family members had to enter the freezing morgue, walk pass some other bodies, then the cloth will be uncovered for the family to confirm the identity of the body.

Then we had to wait again while all the Officers gathered to review their cases with the Coroner. Fortunately my dad's body did not require an autopsy and so we would be able to take the body back in about an hour's time. We decided to drop by my dad's office to clear some stuff there. The office management wanted to perform some cleansing rituals and needed us to help them remove some of my dad's religious items. We would clear his other stuff another day. Then we returned to the morgue to get my dad's death cert and collect the body. The guy from Singapore Casket was there to take the body for embalming. Thereafter we went to my dad's place to get his passport photo which would be needed for his obituary and also to be enlarged for the casket.

We went to my sis' place for lunch. And since we couldn't do anything else till 7pm when the palour would be ready, I attended the music class with Cheryl. Mel and TT went to SPH to get the obituary published in the next day's Sunday Times. Then we all had a quick dinner at our place before everyone,including the kids, headed to the palour at Lavendar Street. The kids were quite excited by the new environment and even helped to arrange the sweets, peanuts, melon seeds and red threads on the paper plate for each table. I suspected they just wanted to eat the sweets.

We had quite a number of visitors, mainly relatives whom we had informed and dad's colleagues. By 10pm the kids were quite bored and so TT brought them back to our home. Lauren and Oli stayed over at our place. I'm sure the kids had fun with the sleepover. After they had gone to bed, TT returned to the wake. It was almost midnight when we closed the palour room and headed home. I was really tired, just took a bath and went to bed.

Day 1 - Heart Attack

2007-02-02T23:00:00.000+08:00

I was in the office when I got a call from my Dad's colleague at around 10.30am. One of them had found him slumped on his chair at his desk. He was already not breathing. They called an ambulance and also got a doctor to do CPR on him in the meantime. But all the efforts to revive him were futile. Nobody knows how long he had been slumped at his chair. It was a case of D.O.A (Dead on Arrival) when they brought him to the Singapore General Hospital.

TT & I were on the way to SGH when his colleague called me again to inform me that he could not be revived. I was already mentally prepared for the news because when I was first informed, the situation didn't sound good at all. I broke the news to my sister who was also pretty shocked.

At SGH I identified my dad's body and they returned his belongings to me. Soon after, my sis also came with Oli to view the body. My mum took the news quite cooly and said she did not wish to see the body. She told us to decide and handle the funeral arrangements. Because nobody saw how my father died, it was what they call a "coroner's case". They could not release my dad's body to us yet. Instead it would be transferred to the morgue (Centre of Forensic Medicine ) and the police's Investigating Officer (IO) would be contacting us soon.
The Officer requested that we try to bring along dad's medical records and medication the next day when claiming the body at the morgue. With evidence of an existing medical history, an autopsy may be avoided, and this would expedite the release of the body.

After a lunch of our favourite chicken rice near my sis' place, we went to my dad's place and managed to find the medication he was currently taking. We also took a full set of clothes, including his suit, socks and shoes. We would need to come back another day to bring the rest of his stuff back.

After some discussion, we decided to hold his wake at the Singapore Casket at Lavender Street instead of the church at St. Mary's which is at Bukit Batok. Although it would be more straightforward to have everything held at the church, we decided that it would be more convenient for visitors to visit the wake at a more central location. We also had to get a priest and arrange the time for the funeral mass which we decided to hold on Monday. We also discussed what should be printed on the obituary which would appear on Sunday instead of Saturday, since we do not yet have the death cert.

As you read my account, it isn't apparent how much transpired as we decided on the various arrangements. It wasn't as simple as we thought. Relatives tried to pressure us to hold the funeral on Tuesday as Monday was the fourth day and apparently "pantang" (inauspicious) for the Chinese. Although we respected their views, we felt it was superstitious since we are christians anyway. So we stood our ground. What should or should not be put in the coffin to be incinerated was another minor issue. Whether or not my dad's ashes were to be scattered at sea or be put in a columbarium also became a major bone of contention. My dad had expressed to some, including my mum (but not to me), that he wanted his ashes to be thrown in the sea. However because of my dad's easy-going personality, nobody could ascertain whether he was saying this out of jest or really serious about it. For the record, at this point in time on Saturday, my sis & I wanted to scatter him at sea. But there were violent objections from my aunt (dad's elder and only surviving sister), as well as my cousins.

That night, despite being exhuasted, I tossed and turned in bed. The reality of my dad's death had not yet sunk in and I had so many things on my mind.

My Dad

My late Dad and my Mum have been separated for more than 10 years. For as long as I can remember, their relationship had never been really good. He was never physically abusive or anything, but I've always felt he was not quite cut out for parenthood. Although he did look after me & my sis as children, most of the responsibility fell on our mum. Anyway, when they finally parted ways, I was already grown up and started working. The separation was not really a traumatic experience for me because we weren't that close as father and daughter. After that we still kept in touch and met up occasionally.

When the grandchildren came along, he visited us more frequently, sometimes bringing the kids out and giving them treats. Occasionally he would invite all of us for dinner, including my mum. But my sis & I know and understand why my mum would never be reconciled with him.

Dad was a sportsman, playing soccer and tennis when he was younger, and subsequently golf as he got older. He occasionally played golf with my brother-in-law (my sis' hubby). He was very fit and active and continued to work as a cleaning supervisor till the day he died. At work he was efficient and meticulous. He didn't do the cleaning himself, but oversaw the cleaners and maintenance in various commercial buildings. He had a history of high blood pressure and hypertension and was taking medication for it. From what we saw and gathered from friends, he was extremely careful with his diet. The last thing people who knew him expected was for him to die from a heart attack.

Dad was, as my sis & I say, a free spirit. He couldn't be tied down. He was a well-liked, jovial, happy-go-lucky guy, often called a joker by his friends and colleagues. On the day he died, I discovered that he had planned to go to JB with some friends for dinner! His death was totally unexpected.

An Islander Weekend

2007-01-28T23:55:00.000+08:00

In typical Singaporean fashion, we decided to get our money's worth from our recently acquired Sentosa Islander Family card. We visited Sentosa on both days this weekend! Woohoo, is this an overkill or what?

On Saturday, we only had time to take the Express to and from VivoCity before we had to go back for Cheryl's music class. It was just as well because it started to rain.

On Sunday, the weather was perfect. Perfect for me is NO sun, cloudy and windy... actually there were small pockets of pretty threatening dark clouds here and there. We decided to pack lunch of chicken and char siew rice and drive into Sentosa. We parked at the huge carpark at Beach Station and then we took a beach tram to Siloso Beach. Surprisingly it was not as crowded as we expected for a Sunday. We found a nice spot under some coconut trees and the kids played with sand. I just love the sand here. They imported fine white sand from Indonesia to make the beaches here in Sentosa. It's so blardy clean and fine, and because it was slightly damp from the rain recently, it was perfect for making sandcastles. I didn't manage to take any pics of my creations because ZaacZilla destroyed them as soon as we made them. Ate our packed lunches and bought some ice cream too.

We also took a walk across the beach and wooden bridge/boardwalk (see pic above). So many tourists taking photos on the rocks and boulders. We couldn't lose out, so we took many shots on the rocks too! This is TT trying to perch Isaac atop a boulder, below is the shot of the same boulder from afar. Notice a bunch of foreign workers congregating at the bottom left.

More boulder pics...

We visited an IslandLife shop and bought 3 sets of die-cast Sentosa Express model trains for the kids at $12 each (see pic below). Needless to say, the kids were delighted. Blue for Isaac, Orange for Cheryl and Purple for our neighbour Sean. We also bought an orange Sentosa bus.

By the time we left the shop, it was raining. Wanted to take the tram back to the Beach Station but the tram was full. Fortunately it stopped raining, so we trudged back on foot. Time was a little tight because we had to send Cheryl for her art class at 4pm, but we decided to hop onto the Sentosa Express anyway since they gave us free train passes when we entered Sentosa. We thought we'd just take a joyride to VivoCity and back (remember we parked at the Beach Station). Unfortunately it's not a simple case of staying put in the train at VivoCity. We were "chased out" of the train and had to exit at VivoCity and get train passes again from the counter to enter Sentosa. Bother, but no worries, we have the Islander card! *evil laughter* So wasted some time to get ourselves another set of free entry passes and boarded the Express back to Sentosa's Beach Station. Then we had to drive at Formula One speed from Sentosa to Bencoolen for Cheryl's art class. Phew, just five minutes late.

Hey and you thought this was the end of our Sentosa adventure? Think again. When we returned home after class, our neighbour Sean heard about Cheryl's Sentosa trip and wanted to go too. He was also thrilled with the purple train we got him. So after her bath, we allowed Cheryl to follow our neighbours back to Sentosa again! Yes again! They even managed to catch part of the musical fountain show while aboard the Sentosa Express. Isaac was already knocked out by dinner time, so he didn't get to go.

I now have a "collection" of at least 12 Sentosa Express passes, just a few more visits to Sentosa and we would have gotten back what we paid for the Islander card! Sentosa should ban us...

East Coast Park

2007-01-21T23:37:00.000+08:00

The weather was fine this morning so we decided to go to East Coast Park for a picnic and to celebrate my mum-in-law's birthday which was actually the next day. The mango cake we had was nice. The weather was a little too hot and humid though. Such drastic weather changes... just yesterday it was pouring. After the picnic we headed to Suntec where we had lunch at Just Noodles. The food's ok, but not fantastic.

Sentosa Express

2007-01-20T23:27:00.000+08:00

My neighbour Sean has been eagerly waiting for this day... to finally take a ride on the Sentosa Express! It was just recently opened on 15 Jan. So after Cheryl's Chinese class, we decided to tag along too, because we knew if it had anything to do with trains, Isaac would enjoy it.

Our family, Sean and his dad packed into our car, and we headed for VivoCity. We had our lunch first at Food Republic. This is a pic of Cheryl having paper prata. They spread it out thin and sprinkle sugar on it, so it's crispy and slightly sweet. Tastes yummy on its own. The teh tarik from the same prata stall was also teh-licious (by our standards).

We had wanted to get the train tickets but decided to apply for the Sentosa Family Islander card instead because we figured we might be taking visiting Sentosa pretty often either on the Express or cable car. With the card, we can take get entry into Sentosa and take the Express free, and enjoy discounts for the cable car, as well as other attractions on Sentosa.

The Sentosa Express consists of 4 monorail trains, each of a different colour. Nothing too impressive but needless to say, the kids enjoyed the ride. I wonder if the four trains are capable of handling the crowds when the IR is up.
We alighted at Beach station, which is the third and the last station on Sentosa. We wanted to take the chairlift but Isaac is still below 90cm, so only Sean and Cheryl and the dads took the chairlift and luge ride while Isaac and I waited down below. Isaac spent the time watching the Sentosa Express trains go by. By the time they finished with their luge rides, it was time to go back because Sean had his swimming class, and Cheryl her music class. So to Isaac's dismay, we had to head back home. It was fortunate anyway, because it started to rain. In fact, later on the way back home from Cheryl's music class, we got caught in a jam along Commonwealth Avenue caused by flash floods. Here are pics of the chairlift and the photofinish of the Luge race!

Art Class

2007-01-14T23:50:00.000+08:00

I managed to peep in and take a photo of Cheryl during her art class at NAFA. She was doing some messy paintwork. Fortunately I had bought her an apron, so she didn't get her clothes dirty. Bought more art materials required in her course. Boy, art classes can be costly!

While she was at art class, I took the opportunity to explore the Bencoolen area. Nothing much nearby unless I walk a little further to go Bras Basar Complex, Bugis Junction or the National Library. Maybe next time I should bring my notebook and take advantage of the free WiFi at TCC in NAFA or the National Library.

Happy Birthday Mum!

2007-01-13T23:44:00.000+08:00

It's my mum's 66th birthday today. After Cheryl's Chinese class, we took her (Mum) along to Giant at IMM because she had wanted to do some grocery shopping too. This is a pic of me with Isaac taking a silly animal ride in IMM. It costs $2 per ride. Later, at mum's request, we ordered pizza, bought salted fish fried rice and fish & chips for dinner. These are some of mum's favourite foods! She didn't want to go to some expensive restaurant. After dinner we had the usual candle-blowing and cake-cutting. We had bought a durian cake earlier that day from Emicakes.
Later that night, I picked our maid up from Changi airport while TT put the kids to bed. My fears of the maid not turning up were unfounded. Yay, our maidless days are over!

2nd Maidless Week

2007-01-12T23:42:00.000+08:00

The second week without our maid also went pretty smoothly. I coordinated with TT to take turns to take leave to help mum out at home. Occassionally TT would take Cheryl to my sis place where she would play with my nieces. The week was also very wet, just look at the terrible flooding across the causeway at Kota Tinggi. Our warm beds felt very cosy in the chilly mornings and it was very hard to wake up!

Toothless No More

2007-01-10T23:35:00.000+08:00

The highlight for today was that I would be fixing up my broken front tooth! I decided to take the whole day off and run some errands in the morning, like banking in my four $1K cheques from Mr. Sim! Also took the opportunity to realise my existing unit trust and switch to another fund which will supposedly give me more returns.

Having had to endure six days of embarassing toothless smiles and spastic drafty pronunciation, I was actually looking forward to the dental appointment this afternoon. After about 30 minutes of unbearable drilling... lo and behold, I have a new tooth! Because the tooth was orignally slightly crooked, that's why the patched up tooth looks naturally "sengek". It's actually shorter than the original tooth, but I guess it's also not a good idea to make the teeth longer as that makes it more prone to breaking again.

This is supposedly just a temporary solution. No point doing crowning (which is very expensive) now because my tooth could just die on me and I may need to remove the crowning to do a root canal and then crown it again. So it's just a $50 filling for the time being. I will need to monitor the tooth for the next 6 months or so and then decide on my next course of action. The new tooth extension still feels a little foreign and I must be careful not to bite anything too hard. But at least now I don't feel so "naked" anymore and it even looks quite natural. :o) These are before and after pics of my front teeth.

Cheryl who followed me to the dentist patiently sat at the waiting area while the dentist did the job. When I came out and showed her my new tooth, she was quite intrigued and asked me if the dentist had glued my broken tooth back!

Back to Pasir Ris Park!

2007-01-07T23:25:00.000+08:00

We decided to go to Pasir Ris Park today as we will be going to my SIL's place at Tampines for lunch. The kids had fun at the big playground, playing with sand and the apparatus. This is the sandcastle I built with Cheryl's help (see pic above). This is Isaac climbing...one of those moments when I really appreciate seeing him well and cheeky again and having fun. Nothing worse than having a sick child.

In the afternoon, Cheryl had to attend her first KinderArt lesson at NAFA. As we expected, she didn't want to go. So we promised to let her do some sand art craft if she went for class. We bought her a new set of 36 oil pastels required for the lesson, along with other art materials. Although she didn't say, I think she enjoyed the lesson, or at least I know she didn't dislike it. While she was having her lesson, we (and Isaac) had a snack of roti prata and teh tarik at a nearby coffee shop along Bencoolen Street.

After the lesson, we went to Suntec City's 3rd level where Cheryl got to do her window art instead, since there was no sand art there. I let her do a large piece costing $8. In the meantime, we wanted Isaac to get a haircut at the nearby Little League shop but he simply refused to put on the protective apron. After that we had dinner there at a Thai restaurant called Tuk-tuk. I don't know about the other food, but the dishes we ate were sub-standard, and I didn't really enjoy the meal.

Back to Busy Saturday

2007-01-06T23:20:00.000+08:00

Our busy Saturday routine begins again today. Cheryl had her Chinese class at school in the morning and her music lesson in the afternoon after a 3-week break.

As for me, after much contemplation, I decided to attend my department outing today despite of my fall. My colleagues & I have been planning and organising an outing to Snow City for weeks. About 30 people turned up for the event. I was physically fine after the fall, but I just needed to overcome being too conscious about my appearance. My face is a lot better than what it was 2 days ago, which looked like Rocky after the big fight! But it was really difficult to smile or talk to people with a straight face. What a difference a tooth makes! Now I can't even pronounce my s's and f's properly! But I'm glad I went. I didn't participate in the more physical "winter games" in the snow chamber for fear of another accident. We learnt how to make ice cream using liquid nitrogen and had a ice-cream decorating competition. After that we had a lunch buffet at Sakura in the nearby omni-theatre. I'm glad the outing turned out OK and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Update: I managed to get some photos of the event from my colleague. Here are some pics showing how we made the ice-cream. It's almost the same way I've seen them make ice cream at The Daily Scoop (a small shop at Sunset Way that sells yummy hand-made ice-cream). Except that we use liquid nitrogen to accelerate the freezing, so it took about 15 minutes for the ice cream to be made with constant stirring. We poured the cream, sugar and flavouring in a big metal container and placed this container within an aluminium foil tray. Then liquid nitrogen was poured into the aluminium tray to cool the metal container, while the contents were stirred continuously until it thickened.

The finished product looked like this after we managed to get it out of the metal container. These are pics of how the four teams decorated their ice cream!

The Great Singapore Tumble

2007-01-04T23:16:00.000+08:00

This goes down in record as one of the worst days of this year and possibly in a long time, and I'm only 4 days into the new year!

In fact, I fell twice today! The first fall was not so bad. I had just dropped Cheryl off at school, and nearly at my doorstep. The corridor floor was wet from the downpour in the night. I slipped and fell on my bum. Nothing serious, just got my shorts wet. When it was time to pick Cheryl up from school, I decided bring Isaac along and wheel him in the pram. I was early but I had waited at the wrong back door. By the time I realised this, I was late, so I rushed to the other back door. As I pushed the pram along the road, the front wheels of the pram got caught in a metal grille, and I simply tumbled forwards along with the pram and crashed my face onto the road. Ouch! At first, I didn't realise the seriousness of my fall. I was more worried about the impact on Isaac who was strapped to the pram, and I was worried that Cheryl would be waiting anxiously somewhere. I picked the fallen pram up, and Isaac was crying. But he looked ok. I thought he had grazed his knees, but only later I realised he had taken a knock on his forehead as well. By then I was bleeding at the mouth,but I didn't realise how badly. My teeth felt strange too,but I also didn't know I had actually chipped off half of my front tooth. The sharp edge of the broken teeth had cut my inner lip, and I had bad abrasions on my chin and above my upper lip.

I must have been a sight to behold, probably frightened all the kids along the way! I borrowed some tissue from a passing bewildered maid. Cheryl revealed to me later that she was terrified when she saw me. She was almost in tears. The admin clerk insisted that I go to the principal's office where the principal herself applied some first aid on my injuries. Only then did it dawn on me that I had lost my tooth and noticed Isaac's bump on his head because the bulge had started to show. Many things came into my mind: "Boy, it's my front tooth! How am I to face the world? How much will it cost to fix it? Will I not be able to eat chilli crab for the rest of my life?" The principal was going on about the merits of this particular antiseptic cream she had just applied on my wounds, but I wasn't really paying attention. There were some bad bruises on my legs but it didn't really matter to me. I felt helpless, with one bawling kid and another traumatised one. I had called my mum, and she came down immediately and we went back home together.

TT came home later and brought me to dentist who helped me to temporarily seal up the edge of the broken tooth. I had to come back about a week later to fix the teeth up properly. Then it was off to the doc who gave me some cleaning liquid, dressing and antiseptic cream... and 2 days of MC.

I was relieved Isaac was ok. He even said, "Mummy fall down. Dun push pram so fast!" Frankly, I was quite shaken by the whole episode, and it didn't sink in till in the afternoon while I was resting in bed. In retrospect, I really wish I hadn't rushed. It really wasn't necessary. That's me, always rushing for time, trying to do things as quickly as possible. I've learnt my lesson.

First Day of School

2007-01-03T23:14:00.000+08:00

We changed Cheryl's school session to the morning, so she'll have to be in school by 8.30am. We were a bit worried she wouldn't be able to wake up, but thankfully she even managed to wake up before the alarm clock went off at 7.30am. Not much of an appetite for breakfast, so she just ate a little before we had to rush her off to school. A bit worried too that she would be facing so many new classmates, but fortunately a few of her classmates from her previous class also went to the morning session, so luckily there were some familiar faces. I'm taking leave from work in the mornings for the first 3 days of school, while TT will try to pop to help my mum in the afternoons.

New Year's Day

2007-01-01T23:50:00.000+08:00

With the stomach flu episode out of the way, life's going back to normal again, although we are starting the new year without our maid around. So far we are coping well, with me doing the housework and laundry, TT helping out with the kids and my mum with the cooking. I have to wake up earlier to do the chores. While cleaning around the house, I discovered that the maid was rather shoddy in some areas. Managed to clean some neglected areas like the children's toy boxes. It was also a good opportunity to spend time with the kids and I think Isaac has grown a little closer to me since I have to take off from work frequently to be at home.

Isaac is slowly getting his appetite back again. Poor little thing, he's already so underweight and so unfortunate he got sick. But since he's back to his happy self,I've also got my own appetite back.

Anyway, 2007 began with a really fine day in Singapore, very cloudy and not too hot. TT mentioned about going to the Animal Resort located at Seletar West Farmway 5 (near Jalan Kayu) as his friend had told him about it. So we decided to go there in the morning and thereafer take a ride around the Sengkang LRT, as we've not taken this before.
The Animal Resort is a rather neat haven for animals. It's quite well kept and they keep most domestic animals. I'm guessing some of them are abandoned animals. We managed to see quite a number of kampung animals and I think the kids found it an experience. They saw chickens, parrots, a cockatoo, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, a goat, pea hens, geese, a turkey, a swan, cranes a cassawory and another large weird looking bird that appeared rather aggressive. We were all quite intrigued by some newborn rabbits. See those light pinkish things at the top right corner of this pic.
We spent about an hour there before proceeding to Jalan Kayu to have a snack of prata and teh tarik. After that we parked at the carpark at Ferndale and we took the Senkang LRT. We took both the East and West loop before proceeding back to Ferndale station. You won't believe how many phots and videos we took of the light train as well as our journey and the tracks. You might mistake us for terrorists doing rail system research! We just hook up the camera to the TV, turn on the slide show function and Isaac would be enthralled for hours!

In the late afternoon after Isaac had his nap, we decided to follow our neighbour to Sentosa's Tanjong Beach to let the kids play with sand. They had quite a good time before some showers forced us to pack up.

At night, TT conducted a "mahjong class" for Cheryl and Sean to teach them some basics of mahjong. Many people may frown at this, but we're not teaching them the gambling aspect. I think it's a good game to recognise sequencing, chinese charactes and practise strategy. And at the same time we'll always have some ready "kakis" in the future! heh heh

Play Cheat

2007-01-01T23:24:00.000+08:00

In case you hadn't noticed, I have been manipulating the post time of my blog entries because I can't keep up! I'm actually writing this entry on 11th Jan but I'm gonna say 1st Jan 2007. Play cheat hor? Since my blog is some sort of a diary, I've decided to drop the dates from the title and just assume the post date.

So many things happening on top of being without a maid... always too tired to blog. Also too lazy to insert pics. The days pass so quickly ...

Sun, 31 Dec - Goodbye 2006!

2007-01-01T01:00:00.000+08:00

It was a really fine morning, so we decided to go to the Botanic Gardens since we had lots of leftover bread to feed the fish. Seems like we haven't been to the park for a long time because of the wet weather. My sis family came too.

After that we had a lunch of chicken rice... from me and mum's favourite chicken rice stall which had shifted from Tanglin Halt to a coffee shot near my sister's place at Clementi! What luck!

Later the kids came over to our place for a swim. I watched the movie "Nacho Libre" which my sister lent me. It was hilarious! Mum cooked my favourite ayam buah keluak and kiam chye soup. At last some real hearty food after the stomach flu episode...

TT managed to squeeze in a game of mahjong with our neighbours. Then close to midnight, TT brought my sis and kids to Seletar Country Club where my BIL was working, for the year-end countdown. I remained at home as Isaac was already asleep. I watched the fireworks display from my living room window. Personally Ithought it was quite an interesting display, as I've never seen a couple of firework formations before.

So 2006 came to a close just like that. Without much fanfare, at least for me. The final week of 2006 had turned out to be quite different from what I was expecting it to be like. I'm putting that behind me and silently praying this new year would be a good one for the family.

Sat, 30 Dec - Maidless for 2 Weeks

2006-12-30T23:08:00.000+08:00

We took our maid to the airport this morning to send her off to Indonesia for her 2-week home leave. Fortunately there were no tears from Isaac. Then for Isaac's sake, we took the skytrain to and from Terminal 1 and 2 a couple of times. We took several videos of the skytrain which we would repeatedly playback on TV at home for Isaac's entertainment!

On the skytrain we happened to meet a trio of friendly elderly ladies, and my mum struck up a conversation with them. The leader of the trio, who apparently knows Changi Airport inside out, volunteered to bring us to the staff members' lounge where we had lunch. This place is tucked in some corner that's not really easily accessible to the public. The food was not too bad and reasonably priced. We would definitely be coming back again another day.

On the way back home, we stopped by the Expo Metro Sale to buy a "Cars" DoodlePro board at $29.90. I had seen this when I visited the book fair the day before. The kids just love to watch the movie "Cars" over and over again and we decided to buy this so that they wouldn't fight over the existing doodle board at home. The board comes with two stencils of Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater which the kids really enjoy tracing.

Fri, 29 Dec - Times Book Sale Again

2006-12-30T00:05:00.000+08:00

I realised I still have half day of childcare leave which I had forgotten to take for the year. Since this can't be carried to year 2007, I had to take it today if I didn't want to waste it. Again I thought of watching a movie using my free movie passes which would be valid only till 31 Dec 2006. But I really wanted to visit the Times Book Sale held at the Expo. Thus I never got to use the tickets I won. Regretted a little going to the book sale which didn't really have anything worth getting. Almost had the same stuff as the previous sale. I didn't spend much, just got a colouring book for Cheryl and a 3D jigsaw puzzle for Isaac. I wasn't really in the mood for digging around the mass of books either because I was still feeling rather lethargic from the events of the week.

Wed, 27 Dec - Back to work

2006-12-28T00:04:00.000+08:00

In the morning Cheryl complained of stomachache... Oh no, did the stomach flu get to her too? TT gave her some medicine and she went back to sleep. When I checked back from office later that day, TT told me she seemed ok and was playing happily with my nieces who had come over to our place. They too had recovered already. Phew! False alarm... As for me, I'm glad I didn't get it after all, although I ended up feeling rather tired and lost some weight after the whole episode due to the loss of appetite and sleep.

Tue, 26 Dec - Boxing Day

2006-12-26T23:43:00.000+08:00

The worst was over and TT was feeling much better. Isaac was still complaining of stomach ache, having the runs and generally had very little appetite. And he wanted to be carried all the time. But at least he didn't throw up anymore. We had a company shutdown today because of the celebrations the night before. So it was a quiet day of rest and recuperation. I drove my mum to my sister's place, as she had wanted to see her sick grandchildren.

Unfortunately for mum, the stomach flu attacked her that night. I'm guessing she may have got it from Isaac. Probably she wasn't too careful while handling Isaac. For me I religiously washed my hands and used a disinfectant spray after cleaning up Isaac's mess or after TT used the toilet.

Mon, 25 Dec - A Merry Christmas Not

2006-12-26T23:40:00.000+08:00

Fortunately Cheryl and myself were spared. We still don't know what was the cause, but I guess it was a case of stomach flu, since nobody else in the Christmas eve party got sick except Isaac and TT. With half the family sick, I had to forego going to the Christmas Mass in the morning. TT and Isaac were unable to keep much down and felt extremely lousy. They just slept alot and took in only liquids.

In the morning, Cheryl opened up all her presents. Isaac was too ill and so we opened them up for him. In this picture though, he actually looked pretty alright enough to show some interest at his gifts, but lost interest quickly because he felt so unwell. We usually go to my cousin's place for lunch because her birthday falls on Christmas day. This year she turns 21 and was having her party at a bungalow chalet at Changi. As it was also a kind of gathering for my aunties, I decided to drive my mum there while TT and Isaac rested at home with our maid. Cheryl backed out at the last minute and decided to play with our neighbour Sean instead. I didn't have much of an appetite for the lunch buffet. Perhaps it was psychological and I was afraid I would be the next victim of the stomach flu too and was anticipating it to rear its ugly head anytime.

In fact when I called my sister that day, she said that both my nieces were similarly afflicted! Hmmm... perhaps it's in the air...

In the evening, I had to attend an event at Creative as our company was celebrating our 25th anniversary. I wasn't really in the mood because Isaac and TT were ill, but there wasn't much I could do anyway at home, so I decided to pop by, since I had already registered my whole family for the party. At least I, as an employee, should turn up. Again, I didn't have much of an appetite for the buffet dinner and didn't eat much. The performances for the night were held at the outdoor amphitheatre and Mr. Sim is really blessed that the skies held up for those few hours. Having little sleep the night before, I really couldn't keep awake for the performances. So by 10pm, I decided not to stay back for the lucky draw and go back home to rest. I drove home taking care not to doze off at the wheel even though my eyelids were very heavy.

Back home as I laid my head on the pillow to sleep, I felt really miserable, thinking what a lousy Christmas it had been! I managed to get some sleep for about 2 hours or so before being awakened by Isaac who wanted to drink some milk. We have been giving him plain Milo without milk. He was slowly able to keep his liquids down without throwing up and we were giving him small amounts as frequently as he wanted. As I was preparing his drink, I heard a beep from my handphone. It was a message from my colleague who had attended the event till the end. He told me that if my tickets had certain numbers (like Toto), I could collect $1,000 for each ticket! I had four tickets because I registered my whole family. I checked the tickets, and all of them had the winning numbers! Mr. Sim made it such a way that most people would actually "strike". So at around 1.45am in the morning, I drove back to Creative just in time to collect the 4 cheques totalling $4,000! By that time, the skies had opened up and it was pouring pretty heavily. But boy it was worth it! This Christmas didn't turn out to be totally bad after all.:o)

Sun, 24 Dec - Nightmare Before Christmas

2006-12-24T23:38:00.000+08:00

We had lunch at my SIL's place in Tampines and then we attempted to go IKEA Tampines, but there was a long line of cars to the carpark, so we just gave up. So we Went Tampines Mall instead. In the evening, we went to a relative's place at Changi Rise for a Christmas eve party. Everything went quite well and the kids enjoyed themselves. However, when we got back and the kids went to bed, our nightmare began. First, Isaac started throwing up while he was sleeping. He threw up a couple more times at night. Later TT started throwing up too and having the runs. It was a bad night and all of us, except Cheryl, had little sleep. My first thoughts were food poisoning from the party food, but we couldn't nail it down to any particular food.

Sat, 23 Dec - Good Ol' IMM

2006-12-23T23:32:00.000+08:00

We haven't been to IMM for some time now ever since we discovered VivoCity, so we decided to go there today. Surprisingly it was not crowded and we had little trouble finding tables at the foodcourt.

We managed to take a Christmas Choo-choo train which took us around the shops on level 2. Me & my sis felt so silly sitting in the train, but the kids just love such rides.
In the afternoon my sis and kids came over to my place and she helped me to bake my very first cake! I have never taken home economics in school and am absolutely clueless when it comes to baking. Getting started was the difficult part... I needed to get all my equipment, so I had been making a few trips to a shop at Jurong East called Phoon Huat to get my baking supplies: some baking trays, a flour sifter, greaseproof paper, baking powder etc.

I had laid my hands on a children's baking book and found one of the simpler recipes I thought I was capable of handling: a honey carrot sultana cake. This recipe didn't require an electric mixer, something I hope to get eventually if I want to try other recipes.

The appearance of the cake wasn't exactly beautiful but it turned out alright. A little too moist and too sweet for my liking actually. Decorated the cake with icing sugar and sugar toadstools. These are pics of my efforts...Before and after decoration. The kids were more excited about the sugar toadstools more than anything. They said the cake tasted OK but they didn't exactly ask for extra helpings...heehee

Thu, 21 Dec - Singapore Garden Festival

2006-12-23T23:25:00.000+08:00

I took leave today because I was going to help my sister make Christmas cookies with the kids in the afternoon. I'm clueless about baking and I just wanted Cheryl to have some hands-on experience. I was contemplating what I should do in the morning... Wanted to utilise my free Golden Village passes but there weren't any movie that I wanted to watch screened in the morning. So I decided to visit the Singapore Garden Festival instead.

TT dropped me off at Suntec City as the SGF had not opened yet and I managed to get Cheryl's Christmas present: A sandart kit and a card-making kit, since she was into these arty-crafty things.

I was pleased to get a SGF ticket at $4.50 instead of $6 using my NTUCLink card. There was quite a good crowd considering it was a weekday. Lots of old folks and people on wheelchairs! I took many, many, many pictures, especially the orchids. There were so many prize-winning and exquisite-looking species, I felt quite overwhelmed. I just took shot after shot of flowers that caught my eye. All of them were so beautiful. The various landscapes were also very nicely done up, you just have to see them for yourself as the pictures don't do them any justice. Here are just some of the pics I took. Pic of a lady's finger plant, quite intrigued by the way the finger grows:
One of many prize-winning orchids. This was the only one of its kind in the exhibition. It's almost as large as my palm and has almost semi-transparent petals:

Another large impressive orchid:

Unfortunately I had to rush through the whole exhibition within an hour and a half as I had to go home to pick Cheryl up and go to my sis' place to bake cookies. I even missed lunch since I had a heavy breakfast.

At my sis' place we managed to bake lots of gingerbread men and Christmas tree cookies. The kids helped to decorate them with icing sugar and mini M&Ms. Here's a a shot of their handiwork. My sis will be giving them away to friends and relatives for Christmas.

Mon, 18 Dec - Day Out for Kids

2006-12-22T01:50:00.000+08:00

My SIL kindly offered to take the kids (my daughter and nieces) out again today. This time it was to the Singapore Garden Festival held at the Suntec Convention Centre. I had wanted to go to during the weekend but entry fees during the weekends (Adult:$12) are double that for weekdays. I'm not really into gardening but I like flowers, and especially taking photos of them.

As expected, the kids felt that the exhibition was boring! But another friend of mine told me it was really nice. In the meantime, my mum brought Isaac for an excursion on the Bukit Panjang LRT as he did not go for the outing and sorely missing the company of his sister.

After that my SIL brought them to Tampines IKEA to play. I really don't know what they did, the kids just wouldn't elaborate! Anyway, the kids have already been to 4 places I myself haven't even been to yet: Wild Wild Wet, the newly-renovated National Museum, the Singapore Garden Festival and IKEA Tampines! So glad for such extended family support, so at least Cheryl and my nieces won't be too bored during the school holidays. I'm saving my leave for the first two weeks of January when my maid will be flying back to Indonesia for her home leave.

Sun, 17 Dec - A Wet Weekend (and an even wetter Week)

2006-12-22T01:47:00.000+08:00

Today it just rained the whole day. It was overcast in the morning but we thought it might still be possible to sneak in a visit to Botanic Gardens. But just as I was packing for the outing, it started to rain, and it didn't stop. In fact it continued on Monday and Tuesday, wreaking great havoc all over Singapore! My maid requested a full-day off today and my in-laws were coming to our place today. TT had arranged to play mahjong with his mother as she was pretty bored. The rain was really bad over these few days, my yard and our corridor was always wet because the wind was also blowing in our direction. We only managed to play two rounds (winds) of mahjong. It's almost impossible to have an uninterrupted game with our two kids around, and what's more we were maidless today.

This wet weather was also making me rather blue these few days. I have alot on my mind lately: my work, my hubby & kids, housing, primary school for my daughter, personal fulfilment and dreams, career satisfaction, finances and estate planning, etc. Not problems per se, but decisions I have to or yet to make. I just wish I had more time, but then it would never be enough. I wish I had more resolve, but I am a master of procrastination! I wish I could sleep less, but my body thinks otherwise. Sometimes I wish I could spend more time with my kids instead of being at work, but I don't think I have the temperament nor aptitude to be a full-time mum. Can we afford it? I have many personal dreams I wish to pursue but cannot. If I were to die tomorrow, will I have regrets? I have so much to do and feel so unfulfilled. Sometimes I wish I had one day to do nothing and just waste time lazing around at the beach while time for the rest of the world stands still...

Sat, 16 Dec - Cheryl's Music Performance "Concert"

2006-12-22T01:42:00.000+08:00

We decided to go VivoCity in the morning because we wanted to go to Toys R' Us to see if we can do something about the battery-operated Thomas train, which suddenly died on us... Even a change of battery didn't help. The Toys R' Us staff at the service counter just gave Thomas a drag backwards and Thomas was running again! Phew! He said that there was a spring inside and we needed to "wind" it up again by dragging the train backwards.... I didn't quite comprehend the mechanics, but what mattered was it was working again! Here is a pic of Cheryl having a splashing good time at the playground's waterplay area.

In the afternoon, Cheryl had her last music lesson for the year and the teacher held a mini "concert" for them. Extended family members were invited to class to see them perform solo a few music pieces on the piano. Cheryl was very shy and didn't want Daddy to come, but I managed to convince her to allow my sister and nieces to attend. Honestly I was quite worried about this performance, because she's naturally shy and had not wanted to go forward to perform in previous "rehearsals". I was not worried as to how well she would be able to play the pieces, but rather whether she would develop an inferior complex or become more withdrawn if she didn't play well or refused to perform in front of so many people. I had asked her many times which pieces she would be performing, but she never gave me an answer. I think her way of facing problems is simply to avoid them. Finally, it was her turn and she stepped up to the piano to play the pieces I chose for her. She did not play the two pieces perfectly, but what mattered was she actually performed. And she didn't do too badly, considering this was the first time she touched (as in played) on an actual piano, since she has only been playing on an organ. And in front of an audience too. I am quite sure she has my genes of having stage-fright and the experience must have been unnerving, at least it was for me! But I do hope she realises what she's capable of doing if she puts her mind to it. Hopefully, she'll overcome being too overly self-conscious of herself.

Wed, 13 Dec - Wild Wild Wet

2006-12-22T01:40:00.000+08:00

TT took leave today and took the kids to Wild Wild Wet, which is just beside Escape Theme Park at Downtown East. I was at work and didn't go so I don't know how fun it was, but TT took some photos. Judging from the pictures, it definitely looks more promising than the theme park, and TT even said he wouldn't mind going there again.

Tue, 12 Dec - National Museum

2006-12-22T01:39:00.000+08:00

My SIL offered to take Cheryl and my nieces to visit the newly-renovated and recently-opened National Museum. I really don't know how much the kids can really appreciate the exhibits at the museum being just 5-6 year-olds, but I know Cheryl and my nieces generally have fun when they are together. I suppose new and interesting places with wide open spaces are always regarded as "playgrounds" for them!

Sun, 10 Dec - A Relaxing Sunday

2006-12-22T01:36:00.000+08:00

Today my in-laws came over to our place. We had booked the badminton court for our nephews to play and they also went swimming. It was basically a relaxing afternoon gathering. In the evening we (me, TT, my sis & Mel) managed to "escape" from the kids to have a good dinner of curry fish head at one of our favourite stalls at Golden Mile Food Centre along Beach Road.

Sat, 9 Dec - Escape Theme Park

2006-12-22T01:33:00.000+08:00

Since there was a promotion of $6 instead of the usual $16.50 per entry, we decided to give the Escape Theme Park at Downtown East a try in the morning. My sis and nieces, as well as my maid also came along. The kids were really excited when they were at the entrance. Personally, I must say I was rather disappointed. Perhaps most of the rides are more suitable for older children and teens. Not much choice for the younger kids and family. I don't think it's fair to compare it with the Genting theme park, but I must say it was still a letdown for me.

Singapore really needs a proper respectable theme park and I'm glad the Marina and Sentosa IR projects are underway. The kiddy rides here are so tiny and unimpressive. The kids took the Choo Choo Train, Ferris Wheel, Red Baron airplane ride (see pics), Yakult Kite Flyer and the Family Coaster. And I thought the ones in Genting were bad.

The Family Coaster ride was a bit too thrilling for Cheryl, though my nieces loved it. Probably it's her first experience on a slightly more motion-aggressive ride. Maybe she'll learn to like this kind of thrilling feeling as she grows older. We wanted to try the Daytona Beginner's Track (Go-Kart)but the queue was moving much too slowly, so we gave up. Quite a number of rides were closed too. The carnival games were a real rip-off at $2 for 3 throws. We only played because we were given the free coupons. We also had free popcorn and ice-cream.

In all due fairness, the kids did actually enjoy themselves but I think we adults were just relieved we did not pay the full fare to "enjoy" such mediocre attractions. I think Isaac liked the Choo Choo Train ride but he'd be better off taking the Bukit Panjang LRT! Definitely my first and last time there unless I'm forced to go again.

Sun, 3 Dec - John Little Warehouse Sale at Expo

2006-12-06T16:40:00.000+08:00

$plurge Weekend Part 3

Today we took a breather from our usual park-horse-clams program we've been having over the past few Sundays. There was a drizzle in the morning, so we couldn't go to the park. I badly wanted to go to the JL Warehouse sale at the Expo so we decided to make our way there. Of course I had extreme reservations about going there - on top of the JL Sale, there was Sitex, Big Boyz Toyz, and church services... on a Sunday somemore!! But I really needed (wanted) to do some shopping, esp. for Christmas gifts. I was right, half of Singpore was there (the rest went to IKEA Tampines,haha... according to reliable sources, VivoCity is not that crowded anymore!) The Expo carpark was super-duper full, every little illegal space was taken. TT dropped me, the kids and maid off first while he went to find a place to park somewhere far away.

Fortunately for me, I think the crowds must have been at some other exhibitions because the JL Sale crowd was quite acceptable to me. My maid and TT looked after the kids while I shopped like a mad woman. I skipped lunch while TT and the maid brought the kids to eat. Thankfully the claypot laksa I had in the morning sustained me till dinnertime.I spent a total of $183 for kids clothes, christmas gifts, toys, stationery, underwear, cushion, Vitamin C pills, a Thomas VCD & some other stuff. Even my maid managed to get a $10 handbag. Quite happy with my haul in just about 2 hours. Wish I could shop somemore. This is a snapshot of the kids' clothes I bought.

While we were queueing up to pay, TT had to leave us to go entertain some overseas guest. The kids were playing around my trolley as I queued. We queued for about 20-30 min to reach the cashier. Isaac got tired and decided to take a nap, so my maid carried him. We had originally wanted to take the MRT back but since I had so much stuff to carry and with Isaac asleep, I convinced Cheryl that we should take a cab. The cab fare came up to $15.30 plus $2 Expo surcharge. I wonder if this cancelled the savings I made in the sale...:(

It was almost 3pm when we reached home, and my maid went off soon after as it was her half day off. So it's just me and the kids at home. While Isaac slept, I taught Cheryl to draw using the new Crayola crayons ($6.90 for 64 colours) and we also played with the Thomas memory game (both bought in the sale). Later the kids played at my neighbour's place and even had dinner there. It's nice to have neighbours to help each other out and have kids as playmates.

JL Sale = $183
Taxi = $17.30
Total = $200.30

Sat, 2 Dec - Registration for NAFA Art Classes

2006-12-06T16:34:00.000+08:00

$plurge Weekend Part 2

Aiyah, we are becoming typical Singapore kiasu parents... We wanted to sign up Cheryl for art lessons at NAFA so we needed to queue up to register. Art lessons are so popular now, parents are just signing up their kids for all kinds of enrichment classes. Our purpose was for Cheryl to enjoy these classes, because she liked to draw. It would be good if she could learn more ways to express her creativity. We were surprised she objected violently to attending the classes, saying, "but I already know how to draw!!!" We are signing her up anyway because we're quite sure she probably would enjoy the lessons eventually. It was the same thing for her music classes. She used to raise a hue and cry about having to go for music classes, but ever since she discovered she could play some decent music on the keyboard with both hands, she said she wanted to continue. Anyway, TT & I decided if she really didn't enjoy the art lessons, we would pull her out.

Registration starts at 9am, and you must be in the mailing list to even qualify to register. That's how hot the lessons are. The school has a good programme and the lessons are quite reasonably priced ($336 for 20 weeks). I thought my sister's kids could register too, but found out they can't because my sister was not in the mailing list :(

TT & I had to wake up earlier than we ever do on normal days! The kids were still asleep when we left the house. We reached NAFA at 8am and there was already a queue of about 45 parents in front of us! Everybody came prepared with foldable chairs, mats and newspapers! I wish I had taken photos, but I was scared people come and "hammer" me for taking their picture! TT went to take breakfast first while I stayed in the queue. By the time registration open at 9am, the queue was already snaking to quite some distance away. Places were limited because favourable time slots were already taken up by existing students and siblings. We decided on an afternoon time slot on Sunday because we didn't want Cheryl to have too many lessons back-to-back on Saturday.

Fortunately by 10.15am we were done,and then I had a hearty breakfast of nasi lemak at the nearby Fong Seng stall. We didn't tell Cheryl we had signed her up in case she made a ruckus, so we just said we went out for breakfast. The kids were happily decorating the tree while we were out. Later, TT brought the kids to the fun pool at the NTU Alumin Clubhouse (at One North) while my sis and I went to the Arena swimwear sale at Henderson Industrial park. I bought a swimsuit for myself and Cheryl. Then we all had lunch at the clubhouse.

I managed to build the tracks around the tree and now battery-operated Thomas runs around it. Isaac really loves watching it go round, and he presses the button to play the "Jungle Bells" tune. I also helped Cheryl rebuild her Lego town under the tree. We built 4 stations/tunnels using the larger Megablocks/Lego bricks: Green (Buona Vista), Yellow (Commonwealth), Blue (Queenstown), Red (Redhill). A little bit sick of the 3-year old decor, but with the lights on, I think the tree still looks really nice.

Art lessons + registration = $377
My swimsuit = $10 (original $50+)
Cheryl's swimsuit = $19
Total = $406

Fri, 1 Dec - Our Christmas Tree is Up!

2006-12-06T16:26:00.000+08:00

$plurge Weekend Part 1

Cheryl circles the dates on her wall calendar everyday, so in the morning when she circled 1st December, she said that we have to set up the Christmas tree today. So as soon as we returned from work that evening, she kept reminding us like a broken record about setting up the tree.

But we wanted to drop by IKEA Alexandra that evening because they were having their 4-day party in conjunction with the opening of IKEA Tampines and I wanted to buy some of the offer items. Being crowd-phobic, I was really glad IKEA was sprouting up at Tampines too... so now it can draw the crowds there! And amazingly fast too, how they get these malls up in less than 2 years (or is it one)? No more car queues snaking out of the Alexandra branch!

Yay, the shopping experience was a breeze without the crowds. First I joined their quiz contest...being the kiasu Singaporean, I filled up all forms in 4 different languages. We got cute mini blue IKEA bags for joining the contest. Quite cool, just like the big yellow shopping bags, just blue and much smaller. As we entered the store, the staff were handing out mini red heart-with-velcro-hands soft toys. Nice.
There isn't much of a play area at the children's section anymore, so the kids just had fun playing about in the various children room set-ups.
Isaac was literally testing out each bed! I wonder how often they change the sheets...but I think I'm better off not knowing!

Cheryl wanted to eat a hot dog,so we decided to make our way out. On the way I picked up 3 sets photo frames (UP $12.90, now $6.90), a clock with world globe design, an alarm clock, and 2 sets of AAA-sized batteries.

3 x Photo frames = $20.70
Wall clock = $4.90
Alarm clock = $1.90
2 x Battery packs = $10
Total = $37.50
(ok, not exactly a splurge, but big splurges got to start somewhere right? More Splurges in Parts 2 and 3)

When we reached home, Cheryl started her broken record sequence again. So I had no choice but to lug out the box from the top of the bookcase. The 5-ft tree was up in 15 min. Isaac must be thinking: "So this is how trees grow!" Must remember to explain to him one day! It was already quite late, so we shoo-ed the kids off to bed and promised that we would put up the lights while they were asleep.

I got lazy this year, so I asked TT to string the lights round the tree. Tree lights are most troublesome to set-up, but I do think they are much nicer than those trees with fibre lights. TT also helped me put up the silver and white baubles. I just admired from afar... After setting up the tree every year, it's time for me to take a break.hehe I helped sweep the area around the tree as it's quite dusty after all the setting up.

We left the rest of the decorations for the kids to put up the next morning. These are just small bear toys that can be easily placed on the tree branches. This is a reluctant Isaac posing beside the Christmas tree! Yeah, we have a beary nice christmas tree! :)

Poem on Art

2006-12-05T00:47:00.000+08:00

Hey who says I can't write poetry?!? I was doing housekeeping of my mails at the office and I dug out this old mail written back in 1999. It was inspired by an email discussion among colleagues on how art should be assessed. It was a very subjective topic, so my colleague (Winnie) and I decided to pen this poem just to poke fun at the serious topic...

A Local Poem: Our Thoughts about ART
(Disclaimer: May not make cents, bcos it's art)
Simi si art?
Adds F become F-art
Say so much, butt
all we get is more F-art.

Rediscovering and reading the "poem" again still makes me laugh! No wonder I didn't have the heart to delete this mail everytime I housekeep my mailbox database! Yep, this mail gets to remain in my archive till the next housekeeping exercise.

Sun, 26 Nov - The Clammy Saga Continues!

2006-11-30T23:35:00.000+08:00

My sister, having seen the clams I've dugged up from Pasir Ris beach was also itching to give it a try. Apparently she shares the same fond childhood memories of digging clams at East Coast beach and cooking it in instant noodles!

So we arranged to meet there in the morning. It was much harder work than my sister expected, especially with our inadequate plastic toy spades, and it wasn't so easy to find the clams. However, soon we got the hang of it, and we managed to dig out a good haul with the help of the kids and my maid. Here are my sis, kids and maid toiling in the late morning sun. Lauren and Isaac were smarter, they just relaxed in the shade...My sister said that we should go to the beaches at Malaysia one day to dig for clams.

We had lunch at my SIL's place at Tampines. Later the kids swam at my place and then we went to Seletar Country Club for dinner. I was quite disappointed that I missed going to the Popular Warehouse Sale at the Expo. Just had no time to squeeze it in even though we were at the east. I'm a sucker for book sales, and I had already missed the Penguin Book sale a couple of weeks earlier.

Look Ma! Sew Simple!

2006-11-30T23:29:00.000+08:00

This post actually continues from the previous one... Saturday has still not ended for me. At night when the kids were asleep, I made a cloth cover for the electone organ. I bought a piece of black cloth from Daiso, and using the old cover (which was in a bad state) as a template guide, I cut out the pieces. I had bought this fabric glue from Popular, called SewSimple from Bostik, and was just dying to try it out. I had seen the promotional video at the store and was sold. Yeah, I'm easily convinced...It's not cheap at $11.90.

I am quite pleased with the results. Tah dah! Here is the completed cover. I never learned to use the sewing machine because I didn't take home econs at secondary school. I have a small machine which I bought before Isaac was born and said I would try to use it, but never did. I had so many projects I wanted to try but couldn't because I didn't know how to sew. This fabric glue is really the easy way out. Now I have less motivation to learn how to use the sewing machine...Also, using the glue is so quiet. I wouldn't have been able to operate a sewing machine in the dead of the night, would I?

Even my mum looked impressed...

Sat, 25 Nov - Another Busy Saturday

2006-11-30T22:48:00.000+08:00

We decided to go to VivoCity in the morning as I had two things to do there: collect a $10 cash voucher from Toys 'R Us, and also collect 2 complimentary movie tickets from the Golden Village cinema. I had won the tickets in a lucky draw jointly organised by GV and SBSTransit.

Like the last time we went to VivoCity, we could easily find carpark space in the morning. While the kids played at the playground, I went first to collect the movie tickets. The counter staff informed me that they had "run out" of tickets to give out. I was very pissed because the letter stated that I can collect my tickets before 30 November. Nowhere did it say it was on a first-come-first-served basis. This definitely warrants a complaint letter. Update: I wrote a complaint letter on Monday morning, and the complimentary tickets are on their way via post. :)

Sometimes it's sad the way things work here. We need to make noise before action gets taken. Many would just shrug it off and say it's just 2 tickets, let's forget it. I wasn't hardup for the complimentary tickets either, just so irritated at the way they didn't really honour what were rightfully entitled to winners. After having written several complaint letters in the past, I believe it is an effort worth taking to assert your rights as a consumer or customer.

Anyway, next stop was to Toys R' Us to collect a $10 voucher. Then I looked for the Thomas engine that was supposed to be on offer at $29.90. Unfortunately, the engine only made sounds and lights up. What we wanted was the engine to actually move and pull the carriages around our wooden tracks. This type of engine costs $39.90. Sigh... should get or not? Then as we looked around all the range of Thomas the Tank Engine toys, we found a Christmas edition Thomas train set that came with a battery-operated Thomas and 2 carriages that even played the "Jingle Bells" tune. Included also were wooden tracks to place round a christmas tree. This set was selling at $59.90.
The big kids (TT and myself) decided to go for it. With the $10 voucher it would cost us $49.90. On hindsight, this was pure splurging. I think TT and myself really wanted very much to play with the engine! My sister also caved in that day and bought herself a pizza stone from Tangs, costing $45. She felt so relieved having bought it because she found out it was the last piece.

We didn't regret buying the train set. Little Thomas the Tank Engine pulled the carriages around our wooden tracks like a dream. We "tortured" it by making it pull a long trail of carriages (see the trains at the bottom right of the picture below). You really get what you pay for. The kids, especially Isaac, and including me, just watched the trains go by for a long, long time. And I also discovered something else... my maid is a whizz at making complex track systems as well! This one in the picture was constructed by her. I must say I was quite impressed and also ashamed of showing off my own creations in a previous post! hehe...

TT took the car for badminton, so Cheryl and I took the MRT to her music class at Clementi. On Cheryl's request, we took the double decker bus 147 back home after class. My sister, itching to try her new pizza stone decided to make pizza for dinner. Here are the kids doing their own pizza toppings. I didn't have the proper equipment at home, so transferring the pizzas to the stone was a real challenge. The pizzas were all odd-shaped, but other than that, they were delicious! I think the men didn't have enough to eat because shortly after dinner all of us went to ABC market at Bukit Merah to have supper!

Fri, 24 Nov - More Public Transport Adventures

2006-11-30T01:00:00.000+08:00

Had an appointment with my gynae in the afternoon but decided to take the whole day off from work. My sis would be busy in the morning fulfilling some baking orders, so she left her kids at my place. Originally wanted to take the kids for ride to the airport to take the skytrain. Isaac keeps talking about it. But I felt it was so silly to travel so far just to take the stupid thing from one Terminal to another. So I suggested taking the Bukit Panjang LRT from Choa Chu Kang Station instead. My mum thought that was a good idea, so we set off.

You know since the Bukit Panjang LRT was up in 1999, I've never had the chance to take this LRT. This would be my first time as well and I was quite excited too (me, excited about public transportation. HA! what a joke.) We took the MRT from Queenstown to Choa Chu Kang, then transferred to the LRT loop service.

It was a pretty long ride, with the light train taking about 30 minutes to complete the whole loop, going to parts of Singapore I've never been before. But I think it was a better choice than taking the skytrain! Isaac sat right at the front of the open view window with me and the girls & my mum were at the back. I'm sure Isaac enjoyed the experience. I know I did. While we were in the LRT, it poured. After one loop, the kids said they had enough, so we decided to head back home on the MRT to Queenstown. We reached home just in time for lunch and it had stopped raining. These are pics of the kids taking the LRT.
I had to rush off for my appointment at NUH after lunch, so I left the kids to do some stained glass art with my maid, while Isaac took a nap. This is the result of their handiwork.

Mega Tracks Network

2006-11-21T00:30:00.000+08:00

Got a confession to make...I actually love to play with my kids' toys. Lego, and now it's wooden train tracks. We were given the first set from TT's nephews who have outgrown them. It was an IKEA figure-of-eight train set. Then, TT & I went to Toys R' Us and got 2 more expansion sets at 2 separate occasions because we "needed" to make bigger and more complex networks. Subsequently, my sister also gave us a second-hand set of wooden tracks they got from a garage sale. This was a pretty large set of tracks. We now have a sizeable collection of wooden tracks! (You may also rightly surmise that we have a worrying toy storage problem brewing in our tiny apartment.)

Woohoo! TT and myself have a whale of a time constructing all sorts of complicated train networks. Usually they don't survive more than an hour because public enemy no. 1 ZaacZilla will destroy them after briefly dragging his trains through the tracks. Here are two of the many networks I did in two separate occasions. I thought I'd better take photos because they weren't easy to construct and I feel so "sayang" they get destroyed with one Zilla-kick.

Now TT is thinking of buying a Thomas the Tank Engine battery-operated train ($29.90, U.P. $39.90) to run through our tracks. Toys R' Us is having a Christmas sale now...

LegoQuake Caused by ZaacZilla

2006-11-21T00:19:00.000+08:00

Our Lego town finally got crushed by resident menace "ZaacZilla" a.k.a. Isaac. Thanks to my friend Colin for coining the name "ZaacZilla", and another friend Pat for the term "LegoQuake". This is the picture of the aftermath. Fortunately, Cheryl didn't seem too bothered - the rubble of bricks have been lying there for days.
Looks like a fine opportunity for building new creations! This mish-mash double-decker bus was made with our leftover bricks after creating the town. After the LegoQuake, it got shoddily "fixed" into this strange vehicle...

Sun, 19 Nov - Another Clammy Day

2006-11-20T23:59:00.000+08:00

And you thought the adventures with the clams were over...Well, it's an outing to Pasir Ris again today, and it was almost a replication of last Sunday's events. This round however, Cheryl got to pat a white pony... HA! My maid came along today and she, together with Cheryl, got into the business of digging for clams at the beach as well. Sharp-eyed Cheryl managed to spot many live clams while my maid dug. Together, our haul was pretty impressive. Just look at these shots... More than 60 clams.I sifted out the smaller ones into a blue cup and later returned them to the sea.

Here is Isaac and my nephews looking curiously at the clams. I don't think I will bore you poor readers anymore on my clammy stories. They'll probably be made into vongole or something!

In the afternoon, the kids took a long nap while TT went off for a badminton game (tsk, tsk). I had some time to fiddle around and play games on my new phone. At night, after dinner, TT drove through Orchard Road for us to take in the sights of the Christmas light-up. Tried to take some photos but without much success because the car was moving, and the camera battery just ran out on us (%#&%!). I also forgot I could actually use my phone camera to take pics as well...

Sat, 18 Nov - My New Toy

2006-11-20T23:35:00.000+08:00

Finally, my new phone arrived today just before noon: a Sony Ericsson K800i with a built-in 3.2MP Cybershot camera! I bought it online 2 nights ago from the M1 website. So after trading in my Nokia 7260 for $100, I paid $208 with an additional 2-year contract. Unfortunately, I couldn't spend any time fiddling around with my new toy since Saturday is always a busy day. In fact, I was just trying to call M1 Customer Service to activate my new 3G SIM card, and Isaac fell off the dining chair onto the granite floor. Nobody was really looking at him at that time. Fortunately nothing serious... was a little worried because he fell backwards and landed on the back of his head. He's been getting lots of bumps lately from falls as he keeps climbing all over the place.

I managed to use the phone to take a pic and video of Cheryl in her music class. My sis' kids were at my place today because she was busy catering for two jobs today. In case you're interested in having mee siam, kueh pie tee or other food, you can check out this forever-unupdated website.

After dinner the kids were restless, so we drove out to Tanglin Mall for some ice-cream. The kids got to see the big Christmas tree there, but we didn't allow them to play with the soap-suds-snow-simulation.I took this photo of the tree using my new phone. We reached home around 10pm, and Cheryl was already knocked out from the day's activities. I put Isaac to bed while TT went over to my neighbour's house to finish up his mahjong game he started in the evening earlier.

Clammy Farewell

2006-11-17T00:32:00.000+08:00

I talked to my friend Colin about what I should do about the clams I had dug up and he advised me against consuming them. He said Singapore waters is pretty polluted and just to be safe, I shouldn't eat them. He suggested throwing them back to the sea. Hey but I wasn't going back to the beach any time this week, so I wondered what I should do.

Well, my mum made the decision for me. When I came back from work on Tuesday, I realised some clams were already missing from my container. I looked at dinner laid on the table and I saw a couple of cooked clams with their shells wide open at the side of the stir-fried veges. "I decided to cook them!" she proclaimed happily! And then she proceeded to tell me what she had done to the clams she had eaten earlier. She washed the shells properly and pasted them on a picture collage Cheryl had done previously. Voila! The clams had reincarnated into butterflies! I must say I was rather impressed by her ingenuity. This is the picture I'm talking about.

In case you're wondering, I helped Cheryl apply the glue for the artwork above. There's no way a 5-year-old can be this neat. I bought the colourful pom-poms and pipe cleaners from my favourite Japanese $2 shop, Daiso. We tried sticking them with white craft glue but it dried so slowly so I decided to use my intoxicating tube of UHU glue instead.

So back to the clams... I ate some and they tasted quite fresh, though I fancy they're far too tiny to be of any good. The next night, my mum cooked the rest in the soup and commented that they made the soup so sweet...She suggested I go digging for clams again and try getting bigger ones next time! The shells we kept for Cheryl to make more butterfly wings.

I'm glad, at least the clams have been immortalised in Cheryl's picture...

Sun, 12 Nov - A Sunny, Pony and Clammy Day (for want of a better title)

2006-11-15T00:40:00.000+08:00

The day started out beautifully sunny, quite unlike the wet day before. We hadn't met up with my in-laws for weeks now, so we decided to go to Pasir Ris Park because they all live in the east. We went to the part where the horses were (I wrote a previous entry on this). My nephews rented bikes, and TT also rented one with a baby seat for Isaac to ride on. Cheryl was not interested (maybe still traumatised by her bike falling into the Botanic Gardens pond?), so I walked along the path with her. We stopped to pat and feed the ponies. Below is a pic of Cheryl patting a pair of pigmy ponies. I like their blonde fringe and lashes! And the pic that follows is a posed picture of me (my hand, rather) trying to do the forbidden! (I didn't in the end... I'm far too law-abiding, hee.) When we reached the beach, I played sand with the kids. We just dug sand and picked seashells.

I was reliving my childhood days where I used to dig the sand for live clams. And then me and my sis would bring them home and cook them in our instant noodles! I think I spent about half and hour digging about 4m stretch of sand and managed to dig out 14 live clams. I was quite pleased with my "catch" as I didn't expect to find so many. I'm sure the people fishing at the beach were quite amused by this grown woman digging diligently in the sun as if looking for hidden treasure! I collected some sea water in a container and put the clams in it. This is the picture of the live clams, with their body parts sticking out. I've never seen them this way before, because they were always eaten before they could be observed! The clams were actually pretty active, moving about in the water. I even took a video of their movements because I was quite intrigued. The kids also seem quite amused by them though they couldn't see what the fuss was about. I am now wondering what I should do with them eventually. Shall I cook them? You shall know in a few days time... (I think I need a life... here I am blogging about the adventures of dug-up clams).

After all the hard work digging the sand, we went to White Sands for lunch. We all had chicken rice at the food court and these are the kids fooling around at the helicopter kiddie ride there. Then we went to the Library to borrow some books. Isaac seems to regard the library as a toilet, because almost every time we step into a library, he poops! Fortunately, TT took him to the toilet to wash him up... Both Isaac and Cheryl slept in the car on the way back home. Isaac continued on with his nap back home. My maid was off today so I decided to prepare dinner today! Just didn't feel like eating out again. This is indeed rare... so must blog it down! I fried nasi goreng from leftover rice for TT & myself and the kids had pasta bolognaise. Cheryl even helped me to cut the french beans and watched me as I cooked.

After dinner, I lost my temper at Cheryl that evening over some trivial matter, and TT sensing the tension, took the kids out for some ice-cream so that I could enjoy some peace. By the time they came back, all was forgotten. Cheryl had too much ice cream and she threw up a bit at night. Hopefully she won't be too greedy next time...

Sat, 11 Nov - Viva la VivoCity!

2006-11-15T00:29:00.000+08:00

Since Cheryl didn't have her usual Chinese class today, my sister suggested we go Vivocity in the morning. Thankfully we managed to find carpark space pretty easily. The kids had a lot of fun exploring the open playcourt as you can see from the pics here. My sis and I managed to escape to check out the Cold Storage supermarket which apparently sells alot of organic products. We didn't buy much stuff before TT called to inform us that it had started to drizzle and that the kids were hungry. So we decided to have lunch at the Kopitiam food court at B2. Boy, was the place crowded. I'm guessing while we were happily browsing in the supermarket, the crowd was just streaming continuously into the mall. Around noon there were people, people everywhere.

After lunch, TT left for his all-important badminton game. Cheryl pestered me to do the stained glass art thingy again, so I gave in, knowing full well that she had music class at 3pm. But, I thought we could just squeeze it in. How wrong I was... By the time they finished, it was already 2.30pm. Isaac was already asleep in my maid's arms. From Vivocity, I first dropped off the maid and Isaac back at my place, followed by my sis and nieces at Clementi, before finally going for the music class at Clementi Central. My job was made more challenging by the non-stop heavy rain. Wet, wet, wet everywhere. We were half and hour late for class...

After music class, I picked up my sis and nieces again and brought them to our place for dinner. My mum had brought back some of my favourite ayam buah keluak (a peranakan dish), from my eldest aunt. At night we all settled down to watch the animated movie "Hoodwinked" on DVD. I enjoyed the show, though the kids got rather bored (as usual) after a while.

Some afterthougts about Vivocity: From first impressions, I think it's a really cool place, especially the open spaces for kids to run about. There's alot to look at, though many are just repeats of the usual retail shops. I'm definitely going back again do more exploring. Have to do this during weekdays or in the mornings when crowds will not be too thick. I have a sensitive "crowd-o-meter" that makes me really edgy if the reading gets too high, more so if I happen to have young children in tow. What I really hate most is a crowded and dirty toilet!

Sun, 5 Nov - IMM & Botanic Gardens

2006-11-14T01:54:00.002+08:00

In the morning, Cheryl & I went for Mass at Holy Cross Church with our neighbour and thereafter we proceeded to IMM for lunch. We arranged to meet TT & Isaac there. The place was really crowded simply because it was the weekend. We ate at Hoshi, the Japanese restaurant on the third level, because it was the least crowded eating place. We had the ala carte buffet while Cheryl had a bowl of udon. The food was good, and I've been to this place many times. After lunch I helped Cheryl and Sean do some stained glass art also on level 3. Each of them did 2 pictures costing $5.50 a piece. This kept them occupied for a while. TT made Isaac sleep but in the process he lost one of Isaac's sandals as it slipped off his foot while he was asleep. We tried to look for it but no luck. Quite a pity because Isaac really liked those sandals.

Later, the kids played at the playground on level 2, but I got really freaked out by the average number of children per square feet of playground area. So we decided to head back home. In the evening we arranged to meet my sis and family at Botanic Gardens to feed the fish. We almost didn't go as it looked rather overcast, but in the end it was just a slight drizzle and stopped by the time we reached there. The kids had fun feeding the fish and turtles. Dinner was at the Garden's indoor food court. The food was just so-so, I guess the stalls are not from the original Taman Serasi hawker centre that used to be opposite the Botanic Gardens. I was a little disappointed that they did not even have teh tarik...

I forgot to bring the camera so I don't have any photos for today's outing...:o(

Sat, 4 Nov - Mahjong!

2006-11-14T01:54:00.001+08:00

It's our normal Saturday routine, nothing special to report except that my neighbour was itching to play mahjong. TT was not playing badminton today, so in the late afternoon he joined them to play. I decided not to play as I didn't really feel like playing. It's not something you can play in peace with the kids around and needing your attention all the time. They managed to play one round of 4 winds and ended around 11pm. In the end TT was the biggest loser...

Let the Games Begin!

2006-11-07T04:38:00.000+08:00

I've created another blog called Let the Games Begin! to put up the comic strips I've been drawing monthly for my church's bulletin. I started the strip in July last year and so far I've uploaded the strips up to March 2006. I will be updating the blog until it becomes up to date. Do drop by and tell me what you think.

Days Without Daddy

2006-11-06T03:38:00.000+08:00

Fortunately, TT doesn't fly for business very often. The last time he was away, Isaac was still small. This time he's off to London for about 6 days. I was a little worried that Isaac would be crying for him as he's quite attached to Daddy. I remember when Cheryl was Isaac's age, she would be crying her eyes out during bedtime looking for Daddy. Now that she's older, she understands and even tries to convince Isaac not to be sad that Daddy's not around. Not that Isaac needed any convincing or pacifying anyway. Since the first night Daddy was away, he hadn't really asked for Daddy and allowed me or my mum to put him to bed without too much fuss (usually TT and I would each handle one child during bedtime). Even when I accidentally asked him where Daddy was, he would answer: "Take airplane" and point his hand up like a plane taking off. Keeping them busy with activities so that they don't miss Daddy too much.

Sun, 29 Oct - Public Trip to Nowhere
We had a delicious "ta pao" lunch of chicken rice bought from this halal chicken rice stall called Evertop Chicken Rice at Tanglin Halt Road. It's run by chinese but has muslim helpers. It is my and my mum's favourite chicken rice stall. TT prefers the famous Maxwell Market stall.

After lunch the kids were bugging me to take a bus ride. Not just any bus ride, but must be a double-decker bus! So we decided to take Bus 51 to Jurong East Interchange. This bus takes a "round-the-world" route (actually all SBS buses do!ha).So the five of us (me, my mum, my maid, Cheryl & Isaac) trouped to the bus stop and as we approached it, bus 51 arrived, so we all ran! No way we were gonna wait for @#%min for the next one. This bus is notorious for long waiting times (wait a minute... so do all the other buses! ha! ok enough of SBS bashing!) True enough, about three-quarter way to our destination, Cheryl fell asleep! What's more she had originally wanted to take the bus back home, but luckily on the home trip she wisened up and agreed to take the MRT back. Isaac surprisingly managed to stay awake, enjoying the sights along the way. I wanted to browse a bit at Popular bookstore at Jurong East Station but ended up staying there for less than 15min. The kids were bored and wanted to take the MRT back! Hiyah, these children! My maid had a more fruitful trip... in less than 15min, she managed to pick out several cheap blouses from a TOP100 bargain shop just beside Popular.

Isaac slept on the way back home on the MRT. Fortunately my maid was around to help me carry him home because he we did not bring a pram with us. While he was asleep, I helped Cheryl do this keychain for Daddy. She also coloured some pictures of flowers to be given to her beloved Daddy.

For the keychain, I bought this transparency-looking thing from Daiso, drew on it with a permanent black marker, then I let Cheryl colour in with coloured markers. Then I use a normal papaer hole puncher to make a hole. After that I have to put it in the oven toaster for a couple of minutes for it to shrink to about 20% of the original size as seen in the pic.

I drew these flowers for Cheryl so that she could colour them. Subsequently she drew another one (below) all by herself.

Personal Favourites
FOOD
Evertop Chicken Rice. Coffee shop at Tanglin Halt Road - Be prepared to wait for 15 to 30 min when crowded.

Thu, 2 Nov - Cheryl's School Concert
I rushed back from work to attend Cheryl's concert which was held this evening at 7.30pm. It was held in the church hall of the kindergarten. The hall was quite big, but still there are really alot of parents because the kindergarten population is quite big. Not quite ideal to hold the concert there because the seats are all on a flat level, so people at the back had to strain or crank their necks to see the performances. Needless to say, it was difficult for me to get any good shots ... on top of that, I was equipped with my old, not-so-powerful digital camera. Anyway I've already ordered 10 4R photos with Cheryl inside taken by the professional school photographers at a princely sum of $1 a piece!

Since TT was not around, my mum attended in his place. We brought Isaac along but he got bored after one hour and we had our maid take him home. The guest-of-honour happened to be the Dean of NTU's School of Computer Engineering who used to lecture us in Computer Graphics during my undergraduate days in 1993. Apparently he is also a deacon in the this church and member of the kindergarten's board of directors. Wow, I wonder if he still remembers me.

Some of the performances were rather draggy and the concert ended around 10pm, 30 min later than scheduled. I'm sure the children were all tired, and probably hungry as well! Cheryl's performance was OK but she must have been very shy or intimidated by the crowd because she kept hiding behind another girl!

Later I picked her up from her class and together with our neighbour, Sean & his parents, walked back home together. Sean is graduating from K2 this year. This is a pic of Sean and Cheryl after the school concert. After changing to her PJs, eating some bread and drinking a cup of milk, Cheryl went to bed. Could see from her eyes she was quite tired. Isaac, who had been eagerly waiting for his sister to return home from the concert, also slept soon after.

Fri, 3 Nov - Daddy's Back!
Really thankful the kids coped well with Daddy away. I caught the cough and sore throat from Cheryl a few days ago. Thought with my vitamin C intake I would be invincible, but also kena... Had some problems trying to read stories to Cheryl during bedtime because my throat was so hoarse. Somemore Isaac wanted me to sing along with the nursery rhyme book that comes with those buttons emitting electronic music! And Cheryl had to choose those books with so many words! These kids are so relentless!

After work around 6pm, I drove the car from my office at Jurong East to Changi Airport Terminal 1 using the PIE. With peak hour traffic, it took me about 45min. TT's flight arrived at 6.15pm and I reached at the arrival belt just in time to see him and his colleague collect their luggage and come out of the gate. TT was longing for some local food after a week long of western food, so we drove to Beach Road's Food Centre opposite Golden Mile complex (I can't remember what it's called but it has lots of good food!) to have Hokkien Mee from this popular stall at the basement. Waited almost half and hour for the food to arrive. But it was delicious. Then we had our mandatory cup of teh tarik which was really satisfying, especially for TT.

We reached home about 8.30pm and of course the kids were delighted to finally see their Daddy! Stuff at in England isn't very cheap so Daddy didn't get much stuff. He bought Isaac the toy London red double decker bus and London cab and several postcards of the London Flyer, a gigantic Ferris Wheel. He also got lots of chocolate and some fridge magnets to add to our collection.

Unfortunately the Canon camera's memory card got corrupted and some pictures he took of the Tower Bridge could not be retrieved. We're still trying to use some software to try to recover these pics.

Personal Favourites
FOOD
Beach Road Hokkien Mee. Can't remember the name of the stall nor the name of the hawker centre. You know lah, it's that place that sell all the army stuff. Such a good foodie I am hor. Just walk down to the basement using the main central staircase and it's the hokkien mee stall on the left.

Sat, 28 Oct - A Busy Saturday

2006-11-01T01:51:00.000+08:00

Cheryl had her usual Chinese lesson in the morning and her music class in the afternoon. In the evening, we (myself, my mum, Cheryl and Isaac) attended my sis' kids' (Lauren & Olivia) kindergarten and graduation concert at the S'pore Poly Convention Centre. Here Oli is dressed as a girl from Equador and Lauren is dressed for a very energetic dance item. Lauren is graduating from K2 this year, and my sis bought tickets for us to watch the concert. The concert went very well but Isaac was rather restless, fidgeting and preferring to play at the steps or swinging from barrier bars. Cheryl's cough got increasingly bad during the concert. Midway however, tired from the day's activities, she fell asleep, so she missed Lauren's performance which was the last item. I was using our old Fujifilm camera to take shots and videos because TT took our Canon camera for the trip. We were sitting quite far back, so I couldn't get very good shots for the concert.

Meanwhile, TT stayed at home to do some last minute packing for his trip. When we reached home, he had already gone off to the airport by cab. TT's flight to London was at midnight, so it was too late to drive him to the airport since I had to put the kids to bed. Also, I didn't want to distress the kids, especially Isaac, by bringing them to the airport and watching their Daddy disappear at the departure gate. So after coming back from the concert, the kids went to bed without much trouble since they were already quite tired.

Fri, 27 Oct - Cheryl's Full Dress Rehearsal

2006-10-31T15:11:00.001+08:00

I took leave today to attend Cheryl's full dress rehearsal for her school concert. In the morning I helped her put on some makeup while my maid tied up her hair. I took this photo of her before she went to school. Unfortunately, the school disallowed us to take photos while they were performing as they had paid professional photographers to do the job. So we have to go buy those photos at $1 each later on . I had wanted to take some shots and video for TT to see, since he cannot attend the actual concert the next week. My mum, maid and Isaac also came to have a look at Cheryl's performance. We could see that Cheryl was rather shy and maybe a bit self-concious because she knew we were present. But anyway everything went rather smoothly though I thought the whole thing was really boring and not as professional as the concert put up by my sis' kids' kindy.

At night, we decided to take the kids for a ride in a double-decker bus. We took Bus 111 (and sat at the upper deck) to Toys R Us at Forum Galleria. There we bought a large Doodle Pro board for the kids as our old magnetic doodle board was rusty and very difficult to erase. The kids enjoyed the bus trip so much they asked us to take a bus back home again (TT had wanted to take a cab because the bus stop was quite a distance away). So in the end we walked all the way to the bus stop just to satisfy the kids. They got to sit at the upper deck again at the front, which was a real treat for them. It's ironic that the kids enjoy taking public transport so much even though they have the luxury of riding in their own car. They don't get to go on buses or trains often, so taking public transport is definitely a more interesting experience for Isaac, who is currently obsessed with mass transportation.

Tue, 24 Oct - Hari Raya Puasa

2006-10-31T15:09:00.000+08:00

TT convinced me to allow him to play badminton in the morning. We let our helper take the day off today since it's Hari Raya. Lunch was at my sis' place as she had prepared something special to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday (which was actually the next day). In the evening we all went to have a buffet dinner at The Square at Liang Court. The main food selection was not that fantastic and not very wide, but the desserts were good though. (The following night we dropped by and brought my brother-in-law a surprise durian birthday cake to celebrate. Anyway,it's more for the kids... they're just suckers for this candle-blowing business!)

Sun, 22 Oct - We love Lego

2006-10-31T15:07:00.000+08:00

Thanks to the haze, TT decided to join us for Mass again at Holy Cross in the late morning. So perhaps the haze is a blessing in disguise...

In the evening, we decided to go to OG Orchard with our neighbour and Sean. We wanted to get a Lego set so that Cheryl can build more houses. She's been spending her time building instead of watching TV and we're glad to get her more bricks to make her creations. We got her a big tub at $49.90. I personally love to play with Lego and I wish I could buy more. This is the second set we've bought for her, the first being a Duplo set (bigger bricks). The rest were gifts or passed down from my nephews. I can still remember hounding my mother when I was a kid to buy this big Lego set which cost $99.90. I still remember it was a set with only blue and red bricks building a container truck, helicopter or crane, and other creations. That was the only set I had and now I wish I had not given it away when I eventually "outgrew" it.

Now, even TT and I have lots of fun helping Cheryl build her own town using the colourful bricks she has. Cheryl can follow the instructions to build simple items and even built her own houses. Inspired by our Genting trip, TT built this Lego Ferris wheel and I built the Astro Fighter Ride (below). Both creations can actually spin!

I also made this integrated playground. Notice it has a slide, see-saw, merry-go-round, monkey bars and basketball court. Like the creations above, the parts are movable as well! We helped Cheryl build these houses. Aren't they pretty?

However Cheryl made these simple creations herself: some trees, a picnic table and chairs, and a jeep.

Well, the hardest thing about Lego is breaking up your creations, but we're running out of bricks and soon we'll have to dismantle them. Or maybe buy another set???

Sat, 21 Oct - Deepavali

2006-10-30T23:52:00.000+08:00

Since Deepavali was on Saturday, it didn't really feel like a holiday. In the morning TT had to send some of his overseas visitors to Changi Airport, so we decided to take the kids for a short excursion to the airport via MRT. Since TT would be taking the car, we would meet him at the airport itself. My sis and kids also wanted to come since they had nothing else to do that morning. We met at Queenstown MRT and took the train all the way to Changi Airport Terminal 2. At the airport we took the skytrain from Terminal 2 to 1. We met up with TT and then went to the viewing gallery to look at some of the stationary airplanes. After that we had lunch there at the staff canteen before TT drove us all back home. I'm sure Isaac enjoyed the trip because he still mentions "skytrain" and "airplane" in his baby talk. Here are pics of the kids in the train...

Sun, 15 Oct - An Interesting Sunday

2006-10-20T18:36:00.000+08:00

In the late morning the whole family went for Mass at Holy Cross Church at Clementi with our neighbour's family. This is rare because TT is not catholic and I don't force him to attend church with us. But occasionally I will nag him :P. Today I managed to get Cheryl and Isaac to receive blessings from Fr. Val.

After that we headed for Great World City for lunch. We managed to get a pair of white shoes for Cheryl's coming school concert. Isaac had a short nap while TT carried him. We went home after that. TT had to return the goods van back to Tampines, so we decided to all take a ride on the van and later take the MRT back. Our neighbour Sean and his dad Ryan decided to go for the excursion as well. Isaac sat on my lap at the front while the Cheryl, Sean and Ryan were at the back. Everybody had a bit of fun in the van. After returning the van, we took the MRT back from Tampines station since the kids wanted to take a ride on the train for some time now. These are pics of us in the van.

We planned to meet my sis and family at VivoCity for dinner, but they reached there first and said that the place was really crowded. So we changed our plans and met instead at SAFRA Mt Faber where we had dinner at the Japanese restaurant again (we had gone there last week for TT's birthday).

Sat, 14 Oct - An Electone for Cheryl

2006-10-20T18:35:00.000+08:00

This evening, we arranged with my aunt to move my cousin's old electone organ to our place. TT borrowed a goods van from our brother-in-law in Tampines. In the evening, we drove to my aunt's place at Bt. Batok and transported the electone back to our place. It is still in good condition, and now I'm trying to figure out how to operate the buttons correctly. Now Cheryl will have a proper keyboard to practise on, though we'll need to always find some way to keep Isaac from interfering with her practice... This is a picture of Isaac tinkering at the electone.
Our place is already so crowded with so many things, and we still managed to squeeze this electone into one corner of the living/dining room. I will really need to throw some stuff out or move out to a bigger apartment! We don't know how long Cheryl will be able to keep up her interest with the keyboard. We're hoping she'd eventually progress to play the piano when she's older. Otherwise, I thought I might just pick up my electone playing again. Isaac is also showing some interest, so maybe the electone may still be of some use.

Mon, 9 Oct - Spinning Ferris Wheel art & craft

2006-10-20T18:31:00.000+08:00

Cheryl and our neighbour Sean were bothering me to do some art and craft. Inspired by the recent trip to Genting Highlands, Sean suggested doing a Ferris wheel with a paper plate. With some improvisation, this was the end result...

We used coloured paper for the spokes of the wheel and individual carriages. The kids drew the people in each carriage and I helped them staple each carriage to the plate. I poked a straw through the centre of the plate so that the plate actually spins like a real ferris wheel, though at one point everyone will be upside down!

Here are some other crafts we did previously with paper plates and straws.

Snowman: (right) This one uses plates of 2 sizes. Stapled straws to the plate for the limbs and wrapped a strip of unwanted wrapping paper round the neck for the scarf.

Butterfly: Cut the paper plate so that it looks like wings. Used brown paper for the body and stapled a folded straw for the anteanae. Cheryl used a hole puncher to get all those colourful confetti which we pasted on the wings.
Realise I don't really use paints because I'm too lazy to clear and wash up... We just use markers or coloured paper.

Sun, 8 Oct - Haze is gone! At least for today...

2006-10-12T01:58:00.000+08:00

Woke up to a gloriously clear day this morning...no haze in sight. Never thought I would feel so grateful for such unpolluted air! A visit to the park was definitely in order. Cheryl wanted Pasir Ris again, but TT & I wanted Botanic Gardens! Two votes against one! Cheryl's bad behaviour returned today, starting with a tantrum because she forgot to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on cable...*sigh*

Ignoring her whines, we made our way to the main lake of Botanic Gardens. We managed to feed one of the two swans there. The turtles and fish seem to be much more reserved than the ones at the Symphony lake. After that we went to the nearby field to play frisbee. This is me trying to imitate the sculpture.

Unfortunately, I was not strong enough, and Isaac was a wee bit too overgrown. TT had more success, but he's got no boobs like the sculpture... haha! Cheryl managed to collect some leaf specimens from the ground, and later at home I helped her to make this picture collage.

In the afternoon, we had some friends and their 2 kids over at our place for a swim.

Sat, 7 Oct - TT's Birthday

2006-10-12T01:55:00.000+08:00

I'm making a note of today because it's one of those rare occasions when Cheryl seemed to be influnced by her good angel! In the morning, without much fuss, she had her breakfast and I took her for her chinese class.

After class, she asked me to help her make a birthday card for Daddy. Hmmm, I'm thinking..."Very last-minute leh ... I'd been reminding her all week to make a card." Anyway I helped her to write the words in glue and she sprinkled the glitter on it. I drew a cake and she coloured it and added balloons to the picture. These are pics of our handiwork...
Then I asked her to practise playing on her keyboard as she was going for her music lesson in the afternoon and had been too lazy to practise all week. Surprisingly, with me coaching her only a couple of times, she managed to play quite well, and of course I praised her profusely, because I was really quite pleased. During the lesson, I was glad she was able to play well too, and I think it boosted her morale that she was actually able to play a couple of songs properly all by herself. She was even attentive during class. Over the last few weeks, I was almost tempted to stop the classes because she seemed to be losing interest and was too lazy to practise. I hope she'll be encouraged by her own ability and be motivated to practise this week. We'll see...

As a reward, I bought her a bar of FruitTella and a box of ink stamps to play with. She only ate one sweet and said she would eat the rest some other time! *Shock!* Even my sister noticed her good behaviour!

At night, my sis and I brought TT out for a dinner treat at a Japanese restaurant at SAFRA Mt. Faber. We really stuffed our faces with meat and grilled shishamo (pregnant fish) and other food in the a la carte buffet. Too bad we all don't like raw fish, so I can't comment on those. But the food items we ordered were yummy. After dinner we rushed back to celebrate the TT's birthday with the usual cake and candle-blowing. The kids were eagerly waiting for this as you can see in this pic...

Sadly, Cheryl's good angel did not return the next day... sigh...

Fri, 6 Oct - A Hazy Mid-autumn Festival

2006-10-12T01:54:00.001+08:00

My sis family came over to our place after dinner so that the kids could get together to play lanterns. The haze was really bad, I think PSI 150 for that night. The kids went downstairs to play with their lanterns but lost interest quickly because they wanted to play with sparklers. Isaac shook his lantern so vigourously the flame just went out, so that was that, I didn't bother to light it up anymore! So they spent most of the time playing sparklers and running around. But my niece developed some difficulty breathing after all the running in the haze and we decided to retreat back home. The air smelled really bad. We closed our windows and switched on the air-con. Then we ate mooncakes and pomelos and drank chinese tea (wah, so traditional! heh).

Tue, 3 Oct - Lantern exhibition at Chinese Garden

2006-10-12T01:52:00.000+08:00

My company offered these tickets at 20% off, so I bought lots of tickets for family and friends. I bought weekday tickets because we're so crowd-phobic. I enjoyed the displays for the previous years and decided to go again this year. This year's theme was various landmarks around the world, like the Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower and Leaning Tower of Pisa. Some displays were too gaudy for my liking. It was nice but I liked the previous years' themes better (like safari or sanrio characters). Anyway, important thing was that the kids enjoyed the themselves.
Click here to see more pictures...

Sun,1 Oct - Fun Day for Kids

2006-10-09T18:42:00.000+08:00

Cheryl fell sick with fever on Thursday and Friday. Not sure why, maybe she caught something from Genting, or maybe from school. Fortunately, by Sunday she was well enough to suggest Pasir Ris Park, which we obliged, grateful that she had recovered. The both of them only played with the sand there, so actually we could have just gone to West Coast park which was much nearer.

Everyone had a good nap in the afternoon, and in the evening we went over to Seletar Country Club with my sis' family for a swim and dinner. This is Isaac in the pool and the kids having fun in the children's play/ball room (Oli is Snow White, Cheryl is Bozo the Clown!)

Sat-Mon, 23-25 Sept - Genting Highlands Trip

2006-10-09T18:38:00.000+08:00

DAY 1
Having just gone to Genting only a few months back in May, I wasn't too anxious about the trip this time. This would be my third time there in two years. I reused the list I drew up the last time to pack the stuff for the trip, leaving or adding stuff based on past experience. Most troublesome is having to pack the kids' milk powder and remembering to bring a hot water flask.

It was my sister's idea to go to Genting to coincide with my niece Olivia's 5th birthday. We have three families going this time, our family, my sis' and my neighbour's. Going in a group is more fun, especially for the kids, but it was a little harder to coordinate and communicate. We set out about 9.30am after our breakfast. Right after going through Malaysian customs via the second link, we stopped briefly while Cheryl went over to Sean's car. As with the previous trip, Sean and her watched Bob the Builder dvds on the way there. We "synchronised" our walkie talkies to the same frequency. We and our neighbours had bought one set each for this trip. Previously we had used a friend's set and found it very useful for communication on the roads and up at Genting itself.

The trip was quite smooth except for a slight hiccup - my neighbour's car got stopped by the traffic police, apparently for speeding. So they made a "donation" of RM50 and was let off. Our first rest stop was at Ayer Keroh. The kids played at the playground there while the adults had some refreshments and lunch.I had packed some sandwiches. After that it was straight to Genting and Isaac slept most of the way there, so it was quite uneventful.

There was a slight jam at the exits of KL and Cheras, but it was mostly smooth. We reached Genting Skyway around 4pm.The plan was to have the kids and the wives take the cable car up and the guys drive the cars up to Genting Highlands. We would meet at the First World Hotel lobby. There was no queue at all and we boarded the cable car almost immediately after buying our tickets. Isaac has been looking forward to this cable car ride and has been talking about it since our last trip. As expected, the kids enjoyed the ride and view up to Genting Highlands, excited about being in the clouds and the stone animals along the way up. Compared to Singapore's cable car ride which costs $12 per adult, this one way trip of RM8 per head was really value for money.

Once up there,I put Isaac on the pram and we made our way to First World Hotel, which was quite a distance from the cable car station. Since it wasn't our first time, we had little trouble finding our way there, we just followed the signages. Our timing was perfect... by the time we reached the lobby, the guys were already checking in at the reception. We had booked our reservations via the internet. My neighbour got a World Club room while my sis and our family managed to book deluxe rooms because the world club rooms were booked up. We didn't mind even though it's much smaller because it costs half the price. Because we had different types of rooms, my neighbour was at Tower 1 while we were at the newer Tower 2. The deluxe rooms were indeed much smaller than the world club room we had the last time, but it was ok, since it was just nice for the 4 of us with the 2 super single beds.

After settling down, it was almost time for dinner. We had some hot noodles and rice. After that we walked around the area and the kids played some of the kiddy rides. The guys took the kids for the monorail ride while the ladies went shopping. My sis' kids were tired, so they retired to their room earlier. Later that night, after the kids were in bed, the guys went out to watch soccer and visit the casino.

DAY 2
Breakfast was complementary at the hotel's gigantic cafe, but it was really bad. Maybe because it had to cater to such large crowds.

After breakfast, we bought 1-Day Indoor/Outdoor passes for both kids and adults. Unfortunately the weather was rather wet and very chilly/cold, so we retreated to the Indoor theme park. We took the Ferris Wheel and Antique Car rides. The weather got a little better and so the kids went to the outdoor theme park to take the Flying Jumbo, Astro Fighter, Rodeo Rider and Teacup rides. Cheryl felt rather queasy after the teacup ride and had little appetite for lunch - porridge. After lunch, Isaac took a nap in his pram while the rest of us took the Venice Gondola and Ferris Wheel rides.

Later in the afternoon we went outdoors again and took rides on the Double Decker Carousel, Ferris Wheel(outdoor), and the Rodeo Rider (see picture) again. The smaller kids also enjoyed the Busy Bugs and Circus Carousel. Then we went indoors again to take the Flying Dragon ride (a slightly thrilling roller coaster ride), Ride de Paris (kiddie ride around the Eiffle tower), and the indoor Carousel (the best of all carousel rides). Then we had a hearty dinner at Pizza Hut. After that it was more rides for the kids - Rio Float, Reindeer Ride (both agonisingly slow rides traversing within the indoor mall) and more Carousel rides. By the time we went back to our rooms, Isaac was already asleep and so we didn't bother to change him to his pyjamas.

DAY 3
I packed up our stuff in the morning as we needed to check out by noon. We decided to skip the free breakfast at the cafe and just ate some tuna sandwiches my sister made. The kids were still keen on going for the theme park rides, so we bought 1-day indoor passes for them. So they took ride and after ride the whole morning: Ferris wheel, Tour de paris, Reindeer ride, Carousel. Unfortunately the fun had to end around noon and we proceeded to check out of our room and we went up to my neighbour's World Club room to have a quick lunch of instant cup noodles we had brought along. They had extended their check-out to one more hour. Thereafter, the guys dropped us off at the cable car station so that we could take the cable car down while they drove the cars down Genting. This is a pic of Isaac enjoying his cable car ride.

We spent a short time at the station below to buy stuff from this big shop selling all kinds of preserved fruits (kanas) and snacks. We left the place around 3pm. My sis and neighbour headed straight back to Singapore while we planned to stop by at Johor Bahru. We drove down to Seremban, where TT had his fix of nasi lemak and teh tarik. He said it was delicious. Along the way, Cheryl took a short nap while Isaac slept most of the way. Even then, I had a challenging time entertaining them with masking tape during their waking hours in the car! We reaced JB town around 7+ in the evening and headed for Holiday Plaza, the place notorious for all the horror stories that happened to other unlucky Singaporeans. We ate at McDonalds, and the kids had fun at the indoor playground there. We managed to get some *ahem* contraband items there before we headed home. By the time we reached home, it was almost 10pm, but the kids were still energetic!

As with previous trips, the kids proved to be good travellers. Isaac surprised me by staying belted in his car seat for long periods of time without too much of a fuss. Somehow he knew we were going on a long journey and behaved himself. It helped that he slept for about half of the journey both ways, so I was relieved of entertaining him during these times. I was also grateful they didn't get any sickness during the trip which would have made me very anxious.

All in all, as expected, the kids enjoyed themselves thoroughly with all the park rides and having each other to play with for 3 days. They just can't get enough of Genting. Isaac never fails to be entralled with the sights around him, especially while in the cable car. Three weeks on, he's still asking to "go cable car"...As for me, I'm already quite bored with the place but the cool air is a nice change. The trip was anyway for the kids, and I'm glad everybody had a good time and came back safe and sound!

If you need any advice on Genting - how to get there, temperature, what to do there, etc...drop me a line! I'm no expert, but I can tell you a thing or two!

Click here for more photos of the trip...

Sat, 16 Sept - Isaac turns Two!

2006-10-03T15:59:00.000+08:00

It's Isaac's birthday today and we held a a party in the evening. Since most of the decorations were already up since Cheryl's birthday, only thing left was to blow and put up "boy-coloured" balloons (blue, silver etc.), and paste "ISAAC" on the wall. The food was be western, so I cooked spaggetti bolognaise. My sister contributed a yummy shepherd's pie. On the side we had cocktail sausages and other fried finger food and cut fruits. Again, I forgot to take photos of the food because we were all so busy.

The birthday boy didn't manage to sleep enough for his afternoon nap and had to take another one around dinner time. Fortunately he woke up in time for the candle-blowing and cake-cutting, though he appeared rather grouchy in the picture. For the cake we ordered ice cream cake from Swensen's again which had little train sugar figurines on top. Cheryl had the same cake two years ago and all the kids were clamouring over which figurine they wanted. The same thing happened again this time. It was a total madhouse when we brought in the cake box. Isaac managed to blow out the candles by himself.

The kids made such a racket, I'm sure the neighbours really hate us...:oP Other than that, things went quite smoothly.

Sun, 10 Sept - Horses at Pasir Ris Park

2006-09-17T23:12:00.000+08:00

We decided to go to Pasir Ris Park today as we were going to Tampines later to visit my in-laws. We wanted to go to the playground area but I remembered reading about the other adjoining park having some stables where we could see and ride horses, so we decided to make a slight detour to have a look at the place.

It's called Gallop Stable and they have a number well-kept horses. The area looked clean and there was hardly any stench. We were too late to book a pony ride for kids so we'll try again another day though Cheryl said she was not that keen to ride a pony. We did, however, manage to touch the horses and Cheryl got one to eat hay from her hand.

After that we proceeded to the part of park where they had the really large playground and all kinds of apparatus.The weather was cloudy, so even though it was past noon, it wasn't too hot. The kids had fun climbing, swinging and playing around with some new apparatus which we didn't see the last time. One of them was this revolving cup which got Cheryl rather dizzy (see pic below).

After lunch at TT's sis place, we went back home as our maid was taking half the day off. In the evening we went to Suntec City for dinner. At the last minute, Cheryl got "kidnapped" by our neighbour Sean and she decided to have dinner at Sean's place instead of following us! On the way there we saw the really beautiful flowers planted along the roads for the IMF meetings. The workers were still doing some last minute planting. The food court at Suntec City was suprisingly not that crowded and we managed to find a parking lot with little problems. We figured most people stayed away from the area because they thought it was closed for the IMF-WB meetings. But road closures would only start from 10pm later that night and we figured we should be heading home before that. Also school would be restarting tomorrow, so families with school-going children may not find it a good idea to go out tonight...

We arranged to meet my sis' family at the food court. After dinner we headed to Toys R' Us where we got Isaac a train set for his birthday, and also a Mr. Potato head toy for Olivia whose birthday was also approaching. My sis bought her a Polly Pocket toy. I think she was the happiest girl today. Isaac also had a mighty fine time without his sister. He was riding on all the kiddy rides along the way, climbing up and down staircases, running around the store with a toy pram (!!) He must have been so tired he slept in the car on the way back.

Personal Favourites

PLACES TO GO
Pasir Ris Park
One section of this park has a very good playground area, not as big as West Coast park, but with equally engaging playground apparatus. The other section is where Gallop Stable is. It's more serene in this part and more suited for cycling. You can also do bird watching, walk through the mangrove, play in the garden maze, or just sit beside the beach to enjoy the breeze. This was one of our favourite parks before Isaac came along.

Sat, 9 Sept - Singapore Discovery Centre

2006-09-12T01:45:00.000+08:00

Yet another excursion suggestion from Sean, our neighbour. We decided to bring Isaac along even though it coincided with his naptime. After lunch, we picked my sis' kids up from Clementi and headed to the place at Jurong. Cheryl followed Sean and his parents. TT and I found the whole place rather boring, but the kids seemed to enjoy it, especially the talking robot (called Little George), building of a cardboard city and also an exhibit where you can see yourself dance on the screen. Isaac managed to take a short nap there. The viking show was rather interesting, but I don't think the kids could really appreciate it at their age.

(Photo source: Singapore Discovery Centre Website)

I'm also convinced that there is someone manning Little George the robot in the little room behind him. Some of his responses were way too intelligent. I'm quite sure it's a one way mirror behind the robot...

Anyway, my first and last time there I'm sure, if I can help it.

Fri, 8 Sept - MC

2006-09-12T01:40:00.000+08:00

The cold and cough finally got the better of me. Was feeling really bad the night before with a bad headache. This morning I felt slightly better but the headache was still there. Went to the doc's in the morning and after that "escaped" to my mum's place nearby to rest. Once in a while we take refuge at my mum's place when we do not wish to be disturbed by the kids. I know I wouldn't be able to get any respite from the kids if I had gone back home. I even managed to do a little bit of packing while I was there. Threw out some stuff (some of my ex-boyfriend's love letters! haha). I left quite a bit of stuff (including toys) behind at my mum's place when I moved out about 3 years ago. I brought the whole lot of plastic animals back home. Gave them a good wash in soapy water and left them near the window to dry. Isaac and Cheryl would have some fun playing zoo, safari or farm.

By 1pm, I was feeling much better even though I didn't take any medication given by the doc, so I decided to go home and have lunch since I was also hungry. So I managed to spend some time with the kids after all in the afternoon.

Wed, 6 Sept - Books warehouse sale at Expo

2006-09-12T01:28:00.000+08:00

Took leave today especially for this event. I already have so many books at home but cannot resist! Must buy more books! Finally caught the runny nose and cough from the kids but don't care, still must go!

Spent the morning doing stuff with the kids. It's so rare for me to be present during the daytime on weekdays. Cheryl's so happy mummy is at home to play with her. My partner in crime (for the book sale) was my sister. She and her kids came over to my place around noon. The kids had their lunch of porridge first before we set off. We had to sneak off quietly or Isaac will cry if he sees us all leaving. Unfortunately we won't be bringing him to the Expo as he's still too small to endure the warehouse sale. We stopped by at IKEA first as the sale doesn't start till 3pm. The kids played in the ball room while my sis and I had lunch at Subway at Anchorpoint. The IKEA cafe was just too crowded with the lunchtime crowd.

After that it was off to the Expo. There were 2 other major events there and we knew it would be thronging with people, even on a weekday. I shudder at the thought of the crowd during the weekend. One was the John Little warehouse sale and the other was World Food Fair. Food and Shopping! Things that attract Singaporeans like ants to sugar (besides the latest gadgets). The Expo carpark was quite full, but we managed to find a lot a little farther off. Already there was a queue forming outside the hall for the book sale. It's still about 10 min before 3pm. This was a preview sale for members. The actual official sale starts the next day. It's great to be the first to browse as everything was so neatly arranged when we first entered the hall. I headed straight to the children's books while my sis headed to the magazines section. The kids were more interested in playing with the plastic baskets, so we chucked them at a corner with popcorn and other snacks while we did the serious job of gathering the books. Once in a while we returned to this corner to let them read the books we had got.

Generally the book sale did not disappoint. There were mostly good quality books going at really low prices. I got many children books suitable for Cheryl to read, some easy books and a train book for Isaac, and 3 web design books for myself. These were glossy coloured books going at $6 each! They were shrink wrapped, so I opened one to examine the contents. I liked it and got the other 2 without even checking what was inside. Should be equally good. Was quite pleased with the books I got, and spent $101 for everything. My sister spent just under $100 for her books and magazines, mostly on cooking, home design and also some children books. After about 3 hours, the kids sections were already quite messy, with people dumping their unwanted books back. Had to sadly put back some books too. If given a choice, my sis and I wouldn't mind going back again during the weekend, but we're quite scared of the crowds, and also of being tempted to spend more money, so I think we won't come back. Must control...control...

My sister's hubby joined us for dinner at Burger King and after that we popped by at the John Little sale. My sis hubby got some long sleeved shirts. I didn't want to get seriously started on looking at the kids' clothes and other stuff, so I simply walked quickly along the aisles. It's mostly the same as previous sales, so it wasn't too difficult to control myself. Moreover the kids were tired, and I was keen to go back. I only bought a little round pink cushion for Cheryl to be put in the car, so that the 3 girls wouldn't fight over the existing 2 cushions. We didn't even have time to look at the Food fair. Cheryl slept on her new cushion on the way back home. By the time we reached home, it was almost 9pm. I ate some more dinner because Mum cooked kiam chye arhk soup (salted vege soup with duck), my favourite! She said she managed to cook it in peace because the kids were not around to bother her! Felt a little guilty for leaving Isaac at home for most of the day but it's for his own good.

Ahh... a tiring but satisfying day. Wish I could shop longer (without the kids)!...

Friday, 1 September - Mars Spectacular, My Foot

2006-09-02T07:52:00.000+08:00

Wrote to both newspapers again regarding teachers giving wrong information to students. Also appeared in the online forum of the Straits Times.

I know being a teacher is a really tough job. But they should be responsible for verifying the correctness of the information, especially if they choose to tell the students about it. Anyway, Happy Teachers' Day to all you teachers out there! Your words are gospel!

Here is the TODAY link.

Isaac, our IMF Embassador

2006-09-02T07:46:00.000+08:00

The fever's gone and Isaac's back to his cheeky self. Here are some pics of him... From left:
1) Isaac escorting IMF guests in his car decorated with state flags.
2) Everything's taken care of at the IMF, thanks to Police Chief Isaac (Daddy's currently on police reservist, hence the police hat).
3) Isaac promoting Singapore as The shoppers' paradise!

Sunday, 28 August - Botanic Gardens Again

2006-09-02T07:34:00.000+08:00

Isaac's cough which I thought was getting better came back again, or maybe he's got the flu since there was fever as well. Generally not eating well, so we're not forcing him, just trying to get him to take in more liquids. Cheryl has runny nose and cough too which have been going on for ages. Just hate it when the kids are sick.

Cheryl wanted to join my neighbour's son, Sean, to church, so we let her. We brought Isaac to Botanic Gardens. Felt quite strange to be only having one child to look after for the day... We went to the newly renovated part of the park. The place is quite nicely done and now they have a really big basement carpark. The fishes at the main pond are much larger but less hungry. We saw a really large turtle lurking around in the pond, it came up to eat some of the bread bits I threw to the water. Judging by the size of its head, it probably was about 1m long. TT and I managed to take lots of pictures of flowers, our favourite subject. Here are just 2 of the macro shots I took. There were also the 2 regular white swans which swam out occasionally to make guest appearances.

After the park we went to TT's sis' place for lunch at Tampines. Had to give Isaac his paracetamol again as his fever seemed to be creeping back again. We didn't stay too long as Isaac wasn't feeling well.

By the time we reached home, Isaac was asleep. Cheryl was having fun at my neighbour's place baking chocolate chip cookies. They were going to give them as Teachers' Day gifts. Cheryl didn't seem to have missed us one bit. From the looks of it, Cheryl already seems to be married to their family, haha.