Our 1st visit to ION

It rained the whole day on Sunday and we were home from morning till evening. As 1 September is Teacher’s Day, I told Anthea we needed to get small gifts for her form teacher as a token of appreciation.

I was thinking of baking cookies for her teacher but thought otherwise because I was simply too lazy to go into the baking gear…hee.

In the late afternoon, the rain stopped and I called my eldest brother and asked if he would like to go to ION with us.

I did a quick checked and found that there was an Art box shop in ION, so I thought it would be a good place to get the gifts. At the same time, it was also a good time to explore the much hyped – ION.

My eldest brother fetched us around 5.20pm and we reached ION around 5.50pm.

As we know parking in ION was crazy because of traffic jam, my brother parked at International Building and we walked across via the Paterson link from Borders.

When we reached the entrance of the link, I was totally fascinated by the building. It was really huge!!!

Our 1st shop was Art box and it was located at B4, can you imagine shopping underground…hee.

We managed to get 2 presents – one for her class form teacher and 1 for her tuition teacher.

After getting the gifts, we headed to what Straits Times had written about - the MOST Expensive Food Opera (food court) for our dinner.

Anders had chicken macaroni @$4.50 a bowl and Anthea had a plain/egg pratas @$3.40.

Overall I would think the price was still considered ok and the food serving was bigger than the normal food court.

My eldest brother ordered 10 sticks of satay and a rice dumpling. He said the satay cost 70cents each.

We had a simple and enjoyable meal and I told my brother, next time we must try the special Peking duck wrap, saw people queuing and buying from the stall. It looks delicious…slurp!

After dinner, we took a walk around the building and as we go to the higher floor, it was the boutique that housed all the branded stuff. I jokingly told my brother that I am a lower class person so I can only shop at the basement level, the higher floors are all for the rich & famous… : P

We saw the Market Place at 5th level and we went in to get some groceries. That was the last stop of our tour. I must say – I was impressed with the Toilet and baby’s room facilities.

Then we headed back to the car and left ION with sweet memories and I know I would want to be back soon…for the FOOD!!...haha.

Learning Journey to Hay’s Dairies & Frog Farm@ Jurong

I woke up at 5.30am to prepare our snack boxes for today school Learning Journey to Hay’s Dairies and Frog farm.

Yes, I signed up as a parent support for the event and Anthea’s form teacher had shortlisted me for the outing..hee. This was my 1st official outing as a PSG with the school. The previous activity was held in her school.

At 7.30am, after sending Ander’s to his childcare, I reached Anthea’s school and waited in the canteen for the children assembly.

After assembly, I saw the classes started lining up and went to the coach pick up area. When I saw Anthea class came out, I followed her class. There was another mommy who joined in as PSG for the outing. I knew her before and so we had each other as companion.

The children started boarding the coach once it arrived and we set off about 7.45am.

It was about an hour journey from the school to Hay Dairies because of the morning traffic. Luckily the children were all considered well behaved during the journey.

We reached Hay Dairies about 8.50am and the person in charge told us it was not open yet…haha. So we waited a while at the gate while they farm prepared themselves.

Exactly at 9am, the gate opened and the children were very excited. As we were the 1st batch to arrive, we had a good opportunity to be the 1st group to view the Goat Milking. The person in charge did a briefing to the children and explained to them about the process and the goodness of the Goat Milk. It was an eye opening experienced for the children and I believed they enjoyed it very much.

Then we proceeded to view the goat in their pens. Due to the H1N1 influenza, AVA had ordered the dairies to stop all goat feeding activities and we can’t even go near them. The children were disappointed but the form teacher told them at least they had seen the goat milking process.

After going one round to see the goat, the form teacher announced it was their recess time. The children washed their hand and we started having a mini picnic session at the farm. Children brought out all the snack boxes and tidbits and shared with one another.

I also took the chance to have a quick break and munched on my home made beacon & egg sandwiches. I also brought along some tidbits for Anthea and she shared with her classmates.

Recess was over in about 30 minutes. We collected our carton of Goat Milk and say good bye to the goats.

The next stop of the journey was Jurong Frog Farm. It was located about 2 lanes away from the goat farm.

When we arrived at the frog farm, the person in charged gave us a brief introduction to the America Bull Frog that they reared in their farm. The children were all very excited. Some were very keen and wanted to touch the frog. Some were so scared and kept a distance away from the frog…haha.

After the briefing, they were brought to the feeding section and everyone was happily feeding the thousand and thousand of frogs. I was really amazed to see so many frogs in this place. Now I know where does our “田鸡粥“get their supply from. : P

We also saw Eels in this farm and they were so many of them too.

The tour ended after a short video presentation about the farm. Then we organized ourselves for a class photos.

Then it was “school-sweet-school” and we finally reached the school about 12 noon.

It was overall a very educational trip for me and I believe the children had learnt as much as I and this memory will go with them for a long long time.

I am glad to have this experienced as a PSG for the outing and looking after class of 30 active children is not an easy task. To the teacher who look after them every day, I must really say – it’s tough work and Thank YOU!

“Neglected”

“How’s the car?” Adrian has been asking me this question a few times that we Skype. My answer to him was: “I don’t know.”…haha.

For his previous working trip, I was still working with my ex-company and the location is in Toa Payoh industrial area, thus I was able to drive to work and parking at HDB car park was reasonable.

Now that my working place is so conveniently located on top of Novena MRT Station, there is no reason for me to drive to work and parking fees in the office building is exorbitant. With my Part Time salary, it is just not justifiable to drive to work. Also usually after work, I will need to rush and pack lunch for Anthea. If I drive, I may not be able to get lunch.

Before Adrian left for his detachment, we handed our car to my youngest brother in-law. He is our official “Car Baby sitter”.

Our car is got upgraded to a Condominium car park instead of HDB MSCP…haha.

Also with my new schedule, there is no need for me to use the car at all on weekdays, so I was telling Adrian I will be more stress & busy to keep going to the car park to start the car, just to run the engine.

I was really glad we made the right decision to outsource the car because this whole month of August has been a very busy month for me. I don’t even have time for my own exercise regimen, so honestly, the car will be the last thing on my mind…hee.

Also my estate is currently undergoing the Lift Upgrading programme and dust is everywhere. So if the car is left unattended in the car park, it will surely be very dirty and dusty.

Although this month, the car has been neglected by us but I know it is in good hands of my BIL. It’s definitely a win-win situation.

I always believe in – ‘what goes round comes around”. In those days when we don’t have our own car, my eldest brother always asked us to babysit his car while he was on business travel. So now we are doing the same practice…haha.

I guess in about another 2 weeks time, we will see our Car and ride in it again…: )

Come Together @ Teck Ghee

Last year we attended the event and both Anthea and Anders had great fun at the games booth, so I know this year we must do it again.

This morning we woke up around 9.30am and had a simple breakfast and then headed off for the event at the open field nearby.

The Guest of Honor was our PM – Mr. Lee Hsien Loong and we saw him walking around the game stalls when we reached the venue.

We saw many games booth and I heard there were 20 stalls of games. Anthea and Anders went around with their game coupon and tried their hands at the different stalls.

This year they don’t have the children motor bikes thing but instead the organizer brought in the real racers and there was a mini “F1 race course” for the F1 enthusiasts. As both Anthea and Anders were underage for the racing, we can only watch from the track side.

However, they do have those arcades racing game and Anders had fun riding on one of them.

This year, the Underwater World from Sentosa was also at the event to promote their admission ticket. Along with them, they brought a seal and we took a photo with the seal. The children had the chance to come up close with the seal and even touch the seal. It was chargeable for the photo taking but it was worth it since we need not go all the way to Sentosa..haha.

After we had used up all our game stall tickets, we went for the On-the-spot coloring competition. This event was organized by Anthea’s school and her form teacher was also there manning the station. Anders took part in the contest but due to some unforeseen situation, we didn’t complete the coloring thing…hee. : P

After all the morning fun, it was time for lunch and we packed our lunch home and had a nice meal.

The children had their usual afternoon nap and then in the evening, we went to my parent’s place for dinner again. Yes, Anthea had requested to eat there because she wanted to see Anne again…: )

“马票报”& “OC”

Adrian has been keeping in touch with us via Skype on his weekends, i.e.: Friday & Saturday. On weekdays due to time difference, we hardly had the chance to “Talk” but he read our family blog and is kept aware of what’s happening at home with the children & me.

We also communicate via email. With so many advanced technologies to keep in touch with the family, you are never FAR AWAY from home..haha.

Last week while reading our family blog, he commented that reading my blog is like reading ““马票报”…haha. Indeed I told him our life is a story everyday and we are learning new things, just like the news. The only thing about my ““马票报” is that it does not has a 4D column…haha. : P

So far, he’s doing well in his oversea work assignment, although life has been equally tough and very busy for him too. I told him when we are so busy in life; we find that time passes very fast. Truly, he will be home in just about 2 week’s time and we hardly had any time to miss his absence this time because of all our busy routines. (Actually it’s a positive thing, this mean we are functioning well as a family unit.)

“OC”

Nope this is not our usual Officer Cadet, this OC is ORCHARD CENTRAL. Yes, this is the latest new KID on the block in Orchard road, beside the other kid – ION.

This week, we had a relative visiting us from china and she is staying at my parent’s home. Today, my da-ge called me and asked me if I would like to join them for lunch. Anthea was very happy to meet with Anne Jie jie again. She had met her yesterday at my mom’s place and took an instant liking to Anne.

My brother brought us to Shokudo @ Raffles City for lunch. Then after lunch we took the MRT and went to Orchard Central. This was our 1st visit to OC and I must say – I find the building design a bit weird and a bit waste of space. There are small retails shops but not an anchor store like Istetan, OG or Metro. Also the design of the building has so many weird corners and no clear directory, so it was a bit like a maze.

Anyway, we managed to walk around the mall and found a place for dessert – Gelare. While having ice-cream at Gelare, we saw people doing the Indoor Rock climbing. It looks fun but scary.

Then we went home for the children afternoon nap before going to my parent’s place for dinner with Anne.

Fasting – 可怜

We have been playing badminton quite regularly in the evening. As I mentioned in my previous blog, we have quite a handful of children who would join us in playing the game and they are a good mixture of Chinese, Malay and Indians.

Yesterday evening, one of the Malay boys said: “aunty, this Saturday we are starting our fasting month, so we cannot come down and play for the whole month.”

It was his way of informing me of their soon to be absence, I guess, and I think it was a very polite gesture on his part. I always like talking to this Malay boy because he is of very good nature and he speaks very politely. Not that the rest are rude but he stands out a little more in term of being courteous. Anthea also had the same impression and she said she likes him best…haha.

After the game, Anthea asked me: “mommy, what is Fasting:” I explained to her that during fasting month, the Malays will not eat or drink from sunrise. They will only eat/drink after sunset. This is call break-fast.

She asked: “then why they cannot play badminton?” I explained to her that they need to rest the bodies well as any exercises may cause dehydration.

Then she said: “wow…they are so 可怜，cannot eat and drink, they will sure feel dizzy. Lucky I am not Malay.”

When I heard her comment, I quickly add on: “Oh..They are not 可怜，this is their Muslim religion and they have a belief in their religion. Anyway, it is not that they cannot eat totally. They will eat heavy breakfast before sunrise and when sunset, they can have their dinner too.”

I took the opportunity to explain the goodness on fasting – Muslims are reminded the suffering of the poor. I told her we must always be mindful that some people are not as fortunate as we are to have a comfortable home and food. There are needy people in our society who need help.

As I have limited knowledge to the reasons, I also goggled to find out more about Ramadan and hopefully can explain in details to Anthea.

“Fasting serves many purposes. While they are hungry and thirsty, Muslims are reminded of the suffering of the poor. Fasting is also an opportunity to practice self-control and to cleanse the body and mind. And in this most sacred month, fasting helps Muslims feel the peace that comes from spiritual devotion as well as kinship with fellow believers.”

It is such a coincidence that only this week I heard the PM speech on religion and here we are – learning the real life things about our Muslim friends. I am really glad she has this exposure to learn about such practise. Slowly but surely she will learn more about other religion and their practises too. This is what I call “Learn through Play”…haha.

PM ND Rally – "孝道"

Last year I had the chance to listen to our PM Lee national day rally and was greatly inspired by his speech on becoming a Part Time SAHM. : )

This year, I told myself – I must listen to his speech again because I may be able to draw another inspiration from it.

So last evening after a great exercise regimen and a relaxed dinner with Anthea and Anders, I sat down by the TV @ 8pm and listen to PM Lee HL’s speech.

I was right in staying home to listen to what he said and this time the message is very clear to me. Deep in my heart, I know where my root is.

Taken from the Straits Times, 17 August, extract on PM Lee Speech:

Intolerance

This involves not respecting the beliefs of others, or not accommodating others who belong to different religions.

Sometimes it happens within the family: Parents are traditional religionists, but the children have converted.

When the parents die, the children stay away from the funeral or the wake because they believe the traditional rites are against their new religion.

'It's very sad. From a traditional point of view, it's the ultimate unfilial act, but it does happen occasionally,' Mr Lee said.

When i heard what he said about the last part, i felt the sadness inside me. As a daughter, i know i should be there for my parents, regardless of race, language and religion.

I grew up in a very traditional and conservation family and the word Filial Piety has been taught to us since we were young. We are always very respectful towards our parents, although at time we find them a bit naggy but we know they meant well for us.

With this inspirational speech, I know I will find my WAY in the right direction and following what I believe in my root. I will pass this teaching to my children and ensure that they always remember 飲水思源的道理and embraced 孝道in their value.

My Family TREE & “Kopi Tiams”

Last week Anthea came home and told me that she need photographs for her class work. She was required to draw a Family Tree.

She said she needs photographs of our family and her grandparents. I asked her if she needed both paternal and maternal grandparent’s photographs, she said No, just one side will do fine…hehe.

So I dig out all the photographs that I had printed out. Usually I will print out hard copies of our families’ photos and kept them in the photo album. Having school going children, you never know which day they will ask you for photographs..haha.

So I went through the photos with Anthea and she shortlisted the few that she deemed was nice enough for her Family Tree project.

It was quite a nice piece of project after she completed it and I know she was very proud of her work.

咖啡店

10 years ago when we bought our home sweet home, the property price was at its peak, so we were only about to afford a humble 4 room flat. Also at that time, our main focus of the property was near MRT as we don’t own a car. So that was how we ended buying this current home.

Honestly having stayed here for 10 years, I would say – we were very happy. Although it’s a small unit but it’s very manageable, especially when I am the one who need to take care of the household chores, with some good help from my mother.

Also both Anthea and Anders was borned in the same unit, this home meant more to us.

Surrounding our home, we are spoilt for choices, especially when it comes to FOOD. The AMK HUB is walking distance to our home, so if we feel like indulging, we would eat at New York, New York or Ichiban Sushi etcs. If we decided to go for simple fare, we would eat at the food court or sometimes at the neighborhood Kopi Tiams.

Recently, the 2 kopi tiams near our home underwent some major renovation. It was good as they were really quite old & dirty.

Over this weekend, both the kopi tiams re-open for businesses and I was very happy to see a few new stalls.

One of the new stall was E Black Board bistro – it is a western food stall and supposing to serve good steak. Adrian will be in for a good treat when he comes home in about 2 weeks time.

Also with the re-open of the coffee shop, I have more choices of lunch for Anthea. As one of the coffee shops is just located near her school, it will be easier for me to get her lunch before fetching her from school.

All this conveniences does not come naturally and I know we are very blessed to have found this home sweet home.

Event @ Sentosa

This has been a very busy week for me. At work, my department was handling a major session for about 150 people. I know 150 are not a BIG number but considering there is only my Manager and myself to handle the event, it is a MAJOR EVENT for us…haha.

There was a lot of logistic involved – booking the event venue, confirming the printout for the session, co-coordinating the air tickets / accommodation for all the invited guest speakers, coaches transfers etcs. Honestly all these brought me back to my working days in the Travel agent. In our agency, we also had a MICE department that handled all major events, so I am quite used to this kind of nature of work.

The only difference between then and now is I have a family, so logistic wise, it required more planning on my part me.

The event took place this week on Wednesday and Thursday. On the morning of Wednesday, I was required to be at the event venue at 7.30am, so I had to arrange for both Anthea and Anders to be in school before I left for the event.

Luckily Anders was very co-operative on the 2 days; he woke up around 6.45am, same time as Anthea. Then he had his milk, washed up and changed his uniform and we were out of the house by 7.10am.

We walked Anthea to her school 1st and then walked Anders to his childcare. Then I took a taxi to the event venue.

This is also a good training for Anders as in about another 1 years plus, he will be in morning school in Primary school. : )

This week, I also had the chance to play tourist again and this time is not on our main island. Our event was held at ONE°15 Marina Club@ Sentosa.

It has been almost 2 years since I last visited Sentosa. The place is a total changed from my last visit. I can see that the Resort World Park is already in shape and I believe it will be very soon, we can see the completion of it.

The club house was situated at the Sentosa Cove area and by the club house; there was a yacht area where all the yachters were parked.

Also opposite to the club house was a residential area, I heard it was fully booked. The place is so nice and so relaxing. This reflected the high end living of the rich and famous…hee. Now I have a DREAM….haha.

The 2 days of the event went by so quickly that I finally had the time to sit down and settled some of the paper works in the office.

During these 2 weeks, I must say a big THANK YOU to my mom and my MIL for helping me to look after Anthea while I was at work. There were a few days that I had to work full day to prepare all the printout and other logistics issues.

This has been a great learning experience and I truly enjoyed this work week, however, I don’t hope for it to happen again soon…hee : )

Stand UP on National Day.

On Friday, both Anthea and Anders schools had their respective National day celebration. Both of them were dressed in the Red/White combination as required. I also went to work in the same dress code. It’s a once a year special day, so why not join in the fun…haha.

Anthea had only 2 hours of school session and after that my mom brought her home. In the evening we went over to my parent’s home for dinner. Somehow, she caught the national day fever and was running a slight temperature. : p

On Saturday we rested whole day at home, hoping that she could recover in time for our Sunday picnic session. But her temperature was still high during the evening, so we decided to cancel the picnic.

On National Day, we had a restful day at home. Anthea temperature was back to normal during the day and she requested to watch the movie – UP. So in the evening, I went to the cinema to buy the movies tickets for the night show. At the same time, I bought back dinner as we planned to watch the National Day Parade LIVE on television.

The show started at 6.15pm and we were glued to the TV from that moment onward. I must say – this year NDP is really IMPRESSIVE! I liked the way the show was shown in chapters and each chapter reflected a different generation. The show was very lively and highly entertaining. At 8.22pm, we stand UP to recite our pledge – I did it and the children were quite amused.

After the National Day show, the children changed into their pyjamas and got ready for the UP movie. We had an enjoyable time at the movie, this time minus the pop-corn and drink as I don’t want them to fall sick again.

The show was nice but Anthea said she like ICE Age 3 better..haha. We went home after the show and headed to bed around mid-night.

Today is another official public holiday and I decided for them to rest well at home. So we shall just laze around and enjoy the day.

Wishing Singapore – a Happy 44th Birthday!

Working Full Time...

I have been doing Part Time job for the last 8 months and I am truly enjoying the flexible time that I had.

Although I am working ½ day morning, I feel the same as working FULL DAY as after work; I am doing 2nd part of work @ home.

But important thing is I am able to spend time with Anthea and ensure her transition to Primary one goes smoothly. So far, things are working well on our current schedule.
I have been telling Adrian that it’s not easy to work full time and still look after household chores and the children without any help. I truly admired those full time working parents without domestic helpers.

Next week, my department is handling a major event and it involves a lot of logistic work. So my manager has requested for me to work FULL Days on Thursday & Friday. After consulting my main pillar of support – my mom, I was able to work full days on these 2 days.

Today I had the chance to experience working full day again and I felt that it was never the same as before. My mind kept thinking of Anthea at home with my mom. I know she’s in good hand but somehow, I still felt something is missing…hee : )

I left work around 5pm, feeling mentally drained…haha. Never had such challenges for the last 8 months, I must say, a part of me is enjoying the Adrenalin pump. Felt like my working days in my ex-ex company.

I have been in emailed contact with Adrian and he mentioned that with such working logistic, my manager may offer me a FULL TIME job. Honesty, I don’t think I will want to take up any FULL TIME job for the next few years as I really appreciate the time I have with Anthea and in another year, Anders will also be transiting to Primary one, so the more I can’t work Full Time…haha.

Meantime, I will just carry on enjoying my Part Time work as long as the company can offer me the job.

FiReworks Special!

Once again, thanks to my PIL’s, we had an amazing weekend hotel stay at Swissotel the Stamford.

My MIL had continued her hotel membership program with the Swissotel groups. And for the package deal, she gets to enjoy free stay and this time she booked 2 rooms again. One room is on the executive floor – 57th floor for us to see the parade and fireworks.

The other room that we had is on the 22nd floor which I stayed with Anthea and Anders. The room was very comfortable and we also had a good view of the parade ground.

On Saturday as my MIL was still working around noon time, so I brought the children to the hotel 1st for lunch while waiting for my in-laws to arrive at the hotel for the check in.

We had lunch at Subway in Raffles City. Anthea and myself ate subway sandwiches while Anders had Burger King Kid’s meal.

Around 2 pm, my in-laws arrived and we checked in to the 2 rooms. The original room given to us on the 22nd floor was a bit noisy due to the aircon motor and we managed to change to another quieter room with a view… : )

As usual, after check in, the 1st thing the children request was Pool time and so we changed and headed for the pool. We had about ½ hour water play and swimming. We headed back to the room for our bath and the children afternoon nap.

When they woke up around 5 in the evening, both of them wanted to go to the swimming pool AGAIN..haha. So I told them we had to make it quick because we will miss the NDP show if we were too late.

At the pool, we saw the Parachutist “flying” down from the skyline and it was quite a view from the pool.

Then we quickly went back to change and watch the NDP from our room balcony. We saw the helicopters that was flying the Singapore flag and also the helicopters display and as usual Anders enjoyed it. He was totally captivated by the display.

Then we went over to my In-laws room for our in-room dining. My in laws had packed dinner from the food court back to room. We decided to have a nice and relaxing meal in the room while waiting for the firework.

From her 57th floor executive room, we had a whole view of the parade area. At one point, I saw the marching continent marching towards along Esplanade, turn around at the Bridge. Then marched along City Hall and turn back to the parade area. I heard on radio news that the whole route is about 3.2 KM. this is the 1st time the march pass happened in the city and neared to the public and credit must go to this year organizing committee. I think it was a great idea.

At around 8.25pm, we can see all the participants gathering at the platform for the finale. This was the cue for Firework and yeah, it started and we had a very good view of the firework display from our room balcony. It was really “High class” enjoyment – 高级享受。。嘻嘻！！

When the fireworks ended and the parade finished. We went down to Market Place for dessert. Both Anthea and Anders had a great time with their Ice-cream, while I enjoyed a nice piece of chocolate cake with my in-laws.

After dinner, we called it a night. In the room, the children were still enjoying themselves with the TV program and the room cozy beds.

When they finally slept, I had the TV to myself and I enjoyed a few good movies on HBO.

We woke up the next morning around 9am and my MIL called me and told me that I could bring the children to the Executive Lounge for breakfast. Originally we were told the lounge is for adults only but she said she saw families with children having breakfast there. So we went ahead to the lounge on the 60th floor and had a wondering breakfast.

The buffet spread was good. Anthea and Anders enjoyed all the different dishes and the juices. I had a good meal too, enjoying a good cuppa too. : )

We met up in my In-laws room after breakfast and rested a while before heading to the swimming pool for our morning exercise.

After a good morning swim, we went back to change and pack for our check out.

Around 12 pm, we did the checkout of the rooms and then had a simple lunch at Out of The Pan.

Then it was Home Sweet Home. The children had their power nap.

In the evening, we went to my parent’s place for dinner. Yes, my 老爸和老妈are back from their one month plus stay in 海南岛。 From the trip, they brought back the famous 文昌鸡 and my dad cooked his usual specialty of 海南鸡饭. We had a very enjoyable meal at my parents place.

After the good meal, we went home to rest and get ready for another exciting LONG WEEKEND ahead… : P