A “Windfall” Haji Weekends

We had another relaxing Haji long weekend break. It was a weekend of good food and good companionship.

On Friday, one of my long timed MJ kakis, Linda, organized a house warming and invited us to her newly bought 3 ½ room HDB flat in AMK for lunch. I had known this group of kakis since my SDS days. Yes, I was an active social development service member before and we had so much fond memories of our good old days. Matter of fact, I got to know Adrian via the SDS network…haha.

Linda’s ordered a mini buffet lunch for her guests and we had a great time catching up. There were many children in the home and it was very noisy and fun. I think we really WARM UP her house.

Then before we left her place for the day, I gathered all the kakis and asked them to pool in $10 for a small bet on the weekends 4D…hehe. So we decided on buying Linda’s new home unit number. There were 5 shares altogether. I am not a DIED-HARD 4D fan but when there is inspiration, I will be motivated and like what people say 有卖就有希望。。嘻嘻。

In the evening, we had dinner with my extended families at my youngest BIL’s home. After dinner, we had a quick game of MJ and in the end – I won $1.20…haha. Then we headed to the AMK Macdonald Drive through for our supper before calling it a day.

On Saturday, we went to Nova Furnishing centre and ordered a new study desk for Anthea. I was also considering getting a new wardrobe as the old one is giving way soon..hee.

In the evening, we had dinner with my parents and da-ge as my mom also had some small windfalls during the week with her 4D. I was planning to recommend them to try a new place – House of Seafood @180 but due to my negligence, we ended up at the wrong place and had different food instead. Anyway, it was the companion that mattered more to the food. (self-consolation : P)

Sunday was a relaxing day for us as we went around with our usual exercise routine and in the evening we had crab noodle from Mellben Seafood. My FIL will usually 打包the Crab Noodle from the stall and we would eat in comfort at my in laws place.

Then around 7 plus in the evening, I received a sms from Linda and she mentioned that our 4D betting number had came out and we had made a small windfall. Indeed a very good ending to the long weekends and I agreed with what Linda said – Group Luck = GOOD LUCK!! I am looking forward to our next groups gathering and hopefully we will have a chance to play MJ again… : )

三天两夜圣淘沙游/ 颁奖典礼

The title reminded me of my good old days working at the travel agent planning for inbound tourists to Sentosa : P The weather had been very kind to us for the last 3 days and I cannot be more thankful for it.

Friday, 20 November

In the morning, I attended Anthea’s school prize giving ceremony cum concert. The mood was generally happy and most of the children were happy to go on stage to collect their prizes. I was happy to see most of her tuition classmates were there and most of them were also 1st, 2nd & 3rd of their respective classes. Wow…the tuition teacher must be very happy to see all her students did so well…: )

After the ceremony, we had a quick snack at the canteen as Anthea said she was hungry. Then we went home to get ready for our resort stay in Sentosa.

In the afternoon, my eldest brother came and picks us up and we headed to Tiong Bahru Hawker for our lunch before proceeding to Sentosa for our check in. the new market was big and had many food stalls, we tried different varieties of the food and they were not bad.

Then my brother drove us all the way into Rasa Sentosa resort for our check in. We were allocated room 510 and it was seaview deluxe room as booked. The room size was comfortable. We had a twin sharing bed joined together and beside it was a sofa bed. So it was very comfortable for our family of 2 adult and 2 children. I had booked the resort Staycation package deal for the 2 nights stay and it came with daily breakfast for 2 adults / 2 children.

While we were checking in, I had a called from Cindy and she was asking if we had any plan for the day. She took ½ day leave to be with Angus and she had no planned of where to go. So I invited them to join us at the hotel and she agreed. The children were very happy to see Angus again and they immediately went to the poolside for their water fun.

The swimming pool has 3 children slides and the pool height was just nice for all of them. They had great fun at the pool and I saw that Anders was getting braver with the slide. He even tried different style of sliding into the pool.

Then they requested to go by the beachfront to play with sand. We went along with them. While the children played with sand, we had a good chat on our children examination results.

Around 5pm, we went back to the hotel room to change and they left for home as they had some prior dinner appointment.

For us, after bathing and changing, we took the hotel shutter bus to Vivo City to meet Adrian for dinner. He came after his event @ Marina Barrage and met us for dinner. We ate at Earl Swenson in Vivo City. As usual, Anthea & Anders enjoyed the salad bar buffet. After dinner, we headed to Toy R Us to buy her present from my PIL. Because of her good result, my FIL had told her to go and chose herself a present. Finally she chooses the Scooter for her gift. : )

Then we bought some donuts for our late night supper and drove back to the hotel. Parking at the hotel is complimentary and based on 1st come 1st served basis.

We had a very relaxed evening in the hotel room and the children enjoyed the games too.

Saturday, 21 November

We woke up to a bright and sunny beautiful morning. We went for our buffet breakfast and the spread was very sumptuous.

After a good breakfast, we started our itinerary for the day…hehe. Our 1st stop was the Sentosa 4D Magix and we watched the Pirates show. The show was very interesting and the 4D effect was very entertaining too. Anders was a bit scared of the pirates and dare not put on his glass. : P

After the show, we went for the Sentosa Luge & Sky ride. As we were at the hilltop, so we started with the luge ride 1st. Anthea shared a cart with Adrian and Anders shared one with me. The ride downhill was very exciting and Anders kept saying he had great fun and asked if we can go another round..haha. Then we took the sky ride back to the hilltop.

There was a new Megazip Adventure Park and we decided to check it out since we had a Free ticket from the hotel package. But we were there too early; the park opens at 2pm, so we had no choice but to give it a miss.

As it was almost lunch time, we decided to pack lunch back to the hotel room. Anthea and Anders had requested to go to the pool, so I took them for a dip before lunch. Adrian took the opportunity to do his studies in preparation for his test on Monday.

The children had great fun at the pool slide again.

After about an hour of water fun, we went back to the hotel to bath and change and then had our lunch in the room. Yes, we packed Subway sandwiches and a pizza for lunch. Then the children had their power nap. Around 4.30pm, they woke up & Anthea went to the resort Toot’s club and did a face painting session at the club. This is like a kid’s club and parents can sign in their children into the club and the parents can do their own stuff around the resort.

In the evening, we were booked for Song of the Sea show at 7.40pm. We reached the show place around 6.30pm and saw a long queue for the show. We made query with the show usher and was told there was a FULL HOUSE Situation for the show and since the seating is based on 1st come 1st served basis, we decided to go in and chopped the seats 1st.

While waiting for the show, the children had some light snack as we planned to take dinner after the show. The show started exactly at 7.40pm and we were all mesmerized by the show. The show featured pyrotechnics, water jets, brilliant lasers, captivating music and other dramatic effects. It was a fantastic show and Adrian commented that he was surprised and impressed we were capable of such spectacular show on Sentosa Island.

(these are the special laser graphic that was caught off the waterjet..i am happy that my new camerca can capture these...)

The children also like the special effect and kept talking about Oscar the fish and the beautiful Princess, even after the show.

Then we headed to Sake Sushi for our dinner and took the beach tram back to our hotel and rested after an eventful day.

Sunday, 22 November

We woke up to another bright and sunny beautiful morning. We proceeded to our buffet breakfast and this morning the café was crowded with tourists. We saw many families with children, so presumed that they were also holidaying in Sentosa : )

After a good hearty breakfast, we went back to our room to rest our stomach. Then we went to the pool again. Adrian joined us at the pool and since he was there watching the children, I took a quick swim at the adult poolside and it was great.

The children simply enjoyed the pool slides and had great fun going up & down.

Around 12 noon, we checked out of the hotel and since I had bought the Merlion Tower tickets in advanced, we did a quick tour of the tower. The tower was quite ok but nothing much for the children, luckily I only bought 2 tickets and Anders went up with me. Anthea was too tired to walk the Merlion Tower and stayed with Adrian at the car park. : )

We decided to have a quick lunch at Kou Fu at Palawan beach before leaving the island for home sweet home. The place was crowded with tourist and families who came over for day trip.

Overall, the 3 days 2 nights Sentosa discovery has been a very fruitful trip for the family. The children enjoyed the hotel and its facilities and of course, the buffet breakfast...haha.

Next year, when the Resort World is operational ready, we will plan for a family trip there again, to explore the new Universal Studio.

A Special INVITATION & My New Camera

2 weeks ago, Anthea showed me a letter from her school regarding the following week schedules and also the dates of collecting and returning of the report books. The school also mentioned that there will be a Prize giving ceremony cum concert on Friday, 20 November 2009. Only parents of prize winners, all P6 students and performances need to attend the event due to space constraint.

I saw Anthea’s SA 2 results and told myself that likely we need not go to school on the Friday, so we just need to prepare ourselves in the morning for our Sentosa check in on the same day.

However, on Monday, she showed me a form after school. Yes, it was the INVITATION for the ceremony on this Friday. I was very surprised and happy to see that she is one of the prize winners as she is 2nd in her class. : )

I was totally over the moon with the news although I had not seen her report books yet, I knew she did well enough to gain 2nd placing in class.

Today is the report book day and she has made me a very proud mother with her wonderful results.
English – 94.0%

Chinese – 99.0 %

Mathematics – 88.0%

She scores Band 1 for all the subjects and A’s for all the others subjects – Art/Social study/Health education/ Music & Physical Education.

Only her Math was below 90% and after seeing her papers, we know where her weakness was and hopefully she will learn from it.

So this Friday, I will be attending her prize winning ceremony and thereafter we will proceed to Sentosa for our grand celebration.

For this special occasion and our Sentosa weekends stay, I decided to invest in a good camera to capture more photographs…haha.

I had been considering getting a DSLR camera and was seriously considering Panasonic Lumix DMC GF1 after hearing some very good feedback from the Club Snap forum. I had visited MS Color shop in AMK 2 – 3 times to check on this camera but so far, the shop does not has stock of the camera and advised me to wait till next month.

Today, I went to Chinatown to run some errands and there were few shops selling different models of cameras and I told myself to try my luck to see if the shop has my preferred camera. Yes, it has the G1 model that I was looking for…: P

Immediately I made my queries with the sale person and he showed me the camera.
The salesman explained to me the basic function of the G1 DSLR and also the pros & cons. In order to get a good zoom, I would need to buy extra lens and he said that would cost about another $600 (almost a price of a new camera…: P )

Then after knowing my needs, he recommend me another Panasonic Lumix – model FZ35.

This camera has what I wanted and he also mentioned that for a beginner to photography, this camera will suite me better than a DSLR. He said once I get used to playing the FZ35, he said I can go back and look for him for a DSLR camera. There was one sentence he said and impressed me – he said the FZ35 will make the photo “看起来有生命力”. Wow what a way to put it and the price was few hundred cheaper than G1. So it’s a win-save situation for me.

Finally I bought the FZ35 and the package include a 8GB SD Card, camera case, a tripod and he even gave me a free card reader and lens cleaning stuff.

I truly admired his professional knowledge and he was so openly sharing his knowledge with me and talking to him really make me learnt so much about the camera. I am really grateful to have met him in my pursue of a new hobby.

Okie, now I am reading the operating manual for my new camera and hopefully on this Friday, I can capture 有生命的照片。。哈哈！

New Toy / New Haircuts

We had another busy weekend. Ever since Anthea & Anders tried Angus’s Yo-yo, they have been bugging me to buy one for them.

So as usual, how can I say No to them, right..: ) . On Saturday afternoon, I brought both of them to Toy R Us @ United Square to search for the recommended Yo-Yo. Before hand, I had a quick checked with Cindy and she recommended the Super Yoyo Stealth Raider model for beginner. However, the outlet does not have stock of this model and the children were disappointed and they would not go off empty handed. Finally, we bought another model Yoyo but instead of 2, I told them we would only buy one and try another outlet for the recommended Yoyo. They were both agreeable to the decision.

So now at home, both of them are practicing the new tricks on their new toy – Yoyo.

After buying the Yoyo, we had our lunch at Macdonald. I am still short of a few properties to get one of the monopoly prizes…hee.

Then we walked to Novena for our favorite dessert – Yummy Yogurt. After our dessert, I brought Anders for his haircut at EC House and while waiting for Anders. I try to persuade Anthea to cut her hair too. She has been keeping her long hair for a while but I had some problems with her maintaining it. She is too lazy to comb her own hair after each wash and I had to keep nagging at her. Also she does sports and swim, so keeping long hair is quite a chore.

I told her of all the good points of keeping short hair and finally after some consideration- she said YES. Immediately I bought the coupon at EC House and told the lady hair dresser that I would like her to cut Anthea’s hair.

After 10 minutes, she came out with a new look and the hairstyle suit her well. Anthea said she was happy with her new hairdo…phew.

We all went home feeling very happy with our achievements..haha.

In the evening, we went for a House warming gathering of one of Adrian long time buddy. He also upgraded his home from a 5 room HDB to a Condominium. They hold a dinner buffet at the clubhouse. We had a good time catching up with his buddies and wives. His buddy brought us to his unit and shows us the beautiful home. Very happy for them to have find their new home sweet home.

On Sunday morning, I went for my Boot camp training and this time round we had a new trainer and he was more on cardio training. After the session, my whole body felt the effect(aching) and I told Adrian it was a very good workout…“ 花钱买罪受。。哈哈”

In the afternoon, I baked some milo cookies for the family and my working colleagues.

In the evening, we brought Anthea to one of her classmate home as she requested to go over to play with her.

They had a good time at the condominium playground and we brought along our badminton gears for them to play. We finished the playtime around 6.30pm and headed over to Charco for our dinner. It was our 1st time trying the food and it was not too bad.

We went home, feeling happy & satisfied and ready for a new week ahead. Now I am looking forward to our Rasa Sentosa Weekends stay.

JBG & A DREAM HOME

On last Friday afternoon while having lunch, I got a call from my long time sister – Cindy and she mentioned that she was on ½ day leave and planned to bring her son – Angus to park for cycling. She asked if we would like to join her and we did. We had a good time cycling at Bishan Park and then we came back to our place to play badminton. Both Anthea and Angus had a fun time together.

On Saturday morning, Anthea told me that she wanted to invite Angus to Jacob Ballast Children Garden to play at the Treetop. So I called Cindy and told her of the plan and she was ok and we made a date for the evening.

Around 4.15pm, we met at novena square where Cindy picked us up to the garden. Adrian was having his test on Monday and did not join us for the outing. Anyway, he was also a bit under the weather so I told him to rest at home.

We reached the Jacob Ballast children garden around 4.40pm and Anthea played guide to Cindy, her hubby and Angus. This was Anthea 3rd visit to the garden and Anders 2nd visit. And it was Angus 1st visit …hehe.

Naturally, Anthea brought them around the fun places – suspension bridge, the log, the “fog” area and of course, the Treetop walk. The 3 of them had great fun at the slide and the climb. While they were busy playing, the adults were busy chatting and playing with our camera and sharing about photography.

After the Treetop, we went to the A-mazing race area and again they had Dave to “run” after them, trying to catch them.

Then our last stop was the playground area. They had fun with the sand and the different play stations.

We walked over to the water area to wash our legs…haha. Then we ended our tour of the garden.

The children were all sweaty and dirty from the sand and running around, we had them changed of clothing before proceeding to our dinner.

Cindy recommended Suki Sushi and this was our 1st time to this chain of Japanese restaurant. I was impressed with their menu and told Adrian we must go and try the outlet in Ang Mo Kio which was near my In-laws place…hehe.

After dinner, the children requested to go to Angus home to try a new toy – YoYo. Yes, Angus had about 7 or 8 of them and he wanted to show Anthea/Anders of his tricks.

So we went to her new home near Novena Square. I was totally in full admiration of her new home.

1st admiration – the property has a private life to each unit. This mean there is FULL Privacy. I know many properties are now built with such a lift but seeing it personally really make a different.

2nd admiration – her unit has a balcony and from the balcony we can see the main city view – flyer & a bit of IR. The night scene was just mesmerizing and the wind was blowing quite strongly on that evening. We had a great time sitting at the balcony and chatting while the children played WII games.

3rd admiration – her master bedroom bathroom has a Banyan Tree style bathtub and also a window view to the city. I can imagine how nice it would be to take a nice hot bath in the tub while the wind blew through your face/hair.

This is the kind of DREAM home for many people, especially me…hee. But I know it’s just a DREAM home, finally I will be back to my HDB Flat. : P

Nope I am not complaining because I know “同人不同命“。 Some people work hard and enjoy such luxury. I can only work hard to enjoy my family…haha.

假期计划和 我的“新欢”

Yes, in about 2 weeks time, the year end school holiday will begin and it will last for a month plus.

Being the family holiday planner, I had been thinking hard of where to go for our family holiday. After some thoughts, I finally decided that we are NOT going away for this December school holiday…hee.

Basically, Adrian is still doing his course and it will end only mid December and by then, it’s almost Christmas time. So I thought it would be too late to go for holiday and 冬至is around the same time, so we must still in Singapore for the reunion dinner..: )

Also at year end, it’s hard to decide which country to visit as most of the countries are in their winter season and it will be too cold for the children.

With these in mind, I am now starting to plan for some local VACATIONS…haha.

Yes, we are now booked for 1 Staycation Vacation at Rasa Sentosa Resort and 1 chalet stay at Aranda Country Club for November & December respectively.

In between the holidays, I have make plans for some local tours – Zoo, Duck Tour, Flyers etcs. As long as I can get off from work, I will bring the children around and enjoy Singapore…haha. We will make ourselves like tourist at home.

I believe the important part of the holiday is the family bonding time that we get when we enjoyed the time together, regardless where we are…: )

新欢

Ever since I started working in my new place, I had joined the morning express. In order to make the train ride from AMK to Raffles Place more enjoyable, I decided to borrow library books and read them along the way.

The other day I was at Bishan library borrowing the children usual reading stuff. At the browser return tray, I saw there was this one and only CHINESE Book and I took it and read a bit. I felt in love with the book immediately and borrowed it. Since then, my morning express is never the same again and I am thinking why the train rides to and back is so fast..hehe.

Yes, my new found love is the series of Chinese romance books – 寻梦圆。After my 1st book, I had followed up & borrowed another few more. There are a few writers in the series and most of the stories are like fairytales where the Prince & Princess finally live happily ever after. I think for me, the thrill is reading Chinese and the dialogue inside the books are so humorous which in real life – I can find none..: P

Now with this new Love discovery, I will be going back to the library for more and more..haha.

人生就是一场梦！！

FB “AGM”

Nope, it’s not facebook I am talking about…it’s Friendship Bond. Chinese say: 朋友。

Yes, via blogging & babies forum, I had known a few good friends and the friendship bond had been ongoing amid our busy work / family routine.

These few 朋友 are Idy (IT Family), Stardust (All about Vincent) & Clement (Kinigu). Since our very 1st meet up in January 2008, we had been meeting like once a year; it’s also like an AGM…hehe. Since it’s an AGM, of course, there need to be a “Secretary” to take minutes, so I volunteered my service. : P

Since I started working Part time and looking afterAnthea after school needs, lunch meeting is not easy to arrange unless it’s during her school holiday.

Last Thursday when I received an SMS invite from Idy for a lunch meet on Friday, 30 Oct 2009. I told myself I must make an effort to meet them.

So last Friday, after fetching Anthea from school, we made our way to Novena Square for the lunch meet. When we arrived, we were a little late and part of the agenda had been spoken, so I can only partake what was balance on the agenda…: )

Idy – she is currently on a contract and hoping to go on a few months short break before she starts her new term. In her own words, she is facing mid life crisis. Indeed, I had this experience too when Anthea was about to start her primary education. I think it’s a norm for mommies like us who would like to take care of our children after school care needs personally.

There are many logistics issues and arrangement that needed to be settled in order to become a FTSAHM or PTSAHM. So I think all these concerns will make the decision a tough one. That's why she is on the cross-roads. : )

Anyway, I know Idy will find the right answer to her question when her son, Iden ,starts primary school in another 2 years time.

Stardust – she is expecting her No.2 in February 2010 and she is having a baby girl. She is a very pretty expectant mommy and we can see the glow in her face. She also shared with us her experienced on teaching Chinese to her son, Vincent. I know it’s not easy especially when we comes from an English speaking family but talking to them make me realized that I should start to change our language system in our family and introduced a new system.

She is also looking forward to become a PTSAHM when her son starts primary school..hehe.

Seem like more and more mommies are choosing this route.

Clement – he shared with us the progress of Jaimie and how she is becoming more & more ladylike with her new image.

I had never met Angie & Jaimie but by reading their blog, I could tell that this family is a hyper active family and they are always on the GO….there just isn’t a dull moment in their life…I am really envy of their energy level…hee.

The family will be making a short trip to Sunway lagoon for their vacation soon and I am looking forward to reading their wonderful experience.

As for my part, I shared my experienced as a Part time working mommy, it’s not easy rushing up & down but I am glad I am always here for Anthea. To oversee her smooth transition into primary one and also making sure the household needs are taken care of.

It was another very fruitful lunch meet and I am really thankful that each time we had different idea to share with one another.

Another important tip that we got from Clement – there is a $2 coupon saver for purchase of Ovaltine Crunchy drink and I heard the drink is very nice. Must go & find the coupon…hehe.

Last but not least – wishing Stardust all the best in her delivery and till we meet again in our next AGM !!

(ps: I had my camera but was so excited that I forgot to take photo…sigh : P )