Wei Sze - How Are You Getting Along?

Crowded, Not!?!?

2012-01-30T20:59:00.001+08:00

Last week, on one of the nights, met up with BFFs for coffee/tea. We arranged to meet @ holland village, a place which i hardly visit. the last time i was there, we had dim sum @ one of the chinese restaurants but it was a touch and go event, we didn't really take time to explore the place.....

anywayz, it was 1030pm on a wednesday nite, third day of chinese new year. saw a starbucks but we were disappointed that it closes @ 11pm!! hahaha, actually it's very good liao lah that they are opened till 11pm on a weekday nite ;p but u know, we are in singapore, our expectations are higher ;p heeehee.

walked abit and we found a coffee bean tea leaf cafe. Yipppeee, it's opened 24 hours a day!!! Hoooray! welcome to singapore! :) love it.

went in and boy was it crowded and noisy. both hubbie and myself agreed that it was very crowded and full of 人气! :)

when my frens arrived .... one of them commented that "it's not so crowded today" ! she had thought that it would have been difficult to get a seat .... wahahaha, we had a good laugh cos here we are feeling the "crowd" and then the reality check came -- it wasn't so crowded afterall!!

welcome to singapore!! love the hustle and bustle. just have to bear with the crowd!

夕阳无限好 ....

2012-01-27T23:54:00.000+08:00

spent the entire day today at Universal Studios with BFFs (and kids) ....fun and tiring!!

love these shots of sunset that i managed to capture as we were preparing to leave Sentosa Island.

will write more about Universal Studios later..... i need to get some sleep now! heehee.

Chinese New Year 2012 - Reunion Dinner

2012-01-26T16:39:00.002+08:00

In a flash, the festivities of celebrating the Lunar New Year aka Chinese New Year is over!! although traditionally, there are 15 days of Chinese New Year celebration (for visitation and collecting/giving of ang pows), in reality, we are constrained by the official "public holidays" and in our case, only 2 days :( my fren reminded me that hong kong has officially 3 days of holidays to celebrate CNY ;)

First off, the reunion dinner 团年饭 -- for the last 14 years we've always had 2 rounds of reunion dinner on the same day!!

reunion dinners take place on the day before Chinese New Year Day 1 and as the name suggest -- it's for the entire family/clan to come together and feast. and if one is living overseas, it is in every sense of the word a reunion :)

both my and hubbie's family have their reunion dinners on the same day and so yup, we eat round 1 @ 530pm with my family and then @ 8pm with his family. i remember when we first started doing this, we were quite conscious of the amt we ate @ both dinners -- afterall there's so much food served, it is possible to overeat!! ;)

sad to say i think over the years, we have gotten used to the idea of eating 2 dinners for reunion and our stomach seems to have found the capacity to accomodate the food ;p i try very hard to control.... but i think i am still eating alot more than in the past!!

o well.

here's kaira and her cousin samuel getting for "Lo Hei" -- a dish that originate from singapore i believe and a must have during chinese new year meals. the dish signifies prosperity and every single ingredient has a positive connotation to it :) e.g. the crackers signifies money, he raw fish, signifying abundance, the sweet sauce that is used to mix up the ingredients signifies a sweet and happy year ahead so on and so forth.

my family "Lo Hei"-ing -- mixing up the ingredients :)

Kaira , all changed and ready for round 2 with my in laws.

When we reached home, it was past 11pm. way way past her bedtime!!! really rare that she sleeps so late ;p

Chinese New Year is Coming!!

2012-01-20T10:49:00.000+08:00

As a child, i looked forward to cleberating chinese new year because it meant collecting ang pows (red packets with $$), eating lots of chinese new year cookies and goodies and playing with cousins from the extended family and of course, it's holiday from school!

and now it's kaira's turn to enjoy all these!!

eating Bak Kwa - her favorite CNY scnack

p/s bak kwa - is like beef jerky -- but it's pork, sweeter and less chewy! i love it very much too!! ;p

Yummy kueh bangkit

traditional "prosperity cakes" that signifies good fortune for the rest of the year!

Labrador Nature Park

2012-01-19T09:51:00.004+08:00

Heard on the news that the authorities have revamped the Labrador Nature Park area and there's now a connected boardwalk to Vivocity.

Decided to bring Kaira there to take a look last weekend! Nice idyllic place, i believe we will be back again....but maybe during the evening when it's not so hot!!

we were there late morning and the sun was just blazing!!!! there's more to the place that we should explore (like the play area etc) so i think we should be back!

Plus, this place is near to the NUS Guild House which is a good place to hangout for the family :)

talking about the NUS Guild House, it's been like 10 years since we have visited it and boy has it changed!! the the Clubhouse is now so posh, we almost couldn't recognise it!!
will try to remember to take some photos the next time........

that's Reflections in the background. love the contrast of concrete and greenery.

Celebrating Papa's Birthday!

2012-01-13T22:13:00.000+08:00

Was telling hubbie that this seems to be first time that he has really celebrated his birthday with Kaira since her birth!! (@_@)

she's born in Nov 07 and in Jan 08, during his birthday kaira was recovering from surgery and we were in no mood for any celebration. then from 2009 - 2011, he's always back in Netherlands in January while we will stay in Singapore!

Finally, Kaira has the chance to celebrate his birthday this year! Good thing he arrived back in Singapore on his birthday from a business trip, otherwise, it will be another missed year!

i know i know, there are probably many years ahead for Kaira to celebrate his birthday, but every missed celebration will never return! so, good to enjoy every single one! heehee :)

Happy birthday to Papa!!

Look Mum!

2012-01-12T11:57:00.001+08:00

Kaira was quite excited to see her "work" on the notice board located just outside her class.

close up:

although i think kaira can draw very well ..... 一山还有一山高!!!
there was one worksheet that caught my attention and that's because it was obviously a scene from Angry Birds!! waahahaha, so cute, one of her classmates actually drew the angry bird scene !! *amazed*

2012-01-10T12:57:00.003+08:00

i woke up this morning and suddenly remembered that its our wedding anniversary!!

felt bad. immediately sent an sms to hubbie who is away for business trip.

his respone "Ha! Oops!"

both of us are really pathetic!! ;p

i think this is the 4th or 5th consecutive year that we are not "together" on our wedding anniversary date, no wonder we forgot!!! :D

what a lousy excuse.

regardless, happy 14th Anniversary to us !! haha.

Her Reward After One Week

2012-01-06T20:55:00.004+08:00

After one week @ K1, she's finally better adjusted. so here's Kaira with her well-deserved reward for overcoming a trying first week @ K1 in Singapore!!

(just a note for my memories' sake, on the second day of school , while she's crying and whining she did tell me that singapore school not fun ;p and asked why there are so many things to learn ;p is it really so different? or is she just projecting the things that she heard/we said???)

whatever it is, at least she now tells me that she likes to go to school and it is fun. hope she continues enjoying learning!

3rd Day @ Kindergarten

2012-01-05T21:40:00.000+08:00

kaira was very reluctant to go to school in the morning. she gave me all sorts of excuses -- she's tired, she doesn't like school, she wants to nap, what have you.

i spent quite a lot of time talking to her and reluctantly we arrived in school.

She was quite ok because Teacher B wasn't in class ! she was out carrying out some other duties and only Teacher A was in class. so all went well and she gave me her usual flying kiss and started getting involved.

When i went to pick her up in the evening, she was all smiles and told me that she had fun and enjoyed her class. Hallelujah!

i hope every day will be a fun day for her from now on and she warms up to Teacher B just as she did to the other teachers.

Unexpected "Dramatic" 2nd Day .....

2012-01-04T21:34:00.002+08:00

after i spoke with Kaira yesterday, i honestly didn't expect any "problem" for her 2nd day in school.

i thought i had found the "root cause" and addressed the issue with her.... and she was actually quite cheery the whole of this morning and had no problem whatsoever as we prepare to make our way to school after lunch.

the drama started after she went into the class. as she's in the class with one of the teacher(let's called her Teacher B) , i stepped aside to speak to another teacher (Teacher A) to just share with her what i gathered from kaira yesterday. after a couple of minutes, i could hear kaira crying and screaming for me. she wanted to go home and kept saying that she didn't want to go school.

tried to pacify her at the same time find out exactly what is troubling her. she gave me lots of reasons.... that this school is different from the netherlands school, that the class is "too long", that the school is not fun etc etc. after listening to her, and talking to her, she seemed to be ok to go back to class. but the moment she's at the door, she started crying again. i had to carry her and guess what, while i carried her, she vomitted onto me!! yucks.

my hair, shirt, handbag was bathed in her vomit. disgusting really. i had to borrow a blouse from one of the teachers.

but after the vomitting and cleaning up, she seemed to be better and she finally told me WHY she doesn't want to go to the class

she's afraid of ONE of the teachers. why is she afraid?? i am not exactly sure but based on what she said, it seemed that the teacher may have corrected her the day before and maybe it was not in a tone that she took kindly to. i don;t know. then she said it's because the teacher is big-sized and that's why she's afraid. i am not sure exactly the reason, maybe it's a combination of factors.

i tried to shre with her some ways to cope with this "Fearful" feeling but she was still reluctant to go back to class and wanted me to accompany her. so yup, i set in for 15 minutes. the teacher she was afraid of wasn't in class so she was perfectly fine and after 15 minutes, she gave me the OK to leave since she was fine with Teacher A.

on my way home i was thinking through the situation to see how i can help and what i could have done better to help her adjust.

she has been to a few "school environments" and she has never had any problems with teachers and in the netherlands school, the teachers rotate quite regularly so i honestly never thought that teachers could pose as a "fear factor" in her case. as i had taken for granted that she will adjust to the teachers, i didn't make extra effort to acquaint her with the new teachers in this K1 class.

As i speak more with Teacher A, i decided that when i pick Kaira up in the evening, i will speak with Teacher B. not so much to talk about the situation but more to show kaira that I am on friendly terms with ALL the teachers and that they are ALL friendly and nice people and that there's nothing to be AFRAID of.

i was mentally prepared to see a whiny kaira when i was waiting to pick her up. she surprised me by telling me that she had fun and she enjoyed school ?!?

what a turnaround?!? kids are so interesting..........

i went ahead to speak with Teacher B as planned and kaira was with me during the conversation. at the end of it , she even hugged Teacher B goodbye.

on the way home, i tried to process today's "experience and lesson" with kaira and work through her feelings and i think she got the message that we cannot judge a book by its cover ......

let's see how Day 3 goes. It can only get better! :)

First Day in Kindergarten

2012-01-03T20:05:00.000+08:00

Today marks yet another milestone for Kaira. Her first day @ Kindergarten

Getting ready and "posing" before we leave home ;p

Roarrrrr ..... r u sure u want to send me to school ? In her "uniform".

Her school day last 3.5 hours and although her first day went generally ok, a small incident confirmed and increased our understanding of her.

apparently towards the end of the day as the kids were finishing up their worksheets, kaira burst into tears. she told the teachers she misses her mum. and was pacified after a while.

when i spoke with her, she said the same thing to me -- that she missed me and that's why she cried. but i wasn't convinced.

after some probing, i finally figured out why. she apparently wrote something wrongly and i think she felt that she's no good and that everybody else got it right except her. her perfectionistic/competitive character "shining through". i explained to her that it's ok not to KNOW everything and that that's the reason she's in school -- to learn from the teachers. and that some children may know more than others and that's OK. what is important is that she learnt something new and she now knows more than in the past. she seemed to accept what i said ..... let's see how things go.

it's interesting how the lil' ones have their personalities ......regardless of what we do/do not do.

i pray for God's wisdom in guiding her and developing her to be more like Jesus.

Reasons Why I missed Singapore

2012-01-03T00:00:00.000+08:00

Getting supper @ 10pm at our whim and fancy ;)

Sunny days all year round (alrite alrite, there are wet days but at least it's not cold and windy!! ;p)

Yummy local food

Shops like Daiso!!

A New Year, A New Start for Kaira

2012-01-02T00:38:00.002+08:00

Kaira said goodbye to her small pillow on the first day of 2012. the pillow that has been her companion since she was a baby. the pillow is in honestly in a very bad shape despite sunning and what have u cos she really loves to bite it.... and it can get so wet....it's just....er..... disgusting ;p

she was very reluctant. in fact, in the past, i have tried to get her to part with her pillow several times but to no avail. she loves it for whatever reasons.

however, yesterday, when i wasn't looking, she bite and sucked at it so hard it was soaking in her saliva and i saw it only when everything dried up. in fact, she does this very often. o dear. i told her she simply had to throw the pillow away....

cried buckets. wouldn't let go. so i told her, she can hug it to bed one last time yesterday nite and we will throw it away in the morning and we will find a replacement for it.but told her she shouldn't suck her replacement anymore else it will suffer the same fate as her pillow. she seemed to think that that was an acceptable arrangement and went to bed quietly.

Next morning, she woke up bright and early and went to hubby to ask him to throw away the pillow. Bravo.

but some whining and crying ensued. but she soon got over it.... :) glad that it wasn't so difficult after all.....let's see the fate of the replacement!

Mimosa aka 含羞草

2012-01-01T00:30:00.000+08:00

As i child i remember liking this plant alot -- and will not miss any opportunity to touch them whenever i spotted them!! just love to touch the plant and seeing the leaves "fold" together.

honestly, as i aged, i have kind of forgotten about this plant. and i have never seen this in the netherlands.

So this time home, kaira had her first experience with mimosa and it was my mum who pointed it out to her when they take their evening walks together.

the plant before it's "disturbed"

not sure if it's clear -- but the leaves are "folded" up here

Like i always say, i am reliving my childhood through kaira!!

2012

2011-12-31T18:00:00.000+08:00

wishing everyone a great 2012 ahead!!

A new year. A new beginning. :)

Zoo Zoo Let's Go

2011-12-29T22:08:00.002+08:00

Our second visit to the Zoo since we returned last month and you will probably see us visiting the zoo quite often in the future ;) cos on our last visit there, we signed up for the Friends of the Zoo membership :)

clowning around on the cow.....

Our last trip there, we arrived slightly before 2pm and managed to catch quite a few of the feeding sessions. when we did some research, so this time, we arrived earlier ard 1pm to catch the earlier feeding sessions.

The animals are more active during feeding ;p other times, we may not catch them in action ...heehee.

actually, kaira enjoys the rainforest kidz world more than the animals i think!! was telling hubbie that since we have the membership, we can make some trips solely to the water play area and the playground ;p can skip the animals!! hahaha. i think it wouldn't make any difference to her ;)

Regardless, it's always nice to visit the zoo. nature and some exercise ;p heehee.

Craft Time

2011-12-28T00:30:00.000+08:00

after all the "partying" the last week and over christmas, today was sort of a "lull" day and since we didn't have anything planned till the evening, i decided to do some craft work with kaira.

she loves art and craft and is very imaginative!! haha!! she sees things that i don't ;)

first, she made 3 sock puppets, a christmas gift she received. she loved the puppets!

Next, we played with PlayMais and she started creating T-rex, traffic lights and what have you.... so imaginative :)

Singapore Skyline By Night

2011-12-27T21:47:00.001+08:00

Singapore - the city of skyscrapers. Every time i come home, it seems like there are new buildings and the skyline has grown prettier.

This is Marina Bay Sands

Evening view of MBS :

The Singapore Merlion and our financial district forms the backdrop

Christmas Lightings in Singapore

2011-12-26T22:22:00.001+08:00

We didn't really get many photos of the brightly lit Orchard Road as it's usually very crowded this period of the year and honestly, we have not plucked up the courage to brave the crowds so as to take a stroll down Orchard Road to admire the lights!!

We only managed to catch the lights on Boxing Day and it was a quick one as we drove along Orchard Road. It's still crowded (although, admittedly, not as crowded as the days before!!)

This year, we had the chance to view the Christmas Floats for "Celebrate Christmas in Singapore" - i didn't even know that there's such an event in Singapore!

So, this is Christmas in the Tropics!

Christmas & Dad's Birthday

2011-12-26T09:33:00.004+08:00

This year is my Dad's 70th Birthday and we had a simple family dinner on christmas eve before his birthday.

Dinner was @ Beng Thin Restaurant @ Toa Payoh -- simple, homestyle and delicious!!

On Christmas Day, we the did the usual extended family gathering @ my auntie's place with our relatives......

This year, Kaira is a little more aware of the "commercialised" side of Christmas. Haha -- which kid doesn't like the idea of presents, candies and play?!?!

HAPPY BOXING DAY FRIENDS!! :)

Blessed Christmas My Friends

2011-12-22T09:39:00.002+08:00

Here's Kaira wishing everyone a blessed Christmas and a great 2012 ahead. :)

i am finally "In" ;p

2011-12-21T00:02:00.001+08:00

haha.

my trusted phone of 7 years died on me :( i liked this phone very much and if it hadn't died on me, i think i would still be hanging on to it ....even though i keep saying that i will buy the iphone (sooner or later ;p)

can u see the words -- this is the reason i have to change the phone.... it went bonkers!!

old love. new love.

i went down to the phone shop to buy the iphone 4S today. i think one of the greatest put offs for me when it comes to buying the phone from the shops is the crowd and queue!! that's y i am not very motivated to get a new phone....;p today, i spent almost 1.5 hrs @ the shop just to complete the purchase. i don't understand why every day, there's so many people buying phones!!??!!

o wellz, today, i was part of the crowd.

Hope the new "love" ihpone4S turns out to be just as good!!

Cool and Wet December

2011-12-18T20:25:00.002+08:00

For some reason, i don't remember singapore being this wet and cool during December.

Maybe each time i am back, i am in a holiday mood, so my perception of things is "colored" ;p

Since we came back in early November, it seems to be raining everyday. and it's the heavy downpour kind. on good days, the downpour lasts for a while and the rest of the day is dry. but there are days when it just keeps raining and raining and raining! neverending rain..... which means cool weather!! :) refreshing for a change from the hot and humid.... provided one is not caught in the rain lah!

as a tourist, i think i will not enjoy Singapore very much during this period. cos it's so wet and if sightseeing or outdoor activities are planned.... it can be such a dampener!! but of course, if one is just shopping, then the rain's not going to be of hindrance. singapore main shopping belt is complimented by a network of underground connections.... it's possible to stay dry ..... and not be affected by the rains...unless of course, if it floods ;p heehee.

Christmas is not here yet.... and Chinese New Year is coming!!!

2011-12-17T14:18:00.001+08:00

haha, that's the fun thing about living in a multicultural society !!

the Victoria wholesale centre (they carry mostly dried goods.... think dried scallops, fish maw, sea cucumber, dried mushrooms, dried herbs etc) is making way (for the new expressway i think) so, we decided to visit it to see if we can get some good bargains for CNY ;p the last time i was there must be 8-9 years ago.... this place reminds me of HK Sheung Wan 海味街 although on a smaller scale :)

so off we went this morning for shopping....of a different kind!

olden day equivalent of the candy store??

choosing some CNY decorations

It just feels better buying from the Old Ah Ma ;p

kaira kept complaining that it's "smelly" when we pass by the dried shrimps and ikan bilis....LOL. i kept telling that this scent is fragrant.... she gave me the incredulous look and put her hands over her nose ;p

whatever .... we came back with bagfuls of goodies!! ready for serious CNY cooking ;p Yeah Right!