~ Gladys' Nursery School Orientation ~

It seems like yesterday when Denver just got into Nursery.... now it's Gladys' turn and her Gor Gor is graduating. Today I took Gladys to Nativity for her orientation while Hubby send Denver to his swimming lesson. This surely does not make Gladys happy. She cried immediately when we got down from the car and I have to grab her into her classroom (Patience A) for registration. :(

Coincidentally, it was Mrs Wee (Denver's Nursery Teacher). Gladys is still very upset and I am hoping she will not have the same sobbing situation like her brother when she starts school next year. (Getting kinda worried). I hope she will like school and won't cause too much trouble. (crossing my fingers).

After making payments for her school fees ($430 + $200 misc), I took her out to purchase her uniform and P.E attire. Gladys was very cranky and refuse to co-operate with me. -__- She will attempt to take out her uniform when I let her try the different sizes. The other children were so quiet and I think the other parents are thinking what's wrong with her.. Argghh..

It took her some time before she settled down.. I took her to the toilet and let her familiar with the school environment.. Then I proceed to register her for the school bus services. Price increased again from $220 to $260 per term due to the compulsory seat belts arrangement.

I wanted to attend the talk on getting your child ready for school. However, Gladys refuse to sit in as she wants to go Swimming. She finally waited for Daddy to arrive and happily got on the car. I really hope she will likes school and enjoys it the next time she comes.

Later in the afternoon was travelling down to another new mall in the north. Yew Tee Point. Hubby heard of this over a FM933 advertisement a few days ago and we decided to make our way down to see how it is. Final Verdict - DISAPPOINTMENT!! It is a small neighbourhood mall with 2 floors. (Comparable to Rivervale Plaza). I guess it serves well for the residents nearby as an additional and alternative shopping area. However, we probably will not make our trip all the way down again as it is simply too far and there isn't many shops within.

The good thing is the children get to have free popcorns and candy floss as today is YewTee Point's official opening ceremony. We also bought some food with the coupons in the booklet. To make our trip fully worthwhile, we also change some Singapore dollars to Pesos for our Manila-Cebu trip next month. :D

Evening was dinner with my inlaws and bsil's family. It will be my mil's birthday soon and we are celebrating it earlier since Hubby is going to Manila to work again next week. We were halfway through our dinner at a coffeeshop in Hougang when the rain starts to pour! Thunder and Lightning makes Gladys really scared...The wind was sooo strong that it carries the rain in making our food and shirts wet. We have to shift our seats and food to another table within to avoid the rain.

With this kind of weather, it is nice to be back home.. Cooling wind and sleeping well. :)

~ Movie under the Stars ~

Taken some shots of Glayds today. She is All Red but still looking very Boyish. I took her out and 2 people says she is "弟弟". -__- Well, I can't really help it since her hair has to be short. Gladys seems to have really grown a lot lately.. Getting taller now and of course NAUGHTIER! She keeps running around and plays Hide & Seek with us. I have to keep my eyes on her at all times. Sooner or later she is going to get lost one day. Urghh..

Thought this was funny and quicky snap a photo of it. Gladys was playing with her "Doctor Set" toys and pretending to be a doctor. She looks really cute in the glasses which also happens to be Red. LoL. Gladys pretend to inject me with the needle and feed me medicine. "AH, open your mouth!"

The RC has organise another event across my block. "Movie under the Stars"- Transformers 2 - Revenge of the Fallen. The movie started at 8pm and I took the children down. Grabbed some chairs and managed to secure a good spot. :) The crowd was ok (probably about 50 odd people). Although I only saw 1 star and a moon in the sky, the weather was good! No rain and cooling breeze... Too bad there are no free pop corns and drinks to go with it. :p Hahahah.. Hubby bought 2 ice-creams from home and we ate it.

I was really enjoying the experience... every moment of it! Feels like I'm back in my childhood days where my brothers and I are seated at the Community Center (Whampoa) watching TV programs on a small black & white colour TV with the other folks. :) Unfortunately, I only manage to watch 30% of the show. Gladys started to get cranky and wanted to go home. :( Hubby stayed with Denver to finish the movie while I took my little girl back. Ah well, maybe next time. At least Denver came back and tells me he really enjoyed the movie. :D I hope this will also be an experience for him to remember when he grows up.

~ Regrets and Reflect ~

If there is ever a thing that I regret not doing.... is taking my parents to travel. 2 weeks ago, I heard my brother going to bring Mum to Malaysia.. So nice. Now Dad can no longer walk as well and he has to stay home... I don't think I ever had this chance anymore.. I missed the opportunity when my brothers took them to Hongkong a few years back. I'm so sorry.......

I felt that I'm useless at times. Ever since young, I dare not speak up.. even when my Primary school friends bullied me in school.. I kept quiet and cried quietly in the toilet until Brother Owen found me. This is me.. Timid, think too much and scared of trouble. When I do speak up, it only ended up unhappiness... Then I started to ponder, is it my fault? I just need to be more understanding and accomodating and everyone will be happy. What am I persisting on? Too many times, too many instances that I start to bottle more and more in my heart and cried it out one fine day to let go.... Although it will not be a total relief, at least I let part of it off.

I'm feeling lost.. I'm feeling bad.. everytime when things turns out ugly, I feel that I am the cause of all trouble. Why am I the bottleneck.. Why can't I just contain my thoughts and let it go. Everything will be fine if I just bottle it up and don't think about it. Since there are many things beyond our control, why am I making things difficult.. Didn't I learn my lesson? WHY!!!??

I know I'm not the only one tired... so I should not complain. I will reflect and count my blessings.... Suddenly remember a verse that someone mentioned recently..

菩提本无树，明镜亦非台，本来无一物，何处惹尘埃

世上本来就是空的，看世间万物无不是一个空字，心本来就是空的话，就无所谓抗拒外面的诱惑，任何事物从心而过，不留痕迹。

Fundamentally bodhi is no tree

Nor is the clear mirror a stand.

Since everything is primordially empty,

What is there for dust to cling to?

~ Ion Orchard ~

Initially it was just the intention of going to Far East to fix the PSP but it ended up working fine and we took the children to the new mall - Ion Orchard.

It's a very BIG Mall, with about 8 storeys of shops and resturants. Many are selling branded clothes, watches or bags and I did not manage to find a spot where the children can play or enjoy yet. (Unlike Takashimaya, at least there is a toy departmental store :p).. Maybe I missed it. Not too sure if we'll be visiting again. :)

Still it was fun for them as they get to have free balloons to play with.

~ Welcome Home! ~

So happy that Hubby finally came back from his trip. :) We all went to the Airport to pick him up.. only to realise it was at T3 instead of T2. :p Still, we get to see him just on time! :D As usual, there are toys for the children... and a little supper at MacDonalds.

It's nice to be back home once again! The children likes to be back on the big beds with their pillows, blosters, fan and aircon. HOME SWEET HOME!

~ 'Farewell' Lunch for Florence ~

Yesterday we had a 'farewell' lunch for Florence Goh. Well.. it's not exactly that she is leaving the company but rather switching to a different department and hence moving out of Tuas and going back to the Concourse office.

A bunch of us went to have lunch at Pastamania @ Arena Country Club. Met up with David Hoo who left the company a few months back. It's been awhile since we have a group of people having lunch together. Nicholas said that it's sad that this usually happens where there is a "Farewell". (Which is very true)..

Sigh.. lesser and lesser female colleagues (from IT) at Tuas now. Andrea is still on maternity and another is going to "Seh Kia" soon... wonder what will happen after the integration activities in a few weeks/months time.

~ Weekend ~

I am wondering if the kids felt bored being with Mummy alone.. Can't really bring them to many places compared to when Daddy is around. The only thing is they have more MRT and bus trips.. Well, at least I enjoy taking them to take bus rides..

Saturday was dinner at the Kopitiam at Hougang Plaza with my inlaws. Then we went shop awhile in NTUC before going back to Sil's place.

Sunday as usual was lunch at mum's place. Happen to meet the bus uncle and auntie who ferry Denver to school everyday. Coincidentally they are also going to Boon Keng for 'Brunch'. Had a casual chat with them along the way which makes the ride enjoyable.

The children wanted to go to 舅舅 house and they asked him if they can pop by. :) Brother Owen always welcome them to go whenever he is free. Denver will spend most of his time playing the Playstation games while Gladys just run around the house.. making me so tired.

Gladys also puke on me during dinner time with brother and my sil at the coffeeshop... URGGGH.. Messy.. Luckily it's near Brother's home and he quickly get me a new t-shirt to change..Else I will have trouble getting home.

The other 'unfortunate' thing that happened was the fan in the room which I am temporary staying in is broken. :( Aiyo... I have to switch on the aircon whole night (without a blanket) and ended up losing sleep. Can't wait for hubby to be back home..

~ Post Mid-Autumn celebration ~

This is an 'out-dated' post. Before Hubby flies off, Denver's school had a Post Mid Autumn Festival.. Hubby bought the tickets for the event last Sunday evening. I was expecting there will be game stalls, food stalls being setup etc (like a mini fun fare) and so I was kind of dissappointed when it was not what I have thought it would be.

There is a stage where some oldies sang songs, a stall for you to try various kinds of mooncakes (FOC). Free lanterns were given out and a lady giving free desserts for the kids. There is also lantern making competition and "猜灯迷". Basically there isn't much the children can really play or participate..Dinner was buffet style where we queue up to grab our food. As the sun sets, some children was playing with their own sparkles.

Denver and Gladys started to make noise that they too wanted to play the sparkles. We decided to leave the school, went to buy the sparkles from a nearby provision shop and drove back home to play instead. We made the right decision as shortly after we left, it started to rain.

Due to the rain, the children played at the covered void deck downstairs instead. Still, they had lots of fun seeing the sparkles of different colours being lighted up. (more photos to be updated later. :) )

~ Car Accident *again ~

The year started with a car accident by a lorry and 8 months later, towards the end of the year our car went through another car accident. The only difference is Hubby is not the driver. This time lbil drove and the car was hit by a lorry. According to him, seems like there was minor damages with scratches on the mirror side and maybe the side of the car. (I'm not sure). The good thing is no one was injured.

Come to think of it, I have a very tough year so far.. everytime Hubby go on an overseas trip, I can't help worry and think.. "Ok.. what is it going to be this time?" Am I down on my luck or what?

I can only hope that with the start of the car accident at the beginning of the year marking the start of our bad luck, hopefully it will end with this car accident to mark the end of the unhappiness so far.

Most importantly, I wish that everyone be safe and sound.

~ Natural Disasters ~

I was kind of worried lately because Hubby is flying back to Manila (which unfortunately has been hit by the typhoons lately.) Ever since Typhoon Ketsana caused major flooding and deaths in the country, the other few typhoons that are coming are also worrying..

I learned from my filipino colleague that Philippines have a local name for their typhoons (in alphabetical order). This way they will know how many typhoons have occur in a year. For example, Ketsana is named "Ondoy".. The next Typhoon was Parma (i.e. Pepeng in local). It was supposed to be classified as a "Super Typhoon" based on it's wind speed and expected to hit Northern Philippines. Luckily it's course kinda diverted further north and its speed reduced slightly.

With Parma still lurking in the SE Asia seas, Typhoon Melor (i.e Quedan) is also coming... There was also a 6.6 magnitude earthquake off Philippines earlier. The neighbouring countries were also not spared of the natural diasasters. Australia had Red Sand Storm on 23rd September. Indonesia was earlier hit by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake which caused many deaths and destruction. There was also Tsunami and all these unfortunate events seems to be happening near the end of the year.

I hope Hubby's trip will be safe and sound. Can't help worrying.. :(

~ Happy Mid Autumn Festival 09 ~

Hubby bought a new phone the other day and the charger was not working well. So we travel down to Sim Lim Square to have his items changed. Hubby took Denver while I carry Gladys to OG department store to wait for Daddy. Then it was lunch at the nearby foodcourt, deserts at Bugis J8 and a short trip to the National Library before going back home. Wow.. it surely is exhausting.. hehhee

It started to rain in the late afternoon and was still drizzling going into the night. The children didn't get to carry their lanterns much this year unfortunately and I can't even see much of the moon. There is a carnival organized by the RC at the hardcourt downstairs (from 4pm to 11pm) and it was also very much affected by the rain.

Nevertheless, the crowd still participate in the event carrying their brollies in the rain. It would have been many more lanterns if the weather has been kinder.

We bought 2 tickets ($3 each) and Denver went to queue up for his games while I carry Gladys watching gor gor. It will be Gladys' turn in another year time.

We ended up going home with goodie bags and free lanterns and mini-mooncakes. Hubby was exhausted though with the whole day event. It sure is a rainy Mid-Autumn Festival.

~ Happy Children's Day 2009 ~

Hubby is flying off to Manila next week and so I decided to take a day off to spend some time with the family on Children's Day. Hubby and I took Denver to Hougang swimming pool to practise his swimming as he wasn't doing well in his previous lessons. He was not paying attention, always talking to his friends and not putting effort to swim the laps. So we decided to take this opportunity to let him try swimming on his own without disctractions.

As usual, he complains that he is tired easily..Nevertheless, he swam 5 lengths with breaks in between. although its kinda slow at least I am seeing that he can swim better with more practice and effort. We also saw his swimming instructor who was on duty as the life guard that day.. Chatted with him on Denver's progress and hoping that he can work towards getting a bronze medal for his swimming as a basic life saving skill.

To reward him for his effort today, we pick Gladys and took the kids to Suntec City to play arcade for awhile. Went to shop around and headed back home for dinner. Fil cooked Chilli crab today and it was Denver's favourite! He loves the chilli sauce and will put a lot on his rice. Somehow felt the day ended too fast.. like nothing much was done today. Hmmmm