these are a few of my nice things for today...

Our corporate ang bao came in a pouch that is re-usable.. I likey... but not sure what it can be used for except as a pencil case.

last Oct, I brought the children for a studio make over photo shoot, inspired by howMong's macy turn out.

These two pics is currently part of the deco on my office table:)

Con called with USA colleagues this morning for a introductory. People are nice and pleasant but challenging market to tackle, I'll have already done some cases which is so. Thank God for good mentor, hope he'll remain helpful for a long time.

Back breaking experience

Our dept is trying to do a keep fit 2007. Most of them will need to cook up some ideas on what to do for the month. K, our yoga enthuse, put us up into a trial lesson on Kryoga yesterday. There were some last minute shift in timing, we end up joining the intermediate class. My mental state was not really prepared for it, but my body was pushing through. Some of the meditation bits, praying posture, free mind felt really unappropriate personally but I was praying the whole time. Overall it's still fun to do it with colleagues, where everyone could "complain" about the aches together.

Feb is badminton month. Looking forward to some fun.

The hubby and I will be starting on our golf lessons tomorrow. I've got some practices at the range but I always end up hurting my left palm after a few stokes. Hopefully getting the techniques will help to improve that.

some briefs over weekend

before the hubby became seriously sick.. he gave us a treat from his bonus money at Cystal Jade Palace at Ngee Ann City. love the soup.
Bought the children school shoes. The girl says that her school friends are already saying things about her shoes (worn since K2 - but hey, there ain't no hole in shoe yet).
My son says that he wants to go my parent's in law's place. We should have paid a visit but ... the man is sick.

the MC king a.k.a the hubby

Jan alone, the hubby is sick twice. the first was on the 15th when he had severe lao sai.. It was really rather serious, not that he is faking it or something. Then over the weekends, he has this swollen left eye and a large pimple that caused his throat to be scratchy and fever. And he is on sick leave again today. He says his boss is totally unhappy.

Last year, the hubby finished using all the medical entitlement. I wonder if he is going to hit the same record this year. When I cleared the fridge of the out dated medicines, I visited the doc only once last year - wow... I'm a super mum, yeah. AND, I can feel that my MIL not happy with me not taking good care of his son. hrmph.

Perhaps I should make him go into detox programme to kill his sick germs.

R.I.P. while I get my hands on the new one

that's RIP for my 43" LG standing TeeVee. It went into disco crackling mode and all of the sudden, the intestines burst and died.

We now squeeze in the master bedroom for the few shows we catch and we have to go a-TeeVee hunting. With all these plasma, HD, integrated etc etc.. to go for those or to stick to something normal and Toshiba/JVC/phillips... well well.

frustrated...

yesterday, between his 4th elder sis and hubby and myself, we had quite a bit of a heated session on whether going the Junior College (JC) route or the polytechnic one is better. To put it simply, there is no right or wrong but the husband and his sister is so mule about it. Now, that's the thing is really pissing me. I turned to my niece (who is the cause of the debate cos she is taking her 'O's this yr), and told her that long term success comes with passion. She is the president in the design and art cca and not to mention that she is really talented in that arena. Her math is really good too. She aims to VJ and she is very confident that she'll get in. Period. It's her choice.

the husband refuse to budge, insisting that what he is trying to prove is that Poly is an alternative, if not, the better alternative. *sigh* anyways, it's just that. I am so dreading the day my son or daughter has to make that choice.

then as we debated on the (same) topic even as we went on to do our weekly grocery shopping at Suntec. Upon the reaching the carpark as we were ready to leave, we found that we were stuck by a total idiot. The way he/she parked illegally made it impossible for us to get out without risking scratches. Stupid stupid toyota corolla owner.

From 5pm to 5.20pm, all I could do is stand there and get the unhelpful stares from the drivers who saw the situation. I was totally exasperated.

the open door is my car, behind my car is the pillar. how dumb can that driver get?!?!

after paging with no response, I suggested to my hubby that he drives and we try to do the reversal exit. no choice. we managed out (wished we could have done it earlier) but no other car could park into that proper lot.

1) do you think going to JC or Poly makes a difference?

2) are some Singaporean driver dense?

the difference

you know, to wake up to a day is just another wonderful day God has given. BUT, why is my body system so strange and is able to differentiate weekday and weekend??!!

Saturday saw me waking up at 7am and could not go back to sleep at all. I was like so caffine alert. Somehow, sweetie hubby could sense that i was wide awake and suggested to roller blade at EC. So we did and it was a good sweat and chill out session. It ended with a delicious morning breakfast at the famous prawn mee at Katong before we start the jam pack day to ferry children for their ballet, swimming. I was totally ALIVE throughout the day till 11pm.

Last night, I was determine to be equally alert (like Sat) when I tried to wake up at 7.15am. The body system didn't listen up. Plus, last night I had to dream peculiar stuff like... I was deliberating to go for an operation but I told them I needed to go to work. I woke at 5.56am and literally forced myself back to dreamland and that irritating dream continued till I force my feet out of the bed at 7.25am. URGH. Now at workplace, the tired eyes is calling me to take 5.. I just kinda feel like going to bed.
AND, I just started out last week at this work so it's still interesting and nice. I like my job scope and all. No reason to feel lethagic at this point!

resolutions for the brand new year

i've got some real updates to do and since i've got time be SAHM with maid at the moment, i really should buck up but well the lazy bone got better of moi.

The new year went by with us zonking out at 11pm.. i was woken up by my neighbours proclaiming with bangs and such that the count down to 2007 was done. Although it was not a wild welcome to the new year for us, at least we had peace, joy and health at the last minute of 2006.

On the 1st day of the year, after hussle and brussle to get Natasha's room done with the Princess theme (she slept in the same room with the brother since she was 6 months old)... we asked each other what is our 2007 resolution.

Hubby - exercise and sign up for gym membership. I told him to do it later cos it'll be "peak" period for at least the first 3 months of the year. I guess it's a common resolution.

Son - to get all band 1 for this year. He had 3 out of 4 subjects band 1 for P3. Chinese was the culprit.

Daughter - she er..... dunch noe. She's started her P1, will update on that soon.

moi- well, as much as i am quite done with setting resolutions ( i did not set any for 2006) . I decided to set a seemingly easy goal but actually idealistic one. NO MSG for home - at least most of the time.
That means - no instant noodles, no snacks that contain MSG. I will really have to do marketing with detail scrutinising on the packing.

so that's that. May 2007 brings pleasant memories with our loved ones.

HDB tai-tai update

As there were so many various plans that may happen - hubby's-still-in-consideration-posting to USA, my desired job pending for official reply (as it is also posting in USA)... My hubby decided to give me a half stamp to stay at home for a while, till our plans are crystalized.

It's kinda weird, i have never never been "out-of-job" status ever since.. Sec 3??? Even when I was doing my diploma and degree, i was working. I've not totally get comfy with the feeling yet but it's prob cos i've got a thousand and one things to settle at home.

Day 1 (13th dec)
woke up at 8am, shoo hubby to work. lie in bed till 8.30am. did MSN, clear songs for my iPod shuffle, load in videos for my iPod (tasks halfdone). Plan to meet sister at 1pm for massage (yippeee). children woke up at 10.30am, ate breakfast with them. brought them to Tampines by train to buy Christmas presents for gift exchange during Sat nite dinner. Came home to assign chinese homework to son and reading task to daughter. Clear cluttered study desks and very untidy drawers of rubbish. "file" my bags, clear up those that i will never use. Off i went for massage and a very stuff-ed meal at Sketches. The evening was just the norm, at my parent's in law's place.. came home and played some majong with kids before revising Nathan's homework.

Day 2 (yesterday)
woke up at 8.30am, shoo hubby to work (hope it will not any later). Checked pple's blogs, MSN, could not resists sending resume for two jobs which looks interesting. Woke the children at 10am.. watched drama serial. Assigned homework again at 11.30am, cannot kick habit of torturing them.. mwahhaha..
Wanted to buy Nathan's books for next year at 1.30pm. Decided to take a nap but alas, the super loud thunder did not allow me to laze. Since it poured super heavy, decided to pack Tasha's room to make space for new furniture. Threw away 2 huge IKEA plastic bags full of misc items.. took 2.5 hrs to do that - phew.
Then took the children for waffle teabreak at ice-cream gallery and then hit parent's in law's place for early dinner.
The usual majong then go through homework with son sessions. oh, i also packed some newspapers and did some cuttings, muz do newspaper filing soon.

Day 3 - today..
plan to buy Nathan's books now, bring children to eat lunch wif daddy, collect my shoes at Pazzion... then we'll see.


arh... one sure can get used to this lifestyle yah :)

some updates

though Tasha's BD was today - 11/12, we decided to hold it almost a month earlier on 14/11 this year cos she wanted to have one with her school friends before they bid farewell. There was the cake cutting (lychee princess cake), snack time but no games cos prob the teachers thought we did not prepare anything.. but the girl sure enjoyed herself and will remember it for a long time (i hope)

So thereafter, the daddy and I did not plan anything at all for home celeb.. prob it so close to Christmas and I have tons of pressie which i have yet to prepare.. *sigh*

tomorrow will be my last day at work. I am officially out of job but it's cos i am still waiting for an answer. There is this Global marketing position which i am really game for but have no experience. And there is this sales job which is all ready for me to take on once i say when to sign the appt letter.

well, well... for any reasons if you're reading this blog.. i need prayers. I know God will answer to my heart's desire but i still need to know His will..

must. back . up . regularly

we came home to a PC that cannot boot up. without question, it's the holiday bug that infected the children and the PC caught it. The daddy was so so mad, he lost all his software. the mum had most of the stuff backed up in an external harddisk but one can never tell what is not most updated.

anyways.. the good thing is that the daddy got it all up and thus the mum is surfing and logging this blog (gladly with all the stuff in tact).

The children understands why from hence on, the PC is out of bounds without supervision. they each got also a stroke of rattan for not listening when we repeatedly told them strictly no downloads to increase bug risk.. *tsk*

And it's Natasha's birthday today. She is officially 6 today.

the one who found rest

One thing led to another, I was catching up with Corrinnemay's latest Christmas album when I read about her granddad's demise.

Her blog reminded me that my Dad was also a bird lover. When we were little, our adventures would be amongst those forest opposite our Telok Blangah hts flat or the coffeeshops which has birds hanging on poles. He will always prepare his bird with clean cages and I remember those cloths he covers the cages meant that he is meeting his bird friends - those covers were also our props (sp?) when we role play our nuns - Jas.. remember?? haha.

From him, I know all the species of the home reared birds, white-eyed ring, long tailed, hua mei. I know the food to feed each, the little porcelein cups that is around. We watched on as our Dad often bathed his birds in those rectacular cages. How he cuts those newspaper into circles and place them under the cages. When we were young, we will never get lost in shopping malls cos his unique whistle will let us know where to go to. We were also his little birds..

During his last days, he could not keep up with the expenses on his birds anymore. he only kept two, one of which was sickly or handicapped, my Dad took care of it till it became stronger. Not sure what happened to the other.

Corrinemay's aptly put across - born free.

I certainly miss him...

Children's Day break

The children these days are really blessed and fortunate.

this is kk and I's pledge:
we the daddy and mummy of Nathan and Natasha, pledge ourselves to make them so happy, that they will not nag us again to bring them to sentosa ...

But it turned out to be a really great 2 hours at the new palawan beach. I am amaze at how Sentosa is doing reno to be a great entertainment island and yet is able to accomodate usual weekday/weekend crowds..

Mama go jogging

It started 3 months ago when we bought the mahjong table with the tiles to entertain guests when we need to.

Then, we thought of polishing up our skills since Nathan learns how to play from his paternal grandfather. But we were in a situation where we lack one player (KK, Nathan and I only).

Tasha was the only logical choice. after a few practices, she is able to "gao" by herself and dunch play play.. she is the "ze moh" queen.. princess. haha...

Ever since then, the children will say "let's play mama go jogging" and we will be at the table.. am I doing something illegal?

see the God of gambler in the makings...

Snapshot of a good rest

The nursed sandy throat has broken into a cough. A chance to take a break and work from home since it's off peak at the moment.

A 2D1N trip to Bintan two weekends ago was refreshing pleasant. We swam twice a day, took a morning stroll collecting seashells, dip our feet in the cold sea waters, watch naked babies/toddlers, breathe fresh air, no calls, no internet, no puters, make foot prints in the sand, had water massage at the jacuzzi pool, eat, eat and eat. haha, the wonder of real holiday.



the highlight for the trip was we were able to catch the turtle hatchlings release to the sea in front of our villa! AMAzing nature.

a third reminder?

The third death this year.

Shortly after my Dad's death. S.L. (hubby's eldest sis's husband)was hospitalised and admitted to ICU. His lungs then was so fill with water that he could not breathe. He was told that it was his chronic high blood that caused it.
It made sense, I recalled in 1998 when my Dad was admitted, the same thing happened and he made it thru till this year.
When S.L. was warded for further investigation, they found a black dot near his lungs but they could not do an oral biotopsy, and S.L. did not want to get cut. Instead of follow thru with the western docs, he saw a series of Chinese sinseh and hoped to find THE miracle. Everytime we discussed about S.L. (without him) during those times, i'll get irritated and told them that if the dot is not determined, how can any persons save him.
Then, his health deterioted within months... sometimes, he'll be so weak that he could not function well. Finally, it became serious enough and they did a CT scan about a month ago. Apparently, he have had brain cancer two years ago and only recently, it spread to his lymnoid, then to his lungs. The earlier detection of the black dot could be that but because it was "new", everyone thought that he was in the early stage of cancer. By then, it was late. The cancer cells also went to his bones.
Two weeks ago, he went for two ops and two Sats ago, we visited hime. Although he seems tired. It seems like God's only comfort to me when i witness his admission to accept Christ. One of my SIL's pastor came over and prayed with him. It was my heart's desire and God protected it and let me saw that thru.
We had all hopes that he will recover. He went home last Tues but his appetite was so bad that he lost a lot of weight.
He was admitted again on sun and this time, the doctors warn that if he can survive these few days, he'll make it. He didn't this evening.

May God receive his soul readily .. Amen.

blog time

M.I.A-ed for a few weeks.. It have been days of enjoying the not so early morning wakes and a trip back from M'sia.
That was a good break, this June school holiday. Away from all the cares and worries. It seems to be a tad too much this earlier half of the year.

a simple fare

My father in law is 67 years old today according to the lunar calendar. Since we (hubby n I) suggested on where to eat the last time for my mother in law's birthday, it was quite a disaster at Chef Chan We did not raise any opinion as to where to go.

So.. as it turns out, my MIL made a simple steamboat set up and storm up some dishes. Then we had an almond choc cake from Cedele.

It was a nice, relax affair where the kids (Nathan, JX, Sihong, sihao) played majong and the adults watched TV and discussed on the plans on end of year trip. . One family plans to go Disneyland , another family wants to go Japan - hokkaido. The singles are heading Tasmania (*wince* I missed that place!).

Us? we are planning a three weeks stay in New Zealand. - read: planning. I hope it'll happen though. *cross fingers*

Tomorrow, one family heads off to Guangzhou for a company's family day.

Three cheers to the bravest boy in the world

At least to me, Nathan is the bravest boy I have ever seen.

We checked in to the surgery centre at 7.30am, earlier in the morning, we did our prep talk again. My boy simply says that he is ready and not afraid, just a little worried.
The ops took an hour and a half but it took him another 3 hours to recover from the GA. Took almost a full day to truly recover from the side effect of the drugs.
He was okay general until about 11pm to 3am. The pain took over full fledge and he tried his best to endure however cannot help but threw out cries and fits. He was given pain killer - injection, brufen. Together we prayed, sang.. the finale was a lullaby and was sung over again for 45mins before he slept thru from 3am till 7.30am. I suspect he woke up in between but he did not want to wake me up.
He is totally okay in the day, Prof came by at 11am and loosen a little of the tight bandage. And Nathan blurted when asked if he is comfortable. I can tell not only is he relieve, he brightened up saying "urm.. now I can play gameboy". His appetite increase and he was able to handle lunch with a full bowl of porridge and fruit.

Daddy will be taking care of him tonight and since the checks on the BP and temp will be 4hourly instead of hourly last night, they should have no problem sleeping.

hubby called: they are making their way to 7-eleven at this hour *roll eyes*

The readiness:


The culprit:


The aftermath:





The brave boy in the recovery:

Salute to you...

http://joanchanshufang.blogspot.com/

http://www.funkygrad.com/think/displayarticle.php?artID=505&subcat=shout

When I read about Joan Chan's demise in ST today, I sob uncontrollably.
It was not because I am sad that she has passed on, she has gone to a better place. I am so touched that she is so brave. The courage to take it all and persevered despite the odds all these months.
The next thing that came to me was "what about her parents?" They have had such a lovely girl whom must have blessed them with her cheerful disposition, her successful academic and yet have to go before them...
I sob even harder.

God's way is not our way. May God bless and guide us.