Chinese New Year Part I

Chinese New Year, twinsies' birthday and my wedding anniversary get intertwined all around January and February. It means memories are vague, I can't manage the sequence unless I sit down and focus on recalling. I had to look back to the calendar to check what date was this year's CNY.

As with every year, we have a 1st round of reunion with my parents. It will usually be on the weekend before. This year, we had the dinner with my uncles and aunts at a Teochew restaurant. Very tickled to see a 'Dumb Waited' labeled on the wall. Do you know what it is?

Food was interesting, not great. Noticed that every other table outside our private room, was eating the same dishes, guess that's the easiest way to decide and serve the masses. 

After dinner, we headed to the east of Singapore to visit a funfair. The entire family adores fun fairs, but it's truly getting expensive to ride these in Singapore. Costs ranges from $4 - $8. What a killjoy for the parents. Uncle Ringo is a rich man for sure. He monopolises the fun fair market here in Singapore. 

I love this photo because I can tell who is Anya from far. Her chubby, chubby cheeks she had since birth!

The 12 year old who wants the 'red shark' balloons. Not sure which part of them are interesting to him but he insisted he wanted these as prizes.

Happy kids, broke parents.

The older two took at least two rounds of this, amazing that their dinner did not come out....

I think this will be the last time they sit in this. Too slow..... they are more the Legoland Technik roller coaster type now.

The Year of the Snake is here!

Not my fondest animal (but it is my son's favorite) but I was born in the Year of the Snake so it's a slightly bigger thing for me this year than any other CNY. Alas, aside from the days of fantastic food that I managed to gorge down until my throat infection came about, the new year didn't kick off on a good start.

The ride to K.L. a day before CNY was a wet and long (3 extra hours in the car, including a dinner inside it as we wanted to beat the traffic) one. Along the way, Ammi wanted to stop for a toilet break along the road and her water bottle must have rolled out of the car as it was next to the door and amongst the pillows on the seat. So that's Loss #1, but as usual, Popo Ang came to the rescue as she always have back ups for the kids' supplies and Ammi got herself a new water bottle!

Loss #2 was Hubby's Touch N Go card which he had topped up over a hundred ringgit and lost it somewhere between the house and the petrol station which was right opposite the house!

In the midst of that, we had a good, relaxing time at the kids' great-grandfather's home. Same house, same room, same dinner setting, menu and new year goodies. I like the consistency and the best part of not needing to dress up for visiting.

It's just a lot of photo-taking, lounging and trying to get the kids to sleep in a not-so-soundproof house but that's part of the fun of having everyone under the same roof for a few nights.

Loss #3 came on our last night and Ammi finally got rid of her front tooth which had been shaky for many weeks. It's great we managed to have her keep the tooth until most of the celebrations were over. Apparently one of the feng shui master said we needed to 'see blood' during the first 15 days of the New Year in order I ward off bad luck this year. Awesome Am has got to be the luckiest person this year because the next day after returning to school, she lost the other front tooth too! A friend of mine told me the easiest way to 'see blood' is to pay a visit to the dentist to clean the teeth. I'm actually due to remove my wisdom tooth (after a few years of procrastination) but have no guts (literally) to do it during CNY because I want to enjoy the goodies during the gatherings! So now I'm banging on the time of the month to come before next Sunday!

This weekend, the festivities continue despite the twins being sick (again). I doubt that they caught the bug from either me or the helper because both of us (and a handful from the Ang clan) were sick earlier of the week. It's nice to relive the memories of visiting my uncles' homes, no doubt it being 10% of what it used to be like with at least 4 other families and 8-10 cousins to continue our conversations while hopping from one home to another. I'm glad the kids had as much fun interacting with my relatives and snacking at the different homes and treated to an array of drinks from MILO to soya bean milk to Capri-sonne and Yakult!

So not looking forward to Monday, where the mad rush begins as life gets back to norm for most parts of Asia. It's back to reality - renewal of maid's passport, much dreaded visit to the Indonesian Embassy (because of the queues) to validate the passport, report deadlines, school spellings and a spot-check I scheduled to see if he was really doing his homework while waiting for his CCA, with a surprise of course, from McD!

Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy 人日!

My family doesn't practise or make it a point to 'lo hei' on this day. If I was in my previous job, I would be doing so with my colleagues because we are all in the sales and marketing line. In my current job, with part-time and working from home, I don't even get to eat out; lest about ordering 'lo hei' during meal times.

Nevertheless, today, I was in school - Aidan's school, that is. Pushed work to the afternoon and I reached school at 9.30a.m, I -

• walked into my little boy having his recess and found him buying junk crackers instead of proper food again (it was chicken rice and then roti prata then crackers all the way...);
• almost fainted at the sight of the ton of carrots (red and white) which had been washed and shredded starting from 7.30a.m., by other Mummies, for the 'lo hei' party;
• found a name tag outside the toilet and discovered "they are everywhere around the school", according to a teacher;
• squeezed dry the ton of carrots and shaped the white carrots into bunnies (drew inspiration from 2 'lo hei' bunnies I saw this year)
• found my son's school bag at the bus queue without the owner;
• found my son at the same stall buying another packet of junk crackers before he boards the school bus;
• met a Mummy who is deeply involved in the parent volunteer group and she is a Financial Controller of a listed company and still can afford the time to apply for leave to do voluntary work even though her son is already in the school for 3 years;
• and the Primary school has Cantonese roots and this is a pre-requisite for any Principal who takes the post.

Here are my bunnies which are decorated with the condiments by other Mummies!

CNY Celebrations in School

Someone said I was being unfriendly and anti-social.

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The 'Someone' was my husband.

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We were attending Aidan's CNY school celebration in school yesterday and all parents were invited for a performance by our kids, art & craft activities with the children, followed by a pot luck lunch.
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I'm so thankful I have the confinement nanny around, hence I could get dressed decently (for the 3rd time - 1st time for Thai dinner with parents from both side, 2nd time for coffee and shopping with gfs) to get out of the house. Of course, nothing fits properly. Tops are too small due to my 'newly acquired assets' (moms who nursed before would know what I'm talking about) and pants are too tight (can't pass the hips) while maternity ones are a bit loose.



Fact is, I was quite sleep deprived and probably lacked practice of social interaction with strangers. The parents were mingling, chatting with each other while I stood next to Aidan or rather, tried to follow him wherever he went. I'd rather take photos or just browse and peer at the classroom walls on the children's artwork.



Aidan 'opened' the show for his class, he spoke in Mandarin and welcomed all the parents for attending and introduced what they will be performing. One Mom told me after that: "your son is very good, he had no stage fright." I was proud like hell inside but all I could do was smile back. The brain just couldn't conjure up any sensible words to construct sentences and strike up a dialogue.

It struck me (I definitely made more observations than conversations yesterday) that my boy has grown up when it was time for the children to help themselves to lunch. He picked up his own plate, queued up and chatted with his classmates on what food there is and what they want to eat. Not surprisingly, he attached the sushi first and this is him with his good friend, Zu Yun, whom he has been bugging me to invite to the house for his birthday party last year and also for play. Hmmm... maybe I should have spoken to her mom so that it would be easier to invite her next time. Plus I heard Zu Yun is No.3 in her family, and she still has a younger sister so I could definitely get tips from her Mom on how to manage 4 kids in the household!

Oh, by the way, notice the boy on the left? He's as old as Aidan but a few inches taller! There are BIG boys around.

It was Ammi's party today, so we were back in school again.


And here are the girls with the school's principal. And these are probably the 3 chubbiest girls in her class, including Ammi herself.

Chinese New Year & The 12 Zodiac Signs

Every Chinese New Year, I think of this video which I wished I own so that the kids can watch it. I found it on Youtube today! Of course, not the full story but the kids enjoyed it just as much. It's about the origin of the zodiac signs and how the animals are ranked the way they are. Hope you'll like it!



I also showed them how did Chinese New Year come out, the 'Nian' monster and how Chinese New Year came about but the monster scared them.

The Day the Camera Went

We had a nice morning at The Prince's new school.

We as parents, were invited for a mini concert and a pot luck party where each family brings a dish. I found it a great way to check out the school, meet the teachers and my son's other classmates (and family). Although in the end, I was too busy bringing the kids around, to interact with anyone else.

There were stations held around the school, where the children walked around to complete the stations in order to receive a little prize. This is the Chinese version of 'Pin the Tail to the Donkey'. In this case, it's a tail to the Cow, since it's the year of the Ox.



The last station was an Arts & Craft session, where the teachers encouraged the parents to work together with the kids on making this 'tui lian'.


Even Ammi had a chance to practise her motor skills in fishing up some fishes in the 'Nian Nian You Yu' station.

This is where my camera story comes in. Someone (I didn't think it was me, Hubby didn't think it was him, so it could be Aidan but Aidan wouldn't know if he did that) dropped the camera back in September. I had to bring it to the service center to get it fixed because we couldn't take pictures with it.

In December, I dropped it once, right on the grounds of the Forbidden City (our 1st and last 5 minutes of being at that place). The corner of the LCD display cracked but I didn't bother getting it fixed since we could still take photos with it.

This morning, I dropped it again inside the music studio of the school. If the camera had feelings, it was probably cursing at me. I bring it down to 'lack of practice' because we never ever bring the camera out, except when there is a big event or when we are on holidays.

So the camera has already been neglected for long periods in between, we only charge its battery or clear the memory cards the night before we want to use it. It has been dropped a few times and to me, I just wasn't used to holding something 'extra' in my hands. I would hold on to my handbag, my mobile/ car keys/ kids' bag and the camera tends to slip out of my hand absent-mindedly.

The last straw came when I put Am's water bottle in my handbag. I left the bag on my lap and felt water leaking out. To my horror, I opened the bag to see the camera and my mobile submerged in water as the water from the bottle spilt out! 1st instinct - save the mobile! I need to because the memory is stored inside the phone (the down side of the N95 8GB) so I'd to make sure I could recover the data somehow.

When it came to the camera, it was W-E-T. There was water soaked behind the cracked LCD screen, there was water flowing out from the battery compartment. I tilted the camera left and right and the screen looked like a little fish tank with water swirling in the same direction.

At the advice of the Casio technicians, I brought it to the service center and they verified it as 'beyond hope'. I didn't feel very disappointed at all, more embarrassed by the 4 pairs of eyes staring at me when I was told of the news. The other customers there had the 'what the hell did she do to the camera?' look.

So, here is the last shot taken by our Casio Exilim, before it 'drowned' and gave up on us.

I am not even thinking of getting a new camera for now, although I told Hubby that we should perhaps get back a Casio Exislim so that we could still use the other 2 good battery packs. For now, I'm happy to stick to my N95 and I'm never going to risk its life by putting it next to a water bottle again!

43rd Birthday

Here are the photos (of the many) I took this morning at the school's celebration. 'Calefare' Ammi and Ryan attended the celebration as well and even I had fun. Aidan was happy the school served his favourite food, like satay and jelly.

Today, the eve of Singapore's birthday, is also the Opening of the Olympics in Beijing... and the draw of the $8M Toto lottery. At least we managed to catch the opening ceremony, unlike Toto which I only managed to catch 1 single number, out of 7.