My life so far...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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.