Family Day Event@ The Cathay

Adrian told me a few weeks back that his company is organizing a Family Day event to watch a movie.

Yesterday morning we woke up at 7am for the family day event. Yes, we were watching a morning movie..haha. All these while, we had been watching late night shows at our own comfort. I can never imagine getting up at 7 am to watch a movie.. : P

After washing up & changed, we left our home at 8am. The venue was The Cathay and the movie was The SPY Next Door starring Jackie Chan.

At 8.30am, it was the registration and then there were children things around the cinema for the children. They had free candy floss and balloons sculpture. The children were enjoying themselves with the freebies.

Around 9.15am, there was a buffet breakfast for everyone. The spread consisted of fried bee hoon, sandwiches, nuggets and sotong balls, free flow of coffee & tea too. We had a good breakfast before proceeding to the movie at 10.30am.

This was our family 1st visit to the Cathay cinema and we were quite impressed with the theatre size. The Grand Cathay is BIG and it can house the whole company seating comfortably.

On each seat – we had a packet of popcorn and a can of coke. So it was a really treat for the children.

The movie was as usual very family orient – action packed but not violent. And we had a good laugh at all the special fighting scenes.

The movie ended around 12 noon and both Anthea and Anders had requested for KFC Lunch. We headed toward Chinatown for our lunch and at the same time, CNY shopping.

The place was very crowded and very lively with Chinese New Year mood. We had a good time shopping and looking around at all the goodies.

Then we went home to rest before meeting up with the families for dinner.

It has been a very fulfilling bonding time for the family and we look forward to more during the Chinese New year holidays.

A New Role - WFHM

Yes, for the last few years, I had been job hopping. It’s not a good thing foe my resume but it’s something I needed to do for the good of the family, I believed.

Since Anthea started Primary One education, I had been her main after school caregiver. As she is in single morning session school, I would look for any Permanent Part Time morning hour jobs. So far, I had been lucky and found the jobs that met my needs.

Coming 1 February 2010, I will be starting a new role in my life chapter. I am going to be a PT WFHM (work-from-home-mom).

This week I am serving my 1 week notice for my current temp job. The company has treated me really well and I am experiencing mixed feeling in leaving the job.

Many friends had asked me how I managed to get such a job that allows me to work from home. : ) I replied them – “my lucky star shone on me. “

It started about 2 months - on 10 November 2009 when I was doing online job hunting and read about this position on Monster.com - Part time Client Services Executive. The thing that really caught my attention for the job is – it’s a home based job.

I wrote in for the position and after that forgot about it. On 20 November 2009, I received an oversea call on my mobile and the caller identified herself and requested for an interview time/date for the following week.

Then after a few rounds of interviews (via telephone & face to face). I was finally shortlisted for the position.

I had negotiated for my benefits and terms and glad to say, the company was agreeable to most of my terms.

Last week, my reporting manager was in town for a Round Table session and some client meetings. I took the few days off and did job training with her. It was a very fruitful session and she was a very good mentor for the job.

I had a clearer insight to my new job scope and starting next Monday, I will be officially granted the “WFHM” status.

I know I will miss out the “colleagues” part as most of the time I will be working on my own and liaising with my UK office. But like what a blogging friend told me: “you win some, you lose some.”

But having some many ex-colleagues and friends surrounding me, I know I will not be that lonely …hehe : P

Something to Raves about…

“A Family that eats together, stay together.” It is with this belief that we meet with our extended families on weekends for dinners. Simply because during weekdays, everyone is working and studying, we hardly even get a chance to talk to one another.

So weekends are really precious time for the get-together. Especially for the children, it’s a good time to bond with their grandparents / uncles & aunties and of course, their little cousin.

As our family size is considered big for a dinner, we usually or rather my in-laws will make dinner reservation for table of 10 + 1. And this number will increase coming end Feb and mid June…hehe.

Yes, for such a family size, it’s hard to get table at times, especially on weekends and without reservation, we may need to wait for a table. For adults – we are fine with waiting but definitely not the children & pregnant mommies.

So RESERVATION is a must!!

Guess what?? Yes, my youngest brother in law has decided to come up with his own website and this is definitely a helpful website for our family. I believe many other families will enjoy such a link.

Resraves serves as a guide for good deals on different credit cards and the current promotion that the respective restaurants are having.

I find the link useful & informative and would like to share it with all my friends.

Your feedbacks are also important as my BIL would like to improve on the service. So Dear friends, your comments are GOLDEN!!

Please let us know how you feel after raving the link. Enjoy and the French said: Bon Appétit!

Teambuilding @ Focus Adventure

This has been a very fast & exciting week for me. The office that I am currently doing temp job had their teambuilding event on the Thursday, 14 January 2010. The event was a kickoff event for the company year and staff from different offices in Asia Pacific joined in the event.

Although I am just a Part time staff there, I was really honored that they had included me in the event.

In the morning after sending the children to school and childcare, I made my way to the venue. The venue was Focus Adventure @ Sembawang. So it was quite easy for me to get to the location.

When I reached that around 8.15am, there was breakfast served while waiting for the rest of the people to arrive. The event officially started at 8.45am.

There were energy check games – these were to warm up our engine for the day. Then we were grouped into different group for a few games that tested our team’s focus, strategy thinking, cooperation and compliance. The games were all very fun but yet created such scenarios that were closed to work environment.

Around 1pm, after the 2 rounds of team games, we had our lunch & rested before we proceeded to outdoor for the High Element program.

Yes, as the name suggested, it was really high. The obstacle was about 12 meters above group. Each team did a different obstacle route and my team did the log walk.

I had never tried such obstacle walk in my life before and I told myself – I can do it. As one of my colleague said – fear is only in your mind.

With the team support, I made it and I know from this obstacle walk – there is nothing that can stop us in what we do except our own self.

The event finally ended at 6pm and we proceeded to the Sembawang SAF Yatch Club for the company gala dinner. The day ended around 9pm. Although it has been a long day but it had been a very fun filling day for me and I know I will remember this for a long time.

Birthday Boyz

Today is the birthday of 2 Boys that we are acquainted with – my 大哥and Angus (he is the son of my very good sister – Cindy).

On Saturday, Cindy hosted a YoYo Birthday party for Angus at their home’s club house. Angus is a very lucky boy and each year for his birthday, there is always a special theme that coincided with his latest interest.

YoYo is supposing the latest craze in his school. Indeed when I saw all his classmates having their own yoyo’s, I admit it’s really a craze. Some of them even have a bag to hold the 7 – 10 yoyos that they owned.

The party was scheduled to start at 4pm with the arrival of his invited guests. Both Anthea & Anders were on the guest list. Both of them had a goody bag and Anthea’s goody bag as a brand new yoyo in it.

Then at 4.30pm, it was show time – there was a Yoyo performance by 2 yoyo masters from Spinworkx and their skills were truly amazing. The boys were all captivated by the performance. Even the few girls in the group were happily watching the yoyo show.

After the show, there was a mini workshop where the masters taught the children different way of playing the yoyo. After the workshop, there was a contest for the children and they enjoyed it very much. Both Anthe and Anders didn’t take in the contest but watched it from the sideline. The whole room was full of laughter.

Then after the yoyo performance, it was the cake cutting ceremony. Cindy ordered a very unusual birthday “cake” for Anugus. It was a R2D2 Agar Agar. What a coincidence, the same evening, the TV was showing Star War Saga.

Then the buffet dinner followed. The food was as usual – sumptuous. The parents started eating 1st while the children were still having fun at the playground. They came in as and when they were feeling hungry and have a quick bite at the buffet dinner..haha.

Both Anthea and Anders were having so much fun at the playground with Angus and his classmates/friends.

Finally around 8pm, we said good bye to the host and went home. As Star Wars episode 3 & 4 were showed that night, we had another late night and went to bed around 12.30pm.

It was a wonderful birthday celebration and we wish Angus a very Happy 8th Year Old Birthday!

On Sunday, originally I had arranged for lunch with my parents & 大哥 at one of the 肉骨茶 store in Yishun – this stall was recommended on 新成人杂志 programme. However, after some checking, I think I got the wrong place and so we change to another location suggested by my brother – Lavender Food Square.
(updated today – it should be 得运肉骨茶@ Blk 417 Yishun Ave 11)

No regrets as there were many different stalls of good food. We had different dishes and enjoyed a sumptuous lunch.

Then after lunch, we went to the City Square shopping mall to check out this 1st eco-friendly shopping mall. The mall has family parking lots and electric car lots…quite interesting.

We walked around the mall to check out the different stores. Metro & NTUC Fairprice were the anchored shops in the building. It is accessible via the Farrer Park Station.

Then we decided on dessert at Andersen Ice-cream. This was our small treat to my brother’s birthday. On this day we wish him a very Happy Birthday in the new decade, may he has good health & a prosperous year!!

Nothing beat birthday gatherings and family bonding time and we had double happiness on this weekend. It has been a very meangful weekend for us...

新开始

This is the 1st week of school reopens and I am back to my normal morning rush hours. After a one month break, I was worried that Anthea may had a hard time getting back to the routine but again my worries were uncalled for..hehe. Matter of fact, she even said that she was looking forward to seeing her classmates again.

Our routine is pretty much the same as last year so I would consider us a “老鸟“。There are a few blogging mommies that I know had Primary 1 children and I can really feel their excitement in the air via their blog & facebook. To all these mommies – I said “加油！一切都会顺利的！！”

Also not forgetting my little niece, Faith, who is starting her nursery class, this week – May she enjoys her lesson and makes more new friends. : )

This week also marked the start of Anthea’s Chinese lesson at Tien Hsia. She had requested for a holiday break during December, so I let her, after all shel need her holiday. She is following the same teacher and I am really happy as 白老师 is really a remarkable teacher. As for Anders, he is still on waiting list for the K2 classes.

On Thursday, we had dinner at ION Orchard with my long time sister from the USA – Shirley. Yes, Shirley is in town this week and we had arranged to meet up. She was staying at Hyatt and we had the chance to view the hotel room & facilities and I know this may just be our next Staycation hotel…hehe.

We had a wonderful dinner at Republic Opera and I was quite surprised that we can find seats easily, compared to the last time we were there, but that was a weekend.

We chatted for almost 2 hours and finally called it a night and bid Shirley good night & good bye…till we meet again.

This first week has been a very smooth and relaxing week as the pressure is not here yet but I know as we go along, with more tests & examination in line, it will come surely but slowly.

A Peaceful Beginning

The starting of year 2010 had been very peaceful and happy for the family.

Thanks to TCS5, we watched a few good late night movies from New Year’s Eve to New Year Day – Lord of the Rings & Star Wars.

The New Year Eve’s countdown firework display was also a world class display and captivating music.

We woke up almost near to 11 am and had our brunch. It was very relaxing and enjoyable, especially when we do not need to rush off to work.

On New Year Day, I brought Anthea and Anders to the Princess & Frog movie after reading so many good reviews from my friends. Indeed it was a very happy and meaningful movie to start the year. Then we had porridge dinner with the families at Oasis Taiwan Porridge place.

On 2nd day of New Year, we attended a baby shower. It’s was baby Tien Ya’s full month celebration. She is the niece of my long-time girlfriend and I am really happy for Andrea’s sister & brother in law for their newborn.

Yesterday afternoon, I brought Anthea to collect her Edusave Merit Bursary Award; she was happy to receive the monies and asked me if she can use it. But I told her it’s a cheque, so we need to deposit to her account.

Now we are tuning back to School days mode for the children, especially Anthea, after her one month long break.

新年新希望- 一切顺利和平安！！