~ Home alone ~

Having a bad sorethroat, cough and a slight flu.. the pills are making me drowsy... I think I am falling asleep soon.. yawnz.

The tulips Hubby bought me last week has long withered... lucky I took some pictures of them :p I also managed to do some flower art before they ended in the dustbin.. Not bad huh.. :p From 1 bouquet becomes 2 small pots.. hahaha

Before

After

Anyway... It is just about 1 week to CNY. Looking forward to it.. Spring cleaning is almost done.. except for the remaining stuff like changing the bedsheets, floor mats, final dusting and of course, hubby has yet to complete washing the windows and toilets...

hmm..I just realised I did not cut my hair for this New Year.. Usually I will do so every year.. arghh.. wonder if I should do something about it.. hmmm.. Well, at least I manage to get new shoes and clothes.. Lutchie is going back to Philippines this weekend to visit her parents.. I am sure she misses home.. I just hope there isn't too many issues during this CNY :) (Crossing my fingers)...

~ Chloe's Birthday + Chinatown ~

Today is a rather tiring day... My throat started to itch yesterday and my nose is running.. seems like I am catching a flu... I felt so tired early in the morning... keep dozing off.. yawnz.. WAKE UP!!! There are so much to do today!

First, we headed off to AMK to attend Johnny's daughter, Chloe's first birthday! We were there rather early and the party was held at the void deck of Blk 333 with Thai buffet spread.

Denver was busy playing with Johnny's older son, Issac. Running around the open space... hehehe.. We did not stayed for too long as we are going to Chinatown later. Did not managed to see the Birthday girl before leaving... so paiseh..

Had a short nap, bath, eat and Hubby drove to pick my inlaws at 4pm. It is hard to have a find a parking lot... but we were lucky to see two parking lots (side by side) near the Maxwell Market open carpark as soon as we arrived. However, an old granny and grandpa were standing at the lot, 'reserving' it for their children's car.... we slowly drove in to park at one of the lot while granny continued to stand waiting for her child's car to make it's way in.. :S If not for them, the cars behind would have took it... watchful eyes were looking at them... well.. I guess most importantly, they got to park.. who cares if everyone were starring at them..

There were a lot of people at Chinatown... This is really the place to go in order to feel the CNY atmosphere... there are deco, food, snacks, clothings, flowers.... and so many more. Lucky we were there early and the crowd was not too bad.. The open market covers quite a large area and we spent quite a bit of time walking through... Denver starts to complain that he is tired and when we could go home.. He must have find it boring cos there are no games or toys to keep him entertained.


As a child, I always love CNY... the cny songs, helping my mum with spring cleaning and accompany her to buy flowers, CNY TV programs, reunion dinner (my mum makes declicious food).. and getting ang pows (although not a lot)... As my parents were always so busy working... they hardly bring us out to shop... My only memories were Dad and Mum bringing us to Chinatown to get new clothes when we were very young...

I hope Denver and Gladys (when she is older) can also appreciate CNY.. it is afterall an important Holiday for us... in many more years to come, I hope we can still go out as a family to visit the 年货市场。It would probably also be a valuable and fond memory that they can hold to like the way I had mine..

~ Happy Anniversary ~

Yesterday was our 6th Anniversary. Time really flies so fast... we have ROM for 6 years.. now with 2 adorable children.. I felt very blessed.. :D

I took leave for 2 purposes. As it was an 'auspicious' date, we were supposed to dust the whole house, clean the altar and put up the new stuff... it is also the 15th day of the month and we prayed to the deities..

As I was busy cleaning up, the door bell rang and there was a delivery man sending a bouquet of tulips.. so sweet of Hubby! Second time he gave me flowers... and it was 9 white tulips! I am very happy.. still wondering how much he spent.. Gave hubby a sweet kiss and I am in the mood for food.. hahahaha. All the 'hard' work is making me hungry....

I decided to have lunch at Kuishinbo at Suntec because I love Japanese food. There has a lot of variety of food and it only cost $19.90++ ! (*lunch within 1 hour :p). I loved the salmon sashimi.. it is my favourite! They are fresh and all the other sushi are so delicious... I like the handrolls, cold noodles, soft shell crab, soup, beef and many many others..... Yummy....

After a heavy lunch, it is time to walk... :p We went shopping around Carrefour... and headed back home.. :) 6 years of marriage... I hope there are many many more years to go... seeing our kids grow and be a happy family forever... Dearest Hubby, Thank you for the flowers... I love them and I love you! Muak!

~ 1st Experience ~

Denver has been taking swimming lessons for more than 2 months now. Today is the 2nd time I followed him to the pool.. The other occasions we wanted to bring Gladys along to play with the water but it's either the weather was not good, or she was sick or not feeling well.

Today, she finally got her first chance to dip in the small pool.. Gladys was very excited.. :D We brought along a baby float... but she is not keen to be inside at all.. She just want to splash the water and even walk in the pool! I guess she is not too scared of the water afterall... even though it is kinda cold inside... Brave Girl!

Denver is progressing quite alright with his swimming lessons. Except that he can't really kick well with his legs. He has been practicing in the medium pool with the surf board for awhile... Jason (Denver's swimming instructor) told them that they will not be using the board next week. I did not get a chance to see Denver swim in the deep pool today.. Maybe next time.. At the end of the lesson, the children were awarded a lollipop each :) This make Denver very happy..

Later that day, we meet my brother and drove to Compass Point. It happen that we were just on time for a lion dance performance. It's also Denver's and Gladys' first time watching the show live! Gladys must have been wondering why is it so noisy and what is that creature jumping around? The performance was spectucular and very entertaining. Thumbs up for the performers whom I believe was specially invited from Taiwan.

Chinese New Year is around the corner (less than a month) .... there are soooo much to do and soooo little time left. At the same time, my brother's Big Day is also coming!! Denver has been picked to kick the bridal car's door.. hehehe.. I am sooo looking forward to the Happy Occasion!!

~ Denver refuses to attend school ~

Denver started his K1 classes this Monday. After last year experience, I thought he would settle down in school easily.. Sad to say ... yesterday he gave me a heart attack by crying while waiting for the school bus.. :( and cause a BIG BIG commotion downstair...

My father in law had to bring him back to my brother in law's house.. Make a call to us and I had to call home and 'persuade' him to go to school.. He keep crying on the other end of the phone crying for Mummy... so sad.... I have to be hard hearted and scold him. Warning him that I will not return home if he did not go to school.. Sighz..

After much argument over the phone, he finally agreed... Hubby had to drive all the way back from work back to send him to school... he kept sobbing along the way and arrive late.. :( I was suppose to work from home yesterday... so I guess he must have see that I am not in my usual working clothes and thought that I am home... causing the big hoo haa... We took Denver out to Compass Point last night to play and borrowed some books from the library.. Hopefully this will pacify him and he be good.

I have applied to work from home for 2 days per week (every Thursday and Friday) starting this week. With yesterday's experience, I had to change into my working attire this morning. So far no phone calls.. which means good news... Denver called my mobile around noon time just to tell me that he has been a good boy and did not cry in school.. phew..

Denver is a very sweet boy.. I know he is naughty.. but the way he walk, talk, play, run is so adorable to me... no doubt he may not listen and refused to do his homework, I still love him very much!

~ Happy New Year! ~

There is a New Year countdown party at my area... the RC has set up a temporary stage on the open grass patch between the temples. It really attracted a lot of people... kids, parents, couples, grandparents etc gathering there to listen to the songs and most importantly awaiting for the Firework show when the clock strikes 12am.

Denver and Gladys were sound asleep and I went to join in the fun 5 mins before New Year... Too many people were standing on the roadside and especially near the stage.. I took a center spot slightly behind getting my camera ready to capture the video. Come to think of it, it is my first time watching a firework show Live! I only seen them on TV or video.. and am really excited.. :D

Finally, the countdown started (I am all ready)... 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.... Happy New Year!!! BOOM, BOOM, BOOM... FIREWORKS!! It is really SOoooo pretty!! The colours are so Bright and suddenly the dark, night sky sparkles! OOOOh AHhhhhh WOwwwww ... Although this is a small scale firework show, I am really amazed and happy that I make my trip down... :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sBayznAD3s

Well.. all good things will come to an end.. The crowd started to return to their homes after the last firework bloom in the sky... It's 2008! The long holidays has finally ended and we are going back to work tomorrow... Now, I am looking forward to my brother's wedding and Chinese New Year in Feburary... :)